Qui-Gon opened his eyes. That was enough meditation for now. He rose to his feet and left his quarters. He stealthily made his way through the corridors of the facility, doing his best not to draw attention to himself as he returned the way that he had come mere hours ago. It was not long before he arrived at Jango's quarters. He reached for the panel to ring the doorbell, but before he could even touch it, the door slid open and Jango was standing before him in full Mandalorian armor. "Going somewhere, Jango?" Qui-Gon asked.

Instead of responding, Jango drew his blaster. His draw was so fast that Qui-Gon had little time to react, but he still managed to leap out of the way as Jango opened fire. Qui-Gon drew his lightsaber as Jango stepped into the corridor. "Get out of my way, Jedi," Jango demanded.

"I only wish to talk," Qui-Gon answered. "I don't mean you or your boy any harm."

"I have nothing to say to you," Jango retorted. "Now move. I won't ask again."

Before Qui-Gon could respond, Boba emerged from inside the quarters with a shout and fired his own blaster at Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon expertly blocked the shot, but Boba was not deterred as he continued to fire. As Qui-Gon continued to block the boy's shots, Jango took advantage of the distraction to fire the grappling gun that was attached to his wrist at Qui-Gon. The coil wrapped around Qui-Gon's lightsaber handle and Jango pulled his arm back, causing the lightsaber to fly from Qui-Gon's hand.

Now weaponless, Qui-Gon had to think fast. He dodged another shot from Boba and a second shot from Jango. As he backed away from his opponents, he reached out with the Force, took hold of both of their blasters, and pulled them from their hands. As the blasters clattered to the ground beside Qui-Gon, Jango leapt at Qui-Gon, activating his jetpack to boost his jump. Qui-Gon tried to use the Force to pull his lightsaber back to him, but Jango got to him first. Jango crashed into Qui-Gon, knocking him off his feet. Qui-Gon tumbled to the floor as his lightsaber flew past him and struck a wall before falling uselessly to the floor.

Qui-Gon moved to roll over and reach for his lightsaber again, but Jango was on top of him in an instant. "Boba, get to the ship!" Jango exclaimed as he struggled to pin Qui-Gon to the ground.

Boba ran past them, grabbing his blaster along the way, as the two men continued to wrestle. Qui-Gon managed to push Jango off of him and got to his feet. He reached out with the Force and pulled his lightsaber back into his hand even as Jango retrieved his blaster and leapt to his feet. In the same instant that Qui-Gon ignited his lightsaber, he found Jango's blaster pointed directly at his face. "Move, and you're a dead man," Jango said.

The two men stared each other down, both of them equally confident they could move faster than the other. Still, Qui-Gon knew he needed Jango alive, which meant Jango had the upper hand here. Besides, given what Jango had told him earlier, it was far more likely that he and Boba were running away than going on a job. If that was the case, it would be better to let them go and follow them. Perhaps that would be more fruitful than trying to capture Jango. Without a word, Qui-Gon deactivated his lightsaber and slowly clipped it to his belt. "Go," Qui-Gon said. "I have no quarrel with you."

Jango hesitated, skeptical the Jedi really intended to let him go. He began slowly backing away, never once taking his aim off of Qui-Gon until he reached a turn in the corridor. There he stood his ground without moving. Qui-Gon crossed his arms and stood resolutely, in hopes of emboldening Jango to turn and run. Jango tilted his head to the side, suspecting Qui-Gon's action to be a ploy of some kind. "What guarantee do I have that you won't follow me?" Jango asked.

"None," Qui-Gon replied. "But I will swear to leave you alone if you answer one question."

Jango perked up at this, curious what the Jedi could possibly want from him that would warrant such a promise. "What do you want to know?" Jango asked.

"Where is Tyranus?"

"Don't you know? Aren't you in business with him?"

"No. As a matter of fact, I have never had any dealings with him at all, and unfortunately Master Sifo-Dyas left no instructions on how to reach him before he died. I should very much like to speak with Tyranus, and complete some matters of business with him. Since he hired you, I hoped you would know how to find him."

"Why didn't you ask me this before?"

"I didn't want the Kaminoans to know I didn't know how to contact Tyranus. I was concerned they might see it as an opportunity to raise the price for the clone army."

