KEYnote: Jango does NOT know about the chips.
WARNING: Please don't hate me too much? I wrote this chapter when I began this story, it is what all of Fay's dire warnings were leading up to.
Good news, everything beyond this chapter is more of a fix-it. Despite the Mandalorian wars being a thing, the vode remain protected kids throughout those wars.
Again, no named characters die, but lots of death. If you aren't feeling well, please take care of yourself.
Chapter 25 - Forgive Me
Kal had noticed the coldness the vode had been directing his way after the return of Jango's pet Jetii.
He was not alone in that boat. Given it was what the Jetiiese had done to the Mereel Clan, their dislike of them shouldn't have been surprising. But this argument did not hold water with the vode who seemed to adore their very strange collection of Jetiiese.
Wad'e nearly skipped over to where he sat in the mess hall.
Kal gave him a dark look.
Wad'e only smiled wider.
"What?" Kal demanded.
"Oh, I just wanted to see your expression," Wad'e said breezily. "And collect some credits.
Walen eyed the Weapons Master, "I haven't lost yet."
Wad'e took a seat beside Kal and turned to the entrance.
As if on cue, Kenobi walked in, Jango at his side, both were wearing their blacks underneath their civilian clothes. Or in the Jetii's case, robes.
But then Kal spotted Kenobi's beskar bracers.
At first he thought it was gold, like his own beskar'gem. Gold stood for vengeance. Kenobi's bracers were ostentatiously polished gold; which was stupid.
Then he thought it was bronze for Nobility, but then he really saw the colour.
Copper.
Kal cursed under his breath, "Copper? Jango chose copper?"
Copper had basically gone out of style centuries ago. It was rare that any Mandalorian war leader didn't already have armour and giving a 'Beloved buir' a flashy colour like copper was akin to putting a target on someone's back.
But for a Mand'alor to give it to their Riduur was akin to shouting at the world, You want to die? Come and get it.
It was a show of absolute confidence that Kenobi could take whatever came, and it made him, as Wad'e had jested a mere few days ago, Riduur'alor.
Wad'e knowing before anyone else was only reasonable, given he had made the karking beskar'gem.
"No, not fair, you knew beforehand what the colour was," Walen protested. "I don't owe you kriff."
"You know I'm the best blacksmith this clan has, you're the fool who doubted my judgement," Wad'e disagreed.
"Copper was not on the karking table," Walen said.
"I will not bow to a Jetii," Kal said, ignoring the childish betting.
The others fell silent to look at him, Wad'e's smile fell as he grabbed Kal's arm, "Don't be a di'kut, Kal. To attack one is to attack the other. We just got Jango back, don't alienate him so soon. If you call either of them a whore, Jango will string you up by your tendons."
Kal rose, feeling only slightly guilty to ruin the vode's fun as the ogled Kenobi's bracers with small curious hands.
He spoke up so everyone could hear, "Riduur'alor is an earned position."
Kenobi met his gaze across the room; and smirked.
Bastard.
Jango stepped forward, "He's more than earned his place, Kal."
"I won't be the last to try him, Jango, I might as well be the first."
"I'm afraid," Kenobi said. "He's not wrong."
Kal smirked, "It will be my honour to take you down a peg."
Rael laughed, coming in with his apprentice, the Dathomarian witch and the two Nightbrothers following at his heels. The Nulls stepped into formation around them. "Come now, Skirata. Let my nephew be, he could take you blind folded."
Kal scoffed, "He couldn't take me without the Force."
Kenobi rolled his eyes, "If you ever attempt to put Force suppressants on me, Skirata, I will kill you."
"Afraid?" Kal taunted.
"No," Kenobi said blandly. "Enslaved one too many times to submit myself to torture."
"You were enslaved?" Mij asked, worry in his tone as he looked the man over as if he could see the wounds left there.
Kal grimaced, mocking the man for being a Stewjoni whore was one thing; the Stewjoni were Mandalorian by birth and merely shameful in their conduct.
But being a slave and escaping it was like being a war veteran.
Kal couldn't mock a man for that.
"That's actually how we first met," Jango said. "Over a decade ago in undersea mine on Bandomeer. Obi-Wan freed us all."
