As always thanks for the reviews, favorites, and follows. Sorry for the delay, this weekend was unexpectedly super busy and tiring.

Interlude XI – Percy

Something woke Percy. He sat up on his sleeping mat, careful not to wake Annabeth. She needed her sleep. Sure, Percy and Annabeth could have had their pick of houses, many had offered, but it just seemed easier to stay in the back of the cantina. Maybe because for just a little bit, they didn't have to be Da Soocha and Atalanta. They could be Percy and Annabeth.

It was a comforting crowdedness with Shmi on one cot, he and Annabeth on the floor, and Gaarchit, the annoyingly honorable Wookie who insisted on sleeping right in front of the door. For some reason, the Wookie felt a strange need to protect them at all cost. Percy had tried to point out how ridiculous it was, but Annabeth had told him to drop it. Apparently, it was a Wookie custom. Their new Jedi acquaintance slept on the other cot. He'd stopped thrashing sometime the night before long after Riptide had returned to Percy's pocket, but he'd still been unconscious when Percy had finally stumbled to bed three hours ago, though not anymore.

Percy felt the other man's gaze on him. In the dim light, Percy saw Vos make a motion with his head toward the closed window. The Jedi quietly opened the shutter, somehow without it squeaking, and climbed up. Percy followed using all his footwork training not to accidently wake up anyone. After an easy climb on the rough sandstone wall, he joined Vos on the roof of the shabby cantina. From the light of the moons and stars, Percy could see that the Jedi was still paler than he'd been. Vos was drinking thirstily from a flask and had the bag of synthetic ambrosia Annabeth had left on the rickety table next to the cot. "I understand we have you guys to thank for these nice and tasty squares to help with injuries and fatigue both physical and Force induced. They've been really useful, in a few of my missions."

"Yeah, but they're still not as good as the real stuff." Percy sat down next to the Jedi and dangled his feet over the edge staring out at the unusually quiet spaceport. It'd been a rough two days, and even the rowdiest smuggler was tired and/or too drunk to move. They sat in an uncomfortable silence. Vos clearly giving Percy the right to start the super awkward conversation they needed to have. It was the least he could do.

Finally, Percy said, "I don't know if I'm angry at you or if I feel bad. What you did. . . was so intrusive. It was bad enough when the Council invaded my privacy and attempted to read my thoughts and feelings even though I'd done nothing wrong. I'm just glad I've got that natural shield. But you completely blew what they did out of the water with your stunt. If you wanted to earn our trust that was a bad way to go about doing it." Vos just kept staring straight ahead. His jaw clenched like he wanted to say something, but Percy kept talking. "However, I can't really be mad at you because according to Obi-Wan, you probably experienced a good chunk of my worst memories all at once. That might even be worse than living through them since at least for me they were spaced out, somewhat."

Vos still didn't meet Percy's eyes, even as he apologized, "I am sorry, Percy. I had no idea that it would happen like that. I thought it would help me get to know you and make it easier to team up with you. I didn't realize how personal that sword is. Force, even when I touch another Jedi's lightsaber, the reaction isn't that bad. You've definitely lived through some Bantha poodoo, man." He finished with a wince.

"I didn't think Jedi cursed?" Percy asked getting distracted.

"This one does," Quinlan answered with a grin that flashed in the moonlight.

Percy shook his head. This guy couldn't be more different than Obi-Wan, but back to kind of being mad. "Anyways, the problem is you just wanted to help yourself to my memories whether I wanted you to or not. That kind of attitude is why I'm not crazy about you Jedi as a whole. It's so . . . I don't know if there's a word arrogant, godish, as in something the gods would do when they were being jerks. But, I'm pretty sure my memories were punishment enough, so like I said, I can't exactly stay mad at you."

Vos nodded, "Well, thanks, I think." He took a breath, "I'll admit that it might have been umm morally ambiguous to intentionally use my gift as a shortcut to get to know you, and for that I am sorry. But I do think you're being a little unfair about the whole thing and the Jedi's connection with the Force in general. We didn't ask for it, and the same thing would have happened to me if I'd just accidently touched that blasted sword of yours. Something so personal and associated with so many strong emotions and memories, I didn't even have a chance of controlling it. I don't think you and Annabeth really understand what it's like for us."

