I should note I am very much making up Mandalorian History.

I should also note I fully intend to write out how Boba ended up as Mand'alor.

I should note again that this is the timeline where Luke and Boba are married and ultimately end up with three children and a number of pathetic life-forms that they really wish their daughter Shmi would stop adopting. (Somewhere in the Force Qui Gon Jinn is laughing his backside off)


Leia was furious, more than furious, she was frightened and furious. There were actually people who were seriously thinking of returning some of the Emperor's policies...for only a short time, they were saying.

"Will you shut up? You're scaring Shmi," a voice growled out behind her.

Leia knew that voice, she hated that voice and that voice had just dared to tell her to shut up. She turned around ready to give Fett, brother-in-law or no, a piece of her mind and stopped in her tracks.

She knew because of Luke's responsibilities and obligations that Fett, Mand'alor or not, was doing most of the care for their daughter. But for whatever reason she never pictured Fett, gently rocking on his feet, with a spit-up towel over one shoulder, feeding Shmi. Or trying to feed her, since Shmi was upset and whimpering.

"It might come as a surprise for you, but some people's lives did actually improve during the Empire," he said, his voice slipping in a dissonantly soothing tone, his eyes returning to his daughter, "and all they see now is those improvements being torn away from them."

"Those improvements came at the cost of other people," Leia found herself slipping into the same soothing tone, and Shmi began to quiet, "you can't say that doesn't matter or we should return to..."

"Not saying that," Fett growled slightly, but made a funny face at Shmi as he did, "but if you lot don't recognize that fact and try and find a new path for everyone you're going down the same road as the old Republic real fast," there, Shmi was willing to take her bottle again, "and now I have a vested interest in that not happening."

"As the Mand'alor," Leia said drily.

Fett wrinkled his nose.

"We both know that was an accident," he groused quietly, sitting down, "I intended to follow my Father's advice and not get trapped in politics," he thought for a moment, then grinned, "although Dad would bust a gut laughing at the thought of all those House and Clan Proud idiots having made a Concordian the Mand'alor of Mand'alors out of convenience and then having to really accept it."

Leia sat down beside him and gave him her best 'you better explain what that means' look; she had been there when the then presumed Dead Boba Fett was named Mand'alor, but had been on ordered and enforced bedrest due to complications with her pregnancy with Ben at the time; to her irritation she had only been allowed the barest of briefing to reduce her stress. She hadn't had much time afterwards to delve into the situation, trusting Luke to keep it from exploding.

Leia didn't need something blindsiding her the way that Luke casually mentioning he had married Fett Tatooine style had done. Well, it hadn't been so casual and the signs had all been there, she just hadn't wanted to see them, and dammit even Luke agreed she was allowed that.

"How much history do you know about the Mandalorian systems?" Fett asked.

"It frequently contradicts itself," Leia replied, "I was too busy with other matters to disentangle it."

"Right, good," Fett nodded, "this is an extremely simplified version - the core world, Mandalore, went out conquering neighboring planets. If the planet's inhabitants had a warrior culture or subculture, and they impressed the Mando'ade and were willing to submit fealty, they got swallowed in and were for all intents and purposes considered full Mando'ade. Then they came to the planet that they named Concord Dawn. Its native inhabitants were farmers. No warrior culture, no aggressive competition, except maybe in who could grow the best wu'tabgas," he chuckled, "They pretty much accepted the Mando'ade invaders as their rulers because, really, humoring the idiots in armor let them get on with the really important things like making sure to plant the crops on time," he paused and adjusted his hold on the bottle and Shmi, "so they were never really considered proper citizens of Mandalore. And since we were descended from a native family of Concord Dawn, Dad and I were never considered 'properly' Mandalorian."

"But aren't…" Leia carefully thought about what she said next, "you are descended from Cassus Fett. He was Mandalor the Ultimate's chief strategist. Wouldn't that have made an exception?"

"Cassus Fett's chief goal was to keep Mandalor the Ultimate and his Warriors from trampling his wife's vegetable garden," Boba snorted, "that he was good at turning his farming strategies into battle strategies and bluffing Jedi and Mandalorian alike were a far second. I have the journals to prove that much to many people's embarrassment. There, that's a good girl," he cooed at Shmi as she finished her bottle, then gently burped her.