Boba Fett curled his legs underneath him and glared at the Jedi who was talking to him. They had told him their names, but he had quickly forgotten them in the chaos that ensued. Were they really taking him to his father, he wondered. Or was this just a trick. But who'd want to kidnap him? Unless it was because of his father… but his father's enemies didn't know he existed. But these were Jedi. Jedi knew everything.

But if they had kidnapped him because of his father, then they probably were taking him to his father. But then he wouldn't want to go. He'd want to break his father out of wherever they were holding him. Except he didn't know where they were holding him, except that it was on Coruscant, (if they were telling the truth) but that was a big place, and Boba was frightened.

He'd get lost. No, he wouldn't. Coruscant was just a big city. A city the size of a planet because it was a planet. And wherever they were keeping his father, it wouldn't be on the maps.

The Jedi who had been talking to Boba was extremely tall, taller than even his father, with brown hair that he wore in braids and a beard. Boba was extremely curious about the beards. His father didn't have one, which meant the clones didn't, and the cloners couldn't grow beads, so he had never seen one outside of holo videos.

But the tall one's beard was little compared to the bushy mass of hair that decorated the face of the smallest of the three. His beard was the same color as his hair, reddish blonde, and his eyes were bright blue.

The third Jedi was young, probably still some sort of apprentice. He wore his hair (only slightly darker than the second's) in a braid; his eyes were the same color as Beard's as well. Boba wondered if they were related. The tall one had introduced Braid and Beard as his Paddy-Something and his companion, but maybe Beard was his friend and Braid was Beard's son, which was why the tall one had taken Braid as his Paddy-Something?

Boba noticed that the tall one had moved away and was now conversing with the other two in low tones. The boy dropped off his chair silently and army-crawled his way to hide behind a machine-like thing next to them.

"-Just a child," Beard was saying. "He may not understand."

"I believe it's more than that," Tall answered. "I sensed much hostility from him."

"Wouldn't you feel hostile if someone came and took you away from everything you knew?" demanded Braid. "He doesn't know us, and he has no way of telling if we're being honest."

Boba smiled despite himself, feeling a sudden kinship with Braid. The youngest of the Jedi, at least, seemed to know how he felt.

"I suppose," agreed Tall. "But we should be careful."

Boba grinned evilly, glad that the Jedi was frightened of him, or at least wary.

"It isn't as if he could overcome us," laughed Braid, and Boba returned to disliking him.

"It's not that, Anakin," answered Beard. "He'll be frightened, or at least confused. We need him on our side if any of this is supposed to work. We can't afford to frighten him even more. How do you suppose Fett would react when we told him we'd lost his son? How do you suppose the Council would react?"

"If he's frightened, he's hiding it very well," commented Braid, or Anakin, as Beard had called him. Boba was pleased with his compliment, and decided to now think of him by his real name.

"That's not always the best method," responded Tall, and the others didn't argue. Suddenly Anakin looked over in his direction and then away again, his eyes glazing over and staring off into the distance. Tall gave a tiny nod and got the same look, and then Beard responded in the same manner to some silent communication.

Boba started, realizing that he had just unwittingly figured out what they were doing. And what reason would Braid have to speak silently to the others after spotting him if it wasn't to tell them?

"Boba, you can come out now," called Tall quietly. Boba tried to hide for a moment, then realized it was useless and crawled out from under the machine and stood up.

"What?" he demanded angrily.

"Why were you listening to us?" asked Tall, the others seeming to fade into the background as he spoke.

"Why shouldn't I?" demanded Boba. "You're taking me somewhere I've never been, somewhere I don't even know if my father is, and telling me to just sit back and be quiet! I have every right to know what's going on!" He used the same tone and similar words he had heard his father use when the cloners wouldn't tell him what was going on with the clones, years ago.

Tall smiled gently. "I suppose you do," he mused. "Sit down." Since Boba couldn't find anywhere else to sit, he flopped down on the machine he had hidden behind earlier, making a mental note to ask Anakin what it was later.

As soon as he sat down, something near him started beeping, shocking him into jumping up again. "I didn't do it," Boba cried automatically.

"Surprisingly, you didn't," commented Beard, leaning over and looking at a panel on another part of the machine. "A ship's approaching. It's Kamioan."

Tall looked surprised. "What are they doing? Kamioans never leave their home-world!"

"This one does," answered Anakin. "Only one person."

"They're hailing," added Beard. Tall signaled for them to respond and a face appeared on the screen.

Boba jumped. It was Taun We, the cloner who had taken care of him when he was small. Although it had been years since he had been in her care, he still felt an attachment to her. Now it seemed to Boba as if he had just found his mother somewhere in space after leaving her behind back home.

Taun We explained in her soft voice how she had followed them to accompany the Jedi on their mission. She didn't say what it was, and Boba found himself suddenly curious. Besides bringing him to his father, what were these three up to?

The Jedi (Tall and Beard mostly, with a few injections by Anakin) answered that she could come along, but they were curious as to why she had decided to join them.

"I just wanted to help," muttered Taun We, looking as if she felt very small. Boba noticed how intimidating the Jedi could be to someone who wasn't as brave as he was. He scowled, annoyed that the Jedi were so frightening to her, and suddenly felt very protective of the cloner.

"Well, if you have any more ideas like that one you had earlier, I'm sure you will," said Tall gently. Taun We nodded and the screen flickered out.

"Well we can't exactly tell her to go home," exclaimed Tall defensively as Beard and Braid gave him looks. "Besides, she might help."

"She just didn't want to stay on Kamino anymore and we were the first way out that she saw," retorted Braid.

"In which case she probably won't stick with us very long. And she should be allowed to leave if she chooses," answered Tall.

"Yeah!" cried Boba, forgetting himself. The three Jedi started at him and he clapped his hands over his mouth. "Sorry," he started to say, and then stopped, but with his hands muffling his voice it came out as a grunt, rather than half a word.

Beard smiled falsely at him, and then leaned over and whispered to Tall. Boba obviously wasn't supposed to hear him, but he had extremely good ears.

"Qui-Gon, I respect your decisions, but I have to ask. How many pathetic life-forms are we going to pick up on this mission!"

Did you like it? Did you? Enough to review? Okay, sorry. I'm just in an annoying mood. I get like that when I have a cold, which I do. I guess it's my way of covering up my tiredness. Okay, back to the point. Child-of-Dawn, Jedi Ha-Li and Ellenlome reviewed, bringing me up to forty-six, and very happy. Child-of-Dawn: I got your pathetic life-form joke in there. Hope you enjoyed it! Jedi Ha-Li: Was this far enough away from AOTC for you? Don't worry; I'll try to keep it like this, or at least not quite as close as before. It's swerving away. Slowly, but it's still swerving. Just a slow swerve.