Kal gritted his teeth but it was too late to back down, "The challenge remains, Kenobi."
"Kabiin Fett," Jango corrected.
"Excuse me?" Kal asked.
"His name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, but if you can only use it with ill intent, then you will address him as Kabiin Fett."
Kabiin? Beloved blue.
Kal grimaced, Jango was more enamoured with his Riduur than he had expected.
But then, Jango was a foundling, he had lost everyone who was ever dear to him, it wasn't so surprising he would be especially attached to a partner who protected his children so fiercely.
"You cannot rewrite history, Alor," Kal said more gently.
"Marital names are not uncommon, nor are Kenobi's taking new names past their naming day unusual. Its main purpose was to denote children they didn't believe would survive. An adult bearing that name is not a reflection on them but their dar'buire," Wad'e cut in.
"As fascinating as this conversation is," Obi-Wan said. "I have things to do today."
Wad'e stepped forward, catching Kal's arm again, and said in low Mando'a, "We are among enemies, Kal, let it be."
"Fine," Kal snapped, then met Kenobi's impassive gaze. "When we get to Mandalore then."
Kenobi inclined his head.
"Master Kenobi!"
The man spun at the small feminine voice, catching the little Togruta girl up in his arms.
"Ahsoka Tano," Kenobi said with palpable fondness as he hugged her to him.
Koon approached more sedately, bowing to Kenobi, "It is good to see you, young Obi-Wan."
"You truly left the Order then?" Kenobi asked, bowing his head in turn.
Koon nodded, "I will always be a Jedi, but I felt that I was needed elsewhere and I am not in the habit of ignoring the Force when it speaks so clearly."
"I followed," Ahsoka said proudly.
"Did you now?" Kenobi asked her, gently booping her nose.
The foundling giggled and began telling Kenobi all about her adventures here. Kenobi followed each word with rapt attention.
Wad'e gave Kal a look that Kal deliberately ignored.
Okay, maybe it was understandable why Jango liked the stupid Jetii so much. That didn't mean Kal had to be happy about it.
"I couldn't have chosen her as a Padawan," Koon admitted. "But adopting her as a daughter is a different discussion."
"I don't like the Temple so much. I like jungles and oceans," Ahsoka declared. "And all my brothers!" she added, throwing her arms wide, indicating the vode.
Kenobi laughed, lowering his forehead to hers and a Kaldabe kiss, whispering something in a language Kal couldn't quite make out.
Ahsoka was laughing though, practically glowing with happiness as she was set on her feet, to be tackled by Wolffe a moment later who dragged her off to play.
Kenobi then turned his attention back to the other foundlings.
Wad'e cleared his throat.
Kal turned away, not acknowledging that he had been caught staring.
oOo
Cody was ecstatic that their buir was home, and after his marriage to the Prime, the other Mandalorians seemed to get over whatever issues they had about the Jedi.
Well mostly.
Master Fey and Rael, the Null's buir, started acting even weirder. When they spoke in low voices to the Mandos, the Mandos got all agitated.
Training changed too. Cody didn't think he had ever run as many loading drills and evacuation drills in his life. Fay made even the CTs run the loading drills, taking as much medical supplies as they could. It was weird because until the General left, the CT classes had never been included in any of the more formal military training.
oOo
Obi-Wan had been noting the security system of Kamino since he arrived. So when it finally came time for him to snoop, it was child's play to get around the surveillance protocols, especially with R2 now with him.
Omega was also with him, searching through files about her brother looking for the cure for Boba's genetic disorder with her own droid.
"Alright, R2, let's see how bad it is," Obi-Wan said.
R2 whirred and it seemed to take an inordinately long space of time before he made a depressed sound.
"Found it!" Omega exclaimed.
Obi-Wan kneeled beside her and read over her shoulder, "Is there a cure?"
She pointed to the screen, "Yeah, the Long Necks keep giving him micro treatments so the issue builds up again, but one large flush out and it will get rid of it."
"You are certain?"
She nodded, "They wouldn't create an issue they couldn't fix. They need Jango and Boba is their backup. If Boba died first Jango would destroy everything they have built."
