AN: Obi-Wan dealing with adults and giving zero fucks about any of them.
Chapter 22 - The Living and the Dead
When they disembarked, he was expecting more than who was present.
Obi-Wan and Rael stood, shoulder to shoulder, their expressions unreadable. Obi-Wan was dressed in civilian clothing and Rael in his shambled robes, looking like a vagabond.
Myles went straight to Obi-Wan, glaring down at him.
Obi-Wan was unamused.
"Where are the ade?" Jango asked before anything could be said between the two.
Kal was looking on with suspicion, ready to pass judgment.
"In classes, where you both should be," Obi-Wan added to Omega and Boba who had stepped forward for a hug.
At Obi-Wan's stiffness and lack of greeting, the two were stopped short. Omega grabbed Boba's hand and dragged him away without needing further instruction.
Jango glared at Obi-Wan's coldness and hissed under his breath, "What are you doing?"
If Obi-Wan wanted to win over the True Mandalorians, all he had to do was be himself. This was— was the stereotypical cold unfeeling Jetii.
Obi-Wan's eyes flashed to him, "I have to go."
"Go where?" Jango asked.
"Your gathering was a testament to war. I swore that I would help you achieve your goals, ner Mand'alor. We will not free the ade only to be ambushed as soon as we leave the system," Obi-Wan said with balls of steel as he continued to be unimpressed by Myles who was still looming over him.
Kal Skirata stepped forward out of the growing crowd of warriors, "Are you insinuating we don't know how to wage war, Jetii?"
Obi-Wan arched a brow, "Battles are different than war."
Kal towered over him, "You arrogant little—"
Obi-Wan spoke over him, "Does it really matter what I am when I will bring you victory?"
"What do you know about victory, Jetii?" Kal asked.
Obi-Wan smirked, "Which of us won the Clan Wars?"
Kal ripped off his own helmet to snarl into Obi-Wan's face, "You handed our system over to a Pacifist!"
"I can assure you, the Kryzes were not pacifists during the wars, nor have the Jedi ever been. And though I disagree with the Duchy, I do not regret chasing the Watch back into their holes."
Kal glowered at him, "I don't like you."
Rael snorted, "Of course you don't. Nothing, like a man half your age with greater military conquests than your own, to stick a shiv up your—"
"Who the kark are you?" Kal demanded of the other Jedi who dared to speak to him.
"Jedi Master Rael Aveross, Obi-Wan's uncle, and buir to a number of Fett's younglings. In other words, Mando, I'm here to stay."
And Obi-Wan isn't alone, was the unspoken subtext.
Myles touched the side of Obi-Wan's cheek with a strange tenderness that was distinctly un-Myles like. Or at least, unlike the Myles Jango had known.
Even Myles words were unfamiliar in their fondness as he spoke to Obi-Wan, "You're a clever one."
Rael grinned, "You have no idea."
"Obi-Wan, where are you going?" Jango asked.
"I'll have a report for you when I return, Mand'alor."
Jango sighed, "This is about the vode, isn't it?"
"If they are to be adopted, the Mandos obvious distaste in me will be an obstacle."
"It wouldn't be if you behaved as yourself, di'kut," Jango snapped.
Obi-Wan switched to Mando'a, "I can't seduce them all."
Walon Vau, tall and dark in his black armour scoffed, "Stewjoni whore."
Jango spun on them but Obi-Wan grabbed his shoulder, "The vode will judge them. My history with Mandalore is too complicated. I can give them all time and when I return we must be ready to leave."
"The Count—"
"I can handle my grandfather," Obi-Wan said.
"Your grandfather is Count Dooku?" Kal asked, in rising outrage.
Obi-Wan gave Jango a look that said, Wait until they discover who my biological family is.
A little blue droid beeped at them.
It did not escape Jango's notice that the astromech droid the Queen of Naboo gifted to him was in a way a spy. But it was too useful a gift to snub his nose at.
What he was not expecting was Obi-Wan's reaction to the droid, "You got R2-D2?"
"You know him?"
The droid beeped excitedly.
"It's a long story. I need to get going, Jango. I spoke to the ade, they know I will be returning."
"You think they won't worry?" Jango countered.
"They were raised to be soldiers, Jan'ika. They will be fine." Obi-Wan walked back toward the docks. "I'm taking the droid."
