Chapter Text
It had been two years. Two years of searching, of every contact Obi-Wan had, every contact the Jedi had being asked to help locate Jango. They hadn’t stopped everything else for the search, they knew they couldn’t afford that if they wanted a Manda’yaim for him to return to.
There were still political snarls for Obi-Wan and Jaster to smooth out, more than there had been before the Hutt War. A number of systems that had suffered for that war had decided that if the Republic was willing to leave them to die in a war between two other governments, they’d be better off with the Mandalorians. After all, while the Republic had a duty and failed it, Mandalore had owed nothing but what they felt was honorable, and yet had offered more than many of these systems had seen from the Core in living memory. More systems left the Republic when it became clear the Senate majority had no intention of letting the Jedi go peacefully. The Senator from Naboo had called Chancellor Teem a slaving dirt bag in front of the entire Senate and the press. Then he’d announced Naboo’s decision to secede from the Republic and join the Alliance of Independent Mandalorian Systems - the political body Obi-Wan had drawn up to better manage Jango’s collection of planets.
They still had the Manda’yaim Temple to finish building and the relocation effort to run. It wasn’t quite a full scale retreat, but after the Naboo announcement they started giving every Master or Knight headed off world a minimum of three new “Padawans” to care for. The number of Jedi younglings reported missing on mission would have once made a certain Senator quite proud, but he was no longer in a place to see such numbers. Finally, Alderaan and Corellia, both Core worlds with long histories in the Republic, openly offered sanctuary to Jedi wishing to leave Coruscant, and the last shred of pretense they had at anything but evacuation vanished along with the Coruscant Temple, which apparently had once been a star ship. Nobody had wanted to risk flying it with the Jedi’s children, elderly, and invalid on board, so they waited until the last to limp it along to Alderaan with the Archives under the watchful eye of Jocasta Nu and a full company of armed Mandalorians.
They created a new Corps, the EngCorp, filled with engineers, mechanics, inventors, and builders. An independent investor on Mandallia had seen the modular building of the AgriCorp outpost and petitioned the Manda’yaim temple directly for permission to study the schematics so they could start a non-profit based around putting better homes on the less affluent worlds in the rapidly expanding Alliance territory. Master-Admiral Pratiphal had been in the Council chamber when the request was made, and slapped herself for not having seen the idea before. The ExploraCorps Vanguard had reacted swiftly to organize transfers from the rest of the Order and put out job placement announcements to fill the rest of the ranks swiftly. Arge Bralor, the Mando’ad who had the idea, was roped into a leadership role, and was flourishing.
Anakin still had lessons - and it was even money which Corp he would join after Knighting, Exploration or Engineering - and daily life kept happening.
That didn’t mean the search ever stopped.
<X>
They narrowed it down, slowly circling a bare patch in the star maps beyond the Rishi Maze. Sil and Jocasta overcame their initial rocky start after discovering both databases had been sliced and data erased, joining forces in righteous fury. Sil contacted a distant cousin in Chiss space for his copy of the star maps of the area. When he learned this was also a favor for the leader of the rather impressive armed forces that agreed to defend the Ascendancy for practically nothing, Mitth'raw'nuruodo was more than happy to send the maps along on a brand new heavy cruiser. His sister, Knight-Captain Kivu Rika, also attended the courier, her nearly-Knighted Padawan taking the opportunity to gain command experiences on a matching light cruiser
Three Chiss warships, seven Mandalorian Dreadnaughts, and a swarm of assorted small fighters piloted by Jedi Knight Pilots dropped out over Kamino almost three years after Jango Fett had been reported killed in action.
They landed through a hole in the clouds that spilled sunlight across the landing platform of the ocean research base that had been rented by one Sheev Palpatine. Said man attempted to order the researchers he’d hired to refuse the landing, but their government had given them direct orders to obey the Jedi… their research was already being disavowed and their superiors’ asses being covered, so they knew these orders were meant to protect them as much as to protect their planet. His demands were weighed with the same cold math they weighed everything with, and his contract was terminated.
They didn’t even have to pay the cancellation fee, since the only path of exit took Palpatine into the waiting arms of a collected force of Jedi, Mandalorians, and those who seemed to stand as a strange cross breed of the two. He screeched in rage and threw lightning from his hands, and was subdued by armored figures wielding the Force alongside their other weapons. The former client fell quickly under their fast and coordinated defense, and the Kaminoans watched with the comfort of knowing their math had been correct.
One of the strange Jedi-Mandalorians, clad in gleaming gold and green armor, wielding a vibrant green sword of light, walked past every guide they offered, cutting through doors until he reached his goal.
<X>
“Su cuy, ner runi,” he sighed, finally laying eyes on Jango Fett. “I’m sorry I’m late.”
“I forgive you,” Jango said, shifting Boba in his arms to better settle the three-year old on his hip as he stood from the Storytime Chair. “Mhi me’dinui an, remember, there’s no debts. Not between us.”
Obi-Wan dropped into a gentle mirshmure'cya. Then he pulled off his helmet, blinking suspiciously.
“Ner cyare, I do believe you are about a month early to be holding an ikaad,” he said, looking at Boba’s gap-toothed grin. “But I’ll let it slide, he seems very polite.”
“In my defense, I was left unsupervised,” Jango shot back. “Come, meet the ade. Prudii, Jaing, get your brothers up from their nap, I want you all to meet your O’buir.”
He gave Obi-Wan a cautious look. “That is, if… you want….”
“Of course I do, your children are my children, as mine are yours,” Obi-Wan laughed. “Anakin is going to love having brothers to look after. Although we may need to adopt a few girls, too, or Asajj is gonna be mad she’s outnumbered.”
“Oh and I was the hasty one?” Jango said dryly.
“It doesn’t count, she’s older than Anakin!” Obi-Wan protested.
“Buir’e are thilly,” Boba decided, nodding firmly. “I wanna go thit wif Kote.”
“I love you,” Jango said to his husband as he obligingly released his son.
“Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum,” Obi-Wan promised. “Let's go home, Jango.”
<X>
Once there had been a time that Mandalore was shattered, torn between loyalties to the past and the future, divided and weak to the machinations of their enemies.
Once there had been a time that the Republic grew fat and complacent and corrupt, benefiting only the worst of their people at the cost of the innocents they claimed to serve.
Once there had been a time the Jedi dwindled, forgetting where they came from and thus who they were.
Once, the Galaxy had been ripe for the plucking of the Sith who had tended its downfall for centuries. However, that plan was foiled, and to the chagrin of the Sith, it was foiled by accident.
It was quite by accident, that a soldier became a Warlord, who became a lover and a father.
It was quite by accident, that a Jedi became a Mando'ad, who became a leader.
It was... perhaps not by accident, that Mandalore opened their doors to the forgotten, the lost, the hurt, those searching for something better and those seeking atonement. But the unintended effect of that gracious expansion quite neatly reduced a bloated Republic to something smaller and far more aware that power was like sand... the harder you grasp it, the less you can hold.
(Not that anyone realized this at the time, but it was entirely not an accident that one Anakin Skywalker, Child of the Force, also learned this lesson, nor was it an accident he hated sand.)
And one accident at a time, the balance of the Force tipped to something brighter, towards the dawning of a new hope.