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Chapter Text

Jaster had been reluctant to leave Jango alone in little Keldabe. 

Jango had been off the past few months since Korda Six, probably a result of the assassination attempt on them and learning Tor Vizsla was still alive and vying for their places. Jango always got a little melancholy when something reminded him of Death Watch, but they had assumed Death Watch was all but a non-issue for years. 

But Jango has been quiet for the past three months, a little longer, actually. Jaster didn’t know what to do to break him out of it. The way his ad’ike would turn and curl into Jaster like he was all Jango ever wanted in the galaxy… Mij had called it a mental regression. That things were reminding him of the loss of buir’e, and Jango was just too attached to Jaster to safely lose him, and his loss would be just as painful as that eight year old farmboy losing his aliit. So Jango was soft and loving and sad and breaking Jaster’s heart in a million pieces. 

Jaster was going to take Tor down with his bare hands if he had to, for hurting his ad again, and again. 

So when Jango had waved him off to go to a meeting with Silas and a group of verde from Little Keldabe, Jaster had paused, unsure what the correct response was, till Jango had given Silas a firm look and said he trusted Silas with Jaster’s life. Jaster couldn’t help the little snort he let out, leaning in so he could bump his forehead to Jango’s, and left his ad to wander the markets. 

He had the oddest feeling about it, but he was sure he was going to miss something hilarious. 

***

Jango still wasn’t sure what his next move should be. Clearly he needed to get rid of that kriffing Sith, but that was easier said than done, considering Jango knew very few solid facts about the prune. Still it was clearly the… best place to start from, if nothing else. 

He hated to say it, but death had softened the edges of his hatred, and seeing Jas’Buir alive and well, had all but erased any hurt he’d received from the Jedi. Galidraan should have happened over a month ago, and they had never even gotten the contract. Odd. 

Jango hated it even more, but realizing that the Jetii had just been attack strill, mistreated and abused worse than anyone else by the Sith… it had annoyed him, but also opened up the possibilities of maybe just revealing whatever he knew to the Jedi and seeing if they actually did something about it. Maybe he could wash his hands of all this and just go back to hiding under Jas’Buir’s cape again. 

He’d told Jaster he needed to do something in Little Keldabe, and Jaster had taken the chance to set up some meetings so he could talk to their Coruscanta verde, which is something it’s only polite to do when Jaster was here to help. It’s why he was Mand’alor, because he wanted to help. 

And now Jango got to clear his mind and figure out who the kark to talk to in that doomed temple. Maybe he should just walk up to a temple guard and hand him his data pads with all he’d put together. Maybe he should find that moldy old troll. He’d been sort of funny, for the most part. 

He wouldn’t go to Dooku. He understands now where the man was coming from, and knew the guilt had driven him to protest what happened at Galidraan in front of a live senate, but he wasn’t looking to shove the man over the deep end again. That would just be a shame, and a dangerous one, at that. It would be like sending himself over that edge again; they could do too much damage if pushed. 

He paused, feeling an odd flit in the air. It was one of those flits that he’d tried to avoid his whole life, if it wasn’t telling him of danger to come. He sighed, unfortunately understanding now, that the force truly is in all things, and even when he dies he won’t be rid of it. So if it’s telling you something, listen. And otherwise just ignore its existence because that’s easier. Till you die and become a part of it again, anyways. 

He unclenched his jaw and turned, moving softly down one street and away from the bulk of the crowds. Maybe this time it would lead him to a Jetii that could take his info, and leave the whole thing up to them. 

He had his Buir, so anything else that happened wasn’t up to him, right?

Well… maybe. 

The little one was sitting on the ground, tucked away in a little alcove. Not homeless, by the state of their well kept tunics and generally being clean, but rather subdued, legs up to their chest and playing some little handheld gaming device. 

The ad coughed, and Jango winced. That sounded rough, maybe he needed to convince the little one to come see a baar’ur with him. He wasn’t sure how long that cough had been there, but their little voice sounded broken from that one noise. Poor thing. 

He moved to take a knee in front of them, keeping his hands to himself but in view so they knew he wasn’t holding anything, and pulled off his bucket. “Hey, ad’ika-“

The sound of his voice had snapped the ad to attention, though Jango had been sure they had known he was there, and in a second, it started to click. 

The tension was thick between them, and Jango suddenly breathed out shakily, seeing a second pair of eyes peeking out from behind the ad. His voice went tight and worried, choking out the only thing he could. “Boba?”

The little one behind the ad Jango had previously been focused on, scrambled out from behind their body, and- oh god he was little and too young and just a boy again, lifting his arms up to Jango with a serious demand. “Buir, up.” 

Jango’s voice caught in his throat and it was all he could do to just pull the little boy into his arms, burying his face in that soft head of curls. “Oh, Boba, cyar’ika, Bob’ika, Buir missed you so much.”

When he finally looked up from the curls, remembering the other ad was there, he was met with another familiar face, though no one could be as familiar as his ad in his arms- just an ik’aad again, little Boba. 

The older ad, maybe a preteen, gave him a long look, and that voice was just as broken as before as he asked, “you remember too?”

Jango flinched at the sound of it, but gave a little nod, clearing his throat so he could talk past the lump in it. “And you, Kenobi?”

Obi-Wan nodded. “Almost four months ago. Left when Boba came.”

Jango was suddenly grimacing. “Where was Boba? Was he with you this whole time?”

Obi-Wan shrugged. “Got him a week ago. Took a bit to get out of temple.”

Jango just bit his lip in thought. “What’s wrong with your voice? Are you sick?”

Obi-Wan frowned, reaching a hand up to touch lightly along the skin at his throat. Boba pulled his head back from Jango’s neck. “Bad hutt put his hands on ori’vod’s throat.”

Jango frowned. “Did… how did that happen?”

Obi-Wan gave a shifty little movement, not meeting his eyes. “Happened first time, too. Jumba.”

Jango didn’t like the sound of that, not a bit, but he nodded. “What are you doing in an alleyway? Do you have anywhere to go while you figure things out?”

Obi-Wan shook his head a little. “Privacy. We’d look weird in the market.”

“You were waiting for me?”

Obi-Wan gave a little shrug, looking just as annoyed with the force as Jango typically did. “Someone. Here now. Oh.”

Jango followed Obi-Wan’s big eyes just in time to hear a small click behind him, and turn face to barrel with a blaster. Today is turning out really weirdly. And considering he just went back in time around twenty-five years, that’s saying something.

He followed the barrel up, and let out a little sigh. He could recognize them as well, but it wasn’t the same as the ad’s face, he felt them in that ether-place, the one he tried to ignore his whole life. “Alpha-17?”

The alpha clone snorted, looking annoyed. “Don’t think I won’t, Prime.”

Jango just looked down, avoiding the man’s eyes. “I know you would.”

The man was wearing a half armor set, a helmet and upper armor that looked somewhat new, but well used and kept. Maybe that’s what he’s been doing the past three months, earning enough for armor. It doesn’t shock Jango that a clone would want to stick around near the temple. 

There was a little noise from Obi-Wan, and that sad broken little voice croaked out, “Al’Buir?”

That was preciously heartbreaking. And didn’t shock Jango at all. He didn’t remember much from the war he’d caught glimpses of, in that endless void of the Manda, but Alpha and Kote had been protective of the redheaded Stewjoni general. If they saw a little version of him, of course they’d say the Gai Bal Manda. 

The blaster was shoved into a holster, and Jango looked over to see Kote behind Alpha’s shoulder, looking bored with it all. “What are you doing down here, cadet? Kote and I said to wait in the market.”

Obi-Wan glanced over at Jango. “Privacy. Funny looks in the market. He’s their prince now.”

Kote sighed, moving around Jango and Alpha with something in his hands, plastic tubing around a purple stick of jelly. “Yeah, well it’s also a good way to get mugged, I think you’ve seen.”

Obi-Wan shrugged, taking the jelly tube from Kote without much care for the situation. “Baby distraction.”

Boba gave a sleepy little giggle from Jango’s neck, sounding like he was past naptime. Jango pulled his cape off one shoulder, pulling it around so he could start to wrap it around his waist, the same way he would when he needed hands free when Boba was little. It was armorweave, at least, and after a minute of situating it around the back and into the front again, make a perfect little nook for Boba to relax in, eyes already droopy and soft. “He does make a good distraction.”

Obi-Wan grinned a little, before opening what was apparently, and by the scent, immediately obvious to Jango, a bacta pop. He gave it a funny look, but the kid was already sucking on it without bother. It probably felt nice on his injuries.

Alpha was giving Jango a hard look, arms crossed as Jango swayed with the ik’aad, soothing him down for a nap. “So, what’s your move, Prime?”

Jango considered that for a moment, suddenly realizing that his sins were still following him, and looked away, tears stinging. “My Buir is still alive. My people are alive. Mandalore thrived under my Buir’s leadership, Death Watch was at a low when he was around. That’s my plan. Keep my Buir and people.”

Alpha raised an eyebrow. “Any plans for the Jedi?”

Jango’s swaying slowed to a stop, and he looked down, seeing little Obi-Wan blinking up at him with big eyes. “I… I was going to see who I could talk to. Give them everything I know about the Sith, their plans and what I know about them personally. I… don’t think the Jetii are safe under republic law, but that’s not my choice, just my opinions. Maybe I could convince Buir to reopen one of the old temples in Mandalorian space. We have enough of them, and Buir is a massive nerd and kind of obsessed with Jetii history. He’d want to talk to their archivists.”

Obi-Wan was pulled off the ground with a hand in Kote’s, looking interested. “Generous.”

Jango shrugged. “You know the senate uses you all as attack strill. You had as little choice in the war’s draft as the vod’e did. Remove you and the senate would have to think out war decisions and it wouldn’t go anywhere. Stay, and watch your people be used again. It was why Mandalorians left to begin with.”

Obi-Wan was still sucking on that damn bacta stick, and Jango couldn’t help a little huff of amusement when he realized it was dying Obi-Wan’s mouth purple. “Can I meet your Buir?”

Right. The feral little Jetii was a nerd himself. He had done his research on Kenobi. He gave a long sigh. “If I let you meet him you’ll bore everyone else to death about Mandalorian-Jetii relations. Let me talk to him first. I’ve not told him, but I don’t think I can not tell him and our advisors now.”

Alpha’s lips gave the smallest twitch at the corner of the right side, putting Jango on edge. The man didn’t have a sense of humor in a traditional sense, but he was a bit of a sadist, enjoying anything that annoyed Jango. “Medic Mij?”

Jango openly cringed. Mij would be the first to twist his ear when he learned about what all went down. He gave a slow nod. “Alright.”

Kote gave him a long look, and Jango started getting twitchy. “Comm him.”

Jango couldn’t meet his eyes. “He’s in a meeting right now.”

“This is somewhat more important.”

Jango sighed, pulling up the comm on his vambrace, and made sure it was set to voice only. It only rang once before Jaster picked up, sounding worried. 

“Jan’ika?” Oh yeah, that’s some deep Buir worry right there. Jango only really called Silas or Myles if he knew Jaster was in a meeting, so they could pass on messages if needed. 

“I…” Jango looked upwards, trying to remember the code word that he’d only ever used twice as a kid. “Solas.”

There was a beat long pause, and then the sound of Jaster excusing himself from the room, probably into a quiet room. “What’s wrong, Jango?”

Jango mentally flailed, eyes stinging as he wanted to throw his hands up and demand Jaster fix this whole thing for him. He’d been sad and regressive since waking up nearly four months ago, and it’s getting annoying, but he just wanted to hide in Buir’s side like when he was little and didn’t want to talk to Montross. 

Montross had been hard to oust, and Jango was starting to think Jaster thought he was being regressive because Montross hurt him. Which is embarrassing, but unfortunately not far from the truth. 

“Jan’ika, where are you? Do you need me to come get you? I can, I just need to know where you are, ad’ika. Talk to Buir, please?”

Jango was embarrassed to realize even the Jet’ika seemed to understand the soft Mando’a, and felt his cheeks heating up. “Um, no, I’ll come to you, Buir. I just… go back to the apartment? I don’t want to see anyone else, right now. It’s… an odd situation.”

Jango looked away from Alpha, who was enjoying his flailing, and noted the way Kenobi seemed rather bored, back against Kote’s chest and looking exhausted. Okay, both the ade needed a nap. Good enough, they had sleeping mats in the karyai they could put the little ones down to rest on. Kote was gently nuzzling the back of Kenobi’s ear while they waited, an arm around his skinny waist to keep him steady.

“…alright. Are you alone?”

“No. I have a small Jetii here who wants to talk to you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah. They’re like, twelve?” Obi-Wan nodded. “Yeah, they’re twelve. They got adopted by some verd’e.”

“…that is… an interesting situation. I’ll meet you there.”

“With baar’ur Mij.”

“…are they hurt?”

Jango eyed up the discoloration he could see in the ad’s throat now that they stood in better lighting. “A bit bruised, they have a bacta-pop.”

Obi-Wan glared at him, but Jango just felt the urge to stick his tongue out at the ad. He didn’t, but he wanted to. There was a soft tsking from the comm, and Jango decided that was good enough for now.

Time to get going.

***

Kote and Alpha kept their helmets on in any public places, which made sense considering they had the face of a much older Mandalorian prince, but Obi-Wan didn’t seem to care who saw him, holding onto Kote’s hand and bouncing along beside him, all ad’ika energy and nerves. 

Maybe Jango wasn’t the only one regressing in odd ways right now. Kote was soft with him, the same way Alpha was protective over them both. 

Neither of them had tried to take Boba from him, and Jango was thankful, because that might have hurt both of them right now. 

The apartment he and Buir stayed in in Little Keldabe was close, but Jaster was likely going to get back fast, so Jango moved them along quickly. 

They had been by just that morning to drop off bags and clear out any dust, so Jango simply accepted the diaper bag from Kote and gave him a significant look towards the sleeping mats in front of the hearth, noting that Kote looked thoughtfully at Obi-Wan as he left. 

Thankfully, Jango wouldn’t be in charge of wrestling that one down to sleep. That was something. 

Boba fought him a little as he was set on Jango’s rarely used bed, but Jango didn’t let him wander off, quickly stripping his own chest plate off and setting it aside so he could wrestle the ik’aad down again, feeling that his now non-potty trained little one needed a change. “I know I know, Buir is so mean for changing you, what a jerk. Unfortunately, he wants to keep you from rashes. I know those are so fun to fuss about.”

Jango paused, hearing the front door open behind him in the main room, and a long pause before quiet talking. He couldn’t hear what was said, but that was Jas’Buir’s voice, and possibly Mij. They didn’t sound distressed, though, so Alpha was likely being polite for once. Small mercies. “Okay okay, just let me get you back in your pants and we can go meet Ba’Buir. Won’t that be fun! I hope…”

“Jango?” There was a knock at his door. 

“One moment Buir, just a moment.”

Jango tried to take a calming breath since he was vibrating inside. It didn’t work that well. But after a beat, he opened up the bedroom door, noting that Jaster was standing to the side of the opening, looking into the karyai, a vaguely amused look on his face. 

Alpha was standing at parade rest on the opposite wall where he could watch over Kote and Obi-Wan, who was sitting on a sleeping mat while Mij tried to coax him into letting him look at his neck. 

Apparently, the words ‘bacta shot’ had come out, and Obi-Wan was trying to burrow into Kote’s chest to get away from the evil needle holder. 

That was something Jango didn’t know about Kenobi. Fear of needles hadn’t been in his files. 

Jaster let out a little snort as the clone, thankfully still wearing his helmet, finally got the little one to calm down enough to sit still, giving him soft pets through his hair as he coaxed him into being good. “Interesting ad you got-“

Jaster stopped fully as he turned, looking at Boba attached to Jango’s chest, and just stood there for a long moment. “It’s… who’s this?”

Jango looked down with a little smile, leaning in to kiss Boba’s head. “This is Boba. He’s mine.”

Jaster stared for another moment, long enough that Mij actually looked up in that time, eyebrows raised at the sight of Jango with a clinging ik’aad, before going back to giving the older boy more bacta over his neck. 

“I… where did you find him?”

Jango shrugged, deciding to be truthful. “He’s mine.”

Jaster frowned in reproach. “Jango-”

Jango shook his head. “No, he’s mine. Do a DNA test.”

Mij stood up from the now hissing Stewjoni ad, pulling off his gloves to toss. “If he’s hissing now, the damage should be nothing in an hour or two.”

Obi-Wan seemed to rebound off the clone, making the man grunt as a sharp little knee got very close to a sensitive part, and promptly face plant on the sleeping mat. Kote grunted. “Don’t break your nose, my god, O’Ben.” 

Mij stared at the ad for an extended moment, looking like he wanted to tell the ad to stop being stupid. He held back better than he did with the cadets that came in one too many times for jumping off their bunks.

Feral little brat. He was endearing. Jango wanted to put him in a straight jacket and rock him to sleep. 

Mij and Jaster were having a whispered argument, and Jaster kept giving Jango worried looks, which meant Jango probably looked like he was spacing out again. Or maybe he was, because that happened from time to time. 

Jango nuzzled down into Boba’s curls, and moved into the room, taking an exhausted seat on the couch, coincidentally putting his back to Alpha, but for some reason that make Jango’s shoulders relax. It obviously couldn’t be for him, but the protective feelings Alpha was radiating seemed to settle over him and Boba, calming them both. 

Mij knelt down in front of them, face neutral, before smiling at the big eyes Boba was sending him, obviously recognizing his favorite medic from Kamino. Mij had truly loved every clone he met, and that always made Jango feel that much worse. 

“Hi there, ik’aad, can I do a test on you? It’s just a little pinch and it’ll tell us so much about you.”

Boba, who’s had more tests run over him than most, just rolled his eyes, shoving his hand towards Mij. Mij’s eyebrows went up, but he carefully took that little hand, giving him a finger prick and collecting the blood, and then a separate tester for Jango’s.

Boba took his finger back with a little frown, gently sucking on the finger, making Jango start looking through the diaper bag for a pacifier. Boba took the item with a heavy sigh, melting against Jango’s chest like he always did for naptime. Naps were supposed to be in Buir’s arms. Jango let his head rest against the ik’aad’s, smelling the changing powder and ik’aad scent. It was soothing. 

Mij was scowling at the test results when Alpha finally came up to lean over the couch, visor tilted towards the medic, and Jaster stopped talking to Kote, coming over to look at the results. 

“Jango, where did you find this child?”

Jango bristled just a little before one of Alpha’s hands on his shoulder calmed him again. “He’s mine.”

Mij looked so concerned, and Jango flustered, because he just didn’t know how to explain this all. “The DNA is almost a perfect match for yours, Jango. This is a clone of you.”

Jango shrugged. “He’s my son. His name is Boba. The cloners put him in my arms, one year and two months after the cloning process started… fifteen years from now. He was mine from the very day he first breathed air, and he’s mine again. And I don’t know how it happened either.”

Jaster sat back on his haunches, looking thoughtful. “The future?”

Jango nodded. “Yeah. It was sort of a terrible one. Don’t want to do that again.”

Mij looked at Alpha carefully, noting the protective hand over Jango’s shoulder. “And where do your new friends come into this?”

Jango snorted. “I don’t know, maybe you should test the big ones DNA too.”

Alpha shook his head, reaching up to take off his helmet, and Kote did the same in the back, still gently rubbing Obi-Wan’s back for him while he coaxed the ad to sleep. Jaster stood up with a deep sigh, looking twitchy. “So. Boba was given to Jango as his ad, what were you two made for?”

“Pain.”

Jaster looked over at Kote, who was running his hand through red hair, giving Obi-Wan his attention where he couldn’t look anyone else in the eye. “We were raised to love the Jedi, to want to protect them, and taught we’d be needed for a war one day. And when that war had served it’s purpose, a chip in our brains activated, and we killed every Jedi we saw on sight. Even though the chips didn’t make us love them any less.”

Obi-Wan pushed up from the mat sluggishly, less than half asleep, and didn’t even speak, just crawling into Kote’s lap like Boba was with Jango, and started purring so hard Jango could hear it across the room. “Love the vod’e. Always did, always will.”

Jaster looked shattered, face towards the ceiling and biting his lip. “Who orchestrated this all?”

Alpha had a hand back on Jango’s shoulder, and Jango just knew that’s when all his buir’s love would disappear, when he realized what Jango had done- “The Sith. They did everything. They didn’t just do it to us, and the Jedi, they killed almost every True Mandalorian. You all should have died last month. They’ve been playing a galactic game with everyone for centuries.”

Jaster’s hand was starting to twitch a little, like he wanted to reach for a blaster. “Where are you three going now?”

Alpha rolled his shoulders, looking at the ad passed out on Kote’s shoulder, little fingers tangled in Kote’s kute and already starting to drool. “We’re going with our little general. He got out of the temple less than a week after Boba showed up, and Cody and I have reason to believe other vod’e have been popping up in places over the galaxy. We’ll find what vod’e we can, and see what plans are in place. Maybe what other civilians ended up like Prime and Obes.”

Jango shook his head. “No, I think… I think Obi-Wan caused this. The Manda loves him, and it gave him a second chance, the rest of us are just happenstance.”

Kote snorted, swaying a little with a sleeping ad on his shoulder. “No, the vod’e aren’t happenstance. I felt it when he started pulling us back with you two.”

Jango blinked. “Us? Why me?”

Kote gave him a little glare, as if offended he even had to ask. “You two were twined together, in the force. Too much connection not to bring you with him. I’m just starting to panic because Skywalker was the other strand in that one, and I know he must have come back too, and I damn well don’t know where that little shit is now.”

Jango’s skin was crawling. “Are you telling me that dinii is running around the galaxy unsupervised somewhere?”

Alpha rounded the couch, sitting next to Jango. Mij was going between writing furious notes on a flimsy pad, and listening to their answers. “I don’t think he’s alone. Ob’ika thinks he’s getting closer to us. So, either he’s an adult and making his way, or more likely, he’s a little guy and he’s got someone taking care of him. My bet is Rex. He’s as protective over Skywalker as me and Cody are with the general.”

Jango gave a little huff, turning look at Kote softly. “He’s calling you Buir. Did you say the Gai Bal Manda?”

Kote started to turn pink, looking away. But Jango had helped raise these two personally, and just smirked. “You said it first, didn’t you?”

Kote frowned. “Seventeen was busy killing Jumba the Hutt for touching him. Obi-Wan was crying and needed something to calm him down.”

Jaster’s eyes lasered on Alpha. “You were the one who dropped Jumba?”

Alpha glared off at a time piece on the wall. “He put his hands on my kid.”

Mij looked over at Obi-Wan, eyes big. “Is that what those marks are? He got strangled by a kriffing hutt?”

Kote kept swaying the ad to keep him asleep. “Force sensitive Stewjoni alone on a ship full of dinii, he didn’t like that Obi-Wan kept trying to get out of his clutches.”

Jaster’s lips thinned. “Why was he alone on a ship? With Boba, yeah?”

Alpha frowned. “He was just trying to take the same route off world he did in his last life. They sent him off world with a master they wanted to take him as Padawan, and it worked. Obi-Wan just didn’t realize that that route was a death trap to a lone kid protecting a tot this time. By the time we found him, he’d been pretty bruised up. The ship itself didn’t have bacta, and ours didn’t go far enough to help him immediately. We got back yesterday and we were going to do a quick job to pay for a shot of it so we wouldn’t risk a bad injection and make it worse, then Prime was here and as always, everything is easier in his life.”

The words weren’t anywhere near as harsh as they would have been in that past life, and Jango looked at him with a fair bit of wonder. For Alpha, that was almost kind. 

Alpha looked over at him, reaching out, and gently nudged the falling pacifier back into Boba’s mouth, keeping him from waking himself up early. 

Jango pulled over the bag, looking through it again and paused as he noticed a pattern he hadn’t before. “Is this all from the temple?”

Alpha nodded, watching him pull out a tooka and lightsaber print pacifier clip to attach the little thing to Boba’s shirt. “Ob’ika got just about everything a tubie could have needed for a journey to Bandomeer while hiding him in his rooms.”

Jango rubbed along the little one’s back, feeling how soft the tunic was. “It’s good quality.”

“Course it is, Jedi make everything themselves. They’re the only people in the galaxy that are entirely self sufficient while still helping outside communities.”

“I guess I don’t know nearly as much about Jetii as I thought I did.”

Mij must have taken a couple more samples of Alpha and Kote, because he was making more careful notes. “Alpha has more of your DNA than Cody does, but both of them seem like enhancements, not changing the base.”

“We were made to remove all of Prime’s flaws. Jango’s payment was Boba, a completely unaltered clone. He won’t have more than a few viability changes.”

Jaster was studying Kenobi a little too close for Kote’s comfort, but the way the man looked at Obi-Wan, made Kote calm down a little, gently moving a bit so Jaster could get a better look. “He’s just a normal kid. What’s the point of the Manda dropping this all on him?”

Jango considered telling him the force was just like that, it had its special little favorites to play with, and ones it loved for the dedication they gave it, but Kote beat them to it. “It’s not about him, it’s about the gods of Mortis. They told Obi-Wan and Skywalker that the force needed a three point balance system. Obi-Wan falls on light, Skywalker on dark, and I think the vod’e fall in the middle, keeping them both from tipping edges. It’s a three point chosen one system.”

“Which is why Rex damn well better be with Skywalker or I’m putting a baby leash on him.”

Jaster looked thoughtful. “Chosen one, huh? Is that what we’re calling it?”

Alpha looked over at Kote, who was snickering. “Trust me, they call it that.”

Jaster was quiet for a long minute. “Alright, you two are staying here with the kid a while while we sort this out, I don’t care if you’re too stubborn to accept help and have to work at times, this apartment is safer than anywhere you’ve been staying recently. I’m calling in takeout.”

Jango piped up at that. “Get spice savers for the kids. Boba was never a huge spice fan and Kenobi looks like he gets heartburn around this age.”

“I want to argue on his behalf, but he did admit he didn’t like spice till his first stay on Mandalore. Just make it mild.”

Jaster made a hasty retreat for the kitchens to look for the takeaway menus, waving them off. He needed to think about something else for a minute. 

Chapter Text

Boba woke from his nap before Obi-Wan did. Obi-Wan was still dead asleep on Cody’s shoulder when Boba gave a cranky little noise, and started fighting his way out of Buir’s arms. 

Listen, Buir, Boba knows you haven’t seen each other in a while, but he’s got energy to burn and an ori’vod to bother. Bothering Obi-Wan was one of his favorite activities, to be honest. There was really nothing else he could do in the temple without getting them caught and put under guard without option of escape for the rest of forever, so poking the boy awake to talk to him had become a habit. 

Jango let him down with a grunt, and ba’vodu Mij was laughing about that, which is funny, so he giggled and tried darting around the man, dashing off to the other side of the karyai, only to suddenly find himself back in the air, a frowning Alpha 17 holding him. 

That was rude. You know, technically Boba was decanted first, he should be the big scary one! He’d been giving Obi-Wan good tips for espionage and stuff before these two goons got here, but Seventeen always just twitched at the feeling of Boba’s clumsy mental pokes. The vod’e had been trained not to be hurt at even the clumsiest of ik’aad telepathy, and Boba had been taught fairly good control as a tot by Buir himself, so he knew it wasn’t actually too bad in comparison, it’s not like he had volume control issues like Obi-Wan, anyways. 

It was all so unfair. No one could hear him properly this close to the ground. 

Alpha grunted, tucking Boba against his chest with a little glare from the tyke. Boba had always been like this, but his newest habit of waking up Obi-Wan to play was bad. In fact, as soon as Obi-Wan was up, there was no getting him back down. Alpha is fairly sure this is the first nap both of them had had in days, from paranoia and the fact that Cody and him kept having to leave for work during the day. 

They kept coming back to Alpha and Cody’s little one 1b1b apartment to two cranky boys that couldn’t keep their emotions where they once had been as adults, leading to pissing each other off more and more. 

Thankfully, the day’s work was done. They still had three more days on this shift cycle and it was supposed to be a good payment bonus if they lasted the whole way. Alpha wasn’t too prideful to accept Mereel’s help, understanding that friends got you places, and the place Alpha wanted to be was off this damn planet and not mediating between an ad and an ik’aad to keep them from murdering each other. 

