Chapter Text
Prologue
Mandalore is a planet that is always bustling. Shouts tear through the streets, feet stomp along paths and even the animals that inhabit the planet are loud. Nothing is louder though, than a Mandalorian celebration and today the royal family, the most important Clan of Mandalore, is throwing a party for their eldest daughter. Princess Satine, the future Duchess of Mandalore, heir to the throne, is going away to finish her final year of schooling. At the age of 25 she is older than most pupils but an agreement that came out of the Clan Wars was that the heirs to Mandalore should be educated not only on Mandalorian history, customs and politics but also those of the wider galaxy so Satine will be leaving for Naboo in a weeks time for a year, only returning to Mandalore for special holidays.
Princess Bo-Katan is not happy about it. In fact she’s spending her evening sulking. She’s too young to play with her sister all the time, stuck in her own lessons and if she’s free then her sister is not but Satine lets Bo sneak into her room once night has fallen and they talk and laugh and Satine lets her braid her hair because Bo’s is too short. Bo will miss her which is why she’s upset but she doesn’t want to tell anyone that, so she’s sulking in silence instead, sat on the edge of one of the long tables filling the Grand Hall. She’s glaring at her father, hoping if she is stern enough he’ll let Satine stay with her instead of going to silly Naboo. Mandalore is much better than Naboo anyway, she thinks. Not that Bo has ever been there but Mandalore is the best place in the galaxy so of course Naboo won’t be as nice.
“There you are.” Bo jumps at the sound of her sister's voice, then scowls down at the table.
“I’m not hiding.” She says petulantly.
“I know but it’s busy tonight.” Satine slides in next to her but Bo keeps looking down.
“Because you’re going away.” Bo doesn’t mean to sound so annoyed, she’s been praised before for how controlled she can be for someone so young but the situation is getting the better of her.
“But I'll be back, before you can even miss me.” Satine reaches up to brush some of Bo’s hair back, she always tells Bo she needs something to pin it back and keep it out of her face.
“I won’t miss you.” Bo folds her arms around herself even tighter, determined to not show an ounce of weakness in front of the entire hall.
“Well, I’ll miss you. Lots.”
“No you won’t, I’m too little. You’ll be doing boring, adult stuff and you’ll be too busy to miss me.”
“Oh, Bo. I’ll miss you everyday, whether I’m doing adult stuff or not. You’re my sister.” Bo finally looks up at that, furrowing her brows as she looks at Satine.
“Really?”
“Of course, silly. Who will braid my hair at night? Or flick her berries at me from across the table?”
“You don’t like it when I flick berries at you!” Bo kneels up on the bench so she’s more level with Satine.
“I don’t but you’re the only person brave enough to do it so I’ll miss it.” Bo feels a smile break out across her face as she overflows with pride over being told she’s brave. Like a true Mandalorian.
“I will miss you.” She deflates again, finally telling someone she’ll miss Satine. Her sister loops her arms around Bo and brings her in for a hug and Bo lets it happen, usually one to dodge her sister’s and father’s arms and be a general menace, she lets herself have a quiet moment with Satine.
“I’d hope you’d miss me so I’ve got you something to remember me by, even though I’ll be back before you know it.” Satine nudges her a little as she reaches into her dress pocket.
“A present?” Bo’s excited shout catches the attention of a few people around them but once they see it’s just the princesses talking amongst themselves they go back to their own conversations.
“Yes. I hope you like it.” She holds her hand out, waiting for Bo to rest her own in it, palm up to accept her gift and so Bo eagerly slaps her hand down into Satine’s. “Okay, now close your eyes.”
“Satine.” She whines, just wanting her sister to hand over her present.
“Bo-Katan, was that a whine?”
“No.” But she was pouting. Satine laughed and tapped her sister’s nose so Bo sighed and squeezed her eyes shut. She waited for a moment, just long enough that she thought Satine might be teasing her, then she felt something cool drop into her open hand. “Can I look? Please, Satine? Can I look?” Bo had abandoned all pretence of pretending to be composed now, eager to see what her gift was.
