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"Stay," Satine whispered, her face pressed against his neck. "Stay with me."
Obi-Wan pulled away from her and looked over his shoulder at his Master, who was standing — waiting for Obi-Wan — serenely by the transport that would take them home to the Jedi temple.
"There's so much to be done here on Mandalore, and I could use your help."
"Is that the only reason you want me to stay?" Obi-Wan frowned, feeling a little hurt.
"No," Satine pressed close again and whispered. "No, I want you to stay for me. I... I love you Obi-Wan," she admitted.
"I love you too," Obi-Wan replied, feeling shame at the depth of his feelings for her.
"Will you stay then?"
Obi-Wan thought about the vows he would be breaking by staying. He thought about the friendships he had that would be strained. He wondered if Qui-Gon would ever forgive him. All of these thoughts weighed heavily on his mind, but there was also a part of him that knew he had to live for himself, not for them. That part of him also knew he would never be a good Jedi; he was too emotional, too broken. And maybe he could be a better Mandalorian than he ever could be a good Jedi? Maybe he’d be a better husband than he ever could, as a disciple of the Force?
If he stayed he would be breaking his vows. But he could make new vows here; vows to Satine… and maybe even a silent vow to Mandalore, to better this system and her people. He knew if he put his mind to it, he could better Mandalore more than he ever had a Jedi.
"Alright," he nodded. “I’ll stay.”
15 years later.
Obi-Wan woke slowly, his neck aching from the strange position he had slept in. He groaned and stretched, rising and moving until he was sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked over his shoulder, grimacing as the movement ached through the strained muscles in his neck.
Satine was on the other side of the bed, asleep, her hair mussed in a way he knew none of her subjects could ever believe it looking unless they'd personally seen it. Satine was very good at presenting the perfect image to everyone around her… Everyone but Obi-Wan.
Although it had been a while since Obi-Wan had seen her like this. It was unusual for her to come in and sleep in their marriage bed. Most nights she slept on the daybed in her home office. He wondered if she was here because of the growing tensions on Mandalore lately. There had been sightings of Jango Fett in and around the sector for the past few weeks, with what seemed like a couple dozen proteges or young family members. The rumor was that Fett was here to take back the title of Mand’alor, and if that was true, Fett could be very dangerous for Satine’s rule and possibly her personal safety.
Obi-Wan knew that Satine’s security experts did not like how often she slept apart from Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan still kept up with his physical training and had saved Satine’s life a few times during the tumultuous days of the New Mandalorians' new rule over Mandalore, over a decade back. He knew that Satine’s security experts encouraged her to stay close to Obi-Wan when her personal guards could not be.
Whatever the reason, she was here, in their marriage bed. Obi-Wan was unsure how he felt having her so close after months of her being so distant. They had been growing apart for years, although it had only gotten really bad in the last year.
Obi-Wan was ashamed to admit though, he didn’t know why she had stopped loving him. Whether it was both of their faults for not making time for one another, or just the consequence of the circumstances, he wasn’t sure, but he was tired of how little she was in his life now.
Obi-Wan sighed wearily and got off the bed, stretching in larger movements as he did. He moved to the clothes hamper so he could toss in his sleep tunic before heading for the ‘fresher.
He paused at the door, looking back at his sleeping wife. He guessed by the time he came back out she would be gone, off readying for her day in the ‘fresher in her home office. He wondered if he’d see her again at all today, wondered if he should say something before she disappeared again.
He had spent so long at her side, helping her make Mandalore a home she could be proud of. He had given up his own dreams, he’d given up his own hopes for the future to match Satine’s. Now it all felt like he’d given them up for only a few years of real affection.
At least he’d had Korkie to focus much of his attention on. But Korkie was seventeen now — the same age Obi-Wan had been when he’d had chosen to stay on Mandalore instead of returning to the Jedi — and Korkie didn’t need his dad in the same way as he had when he’d been younger. All this meant that Obi-Wan felt like he was at loose ends most days.
