WPRT Ch. 13 (Updated 2021)
A Not So Secret, Secret
Aaron:
We made it back to the top of the set of stairs. We kept quiet going up, and I wondered how she would take the news.
"So what's going on?"
I sighed.
"I'm fine. But what do you think of Jango?"
She blushed and turned away. I'm pretty sure she was smiling.
"Oh, well, he seems to be a good person. Maybe not entirely legit, but nice..."
Oh no, she has a crush on him. What a cliché. Well, you know what they say about crushes…
"I don't think so. Do we really know what his job is here?"
She turned back to me with a furrowed brow.
"What do you mean?"
"He said he had a job to finish, and he is a bounty hunter. What would a political figure need a bounty hunter for?"
"Uhhhh…."
"When I was downstairs, I talked with the senator that was mentioned at the party and her bodyguard. The guard said he and his friend were part of an investigation on an assassination attempt. The senator was the target, obviously. But, he just told me that the assassin blew up a ship. Everyone on that ship died. He thought the senator was on it."
"Ok?"
She's still not getting it.
"The assassin tried again by poisoning her in her sleep. The bodyguards caught the assassin. But, it turns out the assassin was paid by the real one to do the dirty work. The real one killed his partner after she had failed and was captured. The assassin's trail led here, the real assassin was hired by Dooku."
"But that could be anyone at that party, it doesn't mean anything."
"No, it could have only been one person. Everyone else there was an owner of a company. Not really assassin material. Jango was right beside Dooku, mostly likely for another job."
Jo seemed to think for a moment.
Then she had the epiphany.
"Then Jango-."
"Yes, Jo, he is that assassin."
She didn't handle the news well. She was on the verge of tears.
"But, what do we do?"
"We are going to ask him. If he says he is, we'll just get off on the next planet. Honestly, I think we should get out either way. But let's hope we never get involved with him again. I can understand someone being an assassin. But, to go to those lengths, blowing up public places, not even having the guts to look at your target when you kill them, and even killing his own partner. Who ever the assassin is, he is nothing but a coward."
"Tell me…"
Both Jo and I had our attention turned to the source of the new voice. We were shocked to see that Jango was there. Just a few feet away.
He walked forward until he was a few inches in front of me.
"Tell me to my face that I am a coward, that I am no warrior."
I could tell he was angry, but I wasn't going to be intimidated.
I made eye-contact with him, putting a glint in my eye.
"You are a coward. If you think after doing what you did makes you a warrior...You. Are. Wrong."
His anger mounted when I said that. I think he expected me to back down. Jango was going to say something else, but I didn't let him.
"You're starting a war, that will cause the suffering of millions, if not, billions. You used a bomb in a public area, killing those passengers, and the target wasn't even there. Pointless."
Jango was quickly moving from angry to livid, but I couldn't stop.
"You even killed your partner just to cover your tracks. Gee, how well did that work."
One more thing and he will snap.
"You don't even believe in their cause…"
To my surprise, Jango changed from anger to shock.
"You couldn't care less for the people at that party. I saw your uncaring glaze at their words. You just want the money. What good is it if your wanted poster is everywhere for starting a war?!"
He seemed to think at that.
"How would Boba feel if you died? You won't survive this. And he'll be left all alone. You traded your duty in supporting and raising your son for money. When you're gone, whose money will it be? Dooku won't pay you if you're dead."
Jango was angry and looked lost…
One more nail in the coffin.
"The saddest part of it all, is that you didn't even see your target. You never did any of the work. Again, you just hired someone else, and you killed her instead. On my world, there was a war that changed the face of warfare. At the time, it was known as the Great War. It was started when an assassin group known as the Black Hand assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austria-Hungary Empire. They were complete flops, and it was an accident that they finally managed to kill him. The only difference between you and them, is they believed in their cause. You don't."
At this Jo put her hand on my shoulder, wanting me to stop. My attention was taken from Jango and I saw an upset Jo. I guess this scared her a bit. Seeing me angry.
"You're right…"
Jo and I looked back at Jango, shocked by this statement.
"I am a Mandalorian warrior who was taught to work for honor, and to keep are traditions alive by teaching my son! I taught him a lot as a father, but now that I realize what this would do to him."
He put his hand on his forehead.
"What- what have I done? It would be abandoning him. I now know I have made a terrible mistake."
Emotion could be seen on his face, but dared not shed a year. Soon, a small laugh escaped his lips.
"It's Ironic. If I didn't take this job, Boba wouldn't exist."
Jo asked before I could, "What do you mean?"
"The initial payment for my services for Dooku was that I would have a genetically perfect clone. He is the son I never had. I never had time to settle down to make a family. I thought it would be simple. How far I have fallen."
Jango started to walk away, but I grabbed him by the shoulder. I couldn't help but sigh.
"I guess you had good intentions. You got Boba out of it, and doing other jobs for Dooku got you money to support Boba. But what your son really wants more than the best in life, is his father to be there."
I removed my hand.
"You need to quit working for Dooku. You can do anything, but don't work for them. Not if you want to be there for Boba."
"You're right. What was I thinking? I just felt like I had no choice! I thought things would work out. Something was telling me to work for him. But ever since I met you two, that feeling started leaving me. Hearing about your struggles here reminded me of a time I forgot about. The family I had."
He looked down.
"If something happens to me… promise me you will look after Boba."
"Well of course we-"
"What, you would just dump your son on us like that!"
That was not a reaction I expected from Jo.
"Take it easy Jo, he just wants to know his son will be alright if something happens. That's not wrong, is it?"
"What? No! It's just…"
She seemed like she did not know what to say, "Uuuugh!"
With that, she marched away.
Women…
"Is she going to be alright?"