Wasn't that just the truth?
"Do you know where this is kept?" he asked.
She nodded, "I've given him these treatments before myself."
He nodded, "Very good, thank you, Omega. Take this to Master Fay and don't leave her side."
She nodded again, hugging him briefly before transferring the data to her personal pad, then without asking, switched off her own droid.
The Kaminoans had given it to her after all, they couldn't really trust it. And given the choice between her nanny droid and her twin brother, Boba won out.
R2 made another mournful sound as Obi-Wan helped Omega into the vent above.
Obi-Wan gave himself a moment to breathe, screwing the panel back on before giving R2 his full attention.
He could feel in the Force that whatever he was about to learn wasn't going to be pleasant.
Which turned out to be the understatement of the century.
The dispassion in the reports he read bled with the evil:
Tagged File 2CC-B-Alpha:
Expenational increase planned. 229331.22
Biometric Version Chips: 452.899
Projected Success Rate: 56% success.
Projected Losses: 44% failure.
Product Success Rate: 0% success.
Product Losses: 100% failure.
Result: Two year delay.
Conclusion: Brain malfunction, non-viable incubation.
Tagged File 24CT-D-Omega:
Biometric Version Chips: 907.566
Projected Success Rate: 20% success.
Projected Losses: 80% failure.
Product CT Class: 33% of Batches.
Product Success Rate: 0% success.
Product Losses: 100% failure.
Result: Death post-decantation. Clones given biometric chips at birth; all have died or been decommissioned.
Biometric chips if inserted in pre-pubescence subjects, organic tissue may cause abnormal behaviour or cells may outgrow, creating tumours, chemical malfunction, or deactivation of the chip.
Conclusion: Unviable. Suggested next stage surgery, physical age 16, years after decanting 8, assimilation of biometric advanced chips.
Concerns for Biometric Chips, older generations less susceptible, training loyalty must be essential, any deviations, immediate decommission.
It remains clear that chips cannot be inserted before puberty.
Tagged:
Biometric Chip Orders: Chancellor.
Orders: Redacted.
Orders Revisement: Protected. Authorization Needed.
Order 66 File: Protected. Authorization Needed.
Flagged; Prime-1Alpha1-Kenobi IMPORTANT:
Update: Jedi Interference.
Result: Eleven year delay.
Conclusion: Denotation of program. Subject delay, cease advanced ageing. One year before the next generation is viable for decantation.
Evacuation Protocol: Tipoca and Timara City.
"R2 can you get into the Order 66 file?" Obi-Wan asked, heart in his throat.
He felt ill, almost as if he would black out from the sheer horror of it.
Made worse by the fact that he knew what the Kaminoans were capable of.
He knew what genocide lay ahead of them if they could not alter this path.
R2 made another mournful warbling tone before pulling up the file on Order 66.
Obi-Wan read and reread it.
For a moment, all he could think was: Cody didn't betray me. Cody didn't betray me.
And afterwards, the world seemed to fall apart around him and he had to fight against the darkness that threatened to drown him as the true horror of it sunk into his bones.
The vode had been enslaved beyond any bound of morality could imagine.
Yes, the Jedi had accepted the vode, because their fates had been intertwined from the beginning. It was either accept them or they would have been given to the Corellians who would never have treated them as humans.
In that time, Obi-Wan hadn't been able to free them from their contracts. He, Plo, Padme, and Bail, had been unable to pass any legislation through the Republic.
He had thought he deserved Cody's betrayal, but he had never understood how the vode could have marched on the Temple.
Despite the vode having a worse situation, they had adopted the Jedi as their own. So why had they killed the younglings?
Here was the answer.
Had they known what they were doing?
Had they been awake inside? Trapped, imprisoned in their own minds?
Or had their consciousnesses been erased?
And Anakin had led them.
Anakin had helped enslave them all in the cruellest of manners. Forcing them to kill innocents, children and babies.
Deliberate execution and genocide.
Once that atrocity had been finished, the Empire had then, slowly but surely, begun killing the vode off.
Silencing them.
Suddenly, letting his Padawan burn on the lava banks of Mustafar didn't feel like punishment enough.
