reconciling my love of all things Obitine and Sundari and New Mandalore with the awesomeness that is Republic Commandos. we're all on the same side right? the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
so here we go. Fenn Shysa is looking for an heir he finds one he's not expecting.

Fenn Shysa was nursing an ale with his feet resting on a chair. He didn't care how early it was in the morning. The Oyu'baat was always open so he figured he could have a drink any time he wanted.

The other man sitting across the table from him still had his buy'ce firmly in place. He could have been dozing, or having a stimulating conversation on the helmet's internal comm system, or just sneering at Shysa's drinking habits. He must however have noticed Shysa's amused expression because he turned to see who had entered the cantina.

"Shab, who's the shiny?" Fenn's comrade asked in a low voice.

They both watched as the newcomer walked, almost bowlegged as if he was uncomfortable with the leg plates of his newly painted armor rubbing against each other, up to the bar and sat on a stool. He carefully set the notebook he was carrying on the bar and then asked in a posh accent, "Can I have an ale, please?"

"Polite, isn't he?" Shysa grinned and the other man laughed.

The bartender set a mug in front of the young man but he stared at it for a full minute before hesitantly reaching up to remove his buy'ce and set it on top of the notebook. The young man's ginger/blond hair looked as if it had once been carefully styled in the angular fashion favored by the New Mandalorians, though it had now grown out a bit and was tousled from wearing the helmet. His blue eyes were sad and there was a few days growth of reddish fuzz on his cheeks and chin and upper lip but Fenn knew him at once from the wanted holos, one of which was hanging on the wall partially covered by a row of bottles behind the bar.

The barkeep may have noticed also but he didn't show any sign. He was tapping on the panel that controlled the large holoscreen. He was running through the networks perhaps looking for the latest Meshgeroya scores but the young man stopped him.

"Could you please go back to that - that program you just passed?"

"Alright. This the one?" the barkeep asked, humoring him.

"Yeah, yeah that's it."

There was a girl in the image. She had a green and white buy'ce clipped to the back of her belt and a Westar pistol tucked in next to it and she was following a clone soldier out of a lobby toward a transport of some kind.

"That's a different clone than the one she was with before. His armor is different." This point seemed to make a great deal of difference to the young man.

"Pretty little thing," Fenn commented.

"Yes, she is." The young man agreed, staring at the screen.

The program continued: an interview segment with a witness from the medcenter. The receptionist was eager to tell the reporter all about what she had seen and heard.

"Well I knew that we had Lux." She said the name dreamily as if he were a holo star rather than a Senator. "Up in the head trauma ward, because my friend Shay, she works the night shift. She saw him come in. And she told me this crazy story that Lux had tried to kiss Soniee and she pushed him away. Well, I told Shay, that's just how the Mando's do it. You see a guy you like and you headbutt him and drag him back to your den or whatever."

"Yeah," said the other man at Fenn's table. "Happens to me all the time."

They laughed but the young man at the bar hushed them, wanting to hear the story.

"...so when this girl comes in wearing a Mando helmet and the Commander says it's Representative Ordo here to see Senator Bonteri, I knew she just had to be feeling awful about the whole culture clash thing and not knowing how dating went on their home world..."

"Commander..." the young man growled and Fenn was surprised at the anger that one word carried.

The receptionist continued her tale, "...so I told her, I said, 'don't worry, Hun. I'm sure Lux'll be thrilled to see you.' And she said, it was so precious, she said, 'I hope so.'"

"Precious..." the barkeep lost interest and returned to wiping out mugs.

The young man gave him a look and then focused his attention on the screen again.

"...so then I just couldn't stop myself, I had to ask if it was true that she and Lux were really related and she got kind of huffy with me. She said, 'you know more about it than I do.' like she knows they are but she didn't want anybody to bug her about the incest thing. Anyway, I think people should just mind their own business. Who cares if they're brother and sister. If they love each other, good for them."

"You should mind yours." The young man huffed and took a swig of his ale. He made a face and then determinedly finished off the rest of the mug and slammed it back down on the bar. "Another, please."

Fenn rose from his seat and went up to the bar. "This one's on me."

"Thanks." The young man looked at him, rather startled, and then his gaze drifted to the screen again.

"May I hazard a guess that the fair Miss Ordo is the reason behind this early morning binge?"

"She might be."

"Or maybe just the young lady's association with the Ondronian Senator?" Fenn asked.

"Nah, not him." The Kryze boy, as Fenn suspected him to be, took a gulp from his second mug and pointed at the screen. "Him."

Fenn looked where he was pointing and saw the image of the girl being led around the lobby of the med center a different armored clone. Then he thought he might understand what the boy meant. The clone slipped his arm around the girl's waist.

