If there is no path before you, create your own.
Bruck had refused to be left behind.
"If Oafy-Wan and Eerin get to go, so do I," he'd said. Then he'd folded his arms. "If you leave me back here I'm telling the Council."
Qui-Gon had glared, but Dooku had looked approving. "A little initiative does a Jedi good," he'd said. "There's room."
The Council had provided Dooku with a starship for his mission— slightly cramped, but they'd fit. It wouldn't take that long to get to Cato Neimodia. The Trade Federation made sure the hyperspace routes around their planet were safe. They wouldn't want to be robbed by their own pirates, after all.
"This might get a little sticky," Qui-Gon said, once they were in hyperspace. They were all gathered around a table in the galley, the only place where they could all fit without the risk of bumping into something important, like in the cockpit. "Three Jedi Masters and three younglings still in training— versus three darksiders." He ignored the glares he got on all sides by said younglings. "Not favorable odds."
"It's worse than that," Obi-Wan said. "The Trade Federation will have protection— droids, probably, secreted away from their factories. If Palpatine tells them to, I think they will deploy them all to protect him."
Tahl sighed, leaning her head on her propped-up hand. "Not to mention that Cato Neimodia is a big planet. We still have to find them."
"I'm sure we can sense them," Bant said. "Can't we?"
"Can't you," Bruck said, waggling his hand vaguely around his head. "See it? Look at what we're doing in the future and then we just follow that?"
"The darkness clouds the senses, including the Force," Obi-Wan said. "It's how they've gone undetected for so long."
"Young Xanatos will not be much of a threat," Dooku said derisively. "Untrained. Captured once already."
"I don't think he's going to fall for the same trick twice," Obi-Wan said, trying not to snicker. He would forever treasure the look on Xanatos' face when he registered where exactly Obi-Wan had kicked him.
Qui-Gon's mouth twitched, clearly thinking along the same lines.
Somehow it was funnier now that he knew Xanatos better— kind of like having something to tease your annoying older brother about. If your older brother was slightly evil and locked in a jail cell, that was.
"Master Sey is a renowned Knight of the Order," Tahl said. "She won't be easy. And we already know she is willing to be ruthless. She went after Obi-Wan once already. Add that to droids, which can be tricky to fight at the best of times… we'd better have a plan."
"Oh," Obi-Wan said, with a thoughtful smile. "I know who we can call for backup. Worth six Jedi, all on his own. Let me make a call." He paused. "Do you think the Council will pay for a bounty hunter?"
The call to Jango Fett connected quickly, as it usually did. Obi-Wan squashed himself into one of the very small bunkrooms to make the call.
When he answered, Jango sounded faintly surprised. "I was just about to contact you," he said.
"Yes, well, updates will have to wait," Obi-Wan said. "I have another job for you, if you're willing to take it."
"Willing?" Jango asked, apparently intrigued. "Not able?"
"I'd understand it if you didn't want to take the job," Obi-Wan said. "Tell me— how much do you think it would cost for you to be willing to work with the Jedi?"
There was a brief pause. "I kriffing knew there was something wrong with you," he said. "Polite kid, speaks Mando'a, pays promptly…"
Obi-Wan smiled. "So are you in?"
The Battle of Galidraan hadn't happened yet. That meant that while the True Mandalorians had an instinctive, almost genetic dislike of the Jedi, they didn't have any newer or more visceral reasons to hate them.
"Maybe," Jango said. "Give me the details."
It was not too difficult to land on an unoccupied portion of Cato Neimoidia. It was mainly misty grassland outside of the cities, easy enough to slip into undetected, especially in a ship full of Jedi.
They disembarked, Obi-Wan at least enjoying the fresh air after a time in hyperspace. He still didn't like to fly.
Cato Neimodia was a wretched hive of scum and villainy, if it hid it better than Tatooine. It was where all the affluent Neimodians lived, the ones working for the Trade Federation and the Banking Clan. The Neimodians were not a bad species, but it was difficult to see— almost all of their members that were allowed out into the galaxy were the greediest, most profit-seeking among them.
Most of the world was built on top of wide stretches of natural stone platforms above the sea, sometimes so wide you couldn't see the other end. This one was small enough that it hadn't been colonized but more than big enough for Dooku's ship, the Lustre, and Slave I, which was already there and cooling.
"How do you know of this bounty hunter?" Dooku asked.
