Chapter Text
They toss him into a hold, and the last thing he sees as the landing door closes is the grinning face of the Jedi who sold him to the slavers.
A woman, her ankle chained to the floor, rocks a crying baby in her arms. The others glare at her, resentful of the noise the child makes, angry that she won’t shut it up for good. His restraints still let him draw close to her and hold out his arms.
“Here, let me try.”
“Shmi,” she tells him, in a quiet voice.
“Jango,” he answers, rocking the babe to sleep.
Voices in Huttese flow around him, but Jango keeps staring determinedly across the market. Shmi and the babe, sold to a junk trader who needed the spare hands. The market is winding down, Jango hasn’t been sold, he knows the slavers plan on reloading him onto the ship and taking him to the next planet.
It had only been three weeks, in the hold of the ship, yet the pair of them have wormed their way into his chest. He hopes she sees, before he is dragged away, the determination, the promise, in his eyes.
I’ll come back for you.
Months, months of chaffing and fighting and he breaks himself free of the shabuir who have him. Breaks out of the holding cell they’ve moved him to, when he was causing too much trouble in the regular hold. All the anger, at the slavers, at the Jedi, at all of it-
He’s covered in blood.
The ship’s hallways stink of death by the time he’s done. Jango didn’t have much thought before all this for how slavery went in the galaxy-
The others stare at him with a mixture of fear, confusion, hope.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
He has no armour, no ship, no contacts. He’s a Mando with a goal, maybe aliit- burc’ya- vercopa- that he’s going to get back to. It’s all too easy to get the things he needs, through his old ways, his skills he’d been raised in since he was 8 years old.
Jobs lead to credits, leads to weapons and armour and more jobs. He’s got a rusty old ship without a name, and he punches in the hyperspace path for Tatoonie.
As he watches the stars stretch out to lines, words come to his mind unbidden.
Ni kyr'tayl gai sa’aliit .
Jango takes a job for the Hutt, makes a show of seeing Shmi leaving the kitchens, backs her against the wall, hates the fear in her eyes as he holds her chin in his hand.
The Hutt laughs when Jango asks for her for payment. “You Mandos like breeders. Want her kid too?
Shmi shakes as Jango negotiates. He can only hope she’ll forgive him for this deception.
He takes his helmet off only when they get back to his ship.
“Sorry. Easiest way to get you out.”
“Oh, Jango.”
He catches her in his arms, both of them crying.