Star Wars Episode II: Rise of the Twin Suns

Chapter Five

2008-03-15T21:06:11Z

Title: Star Wars Episode II: Rise of the Twin Suns (5/?)

Author: Opal Lynn (opal . lynn gmail . com) For more updates, spoilers and images from the story, please visit tsrii . livejournal . com

Rating: PG-13

Characters/Pairings: Anakin/Padmé, Obi-Wan, Darth Nathema (OC), Reysuu (OC)

Category: AU, Action, General

Disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

This Chapter: Obi-Wan is unexpectedly entangled, and everyone gets in way over their heads.

Author's Notes: Sorry, I know my chapters are quite long for fanfic... but I'm planning this to be about as long as a 'real-life' novel, so expect long chapters, it's part of the deal. :D This chapter took a while because I was busy moving back to college from spring break and I have lotsa homework I didn't do... oops.

This chapter is all one, continuous piece without scene breaks, which might just be a first for me. I had a lot of fun with this chapter because there's a bit of everything in it: awkward advances, action, humor, certain death, you name it. Have fun reading!

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F I V E
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"I don't know what you're doing hiding back there, but you can come out."
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Obi-Wan practically jumped out of his skin. Normally, he vested great pride in his ability to avoid unpleasant jolts, but the dancing girl had taken him completely by surprise, and he was ashamed to find his heart thundering and adrenaline blinding his eyes. How on earth had she seen him? The curtain was blocking him out, surely.
"What are you doing back there?" She repeated, getting up from the couch and moving towards the antechamber. "Shy?"

Before he could do anything, think of anything, formulate any sort of excuse, she whipped back the curtain and they were suddenly face to face. From this short distance he noticed that she was quite young; probably around Anakin's age, and she was reeking of sweat from her excursions in the arena. Furthermore, she was quite tall; on equal footing with Obi-Wan if not a few inches higher. But there was something else about her... something bizarre, that made him nearly do a double take. Unfortunately he couldn't place what it was that made her so strange, and he was left with nothing but an uneasy feeling as they continued to stare at one another.

A grin ticked her face and she leaned against the narrow door of the antechamber, evaluating him.

"No reason to hide back here. You don't scare me." Her eyes raked him head to toe. "No, not scared at all."

Obi-Wan gulped, unsure of what to make of her reaction.

For a few more agonizing moments, she simply looked at him, her gaze roving over him again and again as that impish grin spread wider across her face. Even without the horns, she looked every bit a feral beast. With a sinewy motion, she reached out and took his forearm in her hand, leading him from the antechamber. Her fingers were hot, sweaty, and caked in old blood, and Obi-Wan felt a little nauseous. Something was distinctly wrong here.

She steered him toward a lowered bed of pillows and padded mats in the center of the main chamber and gently pushed him down until he was lounging against the sea of cushions. He was getting more and more distressed by the minute, the nauseous feeling in his stomach twisting every time she swept him with her gaze.

"Are you comfortable?" she asked as she walked around the pile of cushions, her eyes never leaving him.

Obi-Wan nodded awkwardly, bewildered.

"Would you like a drink? Music? Dancing?"

Obi-Wan tried to look unfazed, but he was sure some confusion must have leaked into his expression, because she cracked that feral grin again and knelt down beside him.

"You're nervous," she whispered, her hands luxuriously massaging his shoulders. Obi-Wan could not help but tense up immediately. Physical contact with others was rare - if unheard of - in Jedi life; and he had certainly never been unwillingly groped by anyone, particularly not by a half-naked slave girl who was whispering in his ear. However, he saw no easy way of disentangling himself from the situation without revealing that he had illegitimately sneaked into her chambers (and into the palace), and he was hoping against hope that an opportunity for escape would present itself soon. However, within a few moments of the slave's unwanted ministrations, he was so distraught and confused that he barely noticed as she slipped off his cloak and slid her hands beneath the neck of his tunic, her fingers gently touching his chest. She laughed and settled closer against him.

"You're very nervous..." she murmured, her hot breath skating along his neck. "But so very beautiful because of it..."

What could he do? He could think of nothing; his mind was a clouded wreck. By the Force, why had the Sith led him here? Perhaps it was some sort of trickery; meant to soften his defenses and make him weak... perhaps she was trying to gain some sort of ground. Obi-Wan steeled himself, but the slave girl did not abate. Still sensing his overwhelming resistance, she gently pushed him against the cushions and came around to meet him face to face again, her knee between his legs. He tried to remain calm, but every time she moved he flinched, every time she touched him he stiffened. Would it be wiser to play along or to throw her bodily away? He had seen her in the arena and knew she was no weakling, but was he truly so afraid to fight her, if it came to that?

"Relax..." she suggested, "Just enjoy..." She pressed her long body against him and he shut his eyes, trying to think of something far away. Even the Sith would be easier to handle than this mess. What in the world had he fallen into? Her hands caressed his face and he could feel her inching closer... he had to get away... had to get out of this...

"You're different..." she murmured, as if to herself, and his eyes opened in surprise. She was looking at him with an inscrutable expression, and then she smiled, much softer than before. "very different..."

And then without much warning, she was kissing him. He wasn't even paying attention to the sensation - he was too dumbstruck by the feeling that had washed over him when their lips had touched. He couldn't name it... couldn't place it... but it was familiar and it was strong. There was something about her, something weird and wrong and so jarringly familiar.

He was just reaching up his hands to push her away when someone came through the door and shouted something very loudly in Huttese.

To his immense relief, the girl was off him faster than you could say, 'this ship's quick, slick.' In the blink of an eye she was suddenly crouched defensively, holding a jagged knife in her hand. Where the knife had come from was an utter mystery to Obi-Wan, but he was glad she'd mysteriously conjured it because two twi'lek girls and a unpleasant assortment of gamorreans and helmeted henchmen were coming through the doorway.

The posse shifted and pushed forward two figures, which the twi'leks and their companions held fast. Obi-Wan sighed inaudibly when he saw that it was without a doubt Anakin and Padmé in disguise. Even Artoo had been apprehended, restrained by a bulky guard who had affixed a nasty-looking droid taser to Artoo's abdominal section. The astromech's silver dome was spinning frantically as he spat angry chirps at his captors, shifting from side to side in an attempt to break free of the taser.

Luckily, Anakin and Padmé knew better than to show any resistance at this stage, and Obi-Wan understood enough basic Huttese to follow what was was being said.

"These two are looking for Tarlan Voss!" Hissed one of the identical twi'leks.

"Never heard of him." said Reysuu poisonously.

"We think you have," said the other, and she threw an assortment of stolen identification cards at Reysuu. Reysuu cautiously gathered them up and looked at Voss' picture. A flash of recognition flit across her face, quickly suppressed.

"I've never seen this man before. Whoever these idiots are, its got nothing to do with me. Get out of my chambers, NOW." She flashed the knife dangerously, whizzing it past the twi'lek's dainty ankles.

"Who is that?" asked one of the girls menacingly, pointing at Obi-Wan. Anakin, Padmé and Obi-Wan were all trying very hard not to look at one another and still try to communicate some sort of plan of escape.

"Don't be thick, you know perfectly well. Now get out."

"But we have just checked with Lord Mondula," bit one.

"he says that he has sent no one to your chambers. He has arranged no meeting for you today." jeered the other.

This news apparently came as a shock to Reysuu, because she dropped her guard for the briefest second. But even that was enough time for the twi'leks to gain the upper hand. One of them hit her squarely in the jaw and the other kneed her in the back; and she collapsed to the floor, her breath stolen away. Grimacing with unrestrained anger, Reysuu tried to stand again, but one of Mondula's henchmen extracted a small remote, activating a switch which caused her slave collar to crackle and fizz with energy. Gritting her teeth against the sudden pain, she sank back to the floor, unable to scream out. The collar fizzled for a few seconds more and then relented, and one of the twi'leks grabbed Reysuu's hair and yanked her head back to keep her in check. Though Reysuu made no audible sound, she swallowed thickly and a tear trickled unbidden from her blazing, angry eyes.

Out of the corner of his eye Obi-Wan noticed Anakin shifting against his captors; he was grinding his jaw and clenching his fists as he watched Reysuu's degradation, and Obi-Wan could feel his anger seeping dangerously across the room. Obi-Wan caught his Padawan's eye and mentally urged him to calm down; there was nothing they could do. Anakin relaxed fractionally, his mind clearing just enough to make Obi-Wan feel more comfortable.

Meanwhile, the other twi'lek girl had begun tearing through the chamber in search of something. It was not long until she found what she was looking for... credits. All sorts of credits from all sorts of systems hidden amongst the cushions and rugs. Reysuu's eyes widened in shock, her mouth going slack for a moment before tightening into a ferocious scowl. The twi'lek gripping her hair tore her head back even farther and hissed, "what is the meaning of this, Reysuu?"

Reysuu tried to throw the twi'lek off - she actually managed to flip the yellow-skinned slave to the floor and then nearly kicked her in the face - but the collar was activated again and Reysuu fell to the floor in unwilling submission. The twi'lek with the credits threw them in Reysuu's face and wrenched her to her feet again before shoving her into the clutches of the gamorrean henchmen.

With Reysuu successfully apprehended, the twi'leks turned on Obi-Wan. Since he could do nothing that wouldn't seriously expose himself and compromise the Queen's safety, Obi-Wan remained calm and submissive while they searched he robes. As expected, they took his lightsaber and some of the more useless things on his utility belt. But inexplicably, they found plastic credits in his robes - credits that he himself had never put there. Though she was weakened and defeated, Reysuu briefly raised her head to peer at Obi-Wan's confiscated lightsaber. Her entire body tensed at the sight, and she flitted her eyes to Obi-Wan, her face utterly stricken. After meeting his gaze, which was confused and unresponsive, she let her head fall forward once more. Her tenacious survival instinct seemed to have been wholly drained from her body; she had given up.

The puzzle pieces suddenly snapped together and hit Obi-Wan as forcibly as a blow to the gut. Voss' Potential was Reysuu... this dancing girl was the Potential whom the rogue Jedi had messaged the council about. Reysuu seemed to know the Jedi were after her, or at least after Voss, and apparently she knew it was a battle she wouldn't win... that is, if she survived the wrath of her Hutt master. The mess was starting to come together, and it was getting uglier by the minute. He knew now that the Sith had sprung her trap without even being present, he only wished he knew just what her trap meant. What did the Sith want with them all? And why here, why now? What was the meaning of it all?

Obi-Wan grit his teeth and endured as a pair of Mondula's grotty henchmen took hold of him and hauled him to his feet. The time for action would come later; probably in the very arena that had been the backdrop for the Sith's skillful distraction and baiting. All together, the pitiful band was hauled away. The troupe of henchmen and goons steered Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padmé and Reysuu down through the servant warrens into a dank and reeking prison quarter. Here the four of them were thrown together into a small earthen cell with a single tiny window and a solid duracrete door which slammed ominously behind them - locking them inescapably inside.

Obi-Wan was the first to speak.

"You killed Voss, didn't you?" He was looking straight at Reysuu, who was hunched against the far wall, motionless. His voice was entirely unemotional, flat as he could force it. Reysuu showed no signs of hearing him, she remained still - staring lifelessly at an empty corner of the cell. Obi-Wan could hear Anakin rustling about, and sensed that he was about to speak, but Obi-Wan held up his hand, swiftly cutting him off. He never took his gaze off of Reysuu, analyzing her for any glimpses of admission.

"Why did you kill him? Because he was a Jedi?"

The word 'Jedi' seemed to break her from her stupor, because she slumped to the floor, wincing. Though she still did not look up from the corner, she spoke to him in a quiet, bitingly cynical voice.

"He was a Jedi. Like you." She paused and seemed to search her thoughts. "It wasn't my fault, it was him or me. He was an idiot who was too drunk to know what the hell he was doing. He was trying to force me out of the palace, but if I get too far from Mondula this thing," here she gestured at her slave collar, "will kill me. Like I said, it was him or me. I chose me." She picked at her fingernails, scraping at the caked blood on her cuticles. "Are you going to kill me, is that it? A life for a life? Well, don't bother, we're all going to be dead within the hour. It'd be a waste of time, what little we have..." she paused. "You know, despite your unbelievable reputation, you people sure are sloppy."

Taken aback, Obi-Wan gaped, "Sloppy?"

She finally looked at him, her face dripping with condescension. "Yeah, SLOPPY. Your friend Voss was certainly no genius. And you call this a discreet operation? If you were sent here to kill me, to get revenge like everyone said you would, you sure as hell did a bang up job." She looked at him, waiting for a response. Flabbergasted, Obi-Wan could think of nothing. And so she continued, looking back down at her nails and muttering.

"Credits? Why would you plant credits? Sure, you've incriminated me as a smuggler, but you've incriminated yourself as an accomplice! Why didn't you just do away with me yourself and save the trouble of a public execution? And your lightsaber? Why would you EVER bring your lightsaber? That's just plain stupid."

Obi-Wan curled his lip disbelievingly. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"We didn't come here to kill anyone," interrupted Anakin unexpectedly. Obi-Wan glanced over at him in surprise. Anakin was sitting on the opposite side of the cell, his arms resting on his knees. Padmé was staring out the tiny cell window, lost in thought, no doubt trying to formulate an escape plan. The slit of a window was so high that the queen was just barely tall enough to see out of it.

Anakin continued. "The Council asked us to investigate what happened to Voss, but they would never ask us to kill anyone." Anakin paused and his voice became softer when he added, "We don't do that."

"Oh, so now you're a Jedi too?" Reysuu threw her head back in disgust. "Is everyone here a bloody Jedi?"

Padmé briefly looked away from the window and glanced at Reysuu, but said nothing. She chewed the inside of her cheek and looked away again, her mind clearly elsewhere.

"He's right," Obi-Wan began, his voice glassy. "We did not come here to kill you. In fact, I think all of us have been misled into some sort of trap. There is something more to this, and if a single one of us ends up dead I will be very surprised."

"Of course you won't be surprised, you'll be DEAD!" barked Reysuu. "And what the hell are you talking about anyway?" she demanded, her voice agitated. "Any minute Mondula's guards are going to come back and lead us to the arena, where they'll tie us down, knock us out, cut off our hands or... worse, and then they'll let out Mondula's pets for a live afternoon snack. None of us stands a chance. Especially you," here she paused and cocked an eyebrow at Obi-Wan, "considering your less than exemplary track record."

Obi-Wan fought back the urge to throw his hands up in frustration. Instead he said, "You don't have to believe me. It makes no difference if you do." He looked at Anakin and caught his eye. "But the Sith meant for this to happen. They want something from us." He cautiously turned back to Reysuu. "And from you."

Reysuu shrugged and leaned her head against the mouldering wall, closing her eyes.

As Reysuu had predicted, it was not long until Mondula's guards returned to fetch them. Each one of the prisoners was slapped with shackles and forced to trudge down the gloomy corridor surrounded by henchmen. To Obi-Wan's relief, the guards were all gamorrean, and they all seemed to be alone in a long, poorly lit corridor - making his next job a lot easier. Obi-Wan sidestepped closer to the leader of the group, intent on retrieving his lightsaber. He could see that the leader - a big, hulking tusky lump - had Obi-Wan's lightsaber tucked haphazardly into his belt and had attempted to cover it with a cloth. Obi-Wan was not stupid enough to suppose that the guard had been entrusted with the weapon; he knew that Mondula would have demanded it for his own. How the moronic guard had managed to swindle the clever twi'lek girls out of the valuable weapon Obi-Wan had no idea, but he imagined it had a lot more to do with the gamorrean's gigantic axe than with his tiny brain.

"You should not have stolen that from Mondula, it will cause much trouble for you." Said Obi-Wan to the guard, focusing every fiber of his being into bending the gamorrean's mind.

As a testament to Obi-Wan's persuasive abilities, the guard did not automatically lop off Obi-Wan's head with his heavy rough-hewn axe and instead grunted in rough, poorly constructed basic, "What matter it for you?"

"It must have been a lot of trouble to steal it; you must have been very clever to pull it off." The gamorrean grunted noncommittally. "It would be a shame for all of that hard work to go to waste. What if someone were to steal it from you?"

The gamorrean halted, clenching his axe threateningly. He snorted, "Urch clever much more than all others. Urch will keep safe."

Obi-Wan decided to risk it and pull out the sort of logic that would fool only the simplest mind.

He gulped imperceptibly - thinking of that massive axe - and offered, "Ah, yes. But if you are indeed so clever, then everyone will know it was you who stole it. They will think, only Urch could be so smart, surely he must have it. And then they might attack you and steal it back, ruining all of your hard work and profit. It would be much safer to hide it somewhere else, where no one will expect." Obi-Wan moved his shackled hands slowly, under the guise of re-adjusting his robes, focusing all of his energy into the motion and hoping it would win the guard over.

Luckily it seemed to work. Urch made a distressed noise in his snout and asked dimly, "Where Urch hide safely?"

Obi-Wan moved closer, whispering conspiratorially to Urch. Again Obi-Wan shifted his fingers in order to wipe the gamorrean's mind with the Force. "You could give it to the little one, the female." Obi-Wan looked back at Padmé and met her eyes, cuing her to listen to his next words.

"No one will expect her to have it. And when we are all dead, you can take it back from her body." Obi-Wan directed Urch's gaze to Padmé, who was utterly dwarfed by everyone present. The guards towered over her, and Anakin and Reysuu - who flanked her on either side - stood a whole head taller each. Obi-Wan hoped that Urch would place enough stock in physical size to buy the ruse. The hulking guard looked over his shoulder at the Queen, scrutinizing her fiercely. Of course, Padmé was unfazed by the gamorrean's stare - it would take much more than the glance of a single hulking guard to ever frighten her - but Obi-Wan locked eyes with her and telepathically suggested she cower. Fortunately the Queen caught on immediately; she gave Obi-Wan a tiny nod of recognition and then suddenly balked under Urch's gaze, pretending to back away.

Urch turned back to Obi-Wan and nodded. "Plan is good. Weak she-one can hide good the prize." Urch stopped walking and motioned the other guards to continue, pulling Padmé out of the group as they passed. With an astonishing lack of subtlety Urch prodded and lifted at the Queen's tunic, trying to find the best hiding spot. He settled on a pocket on the inside of the mechanic's vest she wore, and though Obi-Wan balked at the obvious lump the lightsaber produced (only the blindest of idiots would fail to notice the bulge against Padmé's petite body), he said nothing and feigned approval. He would find a more successful hiding place as they walked.

"Urch's prize safe. Urch make sure you die less hurting than others," offered the Gamorrean, slapping Obi-Wan on the shoulder in a gesture of supposed reassurance.

"Thank you, that is very generous," replied Obi-Wan. The guard turned away from them and returned to his post at the front of the group. Obi-Wan could hear the familiar din of the arena growing closer, and he took the last few seconds they had left to help Padmé readjust her robes and hide the lightsaber more convincingly.

"That was brilliant," she muttered softly, leaning towards his ear. Anakin quickly glanced over his shoulder and gave Obi-Wan a quick thumbs up before sending his master a telepathic message: Anakin had hidden his own lightsaber inside R2-D2, who - although apprehended - was still in one piece with no one the wiser. Obi-Wan smirked at his apprentice, relieved.

"But what are you going to do?" Padmé asked, a tiny scrap of fear leaking into her voice. "You can't use your lightsaber. The Hutts cannot prove you are a Jedi unless they see you wield a Jedi's weapon in battle. The treaty is safe as long as we are not." She paused and placed a friendly hand on his arm, her manacles rustling. "Even with your silver tongue I doubt you can talk us out of this one."

Obi-Wan smiled at her grimly, knowing she was right.

The painfully white glare of sunlight suddenly spilled across their faces as the guards led the group of prisoners through an archway onto the earthen, blood-stained arena floor. The crowd was sparse but rowdy; whomever had been drunk or bored enough after Reysuu's last fight had remained behind and were now impatient for more gory entertainment. From this vantage point, the arena seemed staggeringly immense in scale, and as Obi-Wan glanced around at the spectator tiers he had to concentrate quite hard to maintain a sense of perspective without getting dizzy. As expected, Mondula was relaxing in his spectator box, awaiting the execution. He looked thoroughly pleased with himself.

The gamorreans made quick work of the prisoners. Anakin and Obi-Wan they shackled to iron loops in the floor with short lengths of chain, before beating both master and apprentice solidly in the abdomen, robbing them the Jedis of their breath. Anakin sank to one knee, coughing, and Obi-Wan staggered, barely maintaining his ground. Although the guards removed Reysuu's shackles, she was quickly rendered defenseless when her collar was activated once more, forcing her to drop to the dusty floor gagging in pain. The guards paid the least attention to Padmé, merely leaving her shackled and weaponless on the floor - partially because they assumed she was the smallest and weakest - but mostly because Urch was making sure no one damaged his hidden prize. Padmé's shackles would slow her down, but unlike the rest of the prisoners she had a free range of motion. And she had a lightsaber. Obi-Wan smiled to himself, ignoring the rattling pain in his chest. They would get out of this yet.

Suddenly, Obi-Wan felt a wave of fear wash over him; chilling and soaking him as throughly as a torrent of ice water. He turned to Anakin, who had clearly felt it too. Padme seemed particularily effected - she had suddenly knelt to the arena floor, holding her arms up in fearful defense. Utterly without cause or explanation, Obi-Wan's heart clenched and spasmed wildly, his blood surging through his ears in a rush of dread panic, and he knelt forward against his will, hoping for release. Struggling against the inexplicable onslaught of emotion, he glanced up at the crowd and his stomach doubled over.

The entire crowd had descended into a panic; what few sentients were left had gone utterly berserk, climbing over one another in a mad dash for escape from some unknown threat. By now, the continued effects of unfiltered fear were beginning to rob Obi-Wan of his composure; he fell to his knees as if dragged down by force, his hands raising to his temples. He could hear Padmé's voice in the back of his mind, muffled as if she were projecting from a great distance.

“What's happening... to... us?” said the voice. But it was growing dim; lost in the shadows... in the darkness...

Obi-Wan sensed his Padawan was on the brink of loosing consciousness, and Obi-Wan felt his own life-force draining inexplicably away... slowly fading into darkness... soon it would all be over... nothing more to be afraid of... into the darkness... slipping...

“The... Sith...”

Who had said it?

In the darkness, all of the voices blended together: the screaming of the crowd, Reysuu's agonized choking, Padmé's confused mutters, Anakin's helpless grunts.

But no matter who said it, it was true. The feeling of panic suddenly lifted, now understood. With a sudden burst of clarity, Obi-Wan understood. The Sith witch had never left the planet at all... this was her skill. Though her lightsaber technique was lacking and weak, Obi-Wan saw now that her true power rested in her ability to manipulate the Dark Side – to hide herself in the blackness of the Force and project fear, panic and confusion onto the minds of others. Hers was a much more dangerous power... much more.

Obi-Wan wrenched his eyes open with a shout of surprise and was blinded by the arena light. As his eyes adjusted, his hearing returned, and the sounds of the arena reached him before the spectre. Screams, enormous thundering feet, unfamiliar animal cries, and then...

“Artoo?” Obi-Wan had scarcely been so relieved.

The droid had broken free of his captors – the two golden twi-leks – and was now rushing over to the prisoners, emitting shrill squeaks of alarm. The twi-leks were preoccupied with the panicked spectators and could not pursue the droid, though they struggled as hard as they could against the crowd. Their efforts were rendered utterly futile in the next second when out of nowhere several gigantic and monstrous creatures lumbered onto the floor and spectator tiers as if from nowhere; having been released from their subterranean pens by some unknown force, which sent the crowd into utter chaos.

“Artoo, quick!” barked Obi-Wan, holding out his hands and jostling his chains. Artoo whirred loudly and zapped Obi-Wan and Anakin's shackles with one of his many useful attachments, and the heavy iron links dropped to the dirt. The droid repeated the procedure on Padmé's manacles and she quickly handed Obi-Wan his lightsaber. He clipped it to his belt resignedly, knowing he couldn't use it without jeopardizing them all further.

"Anakin! Here is our chance!" The arena had broken into a tumultuous wreck. The enraged beasts were careening through the spectators, bodies flying along with the sand and dust beneath the creatures' monstrous, flailing limbs. Mondula's guards were busy scrambling away from the panicking crowd and rabid creatures, but the Hutt was paying them no attention; his eyes were preoccupied with something on the area floor.

Obi-Wan grabbed Padmé's trembling arm and pulled her to his side protectively; apparently Padmé had not yet managed to shake the Sith's spell of fear, and Obi-Wan didn't want her doing something foolish in her manipulated state of mind.

"Anakin, we must flee, NOW!" Obi-Wan grabbed Anakin's shoulder with his free hand, but his apprentice wouldn't budge. Anakin's back was turned and his silent gaze was directed to the ground, as if he were deaf and blind to the deadly cacophony around them.

Suddenly, Padmé released a shuddering breath and whispered in terror, "Oh no!"

Obi-Wan followed Padmé's gaze and his eyes settled on the same sight which held held Mondula, Anakin and Padmé all transfixed: the writhing body of Reysuu.

Though it struck his heart cold, Obi-Wan knew that they had no choice. To intervene would be to commit suicide, not only for themselves but for the fragile Republic. With Adi Gallia's warning not to reveal themselves ringing like a death knell in his brain, he tugged more forcefully on his apprentice's shoulder.

"Anakin, for the sake of the Republic, we cannot intervene! We must go NOW!" Anakin glanced over his shoulder, a momentary and fleeting glance not at his master but at Padmé, who was clutching Obi-Wan's sleeve. Padmé turned from Anakin's gaze, siding with Obi-Wan. When he saw that neither of them would come to the girl's aid, Anakin turned away and stared at Reysuu's convulsing form. Her hands clawed at her throat where her collar encircled her neck and she gasped for air, her heels digging pitifully into the dusty ground in her fruitless attempt to hold on to her life.

After a brief second of hesitation, Anakin turned to Artoo and held out his hand. Obedient as always, the droid ejected Anakin's lightsaber and the weapon flew into Anakin's waiting palm.

"NO! Anakin you CAN'T!" Obi-Wan tried to grab his Padawan's hand and stop him, but Anakin refused to be deterred. To Obi-Wan's shock, Anakin threw up his free hand and blasted his master away with the Force. Padmé lost her grip on Obi-Wan sleeve as he was ripped away from her and tossed several feet backwards, stuttering to a halt on his back. Padmé's face fell as if she'd been slapped, and she stood motionless, her body completely frozen with disbelief.

