Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan hesitate at Din's order, eyes visibly flickering between him – the Darksaber, more accurately – and the dar'jetii. But the destroyers make the decision for them as they open fire on the Nubians. The Jetii turn to deal with the droids, so Din dismisses them from mind, stepping towards the Zabrak, who's face is now twisted in a snarl, as he swings towards him with the Darksaber.
The blades clash together, and for a moment, Din wonders how this duel will play out. He has many advantages, but he needs to connect with the Darksaber. He was distracted before, Goran told him. His mind wasn't focused, much as he tried to deny it. His longing to see the kid again and how much he missed him were distracting him. And yet, when he fought Paz Viszla, he came out on top and was able to keep his claim on the Darksaber.
Now, Din is far more focused than he was then. His senses are attuned for any other coming dangers, but he doesn't sense anything right now. His aliit is safe, as safe as they can be right now anyways, and the sooner he puts an end to this threat, the sooner he can protect them.
The Zabrak pulls back, swinging at Din a few times in rapid succession, and Din blocks every blow with the Darksaber or his beskar'gam, getting in a strike of his own. But when he fought Ahsoka, the fight was short, and he wasn't trying, because he needed her help. Moff Gideon was... well, that was different, too, because Din was adjusting to defend himself with the beskar spear and he was already injured from the Dark Trooper droid.
It not long before the Jetii join them, throwing blows at the dar'jetii. The Zabrak defends with relative ease, but he's clearly focusing on Din the most, and since Din has never worked with the Jetii before, their styles of fighting are clashing, so they're... kind of getting in each other's way. The Zabrak raises a hand, an invisible force shoving Din backwards. He regains his balance, lifting the Darksaber, letting himself feel the hum of it in his hand, trying to connect with it.
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are clearly struggling to fight their opponent, though. They're not failing, but as Din watches them for a couple seconds, he really gets the feeling that the dar'jetii is in control of the duel, so he steps forwards, launching himself back into the fray, mentally calculating how much time he probably has before he should have been in the Throne Room.
Their laser swords crash repeatedly, filling the hanger with the sounds of battle. Din knows that, should the fight be led from here into any of the halls, it will severely impede their ability to move, so he focuses on keeping the dar'jetii here. It's not hard. They're not really winning against him, but they're not really losing against him. One of the red blades slams into his shoulder, and Din lets it stay there for a moment while he swings the Darksaber in an attempt to stab the Zabrak. He flips backwards, obviously using his magic, as he evades the blows.
He doesn't dare use his flamethrower while the Jetii are moving around so freely, trying to box in their opponent and keep him from leading them elsewhere or getting away. That also means that most of his weapons are off-limits, but he can still use physical prowess to his advantage. He gets in a few kicks, knocking the Zabrak slightly off-balance as he spins to block a blow from Obi-Wan before twisting to attempt stabbing Qui-Gon.
The Darksaber feels right in Din's hands now, and he's only now beginning to understand how much of a burden it is to carry. Not in the physical sense per se – not now that he's finally getting the hang of it and learning how listen to it as much as he does use it – but in the sense that wielding this blade, by all rights, makes him the leader of Mandalore. He doesn't want that. He doesn't want that, but he doesn't know who else he can pass it off to. And more than that, he doesn't know if he wants to.
The dar'jetii sends Din sprawling with his magic, swinging towards him in what could be a majorly injuring blow, but he gets the Darksaber up in time to block it before activating his jetpack and flying away a few feet across the floor and rolling upright. He hears a noise of... protest? from Grogu – are they really that close to the starfighter? – and the Zabrak stumbles suddenly when the Jetii go at him again, one hand flying to his throat.
Din glances towards the fighter, and sure enough, Grogu's head is peaking out alongside Anakin's. The kid's hand is outstretched and curled, while his eyes half-closed in concentration. He's using his magic to choke the dar'jetii. The other three seem to realize that at the same time as Din does, because while the Jetii look horrified, the Zabrak leaps backwards and throws his laser sword towards the fighter. Din doesn't even think; he simply throws himself in the path of the blade, and fortunately, it slams harmlessly into his beskar'gam, clattering to the floor.
He lunges forwards, plunging the Darksaber through the dar'jetii's chest. He slumps to the floor of the hanger bay, his life rapidly draining from his body. There's a pause, as the two Jetii look at the dead body before glancing between Din and Grogu.
"He's Force sensitive?" Qui-Gon demands, at the same time Obi-Wan says, "he can do that?" sounding horrified.
"He can use magic, same as you," Din answers a bit curtly. "He chose to stay with me instead of the Jetii. I don't see why it matters."
"What he did can be very dangerous," Qui-Gon asserts.
Din raises an eyebrow, confused. "How?"
"A partially trained Force sensitive is as much a danger to themselves as they are to those around him," the Jetii explains. "He needs to master his abilities lest he cause harm."
