A/N: I remain someone other than George Lucas. This means, of course, that I own the rights to nothing which my readers recognize from the galaxy far, far away ... The plot, however, has many elements which come from my own imagination, as well as a few original characters and relationships.
Dormé carefully unplaited Padmé's hair from the basket frame. "If I didn't know better, I would think that young padawan is smitten with you, m'lady." She put the frame back into its box, closing the velvet-lined lid over it.
"Dee?" said Padmé. "He certainly did seem ... awkward. But please, don't you start too."
"Too?" asked Dormé, as she began to free Padmé from the multi-buttoned gown.
"My sister thinks I'm getting too old for politics, and that I should settle down and start a family," explained Padmé.
"Oh, I didn't mean that at all, m'lady," replied Dormé.
"I cannot help but think that this many Jedi about is overkill," said Padmé, as Dormé continued her work while ubiquitous security cameras traced their movements. "It's not necessary."
"M'lady, you fight an uphill battle there," said Dormé, helping her into the nightgown. "No one else seems to agree with you."
"No one?" asked Padmé pointedly.
"I'm afraid not, m'lady," replied Dormé, placing a quilted silk robe on the foot of Padmé's bed. "Will you have further need of me tonight?"
"No. Thank you, Dormé," responded Padmé. As Dormé slipped into the next bedroom, she sat back at her table, facing the mirror to brush through her hair.
He did seem smitten, enough to disregard the disapproval from Master Kenobi. "... grown more beautiful..." She pulled the brush sharply through her hair, heedless of the snarl that caused her scalp to protest in response. As though I haven't heard that a thousand times over ... but what is it that he would want? It's simple enough with the other Senators. They ask me to dinner, sure we discuss business, and that they're concerned enough with whether I can help their cause or not, but that's not the only thing on their minds.
There's no denying the intensity in his eyes when he looked at me, though. But what's it mean? He was looking at me with ... longing? Padmé stopped brushing her hair for a moment, and looked at her reflection, startled by the course of her thoughts. She shook her head. No, it doesn't matter. It's just my imagination. Dee--Anakin--is a Jedi now. They have their dedication, their oath--I admire that in the Jedi, but ... She went back to brushing her hair. Even if I didn't imagine it, I could never admire someone who would forsake his oath.
xXxXx
Window by window, Zam watched her droid work, chewing a lip as she waited to make certain that this time, she could collect her bounty. It carefully cut a hole and inserted an open-ended tube, allowing the milk-white centipedes to scuttle into the room. Easing the transparisteel back into place, it moved on to the next window she chose, as she waited in her speeder for the droid to finish its work.
Meanwhile, in the main room of Senator Amidala's apartments, Anakin was pacing while the three Jedi awaited Pemba's return from inspecting Captain Typho's work.
"Sit down, Anakin," said Obi-Wan. "When Master Onika has returned, we will go."
"I'd rather be here," said Anakin. "It's just ... we should be more aggressive. To sit back like this and wait is to invite disaster."
"Master Kenobi doesn't agree with you," observed Sharesca.
"You need to mind your thoughts," reproved Obi-Wan, walking Anakin away from Sharesca.
Anakin made a face.
"Your thoughts betray you, Anakin," scolded Obi-Wan. "You made a commitment to the Jedi Order, a commitment not easily broken, and the Jedi stance on such relationships as the ones your thoughts betray is uncompromising. Such attachment is forbidden. Beyond that, don't forget she's a politician. You can't trust them."
"She isn't like other politicians," protested Anakin.
"In my experience, it is only a matter of time," said Obi-Wan. "All Senators soon focus on pleasing those who fund their campaigns, to get those funds and forget the niceties of democracy."
"Not another lecture, Master," groaned Anakin. "At least, not on the economics of politics."
"It is true," said Obi-Wan, "I have seen it time and time again."
"You're generalizing," protested Anakin. "I know that Padmé ..."
"Senator Amidala," corrected Obi-Wan.
"Isn't like that," concluded Anakin. "And the Chancellor ..."
"Is very clever at following the passions and prejudices of the Senators."
"I think he is a good man," said Anakin, remembering the times that Chancellor Palpatine had spoken with him whenever he and Obi-Wan were on Coruscant. "I'm sure ..."
Both men's eyes widened at the same time, and without another word or thought, they rushed to the bedroom where Padmé lay sleeping.
Cause for alarm ... a milk-white centipede scuttled on multitudes of black legs. Mandibles clicking, the creature climbed the bedding to reach the bed's occupant.
Anakin's lightsaber flashed blue, cleaving the centipede in two, as Obi-Wan crashed through the window to seize hold of the droid which had delivered the creature.
In the distance, Zam cursed, her speeder moving away from the scene. The droid bobbed with the added weight of a man, and then set off from the building trailing Zam.
