Chapter 66- Eyn Dini'la Dajun

Jango lifted himself from his hiding place and shook his head. Not only did his armor stay cool to keep his insides from cooking, but his helmet had a special layer to protect him from the pressure of the explosion. Jango saw Dooku poking his head up from the inside of a nearby building, but his Ade were all obediently staying where he'd left them. "Bic cuyir morut'yc. Gar liser olaror dayn jii." (It is safe. You can come out now.) he told them.

Everyone came out of their hiding places. Jango did another silent count of heads to make sure all were with him.

"Anakin! step away from the wall." Dooku hollered at one of the Jetti younglings.

"I'm just looking at it." Anakin rebutted. "Is that where we're going to go in?"

"Indeed, a large enough hole for entry, that is." Yoda studied the rock wall.

"Yes, that should get us in fine now. Thank you for your help." Dooku nodded. "Ray toor shay me. I'm sorry I don't know the words in Mando'a for Goodbye." (Ret'urcye mhi, maybe we'll meet again)

"You act as if you expect me to ba'slanar haar aka dar'ani. (To leave the mission incomplete.) I assure you, I have no intention to leave this battle unfinished."

"But you don't understand…" Dooku started. "Our old comrades were infected, taken over by Sith. They will look like Jedi, but no evil will be below them."

"Darjetii…(Sith) Yes. Ba'buir (Grandfather) Yoda explained it to me on our way here." Jango turned to his younglings and instructed them, "K'am Tracy'uure at mirshir." (Change blasters to shock/stun.)

Every youngling pulled out their blasters and dislodged the one attachment, making them a weapon any pacifist would be proud of.

Dooku blinked and shook his head. "To our knowledge, even a non-force sensitive was possessed by these sith. If you go in there, there will be no way for you to defend yourselves."

"And you would rather go in alone, dar'tome, separated from your people. Where is the strength in that?"

Dooku looked down, clearly speechless.

"Now, the interior is ground I've never actually seen a floorplan of, but it is your yaim, your home, I will look to you to guide us."

"This way, come." Yoda crawled into the hole and entered an old room. It was small and squarish with a doorway, missing a door, on the opposite wall. Through this doorway appeared to be a hallway. Yoda closed his eyes and seemed to be meditating.

Jango looked over at the other Jettii, who seemed to be comfortable waiting for their Ba'buir in the first room. "Don't any of you know which way to go?" he whispered to them.

"The Grandmaster is probably trying to figure out which lift comes up to a less occupied area of the temple," said the one named Siri.

"Going to need to go up a few levels first. I don't think they have lifts down this far." said the one named Poison Spitter.

"No Lifts? Then how did they get between floors?" asked one of the Jetti'ika younglings, a Nautolan boy named Ramu.

"They used the stairs," another Jetti'ika, a girl, shook her head and probably rolled her eyes under the helmet.

"Ramu, Freya." Dooku scolded, then he shook his head. "Floors down this far haven't been occupied in as many years as the surrounding buildings, probably," he turned back to answer Jango's question.

"Really, hmm." Jango furrowed his brow. "Haamyc! (Unusual!) Coruscant really is a strange place. No one takes the time to demolish the old before building a new."

"If your foundations are strong enough, they'll last a millennium. Why tear them down to build a new one?" Dooku laughed. "I was raised on Coruscant for much of my life. This Hah-Meesh city, as you call it, is very normal to us."

Just then Yoda appeared as if by magic. The little Jetii had quiet steps, but he didn't surprise any of the other Jetii. They must hear him coming somehow. Jango would pay attention so he could learn it one of these days. "Found the way, I have. This way, come."

"Ke'pare! Uh… Wait!" Jango rushed after ba'buir Yoda. "You wanted our protection. Gedet'ye, Please let me and my ade walk with you."

To Jango's relief, Yoda slowed his pace. Jango caught up with the Jetii and motioned to two of his ade to walk ahead of them. His younglings would shine the light from their blasters into the side rooms they passed, making sure all was clear.

