A lot of you have been hoping I put more detail into the hunt. Sad to say, I didn't. I wrote this section over a year ago. It's really hard for me to think in details, and I'm sorry for that. I'm trying very hard for the more recent additions (Chapter 40+) to have a lot more detail than are in these earlier chapters. I can't just re-write it, as I doubt I could remember what I was even thinking when I wrote this. Please bear with me. :/
Boran Talos was a hard man to find, but he was being hunted by the one man who could find any quarry. Boba Fett perched himself up on a building near where Talos was staying, watching him silently through the scope of a sniper rifle. Usually, he would get in close. Take them out so they would see it was he who'd ended them. However, Fett had seen this man's security force. This window was his only access point. If he killed his target in the same instant, that was just a bonus.
It brought back memories. When he was just a child, he'd shot a man in the head with this very rifle. His father had finished that man off. This time, he was alone. He waited for the right instant, and squeezed the trigger. The window gave way with ease to the bolt, but deflected it enough to strike Talos on the right shoulder. He fell, and Fett ignited his jetpack, slinging the EE-3 off his shoulder. He blew through the rest of the window, and stood over the man, blaster aimed for his head.
"Boba Fett! You're no Republic commando!" Talos hissed, slinking away from the bounty hunter. "Why are you here, Fett? We should be in business together on this! Organa is taking out everyone we both work for! She'll take you out like she did me!"
Fett narrowed his eyes behind the visor. "Organa is under my protection." He blasted the man's hand as it reached for his blaster.
Talos screamed, now completely defenseless. "Blast you, Fett! Why?!"
"I don't have to answer to a man like you, Boran." He walked over, and plucked the taller man from the ground.
"You better kill me, Fett. Or I swear I'll do everything in my power to end you both."
Fett's blaster rested under his chin, and he pulled the trigger. Nothing. He felt nothing at all. He could still kill in cold blood and feel nothing at all. So why could he still love Leia? How could he kill someone like this, and still feel love?
He sighed, dragging the corpse back to his ship. It made no sense at all.
He threw the corpse down at Leia's feet, expression just as cold and calm as the mask that hid it. Part of him regretted the decision to deliver her would-be killer straight to her doorstep. The rest simply wanted to see what she would do. He was a hunter, and nothing would ever change that. Fett wanted Leia to know him for what he was. He wanted her to love him, but he knew she couldn't if she didn't accept this. Death followed him like a plague. It was part of the job. Business.
Leia stepped back, eyes wide. "You killed him!"
"Yes."
"Why? He should have answered for his crimes by a jury, Fett."
"You told me to get him. You did not specify 'alive.'"
She glared daggers at the hunter, hands on her hips. "You can't play judge, jury, and executioner, Boba."
He motioned to the corpse. "I can, and I did. He was a threat."
"I should arrest you. This isn't legal."
Fett crossed his arms. "The law is more important than your life?"
"Isn't your code more important than your life, Boba? The law is the code I live by, just as you live by your father's…" She sighed, and looked down at the corpse. "This isn't right."
"I deal the justice I see fit."
Leia called out her guards to remove the corpse. "I can't stand behind this, Boba."
He stepped over to her, removing his helmet. A guard at the door stared in shock. "I am what I am, Leia. Nothing will ever change that. Take away those I work for, I will still be a hunter. You can accept that, or not." His face fell out of his carefully crafted cold expression, filled with pain. "I love you. But I cannot become something I am not for you."
She looked up at him, frowning. He still loved her. It hurt her to see him like that. But why should it? Why did she care if she hurt the feelings of the galaxy's most notorious bounty hunter? Did she have feelings for him, buried somewhere under everything else? "You're exposed out here, Fett. You can put your helmet back on."
"I don't care. Tell me that you feel nothing at all. Give me something. Anything." He was frustrated. What bothered him the most, was that she hadn't even said she didn't love him. She hadn't said one way or another. That hurt more than anything else. He needed to know.
Leia stared up at the hunter. He wanted to face her, without the helmet on. He wanted to look her in the eye when she said she didn't love him. But did she not? What did she feel for him? "I don't know, Boba. I don't agree with your line of work. I don't agree with.. that." She motioned to the direction her guards had dragged the corpse off to.
Fett's eyes closed, and he looked down and away from her. "I need to know, one way or the other."
"I know." She sighed. "I do love you. Or part of me does. But I don't know if I can walk your path with you, Boba. It's filled with death and blood. I don't know if I can accept what you do. And I don't know if I'm in love with you."