Anakin grabbed Reysuu and tried to wrench the collar from her neck with his bare hands, but after a few seconds his fingers started to blister and sizzle. The terrible stench of their burning flesh commingled and seeped through the already putrid stadium air. Crying out animalistically, Anakin tried to cut through the collar with his lightsaber, but Reysuu was struggling too wildly and he was unable to do it steadily. He gave up and made a pained, fearful noise - unable to do anything but watch her as she struggled.

At the sight of Anakin's ignited lightsaber, Mondula had flown into a fit of rage, motioning for all of his guards, lackeys and head hunters to converge on Anakin and tear him to pieces. Obi-Wan reached him then, and he put a severe hand on Anakin's shoulder, dragging his apprentice up roughly.

"There is nothing you can do for her! And now you have foolishly revealed us all!" Obi-Wan pointed at Mondula, who was now spitting and frothing with rage. "We need to fly, NOW, or the Hutt will have us all on platters!"

Shaken, Anakin's eyes followed Obi-Wan's arm and he stared at the raving Hutt for a moment. Then, without warning Anakin sprinted forward, wound up his arm, and flung his ignited lightsaber directly at Mondula. Horrified and aghast, Obi-Wan was unable to stop him, even though he toppled Anakin to the ground. Controlling his blade through the force, Anakin wrenched his lighsaber through the Hutt's blubbery neck before calling the weapon back to his hand. Like a slab of melting butter, Mondula slid in two, eyes still rolling as the head fell to the ground with a horrifying splatter; the freshly exposed innards steaming in the shade of the observation lounge.

Mondula's lackeys fell back, shocked and alarmed by Mondula's sudden bisection and unsure of what to do without the promise of a good payoff for facing a deadly Jedi.

Reysuu's collar flashed and smoked, emitted an ominous screech and then she slumped to the ground, motionless. Anakin threw Obi-Wan from his back and scrambled towards the slave, once again gripping her collar with his hands and wrenching it apart. Obi-Wan watched - his heart throbbing painfully with astonishment and fear - as Anakin exerted all of his strength upon the collar. Arms straining and his teeth gnashing, Anakin groaned with effort, and this time the collar gave way, tearing in half at the welded seam and spewing wires and acrid smoke.

With half a voice, Obi-Wan said, "She's dead, Anakin. Do you see now? Does this satisfy your reckless blood lust?"

Anakin threw the collar across the arena with a terrifyingly primal scream, tears streaming lines through the dust on his face.

"SHE'S NOT DEAD!"

He tore off a piece of his shirt and quickly wound it around her oozing, sizzling throat. Gingerly, he gathered her in his arms - not an easy feat considering her height and musculature - but he cradled her like a child; with all the gentleness of a doting parent carrying an infant to bed. He stood, and headed for the nearest exit, passing Padmé on the way. Her eyes were shimmering with unshed tears of fright; Obi-Wan had never seen the queen look so genuinely terrified. Whether it was the lingering Sith spell that was affecting her - or if it was Anakin's sudden recklessness - it was hard to say.

Obi-Wan glanced around the arena - the vestiges of damage still hung in the air, cries of beasts and sentient beings echoing behind him. Mondula's men balked under he gaze; some of them turned tail and fled. No one stood to oppose him, and he simply followed Anakin from the arena, leaving a ruin in their wake.

Unseen by all, a smoky black figure watched from the shadows of one of the dim archways, a cold and pointed grin cutting across her stony features.

As if to the shadows, she whispered in a hoarse and grating voice,

“It is all as you asked, Master. It is done.”

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Ha. that ain't Geonosis, beb.

Final Author's Plea: If you have taken the time to read this far, please take a few seconds more to leave a comment or two. Trust me, it helps keep me motivated to hear what people think of the story! Thanks for reading, I appreciate it so much! Sorry for begging!

Chapter Four

2008-03-15T21:04:15Z

Title: Star Wars Episode II: Rise of the Twin Suns (4/?)

Author: Opal Lynn (opal . lynn gmail . com) For more updates, spoilers and images from the story, please visit tsrii . livejournal . com

Rating: PG-13

Characters/Pairings: Anakin/Padmé, Obi-Wan, Darth Nathema (OC), Reysuu (OC)

Category: AU, Action, General

Disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

This Chapter: Anakin and Padmé share a moment, Obi-Wan plunges into the trap, and 'She-Who-Spits' does a lot more than spitting.

Author's Note: Just a warning, there is a rather gory scene in this chapter. However, since it doesn't involve sentient beings attacking one another I don't think it deserves a 'mature' rating. Just be warned, there's a lot of blood in parts of this chapter, and some lamentable animal cruelty.

Also, there are possibly two of the WORST jokes in the universe in here, but they are intentionally bad, so please enjoy! ^_^

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Once Obi-Wan's coordinates had been transmitted, Anakin and Padmé wasted no time setting off to the south in search of the Palace. The silence was thick between them, apparently Padmé was still a bit put off by Anakin's horrific disguise. She walked at a brisk pace several yards in front of him, and he was finding it hard to keep up. His shirt kept getting snagged by branches while his boots sank unpleasantly in the muck, and even Artoo seemed to be having an easier time of it that Anakin. The little droid was equipped with a startling array of all-terrain attachments which Anakin was beginning to feel were altogether unnecessary for a simple astromech model. Luckily, the awkward silence was made more bearable by the constant maelstrom of forest creatures which seemed to predominate every surface imaginable. Colorful birds of every size and shape sang and twittered loudly, insects of every comprehensible genus and species buzzed and bit at them, and more than one fuzzy wide-eyed creature stared at them from between the tree branches.

With his attention on the rustling canopy above, Anakin failed to notice where he was going and tripped into a sizable crumbling log. It crunched under his weight and collapsed loudly as a dozen animals fled from their now caved-in home, squawking and screaming all the while.

Padmé jumped and spun around, holding her 'spear' defensively in one hand and the shield helmet in the other. When she saw the innocent, startled look on Anakin's face, she had to bite back a smirk. Now that the goggles and breathing apparatus were slung non-threateningly around his neck, Anakin looked every bit his twenty-year-old self again as he slowly picked his way over the log.

"Are you done frolicking with the wildlife?" Padmé drawled, lowering the staff against her shoulder and raising her eyebrows.

Anakin tried to laugh casually as he freed himself from the last limbs of the fallen log, but as he stepped away the remaining timber utterly imploded, sending dust and insects flying everywhere. Then, almost on cue, Anakin's boot suddenly squelched in a deep pool of mud, and his leg disappeared to mid calf.

"I'm not good with forests." Said Anakin, as if this were a reasonable excuse.

Padmé laughed outright, and when Anakin made a genuinely sullen face, she laughed even harder, doubling over and clinging to the staff for support.

"It's not funny!" Anakin whined, trying to free himself of the mud. He yanked at his leg but only succeeded in driving his foot deeper and deeper. Once he saw how truly pitiful his fight against the mud was turning out to be, he couldn't help but giggle right along with Padmé, who was now practically convulsing with glee.

"Stop laughing!" he attempted, but his own giddy chuckling was cancelling out any chance he had of sounding serious.

Once Padmé had caught her breath sufficiently to move once more, she set down her helmet and staff before grabbing his hand and chiding,

"I don't understand how you can be such a natural in the skies yet such a dunce on the ground."

She pulled at his arm, but his foot was in a vacuum hold and would not budge. It took them a few minutes of heartfelt tugging and heaving before the ground finally relented and released Anakin's foot with a very rude sound. Padmé was still wrenching his arm, and he went careening into her. She was knocked back several feet, and she grabbed him, startled.

Anakin's stomach threatened to flip over again as she glanced up at him in surprise, their faces inches apart. He could feel every angle of her body pressed up against him, and for some reason - even though he had seen Padmé hundreds of times before - there was something very different about holding her this close, something infinitely more visceral than any gaze. Her arms were tight around his waist, but they relaxed more comfortably as she continued to look at him, her face molding into an expression Anakin had never seen there before.

He felt strange, almost ethereal. The squabbling of the forest seemed to fade somewhere deep in the distance, and the only thing that retained any clarity was Padmé, along with a nearly painful sensation in his chest. When they had crashed together, his hands had clenched her shoulders, now he lifted one to touch her cheek. He couldn't explain why. It was the same sort of reflexive momentum that drove his piloting, an unconscious move that seemed to happen before he'd even thought it over. Her skin was impossibly smooth; pristine and cool even in the sweltering jungle. For a moment, her eyes closed and she seemed to lean into his hand.

"Padmé, I..." what? What would he say? Were there words for this sort of thing? How could there be words for such a feeling; such an indescribable warmth in his chest? He smiled.

"Are you an angel?" He asked, remembering the first time he had seen her; when he had felt just as warm and just as amazed as he did now.

The smile that spread over her face was as bright and lovely as any sunrise, and he lowered his forehead to rest against hers, trying to calm the manic beating of his pulse. If this moment had stretched on forever, Anakin still would have felt it had been too short. Seconds passed without notice, and Padmé's hands gently clenched his shirt as she pressed closer to him; almost impossibly close now, as if they were going to meld into one person. Happily, Anakin thought. Only too happily.

Unexpectedly, Padmé shifted and tentatively touched his lips with hers, pulling away almost as suddenly. They stared at each other momentarily before sharing a smile. Anakin moved to kiss her again, but R2-D2 chose that moment to interrupt and remind him - in rather petulant tones - that they had a job to do.

Though Padmé couldn't understand the droid directly, she comprehended enough that she untangled herself from Anakin and blushed from head to toe. Anakin was pleased to note that she didn't pull away completely, and she held his hand for a brief moment before collecting her helmet and staff and setting off southward again. Although a warning rang in the back of his head, - an echoing reminder of the Jedi Code's thoughts on "passion" - he couldn't focus on it for very long and it flitted from his mind like a translucent butterfly.

Anakin smiled boyishly, feeling very good indeed. He started after Padmé and pointedly ignored Artoo's robotic giggle-fit.

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"500 units on the acklay!"

"600 on the girl!"

"How about this? 1,000 units on the girl and a private donation for good luck!"

After a seemingly endless maze of forked tunnels and offshoots, Obi-Wan had found his way to what seemed to be the entrance of a large betting enclave. In the room beyond, he could hear scattered laughter echoing over the light pattering of music and the distant shrieks of a caged animal. Voices from the enclave seeped into the warren Obi-Wan was sneaking through, and he caught a snippet of conversation.

"Mondula's really been raking in the cash these days. That Reysuu is something. If I could get one piece of the pot that filthy slug has been collecting, I'd..."

"If I could get one piece of Reysuu!"

"More like she'd bite off a piece of you!"

There was more laughter, and the sound of shuffling feet as money was exchanged. With as much stealth as he could muster, Obi-Wan slid from the dark entrance and into the betting enclave, drawing his hood tight around his face. The enclave was full of excitement and motion, and no one seemed to notice his sudden appearance.

The patrons were being ushered through several large doorways at one end of the enclave, and everyone clambered loudly up numerous flights of stairs to what Obi-Wan could just discern as the various observation levels of a towering arena. Obi-Wan glanced around the enclave, listening cautiously to the distant sound of a palace band playing and the din of spectators in the arena ahead. It certainly had the look, feel, and smell of a Huttese Palace, and unless he was sorely mistaken, some sort of macabre gladiator versus beast spectacle was not far from taking place. He was a little unnerved that the Sith had led him to a gladiatorial arena - being tossed to a rancor was about the most unpleasant thing he could imagine after his long and exhausting tromp though the forest - but he didn't sense any immediate danger. For him anyway.

Obi-Wan's stomach dropped as he spotted the familiar cloak of the Sith woman whipping up one of the arena staircases, her rapid movements apparently unnoticed by the mass of people crowded into the stairway. Bundling his robes tightly around his body, he carefully followed her up the zigzagging passage. The sounds of the rabid arena crowd were gradually getting louder and more ferocious, distracting him slightly from his pursuit. When he emerged onto the first spectator level he was temporarily blinded by the glaring sunshine which reflected off the pale stone arena walls, but he quickly worked to readjust his vision and as soon as he did, he immediately caught sight of the Sith again. Though she was turned away from him, the Sith's characteristic white hair drifted from her pitch-black hood, only to be snuffed out again, as if in a wave of smoke. He brought his hood closer about his face and sat down quickly in the middle of the crowd.

It would be useless to pursue her in the arena without drawing unwanted attention, and places like this were very bad spots to pick a fight. An uncontrollable brawl was exactly the sort of thing Obi-Wan did not need to happen in the lowest rung of an execution arena. And needless to say, being forced to defensively draw his lightsaber and inadvertently reveal himself as a Jedi would be a rather deadly mistake on this particular planet. Better to stay quiet and watch for her; wait for her to try and spring her trap.

Just as he had settled down into his observational position, the crowd erupted around him, and his view was abruptly blocked in all directions by the backsides of various rowdy and unpleasant alien species. Obi-Wan grimaced, but stayed low, using the cheering crowd as cover for a moment, simply collecting his breath. It was still suffocatingly hot, even within the open-air arena, and the copious amount of bodies packed together did not make things much better.

A strange, primal drum sounded in the far corner of the pit below, rumbling like a low roar of thunder; audible even above the mad shrieking of the crowd. Obi-Wan could only see brief glimpses of the sandy floor through the shifting legs of the creatures around him, and so had no real idea what was going on. But suddenly the surrounding crowd silenced and took their seats as if in sudden apprehension. The resident Hutt chose this moment to appear before the crowd, taking his position in a luxurious, shaded box far above the rest of the arena. There he was cooled by a pair of identical slave girls holding enormous ribbed fans. He raised his thick, joint-less arms and hit an embossed silver lever, raising an enormous metal gate on the arena floor. Then, speaking in Huttese which was quickly translated into a dozen alien tongues, he exclaimed,

"She-Who-Spits now hisses for your attention!"

In the arena below, the dark metal gate continued to rise slowly, creaking ominously as the drawchain was pulled back one gigantic link at a time. The great drum sounded again, and the Hutt master clapped his fleshy hands in delight. He took a deep gulp from a goblet offered by a slave and sat back, his glassy eyes on the stadium below.

As the the thunderous drum settled into a bone-rattling rhythm, Obi-Wan turned his attention back to the floor. The gate finally raised completely - locking at the crux with a metallic crunch - and a human girl emerged from the shadows, her hands raised to the crowd. The crowd shouted and jeered as if she were the most ferocious predator imaginable, and she encouraged their attention, her arms waving and calling for their uproarious applause and hisses. After the crowd had tasted its share of wild cheering, a chorus of heavy-handed drums started along with the original, and the girl started to dance.

Obi-Wan's section of the crowd was closer to the floor than most others, and thanks to this he was able to get a fairly good look at the dancer. Her dark blond hair was twisted into elaborate braids and coils, each fixed with jangling metal beads and tiny bells, a sign of a prized dancing girl. Atop her head was a striking horned headdress which made her look all the more ferocious and inhuman as she swayed to the dangerous beat. Her dancer's garb was crafted from fine bronze and deep blue leather, with strands of shining metal beads hanging all down her arms and stomach. As she moved, all of these ornaments rustled and jingled to the beat of the drums, and there seemed to be an almost entrancing sound emanating from the primal and unrefined movements of her body. Like most Huttese dancing girls she was mostly nude, but her many ornaments and violent, predatory dance made her appear heavily shielded, like a warrior.

Just as Obi-Wan was beginning to fit the unfortunate pieces together, Mondula laughed boomingly from his box and released another lever, springing a gigantic wooden trapdoor in the wall just behind the dancing girl. A loud, high shriek spilled over the crowd; not from the dancer, but from an enormous many-legged beast which bolted fearfully into the arena.

The girl continued dancing and turned to face the creature, unfettered. Obi-Wan vaguely recognized the many-limbed monster as an acklay. The beast was enormous, graceful and strong. Its pale cerulean body stood several meters high and twice as wide; a spiked and shielded abdomen was supported by six powerful legs, each outfitted with serrated claws. The creature's head was both magnificent and terrifying; sporting a wide, gaping mouth which teemed with dozens of sharp teeth and a long skull crowed with a crest of flared bone.

The rhythmic jingling of the girl's dance seemed to calm the creature, but the acklay's reluctance to attack only served to enrage the crowd. Playing to the crowd's wishes, the drumming ceased, only to return as a single bone-splintering crash that seemed to wake the acklay from its daze and send it into a sudden, spitting rage. It lunged for the girl, but she dodged the acklay as if it were merely a partner in her elaborate dance. Obi-Wan suddenly realized that the girl had no weapons; there were none put out for her, and she had none on her person. Even if she managed to evade the acklay for hours, he saw no way she could kill it without having a bladed weapon to penetrate it's thick reptilian skin.

Apparently untroubled, the girl danced brazenly around the towering creature, its sharp, talon-like limbs swinging wildly at her in every direction. She was quick and lithe, (and apparently very, very lucky) so she was able to slip between the acklay's legs and avoid its blows with an instinctual accuracy that Obi-Wan found both familiar and unnerving.

Eventually, the dancer managed to work the acklay into such a blind fury that it was trying to kill her without regard to its own safety. Within a matter of minutes, it had accumulated a collection of bleeding fissures where it had mistakenly struck itself in an attempt to kill her.

In a surprising next move, the dancer leaped onto the acklay's back and darted along its thin neck to the crested head; forcing the acklay to lower its neck under her weight. She snapped off a chain of golden ornaments from around her waist and gripped it whip-like in her hands, then sent it flashing down into the creature's three eyes. Obi-Wan couldn't help but wince as the acklay wailed and thrashed in pain, quickly blinded. Once the creature's eyes had been reduced to a pulpy wreck, the dancer slid underneath its head crest and looped her legs and arms around the acklay's delicate neck. She tightened her entire body around the pale neck and squeezed her muscled limbs until the acklay gagged desperately, its legs digging fruitlessly in the dry soil of the arena floor. Though the acklay attempted to crush the dancer with its bony head crest, her human body was just small enough to escape its reach, and she tightened her grip determinedly, forcing its head down to the floor.

In a panicked attempt to rid itself of her, the acklay dashed its strong front claws about its head, and the creature delivered itself a fatal blow to the skull. The magnificent headplate cracked with a horrific sound as the acklay punctured its own brain with a serrated talon, and a mess of gore spewed violently onto a large section of the crowd opposite Obi-Wan. The dancer escaped the blow by inches, the posterior headplate barely protecting her. As she was thrown bodily from the acklay in its death throws, the dancer was glanced at the last instant by a thick, razor-sharp talon, and she plummeted roughly to the hard, dusty floor. The acklay struggled and cried in disjointed agony, its movements becoming more spasmodic as blood surged rhythmically from its head. It let out a soft mewling noise before shuddering a final time and becoming still, crumpling onto its six graceful legs.

For a moment the dancer lay motionless beside the acklay, her wounds oozing dark blood through the sparkling beads of her costume. Her face was pale and still, and Obi-Wan wondered if had actually been finished, even after such a spirited fight. But after a moment's pause, the girl stood shakily and held her bloodied hands up to the crowd.

The arena exploded with a cacophony of hollering as the spectators saw the final outcome of the battle. The sweaty gamblers that were packed in around Obi-Wan suddenly stood up and began clamouring around, looking for their bookies and agents. Through the mess of bodies, Obi-Wan could vaguely see the dancing girl limping off the area floor and back into the dark hallway from which she had emerged, and the heavy gate crashed down behind her.

Just then, a few levels above the dancer's dark gate, Obi-Wan saw a familiar flash of white, and his stomach dropped.

This would be it then. Her trap. The Sith would lead him away from the commotion of the crowd and confront him when everyone would be too distracted to notice a brawl. In fact, there were a number of fistfights breaking out in the crowd while the Mondula watched from his box with amusement. Obi-Wan decided it was high time to get out of the arena, even if a Sith was waiting for him on the outside.

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After another silent but decidedly less awkward period of hiking, Anakin and Padmé approached the border of the forest. Just as Obi-Wan had said, the Huttese palace sat squat and imposing on the edge of an incredible gully. It was not a welcoming sight.

"So, the plan is set?" Asked Anakin quietly.

Padmé nodded and lowered the helmet over her head. Anakin followed her lead, but not before reaching out and touching her arm.

"Remember it's just me in here," he said gently, pulling away and easing his goggles over his eyes. She nodded again and turned away purposefully, preparing herself for the playacting ahead. As she adopted a tough, agile stance, Anakin was reminded that she was more than qualified to don a disguise and pull it off convincingly. Her years of training and implementation probably made her more adept at this than he could ever hope to be.

He adjusted his disguise and hoped that the voice-altering fume mask would be enough to make him seem intimidating. Practicing their new swaggers, they approached the looming stronghold with no small amount of trepidation. Artoo trailed behind, letting out increasingly unhappy-sounding whistles the closer they came to the Palace.

Once at the main entry they both paused and glanced at each other, though the move was made slightly futile by the disguises impeding their view of one another.

Feeling a little ridiculous, Anakin knocked on the expansive duracrete door, nearly jumping back in surprise when a resonating echo greeted him. It was more of a booming roar than a voice, but Anakin could still discern traces of rough Huttese asking him his title and purpose.

Padmé leaned against her staff and drummed her fingers along her hip. If Anakin couldn't sense her overwhelming nervousness, he would have been fooled by her cool demeanor.

Rifling through his mind for the scraps of Huttese he had tried so hard to forget, he responded,

"We are friends to the Hutts, here to offer Mondula this gift and ask him to consider us for his services." He stepped aside and revealed Artoo, who chirped happily, playing along. Anakin winced and hoped it would be enough. He really didn't want to have to make up some kind of menacing bounty hunter title right here on the spot.

The booming voice from nowhere asked what sort of services they wished to provide.

"That depends on how much money Mondula wants to give us." Anakin hoped this smart-ass remark would get him inside, rather that get them both sniped.

The disembodied voice laughed ominously and the door slowly began to rise, revealing the dark, bleak interior of the palace. They cautiously stepped inside, and Anakin couldn't dampen the feeling of panic that rose in him when the door slammed back down behind them.

They edged slowly toward the distant sound of music and laughter, staying close together.

Anakin pulled up the mask just enough to allow himself to whisper to Padmé.

"Remember, Voss is human, pretty tall, average build... last time he was seen he had green hair, if that helps."

Padmé hissed, "We're just lucky he has real bounties on his head! It makes this a lot easier for us; chances are someone in there is after him too, might help us find him."

"Are we still agreed? We split up?" To answer Anakin's question, Padmé nodded, and the shield helmet bobbed back and forth on her head.

"If either one of us finds anything, use the signal: adjust your headgear." She poked at the side of her visor as if adjusting some controls, giving him an example.

"Right," he agreed, showing her how he would re-adjust his goggles if he had to signal her.

They were now very close to a public reception chamber from which floods of people were pouring out; apparently some sort of event had just let out and everyone was trying to exit the compound as quickly as possible. Anakin and Padmé scanned the crowd for any signs of Voss - they had studied his image before leaving the Halcyon and had tried to imprint his visage in their brains - but unfortunately, no one looked familiar.

Padmé knocked Anakin on the elbow and moved away into the crowd, apparently intending for him to do the same in the opposite direction. He sidled away into the mass of people, Artoo following close behind. Anakin watched and waited to see what Padmé did, because he had no idea how to actually go about the task of finding Voss. It seemed awfully insurmountable; there were thousands of sentients streaming to and fro in the large public chamber, and he didn't know where to begin.

He watched as Padmé surveyed the room, looking for those who were stalling, making deals, or queuing to see the Hutt master. She listened in on their conversations, and whenever she seemed to find something promising she approached, showing a picture of Voss and offering to cut a share of the bounty to anyone who helped her find him. Anakin noted her skill at masking her voice and making her body seem much more imposing than it really was; techniques she'd developed from her years as Queen of Naboo.

Hoping to emulate Padmé's success, Anakin turned towards a group of scruffy-looking gamblers. Though rather cut-throat in appearance, the group was laughing and joking to one another, and Anakin hoped their high spirits would encourage them to be receptive to him. He paused at the edge of the group and listened to the latest exchange:

"A gamorrean and a Hutt walk into a bar..." there was a pause as everyone waited for the punchline. "...the bounty hunter ducked."

Though it was about as bad as a joke could get, the rowdy group burst into guffaws, slapping the joke-teller on the back. Anakin stepped in, fishing around in his head for the dumbest bounty hunter joke he could find.

"Here's one for you," he started. Everyone in the group simultaneously turned to look at him; his deep, artificially modulated voice held them all fast. "How many bounty hunters does it take to reinstall a fresher light?" Anakin paused for effect and the men in the group all looked at one another doubtfully.

"None, real bounty hunters work better in the dark."

"HA!" shouted the man who had told the bar joke. He jostled Anakin's shoulder in a friendly way. "Now this man knows how to tell a joke!" The man pulled Anakin aside and whispered to him lowly, "I've been trying to get these idiots to appreciate my brand of humor all day. Now you, here's a man who can appreciate me!"

After being subjected to the man's less than exemplary humorous styling for a few minutes, Anakin felt it was safe to ask him about Voss. He'd been keeping his eye out for Padmé, so far she hadn't signalled him, meaning nothing had turned up.

He ventured, "I'm looking for a friend of mine, good sense of humor. Goes by the name of Voss? Heard of him?"

Anakin's dim-witted companion wracked his brain for a few moments. "Naw, can't says I've heard of any Voss. But hey, if you're looking for your buddy you'll have the best luck asking the Eyes - those pretty things know just about everyone goes in and out of here."

"Who?" asked Anakin, looking around curiously.

"The Eyes. Can't miss 'em. Prettiest damned things I ever saw on four legs. It's them two golden twi-leks working for Mondula. He's got 'em knowing everything that happens in this palace, they don't miss nothing. They'll know your Voss. When you find him, come on over to the cantina in the back, I'll get you both a round and we'll tell some good ones." The joke-teller gave Anakin another hearty slap on the back before gesturing at Artoo and adding, "Nice droid." The man turned back towards the crowd, weaving his way drunkenly to the back of the room to the cantina's entrance.

It didn't take Anakin long to find the Eyes, they stood out sharply against everyone else - their saffron skin was like a beacon in the dark. Catching Padmé's eye, Anakin tugged on his goggles casually, and he saw her slowly start to pick her way over to him. He approached the twi-leks slowly, they were busy serving delicacies to the patrons from wide silver platters.

