The next chapter or so will be sprt of 'choppy', jumping from scene to scene. Little ~~~~~ symbols mean a new scene, because I can't exactly do a montage like in the movie, or one of those little swirly in and out visual effects. :3 As usual, flashbacks (there is one today!) and thoughts are in italics.

Ok, trivia: Forcebook is a play on Facebook. A palindrome is a word or phrase that's the same backwards and forwards (like, say, Hannah). The line about test scores being so high she failed is from an episode of Phineas and Ferb- Baljeet mentions that he was kicked out of summer school because his test scores were too high.

...

I don't own that show either! Quit asking!


"According to her Forcebook page, this is where she lives- third story, east wall, second window over." Minion read off the details from the laptop, but Cleverlight wasn't looking at the screen- her face was pressed to the window, watching the Padawan disappear into the front door of the temple.

"Who exactly is she?"

"Name: Hannah Palindrome, Padawan of Obi-wan Kenobi-"

"Wait. This is Obi-wan's Padawan?"

"Yup. I guess he got a new one after Skywalker graduated."

"It's almost like… destiny." Ventress cracked a smile. This was perfect! She could continue to capture Obi-wan, using the same excuse as before- "Come now or it'll be the last you'll see of your precious master!"

"No criminal record… no record of anything, really. It seems that she hasn't done much with her life. At all."

"Not yet, Minion. Not yet." Ventress opened the door of the invisible car and stepped out. "Soon enough, the city shall know her name."

~~~Inside~~~

Hannah was minding her own business, playing a ChosenOne video game, rescuing Obi-wan and beating up Cleverlight, when the door flew open, and there was the baddie herself, in all her caped glory. "Hannah Pah-leen-dro-meh! Prepare to meet your destiny!"

The Padawan passed out.

"Am I pronouncing it right? Because she seems fairly unresponsive."

Minion glanced down at Hannah, sprawled out on the couch. "It's Palindrome, but I think she's not answering because she fainted."

"Why?"

"Hmmm…. Maybe a bit of knock-out spray still clings to us?"

"Either way, we can just be glad she's out." Cleverlight stepped on the TV remote as she entered the room, and the screen flipped off, eliminating the picture before either villain saw it. "Do you have a disguise?"

"I'm all set!"

Ventress twisted her watch gadget to that of a short, stubby woman with poufy white hair wearing a spangled suit. It was only then that she glanced at Minion. He'd tied on an oversized bathrobe to hide the metal components of his body, and a large wig of blond curls covered the top of his dome.

The overall effect was that of a fish perched on a bathrobed pedestal while wearing an ugly wig.

"What?" Grievous had noticed her stares.

"You look splentastic. Quick! She's waking!" Hannah had indeed gotten over her initial shock and was starting to stir. "Ah, Hannah, my dear…" Ventress felt ridiculous in this disguise, but it had to be done.

"Who are you?" Hannah didn't seem to remember anything that had happened, luckily.

"I have created you and sent you here, to Croiss- Corausant, that you might learn about justice. I am your mother."

"So… kinda like an outer space mommy."

She was already 'Mommy' to the blasted brainbots, and she didn't really want to be known as 'mommy' to this clueless new hero. "Yes. Space mom would be shorter."

"And who are you?" The heroine-to-be had noticed Grievous.

"I'm your space sister."

"Is this… some kind of dream?" Hannah was looking dazed.

"This isn't a dream. The people of this city need a hero, and you are here to be the hero they need."

"Wow…" Hannah's mind was whizzing. If I have powers… everyone will like me, the same way they liked ChosenOne! I could have anything I want- any guy I want too!

"I want you to remain calm. It may take days for your powers to develop fully…" At that moment, Hannah Palindrome began to change. Her straggly brown hair lengthened and began to look as though it had seen a shower recently. She grew taller, and her figure grew more feminine. Her skin-and-bones look disappeared, replaced by taught, lean muscles that Asajj would admit she envied. Her own frame was too slight to be considered imposing, and her height made the idea of 'imposing' laughable.

Slowly, Hannah lifted her feet, and found that she was floating. "This… is… epic! Woooo! Without any further comment, she swooped out the open window and zipped around the parking lot, slamming cars headlong into eachother with her new found strength. "I'm gonna be a hero! A hero!"

Minion looked apprehensively down at the girl, but Cleverlight was grinning. "See that enthusiasm, Minion? She'll do great!"