"He knows how to control himself," Din argues. He knows, deep inside of him, that Grogu would never accidentally hurt him. The kid cares too much. He has training, enough training to be alone. And besides, Luke let him go. He wouldn't have done that if Grogu could cause harm to someone. "Look, it doesn't matter. We have more important things to take care of." He turns away from the Jetii, extinguishing the Darksaber and hooking it back in place, withdrawing his blaster once more.
"Stay there. Both of you," he orders his kids again, before walking from the hanger bay and into the Palace, looking down the long halls.
He doesn't look back to see if the Jetii follow, but he can hear their footsteps – and the sounds of battle in the distance. There's a path of destruction leading deeper into the Palace, and Din doesn't have time to follow it and try to catch up with the others. Instead, he turns back to the hanger bay, walking across the floor to the exit before flying upwards towards the upper levels of the Palace. Down below, he can see more droids, including many destroyers, marching in to provide support. They're running out of time.
It's easy to find the Throne Room. All he needs to do is find the largest, most elaborate windows, and a glance confirms that some Nemoidians are inside along with a number of battle droids, so he crashes through the window, shooting down the droids before they even have a chance to realize that he's there. A minute later, the Throne Room is quiet and devoid of droids, so Din moves to the blast doors and closes them. They can be reopened, but for now, the situation is under control. Now, he needs to wait for Padme and the others to get here, while keeping the Nemoidians at blaster point.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Anakin pokes his head up over the edge of the fighter again, looking around the hanger again, ducking down with a gasp when he sees a line of droids marching – or rolling – into the hanger. "We gotta do something, Artoo!" he tells the astromech droid. Grogu is in Anakin's lap, rubbing the shiny metal ball between his hands. He doesn't even seem to be paying attention, but Anakin knows better. Still, he doesn't want all those droids to get into the Palace. If he can slow them down, at least somewhat, that's better than nothing, right?
The starfighter's engines suddenly roar to life, and Anakin jumps, until he realizes that Artoo must have plugged himself into the computer to fire it up. The droid beeps, and his words are translated on a small screen inside the fighter. Not that it helps Anakin though, because he can hardly read. "You can shoot the guns to destroy them," the droid suggests.
Anakin scans the buttons and levers desperately, trying to figure out which ones he should or shouldn't push or flip. "I know. I don't know where the trigger is," he replies, poking one button which only closes the cockpit. "Oops. Wrong one," he mutters under his breath, before trying a second and third without much success.
Maybe, it's a good thing though, because the fighter is slowly moving forwards across the hanger floor. The droids turn their attention onto the ship, and all Anakin can think is: Buir is going to be so mad at me for this. But if it helps then he doesn't care too much.
"This one maybe?"
He grabs a lever which seems to be meant for a hand and pushes the button on top. Green laser blasts instantly fire on the droids reducing a number of them to scrap metal. Anakin squeals, and Artoo whistles in delight. Even Grogu perks up, tilting his head back at Anakin as he babbles something incoherent, eyes bright as he reaches towards a random button. Anakin knocks his finger away. "Please don't push anything," he practically begs his younger brother – vod'ika – as he fires again on the droids, blasting apart many of them.
Anakin flips a lever which raises the starfighter's shields, and suddenly it increases its speed towards the hanger bay doors. "It's on automatic pilot!" he realizes, his initial exhilaration fading as he begins to freak out. "Artoo, do something! Try to override it."
Grogu whines quietly, pointing determinedly at the sky.
"We can't go for a flight! What would Buir say?"
The starfighter picks up speed as it angles upwards into the atmosphere, taking them further and further away from the Palace. Grogu squeals, waving his hands in obvious delight. "There they are!" Anakin exclaims, torn between panic and excitement as he sees the space battle up ahead. "That's where the autopilot is taking us."
Grogu grabs for Anakin's hand, finally slamming his tiny one onto Anakin's wrist when Anakin refuses to give him his finger, focusing instead on flying the runaway starfighter. Focus on the Force, Grogu tells him. Like when you podraced. It's the only way. Relax.
Anakin has no idea how he's supposed to "relax" in this situation, but he tries anyways, taking a deep breath and focusing on avoiding all the enemy fighters, flying erratically as he weaves around them and whatever debris is floating in space. This is... okay, maybe this isn't so bad. It's a little harder than pod-racing, but nothing he can't handle. He winces when a few nearby fighters explode, the pieces of twisted metal nearly hitting his fighter.
"This is tense," he breathes out, hands clenching on the controls. "Artoo, get us off this autopilot. It's gonna get us all killed."
After a moment, the droid whistles triumphantly, and Anakin could cheer. "You did it!" He spins the ship left, and it swerves wildly. It responds readily to his control. The droid beeps again, and Anakin frowns at the message. "Go back to Naboo?" he echoes, only now beginning to relax a little despite the tenseness of his surroundings. The slightest wrong movement could mean death – for all of them. "I don't wanna go back."