"He could be very important to the galaxy," Obi-Wan said, deflecting of course. "We can trust him— he won't break a contract." Especially not at three times his usual rate, which was what he had agreed to in the end. But Obi-Wan would probably be leaving that one out.
"I've never been to this planet," Qui-Gon said, "But I'm given to understand that they won't exactly welcome us with open arms. It may take us a while to find Master Sey, Xanatos, and Senator Palpatine."
That didn't sit very well with Obi-Wan. The longer the Sith had to themselves, the more chance to prepare that they would have— and the Sith always seemed to be just a little more prepared than the Jedi, a little bit faster and a little bit smarter.
He frowned. He didn't think they would be able to sense out the darksiders' location, not with how skilled Palpatine was at hiding his aura. Maybe if they all linked up to meditate, but even that…
As they approached Jango's ship, the hatch opened and the man himself came out. He was wearing full armor and jetpack and cape, of course, all polished to a shine. Obi-Wan rolled his eyes.
"Stay back, younglings," Qui-Gon said, and ignored Obi-Wan's offended look. The three adults walled the younglings behind them regardless, not hostile but at attention.
"Jettise," Jango greeted.
"Greetings, Master Fett," Dooku said.
Jango was wearing his helmet, but Obi-Wan could sense the face he was making under it. "Just Fett," he said.
"We appreciate your aid in this mission," Qui-Gon said.
"So long as I'm getting paid," Jango said, and tilted his head. "None of you are the one who hired me, though. Where's the verd'ika?"
Obi-Wan poked his head out. "Su'cuy," he said cheerfully.
"By stars, kid," Jango said. "You are little."
Bruck snickered.
Reluctantly, the Masters moved aside a little. Qui-Gon introduced them all one by one. When Jango saw the three children, he visibly softened. "I'm here," he said. "Ready for a fight."
"That's only the second step," Tahl said. "First we need to search out our quarry. I was hoping you might be of some help, actually— they say these bounty hunting ships have very modified scanners?"
"Still a big planet," Jango said thoughtfully, putting a hand to the bottom of his helmet, where his chin would have been. "Could take a while. But—"
Obi-Wan's comm went off.
"Sorry," he said, but he answered it. You never knew who was calling or what kind of trouble they'd inevitably gotten themselves in— or maybe that was just a bad habit from spending years fielding calls from Anakin in the strangest situations. It was a pending request for a hologram call, so Obi-Wan opened it and held his hand away from his body.
Somehow, he both was and wasn't surprised at the face smirking at him through the projection.
"Xanatos," he said.
"Kid," Xanatos said. "Are you looking for me?"
"What do you think?" Obi-Wan asked dryly.
"Oh, good," Xanatos said. That was not the answer Obi-Wan had expected. He raised an eyebrow. "This lady is crazy."
Qui-Gon elbowed his way into the field of the hologram and gave Xanatos a very exasperated look. "Xanatos du Crion," he said. "Explain."
"Excuse me, we're having a private conversation," Xanatos said, and turned to Obi-Wan. "I'm trapped in jail, a lady breaks through the wall and offers to spring me. Obviously I'm not going to say no to that. She says she hates the Jedi too. I can get with that cause. I go with her."
"Naturally," Obi-Wan said.
"We get here, and she's suddenly kneeling in front of some old guy. And they're talking crazy stuff." Xanatos raised an eyebrow. "Crazy. Like, not only are we going to destroy the Jedi, but also the Republic, and all the cute little kids, and raze the fields and boil the oceans and chizzik like that. I didn't exactly sign up for a new system of governance— I just wanted to eat grapes in a big chair while my subjects showered me with riches."
Obi-Wan laughed, helplessly, into his hand. Nearby, Jango Fett was watching with the air of a man on the outskirts of some kind of very interesting speeder crash.
"So…" Obi-Wan said. "Are you coming back to the Jedi?"
Xanatos scoffed. "No way. I'm never going back to those fuddy-duddies. But I'll send you the coordinates of this super-secret castle thing we're in. The Jedi can storm this place— yes, that means you too, Jinn— and I can get out of here without having to deal with all the red lightsabers."
The comm chirped with his incoming message. It was, indeed, on this planet. Just a little ways away, in fact.
"You can't take care of them on your own?" Qui-Gon asked.
"I could," Xanatos said. "If I wanted to."
