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Ok, I wrote this a very long time ago. Probably in 2004, I think. I just read through it now, and there are a few things I'd change if I was going to edit it, but I decided to post the unedited version for now. It's not done, yet, though, but I have no idea if I'm going to finish it at all. I think I wrote this when I was having a sorta emotional moment about "poor little Boba losing his father". That's why Boba seems OOC at times, I think. Anyway, hope you enjoy it. (btw, beware of bad spelling, if I edited this that's the first thing I'd change)
Another day, another job, another few thousand credits, Boba Fett thought idely as he walked softly through the forest. He'd landed here a day before, sneaking onto the planet from the other side so as to come upon his prey silently. He was quite confident that the bounty would remain in his hideout. Such was the way of cocky smugglers. They found a hideout and thought it was the most protected place on the face of the galaxy and refused to leave it no matter what. Boba almost smiled at how easy this job was compared to some of the others he'd had to do. Though it was kind of boring to walk through the trees like this. He almost wished he'd grabbed his swoop, but knew it would have been picked up by Baxtro's sensors. But it was ok, the time alone by himself with just nature was a kind of refreshing change to what he was used to.Boba suddenly stopped and stared into a distant spot in the forest of trees, his mind blank. Had he just thought what he'd thought he'd thought? Had he actually just thought it to be refreshing? He shook his head. All the trees were getting to him and he would have laughed had he the motivation and humanity left in him to do so. A sigh caught in his throat as he continued on, silently making his way ever closer to Baxtro's hideout.
Ket Baxtro had been a smuggler for Malda the Hutt, but, being the arrogant and egotistical guy he was, Baxtro had decided to take a load of spice and make a run for it. So, of course Boba had been called in and offered 12,000 to capture Baxtro. Not a whole lot of money, but not too hard a job either. It had been fairly easy to track Baxtro to the planet. However, the hard part was the excersize on his patience. In order to make sure Baxtro didn't jump planet, he'd had to sneak in real quiet, using all sorts of cloaking devices (some considered illegal in certain parts of the galaxy) to make his way to a landing spot on the other side of the planet from Baxtro.
Obviously the planet had been in use years before. The place he'd landed in held ruins of what looked like a fairly decent space port. Boba had been thinking about it off and on since he'd landed there. There had been something vaguely familiar about the place. He knew he'd never seen it before, but something about it told him he'd heard of it before, somewhere, a long time ago... But where? Boba moved aside a branch so he could pass through where it had been, and suddenly stopped. There before him were more ruins. The buildings were old and broken, made of stone and wood alike. Some of the wood looked black, like it'd been burnt. A skeleton or two were laying around in sight, long dead with grass, and even flowers to add to the irony, growing up through holes in the bones. Boba looked about the place in an odd sort of awe. Why did something in the back of his head keep nagging him? The name of the planet, Klaxon, had seemed slightly familiar as well, but from where, he also had no clue. Boba frowned, a growing sense of annoying creeping through his body as he steady got more and more angry with himself for his lack of knowledge. Boba walked over to a peice of stone, and sat on hit, calling up a screen on his helmet's visor, linking him to his ship. Entering a few voice commands, Boba was able to call up information on Klaxon. It was a forest planet in the outer rim territories, long abandonded by anyone who had sought to inhabit it, that much he already knew. He'd read this before he'd come to the planet, but he wanted to make sure, just to check, just to see.... if he could remember where he'd heard of Klaxon before... He closed his eyes, thinking, slipping into memory. A voice talking to him... swimming in his head, saying the name of the planet...
Suddenly Boba jumped up, feeling anxious. He looked above him and saw a stream of birds flying overhead, all escaping from one direction. Boba quickly, and silently, ran in that direction, keeping his blaster ready for use. After a few minutes, a thought passed through Boba's head that perhaps it had been just a wild animal that had scared the birds. This thought was gone fast, however, when Boba found a very slight footprint on the ground. Boba looked ahead, scanning the trees for any sign of sentient life. The ground sloped up straight ahead, so Boba walked up it, trying to remain hidden behind trees. Finally, kneeling on the ground, Boba peeked over the ridge to see an armored figure making his way across the small valley below. A very familiar armored figure.....
