Part V
Anakin sat cross-legged on the floor of the Queen's sitting
room, eyes half closed in meditation. Only a few standing lights were still burning and
the door to the bedroom was securely shut. Suddenly his eyes popped open and he got to his
feet. A moment later the lift door opened for Qui-Gon, still accompanied by Obi-Wan and
Jacen.
"Captain Typho has more than enough men
downstairs." Obi-Wan was saying. "No assassin will try that way."
The Master nodded, face closed eyes distant. His past and
present Padawans looked at him and then at each other, they knew that look.
"Master?" Anakin prodded.
Qui-Gon blinked, focused on him, smiled. "Anything to
report?"
"Quiet as a tomb. The girls went to bed an hour or so
ago." Anakin glanced uneasily around the luxurious room. "I don't like just
waiting here for something to happen to her."
"Don't anticipate, Anakin, focus on the moment."
the Master sat down on one of the couches. "We must be patient."
"I'm sorry, Master," Anakin shrugged at little.
"I'm not much good at patience."
An amused glance from the Master. "I know."
Obi-Wan picked up the small security monitor lying on a
table, frowned at the blank screen." "What's this?"
"She wouldn't let me put any cameras in her room."
Anakin explained, adding apologetically. "I don't think she liked the idea of me
watching her."
"What is she thinking?" Obi-Wan looked towards the
bedroom door as if tempted to shake the Queen awake and demand an explanation.
"Artoo is in there with her," Anakin assured
Qui-Gon, "set on surveillance mode. He'll pick up an intruder as quickly as the
cameras would."
"I'm not worried about intruders." Obi-Wan snapped.
"Professional assassins have ways of killing from a distance that not even Artoo
could detect."
"I know but we want to catch this assassin, don't we,
Master?" Anakin countered, still addressing Qui-Gon.
"You're using her as bait." Obi-Wan sounded
incredulous as well as angry.
"It was her idea." Anakin retorted defensively.
Turned back to Qui-Gon. "Don't worry, no harm will come to her. I'm aware of
everything going on in that room."
"It's too risky." said Obi-Wan, also to Qui-Gon,
then to Anakin. "Besides, your senses aren't that attuned, young Padawan."
"And yours are?" Anakin challenged, temper fraying.
Obi-Wan's look was sternly quelling. "Possibly."
"Obi-Wan is older and more experienced." the Master
cut in quietly. "And you are letting emotion cloud your mind, Anakin. Let go of fear
and feel the Living Force."
His Padawn bit his lip. "I'll try, Master."
"Do or do not, there is no try." Jacen quoted in a
rather good imitation of Yoda's voice. Both Anakin and Obi-Wan grinned and the tension
between them eased.
"Stay with us, Obi-Wan." Qui-Gon continued.
"It may be we'll solve your problem as well as our own tonight."
******************************************
Hours passed. The Master occupied one couch, radiating peace
as he meditated, Jacen the other, openly dozing. Obi-Wan and Anakin stood near the bedroom
door talking in undertones.
"Master risked his own future with the Order to see you
trained," Obi-Wan was saying with quiet intensity, "will you throw that gift
back in his face?"
"Of course not!" Anakin hissed back. "I'd
never do that to him."
"Then *think* about what you are doing, Anakin!"
the young Master retorted. "If you continue to follow your impulses you could hurt a
lot of people," nodded towards the bedroom, "including her!" his voice
softened. "Not to mention yourself."
"I've thought about her and dreamed about her every day
for the last ten years." Anakin admitted painfully. Took a breath. "You're
right, Padme's an attachment, like my Mother, and like Mom I've got to let her go."
Obi-Wan put a consoling hand on his shoulder. Suddenly both
their heads swivled towards the door.
"Obi-Wan!"
"I feel it also."
Sabres drawn they sprinted into the Queen's Bedroom
Amidala woke with a shock. She had a split second glimpse of
segmented, multi-legged *somethings* before they vanished in a flash of green light. Saw
Anakin standing over her on the bed, sabre blazing in his hand, and Obi-Wan go through the
window with a crash of glass and clash of blinds.