Grogu coos an enthusiastic agreement, pointing excitedly at the expanse of space. Staying they are. Anakin flies low along the massive ship, letting the instincts which have guided him in pod races guide him again now. It's not long – maybe ten or fifteen seconds – before a number of enemy droid fighters start following him. That is decidedly not good. "I'll try spinning. That's a good trick," Anakin decides, and spins the starfighter as it continues to barrel forwards.
Grogu shrieks with glee, waving his arms in the air as they roll over and over. A few laser bolts tear into the side of the fighter, and Anakin winces. That was way too close. Artoo trills at him shrilly. "I know we're in trouble!" Anakin yells, grabbing for the control for the guns and weaving rapidly around the massive Trade Federation ship, shooting at one of the droid fighters. He scores a hit, and his former spike of fear is momentarily replaced with delight.
But then, another laser bolt hits one of the wings, and as Anakin tries to twist away from the coming danger, the fighter plows headlong into the massive hanger in front of him. He yanks on the controls, desperately trying to slow the fighter before they crash and die. If that happened, he knows that Buir – and Mom – would bring them back to life just so he could scream at them. Buir has never actually gotten angry at Anakin, but this would definitely warrant it. He ignores Artoo beeping at him to stop the fighter because he's trying, okay? But it's hard, especially when Grogu keeps trying to poke one of the buttons in front of him.
"Everything's overheated," Anakin realizes with dismay as the fighter finally stops in the hanger. "This is not good." The control panel is flashing with red lights, so they're stuck. For now. This is very bad. On second thought... maybe he should have taken them back to Naboo.
He flips the levers and pushes the switches. It takes a few moments before the engine roars back to life and not a moment too soon; droids are approaching the fighter, having realized that he shouldn't be there. With a squeal of glee that's matched by Grogu, Anakin opens fire on the droids, some instinct nudging him towards another button. He slams it, and proton torpedoes are launched from the fighter, barreling away, and slamming into something with incredible force.
Explosions break out, and even Grogu perks up with an inquisitive sound. "No, I don't know what I just did, but we're getting out of here," Anakin announces, turning the ship around and pushing it as fast as he can towards the exit. The faster he goes, the more excited he becomes, his worries falling away amidst the exhilaration of flying. "Now this is podracing!" he squeals as they race towards the exit, flames and explosions chasing them the whole way.
Grogu bounces up and down in Anakin's lap, cheering the whole time. They zoom out into the blackness of space, angling away from the battle station as it comes apart behind them. Oops? Anakin hadn't meant to do that, but he doesn't regret it either, obviously. Now, they really do need to get back down to the surface.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Padme arrives with her half of the group – including Shmi, who seems exhausted but uninjured – though some of them are missing now, probably dead. Both Jetii are with her. She looks around with a pleased expression before pointing her blaster at Viceroy Gunray's head. He's bound tightly, sitting on the floor. He couldn't escape even if he wanted to, Din suspects, and nor can any of the others.
"Now, Viceroy," Padme declares confidently, "We will discuss a treaty."
Sabe comes in with her group, and they close the doors again, barricading them against the droids which are sure to be coming. The Throne Room is massive, but it doesn't provide that much cover, all things considered. Still, with the Jetii here, the odds are in their favor. They only need to hold out until Gunray agrees to a treaty and shuts down the droids, or until the Naboo starfighters destroy the droid control ship.
With the situation under control, Din holsters his blaster and approaches the mobile holoprojector in the corner of the room. He might as well see if he can get anything useful from it. It would be nice if he could hack into the droid control system to shut them down, but he's not counting on it. While he doesn't fully understand the political situation, he knows that any pieces of evidence in Padme's favor will help Naboo as a whole when they take their case to the Senate. He has no doubt that Gunray will go on trial – assuming that they're not overrun by droids in the next few minutes – and if the Viceroy is not convicted... well, there are other ways of obtaining justice, albeit not normal ones, per se.
His anxiety increases when he hears the droids outside, attempting to break through the sealed door, but suddenly, everything stills. He turns towards where Padme is (bullying) negotiating a treaty with Gunray, and from the way the Jetii are standing there, Din knows that they sense it too. He scrambles over to activate the viewscreen with security recordings from inside and outside the Palace. Panaka gives him a surprised look when he gets past the security measures which prevent just anyone from gaining access, but he disregards it.
The viewscreens show what he already had come to suspect.
"The droids have been deactivated," he reports. "The control ship must have been destroyed." No one cheers aloud, but they don't need to. Their relief is nearly palpable. They did it. It's over. Now, it's time for them to clean up the aftermath.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Mando'a Translations:
dar'jetii - Sith (literally: not Jedi)
Jetii - Jedi
Goran - armorer
aliit - family, clan
beskar'gam - armor
buir - father, mother
vod'ika - little brother, little sister