Notes: I know I'm taking a few liberties with Sintas but, for one this is an AU and second I felt like little twelve year old "Dyn" needed a mother like figure on Mandalore. Let's face it, while he definitely gets there, Boba wouldn't start out as the best Dad on his own. Like everything else bits of legends work dripping in but altered. Words of the day!
Di'kut: Idiot or something stronger (ass, bastard etc.)
Ba'buir: Grandparent
Chapter 16: Unwanted Rescue
Of all the times he could've received a concussion, this was probably one of the worst. Other Mandalorians had to be coming any minute now to kill Ottolah, there was no way Jacen had been taken out by one seismic charge, and Chiss security forces would surely have seen the chaos outside. If the Razorcrest crashed into the building somewhere, why weren't the Chiss here shooting them? Instead, it was Goran who had come to help which was the only bright spot to come out of all this. Well, that and the fact he called him riduur again. Once Goran had discovered his identity, he never dreamed he'd hear that word coming out of his mouth again. Dyn had thought it was over between them, but a year apart had apparently softened the other Mandalorian's stance on being romantically involved with a former Jetti.. Maybe he came around to his side of thinking, that since he hadn't even become a full fledged Padawan it didn't count.
Dyn forced himself to stand up fighting the wobblyness he was feeling from the crash, "We should get moving, don't worry about me." He grabbed his cycler rifle while glancing towards Mirta, "How is Yarv and Jaina doing?"
Mirta pivoted to face him in her golden armor, "Wait a minute, this is Jaina Solo? Do you want me to finish the job? I know she got away from you last time. What's she even doing on the ship anyways?"
He was on good terms with the spunky young Mandalorian but sometimes she could talk too much. During the early days of the Empire, Boba Fett had fallen in love with a Cathar, and fellow bounty hunter, named Sintas Vel. The two of them were happy, to the point Boba almost cut his career short so he could have a proper Mandalorian family with the girl. Unfortunately, during their break on Correllia an Imperial squad had an anonymous tip from someone in the White Worms gang that Boba and Sintas were part of a smuggling operation. When the pair inevitably had no idea what the Imperial was talking about, Sintas was "attacked." Boba never went into more detail than that with him however, the fact that he then hunted down and disintegrated said squad, told Dyn everything he needed to know about the incident. The two separated quickly after as Sintas failed to mention she was pregnant. The two were an on again off again couple until they both found the Razorcrest crashed in the middle of nowhere on some desolate moon. According to Sintas, he was their second chance to have the family they never got.
Since Boba had absolutely no contact with his now deceased daughter, Dyn likewise knew nothing about her. Apparently, she eventually had a daughter of her own because baby Mirta Gev was shipped to the Boba estate when Dyn was fourteen. She was going to make a good Mandalorian one day. Despite not really being there for her in the past year because of his break up with Goran, they had been effectively siblings before that. He'd help with homework, combat practice, even beskar welding. Now she was here helping him with this, it meant a lot to him that she would volunteer to come here when Goran surely told her how dangerous the mission was. Sintas most likely will be upset about Mirta being too young to help assassinate a powerful government figure though he had to imagine she was getting into just as much trouble when she was Mirta's age given the fact that she met Boba not long after.
Dyn carefully approached her and put a hand on her blaster, "No ner vod, put the blaster away. I don't have time to explain, just stay here with these two until I come back."
"Yeah maybe uhhh maybe do what this guy says...you don't look old enough to kill somebody." Rey added looking like she was lost and confused.
Mirta inevitably got angry from the fact that someone was questioning her skills, "Not old enough?! I'll have you known I started target practicing womp rats when I was five you little di'kut."
He had to hold her back, "Oy! I need you to keep your head on straight! Just stay here in case the Chiss come looking for them."
Goran was already standing on the Razorcrest's entrance ramp which had punched into the palace itself, "You're gonna stay here too, I'll go kill Ottolah and then we'll all leave together on Slave 1."
Dyn spun around feeling dizzy from doing so storming towards him in frustration, "No you're not. Dealing with Chiss security is enough on it's own let alone Mavik who will be here any minute."
The other Mandalorian's helmet drooped letting out a tired sigh, "The Ordos aren't coming Dyn and right now telling you why they won't be will just complicate the mission. Sit down and rest, you have a concussion."