"Idiot!" Anakin doused his sabre and ran out past
Master Qui-Gon. The other Padawan started to follow but the Master called him back.
"No, Jacen, I need you here."
Eirtae and Rabe hurtled into the room, flinging themselves
down beside her. "Your Highness, are you all right?"
Amidala managed a nod, her voice wasn't working yet.
Typho was right behind them with a pair of guards. "What
happened?"
"The Queen is safe." Qui-Gon told him but she
musn't stay here."
"She can come down to my rooms." Jamillia spoke
breathlessly from the doorway, a robe clutched around her and a handmaiden at her back.
"An excellent idea, Senator. Your Highness?"
"Yes, yes of course." Amidala said shakily. She got
out of bed, Rabe quickly draped a dressing gown over her. She started for the door,
Eirtae's arm around her. Paused to look at the broken window and then at the Master.
"Obi-Wan, Anakin...?"
"They'll be all right." he reassured her. Eyebrows
quirked ruefully. "I'm afraid both my past and present Padawans are somewhat
reckless."
Amidala scraped up a smile. "I wonder where they could
have learned it from?" and his eyes crinkled in answering amusement.
"Come on, Ammi," Jamillia said taking her arm,
"it'll be just like at school. Remember how we used to sneak into each others rooms
after hours?" they headed for the lift, the other four women clustered tightly around
her, and nearly collided with Jar Jar followed by a pair of armed Gungans.
"Padme! Yousa not hurtin?"
"I'm fine, General Binks, don't worry." then they
were in the lift, the doors closing behind them, as Jar Jar demanded; "Captain Typho,
whatsa goin' on herin?"
Part VI
Anakin wove frantically through the nightime traffic high
above the rooftops of Coruscant. Flashes of blaster fire some distance away caught his
eye. "That's gotta be him." he decked the accelerator but by the time he got to
the scene there was no blaster fire, no assassin droid, just a spread-eagled human body
falling towards the brightly lighted canyons thousands of feet below.
Anakin dove steeply, pulled up and Obi-Wan landed on the
speeder's stern as neatly as one could please. He clambered breathlessly into the
passenger seat.
"Master Kenobi, fancy meeting you here." Anakin
greeted mockingly
"What took you so long?" the other snapped.
"You know me, Obi-Wan, I had to find a speeder I really
liked; mach 10 engines, open cockpit, totally cool paint job -"
"I am underwelmed by your wit, Padawan." the
Master's voice dripped icicles, "Where's Jacen?"
"Back with our Master I guess, he didn't catch up with
me in time." As they spoke Anakin spotted a sleek closed speeder leaving with
suspicious speed and gave chase. "That him?"
Obi-Wan's face went blank a moment as he searched the Force.
"Yes!"
"Riiight!" Anakin hit the accelerator again.
Sensing he was being followed the assassin wove confusingly
through traffic lanes, between buildings and through the interlaced beams of a
half-finished skyscraper.
Obi-Wan clung white knuckled to the side of the speeder.
"Careful! Hey, easy!"
"Sorry, Master, I forgot you don't like flying."
The speeder dropped a few feet, just enough to miss an oncoming transport.
"I don't like flying with *you*!" Obi-Wan retorted.
Anakin looked over at him. "Obi-Wan, you know I've been
flying since before I could walk I'm very good -"
"Watch where you're going!" an oncoming stream of
private speeders split to avoid them.
Anakin dropped out of the lane. "Sorry about that."
Obi-Wan closed his eyes, inhaled a calming breath. "Just
slow down." he said in carefully measured tones. Opened his eyes, pointed.
"There! There he goes."
The assassin's speeder ducked behind a line of freight
transports. Anakin went under them, gaining steadily as the two vehicled banked right
turns around tower spires and neon billboards. Attempting to elude his pursuer the
assassin ducked into a tram tunnel. Anakin promptly followed.
"Wait! Don't go in there!" Obi-Wan gasped as the
tunnel closed around them.
"Don't worry, Master, I know what I'm doing."
Anakin assured him. They skimmed round a bend and right into their prey, accelerating
frantically towards them with a tram filling the tunnel behind.
