I don't own Star Wars or Ranma 1/2. Curse it.

WOW! The response to the last chapter and my questions going forward were amazing. I normally take a few days off after posting a chapter, mainly to look for similar works to renew my muse, or to do other things. But this time, the response was so great I didn't have to, just reading the reviews and PMs about it was enough to keep me going.

There were a lot of good points raised about Anakin and the Multi pairing question. I will say now that the Anakin who became Darth Vader in canon is not going to be the Anakin who grows up in this story. I will also say that I have no intention of Ranma training him. I will not throw out the idea of him falling or not just yet however. We will see what happens going forward, but the idea of trying to shoehorn several of the events from canon that led to his fall just would not work.

And lets face it, a major problem with the prequels is that everyone knew going in what would happen in the end, I'm not going to spoil it for my readers like that. Seriously, if Lucas had made a 'What if' movie, how monstrously better than the prequels would it have been?

About the idea of turning this into a Multi pairing: that is what I meant, not a harem. For those of you who want lots of ladies added no, just no. Not only would that not work in this setting, but I agree with the reviewers who pointed out that Ranma is coming out of a harem Bad Ending, and that Shaak and the Order will have issues with only her being with him, let alone more. Nor do I think that harems with more than four girls work without a built in reason to allow them. Does this mean I won't add a girl, or at most two? I have not decided yet. Again there were a lot of good points raised about this concept, but I don't want to completely nix the idea because i routinely let the relationships write themselves in my fics. However, I will say that Shaak Ti will have enough problems with the two of them starting a relationship without the added issue of letting another woman in.

And on that note, warning! A bit of Shaak Ti emotions-drama in this chapter.

And just to put a bit more info out there: Padme is 14 at this point! And Ahsoka is 3. Anakin is 9. Aayla in canon is 16, but I upped her age by two years - she's a year and a bit younger than Ranma at this point.

This has been beta-ed by Ultimaflare0, however I have no doubt there are still strange sentences or redundant statements and the ever-present weird or wrong words. Despite that, I hope you all enjoy!


Chapter 6: Rumble in the Desert

Even though the holograms had cut out, the Hypercom connection continued for a brief moment, sending Knight Ti all the order knew about this debacle and her destination. While their systems were doing so Master Ranicisis and Master Windu were silent each busy with their own thoughts. They were both thinking about this recent fiasco, and how they only had themselves to blame.

They should've seen something like this coming, though to be fair the idea that anyone on the Council of Reassignment let alone the High Council would have signed off on a mission like this was anathema to both of them. Who was it, Mace thought his emotions calm but very cold. Sacrificing fellow members of the Order for simple information no matter how important was not something he could condone.

It would be different if we were at war and the information of vital importance, but for information about something like this? While I do not think a Jedi's life is any more important than anyone else's, it is still both wasteful and ugly to send a padawan of such promise into something like this. Even if Shaak Ti and young Ranma are able to rescue her, who knows how long it will take for her to overcome the memories of the ordeal. I hope that…

Before Mace could complete that thought Ranicisis' calm voice broke into his musing. "You do realize you gave Ranma carte blanche to do anything he wanted correct? I might not know him as well as Master Dooku, but I believe that is something like the equivalent of giving a child the key to a starship and expecting him not to crash it." The older master's tone wasn't confrontational, simply quizzical however.

"I know that, I also know that the Hutts have begun to encroach on Republic space out there. The Trade Federation might be able to stop normal pirates, but they are the only party in that area of space that could stand up against the Hutts, and so long as the Hutts and their pawns steer clear of their holdings and ships, they won't."

Mace held up a reader, handing it over to Ranicisis. "That is two years of reports from the Ryloth Sector Jedi both before and after Master S'raa T'saa took over. The slave trade is increasing its depredations on them, and there've been some ugly incidents, despite the Rylothi senator not seeming to notice."

Mace frowned, his mind going down on a tangent for a moment as he wondered once again what happened to Anoon Bondarra and his padawan. The man had been reckoned a decent blade, not up to his, Bulq, or Dooku's level but close, and he had been killed without anyone seeing how it had happened or leaving any clues behind as to his killer. His padawan too had died, her body missing entirely.

"I see." Ranicisis said thoughtfully, closing his eyes for a moment. "You mean that was deliberate then?"

"If he and Jedi Shaak are unable to rescue Aayla in any other fashion, I can only hope they do enough damage to send a message to the Hutts that will warn them the Jedi are on the watch for their depredations." Mace said serenely.

"A show of force to dissuade further incursions." Ranicisis murmured, showing no surprise of the idea having already leaped to that conclusion. "Let's hope it works. And that there are not many innocent lives lost in the doing."

Mace nodded seriously, and the two both closed their eyes for a moment meditating before the next meeting with the rest of the Council. They needed to decide on the punishment to be handed out to Master Cic'kan and any other Master involved in this mistake. It would be a hotly debated topic however, not because anyone wanted to argue that Cic'kan had been within his power to send Aayla on this mission, but because of his years of unblemished service at the post and the fact many masters truly were worried about how close Aayla and Quinlan were.

And Windu would also be pushing to find out who among them signed off on the mission in the first place. Cic'kan wasn't the only one at fault on this issue after all. His own recent error in judgment, bringing padawans and too few dedicated Guardians to deal with the Yinchorri Uprising made Mace's desire to see this issue corrected even stronger.

Nor was this issue the only one facing the council today. There was another crisis brewing between the planet Outer Rim planet Naboo and the Trade Federation which demanded their attention and Master Qui Gon and his padawan should be arriving on the scene there soon.

OOOOOOO

On the other side of that Hypercom link, both Ranma and Shaak had quickly moved into action. Shaak had moved to the cockpit to access the hyper-net, accessing the, pulling all the information she could on Tatooine into the ship system to go over later. The environment, the species they might meet there, anything, as well as making certain they had received a copy of Aayla's mission profile.

With that done, she quickly left the Wild Light. She made her way to the nearest dock-side hospital to consult with the doctors there about what kind of detoxification drugs she should take. The Mon Calamari might have different taste buds, but their digestive systems were near-human, which meant a close enough match to a Twi'lek's to be useful, even if he would have to double the normal dosage for her friend.

Even while Shaak was doing that she was also dealing with the downside of having become more emotionally open over the last four months. Fear for her friend, as well as anger that Aayla was put into this position in the first place roiled within her. The difficulty she had controlling those emotions, especially with the backlash effect from the Force all around her made Shaak think that maybe the Order had a point about abstaining from all emotions for the first time in months.

But that's wrong, Shaak thought, with difficulty it must be admitted, as she walked back to the ship towing a small grav sled behind her loaded with medical supplies. That isn't facing the problem, that's avoiding it. Ranma is right about that, I must control this!

As if summoned by that thought she heard Ranma's voice from behind her. Turning Shaak saw Ranma, again in his female form, coming up behind her. She too was leading a grav sled, loaded with what looked like food supplies and other things in unmarked boxes. Shaak's eyes narrowed however, knowing that Ranma had been gone for too long just to get the food supplies from their apartment. "Where were you?" she asked sharply.

Ranma stopped about a foot away, her eyes narrowing slightly. Then they widened as Ranma realized what was going on. "Easy Shaak," she said, reaching forward to grab Shaak's hand and squeezing it. "Meditate on the Force within you, not the Unifying Force, control your connection. Don't let your anger control you, control it instead."

Shaak closed her eyes for a moment, centering herself and almost immediately upon connecting to her own Living Force felt a difference. The backlash effect from the Unifying Force diminished, and her self-control regained its equilibrium quickly. She squeezed Ranma's hand back, smiling faintly. "Thank you Ranma, I had regressed a bit there I'm afraid."

Ranma shrugged her shoulders, bumping her shoulder against Shaak's as the two women moved back to the Wild Light still holding hands, something that garnered them a few odd looks from passing Mon Calamari who recognized them. "You're trying to change the training of a lifetime Shaak, you're bound to have a few slipups, especially at times like this."

"Doesn't make me feel any better but thank you anyway," Shaak said ruefully. "But really, what were you up to?"

"Several things, one, these aren't actually foodstuffs, we've already loaded those. These are droid parts, a droid body and a repair kit."

"For that head you found?"

Ranma nodded. "I figure we'll need to concentrate on this mission and getting ready for it, so we won't be doing a lot of sparring. I might as well use my free time constructively. Besides, there's always been something about that head that bothers me. The amount of combat that thing saw..." He shook his head.

Once again Shaak was struck by the thought that if Ranma was a Jedi that kind of intuition would be the Force telling him something. I wonder, Ranma might not believe in using the Unifying Force, but does that mean the Unifying Force doesn't believe in using Ranma?

Something else however helped push that thought aside. Ranma was looking a little shifty. "And what else?" She asked warily. "Specifically, have you done anything that will cause me over-lengthy paperwork, or stop us from leaving as soon as possible?"

"Nope." Ranma said with a laugh. "Nothing like that, just getting more supplies, just in case, y'know."

Flashback:

Chief of police Ychrag looked up as padawan Ranma was ushered into his office. Like many others he had often been surprised over the past few months by how un-Jedi like Ranma was, but Knight Ti and Knight Fisto seemed to condone her personality, so he was willing to assume they had a reason for it. Not that the redheaded human wasn't fun, or intelligent just not really what he had expected from a Jedi. "Your message said it was something important padawan, how may we help you?"

Ranma nodded her head, her face composed but serious, no hint of the normal amusement he felt being addressed as such showing. Rather, he simply rolled with it. "My Master and I have been sent on a rescue mission. Specifically we are being sent to rescue an undercover Jedi posing as a member of a slave ring. My Master and I believe it might be two birds with one stone time, but of course we would need a large enough stone…"

The Mon Calamari were a free people, they venerated freedom of thought and mind, and, more importantly to them, expression. Slavery was anathema to their society. Indeed, the fact the Republic tacitly allowed slavery to continue was a major point against it in their eyes, along with the Jedi Order itself.

This however sounded like a step in the right direction to Ynchrag, especially with the evil little smile that Ranma was sporting right now. "Tell me, how would you like us to help? It would have to be hidden among the reefs of course."

"Of course." Ranma said. "And we don't need personnel or anything of that nature, just some… hardware."

"Hardware such as untraceable military hardware? The kind, say, that a terrorist organization which had recently been shut down might've used?"

"We understand each other." Ranma said with a grin.

The police commissioner surprised himself with a barking laugh that had little to no actual humor in it. "I believe we do, and I think we can accommodate you."

End flashback

"So I now have several SAWs, about two hundred rifles, several dozen thermal detonators, and even some handguns stuffed into my ki space right now. It's getting kinda cluttered in there actually."

By the time Ranma finished his tale the two of them were back aboard the Wild Light stowing their gear. Putting the last of the medical supplies away in the small cargo hold, Shaak shook her head. "I'm almost afraid to ask what you're planning with all that, but it's appallingly obvious anyway."

Ranma shrugged, watching her carefully. That first moment had shown yet again that the emotional backlash effect between the Jedi and the Unifying Force was pretty bad. Shaak was in no way close to lashing out, but she was so normally in-control of herself, a beacon of serenity and good humor, that moment had been especially jarring.

So Ranma kept her voice deliberately light as she replied. "I figured 'be prepared' is always good advice right?"

"We're just there to rescue Aayla." Shaak cautioned, despite her own desire to do something about slavery. "I haven't been to Tatooine, I have no idea about the conditions there. Leading a slave rebellion sounds like a good idea, but will conditions allow for it to work? And what about after? Still, I suppose being prepared to arm said rebellion might prove efficacious."

"Ow, you said a big word!" Ranma said holding her head as if it hurt before heading over to the kitchen, taking a small amount of water hot water and splashing it on herself to change back into his male form. The feeling of that change washed over Shaak and blew the last bits of her fear, anger and uncertainty away.

What was left was diamond hard resolve, and she nodded resolutely to herself. Hang on Aayla, were going to get you out. And then, she thought, her fingers twitching a little. Then I think I am going to go back to Coruscant, look up Master Cic'kanand carve out his eyeballs.

Just then Ranma came back in his male form. Looking at her closely he breathed a mental sigh of relief. Somehow however Shaak caught that, and she nodded her head at him. "It would appear that I need to work on my self-control even more than I had expected."

"If you can keep the backlash effect from affecting your emotions and can vent when you need it, I don't think you'll have that much of an issue. Take this episode as a warning and move on." Ranma said, sounding a little wiser than he normally did before gesturing up towards the cockpit. "Ready to go?"

Shaak nodded firmly then followed him, a rush of affection going through her as she did so. Thank you Ranma, she thought, knowing she didn't have to say it aloud and delighting in that knowledge. Moments later Wild Light exited from its hangar Bay, moving out from the dockyards of Dac and out into space. About twenty minutes later they exited the gravity well of the planet, and entered hyperspace.

"I have calculated our trip to Tatooine Master," said a voice from the control board. Tune had been busy since Ranma and Shaak had left, emplacing the speakers that would allow him to actually communicate with words with his Master for the first time.

Ranma and Shaak both jumped a little, not having realized that, and Ranma looked between Tune's body, which was set into a small indent in the ground between the two pilot's seats, and the microphone for a moment before smirking. "That was a great idea Tune, bet it'll come in handy whenever we run into trouble too. You were saying something about our route?"

"Yes Master. The fastest way to get to Tatooine is to enter the Trillius Trade Route via the Overic Trade route, then take the offshoot called, rather unimaginatively, the 5709 DC shipping Lane, which links Tatooine to the Trillius Trade Route."

"Agreed," Shaak said with a nod. "I don't have your ability to calculate hyper coordinates of course Tune, but that makes sense. Though why did your voice change when you answered us?" Tune's initial voice had been a smooth tenor, the second a baritone, both male but distinctly different.

"I am uncertain how I wish to sound now that I have a voice mistress." Tune replied, causing Shaak to start for a moment. The droid belonged to Ranma, not her after all. There was no reason for Tune to call her mistress, and she had never gotten the impression that Tune secretly wished to be a protocol droid.

However she filed that away for now as unimportant. "Your estimated travel time?"

"Four and a half days, mistress. I might be able to cut off a little over a day, and the trade routes will take us the majority of the way within two of those days, but getting to the Overic Trade Route first will take time. The last leg should only take a few hours."

Ranma whistled a little, looking at the map Tune had helpfully put up on the main screen. "Those hyperspace trade routes are that fast?"

"They are, and knowledge of their locations out here in the Outer Rim is what gives the Trade Federation its monopoly on trade in most of the sectors out here. Luckily the Order has some very good maps of its own, something which has made the Trade Federation angry a time or two."

Ranma nodded, trying to bring to mind what he knew about the Trade Federation, which wasn't a lot. He hadn't really studied the movers and shakers in the Republic outside of making certain that none of them backed slavery or seemed to be openly opposed to the Jedi. The Trade Federation didn't seem to openly be the Jedi's enemies but they did clash politically a lot, which hadn't been enough to grab Ranma's interest. Though there had been a blurb about some kind of war starting with a disaster for the Jedi because of the Trade Federation's use of droids as security guards, but that was all he knew about them.

A few hours later they came out of the first jump along their journey, re-orientated themselves, and then re-entered hyperspace, where they would stay for more than a day before the next route change. The two flesh and blood sentients left Tune to his work, heading to bed. Shaak wanted a good night's sleep and more importantly more meditation time before she began to go over the information she had compiled. Ranma agreed and understood, not even questioning her about it, something that made Shaak smile yet again.

Early the next ship-day the two of them sat on the sofa, their legs nearly touching as they both leaned against the sides of the sofa to look at one another. In front of them the small table which served as holographic screen and shared its sconce with the Hypercom relay was strewn with the remains of their breakfast and several data-slates.

Ranma noticed how close they were sitting like this but tried not to let his pleasure of it show. He enjoyed their closeness when they were like this, it was something he'd never had with anyone before. Not just being so close to someone physically, but the sense of openness and trust that went with it.

Shaak too enjoyed it, not realizing how far she had come from her normal Jedi upbringing to this moment yet. But they both had other things to concentrate on right now. She smiled slightly as Ranma turned his head to stare up the short corridor to the cockpit, yelling. "Tune, can you hear us?"

To their surprise the droid's voice came a small speaker set in the ceiling above them. "I can Master, there's no need to shout. This unit can act both as audio transceiver and receiver."

Ranma looked up at the speakerbrows quirking in surprise. "How the heck did you install that one?"

"I installed it last night Master when the two of you were in bed. It was rather tricky install on the ceiling, but my magnetized rollers were up to holding my weight."

"Huh, good work." Ranma replied before turning to Shaak. "Time for the serious discussion?"

Shaak nodded, her purple lips twitching for a moment before settling into a thin line. "First I suppose you should know more about Aayla and about her Master, what she looks like, and what I know of her skill set."

"I remember him, Quin-something right? His self-control did not impress me, but this whole episode is frankly pathetic from my point of view. I think I'm going to have to find this MasterCic'kan, and rearrange his features a bit."

"Get in line." Shaak growled, feeling the same anger she had felt the day before at the instigator of this crisis, but she controlled it easily this time. The hours spent meditating last night had helped a lot.

Ranma watched her closely. Unlike the day before however this brief surge of anger, or rather righteous indignation fueled by worry, did not cause a backlash from the Force around Shaak. Good girl Ranma thought with admiration. She's really in control of her emotions now.

He wasn't certain Shaak would be able to keep it up though. This mission would be a test of her self-control beyond anything she had previously faced, especially with her emotional barriers having come down so far as they had thanks to their discussions. Still, Ranma had feared at one point she wouldn't even get to this point, and was filled with admiration for her for having done so.

Shaak didn't follow any of his thoughts the moment, staring down at a data slate as she pulled up a picture of a somewhat old looking human male with close-cropped gray hair. "This is Master Tholme, he is one of the best Jedi Masters the order has when dealing with the criminal underworld and espionage of that nature. Quinlan has quite a bit of background in that area as well, and Aayla was being groomed to follow in their footsteps."

"I take it that impacted their specialties? Windu said something about that." Ranma asked, his mind shifting onto the problem before them quickly.

"Indeed. They're extremely good at Alter Mind techniques, specifically anything designed to hide their presence, confuse the minds of anyone looking for them or turning them aside, even camouflage. You thought my Stealth was something? Master Tholme's version is leaps ahead of that."

"But a slave couldn't just up and disappear like that, and that kind of thing wouldn't work with security cameras would it?"

"It would to a certain extent," Shaak replied prevaricating. "The video recorder would still see something of course, unless you're talking about Master Tholme and his own version which would obscure even his physical presence. And even Aayla would be able to reach through the cameras to anyone on the other side and redirect their attention. Still you're right about a slave not being able to disappear like that."

She tapped the date slate's screen for a moment, then held it up again, showing a different image. This time it was of a young woman of Twi'lek descent, Ranma thought she might be around his own age. She had blue skin, a small, almost challenging smile on her face, dark brown eyes and a very pretty face. "This is Aayla, and trust me, the rest of her is just as pretty as her face is. I don't have to tell you what that means to a slave."

While Ranma nodded, his lips set in a thin line, Shaak went on. "Worse as a Rutian, that is blue-skinned Twi'lek, Aayla will no doubt be put on display in various ways, most likely dancing or otherwise entertaining whoever 'owns' her in order for that individual to show off his wealth and power. Rutians are rare among the Twi'lek, and always coveted by slavers."

She scowled worriedly. "Aayla would probably have been forced to rely on her other mental tricks, turning people's attention away from her to someone nearby or changing the type of attention she receives, so her watchers like to only watch rather than desire to touch. But that kind of technique is mentally consuming, I am uncertain how long Aayla could keep that up, especially if she was called on to use it for hours on end."

"But worse, that wouldn't work on any species that is immune to the Force. The Hutts, two of which control Tatooine, cannot be influenced through the Force, and there are a few other species like that as well."

"I didn't know that." Ranma murmured. "That makes this whole debacle look even more of a crapshoot than it already was."

Leaving the idea of what Aayla might be enduring to one side Ranma focused on the mission Aayla had been assigned. "Any more information about her mission? Do you think it likely that her being a Jedi was found out?"

"I don't think so. As I said, there are few even among criminals who know specific Jedi by sight. And Aayla hasn't done anything yet to be thrust into the limelight." Shaak murmured, now reading from another data slate. "It says here that she was able to keep up routine checkups with the Order until a few days ago."

"How did she get messages out?"

"She was sending them via a merchant who the Hutts routinely used to bring in delicacies. According to his he's apparently been passing on information to the Order for a few years now, a trustworthy man so long as you're paying him and don't ask him to do anything personally dangerous."

Before Ranma could ask she went on. "And no, transporting messages like that wasn't dangerous. He'd simply drop them off at the nearest planet with a Hypercom transceiver and send them through the hyperspace link with some routine inquiries to an investor."

"So there was no one close enough to pull Aayla out if she got in trouble? On the one hand, that sounds like somewhat decent espionage work, but on the other hand…"

"It was the merchant who sent word that he hadn't picked up her scheduled message. That's actually quite a bit braver than I would've expected from the man given his profile." Shaak murmured. Then she shook her head, looking up at Ranma. "But you're right, her backup should've been Knight Vos if she was sent on this mission at all, or even better Master Tholme. It says here the initial push for this mission came from him."

"Wait!" Ranma said, reaching forward to take the reader from Shaak. "Are you saying Master Tholme signed off on using Aayla for this?"

"No!" Shaak said sharply, pushing his hand away and continuing to read aloud. "No, it says here he wanted to employ a few spies among the Twi'lek race to do the same thing, but the Council of reassignment decided to use this mission to separate Aayla and Quinlan. There have apparently been rumors hinting that their relationship was…" she stopped reading, gagging a little. "Was not that of Master and padawan, but of lovers."

Ranma quirked an eyebrow. "Why is that so troubling to you? Other than you know the abuse of power thing."

"It is a monstrous abuse of power!" Shaak's exclaimed, shaking her head. "It's also ridiculous! I'll be the first to say that Aayla is beautiful, but she's only 18, Quinlan is 27. But it's the abuse of power that bothers me, and the fact that someone thought that in the first place. But worse is to not only separate them, but to do so by throwing Aayla to the wolves like this!"

"I don't know Mace or Ranicisis as well as I know Dooku," Ranma mused. "Are they liable to react negatively in the extreme to something like this?"

"I don't know, but I think the main issue will be that someone on the High Council had to sign off on using a padawan like this. Any mission involving a padawan, especially just involving a padawan, is something a member of the High Council would have to sign off on."

The two of them were silent for a moment, both of them staring at one another then down at the data pad in Shaak's hands, both of them Imagining what they would do if Cic'kanwere therefor a moment. Then Shaak shook her head. "But the reasoning behind the mission doesn't matter. What does is that Aayla went silent four days before your ship finished its construction in the city of Mos Espa. I think that was an excellent bit of timing for us, thank the Force!"

Ranma nodded, though internally he was wondering who Mace would've sent in if Shaak and he were not available for this. Still, he too concentrated on the here and now. "What'll we be facing here?"

"There are two main Hutt cartels that make their home on Tatooine. Out in the Outer Rim like this, they are the law, even if Tatooine isn't technically in Hutt-space. They are both extremely rich and there also doesn't seem to be any conflict between the two more's the pity."

"You were thinking of trying to figure out a way to set them against one another? Not a bad idea, but it might take too long for us to set up if we're really worried about what might be happening to Aayla."

"True. And on that note Ranma," said Shaak looking at him sternly. "My priority is Aayla. I love the idea of fighting against slavery, even by arming them like you think we might have to. But I won't okay any plans until we're certain of Aayla's location, and have a plan to get her out before any outbreak of violence."

She waited until Ranma nodded, which he did rapidly, easily understanding her priorities. "And even if we did try to create some kind of uprising, what happened after we leave? The planet is too far away for the Republic to care about, the Jedi don't have a military force that they could leave in place. Nor do we even know how many slaves there are there in comparison to mercenaries or free people. What I'm saying is we can't go in guns blazing, understand?"

"I wasn't about to." At Shaak's disbelieving expression he laughed. "Oh my first inclination was to park the Wild Light over the Hutts' bases and demand they free the slaves at gunpoint. But even I'm not that naïve. I don't have all the answers, but the slaves there deserve to have a shot at freedom don't they?" Ranma asked.

Shaak nodded, but her voice was soft as she went on. "Ranma, a lot of those slaves may have been born into it, they might not have any wills of their own, or any ability to strike out. I don't want to shoot down the idea entirely, and I would love to do something about them, but not if it gets many of them killed in the process."

Ranma nodded, turning sideways and reaching over to pull her into a sideways hug, squeezing her shoulders. "I understand, and I know you're really worried about Aayla. But if we can swing it, this may be a good starting point to that whole war on slavery thing we've talked about. Just keep an open mind about it okay?"

Shaak nodded, blushing slightly at the hug. She'd gotten used to being somewhat more… tactile… with Ranma than Jedi were supposed to be with even their closest friends, but this was something different. This was an actual hug, and for some reason despite the conversation it sent a feeling through her that she couldn't quite describe. She had never felt anything quite like it before which worried her.

She gently pushed Ranma away, and pulled up another data pad handing it over. "Here, this is what the Mon Calamari could tell us, I have what the order knows, let's see how much we can verify about what we might be facing"

Wordlessly Ranma looked down at the data pad quickly flushing slightly at having actually instigated a hug with a woman. And nothing went wrong, Wahoo!

The first thing that struck out at him from the information however took his mind off that idea, as well as the emotions behind the hug in the first place. "So there's no real over-watch? The spaceport has a few turbolasers according to this, but nothing major. There doesn't seem to be radar either."

"True," Shaak said holding up the data pad from the order. "The order reports the same thing so I suppose we can take that as a given. However we have to assume that the Hutts watch the coming and going of the landing pads in Mos Espa itself closely."

"We'll land somewhere out in the desert, duh. No way they can watch the entire desert." Ranma said with a shake of his head. "With the training you've been going through, you and I could cover a full day's journey in a few hours, even in the heat of the desert. It says here the desert near Mos Espa doesn't have any predators. But something about raiders? The Mon Calamari don't know much about them."

"Tusken Raiders yes, the Order knows quite a bit more. The Raiders believe Tatooine belongs to them, and are violently xenophobic. Their tech however isn't much. If Tune is on guard I don't think they'll be able to get into the Wild Light, and they certainly don't have anything heavy enough to damage its outer hull."

"There's a note here in the Mon Calamari section," Ranma said suddenly, holding it out to Shaak. "A mention of a Trandoshan Mercenary company heading through their space towards Tatooine?

"Interesting," Shaak murmured, reading from his pad for a moment before turning back to her own. "That could be a problem. As could some of the more pertinent information here. Specifically, how all the slaves are kept under control…"

Ranma frowned, leaning back. "I'm not gonna like this am I?"

"I don't like it so I don't think you will either." Shaak replied tartly. "Slave collars, but not just slave collars as in they can be chained up with them, these slave collars have shock systems built into them, as well as explosives which can be activated by their masters."

You're right, I didn't like it." Ranma winced. "And let me guess, they're also rigged to explode if anyone tampers with them? I could probably survive something like that, you couldn't, not yet. I could even try to remove it from the slave depending on how quickly the explosive goes off after you start tamperin' with it, and if tampering implies ripping it in half. But I wouldn't want to bet anyone else's life on that kind of thing."

Shaak nodded, patting his knee for a moment before pulling away. "Even the greatest of physical abilities cannot always every problem Ranma, don't let it bother you. Anyway, It says here that the master would have a controller which not only controls those functions, but also has some sort of range limiter. If the slaves go past a certain distance away from the Master, 'boom'."

She paused as she heard Ranma's teeth audibly grinding, reaching out again to his knee. She gently squeezed it for a moment, and eventually the touch got through to him, and he patted her hand at which point she pulled away. "Sorry, just the idea of being collared like that…"

Ranma shook his head. "I thought maybe I could go undercover in my female form, but if someone tried to put something like that on me, even if it didn't have anything like that activated, I'd go ape shit. Too many nightmares, too many fears there."

"I'm afraid I probably would go crazy too." Shaak said, neither of them wishing to discuss those specific fears aloud again.

Leaning back against the side of the sofa Ranma scowled, then an idea occurred to him and he clicked his fingers together. "Tune what do you think about these collars?"

"If you are asking me if I could take one apart or build one Master, I could possibly build one, but taking one already activated apart would be beyond me. I could possibly create a one-off scrambler to block a specific control signal to a single collar, but most of these collars will undoubtedly have some kind of safety feature against that kind of thing. Interrupt the signal long enough and they might go off."

"What about an EMP?" Ranma asked intently.

"EMP?" Shaak asked cocking her head. This move brought attention to her tentacles for the first time in the conversation, and she watched with a faint smile as Ranma noted their movement, before concentrating on her eyes. I wonder if he still wonders about how my lekku feel to the touch. After this mission I might… she cut that off abruptly, shaking her head. What am I thinking about? I'm a Jedi, I cannot be that close to someone, not even Ranma.

