Death's Choice

By Ammie Hawk

Disclaimer: Still a no…

AN: Alrighty, so here is the next chapter. I hope ya'll enjoy my efforts as much as I enjoy writing and sharing with you. Anyway, on to the real reason ya'll are here.

Chapter 9: Lost and Found

Harry woke with a start as he was jostled around violently. Had Boba kicked him out of bed again? No, he hadn't hit anything solid like the wall or the floor. Though, that could be because of an arm keeping him mostly in place. That meant it had to be one of the vod'e. And there was only one who would risk waking him up in such a manner.

"Wolffe," he tried to imitate his ba'buir's growl, but it came out more of a whine.

"Blast!" the person holding him, who was obviously not one of the vod'e, the voice was all wrong, cursed. "Listen, little one, I need you to be still and quiet for just a little bit longer until I get us somewhere safe. Can you do that for me?"

Wide green eyes blinked up at the red haired man, who he vaguely recognized, before he turned to take in the rest of his surroundings. He was practically lying across the man's lap in the cockpit of a one manned fighter. Hawk had taken him on enough flight simulators that he even knew it was a Republic made Aethersprite. He also knew from the same simulations that he was small enough that if he stayed still he wouldn't impede the pilot in any way, no matter the situation.

But what really drew his attention was beyond the clear dome that encircled them. They were in space! An asteroid field if he had to guess. But he had never actually been in space. Yeah, he'd been in simulations and seen holovids, but this was real! Not even ba'buir was willing to take him when he went off world, claiming he was still too young. But this was so cool!

"R4," the man's voice cut through his thoughts, bringing him back to the present, "jettison the spare parts canister."

It took a moment but the droid finally did and an explosion rocked behind them. The man guided the ship behind the nearest asteroid and cut most of the power. A few minutes later, another ship flew past them and headed for the planet. After a few more minutes the man started up the engines and followed at a safe distance.

Harry remained quiet as they entered the atmosphere, knowing from Hawk that that was one of the trickier parts of flying. Though, once they were through and headed in for landing he decided it was time for some answers.

"Who are you?" he frowned as he looked away from the approaching landscape.

"Oh, right," the man chuckled slightly, "I suppose we didn't exchange polite introductions in our initial encounter. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am a Jedi."

"What's a Jedi?" he chose to ignore the wordy explanation from the other, he obviously liked to hear himself talk, and big words.

"That is a very good question," Obi-Wan seemed surprised by the question, "for another time. What is your name, little one?"

"Harry," he pouted at the deflection. "Where are my dads?"

"Your… dads?" a frown marred the redhead's features. "Well, unfortunately, when I found you you were rather distraught and you were unable to tell me about your dads."

"I'm sorry," he sniffed as tears began gathering in his eyes. "I didn't mean to."

"Harry, you have nothing to apologize for," the arm around him gave a reassuring squeeze. "You did nothing wrong. Though, perhaps, now you could tell me why you were so upset?"

The boy's brow furrowed as he thought about the question. Why had he been so upset? He knew it had something to do with the vod'e. Green eyes darted to the outside as the ship settled n the ground. Obi-Wan waited patiently as he seemed to decide on whether or not to answer, unaware of the confusion within the child's head.

"I…" he sniffed quietly as he finally remembered, "I don't want them to die."

"Who don't you want to die?"

"Everyone," tears began to fill the expressive green orbs. "My dads, Alpha, Kix, Fives, Hawk. Everybody. Even Fox, and he's an ass."

"Are they sick?" the redhead's lips pursed in thought, as he fought the urge to scold the child on his language. "Or injured?"

"No," he shook his head.

"Then why would you be afraid of them dying?" a scowl marred the man's features before smoothing out in sudden realization. "Unless… Did you see them die, little one?"

"No," Harry repeated as his face scrunched up in disgust. "They're going to war, and people die in war."

"Well, yes," Obi-Wan agreed hesitantly, "people do die in war, but people die every day, even without war."

