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“Please, I‘m begging,” Ahsoka choked out. She was burdened with the weight of the man floating behind her as she dropped her lightsaber and fell to her knees. “He’s all I have left.”
The man she kneeled before reached up to unclasp his helmet before pulling it off completely. “Is that Skywalker?”
“Yes,” Ahsoka choked out. “And he was–”
“Follow me. I don’t know how you made it this far but we have a bacta tank we can throw him into before we start talking about what happened.”
“Thank you,” came the whispered response from the Togruta.
“No thanks, ad’ika . He is but a child himself.”
___
“Fett, you seem to have a penchant for collecting Jetti who have left their Order.”
“ Mand’alor , I don’t know what you mean,” Jango Fett responded. It was a bald-faced lie as he sat next to a sleeping Togruta who had removed her helmet to receive medical treatment and the bacta tank that held Anakin Skywalker in suspended recovery.
“ Alor,” the Mand’alor sighed with a hint of exhaustion. “What are you planning now?”
“I am not planning anything except for my retirement, you know that,” Jango replied.
“You only just took Ahsoka as your own ad a couple of months ago. Now she brings another jetti to our doorstep just in time for a drastic change in power for the core worlds. They are hunting the jetti, both young and old, to extinction. Satine is beside herself in worry and grief. The clones have turned against their own handlers. It’s a mess and we just happen to have, in my opinion, the most powerful jetti in our med wing? I don’t like where this is going.”
“You only hate that it happened just after you became Mand’alor ,” Jango teased.
“ Alor! ” she stressed.
“I’m sorry for teasing, Bo-Katan, but we always knew something drastic would happen. And we are prepared to handle it. You are prepared to handle it. For all of Mandalore and all Mandalorians.”
“But you can inform me of what’s going on!”
A smile found its way to Jango’s face as he observed his predecessor. He thought he had chosen well, especially in the face of her anger.
“Pre Vizsla is dead.”
Bo-Katan’s eyes widened as she stepped back. Quickly her eyes turned to the jetti in the bacta tank before whipping back to face Jango when the pieces clicked into place. “Skywalker killed him,” she whispered.
“Just barely. And he’s paying the price for it. He is mine to protect for having succeeded where I have failed.”
“ This is the way.”
__
Ahsoka’s eyes shot open in alarm.
“Padmé!”
She was no longer in republic territory she could tell immediately.
“ Ad’ika,” a voice spoke up beside her.
She was able to take in her surroundings now as the dim light allowed her eyes to adjust slowly. “ Buir,” she choked. She had never been happier to see beskar’gam as she was now.
“There, ad’ika, you’re safe. And so is Skywalker.” At the mention of the name the togruta was quick to turn her head and look for the man.
He was lying suspended in the bacta tank on Jango’s other side. Her eyes raked over his body to see the damage she had been too panicked to see before. Anakin was missing an arm from just above the elbow on his right side. Other wounds and bruises seemed to have closed up in the time spent in the bacta tank.
Ahsoka’s eyes turned back to Jango, this time with a mix of fear and pain. “ Buir,” she whispered again and Jango was quick to catch her as she rushed forward to wrap her arms around him in a hug. “It was the chancellor.”
Before Jango could respond he was interrupted by the door of the medical ward opening with a loud bang as it was flung open.
“ Alor! ”
“Bo-Katan,” Jango greeted just as Ahsoka was able to choke out “ Mand’alor! ”
Bo-Katan stopped in her rush to get to Jango to stare at Ahsoka. Quickly, without preamble, Bo-Katan removed her helmet to look at Ahsoka with her own eyes unfiltered. “It’s good to see you awake, Ahsoka.” Her voice took on a raspy quality without the buy’ce filtering it.
“Th-thank you,” Ahsoka responded, unsure how to take the warmth from the Mand’alor. She was saved from responding further when Bo-katan turned her eyes to Jango.
“ Alor, we have been contacted by the Jedi council on Coruscant. They request help in moving their ad to the outer rim as soon as possible. I’ve already sent some of my commandos to help but I need the permission from my own council to move them to a planet in the Mandalorian sector.”
“You won’t get it,” Jango grumbled. “Not that quickly, at least.”
“I know, that’s why I’m asking you now, what do I do?”
“Breshig isn’t technically under Mandalorian jurisdiction,” Ahsoka muttered. She was finally able to pull herself away from Jango long enough to compose herself before continuing to speak to the Mand’alor. “You’re sister already has several Jedi on Breshig, and she was clear about the clones. There’s really no safer place.”
Jango hummed as eyed his ad. “It’s a good plan. Breshig is still in Mandalorian space, but annexed by our people. To anyone on the outside it would seem like the worst place for a jetti to be.”
“Thank you, Ahsoka, alor. I will move on these words.”
“This is the way,” Jango responded and the two others repeated him.
__
“I am requesting asylum.”
“It is granted.”
Obi-wan bowed as deep as he could while holding an infant in each arm. The official he was speaking to was without the armor seen on mandalorians, but the completely encased guard standing next to him reminded him of where he was. This was Breshig; once a mandalorian controlled planet. Now it was home to the ones who had been labeled as ‘ dar’manda’ and annexed by the Mand’alor. But it seemed that with the execution of Order 66 within the Core and Mid Rim planets Breshig had teamed up with Mandalorians to host the Jedi in times of war, specifically their younglings.
He had balked at the initial setup but quickly saw how efficient it was to filter through asylum seekers if there were booths for every language. The guards littered every entrance and were sure to scrutinize anyone that wasn’t obviously a Jedi. He wondered what sort of enemies they were to expect on the only planet that was taking in Jedi refugees.
“Obi?”
The informal call of his name had him turning in surprise to see a mandalorian step up to him while removing their helm.
“Ahsoka?”
The togruta failed to respond as her eyes flit over the infants in his arms. “I thought we got all the younglings out.”
“Ah,” the jedi master began but was cut off when Ahsoka moved in to close the distance. Her eyes were focused on the female infant, Leia.
“It can’t be. Anakin’s?”
“Yes.”
“And Padmé? What happened to her?”
A dark look fell over Obi-Wan’s face and Ahsoka shrinked back. “No,” she whispered as her eyes moved from one infant to the other. “Anakin will be heartbroken.”
“He’s alive?” Obi-Wan asked, shocked.
“Of course, I brought him here the moment I could get him away. He’s still recovering.”
“The chancellor had said he had been killed by mandalorians.”
Ahsoka’s nose shriveled as she scowled. “The mandalorians that saved him or the mandalorian he had to kill to get out?”
“You were there?”
“And after what you heard you still came here?”
The tense moment was shattered by the cry coming from Luke. “Let’s settle them before we start talking,” Ahsoka suggested. She brought them to a long hall made of marble rock. “We keep all the younglings in assigned rooms with adults. We can just install them into the age appropriate area.”
They came up to a large stone door that Ahsoka moved with the Force. It slid to the side to reveal a large room with two dozen cribs lined along the walls. Two large windows allowed the sun to shine in and light the room up with a warmth that Obi-Wan appreciated. There were two jedi and one mandalorian overseeing the several cribs that had been filled.
“We have the Force-sensitive children and Force-null children in the same room as we haven’t had to bring in many infants.” She turns to take a child, Leia, from the jedi master to place into a crib. “I’ll have one of the creche-keepers bring some milk out for them.”
Obi-Wan settled Luke into the crib next to Leia as Ahsoka walked over to the Jedi that had been nearest.
“Well, you won’t grow up alone,” Obi-wan whispered to the infant. He briefly allowed his eyes to close as he tried to process everything that had happened. A few deep breaths later Obi-Wan gave up and opened his eyes again. At this moment all he could do was thank the Force that he had overheard a transmission meant for Jedi who were fleeing. It had been a call to safety, in mandalorian, for Jedi.
