Author's Note: This chapter is a bit of a backdoor sequel into my other story "Mandalore the Compassionate". If you like this, please check it out.

Chapter Thirteen: Defend or Die

Ahsoka glared at the purple blade and noticed the Temple Guards did not have their sabers ignited. Windu is looking for a fight. She thought. The best way to win is not to play. Ahsoka heard Nicholai laugh from the part of her mind connected with Yggdrasil and when she mentally asked, her answer came back with a strange symbol in her mind's eye: two parallel vertical and horizontal lines drawn to make nine equal squares. Instead of probing further, Ahsoka looked at Rex and Jessie. "Go," she said with steel in her voice. "Find Anakin."

"Ahsoka, I can-"

"That's an order, Rex!"

The Togruta then turned and addressed the Master of Vaapad. "You come armed?" Ahsoka asked as the two clones ran behind her toward the Senate Building out of the temple. "How far have the Jedi fallen?" Ahsoka began. "Are you truly diplomats and peacekeepers any longer?" She drew closer to Windu as she spoke, her hands calm and placid, not itching for her sabers in contrast to the tension and fear she could sense in some Temple Guards. "This war has changed so much about The Jedi and The Republic, but you can't see it! The Dark Side has enveloped this place." Ahsoka grimaced. "Sure, The Light is blinding within the walls, but The Dark Side holds no allegiance. It is neither good nor evil but a tool as much as The Light."

Ahsoka grinned. "Do you know what Anakin's people call Jedi?"

Windu said nothing in response to her question and looked ready to strike her down. "I am here to arrest you, citizen," Windu growled. "Matters of The Force are beyond you!"

Ahsoka could feel it, a tiny pinprick of The Bogan in Windu, like a flame ignited by fear. "You fear change." Ahsoka surmised. "That's why you initially rejected Anakin; you feared his potential. Instead of peering into the darkness within him to see from wince it sprang, you shunted that away and taught him to do the same."

Windu tried not to show it, but the hilt of his saber vibrated slightly in his hand.

"Dragons call you Jedi Ro-Kata meaning 'poisoned by Light'. In contrast, Sith are called Ro-Narta which means 'poisoned by Darkness'."

Windu disengaged his saber. "Fear is a path to The Dark Side."

Ahsoka shook her head. "Fear is a path to understanding. Understanding is a path to wisdom. Wisdom is a path to strength. Strength is a path to control. Control is a path to Balance in the Bog'shla, the Draconian name for The Force." Ahsoka smiled. "Hatchlings are taught this from the moment they can stand."

"Where is The Chancellor?"

Ahsoka couldn't help it and smirked. "Here is your test, Jedi." Ahsoka said calmly. "He is sealed away in room that was part of an ancient Sith Temple in use before The Jedi Order claimed Coruscant and still practiced largely on Tython." Ahsoka pointed down to the exit. "He is down there. Are you balanced enough to face The Dark Side and control it?" Ahsoka stepped aside and continued to gesture towards the door. "Go and see, Master Windu. Perhaps you will understand your fear when you return."

Later, when Ahsoka left the Jedi Temple, she stood on its steps and heaved up her lunch. "That was vile!"

Nicholai nodded, unseen. Calm yourself, child, he coached. Let the over abundance of Ashla flow from you into the cosmos.

Like Bogan poisoning?

The basic goal is the same: Return to balance. Nicholai smiled. I can't have my children going back to each other unbalanced. That would be irresponsible.

Ahsoka stopped mid-motion to get in a transport to the Senate Building. What?

Draconian custom says the Protector of future hatchlings, that's you, becomes part of the Sire's, Anakin's, family line. Nicholai explained. Technically, when you and Anakin both were Marked, you legally became my daughter.

"I've never had a real family before." Ahsoka whispered. "There was Master Plo, but can any Jedi truly be familial under current Jedi dogma?"

