Hello there!
Thank you all soooooo much for checking out my story! And even more thanks in advance for any love you choose to show it; it's always deeply appreciated and inspiring. 3
I'm not currently taking random requests due to not enough time and too many unfinished stories already, but I'm always open to reasonable suggestions on my current works. You can PM me on the FFN site or on FB (search for the same username). My updating schedule and details about my current Reader Reward program can be found on FB for the curious.
Again, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!
TheLoneRebel
Disclaimer: I don't own any Star Wars characters. (But they definitely own me.)
A/N: Soooooo, this is what happens when I have a dream and one of the scenes (the very last one in this story, to be specific) stays in my head for hours and hours. First I was like, okay, fine, you stupid muse, I'll write that scene, and then the next thing I knew I was writing an entire 12,000+ word story to explain how that scene came to be. (Shakes head at self.)
I hope you enjoy this sidetrack from what I should be working on. :P
TheLoneRebel
Skyguy, Snips, Dear-Wan, and Baby Yoda
32 BBY
When Anakin Skywalker first moved to the Jedi Temple at nine years old, he hated it there. The only thing keeping him from running away and sneaking onto a ship heading back to Tatooine and his mother was Obi-Wan and Anakin's dream to become a Jedi Knight so he could rescue all the slaves in the galaxy.
His new Master was kind (if very sad because Qui-Gon died), called him dear one, and didn't mind if Anakin clung to him day and night for the first little while, overwhelmed and scared of the cold, vast, stuffy, intimidating thing that was the Temple and the generally expressionless adults within it.
When he was introduced to children around his age or older, Anakin felt like even more of an outsider. He could feel their suspicion, distrust, and general dislike. And if he ever ended up near one of them when he was without Obi-Wan's presence to keep them quiet, the endless and repetitive questions started about what made him so special that he could just show up at the Temple at nine years old and go straight to being a Padawan with none of the years and years of training and work and discipline that they'd all had to go through first. They ganged up on him and shoved him and taunted him until he had no choice but to fight back, over and over. And somehow, it was always his fault.
Anakin wished they would all just leave him alone in his misery.
And then, after yet another fight that left him with a black eye and two ribs he was sure were broken but didn't tell anyone about, Anakin was sent to help take care of the babies and toddlers as punishment.
It wasn't punishment.
It was his salvation.
As he was all but shoved through the door by Master Windu (Obi-Wan was away on Jedi business), who'd basically dragged him to the crèche by his tunic, Anakin looked into a large room filled with crying babies, toddlers dashing and falling and bouncing all over creation, toys floating and spinning and zooming in twenty different directions, and two very harried looking adults trying to contain it all. And for the first time since he stepped into the Temple weeks ago, Anakin felt like he belonged.
The room looked exactly like how felt.
And even better, the young ones didn't judge him. If anything, they worshipped him because he was older but not an 'adult' who tried to corral their enthusiasm. They giggled and cheered when he practiced his unsteady Force tricks too. They cuddled with him in big puppy piles, much like he was used to with his friends on Tatooine. And they didn't judge if he succumbed to sorrow from the loss of his mother. In fact, most of them could sympathize, most of them still remembering their parents at this point, having only been in the Temple for a year or two at the most.
It was during one of his more vulnerable moments that he formed his unbreakable bonds with Ahsoka and Grogu.
Somehow, after the first time he'd been essentially thrown in the room and to what Windu had thought would be the figurative wolves, and Obi-Wan came to find him with worried eyes hours later, Anakin convinced his Master to let him spend at least an hour everyday in the youngest crèche. Obi-Wan had been surprised, but once Anakin haltingly explained that working with the younglings helped him connect with the Force and was soothing to him, his new Master made all the necessary arrangements and adjustments to Anakin's study schedule.
The third day that Anakin visited the crèche, one of the many different adults taking turns supervising the children – a nice Mon Calamari lady named Bant – asked him to read to the four year olds. Anakin swallowed down his fear of failing and bravely took the book offered. He could speak Basic and Huttese fluently, as well as understand more than enough of a dozen other languages to get by at a spaceport, but reading wasn't something that he'd been taught before coming to Coruscant. His mother, a slave almost her entire life, hadn't known how to read either. But Obi-Wan had been helping him learn, so Anakin hoped that he'd progressed enough to get though a simple children's book.
So Anakin sat himself down against the wall on the story rug, a dozen children of varying species spread out in front of him and looking at him with eager eyes, and Anakin started the story. It was about a lost boy who found a lonely kitten to comfort him and their journey to find his home again. Anakin loved the story, and so did the other children, who didn't mind that his words were cautious and stuttering on occasion as he sounded out the words.
But then he came to a word that was too long and had too many vowels and Anakin grew flustered when he couldn't sound it out in his head in any way that made sense. (Ironically, the word was 'perseverance', and he would face palm at that later once he understood what it meant.) Anakin looked up at the younger children in a panic, not wanting to admit that he couldn't figure out a word.
Then this little Togruta girl with huge sky blue eyes and holding what he assumed was a doll wrapped in a blanket smiled soothingly at him and shuffled over to his side and leaned her tiny, warm, little body into his cold one as she whispered, "I'll help you if you want. I'm good at reading."
"Please," he whispered back, and then pointed out the word he was stuck on.
She told him what the word was without any fuss or judgement, and Anakin was forever grateful. He finished the story without any further mess ups, feeling more confident in himself just having the girl with the comforting aura beside him as support. The other children then moved on to new activities, but the girl stayed by his side as he put the book down on the floor. He turned back to look at her, smiling gratefully. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," she smiled widely back, showing off sharp little canines and an adorable hole in the middle where one of her baby teeth had just fallen out. "I'm Ahsoka."
"Anakin."
"I know," she grinned. "I heard the elders call you that." She paused, glancing down at her doll and petting one of its long, pale green ears. "I like your name. It's very similar to mine in letters and syllables and everything."
"Thanks." Anakin found himself blushing a little. It was the first time anyone other than his mother had said they liked his name. And even she shortened it to just 'Ani' more often than not, which he was starting to think sounded babyish.
And then she turned the doll around in her arms and pulled its blanket back a bit so he could see its face. "And this is Grogu. He's actually nine years old, but he grows real slow, just like Master Yoda, so he's still a baby and can't talk yet but he can send images into your head if you don't block him out. He likes to be held all the time, so we all take turns, You want to take yours?"
Through all of that, Anakin stared in wide-eyed surprise at the tiny creature in Ahsoka's arms. The baby blinked his massive eyes open and stared back at Anakin with pools of deep, swirling brown that were nearly hypnotizing. "Oh," he breathed, feeling foolish for not realizing that this was another person and not a doll. "He's the same age as me. How strange." The baby had his own aura of calm tranquility that he'd misinterpreted as coming entirely from Ahsoka, but now that he concentrated, he could sense that they were both of similar auras but a little different. Hers was more blue and like a rippling pool in the Room of a Thousand Fountains (his second favourite place in the Temple), and Grogu's was like the golden calm of a sunny day before a storm rolled in to stir things up.