Boba's mind went blank and memories shot through his brain. Memories he'd spent years carefully shoving into every dark corner he could find, all rushing back to him now at lightspeed. Angry with himself for being so weak, Boba glared at the man below. Logic and common sense told him to shoot the man and be over with it. But, he also wanted to find out where this guy had gotten his armor, why he was wearing it, who he was, and what he was doing here. Boba fired his wrist cable at the man below. Boba watched as the figure quickly jumped out of the way, spun around, and fired a shot at him. Boba ducked down, pulling the cable back into the wrist housing. So, this guy wasn't wearing the armor just for looks. And the sight of it was like stepping into a nightmare. For the man wore silver Mandalorian armor, much like his father's had been. Boba swallowed and closed his eyes briefly, willing the unwanted memories to crawl back into the caves he'd sent them to.
Boba fired at the figure below as he fired back in return. Boba was almost caught off guard when he saw the man was weilding two Westarr 34s, the same type of blasters Jango had owned. Where in the galaxy had that guy been able to find a working Westarr 34, let alone two of them! A blaster bolt whizzing close to Boba's helmet reminded him he was fighting an enemy, not gazing on an old holo, and Boba quickly whipped back into action, firing a line of deadly bolts at the man. Suddenly, the man's jetpack ignited, and he flew up to get a better shot at Boba. Boba flew up too, to be even with the man. Firing from the air now, they raced around each other, dodging and diving, pulling up and spinning. Bolt after bolt flew around each other until the air was thick with carbon smoke. Finally flying close to each other, the man took a kick at Boba. Boba let go of his blaster, letting it swing around loosly on it's shoulder strap, and grabbed the man's leg, wrenching him around, using the weight of their jetpacks to throw both of them off. The man fired his blaster at Boba, causing his jetpack to sputter and kill out, expecting Boba to let go of his leg. However, Boba wasn't about to do that. Instead he fired a wrist lasor at the man's own jetpack, causing them both to fall straight towards the ground. Boba landed hard, his vision suddenly going black, then slowly back to normal. Way too slowly. Boba jumped dizzily to his feet, firing blindly. He blinked, and his vision cleared enough to see he was firing in the wrong direction. Cursing himself, he spun around in time to see the man inches from him, about to knock him unconcious. Boba suddenly punched, knocking the man back. He fired his own wrist cable, surounding Boba's legs, causing him to stumble and fall. Boba fired dart from his knee pads, but it only imbedded itself in the man's armor. The man raised one of his Westarrs, but Boba was faster. He spun himself around, and suddenly kicked both legs away, tugging the man down to the ground with him. Boba was on him in seconds, shoving his blaster against man's neck, at the same time the Westarr was pressed against his own. Several silent seconds went by this way before Boba, breathing hard, decided to speak.
"Who are you!? How did you get that armor!?"
The man answered back, also breathing slightly hard, "That'd be no concern of yours. I'd be more interested in how and where you got your own armor, wheover you are."
The voice caused ice to flow through Boba's veins. The voice was one he'd not heard in a very long time, it was a voice he'd tried to forget, a voice he never thought of anymore. A voice that caused him to suddenly growl at the other man. "I have no idea how you found out my past, but rest assured, you won't live long enough to haunt me any farther."
"Your past?" the other man sounded slightly confused. "I don't know who you are, but I'd say you're haunting me more than I'm haunting you. You had better have a good excuse for dressing like Jaster."
Boba simply glared at this, "Tell me where you got that armor, and how you found out. Now!"
"No, you have this wrong. You think you're the one issuing orders here, when it is I who am issuing the orders. You're from the Death Watch, aren't you? Come to kill off the last of the Mandalorians? Perhaps you were merely looking for revenge on your dearly departed leader, is that is?" sarcasim and pain rang in the man's words.
More bells went off in Boba's brain. Death Watch...... his father had told him about the Death Watch. But... they'd been destroyed years and years ago, before he'd been born. Confusion rang through Boba. "You know of the Death Watch?"
"Are you stupid? I helped destroy them!! I am Jango Fett!!!"
Now Boba felt slightly lightheaded, and anger flowed through him freshly awakened, "Don't... ever... say that again... or I will... kill you..." It took all his self control to keep his anger in check, for he felt like blowing the head off his man right then and there. How dare he say he's Jango! It was an insult to his name to have this scum so much as wearing the armor!
