#lowkey want to post 16 today too but i won't LOL

[cutieodonoghue]

invisible string (15/18)

summary: modern soulmate birthmark au; After Omera lost her soulmate, she lost hope she’d ever find love again. Then, a short time before Earth’s first colony ship will be sent to a place they call the Outer Rim, she meets a Mandalorian whose touch makes her Soul Mark burn. (Mandomera!)

rating: hard T

word count: ~4.4k

prev. chapters: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen

read chapter 15 down below or on ao3!

an: Quick reminder that I'm updating every day now so don't miss yesterday's update! :) Thanks for reading!!

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Chapter 15: Departure Day

“To illustrate just how much time passed from the day they took their detour until The Razor Crest’s departure day, Omera shows me a physical diary she kept. It’s a leather-bound book with wrinkled pages that fray at the edges as she flips through page upon page of meticulous note taking.

‘I hid this beneath my bed so Winta wouldn’t find it. I wrote in it every day. I wanted to remember how I felt- how my soul felt- in case when I got here, our Bond was broken.’ 

There are tears in her eyes as she reads the entries aloud to me. Sometimes it feels like a scientist doing daily record keeping, but there are a few that make me see their Bond as Omera does: good even on the worst days. 

‘I never hated him,’ she tells me. ‘Even when it hurt the worst, I could never hate him. He’s part of me.’” -  Soulmates and the Outer Rim: Real Stories About Soulmates Who Went the Distance

-

Omera had dreamed about the end of the project for a very long time. 

In the weeks that preceded the final deadlines, she’d been absolutely swamped; going to work on a moment’s notice, sleeping in her office while Cara stayed with Winta, missing meals and wearing the same clothes for days on end. 

Finally, the Razor Crest was ready. Every colonist had been given their instructional packets, schedules, and the skin-tight suits they’d have to wear in cryo. Every crew member had been briefed, outfitted, and were well-versed in the mission goals. 

The ship itself was gorgeous and had done even better than they imagined it would when they brought her into the Milky Way for several test runs of varying lengths and purposes. 

The final test, the crew had gone for a week-long real world emergency run to test their knowledge and strengths. It was chaotic and relentless, but they bonded in ways that were vital to their upcoming journey.

Departure day was hours away and then the ship would be off, sent to the Outer Rim at a breakneck speed that would land them there in twenty years’ time.

Then, the exploration would begin.

The next colony ship was already being built and she’d given her blessing to Fennec, who was the next project lead. About half of the crew that had worked on the Razor Crest would be transferred over to it while the other half went to the Outer Rim. 

Omera had done hundreds of walkthroughs of the ship in her time as the project director. She’d done most of those walkthroughs with partners and crew members at her side. One night, she and Din brought Grogu and Winta. She’d never forget the giggles that bounced off the walls of the bridge when Din helped Grogu pretend to fly.

Tonight, though, it was just her. 

She wandered through the cryo bay and counted the rows of pods that would contain each of the souls that had committed ever so joyously to their mission. 

She visited the living spaces for the crew that would wake up in cycles. They’d spend a day awake every six months so they would be able to verify that the journey was still proceeding as it was meant to. And of course, there would be times they’d have to wake up for emergencies.

There were chairs set out around a table in the kitchen where crew members might eat something light before they’d return to cryo sleep. A couch was built into the wall where a crew member might sit to reattach his boots after stretching out his once frozen muscles.

In the event of a low-level emergency on board the ship, there was a protocol that dictated that the crew would be required to remain on call, which meant they would need a safe place to sleep.

Just down the hall from the kitchen, there were twelve bedrooms, all outfitted with the same bed and comforts that would remind them of home. 

She made sure to leave each crew member a personalized note of encouragement in their locker, should they need to feel a little less lonely when they woke from cryo to work.

Satisfied with her tour, she ended on the bridge, where she counted and checked each of the bridge crew pods. On the front of each pod were the names of who would occupy them. To her disappointment and grief, Din’s name was not among them.

He’d withdrawn his name from the list after the final list of bridge crew was drafted. To his vocalized surprise, there had been a one hundred percent success rate on the final simulator run, including during Omera’s. It meant that a segment of the fully trained crew would be used only in the event of a ship-wide emergency.

