Dealing with the Laundry:
Ketsu's eyes were glued to the man who had sired her as she approached his table with a grim determination and a sense of ingrained fear that had her heart thumping up towards her throat and a cold sweat breaking out on her skin.
But she wasn't going to give in to the instinct that was screaming at her to stop this insanity and turn tail and run before her father spotted her. For the first time in her life, Ketsu was going to stand up to her sire and leave him with her pride intact… no matter what it cost her.
She was no more than ten metres away from the table full of her relatives and clan members when Count Kean Onyo glanced up from his conversation with her oldest brother, Kendo, and did a double take. The purple eyes she'd inherited from him widened in surprise and then narrowed into fierce slits as a look of pure rage crossed a face that was still handsome despite starting to show his five-plus decades of hard living.
She hadn't seen him since he'd beaten her nearly senseless and kicked her out of their stronghold so many years ago for her part in the destruction of the Academy when she and Sabine had blown up the Duchess the first time, declaring her dar'manda and disowned from his bloodline. Her stubborn pride had made her keep the family name anyway, just to spite him. He hadn't changed much as far as she could tell; only adding a bit more grey to his shortly cropped black hair. He was still just as massive across the chest and shoulders, emphasized by his silver and purple armour. Still possessed of a temper to rival a wounded rancor's.
And still willing to kill her for showing her face in his presence if the quickly palmed blaster was any indication as he rose to his feet in a surge.
"Ketsu," he growled, finger already starting to squeeze the trigger as she took the last few steps between them. Only her brother's quick move saved her from being shot, swatting his hand to the side and making the laser bolt miss by a comfortable margin.
The sound of a blaster going off was enough to silence the crowd and all eyes turned to the drama unfolding.
Kendo's gaze flew between her and their father before resting on their sire as he grabbed Kean's hand and pushed it and the blaster down to the table. "What the shab are you doing?!"
Kean's narrowed eyes glanced at his son beside him who was every bit as big as himself and growled. "Stay out of this. I told her what would happen if she ever stepped foot on Mandalore again. It's her own fault if she wants to die by my hand."
Kendo's fist clenched as the other hand continued to hold their father's blaster hand down. "By shooting her point blank?"
Kean only growled louder and yanked his hand out from under Kendo's and sliding off the bench at the same time.
During this, Ketsu had palmed her own blaster and had it aimed at her father's unprotected forehead as she took the last step that separated them. "Father," she growled as they glared at each other with identical eyes from vastly different heights, trigger fingers both twitching.
The entire table of Onyos rose to their feet as well, but only the few men loyal to her father and not actually related by blood turned their blasters on her. The rest - her brothers and cousins - watched grimly but refused to take sides; Ketsu used to be their beloved little sister in a clan that consisted heavily of testosterone and that hadn't changed despite their leaders' point of view.
From behind her, Jett appeared, coming to a stop at her side with his own blaster raised and a snarl on his face as he stood fearlessly in front of the man who still outweighed him by a few kilos but nowhere near as much as when he'd been a teenager. Her chest filled with emotion at his support and her fear drained away as the situation became something that just… was.
She'd either die in the next few minutes or she wouldn't.
And then Sabine appeared at her other side in all her colourful glory, both of her blasters raised with one trained on her father and the other pointing in the general direction of the rest of the Onyos with raised blasters. Ketsu shot her a fleeting glance of thanks but then instantly returned her focus to the most dangerous person here.
"Ketsu!" he practically yelled at her. "I told you if I ever saw you again, you would regret it! How dare you show your dar'manda self on Mandalore, of all places! Have you no respect for your clan left at all? No sense of pride to part ways with a troublemaker such as this one?" His gaze flicked to Sabine with snarl and then to Jett, only to return to her cyar'ika with a slight widening of his eyes. "And you! I recognize you! Not only are you my disgraced daughter's boyfriend but you're also that turncoat Imperial Commando, aren't you? It's clear that your good sense is in question and you should also be put down along with these two worthless females."
"My sense is just fine," Jett snarled back, leaning a bit closer to Kean and refusing to be intimidated, making Ketsu love him a little more. "It's you who needs their head examined."