His brows drew together. "I see. So it is both 'yes' and 'no.'"
She frowned. "Yeah. That's about it. I'm sorry. I care for you, Boba. I pity you. But our paths are just too different."
He set his helmet back into place, and turned to leave. At least he knew. She cared for him, but couldn't be with him. Much like Sintas. At least he didn't marry her before he discovered that she couldn't walk his path with him. Perhaps it was for the best. His life would just put her in danger. The thought didn't make it any easier. But, like his former wife, he would simply have to move past this pain. Another twist from the dagger that had plunged its way into his heart when Jango died. Again, he was shattered and uncertain.
Leia wanted to go after him. She wanted things to be different. But Boba Fett would always be Boba Fett, and even a love she didn't know he was capable of would never change that. He would continue to be the one thing in her universe that never changed. But it hurt to watch him leave. She knew he hurt too, and that just made it worse. He had no one to fall back on. No one to comfort him in the dark times. Maybe it would be different some day. Though, she doubted it.
Leia knew she had lied to fett a little. She knew that she had fallen in love with him. She tried to tell herself otherwise, but it was all a lie. Luke had contacted her to check up, obviously sensing something was off.
"Leia.. what's wrong?" Luke sounded concerned, his hologram frowning deeply. His sister was crying, several hours after Fett had left her place.
"I don't know what to do, Luke. I can't be with him. I just can't. But why can I also not live with myself, letting him be out there alone?"
Luke looked confused. "Sis, you need to calm down a bit, and rewind your thoughts. You lost me. Who can't you be with?"
"…Boba. He's all alone out there, Luke."
"Fett? Of course he is. He's always been a bit of a loner. Why do you feel you need to be with him?" He paused. "You.. oh blast. Leia, tell me you didn't fall in love with Boba Fett."
"It would be a lie…"
"He's not a man you should love, sis. He's dangerous. I know we trained him, but that doesn't change who he is, or what he does. Trust me.. friend or foe, it's safer you not get involved with a man like that."
"Guess I have a soft spot for the scum of the galaxy." She rubbed at her eyes, frowning. "He loves me, Luke. He said it himself. I didn't think he could. But he does.
What do I do? I love him.. but I'm so afraid. I don't agree with his choices, but he can't change them now. Should I even ask him to?"
Luke rubbed at his temples with a long sigh. "Neither of us agrees with his choices, Leia. But they're his to make. Not ours. Do what you think is right."
"I don't know what's right anymore."
"You always pick the hard ones, Leia. Han was a smuggler, before he met us. He continued to do it for a while after, too. You never agreed with that, but you knew he did it for a reason. That was his life, and his choice. Fett is a bounty hunter. You can accept that it's his choice to live that life, and love him for it, as you loved Han. Or, you can get over him now, and save yourself the grief. I can't tell you what you should choose."
She sighed and looked down. "I want to make it so he's not alone anymore. The universe has been cruel enough to him. I want to see him smile happily, like Jango said he used to. But I don't want to have to accept what he does. I can't walk that path of death."
"Then it's best you just leave him to his loneliness, Leia. You'll only hurt him if you refuse to walk the path he's chosen. He can't change it, any more than the sun can change its course across the sky. Boba Fett is a man set in his ways. Either you accept it, or you've already doomed you both."
Leia slumped. "Everything we've fought and strove for would be for nothing if I changed my opinion now…"
"I don't think he would want you to change, Leia. He just needs someone to accept him for who he is, and always will be. If you can't, you're both better off away from each other."
"How can I not change, and still accept him for what he does? He kills people. Deals justice without a fair trial."
"You can accept that, in his own way, he is helping the Republic get criminals off the streets. Fett deals with the people our system fails to deal with properly. He makes sure that those people answer for their crimes."
She stared at Luke's holo. He was right. Fett was never part of the Empire, he simply upheld their justice, because he thought it the right thing to do. He was never on either side. And, she realized, he still wasn't. The Republic stood where the Empire once did, and that was all that had really changed for Fett. He still upheld the laws of the galaxy, in his own way.
"Thank you, Luke."
"Sure. But I think you're making a mistake. Fett's path is a hard one to walk. Especially for someone like you. If he loves you, like you say he does, he'll try to push you away. I want you to let him, more than anything. But that's for you to decide."
Leia was worried when Fett didn't answer his com. It had been several hours since she tried. Maybe he was just working. Somewhere out there, meeting with a client to discuss his next target. She didn't think he could get too far in such a short time.
Now, though, she was pacing. Why wasn't he answering?
