Chapter Text
oOo Two months after Order 66 oOo
The three representatives of the Jedi Council and Meili Kocho took seats around a table. The small meeting room was cozy and filled with Coruscant’s sunset light. Meili didn’t know if it had been chosen on purpose, but she liked it. She relaxed into her seat.
“First, we’d like to apologize for the time it took us to organize this meeting, leaving you to work as a caretaker without a proper contract,” Shaak Ti began.
“It’s all good,” Meili replied with a shrug. “As long as I have room and board with strong doors between me and the Hutt, I’m fine. I’m not in this for the money, you know.”
“That’s fortunate,” Obi-Wan commented with a smile, “because no Jedi or contractor of the Jedi is destined to become rich.”
“Guys, you should renegotiate your contract with those cheap Senators. You’re being swindled out of your danger money, you know.”
Plo chuckled but brought them back on track: “Before we can finalize a contract, there are a few questions we’d like to ask you.”
“Sure, yeah, go on. I have nothing to hide.”
“We’re familiar with your work on Kamino. We have your evaluations, right here…” Plo trailed off as Meili frantically reached across the table, trying to cover the screen of the datapad with her hand. She was too short for that to work, however.
“Are we talking about the long-necks’ evaluation, here? or just Jango?”
“Both.”
“I’d just like to remind this honorable council that we have already established that the Kaminoans didn’t like me and that I was on the side of the Jedi when they weren’t,” she commented while raising a finger in the air, body still sprawled across the table.
Obi-Wan couldn’t hold back his laughter any longer.
“Have you, by any chance, sliced into the Kaminoan archives and read your file?” Plo asked with a hint of amusement.
Meili went to answer, paused, kept her index raised, and slowly straightened. “I should probably not answer this question.”
“Probably not,” Shaak agreed with an upward curl of her lips. “In any case, we’re aware of the bias of the Kaminoans and do not hold their complaints against you.”
“Good, great, awesome.”
“Mr. Fett’s comments seem more reliable, but he was rather brief on his reasons for recruiting you, and we have very little information about your past. Would you care to tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to work on Kamino?”
“Yeah, sure! Mh… Let’s see… Well, I had a pretty basic childhood. I was born on Pantora to a security specialist and a teacher. My mom taught me maths, my dad taught me coding. They died in a speeder crash when I was fifteen. I got sent to my uncle, who was a spacer… a smuggler, to be honest. He introduced me to everything that my parents didn’t want me to know. I became a slicer to save his ass — and I’d like to remind this lawful council that everything I have done before the legal Pantoran age of twenty can’t be held against me.”
“Would there be a lot to hold against you?” Shaak asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Uh… Pass?”
“Nothing terrible since you don’t have a record before twenty,” Obi-Wan pointed out.
“Ew, you have my record too? Shucks… I want it to be known that everything in it was in the interest of being paid and not a reflection of my character.”
“Including the theft of forty credits worth of candies?” Plo questioned innocently.
She raised both hands. “That… was a momentary break of my self-control. I needed the sugar.. badly.”
“You know, most spacers get addicted to spice, not candies,” Obi-Wan commented.
“Mama made me swear not to do drugs. Coffee is yucky. There were only candies left,” she admitted with a shrug.
“Your first meeting with Jango Fett?” Shaak asked, keeping them on task.
“That was one of my first jobs without my uncle. He had found it for me. I was the slicer for a group of bounty hunters. Among them: Jango Fett. He was still new to the business, and he needed the contacts. He wasn’t talkative and he insisted on taking his own spaceship so I never truly talked to him until the middle of the mission, when we were infiltrating this gang’s base...”
o
“Hello, this is Meili Kocho. I hacked into your helmet’s feed. Please don’t be mad at me, it’s for a good cause,” she said so fast that Jango needed a moment to parse her words after his initial start.
“It better be,” he growled.
Meili was in the control room of the base while the rest of the bounty hunters were exploring the place looking for their target, a gang leader who had run afoul of a spice cartel, trying to steal their products. The gang wasn’t worth much: just two dozens of delinquents acting tough.
Meili could see Jango on security screens, and he was shaking his head in annoyance.
