RIVAL INTERVENTION
Anakin had been on Dantooine just over a week. Most of the delegates were asleep, and he was trying to join them, but the venture proved more fruitless than usual. He assumed his agitation was due to this being his first prolonged separation from the twins. He hologrammed the Naberries three or four times a day to reassure himself. At mid night-cycle the incessant beeping of his comlink roused him for an urgent message. Jobal appeared above the projector when it came on.
'Anakin, hope we didn't wake you?'
'Its fine Jobal. Why are you calling? Are the twins...?'
'They're good. Just went down for their afternoon nap. Someone called Ferus Olin came to the house today. Do you know him?'
'Yeess. What did he want?'
Surprised and worried by the hostility in her son-in-law's response, she continued. 'He asked that you be informed of his visit as soon as possible...'
Anakin was not sure what to think. He did not want that bite of sanctimonious poodoo near his family. Olin knew his presence would infuriate, yet he'd gone to the sanctum of the Naberries' home. Perhaps he wanted Anakin to lose his temper, hasten back to Theed and stand-up the Chancellor...
But public humiliation of his rival was not in Ferus' nature. Watch, goad, then privately highlight every fault and mistake with quiet words and an insidious knowing smile was him. He never reported Anakin or revealed the weaknesses observed to anyone except Anakin himself. No. Ferus savored each victory for himself alone. Olin must be up to something else…..
Suddenly the vague disquiet he'd suppressed for days ratcheted up to screaming. The visit was a warning! His family was in some kind of danger, but Ferus was unable to clearly identify the threat. And Anakin would take more than two days to get back to Naboo!
'Jobal. Something's not right. I'm going to have the Palace send over guards as a precaution. I'll be home as soon as possible.' Cursing himself for leaving them at all he woke Bail, took leave of him, borrowed Obiwan's star-fighter and disappeared into hyperspace in less than an hour.
Ferus Olin was having serious difficulty understanding himself. Weeks ago his last clients were pleased with his services and left Theed for their new lives in the Core. He had other business to attend to. Clients waiting on Coruscant, and Jaabiim with deadlines to meet and interplanetary trips pre-paid. He'd lost that business and had to compensate the clients. Back home on Bellassa Trever was restarting school. Legal guardian Ferus had tutor-meetings to attend and permission slips to sign.
He had not thought much of the will of the ever fickle force since his resignation from the Jedi Order. Knowledge of Anakin's role in Darra's death only deepened Ferus' guilt. He determined to leave his old life behind him completely. Seeing Skywalker had led him to use his old training and set his rusty senses on edge.
Something whispered to him to stay on Naboo. For a week he haunted the senate steps, markets, spaceports. He feigned a tourist's interest in the Historical Sites and trendy haunts but to no avail. After each fruitless excursion he sat in his pilot's chair and lifted his hands over the controls, but a tingling alarm he recognized as the living force spread from the centre of his being to his finger tips. The sharp buzz gained strength as he neared the knobs, as if he might be burned if he dared to touch them.
He attempted to contact Anakin. Skywalker's legendary force connection would have detected whatever had disturbed Ferus. Olin was reluctant to stomach Anakin's gloating, but it would be worth it to find out what was wrong, and get back to his life. His force-search came up relatively empty, but that was no surprise. Anakin's shields and cloaking dropped firmly into place the moment they met in Theed.
He sought out Senator Amidala's family instead. When he arrived at the Naberries' Theed home he sensed immediately that Anakin's children were present, but the man himself was not. Rumors that the 'Hero with no Fear' had left retirement for the galactic peace negotiations were apparently true. Anakin was beyond Ferus' reach, but Olin felt his disquiet recede as he gazed into the home. It seemed unlikely that the cruisers being cooed over by two school-aged younglings could have upset him so. But something pertaining to them had. He knocked on the home's entrance, and addressed himself to Jobal.
'I've done my duty, Force,' he growled to himself and his invisible companion when he finished speaking, and made his way back to the spaceport.
Ensconced in his ship, Ferus discovered that the inexplicable barrier between himself and his ship's controls was still there. He could have simply reached through it and left, but he had already missed his deadlines. Once he sensed Anakin's return he'd go home, whatever the opinion of the sithing force. Skywalker could handle himself.
Ferus opted to pass the time in rediscovery of meditation and more introspection than he'd done since his move to Bellassa. He found he still slipped easily into his trances, his body recalled the Katas, and his long-unused lightsabre remembered his grip.