That’s something it sounded like Mereel probably didn’t get yet. That’s something they’d actually had trained into them by their own Jedi. We don’t scoff at help from others in the galaxy. It’s not taking advantage and they had more privilege than you to begin with. At least they could walk away from this life without an issue, instead of being hunted down. 

That wasn’t an option for Jedi or clones. They were kept in line by both morals and threat. So yeah, him and Cody were okay with staying here a few days. In fact, Alpha was going to take advantage of the grandparent that was Mereel, and demand he find someone to take care of these brats while Alpha and Cody were out, so they can come home to rested ade, instead of these whiny brats that kept causing trouble in the markets. At least the stall vendors seemed to adore the two, and usually had them fed by the time they came back to pick up the cranky cadets, only demanding about half of the price when they went to settle their tabs. 

It wasn’t so much that they pitied Alpha and Cody, but they seemed to dote on children and were concerned over the sleep deprivation of two unaccompanied cadets without their Buir during the day. 

There had been a few tantrums from Boba, claiming they weren’t his buir’e, even if they were Obi-Wan’s, not wanting anyone to call them that. 

So Alpha’s patience as a trainer had been tested the past few days. Cody had always been a little sweetheart, even if Alpha hadn’t interacted with him much on Kamino before the war, one of Fett’s best students from what he heard, but these kids were more trouble than getting babysitting duty for a whole squad. At least cadets from Kamino were well behaved. 

Boba hissed at him, trying his little best to imitate the way Obi-Wan’s Stewjoni vocals could get it, rumbling with annoyance, almost a purr even, but he really just sounded like a spitting tooka kitten. Obi-Wan was more impressive while half awake. 

He adjusted Boba so the squish against his bicep was just right , and carried him off to the kitchen where the Mand’alor had been hiding this whole time. 

Well, hiding is probably insulting, because the man looked like he seemed to be writing a new kriffing codex with all the republic law forums he had open in front of him while taking furious note. Leave it to Kenobi to find a new nerd to plant a thought in. Cody used to joke that half Obi-Wan’s mediation training seemed to be finding someone else to do the work and shoving too much common sense into them not to get it done. 

Mereel looked up at him and gave a startled twitch, moving to shut things down so he could clear up space at the table near him. Alpha huffed as he sat, gently turning Boba in his arms to face the man. “Takeout here, yet?”

Jaster gave a little hum, nodding to the bags on the counter, and studying Boba with intense eyes. It looked like it’d just got here, so that was something. “I was going to come get you all when the ade were awake.”

Alpha snorted. “Might as well just call them in now, Obi-Wan needs more sleep. This one’s new favorite game is waking him up to talk, and that triggers Obi-Wan’s insomnia till they’re up at all hours. He needs a longer nap.”

Boba gave a cheeky little grin, looking shy and sweet for the first time in his life as he nervously reached for the Mand’alor, who melted, eagerly taking him out of Alpha’s arms at his nod. Alpha felt a little weird at how Mereel was giving Boba soft eyes, gently pressing a kiss to that chubby little palm as he muttered how Jango had never been little enough to give him such a wide eyed look. 

He got up with a little sigh, moving to the karyai so he could get the rest of them together for early late meal. 

Obi-Wan wasn’t upset with leftovers, so he was actually very easy to meal prep for, they sort of just left a couple of meals for him and Boba in the refractory unit, but he was an expensive little sucker. He liked cheesy, which wasn’t as common in Mandalorian areas, so Alpha would have to go out to the bodega around the corner to see what they had for him for later. 

He looked at Jango and Mij, feeling just the tiniest glimmer of fondness for a favorite medic, and amusement towards Fett. 

He hadn’t expected to see him come slinking back into their life like an injured lothcat, lookin like one of Waxer’s pathetic little pack that Cody used to complain about. Mostly because said pack kept growing while no one was lookin. 

It was endearing to see him downtrodden and clearly aware of his sins, and afraid of losing his family. Alpha wasn’t going to let him get away with this shit anymore, but he could let it out in a controlled way that got Fett therapy, and not ire from his Buir. Force knows the man would dive right back off the deep end to be shunned by his parent, probably worse than Mereel dying again. 

It was amusing, in a dangerous game sort of way. Alpha had a lot to talk to him about, but that could wait. It would wait. 

He tilted his head to them, waving at the kitchen as he passed to get to his cyare and ad. “Food’s here, go get it while I extract Cody.”

Mij had just as many notes in front of him as Mereel had, but his were on flimsy so he could avoid anything being sliced out of him, at least. Mij had always kept properly paranoid journals to avoid the Kaminoians scrutiny, which was appreciated. He hadn’t just been Alpha’s choice because of familiarity. He watched as Mij ushered Jango out of the room, before heading over to Cody and their cadet. 

Obi-Wan was so little like this. He clung more than he ever did as an adult, flitting between adult surety and childlike nerves to keep them in his line of sight at all times. Cody had particularly taken to the momma kryat position, keeping Obi-Wan close. It was that time they spent together on Tatooine. Cody had said it wasn’t sexual, or even romantic, and Alpha believed him. Cody and Obi-Wan were just like that. They clung and needed a wall to hold onto. They had always been able to lean against each other. 

There were a few piles of blankets and pillows, neatly folded in a chest near the hearth, and Alpha pulled a couple of each out, laying they put on one of the sleeping mats, molding it into a vaguely humanoid shape, and moved to help peel the cadet off Cody’s chest. Cody just snorted in amusement. Alpha acted all big and tough like he wasn’t going to spoil Obi-Wan and Boba rotten at every turn. Softie. 

He proved that as he gently peeled Obi-Wan off Cody’s chest, and cooed low in his chest when the cadet whined a little, rubbing his back till he was puddled on the sleeping mat blanket-person instead. Obi-Wan was still purring from when he tried to soothe Cody earlier, so the sound was enough to keep him firmly asleep while the two of them snuck out. Learning that Stewjoni could soothe themselves to sleep by purring was beyond precious. 

The kitchen was thankfully, not quite chaos. Boba was refusing to leave Mereel’s lap, which was hilarious because Prime was trying to be stern with the little warlord, but Boba just pulled out those big eyes that got him everything he wanted and Prime had obviously caved. Besides, Boba was more stubborn than a bantha. He was putting together a bowl of tteok in the darker sauce that smelled more savory than spicy, muttering that Boba was small enough that Mereel would be wearing the ik’aad’s dinner before long. 

Cody and Alpha were arguably the least picky out of all of them, so Alpha was already formulating a mental list of things he needed to do. 

“Seventeen, plan?” Alpha looked up to see Prime watching him calculatingly, already trying to do damage control on the mess Boba was making of his grandparent while Alpha and Cody finished cleaning up from their own meals. Alpha grunted. 

“Give me your credit chit, I have some stuff to pick up from our apartment, baby needs more supplies than we were able to get on short notice. O’Ben won’t eat anything that isn’t smothered in cheese, pickiest little eater.”

Jango sighed, pulling up his vambrace so he could eject the banking chit from it’s slot, and slid it across the table. “The files I got on him as an adult didn’t say anything about being choosy. I nosed around the temple mind healers files so you’d think that would be there.”

Cody squinted at the information fishing, but figured it wasn’t too bad if Alpha wasn’t giving an immediate reprimand. “He’s pickier than it seems. He’d prefer if he could survive off the smallest rations possible with maybe three whole flavors, and tea. It’s the survival instinct that convinced him he can eat anything as long as it’s not currently alive. He lived through Melida|Daan and the worst luck possible for an apprenticeship, his survival instincts are strong. If food is regular and plentiful, he just doesn’t want it.”

Prime’s face flinched at the reminder of Melida|Daan. Like he said, he did his research. Alpha gave him a pointed look to handle that how he saw fit, and left before Prime could start asking Mereel who the closest squadrons to the planet were. The Mand’alor would take care of it if he knew about the children in danger. Little soldiers that shouldn’t be fighting to begin with. 

They would make sure Obi-Wan didn’t have to fight those same battles all over again.

The bodega around the corner had higher prices than the ones around the corner from Alpha and Cody’s apartment, but it also had better selections. After checking Fett’s banking chit balance, he decided the ik’aad could use better quality diapers and bacta infused diaper cream. It was the standard diaper cream and rash cream they used on Kamino, and it worked better than the regular, it felt wrong to give an ik’aad any less. 

Which obviously meant he should spoil Obi-Wan a little too, so he’d kept an eye out for things Obi-Wan would want. 

Frankly, he’d feel terrible getting new armor from either Jango or his parent, that was just going too far for him and likely Cody as well. Too familiar in a bad way. But going shopping on their chit-piece? That sounded fun in the worst of ways. 

Mostly, like getting Obi-Wan a whole bunch of his safe foods and a new fang guard for his sonic teeth cleaner. How nice of Prime to hand over a credit chit without even asking what for. 

By the end, he realized he needed to drop the bags off with Prime before he went to his and Cody’s temporary apartment to get the kids things. He came up to the cashier, pointing at the sonic drop-fang guard. It was made to push the gums around drop fangs to reveal them so they could get cleaned with the rest. From what Alpha could tell, it reduced chances of infection in the gums, to keep them clean regularly. Admittedly, that was no difference than the rest of your teeth, but those little fangs of Obi-Wan’s were sharp and deadly, even cutting his own gums if he bit wrong.

“Do you know where I can get drop-fang safe teethers? My oldest keeps co-sleeping with his vod’ika, and I know he tends to chomp on one of us when we’re in the same bed as him.”

The cashier, apparently comfortable in assuming they had lost a bag of luggage bag somewhere down the line, was a young togruta male, who looked at the drop-fang guard with interest as he scanned items. “Hmm, there’s a woman in an area closer to the armorers district, she’s got a shop full of non-human specialties, usually in medical grade silicone, makes them herself so she’s one of the artisans, teethers are actually very common. There are a lot of Mandalorians that need something to attach to the inside of their buy’ce so they don’t risk biting through their tongue or cheek when they get properly hit. She should have something your oldest finds comfortable to bite. Don’t knock it if it looks a bit like a pacifier, though, a lot of them can be similar and those mouth shields are made to keep kids from sticking something else in there beside it.”

Alpha considered that. “That would be very helpful. My vod’e and I always used typical humanoid teeth guards. Like the ones you use in impact sports.”

The togruta nodded, reaching into his shirt to pull out a chain, with a big purple mushroom on it, clearly a bit beat up but well cared for and clean. “When you have fangs, sometimes the need to sink them is too strong.” He tucked the pendant back in after Alpha got a good look, still scanning items. Alpha was getting quite a bit. “I hear it’s actually worse for people with drop-fangs, since they get an ache in their gums, and an actual ability to push them out. Keep dropping them like crazy in their sleep, it’s probably why they keep attaching to you.”

That was likely true enough. Alpha had seen Kenobi rip through a man’s throat arteries after they’d managed to get him restrained. Because they’d managed to get him restrained. That man put up more fight than most people possessed to begin with, and it took a hell of a lot more than suppression cuffs to get him down. “Know the shop name?”

“Uh… Helium, I think it was? Or something that sounds like that.”

“Thank you.”

***

Alpha needed to bring back the groceries before he got his and Cody’s apartment packed up, and bite guards for Obi-Wan to finally save Alpha’s arm from the sleeping fang clamps, but when he got there, there were two new people. 

He froze in the doorway to the apartment, which was admittedly a lot bigger than the one bedroom one bathroom he shared with three others till today, and stared at the two of them there for a while. 

He didn’t recognize one of them, but he didn’t recognize the older one, other than a holo or two he’d seen from looking at pics of the Mandalorian Royal family when they’d first got here. He was often at Jaster’s side, an aide probably. 

They both turned to look at him with distrust as Alpha moved to sit the bags of groceries on the couch, and the one he vaguely recognized spoke up. “Are you… one of them? One of Jango’s supposed time traveling clones?”

He sounded disbelieving enough that Alpha wanted to laugh, but it really wasn’t all that funny. He let out a sigh, as inaudibly as he could under the helmet, and reached up to take it off. 

He looked like Cody, but five years older. He looked like Jango, but ten years older. He looked like Boba, but twenty-eight years older. The other two didn’t seem to know what to say for a minute. 

There was a rustling from the sleeping mats, and a head of wildly messy red hair came up, sticking up in directions it shouldn’t have, and Obi-Wan had to pull a corner of the blanket he’d been laying on out of his mouth. He’d clearly been worrying away at his fangs, and Alpha wondered if he’d either grow out of the habit later, or if growing fangs just ached that much. He squinted around the room, pouting. “Thinkin too hard, Al’Buir.”

That gross little gremlin reached out for him with a tiny hand, and Alpha was, as all buir’e, weak to his foundling, and came to kneel next to the sleeping mat, pulling the child in for a hug. Obi-Wan always wanted to cling before sleeping and after waking up, but Alpha had to be a mean Buir right now, and used that to help him stand up, letting his body stay between Obi-Wan and the strangers Alpha didn’t know, and ushered the unsteady little fawn in the direction of the kitchen. “Go find Co’Buir, I have some things to do.”

Obi-Wan’s noises were like a wounded tooka kit, but he didn’t argue, half blindly making his way out of the room, and their loud emotions that had woken him up. If nothing, that was reason enough for Alpha to turn to them with an annoyed glare, crossing his arms like they were shinies caught wandering around the natborns barracks after hours like they had a death wish. “I don’t think I have to answer stupid questions, do you?”

The smaller one, probably about twenty, meeped, and hid behind the older. The older rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I guess our Mand’alor didn’t go off the deep end yet, but I still won’t believe much till I know how it happened.”

Alpha gave a shrug. “That’s not my problem. It’s Jedi bullshit. That’s the only answer you need for anything.”

They looked like they were going to argue, when Jango appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. “Alpha, you’re back early.”

Alpha nodded at the grocery bags. “I didn’t go back to our apartment yet, needed too much stuff. I still have a few places to stop off first.”

Jango nodded, looking carefully over the other two on the other side of the room. “Oh course, I trust you to know what the ade need.”

“Clone efficiency at its best.”

Jango quite visibly flushed. That was always what he’d tell the clones when they did well or learned fast. He nodded, turning to start separating food from necessities. “Of course it is. Never anything less than efficient.”

“Who are they and why do they know?”

Jango paused, looking up at him with a frown. “Sorry, Kote said it’d be easiest, when Buir told him they were our aides. This is Myles and Silas. They normally stay in the other bedroom here when we’re on Coruscant.”

Alpha didn’t do more than nod once in their direction. “I’m headed out again. If they wake my kid again I’ll knock them against a wall. I’m told that’s what it feels like mentally, being woken up with a sour emotion and plotting.”

Jango’s flinch was knowing. “Yeah. That’s… that’s about right. Alright, if you need help moving things, you… don’t have my comm, hold on let me just give you that-“

Alpha didn’t wait much time before he’d left again, and Jango sighed, shaking his head. “Sorry, he’s a bit protective.”

Myles stuck his head out from where he’d been hiding behind Silas, pouting. “I think you mean defensive.”

Jango frowned, shaking his head when he realized. “No. Protective. Over Obi-Wan. Who you woke up?”

Silas and Myles shared a look. “No, he was still asleep till Alpha got back.”

Jango rolled his eyes. “I’m not stupid, you two started getting all loud and annoyed in the force when he got back, suddenly Obi-Wan’s darting into the kitchen saying there are stingers in the force out here. You scared him, first arguing and then getting upset with him. Alpha couldn’t have done it, I trained him myself, he knows damn well how to hide himself from Jetii.”

Silas and Myles shared another look. Silas turned back to him, an eyebrow raised in suspicion. “You called it the force. Not the kara.”

Myles still looked funny. “Okay my issue was actually that you just admitted the little one is a Jetii? Did you steal him?”

“No, you idiots. I called it the force because I recalled what Ob’ika said to me, and I didn’t steal anyone, he left that temple of his own free will, now can you two stop fishing for a mental lapse on mine and Buir’s parts and actually talk to us instead. I’m sure Ob’ika could explain a lot more than I can, since he’s the main cause of all this banthashite.”

Myles pouted. “Is he as upset as his Buir was about us waking him?”

Jango rolled his eyes. “He’s the most forgiving little shit you will ever meet in your life, it’s why Alpha has to be so protective over him. Come on, please, he’s probably going to ask Buir something nerdy and I don’t want to have to listen to it.”

Silas sighed deep, reaching up to scrub his hands at his eyes, finally giving a little nod. “I just… I can’t believe it but logically, what else are we supposed to think, someone kidnapped you and took your DNA and now the clones are showing up? That’s even dumber. Okay. Fine.”

Jango didn’t bother to correct them about anything, they’d see some Jetii banthashite for themselves the longer they stuck around Kenobi, more if they managed to meet Skywalker. He grabbed the groceries from the bags on the couch, and started heading off to the kitchen. He was smart enough to hand the cheese to Kote immediately, who had a grumbling Obi-Wan attached to his front, and a dish about to go in the reheater. Kote gave his own vague grumble of thanks and started making something Obi-Wan would eat without question. 

Kote had this haunted look in his eyes that Jango had seen a lot the mirror in Boba’s very early days, the one that said ‘why don’t I have a partner with me right now and when did I last sleep?’ Fair. He’s been informed that Kenobi and Boba have been annoying each other to death for days, he’s shocked they aren’t in a perpetual slap fight, and he doubts Kote and Alpha had had more than a few hours of sleep a day since they caught hold of Obi-Wan and Boba. 

Jango reached around Kote, using a gentle hand to help pry the small teen off the man, and led him over to the table next to Jaster and a giggling Boba. Of course his little gremlin was giggling, as if he wasn’t the root cause of Obi-Wan’s cranky exhaustion. “I want my Cody.”

Jango sighed, looking through the bags till he found a couple jugs of juice, giving Kote a questioning look till the man pointed at the apple juice. Such a plain juice, Obi-Wan really wanted nothing to do with sustenance. He probably lived off meditation and prayer on Tatooine. 

Jango pulled out a sippy cup he’d found in the diaper bag, and looked through the cabinets till he found something that didn’t look breakable for the ad. 

See, he had no doubt that Kenobi could keep a hold of it, but there was an expectation that anything within arms reach could be used as a weapon, for him, anyways. It was easier to pick up a probably cracked plastic cup than shattered glass that Boba might step on. 

Jango put the cup in front of Obi-Wan, and handed the sippy cup to Boba, who looked pleased from his throne of comfort in Buir’s arms. Buir looked like he was plotting what he’d have to do to win Obi-Wan’s affections as well, but they had time for that. Obi-Wan stared at the cup for longer than strictly necessary, heck cocked to the side like a confused strill pup, and Jango nudged it just a little closer to the kid. That clever little hand shot out and snatched the cup, looking down into it with what seemed like sadness. 

“Are you… okay?”

“There’s no straw.”

Kote started looking through drawers as Jango was considering telling him he didn’t really need one, and Jango was seeing exactly why he was the way he was. He turned to give Kote a look as Silas started making up plates for himself and Myles, clearly the two of them being too interested in watching everyone to stop. Myles was looking at Obi-Wan with blatant fascination, and Obi-Wan just kept looking sad till Kote tapped his shoulder and handed him a plastic straw. 

Oh manda, those were so bad for the environment. They’d have to find reusable ones. “Kote, you spoil him.”

Kote just shrugged at him. “I will apologize for nothing, in this life or the next. Yes, I spoil him.”

Jango nodded with a little sigh. “Fair. Carry on.”

Two minutes later, Obi-Wan suddenly looked wide awake, probably all that sugar in his system, and looked around in confusion. “Cheese?”

“Yeah, your food is heating up. It’s got cheese.”

Obi-Wan sniffled, thinking hard about life and meditation. Or something like that. Jango had no idea what went on in that little orange head of his. It was probably all peace and flowers or some shit. “I think the Jedi should leave the republic.”

It had, however… not been that?

Kote, the only only one in the room not gobsmacked other than Boba, sort of just hummed, looking through the cabinets for a plate to transfer the gooey mess of cheese and spices onto. “I’ve been telling you that for years, O’Ben, do you even think you could convince the council?”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, looking snarky. “I wasn’t the second youngest master on the council for no reason, I’ll throw Ani at them and make them see reason. Some hard proof of a Sith could go a long way.”

Jango was silent for a moment, before it hit him like a brick to the head. “You know the identity of the Sith, don’t you?”

Obi-Wan snorted, moving in the chair so he could shove his legs underneath himself, sitting up a bit so he could reach for the plate Kote put down. “How the hell do you not know? You know, the guy who declared himself supreme chancellor and committed like five genocides at once?”

“…I’m trying so hard to put a name to his wrinkled old face, but it just isn’t working.”

Obi-Wan shared a look with Kote, and then back to Jango, who was genuinely trying to recall. “Huh. I guess being dead sort of blanks some things out. Well, it’s moot for now, we can’t do anything about him at the moment. All I can do is convince the council that we’re not so much a warning, as a full on sign that says ‘this way lay dead babies’ and hope they aren’t stupid.”

Jango flinched. “Why can’t we get rid of him now?”

“One Master, one Apprentice. It’s how the Sith works. His master is still alive now. We have to figure out who before we get to that point again.”

“Ob’ika?”

Obi-Wan looked at Jaster, finished shoving a bite in his mouth and hummed in question. Jaster looked so damn fond of the kid already, Jango hoped he knew this one bites. “Ya?”

“Why would leaving the republic stop your people being killed?”

Obi-Wan blinked a few times, and gave him a look like he was stupid. “I’ve read your codex. You’re not dumb.”

“My codex doesn’t detail much about why Mandalore refused to join the republic.”

“Yeah, but I’m not stupid. We’re both warrior races that care more about adoption than blood. We’re not that different, but one of our peoples was smart enough to leave. They could have used your people as attack dogs instead of mine.”

Jaster’s jaw clenched. He hated being right sometimes. He knew his history, and he also knew why the Jetii didn’t leave with Mandalorians. Because the Mandalorians had sided with the dar’jetii without realizing the issue of it. 

Obi-Wan shrugged, looking vaguely amused. “I think if Jedi and Mandalorians understood how similar we all really were, they’d stop being so annoying to each other, and annoying to the senate instead. Stubborn and deadly, that’s another thing we all got.”

Myles, who had never been the biggest fan of Jetii, snorted. “Jetii are peacekeepers.”

Obi-Wan shrugged. “You know, a slaver told me that, once, hoping I wouldn’t kill him. I’d been kept in a mine watching others get tortured for over two weeks at that point. See, the thing is, they really overestimate how much we care for all living beings. Oh boo hoo I tortured other people in your place for two weeks, you can’t kill me now because I’m not holding a weapon. A Death Watch member that willingly got into Death Watch knowing all that they do and still believing in the mission, is still a threat, don’t you think?”

Myles was cringing, but Kote seemed to be laughing for unknown reasons, leaning down to press a kiss to Obi-Wan’s head. “You let Rex spear that man with an electrostaff. Made his whole year and the worst joke I’ve ever heard you make.”

Obi-Wan grinned at Kote, purring pleased like a tooka. “Rex isn’t a Jetii. How sad that a peacekeeper wasn’t there to do it instead. Shameful, that. Least, clones weren’t allowed to officially be a part of the order, back then. They always belonged with us.”

Kote pressed a kiss to Obi-Wan’s forehead, before tilting the boy back down at his own plate. “You’re a little terror.”

“Yup! I just think the Mandalorians have a lot in common with us. Should leave that dumb senate behind to suffer having to deal with their own issues for once. Start a commune and grow some carrots.”

“You hate carrots.”

“I hate the taste. I like the crunch. Reminds me of fingers.”

Jango snorted, noting the horrified looks the others gave the kid. He’s such a feral little brat. 

Jango wished he’d met him before things got messed up in their first round, he’d have adored him then. 

Chapter Text

Anakin had woken up in the hold of a big ship, a bump on his head and trying not to cry about it. He was a Jedi Master. He was a reformed Sith. He was a ghost of great power and the need to love and coddle his padawan and children even past the grave. 

But his head was ouchie, and the room was dark and scary and he didn’t know where he was, and he was only barely able to stuff his little thumb in his mouth to suck on before he burst out into big loud tears. 

Unfortunately, it hadn’t been quiet enough, because someone was moving the box Anakin was crouched behind, and before he could try and stop them, there was someone big kneeling in front of him. “Hey, hey, kiddo, what’re those tears for? Come on, can I help?”

Anakin gave the man a little glare, before stopping in place, little hand falling away from his mouth as he realized he knew them. “Rex?”

The man squinted at him, moving a little closer, and looked at Anakin’s right arm. The one that was missing. “Skywalker?”

Anakin nodded, lower lip wobbling as he reached out for the man, a few more tears slipping down. “You’re so big, and I’m not, and I bumped my head, and Obi-Wan and I didn’t mean for this to happen but I’m not sure where I am right now. Help?”

Great. Kenobi and Skywalker combined banthashit happened again, even in the afterlife. Lovely. 

He sighed, pulling the small child in as carefully as he could, not knowing where else the little boy might be hurt. 

He’s been ducking around this ship as a stowaway for a day now, and now he’s got a cadet to take care of too. At least it was a little Jedi, someone he could ask to get grates off walls if they needed, or the like. Maybe Anakin was still strong enough to convince the crew to just let them out at the next dock and forget they’d ever been here. 

He couldn’t help the way he shoved his face into the cadet’s little neck, squeezing the boy to his chest like a stuffed tooka. 

Anakin squirmed a bit, letting out a soft little sighs at the nice squeeze. He didn’t mean to get separated from Obi-Wan in the void between times, but he’d realized they’d been dragging others back with them, and it just wasn’t worth losing any of them just to stay with Obi-Wan. So he’d let go of Jeiah’s hand so he could hold some of the clones they’d brought instead. At least he’d immediately found one of them, since he felt weepy and sad and a little nervous about it all. And it was the best clone to find! His Rex would never hurt him, even though he’d known who Vader really was. 

He cuddled into Rex’s body, trying to get as close as possible so the two of them could calm down together. 

***

They’d gotten off the ship. And now they were on a busy port orbiting a little planet in the mid-rim. 

At least that meant Rex could get some jobs and make credits, but Anakin was being a sneaky little thing, and kept pilfering credit chits from unsuspecting people around them. 

Rex wanted to scold him for it, but Anakin had said in that soft mumbled way he did around his fingertips, that they hadn’t been honest in getting the credits, and wouldn’t suffer without them. Not like Rex and Anakin would. 

He really wanted to scold him for it, but he’s already struggling to find a job that wouldn’t get annoyed that Rex had nowhere to put his kid in the meantime. 

Rex got his first job from an older twi’lek woman. She actually came to him, saying she heard he was willing to do pretty much anything with good pay, and that she didn’t mind watching Ani while Rex did the job for her. 

He’d been cautious, till she told him she needed to move shop to another side of the port. A slight upgrade that included living quarters so she wouldn’t have to walk across the port to her job. She figured hiring a live worker was better than droids, since she already owned the hoverdollies and wouldn’t need to pay extra for them, so she’d asked around for anyone willing to do a couple days work so she wouldn’t break her back during it all. It seemed reasonable, since she wasn’t young anymore, and if she’s moving shop, she might as well pay another little fee to make it fast. 

Rex had left her and Ani at the new shop, which was like leaving Anakin in a candy store. It was full of things, mostly technical. People who come in and out of ports often sell off old equipment so they can buy a replacement, and if the shops like Ms Shelly’s wasn’t able to repair and sell them on again, they’d get a fairly good deal out of the parts. It was an average junker shop, if a bit small. 

She hadn’t even seemed to mind that Anakin needed some help here and there since he only had one arm. She’d started looking through boxes saying she might have the parts to make him a basic piece that could be used to help him pick things up, train his shoulder muscles and all that. Rex wasn’t sure what she’d find, but he’d likely buy anything that could help Anakin help himself a little more. 

At one point, when Rex came back with another couple of hoverdollies of boxes and such, Anakin had been sitting on the new counter, looking at the basic piece she’d pulled out of a crate, talking enthusiastically about the junk shop he used to work at with his momma, and Rex could see the sad look in her eyes as she realized Anakin hadn’t been the owners son, but his property. She had given Anakin a few gentle head rubs, which made the somewhat oblivious boy push into it like a lothcat. 

