Obi-Wan took a deep breath and did his best to press the anxiety he was feeling away. His hands were steady as he adjusted the settings of the communication set-up of the small vessel he was currently piloting. He purposefully set the comm to audio only on his side. He hadn't been a padawan for long, but if there was one thing he'd learned during his missions with Master Jinn, it was that it was rare for anyone, especially politicians, to take a padawan seriously.

He assumed the same held true for the leader of an enemy empire.

Not allowing himself to enough time for second guessing, he input the frequency that Kellia had provided him with.

A helmeted person appeared, lit up in blue. He assumed that whatever the person said was a greeting, though Obi-Wan couldn't understand it as the person spoke in mando'a. The padawan nod his own respectful greeting, forgetting for a moment that the person wouldn't be able to see him. Then he spoke before the other person could start asking questions. "My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, of the Jedi. I would like to speak to the Mand'alor."

The armoured person said a few words in their own language, and from the sound of it they weren't nice words. It didn't matter, though, as long as the person put his comm through. So Obi-Wan said nothing, simply waited as patiently as he could until, eventually, a different person appeared on the holo.

Since the man was not wearing his helmet, the Jedi had no trouble recognizing him as Jango Fett. The Mand'alor.

"Jetii," the man spat the word with such derision that it was startling. Of course Obi-Wan was well aware that the Mandalorian Empire was at war with the Republic, that Jedi to them meant 'enemy' instead of peacekeeper or protector and yet that hateful utterance still struck him like a punch.

With everything else going on it was just one more thing to add to the pile.

But Obi-Wan was a Jedi - a Padawan even, no longer an Initiate. So he breathed, focussed and released his stress and fear into the Force as best as he could.

"Have you heard of the- the attack on Phindar?" he swallowed and forged on because he knew the response would not be pleasant, doing his best to keep his voice deep and deliberate. "There was… A civilian area was targeted. There were nine younglings-"

The Mand'alor interrupted him with a snarl. "Have I heard of it?" There was a wealth of darkness and danger in that voice and the Jedi couldn't help but shiver and find himself grateful for the fact that he couldn't sense the man's emotions in the Force over the comm. "Trust me, jetii, I will show you in blood and pain what I have heard. Honourless demagolka. Murdering ade."

"They're here," Obi-Wan interposed quickly, hoping to stop the anger before it could erupt any further.

The man frowned at the interruption. "What?" he snapped out, with clear impatience.

"The civlians - the children. They're here. On board of my ship. I don't know what went wrong, why a civilian target-" he stopped himself from going further down that road. It was no use apologizing, especially when he didn't have all of the facts about how this could even have happened. No. Focus on the relevant facts and work towards a solution. "I could not stop the attack, but I could find the life forms present in the building and get them out of there."

There, that was better. Clear. Professional even. Now for his offer. "I am more than willing to leave them on any suitable neutral planet, as long as you can promise me safe passage to and from that place."

Silence stretched and he had to stop himself from filling it with nervous chatter. Obi-Wan had seen negotiations many times with his Master and knew that at times it was better to hold your peace. He'd said his part, it was up to the Mand'alor to accept or reject his offer.

"One of the ade is called Kellia," the Mand'alor finally said. "Let me speak to her." It was a demand, not a request but Obi-Wan thought that this would probably go easier if he acceded.

"Alright, please wait a moment." He didn't turn off his audio as he walked to the door. "Kellia?" he called out, "the Mand'alor wants to talk to you."

"Mand'alor?" She was immediately on her feet and making her way towards him. Behind her, the rest of the younglings started chattering excitedly amongst themselves.

Obi-Wan did his best to smile at her. "Yes, you up for it?"

"Of course I am! I'm Mando'ade!"

She was certainly confident, already a brave little warrior. Though he supposed that as she was roughly his own age, 'little' was perhaps a bit patronising.

"Mand'alor," she greeted and continued on in her own language. The Jedi fought to keep any dismay from his face - this was exactly why it was so important for Jedi to learn as many languages as they could, but mando'a was not well thought of in the Republic, seeing as it was the language of their enemy.