Seemingly from out of nowhere, the blind Jedi, Kanan Jarrus, insinuated himself in front of the girls and used his bigger body as a shield from the blaster pointed at Ketsu. "What's going on here?"
Ketsu, not pleased with the view of Jarrus' auburn ponytail, took a half step to the side and into Jett's space, who obligingly shifted a half fraction so she could see her pissed-off father again, their shoulders pressing together deliberately in a show of support. "You're blocking my aim, Jarrus," she said exasperatedly, switching to Basic for clarity's sake, not sure how much Mando'a the Jedi had actually picked up from Sabine over the years.
"Don't interfere in Mando business, Jedi," Kean added, shoving his blaster into Jarrus' chest, only blinking a few times as he took in the scars across the Jedi's clouded teal eyes and registering that the man probably couldn't see who he was confronting.
Jarrus only waved a hand behind himself to subtly tell her to 'chill', and to her father, he grabbed the barrel of the blaster and casually ripped it from the other man's grip as if it wasn't being held by a two-hundred pound warrior. He then tossed it off to the side to land unerringly in one of the large buckets full of ice and beer bottles. Jarrus then crossed his arms over his chest and smirked at her father as the larger man cursed a blue streak and looked ready to strangle the Jedi with his bare hands. Ketsu couldn't help admiring Jarrus' sheer balls in the face of such clear rage which he had to feel, even if he couldn't see it. "I think it's clear that I'm making this my business," Jarrus said as calmly as if everyone were having tea instead of in a stand-off. "So I'm asking again; what's going on here?"
The watching crowd of hundreds held their breath as everyone waited to see what would happen next.
Her father answered before Ketsu could.
"That traitorous little cunt that you're protecting – probably because she's servicing you and everyone else just like her whore of a mother..." Ketsu and her brothers gasped in outrage at an accusation they knew to be untrue simply because they all looked exactly like their father and also knew that their mother had actually loved her husband, despite his temper. "...dared to come back even though I told her she wouldn't survive to see another day if she did. Now get out of my way," he growled as he pulled a vibroblade from under a vambrace and bared it menacingly.
Jarrus was still unconcerned. With a lightning fast move that was almost invisible, he knocked the knife out of her father's hand and had somehow bent the larger man's fingers backwards until they snapped with audible cracks in the silence, making Kean howl. Jarrus then used the damaged hand to force her father down to his knees. He glared down at the panting warrior. "I don't like your words, Mando. Keep your tone civil to Ketsu - who is my friend only, just for your information - or you will not like the consequences."
"She doesn't deserve civility," her father spat, sweat beading on his brow from pain as Jarrus applied more pressure to his hand. "She dishonoured my clan."
"Only in your opinion!" Ketsu spat back. "In mine, I was protecting Mandalore from the Imps who were taking us over!"
Jarrus raised a brow at that, his scarred and clouded eyes somehow expressing his distaste for the man on his knees before him. "That's what I thought. If Sabine can be forgiven for something that wasn't actually an offence to your people but to the ones who were controlling you, than why not Ketsu? She has earned my respect and the respect of hundreds of other Rebels. Your hurt feelings for something she did for the good of her people just proves you to be the less honourable one."
"I agree," her brother said, glaring at their father. "Ketsu should be forgiven."
She shot Kendo a grateful look and he flashed her a fleeting look in return that expressed his regret for what was happening.
Their father snarled more, looking almost like a rabid mooka, refusing to back down despite his prone position that he would be out of in an instant if Jarrus let his broken hand go. "You know nothing, Jedi scum. I can treat my dishonoured daughter however I wish. And Kendo… stay out of this."
"Not going to happen," Kendo muttered.
Ketsu had had enough of being belittled by this man who'd kept her meek and powerless until she was fifteen. I'm a badass now and he has no power over me anymore. He did disown me, after all. She squared her shoulders and stuck her chin out, then stepped up beside Jarrus to glare with eyes that spit purple fire down at the man she had the misfortune to be raised by. "I am not your daughter! You said so yourself when you beat the crap out of me when I tried to come home all those years ago. If I'm disowned from you, then you're disowned from me. I spit on your rule and I refuse to call myself an Onyo anymore. There is NO honour left in that name!"
The crowd gasped at the worst insult you could give a clan leader.