"Dee?" said Padmé, wakening to see the blue blade so close.
"Stay here!" ordered Anakin, as he started from the room.
Sharesca had just set foot in the doorway as Anakin roughly pushed her out of the way. "See to her!" he ordered, and continued as Captain Typho and Pemba came running up. "See to her!" repeated Anakin, and he raced out of the apartment. Now this is more like it!
The assassin droid had been built with defenses, though perhaps the manufacturer had not expected the foolhardiness of a man who would leap from a window some hundreds of stories above the ground of Coruscant to seize the droid. Nonetheless, bright blue lightning arced over the round surface of the device, outlining Obi-Wan against the darkness of the sky.
Heedless of where he was running, Anakin raced through the building. A turbolift, its doors stubbornly shut. We don't have time for this! Effortlessly, his lightsaber cut through the butter which was turbolift door, forcing them apart. Leaping into the shaft, he tried to orient himself as he adjusted to the surroundings. Where is the closest docking bay?
Question unanswered, Anakin realized that the turbolift was hurtling upward towards him. In an instant, he reached out with the Force to bring himself to land, unhurt, atop the speeding car. Lightsaber hissing, the catch of the top hatch shattered and he pulled it open to leap inside.
Tessek Tikkes and Lexi Dio cried out their alarm as Anakin landed, cat-like, in their midst.
"Docking bay level?" demanded Anakin.
"Forty-seven," replied Lexi.
"Too late," added Tessek. "Next is sixty ..."
Too impatient for this, Anakin reached out into the Force again, forcing the car to a halt which threw the two Senators flat against the car floor.
"C'mon! Open!" shouted the impatient Anakin.
Hauling herself from the floor, Lexi shook her head. Then holding a finger up in the galaxy-wide "wait" gesture, she pressed a button which opened the door ... midfloor.
"Thanks!" cried Anakin as he squeezed himself out onto the floor below, looking left and right until he caught sight of an open balcony.
"Daft!" the senator's word carried on the air behind Anakin as the doors slid shut again.
Heedless of the opinion, Anakin ran to the balcony and leapt over a line of parked speeders. Finding one open-canopied vehicle, he vaulted into it. Firing it up, he zoomed into traffic.
Luck or the Force ... I think I'll need them both. Anakin stretched out with his mind.
xXxXx
It was supposed to be ... straightforward, thought Zam as she moved into traffic. Complicated doesn't begin to describe it, not with the protections that Senator has ... Oh, no ... that's a Jedi ... This time I can't fail. The price of failure will be worse than just no payment!
She saw the droid bobbing along, the man in unmistakable Jedi robes clinging to the round machine. Zam couldn't help but wince as the droid slammed into a building, the blow failing to knock him loose. Into traffic, it dragged the man into the exhaust of a speeder ... No! How ... oh ... if only ... This is entertaining, but ... I won't get paid this way ...
Zam moved off to the sidelines of traffic, hovering as she reached for her blaster rifle. Casually taking aim, she fired, the shots scattering around man and machine. Yet, he had managed to dodge or block, as the ball of a machine still held its unexpected cargo.
"Block this!" she muttered. At least this bounty will more than make up for it ... I'll go back and make sure after I've dealt with him.
Once more she took careful aim and fired ... at the droid. In a shower of sparks, the droid exploded, and the Jedi fell from her sight. Now, to make sure.
xXxXx
Obi-Wan fell too quickly to react. Hundreds of stories were yet between him and the ground, and he could do nothing but plummet.
The yellow speeder swooped under and just slightly beside him. Obi-Wan, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, seized the side, preparing to haul himself into a seat over the open top, and then saw Anakin's grin.
"Hitchhikers usually stand on the platforms," Anakin drawled. "Novel approach--good way to get attention from passing traffic."
Levering himself into the speeder, Obi-Wan made no rejoinder.
"Almost lost you there," quipped Anakin, as though it had been a mere exercise and not a matter of life-or-death.
"What took you so long?" said Obi-Wan, catching his breath as his lungs were no longer too compressed to draw air.
"Oh, you know how it is, Master," said Anakin insouciantly. "Not just any speeder will do ... No, I had to find one with an open cockpit, the right engine ... and of course, only the right--"
"There!" shouted Obi-Wan, pointing to another speeder.
As the speeder soared above and past them, Anakin moved into pursuit. An arm extended, a blaster pistol fired a series of shots as Anakin moved through a sequence of evasive turns.
"If only you'd spend the time training your lightsaber skills than your wit," observed Obi-Wan, ducking. "You could be the rival of Master Yoda."
"I thought I already was."
"Only in your mind ... Careful!" Obi-Wan reflexively ducked as Anakin cut off two speeders. "You know how I feel ..."
