Mandalorian Menace

Chapter 18 - Hostilities

Author's Note: Just... forget about whatever is or isn't canon or legends, okay, y'all? For the purpose of this fic, Plagueis has been dead for several years by TPM. :)

PS. There is Mando'a in here, and I put all the translations at the end. Let me know if I missed anything! ^-^

~ Amina Gila

Anakin tells Buir in the morning. Unlike Tatooine, they weren't sharing the same room. Instead, Buir and Grogu were in one room, while Anakin and Mom were in the other. He didn't wake her up in the middle of the night, and he laid there for some time before falling into a troubled sleep again. This is the second vision he's had with a similar outcome, though it wasn't as clear this time. This time, he didn't see Buir die. But it doesn't make that much of a difference to him; he's still terrified.

The peace parade is planned to be in two days from now so everyone who is invited will be there, and after that is when the Jedi are planning to deal with Palpatine. Buir will be there too, Anakin suspects, even if he hasn't actually said so. Buir tries soothing him, assuring him that he'll be okay, that he won't be killed by the dar'jetii when so many Jedi will be there to assist him. Anakin wants to believe him, but he can't. The visions are playing on repeat in the back of his head, and he's scared, he's terrified, because what if – what if it happens?

He couldn't bear such a thing, and he knows that Grogu won't handle it well either. If anything, the toddler will handle it even worse. He feels like he maybe is supposed to be doing something to make sure that Buir will really be alright, but he doesn't know what. He wants to do something, but he can't use his Jetii magic yet. He doesn't know how, and he can't learn everything he needs to over the next two days. That's impossible.

Maybe he could talk to Padme about it?

She's the Queen – it's still so jarring to know that he's friends with royalty; him, a former slave – and she must be busy, but they had talked yesterday while waiting for Jar Jar to return from the Gungan city. She assured him that her feelings towards him were still the same, and she had helped him get used to the fact that she's not a mere handmaid. It's still weird for him to think about, but she's right; she's still the same person as she was, and Anakin was given the unique opportunity to get to know the person who the Queen really is.

They can still be friends though, and it won't make a difference. That Padme is Queen only means she can't spend all of her time with him. That's okay though. Anakin understands.

So, his visions.

He can't do anything to help, and the knowledge that he was once – could eventually be? – a famous, important Jedi doesn't change anything. He doesn't really know how Buir and Grogu time travelling will affect the future, but he knows it will be substantial. If Buir hadn't freed him, he would have been a slave when Qui-Gon and the others came there. Maybe the Jedi would have freed him and taken him to the Temple to be trained. Maybe the Council wouldn't have rejected him like they did, and he would have become a Jedi. Maybe.

Ever since he was younger, Anakin has dreamed of being a Jedi, but that dream is no longer as important to him as it once was. He now has someone who can take care of him. He now has a father. That was another one of his most cherished dreams, and Grogu is right about Buir: he's amazing and fearless and can make everything – or most things – better. He wants to be like Buir, even if that means he'll never be a Jetii. The future that Grogu might have seen ceased to be set in the stone the moment he and Buir came to the past. That's okay though because Anakin doesn't much care for the idea of everything being... preordained. It's nice to think that he can choose for himself, that he can follow his own path instead of having one forced on him.