AN: "aaaa" - talking through a holocommunicator or comlink.'aaaa' - talking through a bond
Thank you Cheire and princesselsaamidala22 for the wonderful reviews!
Chapter Five
Both of the Kouhuns were about to strike when the door to the hallway slid open and Anakin burst into the room, reaching for his lightsaber. Obi-Wan was right behind him.
Igniting the blue blade, Anakin ran past R2 as the blue and white astromech switched on and leapt over the glass end table, landing on the Senator's bed as he swung his lightsaber twice over her head, slicing both of the deadly creatures in two and sending them flying into the door that led to her closet.
Whisps of smoke drifted up off of the now dead creatures.
Suddenly Padmè sat up, her heart racing and her breath catching in her throat. She looked startled to see Anakin on her bed with his lightsaber in his hands.
Obi-Wan, who had glanced in her direction, tore his gaze from her as movement outside the window caught his attention. The probe droid, the one who had deposited the deadly creatures in the room, had detached itself from the window. He guessed that it had been programmed to record all that had happened inside the room, so whomever had sent it would have proof that the Senator was dead.
Anakin had just deactivated his lightsaber and was in the process of making sure that Padmè was not hurt when Obi-Wan saw that the droid was trying to flee from the scene. Without even thinking of informing his brother about what he was going to do, the Knight ran at the window and jumped. The glass, which was already weakened since the probe droid had taken out the force shield, shattered easily, the shards falling to the ground somewhere far below. He used the force to grab onto the escaping droid, clinging to it as it took off. With luck, it would take him to the assassin.
The Padawan sharply looked up when he heard the sounds of breaking glass. When he saw the broken window and what Obi-Wan had done, he couldn't help but wonder why when he could have used the Force to keep the droid in place. Then he looked at Padmè. "Stay here! I'm going to go help Obi-Wan!" He commanded, knowing that she would do exactly that. He leapt off the bed, hooking his lightsaber back onto his belt as he ran out of the room, passing Dormè, Captain Typho and a few of his guards in the hallway, since they had come up to check on the Senator.
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"Milady, are you alright?" Dormè asked as she came around to the right side of the bed and sat down, placing one of her hands on Padmè's shoulders and the other over Padmè's left hand.
Padmè nodded breathlessly. "I think so," she said. "I was only startled by waking up to Anakin on my bed with his lightsaber in his hands and then seeing Obi-Wan take a trip through the window."
Dormè laughed, her voice watery as she said, "That would be startling."
"Senator, we should move you to the other bedroom. You'll be safe there while the Jedi find out who tried to assassinate you again," Captain Typho told the two women, his tone stern.
Padmè knew that he was looking out for their safety and softly smiled as she replied, "Of course, Captain." She then ran her right hand through her hair as she placed both of her bare feet on the floor.
Dormè moved out of the way as one of the guards picked up both halves of the creatures off of the floor. She nodded in thanks before rushing inside the small room and grabbing a pair of slippers and a robe for the Senator. She returned and dropped the slippers on the floor as she held out the robe. "Here," she said. "Put these on."
Padmè slipped on the offered items and stood up, Dormè and Captain Typho standing on either side of her as she walked out towards the guest room which was prepared. R2 popped out his third strut and followed them.
When they reached the guest room, Padmè took off her robe and sat on the bed as she removed the slippers. Then she slipped beneath the clean sheets absentmindedly as she was a little worried for both Anakin and Obi-Wan. She knew that they were capable of handling themselves and that in no time they would be back here with either a clue or perhaps the person who dared try and kill her for a second time. Dormè pulled the covers up on her while Captain Typho stood in the doorway, sternly telling R2 to watch her throughout the rest of the night.
"Good night milady," Dormè said as she stepped back from the bed. "I shall see you in the morning, provided no other accidents happen."
Padmè smiled and responded, "Good night Dormè. I shall see you then."
The handmaiden gave a quick bow before leaving, letting the door slide shut behind her. Padmè shifted under her blanket and R2 whistled inquisitively.
She smiled at the reliable little droid and said, "I'm alright R2. It has been a rather interesting night."
The blue and white droid beeped in agreement.
