Chapter Text
Tholme had just been finishing up a mission in the Kaltinir system with his padawan when he gets a com from the Jedi Council. Safely back in their ship, he answers it.
“Master Yaddle.” Tholme greets.
“Master Tholme.” Yaddle greets in return.
“What is this about?” Tholme asks, Quinlan hovering just behind his shoulder. Tholme can feel him brimming with curiosity.
“Master Dooku seems to have encountered an unusual situation on his mission to Galidraan.” Yaddle begins.
Tholme hums in acknowledgment. Master Dooku isn’t one to contact the Council mid-mission, so something pretty concerning must be going on.
“It seems the Governor of the planet has been deliberately deceptive in their request for help. The exact details are not important right now. While there he encountered a padawan who has clearly been stranded from the Order for awhile. The padawan has proven to be rather reluctant to talk about their past and is clearly deeply afraid of some unknown individual coming after them. So much so that they told Master Dooku not to put their full name in any written reports out of fear that this threat learns their whereabouts.” Yaddle explains.
“It sounds like the padawan believes that this threat has access to our records.” Tholme deduces.
“Yes. We have no proof of such a situation, but we have decided to proceed with caution while an investigation into our security is underway. The padawan has refused to say from which temple they hail from, but it is clear that it isn’t Coruscant. I have already dispatched Jedi to investigate the Corellia and Jedha temples for any records of this padawan. Such records may help provide insight into the situation.” Yaddle continues.
“You want me to go to Lothal.” Tholme guesses.
“Yes. Go to Lothal and see if you can find anything out about this padawan.” Yaddle pauses. “His name is Ben Kenobi.”
“Kenobi?” Quinlan squawks out in surprise.
“Any relation to Qui-Gon’s padawan?” Tholme questions.
“While nothing is confirmed, the similar age and appearance of the two boys makes it likely they’re twins.”
“How could twin boys be taken into the Order without anyone realizing?” Tholme points out.
“That is one of the many questions we hope will be illuminated by finding the boy’s records. I won’t keep you any longer. May the Force be with you.” Yaddle concludes before ending the call.
“It seems we have a bit of a mystery on our hands.” Tholme turns to Quinlan.
“No kidding! Obi-Wan is going to be shocked when he finds out he has a twin brother out there. Hopefully we can find and stop whoever’s hunting him.” Quinlan responds.
Tholme sends a wave of reassurance through their bond. While Quinlan is good at hiding it, Tholme can tell he’s concerned. Not only for Ben Kenobi, but on how this whole business will affect his friend. “I have no doubt that we’ll manage to get to the bottom of this problem. Now let’s head to Lothal.”
Healer Elgma returns while Ben and Maul are eating breakfast. She takes one look at the disarray of the tent before turning to the two boys. “What happened here?” She raises an eyebrow.
Ben and Maul remain silent. There is no way Ben’s explaining this.
“I just left to get them some breakfast and I come back to this!” Derry exclaims. “Neither of them will tell me what happened!”
Healer Elgma studies Maul for a moment. Kriff. She’s no doubt realizing he’s Force Sensitive, not to mention a Dark Force user.
“Maul is it?” Elgma asks. Maul nods cautiously in response. “Who’s been teaching you about the Force?” Kriff. She’s definitely picked up on Maul’s use of the Dark Side. Ben’s thoughts whirl as he tries to think of an explanation the Jedi will buy.
“My master.” Maul says cautiously.
“And who is your master?” Elgma probes.
“None of your business.” Maul snarls.
“It’s not his fault!” Ben jumps in. “He didn’t have a choice before, but now he does and he wants to be better!”
Maul presses closer to Ben, like Ben can protect him from the stares and accusations of the Jedi. Derry has paused in his efforts to clean up the tent and is staring at the three Force users in confusion. Elgma presses her lips together but doesn’t say anything, Ben wishes he knew what she’s thinking. Instead the healer starts moving objects with the Force to help Derry put the tent back together.
Far too soon both boys finish their breakfast and Derry and Elgma have more or less cleaned up the tent.
“Now you’re both getting full medical exams.” Derry declares.
“I’ll take Maul while you do Ben.” Elgma offers.
Dread settles in Ben’s stomach. He hopes Elgma isn’t too rough on Maul. It’s not his fault that he’s a Dark Force user, he doesn’t know any better! Unfortunately there’s nothing Ben can say that will get them out of this. Soon Ben and Derry are alone, the medical privacy barrier meaning that all Ben can hear of Elgma and Maul are indistinct muffled voices.