"Ya, this happens with her every now and then. You could say she has a bit of a hair trigger when it comes to emotions."
"It seems that way."
"Well don't worry about it. She will be over it by morning. You know how older sisters are."
"Yeah…"
I didn't like the tone in Jango's voice. I must have brought up a touchy subject.
We started walking the same direction the Emotional demon went, and decided to ask him something.
"What are Mandalorians?"
"What?"
It was obvious that the man was thinking hard about what had just transpired, it was the perfect opportunity to learn more about him.
"You said you're a Mandalorian warrior. So what is that? Some hardcore army division?"
He smirked, "Something like that."
We moved to the right for a Geonosian guard to walk past us.
"The Mandalorians are people from the planet of Mandalore. In the past, the Mandalorian people were known to be Great crusaders and warriors. Something people feared to face. And you don't even need to be from Mandalore to be a Mandalorian. Some have never even seen it."
That's interesting.
"Really?"
"Yes. Those that follow the code of the Mandalorians are not bound by race or origins. The only requirement is that they follow the code and pledge themselves to Mandalore."
"So what are the codes?"
Jango said it was called the Super Commando Codex, and he went into full detail about it.
"Strength is life, for the strong have the right to rule.
Honor is life, for with no honor one may as well be dead.
Loyalty is life, for without one's clan one has no purpose.
Death is life, one should die as they have lived."
"That makes sense, you need to be strong to make the right decisions in leadership."
He smiled at that.
"Good to know that young people still get that."
"Our world has had good leaders, but we have had more bad than good. But, the Bad ones are good for us to learn from their mistakes."
He nodded his head in approval.
"Is there more to your code?"
There was, he told me the rest of it. And it came down to six requirements.
You need to wear armor.
Speak 'our' language.
Defend yourself and your family.
Raise your kids to be Mandalorians.
Contribute to the welfare of your clan.
If the Mandalor calls, you go.
Some of the stuff Jango told me was not that different from Christianity, in a weird way. He went into detail about other traditions they have. How Mandos make their own armor, and that they have a rite of passage.
"Rite of passage?"
"We call it Verd'goten."
"Verd'goten?"
"Yes. When a child reaches the age of 8, they begin their training until the age of 13. Then they need to make their first kill, whether it's man or beast. The target is up for the trainer to decide. All that matters is that the target is a challenge."
"That sounds awesome, I assume that if it's a human target, it's someone who is wanted?"
"You guessed right. We don't choose a random person. Most people are shocked by that idea."
"Would you believe me if I told you that a group from our world had a worse initiation for warriors?"
"Really, like what?"
"Well, long ago, there was a group of people called the Spartans. They lived a gruesome life. When a child was born among them, they killed the baby if it had a defect, or blemish. Then, if the child was lucky to survive that, they would go through intense training. They would be taken from their families at the age of 7."
Jango's face showed anger at that, "That sounds like something Death Watch would do."
"Death Watch?"
"They are a clan of false warriors that oppose the true Mandalorian way. They're a group of nothing but pirates and claim they have honor, but they have none. They have given up the true path."
As soon as he finished, we had made it to the door of my room. I pressed the button to open the door, and entered.
Just as I left it.
I turned around to see that Jango was waiting outside my door.
"You can come in if you want, I would like to hear more about the Mandalorians."
"Your sister may not like that considering she is right next door."
"Naaaa, she can suck it up. She's most likely too distracted to care."
Jango was going to say something, but Boba showed up in the doorway and asked, "Is something wrong with Jo? She looked upset a few minutes ago when I saw her."
Jango looked nervous, so I answered Boba for him, "Oh, she's just having an episode. Just taking the whole other galaxy thing harder than I am. Still."
He seemed to buy that response, and Jango looked relieved.
I changed the subject.
"So Jango, Boba told me you could teach me a card game from your galaxy, called sabacc?"
He chuckled, "Yes, I can teach you. We have plenty of time."
He motioned for me to follow him as he headed to the small round table. Boba and I followed. He pulled out 3 decks of cards with different colors, numbers, pluses and minuses. He let me use the spare deck and gave me the rundown. I was surprised how similar it was to blackjack. Except for the individual decks. That reminded me of something like Pokémon, or Yu-Gi-Oh. We played a few games. I won a couple of them in the end.
"Well, we have had a long day Boba, I think it's time we go to bed."
Boba was disappointed in hearing that, "Yes dad."
As Boba got up from his chair to leave. Jango gave him a couple of pats on his back. "Well, we'll see you two at the ceremony tomorrow. Afterwards, we will head out of here. I don't have any other jobs at the moment. So we will have to decide a destination to drop you both off."
"Sounds good. Are we allowed to wear our equipment for this?"
"Yes, I would greatly recommend that you wear everything. In fact, bring everything you own. I would like to leave as soon as possible. Your weapons too."
"Alright, I'll make sure to tell Jo in the morning."
"Good, make sure to watch yourself tomorrow."
Boba and Jango walked towards the door to leave. After Boba left the room, Jango told me something, "You know, if this was a different time. You would have made a good Mando. Thank you again for setting me straight. It was as if a shroud had blinded me."
"It was nothing, Jango. We all have moments in life like that. We lose ourselves. I have had that happen in my life time and time again. But do you know how I get myself back on track?"
He shakes his head no.
"I remember a Higher Power that I serve, and what He has done for me."
He thought about it for a few moments, and said. "I think I understand that a little bit."
He smiled as he left the room.
I smiled too.
I hope he will.
With that, I decided to use my phone to listen to a song before I went to bed. I chose to listen to 'Stand by Me'. (It's a very motivational song I like to listen to).
After the song was over. I turned off my phone and closed my eyes.
I hope Jo is ok.
And for the first time, since being in this galaxy. I had no trouble with sleep.
End Chapter