She tried again, trying this time to connect with his direct com channel. Maybe he wasn't on the Slave. The synthesized voice that answered was more than a welcome sound. Audio only, as the helmet's com always was.
"What is it?" There was blaster fire in the next instant, and a closer blaster sound.
"I didn't mean to interrupt you on a job.."
"I'm still on Corellia. Met up with another hunter, who I'm having a bit of an argument with." More blaster shots were heard.
She quirked a brow. "An argument about what, pray tell?"
"About who to hunt, and who not to."
"I see. Who is this hunter after, Boba?"
"..You."
Leia's heart skipped a beat. Fett was out at the landing pads, fending off a fellow bounty hunter who was there.. for her. He'd mentioned that there had been a bounty on her head, but she didn't think for a moment that someone would actually take it. She was too well-protected, even without Fett there. Or so she'd thought.
Her attention was caught by the sound of a blaster much closer to herself. "Boba, I don't think the one you have there is alone. I think someone's here."
"I'm on my way."
Her hand went to her side, where she kept the custom WESTAR-34 that Boba had given her. Her small hand slid it from its holster. It was certainly more her size than the rifle she had around here somewhere. And nearly as powerful. Jango had certainly known how to pick a good pistol. She hid in her house, and hoped that the kids were safe upstairs. She'd stop them down here.
I'll kill to defend my family. Without thought. Maybe I'm more like Fett than I want to believe. She sighed. Had Boba killed Talos because he'd threatened her and the kids? Was he just defending that which he cared for, as she was now? She realized that she didn't know. She'd found his actions cold. But perhaps they weren't.
The first of the hunters slunk into the room, blaster rifle at the ready. Leia peeked around the corner, took aim with her pistol, and fired two shots into that man's body. He fell, dead, and Leia hid back behind the corner. Maybe there wouldn't be more.
Wishful thinking. Three other shadows were seen outside, and she frowned. She wouldn't be able to hide from all of them. They were all in different areas. One was coming through to her right, one to the left, and another behind the corner she was posted at. Why were there so many? Why such a large team, for one woman?
She raised Jango's old pistol, and whipped around the corner to take a shot at the hunter who was there. But this was foolish, she thought, because she soon felt the coldness of a blaster at the back of her own head.
"Kindly hand that back here, miss Organa." The voice was heard through a filter, like Boba's. This one was female, but she recognized that particular sound. A Mandalorian helmet.
Leia complied, hoping Boba wasn't too far away. "You won't get away with this."
"Your pet hunter won't be a problem. We managed to exile his father. I doubt he'll put up more of a fight." The pistol was taken, and she examined it. "Come to think of it, this was one of his, wasn't it? How sentimental."
"I'm a prominent member of the Republic Senate! The Jedi will never– "
"The Jedi think you're on your way to Coruscant right now, Miss Organa. When the Remnant gave us a sample of your DNA, it wasn't hard to create a clone of you to use as we see fit. We just had to wait for her to be ready."
A clone. Boba wasn't going to like this at all. "How did you get a cloner to agree to your demands?"
"When the Kaminoans were scattered, we ended up with a few who worked on the clones for the Old Republic. It wasn't hard to get a new facility up and running. Now walk."
Leia frowned, and followed her instructions. Did these people know about Boba? Did they know he was a clone? Surely, the Kaminoans who worked for them did. Fett had grown up on Kamino for the first ten years of his life. Part of her hoped they hadn't told them the truth about Jango's son. Boba Fett didn't like to associate himself as a clone.
A few sounds alerted Leia and her Mando captor of another presence nearby. Both of her team dropped like stones, grasping at their throats for air as the toxin of Fett's darts killed them both.
The female shoved her blaster at Leia's back, and held onto her. "Fett! I know that was you! Thanks for making it so I don't have to pay them, but I'd leave it at that if you want the Senator to stay alive!"
"You're in no position to be making demands, Es'ka." Fett's whipcord was around her neck, jerking her off Leia before she could react.
Es'ka grabbed at the cord, and put her blaster up to it, shooting the strand free before pulling it off. "Blast you!" She raised her weapon to fire, but Boba was faster. Two bolts impacted into the woman's armor plating, knocking her to the ground.
Fett walked up to her, and pointed his blaster down at the black and blue helmet. "You never were a match for me, Es'ka. I don't know why you even try."
A hiss sounded from the girl's helmet. "Death Watch will hunt you down if you kill me, Fett."
"I'm not going to kill you." He looked at Leia. "I'm sure the lady would love for you to answer some questions."