Derry starts his exam, taking Ben’s vitals and asking him questions about his medical history. Ben does his best to answer without giving away too much. Derry pauses when he gets a good look at Ben’s left thigh.
“How did you get this scar?” Derry’s voice is carefully blank.
“It’s a lightsaber burn.” Ben answers truthfully.
“If you got this from training with your weapon, we’re going to have to set some rules about you using it in the future.”
“I didn’t give this to myself!” Ben protests. “Lightsabers have a training setting for a reason.”
“So someone else gave it to you. Why were you fighting another Jedi?” Derry looks very concerned now.
“Jedi aren’t the only ones with lightsabers. Besides, it wasn’t a fight, it was a lesson.”
Derry’s face goes blank. “A lesson. You were deliberately burnt as a lesson?”
Ben winces. Derry’s anger is sharp and piercing. “Yeah.” Ben refuses to look Derry in the eyes.
“I see.” Derry finishes the rest of the exam with methodical efficiency.
The privacy barrier is soon brought down and Maul rushes to Ben’s side looking just as pale and off balance as Ben feels.
“I need to go talk to someone.” Derry announces before leaving the tent.
Both boys sit in silence as Elgma studies them like a puzzling mystery. It isn’t long before Ben feels the approach of a bright and familiar Force presence.
“Ben!” Anakin hurls himself into the tent and rushes to Ben’s side. “I was worried!!”
“I’m fine Anakin.” Ben reassures. “I just needed some rest is all.”
Seconds later Krygun bursts into the tent out of breath. It’s not long before he’s followed by Myles, Ahsoka, Cody, and Rex. Ben’s relieved to see Cody and Rex are fine, though he’s still pretty confused about how the pair found Maul and then proceeded to come here. All without whatever Mandalorian was assigned to accompany Cody on his mission. The other children make their way to where Ben, Maul, and Anakin are sitting. Derry returns with Jango, Master Dooku, the Nautolan padawan, the human padawan from earlier, and a Jedi Master Ben doesn’t know. They erect a privacy barrier with all the adults inside. They’re clearly discussing something. Ben has no doubt that it’s about them.
Cody studies Ben for a moment, clearly checking to see if Ben’s alright.
“Do I pass inspection Dr. Fett?” Ben questions cheekily.
Cody rolls his eyes. “Just what kind of mess have you gotten us involved in?”
“Yeah, these guys are True Mandalorians.” Rex casts a weary glance towards the adults.
“Not to mention the Jedi. I thought they didn’t like Mandalorians of any creed.” Cody adds.
“I had to stop them from killing each other when they first met, but they all seem overly concerned with all of us for some reason.” Ben answers.
“I don’t know why the Jedi are suddenly so interested in us, it’s not like they cared much before.” Anakin scoffs.
“Of course they cared before! It wasn’t the Jedi’s fault that my grandfather kidnapped us. I’m sure they looked for us, they just didn’t know where we were!” Ben defends.
“We’re getting off track. Start at the beginning. What happened with your mission?” Cody asks.
“The mission was a sham from the start.” Ben scoffs. “I was with someone called Viros and he refused to answer any of my questions about the mission. I started to get suspicious so I got up, that’s when he came at me with a knife. I killed him with my lightsaber, but the ship controls were destroyed by then. I found Anakin and Ahsoka in the cargo hold and we jumped. The True Mandalorians here ended up finding us.” Ben explains.
“Yeah, we were pretty frozen by that point. Krygun gave us Hoth Chocolate!” Anakin adds.
“Jango mentioned something about you killing Death Watch who were attacking people…” Cody trails off.
“WHAT! When did this happen?” Anakin stares at Ben with wide eyes. Rex looks equally shocked while Maul simply watches the entire exchange with curiosity.
“Yeah.” Ben swallows. “After the Mandalorians picked us up I had a vision. I knew that innocent people, children, were in danger, so I snuck away to save them. The Force led me to them. I didn’t even know that the attackers were Death Watch. Not-not until later, until I got a good look at their armor.” Ben still doesn’t know what to feel about all of this. The Death Watch had been his home for over a year, were all of the cells capable of this or did he just run into a rotten one?
“But-But Death Watch are supposed to be the good guys!” Anakin looks confused. He glances between Cody and Ben looking for an answer.
“Jango claimed that the Death Watch regularly attacks innocent people and kidnaps their children.” Cody admits slowly. “I don’t know what to believe, but the Death Watch has different cells, maybe some of them are awful?”
“That must be it.” Anakin insists. “Our people would never do something like that!”
“Viros tried to kill Ben and Zalex tried to kill Cody.” Rex speaks up. Anakin frowns in response.