She smiled at Rex, and never asked how Rex became the little one’s guardian. 

Anakin had been playing with an old radio that Shelly said she couldn’t get running, little fingers manipulating wires while the two mechanics sat side by side at the table. Rex had the feeling the woman was sweet on them because of their situation, but the fact that Anakin kept helping fix little things up for her, and Rex was so earnest to help out, meant that she kept giving Rex little jobs, and even let Anakin keep a pair of droid memory cards that had made Anakin’s eyes glow blue like stars when he found them. 

Admittedly, that part had shocked the woman, before she dissolved into little chuckles, saying she hadn’t seen a littlun that sensitive in her shop in a while, if ever. 

According to her, force sensitives were drawn to oddities. Junk shops, thrift stores, record shops and archives. They gravitated towards things that no one has seen in a long while. That seemed to make a lot of sense why he tended to find Ahsoka in old bookstores, and Anakin in a pile of garbage. He hoped the garbage boy was because of being force sensitive, anyways. 

She had asked Anakin to help her bake cookies that day. Rex had never had homemade cookies before, and Anakin had looked so excited, mumbling about how Obi-Wan was a very good baker and liked to let Anakin help him. Obi-Wan was picky, but he loved the texture of sweet breads, so that was a calorie boost Rex was absently putting in the back of his mind. 

Ms Shelly hadn’t asked who Obi-Wan was, but Anakin had called him Ben, so she probably just assumed it was another slave. She gave Anakin soft head pats that he still pushed his head up into. Rex loved it when he did that. It really convinced him he wanted to keep him. 

Anakin had been doing that to him, pushing up into nice head pats, when Rex asked him if he could adopt him. Ms Shelly had looked surprised that Anakin wasn’t already his, but Rex had mentioned that Mandalorians did it differently, and it hadn’t come up yet. Anakin’s big eyes had gone curious, and he’d cocked his head to the side, asking if Shmi was still his momma if he said yes. Rex had told him no one could, or would replace Shmi Skywalker. Rex would fail if he even tried. Ms Shelly had gotten so excited at getting to see an actual Mandalorian adoption, that she’d disappeared and come back with pastries and Rex’s favorite coffee in the port. 

It had been sweet, and caring in a way that reminded him of his vod’e, and he liked being here. He was glad Anakin’s little force compass had led them here. 

Ms Shelly said she liked having Rex around. Even with her new shop being closer to the ports themselves, it was nice to have someone young enough to go running off to see things in person every day, and Anakin adored the little treats Rex was charming enough to get out of people for him. Ms Shelly said he was too much of a smooth talker to stay on this port forever. 

She also said she genuinely loved it here herself. That kinda hurt, because she was always right. Even when Rex was taking jobs for other shop owners, and even a few port jobs that needed muscle or some translating that he knew well enough to make due, he still wondered where the rest of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s little time traveling circus ended up. Where the rest of their vod’e ended up. 

They couldn’t stay here forever. It wasn’t Ms Shelly’s insistence that he was too young and busy to spend his life here, he thought this port was nice. That’s saying something actually. Their culture seemed to revolve a lot around games and community and not bothering to work too much if they didn’t have their heart in it. 

It’s why he liked it here. The barista liked to sing and kept telling asshole customers to leave his cafe if they were going to be rude. It was never a port citizen that caught his ire, because they were kind. Ms Shelly adored the little odds and ends Rex and Anakin would bring her, looking like they were just the best gems, letting him sit with her and making him up his own little workstation so he could do whatever fit his fancy in the moment. It didn’t always have to be something to benefit her shop. 

Rex liked it here. This was the type of environment that you could get lost in. People who loved their work, even if it depended on tourism coming in and out of the planet. And that’s saying something, because tourists suck . Tourist planets in the galaxy had to lax their rules for the citizens, if they wanted to actually have a population that didn’t rebel and start using gaming sticks to shoo customers out of their way. When you can’t escape the tourism industry, you gotta figure out how to make sure the citizens aren’t ready to attack each other. 

Which usually meant very kind people who only did what they loved, and a lot of governmental assistance while people figured it out. I’m so

Which is why, Rex was sort of heartbroken to realize, it only took a month of work helping out everywhere he could, and a single call for a favor from Ms Shelly to a dealer planetside, and they had a refurbished, but lovely and well working ship, in Rex’s name and title. She’d even put in a request on the planet for a post-slavery identification card for both of them, even though she’d never asked if Rex had been one as well. 

Rex was old enough now to realize, he had been. 

Anakin had been in awe, sweetly eager to explore it all, and Rex was tearing up a little. Actually he might be tearing up a bit more than that. 

It was, unfortunately, less than a week before everything was stocked and stable and ready for a parent and child to leave, and it was sad, even if Ms Shelly had made sure they knew they were always welcome back, even if they were dragging family with them. Especially if they were dragging family with them. 

***

“Buir, look!” Rex couldn’t hold back the little grin as Anakin pointed at a docking ship on the port they’d been refueling at. It was something Anakin admitted he used to do with Obi-Wan, ship spotting at the ports while they had lunch outside the temple. Anakin said Obi-Wan would get them something they could eat on the go from Dex, and Anakin would curl into Obi-Wan’s side while they mentally pointed out ways to spot certain ships, or what type of work a random person on the streets probably did. 

It had been one of those crucial bonding moments that Obi-Wan had woven into Anakin’s training. And now it was just comfortable to squish himself into Rex’s chest while they watched the activity of a new port. 

Rex was on break from his newest job right now. Anakin flitted between going to a public schooling area on this port, or staying in their ship, since Rex didn’t trust anyone enough to watch him while he was working on the docks. Anakin didn’t really like the schooling area, and fully clocked out when it came to mathematics and mechanics. It was good for public kids just wanting to get a week of playtime with other kids in the area while they traveled, but it felt like asking Anakin how to explain the force in less than a sentence. 

Some people could do that, but in all honesty, the more you know, the harder it is to reduce the information. Some days he just didn’t want to go to the school, so he’d stay in the ship to keep whatever mechanical work he’d found to entertain himself with, to himself. 

One of the teachers had asked if Rex was aware his son didn’t always show up to classes, and she’d been clearly worried about a five year old human running about the transit hub without an adult, so Rex had asked him to come to school the next day, and show the class what he worked on while he wasn’t in class. 

The awe of the other kids and teachers had led into an early learning module about mechanics, and why Ani sometimes felt like he wasn’t learning because he already knew all that stuff. The other kids had gotten a little more open with him, after realizing Anakin had helped build and improve his own arm. Kids loved that shit, that’s so cool to them. 

Rex had grabbed them some of Anakin’s favorite diner food, and a couple of soft drinks, using one arm to get a giggly little boy on his hip while he picked him up from the school for lunch, and the other to hold the takeout bag. It was useful that one of them was able bodied as he’d ever been in his last life. 

Anakin had explained early on, when he was confused too and still trying to figure out what happened, that him and Obi-Wan had been focused on different things. 

Obi-Wan probably didn’t even know any clones had come back in time with them, since Obi-Wan’s focus in the force had been destination in both time and space. They had been aiming for the Jedi temple, of course. Anakin just prayed Obi-Wan didn’t think Ani had abandoned him…

Thing is, it was Anakin’s job to keep them safe as they traveled. It had taken a moment, but Anakin had realized they were dragging clones and a few others back with them, so he’d sacrificed keeping them together, and incidentally in the process, his hold of an abled body, to keep everyone they were dragging back safe instead. 

That’s when him and Obi-Wan got separated, in that infinite void when he realized they were too magnetized to the clones not to bring them back. 

Maybe the force did it, actually. Maybe it knew they wouldn’t get real far without the clones… or maybe Obi-Wan’s plans to save Mandalore meant there were never gonna be any clones, so there’s no harm in bringing them back too. 

Either way, Anakin had his buir, and he’d find his Obi, and they’d be a happy family. 

But right now, they were sitting in the upper level of the port. This was a transit hub, unlike the station they’d been at last, which was the first stop to a tourist world, this port saw a lot of traffic in and out. On the upper level, they had a food court, and a little artificial park. Anakin adored it because he saw the algae tanks in place of other oxygen makers, and had gone on an excited ramble about everything he knew about green algae tanks. He knew how to build one, and he knew how to maintain one. 

But the really sweet part, had been the clearly awed young couple a bit away, who kept looking over at Ani while he rambled. Baby fever spreads like a plague when you interact with Mandalorians too much. Whoops. 

They were sitting there now. Anakin had been working on his arm in class when the other kids are just learning their maths and such, and it’s going really well, since Anakin is at least being watched over while he’s working. Rex really does worry about him needing help while he only had one arm. 

Rex has been working on the docks while they stay here, and it actually pays fairly well. He’s been looking for more signs of vod’e on the holonet, but they’d hit a wall again for the meantime. Rex had suggested they could go back to Ms Shelly, or brainstorm places the vod’e were likely to go, but Anakin had given it some thought before saying he thinks they should stay in place for a while. 

Rex was just so used to Jedi at this point, that didn’t even feel cryptic anymore. He was just okay with a slow life that didn’t have too much effort to it, he guesses. Maybe some other vod’e would want the action, the vengeance for the lives they were forced to live. 

It’s not that Rex didn’t think they deserved vengeance, it’s just that he’d lived long enough to settle a little, understand that no one could outrun the force. He’s less frantic about it. 

Rex relaxed a little as they sat there, watching Anakin more than the ships that came to dock. His little boy was so sweet, all pink cheeks and fluffy hair. Rex had once seen pictures of him, when he first got to the temple, and then a few months later. Obi-Wan had admitted that none of them knew his hair was going to curl like that the moment he was properly hydrated. Apparently some hair reacted to the hydration in the air, instead of being always curled. 

He had baby curls now, little ringlets that were just short enough not to be in his way while he worked. Rex would have to get him a cut soon, though, since Anakin would start to fuss if it got in his eyes. Well, maybe. 

Anakin used to fuss at it during the war, but he’d also admitted that the look of it was really nice, and he wanted to grow it longer. The issue is, in that in-between moment of short and long, it would get in his eyes. Maybe Rex could find some clips for him that didn’t bother him too much, see if he wanted to grow those pretty locks out. 

Anakin looked up at him with those big blue eyes that made Rex want to give him the galaxy, and that look was so soft while Rex brushed those curls aside to get a better look. 

“Hug?”

Rex pulled the little one up into his arms to cuddle, giving a few soft kisses to his head. Sometimes a little boy just needed a snuggle. Rex understood that. 

When he brought Anakin back to his school again, they were greeted by the student teacher, Miss Amir, a pantoran with dark blue skin, black markings, and purple hair she kept in a braid. She was sweet and adored Anakin. 

“Did you have a nice lunch with your buir, Ani?”

She was also considerate. She’d noticed the way Anakin’s little nose would wrinkle in distaste at Rex being called his daddy. He didn’t have a daddy. He had Buir, and his Buir was better than any other Buir ever. She’d asked what Ani called Rex, and was both shocked and delighted to realize they were Mandalorian. It showed more tact than most did, using the words Anakin called him. 

“It was nice, Miss Amir, Buir got me my spicy fritters and we watched the new ships coming in! I think one of them is a pirate hunter, but the other kids in the park had never seen one of those, so they didn’t believe me.” He trailed off with an exaggerated pout, before giggling at the mirrored pout Miss Amir gave him. 

“Not everyone is as good of a ship spot as you, kiddo.”

“I know! Thanks for taking me for lunch, Buir!”

Rex crouched down for an Anakin sized hug, and was treated to a big messy smooch on the cheek that left Rex grinning after him with soft eyes that made a few other single parents sigh dreamily at him. Rex wasn’t exactly blind, and he knew his genetics were quite… favorable. He’s even been told that him being a blonde made him look younger for the crowds that were more into that. But, he hasn’t really been interested in that sort of company lately.

He stood back up, a treat in itself as nothing on his body creaked oddly while he looked this young, no creaky knees and lower back pains. It was great, really. Ani was pulled back into the school by one of his friends who wanted to show him a game they were playing. 

“That little boy has you wrapped around his fingers.” One of the other parents, thankfully one that didn’t give him dreamy eyes when he got soft over Ani, probably because she had a wife, was looking at him with a grin and a baby on her hip. She worked in the local medical center, so she’d probably wanted to get some cuddles in with her own tot during her break. Rex cooed a little, giving her a single little finger to grab onto when the woman came over. 

Rex snorted. “In this life, and the next. Not the last though. Oh, what a strong grip you have! How old is she now?”

“Almost seven months. Growing every day. Can I ask where you got that phrase? Is that a societal saying, or maybe a religious one? Sorry, my family didn’t really grow up with religion.”

Rex made a so-so gesture. “It’s sort of a force sensitive thing. Force sects all understand that we simply return to the force when we die, and if we choose to move onto the next life as the same soul, or return and blend with the rest, is really up to us. Ani and I are old souls, I think.”

The woman paused, looking… probably a mix of shock and wonderment? And then she grinned, starting to sway again. “That’s so… I’ve never heard someone talk about it like it’s such a hard fact, before. I find that interesting.”

Rex shrugged. “Grew up in a force null center where we were taught exactly how the force works, but it was for really… culty reasons? Yeah a lot of us have moved on from that, but that doesn’t mean our education wasn’t accurate. We’ve all seen force sensitives do things you’d never imagine a mortal doing. I could give you examples other than just ‘my friend lifted a speeder with his mind’ but they’re all so far out of reality for most people, I doubt anyone would believe me.”

“That is honestly really cool. Maybe one day I’ll see something like that.”

Rex gave her a cheeky look. “Actually, as a doctor, you’re more likely than just about anyone else to see something like that, since Jedi and other force sensitives gravitate to those in need.”

“Well, if they’re in need, I’d be a horrible doctor to stop them.”

***

They were ship spotting when it happened. 

A ship came in, looked like a cargo holder, actually, and bigger than most ships that stayed for some shopping and trading, but, when in need of fuel, and all that. Ships do as they must, and it’s probably going to be a quick trip. 

Anakin went still next to him, hackles raised like a scared tooka to the point where other families in the little park started to look over. One of those families included a little girl from Anakin’s class, and her big brother pulled her onto his hip when she started to whine, the two of them coming over with a worried parent of a middle gender following behind, making worried noises at their baby’s whining. 

They weren’t very human, considering the fur, but they weren’t quite cathar either, a mix in between Rex thought. 

“Hey, is everything okay?”

Rex looked back down to Ani, and quickly scooped him up, giving a gentle bounce to him as he went. He knew the other girl was force sensitive too, and her own parent had put her in the same class as Anakin since there were four other sensitive kids total there, so he decided to focus on Ani. 

“Come on, little bear, tell Buir what’s going on. Is something wrong with the ship?”

The little girl, Milie, started to chitter worryingly. “It feels wrong !”

Anakin’s jaw suddenly clenched, eyes going wide as he started to pinpoint why . He sounded a little older when he spoke, but still clearly the child out of the two of them. “It’s a slaver hold, Buir, I can feel the sentients on board. We have to stop them from undocking while they’re refueling. Do you know anyone on the docks that can force a search?”

The parent of the other kids perked up a little. “My friend on the docks can force a search with good cause. Is there anything concrete other than ‘the force told me so’ we can go off of? That one only really works for Jedi, in republic space.”

Rex gave the man a little grin. “Call them, tell them to stop that ship at any costs. The size of it means refueling could take a couple of hours, I can get you that proof in that time. Just make sure the dock security knows that ship isn’t leaving.”

Before Rex could leave, the parent, Jiamo, turned to their children. “Take your sister back to the school. Don’t tell them anything about the ship, just that she got overwhelmed in the park because of sensitive feedback, I’m going Rex and Anakin.”

The boy was clearly about to argue, but then the little girl started to whimper again, and he clamped his mouth shut, giving a tight little nod and starting to leave the area. 

Jiamo kept pace with Rex’s fast walk easily. “You two were… freed, right? Is that the sort of ship they typically use?” They were typing on their comm while they walked, just barely keeping an eye on Rex and Anakin out of the corner of his view. Amazing multitasking, really, Rex should learn to do that. 

Rex gave them a look. “No, there’s never been, and never will be, a standard ship for slave moving. You can’t catch them that way. It’s the feeling in the force.”

Ani nodded, making sad noises. “That’s what the markets feel like, when the others are about to go to auction. People are always the most afraid when we don’t know who comes next. What they’re buying you for.”

Jiamo nodded, sending another message between themself and their friend. “Great news, sort of? Maisley says their product manifests look really sketchy, but they weren’t going to question it since they don’t plan to trade here. You think that could be reason enough?” 

Rex shrugged. “Maybe. Ultimately, I will get that proof. I’m not a Mandalorian for nothing, I’ll get it if I have to board myself.”

Jiamo made a nervous noise. “Well, don’t get caught over it, that’s very dangerous.”

Rex gave them a look as they were entering a lift that was going to take them to the docking area. “I wouldn’t be trapped in there with them. They’d be trapped with me.”

Jiamo rolled their eyes. “Oh my god that is so cheesy.”

Rex snorted. “Not wrong though. I was raised for dangerous efficiency.”

Rex almost expected Anakin to half heartedly make a joke, but the lift opened up to the main docking area. 

Several things happened. 

Anakin sat up in Rex’s arms, no longer trying to climb into Rex’s neck as he took in what he felt in the force. That was the only warning before he yelled. 

It wasn’t the yell the hit Rex first. Actually, the room went silent, multiple people diving out of the way of the feeling that ripped through the air, and most of them going silent before the panic started. Rex couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out what Anakin had just screamed, because it felt like all the air sucked out of the room into a vacuum. 

Which is probably why people were diving for the doors to get further into the station, probably assuming there was a vacuum seal failure. 

No. That was the vacuum of space, that was the vacuum of the endless void between worlds. 

Anakin sat up in Rex’s arms, and yelled again. And this time, Rex could hear it. 

“Momma!”

Rex looked at Ani with wide eyes, realizing that feeling of void was coming from him. And then followed his eyes. 

There was a woman with dark brown hair, probably as young as Rex, looking around with panic. “Ani? Ani!”

The man at her side was stopped, looking at her like he was going to backhand her. And that’s when it hit Rex who they just found, and what that hit of infinite void had done. Anakin had reopened the bond between mother and child that had driven him in their last life. 

Rex was by their side before the man could actually hit her, since they hadn’t been very far away, and a blaster in his face stopped him from touching her. 

Jiamo was talking to the head of dock security as Rex took a step between Shmi Skywalker and the slaver, letting Anakin dive out of his arms and into hers. She caught him, still looking dazed but the protective way she held Ani saying she wasn’t going to let him go for anything. 

The security that surrounded them looked confused, but not willing to ask Rex to lower his blaster. “Rex, can you maybe explain what just happened?”

Rex didn’t look away from the man, who looked murderous that Rex would stand between him and his property. “The cargo freighter that just docked is full of slaves.”

The slaver looked like he might start to froth at the mouth. “You have no proof of that!”

“Miss Skywalker? Do you still have a slave chip?”

Shmi was quiet for a moment, looking at the slaver in fear before she cleared her throat. “I… yes. Of course.”

“Then maybe the dock security should check it still works, deactivate it, and then enter the ship to remove the others?”

Shmi looked down at Anakin in fear and confusion. “They can do that?”

Ani looked at her with so much love and fear that Shmi squished him to her chest again. “Yeah, Momma. They can take it out. It’s not allowed here.”

Oh. Oh . “Alright.”

Chapter Text

Shmi was sitting in the medical ward when Doctor Myas was told a slave needed to be dechipped in the port. Actually, multiple slaves. 

She’s done it before, but it was very rare on ports like this, and the port security said another ninety-nine of them would have to be removed from a ship that never should have docked here in the first place. Apparently, it was this big issue in the docks, and happened less than thirty minutes after they got into the port proper. A force sensitive kid had realized the ship felt wrong, and one of the sellers had been dumb enough to bring his personal slave out into the port to entertain himself. 

The slave, which turned out to be said force sensitive’s biological mother. 

Miss Skywalker was sitting on a waiting room when Doctor Myas came in, and Hailey Myas thought she understood what had happened pretty fast. 

She looked from little Anakin -Skywalker, she really should have connected those dots before now- who was notably the most force sensitive child in the port school, and back to Rex, who was sitting across the room, a full bed between them like he was trying to give her as much space as possible. 

She didn’t really look nervous, but she studied the little boy in her arms with barely blinking features, and a shaking hand running through his sweet curls. 

He was babbling about the time they’d been apart, and Rex adopting him and the… Jedi? Had Rex and Anakin been freed by a Jedi? Maybe. 

Anakin stopped when Hailey came in, looking over at her before turning a brilliant grin back to Miss Skywalker. “Momma, this is Doctor Myas! Her twins are in the same class as me, and she has a baby, and a wife, and they make cupcakes every weekend for the open market, and she’s really nice, I promise.”

The woman’s eyes went soft as he spoke, and she leaned in to press a kiss to his head. “Thank you, Ani. You’re such a good boy for me. I think maybe you should sit with your Buir while she looks for my chip, though.”

Rex seemed to tear up at that, and Hailey suddenly got it. Rex was the adopted father, she’d known that much. But Rex didn’t want to step between reunited parent and child, but hopefully, that meant she approved. “Come here, little bear, you can sit with me while your Momma gets checked.”

Anakin looked nervous to leave Miss Skywalker’s arms, but she just laughed a little, and set him on the ground in front of her chair. “Remember what I told you, Ani. We can’t be afraid to move forward.”

Ani frowned, but moved over to Rex’s arms, getting scooped up into the man’s body with a gusty little sigh. “I’m not afraid of anything, Momma. I just don’t want to leave you behind again.”

Miss Skywalker was obviously trying so hard not to cry. “I will never leave you again, if I can help it, baby. But that doesn’t meant we don’t keep moving. You have two parents now, and he should be your safety just as much as I am. And you are allowed to be afraid, it just can’t control you. Momma is just going to let the nice doctor take her chip out.”

Anakin wasn’t as strong as that, a few tears slipping out as Rex moved him to gently nuzzle his neck and wipe them away for him. “Your Momma is so very smart, little bear. You like Doctor Myas, and she’ll be good to her.”

Anakin sighed again, but nodded. “Are the others going to come through here?”

Doctor Myas nodded. “This is a big situation, Ani, and I’m so proud of you for figuring it all out. We have the entire station reorganizing so the other medical clinics can set up camp in the docking bay you found them in.”

Rex nodded. “A lot easier than putting them all in little rooms like this, I guess.”

“Exactly. I think the security was worried about getting you three out of the open, so that’s why they sent you my way. I’m going to assess Miss Skywalker, and use that to help set up a triage system they can use in the bay, and then me and the security can start moving scanning equipment to the bay. They’ve also contacted three diners in the port that are willing to set up food service, since it’ll take a while.”

Miss Skywalker looked at her for a long moment, and nodded. “Please, call me Shmi. You have questions?”

The doctor sat on a rolling chair in front of her, smiling. She didn’t want to make Shmi move to the table till she needed to check her over, since that had a habit of making some patients nervous while waiting. “Are the others on the ship in healthy condition, to your best knowledge?”

She gave a wavering nod. “As good as slaves typically are. Slaves that go to market are usually in their best condition. They aren’t good to resell if they get sickly. There might be some that are injured, though. The guards get rough sometimes, masters sell after a bad injury makes them less useful for labor.”

Hailey was making a few notes on a flimsipad in her hands, nodding. “That’s very good to know. Now, are you all coming from similar areas of the galaxy?”

“Yes. We were all on the same planet before now, Hordel Trian.”

“Is that outside of republic space?”

“It’s on the edge of Hutt territory.”

Hailey looked at Anakin with a little frown. Sometimes this boy really talked like an adult. Rex had mentioned it was a genius intellect habit that kids would take up. They had an adult facts giving voice, something that adults wouldn’t just brush off as kiddo rambling. “I supposed you’re very lucky they took you out of Hutt territory, and not further into it.”

Shmi stared at Anakin with watery eyes. “Ma’am, luck had nothing to do with this. This was the will of the universe mending a mistake.”

Hailey looked back at Rex with a little half smile. “I think I see more of that force sensitivity talk. I guess you were right.”

Rex snorted, looking a little amused. “I told you you were in the right field of work to find a powerful force sensitive to show you something interesting.”

Shmi smiled. “Yeah, shocking it took you this long for Ani to show you something like this.”

Hailey grinned. “I’m sure he’s been shocking everyone since his birth, at the rate he’s going. Hmm, you must have been about fifteen when you have birth? Was it a healthy pregnancy and delivery?”

Shmi considered that for a moment. She knew she hadn’t really given birth to him, and likely never would in this reality, but she also knew that she had. She wasn’t as young as the doctor thought she’d been, though. “Uh, I mean I think it must have been as healthy as a slave pregnancy can get? It’s not like we had doctors unless we were a prized breeder, or the owners get the urge to spoil one of their favorites. I guess it turned out okay.”

Anakin kicked his legs a little, looking shy as he peaked out from Rex’s hold. “I think you should test Momma’s midichlorian count, too. I don’t think she’s low on the count.”

Shmi frowned. “Is that what the Jedi test for, baby?”

Anakin nodded, and Hailey spoke up. “You likely haven’t been tested before, being born outside the republic, but it’s how we flag children that’ll likely need training to stabilize their abilities. Actually, this is a good idea. I already need to do two blood tests on you. One is to flag any blood pathogens that could cause issues, and the other it to look for what vaccinations you’ve had. You and all the others will unfortunately, be stuck in the port until a medical vessel picks you all up, or until you’ve been here a full month. It’s procedural for any sort of disease prevention for those entering the republic.”

Shmi hummed, watching the doctor while she pulled out a set of strips, paused, and then pulled out all the boxed tests she had on hand, adding them to a box that was sitting close to the door, probably getting supplies ready to take to the docks. “You know, I’m not actually sure where I was born. My carrier was already a slave.”

Hailey gave her a sad little smile. “I’m just so glad you and little Ani are breaking that cycle, and taking a lot back with you. Either way, a lot of tests to make sure you’re all healthy… Rex?”

Rex sat up a little straighter. “Yes?”

Hailey swiveled to look at them. “Did you and Ani get vaccinations and health check ups after you were free?”

Rex opened his mouth a few times, before looking away, face hot. “No. A woman in the first port we found work on helped us get freedom papers from the planet they orbited.”

“I thought that might have been the case. I’d like to do the same tests on you two, you might need some shoots as well.”

Anakin made a fussy sound, whining. “I don’t want to, but I will. You’re lucky I’m not my Obi, he doesn’t like needles. You can’t check my midichlorian count, though. I already know my numbers.”

She frowned. “That doesn’t mean we can’t check it again, love?”

Ani shook his head again. “No. Midichlorian counters have an automated response system to report back to the nearest republic medical center. It’s only accessible by Jedi and their senate liaisons, but it’s an automatic system.”

Hailey didn’t know why Anakin knew that much about the systems. “…you don’t want the Jedi to know your count?”

Anakin gave a little shrug. “They’ll know. Later. They can’t know until I find my Obi.”

Shmi set a gentle hand on Hailey’s shoulder, giving her a soft smile. “His count is… considerable. Sometimes Ani’s need to follow the will of the force, is stronger than his need for larger bodies of government and the help they can give. Today was a time where the force was useful to getting sentients out of harm's way. I believe Ani may still have some… plans, before we can establish contact.”

Before Hailey could get worried about that, Anakin piped up, looking like a wriggly massiff. “Yes yes, I need to find more droid parts!”

Hailey couldn’t help a little snort of amusement, still looking a bit worried. “You’ll make contact with them at some point? They have a lot of resources that can help you all, both as force sensitives and freed slaves.”

Anakin nodded. “Yes yes, the Jedi are good. I guess. But we have things to do right now! I can’t be stuck in a crèche fighting with toddlers over blocks right now! I have places to be, a momma and buir to entertain! It’s tough, being this small.” He ended off with an exhausted sigh, as if wary of the universe’s secrets and knowledge all rattling around in his little brain. 

Sometimes it was hard to remember she was talking to a little boy. What a sweetheart. Shmi was looking at him with teary eyes and a grin she couldn’t hold back. Yeah, he was just beyond precious. She was so happy the gods of the universe had brought him back to her. Or given him to her, since in this life she never would have known a difference. 