“Go on then.” Satine was clearly holding back a laugh but for once Bo didn’t mind.
Bo’s eyes flew open and she gasped. There in her hand was a silver beskar necklace on a pretty matching silver chain.
“Oh, Satine! I thought I was too little for jewels?”
“I think Father might be wrong about that, what does he know about jewels? And you don’t have to wear it if you don’t want, just when you look at it you’ll think of me.”
“I want to wear it!” And Satine laughs at her enthusiasm.
“How about you hang it somewhere in your room where you can see it and then when I leave we can both wear them together because I have a matching one.”
“You do?” Bo was bouncing on her knees, closely inspecting her new gift. Her first piece of beskar jewellery. It wasn’t as big a deal as getting your armour or your helmet but beskar trinkets are usually items that end up being passed down from generation to generation, treasured within clans for all the stories they hold.
“Yes, yours turned out so pretty I wanted to have one just the same and look at this.” Satine’s nimble fingers reached forward to take the necklace, squeezing and turning it just so, so that it popped open, revealing a little holo device. It was a photo of Satine and Bo on one side and their parents on the other. Bo gasped at the reveal, grabbing the necklace to bring it to her face and inspect it again.
“Now you’ll be able to see me whenever you want whilst I’m gone.”
“There’s plenty of holos of you around this place.” Bo sniffed, sounding incredibly haughty for a 10 year old but Satine just laughs.
“Oh, so it’ll be like I’m still here then?”
“Of course not! None of the holos talk, if they did I certainly wouldn’t worry about missing you.”
“Bo-Katan!” Bo just stuck her tongue out, an action that would surely be drilled out of her soon as she grew in to a proper princess of Mandalore but she was just young enough to still get away with it. And she rather thought she’d be getting away with sticking her tongue out at her sister for the rest of her life.
The two sisters continued to talk for a while, Bo told Satine the gossip she'd picked up that week, everybody seemed to forget she possessed a set of ears just because she was the same height as their elbow, and Satine told her about what she would be doing in Naboo.
“But it seems so very boring.” Satine just chuckled at her statement, “you’ll need me to comm you all the time just so you don’t die of boredom! And you have to tell me what the flowers are like! And you must climb a tree, tell me how difficult it is, I’ve always wanted to climb a proper tree!”
“Tree climbing is hardly proper for a princess.” Satine admonished but she was smiling.
“I hardly care.” She retorted.
“Well, if you don’t care about being a proper princess-“
“I don’t!”
“-then I’m not sure how I’ll convince Father to let you come back with me to Naboo for a few rotations after I visit for Life Day.”
“You would want me to come with you? Really? Oh Satine, you’re the best sister ever! Really? I get to go to Naboo with you?” Bo threw her little arms around Satine but made sure to hold onto her new necklace too.
“I thought you’d spent the week talking about how Mandalore was much better than Naboo.”
“Well, can’t that be true as well as me wanting to visit? I can’t truly declare Mandalore the best if I haven’t been everywhere!” Satine’s face was screwed up in that way that meant she was trying her best not to laugh. “Don’t laugh!”
“I’m not! I’m not laughing!” Satine scoops Bo up then and holds her close, “I’ll just miss you.” Bo’s cheek is squished against her sisters chest but she snuggles closer, tucking her arms tightly around Satine’s waist and sighing.
The doors to the Great Hall suddenly burst open with a loud bang and disturb their peace.
Bo and Satine both look up from their embrace as guards fall into position around them. Being as small as she is, Bo struggles to see what’s happening, she can only see glimpses of it all but she does spot a black cape billowing towards them. The sisters are at the end of the hall close to the Duke’s throne. Bo feels Satine take in a sharp inhale as she clutches Bo tighter.