Ahsoka held Grogu a little closer to Anakin and the baby held his arms out towards him, cooing softly.
With an invitation like that, how could he not take the baby into his arms?
Anakin held Grogu close to his face, fascinated by eyes that looked so wise and mysterious in a face so young. Grogu touched his three fingered hand to Anakin's cheek, an image of Obi-Wan kneeling in front of Anakin and looking worried appeared in his mind. It was from three days ago when his Master had first found him here, and it made Anakin smile tremulously. He rubbed the baby's ear the same way he'd seen Ahsoka do, making Grogu smile back. "Yeah. That's my Master. He's very nice. The best Jedi Knight in the Temple."
Grogu chortled, smiling wider, as if agreeing, fingers still patting Anakin's cheek as if he was the one that needing comforting. The baby was probably right.
Ahsoka snuggled a little closer into Anakin's side, sighing as her eyes fluttered closed, drawing his attention back to her. He settled Grogu into the crook of his right arm and then wrapped his left around the precious girl's thin shoulders, knowing in his heart that these were two beings that were incredibly special and that he should take care of them with everything that he had, just like he'd determined to do for Obi-Wan.
And so he did.
Anakin made sure to visit them every day for the rest of that year and as often as he could when he started to leave the Temple with Obi-Wan to go on missions, even after Ahsoka was transferred to a different crèche as she grew older. Eventually, he got permission to just take Grogu with him wherever he went in the Temple, happy to take care of the baby who loved him unconditionally and always brought a smile to his face. Ahsoka, too, soon managed to escape her usual accommodations and followed him around whenever she could get away with it, making him laugh as all of his teachers sighed in exasperation over and over as she determinedly showed up in his classes and learned the same things he did whether they liked it or not. He made sure that his two little siblings (because that's what they were to him) got as many treats as he could smuggle back into the Temple whenever he went out with Obi-Wan. And he somehow organized a weekly family breakfast in the Room of a Thousand Fountains with the help of Obi-Wan, some of the more lenient crèche supervisors, and a bemused Master Yoda (who everyone swore was Grogu's father, but the rumours were unfounded so far).
Their family breakfasts soon grew from just their four to practically the entire populace of the Temple as friends joined and then friends of friends and so on.
Anakin had started a new tradition and he was proud of it.
Grogu loved the seven stories worth of gardens that spanned the equivalent of a few city blocks, crawling after butterflies, staring with fascination at the changing 'sky' images on the holoprojected dome of the ceiling, and splashing in shallow pools with joyful giggles, making everyone who passed them by smile at the sight. Ahsoka loved the tranquility of the peaceful gardens as well, spending much of it tucked under Anakin's left arm as they watched their little brother play. She grew taller over the years, as he did, but always seemed to fit just right into his side no matter how much they changed. And she was always so wonderfully warm, heating his ever-cold bones up from the inside out.
With Ahsoka and Grogu to help keep him grounded and Obi-Wan's caring lessons, Anakin learned to become an exemplary Jedi that other Padawans couldn't get a rise out of anymore and that even Master Yoda stopped finding fault with.
He was blessed with accurate Force visions that the Council quickly learned to heed, most notable of which found a long-missing Jedi Master, Ky Narec, and his Padawan called Asajj Ventress on the planet Rattatak in the Outer Rim as well as locating the long-thought-deceased Sith Zabrak called Maul hiding on a garbage planet and entirely out of his mind. (The snarky female Dathomirian girl became a good friend of Anakin's, and the half cyborg Dathomirian male was still undergoing therapy treatments to try and restore his sanity and hopefully bring him back to the Light side. Asajj was helping, fascinated to an amusing degree.) Anakin's skill with a lightsabre was instinctive and quickly became unmatched in his favoured Form V with the help of many eager teachers (including Windu, believe it or not). Even meditating was easy if he connected his mind to Ahsoka or Grogu's first, borrowing some of their wonderful peace to help calm the storm of the Force that lived within him. Neither minded, and in fact encouraged him to meditate with them whenever they were all together.
It was during one such meditation session when Anakin was twelve that he received a vision about his mother dying at the hands of Tuskan Raiders. His vision left him so shaken and scared that Obi-Wan and Quinlan Vos (a very strong psychometric) went to Tatooine to find Shmi Skywalker. With some 'persuading' of Anakin's former slave master, they learned that Shmi and her protocol droid had been purchased by a man named Cliegg Lars and that he was a moisture farmer based somewhere near the settlement of Anchorhead.
When they found Lars half a day later, they also discovered that he'd married Shmi, having fallen in love with her and thus setting her free. Shmi recognized Obi-Wan and begged for news of her son. He was glad to give it to her and then explained that it was Anakin who had sent him back to find her and why. Lars, not a believer of the Force by any means, was still alarmed at the possibility of losing his beloved new wife. He immediately decided to move his family (he also had a teenage son named Owen from a previous marriage) away from Tatooine.
Obi-Wan, after a few minutes of self-debate, and knowing it would make Anakin overjoyed, offered the family jobs in the Temple as mechanics or gardeners or tailors or whatever struck their fancy really (the Temple was the size of a small city after all and housed roughly the same number of occupants as one; there was lots to do). Lars accepted.
Anakin hugged Obi-Wan for a very long time when he came back with his mother, Threepio, and new step-father and brother in tow. And despite many assuming it would be the opposite, Anakin didn't let the new attachments interfere with his studies at all. In fact, the boy became even more relaxed and settled and shone with the Light side of the Force so brightly that even the least Force sensitive amongst the Temple dwellers did a double take when they saw him.
The boy the Council originally thought would be untrainable due to his advanced age and propensity for attachments became a prime example of why their thinking was flawed and caused many a debate in the Temple as gossip flew about The Chosen One and his dedication to his loved ones, the Light side, and his studies.
If the Chosen One could openly form such healthy attachments, why couldn't they all?
And thus the Code was eventually rewritten and the Jedi as a whole became better people as they followed the example of the teenager who always had a smile for everyone he passed.
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for Anakin and the Jedi Order, though.
When Anakin was fifteen, Chancellor Palpatine invited Obi-Wan, himself, and any friends they wished to bring with them to a dinner party at the Senate building in the name of congratulating the pair on their successful negotiation mission that had stopped a brewing war between two neighbouring star systems in the Mid Rim. Obi-Wan brought his (no longer secret) girlfriend, Knight Siri Tachi, her Padawan, Ferus Olin, and one of his three best friends, Healer Bant Eerin. (Knights Garen Muln and Quinlan Vos were both off-world at the time or they would have been invited as well.) And Anakin of course brought Ahsoka and Grogu. (His mother declined the invitation, not wanting to interfere with Jedi business.)
