It had been some time since the death of the last senator. Every senator currently staying on Coruscant had been placed under the watchful eye of a Jedi. Rose had been lucky...the children took up most of her time.
Rineari on the other hand...

The senator saw the shadow of a passing speeder and jumped for at least the hundredth time.
"Calm yourself, senator. There is no one here with any ill intent toward you...of that I can assure you." This didn't seem to help much...

Tekk moved with a cat's grace, gliding through the halls. No one looked at the tall man twice. He appeared to belong, and there were strange enough regalia in the Senate District for Tekk to be noticed. He was calm, perfectly so. He passed Jedi, without one looking twice at him. Slowly, ever so slowly and carefully, he worked his way through the crowded corridors, moving aimlessly toward the less populous sectors of the building.

Finally, he saw his target. This man also had a Jedi escort, but that didn't bother him. He had dealt with Jedi before. He moved casually to pass the pair—the Jedi was following, a buffer between an attacker and the Senator—and whipped around, catching both off-guard. This brief start was enough for Tekk to seize the Senator and slip the poison-laced needle into the soft spot behind the jaw.

The man was dead before he hit the ground.

Rineari's lightsaber was in his hand before Tekk could even release the senator. His usual warm smile was gone from his face. "Out in the open, I see."

Tekk faced the Jedi master, warning him, "Retreat. I don't want to have to kill you."

Rineari activated his lightsaber, watching the assassin carefully. "You should know better than to ask me to do that," he stated calmly.

The Hunter shook his head, reaching behind him and drawing his own weapon without a flourish. The dull black metal hissed against the scabbard on his back, a sound not heard for thousands of years. Coolly, Tekk dropped into a guard position, prepared to attack, or defend.

The Jedi master had to stare for a moment at Tekk's weapon. He knew the lightsaber he held in his hands was based off of such antique weapons, but it was a shock to see one, especially in the hands of the galaxy's most sophisticated killers. Thinking it was one of the antique weapons, refurbished to meet the man's needs, Rineari counted on a quick fight. Very little metal could stand up to the energy of a lightsaber, and such alloys weren't known in the ancient days.

The pair circled, Tekk carefully stepping around the body of the dead senator without looking down at it. Both were highly trained warriors, skilled in their own arts. Both knew the fight wouldn't end until one fell, never to rise again.

The pair finally clashed, Rineari making the first attack, testing the Hunter's speed. He fully expected the man to dodge, as his weapon wasn't capable of blocking.

The humming lightsaber emitted a snarl as it met the sword in Tekk's hands, the powerful man twisting the weapon to send Rineari staggering back a pace. The Jedi stared in shock; the weapon hadn't been sheared through!

Tekk almost smirked at the look on the Master's face, but he didn't. Instead, he whipped his black-bladed sword in an attack, faster than any Jedi Rineari had ever seen. He barely blocked, arms stinging from the force.

His eyes were flat green gems, moving fluidly in attack. He was faster, stronger, and more agile than anyone the Jedi master had ever sparred with, and he was quickly realizing he was out of his depth.

As he saw the sword whipping for his throat, he realized the fatal error of all the Jedi. However, as he died, he took the secret with him.

Tekk saluted the body briefly before he left, vanishing silently.

Rose ran down the hall with all her speed. There was trouble, and Master Rineari was involved. Hold on! She thought, Just around the next corner! Then she felt it, like a slap in the face. Too late...she was too late to help him...but maybe she could catch his killer. She whipped around the corner into a hall that was empty except for the two bodies lying, lifeless on the floor. She knew, even before she checked the senator's vitals, that he was dead, and as for Master Rineari, there could be no doubt. Carefully, she bent down and picked up Rineari's body.

Others were beginning to show up now...Jedi and non-Jedi alike...Some of them tried to help her but she pushed them gently away with the Force. This was a burden she would bare alone, in honor of his memory.

Rose stood next to the door in the council chamber, watching the surveillance holo. She had been unusually quiet. Now, she stepped forward. "I wish to have this task."

"You wouldn't stand a chance." one of the Masters spoke up. "Your skill with the lightsaber is...well...lacking."

Rose had known this would come up. It was a valid point, one she normally could not argue against. She should have backed down...But she couldn't. Something was pulling at her...She could feel the Force drawing her down a path that would lead her to this man.

