Chapter Text
Jango didn't scream when the lightsaber cut his right hand. He didn't have the time. The purple blade sizzled just past his neck. He could feel the warmth of it through his armor. It would have beheaded him, had the Jedi not stopped and had Jango not let himself fall on his ass on the red geonosian soil, clutching his fuming stump against his chest
-Surrender now, ordered Mace Windu.
The man had an unyielding look, an aura of fierceness all around him. If he couldn't have Jango's surrender, he would have his death, of that Jango was sure.
Jango gritted his teeth. He had let go of one of his blaster when he fell. His HUD showed the other in his cut hand a few inches to his right, close but too far when fighting against a Jedi. He didn't yet feel any pain but it would come soon enough.
- It is over, bounty hunter.
A cold fury was making the blood freeze in Jango's veins. Like hell, it was over. He would never bow to a Jedi scum. Jango knew too well their kind of mercy. The memories of what happened on Galidraan burned him more than his cauterized flesh at that moment. He would not be a slave again! He would rather have a quick death than a drawn out one .
So he stood there in the red dirt, defiant, refusing to lower his head, his wounded arm against his chest. Mace Windu must have realized that he would not come quietly. The man looked conflicted for a second before he came to a decision. What it was, Jango would never know because it was at that moment he heard a scream that made his heart clench.
-Dad !
Mace Windu avoided the laser bolt aiming for his torso by taking a simple step to the right.
Jango turned his head so he could see him, his son, a blue stain clashing with all the red hues of Geonosis . His son who was so brave, whose hand didn't tremble as he held a DC blaster on Mace Windu, Co-head of the Jedi Council. His son who was so young he didn't realize that he couldn't possibly win against a Master Jedi.
-Boba, run !
Mace Windu was sizing up Boba but he didn't let his guard down. He left no opening for Jango. The luminous blade at his throat had not moved an inch.
-Boba, I told you to go to the ship ! Remember the plan !
Boba looked uncertain. His gaze went from Mace Windu to his father. Jango clenched his teeth. Damnit, had he not told the child hundreds of times not to take his eyes of the ennemy?
-But Dad, he faltered.
-Boba you...
Jango didn't have the time to finish his sentence. In slow motion, he saw the threat, the blast that shattered the wall above Boba, the falling stones that would crush the tiny body he first held in his arms ten years ago.
He reacted before the thought was fully formed in his mind. He was on his feet before he realized that he would not be fast enough. He was running even as he knew that he would not be able to save his little warrior's life. He screamed just as he understood that all that he would be able to do was look as Boba disapeared under a rain of rocks.
But the Jedi reacted faster, ran faster and, while Jango couldn't do a damn thing, Mace Windu jumped to Boba and draped his arms around him as the heaviest stones brutally changed their course to go crash elsewhere.
In a second, Boba went from being about to be crushed to death to being safely held by a Master Jedi.
The realization that his son was safe nearly sent Jango to his knees.
Boba...Safe...
Fek, he prayed whatever deities they were in the universe that he would never have to feel such a fear again.
But things were not finished. Mace Windu slowly uncurled himself from around Boba. He helped the child to his feet and checked him from head to toes. The only visible injury on him was a small bleeding bruise on his right temple. He then turned stifly toward Jango, a hand on the boy's shoulder.
-Your son is unharmed, he declared calmly as if his back wasn't now a collection of bruises. With such an advantage Jango, even with only one hand, had his chance to escape.
But there were a hundred things Mace Windu could have said, a hundred things he could have done. He could have had asked for Jango's surrender a lightsaber on Boba's throat...
Jango sighed. The pain in his arm was starting to catch up with him and Boba looked so frightened, white as a sheet...A shiver of what could be shock shook the bounty hunter...
Time to cut his losses for today. He raised his one good hand.
-You win, Master Jedi. I surrender
They put handcuff on his only wrist and handfasted the other shackle to a jedi he didn't know anything about, a Nautolean whose tentacles were still twitching from adrenaline and whose face was contorted in a battle-high smile. Two others, humans, flanked him as they walked toward a ship. He could hear the battle die down behind him as he was escorted out of the arena. Boba was ahead of him, Mace Windu's hand steady on his shoulder.
They led him to the evac zone. It was bustling with activity. The medics were running around, screaming orders, their armor bloodier than that of the fighters. Moans of pain, crying, the noise was deafening. Through the haze of fatigue and shock, it hit Jango like a physical blow and he nearly lost his footing.
The Jedi he was chained to took his elbow and flashed him a disarming smile of encouragement. Exhausted from the pain, the adrenaline weaning out, Jango felt like his hand -his missing hand- had been put into a fire. He let himself be led, -nearly carried- by the Nautolean, the last of his pride burned out of him.
They arrived to a transport carrier. Mace Windu was exchanging words with what could be the pilot and the head medic. Jango couldn't see more before he was swarmed by a clone medic and his helping hand.
He didn't have time to protest. The medic took his fuming forearm and turned it a few times to examine it, efficient and inconsiderate of the pain he was causing.
-This one can stand, code yellow.
He was stabbed in the neck by a needle and hauled inside the carrier. There, his Jedi guardian sat him in a tight corner, stuck between the wall and a gurney on which a clone was bleeding out, pale and unmoving.