“Moff Gideon.” Her father’s voice booms across the hall and Bo curls tighter against Satine. “You have been forbidden to enter this castle and you were told to never return to this planet. You are not wanted here after all that you have done, you’re a traitor.” Her father’s voice is steady, angry and Bo is glad she’s never received more than a light scolding from him before.
“You think it’s that simple to banish me?” The Moff’s voice makes Bo shudder and she doesn’t dare take another peak from the safety of Satine’s arms. She should be brave like Mandalorians are supposed to be but right now she just wants to be held by her sister.
“The Empire will be here soon and then you’ll wish you had handed over this godforsaken planet to me. The rest of your family will no longer mar this galaxy and I will not rest until I personally see the end of the Kyrze line and your people in complete misery!” Bo let out a little whimper and Satine holds her even tighter, whispering platitudes in her ear and stroking her hair gently. Moff Gideon is consumed by hatred for Mandalore and its people, Bo can feel it in the air and the shooting starts soon after. Satine ushers her out of the hall and back to her bedroom, to safety, where they curl up together until morning.
Moff Gideon managed to get away but he was injured badly enough that their father is quite certain he won’t be returning anytime soon, having fled with his tail between his legs when it became obvious that he and his troops weren’t going to win against a room full of the greatest warriors in the galaxy.
All was well in Bo’s world for two whole weeks, she got to spend more time with Satine than usual because her father had allowed her a break from her lessons to spend them with her sister instead and when she wasn’t with Satine she’d been allowed to spend extra time in the training gyms, eager to become the greatest warrior Mandalore had ever seen.
Bo was with Satine, walking back to their rooms together after dinner, when it happened. It started off as a couple of shouts, then more and more join and then the castle shook beneath them.
“What was that?” Bo asked, whipping around to check up and down the corridor as guards started to pour into it, running towards them. The Armorer leading the charge as they sped towards the princesses.
“The planet is under attack.” She called to them.
“What?” Satine cried, moving as though she was going to look out the window before the castle shook again.
“No, get back!” The Armorer made it just in time to yank Satine away from the glass that had just shattered and hailed down on the area the older princess had just been stood in.
“Is it the Empire?”
“Yes. We have to move, we have to get you to safety.”
“What about the Duke?”
“He’s fighting for Mandalore, he asked us to get the princesses out, we have to go!”
Someone had taken a hold of Bo’s hand and started to herd her towards an exit.
“Satine!” She yelled, wanting her sister. Her sister. Her necklace! “No, my necklace.” Bo managed to yank her hand away, dodging around a couple of guards as she ran to her room. This is why she should’ve worn it!
“Bo! Bo, come back, it’s just a necklace!” Her sister sounds frantic but Bo will be quick.
“No, I need it! I’ll be fast. I promise!” She darts down the corridor as Satine yells for her. She vaguely hears the Armorer coercing her sister into leaving, promising soldiers will bring Bo right behind them. Bo hears the sounds of a fight as she flings her door open, glancing behind her to see stormtroopers pouring into the corridor through the shattered windows. She quickly slides a chair across the door so nobody can get in as she scrambles for her necklace but she lets out a shriek as someone bangs against it.
“I saw her go in there. The Moff wanted the princesses alive, wants to finish them off himself.”
Bo cringes at the sound of the Imperials outside of her door, looking around wildly for an escape when there’s a rattling noise in the far corner of her room. She clutches her necklace to her chest as she turns towards the commotion, bracing herself for a fight that she surely won’t win.
But then a messy mop of brown curls and soft brown eyes greet her instead, a boy around her age is poking his head through a hidden door as he waves to her.
“Come on, through here.”
“Who are you?”
“Does it matter?”
“Has that door always been there?”
“How do you think they light a fire in here?”
Their squabbling abruptly ends when there’s another bang against her main door. Then the boy is stepping into her room and shoving her into the doorway. In the commotion she drops the necklace as she tries to grab the boy to bring him with her but he pushes her away.
