Bounty of a Lifetime

A/N: This is a "rewrite" of the original chapter 4, but it does not redo the events of the original chapter. If you have not read the rewritten chapter 3, do so or you will be absolutely lost.

Chapter 4: Pirates

Twin moons rose over the planet, their pale faces staring down on Ahsoka like a massive pair of eyes. It made her feel uncomfortable, uneasy, self-conscious. She couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty at leaving Boba to die in the wreckage.

She silenced her thoughts as the village became visible, illuminated by the silver moonlight. The pale light made the buildings eerie, and strangely frightening. Ahsoka shook off her fears and strode forward, confident in her abilities as a - former - Jedi.

The silence was deafening, the slight cackle of a fire was the only source of noise. The makeshift houses were ominously quiet, blocking out any other noise. But as Ahsoka approached the fire, she couldn't help but feel threatened by the silence.

Silence was usually a comfort, a luxury, but this silence was evil, threatening, dangerous. Only as she got within a few feet of the town center and the remains of a dwindling fire, did she hear the soft weeping. It was the sound of pure despair, utter defeat and a loss of hope. Ahsoka's heart nearly broke in two when she heard it, and when she saw a small Mon Calamari girl, curled up and laying next to the fire, she rushed over.

"Hey, what wrong? Where is everybody?" Ahsoka's voice was gentle, she felt saddened by the girl's atmosphere of sorrow.

The girl looked at her with wide eyes, utterly shocked, and tried to back away, desperately crawling backwards. "P-p-please d-don't hurt me-e-e" the frail girl broke into another fit of crying, tears streaming down her face and her eyes screaming in fear and sorrow.

"Don't worry; I'm not going to hurt you. I'm Ahsoka, and I'll help you, but you need to tell me what's wrong." Ahsoka's voice had a confidence behind it and she could see it helped the girl keep calm.

"M-my name is Rya. My mama and papa were taken by the mean people." Rya was no longer crying, but she looked ready to do so at any moment.

Ahsoka broke even further when she looked the girl straight in the eyes, and she felt great sympathy for the young child. Ahsoka assumed that the mean people were the people that had shot down Boba when he had entered orbit around the planet. Again Boba had crept into her mind, Ahsoka told herself she was being too soft and undisciplined.

She again made eye contact with the teary-eyed Mon Calamari, "Let's see what we can do about those mean people."

… …

Boba sat, wrapped in bandages and utterly immobile. The medical droid had been able to shift the rubble off of him and bandage him up, but the necessary anesthetics had been lost in the crash. This is why he had to breathe through clenched teeth.

Boba was no stranger to pain like a Jedi was no stranger to a lightsaber, but this was no ordinary pain. This was the 'I'm dying, so just kill me now' kind of pain.

To make matters worse, the medical droid's power pack had been damaged in the crash. Dr. Droid was barely able to lift an arm now. That left Boba to either die on a table from dehydration, or to die after going into a shock from extreme pain when trying to move. Boba's options were both unsightly, grizzly ends to any life.

As Boba mulled over his grim options, he heard a large boom of rubble falling. Well, he just might die from being smashed, that was a lot quicker than any of his other options, and hopefully less painful. Though, it might not kill him right away, and therefore, be much more painful.

Boba saw less and less chance of escape or survival as every second crawled past at an agonizingly slow pace. But Boba was determined to fight for his life, against anyone or anything. At that moment a large portion of the ship collapsed, and dust flew through the air, moving like a wave.

The moment that Boba lost all hope was the moment that the pirates landed. Their ship thumped as it touched down on the soft soil. Boba grit his teeth as the ship moved and another wave of pain shot through his entire body. His focus was shattered by the searing pain, keeping his mind from going through the basic instincts he had learned.

The pirates began rummaging through the wreckage right away, picking through the smoldering cargo like vultures. Boba stood up and slowly made his way to where the cockpit would be. Boba focused only on moving forward, ignoring the pain that steadily grew as he continued to move. Boba saw one of his blasters amidst the wreckage, and thanked his luck as he grasped it.

The pirates were steadily getting closer and closer to him, Boba could hear them calling to each other, exclaiming over the rarities his ship held. Boba tightened his grip on his trusty Westar-34 until his knuckles turned white, focus on gripping and aiming the familiar weapon helped Boba ignore the pain, though not completely.