Leia nodded, retrieving the WESTAR from the Mandalorian girl. "Who hired you?"
"You can't force me to answer anything. I'll die before I give up my contact." Es'ka tried to attack, but Fett simply nailed her in the helmet with the butt of his EE-3. She fell to the ground, unconscious.
"You never were easy to work with, either."
"I thought you didn't get along with other Mandos."
"I think it should be obvious now that I don't." He slung his blaster over his shoulder, and picked up the girl in armor.
"You referred to her by name." Leia lead him to a room where they could interrogate the girl. She helped Boba get her armor off, leaving the flight-suit beneath. Es'ka wasn't a very pretty girl, as standards went. Her face was too square, nose too broad. Her skin was pale, and she was blond. It matched too closely.
"We've met before. That's all." He leaned against the wall by the door, arms crossed.
"Not on friendly terms?"
"Never is, with them. Especially not Death Watch."
"You wear Mandalorian armor, and don't get along with your own people. I will never understand you, Fett."
He shrugged. "My father was Mandalorian. He adhered to their traditions. To their code. He was betrayed for that. I am not one to repeat my father's mistakes, despite any blood relation I might have to any of them. The line of Fett ends with me. I have no clan. No remaining family."
She sighed. "I suppose I'd have a dislike for them too."
There was silence until Es'ka woke, with Fett's blaster held ready to blast her head off. She just glared at him. "Shoot me. I won't talk. It's against the code."
"I want answers, and I'm sure my friend here can do worse than kill you. This hunt has put me and my family at risk. Call me a little desperate, but I'll get the answers one way or another. Who hired you?" Leia spoke with conviction.
Es'ka spit at Leia, which earned her a harsh strike to her shoulder by the butt-end of Fett's blaster. She cringed, but simply glared at them, defiant. "I am dead anyway. I'll say nothing."
Leia frowned at Fett. "Do you know what she means?"
"Death Watch tends to kill those who fail their missions. They're nothing but a group of Mandalorian terrorists who claim to follow the old ways. Conquest and destruction for a bygone era."
"You sound upset about that.."
"They have no honor. They tarnish the very code they claim to follow."
Leia nodded a bit. She didn't know the Mandalorian code, but she knew that Fett did. He may not follow it, but his father had, once. No doubt, Jango had taught him of it.
Es'ka bared her teeth at Boba. "You don't follow it any more than we do!"
"I never claimed to follow that code, Es'ka. I'm no Mandalorian."
"How dare you wear our armor, and claim that you're not one of us, Fett."
"My father was. I wear it to honor him."
"You're as pathetic as he was." She screamed as Fett blasted her arm.
"Boba!" Leia objected.
"No one insults my father." He aimed his blaster down at her leg. "Tell us who hired you now, or I'll blast you away bit by bit."
Es'ka swallowed hard. She absolutely believed him. "The Imperial Remnant. They're offering double for Organa, dead. So long as we bring back her kids alive."
"Why does the Remnant want her children?"
"Because they're Jedi. Something about a new Sith Lord needing apprentices. I don't know any more than that, I swear!"
Leia frowned. "They aren't getting my children."
"The clone was meant to summon them to Coruscant with her once we were finished with you. But she was also our contingency plan."
"..Clone?"
"Apparently, they cloned me for something. This is bigger than just us, I think."
Fett was silent for a long moment. "What's the contingency?"
"The clone will attack the Senate, then flee heading back to Corellia. Her ship will detonate in Hyperspace, leaving no trace. They'll follow your trail, and you'll be seen as a traitor. We have a plant inside the children's home where the twins will be sent when you're arrested."
Leia went completely pale. "But.. I would never do that! They know I wouldn't!"
"The clone will act as though she is you, finally snapped after the loss of your husband. They won't know better, and you'll take the fall for her."
Fett sneered behind his visor, and shot Es'ka in the head. She was of no use now. He moved over to grab Leia by the arm. "We have to go. Now."
She stared as she watched the Mando girl die, and pulled away from the bounty hunter. "I can't run, Boba. I'm not the enemy. I'll prove my innocence."
"You're not innocent to them now, Leia. The evidence will have already been planted for all trails to point to you. Get your kids, and get on my ship if you want to remain united with them." He turned, and walked for the exit. "Unless you'd rather they fall into the hands of the Sith."
Leia frowned. Fett was right. He'd been through their legal system before. It was weighed against her right now. She ran to pack and get the kids onto the Slave I. If anyone could get her children to safety, out of the Republic and Remnant's reach, it would be Boba Fett.