Unfair? Percy wasn't the one going about reading people's emotions and memories. Obi-Wan at least always was respectful about it and only seemed to use it when he absolutely had to.

"Watching you guys work the past few days has been strange. Yes, you can reach the Force, but you aren't exactly in the Force. Instead most of the time you're pushing out your own Force or power or whatever you want to call it. The only thing I can think of is that you guys are like strange Force fountains. But my point is that you're not constantly in contact with the Force. You have an off switch the Jedi don't. You have to work to feel the Force. We have to work to not feel it. That's why one of the first lessons you learn as a youngling is how to shield your emotions, so you don't project them to everyone in the Temple. We don't necessarily want to read your emotions, feelings, and memories. We just do."

"I thought you guys can block stuff out?" Percy asked.

Vos shrugged, "We can but it's hard work and uncomfortable. My particular gift is even harder to control, but I need to if I want to stay sane. If the rest of the world was blind, would you want to wear a blindfold?"

Percy had never considered it like that before. "No, I guess not. But I also wouldn't peer into someone's window to see them naked either," he finished hotly.

Vos laughed, "Snarky, Jackson. I like your style. But I bet it would be tempting depending on who was on the other side of that window, aye?" He added a friendly elbow jab in Percy's rib. "And normally we Jedi do try to give people as much privacy as we can. You and Annabeth are just under more attention, particularly from the Council, because we know you have curtains over your window. It's sentient nature to want to peer behind them."

"Curiosity killed the cat," Percy repeated the corny saying

"Don't you mean gundark?" Vos said with a snort. "A lot more things than curiosity can kill a cat. It's much harder to kill a gundark." Based on personal experience, Percy had to agree with that. "But yeah, that's the lesson, that just got burned into my mind. Thanks for that." He rubbed his temples as if he was fighting off a huge migraine, "What was that place?"

There was only one place that could possibly be that place. "We call it Tartarus. It's a place of pain and suffering where the evilest souls are punished, and the monsters of the world are born. I think Qui-Gon compared it to what you call Chaos."

Vos shuddered, "I'm still wrapping my mind around how you survived that place. The dark side was suffocating."

Percy shrugged, "Huh, I guess it kind of was the dark side based on how you guys describe it: anger, hatred, misery, despair, and all that jazz. But for us, it was just Tartarus. As for surviving – Annabeth."

Quinlan said her name with him. Even though he'd just met the guy, they were now connected by shared memories. It didn't really matter that the memories had been unwillingly shared and extremely painful. "Honestly, I don't know if any Jedi would have survived that." Quinlan admitted. "Your bond, your attachment is what saved both of you. It made you stronger and acted as a piece of the light side that blazed no matter how strong the darkness got. That silly no attachment rule never made sense to me anyways, and your experience shows that maybe the Code's wrong."

"Don't let Obi-Wan catch you saying that," Percy jokingly warned. "He loves that Code."

The Jedi chuckled, "Oh, I would only say that when I want to test his patience. You know, doing my duty as a Jedi brother to help him be a better Jedi. Besides all Jedi toe the line on that part of the Code at one point or another."

"Pfft, not Obi-Wan." Percy remembered his friend's embarrassed reaction to his and Annabeth's public displays of attachment.

"Well, you didn't hear it from me, but back when he was still a Padawan, there was a rumor going around the Temple about a certain duchess from Mandalore."

"Oh man I need to find out about this," Percy grinned. He couldn't wait to tease his friend.

"Remember you didn't hear that from me," Quinlan repeated, grinning too. "But between you and me, Obi-Wan doesn't seem as uptight as he used to. I don't know if Master Jinn finally rubbed off on him, or if it's his strange friendship with you, or that crazy Padawan of his, but I feel like I see a spark of the rebel that I always knew was there. It's like he's not constantly trying to make himself be so serious all the time."