"Sorry, forgot you don't like flying, Master," quipped Anakin, his voice taking on an odd tone as he went into a sharp dive to avoid blaster bolts.
"Flying is one thing ... This is attempted suicide!"
Anakin cut a hard right, dropped, sped up, and found himself back in the line of fire. He cut left, trying for a good shot. Just as suddenly, his quarry dove to one side as a commuter train bore down upon the two Jedi. Certain he would die now, Obi-Wan closed his eyes.
"Master, you know I've been flying since before I could walk." Anakin's voice was impossibly casual as he evaded the commuter train. "I'm very good at this."
"Pay attention!" barked Obi-Wan, as a line of giant trucks bore down on them.
Around and around they went, cutting fast corners through the traffic, heedless of the sudden course corrections their maneuvers forced.
"He can't lose me," boasted Anakin. "He's getting desperate."
Seeing Anakin intent on entering a tram tunnel, Obi-Wan ordered, "Wait! Don't go in there!"
Nonetheless, Anakin did so, and then reversed just as quickly, barely ahead of the huge train and its frantic horn.
"Sorry, Master," said Anakin. "Don't worry, this guy's going to kill himself any minute now."
"Let him do so alone," returned Obi-Wan.
Their quarry zoomed into traffic, heading the wrong way in the lane. Anakin raced directly behind. They zigged then zagged, frantically avoiding the traffic they sped through. Occasionally, Anakin had to avoid the blaster bolts fired from the would-be assassin he chased. The next thing they knew, the lead speeder darted up suddenly, straight into a tight loop to move into a stalking position.
"Nice one." Anakin slammed on brakes and reversing thrust, came alongside the other speeder.
"What are you doing?!" Obi-Wan was faced almost directly in front of the blaster. "He's going to shoot me!"
"Right," said Anakin, maneuvering out of the line of fire. "This isn't working."
"Glad you noticed," replied Obi-Wan dryly, dodging a blast.
Moving below the vehicle, Anakin chortled, "He can't shoot us down here."
The assassin's speeder cut out of traffic and skimmed the roof of a nearby building. Anakin just barely edged over the rooftop into another craft, coming in low.
"Anakin, he's landing!" shouted Obi-Wan. "On us."
Anakin flipped the speeder to one side, zipping around a corner to clip a flagpole, dragging the cloth behind him as he moved back into pursuit.
"Clear that!" said Anakin as the flag caught into an air scoop.
"What?"
"Clear the flag! We're losing power! Hurry!" urged Anakin.
Complaining under his breath, Obi-Wan bent low and pulled the flag free only to be thrown against the back of his seat as the speeder lurched forward with renewed power.
"He's headed for the power refinery," announced Obi-Wan. "But take it easy--it's too dangerous by those power couplings."
Banking right, then left, Anakin zoomed directly by one of those couplings despite Obi-Wan's warning, as electrical bolts arced over their speeder.
"What are you doing?"
"Sorry, Master," Anakin apologized insincerely.
Despite the blinding effect of the lightning arcs, Anakin brought the speeder right, left, right, up, over, down, around ... and incredibly, through to the other side.
"Oh, that was good," said Obi-Wan.
"That was crazy." For once, Anakin had been rattled by his actions. "But we got him now!"
The assassin they pursued had slid sideways around a corner between two buildings. As Anakin pursued, he found the assassin's speeder had stopped with blaster pistol aimed and bolts firing as they came into view.
"Blast," said Anakin, realizing the way had been partially blocked and his speed too great to come to a stop.
Finally managing to draw enough breath to speak again, Obi-Wan cried, "Stop!"
"No, we can make it," insisted Anakin.
He dove below the speeder, then up an edge, scraping through the narrowest gap only to find the space blocked by a mesh of pipes without sufficient room to continue. Clipping some struts, their damage created a fiery gas ball, and Anakin went into a seemingly uncontrolled spin in an effort to escape.
"We made it," proclaimed Anakin as they bounced off a building and stalled.
"No, we didn't," said Obi-Wan. "We've stalled."
"Well, we're still alive," joked Anakin.
"That was stupid!" declared Obi-Wan.
Trying desperately to get the speeder restarted, Anakin said, "I could've made it."
"But you didn't. And now we've lost him."
Proving Obi-Wan's words wrong, a hail of blaster bolts around them set off more explosions, rocking the speeder. As they watched, the assassin's speeder began to sail away.
"No, we didn't," declared Anakin as he succeeded in restarting the speeder. A sudden thrust which pasted them both to the back of their seats, Anakin set off in pursuit once more, grinning broadly.
Obi-Wan beat down the flames still erupting from the control panels as they dashed into the main travel lanes again. Dodging and cutting close corners, they raced after the assassin until the other speeder made a hard left turn and Anakin went right and up.