Luke’s bright blue eyes shined back at Obi-Wan’s own and the Jedi smiled. There was something wrong with him, he had decided when he had first seen the twins in the nurses’ arms. He had been thankful that Anakin had left the order to pursue love to eventually have these two wonderful babies he witnessed now. The relief had come back to him after he had secured himself a ship to flee to Mandalorian space. Now, with Order 66 in place, he could live out a life as a caretaker for these two instead of being a Jedi.
It had been a selfish thought, he admitted later, but one that he was constantly thinking of. Something deep within him was satisfied in holding the twins in his arms as he approached the Mandalorian delegation on Breshig.
The news of Anakin’s survival brought more satisfaction. The freed slave had needed a normal life but for so long the Jedi Order and the Republic in turn had abused the boy’s power well into adulthood.
The seclusion that Mandalore seemed to promise was more than tempting.
Ahsoka came up next to him and placed a hand on his arm. “Come, we can talk outside.”
Ahsoka led the Jedi to an empty courtyard that shared a wall with the nursery they had just left. Obi-Wan could still feel the two strong Force presences he had just left.
“Where is Anakin?” was the first thing out of his mouth.
“He’s safe, back on Concordia. He’s been in suspended sleep since the attack. We were able to acquire a state-of-the-art bacta tank from the Core last week. We just switched him over today after the doctors declared him fit to move. He’s still… Bad.”
Obi-Wan inhaled deeply to attempt to move the lodge in the back of his throat. Upon release he opened his eyes that had shut of their own accord. “Is he recovering?” he finally asked.
“Physically? Yes, but his signature is so weak, master, I don’t know what to do.”
Obi-Wan wants to say “I want to see him” but his thoughts stray back to the twins he has half of his attention on. Ahsoka seemed to pick up on his line of thoughts and nodded frantically.
“Let me talk to my buir and see what I can do about getting you out there.”
“I’m here.”
Both Obi-Wan and Ahsoka were startled as a well painted mandalorian stepped into their field of vision. The helmet was red and black with gold trimmed outlines framing every indent. The body armor, more sparse than the others he had seen during his stay, was green and blue with trims painted in a bright orange.
“ Buir ,” Ahsoka immediately greeted. “How did you–”
“Miron commed me the moment you took off your buy’ce . What is it that you need to talk to me about?”
Obi-Wan regarded the mandalorian with an inquisitive look.The armor was reminiscent of the supercommandos that Obi-Wan had encountered before but the paint was more decorative than anyone he had ever met. The colors were so vibrant and crisp compared to the others who had more muted colors. Obi-Wan had never heard the name of the one who had taken Ahsoka in but he knew that anyone who could settle the togruta was a good one.
“This is Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
“Hm, General Kenobi? Or do you prefer Master?”
“Neither, just my name is fine,” Obi-wan responded with as much calmness as he could. He had grown to resent one title while he had questioned the other just hours ago.
“Kenobi, then. I must request that you come back to Concordia with me and Ahsoka to see Skywalker.”
The request sounded like a demand to Obi-Wan’s ears. He couldn’t be sure how old the mandalorian was as the voice was coded roughly through the speaker. He sounded older than the Jedi, though, and it made him pause before he responded.
“I have two younglings in my care. They travel with me.”
“Of course, this is the way,” came the immediate response.
__
“I seem to have forgotten the definition of ‘youngling,’” the mandalorian teased as he was led into the nursery. Obi-Wan moved to the first crib, Leia’s, and checked her over before carefully picking her up.
“This is Leia,” he started but stopped abruptly when the mandalorian lifted his helm over his head and revealed his face. It was a handsome man with dark curls sat upon olive toned skin and brown eyes that briefly glanced at him before moving to the child in his arms.
The mandalorian clipped his helmet to an unseen magnetic latch on his belt before holding out both hands to the infant. Obi-Wan was reluctant to pass her over but did so anyway.
“Hello, Leia,” came the unmodulated voice from the handsome man. Obi-Wan continued to stare, unsure of the feeling that ran through his chest, before he was disturbed by another infant being pushed into his arms by the togruta.
“Oh, and this is Luke,” he introduced.
The mandalorian looked up from where he had been looking down at Leia to where Luke was held in Obi-Wan’s arms. “Hello, Luke,” he greeted before flicking his eyes upward to stare directly at Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan’s heart stuttered as the voice washed over him. He wasn’t sure if it was the surprise from hearing the voice of a handsome stranger or if it was because Obi-Wan cared for these two like they were his own and seeing them being looked upon so lovingly made him swell with pride. Either option was not something he wanted to fully confront on his own just yet.
With eyes still trained on the Jedi the mandalorian spoke up, “It is nice to meet you both. I am Jango Fett.”
Obi-Wan froze as he registered the name of the mandalorian holding Leia like she was the most precious being in the world. This was the Mand’alor who had united the entire Mandalorian Sector under a strong protection from any and all enemies in the past thirty years or more. He had even recently claimed and protected Dathomir, for some unfathomable reason, against Separatists.
Thoughts buzzed through Obi-Wan’s head at a speed he couldn’t keep up with. Here, standing in front of him, was probably the most feared and respected man of the entire outer rim. And he was holding an infant with such care.
“It has been a long time since Boba was this small. I miss it, sometimes.” Jango’s eyes moved from Obi-Wan back to Leia as he slowly and carefully bounced her up and down in his arms. “But then I remember all the sleepless nights that came with the first couple of years and I’m just happy to have that part of his life over with.”
Obi-Wan was pulled out of his head by the soft confession.
“Is Boba your son?”
“Yes, he’s waiting for us on Concordia. He thinks Anakin is the most interesting person in the world despite never having spoken to him.”
‘He is,’ Obi-Wan wants to say. He holds his tongue and smiles instead.
__
Obi-Wan’s life had drastically changed in the three months since Padme’s death. Before, in the time before the execution of Order 66, Obi-Wan would have woken up knowing what to do. Whether there was a mission in place or orders to see to, there was always a plan for his next steps.
Now he woke up every morning with only the thought of Anakin and his children clouding his mind. Obi-Wan could have never predicted how hard it was taking care of an infant, let alone two. He woke through the night when the Force was disturbed in either unsettling dreams from one of the twins or a sharp cry of hunger that made Obi-Wan wish it didn’t take him so long to prepare a bottle for each twin.
Oftentimes one of the mandalorians on guard would slip into the nursery attached to his room and settle whichever child seemed to have woken up.
It was one of those times now, Obi-Wan thought to himself. He heard the external door to the nursery open and close and felt the familiar shine of a Force presence being unsheathed from their helmet, buy’ce.
It was Boba Fett tonight.
With a slow reluctance Obi-Wan stood up from his bed and slowly shuffled his way over to the door that connected his room to the twins’ own room. He slowly inched the door open to peek inside to see what the teen was up to.
Boba, a spitting image of his father but younger, had picked up Luke to settle his crying.
Obi-Wan’s face broke into a smile at the sight and he slowly closed the door again so as not to disturb the teen and infant.
The mandalorians had made it abundantly clear that children were the most important part of their own culture. These capable warriors only wanted to see the children safe and happy, something Obi-Wan knew the Jedi Order had a bad handle on.
In the months since his escape from the core worlds he had been meditating heavily on what he had to do next. A part of him wanted to return to the fight, to find more younglings that had been left guardianless from the execution of Order 66. But another part of him, a stronger and more confident part of him that he hadn’t heard from since he had first hugged Anakin all those years ago, told him that he was right where he needed to be and doing exactly what he was meant to.
Obi-Wan was starting to think that the opinion might be one of the Force’s wills.
Ahsoka had returned to the war front as a part of the group going out to bring back more Jedi. Obi-Wan was exactly where he needed to be.
He woke the next morning to the sun peeking in through the windows. He had been blessed with a longer sleep this morning, it seemed. The twins were not in their room but after a moment of heavy and controlled breathing he was able to point out where the children were in the palace. Their Force presences were bright and unique in a building of people being hidden by beskar’gam .
