Chapter Text
From the records of Tarre Viszla, Manda’Jetii. Transcribed from audio:
I used to think the hardest part of walking this path would be the treatment from my fellow Jetiise[1]. After all, I am balancing violence and peace, aggression and passivity.
My Knighting felt like a vindication. I can walk this path. I can walk it well.
Now I’m realizing the hardest part might be raising an ad[2]. My padawan. Light of my life.
I caught her trying to build a flamethrower into her lightsaber the other day. The worst part? Ner dini’la ad’ika[3] almost had the damn thing.
How am I supposed to explain that to the kriffing Council? My baji’buir[4] sits on the Council. I can’t look him in the eye and explain that.
This ad. She’ll be the death of me. I’ll never achieve mastery, because I’m going to have a heart attack.
And we haven’t even started infiltration training. Training she’ll need to complete her verd’goten[5], which will happen when she’s a senior Padawan.
Sith hells. Ka’ra [6] protect me.
He didn’t use the door, Obi-Wan mused. That was an improvement. There was no sneaky way to enter through the front door, and he knew by now that just because Obi-Wan was projecting ‘sleep-peace-dreams’ doesn’t mean he was actually sleeping.
That had been a fun trap to lay.
Still, he needed to get better at scanning for traps before …and there it was .
THUMP-CRASH. “Ah, mother-kriffing–” Obi-Wan took a sip of his tea. The hum of a lightsaber, then…bzzt. “Is this a cortosis net ?! Master!”
“Do you really think cortosis is that hard to come across? I’ve told you to stop whipping your lightsaber out for every problem. You do have your beskale, ‘lek?[7]” Obi-Wan called, scrolling down through the mission briefing.
“Ah, osik , kih’kovid, ori’buyce[8],” Anakin groaned, and then Obi-Wan heard the screech of beskar cutting through the netting. A rather bedraggled padawan dragged himself into the living area. He was, at least, wearing his armor, even if most of it was covered by his civvies. Not his robes.
If Obi-Wan didn’t already know where his ad had been, that would have given him enough to guess.
“Did you win the race?”
“You–no way! That’s a guess , I shook you off–” Anakin groaned, flopping himself into a chair across from his buir[9]. “You were the diversion . That’s a mean trick, buir.”
“You’re getting better. Eight months ago, you never would have caught on to me, let alone the second tail. It was Quinlan, by the way; anybody else, you would have made. Drink your tea, you never drink enough water after those horrid races.”
“Mother-kriffing Vos ,” Anakin seethed, but he took the tea and took a sip. “But if I could out-Shadow a Shadow…”
“Then I’d be fighting the Head of Shadows for my ad, and I’d thank you not to get that good. Besides, you still can’t lie with a straight face. Your sabaac face is appalling. It brings shame to our Clan, ner ad.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m a constant source of shame. What’s that?” Obi-Wan let his padawan pull the datapad out of his hands.
“Our new mission. We were personally requested by Chancellor Palpatine as protection for Senator Amidala. Apparently, someone is trying to kill her. Intelligence says…disgruntled spice miners of Naboo.” Well. That didn’t sound or feel right. Something was out of place here.
“Padme? We’re guarding Padme?” Obi-Wan grinned as Anakin’s entire presence lit up. He reviewed the mission brief again, given that Anakin was too busy nearly vibrating out of his skin to focus on it.
Simple protection, staying here on Coruscant to begin with, with a fallback of Naboo. More than acceptable for a Senior Padawan well-overdue for his verd’goten. He’d have to call Jas’buir, see if he would approve it.
After the Council agreed.
Which was a battle in its own right, after Jango…
Obi-Wan wrenched his thoughts away from that. He was under strict orders from the Mand’alor that his duty was to the Jetiise and raising his ad.
Not chasing rumors of a blue-armored Mando’ad, working at the beck and call of some shadowy figure.
Not figuring out why his brother had fallen out of all their comm frequencies after what should have been a routine bounty for Serenno.
Here and now , he reminded himself.
“Go get a shower, meditate, and get some rest. We’ll meet for a full briefing with the Council at 0830 tomorrow,” Obi-Wan said, and ignored the childish whoop as he gathered up their cups and, when Anakin was too busy trying to find armor polish to clean himself , shoved the nineteen-year-old into the shower.
