Chapter 30 – Trapped on Carlac

Author's Note: In which... Theseus (unwillingly) spends time with his family, who are also terrorists, by the way. :)

To the Guest who reviewed: I'm glad you didn't see that plot twist! And it certainly is possible that Theseus is related to Canderous Ordo. :P

~ Amina Gila

The speeder finally screeches to a stop by their waiting ship, and Ahsoka jumps off, with Lux, Artoo, and BD getting out a little more slowly. They can't leave Theseus behind like this. She needs to go back for him. But she can't get Lux killed in the process.

The sky is clear for the moment after she fought off the last of the warriors cashing them, but she knows it isn't going to stay that way for long. They aren't going to let them leave so easily. And now, all the droids that Artoo had programmed are destroyed, and she'd be facing down an entire army of terrorists, all of whom are likely very skilled with how to deal with Jedi.

Theseus probably won't even be able to help her at first since she's sure he's been restrained. She needs to go back, but taking a moment to think about it realistically, she's not sure how she'll be able to do this alone. The two droids won't be much help in a situation like this, unless she can think of something clever, and she doesn't have any ideas right now.

The best she can do right now is get Lux off of Carlac, and then go back to the Temple and ask for help. She knows Anakin will come with her to try and find Theseus, and maybe some others will be able to come as well. But she's going to have to move fast, because they could take Theseus elsewhere in the meantime, or they could change their minds and hurt him after all.

"Come on, Artoo, BD, it's time to go," Ahsoka says.

Both droids beep in protest.

"We have to come back for him. There's nothing we can do now. We need to hurry," she adds in warning.

With a final unhappy beep, Artoo rolls up onto the ship. BD continues to sit stubbornly in the snow, refusing to move.

Just then, a sudden flash of light in the sky catches her attention. Looking up, she sees the armored figures of Death Watch streaking towards them again. No. They have to go. Now.

"Come on!" she yells over her shoulder, spinning and racing onto the ship without waiting to see if the droid will follow. If it has any sense of self-preservation, it will.

She fires up the engines, closing the ramp and barely getting the external shields activated before an explosion shakes the whole thing. Most of it is deflected off the shields, but if they weren't up, the ship would probably be in smoking ruins right now. Still, there's only so much of this they'll be able to take, which is exactly why she has to leave now.

Trying to suppress her fear over her best friend's fate, she takes off the ground, speeding upwards towards the atmosphere. Several more blasts strike the ship as she goes, the strength of ship's external shield starting to drop, but finally, she reaches high enough, so they stop pursuing her.

She's setting course for Coruscant when Artoo suddenly beeps next to her. One of the escape pods is being activated?

"Lux!" she exclaims, jumping from her seat and hurrying out of the cockpit. She knew he wasn't up here but... What is he trying to do now? The day keeps getting worse, doesn't it?

**w**

What?! Theseus stares back at Vizsla, his mind still reeling from the words. Suddenly all those questions and doubts he had from his first time on Mandalore are racing to the surface again. The mysterious member of Death Watch who looks so much like his mother and is around the same age as him. The fact that his father was Mandalorian, and that his mother will never talk about him. The Force should be telling him that Vizsla is lying, but it's not. But – but –

"You're lying," he snaps finally.

No, this is impossible. It can't be true. He has to be lying. Why else would he spare you? His traitorous mind has to go and whisper. You know how much he hates the Jedi.

No, no, it could be for any other reason; not this. There's no way in the world his father is the leaders of a terrorist organization. The very same person who ordered an entire village burned to the ground only an hour ago. Just no.

"Your mother is Athea Shan, isn't she?" Vizsla asks, "Or did she not even tell you that?"

"What does it matter?" Theseus spits back. "You're no relative of mine." It hurts to say, and he doesn't know why, because it's true. "Not all family is by blood. Mine is the Order." Even as he says it, a deep running, long since buried part of his mind cries out in protest, the part that – that longs for a real family. For someone he can freely call his father. Obi-Wan has very much taken that role but it's not... it's not the same. Even Athea, while she's his mother, it's not... There are so many lies, it makes their relationship hard.

"She took you without my consent," he snaps. The words are more jarring than Theseus cares to admit. From what he knows, parents always have to give their consent before their child can be taken to be a Jedi. It would make sense if his mother had known Vizsla was part of Death Watch, but... he's confused. He needs time to think, to sort this out, and it doesn't help that part of his mind is whispering there shouldn't even be anything to sort out. He does his best to ignore that insistence because he knows that's not the case.