Obi-Wan went through his morning ablutions and came back into the bedroom, intending on dressing, only to be surprised to find Satine still there waiting for him.
“Satine,” he greeted her with a dip of her head.
She barely even looked at him, and she didn’t seem even all that interested in his body, bare except for the towel around his waist. Obi-Wan remembered a time when they’d had a healthy sex life, but at this point Obi-Wan couldn’t remember when they’d last had sex. Certainly not since before Korkie had become a teenager.
“I wanted you to know from me, my council and I have extended an invitation to Jango Fett and his entourage.”
“An invitation for what?” Obi-Wan blinked, feeling a little blindsided. He had no idea the council would ever even consider having Fett here, let alone that they had already extended such an invitation.
Obi-Wan knew he had taken a back seat on politics as the sector — and Satine’s rule — had settled, so that he could be more present in Korkie’s life. But at one point he’d been an important part of Satine’s council, if a part of the council the other councilors hated. He’d disagreed with many of the laws passed in those early days. He’d tried to show them they needed to consider the ways their laws would affect all of the different peoples that called the Mandalorian sector home. The council was often a bit short-sighted with how their laws could hurt the more traditional peoples of Mandalorians, such as the Old Clans or those who followed The Way. And he knew some of the council had been incredibly relieved when Obi-Wan had stepped back just over a decade ago.
But Obi-Wan had stupidly thought he still had friends on the council, people who could keep him informed when something big was happening. And yet no one had warned him about this possibility.
Obi-Wan knew Fett coming probably meant the New Mandalorian Council or Sundari wanted to make deals with the True Mandalorians… or what was left of True Mandalorians. They would probably try to see if the two factions could find a neutral ground. And Obi-Wan thought that a compromise between the two factions could only be positive for Mandalore and for her peoples. (Obi-Wan himself found many of his own views seemed to fall in between the True Mandalorian and New Mandalorian beliefs and ways of life.) But he had a hard time seeing those two philosophies being able to coincide easily. And he worried a bit that the New Mandalorians might try to trick the True Mandalorians — through Jango Fett — into compromises they shouldn’t or couldn’t make.
Mandalorians, even the New Mandalorians, were too stubborn; they always believed they were right. He couldn’t see either side being able to agree to anything that would compromise their ideals in the way they would need to to coexist peacefully.
“We have invited Fett for a meeting of peace and understanding. We would like to create a treaty with them and make sure there aren’t any upriseals for our taking power while he was gone. Although it’s not like the New Mandalorians were the reason Fetts people died. We merely helped shape Mandalore when there was a power vacuum. It wasn’t like we were the ones that had anything to do with the True Mandalorians' fate on Galidraan.”
Obi-Wan almost sighed at the snippy tone in his wife’s voice. She had already made up her mind that Fett and his point-of-view was wrong without even talking to the man.
“Alright,” he said tiredly. He wasn’t sure what else to say. Nothing he could say would make her change her mind.
Obi-Wan and Satine… they still agreed on some very important things, but on others, their opinions couldn’t be further apart. And while the passion of their fighting had been enjoyable in the first few years of their marriage, Obi-Wan had grown tired of it. It didn’t help that Obi-Wan tried to defuse their fighting more and more as a way to keep their son from it — Korkie didn’t deserve to witness that. So Obi-Wan had stopped trying to challenge Satine’s views more and more as the years went on. Really, when he had decided to step down from Satine’s Council, it had been a relief.
Satine nodded. “You will be expected to be at my side during the welcoming feast, at the very least.”
Obi-Wan had attended many events at Satine’s side. He knew he was good at talking to people, and she knew it too. He had soothed the tempers of many various political and business representatives who’d had dealings with Mandalore.
“Thank you for letting me know,” Obi-Wan replied simply.
Satine nodded to him and then left, off to get ready for her own day.
The welcome dinner that the New Mandalorian Council held in honor of Jango Fett’s presence went better than Obi-Wan could have even hoped.
