The night had quickly become morning, and eventually citizens were starting to emerge from their homes and began wandering the streets. It didn't take long for someone to come across the three storm troopers who all had severed or crushed heads. The town was in an uproar about this, people had reported the dead troopers, and more troops came piling in Mos Espa.
There was nothing quite like the feeling of being trapped. Trapped and waiting. Raven knew the Empire had come and investigated the murder and it was clear to them that perhaps these wounds were caused by a blade. No doubt that they had high suspicion that she was the cause. That she was here. Keeping calm was difficult.
Raven sat in her small guest room at Cuat's slave house, biting down on her lower lip nervously. She had been meditating all morning, ...thinking... plotting. The Force was not communicating with her. It only swirled around her shivering body to insure her that it was there. But it spoke no words of advice. Three times already, Storm Troopers came knocking on the door. Each time, Raven ran to the back of the small house and climbed down into the cellar room under a rug. Shinaw would answer the door and the troopers would request to search her house for the murderer. They would run throughout the house and not discover the cellar door. Down in the dark, Raven would hear their footsteps above her. She would hold her breath, praying and waiting. She has been lucky so far.
"Raven, what did you do? Why is the Empire here for you?" Shinaw asked, a little worried, but Raven also knew she was irritated as well.
"When you first came here, you said you had nothing to do with the Empire."
"I don't. I ran away from them."
"But they are looking for you. And you brought them here. If they discover you here and Master's spices down in the cellar, they'll kill us all."
"Spices?" Raven asked.
"Illegal imported drugs." She said frowning. No wonder it smelled funny down there.
Raven sighed, looking down at her feet as she sat on the floor. Shinaw folded her arms, standing in the door way and looking down at Raven.
"We've come to appreciate having you here, Raven dear. But whatever your ties are with the Empire, you are endangering us by stay here. You can stay until the end of the day, and hopefully by then, the troopers wont come by here as frequently. You'll need to leave by this evening."
"I understand." Raven said softly. She felt sad that her new acquaintance family wanted to kick her out, but she felt worse that it was true, in fact, that she was endangering all of their lives by being sheltered here.
"I'm sorry, Raven."
"It's ok. I had planned to leave soon anyway. I have been given an offer to join up with a group of people as a guard. They were going to return for me and pick me up in two days. But with the Empire all over the city, I don't know if I'm going to be able to meet back up with them."
Shinaw looked sadly upon Raven. "There isn't much I can do, but I can suggest to just hide out in bars. Most bars down in the city never close. I bet, however, the Empire will be searching through everyone of them, but by this evening, they may have already done a sweep through on all of them. It would be much safer than roaming the streets."
"That does sound like a good idea. Thank you, Shinaw."
Puana came skipping around the corner and tugged harshly on her mom's long dress. "Mama! Kinx needs your help out with the farm."
Shinaw sighed. "Alright." She looked back to Raven, but said no more. She turned and left to the back of their small house.
Puana saw Raven sitting in her room. She leaned against the entrance way and put her hands behind her back, the way most children do when they can sense something is wrong.
"Ummmm, Raven?" Her tiny voice squeaked.
"Yes?" Raven said, looking up at the child. Puana gave a smug smile; as if she were testing to make sure Raven could still talk. "Uhh... where is your droid?"
"He's hiding in the shed. Remember those mean people that came by in the white suits?"
"Yeah."
"Well, they are looking for me and my droid. If they find us, they will take us away and lock us up forever."
Puana gasped. "Why? Were you bad?"
Raven smiled and shrugged. "They think I was bad. But I did what was right for myself, and for my droid. So we need to hide here for the rest of the day until it is safe to leave."
"You're.. leaving?" Puana's voice became soft and said.
Raven's smile faded. "I'm sorry, Puana. I have to. I don't want to get you and your mother and Kinx in trouble if those bad guys come and find me here. They will punish you all if they find me here."
"But.. you can just keep hiding in the cellar. They won't find you there." Puana reassured her, tears forming around her eyes.
Raven sighed. "I can't live like that. I need to go and find a nice place to stay where the bad guys won't come and bother me. Understand?"
Puana shook her head stubbornly. Raven chuckled but to her surprise, Puana stamped her foot. "I don't want you to go!" She announced, and spun around and ran after her mother.
Raven stared after her. A guilty filling stirred in her gut. How was she supposed to make such a small child understand? She didn't think she could.
Raven looked back down to her feet and began to slip back into pondering. Shinaw's idea was probably the best she had. If she were going to stay hidden in a bar for the rest of this evening and all of the next day, she wasn't going to be able to sleep. She would need to rest longer and save her energy. Another thing she would need is to build more onto Mech's cover box so that he could stay in it and be hidden in an alley nearby while Raven stayed in a bar. She could start building with some scraps out in the shed after she woke up from a nap.
