The day has finally come for Soniee to be honored for her academic achievement. She's still attempting to keep her secrets but with some special guests attending the ceremony, someone was bound to figure it out.
Momma looked even more uncomfortable than Soniee felt, sitting in hard chairs on the dais for the graduation ceremony. Soniee and her family had been given places of honor but she knew that Veeka Ordo would have been much more comfortable in her beskar'gam standing with the rest of the Protectors than sitting here, what were her exact words? dressed up like a solstice day nerf roast. The truth was she looked lovely, prettier than Soniee had ever seen her, and she had a blush in her cheeks that didn't look like it was all make up.
Soniee leaned over toward her. "Is it true that one of my protectors found his way into your room last night?" she asked, hoping to get her Momma's mind off the thousands of citizens of Sundari and the surrounding cities who were arrayed in stands before the dais for the occasion.
"Who told you that?" Momma asked her trying to sound put out but Soniee thought she detected a note of pride.
"He did." Soniee smiled. "Or rather K asked him and he admitted to it."
"Well it may have taken me longer to nail mine down but I surely wasn't going to let my daughter have all the fun." She beamed.
Soniee took her hand and squeezed it. "I'm happy for you, Buir."
"Thanks, Ad'ika. I'm pretty happy too."
They watched as Almec and his guards including Gar Saxon entered and found their places on the other side of the dais. And then, Soniee wasn't expecting them at all, there was a delegation from the Republic. Or were they Senators from the council of Neutral systems? Maybe there were some of both. What surprised her most of all was Lux Bonteri, smile like a holo star, stepping out to take his place.
When he caught her eye, he winked and mouthed, "Surprise!"
And she mouthed back. "What are you doing here?" She was happy to see him but at the same time she could almost hear Korkie grumbling behind her.
"Chancellor sent me. He said I should..."
But at that moment a band started playing music and Almec rose from his seat and went to a podium.
"I'll talk to you after." Lux assured her silently.
There were speeches about the new direction of Mandalore in the post-New Mandalore age. Soniee managed to keep smiling even though it sounded rather stupid to her. They talked about neutrality in the galactic war but a return to the stronger ways of the past within the system and it mostly sounded like they were talking in circles. Soniee had attended a school of government. She knew a filibusterer when she heard one. And then they talked about Soniee herself. How she was adopted in the Mandalorian tradition, how she was raised to accept the Resol'nare and then was sent to the Academy of Government to learn to be a leader of the people of Mandalore. They told of how she had taken up the cause of a people in chaos to the Jedi Counsel and then to the Senate and how she wouldn't accept an honorary degree but insisted on finished her education.
She looked down at her hands. It probably looked like humility to the gathered masses but mostly Soniee was just lamenting the fact that her fellow graduates couldn't be here with her. Korkie of course was standing right behind her but he couldn't even show his face or be acknowledged for the work that he had accomplished at the Academy. Lagos was away in Keldabe or Enceri where she would stay hidden until her child was born. And Amis, poor Amis. He should have been accepting a diploma too.
Her hand went absently to the crystal pendant under the neckline of her fancy dress. She was using it to help her focus. She knew Maul was off stage somewhere close by. She was managing to hide her discovery of that morning or at least she hoped she was. She was looking forward to getting back home and telling Korkie. She knew he would be excited. She needed someone to be excited. She was just scared.
She lost track of the speeches for a while and then someone else stepped up who she hadn't at all expected. Commander Fox stepped forward with a holo projector in his hand.
"Though he couldn't be here in person." Almec was saying. "Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic also wished to say a few words about our graduate..."
She could sense several things at once and it almost broke her concentration in hiding her secret. Fox was staring at her from behind his T-visor, plainly longing to get her alone when this was over. Korkie was grinding his teeth. He couldn't be sure but he could guess who the armored clone was. Soniee sent him a reassuring I'm yours, thought and he seemed to relax a bit.
Then the holo of the Chancellor materialized from the projector and he began to speak of her humility and her determination and her passion. The word still made Soniee uncomfortable. She remembered all too well the voice that seemed constantly to be in her head while she was on Coruscant: Peace is a lie, there is only Passion. She took a deep breath and tried to focus again. She glanced over at Lux who gave her a look of concern. Was her discomfort that evident in her countenance?
The Chancellor concluded with how he and the entire senate looked forward to her return to act as the Representative of the Neutral System of Mandalore. Soniee tried to smile for the applause. She was hoping that now that the speech was over, Fox would close the projection but he only stepped back, Palpatine still smiling at her from the holo image.
Almec took the podium again and finally called her forward. She stood and nearly stumbled back. Momma put out a hand to steady her. Then she walked forward poised and as regal as she could manage to be. Soniee remembered the duchess how even when everyone seemed to be against her she was always strong. She took a deep breath and tried to channel some of that strength.
"Thank you, Prime Minister and Chancellor for your kind words." She began trembling inside but her amplified voice betrayed none of it. "It is as you said. I was not born into the culture of Mandalore but through my up bringing by my adoptive mother and grandfather and the teaching of my instructors at the Academy I have claimed this planet, this system, this people as my own. I grew up hearing stories from my buir how the Civil War tore apart our civilization and I have seen with my own eyes the transfer of power and the chaos that ensued in the vacuum caused by the lack of a strong leader. It is my hope that I can use what I have learned to work with our current leadership and assist in returning Mandalore to the glory it has known in the past."