“I thought you might want to know that the others are planning to double-cross you and leave you to die here? ... I mean, if our positions were reversed, I’d definitely want to know, and I was thinking that this really isn’t good business practice. Personally, how can I trust that they won’t double-cross me next, right? That’s why I thought I should warn you, it just feels fair… but I understand that I could be annoying you and that you wouldn’t trust me either. Yeah, I can see that now—”
“Kocho, focus!”
“I’m focused! I’m one hundred percent focused, I’d have you know—”
“When are they going to double-cross me?”
“When you get rid of the guy and are ready to leave? They want to shoot your ship. What do they have against Mandalorians by the way? They don’t seem to be fans—”
“Ok. Thanks.”
The communication cut. Fett moved forward, shooting two gang members as he went.
Meili pouted. “Thanks, he said. As if I didn’t just save his ass. Not even a compliment on my awesome hacking skills. Pff.”
“DOOR!” Someone shouted in her com, and she pushed a button with a wince before continuing with her grumbling about the lack of appreciation. Men were so rude. Couldn’t a girl be complimented once in a while? She didn’t ask for much, just a “wow, how did you hack into my helmet feed? its security is so good, that’s impressive!”, so she could answer with an “oh, you know, it wasn’t much… well actually, yeah, your security was damn good and it was a pain in the ass, but…”
“LIGHTS!”
“Urgh. Men.”
Half an hour later, Meili ran out of the base to the bounty hunters’ ship. They had shot down the gang leader, they had the proof of their success, and now Meili could get away from this stinky place and get her moneyyy—
“Eeep!” she squeaked as she was grabbed by her backpack and pulled back inside. She caught sight of a Mandalorian helmet from the corner of her eyes, and she flailed at him. “What are you doing?! They’re going to leave without me!” She wouldn’t put it past those assholes. In fact, she saw the ship’s ramp pulled up. “Hey, no!”
“Get down!” Fett growled in her ear, pulling her to the ground. She fell to her ass as he bent over her and the entrance doors closed. A second later, a loud explosion shook the whole building, and she squeaked as dirt fell on them.
She cursed in every language she knew (which wasn’t a lot) and grabbed the armor of her human shield.
“What did you do?! Did you… did you just blow up their ship?”
“You said that was what they planned to do to me.”
She gaped at him. “Wow, they were right. You’re like… super-intense, dude.”
He snorted and stood up. “Is that a problem?”
She grabbed his hand, forcing him to pull her up. “You just blew up my ride and my spare clothes! … So, as long as you get me back to Outland Station and buy me new pants, we’re good!”
“Buy your own pants. The bounty will be divided by two instead of four, you’ll have enough,” Fett replied as he opened the door.
“It’s the principle of the thing!” she protested, following him outside to find the landing pad scorched and the ship she had flown on reduced to a smoking wreck. She jogged after Fett but couldn’t take her eyes off the destruction. The Rodian and the Twi’lek had been rude, true, but they hadn’t been that bad… They had cooked a great stew on the way…
“Are you coming?” Fett asked from his position on the stairs leading to the second landing pad, where his ship awaited.
“Y-yeah, just…” She pulled her eyes away and ran after him before she could get sick and embarrass herself. The first thing her uncle had taught her was to never show fear or hesitation in front of death and murder. She had never been able to stay silent as he did, though, her way to deal with it was humor and deflection.
“Do you have a spare toothbrush? Because you just blew up mine!”
o
“And after that, what was your relationship?” Shaak Ti asked.
“Well, he bought me pants —to shut me up, he said. So we became friends, and he called me when he needed a slicer. We did half a dozen jobs together, I’d say, but we met more than that. He was often on Outland Transit Station, and he introduced me to its boss, Rozatta. She was pretty cool. She got my back against the perverts, ya know, and she had work for me, so I liked to stay there and thus met Jango pretty often.”
“Over how long?”
“Eight years, maybe?”
“And how did he recruit you for Kamino?”