A gift. A gift for her to love and care for, and a good man that knew a bit more about the universe to help her while she learned how things worked, so Ani never went without what he needed in the meantime. She was gifted, in this lifetime. 

Shmi and Anakin, thankfully, hadn’t been the oddest ones in that doctors office, since they’d both got to rub their aching vaccination spots while Rex gave the confused doctor a rundown on the multitude of genetic mixes that modern Mandalorians these days tended to have in their DNA, till the doctor finally narrowed down those odd blips in Rex’s genetic code to a higher percentage than normal of Taung, Mirilan and Galacian ancestry. 

The way Rex and Ani had looked surprised, Shmi was going to guess none of that had been prevalent in their last life. Anakin gave Rex a little grin. “Buir and my Obi are similar now.”

Rex raised an eyebrow. “Are we?”

Anakin nodded. “Gala system is on the edge of Joni system, they orbit each other, and the citizens are similar enough genetically that they interact and consider each other one half of a whole.”

Hailey looked up from where she was prepping species safe vaccines for the last one before they could all pack up and get ready to corral the loading docks, since the adults had offered their support in that. “You know so very much about the universe. And you aren’t wrong. Did you have good schooling, at one point?”

Anakin grinned at her, this time cuddled back into Shmi’s chest. “I learn from the whispers of the force. They are so loud, I can do nothing but learn.”

Hailey snorted. “That’s one way to do it, I guess. I wish medical school had been that easy.”

Anakin shrugged. “It’s not easy, it’s just loud.”

“Like a midrim mother who doesn’t understand why you don’t know how to cook a dish she never taught you so her voice keeps getting louder and somehow that helps you retain the information?” She probably shouldn’t have said that. A little boy probably wouldn’t know-

Anakin nodded, though, looking wise. “I know that tone, my Obi uses that tone. He’s not a very good cook, according to everyone else, but I eat anything.”

Hailey snorted, pulling on a pair of gloves and pulling out the sterilizing concentrator she used to clean biceps before injections. “Is your Obi one of the whispers? Is he… alive?”

Anakin gave a little shrug, looking angelic. Biblically, she means. Anakin looked terrifying when he did that, is what she means. “Alive, dead, unborn. We all go through phases. Many of us, multiple times.”

Thank you, this clarified nothing, curdled it all, really. He’s such a lovely little boy, a void breather of terrible greatness. “You all should come over for a playdate in a few days. My wife is a social worker, she’ll have papers for everyone by the end of the month, but she can give you some advice on free living, places to go for work, maybe share her cookie recipes.”

“That sounds nice, thank you.”

Rex, to his credit, didn’t tense up or flinch at the shots. A champ, she wanted to hand him a sucker. She decided not to overthink it, and held out the jar of lollipops to the three of them after they helped her get the boxes on the hoverdolly outside the room, and then tucked the jar and two bags of extra suckers into a box so she could maybe calm the others in the docks as well. The three of them had seemed delighted with the candies. 

***

Most of the others were being kept in a motel close enough to the docks to accommodate them all, but Rex and Ani had their ship. He’d begged a sleeping mat off a friend in the docks who’d been happy to oblige, saying he was so happy they were all reunited. It was sweet, and Rex and Anakin’s ship only had one bunk, which they usually used for cuddling. Rex wasn’t very used to sleeping alone, and Anakin was just a little boy who got cold easily, so it was easier to pile them in the same bunk. 

But, for the sake of their peace of mind, Rex took the sleeping mat on the floor while Shmi slept with Anakin. 

It wasn’t until the third day that a Republic Judicial showed up, wanting to ask questions to anyone that could give them. 

Anakin was hiding from them, obviously. He didn’t want anything to do with them finding out he had a midichlorian count over forty thousand. That could end up bad in a lot of ways, and public in more than even the Jedi would ever condone. 

Shmi’s modest count of ten thousand was nice, and really explained how easily Anakin reformed a force bond between them to let her know he’s her son, but as the bravest one of the ‘stock’ that had been taken to market, she was more willing to talk to them than the others were. She was actually hoping her willingness to speak up would get the attention away from Anakin. 

“Your son was the one who recognized you in the docks, yes?”

The woman from Judicial in charge of the case was kind, an older woman who wore her hair in a pulled up twist and had a purr to her tone that wasn’t quite human. 

Shmi nodded, calm as she sat in front of the woman, comfortable with the Mandalorian and her boy at her back. “Yes. I was taken off the ship because I was… I was a favorite, of the foreman of the ship. He said… he said he’d been considering buying me.”

The woman didn’t make any notes, she had a small recording device in front of her, one that didn’t translate image, thankfully. “How did you get separated from your son?”

Shmi looked over to Rex and Ani, eyes going soft. “He was traded away, I don’t know what for, some gamble. But he ended up with Rex, a Mandalorian. From what I’ve heard, you don’t put a child in front of a Mandalorian without expecting them to adopt. I’m lucky they had each other in that time, that they’re out and found me.”

The Judicial leader smiled. “You really are. They have freedom papers from the planet… Vaga Mar?”

Shmi nodded. “They do. They found work there and a citizen on the station helped them go through the process.”

She was going through another document the doctor had given her. “Your DNA profiles match for Anakin to be your son, so your story is completely sound, in my opinion. Rex pulling a blaster on the foreman can be considered reasonable panic in this situation, and otherwise there was completely probable cause to enter the ship.”

Anakin frowned. “Can that really be a thing? That we get in trouble for not following protocol even if slaves are found?”

The Judicial gave a so-so gesture. “It’s called fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine. You find evidence through illegal means, and even if the evidence, in this case, being slaves, while that evidence still must be turned over, and no one would go back into slavery; it could also allow a loophole for the government of origin outside the republic to demand the prisoner back. All this to say, we can hold the crew of this ship indefinitely as slavery is a life-long sentence in this sector.”

Anakin nodded, looking pleased. “All slavers should become prisoners. Death is too good for someone who should suffer what they put us through.”

The Judicial smiled, but it was a little sad, at a little boy who knew that much about the galaxy. “Very true.”

“Except Jabba the Hutt. He should be strangled with the chains he uses on his girls.”

The woman’s eyebrows went up, an odd little snort coming out. “Oh? An interesting proposal.”

Anakin nodded firmly, looking, not quite pleased, but determined in a way. Understanding of how things should be.

Rex just cuddled him in tighter, giving him little kisses to his curls. He was such a sweetheart. 

***

Anakin was giving Rex grumpy looks when he and Shmi came to pick the little boy up from school a few days later. Rex frowned, hands on his hips as he studied the little boy being cuddled to Shmi’s chest. It was only gonna last so long before he was squirming down, like usual. Rex liked to get his cuddles in with the little boy while they could, but Shmi was getting them now. “What’s up with that pout?”

Anakin heaved a sigh. “Momma can’t leave the station for nearly a month for quarantine procedure. I feel like we need to keep moving.”

Rex frowned. That could mean anything from an approaching Jedi -which is a very big possibility because of Anakin’s outburst in the force that connected him to Shmi- to feeling like they needed to catch someone else before they moved on away from them all. “What kind of feeling is it, ad’ike?”

Anakin concentrated on the feeling, a hand curled into Shmi’s nice shirt while they started their way to the algae park. They liked to bring Anakin there after school, on days they didn’t have time to bring him for lunch. 

Shmi, in the need to do something, had taken on a job working with Rex in the docks, moving things as needed so the port wasn’t completely shut down, usually emergency supplies that were being sent in to keep everyone fed and such while this whole end of the port was quarantined, and working with the doctors and social workers to help the other freed. 

She was rather advantaged, in the fact that her bond with little Ani gave her a lot of knowledge of freedom realities, and she’d never been accused of lacking confidence. 

Anakin hummed for a while, before shrugging. “Someone’s coming, but some things coming first. We get the something that comes and leave before the someone.”

“Do you think it’s a Jedi?”

“Probably. Not a darksider, at least. They mean well but I’m not ready to sit still yet!” To emphasize the point, he wriggled in Shmi’s hold, till she gave a soft laugh and let him down again, holding his hand while Rex held the other, the two of them standing outside the little boy to guard him. Such a cryptic little thing, their little guy. Their little lovecraftian horror of a force guide. 

***

Rex was trying his best to respect Shmi’s space. He was maybe even considering trading in the ship for one with either a second room, or just a second bunk. 

At least, he had been. 

“Rex?”

The voice sounded shaky, and Rex sat up on his sleeping mat immediately. He looked over to where Shmi was curled around a sleeping Anakin, expecting to see her crying or something, but not this. 

She was shivering. Rex gave a little curse. The ship wasn’t the warmest in the world, but he’d assumed since she’d never been on Tatooine in this lifetime, she’d be able to handle the cooler temperature better. Anakin was used to it from living on ships, knowing how to get his body heat up when he got chilly and what he needed to wear, but Shmi just looked freezing. 

“Kriff, you look frozen. I need to get the heater properly fixed soon.” He got up, starting to pull out another set of his thermals. She hadn’t complained at all, so force only knows how long she’s been getting bad sleep from the cold. Anakin could fix the heater himself, but they needed extra parts he’d have to pick up from the manufacturer center soon. “I have a pair of thermals, they’ll be too big, but it’s another layer to add.”

Shmi got up shakily, shivering violently and starting to undress without leaving the room. Rex turned to give her privacy, but a lifetime of living with Jedi and clones had really highlighted the lack of body shyness in either of their cultures, and Shmi seemed to fit into that. A body was just a body, but just because she was undressing near him, didn’t mean that was permission to gawk. 

He decided then and there, he’d never touch, or even look without explicit permission- no. Not permission. But wanting him to look or touch. You can give permission without actually wanting it, but he’d never do something against her or Ani without their approval. 

Anakin’s little arms reaching out for him when Rex first found him in the cargo hold came to mind. The way he reached up and asked for help… that was what he was looking for. 

Shmi made a noise behind him, and he turned back around to see her pulling her first sweater back on over the thermals Rex used on the outer docks, where it was colder. She looked at him with eyes that were big and understanding, like a Jedi did when they realized something. She was perceptive, but it might be that considerable midi count letting her know. That’s okay, Rex doesn’t think that’s cheating at all. It was easy to read his force sensitives. “Can you sleep with us on the bed? Ani says you’re warm enough that he hasn’t asked about fixing the heater yet.”

Rex’s heart melted, and he gave a little nod. “My advanced genetics give my vod’e and I a higher body temperature. General Kenobi used to complain about getting pulled into sleeping piles, since he likes thick sleep clothes, but Anakin always loved it. It’s cold out here, in space.”

Shmi smiled, gesturing at the bed. “I'm glad you keep my baby warm. I can sleep in any position, you first.”

Rex nodded, climbing carefully over Anakin’s little bundled form, taking his thin blanket he used on the floor mat, and accepting the pillow Shmi handed him to wedge between himself and the head of the bunk. The wall of the bunk was padded to keep out the cold, so he tilted to the side, giving her a look of ascent as he gestured at the space in front of him. 

She was only just barely less careful as she climbed between his body and little Ani, letting him blanket her back, the little cold tremors stopping almost instantly as he pulled both their blankets over them, and Shmi pulled little Ani back into her stomach. 

She closed her eyes, calm and finally feeling warm for the first time in what felt like forever. Rex just gave her hair a little nuzzle, and made sure there were no gaps for cold air in the blankets. He’d get the heater parts tomorrow, or put in an order for them, and Shmi and Anakin could put it together to save them a hefty chunk of money. 

But still, maybe he should look for some decently warm blankets, some thick ones that Shmi could curl up in comfortably, and some fleece clothes for her. 

She deserved that. She’s had a hard life, and Rex just wanted her comfortable now. She let out a soft little sigh, more than halfway asleep now. “You make me comfortable. You try so hard for us.”

“Well, honor to your aliit is an important part of community. I try my best to keep us all together and healthy.”

“You do a good job.”

Yeah. Rex might cry, but he won’t. He just adores these two so much.

***

There was a ship in the docks that Anakin wanted to get a look at. 

Which isn’t too much of an issue, since they were one of the relief ships here for a fuel refill and prepaid supplies for the refugees living in the apartments outside the docks. The Judicial had a relief system for freed slaves, so it wasn’t actually hard to find supplies for them, since supply ships flocked to ports or planets in need, and Judicial paid if they had supplies the freed could use. 

All this to say, Rex had a little boy sitting on a crate just past the docks entrance into the port proper, the areas that were almost impossible to lose to the vacuum of space, since Rex wasn’t completely stupid. 

Anakin was sitting on a crate, glaring at a guard on shift outside the second doors leading into the docks. “I’m sorry, kiddo, you can’t be in there right now. You need an adult to watch you. The main docks are closed to citizens while the quarantine is under effect. We have to keep any germs away from ships that will leave.”

Anakin stomped his little foot. “My Buir is in there.” Momma was with Doctor Hailey’s wife right now, less than a block away from him, getting her citizenship papers in order, and apparently, learning how to bake in a ship like Rex and Anakin’s. Rex and Anakin lived off take out and rations most of the time, and Shmi was already getting twitchy whenever she saw rations. It had too many memories for it, and she’d asked for a small oven for the kitchenette, and Rex was looking for small appliances that can be used for cooking. 

Rex was spoiling Momma a bit, and it made Ani really happy. She deserved an amazing kitchen if that’s what she wanted.

The guard shrugged. “Maybe he can come get you to see whatever you want in there on his break.”

Which is why Anakin sat back down on his crate, pulling into a lotus position so he could rest his palms on his knees. He started to think really hard at Rex through their bond. They were lucky that Anakin wasn’t clumsy in the force, and their bond fit them very well, but even still, having a little boy in your head chattering your ear off that his Special Object was finally here and he wanted to get it, wasn’t conducive to work. 

Rex sighed as he swiped his card to pass through the first vacuum door, and then the second, looking to his right to see Anakin still meditating on the crate, focusing on their bond. He crouched to eye level with the small boy. “Ani, that’s not very nice to distract me like this.”

Anakin looked up at him with a pout, arms crossed. “I need to, or my opportunity will be gone!”

Rex sighed. “The captain of the ship seems very nice, maybe we can ask xem politely if we can follow the will of the force into xir cargo hold.”

Anakin nodded, looking pleased with himself. The guard on duty looked a bit surprised, but it was starting to get around that little Anakin was particularly force sensitive. Rex thought they might have to leave the station soon, since it would attract Jedi attention sooner, rather than later.

Anakin was helped off the crate, even though he could probably fall from the ceiling without an issue. Rex just liked to spoil him a little. Anakin held his hand as they went through the docks to the chagrian captain that had docked an hour ago. Xey had a smaller supply load of medical supplies, enough that all the newly freed could have their own medical kits on hand, and a larger supply of off-brand resale clothing. 

Rex had an eye on one of the particularly thick fleece sweaters for Shmi from the supplies. She’d like being surrounded by soft heat, he thought. They were good, as long as you were in a dry environment. 

Xey had heard Anakin’s ramblings about how the force said there was something special for him on that ship, and started to laugh big belly laughs that made xir crew amused too, and Rex followed them into the ship, probably on a merry chase for a data chip or something else that would mean nothing to anyone else but Anakin. 

Actually, they were headed into a cargo room that the captain said was mostly used for junk storage. That everything in there would be scrapped anyway. 

Anakin was instantly attracted to a dull bronze looking droid that was heaped on the floor. 

It had no lower half to its body, but Rex would know that droid anywhere, and he knew damn well what parts Anakin was sending them on a galaxy wide chase for now. Anakin looked up at the captain, eager eyes as he held the droid's limp hand. “Can I have him? We don’t have much but we can work out a trade, I’m sure.”

The captain looked as melted as a Mando at the sight of those big doe eyes, and gave him a little grin. “That thing was going to be scrapped at the next junkyard we got to. Wasn’t sure a port would want a half a droid, but we would probably have discarded him on the outer rim, since that’s where we were headed to next. They can always scavenge those parts to be useful. You want it?”

Anakin nodded, a brilliant smile on his face. “More than anything. I love droids. I like to fix them.”

Xey snorted, giving Ani a wave of the hand. “No charge, my little friend, the droid is all yours now, as long as your guardian agrees.”

Rex nodded. “Oh, I couldn’t possibly keep him from a droid.”

Anakin beamed, turning to pat the droid on the head. “I’m so glad! You’ll get to come home with us, Threepio!”

Chapter Text

Alpha needed to make several stops. Jango really had a heft amount of credits in the banking chit, and Alpha was usually the voice of reason when Cody got it in his head that Obi-Wan needed a new toy or blanket. 

He’d caved on the handheld gaming device, mostly because Obi-Wan would pull Boba into his side to watch him play and it kept them entertained in the public markets for hours . Obi-Wan had even admitted that a verde, likely one who would have stolen Obi-Wan and Boba if they hadn’t already been adopted, liked a specific game and got him a copy of it just so she could join them and play together. 

It was sweet, and worth the minor setback because it kept them both entertained long enough not to cause Jedi-attracting chaos. 

They still needed to figure out who to talk to, or blackmail, on the council before they could risk exposure and possibly getting Obi-Wan dragged back to the temple. 

Now all of this to say, Alpha would love to spoil the little shit, but he was just too practical to do it without eating the cost. But now, there were options. Options that came with having an idiot who hands him a banking chit. 

Stopped by the shipper store on the block nearest the shipyard, the clothing store that he knew had stuff Boba and Obi-Wan wouldn’t manage to tear up too badly, while still being inexpensive, and now he was at the artisan that supposedly made chewy necklaces and teeth guards. 

“What species is your ad?”

“Stewjoni. They got drop fangs, he’s got six total. Two on the bottom and one on top.”

“But he’s thirteen? Are they adult fangs yet?”

Alpha paused, trying to think back to what Obi-Wan’s fangs had looked like as an adult. “How do I tell?”

“They don’t fall out like the rest of the baby teeth, drop fangs sort of… shed, every year or so, sometimes more and they get another cap removed, but around starting puberty they lose the last baby cap, and the teeth that show after are wider. Just a little.”

That is sort of horrifying. Alpha gave a little sigh. “He might be a year or two off from the last cap. Earlier if I can get him fed enough, maybe.”

The woman behind the counter, a twi’lek with a full set of fangs, not a single blunted tooth, just nodded, looking through a catalog. “Is he biting in his sleep?”

“More of a clamp, than a bite. He sort of attaches to someone’s arm and stays there. My partner and I have been wearing leather arm guards.”

She snorted. “He’ll want something flesh feeling, but it should probably have a shield so he doesn’t shove anything in there beside it.”

Alpha had to admit, the idea of giving Obi-Wan what was essentially a dental friendly pacifier, was both amusing and delightful. A mute button. “Are these in stock, or made to order?”

“I have quite a few in stock, but some are made to order, if you want specific modifications and whatnot.”

“Thank you. Can I see the catalog to pick some out, and see what’s in stock?”

“Of course.”

***

Alpha had come back to the apartment for the second time, to see a scene of vague chaos and amusement. It was closer to night than any of them wanted it to be, so hopefully Cody and Prime could wrangle the cadets into getting ready to sleep, but Alpha didn’t have too much hope. Pushover. 

Obi-Wan was wide awake, eyes big like a lothcat after spotting prey, and teeth clamped around one of Myles’s vambrace under-leathers. He unclamped with a purring chirp, looking over at Alpha with big feral eyes. “Al’Buir!”

Myles whimpered, holding his arm to his chest. “Oh, that grazed skin, I think. If not, it’s properly bruised, now.”

Obi-Wan just chirped a few more times. He really was more feral as a kid. The woman in the teether shop had mentioned Stewjoni children were basically feral kits till they finished puberty and settled down a little. It made things make a lot more sense. Obi-Wan seemed confused at his own noises, before giving off a higher chirp than before, this one sounding questioning. 

“What’s wrong, Obes?”

Obi-Wan seemed to think about it for a moment, before his cheeks flushed red, and he glanced down. “I hadn’t realized those were chirping, not words. I asked where you went.”

Alpha lifted the three duffles on his left arm before setting them down and unloading the new shopping onto the nearest couch. 

Prime and Mereel seemed to still be in the kitchen, and Alpha could hear them trying to argue with Boba over something. Prime would be unlikely to fold to his ad, but Mereel would learn of the stubbornness of Boba Fett soon enough. Cody was coming out of the fresher with a towel around his shoulders and scrubbing his hair dry, and Silas wasn’t in view or hearing range at the moment. “I got the old apartment cleared out. Clothes and toiletries, anyways. I needed to get you some stuff. Why are you trying to eat a new victim?”

Obi-Wan gave a shrug. “His leather tastes different than yours.”

That answered nothing, thank you. Myles gave him a pout, and Obi-Wan chirruped at him again, looking pleased with himself. 

Cody came over to nudge into Alpha’s side, a little grin on his face. “Did you get their pajamas, Alpha?”

Alpha pointed at the largest duffle. “That one’s got their clothes and such.”

Cody nodded. “My thanks. Obi-Wan, you have no excuse not to shower now, Boba will be put in one after you.”

Obi-Wan started whining like a sad akk pup. Cody buried his head in the duffle bag to pick out a set of pajamas for him, mostly so he wouldn’t have to look at that pathetic doe eyed face. Alpha wasn’t phased, but that whine did melt his heart a little. 

He started pulling out one of the newest purchases, in a sterilized case and already cleaned and ready to go. 

It was a front teeth guard, with a leathery flesh-like material, and had a shield on the outside to keep Obi-Wan from sticking anything inside his mouth around it. Alpha clipped the necklace to it, and moved to the back of the couch, leaning over so he could nudge Obi-Wan to open his mouth, and pressed the item inside.

Obi-Wan’s eyes crossed in an attempt to look at what had fit between his front teeth, and it gave Alpha a chance to slip the cord over his neck. He sucked, before giving a little growl, and biting down on it instead. Those doe eyes blew wide, and then he was furiously chewing on the thing in his mouth, getting less frantic as a bit of time passed. 

Cody made a noise of awe behind him, and slight horror. “Did you just give him a kriffing pacifier?”

Alpha shook his head. “Chew necklace. It’s made for drop fangs, good for them. It’ll help him shed his teeth caps. I think it’s why he keeps trying to bite us to death, he probably has a layer he needs off.”

Cody came over, cooing a little as he ran his hand through Obi-Wan’s hair, letting the boy lean into his side. “Alpha, it’s a pacifier. It’s got the pacifier shape. We gave those to tubies that came out too early to soothe them.”

Alpha shook his head. “It’s a mouth shield. When he passes out he might still try and stick things in his mouth if the shield isn’t there. That’s what pacifier shields are for, to keep tubies from shoving anything they can find in there.”

Cody cooed again, leaning in to press a kiss to Obi-Wan’s forehead. Obi-Wan started purring a little. “Cyar’ika. Purring cyar’ika.”

Alpha sighed. “Please just get him into a shower. I want him in bed. He’s feral enough already.” He grabbed a pair of pajama pants and a shirt to throw at them, at the two of them, noting a giggling Myles running off to the kitchen as the pants fell on the couch and the shirt covered Cody’s grinning face. Alpha could just barely hear Myles in the other room, saying something in rapid talk that blurred together and then a pause. 

Jango came out of the kitchen, pinching the bridge of his nose while Mij trailed behind him. “A pacifier? For an ik’aad?”

Alpha looked over at Obi-Wan with a world weary sigh. “It’s a teether with an outer shield so he doesn’t stick anything in there beside it.”

“Yeah. Like an ik’aad pacifier.”

Alpha shrugged. “Maybe. Listen, I just learned about an hour ago that Stewjoni teeth grow , mostly their fangs but occasionally all of them, so I’m sort of trying to make sure he doesn’t break a tooth cap off in someone’s arm, here.”

Mij clicked his tongue, arms crossed while he gave a sheepish little wince. “Oh, he’s Stewjoni. I thought he had some Mirilan or Pantoran in him. I hadn’t realized they were drop fangs, I thought they were stable. Yeah, he could lose a tooth cap in someone, but to be fair, it’s better than losing the whole tooth.”

Alpha considered that. “Is that why they have caps? Since the fangs grow long enough to break?”

“Mmm, yeah, the caps keep you from snapping the whole tooth off into someone. Though if you lose the cap too early I bet it hurts.”

Obi-Wan popped the teether out of his mouth, giving a chirruping series of clicks. “Yeah! I’ve done that before, it feels like when you lose a fingernail, but way colder. We don’t have nerves in the bone on our fangs, so it didn’t feel sharp, but it was like an area that’s supposed to have cover being suddenly vulnerable. Healer Che ordered me a falsie cap to wear for the next month while the new one hardened. It was less than a month after I lost the last one, so it wasn’t ready to be exposed yet, but they harden pretty fast once exposed. Like most mouth wounds.”

“How did you lose it?”

Obi-Wan was quiet for a minute, and Alpha raised an eyebrow. Cody and Prime were going through the kids’ duffle, pulling out little outfits for the brats, but Cody looked over when Obi-Wan was silent for a bit. “Ob’ika, how old were you?”

“Twenty. I think… it doesn’t matter. It’s fine. It’s just that when you bite someone deep enough to pierce their bone your tooth cap is really likely to get stuck.”

Jango gave him a horrified look while Jaster came through the room with Boba on his hip. “I’m so lucky I wore all that Beskar, aren’t I? I thought that head butt was dumb enough as it was.”

Obi-Wan shrugged. “I’m not dumb enough to bite when someone’s covered in metal. You were very lucky.”

Jaster looked between them with a frown, handing Boba back over when Jango held up a pair of pastel teal pajamas. “You two fought before? I’m not shocked, I guess, but I would have assumed you two were allies, with everything I’ve seen.”

Jango didn’t say anything, just tucking Boba into his chest, ready to make his escape when Obi-Wan ratted him out, but Obi-Wan just shrugged. “Not like we killed each other. That’s as close to allies as we needed to be.” He shoved the teether back into his mouth, getting off the couch with a stretch and tugging the clean clothes with him to the fresher. 

Jango thought Obi-Wan was also a bit too kind, and maybe too good of a liar.

He toted Boba off to Buir’s rooms to use the bathroom there to clean up Boba. Him and Jaster had decided to put Jango in there with him, so Kote and Alpha could have a room with Obi-Wan. They couldn’t leave the ade in the same room, since they’d just end up cranky again, and leaving Kote and Alpha in the living room was a recipe for them not relaxing either. 

It would just have to do, he guessed. 

***

Obi-Wan came out of the bathroom, dressed and comfortable in his pajamas, only to be instantly bombarded with what sounded like a war cry as Boba came screeching out of the other room, still naked, wet, and a little bit soapy. Nice. He watched Jango finally get the towel around the toddler for stability, and carry him back inside, looking amused, but rather pleased with the whole situation. 

What Obi-Wan wouldn’t give to be back in those early days, when Anakin used to climb into his bed to tuck his head under Obi-Wan’s chin, even when it usually came at the expense of a close call -or less than close call- to Obi-Wan’s groin. 

It was one of those things you dealt with, when raising a child. 

He yelped, finding himself suddenly scooped up into someone’s arms, looking up to see Alpha carrying him. He was holding Obi-Wan around the chest, so Obi-Wan’s legs were dangling. Obi-Wan was still trying to shed these damn fang caps, so he didn’t have the chance to pull it out and ask why he was being manhandled, before Alpha was bringing him over to Cody, who was holding out a weird fabric tube. 

A fabric tube which was slowly being pulled up Obi-Wan’s legs, the stretchy material basically trapping him and Cody kept going till Alpha could set him down on his bare -thankfully- feet as Alpha helped him get the tube over Obi-Wan’s arms and up to his neck. 

The tube stopped there. Just below his ankles, and above his shoulders, feeling stretchy enough that he could still walk, but tight enough to compress his legs and arms to himself naturally. 

He tried to glare at them, he really did, but he was starting to purr. Like, really purr. It was a rude ambush, but force , it was comfortable. “I’m squished.”

“Sure are, Obes.”

“Because?”

“It’s an anti-grav sleeper tube. It’s when you’re in a low enough gravity that blankets won’t stay on, but your limbs keep floating off.”

Obi-Wan’s face started to heat up. “I haven’t floated in my sleep in weeks.”

