Author's Notes: Part of my Luke and Boba story line - how Boba ended up as the Mand'alor. Poor Ursa, because of Sabine's connection to the Rebellion she was named as Mandalore's liason to the New Republic.


It was rare that Wedge could spend any time free time with friends. It wasn't that they didn't have free time, it was that their free time didn't match up. So when he saw Alexsander Kallus sitting in a café he bolted over to him.

"Hey Fulcrum," he plunked himself down across the table from him.

Kallus shook himself, and Wedge realize he had been pre-occupied with a data-slate.

"Wedge?"

"I'm sorry, Kallus I didn't realize you were busy. If you want me to leave."

"Thhpt," Kallus made a disgusted noise, setting the data-slate down, "no, you're probably saving me from a headache."

He beckoned to a server-droid, and they ordered.

"What's the headache I'm saving you from?" Wedge asked, concerned.

"The Countess of Clan Wren has asked me, as a favor to her and Bo Katan, to look for a legal way to overturn a truly breath-takingly asinine decision the Counsel of Clans has just made," Kallus snorted, "unfortunately there is traditional and legal precedent in Mandalore's history, and it is likely to be widely supported throughout the Mandalorian System," he made a face, "as it also 'rectifies any number of dishonorable historical wrongs' with very little real consequence. Some are naively, never thought I'd say that about Mandalorians, hopeful that it will also help heal the damage the Empire did to Mandalore and the Mandalorians during the Great Purge."

"So what is it?"

He told Wedge.

Wedge stared at Kallus in disbelief.

"Alexsander, I wish I could say more than this: that is going to become a complete gigantic cluster-frak."


"Master Skywalker, what do you think of the Mandalorians naming a dead bounty hunter, Boba Fett, as their Mandalor of Mandalors?" the chirpy reporter asked Luke.

Luke was only phased for a moment, before carefully answering.

"It's an interesting situation. I will have to meditate on it."

There was a collective groan from the media corp. The Jedi Master meditating on something, they had learned, meant: I'm going to do something about it, but it won't come to light until it's far too late for the Public to be interested in it. This time, however, they were wrong.


"You meditate on everything, Skywalker," greeted Luke as he entered the apartment.

"Well, I could hardly say that you weren't as dead as they believed," it took a moment to locate his spouse; their new apartment on Chandrillia didn't have many corners, but there was a section of wall more curved than the others between the outside wall and the entry to their bedroom. Boba was sitting on the floor, huddled into that curve, holding their new-born daughter close. He hadn't done that in ages, but then today probably had become a bad day after the announcement, "do you want more people to know you're alive?"

That had been a subject frequently discussed, but always ended with…

"No," Boba answered sullenly.

Luke sat down next to him.

"What do you want to do about this?"

"Kill them all?"

"That's not funny," but Luke's eyes did smile. He leaned against Boba, "Sooner or later, I'm going to have to establish a training temple, and I'm not going anywhere without you."

"Always the roundabout way?" Boba snorted, but let Luke wrap an arm around his shoulders.

"Sooner or later, it is going to come out that I am married, and we both know there are parties in the new senate who will believe it is their right to know who I am married to," Luke said a trace of irritation in his voice, "After all the head of the New Jedi Order is a public figure."

"I could kill them too," but there was only humor in the phrase.

"You could, but the staggering amount of bodies we'd have to hide…" Luke was rewarded with a bark of laughter and a smile.

"Dad always said it was politics that'll kill you faster than any blaster could; it was politics that killed him in the end really. Killed everyone in the family really," Boba pounded a fist against the floor, although with care as he didn't want to wake his sleeping daughter, "I'm going to have to do something about this, and the only way I can see to do anything that will keep us and little Shmi safe means," he heaved an exhausted angry sigh, "being the damn Mand'lor of Mand'lors."


"First of all, no matter how reasonable you make it seem, you're still a steaming pile of bantha poodoo making a power grab," a familiar and frighteningly unwelcome voice called from the observers and spectators around the Councilor table, "because this meeting is now considered entirely treasonous, as the laws and customs of Mandalore consider a convening of more than three Heads of the Houses and the Clans, without the Mand'alor present, as an attempted coup. And I am not Seated at that Table."

It was fascinating to watch, Luke admitted to himself in a detached terrified way, the way the collected leadership of the Mandalore systems turned as one to look at the source of that declaration. And how the crowd pulled away from the man who had made it, leaving him to stand alone.

He wasn't wearing armor. He didn't appear to have a weapon. He was dressed simply in a large plain light gray fine linen shirt with the sleeves rolled up, equally fine black wool trousers, and leather boots.