"Excuse me," he began quietly. His attempt at gentility was negated utterly by the fume mask's voice changing qualities, but in any case his words got the attention of the girls, who swiveled their perfectly coiffed heads to look at him. They said nothing, merely staring at him with their double pairs of piercing eyes, which seemed to cut him to the core. Were they Force-sensitive? The though brushed fleetingly across his mind before he noticed Padmé approaching from the other side, keeping her distance but looking on attentively.

"I'm looking for someone; he's wort a lot... to a lot of people."

With bored, uninterested expressions they turned away from him, clearly they had heard this line many times before.

"If you help me find him I'll cut you in, twenty percent. And believe me, with this man, that's a lot of credits, dear ladies."

This offer seemed to at least peak their attention and they faced him once more.

"No less than fifty percent." said one of them, her eyes flitting over Anakin, sizing him up.

"Fine, fifty percent." The Eyes glanced at one another with skeptical expressions, communicating silently. Anakin knew he'd made a mistake because Padmé flinched and then both of the twi-lek girls looked up at him sharply, their faces dotted with suspicion. He silently admonished himself for being a fool. He should have haggled them more; he gave in too easily. But the situation seemed salvageable, the girls appeared willing to accept him as a desperate (if foolish) man and not a spy.

"A very generous offer." said one of the girls, running her free hand over Artoo's polished metal dome. Anakin stepped a little closer to the astromech, marking his territory. He'd already made the mistake of failing to bargain, and he wasn't going to let them think they could steal his droid too.

"We will help you find your man." said the other, apparently impressed by Anakin's subtle display of strength.

"Many people pass through the palace of Mondula the Hutt." said the first.

"But we are the Eyes of our Master. We see it all." said the second.

Suddenly, they swiveled around to face Padmé, who was still lurking behind them.

"And what about you? You speak very little." said the first twi-lek threateningly.

"It is not good business to make your partner do all of the talking. They make bad bargains." chided the second girl.

Padme said nothing, she simply reached into the mechanic's vest she was wearing and pulled out a pack of emergency explosives - the type Anakin kept in stock in case he needed clear caved-in rubble around crashed vessels. Anakin smirked at her guile; he had forgotten about those. The twi-lek's seemed satisfied by this wordless response and turned back to Anakin.

Together they chimed, "Who are you looking for?"
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Obi-Wan knew this was folly. With every step he took, he was sinking deeper and deeper into her trap. After he had shoved his way from the arena, the Sith had immediately started leading him lower and lower into the palace, through a labyrinthine mess of dark passageways, on and on in a blur of robes... and then he rounded a corner and it was as if she had simply disappeared. She was close, but invisible; he could feel her presence buzzing just out of reach. Cautiously, he inched forward, lightsaber ignited and held defensively in front of his body. By the dim blue light of the lightsaber, he was able to make out a trap door in the ceiling of the low corridor, a rope handle dangling enticingly from a latch.

Feeling ever more like a fish on a hook, Obi-Wan did the only thing he could think of and tugged on the handle. The trap door swung open and a woven ladder unrolled to his feet. The room above was bright and airy, but the details were beyond his reach. The Sith could be waiting for him up there, poised to lop off his head. He closed his eyes and reached out, probing the room with his mind. The Sith was above him, lingering, but she was not waiting to pounce.

Something was very wrong with this entire situation. Why did she not just confront him directly? Perhaps, Obi-Wan reminded himself, it was because she knew she could not best him in a fight.

Resigned to play along with the Sith's ridiculous game, Obi-Wan took a breath - knowing full well it could be his last - and climbed the swinging ladder. He lurched into the room and quickly jumped to his feet, humming lightsaber at the ready. But there was no one there. Only a bright antechamber in which the most threatening thing was a tall window from which there was a perilous drop to the gully below. Now that he was through the trap door, the Sith's presence had all but dissolved, and only a faint trace remained, wafting through the air like an old scent.

Obi-Wan was not convinced he was clear of danger yet; so he slowly pulled back the thin curtain that divided the antechamber from the suite beyond, and he peeked discreetly in. Almost immediately, someone came through the door on the other side of the main chamber, and Obi-Wan quickly silenced his lightsaber and shrank against the wall. It was not the Sith - she seemed to have inexplicably vanished from the palace - but instead it was the dancing girl from the arena. Still limping from her injuries, she hobbled to a small couch and hurriedly washed her blood-covered arms in a basin which Obi-Wan suspected had been set there for that solitary purpose. Then she removed her horned crown and began stripping her jewelry away, hissing with pain as the many metal strings dragged across her wounds. She was quickly joined in the main chamber by a matronly and battered looking woman who cleaned and tended the dancing girl's wounds with cold precision. Obi-Wan could sense that they had done this many times before.

The old woman took a cauterizing tool from her belt and sutured the gaping wound with a blade of light. The dancing girl gripped the couch and made a high keening noise of pain, and from his hiding spot Obi-Wan could smell the unpleasant stench of burning flesh as the wound was sealed. Once her duty was complete, the the old woman turned and left the chamber without a word. After a moment of silence, the dancing girl resumed her disrobing; peeling the jewelry off strand by strand until she wore only the leather and bronze costume beneath.

Obi-Wan hoped that if he was silent and slow, he would be able to slide back down into the passage below without being noticed. Holding his breath, and never taking his eyes from the dancing girl, he started to step backwards, inching towards the trap door in the floor.

"I don't know what you're doing hiding back there, but you can come out."

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Final Author's Plea: If you have taken the time to read this far, please take a few seconds more to leave a comment or two. Trust me, it helps keep me motivated to hear what people think of the story! Thanks for reading, I appreciate it so much!

NaNo #2!

2007-11-07T05:03:57Z

The first section is reposted from day one because I added quite a bit.

-----

Obi-Wan leaned against the entryway of the sickbay and watched his Padawan with blazing eyes. Anakin was bent over the half-conscious slave girl, dabbing her throat with salve and cleaning her putrid, oozing wounds. Clearly in agony, she could do little more than clutch Anakin's knee with white knuckled fingers. His face was focused and intense, flushed with anger. Every so often he would noticeably flinch - his fingers were covered in shining crimson burns and seeping blisters.

Obi-Wan watched them curiously. Anakin's wounded fingers dabbed at her ravaged neck; almost as if they shared the same wound; and Obi-Wan's chest constricted with anxiety. Anakin gingerly addressed a particularly raw section of her wounds, and she moaned incomprehensibly in pain. For a moment she met Anakin's gaze, and Obi-Wan watched as they seemed to exchange some sort of subliminal empathy that he could not comprehend.   Then her head fell back and she fainted.   Anakin dressed her wounds as carefully as he could and finally stood to address his Master.

"Is there something you wish to say to me, Master?" Anakin did not look up, instead he stared at the wall above Reysuu's bunk.

Obi-Wan's left eyebrow shot up and he readjusted himself in the doorway. "There are a great deal of things I wish to say to you Anakin, but none of it will reach your stubborn ears."

Anakin's jaw worked silently, he glanced ad Obi-Wan and looked away again, glanced back, turned away. Finally, he moved for the door and knocked past Obi-Wan, closing the sickbay door behind them.   He faced Obi-Wan but still refused to look at him squarely, his eyes darting angrily over every surface of the corridor.

"What was I supposed to do?" He hissed, voice seething with frustration.

"You were supposed to listen to me. You were supposed to place the needs of a million free citizens of the Republic above the life of a single slave!" He tried to keep his voice even and controlled, but Obi-Wan knew that his frustration was seeping through.

Anakin met his eyes for a moment, his face blazing with emotion. "You wanted me to let her die!"

"Anakin, there are bigger things for us to look after! Have you already forgotten the Sith? Has it already slipped your mind that Sabe died mere hours ago and that the Queen's life is in immediate danger? Or perhaps you have failed to recall that your actions have shattered a fragile diplomatic truce and may have just singlehandedly toppled the Republic! I see... now I can easily understand how the suffering of one single slave could have made you utterly loose your senses!"

"That's how you feel about slaves? Had Qui-Gon lost his senses when he rescued me from slavery?"

They both knew that Anakin had struck a nerve, and they stared at one another, unsure of how to proceed.

"Those circumstances were vastly different. Don't hasten to draw faulty conclusions. Not all slaves can be freed, not every life can be spared." Obi-Wan sighed and leaned against the corridor wall, putting a balled fist to his creased forehead. "I thought you understood this... the Jedi live a life of sacrifice, compromise and diplomacy. We are not driven by uncontrollable empathy!"

"But she was suffering! Dying before our eyes! Is a Jedi supposed to stand by and let the innocent suffer?"

"People suffer and die every second of every day, Anakin. We cannot sidestep the Order and our responsibilities to the Republic in order to shirk death and pain. You must understand that." After a moment of reflection he added, "and do not assume that she is an innocent victim. We have no idea what sort of creature she is."

"She's not a creature, she's a human being. And slave or not, human life is worth something."

Seeing that he was going to get nowhere, Obi-Wan relented for the moment, cosigning himself to deal with his Apprentice when he was in a more reasonable state. "We will discuss this later, Anakin. For now, please clear your mind of this and get some rest." In his mind he added, 'you'll need to it to explain this to the council... we both will.'

Though he looked like he wanted to say a great deal more, Anakin could not seem to find the appropriate words and so he also relented; turning away and heading down the corridor towards the cockpit. Obi-Wan could hear the faint voice of Padme and hoped that the Queen would avoid the topic of their new passenger, for the sake of everyone onboard.

Obi-Wan leaned further into the curving corridor wall, pressing his fist firmly to his brow as if in an effort to push away his thoughts; his dark, anxious thoughts. He could not avoid the feeling that something was going wrong - something beyond the obvious explosion of failure of the anahialated treaty. He knew that the Sith was involved in this entire mishap - knew that she had intended for Anakin to go berserk and sever the truce, perhaps she knew his apathy could be exploited; a thought that gave Obi-Wan no comfort. But there was something else; he knew that the Sith witch and the slave girl were connected, that Reysuu had also been part of this awful set up. Obi-Wan only wished he could foresee whatever consequences were hurtling their way. No doubt there would be a lot of clean up negotiations about the damned treaty, but beyond that everything was quite hazy and decidedly grim looking.

After a moment's consideration, Obi-Wan opened the sick-bay portal and slowly stepped toward the still-unconscious Reysuu. As he considered her, it struck him how familiar she seemed, and likewise how dangerous. A very instinctual sort of feeling was urging him not to let Anakin get to close to her, to keep the two of them at a distance from one another. He could not really understand the feeling or even justify it, and he knew bringing it up would only aggravate his Apprentice further.

Deeply engulfed in his thoughts, he was startled when Reysuu coughed weakly and groggily opened her eyes to look at him. His posture didn't change even in his surprise, and he stared down at her, arms crossed, face stern.

"Heard what you said..." she murmured, her words barely audible over the rasping wheeze of her damaged voice. Obi-Wan fidgeted uncomfortably. Though he was resolute concerning what he had said to Anakin, he was not sure what to say to the person he had condemned moments before for merely being saved from death.

"You were right-" she coughed, a bit of blood staining her lip. "I should have died... should have died there."   She squeezed her eyes shut and hissed as she turned her head a few millimeters to look him in the eyes. Astounded by her reaction, he leaned over her a bit more and bent his neck to get a better view of her expression. They looked at each other for a while, a silent communion of very little except a shred of mutual understanding. Finally she spoke again, even more weakly than before.

"Should have died there... no place for me now." She coughed again, more blood rattling through her teeth. "What am I supposed to do?" She smiled cruelly, looking deranged. She made a sound somewhere between a cough, a laugh and a sob and nearly seemed to choke on her own blood, but after a moment she relaxed and slumped into the mattress. Once more she glanced up at him and muttered softly, "sorry... wish you'd never met me..."

He wasn't sure if it was a personal statement or a question for him, but he was saved the awkwardness of replying when she appeared to lapse back into unconsciousness again. Obi-Wan turned away from her, the anxious feeling in his gut having now doubled.

------

The girl was off him faster than you could say, 'this ship's quick, slick,' and in an instant she was crouched defensively and holding a jagged knife in her hand. Where the knife had come from was an utter mystery to Obi-Wan, but he was glad she'd mysteriously conjured it because two twi'lek girls and a unpleasant assortment of gammoreans and helmeted henchmen were lurking in the doorway.

The posse shifted and pushed forward to figures, which the twi'leks and their companions held fast. Obi-Wan sighed inaudibly when he saw that it was without a doubt Anakin and Padme in disguise.

Luckily, Obi-Wan understood enough basic Huttese to understand what was was being said, and the rest he was able to gather by sensing the rather spirited emotions flying about the room.

"These two are looking for Tarlan Voss!" Hissed one of the identical twi'leks.

"Never heard of him." said Reysuu poisonously.

"I think you have," said the other, and she threw an assortment of stolen identification cards at Reysuu. She cautiously gathered them up and looked at Voss' picture. A flash of recognition flit across her face, quickly suppressed.

"I've never seen this man before. Whoever these idiots are, its got nothing to do with me. Get out of my chambers, NOW." She flashed the knife dangerously, whizzing it past the twi'lek's dainty ankles.

"Who is that?" asked one of the girls menacingly, pointing at Obi-Wan. Anakin, Padme and Obi-Wan were all trying very hard not to look at one another and still try to communicate some sort of plan of escape.

"Don't be thick, you know perfectly well. Now get out."

"But we have just checked with Lord Mondula," bit one.

"he says that he has sent no one to your chambers. He has arranged no meeting for you today." jeered the other.

This news clearly came as a shock to Reysuu, because she dropped her guard for the briefest second. But even that was enough time for the twi'leks to seize her and bind her with manacles. One of them hit her squarely in the jaw and the other kneed her in the back; and she collapsed on the floor, her breath stolen away. When she tried to stand again, grimacing with unrestrained anger, one of the henchmen in the doorway extracted a small remote and clicked a button which caused her slave collar to crackle and fizz with energy. She sunk to the floor, gritting her teeth; unable to scream out.

One of the twi'lek's grabbed Reysuu's hair and yanked back her head. The collar fizzled for a few seconds more and then relented. Though Reysuu made no audible sound, she swallowed thickly and a tear trickled unbidden from her blazingly angry eyes.

The other twi'lek began tearing through the chamber in search of something. It was not long until she found what she was looking for - credits. All sorts of credits from all sorts of systems, hidden amongst the cushions and rugs. Reysuu's eyes widened in shock, her mouth going slack for a moment before tightening into a ferocious scowl.   The twi'lek gripping her hair tore her head back and hissed, "what is the meaning of this, Reysuu?"

Reysuu tried to throw the twi'lek off - and actually managed to flip the yellow-skinned slave to the floor and nearly kick her in the face - but the collar was activated again and Reysuu fell to the floor in throws of agony. The twi'lek with the credits threw them in her face and wrenched her to her feet again before shoving her to the gamorreans.

With Reysuu successfully apprehended, the twi'leks turned on Obi-Wan. Since he could do nothing that wouldn't seriously expose himself and compromise the Queen's safety, Obi-Wan remained calm and submissive while they searched he robes. As expected, they took his lightsaber and some of the more useless things on his utility belt. But inexplicably, they found plastic credits in his robes - credits that he himself had never put there.

Knowing now that the Sith had sprung her trap without even being present, Obi-Wan grit his teeth and endured as a pair of Mondula's grotty henchmen took hold of him and hauled him to his feet. The time for action would come later; probably in the very arena that had been the backdrop for the Sith's skillful distraction and baiting. All together, the pitiful band was hauled away, presumably to face the jaws of several ravenous and agitated beasts.

-----

"How closely have you studied the prophecy of the Two Suns?" Windu considered Obi-Wan through his steepled fingers, his face neutral.

Obi-Wan was silent for a moment, surprised by the question. "It speaks of the struggle between Light and Dark, and of the One who will bring balance to the Force."

"More than one interpretation, there may be," murmured Yoda softly.

The chamber was silent for a moment. Even the other Council members seemed surprised by this statment. Obi-Wan spoke slowly, in doubt.

"There are others?"

Depa Billaba offered an explanation, remaining charicteristically wise and withdrawn.

"The prophecy has long been in question. Though wise and far-seeing, Master Ru'matii was also cryptic and vague. Through the millenia the Council has never settled on one absolute interpretation. But the majority have always believed that the two suns referred to a pair of Sith; Master and Apprentice, and that the chosen one would be a lone Jedi, selected to oppose them." she paused and considered the Jedi Masters surrounding her before continuing. "But there are those who believe that the prophecy foretells the fall of the Jedi Order and of the destruction of peace in the galaxy. In this interpretation, the suns are not believed to be Sith warriors, but something else."

"What then?"

Billaba shook her head and Windu continued in her place.

"It has been impossible to guess until now. When young Anakin Skywalker was brought before us we naturally assumed he was the chosen One spoken of in the prophecy. He displayed an unusual affinity to the Force, and a potential for greatness which the Council has not encountered for several thousand years. But now you bring before us this girl. We are sure you have noticed -"

Taken aback, Obi-Wan interrupted, "Forgive me Master Windu, but I am not sure I know what you mean. She is certainly Sensitive, but beyond that..."

Ki-Adi-Mundi spoke compassionately, his soft voice making Obi-Wan turn his head.

"We understand that you may be denying your true feelings because it would put Anakin in an even more precarious position. But you know as well as - if not far better than the Council - that this girl is equal to your Apprentice in nearly every way. She shows enormous potential and her connection to the Force is matched only by Skywalker himself."

Insulted, Obi-Wan quickly said, "If you think this is a matter of jealousy, Coucil -"

Mundi held up a placating hand.

"No, assuredly not. It is a matter of trepidation. For all of us. If this girl does indeed prove to be Anakin's equal, then we have been mistaken in our decision to train him as the Chosen One."

Obi-Wan found himself at a painful loss for words, but when none of the Council members continued, he forced himself to ask,

"You think they are the twin suns spoken of in the prophecy? Anakin and this stranger?"

Practical and informative, Windu declared,

"We will need to do a wide array of tests, including extensive genetic screenings."

"Genetic screenings? What would be the point, MasterWindu? The chances of them being related, even distantly, is preposterously unlikely." Obi-Wan tried to sound calm and neutral, but he knew most of his words were coming out more and more skeptically.

"Actually, Obi-Wan, it is not unlikely at all. Master Gallia has some information which you might fight compelling." Windu nodded towards Gallia, who removed from her robes a holopad. She fiddled with it for a moment and handed it to Obi-Wan.

"Anakin's biological mother was sold to Tatooine's Gardulla the Hutt right around the time of his birth.   She was bartered by a figure you are unfortunately now quite familiar with; her previous owner, Mondula."

Obi-Wan stared at the file in his hands, which confirmed everything Gallia had just said with numerous transaction records and bartering slips.

"H-How do you know this?" he sputtered carelessly. "Why?"

Gallia did not seem surprised by Obi-Wan's bewilderment, and explained calmly,

"The Council has kept records of Skywalker's origins - hoping to find his father and lineage. Though we have traced Shmi Skywalker back several generations, there is absolutely no record, genetic or otherwise, of a father."

"And yet you think there is sufficient evidence to assume that this complete stranger is his sister?"

"As you can see, the Council's records do not indicate the Shmi was ever the mother of any child - it is our belief that her pregnancy was neglected in the documents in order to make her seem more valuable. But our genetic evidence leaves no doubt that she is Skywalker's biological parent. Pregnant Huttese dancing girls are usually murdered, but it is likely that the female child was bartered for Shmi's release. If you look there, you can also see that we have found evidence of a fantastic sum of money which was exchanged underhandedly. Who this mysterious benefactor was it is impossible to say, but without a doubt it is because of that money that Shmi and her children survived."

"Forgive my directness, but you expect me to look at few shady Huttese documents and suddenly believe that my Apprentice has a long-lost sister? He has never once mentioned a lost sibling, and I can think of no reason he would have witheld such critical information from me."

"Nor do we believe he has been dishonest." ammended Windu. "It is likely that Anakin never knew of his sister; at the moment of her birth she was probably surrendered to the Hutts and never heard from again. As we all have seen they clearly have no memory of one another." He looked at Obi-Wan squarely. "But will you try to deny the obvious bond between them? Even they are aware of it - so they spoke to us."

"I do not deny - but I cannot... it is not..." Obi-Wan had no words. "I need time to consider this revelation."

"Of course. But in the meantime you must not speak of this to Skywalker."

Angrily Obi-Wan lashed, "Is it not his right to know?" shocked by his outburst he quickly added, "forgive me, Council. But would it not be more... moral... to give Anakin this information?"

"And what of the girl? Are you so anxious to reveal the truth to her?"

Obi-Wan sighed, defeated.

"You must be patient, Obi-Wan. The Council will reveal the truth to your Apprentice at the proper time. For now, continue teaching and guiding him as if nothing has changed. We will decide the matter of his expulsion after the tests have been completed."

"And what of the girl? What do I do about her?"

"Queen Amidala has conferred with me personally. She expressed a desire to take the girl for a guardian. For now this will do, but we will not let her far from the Council's watch - her fate is undetermined."

Obi-Wan nodded curtly and was dismissed by the Council. He walked from the chamber with uniquely disturbed thoughts.

-----

Day 1

2007-11-02T05:25:20Z

"Anakin! Here is our chance!" The arena had broken into a tumultuous wreck. The enraged beasts careened through the spectators, bodies flying like sand and dust beneath their monstrous, flailing limbs. Mondula was paying them no attention; his eyes preoccupied with something on the area floor, but his bounty hunters were busy scrambling away from the panicking crowd and rabid creatures.

Obi-Wan grabbed Padme's trembling hand and hoisted her up.

"Anakin, we must flee, NOW!" Obi-Wan raked the surging crowd with his gaze, but he could not find his apprentice amidst the fray, though he could sense that Anakin was not far. Suddenly, Padme released a shuddering breath and whispered in terror, "oh no!"

A hulking, elephantine creature lumbered into a corner, struck down by a group of rowdy onlookers. As it stumbled out of view, Anakin was revealed once more. His back was turned from them, and his gaze was focused on the same spot as the hulking Mondula above and now also of Padme: the writhing body of the slave girl, Reysuu. Her hands clawed at her throat where her collar encircled her neck and she gasped for air, her heels digging pitifully into the dusty ground in her fruitless attempt to hold on to her life.

Though it struck his heart cold, Obi-Wan knew that they had no choice. To intervene would be to commit suicide, not only for themselves but for the fragile Republic. With Adi Gallia's warning ringing like a death knell in his brain, Obi-Wan shouted,

"Anakin, for the sake of the Republic, we cannot intervene! We must go NOW!" Anakin glanced over his shoulder, a momentary and fleeting glance not at his master but at Padme, who was clutching Obi-Wan's sleeve. She turned from Anakin's gaze, siding with Obi-Wan, knowing in her heart that the life of one slave was not worth crumbling a fragile alliance. When he saw that neither of them would come to the girl's aid, Anakin turned away and stared at her convulsing form. After a brief second of hesitation, he ignited his lightsaber and ran towards her.

"NO! Anakin you CAN'T!" Obi-Wan jumped down and charged after his apprentice. Mondula was already in a fit of rage, motioning for all of his guards, lackeys and head hunters to converge on Anakin and tear him to pieces. Anakin grabbed Reysuu and tried to wrench the collar from her neck, but after a few seconds his hands started to sizzle and burn - the terrible stench of burning flesh seeping through the already putrid stadium air. Crying out wildly, he tried to carefully cut through the collar with his lightsaber, but her time was running short and he was unable to do the thing steadily. He gave up on that idea and made a pained, fearful noise - unable to do anything but watch her as she struggled.

Obi-Wan reached him then, and he put a firm hand on Anakin's shoulder, dragging him up roughly.

"There is nothing you can do for her! And now you have foolishly revealed us all!" Obi-Wan pointed at Mondula, who was spitting and frothing with rage. "We need to fly, NOW, or the Hutt will have us all on platters!" Anakin's eyes followed Obi-Wan's arm and he stared at the raving Hutt for a moment. Suddenly, Anakin sprinted forwards, wound up his arm, and flung his ignited lightsaber at Mondula. Horrified and agast, Obi-Wan was unable to stop him, even though he toppled Anakin to the ground. Still controlling his blade through the force, Anakin wrenched his lighsaber through the Hutt's blubbery neck before calling the weapon back to his hand. Like a slab of melting butter, Mondula slid in two. The Hutt's eyes were still rolling as the head fell to the ground with a horrifying splatter - the freshly exposed innards steaming in the shade of the observation lounge.

Mondula's lackeys fell back, now unsure what to do without the promise of a good payoff for facing a Jedi.

Reysuu's collar flashed and smoked, emitted an ominous screech and then she slumped to the ground, motionless. Anakin threw Obi-Wan from his back and scrambled towards the slave, once again gripping her collar with his hands and wrenching it apart. Obi-Wan watched, his heart alive with astonishment and fear as Anakin exerted all of his strength upon the collar. Arms straining and his teeth gnashing, he groaned with effort and this time, the collar gave way, tearing in half at the welded seam, spewing wires and acrid smoke.

With half a voice, Obi-Wan said, "She's dead, Anakin. Do you see now? Does this satisfy your reckless bloodlust?"

Anakin threw the collar across the arena with a terrifyingly animal scream.

"SHE'S NOT DEAD!" He tore off a piece of his shirt and quickly wound it around her oozing, sizzling throat, and then gathered her in his arms - not an easy feat considering her height and musculature - but Anakin cradled her like a child, with all the gentleness of a doting parent carrying an infant to bed. He stood, heading towards Padme who was huddled in the shadows, her face streaked with shamed tears.

Obi-Wan glanced around the arena - the vestiges of damage still hung in the air, cries of beasts and sentient beings echoing in the distance. Mondula's men balked under he gaze; some of them turned tail and fled. No one stood to oppose him, and he simply followed Anakin from the arena, leaving a ruin in their wake.

-----

Obi-Wan leaned against the entryway of the sickbay and watched his Padawan with a frustrated gaze. Anakin was bent over the half-conscious slave girl, dabbing her throat with salve and cleaning her putrid, oozing wounds. Clearly in agony, she could do little more than clutch Anakin's knee with white knuckled fingers. His face was focused and intense, flushed with anger. Every so often he would noticeably flinch - his fingers were covered in shining crimson burns and seeping blisters.