The evening did not start off well when the Chancellor frowned with disapproval at the first sight of the green baby in Anakin's arms. And it quickly became even worse when Grogu took one look at Sheev Palpatine and started crying and shaking and would not stop. Anakin and his younger bondmates left after only ten minutes, leaving poor Obi-Wan and the rest to survive what Anakin was sure to be a stilted and pained dinner.
Anakin never accepted another invitation from the Chancellor even though they came fairly frequently over the next few years – Grogu's negative reaction to the older man built an instant distrust in Anakin, considering he'd never seen the generally happy baby react like that to anyone else, ever.
By the time Anakin was eighteen, the invitations had stopped, which was fine with him. But in their place, the boy became the target of an extended series of 'accidents' that couldn't be ignored after the third speeder in a row suffered from a critical failure while he was driving. (Fortunately, he had no problem surviving the crashing speeders thanks to his Jedi reflexes and strong connection to the Force.) Any ship he was on would develop issues as well, causing one too many crash landings for Obi-Wan's liking, leaving the Council to come to the conclusion that someone was trying to eliminate The Chosen One before he could fully come into his own and become a threat to whomever was instigating the incidents.
They then tried to keep Anakin safe by refusing to let him leave the Temple, which Anakin would have gone absolutely nuts about if Ahsoka and Grogu hadn't also been within the same walls to keep him calm and entertained.
This lasted only until an old friend of Anakin's – one he had kept in comm contact with ever since he'd met her - returned to Coruscant as the recently elected senator for Naboo. A former Queen of her world, Padmè Amidala was immediately subjected to even more blatant assassination plots than Anakin had been, and she was talked into using the Jedi as her bodyguards by Chancellor Palpatine for her own safety. Padmè of course remembered who had helped save her planet nearly a decade ago and immediately requested Obi-Wan and Anakin as her guards. The Council reluctantly agreed after Anakin stated very calmly and confidently that he could take care of himself, positive the Force would never let anything happen to him without warning him first. It had been reliable so far, after all.
Anakin hadn't seen Padmè in person since he was nine years old, so it was understandable that he would be nervous to meet her again after so much time, remembering her as being as beautiful as an angel.
She was still beautiful. And sweet. And kind. And just as fun to talk to as she was on the comm. But Anakin couldn't help comparing her to the vivid being that was Ahsoka. Padme's brown eyes didn't remind him of swirling galaxies. Her pale skin didn't have half as much character as Ahsoka's vibrant orange with intriguing markings that changed and grew as she did. Her restrained dark hair didn't pulse with life and curl around his fingers like Ahsoka's cute white and blue chevroned lekku did. Her walk didn't all but bounce with contained enthusiasm that made him smile. And her aura of cool silver was pleasant but didn't feel like it could happily merge with his endless bounds of Force energy well.
In short, what had been the half thought out crush of a young boy evaporated upon meeting Padmè again as Anakin came to the shocking realization that no one would ever be a more perfect match for him than his precious little Snips would. (She'd earned the nickname somewhere around eleven years old when her personality changed slightly along with her blossoming figure, becoming more cheeky and snippy with comebacks that made him groan and laugh and Obi-Wan roll his eyes as he hid a smile behind the stroking of his scraggly new beard that he was very carefully growing out.) (That was also the year Her Royal Snippyness renamed Anakin to Skyguy, Grogu to Baby Yoda, and Obi-Wan to Dear-Wan.) (The nicknames spread like wildfire through the Temple and were used almost exclusively as a running joke for the better part of a month before the Grand Master of the Order put his tiny foot down and declared once and for all that Grogu was not his offspring and the next person who called him Baby Yoda was going to be meditating without dinner for a week. Skyguy was still used frequently, though, and so was Dear-Wan, especially by Siri, now Obi-Wan's wife.)
Anakin's changed feelings for Ahsoka would make things occasionally awkward and more difficult for him as he continued to treat her like a younger sister when his heart was saying otherwise, but he had learned patience well and he was willing to wait for Ahsoka to reach the age of majority (seventeen for Togrutans) before he told her how he felt. He just hoped she didn't go and fall for someone her own age in the meantime.
Meanwhile, war broke out between the Republic and the new faction calling themselves the Confederacy of Independent Systems (or Separatists for short) while Obi-Wan and Anakin were investigating a lead on one of the assassins who had tried to kill Padmè. Obi-Wan found out that a Jedi had somehow foreseen the war and ordered millions of copies of the infamous bounty hunter, Jango Fett, from Kaminoan cloners to be soldiers for the Republic. And Anakin… well, he got himself and Padmè (whom he was supposed to be guarding) captured by Count Dooku, the leader of the Seppies, when he had a vision of Obi-Wan being tortured by Geonosians.
Of course, because of his vision, he got there first and it was Obi-Wan and a team of impressive Advanced Recon Commando trooper clones called the Alpha Squad who ended up saving Anakin and Padmè from an arena of death and cheering Geonosians when Anakin used his telepathic bond with his Master to admit that he'd karked up a mission again.
Despite doing their best to capture them in a particularly epic battle between three lightsabre masters and a notorious Jedi killer that left Anakin short half an arm and Obi-Wan with a massive burn scar on his right thigh, Dooku, Jango Fett, and his young cloned son escaped (much to everyone's disgust), but at least the ARCs managed to blow up the droid factories before an all out melee could start on the planet.
But that wasn't the Separatists only droid factory by far, and within days of the conflict on Geonosis armies of battle droids were harassing multiple planets across the galaxy. The only thing the Republic could do was step in with the clone army already provided and the Jedi as their military leaders. It took a bit of convincing, though, because war was not the Jedi way. But the Kaminoans and the clones insisted that they'd been made for the Jedi and that if the Republic wanted them to fight, then their best chances of winning were with Jedi as their leaders.
The original Alpha Squad was claimed by Windu and they were soon joined by the 91st Mobile Reconnaissance Corps to fill out their ranks, led by a clone Commander called Ponds. (Who stared at his Jedi like Mace was the only source of water in a vast desert.) (And frankly, Ponds wasn't the only clone to fall like a rock for their Jedi by far. Cough, cough. The thoroughly besotted Bly and the luscious Twi'lek Jedi Knight, Aayla Secura, as a good example.)
Obi-Wan was made a General and given command of the 212th Attack Battalion and a badass, Generation One Clone Marshall Commander who called himself Cody that every clone respected deeply, even the Alphas, who were older and even bigger. (Officially, the clones had numbers instead of names, but Anakin refused to call any of them by their numbers; it reminded him too much of droids and slavery.) Anakin fought with them as Obi-Wan's second-in-command for a few months until it became apparent that there weren't enough separate clone divisions to keep up with the number of droid armies littering the galaxy and slowly but surely overpowering and killing the less combative oriented Jedi Generals and Commanders. So, at just thirty-five years old, Obi-Wan was promoted to Jedi Master, High General, and given one of the newly empty seats on the Council.