"I'm five, I'm not stupid," green eyes leveled on the man with an unimpressed stare. "Yeah, people die every day, but the odds increase exponentially in active combat. So if my entire family gets sent to war, most of them won't come back."

"You're right," the redhead held up his free hand placatingly. "I apologize. But why would you think your entire family would be sent to war?"

"That's what they were made for," he shrugged as his gaze lowered back to his hands.

"Made for? Wait," blue-grey eyes narrowed in thought, "are you… are you saying the cl…" he still hated calling them that, "the clones are your family?"

"The vod'e, yeah," the boy nodded.

"I see," his hand rose to stroke his beard. "First of all, allow me to apologize, I did not mean to take you from your family. I apparently wrongly assumed that you were not part of the vod'e, did you call them? as you do not look like them."

"Oh, that," Harry couldn't help but smile. "I wasn't. I'm a foundling. Rex and Kote found me months ago, and they adopted me."

"I am happy for you," Obi-Wan couldn't help but return the smile. "And I promise I will return you to them as soon as I am able. However, I do have a few things to do here first. Though, Harry, I want to assure you that the Jedi and the Republic as a whole, do not want things to come to war. And I will do whatever I can to keep that from becoming a reality."

"Okay," he nodded. "And you'll take me back to my dads?"

"I promise," the man agreed. "In the mean time, I need you to stay here with R4 while I go check out a few things. Can you do that for me?"

"Fine," the boy gave a put upon sigh. "I'll stay here, making no noise, and pretending I don't exist."

"I did not mean that!" the redhead said, appalled, as his mind swirled with the implication. "Do you get told to do that often?"

"No," Harry's brow furrowed in thought. "It just came out. It happens sometimes. Kix says I have am… am-ne-sia."

"I see," Obi-Wan let out a slow breath, deciding to deal with that can of worms later. "Here," he scrounged around for a datapad he had in his travel bag and loaded up one of the learning modules he had on there. "Why don't you work on this while I'm gone."

"You kidnapped me and now you're making me do work?" the boy deadpanned. "Lame."

The Jedi chuckled before releasing the hatch and climbing out of the ship. He placed Harry down in the pilot seat and ruffled his hair fondly before heading off toward the obvious sign of civilization.

888888

Jango landed the Slave in the hanger he'd been directed to. He gathered his and Boba's things before leaving and securing the ship. He took his son to the room that he'd been informed had been prepared for their stay. He left Boba there with strict orders to stay there and work on his lessons, and not open the door no matter what. He then proceeded to override the previous locks and set his own. He didn't trust anyone on this godforsaken planet, especially not around his son.

That taken care of, all he wanted to do was head out after the Jedi. Oh, he knew he wasn't dead. He hadn't actually been aiming to kill in that firefight, but he had managed to stick a tracker on the hull with one of the shots. However, before he could do that, he had to report in.

Once finished, he was given a few droids and set out on the hunt. He really hoped, for Kenobi's sake, that Harry wasn't with him. But, as he had not heard back from Seventeen, he was unwilling to not follow up the potential lead.

It took him longer than he wanted to reach the Jedi's ship, what with the droids in tow. But, if Harry was there, he couldn't risk fighting the other man on his own. They arrived at the ship as the redhead was making a transmission. He sent the droids down first, to not only stop whatever message he was sending, but hopefully subdue him as well. When they had mostly wore him down Jango swooped in and ended it, knocking the lightsaber aside and allowing the battle droids to place force-suppressing cuffs on his wrists. With a nod of approval, he scooped up the Jedi's weapon and secured it to his belt.

Before they could do anything else, the hatch of the ship hissed open. All eyes, or equivalent, and weapons turned immediately to the disturbance.

"No!" Kenobi exclaimed quietly as he began struggling against his bonds.

It took less than a second for Jango to realize what was going on. He quickly grabbed an EMP grenade and tossed it at the droids. He briefly regretted the loss of tactical support, but he would manage from here just fine. The Jedi was incapacitated, but he droids couldn't be trusted in the current situation.

"Ba'buir!" a messy head of black hair popped out of the cockpit, causing the Jedi's eyes to widen in shocked surprise.