But the bond between the twins and Obi-Wan was something he had never experienced before. Normally, with a padawan or another Knight, Jedi’s were able to create a conscious bond to communicate in the barest of emotions or visions. Obi-Wan’s connection with the children was bright and strong and natural, nothing like what he had once had with Qui-Gon, but something closer to what he shared with Anakin.
Obi-Wan had been amazed at how immediately he had connected with the newborns through the Force. It was like a padawan bond but so much stronger . The bond seemed more organic and Force driven than any bond Obi-Wan had ever felt.
Only after a couple more minutes of meditating with his eyes closed Obi-Wan finally sat up from his bed. He was quick and efficient in getting ready for the day despite not having to worry about the twins first thing. As he washed his face and settled a set of desert robes over his shoulders he could feel the twins getting closer.
A knock came through the door just as Obi-Wan clipped his lightsaber to his belt while assuring that it was visible on his person. He moved over to the door in long but unhurried strides and took a brief moment to observe himself against the mirror on the back of the door. It was traditional for mandalorians to carry their weapons where they could be seen. A brief from Ahsoka, who had explained that mandalorians were nothing like what they had learned from the New Mandalorians of Breshig, had even elaborated on the importance of knowing when to issue a challenge to fight as a means of diplomacy.
He opened the door to the most comical sight of the Mand’alor holding an infant in each arm.
“I don’t know how I am supposed to put them down,” was her greeting. Her voice sounded pained and panicked while her arms were struggling between how tight to hold them and not crushing them between plates of beskar.
Obi-Wan smiled and reached out to grab a twin, Leia, and settle her into his arms. “With skill I’m sure you’ll pick up, Mand’alor, ” was his playful response. She snorted before turning away with Luke still in her arms.
“Your presence is being requested by the council.”
“And they sent the Mand’alor to get me?” Obi-Wan asked in amusement as he closed the door behind him and followed after Bo-Katan.
“Boba threw some babies in my arms before he rushed out of the throne room to go to training and his father was nowhere to be found to take the children for the morning.” The excuse sounded flimsy even to Obi-Wan’s ears.
He looked down at Luke just in time to see him gurgling in the fashion of babies with drool running down his chin. With a sigh Obi-Wan used the sleeve of his cloak to wipe it up. “And they’ve eaten and settled?”
“Who knows for how long. I wasn’t able to witness the nurse who fed them but she assured me that they had been burped.”
Obi-Wan smiled at the memory of Luke spitting up over Bo-Katan’s pauldron.
“What’s on the agenda today?”
“Satine is coming in.”
And suddenly it made sense as to why Bo-Katan didn’t let go of Luke.
The relationship between the Kryze sisters was one that was more complicated than Obi-Wan’s own with his padawan. Satine had brought great dishonor to all Mandalorians by calling herself one while completely abandoning the resol’nare and everything that made up being a mandalorian.
“It’s a way of life, a discipline,” Jango had told him during his first week on Concordia when Obi-Wan tried to learn more about the Mandalorian civil conflict. “There are many mandalorians who would gladly pierce her through for her thoughts and actions.” And Jango had sounded like one of those mandalorians while he explained.
Obi-Wan was starting to learn more about the True Mandalorians than he had ever thought he needed to. His time on Breshig, the Mandalorian-claimed and abandoned planet in the Mandalorian sector, had him sympathizing with the ‘New Mandalorians’ but after just a few weeks with real mandalorians he understood now.
Ahsoka had refused to call herself a Jedi after she had left the Order. After the betrayal of the Order she disappeared for several months before returning in unpainted beskar. She hadn’t gone into detail on what she had been doing in those missing months but the way she seemed to be more settled in her armor broke Obi-Wan’s heart. He had wished she could feel just as comfortable as a Jedi.
But then the twins had settled something in his soul. The moment he had locked eyes with just one of them he knew that he was exactly where he needed to be. He would give his life to protect these children and nothing would stop him.
He was no longer a Jedi himself; he knew that. This was not the way that had been drilled into his head by the masters of temples. He tried to think of letting go of his bonds with the twins and something reacted violently within him. Something that felt like the Force.
He could no longer follow all the teachings of the Jedi, he concluded.
Satine and Bo-Katan had still been sisters at one point. They had grown up together under the rule of Breshig’s leader of New Mandalorians, as they had called themselves.
Now, at twenty-five, Bo-Katan was the Mand’alor while her sister was dar’manda.
“So the Fetts have abandoned you to your sister and you decided to drag me in?”
Bo-Katan didn’t answer as she opened the doors to the throne room. There, waiting for the four of them, was Satine Kryze. Several guards stood around the entrances but she was left to wait at the foot of the throne. Her lack of armor seemed to displace Obi-Wan for a moment before remembering she had never worn it so he wasn’t sure why he had been expecting her to wear it now.
He had only met the dar’manda duchess once before on his rotation in Breshig for the Jedi Order. Breshig had been a beautiful little planet that had once been the main powerhouse for building warships that Mandalorians were prided on. They had moved the facilities and factories to a bigger planet closer to Mandalore and allowed the New Mandalorians to migrate to the abandoned planet after the New Mandalorians had attempted to start a civil war on Mandalore.
It was a decision made by Jango Fett during his rule as Mand’alor to give them an annexed planet so as to avoid needlessly killing a group of people who were attempting to sabotage the Mandalorian name by beseeching it.
Disconnected and removed from Mandalore’s mind, Breshig became a drool-worthy target for pirates and smugglers alike. Eventually the pacifist group had to turn to the Jedi for help and protection.
Now, in times of conflict and war, the Jedi turned to Breshig and the New Mandalorians for help.
He had yet to put all the pieces together but it seemed that the True Mandalorians were helping and aiding both the New Mandalorians and the Jedi in the face of a greater enemy. The headache that brewed in his head whenever he thought about the specifics that got him and his children a safe haven and even a bacta tank started to creep up on him.
He ignored the soon-to-be problematic headache in favor of watching the sisters.
“Satine.”
“Bo-Katan.”
He stayed silent as he watched the interaction between the two sisters carefully.
Bo-Katan shifted to move Leia to one arm so that she could remove her buy’ce and clip it to her belt.
“Are the jetti settling well?”
Satine’s eyes had locked onto Leia’s small form before flitting up to her younger sister.
“Yes, of course. We’ve never had this many children in one spot. I’m here to ask…” She trailed off as she only just seemed to notice Obi-Wan standing just behind Bo-Katan. Her eyes went from his face to Luke to the lightsaber in a smooth sweep. “I didn’t think you were hosting the Jedi here as well. What of your… animosity?”
“The animosity that holds me from saving people who are being slaughtered for who they are? We are long past the foolish ideals of jetti being our enemy. Our beliefs were different and we fought over something that now brings us together.” Bo-Katan’s unoccupied hand twitched towards the darksaber hanging from her belt. “We are so much stronger when fighting together than when we fight each other.” And now it seemed she wasn’t talking about the Jedi alone.
Satine took a moment to observe Bo-Katan’s bare face before nodding slowly. “Then I am here to ask for help. We, on Breshig, cannot fight off our enemies on our own. The last invasion attempt took out too many of the Jedi Knights we already have.”
“Are you only asking for strength in numbers?”
“No. No, we are asking to return to Mandalorian protection.” Satine braced herself by clenching her fists.
Bo-Katan nodded after a moment of staring. She waved her free hand to the door behind the throne to where the council room lay. “The clan leaders are waiting for us,” she said in lieu of an answer.
Obi-wan followed behind the two sisters as he wondered what this meant for the future of the Jedi that now stayed on Breshig, what this might mean for him here on Concordia as one who hasn’t left the Order yet.
__
Obi-Wan learned later that holding a baby during council meetings was an actual tactic that Jango Fett had employed before to win favor in his decision. It was an actual shock to learn that Boba had not been that baby.