It was from sheer stubbornness alone that Obi-Wan didn't pass out.
He had told Jango that he would never raise a hand against him.
But if Jango knew, if he knew.
Obi-Wan would kill him.
Riduur or no, Obi-Wan would end him.
Such evil could not be abided.
oOo
Fay reached out to every Jedi and Mandalorian in the Force, breaking past their mental fortitudes where necessary.
EVACUATE NOW!
Then she reached out to the younglings and all of the vode heard her, As we practised now, get into position to keep count of each other.
And despite the youngest of them being barely 3 years old in development, they listened, and they obeyed.
Like a well organised army they would never allow them to be, they moved, packing into the three hundred ships of Mandalorians and Jedi.
The 2,198 younglings would barely fit, but none would be left behind.
None of the children who knew they had parents and clans and a world to inherit.
This is the choice that she had made, knowing what the fallout would be.
She caught Omega and her Padawan, Ninety-Nine, or Nile as he had recently named himself, up in her arms.
She ran to the medical facility. They were pretty certain they had deactivated all the bombs and security doors as Rael and the Mandalorians had organised together, but there was no accounting for what they might have missed or been newly installed.
Warning lights started going off as the Nulls, Alpha class, and two groups of CCs ransacked the primary med-bay, stipping the place with frightening ease, each youngling carrying near their body weight in bacta.
Fay followed Omega's directions and had the little girl help her load up the syringe. Fay trusted her to get the measurements as she reached for the sedation device she had preset for this day.
Once Omega was done, Fay double checked her work, then took the girl back up in her arms. She used the Force to run them through the facility until she reached Boba and her father.
She didn't wait for permission as she administered the cure to Omega's twin.
The boy squeaked as he was injected in the neck without any warning.
"What are you doin—" Jango exclaimed.
Omega stepped in front of them, blocking the Prime's place. "It's the cure, Buir! It's the cure!"
Fay caught Boba in her arms as she removed the needle and the boy lost his balance. She passed the little one to Nile and Omega.
Standing, she pressed the second syringe into Jango's hands.
"What is this?" he asked.
"He will come for you," she answered.
"What?"
A secondary alarm went off and the facility turned onto emergency power, bathing the halls in shadow and red light.
"You are Mand'alor, you must take charge. Obi-Wan will not survive this otherwise."
"Obi-Wan would never harm me," the Prime said with earned, yet misguided, certainty.
"For this, he will, and if you let him win, this choice will be his, and he will fall. Everyone has their limits, this is his."
Fay left him with her ill-fated words and Obi-Wan's fate in his hands as she left to oversee the rest of the evacuation.
oOo
Jango didn't hear Obi-Wan when he appeared.
He was on his ship, listening to the call outs over the coms as he tried to settle all the ade who would fit that had been jammed onto his ship.
This wasn't going to be a safe take off.
Suddenly, Obi-Wan was there, hands around his collar and shoving him violently back into his seat.
"Did you know!?" Obi-Wan yelled into his face. His expression was wild and he looked like a man possessed. As if all that he was had been washed away.
Jango didn't answer immediately.
Obi-Wan shook him, "Did you know, damnit! Damn you! Did you know!?"
He didn't know what Obi-Wan was talking about, and they didn't have time for him to have a break down, no matter how well earned his break down might be.
Feeling the syringe Fay had given him at his belt, Jango —with as much strength and speed as could manage— pulled the syringe up at his beloved. He was able to get a direct hit on Obi-Wan's neck, his Riduur'alor was too tense to avoid it.
Obi-Wan dropped limp in his arms and for a moment, Jango held him in a tight embrace, "Please, forgive me."
Pulling back to see if the man was even still awake, Obi-Wan was able to seethe through his teeth, "Kark you…"
Jango whistled, and Obi-Wan's direct lineage pushed forward through the group. He gently lowered his love into the waiting arms of their ade.
Alpha-17 and Cody were glaring up at him with the promise of homicide in their golden eyes.
"Mind your vode," he told them, as he went back to the coms.
Obi-Wan was soon buried by the ade, trying to give comfort and probably pissing the paralysed Jetii off a little bit more.
