Disclaimer: I don't own 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars', only the Twi'lek girl, Shona, Burko, and Kuris V (as far as I know).
Author's Note: Italics are Twi'lek translation.
He began to open his eyes, slowly but surely beginning to wake up. He blinked several times to clear his vision, still blurry from unconsciousness. Looking around, he realized he was in a small metallic room—and he wasn't alone. Next to him on the back wall was an orange colored Twi'lik girl, probably no more than seventeen years old. For a second, she looked at him with her downcast eyes, so full of sadness and completely devoid of hope, before she directed them back at the ground. What shocked him was she was chained by her neck to the wall. Fully alert now, Nahdar moved to get up and help her, only to be held back. Looking behind him, he saw that his hands were secured by shackles behind a pipe against which he was propped up in a sitting position. He pulled as hard as he could, but the chains held fast. He let out a sigh as he decided to let it go, for now, and returned his attention to the girl. He was about to speak when the doors hissed open and in walked a Weequay followed by two others. "Greetings, Jedi knight," he welcomed. "I am Shona Youl, captain of this crew."
"Where am I? How did I get here?" Nahdar asked while trying real hard to keep his tone neutral; judging from the tattoo of a burning claw on the captain's right shoulder, he had a pretty good suspicion as to what this Shona and his crew were.
"Don't you remember, Sir Jedi?" asked Shona as he knelt closer to the Mon Calamarian. "You crash landed here. When my men came to investigate, they found you unconscious and brought you here. Your wounds were superficial, so we treated them easily."
Nahdar thought back. He remembered flying in a Starfighter heading back to Coruscant after an assignment when his ship's sensor's alerted him to a small patch of a large energy signature on the planet he was passing, Kuris V. He found this rather odd because the inhabitants of Kuris V didn't have any kind of technology that would warrant a signature that size, and decided to take a closer look. However, he was caught by surprise and ambushed by laser fire that came from the planet's surface. The last thing he recalled was Kuris V's barren, rocky desert region surface rushing to meet him. Another thing that occurred to him was that if this Shona and his crew really did mean to 'rescue' him they wouldn't be keeping him here against his will. All of this formed only one conclusion. "You shot me down and have taken me prisoner," he accused.
Shona, thankfully, didn't even try to mock his intelligence by denying it and simply shrugged. "I assure you, Jedi, when our sensors informed us of your approach, it was not my intention to shoot you down, but unfortunately, one my shipmates got rather jittery and, before I could stop him, pulled the trigger. I had you brought here because I couldn't have you contacting your comrades and risk us being found."
"And, what do you intend to do with me now, pirate?" Nahdar inquired, not even bothering to hold back the contempt in his voice.
"That I haven't decided yet," Shona replied as he stood up. "There's, of course, no doubt that the Republic would be willing to pay a handsome price for your return, but then again the Separatists might also pay a decent amount of money for you as well."
For a moment, Nahdar let his anger rule him and he tugged some more on his shackles. He was not some product to be bartered with. But, with reluctance, he forced himself to calm down, remembering what he had been taught about the consequences of such emotions. While his men chuckled, Shona sneered as he exited the room.
When he couldn't feel their presence anymore, Nahdar reached out with the Force to try to use his lightsaber to free himself—only to find nothing to reach for. Looking down at his belt, he found his lightsaber was missing. He sighed as he leaned his head back; he should've known they would take his most important tool. After testing his restraints a little more, he realized he had no choice but to sit tight and hope an opportunity of some kind would present itself in the near future; he had to get out of here before Shona decided who he was going to bargain with. This, he knew, was going to be easier said than done, for patience was not one of his virtues. After stealing a glance at the Twi'lek girl, who continued to stare at the ground, Nahdar decided at the moment, the best thing he could do was familiarize himself with his shared cell. If he was lucky, he would discover a weakness he could exploit. And so, recalling his training from his youngling days at his Jedi Temple, he concentrated on his breathing and meditated.