One of the Mand’alor’s own personal guard, Juno, had recounted the story with amusement coming through the helmet’s speaker. “He strolled right into the meeting, the last one to answer his own emergency call, with an infant ad on his chest teething on his pauldron. His buy’ce hanging on his belt the entire walk from the hangar all because he didn’t want to scare the ad. The council was Forced to agree to back his action against a syndicate and the sector that they had a hand in controlling when Jango Fett talked about the Forced slave rings we had just returned from burning.”
Juno’s voice carried a hint of pride when she remembered what had happened. She looked Obi-Wan directly in the eyes through her visor. “Ten years later and those same ad are thriving in homes of their own with their buir or new found aliit . We are survived by the warriors we raise.”
Obi-Wan had heard that phrase many times over during his stay on Concordia. It resonated in his chest each and every time he heard it. A part of his soul seemed to calm at the feeling those words evoke. He would raise Leia and Luke as well as he could until Anakin could do it himself, and even after that he would help them in any way he could. Nothing was more important than those two.
Now, sitting in the mess hall next to several mandalorians who he could call friends, Obi-Wan could admit that he felt like he was in the right place doing the right thing. The twins were in the care of the nurse trained mandalorian who had introduced himself as Quino in the first few days of Obi-Wan’s stay. He knew that they were safe and well protected there; just as he knew that he was safe here amongst the people whom his masters had once called savage and barbaric.
A hand came to rest on his shoulder and he looked up to see the buy’ce of familiar red and black with gold trim. “Jango,” he greeted.
“Obi-Wan. The armorer to fit Anakin’s arm is here. I thought you might want to be there while we took Anakin out of suspended recovery in case he woke up.”
Obi-Wan nodded gratefully and stood up to follow the mandalorian through the palace to the place where Anakin was being kept in high security and great opulence. The first time Obi-Wan had been invited into this wing he had asked why Anakin was getting such treatment and was met with an explanation of Pre Vizsla, dar’manda , and how Anakin had earned his place in the halls of Mandalore for accomplishing a task that Jango Fett had failed to accomplish.
Reminders of the clones that shared the face with the dar’manda Anakin had killed brought resolution to Obi-Wan’s soul. The clones were vile from the moment Obi-Wan had discovered their origins. The clones all had one thing in common, from what he had observed, and that was that violence was written into their DNA. If they weren’t fighting droids then they had been fighting their jedi handlers or even themselves. They were able to truly showcase the bloodlust mandalorians had been known for. The outer rim planets under Mandalorian rule had been adamant to denounce the clones as mandalorians for knowing their origins.
There, in the bacta tank, was Anakin Skywalker. Hero to so many but a child to all, especially the mandalorians. Obi-Wan’s eyes took in all of the ex-Jedi carefully. The arm in question was Anakin’s right arm. It stopped just above where the elbow would have been. The cut had been gruesome and Ahsoka had just managed to contain the bleeding before carting him away to Mandalore space. She had constantly fed him support on her ride there and had passed out just after meeting her buir .
The rest of Anakin’s body seemed completely healed. He just wouldn’t wake up.
When Obi-Wan had first laid eyes on Anakin after saving the twins he was unsure of what he was seeing. There was a mess of tangles coming in through what he could feel in the Force. Where Anakin was normally a raging storm of being alive he was now a sandstorm, a tornado, and a wildfire all wrapped into the skin of a man suspended in bacta. There was only a hint of a trace of Anakin amongst the wild tendrils of Force that lashed out like lightning looking for a conductor in a storm.
He remembered coming close the first time. He had touched Anakin’s cheek through the slime of the bacta and felt himself pulled into a horrifying nightmare that depicted a ruined fieldscape of Naboo and piles of burnt flesh bodies with faces he could name.
He couldn’t sleep for the next few days as the image replayed behind closed eyes. It all felt so real.
The next week he came back and kept his distance while meditating. There in the room sitting next to a comatose Anakin he meditated with the Force storm that was his padawan. He came back week after week to no change. He knew he had to do something different but he was still trying to understand what he needed to do.
Now, with an armorer standing to the side, Anakin didn’t feel like he had before. Rather than all of the natural weather occurrences happening all at once it seemed like Anakin had calmed to a simple, biting sandstorm in the Force.
“This will help,” Obi-Wan said aloud. Jango turned to give him a look through his visor but kept quiet otherwise.
They watched the others drain the bacta before the armorer began working on lifting Anakin’s unresponsive arm to begin getting measurements. After fifteen minutes the armorer nodded and released Anakin to begin scribbling notes. Both arms had been examined as well as the chest and back.
“I will begin working as soon as I get back to my Forge. I will send a message once I am ready for the base placement and first fit.”
Obi-Wan gave a deep bow as Jango gave a shallow bow of his head. Once he was escorted out of the room Obi-Wan turned back to Jango. “That was the armorer?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“He may sound old, but he has a keen eye. Don’t let it fool you.”
Obi-Wan noted the teasing note in Jango’s voice before turning back to stare at where Anakin’s tank was being refilled with bacta. Anakin’s presence was calm in the Force now, just a rushing river. It truly felt like Anakin was simply asleep instead of suspended.
“I think he’ll wake soon,” he says to Jango without turning away.
“I wish he would wait until after his arm is housed. It’s not a pleasant feeling when one is awake.”
Obi-Wan turned to look questioningly at the mandalorian next to him. He was met with a shake of the helmet and a hand at his elbow.
“Come, let’s go pick up the twins for an afternoon walk. I could use the exercise.”
Obi-Wan scoffed. Jango always made jokes about how old he was, especially compared to his teenage child, Boba. If Obi-Wan had to guess, he would put Jango at being a decade older than him, if not less. Which meant that Jango wasn’t yet fifty and was already complaining about being old.
He followed him to the nursery where Luke and Leia reached for both of them.
“Admit it, I’m their favorite uncle,” Jango goaded Obi-Wan as he held Leia up against his face while looking at Obi-Wan. The mandalorians all seemed to follow one rule around the children and that was to be bare faced when talking to them or hanging around them.
“As they have yet to meet all their uncles, I don’t think you have much basis behind your argument.”
“But you admit they like me more than they like Ahsoka or Bo-Katan?”
“I think you’re more their ba’buir than their uncle,” Obi-Wan countered. He had heard other mandalorians refer to the previous mand’alor as such in context with the children. With enough context clues he was able to pick up the meaning. It resonated with him, as he thought of himself as responsible for Anakin and, in turn, his children.
He expected Jango to be offended but was met with a mischievous grin instead. “I guess I am. That means I am competing with you for their affection. A worthy opponent indeed.”
Obi-Wan frowned while holding Luke closer to his chest. Luke, the traitorous being he was, reached his chubby arm out to Jango from the comfort of Obi-Wan's arms. His hand opened and closed in a fashion of grabbing.
Jango moved closer to Obi-Wan, nearly pressing his body against the other man, to bring himself within grabbing distance of the child with his head bent low. “Here I am,” he whispered to Luke. The infant gurgled happily as his hand met Jango’s cheek with a slap.
Obi-Wan was frozen from where his body was touching the mandalorian’s. Cold beskar pressed against his cloaked body and he could feel the warmth from Leia in Jango’s arms so much better this way.
Obi-Wan pressed his own body closer to Jango’s in wonder.
He could feel both babies so clearly in the Force at this moment. It was that and the addition of knowing that a mandalorian protected them that made something in Obi-Wan stutter.
He pulled himself back quickly when he realized just how close he had been pushing himself into the other man.
“I’m sorry,” Obi-Wan rushed out. He wasn’t sure what had come over him but he wanted to feel the warmth of security again. Was it the beskar that silenced the Force that left him calm, or was it the idea that this man was and still is the most feared man in all known history?
“Nothing to be sorry for, cyar'ika. Come on, let’s go outside for some fresh air.”
Obi-Wan followed after him and Leia as he made a mental note to try and remember what Jango had called him to look up later.