“Zalex?” Ben questions.
Cody sighs. “The person who accompanied me on my mission. It wasn’t even much of a mission, I just trailed after them as they bought stuff and talked to people. I was led into an empty alley and when my back was turned Zalex tried to shoot me. Rex turned up and saved me, he was apparently following us the entire time.”
“Why would Zalex do that?!” Anakin exclaims.
“He said some stuff as we were fighting. It sounded like there was a mutiny back home, that Waylen was being taken out… Waylen’s our father. They probably wanted to take out anyone that could be considered an heir and they went after you because they don’t like Jedi.” Cody speaks, his voice thick with emotion.
“What?!” Rex looks at Cody in shock. “Then why were we in the orphan barracks before Alpha-17 got living quarters?”
Cody stares at the floor. “You were only three… He. He killed our mother and then disowned us. We didn’t look enough like him apparently.”
“I’m sorry.” Ben places a hand on Cody’s knee.
Cody shakes his head a bit. “She was a pretty awful mother.”
“I’m still sorry regardless.” Ben offers, looking Cody in the eyes.
“I- What about Alpha-17?” Rex looks like his entire world has been upended.
“He’s Waylen’s kid too I think. He would never tell me the details. I’m worried about him though, Ori’vod would have never gone along with letting them kill us so they probably have a plan to kill him too!” Cody worries.
“That’s not good.” The realization settles in Ben’s guts like lead. “We’ve got to find him.”
“Maybe he’ll be alright, Alpha-17’s always been good at surviving impossible situations.” Rex points out.
“And we can’t do anything without knowing where he is.” Ben sighs.
“Wait… How did you guys end up with Maul and know to come here?” Anakin questions.
“We were following Cody’s instincts.” Rex rolls his eyes.
“We knew you were in trouble from what Zalex let slip.” Cody explains.
“That still doesn’t explain Maul.” Ben points out. “I just know that you rescued him.”
“Cody’s instincts led us to some lava planet. There was this creepy abandoned facility and when we were checking it out we heard Maul screaming. We found him being tortured by a droid!” Rex explains.
“I was fine.” Maul crosses his arms.
“You could barely walk.” Cody points out. Maul pouts, but doesn’t say anything more.
“Then how did you find us?” Anakin asks.
“He used the Force.” Maul explains.
“I did not! I’m not Force Sensitive, I just have good instincts and I used them!” Cody protests. Ben shares a knowing look with Maul.
“Of course you’re not.” Ben pats Cody’s knees.
“Wait… How do you know about the Force?” Cody turns to Maul. Maul stares at Cody with disbelief.
“He’s Force Sensitive. He’s like me. A Sith kidnapped him and tried to turn him into his apprentice.” Ben explains.
“There is something very wrong with you.” Maul says to Cody. Anakin bursts out laughing at their interaction.
“We need to figure out what we’re going to do.” Ben redirects everyone’s attention to the current problem. The Jedi and the True Mandalorians may want to help them, but Ben doubts they’d believe them about the Sith which means their ‘help’ may just put them all in more danger.
“We can’t go home. It would be a death sentence for all of us.” Cody points out.
“Are we going to stay here then?” Rex asks. None of them seem certain about this option.
“I believe they want to help us.” Ben tries to find the right words to explain his feelings. “But I don’t think they fully understand the danger we’re in, especially Maul and I.”
“Alpha-17 probably doesn’t know about what happened at home, we need to warn him and I don’t think the True Mandalorians would like that. They know that we’re Death Watch, but they’re only nice to us right now because we’re kids. I doubt they would treat Ori’vod the same way.” Cody adds.
Ben winces at the thought of how these Mandalorians would treat Alpha-17 an adult member of the Death Watch. He remembers the looks they shared with each other when Ben and Anakin mentioned being in his care.
“The Jedi are also a problem.” Ben admits. “I told them earlier that my name should be kept out of their official records, but who knows if they will actually listen to me. Darth Sarento has some kind of access to their records and as soon as my name shows up in them he’ll know where to find me. Since Darth Sarento has managed that it wouldn’t surprise me if Darth Sidious has as well.” Ben shares a look with Maul.
“He probably does.” Maul agrees. “I know he has ways of keeping an eye on the Jedi and their activities.”
“So we can’t stay here.” Anakin summarizes. “I’m going wherever you are.” He looks Ben in the eyes.
“Me too!” Ahsoka exclaims. “We stay together!”
“So where do we go?” Rex asks.
“We find Alpha-17.” Cody declares. “If we’re leaving, we might as well find him. Plus things will be a lot easier with an adult around, people around the galaxy aren’t going to want to leave a bunch of kids running around on their own.”