"Why? You haven't heard of the Death Watch, yet you wear Jaster Mareel's armor. I'd recognize that armor anywhere. So, obviously, you'd have heard of me," the man logically explained.
"Who are you!?"
"Jango Fett, I just said," now he began to sound a bit annoyed. "And, please, you're not exactly light. Can we at least move off each other?"
Boba's eyes widened at this, and he shoved the blaster tighter against the man's throat, "Not until you tell me the truth! How did you find out about da... about Jango? How did you get his armor?"
"I think first you'd better tell me who you are, since I've told you who I am," he said, rubbing at his throat slightly.
"I am Boba Fett," Boba replied, putting as much threat into his voice as he could.
"Fett? All the Fetts are dead except me. Who are you really?"
"Boba Fett, don't you believe me? What, have you been camped out here on this rock for decades? You know, I think you were crash landed here, stuck here for a few decades, and went crazy, and started calling yourself Jango, right?" Boba asked the only reasonable thing he could think of, hoping that he was right. Though the cleaness of his armor, and the working condition of his weapons, made him assume he was wrong.
"I arrived here a day ago," the man said, and Boba detected no lie in his words.
A strange sort of flutter flew through Boba, and he eyed the man curiously, "Do you know a woman named Zam Wesell?" He shuddered just saying the name, as memories of the woman from his past zoomed before his eyes.
"No. Should I?"
"Oh. You don't meet her till the Vosa hunt, that's right," Boba mumbled to himself as he stared into the distance, as stories of that hunt filled his head. Suddenly he shook himself. What was he thinking!? "You never heard of Boba Fett, ever?"
"Never. There is no one named Boba Fett in existance. So, did you take my name to honor or insult me?" Jango asked, cocking his head in the same way Boba had done earlier.
"Neither. It's the name I got from my father. The same name you're insulting right now by pretending to be him!"
A sudden silence filled the small valley, in which the only sound was the sound of the wind through the trees.
"You..." Jango suddenly started, breaking the silence. "You're saying you're my son?"
Boba swallowed, and forced out words he'd hidden for so long, "Jango Fett is my father's name." It was a thing he had never said to anyone else before in his life, words he'd kept inside himself, words he'd hidden, and tried to forget. Suddenly, staring at the man, he didn't see a man sitting in the grass holding his blaster aimed at Boba. Suddenly he saw sand... lasers... lightsabers... a bloody helmet laying in bloodstained sand... a headless body laying dead...
"Impossible. I never even slept with a woman before, how do you expect me to have a son?" Jango asked bewildered, not noticing the sudden overflow of emotions coming from the other man.
"No woman was involved..." Boba started, but suddenly stopped, and eyed the other suspiciously. "You know too much already!"
"Wait, Boba.... take off your helmet."
Boba stared at him incredulesly, "This is my face, and the only face you're seeing from me. However, your face is something I want to see. Your helmet's the one going off."
"Only when yours goes, so, come on."
"Look, I told you my father's name, I think you know enough," Boba told him. "Now, tell me..... are you...... did you...... time travel? Or are you really just some crazy old hermit?" It sounded crazy even to him, but he had to be sure. He sounded like his father.... wore the same armor as his father.... moved like his father.....
"Time travel?" Jango sounded like he'd never even considered it before. "That's impossible."
"Then how do you explain this then?"
"You're a crazy fan who took it a bit too far," Jango said, starting to stand.
Boba tightened his grip on his blaster, "Oh, no you don't, we have more talking to do."
Jango sat back down and leaned against a nearby tree. "So, what do you want to know?"
".....what year is it?"
Jango rolled his eyes under his helmet, "****."
"No it's not. Not right now, anyway. You can check the chrono on Slave I if you wish," Boba offered.
"Slave I's your ship?"
Boba nodded as he stood.
"Why would you name it Slave I?" Jango asked, standing up alongside Boba.
"I didn't. My father did. I asked him why once, but he wouldn't tell me. Said he'd tell me the whole story when I was older. Guess now I'm older. If you're who I think you are, you have a lot to tell me."
Jango laughed lightly as he followed Boba, "You actually think I'm your father, right?"
Boba stiffened, "I don't know who you are. You might be from the past, but if so, how did you get here? If you aren't who you say you are, then who are you? Either way, my ship is our destination."
"And just how far is this ship of yours?"
"We'll be there sometime tomorrow," Boba pushed his way through a branch.