“Yeah? And you don’t think that had anything to do with Boba showing up to stop you from sleeping every chance he gets?”

“I don’t need a sleeping tube.”

“You are an entity of the cosmic force, you floated in your sleep all the way up to the end, and you have a higher midichlorian count now. I’d be shocked if you only made yourself float, not the whole room.”

Jaster came out of the bedroom with a frown, clearly deciding Jango could wrangle Boba for the rest of the bath. For now. “Who’s floating? Ob’ika?”

Obi-Wan squeaked. “Not now . They put me in the squeezie tube. They think I’ll dislocate an arm or something!”

Cody rolled his eyes. He rather thought Alpha’s idea was a good one, since he’d been using himself as a Jedi belt to keep Obi-Wan stable for years while he slept. Obi-Wan had had a few joint scares over the years, and he never slept quite so well when he lost his blanket. “Have you ever slept in zero-g?”

Jaster thought about it for a moment. “Uh, I tried it once? The feeling of nothing but my clothes touching me… I didn’t like it. There should be pressure on at least one side of you, unless you’re used to sleeping standing up.”

Cody pointed a finger at him. “Exactly my opinion. Obi-Wan is a cosmic force user. They all have weird quirks. Like Obi-Wan here, who decided to ignore all the well known laws of the universe and go back in time because he does what he wants, and not what others want him to.”

Obi-Wan made an indignant squawk. “I’m not doing what I want, I’m doing what creates balance in the force! If there is no balance there is no anything .”

“Exactly, see, this little guy speaks to the meta particles of the universe, or something, and goes back in time to redo some shit. He’s also probably a minor force god by now, I don’t know.”

“Co’Buir, you know nothing about the force.”

“Yeah but I know that even other Jedi don’t kriffing float in their sleep. Also that’s wrong, I know more than anyone else with Mandalorian blood right now.”

Jaster shook his head. “What does the cosmic force have to do with floating in your sleep?”

“It’s because the cosmic energy is the wellspring of living energy, so I don’t just see a single vision, I see the whole picture. I don’t just use the living force, I create it. I multiply the energy. It’s necessary for the stability of the universe, like new stars forming.”

Alpha nodded, a sage look on his face as he picked up the small bundled teen, who was still trying not to purr. His little voice sounded so rumbly and otherworldly like this. “Exactly. Kid’s covered ‘n bugs ‘n germs, they carry him.”

“Quit tellin everyone I’m diseased!”

Jaster turned to Cody. “Should I worry about… any of this?”

Cody just gestured to Obi-Wan as Alpha carried him off to put him to bed. Hopefully he’d actually sleep for once. Obi-Wan was just as keyed up as he was in the clone wars. “He is an eldritch being of unimaginable horror. And probably some trauma. I’m personally fine, with the horrors. Like living with a possessed cat, sometimes. You might not be fine with it, but he’s just a little guy, he’s mostly harmless.”

“A possessed… are other Jedi like this?”

“There are very few Jedi of the cosmic force. They’re all like that, yes.”

“The floating in their sleep?”

“Oh, no I mean the possessed cat part. Um, I think I’ve met a few who probably float in their sleep. It has something to do with heightened brain activity while they hit REM sleep, he sort of goes through cycles of floating and resting. But I’m not really around other Jedi while they sleep… Skywalker doesn’t float in his sleep. He’s like a speedbump.”

“But you haven’t met many of them, are they rare?”

“Rare, yes, but not as rare as that implies to you. See, I’m not letting him out of our sights for a reason. Cosmic force users almost always hit a breaking point, either around the time they discover immortality, or just as a younger force sensitive, where they sort of… leave. They just leave, and they never settle down again. Because they become so in tune to the force, that they stop worrying about anything. They don’t need to ask about their next meal, the force will provide. They don’t need to find a place to sleep, the force will provide. So. It’s at least twice as many as you think, but still infinitely rare. You go where the force asks you to, no questions. You are the tool that the force uses to create balance. And maybe I’m just too damn attached to him for him to wander off and never find him again.”

Jaster worked his jaw for a minute, and Alpha came back out of Jango’s room without Obi-Wan. “Cadet’s sleeping, let’s try to keep our big emotions behind our bigger shields, okay?”

Jaster’s eye twitched, and he seemed to be fighting off a smile. “So. Immortal, huh?”

Cody gave a little shrug. “Should have been, anyways. He sorta went the other direction, aging faster than me at the end while he tried to shield someone else. The force can do a lot of things, and losing yourself inside of it, even if it gives you an ageless body, can be just as damaging as death. Some of them lose their personalities and just follow the whispers. Others have a better grasp on themselves before they get there, a strong personality that can’t be changed like that.”

Alpha looked between the two of them with narrowed eyes. “Listen, Mereel, the Jedi are complicated creatures by nature. We’re not supposed to understand everything that they are. Understanding that is the first step to accepting them. I think that’s why Mandos hit so many walls with them. The Republic totes them around as a religious order, as if it’s all about prayer and belief , not an understanding of the universe and therefore, the ability to manipulate it’s energy. It’s physics. But on a real kriffed up level. It looks like magic. Dathomirian witches look like magic even to Jedi, even if they claim it’s absolutely not. They still couldn’t explain to you how it works. He’s a little creature with all the universe trying to shove itself under his skin.”

Jaster had to take a deep breath. “Not for me to understand, got it.”

“I didn’t say you can’t try. I’m just saying it’s incomprehensible Eldritch . Not even they understand it all, the amount of force ghosts I’ve seen over the years is enough to tell me that even they’re blind as the rest of us. Do you know, that at this point in Jedi history, it’s considered sacrilegious to believe in force ghosts? Sacrilegious, as if they’re a kriffing religion again. That damn senate has them under so much religious pressure that it’s bowing them to it.”

“…you all want them away from the Republic, don’t you? It’s not just Ob’ika’s idea?”

Alpha gave a little growl. “If I have to watch the senate recreate the purge of the Jedi all over again, I will burn their entire system to the ground, and make sure they know it was because they hurt our Jedi. Make sure the people who have to re-elect the entire system know that they were the only ones holding us back, not because we’re violent, but because our love of them is strong enough to insight revenge.”

Jaster sighed. “Not even the chips turning on made you love them less.”

“Exactly.”

Jaster let out a big sigh. “I’m about to lose just about all credibility with my people, if I invite them to join us, I mean.”

Cody shared a look with Alpha. “I think we know some tricks to making anyone not sympathetic to Death Watch, at least somewhat ambivalent to the Jedi, if not, fully committed to them.”

“Really?”

Alpha shrugged. “Our people’s are more alike than anyone thinks at the moment. Frankly, I think Jedi and Mandalorians get along quite well. Even when they come at each other hostilely, they’ll probably end up best friends or kriffing at the end of it.”

“How often does that happen, though?”

Cody winced. “When all three of our peoples, Mandalorians, Clones and Jedi, become near extinct? It’s like magnets. We fit together pretty well.”

***

Jaster seemed to be writing a new codex. This one’s topic was how to get along with Jedi. It was something Jango was trying to come to terms with their peoples moving forward with, while he sat in the kitchen next to Jaster’s mounds of data pads while Alpha prattled on about Jedi, what he knew, and how they worked. 

Jango looked down when Boba grumbled at him. Boba hadn’t been able to get to sleep right away, and Kote had mentioned they’d been giving him sippy cups of milk at night to relax him. 

Boba had been so cubbish and cute, Jango couldn’t resist holding the cup for him. Boba was grumbling, but it was a sleepy grumble. Not a ‘no more food’ grumble, but the type of grumble an ik’aad starts making when it’s getting hard to keep their eyes open. 

He hated to admit it, but it sounded a lot like Kenobi’s purring. Jango leaned down to press a his lips to the hairline where Boba had some of the sweetest little curls in his hair. His ik’aad hair was something Jango had missed. It was soft and fluffy. 

Mij didn’t normally stay with them here, but he’d gone out to get his bags while Boba had been making bathtime a fun exercise of trying to hold a wet ik’aad. He was probably going to stay in the karyai, since he had less issue with being in the open. He tended to stick himself in places where he could ambush unsuspecting patients. 

Boba finally lost the fight with his eyes, lips going slack around the sippy cup. Jango extracted it, and replaced it with the pacifier attached to his footie pajamas. He stayed for another minute, rubbing his little back while he watched Buir try to remake their whole civilization in a single night, hopefully without causing another civil war, before shaking his head and getting up to put Boba down for the night. 

He admittedly, had some ideas about it all himself, and it was going to be a long night if someone didn’t drag Jaster to bed before the morning came. It was probably going to be him anyways, since they were going to be sharing the bed. 

Boba wasn’t little enough to need a barrier on the edge of the bed, but Jango pulled the blankets taught to the mattress so he wasn’t going to deal with coming in to see Boba half suffocated into the comforters. Boba grumbled one more time, and went still, melting into the baby blanket Jango pulled over him. 

He left the room, noticing his -now Kenobi and Buir’es room- was halfway open, and frowned. He checked the lock box next to the door and realized Alpha had left it on that setting on purpose, and risked a peak inside. 

He went back to the kitchen. “Alpha, your ad’s floating.”

Jaster’s head came up like a strill hearing their favorite word, and he was the first to get out of the kitchen. Kote and Alpha didn’t look worried in the slightest, but Kote got up with a relaxed stretch, him and Alpha following after. 

Little Obi-Wan was on his ‘side’, at least a foot and a half above the bed, using a blanket Alpha had put over him to wrap around and lean into. The blanket seemed to be floating independent of himself, so, that was odd. Alpha had clearly wrestled Obi-Wan into a pair of oversized fluffy socks and a sleep mask. 

Obi-Wan didn’t use the sleep mask often. He preferred to shove his face into a pillow or chest and suffocate. But they were actually trying to encourage his force abilities to go insane for the time being, which meant nothing to cover his eyes. They fluttered when he slept, sometimes. It made him wake up if he saw light. The sleep mask was dark and nice. 

Obi-Wan swayed up and down like there was a current in an ocean he was following, but that ocean could have been galaxies away, letting the ebb and flow come to him from afar to sleep on.

He was unhealthy in the end of his and Cody’s life. He was aging too fast, sickly without the force to fall back on and surround him. He used his force abilities for others in the end, Luke, the bantha herd, his krayt dragons. Cody himself…

He couldn’t sustain himself without wrapping his body in the cosmic force of the universe, the wellspring couldn’t survive being plugged like that again. It had cracked Obi-Wan’s foundations and caused grief and suffering. 

This is how you keep a cosmic force user healthy. You let them find the safest place they can, and surround them with love. 

They can’t let their mind wander while unsafe. They needed complete safety around them so they didn’t get possessed, or found. Or just harmed while their mind was elsewhere. 

You can’t see the whole picture of the cosmos if your mind doesn’t follow the energy. You have no idea what’s out there if you lock your mind up. 

Obi-Wan twitched a little, curling his legs tighter to his chest, arms tucked up between then and his body, and Cody moved forward in the room, gently taking the majority of the blanket Obi-Wan was cuddling, and pulled it back over his body. He didn’t want Obi-Wan to get cold. Obi-Wan gave a few gentle gnaws on his teether, more comfortable in his sleep than he’s been in days. 

Good job, Alpha. Calmed the littlun right down. 

When Cody turned to leave again, Jaster was looking in at the ad with big, worried eyes. Alpha and Jango had apparently left again, and Cody hadn’t seen Myles and Silas since they’d had to leave to smooth things over with the rest of their commandos they had come with. Cody raised an eyebrow. “Thoughts?”

Jaster hummed a little. “He’s small. And he’s just doing what’s natural, isn’t he?”

Cody nodded slowly. “It is. It’s very natural to him, when he suppresses it, he gets sick. But they can’t do this if they don’t feel safe in their physical body.”

Jaster looked at him with worried eyes. “They’re just… I mean, you can’t even say it’s fake, or they’re just advanced. He’s asleep , he can’t control that. How many of my people are suppressing themselves with beskar and a fear of being caught out? He’s right. The Jedi need to leave the Republic, and I think they need to come to Mandalore. Both our peoples are targeted by the Republic, and it’s killing both of us.”

Cody looked back at Obi-Wan, who finally felt safe. Obi-Wan still wandered off in his sleep towards the end. Though, rarely, and always in Cody’s arms so he’d feel safe enough to open up to the force again. “On planet Stewjon, they have some villages that believe force sensitivity is a sort of possession. They thought their child was being invaded by a demon. They give those babies back to the river.”

Jaster had a horrified look, and was massaging his left hand, as if unable to do anything but use those hands. “They gave Ob’ika back to the river?”

Cody nodded. “He wasn’t showing much in the force till he was three. An occasional sneeze and things would move, but his parents ignored those ones, figuring he was doing his best to control it. Till around that age, the cosmic force really started to manifest around him, and he’d start to float in his sleep. That’s when they gave him to the river.”

“Did it… how did-?”

“A master was on the planet. Planets like that get regular visits by masters as they pass, disguised, of course. There’s always some sort of tug in the universe to pull them there. The master found him in the river, held down by his mother. He fought her off the child, and took him to the temple. Ten years later and his powers clearly just keep growing.”

Jaster’s lips curled down to a mau of annoyance. “The senate just lets this ossik happen, don’t they?”

“They… perceive to protect the ones that are brought back to the temple, but no one on those planets investigates when the children go missing.”

Jaster could have growled like the ad in the bedroom, before giving a firm little nod to himself. “They’re just in danger, here. Without proper rules, the senate just gives them a supposed security so they’re ‘benevolent’ enough to use their abilities.”

Cody shrugged, leaning against the wall next to him. “Do you think any of the Jedi wanted to be sent to war? They were drafted. They were the only populous that got drafted in the whole clone wars. They were told, if they were able bodied they would go to war, and they decided that being in charge of us was the better of two evils, because at least they would treat us like real people. The rest used us as meat droids. They could have left the order, but then what happens to us? What happens if the senate turns around and declares them traitors and decides to ask us to fight them instead? They went to war, but none of us had a choice. The senate had a choice. Natborns and those who weren’t Jedi? Their ranks were a hundred percent voluntary. There were very few senators that tried to stop things.”

Jaster looked like he had heartburn. “I knew the senate used them as attack dogs. I didn’t realize how little choice the Jedi really had in it all.”

Cody shrugged. “The price of being allowed to take in littluns that have no other option. I’ve seen O’Ben make that choice too. He’d rather be tortured than let someone else get hurt in his place. He’d give his life for younglings, civilians. They’re leashed by their own need to protect others, the senate keeps handing them babies, that’s just more that the senate can threaten them with.”

“Okay. Okay I get it now. They need to leave. This is too dangerous and they aren’t being protected. I get it now.”

Cody nodded, patting the man on the shoulder. “Good. I see why you were the best Mand’alor in recent years, you actually use common sense. Refreshing, for a natborn.”

Jaster flushed a little. He was starting to think these clones had nothing but common sense, and he thinks they could use some more to help get Mandalorians on Jetiise side. 

Chapter Text

Anakin had been less than pleased with the force as of late. It was move move move, don’t touch that one Ani, maybe try and avoid that person, you have to keep going - and he was just a little boy! He couldn’t control if the adults kept him in one place so long! It was rude of them, and he was too small to pilot the ship right now!

Anakin paused in the doorway of the playroom at his school. Momma and Buir let him choose if he wanted to go in for the day or not. It caused a lot of issues in the beginning because he didn’t want to play with the kids when he had a new arm to work on and force things to meditate over. 

His new arm Ms Shelly had given him the framework for was kinda glitchy, but it overall did it’s function by giving him a second arm to pretend to use -since sometimes he just had to use the force instead, but people looked funny at kiddos for that sorta thing- and a balance point to focus on for his katas. 

But the kids at school thought it was really cool that he was smart enough to work on his own arm, and Buir had had to reassure the teachers that Ani really did know what he was doing and wasn’t going to electrocute himself. 

Thankfully, the one time he had electrocuted himself, he’d been alone on the ship and had just called Rex back through their bond to bandage his ouchie and give it healing kisses. 

Healer Che used to say that even if kisses didn’t heal the skin, it healed the soul. Which is why she always told him to go find his Obi whenever Jaieh got an owie, so Anakin could kiss it better and make sure his Jaieh rested. 

He was super good at that. He knew how not to cause trouble till Jaieh was feeling better again. 

He had a few friends in the class. And three other students in his age range were force sensitive. He’d convinced them to meditate with him so they could learn telepathy and how to get better luck and follow the force to better things. 

Anakin wasn’t in the minority of Jedi that believed you shouldn’t be learning how to use the force unless you can’t control it without training. There were masters that believed if it’s not strong enough to ask a teacher for help, then they shouldn’t be learning about it at all. Anakin couldn’t even fathom that. Imagine having a whole other sense that could save your life or help you find your place in the universe, and just cutting it off, hoping it faded in the ether so as not to risk detection from others. 

At least even those masters agreed that if you show a natural predilection to the force, you were entitled to have help. 

Either way. 

He looked over to the cuddle corner. It was where they kept the naptime mats and pillows for kids to use to sit on. That’s where his students were. 

Erian was a four year old male Twi’lek with green skin and blue swirls in his little lekku. He had a very thick Rylothian accent and his mother was a chef in one of the diners. She made super yummy hash browns from tubers, and didn’t mind that Ani always asked for mealworms on top. Some humanoids found that offensive for some reason. Anakin thought fried mealworms tasted good. 

Nisha was a female pink and yellow Pooba. She had issues speaking Basic at this age anyways, being the youngest of them at three, and she’d taken to telepathy very easily. Her parents were likely only going to be here for another few weeks, since they seemed to be seasonal workers for specific transports, organizing things so certain plants and animals can come through the ports with proper documentation. It was one of those transport things that needed a lot of people who bounced from port to port to check requirements and make sure the port is safe both for, and from, the cargo. They were very nice and Nashi liked to cuddle up to Anakin in the force, her signature nudging up against his. Anakin thought learning these things early could really enhance her life since she was so comfortable in the force. 

Mayio was a Kessurian girl, six years old, with the prettiest horns already starting to grow. They were little nubbies right now, but they reminded Anakin of Ahsoka’s montrals when Anakin first met her as a four year old in the crèche. She had the strongest force presence out of the three of them, but liked to read and learn. She’d been happy to meditate and wander off again for her books and then come back to play with them later. She was nice, and her parents worked in engineering somewhere on the port itself. So she was very smart. 

Anakin came over and pulled a pillow to the only empty corner of their square, sitting down with his legs crossed and a somewhat nervous demeanor. 

It was sort of hard to explain things like this, especially since he was only going to use the force to do it, but it was only polite to tell them he was going to be leaving, why, and that even though he was running from the Jedi that was coming to the station, they weren’t a bad Jedi, and they should approach if they had any questions. 

The others were sad that he was going to leave, but they seemed to understand. He had things he needed to do in the force. They all seemed to discover things they needed to do lately, by following the force like Ani taught them to. 

They understood. They cuddled him extra hard during naptime, but they understood. 

***

Rex and Shmi came together to pick Ani up from school, like they always did, and they both instantly knew this was going to be the last time Anakin was at the school. 

Anakin kept saying they needed to move on, and they’d been stocking the ship as well as they could. Shmi and Ani had spent a few hours last night fixing up the heating for the living quarters, but Shmi had requested Rex stay in the bed with her and Ani. It made them both feel safer. 

Rex had been picking up and bartering for extra supplies all week, and Shmi had given Hailey and her wife, Marisa, a very nervous report that they were moving on soon, and Shmi knew it was against protocol, but it was necessary. 

They had been a bit harder to deal with, but Shmi didn’t want to lose the few friends she’d made… ever. She liked them, and they had good advice for where to get cheaper clothes for Ani, and good medical supplies for cheap in just about all stations. They’d been invaluable in helping everyone that had been freed, but Shmi counted them as real friends. 

And they’d finally caved a few days ago, moving from trying to convince her to follow protocol, to simply making sure they had everything they needed to move on from here. Marisa had given them an entire three batches of frozen cookie dough in their favorite flavors. She’d made some nervous noises about it when Shmi gave it an interested look, explaining that she was a nervous baker, but frozen dough was better because they could take some out for fresh cookies for months with the amount she’d made. 

Shmi had friends. She’d made sure the women had her comm number, since she didn’t want to worry them anymore than they were. 

Rex mostly had other parent friends here, since he didn’t go out drinking with the other port workers, and he didn’t want to gossip about gross things like sex and who’s eligible to date on the station. He didn’t need any of that, but it sort of put a wall between him and the other workers, since that seemed to be their interests. They liked to go out drinking after a shift, and Rex didn’t really… drink. He used to, but stopped when he realized he couldn’t rely on that, and that had been over fifteen years before his death. 

If he was going to die, it wouldn’t be at his own hand. The universe owed him that much. 

Even still, he’d dropped some hints to the other parents about leaving soon. They probably thought he meant as soon as the quarantine was up, but, at least they knew. The parent of the little force sensitive girl who’d noticed the slave ship coming in with Ani, had moved their kids back to the other side of the port. She went to school with Ani before because it was closest to the ports where their parent worked, but their parent had gotten them out of the quarantine zone so they could move freely about the rest of the station. Rex thought it was a smart move, really. 

But. Like Ms Shelly’s kindness and honest love to Rex and Anakin who helped her, and made her life nice when they were around… Rex had had friends here. 

Okay, so he’s made a few friends who have moved on themselves, so, he knew how to keep in touch. That had been his starting point when Anakin had made noises that it was time to go soon, telling the other adults he met that he’d like some contact info so they didn’t have to scramble at the last minute. 

The others hadn’t known that for Jedi, this wasn’t all that last minute. Last minute would be ‘I left five hours ago whoops’. Rex was getting this done a full day ahead of time, he was proud of that. This was properly on schedule. 

Rex was standing against the half wall they used to fence in the ‘outdoor’ play area the teachers brought the kids to to stargaze through the upper skyline of the station that they had a proper view of here. Those were supposed to be calm down times, but Ani had given the teachers a fact book he’d made up on his data pad, about those stars and their creation, that they got the bothan nursery worker to read sections to the kids. It calmed the littles down, and the patrons at nearby cafes would watch them while they got ready for ‘outdoor’ naptime. They said the littles seemed so much calmer hearing about the stars they watched. It was becoming a new thing for them, finding nice facts about the universe to give the kids. 

These babies traversed the stars, and while stories about land were lovely, a lot of them were gearing up to a lifetime in space. There’s no use romanticizing the planets and princesses with their knights on the ground, when a lot of them would simply resent their lot in life as they realized no one ever sang love songs for the stars. 

Anakin knew what got into a pilot's heart, and he was going to give these littles a story about the stars to look to. No matter where you end up in life, the stories you listen to should be about the land or sky or stars you lived on, as a child, even if that was the same place but just better living. Looking back and realizing everyone was looking for somewhere else to be… it made a person bitter. Bitter that their parents were looking for somewhere better too, so why would they have their shot at good luck…

Shmi came over, nudging into Rex’s side as they watched Anakin and Nisha, the little pink and yellow Pooba, have some sort of stare off, which was probably a full conversation in their minds, but the other adults gave them amused looks about it. Rex moved a little to accommodate Shmi, before she nudged into him again, and he looked back at her, noting a light blush on her cheeks and glancing away from him a little. Rex got it, going pink too, and moved an arm to wrap around her waist, noting the way she melted into him like Anakin could at times. 

She gave off pleasedhappysoftloveyou in the force, just enough for Rex to properly catch it mentally, and Rex just settled her more firmly into his side while they watched little Ani and his friends say bye. 

The teacher had come by to say Anakin and the other force sensitives had been oddly quiet today, and they’d almost been worried the littles were planning an escape, or something. Rex had assured her, it was normal for force sensitive littles to get trapped in their heads at times, since it was so easy to talk to each other, that a lot of them don’t even learn to speak out loud till as old as ten. That’s when you have to worry about it. 

The Jedi crèche had actually encouraged the telepathic conversation between ages zero and seven, and then if they still weren’t talking, that’s still not a worry, but it’s around when the teachers start to encourage it, in case they get chosen as an apprentice. 

They still clearly responded to verbal language, but it just wasn’t important then. It helped fine tune their force presence at that point. It was like the difference between writing a book as the first thing you ever wrote, versus getting your writing skills up first. 

Which is why a lot of force sensitive kiddos end up speaking late, but with proper sentences that make a lot more sense than a toddler just learning. They do know how to communicate, just not out loud, yet. 

Anakin finally left his friends, coming up to them with soft eyes that seemed older, fond. He didn’t ask to be picked up, since he really wasn’t so little that he always wanted that, but he wrapped his arms around their thighs that were pressed together, locking them as he squeezed tight. 

“I’ll miss it here. But we always have to move on, and the force flows through us all. My students will flourish if they keep up with their meditations.”

It was expected of him, to speak like that, of course. “Of course they’ll flourish. You taught them.”

Ani let go so they could start walking back to the ship. They were probably going to leave late this night, or maybe the next day. It was tough, being this little, but he had his momma and buir. 

They held his hands, swinging him gently between them a few times to hear his soft little giggles. 

They were going to stop at Ani’s favorite diner before they left, so he could get his fried tubers and mealworms. It was his favorite, and he deserved a little treat before they left for the wider galaxy again. 

The force always provides, especially if you have a littlun that could follow it’s whims, it’ll always make sure you have enough, so Ani really deserved a treat. 

***

Master Fay was over a thousand and two hundred years old. Her species wasn’t naturally immortal, but her connection to the force had led her there, since she followed it’s ebbs and flows wherever she went. 

After a while, her body simply didn’t age because she was so entrenched into the force itself. It was something that some species or certain students in the temple were taught about. 

The cosmic force was so interesting like that. It could either lead to an immortal who follows it’s every command, no matter what that was, or it could drain your life force fast, so you could hide. Or it could drain you because you’re fighting it by following someone else’s orders. 

She didn’t follow the will of the senate, and that was a choice that had kept her alive for centuries. But it was a shame that she watched other cosmic force users be trapped by the senate's orders instead of giving them proper masters that could show them what do to, to follow the energy of the universe. 

Master Fay had heard of Jedi that eventually left the galaxy entirely, not because they wanted to, but because the force had told them where to go, and what they needed to do. She wondered if there were others out there like her, traveling father and father with thousands of years of experience and knowledge. Saving small planets and courting royals that wanted to thank them. 

Fay had a few royals herself, who gave gifts and asked for her attention. She usually couldn’t afford to give it. 

Fay knew that something had happened in the force recently. It started with a tightening, like the universe itself was taking a deep breath, and she could feel its flow. And then it started to expand again, expelling life from its energy strongholds. 

And with that exhale, Fay had found a man that wasn’t supposed to be there. He hadn’t existed a minute ago. He literally did not exist just a moment ago. But he stood there now, looking around confused, before stumbling a bit. 

She caught him with the force, and stepped up to his side to help lower him to the co-pilot’s chair of her personal ship. 

It wasn’t often that she used her personal ship, but ever since the force started breathing in, she felt like she’d need it. That she might have a passenger soon. And here he was, looking confused and soft and a little nervous, and like his head was pulsing. 

“Are you injured?”

The man looked at her a moment, as if considering it a bit, and let out a shaky sigh. “My head, it’s… moving.”

Moving. Okay. She placed a palm on the back of his head, looking for what could be causing this. Moving- spinning. It’s spinning. Dizzy. 

Right. He had just come into existence. Poor man. There was a reason babies cry upon being born, it’s tough to come out of a womb, it’s hard when the cradle you slept in was broken, when it left you to a life where, ultimately, most people make their own choices and aren’t carried through the world. 

It must be hard, being born this late in your own life. He looked to be around twenty, maybe, if that. She leaned in, pressing her forehead to his, sending calm into his mind and love into his heart. 

He was born without a mother. It had been a long time since she called someone son, longer still since she called someone Padawan. This son had quite a bit of force ability in him, she could call him both. She pressed her lips to that forehead, and sat back, looking at him with a little smile. He looked back with tears and wonder and a little worry. “Does that help?”

He nodded, swallowing tightly. “Yes.”

She pressed another kiss to his cheeks, and let the first guide her next words, something she rarely did. “Ni kry’tayl gai sa’ad, Gregor.”

