Chapter 8—In Which It All Comes Together (part 1)

Dex's Diner was deserted, and the lights were darkened. But this did not stop Obi-Wan from striding in, determined to figure out what exactly happened in Senator Chuchi's apartment (not to mention why there was grape juice masquerading as Pantoran blood all over her kitchen). And so far, his only definitive clue was the crumpled piece of flimsi, offering employment at Dex's.

A light was on in the back kitchen, and as Obi-Wan drew near, Dex's loud tones grew clear.

"Look, I'm tryin' to give ya a chance, but when I tell ya I need some grape juice, I need ya to walk on over to the market and get me some grape juice! Not break into some high-up Senator's apartment and take it from her fridge!"

"Hey!" a new, younger voice interrupted, "I was on a bet! I told you I was a good thief, didn't I? And we didn't get caught!'

"That's not the point! I have a reputation! How long do ya think it'll be before we've got Jedi swarmin' the place—"

Obi-Wan took this as his cue. "Not too long, I assume," he answered dryly, casually leaning against the doorpost.

The three occupants of the room jumped in surprise, spinning towards the Jedi. While Obi-Wan immediately recognized Dex, his two companions remained unfamiliar. They both looked barely teenaged, a Wookiee and a scruffy boy.

Dex was the first to regain his composure. "Obi-Wan," he exclaimed warmly, extending three of his arms in greeting. The fourth went up to scratch his head. "Eh, exactly how a-long have you been standin' there?"

"Long enough to hear your two young employees confess to the kidnapping of Senator Riyo Chuchi, alongside Asajj Ventress," Kenobi answered, cutting straight to the chase.

"What?!" The exclamation came from the boy. "We didn't kidnap no Senator!" The Wookiee grunted his agreement.

The Jedi crossed his arms skeptically. "Then would you please explain to me why the very Senator whose apartment you admit to breaking into is now missing?'

The boy crossed his arms in an equal manner. "I don't know where your Senator is! All I did was grab some grape juice!"

"Seems rather extensive to break into a high security apartment for a jug of juice," Obi-Wan pointed out. "I sense you are not telling me the full story."

The Wookiee said something that caused the boy to roll his eyes. "They don't need to know the full story!" he exclaimed.

"Well, I actually do," Kenobi said, "unless you'd rather be arrested as an accomplice for kidnapping a Republic Senator."

The teen groaned as the Wookiee roared in his ear. Apparently, this particular Wookiee was a bit more convincing than Kenobi, because it wasn't long before the boy turned back to him and Dex in resignation.

"Fine! Okay, so a while back, when I was still living on Corellia, I had this friend named Lando. This is all his fault. His dad is pretty rich, and he's traveled all over the galaxy. Anyways, so we were climbing a building, and he started tel—"

"You were climbing a building?" Obi-Wan interrupted, raising an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate?"

"…No."

"In that case, please continue."

The boy nodded. "Well, Lando began telling me about the huge buildings on Coruscant, and how much security they have. I said that I could probably get passed it, cause I'm really good at what I do."

"Which is?"

"Look, Master Jedi dude, do you want me to tell the story or not?"

Master Kenobi sighed, his hand stroking his beard. He strongly suspected that this was not the boy's first run-in with the law, but pointing that out would hardly be helpful in this particular situation.

The boy rolled his eyes once more, before taking a deep breath. "So, I said that I could get passed Coruscanti security, but he didn't believe it. We had a fight, but had to cut it off, cause someone saw us through the window. After we lost the guards, Lando bet that I couldn't break into 500 Republica. He said that if I made it to the 500th floor, he'd give me 250 credits. That was around 3 months ago.

" For another, completely different set of reasons, I ended up on Coruscant a couple weeks ago. I met up with Chewie here, who was in the same predicament I was in."

"And no," he announced, as Obi-Wan's mouth opened once more, "I'm not telling you what that predicament is."

Obi-Wan's mouth snapped shut.

"We found an employment flyer for Dex's and decided to apply—"

"And since they were the only ones that a-showed up, I hired'em both," Dex explained.

The boy nodded. "It wasn't until the other night that I remembered that bet with Lando. I figured that I was here, so why not try? Chewie and I started planning, and when Dex sent us to go get grape juice this morning, it was as good a time as any…."


(Cue flashback sequence, told from 'the boy's' p.o.v)


"Hurry up!" I hissed from my position—currently in the bushes surrounding 500 Republica. Chewbacca gave one more cautious glance around before abandoning his pretense of loitering and diving into the bushes.

I pulled out my trusty Corellian comlink, dialing the front desk. "500 Republica, how may I help you?" a mechanical voice asked. The receptionist was a droid, then. Well, that made our job easier.