"Where are you going?" said Obi-Wan. "He went that way, down there."
"This is a short cut," replied Anakin. "I think."
"What do you mean you think?!" exclaimed Obi-Wan. "What kind of shortcut--we're going the wrong way and you've lost him now."
"Master, if we keep going this way," said Anakin, "he's going to end up deep-fried or something. I want to find out who he is and who he's working for."
"Which is why we're going the wrong way," replied Obi-Wan. "You've lost him."
Anakin sighed and went straight up, hovering above another building. "I'm deeply sorry, Master." Anakin's tone rang with insincerity, however.
Obi-Wan was about to castigate Anakin, but before he could speak, Anakin stood up.
"Excuse me for a moment." With that, Anakin stepped off the side of the speeder.
Obi-Wan lurched over to the seat with the controls, staring down as Anakin landed on the roof of the speeder they had been chasing. "I hate it when he does that."
Far below him, as Obi-Wan took control of the speeder, he could see Anakin slice through the roof of the speeder with his lightsaber until a blaster bolt took it from his hand. With a shake of his head, Obi-Wan angled the speeder to intercept his comrade's falling weapon.
Anakin, meanwhile, reached through the hole he had created--as he and the assassin struggled for the blaster, the speeder careened out of control, skidding to a halt in a shower of sparks along a broken section of permacrete. Anakin, thrown by the impact, regained his feet just in time to see the assassin spring from the speeder and run out of sight. Chasing after his intended target through muddy puddles, Anakin saw the helmeted would-be killer dash into a doorway just as he heard his name.
"Anakin!"
Obi-Wan! Anakin turned as he recognized the voice. "She went into that club, Master."
"Patience. Use the Force, Anakin--think," replied Obi-Wan.
"Sorry, Master."
"He went in there to hide, not run."
"Yes, Master."
Holding out Anakin's lightsaber, he added, "Next time, try not to lose it."
"Sorry, Master."
As Anakin reached to take his lightsaber, Obi-Wan pulled it out of Anakin's reach, and fixed his padawan with a stern look. "A Jedi's lightsaber is his most precious possession."
"Yes, Master," said Anakin as he reached for his weapon.
Obi-Wan still keeping his eyes locked with Anakin's reproached him firmly, "He must keep it with him at all times."
"I know, Master," replied Anakin, sounding exasperated. Why does he have to lecture me now? The assassin will get away, and Padmé will still be in danger.
"This weapon is your life."
"I've heard this lesson before," complained Anakin.
"But you haven't learned anything, Anakin," said Obi-Wan, finally allowing Anakin to retrieve the lightsaber from his grasp.
"I try, Master."
Obi-Wan shook his head. "Why do I think you're going to be the death of me?"
"Don't say that!" protested Anakin. "Master, you're the closest thing I have to a father--I don't want to cause you pain."
"Then why don't you listen to me?"
"I will. I'll do better, I promise," replied Anakin.
"Do you see him?" said Obi-Wan as he glanced about the club they had just entered.
"I think he's a she."
"Then be extra careful."
"And I think she's a changeling," added Anakin.
"Go and find her," said Obi-Wan, gesturing in one direction while starting to walk in another.
"Where are you going, Master?"
"To get a drink," stated Obi-Wan.
Anakin stood, dumbfounded, for a moment as Obi-Wan headed for the bar. Then, remembering the lecture he had just received, he started milling through the crowds as people stared at his gleaming white robes with open hostility.
At the bar, Obi-Wan gestured to the bartender, receiving an amber-colored drink in return. Anakin watched, a sense of unease growing.
Anakin did not see the blaster pistol rising up to the apparently unsuspecting Obi-Wan's back. Obi-Wan spun, igniting his lightsaber. An arm still grasping a blaster fell to the floor in one direction, the would-be assassin shrieking in agony in the other.
Bristling with a nervous energy, the crowd reacted with angry murmurs.
"Easy! Go back to your drinks," called Anakin, moving to Obi-Wan's side. "Official business. Go back to your drinks, everyone."
As the murmured conversations started again, Obi-Wan and Anakin walked their quarry onto the street.
"Do you know who it was you were trying to kill?" asked Obi-Wan.
"It was just a job," said Zam.
"Tell us!" said Anakin. "Who hired you?"
The eyes of the bounty hunter glared hatefully. "It won't end with me."
"This wound is going to need more treatment than I can give it here," stated Obi-Wan.
"Who hired you?" said Anakin, throwing the weight of the Force behind his questions. "Why are you trying to kill Padmé?"
Lips twitching, Zam fought the compulsion to answer, and a crunching sound was heard from within her mouth. "Rah ..." With that, she died, her features twisting grotesquely, before coming to rest in the lumpy figure of her true Clawdite form though her skin was tinted blue from the poison released from the glass tooth in her mouth.