Obi-Wan had once argued with Master Jinn that this made it all the more important to learn, but his request to learn was waved away with the assurance that it was not something a padawan needed to know.

The Mand'alor spoke with Kellia, but the only words Obi-Wan recognized in the conversation were Kellia's name and his own. He could recognize the tone, though. The Mand'alor sounded softer in his own language, though that was probably due to the fact he was talking to a child instead of one of the hated Jedi.

He waited silently for the conversation to finish, hoping that the Mand'alor was getting the assurances he needed. Kellia, at least, sounded entirely unconcerned, so hopefully the man would take that as a sign that Obi-Wan hadn't caused them any harm.

Eventually the teenage girl nodded respectfully at her leader and slid away from the holovid, letting Obi-Wan take her place.

"Mand'alor," he greeted politely, signalling his presence since the holo part was still turned off on his side.

"I will agree to your terms, jetii," the man stated shortly, "But know that if you harm any of the ade, we will hunt you down. There will be nowhere to hide and when we find you, you will find no mercy."

The words shouldn't bother Obi-Wan – he'd seen and done enough that this mere threat shouldn't unnerve him as much as it did. He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again he managed to respond evenly. "I will keep them safe from harm," Obi-Wan promised, and he meant it. That's what Jedi did after all. Protect the innocent, find the peaceful solution.

He was doing fine.

"We are agreed, Mand'alor?" he pressed, "You will grant me safe passage?" Maybe it wasn't the most diplomatic thing to do but he needed the assurance. He also needed this conversation to be over, to get the younglings to safety so that he could find his Master and they could go back to the Temple. He was ready for this mission to be over.

"Safe passage to and from. Agreed. But you will bring them straight here, to Manda'yaim."

"To Mandalore itself?" Obi-Wan asked. "Surely a neutral planet…"

"No," the man on the other side of the comm cut him off. "Manda'yaim. Bring them here, safe and sound and I will promise you safe passage, jetii."

Obi-Wan tugged on his braid and considered arguing for a moment before he gave the thought up as futile. Besides, what difference did it make? Any other planet the Mand'alor named could be readied as a trap just as surely as Mandalore – Obi-Wan was deep in the Mandalorian Sector and the Jedi and Republic had no true allies here. So what would it change if he went to the very heart of the enemy empire?

"Alright," the padawan tried to say, but it came out more as an exhale than an actual word. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Agreed, Mand'alor."

Jango felt something within him unclench when he watched the ramp of the Republican ship open and he saw the ad come out. They were immediately scooped up by his verde and gently ushered towards the waiting baar'ur. None of them sported any immediately visible injuries, so hopefully they wouldn't need more than a check-up.

"Where is the jetiii?" He asked Kelli, the oldest one of the children and clearly unafraid.

She smiled up at him, looking none the worse for her part in this adventure. "He was in the cockpit, Mand'alor."

Jango nodded tightly and signed at his squad to follow him inside the ship. He may have promised the jetiii safe passage 'to' and 'from' and he would honour his word on that since the jetii had kept his own, but that didn't mean he couldn't intimidate and ask some very pointed questions in the in-between.

He stalked towards the cockpit, blaster in hand and five of his men at his side. He wasn't expecting a fight, though. If the jetii had been skilled enough to warrant being sent on a mission in an enemy sector and then had the guts to get nine younglings out of a targeted building only to contact the Mand'alor himself for terms to deliver them, they were clearly experienced. They'd know that an attack on enemy soil right now would be beyond foolish.

Still, it always paid to stay on guard. He didn't get to be Mand'alor by taking stupid risks.

Silas was a skilled enough slicer that it didn't take him long to overrule the lock and the four of them burst into the room with every intention of making the jetii sweat.

In hindsight coming in as they did was a mistake.

Because it wasn't a fully grown, experienced jetii inside the room. Instead, when they burst in, they found a jetii'ad - and the aggressive entry most definitely served its purpose of making the jetii feel intimidated. Immediately the blue light of a jetii'kad filled the room and Jango cursed inside his helmet. Over their comms he could hear Myles curse just as fervently.