Obi-Wan watched them curiously. Anakin's wounded fingers dabbed at her ravaged neck; almost as if they shared the same wound; and Obi-Wan's chest constricted with anxiety. Anakin gingerly addressed a particularly raw section of her wounds, and she moaned incomprehensibly in pain. For a moment she met Anakin's gaze, and Obi-Wan watched as they seemed to exchange some sort of subliminal empathy that he could not comprehend.   Then her head fell back and she fainted.   Anakin dressed her wounds as carefully as he could and finally stood to address his Master.

"Is there something you wish to say to me, Master?" Anakin did not look up, instead he stared at the wall above Reysuu's bunk.

Obi-Wan's left eyebrow shot up and he readjusted himself in the doorway. "There are a great deal of things I wish to say to you Anakin, but none of it will reach your stubborn ears."

Anakin's jaw worked silently, he glanced ad Obi-Wan and looked away again, glanced back, turned away. Finally, he moved for the door and knocked past Obi-Wan, closing the sickbay door behind them.   He faced Obi-Wan but still refused to look at him squarely, his eyes darting angrily over every surface of the corridor.

"What was I supposed to do?" He hissed, voice seething with frustration.

"You were supposed to listen to me. You were supposed to place the needs of a million free citizens of the Republic above the life of a single slave!" He tried to keep his voice even and controlled, but Obi-Wan knew that his frustration was seeping through.

Anakin met his eyes for a moment, his face blazing with emotion. "You wanted me to let her die!"

"Anakin, there are bigger things for us to look after! Have you already forgotten the Sith? Has it already slipped your mind that Sabe died mere hours ago and that the Queen's life is in immediate danger? Or perhaps you have failed to recall that your actions have shattered a fragile diplomatic truce and may have just singlehandedly toppled the Republic! I see... now I can easily understand how the suffering of one single slave could have made you utterly loose your senses!"

"That's how you feel about slaves? Had Qui-Gon lost his senses when he rescued me from slavery?"

They both knew that Anakin had struck a nerve, and they stared at one another, unsure of how to proceed.

"Those circumstances were vastly different. Don't hasten to draw faulty conclusions. Not all slaves can be freed, not every life can be spared." Obi-Wan sighed and leaned against the corridor wall, putting a balled fist to his creased forehead. "I thought you understood this... the Jedi live a life of sacrifice, compromise and diplomacy. We are not driven by uncontrollable empathy!"

"But she was suffering! Dying before our eyes! Is a Jedi supposed to stand by and let the innocent suffer?"

Obi-Wan put a hand on Anakin's shoulder half-heartedly, and said in a low, sad voice,

"People suffer and die every second of every day, Anakin. We cannot sidestep the Order and our responsibilities to the Republic in order to shirk death and pain. You must understand that." After a moment of reflection he added, "and do not assume that she is an innocent victim. We have no idea what sort of creature she is."

"She's not a creature, she's a human being. And slave or not, a life is worth something."

Seeing that he was going to get nowhere, Obi-Wan relented for the moment, cosigning himself to deal with his Apprentice when he was in a more reasonable state. "We will discuss this later, Anakin. For now, please clear your mind of this and get some rest." In his mind he added, 'you'll need it to explain this to the council... we both will.'

Though he looked like he wanted to say a great deal more, Anakin could not seem to find the appropriate words and so he also relented; turning away and heading down the corridor towards the cockpit. Obi-Wan could hear the faint voice of Padme and hoped that the Queen would avoid the topic of their new passenger, for the sake of everyone onboard.

Obi-Wan leaned further into the curving corridor wall, pressing his fist firmly to his brow as if in an effort to push away his thoughts; his dark, anxious thoughts. He could not avoid the feeling that something was going wrong - something beyond the obvious explosion of failure of the anihillated treaty. He knew that the Sith was involved in this entire mishap - knew that she had intended for Anakin to go berserk and sever the truce, perhaps she knew his apathy could be exploited; a thought that gave Obi-Wan no comfort. But there was something else; he knew that the Sith witch and the slave girl were connected, that Reysuu had also been part of this awful set up. Obi-Wan only wished he could foresee whatever consequences were hurtling their way. No doubt there would be a lot of clean up negotiations about the damned treaty, but beyond that everything was quite hazy and decidedly grim looking.

After a moment's consideration, Obi-Wan opened the sick-bay portal and slowly stepped toward the still-unconscious Reysuu. As he considered her, it struck him how familiar she seemed, and likewise how dangerous. A very instinctual sort of feeling was urging him not to let Anakin get to close to her, to keep the two of them at a distance from one another. He could not really understand the feeling or even justify it, and he knew bringing it up would only aggravate his Apprentice further.

Deeply engulfed in his thoughts, he was startled when Reysuu coughed weakly and groggily opened her eyes to look at him. His posture didn't change even in his surprise, and he stared down at her, arms crossed, face stern.

"Heard what you said..." she murmured, her words barely audible over the rasping wheeze of her damaged voice. Obi-Wan fidgeted uncomfortably. Though he was resolute concerning what he had said to Anakin, he was not sure what to say to the person he had condemned moments before for merely being saved from death.

"You were right-" she coughed, a bit of blood staining her lip. "I should have died... should have died there."   She squeezed her eyes shut and hissed as she turned her head a few millimeters to look him in the eyes. Astounded by her reaction, he leaned over her a bit more and bent his neck to get a better view of her expression. They looked at each other for a while, a silent communion of very little except a shred of mutual understanding. Finally she spoke again, even more weakly than before.

"Should have died there... no place for me now." She coughed again, more blood rattling through her teeth. "What am I supposed to do?" She smiled cruelly, looking deranged. She made a sound somewhere between a cough, a laugh and a sob and nearly seemed to choke on her own blood, but after a moment she relaxed and slumped into the mattress. Once more she glanced up at him and muttered softly, "sorry... wish you'd never met me..."

He wasn't sure if it was a personal statement or a question for him, but he was saved the awkwardness of replying when she appeared to lapse back into unconsciousness again. Obi-Wan turned away from her, the anxious feeling in his gut having now doubled.

Chapter: Three

2007-04-22T06:23:21Z

Title: Star Wars Episode II: Rise of the Twin Suns (3/?)

Author: Opal Lynn (opal . lynn (at) gmail . com) For more updates, spoilers and images from the story, please visit tsrii . livejournal . com

Rating: PG-13

Characters/Pairings: Anakin/Padmé, Obi-Wan, Darth Nathema (OC), Reysuu (OC)

Category:AU, Action, General

Disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

This Chapter: A transmission from the Jedi Council leaves our heroes in shock, and a mission into the unknown Elysian Cluster turns out to be more trouble than expected.

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Light, inviting music and the din of conversation wafted through the musky air of a grand receiving chamber. Courtiers and bounty hunters mingled and laughed, gamblers wagered quietly in the wings, and servants scrambled to and fro, offering up delectable treats to the palace's many guests. In the corner, a band played lightheartedly and slave girls danced, their adornments jingling with the beat of the playful drums. In the center of the chamber, a vast Hutt languished and smiled, its enormous eyes surveying the room with pleasure as its thick arm coiled around the waist of a tall human slave. Smiling like a feral animal, she was relaxed into the fleshy abdomen of her keeper, and she ate hungrily from a dish filled with fruit.

Two identical golden-skinned twi-lek girls rushed gracefully into the chamber, hurrying to the throne of the massive Hutt and bowing at its feet.

"Mondula, we have grave news to report." Said one of them in quiet Huttese.

"We have found something of terrible importance." Said the other, just as quietly.

The slave girl on Mondula's lap narrowed her eyes and stared at the twins, her face stony. The Hutt lord beckoned the twi'leks forward, and each stood on either side of the behemoth. One at a time, they leaned toward their master and whispered, taking turns to tell their news. As they whispered, the Hutt's eyes widened and his gigantic pupils narrowed menacingly. The slave on his lap looked ever more sour, and she crossed her arms, no longer interested in the fruit.

In a voice as quiet as the sonorous Hutt could mange, he grumbled,

"Feed the corpse to the beasts before they return. If the police bother you again, dispose of them."

The twin slaves nodded and stepped down from the dais together, striding from the room in perfect syncopation.

Mondula's blubbery arm circled tighter around his human pet, and she hissed in discomfort, her face fiery.

"You defy me again, Reysuu. This does not please me." She winced again as he clamped down ever tighter. "For this discrepancy you will be punished most severely. You shall face the arena every day..." Her eyes widened and she looked hopelessly about the room. "And you shall face not one battle, but two, until I am satisfied or until you are dead. Either way, you will earn back what unpleasantness you have cost me. Now go. The Mandalorian is waiting for you."

With a resonant grunt, Mondula tossed Reysuu away and she stumbled out of the chamber.

"Now!" Declared Mondula, wide face jubilant once more. "Who would like to wager on the fate of She Who Spits as she battles until death?"

The many gamblers in the chamber clattered to the fore and waved their money about, and Mondula reclined into the throne, clearly pleased.

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It would be difficult to say whose face appeared more astonished. Obi-Wan was uncharacteristically slack-jawed, while Anakin merely gaped; Padmé appeared quite floored, and Adi Gallia suddenly frowned, before her expresion morphed quickly into one of pure confusion.

"Your ship has just appeared in the Elysian cluster," she stated, obviously dumbfounded.

Regaining his composure, Obi-Wan quickly cut to the point.

"We are tracking a Sith spacecraft. The new Sith apprentice has emerged, it appears she is after the Queen."

"So you know." Gallia's voice was somber. "The Chancellor has informed us of his suspicions. None of the Council had detected a disturbance, so we were wary to jump to a definite conclusion. Unfortunately it seems that the Chancellor's suspicion is correct." She paused and thought for a moment, and when she spoke again, her voice was dark. "So it appears that the Elysian cluster is more dangerous than we originally thought."

Padmé seemed to mumble something under her breath and she scowled.

"As I said before, Tarlan Voss dispatched a message to the Council two days ago. He expressed his intent to bring a Potential before the Council. We believe he is attempting to undo past deeds by bribing us with a newcomer. But regardless of Voss' intentions, it is critical that the Potential not be removed from Elysian space." Gallia paused for emphasis. "This cluster is not allied with the Republic, and for millennia it has been governed by the Hutts, along with an army of ruthless gangsters.

"We have a precarious agreement with the cluster which declares that no sentient being may be removed from the cluster, and absolutely no Republic Jedi are allowed admittance without specific permission. If Tarlan is discovered, he will be assassinated on sight, and if he is found smuggling a Potential... things could get extremely unpleasant."

"Bureaucratically unpleasant, or dismemberingly unpleasant?" asked Anakin, who immediately balked when Obi-Wan shot him a glare.

Gallia seemed unfazed.

"Unpleasant in every sense. It is an inconvenient burden when the Republic can endure no more strain - we are having a hard enough time dealing with the clone debate - this would be a very troublesome time for an entire system to revolt outright against the Republic. We need you to find Tarlan and stop him. His ship is still on the cluster's primary planet, so there is still time to undo the damage. Do not reveal yourselves to anyone, and do not speak of the Republic. We require a silent operation." Gallia sighed with frustration.

"The sudden appearance of the Sith is most unfortunate. We cannot risk deploying another Jedi ship into enemy space, so you will have to track her yourselves. But I warn you - this complication with Tarlan is no easy matter. Do not disregard it because of a shadowy threat. The Hutt's have far-reaching friends, and we cannot risk a war." Gallia bowed her head and sharply declared, "May the Force guide you well," before the hologram disappeared and the cockpit was silent save for the mechanical sounds of the ship's computer receiving Gallia's profile of the mission.

Padmé was the first to speak.

"We will need to split up. One of us must track the Sith, one of us most track down Tarlan, and one of us..."

Obi-Wan spun around slowly to face the queen. "We?" He repeated slowly. "Us?"

Anakin could see where his Master was going with this, and he quickly interjected.

"Master, we can't just leave her alone to wait for us. The Sith is after her. It would be reckless to simply abandon her on a hostile world."

"No, it would be reckless to parade her around before a cotillion of gangsters and Huttese warlords who would like to see each of us very painfully dead."

"Then what do you propose we do?" Anakin asked unpleasantly.

Padmé growled and unfastened her harness, standing up and angrily throwing her arms over her chest. "I propose you stop talking about me as if I'm not present and as me what I would like to do, since apparently I am causing such a problem. As the senior delegate of democratic world, I would think that I could be of use for such a clearly political matter, but apparently I am too much of a burden to even be allowed off the ship!"

Anakin gaped. He had never heard Padmé use the word "I" so many times in his life, and he had certainly never seen her so enraged. Obi-Wan raised a stony eyebrow and leaned back in his chair, but said nothing.

"We are all going to find something shabby to wear, and then Anakin and I will go in search of Tarlan while you, Master Jedi," Padmé looked at Obi-Wan as if she doubted he was a Master of anything, "will go in search of the Sith."

With that, Padmé turned on her heel and strode to the rear of the ship, and she could be heard rummaging about the closets looking for some sort of disguise. Anakin turned to Obi-Wan.

"It's as good a plan as any, Master. And it's unfair to ask her to do anything else."

With a tired sort of admonition, Obi-Wan said, "The Queen is upset and distraught, she wants to find her friend's killer, but this Tarlan Voss has put a rather sizable roadblock in her way. We would be unwise to encourage any wrathful behavior on her part, and it would be extremely foolish of us to allow a prominent Republic delegate to be exposed to this system." When Anakin looked ready to interrupt, Obi-Wan harshly added, "Especially when her life as already been threatened once today."

"So then what options do we have? She can't just stay here. The ship could be boarded, or raided, or destroyed..."

"She will not stay here. And neither will you. I will take care of this Voss character, and I want you to escort the Queen back to Coruscant. In a few days time, return for me in an unregistered fighter - "

"But what about the Sith?"

"We will see about the Sith. But I am sure that the further away the Queen is from this system, the safer she will be."

Anakin wanted to object, but Padmé had returned to the cockpit, sporting a vastly over-sized robe. Her face was completely obscured by the massive hood, and Anakin could not shake the ridiculous impression that the Queen had morphed into a five foot jawa. However, he was glad that her face was masked, because when Obi-Wan told her of his plan, the low sound she made suggested that her expression would have been an utter terror to behold.

Anakin spun around quickly in his chair and fiddled with the ship's controls, bringing the Halcyon closer to the system's main planet, where the enemy ship had clearly landed. He hoped that piloting the ship would be enough of an excuse for him not to get involved in the argument that was about to nastily unfold.

Padmé threw back her hood and stared at Obi-Wan with astonishment, her face almost disgusted.

"With all due respect Master Kenobi I am not some youngling you can order around! Nor am I some half-wit shut-in politician who cannot handle themselves in a fight. I happen to be tagging along on this little misadventure by choice, and you are not my bodyguard nor my superior, so if you think you can just casually decide what is best for me you are seriously mistaken.

"If you are truly so worried about me being captured by some back-world pirate, then perhaps it would be good of you to remember that when we picked up your Padawan some ten years ago on a planet much like this, it was I, not you, who was out in the sand playing with the baddies. I've evaded the Hutts before, and they have no interest in me aside from using me as ransom bait. As Jedi, you two are the ones who will draw truly unwanted attention."

Anakin sat very still, his eyes very wide. He tried not to move, tried not to breathe, hoping that the Queen's wrath would pass over him. Mercifully, she made no attempt to attack him, and the cockpit became breathlessly silent as Obi-Wan and Padmé stared each other down.

Finally, with a very hefty sigh, Obi-Wan relented.

"FINE! You and Anakin will search for Tarlan Voss and find a diplomatic solution to this mess, and I will pursue the Sith woman."

"That will be excellent." Declared Padmé, as casually as if she were ordering breakfast. Then, under the pretense of finding more disguises, she vanished once more to the back of the ship.

Obi-Wan turned toward Anakin very slowly, looking tense.

"Apparently I was mistaken," he drawled, a bit of dry sarcasm tinting his voice. "It would be most unfortunate for some lawless scoundrel to come across the Queen." He glanced at Anakin, a sparkle in his eye. "Unfortunate forthem."

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Some time later, after Anakin had circled the planet a few times and found a suitably remote hiding place within an immense, teeming forest, the Halcyon's small crew prepared to go their separate ways. Padmé had outfitted Anakin with a set of dark, ominous robes - where she had found these Obi-Wan had little idea - and the two of them had decided to investigate Tarlan Voss under the guise of a pair of bounty hunters looking to collect the fallen Jedi's head. Obi-Wan opted against any strange attire; he was going to need comfort and reliability over stealth in order to catch the Sith; and besides, he was rather convinced that he wouldn't be able to pull of a ludicrous bounty hunter costume without looking like a fool.

The group moved towards the hatch and Obi-Wan pressed the release. All at once, a rush of sweaty, fragrant air seeped into through the opening, and all three of them staggered as it washed over them in a thick, hot wave.

"I think we might be overdressed." chirped Anakin as he fanned himself with the neck of his robe.

Obi-Wan allowed himself to adjust for a moment and decided to weather the climate in his Jedi Robes. He had no idea what the natives of this planet looked for in a Jedi, but a large, hooded cloak could usually pass unnoticed in a crowd of vermin. Slowly, he stepped from the Halcyon, his skin already sticky and warm. An unpleasant feeling spread through his stomach. This would not be an easy trek. He turned back to Anakin and Padmé, who were adjusting their disguises to be more comfortable in the raging heat.

"Remember, contact me when you have something. And whatever happens, do not reveal Tarlan's intentions nor your identities. No one must know of the Jedi's presence here."

Anakin adjusted his shirt and nodded.

"Be careful, Master."

"May the Force be with you both," replied Obi-Wan, looking at Padmé in hopes that she would take his words to heart. The Queen met his eyes for a moment before relenting and inclining her head towards him; their quarrel over.

With a final breath of the cool cabin air, Obi-Wan stepped from the ship. The air was thick; almost liquid, and Obi-Wan had to make a very conscious and desperate attempt to move as little as possible in order to keep from overheating. The verdant forest floor was green as far as the eye could see. Between the monsterous trees, plush moss covered every spare inch of ground that was not consumed by ferns and exotic flowers which let out strong, suffocating perfumes that were almost visible in their potency.

He set off on the bearing they had calculated from the Sith's last known position, but before the Halcyon was even out of sight, Obi-Wan need to rest. He leaned against the nearest tree and tried to center himself. His only real option was to follow his gut and seek the Sith through the Force, which would prove difficult on such a teeming planet. He reached out slowly and calmly with his mind, careful not to overexert himself or use too much strain; he wasn't sure how much energy he would need for whatever lay between him and his goal.

Sorting though the crushing mass of life was confusing, like trying to place the melody of a song by the feel of a vibration. The heat pressed in on all sides like a deafaning blanket of water, but Obi-Wan simply inched nearer to the tree, attempting to use it's lifeforce as a grounding spot, attempting to separate himself from the dampness, from the claustrophobic noise of the Living Force crowding in from all directions.

At last he found something, a dark whisper some distance away. It was as if she was calling to him, luring him closer, egging him on. His better judgement warned him that it was a trap, but his sense of duty reminded him that unfortunately, he had no other choice but to follow her lead.

He just hoped that by the time he reached her hideaway, he hadn't collapsed from heat stroke.

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After tearing off a few sleeves, discarding a few cloaks, and opting for as few layers as possible, Anakin and Padmé felt a bit more comfortable in the oppressive heat. Padmé used a strip of torn cloth to disguise her stately hair, and then she stepped back to review the credibility of their disguises. After a moment, she frowned and crossed her arms.

"No, no. You're not intimidating enough. No one will believe you're a head hunter."

Anakin scoffed and theatrically flexed his bicep, snarling. Padmé held back a laugh and rolled her eyes as Anakin attempted to strike other threatening poses.

"Don't you have any guns in here? Some ammunition belts we can string around you?"

"Not really." he clipped.

"Anything that just looks like a weapon? Something big, mean and tough?"

"N-yes!" Anakin suddenly thought of something. He rushed through the maintenance room to his cabinet of tools and equipment. He rummaged around for a moment before emerging with a belt covered in chains of cogs and rows of small pistons, which he used to repair the ship's more internal, rudimentary mechanisms. He tossed this over his shoulder and grabbed a few other things: his scope goggles and fume mask, and for Padmé, a pair of smallish, steel tipped gloves and a nasty-looking shield helmet. As a final touch, he strapped a few of his more insane-looking tools to his belt, hoping that they would be confused for strange torture implements or explosives.

Padmé tried on the gloves and slipped the scuffed and tarnished helmet over her head, lifting the visor and glaring at him.

"Am I scary?"

Anakin evaluated her for a minute. Even with the shield helmet on, her soft features and delicate posture gave her away. He looked at her eyes - warm, brown, and glaring humorously at him - and his stomach did an unusual flip. Startled, He shook his head.

"Keep the visor down. Your eyes are too beautiful for a bounty hunter."

In his head, it had sounded observational, but when he blurted it out, something in his voice gave him away. His stomach flipped over again. Padmé made a soft noise from inside the helmet and Anakin blushed and turned away quickly. He silently chided himself for saying such an awkward thing to Queen Amidala. Of course Padmé was beautiful - any living creature would be blind not to notice and admire - but Anakin didn't usually think that way about his friend. As a Jedi, he admired and cherished her beauty, but never desired it for himself. But there was just something about seeing Padmé dressed in a strange, sinister costume, glaring at him from beneath a visor, that made her seem like someone else - someone outside the worlds that governed them both - someone who's eyes suddenly seemed much too lovely for a disguise.

Trying to break up the silence, Anakin clattered around the maintenance room and reached into a closet for the long, menacing staff which he used to scrape residue from the ship's underbelly. He handed this to Padmé, who thankfully had the visor down so that he didn't have to worry about meeting her eyes again. He snapped his domed black scope goggles over his eyes and strapped his fume mask over his nose and mouth. He switched on the breathing mechanism and the mask made a tinny, rhythmic sound as it puffed air in and out. As he strode forward, he knocked into something; the goggles made everything quite dark and blocky. He grunted.

"I can't see in these things!" This was doubly proven when he knocked into something else. This time it was Padmé, and she clutched his arms, her helmet knocking against his protruding mask. She was giggling.

"You sound ridiculous!"

"What?" He said, unable to register much more than the feeling of her delicate fingers resting on his bare arms.

She laughed harder.

"Your voice is so low! That mask is..."

But she never got around to explaining just what the mask was, because she started laughing too hard to speak. After a rather disarming fit of giggling, she said,

"And now I can't see either... the steam from outside is clouding up my helmet!"

Anakin noticed that his goggles were clouding as well, making his poor vision even worse. He reached up a hand and switched on the infrared and spacial visualisers, which made everything much clearer, if not a little digitized. He flipped open Padmé's visor and she gasped, stiffening. Her eyes were locked onto his face and her expression was shocked.

"What's wrong?" A horrible nervousness spread through him. Quickly, he lifted up the goggles and pulled down the mask, looking at her fully.

"I think you'll make a very convincing bounty hunter now..."

She released his arms and stepped away, striding out of the ship with unusual haste.

"C'mon Artoo, let's get this over with," Anakin mumbled, feeling terrible. Artoo bumped against his leg and made a gentle cooing noise, as if trying to convice Anakin that he wasn't so scary after all.

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The Sith was not far away now; her call was nearly overpowering. It drew Obi-Wan forward, toward a tremendous compound at the edge of a plunging gully. The compound's many buildings were so overgrown with moss and brightly colored creepers that they resembled enormous hills of earth than any sort of particular architecture, but Obi-Wan could still faintly recognize the squat, round shape of a Huttese palace predominating the forms. He could sense that the Sith's dark presence was within the towering walls, but he could see no way of getting inside. Though the palace was had more windows and balconies than a typical huttese dwelling - Obi-Wan assumed this was because of the sweltering heat - all of these openings were high above the solid wall that encased the perimeter. Scaling the wall was clearly impossible, even with the vines and vegetation to aid climbing, Obi-Wan knew that no Hutt was foolish enough to erect a wall without some sort of shielding mechanism.

Well, he couldn't just knock on the door.

Just as he was about to sit down and rest on a nearby cluster of boulders, a shifting in the earth caused him to jump back with alarm. He had been so thoughtlessly distracted by the Sith's resonating presence that he had failed to sense several people approaching. He looked around quickly, hoping that he would be able to hide himself behind something before he was spotted, but no one was in sight. Confused, Obi-Wan barely had time to register that the people were approaching from below, before the cluster of boulders he had been about to lean against trembled and shifted to reveal an earthen stairway from which several people were emerging.

His heart thudding, Obi-Wan plunged into an enormous rotting log nearby and tried to settle his breathing. A small group of men stepped from the hidden tunnel, their voices confused and worried.

"I thought Lt. Dunlock said there was a body down there..." grumbled one of the smaller men, his white cleansuit rustling as he helped another man from the stairway. "I can't believe we climbed these damn stairs for nothing."

"Yeah, well, sometimes the Hutts don't like us poking around in their business..." Said the man who had emerged first. His voice was gruff, but the other men continued to speculate despite his warning.

"I heard some whispers that the Jedi are involved in this..."

"Shutup, Millo," Said the gruff-voiced man.

Obi-Wan's guts did an unpleasant sort of flip flop.

"I heard that too," said the last man to emerge as he slid the fake boulders back into place. "At first they were saying one of them had killed this guy, but now they're saying its the other way around."

"No," said the small one, astonished.

"Oh yeah... it's a good thing the Hutt's are taking care of it themselves because you know we don't need them sweeping down on us like a plague..."

The rest of the conversation was lost to the din of birds and insects as the men walked into the forest. When he was sure they were beyond sight, Obi-Wan slowly emerged from the log and crept toward the boulders, his mood dim. Tarlan must have been even more foolish than they had all thought. Something about this entire situation was smelling more and more like a trap - Obi-wan knew better than to think that it was mere coincidence that the Sith had chosen this place as her hideaway. She knew something about all of this; and she had brought them all here for a reason. Obi-Wan even had a sneaking suspicion that Sabé's murder had been a horrible form of bait, meant to lure the Jedi here, for reasons yet unclear to him.

He pulled out his comlink and dialed it to Anakin's frequency.

"What is it, Master?" rang the comlink in after a few moments. Anakin's voice was laced with clear concern.

"I think Tarlan may already be dead."

There was a long pause as Anakin digested this.

"What do you mean?"