-Dad!
He barely had time to open his arms to welcome his son against his chest. Boba barreled into him. Jango had to bit back a groan of pain when it jolted his wound. Yet the way his son clutched at him with a desperate strength...Jango moved his good arm and held him back with just as much love.
The Nautolean Jedi sat in front of him, his back against the other side of the carrier, with small indulgent smile. Did he ever stop smiling?
A tremor ran through the ship as it started to take off. Still holding his son, combing his hair with his one hand, Jango took stock of his surroundings.
The ship was over-packed with gurneys, stacked on each others. Injured troopers were shoved in every small spaces that were empty.
Some of the wounded clones were looking up at him from their stretchers, as if he could do something, as if he could offer them some reassurance on death's doorstep, as if he was a god or worse, a father.
But he was the father of only one child and he looked away, holding Boba a little tighter , as one clone clutched at his belly, trying to put his guts back inside, tears of fear in his pleading eyes.
The journey seemed to last an eternity. At one point, Jango felt Boba grew limp against him. If he strained his hearing, he could distinguish a light snore among the noises of the carrier.
-Your son had a great trust in you, to be able to sleep in those surroundings.
Jango ignored the Jedi. He wanted to be left alone, to bath on the warm glow of Boba's love and trust a little bit longer. The future was uncertain. He wasn't sure when he would be able to hug his son again. He had to make the most of it while he could.
-We are going to one of the battle cruiser orbiting the planet. The more critically wounded will be stabilized there then sent from there to Kamino, the Jedi explained.
A battle cruiser...It wouldn't be so hard to escape from there. If he managed to give the slip to the Jedi, dress up as a wounded clone. He had ressources on Kamino...But where would that leave Boba? Perhaps it would be better to try to steal a shuttle. But that would imply having to fight his way through a cargo bay full of Jedi and troopers then avoid all the fighters still deployed around the planet.
He didn't have time to think more about it. He felt the strange tingle that indicated the ship had passed the shielding of the cargo bay.
-Do not move from here. We are waiting for the ship to be unloaded.
It was said with a smile that was at the same time kind and with an edge of threat.
Quickly, the gurneys and wounded trickled off the ship with the same noise and agitation as the evacuation bay down on the planet.
Boba was jolted awake by a clone screaming.
-Dad! Are you alright?
Jango give him a squeeze. There was trepidation in Boba's bleary eyes
-I'm alright, it wasn't me.
-Oh...
Still lost in the fog of sleep, Boba took in slowly his surroundings.
-Oh.
The Nautolean Jedi, who was talking quietly on his comlink, got up without a sound.
-It is our turn to leave, he said as he rose to his feet.
No point in trying to escape now. The jedi had probably been communicating with his little friends to secure the cargo bay. Plus, whatever pain medication had been in that needle, it was potent, his whole mind was fogged.
Jango nudged Boba gently as he tried to get up on his feet. He would probably have fell back on his ass if it hadn't been for the Jedi taking him by the elbow.
-If you would follow me.
Another Jedi, a gigantic besalik-where did he even come from? Jango's sense were really dulled- put his one of his hands on Boba's shoulder to led him out of the cargo bay.
It took a few seconds for Jango to realize that they were going in different directions.
-Where are you taking him? he roared.
He would have lunged toward his son had the Nautolean Jedi not pulled on his side of the shackles. Boba must have understood too that he was about to be separated from his father. He tried to wriggle out of his Jedi's grip.
-Let me go! he ordered, indignant.
The huge Jedi Besalik, sighed, roled his eyes and lifted Boba, as easily as if the kid had a gravity supressor. He strolled through the whole cargo bay a screaming Boba under one arm.
A part of Jango, the part that was high on anesthetics, found the whole scene hilarious. The other part, the father, was ready to tackle the nearest trooper to steal his gun and shoot that son of a Bantha of a Jedi between the eyes.
The Nautolean Jedi put a hand on his shoulder. Jango tried to punch him for it but, as he moved his free arm, he was reminded that he didn't have a hand left to punch someone with.
-He is going to be alright. As a child, it didn't seem right to put him in a cell. And as burly as he seems, my fellow Jedi is very good with children.
Was that supposed to makes him feel better? He struggled a bit, to make a point more than to escape. That's when a dizzy spell send him to his knees, clenching his charred stump against his chest.
As an arm was put under his shoulders, a green tentacle hit him in the face.
-Sorry about that.
He was hoisted to his feet.
-Let's find a place for you to lie down.
The way toward, wherever they were going, lasted an eternity, maybe even two. Jango's vision started to go grey after the second corridor. After two more, the Jedi completely carried his weight because he didn't feel his legs anymore.
He was blind from the pain and barely coherent when he was finally laid down on the bed of his cell. Because of his numbed mind, he didn't even register the robo medic that rolled in and started to manipulate his stump until the damn thing started to talk.
-Another hand cut by a lightsaber? It is quite a day.
What did that even mean? Jango choose not to care. Had the Jedi took the time to get his hand in the arena? Perhaps it could be reattached?
-Clear cut, chared all the nerves.
Oh, guess that why they didn't bother to look for it.
Delirious, Jango let his conscious fade complety. He felt like he would need all the rest he could get to survive the following days.