"Only some of the time," Percy added, "I'm only half-god. There's a limit to my miracles."

Quinlan laughed. "So, what'd I miss over the last 26 hours?"

"Eh, nothing too much, just Jabba's first attempt to retake the spaceport," Percy answered.

"What!"

"It really wasn't too exciting. For some reason he tried an air attack and between our anti-aircraft blasters on the roofs and all the hotshot pilots wanting to show-off, there wasn't too much to do. I just hope we can fend off the next one. It'd be so much easier if we could get our shield generators back."

"What do you mean?" Quinlan asked.

Percy sighed, "Well, we had an army of medical droids and six modified Gungan shield generators in our ship's hold, but during the first battle, Jawas came and took everything. We didn't really care about the ship, but we needed the medical droids for the slave chips and the shield generators for defense. Plus, we were going to use them to help take Bestine."

"So, you're telling me you using that cursed sword of yours, wasn't a clever plan to find Jedi spies?"

"Nope," Percy smirked. "It was us improvising, because it was the only way to deactivate all the transmitters before someone went boom." He rubbed his very tired right arm. "I had to swing Riptide an extra two thousand times than Annabeth initially predicted since one of the few med droids we could scrounge up in this place malfunctioned."

Quinlan groaned, "My cover was blown because of kriffin Jawas. I think that's even worse."

"Hey, don't diss my mad improvising skills. Besides, we figured one of you guys would show up eventually. We knew the Council would want to butt in."

Shaking his head Quinlan chuckled, "Based on everything I've seen, I can't decide if the Force loves you or hates you, Jackson. You're the luckiest unlucky person I've met. Either way, it means hanging around you should be lots of fun."

"You're lucky I just don't push you off this roof, Vos," Percy threatened. "That would be fun."

"You could try, but as rough as I've had it, you look worse. I guess you haven't slept much."

Percy didn't bother to comment as he suddenly remembered exactly how tired he was. It'd been a long two days. They sat in a far more comfortable silence until Quinlan said, "I can help with the Jawas. They took it what a day and a half ago?"

"Yeah, sounds about right," Percy agreed.

"Based on their normal trading route, that puts them in Anchorhead tomorrow afternoon. We could just zip right over there and get them back," Quinlan suggested.

Percy perked up. "Those shields really could save a lot of lives. Despite all our recon, we didn't know the Jawas trading routes. Shmi never knew them, and we didn't really want to ask. Losing equipment to Jawas, doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Besides, I could use a break from this place. A whole street full of people bowed to me today," he grimaced.

Quinlan patted him on the back, "Just imagine if you were a Jedi. People bow to you all the time, and you also bow to everyone too. Honestly, that's one of the reasons why I liked these undercover missions. None of that pomp and circumstance stuff."

"I'll add that to my very long list of Why Percy Doesn't Want to Be a Jedi," Percy retorted, but a huge yawn messed up his sarcastic comeback.

"You probably should go back to bed, Jackson."

It sounded like a good idea, but Percy hesitated, "Are you going to be okay?" It'd taken him a long time to deal with some of his memories. He didn't think anyone really ever got over Tartarus. He had a feeling it'd have been even worse if he'd stayed in his own universe. Having to adapt to Naboo helped keep his mind off certain things.

Quinlan nodded, "I'm going to meditate. That usually helps." Percy opened his mouth to offer, but Quinlan thankfully stopped him, "Go, Percy. It's my consequence for my mistake. You don't need to relive painful memories to help me. I'll be fine in the morning."

The next morning, Annabeth looked at Percy and Quinlan with a frown that told Percy she was not impressed, "And why does Percy need to go? One reckless, troublemaker should be enough to get the generators back."

"Sure," Quinlan agreed, "but only if you want to give the Jawas a small fortune to get your stuff back, or I suppose I could just take it back by force, but then you'd have lots of Jawas angry at you which I wouldn't recommend. As you know, they can be quite annoying. But if Jackson came and did his little water show, they'll probably hand over whatever you want for free. See, Jawas were the ones who first came up with the story that the great Dune Sea was once a real ocean."