Goran's tone made it clear the reason no other Mandalorians were coming wasn't a good one. What had his buir done to keep all of the other clans off his back? He was about to ask when blue blaster fire came flying towards them from inside the palace. Chiss security, about six of them from what he could tell were making their way towards the ship in a tight formation. Dyn thought he was shooting back at them with his cycler rifle yet he was hitting nothing even though he thought he had one of the Chiss in his scopes. His damn concussion was making him see double forcing him to take cover while Goran and Mirta returned fire. Dyn did what he could to hopefully fire in their general area while the others did more of the work. As a shot barely missed his head he saw Rey leaning over to slowly grab Yarv's lightsaber since he was unconscious while the three of them were busy. What had changed?
When the hiss of the golden lightsaber sounded, he knew they were in trouble, "In the name of the Jedi Order, I want your to tell me who you are and why you've kidnapped me off of Tython?!"
Mirta could be heard over the shooting, "Has she hit her head? Taken drugs recently? We're a little occupied at the moment if you didn't notice!"
Goran fired a few random blasts around the corner to provide cover fire, "Dyn deal with your cousin and we'll handle this."
Rey shouldn't even know how to hold a lightsaber properly let alone say any of that although he didn't think he had a bad enough concussion to doubt any of that was actually happening right now. The ship outside had promised to help her remove her suppressed potential. Could it really remove Nightsister magic that quickly? Dyn knew he didn't have the time to talk to her and deal with Chiss security personnel that continued to funnel into the hallway just beyond the Razorcrest's entrance. So, Dyn grabbed one of the grenades miraculously still strapped to his belt and threw it into the hall. Even though he was looking in another direction, the light from the explosion made his head hurt behind his eyes. The stereotypical hum of a lightsaber wasn't doing anything for his head either.
Dragging himself back to his feet took more of an effort than he wanted to admit right now, "Hey, I know your scared, upset, probably don't even know where you are right now but you have to trust that I'm not going to hurt you."
"And why should I trust you at all?" Jaina asked skeptically not recognizing him by his voice alone.
He reluctantly took his helmet off having dreaded this moment for eighteen years, "Because at one time we were family."
Her eyes widened in shock before she rushed over to hug him, "Ben...? By the force you've grown! How long has it been? Last thing I remember we were practicing for your test to be a Padawan."
Dyn froze stiffly in the hug not knowing what to tell her. Judging by her reaction to seeing him and what she said, she still didn't remember what occurred the night Mara died. It was somehow even harder for him to interact with her when she didn't know what she had done to him yet still knew they were related. Should he tell her? Demand her forgiveness? That idea definitely went against the thought that he had moved on understanding she hadn't meant to do it on purpose like he had told Boba after coming home from the failed assassination attempt. Whatever he did later could be decided after Ottolah was dead, every second wasted not killing him was another second his ad'ika was in the hands of Greef Karga. Plus he had no idea whatever Boba did could actually keep the Ordos away from the job forever.
His arms gently pushed her back a few feet, "It's been a very long time and a lot has happened, not all of it good. I need you to just trust me and stay with Yarv until he wakes up. Alright?"
Jaina reached forward delicately with one finger brushing one of his bloody spots, "You're hurt... Whatever you're doing I want to come with you so I can help. Mara would kill me if I let you go to do something dangerous by yourself."
Her way of saying his mother's name so casually stung more than the pressure she applied to his head wound, "Ok...just stay behind me and try not to ask a lot of questions."
She agreed with a tilt of her head making Goran sigh, "Alright, I don't have a lot of time to sit around and argue in case Ottolah is trying to escape. Mirta, make sure no one tries to take Slave 1."
Mirta was obviously annoyed if her sarcastic tone was anything to go by, "I know, I know. All I'm good for right now is guard duty until I'm an adult like you two. It's not like I didn't just make myself useful by killing Chiss or anything."
Dyn had a happy voice trying to cheer her up as he put his helmet back on, "You did good today ner vod but look at it this way, dalyc ba'buir would kill you if Slave 1 got stolen by some aruteii."
Goran was clutching his EE-3 blaster rifle tightly as he swept around corners, "We're going to the palace's holonet mainframe first. We need a blueprint of the base to know where Ottolah would be hiding in an emergency."