"On your shoulders, I would like to ride." Yoda said after tapping Jango's side like an adiik (a small child)

Jango found the request odd, but then he had been taught to respect elders since he was an adiik. He knelt on the floor, and with ease the Jetii hopped up onto his back. Jango stood up and he carried Yoda with him.

"Good, this is. You, I would like to talk to… Ahead and to the left, a stair is."

Jango had to stop his ade with a shout, as none of them seemed to hear the Ba'buir Jetii. "Gev! (Stop) clear the stairs. There." Two by two, his younglings went up the stairs, aiming their blasters around. When they got up to the next floor, they'd stay there while another two went up to the next floor, and the one after that.

Yoda watched the young clones perform the probably well practiced act with the performance of grown soldiers. He remembered the men these younglings will someday be, and he smiled, feeling thankful that this was one thing he failed to change. He wished he could find some way to ask about Gree, the former commander he had to kill to escape the great purge. Taking a life is not easy, especially in the situation they were in that day. He knew, even as he swung his saber on the clone, that there was another dark power controlling him. But in this life, Gree would grow up with a Buir who loves him. He'll never have his will stolen, and Yoda wouldn't have to kill the youngling to save himself.

Then he reached up to Jango's head, gently touching the helmet as he let his force presence slide. He didn't have a bond with the warrior, but he wanted to communicate with him. And it would probably be better if none of the others were aware of their conversation. Of course it was a trick most Jedi weren't able to do. Yoda only learned to after he came back in time.

"All the way up, this stair does not go. But up towards the floor where I had my creche, it does go. Know the place better from there, I will," Yoda started.

Jango nodded, but didn't turn to look at him. When the clones had cleared every floor on this stairwell he motioned for Dooku and the others to go up. Jango stayed behind, clearly intending to go last. He would've made a good Master, Yoda thought.

"On a floor below the habited part of the Temple, the Dark Vault is. It is there, we will go first. Dark things lie in the vault. Very dangerous for even our own younglings, it will be." Yoda could feel Jango's mind connect to the facts they had told him before. With the weapon he assumed they were after. He could also feel the mandalorian's stubborn protective streak forming a protest in his mind. Yoda hummed into the other's mind, "Alone, I will retrieve it. Safe for me, it will be. Numerous boobytraps against darkside wielders, in the dark vaults there are. And tested against the artifact's dark side influences, I have been."

Of course that wasn't Yoda's only reason, afterall, he could've sent Siri, Poison Spitter, or Dooku. But none of them could activate the artifact the way Yoda could. The same way he was sliding his consciousness into Jango now, he'd need to slide it into the Tablet to activate it. He cringed at the thought of all that darkness touching his very soul. Yoda stopped to think about Anakin's trial results. That was just one artifact, and a mild one at that, but the effects remain on the stone block to this day. It wouldn't do for them to retrieve the Tablet of Malachor III, and have the youngling break it before they use it. He'll have to have a word with Dooku and Siri to keep Anakin distracted when he carried the item out.

Yoda shook his head, and continued, "Bring it to the upper floors, before I activate it, I will. In the very room with the Sith artifact, it will need to be done. Separate any dead souls inhabiting the living, it will. Mine Included."

This caused Jango's forehead to stretch in surprise. "Tion jaro?" The man's mind asked, and his emotional state projected the question along to Yoda. (What reckless stupidity?)

"Sometimes, when sane solutions don't work, one must be reckless. Stupid to cling to sanity when this happens, it is." Yoda chuckled, remembering the very Jaro Anakin skywalker, who taught him this lesson in another life.

"He is! He's reading my mind!" Jango worried. He turned to Yoda, who let his final thought through.

"Expecting it, my former Padawan will not be. Remind him of the younglings he is charged with, you may need to. Their fault, this is not. Dead for many years now, I have been. Come back as I did before, I may not be able to. Accept this, I do."