__
Anakin woke up after his arm was housed.
It was a miracle that he had stayed asleep for so long but it seemed he had taken Jango’s advice unconsciously and stayed asleep until after the painful portion of the surgery was complete.
Now he was overwhelmed with a new arm and two babies.
“I’m a dad.”
“Stop repeating yourself,” Ahsoka admonished but from beside her Jango Fett chuckled.
“Third time’s the charm.”
Anakin looked back down to where he was holding two small angels in his arms. The girl, Leia, he had been told, was staring at him unblinkingly while her brother, Luke, had been far too distracted by the metal of Anakin’s new arm, just as Anakin was.
“Ani, are you okay?”
Anakin looked up to where Obi-Wan was on his other side with a kerchief held up. It was then he realized he was crying.
“Obi,” he whispered, voice starting to close. “Obi, I don’t know how to be a dad.”
“No, I guess that wasn’t part of our training,” Obi-Wan replied with a soft smile and a moist hint to his eyes.
“You’re both hopeless,” Ahsoka muttered as she took Leia back from Anakin. “It’s a good thing you have me and buir . He’s had experience raising Boba so he can help.”
Anakin looked up to Jango Fett, the man he had heard many stories of, and wondered if such a powerful figure could teach him to be a father.
The man’s eyes were warm as he looked at Leia and Luke. He finally looked up to make eye contact with Anakin. “I will help and teach you. Raising warriors is a specialty of mine.” His voice has a teasing note to it and Anakin tried to think back to why this felt familiar, why that statement might be funny.
“I’m surprised Boba hasn’t made it here yet,” Obi-Wan replied with a hint of mischief in his eyes.
“He has chosen to go on a mission that might hold him up for a couple of days,” was Jango’s vague response.
“At the same time Anakin was to get his arm?” Obi-Wan wondered while he shifted his eyes to glance at Jango from the corner of his eyes. Anakin noted the mirth in his master’s eyes that he hadn’t seen in such a long time outside of the battlefield.
“He was not privy to that information before he made the decision to embark on his mission.”
“How convenient,” Obi-Wan said with a hum.
Luke, still in Anakin’s arms, began wiggling to try and reach his face.
“He’s about to start crying,” Jango offered just before Luke scrunched up his face. Anakin’s eyes widened in panic and before he could do anything more Luke began wailing.
Obi-Wan was laughing openly as he held his arms out for the crying child. “Here, let me take him to get cleaned and fed. It’s time for their dinner, regardless.” He paused in settling Luke in his arms to turn and give Anakin a warm smile. “I’m so grateful you’re healthy and alive, Anakin.” Ahsoka leaned over to slip an unblinking Leia into her arms.
With that he and Ahsoka left the room Anakin had woken up in.
Jango stayed behind and silently observed the ex-Jedi for a moment.
“The Jetti and Mandalorians have never gotten along but we never asked why,” Jango began. He took a seat in the chair Ahsoka had been occupying before she left. He turned so that he was completely facing his body to Anakin. “The reason we were always told had changed over time. At one point in time it had been because our creeds were so similar, but now we fight because our creeds are so different.”
Anakin looked down at where his new, metallic hand was resting on the sheets of the medical cot he had woken up on. He knew, instinctively, that it was made of beskar. He didn’t want to voice it out loud in fear that the Mand’alor past would seek to hold it over his head, but the curiosity to why he had been chosen to be given this gift whipped wildly through his head.
“Are you saying that there’s no reason for the Jedi and Mandalorians to fight?” he asked instead.
“Hm, not that. In the last twenty or more years I’ve had to reevaluate what I believed to be kar’taylir , and what was told to me to simply control me.”
Anakin felt something in his chest release.
“The Jedi Order only ever tried to control.”
“I became Mand’alor when I was fourteen. I was not crowned honorably but I did my best to make myself worthy of the title. The hardest thing I had to do was figure out who was there to help me and who was there to control me for their own gain. The Republic has long abused the Jedi and their power when the Jedi are only there to help and be helped. Mandalore had much to change about the way we lived our creed. I just think it’s time that the Jedi Order did the same, don’t you think?”
“But the senate has too much sway with the Jedi Council,” Anakin began. His thoughts strayed back to when the mandalorian he had been fighting, Pre Vizsla, had admitted to the chancellor’s deceit.
“The Jedi Order and all those who claim the title of Jedi are protected under Mandalorian rule.”
Anakin looked at Jango with a look of shock. “What do you mean?”
“While you were recovering Bo-Katan, the current mand’alor, reclaimed Breshig in our name. There was enough time between the order to kill all Jedi being given out and our reclamation that Jedi all over were able to learn that they would be safe on Breshig. Everyday we receive more and more refugees of the Imperial claim.”
“Imperial claim?” Anakin asked before he could stop himself.
“That chancellor of yours revealed himself a sith to all. He has claimed a sort of dictatorship over the Core worlds he had clones stations on. It brings me back to why I’m here and why you are here.” Jango locked his eyes with Anakin and the brunette was unable to look away. “You have succeeded where I could not. You have eliminated a major threat to the people of Mandalore and we–no, I cannot begin to express my gratitude.”
“What did I do?” Anakin choked out while his eyebrows came together in confusion.
“You defeated and killed Pre Vizsla, an enemy of mine.”
“That’s it?”
It was Jango’s turn to look confused. “What do you mean, that’s it? It’s everything. He and his cult of Children have been a threat to Mandalore and its systems for a long time. You have defeated the dar’manda that cloned himself in his own greed for more and violence. You are revered.”
Anakin looked uncomfortably from Jango then back down to his arm. “Is that why it’s beskar?” was all he could manage to ask.
“Yes, ad, and you deserve more than just an arm of beskar, but it’s a start. Now, I’m sure you’re ready to try and walk, so how about I help you stand up?”
Anakin was uncomfortable for the rest of the day as he was assisted by Jango Fett, of all people, in menial tasks such as dressing in clothes and walking through the halls. His body was weak from disuse but he couldn’t feel any lingering pain from his fight with Pre Vizsla.
He was brought to a large mess hall where dozens of mandalorians in different states of armor were all sitting at benches against long tables while enjoying their evening meal. The large room was loud with so many voices all speaking over each other and Anakin was shocked to see such a sight. The sound of so many people talking and the sight of so many bodies crowded around each other reminded him of being back on Tatooine in a crowded market.
“ Alor! ” a voice called from the crowd and decorated armored body separated from the crowd in their direction. The hall seemed to quiet as the mandalorian who had walked up to them removed their helmet.
“ Mand’alor ,” Jango returned the greeting.
“Oh, Mand’alor?” Anakin asked.
“Bo-Katan Kryze. I believe you briefly met my sister on Breshig?”
Anakin’s eyes light up recognition and he nods. “Yes, Satine, right? I’ve nearly forgotten about that time.”
“And it’s probably best that you left it there,” Bo-Katan responded. “It is a relief to see that you’re finally awake and…” she pauses to truly see Anakin and how Jango is supporting him just under the elbow of his flesh arm. “Standing. I hope for your quick recovery.” With a perfunctory nod she slips through the crowd in a different direction from where she came.
“So, that’s the new Mand’alor, ” Anakin muses to Jango as they move to sit on the closest bench. With a few hand signals Jango has empty plates placed in front of them and he’s piling them both up with the food around them.
“She is and I’m very proud of her, if I do say so myself. Now, are you able to handle a little heat?” Jango asks before plating one of the dishes that is tinted red with spice.
“I’m originally from the dunes of Tatooine,” he answers. “But it’s been a long time since I’ve eaten anything but bland monk food and deep fried everything else that I get my hands on when out on a mission.”
Jango puts a spoonful of the food onto the plate and moves to reach around the table to grab a fresher vegetable dish of blanched hoguai leaves tossed in a seed oil Jango couldn’t be bothered to remember.
