DISCLAIMER: Star Wars (although I fervently wish otherwise) is not mine. Neither is (although it would be awesome beyond belief) Boba Fett. Nor are any of the other characters in this story, not even the one's I made up. If Lucasfilm wants 'em, they can have 'em, with my blessings and cheers! (Besides, the girl's pretty annoying. At least if you're a bounty hunter.) This book ties in around and between (and upside down and alongside and inside out and counter clockwise and…shutting up) the Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy: The Mandalorian Armor (excellent book, best of them), Slave Ship, and Hard Merchandise. However, you'll more than get it even if you haven't read those. And I don't think it gives much if anything away that happened then, so if you plan to read them, this shouldn't spoil it.

If you have not yet read Book One: Points of Dispute, or Book Two: Fencer's Misstep, I suggest you do so prior to reading this, otherwise it will be exceptionally confusing and likely impossible to understand. You might enjoy it anyway, but I can't promise to explain anything. Not that I did too much of that previously, of course…

STAR WARS
The Saga of the Rapier's Blade:
"The Final Duel" (book 3)

Chapter I
Now, fourteen years after the events of Return of the Jedi…

Kateel of Kuat fidgeted, chewing on her lip. The baleful glare she turned on the blank comm screen in front of her would have sent her subordinates right back out the door without a word spoken, but the comm did not react. Almost impulsively, Kateel reached forward and flicked it on. She didn't want to think about it any more. Whether this was a bad idea or a good one, she wasn't sure, but she wasn't going to let it eat away at her any longer.

Kateel leaned forward and dialed the number. She waited anxiously, trying to appear perfectly calm, as the invisible signals blinked out through hyperspace and holonet…

………………………

Guri looked up, face impassive. She frowned slightly, staring at the distant computer screen. If she were human, she would have sighed, but such a display of emotion was unnecessary when she was alone. The Human Replica Droid rose smoothly from the nest of wires and circuits she had been entangled in a moment before. While the hideout had been untouched for nearly two decades, and had not deteriorated in the sealed environment, some of it had gone a bit out of date. Once every system had been the best—often better than anything you could find—on the market, but as time had passed improvements had been made that had not been echoed in the secure hideout. And Guri knew that with her opponent, she would need the best if she was going to succeed. And so, her first task had not been to turn everything on, but rather to upgrade them.

But some of the sensors were on. It simply would not do to sit here blind. And now one of them was blinking an alert. Guri strode across the sterile gray room and leaned over the console, smooth brow furrowing with programmed expression as she peered at the blinking readout. Steely blue eyes narrowed coldly at the screen.

There was no reason for a holonet communication to be beamed to the sewer tunnels outside, but that was what the sensors had detected.

No reason, unless…

………………………

Fett tensed suddenly, ramrod straight. He cut the reception immediately, but knew that it was already too late. Wasting no more time in berating himself, the bounty hunter flew into action. Ducking his head to keep from scraping it on the low ceiling of the tunnel, he ran half-bent as quickly as he could—careful to mute the noise of his footsteps.

He turned his arm so that he could reach the inside of his wrist while he ran and quickly punched buttons on the muck-covered keyboard, ignoring the slight crinkling sound of the plasticky coating he had sprayed on earlier to protect it. The door in front of him irised open slowly with only a faint grinding noise that echoed distressingly in the small tunnel. The hunter launched himself through the opening as soon as it was wide enough for him to fit. He ignored the protests of his left shoulder and right knee as they came into contact with the durasteel and rolled as he fell, rising smoothly to his feet. Fett punched another button on his gauntlet and the door immediately reversed its motion, closing behind him.

Fett crouched near the wall—careful not to touch it and risk depositing any more evidence of his passage, and waited while his sensors switched back to their highest setting now that he no longer ran the risk of being deafened by the roar of the sewage. The gunk obscuring them cut down on their effectiveness severely, but they were all he had right now. Judging that no one was in danger of stumbling either deliberately or by accident onto his position for the next few seconds, the bounty hunter pulled another antiseptic cloth from the pouch on his belt and cleaned away the muck his fall had left on the floor.

Satisfied that he had disguised his presence as much as was feasible at the moment, Fett paused only a second more to scan carefully. Against detecting no one nearby, he moved on with silent footsteps. Fett could walk menacingly when he chose to, armaments clinking ominously and steps echoing with foreboding. His reputation, after all, was another weapon he could employ, and fear was a useful tool. But he could also move silently enough to disturb only the most sensitive and highly attuned sensors. It was the latter talent that he employed, for his opponent was not one that felt fear.