Jango looked up at the humble Jettii on his shoulders. A shocked realization that his mouth wasn't even moving with his words, was stunted by the shock of the words themselves. 'Kyrayc… Tion ibic sibur' (Dead…What does this say/mean)

"Ni vercopa ni liser gaa'tayl gar," Jango chose to forgo translating his words. The Babuir Jettii didn't seem to have any difficulty understanding his own thoughts in Mando'a anyway. "A ni ganar eyn aaloya naas ni sibur venamir gar mir'am." (I Wish I could help you. But I have a feeling nothing I say will change your mind.)

"Jor'lekir rohak, gar mir'dral. Ori'sol goyuste parjai eyn kyrbej ganar" (To confirm/admit defeat, You are smart. Many roads to victory, a battlefield has.) Yoda finished. Then he hopped off Jango's back, and followed the other Jettii up the stairs.

Jango shook his head and followed after him. He was going to have to put his head back in the mission to be able to finish it without losing someone. 'Ash'ad,' a not so helpful part of his mind corrected. (someone else)

"Sheevey. Bring us out another prisoner." Damask barely opened the door of the Jedi prison wing to call out.

"Mmmp." Palpatine grumbled. Nearly all the top Sith had selected hosts, and some of the apprentices had selected them as well. Even the first two, who inhabited the human and Geonosian on their way to the Temple, were granted the ability to retake a new, actually force sensitive host. But Palpatine, no. He was not given that right.

Sidious considered just taking one of the prisoners he was guarding. Even without being Force Sensitive, in his current form, he could feel his soul was not attached to the Gungan's body. But then if he did… If he defied the masters…

Palpatine shook with the thought. Not many things could scare a Sith lord. But another one like him, both angry and hateful, apparently did the trick.

"Sheevey, we're getting restless up here." Damask called out to him in a deceptively humorous tone. Sidious would've jumped to appease his master, though he knew he was safe where he was. In the Jedi prison, they were courteous to install several traps the active Sith would trigger. But him… No. He was as safe as any commoner.

"Me'm comen!" Sidious called out to answer him. The poor grammar grating on his last nerve. Apparently it was biological. Gungans lacked the brain power for complex languages, but Sidious apparently retained his ability to hear how irritating it sounded.

To feel anger without the Force was an unusual sensation. Still, he found himself chanting the Sith mantra, "Through passeon me gain strength. Through strength, me gain power. Through power, me gain victory. Through victory, me CHAINS R BROKEN!" Sidious shouted those last few words. Then he laughed. If anything, the dark side brought him more chains in the end.

As Sidious was riding up on the lift with one of the Jedi prisoners, he heard a discussion about himself.

"Are we going to let him have one?" Damask asked.

Bane laughed. "What better place for the failure, than in a Jedi prison. No, Sidious is right where he belongs."

Damask laughed too. "You're right. I was always soft on the boy. He needs a firm hand."

Sidious choked. It's not like he expected his masters to defend him. Not after he killed him! But to hear the one that he one day, not so very long ago, relied on. A man who's opinion meant the world to him, so casually write him off, it hurt. And that hurt did not bring him power, which didn't bring him victory, or break his chains. And he was back to the same place again, with nothing to do but bow before his masters.

Hello Readers,

I do hope you enjoy Palpatine's bit at the end there. It's not all for blind vengeance though. There is a reason I've got him there.

For the Mandalorian in this, I decided to put the translations in the paragraphs in parentheses. Other works use subtitles, but I find that I don't like anything that pulls you out of the paragraph to find meaning to it. In other chapters I've used ' ' to do the same, but this chapter had a lot more Mando'a, and I didn't want it to be confused with the character's thoughts. I did have to make up a word. Mando'a seems to lack a word for smart, wise, or wisdom. It has mir'sheb, meaning smartass, and mirshe, meaning brain. So I used mir'dral. Dral means bright, glowing, strong, or powerful, and I assume mir' is a root associated with the mind.

Mandalorian also seems to lack a word for meaning, as in "What does this mean?" So I used the word to say. It isn't a huge leap, but I put both meanings in my translations.

And the Chapter title translates to: An Insane Plan.