Meanwhile, back in the Senate rotunda, the delegates actually seemed to work well together when truth prevailed and corruption mercilessly broken. Anakin sighed in relief when he felt Ahsoka leave The Jedi Temple and head his way. The young Halfling hIssed under his breath as he heard the delegates still reel from the news of the war's end, its mastermind safely inhumed in a trap of his own design. Anakin could sense the Trade Federation representatives anger at him. Such anger, he didn't understand. It shouldn't be that difficult to make a Confederacy Trade Federation and maintain the Republic form of the organization as two independent but cooperative organizations to protect trade in the twin galactic systems. Greed, pointless greed…

Calm down, Anakin, Ahsoka soothed. Obi-Wan's been trying to comm us for the past fifteen minutes.

What is it about, Snips?

He and Satine found something extremely…odd on Mandalore under the palace. Ahsoka stated. I'm already aboard Aether, and R2 has the coordinates in the NAV computer.

Anakin nodded and moved to a landing pad near the Senate Building. Then, he smiled and flapped his wings a few times to reach the cargo hatch. Once inside, Anakin made for the pilot's chair and guided his ship to orbit for a safe jump to Hyperspace.

"What do you think they found?" Anakin asked as the ship settled into a leisurely pace on its way to Mandalore.

Ahsoka shrugged. "I have an idea, but it's a bit crazy," The Togruta sighed. "Mandalorians are primarily mostly Human, but Mandalorian isn't really a single race so much as it is an agreement to adhere to the culture and practices of Mando'ade."

Anakin raised a brow. "How does this-?"

Ahsoka smiled, shook her head, and held up a hand. "Because of Tarre Visla, there's a small section of study that deals with Mandalorian culture and philosophy." Ahsoka went on. "Look at the two societies. Both are warlike and hold family in high regard while despoiling Jedi and Sith alike. My point is: What if Mandalorians are not necessarily 'Children of Mandalore' but in fact are 'Children of the Dragons'." Ahsoka suggested. "Some Legends bare truth completely. However, more often than not, Legends depart from the truth into something else entirely due to the natural ebb and flow of oral tradition."

Anakin frowned at Ahsoka. "If this is true," the halfling's wings fluttered nervously. "Do you know what chaos will erupt?!"

Ahsoka sighed. "That isn't yet confirmed nor is it truly our problem." Ahsoka brushed the rough scales on Anakin's cheek gently. "Besides, do you have such little faith in Obi-Wan and Satine to properly manage this and avoid war?"

Anakin looked at Ahsoka with a smile. "I trust your judgement, Snips."

Once in Mandalorian airspace, Anakin cursed. "(What, in the name of The Sisters, are they thinking?!)" Anakin muttered, even as he could feel Ahsoka holding back a laugh as Anakin brought the Aether to a pad a little south of the palace complex with some extremely heated arguing between Anakin and the air traffic control staff peppered with Dracionian swears a plenty. It wasn't until Anakin realized scanners flagged likely flagged him as an unknown species that anakin's temper cooled to annoyance.

As he and Ahsoka disembarked, they looked down the barrels of more than a hundred blasters. Anakin tensed and glared at the group even as he saw them part for a man in Jedi robes, a woman in extremely regal dress with a garish headdress, Clone Commander Cody on one side of the two, and a second clone on the other the Darith hybrid didn't recognize. Right…Obi-Wan still thinks I'm Human. Anakin thought as he tried to calm his aggressive instincts and appear less threatening.

For a moment, the oldest man stared in disbelief at the scaly black reptilian before him. Through The Force, Obi-Wan knew the creature to be Anakin, but his eyes and hands didn't seem to get the data packet, his hand on the hilt of his saber and his eyes firmly on Anakin. "Who are you?"

Then, Anakin noticed an oddly designed saber hilt under his old teacher's robes on the side of the bearded man's off hand. Anakin smiled at the sight, knowing Maul was last to have the ancient relic. Slight priding from Yggdrasil by Nicholai led Anakin to bow. "I come due to the summons of The Mandalore." Once Obi-Wan nodded uncomfortably, Anakin rose, "It's been a long time, my old teacher."

