AN: I had this story all planned out, but then some, uh, things happened… so I'm going to have to make a few changes to it. Also, I'm working on a new story while I get brain farts and writer's block, called Legend of the Furious Five. Go check it out if you're bored of this story and want some mischievous younglings and Obi-Wan the storyteller.

So here's this chapter. I'll try not to keep stalling my writing.

Chapter 3

Fletcher was arguing with the stubborn hangar manager that he needed the spot and he didn't need to pay to stay there for a few minutes. And he was running thin on patience.

"You need to pay the credits all the same," growled the human as he looked at his datapad and checked off something on it. Fletcher barely refrained from rolling his eyes. All he needed was to get the tracker off and leave. That was it. He didn't want to stay here for long, anyway. And as the seconds ticked by, that Sith was getting closer and closer. Naboo was not the best of places to stop, as it was a bit too close to the far-out regions of the galaxy, and it made Fletcher a bit uncomfortable. Although, he did prefer it to Nar Shaddaa. At least the place wasn't crawling with criminals.

Fletcher was on the verge of using the mind trick on the man when Elenti strolled down the boarding ramp and deposited a pile of credits in the man's hand. The hangar manager looked at the Jedi Master, shrugged and strode away, dropping the credits into a pouch by his side.

"There's no harm in spending a few credits," Master Sayirr said, glancing at Fletcher. The Padawan ducked his head, embarrassed. He looked up.

"But it's not fair!" the Fosh groaned. "We're not even staying for that much time!" His Master looked at him with a sparkle in her brown eyes. "Fletcher," she deadpanned, "if life was fair, the Sith and the Jedi would be having tea parties together and there would be no crime happening in the galaxy at all. And I wouldn't be a Jedi, I'd be the supreme Chancellor."

Fletcher stifled a laugh. This was why he loved his master. He turned back towards the ship, sighing as he remembered why he was out here in the first place. Scooping up some tools, he began to make his way up the side of the ship, grasping the protruding metal with his strong claws. Elenti watched him climb for a moment before she called, "I'll be inside! Meditating!"

"Geez master, that's all you do now," Fletcher mumbled, but quietly so she didn't hear. Master Sayirr didn't appear to have heard it, and strolled back up the ramp inside the ship.

Fletcher looked around, not spotting the tracking device immediately. He crawled across the top of the ship, checked the transparisteel of the cockpit, scrabbled for a hold and nearly slipped off the thrusters, and spied nothing on the wings. If I were a tracker, where would I be? Fletcher wondered as he surveyed the ship again.

The tracker had to be small and unnoticeable. It would have to be in a place hard for him to reach, or hidden from sight by something. Maybe under the wing? Nope. Fletcher had already checked there. Under the belly of the ship? Not possible. Fletcher hadn't seen anything there, either. He ambled in a circle around the Lumi, but still didn't find anything. Hm.

The sleek metal plating of the ship gleamed dully in the sun as it struck in the perfect angle. It dazzled Fletcher's eyes so he had to look away from the Lumi momentarily. But something caught his attention as he jerked his gaze away from the ship.

There! Attached to the underside of a thruster, was the tracker. It was a small square with a red dot on top. The tracker had been cleverly placed so that the blinking red light was hidden from view by the broad edge of the thruster. If one looked very carefully, they could spot it, but otherwise, it was well concealed.

Fletcher worried away at the tracker's four "claws" until they slowly made a scraping sound, sliding loose from the ship. It took more tugging and jerking at the device until it finally came free, falling into Fletcher's palm with a soft thump. The Fosh eyed it for a moment, then threw it on the ground and smashed it into tiny bits under a boot.

"Master!" he called. "What?" came the muffled response. "I got it off!" There was a moment of silence, then "So we are going to Tython now?"

"I don't know, you're the master, you make the plans," hollered the Padawan. "Haha, very funny," Elenti grumbled, coming out of her room. "We're going to Tython now, then."