Obi-Wan had been a bit afraid — although a little part of him had been anticipating it with excitement — that real violence might break out at the dinner. Obi-Wan had come to the dinner armed and he had even worn his chestplate, vambraces and greaves to the dinner over his fancy fitted tunic and leggings.
The Council had been not happy when he’d shown up in his armor. Not that anyone on the New Mandalorian Council had ever approved of his armor, they never had. But he had been given this armor by the armorer of Clan Kryze on Kalavela, three years into his marriage, they couldn’t force him to give it up.
Luckily — or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it — Fett and his people did not insight violence at the dinner.
However there had been a terrible shock ripple through the room when Fett’s people had sat down to eat and taken off their helmets. They were either Fett’s children or his clones, they looked too similar to Fett to be anything but. And in the Force, they each felt like their own person; as all people did, but they carried a hint of the same flavor as siblings often did.
Most of Fett’s entourage didn’t talk during the dinner, leaving Fett and his disappointed scowl to speak mountains for them, every time one of the New Mandalorian ministers or officials began to speak about their own opinions or what they wanted Fett to do. However, one of the young men who was with Fett — a young man with a scar around his eye — argued with the New Mandalorian representatives, while the rest of Fett's part stayed silent. Fett, himself, seemed to take everything in with his pretty dark eyes, and grit his jaw as the wheels in his head visibly turned. He would then decide to either respond with words or his signature scowl, the latter being more often. However, the young man with the scar — Kote, Obi-Wan thought Fett introduced him as — argued long and hard with the Minister for Defense for most of the dinner.
Kote and the Minister’s arguing amused Obi-Wan more than anything. Morsh of clan Nolm was an idiot with views on violence more extremely rigid and pacifistic than even Satine. Obi-Wan had no idea why Morsh had been appointed to such a position, although Obi-Wan did suppose that might have been Satine trying to stem the damage of that man, as most of Morsh’s roles and responsibilities seemed to be delegated to Geeron of clan Rau. Morsh was more of a figurehead than anything. After all, Mandalore could not let itself be defenseless, especially during the first ten years of Satine’s new rule, when a fair number of Death Watch supporters had been committing violent crimes as revenge for their fallen leader.
Obi-Wan caught Fett glancing over at him multiple times throughout the dinner. He hoped he wasn’t being too transparent about how tired he was about the New Mandalorians’ ridgid inability to look past pacifism. Although Obi-Wan tried to stop smiling every time Kote Fett made Morsh sound like an absolute idiot, because he knew that didn’t help in trying to show he was just here as a support for his wife. He’d meant to keep a somewhat low profile tonight and knew he wasn’t being very successful.
Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what to make of those glances from Jango Fett, whether or not Fett’s attention was about Obi-Wan’s interest in the arguing or whether it was something… more. It didn’t help that he couldn’t get a read on Fett in the Force — there were just too many Mandalorians in this room with very strong emotions, and Fett was sitting too far away.
Whatever the reason, Obi-Wan wasn’t sure anything good could come out of Fett’s interest in him. He knew he was a weak point in Satine’s personal defenses, especially since it was well known in Sundari that Obi-Wan did not always support the views and morals of the New Mandalorian leadership.
But he couldn’t do anything about that now, so he sat back and tried to be more subtle over how much he enjoyed Kote and Morsh’ arguments.
Obi-Wan left the dinner feeling a little frustrated and disappointed that there had been no fighting to cool his blood.
He wished either Korkie or Silas of clan Muraay — his two usual sparring partners — were around. Silas had been back on Concord Dawn for a few months now, visiting extended family and Korkie was away on Corellia, in his first semester of studies at one of the universities there.
Obi-Wan had actually met Silas while he’d been on work for the New Mandalorian Council, years back, working on uncovering intelligence on abandoned and defunct Death Watch bases. Only this base hadn't been so empty, and instead Obi-Wan had found an injured Silas there, attacking Death Watch commandos. Obi-Wan had helped Silas take down the commandos there and then brought him home.