Before she could respond, an alert beeped on her Daedalus tablet, and she smiled. "That's it! That was the last one. All the slaves of Mos Espa are officially free in every sense of the word. Technically, we've completed your oath, and no matter what happens there won't be any fates worse than death."

Percy grinned as he wrapped his arms around Annabeth and hugged her. "Thanks, Wise Girl. I couldn't have done it without you."

"Just promise me: No more sacred oaths."

Percy couldn't help himself. He smirked, "Okay, I swear –" As excepted, Annabeth elbowed him in the diaphragm. It wasn't like he really was going to finish that sentence anyways.

"But, you guys are still going to try and free the whole planet right? You aren't stopping?" Quinlan asked. Percy didn't think he imagined the disappointment in Quinlan's voice. He really did want to help.

"No, we aren't," Annabeth replied. "We've already come this far. It'd be selfish to stop now. And I guess you and Percy can go on your side quest. Shmi and I will hold down the fort. I think a guys' trip would be good for you, but you need to be back by nightfall."

"It won't take that long," Quinlan confidently told her with a smirk.

"You mean assuming the Jawas still have them, and no other complications arise," Annabeth countered.

"There's always complications," Percy admitted.

Quinlan laughed, "Then we better get going, lots of fun complications to be had."

"And I want an update every four hours," she called out as Percy and Quinlan turned to leave the room to go find a suitable transport.

"Yes, Master Chase," Quinlan called back with a mock bow. To Percy he whispered, "I swear she's worse than a Master sending his Padawan out on his first solo mission. Force, I hope I wasn't that bad with Aayla."

"Aayla?" Percy asked

"My old Padawan, she's a Knight now off having her own adventures. Now let's go find us something with style that still has a big enough hold for those generators."

Finding the Jawas was easy enough. Percy and Quinlan had a super quick flight and parked their ship near the outskirts of Anchorhead, far enough away to not attract attention, but not too far from the Jawas trading spot. Quinlan did most of the talking in the strange jibbery Jawa talk. Percy's ear comm translated it for him, but he was too distracted by the huge tank like transport the Jawa's used. How did such tiny creatures drive something so big?

The feeling of someone knocking on his armor brought Percy's attention back to the conversation. "Da Soocha," Quinlan said in an overly dramatic voice that reminded Percy of a sports' announcer, "the one who returns oceans." About a dozen Jawas turned to Percy and chittered expectantly. "Now would be a good time to do something," Quinlan hissed in his ear.

"Oh, yeah." Percy uncapped Riptide. The Jawas all leapt back, and even Quinlan took an extra step away from his blade, clearly not wanting to risk touching it again. Percy plunged Riptide into the sandy ground, and salt-water sprouted into the air. The Jawas jumped up and down and excitedly approached the small salt-water spring as Percy withdrew his sword.

Quinlan whistled, "Wow, Da Soocha, that's much more impressive than being a man-shaped moisture vaporator." With a flick of his wrist, Percy shot the water from the small geyser in an arc straight to the Jedi's face. The Jawas oohed and aahed as Quinlan sputtered trying to get away from the water since he couldn't obviously use the Force to push it away. Finally, he seemed to accept his fate, and Percy let the water flow normally or as normally as a new salt-water spring flowed in a dessert.

"Thank you, Da Soocha that was very refreshing." Quinlan wiped his face off with his dark jacket sleeve. "Now," he turned back to the Jawas not bothering to speak their language anymore. "Da Soocha here wants to know who you sold those shield generators to. I suggest you do what he wants, or he might get mad and make all the water go away and not bring back the oceans."

Of course, someone had taken the shield generators. All the Jawas turned to Percy and tilted their heads, "Please, tell us," Percy asked.

Finally, the tallest of them jittered quickly, "The Lady," his ear comm translated, "The Lady traded for them, One Who Returns Oceans."

Percy had no idea who the Lady was but clearly Quinlan did. The Jedi grimaced, but his expression slowly shifted into a smile that promised trouble. "We do have half of the medical droids," the Jawa admitted. "The others were dismantled for parts because too many medical droids are hard to sell. We will give you the medical droids."