"Why be there tomorrow when we can be there today? My speeder's just over here," Jango led Boba across the clearing to the other side, and behind some trees where an ancient-looking speeder awaited them.
"Where did you find one that still works?" Boba asked, sitting into the speeder.
Jango got in on the other side, and glanced at Boba curiously, "What do you mean? This is the newest model."
Boba shook his head, "This is a very old heap of scrap metal."
Jango suddenly sat very still, "Listen... the only reason I'm being this nice to you is to find out what kind of spice your using so I can maybe turn you in for a few credits. I don't have to turn you in alive if you want to keep insulting my stuff."
Boba raised his eyebrows, "And the only reason I'm being so nice to you is because I'm very foolish. Now drive."
After a few hours of driving, they arrived at Slave I, and Boba led Jango into the ship, and to the lounge where Boba turned on the computer. Jango looked around and around, aweing over the new and advanced technology he saw before him. "You know, I think I might just believe you that this is the future. I've never even heard of this kind of technology before..."
"I'd be surprised if you had. The oldest thing here is the food cooler, that was here since before I can remember," Boba glanced from the old cooler to Jango.
"...so I time traveled," Jango said after a few minutes of silence.
"It would appear so," Boba agreed.
"...and you think I'm your.... father?"
Boba nodded.
"...and... you hate your father... right? When we were fighting you said I'm haunting you or something, and you said something about your father never getting around to telling you some story or another?" Jango asked, trying to peice information together.
Boba was very silent for a long time. Could this just be someone trying to impersonate his father to get secret information from him? Was this a trick played out by Baxtro? A voice chip was easily obtainable, Mandalorian armor could be bought if one had the right connections, and silver paint was easy to come by. But there was only one way to know for sure.... "Take off your helmet so I can see if you really are Jango."
Jango was silent for a moment, but, finally, he slowly took off his helmet and laid it on the table between them. Boba's eyes feasted upon the sight in front of him for a scarce moment before his vision started to blurr. Jango was saying something, but Boba could only hear jumbled words. His world was collapsing and crumbling. The man he'd seen die before his very eyes... the man he'd looked up to and idolized.... the father he'd lived so long without.... His vision went even more blurry and jumbled, and the room was spinning....
Jango Fett watched as Boba started to waver on his seat. "Boba? Are you ok?" he asked, watching as Boba gripped the table and breathed hard. Suddenly Boba was falling to the floor, and Jango jumped up. With a little sigh, Jango pulled Boba onto the medcouch and pulled a spare crate up to the couch, sitting by Boba's head. He frowned. Roz'll have a fit when he got back, he just knew it. In fact he could just see the pink Toydarian yelling at him now, "Jango, what were ya thinkin', hunny! Getting messed up on some sorta scam like that. I keep tellin' ya, Jango, you're getting too soft. Maybe it's a good thing, eh? Now maybe we can get you happily married and maybe even get you a kid!" Jango half smiled at that. Rozanne would do just about anything to make him happy. He knew that. Jango studied Boba's armor. Was he telling the truth? Was Jango actually in the future? Was this really his... son... laying before him? Why was Boba so antsy about it all? Sure, Jango himself felt sorta anxious, it wasn't exactly an easy thing to understand, being in the future. He was in the future, wasn't he? He had to be, there was no other explenation. Although how he managed to end up here would be an interesting thing to find out indeed.
Boba slowly blinked his eyes, and found himself staring at the ceiling. Suddenly he sat up and looked around, finding Jango sitting on a crate watching him. He'd fainted. He'd actually fainted. Boba Fett... the great Boba Fett... had fainted. Oh, great, that was something he'd never be able to live down! His face turning slightly red, Boba spoke, "Sorry about that..."
"It's ok. Ready for some explaining?"
Boba swallowed hard and looked away, "About what?"
"About why you're so panicky about me? What, do I turn into some sorta evil tyrant of a parent?" Jango was seriously concerned about this. Boba was much more panicky and antsy than was in his character, this much he could tell only from observing Boba for a mere few hours.
"Well.... dad...." he noticed Jango bristle slightly at being called dad, but ignored it, ".....it's you... it's really you... isn't it?"
Jango nodded, "Yeah. And don't call me dad."