Kean inhaled in fury. "How dare you, you shabla bitch!" he snarled as he wrenched his hand away from Jarrus and surged to his feet. His good arm swung back to strike at Ketsu, intending to punch her in the jaw for her insolence.
Jarrus froze his arm in place with the Force at the same time that Kendo moved to stop their father, only to realize that he didn't have to and gawked at Jarrus instead.
Her father's burning purple eyes narrowed in rage at the Jedi, muscles straining against the invisible hold.
"No!" Ketsu said to the Jedi. "I'm not a little girl anymore. If my so-called father wants to throw a punch at me, let him. I can take care of myself now."
Jarrus looked at her assessingly, his hand still up as he casually held her father still with his freaky Jedi powers. She met his cloudy eyes that she could swear actually saw her with all the beskar-like determination she could muster. He nodded once after 'reading' her aura or whatever he did for a few seconds. "As you wish." And then he dropped his hand back down to his side and stepped back.
Suddenly released from the hold, Kean's muscles betrayed him by throwing a sloppy punch that spun him on his feet. He hissed and reoriented himself, focusing on the Jedi who had embarrassed him in front of so many. Another vibroblade was released from the depths of the vambrace on his left hand and he swung at Jarrus again, growling with rage.
But Jarrus was magically no longer standing in that spot. Kean spun around and found the Jedi standing behind him with his arms once again crossed over his chest and a smirk on his lips.
"How did you...?" her father started to say.
It was a good question, because Ketsu hadn't seen Hera's gifted mate move either, except for maybe a greenish blur.
"I don't let hate and rage cloud my vision," Kanan cut him off with a no-nonsense tone. "You could take some lessons from the Jedi, Count Onyo. Your temper is your downfall. What has it gained you but the loss of a talented and worthy daughter? Annnnd, the loss of the respect of your peers if what I'm feeling from the crowd is anything to go by. I bet none of these people knew that you beat your daughter when she was only fifteen years old and then turned her away from your home."
"That's not the only time he beat me by a long shot," Ketsu said with years' worth of pain in her tone. "He beat my mother too. I remember that from when I was little." She stepped up to her father again and looked up at him accusingly as she pressed her blaster to his neck. "You told us she died in a speeder accident, but that was a lie, wasn't it?"
Kean opened his mouth to defend himself, but all of the accusing stares around him froze his voice in his throat.
"Is that true, Father?" Kendo said, crowding in to the group as a hand rested on his blaster in readiness. He was followed by their remaining brothers, Kent and Kewan, both looking devastated. "Did you kill our mother?"
The accused man opened his mouth a few more times as he looked around at all the accusing faces with a cornered and panicking expression. "It was an accident!" Kean finally managed to spew out. "We were sparring! Everyone knows the women have to train harder to make it as a warrior against stronger men!"
"That may be true," Sabine said, stepping into the conversation and parking herself beside Ketsu again. The younger Jedi that worshiped the ground upon which her friend trod was beside her, loathing in Ezra's sapphire eyes and a hand clenched around his lightsabre hilt, much to Ketsu's approval. "My mother was a firm believer of that very same philosophy and I trained my shebs off to make up for my small size. But there has to be a line somewhere between sparring and beating and you more than crossed it. Ketsu came back to the Academy after every holiday covered in bruises and once even with a broken arm. You can call it sparring till you turn blue, Onyo, but as the bigger person you should have known better. As a husband and father, you are a failure."
"How dare you call me that, you little whore?!" Kean all but shouted as steam almost literally erupted from his ears, completely ignoring Ketsu's blaster against his neck as he leaned towards her friend. "Selling yourself to the enemy and sleeping with a Jedi! Everyone knows your mother disowned you at the same time I disowned Ketsu. You shouldn't even be allowed to step foot on this planet! Your mother was weak when she took you back. She deserved what she got when her daughter's own weapon killed her!"
Sabine visibly flinched at the insults that could also be taken as the truth if you twisted them a different way. Her blasters levelled with her father's sneering face and Ezra's lightsabre lit up with a menacing hiss and was only restrained by Jarrus' hand on the teenager's arm. "Take that back, Onyo. Now!" she cried.
"Never," he said, satisfaction radiating from him despite the number of weapons now pointed at him.