"Yes, that would be good, thanks," Percy said politely. Half of their medical droids was better than none. They wouldn't need so many anyways now that the Mos Espa slaves were free. As an afterthought, Percy added, "There was a protocol droid, too. I'd like him back." As annoying as C-3PO was he figured Shmi would want him sine Anakin had made him.

"Most happy to help, One Who Returns Oceans," the Jawa replied before scurrying off to direct the others as they started unloading all the droids.

"So, who's this Lady that has the shield generators?" Percy asked.

"It's more like who she isn't," Quinlan replied, a hint of admiration in his tone. "She's been on my radar for years, but the Council deemed it not worth the trouble to interfere. She's been a smuggler, drug dispenser, weapons dealer, slaver, seductress, and most infamously a thief both of secrets and valuables. The last one finally pushed her to retire here after she stole the crown jewel from the Shu-Torun king. She made some sort of protection arrangement with the Hutts probably involving a combination of money and blackmail. Right now, she runs the classiest gambling and pleasure house in Mos Eisley. It's going to be fun getting those generators back." That's probably why Percy hadn't heard of her. He and Annabeth had focused mostly on Jabba and the slaves in their spy work.

"I can't believe I'm saying the boring logical choice, but can't we just buy them back from her?" Percy asked. This lady didn't seem like someone they should get involved with at least not right now.

"Someone like that doesn't want or need more money, Jackson. They want excitement and thrill, and I think between the two of us we can give her that. On a completely unrelated note, have you had much experience with Zeltrons?"

"Oh, gods, no," Percy's face flushed scarlet. You couldn't have hunted slavers for two years and not run into at least a few Zeltrons. While Zeltron slaves were less common than Twi'lek, they were just as desirable.

Quinlan chuckled, "What happened? Did you have an uncontrolled reaction to one? Did Annabeth have to slap some sense into you?"

"More like the other way around," Percy muttered. "Zeltrons seem to have a rather intense reaction to Annabeth and me. The first time we rescued one, I had to beg Annabeth to do something because the female had broken into my room and was lying naked on my bed. Annabeth thought the whole thing was hilarious until the same thing happened to her the next time we rescued one. The poor guy was apologizing saying he didn't know what had happened, but her scent was irresistible."

"Guess you guys must give off really good pheromones then," Quinlan reasoned. "But we can use that."

"One tiny problem," well there was a lot more than one, but this was the most obvious. "I'm the most wanted man on the planet right now, I can't just go waltzing in to Mos Eisley and a casino."

"Oh, that's easy," Quinlan smirked. He grabbed a helmet from the Jawas collection of junk. Percy actually recognized it because it was a full Naboo pilot helmet probably taken from their ship. It would cover his whole face except for his eyes, but they would be behind a yellow tinted screen. One of the Jawas complained as Quinlan took it, but he said, "Hey, it's for the water guy," as he handed it to Percy. "Just take off your armor and wear a cloak and no one will look twice, but I think we should get you a stylish tunic and new pants at the market too."

Just then the rest of the Jawas returned leading the medical droids and a protocol droid that was not C-3PO. When Percy pointed this out, the Jawas claimed, "This one is better. The One Who Returns Oceans should not have a defective droid." Percy sighed because they probably were right, but he needed C-3PO, defects and all. It took an extra five minutes to convince the Jawas though.

Finally, the mismatched plated droid walked down the ramp of the Sand Crawler and exclaimed, "You rescued me sir! How can I ever repay you?"

"How about walking quietly back to the ship like the other droids?" Percy suggested, hopefully.

They'd only walked a few yards when Quinlan winked at him and asked, "So protocol droid, how was your stay with the Jawas?"

"It was terrible!" the droid started his very long and detailed story.

Percy groaned and muttered, "I'm going to get you for that, Vos."

"Consider it payback for the water in the face, Jackson," the Jedi replied with a smirk.

