A Child’s Ink: Chapter Two
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Let's take a field trip to Little Sundari!
I actually started writing this almost immediately after I finished the first chapter. Then it grew too large and turned into "The Process of Acquiring a Padawan," a separate fic entirely, and only now have I finished The Depa Section.
I also haven't finished anything I actually like in months so I'm pretty happy to have completed something I actually care about.
A Child's Ink: First Chapter, Series: Anakin and the Jedi Babies
--
Depa’s first encounter with Ylliben Skywalker’s habit of collecting meaningful tattoos comes well before she is introduced to his true past, and even before she starts settling into the knowledge that her own figure is as Jedi Master. He is just an Initiate that she happens to spend sometime with. He is a friend, albeit a much younger one.
His father broaches the subject, first.
“Knight Billaba,” he greets, approaching her in the refectory. “I’m glad I could find you. May I sit?”
She gestures at the empty chair across the small table. “Of course. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Actually, yes,” he says. His smile is almost apologetic. “I may need a favor.”
“I’m listening,” Depa says.
“There’s this tattoo parlor in Little Sundari that I’ve gotten Ylliben an appointment at, to get his ink fixed. I was going to take him there myself, since he officially needs an adult escort until he’s fourteen, but I’ve been tapped in for a mission that clashes with the appointment. Rescheduling could push it out by weeks, even months. Would you be willing to go as his adult? I know it’s a bit of an ask, what with the distance, but I figured since you like the kid…”
Depa considers it. “When’s the appointment?”
“Next Centaxday, eleventh bell.”
She’s got a free spot on in her schedule then. No classes to teach or shifts to take, just some half-planned thoughts of sparring and research in her open time. “I’d be happy to. I’ve never been, actually. I imagine Ben would have an easier time than I figuring out how to navigate, and which restaurants are authentic, if we have time to explore.”
Skywalker grins at her, free and cheery. “I think he’d love the chance to play tour guide, yeah. Not that he knows the area, really, but…”
“I know what you mean,” Depa says. “I look forward to it.”
--
Depa picks up Ylliben from the Initiate dorms early, when the sun has only just risen. The train ride is a lengthy one, and she wants to skip over the crowds as much as possible. They’ll maximize the amount of time they spend in Little Sundari, this way.
When the doors open to release the child within, Ben isn’t quite sleep-rumpled, but he’s bleary-eyed and fighting a yawn. It’s a valiant effort at pretending he’s unaffected by the hour. Depa hides her amusement as best she can, just spreads her arms in an offer to hug.
Ylliben tips forward into her. He buries her face against her middle, fingers grasping at her outer tunic. He does not groan and moan as many a child his age would, but he does huff a soft little sigh of frustration as she hugs him back. Even Depa has to laugh at that, and ruffles his hair as she rocks and turns a little on the spot, letting Ylliben leach at her warmth.
“Early morning for you?” she asks.
“I couldn’t fall asleep as early as I tried,” he mumbles, “and I really tried.”
Poor baby, she coos in her mind. Instead, she assures him, “you can sleep on the train. Do you have everything you need?”
“Comm unit, credits for the ink, credits for lunch and discretionary spending,” Ben confirms. This is punctuated by another adorable little yawn.
Depa glances up past him to the crèchemaster, who nods. “He’s had a small breakfast and his morning medication, and I already got him signed out in your name, Knight Billaba.”
She nods back. “Thank you for being so accommodating.”
“Not at all,” the crèchemaster says. They tap Ben on the shoulder, prompting him to finally pull away from the cocoon of Depa’s robes. “Be safe, listen to Knight Billaba, and remember to comm if you’re going to be late.”
“Yes, Master Popolis,” Ben says, bowing politely despite the grumpiness he continues to radiate.
“And have fun,” Popolis adds.
Ben finally grins. “Yes, Master Popolis.”
“Shall we?” Depa asks as the door whooshes closed.
Ben takes a deep breath that’s certainly another attempt to mask a yawn, and almost manages to sound natural when he answers, “yes, Knight Billaba.”
“You know you can call me Depa,” she tells him, heading towards the hoverbus station in the next wing. “I don’t mind.”
“Kay,” Ben mumbles, eyes drooping despite being on his feet and actively walking.
She ushers him onto the bus, timed perfectly as they planned, and sits in the half-empty transport with full expectation that she’ll have an Initiate dozing against her side in moments. She is proven correct. The other passengers largely ignore them, being mostly commuters, who see Jedi on this route regularly. There is an elderly Rodian, however, probably somebody’s grandparent, who keeps looking up from their knitting to smile at the sight of little Ben half-asleep as he is.