Normally Dyn would want to just break into every office he could find until they got to the target's. Because his head was throbbing with pain though, taking a more deliberate approach sounded like a better idea. His riduur knew him better than he knew himself sometimes and he always appreciated it. Maybe it was just the concussion showing him things but, the sculptures lining the circular walls appeared to be holding lightsabers in a battle. Why did the Chiss have such a fascination with Jedi and Sith art? Specifically ancient art if that Ravager Destroyer was anything to go by. Taking a closer look at it out of curiosity, Dyn could see that the Chiss artist had given it the title, "Omen." He wondered if that was what they had called it at the time or if the artist somehow knew what the ancient Sith called the vessel being depicted. It wasn't famous like the Harbinger or on the Republic side the Ebon Hawk.
His musings were cut short as Goran asked, "So...what changed your mind on the whole ad'ika thing?"
As soon as Karga announced the child was going to be the reward for eliminating the defense minister, he had worried about how his former riduur would take the news. Dyn had lost count of the number of times they had fought about the subject. Having grown up as an ori'vod for Mirta her entire life, he didn't think he wanted to go through that again. On the other hand, Goran wanted to settle down and raise a child for a long time. How could he explain to him that seeing the child in that Tatooine home changed his perspective almost instantly when their heated discussions hadn't? The possibility of him not enjoying his choice of an ad'ika hadn't even crossed his mind because he didn't think they were an item. When they got him back, Goran was just going to have to make it work or he was going to have to leave him alone.
He did his best to try and come to the right words, "It's hard to explain..I was on a job and a lot of innocent people died, a few that I knew. When my employers left I heard the crying and then I found him. Just seeing his face look up at me...I've never seen someone put that much faith in me that I'd protect them. I knew I had to do it for the rest of my life."
"I can't wait to meet the little fuzzball that melted your cold, cold heart." Goran told him in a mixture of genuine emotion and a bit of humor.
The relief flooding through him made Dyn want to tease him back if the door in front of them hadn't opened revealing a dozen more Chiss forces waiting for them in the holonet room. Dyn slid to the right to take cover knowing Goran's beskar would absorb any of the blaster bolts coming his way before he could take cover as well. Given the fact that he was a lot closer to the Chiss this time he was confident he could use his cycler rifle well enough despite his injury. Indeed he managed to get a slug off disintegrating one of them. Granted that was still after four shots so he certainty wouldn't qualify himself as being at his best. To his surprise, Jaina wasn't doing that much better than him seemingly without the disadvantage of his injury. Her blaster deflection technique was sloppy only occasionally making contact with a blaster bolt. Her prowess in lightsaber combat hadn't been something that ship had given back to her if this was what she was doing. It was a good thing the Chiss were intentionally missing due to her identity, otherwise she would've been dead several times over.
Her luck could only last so long because one of the blaster bolts hit her in the shoulder after a long sweeping miss, "Kriff... I haven't done this in awhile have I?"
Dyn grimaced seeing one of them step around the corner he was hiding behind to grab him forcing him to fire a flurry of blaster bolts towards him as well as Goran unintentionally, "Yeah, that's a bit of an understatement. Me either though so don't feel all that bad about it."
One of the stray blasts bounced off of Goran's shoulder gauntlets making him grunt slightly, "Next time, you stay on the ship when I tell you to."
Before he could agree like he wanted to, Goran was using his flamethrower to torch the Chiss still in the room where they needed to go. As quick and painless as possible was his usual motive but not all Mandalorians thought about pain the same way he did. Most saw it as a learning tool, if someone could take massive amounts of pain they would be stronger for it. Perhaps it was his youth as a Jedi that taught him pain was something that shouldn't be inflicted upon others unless it was absolutely necessary. Or maybe it was the fact Dyn had experienced enough emotional pain for a lifetime and had no desire to bring that to innocent people. Regardless, he didn't have any other option in this situation. No amount of explaining about how his ad'ika was important to the galaxy would convince Chiss security to abandon their posts just this once. Still he was struggling with how many orphans he might be creating in this assault.
Jaina rolled her injured shoulder as she stepped around the corner to follow them once more, "Was that really necessary? Those were people with lives and families you just... Ben, what would your parents say?"
