Star Wars: Infinities – The Apprentice
Chapter 5
By: Christopher W. Blaine (darth_yoshi@yahoo.com)
DISCLAIMER: The characters and situations contained in this story are used without permission for non-profit entertainment purposes only and are ©2002 by George Lucas. This story (pertaining to this chapter and all subsequent chapters) is ©2002 by Christopher W. Blaine and may not be reproduced in any form, except hard printouts for personal enjoyment, without the express permission of the author.
"I don't think so," Jango Fett replied, lowering the heavy duty blaster rifle which seemed to rest quite comfortably in the crook of his arm.
"Our employer will pay well," the Ithorian bounty hunter said. The Mon Cal next to him nodded in turn, but it did little to impress Fett or the mysterious woman in purple next to him.
"Your employer cannot afford us; if not for the reputation of Jabba, I wouldn't even have come here to speak with you," Fett said. He turned to Zam. "You're welcome to join in if you want."
The woman smiled. She was quite beautiful in this form, but the man in the Mandalorian armor knew that it was only one of millions of bodies and shapes the Changeling could assume. "I have to agree with him; assassination and kidnapping are one thing, hopping into the middle of a private war is something else."
"Then we are authorized to make a secondary offer," the Mon Cal said, his large eyes blinking as he spoke. "There is an individual here on Coruscant that Jabba will pay handsomely to have eliminated."
"Who would that be?" Fett asked. Behind his mask, he rolled his eyes as he listened to the two amateurs try to deal with the professionals.
"He goes by the name of Lord Vader, a diplomat from Tatooine. His real name is Anakin Skywalker, an escaped slave from that world," The Ithorian said. It took a drag off of a spice stick before continuing. "He was one of the persons behind Jabba's recent fall from grace."
Fett turned to Zam and she shrugged. Lord Vader was one of the people also in the employ of their current benefactor. "Isn't the government doing an investigation into the whereabouts of Anakin Skywalker?" Fett asked her. She saw his hand slowly move to the selector switch on his blaster.
She stepped forward and got their attention. "And Jabba only sent the two of you to negotiate this?"
"Ha!" the Mon Cal laughed. "We're all scum here! It isn't like you two are any more important than the rest of us."
Fett's reply was two quick squeezes of the trigger, taking both mercenaries down with precision and ease. As the bodies fell, Zam Wesell started to comment, but was stopped when someone shouted from above them. Both bounty hunters looked up to see the ignition of a lightsaber as a man-sized figure dropped from the next building. The figure landed with a softness that was completely unnatural.
The man looked up and pulled back his brown hood. "You will remain where you are and drop your weapons. I am Ferrin Durron, Jedi Knight, and I am placing you both under arrest for murder."
Zam extended her arm, a holdout blaster firmly in her grip. Ferrin swung up in an arc, his golden blade cleaving off the Changeling's arm. She screamed and stumbled back as her limb tumbled through the air and dropped to the walk below the building they were situated on. As Ferrin watched, her form shifted slightly, giving him a microsecond view of her true form. It was far from being as desirable as her human skin.
Fett fired off two quick shots and activated his jet pack. Ferrin deflected the bolts, angling them away from the howling Zam. When he brought his lightsaber down, Fett was already out of sight. Ferrin cursed silently; his personal craft was too far away for him to give chase. He would have to settle with one prisoner.
Zam was weakening quickly and Ferrin thought he remembered something about Changeling physiology. Major damage to the body caused natural painkillers to be secreted, putting the creature into a catonic state. It was rumored that some of them could actually grow new limbs when like this.
He knew he had to act quickly, to try and get information from her before she slipped away. There was no way to know when she would come out of it. Again, he chastised himself for rushing into action without summoning aid. Coruscant was full of too many unknowns for a padawan to be out on his own.
That he had charged into danger was bad enough; that he had told them he was a full-fledged Jedi Knight would certainly bring a stern lecture from Master Windu when he found out. "Rest, I will summon aid," he tried to reassure her as he knelt.