About an hour and a half later, Nahdar's meditation was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. In walked one of Shona's pirates with two bowls. He set the bowls down, one near the girl and one near him. As the pirate turned his back on them, the girl eagerly reached for her bowl, but her chain stopped her short. Judging from the amused grin on the Weequay's face, Nahdar knew he set it there on purpose. Then, the pirate left.
Nahdar snorted, then looked back at the girl still struggling to reach her bowl of what appeared to be some kind of soup. After judging the distance between him and the bowl, he sat back a bit lower, extended his leg, and used his foot to gently push the bowl a little closer to her. For a minute, the girl looked surprised that he was helping her, but took the bowl, nodded a thank you, and sipped up the soup. As she ate, Nahdar noticed for the first time that she looked a little too thin to be of a healthy weight. As she emptied her bowl, he maneuvered his own towards her. When she finished, her surprise was nothing compared to earlier when she realized what he was doing. She didn't know what to make of it. "Go on and take it," Nahdar encouraged her. "You need it more than I do." This was quite true, for Jedi could use their manipulation over the Force to allow them to go days without food or sleep. The girl gingerly took hold of the bowl and sipped it up as well.
After she had finished, she seemed to relax and said in her native Twi'lek, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Nahdar bowed.
For a while, they were left alone until a different pirate, one Nahdar recognized as one of those who accompanied Shona earlier, came to collect their bowls. The girl huddled as close to the back wall as she could in an instant. Nahdar noticed that she was trembling and could sense that she was terrified. When he found Nahdar's bowl empty, he seemed perplexed. Apparently, he wasn't expecting to find two empty bowls. However, he just shrugged his shoulders and turned to leave—but not before Nahdar noticed that he eyed the girl in a way he didn't like. Once the pirate was gone, he looked back at the girl. She hadn't acted like this with the other pirates; why was she so afraid of this one? He thought about asking her why she was a prisoner, but decided it should wait until she'd calmed down a bit, and got as comfortable as he could. Somehow, he had the feeling that he was going to be here for a while.
Nahdar had been the space pirate's prisoner for four more hours and was beginning to wonder what was taking so long. Shona said he was going to contact either the Republic or the Separatists, depending on who he thought would give him the biggest pay off. Was it really taking him that long to decide? He was pulled out of his reverie at the sound of the door. That pirate, Nahdar learned his name was Burko, had returned, but not with food or even to retrieve it. In fact, he looked right at the girl in that same way that always gave Nahdar a bad feeling. "Hey, pretty girl, it's been a while," Burko said as he slowly approached her. The girl acted like she was trying to become a part of the wall. "Oh, come now, it's not so bad," the pirate tried to coax. "Besides, where you're going, you're going to have to get used to it."
Seeing the utter fear in the girl's eyes, hearing her beg him to leave her alone, and getting a sick-to-his-stomach feeling of what the pirate's intentions were, Nahdar decided he had to act. With lightning fast speed, he scissored his legs around Burko's and used a combination of pushing with his top leg and sweeping with the bottom one to bring the Weequay down. Burko got back up and snarled, "Big mistake, fish-face," before pouncing onto the Jedi. For a few minutes, Nahdar managed to keep Burko at bay by crossing his legs in front of him, but the pirate managed to get past his defenses and began beating on him with his bare knuckles. The young Twi'lek began to shout imploringly in her native language, begging the pirate to stop, for someone to help her fellow prisoner Jedi. The door hissed open, and Shona and a couple of his men, who no doubt were attracted by the girl's screams, rushed in. The two other pirates grabbed ahold of Burko and wrestled him away from a semi-conscious Nahdar, who was now covered in bruises, mostly on his face.
"What's going on here?" Shona demanded.
"It was the Jedi," Burko lied. "I was just coming to check on them and he lashed out at me. I was just defending myself."