There was a roar of applause and she waited a moment for it to subside. She kind of hated how much she sounded like a politician but then she added one more line. It was modified from the first speech she was instructed to memorize as an Academy Cadet, Duchess Satine's first Peace Day speech. "I may not have been born a Mando'ad, but people of Mandalore, Aliit Ori'shya Tal'din! You are my family! " Using the Duchess's words was a defiant move in the current political climate. Perhaps the common citizen wouldn't have caught it. Maybe Maul hadn't memorized all of his predecessor 's speeches but as she looked at Almec who stepped forward now to shake her hand and give her the diploma, she saw the look in his eyes. He knew who she was loyal to even in death.
His voice shook where hers had been rock solid, "Congratulations, Representative Soniee Ordo!"
There was another round of applause from the crowd and Soniee dipped her head humbly in acceptance. Then thankfully it was over. The Chancellor's holo was deactivated. Her guards flanked her and led her to the reception hall. Korkie's hand found hers and gave it a squeeze in the bustle . He would have recognized his mother's words and she knew he was just proud of her anyway, even without her little rebellion. But she couldn't stop and talk to him now.
She was soon surrounded by well wishers most notable of which was Lux and she gave him a friendly hug. "I had no idea you were going to be here. I thought you couldn't make it."
He smirked. "I had to make sure for myself that the tabloids hadn't got it right and you weren't hiding away here waiting to deliver my love child."
She laughed. It felt like a long time since they had enjoyed reading about their ridiculously false exploits in the holozines.
"I hope you are reassured now." She gave a twirl in her gown that was tight enough at the waist to prove that, well at least that Lux could not have fathered her child months ago while she was on Coruscant.
Lux laughed also but then he caught her arm and whispered in her ear. "I did wonder if you might have left to hide Fox's child."
She blushed and sensed before she looked around the room that Fox was still in the room waiting impatiently to have a word with her. "You can see that's not true either." She whispered back to him uncomfortably.
"Well you should at least go and talk to him." Lux suggested. "Maybe the two of you can patch things up while he's here. I can cover for you if you'd like..."
She stopped him before he could go any further. "Oh no I couldn't. It would be too..."
Lux grabbed two glasses of wine from the tray of a passing server droid and handed one of them to Soniee. "You look like you could use this."
She nodded her thanks and then brought it to her lips before she thought better of it. Her eyes grew wide with horror and when the next droid passed she placed the still full glass onto its tray nearly upsetting the rest of the glasses there on.
"Hey be a little more careful!" the droid admonished as it rolled away.
"I'm sorry." Soniee said automatically. She didn't want to see the way Lux was looking at her.
No one was bothering the two of them. Perhaps they though t the lovers needed a private conversation. But Lux still pulled her a little further away from prying eyes and ears when he asked his next question. "I know I'm not the father and you'd have to be a lot further along if it was Fox, but you are pregnant, aren't you?"
"I..." she thought of denying it but she was sure at this point he would see through the lie. "I'm not sure. It's really too early to tell but Lux you can't tell anyone . I have even told... the father yet." She turned away from him and walked out of the room into the hall but he followed after her.
"Soniee, I won't tell anyone."
"Thank you."
"So congratulations are in order I guess." He smiled at her.
"Lux don't."
His brow creased and she could see him working it out. "You're protecting him aren't you, the father. You always have been. There never was an Amis."
"There was an Amis. He was a good friend." But she didn't deny the rest.
"Didn't the duchess have a nephew who went missing about the same time as..."
She heard someone coming and did the first thing she could think of to shut him up. She pulled him toward her and kissed him. Unfortunately she sensed who was coming about a half second after Lux decided to assist her with the deception.
"What do you think you're..." The armored guard dragged Lux away from her and aimed a punch at his face but Soniee with her quick reflexes was able to stop the fist a couple of centimeters before it made contact.
"It's not what you think." She tried to explain but she could feel the hurt radiating from her husband.
"And just what exactly am I supposed to think?"
Lux wisely stepped back and stayed out of it. He didn't know precisely what was going on but he could guess who it was hidden behind the helmet.
"I'm trying to protect our family," Soniee whispered.
Korkie turned and started to march away in a huff. He nearly ran into Fox who was just rushing out of the reception hall. The two masked men had been staring daggers at each other through their t-visors all evening but it was Korkie who had first noticed that Soniee and Lux had disappeared and had gone to find them. Fox now tried to take in the situation at glance and make a battle plan.
Korkie however had just realized what Soniee had said. He turned back and looked at her again. "Our family?"
She shrugged. This was not how she wanted to tell him. He wanted to run back and embrace her but she thought furiously at him, Not now. Not here. We can't tell anyone. The buy'ce nodded in understanding but he still didn't like her being with these other men.
Fox broke the silence, "Soniee , is he ... did he hurt you?"
Her eyes stayed fixed on Korkie. "No, he didn't hurt me. He didn't hurt me at all." She smiled and felt tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. She blinked them away. She didn't mean to ignore Fox, but under the circumstances she didn't see how she could acknowledge him either. She swallowed and tried to regain her focus.
She turned back to Lux who was just standing there trying to take it all in. "Senator Bonteri, I'd like for you to come and meet my Momma." She extended her hand for him to escort her back in to the reception hall.
"I would be honored, Representative Ordo." He gave her a small formal bow, took her hand and began to lead her.
They passed between Fox and Korkie and Soniee could sense hurt and confusion on one side and elation and pride on the other.