"Yes, I need to speak with the resident of the 500th floor," I said, doing my best impression of a deep, refined Coruscanti accent. (In hindsight, I sounded a lot like the Jedi dude who is interrogating us. Ironic, right?)

"Are you referring to Senator Chuchi?" the droid asked.

My eyes widened considerably. I hadn't realized that I was breaking into a Senator's apartment! But there was no going back now. "Um, yes, exactly," I stuttered.

"Connecting now."

I crossed my fingers through the rings. If this 'Senator Chuchi' was home, we would need to pick another target. However, after the fifth ring, the call went to voicemail. "Hello, you've reached Senator Chuchi. I'm dreadfully sorry that I missed you, and will—"

I hung up, having heard enough. "We're good," I whispered to the Wookiee beside me, "she's not there." He grunted in satisfaction and peered through the bushes. I loaded my blaster. "The receptionist's a droid, so I'll just blast it," I began to explain. "Now all we gotta do is wait for someone to enter the building….."

Our wait was not a long one. As the sun rose higher in the sky, a cloaked humanoid approached the security-enforced doors. She pushed her hood back slightly, revealing a pale face and ice blue eyes. With a wave of her hand, the lock clicked, and the door swung opened.

"Let's go," I whispered, hopping out of the bushes and running towards the already-closing doors. Chewie was at my heels, just managing to make it before the doors completely shut. I immediately raised my blaster, but the secretary droid was…..already on the ground?

My widened eyes went from the smoking hole in the droid's chest, to the red lightsaber hovering over it, to the lady who had opened the door. She had apparently forgone her cloak, revealing a tall, athletic build in skin-tight purple and white.

She let out a dry chuckle. "Looks like I'm not the only one breaking in this morning," she said, her voice raspy. Chewbacca and I shared a wary look. "Here's how this is going to work," she said. "You don't interrupt my business, and I won't interrupt yours. Deal?"

After a pause, in which I struggled to regain control over my vocal chords, I nodded and replaced my blaster into its holster. "Deal."

Without further ado, she dashed to the Chancellor's private turbo-lift, again waving her hand across the lock to gain entry. "Best of luck," she smirked as the doors closed.

Chewie and I looked at each other and shrugged, before rushing to the main turbo-lift. A glance at the buttons revealed that this lift only went to the 200th floor. Chewbacca hit the button, grunting.

("We'll have to switch lifts,") he said. You see, most people aren't able to understand Shyriiwook. However, the everyday presence of Wookiees in my life, both in my toddler years and now, had certainly helped me grasp the language

I shrugged in answer to his comment. "We just gotta make sure that no one sees us."

("Well, what if someone does see us? We need a cover story.")

"I'm deaf, and you don't speak basic?"

He shot me a look. ("I don't speak basic.")

I gave him a grin. "Exactly!"

He rolled his eyes, but before he could further protest, the doors opened. We stepped out into another massive, lobby-styled room. However, opposed to the rather empty one we had just been in, this one was filled with droids and quite a few super-duper-important-people.

I must've frozen, because the next thing I knew, Chewbacca had growled in annoyance and grabbed my arm, dragging me across the room. "Identification, please," a droid asked. Chewie pushed past the droid, growling. He then proceeded to roughly drag me into the nearest turbo-lift as several surprised cries of "Hey!" rang out.

"Real smooth, Chewie, real smooth," I said sarcastically, punching the button for the 500th floor.

("It worked, didn't it?")

"Well, yes, but how long before they figure out that we don't belong here?"

("By then, we'll be gone. Right?")

"Good point."

As the lift opened once more, I gave a quick glance around. The hall seemed deserted. "Overall, this has been pretty easy," I commented as we walked to the nearest door. I should've knocked on wood before I said that.

"Locked," I muttered, staring at the security keypad hooked to the door. ("Too bad we don't have that tall chic with us,") Chewie sighed.

Just then, the door to the turbo-lift slid open, revealing said tall chic, having apparent difficulties with dragging a massive box. After a minute or so, the doors tried to close, but the box got trapped in the middle. The lady cursed, straining to pull it out of the door's grasp.

"Well?" she asked, noticing us. "Are you going to help me or what?"

To be continued...

Hey! I'm not dead! This chapter is a little short, but it was either 2 short chapters or 1 huge one. "Part 2" of this should be up in the next couple of days, and then back to Anakin and Padme! Well, not much else to say, really, except...

Please review! Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Next up: In Which It All Comes Together (Part 2)

Ps. any guesses on who 'the boy' is? I'm pretty sure I made it obvious...