Anakin flipped the speeder upside down in a tight loop-over
and raced out of the tunnel barely ahead of speeder and commuter tram.
Beyond speech Obi-Wan gave his companion a withering look.
"Okay, that was a mistake." Anakin conceeded. The
Assassin's speeder pulled along side, a blaster barrel protruded from a side window,
Obi-Wan ducked just in time.
"Oops!" Anakin hit the brakes, dropping behind and
under their attacker, safe from blaster fire. The assassin dove steeply downward, skimmed
low over the flat roofs of a continent sized industrial complex, forcing Anakin to fall
behind again.
"Right. This isn't working."
"No kidding." Obi-Wan said acidly. Their prey
pulled further ahead, shooting through a quasi-tunnel of giant energy couplings topping a
power plant. "Anakin! don't go through there!"
Ignoring him the younger Jedi accelerated right after the
assassin, under and through the gigantic arcs of blue lightening leaping from coupling to
coupling.
"How many times have I told you, stay away from power
couplings!" Obi-Wan complained as they shot free.
Anakin grinned. "Yeah, but don't you just love that
powerfield tingle?"
"No actually." Obi-Wan scanned the skies.
"There he goes!"
"This is getting old." Anakin muttered as they
darted upward in pursuit. "We gotta get ahead of him somehow."
The assassin's speeder veered sharply, diving into a
brilliantly lighted throughway for air traffic piercing a dense range of multi-spired
towers. Anakin banked the other way looping around the buildings.
"What are you doing? you're going the wrong way."
Ani shook his head, eyes unfocused. "No I'm not. This is
a shortcut." blinked. "I think."
"You *think*?" Obi-Wan echoed, incredulously.
They hovered above the stream of traffic emerging from the
throughway for long seconds.
Obi-Wan, grimly. "You've lost him."
Anakin, calmly. "No I haven't."
Obi-Wan begining to lose his temper. "He went completely
the other way!"
Anakin, even more calmly. "We'll see."
Obi-Wan breathed, regaining his composure. "Anakin,
we've lost him. We should -"
"Excuse me, Master." Anakin said politely and
vaulted over the side of the speeder - falling some five stories to land right on top of
the assassin's speeder cruising beneath them.
Looking after him Obi-Wan shook his head, muttered. "I
hate it when he does that."
Part VII
Anakin clawed for a handhold on the sleek surface of the
speeder as the wind tore at him.
*Okay, maybe this wasn't such a brilliant idea.*
He worked his way painfully forward to the transparent
canopy, looked in. For an instant it was a woman's face looking back at him with big dark
eyes then abruptly, without warning, it shifted to something grey skinned and quite
inhuman.
*A Changeling!*
The assassin, whatever she or it was, braked suddenly and
Anakin nearly went flying, barely catching himself on the left prong of the forked front,
dangling by his hands.
*Calm, remember calm."
He managed to swing over to the right prong and then work his
way up on top again. The assassin, back in Human form, glared at him through the canopy as
he ignited his sabre to cut his way in. Grabbed the blaster lying on the seat next to her
and fired up at him.
Anakin just managed to block the bolt, not easy at such close
quarters, but the impact knocked the sabre from his hand.
*Oh no, not again!*
He shoved his hand through the hole in the canopy, grabbing
the assassin's wrist as she tried for a second shot. It went wild, striking the control
board and the speeder began to lose altitude, bucking wildly.
Anakin hung on as the assassin fought for control but the
impact as they hit the pavement of a pedestrian way sent him flying into a row of fuel
drums.
Picking himself up he looked around. Not one of Coruscant's
more salubrious districts, a varigated crowd of panhandling undersiders, criminals,
con-artists and slumming glitterati were lit by garish neon signs as they wandered along
an esplanade of gritty entertainment clubs. A few glanced at Anakin but quickly looked
away, not wanting to get involved.
He pushed through the crowd to the crashed speeder, saw the
assassin climb out and gave chase, pushing and shoving people out of his way. His quarry
darted through the door of one of the clubs and Anakin was about to follow when a hand
fell on his arm stopping him in his tracks. He started to throw it off then realized it
was Obi-Wan.
