Hello again me hearty friends! Yes, another chapter to make up for times lost. I do believe I'm back on track. feel free to tell me how I'm doing and let me know what I can do to make this as interesting as possible. Remember I eagerly check for reviews everyday.

Part Two

Chapter Ten

I'd like to believe that the events of the Well had merely been a dream; or perhaps a hellish nightmare. Unfortunately I now realize that it was indeed a real place and I had truly gone there.

Where to begin? Ah, that is a truly difficult question.

The moment I truly realized the reality of the ordeal was when my hand touched upon the Amulet. I confess that I had quite a start.

Half of me wished it was not there while…ashamedly I was glad that it was mine. I didn't want anyone else to have it. Is that to odd a thing to say? Perhaps. Even now as I look at it beside me, I can't help but feel a sort of longing to stroke it.

The Well master, or the "Father of the Well" as the ancient worshippers called him, was right in saying that the Amulet drew beings in. I hope to not be overcome by it at least. It is too great a thing for me to have. I shall give it to Master Yoda as soon as we reach Coruscant.

In some ways I pitied the Well master; he was a dreadful creature of mist. He had no shape that I could see and his voice was smoother than the finest Alderaan honey. I shudder now as I think of it. He spoke of his past, brought on by his own greed of course. I shall have to inform Master Yoda.

Whoever had ensnared the young girl Tuva was looking for this item; I cannot help but assume they meant it for ill use. How is one to use this without in turn falling into the dark side? I have not the answer.

A note to be made: I shall be returning to active service! After at least fourteen years…has it been that long? I am to be assigned to a company of clones. I enjoy the presence of the clones; an odd sort of group, but fine men to stand by.

One, a sergeant who goes by the name of Jory, he is an enjoyable person. His fellow comrades, a medic named Jackson and a private by the name of Brace, I met as well. They are very fine fighters.

Brace is a strange one, now that I ponder it. He seemed attached to my former master. I fear that he dislikes me, or rather did. I have yet to solve that puzzle.

He does have an aura; he cloaks it well enough that I cannot sense his feeling much. He is much attuned to his surroundings; perhaps the Force is stronger in this one? I don't know.

I hope to be a good general, though I'm no warrior. But I shall do my best.

Palla set her pen down beside the flimsy journal she kept. She rubbed the bridge of her nose then set her chin on her fingertips. Almost a day ago she had been in a fight between death and life on a small and lonesome planet. It seemed like a life time ago really.

Palla closed her book and slipped the pen inside the binding. She put the book away in the pack at the side of her small desk. She stopped when she saw the small bundle of cloth that she had made to hold the Amulet. Her hand strayed to it for a moment before she angrily snapped the pack closed; turning away from the tempting item.

If she took it out again she'd be staring, mesmerized at it yet again.

Palla sighed and stood up to stretch out her shoulders. She had removed her tunic previously so she was only in the sleeveless undershirt she wore with her trousers. Her boots were tossed somewhere near her narrow bunk.

Palla tossed the pack out of sight and sat on the edge of her bunk. The bunk was firm and the blankets were slightly scratchy, but they were warm and beat lying on cold rock trying to sleep.

Obi-Wan had said that they would reach Coruscant in about a day or two in hyperspace. Palla stretched out tiredly on her bed; she didn't even bother to pull the covers over her before she dropped off to sleep.

Tuva Libath sat in the corner of her holding cell curled up in a tight ball of self-pity and loathing. She felt small and useless. Her plan definitely did not consist of this. All she had was plan aurek and after that failed…well it was safe to say that she had no plan besh.

Tuva squinted at the red energy shield that kept her cut off from leaving her cell. The Jedi hadn't questioned her yet. She had no idea what kind of tortures they might preform.

Grandfather said they were the cause of our religion dying off, Tuva thought. She withdrew her eyes from the energy field. She could feel the hatred balling inside her stomach.

She thought of the Jedi woman and her thoughts strayed to that of the Amulet. Tuva had seen it, she was sure of it. But how to get it? And get off this tub? she thought. Tuva looked back up at the energy shield. The first thing would be removing herself from the holding cell; then and only then could she think of what to do next.

Tuva stood slowly and moved closer to the doorway. She could see through the red haze at the single clone trooper guarding her cell. He was turned away from her, apparently bored by the fact that he had to run guard duty.

All the better for Tuva.

The girl looked above her to the small vent shaft that circulated the recycled air into her cell. If she could reach it and squeeze through unnoticed then…Tuva smiled a little. She'd just have to get at it.

"And she hadn't told you anything?"

"No, and I hardly remember a thing myself."

Obi-Wan Kenobi shook his head. He and Anakin were on the bridge, moved off a little ways from any sharp ears. Their conversation had landed on the tender line of the encounter with the Well.

"Palla Tadè is well trained in the ways of the Force, almost a master at it I'm sure," Obi-wan said slowly. "I can't help but notice that she seems a little more drained than usual. It just isn't like her to be so mysterious."

Anakin shrugged. He didn't know Palla as well as Obi-Wan may have, so it wasn't as if he could agree or disagree on anything his former master said.

"Ahsoka saw her earlier today; she said that Master Tadè had been distracted." Anakin rubbed his chin. "Perhaps it's just that she had to do most of the mission on her own. It certainly didn't turn out how we expected and you said that she hadn't been outside Coruscant on a mission since she was knighted. Maybe she's mulling over some things," Anakin said he suddenly got a gleam in his eye.

"Maybe you could talk to her?" he said. Obi-Wan cast Anakin a confused look.

"Why me?"

