The Mandalorian Jedi

Part Two: Chapter One

Four years later

Wire after wire after wire. This one here, that one next to it, this one over the top, that one weaved through the ever growing mass. It was like clockwork now. My fingers moved without thinking until eventually I found myself staring into the dull eyes a droid. Push it along. Start over. Then the bell signalling the end of the work day. Leave the half assembled droid lying on the table top, collect the credits and go home. Feed Naakla. Feed myself. Fail to sleep. Work.

Four years. My grand plan had turned out to be hiding in the outer rim, as far away from real civilisation as possible. The Galactic Empire was aggressively hunting down the few remaining Jedi and despite my efforts I was no match for a hundred stormtroopers and a couple of inquisitors. And so my life became the same thing on repeat. Talk to the same people, do the same thing, dream the same nightmares. I didn't know whether I wanted things to change. I hated every second of it all but I knew the second something went wrong my life would get a whole lot more difficult that putting droids together. Of course, something went wrong. That's what the inquisitors wanted, right? I couldn't help but wonder if they created the accidents just to catch any rogue Jedi. To be honest I was lucky the relative peace lasted as long as it did.

The same wires, going in the same place as I stood in the same row with the same people, the same silence apart from the occasional beep of a droid or yell of a guard and then for the first time ever a scream shattered the relative silence. Not a screamed order, a genuine, terrified scream. Everyone stopped working and turned to look. A huge piece of machinery had fallen on top of a woman, she was trapped under it, her legs probably crushed and no way to get out. A few people were attempting to move it but even if the entire workforce helped it wasn't going to budge. I should have just inched it slightly, let them think it was heavier than it was but I was out of practice with the force and the likelihood of her dying was increasing every second so I threw my arm out in front of me and after a few moments of concentration the metal began to creak then ever so slowly it raised off the woman's legs. The guards were already running for me before the workers got the woman out of the way. There was nothing to do but run. I didn't have my sabers, I didn't have full use of the force and I was starting to panic. The second I dropped my hand and turned to bolt the machinery fell, narrowly missing the people who had gathered to watch.

No one tried to help me. I don't know why I expected them to. Still, it would have been nice. A high speed chase across wire covered tables when you haven't properly exercised in four years really isn't a great experience. Luckily for me you couldn't exactly call the guards coordinated, I would have laughed at their lack of skill if I wasn't currently running for my life.

Eventually I found myself at the end of the building. The doors had been bolted shut and guards were coming in from every side. I allowed myself a moments pause to catch my breath and then stretched my arms out, one towards the door, one in the general direction of the guards and I pushed, with all the strength I had. The guards went flying backwards but I kept hold of them, swinging them back round into the ones still standing and bit by bit the door began to give. It was kriffing hard work trying to do both things at once but I managed. The dent in the door grew bigger, the guards grew less steady and despite my laboured breathing I grinned because gods be damned, it felt amazing. Just to let go of all that power I had been suppressing. The more I let go the easier it got until the doors gave out and blew wide open. I didn't let the guards go until I was out the door and sprinting away.

I found my way to the speeders parked near the gates and took off on one. A few more guards had been dispatched and fumbled onto the remaining ones, attempting to drive with one hand as they shot at me with the other. Unluckily for them the planet was one covered in forests, full of winding paths and lots and lots of dead trees. After a minute or so of those winding paths we came across one of those dead trees. It was so close to falling I didn't even have to use my hand to force a crack up its centre. I slowed to let the guards catch up and the second I passed the tree I let it go. There was a sickening crack as the tree split in half and fell directly onto the front two speeders. I heard the shrieks of the two others as they found themselves being flung over the wreck and thrown into the surrounding bushes. I couldn't help a small smirk at that.

It didn't take long to reach home, if you could call the single room knocked into the cliff face a home. I pulled to a sharp halt outside and barged in, startling Naakla from her sleep,
"We've been found. Get to the ship." She growled slightly but got up and loped out to where my ship was hidden, brushing against my leg as she did. I swiped the relatively large amount of credits I had gathered over the years out of a draw and the half assembled, slightly odd, BD droid out of the one below. I stuffed them into a bag and then pulled my bed away from the wall to reveal the patched up bit of wall that hid my lightsabers. I made quick work of pulling it apart and gently placed the box I had put them in into the bag. Finally I grabbed my old utility belt and after a moments thought I grabbed the rest of my old robes as well. At some point I had made the sleeves more form fitting and dyed the whole thing different shades of grey, mainly because I got bored, but otherwise it was intact. The shoulder pads that extended out slightly, the tunic that fell to just above my knees, the two sheets of thin fabric I had sewn in towards the end of the war – a wider one at the back and a thinner one that fell between my legs that reached just beyond the top of my boots, forming a kind of broken up skirt which I had done at the request of Anakin so I would look just that bit more dramatic – the slightly loose trousers and the boots that I had shortened to come to a rest halfway up my shin much to the dismay of Mace. Just the sight of it made me tear up slightly. It reminded me of home, my real home. The one that now stood in smoky ruins on Coruscant with the ghosts of a thousand murdered Jedi wandering its halls. I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and stuffed the entire outfit into the bag. It wasn't hard to turn around and walk out of my little cave without so much as a last glance.

I had stored my ship in a proper cave not too far away. It only took a half hour walk to get there. When I did Naakla had tugged off the sheet that had been covering it and was seated on one of the wings. She jumped down to greet me and I scratched her head for a second and then opened the cockpit. I stuffed the bag under my seat and Naakla settled down into her space in front of me. We were gone before the guards even arrived at the deserted house. It didn't take a lot of thought to decide where we would go next. Obi-Wan had said I would need to wait a few years. Those years had passed and I had a bad feeling I was going to need some armour sooner rather than later. I punched in the coordinates for Coruscant and sat back as the journey began. This was either going to end relatively okay or extraordinarily badly and given the current political situation I was failing in my attempts at optimism. Things couldn't get much worse. Right?