Boba shrugged, then took a deep breath. He reached up, and pulled his own helmet off. "This is something I never did before ever. You should consider yourself lucky to still be alive, since you're currently the only living person who's seen my real face since I was a child."
Jango's eyes widened, "I made you wear armor from the time you were a kid?"
Boba glared, "You weren't around to tell me what to do, now where you!?"
"Hey don't get mad at me, I didn't even know you existed till a few hours ago," Jango raised his hands up in defense, and saw Boba take a few deep, calming breaths. "Now, why don't you start from the beginning?" But Boba remained silent, his eyes distant and full of pain. "Boba?" Boba suddenly seemed to snap back to reality, and stared at Jango with deep haunting eyes, and Jango suddenly grew cold, "....what happened to me.... where am I now? The future me, where am I?"
"...long dead...." Boba forced the words out of his mouth.
Jango stared at Boba for a long time, then suddenly panicked, "Where? How? Who did it? What happened to you after I died? Where's your mother? Who is your mother?"
Boba buried his face in his hands and squeezed his eyes closed, "Stop... just... stop..."
Jango stopped talking, and silently moved over next to Boba. Boba sat stiffly, hiding his face in his hands. Jango, feeling uncomfortable and unsure, did the only thing he could think of. He lightly laid a hand on Boba's shoulder. But it was apparantly all he needed, for Boba took a deep breath and spoke again.
"I have no mother. I'm an exact replica clone of you," Boba heard a light gasp come from Jango, "I was made as part of the payment you recieved for giving your DNA to cloners so they could make a clone army in your visage. I'm the only true clone, all the others had genetic changes, and all of them are dead by now. I was raised as your son. I'm not just some mindless clone. I'm a person. A real person. I have a mind and feelings and emotions... I can think and feel... just like anyone else. I just chose not to feel cause it hurts too much." Boba took another deep, shuddery breath, wondering at how easily the words seemed to come from him, as though he'd been hiding them inside what was left of his heart for way too long. "The only mother I knew growing up was a woman named Zam Wesell. For a time when I was little, I thought she was my mother, but as I got older I realized she was just a friend. No.... no wait.... more than that...." Boba blinked and looked far away, struggling to remember. "I caught you two kissing... I remember that... I was off at the library and decided to swing by Slave I and admire it's beauty before going home and I saw you two standing by the boarding ramp kissing. I never told you I'd seen that..."
Jango's eyebrows shot up. Not only did he get a son, but it sounds like he'd fallen in love as well! What had happened to him to cause this change in himself? How had he allowed himself to go so soft? "Wait, head back where? You mean we lived somewhere other than the ship?"
"Yeah, we had an apartment given to us by the cloners," Boba said offhandedly.
"Oh. So... how do I... how did I...." Jango shuddered at trying to say the word "die". He didn't really like the idea of himself dying.
"I was ten-years-old," Boba started, but Jango cut in.
"Ten?"
"Yeah... I was so young..." Boba looked away, trying not to feel or think.
"I was ten when my family died too," Jango said, staring at his knees.
But this peice of information interested Boba, for he suddenly spun to look at Jango, "What?"
"I didn't tell you?" Jango was confused at this. Surely he'd have told this to a son if he'd had one.
"I thought Jaster Mareel was your father? And he died when you were an adult..."
"No, Jaster adopted me. I'm certain I'd have told you that?"
Boba shook his head, his hand rising to rub at his face, "I don't know... I'm missing so many memories... I've spent so long hiding them and burying them..."
"I'm sorry. I know the feeling, I've tried to do the same with the memories of my own family," Jango told him. He'd have just let the matter drop entirely, but he had to know.... "But, could you... please? Just try?"
Boba closed his eyes, squeezing back a tear he hadn't expected to come, and tried to get the words out, "A Jedi had.... come snooping... we left for a planet... G... Geo... Geonosis... A band of Jedi... and droids... a fight broke out... you were fighting.... I was watching you... then... I couldn't see you anymore.... I ran down to find you... you couldn't have.... I hadn't seen.... could I? I saw something..... it couldn't be real... but it was.... and you... I found your helmet.... that very one you're wearing now.... covered in sand and blood.... and not far away was.... your headless body...." Here Boba broke off, for he just couldn't speak any more. Couldn't go on. Couldn't say anything else.
Jango sat in horrified silence, just staring at Boba as he shakily stared at a wall with unfocused eyes.