"Osik, turn it off!"

The barkeep shrugged and shut off the screen and then brought Fenn another drink.

"What's your name, ad'ika?"

"I'm not a child!"

"Sorry, vod. Of course you're not. Forgive me." Fenn held up his hands in surrender.

"Yeah, well. It's..." he thought about it and maybe he noticed his own picture on the wall. "It's Dar... Dar'baatir."

Because he didn't care anymore or because he didn't want to, Fenn nodded. "Well Dar'baatir, my name's Fenn Shysa. Pleasure to meet you." He offered the young man his hand.

Dar looked at the hand and then reached out his own and shook it.

"D'ya ever think that maybe the commander's just doin' his job?"

"No. I spoke to him. He as much as said that he was sleeping with her."

"He said that, did he?" Fenn took a swig of his own drink. "You don't think he could have been exaggerating, trying to get a rise out of ye?"

"I - I don't know." said Dar/Korkie.

Fenn was sure now of the kid's identity and it made sense that both he and the girl had attended the Academy before its unfortunate demise. "But you know the girl?"

"Ni kar'tayl kaysh." He pronounced the words as if they were foreign. Sad really, thought Fenn. Nice kid, born and raised on Manda'yaim, and he didn't even know his own language.

"Ought to send her a comm. Tell her how you feel." Fenn suggested.

Korkie shook his head. "Can't do that." He took another drink and Fenn could tell that the first one was already starting to do it's work. "Don't have her ID and the bucket's just a bucket." He flipped the helmet over to show the older man that the inside was empty of anything useful.

"Have you got a plan to win her back?"

"How'm I supposed to do that?"

"Maybe ye need a Cin vhetin?"

"What's that?" the boy asked.

"It means, white field, but it's like a clean slate, a fresh start."

Korkie nodded.

"She likes a man in armor, but it seems you've got that covered."

"Yeah." Korkie looked down at the plates covering his body and gave a little grin. "Yeah, covered."

Shysa had had no patience for the New Mandalorians' pacifism but he shared their dislike of the Death Watch, and he didn't trust Almec in the least. Maybe he was going soft, maybe he just felt sorry for the kid, but they did have a common enemy. He'd set out to find a Fett clone to dress up as Jango's heir to take the mantle of Mand'alor but perhaps the Duchess's heir could be of some use as well. He watched the boy take slow sips of his drink. "Not just the girl is it. You've been through the ringer, haven't ye, Dar m'lad?"

Korkie sniffed, "Yeah. First my friend Amis was killed and then Mom and then Soniee flew away and then the Academy shot to Haran."

The word 'mom' made Shysa raise an eyebrow. That was always the rumor but hearing it from the kid's own mouth was a revelation. He wondered if Satine had also mentioned to the boy who his father was and he asked the question carefully, "But yur, Buir's still around, right? Perhaps ye can talk to him about the girl. Sure an' he's missin' yur mother as well?"

"Never met him." Korkie said after another gulp of his ale. "Soniee said he missed her though. She flew him to..." His eyes grew wide as if he just realized he'd said to much. He drowned the rest of the sentence in another swig of the drink.

So his dad wasn't Viszla, or at least Satine had pinned the blame on somebody else and fed that line to her son.

"Not easy growing up without a buir, specially for a Mando'ad. What kind of training did ye get up at the academy?" He wasn't expecting much and he wasn't offering himself up as segregate buir but with Almec on his tail, the kid was going to need every advantage he could get.

"We had basic weapons training, blasters, fencing, and a bit of hand to hand defense, but we were mostly instructed in negotiation and diplomatic resolutions." Even half drunk the kid was a politician.

"Dar'ika, you need a crash course in the real galaxy." Fenn tipped up his mug and found it disappointingly empty.

"Will it help me get Soniee back and protect her?" he asked suddenly. "Could you teach me?" He looked back down at his mug. "and my name's not really Dar. It - It's Korkie."

"Is it now?" Fenn sighed, shook his head, and then resigned himself to his own weakness. "I suppose you could tag along when I head up north to Enceri. Maybe you could learn a thing or two."

"Y-yeah?" Korkie answered excitedly. "Anything's gotta be better than hanging around that shop."

"Finish yer drink, get some food in ye, and then we'll see what's to be done, Kor'ika." What had he gotten himself into? Shysa patted the kid on the back and motioned to the barkeep to feed him. Then he walked back to his old table.

His comrade shook his head and laughed. "You gonna start picking up strays like, Skirata?"

"Let's hope I never get that bad, Spar. Couldn't bear to see the look on the old man's face."