"Nehutyc, stay!" the bounty hunter snapped, as he leveled his blaster at the redhead's temple.

"Don't shoot him!" the boy scrambled out of the ship and ran over to the two men.

"He kidnapped you, Nehutyc," Jango turned his head to look at him, not lowering his gun.

"He didn't mean to," Harry sighed, bowing his head sheepishly. "He didn't know. I… I… had an episode. He was going to take me back. He promised."

"Fine," he conceded, he had orders to bring him in alive after all, but only shifted his aim lower, not away. "Don't move, Jedi."

Kenobi held up his bound hands to indicate his compliance, at least for the moment. Jango shifted slightly so he could keep the other man within his as he reached over to activate the comm attached to his vambrace. Harry, meanwhile, now that his kidnapper/friend was not in danger of dying, had wandered over to the droids and began scavenging them for weapons. He couldn't help the smirk that crossed his features, his grandson may be young yet, but he was learning his lessons well.

After a moment, the comm connected.

~A little busy right now,~ Alpha-17 snapped in lieu of a greeting.

"Seventeen, I've got him."

~Couldn't have reported that an hour ago?~ the younger male growled as what sounded like blaster fire filled the background.

"I didn't have him an hour ago," the bounty hunter frowned. "What is going on there?"

~You know what? Ask Kote.~

Static filled the line for just a moment as it was switched over.

~Status Report?~

"I was going to ask you that, 2224," the older male snapped.

~Prime,~ it was a voice only transmission but he could tell the other had stiffened automatically.

"Dad!" Harry bounded over and reached up to try and grab the comm. "Dad, dad, guess what? I got to go into space."

~Harry!~ Kote exclaimed before hissing slightly as if in pain.

~Hold still, soldier,~ another voice commanded. ~We're glad you're okay, Harry, but right now I need to patch up your dad.~

"Is he gonna be okay, Kix?" a frown marred the boy's face, and Jango was impressed how he could tell which clone was speaking on a non-visual comm.

~He'll live,~ the medic huffed slightly. ~But right now, he really needs to talk to your grandpa, so we need to let them do that.~

"But I want to talk to Daddy," Harry protested.

~Harry,~ it was Kote's voice again and he was obviously beyond exasperated, ~no. If you wanted to talk to Rex, you should have stayed here instead of running off with Boba and Prime. Now, I need to speak to Prime.~

"But I didn't sneak off," he huffed petulantly.

~Is that so?~

Jango couldn't help but roll his eyes behind his helmet. Kote was indulging the boy. Though he couldn't blame him too much. He did the same thing with Boba often enough, case and point, the whole tooka affair. It had to be a parent thing. Besides, he had actually called to inform the younger man his son was safe, so a few minutes couldn't hurt.

"I was kidnapped," the boy chirped proudly.

Both men present groaned audibly at his audacity. That was not something one told a parent who was lightyears away, especially not so flippantly.

~What?!~

~Sir!~ a different voice than Kix interrupted. ~They're targeting the commu…~

The rest of the report was cut short as the transmission was lost. The bounty hunter fiddled with the comm for a moment, trying to reestablish the connection, before giving up. With an inaudible growl of frustration, he scooped Harry up with his free arm and settled him against his hip.

"Get up, Jedi," he nudged the other with the barrel of his blaster. "And don't try anything stupid."

Surprisingly, the other man complied with the orders. Jango, however didn't trust it and kept his blaster trained on him as they began the trek back to the base. The rest of the walk back was filled with Harry's innocent curiosity about everything around them and idle chatter about anything that entered his little mind.

When they finally reached their destination, he ordered the boy to silence as he handed off the prisoner. He then headed off to his quarters, where he deposited Harry with Boba who had set up in the small living space, before disappearing into the bedroom to try and reestablish communication with the goddamn clones to find out what the fuck was going on.

Ammie: Okay, so Harry has been 'rescued' YAY! But Obi-Wan has been captured... NO! Anyway, Please let me know what you think.