And Anakin… Anakin at just barely nineteen years old, was promoted to Knight and General in the same day and given his own legion of clones to lead and protect that had just lost their Jedi in a battle against the fearsome cyborg, General Grievous. (Many other Padawans were also promoted, such as Ferus, but Anakin was the only one younger than twenty-one. As bad as it was, Anakin couldn't help secretly gloating a little.)
The 501st turned out to be even better than the 212th (in Anakin's humble opinion), and was led by Cody's dyed blond batchmate (and lover he was ninety-nine percent sure), called Commander Rex. Rex was also a highly skilled ARC trooper and proudly wore the kama and hard-earned jaig eyes to prove it (unlike Cody who preferred to be less ostentatious, much like Obi-Wan). Rex was smart as a whip, could kick Anakin's ass in a spar if Anakin didn't use the Force or his lightsabres, had the aim of a Jedi with his blasters, and was somehow still kind and gentle despite being raised as a soldier from the day he'd been decanted. Anakin was calling Rex his brother within a week of fighting by his side, adding another member to his ever-growing heart family.
And then, with even more Jedi dying on the front lines with the likes of Commander Durge (a long-lived and practically unkillable Gen'Dai male with a hate-on for Mandalorians and the clones thereof) wrecking havoc, the younger Padawans were sent to war as well. Which meant that anyone old enough (thirteen or fourteen) to be a Padawan but hadn't yet been chosen by a Master were assigned to a Jedi mentor by the Council.
Ahsoka was assigned to Obi-Wan.
Anakin was both ecstatic for them, certain they would have made that step on their own very shortly if the war hadn't rushed it, and a little crushed that he hadn't been given her as his own Padawan, but he understood that their ages were just too close for that to work out well. And… this way he wouldn't have to fight so much with his feelings about her. The good news was that his and Obi-Wan's legions were assigned to many of the same battles (Obi-Wan's doing, he was sure), so he got to see his Master and his Snips frequently.
He also got to watch her grow up from a diminutive girl made more of scrawny arms and legs than anything else to a beautiful and graceful young woman that made his mouth go dry, his heart pound frantically, and his prophetic dreams very naughty. (Thank the Force he had excellent shields, because… damn, would Obi-Wan ever roast him over the literal coals if he found out Anakin was lusting after his Padawan for the last year before she was legally of age to do so.) (Seventeen couldn't come fast enough. Truly.)
During the course of the war that dragged on for waaaaaay too long, Anakin spent most of his leave time on Coruscant with Grogu and in the youngling's crèche, needing the peace the tiny children brought him to help heal the trauma of fighting for his life and his mens lives day in and day out. When he was away from home (which was the vast majority of every month), Anakin relied on his bonds with Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Grogu, and even the steady and deep-blue-like-an-ocean presence that was Rex to keep himself sane.
When the war was nearing the end of its third year and Anakin his twenty-first (and Ahsoka her sixteenth, Thank the Force), a breakthrough came from an unexpected source.
Dooku had trained another Zabrak Sith assassin, this one absolutely huge and seemingly a little crazed. The being they later found out was called Savage Opress destroyed everything and everyone on any battlefield he was sent to, including the droids on his own side and all the Jedi that had stood up to him so far.
But then Opress made the mistake of landing on the same world as Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka (who'd by now mastered the very difficult dual bladed form of Jar'kai, much to everyone's amazement). Even with as powerful as the rage-filled and barely controlled Darksider was, he didn't last long against three of the best duellists in the Order.
Now captured and subdued, the infamous trio of Jedi escorted Opress back to the Jedi Temple to be contained and hopefully reconditioned into something much less wild and Dark. Asajj and the Jedi healers had made significant progress with Maul, after all, and were confident they could do the same with the bigger Zabrak even if it took just as many years to accomplish.
What no one expected was for Maul to call out to Opress when he was led past his holding cell, leaping up from his cot where he'd been reclining as he read a datapad. Everyone stopped abruptly at the surprised cry of, "Nightbrother!"
As one, the large Jedi escort - consisting of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Asajj, Healer Bant, and a half dozen Temple Guards - and Opress turned to look at Maul, now standing almost pressed up against the ray shield keeping him in. "What do you want?" the larger Zabrak growled at Maul.
"Who are you? Why do you remind me of someone from my past?" Maul asked, an expression of awe and shock on his face, light gold eyes wide.
Opress stepped back like he'd been punched. And then, with widening eyes, he stepped forward until he was nearly pressed up against the ray shield as well. The Jedi let him, curious as to what was happening and sensing no threat from the huge warrior now. From right next to Opress, Anakin watched in surprise as the sickly Sith yellow of his eyes faded to a pale green and an equal expression of shock cross his tattooed face. "You…. Your skin is the wrong colour, but you look like my older brother Feral. You have the same eyes. The same features. And your tattoos…"
Maul swallowed visibly, his expression melting into something that almost looked like love and remorse. "Feral was my baby brother. I remember taking care of him. He was just a toddler when I was given to Lord Sidious. But… But what happened to you, little brother? Your size, it is not natural."
"Mother Talzin," Opress growled, making Asajj gasp. Both brothers glanced at her, contempt in their eyes before dismissing her as unimportant with the exact same expression. Anakin could definitely see the family resemblance. "She made me into this with her freaky magic. Made me kill Feral. And then gave me to Lord Tyranus. It was not pleasant."
Maul scowled. "Then we shall have our revenge on all of them."
"Revenge is not the Jedi way," Obi-Wan bravely cut in.
Maul turned his blazing gaze to the one who'd cut him in half so many years ago and snarled. "I suggest you stay out of this, One Who Can't Finish A Job Properly. We are not Jedi and you will never turn us into Jedi."
Even though he didn't show it, Obi-Wan radiated hurt down their bond and Anakin took offence. He glared back at Maul, arms crossed over his chest. "Then you're never getting out of that cell and your brother will rot in the one next to you."
Now Anakin had two snarling Zabraks glaring at him, one of which loomed over him even with his hands in binders and a Force suppression collar around his neck. "I suggest you shut your mouth, puny Jedi, before I add you to my revenge list."
Anakin may have been transformed into a nearly perfect Jedi, but a blatant challenge like that brought the child-who-must-win back to the surface in an instant. He stepped forward into Opress' personal space and glared up at him, refusing to be intimidated. "Make me."
Opress stared at Anakin for a few seconds and then, to everyone's surprise, he laughed. "You would make a good Nightbrother."
Anakin found himself smiling as he shook his head. "I think I'll stick with my current affiliations, thanks."
Opress shrugged and then turned back to Maul as if no one else existed. "So what do we do now, brother?"
Before Maul could answer, Obi-Wan did. "May I make a suggestion?"
The brothers levelled Obi-Wan with the same incredulous stare, as if they couldn't believe that anyone would dare interrupt them again. Anakin almost chuckled, but held it in. Eventually Maul tipped his chin in a very tight nod. "Very well. Speak."