That was a reaction that had never been programmed into the Human Replica Droid.

………………………

Kateel sat back and frowned at the blank screen in front of her. She knew that there had been no malfunction on her end—the day Kuat Drive Yards suffered from a glitch in such simple technology would be the day the stars ceased to shine overhead—and she doubted that there had been one on the other. She knew how fastidious, how obsessive, Boba Fett was in maintaining his tools.

And yet, she had been cut off. The call had gone through, of that she had not doubt, but the connection had been abruptly severed before it had been fully received. Kateel smiled grimly as she realized what had most likely happened. Fett had used his helmet's comm to contact her, not thinking that she would be able to trace the path back to him to re-use to get in touch with him when she wanted to. The bounty hunter had likely been in a situation where there was no time to pause for a call.

Her smile broadened, slightly twisted on her thin face, as she pictured the stiff hunter suddenly getting a call on his helmet's comm unit in the midst of a battle. She knew that she wasn't lucky enough for the problem to have gotten him killed, but she wished she could have been there to see the shock on his expressionless visor. It would have been worth it to face his wrath afterwards.

The bounty hunter did not scare her.

Guri, on the other hand…Kateel frowned. She did not like being manipulated, she did not like being used, and she certainly did not like being threatened. That was why she had agreed to the blonde woman's terms at first; when Fett had called and threatened her, she had not been happy with him. But then the blonde had done the same thing, and with, Kateel thought, far less reason and far less right.

But that did not mean that she liked the bounty hunter. Just that she did not like the blonde. But then, Black Sun was not know for being likable. But nor were they known for forgetting a grudge.

Kateel frowned. Perhaps this broken communication had been for the best, after all. Thinking about it more calmly now, she wondered if perhaps she had made the right decision. The bounty hunter was only one man, after all, and he was not the sort to act solely on an old offense. A dangerous foe, yes; but perhaps it was better to stand against him than Black Sun. The criminal organization was not what it once was, but it was hardly toothless. Of course, neither was Fett.

Kateel sighed and propped her head in her hands. She almost wished that she could lose her memory again. Things had been so much simpler when she had not known herself, when she had had nothing to lose but a life she did not remember. She massaged her temples as they started to pound. Why did the past have to come back and invade her life? She did not dwell on the past, she left it alone.

Why couldn't it do the same to her?

………………………

Guri's light footfalls were detectable only to her sensitive hearing sensors. Her steely blue optical sensors scanned the floor and walls in front of her with tight precision, but she could find nothing out of place. She did not particularly wish to go into the sewer tunnels; cleaning the much off would take precious time. It seemed, however, that she had no choice in the matter. Deciding that she would risk negotiating them on her own, she chose not to go back and find the tools that would ease the endeavor. The droid that was a woman quickly stripped off her coveralls. There was no sense in ruining them.

She waited patiently for the door to open before ducking out into the spray wearing only her boots for traction. She could not see through the pouring waterfall, and stepped closer to it, within range of the semi-liquid falling past her. Instantly the thick muck coated her. She twisted her hair back, using the sticky gunk to hold it in place behind her neck. She narrowed her eyes to keep them free of as much of the muck as she could, and resigned herself to a thorough cleaning later. Somehow the foul substance had already crept underneath her nails. Careful not to slip in the thick semi-liquid, Guri stepped forward along the narrow ledge. She crouched down and stuck her hands through the muck until she could feel the hard surface of the tunnel beneath her. Clutching it tightly in her mechanical grip, she made certain that she was securely balanced before leaning forward and sticking her head into the pouring deluge, peering carefully into the sewage-filled tunnel. The muck trickled down her bare, synthetic skin a way that would have been distasteful had she been an organic. Fortunately she was not.

So much better to be properly in control of herself, without any of the silly weaknesses that plagued organics. Very few of them were worth anything. It was almost a pity that she would have to eliminate one of those that was, but that was too bad. Much as it might pain her on an aesthetic level to destroy one of the few creatures with the potential to rise above all that, it had to be done. Guri felt no sympathy for Fett. Only a slight regret that his death would lessen the cold, logical portion of the galaxy.

That was shame, but it would not stay her hand. Boba Fett still had to die.

I'm really sorry it took me so long to get this out, and I need to apologize in advance because it will likely be quite a long time in between updates for this whole thing, because I've both got school distracting me as well as other stories that have decided to be most evil and cruel and beg for attention. I know this part was short, and I'll try to get back up to a better length soon, but it's been a while since I added anything here and thought you might appreciate knowing that I really do plan to continue it… Anyway, hope you liked!