They had become friends slowly over the years. Neither of them liked to talk about their pasts, but there was a deep understanding between them that they had both lost their roots. Silas hated the New Mandalorian rule with a passion, but he was also paid handsomely by Geeron Rau to help find flaws in their security.
Obi-Wan missed both Silas and Korkie. Without them, he felt adrift in a sea of pacifistic Mandos who hated him. He had some friends and acquaintances here and there in Sundari, but none who he connected quite so deeply with.
So instead of sparring, as he knew would have calmed his blood and his brain so he could sleep, he began a series of katas at half-speed. He never forgot the katas he’d learned from the Jedi temple and ensured they were muscle memory, even now, almost two decades later. They kept him sharp and his body in good shape.
He hoped the slower katas would at least strain his muscles enough so that he would be able to sleep with a chemical aid, after a cool down. It was only thirty minutes to midnight and Obi-Wan was old enough now that he needed at least seven hours of sleep a night to function at all. So he needed to do this now, or he wouldn’t be his best tomorrow.
Obi-Wan was about halfway through his sets when a warning in the Force made him pause. He felt like he was being watched. Obi-Wan fell out of his kata, standing straight with his joints loose and ready for whatever the warning the Force was trying to tell him.
Jango Fett stood behind a tree, quietly watching Obi-Wan, his helmet obscuring his face.
“What do you want?” Obi-Wan asked, a little annoyed that his efforts to tire himself out had been interrupted.
“I’m trying to figure out what could have ever convinced you to marry a woman who condemns everything a Mandalorian is.” Fett said, only a little of his emotion coming through his helmet’s vocoder.
Obi-Wan bristled. “Why would that matter to you?”
Fett ignored the question, the blank t-visor of his helmet staring at Obi-Wan for a long, silent moment. “You’re not like them.” Fett stated clearly, as if this was a fact he knew intimately.
“How would you know?” Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes at the man.
Fett took off his helmet and stepped forward. “Silas told me about you.”
“What about me?” Obi-Wan folded his arms. He trusted his friend, but he was also aware that Silas did not have the same allegiances that Obi-Wan did. Thinking back, it wasn’t surprising Silas had disappeared to ‘visit extended family’ around the same time that tales of Fett reappearing in the sector had begun to spread. Obi-Wan knew Silas had been a True Mandalorian before Galidraan and that he’d been close to Mereel and Fett. But what Silas could have told Fett about Obi-Wan, he wasn’t sure.
“He said you were a good man. A good Mando. That is high praise from him, especially considering the riff-raff that inhabits this city,” Fett spat out.
Obi-Wan’s frown deepened. Yes, he didn’t really agree philosophically with many of the New Mandalorians, but they had still done their best for the Mandalorian people. His wife was doing her best, in her own way. Obi-Wan could see the good Satine and her leadership had done. Mandalore had been broken when Obi-Wan had first come to this system, now it had a future at least. “They’ve done their best for this sector,” Obi-Wan protested weekly.
“Maybe. But they’ll never let our people live how they need to. They invited me here as a way to pretend they are peaceful and that we could work together, but you and I both know they will not compromise with me.” Fett said firmly and without any doubt.
And Obi-Wan knew that Fett was right, as much as he hated to admit it.
“I find myself very intrigued by you Kenobi. I feel like you and I could do much good together for this sector. Beyond the Council, I am aware that the people here trust you, that they know you left your former life behind to help heal Mandalore. Your talents are wasted by the current leadership.”
“So you want to work with me because you think I could help you and that I would agree with your vision of Mandalore’s future?” Obi-Wan clarified, feeling his heart start to pound in his chest.
There was something more that Fett wasn’t saying, something else that Fett wanted from Obi-Wan. In the Force Obi-Wan could feel it… it was almost like lust.
But that couldn’t be right, could it?