"That's ENOUGH, Father!" Kendo yelled, getting as close as he could to their father's face with Ketsu's arm in the way and meeting him eye to eye. "Your actions past and present have left me with no choice. You are dar'manda to me. I no longer acknowledge you as my blood kin."
Ketsu sucked in a surprised breath right along with their father. I can't believe that Kendo just did that!
"Nor do I," rang out from Kent and Kewan together. And then more and more of their clan repeated the phrase, until every member of the Onyo Clan present had all disowned their Count, father, or relative.
And then the leaders of the other clans or their representatives also added to the devastation of Kean Onyo's pride.
"You are dar'manda to me as well, Onyo!" Countess Rook yelled, immediately followed by others.
Kean looked around frantically, not seeing any friendly faces left in the crowd.
Ketsu pushed her blaster harshly into her father's neck to get his attention. "It's official now, you dishonourable excuse of bantha osik. YOU are dar'manda too. You might want to scurry off and hide before the crowd decides to drag you to Sundari and hold you for trial for the death of my mother."
"I think it's best we do that anyway," a new voice rang from behind Ketsu. Half turning, she saw people parting to make way for their new Mand'alor as the regal woman walked to the center of the crowd of Onyos. Fenn Rau followed in her wake like a faithful bodyguard, which had Ketsu's eyebrows rising in surprise.
Not because he looked like he would take on the galaxy for her, which any proper Mando would do for the Mand'alor, but because they both looked like they'd hastily thrown on just their bodysuits after a rousing round in the sac, if their mussed hair, flushed faces, and kiss-swollen mouths were anything to go by. Ketsu wasn't the only one who smirked secretly to themselves, but everyone was wise enough to keep their sniggers to themselves.
Bo-Katan Kryze stopped in front of the thoroughly panicked looking ex Count of Clan Onyo as Sabine and Ezra made space for her and Ketsu holstered her blaster out of respect. The red haired Duchess looked up at the warrior who was nearly twice her size with disappointed and hard jade green eyes that made him visibly shrink in on himself in shame. "As your Mand'alor, I too declare you dar'manda and am placing you under arrest until a proper trial can be held." He shrunk even further, suddenly looking just old and not like a threat at all.
Ketsu felt nothing but a sense of closure and relief that it was over.
Bo-Katan glanced around and spotted Jett and looked at him seriously. "Captain Hark, would you like to do the honours? As a former Imperial, you must be familiar with the prison facilities currently available in Sundari. Do you think you could find the most uninviting cell available and throw him in it?"
Jett grinned as the former Count's own clan surrounded and completely disarmed him before bodily dragging the furiously cursing man towards the gate of the camp. "I know just the place, My Lady. He won't see a glimmer of sunlight, there might be a rodent problem, and I think the heater might be broken too."
Bo-Katan returned his smile. "Excellent."
Before Jett followed her father and his captors away, he smiled adoringly at Ketsu as he touched her waist and whispered in her ear, "You were such a badass, cyar'ika. I'm proud of you."
"Thank you," she whispered back, blushing.
She squeezed his hand quickly as he finished with a promising, "I'll find you later," and left to go deal with the unpleasant man that could still be heard yelling curses at his own clan.
Meanwhile, Bo-Katan had turned her attention to Kendo, who had lingered, along with her other brothers and close cousins who couldn't stand to be anywhere near her father right now, understandably. "It would seem your clan is in need of a new Count. Is there any here who object to this man being the Count of Clan Onyo?" she said loud enough for the entire crowd of hundreds to hear.
The remaining Onyos shook their heads and the rest of the crowd remained silent.
"Good enough for me," Bo-Katan said with a smile. "Kendo Onyo, you are now Count of Clan Onyo. Take care of your family well."
Kendo beamed, daring to look at his little sister and exchange smiles, even though she was technically still dar'manda at the moment, which meant he shouldn't actually acknowledge her existence. "Thank you, Mand'alor. I will not fail you or my people."
"That's what I like to hear." Bo-Katan then turned her attention to Ketsu. "And you. From what I've heard, you have been unjustly declared dar'manda. We should fix that."
"I would like to do so, if it's agreeable with you, My Lady," Sabine said formally, then glanced at Ketsu for approval.