The wound was cauterized as was expected, but it was obvious she was in shock. He started to pull off his cloak to try and keep her warm when she suddenly lurched, arching her back as if she were in terrible pain. Ferrin grabbed her and asked what was wrong but she could not reply. She turned to him and her mouth opened and closed, but only a sickening gasping sound came out.
She died then, leaving him alone with his failure.
"Foolish you were, young padawan; not a full Jedi yet…maybe never," Yoda said as Ferrin stood before the council. His master, Frie Ovos, said nothing but instead nudged his apprentice through the Force to speak up.
"Masters, I am sorry for my brashness; I've been told it runs in my family," he offered.
"That is not an excuse," Mace Windu said.
"Yes, Master Windu, I know; I saw some shady looking characters…"
"So, looks determine character," Yoda barked. "Nothing you have learned!" He hopped out of his chair and stomped his small cane on the marbled floor. "Not look at the whole situation did you! Prejudice, false judgment…these are ways to the dark side!"
"I'm sorry," Ferrin offered and then dropped his head. He was sure that he would be asked to leave the Order now. As far as padawan's went, he was a special case. He should have become a Knight a year before, but he had not been ready for the trials. Now, when he should have been practicing for his tests, he was instead being lectured about how he was not yet prepared to take them.
His master then spoke up in his defense. "Regardless of his reasoning, he was correct. There were two murders committed and he did what we would expect from any member of our order…he tried to apprehend them."
"The ends do not justify the means," Ki Adi Mundi offered. He was the only member of the council that was not ranked as a Jedi Master. "The easy path is the dangerous one as we all know." He eyed Mace who nodded. Ten years before, they had taken the easy path with young Anakin Skywalker and now their entire order was under scrutiny by the local security forces. Only the day before, Mace had gone through his ninth interview on the subject.
"The woman…has she been identified?" someone asked.
"Yes," Ferrin said, hoping to salvage his tarnished reputation. "She is a bounty hunter named Zam Wessell, considered to be one of the best. The two others were identified by outstanding warrants. They were alleged to have been in the employ of Jabba the Hutt of Tatooine."
"Formerly of Tatooine," Ki corrected. "The other one in the armor?"
"Nothing yet," Ferrin said.
"Inform Chancellor Palpatine we must," Yoda said as he walked the perimeter of the room. "Assassins come here for only one reason."
"Yes; they must have been wanting to hire Wessell and her companion to take out Lord Vader," Mace added.
Ferrin suddenly remembered something. "I didn't hear everything, but one of the dead aliens said that Lord Vader knew about Anakin Skywalker or words to that effect."
"Perhaps we should invite this Lord Vader to the temple? Perhaps he can solve the mystery of Anakin Skywalker?" Ki asked the assembled Jedi. There were murmurs of approval but Yoda cut them off.
"No! Already out of control is this situation. Remain free from it the Jedi must or lose the support of the people we will." He stopped in front of one of the windows and sighed. "Delay your trials for another year we will while you learn to control your emotions. A warrior a Jedi can be, but always with a heavy heart do they go to battle. Relish in conflict you do. Temper your fire you must."
Ferrin bowed slightly. "Thank you Master Yoda," he said. He could sense the aggravation coming from his master. Obviously he did not think that Master Yoda was being fair.
"Wait for me outside," he commanded and he waited patiently, his hands folded in front of him, for the padawan to exit the chamber.
"Do not speak to me of being irrational," Yoda started as he turned.
"You were too hard on him; he is ready for the trials! He is as ready as any apprentice his age. There is another reason for this," Frie accused. "I see…this has nothing to do with his ability. You've all become afraid to do anything because of this investigation." He walked forward and spread his arms wide.
"Maybe we did make some mistakes ten years ago; are we not entitled? We are Jedi, not gods!" He waited for one of them, any of them to join him, but there was nothing but silence. "Do you know what I sense, fellow masters? Fear."
"You are out of line, Master Ovos," Mace said, a hard edge to his voice.