Din’s soul was calm. She rarely felt any change in it. There were plenty of reasons he could’ve felt this way, but she sourly attributed it to the fact that he’d found peace in regards to his choice to stay on Earth with Grogu while she left him behind.

It was unfair to wish he’d change his mind and go. It was unfair to change her mind and stay behind.

As much as they both cared for each other- loved each other- their relationship had died that afternoon in her office.

She didn’t give herself any time to mourn it. In a way, it was like it had never ended because she could still feel him with her in their Bond. Would it still be like this when she was in the Outer Rim?

“Taking one last tour?”

Omera looked up at the sound of Leia’s voice and smiled at her boss happily. “Yes. I’m just admiring how beautiful everything is.”

Leia hummed peacefully. She entered from the door that came from the crew’s quarters.

“Are you excited?” she asked. “Nervous?”

Omera gauged her emotions and nodded. “Yes and yes.”

They both chuckled. Leia joined her where she stood at the main bridge console. They looked out the main windows, out at the sunset that covered the land just outside.

“I noticed that Din Djarin is no longer listed on the manifest,” Leia said gently. “Do you know if everything is alright? I’ve asked around and nobody seems to know what happened. He’s very quiet.”

Omera swallowed. She looked away from the sunset and at her boss instead. “We… ended things. We Bonded too quickly and it was too much for us. I guess he must have decided that going to the Outer Rim would make things worse.”

Leia was unsurprised by what she had to say. “The same thing happened when Han and I Bonded.” She smiled a little. “He drove me crazy. Still does. But… we love each other, and that’s worth fighting for.”

The problem with what Leia had to say was that as far as Omera knew, Din didn’t want to fight for them. 

He chose the Mandalorians and Grogu. She couldn’t be upset with that choice. She knew how much he loved Grogu and how much Grogu loved Din. As long as he was at peace, and it seemed that he was, she was okay with the way things had ended.

That didn’t mean she didn’t miss him constantly. She sometimes laid in bed, exhausted but unable to sleep, staring at his pillow wishing he was there to talk to. He had a way of making it better- easier- that she missed so much it hurt.

She loved him with everything she had. She knew he’d done the same. For what little time they shared together, they both walked away as better people because of that love.

“Sometimes it isn’t that simple,” Omera replied.

Leia nodded. She studied Omera for a few seconds before she asked, “Do you still love him?”

Omera’s eyes closed and she dropped her chin toward her chest.

Leia gave her a sympathetic smile and touched her arm. “Don’t give up hope. It’s the strongest weapon you have.”

She wanted to reply that there were mere hours left before she’d lose him forever, but Leia walked away to continue her own private tour of the ship. 

Omera breathed out a sigh and made her way off of the Razor Crest. As she walked, she looked around at the hangar one last time. They’d move the ship overnight to the airfield where departure was scheduled to take place.

It was almost surprisingly quiet, but she wasn’t alone. Just to her right, she spotted an old friend: Boba Fett, who wore a soft smile on his lips at the sight of her.

“How does she look?”

Omera approached him and they instantly embraced, something that gave her comfort in a way she hadn’t felt since things fell apart with Din.

“She’s gorgeous, Boba,” Omera murmured. She stepped back from him. “You and your team did great work.”

Boba looked at the ship and he nodded slowly. “And we were a week ahead of schedule, thanks to you. How does it feel to be finished?”

She chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m so relieved. Now I just have to worry about getting her off the ground.”

He hummed. “Test flights went well. I don’t think we have anything to fear.” 

Omera noticed Boba’s eyes on her left wrist, where her Mark sat uncovered. She had an immediate instinct to protect it, to hide the truth from him, but when he looked into her eyes there was something she hadn’t expected to see: understanding.

“How long?”

She took a deep breath. “About four months.”

Boba tilted his head toward the elevators and they began to walk slowly toward them. “Has he been good to you, or do I need to sit him down and straighten him out?”

Omera pulled on a brave face and laughed under her breath. “No, you don’t need to do that.”

For a few seconds, he was silent. “Do I know him?”

Her heart flipped. She ran her fingers against her Mark and avoided his eyes. “Yes. He’s… on the project, actually.”