Her attention focused back on Ranma however when he began to explain. "Electro-magnetic pulse. It's sort of like what the ion cannon is supposed to do. My planet had these weapons called nukes,"

"I know what nuclear energy is Ranma and I know what the effect of an ion cannon is, but I've not heard of an EMP pulse, though the effect is similar to some other weapons and tech I have heard of. Tune what do you think?"

"I do not believe we have sufficient resources to create something like that on a large enough scale to take out all of the slave collars in the target area mistress." Tune said after a moment. "I could possibly figure out a way to create a device that could create a similar pulse, but it would be small-scale, and would not go very far or last very long."

"Even worse," the droid continued, his tone changing once again as he continued to play with his voice. This time it was a female voice causing both his listeners to look at one another eyebrows raised, smiles appearing on their faces despite the seriousness of their discussion. "I am afraid that the shorting out would set off the bombs in the collars. Possibly not across the board but in enough cases as to be detrimental."

"So if we go down that route we might need some examples of the collars to experiment on," Ranma mused.

"If we have time, if not we may have to look for more direct means." Shaak said very firmly, though her lips quirked into of smile as Ranma's eyes lit up eagerly.

The discussion continued from there, the two of them going over the species they'd run into on Tatooine, the types of weapons the Hutts cartel's had access to, and any other information they could glean from their information. Eventually Shaak leaned back, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "I think we've stared at these data-pads enough for one day." She checked the time and shook her head. "More than long enough. An early dinner then bed I think."

Ranma nodded, standing up and heading over to the kitchen since Shaak had been the one to cook breakfast. The talk during the meal was desultory, neither of them able to either off the topic of their mission or continue it at present. Finally it ended, and after Shaak put the dirty dishes into the washer, they bid each other good night heading to their rooms.

But not before Ranma pulled Shaak into another sideways hug. "We'll get her out okay, whatever happens, so long as she's there, we'll handle it and get Aayla out. Trust me on that, Shaak."

Shaak flushed again, but actually hugged him back. "Thank you Ranma, your, your being here means a lot to me."

Ranma nodded, flushing slightly at the feeling of Shaak returning his hug. He had to fight the sudden urge to see what she'd do if he kissed the top of her head, or her cheek. But he knew this wasn't the time for such things, and he eventually ended the hug, letting his arm fall to his side and turning away.

He didn't notice Shaak staring after him for a moment, before she too turned away, her mind again in turmoil. Laying down in her bed, Shaak stared at the bottom of the small storage compartment set into the bulkhead directly above the bed, frowning intently as her eyes closed.

A Jedi should not need such reassurance, should not be so emotional! I realize that control of emotions is more healthy than abstaining from them, but the emotions I sometimes feel when I am around Ranma, they go well beyond simply admitting that. I, I don't know what they are, but…

My worry about Aayla is one thing, as is my anger about it, I can control those, put a name to the emotions I am feeling, their cause, and control them. But, but why do I feel so, so close to Ranma, why did my pulse set to race when he hugged me like that? What is this feeling I have growing within me when I am around him?

Shaak knew it wasn't near physical attraction. Shaak had felt the attraction other people had for her more than once serving as a bodyguard or while undercover. She had even felt it occasionally when meeting a particularly handsome specimen of her own or of the human species. But the thought had never been more than an artistic appreciation for their forms. This was well beyond that, and it worried her.

This, this is attachment at its purest form, this closeness to another person, wishing to be with him, to be close, to, to touch him. By the Force, am I, am I attracted to Ranma? NO! I am a Jedi, I, I cannot allow myself to feel these emotions. They could all too easily cloud my judgement and, if they turn around on me, what would I feel then? What would I feel if Ranma decided he didn't want to be around me any longer, or didn't like me that way and found someone else?

The first idea caused a frown to appear on her face, despite how hard it was to imagine Ranma saying such a thing. Even worse the reaction from the rest of the Order would be very bad. I am supposed to learn from Ranma not become, become entangled with him. I, no matter our discussion about the old way, that is not how we Jedi are today, I admit that some of his ideas are correct, and that the Order's current practices are mentally unsound. But that is a far cry from admitting that I can be in a relationship.

I need to keep my distance from Ranma from now on. No matter how much I like it, I cannot, I gave an oath, no matter how I feel, or what I want to feel. Shaak could admit that a part of her was eager to see where this would go, but the majority of her mind simply couldn't make the jump from the philosophical discussions the two of them had enjoyed to actually applying some of it, specifically the attachment concept, to her own life. The emotions were so strange, so new they scared her despite only just realizing they were there. So she fell back on the doctrine that had ruled her life, despite knowing it would be tough for both of them.

Eventually Shaak fell asleep, her dreams troubled but resolved to do what she saw as the right thing despite the pain it would cause both of them.

The next day Ranma noticed that Shaak was keeping a new distance between them. She sat at one end of the sofa placing the data pads and the breakfast, it was her turn to cook again, between them. That hurt, but Ranma figured that it was simply a backlash from her emotional moments the day before, and the day before that.

Remember what you said to her Ranma he said to himself, she's trying to overcome a lifetime of indoctrination. They might call it training but it's indoctrination, don't forget that. And besides, why should it bother you if she put some distance between you like that. You're still friends. Isn't that all you want? Isn't it?

"I think we shouldn't make any specific plans until we're on the ground," Shaak said without preamble. "Instead we should probably prepare for all eventualities and go with a very simple initial concept." Ranma nodded and she went on. "I think that I should somehow inveigle myself into one of the cartel's bases, while you check out the lay of the land of the rest of the trade center."

"Why not the other way around?" Ranma asked, cocking his head thoughtfully. "I mean, wouldn't a human male look more normal than a female Togrutan? Or a woman of any species I'd think."

"Throw that idea out right now Ranma," Shaak replied, shaking her head. "While the male to female ratio might not be anywhere near equal among slavers, it's a lot closer than you might think. I have met more than two dozen female space pirates or slavers on various missions, and most of them were worse than the men. They glorified in putting their own gender down, seeing it as proof that they were stronger than normal women, or even enjoying their pain."

"That's disgusting. But you didn't answer my question."

"I'm somewhat decent at acting Ranma, are you?" Ranma frowned, and Shaak went on quickly. "Worse, could you control yourself if you saw a slave being punished, or even ordered about? I know I'd have problems with the first, but you?"

"All right you have a point there." Ranma groused. Ranma loved freedom, the ability to act however he wanted. The idea of seeing someone chained up or abused like that… "Yeah, I'd react poorly to that."

"I know, as I said I will have problems with it too," Shaak said, somewhat commiseratingly. "However, I can also reach out and use the Force to find Aayla. I know her presence reasonably well, I doubt it's changed in a little a year to hide from me."

"What will her mind be like Shaak?" Ranma asked softly. "What will she be like?"

"I don't know…" Shaak replied, looking away. "Beyond my fears for what have been done to her physically, I, I can hope her mind is still her own…"

Ranma's voice remained soft as he asked, "Drugs?"

The idea of mind altering substances was one he had run into many times of course, but nothing to the level a slave could be put through. Ranma had never actually thought about it at the time, but he had realized that Cologne had never seriously chased him. If she had, Ranma had no doubt the Amazons had a lot of drugs and other things she could have used on him to bend him to their whims.

"That is what I fear yes," Shaak said, after a moment spent controlling herself. Ranma looked at her closely, but there didn't seem to be any flicker in her Force sense and he smiled faintly.

That smiled faded however as she went on. "There are drugs out there that can manipulate the mind to make a person docile, and they are routinely used on slaves particularly young ones. Even a Jedi is not immune to it if given enough doses. And there are other ways to deaden a person's ability to think. The Falleen's pheromones do that to the opposite sex, and I read about some kind of Force-based trick a Dark Jedi from a few hundred years ago used."

"In that case, I don't think you can rely on your Force powers." Ranma said slowly. Shaak blinked, talking her head to one side and he shrugged. "Well think about it, they might know she's a Jedi, and be forcing her to use her Force powers somehow, or can you say for certainty that her being a Jedi hasn't been ousted? Or that you Jedi have a monopoly on Force powers? I read about the witches of Dathomir.

"I know about them as well, but I don't think one of those would be involved in something like this. The Dathomiri have a certain code of conduct and would not be involved in enslaving a woman at the very least. Still, I can't argue with your other point, and indeed I wish I could bring to mind why I knew that about the Raiders, there's something about that report niggling at my senses but I can't."

While an expert at using the Force to enhance her ability to take in new information, it wasn't an automatic thing for Shaak. "So I can't use the Force to reach out to Aayla. Drat."

Ranma laughed, shaking his head. "Drat? Is that supposed ta be a curse?"

"Hmmf, unlike you I was raised properly rather than by a panda in waiting," Shaak said haughtily, glad for the moment of levity. Her eyebrows rose however as she saw Ranma was smile segueing into something that was far more predatory than his normal expression. "And what evil thought did you just have?"

"Well, I was just thinking normal Force powers can be sensed by other Force users if they are on guard, but can my ki space?"

"No, I never sensed its presence, not even when I was looking… for… it…" Shaak's voice trailed off, and suddenly her smile blossomed into an equally matching grin, all of her pointed teeth on display as the two of them stared at one another in sudden rapport. "I think we have an idea for the training for the next few days then."

Ranma nodded eagerly, and the two of them continue their discussion. They began to work on a disguise for Shaak, after all if she couldn't rely on the Force to search for Aayla then Shaak couldn't use it to mask her presence. For the next few hours the two of them played dress-up with Shaak, eventually coming up with a look that was different and distinct enough to be a completely separate person from Shaak Ti, Jedi Knight.

The akul headdress she wore around her forehead was wrapped three times around her wrist hanging slightly loose. Her lightsaber disappeared from its place at her side. It would eventually be put in her ki space, situated in the sleeve of the spacer's jacket that Ranma gave her from his own limited wardrobe. Instead Shaak wore a blaster hanging loose at her hip, one of the ones Ranma had gotten from the Mon Calamari.

Underneath the jacket, she wore a short crop top, leaving her midriff bare. Her regular, comfortable and loose pants were gone, replaced by a pair that appeared to have been grafted onto her, so tight did they hug Shaak's legs.

Looking at her in the near Ranma blushed. Normally Shaak exuded a sense of grace and humility or a sort of down to earth tomboyish sexiness. Now she looked like a vamp crossed with the kind of space pirate found in some of the hentai magazines DR. Tofu had given him.

Shaak noticed his blush, and had to fight an urge to either preen or try to rush off to her room, embarrassed for the first time she could ever remember. It was true she had been undercover before, but never dressed like this, and never in the presence of someone whose regard she was used to seeking out. But she controlled herself with difficulty, staring at her image in the mirror of the bathroom. "It needs a little something more. My face might be known now since all those interviews and public statements on Dac. The Hutts might keep tabs on Jedi appearing in the news, no matter how distance."

Ranma's blush faded and he grinned, holding up a small black object. "What is that?"

"An eyepatch."

With the eyepatch applied Shaak nodded at her reflection, satisfied, while Ranma chuckled. "Arh me hearties." Shaak cocked her head and Ranma laughed quietly "I'll tell you about it some other time."

From there the days spent travelling to Tatooine fell into a new routine. During the mornings Ranma would help Shaak get into character, acting like a mercenary, helping her develop an accent and perfect the way she carried herself. Shaak insisted that Ranma change into her female form at times, so that Shaak could look at the way Ranma moved.

Ranma had been confused by this at first, but Shaak explained "you have an extremely aggressive walk, it's this sort of arrogant, feline strut when you're looking for trouble, I'm not sure if I can explain it properly. But trust me it's both provocative and off-putting, precisely the sort of thing we want."

In the afternoons and early evenings, the two of them would practice meditating, working on Shaak's ability to create a ki space. Eventually she was able to do so, a small rather limited one but big enough to carry both her lightsaber and a holdout pistol with a bit of room to spare. Shaak's personal Living Force had grown quite a bit, as, surprisingly had her ability to channel the Force in its entirety, which had translated into her ability to create a ki space. And she had only blown herself up three more times trying it in the intervening months too.

While Shaak was doing that, Ranma watched, while also practicing his mechanical skills on the mysterious droid head. Tune would often help him since in hyperspace there wasn't much he needed to do besides monitor the ship, which he could do via a wireless connection now. However they didn't get very far. They could fix some of the exterior damage, if in a sort of haphazard manner. But the internal damage was beyond Ranma's mechanical skills mainly because it wasn't just mechanical but also electronic. It was the difference between installing a speaker and fixing a motherboard.

Realizing that Ranma gave that up on their third day out and started work on putting together the lightsaber construction table so he could get to work on his lightsaber staff. At one point Shaak came over to look at the design, as well as the parts Ranma had already laid out. This included the cortosis metal he had scavenged from the Yinchorri's control asteroid.

He had placed that through the artificer's portion of the table, which created several small plates of it. Ranma attached one of them to the armguard he had already installed the small communicator screen into, hidden underneath the leather of the guard. It would provide a nasty little surprise for any lightsaber wielder he had to fight. The rest however would be placed upon the staff's exterior casing at various points.

Behind him Shaak stretched slightly, coming out of her trance. Looking over at where Ranma was bent over the construction table she moved over to look at the design Ranma and Master Halcyon had created, smiling faintly. "I like this Ranma," she said, her hands on his shoulders for a moment as she stared over his shoulder. "It is deceptively artful, yet also frighteningly straightforward. Just like you."

Ranma laughed, turning somewhat around, to stare up at her, glad she had slowly begun to fall back into the closeness they had started to share back on Dac. "Was that a compliment oh great Jedi? I think I still work with a staff, we never really trained with it once Kit left, but you're right I think it will be a nice weapon."

Shaak nodded, but her fingers began to work into Ranma's neck, causing his eyes to close a little in pleasure. After a moment however Shaak seemed to realize she was doing it, and moved off, quickly picking up her reader and heading up to the cockpit. This is going to be tougher than I thought.

Behind her Ranma turned watching Shaak walk off, a faint frown of hurt on his face. Okay, so maybe it wasn't a reaction from the anger she'd felt back in the docks. Damn, wonder what's going on? After a moment's thought however, Ranma decided to leave it be for now. They had to concentrate on the mission first, there would be time enough to talk about what was bothering Shaak later.

OOOOOOO

Centering himself in the Force Sidious smiled faintly, the expression an evil one on his face under his dark hood. Plagueis had, in a moment of pure brilliance that even Sidious was forced to acknowledge, come up with a way to subtly change the Veil of the Dark Side so that it could take advantage of the growing chaos around Ranma. Seeing the future remained extremely difficult, but they could see the present far more clearly than even Sidious had been able to since Ranma's appearance.

They still couldn't quite see what Ranma himself was up to, but they could see the shape of his presence moving through the Force. And even better, the Dark Side's influence spread across the Force like a thin veneer. So long as Sidious was using the Force himself at the time he would be able to detect any use of it of any appreciable size and see what was happening in places neither of them could have possibly reached on their own. And even influence those who used it subtly, so long as, again, Sidious was using the Force himself at the time.

The Veil was now nearly entirely in place, and would only grow in power, fed by the emotions of everyone in the universe, every dark deed and thought. It was moments like this, revelations like that, which made Sidious believe that not only was the Dark Side on their side, but the very Force itself.

The Light has had its time, it is now time for the Dark Side to begin its ascent. The Jedi harp on and on about balance never realizing what it truly means. The Dark Side must have it's day too, and we will, oh yes. But ours will never end! Our ascendancy is preordained!

Even if this Chaotic Fulcrum is causing us to put in a little more work. Our catspaws are well in place, and the latest issue with the trade Federation will allow Maul to kill a few Jedi and force the vote against Valorum. Maul will be pleased with that. And the death of Qui-Gon can be used to weaken Dooku. I know now that he will not come willingly to the Dark Side, but he could possibly be made to fall through grief if nothing else.

He and the other Jedi might be pleased by their recent success, but do not realize how much political capital the Senators that routinely back them have lost, with only my own position remaining secure for various reasons. And I have come off as a moderate, an ally of the Jedi yet a believer in law and the Senate's centralized power.

And the chancellor's position is weaker by far. All it needs is the last little push, which the deaths of two Jedi and that uppity child Amidala will create. And he doesn't even realize it. For all his vaunted ability, for all the Valorum's long association with the position, the Chancellor has never been more than a middling amateur when it comes to wielding the power of politics.

Still smiling Sidious sent his mind out subtly, not wishing to take any chances just yet. But he needn't have bothered the Veil hid him with ease here in the center of his power. The Dark Side is everywhere now, the miasma covering the Jedi's senses and they can't even realize the implications. I could wish that Yoda and those with him were still in place here on Coruscant where I can watch them more easily, but the fractures in the Order will serve our purpose.

The old fool must have sensed something while the chaotic fulcrum was here, something that warned him of what is coming. But not enough, nowhere near enough to save them. Indeed, his reforms to the Order will simply make shattering the Order's unity all the easier. And once separated, the Jedi are nothing.

After a moment however his smile faded. Pushing his senses towards Dac, he realized that the chaotic fulcrum was no longer focused there, he was in fact moving. With difficulty Sidious probed the future, trying to determine where Ranma was going. After a moment his eyes snapped open and his voice echoed around the empty room. "No!"

For some reason the chaotic fulcrum was heading towards Tatooine, where Maul was heading, chasing after Amidala and the two Jedi. But if the chaotic focus comes into play that will derail that idea. Maul has proven that the training we came up with from watching the Jedi being tortured was efficacious, but is he up to dealing with the focus?

After a moment's thought Sidious shook his head. Possibly not alone, but a chance to eliminate the focus might be worthwhile. And there are other forces in play on Tatooine after all.

With a flick of his finger Sidious sent a small bit of Force out towards a nearby communicator, activating it on a specific dial. It opened to a powerbroker, the underworld functionary that Sidious used as a middleman to operate his slowly growing extremely well-hidden empire of underworld contacts. "I want a bulletin put out. I am sending you an image of two humans, male and female. I want it sent to Tatooine specifically: 6,000,000 credits in any currency to the person who is able to capture or kill this individual. 6,000,000 credits for capture, half that for proof of his or her death."

With another click the message ended, and another even more secure, link opened the hologram appearing in front of him. He watched as his apprentice bowed deeply. "What is your bidding my master?"

"You are chasing the Jedi and the Nabooan queen. I do not wish you to deviate from that, but be aware there might be more Force users in play on Tatooine than just your targets. Specifically the chaotic fulcrum whose training you have been going through."

He watched in something approximating amusement as Maul gnashed his teeth visibly. The training Sidious had developed after watching the fulcrums and the female Jedi had not been pleasant even in comparison to normal Sith training. Instead of using the rather low-tech concept that he had seen in the ongoing observation Sidious had created a high-tech equivalent, but that didn't mean it was any less painful.

For the training Maul was suspended in midair while dozens of repulsor beams were fired at him in increasing strength from every direction. Maul spent days on end like that, breaking every few hours to allow him to heal himself and deal with the pain. It had forced his pain threshold to rise exponentially along with his Force healing, despite the fact that healing like was normally not a Sith trait.

This speed training had not progressed as well, but the toughness training had proven its worth in several tests. While his new durability could still be broken through, even a lightsaber wouldn't cut through Maul's skin now, at least not quickly. And there didn't seem to be an upper limit to the training. His overall strength, speed, and ability to reach out to the Force and predict his enemies moves had also increased after Sidious had inputted several robotic training droids with the chaotic fulcrum' moves.

Sidious still desired to get a Force user close enough to analyze Ranma's abilities through the Force, primarily because their attempts to recreate his Force shields had not worked. They could create something similar, but it took a lot of concentration and wasn't stable like the fulcrum' version. Unfortunately for the Sith, none of his recorders had caught Ranma or Shaak talking about her Living Force reservoir or the difference between the internal Living force and the Unifying Force. Nor could they recreate the shattering technique, whatever it really was. That the female Jedi had done it once was a concern, but one Sidious knew an observer who could use the Force would solve.

Sidious' own training had been painful and sporadic as he was unable to get away for extended periods of time given his position in the Senate. But even they would prove efficacious in time.

After a moment's silence Sidious went on. "Kill any of them you can. However your survival is paramount. Further you are forbidden to use any of your Sith specific skills."

I want them focused inward, if Maul is seen at all I want them to think he is a Dark Jedi trained by one of the Fallen 19 perhaps, not a Sith. I want them paranoid, I want them reacting, I do not want them acting on their own.

The idea of retreating was anathema to Maul, yet his master's orders were absolute. "As you will it, my master."

"Good." Sidious said nodding his head. "I have high hopes for this Maul, do not fail me." With that he cut the connection and stood up from his seat. Now that Plagueis had finished work on the Veil, it was time for there to once again be only two Sith in existence…

It was done quickly, so quickly and so easily it was almost anticlimactic to Sidious despite having planned it out that way. His master died without even waking up from his sleep, never realizing his apprentice had betrayed him.

Flicking off his lightsaber Sidious stared down at Plagueis' body, smirking evilly at the neat hole in the Muun's chest straight through his heart. "You were never my master old fool, only my teacher. You've taught me everything I need to learn from you, and have finished all that the Force requires of you. Now go to your rest knowing that I will finish our great work when you never could have. It is time for the Sith to rise!"

OOOOOOO

Tune's calculations of their trip had proven accurate, taking them a little over four days. Both of them were in the cockpit as they came out of hyperspace, just in case they ran into trouble immediately. Thankfully they didn't, and as their information it said they were not challenged as the Wild Light slowly flew towards the planet and down into its atmosphere. They found a place several days journey from Mos Espa to put down, a small dip between two sand dunes, which immediately began to slither down onto the Wild light's wings, obscuring it's shape.

Despite this the two of them left Tune behind in the ship. Ranma turned as he stared up at the cockpit where the droid was. "Remember, first a verbal warning, then a warning shot, after that…" he shrugged. "Those quad lasers don't have a stun function, so you'll have to use your discretion."

From the exterior speaker's Tune's voice replied, a deep baritone male this time. Despite trying out thousands of different voices the droid had not decided on one just yet. He seemed to enjoy the process a little too much to want it to end. "I understand master, but I do not think I could bring myself to kill a sentient being. I am no combat droid, I am not programmed for taking life."

"I know I hope you don't have to and if you can, aim to disarm or injure. The protection of the ship is paramount, so any step ya need to take in the short term ta keep it safe is fine by me okay?" Ranma said. "We might need ta leave in a hurry after all."

"Affirmative master." Tune replied, sounding resigned but firm.

Ranma turned away from the ship, only realizing now that Shaak had remained silent during that conversation, which was rather unlike her. Ranma cocked his head at her. "Shaak, what's wrong?"

Shaak opened her eyes, rubbing at the patch she wore over her right eye in a move she had begun to do as part of her character. "There might be another Jedi here, possibly two beyond Aayla. I am not the best at sensing another person's presence, but I think there are at any rate. Ones I'm not overly familiar with, but they aren't trying to hide their presence if I can feel them out here."

"Could they have been sent to help Aayla like us?"

"Doubtful, or else we would've been told about them." She frowned and Ranma got it after a moment.

"You think Quinlan broke out?"

"I really don't want to think about that." She said shaking her head. "I don't know if I'd be as familiar with him to recognize Knight Vos though, so it could be. If we see several dozen scattered bodies decorating the streets of Mos Espa we'll have our answer to that one. I've heard that when he's angry subtlety goes out the window."

"I think you mean several dozen bodies scattered around don't you?"

"I know what I said Ranma," Shaak replied dryly.

Ranma nodded, reaching out to touch her shoulder gripping it tightly for a moment. "We'll handle this whatever happens, okay?"

"Ranma…" Shaak sighed then nodded, and reached up to gently remove his hand. This whole trying to keep a distance between them was very, very hard. And the hurt look that Ranma sent her way as she moved off wasn't helping matters. "Thank you, but we should get going."

The two of them quickly broke out into a run, racing over the desert landscape neither of them feeling the heat overmuch thanks to their training. If anyone had been in a position to observe them, both of them would've seemed like a blur, but thankfully no one was. The two crossed what would've taken someone in a land speeder several hours in a few minutes, and about two hours after leaving their ship behind Mos Espa was in sight.

They slowed down, allowing Shaak to slowly rein in her Force sense, pulling in anything that anyone else could find to tell them she was Jedi. This was a procedure that Ranma didn't quite understand, but then again he didn't quite understand why the Jedi were so interconnected with the Unifying Force in the first place.

"We should split up here while we're still out of sight of any of the locals," Shaak murmured, as they stopped behind a large new. "I'll head towards the Hutt's local fortresses immediately, where do you want to meet up?"

"Here's as good as any, or you can call me on our coms at sundown if the Hutts don't seem to be on guard." Ranma replied, frowning as he looked toward the port. "I don't see any exterior defenses, I'd have thought there would be if these Tusken are such an issue. Anyway, I'll be scouting the lay of the land, but are ya sure you'll be fine on your own?"

Shaak nodded, looking at him for a moment. She wanted to reach out, wanted to have a final moment of togetherness but she couldn't. I am a Jedi, I cannot become attached to anyone, attachments lead to your judgment being impaired. I, I cannot allow these emotions between us to become any more powerful than they already are. No matter how much I want to.

"Good luck Ranma." she said instead. And without another word turned and moved over the dune. Yet even as she did, she felt Ranma's eyes on her, and the part of her that most wished to enjoy these newfound emotions between them took over her body for a moment. So when she moved, she walked with the hip-twitching, dangerous seeming stride of her cover identity, a sight which had caused Ranma to blush every time he saw her practice it from behind. The whimper she heard at the edge of her montral's range was music to Shaak's ears even as she berated herself for doing it at all.

Ranma watched her go, sighing faintly and shaking his head. Yeah, after this is over Shaak and I are definitely gonna have to sit down and talk about what's going on with her. He waited a few moments before moving off in a different direction, circling Mos Espa and coming in from one of the other sides, moving through a small shanty town built around what looked like some kind of water purifying plant.

To Ranma's surprise there really didn't seem much in the way of outer defenses. There were a few scattered blast walls, and entered two, but nothing major. I would've thought this place would have an outer wall at least to defend itself from the Tusken Raiders, but I guess not. Wonder if that's because criminals are always tightfisted with cash, or they just don't care?

The outer area of the port was like any other city. Small hovels housed the poor and the few slaves not kept in the Hutt's palaces, with some small shops scattered around. Beyond that was the main city, dominated by dozens of seedy looking bars, eateries, and larger shops. There were a few scattered houses for families and one building that looked like a hotel, but not nearly as many as there were bars, pawn shops, repair and parts shops. Given the fact this place was basically a port of various smugglers, pirates and slavers that made sense, though the number of parts shops was surprising.

Looking at the signs, Ranma once again reminded himself to thank Shaak for teaching him how to read over the last few months. Even out here Galactic Standard was used for signs, in smaller lettering true, but still there.

Ranma walked around for a time, noting the types of aliens that were scattered throughout the city. He also noticed that everyone and their mother seemed to be armed. And sadly for Ranma's plan of an armed rebellion there only seemed one slave for every four or five other persons here. Most of them seemed to be servants or workers, many of them seemed owned by the various shop owners, while others looked as if they were out on errands.

More than once though Ranma saw something that made his fists clench: a slave being tugged around by a chain or punished for some small infraction. But most of the people all around didn't even blink. So an uprising might not be doable thanks to numbers alone, damn it! And worse, the poor people, the farmers and what-not don't seem to care about the slaves. I know they probably're more concerned about themselves, but not even staring or reacting at all when the slaves are punished? Maybe a mass escape is a better idea then.

Eventually Ranma had a good enough lay of the land that he began to stop and listen in on random conversations, getting the feel of the people rather than the port itself. There definitely seemed to be a vast difference between the haves and have-nots here, which made Ranma rethink the idea of an uprising despite the lack of empathy shown to the slaves for a time before discarding it once again. The mercs and pirates seemed to rule the roost, with shopkeepers and shop owners below them, then 'dirt farmers' and slaves below them.

The independent spacers, which made up the majority of the people he saw coming out of the bars, were not part of this hierarchy, instead they seemed set to one side. But none of them were as well-armed as the Hutts' people, and most of them went around in small groups at best. The local thugs went around in far larger groups. And whenever they were around one another, it was the spacers, who made way to the locals.

For the most part anyway. Ranma watched a small confrontation between a group of locals and a large young man with red hair and a Corellian accent and his small crew, which included an odd feathered alien whose species Ranma had never seen before. The man lifted up his opposite number, another human, and hurled him into his fellows, shouting something Ranma couldn't hear from where he was standing down the street, then turned away laughing and heading into one of the bars. His crew followed, and Ranma noticed that they were all well-armed with blaster rifles and wearing body armor too.

Putting those thoughts aside for a moment He idly wondered why another Jedi there would be sent here. I wonder if I would recognize them. Ranma tried to think of any of the Jedi he knew that wouldn't stick out like sore thumbs on the planet like this, and only came up with a few names, mainly because in the desert at least the Jedi robes wouldn't look out of place.