He sets the full plate of food down in front of Anakin before finishing his own plate.
“Why are there so many vegetables on my plate?” he finally asked after a long look at the table full of different varieties of dishes, many meat based ones included, littering the table.
“Eat. Your diet for the next couple of weeks means that you’ll be eating five meals a day. We are trying to recover as much loss as possible from your time in recovery.”
“And how long was I in recovery?” Anakin ventured to ask.
“Just over six months.”
“So at least three months of observed dieting?” Anakin guessed. A warm, ungloved hand came up to squeeze his shoulder.
“You’re getting the idea.”
__
Anakin met Boba on a sunny but chilly afternoon while he had been pushing his twins in their stroller through one of the many gardens open to the public of Concordia.
“You’re real!”
The boy, if that, had stopped in his path. Legs wide and chest huffing in anticipation Boba looked like a smaller version of his father. Anakin didn’t need to be told who this was to know immediately.
“Boba Fett, it’s nice to finally meet you.”
“You know me?”
Anakin opened his mouth to explain but stopped himself. How did he explain to this teen that Anakin had heard his voice through the Force in the brief moments he was able to reclaim his body between long bouts of rest and healing. He had flashes of an excited voice telling Anakin about how ‘Ahsoka is so cool, I bet you’re cool just like her’ and how he so desperately wanted to quip back how he was so much cooler. He didn’t hear anyone else while he had been asleep, but Boba’s voice had been constant.
How could he tell this teen that was so eagerly looking at him that he had been the reason Anakin was able to pull himself through unending nightmares of images played out from visions he had as he fought Pre Vizsla? The Force around this boy sang sweetly, even now outside of his dreams, not unlike how the Force had reacted to Padme whenever he was around her.
The thought of Padme brought him back to reality as both flesh and mechanical hand gripped the handle of the stroller.
“Jango has kept me up to date,” Anakin responded instead. “It’s good to finally see you, though. I know you kept a vigil by my side through my recovery. I have to thank you.”
The boy’s cheeks heat up with a blush and he stutters something about reporting back from his mission before sprinting off.
Anakin watched him scurry away with a soft smile on his face and wondered why he felt so nostalgic at the way Boba had acted. He shook the thought away as he continued his walk through the gardens. He looked forward to the party the mandalorians were sure to throw at the return of the alor’s ad.
__
Obi-Wan was never too far from Anakin and the children at any time during Anakin’s recovery. It was a nice sentiment and meant that Anakin didn’t have to worry about raising the twins alone.
But the other side of Obi-Wan’s presence took shape in Jango Fett. Wherever Obi-Wan was, Jango Fett was not far behind. The mandalorian trailed after the jedi master like a lost jawa after some shiny scraps. It put Anakin on edge any time the mandalorian found a reason to put his hand on his master.
In the case of today, the twins’ birthday, Obi-wan had been cradling Luke while Jango had pressed himself bodily to the jedi master’s side while his arms wrapped around both man and baby.
Anakin narrowed his eyes at the pair while he held Leia up to his face. “What do you think?” he asked her in a whisper. She stared back at him with the same wide eyed stare she always gave him. A part of him floundered at the idea that his daughter never smiled at him but she would also stop crying when she saw him. He had come to eventually see it as her recognition of her father.
She broke her stare to look over at where her brother was being coddled by the older men who seemed to be in a world of their own.
The grunt she gave had Anakin smiling immediately before he could stop himself.
“What are you two talking about?”
Anakin looked up at Ahsoka as she made her way over to them and sat down with her arms out in demand of the birthday girl.
Anakin passed her over and she started to wave her arms up and down. It was a sign of enjoyment, Anakin had guessed long ago. He hoped one day that Leia’s face would grow to be more expressive, like Luke’s, but he thought back to Padme and thought better to hold any expectations of either of his children.
“Don’t you think Obi and Jango are a little too close?” Anakin finally asked before he could stop himself.
“Hm, yeah, it seems like they’re on the verge of making out at any time, right?” Ahsoka agreed as she bounced the baby on her lap.
Anakin quickly turned to look at her in shock before his mouth widened into a smile to mirror Ahsoka’s own and he started laughing with her. “Yeah, that.”
After they settled down in their laughter Anakin looked at Ahsoka holding his daughter and thought back to what led her to wear the beskar’gam these days. “Once I’m back at full strength I want to start training.”
He didn’t have to elaborate for her to pick up on what he was asking.
“If I can’t help you I can find any willing vod to teach you. You just need to ask.” Her voice was strong but sincere. Anakin wondered what it meant to have the confidence she had in her armor.
He hoped to have that for himself. He had two children to raise now, both still so fragile, and fighting the mandalorian, dar’manda, had brought to reality the truth. He was nowhere near prepared to fight off the sith if he surrounded himself in Pre Vizsla’s clones.
The thought had struck fear into his chest like he had never felt before. He had lost an arm and several months of his life recovering from the original, unaltered Pre Vizsla. If what the man had said was true the ones to come after him were engineered to be stronger, faster, and much more ruthless.
Watching Pre Vizsla stagger at the sight of a mando squad landing around them gave Anakin the chance to finally strike him down by beheading him in a clean cut with his saber in his non-dominant hand.
He didn’t remember much after that but the image of Pre Vizsla staggering at the sight of the mandalorians gave him a sort of peace now as he watches over his small family of Jedi and mandalorians, Jango Fett included.
He knew the Force couldn’t always help him. Pre Vizsla had seen to that by removing the arm that had been holding him back through a Force choke.
The mandalorians could fight through being Force-choked and there was something appealing about learning how to do that. The thought of learning a new way to fight sparked something in him that he had thought he had lost when he heard of Padme’s passing.
‘If I can fight to protect myself,’ he thinks as he looks at his children being held and coddled, ‘then I can protect all of you.’
__
The feeling of the buy’ce sliding over his face and sealing his head was one that Anakin didn’t think he would ever forget. He looked up at Jango, his sponsor and buir , to see him smile.
The ceremony was short and Anakin was quick to pledge himself to Bo-Katan, Mand’alor.
The look of pride on Obi-Wan’s face was bright in a room of covered faces. He had both twins on his body, one tied to his back and the other in a sling on his chest.
What surprised Anakin more was that he wasn’t the only Jedi to have sworn the creed. Several others had stepped up to learn to protect and defend Mandalore in the wake of the Empire’s new rule.
Many knights that had run from their clone troops all stood around the room now to pledge their loyalty to the one who can help avenge the knights who had been slaughtered by their own troops.
Anakin had met the clones several times before he had fought Vizsla, but had never worked with them long enough to get to know them. They had been an amalgamation of mandalorian and core-world soldiers in a way that had Obi-Wan pulling Anakin back by the robe whenever they had to be in direct contact with the clone troops.
Anakin stood amongst other jedi and mandalorians alike and finally felt like he was on the right path. The Force that usually whirled around him was simply pleasantly humming just under his skin. It was the farthest feeling from the fear and desolation he had felt when fighting Vizsla
He thought of Padme as his eyes found his children again in Obi-Wan’s care. She had been so lovely in the last few months before Order 66. It had surely been a mix of finally having Anakin by her side mixed with pregnancy that made her so happy in her last few days.
Sometimes, after the children were down for the night, Anakin would stay awake and wonder if Padem knew she wouldn’t make it. She had lived her life to the fullest in those last months and he analyzed every interaction he had with her since leaving the Jedi Order before she had gotten pregnant.
He knew had to move forward from her death but everything in him screamed for her in outrage and pain.
It was the twins, Luke and Leia, that had kept him from tipping. Her death had been an accident and he couldn’t be there for in her last moments. It was what killed him every night as he wondered if he could have done anything differently. But every time he looked into the eyes of his children he knew what Padme would want him to do. She would want him to protect them and love them at all costs.