Ketsu, not stupid by any means, beamed back, infinitely grateful for the girl who'd forgiven her so easily and renewed their friendship as if Ketsu had never made a mistake in judgment and accidentally left Sabine to deal with too many Imps on her own.
Bo-Katan nodded once, looking every inch the ruler despite her dishevelled state. "Very well. The Wrens are in need of new members anyway. You may proceed."
"Thank you," Sabine said graciously. She then started looking around for someone, only to find who she was looking for approaching the group. Sabine smiled at her father and another member of Clan Wren wearing the distinctive gold and grey armour. "Father, Shubin, exactly who I need."
Alrich Wren gave Ketsu a warm smile as he came to a stop beside Sabine and inclined his head slightly. "It's good to see you again and looking well, Ketsu."
"You too, Alrich," she smiled back at the man who looked like anything but a traditional Mandalorian. Nearly everyone loved him anyway because of how downright nice he was.
Sabine was still all business despite the grin of success flickering across her face. "Father, Shubin, I call on you as members of my family to bear witness to the adoption of Ketsu into our clan. Do you agree?"
"I do," Alrich and Shubin said together, both totally on board with the turn of events.
Sabine looked at Ketsu, her expression suddenly very serious as she said, "Ni kar'taylir gai sa ner vod, Ketsu Wren."
The crowd of Onyos whooped despite losing a member of their own for the second time as Ketsu beamed through sudden tears and hugged Sabine. "Thank you," she breathed against the smaller girl's hair.
Sabine hugged her back. "You're welcome, sister."
Alrich wrapped an arm around his daughter's shoulders and put a hand on Ketsu's. "I am now blessed to have two such amazingly strong daughters in my life."
Sabine smiled up at the artist. "Thanks, Daddy. You're the best father, too."
"Thank you, Alrich," Ketsu said too, blinking rapidly as she attempted to not let the moisture in her eyes fall. "I've always wished I was part of your family."
Alrich squeezed her shoulder affectionately. "Well, now you are. And you can call me father, if you like. I would be proud to hear it."
"All right, Father." Ketsu said a little hesitantly, having to fight even harder to stave off the flood of emotion that suddenly swamped her.
"Hey," Kendo said, "Don't forget about us. We might not officially be your clan anymore, but you'll always be our little sister." Kent and Kewan nodded enthusiastically while agreeing with matching 'Yeps!'. (They were only a year apart in age and more like twins than normal brothers.)
"I know," Ketsu said, smiling and touching a hand to his arm. She hadn't seen her brothers for years, but it was easy to fall back into their comfortable friendship. "And I won't forget you, promise. I'll even show up every once in a while to bug you, I'm sure."
"We look forward to it," Kendo said grinning. But then his expression fell and he pulled her into a sudden hug. "I'm sorry," he whispered to the top of her head as she wrapped her arms around his waist in return. "I didn't know Father was beating you."
Ketsu shrugged in his hold, wishing he hadn't brought it up. But now that he had, she felt it necessary to ease her brother's conscience before guilt plagued him. "It's not your fault. I hid it, thinking it was my fault for not being good enough. I think Mother did the same."
Kendo shook his head and pushed her back to stare at her, his hands on her shoulders. "I still should have seen that something wasn't right."
Ketsu put her hands on his forearms just above his vambraces and squeezed gently. "Don't blame yourself, Brother. It's over. I don't want to dwell on the past anymore. I have a good clan now and I'm happy."
"I'm glad. I'm sorry you don't want to come back to Clan Onyo, but I understand. And for the record, I never agreed with Father's decision to cast you out."
"Thank you, Kendo," Ketsu said softly. "Let's keep in touch, okay?"
"Okay."
They smiled warmly at each other before Kendo and the others turned and kind of sagged back down onto the benches at their table, looking kind of overwhelmed with the turn of events. Ketsu felt for them but turned back to smile at her official new family again as joy filled her from the inside out. Sabine hugged her again with an infectious laugh which she returned. They were only a step away from bouncing up and down like little girls and Ketsu didn't care.
This is turning into the best day of my life, no question. I have Jett back, my brothers still love me, AND I have a new family. I am truly blessed.
Mando'a translations:
Ni kar'taylir gai sa ner vod. – I know your name as my sister.