His thoughts were interrupted as a small body barreled into him from out of an alleyway, bouncing off his leg. "Sorry Mistah" said a small voice as a young child of around 12 tried to scamper away. That scampering stopped when he realized his legs were moving but his body wasn't. Then he yelped as he was suddenly lifted into the air by the back of his ragged shirt.

Ranma held up the urchin to his head, shaking the young Sullustan, a species with mousy eyes, heavy flaps of skin on their cheeks. "Really?" He held out his other hand demandingly. "A bump an' dash? Is that the best you can do?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Mistah! Yas better let me go or you'll be sorry!" The youngster shouted.

"I doubt it." Ranma said with a laugh, flicking his fingers lightly in a 'come on gesture'. "My wallet, please."

The urchin stared at him, crossing his arms defiantly. "I don't know what yer talkin' bout, spazzer."

"Spazzer? Guess that's slang for spacer right? Well, there's nothing in my wallet kid, trust me. It's either you give it to me, or I start playing bouncy ball with you."

"Bouncy ball?" the urchin said then he squeaked as Ranma flung him a few dozen feet into the air. The sound attracted some attention, but by the time he caught the urchin the few people in the street had turned away. Now utterly terrified of how strong this newcomer was the urchin quickly handed over his wallet.

Ranma opened it, and showed the urchin that there really was nothing inside. "Sorry, kiddo, I only keep it out in my pocket 'cause it's got my ID in it." Two ID's actually, one that the Jedi Order had given him along with the lightsaber construction table, as well as one he'd had made on Dac, with the second in front of the first.

"Besides," Ranma went on. "A bump an' dash is always chancy, if you don't perform it exactly right you're going to get caught. And I bet around here if you're caught by most of the locals you're screwed right?"

The urchin frowned but didn't reply and Ranma looked at him, taking in the kid's body for the first time. Despite the flaps on his checks he looked gaunt, as if he hadn't had a good meal in a long while, and his eyes were nearly sunken into his head. He was still standing there glaring proudly up at Ranma though, and Ranma liked that kind of spirit.

Suddenly Ranma smirked, motioning the kid to join him in the alleyway. "You probably have your ears to the ground around here right?"

"Might have." The urchin said looking shifty. "Depends on what yaz needs to know."

"Two things, one, have you spotted a blue-skinned Twi'lek slave around here?"

"Why, you looking to buy?" Urchin said now looking even more wary and as if he might spit at Ranma.

"No, I just want to know. Are you always so questioning to people holding you up by your shirt?"

The urchin frowned, then shook his head. "Don't know anything about the slaves. But a girl like that, she'd be kept at one of the palaces, and never let out around town. She'd be damn expensive too."

Ranma growled, the sound sending the urchin flinching slightly which caused him to stop. "Sorry, just a reaction to something you said. Anyway, that was my first question. The second, have you seen anyone else new around town, someone who doesn't quite look like the normal kind of 'spazzer' you get here?"

"Maybe," the urchin said, suddenly smirking himself, realizing Ranma wasn't actually going to hurt him. "what's it to you? And what's in it fer me ta answer."

"How about I teach you how to actually steal from someone, rather than having to rely on chance and your ability to get away before they can grab you?" Ranma said with a laugh. "Hell kid, I could teach you and your friends a few strategies if you've got friends, that is."

Several hours later a group of four urchins raced off from around Ranma, each of them holding some food or money they had stolen under his direction, gleefully chattering to one another. Behind them Ranma turned, making his way through the town towards a shop at one end, situated around what Ranma had taken to be a junkyard, but was in fact a local parts supplier.

He stared up at the name on the front feet, shaking his head. "Weird name, but I suppose that's par for the course here." The sign read. 'Watto's'.

OOOOOOO

Padme Amidala, elected queen of Naboo circa three months ago, had not been having a good week. First, her planet was blockaded by the Trade Federation, her rule challenged and questioned for the first time since she had taken the throne several months ago. Then even the intercession of the Jedi had not aided them, and the TF had begun an actual invasion. With, according to Gunray the head of the Federation, the approval of the Senate!

It was only the timely arrival of the two Jedi that saved her from being imprisoned. When the two Jedi, her guards, and body doubles had tried to escape to take word to the Senate about the invasion their ship had been damaged, forced to come out of hyperspace randomly.

On top of all this the Jedi were not quite what she had envisioned. They were not as respectful, not as outgoing. Intelligent yes, and extremely capable, but not great believers in her dignity as Queen. Worse, just like her they were ignorant of the reason behind the Federation's invasion of her planet.

I would've gone stir crazy on that ship if I had let them leave me behind, she thought, shaking her head. This was much more fun, the junk here was at least something interesting to see whereas she would've been forced to deal with her overprotective guards back on the ship. Of course Sabe and the rest of her maids were nice enough to talk to, but there just wasn't enough back on the ship do to take her mind off the disaster facing her planet.

"Are you an angel?" said a voice from nearby. A young voice she thought as she turned, looking around one of the displays of various robotic parts to stare at a young human boy. He looked around ten or so, with the kind of darkish blond hair that looked like it would darken with age, intelligent brown eyes, and a decently well-fed look to him.

After looking around for the child's parents Padme knelt down to look the boy in the eyes. "No I'm not an angel. Who are you little boy?"

"I'm not little, I'm old enough to work, old enough to be a slave." He shot back, tapping the collar around his neck causing her to frown angrily. The sight of it reminded her of the discussion she had with the Jedi Master about that, and how he had destroyed a bit of her universe's view with the information that slavery was condoned even in the Republic. "Why aren't you an angel, you're certainly pretty enough for one."

She smiled faintly, and was about to reply politely if somewhat distantly, when a voice spoke up behind the two of them. "Wow puberty's hitting you really quick ain't it kiddo?"

Padme turned then flushed slightly. Oh my. Standing there was possibly the handsomest young man she had ever seen, certainly seen in the flesh. He was shorter than the two Jedi, around 5' 11" if she was any judge rather than 6' 3" or 6' 2". But his shoulders were just as broad, his face just as handsome as Obi-wan's, yet not as unemotional or aloof as Obi Wan's seemed to her. Rather this younger man's face was mobile and used to smiling.

Indeed right now it wore a smirk that set her pulse to racing a little for some reason she couldn't fathom. And he had the deepest blue eyes she had ever seen.

It certainly helped that his shirt was a tank top which hugged his upper body like a second skin, showing off a phenomenal body. And I thought Obi-wan was handsome.

Like Shaak, Ranma had created an outfit for himself. His consisted of a tight shirt with a design on it that made it look as if the shirt was created by sewing green scales together, black pants, a blaster on one hip, and the communicator/vambrace on one arm. Of course with Ranma, the pistol was more camouflage than anything else. His hair however was still the same.

Nearby others had heard that voice, and Obi-wan groaned slightly, shaking his head even though he was smiling. "Oh no, not you."

Ranma deliberately did not look in the two Jedi's direction smirking at the young girl, she had to be fourteen or so he estimated. She didn't look like a local either, her skin was far too fair for that, and her long brown hair far too clean. She was pretty he supposed, in a young teen sort of way, he could see why the kid had hit on her.

What she was doing with the two Jedi was a mystery, but he sure was going to use it to his advantage to have a bit of fun. "Excuse me miss, have you seen two Jedi around here? One of them's got long hair which really shows off how gray he's going, and the other one acts like he's got a stick up his…"

"That's more than enough Ranma thank you." Obi-wan said, coming over to look at the younger man. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh hey Obi didn't see you there." Ranma said with a grin while the boy looked rather affronted at his attitude, or possibly irritated Ranma had butted in on his attempt to flirt with the older girl, if that was what he'd been trying to do. For her part however Padme had to hold in a chuckle at his irreverent attitude. Unlike the boy she realized that she was witnessing the reunion of at least two acquaintances, possibly friends.

"Why I'm here is something I'm not gonna talk about out in the open. Though before I forget, I gotta apologize to you for teasing you with my… other … issue. Seriously, it was kinda cruel of me. I had that sort of pointed out to me a few months back." When I was the one being teased no matter how unwittingly, Ranma did not add aloud.

"You're apologizing?" Obi-wan said blankly, blinking rapidly his voice nearly monotone. "I didn't think, you, you apologize?! The universe is going to end…."

"You made quite an impression on my padawan my young friend. He's actually loosened up somewhat, indeed that is the second joke he's told this week alone!" said Qui-Gon, a faint smile on his face. "You're looking well. Might I ask however what brought you here?"

"Are you a Jedi too?" the young boy asked frowning as he stared up at Ranma. "You feel weird, not like the two of them, and you don't have a lightsaber."

Ranma's eyebrows rose in surprise, before he turned to the two Jedi who both shrugged their shoulders though Qui-Gon was looking at the boy with a distinct level of interest. "What is your name young one?"

"Anakin, Anakin Skywalker." Anakin replied. "Are you here to free us?"

"Who's us?" Ranma asked then smirked. "And by the way, Skywalker? Awesome name kiddo!"

Anakin's solemn air broke and he smiled at Ranma, forgetting for a moment his irritation at him for interrupting his talk with the angel. "My mother and I. I've always dreamed about Jedi, about Jedi coming to free us and becoming one myself, becoming a great Jedi who frees all the slaves."

"I'm afraid that is not why we're here young one." Obi Wan replied, trying to let the kid down gently.

"I think it is." Anakin said, now staring up at him calmly.

Qui-Gon looked down at him, his eyes lighting up with some interest, but then a small flying alien appeared, smacking Anakin upside the head. "Boy have you finished those repairs on the T-62 engine for Necrasis?"

"Yeah, I finished those this morning." The boy replied waving one hand at the back of the shop, then turning up to Qui-Gon. "But I think this man has something he wants to ask you."

They all stopped and turned however as another, tall, gangly looking amphibian sort of alien smashed into a display of droid parts. He wobbled upright, his long tongue lolling out. "Mesa sorry, it bes tighty in heres."

Ranma's cocked an eyebrow and shook his head murmuring to Obi. "Please don't tell me he's with you too?"

"Jar-Jar's been… somewhat useful…" Obi replied wanly.

"Yeah, this story is starting to sound even more interesting." Ranma mused.

"You do not know the half of it Ranma." Obi replied, and began to fill Ranma in on how he and his master had come to be here on Tatooine.

At the same time the two young men were talking, Qui-Gon had pulled out a small hologram device, showing the ship they had come in. He began to try and haggle with the man, while Anakin listened in avidly to both conversations.

After a few minutes of explanation Ranma blinked in shock jerking a thumb towards the young girl. "Are you telling me this little girl…"

"Excuse me!" Padme said incredulously, all her previous good feelings towards the older boy vanishing.

"Is supposed to be a body-double for the Queen of Naboo?" Ranma went on, ignoring her outburst. "That means the Queen is the same age right? A ruling queen, aged 14 or so? So… who actually makes the decisions for her government?""

"I make my own decisions thank you! I, I mean the Queen makes her own decisions thank you, she has advisors but that is all they do, advise." Padme stuttered, trying hard to cover her slip and staring angrily at the very handsome but equally rude boy.

"Sure, I'll believe that, not!" Ranma said with a laugh. "Now be quiet little girl the adults are talking."

Obi-wan suddenly smirked, "Ranma I think you need to cool off!"

"Oh no you-gahh!" Before Ranma could dodge Obi splashed him with a small bit from his canteen.

"Ignore him your highness," Obi went on, explicitly stating that both he and Qui-Gon had realized she was the Queen rather than her body double and ignoring the now female Ranma with only a hint of smugness. "He's merely testing you, he does that quite a lot I've noticed."

Anakin blinked in shock while Padme almost fainted, only Ranma's quick thinking grabbing her before she could fall saving her. "Why'd ya have to do that?" she growled irritably wiping her face as she stared at Obi angrily, then Ranma paused as she noticed Obi was concentrating on Ranma's eyes, his own not having strayed. "Huh, so your self-control's better I see."

"I was able to stay on Coruscant for a month before our next mission, and between a few old acquaintances and my meditations I have dealt with my over-reaction to your female form." Obi-Wan replied, omitting quite a bit.

What happened was that a few of his female friends, including a Jedi padawan named Siri Tachi, had heard about his reaction to a person who was male in mind if not in body. They had teased him endlessly in myriad ways whenever the masters were not around, and then actually helped walk him through why Obi had such a response in the first place.

Padme quickly pushed out of Ranma's arms, staring up at the redhead who, though older and chestier, was only a few inches taller than she was, whereas before the boy that had been standing there was a good foot and a bit taller. "Wh-what just happened!? Some, strange Force power, instant teleportation with another person?" To one side Jar Jar was staring at the canteen at Obi-Wan's belt in both shock and interest.

Anakin on the other hand stared up at Ranma then reached up hesitantly. "Those can't be…"

Ranma bonked him hard on the head, causing Anakin to cry out in pain and back away. "Hands off kid!" Ranma growled. "I blame this on you," she said pointing at Obi. "You can damn well explain!"

They were interrupted again as Qui-Gon came over with the shop owner. "Ranma, how exactly are you here? Notice I didn't ask why but how, or why you are a woman currently."

"Currently? I would say she's been a woman for a long time, yes?" The little flying alien said, flying around the redhead from all angles. "Now if you wished to trade this one for the engine, that might be…"

"I'm not for sale you little pervert!" Ranma growled, tempted to smash the alien out of the air, but not doing so because of what little she'd been able to glean about why Qui-Gon and the others were in this shop. Besides, what'd an alien this size do with a human wo… yeah let's not go there…

"Pity." Watto smirked. "Ah well, my offer still stands then Jedi. Look around, but you won't find any other shop that sells Nabooan manufacture." With that he flew off, still chuckling to himself.

Seeing the amphibian, the young girl and boy all still staring at her, Ranma shook his head and then launched into his normal spiel. "Okay, short answer, I have a Force curse, cold or even lukewarm water activates it, changes my body to that of a woman."

She ignored Jar-Jar's suddenly sad expression, going on with his explanation. "No, my mind doesn't change, no I wasn't born with this curse, I got it on a training journey because my old man, who was an excellent if crazy as hell trainer, was also an idiot. Yes my female form is fully functional, no I am not interested in guys. Any questions?"

"Millions, but none that matter currently." Padme murmured, trying hard not to stare too rudely at the other girl. Anakin was only a little better, wincing as he held his head, while Jar-Jar had lost interest and moved off only to stop as Qui-Gon grabbed his shoulder.

Obi handed Ranma his canteen and Ranma held it for a moment as the heat tab on it went to work, before pouring it over her head. This time Anakin was the one to gasp, his smile widening as he felt something, which Qui-Gon caught, making him look at the boy with even more interest before turning back to Ranma. "Ranma, answer my original question please."

"Heh, one track mind there bearded one. Anyways, my ship was finished a few days ago, and Shaak and I made our way here. Why?"

"My padawan has no doubt explained our predicament, surely you have enough room for us?"

"Er, he actually had only started to explain, but whatever. How many people are we talking about here?" Ranma asked.

"Eleven I think," said Qui-Gon, though he was looking reluctant, his eyes shifting over towards the young boy.

Ranma didn't notice, instead shaking his head. "No way, my ship doesn't have that much space. I could possibly put four or five of you up, maybe as many as nine if you're comfortable with sharing rooms and not being able to move around much. Any more than that and we wouldn't be able to move around and the atmospherics or whatever the air regulators wouldn't be able to handle it for a long trip. Besides which, I'm not leaving until the job Shaak and I are here to do is done."

"Whatever your job is my young friend it pales in comparison to ours." Qui-Gon said grimly. "The fate of an entire planet may well hang in the balance."

"I got that bit already at least, but that's your job, not ours." Ranma said with a shake of his head. "I'd like to help you, I really would. But our mission here is such that…" he stopped, frowning. "Look, I'm going to meet up with Shaak tonight, you can talk about all this with her then."

"Very well, in the meantime we'll need to think about other means of transportation just in case she agrees with you." While many Jedi Masters would have simply ordered Ranma and Knight Ti to aid them, Qui Gon wasn't like that. He also knew Ranma would not have been asked to go on a mission for the order if it wasn't a dire one. And that Ranma's response to being simply ordered about would have been pithy and vulgar.

He gestured in the direction the Toydarian had flown. "We don't have enough money on us in the local currency, and the exchange rate is not in our favor. Also unfortunately the only local who apparently sells the engine parts we need to repair our ship is a Toydarian, and they are immune to mind tricks."

Ranma frowned. "Right, so Jedi can go around messing with people's minds like that in the pursuit of their business?"

"It doesn't hurt them Ranma, just changes their minds for a moment." Qui Gon objected, though Padme was looking at him warily, and Obi-Wan was looking as if he agreed in principle.

"And what if that moment gets them in trouble with their bosses and gets them fired, or worse indentured out here?" Ranma asked, arching one eyebrow. "In a combat situation or anything that might lead to it I'd understand using that kind of thing, but not to simply save you a bit of inconvenience."

Qui-Gon who sighed faintly. "I understand your point of view, but this wasn't a 'bit of inconvenience'. This would have allowed us to get on our way within a few hours. Considering what might be happening to the citizens of Naboo right now it was a step I was prepared to take. But it didn't work, and now we need to think of some way to either make money very quickly or I am afraid you might be our only hope."

"You could bet on the pod races." Anakin piped up. "They're ziggered to the max! and Watto always enjoys betting on them."

"I know nothing about pod races." Qui-Gon objected, but he was looking at the youth speculatively now.

"Yeah, but I do!" Anakin said excitedly then went on to explain what the pod races were to a somewhat captive audience.

OOOOOOO

As she had told Ranma she would Shaak made her way straight through the port, heading towards the two palaces. She found it odd that the two of them were so close together, but then again, she reflected as she came within sight of them, that might not be so surprising. Gardulla is supposed to be rather old, and her business ventures are more specialized. While Jabba is younger, and more of a Jack of all trades according to what the Order sent me.

The two forts were massive, sprawling complexes of the same stone that made up the rest of the city. One of them was built around one large building which looked several stories tall, connected along one side to another one story building that seemed to spread back and out beyond the main building. There were a few watch towers spread out on the roof of the buildings, but most of them seemed to face back from where the complex met the rest of Mos Espa.

The other castle seemed slightly larger in terms of area, the single large building built into a small caldera. That was all Shaak could tell from the outside about it, except for the fact that the name 'Jabba' was carved into the stone over the main entrance, an open gate made of stone that, like its counterpart on the other castle, was around two stories tall.

She was surprised however to see those gates were open, the guards lackadaisical, and a lot of traffic going on between and around the castles. It seemed that neither Hutt felt the need to have obvious defenses. That didn't mean they weren't defended of course, after all most of the people here worked for them, and there were no doubt automated defenses somewhere.

As planned Shaak mode of dress and aggressive walk made an impression, and the crowd made way for her almost automatically, with many of them murmuring and watching her, but none of them getting up the courage to approach her just yet. She fit in, but at the same time her manner made it clear that she was different from the regular rabble all around her, allowing her to bypass a lot of the normal issues any stranger would face.

In this manner she entered the first castle easily, finding the doors opening into a large hall full of people and noise. One wall leading away from the entrance housed a bar, while at the far end of the other was the entrance to the other building. Here and there the crowd seemed to gather in larger clumps, staring at something or other. It was only when she moved towards the bar that she could see past them to the pits they were congregating around. From within the pits came the sounds of combat.

Here and there throughout the crowd scantily dressed slaves of both genders moved through the crowd. Most of them were human, with two Twi'lek males and one little Chadra-Fan female, the last an obvious waitress. Interesting that there are so many males among the slaves here, I wonder, gah, no don't wonder, ugh, bad thoughts… Shaking her head slightly Shaak moved over to the bar for now, still checking out the crowd and the slaves. It didn't look like Aayla was here however.

Sitting down, Shaak ordered a drink, her voice the carefully forged lisp that she and Ranma had created rather than her normal cultured tones. "Yas got Cafessi Firewhiskey?"

The barman, a wild looking Bothan nodded, and turned away. Before they had left the ship she had taken the precaution of taking a sobriety pill, which would allow her to imbibe drinks without being effected.

Before her drink arrived a voice a voice from behind her, cut through the general hubbub causing Shaak to turn slightly on her stool as it addressed her. "You are new here are you not?"

"I's am," she said, calmly, staring at the speaker, a elderly Rodian with one antenna missing. "Who wants ter know?"

"I am Licersca, I work for Gardulla the Hutt who's drinks you are currently enjoying. " The Rodian said calmly.

Shaak nodded agreeably. "Then maybes I's should be talkin' to you. I'm lookin' fer work. Yas got any place fer a merc?"

"There is always work on offer of course, but what kind are you looking for?" the man said, showing no surprise at the Togrutan's teeth.

"Names Calis Dumrao. As fer the type, anythin' and everythin' that's high-paying that won't take me back into the Core Worlds. I's just finished working for a Corporate Sector company." She spat to one side, shaking her head angrily. "Dey paid us for a bit of a dustup operation, big ol' smash'n burn, then decided ta shortchange us. The group I's was with tried ter argue the point, and they sent their own security forces after us. I's was able to escape, the other's didn't. But it took half my ready cash ta gets out of there to here, I's heard the Hutts're always hiring good guns."

The Rodian stroked his cheek thoughtfully, staring at Shaak who stared back, somewhat cockily, in keeping with her character but not so much as to come off as arrogant. If the Hutts had access to he'd be able to establish the event that Shaak was hinting at, because such an event had recently occurred in the Corporate World sector, not that it was at all a rare event.

The Corporate Worlds were a separate entity for the most part from the Republic, where corporations ruled and the bottom line was everything. What security forces that existed were just that, security forces that didn't obey any laws as Shaak understood the term but simply followed the orders of the companies. Companies there hired mercenary groups or individuals for jobs and then routinely refused to pay them the full amount, knowing that they really had no way to force the issue.

The Rodian opened his mouth to reply but a gravelly sort of voice interrupted their conversation first. "You, female, you're sitting on my seat."

Shaak calmly turned her head to glare at the alien, a species she hadn't met before backed by four others. He sneered as Shaak looked at him. "Didn't you hear me, I said yer in my seat."

"I's heard ya, I's was waiting for you to say something I's actually care about." Shaak said with a wave of her hand. "Fark off, we're talkin' business."

The big alien pushed the Rodian aside, though Shaak noted that he didn't do so hard enough to actually do more than move him aside. "Talk about your business somewhere else. Give me my seat or …" he leered at her, his eyes playing down Shaak's body from head to toe, "Pay for its use."

Shaak rolled her eyes, then without warning kicked out, catching the alien in the crotch. He doubled over in agony, then flew backwards from a punch that hurled him backwards into two of his fellows. Before the other goon could pull his weapon out, Shaak's blaster was in her hand. A single shot rang out, shattering the other fellow's blaster in its holster.

This caused the alien, a Aqualish to squeal, a sound that brought the crowd's attention to what was going on. The onlookers quickly made room, some of them even beginning to bet on the outcome.

The alien she'd already attacked was down for the count, but his two compatriots scrambled out from underneath him quickly while she dealt with their fellow, their blasters raised. Shaak however leaped off of the bench, rolling forward. Kicking out hard against one of them, she brought her elbow in conjunction with the other's nose. Thank you Ranma for your hand to hand training!

"GAHgh," her second target screamed, thrashing around on the ground and wailing. With him dealt with Shaak turned on the other, swiftly pressing her blaster into the side of his face. A blue stun bolt hit him and he slumped into unconsciousness.

Standing up she scowled at the two wounded aliens. "Get over yerselves, ya bunch o' weak kriffers. Grab yer friends and get outta here before I's change my mind and kills the lot of ya."

The Rodian had simply watched this all in silence, and as the quartet began to pick themselves up he nodded. "You're quite skilled," he said, making no attempt to hide that this had been a test. "But why didn't you kill any of them?"

"I's figured it was a test, but also figgered it'd be bad manners to farkle my prospective employers employees. Besides, I's might have to work with one of these fools in the future." She made a theatrical shudder, and the Rodian smiled.

He gestured at the barman, who put the drink Shaak had ordered on the bar. "Decently skilled and intelligent, excellent. Unfortunately, my employer is not hiring any more mercenaries at present. We recently hired an entire company of mercenaries so we have no need of more new blood." He went on gesturing to the aliens Shaak had stunned or otherwise beaten, who were now the butt of the crowd's jokes and comments. "This lot was some of the last remnants of a group we had hired previously."

"I's can be a good bodyguard too." Shaak said, though she now felt that Aayla wasn't anywhere in this complex. While there were a few female slaves scattered throughout the crowd they seemed few and far between. Male slaves there were aplenty, but most of them looked more like fighters than anything else, save for one or two that were very obviously pleasure slaves.

"No, I'm afraid even there my employer is not looking for any more aid. And you would not be the kind she would hire in any event." He gestured to one of the slaves that Shaak had thought was a pleasure slave.

"I's see." Shaak said scowling theatrically. "That's a pity. I's understand that Mos Espa ain't a good place to live if you're down on your luck. I's don't suppose Jabba's hiring? He'd not be my first choice, since I's know Jabba's reputation, but it's better than being poor, or trying my hand at honest work or stealing."

If you are caught at it stealing would mean your hands getting cut off if you stole from someone working for one of the Hutts." The Rodian said mildly. "However, you are in luck. Jabba is always hiring, and he very much prefers to higher single pirates or small groups unlike Gardulla. I will call over, and tell my opposite number that you have already gone through an initiation here. You might face something similar again despite this but such is the way of things."

Shaak nodded, making understanding noises as she lifted the drink in the Rodian's direction like a salute before downing half of it, ignoring the scalding spicy flavor. Afterwards she looked at the drink and shook it slightly. "In that case I's will finish my drink before I's go."

The Rodian laughed, then nodded and turned away, soon disappearing into the crowd. Shaak turned with her drink in hand, moving through the crowd of aliens. She closed with each of the scattered pits she had seen earlier, noting that in each a pair of slaves were in the process of smashing one another into pieces for the enjoyment of the crowd. It seemed normal here, and indeed the majority of the crowd of mercenaries didn't seem to even look in the direction of the fighting.

So, Gardulla really does specialize in a certain type of slave, along with information and gun running. Interesting, and if myself or Ranma can find out where the central control system is, we might be able to garner some support from the pit fighters here.

In keeping with that idea Shaak continued to move around the place, memorizing the layout, while dealing with a few wandering hands in the crowd, her elbows getting quite a workout. Even as her body dealt with these annoyances automatically, Shaak concentrated on other things, the fact there weren't very many automated defenses, the various guard positions, and the fact all the slaves had heavy collars on them, as their information had told them would be the case.

She also noted the number of slaves in comparison to the number of mercenaries, and smiled internally as she watched new gladiators come and go every few minutes. There was at least one slave for every three gangsters, a closer ratio than she had feared, and, given the number of heavy weapons Ranma had brought along, possibly enough.

On the other hand… Shaak concentrated her attention a time or two on the group of mercenaries that would no doubt be the main problem: a group of twenty Trandoshans dressed in a yellow and purple uniform that looked vaguely military. They moved around the place purposefully, and were obviously members of Sirixx's Mercenary Company, the group the Mon Calamari Information Bureau had noticed passing through a corner of their sectors several weeks ago.

That group could be a problem if we go that route. Luckily it seems as if they aren't all on station yet. Desiring more information, Shaak angled her wandering toward that group and away a time or two, listening in on their conversation. This group was indeed the first of several dozen similarly sized groups to arrive, and numbered a total of fifty in total, with twenty on guard at all times with ten in reserve while the others rested or trained. The Company was apparently having trouble getting transportation, their space-arm having broken off from the rest of the group recently due to a contract dispute. Good, that means we have a window of opportunity here.

After a final round around the room Shaak returned her drink to the bar, completely empty including the ice which here on Tatooine made up half the price of the drink. She nodded at the barman and left, heading over to Jabba's place.

Unlike Gardulla, Jabba had actual security around the place. First were four Gamorreans outside to either side of the large doors. Those doors were open, but the eight Gamorreans glared and prodded at anyone they didn't like the look of, which seemed to be every fifth person they saw. This included Shaak, but she, still keeping in character, glared right back, and the Gamorrean who had gone to prod her with his poleaxe backed away.

Inside, the place was slightly more crowded, not uncomfortably so but getting there. Also unlike Gardulla's place, the lighting in here was rather dim, and there was background music, loud and the sort of techno-pop that was so popular these days, unlike the music she preferred which was mostly vocal and orchestral. Although Tune and Ranma had opened her up to the music from his world on the trip here, needing the lyrics translated sort of killed her enjoyment of them.

Here and there were small platforms raised out of the floor, and these were the center of most of the crowd's attention. Because on them were poles, and around those poles were half naked female slaves dancing away. Shaak took the first few in at a glance, and saw two humans and one blue skinned alien whose species she only vaguely recognized, a sight that caused her teeth to grind, but she had been prepared for it.