~~~Later that day~~~

"It's a fairly simple exercise. All you have to do is get past Cleverlight-"

Hannah interrupted with a snort. "That's easy, she does absolutely nothing! She's so stupid and useless. I mean-"

"Ahem." Ventress asserted. It was lovely that the girl fostered a nice dislike for her future nemesis, but now was time for listening and following, not ranting. "Get past her and rescue Obi-wan."

Minion smiled from where he was strapped to a table, tipped so his feet rested on the floor. "I'm Obi-wan!" A mannequin stolen from a local store and outfitted in black and blue leather stood before him.

"Go!" Hannah dove forward at once, but rather than rescuing 'Obi-wan', she went straight for 'Cleverlight', beating her with super-powered punches that sent the mannequin's head flying across the room. It hit the table with Minion on it, which tilted backwards. Minion let out a yelp as his feet moved skyward. Ventress was torn between disappointment and… fear. There was something fairly creepy about the satisfaction in the hero's eyes as the fake Cleverlight was pounded to pieces.

"Stop. Stop. And stop. The goal isn't to kill Cleverlight. The goal is to rescue Obi-wan, remember?"

"I knew that! I'm just getting the freak out of the way first."

~~~Later~~~

"Go!" The new hero took off like a shot, gripping Space Mom by the wrist. "Remember, Obi-wan won't want to be swung around. Stay steady and fly- Ah! Building!" she screamed, realizing that the girl had almost flown straight into the side of a skyscraper. Hannah swerved, but managed to drop Cleverlight in the process. There was a moment of terror- her life flashed before her eyes- she was going to die…

"Gotcha!" Hannah had caught her again, and then the two of them flew straight into a billboard.

"This kid is hopeless!" Ventress declared, holding an icepack to her aching head. That wasn't even quite true, as the 'kid', it turned out, was in her mid-twenties.

"I'm sure we just need to work a little more on staying on course. Course! That's it!" Minion exclaimed. "If we build a video-game type course…" Asajj stopped listening, because at that moment, Brianna's phone vibrated. She turned away from Minion for a minute and flipped it open. Four words were printed on the screen- 'Lunch at library? ~Obi'

Ventress was about to type a reply, but paused. Was it really a good idea to keep fooling Kenobi like this? He wasn't stupid; he'd figure it out eventually. Well… she could consider it part of her 'job', to keep an eye on how her adversary was doing. Keeping friends close and enemies closer. The villain responded with 'Love to, cant wait :)'

"Can't wait for what?" said Minion suddenly, and she realized that she'd said her message out loud as she typed. Oops.

"Oh, I just… I can't wait to see if Hannah responds to the new training."

"Neither can I, sir."

~~~At the library~~~

"Thank you so much for helping me with this. I mean, I don't think anyone else has even bothered to look into what Cleverlight is up to. Maybe I'm crazy." Obi-wan smiled slightly at the dark-haired woman across from him. Her shirt was lavender today.

"Oh, no, you're not crazy. You're the sensible one, trying to gain knowledge like this. Knowledge is power."

"Exactly. That's what's made Cleverlight such a problem in the past- she knows so much, it's hard to outsmart her. Strike that- it's impossible." Outwit her, perhaps. But outsmart her? Never.

"Then maybe we should start small. Figure out her plan before we try to stop it?"

"Yes. I have these photos of the cards we found in her lair. They're actually pretty good resolution, so I've zoomed in enough to get most of the writing on most of the cards from all angles."