He couldn’t do that as a Jedi. They always had a taboo on family and love that Anakin resented, but the mandalorians had something better. It was the one striking difference between the two creeds that drew Anakin in first. Family was important but the children were the future. The mandalorians knew how to raise their children with love and affection, all while still teaching them to wield a sword and blaster in defense.
The buy’ce was getting more comfortable the longer he wore it. His fingers were twitching in anticipation of taking apart the entirety of his armor and customizing it for himself. Ahsoka had shown him what she had done to make it more comfortable for her, including the magnetic latch she had installed on her belt to hold her sabers.
“I’m proud of you, ad, ” came a voice to his side. Jango Fett stood in full armor but removed his buy’ce when Anakin turned to him. Anakin was loath to take off even a part of the armor but knew that when the alor removed his buy’ce everyone was to follow suit.
All those around them moved to do the same as Anakin when he placed his buy’ce under his arm.
“ Alor, ” Anakin started but was immediately stopped when Jango Fett, Mand’alor of past, wrapped his arms around him.
“I’m proud of you for coming this far,” Jango said as he hugged him. Jango stepped back with his arms still on Anakin’s shoulders. They shared a moment before Jango’s eyes swept behind him to the rest of the newly minted mandalorians. “I am proud of all of you for making it here in the wake of the Republic’s destruction. I hope that we can protect ourselves from those who oppose us. This is the way. ”
“ This is the way ,” the rest of the room repeated in mando’a.
Jango’s eyes turned back to look at Anakin with glee. “Your training is far from over but I think today is a good day to rest and relax, maybe celebrate?”
Anakin nodded as his eyes went back to his children. Jango’s eyes followed his but he seemed to only see the Jedi who held the children. “Yes,” Jango muttered to himself as he dropped his hands from where they had been gripping Anakin’s bes’marbur on his shoulders and started walking to Obi-Wan.
Anakin felt the hair on the back of his neck stick up but shoved it aside when another newly minted mandalorian shoved his arm with their own. They began joking as they traded quips, familiar from their time in the temple and here training to uphold the resol’nare. A side glance showed Jango holding the child that had been on Obi-Wan’s back as they smiled at each other and laughed over something Obi-Wan said.
It was weird to see his previous master so relaxed while holding children but it was a comforting scene nonetheless. Even if the sight of Jango Fett looming over the other man seemed suspicious.
__
Luke had taken his first steps just moments before Leia. Anakin had let go of Luke's hands just before he started toddling towards Jango. It was with a squeal he made it to the alor’s waiting hands. But the squeal had set into motion Leia from where Obi-Wan had been helping her balance. She turned sharply and simply marched to where Jango was now holding Luke.
Obi-Wan stared at his empty hands in awe before locking his eyes with Anakin.
“Could she do that the whole time?” Obi-wan asked.
“I don’t think so.”
Leia clapped and giggled as Jango lifted her up with his unoccupied arm.
“She’ll grow up to be a strong warrior,” Jango said with pride. “Won’t you, verd’ika ?”
She giggled at the name and clapped her hands.
“Well, at least she’ll be able to protect her brother,” Anakin mused.
“You don’t think Luke will grow up to be a strong warrior?” Boba asked from where he had been silently recording the moment from under his buy’ce .
The three adults looked to where the children were in Jango’s arms and collectively sighed. Luke had been the sweetest of the twins when it came to meeting strangers and family alike. He never seemed to stop smiling and, above all else, he was so Force sensitive it was almost difficult to comprehend.
People were drawn to his smile and ‘grabby-hands’ as he tried to greet everyone as many times as possible. He passed between multiple arms during several clan-head meetings while Leia had stayed stoic in Bo-Katan’s arms like a vigil.
“I think Luke might be a Jedi, Bob’ika. And that’s okay too.”
“We’ll give them both the opportunity to try both lifestyles, but Luke is so sensitive in the Force that I don’t think he’ll be anything but a Jedi.” Anakin paused to switch his eyes to his normally stoic daughter. “But Leia is a strong warrior, just like her mother.”
__
Luke’s first word had been “ba” according to Jango.
“He’s trying to say ba’buir ,” he insisted to anyone who would listen.
Anakin insisted that Luke was trying to say more than that and that they had to wait for Luke to say the rest.
Jango was disappointed to learn the “ba” had been short for “Boba.”
It wasn’t often that Boba could visit between missions for the Mand’alor and bounties he had a gut need to chase down. But he insisted on visiting the twins, and subsequently Anakin, first thing when docked.
It was with the way Luke would light up and stare at the sky for a long moment before clapping his hands excitedly while screaming “boba” that informed his caretakers that Boba Fett had just hit the atmosphere. Anakin had noted it after the second time it happened and wondered how Luke was so sensitive to feel Boba enter Concordia’s air-space.
Anakin himself had come to treasure Boba’s visit so much that he had insisted that the caretakers knew to contact him when Luke got excited over Boba’s return.
Word spread from mandalorian to jedi about Anakin’s excitement on greeting the bero’ya on his return.
“This should be a simple mission,” Bo-Katan warned both Anakin and Boba. “Simple” in her standards was blowing up a droid facility that had clones protecting it. “In and out. In to lay the bombs, out before they blow up. Is that clear?”
“In” turned out to be a lot easier than “out” after Anakin felt the calling of the Force drag him deeper into the production facility with Boba hopelessly following him.
“What are you talking about? That sounds made up!”
“I can just… Feel it. I can’t describe it.” Anakin didn’t bother to explain the feeling he felt in the Force that pushed him through winding tunnels before he ended up in front of a well guarded door.
Boba took out two of the clones with his blaster while Anakin rushed forward with his saber and cut down the last two. A blaster shot to where Anakin expected a camera and sensor to be completed the short firefight.
Anakin was already hunched over the keypad that locked the door with his bare fingers against it. A short click later the doors slid open and Anakin finally knew why he needed to be here.
There were a couple of children, Force sensitive, that were huddled in the corner while dead and burnt bodies were littered everywhere else.
“These were Jedi,” Anakin whispered as he quickly whipped off his buy’ce to attach at his belt. His eyes found the children and he slowly spread his arms. “We’re here to get you out,” he said loudly enough for them to hear. “We can take you to the Jedi Temple on Breshig.”
They were hesitant to move but soon flooded to him with cries asking for their masters.
They were just barely old enough to understand where they were or what they had seen, but not old enough to have been trained yet with other younglings. These were Force-sensitive children that had escaped Order 66 for the sheer fact that they weren’t Jedi.
Anakin tasted bile rise to the back of his throat as he wondered how many other children there were that didn’t make it and thought back to his children at home.
Boba, who had removed his buy’ce in the face of children, started herding them out of the room as Anakin continued to survey the bodies that were left.
He thought back to Palpatine, a man he had once trusted, and tried to imagine him as the man who had ordered this to happen. It was difficult to do but in the face of this travesty he couldn’t help but to wonder what Palpatine had wanted him for.
Would he have fallen so low as to kill children while knowing he has his own?
“Ani,” came Boba’s voice, still rough from his recent bout with puberty, but full of concern and worry.
“Yeah, sorry, we need to go.”
With a final look to the bodies Anikan turned away and whispered a silent prayer to the Force in his mind that he would be strong enough to protect these children on their way out.
Silent alarms must have tripped while they were seeing to the children because soon Anakin was using his lightsaber to counter blasts that were aimed towards them.
“We’ll have to get out a different way. Anything over there?” Anakin asked as he finally slipped his buy’ce over his head. Boba, already armored, stayed silent while he moved forward to the hall that Anakin had pointed to while herding the children behind him.
“There’s an exit at the end of this hall two floors below us. We can blast the wall and jump out but I don’t think the kids can jump that far, so we need to find the way down first.
“Or,” Anakin began but trailed off as he split his attention from blocking blasts and tapping onto his vambrace as quickly as he could. Finally his blocked shot hit the remaining clone and he was able to focus completely on his arm.
