Leia sat down in the Chancellor's Suite, in the same room that once acted as personal office of Emperor Palpatine, during his days as the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic.
She had been invited there by the New Republic Chief of State, Ponc Gavrisom. The room itself hadn't seen much changes between various political transitions from Republic to Empire and then to New Republic, if there were any changes it was invisible to most people. Then again neither of them had ever visited the building before New Republic took over Coruscant, even though Leia had served in the Imperial Senate, she had never visited the building. The humanoid avian stood with his back facing her. "Do you know why I have invited you here?" He said with a minor sigh in his voice. Leia was going to respond, but Gavrisom stopped her by continuing, "I'm sure you know what is taking place at our border with Mandalorian space." The Calibop sat in to his chair behind the desk opposite of Leia, his pale blue eyes analyzing her reaction.
"Yes, I'm aware of the events with pirates and that some of the peoples of Meerian and Belsmuth sectors want to take a militaristic role to prevent the apparent Mandalorian incursions." She answered, being well aware of the situation. Earlier in the morning several senators had demanded Republic to intervene with the event's and if republic didn't do anything they would. Both Meerian and Belsmuth sectors were part of the Hydian Way, a major trade route which ran form one end of the Galaxy to the other. The fact that a group of pirates were capable of raiding 11 systems within short period of time, even attacking armed escorts was alarming.
"And that's why I called you, I know that you and the current Mand'alor Shysa go a long way together from your days with the rebellion." Gavrisom stated. "For that I request that you travel to Mandalore and begin preliminary negotiations for peace."He continued.
"But what if Mandalorians are not responsible for the attacks?" Leia questioned, as both of them knew that attacks could have been made by pirates, who made hyperspace jumps between the systems to fool local authorities. "I looked at the options and concluded as much, as a result I requested if master Skywalker would look into matter along side our intelligence department. However in case Mandalorians are responsible for the attacks I want you to find out why the attacks are taking place and report back to me." Gavrisom said.
Leia was taken back by his sudden orders, was he really trying to recruit her to spy for him or was he simply interested in seeing her reaction. The Calibop rose from the chair, smiling faintly at Leia's expression and said "You don't need to worry, I'm not asking you to spy for me. Like I said you only need to report if Mandalorians have anything to do with the attacks, if they aren't I can potentially legitimize military actions against pirates." The only reason Mandalorians were put to blame was because holorecordings indicated heavy use of ships traditionally used or produced by Mandalorians.
"Did master Skywalker say anything concerning the matter?" Leia inquired of her brothers participation in the investigation. "He said that he will look into it once he has the chance to do so, to my knowledge he has left already and took a couple of his apprentices with him. The official diplomatic meeting will be held in one and a half weeks from today, I have high confidence in your abilities as a diplomat and that you solve the problem before situation escalates into an open war." Gavrisom said while walking back to window. He was clearly concerned of the situation and wanted the use of words prevail over the idea of using swords. The meeting ended shortly afterwards, with Leia deciding to return back to her apartment.
Later at the Organa Solo residence. "Master Ben put me down on this instant!" Threepio yelled at a young boy. "But Threepio, dad said I have to learn how to levitate things and I wanted to train how to levitate things that are as tall as a man." The boy answered, unfortunately the droid's constant swinging and talkativeness made his concentration difficult. The two had been training like this for awhile, yet every time Ben managed to lift Threepio up he started complaining causing the boy to get distracted, not wanting to drop the droid he was continuously forced to lower him down. This time however he managed to raise him near the ceiling. "Besides if I drop you we can always repair you, I can't repair dad or uncle Han or aunt Leia or Chewie if I dropped them." Ben said, he didn't tell Threepio that this was also the first time he tried to levitate something larger than he was.
This far, it had only been his father's lightsaber and holodisc's or small stones. Suddenly Ben felt chill running down his spine as Leia walked in. "Ben, put Threepio down, now!" She said with strict voice, causing Ben to nearly drop the droid. Sometime after Leia was finished interrogating Ben, Han and Chewbacca returned to the apartment. Leia told the two of her meeting with the Chief of State, she decided to make use of Millennium Falcon, however Han told Leia about a small incident he and Chewbacca with a group of pirates and that Falcon needed to be repaired. Leia spent the next couple of days planning the meeting while Han, Chewie and Ben repaired the Falcon with some help from Republic engineers, with Han "borrowing" tools and spare parts from them, just in case the Falcon needed to be fixed again. Eventually they were able to leave, Leia didn't like the idea of leaving Ben on his own and decided to take him with her.