"Tell Dooku I said hi," Rael called.
Obi-Wan smirked, "I'm sure he'll be glad to talk to a living Padawan again. Don't be surprised if he calls."
"I will be surprised," Rael stated with a lopsided grin.
Obi-Wan shrugged, "Qui-Gon's been giving him hell."
Rael blinked, his expression falling as if his nephew had something unnerving even by Jedi standards, "Qui-Gon's dead."
"The Force is always with us," Obi-Wan answered, turning his back on them as he walked out in to the rain.
"Mystic kriffarry," Kal spat.
Jango realized Obi-Wan had made no indication of their deeper relationship. As always, it felt like Obi-Wan was ten steps ahead of him and left in the dark as to the extent of Obi-Wan's true machinations.
oOo
Obi-Wan sold the ship long before he entered Mandalorian space. From there, he boarded a tourist ship, disguising himself as one of the attendants.
It was easy, too easy.
Especially, as he had an astromech with him.
The Kryze Clan was not the pacifists they painted themselves as.
Do as I say, not as I do.
Obi-Wan had once fallen in love with a young warrior woman who valued life and had a penchant for explosives.
That was not the woman she was today.
Today, she clung to her illusions, her high ideas, turning her back on the past, on the blood spilled for her aims, for the throne she sat upon.
She wasn't evil, she was vain.
And deluded.
Someone who knew she had lost, long before she reached the end, yet unwilling to change course.
And Obi-Wan had been there, had see the results.
He would kill Satine himself if it meant avoiding that end.
Obi-Wan made his way into the Sundari Palace. It was child's play to drug a guard's water, store him in a closet, and stride through the marble halls of Satine's glass palace. R2 rolled along side him, unimpeded by any of the guards who didn't even think to question their being there.
It helped that he wrapped the Force around them, as they approached the royal suite. Obi-Wan took the back door that he had used while Satine was still settling into her position.
It was late, but Satine was awake, her back was to him. Her long blond hair fell down back, free from her headdress. She wore none of her elebrate dresses, just a pair of loose pants and night shirt.
She didn't hear him come in.
No wonder Pre had caught her.
A surge of vengeance filled Obi-Wan as watched her hunch over a holotable. For all her intelligence, her stubbornness prevented her from ensuring the stability Mandalore needed.
Every year, she stripped down a bit more of her people's culture, each generation a little further removed from a history of blood and hard earned balance. Mandalore had so many external enemies, it would be so easy at this point to bring their people together against them and bringing them together by loosening the cultural restrictions.
Instead, Satine kept squeezing down on the restrictions, becoming the galaxy's most elegant dictator.
Obi-Wan pulled the cloth from his bag and walked up behind the woman who had once taken all of him and left him unmoored.
Satine didn't have time to struggle as Obi-Wan held the cloth to her face long after he needed to.
She fell limp in his arms. He knew she would wake tomorrow with a migraine to make the hangover from spice withdrawals wince. He placed her on her bed, still clothed. He found a bottle of alcohol and a glass at her bedside. He filled the glass, raised her head enough to pour some into her mouth without her choking. He then spilled some on her front and the bed, dropping the glass on the floor. He finished the framing of a self-imposed black out by bringing the bottle spirits to the refresher and dumping three fourths of it down the drain. He set the bottle back on the side table, the gloves of the guard uniform preventing any of his finger prints from transfering.
"How's it going, R2?" Obi-Wan asked the too good for this world astromech.
They had time, lots of time, and Obi-Wan made use of it, pushing R2 to find everything they might need.
Obi-Wan had helped build this empire, taking it apart was depressingly easy.
After several hours of accessing and downloading information, then erasing their tracks, R2 and Obi-Wan made their way to the Eastern ion canon.
R2, chaos droid that he was, took great pleasure in placing a sabotage trigger into the canon. Ion canons were defense weapons that could render any ship in range useless, along with most technology it hit.
Including droids.
R2 was particularly vindictive about the latter use of the ion canons and there was no doubt that when the time came, R2's sabotage would work as intended.
Obi-Wan dropped another disguise behind in a trash compactor and they snuck onto another tourist ship as staff. This ship took them to Concord Dawn, which is where Obi-Wan bought a new ship.