Oh force, he really does have good resolution! I hope he's not as good at puzzles as he seems… So far, Obi-wan had no idea she was Brianna. She'd managed to get the projector to change the shirt color so it looked like a new outfit. The hair had proved impossible to fix, and remained down in loose curls. She'd tried getting it back to the updo Brianna had worn a few nights ago, at the museum, but had failed miserably.

"Well, I do love a good puzzle." Which was true.

"As do I. And Cleverlight is quite the puzzle." Did I say that out loud? I didn't mean to…

"Oh? And how is she puzzling?" This was the perfect opportunity to delve into Kenobi's thoughts, specifically those involving her.

"It's just-" Do not mention the kiss, Obi-wan. Don't even brush on it. "She seems to show occasional signs of loneliness, depression, even low self-esteem."

"I'm a failure as a person." A low mutter he barely heard.

"What?" Her head shot up- obviously she hadn't meant him to hear her.

"Hose-tages should only speak when spoken to." Her back was still towards him.

"You're not a failure. I think you're a pretty good villainess, actually."

Ventress finally whirled to face him. "Because it takes such a successful person to allow ChosenOne to fly them off to prison twice a week." Her voice was scathing.

"Look at all these contraptions and machines. Amazing. You have technology no one has even dreamed of."

"Useless. All of it useless against your Padawan." She moved in closer, because she had to up the drama factor, even in a conversation like this one. "And look at you! Tied up here almost every day, and not a scratch on you. ChosenOne gets you out of everything."

"Why do you bring me here?" He'd asked abruptly.

One eyebrow arched suspiciously. "As bait. You know that."

"Anakin would come without any. I think you're lonely."

"Ridiculous!" She drew back now. "You are bait and nothing more."

Obi-wan seized the idea. "You're lonely. You have no one to talk to. And so I'm here."

"No. You serve your purpose and that is all."

"You're lonely, aren't you? And I'm the person who's willing to speak with you."

"Shut up." She turned away again, and Obi-wan knew he'd dug too deep.

"No she doesn't!" Ventress snapped. Obi-wan looked at her weird. "I mean, her ego's the size of the Temple. She definitely doesn't have low self-esteem." What the hoth does he mean, 'I have low self esteem'?

"Which is what makes it so puzzling. It's just a feeling I get. Anyway, back to the papers. They're categorized in too many ways. Position, color, shape, size… Some are squares, some rectangles, a few triangles, and all different sizes. Mostly they're yellow, white, and red, but there are a few blue as well. Not to mention that some of them have shapes, like these few," he paused to point out places in the picture, "Have stars, and this one has a heart." He pointed out a blue piece at the edge of the cloud.

Crap! I did NOT mean to draw that! "Ok, so what's the first step?"

"Reproduce all the writing that's on the cards. Then we can start making and hanging them."

The rest of the meeting passed without incident. Ventress considered purposely messing up Obi-wan's work, but somehow, that didn't seem quite fair. The villain/hero rules still applied, even though the old hero was gone and the new one not trained yet, and disguised sabotage was certainly unfair. Then again, Obi-wan had kissed her. That was unfair.

"I really can't understand all this scientific stuff here, but this is a drawing of a DNA strand… Or she's using a double helix as one of her shape classifications."

Brianna laughed quietly. "Well, this is Cleverlight we're talking about."

"You're right. As I said before, she's a real puzzle. Not to mention that I constantly have to sort out fact from fiction- so many people buy into tabloid type stories about her." Ugh, the garbage stories he was sometimes asked about. Is Cleverlight a human in disquise? Do her gadgets really work? Is her skin slimy? How much lipstick does she wear? Is Cleverlight really a female? Is it true that she failed school because her scores were too high? Honestly. Of course she's a female, no she's not human, and yes, her 'gadgets' work just fine!

'Brianna' knew the stories. "I've seen them all. But I don't think anyone will ever understand her, really." Not even you, Kenobi, even though you try. I'm keeping an eye on you. A very close one. If I'm a puzzle, then I don't want to be solved.

Up next, Minion grows suspicious of Ventress's disappearances... Mwahaha!