They stopped in front of the lift and Boba pressed the call button. “You’ll both be on the mission to the Outer Rim, then?”

She shut her eyes when a pang of sorrow filled her. She shook her head, unable to voice the response, and her companion huffed in anger.

“I’ll sit him down. Who is it? Is it one of my guys?”

“It’s okay,” she assured him. “It just didn’t… we decided to end things.”

Boba searched her eyes. “You decided to end things.”

Omera forced herself to smile as she nodded. She entered the lift and watched Boba join her. He pressed the button that would take them to her office.

“There were things keeping us apart,” she explained slowly. “And those things eventually added up to be too much, so we decided that it should be over between us.”

He didn’t seem very happy about her choice. His scowl was hard to hide.

“You don’t deserve to have this happen again.”

Omera’s heart squeezed. “It’s not happening again. We’re still Bonded.”

His brow lifted. “For now. What happens in twenty years when you wake up from cryo and suddenly, it’s over?”

The lift doors opened, but before she could step outside, Boba put his hand on her arm gently. 

“Is it Djarin?”

Omera’s breath caught in surprise. How did he know? She stared at him, unwilling to let the truth out, and chose not to respond. Instead, she smiled at him. 

“I’ll be okay. No matter what happens. I survived it before, I can survive it again.”

He followed her out of the elevator. “My father was never the same after he severed his Bond. You know the story.”

Omera nodded. “I know.”

“He mourned her every day, just as you did before.” Boba gently turned her to face him in the middle of the hall. “You must really care for this guy if you’re willing to walk away like this.”

She looked down. “I do.”

Boba was silent. He slid his hand against her arm to soothe her. “You and Winta won’t be alone out there.”

Her smile was soft. “I know. We have each other.”

When she met his eyes, he frowned sorrowfully. “I’m gonna talk to Djarin. Try to see if I can get him back onto this ship.” 

Omera opened her mouth to argue, but before she could, Boba’s phone rang loudly in his pocket. He grabbed it and gestured to the device when he saw who it was.

“That’ll be the princess,” he sighed. He nodded at her. “If I don’t see you again until the Outer Rim… I’ll miss you. Be good.”

She laughed gently. “I’ll miss you too. See you soon.”

Boba’s grin was warm as he lifted his phone to his ear. “Good afternoon, Miss Organa.”

-

Omera and Winta had made plans weeks ago with Cara and Peli for a goodbye party. 

They’d meet again in what would only feel like a year, but in reality would be twenty, so they wanted to part ways with as much fun as they could muster.

When Omera arrived home, she was greeted by Winta in a party hat and what must have been an endless supply of balloons and confetti strewn all over every surface and taped on every wall.

Cara and Peli both had party hats, too, and noisemakers that they blew into noisily when they saw her.

“Congratulations, Mama!” Winta yelled. “You did it! You finished your ship!”

Omera laughed happily. “Wow! Thank you.”

Cara snapped a party hat onto Omera’s head and pulled the noisemaker from between her lips.

“It’s gonna be twenty years until we see you guys again,” Cara teased. “We thought we’d go out in style.”

Peli chuckled from her seat at the kitchen island. “We got cake, cookies, brownies…”

“Ice cream,” Winta sang. “And there’s pizza and there’s all your favorite snacks, too.”

Omera admired the spread of food that they’d prepared, set out all over the kitchen and on the dining table. 

“Amazing,” Omera replied with a smile. “Is there also music to dance to?”

“Of course.” 

Cara flipped on the music of choice from the tablet on the counter and music began to play at a mild level across the living area.

“Now it’s a party.”

They ate until they were full and then went back for seconds. There would be foods like these one day when they got to the Outer Rim, but they would have to prepare it all themselves, and the supplies would be quite limited until they were able to start up a manufacturing industry.

When they were completely stuffed, they all laid out on the living room floor surrounded by a fortress of pillows and blankets and watched one of Winta’s favorite movies. She fell asleep about a quarter of the way into it, which made Omera smile before she kissed the top of her head where it rested just beneath her arm.

Cara looked at them with a little grin that slowly faded. “So you’re really gonna go, huh?”

Omera took a deep, steadying breath and nodded. “Yeah. We’re gonna go.”

“When was the last time you saw him?”