Shona, however, looked to the girl and knelt down so he was at eye-level with her. He communicated a question to her in her native tongue. At first, she was a little nervous, considering Burko was in the room as well, but somehow she found her voice and answered, pointing to both Burko and Nahdar as she did. When she finished, Shona got up and gave his crewman a dangerous look—before he punched him to the ground. "I told you that girl's off-limits, Burko," he growled.
"I just wanted to have a little fun with her, is all," Burko weakly defended.
"She's for our client and our client only," Shona retorted, and whistled. Two HXZ-1 immobilizer droids walked in. "From now on no one, and I mean no one, but the droids and me are allowed in here," Shona commanded. The droids beeped an affirmative and returned to their posts outside the door, followed by the two extra pirates. Shona entered a sequence on the control unit on his wrist, then spoke to the girl. She nodded in response to what he said, and he and Burko prepared to leave as well. Just as they were in the doorway, the captain grabbed Burko by the shirt and warned in a low, dangerous voice, "If you have damaged that girl in any way and cost us some serious cash, I'll have you thrown into the reactor. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, sir," Burko replied, shaken. Before leaving, Burko gave the Calamarian Jedi a death glare and he disappeared into the hallway.
At that moment, a droid arrived with a cloth and bowl of bacta water, which would help Nahdar's wounds heal faster. Shona took the items, placed them next to Nahdar, and pressed a button on the control unit on his wrist. The young Twi'lik looked behind her, at her energy chain, then looked back at the captain, who nodded. The girl tentatively moved closer to Nahdar, who was beginning to come around, and knelt next to him. Shona had extended the length of her chain so she could tend to the Jedi. The pirate captain finally took his leave and left the two alone.
The girl, meanwhile, dipped the cloth in the bacta water, squeezed, and gently applied it on Nahdar's injuries. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but you don't need to go through the trouble," he told the girl. His makeshift nursemaid, however, just offered a small smile and continued her work. The Jedi winced involuntarily when she tended to his left eye, which had a developing dark ring around it in spite of how gentle she tried to be. As she continued to tend to him, Nahdar decided now was as good time as any to ask her something he'd been meaning to ask her. "Why are you here?" he inquired in Twi'lik. The girl looked at him, but only for a second before she resumed her nursing. Nahdar could sense her sadness and hopelessness, as if she didn't want to talk about it because it was too painful. "I want to help you, but I need answers," he tried again.
"With all due respect, Sir Jedi, no one, not even you, can help me now," she replied.
"Try me," Nahdar dared.
The girl paused for a long minute before she let out a defeated sigh. She then relayed her story to him, but it was not easy to hear. A few weeks ago, on her home planet of Ryloth, she was fetching some water for her family when the pirates grabbed her. She screamed and fought to get away, but they were too strong. A neighbor heard her cries and tried to help, but one of the pirates shot him down. Soon after, she found out she was going to become a slave to someone on a faraway planet. She was scheduled to be delivered to him in a few days.
After recounting her story, the girl broke down. Nahdar looked upon her with pity; this girl was stolen from her home and was about to be forced into a way of life that disgusted him, a life where she would never see her family again. Suddenly, the two were aware of voices in the hallway. The girl, trying to regain as much composure as she could, went back to tending to Nahdar while the Calamarian strained to hear what was going on.
"And, the Jedi?" he heard a voice ask.
"Shona got in touch with that ex-Jedi that works for the Separatists; Count Dooku, I think is his name," another voice replied. "Turns out he's willing to pay a handsome price for 'im. He'll be here to pick him up within the hour."
As laughter resounded in the hall, Nahdar felt a sensation he believed humans called their blood turning into ice. Count Dooku was coming to claim him? 'That settles it,' he thought to himself. He couldn't afford to wait any longer; he had to get himself and the girl out of there.
Author's Note 2: This is my first Star Wars fic and I'm still relatively new at this universe, so I apologize if I didn't get some things right (I tried doing my research) and ask for some slack in any reviews. On that note, I know Nahdar dies, but he's one of my favorites, so I'll leave it to you readers to decide whether this happens before that or if this is AU.