None of them were going to shoot at a scared child, and with the ad waving around a kad'au it wasn't a feasible plan to grab hold of him either. Then Silas, who'd been in the door opening, was pushed back by an invisible power and Jango didn't get a chance to right the misunderstanding, because the ad was already dodging between them and fleeing for his life.

Well, Jango had fucked that one up immensely.

Instead of letting that feeling paralyse him, he allowed it drive him onwards to do what needed to be done. Before he'd even made it off the ship he already had the call for search parties sent out - with the added warning to try not to frighten the jetti'ad even further. Damned if he knew how they were going to succeed at that, because Jango hadn't exactly made a good impression and who knew what kind of bantha shit the ad had been fed about Mandalorians by the Republic.

The conversation he'd had with the jetii ran through his mind, now with the knowledge that there had been a child on the other side of the comm and Jango felt the sudden need to bash his own head against the nearest hard object. It wouldn't be helpful for the Mand'alor to be concussed, though, so he simply let out another long string of curse words over the open comms.

None of his men commented on it.

"Split up in pairs," he ordered his own squad to join the search. "I'll take East. Keep in touch over the comms." He barely waited for an acknowledgement before he went off with Myles, his usual partner. Jango wasn't about to sit around waiting while a scared jetii'ad was out there alone in what they considered to be enemy territory. They needed to find them before the ad did something stupid - and they needed to do it without driving the poor brave ad even further into a corner.

Osik.

The planet was unfamiliar, a myriad of different species, smells and sounds. There were Mandalorians everywhere and the armour many of them wore made it almost impossible to tell anything about them in the Force, but that was fine because right now Obi-Wan just needed to get away and even if he couldn't sense their presence that well, he could still feel the Force and it led him away from the spaceport and deeper into the city.

They were already searching for him - heavily armed and armoured Mandalorians were seemingly everywhere he turned. He couldn't let that panic him, though, no he needed to stay calm and trust in the Force. It led him deeper into the city towards busier streets and when it looked clear of his pursuers Obi-Wan darted out from underneath the awnings to snatch a large, dark-blue cloak from where it was placed on a bench next to an armoured but helmet-less Togruta. It would help disguise his Jedi robes.

It was hard to tell which Mandalorians were actively looking for him - many were fully armoured and the helmets made it difficult to tell if they were looking for someone or simply there. When more and more fully armoured Mandalorians entered the marketplace, Obi-Wan carefully retreated into smaller, shadowed alleys. All the while he tried very hard not to think about how difficult it would be to escape the very heart of the Mandalorian Empire.

"Are you alright, ad'ika?"

Obi-Wan whirled around at the unexpected sound and found himself face to face with one of the Mandalorians. He hadn't notice the person's approach because that armour seemed to muffle their presence in the Force.

He froze, trying to work out which way to go. There was no immediate sense of danger in the Force and no clear pull for a direction to flee in.

"Easy, verd'ika." The person's voice was calm and steady. They slowly lifted their hands and to Obi-Wan's surprise used them to take off their helmet. It revealed a humanoid face, dark hair with streaks of silver in it and a warm smile.

"My name is Jaster Mereel," the Mandalorian said, "I do not know what you have heard of my people, but no true Mandalorian would ever harm a child."

With the helmet off, Obi-Wan could feel the man's presence in the Force, steady but also worried - no, concerned. It was not at all what he would expect from an enemy.

Perhaps the Mandalorian didn't know that Obi-Wan was a Jedi?

The man disproved that theory immediately.

"As far as I know jetii'ade should have their buir or ba'ji with them, no? A teacher or guardian? Did something happen to them?"

The man was talking to him so gently, as if Obi-Wan was going to break apart if he spoke too loudly and that was entirely unnecessary, because he was a Jedi and he was fine.

"No," he answered, not seeing any harm in answering that. His welcoming party had doubtlessly noted that Obi-Wan had arrived on this planet on his own. "He had… other things to do. We got separated."

"I see," the man said slowly, "Are you then the jetii who brought our ad'ike home?"

From the context, Obi-Wan understood that ad'ike likely meant the children, so he nodded, not trusting himself to speak as the stress of the past few days - weeks - crept up on him.

"That was a very brave thing you did, ad." The smile bestowed on him then was so genuine and warm that Obi-Wan had to look away.