Deeper into the cavern however were two more platforms and the sight of the dancers on them caused Shaak to clamp down on her emotions with all the hard-earned control she had. Even so for a moment her hands clenched hard at her sides, and she had to work hard to keep moving forward as if the sight didn't matter to her. A mantra began to work it's way through her head, there is anger, but there is also justice, there is emotion, but also control.

Because on one platform was a Togrutan girl who looked a little younger than herself. She danced there, her face blank as if heavily drugged, yet her movements were fluid and alluring all the same. And in pride of place, the nearest place to Jabba's own raised dais was Aayla.

Aayla'secura was a Twi'lek Rutian girl of around eighteen with a gorgeous face, sleek skin and hazel eyes. She was tallish for her gender and race, coming up to Shaak's own height. She had a dancer's natural grace and body, honed throughout her life first by dancing lessons then by Jedi training and a more balanced diet than most of her species was able to see. Her breasts were a little over a size smaller than Shaak's, and her lekku slightly longer. Currently Aayla wore bangles here and there which shimmered as she moved, a tight pushup bra that barely covered her assets, and a t-back panty that again barely covered her privates, along with a collar around her neck.

The site of her friend dolled up like that almost made Shaak Ti break character, but she grabbed her emotions, her rage and fear for her friend and controlled them, letting them out in a slow, long hiss that went unnoticed by anyone around her. Control, do not let it show do not allow it to effect your connection to the Force. Wait , remember the plan…. There will be justice! After a moment Shaak began to move through the crowd staring first at one slave then in the other, summoning up a leer as she did so with difficulty, still following the plan she and Ranma had contrived for this part of the operation.

Her meander was interrupted by one of the aliens noticing her doing a double take and moving in her direction. "Hey darling, you up for some fun?"

Another alien from behind Shaak joined in at the same time by try8ing to drape an arm over her shoulders. "I saw her first, ya Druk! What's yer price baGKK!"

That question ended in a grunt of agony as Shaak's elbow shot backwards, catching that alien in the chest, followed by reaching back to grab him by the ear before throwing him in the direction of the first alien.

As the crowd surrounding them began to laugh, Shaak joined in shaking her head. "Sorry boys I's not be for sale, and if I's wanted to have fun you're not the ones I'd choose fer it. None of you have the parts I's be interested in."

With that she turned, looking at the dancers leering at each in turn. The crowd around her got the rather broad hint, and many of them began to shout ribald comments, but Shaak ignored them, allowed her leer to grow slightly, as if used to that reaction but truly uninterested in any of the watchers. After a few moments she moved on, having to deal yet again with a few wandering hands despite her earlier declaration.

At one point this became serious. Several aliens tried to pin her arms behind her while another alien went in for a squeeze of her chest. But Shaak pulled out her blaster and stunned one of the aliens before sending a second to the floor with a kick to the temple. When she left the third groaning in agony over a knee to the crotch the rest of the crowd got the idea to back off, instead once again laughing at their fellow's misfortune.

A few moments after that incident she had made her way halfway to where Aayla was dancing her meander was interrupted by a slightly overweight male Twi'lek with white skin. He was a particularly disreputable example of the race, his teeth were artificially sharpened beyond what a Twi'lek would normally have, his nails long and equally sharp, and one tentacle was wrapped around his neck, the other loose. He also looked as if he didn't bathe regularly.

"Licersrca called ahead about you Durac, you are here for a job?" The Twi'lek let his eyes wander Shaak's body from head to foot, and she controlled her initial reaction once again with difficulty.

It wasn't the first time she'd been leered at like that, but most politicians at least didn't make it so obvious, and her lightsaber warned off most people otherwise. Worse, there was just something about this man who made that act even more vile than it already was. But ironically the control she had been using to stop falling into the closeness she had shared with Ranma back on Dac came to play again here, and she simply gazed back, one eyebrow raised and one hand cocked on her blaster.

After a moment the man stopped his perusal and smirked. "You've the looks to work for Jabba, and if you passed the little test here and in Gardulla's I suppose you some skills as well."

"Unlike most of your mercs, I's actually worked for a living for the past few years," Shaak replied dryly. "I's don't suppose most of your gang members actually get much exercise out here what's with you and your friend's employer havin' ruled the nest fer so long. Putting down dirt farmer ain't tough after all."

"You'd be surprised." the alien replied dryly, gesturing her to follow him as he turned. "The Tusken raiders are always a problem, and are growing more so these days."

"I've heard about t'ose creepsters," Shaak replied with a shrug. "I's have ta see firsthand if they was as tough as they're supposed to be. Though obviously they'd have the terrain advantage. That can counts fer a lot."

"Indeed," the Twi'leksaid then bowed deeply to his master who looked up from smoking or something on a long pipe. The slug like alien lay on it's hover-sled, it's wide reptilian eyes set over an even wider mouth completing the image of a slug crossed with a snake with arms added in for good measure. Those arms were thick and strong, and Shaak knew the body was also deceptively strong, despite the species penchant for using hover sleds to get around.

Despite the danger the Hutt represented, it was all Shaak could do to keep her eyes on her prospective employer rather than on Aayla, who continued to dance on her pole to one side. At first Shaak thought that maybe Aayla hadn't recognized her, but this close, Aayla should have recognized Shaak whatever her disguise. It might've been a few months, but her appearance under the disguise hadn't changed that much.

With an effort Shaak kept her attention on Jabba as he leered at her, commenting on her beauty and what she could do for him to gain an immediate payment if she was in need, his words translated by a badly beaten up protocol droid. When she shot that down with the same line she used earlier on the two aliens who'd first opportuned her Jabba laughed a deep belly laugh, and gestured at Aayla. "I suppose then you've noticed my little collection?" The droid said in response to his master's Huttese.

"I's have, and I's be willing to do without pay fer two months to buys that little number off ya." She said, moving over to stand as close as she could to the platform where Aayla was dancing. She was so close that Aayla couldn't help but look at her, and Shaak stared back with her uncovered eye for a moment, looking for any sign of recognition there.

But there wasn't one, just a slack, strangely ecstatic look, much like the young Togrutan dancing elsewhere in the room. Again that mantra went through her mind. There is anger, but there is also justice, there is emotion, but also control. Don't worry Aayla, I will rescue you, by the Force I swear it.

Jabba bellowed in laughter again, shaking his massive head. The interpreter replied, "That special one is not for sale. That one has already been sold, so unless you can meet the prospective buyer's initial payment, that will not happen."

"I's can see how special she is," Shaak said, adopting a leer once more as she watched Aayla's breasts move in her dance. This whole acting thing was far harder than she had hoped it would be, but she kept in character with difficulty. I am so sorry Aayla, I know how much you hate being looked at like this, but don't worry, I'll make it up to you as quickly as possible. I just, I just hope that you haven't suffered as much as I fear you have… there is anger, but justice, oh yes…

Both of her listeners laughed at that, and then she and the Twi'lek began to haggle about her pay. Eventually they reached an agreement on a weekly pay of 3,000 local credits. Shaak felt she had haggled about it enough to remain in character, but she would have to report the next day to prove how good a sniper she was to get that full pay, which she had agreed to easily.

"You'll also of course have to find someplace for to stay for now, unless you wish to stay here in the barracks?" the Majordomo, whose name was Bib Fortuna, asked leering.

Shaak quickly shook her head. "I's will make my own arrangements fer now. No offense, but I's like to have my own place, and not needs ta sleep with a bomb set up by the door."

Jabba laughed again then waved a hand at her dismissing her. He said something in Huttese to his majordomo and Bib lien smiled his long thin tongue flickering out to wet his lips as he looked from Shaak to the dancers. "Feel free to stick around and take part in the entertainment. Just remember you can look but don't touch. That is reserved for my Master's favorites." Implied in his tone was that he was one of those favorite, and he looked over to Aayla with a leering proprietary air mixed with something like sadness.

Shaak hoped that meant that while he'd taken some liberties with the obviously drugged Jedi, he hadn't taken all the liberties he could. But she had no way of knowing whether that was the case or not, and feared that it was not. There is anger, but there is also justice, there is emotion, but also control, I am master of my body and emotions, I will not let them master me, nor will I let them impact the Force around me. I really hope that we have to go with the direct option here, and that you try to get in my way, you… you pestilential scumbag!

"I's will take yas up on that." Shaak replied aloud even as those thoughts went through her head. She moved back over to the dais to watch Aayla, before making her way past her and moving over to one of the other dancers. But when she got there, Shaak turned in such a way that she could continue to look at Aayla past that dancer without being obvious about it.

Oh Aayla, what have they done to you? No recognition, no sign of thought. She looks like she's in a sort of ecstasy fugue! I can't even imagine the amount of drugs it would take to overcome a Jedi's ability to purge such, so have they come up with a new drug that deadens Force powers, or did they just give her more than Aayla could successfully eliminate?

She was tempted to try her luck with the Force for a moment but she didn't. Something warned her that it would be a bad idea, above and beyond Ranma's worries about it and her own roiling emotional state. A moment later she was very thankful for having followed that instinct because she noticed a woman working on a large sniper rifle in a corner.

The woman had pale green skin and red hair done up in a long topknot. She was somewhat attractive, in the same way that Shaak's current cover identity was, sharp, aggressive and wild seeming. Besides the rifle, she was armed with a blaster at either hip, and a large, heavily armed suitcase was laid out in a chair next to her.

She looked up as if she felt Shaak's eyes on her, and Shaak glared right back, two strong mercenary women acknowledging one another. After a moment Shaak nodded slowly, and the other woman nodded back before going back to her rifle pointedly as Shaak turned away, looking at the dancers and no longer concentrating on Aayla even surreptitiously just in case.

Because Shaak Ti recognized that woman. She wasn't just any mercenary, oh no, she was someone far more dangerous. Aurra Sing, former padawan of the Shadow Lady, current Bounty Hunter, killer of at least three Jedi since she began to take bounties a year ago. This just became far more complicated.

OOOOOOO

Aurra Sing frowned, looking at the Togrutan female out of the corner of her eye. The woman looked dangerous, and certainly recognized Aurra herself as such. Still, there was nothing else about her that stood out, and Aurra decided to ignore her for now. If the Togrutan wanted to challenge Aurra, that could be dealt with in time. Right now, she wanted to finish the repairs on her sniper scope, then maybe hunt down those rumors flying around about two Jedi in the city. The descriptions matched the two she had met on Kwannot that had beaten off her attack. If they were, well she might not be getting paid for them, but there was such a thing as personal satisfaction.

Just then her personal computer buzzed, and she opened it up, staring at the pad for a moment, her eyes widening slightly in shock. 3,000,000 of any denomination for confirmation of death!? That's as much as I'd charge for a kriffing senator! Huh, and it was sent here, which means whoever is willing to pay thinks one of these two are here… Screw the Jedi, I might have just found an even better target.

OOOOOOO

After offering to put the angel and her companions up at his home for the night Anakin had jabbered on to Padme, talking about this or that project, while the idiot alien seemed to interject with his own comments here and there. Ranma ignored him on general principle, the guy sounded even stupider than Kuno and was even klutzier than Mousse at his blind worse.

But he and Qui-Gon had also exchanged stories in low tones, with the Jedi master expanding on the crisis facing Naboo and Ranma telling him about his and Shaak's mission here. "So you can see my young friend, while I would truly like to help you rescue Padawan Secura, I fear we might not have the time. Any frontal assault will result in the death of innocents, and we don't have time to waste on coming up with an elaborate plan. Every hour we spend here, the queen's planet is under the domination of the Trade Federation. Given how unlike them it is to act so openly and violently, I cannot begin to imagine what they will be doing with the citizens of Naboo."

Ranma allowed his eyes to flick over to a passing slave then tapped his neck thoughtfully, cocking an eyebrow at Qui-Gon. As he expected the older man got it immediately, and shrugged his shoulders. He spoke quietly so Padme, who was currently smiling politely at the boy's story, while still sneaking glances towards Ranma, couldn't overhear. "They probably wouldn't go that route right away, but given enough time… yes."

"That's a point in favor of my idea of taking out the slavers you know," Ranma mused, smirking at the older man, which caused Padme to turn away with a blush. Anakin saw this and he turned to glare a little at Ranma before grabbing Padme's attention once more with a story about a droid he was trying to repair.

"And what would happen after you left?" Qui-Gon asked. "Do you think these dirt farmers and various smugglers would be able to protect themselves from the Hutts' vengeance? Even if the spacers stayed around and decided to fight with them, which is very doubtful since there would be no profit in it for them, they wouldn't have the weapons or training to be any match for the mercenaries that the Hutts could hire to come in and regain control."

"Arming them wouldn't be a problem, not really." Ranma said shrugging his shoulders. "Willingness to fight with the slaves though, that's an issue. No, I can see that idea's not gonna fly. Shaak and I'll just have ta think about something else."

Both the Jedi looked at him quizzically, but Ranma had turned away, having overheard something interesting. "Hold on kid," he said tapping Anakin on the back of the head and interrupting his story to the princess.

Anakin looked up at him with a scowl, irritated at his interruption and the fact that he could tell that Padme was still looking at Ranma with interest despite the odd Force curse. "What?"

"You just said you're putting your own droid together right? That means you're pretty good with droids?" Anakin nodded puffing up his little chest for a moment. "I've got this ancient droid head I'd like to see repaired, if only to tell me how the heck he got so damaged in the first place."

Ranma made chopping and blasting motions with his hands, causing both Anakin and Padme to chuckle. "Someone really wanted it dead if you know what I mean. You think you can repair it?"

"What's in it for me?" The boy asked promptly.

Qui-Gon frowned. "That's actually a good question, besides, we have a plan going forward that will take up young Anakin's time in any event."

Anakin had convinced Qui-Gon, rather easily in Ranma's opinion, to bet on the boy in the pod race he'd been talking about when he told the Jedi he'd made his own pod. While that sounded fine to Ranma, he didn't like the fact the Jedi master had pressured Padme into waiting to at least see the pod before deciding what they should do. They could have just taken my ship, I'd trust the two of them to look after it until they could get back here. But Qui-Gon's too interested in Anakin to just leave like that.

"What was the exchange-rate republic to whatever they use out here?" Ranma asked aloud. "You said it was bad, but not how bad."

"Five to one."

Ranma blinked. "Okay, that's really bad. Any reason why?"

"The Hutts don't want to encourage trade between the areas of space they control and everywhere else, it's as simple as that." Qui-Gon shrugged. "Besides, nearly their entire economy is based on illegal dealings elsewhere and slavery of all sorts, so even if the Republic wanted to it would be nearly impossible to set an exchange rate."

"hmm… well whatever, I can still probably pay ya for it kid. And since you're doing this on your own time, your owner can't argue about getting a cut." He suddenly held out the droid head from his ki space, causing the quartet with him to blink, wondering where the heck it had come from.

Pushing that mystery to the side Anakin enthusiastically nodded eager to get paid on his own for once.

Before Qui-Gon could question Ranma on where he had been hiding the droid head, Ranma's communicator buzzed slightly once, then again in quick succession. He smiled slightly, opening it up and moving into a nearby alleyway while the others waited. "Hey."

"Ranma they don't seem to be ready for anything, so I think we can assume we can communicate like this. Where are you?"

Ranma frowned slightly, detecting a tension in Shaak's voice he hadn't heard there before. Damn, guess acting was harder than she expected, something I should've seen coming really. "I'm heading out to the northeast section of town, furthest section. I'll be outside, probably nearest the desert. Oh, and I ran into those friends you thought might be in the area. But they might not be much help, because they need to leave as soon as possible."

"I understand I'll see you soon." With that Shaak disconnected, and Ranma and the others continued on their way.

They continued walking until they came around a small, well-cared for hovel and met a middle-aged woman waiting for them. She was a pleasant looking woman, pleasantly plain Ranma thought the expression was, with brown hair, brown eyes, tanned, slightly weathered skin, but with smile as well as frown lines around her mouth and she stood there as straight as she could despite the slave collar around her neck.

"Anakin! I expected you back an hour ago. What have you been doing, did Watto keep you overtime today? And who are these people?"

As Qui-Gon made introductions, Ranma moved around the place, noting the large amount of clutter, but the generally warm atmosphere of the place. So neither Anakin or his mom've been beaten down by being slaves. Good for them, though I wonder if the mother was born into it or not?

When Qui-Gon introduce him as 'Ranma, a friend of the Order,' he bowed politely, clapping his hands in front of him as he did so. "Gracious lady, may we enter this house?"

The woman blinked, then rather flustered bowed her head in turn. "Of, of course, please come inside."

Padme looked at Ranma, one eyebrow raised. "Perhaps I underestimated you, you do have some manners."

Ranma shrugged, smiling faintly. "She reminds me of a girl I knew back home, real homebody she was, but with a bit of steel in her too." He gestured to the mother who was now talking to Anakin, looking at the two Jedi. "To live this kind of life, yet still look as content as she does, that takes some steel. And look at her son, doesn't look as if he's gone hungry too often. As a slave with a kid, I bet that was damn hard."

Looking between the two slaves Padme bit her lip, noting that the woman did look a little thin to her eyes. But she stood there with something that could almost approach pride, unbowed, despite her lot in life. "I see," she said quietly.

She stood with Ranma, watching as Anakin raced inside, jabbering to his mother about being paid himself to fix the head, and the idea of the race and buying their freedom. The older woman looked a little overcome by it, but happy.

As Obi-Wan made to enter the hovel after his master and the Skywalkers however, Ranma reached out, grabbing his shoulder. "Not so fast my friend. You still owe me a bit of a spar for outing my secret in front of Watto and Inquisitive Hands boy."

Padme chuckled as Obi-wan blanched, looking at the younger man beseechingly. "Mercy?"

"Nope." Ranma laughed, and without another word lifted Obi up into the air by his grip on the padawan's shoulder, hurling him to the side before the padawan could react despite his own training. "Besides ya might learn something!"

Inside Shmi Skywalker and Qui Gon heard his padawan's yelp of pain, but when Shmi made to get up and see what was happening Qui-Gon stopped her. "Don't worry, this is simply boys being boys. They won't hurt eachother… much. Now, please, tell me about yourself, and about your son. Specifically, do you believe he can make good his promise about winning the race?"

Ranma and Obi began to spar with the padawan noticeably getting the worst of it, surprising Padme greatly. Obi wan didn't draw his lightsaber, mindful of his master's wish to try and keep a low profile as much as possible. Yet without it he found himself overmatched by Ranma, even though Ranma was only using one hand against him.

Worse was the planet's heat, overcoming his ability to regulate his body's temperature. Ten minutes in Obi was drenched in sweat and took his shirt off, tossing the sodden mass to one side.

Watching this, Padme was suddenly very grateful she had decided to stay outside. Her eyes went from Ranma, whose wet shirt clung to him even more now than it had when dry, to the shirtless Obi, whose body showed the results of a lifetime of Jedi training. He wasn't as sculpted as Ranma, but to her eyes it was a near-run thing. Moments like this, when she could be just a girl rather than a queen or official were incredibly rare, and this one was the best she'd had in years. By the Force I am glad I decided to come with them! Wait until I tell Sabe and the others about this!

They were still at it when Shaak showed up around forty minutes later. She came around the corner and stopped suddenly, staring. On top of her still roiling emotions an unusual feeling rose up in her as she saw a young human girl staring at Ranma's body as he flipped another young man around as if he weighed nothing. It wasn't anything that Shaak hadn't seen before, but the fact that some other girl was staring at Ranma bothered her for some reason she didn't understand.

That feeling faded however when Ranma caught sight of her, turning away from his opponent. Suddenly all of his attention was on her, and Shaak had to fight the urge to preen slightly as she saw his eyes rake down her form. Then that look faded into a softer one of concern and something else she had no words for as Ranma bounded towards her, cocking his head anxiously as he came within arm's reach. "Did you find Aayla?"

And with that Ranma both made Shaak's admiration for him rise and brought her mind back to what really mattered. "I did find Aayla thank you for your concern. I, I just…" she faltered, trying to come up with a way to describe what she had seen and the effect it had on her, and couldn't come up with anything to describe her day that didn't sound trite to her own ears. Even the mantra in her head sounded lame and weary.

It turned out she didn't have to. Ranma understood somehow and wordlessly pulled her into a hug, his arms going around her shoulders. Shaak Ti knew that it was most un-Jedi like conduct, she knew that she should be trying to retain some distance between them both physically and mentally, but after the day she'd had she didn't care. She welcomed Ranma's hug, putting her own arms around him in turn basking in his wordless reassurance and support. Her anger and sadness faded away, replaced by renewed strength and determination.

They stood there for a moment, before Shaak reluctantly backed away from the hug blinking as she noticed that the shirtless young man Ranma had been 'sparring' with was someone she vaguely recognized. Another older human gentleman that she had seen a few times in the Temple but never actually spoken to also came out of the shanty, one eyebrow raised quizzically. The young man's expression however looked almost censorious, frowning heavily.

But the older man simply said, "I take it you had a rough time today, Knight Ti?"

"One of the hardest in living memory Master Qui-Gon." She held up her hand in formal greeting. "Greetings. What brings you to this oh-so pleasant planet?"

"A mission of some importance, I'm afraid. Knight Ti, be known to Queen Padme Amidala of Naboo." Qui-Gon gestured to the young girl who had been watching the two young men exercise. "Her planet is currently being blockaded by the Trade Federation for reasons we have yet to discover."

Padme bowed, somewhat thrown by the older woman's appearance, though when she saw Shaak's face that faded somewhat, the expression on that face definitely did not match the rest of her outfit. There was a sense of calm determination there at odds with the aggressive, in-your-face nature of the rest of her outfit. A disguise then? "Greetings Knight Ti."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, your highness, admittedly a dubious one given our current location. I take it there is a story there?" Shaak asked.

"Just like your own presence has a tale I'm told." Qui-Gon replied, gesturing to Shmi, who had come out of the house with Anakin behind him. The boy was staring at Shaak avidly though his eyes also strayed over to Padme a time or two. "Perhaps we should talk further inside however."

OOOOOOO

If Qui-Gon had hoped to get under cover before they were observed, his hope was in vain. Several miles away Darth Maul closed the high powered binoculars frowning faintly. While he was more than confident of his ability to face any two Jedi at a time, only a fool would take on three Jedi and the chaotic fulcrum at the same time. No, he would need to wait until they separated.

It was obvious given her disguise that the Togrutan Jedi and the chaotic fulcrum were here for another purpose. And given the message his master had allowed to pass through the Trade Federation, the queen would be desperate to get to the Senate and force it to aid her planet. They would need to split up quickly, so he could lie in wait outside the city between it and where the Nabooan yacht had touched down. There he could ambush the two Jedi, kill them and the queen, then come back for the fulcrum and the other Jedi afterward.

OOOOOOO

"I see," Qui-Gon said thoughtfully, tapping his fingers together, having listened to Shaak Ti explain further why the two of them were on Tatooine after he and his padawan had explained why they were here as well. They had been interrupted by a message from captain Panaka, who had passed on a message of distress from Naboo that had made Padme furious and even more determined to leave for Coruscant as soon as possible. The only thing keeping her here was her concern for leaving her retainers, particularly her hand maidens, behind.

"I had not heard of any such plan, but of course that means nothing. I hope that young Quinlan will be able to bounce back from his descent into the Dark side, but you know he has always had some issues with controlling his emotions." Qui-Gon watched Shaak's face, and did not miss the slight twitch of her purple lips turning downward.

"That would be something to be concerned of master, if any of us Jedi were actually told how to control our emotions, rather than ignore them." she replied tartly. "Ranma and I have had many discussions about the Jedi Code and the Order in general. I've won several arguments about experimenting with the Force, certain bits of knowledge and ideas, but he has mostly won that particular argument."

Ranma had also won the debate about attachments but that hadn't sunk into Shaak Ti's mind yet. Nor had she made the jump from admitting that to seeing how it had to impact her own life, hence the issues she had been having lately. But her indoctrinated resistance to that idea was fading fast.

"A Jedi must not allow his emotions to cloud his judgment, a Jedi must remain in control at all times, giving into your emotions leads to the dark side." Said Obi-wan as if quoting, but his eyes were far away, distant.

Ranma cocked an eyebrow at him, thinking that Obi-wan would've been one of those who should've been jumping on Shaak for feeling anything or at least for letting her emotions show so clearly as she had earlier. But it was obvious he was thinking of something else entirely. Huh…

"Yes, but that idea has been taken to extremes within the Order. We are not allowed to express our emotions, we are not allowed to feel them. Instead we are forced to put them to the side, to push them down without expression. I think Quinlan does have issues with anger you're right master Qui-Gon, but I think those issues could have been lessened if he had ever been taught how to truly control and direct them in the first place. Anger is a powerful emotion it's true, but it can be overcome just like fear and hate." Shaak said passionately.

After all, she'd just had an entire day of controlling and slowly allowing such emotions to dissipate without breaking her cover. While she still had major concerns about the emotions that she felt growing between her and Ranma, the Jedi emotional conditioning had proven false in many ways already. If it wasn't for Ranma's training in meditation and their discussions, plus her own master's softer ideas about emotions, she would have lost control of them quickly.

She was somewhat surprised however when Qui-Gon merely raised an eyebrow, not questioning her at the moment. "So," she said, switching the topic suddenly. "What are your plans going forward?"

Shaak listened silently as Qui-Gon told her what they were planning, and she frowned. "That seems roundabout, surely Ranma your money would be enough to…"

"Enough to buy it if he would take Republic credits, yeah." Ranma shrugged. "But the freaking overgrown fly won't. They're no good out here apparently, and the Hutts are the ones who set the exchange rate. What was it, 1 to 5?"

"Exactly yes." Qui-Gon said with a sigh. "Even with Ranma's money added to ours after we exchange it we wouldn't have enough."

"So you plan to wager on this young boy?" Shaak said, looking over to Anakin, who had been looking at them all, listening quietly for once. "That is rather putting all of your eggs in one den is it not?"

"Humans say all in one basket." Ranma said with a chuckle, "but your meaning still came through. She's right you know, you don't have a backup plan. What if he loses?"

"I won't lose!" Anakin said, jumping to his feet and pointing at Ranma. "I'm the best pod racer there is, I've got better reflexes than any of 'em, I'm small and light! I would've won the last time if not for someone cheating and messing with my pod's engines!"

"Okay, so follow that to the logical conclusion," Ranma said with a smirk. "What if someone cheats again?"

"Despite my astonishment that Ranma even knows what the word logic means, I am forced to agree with him," Shaak put in, ignoring Ranma's wounded expression with a small smirk. "While it might seem an elegant solution, and would work in many ways, what if it doesn't? You have no fallback plan."

"We do." Qui-Gon said, serenely. As if it wasn't a wager at all as if it was a certainty, his eyes locked on Anakin. There was something strange about the intense about that stare, but Ranma couldn't put his fingers on it. "If the wager doesn't succeed, we are no poorer off, and then we will take Ranma up on his offer of using his ship. We would admittedly be forced to leave most of the queen's retainers behind, but better that than waiting here any longer."

He looked over at Padme, who looked torn between her duty to her planet and to her retainers. Eventually however she just nodded, having come around to the Master's points however reluctantly. "I agree to that Master Qui-Gon. Loathe as I am to admit it, captain Panaka and the others could remain here for a few days. Indeed, I'm almost tempted to leave now as it is and would do so if we didn't have a plan that would allow us all to stay together."

Shaak frowned, stroking one of her tentacles thoughtfully. "While I was in Jabba's palace, I attempted to find out everything I could about Aayla. I don't think they have any idea she's a Jedi, but she has already been sold." Her jaw clenched visibly at that, but again Ranma didn't feel any of the backlash effect he was looking for when she felt that jolt of anger from the Force. "We have only two days to work with before the buyer arrives apparently, I got one of Jabba's retainers drunk enough to tell me that."

She sighed, shaking her head. "I, I also don't like what has been done to Aayla mentally." The distress of her friend not recognizing Shaak, of looking so ecstatically mindless bothered Shaak even after leaving the palace. "The sooner we get her someplace safe where we can wean her off whatever concoction she's on, the better. I assume it's a combination of drugs and something else, but it is that unknown factor that bothers me. So does Aurra Sing's presence."

"It should." Qui-Gon said grimly. "Bringing her to justice would be an excellent idea. But don't underestimate her combat skills. Obi-wan and I fought her on Kwannot and we were barely able to fend her off."

"I think in combat I can handle her," Shaak said with a faint smile, looking over to Ranma who gave her a thumbs up, even though his eyes were glittering darkly. He did not like murderers, especially hired murderers. "It's the rest of it that bothers me, my being unable to reach out to Aayla with the Force because of her presence, and the timing issue..."

Anakin spoke out from where he had gone back to working on Ranma's droid head. "You know, you might be able to wager for her. The Hutts might not like Republic credits being used around here, but they do take them themselves. And they're always known for betting on pod races."

"You want us to wager on you with them?" Ranma asked, one eyebrow cocked. "You got a really high opinion of yourself don't you kiddo?"