"I overheard a group of public officers discussing it at a Huttese Compound at the southern edge of the forest... they'll suspect any sort of Jedi retaliation, so stealth is of the utmost importance now. The Sith lead me straight here, she knows about all of this and I sense this is all an elaborate trap."

"Should we leave?" asked Anakin, his voice thin. "I don't want Padmé getting tangled up in this..." Anakin's line became fuzzy and Obi-Wan rolled his eyes as he heard some squabbling in the background. Padmé's voice rang through the comlink rather sternly.

"I think you know where I stand Obi-Wan," she said. "I would like to get to the bottom of this." Padmé's voice disappeared and Anakin returned and mumbled,

"She wants to get to the bottom of this... ow!"

"Fine. Then we will investigate. We will rendezvous within the Palace. If you are disguised well enough, you two can probably walk right in as long as you bring a gift of some sort. I will see you soon."

"I have a bad feeling about this," mused Anakin before the signal cut off.

Obi-Wan sheathed his comlink and groaned as he shoved the boulder off of the stairs. The way was unlit and dank, and as he looked down into the darkness below, he said grimly, "So do I."

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Timeline: II and III

2007-02-22T06:43:18Z

Warning: MAJOR spoilage. As in - here is the entire plot. ONLY view this if you are interested in critiquing the storyline and don't mind if secrets are revealed before you read the story.

Episode II: Rise of the Twin Suns (10 years post TPM)

I've split it up into a pretty little story arc.

Part One:

The new Sith Apprentice Darth Nathema is revealed when she fakes an assassination on Queen Amidala
Darth Nathema leads Ob-Wan, Anakin and Padme to the Elysian Cluster - a group of planets outside of Republican control that are goverened by the Hutts
While Padme and Anakin are investigating a murder, Obi-Wan is lured by Nathema into the palace of Mondula the Hutt, where he and the slave girl Reysuu are conned into a trap.
Because Obi-Wan senses that Reysuu is extremely Force sensitive (like Anakin), he decides to free her and help her escape the planet so that he may bring her before the council, despite a warning from Adi Gallia.
While he and Reysuu are being led to execution, Obi-Wan contacts Anakin and Padme and they come to the rescue.
The trap makes it appear as though Anakin murders Mondula in an attempt to overthrow the crime syndicate governing the planet, when in reality he is just trying to help Obi-Wan escape.
Due to the delicate agreement between the Elysian cluster and the Republic, the murder of Mondula causes the entire system to revolt against Republican rule and the Order, threataning war.
Palpatine smooths this over by pretending to side with the Cluster and vowing to defend their case in the Senate. He proposes replacing their slaves with clones, and allows Nathema to re-istablish rule in the name of the Republic, thus bringing a Jedi-hating system into the Senate to help back his transiton to Emperor.

Part Two:

Our escaped heroes travel to Coruscant, where Reysuu is brought before the council to be tested.
The Council practically rejects her outright simply because of her age but Obi-Wan insists that the Council reconsider, because her abilities are alarmingly developed, and without training she is succeptable to the Dark Side.
Suspicious of Obi-Wan's alarm, and detecting Reysuu's similarity to Anakin, Yoda and Mace perform a secret DNA test in which they establish that Reysuu is actually Anakin's twin sister. No explanation is provided at this point for how this could happen, and the two Jedi Masters hesitatingly tell Obi-Wan the news, which doesn't surprise him.
After heated deliberation, they tell Anakin and Reysuu of their blood relation to one another. This is met with much doubt on both sides. Anakin because he feels his mother would never have lied to him, and Reysuu because she has no memory of her family.
Obi-Wan, Mace and Yoda debate the Prophesy and reconsider it's meaning, but decide NOT to tell the twins of its implications - basically, that one of them will turn to the Dark Side.
Reysuu appears to show little interest in becoming a Jedi, and seems more interested in discovering her past and visiting her mother on Tattooine.
Reysuu goes AWOL with Padme, who brings her to Tattooine to reunite with her mother. Padme does this because she wants to try and free Shmi and reunite the Skywalker family, because she loves Anakin and has been with him through the loss of his mother.
On Tatooine, Reysuu learns that her true name is Adaleia Skywalker, and she learns the reason for her abandonment. She quickly bonds with her mother, but Padme and Adaleia re unable to free Shmi from her new owner (who is actually working for Sidious).
Filled with greif that her mother is still a slave, Adaleia returns to Coruscant and vows to become a Jedi.
Anakin is enraged that Ada went to Tattoine without him, feeling that she is stealing his mother's love away. It burns him that she saw his mother before he did, after so many years apart. He feels that Shmi is his mother, and doesn't want to share her with anyone. He is also furious with Padme and Ada for being unable to free his mother.
While Padme and Ada are on Tattooine, Elian and the Cluster are established in the Republic, and the first signs of dissent begin to spread in the Senate.
Palpatine also uses this time to begin getting into Anakin's head, since Anakin is still reeling from learing about his sister.
When Ada returns, she is accepted into the Order under the tutelage of Mace Windu.
Palpatine attempts to befriend Ada as he has Anakin, but she 'simply doesn't like him'.
Mace and Ada begin training, and they clash quite a bit. Mace firmly defends the Order's modern rules and restrictions, but Ada cannot fight her feelings of love for her mother and her desire to belong, rather than be a singular lonely Jedi. Her developing feelings for Obi-Wan also complicate her training.
Mace advises to take Anakin to Naboo for training to separate Anakin (and Obi-Wan) from Ada, who has interrupted Anakin's progress. However, Palpatine intervenes and stages Nathema on Coruscant so that Obi-Wan and Anakin are forced to remain.
Palpatine continues comparing Ada and Anakin, trying to decide which one to take for his next apprentice. Though Anakin shows more affinity to the Chancellor, Palpatine believes it will be easier to lure Ada to the Dark Side by manipulating her emotional nature.
Palpatine frees Shmi which delights Anakin but make's Ada suspicious, since he makes no further actions to free the rest of the slaves on Tatooine or integrate it with the Republic.
Palpatine plays dumb with Anakin and never reveals that he is a Sith or even that he is Force sensitive. He reaffirms Anakin's belief that he is the 'Chosen One', and plays to both twins' weaknesses when he points out the flaws in the Order's strictness. He encourages them to frequently communicate with their mother, which only creates more jealousy on Anakin's side. He also encourages them both to seek romance so that he can exploit their emotions later.
When he convinces Anakin of the Order's flaws, he is also able to convince him that the Dark Side is worth exploring, assirting that the Jedi Order is ignorant and closed-minded. When Palpatine sees that Adaleia doesn't buy into this, he stops trying to manipulate her and focuses all of his energy on Anakin.
He convinces Anakin that Adaleia is trying to steal his mother and his Master, and that she is interfering with his training. He encrouages Anakin's jealousy and confusion regarding his sister.
Palpatine sends Nathema to destroy Adaleia, but Ada manages to endure despite her limited training, and with the help of her Master, Nathema is defeated, and Mace and Ada finally form a true Master/Padawan bond.
While Palpatine has been manipulating Anakin, he has also been manipulating the Senate, and the debate over Clone rights has escalated to the fringe of war.
While Anakin and Ada were occupied with Palpatine, Obi-Wan and Padme have been involved with the Clone debate, particularily Padme, whose strong opposing stance has gained her many enemies. However, Obi-Wan and Padme have teamed with Bail Organa, and while Anakin neglects her, Padme begins to fall for Bail.

Part Three:

When Nathema is destroyed, Palpatine encourages Anakin to take her place as the new Sith. When Anakin says he doesn't know where the master is, Palpatine convinces him he needs no Master, and Anakin proptly goes through his Jedi trials so that he may be proclaimed a Knight.
Palpatine uses this to manipulate Anakin as well, declaring that Padme is betraying Anakin and convincing him that she is dangerously wrong in regards to Clone rights.
Naboo has come under attack and Padme returns to her homeworld in order to defend it against the anti-Clone systems.
Battle rages on Naboo, and Mace, Ada, Obi-Wan, Anakin and several prominent Jedi go to defend it and its cause. Clone armies join them defending Naboo.
The Naboo civilians are captured in huge numbers and sold as slaves to the Elysian Cluster, who now fully bolsters the Republic and pledges alligiance to Palpatine, who gave them millions of slaves in exchange for one stolen Jedi.
Palpatine confides in Anakin his desire to create an Empire to end 'all the fighting'. Anakin agrees to help him, and Palpatine orders him to destroy Naboo, to annihilate the clones and the center of the battle that has put so many innocent people into slavery.
Anakin destroys the planet, and stages his own death as the world collapses into itself.
Padme, Obi-Wan and Adaleia mourn the death of Anakin, and prepare for the beginning of the Clone War.

End of Episode II

Episode III: The Clone War

Part One:

Adaleia brings the news of Anakin's death to their mother and discovers that Shmi has married Cleed Lars. She meets Beru and Owen.
Anakin is terribly injured by his narrow escape from Naboo and is outfitted with clone parts and a breathing machine. He wants to free the slaves on Elian, but Palpatine convinces him the the Jedi are becoming too much of a threat to the Empire, and asks him to dispatch them first.

ASP (at some point):

Anakin remembers Padme's fear of the breathing mask and uses that to model his new suit after his "death". Padme recognizes him because of it.
Tusken Blood-Bond:
- Obi-Wan is faced to confront his feelings for Ada, which of course leads to one bitch of a fight. This is in the midst of the clone war while they are in hiding, (and is probably brought on because of the war - motivations etc) so he goes off to fight the good fight and she stays on Tatooine w/ the Skywalker clan.
- Eventually Obi-Wan ends up back on Tatooine facing off w/ Ada, either to reconcile or (more likely) to recruit her back for the war.
- Careless and quarreling, the two are picked up by Tusken Raiders, taken deep into the wastes and separated - Ada left to exposure and death by Krayt Dragon, Obi-Wan to be the victim of a 'bloodrite' for the High Urr'Ak's son (basically tortured for weeks until he dies).
- Ada manages to steal the decomposing head of a Krayt dragon w/ a pearl and takes it back to the camp. There, she and Obi-Wan are freed and honored, and unknowingly participate in the annual blood bonding ceremony - TADA marriage!

Notes: General Questions

2007-02-22T04:49:28Z

Just general questions, ponderings and rants, and a few ideas that actually pertain to the story. WARNING: major spoilers. Do NOT read if you want to be surprised as the story unfolds.

Ages of main chars?:

Anakin - 9/10
Amidala - 14
Obi-Wan - 18/20ish?

RotTS - 10yrs later...

Anakin - 20
Amidala - 24
Obi-Wan - 30

The Clone War - 10 yrs later...

Anakin - 30
Amidala - 34
Obi-Wan - 40

ANH - 20 yrs later

Anakin - 50
Amidala - ded.
Obi-Wan - 60 (wow he aged fast...ehe)
Twins - 18/20ish?

Anakin/Padme Development

When RotTS starts, 10 years have passed, and Anakin and Padme have grown close, but have not developed a relationship.
Padme has few friends within her royal circle, so she is fiercely dedicated to those she loves. I think this is well evidenced by the resolution she showed her people in Ep. I. She defends her homeland, people, and friends first and foremost, and refuses to play by anyone's rules when they get in the way.

I intend to exploit this characteristic to reverse Lucas' take on the romance. Rather than having Padme be the frigid, calm politician, (which is really only the Amidala facade.. I mean, c'mon! Look at how Padme acted during the trip to Tattooine in TPM, she was all "well, I don't approve," to Qui-Gon) I intend to make Padme the individual highly passionate and attatched.
Padme grows overly attatched to Anakin and falls in love with him. Anakin does have feelings for Amidala, but does not allow himself to develop them because of his dedication to his training.

This re-inforces MY opinion of why Anakin turned - because he was treated to a cold and unforgiving Jedi council that took away his humanity and gave him power. Obi-Wan and Ada eventually abandon the council (partically because it desintegrates - which also makes the Jedi easier to pick off) and fall in love, and when Anakin discovers this it drives him off the edge, since he was never able to express these supressed emotions himself.

This also reinforces Obi-Wan's guilt in the OT; he failed at training Anakin because the system that was in place to train him literally molded him into a monster.

THEY ARE NEVER MARRIED DAMMIT
I want to develop Bail Organa more... I mean, how unfair is it that we were totally cheated out of learning about Leia's surrogate father in the prequels?? Lame.
Padme and Bail are associates and friends, and after Anakin's 'Death', and the destruction of Naboo, Padme finds solace in Organa, and marries him.
When Padme learns Anakin isn't dead, she has a breif affair with him in which she tries unsuccesfully to return him to the light side. She is impregnated and gives birth to the twins. She is the ONLY one who knows of their parentage until Adaleia sees the babies for the first time, when it becomes clear that the twins must be separated to avoid detection, since Adaleia can sense the relation right away, and Anakin would be able to as well, if the twins were not separated and their force powers hidden.

This explains why Obi-Wan didn't just start training Luke right away, if he was there on Tatooine the whole time. If Luke had been a Jedi his whole life, his father would have detected him... after all, there were few Jedi left to detect.

Hiding on Tattooine

I'm playing with the idea of Obi-Wan and Ada hiding out on Tatooine, since they know that Anakin will never visit the planet because of his mother issues. They stay there for 10 years while Anakin hunts down and kills the Jedi, and they are active participants in the Clone War etc. Ada also wants to be close to her real family, and Obi-Wan, Ada and the Lars clan are all quite chummy.
Obi-Wan and Ada take Luke to Tatooine and have him live with Shmi and the Lars family. No, Shmi ISN'T dead. Obi and Ada watch from a distance, before Ada is killed, and then it's just Obi-Wan.
When Ada is killed, it drives a wedge between the family and Obi-Wan, because Owen always wanted the two of them to quit the war and settle into the family life, and when his dear relative was killed, he was understandably frustrated and had no one else to blame.

This explains the tension when Luke wants to leave, because Owen knows Luke's father was 'killed', and Luke's aunt was also lost to a war that seemed far away.

I think Shmi simply died of natural causes after both of her children died. She could have been weakening from her slave's life and simply passed on. Luke could even have known her, there's no reason to believe that he never knew his grandmother and grandfather.

Naboo and Anakin

Obi-Wan decides to do as much of Anakin's training on Naboo as possible. He felt it would be calming for his volatile and emotional nature. He also felt it would give him a sense of belonging and place - which he had a hard time parting with since he was 10 when he left his home and his mother.

Another factor that would have contributed to Anakin's fall was totally ignored by Lucas. In TPM, Anakin keeps saying how 'cold' he is, once he has left the warmth and comfort of his mother. To me, this is HUGE!! How could Lucas forget this forshadowing in his OWN movie??
I thought this was a lead-in to the flaws of the Council, how the Order has become too cold and unforgiving.
This unloving and sterile environment eventually makes Anakin into a hardened, dark person. Imagine being taken from your loving mother and then subjected to a staring contest with Yoda and Mace Windu. The TPM scenes in the Jedi temple are so chilling because you just wish someone would give Anakin a hug and say, "It'll be okay."
Why didn't Lucas develop this??? WHY???

Padme gives Anakin a royal-class starship (which was later stripped and re-outfitted to suit a Jedi's purposes) so that he would always have a sense of home and comfort when he was away. I have to name this damn thing. But I thought that the shiny chrome ship we see in TPM (The J-type 327) should have been the new 'Character' ship, like the Millenium Falcon or the Ebon Hawk. I don't know why George didn't do this either... goddammit.
A possible exchange regarding Anakin and Naboo:

Obi-Wan: "He needs a sense of place, Master. He had a home, a mother, things that most of us never had to part with. I feel that giving him a new place to call home will help ground him in his new life. I find he responds more positively to training and authority when he is in a familiar place."
Mace: "Just be watchful, Obi-Wan. Anakin is very fond of Naboo's young queen; it would not do for him to grow overly attatched to her, especially since she has her own role to fulfil as the leader of the Naboo.

Bye Bye Anakin (And Naboo)

I'm going to blow up Naboo. Yup. That's right. kaboom.
Anakin destroys it, and this is his final cementation into the Dark Side. He fakes his own death by pretending to be left behind on the planet when it goes nuclear.
When he blows up Naboo, he effectively kills the last bit of warmth and attatchment he had to his life, so Ada feels Anakin 'die', and they all mourn him, thinking he has truly passed away.
Only after this do Ada and Obi-Wan finally admit they love each other, and once the Jedi order starts to desintigrate and its members are assassinated, they flee to Tatooine to help fight the Clone Wars in secrecy.
After 10 years of hidng, somehow Anakin discovers Obi-Wan and Ada's romance (but not their hideaway), and it infuriates him enough that he sleeps with Padme and impregnates her, finally acting out his feelings of love for her (now long since eroded into fury). She still loves him enough to forgive him for his cruelty towards her, but she spends the rest of her life with a broken heart when he won't come back to the Light with her, and she dies young. (but not THAT young, dammit)

OOOH! Actually I have a really good idea for a scene now, in which Obi-Wan and Ada are out and about in the galaxy trying to save Jedi from Darth Vader, who has always evaded them. Obi-Wan is injured and Ada comforts him, giving him a kiss or something.
Vader sees this and reveals himself, unable to hide his identity in the midst of his rage.
Obi-Wan and Ada are shocked to discover that Anakin is Vader, and the twins battle - our heroes narrowly escape.
Afterwards, Vader seeks out Padme and knocks her up, leaving her horribly brokenhearted.
The twins are born and put into hiding.
During this time, The Emperor has been polluting Vader's mind so that he is utterly bent on the annihilation of the Jedi order, in particular his sister. The Emperor convinces Vader that in order to have ultimate power he must murder his sister. Even though Anakin is not the chosen one, the Emperor convinces him of this, declaring that Anakin is the only one in the universe who is worthy to weild the force.

It would be real kick below the belt if the Emperor managed to lie to anakin the whole time and tell him that there was actually only ONE sith, and that Anakin was it.
Then, when Anakin kills his sister (effectively weaking himself), the emperor reveals himself to be the other Sith and forced Anakin to be his apprentice. (he is already Vader, a fallen jedi, but now he is truly the servant of his Master)
I always wondered why Vader didn't just kill the Emperor to attain his power, unless the Emperor had forced Vader into some sort of corner from which he couldn't escape.

What about Chancellor Palpatine?

Palpatine manages to avoid detection because he always acts through an apprentice. Though he's a sith, he never directly channels the Dark Side, which makes him pretty much impossible to detect. He is a master manipulater, and is able to stand in the presence of a jedi and hide his intentions because he never has to do his own dirty work.
However, once the Council begins to erode when the Clone War begins, he is revealed to the Jedi when he begins to use the Dark Side to manipulate Anakin
Due to the influence of systems like the Elesian cluster, who already feared the Order, Palpatine is able to make the Jedi out to be fools when they accuse him of being a Sith lord.

"My fellow delegates! I ask you, how many times have you seen one of these dreaded Sith Lords? Has one ever accosted you in your own home? Has one ever stolen your children away and turned them to their cult? Has one ever read your mind, or manipulated your thoughts, or betrayed you? These are not the actions of a Sith that does not exist. These are the very real crimes of the Jedi Order! They and their ancient religion are your only true enemies!" -roars, applause, crazy scary music ,etc.

This explains why everyone in the OT acts like the Jedi have been out of comission for several generations - if their reputation was horribly shattered, it would explain why everyone randomly turns on them in the OT. No one fears the Jedi returning, they seem to think of them as a joke.
Palpatine also pays for Shmi's freedom and establishes an airforce acadamy on Tatooine, to pull Anakin to his side. He convinces Anakin that the Order and Naboo could never be bothered to free one slave when they had all the available resources and owed it to Anakin.
Anakin never gets involved with the politics of the Emperor. Sidious pulls the strings and Vader is the puppet. I didin't like in Episode III when Anakin's fall became this political commentary. his fall should be emotionally-based, like Luke's temptation in RotJ. And I never believed in the Ani/Padme romance enough to be convinced that that was the ENTIRE reason he changed. There are a lot of complexities to Anakin that were never explored and could have led him to the Dark Side.
While Vader is off killing people, the Emperor is off killing freedom. The two do not mix. That's why there are TWO of them.

The Clone War (Ep. III)

The clones are more like androids, not clones. They are called clones for simplicity's sake, because the biological parts of them are cloned from human sources. But really, they are like Luke's hand in RotJ - a flesh covered frame.
The droid armys of the Trade Federation are clone prototypes before the flesh and AI were implimented. this explains why the Trade Federation has such a rediculous army. In a galaxy that large, I'm sure they could have found humans or aliens to use rather than a ludicrously expensive army of robots. If they thought they would be making huge profits from their research, it would make a bit more sense for a prototype clone army. It also ties TPM with the rest of the prequels.
The war is based on the argument over whether they have basic human freedoms - basically the Lt. Cmndr Data argument. I could never figure out why Ep. II was called 'attack of the clones' when the clones didn't really do anything except stand in for droids. The war had nothing to do with them. why they hell would the clone wars not actually be ABOUT cloning issues?
Boba fucking Fett has nothing to do with this, sorry Fanboys. He's just a freakin' bounty hunter, get over it.
The reason this becomes a huge war that involves 'Ben' Kenobi is that the jedi become involved because the clones are inorganic matter that has a 'ghost' and is within the force. Unlike a droid, a clone has a soul and is part of the living force
Therefore there are several arguments -

Jedi - want to establish clone right because the clones are living beings, however, their are afraid to allow this because the clones can be mass manufactured and thus could overthrow the Republic if they wished. So, do they allow the slaughter and genocide of sentient beings or do they condone the possible exponential growth of a physicaly superior species?
Trade Federation Cloners - want to use cloned parts for medical reasons and replace slave labor and military forces with clones. they are out to make a profit, but they also have a fairly good argument to make for human safetey and the advance of medicine.
The Clones Themselves - wish to have freedoms equal to other sentient beings and be granted a terraformed world and be recognized by the Republic.
The Republic - Are unable to decide, obviously they have no offical stance.
The Empire - When an empire is proposed, the clones are allowed limited human priviledges and wages as Stormtroopers and military personnel. Clone limb and organ replacement is also condoned and funded.

Rant: The REAL Episode I

2007-02-21T13:55:10Z

Okay, for anyone who thought Episode COULD have been a good movie, here is your hope for the future.

This is a fan edit of Episode I, which removes all the horrible-ness (the badly lip-synched Neimodians, Jar-Jar's retarded personality, the fucking MEDICHLORIANS, and the overly-long and tedious podrace)

It also tightens up almost all of the dialogue and makes the movie MUCH more watchable.

If you've got High Speed and like Star Wars, you owe it to yourself to check out

Star Wars Episode I: Balance of the Force

This is the 'canon' I will be using to base my Episode II off of, because fuck if I don't hate medichlorians.

But possibly my favorite thing about this is how they 'fixed' Jar-Jar. I wouldn't call him a good character, but he's not as unbelievably intolerable. Plus, I absolutely LOVE the backstory they gave the Naboo and the Gungans, it makes the parade at the end MUCH more significant. I actually got goosebumps!

CHECK IT OUT!!!

Chapter: Two

2007-02-21T05:03:30Z

Title: Star Wars Episode II: Rise of the Twin Suns (2/?)

Author: Opal Lynn (opal . lynn (at) gmail . com) For more updates, spoilers and images from the story, please visit tsrii . livejournal . com

Rating: PG-13

Characters/Pairings: Anakin/Padmé, Obi-Wan, Darth Nathema (OC), Reysuu (OC)

Category:AU, Action, General

Disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

This Chapter: A strange corpse is found in a back alley of a disregarded planet, and Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padmé continue their pursuit of their mysterious new enemy.

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T W O
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“Anakin, there!” Padmé’s finger thrust unexpectedly under Anakin's nose, and had it not been for his precognition, she probably would have gouged out his eye. They had been following Obi-Wan's comlink trace for several minutes now, inching in on him slowly through the static and mixed signals. Comlinks had weak external traces, and Obi-Wan was traveling very fast, which made tracking him a nearly impossible feat. Anakin turned his head sharply and followed Padmé's finger. In the distance, he could see Obi-Wan trailing the Sith by roughly a hundred meters. Her deep black robes were billowing impractically behind her, slowing her down just enough for Obi-Wan to keep on her trail. The speeders were being pushed just beyond their limits, and luckily they were flying over a field of open grass - one bump or sharp turn and both of them would probably wipe out.

“Bring the ship low and open the starboard hatch!” Padmé shouted, just a little unnecessarily. “I’ll distract her.” Anakin wanted to object; no one had really given him an opportunity to help out yet, and she was already halfway out of the cockpit by the time he’d said, “but!”

He growled a little, hating to just have to sit and watch while Padmé and Obi-Wan were in danger, and since he hadn’t even been there to help when Sabé had been killed, he felt particularly useless. He sharply banked the ship starboard and pulled down parallel to the Sith woman, slowing to cruising speed and lowering the ship until it was nearly skimming the ground. He could hear the tall grass of the field below whipping at the stomach of the ship. He’d just fixed this damn thing. If a rock flew up and got jammed in the vents, he was just going to die. He tapped a panel and the hatch opened with a roar of incoming wind. His ears popped as he glared stupidly at the pitch stabilizer, unable to even glance at Padmé for risk of shearing off the ramp and killing her.

He heard her fire a few rounds, but he couldn't tell if she'd managed to land a hit, he was still unable to take his eyes from the altimeter controls. He heard a speeder whining over the roar of wind howling through the hatch, and he tried to keep the ship steady in a frustrated attempt to do anything useful. Soon, he heard his Master’s boots clunking up the entrance ramp and the hatch closed with a hiss. Padmé's footsteps trailed quickly behind. Obi-Wan rushed into the cockpit and plowed into the co-pilot chair, which rotated sharply and slapped him in the thigh with its safety harness.

Obi-Wan's face was windburned and bright red, and Anakin could feel his master's heart beating frantically as Obi-Wan sat down and tried to fasten his harness. But his breath was coming too quick and his hands were too chapped from the wind, so he just threw the clips aside and leaned forward, looking at the controls.

"Pull up and follow her from a distance. She might try to shake us; when Padmé hit her she swerved off about three points west. I managed to pick up her speeder's tracer code on my scanner..." Obi-Wan continued to mumble breathlessly as he fiddled with some instruments and locked the ship onto the Sith's stolen speeder.

Padmé entered, looking extremely haggard and windblown. She was holding her right arm to her body; a frustrated expression on her face.

"You okay?" Anakin asked, watching as she sat down behind Obi-Wan and fastened her harness with her left arm.