“I was in hiding so it took him a while to find me…”
o
Meili emerged from the water with a sigh of relief, glad to be able to wash up the dirt she had accumulated and relax a little. She swam to the edge of the lake and went to pull herself up on a rock where she had left her bag and towel when movement in the corner of her eyes got her to rush for her blaster. A foot pressed down on it and slid it away.
"Easy, Mei."
She stared at Jango in surprise. “How did you find me?”
He removed his helmet and threw her an unimpressed look coupled with a raised eyebrow. “You might want to remember it’s my job to hunt fugitives.”
“If you’re here to bring me back to the kriffing Hutt, I’ll cry all over you,” she warned, squinting defiantly.
He huffed and shook his head. “Holster your big guns, Mei, and get dressed. Sing isn't far behind.”
"Seriously?" she sighed.
"You shouldn't have stayed so close to a waterfall, it covers the noise of ships landing near the forest," he commented as he turned around.
"It was supposed to cover for me as well," she pointed out with a sigh as she pulled herself up on the rock and dried her skin quickly.
"You're the only humanoid shape in the area. A good thermodetector can notice you from the air."
Grumbling under her breath about bounty hunters and kriffing Aurra Sing (they had a history: they hated each other’s guts), Meili got dressed and pulled her wet hair into a bun.
“What are you doing out there?” Jango asked as they walked back through the forest to his ship. “I thought you hated camping.”
“I hate being dead a little more, darling,” she commented snidely.
He glanced at her from head to toes, and she knew she didn’t look good. She had been on the run for two months now, and this life didn’t agree with her at all. Isolation and regular changes were torture for someone who liked social interactions and somewhere to call home. At first, she had found refuge in little farms, but after one of them had been set ablaze with its occupants inside, she had sworn not to involve anyone else. So, camping it was…
“You know,” she commented with a light tone to distract him from her torn and dirty clothes or her loss of weight, “this whole bounty hunting business isn’t as fun when you’re the one being hunted.”
He hummed and steadied her as she tripped over a root.
She stayed quiet and focused on walking after that. She slept badly nowadays, and she was just too exhausted to maintain her shield of funny chatter.
Once they were in Slave I, Jango gently pushed her toward the fresher (yeah, got it, she stank, but there was no detergent in the woods) as he took off.
By the time she was fit to be seen, they were in hyperspace.
“I stole some of your clothes,” she warned as she heard him come down from the cockpit. She was pulling on a pair of his too-large but comfy socks. “Mine all need a wash.”
He grunted in agreement and leaned against the wall to watch her.
She stared back defiantly, daring him to comment, but of course, he wouldn’t. It wasn’t Jango’s way. “So. Where are we going?”
“I have a job offer for you,” he said instead of replying. “Safe from the Hutt for years, good pay.”
She frowned. “What’s the catch?”
“No exterior contact. Complete blackout. No travel.”
She lifted her feet to sit cross-legged on his bunk. “What kind of job is that?”
“Teaching.”
“Teaching? Me?” she squeaked in disbelief. “What kind of teaching needs complete blackout? Who am I teaching, black ops?”
“Something like that.”
“Seriously? How did you get involved in that?”
He shrugged. “I got a job offer. I was told to recruit. I thought of you and your current problem.”
She leaned back against the wall, and her head thudded against the metal. “Yeah. I haven’t got much choice, have I?”
“If you aren’t interested, I’ll help you to find something else, but it wouldn’t be as safe or comfortable.”
She raised her knees and hugged them to her chest. “Why would you do that?”
He came to sit by her side. “Because you’re a friend who put her neck on the line to free thousands of slaves… and I happen to have a thing against slavers.”
“They are the worst, aren’t they?” she commented with a small voice. She knew she had done the right thing, but it was costing her so much that she needed the reminder. Of course, she could count on Jango to agree with her: as a former slave, he was one of the reasons she couldn’t bear the thought of anyone in slavery (the other being that it was just plain wrong, for kriffing’s sake!).
Jango seemed to understand her need for reassurance. “Yeah.”
She sniffled and leaned against his shoulder. “Will you be there in that place for black ops?”
“Yes, I’ll be staying too.”
“You think I’d be a good teacher?”
“You taught me half of what I know in slicing.”
“Well, yeah, but you’re smart. It’s easy when you have a good student.”