Obi-Wan cleared his throat lightly before doing so. "The way I see it, we have much the same goals. You wish revenge on your Sith Masters and we wish to find them and bring an end to their reign. If you help us do that, we will all be more likely to succeed. After that, you both can go free and do whatever you wish to Mother Talzin... assuming that you can. Something tells me that woman can take care of herself."
Maul scoffed softly. "I am not afraid of my mother. Not anymore."
Anakin wasn't the only one surprised by this revelation, but it made a sick kind of sense based on what little he knew of the messed up Dathomirian culture.
Maul continued after exchanging silent looks with his brother and the Jedi schooled their expressions back into serenity. "Very well. We accept your terms. Now please release my brother from his bindings and myself from this cell. We will not harm you."
Anakin did, ignoring Asajj's barely breathed, "Don't."
"Thank you," Opress said regally with a nod as his binders and collar fell to the floor and the ray shield flickered out. "I will remember your honour and bravery."
"As will I," Maul said as he stepped out of the cell. Everyone held their breath to see the brothers' next move, but it was only to rest their foreheads together, horns tangling. Anakin had to blink back a tear at the contentment and relief radiating from them. The two men had been raised by a monster and given as slaves to evil Masters. They deserved a little happiness now as far as Anakin was concerned.
He used his considerable influence with his fellow Jedi to ensure the brothers had a nice suite in the Temple and to spread the word that they were to be treated as friends and allies. He even brought Grogu by to meet them, sure they'd be fascinated by the small youngling that still hadn't grown any bigger than a small loaf of bread.
He was right. And Anakin only smiled like an indulgent parent at the hardened warriors as they turned into soft-hearted idiots to play with the child, knowing exactly what kind of magic Grogu was capable of.
And that's how Anakin somehow made friends with two powerful Force using Zabraks who were very eager to spill everything they knew about their former Masters.
Anakin was the only one not shocked to find out that Chancellor Palpatine was the Sith Lord the Jedi had been looking for for over thirteen years, remembering Grogu's reaction to him from years ago. He'd been hiding right under the Jedi's noses all this time, and boy was Mace ever not happy about that.
On the other hand, Anakin WAS shocked and appalled to learn from Savage that all of the clones had chips in their heads that would make them turn on the Jedi with only one simple order from the Supreme Chancellor. (He'd overhead Tyranus talking about it to Sidious and how much longer until they implemented it, since Tyranus was tired of footing the bill for endless streams of battle droids.) Maul hadn't known this either, but he spent a considerable amount of time chortling once he did, highly amused by the sweet irony of the clones of a Jedi killer who believed themselves to be made for the Jedi as their loyal soldiers to then be the ones to kill them. The plot was so obvious that it kind of hurt to think about how stupid they'd been to not see it. (Anakin had never received a vision about killer clones either, so that didn't help much.)
To prevent Palpatine from learning that they now knew his plan to eliminate them, the Jedi were recalled back to the Temple in small groups, told what was happening, and then sent back to their forces so that medics could start performing surgeries on the clones as fast as they could. Even the young clones on Kamino were secretly run through the medical bays under the supervision of Master Shaak Ti and then healed by her so there was no evidence in the form of a scar.
All the clones currently stationed on Coruscant, and especially the Coruscant Guard led by Commander Fox, were saved for last because of their proximity to the Chancellor to reduce the risk of discovery to as low as possible.
Not until every clone (all threeish million of them) was free of a control chip did the Jedi act further.
To make it so that neither Sith Lord could disappear, two teams went at the same time to capture them, the Coruscant team waiting until the Serenno team was in place.
The Serenno team, sent to capture Count Dooku (or Tyranus, if you will), consisted of Anakin, Maul, Savage, Asajj (because she was determine to prove to the brothers that she wasn't as vile as her Nightsister heritage), Ahsoka (because she insisted that she was going to have his back whether he liked it or not, and… Obi-Wan wouldn't let her face Sidious despite how much she wanted to rip his throat out with her fangs), and Rex with his elite squad of brothers who called themselves Torrent Company.
Dooku honestly didn't stand a chance, despite doing his level best to win with impressive displays of swordsmanship for any person not to mention a Human in his eighties, excessive use of Force Lightning and flying objects, and reflecting all the stun bolts Rex's team shot at him back at them. (A few hit, leaving some of Torrent Company stunned, and well as poor Asajj, much to her disgust when she woke up.) Eventually getting tired of dancing with the old traitor and basically snapping when Dooku tried to fry Ahsoka with lightning, Anakin grabbed Dooku with the Force and threw him against a wall, then held him there until Rex put several stun bolts into him. It was almost too easy, making Anakin wonder why they hadn't done this years ago.
The Coruscant team was lead by Yoda and also consisted of the Jedi's Battlemaster, Cin Drallig, Mace Windu, Obi-Wan, Kit Fisto, and a surprise ghost (not really) who turned up after years of everyone believing that he had died at the hands of Durge in a lava stream. Jon Antilles, one of only a few Jedi who had ever learned to teleport, was even more scarred than Obi-Wan remembered him being, but he was still just as stoic and strong as ever. Additionally, Commander Fox (Palpatine's clone puppet for much too long) and the entirety of the Coruscant Guard, Ponds and the 91st, and Cody with the 212th grimly surrounded the Senate building, vowing that the Chancellor wasn't getting away even if they all had to die to keep him inside.
The battle to capture Palpatine did not go as quickly.
In fact, when all was said and done, the Senate Building was basically trashed, the clones lost at least a few dozen men (but Fox and the rest had been ecstatic to say 'Shab gar!' when Palpatine told them to execute Order 66, whatever that was, but Anakin could guess), Yoda was in a coma from too many blasts of Force Lightning, the Council was going to have to appoint a new Battlemaster, Mace was short a hand, Obi-Wan was going to have another impressive scar on his right leg (he was grateful it was still sort of attached at least), Kit was short a couple head tentacles and his sense of balance, and Jon was permanently blinded. But Palpatine was missing his head, so the Jedi called it as even as it was going to get.
To end the war, all that was left was a bit of clean up to do.
Not that that was going to be a piece of cake.
General Grievous was eventually found on Utapau (thanks to a helpful vision given to Anakin) trying to convince the leaders of the Separatist Alliance to let him continue fighting as Grand Admiral of the droid army. Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and the 212th took on Grievous while Rex and the 501st rounded up the vainly scattering politicians to be arrested and put on trial.
In the end, Grievous was put out of his misery by Cody, who shot the cyborg in his pathetic heart repeatedly after Obi-Wan had exposed it.
After that, even with most of the battle droids all shut down and the war officially declared over and peace talks ensuing, Durge refused to give up his vendetta against the clones, so Anakin and the 501st made hunting the Gen'Dai bounty hunter and his legion of droids their next priority. It took a month to track the villain down as they followed his trail of destruction, during which time, Anakin came up with a plan. And it was a good one too. He was pretty sure.