"I'll be fine. I threw my arm out into the wind and pulled something, but I think I'll live." She gave him an irritated look.

Obi-Wan broke into a half-smile.

"She did marvelously. I've never seen blaster fire so precise whilst one is hanging out of the back end of a ship."

Padmé nudged the back of Obi-Wan's seat rather forcefully with her knee.

"He's lying. When the wind caught my arm, I lost the pistol. But it happened to hit the woman in the face, so no harm done."

Anakin couldn't supress a laugh.

"You hit her in the face with a blaster?"

Obi-Wan grinned boyishly and said, "It was a very accurate hit."

With a roll of her eyes, Padmé turned the other way and pretended to ignore them both.

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"Well, it certainly is very strange..."

"Strange? It's flipping unnatural is what it is!"

"Yes, well, it's just rather unusual, Ravi."

"Deur, you're repeating yourself again."

"Well, all I'm saying is that it's very inconclusive."

"Yes, Deur."

At the mouth of a cramped, dimly lit tunnel, two figures stood silhouetted as they whispered anxiously, heads bowed together. Their gazes were directed unflinchingly at a dead body on the ground. One of these whispering figures was a young police cadet named Deur Rai, and presently he was trying to keep his associate's foot from prodding disrespectfully at the corpse.

All the men hovering about - including Deur and his overly curious partner Ravi - were members of the Upper Pryus crime scene unit, which had just dispatched half a dozen officers to investigate a body that had been discovered the previous night in an offshoot of Mondula’s palace; somewhere deep in the lower slave warrens. And though everyone present had seen their share of action and fatality, there was an anxious tone hovering in the corridor, almost as if this particular corpse personified a new kind of death.

The body was absolutely spotless and completely in tact. Truthfully, it was the total lack of any wounds at all that was so unsettling to the otherwise worldly officers. The man had been too young to have died of natural causes, and a quick scan of his medical records indicated that although his system was full of a number of questionable substances, he had borne no illnesses that would have shortened his life so suddenly. Additionally, there was a strange, frozen look on his face, as if he had died in a surprised sort of pain, too shocked by it to really understand what was happening until it was too late. His eyes were still open, his pupils mere panicked pinpricks in the center of his pale, blue veined face.

"You don't see something like that every day," said Ravi, still seemingly astonished.

"Well...no." replied Deur cautiously.

"Is that all you have to say? 'Well, no?'" Ravi scoffed and jostled a few other officers out of his way so that he could squat down to get a better look. "I mean, look at him! He's shit himself!"

Deur looked away from his partner, who was now poking at the dead man's curled, cold fingers with a thin sensor probe. Deur glanced at the pair of officers who Ravi had shoved out of the way, and without really wanting to, he overheard part of their conversation.

"Hey Dunlock! You know what they're saying back at Central." As if this was supposed to be obvious.

"No." As if it plainly wasn't.

"Yeah, just commed me. Think its some sorta... Jedi thing... or something."

"Some sorta Jedi thing."

"Yeah."

"Central said this."

"...yeah." Expectantly, "You think I'm making this up!"

"You dumbshit. Why the Hell would Central tell you something like that?"

"Listen! It's what they said!"

"There’s no blinking Jedi within five million klicks of Elian, so shut the Hell up, Grigg….”

Deur turned away, not wanting to hear any more of the unsettling dialogue; anxious that maybe what Lt. Grigg had said was the truth. It certainly wasn't a very funny thing to be joking about if he had been lying.

Jedi? Here? It was certainly hard to believe. For several centuries Mondula and his ancestors had done everything in their power to keep the Jedi off of Elian, and there was no reason to believe they'd suddenly changed their minds.

As long as anyone could remember, the mobs of Elian had made it their business to find every Jedi potential born on the planet and keep them from being trained; sometimes in very controversial ways. But they had never let anyone escape. No one could escape. Not even Deur himself was allowed to leave. There was no way that anyonecould have slipped off-planet and returned a full fledged Knight; every resident sentient was fitted with an implant that detonated in the electropshere. And things were better for it. Mondula had countless powerful friends that protected Elian’s many taxpayers, and Elian's many taxpayers never tried to leave. So the idea of a Jedi just waltzing through the planet's electrosphere – in either direction - was absolutely ridiculous. And a Jedi coming all the way from Coruscant? Some kind of Jedi liberation front come to free the Illegitimates? Impossible. Unless they wanted to start an all-out war.

Jedi didn't run around freeing slaves. Granted, they used to, which is one of the reasons why the Hutts hated them so much. Elian's economy had been destroyed a millennia ago when just such a thing took place, but now the lives of the Jedi were devoted to the Republic. Elian was not a part of the Republic, and the Illegitimates were no longer technically slaves, so there was no reason for them to come. And Deur was dimly aware that there was an ancient treaty forbidding any Jedi affiliated with the Republic from entering Elian space. And it was the type of treaty that had no fine print... it simply said, "or else."

But regardless, the idea made Deur jittery; and as he looked at the white-faced corpse in front of him, he found himself imagining quite against his will the horrible ways that this man could have died without even being touched. After all, like everyone else on Elian, Deur had heard the stories about how Jedi could tear off your flesh with only the power of their minds. How they could read and manipulate thoughts, how they could talk to animals and see the future. Though the planet was run by Hutts and governed by a vast underworld of bounty hunters and head collectors, there was a reason that Jedi were feared on Elian. The Hutts were unpleasant, but they couldn't rip your face off with a thought.

But what if an Illegitimate had pulled it off? What if they'd had resources shipped in from Republic infiltrators, what if they had trained themselves in the dark festering tunnels of Lower Pryus, waiting in the shadows for a test subject like this strange, spotless corpse to appear just so they could kill him with a glance? Just so he could be murdered, right here in this very tunnel, quite close to the spot where Deur's feet were resting now. What if one of them had actually managed to do it? What if one of the Illegitimates had actually pulled it off?

"Hey Deur! Get over here!" Deur started. He turned and saw Ravi waving at him, so he haphazardly stumbled over, still distracted by his thoughts.

"Well, what is it?"

"Jackpot." Ravi pointed excitedly to the dead man's fingers, where he was shining a blue pathogen light that made the skin glow neon green in a few places. Traces of blood, body fluids, usually the war paint of rapists and slashers – the off-planet gamblers who hung around in the seedier cantinas.

"What'd he touch? Was it the murderer?"

Ravi chuckled. "Heh. Don't think so. Looks like our buddy got a little frisky with somebody tonight. Probably beforehand, most likely had nothing to do with whatever killed him."

"Then why is this important?'

"Because, apparently this guy was luckier than all hell.”

"Would you get to the point, Ravi?"

"This guy turns up dead with no money, no traceable identification, no Residency chip, nothing. And yet, he's got some very spicy sauce on his fingers."

"What are you talking about?"

Ravi looked amused and slightly boyish - like a kid with a schoolyard secret.

"Have you ever heard of 'She Who Spits'? Damn, what's the slimy Hutt word for it..."

"Are you talking about Reysuu?" Deur asked, remembering something. Ravi nodded and a dirty grin spread over his face. Deur quickly amended, "Look at this guy Ravi, there's no way he was within ten feet of her. Mondula would never let some shmuck like this into his syndicate. This guy's a total nobody. No man as empty handed as him is coming anywhere close to Mondula, much less his slaves."

Ravi scratched his arm and looked doubtful.

"Deur, I've got the DNA scan right here. She's all over this guy, not just on his hands. There was some heavy petting going on before your 'shmuck' kicked it. I don't know how it happened... maybe some kind of torrid love affair or something. But it's there. You can't fight with solid evidence." Ravi flashed his pathogen beam back over the body and lifted the dead man's soggy tunic. A trail of neon green trailed over his lower stomach. "This trace is only a few hours older than the time of death. She was with him just before he died. She might know who did it." Ravi paused and looked the man up and down. "Not that it even matters."

A dark and dangerous joke was flirting with Deur's better judgment, and he questioned for a moment whether he should even say anything at all. After a moment's hesitation, he simply blurted it out, with little explanation or grace.

"Maybe Reysuu killed him."

For a moment, Ravi's face flared with an anxious excitement, before they both jumped at the sound of a tough, grainy voice.

"Shut the Hell up, cadet."

Deur and Ravi spun around and found themselves locked in the death stare of Lt. Major Dunlock, whose rather imposing frame threw a dark shadow over the corpse at their feet.

"You may be a cadet Deur, but you can't be that green." the Lieutenant growled at Deur before he turned on Ravi and his stare grew steelier yet. "And you, OfficerRavi, have been cautioned before." He stepped close to the younger men and drew his body up to it's bulkiest, most intimidating height.

"Nobody governs the Hutts, you idiots, and nobody raises questions like that where anybody can hear." Dunlock's voice lowered to a menacing hiss. "Do you want us all picked off? Reysuu's worth more than all of our skins combined, so if there's any brains between the two of you, you'd better just shut the Hell up."

Dunlock grabbed Ravi's holopad and gestured at the screen. The DNA scan lay bright green and cartoonish over a snapshot of the body.

"Delete that," snarled Dunlock. "I'm ordering clean-up down here in a hour to get rid of this cadaver, and that's the last we're going to hear about this. Put down intoxication as cause of death." With that final warning Dunlock thrust the holopad into Deur's hands and strode away.

Deur was dumbstruck for a couple of moments. What the Hell was going on? There was no reason for Dunlock to act so panicked, even if Reysuuhad killed their man, what difference did it make? She was the most valuable slave of the system's most prominent crime lord - murdering an absolute nobody was the type of thing that the Hutts and their friends did on a daily basis. There would be no need to incriminate her or press any charges, Deur had merely stated the obvious as a bit of a joke. After all, who could be surprised? It's the sort of thing you'd expect from the gladiatorial pet of a Hutt.

Unless...

Deur abruptly remembered what Grigg had said about the Jedi. Had Deur guessed wrong? Perhaps the Jedi wasn't the murderer, but the victim... Maybe Dunlock's problem wasn't that a rabid slave girl had killed a nobody - perhaps the problem was that she had slain a Jedi in cold blood. The Jedi would come to investigate the murder of one of their own, treaty be damned. With them would come the Republic and all of it's ideals, and they would strike down Mondula's entire regime, which meant annihilating Elian's entire underworld as they had centuries before. And Mondula was really the only thing holding the ramshamble of a government together.

Without a breath, Deur cleared the holopad of every bit of data he could find, but he couldn't help feeling that the damage was already done.

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“Which one was she?” Anakin blurted, his eyes tracing the signal of the Sith speeder.

"What?" grumbled Obi-Wan, his brow furrowing.

"Was she the Master or the Apprentice? There are always two of them, right?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Anakin saw Padmé glance up anxiously.

Obi-Wan’s voice dropped very low. “She was the Apprentice, I’m sure. Her rage is very new, her skills are not yet refined. But we can be sure of one thing.” His voice lowered so drastically that Anakin thought that most of their conversation must have been telepathic by now. “Whoever the Master is, he knows what he’s doing. To have trained a new Apprentice so quickly is very alarming.”

“The whole situation is very alarming!” Padmé said shrilly, before quieting herself and looking embarrassed for eavesdropping.

Obi-Wan glanced at the Queen over his shoulder and gave a sad smile. “Agreed.”

The cockpit was quiet for a moment as the situation sunk into all of them in turn. Anakin continued to watch the tracer beacon as they hovered in the stratosphere, waiting for the Sith to stop and board her ship. Anakin increased the scanner breadth so that he would detect any ship entering or leaving Naboo's gravitational sphere. Not that it would have been difficult anyway - there was not much intergalactic traffic on Naboo during peacetime.

They had been waiting for some time, and Anakin was beginning to think they had been duped.

"Master, what if her base isn't off-planet?"

Obi-Wan considered this briefly before shaking his head.

"No, she's foreign. I could feel her presence several minutes before the attack, but I didn't know what it was. She hasn't been here long."

"But she's not going anywhere... the speeder is just going around in circles and I haven't picked up any departing air traffic." As he said this, Anakin dialed up the range on his scanners another notch, just to be sure.

Padmé spoke again from behind Obi-Wan. "My guess is that she's buying time." She leaned forward to glance at the speeder's beacon. "The longer she delays her departure, the longer she can formulate a plan of escape."

"I think you might be right," said Obi-Wan thoughtfully. "Perhaps we need to use some force." He turned to his padawan. "Bear down on that speeder and get her caught in your draft. Don't discharge any weapons, we can't risk destroying her yet."

Padmé angrily asked, "Why not?"

"Because this time we need to destroy them both." responded Obi-Wan cautiously. Her turned back to Anakin, who was already lowering the ship for re-entry. "If you catch her in a draft she'll -"

A shrill alarm started ringing as the cabin lit up with a bright red message: "Unidentified vessel detected, departing Nubian airspace." This was followed by a series of coordinates and a louder beep as the ship added, "Unidentified vessel preparing for hyperjump."

"Damn!" hissed Obi-Wan, who was looking through the navshield as if he thought her ship would be visible from this distance. "Get on her, NOW!"

"I'm already on it." Anakin's hands clamped the controls and the ship made a very nauseating lurch forward as he fought to pull the ship from Naboo's atmosphere as fast as he could. Obi-Wan was frantically punching in the enemy ship's last coordinates, and luckily it wasn't terribly far from their current position, only a few hundred thousand klicks to the north. As they closed in, the Sith ship appeared on several data screens as the computer scanned and analyzed it.

"It's modified," said Anakin. "But it's an old piece of junk. I should be able to trace the jump, that model shouldn't have a cloaker on it..."

He was cut short as the Sith ship vanished in a blinding burst of light. Padmé punched her knee with a very non-royal growl, and Obi-Wan closed his eyes and sighed, clearly fed-up.

Anakin watched as the computer scrambled several nasty looking equations and finally spat out a set of coordinates.

"We've picked up her computer's hyperdrive calculations. It looks like she aimed somewhere on the Outer Rim."

Looking a bit revived, Obi-Wan transferred the coordinates to a navigation console and called up a map of a sparse-looking system.

"The Elesian Cluster?" mused Anakin, trying to connect the sparse and desolate map with any sort of memory. "I've never heard of that System."

"Neither have I," replied Obi-Wan slowly as he analyzed the map. "But it doesn't look like Republican space." He paused for a moment, clearly weighing their options. "Prepare to make the jump to hyperspace, we're going after her."

Not five seconds after Anakin loaded the data for the jump, the transmission console started flashing as they received an incoming broadcast. Anakin stared, slightly dumbfounded.

"It's the Council," he said, unable to mask his surprise.

"When the ship is ready, make the jump." instructed Obi-Wan as he hit the receive button. The transmission crackled to life, and a small blue figure appeared on the console.

"Master Gallia," said Obi-Wan politely, inclining his head.

"Obi-Wan," she returned curtly. "I'm afraid we have a very serious problem."

Anakin and Obi-Wan exchanged looks, but before anything could be said, Adi Gallia continued.

"We have received a transmission from a former Jedi; a fallen Knight named Tarlan Voss. His last transmission was dispatched several days ago, but it did not reach the council until this morning. I hope we aren't already too late." Gallia paused and inclined her head, causing her headdress to shift. "From what we can gather he was somewhere in the Elysian Cluster-"

Obi-Wan and Anakin glanced at one another again, and without warning the ship jumped into hyperspace.

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Chapter: One

2007-02-21T05:02:27Z

Title: Star Wars Episode II: Rise of the Twin Suns (1/?)

Author: Opal Lynn (opal . lynn (at) gmail . com) For more updates, spoilers and images from the story, please visit tsrii . livejournal . com

Rating: PG-13

Characters/Pairings: Anakin/Padmé, Obi-Wan, Darth Nathema (OC), Reysuu (OC)

Category:AU, Action, General

Disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

This Chapter: Ten years after the Battle of Naboo, the peaceful planet is once again rattled when an assassination attempt is made on Queen Amidala in her very own throne room.

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The throne was not nearly as impressive as the woman sitting on it. Her face was white and smooth as porcelain, her features comparable in their lack of expression to the face of a gentle doll. A red slash divided her lip and two symmetrical beauty marks interrupted her otherwise alabaster makeup. The gown she wore was high necked and shapeless, a heavy mantle that weighed down her petite shoulders. The intelligent hazel eyes set within her stark face betrayed the only life left to her body.

She seemed to do nothing but look into the electric blue haze before her, her attentive eyes as cold and dark as a black vein in a white marble room. Finally, her lips twitched apart and the words she spoke were deep and filled the chamber.

“Chancellor Palpatine, surely it cannot be true.” The holographic replica of the Chancellor bowed its head, the very skin on his bones seeming to droop with gloom.

“Yes, Milady. I’m afraid it is.”

“What does it mean, Chancellor? Is peace truly so far from our grasp?” Her monotone never faltered, her eyes never flickered.

“Milady, I feel it would be best for you to leave immediately for Coruscant until we are able to determine the situation safe enough for you to return.”

Her gaze shifted for but a second, flitting to the corner to meet a pair of olive eyes.

“No Chancellor, I must remain with my people.”

“But surely you are in need of protection, Milady? Your affiliation with the Jedi will only make you a target.”

“I am not willing to break my ties to the Order because of a nameless fear.”

“Of course, Milady, I dare not suggest it. I merely ask that you retreat from the public eye for the time being.”

“I cannot.” Another glance to the corner. “My public are my eyes.”

“Could you not use a decoy as you have so cleverly in the past? There are several locations on Naboo you could successfully withhold. Are there not Jedi assigned to Naboo as well? Go together. All I ask is to know you are safe.”

“I cannot.”

“All I ask is a week, your Highness. The Council will surely have uncovered something by that time. As we speak, my officers are patrolling every planet in the Republic. But I can only do so much. It would be a great tragedy to the Republic to loose you.”

“The Republic is in ruins, Chancellor. It is not so hard to infiltrate it as it once was. My place is with the populace that I was elected to protect.” She paused, looking away again. “I cannot break that trust. I stay here.”

“Very well, Milady. But please, be careful. The Jedi who are with you, stay close to them, be watchful.”

“Thank you for your concern Chancellor, but I assure you, the danger can be dealt with. I will see it done. We will destroy this threat together, but we shall not do it from the shadows.”

“Of course, your Majesty.” He paused, bending at the waist and sweeping low for a bow. “Goodbye.”

She nodded, and the hologram vanished, revealing a lone figure in the doorway. The arm raised, the blaster fired, and the throne was speckled with blood.

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Carefully, and with an elegance not usually found among mechanics, Anakin Skywalker hung dangling from a harness in the belly of his gleaming silver starship. It had once been the Queen's personal cruiser; the sleek, efficient J-type 327 which had rescued him from his home-world so many years before. Almost immediately after the battle of Naboo, the young Queen had personally overseen the cruiser's reconfiguration and had presented it as a gift to Anakin and Obi-Wan as thanks for their help. Together, Anakin and Queen Amidala had named it the 'Halcyon', and now, almost ten years later, he knew it better than the back of his own hand.

Currently, the Halcyon was back on its home soil - sequestered in the open air hangar of Theed palace. Though Anakin and his Master did their share of intergalactic travel, they spent more time on Naboo than perhaps anywhere else; even Coruscant. The peaceful planet had truly become an adoptive home for them both; ever since Anakin's training had begun some ten years previously.

Perhaps because so much of his life was caught up in the Halcyon, Anakin now remembered his first voyage alone with his Master; a truly morose and lonely trip from Naboo to Corscant after Qui-Gon's Funeral. Anakin had been so young and fresh from the hot Tattooine deserts that the cold, disjointed noise of Coruscant had frightened him on his initial visit, and he had not anticipated returning. The towers of steel and glass, textures and shapes he had never seen before, the endless up and down and the inability to put one's feet on solid ground... these things had made him feel so cold, so alone, so afraid of the future. And then Qui-Gon, the one warm voice in a sea of indifference, had been silenced forever.

Anakin remembered that when he had voiced his concerns to Obi-Wan, the usually calm and distant Jedi had held him close for a moment - and for the first time since Anakin had left his mother, he had felt warm again. He had felt loved, felt that perhaps the galaxy wasn't really so cold and lonely after all, and Obi-Wan had promised to train him far from Coruscant. Obi-Wan had kept his promise, and once Anakin's training had begun in earnest, he proved to be an understanding and wise teacher - but the warmth was gone; shut away by centuries of tradition and discipline.

Older now; wiser and less afraid of the cold, Anakin understood his Master's distance and restraint, and he appreciated everything that Obi-Wan had done for him; it would not be long now until Anakin undertook the trials, and then he would truly be a Jedi Knight.

But Jedi or no, Anakin would always have piloting in his heart. Flight and freedom were his treasures, and the Halcyon was his prize. Hips caught in a flexible harness of woven plasteel fibers, feet looped through supports dangling from the ceiling, he floated purposefully in the maintenance pit, caught in a perpetual dive. R2-D2 - assigned especially to Anakin by Queen Amidala herself - waited loyally beside the maintenance pit with a crate of tools perched on his domed head, silently observing Anakin's nimble repairs.

Occasionally, Anakin would do this for fun; strapping himself into the heart of his ship, letting the near purring sounds of its engine lull him into meditation. But today he was looking for something, and as his thin fingers - strong and quick from years of subtle repairs - shuffled among the seemingly disjointed boards and switches, his eyes roved through the maze like zircon-colored lasers in the dark.

Hyperdrive leak; he remembered that much. Something about not being able to pay for the extra fuel. Truthfully, he hadn’t listened to very many words after hearing his sole favorite; fix. Besides, he liked it better this way; floating in the darkness of the maintenance pit, feeling like a bird caught in nautical twilight, searching for the last traces of the horizon.

He loved it like this, always like this; the only true peace he had ever known. Whirs and hums and specks of color and dust, dark breathing that ran down his spine with long, calm breaths. Machine breathing, machine blood pumping through wires as his fingers flickered between them. The living, breathing form of his ship as he rested in its beating heart; listening to its whispers, the only one able to hear its pulse.

His eyes closed now, listening. It was as if it spoke to him, filling his mind with flashes, pictures, near memories. He felt the warmth on him then, like that bird trapped in the sky. Felt the tingling warmth creep across his wings as a cloud shifted away from the sun. Calling upon the Force almost before he thought of it, his left arm shot away from his body, fingers stretched apart. He heard the smack of metal on skin before he felt the weight of his beta-corder in his hand. Flipping it on, he felt the tiny waves of the tiny machine, its small existence vibrating gently in his palm, pressing against his lifeline.

“Combusting terminal,” he muttered, capturing his words with the beta-corder, hearing their ghosts float around him in the pit. Images: breathing, blood, life, fire. Coming through the veins of the ship into the veins of Anakin Skywalker.

“Internal anti-polar switch.” His hand rested against the wires and circuits as if it were his head, his soul dreaming with the ship; seeing through its eyes.

“BOT motor.” Spinning, smoke, dust, fire, spark…

“CDP…” Sharp, gash, blood, pain…

“Screwdriver?” His eyes flashed open, the beta-corder in his hand seemed to shift; to mold into another form, and his harness seemed to grip him differently, as if it were a different time, a different malfunction.

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Anakin was there floating, hovering, nearly sleeping. Caught between light and dark, his arms splayed to his sides, feeling the air and sorting through it. A tickle. A warm, dry flutter across his middle knuckle, and he had jerked, a screwdriver falling from between his pelvic bone and the harness. He hadn’t noticed it at the time. The sound had been quiet next to her laughter. And what laughter it was; peeling through the darkness with an almost painful purity, wrapping around Anakin and curling deep into his mind. Padmé always knew where to find him.

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Anakin smirked, flinging the beta-corder off to the side, knowing he wouldn’t need his notes later. Up swung his arm, almost against his command; and he grabbed a thick coil of plasti-rope, pulling it loose from its lock. Then he released it slowly, hearing the creaking of the fibers bending along the solid framework of the rig in the ceiling as he lowered himself. Knowing what he would find, his right hand seemed to feel it there already, the shape molding into his palm without thought. And then it was there, sitting in his hand; the screwdriver. He pressed the two halves of the CDP back together - the screwdriver had wedged them apart when it fell - and replaced the hose that led to the BOT motor, using a spare piece of clear tubing and roughly a yard of black magnetite tape. Then, he flipped the anti-pole switch and secured the combusting terminal with more magnetite tape.

He looked down at the screwdriver, its once sharp bit now mangled and clumped. The heat of the CDP had melted it into an artful lump. His fingers wrapped around the rope, ready to pull up, when he felt it, as if a blow had struck his body. A tremor humming through the air and into his very bones. It was frigid, chilling, utterly penetrating.

Someone was dead.

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Though Obi-Wan had scarcely felt them budge, his feet were moving. The large palace corridors shrank around his running, his ignited lightsaber throwing an irregular blue light onto the walls. His hands were unsteady. He had heard it. He had felt it in his mind. It hadn’t been sudden; he had felt the pressure of the Dark Side building around him, building and tearing at his brain; and then it had snapped. In the small crack of a blaster shot, someone had died. They had slumped into their chair, their blood tickling the walls in little droplets. He had felt them on his face.

He bolted around corners and through open marble rooms, looking for the source of the shot, but no matter where Obi-Wan ran, the Dark Side lingered, and it was difficult to sort out one tendril from another as they swirled menacingly in his mind. The fading call was here in this hallway, but also in this room, that room and all the others. And then, he turned a corner and walked straight into it.

Hitting him instantly was the smell of charred flesh, and the air was misty with anger and hate. But it was lingering, and as Padmé raised her head slowly to look at him, holding a motionless Sabé in her arms, it seemed to disappear. Eirtaé, Yané, Rabé and Saché were silent and trembling, reaching out their small hands to touch Sabé's face, Padmé’s arm. The guards that had not gone in pursuit of the assassin were standing quietly against the walls, heads bowed, shifting on their feet. Captain Panaka was nowhere in sight. Obi-Wan extinguished his lightsaber and met Padmé’s eyes.

The Queen opened her mouth to speak, but only air passed through her lips, and her throat tightened over a small squeak. There were tears on her cheeks.

A carbon copy of Padmé's face lay pressed against her chest as the Queen rocked the dead Sabé in her arms. Small burgundy specks of blood dotted her white makeup, one just above her eyelashes, closed against her cheek.

Padmé touched her favorite handmaiden's disguised forehead and kissed her there, the make-up leaving a shadow on her lips. Padmé's robes were streaked with white.

"I tried to get the attacker, but I just..." She tightened her arms around Sabé. "She was like a shadow. I could barely see her."