The Force was with him, because before he left the Mandalorian moon, he did some light snooping, following the darkling light of his brother and the Darksaber.
He tried nothing, and Pre didn't notice him.
Obi-Wan marked them all. R2 had found all of Senator Almec's spy devices on Satine's computers.
And reversing the trackers had led them here.
In the Mandalore system, his older brother wore a very convincing human suit. But every ade that approached Pre with smiles, asking for tales of grand aventures was just a potential hostage, just another soul Pre would not hesitate to sacrifice on the altar of his ambitions.
Obi-Wan had once lost to his brother.
Lost when he had re-entered Mandalorian war at its last act.
Not this time.
Now Obi-Wan's mind would not be divided by the Senate, the Sith, and the decay of the Order.
As he sat in the back of the bar, contemplating all the information he had gained, and was gaining, his brother carried on with his facade of humanity, unaware that he had become the one marked for death.
A dark tendril of satisfaction curled through Obi-Wan. The Dark Side had never truly tempted him, however, he knew himself to be Dooku's grandpadawan.
oOo
Alpha-17 ended up sheltering Cody, Ponds, Appo, Gregor, Helix, and Fives away from the visiting Mandalorians.
The General had not claimed all of them, but they had claimed him. The other vode flawked around the Mandalorians.
They were… interesting.
The females especially.
They were also loud.
Aveross, the Nulls' Mascot, could be loud when he laughed, but it wasn't the same. The Mandalorians were not all as rigid as the Prime, while others were far more taciturn.
Such as Walon Vau and B'arin Apma who both wore black beskar and were notable by their reserved natures.
The ones who took over their training courses were protective though not as familiar as the Jedi.
The Mandolarians obviously didn't like the Jedi. Which was a bit odd for Alpha, even knowing that the Prime had hated them once too. The vode had all been raised to follow the Jedi, to protect and honour them.
No one was fool enough to be mean to Master Fay, but Aveross was treated like a spicer. His Padawan, Ventress, they tried to talk out of her path as a Jedi.
Feral and Savage they treated much the same. But the Zabraks clung to to Aveross, refusing to leave his side since the hundred warriors had arrived.
It was confusing, the Mandalorians' distaste for the Jedi, not when the Jedi had proven their devotion to their aliit. However, while Cody and the others worried about their General's absence, Alpha felt he understood.
Treating Aveross with disrespect was, somewhat, understandable, but not General Kenobi. If any of the warriors showed disrespect to their General, whether they saw him as dear as a buir or not, would have turned all of the vode against the newcomers.
They were Clan Fett, Clan Kenobi, before they were anything else.
Alpha knew this, he didn't think they did.
Only time would tell what the fallout of that would be.
After vod after vod was adopted, Alpha imagined that the scars would run deep if they were forced to choose between their General and the True Mandalorians.
oOo
"Obi-Wan! Run!"
Obi-Wan didn't run at the sound of his ghostly Master's warning, he did dodge. After holding back for so long, Obi-Wan drew his saber and met Dooku's blade, blow for blow.
"You can see him!" Dooku roared.
Obi-Wan smirked over the howling of their blades crackling against one another, blue water to red plasma, "Someone has a guilty conscious."
Dooku's eyes sparked, hatred, fear, his cold exterior breaking under grief.
Obi-Wan had spent a decade going over his every encounter with Dooku and Palpatine.
Examining his every failure, his every miss-step.
Obi-Wan had not been the Master of Soresu when first he and Dooku met, and now, Obi-Wan had the upperhand.
He let Dooku run himself out.
Dodging every blow with ease, and seeming to think that throwing objects around would be cheating when Obi-Wan was already the one retreating through the Palace halls of Kamino.
"Huh, you got better," Qui-Gon commented idly. "Well done, Padawan mine."
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, "Nice of you to notice, Master."
Dooku bore down harder, "How!?"
Obi-Wan grinned, "You haven't answered any of his questions?"
"Where's the fun in that?" Qui-Gon asked.
Obi-Wan laughed, leaping back as Dooku extended a hand shooting out lightning.
"You brought him hear," Dooku all but panted.
"No," Obi-Wan said. "He left himself here. He was your Padawan, surely you know better than most what a pain in the shebs he is?"
Dooku bared his teeth, "He's dead."