Once Durge was found on the planet Maramere, Anakin and his forces attacked Durge's from the air, using every starfighter they had as well all of the jetpacks. The armour encased Durge took offence to this, as Anakin was hoping, flinging himself up onto Anakin's infamous yellow interceptor with the help of his jetpack during one of the bold Jedi's deliberately low strafing runs. Anakin started flying for the atmosphere at top speed. The astromech in the wing squealed in alarm as Durge started stabbing through the hull of the small fighter with a vibroknife as long as his forearm.
Anakin stayed calm, meeting the helmed gaze of his opponent with a taunting smile.
Durge tried to punch through the transparisteel bubble of the cockpit with his vibroknife and technically succeeded as the starfighter burst up into black space, leaving the last of the clouds behind. The transparisteel cracked and flew off with the force of the hit. But Anakin had been prepared for this, modifying his interceptor to instantly activate a curved shield above him that was both electrified and vacuum proof. At the same time, he hit a switch that magnetized the hull of his fighter so that Durge's durasteel armour would trap him to it.
Durge realized he'd been tricked at this point, and even through the shield, Anakin could hear his roar of rage. The silver and blue astromech, brave in its final moments, used its cable to further tie Durge to the hull. Anakin flew towards the star called Karthakk, closing his eyes as the sun's light tried to blind him.
It only took a couple minutes to reach his destination at the interceptor's top speed, but it felt like an eternity as Durge roared and struggled and writhed within his own armour trap. Anakin was honestly happy to leave the relative safety of the shielded cockpit as he turned off the power to the shield and pushed himself up and back into the abyss of space only seconds before the drag of the sun's gravity would have pulled him in too. The decoy astromech kept the fighter flying straight and true right into its doom.
The debilitating cold of space only froze Anakin for a moment before he used the Force within him to create a shield around himself that allowed him to survive for the necessary seconds it took for another (newer) yellow interceptor to fly up beside his floating body, piloted by Anakin's trusted (and nearly as famous as he was) droid, R2-D2 (a gift from Padmè for saving her planet back when he was nine).
Anakin settled in the seat of the open cockpit just in time to watch his old interceptor and the Republic's long-time enemy fly directly into the sun and explode within the giant ball of burning plasma. Artoo closed the bubble above him. "I dare that karking echuta to survive that," Anakin said with deep satisfaction at a necessary job well done to his astromech after putting on his headset and taking hold of the controls, turning them back to the battle still raging on the turquoise planet far away.
Artoo chortled before beeping. "Master Obi-Wan would tell you to be careful what you say. You'll make it come true."
Anakin snorted softly as he read the Aurebesh translation on his screen. "You're right. My bad."
With Grievous and Durge dispensed of, Anakin turned his attention to hunting down the missing Jango Fett, intent on having a few choice words with the man about responsibility in regards to all of his clone children, but never found him, only many false leads that led to yet another clone who'd made a life for himself after the war.
Speaking of which…
While Anakin had been off Durge and Jango hunting, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Padmè had been lobbying for proper lives for the clones. And after a few months, they won. Rex, Cody, and all of their brothers were now officially free men with all the rights that a sentient being were entitled to. The Senate was more or less forced to give the clones all the back-pay they hadn't received as soldiers, housing, and the cure for their rapid aging. The only thing the clones didn't get that they'd asked for was their ability to reproduce back. The Senate argued that the clones had been made sterile for a reason and no amount of talking was going to convince them otherwise.
Basically, no one wanted the genetics of Jango Fett to completely saturate the galaxy until all humans and human hybrids ended up interrelated in the not so distant future.
The clones could marry whomever they wanted, though, including each other since they weren't technically brothers (even if most addressed each other as such for lack of anything better to call themselves) but actually copies of the same man and couldn't reproduce with each other. (That was a moral debate that stumped the Senate for at least a week until they came up with that consensus.) They were also encouraged to adopt as many children as they wished, especially their own younger brothers, since there were so many of them under the biological age of eighteen (nearly a million) who were no longer going to mature at double time. In the end, the Fett clones took care of each other and not a single young clone was adopted out to anyone other than one (or two) of their elder siblings.
The ironic thing, maybe, was that even after they were free, the vast majority of the clones chose to either stay in the Grand Army of the Republic, the Coruscant Guard, or join the newly formed army known as the Jedi Guardians, helping to clean up war-torn worlds and defend the galaxy from any further threats that might arise. It was no surprise to anyone that the clones that had been closest to their Jedi Generals and Commanders chose the last option. Some of them even married their Jedi (the inseparable Ponds and Windu as the most prominent example), much to the amusement of the galaxy.
Cody was elected Admiral of the Jedi Guardians with his cyar'ika Rex and Ponds right alongside him as his seconds and their best men in descending order of rank below them. Their base was the Jedi Temple, of course. (As if Windu, Obi-Wan, and Anakin would let it be anywhere else.)
Somehow, with all of that, before Anakin even knew it, his twenty-second year of life was a third gone and Ahsoka had turned seventeen weeks ago, but he'd been nowhere near her at the time, thanks to his hunt for Jango and her missions to help rebuild worlds. Now, finally, he was back at the Temple and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka were due to return tomorrow as well.
In the meantime, he snagged Grogu from the crèche (who was overjoyed to see him judging by the happy feeling he was being sent and the gigantic smile the baby was wearing) and took him to the Jedi Gaurdian's new quarters in the Temple to hang out with Rex, Cody and his many other brothers-in-arms for a while before he went to visit his mother and her family for dinner.
Grogu was an adorable hit, as usual. Force, he'd missed him. It was so good to be home.
Now all Anakin needed was for the last of his family to get back and life would be wonderful again.
Ahsoka let herself into Anakin's quarters in the early hours of the morning just as the sun was cresting the horizon.
She came to a stop just inside the door after it closed behind her and propped her shoulder on the wall, an adoring smile settling on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest.
Anakin was sprawled on his thin mattress on the floor, still fully clothed, boots and all, looking as if he'd flopped down there and hadn't budged since. The rising sun played with the messy dark gold strands of his curly hair that had grown down past his broad shoulders, showing just how long it had been since she'd seen him last – Ahsoka was the only one he let trim his hair for reasons he'd never divulged to anyone.
She secretly hoped it was because he liked the feel of her fingers in his silky hair, because she certainly liked them being there.
Aside from overgrown hair, he also looked like he desperately needed the sleep, dark shadows under his eyes, two or three days worth of beard stubble, and prominent cheekbones showing just how much he'd been pushing himself for the last few years. Also, she knew for a fact that he didn't sleep as well away from the Temple. Or away from herself and Grogu to be more specific.
Despite his unkempt appearance, he was still the most beautiful being she'd ever seen. He always had been. From his breath-catching Force aura that danced around him like an opalescent rainbow, to his huge, kind heart that greedily loved as many people as would love him back, to the holomovie good looks that made his fans swoon all across the galaxy, her Skyguy was a thing of perfection that she'd waited a long time to officially claim for herself.
