Note: An ESB au. I'm not certain where this came from. I'm also finding that in several headcanons that Lando and Boba have had some kind of past together.

Warnings: non-graphic vomiting


Bespin

Bread and salt and blood.

Bread and salt and blood.

Bread and salt and blood.

Boba had learned this at his Dad's knee. The two of simplest and most forbidden of spells. Bread and salt and blood were all you needed for either of them.

Of course, most magic was unofficially forbidden by Mandalorian culture and customs. Even simple rain spells were looked at askew. There was a reason farmers tended to spook Mandalorian warriors and aristocrats alike. History tended to gloss over that Cassus Vhett had been feared not only because his strategic brilliance but because he had been a powerful sorcerer and his descendants had that power bound in their bones by Cassus. Which was the primary reason why they claimed not to know if they were his descendants. Why they used the Basic pronunciation of their family name. Why they made sure they had a piece of beskar on them at all times.

But they still passed down the lore.

And Boba was on his knees, stripped of his armor in front of Darth Vader, all because Lando Calrissian told Vader that Fett could do magic. Of all of the mistakes Boba had made in his youth, the ill-fated liaison with Calrissian was the one he regretted the most.

"Can it be done, Bounty Hunter?" Vader thundered.

Boba looked up at him sourly, and then even more sourly at Calrissian.

"Yes," he finally answered sullenly, glaring at the towering Sith Lord, "I can do it, but I'm not going to."

The wall hit him incredibly fast. He almost missed Vader's growled:

"Reconsider."

Due to the ringing in his head.

Then Vader left him alone with Calrissian dithering, making weak protests.

He managed to push himself off the floor, and then slumped, seated against the wall. Calrissian knelt down beside Fett.

"What is going on, Fett?" Calrissian growled under his breath as he actually checked to see what damage had been done.

"You told him I could make it rain," Fett growled back, but then vomited on Calrissian.

After Calrissian swore but got everything, including Fett cleaned up, he asked quietly:

"What has that got to do with anything?"

Fett managed a glare.

"You told him I could make rain; a non-force user who can make rain come," Fett said weakly, "and bearing the name Vhett. He's not stupid, Calrissian."

Lando closed his eyes, gritted his teeth.

"Dammit, Boba, what does he want you to do?"

"To bind Skywalker to his will," Fett slurred, "and resurrect his dead wife."

"He had a wife? Wait, can you do that?"

"Yes."

Lando stared at Fett. Fett looked back, and Lando was appalled at how fragile the bounty hunter looked at that moment.

"I'm not going to do it, Calrissian. Neither spell; the cost is too high," Fett shuddered, then leaned against Lando. Lando almost didn't hear it, "I'm afraid, cyar'ika."

Lando wrapped his arms around Fett. He was going to have to think of a way to save his friends, his city and now Fett from the Empire. Force help them all.


Additional Notes: I'm not entirely certain how magic works in this universe, although intent matters, and how it is different from the Force. But Cassus' arrogance and his claiming more power than he should have claimed have messed up his descendants very badly in this AU.

So why didn't the clone troopers have magic bound in them? Well, Jango considered Boba his son, he didn't consider the clone troopers his children, so they were spared.