It takes half an hour to reach the CoCo town interdistrict train depot, and then Depa is gently bullying ben to his feet and onto the hypertrain. He goes right back to his prior position, leaning into her side and drowsing like the child he is. She uses the trip to catch up on some reading, occasionally watching the cityscape pass her by. It’s been quite some time since she’s had reason to come this way, and never this far. Little Sundari is about half an hour further along this train than Depa’s ever traveled it before. It’s interesting, the way coruscant changes as they pass from old-continent CoCo town to basin buildings. Little Sundari is among the many “lower class” neighborhoods built on what was once the ocean floor. Little Keldabe, to her memory, is in a more affluent region, up on the plains section of a different past continent. Realistically, the reputation the basin districts have is exaggerated… but it’s technically true that Little Sundari is less than CoCo town.
However, that is because everywhere is less affluent than CoCo town.
They reach the Little Sundari train station two-and-a-half hours after leaving the Temple, and Ben wakes up with far more grace this time. They disembark, and Depa checks her comm.
“We have a few hours before your appointment,” she says, “and it’s a forty-minute walk. Knight Skywalker said you had a few things you wanted to show me on the way?”
Ben brightens, grabbing her hand and tugging. “There’s an uj’alayi shop that Bo told me about!”
“Bo?” Depa asks.
“The Duke’s younger daughter,” Ben says. “She’s a few years older than me, and she came to Coruscant a few years ago with her dad.”
“A friend of yours?”
Ben makes a face. “She’s… a lot.”
Depa stifles a laugh. “Is that so?”
The pout on him is adorable. “I prefer Satine.”
“And who’s that?”
“Bo’s older sister,” Ben says. “She’s a lot nicer, and she doesn’t bite when we spar.”
“Ben,” Depa says, patient as she can, “you bite in spars.”
The look he shoots her could be politely described as ‘disgusted.’
(Continue on AO3)
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Caleb and his foundling
Or the worst emotional roller-coaster that Depa Billabas Battalion was ever on.
This is for my "Star Wars fix it au", where order 66 doesn't happen, but Padme and Anakin still die (Rip Padme, you deserved better)
The first hours after General Obi-wan had given them the message were the worst.
The men who were made for them, fought side by side, died for them where a gun pointed at their chests.
All of them had chips in their brains that would strip them of their humanity their personhood, and their identity.
It was no wonder that the camp was in panic, no matter how much General Depa tried to calm her men down.
They were scared. Scared of hurting her and her Padawan. Scared of losing themselves.
Some of them tried to run, to be as far away from them as possible when those horrible chips activated.
Others tried to take their own life as long as they still were themselves.
It was a horrible time.
Then Caleb disappeared because the force was calling him, which made the troops only more panicked.
They were torn between wanting to go with him and being glad that he wasn't around. Both reasons were because they were worried for their little commanders' safety.
Then, a few hours later, everything was over.
Or at least, it seemed that way for all the men who only knew war.
The chancellor was the sith and created this war. He was killed by Mace and his close supporters were imprisoned for betraying the republic.
Master Anakin Skywalker fell and betrayed them. He was killed by Master Obi-Wan after murdering Senator Amidala.
The technicians in the Jedi temple created a way to block the signal of the chips, saving them from mind control till they could get it taken out.
So effectively, the war was over, they won and the clones lost most of their usefulness.
Even if they still had their personhood, they still weren't safe. Not when most of the republic saw them as nothing more than meat droids.
It was at this time that Caleb returned with a newborn and no one knew where the little guy could have possibly come from.
They were in the middle of a battlefield and the padawan couldn't have walked so far in the few hours he was gone.
The teen himself didn't know how long he walked or where he went.
He had trusted the force and the force brought him to the little baby and the corpses of his parents, who appeared to be reporters of some kind.
Cue panicked clones who just went through the 5 stages of grief and are now fearing for the wellbeing of a little thing that was barely bigger than their hands.
They just pushed away the fear of their post-war existence because none of them were trained in child care.
To be fair, the only one who knows how to carry and feed a baby is Depa, who is glad that her padawan came back without any injury.
Even if the baby (a possible grand padawan?) was a suprise.
A nice surprise that brought her men out of their fear clouded minds, but a suprise nonetheless.
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