Okay, he did have a few flaws. Like leaving tools and droid parts absolutely everywhere (as his room could attest) and letting dirty boots touch the bed.
Shaking her head fondly, not put off in the least, Ahsoka knelt on the floor and tugged off his boots, causing the young man to murmur her name in his sleep.
Her heart skipped a beat at the proof that his connection to her was that strong that even his subconscious knew when she was near.
The happy Togruta girl then slipped off her own boots and crawled onto the bed with him, snuggling herself into his chest with a soft purr – Anakin wasn't the only one who'd been working long hours.
He instantly wrapped his arms around her, pulling her even closer as he mumbled, "Missed you, Snips."
Ahsoka purred louder, burying her nose in the delicious smelling crook of his neck as she listened to the steady thump-thump of his heart in her montrals. "Missed you too, Skyguy."
Anakin made a noise of contentment, curling around her more and rubbing his cheek against her montral with familiar affection.
And then she heard his breath catch in his throat and she looked up just in time to see his sapphire blue eyes pop open comically. "Hi," she said cheekily, grinning at his look of surprise.
Anakin blinked at her a couple times and then he was grinning so wide his cheeks looked like they might crack. "Ahsoka," he gasped as he remembered to breathe. "Force, you're here. Really here! I'm not dreaming!"
She giggled, stretching up to nuzzle her nose against his stubbly jaw. "No, not a dream."
Anakin nearly sat up, hands leaving her to push down on the mattress, but she didn't let him, determined that he wasn't getting away from her. Not now. Considering that he hadn't found himself a mate yet, she was fairly certain he'd be receptive to her advances, but there was only one way to find out for sure.
Now pushing on his shoulders a little as she looked down at him, Ahsoka nuzzled into his jaw again and then changed the tilt of her chin so that her lips could brush over the sexy scar that ran past his right eye as she asked huskily, "Do you dream of me? Dream of me sleeping with you like this?" They'd been snuggling together as they slept for as long as she'd known him, but the way she let her voice change, she hoped that he got the point that she was asking about something entirely different and much more intimate.
He stopped breathing again and his eyes widened again as his cheeks flushed bright pink. He got the point. "Ahsoka…"
She brushed her lips down his cheek and almost to his mouth. "Please. Please say you do."
Perhaps it was unfair of her to beg, but it worked. Because Anakin swallowed hard with an audible gulp and then he settled back into the mattress as his hands came up to cup her face gently. His blue, blue eyes were practically glowing with heat and love and it made her heart pound. "Yes, my sweet, beautiful girl. I dream of you. Every night. Dream of making you mine in every way possible. Dream of growing old with you. Dream of raising kids with you. Grogu and a pair of adorable twins, in fact, who will all put the galaxy on its butt in awe."
Ahsoka smiled through the tightness in her throat and blinked back the sudden tears that made his face a little blurry. This was everything she'd hoped to hear and more. Didn't she just think about how perfect he was? "Good. That's good. Because I love you, Skyguy, and I want all of that too. So much."
Anakin beamed at her, his smile glorious like a sunrise, as he rubbed the markings on her cheeks with his thumbs, sending pleasant tingles into her skin. "I love you too, Snips. More than anything." And then he was drawing her even closer until their lips touched.
The swirl of Force energy that shot through her at the contact made her gasp, but then Ahsoka wrapped her arms around his neck and she was kissing him with way more enthusiasm than skill. Not that Anakin seemed to care, judging by the deep groan that was ripped from his throat as he kissed her back even more avidly. His hands were starting to travel as their kiss went on and on, smoothing up and down her back lek and then even further to her waist and hips and thighs, eventually pulling her directly on top of him so she straddled his hard abdomen, the short blue skirt of her armorweave battledress pooling around them.
This was even better, giving Ahsoka an even better angle to kiss him at and allowing their chests to press together just right.
Kissing her mate was the best feeling in the galaxy and she would happily do this forever.
"I was wondering how much longer you two would wait before you started doing this."
Ahsoka gasped and sat up on Anakin, looking over her shoulder to see Obi-Wan standing in the open doorway, shoulder leaning casually against the jamb, ankles crossed, arms folded over his chest, and the hint of a smirk twitching up into his copper moustache. She'd never even heard the door open.
"Master, I…" Anakin and Ahsoka both started to say at the same time, making them glance at each other and then laugh self-consciously as they blushed fiercely.
"Don't bother explaining," Obi-Wan said with a fond shake of his head. "I was coming to invite Anakin down to the Gardens for a huge family breakfast that probably includes everyone that lives in the Temple by now, but I can see that you two would probably much rather continue what you were doing."
Ahsoka raised an eyebrow marking at Anakin in question.
Of course, she would love to continue kissing him, but… family and sustenance were important too. And he understood that, smiling at her gently. Anakin kissed her lips again with a fleeting touch that somehow made her heart stutter yet again, and then he picked her up by the waist with an effortless show of strength and rose to his feet before placing her on hers, hands lingering on her hips. "Wait for us, Dear-Wan," he told the man who was basically their father still waiting in the doorway, but with his eyes locked on hers. "We're coming too. We can go back to what we were doing later. We have our entire lives to do so after all."
As a feeling of approval and deep affection wafted over from Obi-Wan, Ahsoka fell even deeper in love with her perfect Skyguy.
After helping capture Dooku, Maul and Savage flew to Dathomir and the Nightbrother village. They spent a month teaching the other men how to use their latent Force powers and then confronted Mother Talzin and the Nightsisters, starting a civil war. The Nightbrothers won, killed Mother Talzin, and made the women serve them instead of the other way around. Eventually, news of this travelled across the galaxy and the Jedi sent Knight Ventress to see if she could negotiate peace between the two sides.
The women realized they'd done the menfolk dirty for centuries and were repentant, but at the same time weren't willing to be subservient. The men were eventually talked into living in peace as equals and started to pair off with the women into normal family units.
Asajj had finally won the respect of Maul and Savage and ended up marrying them as a triad. They had four children, called one of them Feral in honour of their wrongfully deceased brother, and lived happily ever after.
Ironically, Feral the 2nd became a Jedi and married Obi-Wan Kenobi's daughter, much to Maul's disgust.
Jango and Boba Fett had worked for Dooku until just days before the Sith was captured. They quit when a team of five clones called Clone Force 99 found them and confronted Jango about being a traitor to their vode, working for their enemy. And his own, if he didn't know.
Jango hadn't, in fact. He was shocked when their leader, Hunter, told him that Tyranus was actually Count Dooku and that he was the former Jedi who'd suggested to the Governor of Galidraan that a good punishment for Jango would be to sell him to a spice runner.
Jango had lost his men, his title of Mand'alor, his armour, his best friend, and his freedom on Galidraan thanks to the machinations of his enemy and leader of the Death Watch, Tor Vizsla.
At least he'd since restored a few of those things and had his revenge on Vizsla.