That was Mando’a. She knew the language, but she hadn’t known she’d speak it before it came out that way, and the man -her son, her Gregor, her newly birthed young one- looked at her with tears starting to leak out. She didn’t shush him, he had every right to cry, as all newborns did. 

But she had needed him to know, immediately, that he wasn’t born without a parent, that he had one here to take care of him. He choked out a sob, and she leaned him against her chest, letting him cry there, where he was supposed to be. 

***

“What’s wrong, Ani?”

Anakin was paused at the end of the ramp, looking up into the glittering daylight sky of the planet they had landed on. 

Migar IV, a planet on the edge of wild space, had been where Anakin had directed them to. It was close to the last station they had been on, and it was a well used junk-planet. 

Rex assumed they were either here looking for more droid parts, new parts for an arm for Ani, or something expensive that could be sold. Or maybe, they’re going to find a completely new conundrum to deal with, today. 

But Rex was ready and willing to further Anakin’s new career as a little eldritch Jedi of unimaginable complexity, following his whims in the force like a bee from flower to flower. It kept them all calm, and rather well taken care of. If Shmi’s presence was anything to go by, it was well rewarded by the force for their services. 

Anakin stared up into the sky for a few more moments, wondering how a world with such a beautiful sky, even during the day, could end up covered in junk. 

Well, scavenging tended to bring metal off the planet, a bit at a time, and served the purpose of recycling and safe keeping these metals till someone like him, who came there for a purpose, could get there and use them. 

Anakin shook his head a little. They’d basically landed on one of thousands of landing pads all over the planet, and only seven others were in use right now, all of them so far away from them as to be entire countries of distance away. 

They were looking for something important. He wasn’t sure what yet, but it was important. He glanced over at a worried Momma and Buir, who were, as they always were lately, worriedly attentive to him. He smiled a little shyly. “Something big just happened. I think another clone came out of the force.”

Rex’s eyebrows pinched together. Anakin often said when another clone came out of the force around them, and it happened often enough that Rex half expected them to encounter a whole battalion at some point, but so far the most Anakin could ever feel at a time, was two. It was odd, but Anakin was an odd little guy at times. He was just a little creature that breathed in the void and liked to play with the energy of the universe. 

It was completely normal force sensitive stuff. 

Of a sort. 

“Do we need to leave to go help them?”

Anakin slowly shook his head. “You know how we had to leave the station because a Jedi would be attracted by Momma’s bond with me? I think we might have gained another day or two, from that. I think they’ll be distracted, which means they’ll be helping that vod.”

Rex nodded, considering it. “Alright, little bear, Buir trusts you. Now, what are we here to look for?”

Anakin gave a little turn as he stepped off the ramp and onto the platform, looking around at the scrap covered planet. There was so much metal, and a lot of it sung in the force, as if calling someone to come look at it. “I think we’d find a lot here, Buir. A lot of it’s singing, a lot of it sparkles. I don’t think we should take everything that sings and sparkles, but I think a lot of it will come in handy.”

Rex nodded, going over to the landing pad’s stairs down to the surface, putting a foot down to test it’s strength. 

That thing was probably five hundred years old now, but it seemed to be holding them fairly well. “Alright, you two, it’s safe. Ani, I know you’re the one with all the force powers here, but you stay in sight of me and Momma whenever you can. You’re just a little guy and can get some ouchies.”

Anakin pouted at him for the language, which made Rex grin. He liked being a little shit sometimes, it made life a lot funnier when his little guy was pouting. He held out a hand so Anakin, not quite big enough to reach the railing properly, had something to hold onto.

It was a flimsy excuse, Ani could have easily held onto the bars of the railings, but Rex liked holding that little hand in his. It was so small.

Shmi was at the top, setting out crates for storage with the hoverdolly, chattering at the upper half of Threepio’s body that was helping her, missing two legs and an arm, something that made Rex’s chest ache, but all the memories of himself in that past life, and the anxiety still in tact. It would be a while before he was fit to be around anyone but their family, still getting used to his new reality of where he was and what wasn’t going to happen. He’d been calmed down when Anakin had told him he had Artoo’s chip too. 

He was at Shmi’s side constantly when awake, and right now, was arguing with a mouse droid Rex and Shmi hadn’t realized Anakin stole from the last station they were on. Sneaky little guy, but he was nice and just wanted to explore the galaxy. He kept the vents clean and the wires untangled. His name was MA-09, and Anakin called him Mao, for short. 

“Are you going to join us, Momma Bear?” He called back to her just to see her grin at him. Buir, Bear, and their little cub. It was a bad joke that had come from him calling Ani little bear, but it made them both grin at him like he was giving them the stars. 

He was halfway down the stairs, and she happily called back that she’d be down when she got the storage room arranged to get everything on the ship. 

She herself, seemed eager to get down there, and Rex didn’t blame her, knowing she probably felt the shining and singing metals and force pulls, with her own considerable force abilities. She’d been meditating with Anakin every night while he showed her how to use her abilities, saying that it fading away with age, had nothing to do with being able to learn. She could learn now. 

Anakin let go of Rex’s hand at the bottom of the stairs, already off and scrambling over a pile of scrap. He giggled when he slipped on some a few moments later, getting right back up like that was nothing. Sweet little baby idiot. 

Rex rolled his eyes, ignoring that as he pulled out a scanner, mostly so he could detect anything with still working parts, and possibly, identify metals. If it was working right. It would be a long day out here, but it was like a fun little game, if you were interested enough.

And what could be more interesting than spending a day with his loves, watching them truly in their element of following the sparkles in the force that made them so happy?

***

Anakin was sorta playing a bit. Maybe. Maybe he was being greedy, he wasn’t sure. He kept finding things that looked like they could be fixed or reshaped so well, and he just couldn’t resist them. 

He found a scrap droid part that could be reshaped into a perfect working arm for Threepio, so that was an automatic yes added to the pile. Threepio would appreciate being able to hold things again. Maybe even helping Momma with some stuff like he used to. 

Anakin was looking over a metal plate with a frown, before he suddenly realized what it was shaped like, and added it to the Yes pile. 

“Hey, little bear, I think I got something that could use a bit of force touch.”

That was Buir, so Anakin moved his small Yes pile to the bottom of the stairs in the first container they’d brought down the stairs, with a use of the force that Obi-Wan would have called excessive, and started skittering over the mounds of scrap. Momma was sitting on what must have been a very large droid’s body, holding a BD unit. Anakin brightened, calling over to her as he went towards Buir. “That’s a good unit, Momma! It feels like sparkles, I think it must still have information packets on it!”

Shmi nodded, humming. “It’s a very shiny little droid, I can’t imagine they’re happy to be lost out here. They’re good helper bots, very good explorer droids. I’ll get them working again.” She rather lovingly put it in her personal bag still attached to her side, giving its little head a nice pat, before going back to looking through her pile. Hers had a lot of small sparkles in it, which is why Anakin encouraged her to look there first. It was a better exercise for her force abilities than looking for big sparkles like Anakin was. She was picking out smaller sparkles from her pile with tons of them in it, figuring out why the force is showing them to her, and deciding if that was worth taking now or leaving it for a future force sensitive to find later. 

Sometimes, a small thing that you leave behind, can be the difference between life and death for someone else. Anakin was a Jedi master, but even he struggled with leaving certain things behind, so he was sort of giving Shmi all the information that Obi-Wan always gave him, and hoping she made better choices than he did in his last life. 

He plopped down next to Rex. Rex and Shmi had on knee and elbow guards, but Anakin was still a bit squirrely when it came to armor. Maybe if his Obi picked the armor out for him, it’d feel better. Like a Mando giving their foundling armor. Anakin had been Obi-Wan’s foundling. 

Buir was Mandalorian but not as much in practice as others had been. Anakin knew Rex wanted armor again, of course he did, and even Momma wanted some, but Anakin didn’t want to think about it right now, it was one of those tough subjects that hurts your brain a little, made you think of being locked in a suit for twenty-five years…

It was one of those things he needed to talk to Obi-Wan about. He needed his Jaieh’s help with that. 

Rex pointed at a half buried… is that a chest? No, it’s gotta be locked, some sort of safe?

Sometimes ships got stripped and dumped on junk worlds like this, and it wasn’t exactly an oversight per say. Anakin maintained the thought that no scrapper crew could be perfect, which is why planets like this had scrappers crawling about. Some crews came entirely to get metal, or wires, or a specific plastic for disposal, or just to see what they could find. 

And this one, isn’t so much an oversight, as just one of millions of little missed tidbits. 

Anakin held up a hand to it, pressing lightly on the locking mechanism. It felt like a sparkling song, one that skipped along his chest in excited little movements that felt like a dance. “A Jedi touched this. And they loved it.”

Rex frowned, noting the way Shmi picked up her box for the stuff she’d collected, and came to sit next to Anakin, noting the glassy look in her baby’s eyes. Anakin looked sad. 

He squeezed his eyes shut just a little more, and relaxed again. 

He didn’t like the feeling of lava. 

He didn’t know why Palpatine made him live in a lava palace for so long. 

He didn’t like lava’s destruction. 

All metal started from lava, or turned to it. 

The lock clicked, and Anakin pulled his little hand back with a gasp. He hadn’t realized he’d started crying. He pulled open the locked safe with a shaking tug on the force, and reached in to see what he’d found. 

There were metal bars, precious and singing with songs of safety. 

He held the cortosis up to his forehead, and felt the planet it had come from. The one he’d personally destroyed in a blind attempt to stop the CIS. 

Mokivj

Maybe he could do the planet better this time, and stay away. 

But maybe he could find someone else, who knew better what to do with the metal. Maybe it was meant for armor for a Jedi. But… it’d be planning for an attack from a saber. 

Maybe there was someone else that could figure this out for him.

He was a Jedi master, he could listen to the will of the universe itself, but this metal sung of promises from a million different directions. Common sense was never his top priority, he’s sad to say. 

Chapter Text

Shaak Ti was having an odd time lately. 

The temple had been chaotic, to say the very least. Initiate Kenobi’s departure from the temple with an unknown toddler, had been the start of it. They couldn’t find a record of the toddler he’d kidnapped, or a reason for him to leave. All they know is that he’d been found on a transport to Bandomeer, days before he’d actually been scheduled to leave for the Agricorps -though why he was supposed to end up on Bandomeer before he was going to be picked up by an agricorps master for specialized animal work, she had no idea- and none of them even knew how he knew he was supposed to be on that transport. 

Shaak just hoped it was all some big misunderstanding, because this was just several steps too far. But little initiate Kenobi had taken a toddler of unknown origins and identity, and left the temple with him, seven days ago. 

He had been planning it for several days before that, since camera records of baby supplies going missing from a couple closets had been dug up, and showed Obi-Wan using a crèche master code to open them up, and remove small supplies every day at a different closet for the area, and even a sturdy looking diaper bag, which is something most children would have overlooked and just got a more available bag. 

Honestly, it was impressive. Only two of these occurrences were caught by crèche masters noting missing supplies, and the rest of the instances had been found as further investigation had been done, finding he’d done two trips a day to different supply closets, and then the last few days had been once a day, mostly for diapers and baby cream. 

So the toddler wasn’t potty trained yet, why did little Obi-Wan have them? 

Did he find them outside the temple and somehow smuggle them in? And what would be the purpose of that? There had been no parents coming to look at the crèche before they brought their babies, and there had been no children matching his age and description having been brought to the temple. 

It’s vaguely possible, however odd, that a little one had smuggled himself aboard a ship and came out of the hanger, but that still seemed wrong.

Why did little Obi-Wan, who was just an initiate himself, steal a toddler in the dead of the night, leaving the temple out a rarely used exit that you needed two passcodes and a judice use of the force to open? Why did he get on a transport he would have been told to report to in just another week, and then leave said transport in the arms of an older man and heavy bruises around his throat?

Jumba the Butt Hutt was thoroughly dead, but it was done professionally, like someone knew exactly how to drop a Hutt, and if it weren’t for the small video they had of him attacking a child and baby, they’d be dealing with the Hutt authorities on a level that had all their heads aching. As it was, they hadn’t heard anything from Hutt space since the unsanctioned release of said video, by Judicial. 

Padawan Vos and Master Tholme had been called back from a mission because Mace was convinced he could use Vos as some sort of Kenobi tracker. That if anyone could do it, it’d be Vos. He probably had the right idea, actually. The two of them tended to flock together while they caused issues for everyone else in the temple. 

And why is everyone in this temple acting so suspicious right now, hiding around corners like they all have something to do with this, and refusing to say why!? It was beyond frustrating. 

Shaak opened the door to her quarters, tensing up when she heard a voice come from her bedroom. But… the force felt peaceful, like that voice was meant to be there. It was soft and nice, and felt like love and fond exasperation… and she couldn’t hold her tension for longer than a few seconds of listening to it. 

“Come on, Dove, you have to come out from there sometime.”

“Does not, Buir!” Scratch that, two voices, and this one sounded little . She closed the front door, and came in further. Clearly, initiates were getting lost all over this temple recently, and she had a tiny little stowaway being coaxed out by a nice crèche carer. 

A nice crèche carer with a voice that felt like a warm blanket and made her wish she’d met them before. She stopped in the doorway to her bedroom, taking in the sight. 

Their force signature seemed male, in that way that sometimes you can tell whether the sentient wants to present as masc or femme, but frankly, that had no bearing on pronouns in the end. She’s met a lot of masc presenting she/hers, or femme presenting xi/xirs, in her day. 

They were laying on the floor on their stomach, looking under the bed where the little stowaway must be hiding, and wearing a blue uniform looking tunic and pants. They were quite muscular and would probably be a bit smaller than her standing, and she couldn’t help but think they could rest in her neck and collarbone, just perfectly. 

The little voice came again, sounding a bit cranky and probably past their naptime. It was around that time of day the littles should be down for a snuggle with their clans. 

“I don’t want come out, Buir!” It wasn’t bratty, that was an overtired whine. She decided to help. She’s always been good with littles. 

“Hello there, who might you be?”

The human on the ground jumped a little, turning to look at her with big shocked eyes, and the voice under the bed went silent before another whine came from them, and they came scrambling out from under the bed. 

The human on the ground caught the little one before they could get far, and stood up with them, cradling the baby to their chest. 

Was that? No, that couldn’t possibly be… that was too young to be the baby initiate Kenobi had absconded with, but they looked so much like that child. The baby looked at her for a long moment, and then pulled their little thumb out of their mouth, saying something she truly didn’t expect. “Mama!”

She had to catch the baby as they came tumbling out of the human’s arms, both adults looking wide eyed at the little one as they tried their best to burrow into her chest. “I- uh, I do not think I am your mother, sweetheart?”

A tiny little force presence shoved clumsily against her shields, as if inspecting them, and the adult human’s face flushed, starting to reach for the baby as if ashamed of that, embarrassed at his lack of control. Honestly, she thought even that much control was commendable for someone who couldn’t be more than a year and a half old. “No, you’s Mama, I checked, just like you taught me!”

She froze, noting the way that rung true in the force in a way that was incomprehensible. She looked at the adult. “Who are you both?”

They flinched, just a little, and tensed their shoulders. “I am Alpha-49; Colt, he/him. This is my ad, my… adopted child , Dove, also he/him.”

Shaak cocked her head to the side, tears welling up a little as she blinked, and chest feeling painfully tight. “I know his name, I know it in my soul. Why do I know his name?”

Colt looked a little uncomfortable, but didn’t back down. “Because you named him. You like to call the cadets nicknames like ‘love’ but he was always climbing all over everything in the facility, liked being up high, you started calling him Dove, instead. Chose that as his name.”

Shaak could feel tears slipping down her face, and she thinks she knows why everyone in this damn temple is acting so weird lately. Because they all have this painfully tight bundle of love being shoved at them in the force. And she just found where hers are. She pulled the man in, startling him as she tucked his head into her neck. “Alright. I believe that. I guess… I guess I’m his mama, aren’t I?”

“If you want to be?”

“I do.” She did. She just knew it inside. 

***

Plo had truly never been out of his depth with babies and younglings before. 

But he’s also never had one just… appear? On his ship?

His ship which he was thanking the force, had been forced to be planetside less than ten minutes ago, with painfully flashing lights and sounds in the cockpit like he was going through an electrical storm. 

His ship, which had been flooded with oxygen the moment he ended up planetside, and therefore, not poisonous to the infant human and infant togruta sitting naked on the floor, trying to out-scream each other. And a bit of hair and lekku tugging that had had to be broken up, along with locating his emergency baby supply bag. Is seemed to have wandered off…

It was an odd day. 

***

Luminara missed Obi-Wan. She wasn’t in the same clan as him growing up, but she was the same age, and their clans used to do a lot of classes and clan outings together. 

She still didn’t know why he left. No one would tell her. Master Makus said he didn’t know, that Obi-Wan had left the temple without telling anyone why. He had other information he wasn’t telling Lum, but she didn’t know why. Obi-Wan was one of her friends. Siri had actually cried when she heard he’d left. That wasn’t regulation at all, and knowing the icky visions he had, she was worried he’d never come back. 

Master Tahl was apparently avoiding Master Jinn, Bant said. Bant said she was sure her master wasn’t mad at him, but her emotions seemed conflicted, like she thought he had something to do with this all. 

And Lum didn’t blame her. Grandmaster Yoda kept telling Obi-Wan to ask Jinn to be his master, and Jinn kept saying no, so maybe Obi-Wan left because he felt like it was his only choice?

Grandmaster Yoda was really sad, lately. His ears drooped a lot, and he probably thought he should have just taken Obi-Wan as his padawan instead of pushing him on his lineage, since that had clearly not gone to plan. 

Lum saw a lot more than the masters thought she did. 

She still wasn’t sure why he left, and it wasn’t because no one had told her. It was because he wasn’t panicking about being an apprentice. He wasn’t worried about his place in the order. He’d even stopped asking Jinn to take him as a padawan in the past few months. 

But… he left. And she didn’t know why he couldn’t stand to be here anymore. 

Lum yelped as it felt like the force dropped a blob on her head, falling off her bed with a grunt as she hit the floor, and wincing when the bed rocked like a boulder had hit it. 

Master Makus was there within seconds of the incident, having been home with her after her lessons, and he looked around in confusion. 

Lum sat up, wondering what her master was looking at, and flinched back in confusion at the small boy on her bed, rubbing his head like he’d fallen on it. She blinked a few times, before yelping again, and ducking down so she could pull her head covering back into place. That was so inappropriate and embarrassing! 

Master Makus sent her a wave of fond assurance through their bond, and came into the room to help the confused boy on the bed sit up. He sent a wave of apology towards his student for invading her territory, but she understood. He hit his head, so they had to make sure it was okay before they asked him to move. He was looking around with hazy eyes like he wasn’t focusing very well. “Are you alright, youngling?”

The boy squinted, and then looked down, giving a startled yelp at his own appearance, raising his hands up to look at them carefully, muttering in a language she didn’t know. Master Makus made a worried noise, setting a hand on the back of his head, sending healing energy through him to help. The boy seemed to sag into his giant paw a bit, the bothan master more than big enough to hold up his tiny weight. Lum wanted to feed him food from her homeland. It would properly fatten him up. Obi-Wan had always liked the extra spices and Bant got excited cause it helped stabilize his constantly dropping weight from his hatred of eating. 

She was super good at cooking. Obi-Wan… was infamous for poisoning people, adults and younglings alike. She kinda hoped he was alone right now, just so no one would be subjected to his chili flake obsession, cause one time he put fire peppers in their hot cocoa and they all cried. 

But she really hoped he wasn’t alone right now, because who was feeding her Obi if she wasn’t there?

The boy looked around in a daze while Lum crawled into the bed next to him, taking one of his little hands that had seemed to have shocked him so much. She felt along his energy lines, noting that he wasn’t very force sensitive at all, barely just registering to her. Where did he come from, if he wasn’t even force sensitive enough to be here? 

Maybe he had a sibling in the crèche, or was visiting on one of those school trips that occasionally came through for specialized tours to see how different force sects in the galaxy lived. 

There were always some nulls in the galaxy that made it their specialty to look after the Jedi, working with their corps offshoots, or on their agricorps planets, and the Jedi tried to let them learn in different force sects so they’d grow up knowing they were welcomed and cared for in those spaces. 

Especially the ones who grow up on agricorps worlds, because they had an automatic right to petition to work for agricorps in various ways. The Jedi were sort of desperate to get more workers in any area they could. They always accepted mechanics and teachers and doctors and agricultural workers. It was one of the ways the senate couldn’t tell them no. 

He seemed like he had the force signature of a carer, or a hard working laborer, one of those ones who wanted to use their hands to make things, but just cared so much about the younglings. 

She held his hand up, putting it on her cheek, her hands and face being the only skin touching her, so she could pass on healing energy. 

Master was a good healer himself, and he seemed to have found a painful spot on the back of the boy’s head, so Lum stayed quiet to let him work. The boy seemed grateful for it, if the way he stayed quiet and pliant was any indication. 

That is, till she felt a nudge against her shields, eyes popping open in shock at the way it happened, and looked at him in confusion at how he’d done that at all. He was barely even sensitive at all! 

“Padawan?”

Master seemed to have noticed it too, keeping a hand on the back of the boy’s head while he looked at her in worry. “He’s telepathic! Not force sensitive, but telepathic! Can you talk?”

The boy mumbled a little, finally opening his eyes. “If I talked before, I’d have thrown up. Thank you, master Jedi.”

Master Makus gave a single barking-huff, a bothan equivalent of a chuckle, and kept healing the boy. It wouldn’t take long, since he’d just hit the bed, but it must have hit rather hard, for the force to feel like it was dropping a bomb on her before he even appeared. They were going to have to tell the council about how odd this was. “Some species have evolved telepathy without much use of the force. It really doesn’t take much force at all to pass thoughts and force signatures from person to person.”

The boy hummed, sounding sleepy, and gave them both a gentle brush with his presence. “I was raised to be gentle, my progenitor was strong, but it doesn’t take much to pass along ideas through simple shield brushes. I-“ he froze, looking at her with wide eyes as she stared back at him. He’d brushed her presence again, and she’d let him past the shields a little this time, and now he looked so full of grief and hope. “Luminara?”

Lum gave a slow nod. “Yeah. What’s your name?”

He sniffled, sitting up a little against Master Makus’s arm. “Gree.”

***

Plo was still having a weird day. He’d located enough of his emergency baby supplies that he’d gotten them diapered, into a couple temple issue footie pajamas, and with pacifiers to plug up those screamy little mouths. He had both of them swaddled tight, and stuck in the sling across his chest. 

He had formula, which was okay for togruta, but not great for them, and the two of them could really use some puréed foods and Plo couldn’t find anything that might be good for them to sleep in. 

He could turn on his search-protocol he used when he found a baby on mission, which would make sure the ship kept a good atmosphere for them, and just eat in the cockpit if he had to. 

The little togruta seemed to have issues hearing high pitched noises, which made perfect sense for someone her age, but the baby human seemed to look around with a nervous glint in his eyes at every noise. Very strong ears, this tiny human had. 

It was a trek to the nearest village, but not so long as to be unreasonable. In fact, after Plo got the human baby’s swaddle around his little ears, neither of them even fussed during the half hour walk into the woods. 

Plo was almost convinced he was in the clear when he realized he was low on credits and unsure what planet he was on. 

It was such a long day already. 

***

Quinlan winced as someone bumped into him. They clearly hadn’t meant it on purpose, but they’d been walking faster than was probably safe, right now, in a crowd this big. 

Either way, something in the impression they left behind made Quinlan stop, looking after them with a little frown on his face. Something had felt… odd about that? 

He was trying to dig up what that impression made him feel, but it felt like looking at a memory of his own past, instead of theirs. They had this purpose in mind, like a direction they were heading and a firm knowledge that they needed to be there. Very self assured, and a bit angry, too. But in a calm way. Had he known them? Had they known him?

He kind of… hoped not. His admittance into the Jedi temple wasn’t exactly standard, but remembering what had happened eleven years ago when Master found him in that slaver haul, sold by his own mother… he didn’t want to think about that. 

A presence soothed over his mind, and he looked to where Tholme was standing, partially facing the direction they’d been going before Quinlan had been shocked into stopping. He raised an eyebrow. “Are you alright, child mine?”

Quinlan shrugged, starting to follow after the man again, occasionally looking back. “Yeah. I guess I’m just a bit confused on why we’re leaving the mission so soon.”

“I will explain when we’re back on the ship, Quin.”

Quinlan nodded, following again. He didn’t stick to Master Tholme’s side like some padawans would, because that wasn’t what he was training for. He needed to learn to blend in with crowds and families, because shadows had the unfortunate task of needing to never be seen at times. 

And it sort of felt like they were going to break that rule soon. 

Tholme got them into hyperspace before he came to find Quinlan in the kitchen, finding him stuffing his face with a bowl of instant pasta and looking tired. Tholme didn’t blame him, they had been on the move for the past few days. 

He started pulling out the ingredients for a sandwich for himself, and found some juice in the cold storage, pouring them both some and sitting down to join him. 

“Nothing else come up in the time since you last checked in?”

Tholme was quiet for two moments too long, making his little padawan look up from his noodles in worry. “Master?”

Tholme sighed, sitting back a bit and putting the sandwich down. “I don’t want to worry you- eh, that’s an honest thing, Quin. I don’t think this would worry either of us as much as it’s panicked people in the temple.”

Quin was silent for a moment, slowly going back to his noodles. “Okay?”

“Your friend, Obi-Wan, disappeared from the temple a few days ago.”

Quin frowned, and Tholme assumed he was checking the bonds he had with his crechemates. “He doesn’t seem hurt, definitely not dead, I’d at least feel it if it was one of those, even this far.”

Tholme nodded, picking up his sandwich again. “See, I thought you’d see it that way. And we’re being called back to Master Windu can point you into Coruscant like a bloodhound and sniff the kid out. What we know, is he’s still on planet, he’s mostly unharmed as confirmed by multiple other crèche bonds, and… he left the temple with an unknown child that the temple has no record of. An unknown toddler. ”

Quinla wiped his mouth, sitting up in surprise at that. “What the heck, Obes!?”

Tholme nodded. “Yes. If it weren’t for that fact, the temple could consider it a runaway issue, even though he has no indications that he’d ever wanted to, they just don’t know where the baby came into play.”

Quinlan’s lips pressed together, and he gave a firm little nod. “Can you send me everything we know about it? Maybe I can get in his head to figure out what happened.”

Tholme grinned. “Good lad, you are, thank you.”

“Of course. I have to find my Tweedle Dee, or I can’t be Tweedle Dum, anymore.” 

Tholme nearly snorted his sandwich up his nose. Truer words. 

***

Her name was Martyan. The woman who helped Plo get baby supplies, not the baby girl Plo had with him. 

She’d been more than a bit shocked that Plo had happened upon the village, till she’d learned he was a Jedi. She’d given him a look like it had struck her in the heart, and said she could afford to pay for anything they needed, if Plo could heal her father’s infection. 

Plo had asked if she had a speeder to get back to his ship in less than the half hour it took him to walk to town. She’d said yes, but her cousin, a humanoid woman with armor and a scowl on her face, had joined them. 

It had been a quick ride back to the ship, but the woman kept that scowl on her face till the moment Plo opened up the sealed medikit, saying they could keep anything that’ll help Martyan’s father, and he’d do his best to abate the wound itself. 

Turns out, her father was a prised warrior for their village, had gotten a tusk through his shin a week back, and it just had never properly healed. Plo had trusted the cousins to watch over the babies while he worked the man into a healing trance, noting that the women had taken amazing care of the man’s wound, but it had been poisoned. Maybe the risk of the animal was full of venom, or maybe the animal had eaten poison. The village head had admitted they hadn’t caught the animal, but the others in that hunting party had been properly cleaned and safe like they usually were. 

It would take him a few days to heal, and Plo’s sense of the force told him to stay, to keep the babies at his side for a few days while the ship went through the minimal repairs he needed to do because of the hard landing. 

He could do that. 

The force brought them all where they needed to be, in the end, and sometimes it even gave you some oddities, but they were still necessary, in the end. 