Three hours later, Percy watched as another player left the high roller Sabacc table leaving only Quinlan and their host still playing. At first, it had been impressive watching Quinlan turn the few peggats they had left, after Quinlan bought Percy's 'costume,' into a fortune big enough to get a spot at the table. The Jedi definitely had way too much fun using his Force abilities for gambling. But now, Percy was bored and slightly annoyed.

The Lady glanced at him again. She'd been doing that since he and Quinlan had entered the room, and that was part of the reason Percy was annoyed. Quinlan's warning before they entered the casino came back to him, "At the risk of sounding like stuffy Kenobi, I'm going to warn you to be mindful of your emotions. Your Force shield won't stop a Zeltron from picking up on them since they use other senses." Percy figured though that being bored and annoyed were perfectly believable emotions for his cover, a bodyguard having to watch his boss gamble and have fun.

"Now, that it's just us perhaps your bodyguard can join us at the table," she winked at Percy. "There's no need to be so formal anymore. Shan, take his cloak. He doesn't need it in here." One of her servants rushed over and pulled his cloak half off before Percy even thought about protesting. Percy barely resisted the urge to glare at Quinlan for insisting he wear such a tight shirt. At least it covered his Roman Legion tattoo.

The Lady gasped. "Lightsabers!" She turned back to Quinlan suddenly tensing, "Your bodyguard's a Jedi!" Before he could answer, she relaxed and shook her head, "No, he isn't. He's far too emotional."

Quinlan smiled, "I deal in rare and unusual weapons, my lady. What's rarer and more unusual than a lightsaber? Therefore, I made sure my bodyguard has two of them. It's good for business, and they are excellent weapons."

Her eyes flicked back to Percy taking him in as he sat in a chair next to Quinlan, "That they are, in the right hands, but they are supposed to be nearly impossible for a non-Jedi to use."

Quinlan chuckled, "I thought you of all people would know that the Jedi started that rumor, so people wouldn't try to steal them. Yes, they are difficult to use but not impossible. My bodyguard manages well enough. Perhaps after our game, you would like a demonstration?"

The Lady smiled at Percy as she ran her fingers through her lilac hair. "Oh yes," she purred, "I would love to see how well he wields his sabers." While he was sure the Zeltron could feel his emotions, at least, she couldn't see him blush, thanks to his helmet. As if she could sense his thoughts as well as his emotions, she asked, "Wouldn't your bodyguard be far more comfortable without that helmet on?"

"No, I definitely wouldn't," Percy grumbled.

"I'm sorry my lady, we have to decline that request," Quinlan apologized smoothly. "Like any good bodyguard, mine is a wanted man." The Lady pouted prettily, but Quinlan pressed on. "Now, unless you want to cede to my superior Sabaac playing, we probably should continue playing to determine the final winner."

She looked at her very large pile of chips and then at Quinlan's much smaller one. Percy knew the Jedi had been purposely losing and only winning just enough to stay in the game. "I'm afraid it might be a rather boring contest, especially for your bodyguard, but perhaps we can make it more entertaining." The look she gave Percy reminded him of a hungry gundark. "If I win, I get to borrow your bodyguard for a night."

Quinlan pretended to consider, "And if I win?"

The Lady tapped her elegant fingers on the table as she thought, "Well, since you are a weapons dealer, you might be interested in a recent purchase I made. I have six rather unique shield generators. While the initial design seems primitive, whoever modified them knew what they were doing and made them much more versatile and durable. I was planning to sell them to a Karkarodon warlord, but I'm sure a man such as yourself could find many other uses and buyers for them."

"These shield generators do sound intriguing," Quinlan mused. He shrugged, "But my bodyguard is a freeman. He makes his own decisions."

Percy really didn't need the kick under the table to know what he was supposed to say. Just because of that he changed his answer, "Fine, boss, but I get half of your winnings."

Quinlan snorted, "Cheeky bastard as if a night with a beautiful lady isn't reward enough, but fine I'll give you 20% if I win for your role in increasing the pot."

"Deal."

