Title: Birth of Tyranny
Author: ewan's girl


Chapter 6


She sat in her office, and dozed in her chair. The exhaustion of the day had finally taken it's toll on She-ar-ah. It had certainly been a long day, and she felt it was going to continue to be a long ordeal indeed. And on top of everything else she had witnessed something that she knew wasn't hers to witness. She awoke with a start when she heard a soft knock at her door, she almost dreaded who was on the other side. She opened it to find Senator Amidala looking at her sheepishly.
"Could I have a moment of your time captain?" The young senator asked.
"I am at your service senator." She-ar-ah answered, leading the senator in the room. "Have a seat." She motioned to the chair in front of her desk, Padme sat down. "What can I help you with Senator?" She-ar-ah asked, sitting in her own seat.
"Please, call me Padme." Padme said in a very sweet tone.
She-ar-ah cleared her throat. "Padme."
"Listen She-ar-ah I'm going to cut right to the chase here. You saw me in a very compromising position, and I'm quite embarrassed." Padme explained.
"With a Jedi padawan might I add." She-ar-ah said snidely.
Padme looked away. "Yes." She returned her glance at She-ar-ah. "For that reason alone I have come here." She-ar-ah folded her arms across her chest, ready to listen. "I've come to realize that you and master Kenobi are pretty close." She-ar-ah got uncomfortable with this accusation. "I'm just afraid you might tell him what you saw, and then Anakin would be banished from the Jedi order."
"Look Senator..." She-ar-ah began.
"Padme." Padme reminded her.
"Senator." She-ar-ah corrected. "What you do is none of my business, I am a servant of king Organa, and while you are his guest I am therefore your servant as well." She-ar-ah then rose from her chair and looked out the window. "As long as you command me not to tell master Kenobi, I cannot and will not tell him."
"I don't want to command you She-ar-ah, I..."
She-ar-ah looked at the young senator. "Padme, as a friend to Obi Wan I feel I should tell him that I saw his apprentice breaking the Jedi code, but as long as you command me not to tell him senator then I cannot." She spoke very clearly so Padme would understand.
Padme nodded, she understood.
"Can I ask you a personal question Padme?" She-ar-ah returned her gaze to the window.
Padme was taken back by this request. "Yes."
"Why a Jedi apprentice? You could have any man in the senate if you wanted. Why a Jedi?" She looked at the senator.
"I fell in love with Anakin, I know it's wrong, but I am in love." She-ar-ah smiled a sad smile. "We are deeply sorry for what we did in your quarters." She-ar-ah tried not to laugh. "But it is hard when we hardly get to see each other. I love my husband very much." Padme blurted out, then regretted.
"Your what?" She-ar-ah had a look of pure shock on her face.
Padme grew quiet. "My husband."
"I thought the Jedi code forbade marriage." She-ar-ah was confused.
"Anakin says that the code forbids attachment, that a Jedi must understand that he has made a commitment to the order, that it would be difficult to have a family with those commitments, but it really doesn't say that marriage itself is forbidden." Padme innocently stated.
She-ar-ah looked back at the window. "Very interesting." She said under her breath.
"You won't tell anyone will you?" Padme grew very worried.
"As long as you command me not to." She-ar-ah continued to look out the window.
"I command you not to tell anyone captain." Padme said in a commanding tone.
She-ar-ah looked at the senator. "As you wish Senator."


**

Anakin rushed through the halls of the palace, his heart was racing he was nervous of the consequences he would now have to face. As he turned a corner looking for Padme to find out what She-ar-ah had said a familiar voice stopped him dead in his tracks.
"There you are." Obi Wan said, catching up to his apprentice. "Where have you been?"
"I was just checking the palace guards master." Anakin tried to cover his tracks. "Everything seems to be in order." He looked away from Obi Wan's curious stare, for the Jedi knight knew his apprentice was lying to him.
Obi Wan sighed a deep sigh. "Why do you insist on shutting me away padawan?"
Anakin's heart lurched in his chest, he feared his master had discovered his secret. "Wha...what do you mean master?" He began to tremble.
"I know you were with Padme." Obi Wan crossed his arms and looked at Anakin square in the eyes.
"Um master it's not what you think." Anakin lamely stated, sweat began to form on his brow.
"We have a mandate from the council to protect king Organa." Obi Wan looked at his padawan. "I know you care for Senator Amidala, but we have no orders to protect her." Anakin let out a sigh of relief, his master didn't know. He was so relieved that he didn't even notice the huge smile on his face. "Would you mind telling me what's so funny padawan?" Obi Wan asked pointing out the smile.
"Nothing master, I just..." Anakin grew worried he had messed up himself. "I think it's funny that you feel...um...that it isn't in our mandate to protect Padme."
Obi Wan was taken back. "You find that funny?" Anakin nodded nervously. "Why?"
"Well master...um...Padme is a guest here, and we have been instructed to protect Alderaan, so I feel it is in our mandate to protect her as well." The padawan finished, feeling very pleased with himself.
Obi Wan eyed the padawan, he still wasn't quite convinced. "Well at least keep your comlink on padawan in case I need to contact you."
And that was it. Anakin looked at his master in amazement, no reprimand, no lecture on the rules of being a Jedi. Maybe this meant Obi Wan was beginning to see Anakin as an equal instead of as his apprentice. Anakin smiled at his master. "Yes master." He simply stated.
Obi Wan began to walk down the hall, he turned back to his apprentice who was still standing in the same spot with a bewildered look on his face. Obi Wan cleared his throat. "Are you coming?" With that the young man quickly caught up to his master.
After a few moments of silence Anakin spoke. "Master? Do you really think it could be Jango Fett?"
Obi Wan shook his head. "It's impossible, but whoever it was he was an exact replica." Obi Wan looked at his apprentice.
"Like a clone. "Anakin stopped, and looked at his master, who was nodding.
"Possibly." Obi Wan said with a cocked eyebrow.

