Chapter Text
The first thing Jaster registered after he’d realized Montross’s betrayal with Tor, was a heavy feeling in the air; like they were in a vacuum, and then Montross was screaming.
Jaster turned back to them, pulling out his blaster, and actively not shooting the creature that was tearing into Montross’s unarmored side between the gaps in his beskar.
Before Tor had the chance to regroup, there was a bolt between his eyes, and Jaster only paused another second before putting one in Montross’s as well.
The creature was a small little thing, about the size of a lapstrill, and clearly either a cub, or a particularly rounded adult of its species.
They had cub-fat on them, and big eyes that seemed to glow when they caught the light. A longer snout that seemed to fit the little fangs that came out longer than you’d expect on a cub, and easily sheared through skin. Their little body was round and chubby like Jaster would expect of a well fed cub, and their paws were massive. They had a lot to grow into. They were a red clay colour, and had shiny markings that looked like they glowed under UV light, and looked like nothing Jaster had ever seen before.
Even still, they were rather cute. He kept his blaster out still, but didn’t aim at them. He waited.
After Montross was fully still and unmoving, the little creature didn’t feast upon him. They sat back on their chubby little haunches, looking him in the eye, and just waited.
It didn’t feel like being stared down by a predator. More like an ad asking him ‘now what?’ It felt like when Jango and Silas would stare him down after a mission, asking him what they were doing next. He crouched down next to Tor’s body, grabbing the da’kad the shabuir had tried to use on him, and clipped it to his belt.
Jaster cocked his head at the cub, and they did it right back, tail flipping about behind them in a modicum of excitement.
“Hello, cyar’ika, did you come to help?”
The cub looked downright pleased at that, sitting up with an excited mew and coming to weave themselves between Jaster’s legs like a kitten. They sat back again, putting their little head on his boot.
Okay. Yeah. A dangerous little buddy. Maybe he’s force sensitive and came to help. Extremely dangerous, though. He’d have to be careful. He sighed, standing up fully and taking a few steps back.
The scary bloody cub followed him, tail high and vibrating. If he was anything like a tooka, Jaster would say that’s a very happy little cub. They looked a mix between tooka and strill in a lot of ways, and… other, in more. But that seemed to be the sweetest excitement ever. Jaster was pleased with that much.
They followed him through the woods, and Jaster finally felt comfortable enough to turn around and start back to the haat’ade camp. He needed them to know this was all a trap. He needed to make sure Jan’ika was safe. The cub kept pace with him as he went, making excited chirping noises as they moved at a fast pace. Jaster just hoped that was excitement and not annoyance, anyways.
He wondered if their carrier was looking for them. He sure hoped not. He couldn’t imagine anything more terrifying than a carrier… -creature, like this?- looking for their cub.
He had to stop to check their surroundings once, but quickly realized it was a flock of birds taking off from their noise, and not Death Watch, but before he could start running for camp again, the little cub was pawing at his thigh.
It was interesting. They had such big, sharp little claws, and yet, they didn’t let any of those paw at Jaster’s thigh. They tucked them into their paws and used the pads of their feet.
Jaster gave a little sigh. “You want up?”
The cub, shockingly enough, nodded . Interesting. Really interesting. Semi sentient at a minimum.
He nodded, reaching down to pick them up. They seemed far lighter than anything their size should be, but it was enough to settle them against his chest plate without much issue. “Alright, we’ll have to go fast, I have to make sure no one else gets lured out of the camp.”
The cub nodded again, tucking their little face into their massive paws, trusting Jaster to hold them while they ran.
The camp enclosure was close enough that when he got into it, he came to a skidding stop in front of a shocked verd’e around a campfire, possibly kicking up a bit of dirt and pushing it into the flames. “Jango! Jan’ika where are you?”
Myles stood up from where he’d been sitting at another campfire with young Silas at his side, gently plaiting his hair for him like a nice ba’vodu. He held his hands up in worry at Jaster’s frantic tone, confused. “Jas, what happened?”