“You go. I’ll buy you some time.”
“But you’re just a boy!”
“I didn’t say it would be a large amount of time, now go!” Bo usually bristled when somebody who was not her father tried to order her about but she understood now was not the time so she followed the corridor, wondering whether she should’ve asked the boy where it went. She hoped it was out of the castle, she needed to meet her sister somewhere. She didn’t know that in the room she’d just left, after the Imperials had thrown the boy to the side, finding him useless in their search for the younger princess, he’d picked up her necklace and carefully tucked it around his neck, determined to keep a piece of the princess alive in case the worst should happen.
Bo tumbled out into the cold air moments later, immediately covering her ears at the cacophony of noise that hit her, there were blasters firing, explosions and shouts and the roar of ships overhead. She heard a scream over it all.
“Bo!”
The little girl whipped around at the sound of her sister’s voice and she saw her pushing against her guards to get to Bo. She takes off running towards them, arms reaching out for Satine as if that will get her to safety quicker. Both she and Satine shriek when a figure lands between the two of them.
Moff Gideon looks down at her. He towers over her but Bo does her best to stand her ground and not cower away. She is a princess of Mandalore, here people are the fiercest warriors of the galaxy, she will not turn into a snivelling mess in front of this man. She makes to dart around him, desperate to get away, but he grabs hold of her, his grip sure to leave a bruise on her arm.
“Let me go!”
“Bo!”
She sees Mandalorians running towards her as her sister is pulled towards a ship whilst still screaming and reaching for Bo. The guards are intercepted by stormtroopers and Bo has only a moment to watch as they realise the armour is impervious to blasters, most likely made of a beskar alloy, before she feels the ground fall away from her feet. Moff Gideon is trying to take her somewhere but Bo will not go without a fight so she starts to squirm. Wriggling and kicking, even throwing one or two punches until she causes enough problems that he drops her.
He’s yelling at her but Bo’s ears are ringing, she doesn’t hear what he’s saying as she tries to run again, determined to reach her sister.
There’s blaster fire all around her and she yelps as a shot comes a little too close.
“Princess, get down.” She hears it over the noise and drops to the ground, arms over her head for protection but then she’s grabbed again. Gideon manages to get her further away from the ship than she started and she howls in frustration, employing every tactic in her arsenal to get him to drop her again, which he does.
She lands with a small oof before she starts to push back to her feet. Gideon is being pulled away by a pair of stormtroopers who seem to understand he will not win this fight with Mandalorians closing in and he disappears into the sky. Bo barely pays them any mind as she starts back towards the ship but there’s too many bodies between her and it now, too many blaster bolts and bodies flying. She can still hear Satine screaming but its getting fainter as Bo is lost amongst the crowd, losing her bearings as the bodies become a crush around her.
Bo cries out for Satine, begging for her help but her small voice isn’t heard over the noise. In one final attempt to get to safety Bo makes a break through a small space between fights but before she can get further than three steps something or someone is knocking her down. Her head hits the ground with a sickening thud and she doesn’t move after that.
She doesn’t hear Satine’s ship ascend or hear her sister’s wails. She doesn’t see the devastation brought on Mandalore. She doesn’t know that after the attack is finally over it’s a couple that find her miraculously undamaged body and take her with them to Kalevala. She doesn’t know that across the palace grounds the boy who rescued her and his older brother make it off Mandalore in the chaos to land on Kalevala as well. She doesn’t know that across the galaxy, as she gazes out onto the rolling hills of Naboo, her sister is informed that the rest of her family died in the Purge, that she, Duchess Satine Kyrze, is the last of her line, that her family are amongst the many Mandalorians slaughtered by the Empire, who now control the Mandalore system.
Bo is unaware of it all, laid out in the moonlight, unmoving. One small hand reaching out to where the ship had been and the other held in a fist over her chest, right where a beskar necklace should’ve hung.