"Indeed..." Obi-Wan looked at Anakin. "Care to discuss…" The Negotiator cast a wary glance at Anakin's new form and took note of how Ahsoka seemed to stand sentry behind Anakin, shielding the onlookers from his wings. Perhaps, it's the other way round, Obi-Wan amended mentally as he finished speaking. "…recent events behind closed doors and away from unwanted eyes?"

For a moment, Anakin felt suspicion rise within him but quickly dismissed the sensation.

Ghost Protocol? Ahsoka asked with a simple cast of the eyes towards Anakin. The young Darith hybrid scanned the room through the Bog'slah. Without a word, Ahsoka slipped into the long shadows of the ornate hall and seemed to vanish to all but the most observant persons. What is it, Anakin?

Anakin could feel a shiver in the ambient feel of the room. Someone is here who doesn't belong.

For a moment, Anakin could almost see a shape of beskar'gam in the tapestries of the far wall. "Captain Cody, shoot!" Anakin ordered with a clawed finger pointed directly at the shape.

For a moment, time seemed to crawl as the shape moved to dodge the shot, but the bolt hit a strange device on the armor which caused it to shimmer twice before the black-red horned armor of Death Watch. With a growl, Anakin approached the assassin and mentally recoiled at the stench of urine from the man while Anakin's visage remained as enraged as he could maintain.

"Who are you?!"

The man screamed as if Anakin tore the Human's face off with his helmet. "Y-You are here to destroy us, Dark One, but we will fight and die to return the glory of Mandalore!"

The man moved to break what looked like a part of a tooth. A quick alert from the Bog'shla warned Anakin and prompted him to hold the coward's mouth open with one hand while Anakin's free hand plucked the "tooth" from the man's mouth. Satine looked at the device for a moment in shock before rage flowed into her features followed quickly by a cool and collected mask.

"Now, speak," Obi-Wan demanded with a steel to his voice Anakin never heard from his old teacher in the past. "Your command is scattered," Obi-Wan continued. "Why do you continue to hunt Clan Kryze?"

"The Death Watch hunts threats to Mandalore." The man spat. "The Pretender was only half our target." Everyone in the room shared looks of confusion when the man directed his hate like a laser at Anakin. "He was the other half of doom for Mandalore!"

Ahsoka watched something click in Obi-Wan's eyes at the crazed man's speech. "What is it, Master Obi-Wan?" The Togruta grimaced at her slip. Old habits really do die hard, I guess.

Obi-Wan picked the man up with The Force and pushed him against the wall. "Tell your commander if he wants to get to the duchess, he goes through me!" With a final look of cooler anger, Obi-Wan released the man who promptly ran, hopefully to report to higher Death Watch command.

Reluctantly, Obi-Wan turned to his friends. "I'm afraid time is running out for me to safely show you what you must see, Anakin." The former Jedi master began walking and opened a secret passage in the wall of the hall. "Follow me."

Together, the four moved down as the stairs continued to lead further into the past. The walls changed from polished marble and fell away into a wall of carved stone. As the light continued to fade, Anakin ignited his blade to give light and cast the walls in a color reminiscent of dried Human blood. For a moment, Obi-Wan jumped and turned to strike at the light as flashes of duels with Maul and to a lesser extent Savage came back to the man.

"Master…"

Anakin's voice brought Obi-Wan back even as the blade of his saber bounced harmlessly off of Anakin's scales. "Anakin, forgive me." The man said in a slightly frightened tone. "I thought you were Maul for a moment. I'm so sorry!"

Anakin lifted his arm into the light of his blade, whole and without a scratch. "I'm unhurt, my old teacher." He said gently with a nod. "Shall we continue?"

Obi-Wan nodded even as a sinking feeling led him to look at the guards decked in Beskar'gam and back at Anakin's scales as they glittered and shown dimly in the light of Anakin's saber. "Anakin, how do your people treat their dead?"

