Work Text:
Bo and her Nite Owls somehow made it out of the Palace. Bo kept seeing what happened over and over again. It had happened so fast. Pre had been getting everything they all had worked for. He was now the leader of Mandalore. Truly the Mand’alor like he had claimed to be for so many years. His enemies, including Bo’s sister, were locked up.
But then the Sith had appeared. It had all gone downhill from there. He had challenged Pre to combat. Pre didn’t have to accept. He didn’t. But Pre… he had an ego. He wouldn’t want to look weak by rejecting in front of his people.
So Bo wasn’t surprised when he accepted.
But when he lost…
Bo was so confused. She didn’t know what to think at first. She and Pre… He… he had been horrible to her in many ways. He had mistreated her in countless ways. Many ways she didn’t want to think of.
And now he was gone. He had lost.
He was dead.
Bo wasn’t like Pre. She had learned from her past. When she had joined Death Watch at barely thirteen, she had thought the person who had the Darksaber was meant to rule no matter what. Pre filled her brain with all sorts of propaganda too.
When he really started to hurt her… she thought more about if she believed in it. But she still had supported him.
But she wouldn’t be Maul’s puppet too. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t.
She said that. Not exactly like that but she did.
And she left. She and her Nite Owls.
She wouldn’t have been surprised if she had been killed. She wouldn’t have been surprised if they had been caught. Maul was strong after all.
But she got away.
Now she knew she had to plan what they would do in the future. But she already knew one of the first things that she would have to do.
Satine… Yes, she had been telling Pre that she hated her sister. She did a good job of acting like she did as well. It wasn’t like she had a choice. When you were in Death Watch, you had to do what you could to survive. And she was a Kryze girl. So much was against her. If she acted slightly sympathetic to Satine… well… Pre would do all sorts of things to her. He would beat her, strangle her, and do worse things. Things that made her wish she hadn’t been born.
Physical pain she could take, but other things…
But now he didn’t have that hold on her anymore. Now Pre was dead.
Perhaps she should be completely happy about it.
But he had been such an important part of her life for so long. Even now she remembered when he had been like a father to her.
Maybe she was just as stupid as he had always told her that she was.
**
It took awhile before Bo and her supporters got to rest, but the time had finally come. Or more like her supporters got to rest. Bo still had a lot of things to prepare for and first she had to concentrate on what she would do about Satine.
She had to get her out. She had hoped to find a way to release her when Pre had been in charge, but now she would have to do this even quicker. She didn’t trust Maul at all. And even worse, she didn’t understand him.
At least with Pre, she was good at predicting his moods and behaviors. She had to be if she wanted to survive Death Watch.
Bo was on her ship working on her data pad when someone walked in the room. On instinct, she pulled out her blasters right away. Her data pad fell to her lap.
Then she let out a sigh and put them away when she saw who it was. It was just Ursa.
Ursa gave her a look and then came over and sat next to her.
“What?” Bo asked. She didn’t like when Ursa looked at her like that. It was as if she wanted her to talk. Talk about things that Bo probably didn’t want to discuss.
“So—”
“It’s probably for the best that Pre is dead,” Bo said since she figured that was what she would bring up. Ursa knew how complicated Bo’s relationship with Pre was. She knew that Pre had… hurt her… in every way.
Bo sighed and touched her stomach, shaking her head as she did.
“Yes, it is for you,” Ursa said. She sighed. “I… I remember one time when I saw him with his hands around your neck. He was strangling you.”
Bo paused. She didn’t know Ursa had seen him do that to her, but she knew she had seen him do plenty of other things. Ursa had been there to help her when Pre hurt her most. Sometimes it felt like she had been one of her only friends.
Yes, she had her Nite Owls, but Bo had to always act strong around them. Until recently, she hadn’t even known for sure that they would support her over someone who had the Darksaber. Now she knew that they would.
She was so grateful that she had been able to form that group. Pre had probably only let her do that to make Satine look weak, which was the same reason Bo was probably as high up as she was, but she was grateful for it. Her Nite Owls were so important to her. Without them, she didn’t know where she would be.
“He did that sometimes,” Bo said, picking up her data pad and looking at it again. She tried not to react. She paused and touched her neck. Pre hadn’t been the only one who had tried to strangle her. Not that long ago, Maul had tried to do the same thing. In front of Pre and other leaders of Death Watch. Not that they had done much.