Han's suspicion was correct, as he was forced to pull out of hyperspace, because of hyperdrive failure. While he and Leia argued over the matter, Ben and Chewbacca entertained themselves with repairing the hyperdrive. Finally, Falcon entered Mandalore's airspace in the Mandalore system. Han opened communication with planets Air Traffic Control. "Mandalore Air Traffic Control, this is General Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon transporting Princess Leia Organa Solo of Alderaan to a diplomatic meeting with Mand'alor Fenn Shysa. We also have three combatants aboard, ship's captain included and a protocol droid." Chewie growled to him. "I know, I just don't know how to contact Mandalorians, I just don't visit here that often" Han answered, he would have continued, but was stopped by a bored voice contacting the Falcon. "Message received, you're clear to land on landing pad 13 in Sundari. We have dispatched an escort for you." The voice said. "Well he didn't sound very enthusiastic." Leia said. Despite Alderaan having been destroyed by the first Death Star by the order of Grand Moff Tarkin a long time ago, Leia was still sometimes referred with the title of Princess of Alderaan. She had come in terms with the destruction of her home planet and was still considered as the princess by those who survived the planets looked at Han and asked "Uncle why did you say we have three combatants, we only have two."
"Hey, Chewie is easily worth more than two men, I just can't make numbers up or this wasn't a diplomatic mission." Han answered. Chewbacca leaned backwards in the co-pilots chair, placing his arms behind his head and laughed. Their escort arrived shortly and guided them to Sundari.
The city of Sundari was built into a black-coloured domed structure in the middle of a desert on one of the planets desert regions. It was surrounded by a series of smaller cube shaped cities.
Falcon's boarding ramp lowered and Han stepped out, followed by Leia, Chewie, Ben and Threepio came last. Three Mandalorians walked towards them, all of them were dressed in full Mandalorian armour except the third, unlike his two companions he didn't wear a helmet, exposing his face and blond hair for everyone.
"Greetings, my name is Ati'aran Kehl, master Shysa sent me to meet you here. Helmet-less man said in Basic, while analysing Leia and her companions for trouble with his grey eyes. "I am Princess Leia Organa Solo of Alderaan and represent New Republic during the preliminary meeting." Leia started, but noticed that Ati'aran clearly didn't seem interested in further introductions and decided wait for his response.
"We can continue introductions later if you don't mind, we have a shuttle waiting for us." He said, pointing with his hand to the direction from which he and his companions had walked from, he then proceeded to lead the group towards the shuttle with Leia and Han coming after them followed by Chewbacca, Ben and Threepio with the two other Mandalorians walking behind them.
Ben noted how the three Mandalorians differed from each other Ati'aran was apparently human while his companions didn't appear to be, unless other one wasn't shorter than an average human , while the other one was too large to be a human. One thing was certain, the fact that two probably laughed silently over how Ben's head kept rotating into every direction as he kept looking around while mentally preparing himself to start running in circles while waving his lightsaber in case of a sudden ambush. However it never happened, to his minor disappointment.
The shuttle trip to the Sundari Royal Palace was uneventful, the city was made of complex series of rectangular and often cube shaped buildings that rose from the ground or hung from the domes ceiling with light coming from outside passing between some of the buildings. To Ben the biggest difference between Sundari and Coruscant was how modern Sundari appeared when compared to Galactic capital. Leia introduced rest of the Falcon's crew to Ati'aran so he could introduce them to Shysa, once they would meet.
The palace was nothing out of the ordinary, it was just like many other palaces throughout the galaxy, maybe a little more modest than most. The group walked through the main door leading to the throne room. The room itself was long, white walled with plentiful of transparisteel windows and a large mosaic portraying large skull with horns that pointed downwards coming from its cheeks.
Ati'aran started to speak, but was interrupted by an old man who was around his mid-fifties. The man introduced himself as Fenn Shysa relieving Ati'aran from having to introduce everyone. The next hour or so was spent with the preliminary negotiations, boring Han, Ben and Chewie to death. Constant back and forth talk, it was closer to a game than actual negotiation, was it always like this, or was it like this because the Solos and Shysa were old friends.
Eventually the negotiations ended and Shysa gave the group a tour through out the palace. "And that concludes the tour." Fenn said once the tour had ended and continued. "Now who's up for a dinner?" No one resisted and Fenn escorted them to a small dining room.
Dinner was probably best part of the day, the dullness of the politics were left outside while Han, Leia and Fenn talked of their days during the Galactic Civil War between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire, with Chewie and Threepio adding their part to the events. Shysa also explained why he decided to have the meeting in Sundari. "I wanted to keep the meeting in Keldabe, but we lacked the proper facilities for it there." He said while waving a glass filled with some local alcoholic beverage in a small circle and continued.
"I did ask if we could use Oyu'baat, but we would've had to close it for the meeting. Needless to say the owner wasn't happy, she even said that she'd tear me a new one if I kept pushing the idea of holding the meeting there. So here we are in the middle of a desert, then again who the heck wants to close the universe, even for a couple of days. We'd all be dead if that would've taken place." He laughed, then he turned his attention to Ben. "So, your name is Solo Skywalker, how does that work for you?" He asked out of curiosity, while eyeing the boy, Han and Leia.
Ben lowered his face towards the table while Han and Leia opened their mouths to say something, but Ben interrupted them. "My mother is dead, aunt and uncle took care of me when I was little, before my father took me into Jedi training." He said while raising his head slowly, small tears covered his eyes, he then continued. "I don't even remember her, dad doesn't have any kind of holoimage of her either."