I thought strikes Ben, he can’t believe he’d forgotten about this. Horror fills him with his own carelessness. “We have to find Obi-Wan first.” Everyone shoots Ben confused looks. “He’s my twin brother and he has no idea about our grandfather.”
“You have a twin!?” Anakin looks shocked. “Since when???”
“I didn’t know about him, not until the Jedi showed up. Apparently the two of us look very much alike. The point is that Darth Sarento went after me because I am his grandson and Obi-Wan is too, so he will be going after him. In the second vision I had yesterday, I saw Darth Sarento learning where Obi-Wan is and planning to go after him. I have to warn him!” Ben explains.
“Then we’re coming with you.” Cody declares. “There’s no way I’m letting you do that on your own.”
“Do you know where Obi-Wan is?” Rex asks.
Ben sighs. “The problem with visions is that you never know when what you see is going to take place. I may not know for certain where Obi-Wan is right now, but I definitely know where he will be, if he isn’t there already. A planet called Telos IV.”
“So we get away and make our way to Telos IV. We warn Obi-Wan about your grandfather and if he wants he can come with us too. Then we find Alpha-17 and we’ll figure out everything else from there.” Cody lays out.
“What about me?” Maul asks tentatively.
“You’re coming with us of course!” Rex wraps an arm around the other boy’s shoulders.
“Yeah!” Anakin declares. “You’re one of us now!”
“Now we just have to figure out how to get out of here and to Telos IV.” Ben moves on.
“We could use the ship Rex, Maul, and I arrived in.” Cody offers. “It’s a bit small so it will be cramped, but I already know how to fly it.”
“I want to fly it!” Anakin exclaims.
“No.” Ben sends a look towards Anakin. “I’d like to keep my food in my stomach.” Anakin just rolls his eyes in response.
“The adults aren’t just going to let us climb into the ship and fly away.” Rex points out.
“Hopefully tonight we’ll all be allowed to sleep in the same tent together. We wait till the middle of the night, when most of the camp will be fast asleep. Then we’ll sneak out and make our way to the ship. If we’re lucky no one will have a clue until we’ve already taken off.” Ben explains. It’s the best plan he can think of right now.
“What about weapons? They took away my blaster and Rex’s.” Cody adds. “I doubt we’ll have an opportunity to get them back.”
“I have my lightsaber.” Ben speaks.
“I have mine too!” Anakin waves his around a bit before stuffing it back in his clothes.
“I have crystals!” Ahsoka exclaims and much to everyone’s shock pulls a fist full of kyber crystals from her pockets.
Maul gapes at the toddler. Ben admits he probably doesn’t look much better. How in the Force did she get those?
“You took them from the box under my bed.” The realization suddenly hits Ben. Ahsoka nods eagerly in confirmation.
“I know how to use a lightsaber.” Maul offers. “Though I’ve only ever used a red one before… It always hurt.”
“Kyber crystals turn red when they’ve been corrupted with pain and anger.” Ben explains to the others.
Ahsoka gets a thoughtful look on her face before rooting through her pockets with determination. She gets up and wanders over to Maul. With a flourish she pulls a single blue kyber crystal from her pocket and offers it to Maul with a smile. Maul is frozen in shock, but tentatively reaches out for the crystal. Ahsoka drops it in his hands and Maul cradles it to his body gently, like he’s holding something precious. A look of awe and disbelief fills his face. Ben smiles gently. He’s glad Maul gets to experience what a kyber crystal is supposed to be like.
“We’ll keep an eye out for parts and you can build your own lightsaber.” Ben speaks to Maul. “Actually, we can probably build lightsabers for everyone.” Ben adds.
“We’re not Jedi.” Rex gestures to Cody and himself.
Ben shrugs. “You don’t have to be a Jedi to use a lightsaber. While Force Sensitivity does make one more skilled with some aspects of a lightsaber, it’s not actually a requirement to use one. The only reason it’s not a more widespread weapon is due to the rarity of kyber crystals and the Jedi keeping the knowledge of how to build one a secret.” Ben explains.
“It sounds like we have our plan.” Cody grins.
“Until then we should all do our best to behave. We want the adults to let their guard down, we can’t give them a reason to watch us more closely.” Ben adds. The others nod their heads in understanding.
The privacy barrier comes down, the adults have apparently finished their own conversation. Ben straightens as Maul and Ahsoka shove their kyber crystals into their pockets. Time to see what the adults want with them. Ben only hopes that whatever was decided doesn’t make their escape more difficult.