Dyn knew what they would say so he snapped, "Well Jaina, one of them is dead and the other I don't talk to so it doesn't really matter does it?"
She had the facial expression of someone who just discovered terrible news, "Ben I... What happened? When? How?"
Luckily Goran spoke before he was tempted to tell her every little detail, "I have to say there's a lot of references to a Project Warhammer. Some sort of planetary ion weapon. Ottolah has made a lot of searches on how one could neutralize the effects of ion charges on an atmosphere. Why would he be trying to find out how you'd be able to shut off the effects his own weapon...?"
Dyn's frustration was building the longer he didn't have Ottolah by the throat, "I don't know and I don't frankly care all that much. Can you look to see where his office is now?"
Goran was copying multiple data cards worth of information before nodding, "Yeah..I know the way and it isn't far. Let's go."
His heart was pounding harder and harder the more hallways they went down passing similar art displays. He had been gone from his ad'ika for far too long already and even after this part of the mission was over, they were going to have to travel back to Nar Shaddaa, contact Greef, and demand his payment. Another week maybe if you combined all of that together? That amount of time just felt like an infinite eternity when the safety of his child was concerned. Especially one so fragile as his baby. Was Karga or those he surrounded himself with physically capable of keeping an ad'ika alive that long? If the childs good health had been a condition for the reward he wouldn't be as worried. The problem was everyone but him who took the job wanted to see the reward harmed in one way or another. His health ultimately came down to how afraid Karga was of him and his family if the baby died. Obviously, it wasn't his biggest concern or he wouldn't have put the reward up at all.
As they rounded what had to be the last corner his heart plunged into his stomach. Jacen Solo was standing at the door to Ottolah's office having just come out. He was wearing Jedi robes for some reason covered in snow from his crash as well as blood. Chiss blood. The blood was a visible representation of his utter failure to keep the ad'ika safe. Since Jacen had come here specifically to kill the defense minister, he had to be after the reward. And why wouldn't he be? Killing the baby now would eliminate any threat to the Sith rule for millenia. A part of him wished Mavik Ordo was the one standing there right now. At least they had a chance to have a fair fight with him. Another pointless wish he had was to think Karga wouldn't give him the reward seeing as he had no affiliation with the Guild. However, Karga would have no courage to deny him when his alter ego came knocking on the door. He didn't necessarily blame him either, very few individuals could stand against a red lightsaber to the face and his job was to keep the Guild independent from the Empire. That work ethic was just going to bite him in the shebs instead of somebody else this time.
"Jacen!" Jaina predictably ran towards him with open arms, a side effect of not telling her a brief summary of what happened in her memory gap.
Jacen had legitimate joy on his face as he hugged her back tightly, "It's so good to see you!" He looked over his shoulder as if pretending to see them for the first time, "Wait Jaina get behind me."
Her face wrinkled in confusion, "Jacen I know with the armor on it's hard to tell but that's Ben. You know your I guess old Padawan?"
Dyn and Goran were trying to circle him with their weapons drawn, "Where's Ottolah?"
Jaina slowly took a step back from her brother her gaze bouncing between the three of them, "What's going on? What did I miss?"
"You missed the fact that he killed my mother!" Dyn shouted while springing forward hoping to take him by surprise.
His first blast went wide hitting the window overlooking Nirauan's barren skyline. The second and third shots bounced off of his crackling red lightsaber into some sculpture work behind him. Goran was once again using his flamethrower to try to cook Jacen only for the flames to be caught in his free hand as a massive fire ball. Dyn barely had enough time to roll out of the way of the redirected fire making him drop his blaster rifle. Turning his attention back to Goran, Jacen swept his lightsaber in a high arc trying to cut his head off. Thankfully the Mandalorian could see it coming, ducking underneath the strike while trying to slash him in the gut with an extendable vibroblade on his wrist. Jacen's enhanced reflexes allowed him to easily tuck his stomach inwards against his body to dodge the counter attack.
He spun backwards with a flourish of his lightsaber to protect his spine, creating more distance between them, "Jaina, they're lying to you! Why would I ever try to hurt Mara? I'm here to bring you back to the academy! Back to where we belong."
Jaina stood her ground holding her lightsaber in a classic Soresu defensive stance, "None of you are telling me the whole truth! If you were really a Jedi you wouldn't be carrying that lightsaber." She glanced down to Dyn, "And if he really killed Mara, Luke would've done something to stop him."