He tried his best to hide his tears.
Even though it had taken nine years and with no memory of her, Ben still felt that something was missing. Every now and then he stopped at the main hall of the Jedi Temple and looked towards the main doors, waiting for a familiar female figure to walk through the doors and call him as her son and tell him that she's home. It never happened, it would never happen. Most of the members of the Jedi Order had families or remembered having one at some point in life, but they chose to become Jedi, Ben didn't as the choice had been done for him in the cradle. He had once shouted to his father that if they gave awards for worst father ever, he would always win it. Sometimes his family felt like a broken puzzle that lacked pieces and no matter how much the living members cared about each other, it would never be fixed, this is what caused Ben sometimes to cry. Still he did appreciate how he had been taken care of, but the thought of lost pieces saddened him.
"My sympathies." Fenn said while leaning back into his chair, the happiness and excitement of previous conversation was gone. Leia and Han explained that Ben's mother had died while giving birth to him and that the pain of having lost his companion nearly drove his father to the dark side. Having heard this Fenn continued.
"Then again she isn't dead, as she's merely marching far away and most importantly she isn't really gone. I mean you carry her where ever you go, in you hearth and blood that is. I actually apologize for asking, since it seems to trouble you." Ben told him it was all right and then changed the topic by asking Shysa if he could tell others of his days during the Clone Wars and battle against the Empire before he met the Solos and Skywalker.
The dinner continued and with Shysa telling about his adventures. After a couple of more hours Leia decided to send Ben to their hotel room that had been reserved for them, as Shysa wanted his quests to not only see the palace, but the city that surrounded it.
Naturally Ben asked if he could stay up for a while longer, however Leia made him leave with Chewbacca and Threepio. At the hotel room Ben and Chewie fought over the idea of Ben going to sleep that ended with the Wookiee pretending to strangle the kid, much to the dismay of the protocol droid.
In the end Ben was sleeping like a log. Leia and Han arrived later on and went to sleep aswell, then Ben woke up. Having donned his robes and hidden his holdout blaster within them, he sneaked out of his room. He entered the living room where Chewbacca was sleeping on the couch, he then quietly slipped towards the door. "Master Ben! where do you think you are going at this hour, you should be in bed." Threepio said, causing Ben to jump. Having recovered himself, he placed his finger in front of his lips and said. "Shhh, you wake everyone up."
Chewbacce turned on his side and continued sleeping. Ben continued. "You know very well that aunt and uncle need to sleep, before the meeting tomorrow or today."
"But master Ben, little children should asleep during the night, not wander around the building." The droid protested. "Don't worry I won't go far, in fact you don't even notice when I get back, also if you try to stop me I make so much noise that Chewie wakes up, I blame you and he turns you into spare parts." Having said that, Ben slipped through the door leaving the droid to ponder it's prospects of future.
The city of Sundari reminded Ben slightly of Coruscant, only difference being that Sundari looked more modern. He stood outside of the hotel, trying to decide which direction to take, so he just closed his eyes and took a random step and started walking.
While walking he noticed that there really weren't non-humans roaming the streets, everyone he saw was a human. He then remembered that Sundari had once belonged to a group known as New Mandalorians, most of whom if not all were humans. "I wonder how all the non-humans participating the meeting feel about this." He wondered. To Ben's knowledge most if not all participants of the meeting had arrived some time after him and the Solos.
Ben wondered how the meeting would go, it definitely would look like a circus with all the fancy clothing and sometimes humorous pompousness of the politicians. Just like Coruscant the weren't much of vegetation and when there was, it had typically been cut into a geometrical shape, just like the city itself. He laughed slightly at the idea of the locals constantly worrying if the bushes were geometrical enough, his laugh however caught the attention of some locals, who also started laughing. Ben slightly picked up his pace in order to avoid the group as he really didn't feel like dealing with a group of drunkards at the moment.
While pacing through the street he bumped into another person. "Hey! What are pushing, you little twerp." An angry man said as he saw Ben. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." Ben said in defence, but this didn't seem appease the man. The man grasped Ben by his tunic's collar, mumbling something about teaching the boy a lesson.
Suddenly a mechanical female voice said. "What seems to be the problem here?"
The man let Ben loose and backtracked slightly. "Nothing, absolutely nothing." The man said, Ben turned around and saw a person wearing a typical Mandalorian armour, with a feminized frame, holding a blaster pistol in her hand. "Then get lost." She said to the man.
The man left and then she turned her attention to Ben. "You alright, kid?" She asked. Ben nodded, merely saying "Yeah." "Even the streets of Sundari aren't safe, morons appear every now and then. Now get home, scram." She said strictly. Ben nodded and swiftly walked into random direction.
Few hours later Ben found himself from the city's shipping docks, there wasn't really anything going on at the time, only few workers were still around moving crates and various other objects from ships and replacing them with new ones.
As he descented on the lower level he heard minor noise, like something was struck with something. He approached the direction the noise came from and noticed a couple of men dragging something, a Mandalorian soldier. He then felt something moving behind him, he turned around a something struck him into face.
