Stewjoni: Because this can be whatever the fuck I want it to be, Stewjoni accents on Basic sound somewhat Scottish.
Chapter 27 - Traitor
They were able to sleep, Jango and Obi-Wan taking turns throughout their trip to hyperspace.
Obi-Wan wasn't thrilled to see Naboo come into view, however, it was not the same sadness that had preceded his visits before.
Qui-Gon was dead, but not gone, in a very little sense and of the people he mourned, his Master's death no longer stung quite so much.
Jango docked their ship to Plo Koon's much larger vessel. And from there, they opened a channel between their ship, Silas's, and Kal's.
Acting as the three flagships, the Nubian gate accepted their transmission.
Ahsoka ran to Obi-Wan and he picked the girl up in a hug, her Force presence reaching out to his in affirmation.
She was in good hands with Plo, but she must have felt the death they left behind them. That would unnerve any child and Obi-Wan sincerely hoped Naboo would host them until they could reclaim and bring some stability to the Mandalorian system.
Obi-Wan touched his forehead to Ahsoka's before setting her back down and shooing the ade out of the cockpit.
Only Ponds and Cody remained sitting quietly in the back seats as Obi-Wan, Plo, and Jango stood before the halo panels.
"Access requested from the True Mandalorians to Nubian Space," Jango said into the basic com.
There was a long pause.
Obi-Wan exchanged a look with Plo.
The reply was not wholly unexpected, —Request denied, you must leave Nubian space, and re-apply for asylum.
"What?" Jango demanded. "We were just—"
Obi-Wan waved him away from the com, knowing this was Palpatine's doing.
—What are you going to do, Kabiin? Kal asked, from their private holo-channel on Plo's ship that was prepared for holding Council meetings.
Obi-Wan's eyes cut to Kal's blue visor holo-image, "You may find that my name is not as detested in all corners of the galaxy as it is in others."
"If you get us—"
Obi-Wan hit the com to speak to the Nubians, "This is Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, requesting an audience with Queen Amidala, for myself, my partner, and two of my sons."
There was a pause, —Hold please, Master Kenobi.
Jango gave Obi-Wan a sidelong look.
But there was no time to speak before the com crackled again, —This is Captain Panaka.
"Hello, Captain," Obi-Wan responded. "It has been quite some time."
Panaka's image flickered into view and his voice was much warmer than it had been, —Master Kenobi, it is a welcome surprise to hear from you.
Kal's image crossed his arms.
Obi-Wan smiled, knowing Panaka could only see himself and Jango.
"Have you and your Majesty been well?" Obi-Wan asked as if they were all friends.
Perhaps they were.
—I am most well and I was glad to learn your funeral was in haste. The Queen is most well. I'm afraid, however, I must have misheard you. Did you say, partner and sons?
Obi-Wan smiled, "Your ears have not deceived you, I left the Order to start a family."
Kal made a derisive sound but otherwise held his tongue.
Panaka's smile grew, —Oh, I imagine you've broken a number of hearts.
Obi-Wan laughed, "You flatter me." He took Jango's hand, "But as attachments are no longer forbidden to me, I wished to share my happiness with old friends."
—And I am certain the Queen will be quite delighted. Panaka agreed before looking at Jango, —Are you the lucky man then, Mand'alor Jango Fett?
Jango's confusion swam in the Force but he nodded, "Yes, I am quite lucky to have found my Riduur'alor."
Panaka gave Jango a conspiratorial look, —You will be the envy of many.
"Do we have permission to land?" Jango asked, ignoring the suggestive tone of the good Captain.
Panaka looked back at Obi-Wan and said, —Tensions have been rising in the Senate. The True Mandalorians have been named as enemies of the Republic and of Mandalore. New negotiations must proceed before your ships can be permitted to land. However, Master Kenobi and his immediate family are most welcome to meet with the Queen.
"And my sons, Cody and Ponds of Clan Fett will be honoured to meet you," Obi-Wan said, ensuring they would not be searched for weapons.
Panaka practically melted, —How old are they?
"They are twins, age seven," Obi-Wan said, rounding down, knowing they wouldn't pass as the five of their actual years or the eight going on nine of their physical development.
Panaka smiled, —Congratulations, please proceed to the eastern dock. Your people have permission to remain in Nubian space, just not yet to land.
Obi-Wan bowed, "Thank you, Captain."
Panaka bowed in turn before the transmission was cut.
—How? Kal demanded.
Plo chuckled, "Obi-Wan, his Master and his Padawan were the Heroes of Naboo. Naboo retains its sovereignty due to their sacrifices. Not even the Chancellor has the power to turn them away."