If he enjoyed the yelp as the cold water hit him, well, that was a buir’s prerogative.
“I would like to petition the council to allow Anakin to take the lead on this mission, or even run it entirely on his own,” Obi-Wan said, stepping forward, and felt his ad’s fear-surprise-joy-worry over their bond. “Anakin was promoted to Senior Padawan over two years ago. However, there has been no opportunity for him to take the solo missions that would be able to count as his Mando’ad verdgoten.”
“You two have run missions during this time and been separated. Why can that not count as his vaird-go-tin?” Nobody, nobody , could possibly butcher his language that badly on accident. Not after years of hearing it. Mundi had to be doing it on purpose.
“A verd’goten must be undertaken entirely by the prospective Mando’ad,” Obi-Wan explained patiently. Again . “The reason my rescue of ner buir counted was because it was an action planned,” if ‘ no-can’t let this-die first ’ counted as a plan, “and carried out by me alone. If I was working on another’s orders, it would not have. The usual method is a bounty, but the Mand’alor and I agreed that it was…unwise. In the current climate.”
Yoda’s ears tilted down, and a few others sighed. They knew Jango.
Nobody knew what was going on with Obi-Wan’s vod[10]. Least of all him.
“Are we sure Skywalker is ready for such a responsibility?” Windu, and Obi-Wan frowned at him slightly…then he understood. Anakin was bristling like a baby nexu next to him, and he sighed, sending calm over their bond, willing his ad to understand. A test, to see .
Anakin glanced over, then straightened his shoulders. Ruefully, Obi-Wan recognized his own ‘political osik’ face.
“I recognize the importance of this mission. Senator Amidala is not only a vital voice in the call for peace and diplomacy, but a dear personal friend to both myself and my buir. I understand if the Council deems this mission too high-risk for a personal chance to prove myself. However, I feel I am qualified for this, and I know that if it should become too much, I can notify my buir or any member of the Council for assistance.”
“Hm. Invalidate your verd’goten, would this?”
“It may. That would be up to the determination of the Mand’alor,” Anakin said. “But many fail their first verd’goten. My ba’vodu[11]–” He cut off, swallowing hard. “Well. He failed his first bounty, and had to try again. My life, and the life of my charge, is more important than making it on the first try.”
“If Anakin is in charge of protection, I can take an investigative approach. The best way to stop assassinations is often to get to the source,” Obi-Wan offered. “I trust Anakin with this. He still has much to learn, but much of it is best learned through experience, with my guidance available but not always present.” He looked at Mundi directly. “This is the way of both Mando’ad and Jettiise. Eventually, children grow up.”
“Enough. You have made your point, Knight Kenobi, and other masters have verified that Padawan Skywalker is showing many of the traits we demand of senior padawans. So be it. Padawan Skywalker, you will take the lead on Senator Amidala’s protection, while Knight Kenobi will investigate who is trying to kill her. May the Force be with you both.”
1 Jedi; Jetii is singular, jetiise is plural [return to text]
2 child [return to text]
3 my (ner) insane (dini’la) little child (ad’ika; ‘ika’ is a diminutive, often affectionate)[return to text]
4 teacher-parent; a combination of Mandalorian words that best represents the relationship of a Jedi Master to a padawan[return to text]
5 A coming of age ceremony in Mandalorian culture, in which a young warrior fully earns their armor and is considered able to make their own decisions and fight in war, although they usually remain under the care of their guardians for a while longer. [return to text]
6 Ancestors, stars. [return to text]
7 beskale=daggers/knives (beskal is singular), ‘lek=shortened version of “elek” meaning “yes” [return to text]
8 osik=shit. Kih’kovid, ori’buyce=all helmet, no head (meant to mean someone who is being bossy, but in this case, Anakin is saying he was being overconfident and not thinking)[return to text]
9 parent. Mand’oa does not have genders, so this is genderless and used equally to mean mother or father.[return to text]
10 Sibling. Ori’vod means older, vod’ika means younger[return to text]
11 Uncle/Aunt (Uncle in this case)[return to text]