The next thing he felt was how he hit the ground followed by unconsciousness.
Morning. Leia was busy readying herself for the meeting, Ben's disappearance had not gone without notice, how ever Threepio told everyone that he had gone to meditate and was most likely somewhere near the hotel and that he would meet them later on at the Royal Palace. Still Leia felt uneasy, even with Han comforting her. "Don't worry once we see Fenn, we can ask him to send someone to look for Ben. He's a smart kid, so it's not likely that he's going to get in trouble. Besides the Protectors are on alert for anything suspicious." He said, Leia knew this, but she couldn't stop the feeling that something was wrong.
A couple or so hours earlier Ben woke from unconsciousness. "I don't know, put a box under him or something, Boss doesn't want our guest's to feel too uncomfortable." One of his captors said. Being still dazed by the impact he suffered to face prevented Ben from understanding most of the conversation taking place in the room, eventually his captors left. "I told you to go home." A familiar voice said, Ben turned his head and noticed a female human standing next to himself, also chained up. Suddenly Ben was struck by an electric current aimed into his wrists caused by the stun-cuffs which locked him onto a pipe that ran across the room.
"What were you even doing when they captured you?" The woman said and shook her head slightly in order to keep her black hair from obstructing her view. "I was walking around the shipping docks when I heard some noises and came to investigate." Ben explained, he then decided to tell the woman who he was. "My name is Ben Owen Solo Skywalker and I'm a Jedi."
"Hah! A Jedi, if you're a Jedi then how did they capture you? Didn't the Force or whatever you guys follow, save you or something." She said in clear disbelieve. "I'm only 9 years old and in training." Ben said. "Figures, why don't you use your powers to free us." Woman said. Ben tried to keep talking with her, even if just to keep the pain of being struck to the face away, he managed to learn her name during their banter. She was called Miranca'de Ka'tor.
"He hasn't arrived yet." Leia said getting more worried of Ben's situation. "He doesn't even answer his communicator when I call him." She continued. "Is something wrong?" Fenn asked, having over heard the conversation. "Yeah, Ben has disappeared and we though if your men could help out finding him."
Han said before Leia could say anything. "Sure I'll tell the guys to keep an eye open for him" Fenn said and went to tell a couple of Protectors that were standing in guard. Han placed his hand on Leia's shoulder. "Don't worry we'll find him, he can't be far off, you just concentrate on the meeting." Leia could only bite her lip, Han was right she had to concentrate, she then turned and walked to greet Gavrisom.
Pipe that held Ben and Miranca'de broke from the Protectors side. "Great now I might die of getting electrocuted" She said sarcastically. "Or the water causes your stun-cuffs to short circuit themselves." Ben said, while his companion broke herself free. She gathered some water and broke the cuffs that held Ben, only thing that kept them from escaping was the door and the guards behind it. "Hold on I want to try something." Ben said, closed his eyes and concentrated.
"So, I said to her. Hey babe is tha" One of the guards managed to say right before the door struck him and the other guard standing opposite of him.
"Impressive." Miranca'de said while getting out of the room and picking up a blaster rifle.
"Oh, it was nothing really." Ben said while getting out of the room. The two began to swiftly advance the corridor they were in, with the hope of getting out soon.
During their captivity Miranca'de had told Ben that the group which imprisoned them was planning a coup and replace Shysa as Mand'alor. It was a perfect plan, Gavrisom had managed to hold the peace meeting on Mandalor if the group managed to perform the coup they could even destabilize New Republic by wiping out or capturing all the high ranking politicians that were present on the planet, in worst case they would lead Mandalorians into war against the Republic.
If such thing happened, the various Imperial Warlords that didn't recognize New Republic as a sovereign state, would act without hesitation, leading their forces into another galactic war. "No pressure." Ben had said back then, now that the meeting was actually taking place, there was plenty of pressure. He could see the worst taking place, as soon as they would emerge from where ever they were Miranca'de and other Protectors would be given the order to kill every last one person loyal to he Republic, Ben would probably have to kill her, his friend and then escape, so he could report to the Galactic Senate of the event's and what about others. Han, Leia, Chewie and even one of the biggest annoyances of all, Threepio would be some of the first ones to die. What about dad, he had left elsewhere and was too far away to help.
Then Ben saw it, fleets upon fleets of warships burning through Republic forces, soldiers advancing beneath the covering fire from massive war machines and skies clouded by troop transports and starfighters. He saw his friends torn to pieces under the constant hail of blaster fire, those who didn't die were placed under slavery and tortured to death. Fear began to strangle him and his eyesight began to blur.
He was brought back into reality when Miranca'de grabbed him and pulled him back.
They had arrived to an entrance to a room where a small group of insurrectionists were playing Sabacc, discussing mundane things. The duo hid behind a small stack of crates. "How many?" Ben asked. "Ten, at least, don't think I can take them all on." Miranca'de answered.
