by Colin Cook
"They're called Replicators, they're a bunch of new allies that have agreed to help us on the mission the crew and I are about to embark on."
Jango didn't look at me, just fractionally arching his mouth and nodding again in acknowledgement, his gaze now settled on the floor as if he were quickly going through
several thoughts in his mind.
"I'm in a cell but you're not, so we haven't been captured. We're currently not being shot at anymore, and judging from the steady vibrations running beneath us I'd say
we're onboard a vessel built with engines large enough to withstand the strain of interstellar travel." I blinked in impressment and arched my eyebrows slightly as Jango
looked up at me, a small smirk forming at the corner of his mouth.
"That leads me to the conclusion that we've escaped the Citadel and are now on-route to wherever it is this journey of yours is taking you next. How am I doing?" A
smirk of my own came to my face, but this one was one of astonishment.
"On the money so far," I answered.
"But as for why you're here, I've come to two conclusions. You're either going to open this cage and drop me off on a planet of my choosing. Or you've come to see if
you can persuade me into joining your little gang for the duration of whatever this venture of yours is." I nodded again, feeling a bit relieved that we had already managed
to skip through most of the explaining I had feared I would have to walk him through once he'd woken up.
"That second one about sums it up," I answered cheerily with another nod and a wide grin. Right away however Jango's smirk vanished and his face dropped into a cold
neutral expression.
"Then I can save you the trouble. The answer is no," he stated before turning away from me and moving toward the cell's far wall, deliberately stretching out both his
arms widely.
As you would expect, an immediate frown of confusion formed on my brow.
"Just like that? You haven't even heard me out." Jango turned and placed a hand on one of the Replicator walls, dropping his head and taking a short step back to stretch
out his neck and leg muscles.
"I don't need to, Alec already tried to sell me the same proposal. Lend my skills to help save this galaxy from an armada of genocidal robots, take part in a mission to
save countless lives from impending destruction. That's not the type of contract I'm used to taking, and I have no intention of changing that track record now," the
bounty hunter stated back to me without raising his head.
My frown deepened even further, making me cock my head and lean forward against the bars with one arm raised above me similar to the way he had been just a second
ago.
"Why? Jango, trillions of innocent people are at risk. Your skills as a bounty hunter and a Mandalorian would be of huge benefit to them. If we succeeded you'd be hailed as
a hero rather than a villain, while at the same time fighting in the greatest conflict this galaxy has ever seen," I imparted to him, keeping a constant tab within my mind on
the heavy emphasis Mandalorian culture placed upon strength and glory on the battlefield. But Jango merely scoffed and shook his head, straightening up after another
moment of stretching before turning back to me with a shrug
"I'm not from this universe, I have no place in it. I don't know enough about the people here, or anything here for that matter, to bother risking my neck. Its better to
remain outside the equation when I was never in it to begin with, my involvement would only complicate things." I gave my own shrug, glancing around the bars for a
moment while absently sweeping my left hand in a circle to indicate our surroundings.
"The events in this universe have already been complicated enough by other outside sources, your involvement would likely help balance out future events for the better.
And besides, you usually fight for profit Jango, if you were to help us save this galaxy I can guaranty the rewards would be so great you'd be able to buy yourself a planet
or two," I added in casually, deciding to change tactics and see if his love for money would be the deciding factor in winning him over to our side. This route certainly
wouldn't guaranty his true loyalty, but if you were going to have a mercenary on your team in the first place you might as well ensure he stayed on it by providing him
with an offer few could match or outbid.
But to my surprise he merely cocked an un-amused eyebrow, as if having caught on to my ploy right away, before he folded his arms and leaned back against the far wall
facing me.
"What good would all the money in this place be if I'm not alive to spend it? I don't care how many credits I could milk out of this, all I want is to return to my universe
and my…" Jango began, before slowing down and then stopping in mid-sentence, as if internally hesitating to say what else was on his mind. But despite carefully masking
his emotions behind his cold scarred exterior, I could use logical reasoning just as well as he could, having already deduced what he was talking about simply from the tone
in his voice and the way he was turning down everything I was throwing at him, even the prospect of almost unlimited wealth.
"And your son, Boba," I finished for him immediately, nodding in his direction with a small knowing expression.
Jango's nostrils flared slightly and he gave a small sneer before turning his head to avert his gaze from mine. I smirked again, knowing that I had just scored one for my
side; now I had to push the advantage.
"I can't give you passage back to your universe until this journey is complete, only then will I have mastered the abilities needed to do that. If you help us see this thing
through to the end, I promise you I will use all my power to send you home." Despite my words Jango shook his head immediately while unfolding his arms and pushing
himself off the wall, taking several steps back toward the bars as he did.
"Not good enough. I need solid assurances before I can trust you, not maybes and uncertain promises," he stated coldly before turning away from me again. The frown
that had been on my face was now replaced with a scowl of irritation and utter disbelief.