"No, you couldn't," Obi-Wan said. "Don't try."
"Well, anyway, it's like this has been planned for a long time— maybe a backup plan or something," Xanatos said. "The old guy, Palpatine, seems really, really pissed. He has the Neimodians on his side. They're scared of him."
"He's expecting us?" Qui-Gon asked.
"He's expecting resistance. I don't know how much," Xanatos said. "They're leaving me out of some of their meetings. I think it's kind of a Sith-only club."
Now they were really on the right track. Obi-Wan was surprised that Xanatos had decided to help them in the end. But at the same time he wasn't, really. You could come back from the Dark. Anakin had shown that, at the end.
Obi-Wan smiled. "I'm proud of you, Xanatos," he said.
"Ugh!" Xanatos said. "Force, there's no need to be cruel about it."
They sent Dooku, Tahl, and, once he complained enough, Bruck to scout out the palace that Xanatos directed them to. Obi-Wan had been to Cato Neimodia, so he knew the standard layout of their fortifications, and he had fought almost as many damned Trade Federation-enabled battles as Seperatist ones. He wasn't too worried about their forces.
Obi-Wan meditated quietly next to Qui-Gon, his legs folded under him as he hovered slightly. He was also keeping half an eye on Jango and Bant, which is how he knew that he was completely freaking Jango out.
Bant was looking at Jango's beskar'gam with open curiosity. "I've never met a Mandalorian before," she said. "Are Mandalorians allowed to take off their helmets?"
"Not all of us," Jango said. "It depends on the sect." But still he reached up and broke the seal on his helmet, looking down at Bant and clearly trying to stay gruff. She beamed at him and he smiled back before he caught himself.
"So if it's religious sometimes, is your helmet sacred to you?" Bant asked.
"So much as the rest of my armor is," Jango said. "It protects me. We thank the beskar'gam for that, but we don't worship it if that's what you mean."
"That's interesting!" Bant said.
"I guess," Jango said, clearly flattered. "Here." He handed her his helmet. Pleased, she put it on immediately, the instinct of any child presented with a helmet. It wouldn't have fit if she had been an adult Mon Cala, but as it was it went over her head, a little too big.
"Wow!" Bant said, modulated.
Obi-Wan, content that at least for now things were clear from that corner, let himself sink a little deeper into meditation. He felt out for the shapes of the Force. Qui-Gon, safe. Bant, safe. Tahl, Bruck, Dooku, safe. There was no widespread terror or pain, not like there would have been on a planet already war-torn.
But there was a great deal of nervousness, from the direction Palpatine was purported to be in. Cato Neimodians, unnerved by their own guests. Palpatine was still very good at shielding, but Obi-Wan could catch a faint whiff of the Dark on the wind.
They were in the right place. The Force ruffled gently through Obi-Wan's hair.
Another presence. Bright. Hot. Warm.
Obi-Wan opened his eyes and dropped deftly back down to the ground.
"Who do you have onboard Slave I?" he asked.
"What?" Jango asked. "How did you know—? And how did you know the name of my ship?"
"He does that," Qui-Gon said, without opening his eyes.
"He does," Bant agreed.
"Right," Jango said. "I actually wanted to talk to you anyway, kid. Come here."
That one actually got Qui-Gon to open his eyes and glare at him suspiciously.
"I'll be fine, Master," Obi-Wan said. "Don't worry about me."
"I always worry about you," Qui-Gon said, in the same kind of voice Obi-Wan used to use on Anakin, meaning, I worry what you're going to do next.
Obi-Wan grinned at him sideways and followed Jango up the ramp into the ship.
"Well, I can't say you don't make it interesting," Jango said once they were inside, tossing his helmet onto a table. "You can see the future, can't you? That's why you didn't know much about the woman— your vision or whatever wasn't clear."
"You catch on quickly," Obi-Wan said. "Wait a moment. The woman—?"
"I told you I was about to call you," Jango said, then called out, "Miss Skywalker?"
There was a pause, then a woman emerged from the depths of the ship, wiping off her hands. She had been working on something mechanical, clearly, an echo of her son. Obi-Wan had only seen one picture of her, the only one Anakin had, the two of them standing together outside their home. She looked different now but recognizably the same woman, just softer.
"This is Obi-Wan Kenobi," Jango said. "Know him?"