Besides, there was a terminal in town he could search the proper food to give the little togruta, instead of just hoping for the best, like sometimes happened. Martyan had gotten worried and was feeding her cooked proteins instead of raw, which wasn’t a bad idea, since none of them were sure if uncooked meat could hurt a togruta this tiny. 

But they did ask him to go move to ship to the village airfield so it wasn’t more than a short two minute walk, simply because they didn’t have a room for him to eat or sleep in without his mask. 

He was welcomed to stay with them, but that was around the time Martyan started making pans fly -yeah, literally, fly, like what most small villages assumed Jedi were like- in the kitchen, rattling off her recipe for her mother’s favorite meal, asking him if he could have all those ingredients. 

He could. And it was lovely of her to ask. 

***

Mace wanted to glare at the teen that had stroller into his quarters like he owned them, bullying his exhausted self into a chair and handing him his oldest tooka, the one that always calmed him down when he was especially stressed. 

And then the teen had disappeared off into his kitchen, saying he was going to make Mace some calming tea. 

Mace had had to step back from his position, not leave it, but step down for a few days to rest, as the constant shatterpoints had nearly put him in a medical coma, after initiate Kenobi had disappeared from the temple. Depa was on her way back from a mission on the outer rim, and Master was stopping by nightly to ease him into a healing rest and dispense calming drought to help him sleep. The benefits of your master being a neti healer. 

The teen came back with a tea set that Master gave him when he’d been knighted, and T’ra Sass, the cat he’d named after her while noting that she was his little at-home healer, and feelings cheeky about it on holiday, was purring on his chest, nearly his neck. He was sitting up a bit too high for Sassy to get at his neck, but it was a perfect position for drinking perfectly made tea. His favorite tea, also, with the tiniest tinge of medicine that he’d become used to over the years, that said this teen knew where he kept his shatterpoint migraine meds. 

He gave the teen a thoughtful look. “-and, your name is?”

He smiled. “Ponds. Call me your med dispenser, when you’re not feeling up to getting off the couch like this.”

Mace snorted, sitting back again so he could sip and be purred on. “And who, my dear, has sent you to take care of this old master? I assume you’re in the medical track?”

“Not that old, sir. I’m good with medical training, but I’m a better shot with a blaster than getting Pebble to take his hypos. I’m here to help you, and when the migraines die down a little, you can ask more questions, because I don’t want you to actually get permanently hurt. I hear it’s been a tough week.”

Mace sighed, relaxing a little. “You don’t know the half of it.”

***

“You never told me, how you found me, Martyan?”

The girl who liked to cook and entertained the babies in her mothers kitchen, looked at him and grinned. 

He should really say woman, but she had a sparkle in her eyes and family members around her at all times that said they didn’t want that. Not to infantilize her, but to protect her from a village that saw her as an adult. 

She was bouncing the little boy in her arms, giving him kisses between stirring pots and checking the oven, carefully protecting his little head as she got close to any heat, once, folding a towel so she could press it to his curls, and still angling him away when she checked her roast. 

“The webs, the ones that make noises when the right person steps on them, I heard them, and I knew you were coming. I sat there at the village edge and waited.”

“I had thought so, but I hadn’t realized you were so in tune with the force, that you knew what you were waiting for.”

There was a noise at the kitchen door, and Plo turned. It was her mother, and older woman with tears in her eyes. 

They lived in a matriarchal society. Humanoids, and not very advanced, for the most part. Martyan’s cousin, Lovana, didn’t live with them, but said she was the next best hunter in the family after Martyan’s father, Huren. 

Mrs Onana, the head of the household, gave Plo a look like she’d been in a daze for days, and Martyan was already plucking the little one off her chest, not wanting to take the happily snoozing togruta from Plo’s arms, and gently placed the baby in her mothers, guiding her to sit at the table. She wasn’t feeble, but she clearly had not eaten well or slept much since her husband got sick. 

“Thank you.” The woman clutched the baby in a hold so gentle that Plo could tell she’d be a crèche master or a part time searcher like him, if she’d been a Jedi. She held the baby up to her head and pressed their foreheads together, and turned back to him. “Thank you. The doctor just left, he said Huren will make it, very fast if he stays healing like he is now. I… I couldn’t imagine he could die on Martyan’s holiday, but none of us thought he would make it the night. He will be able to open presents with the little ones tomorrow, make it downstairs so he can hold his grandbabies, thank you.”

Plo bowed to the woman, who was clearly happy just to have her husband back. “It is my honor to serve those that deserve it. Now, what is this I hear about a holiday?”

***

“Oh you kriffing shabuir , let me out of this fucking cage right now!”

Hondo looked at Mama, worried that they’d actually get hurt if they kept coming at the cage boundaries like that. “Are they alright, Mama?”

She was frowning at the human, arms crossed. “I’m not sure. Just appeared in the airlock like a horror from the void. Such a weird time we live in. I think his head hurts too much to think. Looks human, we could sell him back to the republic reclaims services if he lives that long.”

Hondo frowned, putting his hands on his hips. He was too young to have his own ship now, but he helped where he could. He stomped up to the holding cell, giving them a Stern Mama Look, just like she taught him, the one that made her smile all soft that must mean he’s doing it perfectly. “Hey, you there, stop all this nonsense and sit down. You will hurt yourself and you won’t sell back to the republic if you hurt yourself!”

The man froze, a fury in his eyes as he looked back at them. “I will tear down your whole bloody ship if you sell me to those demagolka, send me back to Mandalore with nothing on my back and I will be kinder for the insult of it.”

Mama groaned a little, dropping her head into her hands. “Is that what this is about? Man, I don’t even want you on my ship in the first place, I’m just trying to hand you to someone else and hopefully it’ll be worth my while, just tell me where to bring you, I don’t even care that much.”

The man calmed down just a little, shoulders untensing. “Oh. Alright. I need to go back to Keldabe, meet back up with my forces in the palace.” He paused for a long moment, looking away. “Thank you, you will be rewarded nicely for your services.”

Mama grinned again. “Why didn’t you just say so, love!? Of course we can do that!”

He sat down carefully on the cell bench, and she thought she might even let him out after he’d had a proper name and slept all this annoyance off. She didn’t blame him, she was still wondering how a man got stranded all the way on the other side of the galaxy from his home. What an odd thing, humans are.”

***

“Oh my, yes. My Martyan’s holiday, the yearly renewal.”

Oh. New years for the planet. How lovely. No wonder the town had been decorated so nicely. A lot of planets chose either summer or winter to celebrate, but this village seemed to be on the warmer edge of thaw, lovely and renewing, Plo thought it fit. “Was she born this day?”

The matron shook her head, looking fond and angry all at once. “It was the day her birth parents were cast from the village.”

Martyan came behind them, setting a plate of very soft breads and cheeses, and a smaller bowl of little cooked beef strips for the girl, likely to accommodate the very tiny teeth the babies had, but the fact that they could eat solids at all was nice. Plo could take the feeding from there, he knew how to get a littlun to take their snacks. 

She pressed a kiss to the top of her mother’s head, feeling like a ball of love and warmth surrounded her as she did it. “The best day in my little life, had been that renewal. Coming to my real family.”

Onana smiled at her, similarly ready to feed the baby in her arms and take some for herself, since she’s clearly been in a state since this all started. “Yes, my little love. You’ve seen the magic she has. It used to be punishable on this planet, the children either killed or sent away. Was easier to kill them than send them off, the shame of your name being on those registries. Laws changed, people became civilized , and the world got better.”

She was careful as she gave the baby in her arms a sample of the bread, and he hummed happily, clearly liking that. “Such good little eaters these ones will be, I can tell.”

“Oh, quite. They’re going to be round little babes, I will make sure of that.”

“Good man, in all ways I see.”

“Thank you. What did they do to get cast out of the town?”

“Martyan sneezed; imagine that! A sneeze! Well, her powers are more than we all expected and it made something fall. I thought it was funny, I had seen her around the parks before, and I knew she had the gift. I didn’t know her birth parents hated her for it. Suddenly she’s on the ground with a bruise on her cheek and a split lip. I have never seen my gentle Huren hit a man before that. Had that baby girl in my arms as soon as I could.”

Martyan looked at the woman with tears in her own eyes, probably remembering the hold the woman would have had on her, and not so much the pain it had caused. “I’d never felt so safe and loved while being held before.”

Onana smiled at her. “Oh, my miracle baby. I couldn’t have more kids after her older brother and sister, but we’d always wanted more. And that’s why tomorrow is her holiday. I will always trust the gift this universe gave me. My soul baby. I love her brother and sister, but you will always be Mama’s girl.”

It was more than a lovely story. It really was a miracle. “So many force sensitives being hurt like that could never end with such a happy life. You truly got a gift that day, both of you, I think.”

“Now that is an endorsement from the universe if I ever heard one.”

Chapter Text

It was here. The moment Jango truly didn’t want. It was faster than he wanted it to be, but Alpha 17 was giving him that firm look like he was watching a shiny that needed to be in time out. He’d grab if Jango started to run. 

The ade were in bed, and Mij was back, Myles and Silas were peeking into the living room from the kitchen, where they were vaguely listening to Jaster ramble his way through a first draft of his newest project. They didn’t actually need to listen right now, it was part of Jaster’s process. He just needed to speak it out loud for the moment. Jango used to fall asleep to his codex revision rambles, tucked into his side or on his lap for a nap. 

Jango was sitting on the couch, feeling well under armored and shifting in place as Kote came back from another check-in with Kenobi, shutting the ad’s door fully as he passed it. 

It would feel like an ambush but it’s not like Alpha would actually put him in timeout, but Jango still started to tear up. Mij was giving him a horrified look as he glanced up from his duffle, having been about to go for a shower in Myles and Silas’s room, but now he was on edge. 

Jango could feel just about everyone but Jaster and Kote staring. Kote was being kind, like his dumb self always was, Kenobi’s ball of sunshine, who’s apparently decided to let Alpha be the hardass in this life. He doesn’t blame him. 

He thought he had a second chance, but he could feel his breathing get harder, and his vision swam as he tried to blink away tears. Alpha just frowned at him, eyebrows furrowed in upset. 

Jango was able to gasp out once, holding a fist against his chest to knead against his sternum. “Don’t. Please.”

“Prime… Jango-“

“Please don’t make him hate me. I just got him back.” Jango’s vision was swimming more, and he tried furiously to wipe at his face, feeling sick. 

“Mereel, get in here!” That was Alpha’s angry bark, and the gentle rhythm of Jaster’s voice stopped, and before Jango knew it, there was a familiar form in his vision. “Hug him, now, before I decide to do it for you, and that will be awkward as kriff. You and I both know nothing could make you hate him, so just hold him while I get this all out.”

Jango could feel the pressure of Jaster curling around him, before squeaking when he was pulled back into the vee of his buir’s lap, clenching his eyes tight when Jaster pulled his face into his chest, still feeling tears leak out underneath. He wanted to relax into it, because he missed this so much. He wanted to be the size of Boba right now, so he could climb into Buir’s arms and refuse to leave, stubbornly getting his way from being cute and cuddly. He wanted to be Buir’s best ad’ike right now, and forever. 

He vaguely noted that the chest under him was vibrating, gently rocking a little, and he could hear his favorite lullaby that Buir always hummed to him when he felt bad. 

It sounded like home. It felt like home. He went lax against Jaster’s chest, still feeling like he had led in his stomach, but when he opened his eyes, he realized the sound around them was muffled. It took a second to realize Jaster had pulled the throw blanket up to his ears, most of him still out, but his hearing muffled to anything but the sound of Buir’s humming. 

He pulled down the blanket a little, and realized Mij was coming at them, a small cup of water and a pill cup in his other hand. He knelt smoothly in front of the couch, looking just as stern as Alpha had before, and held them out. Jango let Jaster help him get them down, not dumb enough to be rejected without something to make it stop feeling like death. 

He realized Myles and Silas were arguing with Alpha, this time over him upsetting their prince instead of the other way around, and Kote was calmly telling them that someone had to tell Mereel that Jango was winding himself up to get ill from all the stress. Jango was so confused. He wasn’t this stressed in his last life.

Of course, no one had pointed out that Jango went from child, to leader, to slave, to lost, and then to darmanda from his choices. All Jango truly remembered -stressed over constantly- from his last life was that end bit there. 

He looked around numbly, realizing Jaster was holding him on his chest like he used to when Jango was an ad’ike. It had been Jango’s favorite position to nap in. Jango was afraid to look him in the face, but Jaster tilted his head towards him, looking so soft and full of love that Jango started to cry again. 

Fuck. Don’t make Jaster hate him. 

“No, no, you know what, I want him to jump off the edge as much as the rest of you, which is not at all because Jango Fucking Fett is singlehandedly the most dangerous person in the galaxy to hurt, he knows too much and he knows how to get the most devastating outcome to everyone involved, but someone needs to make sure he has the support system in place that no one can hurt him like that again, and you all aren’t helping him by cushioning the truth!”

Excuse me?

Jango’s head snapped to Alpha at that, eyes big. Kote was suddenly there, shoving onto the other side of the couch, giving Jango an amused look as he pulled Jango’s legs into his lap. Jango didn’t fall for it for a second, that wasn’t kind, that was just a way to keep him from running. 

Which he still wanted to do. 

Silas and Myles looked significantly horrified, rather disbelieving that Jango could do enough damage for that. “Excuse me?”

Yeah, what he said!

Alpha crossed his arms. “I am trying to be gentle about this and if any of you try and blame him, I will make sure you regret it. Clearly, you know the galaxy is about to go to shit. What’s the name of that fuckoff Prime ousted when he got back?”

“Montross.” Jango was helpful enough to supply. Jaster had him pulled into his lap still, but Jango felt better enough to sit up on his own, feeling disgusted with how badly he’d just broken down. 

“Yeah, that guy. Last life, how did things turn out with him?”

Jango’s swallowed, throat a little tight as he thought about it. “He was working with Tor Vizsla. Planned us to get a job on Korda Six, killed Jaster. That was supposed to happen two months ago. Then when Montross wasn’t voted new leader of the Haat’Mando’ade, he got together with Tor again, planned an ambush on Galidraan that dragged both us and the Jetii into shit. I think I killed him about ten years later when we fought to get the same bounty.”

Alpha threw up his hands, looking exasperated. “See this is why we need to have this conversation. Not only is that very concerning, this little shit is just glazing over the blatant abuse he faced at the hands of the senate and Death Watch, and yes, even the Jedi!”

Jango blanched. Jaster had stopped rocking him, but those arms were tight around his waist. “I don’t- I can’t blame them anymore , Alpha! They aren’t all like that, and I killed six of them with my bare kriffing hands that day. That ambush was just as much for them as us-“

“And who planned it?”

Jango paused. “Well. Death Watch, obviously-“

“Wrong. Sith. That was a Sith playing a centuries long game, from a line that has been manipulating Jedi and Mandalorians for millennia. The strongest warrior classes in the galaxy, and the Sith dragged them both down by making them fight each other instead.”

Jango sighed, sagging back against Jaster, pills well and truly kicked in now. “What are you trying to do, Alpha, absolve me? I did horrible things.”

“No. I’m looking at the same damn mess I’ve been dealing with for years now. You and Kenobi might as well be goddamn soulmates at this point. You’re over here trying to take every bit of blame you can except Death Watch. Obi-Wan takes every bit of blame he can except the Sith.”

“What am I to blame for, then?”

“One thing. Just one. You turned your back on your people. That doesn’t mean you should have been in charge, it means you were supposed to have their support when you needed it most, when you got off that spice freighter, you should have gone back to your people. They should have taken care of you when you were freed. You should have had support, and isolating yourself opened you up to danger and dangerous people, without knowing who you could trust to help you. The path is fear, and the outcome is destruction. You can be scared, but you can’t let that fear be the guiding light. Could learn something from the Jedi, huh?”

Jaster’s intake of air made Jango look up at him in worry, Jaster was crying, holding him even tighter. “Freed? What did they do to my ad?”

Jango sighed. “I… Galidraan was an ambush. Death Watch took orders from the senate with the promise that they would send a Jedi strike team, claiming we were murdering civilians and children. The Jedi were sent under the guise that it had already been investigated. They probably wished they could have talked to us, but in the end tensions were too high. I survived… they… brought me to the governor, who handed me over to Death Watch. Instead of killing me, they sold me to a spice freighter, where I spent the next five years.”

The recounting was clinical, and even Mij was looking worried. “Jango, you don’t seem all that sad about that?”

Jango looked at Mij with a shrug. “If I think about it personably, I’ll never function again. I said I survived. I was the only one.”

Mij nodded once, obviously making a mental note that a certain someone needed a mir’baar’ur soon. Very soon. And the Jet’ika too, if what Alpha said was anything to go by. 

Jango sighed again. “I did that to you all. I made millions of clones. Buir, it wasn’t just a few, it wasn’t a battalion, I made millions. And I only kept one. I couldn’t even stand to look at Omega because she looked too much like Arla.”

Alpha nodded. “Why did you agree?”

Jango shrugged. “Because I wanted a son? Because the payout could have bought me a whole planet, it was so big? Because I’m a bastard who wanted revenge on the people who were barely involved other than coming in hot and ignorant?”

Alpha’s eye roll was damn near audible. “You are as self flagellating as my son. In the exact moment that the Count asked you to be the progenitor of a clone army, what was the first kriffing thought in your head?”

Jango’s jaw grit, thinking of that job. “That I didn’t have a choice. Say yes and get paid, say no and die there, and he’ll just choose someone else.” He shrugged. “I chose to live as a demagolka, and not die with what little honor I had left.”

“Exactly. This is why I am doing this right now, because you and Obi-Wan are identically kriffed in the head. Every time something bad happens to either of you, it’s your fault for not being better, stronger, whatever. You two are arguably the best bounty hunter and Jedi to ever live, certainly the strongest and most cunning. And that comes with a lot of kriffed up baggage because every time either of you gets hurt, it’s your fault and just something that you have to learn from. But have either of you ever thought that maybe that lack of support is why you get hurt? The fact that neither of you can trust because you trusted the wrong person, and everyone since them has been suspect? Yeah, I’m being blunt, but I’m not trying to tell you right now, I’m telling your support system who damn well better tell you to rely on them for the rest of your lives, because if they leave you alone again, I’m gonna have to adopt you next because I don’t trust anyone else to do this right .”

Jango snorted, turning to glare at him through leaking eyes. “Maybe you need a support system.”

Alpha smirked. “I ain’t need shit, but I got the biggest support system in the galaxy, and they’ve been popping up like flies lately. Trust me, I’m covered. Now you get your ass covered too, so I don’t have to worry about multiple idiots at the same time.”

Jango was terrified to look up at Jaster. But… there was the press of a forehead against the side of Jango’s, and he looked over. Jaster seemed unable to talk, throat tight, and working his jaw like he was trying not to growl. Jaster has always had a tendency towards growling, a higher percentage of taung in him, but he’d learned pretty fast when Jango was little, that it tended to startle his new ad. Jaster opened his eyes and looked at him for a moment, before crushing him to his chest with enough strength that Jango wanted to struggle out of principle. 

“You are not leaving me. And I will not leave you, as long as it’s within my power.”

Jango kicked his legs out of Kote’s lap, turning over so he could crawl into Jaster’s chest. 

He still wished he was as little as Boba again. He’d be able to sit in Jaster’s lap constantly, just being his little cling on. But this was fine too. This was doable. He’d never been interested in romance, or even sex unless the circumstances were right, but he’d always missed his buir, and the rest of his aliit, with a burning sadness that ached. 

He could just be Jaster’s perfect little prince for the rest of their lives, kark all that need for fame and money. He was here where he wanted to be, where he’d needed to be for years. 

***

Alpha finally herded Cody off to bed when Mereel bodily scooped up the most feared bounty Hunter the galaxy might have known, and carried him off to his own room with the same fond look Cody would get at their own kit. Softie of a buir, it was a wonder, all that fire hidden in Prime that had been ignited by his aliit’s ashes. 

Obi-Wan was still floating a bit, lower to the bed this time. Cody gave him a fond look as he pulled off the remaining pieces of his armor, slipping a sliding end of Obi-Wan’s blanket back over his feet. It was one of those fuzzy ones that trapped heat. Alpha couldn’t stand them because he was already a furnace, but the way Obi-Wan had started purring as he’d felt the blanket for the first time, and then promptly shoved his little head into the soft fibers… even the store worker had been looking like she wanted to coo, and Cody had quickly added it to their list. 

It had been a good thing Alpha and Cody had been focusing on earning their beskar, because the bonus at the end of this week was supposed to pay for their next pieces, and instead, had gone towards blankets and thrifting clothes and baby supplies. 

Upon informing their chosen goran about adopting an ad and watching over an ik’aad, Goran Hel’s only complaint -which Alpha had sworn came in the form of a pout, under their buy’ce- had been that he hadn’t even gotten to welcome the ad’ike with a blessing, and had asked to be the one they registered him with. Obi-Wan had still been bruised around his throat, and too skittish to bring to meet a new authority figure, so the goran had asked to meet him when he was settled down enough not to hide. 

Alpha wondered if the Mand’alor had a different armorer he’d want to take them to, but he and Cody were going to stick with the one that had come to know them, for now. They’re fairly sure the goran was convinced they were recently freed slaves coming to reclaim the culture they grew up in, but it wasn’t all that far from the truth, in the end, so little discrepancies could be played off as you go. 

Alpha huffed when Cody rolled right into his arms as he got settled, letting the sunshine idiot wrap himself up into Alpha’s arms, the same way they would before they’d had to keep the baby and idiot tween apart. 

Alpha laughed when Cody gently bit him on the throat, more of a nip than anything, and ran his fingers through Cody’s hair. His sweet sunshine idiot. 

Cody held up a hand, and reached out towards Obi-Wan, giving Alpha a look till he did the same on the other side, and they gently reeled Obi-Wan in by the blanket, till they could slot the boy between them, safe from floating off for now. 

He had a good little family here. Alpha was keeping them. 

***

At some point in the night, around the time Cody had flopped onto his back and Alpha had climbed further into the middle of the bed, Obi-Wan must have stopped floating, since Alpha woke up with a speed bump of a child on his chest, feeling warm and purring a little. 

And pleasantly, not biting him anywhere. He’d like it if Cody was the only random biter he had to deal with. He slid out from under Obi-Wan, noting the way Obi-Wan curled up in the warm spot instead of waking up himself. Maybe that’s more of him feeling more comfortable now that there were more adults and he was healing properly. 

Cody was slightly harder to wake up, mostly because the man had quickly gravitated to wrapping around Obi-Wan’s back, so Alpha sighed, leaving them both there while he got in the sonic and started to get ready for the day. Three more days of this and they’d have a bonus worth the time. 

Cody finally got up when Alpha decided he was leaving their asses there to go make breakfast. 

It was nice to see he wasn’t the only early riser in the apartment, since everyone but Myles seemed to be up. Well, he says up, but Boba seemed to be knocked out on Prime’s right shoulder while the man made a pot of shig in what looked like the teapot of Obi-Wan’s dreams. And by that, Alpha meant, it was big enough to be a soup pot. 

Maybe that’s important in households this big or more, but that thing was big enough to clobber someone. Mereel was at the stove, making something that actually looked like it had some thought to it, and Alpha could only pray the man had more skill in the kitchen than himself and Obi-Wan did. Cody was a decent cook, and Alpha could manage to follow directions, but Obi-Wan… was famous for poisoning people. In both the GAR officers and soldiers who had the bad luck of being cooked for by him, and the Jedi temple itself. 

He stepped up to Jango’s side, noting the way he held Boba against his chest and shoulder with a single hand, and Alpha moved to put a hand on that little back too. He was getting rather fond of the little daimyo. Jango gave an amused hum, holding out a tin of the shig mixture, a questioning look. Alpha smelled the tin, but it smelled spicy and sweet in a way Obi-Wan’s tea leaves never did. 

Alpha was starting to get used to shig, since living in Little Keldabe meant the cafes all sold shig more often than caf and tea. Obi-Wan was always just as pleased with shig as he was with his tea, and they even had caffeine free ones that made him hum in delight and wriggle about. Boba took his lukewarm in a sippy cup with a single piece of rock sugar to sweeten it. 

“Caffeine in that?”

Jango nodded, moving to pull the infuser from the drying rack next to the sink, and started shoveling in little spoonfuls. “This one is Boba’s favorite blend, or, it will be, if he doesn’t like it yet. Ginger and cinnamon, I think your boy will like it.”

Alpha grinned. “Oh, he adores shig in all its forms. Just glad he doesn’t have me hunting down saper tea in Little Keldabe, I assume that would be hard to find.”

Jango snorted. “A little. Most shig uses a form of tea leaves as a base before you build the blend on top of it, but Mandalorian tea is typically… deep?”

Alpha frowned. “Bitter?”

Jango thought that over for a moment, fishing a piece of ginger out of the tin to add to the mixture. “Yeah, I think I mean that. It’s usually rough, passed down from Taung, even those of us with higher levels of Taung don’t usually like it on its own. But you build up from that, it’s a lovely mixture.”

“You know, they make mixtures like that with other teas around the galaxy. Is the Taung tea base specifically what makes it shig? I’ve had black tea with rose hips and orange peels in it before. Does that make it shig because a Mandalorian is drinking it?”

Jango gave him a look so fond it made Alpha’s heart ache. He’d never seen that look on Prime before. But this Prime was less fractured, more… damaged and loving all at once. “Now you’re thinking like a Jetii. But, yeah, as far as I know, it’s typically the behot. Most people growing up outside the system just never try it, and we don’t export it anywhere but the colonies. It’s not too bad, can something be bitter and citrus at the same time?”

“I guess. I bet if you put a cup of pure behot and nothing else added in front of Obes, he’d still find a way to adore it and give us a full review of the notes he finds in it.”

Jango smiled, shaking his head a little. “He’s precious. I don’t even know how I could bring myself to hurt him, that past life.”

“Maybe because you didn’t give him a chance to turn to mush over traditional Mandalorian cooking. You’d have melted for sure if you saw it.”

Jango finished setting up the kettle, and turned on the stove to a low heat, setting it in the back out of the way. “Does he have allergies? Buir wanted to make grains with fruit, but if he needs something else, we have eggs and tubers we could make him. Cover it in cheese I’m sure he’ll love it?”

Alpha shook his head. “Only allergy I know of is Hoi broth, he likes grains just fine. Here, let me just-“ he moved his hand down to Boba’s little padded bottom, and started patting it, getting an instant grumble from the toddler. “Come on, bubba, time to wake up, you’ll miss your nap later and become a cranky mess for your Buir. Up up up-“ Boba finally opened his big eyes and gave Alpha a grumpy hiss at the annoyance, making Jango laugh as Alpha stole the toddler off his shoulder. 

“Thank you, I sure hate being the bad guy to his woes.”

“I’m fine with it, Colt would be better, but I can resist their big eyes. If I couldn’t, never would have made it this far.”

Cody came into the room, dressed and ready to go, taking over helping Jango pull out supplies for breakfast while Alpha set Boba down on the kitchen floor with a puzzle toy that never failed to occupy the tot. Boba looked around for a minute before getting distracted by the puzzle, pleased to entertain himself for the moment. 

Alpha just hoped he put Boba far enough away from them all not to get stepped on. 

Cody was frowning as Jaster came in, looking equally ready for the day, but the man paused, watching Cody for a long moment. “What’s wrong, Kote?”

Cody raised an eyebrow, interested in someone other than Jango calling him that, but he didn’t correct him. It didn’t matter because Jango had given him the name in the first place. 

The other trainers thought he was named Glory because Jango wanted victory. Jango said he named him that because Cody’s aura glowed the same shade as a butterfly weed. The orange glory. It was why Cody chose gold for their battalion. Jaster could call him Kote, because that was Jango’s father, and if nothing in the past life, Cody respected Jango’s decision to name him, even as he tried to see them all as expendable. 

“Obi-Wan felt a bit warm. He sort of stopped drifting off last night, I don’t remember when, just that one minute he was a lump on my chest, Skywalker speed bump style. But now that he’s sleeping on his own… I expected that extra body heat to wear off.”

Jaster was quiet for a minute, thinking it over while he pulled out grains and such for a pot. “His fang caps need to come out soon? Maybe he’s getting a fever? Teething babies get fevers too.”

