There was a dark spirit lurking at the palace, ghosting behind Boba from room to room. No one else was aware of it, as he expected, except perhaps Grogu (also as he expected) when Din would stop by to rest or avoid 'entanglements.'
It wasn't really doing anything. Just dogging his footsteps, and sitting in corners when he was working. Basking whenever Boba would call the water from Kamino.
But it was like a grain of sand under his armor.
"I know you're there," Boba called out sourly on a night Fennec was traveling to Takadona – chasing down a bounty hunter who was also calling themselves 'Fett,' and to pick up a protocol droid. He was alone in his chambers, "Either show yourself or frak off."\
An uncanny stillness settled in front of him.
He crossed his arms.
"Well? I'm a busy man. Tatooine doesn't rule itself."
"Hmmmrmmmm"
"I'm not fluent in moaning."
He finally snorted and reached inside to pull on the power that was woven into is blood. He waved his hand through the stillness. An effigy of dusty black and red faded into appearance.
Boba stared.
'You've got to be frakking kiding me,' he thought as he recognized the phantom before him. He'd never met the man himself, but he had heard of and seen images of the once mighty Maul.
"The Crimson Dawn is dead and gone. According to Skywalker so are the Sith," he leaned forward, teeth bared, "and I'll let you near Djarin when the twelve hells freeze over."
"I...I want nothing of those," a breathy barely audible voice murmured, "I merely... merely wish to exist again...nothing more."
"You're shitting me," Fett outright laughed, his contempt almost dispersing the misty figure in front of him, "I don't know how you know about it, but why would I risk casting that spell for you?"
The figure wavered, before turning burning eyes up to him.
"Palpatine...Palpatine still lives."
The even as insubstantial as the spirit was the rage that roiling through the statement gave Boba pause.
Eyes red and golden burned at him at the expense of the rest of Maul's form.
Boba had thought to destroy this unquiet spirit, but if that monster did still live, it would be like setting off a beacon advertising that the lost bloodline of Cassus Fett wasn't so lost.
Boba growled.
"Stay here. I'll be right back."
Bread and Salt and Blood.
The simplest, the most difficult, the most dangerous spell Jango had ever taught his son, and all it took was Bread and Salt and Blood.
Boba was exhausted.
A thin wail beside him made him smile.
"You didn't specify to be brought back as an adult," he said dryly as he swaddled the baby Zabrak, and brought it up to rest against his chest, "and I'm not as big a fool as Fennec may think."
He rose to his feet and staggered over a chair.
"I've sent a message to her to pick up a nanny droid when she gets a protocol droid," he rocked the child,, he gently stroked the little nubs dotting the baby's skull; one day they would emerge as horns, "now, I am not calling you Maul."
The baby settled down and stared as best he could with eyes not yet able to focus yet.
"I'm thinking J'mee," Boba ruminated, "my Father's Father's name; his biological Father," Fett clarified, "I'm not about to risk Jaster's wrath, and it was from J'mee we got this," he looked at the deep bacta-covered gash in his arm, "so J'mee it's going to be."
Boba cuddled the baby close, and he sensed surprise and a wash of contentment. He hummed for a bit and the child fell into a calm sleep. He traced the a darker smudges on the baby's red face. He had intended to send the baby to Skywalker.
Boba wondered, for a moment, if this was what Jango felt when the babe placed in his arms changed from apprentice to son.
"Hah, force-wielder and sorceror," Boba grinned softly to himself, "made of my blood, I name you my son, J'mee Fett."
Author's note: For the curious, Fennec's reaction, when she returned, was to look at Santos and ask, "Do I want to know how he got that baby?" and his response was a shrug and "a damned if I know" in Shyriiwook.