“I promise you that your students will be just as good.”
“Okay then…”
o
“And he made me sign the kriffing paperwork.”
“You didn’t know at the time who you’d be teaching, or why?”
“Nope. Can you believe that guy? ‘Your students will be just as good.’ Ha! No kidding, they were mini-copies of him! Do you know the face I made when I saw them for the first time?!”
“Tell us.”
o
“What the kark am I seeing?” Meili grabbed Jango’s elbow. “There’s something wrong with my eyes… or my brain! I’m seeing your face on everyone! That’s an illness, right? I remember that from a holo. Is there a medic around here?”
“You don’t want to see them,” Jango replied patiently with his arms crossed. “And there’s nothing wrong with you. I told you, they are clones of me.”
“No, no, no, you said: ‘You’ll understand when you see them’. Jango, how am I supposed to understand something as far-fetched as cloning yourself?! How? Why?” she asked, waving her hands questioningly. “And most importantly: how many?!”
“Kaminoans are scientists. It’s a job. A few thousand, for now. They’re working on millions,” he replied calmly.
Meili quieted, put her hands on her knees, and leaned down to breathe deeply. “I have never fainted ever in my life, not even when I saw the price on my kriffing head, but this feels like you’re testing me. Are you testing me, Jango? Because this isn’t kriffing funny!”
“Do you need me to hold your hair?” he asked, tilting his head.
It was proof of their long years of acquaintance that he knew when she needed someone to hold her hair and that she trusted him to do it in time (yes, she couldn’t hold her liquor, Jango, give her a break!).
“I’m not going to throw up either, leave me some dignity, damn it!”
He allowed her a moment to breathe before asking: “Do you want to see my son?”
“Wh—” She shot upright so fast that she had to grab him for stability. “A son? You have a son?! Who’s the mother? Why didn’t you tell me that first?! Is it Sing?! If it’s Sing, I hope you know that I’ll never forgive you!”
Fifteen minutes later, Meili looked up from The Infant and stared at Jango, unamused.
“What did I do to you? Is this your sick revenge for making you trek around the galaxy to find me?”
“I have no idea what you mean,” he replied with a straight face.
“There’s no krif— damn mother, is there? You let me name every compatible being I know that you know, but he’s a damn clone of you again, isn’t he?”
His lips curled up. “Not many guessed before. How did you?”
“He’s a kar—” She growled at having to correct herself again and just gestured at the kid before waving at Jango’s face.
“He’s one year old, Meili,” Jango pointed out with a chuckle. “Everyone just thinks he took after me.”
“I know you, Jango Fett, and I know you’re just a troll, deep inside. Come here, let me just strangle you a little bit...” She reached for him, and he backed away from her with a smirk. “I promise to make it quick. Just a little strangulation to calm my nerves.”
He laughed more openly and went around the coffee table, forcing her to chase after him.
“Everyone who ever thought that you have no sense of humor is an idiot.”
“Or they just aren’t funny enough.”
“Are you telling me that I’m funny? Are you mocking me now?”
A wail stopped her in her tracks, and she backed up quickly to reach for the boy who had been staring at them curiously —until now. “Oh, no, no, no, honey. It’s fine. I was kidding. I won’t strangle your father. He’s an idiot, but he’s your idiot now, I get that. He needs to live to change your diapers, I know, I know.” She looked at Jango warily. “Is it the diaper? Does he need to be changed? If you brought me to change the imp’s diapers, I’ll hack your rooms' air control and up the temperature and humidity to the max, I swear.”
Still chuckling, Jango lifted his son and rocked him gently, whispering comforting words in Mando’a and kissing his hair.
“His name is Boba. And I’m doing fine changing his diapers on my own.”
“I never questioned your bravery, Jango. It’s your mental health I currently have doubts on.”
o
“So, yeah, fun times… I really nearly fainted that day. The world went black for a moment there,” she recalled, scratching her cheek.
The Jedi shared looks of amusement before Obi-Wan said:
“I think we covered every question we had. Thank you for your honesty. Now, Plo said you were looking for a teaching or advisory position in a core world or mid-rim, but would you be amenable to working on Lothal?”
