Disclaimer: I don't own SW, if I did, Anakin would never have turned, and the Jedi would still be around.


Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gon slipped into the computer room – the technicians unnoticing of the three Jedi entering the room. They needed to find out where the Senator was being kept, where Ozara was, and who was behind everything. They stooped down behind a couple of containers, Qui-Gon explaining what they were going to do.

"Anakin, Obi-Wan, you are to go out there," he pointed to a veranda outside the computer room windows, "Draw their attention to yourselves while I find out where the Senator is."

"A diversion." Obi-Wan concluded, "How long do you need?"

"Give me about five minutes, I'll contact you when I've got what I need. You then get out as fast as you can and meet me at the location I specify" Qui-Gon sternly instructed.

"I love being the bait" Anakin said, "It gives one such a feeling of helpfulness"

"Don't be irritating, Anakin." Obi-Wan scolded, it was like a constant game between them. Anakin would be snarky, Obi-Wan would scold; Anakin would tease, and Obi-Wan would reprimand. They were like brothers.

"Go!" Qui-Gon ordered, sending them out. They obeyed, and sneaked out as quietly as they had come in. He looked around, waiting for his apprentices to do as they had been told.


A small figure slipped into the cavern, going unnoticed by the guards. The light shone down on his face, revealing the figure to be Skandar Solo. He had heard from one of the boys that he had seen Ozara and her Jedi friend taken into this place. He had to find her, as he knew what was going on. How? Because he had seen the first droids that arrived, being led by a woman. He looked up at the sentry tower, no wonder no one noticed him - they were all dead. He went a little further, determined to find his friend, as he would not abandon her again.

He began walking down one of the tunnels, it looked far different from the last time he had been here. It was now more military, than purely raw earth. "Hey, who are you?" he heard from behind him. Whoops, he seemed to have forgotten the various droids that were still inside.

"I'm here to deliver a message to Kacia Flure" he said bravely, hoping that the droids were foolish enough to believe him.

"What is the message?" the leader asked in a very robotic and inhuman manner.

"That is for her, and her alone to know. Take me to the lady" he replied resolutely, the droids looked at each other - they seemed unable to comprehend what he said.

"That doesn't compute" the leader finally responded. Skandar was getting impatient. In a flash he stooped, picking up a stone and hurled it at the droid. It groaned, then lay silently on the ground.

"Get him!" the other droids ordered, firing at him. He ducked and grabbed the fallen droid's blaster, he proceeded to fire at each of the four remaining droids - destroying them one by one. He struck each of them in various regions of their chest plating, scorching and ultimately destroying them.

Sighing shallowly, he grabbed one of their radios, he thought he'd need to know what was going on around him. With new found resilience, he proceeded down the tunnel deeper, with the utmost determination.


Ozara was trembling, she didn't like the woman who was silently threatening her father. Her father, who still sat motionless in the chair. He had been given a choice, and she wished he would decide, the waiting was nerve racking and torturous. She had always been called precocious, and she was sure that her insight was indeed the same. She had always loved her father, and therefore knew why he hesitated – he was weighting the two options: the Republic or her.

Kacia was getting more impatient. She needed that bill signed, but at this rate, they would be here till the next age. She snarled, and yanked Ozara's hair, the girl cried out in a small squeal of pain, and Tristan started. "If you make me wait any longer, you'll be signing her death certificate." she hissed. The Senator swallowed, and looked at Ozara again.

He couldn't possibly sign, he would be a traitor – oh he wished that those who wished to do evil would leave the innocents like Ozara out of affairs like this. The girl didn't need this. Hoping that Qui-Gon would come soon, and perhaps avoid this rather terrible predicament – he picked up the pen, and placed its tip on the paper.

"No, don't!" Ozara protested in her small, but somehow commanding, voice.

"Be silent!" the creature hissed, but the girl continued to try and persuade her father to not sign the little line. "If he doesn't sign it, you will die little one." the pen moved across the page, it was already done. He had saved his daughter. . .

"Seeing as you're going to kill me anyway, I can hardly see how it matters" Ozara snapped, trying to fight against the restraining metallic arm of the droid behind her. Kacia began laughing, or what sounded like it could be a laugh - Perhaps he had spoken to soon.

"Your daughter is wise for her years. You've raised her well, too bad she won't live for you to enjoy her intellect more as she grows. She is right, as that is my intention." Kacia said, snatching the paper from the table and inspecting it – if the mask had not been hiding her face, they would have seen a grin.

"You wouldn't dare!" Tristan bellowed.

"Oh?" she asked, pulling out her blaster, "Care to see?" she watched as his eyes went between her and his daughter who was trembling in fear. This would be fun. . .