"Not so fast!" growled a deep voice. Both Jedi whirled around to see the same Sith that they had faced on the crime world, standing nearby with slitted eyes.

"Hey, it's the Sith," Fletcher said to Master Sayirr in a bored tone, tugging on their training bond. "He's come to get his information."

"How intimidating," drawled the Jedi Master. "Oh, look, he's going to have a fit and use the Dark side. Ooooh, scary."

Relton could not have been more infuriated. These Jedi weren't supposed to be making fun of him! They were supposed to be either a) trembling in fear or b) getting ready to fight him. But nooo, they were just standing there, making a fool of him. Sith training had not prepared him for this.

The Sith pulled out his lightsaber and activated the red blade, swishing it through the air. Finally, the Jedi acted, the Padawan summoning a yellow blade to his hand, and the Master igniting a brilliant green one. Relton screeched in rage, and ran forward, intending to end the Jedi's lives then and there. But, of course, that didn't go exactly as he planned.

Two Jedi were hard to fight. Even if one of them was only half a Jedi. Relton slashed and spun, but he could not land a single hit on either of the light-sided warriors. He growled in frustration and Force pushed at them, but they were ready and blocked it effortlessly. The Sith assassin became more and more frantic as he was pushed back, the tides changing from his assured victory to a Jedi one.

With a snarl of rage, he blocked high, low, then planted a hand on the ground and kicked Fletcher's feet right out from under him. The Padawan fell with an "oof" and the Jedi Master had to step out of the way to avoid accidentally hurting him. The small pause in Elenti's attack allowed Relton to push forward, easing out of the defensive to attack aggressively.

Fletcher frantically rolled out of the way of the flashing blades, snatching at his saber which had landed a few feet away. He grabbed it and re-ignited it, determined to rejoin the fight by his Master and beat the Sith. But the assassin sensed him coming, and used the Force to throw the Fosh backwards again. Fletcher cursed and scrambled back to his feet quickly, just in time to see the Sith draw a second, slightly shorter red blade and begin an even more vicious assault on the Jedi Master.

"Master, look out!" cried the young Jedi, and Elenti hissed, sidestepping a stab which would have been a fatal shot had he not warned of it her.

"I am looking out, what do you think I'm doing?" the Master shouted back. Great. Sarcasm from his master in the middle of a battle.

Fletcher sighed mentally but leaped back towards the two combatants. He ducked under a slash that would have decapitated him and, for payback, kicked the Sith, making him jerk sideways in surprise and mistime a swipe that almost took out Fletcher's leg, but instead only grazed it.

The assassin cursed as he slipped on a stray piece of metal that had, coincidentally, been under his foot as he stepped down hard to recover from the kick. He fell back with a loud THUD on his back, and flipped over to get back on his feet, but Fletcher and Elenti combined a Force push to shove him halfway across the hangar.

"Quick, let's get away from here!" Fletcher exclaimed, running to the Lumi with Elenti hot on his heels. By the time Relton managed to get back up, the ship was already starting to ascend into the air. Not again!

Relton drew back his hand, and threw his lightsaber with all his might, using the Force to amplify his strength. The red blade flew, end over end, towards the escaping Lumi, and sank deep into one of the thrusters before falling back to the ground, the Sith catching it in his hand with a snarl etched on his face.

Fletcher frantically flipped switches and punched buttons as the warning lights on the console flashed. Lumi rocked as one of the thrusters started to weaken and overbalance one side of the ship. The ship hadn't been heavily damaged, but Fletcher would need to get it fixed up to navigate the complex maze of hyperspace lanes that led to the Deep Core. A broken thruster wouldn't do.

"What's going on, Fletcher?" yelled Elenti as she clung to the frame of the shaking cockpit.

"Oh, nothing, just a minor problem," Fletcher replied tensely, hand firmly gripped on the yoke. The ship swayed for a few more minutes, then stabilized as the Fosh activated the emergency power. They needed to land. Again.

This is getting old, Fletcher thought. Please, please let us not meet the Sith again once we land. But of course, the Force had other plans for them.