Suddenly one of the men started talking about adoption with one of his friends, a female asked if he was talking of the kid that they captured, obviously she meant Ben. "Leave it to me." Ben said and concentrated. Meanwhile one of the women mentioned that a friend of hers had a daughter who was in need of a playmate someday in the future.
One man suggested the captured kid to do the job. This was followed by a laughter that was cut short as the table the group had surrounded flew upwards followed by a series of crates and storage boxes flying around the room, knocking the group out. The two continued inside,
Miranca'de started looking for a datapad or anything that would give them a clue where they were, meanwhile Ben picked a holdout blaster which he recognized as his own. The reason why he even recognized it was because of a small text in the handle, it read, From Han to Ben, just in case.
Han gave it to Ben a couple of years before, after having altered it's shooting power, from lethal to stun or just to merely cause non-lethal injuries when fired. Ben was supposed to use it as a last resort, he had never in his life shot at a living target, just some practice targets under the watchful eyes of Han and Chewie. Now he might have to use it to harm others, Ben gulped slightly. "Are you ready." Miranca'de asked, Ben nodded and the two headed for exit.
How difficult was it to find a Protector patrol from the streets, Ben thought to himself as he and Miranca'de paced through the streets. Suddenly Miranca'de located one patrol and approached them. As soon as they got close enough Miranca'de called them out, the Protectors raised their weapons and pointed them at them.
Miranca'de contacted them in Mando'a, the native language of Mandalorians causing the two Protectors to lower their weapons, though they still appeared to be suspicious of the two escapees. The three Protectors began talking to each other with Ben trying to understand them.
After a short while one of the Protectors seemed like he was talking to himself, he then turned towards his companion, who then spoke in feminine tone. Having finished she spoke to her compatriot who the ignited his jetpack and flew away. She then turned to Miranca'de and said something to her, then she ignited her own jetpack and flew into the opposite direction from the other Protector.
"What did she say?" Ban asked, she answered. "They're trying to inform other patrols what's going on, we were told to report at the Palace. Let's go."
Shysa sat on the throne, in front of him sat Ponc Gavrisom, emissaries of Meeria and Belsmuth and Leia. Near the door that lead to the balcony which oversaw main plaza, where people could gather to listen to official announcements or just hang around, Han and Chewie leaned against the wall watching over various diplomats and their guards.
Han didn't like the idea that he was supposed to leave his pistol back at the hotel, while the guards clearly had brought theirs, the Protectors apparently had noticed this as well. Good thing Chewie was round.
Suddenly one of the Protectors appeared through the balcony door, approached Shysa ignoring all the diplomats. He then said something to him, Shysa nodded to him and the Protector backtracked, Shysa then got up. Suddenly a blaster shot passed across the room and Shysa collapsed on the ground, with a blaster wound on left side of his chest. Panic ensued, couple of the Protectors checked on Shysa, while various guards pulled out their weapons with the Protectors pulling out theirs.
Suddenly a large group of men walked in to the room, they were lead by man dressed in Mandalorian armour, which added to his tall height made him really imposing sight as he was almost as tall as Chewbacca was. "The great Mand'alor Fenn Shysa has been assassinated by a follower of New Republic. I am Kotrta Dral'mot and I have the proof to back my accusations." The man declared, while Protectors standing by the throne made room all of a sudden.
"That nice." Shysa said as he got up. "That's really nice claim, but I have doubt's of it, especially with one that concerns my assassination." Dral'mot was clearly taken back by the sudden turn of event's. Few more insurgent's came through the balcony door.
Then Dral'mot spoke. "Mand'alor Fenn Shysa, I challenge you! Winner takes everything." He then pulled out a vibrorapier. Before Shysa could answer to the challenge one of the politicians near Dral'mot backed off away from him, pushing one of the guards over, causing the guard to hit another guard, this coupled with the movement of Dral'mot's followers and the amount of weapons that had been drawn out caused one of the guards to accidentally pull the trigger.
What ensued was an utter chaos as Protectors and insurgents reacted to the fire and began fighting each other, with politicians and their guards getting caught between them. Chewbacca participated the fighting by grabbing one of the Protectors by accident and threw him on a couple of politicians while unleashing nearly deafening war cry.
"No, don't throw Protectors. They're on our side." Han yelled with Chewie growling back at him. "I don't know, the green guys, I think. Go protect Gavrisom" Han responded. Suddenly one of the insurgents grabbed him from throat, only for Leia tackle him. "You okay?" Han asked while smirking, Leia cursed. "Good thing Ben isn't here to hear you." Han responded to her curses.
Miranca'de rushed in to the throne room, with a quick glance she saw that Shysa and the few Protectors who stood by his side were being overrun by the insurgents. She began pushing past the guards, Protectors and insurgents.
Dral'mot reached Shysa, who was being held by one of the insurgents, raised his vibrorapier and prepared to strike. Sudden pull caused him to fall backwards, as Miranca'de jumped and began strangling him from the behind. Shysa managed to shove the insurgent off, however he had not noticed Dral'mots arrival and accidentally shoved the insurgent against him causing him to topple over.
