FORGIVEN:
The story of Kiray Fett, Mandalorian Jedi Exile
PROLOGUE: Exile
Kiray Fett's eyes were narrow as she brushed a dark strand of hair from her face. She was clad in her traditional armor, marked with the aliik of Clan Fett, but she was worried whether she would be able to keep the sign. Before her, staring at her in anger, was Cassus Fett, the head of Clan Fett and her father. She bit her lip as Cassus knelt down before her and took her hands. He was speaking in Mando'a, their native language, but it was easy for Kiray to understand.
"Why, daughter? Why did you not tell me you possessed this power?" Cassus murmured. Kiray refused to meet his gaze, but he raised her chin, and Cassus's black eyes bore into Kiray's light brown ones. "Do you wish to bring honor against our family? Against me?"
"No, father. I would rather that we make peace with the Republic instead of fighting them. These...things were not natural, I felt it!" Kiray stood and stared out the window, out at the Fett capital city of Fett'oriya, and softly whispered, "Aliit ori'shya tal'din, father."
"Do not recite our sayings to me, Kiray!" Cassus growled, reaching out for his daughter's shoulder. "If you go to the Republic, to Coruscanta, to the Jetii, you will become a stranger to us, to all Mandalorians! Do you want that, Kiray? Answer me!"
Kiray did not reply, but very slowly reached for her clan marking and her rank of al'verde and carefully pulled them off.
"I cannot stop this war from happening, but I can stop you from winning," she whispered. Kiray thrust the marks into her father's hands and ran, not taking anything of hers, not noticing the stares her clan-friends gave her as she ran for a shuttle, Cassus Fett following her.
He appeared in the hangar, shouting her name, just as Kiray flared up the shuttle's engines and took off. Tears were stinging her eyes as her fingers punched in the coordinates for Coruscant, and with a sigh of, "Akay dinui drashaar dral, cuyir dar'manda." Carefully, she said it again, but in what basic she could speak:
"Until the gift is stronger, I am not Manda-lor-ian."
With a fierce nod, Kiray Fett took the jump lever and pulled it, leaving behind what she knew for the wide galaxy.
Two years later, Jedi Temple, Coruscant:
Kiray bit her lip as she walked forward, into the Council chambers. The cyan blade of her double-bladed lightsaber glowed as she stepped forward, before the five Masters.
"Do you know why you have come here?" Master Vrook, an irascible, grumpy man with a nose that reminded Kiray of a shriek-hawk of Mandalore. Kiray quietly cleared her throat and said in a still-thickly accented but only slightly fragmented Basic, "You summoned me to answer for what happened at Malachor."
"Indeed," Kavar, a kind man who had trained Kiray when she'd appeared two years ago, asking in Mando'a to be trained as a Jedi, said. "There are other things to be discussed as well, I am afraid."
"Why did you not heed the Council's wishes? Why did you need to follow Revan into battle?" Zez-Kai Ell asked her. Kiray tried not to let her sorrow show and replied with a shaky voice, "There is much more to my going to war than merely..." She gave Kavar a pleading look. The Jedi Master reluctantly stood and bent down for Kiray to whisper the word she needed translated: "Tal'galar." Kavar nodded and quickly translated it for her before returning to his seat. Kiray began again, "There is much more to my going to war than wanting to spill blood."
"Truly? Not a lust for revenge at your people for making you an outcast?" a white-robed Atris cried out suspiciously, stoking Kiray's natural rage. Kavar reached out to her and calmed her, and Kiray took her own deep breaths and nodded to Atris. "I did not want revenge, Master Atris. My father refused to hear me two years ago when he was approached by a dark-feeling man and tempted to go to war against the Republic, and so I left to come here. The darkness the man had exuded then now permeates my people, and I could not fall with them."
"That is enough, Kiray," Lonna Vash said kindly. Kiray flashed her basic teacher a grin before Vrook spoke again.
"That reason cannot atone for what you have done. There is only one path for you: exile."
At first, Kiray was confused at the word and turned to Lonna Vash. The black-haired master looked at her sadly and translated, "Dar'Jetii." Kiray's eyes went wide, and tears began to flow. In less than five years, she had been exiled from both sides she belonged to.
"There is one last thing," Vrook grumbled, ignoring Kiray's tears, "your lightsaber. Surrender it."
Without another word, Kiray approached the center stone and dug the blade into the hole in the stone. Almost instantly, a strange force pulled the weapon from her hands, and Kiray closed her fists. She almost wanted to grab at whatever power she had left and reclaim her blade – but no, that would not be a good thing. Instead, Kiray turned on her heel and marched out, her shoulders slumped and shaking as she fought the tears.
This is aay'han; a bitter end, and yet...a new opportunity. What will the future have in store for me? She wondered, but a smile lit her face amidst the tears. I will have to go out and find it.
And so Kiray Fett, an exile of the Mandalorians and the Jedi, went out into the galaxy, to discover her destiny.