"She went in there!" he panted.
"Patience." Obi-Wan answered, annoyingly unruffled.
"Use the Force, Anakin, think. He went in there to hide, not run."
And even more annoyingly right, as usual. "Yes,
Obi-Wan."
The older Jedi offered him his sabre. "I believe this is
yours?"
"Yeah, thanks." Anakin tried to take it but Obi-Wan
refused to let go of his end. *Uh-oh, stand by for lecture.*
"A Jedi's sabre is his most precious possession. He must
keep it with him at all times." Obi-Wan scolded, transfixing him with those blue
eyes.
Anakin restrained an urge to roll his own. "Yes,
Master."
"This weapon is your *life*!" the Master
emphasized.
"I know, I'm sorry." Obi-Wan did have a point after
all. "It was an accident."
"Jedi don't have 'accident', Anakin. You must be more
focused."
"I know, I know. Look could we have the rest of the
lesson later, we've got an assassin to catch."
Shaking his head Obi-Wan let go of his end of the lightsabre
and led the way into the club. "How does our Master put up with you?"
"He practiced on the Padawan he had before me."
Anakin returned saucily.
His predecessor grinned wryly. "He did indeed, poor
Master, he always picks the difficult ones."
Anakin nodded agreement. Still, if he could manage to turn
out even half as well as Obi-Wan had.....
It seemed to be some kind of sports bar. Giant screens lined
the walls showing various games and contests - including pod-racing! Anakin tore his eyes
away and reminded himself to focus.
"Do you see him?"
He scanned the crowd watching the screens, drinking, laying
bets or just talking sports talk. "No. But Obi-Wan, I think he's a she and that she's
a changeling."
Blond eyebrows lifted. "In that case be extra
careful." Obi-Wan nodded towards the crowd. "Go and find her."
Anakin blinked. "Me? What about you?"
"I," Obi-Wan replied coolly, "am going to get
a drink." quirked an eyebrow at him. "Possibly more than one." and with
that he headed purposefully towards the bar leaving Anakin gaping after him.
*What happened to his focus?* he wondered. The chase must
have been harder on Obi-Wan's nerves than he, Anakin, had realized. *I shouldn't tease
him.* But flying was the only thing he did better than Obi-Wan and the temptation to show
off was nearly irresistable.
Anakin circled the room, studying the polyglot patrons giving
especial attention to the females, both Human and Alien. And they eyed him in return with
an appreciation and invitation he'd only recently learned to recognize.
*I wish Padme would look at me like that.* suddenly a
familiar hum and flash of blue light spun him towards the bar. Pushing his way against the
backwash of patrons he broke through into the empty space that had formed around Obi-Wan
standing, sabre ignited, over a grey suited figure clutching at her arm.
*I shoulda known.* Anakin added aloud. "I can't take you
anywhere, can I?"
Obi-Wan just flicked him a glance, extinguished his sabre and
reached down to pull the assassin to her feet.
"Jedi business." Anakin announced to the staring
crowd. "Go back to your drinks." and the patrons turned uneasily away, self
consciously resuming their activities as the two Jedi half carried their prisoner out a
side door into a noisome alley.
"Do you know who you were trying to kill?" Obi-Wan
asked, almost conversationally, as he examined the damaged arm.
"The senator from Naboo." the woman mumbled.
"Who hired you?"
"It was just a job." she evaded.
Anakin wasn't having any of that. "Who hired you?"
he repeated, added with a touch of Force behind his voice. "Tell us!"
"It was a bounty hunter," she muttered unwillingly,
"called -" broke off with a little gasp. Her eyes glazed, then closed, and as
Obi-Wan lowered her to the ground she changed, becoming the wrinkled grey non-Human Anakin
had glimpsed in the speeder.
Instinctively the two Jedi glanced over their shoulders, just
in time to see an armoured form rocket away from a nearby rooftop.
They looked at each other then Obi-Wan felt at the dead
alien's neck, extracting a wicked looking multi-tipped dart. "A toxic dart."
"Well it's a clue anyway." said Anakin.
Next
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