Obi-Wan had a wretch in his throat. He walked to Padmé slowly and touched her very softly on the shoulder.

"What can you tell me?" He looked down at her face and had to look away again, but she put her hand on his and her trembling lessened.

Her voice was thick and slow. "I couldn’t...it was...” She grimaced, but then her voice hardened. "It was a woman. I saw her face. She was laughing. I just heard the blast, and then Sabé..."

Obi-Wan wasn't sure what to do. Padmé's sadness was complex, partly confused with anger and guilt. Her hand felt heavy and cold, it weighed on his fingers like a hunk of lead.

"What happened?!" Anakin's voice drifted in from the archway, alarmed. A mangled screwdriver was clutched in his hand, and Obi-Wan heard it clatter to the floor as Anakin rushed to Padmé's side.

"Padmé? Padmé are you alright? I felt the Dark..." He spotted Sabé in the Queen's arms. It was barely a whisper. "Oh no."

Solemnly, he knelt down beside Padmé and his hands rubbed her back. Obi-Wan looked away, turning to one of the guards, who cautiously met his eye.

"Where's Panaka?"

As if in reply, the communicator on the guard’s belt screeched metallically. With a flick of his wrist, the guard had the object in his hand, his fingers prodding at the buttons. A dark look shadowed his face.

“Panaka. He’s sending a distress signal from the speeder bay.”

Obi-Wan sprang towards the door, lightsaber humming. Urgently, he pointed at the guards against the wall, motioning them to follow. Anakin stood up quickly from the floor, but Obi-Wan continued towards the door and commanded sharply:

“Stay here. Keep the Queen out of danger.” And he was gone, sprinting down the wide stone staircase and veering towards the speeder bay.

In the distance, the sharp hisses of blaster fire echoed against the palace walls, and Obi-Wan settled his lightsaber in front of his face, preparing for the barrage of bolts that would be waiting for him in the bay. But as he rounded the corner, his heart froze, and dropped into his stomach.

Parts of him had known this would happen. Ever since he had sliced through the abdomen of the Sith who had killed his master, Obi-Wan had known. He could feel the Dark Side within his blood, he had brought that upon himself when he had exacted his revenge ten years ago. And for the decade between that moment and this one, he had felt the Dark Side growing; pulling at him. He’d known they would return, stronger than ever.

Panaka and his guards were firing round after round of plasma at a woman with stunningly white hair, her black robes swirling as she deflected every blast with a blood red lightsaber. As Obi-Wan and the guards stuttered to a halt, she looked up, focusing momentarily on the humming blade of Obi-Wan’s lightsaber. Her lips pulled into a sneer that stole her face of any beauty it might have had; her stony white features were an edifice, like a statue filled with poison. At first glance, her features appeared human in their form, but the longer Obi-Wan looked at her, the more alien she appeared. Her skin was pallid, nearly gray, and from her eyes spread dark, vein-like markings that made her icy countenance all the more stony. It was as if she were merely the effigy of a woman, rather than a being of flesh and blood. Obi-Wan could see her sharp white teeth glinting at him as she stepped towards him, her pale hair fluttering.

The firing had ceased, Panaka and his men knew better than to provoke her as she advanced on Obi-Wan. In eerie silence she approached, looking like a wisp of black smoke drifting from a charred wick. The guards behind Obi-Wan had shifted as if to attack, but he held up a tense hand and they fell silent.

“Let me deal with her.” He said darkly, stepping forward.

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“Is the Halcyon cleared for travel?” Padmé demanded, looking at Anakin as she carefully handed Sabé’s body to her loyal handmaidens. “We can’t just the assassin get away with this.” She raised herself from the floor, and Anakin followed, looking at her intensely.

“She'll fly, but not that fast. I haven't tuned her up yet and Artoo is still running diagnostics." he paused. "Be careful, Padmé. Revenge is -”

“It’s not revenge Ani, it’s justice.” She interrupted coolly, wiping her eyes. There was a rough undertone in her voice that kept Anakin on edge. She took in a long, deep breath and strode to her throne, opening the compartment that held her blasters, removing two and clipping one to her belt. She was in a simple handmaiden's robe; and though it was peacetime, the handmaidens had taken to wearing ceremonial military belts to commemorate the Battle of Naboo. The leather looked rough, interrupting her lavender robes in a dark brown swath, and the silver pistol shone like a bright, singular eye.

“What are you going to do?” Anakin asked, watching as she adjusted her belt.

“I’m going after Obi-Wan.”

“They’re in the speeder bay. But we should stay -”

Padmé interrupted him.

“They’re in the speeder bay because she’s trying to get out of the palace as fast as she can. She probably has a ship grounded somewhere on the outskirts. We have to catch up with them before they leave the grounds or we'll never be able track them.” She stepped down from the throne and her boots clapped against the gleaming marble floor as she strode out of the chamber. Anakin hurried after her.

"Padmé, I know you don't just want to sit here and wait, but I think we should listen to Obi-Wan. Someone's trying to kill you. We need to lie low."

"That woman just murdered a dear friend of mine. And if we don't hurry she'll murder another one. I have no intention of allowing Obi-Wan to run off on some fool's errand with delusions of keeping me safe. I'll lie low once she's brought to justice. If there's something they want from me, they wont get it by scaring me into hiding."

“What do you think they want? I mean… why would anyone attack you?”

She let out a frustrated sigh, but sensed that Anakin wasn't going to try to stop her anymore. She started jogging down the hallway toward the distant sound of blaster fire, and Anakin quickly followed, keeping his eyes open for danger.

“Right before it happened, we were conferencing with Chancellor Palpatine. He’d warned me, he’d told me to go into hiding… but I suppose I just thought…” Her voice hardened. “I still don’t want to run.”

“What did the Chancellor say? Why did he want you to go into hiding?”

Padmé spoke again, her voice troubled.

“The Chancellor said something about them returning, but I didn't really believe him. I assumed that the Jedi Council was jumping to conclusions..."

"The Council?" Anakin stopped dead in his tracks, unable to hide his shock. "Who's returning? Do you mean-"

"Yes, Ani. The Sith seem to have finally returned." She looked over her shoulder and slowed, waiting for him to catch up. But Anakin couldn't quite make his legs move.

"But... if the council had detected a disturbance, why would they tell you before us?"

Padmé seemed angered.

"Anakin! Come on! We don't have time for this!"

“But that’s -” Anakin’s speech halted suddenly. Not far away, he heard lightsabers clashing.

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The Sith struck first from the left, bearing down upon Obi-Wan as if jumping from a platform. Her eyes were wild and screaming, teeth bared like a cornered animal. As she spun and darted around him, her robes swirled and her hair flailed dangerously over her shoulders. Her fury never abated, and Obi-Wan discovered quickly that the woman’s skill with a blade was feverish, but not refined. The anger scorching through her blood made her style easy to read, and unlike the Sith he had faced years ago, she didn’t have as much raw ability. Within a few moments of the unevenly matched battle, she grew frustrated. In a flash of pure hatred, she tried to push him away, attempting to gouge him with her lightsaber in the process.

It seemed as if she were pushing all of her rage into him, and it seeped through the air like a blurry wind along with her frantic shoving and slashing, her breath puffing out in infuriated grunts. Suddenly, her eyes left the blades clashing between them, and her anger rose anew as she glared wrathfully over Obi-Wan's shoulder. He heard another lightsaber igniting behind him, and knew that Anakin had arrived. Padmé had probably stomped out after Obi-Wan the moment he had left, and he understood to a point that it probably was not really Anakin’s fault. But the woman’s lightsaber was millimeters from Obi-Wan's cheek, and her face was contorted with fury, so it was hard for him to cut the wrath from his voice when he shouted, “Anakin, NO!”

The woman spun away in the flicker of a heartbeat, eyes flitting furiously between Master and Apprentice. Obi-Wan knew as well as she did that with her underdeveloped skill she could not duel the both of them at once, and almost bitterly, she turned back to Obi-Wan. With lightning precision she had not shown earlier, she drew back her arm and punched Obi-Wan solidly in the jaw with her fist, darting off and jumping onto a speeder the millisecond his head had turned in the impact. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Anakin start to pursue her, but he quickly moved to stop him. Obi-Wan looked squarely at Padmé.

“If you insist on coming after her, then get to the ship. Follow me from above, and I’ll track her from the ground. We need to find out who sent her.”

For a brief moment, Anakin looked harassed, but when Padmé met Obi-Wan’s eyes and firmly said, “I agree”, Anakin nodded obediently. Obi-Wan grabbed the steering column of the nearest speeder and jerked violently into the seat. With a mere twitch of his hand the machine flared to life and Obi-Wan was thrust forward into the open air of the palace grounds. The Sith was not so far ahead that Obi-Wan could not follow her, but he would need help if he wanted any hope of catching up.

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The whine of the speeder engines whistled off into the horizon as Padmé shouted “Come on!” and shoved Anakin into a streamlined two-seater. She sat down in front of him and engaged the engine, but just as she was leaning over to take the controls, Anakin lifted her bodily and changed their positions.

“I'm faster.” He grunted, reveling briefly in the buzz of the steering apparatus under his fingers.

“You just want to DRIIIIIVVVEE!!” Padmé’s diatribe was cut short as they lurched forward, turning in a razor-sharp arc as Anakin’s reflexes propelled the speeder away from the external bay doors and back into the palace. The tiny speeder whizzed dangerously around sharp stone corners, rolling the duo violently from side to side. Anakin felt Padmé tense behind him, her arms moving to clamp around his waist, her calves locking over Anakin's shins. Her clutch was nearly painful, but Anakin didn't blame her; he hadn't given her time to strap in, and as they rounded a corner and nearly hit a stream of guards, Anakin sent the speeder into a barrel roll.

“Why this way?” she screeched. Her voice was almost inaudible over the echoing noise of the speeder as it hurtled through the unaccustomed palace archways. “You’re going to kill somebody!”

“You know I’m not.” He quickly glanced at her over his shoulder, and a shadow of his impish grin ticked his mouth.

After just a few more seconds of Anakin's hairpin piloting, the speeder was slamming to a halt in the hangar, and they dismounted roughly. It took Padmé a moment to get her footing back, and she stumbled uncharacteristically as they ran towards the Halcyon.

Anakin opened the hatch speedily, practically flying up the platform and into the cockpit. Artoo whirred and beeped angrily as he passed; apparently the droid was still confused about Anakin's sudden disappearance minutes earlier. Anakin powered up the engines while Padmé gave some brief orders over a comlink. He heard something akin to “no one is to know” and a brief mention of Sio Bibble’s name before her feet thudded up the platform and the hatch hissed shut behind her. As soon as she was seated, he made to grip the controls, but she glared at him pointedly and he gave her a few seconds to fasten her safety harness.

“Anakin…”she started, but gave up and just leaned over to him, hastily buckling his dangling harness across his chest.

“Safety first!” He chimed. She snapped his harness sharply and he winced.

“Go.”

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In a dank passageway deep below the grand palace of Mondula the Hutt, a pair of saffron-skinned slave girls hauled a drunken gambler to his feet.

"You've had too much go drink," said one.

"You should come with us and have a rest," said the other.

"I haven't had enough of you, so come with me and have a screw!" said the gambler, who found his ability to rhyme while intoxicated very amusing, and he collapsed into a fit of laughter and nearly fell to his knees.

"Please master, you should come with us and rest a while," said one.

"We will make you very comfortable," said the other.

The gambler laughed some more and pinched one of the slave girl's head-tails.

He did not object when the two girls continued to drag him down the tunnel, their path lit only by the dim glow of a doorway far in the distance. But the girls knew their way, and they walked with purpose.

Suddenly, the trio came to an abrupt halt as the gambler’s dragging feet collided with something on the ground. The slave girls stumbled, and one of them nearly fell. She threw out a hand to stop herself and her fingers closed around something cold and soft. Startled, she groped over the object with her hand and shrieked when she recognized the stone-cold lump as a face.

"Whattizit?"said the gambler, shifting his knees. "Is this a good spot?"

The startled girl looked to her counterpart and whispered, "A dead man!" in Huttese, which the drunken man could not follow.

"We can feed him to the beasts later. First we must get rid of this one."

But the gambler was feeling around in the dark, and he had discovered the corpse that he had fallen over.

"GIRLS!" He said playfully, followed by the sound of clothes rustling in the dark. "I found something!" The slaves tried to drag him up, but he was too busy rifling through the dead man's pockets.

"Shhh!" said one.

"Stop!" said the other.

"No, no wait girls! I've really found something!" He was giggling outright now, and he fumbled with something heavy and metal, weighing it in his hands. As he fumbled, his fingers pressed in on something, a small switch on the item that ignited it; causing it to emit a solid beam of light that filled the tunnel with vibrating blue glow. It was a lightsaber. The gambler's face was illuminated eerily as he stared at his prize, grinning.

"Ooooh... this will fetch a fortune..." he laughed. "Quick girls, help me search his pockets."

The girls looked at each other with stricken expressions. They spoke quietly in Huttese as they helped the gambler pick the Jedi's pockets.

"What should we do?" asked one.

"We must tell Mondula." replied the other.

Without another word, the two slave girls snapped the gambler's neck.

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Chapter: Prologue

2007-02-21T05:00:25Z

Title: Star Wars Episode II: Rise of the Twin Suns (1/?)

Author: Opal Lynn (opal . lynn (at) gmail . com) For more updates, spoilers and images from the story, please visit tsrii . livejournal . com

Rating: PG-13

Characters/Pairings: Anakin/Padmé, Obi-Wan, Darth Nathema (OC), Reysuu (OC)

Category:AU, Action, General

Disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

Summary: When the twin suns rise, the Order will fall.

Author's note: A special notice to any uber!geeks out there. I have not touched or read any of the Expanded Universe stuff, and all I've really been exposed to are the Star Wars movies and the KotOR games. However, I can play a pretty mean game of SW trivial pursuit, as long as it's film canon. So, this fic is essentially an AU take on episode II and eventually III (God willing I make it that far) with no major canon borrowed from outside the films. So be forgiving if everything doesn't match all the way back to KotOR days, or all the way forward into the EU-verse. I try to keep everything consistent with the original trilogy, without too much retconning. I'm just having fun here. Furthermore, I'm focusing primarily on characters and plot, so if I don't have all of the nitpicky details (like what material the Queen's cruiser was constructed out of, or the exact measurments of Obi-Wan underwear), please just forgive me.

Enough! On with the show!

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PROLOGUE
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"When two suns rise in silence
And two suns set alone
When one star burns its brightest
And all is set in stone.

"When soul abandons counsel
And logic eats the heart
When law forgets its virtues
And all is torn apart.

"When fear distributes quickly
And livens all to haste
When truth forgets its feeling
And love forgets its face.

"When future bends at present
And past is misconstrued
When paradox is pleasant
And malignance is renewed.

"When one sun sets in sorrow
And order swiftly falls
When one sun shines in darkness
And evil covers all.

"When one star leads to balance
And new light flickers through
When struggles meet with laughter
And two suns rise anew."

'Prophesy of the Two Suns',
24,400 BBY

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Scene: Adaleia reveals a secret

2007-02-18T02:53:28Z

This scene will be split in two, but for now it's packaged in this handy readable format!

I really like this scene for it's chemistry - the first half has raw sexual tension, and the second half has a much deeper psychological tension that sets up for a cool romance between Ada and Obi-Wan.

I'm pretty proud of this... I think it says the characters are developing feelings for eachother without the characters having to pronouce exactly how they feel in every other line of thought.

“The way I see it...”

“The way you see it indeed...”

“They way I see it, Jedi should be scholars. You shouldn’t have to carry around a weapon.” She struck her chest melodramatically, and her fist made a solid ‘THUNK’ against her sternum. “Don’t you think this,” she stabbed herself a few more times for effect, “sort of goes against...well... Everything you believe in?”

Obi-Wan raised his eyebrow, but was otherwise unmoved.

“I mean, the way I see it...” He nearly interjected again, but she looked at him severely. “You shouldn’t need a weapon. Jedi are above that, I think.”

“Are you saying that we just... shouldn’t fight? That everyone should just ‘get along’?”

“That would be nice, yes, but obviously that isn’t usually how the world spins – seeing as how we’re standing here fighting about fighting – and that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that there are other ways to hurt people than with a relatively limiting beam of plasma.”

“What in the world are y-“ Obi-Wan stopped abruptly and pressed his fingers to his neck. He couldn’t force air in or out of his throat; it was exactly as if two fingers were pinching off his windpipe. He looked at her and tried to say, “What the Hell, Ada!” because her fingers were pointed at him in a strange imitation of the ghost hand clutching at his throat, and here eyes were focused there as if she were trying to rip out his adam’s apple with her constricted pupils.

He felt his face growing warm with exertion, and opened and closed his mouth in an extremely vain attempt to dislodge the sensation in his throat. He couldn’t even cough or splutter - and he found his desire to do so very overwhelming - he could only wait and feel the heavy weight of his brain pressing painfully against the inside of his skull as it begged for oxygen.

He tried to shout at Ada again, but it was positively futile, so he just kicked her forcefully in the calf. In a giggly, high-pitched voice, she said, “ow!” her fingers dropped and the sensation vanished.

The minute the air hit his lungs, he lunged at her, patient Jedi Master be damned. Still fussing girlishly over the boot-sized bruise on her leg, Adaleia let out a half-surprised yelp as he crashed into her, knocking her to the floor in a flurry of robes and very breathless curse words.

“You,” gasp “Could,” heave “Have,” cough “Bloody,” pant “Killed me!” He pinned her flailing arms by her head and dug his shins down on her knees as she tried to kick at him.

“Shit! You really hate to be proven wrong!”

Obi-Wan squinted at her in his most menacing way. He had expected her to grunt “get off” or even to make some sort of innuendo, but instead she’d hit the nail right on the head, though she’d missed the edges a bit. And now she was laughing in that eyebrow-raised astonished sort of way; like a mad woman.

“What!” was the best he could spit at her, before glaring in earnest. “How long have you been able to do that?” The fact that she could do it at all was concerning, but the fact that she hadn’t bothered to tell him that she could do Sith-worthy choking tricks was all-out infuriating.

She continued laughing, though it was a little crueler now. “Oh, you know, self taught and everything.”

He squeezed her wrists roughly and she tried stupidly to strike him with her knee, but she only flopped around beneath him, her chest nearly smacking him in the face.

“I know you’re lying.” He hissed.

“Not really.” She let her head fall back with a cold-sounding thud. “Why? Think some no-good blood-drinking Sith lord taught me how to do it?”

“You know, sometimes it’s not that hard to believe, Ada! I don’t even know what side you’re on!”

“I told you, there’s no such thing as a si-“

“Please, we’ve had that fight already. Let’s concentrate on one argument at a time.” He stared at her squarely. “Were. Did. You. Learn. That?”

She inhaled sharply, her nostrils flaring just the slightest, threatening bit, before starting what he already knew was going to be a stupid, half-truth. “I...”

“And don’t lie to me, Reysuu. Don’t make me look into the icy, black depths of your soul.”

At the sound of her Huttese nickname she gave a half-hearted version of her usual snort and said pitifully, “get off.”

“Tell me.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m asking politely!”

“Really? I’d hate to see you when you’re being insistent!”

“Ada! Just spit it out!”

“Spit what out? Dammit, Obi-Wan!” She seemed pissed now, and she heaved him off with a spectacular grunt. But instead of darting out the door, she turned away, bending slightly and resting her head on her knee. He could just see her head, now bowed as if weighed down, one of her hands fisting in her hair. The muscles in her arms clenched and loosened, and she let out one great shuddering breath.

“What is it now?” he demanded glassily, standing up and looking at the white knuckles peaking out of her hair.

“I c-“ she shifted her head, looking at the wall opposite him. “I can’t tell you... I...’ her voice was high and strained, but it lowered into a whisper with her next words. “I know it’s a bad excuse. But you’d... I can’t tell you.”

Stonily, he asked her, “Does it have anything to do with the Sith?”

“N-no... I... Oh please... no...” A sob shook her body and she collapsed into it, weeping earnestly and taking shallow, panicked breaths.

“Obi-Wan, I swear! I’m not a bad person, you know that...” she didn’t sound convinced. “I’m not a bad person... I didn’t mean to... Oh shit... what else could I have done?” Her diaphragm had given up on her now, and she was hiccoughing between words. Jedi didn’t break down like this. He’d never seen anyone cry so desperately in his life, as if the pain was absolutely going to kill her.

“I want to tell you!” she sobbed and mumbled almost incomprehensibly to herself, “But... I can’t! No... Dammit! I want to tell you... so you’ll understand... But then you’ll know about...” she let out a long, low cry. “And I lied to you... I lied to all of you...”

Slightly panicked, Obi-Wan squatted down and clamped his hands around her arms, trying to look her in the face. But she was staring down at her hands; laying open and palm-up on her lap, trembling and covered in fat, runny tears.

“What is it?” His voice was quiet, as gentle as he could manage, but still very thin. He didn’t understand this panic falling off her in waves, didn’t quite comprehend how she had just utterly fallen apart and he was alarmed now, because she didn’t seem quite sure which pieces of herself were which. Even with the loss and struggle he had endured in his life, he had never experienced such a complete loss of self; the loss of reason in the face of such mind-consuming guilt.

"What did you do?" Obi-Wan was suprised at how weak his voice had become.

“I’m sorry...” she whispered, still speaking to her hands. “I’m so sorry.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t help it. His mouth fell open. Adaleia. Saying, “I’m sorry”? Not once had he heard her say “sorry” for anything; not when disrespecting the Council or tripping people on the street, not when she fought over stupid, stupid things, not for interrupting people or even when she was apologizing in her own, evasive way. He’d never heard her actually say it, and now that she did, it held an eerie amount of weight and truth because he knew she wasn’t kidding. She was painfully, wholly and purely sorry for something, something he hadn’t the slightest idea about.

“I’m sorry I lied to you... I should have just told you right when I met you, but I knew you’d just let them take me if I did... I... I don’t know...” She clenched her fists and the tears smeared over her fingers. “I’m sorry that we fight all the time and I’m sorry that I distract you from Anakin and I’m sorry that I fucked it all up for you. I... I should have just told you when I met you...”

Very quietly, he whispered, “Told me what?”

“That I'm a murderer.”

==========

If a bucket of ice water had been dumped over Obi-Wan's head, he knew that the feeling still wouldn't be as numbing as the impact of Adaleia's words.

"Murderer?" He repeated, trying to digest the cold, dark feeling growing in his stomach.

Adaleia shut her eyes, as if she were trying to forget what she had said - as if she were trying to wipe everything from view.

"Yes." She finally responded, unable to escape the question any longer.

"What are you talking about?" demanded Obi-Wan, by now, any patience and sympathy had leeched from his voice. "Who? When?"

At the sound of his cutting tone, Adaleia sobered somewhat.

"I... it was only a few days before you arrived. It was like any other fight day... I had just finished a challenge in the arena, and when I returned to my chambers I found a man in there. But he seemed completely deranged. He started saying all sorts of things that I didn't understand at the time... But I understand now... I know now what..." she shook her head, apparently dislodging an unpleasant thought.

"But at the time I thought he was crazy, Obi-Wan. Of course I never would have let it... if I'd known... If I'd just thought about it, maybe things would have been different." She paused to reflect breifly. "No. There was no way I could have understood, even if he'd been sober and reasonable.

"He was incredibly drunk, and he kept grabbing me, trying to drag me into the service tunnels. He kept saying he would give me all this money if I just came with him to stand before the Council... I didn't know what he was talking about... I thought he was going to sacrifice me or something... I had no idea..."

Obi-Wan tightened his grip on her arms as the peices started to fall into place. Adaleia winced at the strength of his grip, but she went on.

"He started pulling me... even drunk he was stronger than I was, and I couldn't fight him off. But the further away we got..." Her fingers twitched and she reached for her throat, but Obi-Wan still held her arms, his fingers clamping around her like a vice.

"The pain... it was horrible. I hadn't felt that kind of pain since they'd first taught me not to run..." Her eyes darkened. "I kept begging him to stop, I told him that if we didn't stop I would die, that I couldn't leave the palace, but he wouldn't listen. It was hurting so bad... you can't imagine how badly..."

Obi-Wan was watching the muscles in her neck twitch; all of them tensing as if that slave collar were still clamped there. There were still marks on her skin where the collar had been tight - Obi-Wan vividly remembered Anakin removing that collar, the way her neck was circled with a band of shining, fresh burns that oozed and bled. He could imagine all to vividly what it must have felt like.

"I was trying to tell him how much it hurt, but soon I couldn't speak at all... so I just started -"

This time, Obi-Wan finally released her arms, and she clawed at her neck with her fingers, her eyes clenched as if she were reliving every moment. "And then he just fell, gasping and choking like me. The pain was so terrible, I just ran without thinking. Once the pain was gone I knew it was too late, I knew I'd killed him. I'd killed creatures in the arena before without touching them, even though I didn't want to... But I didn't mean to kill him, I really didn't. I swear... I swear."

She didn't cry any more, her tears were long gone,a nd her sobbing had been reeplace by an unbearable silence that seemed to stretch on forever... just waiting.

Obi-Wan said nothing. He could think of nothign that was suitable. What could he say to her? What did he want to say to her? Reassure her that she was not a cold-blooded killer? Or reprimand her for loosing her control and killing an innocent man?

He had killed before, but always in the midst of battle, when there were few alternatives.

But he knew that was only a half-truth.

There had been a moment in his life where he had willfully taken the life of another, when he had wanted it, wished it. When he was naive enough to think that it would ease the pain of unexpected loss. But killing his master's assassin had not eased his heart, rather it had lain another heavy burden upon it. In his moment of revenge, he had forever opened himself to the taint of Darkness, and no matter how faint, it was always a stain in his mind.

Yes, Obi-Wan knew how it felt to have guilty blood on his hands. And so there was nothing he could say... he was no more qualified than Adaleia herself to answer her silent question:

Am I to blame?

"I suppose it's over now." she whispered.

Obi-Wan raised his eyes to hers questioningly.

"You'll tell the Council of my... wrongdoing... and they'll deny my training. I was dishonest to you and the Council, and I am responsible for the death of an innocent man."

"What you did, it was not murder..." Objected Obi-Wan quietly.