"Does it hurt?" Obi-Wan asked. "Knowing that you betrayed the Order, Sifo-Dyas, Komari, Master Yeddle, and who knows who else in your pursuit in despair, all the while learning that your apprentice made peace with death? Does it hurt that he reached enlightment while you debased yourself before a Master who could never love you, only use you to their own ends?"
Dooku was shaking, "You know nothing of what I feel!"
Obi-Wan stalked in circle with Dooku, their blades singing in the empty halls, "I know you failed. I know that you gave into suffering and assulted the Force, and now the galaxy's pain flows through you, shackling you to destruction, a weapon for the taking."
Dooku lunged at him, and Obi-Wan met him step for step in this familiar dance.
He had lost to Dooku before he had lost Anakin, but he realised now, with Dooku's presence in the Force fully unbridaled that the Force shove that had rendered him unconscious, inexplicably making it through his shields had been Sidious, not Dooku.
If Obi-Wan ever had Palpatine cuffed to a chair before him now, he would behead the bastard without hesitation.
"Your pride makes you utterly predicable, Grandmaster mine," Obi-Wan taunted as flicked away Dooku's strikes with deliberate ease.
Even with the Force and the Dark Side riding him, Jango was faster than the would be Sith.
"Why would you join my killers?" Qui-Gon asked his old Master.
Dooku pressed forward, "Because it was your Padawan who failed."
That hurt, but Obi-Wan was far too familiar to hurt to be tripped up by that old pain.
"No," Qui-Gon countered. "I failed him. Had I but waited for him, Obi-Wan and I would have slain Maul together. Maul played me, as Palpatine has played you."
"I am his apprentice," Dooku snarled.
"Don't be stupid, it doesn't look well upon you. You are no more a Sith Lord than Maul," Obi-Wan said. "You're cleverness is more a reflection of Yoda's grey outlook on the Force and his fetish for chaos than Palpatine's influence. You mean nothing to him but a means to an end. A Sith Assassin, to be pointed, felled, and replaced."
Dooku twirled in the air, and Obi-Wan had to drop to the floor to avoid being skewered.
But Obi-Wan was a younger man these days and he was back on his feet in mere heartbeats as Dooku strained himself, the Force taking from him as much as he took from it.
"I will remake this galaxy."
"The galaxy is not a holotable. You cannot wash the board in blood and build an empire unstained by it. Whatever corruption you seek to destroy will only be uplifted in the attempt. To build something sustainable, honour and justice must endure, no matter the evil steeped against it."
"You are naive—"
Obi-Wan turned into the next strike, switching to the offence and swiftly disarming Dooku in the moment he was caught off balanced by the abrupt change in their dance.
He caught the red saber and threw his head forward, smashing his forehead into the cartilage of Dooku's nose.
The man grunted as he fell on his sheb, Obi-Wan's crossing the blades at the man's throat.
"Concede, Grandmaster, or join your Padawan in the next life."
Dooku looked up at him, sweaty, dishevelled, bleeding, and defeated in more than just one way.
Qui-Gon had worn past what remained of his sanity.
"I concede, Grandpadawan."
Obi-Wan silenced the blades, straightening out of his posture. "Now, I believe tea is in order before we undergo further negotiations."
"If you knew what Palpatine was, why haven't you done anything against him?" Dooku asked, not yet rising to his feet.
"Because," Obi-Wan said, clicking the sabers to his belt and pulling the wrinkles from his sleeves. Unlike his grandmaster, he had not broken sweat. "If I had gone after Palpatine, the Chancellor of the Republic, I wouldn't have been able to help the vode or Jango reclaim Mandalore. I do not truly know how to rescue the Jedi Order from its self imposed decline. Luckily for the galaxy, the stability of Mandalore is often more vital to the wider peace between the stars."
"You do not hate me?"
Obi-Wan thought of everyone Dooku had taken from and answered honestly, "No, Grandmaster. I pity you and mourn the person you might have been before you surrendered to the Dark."
That seemed to strike a nerve, or several, because Dooku, for once, had no come back.
"To fall, does not mean one cannot rise again," Qui-Gon said.
"We shall see," Obi-Wan said coldly, turning his back on the two men.
Both the living and the dead.
oOo
AN: Thoughts, deer, or feedback, pretty please?