Goran cut whatever Jacen was about to say short with a kick to the gut. He stumbled backwards batting away Goran's multiple attacks with a twirling thrust of his blade giving Jaina a stare of desperation. Having witnessed Jacen fight first hand on Tatooine, he knew that if he really wanted to he could have killed all three of them already. Now he understood why he was playing with them, he needed Jaina to decide to help him. Goran might not see the deception though merely pressing the attacks on who he assumed was a vulnerable enemy. Dyn extended his wrist forward wrapping a rope around Jacen's legs in an attempt to trip him over. What he hadn't been counting on was the former Jedi using the rope connecting them as a way to tug him close enough to hit in the gut with the hilt of the lightsaber. Despite experiencing more pain, he was satisfied Goran took the opportunity to cut Jacen's side. He hadn't been expecting to see Jaina recoil in pain at the same time as her brother.
Jacen's eyes lit up showing a combination of delight and surprise, "The force bond is in tact! Can't you see Jaina, the force wants us to be at each others side. We feel the same pain, experience the same thoughts!"
Jaina got herself back up repositioning into the same stance, "All I see is a man pretending to be my brother. You're acting, and speaking like a Sith."
He growled in anger force pushing Dyn as far away from him as he could while lifting Goran up in a choke hold, "You two are the reason she's acting this way! I'll make sure you die slowly."
Without warning Jaina charged forward to strike him using Yarv's lightsaber. Her forward moving swipe was telegraphed about as heavily as the first day a youngling ever held the ancient weapon for the first time. Not only did he block her attack, he punished her for it by smacking her across the temple using his armored sharp elbow. Now it was his turn to react to pain she suffered, Dyn watched his head snap back in the exact opposite direction hers had. He could sort of get a glimpse at understanding why Luke might have hid her on Tatooine while wiping her memory now. The force bond between the two of them was extremely potent, what power could a true Sith obtain by using that bond? An answer could come later, right now he had to figure out a way to free Goran from the choke hold Jacen had on him.
Goran already had a few ideas aiming his wrist towards the floor, "S...sorry lady, it's about to get a little bright in here."
Dyn could only watch as whistling bird flashbang missiles spat out of Goran's vambrace bouncing around the room creating multiple explosions. While mostly just very bright light shows, shrapnel still went everywhere forcing him to duck for cover. Jacen was too busy shielding his face from further damage to keep Goran in his grasp, though he did throw him at Dyn. Their bodies collided hard knocking him over back on the ground. He quickly reached to grab his riduur's personal hold out blaster from his belt only to look down and see blood. A piece of shrapnel had slipped between Goran's beskar most likely stabbing him in the lung, and that's if he was lucky.
"That didn't go how I planned it would.." Goran announced with forced, pained humor.
Everything else stopped as Dyn tried to drag the two of them behind a corner, "It's ok... It's ok... We'll fix this."
Goran had a positive tone even though the circumstances were dire, "Yeah everything's going to be fine, Mandalorians don't leave forever, they just march far away."
Dyn growled tearing up perhaps hearing Yarv and Jacen arguing but it was so far away from his mind, "Don't you dare say THAT! I have bacta and so do you, we'll fix this."
Goran had a distant tone while Dyn frantically tore his chest armor off to get access to the wound, "Does your little ad'ika have a name yet...?"
Dyn had no idea what to do with a piece of metal lodged so close to someone's heart but he was already smearing bacta around it, "No, I hadn't really gotten that far yet."
"Maybe, and this is just me being selfish here... Name him after me, my dalyc buir always wanted us to have one together..." His voice was fading.
No, no, no this cannot be happening, "We can bring him back to Mandalore and show her." Silence followed, "Goran?! Goran! Talk to me! Kriff you for dying so easy! Stay with me!"
Everything after that happened in a blur of grief. He had just gotten his first love back to him, only for the force to take it all away again. Glass shattered from outside, strong furry brown arms were wrapping around him to carry him. None of it mattered now his riduur had marched far away without him getting to say he loved him. As he was dropped onto a familiar leather couch, Dyn saw a white and silver domed astromech droid staring back at him. He had returned to the ship where he was born.