"I can't say I have a problem with that," Theseus replies lightly instead. It's best if he keeps talking. He doesn't have the time or presence of mind right now to sort this out. "I'd rather try to help the galaxy than fixate on vengeance and imagined superiority."

"Death Watch is not weak, like the rest of the galaxy."

"As I said, imagined superiority." He rolls his eyes. "They are as living as you, and you know it. Maybe a little more."

"So the Jedi have brainwashed you into believing. Your place is here. Your birth name is Marr Vizsla."

He even had a Mandalorian name? It's too much to process, so instead Theseus shoots back the first thing that comes to mind. "I hope you don't expect me to start calling you "Dad" anytime soon."

"That would be unreasonable." The older man moves to stand in front of him. "I took years to accept that your mother was a Jedi, but the moment I did, I knew I would find you. You are not my enemy. You're my son."

It's crazy is what it is, but Theseus knows he feels what he's saying. He isn't lying. "It doesn't matter." He tries to sound firm, but his voice comes out strangely quiet, because... it does. Ever since he Fell, he's felt strangely unwanted among the Jedi. Here is someone who... wants him, even though they should be enemies of the worst kind. It ought to be easy. Theseus ought to accept it doesn't matter and be done with it, but he can't do it. "Maybe you should have thought about that before trying to kill my best friend."

"She was a Jedi. They are our enemies."

Theseus opens his mouth to argue but is cut off as a very familiar beeping fills the air and BD rolls into the tent. What? What in the world is he doing here? Didn't Ahsoka leave?!

Everyone immediately turns their blasters on the droid. "Hey!" Theseus protests, jumping up. "Leave my droid alone."

"That thing again?" the Mandalorian he was speaking to the previous night asks.

"What are you doing here?" he demands, looking down at it.

It beeps furiously.

Yeah, he'd love if the droid could contact the Jedi or Republic, but – "No, I don't think that's a good idea right now." He'd love to, but Ahsoka knows where he is, and he can't risk the Death Watch intercepting an attempted transmission and destroying the droid for it. No, he can help later, somehow.

The droid beeps unhappily. He doesn't like the idea of Theseus staying here, even temporarily, though it's not as though he has a choice. He can't very well escape right now. It'll take much more planning and consideration because he has no intention of giving up.

"Put a restraining bolt on it," Vizsla orders. So much for that.

"Of course," the other girl who had captured him replies, stepping forwards.

BD steps backwards, beeping angrily.

"Let her do it. I'll find you later," Theseus orders hastily. He will be able to, right? After all, it would do no good if his droid was destroyed. It... was a gift from Vraz, and Theseus has no intention of losing that.

The girl picks it up and exits the tent. For some reason, Theseus gets the feeling there's something important about her. She's hovering around way too much for someone her age. "Who is she?" he asks warily.

"My daughter. Anastasia."

"That... doesn't sound like a Mandalorian name." It's crazy how he's sitting here and having a decent conversation with a terrorist right now.

"It was her mother's idea. I agreed," Vizsla replies.

His sister, he realizes. He has a sister. No wonder he thought she looked so much like his mother because she's literally her daughter. Why did he never hear a word about this before? He can't help the bitterness that borders on betrayal which surges through him. True, he never asked much about his family, but it still feels like his mother was lying to him. Not lying, per se, just concealing the truth. There is a slight difference, but it still stings. He can understand, to a point, why his mother never wanted to tell him that he's related to a terrorist, assuming she even knew, but... that doesn't justify lying.

When he gets out of here, he needs to have a very long talk with her about this.

"She never told you, did she? She lied to you." He sounds almost disgusted, and it only serves to make Theseus angry. "Well, you can remain here now."

"I can't stay here," Theseus snaps back. "I have a life. I'm part of the Republic's army. I can't drop out because you want me to. You forfeited your custody of me years ago, anyway. It's my choice to make now."

"You are not going back," he replies darkly, angrily.

Maybe Theseus ought to be quiet, because getting angry will only worsen the situation, but he can't help it.

"The Jedi are enemies of Mandalore, and your time with them is over." Vizsla takes a sudden step closer to him, igniting the Darksaber.

"What –" He doesn't have time to finish his sentence before the blade cuts through his padawan braid. It takes a moment to sink it, to understand what happened, because he shouldn't have lost it until his Knighting, which is many years in the future. The fact that he's trying to sever Theseus' attachments to the Jedi registers somewhere in the back of the padawan's mind. He wants to scream at him, but he doesn't think any words would even come out. A blinding, all-consuming rage overtakes him.

"You sleemos won't control my life!" shouts Theseus, once he's able to get out something other than a scream. He's tempted to add a lot of other choice words he's learned from Anakin but decides against it.