What exactly would it take to catch this guy's attention?
The galaxy was on the verge of Armageddon and yet he was still choosing to completely turn a blind eye to it!
The fact that he was doing this deliberately, despite all the potential rewards I was offering, only infuriated me even more and made me slam the side of my fist against
the bars in frustration.
"What happened to you? You once had honour, you use to fight for an ideal, you were once Mand'alor!" I barked at him. The mention of his former title seemed to hit a
nerve, for it made Jango stiffen and spin around with a wide-eyed scowl of anger laced with alarm on his face.
"How do you know that? How do you know so much about me? Who are you?!" he demanded viciously, storming up toward the bars until we were only a few inches
away from each other, our scowling eyes locked together.
"Join me, fight with us, and I'll tell you the whole damn story!" I said back to him fiercely, jerking my head closer to the bars and clenching my fists tightly, hoping with
every fiber of my being that he would finally see reason.
There was a moment of silence before another sneer came to him, this time mixed with an underlying look of amusement at my reactions.
"No," the Mandalorian said flatly with a simple shake of his head, ending with him turning away from me again! (How rude!)
My jaw dropped at this anti-climatic decision and I threw my hands up in bewilderment, blowing out a harsh breath as I turned my back on him also and walked a few
steps away from the cell. I closed my eyes and brought my hand up to massage my forehead, sighing
in further frustration.
"Perhaps you were wrong about Jango, we don't seem to have anything capable of catching his interest," Haxon whispered in my ear to keep the bounty hunter from
hearing.
Suddenly my eyes widened and I snapped my head up away from my hand, an idea having just occurred to me.
"No. I've got one more thing I can put into play," I muttered under my breath before spinning around and returning to the bars. I hesitated, carefully pondering what Fett's
initial reaction would be, before I steeled myself and spoke.
"What would your mentor, Jaster Mereel, say if he saw what you're doing now? If he saw how you're so blatantly casting off the opportunity to help save countless
people from certain doom because you can't be bothered?"
(Betcha' weren't expecting that one huh?!)
The info of the man who'd held the title of Mand'alor before Jango had come from the few memories I had of reading through a Star Wars comic that dealt with Jango's
life prior to the beginning of the prequel films trilogy. From what I remembered of the character himself Mereel had been one of the most outspoken Mandalorians of his
time, and his views of honourable combat and helping others were met with much backlash and opposition from many within the Mandalorian clans. Never the less
however, his ideas and ways of fighting caused foundation-shaking changes within Mandalore's political structure that would change the way many of them lived
generations later.
This honour of combat and belief in helping others as much as he could is what would eventually lead Mereel to come upon a very young Jango Fett, stranded and alone in
the middle of a warzone, and would also lead him to take the young child under his wing and raise him as his own son.
Jango had slowly turned around to face me again, deadly slowly, with a very controlled expression on his face. However, I could tell from subtle queues like the tension in
his neck and jaw muscles, and the slightly bulged veins in his temples that my words had done more than just strike a nerve this time.
It was more than likely they had just broken one.
Immediately he lunged out a hand and grabbed one of the bars directly in-between us, causing a rough echoing vibration to course through the metal from the force of
the impact, and held it with a grip so strong it turned his knuckles white.
"Don't push my gratitude. I've slit men's throats for more then that," Jango informed me coolly, his voice firm but just above a whisper. I merely cocked an eyebrow and
folded my arms, leveling my own cold stare with his.
"When you were a boy, did Jaster abandon you in your time of need?" I posed to him just as firmly, marshaling all of my military training in order to keep my composure
and continue onward. Luckily, and to my own personal relief, my question caused Jango to freeze. He remained that way for a while before slowly letting go of the bar and
dropping his hand, remaining silent and never breaking eye contact with me. Even though his body language didn't show it, I could imagine pretty confidently that the
gears in his head were spinning in many directions. Most of him probably wanted to know just where the hell I was getting my information from, while the rest was
honestly considering my words and thinking about what I had asked him.
"Did he not go out of his way to help you when your parents were killed and you were left stranded as an orphan?" I added in, hoping desperately that I'd gotten that
precise piece of information right.
After all, it had been a number of years since I'd read the comic in question and even then I'd only been skimming over it while browsing through a bookstore in Winnipeg.
Jango was still silent, remaining that way for a few tense seconds before his brow creased slightly and his eyes flicked marginally downward away from my own, as if he
were looking upon an old memory.
"He did…" he uttered without looking at me after what seemed like an eternity. I nodded to him in agreement.
"If he were in my position, and was left to defend this galaxy against the Reapers alone, would you not come to his aid and fight to your dying breath to defend it also?"