"You're the one who's so good with the ladies; I'm sure you two can share a cup of tea together." Then on a more serious not Anakin continued, "Besides, you've known her longer than I have."

Obi-Wan stroked his beard; he hadn't talked much with the woman of late. Although he did remember meeting her a few times when he was a Padawan and she had recently been accepted by Gal Naratah as his apprentice. The two had gotten along well enough, although he had to say that Palla had been quite a shy and lonely sort of thing. Still is a sort of loner, he thought.

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by the presence of a cone trooper appearing on deck. He could sense a sheen of worry flowing of the man as Obi-Wan sensed in the Force.

"Sir, permission to report, sir!" the clone huffed. He did indeed seem highly agitated.

Obi-Wan nodded. "Go on, trooper," he said.

"Sir, the prisoner…the uh," here the clone paused momentarily before plunging forward in an awkward gusto. "Sir, the prisoner has escaped!"

Anakin stepped forward. "What? How?"

The Clone turned his helmeted head to Anakin, "Sir, we believe she went through the air vent; I have a squad of men closing off some of the shafts now and running a scan."

Anakin swore under his breath and held his comlink to his mouth. "Rex? I need you on the bridge immediately. We have a security breach."

Anakin shut the device off and turned to his former master. "Looks like we'll be busy for a while; a prisoner can't hide forever on one of these things."

The buzzing was insistent and hadn't stopped. No matter how hard Palla smooshed the pillow against her head the sound didn't stop. With some bad temper the Jedi relented and shot out of bed. She shivered a bit at the coldness in her darkened room. She made her way to the door and allowed the door to slide open.

Palla scrunched her nose in confusion. There was no one outside her door; she stepped out into the brightly lit hallway, no one was there either. Palla blinked a few times to clear her vision.

She heard the heavy footfall of someone running down the hall. She turned and hailed down the clone trooper who was hurrying along his way, almost ignoring her.

"You there!" she barked not unkindly. "What's going on, did you see anyone on your way down this hallway?"

The clone stopped and was silent for a few moments. Palla sensed some sort of mixed feeling of embarrassment flooding off of him. Palla was suddenly aware of her state of dress, no shoes, rumpled hair and the thin sleeveless shirt she wore beneath her tunic. She thanked the Force that it was black in color.

"Uh, I haven't seen anyone Ma'am," the clone said awkwardly. "I was on my way to the bridge, the uh, prisoner has escaped and we're to search the vents for her."

Palla frowned and allowed the trooper to be on his way. All of the sudden she felt highly paranoid.

Despite herself Palla cast a glance at the bag that she had tossed….

Wait a moment…

Palla hurried to her pack after switching on the light. In the she could see that her pack had been hastily moved and the straps on the front were undone, as if someone hadn't taken the time to fasten them.

Cursing herself beneath her breath, Palla rummaged around the pack. Not finding what she was looking for, she impatiently dumped the pack on the floor. The sack holding the Amulet was nowhere in the back.

Palla looked wildly up at the vent which, in the light, she could see had been loosened. The girl had probably been the one to ring at the door, and then distraction complete she had stolen the Amulet.

Palla could feel an unfamiliar feeling of rage claw into her stomach making her knees shake. Alarmed she calmed herself with a few breaths, all was not lost yet.

Hurriedly Palla dressed and strapped her lightsaber to her belt and drew up a stool so she could take off the metal grating at her vent. Then, with a slight Force jump, she landed in the vent and followed the only direction available.

Tuva was giddy with excitement. The plan had been all too easy; the Jedi fell for it superbly. Tuva snickered as she dropped lightly from the vent into the darkened hangar where the Jedi delta fighters lay undisturbed.

Glancing about to make sure no clone details were lying in wait, the girl made her way to the nearest fighter. She climbed onto the fighter and slipped inside. She switched the fighter on with a few flicks of some buttons.

The clones had followed a lead that she had sent ahead of her. A few knocked off barrels and some bangs for good measure had sent them down their wild womp-rat chase, leaving the hangar bay undisturbed.

Tuva climbed out of the fighter and slid to the hangar doors. She peeked out and, satisfied that no one was around, she closed the doors. Then she pulled out a device from her pocket and flipped a switch.

The plan was to get the whole ship's power system to make a surge so that, in order to stay operational, the captain would have to order the ship to be taken out of hyperspace. Only then could Tuva remotely program the port doors to open, allowing her to slip of the ship and out of reach.

As planned she felt the ship surge, and she gazed out the bay windows as the glowing stars one by one moved to a still. The whole action took only five minutes. Good procedure for a large destroyer.

Tuva pried the control panel off the hangar doors and fried the controls so none would be entering. Then she made her way to the control station and proceeded to unlock the doors to the bay. The shields went down slowly and Tuva raced back to the fight and placed it delicately inside the hyperspace ring that was meant for those ships. She glanced back at the hangar doors to see a blue lightsaber carving a circle through the doors. She smirked.

Too late my Jedi friends, she thought to herself. She piloted the fighter out the doors and into open space. The Jedi wouldn't fire on her so she had nothing to worry as she programmed the ship for Florrum, a pirate haven planet.

The ship powered up and in a few seconds burst into hyperspace away from the republic destroyer.

Palla dropped too late into the hangar bay as she watched the Sonyuni girl and the stolen fighter move out of the bay. The ship lit into hyperspace and was gone.

Palla was then aware of the lightsaber sawing through the door behind her. She waited a moment till the job was done and the newly made hole was pushed outward and Anakin, backed by Ahsoka, leapt into the bay.

"Did she get away?" Anakin asked. Palla nodded sullenly.

"I'm afraid so," she replied. "And she took more than that fighter with her."