"We are leaving to deal with Dooku now," Vizsla declares, turning to the others, and ignoring him entirely. Right. Because that is the whole reason he ended up here in the first place. With Lux gone, it had almost slipped his mind.

"If I didn't think you were crazy before, I definitely do now," he snaps. They'll get themselves killed. Not that would bother him. It totally wouldn't. He ignores the part of his mind that whispers in protest.

"You will remain here," the Death Watch leader adds, "And I expect you to still be here when I get back."

"If I'm not, I won't be here to hear about it," he shoots back. "And good parents usually don't let their children freeze to death."

His maybe-father ignores him and walks out. How nice of him. Well, not that he has any interest in talking to him right now anyway.

The only one who remains behind is the one he spoke with the previous night. She holds out his coat to him. Has she had that with her this whole time? He doesn't stop to question it, immediately pulling it on. He's admittedly freezing, even if he's been a little distracted from that fact for some time. He pauses a moment before reaching down and picking up his padawan braid from the ground, slipping into his pocket beneath his coat. It feels so... wrong to not have one. And he really doesn't want to start thinking about this all over again right now – especially when he already has so much to process – so he decides to distract himself instead.

"You know, it's kind of creepy you've been standing here holding that this entire time." She gives him an unimpressed stare but doesn't seem to be intent on answering. "You people here are so rude," he huffs. "Do you at least have a name, or should I just call you carrot-locks?"

"Do you ever shut up?" she snaps.

"On occasion. Are you going to answer me?"

She seems to be considering whether or not to keep ignoring him, before finally speaking up. "My name is Bo-Katan Kryze."

He blinks. "Kryze? As in... related to the Duchess?"

Bo's expression darkens slightly. "That would be correct." So, one of Satine's relatives is part of Death Watch also? Well then. He would never have expected that, although he supposes he couldn't expect all of her family to share the same views that she has.

Now that Theseus finally has some time to himself, his mind starts running through everything that happened. He doesn't even know what to think or do. It's... it's too much to process like this. His father is apparently the leader of Death Watch. A random member, and it would be fine, but he's their leader.

And... and he has a sister. He never thought he had any siblings, because his mother was a Jedi, and he assumed something might've happened to his father. Well, so he thought until he first saw his sister, but that doesn't make sense.

Is this normal? he wonders. Is it normal for people to want to know their blood relatives, even if they have the best adopted family they could've wanted?

For the first time in a long time, he finds himself remembering, remembering how none of them really wanted him in the beginning. Obi-Wan never did – he'd been passed off to him by Yoda. Anakin never really wanted him around, either, though Theseus knows things have changed a lot since.

A part of him almost wants to stay here, but he knows he can't. He has a family and a life elsewhere, and he can't leave them. It's hard to say no when someone is asking him like that, truly wanting their family – if it can be called that – to be back together. But Vizsla – should he start calling him "Dad" or something of the like? He can't imagine it – wants to mold Theseus into something other than who he is. Something he could never be or want to be. But that's not entirely unlike Obi-Wan, either, he admits to himself with a wince. Anakin and Ahsoka accept him for who he is, gladly, as do his mother and the clones, but the Council and Jedi as a whole don't. Not really.

After he Fell, Theseus has become far more entuned with his own emotions, striving to analyze and accept and use them. He's dark now, and he's embraced it, though in the future, it'll only serve to worsen his relationship with the Council. He wants to be a good Jedi. He does. But at the end of the day, there seems to be a difference between that and being a good person. He'll choose the latter without a second thought.

Still, he has to wonder. Is he drawn to the Dark Side because – because of his family? Of his relatives? Is this constant superiority and desire to cause destruction something in their blood? Theseus really hopes not. He doesn't want to end up like that. He doesn't feel superior to anyone, does he? Has he? Yes, there may be moments he thinks he knows better than the Council, but that's not the same, and he knows he's not always right himself. He can't pretend he is. He is only human.

He doesn't like all the doubts spinning in his mind right now. He needs to get out of here. Yes, that's the simplest solution. His place is back with his other family, even if the thought of leaving... almost bothers him more than it should.

He might not have his lightsaber with him, but he can still try to escape. Once the rest of Death Watch is gone after Dooku, of course. It would be the most convenient time, actually, since Bo is the only one right around here.

"If you're a relative of Satine, why are you part of Death Watch?" he asks curiously.

"She was trying to destroy our heritage," Bo replies, "I can't support that, even if so much of Mandalore does."

"So, you thought becoming a terrorist was a good alternative?"