“Where the hell is that?” she wondered. After it was pointed out to her on a map — in the outer rim, north-eastern quadrant — she made a face.
“We’re planning to open a school for the cadets there, and we’ll need an expert in security to develop the communication infrastructure,” Shaak Ti explained.
“The kids will be there? But what kind of protection will you give them?”
“Many of their older brothers and several Jedi will be there as well,” Plo replied. “We plan to make it a joint Jedi and clone settlement.”
“Oh… So… no Hutts?”
“No Hutts.”
“How much rain?”
“Not much at the Temple’s location. Snow in the winter, mainly. It’s a tundra.”
“Well, I’m sold. Coruscant’s pollution doesn’t agree with my complexion anyway. Where do I sign?”
oOo A year after Order 66, on Lothal oOo
It was the dead of the night on Aliitya and heavy clouds were hiding the moons and stars, making it dark. Perfect for some hunting. Aurra Sing had watched her target for days, and she finally had the perfect opportunity.
Kocho had stepped into one of the isolated houses on the border of the town, to visit one of her numerous lovers, no doubt. It would be quick and easy to deal with her in her sleep (she was worth as much dead as alive, anyway).
Aurra reached the house and broke the door’s lock without much difficulty. The security here was ridiculous. Everyone could go anywhere, they barely knew what—
“Can I help you?”
The tip of a blaster came out of the dark room, directly pointed to her head. Aurra tried to raise her weapon and fire first, but something pressed against her back and she froze. From the corner of her eyes, she saw clones fanning out around her, ready to fire. A noise on the roof deck informed her that there were also some above her.
Slowly, she raised her hands. She was immediately disarmed by the man at her back, and she growled in anger. How the hell had she missed them? Was this a trap?!
The one in the shadow stepped forward, showing the mix of Mandalorian armor and Jedi clothes that the clones on Lothal favored when they weren’t looking as farmers.
“Aurra Sing. You’re a tenacious one… or stupid? Most bounty hunters, when they learn where their target is, are smart enough to give up.”
Aurra hissed as her wrists were enclosed in cuffs. “Is she here, hiding behind your back like the coward she is?”
“All you need to know is that she’s under Jedi and vode protection.”
“Commander?” the clone behind her asked.
Fox tilted his head in silent confirmation to bring the prisoner to jail. She would be sent to Judicial Forces the next day. Trusting his men to deal with her, Fox closed the door and turned around.
Meili Kocho was lying on the couch with her feet up on the back. When they had noticed the bounty hunter watching her, she had accepted his plan to play bait with a minimum of complaining. He had been expecting her to keep a constant chatter going while they waited, like he knew she was capable of. Instead, she had been watching holos all night.
It was… well, it was the kind of holo that had kept him mute and watching silently. The kind of holo that kept him here although he should follow his men and deal with Aurra Sing personally.
She was starting a new one.
When the holo started, Meilin’s face appeared on close-up. She looked younger.
“Jango. Skirata just told me that you left for a while. You lucky bastard, you left this wet rock and you didn’t even tell me? Bring me candies or you won’t hear the end of it! Also…” She shifted for a larger view. “Reau’ll tell you I’ve made clones cry. She’s a lying shabuir. She did it, and I’ll prove it!”
The view widened as she walked, and soon she could be seen crouching next to a young clone sitting in front of a console.
“Two-three, sweetie, is there something you want to tell me?”
The boy, looking no more than six years old (for a standard human), straightened and tensed. “No, ma’am.”
“Are you sure? Because your brothers and you are a little… weird this morning. You can tell me anything, you know, I won’t tell anyone, especially not the…” She gestured, pretending to stretch her neck.
Two-three glanced at her, looked around at his brothers, and then opened his mouth pointedly. She blinked and then cooed: “Aww, you lost your tooth!”
He eyed her warily. “Is it… alright?”
“Alright? What do you mean?”
“Instructor Reau said that made us damaged goods, and damaged goods are decommissioned.”
Meili stared into her holorecorder with a silent “See? I told you” expression, before smiling to the kid. “No, darling, listen… Losing teeth at your age is normal for humans. Those are weak teeth and they need to go so you get stronger ones, that’s perfectly normal.”