“Montross was a traitor, he sold me out to Vizsla, where’s my ad?”
Myles clamped his mouth shut, giving a tight nod, and turned around for him, clearly thinking better than Jaster had been since the blow to his head he’d taken, and easily finding which tent he’d climbed out of that morning. Jaster wondered how frantic he must look to approach with this much caution.
“Buir?”
Myles came out after a sleepy Jango, who’s eyes were wide and his hair was rumpled. He was still in his sleep thermals, so it was either still earlier than sensible, or Jango had been getting ready.
Jaster’s heart melted when Jango instantly went in for a hug, before Jango gave a confused little flinch at the animal in Jaster’s arms. Jaster looked down at the confused cub against his chest, who was staring at Jango with something akin to awe.
“Myles?”
Myles nodded, still looking worried. “Yes, Alor?”
“Take my buy’ce? My comms are shot.”
Myles nodded, gently taking the helmet from Jaster’s head, who gave a low hiss as it passed over his aching ear. Myles gave a low, wounded noise as he saw the blood on Jaster’s ear. Jaster sighed in relief as the cool air hit him, before going a little weak. Jango squeaked, coming in to help Jaster down to sit on a crate, while Myles hooked the buy’ce up to a terminal. More than half the camp was up now, most of them coming to see either Jaster and his new cub, or the terminal he’d hooked been up to. Mij gently nudged Jango out of the way so he could get at Jaster’s aching head, using a scanner over it.
“Buir, what’s this?”
Jaster cracked open an eye he hadn’t realized he’d closed, and looked around to see most of the camp angrily buzzing around the buy’ce footage from Jaster’s helmet, looking pissed as Montross revealed himself a traitor.
“Buir?”
Jaster’s eyes flickered back to Jango, and gave him an apologetic smile. Silas was hovering behind Jango now, eyes big and worried as he tugged at his half braided hair, and Jango turned to grab him by the shoulders, pulling him into his side to comfort him. “I couldn’t rightly tell you, Jan’ika. Just… they’re friendly?”
Jango considered that, reaching out a free hand towards the cub in Jaster’s arms, who seemed to uncurl from where he’d tucked himself under Jaster’s arm. The cub leaned in towards Jango, and sniffed at his open palm, before shoving his long snout into that palm, making Jango laugh, somewhat startled. Silas cautiously held out a hand next, getting much the same reaction from the cub.
Jaster smiled, unwrapping his arms from the cub, and watched as they tottered on his thighs for a moment, before gently hopping down and moving to sit at Jango and Silas’s feet. The three of them -his ad, his best friend’s vod’ad, and the little cub he’d plucked from the mountain,- watched Mij work on him till the baar’ur turned to the three of them. “He’ll be fine, ade, just a bit fuzzy for a couple hours. Looks like those verd’e are up in a tizzy over Jaster’s bad news about the mission, so we might have to pack up soon. Maybe ask Kizer to watch you two play with your new buddy in the sparing clearing we set up last night? I’ll have someone bring you two first meal and finish doing Silas’s hair.”
Jango pouted at needing an adult to watch them, but he overall understood. There were three of them, and anyone could be waiting in the forest to get at the haat’ade. Mij just wanted the youngest in the camp together while the adults argued over what to do next. He’d probably send a few other young ones their way to keep them entertained as they all argued. He led Silas off with a hand in his, both ade grinning when the cub trotted along at their side.
Jaster smiled after them, before saying in a low tone that the ade wouldn’t hear. “I don’t know what species that cub is, but they took down two grown adults.”
Mij froze, looking away from the skin he was bacta-gluing back together, clearly a result of the shot Montross had used to take down his comms, and looked over at Silas and Jango dutifully telling Kizer he needed to be on babysitting duty with them that morning. Kizer was a jolly old barrel chested verd. He could take down a rancor but looked like a fairy tale yule father. “And you trust them not to do that to your ad?”