"We're reclaiming our warrior ways," she retorts, a note of irritation in her voice again.

"Whatever helps you sleep," Theseus shrugs. She can say what she wants, but that doesn't mean it's the truth. It also doesn't mean he isn't enjoying this conversation, as crazy as that is.

Silence falls between them again, and he glances out the opening of the tent to see if the others are gone yet. He doesn't think they are, and even if they were, he should probably put of an attempted escape a little bit longer. It needs to be a little more unexpected. "Are you my babysitter here or what?" Theseus asks after a moment.

"If that's what you want to call it, yes. Until you learn to behave," Bo Katan replies.

He glares at her. "I'm not a child."

"Well, you are acting like one."

"Hey!"

She doesn't reply, and he can't think of another retort, so he goes quiet again, contemplating the situation. He doesn't really know where anything is in the camp, so he'll have to try to follow the Force and hope for the best. And, of course, rescue BD somehow.

The camp has gone almost completely silent now, so he's pretty sure most everyone is gone. It's now or never. Theseus raises a hand, Force throwing Bo across the tent before leaping to his feet and sprinting out of the tent. The snow has stopped falling, but the sky is still cloudy and it's freezing. But at least he has a coat this time.

He's not quite sure where the ships are, but he needs BD first. Throwing a quick glance around, he runs for the droid tent. "Hey! Stop!" yells a voice.

Spinning around, he sees two other warriors appearing from behind one of the other tents. He Force jumps through the air, kicking one of them aside. The other fires a stun bolt at him and he dives out of the way, grabbing ahold of the other person and using them as a shield when the man fires again, and promptly stuns his companion. Theseus Force shoves him backwards and then runs again.

Danger flares through the Force and he instinctively ducks aside as several stun blasts strike the ground where he was seconds before. Looking up, he sees the figure of the guard streaking through the sky after him. Jet packs are so unfair.

He ducks behind the side of one of the tents to avoid him, throwing a quick look around. If only he had his lightsaber. Just then, another all too familiar drops down right in front of him, blaster aimed.

"Hey Bo!" he says cheerfully.

She promptly fires in response, and the last thing he registers is a jolt of electricity running through him before the world goes dark.

**w**

Theseus slowly opens his eyes, staring up at the top of the tent above him. Bo is sitting a short distance away, looking decidedly grumpy.

"Was that really necessary?" he grumbles as he sits up.

"Was you trying to escape really necessary?"

"I was just going for a little look around!"

"Mmhmm."

Theseus groans. This is getting ridiculous. He doesn't mind her presence as much as he thinks he ought to – actually some part of him is glad she's her and he's not sure why – but this is extremely frustrating. "Seriously, have you been sitting there staring at me the entire time I was unconscious? Because that's kind of creepy."

Bo lets out an exasperated sigh. "Since all you want to do is complain, why don't you start by telling me why you don't want to be here."

Seriously? "I don't appreciate seeing mass-murders, for one. My apparently father is unbearably rude," he drawls, "And it's cold."

"What's so bad about that?" she asks.

Theseus huffs, tempted not to tell her out of spite, but for some reason, he wants to talk to her. He can't understand it. Maybe it's that somewhere deep inside he feels a sense of companionship with her because she also knows what it's like to have relatives for enemies. "A mission I went on a long time ago went very wrong. Ahsoka and I nearly froze to death. Her brother rescued us barely in the nick of time before we could die or be transformed into a mind-controlled minions."

"Mind-controlled?" Bo repeats. "How would that happen?"

"Ugh, don't even ask. We picked up some worm parasites that live inside people."

"Worm parasites? Where'd you pick up something like that?" She sounds kind of interested. Hopefully not for some sinister reason.

"Geonosis," he elaborates, "The only thing that could kill the worms was the cold so... we kind of ruptured the coolant system and froze the whole ship. Including ourselves."

"Well, I can see why you wouldn't like it," she concedes after a moment.

"How are you related to the Duchess?" he blurts finally, against his better judgement.

Bo's expression is instantly guarded again. "Why does it matter?"

"Oh, it doesn't. Just curious."

"She's my sister."

"... Oh." He didn't even know she had any. "Good to know I'm not the only one with a sister who's technically my enemy."

His gaze wanders to the entrance to the tent again, for a moment. If he's actually going to escape from here, it's going to have to be a much more well thought out plan. Not something he'll be able to do until he gets used to the camp. And that will take time.

The thought makes him almost miss Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka right now thinking about it. And it also almost scares him. Because he doesn't want to start questioning again if he even wants to leave.

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