The Darith hybrid looked at his friend and sighed. "I honestly don't know, Obi-Wan." Anakin said honestly. For a few moments, Anakin remained quiet. Obi-Wan had a fleeting idea Anakin talked with someone as strange as that would be. Then, the dragon spoke. "Karadim Kris'l?" The phrase felt alien and familiar on the hybrid's tongue to Obi-Wan's ears. "The essences of Bonded who die are given eternal physical form in what Ro-K…er…Jedi call Kyber Crystals."

For a moment, Obi-Wan shivered, Jedi are grave robbers?! The man tried not to think about the Sith practice of bleeding Kyber Crystals with their new context.

"Burn the Ro-Narta in the Beyond for their barbarism!"

Obi-Wan felt Satine hold him a little tighter. Then, she whispered, "Is he always this bloodthirsty?"

"You don't know what that means for Anakin's people," Ahsoka cut in. "Imagine if someone stripped the Mando'ade dead of their Beskar'gam and reforged the Beskar into shells for mindless battle droids."

Satine gasped and looked around at the other three, her eyes falling on Anakin for a moment longer that the others. "That's horrible!"

Obi-Wan nodded, unseen in the darkened hall. She may be a pacifist, but she still respects what each suit of Beskar'gam means to families of Mandalore.

Suddenly, the hall ended at a large door with strange metal for its hinges and bands which held the remarkably preserved door in place. The door had no decoration besides a simple black with green core flame sigil.

Satine froze at the sight of the mark and bowed briefly before she whispered in hushed tones, "Mandalore the Compassionate!"

Obi-Wan raised a brow at the title as the group slowly entered to what seemed to be a massive room. "I'm afraid I haven't heard of this one."

Satine nodded, "I doubt you would, Obi," Satine touched the wall almost reverently. "This part of our history Mandalorians tried to stamp out long ago."

She turned to Anakin. "Hanging lights and torches line the walls and ceiling." She smiled at him in a way that made Anakin nervous. "If you would be so kind?"

Anakin nodded and carefully lit the various fixtures around the room.

With light now cast on the wall, Anakin stared in disbelief at the image: a female Darith in full form looked around the still. Her eyes, green as a Dahgee crystal, seemed to gleam and stare into the souls of anyone looking the mural. The dragon had a rider as well. Her Beskar'gam boasted of royal blue secondary and white primary color with a strange script scrawled on the left breast in what looked to be her dragon's own claw.

Unconsciously, Anakin blushed when his mind translated the Draconian script. I'm not sayin that out loud. After a moment to regain composure, Anakin smiled, "Everyone, say hello to Lecona Zarda as Dragons know her. Translated, the name means The Impossible Warrior."

Ahsoka noticed the woman held a sword high, its tang and guard linked to the hilt and blade with a green stone the size of her thumb. "I've only read of metal blades," the woman said wonderingly. The stone is the Darith's Karadim Kris'l. Ahsoka stopped, That means…

Before Ahsoka could finish the thought, soldiers erupted from all sides. Ahsoka could feel a rage building in her chest as the soldiers continued to cut everyone off from escape. Honor, duty, history, and peace… The ancient creed of her people flew in Ahsoka's mind, gathering strength until it grew into a mighty roar. With a glare that could cut durasteel like butter, Ahsoka attacked.

For a moment, Obi-Wan and Anakin were too stunned to join the fray. When they did, Satine looked at Mandalore the Compassionate for a final conformation and nodded before she rolled out of Obi-Wan's reach and quickly searched the wall until she found a hidden compartment. With trembling hands, Satine opened the case and lifted the ancient blade from its velvet lining. Gripped by the hilt in the Duchess' hands, the gem in the guard glowed.

Are you ready for this, Princess? An abrasive but distinctly feminine voice spoke in the woman's mind.

"FOR MANDALORE!"

Please Read and Review.