The door slid open, "Milady" the young man said.

"Laurent was it?" she demanded.

The young man took a deep breath, "We have a problem."

She stalked toward him, "Well? Speak!" she hissed. The man took a sharp intake of breath, she laughed inwardly – they really were afraid of nothing, they could easily overpower her, yet they trembled like leaves.

"The Jedi padawan has escaped. That, and one of the sentries noted that two men came into the cavern entry" he said.

"How long ago?" she asked.

"An hour" he replied quickly.

"And you waited this long?" her rhetoric was calm and somewhat chilling. She turned back to Tristan, "I'm afraid I won't be able to play as I wanted to. Say goodbye." she said, pointing the blaster back at Ozara's head.

"Milady, you had better come quickly!" Laurent said urgently.

"I will come in a moment" she replied, he was getting irritating.

"Milady, I really think that you should come now, they are the Jedi that were assigned to protect the Peregrines!" he insisted more sternly now.

She turned toward him, then put the blaster back in its holder. With a growl, she snapped her fingers, signaling to her men and they walked out. "I'll deal with you later" she told Laurent, pushing him out. "Enjoy what few moments you have together. They will be your last" she told Tristan and Ozara, and with that she was gone.

"Ozara!"

"Papa!" she shouted as she ran toward him, he held her, cooing in her ear as he tried to figure out a plan to get them out. "Why did you sign?" she asked him.

"I had no other choice" he replied matter-of-factually.

"But you shouldn't have, there has to be another way. Qui-Gon –"

"No, Zar, there is no other way." her father replied sternly, "If I didn't sign, then you would be dead right now. I had to buy myself some time"

"But you have signed over the Republic!" she insisted.

"Not if we get that bill before it gets sent." her father replied, "We just have to get out of here" he said as he stood up, and began pacing the room in deep thought.


"Anakin, duck!" Obi-Wan shouted, causing the boy to miss a blaster's shot by millimeters. Anakin jumped up, landed behind the droid, and sliced it in two. Blocking three further blasts, he made his way toward the other two droids, cutting them down where they stood.

"Do you think that Qui-Gon has had enough time?" he asked, slicing the glass window open with his lightsaber, shattering it – he needed the attention brought to them. It succeeded, as the technicians inside the room evacuated - all but Qui-Gon.

"Anakin, try not to cause the main alarm to go off, or you're going to get us both killed!" Obi-Wan practically screeched in his oh-so-proper manner of speaking.

"Sorry, Obi-Wan, I was only trying to help" Anakin replied, wondering just how all these droids wound up here. There was definitely something afoot, if only he knew what.

"What is going on here?" he heard a voice say from behind them, he turned, and saw a – what he assumed to be – woman, coming from down the hall. She stared at them, her face covered in a black mask. He tried to memorize as much detail as possible: she was short, probably only about 5'3", of a average build, and a – "Move your men over there, get my transport ready. Get the girl and her father, I want to take them with me" – garbler hiding her voice. Well that wouldn't do. The man beside her, that Anakin recognized at Laurent, looked at them wide eyed. He said something 'I told you' it looked like. She craned her neck around to face him, and taking the blaster out of its holder she aimed it at him.

"You were right, how does that feel?" she shot, and the man crumpled to the floor dead. "Oops" she said, placing the blaster back in her holster. Anakin watched as she ran down a corridor and disappeared.

Wait. . .girl and her father? Uh-oh.

'Qui-Gon, where are they?' He asked his master with anxiety in his voice.

'At a holding room a few corridor's down, it seems they have been scheduled for termination.' Qui-Gon repeated what he read.

'Termination? Kidnapping-ation I would say. They're going to take them out of here right now!' The boy practically cried out.

'Patience, Padawan, we need to get to them first. Try to contact Ozara, we might be able to reach their minds first.' Qui-Gon instructed.

'And try not to create words, its so uncivilized'. Obi-Wan added, then asked Qui-Gon a question: 'Master, if they take them, then how can contacting them be of use?'

'It will buy us some time. If Ozara and her father can resist being taken away, then it will give us time to get to them.' Qui-Gon said.

'How am I supposed to contact someone who isn't Force-sensitive.' Anakin asked.

'Use the Force.' Obi-Wan replied dryly.

'That's not helpful! In fact, its downright. . .uncivilized.' Anakin halfheartedly mocked, causing Obi-Wan to growl under his breath.

Qui-Gon answered his question vocally, as he had joined them: "Anakin, enough, we don't have time for your games. Obi-Wan just didn't explain it fully. Reach out with the Force, find her, then try to speak to her. You have the closest relationship with her, she will most likely remove any defenses and allow you in." The Jedi master explained.