000000000000000000000
Aurra Sing slipped casually into the Naberries' gardens just after dark. She had been watching the property for days now. A disguised Jedi had come and gone one and a half cycles ago when she first arrived, and if she didn't move now she might have much worse to deal with. She would take the twins without alerting anyone else in the house giving her perhaps two standard hours to leave the System before their absence was noted. If she had to fight alarms would sound, and she might be followed. Of course she could kill the children in their beds and make a run for it, but Anakin Skywalker was not a man to have on your exhaust trail for revenge, no matter how high the payoff. Instead she planned to sell them to her Hutt partners. She'd make a tidy profit three times over and disappear, before the irate father came in search of his offspring and the culprits behind their disappearance. When the signatures inside indicated the occupants were asleep she somersaulted onto the roof of the dwelling, and crouched over the window closest to the twins' distinctive presences.
She reached for the lentil to swing inside, but the sound of an igniting lightsabre caught her attention. The Jedi she had seen before was on the roof beside her. She retrieved her own saber and ignited it just in time to meet his blade. Ferus had not dueled in years, and found himself driven back to the edge of the roof with a series of aggressive strikes and feints at his upper body that he could barely defend. If he fell off the roof it would be over. She'd never give him ground, she'd swing into the house and Skywalker's children would be at her mercy. He somersaulted over her, so that he was between her and access to the twins, and the duel resumed. Below them the babies had started crying, and the household was coming to life. Roused by the sounds of the fight Gregar Typho recognized the hum-crackle and smell of clashing light sabers outside the twins' room. He raised the alarm, and aimed his blaster at the window, while the grandparents took the children deeper into the home.
Sing knew she'd lost element of surprise. She could sense other beings surrounding the property. If she could kill the Jedi now the humans inside could not keep her from her prizes. Making her bounty was still possible. Ducking to avoid his blade again, she swept his legs from under him with one of hers, intending to strike his exposed torso once he landed. Instead he slid down the roof away from her, hung on the lintel and swung into the house. Gregar Typho shot several blaster bolts that Ferus had to block and dodge before he ripped the blaster from the Security Chief's hands. 'I'm a friend,' he growled at the man, and turned his attention back to the window he was sure Sing was about to follow him through. He stretched out with the force, and was puzzled to locate her near the edge of the garden's radius, moving away from them. A moment later the crushing blast of Anakin's fury assaulted Ferus' force sense. The Chosen One was back in system. Escape was Sing's only option now, but Ferus was not going to give it if he could help.
He returned the blaster. 'Keep watch, Captain. Anakin will be here soon. I've got to catch her before she gets off planet…..' Ferus disappeared the way he had come.
Sing got to Theed's spaceport hangar before he caught up with her. He planned to continue their duel, but she had other ideas. She shot at him with her blasters, so he was forced to defend the shots while she backed closer to her ship. Again Ferus cursed his years of complacency. He was unable to down her with his deflections. He barely managed not to get shot. She'd opened her ramp and started to ascend it. Sparks showered down and the smell of the fried electrical systems filled the air as some of the deflected bolts hit the ship, then finally one of the bolts hit her. She gasped in pain and fell on the ramp. Ferus cautiously approached to secure his quarry. Overhead the familiar keen of a Kuat Systems starfighter engine filled the landing pad. When the ship landed its occupant jumped out before the cockpit had fully opened, but froze mid-stride in his run towards Theed's suburbs at his rival's call. Ferus was pointing a blaster at a woman, while keeping carefully out of the range that would allow her to force-push him anywhere.
'Aurra Sing,' Anakin growled in recognition.
'She never got inside,' Ferus reassured him.
'I know,' he responsed, as he mentally checked his children for the 20th time in as many minutes. He spoke into his comlink. 'We've got her at the Main spaceport, Gregar. Come make the arrest. I've got everything you'll need.'
'Right away sir,'
'Who hired you, Sing?' Anakin's voice was deceptively gentle, but with a mental caress that made Aurra's eyes snap angrily to his.
'It was a job, like any other,' and she reinforced her shields.
'Tell me Aurra, and I'll convince my friend here to take his eyes off you long enough….'
'So you can follow me in that fighter and shoot me down? I know you Skywalker. Palpatine loved you for a reason.'
She hit the right nerve, and Anakin spent the next minutes fighting within himself for emotional control instead of pressing the interrogation. Enough time that Naboo Security forces to arrived and took custody of her, using the special binders Obiwan always kept in his ship.
Information had its own value. Aurra proved this many times over the years. Now she bartered it for her safety. While she remained in Naboo's prison system as a witness Skywalker would leave her alive. She kept recordings of her communications with the Viceroy. They didn't use names or specifics but the topic of discussion was inferable. Warrants were issued.
On Dantooine the Viceroy found himself surrounded by law enforcement agents. He did this drill before, and got off every time. Confident this would be no different, he feigned a look of confused innocence as he boarded the vessel that would take him to face charges on Coruscant. Fair trial was deemed impossible on Naboo.