Shmi's dark eyes searched him. "No, Mas— Mister Fett."
"It's nice to meet you, Lady Skywalker," Obi-Wan said.
"Found her just before you called me— I mean just," Jango said. "She was on a spice freighter, bound for Nal Hutta. We managed to get out. I didn't have time to take her anywhere else before we met up here."
"You're the one who hired the bounty hunter to find me," Shmi said thoughtfully.
"Indeed," Obi-Wan said. "I trust he's treated you well?"
"He took out my slave chip," Shmi said. That had been in Obi-Wan's original instructions, if Jango were to find her. After that he was supposed to take her wherever she wanted to go, all expenses paid. "Who are you?"
"A sorcerer," Jango snorted. "I'll leave you two to talk— if that's all right with you, Miss Skywalker."
Shmi eyed Obi-Wan again. Jango had found her clothes by the looks of things, vaguely Mandalorian and functional. There was a knife strapped to her thigh, and a holdout blaster somewhere if Obi-Wan knew the Mandalorian way of doing things. She looked healthy. Almost happy.
"Sure," she said. "Thank you."
Jango saluted, and ducked further into the depths of his ship, out of sight.
"You're a Jedi," Shmi said, taking in his robes and the lightsaber on his belt. "You're a child."
"That's me," Obi-Wan said, slightly sheepishly.
"I don't know you," Shmi said. "But yet something in my heart tells me I can trust you." Obi-Wan didn't say anything."Why did you do it?" she asked. She didn't look upset, just searching.
Obi-Wan considered this. "You have a destiny," he said.
Shmi folded her arms. She was good at hiding her emotions, even in the Force, in the instinctual way that slaves hid their presences. But Obi-Wan was pretty sure she was irritated. "You wanted me in place for whatever this destiny of yours is," she said. "That's why you made sure I was freed."
"Oh," Obi-Wan said. "No. I think your future will find you wherever you go, Shmi." He looked away. "It just seemed cruel to leave you to suffer while you waited for it."
Shmi looked a little taken-aback. "Kindness," she said, like tasting the word on her lips. "You went through all this effort to free me because… you're kind?"
"Not always," Obi-Wan said. "But I try to be."
Jango announced his presence with footsteps before he actually came in. "The other Jetii are back," he said.
Obi-Wan bowed to Shmi. "My lady. May the Force be with you."
"May the Force be with you," she echoed.
Obi-Wan went back outside.
The others had returned from scouting without incident. Dooku had made a scan of the building at Xanatos' coordinates. It was a typical Neimodian building, more of a palace than anything— big, sprawling, and well-defended.
It was protected by legions of droids.
The Jedi and Jango gathered around the holoprojection, strategizing. It would have been easier to infiltrate with more troops, but it was certainly less than impossible. The fortress was built into one of the stone arches so that it was protected on most sides.
"Well, kark, that's a lot of droids," Qui-Gon said.
Obi-Wan put a hand on his chin. "They'll put sniper droids here and here," he said, pointing out the two ridges flanking the castle. "Droidekas on the bottom, with some battle droids. No human opponents— Neimodians are not the type to keep troops."
It was easy enough to guess tactics, especially in a galaxy not at war— it had been a long time since anyone had done warfare at the same scale as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Jango was clearly impressed. "A commando who can see battles before they happen…" he said. "Hey, kid, how committed to the Jedi are you?"
Obi-Wan grinned. "I'm not looking for a job. And my foresight is not infallible."
"There's a smaller entrance here," Dooku said, zooming in on the map. If Obi-Wan was good at tactical planning, Dooku was a genius. It was a lot easier to appreciate that when they were on the same side. "So we could avoid the main one."
"They'll still see us coming," Tahl pointed out. "And it won't take long for their troops to reconfigure towards that location."
"We could distract 'em," Bruck said. "Right?"
"A good series of explosions could do that," Obi-Wan said. "But we'd probably have to split up."
"I don't know about you, but I don't carry around any number of explosive devices on a regular day, much less enough to hold back an army of droids," Qui-Gon said.
"Excuse me, Master, but you are travelling around with a Mandalorian," Bant said.
Jango smirked.
Chapter header from TCW - 7X05 Gone Without A Trace
Mando'a translations:
Jetii/Jetiise - Jedi
Verd'ika - little soldier, little warrior, commander
Su'cuy - hi
Beskar'gam - armor