Anakin sighed, and standing a little off to the side to allow Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to continue to fight – he reached out to her with the Force.


Ozara was still watching her father pace, he had come up with nothing, and neither had she. This was getting ridiculous, if only she could contact Anakin like he did with his master. Then perhaps they might have a chance of getting out of here in one piece. Oh how she wished she were a Jedi, if only –

'Ozara?' She could hear Anakin's voice in her head, 'Ozara?' There it was again. How was this possible? Was she dreaming? Anakin was no where near, he was back in the cell! How could she be hearing his voice? It had to be her imagination. 'Ozara, if you can hear me, respond'

'Anakin?' She said tentatively. Great, now she was talking to herself.

'No you're not, Zar, I'm actually talking to you. Listen, I'm with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan-'

'They're here? They found you?' She asked with a sudden leap in her chest.

'Yes – well that is to say – ugh, never mind, I'll tell you later. Where are you?' She heard him ask.

'In some holding room, that horrid woman left us here after telling us she'd kill us' She replied angrily.

'Yes, but where? Here, after you left the cell, where did you go?'

'I don't remember.' She said mournfully, 'I'm afraid I didn't - Wait. I remember. We went down past three halls, turned left, passed a couple of doors, turned right, then immediately left at the first corridor. Five doors down. . .I think' She recited, she had been paying some attention as she was marched away from her protector.

'Good, we'll find you. Stay put, and by no means let anyone take you two out of there.' She promised, and he cut off.

"They're coming" she told her father, she was beaming.


"Master, I contacted them!" Anakin exclaimed when he cut off from his friend, he was glad that she was still alive and intact. He had been so worried, but after finding his fears unfounded, he was once more cheerful and hopeful.

"Good" Qui-Gon responded, "Lets go" he then proceeded to go down the hall where Anakin had been. To say the least, it was a long night – that is, if it was still night outside.

Three halls. . .left. . .doors. . .right. . .left. . .five doors – he ran it over in his head, he couldn't wait until this whole mess was over and done with, and life could go back to normal.

They soon ran into Skandar, who was coming from the other direction. "Wait!" he called out, "Wait for me!" the Jedi turned to find out where his voice was coming from.

"Skandar, what are you doing here?" Qui-Gon asked while Anakin shook in fury. 'What was he doing here was an excellent question. Little traitor.' his thoughts were filled with venom.

"I heard that something happened to Ozara, and I came to help out." Skandar said.

"You shouldn't be here, you might get yourself killed" Obi-Wan told him.

"Or betray us" Anakin spat aloud, causing Qui-Gon to look at him in a questioning frown. He didn't ask anything however, for it was not the time.

Skandar, however, wasn't too happy with Anakin either. "Oh? Well I have learned from my mistakes. And after what happened, I have no intention of betraying Ozara again." he vowed, not that a child's vow means anything, especially not to Anakin.

"So you admit it! You have no intention of helping us, you just want to get back on Ozara's good side!" Anakin deduced with anger laced in every word he spoke, Obi-Wan put a hand on his shoulder, signaling for him to calm down.

"Anakin! We will deal with this later. We need to find the Senator and Ozara." Qui-Gon said in a commanding voice, the boys silenced and obeyed.

"Don't move Jedi!" a droids voice said from behind them, they turned seeing about two dozen droids all aiming their guns at them. "Roger, roger" another droid said. The Jedi ignited their sabers, cutting them all to pieces in a dazzling display of skill. Anakin seemed to be one of their main targets, not that it made any sense for him to be one.

He froze as a blaster was suddenly in front of his eyes, and his lightsaber had been knocked out of his hand and was now five feet from him. "Too late Jedi" it said, then screeched as a blaster bolt destroyed it.

Anakin looked up, Skandar smirked, "You want to say that I'm of no use, again?" he asked snidely. Anakin picked up his lightsaber.

"Thanks." he said quietly, "Maybe you'll be of some use to us after all"

Skandar chuckled, "You got that right" he said.

"Anakin, lead the way" Qui-Gon said, bringing the situation at hand back into focus. The boy obeyed, and they set off in the direction that Ozara indicated.


Kacia was furious - seething even. How could those Jedi get in, they didn't even know where they were, this place was so secluded and underground. They must have used the boy – the boy she had seen. Anakin Skywalker. She growled internally, however did that boy destroy her master's plans? Barely trained, and he was already quite skilled – Master Sidious would be proud of him, yet very upset that she had failed in killing the senator because of him. Assassination was for assassins, she just gathered data. There was not a doubt in her mind that the Jedi were after the senator and daughter, she needed to get them before Qui-Gon got there.