She knew the answer without having to think. “A week ago at the final mission meeting. He didn’t look at me once.”

Cara shook her head, annoyed. “I know you love him, but I hate what he did to you guys.”

“It wasn’t his fault,” Omera defended him. “We always knew that what we were doing was against his beliefs, and we knew that it meant things might end.”

“And you’re okay with that? You’re happy to have, what, three weeks with the guy you’re crazy about? Your soulmate? And just never see him again?” 

Omera was quiet. No. She wasn’t okay with it. She missed him more than she could ever admit out loud. 

“I have to be okay with it. He chose his son. I would have done the same.”

Cara sighed. “I’m sorry. I was rooting for you to get the happy ending. You deserve it more than anyone I know.”

Omera looked down at Winta, still sound asleep, and smiled at the sight of her. “All I need is my girl.”

Once Cara drifted off to sleep, Omera looked around the room, grateful for what had led her to get to this place: surrounded by people who cared for her, warm and safe. 

They would have one another in a year, when Peli and Cara arrived on their colonist ship to the Outer Rim. It was tantalizing to daydream about what life would look like then. Would she and Winta have a home of their own? Would they have found new friends? Would she love her job? Would she be a teacher then, or would she find something she liked more?

The one thing that brought those questions away from her mind were the dreams she and Din had shared. Their home on the water- Ocean Plot C- with four bedrooms and a garden. 

She still wanted that life. It killed her that she couldn’t just set those dreams aside, even after they had ended things.

“Mind I ask you something?” Peli’s voice lifted her out of her thoughts.

She turned to face her friend who sat upright on the floor, her back pressed against the front of a living room chair with her knees drawn up to her chest. 

Omera nodded. “Anything.”

“Would you have Bonded with the Mandalorian if you knew how it would turn out in the end?”

Her lips pressed together in a frown and she looked down at Winta, soothing her with a gentle touch of her palm against her arm. 

“If I knew how it would turn out, I would have tried to Bond with him sooner,” she replied. Looking into Peli’s eyes, she managed a smile. “He changed our lives for the better. I don’t regret it.”

The author nodded slowly. “Does it give you peace knowing part of him will be with you when you leave?”

Omera’s eyes unexpectedly began to burn with tears. She hadn’t given it very much thought- a soulmate Bond wrapped two souls together and never gave any qualms about distance. 

“Yes,” she said, her voice breathless. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’ll be with him for the rest of his life. I’ll be able to mourn his passing even if no one else will. I don’t want him to be alone.”

Peli frowned compassionately. “I don’t think it’s fair.”

“It’s all we can do,” Omera sighed. “He can’t leave. I can’t stay. We’ve both made our peace with it. I can feel it in my soul.”

Her friend was quiet for a little while. “You know, the statistical probability of having two Matches within your lifetime is less than a fraction of a percent. There have only been a few of them.”

Omera nodded. “I had a feeling it was rare.”

“Do you know how special it is to meet your Match? Even with databases and all that… there still has to be perfect timing and circumstances.”

“How rare is it?”

“Less than half of the population is Bonded or Matched,” the stat rolled off of Peli’s tongue easily. She suddenly smiled, full of a bright and contagious hope. “With statistics like those, there must be a reason you found him when you did.”

Omera thought back to what Leia had told her on the bridge and her smile spread. “It doesn’t hurt to have a little hope that somehow it will work out in the end. Does it?”

-

On departure day, Omera and Winta were both up incredibly early. Their arrival window was one of the earliest, with the rest of the crew and the passengers that the crew would bring along with them to the Outer Rim.

It was dark when they arrived, but there were big lights set up all over the airfield where the Razor Crest awaited boarding. 

Winta was excited. She held Omera’s hand and bounced happily as they made their way through the small line to the intake handler. 

They were each permitted to bring two large cases of their belongings, which had been difficult to pack in the days leading up to the departure. They brought clothes, blankets, and pillows. Favorite movies and games. Little trinkets that would remind them of Cara and Peli. Books and notes from other friends. All of them were touches of home on Earth that they would incorporate into their new life.

As they stepped up to the ship that loomed tall and vast over them, Omera was reminded of her husband’s discovery and the promises he’d made to himself- and to her- that one day he’d be among the first to voyage out to the place he’d discovered.