“They are, at the very least , semi-sentient, Mij. Watch the helmet footage and you’ll see what I mean. Either that or they’re too smart for their own good. I wouldn’t have let them out of my arms if they didn’t have a favorable reaction to the ade.”
Mij grumbled something in his native tongue that Jaster couldn’t catch, before going back to getting Jaster’s head back on right.
Dikutla haat’ade always need him to put their heads back on right.
Jaster closed his eyes, leaning against the crate behind him while Mij did his work. They weren’t interrupted again for a solid twenty minutes.
“We’ve sent out scouts, they should come back within the day to say if it’s still safe on the planet, or if we need to evacuate immediately. Likely, this mission might be better to finish rooting out Death Watch on the planet, but I’ll order an evacuation if things are worse than we might think.”
Jaster cracked an eye open, looking at Myles with a smile. “Thank you, Myles. I can always count on you.”
Myles grinned. “Yeah, because I don’t have any plans to oust your ad’ike’s heirship.”
“Well, if I didn’t have a reason not to trust someone that didn’t adore him before, I’ve found a few.” He hissed as Mij pressed a hypo to his neck, giving him a shot. “What was that one for?”
“Mild pain killer. You already got the stabilizer, I just need you awake and alert for the next two hours, then you can sleep for another solid six, but that’s when I think you should be up again.”
Jaster frowned. “What a pain.”
Mij snorted. “Hey, that’s the improved method. Before concussion stabilizers we had to wake patients up every two to ask them full questions and check they didn’t have memory loss. And they’d be forced to stay up for a couple hours anyways so they wouldn’t fall into a medical coma.”
Jaster sighed. “Those poor shabuir. Wish that were me.”
Mij snorted again, this time sounding like it actually hurt. “I always forget how much of a riot you are with a head cold or something else squeezing your brain.”
“It’s a fragile pudding. Can I be placed in the clearing with the kids? I want to keep an eye on the cub I brought back.”
“Liar, you just want to be in hearing range in case we decide to pack up.”
Jaster shrugged. “I would like to be informed, yes.”
Mij followed him to the small clearing they’d set up to put the few ade they’d brought the day before. Honestly, if they’d known there would be Death Watch here, they wouldn’t have brought anyone but the fighters.
Jaster was just glad this situation wasn’t going to force Jango into an early squadron leader, since that’s the role Jango would have woken up to if Montross had succeeded.
Jango, thankfully, wasn’t about to take over leadership of anyone, and eagerly came to meet him in the camp chair Mij sternly told him to go to, the little cub following at his heels like an eager pet.
“Buir, Buir, are you okay, Buir?”
Contrary to popular belief, Jango was actually Jaster’s sweet ad, the one who still slept beside him in the den and wasn’t ready for the responsibilities of being a leader. He was only fifteen, he was too little for that.
Jango squeaked when Jaster pulled him in enough that Jango was halfway in his arms, only stopped by being in his lap by the annoyed sounds from Mij right now. Jango started to whine when Jaster started pressing little kisses on his cheek. “Buuuuir-!”
“I am so glad for that cub, okay, I can’t imagine what would have happened in camp afterwards.”
Jango grumbled, making a clicking noise as he slipped mostly out of Jaster’s arms. He reached down and picked said cub up, an arm behind the cub’s back to tilt them right back into his arms like a baby. They looked just as pleased about that. “He’s really smart, Buir. Can we keep him?”
“He, huh?”
Jango gave a little shrug. “I would say it’s because he definitely has the same parts as me, but Cassie says he also has the same parts as her, and he just feels like, boy shaped.”
Jaster snorted. Ade were adorable like that. He didn’t want to admit that kind of baffled him with the way that Mandalorians didn’t use much gender expression at all, but it was likely because the cub was more scary than adorable. Actually, they looked somewhat horrifying, at a biological standpoint. “It’s fine, Jan’ika. Like a strill, use what feels right in the moment. Both parts, huh?”