“Or what?” Boba asked from farther away. Luke looked up long enough to note that Boba was moving the kids to the end of the long hall without hesitation.
Luke began jogging behind as he watched something on his HUD. “Or we can blast the wall and have R2D2 pick us up.”
“Is he flying my ship right now?” Boba asked in outrage.
Anakin didn’t answer as slowed to a stop with the children and Boba meters from the wall. A quick tap of his vambrace and he leaned forward to allow the missile on his back to get a straight trajectory. It shot off and hit the wall with an explosion of rocks that Anakin had to throw his hand out to stop in the Force.
“I forgot about that,” he muttered.
“What, the explosion part of the explosion?” Boba asked haughtily.
Anakin was saved from a response as Boba’s familiar ship pulled up just beyond the hole he had blown into the wall. It was Boba’s turn to press buttons on his vambrace and the door of the ship peeked open and a ramp rolled out land in front of them.
“Alright, everyone, onto the ship. We need to get out of here.”
Anakin and Boba herded the children onto the ship before closing it behind them before they slipped through the sky.
Boba had returned to the cockpit to relieve the astromech from flying the ship while Anakin brought all the children in the bay that normally held carbonite-encased bounties and strapped them into the available seats that pulled out from the wall.
It was over an hour into hyperspace when Boba pinged Anakin with a text on his comm asking him if they were fine in the bay. Anakin pulled up the voice function and gave Boba a rang on his comm.
“All good?” Boba asked.
“All good. Some of them are sleeping while the others just whisper comfort to each other.” Anakin kept his voice low despite knowing that his buy’ce wouldn’t allow his voice to slip out. “Do you think the Mand’alor knew?”
“No, she would have sent a bigger squad if she had known of the ad. I think the empire has just gotten better at hiding what they’re doing from us.”
Anakin wondered if Boba, who was all of sixteen now, would have been doing this if not for the Empire’s war and greed. He pushed away the thought when he remembered mandalorians as a whole and was absolutely sure Boba would still have been wrapped up in whatever he could be despite his age.
They kept the comm-line open for the rest of the trip to Breshig, only cutting contact when Boba had to report to the guard-line awaiting their arrival.
Satine was there to meet them on the receiving pad they landed on, along with two Jedi masters Anakin recognized, when they brought out the children.
“This is a surprise but a pleasant one nonetheless. Come, younglings,” one of the jedi masters, Master Cordova, said as he ushered the children away. Anakin was left with Boba to his side and Satine and the other Jedi master, Master Uvell, standing across from them.
“And you destroyed their production facility?” Satine wondered. When Boba and Anakin nodded she sighed. “My sister will be happy. But the loss of droids and the dar’manda clones is not one we sympathize with, so I guess it’s a win for us all.
Anakin could feel the way Boba straightened at her use of the word dar’manda while clearly being dar’manda herself. Anakin, who had removed his buy’ce to see the children off, stepped forward and bowed to both Satine and Master Uvell.
“I think it is time we leave. Home is not far so we will not be needing any provisions for our journey back.”
He didn’t wait for a response as he turned and began pushing Boba back onto the ship. Once the ramp had shut Anakin finally sighed. “Come on, get us home. Or do you want me to fly?”
Boba got them back to Concordia airspace with relative ease within a couple of hours from leaving Breshig.
Through the Force Anakin could feel the tendrils of anger slipping from underneath the beskar’gam Boba tried to hide under.
“She seems to have gotten comfortable with the Jedi on Breshig,” Anakin notes off-handedly from the copilot’s seat.
“With no protection of her own she had to adapt,” Boba mutters darly. “I just don’t understand why she continues to see herself as a mandalorian. She has no right to call anyone dar’manda while she rejects the resol’nare . I’m pretty sure that if the clones had grown up as mandalorians they would carry more manda than she ever could.”
“If not mandalorian what else should she call herself?”
“She could choose anything!” Boba’s original grumbling became a frustrated growl that still broke with his age. “She’s human, but that’s a non-issue because that’s a species, not a people. Breshig didn’t have any original people, so they could be Breshigs. Breshigans. Bresh. She could even come with something new to call herself and create a group for people just like her! But instead she besmirches the mandalorian name. She is more than dar’manda , she’s an imposter who refuses to see the hurt she and her group has pushed onto an entire sector of planets all because she and a small number of people who followed her parents didn’t want to fight.”
It was something Anakin had learned through context during his stay with Jango and Obi-Wan on Concordia. It was a relief to know that Satine’s group of ‘New Mandalorians,’ as they had called themselves, had been unable to upseat the resol’nare, the mandalorian way. He tried to imagine a peace-keeping lifestyle with the mandalorians he had seen and couldn’t think of something more uninteresting. The fighting amongst clans kept their bonds strong and showed off their power to each other. They seemed to always fight with each other but rallied against a common enemy, like the sith who had claimed the new age of the Empire, as the most powerful and frightening army.
Satine’s group had been referenced as “the ones on Breshig” by all the mandalorians he had come to speak with. Not mandalorians or even ‘new mandalorians.’
A steady rotation of mandalorians had been stationed on or around Breshig to protect the planet and the children it held. It was two months of work, one month on the planet and one month in orbit. While it might have seemed like an overprecatution, the attempted attacks and stow-away assassins that were found spoke to the mandalorians need to fight and protect.
Anakin wondered, not for the first time, if Mandalore would have given Breshig the help had there not been children at stake.
Later that night, after they had returned and Anakin had set his two children down to sleep, Anakin reached out through the Force to reach for his bond with his old master.
Obi-Wan arrived at his door shortly after holding a bottle of tihaar .
Anakin was silent as he led Obi-Wan inside and closed the door behind him with a soft click. His master was already floating two cups from the shelf to where he moved to sit at the table in between the kitchen and the lounge.
It was only after they both had a shot each and Obi-Wan began pouring their next round when Anakin started speaking.
“There were children at that base.”
Obi-Wan passed him another full cup and locked eyes with Anakin while pushing reassurance through their once dormant bond.
“I don’t know if you saw the transmission.” Obi-Wan nodded his head sharply and Anakin continued. “I don’t know how long they had been there surviving amongst the dead bodies of the jedi that died to protect them.”
Anakin had thrown up after arriving back to his room. With the comfort of having seen his children with his own eyes he had allowed himself to process what he had seen that day. He knew they didn’t walk out with every child that had been there. Only the younger children had been in the group he had found but the bodies around the room weren’t all adults.
“How do people–How?”
A dark part of him, something he had pushed down many times in his years as a jedi, reared up and asked a question he was sure he didn’t want to know the answer to.
“Would they have been safer if they had grown up with their families?”
There was a breath of silence before Obi-Wan lifted his cup to quickly finish the alcohol he held before moving to drink from the bottle directly.
Anakin took the bottle from his master to take his own swig before setting it back on the table. It was only a moment of more silence before Obi-Wan began to speak.
“I know that this might not be the right time to say anything, but I can’t keep hiding it.”
Anakin looked up at his master in surprise and tilted his head to show he was listening.
“I think Jango Fett is trying to court me.”
Anakin snorted as he tried to keep himself as stoic as his daughter. “You have my condolences.”
He was met with a slap in the arm from a holopad that had been on the table next to the tihaar .
“I don’t think you’re supposed to use the Force that way, master,” Anakin responded with a sly grin. “What would your riduur think if he saw you abusing your powers like this? To hurt his own ad .”
Anakin realized what he had said and his eyes widened. If Jango courted and married Obi-Wan, then Obi-Wan would actually be his parent.
Obi-Wan, though, seemed stuck on staring at Anakin with a surprised look. Anakin reached back through the bond to try and understand what Obi-Wan was feeling now and was met with an abundance of affection and happiness.
“Are you okay, master?”
It took a moment for Obi-Wan to nod before a large smile broke out onto his face. With a sigh he nodded and took another swig of the tihaar . “I don’t think I’ve ever been better,” Obi-Wan responded honestly.
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