Maul must think that Pre cared about her more than he really did. Or maybe he just realized that she was an important weapon to him. A weapon Pre could use against Satine.
“I’m glad he won’t ever be able to hurt you again,” Ursa said, and she reached out for Bo. At first Bo thought that she might take her hand or hug her but then she let her hands drop. Neither of them had ever been too much into hugging.
“Me too,” Bo admitted even though saying something as simple as that was even hard.
Maybe there had been times when she had liked Pre, especially when she first joined Death Watch and before, but he wasn’t the father figure that she used to think he was. No… he hadn’t cared about her at all.
He had hurt her.
And he would have killed Satine.
Now, well, Bo could finally do what she knew was right. She could help her sister.
She hoped Satine would forgive her.
“This is an opportunity for you—” Ursa tried to say.
“Yes, it’s a chance for me to save my sister,” Bo said. She studied Ursa. “I always planned to save her. I’m sorry since I know…” Ursa might be a big supporter of Bo, but she didn’t like Satine’s politics. It wasn’t like Bo did, but it was different. “I need to do something right away.”
Ursa nodded. “I know you wouldn’t let her die.”
Bo couldn’t. She might not be the best sister, but she cared about her. She cared about Satine and Korkie. They were the only family she had left. And she wouldn’t let that Sith Lord hurt them.
She wouldn’t let him stay in control of Mandalore either. She knew he would hurt her people. She knew some of his plans. He wanted to turn Mandalorians basically into his personal soldiers. She wouldn’t allow that.
“But that wasn’t what I was going to say,” Ursa said.
Bo frowned. “Then what were you going to say?”
She liked to think that she was good at reading Ursa too. She just was because she spent so much time with her. It wasn’t like with Pre when she had to do that if she wanted to survive.
“You’re free now, Bo-Katan,” Ursa said.
Bo looked at her.
“When you were in Death Watch, I know that it—”
“Sometimes I felt like a prisoner,” Bo said, but even saying so made her feel bad. Death Watch had real prisoners. But at the same time, it wasn’t like she could have left. When she had first joined at thirteen, she had tried to leave once and Pre had made her life hell. She knew that if she had tried to do that again when he was alive, it would have been worse.
Yes, leaving when Maul took over was risky too, but at that point she didn’t care. And he just… he didn’t have the same hold on her that Pre did. For so many years, it felt like everything she did had to be planned. She had to think about how Pre would respond to it.
“Yes, and now you’re not,” Ursa said. “I hope that when this is all over, you can—”
“What? Celebrate?” Bo asked. She let out a laugh, even though none of this was funny. “I don’t think that I have time to do something like that.”
“Maybe not, but I hope that you can do something,” Ursa said.
Bo was about to say that what she was going to do was rescue her sister, but instead she nodded.
**
Not long after that, Bo tried to get some sleep. She knew that she needed to get that because of everything that she was going to have to do now. But it didn’t matter what she did, she kept tossing and turning. She thought about Satine and Pre and Korkie and everything that the future might hold.
Eventually she pushed back her blankets and stood up. For awhile she worked on her data pad, but even that wasn’t enough. She wanted… no needed to go outside. She kept thinking about what Ursa had said and what she wanted now was to get some air.
And so she did just that.
It was pitch dark. So dark that the stars seemed extra bright as did Concordia. Concordia… that had been where Death Watch’s headquarters had been when she had first joined. She remembered when she first went there with Pre thinking that she would just stay with him. There she had found out the truth about everything. And then she had to join Death Watch. She had become a warrior then.
And she had become someone she hated at times.
She had also become someone who constantly had to fight to survive.
And she knew that she would still have to do that. Hopefully one day, she wouldn’t have to, but she had no idea when that would be.
But at least now, she didn’t have to fight to survive Pre.
“I’m finally free of you, Pre,” Bo said as she stared up at Concordia, the moon that her had governed. “I’ll never have to worry about what you’ll do again. I’ll never… I’ll never have to pretend.” She choked on her words. “I’m not your Kryze bitch anymore. Not your whore.”
Even saying that now hurt. She hated what he had done to her. She knew that she always would.
But she wasn’t done talking.
“You might have thought you made me into a weapon, but I’m not your weapon anymore. I’m not your pawn. And I’ll do what I know is right.”
Now Bo was free of Pre. Free of Death Watch.
Free.
But she would never forget what had happened to her. That would always help her remember how important this was.
And she would never allow herself to be a pawn to someone again.