The man, Jaster, stepped closer and the padawan's eyes snapped back to him. The Mandalorian's movements were slow, careful and when he had finally reached Obi-Wan, the man did nothing more threatening than put a hand on his shoulder. The weight of it was heavy due to the armour but instead of making him feel trapped it was almost like an anchor and Obi-Wan couldn't stop himself from leaning into it, letting someone else take part of his weight for the first time in what felt like a very long time.

Jaster didn't just pat his shoulder and then push him away, like he somehow expected. No, instead the man simply pulled him in closer, into the semblance of a hug. And even if the armour was hard and unyielding, Obi-Wan felt so tired and drained that he just settled into that hold. If he had to fight to get away, surely it could wait just a second? The Force was still oddly quiet after all - signalling no danger, just peace.

The arm around him was solid and sure and a hand came up to gently slide through his hair, soothing him in a way he could hardly remember ever experiencing.

"I will not let any harm come to you, ad'ika," the man promised, "I give you my word of honour, and to a Mandalorian that is a weighty thing."

He didn't know what to say to that. Didn't understand anything about this situation because Jaster was supposed to be his enemy only he wasn't acting like that at all and Obi-Wan could sense only determination and concern from him.

Why? Obi-Wan hadn't done anything to deserve that. Sure, he had brought their younglings home safely but that was because the attack never should have happened in the first place. After that he'd been causing trouble and stealing property and failing miserable at acting at all like a padawan should.

"I stole someone's cloak," Obi-Wan blurted out, on the verge of tears for some inexplicable reason and trying desperately to hold on to a Jedi-appropriate calm. "I'm sorry. I just needed something to hide my clothes."

"Sshh, ad'ika. It's alright," Jaster said in that deep warm voice that was slowly becoming familiar, "Udesii. I'm sure they can do without it for a little while. After all, if they couldn't do without it, they would have been wearing it."

The comment was so unexpected at that moment that he couldn't stop the snort that came out. And it was as if letting out that single sound broke a dam of sorts, because after that Obi-Wan couldn't stop the crest of emotions and started crying like a crecheling.

Jaster didn't startle, there was no surprise in the Force, or embarrassement or anything of the sort - just that same calm, warm comfort. "There we go, little one, just let it out. Udesii. All will be well."

If the comforting words were meant to get him to let go, it didn't work because Obi-Wan only clung even more tightly. Jaster didn't even seem to mind, though, the man simply held on until the storm inside of Obi-Wan finally passed and the padawan was left exhausted in the wake of it.

He had no idea how long they'd been here, in this alley on a planet far away from anyone he'd ever known. A planet that Jedi knew to avoid at all costs.

He was too tired to even worry about that anymore.

"Come on, ad'ika," Jaster said, while he gathered Obi-Wan more securely in his arms and slowly stood up. The man did not even waver under the weight of both a thirteen year old and his own armour. "Let's get you somewhere you can rest. And perhaps some food? You've been running and hiding for a while, haven't you?"

He was probably supposed to answer, but he didn't have the slightest clue what to say to that. Because no, of course he couldn't come with this Mandalorian. Obi-Wan was a Jedi, a padawan - he should be getting away, or at the very least consider the situation carefully, meditate on the possibilities.

But he felt completely drained of energy and Jaster's presence was warm and soothing. He could sense no malice from the man and no warning in the Force, so even though he was being carried like a child, in a way that he hadn't been for many years, he didn't even bother to protest.

Instead Obi-Wan just leaned against armour that warmed against his cheek and allowed himself to sink into the soothing rhythm of the Mandalorian's sure steps.

A.N: Sure, let's add another fandom to the pile, why not?

Glossary

ad - child

ade / ad'ike - children

ad'ika - little one

baar'ur - medic / healer

buir - parent (ungendered)

demagolka - a real-life monster, a war criminal

kad'au - lightsaber

Mand'alor - sole ruler

Manda'yaim - Mandalore

jetii'kad - lightsaber (Jedi sword)

jetii - Jedi

udesii - calm down / take it easy

verd'ika - private (rank) Can be used affectionately, often to a child; *little soldier*