Air escaped from Miranca'de's lungs as Dral'mot crushed her against the ground. In order to avoid being struck, Dral'mot rolled over his side, while Miranca'de crawled away while grasping for breath. She barely managed to pull her right leg away when Dral'mot attempted to stab her to the tigh.
She then turned around and kicked him to the wrist, causing to drop his sword. "I didn't plan on killing anyone else except Shysa, but it seems like I have to do an exception." He said furiously, he then grabbed her and lifted her up with the sole purpose of striking her to the ground in order to break her neck. Ben ran in to the room screaming wildly, followed by a group of Protectors.
He saw Dral'mot raising Miraca'de up, he then raised his hands and used the Force to pull the man towards himself, meanwhile Miranca'de fell to the ground. Ben realized that instead of pulling him he should have pushed him, since as soon as Dral'mot managed to regain his balance he swiftly turned around, pulling his other vibrorapier from his belt and tried to cut Ben in half. Ben dove right between the ogre's feet, "Why did I leave my practice sabre back at the hotel." He wondered, while at the same time trying to remember how various vibroweapons behaved.
He then crouched as Dral'mot tried to kick him, "If he hits me, he just cuts me in half, from head to toes." Ben though, no matter how much he used the Force to anticipate his opponent movement, it didn't seem to help. Miranca'de yelled "Ben! Catch!" She then threw one of Dral'mot's sword towards Be, right before one of the insurgents kicked her. Ben jumped towards the sword, just as soon as Dral'mot struck, he felt how the blade barely passed the back of his skull and back.
Ben easily imagined how the blade sank into his skull, cut through his brain and cleaved his spine in half. He used the Force to guide the swords handle in to his hand. As soon as he landed he backtracked few steps in order to avoid Dral'mot's attack, as he did this one of the Protectors struck one of the insurgents, causing her to hit Dral'mot and making him lose his balance, then Ben struck. The air was pierced by an bestial scream as Dral'mot's left arm partially fell of, having been cut in half from the elbow and was now hanging only from sinew and small piece of flesh and skin.
Ben then aimed his second strike and Dral'mot's scream ended abruptly, as Ben's strike hit him to the throat. He then fell to the ground while twitching slightly. While their leader was dying the remaining insurgents were already being mopped up by the Protectors, Ben looked aroung him and saw Han leaning against the throne. "Like in the old times?" He asked from Shysa, Mand'alor looked at the ex-smuggler and said.
"Almost, too few shots go with the old times." He grinned as a medic inspected his injuries. Ben looked around, the whole room looked like someone had driven a speedercar through it. Where ever he looked, he saw injured Protectors, insurgents, security guards and politicians lying around, the most severely injured were naturally taken to Sundari hospital for treatment.
Ben was surprised by the sudden announcement coming from the direction of the throne, when he turned he saw Gavrisom standing near Shysa. "The meeting will be continued as soon as possible, hopefully today." The Calibop said with calm voice which was still full of authority, it was like if he wanted to finish the meeting as soon as possible. "Was expecting a bigger fight, the end especially was anti-climatic." One of the Protectors said to her compatriot while helping him to carry one of the injured politicians out of the room, then Ben was struck by a blast from a supernova. Said blast had name, Leia.
Few hours later the meeting continued, while waiting for it to continue, Ben didn't get any time for himself. Leia kept him close, so he wouldn't just disappear all of a sudden, she didn't even let Ben go to a hearing concerning the insurgents.
She only allowed the Protectors to take the boy after they had promised to escort him back to the throne room, one of them muttered something about overly protective parenting. During the hearing he told everything he remembered from previous night and the morning. When the hearing was over he was escorted back to the throne room, where he stood between Han and Chewbacca.
He felt horrible as the meeting continued, he was tired and hungry. He felt so horrible that he could have just collapsed on the floor and smashed his skull open and it would have felt better than his current condition. Instead of even trying to convince either Han or the Wookiee to help him out, he decided to leave before he would purge his frustration on everyone in the room. He was only few meters away from the main door, when a couple of hands landed on his shoulders. "We need to talk." Calm voice said. Ben turned his head upward and saw his father, Luke Skywalker looking at him.
Luke turned both of them around, so that both of them were watching towards the throne. As all the formalities were over, Ben concluded that talking with his father was least interesting thing to do at the moment. "What's that?" He said while pointing to their right, despite knowing that Ben was fooling around, Luke decided to play along and looked to his right side.
Ben then wrangled himself loose and swiftly walked to Han and Chewbacca, he then pulled the Wookiee from arm, as he turned to look at Ben, the boy made a lift me up sign.
The Wookiee picked the boy up and after Leia gave her permission, he carried the tired boy back to the hotel. "Use the side door." Han said to them when he saw Luke approaching the group. Later during the same day Han and Luke were walking near landing pad 13. "I still think it would be best if I took Ben with me today, instead of leaving him behind."