Jango looked back up at me, the frown on his brow now deepening. But it wasn't a frown of anger or annoyance, it was one of contemplation. He blinked before setting
his jaw, and to me it looked as if he micro-fractionally raised his chin dutifully.
"I would."
At that I smiled inside, knowing that I'd gotten Jango somewhat hooked. Now all I had to do was play the trump card that Alec had unknowingly provided me and reel him
in.
"What if Boba were here? What if he were here to fight at your side? What if he were here to continue travelling with you, to continue learning from you to become just as
great a warrior as you are? Would you fight with all of your being if he were here now?"
Jango froze again, and for another long moment he said nothing. Finally he nodded once, a slow and meaningful nod that imparted how strongly he felt about the subject,
while answering me with a single word.
"Yes."
Immediately, and almost without thinking, I spun around to the other wall opposite the Mandalorian's cell. Choosing the area in-between two sleeper-pods directly across
from us, I stretched forth my right hand and closed my eyes. I could feel the ring's power smoothly fluctuate throughout my body, starting from my hand and travelling
down through the veins in my arm, growing stronger with each moment as I focused all my thoughts on who I wanted it to summon.
A bright white glow suddenly lit up the lids covering my eyes, making me open them to behold the spectacle before us.
A familiar oval portal had appeared to fill up the space I had chosen, its radiance shimmering slightly and casting almost water-light reflections all over the room. Behind me
I could hear a cautious intake of breath come from Jango, signifying that he was probably getting ready for a confrontation. For a mystified moment we and the
Replicators all remained silent, all except for me watching the portal with a mix of awe and wariness.
And then abruptly the portal flickered once before vanishing in a near blinding flash of white light that forced all of us to shield our eyes or photoreceptors!
After taking a quick second to regain ourselves, we looked back to the area in question.
Standing where the portal had once been was a young boy of about thirteen to fourteen years old, dressed in a blue tunic with grey trousers and high black boots. The
boy had deep olive skin, along with wavy curled jet-black hair that was long enough to hang down just past his ears. At the moment he had his eyes closed and was
rubbing the sides of his head, looking like he was trying to dispel a migraine.
Behind me Jango had stepped up directly to the bars, absently grasping two of them in his hands, his eyes widened fractionally and his face semi-wrinkled with concern.
The boy continued massaging his head for a few moments before opening his eyes and looking around himself. Right away he jerked in surprise and took on a defensive
fighting stance with his fists raised, his gaze flicking between the cautiously hissing Replicators on the floor and myself.
By now I had lowered my hand and was regarding the boy with a cocked eyebrow, holding our gaze before respectfully bowing my head in greeting and then using it to
indicate the cage behind my shoulder. The boy flicked his attention to the cell, still keeping his guard up, before his concentration slackened and his eyes widened in shock.
"Dad…?" the young Boba Fett blurted out upon seeing the other Mandalorian standing behind the bars, his voice carrying the same New Zealand like accent that his
'father's' did.
"Boba," Jango uttered, his deep voice trying and failing to hide
the subtle sound of relief I could hear filtering through it.
Turning back to the Replicators, I pointed to the bars and then made a lowering gesture with my hand, silently commanding them to open the cell. The group of spiders
nodded almost immediately before turning and making a squawking sound to the cage itself. The blocks that made up the bars started pulling themselves apart, each of
them disassembling in sync with each other until all had retracted away into the adjoining walls, allowing Jango a clear exit out of the cell.
The bounty hunter looked over at me, almost questioningly, to which I answered by inclining my head over to Boba. Without a word Jango stepped out of the cell, easily
walking past me toward the boy.
"Son," Jango said, slowly advancing toward the other Fett, being mindful of how bizarre and perhaps even frightening this situation was to the young one.
"Dad I…I saw you die in the arena, the Jedi killed you." Boba had taken a few cautious steps back, keeping a safe distance from his father, his face trying to remain
composed but carrying the unmistakable look of someone who thought they were seeing a ghost.
I could only sympathize with him; he had probably just witnessed his father getting his head cut off a few minutes ago, and then shortly afterward was summoned to a
completely unfamiliar place only to see him alive again!
Boba's words caused Jango to stop moving just as he stepped onto the grated aisle way, a frown of very slight worry forming on his face.
"No…" he said softly, shaking his head while slowly lowering himself down onto one knee so that he could be more at Boba's height.
"No son I'm not dead, I'm here now." Jango said these words with such a fatherly tenderness I never would have expected from him, adding to the shock I was feeling
after seeing him raise and semi extend his arms outward, inviting Boba into an embrace.
Boba hesitated, looking deep into Jango's eyes before slowly dropping his raised fists and taking several steps forward. He came to a stop directly in front of his father, still
looking into his dark brown irises, as if searching for any hint of this being a lie or trick.
Then, after a very long moment, the boy's face slightly wrinkled with sorrow, his eyes closing before he lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Jango and laying the