Jango nodded, looking at the other end of the cub’s body. “Yeah. His parts are the same as a strills. I think, anyway. It’s not like I looked all that closely.”
Jaster snorted, before pausing, and going to check something on the cub’s back paw. It was a silver circlet around his little paw. He had to squint to see it since his head was somewhat fuzzy still. “Ossik, is that a poachers tracker?”
Jango looked down at it with a frown. “Is that what that is? I thought it meant he was part of a breeding program.”
Jaster shook his head. “Small, heavy animals step in the traps and it slips a tracker over their ankles, when the poacher follows them to the den they’ll find more of them.”
Jango gave an angry little growl at his new buddy being put in danger like that, and plopped down on the ground. He moved the cub so they were in his lap, sitting up like a teddy bear. He was going to have dirt and grass stains. He was also likely to survive the day, so Jaster let that be. “Can I get that icky tracker off your paw, cub?”
The cub looked up at him for a solid five seconds, before wriggling that exact foot, making both them stare in shock. “Oh, he’s definitely at least somewhat sentient.”
Jaster nodded. “He understood me asking if I could pick him up.” Jaster pulled out a multitool from his belt, since Jango was still in his warm sleep thermals, handing it over. “I think the flathead should be able to pry it open.”
Jango nodded, moving to work on that little back paw, moving slow in case the cub fussed over it. The cub only made one startled little hiss when the tracker popped open, and Jango soothed him, realizing that the latch had pinched his skin, and gently working it out and off his back paw.
The cub was still for a few moments, and then Jaster felt it again. That pressure in the air like there was a vacuum sucking the air out of the area, catching just about everyone’s attention- and the cub started to ripple.
Not just ripple, but change. His fur retracted fast, and before ten seconds had gone by, half the camp was surrounding them, and Jango was holding a naked ik’aad, looking no older than three, in his arms.
Ossik.
***
Obi-Wan was supposed to go to the Jedi temple.
He was Stewjoni, or, in the common tongue of the galaxy, a Sithspawn. He didn’t know much about the Sith, he just knew they created his people.
But, then again, he was only twelve.
Mama, a full blooded Stewjoni, was a great big warrior in her shifted form. She was as big as a house, and dark as the void. Papa… was humanoid. Which is why Obi-Wan’s ‘fitting in’ form, also looked human. Him and his siblings didn’t look like Mama in her humanoid form. Mama in her humanoid form, had a tendency to scare the other humans. They said she looked wrong. Obi-Wan thought she looked like Mama. Mama looks like Mama.
Papa has redder hair, and only had one form, so Mama said that’s why all their shifted forms were so light, and also, tiny. Obi-Wan wished he could be as big as her one day in his shifted form, but Hai-Lir, the oldest of his siblings, was only the size of a speeder ship in their shift.
Obi-Wan was meant to go to the Jedi, though. It was important, Mama said.
Obi-Wan thought he was fine living at home with them, but Mama had looked into his future when his accidents started to happen.
Mother Talsin had sent Mama a very angry message when Mama checked his future, saying she was sucking on the nexus of Dathomir and ruining important rituals.
Mama didn’t care much for Mother Talsin. She just huffed in annoyance when Papa read that message out for her. She hadn’t even bothered shifting back to her small form to read it herself.
Mama had said she saw Obi-Wan as one of the strongest warriors of the galaxy, but he’ll need special training for it.
It likely wouldn’t take more than thirty years to be fully trained, and Obi-Wan didn’t think that would last all that long. He’d still be young by the time he was trained, and maybe they could help his brain fuzzies when he gets his own visions. They weren’t like the force fuzzies Mama created when she looked into the future, but they made his body sleepy.
Either way, Mama thinks it’ll be the perfect place to be so he can stop falling into the void all the time. Mama said he could learn from the Jedi, since they didn’t step into the void at all, so he’d stop falling into it.