“Really?”
“Really. Instructor Reau is a di’kut, don’t listen to her, okay?”
The child nodded warily. Meili stood up, looking around her as she raised her voice: “Kids! You won’t get decommissioned for losing your teeth, it’s perfectly normal, okay? Don’t fret, it’s all good!”
“Really?” a small voice asked.
“Really. I swear it on my favorite candy!” she promised, passing next to the boy and patting his shoulder before walking away to get some privacy and say into her recorder: “Jango, I’m too young to be the mother of hundreds of kids!” She pressed her palms together in prayer. “Please, you owe me candy.”
There was a break in the holo before it switched to Meili playing cards with several instructors of the Cuy'val Dar . Jango Fett stepped into view, in full armor.
Skirata noticed him first and greeted him with a laconic: “You’re back.”
Meili perked up, straightening in her seat. “Jango! Did you get my message?”
He threw the bag he was holding in her direction. She leaped to grab it, literally jumping out of her seat. She hugged it to her chest. “Candies!” she squealed in delight. “Thanks, you’re the best!”
“Really?” a stern woman that Fox remembered as Rav Brahlor commented disdainfully with a raised eyebrow. “Do you have to feed the addict?”
Meili, her mouth already filled with a lollipop, threw some half-heard and half-heart insult her way. She was focusing again on her cards.
Jango rested a hand on the back of her chair and leaned down to whisper in her ear: “Stop dissing instructors in front of the clones.”
She tilted her head to accommodate him and made a pouty face. “Even if it’s the truth?”
“Even then,” he replied with a hint of amusement. “It’s bad for morale.”
She pulled out her lollipop and raised it to make a point: “If we’re talking about morale, Reau—”
“We are not. I’ll handle it. Be good.”
“Yes, Sir.” She saluted, and he patted her shoulder before leaving.
The holo stopped, and Meili worked on her datapad to find another file.
Fox cleared his throat. “Now that Sing is captured, you can go back to your room if you want.”
She hummed distractedly. “Sure. I’ll go. I should check on the kids…” But she didn’t move.
“Is there something wrong?”
“You know… just one of those nights…”
Fox removed his helmet and walked up to her, slowly, to catch her expression. He knew that expression, he had seen it on each one of his brothers who had lost someone close.
“You loved him,” he realized.
A tear rolled down from the corner of her eyes to her cheek. She wiped it dry firmly. “I used to.” She sniffled and stood up. “But whatever.” She slapped her cheeks and walked to the door. “Checking on the nanny droids, I should.” (Because she was, of course, the kind of person to imitate Yoda as a joke.)
Fox followed, taking note to have the lock repaired tomorrow. He stayed quiet as he stepped into the cool night, knowing that he was hardly the right person to talk to someone who was grieving. All he could do was try to deflect the conversation. “You have a lot of holos from Kamino.”
“Uh? Oh, yeah, sure. I like holo albums, you know. And there was nothing else to do on that wet rock.”
“I didn’t know they allowed recordings.”
“Well, I never asked for permission.”
He snorted. Of course, she didn’t. “Some of the vode might like to see them. To see vode they have lost...”
She stopped in the middle of a little garden of herbal herbs, mint fragrance rising between them as he stepped close to meet her eyes despite the darkness.
“Of course,” she murmured, nodding slowly. “I’ll sort them out and make them available in the communal library.”
“It would be appreciated,” he said, reaching for her hand and squeezing gently. “And don’t worry about the Hutts, we’ll keep you safe.” Let the bounty hunters come, it would keep his men on their toes. They needed the challenge once in a while.
“I never worried about them as long as Jango was by my side. I’m not gonna start now I have a few thousand of him,” she replied confidently with a teasing smirk, squeezing back.
He crossed his arms, annoyed by the comparison. “We’re better than Fett.”
“I know. I raised you ,” she pointed out, laughing, and took the path to the dormitories with a last wave. “Thanks for the save, sweetie!”
Damn that woman, you never knew where you stood with her. The Cuy'val Dar were really all lunatics.