Pride swelled in her chest. They would be there soon. 

“Mama, will it hurt?” Winta asked as they entered the cryo bay.

She shook her head and knelt down in front of her daughter, holding onto her arms. “No, my love. It’s just going to be really cold, but you’ll be asleep before you feel any of that. And when you wake up, we’ll be there.”

Winta smiled widely. “I’m so excited.”

“I know,” Omera smiled back. She squeezed her arms. “Come here. Give me a big hug.”

Winta did as she was asked and wrapped her arms around Omera’s neck. She held on as tight as she could, already missing her, and left kisses to the side of her head until her daughter giggled.

“I love you so much,” Omera murmured. “I’ll be right here when you wake up. I promise.”

Winta nodded back at her. “I love you too.”

She smiled with encouragement and waited at Winta’s side while the cryo specialists tucked her into her pod. They were both kind and made a game out of it, which made Omera feel a hundred times better about what little pain she might feel.

Once she was in cryo sleep, one of the specialists turned to her and gave her a comforting nod.

“She did beautifully. You can rest easy now.”

“Thank you.”

Now, it was her turn. She made her way out of the cryo bay and found the members of the crew all gathered together on the bridge. 

For takeoff, they would only require the Primary Team: a group of six of the higher performing crew members whose abilities were specialized for takeoff. 

The Secondary Team, which Omera was part of, would be put into cryo ahead of time, and when the ship was a full six hours into its mission, just two crew members from the Primary Team would remain awake for a full week’s time.

The goal of it was that if anything were to go wrong, they would be able to address it well before the computer would have to wake anybody up on its own.

There was a hum around the bridge. Nerves and excitement, mostly, but then she heard something strange. 

One of the members of the Secondary Team asked, “What is the protocol for a missing pilot?”

“A missing pilot?” she asked, frowning. “What do you mean?”

“The lead pilot for the Primary Team hasn’t shown up. It’s beyond the call window.”

Omera blinked. She ran through the protocols in her mind. There wasn’t any need to panic. It was obvious what would need to be done. 

“Leia knows,” she told them. “She’ll bring one of the members from the Reserve Team onto the bridge and Ahsoka will probably be moved up from Secondary.”

She eyed the cryo pods on the wall. Overhead, the radio connection from the mission control tower quieted them, “Secondary Team, you’re cleared for cryo. Your lead pilot is on the way.”

Relief covered the members of the bridge crew. Omera turned to the group of her team nearby and tilted her head toward the pods.

“It’s time.”

The crew pods operated differently from the colonist’s in that they were primarily computer operated, whereas the colonist’s were supplementarily computer operated. This would prevent the computer from waking everyone on board should something go wrong. Their doses of the sleeping agent were different as well, to help encourage fast wakeup times on short notice.

Omera entered her pod with a spectacular sense of calm about the mission ahead. It would have been natural to feel uneasy, or to have concerns, but all she felt was an eagerness for her new life to begin.

When her cryo door closed, the lights inside turned off and she heard the computer explain the process. 

“In ten seconds, you will be injected with a temporary dosage of a sleep-inducing drug. Do not panic or move around. You will then be given twenty seconds to fall asleep before the cryo stasis process begins.”

“Ten. Nine. Eight.”

There was a little window that peered out at the bridge and Omera saw movement from a few of the Primary Team members. Smiles and relief. The pilot must have finally arrived. Good.

“Three. Two. One.”

The injection of the drug stung in her arm. Almost immediately, she began to feel the effects, just as she did when they ran a test a few weeks ago.

She gazed out her pod window and allowed her breathing to even out. 

Suddenly, pure joy filled her soul from top to bottom- a never-ending burst of light that made her want to laugh out loud.

She wasn’t sure where it came from. Maybe it was elation over the mission. Maybe it was just joy.

“Ten.”

And then she saw him right in front of her pod window. His brown eyes shined as he stared back at her. She’d recognize that face anywhere, even with glassed over eyes as sleep threatened to pull her under.

Din?

She felt her eyes sag heavily and was unable to open them again to verify if she’d dreamed him or if he was real.

She hoped with everything in her that he was real.

-

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