Jango stood silently, debating whether or not to believe what he had just heard. He could not shake the feeling that something was off about the Jedi's story. In the end, his skepticism won out. Without saying a word, Jango pulled the trigger. Qui-Gon dodged the blaster bolt and drew his lightsaber. Before Qui-Gon could do anything else, Jango leaned forward and fired a rocket from his jetpack. Qui-Gon's eyes widened as the rocket whizzed towards him. He turned and made for the still opened door to Jango's quarters. He had just reached it when the rocket struck the ceiling and exploded behind him, launching him past the door and further down the corridor.

Qui-Gon crumbled to the floor, his robes damaged and his body injured. He slowly got to his feet and turned back around. The roof had been completely destroyed, and the rain from outside was pouring into the corridor, extinguishing the fires from the explosion and slowly flooding the corridor. Qui-Gon looked beyond the damage and saw that Jango was gone.

Qui-Gon leaned against the wall to regain his bearings as an emergency response team accompanied by Taun We entered the corridor. "Are you alright, Master Jedi?" she asked.

"Yes," Qui-Gon nodded. "Taun We, where is Jango Fett's ship docked?"

"Why do you wish to know?" she asked. "Is he the one who did this?"

"He is," Qui-Gon replied. "Please, Taun We, I must stop him from leaving this planet."

Taun We nodded and said, "Jango always docks his ship on docking pad 94."

"Thank you," Qui-Gon said as he pushed himself off the wall.

He began to run down the corridor. Every bone in his body screamed in pain with every step he took, but he pushed himself onward. He had to make that docking pad before Jango could take off. So he pushed himself forward, even though his entire body cried out for mercy.

Finally, with a great deal of resolve to make it through the final stretch of his run, Qui-Gon reached docking pad 94. As the doors swung open and Qui-Gon burst out into the rain, the sound of engines revving filled the air. Qui-Gon had arrived just in time to see Jango's ship lift off the docking bay. Qui-Gon retrieved a homing beacon from his belt, and with a final effort, threw it against the side of the ship. He watched it stick to the ship's hull and activate just before the ship flew up into the sky.

Qui-Gon caught his breath and stepped back inside. He sat on the floor and checked to ensure that the homing beacon was transmitting. Once he was satisfied that everything was in working order, he took a moment to collect himself and then dragged himself back up to his feet. He slowly made his way back to his own ship and climbed into the cockpit. He inputted the homing beacon's signal into the ship's navigational computer and instructed the astromech droid that was mounted to the side of the ship to take control of the ship and follow the beacon's signal. As Qui-Gon's ship lifted off the ground, Qui-Gon leaned back in his seat and fell asleep.

Sometime later, he was startled awake by the sensation of dropping out of hyperspace. Once he was fully awake, he found himself approaching a red planet. He looked at the navigational computer and saw that the homing beacon had led him to the planet Geonosis. He took over control and made his approach to land. As he entered the atmosphere, he was surprised to find a large number of Trade Federation ships landed along the planet's surface. After Viceroy Gunray's siege of Naboo, Qui-Gon knew better than to dismiss this as just a coincidence. Even though the Trade Federation's official stance was now against Nute Gunray, Qui-Gon could not believe the Federation's greed would allow them to actually dismiss one of their most successful figureheads.

Qui-Gon found a safe place to land that was out of sight of the Trade Federation ships and guided his ship in for a landing. Once he had landed, he got out of the cockpit and checked the receiver for his homing beacon to see where Jango had landed. The signal was coming from several miles to the west – the direction the Trade Federation ship were in. Qui-Gon sighed. It seemed the Trade Federation was also somehow caught up in all of this, which made him quite uneasy.

There was no use in standing around speculating on the Trade Federation's involvement without more information, so Qui-Gon set out toward the Federation ships. As he walked, he noted how quiet it was. In fact, it was too quiet. Qui-Gon remained on alert as he continued walking.

He had been walking for some time when suddenly he felt a tremor in the Force. He stopped as wave after wave struck him, the tremor growing stronger and stronger until he was forced to his knees. This was no small tremor. It was a great disturbance in the Force. It was full of pain, suffering, rage, and hatred. It reached out a dark hand, and at that moment was suddenly stayed. Then there was quiet. The disturbance had passed like a fleeting shadow and was no more.

Qui-Gon caught his breath. He had never felt strength and power like that. He knew something terrible had happened. More than that though, something even more terrible had also been averted. Qui-Gon's mind raced as he wondered what it could mean, then he felt another disturbance, just as strong as the one before, but this time it was filled with grief and anguish. Now he understood. "Anakin," he murmured as tears filled his eyes.

At that moment, something struck the side of his head, and his consciousness slipped away.