"I'm the best." Anakin said, smirking back at him. "Like I said, I would have won last time, if not for that dug cheating!"

"We need a backup plan if Jabba isn't willing to wager Aayla or if Anakin loses." Ranma said, shaking his head. "I know my idea of an uprising is out the door, but I don't want to just give up on the idea of freeing all the slaves."

"Nor do I." Shaak said with a nod, ignoring Qui-Gon's shock and Obi-wan's wide eyes. The two of them were astonished that she was speaking about something like that so calmly, when their jurisdiction out here was non-existent. Trying something like that would almost be a declaration of war against the Hutts.

But once more facing the reality of slavery had destroyed any lingering arguments Shaak Ti had against freeing the slaves by any means they could. There were still problems that had to be overcome first however. "Yet not only is Aayla's safety a major concern, but we also need to face facts: even if we free the slaves, the rest of the planet is still under the control of the Hutts. Both of them might be in attendance here for the pod races, but the majority of their forces are elsewhere on the planet in their main bases. We have to assume that whoever they left in charge out there will try to take the slaves back if we just leave them here."

"If your ship couldn't fit my retainers and us, there's no way you could transport the slaves!" Padme objected while Anakin's eyes had lit up with near hero worship, staring between Ranma, Shaak and the two human Jedi. "I understand your wish to aid their plight, and I sympathize, but is it possible?"

"And besides, what about the slave collars?" Obi said, gesturing to Anakin and Shmi's. "They will explode if they are too far from the master's controller."

"That is a major hurdle for the slaves like Anakin and Miss Shmi, but not as much of one for the Hutts. They all are controlled by a single relay transmitter. Take that out, and the collars won't respond to any of the master's commands. But while Gardulla's slaves might not need much incentive to try to break out, all of Jabba's slaves are seemingly drugged into docility or otherwise broken, they will need a lot of help to escape. But the major issue, as Padme said, is getting the slaves away once we break them out." Shaak replied.

"That and breaking them out in the first place," Qui-Gon objected, while Anakin listened avidly, his hands still moving over the droid head despite this.

"How many slaves are we talking about anyway?" Ranma asked.

"Around forty, maybe closer to fifty gladiator types. Gardulla apparently just sent off most of her 'stock'. Jabba has upwards of a hundred mostly newly acquired slaves here. His palace here in Mos Espa is just one of his holdings here on Tatooine, but it is also apparently his training and main trading center. The only slaves elsewhere are those he keeps rather than sells on to other buyers." Shaak replied.

Ranma frowned, thinking hard. He knew they couldn't' do anything for the slaves scattered around the planet. Even if they could find them it would take too long, and the Hutts would have time to respond and send forces in, if the locals didn't try to fight them in the first place. Slavery wasn't just condoned here, it was part of the local economy, even the poorest dirt farmer didn't seem to have much empathy for the slaves, and wouldn't stick their necks out for them.

For evil to win good people must do nothing, that's the phrase right? Well here at least evil's won long since! Despite this, he wasn't willing to just leave the slaves here in Mos Espa.

At last he shrugged. "Well, Wild Light only needs a single pilot, I mean Tune can fly it easily enough. So we'll just have to hijack another ship and one of us can pilot it."

Obi and Qui-Gon both looked shocked at that, while Padme was appalled and Anakin frowning. He did not like how the idea of freeing the slaves seemed so complicated, or that to do so they'd have to steal a ship. After all, these were Jedi, they should be able to just do it using the Force! It was weird and irritating to hear them talk about all these reasons not to. When I become a Jedi I'll always do the right thing no matter how hard it is or what it is!

Shaak however merely nodded judiciously. "I think that might be the best idea yes. One of us will have to survey the various docks, find a ship that will be able to lift out all the slaves. The ship could also provide overhead cover."

"I don't know about that, Tune wasn't exactly happy about the idea of even hurting someone, let alone killing them. One of us'd need to be in the ship to fire the weapons. Especially since I'd think the Hutts would have some kind of space defense force. Didn't the data we looked at say something about a spacefighter squad?"

"Yes, it did. But…"

Shaak was interrupted by Anakin, holding up the ancient droid head Ranma had given him. "Done! I had to replace some of the long term memory storage, it was shot to pieces, and some of its emotional control center. It's vocorder needed several new parts too, the rest of the damage was mostly already fixed or cosmetic. This head was actually in more complete shape than the one I'd been putting together for my own droid."

He held it out to Ranma who under his direction pressed a small button at the back of the skull where it would meet its neck, once it had one anyway. For a moment nothing happened then the droid's eyes lit up, locking on Ranma's. "Bemused Interest: Oh dear, I wonder how long I have been out of it. Resigned Greeting: Hello master, I am HK-47, a hunter killer droid. Hopeful query: May I kill someone for you today?"

"Huh, so were a combat droid? I figured that given how much damage you'd taken. As for you killing anyone, what would you do, talk them into a coma?"

"Hurt response: Master, I am a most proficient combatant with any weapon you care to name! My voice, while an excellent medium to show off my vast intellect, is not my weapon of choice I would I… Bemused horror: Why are none of my limbs responding to commands?"

Laughing Anakin raced off, coming back with a small piece of polished metal while everyone else watched, bemused, horrified, or amused in turn. The droid looked at its reflection in the mirror and a loud wordless squeal of electronic shock came from it's voice box. "SXXZZZZZzzzzzz! Shocked Exclamation: Wh-what happened to my glorious form? My powerful arms, my magnificent legs, where!?"

"No idea HK, though maybe Anakin here can whip you up something given enough time." Ranma replied, laughing at the admittedly amusing responses from the droid.

"Bemused appreciation: I, thank you? That feels so strange. Yes, thank you master, that will be much appreciated. How am I supposed to stand by you in battle and flense your enemies if I have no hands?"

"I'm a little disturbed right now." Obi Wan muttered, while Shmi nodded beside him.

"As amusing as this has been, I think we should move on," Shaak said, shaking her head while Qu-Gon was frowning, staring at the head as he tried to bring something to mind.

"Hold on a minute. This guy is a combat droid right? What if we hooked it up to the Wild Light to man the guns? Ranma asked. "That'd free me to back you or these two up on the ground and provide us some overhead cover." Ranma said, pointing a thumb at the two Jedi.

"Exclaimed shock: Wait, what's this? My master has enemies and has thought up a way for me to aid in killing them even before regaining my body? Amazement: Master, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship."

Shaak shrugged. "That's not a bad idea actually. With Tune there, we could easily hook the head, HK I mean to the controls of the weapons station. We'd just have to be very clear about the rules of engagement and the targets." She frowned at the head. "And what not to target."

"If you are determined to do this I think we must help you as best we can. We might not even need to steal a ship you know, after all smugglers at least would be willing to be paid in Republic credits." Qui-Gon said, shaking his head with a small smile on his face.

"Master!" Obi-wan objected.

"They are right my padawan, the Order hasn't done enough in the last few centuries to curb the slave trade. This would not only save dozens of lives but would also send a sharp message to them about the reach of the Jedi and what lengths we are willing to go to protect the Republic's citizens."

"I, I must reluctantly agree." Padme said, shaking her head. "I don't like the idea of having to break the law ourselves, but it is the lesser of two evils. Yet I have to remind you that our own mission is one that will not wait Master Jedi. As we sit here my people suffer!"

"Agreed. I will aid you both in this for now, but when Anakin wins tomorrow, we will need to be on our way quickly." Qui-Gon replied, while Obi simply sighed.

He understood Padme and his master's opinions, he just didn't like it. Then again he felt they should be taking Ranma's ship to Coruscant now. He could understand Padme not wanting to leave her hand maidens behind here in particular, and Panaka and the few other guards with them hadn't impressed him. With Aurra Sing on the planet he even understood the need for both of them to stay here if anyone else was, especially if Ranma and Knight Ti were going to be busy.

I just wish I could convince myself that those logical reasons were behind this decision and not his interest in young Anakin. Obi thought, looking at the older man and the young boy.

OOOOOOO

Later that night, while Anakin was sleeping inside along with Obi-Wan and Padme and the two older adults were talking by candlelight, Ranma and Shaak were outside.

"All planets have a certain beauty to them, if you catch them in the right light." Shaak murmured, as the two sat on a dune right next to the house, staring out into the desert night, the last of the day's tension fading away. "Even here, even with the evil of the Hutts so prevalent, this planet still has a certain austere beauty."

"Yeah," Ranma said, his eyes actually more on Shaak than on the view around them. "The view is incredible."

Shaak turned, but by the time she did, Ranma was already looking away, a faint flush on his face as he realized what he had actually said aloud. Shaak frowned a little, thinking that she had missed something there but not knowing what.

Eventually Ranma asked, "So you think this Aurra Sing woman is going to be the major issue?"

"One of many. The sheer number of mercenaries here is a little off-putting, but we could deal with them. With the weaponry you're carrying around the gladiators will become a major help. But Sing and the Trandoshan mercenaries are a major obstacle to any kind of large scale rescue."

"Tell me more about this Aurra woman. Do you think she's involved with whatever's going on with Aayla?"

"I don't think so, it's not her style. Killing Aayla yes I can see that, even capturing her if the money was right. But drugging her and selling her off…" Shaak's fists clenched, and Ranma quickly reached down, taking one hand in his own and squeezing it.

Shaak nodded and squeezed back, not noticing that Ranma had actually been looking with her with his key sight as she became angry. What he saw there made him smile. Despite her anger, her Force connection was still the same. Her self-control really is getting very good!

"Anything you can add to what Qui and Obi said…" Ranma paused as Qui-Gon came out of the house, a small datapad in one hand and something small and mechanical in the other.

He looked at Shaak who cocked her head thoughtfully. "A Midi-Chlorian counter. I take it Master Qui-Gon that you took a sample of young Anakin?"

"I did, you must admit that the boy is positively brimming with the Force." Qui-Gon replied, though he seemed somewhat reluctant to discuss this even as he moved over to join them.

"I suppose, he certainly does seem to have a way about him. But he is rather old. There have been other younglings brought in at his age to be sure, but he'll have a lot of catching up to do." Shaak replied. "And will the boy really wish to be parted from his mother? You know the Order will demand that, and the two of them are quite close. I can't remember any other older youngling that had such a strong familial connection, nor one who had lived as harsh a life."

Qui-Gon shrugged. "You didn't hear the boy earlier, he wants to be a Jedi, a 'great Jedi' he says. I think that tomorrow I will make a further deal with the Toydarian, he seems the greedy sort. If we put up the Nabooan yacht, then he'll have to put up something more than just the engine we need. That way Anakin can not only win us the parts but his and his mother's freedom as well."

"Not a bad idea, the little bastard seemed the greedy sort." Ranma said with a nod. "And Shmi might even be a help to us." Aayla looked at him and he shrugged. "If Aayla's been put through as much as we fear, having an older woman who might have gone through a similar nightmare when she was younger could be a major help."

Shaak nodded, while Qui-Gon simply looked quizzical and almost dismissive, his attention turning to his datapad as it beeped at him. What it showed made him smile slightly but somewhat worriedly, looking almost as if he had just been given a bit of news he had been searching, hoping to find for years. "I knew it… the boy is a vergence…"

"What's a vergence?" Ranma asked, as Shaak reared back in surprise.

"A vergence, a being created by the Force itself… His mother couldn't tell me anything about the boy's father, only saying she had not laid with anyone at the time, the Force itself used her womb to create life..."

Ranma was about say something about the woman maybe having been given some powerful drugs but Qui-Gon went on his voice sounding way too close to a fanatic's for Ranma's state of mind. "He is the Chosen One I knew it! The Force has told me for years that it would be up to me to find him, and I have. He is the chosen one destined to restore balance to the Force."

Hearing that, Ranma couldn't help but snort. "Fuck destiny."

"Why does that attitude not surprise me?" Shaak said, smiling faintly. She didn't believe in that prophecy either, but she knew that Jedi Seers had made accurate predictions in the past.

"I think we make our own fates, we have no one to blame but ourselves for our mistakes, and we have no one to thank for what we do except for us too. Your Force doesn't forge our destinies, we do." Ranma said, somewhat passionately, surprising Qui-Gon, but not Shaak. She understood how much Ranma valued his freedom, it was one of many things she admired about him.

"That is your interpretation my young friend, and no doubt it works for you. But we Jedi are servants of the Force. We have long felt the Dark Side gaining power, indeed lately it has started to get even worse. Our visions of the future are clouded, even the best of us can't see the future any longer. The worst part is that there doesn't seem to be any single event or individual behind it, it just seems as if the Force itself is becoming unbalanced, possibly because of all the recent conflicts."

"True, even I've felt that, although not nearly as powerfully since I've been around Ranma." Shaak murmured smiling slightly at him.

"Yes, Ranma's presence does seem to blow back the Dark Side of the Force, but that is a far cry from returning the balance to the Force Knight Ti." Qui-Gon replied almost dismissively. "The legend of the Chosen one says he will be a Jedi and he will return balance to the Force."

"Okay, two, no three points." Ranma said holding up his fingers. "One, balance in nature is all well and good, are you sure it'd be good in the Force? Doesn't that mean there would be as much Dark Side Force as Light?"

Ranma really didn't know why they were talking about this, prophecies and destiny and balance all of it was stupid as far as he was concerned. Destiny was for idiots who wanted to excuse their actions and the concept of balance, of yin and yang, was real but when you tried to expand it beyond your own body it tended to fall apart. And to his mind, most prophecies seemed to be self-fulfilling ones.

Shaak Ti stifled a laugh at that, never having been a great believer in the idea of a Chosen One, while Qui-Gon shook his head, as if Ranma had just said something that was patently ludicrous. To his mind the Jedi served the Force, not just the Light side, but the balance of the Force in its entirety. The Dark Side by its very nature overthrew that balance in large quantities such as what was occurring now.

But Ranma ignored this, holding up a second finger. "Two, I don't care if ya bring him with ya to the Order or whatever, but don't ever mention this Chosen One crap in front of him."

Qui-Gon made to protest, but Ranma held up a hand. "I'm sort of an expert on the kind of trouble being told and believing you are special can get a person into. Building up that kind of ego, that kind of arrogance in a Jedi, with your connection to the Unifying Force and it's weird magnifying effect is just asking for trouble."

Talking with Shaak and Master Halcyon about his time in Nerima, Ranma had been forced to realize that a lot of his issues had been started or made worse by his refusal to back down from a challenge and from his belief he was the best, almost as much as from his lack of social skills. He didn't like that, but he had been forced to face facts, his ego did get him into a lot of problems a bit of empathy or diplomacy could have gotten him out of.

"I agree." Shaak said softly but firmly. "Remember Master Qui-Gon, it often isn't the strength of the Jedi that make him or her great, but his ability with what strength he has, his insight, and his control." There is passion but control… Shaak shook her head quickly, getting rid of the memory of Master Halcyon telling them about the Old Code. "No Jedi should start his training believing he is special in comparison to his fellow younglings, our history is replete with examples of why that is a bad idea."

"I suppose there is some merit in that, at least to start with. But eventually he'll have to be told about his mission." Qui-Gon replied, thoughtfully. As his master it will be up to me to decide that moment I suppose. "And your third point?"

"It's fully dark out, and I think we've all got jobs to do to prepare for tomorrow." Ranma smirked. "This ain't the time for this conversation, okay? Keep your minds on the task at hand."

Shaak chuckled, shaking her head and holding out her hand. Ranma nodded then pulled her robe out of his ki, space and HK's currently dormant head. Without another word, Shaak dressed and moved out into the desert beyond Mos Espa's poor quarter, disappearing into the distance quickly as she picked up speed, moving around the city toward where they had landed the Wild Light.

"My word, Knight Ti seems to have already improved greatly from your training Ranma." Qui-Gon said, blinking in shock.

"Heh, you don't know the half of it old man." Ranma said, slapping him on the shoulder. "I'm off too, remember, radio Shaak if you run into trouble, not me." With that he turned, leaping up onto the roof landing without a sound. He raced off, entering the Umi-Sen-Ken between one rooftop and the next, a feral grin on his face.

Qui-Gon chuckled lightly, then turned and moved off himself, sure that his padawan, who was asleep inside, would watch the house for them.

As he expected, Shaak's directions on the layout of Gardulla's fortress were spot on, and Ranma was able to make his way through the main building with relative ease. He still had to dodge several aliens that he knew had infrared, but now that he was aware of that weakness in his stealth technique, Ranma could make allowances for it His ability to cling to ceilings for example. Very few races looked up, particularly if they weren't expecting trouble.

He did have a few scary moments when he was almost spotted by an alien who could see into infrared, but quickly dropping down behind another person moving around in the main area allowed Ranma to throw off anyone who noticed him. The fact nearly everyone in the main room was drunk or otherwise preoccupied also helped.

Ranma kept on moving deeper into the fortress, bypassing the area with that was more heavily guarded, figuring that would be where Gardulla was, possibly sleeping or doing whatever it was that Hutts did at night. Ranma refused to even speculate on that score. He had enough worries wondering what had happened to Aayla under Jabba's direction, let alone anything else.

He soon found the collar control relay room. As Shaak and Tune had surmised, for the sheer number of slaves a single handheld device wouldn't do. It would do to convey orders, but it couldn't handle all of the signals there were needed to keep the collars running. This room also doubled as the security center for the few cameras set around the fortress.

Within, Ranma found an alien whose face vaguely resembled a spider's, fast asleep in a single central chair. Ranma made sure he stayed asleep by a swift jab to the back of the neck, knocking him out with a pressure point. With that done, he pushed the alien's chair back slightly, and began to look around for a place to place the bomb, this universe's equivalent of plastic explosive.

He found one in the space between the wall of the small cave and the back of the control device quickly, but it took a few minutes for him to set it up out of sight. Once that was done, he moved back to the alien, made certain that his attack hadn't left a bruise, and left quickly. With that guard unconscious for now, there was no one to watch the scattered cameras were guarding the two levels of the fortress devoted to the dungeons where the slaves were kept.

Still clinging to the roof Ranma made his way around the dungeons, trying to find someone who might work as a leader for any breakout. Near the back of the lowest level he spotted a group of 10 Wookies, all of them growling to one another, showing signs of abuse, their fur singed in places and three of them with broken arms. They'll do he thought grimly, remembering how Wookies were apparently a favored slave race for the Hutts, given their strength, durability and skill with mechanics.

Coming out of the Umi-Sen-Ken, he tapped the bars of their cage high up near where the bars met the ceiling. A few of them looked up, then all of them, and he quickly brought a finger up to his lips indicating they should quiet. A few of them growled at one another in low tones, but most of them remain silent, staring up at the human who had appeared out of nowhere.

"Can you all understand me?" Ranma whispered, pitching his voice so it wouldn't carry far beyond where he was currently hanging. "Is there anyone in the nearby cells we have to be concerned about warning your so-called owners?"

One of the Wookies stood forward, shaking his head and pointing several cells down, well out of hearing range, then bristling a little as he made a complicated gesture with his fingers. "That one's a plant, or a collaborator?"

The Wookie nodded in response to Ranma's observation, then cocked its head, trying to ask what Ranma was doing there.

"Listen, I work with the Jedi, and we've got a plan to break you and all of your fellows out of here. But, you're going to have to do your part. When the signal comes, your collars will stop working. After that it'll be up to you to get yourselves out of here. Another Jedi is securing the ship to get us off-planet, and a third's going to be busy over at Jabba's. But you'll be the ones that'll have to break out of this fortress and deal with anyone in your way."

The group of Wookies all looked at one another, gesturing quietly speaking in low tones before their spokesman nodded, then held up his hands as if holding a weapon before shaking his head. In response Ranma grinned, gesturing towards their bunks. "You think you can hide any?"

The Wookies all nodded, and one of them moved over to his bunk, lifting it up. The springs on it groaned slightly and everyone froze, but nothing happened and the Wookie, a young one if Ranma was any judge, moved aside still holding the bed aloft. This allowed Ranma to see what looked like a shallow pit dug out of the dirt and rock, its edges jagged and not very deep, but still enough to hide some weapons.

"Great, hold on a minute." With that, Ranma reached the bars of the cage. Luckily for Ranma they weren't electrocuted, but they were very strong metal, strong enough to keep even Wookies within their cage. But Ranma was something else entirely. Slowly, so that the metal didn't make any noise, he began to bend the bars apart until they were wide enough for him to stick his upper body through.

Once that was done, he reached into his ki space, pulling out one of the heavy SAWs. "Do you think any of the other prisoners can be trusted with the plan, and do you know if any of them have a hiding place like yours?

As he was doing this the Wookies had all fallen silent, staring at the impossible twice over. This question however pushed them out of it, and the Wookies looked at one another, gesturing and seeming to argue for a moment before their spokesman pointed several cages down. Ranma looked in that direction but couldn't figure out who was in it, simply nodding his head.

The next few moments he handed over weapons, another SAW, then eight other blasters, four rifles and four pistols while the Wookies as silently as they could stowed them away, chuffing all the while to themselves in low tones, sending almost gleeful. Ranma got the distinct impression that even if their plan failed this group at least would willingly take their chances. That kind of courage spoke to Ranma, and he resolved to look into the Wookie's culture once he was on their home planet.

Once the Wookies signaled that they had hidden all the weapons they could in their cage, Ranma nodded respectfully, which looked very odd considering he was still upside down. "Remember, wait until the LED light on your collar stops working, then let freedom ring!"

That line got some laughter, and all of the Wookies grinned, showing heavy teeth. The Wookie who had already gestured down away from the entrance to the slaves area gestured again, this time imperatively and Ranma nodded, waving at him before reaching forward bending the bars back to normal.

Ranma quickly made his way in that direction to find a group of seven aliens from yet another new species. They were tall as humans and generally built the same, but had dark purple skin and large slightly protruding eyes. Their fingers also looked like they were double-jointed. They all were the same kind of carapace armor, tan and darkish red, and they all had the air of soldiers to of them were sleeping, but one of them was up, sitting near the cage door staring out into the passage.

Coming out of the Umi-Sen-Ken again at the top of the cave Ranma tapped the bar lightly, and the guard looked up sharply. He stared at Ranma for a moment before saying a single word in some kind of language Ranma hadn't heard before. An instant later all of the aliens in the cage were up and looking at Ranma, their eyes hard, but not saying anything.

"What are you lot in for?" Ranma said, then shook his head. "Never mind. You guys want to get out of here?"

"Is that a trick question?" asked one of them in equally soft tones, his voice a gravelly one like that of someone used to shouting. "Where'd you come from anyway boy?"

"Man." Ranma replied, flipping the speaker the finger. "I work with the Jedi…" That got an immediate response and they all looked at one another nodding stoically. "We have a plan to turn off the relay for your control collars, and I've got enough weapons for you all to hide away to wait for that moment."

The one in charge nodded his head sharply, and turned quickly gesturing to the others with finger movements. They quickly and silently lifted up one of their bunks to reveal a tunnel, one that was far deeper than the one the Wookies had made.

"Excellent, hold on a minute." Ranma reached forward and like he had done with the Wookies cage slowly bent two of the bars apart. The moment he started doing so all of the aliens, even those still holding the bunk up stared at him, whistling as one. Note to self, mention this group to Shaak, they look like martial artists who just saw a new technique.

With that, he began to reach into his ki-space again, something that caused a small gasp to go around the group, and a curse from the leader. "Force trick?"

"Not exactly," Ranma smirked. "My trick I guess, and one I'm keeping to myself and my closest allies right now." He handed over a SAW and several rifles and other blasters, all of which were quickly examined, then placed in the tunnel. This went on for far longer than with the Wookies, with Ranma handing over all the weapons save for his own personal canon and the bomb for Jabba's fortress.

"Remember," he said as he finished, reaching forward to once again push the metal back into shape. "Wait for your collars to stop working before you start shooting."

"We'll give you till sundown tomorrow." said the leader. "If our collars haven't been turned off by then we'll take our chances. We refuse to be slaves to these weak fools!"

Ranma gestured down to the Wookie's cage. "You won't be alone, and believe me, those collars are gonna be a thing of the past soon."

The man nodded. "After we break out of the fortress, where're we going?"

"One of the other Jedi is securing an escape ship, another'll be over at Jabba's helping his slaves." The male alien's lips twisted sourly for a moment before he seemed to shrug, and Ranma wondered what that was about before going on. "The ship will hopefully be waiting right outside the fortress."

"This is a very broad scheme," the man said shaking his head.

"We're working with what we've got," Ranma said with a faint laugh. "Anyway, I'll see you all tomorrow."

OOOOOOO

While Ranma was busy wand Shaak had headed out to tell Tune his part of the operation and plug in HK's head, Qui-Gon had gone around the different docks of Mos Espa, looking at the ships that were currently docked. Several of them had large cargo holds but most of those looked much too much like pirates for him to trust. Some of them were too small to carry the numbers of slaves that Ranma and Shaak were looking for free, and still others obviously were allied with one or the other Hutt. Indeed there were a group of ten Cloak Shape Fighters docked in one of the ports, and Qui-Gon had to suppose they reported to one Hutt or the other. He noted their location, and made a note to pass them on to Shaak. The Wild Light might need to take them out before providing Over-watch for the rest of them.

Eventually he decided three ships looked like they both were large enough and their crews looked at least somewhat better than the out-and-out pirates. Overhearing conversations from the crews, he narrowed his choice down to one, a Corellian designed heavy hauler with the name Starwayman painted on its right side. It looked as if it shields and weaponry had been overhauled recently, but from the conversation he heard from the guards by the ship's ramp this band of smugglers were no friends of either of the Hutts.

Under his Force Stealth Qui-Gon walked between the two guards and onto the ship, looking around for the Captain, finding him having a solitary drink in the cockpit. Silently Qui-Gon opened and closed the cockpit door, a sound which made the man turn far faster than a person his size should've been able to. "Who's there!?" He barked, a blaster already in one hand.

"Peace Captain." said Qui-Gon, slowly letting the stealth technique fall, holding his hands up peaceably.

The man glared at him, frowning angrily. He was a large, tall man, about seven feet taller than Qui-Gon but far wider in the shoulders. He was younger, late twenties or early thirties Qui-Gon thought, with brown hair and a strangely aggressive looking beard. "A Jedi?! I've not done anything to warrant a Jedi's attention, certainly not around here!"

"I'm not here to take you in Captain, I'm here to gain your help."

"Help, what sort of help?" the man asked. "And I prefer to know the names of the person I'm talking to."

"I do as well," Qui-Gon replied, smiling as he pushed back his hood. "I am Jedi master Qui-Gon, and you are?"

"Booster Terrik, of Corellia originally, this is my ship. Now, what kind of help does a Jedi need that would require you to sneak onto my ship like this in the middle of the night? On a planet outside Republic space I might add."

"The kind of help that Hutts would prefer you not to give me." said Qui-Gon obliquely.

"Rescuing a slave, or someone else?" Booster smirked, putting his blaster away and grabbing up his drink. "Tell me more."

Qui-Gon did so, outlining the plan as far as he knew, though it was really was just an outline of the plan. There were so many things that could go wrong, but Ranma and Shaak were both confident, and if even a bit of it worked then they would at least get Aayla out, as well as some of the other slaves.

Booster listened quietly. Then he shook his head. "You're right that my ship could hold that number. It would be crowded and uncomfortable, but it's better than remaining here. I don't know why, but the scuttlebutt is that the Hutts are both bringing in troops, then sending them out to their main fortresses. Something about the raiders've stirred them up or vice versa, I don't know. But if we spend too much time here, they'll call those troops in and we'll be overwhelmed. Even you Jedi can't face that kind of numbers."

"I suppose that would depend on the Jedi." Qui-Gon replied, thinking how Ranma would probably eat a regular army alive given what he had done to the Yinchorri.

Booster shrugged, looking at the older man shrewdly. "Yeah well, while I'd love to do something like this out of the goodness of my heart, I'm a businessman, and I need to make a profit.

"Would 70,000 Republic credits per rescued slave do you Captain? With a 100,000 down payment?" Qui-Gon asked.

"Republican credits? That'll do fine for a start I suppose." Booster said with a wry smile on his craggy expression. "But I was thinking more along the lines of favors."

Qui-Gon frowned slightly. "What kind of favors are we talking about?"

"Two get out of jail free cards for pissing two Hutts off." Booster replied promptly. "I won't be able to work out here in the Outer Rim any longer, even if both Hutts die during this uprising of yours some of their lieutenants are sure to survive, and their clans will look for someone to blame for this. That means I'll have to work in Republic space, and while I don't plan on getting caught, having a Jedi's get out of jail free cards would be a major help."

Qui-Gon frowned slightly. "For that, I'm afraid I would have to demand a little more on your part. You passing on any rumors and information you think the Order should know in the future for example, and your promise not to run drugs. I don't suppose I have to mention running slaves would be rather quixotic after this."

After a moment Booster nodded. "I've got no stomach for that kind of thing anyway, though I'll decide what information I pass on, and how."