Luke said while looking over the desert. "I know, but the kid had a rough night and is sleeping at the hotel, you could give him a couple of free days." Han answered, while stretching his arms. Luke shook his head and said. "For all I know he's been having free days while I was hunting for pirates, has he even practised while he's been with you guys?" "Oh, he's been practising all right. I had to turn goldie off, so he wouldn't turn all of us deaf." Han joked, Luke grinned to him. "All right, I believe you, still I'm worried of him."
He said with a serious face. "You mean when he killed that Dral'mot guy? You're not alone, I think we are all worried of him. I mean a 9 year old killing a man without even flinching, hell I even I flinched when I killed a guy for the first time in my life." Han said and both of them turned towards the direction of the hotel. "Do you think the Force could have something to do with it?" He asked from the Jedi Master, with minor fear overshadowing his mind.
He remembered how he had years ago called Force a hokey religion and lightsaber as ancient weapon that were no match for a good blaster, now he wasn't so sure about it. If he could go back to that day, he would probably punch himself to the face, either that or he would punch Luke into face for messing with him with the Force stuff through out the years the two had known each other. However somehow it had still been worth it and he would tell himself to do it, again.
"I don't know, I suppose we have to wait and see. Once you get back to Coruscant you know where to find me." He said and began to walk towards a Lambda shuttle parked on landing pad 14. "We know kid, we know." Han said to him, soon Luke disappeared into the shuttle. Han watched as the shuttle lifted, turned around facing away from the city and then it flew towards the sunset, creating a small arc as it turned towards the sky.
The next day Fenn took Han, Ben and Chewbacca on a tour through the city of Keldabe, while Leia and Threepio went alongside Gavrisom to meet the board of directors of MandalMotors and Mandal Hypernautics at MandalMotors tower. The hundred meter tall building stood proudly, watching over the city, it's wall was adorned by a massive painting of a skull, similar to the one at Royal Palace.
Shysa told the trio of the meaning of the skull and it's importance in the Mandalorian culture. The skull originated from a creature called the Mythosaur, a gigantic beast that lived on Mandalore, before Mandalorians arrived. Fenn compared hunting of the largest mythosaurus to throwing a rock at a Stardestroyer, eventually however the Mandalorians hunted them to extinction and afterwards adopted their skulls as symbols of their people.
The city itself was different when compared to Sundari. While Sundari was build out of permacrete and beskar iron with transparisteel covering, the buildings in Keldabe were made of more varying materials such as stone, wood, plastoid and durasteel. Fenn explained that Keldabe was the oldest city on the planet, but everyone knew that already. The group walked down a road known by the locals as Chortav Meshurkaame, also known as Gem-Cutters Street in Basic.
The sides of the road were covered with market stalls with various items ranging from precious metals and gemstones to various other handicrafts, Fenn told them it was market day in Keldabe. The group arrived to a large paved square filled with even more market stalls, on the opposite side of them was the Oyu'baat tapcaf. It was a three-story building that looked like it had merged from multiple smaller buildings, it was made out of wood and stone and had a sloped tile roof with a massive wooden ridgepole, jutting out from both sides beneath the building's eaves.
It's white plaster was chipped and flaked from here and there, it's windows non-perpendicular from their angles and with disregard for being on level each each other.
When the group arrived in front of the tapcaf, Han was distracted by a merchant wanting to sell him a new leather vest, Ben used this to get inside. He swiftly read the sign outside the building. No Strills allowed. Barter accepted as a means of payment.
He walked down a shallow staircase into the tapcafe's main hall, it was immense with tables spread about the hall, with various booths lined on the outer walls. The air had a strong scent of yeast from brewing ale, wood fire and that of various spices and cooking foods. There were two curved bars, on the other one where a waiter served food to a couple of men. The other bar was meant for selling drinks.
On the opposite side from the entrance a large group of locals sat around a large log fire, telling stories and exchanging news. Han dashed inside followed by Chewbacca and Fenn, scanning the hall with his eyes for the boy. He was alerted when he saw that Ben was apparently going to participate local table game. "What are you doing?" Ben asked from one of the patrons. "We're playing cu'bikad." The female patron answered. Ben looked at the checkered board with short-handled blades sticking out of it.
"Can I play?" He asked innocently. This caused a burst of laughter amongst the gamers with one of them getting up suddenly. "Sure, why not." He said and walked away from the table while laughing. Ben was just taking a seat when Han grabbed him and said. "Sorry, the boy ran off without warning." He then pulled Ben with him. The patrons kept laughing with one of them, a female told Han to send the boy back when he feels more comfortable with the idea of boy swooning hearts of ladies.
At the drink selling bar, the waitress grabbed one male customer from collar and pulled him on top of the counter and pulled a blaster pistol from his pocket and placed it under the counter, she then pushed him off the counter hitting Han with him. At the same time Ben wrangled himself free from Han. Having recovered from the sudden event Han told Chewbacca to grab the boy the moment he would see him.
