A trip down memory lane, when Satine was just a girl trying to find her path in life, Bo-Katan was starting to feel betrayed by her family and the Mandalorian Civil War raged on.

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Mando'a dictionary:

1. Kalevala = Satine Kryze's homeplanet

2. verd'goten = traditional Mandalorian rite of passage in which a Mandalorian youth was accepted as an adult.

3. Mando'ad = child of Mandalore.

4. aliit = family, Clan, identity.

5. vod = sister or brother.

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Kalevala, Mandalore, 38 BBY

It was a dry, hot summer day in Kalevala's ancient capital city.

Satine Kryze was home for the holidays, quite glad to have graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of Coruscant. Finally, she could enjoy some long due freedom.

Harsh Clan disputes had given rise to an outright civil war which was ravaging her world and the neighboring ones, threatening already-weak economies and millions of lives, but, truth be told, all Satine could care about in that moment was her newly-found, inebriating self-determination. It wasn't like she didn't care about her people's fate, she just didn't want to get involved.

Let us not mistake her reluctance to participate in public affairs for indolence. Actually, the opposite was true: she had loved Coruscant's progressive mindset and her courses at the Academy. She had distinguished herself as a capable, insightful student. Being the daughter of a Clan chieftain, the intricacies of Mandalorian politics were no secret to her, and it was with fervent zeal that she followed her father's whereabouts, proving herself capable of offering valuable advice in a number of circumstances. And it was precisely because of this that she desperately wanted out.

Satine had never really fit in among the Mandalorians. Always a sensitive, deep spirit, her "nonconformist" ideas were frowned upon by elders and peers alike. Therefore, it was with a practical - and most definitely fearful - mindset that she had reached the conclusion that it would be best for everyone involved if she steered clear of Mandalorian politics. She would leave it up to someone else to step ahead with new proposals. Someone more well-liked and fitting. It wasn't like she– out of all the people – would be able to make a difference, after all. She would pursue other options and – for the first time in her life – was savoring the pleasure of sketching a liberatingly selfish life plan.

That afternoon she had pinned all her drawings on the wall, taking breaks from classifying her Mandalorian butterfly cocoons to admire them from time to time. A cartoonist? A wildlife biologist? An architect? An archaeologist? Or even a cabin girl on an Unknown Regions discovery ship? So many interests, yet nothing that really felt like the right path to pursue. She didn't know what would be of her, but her indecision still didn't alarm her. As long as she was the creator of her own destiny, she would be happy. Thrilled by this new empowering sense of self-direction, Satine smiled to herself. Alas, her good mood was short-lived, for her younger sister stepped in her room without knocking.

"Father wants to talk to you" the redhead sternly announced.

"If it's for the meeting with the Clan elders, I have no intention of going" Satine replied, standing on the ground of her new convictions.

"Well, then go and tell him yourself, if you don't mind. I am not your private harbinger!" Bo-Katan snapped.

She was livid, and wasn't going great lengths to conceal it. At twelve, the time for her verd'goten was nearing. The talented Mando'ad that she was, fearless Bo-Katan had been looking forward to proving her worth for a long time, but Clan Kryze wasn't planning on any ceremony for her: in such gruesome days of bloodshed, chieftain Adonai – the girls' father – thought it wise to postpone his youngest daughter's debut into a warrior society, lest an initiation ceremony send the wrong signals to his allies and enemies alike.

While this gimmick made a lot of sense in the larger context of war, it made none to Bo-Katan, who only saw it as a sort of betrayal from her aliit. As of late, nobody even bothered explaining anything to her anymore. One thing was braving the verd'goten, failing and facing ostracism as a result of that failure; but being denied the chance of putting herself on the line was a whole different story. The fact that she seemed to have become invisible to her own kin was the greatest form of humiliation. Observing less deserving peers than herself advance positions in the Mandalorian public sphere while her own progress was being kept on hold, Bo-Katan felt as if her wings had been unjustly clipped. Had she resembled her older sister, she would've probably withdrawn into her inner world, ravaged by a sea of insecurities. But Bo-Katan was no Satine. She was concrete to the core, born to wage and fight wars with Myrmidonian resolve. Therefore, the more she sulked and brooded over her aliit's misgivings, the more a desire for rebellion boiled within her wounded soul. It was only a matter of time before she exploded.

Satine looked up at the younger girl from her desk, realization suddenly dawning on her. She reluctantly placed the empty cocoons back into their wooden case, aware that her sister needed something that she hadn't been good at providing as of late: her irreplaceable support. A fleeting sense of guilt coursed through her, noticing for the first time how much her own self-centeredness had blinded her to the younger girl's struggle. Despite being quite a few years younger, Bo-Katan had always been there for Satine in her hour of need, protecting her from bullies with innate Mando grit since she could barely walk. She had always been her tiny hero, a lively flame in the dark. Satine bit her lip. Would she ever be able to be the same to Bo-Katan?

