Origin of Fabius Kane and Donovan

Hadrian Kane was a good man: a good mechanic, a good husband, and a good father. The middle-aged Corellian worked as a mechanic on Nar Shadda. His partner was a Sluissi named Cyvale. The two were both skilled honest men and close friends. Their children, Fabius and Donovan grew up together as close friends also: following their fathers around at times and being mischievous children at other times. Donovan’s mother died when the boys were about eight. Cyvale was sad, but continued on with his work, as his family became even closer to Hadrian’s.

Sadly, Hadrian’s problem was that he was often too good of a man. He told Fabius that reputation did not matter and that money did not matter: being a good person did. Hadrian was convinced that a just man would find his own rewards in life and did not need to rely on what others thought of him or need to measure himself by how much money he had. This may have made Hadrian a moral man, but it did not make him a good businessman. Too often he did ‘favors’ for friends; he undervalued his work and sometimes was not even paid. Cyvale was skeptical, but did not argue too much with Hadrian, because he felt a part of Corellian’s family and that he owed Hadrian for the moral support he had given him over the years. Yet in time, this lack of business sense got both men in trouble. Their repair business started to fall into debt. To continue on, the men had to take out loans from elsewhere in the Corellian Sector. Ultimately, this created a rift between Hadrian and Cyvale. Cyvale took Donovan and moved to a different part of Nar Shadda. Fabius and Donovan were torn apart; the two were upset, but there was little that the children could do about it.

Unfortunately, the mechanics’ debt was bought out from other Corellians by Tesha the Hutt. She wanted to use Hadrian Kane and even Cyvale as her own personal repairmen. She proposed to price each job and take that much out of their debt. Yet Hadrian refused to work on ships he new would be used to carry spice or slaves. The Hutt did not give him a choice. She decreed that he would or else face dire consequences. It was at this time that Maya Kane left Hadrian, taking a refugee ship to Corellia, to try and trace her ancestral roots. She tried to kidnap Fabius as she left, but the young thirteen-year-old refused, wanting to stay with his father.

Neck-deep in debt and underworld pressure, and coping with the departure of his wife, still Hadrian told Fabius that things would find a way to work out. He told the young boy not to worry about being strong or rich, about being well-liked or good-looking; to him, a strong moral character was more important than any of that; he told Fabius that if he grew up that way, he would be proud of him no matter what.

And so, sticking to his principles, Hadrian thrust Fabius into a rear air duct when Tesha’s bounty hunters came to give Hadrian one last chance to work for them. Hadrian stood his moral ground and said that nothing they could do or say could convince him to work on something that was just plain wrong. The lead bounty hunter told Hadrian that he was a nobody and did not have the capability to make that choice. Hadrian smiled wryly and told them that they were wrong: he had already made that choice. Shrugging, the bounty hunters laughed, calling Hadrian a no one, calling him weak. Hadrian never lifted a hand to fight them. Tesha’s men gunned Hadrian down dead and then ransacked the garage.

Though he never made a vow or consciously realized the anger inside of him, from that day forward, something inside of Fabius knew that he would never be like his father; he would never be a nobody, he would never be weak.

A terrified thirteen-year-old Fabius somehow found his was to Cyvale and Donovan, the only other family he knew. He told them what had happened. Cyvale became nervous. If they had done that to Hadrian, Tesha would look for him next. Cursing his fate, Cyvale called in every favor he could: spreading rumors that he had sold Donovan and Fabius to slavery for the money. He never let the children out to play with others and when he had customers over, he forced them to stay hidden. For Donovan and Fabius it was a game of sorts. Although, Fabius, in particular, realized how serious their ‘game’ was, and knew the consequences of failure. Occasionally the young Corellian thought of his mother, but for the most part, he tried to help out Cyvale and play with Donovan: not thinking about the past.

It was not long before Tesha’s men found Cyvale. The Sluissi tried to bargain with them, but they were more interested in finding his kids. Cyvale followed his plan; he refused to tell them where the children were (who led by Fabius, were hiding in a rear air duct). Thus, the bounty hunters resorted to torture. Only after hours of excruciating pain, did Cyvale tell them that he had sold the children to slavers. At first, the bounty hunters were confused. Cyvale told them that he would rather see his own child a slave and live rather than to die at their hands and spit on the lead bounty hunter. With that, they killed Cyvale. They ransacked the garage and left. Later, other sources corroborated the fact that the kids had been sold into slavery. Tesha was satisfied.

From that point on, Donovan and Fabius fell in with roving child gangs on the so-called Smuggler’s Moon. They learned street tough and the ways of scoundrels across the galaxy, growing up far too fast. When they were seventeen, the two friends had a rift. Donovan wished to continue his father’s legacy and become a mechanic. He said he found someone that would take them both as apprentices. Fabius wanted nothing to do with it. This argument led the two to leave each other’s company for several years. What neither really understood, at least consciously, was that Donovan’s father had died with strength and courage, something Fabius was intensely jealous of; he still resented his father’s death. Donovan, on the other hand, wanted to emulate his father and follow in his footsteps; Fabius wanted nothing to do with his father’s legacy.

Donovan apprenticed to a Zabrak on the other side of the moon known as Kaer Odok and learned to specialize in tech and repair things as his father did. Meanwhile, Fabius spent his adolescence on his own, operating on the fringes of lower Nar Shadda, trying to stay off of everyone’s radar. He stole aircars constantly, teaching himself to fly, as well as learning how to barter for the sale of those stolen goods, picking up a variety of skills not through experience, not by being taught.

The two friends kept in infrequent contact. One day, they decided to meet for lunch. It was then that the twenty-year-olds were happened upon by Vima Da Boda. The aged Jedi sensed their potential for the Force and convinced them to come with her. Both were skeptical, but both had heard the legends of Jedis and were interested. They spent many afternoons with the old woman trying to understand what she was saying about the Force. Yet the old woman was nearly mad and they had trouble understanding her lessons. Also, they weren’t totally convinced; thus their own doubts hampered them. Almost unconsciously, they began to exercise the Force, but ultimately, when Vima-Da-Boda was once again forced into hiding, they were abandoned. Ultimately, they believed in little more than they had good instincts and were lucky.

Nonetheless, Fabius and Donovan turned this newfound ‘luck’ to practical matters, returning to the street gangs. This time, however, they were ready to rule the gangs. Donovan had learned all he could from Odok, and truth be told, was itching for adventure. They easily took control of a Rodian gang and Kane became the undisputed leader. After several more years and making a lot more money, they left the gang, appointing new leaders and financed a purchase of their own star freighter. With that, the then twenty-four-year-olds ventured into space to make their fortune: a pilot and a tech. In a short time, they found employment from the Sullustan Nien Kuum, working for him until the Rebellion’s End.

Thus, Fabius Kane became everything his father was not. He became strong, he became well-known, and he became respected. The loan for the ship came from a Hutt. Oddly, Fabius held no grudges against the Hutts. He understood that Tesha had only killed his father because he had fallen into debt and refused to work it off. Fabius promised to himself to work his ship out of debt as soon as possible. He did not blame the Hutts or the bounty hunters for his father’s death: he blamed his father. Though he rarely thought of his mother, he knew he would never be like his father. And if he ever thought of heroes, he thought not of Rebels or Jedis, but of Cyvale, the man whom he had wished really was his father. Fabius sees Donovan as his brother and will go to any length to protect him, just as Cyvale did for them.

Donovan feels the same about Fabius. Though he feels his father would be proud of who he has become, even the young Sluissi is not sure who he is yet to be.