Meanwhile Ben entered into conversation with a couple of women, one of whom scratched his hair said to him. "Aren't you cute with your green eyes , they remind me of the forest outside the walls of the city and the frond-grass at the sluice gate alley." For some reason her friend broke into laughter. "I know it's a market day, but why is everyone so prone for laughter?" Ben asked from the woman, she grabbed a jug she had been drinking from and offered it to Ben. "Here, drink and you know."
She smiled and Ben thanked her. Despite knowing how dangerous taking drinks from strangers was, but after consulting the Force he concluded that neither of the women were a threat to him, he then took the jug into his hand. Then the Wookiee arrived and carried Ben off, all he could do was to thank the two for offering a drink for him. While being carried Ben noticed a series of tapestries depicting history of Mandalorians, he also noticed how everyone avoided Chewie, then again angering a Wookiee would potentially result half of the customers dead.
Han decided it was best to stay quiet of the visit to Oyu'baat. Naturally his plan failed.
The next day, it was time to leave Mandalore. Leia had found about the visit to Oyu'baat from Ben and called Han, Chewbacca and Fenn out for it. Han oversaw Falcon's preparation for leaving the planet. Leia and Chewie were inside the ship, while Ben spent the time practising levitation with bunch of crates. When Shysa arrived with a group of Protectors, couple of them seemed to carry a box between them.
Han and Fenn began talking with each other with Leia joining them. After the three had talked for a while, Leia called Ben, after she and Han went inside Falcon. "Something small from me, no need to thank me or anything. Just be careful with it." He said, while the two Protectors landed the box in front of Ben. Ben noticed that Ati'aran was amongst the group, he looked slightly funny due to black eye he had gained from fight at the Royal Palace.
Ben thanked Shysa and picked the box, only to notice that it wasn't as light weighted as he though it to be. He decided to use the Force to transport the box, but Shysa challenged him to carry it without help. Wanting to prove himself, he grabbed to box and in a rather crude manner pulled it inside the Falcon. Falcon's engines turned on and the ship lifted up from the landing pad and blasted towards the sky from Keldabe spaceport.
Ben inspected the box, like a curious animal, searching for an opening to exploit and open it. In the end he managed to open it, with use of both brute strength and the Force. He then began inspecting what was inside. "So, what did Shysa give to you?" Leia asked him. Ben picked one object from the box, a helmet, with a T-shaped visor. There was also a flimsiplast with lines of text written in Basic, it was a letter from Shysa, which Leia decided to read. In it he told his reasons for giving Ben the armour, mainly because saving his life, hoping that it would hopefully serve him well.
He also warned Ben for irresponsible use of the equipment such as the jetpack and various types of wrist weapons, such as wrist launcher, wrist laser, wristband blades, wrist mounted grappling hook and a miniature flame projector. Having read this she immediately confiscated the box in fear of Ben activating something and destroying Falcon in the process. Ben protested as he was only exploring the armour itself not the weapons.
The armour set itself was coloured with green, blue, grey with red mythosaurus skull, the colours of duty, reliability, mourning of lost love and honouring a father. Ben was unable to chance his aunt's mind of confiscating the box and left. "Where are you going?" Leia asked with strict voice hoping to stop him. "I'm going to Chewbacca, so we can play dejarik and after that we fight over which one of us can tear arms out of their sockets." Frustrated Ben said loudly and stormed out of the room. Chewbacca heard him and pretended to yell in horror.
Epilogue.
Organa Solo residence. The sun was setting with some of it's last rays passing amongst Coruscant's skyscrapers. Luke sat on couch with his right ankle resting on his left knee, drinking tea. "So the pirates didn't have anything to do with Dral'mot?" Leia asked just to confirm what her brother had told her.
Luke lowered his cup and responded. "No, at least we didn't find any connection between them." Leia sat down as well, rotating a spoon in her tea filled cup. "So how did your apprentices perform?" She asked. "Oh, they performed well, better than I had expected." Luke said smiling faintly, drank from his cup and continued. "Has Ben spoken anything what happened on Mandalore?"
"Outside of going to a bar, not really." Leia answered, turned to look at her brother and continued. "Have you decided what to do with Shysa's gift?"
"Not really, I'll let him keep it for, now, who knows it might become useful someday." Jedi answered and poured more tea for himself. "Have you ever told Ben how dangerous it is to run off in the middle of the night?" Leia asked, having remembered Ben's adventure in Sundari.
"I have." Luke said and continued. "I planned to use a restraining bolt on him, but concluded that it wouldn't had worked, maybe I should beat him up?" He said and laughed slightly, causing Leia to nearly choke on her tea. She then looked her brother, shocked by the thought of Luke beating up his own son. Jedi Master shook his head and said. "Don't think it would work either, he would just beat me up for it someday. Don't look me like that, you know very well that I could never hit Ben."
He looked Leia, with both of them giving a frowning look at each other. "All right, I'll tell him not to run off ever again." Luke said to her in an attempt to appease her, he then finished his drink and sighed realizing that the talk of punishing Ben was going too far, he then switched the topic to Leia's training as a Jedi.
Meanwhile Ben turned on his side while in deep sleep, dreaming of the future adventures.