Jango gave Obi-Wan a startled look, "You didn't tell me that."
Obi-Wan shrugged, "If I mentioned every political planetary event I've been involved in you'd never let me go anywhere again."
"You did have a way of finding trouble," Plo remarked. "Something I believe you inherited from Qui-Gon, no doubt."
"Well," Obi-Wan defended himself, as he readjusted his lightsaber from the sword hilt to his belt where it would be visible. "At least I was assigned the insane cases, Qui-Gon chased after chaos."
Plo laughed, "As you say, Master Kenobi."
Obi-Wan glared at the other Master.
Cody and Ponds came up to him, and Cody asked, "What did you save the Nubians from?"
"A Sith plot and a Trade Federation embargo, I'm certain you'll hear more fantastical retellings tonight," Obi-Wan said.
"I brought child sized robes," Plo said, going to a trunk in the back.
"Excellent," Obi-Wan said, catching both bundles and kneeling in front of the boys to help them into them.
—You're going to dress up the Mand'alor's children in Jetii robes? Kal asked, disgusted.
"The mythology of Jedi being celibate is quite prevalent, and my involvement with the Nubian Crisis has been quite romanticised. My marriage to the Mand'alor will be—"
Plo chuckled, picking up the thread of the discussion, "Quite a bit more romanticised. Ponds and Cody look so much like their sire that the Jedi robes will appeal to the civilians' imagining of what a unity between a Mandalorian or a Jedi should look like."
Obi-Wan sighed, "This is going to be played across the galaxy."
Cody paled, "They are going to be recording us?"
Obi-Wan touched their foreheads together, "Chancellor Palpatine is from Naboo and the Naboo are quite fond of their ceremonies. But remember what I told you about acting, you just have to stay with Jango and me. Nothing else will be required of you."
—If they broadcast this, it will be an open declaration of war, Silas remarked.
"Indeed," Obi-Wan said, adjusting the collar of Ponds' tunic before standing. "And an opportunity to win over the wider public. Those who are loyal to the Duchess may be swayed by Naboo, the Alderaan of the Outer Rim, becoming our first allies."
Silas tilted his helmet, —And it may win over more of the traditionalists, that Jango's absence these last few years can now be explained away as his raising his ade. While a Jetii spouse may not be welcomed, it is still a tale worth telling that Jango wooed a Jetii from their Order.
Obi-Wan smirked, "Satine and Pre are going to lose their kriffing minds."
Jango sighed, "It's not great that you're on a first basis with our primary enemies, ner mesh'la."
—Sure it is, Silas argued. —If they are angered enough, we get to play defence, thus making us the sympathetic party and devesting the Duchy of their higher than thou morals. No one likes hypocrites.
"Precisely," Obi-Wan said. "Ready, ner Mand'alor?"
Jango shook his head, but said, "As I'll ever be."
oOo
Pre Vizsla had heard rumours that an Obi-Wan Kenobi had helped the New Mandalorians claim Mandalore.
But Pre had been able to convince himself that his vod'ika was not a part of such treason and that he had died with their mother.
Therefore, he was not prepared to be shown a holo-newscasting of the supposed "Mand'alor" and his Riduur'alor being paraded down a Nubian street to meet with the Nubian queen, legitimizing the True Mandalorians in a way the Watch had not yet achieved since the end of the Clan Wars.
"Is it him?" Senator Prince Tal Merrik of Kalevala asked.
Pre narrowed his eyes at the red-bearded man, a warrior that contrasted against the scared child he remembered of his brother.
But dressed in armour and Jetii robes, Pre knew in his bones that it hadn't been the seas of Stewjon that had stolen his mother and brother from but the Jetiiese.
"Aruetii," Pre spat.
Traitor.
"Cute ade though," Isabet Reau said.
Pre sneered at the two twins, one ad, Ponds Fett, walked between his buire, arms outstretched to hold both their hands while Obi-Wan held the other in his arms. The adiik, Cody Fett, had his face pressed to Obi-Wan's neck, clinging to him as if the aruetii were his world and his shield against the galaxy.
Pre knew this was a problem, Jetii or no, Stewjoni or no, and aruetii or no, the True Mandalorians were a much larger threat than the New Mandalorians.
They were not extremists nor stupid pacifists, and they shared enough in common with the Watch that Pre knew, logically, that it would be a struggle to keep the loyalties of all his men.
Jango Fett as the galaxy's most renowned bounty hunter, and now proud buir, posed a real threat.
