Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

Hi all, I'm sorry for the long break, I had a lot to do and lost a bit of motivation to update. Thank you to those of you who reviewed, favourited, and/or followed this story, you helped me get it together enough to post another chapter.

I'm adding another time skip here, so Leia is now 12-13, becoming a Mandalorian adult, but there will likely be references to her earlier childhood throughout the next few chapters.

Enjoy!

Chapter 5- Fett's Worry

"Ungh!" Leia groaned as she hit the ground hard, again. "Come on Leia, you have to get good at hand to hand combat. You can't always rely on your equipment, you have to be able to defend yourself." Boba chided her even as he was pulling Leia to her feet. "But it's not fair! You're a lot bigger and stronger than me, I don't stand a chance!" Leia rubbed her shoulder as Boba gestured for her to get into her beginning stance again.

"That's true, but most beings in the galaxy will be, once you get the basic moves down I'll teach you how to properly deal with a much stronger opponent. You'll soon learn Leia, life isn't going to be fair. Human females don't rank very high on the size and strength charts of the galaxy, and you're fairly small even for your sex and species, as was your mother. This matchup is about as fair as you'll find in the galaxy: we're the same species. If you can't handle yourself against me you'll have no chance if your gear breaks and you run into a wookie or a trandoshan." "Fine." Leia mumbled as she took her stance, stronger this time, as she finally understood why her father was making her do this.

Many days and rounds later Leia was beginning to get the hang of hand to hand combat, and Boba began to show her different grips and methods to break them. Within a few months there wasn't much more that he could teach her. He was now able to train her using all of his strength, and she could hold her own. He sometimes brought in friends of his from the guild for Leia to practise fighting other styles and species with, and she got very good very quickly, almost too quickly.

Her gift for combat got Boba thinking about who her biological father was, all he knew for certain was that Padmé was her mother and that the Jedi had wanted to take her, presumably to train. Since the Jedi were so certain that Luke and Leia would be valuable to them he felt that he could safely assume that the father of Padmé's twins was a Jedi. Padmé was only very close to two Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Since Kenobi had only taken the boy, and not the girl, and he felt sure that even Kenobi wouldn't be so callous as to abandon his own daughter, so the twins' father must be the Knight Skywalker who had died in the purges.

Leia's reflexes led Boba to believe that she shared Skywalker's abilities in the force, which made him anxious– he could not train her in the force, or even how to controll it, so she would be in great danger if she ever came face to face with Vader or one of his Inquisitors.

Even in the face of his mounting uncertainties Boba had to take Leia to Mandalore, which was heavily under Imperial controll. Leia's thirteenth birthday was fast approaching, and she had to go to the ancestral planet of Mandalorians to forge her armour.

On the day that they would land on Mandalore Boba gave Leia a plain black jumpsuit that clung tightly to her body, and told her to put it on and braid her hair tight to her head. Leia just nodded, nervous for the first time about the upcoming ceremony. Boba had spent the last few weeks teaching Leia about the ceremony, and what would be expected of her. Leia knew that she was ready, but also felt the nerves that her dad said that almost everyone does right before the ceremony.

As the Slave I landed in the spaceport and lowered the ramp a squad of stormtroopers approached. "Identification." the curt, mechanical sounding voice from behind the leader's mask, Boba handed over a data chip, the trooper put it in his data pad, pulling up Boba's ID information. The trooper handed back Boba's ID chip, and curtly intoned, "And hers." Boba just stared at the trooper through his mask, "Right, Mandalorians. What is her name, age, clan, and your reason of visit?" "Her name is Leia Fett, clan Fett, and she is twelve years old. We are here for her thirteenth birthday, in accordance with Mandalorian tradition." The trooper nodded and said, "Move along."

Leia walked quickly through the Mandalorian streets, keeping close to Boba's side. She saw other girls dressed just like her, ages ranging from toddlers to looking around twelve or thirteen. At the end of the street there was a massive building that shone with a blue-grey sheen in the heat of Mandalore's sun. Boba had shown Leia pictures of this building: the Fett Clan's armoury.

As the pair approached the building Leia fought the urge to cling to her dad's hand, she knew that she must appear confident and strong when they entered. When the doors clanged shut behind them Leia had to blink a few times to adjust to the low light in the passage way. The passage was a long corridor that led to a room that was emanating the mechanical sounds of a forge, and was lit only by the low glow from the molten beskar.

The armourer stood tall and imperious as Leia approached. She felt comforted and reassured by the weight of Boba's hand resting on her shoulder as she stared into the mask of the hammer-wielding behemoth before her. The armourer stood silently, examining Leia, for a moment before turning to Boba. "You have raised a strong and courageous daughter, Boba. Your father would be proud, both of his son and his granddaughter." With these words the armourer grasped Leia's chin, in a surprisingly gentle hold, and ran his index finger along a scar that extended from just below her right ear to curl up her jawline. "What gave this to her?" he inquired, "A canyon krayt dragon on Tatooine." Boba replied stonily. "I see… and what became of the beast that marked the daughter of a Fett?" "By the time I could intervene it had already met death by my daughter's blade."

"Excellent." The armourer released Leia's jaw and turned to the beskar vaults. "She has earned her full armour, and the canyon krayt as her signet." The armourer went about his craft, melting the beskar metal into sheets that could be worked before holding the hammer out for Leia to take. Leia inhaled deeply before stepping forward and taking the hammer from the armourer's hand, and striking each sheet of metal squarely in the middle and handing the hammer to her father. She stood by the armourer's side as each member of the clan landed a single blow to the sheets of beskar, slowly morphing them into discernable shapes. The armourer finished the pieces, and Boba placed each of them on her body over her black jumpsuit, then stepped back to allow the armourer to approach once again.

The armourer attached the small metal rendering of a krayt dragon to her right shoulder. "When you wear this armour, you wear Clan Fett. Each member of this family helped you to forge your armour, and in doing so extend our protection to you. In this armour your family will protect and defend you. Wear it proudly, and add your mark to the name of Fett." Leia looked out at the members of the clan- her family- assembled for her coming of age, and without a quiver in her voice said, "I will."

Author's Note: Hello everybody! I hope you enjoyed Leia's coming of age story. I'm so sorry that it took me so long to get it posted. I'll try to be better about timing, but I've got finals and AP Exams coming up, so I might only have a short chapter- or none at all- up within the next few weeks. Thank you all for your patience, and I hope that I can make these lapses up to you!

xx

Eponine-Skywalker7