Boba's vision began to blacken around the edges, and the world began to go eerily quiet. The sensation of falling made his stomach do back flips, though he wasn't actually falling when he looked. Pieces of debris began to fall from the wall ahead of him, and when Boba tried to tighten his grip on the Westar again, it fell from his hand and clattered across the floor. The largest metal wall between him and the pirates fell, and Boba weakly tried to scramble to his blaster, though he only ended up falling on his face as the world went completely black.

… …

Ahsoka crawled over the crest of the hill overlooking the pirate camp, covered in dirt, grim and filth. It had taken all day to cross the mountainous terrain on foot with the child on her back, but she was ready to take on the low-lives. The small girl was a safe - hidden in a cave in the mountain side – so Ahsoka didn't have anything but the pirates to worry about. The sound of a ship coming in overhead made her stiffen, but it soon landed at the base and Ahsoka let out a breath of relief.

Without a way to look at the camp from faraway with ease, Ahsoka hesitantly decided to infiltrate the camp for information. Ahsoka silently wished for her top-of-the-line gear as she slid down the steep slope before her, the dust and rubble might alert any watchmen; but having experience with pirates, Ahsoka knew they'd be incredibly drunk at this time of night.

As she expected, Ahsoka had no trouble getting straight into the pirate camp. The only guard on duty was drinking away his boredom, oblivious to his surroundings. The camp was fairly large, centered around one of the unique disk-shaped ships the pirates often used.

The ship was the most likely candidate for a prison area, so Ahsoka made ready to get in without raising any suspicion. Unfortunately, several speeders pulled in through the front entrance, the roar of their engines waking up many of the drunks. Ahsoka scanned the speeders with a trained eye, and felt her heart skip a beat.

"We foun' this un out in the mount'ns, hidin in a cave." The head biker gestured to Rya, who was tied up and gagged.

"Ahh, good; good. Take her to the others, all the more money to be made, Ha HA!" Ahsoka scowled at the easily recognizable voice, and she felt a twinge of fury when Hondo stepped into view.

Ahsoka thought he would learn his lesson sometime, instead of continuing his criminal acts. Ahsoka felt her way around the back of the building that hid her, in order to get a vantage point from the other side. A lonely fuel barrel sat just around the corner, and Ahsoka peered over the top.

The largest biker was carrying Rya over his shoulder, and he disappeared into Hondo's ship. Ahsoka glanced at the security of the central area, which was mostly drunk or distracted. Hondo was walking away, talking with the head biker, and Ahsoka saw her chance to make it in.

A large, muscular and gritty arm wrapped around her neck and a blaster barrel found a place at the side of her head before the pirate behind her felt safe enough to expose her. Ahsoka was dragged forward, then quickly bound. Hondo only turned, smiled and strolled over as if he had planned the capture to precise detail.

"So! The Jedi have come to interfere with business again, huh?" Hondo bent down to get close to her face, "Or, did you not come here with your clone army this time? Did you come as a prisoner?"

Ahsoka struggled, trying to break free, but failing and only making her captors tighten their grips on her arms. "Let me go or I'll break myself out!"

"Ha, ha! Oh, little Jedi, even if you were to escape you don't have your flashy-laser-swords to fight with." Ahsoka tried to act as if that weren't true, but she thought his smile had widened even more at her reaction. "And how do I know this?" Hondo then pulled out Ahsoka's lightsabers and held them dramatically, "Because I have them! Ha, Wha, ha ha ha ha!"

The entire pirate crew burst out into laughter with their captain, who was enjoying himself immensely. Ahsoka only scowled at Hondo, feeling her anger beginning to boil. She quickly silenced her emotions and regained a cool composure. After leaving the Jedi Order, Ahsoka had begun to lose control of her emotions and her senses weakened; she suspected it was due to her not practicing the meditations and disciplined exercises that had been daily requirements when not on a mission. Whatever the cause of the changes, Ahsoka disliked the fact that she lost control much easier and more frequently now.

Hondo took a step back, deactivated her lightsabers, then gestured behind her. Ahsoka violently tried to break free, fighting her captors' grip, but she inevitably felt something hit the back of her head and the world went black.

A/N: No excuse, I'm just late. I know it's short, but it'll have to do until next time.