Qui-Gon frowned but nodded. "Very well, I think we have an agreement." Qui-Gon held out his hand, and the two men shook on it firmly.

"I'll want that get out of jail free thing in writing before we part company by the way." Booster said, before releasing Qui-Gon's grip.

"Of course," Qui-Gon, replied, a faint smile on his face.

OOOOOOO

Ironically Ranma had an easier time of it moving through Jabba's palace than Gardulla's because Jabba was still awake, and the party was still going on. He didn't even use the Umi-Sen-Ken for a bit, simply moving through the crowd silently, then disappearing from a far corner of the darkened room into his stealth technique when he saw Sing wasn't around.

Moving into the rest of the fortress found basically the same setup as Gardulla had with a main control area, but this one wasn't manned at all. There were a lot more cameras in the slave pens, but none of them faced this room. With a faint shrug, Ranma planted his second bomb, pushing it into a small area between the main computer console and the back of the small cavern.

With that done, Ranma checked on the slaves, noting that only twenty or so of the hundred plus women in their cages looked as if they weren't resigned to their fate. They were pacing restlessly, staring out into the tunnels, angrily muttering to one another. Most looked resigned or docile, like the six twi'leks he saw, slaves born into it who had never known anything but captivity. Four of them however wore the same sort of expression that Shaak had described from Aayla and the young Togrutan dancer, both of whom Ranma had seen on his way in still out there waiting on Jabba. Ugh, I wonder how bad weaning them off whatever drug they were given is gonna be…

Moments later Ranma began his exit, and almost immediately ran into a problem. "I tell you, I saw a human's heat shape moving in this direction." Said a Trandoshan to his human companion, the two of them leaving the main room and entering the tunnel connecting it to the slave's area.

"Look around ya, there's no sign that anyone's been walking on this corridor, and there was no alarm either." The human, a scarred and ugly character gestured to a camera set high up one of the walls. "Lord Jabba'd have noticed if anyone was in this area."

"We should still look around," the Trandoshan growled insistently, moving forward into the tunnel.

The human shrugged and followed, both of them passing directly below where Ranma clung to the ceiling. He waited until they were a few steps behind him, before turning slowly so as not to make noise keeping watch on them as they entered the control room.

A moment later the two of them exited, talking quietly. "Told you, there was nothing wrong there, and there's no sign anyone's been in the area."

"I know what I saw," the Trandoshan said angrily, shaking his head. The two of them continued walking, neither of them looking up, as Ranma followed them out of that area of the fortress and back into the main hall.

Once there, Ranma dropped down behind a human, undid his technique, and joined the crowd, moving towards the doorway and trying not to blush at the slaves dancing on their polls or Aayla and the younger Togrutan. Moment later he was outside, job done for the evening.

OOOOOOO

The next day dawned bright and cheery. Anakin and Obi-Wan left first, heading towards over to Anakin's race pod to make sure it was all right. Qui-Gon left to seek out the junk dealer and make the agreement. Shaak also left to head over to the Hutts, to prove her skill with a sniper rifle and join Jabba's protective detail for the day.

Ranma helped Shmi clean up then exited the house after promising her that her son would be all right. After checking in with Tune and HK via his wrist com, Ranma made his way over to the nearest area set up to watch the pod races.

Around Ranma some of the mercenaries paused looking at him then away before hurrying on. A few times, a group would look at him over their shoulder then down at a data pad, murmuring excitedly to one another. Three such groups got together quickly ahead of Ranma, moving through the city to find a good place to ambush the young human with the enormous bounty while two others trailed behind the target.

These guys aren't nearly as good at followin' someone as Gos was. Ranma mused to himself, wondering if they really thought he hadn't noticed them. Well whatever, guess I get to have some fun early.

A moment later he began to speed up until he was racing through the streets, dodging around people of all types and around hover sleds. Then he pushed off of one foot into an alleyway before jumping up onto a rooftop. The two mercenaries trailing him came to a stop below him gasping in air. "That kriffer, he, haa, he really moves when he wants ta. But where'd he go?"

"Kriff, he must've double backed at some point, or ducked under one of those sleds we passed. We lost hiGKK!"

The 'hiGKK' was caused by Ranma jumping down from his perch to land feet first on the speaker's shoulders, pushing him to the ground with enough force to knock him out when his jaw hit the earth. Before the first speaker, a human with short-cropped black hair and a furtive expression, could react he found himself being held a foot off the ground in one of Ranma's outstretched hands. "So, you probably know how this goes right? Tell me everything I want ta know, or else?"

Moments later Ranma was jumping over the rooftops, heading in the direction of the supposed ambush, leaving the human unconscious like his fellow behind him. He soon came to the ambush point, a small intersection for foot traffic that was empty at present, with clear lanes of fire from two directions onto the path Ranma had been following before this to head toward the starting line for the pod race.

Ranma moved in quickly over one of the rooftops, taking two of the shooters on that roof by surprise. A punch to the back of the head sent one into lala-land, while Ranma locked a chokehold around the other. He held him there for a moment until he stopped twitching then tossed him aside, grabbing up the rifles they had been using.

"Kriff, he's blown us! Rooftop leftmost!" Shouted a voice, and Ranma cursed, diving to one side as the would-be ambushers on the three other rooftops started to fire in his direction.

Even so, he was able to fire back, and Mos Espa's roofs didn't have any crenellations to hide behind. Several of his assailants fell to his return blasts, then Ranma rolled off the roof, aiming his fall towards the largest pack of attackers.

Not expecting him to come down so precipitously, none of them had time to fire on him. The building he had just fallen from also blocked the remaining shooters on the rooftops from ranging on him. Bodies flew in every direction as Ranma kicked and punched out, knocking out his would-be ambushers.

Ranma then grabbed up one of them, using his body as a shield to rush out into the open, jumping towards the next group as the body convulsed above him from the impacts of several bolts. Some of those bolts were stun bolts for some reason, causing Ranma's eyebrows to rise in surprise as he filed that away for the moment. Then he was in among the next group, hurling the body ahead of him to slam into several of them. None of them were able to get to their feet before he was on them.

"Kriff this I'm outta here, cred's ain't worth nothin' in the grave!" a voice shouted from one of the rooftops, and there was the sound of feet racing off, followed by silence. Ranma again grabbed up one of his attackers, sticking the alien, a Rutian he thought they were called, out into the open. When nothing happened he shrugged, dropping him and moving over to another mercenary.

Rummaging around he pulled out a datapad. It displayed in a language he couldn't understand, but he didn't need to know what it said to recognize his own picture in both forms, or the fact some kind of number was displayed underneath it. "Okay… something from when I busted up the Gran's slave ring maybe? Weird, but whatever…" Frowning he looked around, jumping up onto one of the roofs to get a better view. Not spotting anyone, he scowled, then moved off, wondering if he should bother with a disguise, or not. He hadn't yet made a decision on that when he met up with Qui-Gon and the others at the starting line.

Hidden several streets away Aurra Sing frowned, shaking her head as she put the binoculars she'd used to watch the action away. Impressive. I might have to soften him up some. Luckily Mos Espa is lousy with cannon fodder. And I think I don't want them taken on in the city, he's too damn mobile here, way more mobile than any of the cannon fodder can be. We'd need to pin him in place without any cover.

OOOOOOO

As Shaak had predicted, she was easily able to show how good a shot she was though to her surprise, she did not see Aurra Sing among the onlookers. Turning away from the range, Jabba grumbled something in Huttese, and the droid interpreter nodded at her. "My Masters says you may join him as part of his bodyguard to the pod race this afternoon."

Shaak allowed her face to lighten up for a moment. "Pod races, any chance of betting on t'ose?"

The Hutt laughed, slapping his chest with one hand. "Of course there is," said the interpreter. "What would you like to wager?"

"I's will tell you plain," said Shaak, jerking her head over to where Aayla was behind the Hutt, her collar connected now to a chain that came out of the back of the corpulent Hutt's hover sled. Shaak's inside's clenched angrily at the sight but she was in complete control now, it only served to harden her determination further. "I's have fallen for that blue skinned girl. How much fer her?"

The Hutt stopped laughing, tilting its head slightly, his eyes narrowed. When he spoke there was no joviality in his tone, and even the droid's monotone translation came off as more serious. "More than you have on you, 1,000,000 credits down payment with another 200,000 on pick up."

Inwardly Shaak gaped at that number, that was way more than any slave could be worth, trained or otherwise. There is definitely something strange going on here. Aloud she just laughed. "Someone's playin' yas for a fool Great Jabba" she said, shaking her head. "No slaves wort' that much, no matter how sexy."

"This one is."

"And you've been paid that already?" Shaak said still in character but still incredulous.

"No, we have only received half of the credits promised for the down payment." The droid reported.

"In dat case, I's will match that, plus two months free work." Shaak said, making a point of gazing at Aayla with a look that Jabba would take as lust. It wasn't, Shaak couldn't act that well, but it was caring, worried, and almost, though Shaak didn't know it, affectionate.

The Hutt looked at her then seemed to calculate the odds. He knew Shaak had arrived on Tatooine the day before, so she couldn't know anything about the pod races or about who was the best racer. "Very well," he said, as always translated through the droid. "I will wager on the top man, the dug Sebulba. Who will you back?"

"I's don't know yet." Shaak said with a shrug. "I's will tell you that when I's get a chance to look at the racers."

The Hutt laughed again, and said something in Huttese. "My master warns you that you seem to have allowed your desires to get ahead of you. Were he any other creature, he would be taking advantage of that wholeheartedly."

"As if he's all sugar and light!" Shaak said with a laugh, causing the Hutt to laugh in turn. "What can I's say, I's like blue skin, and I've always had a thing for Twi'leks."

The Hutt laughed again, and the droid didn't bother translating. Shaak shrugged, and moved over to join the guards escorting job up out of his palace, where they met up with a group escorting Gardulla. The two Hutts exchanged a few words, and Shaak noticed both of them looking in her direction exchanging a loud laugh, but she didn't mind. The idea of betting for Aayla was only one portion of the plan. If it worked fine, if it didn't, the slave breakout next door would hopefully give her some cover to get Aayla out of the danger zone.

Once they arrived at the special covered pavilions set up for the Hutts she received permission to leave her position for moment and went down to check out each of the racers. After spending a few minutes doing so she came back and told Jabba she was betting on Anakin Skywalker. "He's gots the best looking engines, and the lightest too. Plus, the dug yas wagered on seems concerned 'bout him more t'an the others."

To Jabba's other side Gardulla nodded, saying it was a shrewd move, while Jabba seemed undisturbed, something that came out when the droid translated his words. "The human brat has incredible instincts and reflexes it's true, but he lacks a true fighter's mentality. I'll take your wager. I'm looking forward to your money, and two months free service," plus he said pointing at Shaak. "And a night of your dancing for me."

Shaak growled, made to reach for her blaster but stopped herself. In keeping with her character she gnashed her teeth a little, but nodded. "Fine, so's long as ya's know not to try and touch."

Jabba laughed, gesturing towards where Aayla was still chained. "If she is still here tonight, I'll have her do the touching, while I watch you do the dancing." The droid translated loyally.

The very idea caused even more revulsion to ripple through Shaak's self-control, and it was all she could do for a moment to keep in character, all she could do to stop herself reaching out with the Force to push Jabba off of his hover sled to the ground below. After a moment she simply shrugged her shoulders. "We's will see."

With that she moved over, looking Aayla up and down again as if inspecting her future property before moving over to take up a position above the pavilions. Pulling out a blaster rifle she set it up on a tripod, staring out over the crowd like any other bodyguard.

OOOOOOO

Ranma stood with the two Jedi and Padme, but all of them saw Shaak move around, then up towards the Hutts again, stopping once on a step when her handgun nearly snagged on a passerby's pants, a predetermined signal. "They took the bait," he murmured. "If you're boy wins, we can get Aayla out before the action starts. If not, things might get a little messier."

"Things are going to get messy anyway," Obi-Wan muttered shaking his head. "I can't believe the risk we're running here. I fully agree that the idea of slavery is a bad one, and I wouldn't quibble about rescuing the slaves, but this is going to pit the entire planet against us if we don't escape quickly."

"So we be quick." Ranma said with a shrug. "Sometimes doing the good things isn't easy Obi-Wan, and sometimes normality isn't exactly good either, this whole planet is an example of that." The apathy and lack of interest the free locals had towards the slaves bothered Ranma a lot.

"I said I wasn't concerned about rescuing the slaves and I meant it. What I'm most worried about is any innocents getting caught up in the crossfire, and Aayla. I don't know her very well, but there've been too many Jedi deaths lately."

"Speaking of that," Qui-Gon muttered, his eyes flickering all around the area, searching. "I don't see Sing anywhere which is worrisome. Are you positive that if she shows up Shaak can handle Sing before you rejoin her?"

"Positive." Ranma said with a nod. "Trust me, some of the training we've been going through is specifically designed to fight against people with blasters. And her skill with a lightsaber and the Force in general has gone up hugely over the past few months. I'd back her against most of the Masters I've met."

"Really?" Qui-Gon asked, slightly shocked at that level of endorsement from Ranma. Obi-Wan looked a little shocked as well, but after a moment he and Qui-Gon both remembered what Dooku had mentioned about Ranma's combat abilities, and nodded slowly.

"Yep. And if Anakin wins, I might even be able to drop by and pay for his mom's freedom before the actions starts." He watched Qui-Gon, and noticed the lack of interest in that with a little bit of worry. The man had made the bet with Watto as he had said he would but when the Toydarian refused to free both Skywalkers Qui-Gon hadn't even argued.

It wasn't as if Qui-Gon didn't care for the woman, yet he didn't seem to understand what an effect leaving her behind would have on Anakin. That was a worrying blind spot, and he idly wondered how many Jedi had it. Obi-Wan to didn't seem to think about that either, which also worried Ranma. So it's not just the Masters to have that blind spot, even the younger set has it?

"I still don't approve on us betting like this on Anakin. We're putting a lot of pressure on that young boy," said Padme shaking your head. "I know we have a backup plan, but still…"

"I believe it is the most elegant solution for our various issues your majesty." Qui-Gon said, bowing his head slightly to Padme who growled a little. She had not gotten over the fact that both of the Jedi had known she was the queen before they had even left the ship.

"Let's concentrate on other things right now." Obi-Wan said diplomatically. "I too am not happy that Sing's not around. Do you think she might have been behind that ambush you ran into Ranma?"

"Maybe, she could have used those idiots ta check out my skills I guess, though I didn't show much so it isn't going ta help her much." He looked at Obi's drawn face and over to Qui-Gon who looked almost serene, looking from Anakin then around the crowd. "I'd bet she'll try again at some point, maybe attack all of us if she can gather enough mercs ta help…"

The discussion was interrupted as a cheer went up, as the pods moved to their starting positions. An announcer came on the loudspeakers scattered around the area, a strange looking alien with two heads and forearms, it's heads distinctly different from one another. Ranma stared then shook his head. "I'm never going to get to the number of weird aliens here," he murmured shaking his head as the alien made some weird noise, his arm's stretched out to either side in seeming supplication while the crowd cheered the two Hutts. Ranma growled a little at that, shaking his head.

Moments later the race began.

OOOOOOO

In the distance Maul could hear the sound of hundreds of race pods moving across the desert. He could also feel a disturbance in the Force, someone calling on it to a degree that was uncoordinated yet still to a very high degree. Interesting, a powerful Force user in the race perhaps? Something to look into later.

Around Maul it was silent. Silent save for the rustling of scales over the desert ground, as the animal he had enthralled from a distance finally arrived in person. Maul stood up staring up at the giant Krayt dragon, and smiled.

OOOOOOO

"So we're agreed? 3,000,000 split between us, or split between the survivors anyway, plus another 3,000,000 if we take this one alive," Aurra said, lying through her teeth. Still, she needed help, and this group represented the best help she could get.

The leader of the Trandoshan mercs who had already arrived on planet nodded his head. Earning that kind of reward before the rest of the company even arrived on Tatooine would earn him the captain's spot easily. "We are agreed female, but I warn you if you…."

Before the alien could speak a another word, Aurra was in his face, a blaster pressed up against the bottom of his chin. "Don't threaten me," she said, her smile that of a grinning skull. "You're tough, I get it, but don't push your luck with me. I've killed Jedi, Senators and Mandalorans. What've you done? Keep your attitudes to yourselves, and we'll get along just fine."

She backed away and the larger alien nodded, glaring at her balefully, but she turned away, patting one of the lightsabers hung at waist for a moment. That move caught the alien's attention, and he subsided, nodding at his fellows, who all turned to their hover bikes and moved out over the desert.

OOOOOOO

From her position atop the Hutt's pavilion Shaak watched the race from beginning to end, cheering appropriately when possible, but for most part keeping a professional attitude, scanning the crowd for any threats to her 'employer'. More importantly, she kept an eye out for Aurra, but didn't see the green-skinned assassin, which worried her. Like Qui-Gon, Shaak wanted that woman where she could see her.

However she did cheer for real when Anakin came in first. The boy did it, I can't believe it! His connection to the Force, I could feel it from here, he knows how to call upon the Force to that level at so young an age. I still don't believe he's the Chosen One because I don't believe in that prophecy, but he may become a fantastic Jedi eventually.

For a moment, Shaak acted both as her character would seem to and as she would personally. She moved over to where Aayla was chained, putting an arm around her middle as she hugged the younger woman to her. For just a split second Aayla seemed to lean into her, but her blank ecstatic expression didn't change. Shaak turned to stare up at Jabba. "I's believe I's won that bet Lord Jabba." she said, smirking.

Jabba seemed to take it in stride, slapping his hands down on the front of his hover sled and booming out laughter, pointing out down towards the winning circle and the video recorders which were continually replaying the portions of the race. The droid simply kept on saying "good race good race," as Jabba and Gardulla chattered to one another in their language.

Eventually there enjoyment of the spectacle faded, and they moved away from the edge of their platform, gesturing to their bodyguards to go before them. Jabba nodded to Shaak, and again the droid translated. "The bet was well won, you can take possession of her when we get back to my palace."

Shaak nodded, letting go of Aayla's waist, moving to take a position on the side of the cavalcade as it exited down the ramp and out into the streets of the port.

Despite Jabba's seeming good humor Shaak was of course on guard, her eyes flicking everywhere, watching all of her fellow mercenaries, still on the lookout for the female bounty hunter, but she didn't seem to be in the area. On the one hand, that is possibly a good thing. On the other, that might mean she's going after Qui-Gon and the others.

At that moment her montrals picked up a snippet of conversation from back in the crowd, and she oriented on it slightly while her body continued to move forward. "Yeah, they ain't here. The Sing bitch apparently saw a major bounty in the city, major, one that even she needed help with."

"Are we talkin' 'bout the same person! That bitch is a stone cold killer, I'd back her against any number of us." Said a second voice sounding incredulous.

"Cross my heart," said the first mercenary. "But get this, 3,000,000 for death, 6,000,000 for capture!"

"That kind of money would set up someone for life." The mercenaries around the speaker murmured, shaking their heads in astonishment. "What is she going after, a team of Jedi?"

Hearing that Shaak frowned. That's not good. Then she thought about Aurra Sing running up against Ranma and smirked a little internally. But possibly not for me. So long as Ranma is with them, I think he can see her off easily enough. Good, that means I can concentrate on my part of this.

It was near to midday by the time they returned to Jabba's palace. The two Hutts separated, their different groups sorting themselves out before entering the fortresses, where several of their workers had stayed behind, some partying some cleaning others on guard of course, like the Gammoreans on watch outside Jabba's palace.

Shaak of course kept following the group with Jabba, guarding his back until he was safely within the fortress, then continuing to follow him through until he was back on his raised dais near the back of the all, with Aayla once again chained to the poll she had occupied the night before.

Jabba turned to watch Shaak as the rest of the mercenaries spread out, leaving an open area around her. Oh dear, she thought dryly is someone about double-crossed me, oh no, whatever shall I do. Jabba was still within reach of a Force-assisted jump, and Shaak still had her lightsaber hidden in her ki space. So she wasn't particularly concerned, wary but not worried. I wonder how he's going to go about it.

Now that she knew that Sing wasn't within the fortress, Shaak allowed her Force senses to expand, mentally tagging all of the mercenaries around her, her body even though it looked like she was simply casually standing there staring at her so-called prize, tensed and ready. "Well master Jabba, can I's take my prize now?"

Suddenly the ground underneath Shaak gave way dumping her into a large three-story pit. It happened so quickly she didn't have time to jump clear. Instead she landed like a cat, frowning angrily as she looked around. "What is this!?"

"Your interest in Aayla was far too pointed; I have to wonder why a mercenary is so interested in a former Jedi! Did you think me a fool?" the droid said translating as Jabba spoke in clipped hard tones, waving his meaty hands.

"You're going back on your word!" Shaak growled, still in character for the moment.

"My dear, I only bet with equals." Jabba said through the droid, his own voice nearly impossible to discern through his deep, belly laughs. "You were never my equal. But you can at least entertain me for a few more moments."

Shaak turned at a grinding sound and stared at a large gate setting to the side of the deep pit. I am getting a serious sense of déjà vu, although the last time, I wasn't actually in the pit. I don't need the Force to tell me what's going to happen next. The gate opened, and out stepped a rancor, larger and far brown and green then the one that Ranma had faced on the city.

Now if I was Ranma, I would have to beat this rancor the old-fashioned way. But I am a Jedi, I have other abilities available. Across from her the rancor roared before charging forward, and Shaak backed up, holding up one hand as she summoned up the Force.

She sent out a mental probe to the animal, and was relieved to feel that it was not crazy. It was angry, but it wasn't insane, it was somewhat lonely and hungry at the moment, but nowhere as insane as the beast that Ranma had faced. At her gentle mental urgings the beast's charge slowed, and Shaak stood up from her crouch, still holding up one hand.

"Saaa…So strong you are, so good, so powerful..." She began to croon softly, her voice no longer the garbled accent that she and Ranma had made up for her character. At the same time her Force probe into the beast's mind conveyed the thoughts directly into its mind along with feelings of comradeship, of shared purpose, of awe and pride. Calm, why would you need to prove her strength against such a small enemy when all you wish is to be free? Friend, I am your friend. I will help you be free.

At the same time she was concentrating on the beast, one hand slipped into her ki pocket not pulling out her lightsaber but rather the command detonator for the two bombs Ranma had placed. She pressed it, and the dull 'thump' of an explosion echoed from deep within the fortress, coupled, though she couldn't hear it, with another from next-door.

The rancor went down to its knees in front of her, grumbling softly as she stroked its nose ridge, taking cover under its bulk as blaster bolts began to spang all around them, Jabba and his men having quickly realized something was wrong. The rancor roared, standing up abruptly and further guarding her from the attacks from below. As it did so, Shaak turned to the side of the cage, tapping her finger against the rock of the pit.

Ranma had challenged Shaak to multitask that first day of her toughness training but he hadn't actually expected her to learn the breaking point technique very quickly regardless of the speed with which she took to the toughness training. But she had and then she had made it a little better.

When using the Breaking Point Technique the user essentially sent out a burst of what Ranma called ki into the target rock or other formation at its weakest point. The ki would then overwhelm its structure, shattering it. With her ability to see the Force, Shaak saw this quite quickly, though she'd only managed to produce it a few times in the last month on Dac. Then however, she had gone on to perfect it.

Instead of simply shattering the stone, she could control its destruction somewhat, which she now did. With a faint touch, Shaak sent bolt of her Living Force into the rock in front of her, shattering it into a series of boulders, caving in a portion of the cavern above. "RAKKOooom!"

"AHHH!" Several of the mercenaries came down with it, a few crushed underneath the rocks, with more tumbling down into the pit. The raptor turned on them, stepping on some while smashing others into broken rags as it made its way up out of the pit over the new exit. The rest however quickly backed up and continued to try to bring the big beast down.

Shaak leapt up onto its shoulder, reaching into her ki space again and pulling out her lightsaber igniting it, shouting. "Release Aayla'secura and all of your other slaves Jabba, or die!"

OOOOOOO

Shieevoooka was by dint of being the oldest the leader of the group of Wookies owned by Gardulla. They all came from different clans and families, but they were allied for now against their tormentors, which was the most important thing. Wookies hated captivity, and would rather die than submit to it, working alongside ancient clan-enemies or rivals was a small thing in comparison.

He was standing by the cage's doors, looking around at his fellow Wookies and wondering if they should try to break out now when the constant humming at the edge of their hearing abruptly stopped. "/I never believed the young human would pull it off!/" He growled, then ripped up the bed hiding the small escape tunnel they had begun to carve out of the rock and dirt with their bare paws. "/Arm yourselves, and fight!/"

Further along the same tunnel the group of aliens the Wookies had recognized as Ailon Nova Guard also armed themselves moving out of their cell swiftly and expertly. The advanced down the corridor in an organized fire and advance movement, four of them covering the others as they raced forward, handing out weapons to the slaves they deemed able to handle them. They also gunned down the two slaves known to try and curry favor with their so-called owner.

The slaves quickly ran into opposition, but the Wookies initial rush pushed the guards out of the tunnel and back away from the dungeons. By the time they had to stop, the rest of the gladiators were armed and coming up behind them. With the wight of fire behind them, the former gladiators broke out into the main hall.

As the mercenaries and pirates in the hall saw them and realized what was going on, a fire team of the humans broke off, heading into the other tunnel. Gardulla was nowhere in sight, but that only meant they had to search for her, which was fine by them.

OOOOOOO

"I believe the signal has been given, I'm seeing a lot of new com traffic on emergency lines. Time to go." Tune said aloud, it's voice a booming sort of baritone at present. "Are you ready HK?"

HK would have shaken its head, if it actually had a neck to do the shaking. It didn't but it did perform the droid equivalent of rolling its eyes. "Irritated Response: Of course I am ready, just get us into the air already you moronic trashcan! Exultant: I have targets to kill!"

Tune said nothing in response to HK's reply, having learned quickly that trying to talk to the Hunter Killer droid only encouraged it. Instead Tune gunned Wild Light's engines, pushing it off the ground and away before responding verbally. Normally two droids wouldn't have needed to verbalize, but Tune had quickly learned that HK was a vulgar asshole in droid cant and Tune had no wish to hear his curses further. "Heading toward target one, flipping us over in three, two, one!"

The Wild Light did a barrel roll in midair, which it had to do to allow its quad lasers, both of which were mounted on top of its wings, to fire down at its targets. Ranma and Shaak had both made it clear that they were only allowed to use the heavier weapons on any reinforcements coming in from other cities, and even then only if they could ensure they left no survivors.

A moment later they were over Mos Espa, zooming towards the docks set aside for the two squadrons of cloak shape fighters that served the Hutts as a space force. "Targets coming in sight now!" Like most of the other docks in the city, this was a small, circular construction of the local stone, open to the sky. Which proved the fighter's undoing now.

"Exultant: Firing!" HK shouted enthusiastically and a millisecond later the quad lasers blasted out, several dozen small flechettes of fire zooming downward.

Whatever his faults, and they were myriad, no one could fault HK for his aim or efficiency. His first attack destroyed the five cloak shapes that had already started off the ground. Two of them exploded as their engines were punctured, the other three crashed into the ground or their fellows as their cockpits, and the pilots within, were perforated by HK's fire.

Wild Light hovered over the hanger bay with Tune controlling it's movements and monitoring the local coms, while HK went to town on the remaining cloak shape fighters. Taken totally by surprise, none of them could get off the ground, and dozens of sentients died attempting to get to them, though after a bare minute most of the ground crews and pilots were more worried about getting away than saving their spacefighters. "Maniacal Overtone: BWAHAHA, fear me, for I have become death!"

"All targets destroyed, we have four freighters possibly allied with the huts trying to lift off. Moving to engage. Friendly freighter is also lifting, remember IFF protocols." Tune said, while mentally making a note that HK was enjoying this a little too much. Must make a note to tell the master that.

"Sulky: Roger that." HK was silent for a second as Wild Light moved swiftly to attack the new targets, then he spoke up again. "Professional Assessment: Take us in on the Huttese ship to the far right, it is most likely the best equipped. Keep us behind them, and even if they get their shields up they won't have many weapons which can range on us. Also keep flying upside down, in case we need to suppress ground fire."

"Understood and agreed." Tune replied, and the two very dissimilar droids continued their part of the plan.

OOOOOOO

Even after the casualties already inflicted on them, there were more than 200 mercenaries in Jabba's main hallway and all of them were armed. They all began to fire frantically at the rancor and Shaak, who defended both herself and the head of the beast with her lightsaber. Only a few of them had heavy crew served weapons, and the handguns and rifles were not able to penetrate the Rancor's hide. It roared in pain but was in no danger just yet, and began to lash out and smashing mercenaries into broken wrecks.