Just an ordinary man.

But than, as Boba frequently told Luke, it wasn't armor that made the warrior.

Boba's dark eyes scanned the table.

"I believe it is customary for no one to sit until the Mand'alor is seated."

No one moved.

He grinned ferally.

"I see we're going to have to do this the hard way."


Amidst the Aftermath

Countess Wren took a sip of tea and looked at Mon Mothma and Alexsandr Kallus with deep regret before she began to explain the reasoning that had lead up to this fiasco.

"What happened in the past is the clans and houses became so fractured that it would have destroyed what it meant to be Mandalorian. So it was agreed that a reasonable personage, most likely dead but not proven dead, despite the fact in all four previous cases definitely dead - there simply had been no body to find, would be installed as Manda'lor of Manda'lors whose Will and Word were law. Then each faction could argue that their cause was the Manda'lor's cause and if the argument won over the majority of the houses and clans then the issue was solved. Eventually the 'Manda'lor' would be 'killed' by the most successful and largest faction and the senior House would claim leadership sealing the fractures that had required the extreme action in the first place.

We did have a Manda'lor succeed the old Duke, but Duchess Satine refused to cede power to her and had her asssinated," Ursa held up a hand to forestall Mon's refutation, "she may not herself have known about it directly, but it was done by a supporter of hers just same. Then she forced the warrior factions onto Concordia. Which only increased our anger and desire to unseat her and her ideals - they were not fair and did not honor Mandalorian custom. And so we ended up first with Maul and then the Empire."

Countess Wren paused and shared a pained look with Kallus.

"And now we have Boba Fett, because no one believed there was a chance that he was still alive."

"Who is," Mon Mothma considered for a moment, "apparently married to Jedi Master Luke Skywalker."

"That has not been a point in his favor," Kallus sighed, "except it is beginning to appear that his policy will be 'Don't Make Me Come Over There' and has been appointing proxies that are favored by Mandalore on the whole. Such as yourself, Countess," he nodded to the ruler of Clan Wren, "and Bo Katan Kryze, who are, more or less, inclined towards the New Republic, and some who are not as favorably inclined but not willing to go to war over it preferring to rebuild Mandalor. Creating a balanced group he can rule through while allowing him to stay at Skywalker's side."

"There are some saying he's old Cassus reborn," Ursa murmured darkly, "which means everyone in the galaxy will have to watch their backs."

Mon Mothma glanced at the data stream on the holo-sphere – the media was having a field day. Luke Skywalker was giving cryptic answers to any question he was asked and Fett simply refused to answer any questions what so ever. And the most recent attempt by the media to contact Leia Organa about her opinion was met by an enraged Wookie tearing the cam-droid into tiny, teeny pieces and her husband threatening to shoot anyone who so much as breathed in her direction.

"Exactly why was Boba Fett chosen?" she asked, "I understand that his apparent death without evidence of a body influenced the choice, but surely there had to be other candidates?"

The Countess sighed.

"There was an overwhelming sentiment of late that much of the difficulties Mandalore has experienced would have been avoided entirely if the clans and houses had elected to follow Clan Mereel's, specifically Journeyman Protector Jaster Mereel's ideals and plans instead of House Vizsla's, even within House Vizsla itself. Journeyman Mereel wanted the warriors to turn away from the planet Mandalore and seek a new existence amongst the stars carrying on the true Culture of Mandalore. Mereel had been elected the Mand'lor, but House Vizsla refused to acknowledge that and many followed their example, and unfortunately some members of House Vizsla resorted to underhanded tactics to undermine what support his rule had. This has lead many to feel that the extinction of Clan Mereel was…unjust and dishonorable. And while he was not a Mandalorian himself in theory, although his father Jango was, Boba Fett was the last living member of Clan Mereel. Naming him Manda'lor was considered a symbolic righting of those wrongs, and he fit the qualifications, or so we thought."

"One could say the Rex, Wolfe, and Cody or any of the surviving clones are members of Clan Mereel then?" Kallus asked.

"No, Jango only ever named Boba as his son," Ursa shook her head, "Unless Boba claims them, they are not part of Clan Mereel," Ursa paled in horror at a thought, "He could name the whole of the Jedi Order as Clan Mereel," she looked at Kallus and Mon Mothma, "an individual Jedi would be fine, but imagine an entire Mandalorian clan made up of Jedi."

"That," Kallus ventured, "might not be a bad thing?"

"It would be terrifying."


"Love?"

"Yes, Boba?"

"I just had an idea."