"Lovely," the Lady replied. "Let's play." Quinlan lost the next three hands. Percy tried to give off emotions of indifference but kicked Quinlan in the shin to remind him he'd better win. Luckily, though Percy figured luck had nothing to do with it, Quinlan started winning. He still made sure to lose enough to not be accused of cheating, but soon he was the one with the larger pile of chips. The Lady got more and more frustrated. She tried to flirt with Quinlan to distract him and even went as far as removing her shawl, revealing a scantily dressed body that could've made even Aphrodite jealous.

Despite the distraction, Quinlan still won. The Lady bowed her head gracefully, all traces of frustration vanishing from her face. "Well done, Master Tal. It has been a very long time since I have lost a Sabaac game, but I guess Lady Luck was not in my favor this evening."

"You were a formidable opponent, my lady, and far lovelier than most." Quinlan admitted as he scooped his winnings into the bag Percy provided. "And when and where shall I collect my new shield generators?"

She placed her shawl back on making sure to give Percy a parting view as she answered, "Alas, I have business to attend to, but go to hanger three. Some of my men will be there to help you." She gave Percy one last look, "Perhaps, I'll see you again soon, mysterious bodyguard."

Once they were back on the street much richer than they were before they'd entered the casino, Quinlan exclaimed, "Force, sometimes I really love my job. That Zeltron was something. I lost a hand because I couldn't concentrate enough to use the Force."

"That seems pretty bad for a Jedi," Percy replied.

Quinlan smirked, "Hey, I was appreciating the Living Force. Something Jedi are strongly encouraged to do."

Somehow Percy thought Quinlan had a very different definition of the Living Force than Qui-Gon. "What about picking up the shield generators? It's probably a trap."

"Of course, it's a trap. She wants to see you wield your sabers," Quinlan teased. Percy wished there was water around to splash in the Jedi's face again. "Honestly, your reactions to her were almost as bad as Kenobi's would have been. I was tempted to lose just to see how you'd handle a night with her, but then I realized I'd have to deal with Chase and decided to stick with the plan. Your girlfriend's pretty scary, Jackson."

"Oh, I'm still thinking about telling her that it was your idea to use me as bait for a Zeltron seductress," Percy grumbled.

"You wouldn't!"

"I would if a word of any of this gets out," Percy threatened. "So, you think the generators really are at the hanger?"

Quinlan nodded, "Yeah, she was telling the truth."

When they got to Hanger Three, Quinlan whistled appreciatively. "I always like a woman who moves fast. There're ten guards here, probably all ex-gang or military. No way that's the usual amount. We won't be able to be subtle."

"I never was good at subtle," Percy admitted. "Want your lightsaber back?"

Quinlan fingered his blaster, "You think you can handle two and cover my back? I'd like to stick with the story we told her. I don't want someone like her getting anywhere near our real identities."

Percy shrugged, "Yeah, I'll manage." Really, it wouldn't be too different than using Riptide and his saber like he had on Trandosha.

"Well, let's go for it." Quinlan stepped away from the alley they were hiding in and walked towards the five guards guarding the door. "Hello gents, the Lady said I could pick up my prize here."

"Right this way sirs," one of the guards directed them through the door. Percy tensed as all five guards followed them into the hanger and the door closed. The other five fanned out in front of them. They all were armed though only five had their blasters pointed at Percy and Quinlan.

"Now, gentleman," one of the guards said from the front. "I suggest you drop your weapons and surrender. The Lady would rather no one get injured, but we will use force if necessary."

"As much as I hate disappointing a lady, I'm afraid we're rather attached to our weapons," Quinlan replied. He drew his own blaster, and the guards fired stun beams just as Percy activated both lightsabers. Gods, Percy hated stun beams. They made things so much harder. Thanks to their slower speed he easily absorbed them, and Quinlan quickly took down three guards with his blaster.

Before the guards behind him could do anything, Percy kicked one hard to the wall. The satisfying crunch let him know the man would not be getting back up on his own. With a sweep of the lightsabers, he destroyed two of their blasters. Going on instinct, he tossed one of the lightsabers high in the air and grabbed a fourth guard with his free hand. He flung the guard right in front of the stunner beam that was heading straight for Quinlan. Even Percy was surprised he managed to do all of that and still catch the saber.