The wind outside was whistling loudly by the small, circular window in her room. Raven flopped down on the small bed and closed her eyes, trying to relax. Forget the Rebels being a gutsy chance of being caught with the Empire... the next two days where going to be extremely dangerous. Raven was going to need to rely on all the luck, and the abilities she had with the Force, to get through this.
...
Stars were scattered everywhere as far as the eye could see. Some shinning brightly with new life and others dimly struggling to remain lit. The cycle of the stars was a slow but amazing process.
Vader stood tall with his hands held behind his back, as he gazed out of the large open window. This is where he usually stood, proud and strong, surveying the galaxy from his Star Destroyer.
The Executor had been cruising in the Outer Rim for several days now. The Dark Lord felt impatient that his apprentice was still not back in his grasp. His rage continued to bubble up inside him ever so often. The Force around him would swirl and thump violently as Vader's mind dashed throughout the stresses of space, searching. He would return unsatisfied.
She has grown stronger... Her mind had completely sealed him off. He could not sense her anymore. But he wouldn't give up. She was out there. Hiding and waiting for him to fly by. But he would not move on so quickly. Hunting down his pray had always been his specialty. "Foolish girl." He whispered under his vented mask. He had to contain the anger that burned in his heart; the rage that wanted to lash out on her, strangle her, punish her... She had no right to runaway from him. She deserves to suffer and learn from her mistakes. No… He breathed deeply, pushing the clouding thoughts away from his mind. If I hurt her more, she will only continue to try and run away, and no progress will be made. Vader's gaze lowered as he still faced the open window of space. She will be punished, but she will learn to respect me.
Heels on the hard floor came up behind him. "Lord Vader."
"What is it, Admiral?"
"My Lord, there has been a report that an attack on Imperial Troops was made in the city of Mos Epsa on the Planet of Tatooine."
Vader's head rose slightly. On Tatooine...? He did not turn just yet.
"You will be pleased to know that after some investigations on the bodies, some of the wounds were possibly made by a blade..." The Admiral paused, as Vader turned around fully. "A blade similar to your weapon, My Lord."
So.. you dare run and hide in the desert of Tatooine. Vader felt his hands quivering as he clenched tightly. "Are there more troops searching throughout the city?" Vader questioned.
"Sir, there are over 200 troopers now positioned in the city and searching day and night."
"Double that amount. We may have found her yet." He turned away and stared back out to the stars. The Admiral bowed slightly to Darth Vader and swiftly walked away, back to his post.
Is this where you are hiding, my apprentice? Again with eyes closed, Vader leaped across the ripples of space with the Force and searched among the dunes of the planet he had once forgotten. There came several faint vibes echoing back to him. Once he felt down on the small transport city of Mos Epsa... There you are. He felt her faint presence again at last.
Vader's eyes reopened and a small grin painfully stretched on his face under his dark mask. She couldn't run forever. He knew she would be desperate to get out of there. He had to move quickly before she got away again.
...
Raven awoke from a terrible nightmare. The Force was pressing down on her body, making it hard to breathe. Danger was lurking in her mind. It was time to get on the move.
Raven cautiously stepped outside of the slave house, caught by surprise from the raging winds and sand. As she peered around, no figures stood in the distance, only mere shadows of the rolling hills under the twilight. Raven skipped across the hot sand and came up to the shed. As she opened the door, she whispered softly, "It's ok, Mech. It's me." She closed the door behind her and came up to a rather large stack of boxes and crates. She began picking them up and moving them to the side. Underneath, Mech was seen lying on the ground, back behind his hidden shelter. She moved enough of the crates so that he could crawl out.
"I'm glad to be out of there." He said. Raven chuckled.
"Sorry, boy. I was hiding most of the day too."
Mech stared at his master with gleaming crimson eyes. "So what is the plan?"
"We're going to need to leave. It's too dangerous for the slaves to be sheltering us here. If we are discovered they will be killed for hiding traitors."
"Where will we go?"
"Shinaw suggested that I hide out in the pubs and stay on a low profile until tomorrow. We're going to need to build you a large half-a-box to hide in somewhere in the alleys until then. You won't be able to hide in the bar."
"Ok." Mech said, nodding his muzzle.
Raven took some of the empty boxes that were scattered in the shed and began to break them apart. Mech helped by plying out the metal bits that held the frames together. Then, laying the box sides out into one big piece, mech hammered the bits back into the sides at an angel to form one large sheet of plywood. "Alright, now where is that metal box cover you had?" Raven asked.
Mech gripped something with his jaws and pulled it out from behind more scraps. He stood it up perfectly on the other side of the plywood.