But, he’d gone and felt a funny tickle in the force that morning, after Mama finished getting his bags together to go to the temple with the nice Master Fay. Master Fay was older than even Mama was, and she knew about their species enough that they didn’t hide Stewjon from her when she came by, so she’d come to collect him.
That tickle had led to him tripping into the void again. But, unlike before, he reappeared on another planet entirely! It couldn’t be too far away, but he’s never disappeared further than a couple villages over before. It was really scary, now that he was in his other form again, since he was worried about it. What if he falls into the void again and this time doesn’t have these nice humanoids helping him?
He didn’t want to leave these humanoids. Not unless he can go to the temple where they’ll teach him how to stay in one place unless he wanted to otherwise.
These were such nice people. Especially the nice one that Obi-Wan had met when he first showed up here.
***
Jango didn’t know what to do with the suddenly crying ik’aad in his arms.
He wasn’t like, sobbing? But he was crying sorta like his world was ending.
Myles, -in place of Jaster, who was being gently shoved onto his shebs by Mij, which was the only reason Mij wasn’t trying to grab the ik’aad,- tried to gently take the ik’aad from his arms, and was soundly bit on the forearm for it, a fierce growl coming from his little chest. Jango helped extract those fierce little fangs from his arm.
Thankfully, they were ik’aad fangs, like a baby togruta or twi’lek might have, nothing like the creature he’d been five minutes ago.
“Jan’ika.” Jaster’s voice was quiet, but commanding, just as Jango had started to bounce the ik’aad a little against his chest. Jango looked over in worry. “Come sit with me, let Buir help.”
Jango scrambled up with the ik’aad, glaring at the verd’e as he walked the five steps over to Jaster. “I’m sure all this gawking can’t be helping him much.”
Jaster turned with a glare, made worse by the stress he’s been feeling since Montross led him into that trap. They started to move away, peaking in from a distance so as not to crowd them. Mij helped Jango up onto the crate, a little too tall for him, and Myles kept his distance with Silas leaning back against his chest. At some point he’d found a hair tie to pull his hair back into a tail, so Myles wasn’t going to worry about finding foliage in his hair later, at least.
Jango pushed under Jaster’s offered arm, letting the ik’aad sit between the two of them for now, big sad tears turning into grumbles and sniffles about his plight. Whatever that plight may be…
Mij handed Jango some tissues, and Jango started trying to clean their face for them, noting the way it distracted them enough to fuss and cry even less now. Jango kept going till they had a clean face, and then handed them a tissue. “Blow.”
The ik’aad scowled at the tissue, but did so, clumsily blowing their nose till their little airways were clear and Jango could settle down knowing they weren’t going to make themselves sick. Snotty noses plus crying often equals throwing up.
“What had you crying, ik’aad’ika? Are you lost?”
Their little lip wobbled, and they gave a slow nod. Jaster had unhooked his cape, and was wrapping it around that little body, making them shiver once and curl into the warm fabric. “I keep falling into the darkness. My teacher will come get me, but I fell into the darkness and now I’m here. It’s the farthest fall I’ve ever had.”
That explained absolutely nothing, to be honest. Jango squinted while Jaster’s eyebrows pushed together in concern. “You fell? Where did you fall?”
“I fell at home. I landed on the mean man that wanted to kill Jaster.” He turned to look at Jaster. “That’s your name, right?”
Jaster nodded, a little smile on his face. “I am Jaster Mereel, this is my child, Jango Fett. Those are Myles and his… nephew, Silas.” Jango nodded at him, mainly about Jaster getting the basic word correct. Basic was Jaster’s fourth language, and he had a bit of trouble in it. “This is Mij, he is a doctor. What is your name?”
The little one gave a sigh, as if he was just so aggrieved. “I am Obi-Wan Kenobi, sixth child of Muan-Mar, the Great Beast of the seventh village, and Keti, my papa.”
Oh. So, Mama got that big ass title, huh? Nice.