"Something's disturbing you. What is it, vod?" Satine timidly asked, hoping that her words would come out sounding thoughtful, rather than stiff. She didn't know why she seemed to have lost spontaneity around her sister.

"Don't you dare calling me that!" Bo-Katan barked.

"What…? I see. You are upset because your verd'goten was postponed" Satine attempted sympathetically.

Bo-Katan didn't reply. She squinted her eyes, looking hurt.

"Fear not: I am sure that after this war is over, you will get your opportunity to shine. All you need is patienc-"

"It is easy for you to talk!" Bo-Katan yelled, a long vertical line creasing her juvenile forehead "You always had it easy!"

To Satine, this rejection was tantamount to being stabbed in chest. She jolted, startled.

Right in that moment chieftain Adonai, their father, entered Satine's bedroom without announcing himself, his battle attire on.

"Bo…" Satine whispered, sounding vaguely desperate.

But it was too late: trying to salvage the situation was like attempting to hold water with bare hands, for Bo-Katan had already stormed outside, turning her back to her family for what would be the first of many more times to come.

A steady, deep voice with an unforgiving ring to it brought Satine back to reality:

"Leave her"

"…she's so upset, I must go after her…" Satine exclaimed, deliberately going against her father's suggestion. She didn't care about what he would think of a defiant daughter, not anymore.

"Leave her"

"Father, I…" Satine began, annoyed at him and not even bothering to conceal her feelings.

"You must be ready, Satine"

Silence fell in the room, Satine's ears ringing. She knew where this conversation was headed. She had seen a tete-a-tete with her father coming, especially after distancing herself from the political duties that were expected of her ever since graduating from the Academy.

"What for?" she asked, nearly panting.

"After the war is over, civil rights and reconstruction will be in the talks again" Adonai affirmed, his steely eyes fixed on his daughter "and that's where your input will be vital"

Satine shook her head: "I already told you, father. My calling is not politics. I would rather not get involved" she affirmed, recalling how and why she had reached this conclusion. She was absolutely set on remaining uncompromising, as long as her future was concerned. The very future that her father sought to claim.

"It is not about what we want, Satine. You were born into a prominent Clan. It is not a choice to give back to the Mandalorian society, given our advantage. It is a duty" Adonai countered, his posture proudly erect but his voice tired-sounding.

"I can't see why I can't "give back to the Mandalorian society" while staying out of politics at the same time. Can't I contribute through science, or art, or... " Satine mumbled.

Adonai walked towards the wall where Satine had pinned her drawings, brushing them with a long, rough finger.

"I'll tell you why: I toured the poor province of Ruus. I met villagers, simple people. They recently went through a devastating famine, and would sell their souls to the devil for a bite of food. While your biggest problem here was choosing how best to distance yourself from your roots, Clans are settig the weak and the helpless up for slaughter, there"

Jackpot. Adonai sure knew how to play his cards right with each one of his children. As soon as sufferance was mentioned, guilt began to kick-in, paving its way to Satine's heart, and what could've looked as an unwavering resolve not to reconsider her position crashed almost instantly.

Satine held her head with both hands, squeezing her eyes, then let go of it. When she spoke, it felt as if every word pained her: "Why me? Why? I am not fitting to rule here. I could never convince my schoolmates to follow me, let alone an entire planet...or more. And you are aware of that, Father. You never thought highly of my ideas. You even sent me off-planet to try and shape me into something more respectable. What made you so desperate as to change your mind, now?" Satine vented, unafraid of speaking her mind.

"The winds are changing, Satine, so is the face of Mandalore's future victorious ruler. A ruler who will bring much-needed innovation about and fight ignorance, all the while governing as an absolute monarch" the aging, battle-worn warrior confessed.

"I don't like this absolute way of ruling. It distances us too much from the people. It feels dictatorial. Why does it have to be like that?" Satine confessed, her fingertips wet from all the anxiety.

"Tell me, daughter, do you deem the people of Mandalore ready to forsake the figure of an absolute leader?"

Satine stood silent, trying to picture masses of ignorant or traditionally-minded hordes obeying to a liberal, modern ruling figure. The prospect was as much appealing as it was impossibly visionary in the current-day Mandalorian context. She swallowed hard, the sort of reaction that Adonai had expected.

"Precisely. Times are not mature for that. But something else is"

"What?" Satine asked with a hint of trepidation.

"You are. Long after I've passed, you will take over the reins of Mandalore. Somehow, I've got a feeling that you have in you what is needed to achieve what I - and my allies - never could. I might be a fool, my wayward daughter, but rarely in my life have my insticts ever proved me wrong"

Just as he finished this setence, a huge, mushroom-shaped, blindening cloud raised itself in the distance, covering the sun. Bombs, threatening to destroy every last bit of civilization and ecosystems there were left. It was with that apocalyptic scene dominating her field of vision, and with her tired-warrior-father's words playing in the background that Satine realized, for the first time, that her life did not belong to her. And it should not belong to her.