"I must go..." she insisted calmly."I don't know why...but I must, and I will. Without the permission of the council, if that's what it comes to."

Master Yoda leaned forward. "Feel something do you? Hm? The pull of the Force, do you think?" Rose nodded. There was a long moment of silence, and she began to think that she would actually have to go against the council's decision. Finally, Master Yoda nodded. "Very well then."

"Thank you." Rose said, bowing.

Rose began her search immediately. At first, it was relatively random...a question here, and inquiry there. No one had ever seen the tall blue-haired man she described to them. She began checking other surveillance holos...nothing...
She decided to take a trip through the city to try and clear her head and ended up at a spaceport some distance from the senate building or the temple. The Force tugged at her.
It wasn't hard to convince the owner to let her see the surveillance holos...She was a Jedi after all...
She went back a few weeks...no...no...no...Wait a second... she stopped, backed up the holo a bit. Coming out of what appeared to have once been a Nubian, but was now so heavily modified that you could hardly tell, was the blue-haired man she was searching for. Docking bay 9... She nodded, thanked the owner, and then made a bee line for the docking bay. The ship was still there. She looked around...this was hardly the place for a confrontation, and her fighting skills were far below his. No, she would have to out wit him...
She planted a small tracking beacon on the ship's hull before she left.

Patiently, she watched and waited. Her ship on constant standby. She took off not far behind him, flying "casually". He made his jump and she smiled. Copying his trajectory, she to made the jump. The chase was on...

An hour later, the smile was gone from her face. "He must have found the tracker." she mumbled with frustration. She hadn't gotten a single signal. She was back to grabbing at straws and following crumb trails.

Tekk had left the Dragon safely docked, knowing its slightly illegal security measures would keep it safe. He knew the Jedi would be after his blood for killing the Master, but he felt no remorse. The man was a warrior, and thus, knew the risks of facing someone in combat.

As he approached his ship, several days later, he sensed something amiss. Not something wrong, per se, but something wasn't right. He scanned the gleaming hull of his ship, looking for any trace of tampering, and at first, finding none. No matter. He boarded the ship, started the launch cycle, and took off, leaving the too-bright gleam of the planet behind.

Once in the vacuum of space, isolated from the worst of the interference, his ship warned him of a strange frequency coming from the hull. Analyzing it, he realized with amusement, it was a homing beacon. /Well/ he thought//two can play this game.../

With the heavy traffic surrounding the capitol planet, he couldn't pick out his pursuer, even though he knew one was there. Smirking to himself, he calculated the jump to lightspeed, letting the ship vanish.

Once in hyperspace, he jammed the beacon's transmissions, planning to remove it at the next opportunity. He used the transit time to collect himself, and to plan for a long pursuit.

Reverting to real space was easy enough. He knew his pursuer was somewhere close behind, and thus, didn't take any risks. Rather than immediately jumping to lightspeed again, he activated one of the Dragon's many surprises.

When the second ship appeared in real space, it appeared to be empty, but in truth, the 'prey' was less than a cannon-shot away. He wanted to see the one who hunted the Hunter, and had activated the ship's cloaking device.

It was a Jedi, as he had suspected. This one was young, he noted, and female. The kind most likely to be struck by idealistic crusades--such as capturing the galaxy's most dangerous killer and bringing him to justice. He watched calmly from nearby as she frustrated flew through space, hunting for a prey she'd been on top of.

Tekk almost had to laugh. It was cruel, yes, but oh, it was funny. Now the game was his! He was in control! And oh, what a merry game this would be...

He led her along a merry chase, he always three steps ahead of her, knowing the endless, fruitless chase was demoralizing. He half hoped she'd get frustrated and leave off the pursuit, but after the third month of the game, he realized she was dedicated in a way that he could admire. Even still, he left nothing for her to find but whispers and shadows of a dark man.

A/N: Yeah, another short chapter. This fight scene was rewritten after the site where it's originally posted (in forum format) was hacked, causing us to lose all our data. That's also why there's so many PoV changes in this section—we were trying to get back to the point we had been. I'm really not happy with this chapter, and I plan to edit the hell out of it in short order. And a special thank-you to Becky, who was (most likely) the first reader, and (definitely) the first reviewer. Thanks!