Cody’s nose wrinkled up. “He never got fevers when he needed to get them out before?”

“You met him as an adult. After the fangs are fully grown to adult size, there should be no reason for a fever, since the mouth isn’t making space for something bigger coming in.”

Alpha came back into the room, having left when Cody came in frowning. That had always been a sign that Obi-Wan was being worried over again. “Am I really the last to know about his fang caps?”

Cody shook his head, the rest of them agreeing. “No, I lived with him for ten years, Alpha. I know very well when he looks like he’s gonna find the nearest stormtrooper to bite a fang cap off into.”

Alpha shrugged. “Fair, I guess. He’s too warm, and I think his mouth is swollen.”

Jango nodded. “Oh yeah, definitely a teething issue, I’m just glad Boba has most his teeth right now. Those teething fevers can be rough. It shouldn’t be that bad though, right? It really isn’t too high, just makes them uncomfortable. Stress induced I think.”

Alpha sighed. “Are you two going to watch him today? Maybe Mij can give him something for the ache, but I don’t want him alone.”

Jango nodded, busy taking the shig off the stove when it started to steam. “We can take care of him, but I think Buir has meetings he needs to get to today.”

Jaster thought about that for a minute, before letting out a gusty little sigh, nodding. “I do. The meeting halls we use have kids areas we can put Obi-Wan and Boba in, but if he’s trying to get those fang caps out today, he might need something chewable.”

Jango nodded. “I can go out later to get it, you need Silas to fill you in on your meetings. Something silicone probably, firm enough that the fang caps will catch and tug out.”

Cody paused, still helping Jaster pick out seasonings so he could get Obi-Wan to actually eat the grains, and turned to look at them. “Okay, just fair warning Prime, if you hand my ad a sex toy and tell him to stick it in his mouth, I will have to gut you.”

Jango blanched. “Kara, just the thought of that turns my stomach. I’m not going to hand him a sex toy. That’s why I think it’ll take a bit for me to find it.”

Alpha sent him a message on his comm. “I sent the address and name of the shop that I got his teethers at. I didn’t realize he might need help pulling them out this soon, but she might have something in stock. If she asks, just tell her you’re my verd and that’s why I sent you. Otherwise she’ll likely ask questions about the kid.”

There was a rustling at the entryway to the kitchen, and Myles came through, looking exhausted and with Obi-Wan half asleep as he followed at a distance of maybe half an inch, clearly trying to climb the man to go back to bed. 

Instead, Alpha caught him up, moving him to sit at the table. “Where is Mij this morning?”

Myles sighed. “He just got out of the shower. Do you need him?”

“Yeah, tell him Obi-Wan needs some gum cream for his fangs. Maybe rubbing in some bacta gel will help them come out faster.”

Obi-Wan leaned into Alpha’s hand, eyes blinking sleepily as he looked up at him. 

Coaxing him to open his mouth took a good five minutes, long enough for Mij to get in the room, holding a jar of what looked like medicated teething creme. “Does he have a fever?”

“Slightly, but it’s probably only because of the swelling in his mouth. He doesn’t want to open it. Probably hurts to touch. Can you talk to us, Obes?”

Obi-Wan gave a weak little head shake, before sending out a mental wave towards Alpha. They’re throbbing, I want to go back to bed.

Alpha sighed, nodding. “Yeah, he needs some numbing before he can calm down.”

Mij came forward with the creme, and Obi-Wan flinched , giving Alpha a set of big pleading eyes. Alpha didn’t need telepathy to understand that one. 

“Sorry, he doesn’t want someone new to put their fingers in his mouth. Bit shy for that, you know.” Alpha took the tub of creme from the medic, who immediately took a few steps back, hands in full view of Obi-Wan. 

Alpha had a few theories about what that might be about, either Obi-Wan’s famous fear of medics, or maybe an issue with the deaging giving him emotions from this era of his life. 

Strange adults were not to be trusted when Obi-Wan was between thirteen and fifteen, and a few years after that, all strange Mandos weren’t trusted either. 

Alpha noted that Jango seemed to be about to leave now, probably so he could get a fang remover in the kid’s mouth before Alpha and Cody left for their job today, but he just noted the way Obi-Wan tried to gently gnaw on his finger as he moved it around in Obi-Wan’s mouth, surrounding the fangs with numbing creme before it got much worse. 

Today was going to be a long day, and Alpha was almost sorry for Jango having to deal with it all. 

Almost. 

Chapter Text

Jango was suffering. Or, he would be, soon. Left alone with Boba and Kenobi, anyways. 

He’d found the store Alpha had sent him to, and gave the woman the request. Specifically mentioning nothing phallic could be handed to the child or he’d find his death at the hands of a protective buir, had at first amused the twi’lek, before she had gotten a good look at him. 

“Oh, Alor’ad. I assume the protective buir is a verd of yours? I asked around about him, his ad’s been seen in the markets a lot the past week.”

Jango considered that, and gave a small nod. “A verd of mine, yes, him and his riduur. They aren’t typically in the same circle as my aliit, but they’re… familiar, to me.”

She looked at him with eyes a little too sharp, but didn’t question him on it. “And the ik’aad they have? I’ve heard a few vendors have been thinking of adoption, since he claims they’re not his buir’e.”

Jango grit his jaw at that. “He’s mine. He’s always been mine. Biologically. He’s not up for adoption. Them taking care of my ik’aad was an honor and now I return the favor by looking after theirs.”

Jango knew, by the look on her face, the news of the Mand’alors bu’ad would be gossip in the markets soon enough, but he could use that in his favor. Gossip was part of a bounty hunter’s weaponry. He just kriffing hated being the center of that gossip. He’d be lucky if Jaster had the chance to contact Kal before the man commed them to yell about being the last to know. She brightened at him, as if she wasn’t holding the Alor’ad hostage for gossip information right now. He could have ignored it, but Alpha had told him to be nice. “That’s lovely, Alor’ad. Now, about a new teether, why does he need a new one already? Destroyed the other one? Was it not strong enough?”

Jango shook his head. “He’s got a teething fever, inflammation. He needs something that will help him remove the fang caps. If I hand him something phallic shaped I will, very likely, be murdered in the next day. They are very protective buir’e.”

She snorted. “I dunno, if I saw someone mauling a phallic shape I’d just assume they had some aggression towards those parts, not a liking for it.” She was looking through a catalog she’d pulled off the shelf behind her, and Jango noted, with his buy’ce on and her facing the other way, that she had a full encyclopedia of different species and what they needed while teething. 

Ahh. She was likely in this business as someone who chose another route to dental upkeep for fangs. Like a toothbrush or sonic brush creator was also seen as a dental specialist. Jango was mostly human, so he knew more about human dentists than this, but it seemed like a fairly good idea for a job. Necessary. She turned back around with a slim blue finger on a passage of the flimsiplast bound book. “Right. Stewjoni adapted the need for fang caps when it was clear they use them as their main hunting weapons. When they grew long enough that they could touch bone, a fang cap was adapted in their DNA, so they wouldn’t break the actual fangs by snapping the tooth.”

Jango raised an eyebrow as she turned back to him. “And this means?”

She grinned. “If I’m to save your forearms from a teething ad’ike, he’ll need a tool that is… fleshy and softer on the outside, with a dense center that he can use to catch the fangs and help him pull them off. The fleshy bits are to add depth, so they can fully extend. Sort of hard in the middle, but pierceable like bone.”

Jango considered that for a moment. “Is that why he’s aiming for people, evolutionary hunting instincts? Well, at least he’s not attacking the furniture. Buir likes that couch, and the coffee table is Alderaanian wood.” He flinched behind his buy’ce, holding himself back when he’d realized he’d been about to mention how rare Alderaanian exports were. That hadn’t happened. He hoped it wouldn’t. He shouldn’t even know that that had happened. 

She grinned at him, unaware of the mental shift Jango had done. “Come come, I have something that should be perfect for him in stock. Long as he doesn’t mind whatever colour I have back there, I can promise it won’t look inappropriate.”

Jango followed her to the stock shelves, letting her shove a few boxes into his arms to hold for her as she got to lesser used stock. He’s so tired. He can already feel the weight of a day of wrangling the most feral Jetii to exist, and it was heavy. 

Or maybe it was the boxes. 

***

Jango returned triumphant. 

Sort of. 

Alpha was sitting on the couch with a feverish teen trying to bite through his arm guards with a fervor that showed lethargy and annoyance in every bite. 

Alpha’s arm guards were thick enough that the lethargy wouldn’t let him actually bite through them. Obi-Wan’s eyes were wild and he made growling noises sounding as threatening as a kitten.

Honestly, he looked like Boba on day two of a head cold; exhausted and pissed with the glazed eyes of the fevered. Lovely. Jango wasn’t looking forward to watching him today, Myles would leave them and he’d be stuck fending him off. 

Alpha looked up from his data pad, giving him an expectant look. He didn’t seem phased by the mauling, which was good. Obi-Wan growled when Alpha pulled his arm out of the small teen’s mouth, and glared at him til the man snorted and bopped him on the nose. 

“Jango has something much better for you, don’t you, Prime?”

Jango pulled a box out of his bag to hand over to the man. “The inside has a dense core to grab the fang cap, but I was told the outside is soft enough to make him extend his whole fang. Less likely to chip the fangs on removal.”

Alpha opened up the small package, finding an egg shaped white object, with a divot on one side with what looked like a handle for hooking a couple fingers in it. He raised an eyebrow as Obi-Wan snatched the item up, sitting up on his own for the first time that morning, and looking the item over. After a moment, he shoved three fingers through the handle space, and shook the item around a bit, making a pleased rumble when he realized that it was stable. The outside was vaguely textured enough to not be smooth, and it seemed a lot like skin texture. 

Alpha gave him an odd look. “Is that to keep him from dropping it?”

Jango nodded, watching Obi-Wan bring it up to his mouth, but instead of sinking into it, he seemed to be nibbling on the very edge, a little bit lost in his thoughts. “Yeah. As it turns out, it’s rather hard to keep a hold of something covered in spit. I’m told there’s a cap inside to make sure he can’t bite himself. I also got some cold bacta packs for after the caps are out, since he’ll likely be swollen still.”

Alpha stood up with a stretch, ignoring the way Obi-Wan chirped over being left on the couch. “Good news is, Mij is convinced these are his puberty caps. Force forbid he start off anything the easy way, these are supposed to be thicker to make more space in the area, and his next caps should be a more reasonable size. By the time the war hit, he really only got swollen and bitey, no issues with fevers or talking.” He turned around when Obi-Wan stood on the cushions, leaning into Alpha’s chest with a soft rolling purr, half the egg teether shoved in his mouth. 

“Oh I see, I get that for you and you thank him, that’s okay.” Jango’s joking tone turned out to not pass the jet’ika’s inspection, as Obi-Wan shoved himself down from the couch by way of using Alpha as a climbing pad, and then Jango had to clamp a hand on the ad’s forehead to stop it from thunking into his karta. He let out a gusty sigh, noting the way the teen just purred and rubbed into his hand. 

Delightful. This kid was a charmer. Genuinely, not just a joke there. He could see why the Sith were all so obsessed with him, given how feral he was. 

Kote came out of the room they were using, closing a vambrace with one hand and eyes immediately coming to Obi-Wan’s form where he was standing with Jango, trying to nuzzle into him like a tooka. “There’s one of them, where’s the tubie, Al?”

Alpha waved off towards the kitchen. “His ba’buir stole him, I think he’s trying to win his favor.”

Jango snorted, steering Obi-Wan back to the couch. “Not a hard sell, he’s a bit of a softie… I meant that about Boba, but it fits Buir too.”

Kote climbed onto the couch next to the jet’ika, clearly intent on getting his cuddles before he and Alpha had to leave. Admittedly, Obi-Wan was from a much more tactile species than the rest of them, and the clones had been created to be more tactile and pack inclined than Jango was himself.

That was when Jaster came into the room with Boba, who’s face looked suspiciously shiny clean, giving Jango the feeling he’d been bribed with sweets- then there was a feeling in the air that caused all their ears to pop in tandem. 

“Force, Ob’ika, did you have to-“ Alpha was trying to get his left ear to unpop with a palm. 

“Oh that was right in my ear, O’Ben I’m hearing tones I shouldn’t be-“ Kote had to lean away from the kid, pinching his nose and giving a little blow, and promptly flinched. Whatever Obi-Wan did, was probably sharp. 

Boba had wrinkled his nose like it had personally offended him, and Jaster looked lost, but was trying to use a palm to pop his right ear, before tugging at the lobe on the one that had partial hearing loss. Jango seemed to be the least effected, since he’s been almost constantly shielding himself since he came back, and it’s been having an effect on his sparring partners, giving them a hard time landing a hit, lately. It still left a dull ache behind his eyes. “What was that?”

Obi-Wan made a disgruntled noise and pulled the teether out of his mouth, and Jango could see blood on it. He leaned over and spit something out, and shoved it towards Kote, who gave it a look of disgust, and took it from his hand. “That hurt.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to pull them that hard. You could have fractured the tooth.” Kote was holding a slightly bloody fang cap, and rolled his eyes, getting up to go to the kitchen. Jango hoped he tossed it in the garbage and washed his hands. 

Obi-Wan looked at Alpha, who seemed to be considering if he should stay home with the ad or not, and promptly went back to chewing. “Your impulse control could use a bit of work, Ob’ika.”

Obi-Wan shook his head, before looking dizzy and leaning back a little with his eyes clenched tight. “Didn’t mean to, I felt a pulse in the force and it hurt. I think other Jedi felt it too.”

Alpha hummed dubiously. “What kind of pulse?”

Jaster put Boba on the couch next to the teen, and he flopped down against his side, looking contemplative himself. “Brothers.”

Jaster looked between Boba and the teen. “How kara blessed is Bob’ika?”

Obi-Wan and Jango both shrugged. “The kaminoians always said he was about half as sensitive as me, but he always knew what was happening with his vod’e.”

Boba gave a little shake of his head and a sigh, his little ik’aad voice a lisping and cute thing compared to the topic. “It’s bigger now, Buir, there is so much inside and all of it is like ‘piderweds.”

Jango turned to Obi-Wan, who shrugged. After a moment, he released the silicone egg from his mauling teeth, and cleared his throat. He still sounded scratchy and sore, but less than earlier. “He’s describing a force-bond network. His midichlorian count is higher than before I brought us all back. Everyone’s is. I think I’m feeling the vod’e network through my bonds with my buir’e and Boba, and he’s feeling my Jedi bonds through his bond with me. It’s a broader network than either of us have ever had before; it spans the galaxy, at the very least.”

Boba sighed. “Anakin went mad, I see why, but we don’t feel as much as he ever did.” His eyes were watery at he said that, and Jango wanted to wrap his ik’aad up and never let the galaxy touch him. He wondered if Boba had formed bonds with his Tusken family. His ik’aad had lost a lot of bonds along the way. 

Obi-Wan looked off a little blankly. “Ani was… he was beyond his body. It wasn’t something he would have ever been able to ignore. Our use of the force is supposed to fade if we don’t let it grow, but his was beyond his body. He could never have controlled it all, since he couldn’t contain it in his physical form. I think… I think if he doesn’t do something big, become something else, he won’t fall again, but he’ll suffer and be uncontrolled. I’m afraid sapience wasn’t meant to be as big as him.”

Jaster shook his head a little, hands going up. “Wait, nyac, again? The… vod’e… are all force sensitive?”

Jango looked at his confused buir in realization. “Ahh, no. The Kaminoians cannot replicate midichlorians, but since there are species in the galaxy who either have natural shields, or natural telepathy, they were given that DNA, and the majority of their initial training involved how to shield or receive or send in the force that naturally exists around us all, they aren’t often force sensitive enough to do what a Jetii can; but they are considered a force sensitive species in their own right. Their bonds wrap around them instead of connecting to their karta, like a force sensitives would.”

Jaster looked just a little bit horrified. “They can… just how much genetic testing on humans did it take to get to this point, Jan’ika?”

Jango felt like he was going to vomit again, like the panic attack from last night was creeping back up on him. Boba whined in distress and Alpha clamped a hand over the back of his neck. “Shields, Prime.”

Jango let the shields clamp back down, noting the way Kote came back in the room with clean hands and scooped Boba up from the couch, bouncing the tot til he stopped whining. Jango struggled to breathe for a moment and tried to center himself on Alpha’s hand on his neck. His ik’aad was fine. He was fine. Things could be different this time. 

A second pulse in the force was pointedly sent right at him, and it was a wave of calm and quiet. He looked up at the jet’ika, who gave him a look with those big eyes of his. Jango could breathe again. “I need to get a hold of that, I guess.”

Jaster, taking Alpha’s place as soon as Alpha let him go, looked like he’d aged another ten years. Jango felt so bad for stressing his buir out again. “Jan’ika, I’m sorry. We can stop asking questions for a bit, I know you feel terrible and they’re not meant to hurt you.”

“I’ll help him. He never learned meditation and peace in his last life. I can help.” Obi-Wan sounded so confident in the ability… then again, he’d trained older adults than Jango in his later life. Even if none of them wanted to admit it, he’d raised a man to knighthood despite being one of the strongest force presences in the galaxy while still considered mortal. 

Jango let out a shaky breath. “Thank you, Ob’ika.”

Obi-Wan brightened at the nickname, fevered cheeks brightening with a grin this time. Jango was getting way too fond of him. Then again, Jango always caught sight of him while in that spinning void after he died. He was just always pointed towards Obi-Wan somehow.

“There’s no reason for anxiety if you have the force. I used to have to take those calm-down pills after Melida|Daan, cause Master was tired of me throwing up from the binge eating all the time, but eventually Master got me calm enough to teach me how to use the force for getting rid of anxiety. It’s helpful, and no one taught you before, and I know you probably don’t like drugs that could impair your cognitive function, since I don’t either.” Obi-Wan let that worrisome sentence trail off as he went back to trying to pry his own teeth out, making Jango suddenly a little worried about him. 

“Anyone ever told you you got one of the most kriffed up records for a Jetii?”

“Oh yeah, lots of people! Why do you think I lingered past death and decided to try it again? I don’t know, it’s gotta be some form of OCD by this point.”

“OCD is an anxiety disorder. The issue you claim to have mastered.”

Obi-Wan gave him a bland look. “Jango. Just because I know how not to let it effect my body anymore, doesn’t mean I’m actually unaffected by it. I’m pretty sure I haven’t had a moment of true calm in either lifetime. I literally gained pseudo-god powers from dying the wrong way and went back in time to try and do this all over again. I might actually be driving myself insane, but I guess this is how I’ll do it because if I can save all our peoples, I’ll try. It’s the scab picking tendency.”

Jaster was making notes in his comm system, and Jango turned to glare at him a little. “Don’t you have meetings to get to?”

Jaster paused, looking between Jango and Obi-Wan, who he seemed genuinely worried about, and closed his notes app. He gave Obi-Wan a pointed look as he came over to gently run a hand through Obi-Wan’s soft hair, making the ad bunt into the hand with a soft noise of pleasure. “I’ll be asking Mij to give you a full checkup later. After your buir’e are back from their job so you can run off to them after, anyways. You’re going to be good for Jango, right?”

Obi-Wan nodded, looking determined. “I’ll be good, Jango will be good. Boba might not be as good.” The ik’aad didnt protest that, but he did glare at the ad. 

Jaster was looking at Obi-Wan with the same painfully fond expression he did when Jango was freaking him out but trying not to show it. What did Jaster know about helping raise force deities? The ad already flickered between ad’ike stubbornness and adult knowledge, and seemed to have a lifetime of rough PTSD on top of it all. 

Maybe… maybe that’s it. He’s not trying to help with an adult trapped in an ad’s body, but a little fledgling force deity with more power than sense. Which meant, still an ad, just a bit overpowered. A bit less sapient in the same way as the rest of them. 

He had a lot of verd’e with more muscles than sense, and they weren’t too hard to help through their issues. He could do this. This was a Mand’alor’s job, to corral tookas and get them to stop mauling each other around every corner. 

A small godlike creature with big fevered eyes and a biting habit… he could help with that. Just a little creature. Obi-Wan wasn’t a full grown kara creature yet. 

He gave a keldabe the jet’ika’s forehead, making him start to purr like crazy, and stepped back again. “Be good, have a nice day.” 

He gave Jango the exact same treatment, though he had to pull his taller child down to press a keldabe to his forehead, which made Jango lean into him, looking soft and a little teary eyed. 

Just last year he lamented the way Jango didn’t want to hug his old man in public anymore. Admittedly, that probably had to do with idiot reporters taking pictures of the teenage alor’ad and getting some teasing in response about it. 

And now Jango was pushing into him like he couldn’t handle another lifetime without his buir. 

His ad was bigger than him now, taller, and a Buir himself. But regressive back to needing to hide in his cape and being twitchy around their verd’e all over again, just like he was when he was little. 

Jaster knew there was one thing Mandalorians rarely disagreed on, and it was that you never stop being a Buir. 

A force led creature of unimaginable power and trauma, all twined with his ad who seemed to have just as much trauma himself, and a bu’ad that Jaster was struggling to see the adult intellect in when he was whining about putting on a shirt. 

It was odd. Odd for Mandalorians, anyways. Was this odd for Jetii?

He couldn’t really do anything but promise he’d hold Mandalore together while the odd kara deities did… something. They were going to do something and Jaster wasn’t sure if they needed his help yet. 

The Jetii might. They probably would, anyhow. 

***

Obi-Wan was having a difficult time holding onto an adult mindset. He was still too hot, just fevered enough that it was hard to remember he existed outside of his body. 

And he did. He existed in the force. He was not this crude matter. 

Which is why these kriffing fang caps were pissing him off so bad!

Get. Out. Of. His. Head!

He can’t focus on the force, no matter how hard he tried to meditate. He’s fairly sure he’s bit everyone staying in this apartment at least once. 

Coincidentally, Myles had a very interesting forearm texture and Obi-Wan had considered the reasons for that while mauling him. He’d not actually sunk his fangs into anyone, but he’d seen more than a few bruises that made him feel guilty later. 

Focus. The force. He knew he couldn’t stay here forever. First of all, Jango was probably going to want to keep Co’Buir and Al’Buir close now that he knew others had come back. Mostly because Al’Buir was radiating protective instinct over Jango. 

Obi-Wan is sure Al’Buir is calling him Prime so he can remember that Jango wasn’t just some pathetic shiny that needed coddling. 

Because he sure was pathetic. 

And so was Obi-Wan. He’d spent over two months sulking in the temple before the force had dropped little Boba in his lap as a demand to get moving. And then he’d managed to get strangled. He’d just been so worried over his little sun Ani that all thoughts of escape had spiraled. 

He couldn’t even fathom thinking of them as just Alpha and Cody anymore. Those were his Buir’e now. They took care of him, and… it was hard to remember that he’d been in charge of them in a past life… then again, that only lasted a few years before Cody found him again and took charge while Obi-Wan was busy trying to shield Luke. 

His throat felt better on the outside, but the fever was making his throat inflamed and painful, which made it hurt to talk again. 

It was also cooking his brain because he couldn’t focus on the force. 

If he was sick, he could push through it. It was easy to stop your bodily functions and direct healing as you see fit in the force. There was no need for a fever when you can force heal. 

But an inflamed set of drop fangs that wouldn’t get out of your mouth was a different type of healing. Like healing a broken bone, but only if it also involves removing said bone. 

“I know I’ve been the one with slippery shields the past few days, but it genuinely feels like you’re pushing that headache on me on purpose.”

Obi-Wan’s eyes flickered over to Jango, realizing he’d forgotten the fang remover in his mouth and had barely been nibbling on it again. Jango sat with Boba, unpacking pieces of a building set that had pieces that clicked together while Boba gave extreme concentration to what he was building. Jango was looking at Obi-Wan funny in between taking out pieces for Boba to use, carefully not giving him too many at a time, like he was trying to contain the toddler’s mess. Or at least make it so no one was stepping on the pieces later. 

Obi-Wan went glassy eyed again, and sat back against the wall of the corner he’d claimed, looking down at his little socked feet. They were comfy ankle socks that Co’Buir got him into that morning. He was between the master bedroom and the fireplace, a cozy little spot that made him want to nest and hide there. 

Instincts were such a weird thing. Like how Boba tended to growl when he was startled or annoyed. He was good at growling, and it was a Taung instinct that scared off some humans, but made Obi-Wan’s lizard brain think of what a good little protector he was, just such a sweetheart-

His brain was cooking in his skull. 

“You good, ad?”

Obi-Wan looked across at him with a startled rolling merp sound. He pulled the weird flesh egg out of his mouth. “Can I have a pillow?”

He wasn’t giving up his nesting spot to go get one himself. It felt like the force was pressing down on him, trying to suppress his mind and leave nothing but instinct in its place. In this case, the instinct to make a nest and maybe cuddle Boba, but he’d settle for a nest. Boba seemed to be building a very important creation right now, and the tongue poking out of the side of his mouth reminded Obi-Wan of Anakin when he was building, so it must be really important. 

Jango gave a slow nod. “Yeah. Throw pillow, or bed pillow?”

“Yeah.”

Jango snorted, getting up with a little half grin. Nesting material. Kiddo wanted nesting material. He stopped by the room the kid and his buir’e had stayed in the night before, getting the blanket that he’d been tucked into and a pillow. He brought them back and handed them over. 

He was given a single fang cap in return. Gross.

He sighed, going to toss the cap in the trash and scrub down the hand that had held it, and came back to the room. He grabbed two throw pillows off the couch, the larger ones that Obi-Wan could use as a mattress pad if he put them together, and left them on the edge of the nest he was fussily making. 

He was handed another, slightly more bloody fang cap. Three down, three more to go and then the fever can leave so his brain wasn’t roasting. 

“Thank you, Ob’ika.”

He left the teen to make a nest in peace, and went to scrub the hand clean again. He grabbed a sippy cup to put juice in for Boba, and the leftover shig from the fridge to fill another tiny cup. He stuck a straw in the opening, and went back, passing both of them drinks. Technically, Kenobi was getting a toddler cup too, but he didn’t think the kid would care at the moment, and he couldn’t imagine having a shig sticky teen to deal with instead. 

Obi-Wan took a sip, and Jango hoped the cold liquid would cool his gums and wash away the blood. Obi-Wan made a pleased hum. 

Jango almost regretted that he’d be back to thinking like a sapient person again after today. He’d not been looking forward to babysitting duty, but he had the feeling he’d be literally running after the ad to keep him in his sight within a couple days. 

Who even knew what a time traveler with the power to pull back literal millions would get up to as soon as he wasn’t in a fever state? 

Maybe Jango could point him at a Death Watch area of Keld’ika and watch him maul them like an angry tooka. 

Or he could do it himself. Jaster probably would not freak out too much, considering Jango knew about future events. He could throw Boba at them and watch them scramble not to be bested by an actual ik’aad, but Jango wasn’t willing to let Boba get into a fight this little. His ik’aad could get an owie. 

He watched Obi-Wan carefully as he sat back down with Boba. Obi-Wan’s shields were sort of wobbling, no, pulsing? It was making Jango suspicious about something about to happen. 

Boba looked between Obi-Wan and Jango for a moment after he took his little cup, watching Obi-Wan arrange a nest that he could flop back into, looking like he was contemplating the secrets of the universe. 

Boba looked back at Jango. “Ori’Vod is quiet, today.”

Jango hummed. “His mouth still hurts.”

Boba shook his head. “His shields are strong.”

Jango considered that for a moment, but he wasn’t actually good at prodding others shields, and only came across what felt like more of Kenobi. “I-“

“Hey, don’t poke that!” Obi-Wan glared at him half heartedly from the nest he had built. “That’s for the baby.”

Jango frowned at him. “Are you shielding him?”

Obi-Wan nodded. “I have to. We have to keep the baby safe.”

Jango felt tingles climb down his spine, and they felt more like spikes than he was willing to admit, a heavy feeling in his gut. “What are we keeping Boba safe from?”

“The force gods want to whisper to me… I don’t think I can shield all of us, I’m sorry, Jango. It doesn’t hurt forever, just a little scary.”

Jango felt his heart skip, and he gave the boy a small nod. “Okay, thank you, Ob’ika.”