“Well you’re certainly not hard on the eyes. I have been lonely for a long time. And Silas… he thinks we would suit each other.” Fett admitted. “My friend’s opinions mean a lot to me in the matters of ner kar’ta.” (matters of the heart.)
Obi-Wan’s eyes widened when he realized what Fett truly wanted from Obi-Wan: a partnership. A riduurok. (a love bond.)
“But I’m married,” Obi-Wan’s throat felt dry and it felt hard to swallow suddenly.
“Don’t pretend you are together in anything but name,” Fett growled. “Everyone knows she has had her eye on others. It wasn’t even Silas who told me that. Most of Sundari knows.”
Obi-Wan looked away from Fett’s intense gaze, staring down at the cobblestone courtyard. Obi-Wan was aware of Satine’s unfaithfulness. He didn’t think Satine had physically strayed, but she hadn’t been true to their marriage vows in a long time, and he didn’t just mean cheating. They hadn’t been one when they were together or apart in a long time. He knew their marriage meant little to her now.
Jango Fett’s proposal was tempting, the man’s values aligned much closer to Obi-Wan’s than Satine’s ever had. It had been her passion and her righteousness to do good that had drawn Obi-Wan to Satine originally, not her adamance for pacifism.
It didn’t hurt that Jango was easy on the eyes. But Obi-Wan knew so little of this man. The idea that Silas might have vouched for their compatibility aside, Obi-Wan didn’t know if he could trust Jango.
“I don’t mean that you have to choose that kind of relationship with me right now,” Jango said easily, quashing Obi-Wan’s fears. “We could take it slowly, a relationship between us could be however you wanted. It doesn’t have to be something so serious. It could be as simple as us coming together and giving our people a new option, a better way of living.” He paused, his eyes searching Obi-Wan’s. “Help me make something better for Mandalore.”
“And you wouldn’t hurt Satine?” Obi-Wan asked quietly, feeling almost ashamed by the question. He knew he probably shouldn’t still care so much for a woman who seemed to care so little for him these days, but he was a man who loved deeply. They might not be in love anymore, but that didn’t mean he stopped loving her.
“Of course not,” Jango soothed, stepping even closer.
They were within only an arm span from each other, and it felt as if the rest of the world was falling away. There was something incredibly dynamic about Jango Fett.
And at that moment Obi-Wan wanted to agree. Being the center of Jango’s attention was heady. But then that moment was broken.
Obi-Wan didn’t know how long Satine had been in the courtyard, watching, but suddenly Obi-Wan became aware that she was there.
Her voice suddenly split the intimacy that had built between Obi-Wan and Jango.
“Obi-Wan, come here,” Satine demanded. Her voice was sharp as she said his name, not unlike how a commando would call a disobedient strill.
Obi-Wan turned, looking at his wife and then turning back again towards Jango.
Jango’s eyebrows crinkled in distaste at Satine’s tone. He lifted his own hand slowly, holding it out towards Obi-Wan. “Join me. Help me give our people hope and a better future; a future not bound back by uncompromising, weak ideals. Help me show our people a balance between what they are living now and a way they could honor our faith and our ancestors.”
“Obi-Wan, don’t even think about it!” Satine called out, stepping forward harshly as her anger rose to the surface.
Obi-Wan hesitated, looking back and forth between the two stubborn Mandalorians who both thought they were right. This offer from Fett felt sudden, and yet… Obi-Wan had been thinking for a long time that he wished there had been a better option for Mandalore, a way that offered a better balance in the ideals of the past and the present of Mandalore. Something all of his people could live.
Obi-Wan’s eyes flickered back and forth between Jango and Satine.
Did he go where his heart wanted? Did he turn to what he believed Mandalore needed? Or did he keep to his vows? Did he cling to the promises he made to Satine, as a young man? Those vows and promises that felt faded, already on the brink of breaking.
Hadn’t he broken his Jedi vows for Satine? And yet his life had not gone how he had hoped or wished when he had joined her. So what was one more broken vow?
Obi-Wan lifted his hand and clasped the warm one raised in front of him.