That danger came from the automated defenses. Slow thanks to disuse and poor maintenance five quad lasers and a single turbolaser fell out of sconces in the ceiling of the main hall twisting to take the two of them under fire. The turbolaser could have taken out the rancor, but Shaak saw it moving out of its hiding place. Reaching out with the Force, she ripped the entire mechanism out of its pintle mount to crash down among the mercenaries below it.

As the two attackers drove into the mass of his men, Jabba was shouting at his mercenaries to get them and dragging Aayla away behind his hover sled. This was either to secure her, or to use her later as a bargaining chip if his troops couldn't kill her fast enough. Whatever the case, Shaak saw it, and knew she couldn't let the Hutt escape with Aayla.

Shaak pointed the rancor towards the door, using both her voice and the Force to convey the message: "That way, that way, freedom! Good luck to you beast!" Tapping it on the shoulder one last time she leaped off and away.

She paused a moment, then wrenched her hands in either direction, hurling out a massive blast of Force smashing which smashed into and threw dozens of mercenaries everywhere in a display of power that left many of their fellows gaping in shock.

They cleared the way towards the doorway where Jabba has since disappeared. But two of the quad lasers ignored the rancor, targeting her instead, forcing her to slow down to deflect their bolts. The deflections killed many of the mercenaries around her, but she had to use another Force Push to clear her path before the bolts sent straight back at the lasers destroyed them. She pushed forward, gaining the entranceway to the tunnel Jabba had fled down.

But just as Shaak did so a slightly smarter than normal mercenary lobbed a thermal detonator her way. Before she could hurl it away it went off, exploding near her feet.

Pushing herself into the corridor beyond the main hall with a desperate Force-assisted leap Shaak was able to avoid the worst of it, but her right calf and foot was still caught by two pieces of shrapnel. "GRaghh! Force take it!" She ground out between clenched teeth, then concentrated using the Force to deaden the pain with the ease of long practice, having perfected this particular mental exercise in the past few months. Then she began to heal the wounds, not enough to actually repair the damage, but enough to stop the bleeding at least, closing the skin over them after pulling out the pieces of metal.

Then she pushed herself to her feet, limping grimly on, deflecting blaster fire from two more automated defense turrets. They died under her deflected bolts quickly, and she pressed on as fast as her injured leg would allow, shaking her head to get rid of a faint ringing in her montrals from the explosion.

A few seconds later she sliced open a metal doorway at the end of that corridor. Stepping through Shaak stopped as something flashed towards her out of the darkened room. Raising her lightsaber she slashed it in two. But that turned out to be the worst thing she could have done.

The item in question was a large vial of made of glass around the same size as four hands together. For a moment Shaak feared that it was acid, and reached for the Force to push it away, but it wasn't, it was a gas which spread quickly and her Force push couldn't catch all of it. Before Shaak could hold her breath she had already inhaled some.

A moment later her body stiffened, the strange gas going to work on her mind and body. Shaak gasped, her body stiffening in place, staring straight ahead as the gas hit all of her pleasure centers at once, along with the portions of her mind that dealt with sexual attraction, overwhelming Shaak Ti.

It was a new invention of Jabba's made with the aid of his newest slave trainer, who stepped forward out of the dark, a curt command powering up the lights in the room. Once the lights were on, the man, a Falleen, stared at the extremely attractive Jedi. "I believe Lord Jabba, that this should prove the worth of our concoction without a doubt."

The gas in question was a mix of Falleen pheromones and several gas-based psychedelic drugs. It had the effect of taking a hammer to any male or female's brain exposed to it. They would be useless for anything requiring higher levels of thinking, but in pleasure slaves why would that matter?

The Hutt responded in his own language, and the Falleen laughed. "That was because she was tense and ready for such an attack, this one didn't even see it coming! Don't worry I don't believe we'll need a second helping. But even if we do," the Falleen said standing in front of Shaak holding up a syringe which contained the liquid version of the gas, "I have one on hand."

Jabba shouted something and the Falleen turned angrily. "I am not the one in charge of your rancor, I'm in charge of your slaves. You pay me to break your slaves, and I do it, I don't look after your animals. This one will be broken in moments. After that your mercenaries should be able to deal with your little pet."

As the two of them were arguing, Shaak Ti was trapped in her own mind, her body and even portions of her mind literally rebelling against her. All she could feel was lust, desire, the mindless urge to mate coursing through her, the fact that the man in front of her was her mate, her thoughts fading.

Desperately Shaak concentrated, bringing the Force to bear on her own mind, trying to push the effects of the drugs out, believing that once her mind was free of the drugs, she could overwhelm her body's response to the pheromones. But it was hard going. Her mind was being affected by her body, and she was slowly losing the fight.

Then she realized this must be what Aayla tried. Aayla must have tried to clear her mind then her body as we Jedi are taught the mind must control the body first and foremost! But you can't do that, you need to tackle it with both at once! Frantically Shaak through her will into both battlefields, letting out a pained groan as the slaver began to touch her, her body aflame. No, no!

For some reason an odd thought darted through her mind you now, even with all of this going on in her head and body. The thought was 'that still doesn't feel as good as the massages Ranma used to give me'. That thought, and the mental comparison of the Fallen male before her and Ranma filled her mind for just a second. He loses badly in every signal category.

Those thoughts actually helped her center her mind again, and Shaak quickly built on it, gathering her willpower once again. I will not be controlled, not by anyone else, not by my own body or emotions. I am a Jedi, I am a Jedi! My body and my mind are one, my body and my mind are one. My emotions are part of me, I acknowledge them, I will confront these feelings for Ranma and decide what to do with them, I will stop running from them, but right now I have other akul to hunt!

With a wrench of Living Force Shaak shut down her ability to smell, cutting off the pheromones ability to continue to invade her mind and body, then began to purge the concoction from her mind and body, falling backwards against the door even as the slaver advanced confidently, laughing at her inability to combat his invention. He reached down to her lightsaber, deactivating it and pulling out of her slackened hand, while she continued to battle the mental and physical effects of the drug.

He gripped her chin, turning her face upwards, removing the eyepatch when he saw it was not needed. "How quaint," he said throwing it away. "You're much more beautiful without that my dear. But I think you would be even more beautiful on your knees before your masters…"

The anger at her friend's predicament, the determination to protect her, the memory of Ranma, his aid in gaining control of her emotions and the amount of living Force Shaak now had allowed her to push back the effects of the mixture she'd been exposed to. I will not bow before you, or anyone!

With that last word Shaak forwent specifically controlling the Living Force she had sent at the impacted areas of her body, now simply pouring as much as she could into it with one hand and reaching out to the Unifying Force with the other, giving of herself to a level she had never done before. And the Unifying Force responded. The effect of this was like the power of a gigantic river suddenly forced through a small stream. She howled shaking her head, and suddenly was free of the drug's effects.

The Fallen hurriedly backed away, suddenly wary as Shaak pushed herself forward, her eyes suddenly lucid once more. "How! How did you…"

"I am a Jedi! And you will not control me!" With that Shaak Ti reached out with the Force, pulling her lightsaber into her hands and swung it once, cutting the Falleen in two. As his body collapsed she jumped forward before Jabba could escape, bringing her lightsaber down cutting the Hutt straight down the middle before bringing her lightsaber up and around bisecting the chain that the Hutt had been using to pull Aayla along behind his hover sled.

With her enemies dead Shaak gasped, falling to her one knee and slowly reining in the Force, exhaling and letting air out her body in a slowly tortured breath as she pushed out the Unifying Force, feeling it's fierce exultation, its joy at their connection and even a little regret knowing she couldn't' sustain it. That had been the most debilitating mental challenge Shaak had ever run into, and if not for the exercises she'd had to do to keep her emotions in check Shaak knew she would have failed.

How odd, the self-control Ranma forced me to learn on my emotions and my own desire to keep a distance between us helped me build the mental control necessary to overcome that. The Force works in mysterious ways.

She looked over at Aayla, who simply stood there, as if she was waiting for the next order like a robot. "Don't worry Aayla, I'm getting you out of here, and then we're going to flush whatever they gave you out of your system. But first, I have a battle to finish." Shaak gently took her younger friend's hand, pulling her along behind her, wincing at the renewed pain in her leg.

Leaving Aayla hidden behind the doorway into the main hall Shaak charged out lightsaber raised and rejoined the battle cutting down any mercenary in her way. The rancor was still alive if barely, having been assaulted by several thermal detonators and most of Jabba's surviving men turned to engage Shaak.

Even with a wounded leg, Shaak was still a match for them. She spun, dove, leaped, lightsaber constantly redirecting any bolt that came toward her, Force pushes of immense power shattering any large group of mercenaries, flinging bodies every which way. With no one able to coordinate the surviving mercenaries, and with Shaak in among them, most of their attacks did more damage to the rest of them than her. A few bolts passed her defense, but her toughness training with Ranma had already borne fruit. The bolts were painful and did damage, searing her skin and clothing but they would have had to hit her dozens of time to do real damage.

Minutes after Shaak reentered the main hall, the mercenaries realized they were overmatched and, given the direction she came from, nothing to fight for. They began to flee, first in ones and twos then en-masse, towards the main gate.

Which was blasted open from the outside, and a moment later a dozen gladiators charged through the smoke of the explosion, taking the mercenaries by surprise. Seconds later the last of Jabba's men went down. Not a one was allowed to surrender, a ruthlessness that Shaak had some issues with, but she wasn't about to try and stop the gladiators from doing it.

As most of the gladiators looked in the direction of the rancor, she shook her head quickly. "Wait, let it be. The brave beast has won the right to die peacefully at the very least." Indeed, if she thought they could, Shaak would have attempted to heal it, then let the rancor loose out in the desert. But she was too weak to attempt that, and a rancor wasn't built for surviving in the desert in any event. Perhaps if they were near the mountains, but they weren't.

Wordlessly Shaak moved over to the massive beast, laying a soothing hand on its brow, noting the amount of damage the rancor had absorbed before falling, deadening the pain it was feeling with difficulty. But when she spoke, her voice was again a light croon. "Shhh, be still brave one, well done, well done. You've won your freedom at last. Sleep, and dream of jungles and hunting and your herd, sleep now…"

The rancor grumbled in soft tones, then fell silent, and a moment later its proud heart gave out at last the beast slipping peacefully into death. Sighing sadly, Shaak stood up then moved over to the gladiators, pointing at the Wookies then down another tunnel leading away from the main hall. "Jabba's slaves are down there, some of them at least will need to be directed where to go, start moving them out now."

As the Wookies, five of them she noted moved off, she turned to the other male alien who saluted her, then stood at attention. "Sergeant Grig Soliel Jedi, of the Nova Guard."

Shaak nodded, though she didn't recognize the name. "I am Knight Shaak Ti, Sergeant, well met. I want you to use your men and the other gladiators to set up a perimeter. Do not interfere with the slaves when they are led up, if I see anyone trying to take advantage of them I will execute that individual on the spot." Shaak allowed her eyes to rake over the former gladiators, a few of whom flinched under her gaze. "Load them onto the transport first, then board yourselves. I take it the Starwayman has arrived?"

"Yes Master Jedi." The Sergeant said. "Our overhead cover took out the Hutt's space forces, but then flew off heading northward."

Shaak thought for a moment then nodded, wincing as the pain in her body began to burn through her ability to deal with it. There was another city in that direction, she couldn't remember the name of it, but it was only a few hours away. "For now, let's just do our parts Sergeant, we can let that to the Wild Light I think."

As the Sergeant turned away to bellow orders to his men and the other gladiators, Shaak frowned, wondering how long this had taken. That led to her wondering where Aurra Sing was and where Ranma was too. Surely Sing, even with the Trandoshan mercenaries, should not have taken him this long to deal with… Why do I suddenly feel I'm not going to like the answer to that?

OOOOOOO

Ranma scowled irritably. He should be in a position right now to back up Shaak, but instead here he was, tracking over the desert to Padme's ship with her and the others. The fact that none of them had seen Sing or the Trandoshan mercenaries that Shaak had reported had spooked both Jedi. He could understand that Padme, Anakin and Ja-moron Binks were liabilities in a fight. The Gungan's intelligence in Ranma's opinion matched his clumsiness.

However, that didn't mean Ranma was happy about babysitting them like this when the operation against the Hutts had begun. At least judging by the explosions and the smoke they could see over Mos Espa it had. And was that someone cackling he heard in the distance?

He was also not happy about the fact that despite Anakin being emotionally torn about leaving his mother behind Qui-Gon had not gone out of his way to assure the boy that Ranma would be getting her out with the rest of the slaves. Instead it had fallen to Ranma to do so, and Ranma had actually caught a look of concern from the Jedi Master when he did. Ranma didn't like how much attention Qui-Gon was giving the boy, and could tell that Obi-Wan was a little worried about it as well. The two of them exchanged questioning glances a time or two as they walked through the desert, while in front of their group Anakin plied Qui-Gon with questions about the Jedi and the Order.

In the middle of their column Jar-Jar walked next to Padme, moaning about the heat, which at least seemed to have sapped his ability to be a klutz out of him. Padme didn't seem to notice either Jar-Jar's discomfort or the ongoing discussion ahead of her walking next to the hover sled carrying her ship's new engine silently, her thoughts elsewhere.

Ranma thought she was probably composing her speech to the Senate, though honestly what the Senate would do for Naboo was beyond him. Given what Shaak had said and the information he knew about the Trade Federation's influence in the Senate whatever she wanted wasn't going to happen fast. Indeed Padme would probably be better served appealing directly to the Jedi Order for further aid, but Ranma didn't know if the Order was in a position to actually give any. If they even would consider it without a Senatorial order.

Obi-Wan however was concentrated on something else, looking around them warily, his Force senses spread so much that Ranma could believe he felt a faint tingling on his skin from it. Ranma studied the other young man for a moment then asked quietly, "Who was it?"

Obi-Wan turned to them quickly. "What do you mean?"

"Who was it that you and Qui-Gon lost?" Ranma asked. "He mentioned the two of you had fought Aurra before but she's spooked you more than that should allow for given that whole Jedi composure thing."

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to protest that, but then closed it. He wasn't frightened, but Ranma hadn't said he was, he was simply wary. "Her name was Mana Veridi and she died right in front of us." Obi-Wan shook his head, his eyes far away and not because of a good or even confusing memory this time. "She was a human Jedi, a knight, two at most three years older than I, a woman with orange hair and a pleasant expression. She had smiled, so relieved that we had arrived. I remember that, and that she had a cut across one cheek from some kind of shrapnel."

"She was still smiling that wan, weary smile when Aurra Sing ran her straight through with a lightsaber from behind. We never even saw or sensed Sing before she had already run Mana through. And despite our best efforts she escaped afterwards." Obi-Wan shook his head. "She wasn't the first person I had seen killed, yet that moment still appalls me."

"I understand, and if we run into her, trust me I'll put the bitch down." Ranma promised, his voice soft as he reached over to grip the twenty-something padawan's shoulder.

"I hope that we don't and the reason she isn't here is because the Hutts have sent this Sing woman off elsewhere." Padme said, and it was only then that the young men realized she had been close enough to overhear their conversation. "I further hope that the worst is behind us at the moment."

Ranma gaped at her then looked towards one of the dunes surrounding them as the noise of several bike engines reached his ears. Obi-Wan muttered something under his breath, activating his lightsaber as Ranma shook his head. "Why the hell did you say that? You never tempt fate like that, never!"

From over the dunes on either side came several bikes each of which road a Trandoshan, heavy blaster rifle in one hand. They immediately began to take the two Jedi and their friends under fire, forcing Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to block them with their lightsabers. Before they had though, Anakin had turned barreling into Padme and taking her to the sand, while Ranma kicked out tripping Jar-Jar.

From behind the now circling bikes came more blaster fire, including one high-powered sniper rifle. The bolt from that actually pushed Qui-Gon off his stance for a moment when it impacted his lightsaber, jarring his grip. "Sing is out there! She must have seen us or heard about us somehow, and she's brought friends."

"Joy." Ranma muttered, dodging another blaster bolt, and pulling out his own heavy blaster, returning fire. The larger bolts of the former hover sled flashed out impacting the three forward most Trandoshans to the right and their bikes, blowing them to pieces. But now still more Trandoshans charged over the dunes to either side and from in front of Ranma and the others. A few others actually rose out of the desert itself, moving in quickly blasters flaring with stun light this time from a few of them while the others wielded vibro-blades or stun sticks.

The two Jedi moved backwards to to defend Padme and the other two from every direction, with Ranma jumping over the stun bolts sent his way landing in among the nearest mercenaries. Hands and feet lashed out, and at one point he used his weapon to slam a Trandoshan aside like it was a bat, throwing him into the air over the heads of several others to land several hundred feet away.

At the same time Padme pulled a small holdout blaster from somewhere and began to fire. Jar-Jar began to shout something, but Padme shouted, "Quiet Jar-Jar, we're busy right now! Anakin, deactivate the hover sled, get the engine down here with us!"

Anakin quickly complied, then scooted forward, grabbing a fallen blaster which had rolled to a stop by Qui-Gon's foot. He handed it back to Padme, then took her holdout in both of his hands, steadying it on the ground, firing past the Jedi's legs at their attackers. His aim was incredible, but he couldn't point the gun very far up without interfering with the arcs of the Jedi's lightsabers or the Jedi themselves. Padme had the same issue but between them, they took the legs out from under several of the Trandoshans on foot.

Two one side of the others Ranma grunted as a high powered bolt slammed into his shoulder, wincing a little at the sting of it, but it didn't penetrate his skin. And it gave him a direction towards the sniper. "Are you two all right here?" he asked shouting to be heard over the clamor of battle. Even as he did so he kicked out catching a Trandoshan in the chest, shattering his ribs and hurling him backwards while he finished choking another into unconsciousness.

"Go!" Qui-Gon shouted. "If you can keep her away from us, we can make for the ship through this lot!"

Ranma nodded, jumping over a pair of vibroblades, kicking out at their owners while he reached back and grabbed another Trandoshan's head. Flipping himself into the air, Ranma used that unfortunate's head as a post, kicking out in several directions, breaking necks and skulls with each kick, clearing the area around him and the Jedi of the last morons stupid enough to close with them. With that done Ranma pushed off, flipping through the air again to dodge another high-powered bolt, landing and running in that direction..

In the distance about a kilometer away Aurra cursed luridly. That guy is fast! Faster than most Jedi she'd ever seen, and durable to boot.

Inside she was furious. The ambush should've happened without a hitch, but for some reason the biker squad had closed too quickly. Right before they had she had felt something, a surge of power in the Force, but it was nothing like a Jedi's touch, this was somehow angry, commanding and dark.

Frowning Sing grabbed her speeder bike, and pulled it around heading in another direction to set up someplace else. She didn't want to close with that one just yet, not until she had a better feel for his abilities. Sing was confident she could beat most Jedi in a lightsaber fight, but she wasn't about to bet her own life on that.

Ranma wasn't even out of sight from Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan before the battle changed again. What everyone had taken as a low dune of sand to one side of the ambush suddenly stirred, and a giant dragon of some kind stood, shaking itself. Once the sand had fallen away from it the dragon roared a challenge before jumping towards Ranma. "ROOAR!"

"What the hell is that!?" Ranma shouted, even as he ducked and rolled to one side, pushing off the sand quickly to dodge a swipe from a surprisingly quick blow from a forearm.

"A Greater Krayt dragon!" Qui-Gon shouted. "What is it doing here!?"

"Um, trying to kill me?" Ranma said yelled sarcastically as he grabbed the horns the dragon had above its eyes, flipping himself over it for a moment only to curse as its tail came up smacking into him and sending Ranma flying off even though he had gotten his arms up in time to block it.

Ranma could have dealt with the momentum of that easily; he was a master of the Aerial style of Anything Goes after all. But as he began to do so something grabbed him hurling him even further through the air. It felt like a Force grab, but not quite, and it was strong too.

Quickly Ranma thrust out a burst of his Living Force, his ki, to break the hold, but the damage was done. He was now several dunes away from where Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were being held and the great dragon had followed him. Furthermore, a dozen Trandoshans had yet to join the main battle, and turned aside racing towards him on their bikes.

Growling Ranma went to one knee, sighting along the barrel of his weapon, blasting out several controlled bursts, destroying four of their bikes before they could close then turning on the dragon. But even the heavy skimmer's weapon couldn't penetrate the dragon's armor. It shook off his bolts, closing quickly, it's maw gaping.

Ranma slipped the rifle back into his ki space before reaching out with both hands to grab the Dragon's jaws, holding it's mouth open as it tried to close on him. The thing was strong, strong enough to rip apart anything else of a similar size on this planet.

But Ranma was something else. Stepping backwards he continued to hold the dragon's jaws open until he was at full arms stretch, then let it go, allowing the jaws to close shut in front of him, before slapping his hands on either side of its jaw, holding the mouth closed now.

However, one of the thing's claws lashed out trying to catch Ranma. Ranma instead jumped over it, landing on it as it flew past before pushing off and getting some distance. "What the fuck is wrong with you!" He yelled at the thing, even as two Trandoshans tried to close from behind, leery of the krayt dragon but still wanting to close with Ranma with their stun sticks.

Ranma grabbed one of those stun sticks, ignoring the jolt and hurling it's owner at the dragon while he kicked out at the other, sending him flying backwards as another heavy blaster bolt slammed into his chest this time. It burnt away his shirt, but didn't do any damage.

Still sighting through her rifle's scope Aurra frowned angrily. Maybe this is why someone wants this human captured instead of killed. Knowing her weapon was almost useless Sing was tempted to close now, but decided to wait until the Krayt dragon either finished him off or was dealt with. Hopefully the Trandoshans will at least hold the Jedi's attention on themselves for a bit.

Back with said Jedi, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had dealt with most of their attackers already, and had begun to move on their way, thinking to drop the engine and the others off at the Nabooan ship before coming back to help their friend. They had stopped however, when they were faced with someone else.

Out of the desert a jet black hover bike pulled up in front of them, its owner getting off unhurriedly. Garbed in black from head to toe this humanoid almost sizzled with danger in the Force a heavy Dark presence that both Jedi felt. "Move." Qui-Gon ordered Padme. "Take Anakin, Jar-Jar and the hover sled and go!"

"Who is he?" Padme asked even as she obeyed. Pushing the younger Anakin along as he gazed at the figure, his eyes wide as he sensed something she couldn't fathom. She had no Force sensitivity, but Padme could tell something was off about this person.

"I don't know, but it, or he is dangerous I don't want to have to defend the three of you as well as ourselves. GO!"

As Padme raced off skirting around the area the being in front of them held up a hand. In it was a matte black long-shafted lightsaber hilt. From the end of it suddenly glowed a red beam of plasma. Then from the other end a similar beam extended, and the being held the double bladed lightsaber out in a one-handed grip.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan wordlessly moved apart slightly, their own blades whirling into a ready position. For a moment the battlefield fell silent then suddenly the being across from them charged, the wind of his passing pushing his hood off to reveal a Zabrak, his face covered by red and black tattoos, his eyes malevolent yellow slits.

That was the last observation either Jedi had time for as the being closed with them, slashing out with speed and power that was almost beyond their ability to defend from. Qui-Gon quickly found himself on the defensive, while Obi-Wan fell into his favored style, Soresu, trying to negate the power of their opponent's offense with his defensively-oriented style. The two of them moved as one, more than ten years of working together serving them well as they seems to move as one person for a time, one defending the other attacking, trying to catch their assailant between them.

But his double bladed lightsaber defeated them every time. It was such a strange weapon, one they had never seen before or trained against. As the Zabrak used one end of it to attack, the other allowed him to defend, and his speed and ability to predict their moves was phenomenal.

When Jedi met Jedi, it often came down to who could use Battle Precognition to a greater degree, predicting his opponent's moves and use of the Force, searching for a weakness. Here, the Zabrak's skill in Battle Precognition negated the two Jedi's own, and his odd weapon and the sheer strength of his attacks pushed them further out of their mental equilibrium.

Qui-Gon was forced to defend himself at one point, and the strength of the blow actually lifted him off his feet, thrusting him backwards off balance. If it was not for his padawan, the next blow would've taken Qui-Gon in his side. Instead Obi-Wan's lightsaber turned it, and Obi-Wan turned himself, moving into an offensive strike that forced the Zabrak to use other half of the double-sided lightsaber to defend himself.

But Obi-Wan had to retreat in turn from a thrust which Qui-Gon barely deflected as he regained his balance. Throwing his all into the Force, he tried to predict his opponent's moves only to find his ability with it still unable to match his opponent's. Slowly the two Jedi were pressed back and further back, with Qui-Gon tiring quickly while Obi-Wan, with his skill in Soresu and his younger age was still at peak ability.

Their opponent suddenly flipped over them, thrusting downward several times, his lightsaber a twirl of red plasma, forcing the two Jedi apart as they defended themselves. When he came to rest on the ground Qui-Gon quickly tried to attack, lashing out first with a Force Push before charging in, only to find that his opponent was ready for him, thrusting out a hand, smashing Qui-Gon's Push aside easily. Qui-Gon bore down, centering himself in the Force and trying to hold himself still against the sand beneath him, but was unable to stop himself by being smashed back by the blast of Force power.

Obi-Wan found himself therefore alone facing the assailant's charge. But Soresu seemed to frustrate the alien. Soresu relied on economy of motion, keeping up constant blade-movement to build up momentum, a strong defensive technique which could outlast an opponent, using their attacks and aggression to power the user's defense. Now it allowed Obi-Wan to survive until his master regained his footing.

Suddenly however the assailant thrust downwards into the sand, hefting the sand up into a whirlwind that caught Obi-Wan by surprise, blinding him for a moment. His stance faltered, and he desperately tried to correct, his inner balance as broken as his stance.

But too late. The double-bladed lightsaber came around, aimed at Obi-Wan's legs. A desperate Force thrust of his own into the ground pushing Obi-Wan off into the air saved him from being bisected, but one of his legs was cut off at the thigh.

'GAHHHHH!" Obi-Wan yelled in agony, but even so he thrust downwards with his lightsaber, forcing the next blow of the Zabrak's double-bladed lightsaber to be turned into a block rather than a thrust into his chest as he flew backwards from the power of his desperate last minute dodge.

"No!" bellowed Qui-Gon as he charged, hacking and slashing, thrusting and stabbing, moving here there and everywhere in a show of Ataru that would have overcome many a fellow Jedi, desperate to get the assailant's attention off of his padawan. His padawan fell to the sand, gasping in agony and staring at the stump of his leg before his eyes flicked over to the ongoing battle.

Ranma heard Obi-Wan's scream of agony from where he was standing a few dunes away, directly underneath the dragon's snout, trying to get close enough to knock the beastie out. But its armor was such that most of his blows simply bounced off, indeed even the Amiguriken speed merely made his fists hurt, rather than penetrated the tough hide of the dragon with enough power to do any internal damage.

"Damn it!" Realizing that he couldn't keep fighting this beast Ranma shook his head sadly, ducking underneath a chomp from the thing's jaw and slamming both of his hands into its the side of its exposed stomach. A Moko Takabasha slammed out into thing's stomach at point blank range, penetrating its outer scales and almost blasting entirely through in a welter of gore.

Ranma jumped back quickly, but still was splattered from it, and nearly blinded. The sniper took the opportunity quickly and another bolt slammed into his chest, with a second nearly impacting his head. But Ranma had already rolled away, dodging that bolt entirely.

"You're gonna get yours soon ya…rrhhh" Snarling Ranma pushed himself to his feet, and noticed that the few other Trandoshans had either been killed by the Krayt dragon, or had already been slain earlier on. The desert was now littered with bodies, and he frowned angrily.

Snarling he pulled out his communicator even as he raced back towards where the battle had begun, only now hearing the sounds of lightsaber combat. Who the hell are the Jedi fighting then? Or is the sniper someone else and Sing closed with them? "Tune, HK, where are you!?"

"We are nearly finished destroying the Hutt's space forces in Mos Espa master, and are moving in to provide overhead defense for the slaves. However our scanners indicate that there is at least one group already moving in from the closest cities. Do you wish us to move against them?"

Ranma frowned angrily, calculating the odds then nodded. "Do it, but do it quick! Then get back here, and provide cover for Padme's ship!"

As he said that, he topped the last dune between him and where the fight had started, and he raced on, seeing the double bladed lightsaber wielder pressing Qui-Gon hard, while Obi-Wan was on the sand, one of his legs sliced off, moaning in pain but otherwise in one piece. "Belay that, destroy the nearest one only if it has enough numbers to be a threat, then get back here, we'll need more air support!"

"Gleeful tones: Yes master! For I am become death! The destroyer of all things squishy!"

"Going to have to get that droid looked at." Ranma muttered, even as he closed, entering the Umi-Sen-Ken as is did.

Qui-Gon was barely holding on now his use of Ataru and his advanced age had exhausted him. Each attack was becoming closer, and he was desperately using the Force to keep ahead of his opponent, but even that was failing now. Every time he tried to back away the assailant pressed him even harder, and the Zabrak's maneuverability was unaffected by the battle thus far.