"No, I'm not. And I'm not the only one who has seen it either. Yes, ten years ago we lost two good Jedi to a Sith…maybe. Yes, ten years ago we turned our back on someone that maybe we should have done a little more for. Now you won't do anything because you are afraid of making a mistake." He turned, not waiting for a reply and stomped towards the doors. "My apprentice will take part in this year's trials and you will not stand in his way. You might also consider this: if you cannot lead the Jedi properly, make way for those who can."
When he had left, the chamber remained silent until Ki spoke. "You can tell he was good friends with Qui-Gon."
There was some light laughter. "More truth than anger in his words there is."
"I agree; we have allowed ourselves to pushed into a corner and we are refusing to fight back," Mace said to Master Yoda who was resuming his seat. "I say we do something about this information on Lord Vader. If someone is trying to kill him, we are obligated to try and protect him."
Darth Maul could almost appreciate the raw savage beauty of what the Sand People were trying to do with the Skywalker woman. They were breaking her down in order to build her back up into a proper member of their tribe. To do so required pain and much of it.
Her pain was like a beacon to him, calling him through the desert night as he cruised on his speeder bike. He was surprised that he had not sensed it before, but he passed it off to all of the other sentients he had been in contact with. When they had lived, the poisoned the Force and only be eliminating them did he finally find clarity.
Even without seeing her, he had known what they had done to her and he felt a streak of jealousy. The Sand People understood pain in a way Maul could never hope to. They found more than simple pleasure by inflicting it, they thrived on it. And yet, without being able to tap into the Force, he could not understand what they could get from the experience.
It was sad to end their lives so quickly, not allowing them the honor of dying slowly and painfully as they would have done to him had they the chance. His mission did not allow him the luxury of passing on the gift of pain. Instead, he entered the Sand People's camp and had begun the carnage with the same effort he used to adjust a belt buckle. It was all becoming so routine.
He craved battle with Jedi again. His encounters with his mortal enemies had been so few and far between he was afraid he would go mad. He was no longer as young as he had been, but as he matured he learned something new: style.
Gone was the tendency to hack and slash; instead he now worked on efficiency and new techniques. He was even considering building a holocron to store his own wisdom on the Force. Jedi did it all of the time, but so few Sith did. Dark Lords were always too busy doing something else. They were beings of action.
When they were all dead, Maul zeroed in on the pain of Anakin Skywalker's mother as it called out to him. Her violations had been exquisite in their depravity and he hoped to one day try them out for himself on some poor hapless female. Everything that had happened to her in her miserable life came rushing out as she pondered her future. He did not have to try to read her thoughts; she was lit up like a cheap laser board on Coruscant.
"Who is there?" she managed to say from parched and bruised lips.
Mauls voice was like the coolness of death. "I have come on behalf of your son, Anakin."
"Ani?" she asked, suddenly animated. She was tied to a pole in the middle of the chieftain's tent. "My Ani is alive?"
"Oh, yes," Maul said as he slowly stepped around her. "He has become powerful in the Force and now is leading the fight to rid Tatooine of slavery."
"He is a Jedi…a Jedi Knight?" she began to weep tears of joy.
"Oh, no, quite the opposite. Your son has become a Dark Lord of the Sith. With his help, we will cut down every last Jedi man, woman and child." He activated one end of his lightsaber and gripped it with two hands. "I just thought you would like to know what a terrible failure as a mother you were."
He brought it down, cutting her diagonally through the chest. She gasped, taking the last bit of air she could before she died and Maul could sense her profound sadness and shame from his words. "He can only have one master, and that master is me," he said as he turned his weapon off and exited the tent.
"Do you realize that we have spent quite a bit of time together, Lord Vader?" Padme asked as they strolled on one of the more secluded skywalks. Several paces behind them, two Naboo security agents were flanked by three Coruscant counterparts. "In all of that time, you still have not graced me with your first name."
He smiled and turned away. "Is it really that important? Will it make you care for me even more? If it will, then I will tell you I have a thousand first names."