It was as Jango stared in horrified shock at Hunter and his four brothers standing stoically side by side with weapons ready but helmets off, that Jango realized he'd been betrayed yet again by Dooku/Tyranus.
He'd been told that his clones would be nothing more than programmable meat droids, but these men were anything but stupid or interchangeable. The men wore similar armour, yes, and had his face, more or less, but they each wore their hair differently. All had different eyes ranging from his dark brown, to near gold, to grey. They all had different tattoos. One was shabla huge. Two were far leaner than himself. All were at least a little taller. One was part cyborg and wore an ARC's kama. One even wore hi-tech glasses of all things. (Weren't his clones supposed to have perfect vision?) And they definitely all had different personalities. And not a single one of them looked as commandable and trainable as the original clone batches had been. Even Alpha Squad, who'd never received the behaviour modification chips, hadn't looked at Jango with this level of contempt.
"Do all of the vode think I'm a traitor like you do?" Jango asked, feeling Boba's curious and worried gaze on him.
Hunter nodded stiffly. "Yes. They do. You should have been our leader. Our father. The way you are to him." Hunter glanced at his thirteen year old son who was actually chronologically older by three or four years thanks to his unmodified genes. "You should have taught us all to be True Mandalorians. We would have rallied behind you. We would have been your army if you'd only asked. We could have taken Mandalore back."
Jango felt his heart sink down to his toes at the realization that he'd been epically stupid and blind. Hunter kept on talking, making it all so much worse yet. "Instead, we found ourselves another family to support and stand by – our Jedi family. They protect us and love us. They see us as the individuals you never did. You, Jango Fett, will always be our enemy. But... as our template and for the sake of Boba - our adi'vod whether you let him interact with us or not - we have decided to give you a chance to live."
Jango couldn't speak from the guilt and shame swamping him, but his loyal Boba could. "What does that mean?" his son demanded, standing boldly and defiantly at Jango's side.
Hunter's grey eyes (so different from Jango's own brown) were filled with apology as he glanced at Boba before hardening again into durasteel as he locked gazes with Jango. "It means that we will not hunt you down and we'll make sure the Jedi never find you either, but we will not help you any further than this, and we will rise against you if you try to call yourself the Mand'alor again; you don't deserve the title. We would support Boba, though, if he chose to pursue his heritage."
Now Boba was speechless, jaw hanging in shock at the man who'd claimed him as his 'little brother'. At least Jango had managed to find his own voice again with a hard swallow past the emotional lump in throat. "I understand. I'll make myself scarce. What Boba does from here is up to him."
Hunter nodded sharply once. "Good."
Jango nearly lost his wavering control over his tear ducts when Boba hugged him tightly and said into his chestplate, "I want to stay with you, Father, wherever you go."
Hunter grunted his acknowledgement and put his helmet on as he turned away, the others copying him after sending one last group glare Jango's way.
Jango hugged his son back and thanked the stars that he wouldn't have to fight off millions more of his brave sons just to keep Boba safe.
When the emotional moment was finally over, the Fetts boarded Slave One and made for the Unknown Regions, just in case Hunter was wrong and some of the vode changed their minds about wanting revenge. They explored for a while, going back to known worlds for supplies as necessary, until one day, Jango met a Chiss male called Mitth'raw'nuruodo looking to hire a ride back to his home planet deep in the Unknown Regions.
The two clever and powerful warriors quickly recognized kindred spirits within the other and Jango found himself a new calling; to help the Chiss in their defence of their homeworld against multiple threats.
And Boba… Well, he stayed with his father and the Chiss for decades until his father was killed in battle. After inheriting the Mandalorian armour and his father's ship, Boba decided to return to the land of his heritage and perhaps even challenge for his right to rule.
Imagine his surprise when he found a much changed Mandalore with a competent man already on the throne, Darksabre in hand and a most unexpected pair of riduur'e at his side.
9 ABY
Anakin was fifty years old now, and so was the small green toddler sitting on the palms of his hands as they rested their foreheads against each other, waves of contentment and love radiating from them. Ahsoka still found the fact that they were the same age hard to believe as she quietly walked into the dim meditation room that her family was using as they communed with the Force.
For one thing, Anakin was aging very slowly for a Human, with only a few smile and laugh lines etched into his pale skin and an occasional silver hair threading through the curls near his temples. (The healers said it was because Grogu kept healing him from the cells outwards.) Anakin was still broad shouldered and slim waisted under his black robes, every bit as fit now as he had been in his twenties. He was still her perfect mate who loved her, their wonderful, amazing children, and his extended family with his whole heart. Still the Jedi Battlemaster who had almost singlehandedly brought joy and purpose to the Jedi Order again. Still the Chosen One who had set the galaxy free and ensured that no intelligent being (even Kowakian Monkey-Lizards) would ever be enslaved again. But above all, he was still her beloved Skyguy.
On either side of Anakin, looking like matching bookends in their midnight blue robes, Lukin and Leioka were also sitting cross-legged on raised cushions, their faces serene. Both had inherited her blue and white stripped montrals instead of ears, but had been blessed with Anakin's dark gold curls instead of lekku. Lukin's hair fell down to his shoulders, just like his fathers, and Leioka had let hers grow all the way to her waist in a glorious fall of gorgeous hair that Ahsoka frankly envied. The only other thing the two had inherited from her were their big, sky blue eyes. Other than that, they were Anakin's children through and through. The powerful twins had turned twenty this year along with being Knighted, continuing the Skywalker tradition of excelling in the Jedi arts. Neither had found their soulmates yet, but Ahsoka was confident they would when the time was right.
Perhaps they would even share a mate. It was actually quite common in Togrutan culture for twins that connected to each other to do so.
Ahsoka trod silently around the circle of cushions until she came up behind her husband, wrapping her arms around his chest and over his biceps as she propped her chin on his shoulder. Grogu cracked an eye open and grinned at her for a second before he closed it again, making her smile in return. Anakin hummed an acknowledgment of her presence, leaning his head into hers. "The Force tell you anything interesting today?" she asked softly before pressing a kiss to his clean-shaven jaw.
Anakin hummed again before he cracked an eye at her much like Grogu had. His mouth turned up in a secret smile as he sent her a wave of love down their bond. "The Force showed Grogu something actually, and then he showed me."
"Oh? What did our little precious see?"
Instead of speaking, Anakin sent her the same image, and Ahsoka's breath caught.
It was a man. An impressive, caped Mandalorian in shiny silver beskar armour that nearly covered him completely from head to knees. On either side of him, with their arms wrapped around his waist and looking up at the helmeted man adoringly was the twins. And in his hand, raised above his head in a clear show of power, was the legendary Darksabre.
"Oh my," she breathed. "Have you shown the twins yet?" she asked via their bond.
"No. And I don't plan to. I've sworn Grogu to secrecy as well. I don't want to influence their feelings." Her heartmate chuckled wryly in her mind. "Now all we have to do is find him to make that image come true."
Much easier said than done, it turns out, but that's another story.