Pre's little brother was another problem altogether. His being a Jetii would be a mark against him, but not when it got out that he was a Vizsla. If Obi-Wan ever held the Dark Saber, Pre's own claim as Mand'alor would be thrown to the winds.
oOo
Duchess Satine Kryze had to excuse herself before she lost her cool.
Once she was alone in her rooms, she screamed. Pulling up again the holoprojection of disaster that was setting the galaxy into an uproar.
A Master Jedi had left their Order to start a family.
But not just any Jedi with not just any family.
No, that wasn't dramatic enough.
"Kark you, Kenobi!" she screamed to the privacy of her empty rooms.
No, not just any Jedi Master, one of the Order's most famous Knights, Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The man who had put her on the throne, the man who had once offered her everything and she had turned him away because he knew that he would never be content as a pacifist.
He would have become Duke in truth and he would never have allowed her to exile the warrior clans to the moons.
Still, she had been tempted, tempted to follow her older brother's advice when he been on his death bed.
"Marry him, Sat'ika. Marry him and you will unite all of Mandalore behind you. He'll adopt my son, Kenobi will make Korkie a man of honour," he had told her.
"But at what cost?" she had asked. "Our father wanted a new legacy for our people."
Her brother had smiled at her, "Our buir is dead, vod'ika, and you will be Duchess. Ideals alone can not sustain a people."
She had disagreed, but she had almost listened.
Until Obi-Wan's blood test had come back.
No, not just any Jedi Knight.
A Mandalorian by birth and blood.
A Vizsla.
A Stewjoni.
Born to chaos and war, she knew Obi-Wan would not bring peace to Mandalore, just a manifestation of the old ways.
She knew she couldn't let her nephew be adopted by such a man, knew she couldn't marry him.
For she wouldn't have been Duchess and he a Duke.
He would have been the Mand'alor, and she his second as Riduur'alor.
Tears slipped down her cheeks as she watched the man she had once loved laugh as he was greeted by the pretentious Nubian Queen.
A boy who had grown into a warrior of Mandalorian legends.
His voice was deep and smooth, accented not in Coruscanti but distinctly and deliberately Stewjoni, which might have been negative in most contexts but would communicate to any Mandalorian who was watching that this might be a Jedi Master but his birthright was Mandalorian.
"Master Obi-Wan Kenobi," Queen Amidala greeted, bowing her crowned head. "An honour to have Naboo's Hero return to us with your family."
Jango Fett, the most famous bounty hunter in the galaxy, nodded in turn. He stooped to pick up the other twin son, so each buir held a twin who looked like mini Jangos.
Mini-Mand'alors.
It would appeal to every fantasy Mandalorians around the galaxy had, from the most titled noble to the lowliest enforcer.
Jango spoke first, showing that he outranked Obi-Wan. His words were spoken with utmost surety, as if he wasn't declaring war with every breath he took, "It is our honour, Queen Amidala of Naboo. My Riduur'alor Kabiin Fett and our ade, Ponds and Cody are indebted to your kindness."
Satine gritted her teeth.
Riduur'alor Kabiin Fett.
Jango had done what Satine had been unable to do, name Obi-Wan and have the man agree to be second to him. Due to Jango's holding of the title of Mand'alor, something as a pacifist, Satine herself would never be able to claim.
Hells, she probably wouldn't have even been allowed the title of Riduur'alor in their culture either.
The copper of Obi-Wan's armour beneath his Jedi robes looked as regal as the queen he stood before.
Satine watched in agony and rage as Obi-Wan, shy and sweet, Obi-Wan unabashedly leaned over to kiss Jango's cheek, resting their foreheads together in a keldabe kiss, their ade pressed between their armoured buire, the perfect picture of a Mandalorian aliit.
"It is our great happiness to share our joy with our allies," Obi-Wan said, sealing the declaration with a demur smirk.
Satine screamed again, throwing one of her hairpins soaring through the holo image to shatter the glass pan behind it.
It seemed a bad omen for everything she had built on her own.
For her and her glass city were not prepared for a war and it was all she could do to hope that her allies in the Republic would have the common sense to recognise the threat Jango Fett and his Riduur'alor posed to the galaxy.
For their influence would reach beyond the Mandalore system.
Far beyond the Mandalore System.
Satine sank to the floor, her skirts pooling around her as she hugged herself.
"Traitor," she whispered. "You're a traitor, Kenobi, to peace and to freedom. And I will ensure that you are the architect of your own destruction."
Pain and jealousy darkened her heart as she wept alone in her cold palace.
oOo
AN: Thoughts, cranes, or feedback on the chapter, pretty please?