"Wasn't it? I acted out of blind panic fear. I put so much importance on my own life that I didn't even think what might happen if that fear lashed out." She looked at him squarely. "I lost control, Obi-Wan. And I think it may be too late for me to learn-"

"It's not." Interrupted Obi-Wan, surprising himself.

"I don't know. I don't know if this is right. Just because I have this ability... does that mean I must be a Jedi? I don't want to be a warrior, I don't want to fight anyone, or kill anyone. Not anymore. I've spent my whole life fighting everything because I didn't have a choice."

Adaleia slowly reached for Obi-Wan, timidly placing a hand over his. He noticed that her hand was still warm and moist from her tears.

"Now I do have a choice, Obi-Wan. And I choose something else."

For several silent moments she stared at him intently, before squeezing his hand.

"But... it's something I can't have."

Abruptly, she stood and headed for the door. Obi-Wan scrambled gracelessly to his feet and nearly shouted, "WAIT!" before grabbing her wrist lightly. She turned to look at him, her eyes fixed on his shoulder. He spoke clumsily, throwing out the first thing he could think of.

"We'll talk to the Council together. You can still be a Jedi. You should be a Jedi."

"We'll see." She responded softly.

Summary: The Elian Murder Plot

2007-02-17T23:04:50Z

This should not be happening!!!??? Why do I still come back to this damn fic!??

My new theory is that this fic will never die until I kill it damn dead. So I'm going to finish this fucking thing and you're all going to like it!!

HOOHA!

Also super important news! After 7... SEVEN unholy years of this fic not dying, I have changed the title. Yeah, that's right.

and now, in SUPER HUGE LETTERS!! the new title is:

Star Wars Episode II: Rise of the Twin Suns

On that note, here's a gigantic page of notes on a rather intricate murder plot to take place over chapters 3 and 4... and 5 probably.

The Elian Murder Mystery Plot

The man Ada kills is a fallen Jedi, gambler and all-around scoundrel named Tarlan. He was planning on taking Ada to the council in hopes of ressurecting his career as a Jedi, but he was too much of a washed up drunkard to realize that Ada couldn't leave Elian without blowing up. He pays to see her after a fight and tries to sneak her out through the servants quarters after he sends a shoddy message to the Jedi council, which is only opened after his death. The council later forwards this transmission to the trio when they learn he is tracking the Sith spacecraft to Elian. They ask them to investigate Tarlan, unaware that he's been killed - they caution the trio to be careful because there is a treaty between the Republic and the free planet that no registered citizens can be removed from Elian under any circumstances, and to do so could cause a large upset, especially if a Jedi or an Illegitimate is involved (which they are). Obi-Wan tracks Bhateza while Padme and Ani play detective.

While Tarlan is trying to sneak her out, Ada's collar goes haywire. Besides the Elian control chip, she has an additional system in her body which was put in place during the exchange at her birth - this system is integrated though a collar which she must wear at all times and it ties her to Mondula. She can only venture so far from her master without enduring physical torment and eventually death. While they are 'escaping', Ada begins to feel the horrible pains and begs Tarlan to stop. Being a half-trained Jedi he's a bit stronger than her, so only in a final act of desperation is she able to free herself, and she accidentally kills him using a force choke.

The 'fluids' on Tarlan's hands are actually from Bhateza, who seduced Tarlan and convinced him to try and take Ada off-planet. She used the new (SCANDALOUS) DNA cloning implements to create a traceable 'fluid' that she plants on Tarlan while they..... ehem. She attained the DNA by pretending to be a fan at one of the fights, catching a bloody scrap of cloth. This causes Ada to be a suspect for murder which creates an uproar because she is insanely valuable property to Mondula and he doesn't want to compromise her value or execute her. So by the time the trio lands, this has become a rather big cover-up in which Mondula is trying to knock-off the police. Deur is the only one stupid enought to be noble and he tries to get to the bottom of things and he infiltrates the palace, where he is helped by Bhateza under the alias Nesstwa Mantage.

Together, Mantage and Deur plant Obi-Wan in Ada's room and make it look as if she's been hoarding funds from Mondula. Bhateza plants money in Ada's room (large amounts), which is expressly forbidden for slaves to have any private funds, and then they stage it so that Mondula's cronies walk in and find Obi-Wan and Ada together. Deur could have planted money on Obi-Wan during all of the jostling in the area as well, so that it looks like a private exchange. This upsets Mondula enough to agree to have Ada executed, and thus the race to get off-planet begins.

Luckily, Anakin has created a deactivator for slave chips (because he's so obsessed with the idea of liberating Tatooine) and he uses this to disable the Elian control chip in Ada's head. Obi-Wan didn't know Ani was working on this little 'project', and this creates some tension between them. Unfortunately, no one knows how to deactivate Ada's collar chip.

But of course Bhateza doesn't want Ada destroyed, so she kills Mondula and supplants him with Galla the Hutt, who she has formulated quite an agreement with. This kills two birds with one stone - getting Ada off planet and creating an Anti-Jedi stronghold to build the Empire upon later.

Mondula's Palace

2006-04-06T19:33:45Z

References:
http://www.geocities.com/wermosguidetohuttese/Huttese101.html
http://huttese.fw.hu/
http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/shmiskywalker/

Some info on Elian and Mondula's Palace:

Basic (the language) is not recognized or even acknowledged on Elian. The government tries to convince the populace that there is no such thing as interplanetary travel, and so there is no such thing as an interplanetary language (Basic).
The only languages legally spoken on Elian are Huttese and Elese.
Because of her status as a slave, Adaleia deals with lots of people from other planets (bounty hunters, smugglers and the like), and even though they are forbidden to speak to her in Basic or talk about interplanetary travel, she has gained a little experience with Basic and knows that something is going on. Somehow she teaches herself Basic; I'm not sure the details of this are very important to the story.
Because she is such a disobediant slave, Ada remains chained to Mondula at all times (except when she is in the arena, where she is chained to something else so that Mondula is not put in danger). This is more symbolic than anything else, and the chain is quite long, so she is not constantly with Mondula.

Info on Ada, Shmi, and Slavery

Shmi was a dancer in Mondula's palace. When she became pregnant with twins, her masters assumed she had either been having unregulated relationships or had been hoarding men and money. She was labeled as a disgraceful slave and sentenced to death.
A mysterious stranger (Sidious or his Plagueis) intervened and offered Mondula an outrageous settlement to purchase Shmi and tranfer her to a lesser status as a labor slave on Tattooine (eventually she would be the property of Gardulla, and then Watto).
Mondula demanded a replacement dancing girl and was granted permanent ownership of Shmi's daughter along with several fully matured girls. (who would end up raising Ada).

Have 'permanent' ownership of Ada meant that she could not be lost in bets or sold/traded/freed. She is a quality invesment, because if Mondula ever lost money or had to sell slaves, he could still keep Ada and 'keep up appearances' without having to pay anyone for her or sell her for funds.
By doing this (Sidious or Plagueis), ensured that Ada would still be with Mondula when she matured, which would make her easier to find.
The brand on Ada's back represents this permanent ownership.

When the twins were born, Ada was removed immediately and Shmi was told that she had died; which is why Anakin never learned about his sister.

Timeline for the Mondula Palace Sequence

Notes: Jedi, the prophesy, Anakin

2006-04-03T23:22:36Z

Last night when I absolutely could not sleep because I had the scariest dream I've ever had (I got shot in the back of the head while sleeping), To comfort myself from the TERROR oh the TERROR, I got around to thinking about Star Wars.

Brainstorms:

- Just as an interesting detail: Jedi's can't own anything, so I assume they can't buy clothes or whatever, and that's why they all wear the same thing. I bet they have to make their clothes themselves, just like their lightsabers, which is why their clothess are...(shifty eyes)... so ugly. I mean... HUMBLE (*cough*)

- When Ada gets kicked out of the Order, Obi-Wan is appointed to the council because he showed the ability to (BE A TOTAL ASS) control his emotions. Ada finds this out when the quartet is on Naboo, and she is NOT happy about it.

- Although Lightside!Anakin encourages his sister to become a Jedi, and even though he helps train her, Darkside!Anakin still kills her when he is convinced by Palpatine that she is too powerful to remain alive. Ada actually never becomes a truly 'great' Jedi, though her natural abilities take her far enough. Palpatine manages to convolute the truth and convince Anakin that the siblings are too powerful to exist together at once, that in order for Anakin to gain whatever superhuman ability he wants, he has to destroy his sister so that he can have whatever 'power' might have been split between them. This is totally rediculous, of course... but *shhh*, don't tell him.

The prophesy is never revealed to Anakin, and this is a major problem, since it would have cleared this issue right up. He still thinks he is 'the chosen one', when in fact the only way for him to remain powerful and whole, he has to be part of the 'two' (will find cooler name soon). When Anakin kills his sister, he actually falls into Palpatine's trap and becomes weak and essentially powerless, basically becoming Sidious' servant. (if you wantch the trilogy, you'll see that Vader really isn't 'all powerful' until the third movie. In the first two, he's definately the big, scary underdog of the admirals. He has no actual political power, he's just a giant terrifying bodyguard.)

And I'm to tired to do this idea justice right now... but since in my book Obi-Wan is 'the chosen one', I'm going to make some big significance about his line in ep.IV: "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

I'm so wiped...

Scene: The Arena

2005-06-25T07:49:51Z

HOLY CRAP! I just wrote almost 2000 words! woah! And it makes sense! It's pretty much all action too, which is really hard for me to write. There are tons of typos and little problems, but STILL. Horray!

Obi-Wan managed to track the Sith woman's vessel to an outer-rim planet thickly draped in greenery and vegetation, but she had managed to pry the tracking device from the hull of her ship and leave it in the bottom of a murky pond. Unfortunatly, this did not give Obi-Wan a very good idea of where to search next.

The air was thick; almost liquid, and Obi-Wan had to make a very conscious and desperate attempt to move as little as possible in order to keep from overheating. The earth was green as far as the eye could see, bright, colorful moss covered every spare inch of dirt between the monstrous trees, and ferns and exotic flowers crept thickly in the undergrowth, letting out strong, suffocating perfumes that were almost visible in their potency.

Obi-Wan leaned against the nearest tree and tried to center himself. His first instict had been to patrol the area from the sky with his fighter, but the density and consistency of the trees had prevented that from being very effective at all. His only true option was to follow his gut and seek her through the Force, which would also prove difficult on such a teeming planet.

He reached out slowly and calmly with his mind, careful not to overexert himself or use too much strain; he wasn't sure how much energy he would need for whatever lay between him and the Sith; he was entirely unfamilliar with this planet, a thought that made him both apprehensive and cautious.

Sorting though the mass of life was confusing, and the heat pressed in on all sides like a thick blanket of water, but Obi-Wan simply inched nearer to the tree, attempting to use it's life-force as a grounding spot, attempting to separate himself from the dampness, from the claustrophobic noise of the Living Force crowding in from all directions.

At last he found something, a dark whisper some distance away. It was as if she was calling to him, luring him closer, egging him on. His better judgement warned him that it was a trap, but his sense of logic reminded him that unfortunately, he had no other choice but to follow her lead.

He just hoped that by the time he reached her hideaway, he hadn't collapsed from heat stroke.

-----

"500 units on the acklay!"

"600 on the girl!"

"How about this? 1,000 units on the girl and a private donation for good luck!"

There was scattered laughter throughout the betting compound, the distant shrieks of a caged animal and the light pattering music of a palace lounge echoing across the heads of the patrons.

"Mondula's really been raking in the cash these days. That Resioux girl is something. If I could get one piece of the pot that filty slug has been collecting, I'd..."

"If I could get one peice of Resioux!"

"More like she'd bite off a piece of you!"

There was more laughter, and the sound of shuffling feet as Elese Units were dropped into collective bins. The specators were gradually being ushered through several large doorways, clambering slowly up several flights of stairs to the observation level, safe from harm's way. The various creatures that took the stage at the palace of Mondula the hutt were oftimes not very pleased to have an audience, and a lot of distance was required to prevent unwanted heads being bitten off.

A dark figure slipped from the crowd and lingered unnoticed on the main betting floor, waiting. Every so often, its hood would lift as it turned sharply, and a glimmering strand of blond hair would drift out, only to be snuffed out as if by a wave of smoke. When its prey appeared, it whisked up the steps, making sure to be seen.

Obi-Wan glanced around the lobby, listening to the distant sound of a palace band playing and the din of spectators in the arena ahead. It certainly had the look, feel, and smell of a Huttese Palace, and unless he was sorely mistaken, some sort of gladitor vs. beast even was not far from taking place. He was a little unnereved that the sith had led him here - being tossed to a rancor was about the most unpleasant thing he could imagine after his long and exhausting tromp though the forest - but he didn't sense any immediate danger. For him anyway.

He snuck past the gammoreans who were guarding the entrance to the arena, waving his arm in another direction and nearly rolling his eyes when they simply looked away. He followed a narrow, winding staircase, the sound of the crowd gradually getting louder. When he emerged onto the spectator level, he immediately caught a flash of blond hair and black robes, so he brought his hood closer about his face and sat down slowly in the middle of the crowd.

It would be useless to persue her here without drawing unwanted attention, and places like this were very bad spots to pick a fight. An uncontrollable brawl was exactly the sort of thing he did not need to happen in the execution arena of a Hutt's palace. Better not to be noticed for any reason whatsoever in a place like this. Better to stay quiet and watch for her, wait for her to try and spring her trap.

Just as he had settling down into his observational position, the crowd erupted around him, and his view was blocked in all directions by the backsides of various rowdy and unpleasant alien species. Obi-Wan grimaced, but stayed down, using the cheering crowd as cover for a moment, simply collecting his breath. It was still suffocatingly hot, even within the palace walls, and the copious amount of bodies packed into the area did not make things much better.

A strange, primal drum started up in the far corner of the pit below, rumbling like a roar of thunder as a humanoid creature hit it as hard as possible. Obi-Wan could see glimpses of the floor below through the shifting legs of the crowd around him, but suddenly they silenced and sat down, as if in sudden apprehension. The resident hutt appeared before the crowd, perched in his fine box above the rest of the crowed, cooled by a pair slender slave girls holding enourmous ribbed fans. It raised its arms and hit a large, silver lever, exclaiming,

"She-Who-Spits now hisses for your attention!"

In the arena below, the enormous drum sounded again, and a thick metal gate rose slowly, creaking. The hutt clapped its hands as if in delight, took a deep gulp from a goblet offered by a slave girl, and sat back, its enormous, glassy eyes on the stadium below.

As the the thunderous drum settled into a frightening rythm, Obi-Wan turned his attention to the pit. The gate raised completely and a girl emerged, a feirce, predatory glint in her eyes. A chorus of heavy-handed drums started along with the first, and she started to dance.

Her hair was done up into elaborite braids and coils, each fixed with jangling metal beads and tiny bells, a sign of a prized dancing girl. Her dancer's garb was metal as well, crafted from a fine golden mesh and deep red leather, with strands of shinging beads hanging all down her arms and stomach. As she moved these ornaments rustled and jingled to the beat of the drums, and there seemed to be an almost entrancing sound emanating from the primal and unrefined movements of her body.

Like most dancing girls, she was mostly nude, but her many ornaments and confident, flowing movements made her appear heavily sheilded, like a warrior.

Just as Obi-Wan was beginning to fit the unfortunate peices together, the Hutt pushed on another lever, opening a tall, menacing gate behind the dancing girl. A loud, high shriek spilled over the crowd, not from the girl, but from an enormous many-legged beast which was being tasered out into the arena.

The girl continued dancing, but she turned to face the creature, which Obi-Wan vaguely recognized as an acklay. Her movements seemed to calm the creature and ensite the crowd, which soon grew rowdy as they tried to goad the beast into attacking.

As if frustrated, the drumming ceased, only to return as one, bone-splintering CRASH that seemed to wake the acklay from its daze and send it into a spitting rage. It lunged at the girl, but she dodged as if it were part of her elaborite routine and continued. Obi-Wan suddenly realized that the girl had no weapons; there were none lain out for her, and she had none on her person. Even if she managed to dodge the acklay for hours, he could not see a way she could kill it without having a bladed weapon to penetrate it's thick reptilian skin.

But his question was quickly answered as she danced flirtatiosly around the towering creature, it's sharp, talon-like limbs swinging wildly at her in every direction. She was much smaller that it was, however, and was able to slip between it's legs and avoid its every blow with a stunning accurasy that Obi-Wan found jarringly familliar and extremely unnerving.

She had managed to work the acklay into such a blind fury that eventually it was trying to kill her without regard to its own safety, and it had several bleeding fissures where it had inadvertantly struck itsef in an attempt to get at her.

In a daring and nearly impossible next move, she leapt on to the creature's back and darted up to it's head, which lowered under her weight. She snapped off one of the strands of golden beads and held it whip-like in her hands, sending it flashing down into the creature's eyes until it was surely blinded. It wailed madly and thrashed in pain, and Obi-Wan could have sworn that a look of mild guilt passed her face before she resumed her attack, looping the chain around the creaure's delicate neck and pulling until it gagged, now trying desperately to fling her off. She tightened her legs determindly and forced it's head down.

As a last-ditch attempt to rid itself of her, it waved it's strong front claws at her, but she dodged and the creature delivered itself a fatal blow to the skull as she tried to spin away, getting glanced at the last minute by a thick, razor-sharp talon and plummeting to the hard, dusty floor. The acklay struggled and cried in agony, it's movements becoming more spasmatic as a slow trickle of blood ran from it's head.

The girl stood and walked slowly to the dying animal, showing no sign of outward fear. She knelt before the creature and placed a hand upon it's large, feroscious face, and it let out a soft mewling noise before shuddering a final time and becoming still.

For a moment she knelt there as if in thought, before standing and holding her bloodied hands up to the crowd.

=====

The area exploded with a cacophony of hollering as the gamblers saw the final outcome of the battle. The sweaty creatures packed in around Obi-Wan all stood up and began clamouring around, looking for their bookies and agents. Through the mess of bodies, Obi-Wan could vaguely see the dancing girl walking off the area floor into a dark room, where a heavy gate was thrown down behind her. Shortly after, he saw a familiar flash of blonde, and his stomach dropped.

This would be it then. Her trap. She would lead him away from the commotion of the crowd and confront him when everyone would be too distracted to notice a brawl. In fact, there were a number of fistfights breaking out in the crowd while the hutt master watched from its box with amusement, and Obi-Wan decided it was high time to get out of the arena, even if a Sith was waiting for him in the palace.

As quickly and slyly as possible, Obi-Wan edged out of the crowd and fought his way toward the exit. Predictibly,

I might keep working on this, but right now I have to eat and pee like a mad man.

The Prophesy

2005-06-09T04:30:51Z

Wow. I'm busy like a bee!

The 'Prophesy'

-----

When Two Walk in Silence
And all walk alone,
When Fire licks at water
And safety lies in stone.

When One lies encumbered
And numbers lie in wait
When riddles speak freely
And safty lies in fate.

When fear distributes quickly
And livens all to haste
When truth forgets its feeling
And love forgets its face.

When Two walk in shadow
And all forget to see
When Fire burns too swiftly
And scatters the debris.

When council leaves the mind
And logic eats the heart
When safety permits danger
And all is torn apart.

When balance comes in one
And perfection meets in two
When struggles meet with celibration
And all begins anew.

When anger mates with sadness
And all life cries in pain
When sadness envies hatred
And grace loss leads to gain.

When future bends at present
And past is misconstrued
When paradox is pleasant
And malignance is renewed.

- Ru'matii, Jedi Master

Outline: Chapters 1 and 2

2005-06-09T03:18:54Z

This is starting to actually make SENSE! Woah!

Warning! SPOILERS!!

10 years after the Battle of Naboo...
(all spoilers/author's notes are italisized)

~ Darth Sidious orders Nesstwa (Darth Bhateza) to fake an attempt on Queen Amidala's life.
Because Palpatine still needs Amidala to succeed in his plans in the senate, Sidious ensures that the queen will not be 'harmed'. The goal of the attack is to draw the Jedi to Elian, to find Anakin's sister and to increase Sidious' chances of drawing one (or both) to the Dark Side.

~ Fooled by the Sith Apprentice's trap, Obi-Wan follows Nesstwa off planet to Elian, while Anakin stays with the queen to keep her safe. Anakin and Padme send a distress message to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, cautioning him.

~ Bhateza leads Obi-Wan to the palace where Coo-Am Resioux is enslaved. She stages an arrest attempt on Coo-Am, working through her former business partner: Leutenant Deur Rai.
Coo-Am Resioux is native Elise for 'she who spits'. Though originally designated to be a dancing girl like her mother (as per the agreement set down at her and Anakin's birth), Coo-Am eventually becomes a bit of a 'showgirl', due to her inability to be killed by any of the monsters the hutts continually throw her to as punishment for her disobedience. At the time that Obi-Wan encounters her, she has become popular enough for people to gather to place bets on her, and she has become one of her master's favorite pets. In order to place an arrest warrant on Coo-Am's head, Deur (by Nesstwa's orders), claims that Coo-Am has been hoarding prize money and trying to steal from her master. Needless to say, this is not a very well tolerated practice amongst the hutts

~ Obi-Wan senses Coo-Am's affinity to the Force and attempts to rescue her, but they are nearly unable to escape due to Coo-Am's security implant.
At the last minute, she calls upon a 'dream' and tears it out, enabling them to get away.

Adalia

Image: Adaleia

2005-06-08T22:01:51Z

A picture of Adaleia, based on two images. One, to look like this picture that was always my metal image of her, and Two, to look like Anakin. since they are/are not?? related.

Hmm... Must speak with Stacey....

Image: Obi-Wan and Adaleia

2005-06-08T21:07:19Z

I finished that cute picture of Obi-Wan and Adaleia

The words are the lyrics to Snow Patrol's "Run". Listen to it sometime. It sums their relationship up nicely.

Notes: Ada's Name

2005-05-25T17:07:15Z

Just perusing around babynames.com again, and finding a couple nice names.

Adalia
Acacia (hehe... it means 'thorny')
Alameda
Aldeia
Allanya
Annora (with honor)

Combos:

Anaceia (thorny honor...ehehehe)
Anallia (weary honor... Leia means 'weary')

I dunno... I'm just bored...waiting for my father to bring me food. Even if it IS from Arbys....

HUNGRY!

Notes: Ada's name

2005-05-23T13:56:03Z

Man oh man, I'm a lazy poo head.

But, due to the third movie coming out, I am filled with inspiration. At least, I mean that I haven't been able to think about anything other than STAR WARS STAR WARS STAR WARS for the past week or so.

Which isn't necisarily BAD or anything.

New, Strange Ideas

Coo-Am's getting a new name! When she is first intruduced, she will be going by that name, but it's not her REAL name, since she never knew it, did she? The name Coo-Am Resioux is some sort of rebellion against the government, and in the language of Elian means something like 'nameless' or something. (ah HA!) I've decided to ACTUALLY make her Anakin's twin sister, to mirror Luke/Leia, and so her name shall start with an A. I also want to make it sound a bit like Leia (the way Anakin has a 'k' in it, just like luKe).

Here are a few thoughts
Alaneia Skywalker (pronounced Ah -la -neigh- ah )
Adaleia Skywalker (pronounced with all long 'ah' sounds "Ah-dah-leigh-ah)
Adeia Skywalker

I really like Adaleia, although I'm worried about what her nickname would be. Ada kind of sounds goofy, and Leia is sort of weird too, since it's taken.

Well, whatever. I think it'll work to have them be twins, since I'm just gonna go all out AU with the fic. WHEE!

I hope it doesn't sound too much like 'Amanda'. (no MARY SUE!!!) And plus, I hate my name anyway, so I wouldn't want to inflict it on one of my characters.

I have more ideas, but I'm out of time at the moment. I shall try to return!!

*flees*

Images: Obi-Wan and Adaleia sketch

2005-01-26T11:00:56Z

Just a little sample of something I worked on tonight. Just a sketch I dug out of my notepad, from sometime in '04. It got all smudged, so I had to photoshop it for it to even really look the way it should have. But it's CUUUUUUTE. I made Adaleia a little taller, finally, and gave her some color. She's got a dark green top (rather than just straight black), and because I've made her into crazy Uber!Bitch, I'm giving her snazzy red boots. I also adjusted her hair color to look a little more like Anakin's. Obi-Wan is pretty much same-old, same-old, except he's shorter and stockier than I usually draw him. But I think that's good. It makes him... more... well, YOU know. Obi-Wan-ish. Ada's blush isn't drawn in yet, but it'll be so friggen cute.

CUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTE *wibble*

Just as an afterthought, I REALLY should have gone to sleep tonight. I'm the stupidest person I know.

Image: Amidala

2005-01-26T06:23:51Z

I'm in the mood for distractions, so I'm going to start posting random fan art here on top of the nonexistant fic posts. I drew this during finals week, when I was really bored. It was drawn over a couple of days, during like, five-minute intervals, so it's got a lot of...er... problems. Like her head is too freakin big. But the head is also the best part, and I really think her head dress is nifty. So bah.

And not really fancy enough to be Queen...but... bah. Amidala clothes are hard.

Rant: KotOR

2005-01-25T15:38:10Z

So I bought KOTOR II and am so like...WAH. Although it is KOTOR, its done by a different company, and it's a lot more... LOOOOOOOOOONG. You have to sit through all this 'mysterious' dialogue and then try and wade your way through the really confusing, morally ambiguous storyline. Though the ambiguity is rather interesting. One of your buddies is a total unlikable sleaze, one is a cratchety old woman, one is T3-M4, and I think one might end up being HK-47, if you fix him.(Yay!) The only character I actually like is this one dude who's name looks a lot like Barad Dur (sp?) and he looks like Darth Maul's softspoken brother. He's good with droids, and he's the only person in the game who's actually NICE to you. (yay for kindness!)

And I randomly keep getting Dark Side points for helping people. Which is... confusing.

Though why my crew is on the Ebon Hawk, and who the bloody heck I am, I couldn't tell you. If my character ends up being *a certain someone* again, I'll just be like...well why did I waste my time with THAT?? And we've only seen Carth twice. And both times he was a hologram. Wah.

Me lovest Carth. But I think all the female KOTOR players do. He rocks.

ANYWAY. KOTOR in general just gives me cool ideas all the time. I can't think of any of them at the moment, ironically, but they're there.

HMMM...see, now I'm just wasting time, sitting in the library, BORED, because eveyone in my bio class is taking something to do with State tests. And I think I'm done with all o' that. (hooray)