**

"Now listen up gentlemen, we have a big day ahead of us." She-ar-ah paced in front of 40 security officers, wearing a skin tight silver suit, knee high black boots and a white cloak with the hood pulled up over her head. "Today is the day the politicians arrive for the celebration ball, and we still have our typical guests that need to feel safe as well, so security has to be full proof, because as all of you know we still have an assassin on our hands." She stopped and looked at her men. "All of us have to make sacrifices here, we all must pull double shifts until Senator Amidala's security forces come to help us." She looked at them and sighed. "I know you and your teams are all tired, I'm right there with you, but it's up to us; as of right now we are Alderaan's only hope."
Obi Wan and Anakin stepped undetected in the back of the room.
"What about the Jedi?" One of the men asked out loud.
"What about the Jedi?" She-ar-ah asked, leaning against the wall.
"Are they in charge?" Another asked, and a murmur rose from the crowd.
"The Jedi were sent here by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine himself, they are here for our protection. They have dealt with situations like this before." She-ar-ah looked at Obi Wan who was staring at her. "So to answer your question, yes they are in charge, when they give an order, we will listen."
"What if you disagree with their order?" Another guard asked.
"What if I disagree, or if you disagree?" She-ar-ah asked and the men laughed.
"Well you miss." The guard explained.
"Well to answer your question commander, if I happen to disagree with the Jedi I will deal with it in my own way, otherwise we are to listen to them." She looked again at Obi Wan.
"We're with you captain." One of the sergeants called to her, and the others agreed in unison.
She-ar-ah smiled. "Thank you. Now, those teams that are on their double shifts, go home to your families, 1st shifts take over." With that the men all left the room, talking amongst themselves. She-ar-ah called to one of the guards. "Lutenant, I need you to take a squad of our best men to continue to comb the beaches, I still have this feeling that he's on those beaches somewhere."
"Yes sir." The guard said, and saluted, and left the room leaving She-ar-ah and the two Jedi.
She-ar-ah sighed when all the men were gone. Obi Wan and Anakin moved towards her. "You have a great team there." Obi Wan stated, folding his arms inside his cloak.
"They are great." She-ar-ah looked towards the door where her men had left. "So, any leads master Jedi?"
"Three years ago I investigated a bounty hunter by the name of Jango Fett." Obi Wan explained. "He wore the exact same armor as the assassin from yesterday."
"So, you think it could be this Jango Fett?" She-ar-ah looked at both the Jedi.
"See that's the thing..." Anakin looked at his master. "See it couldn't be Jango Fett, he's dead."
"Dead?" She-ar-ah looked at the young apprentice.
"Your father actually decapitated him." Anakin looked away.
"My father did that?" She looked a little disturbed by that claim.
"It was during the battle on Geonosis." Anakin tried to defend his claim to her.
"Needless to say Captain Windu, it couldn't be Jango Fett." Obi Wan cut off his padawan.
"Well then we are back to square one." She-ar-ah said in a defeated tone.
"It couldn't be Jango, but it could be his clone." Obi Wan continued.
"His clone?' She-ar-ah asked confused.
"The army of the Republic is made up of clone soldiers, they were modeled after Jango." Obi Wan continued.
"So it might be one of these soldiers?" She-ar-ah asked, trying to understand.
"Jango Fett asked if he could keep a clone for himself, one that hadn't been altered in anyway. He raised it like a son." Obi Wan finished.
"Bobba Fett." Anakin replied, tired of being quiet. Obi Wan gave him a stern look for interrupting him.
She-ar-ah looked from one Jedi to the other. "So the theory is that the assassin is a clone of a bounty hunter my father killed 3 years ago?" The Jedi nodded. "How old would this Bobba Fett be?" She asked.
"My guess would be around 13 or 14." Obi Wan answered.
"But that would make him merely a child." She-ar-ah protested.
"Yes, but he was raised to be a bounty hunter all his life, trust me when I say I doubt he is merely a child." Obi Wan said, looking at Anakin.
"Well if he is this skilled at the age of 13, then I fear how talented he will be when he is an adult." She-ar-ah moved towards the door.
"I do believe that was Jango's intentions." Anakin stated, following his master and She-ar-ah out the door.

**
On one of the remote beaches, in the tropical jungle, a lone figure could be found running hard, climbing rocks, jumping over fallen trees. 13 year old Bobba Fett was conditioning himself for battle. Sweat was dripping off his brow as he flipped over a log. He slowed his pace, and took out two blasters from their holsters. Silently he stalked something. Without any notice he skillfully sniped a guard that was combing the beach, the guard had no chance to defend himself. Bobba laughed an evil cackle as he headed back to his ship that was on a completely different beach. "That should throw them off track." He claimed as he laughed again, sounding like this was all a game.