She opened the door of the holding chamber, finding the Senator had been pacing his time away instead of spending it with his fearful daughter. She ought to take the girl with her and train her, why not? She could be useful as a spy one day. She had been trained thus far to be a perfect politician, how much more useful could she be if she could meld her youthful mind to her own purposes. Her master would be so proud!

"I hope you spent your time wisely, Senator, for it will be the last time you spend it with your child here." she threatened, almost gleefully.

The man stood tall, easily towering over her. "You really think I'm going to let you take Ozara away that easily? I'll die first!" he vowed.

"Die Senator? Oh yes, you will die. I'm so glad you will do it willingly, it leaves all that pleading out of the way. I can't stand a man who begs for his life like a woman." Kacia retorted, aiming her blaster at the Senator's chest.

"NO!" Ozara screamed, but it was too late – the blast was already heading toward him. The senator closed his eyes, preparing for death. He couldn't wait.


The blast never reached him, as Qui-Gon and his padawans had found the room - just in time. Anakin activated his lightsaber, using the Force to propel himself above the masked woman, landing on his feet he easily blocked it. The blaster went off again, this time in Anakin's direction. Each time, it was blocked, sending it in a different direction until he reached the blaster. He cut off the end of it, rendering the gun useless.

Kacia stumbled back, right into Obi-Wan. "Hello there" he said cheerfully, she growled and struggled against his grasp, but the Jedi knight was too strong for that. She'd have to do something else. . .

"Are you alright, Senator?" Qui-Gon asked his friend, the man nodded with a notable small smile of gratefulness on his face.

"Yes, thanks to your padawan." he replied as Ozara came up to his side, he put his arm around her. "We need to get that bill, though. She had it, if it gets to the senate, it will cause many problems."

"Where did you take it?" Obi-Wan asked the woman he was holding.

"I already sent it to my master" she replied with a smug tone.

"Oh?" Qui-Gon asked, "And who is your master?"

She cackled, "You really think I'd tell you?" she asked rhetorically, "You may get rid of me, but he will find another, more powerful apprentice"

"Are you a sith?" Obi-Wan asked, tightening his hold on her.

She laughed again, pushing her captor back with the Force. Much to Obi-Wans shock, he landed against the wall with a thud, momentarily rolling on the ground. She reached toward her cloak, and withdrew a lightsaber and ignited it - allowing the red saber to propel to life. She inched her way towards the door. "Am I a Sith? Was that your question?" she taunted.

"Anakin, stay with the Senator and Ozara, leave this to Obi-Wan and me," Qui-Gon instructed sternly, Anakin gave a sound of recognition, and remained where he was. Even though he secretly wished otherwise.


Master and Knight rushed at the woman, lightsabers zooming. Her moves were fast and well-practiced, but against two experienced Jedi, she soon found herself losing. Darth Maul was more of a challenge than this girl, but she was nimble and used her small stature to her utmost benefit. Her red lightsaber flew out of her hand, as Qui-Gon had used the Force to cause her to trip. They advanced, about to strip her of her mask and take her prisoner.

"Qui-Gon!" Ozara screeched, causing him to notice Silas aiming a blaster at him, he blocked the blast as Obi-Wan killed the man. He turned back around, but Kacia was gone.

"She's gone Master!" Obi-Wan exclaimed. "How did that happen? We're smarter than that"

"Apparently not" Anakin quipped, earning a sharp glare.

"If she sent that bill, then we are done for" Tristan declared with sadness lacing his voice said.

"Maybe" Skandar said, finally speaking, "Unless, of course, it never reached her master"

"She said it did, dimwit" Anakin spat.

"Well she lied!" Skandar yelled back, pulling something out of his pocket. It was the bill.

"How did you get a hold of it?" Ozara asked, puzzled that her friend who had turned traitor had turned back.

"I have my ways, I'm not as treacherous as you thought." he replied softly. She nodded with a smile.

"Thank you Skandar." Tristan said, placing his arm around the boy. Skandar looked up at him, a smile on his face.

"But she's still gone, that's going to be a problem" Obi-Wan pointed out placing a hand to his mouth in thought.

"Yes, she is gone. I sincerely doubt we'll be able to find her again, as she knows this cavern well and we don't." He disengaged his saber, placing it back on his belt. "Our paths will no doubt cross again."

"Do you really think so Master?" Anakin asked, disengaging his lightsaber as well.

"Yes, Padawan, she is a sith – their work is never done. Come, we should return. I will report what has happened to the Council. No doubt the Senator and Ozara want to go home." the Master replied. The Senator and Ozara nodded, and they all filtered out of the underground base. Whatever droids they came upon, were soon no more – and all was silent.