"We're going to need to melt down some grooves into the side of this thing in order to latch it to the wood." She looked up from the metal plate to Mech and grasped it up right, "Ready to use your lasers?" Mech let go of the plate and nodded. To one side, Mech stood, focusing his eyes straight on. A high-pitched humming sound was heard and the red beam shot out from his pupils. The process of carving out the grooves took a while. Raven waited patiently, holding up the metal side as Mech worked his way up with more grooves. Eventually, the three necessary sides of the plate were ready to hammer in to the plywood. With patient, the two worked together in the dark of the shed until a box was made. This box was missing a bottom and one side so that Mech could stay in it and have it propped up against a building.
"I dunno, Mech.." Raven said with slight doubt as she looked upon the final product. "If there aren't any other boxes lying around in the alley ways or streets, just one large box standing alone might look a bit suspicious."
"Perhaps." Mech said, as he too looked upon the box.
"Well, it's all we have. We need to get going. It's probably dark by now," Raven looked back to the door. "We need to take the box apart one last time to get it to fit through the door."
Raven opened the small door to the outside and was shocked how little light was seen around them. The stars looked faint above and only appeared to be white, paint splatters scattered over a dark canvas.
"Ok, hand me each piece."
Out loomed the grooved piece of metal through the door. "Careful, easy... I don't want to cut myself on this thing." Raven took a firm hold of both flat sides of the metal and pulled it out quickly. Once Mech let go, it immediately dropped into the sand. "Heavy.." Raven gasped, shaking her hands. "Next one." Out came the first piece of plywood. "Ok, got it." Then came the second. "Alright." The third came out and Mech did not hand it over. He wiggled himself free from the doorway and held it in his mouth.
"Mech, where is that tarp you had with the metal piece?"
Mech dropped his piece of plywood down on the other two to reply, "It's in the shed too. Back behind the scrap pile where I pulled out the metal."
"Good. I'm going to grab it and use it as my disguise. Could you start putting your box back together?"
"Yes." Mech said and the cables came out of his body like snakes, gripping tightly to two sides as he began to rebuild.
Raven slipped back into the shed and looked around. Her eyes hurt as they squinted in the dark. She moved carefully about the scraps until she found the back part of the shed. There, she felt around on the floor. Cloth material brushed past her finger tips and she smiled. "Got it." She snatched it eagerly and wiped it up. She held it over her shoulder as she retreated the shed for the last time.
"Wow." She gasped to see Mech had already put the box back together.
Mech turned and gave the best smile his metal jaws would allow him. "It's easier to make it a second time."
Raven laughed. "Good boy. I got the tarp. I think we are ready to go."
Mech cocked his head. "That's not the tarp. That's something smaller."
Raven frowned at her dog and threw the material off her shoulders, holding it up in front of her so she could see. "You're right... What is this?"
She took her hands and delicately turned it around. There was a hood attached to it and a slit that spread down the material. "It looks like a cloak." She smiled. "That works even better." Quickly, Raven slipped the hood on top of her head and rested the cape over her shoulders. She turned to Mech. "How does that look?"
Mech nodded twice. "It covers your hair and slightly hides your eyes. But it's a big too long."
Raven looked down and saw the cape touching the group in a clump. "Yes it is... Oh well, I only need it while we are here." She pushed the cape away from her arms and walked toward the box. "Let's get this mounted nicely on your back so that we can transport it to town."
Mech settled himself low to the ground and by using his cords and Raven's help, they lifted the box up and balanced it between his shoulders and spine. Raven propped it up while Mech stood up on all four. "Just keep a hold of the box with your cables. We'll try to move as quickly as possible so that we can get into town."
...
They had waited outside the town's boarders just down below some sandy hills. Storm Troopers had infested the city and were crawling all over the streets, still in pursuit. It was too dangerous to try and even walk in to town. Hardly any citizens were out and about, so there were no crowds to blend in with. Raven sighed heavily, lying down at the base of the hill. Mech lie beside her, listening and staying alert for sounds. There box lay with the open sides facing up in the sand.
"Perhaps we should just stay out here until it is time for me to meet up with Daom."
"That seems the most reasonable. But Raven, what will you eat?"
"I ate the rest of my food supply before I took a nap. I'm not going to be hungry for a while now."
"You will be by mid day tomorrow. And then you have to go a whole other day and night before Daom will be back." Mech said, staring at her with worried eyes.
Raven laughed. "Don't worry, Mech... God, you sound like my mother." Her smile faded and she put her head down on Mech's cold body. She had the cloak wrapped up around her. The desert could get so cold at night sometimes.
"I'm not hungry... but I do feel tired still."
"Why don't you rest a bit. I'll keep an eye out for anyone coming out of the city." Mech had stood now, and Raven's head bobbed back to leaning against the sand dune.
"It's ok, Mech.. I can stay awake a little longer."
Mech turned his head to look down at his master. He was about to argue against it, but her eyes were already shut. She had just about drifted off.
Mech blinked but said nothing. He trotted up the slope and lay low, watching the city boarder, paying close attention to the movement that was weaving in and out of the city streets.