A sudden Force pull at one of his legs caught Qui-Gon by surprise, pulling him off balance. Even so his Force senses allowed him to redirect his attacker's thrust, so that instead of impaling him straight through the chest, it only caught him in the left side.

"Gah…" he gasped, pinned there by the plasma of the Zabrak's lightsaber as the Zabrak sliced out of his body to the left. Qui-Gon went to his knees, dropping his lightsaber and grabbing at the wound, starring up at his killer, knowing the Zabrak had only swung his lightsaber out like that so he could take pleasure in this final blow.

But before that blow could land the Zabrak grunted in agony as a foot slammed into his head from out of nowhere sending him skidding away. He turned back quickly only to find Ranma standing in front of the Jedi Master protectively. "Tag out Qui-Gon."

Qui-Gon slumped to the ground, incense it from the wound in his side and Ranma jumped forward, his hands and forearms covered in his ki shield. This turned out to be a very good thing.

Despite his speed his opponent was able to keep up with him with his own speed and Battle Precognition helping him. Several of Ranma's blows got through, and they were enough to make Ranma's eyes narrow. This guy's gone through the toughening technique!

Even as he thought that Ranma had to dodge a slash to his chest, bringing his hand around to land a blow that took the man backwards slightly, then using his another hand to push up off another slash from the other end of the Zabrak's double-bladed lightsaber. Well, let's try a bit of banter see if I can rattle him. "Ya got a name, or should I just call ya clown face? Honestly dude, who did your makeup, it looks like yer wearing more than the entire Senate!"

"I am your death!" The man growled. Then Ranma felt himself grabbed like he had been after the dragon had caught him with its tail,and jerked down to the ground.

"Not much of a talker are ya!?" even as he bantered Ranma grimaced, smashing the Zabrak's attacks back and away, returning some of his own. All right, time ta up the ante.

He suddenly moved even faster, thrusting out even stronger, his entire body moving with Amiguriken speed, overwhelming the Zabrak for a moment. Punches landed that the Zabrak should've been able to block, but his Force Perception was in up to this speed.

A rip cracked, his jaw held, but two teeth were knocked loose even as Ranma's fists began to bleed from pounding on the Zabrak's amazingly durable body. But his healing ability came to the fore, healing his hands even as they were blasted open, and he pressed the Zabrak back and further back from the two injured Jedi, the two of them leaping around, but Ranma was unwilling to let the Zabrak open the range further.

The tattooed Zabrak did try but when he did he used the Force to push Ranma back, Ranma used the momentum and somehow turned it around, coming back down onto him, and the spike-headed alien seemed to have also seen enough of Ranma's style to know he was at his most dangerous in the air. After two attempts the Zabrak stopped trying to use the Force like that, instead using it to keep Ranma on the ground.

A few times the Zabrak also tried to use his free hand or feet, but these attacks were a mistake, allowing Ranma to use their momentum to push himself into the air despite the Zabrak's Force powers trying to keep him on the ground. When he nearly lost his head to a series of Amiguriken speed kicks the Zabrak fell back on his lightsaber and Force powers alone, knowing he was slowly wearing Ranma's Living Force reserves down every time he had to use a shield against the lightsaber's blades.

While the two were seemingly stalemated Aurra decided to press your luck, firing her rifle even as she closed, forcing Ranma to back away from his assailant. She shouted aloud as she moved forward on her bike "I want the bounty! If you just want to kill him, fine by me!"

The Zabrak barely grunted at her, thrusting his lightsaber forward. Ranma let one of his ki shields fade as if he was being overwhelmed. When the next attack came, he turned that hand slightly so that the inner portion of his vambrace was facing outward, catching the slash on the cortosis armor plate hidden inside the metal.

The Zabrak's exclamation of shock as his lightsaber's blade faded after slicing through the leather of his vambrace was everything Ranma could hope for. He kicked into the Zabrak's chest at Amiguriken speed causing the bones in his leg to grind a bit from the impacts but shattering four ribs in the Sabrak's chest cracking under the punishment, feeling them shatter under his foot.

The tattooed alien flew backwards, with a grunt of agony but righted himself in midair. Bringing his hand forward, he thrust out a telekinetic blow that lifted Rama into the air and sent him flying backwards in turn.

At that Aurra closed, dropping her rifle to pulling out one of her lightsabers, quickly slashing at Ranma as he tried to free himself from his opponent's force hold. Ranma grunting in agony at the blow to his back but thankfully his own body's toughness was up to the task of stopping her lightsaber blade for a moment. It left a nasty burn, but nothing else.

Sing pressed in now while the Zabrak did the same. They weren't working together, that would've been too much for Ranma to match at the moment, injured and tired as he was by this point. But he was able to keep up with them for a time. Then the Zabrak made a mistake, he got too clever.

Having turned Ranma around so that his back was facing towards the two wounded Jedi, the Zabrak slowed his assault, letting the bounty hunter press the attack. Instead the tattooed alien reached out with the Force, grabbing the two Jedi's lightsabers where they had fallen an pulling them towards Ranma's back.

Ranma felt them coming and, with the Zabrak's attention on that and his desultory offensive, waited. When the lightsabers came close, he leaped up and backwards, hands lashing out to catch the lightsaber's handles. Landing he launched his own assault, forcing Sing to backpedal.

Now Ranma pushed forward, pressing her and her erstwhile ally back for the first time. He even took a moment to wink at the black-clad alien. "Thanks my man, I needed these."

For the first time in the fight the Zabrak seemed to lose control of the tightly coiled fury that seemed to be driving him on better than any berserker Ranma had ever met, better than Ryoga with his depression or anger, better than Akane because he was far more trained and controlled. The three of them continued to trade blows, dancing, jumping continually moving around in an athletic display of lightsaber skills that would have caused any onlooker to gape. But the Zabrak's fury at Ranma's initial taunt made him commit another mistake when he ignored his supposed ally for a moment, almost slicing her in two with a backswing.

Sing blocked it with her lightsaber shrieking "What the kark!"

Ranma swiftly dropped one lightsaber ducking instead of backing away from the Zabrak's attack, a Moko Takabasha slamming into the ground directly underneath Sing's feet. She saw it coming through the Force, and pushed off with a Force jump, but this allowed Ranma to turn quickly, his leg lashing out in a scythe to take The Zabrak's legs out from under him while his remaining lightsaber guided one end of the Zabrak's into the ground when he tried to stab Ranma where he was crouching.

In response the Zabrak jumped into the air hacking downwards with his lightsaber's other end, one while the other end extinguished itself to allow him a shorter reach. But Ranma had fainted with the kick, pushing off himself with his other leg into the air, throwing his second lightsaber at Sing, his fists flashing forward. The Zabrak's eyes flew wide as he realized that he had fallen into Ranma's trap. Ranma's fists met right at the emitter portion of one end of his double-bladed lightsaber, crushing it between them. The lightsaber blade shorted out.

The Zabrak quickly tried to ignite the other half, twirling it in his hands to try and catch Ranma with an upswing, but Ranma dodge to one side, a kick lashing out and catching The Zabrak in the side despite The Zabrak dropping one of his arms to block it. "RAAAHHH!" Ranma roared, pushing his leg to move faster than even the Amiguriken could allow.

A sound like a thousand thunderclaps echoed across the desert, and Ranma's own bones screamed in protest, but the damage to his enemy was worse, despite his body's unnatural toughness. The blow did so much damage some of the bones in his arm almost exploded outward piercing his skin, the entire arm now looking more like a hunk of badly mauled meat than an arm. Even as his arm shattered however, The Zabrak hit back, his lightsaber twisting and catching Ranma in the side himself, burning through a ki shield hastily raised there to slice open Ranma's side, burning his skin severely, but not penetrating.

The Zabrak fell back but Ranma moved forward despite his wounds, grabbing his opponent's broken forearm in one hand, hammering several thousand blows into the Zabrak's chest and upper body. Every time the now single-bladed lightsaber came towards him in a desperate swing, Ranma would bat it wide using his ki shield sparingly before going back to pummeling the Zabrak's body everywhere he could reach.

The Zabrak tried to force Ranma's hand to release his grip, twisting, using the Force, pushing Ranma away, but Ranma clung grimly, pulling the berserker away from Sing. His opponent's speed and ability with battle Precognition stopped him from landing more than a hundred Amiguriken blows in any one spot, but the black-clad alien's body was beginning to give out, and both of them knew it.

Desperately the Zabrak reared back, head-butting Ranma with all the Force assisted strength and momentum that as he could, actually pushing against the back of his head with the Force to heighten the impact. Ranma's head flew back, his enemy's horns opening up several deep furrows in Ranma's forehead despite his toughness, and Ranma saw stars. Several bolts from a heavy blaster impacted the side of skull too, and he staggered, at last letting go of the Zabrak but not before a final flurry of blows into the Zabrak's chest overcame the assailant's defenses, hurling him away with still more cracked ribs, and something had also burst inside the alien's body, Ranma had felt it go.

Despite the past few months of preparation, despite his Sith abilities, despite training and hoping for this moment, Maul knew when he was beaten and backed away hurriedly. He had overcome both of the Jedi, but he could not overcome the chaotic fulcrum. Ranma was reeling, battered, bloody, and burned, but he was still standing, still coming towards Maul. Whereas, like Ranma, Maul knew something inside had ruptured in that last attack, he could feel weakness seeping into his body, and he had shattered two of his horns to that desperate headbutt, the pain of that nearly equal to whatever was broken inside of him or his mangled arm.

Cradling his shattered arm to his chest, Maul reached down and placed his lightsaber on his belt with his other hand, flicking the emergency recall switch on his belt buckle. His hover bike quickly came towards him from where he had halted it several dozen yards away. Luckily Maul had the foresight to keep the battle away from it, and he grunted in agony as he pulled himself onto the hover bike's back, pushing the recall button on it that would take him back to his ship.

"Oh hell no," Ranma muttered, his eyes blinking rapidly, a blaze of pain going through his head as he staggered forward. "You're not getting away!" He gathered the dregs of his Living Force again in his hands. "No, you're no-gah!"

At that point Aurra came back into the attack, knowing he was injured, she hoped to finish this possibly gene-engineered warrior off. Her lightsaber swung in at Ranma's back, and he fell forward desperately to dodge it. What should've been a roll became a tumble thanks to his concussion and injuries, but even so he dodged her blow, coming up quickly and thrusting backwards with a full body check that smashed into Sing. She moved with it rolling then bringing her lightsaber around in a blow that should have bisected Ranma.

Yet even as battered as Ranma was, he was able to dodge to one side, and a hand came up in a single punch, catching her arm on the upswing. Aurra was prepared for that punch to hurt, she wasn't prepared for it to shatter her forearm. Unlike the Zabrak Aurra didn't have any durability training nor had she seen the Amiguriken attacks for what they were.

Her lightsaber fell from her nerveless hand as she screamed, yet Sing was able to overcome the pain, her other hand falling to her waist, ripping out her secondary lightsaber and bringing it around in an underhand blow, the saber held in a reverse grip.

Ranma saw it coming, and, having grabbed her falling lightsaber out of the air, he whirled around her attack, his lightsaber flicking out, in his own attack. Aurra barely had a moment to gape before her own weapon, the lightsaber of the first Jedi she had killed, sliced her head clean off her body.

As the headless corpse collapsed to the sand, Ranma let the lightsaber go, falling to his knees woozily the pain in his head getting to him. He knelt there for a moment, his body soar beyond belief, his mind barely able to function given its concussion.

It was a minute before he wearily pushed himself to his feet and made his way over to Obi-Wan, who had, surprisingly, been conscious throughout the fight, having watched it with wide eyes. But he waved Ranma off, trying to crawl across the ground. The pain from his leg was interfering with Obi-Wan's ability to use the Force, and he couldn't reach out to his master. "Check Master Qui-Gon!"

Wearily Ranma did so, while in the distance he saw the queen's sleek spaceship coming towards them, while above it the Wild Light through over patrol. He quickly grabbed his communicator from his belt, then grimaced as it fell apart in his hands, having caught some of the blaster bolts from Aurra or someone else early in the fight. "Shoddy bloody thing…"

Ranma slowly limped over to Qui-Gon, then went down on his knees next to the older man, feeling for a pulse. "He is alive, barely." He reported shouting over his shoulder, shaking his head at the massive wound in the Jedi's side, thankful for once that the Jedi and whoever that had been used lightsabers, since they cauterized the wounds they caused. He reached forward, lifting up one eyelid and staring at the eye behind it. "I think he's in some kind of healing trance, not quite sure."

Obi-Wan nodded then collapsed forward onto the sand, all of his energy spent. Ranma pushed himself to his feet still looking around the battlefield, his eyes almost refusing to focus. "D, d'you want your leg Obi?"

After a moment of silence Ranma shrugged, dragging himself over in that direction as both of the ships landed. He shouted aloud. "Tune, don't land just yet, stay in the air. In fact move around us, if you see anything taking off from out in the dunes, nail it!"

Even as he said so however, a ominous looking black ship boosted off the ground in the distance, barely visible from where Ranma was standing, swiftly soaring up in and out into space. "Excited, yet wary query: Do you wish us to pursue master?"

Ranma stared up at the where the Zabrak's spaceship was even now disappearing, his thoughts awhirl. Not just with what the fight had told him about his enemy or his head injury, but what the enemy's skills had told him about what must have happened before this fight. "No," he said finally. "Did you leave any survivors in any of your other attacks on the slave's reinforcements?"

"Belligerent statement: Of course not master! There were no survivors on any of the attacks on the column coming towards Mos Espa and the light quad lasers dealt with the parked Cloak Shapes easily. Thoughtful tone: However fun this was however, I've decided I much prefer close combat violence. It was fun to see the peons running around like non-sentients on fire, but there wasn't nearly enough blood."

"Um, good, generally speaking anyway." Ranma said nodding his head then holding it in agony as it threatened to fall off. "Agh, anyway, having some hidden aces up our sleeves might prove necessary in the future." He turned and watched as the Princess and several others raced towards them from where their ship had put down, carrying several hover sleds.

Ranma waved them towards the two Jedi, as Anakin, who was in the lead skidded to a stop looking around in awe at the battlefield. "Wow, you guys look as if you fought a battalion!"

"Pretty much." Ranma said shaking his head. "Condensed, but yeah, pretty much."

Ranma waved Anakin aside, moving towards his ship as he ordered Tune to land. He could barely move he was in so much agony, but he was worried about what Shaak might've run into, the idea that this might've been some kind of trap going through his battered brain for a moment before he discounted it. For some reason Ranma figured that whoever had set this up hadn't really anticipated that all three of them would be together, and had tried to improvise something to separate them.

It had failed, and so had the ambush. Still, both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon would be down for the count for a while, and Ranma wasn't exactly 100% other. Still, Ranma knew his own healing ability well enough to realize he'd be right as rain in a few days max, the Jedi would take a lot longer.

As that thought percolated through his brain he stopped, staring at the two young girls and the middle-aged black skinned man who were helping the Jedi Master. "Will Qui-Gon live?" he asked looking over at that group around the older Jedi.

"He's not lost anything vital," said the man authoritatively. "Against any other weapon he might've bled out but lightsabers don't allow for that. The pain knocked him out I think, or something. We can keep him alive until we reach a hospital at least."

Obi-Wan shook his head. "I, I have no idea where that being came from, but if not for you Ranma he would've beaten us both!"

Anakin gaped at that admission, shaking his head. Jedi weren't supposed to admit that kind of thing, they were supposed to be unstoppable warriors of good! The last day and a bit had not been good for his concept of the universe.

"There are a lot of question about this whole episode frankly." Ranma said. "Questions Shaak and I are going to have to think long and hard about. But speaking of that, I need to get going." He moved towards his ship, every step a weariness, and knew he wasn't up for any more face-to-face confrontations. "HK, Tune, make sure those quad lasers are still powered up, we might have some more activity today and it'll probably be up to you two if we do."

"Gleeful anticipation: Oh happy day master!"

Anakin looked up at Ranma quizzically. "You sure you want me to give that android a body?"

"Meh, I can handle him." Ranma said with a shrug. "He's already proven useful, and he might prove more so in the future."

Padme ran up to them, looking over at the Jedi who are being helped onto her ship. "Do you want any help?"

"Unless your ship has some weapons, no. Speaking of, is your ship repaired?"

"No, but the repairs themselves will take only a bare half hour or so given the number of astromech droids we have, and Anakin's help I hope." Anakin nodded, looking at her eagerly.

"Good, once it's done wait up in orbit for us, we'll be along."

"And who exactly are you to be giving us orders?" the older black-skinned man asked stepping forward into Ranma's path. "You aren't one of the Jedi we came here with, and I've not been impressed by their planning anyway."

"Captain Panaka, move out of his way now." Padme ordered, her voice cold and commanding. "This young man saved our lives this afternoon, and is the only reason we aren't mourning the deaths of two Jedi. We will follow his requests for now."

Ranma nodded, then paused and stared at the man until he backed away, rather grudgingly for a man just given a direct order by his queen. He turned, and grabbed Anakin's shoulder. "Kid, ya see that green skinned woman over there, see if ya can find her head, and show it ta Obi for me, will ya."

Anakin nodded, but tugged at his arm, pulling back as Ranma winced, only just then realizing he had broken his fingers during the fight, and they hadn't started healing again yet. "What about my mom?"

"Kid, I'm going to get your mom out one way or the other, okay?" Ranma said grimly, before continuing on his weary way.

As Ranma entered his ship, he stopped suddenly looking over the dunes separating where the fight had ended from the body of the Krayt dragon. "Anakin, what's that thing shining in that big old beastie?" He shouted.

Anakin turned from where he had just picked up Aurra Sing's head by the ponytail, torn between a grimace and grin. Racing over he dropped the head in front of Obi, who stared down at it, a grim smile breaking out on his face.

Racing over to look at what Ranma was talking about the boy gasped at the sight of the Greater Krayt Dragon's corpse. "That's a Krayt dragon pearl! They're really rare. You could use that to pay for my mom's freedom and then some!"

"Kiddo, I killed the dragon, I get ta keep it's treasure. I want ta get somethin' out of this fight besides bruises. Don't worry about your mom, she's gonna be coming with us, I promise." Ranma muttered, moving over in that direction and reaching into the charred remains of the creature's stomach to pull out the glittering pearl. He pocketed it in his ki space before moving back over towards the Wild Light.

OOOOOOO

The roar of the Wild Light's engines interrupted the loading process outside the two castles, and Shaak turned wearily, staring up at it. It landed quickly, and Ranma came walked down the ramp, looking as if he had been put through the ringer even worse than she had.

Shaak limped toward him, gently pulling Aayla behind her until Ranma reached her, lifting the blue skinned Twi'lek into his arms and moving with her back towards the ship. "So, even with prior planning, we can still have piss poor performance." He quipped, wincing as carrying Aayla pulled something. The fact the girl automatically tried to kiss him was also irritating, but thankfully when he dodged her attempt she stopped simply hanging in his arms like a mindless doll.

"I take it you ran into Aurra and the Trandoshans?" Shaak asked, helping him along despite the fact that he didn't seem to need it. There was something about his glassy expression that worried Shaak however. Even worse his movements seemed forced rather than his normal fluid manner. Reaching up to his forehead she sent a brief pulse of Force into his body, trying to activate his own healing only to find it already working overtime to heal a…fractured skull!? "Ranma!"

"I know I have a concussion," Ranma said with a nod. "We ran into something beyond Aurra, some spiky headed bastard of a Zabrak, had major tattoos covering his face, all red and black, like an evil clown. He beat both Qui-Gon and Obi while I was trying to close with Aurra, but I was being stopped by this local dragon thing."

He shook his head, wincing and letting out a pained hiss that did nothing to mitigate Shaak's worries. "We have to talk about that further, but not here." He whispered into one of her montrals. "The bastard knew some of my toughness techniques. He even knew about my personal style, at least some of it."

Shaak gasped. "But, but the only ones who know about those things are members of the Order, unless could we have been watched while on Dac?" she shivered, feeling a little as if she had been violated, which after the day she just had, wasn't exactly a far stretch for her imagination.

"I don't know, but we'll have to be aware of it in the future. It's something we'll have talk to Yoda about when we see him." By that point they had entered the Wild Light, and Ranma laid Aayla down on the sofa gently. Even so she didn't respond, her eyes simply staring straight ahead waiting for the next order. "Will she be all right?"

Shaak smiled at Ranma's caring tone, laying a hand on his shoulder gently, but her smile faded as she turned to regard her young friend. "I don't know. We'll do our best and once we flush the drugs out of her system hopefully her mental acuity will come back, but I don't know, I just, I ran into what she did, and it was nearly my end too, the long term effects of it are beyond my ability to predict.

Turning away slightly she faced Ranma, while one hand gently stroked Aayla's forehead. "How bad were Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan injured?"

Ranma shook his head grimly, ignoring the pain the move caused as he walked back to the ramp. Shaak followed them, while outside the last of the freed slaves were being escorted onto Booster's ship. "Qui-Gon's missing a chunk of his side, but he didn't bleed out so that's something, the Nabooans think they can keep him alive until we get him to a proper hospital. Obi-Wan lost a leg from mid-thigh."

"By the Force!" Shaak murmured, shaking her head in dismay. "Was this all a trap?"

"I don't think so, if it was the actual ambush was pretty damn amateurish, none of our attackers worked together, and Sing didn't even seem to know the clown. I think this was just an attack of opportunity, but again it's something to tell the little froggy,"

Shaak nodded, and moved over to help some of the female slaves enter the ship, glad again that the Wookies were there. If any of the escaped male slaves tried to do anything, the Wookies would stop them. She stopped for a moment, looking at the human soldiers, and wondered why or rather how they had been captured and made into gladiators for Gardulla. A mystery for another day, she thought, watching as Ranma left, entering one of the castles.

He came back a few minutes later, arms loaded with jewelry and other things from inside. "For Shmi?"

Ranma nodded, and pointed out that the Wild Light. "I don't like the idea ya can buy a person, but Watto's had a bad enough day already. Still, why don't you follow along? If that little toy tries to argue the point, I want ta to have an overwhelming argument on hand."

The moment Ranma entered the shop, Watto flew up to him angrily pointing at him then out over the city. "Are you part of this!? You Jedi, you come in and you enforce your own idea of order, I'm just a simple businessman, I want no part of this! You have the boy and your engine, that is enough! Get ouakkk?"

Ranma growled, and quicker than the little creature could move his hand lashed out grabbing him by the throat. "Listen here little man," he said, as he dropped the load of jewelry and other things on the floor. "You can take this payment, and you can give me the correct command to unlock Shmi's control collar. Or you can't, and I can kill you, and take it! Slavery is one of the worst crimes in the galaxy in my opinion, and even if you didn't enslave Shmi yerself, yer still culpable! At least this way you'll profit."

The Toydarian's eyes darted down to the bits and pieces of jewelry, then up to Ranma's face. "You took those from one of the Hutts! I can't take them, their clan's will find out and think I was part of this!"

"Not if you sell them off quickly enough or hide them, I don't care. You probably have a lot more experience with that kind of thing than I do. The command code." Ranma demanded.

Watto grumbled a little, but looking at the pile of jewelry below Ranma's feet, he knew that they could buy him at least five or six slaves just like Anakin or his mother, maybe more. It was easily the equivalent of the shop itself if not the goods within. "Very well," he grumbled, moving over and handing Ranma the controller. "Touch that to her neck, and input the code 22673, and the collar will unlock itself."

"Good, but just in case, my ship is going to stay hovering over your shop for a little while. If anything happens while I'm inputting the command, you'll be the first to know about it."

Watto gulped but nodded. "It's the real code what would I gain by trying to trick you now?"

"Let's just say it's been a long day and leave it at that 'k?" With that Ranma nodded, and exited the shop quickly, leaving Watto behind. For a moment the Toydarian merchant simply hovered the, staring after him, then he darted down to the jewelry, grabbing up as much of it as he could carry before zooming off.

Ranma found Shmi outside of her home, staring towards the direction where Ranma had met their mystery assailant and Aurra Sing. Then she had turned to stare over the city, and back, along with many of her neighbors.

Ranma limped through the small crowd, and she gasped. "Ranma! Are you all right?"

'Why does everyone ask that when they can already see the answer? Whatever," Ranma muttered, brining up a hand to his head when another stab of pain shot through it "Ahh, anyway, come here for a sec."

Shmi did so, quickly moving to his side as if to help him along moving back towards her house. "I don't have many healing balms, but I can do something for the burns at least." She said, looking at the injuries on his back and side, along with one of his forearms, which was also badly burned even as she tired to make light of things. "You wouldn't believe the amount of times Anakin's hurt himself working on projects for Watto."

"I don't need those, I'll heal all my own, that ain't what I'm here for. Ya remember I said even if the Jedi's wouldn't be able for you, I would?"

Shmi paused looking uncertain. "Ranma, I, I trust you to try, but Watto won't let me go so soon after losing Anakin, he needs help running the shop."

In response Ranma wordlessly held the controller to her neck and inputted the command Watto had given him. Then as the collar fell from her neck Ranma caught it before it hit the ground tossing it aside. "You're free." he said, smiling faintly while one of his eyes closed with pain. His head was really throbbing now. "Now come on, it's time to blow this ice cream stand."

The older woman stared at him then at the collar in his hand, then at her home, tears welling up in her eyes for a moment before she put her arms around Ranma in a gentle hug. "Thank you," she said through her tears.

And then she moved to help them, trying to take some of his weight on her, failing miserably as Ranma stoically refused her help. They limped out into the desert, where Wild Light touched down seconds later. Shmi moved over to Aayla without even being told, checking her forehead and pulse rate frowning as she touched her lekku lightly. She looked over at Shaak, then blinked at how injured Shaak looked, before repeating the silliest question in the universe. "Master Ti, are you all right?"

"I've already taken as much medicine as I can," Shaak said, gesturing to the bandages scattered over her, especially on her leg. Pain killers help. "Should we start her on purgatives right away do you think?"

"So long as you think you can handle any withdrawal symptoms she might have yes," Shmi said quickly. "I've never seen a face like that, her pulse rate is too quick to be healthy, and she seems to be sweating from her lekku, though I'm unclear why or what could cause that. Regardless we need to get it out of her system quickly." Shmi had seen hundreds of drug addicts coming off their poison of choice, and had helped dozens of them, both before and after Gardulla lost her to Watto in a bet.

"I think that Ranma should stay away regardless of her state when she wakes up, at least in his male form." Shmi said a moment later after gently forcing several small but powerful purging medicines down Aayla's throat. These particular pills would make Aayla sweat most of the drugs out of her system, with some incontinence too unfortunately. The next stage would have her throwing up everything else.

To her surprise Ranma didn't argue. He simply nodded moving forward and lifting Aayla in his arms moving towards the bedrooms. "Put her in with me," Shaak ordered, gesturing towards her bedroom on the right. Ranma nodded then faltered a little between one step in another. God his head was hurting!

Ranma slowly moved through this ship, while at Shaak's command Tune brought the ship up into a slow climb out of the atmosphere. Above them the Nabooan yacht and the Starwayman waited. "I'll watch her for now," Shmi said.

Carrying a change of clothes and a pair of medical underwear Shaak gave her she pushed Ranma out of the room gently but firmly. While she was very worried about what she'd do in the long term, this at least was something Shmi knew about. "I'll call for you when she wakes up."

Shaak nodded then looked between herself and Ranma. "Tune, open communications with the other ships. Tell them to set course for Kashyyyk. If Padme tries to protest, tell her that it's on the way to Coruscant anyway, going there will allow us to use hyperspace trade routes for more of the trip."

"I have done so mistress," Tune said after a moment, while Ranma moved towards the kitchen, grabbing a small bulb of water and pouring it over his head wincing at the pain of the change which never normally hurt. But changing like this did aggravate wounds most of the time. And this time, when it was mostly pulled muscles, compacted or bruised bones, plus of course his head injury, it was almost the worst he'd ever had.

Shaak looked at Ranma, shaking her head before she moved forward, helping the redhead onto the sofa, leaning down to press a gentle hand against his forehead. "Rest," she ordered. Ranma nodded wearily and closed her eyes.

With that done she moved towards the front cockpit, sitting down with relief. "Did you input the coordinates Kashyyyk?" Tune Replied in the affirmative, while HK made some comment about how they should carpet bomb the planet before leaving. Shaak Ti ignored him, leaning back and closing her own eyes. "Then get us out of here. If I see another desert it'll be too soon."

End chapter


Woot. Hope you all enjoyed this, and the unadulterated violence! For those of you wondering, no Hiryu Shoten Ha because the Jedi were still in the area, too spread out to rescue them from the tornado. You can also see that Ranma isn't really used to using weapons even when he has them at all, since he made a few mistakes in this fight because of that.

Aurra Sing's death - she won against a lot of Jedi because she was good at ambushing them. Against Ranma? No chance in hell. Maul of course was a much tougher challenge, and the hi-tech version of the toughness training is actually far better than Ranma's old version.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it