Jango started to snicker a little. “Well, my buir is the Mand’alor. He rules the Mandalorian sector.”
Obi-Wan blinked up at him with big grey eyes that looked like they saw through the universe. “What’s a sector?”
“It’s… a lot of planets.”
Obi-Wan’s eyes fell. “Oh. Mama’s killed a lot of rulers. I hope she doesn’t kill Jaster. He’s very nice.”
Jango nodded, looking unperturbed. He and Silas seemed to be the only ones unconcerned with the little one’s words. “He’s very nice. Are you feeling better?”
Obi-Wan nodded, snuggling back into Jaster’s chest with a sigh. Jaster was wearing his chestplate, but the arm around Obi-Wan’s side was soft under his fabric, and Obi-Wan was able to lay his head there. “I like you all. I’ll still go to the Jedi after they come get me, but you are all very nice. I hope I don’t disappear again before they get me.”
Silas escaped Myles’s arms, coming to stand halfway between Jango’s legs, poking at the little one’s cheek. “How come you turned into that animal? What animal was that? I’ve never seen one. I didn’t know there were any physical shifters that look human.”
Obi-Wan didn’t get annoyed at the poking, thankfully, giggling a little. He looked tired. It might be naptime soon.
“I’m not an animal, I’m Stewjoni. Mama is Stewjoni and Papa is human. So my shape that speaks looks human, like Papa.”
Hey. What the kriff type of way to describe it- what does Mama look like in her speaking form? That’s a terrifying thought.
Obi-Wan yawned super big, and Jaster spoke up. “Obi-Wan, do we have to stay in this place for your teacher to find you?”
Obi-Wan considered it. “I don’t know.”
Jaster looked at Myles, and he nodded. “We have several small Death Watch encampments that we need to root out, but we can put you two on the main cruiser and into orbit if it gets dangerous.”
Jaster didn’t want to say yes, but he flickered his eyes over to Jango and Silas. Likely, after today, it wouldn’t be him in that cruiser keeping the ik’aad safe, but his very capable, but very clingy ad, and Silas. Jango and Silas could keep the ik’aad both safe and entertained. Jaster didn’t know the other ade in the camp very well, but they’d be safer on the ships as well. “Mij, have Tavanali help the ade get everything together and on the shuttle. They can stay for now, but they need to be ready to move.” He paused, watching as Silas sighed, starting to trudge off. “Jango, you as well.”
“Buir-!”
“Ad, do not argue with me on this. I almost died this morning, and I won’t let the same happen to you.”
Jango was quiet for a long moment, before he looked eyes, eyes very wet, and sniffled once. “Lek, Buir.”
“Vor’e, Jan’ika. I’ll move to the command tent to talk with the verd’e.” He looked to Mij over his shoulder with a glare before he could argue. “I will sit in a chair and do no more than speak and help plan, you mother nunna.”
Mij glared, but nodded, moving to take little Obi-Wan from his arms when he moved to stand. They all froze, remembering Myles getting bit fairly hard by the feral ik’aad. Myles didn’t think anything was truly hurt, since his ik’aad teeth couldn’t exactly break through his vambrace’s under-leathers, but he might have a fairly bad bruise, if he checked later.
Obi-Wan just looked up at him with big wet grey eyes, and raised a little hand to him. Mij relaxed as he pulled the ik’aad into his arms, giving him a few soft pats to the back and tucking Jaster’s cape more firmly around him for warmth. “You’ll be fine with us, ik’aad’ika. We’ll get you cleaned and fed and in some warm cuddle clothes. Don’t you worry.”
Obi-Wan grumbled a little, tucking his face into Mij’s shoulder between armor plates. He gave a body shivering yawn, and settled down a little for a snooze. That’s fine. They could give him a bit of a nap before they plopped him in a bath and into some clothes. One of these dikut were bound to have ik’aad clothes on them, vying parents half them tended to be.
And then they needed a plan. A proper plan. Where the kriff was planet Stewjon located?