Percy rolled under another beam and popped up to block a beam at Quinlan's back. He flipped to a reverse grip and absorbed two more beams while Quinlan finished up the last three guards. The two that Percy had disarmed had already disappeared through the door. The rest were all moaning on the ground clutching their shooting shoulders. "Not bad, Jackson," Quinlan admitted. "You've got moves. Ready for our grand exit?" He pointed to the Lady's very large and classy ship.

It was CR70 corvette and was sort of the official ship of the royal family of Alderaan. Percy recognized it because he and Annabeth had looked at using one to start SASS, but they decided the BC-714 was better. "We can't leave in that. You need 3 pilots just to get it off the ground."

"Don't worry about it, man," Quinlan called over his shoulder as he ran up the entrance ramp.

At least the shield generators were already on board. That was nice of them. As soon as Percy entered the cockpit, Quinlan ordered, "Get started on the takeoff sequence for the pilot, I'm overriding the security program." To Percy, it just looked like Quinlan was trying to hotwire a car.

Even though it was an unfamiliar ship, Percy found most of the right buttons and levers. "Not that one," Quinlan corrected before Percy could flick up a blue one. While Percy struggled with the main pilot's sequence other knobs would turn and switches would go up simultaneously. It was like there were two other ghost pilots with him though Percy knew it must be Quinlan using the Force to help.

More guards rushed into the hanger carrying a big looking blaster just as Quinlan sat back in a co-pilot chair. "Start firing Jackson, we can't let them set that up or we'll be grounded."

Usually a CR70 corvette didn't have weapons, but clearly the Lady had made modifications. Percy took control of the ship's front blasters firing at the guards as Quinlan finished the takeoff preparation. The Jedi whooped in victory as they blasted out of the hanger into the night sky. Percy had to admit, it was a pretty grand exit.

Annabeth met them as soon as they landed in an empty hanger back in Mos Espa. "You're late," she said as she hugged Percy and kissed him on the cheek, "but I'm glad you're back." She looked him up and down. "Unscathed too. I'm impressed, Vos. But what are you wearing? You look like the Aphrodite cabin took you shopping." Percy glared at Quinlan who looked up to the sky and whistled. "And do I even want to know why you came back with an extra ship? Not to mention a CR70 corvette that probably belonged to the House of Organa at one point?"

"No, you probably don't," Percy admitted. "But the shield generators are on board."

"And have you angered someone who could make our quest to free Tatooine even more difficult now?" Annabeth asked. How did she always know? Honestly, she was almost as good as his mother at guessing when he probably did something bad.

"Umm . . ." Would the Lady come after them once she found out that her ship and the shield generators had ended up in the hands of the slave rebellion? Sure, she didn't exactly have the manpower that Jabba did, but Percy knew she could be just as dangerous.

Quinlan saved him, "Probably not. I don't think she'll want to admit what happened, but just in case if anyone asks, tell them that you paid an exorbitant amount of money for those shield generators from a weapons dealer named Tal and his handsome bodyguard who then left on a very stylish spaceship to the Cantonica system. Oh, and here," Quinlan handed the bag of his gambling winnings to Annabeth, "I'm sure you can put these to good use. Anything happen while we were gone?"

"Well, I managed to convince them to at least give Gorga a chance," Annabeth answered. "Luckily Jira and few of the wiser members of the community saw the sense in my plan, and the majority voted in favor though they aren't happy about it."

Percy really couldn't blame them. He wasn't happy about it either, but since he couldn't come up with a better idea, he figured they could at least try it. "Well, at least they're sort of on board. Now, can we get back to the Cantina, so I can change? These clothes are way too tight." Honestly, Percy was surprised he hadn't ripped anything in the fight.

Annabeth grinned, "I don't know. I kind of like them."

Unfortunately, the next chapter is only half written, so it's probably going to be around two weeks before I update again.