"I don't believe that I have ever heard someone speak so…poetic." She reached down and took his empty hand. Over the last few weeks, they had indeed become much more than friends, though they were still holding off on their first kiss.
Padme did not believe in fairy tales, but her relationship with the dashing young Lord of Tatooine had been nothing short of magical. She had dealt with many would-be suitors in her relatively short adult life and she now understood what maybe some of them had felt for her. Her feelings were blossoming into something more and she knew that it was reciprocated.
However, Lord Vader had noted that because they were political opposites and his world was not even part of the Republic yet, that any outward signs of a personal relationship beyond friendship would be frowned upon by the senate.
"I speak in prose only because being with you makes my heart sing. Since the first minute I laid eyes upon I knew you were the one I would always be with," he replied.
She stopped walking and he turned to see a bemused look on her face. "What is it? What have I said?"
"It's just that someone else from Tatooine said something like that to me once before." Her eyes were moist and he pulled her close. Out here, they were essentially segregated from the rest of the galaxy, a three-meter wide neutral zone where they could be themselves.
"You're talking about Anakin, aren't you?" he asked. She nodded and he reached down and tipped her chin up towards his face. "Believe me when I say this: Anakin is fine."
She turned to see that their escorts had stopped a polite distance that prevented them from overhearing the conversation. "You used your contacts to find him?"
He was about to answer when they were interrupted by an unfamiliar voice hailing them. They separated immediately. The local newsfeeds were already rampant with rumors; there was no need to give them anything more. Vader turned towards the approaching figure even as two of the security team ran past, hands at their holstered side arms.
Even before the security men stopped and challenged the visitor, Vader had subtly reached out with the Force, just a faint tendril, and confirmed what his eyes had told him. It was no newshound but something equally as annoying. "A Jedi," he muttered. Then he turned back to her. "I'll take care of this." She nodded as he marched off.
The Naboo agent was asking several questions when Lord Vader approached, his black cloak flowing easily in the breeze. He stopped in front of the Jedi, noting by the long braid that it was a padawan that stood before him. "What are you doing here? This area is closed to the public," Vader said.
The padawan smiled, studying the diplomat. They were roughly the same age and so he wrongly assumed that it would make communication easier. "Lord Vader, I am Padawan Apprentice Ferrin Durron from the Jedi Temple. I have come to inform you that we believe that there is a conspiracy to do you harm. My master has requested that I bring you to a more private location to discuss the matter."
Vader scoffed at the idea. "Tell your master," his disgust was evident when he used the term, "that Lord Vader does not answer to Jedi. The Jedi never saw fit to involve themselves in the woes of the people of Tatooine and whenever one of our citizens was kind enough to lend the Jedi assistance he ended up disappearing." The venom in the response seemed to visibly affect the apprentice and Vader felt that Ferrin was drawing the Force to him as a calming influence. "Oh, yes, I know all about how the Jedi made Anakin Skywalker conveniently disappear and that even now the temple records are being scrutinized for any other irregularities."
Ferrin did his best to maintain his composure. "I'm sure that Master Ovos would be better suited to address these issues…"
"Tell your master that I'll meet him in hell first," Vader said.
"Perhaps if I could speak with the senator from Naboo?" Ferrin started to try and walk past when Vader reached out and grabbed his arm. The padawan reacted by starting to reach for his lightsaber. Before he could consider how foolish the move was Vader had grabbed the other hand with lightning reflexes.
Their eyes locked and there was a brief instant in which Vader seemed to grow larger and change into a dark cloud. The sensation drifted away quickly and Vader released his grip. "It would be foolish to draw your weapon, don't you think?"
Ferrin was not quite sure how to answer. "I apologize for my brashness, Lord Vader; the Council has already told me I have much to learn."
Vader stepped back. "I will let the matter go this time. Inform your master that I have no time to waste on foolish Jedi tricks."
Ferrin nodded and then had another even more foolish notion. He waved his hand in front of Vader. "You have changed your mind…"