He knew Jetii were able to work chemicals out of their bodies, he could only hope whatever the sedative had been it would be enough to get them off this planet.
Fay came back on board five minutes later.
They were on minute thirty-two which was longer than any of them would like. Though they apparently had enough bacta to last them through a century.
Or with their luck, through the year.
Fay took the pilot seat and grabbed the com, "Final sound off."
In order, all three hundred or so ships sounded off.
"Everyone is accounted for," Fay affirmed. "None of the 2,198 Force presences can be sensed on the facility."
Plo and Rael sounded off again in magical confirmation.
Jango closed the hatch, "Depart, all non-armed and reserve-vessels enter hyperspace once clear."
Another sound off, the remaining crafts hovered over the city far enough away that if the Kaminoans back up systems kicked in and the cloning facilities exploded they would be out of range.
Kal's voice came across the coms, —On your orders, ner Mand'alor.
Jango hesitated, and he glanced back at Obi-Wan who was straining to look out the large view panel.
Fay met Jango's gaze, "This is not a choice I can make for you, Mand'alor. Any path you take will be bathed in blood."
Still uncertain as to why Obi-Wan was so incensed with him, Jango really didn't want to give the order.
However, no one had ever said being Mand'alor was an easy position.
Speaking into the coms he said, "We can't leave them to the Long Neck's mercy and we cannot leave these hut'uune with the weaponry they have." He took a breath, before he pulled the trigger, "Light them up."
Given time, there was evidence the Long Necks would have killed them first, counter attacking by killing as many of them as they were able.
Jango and his people did not give them that time.
Tipoca was the first to fall, exploding at the foundations so they tipped into the ocean.
Timira followed, and several other research bases.
Conveniently, the Kaminoans had civilian cities that had no connections to the cloners. Fearing they would be targeted by the enemy forces, the civilian cities were kept remote from any cloning facilities where valuable medical equipment and military reserves were kept.
Some of the information might survive but it would be a hundred years before they could rebuild everything they would lose today.
But for their amorality, for the blaster they head held to his son's head since Jango was fool enough to enter into this cursed bargain with the Sith.
Today Jango saved over two thousand of his descendants from a fate worse than death. While over 300,000 infants and embryos were given back to the Manda.
Back to the Force.
This world had risen from the waves, and now it would be returned back to those vast oceans.
Jango shut his eyes as they pulled away from the blue planet and the destruction he left in his wake.
oOo
Obi-Wan screamed, though he didn't have the ability to so much as part his lips.
He was left to cry into the Force, No! Please, no!
Ninety-Nine —Nile— took Obi-Wan's unmoving hand, "It's okay, they won't be awake long enough to be afraid, they will pass on before they understand death."
Obi-Wan shuddered, trying to move and unable to,
But Nile was right, Obi-Wan felt the children and the embryos die.
The embryos weren't present enough to 'sleep' much less feel pain. Instead, whatever life that had been slowly entwining around the cells, let go, the Force absorbing them with open arms.
But the babies, the ones who would have been viable outside a mother's womb, were different, the true infants wailing into the cold water. But they too fell into the arms of the Force, the shock of the cold water more distressing to them than their parting from this life. Shock taking them before they could truly drown.
They died like Obi-Wan had time travelled, not in panic but in bodilessness, waking into the Force, that was warm, safe, welcoming, and familiar being so newly born from it.
Above all else, they were free.
Obi-Wan cried, hating himself for being partly grateful.
Grateful that their deaths weren't as horrific as those at the Temple. Grateful that the foundlings who surrounded him now would never be placed into bondage as they had before.
Obi-Wan hated himself, that he could feel anything but grief on this day.
But he was grateful, grateful for the lights that burned across the galaxy, and for his ade around him who owned all of his heart and whatever was left of his broken soul.
Cody and Rex were laying by his head, their arms around his neck as they pressed their foreheads to his.
"Thank you, Buir," Cody said softly. "Thank you for saving us."
Obi-Wan closed his eyes, tears spilling down his cheeks, and gave up thinking even as he regained his ability to move.
For a time all he knew, was his grief and that he was not alone.
oOo
AN: I'm sorry! Thoughts, harper seals, or feedback?