"Well, good night R2," Padmè said, smiling as she heard him get set up to watch over her. "I'll see you in the morning as well."
The droid gave a soft beep, dimming his lights. They were the last thing Padmè saw before drifting off to sleep.
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Jumping out of a glass window just to catch a fleeing probe droid had to have been one of Obi-Wan's more foolish ideas. Even as he dangled from the probe as it darted in and out among speeders and bikes, he already knew that Anakin would be telling Qui-Gon all about it when it was over.
In what would be a futile effort to dislodge its unwanted passenger, the probe droid used what was left of its logic circuits to run itself into the side of a building. For a single moment, Obi-Wan's left hand lost its grip on the droid, leaving him dangling in the air with only his right hand holding onto the other side.
With a grunt, Obi-Wan threw his left arm back up, his hand landing on top of the droid. It continued to fly through the air and Obi-Wan began to rethink his plan, which was to let the droid that he was hanging on to take him back to whomever had sent it. Then maybe he would get either an answer or some sort of clue as to who wanted the Senator dead.
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Anakin raced through the sitting room. As soon as he reached the foyer and the lift, he raced inside once the doors opened, hitting the button for the speeder bay. The ride down was long, and he was starting to bounce on his heels impatiently. He knew it was faster than taking the stairs, even if it didn't feel like it. Once the doors opened, Anakin ran out, found the speeder that they had taken from the temple and jumped in. He started the engine, backed out of the spot that they had parked in and took off, following Obi-Wan through their bond.
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As the probe weaved in and out of traffic, Obi-Wan could feel it beginning to slow down. Looking ahead of him, he spotted a small platform, where a masked person stood with a long riffle in their hands.
"Oh, this is not good," he said, knowing that the individual was either aiming for him or the droid.
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Zam had tracked the returning droid with her electrobinoculars and silently cursed as she saw a Jedi hanging on to it. She couldn't let the Jedi discover her as she would be forced to give up the name of who had hired her to kill the Senator from Naboo. Furthermore, she knew that once the Jedi released her from their custody, she was a dead woman. There would be nowhere that she could go that Jango wouldn't be able to find her.
She had to wrap this up and fast. Making her way over to her speeder, she grabbed her riffle and returned to where she had been standing. Taking aim with her weapon, she focused on the droid and fired a blast. She smiled as she saw the droid get destroyed and the Jedi go into a free fall.
She secured her riffle back onto the side of her speeder, leapt into it and took off, heading in the opposite direction, hoping to lose the Jedi before they could catch up to her.
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Anakin followed the bond that he shared with his master and older brother, finally catching sight of him. As he immediately angled the speeder into a steep descent, he made sure to maneuver it so that he was flying underneath his falling master who had his arms and legs spread in an eagle position to help control the speed in which he was falling at. He also made sure to alternate his gaze between Obi-Wan and the traffic. On one hand, the younger of the two was currently keeping the speeder steady while also trying to help guide the man over to the speeder with what limited control over the Force he was using.
Obi-Wan, with some help from Anakin, managed to land with a small thud on the back of the speeder. Taking a deep breath, he scrambled into the passenger seat next to the man. "What took you so long?" He asked.
Anakin leaned back in the driver's seat as he casually replied, "Oh, you know, I couldn't find a speeder that I liked. One that had an open cockpit and the right speed capabilities."
"Anakin, this is the speeder that we took from the temple this afternoon," Obi-Wan told him as he rolled his eyes in exasperation.
Anakin only chuckled in response.
Obi-Wan quickly spotted the speeder that the assassin was driving and pointed to it. "There! Follow that speeder!" He said.
Instantly, Anakin pushed the controls forward and sent the speeder into an upward climb as the assassin made the same maneuver to try to lose them. "You know," Obi-Wan said as he and Anakin were plastered to their seats, "if you took the time to practice the lightsaber techniques that you've been learning from me, you would rival Master Yoda as a swordsman."
"I thought I already did," Anakin replied mildly as he flew after the speeder that the assassin was flying.
"Only in your mind, Anakin," Obi-Wan replied. "Only in your mind."
As Anakin continued to fly through the lanes of traffic – with many angry travelers honking their horns angrily at them – both he and Obi-Wan continued their pursuit of the assassin. He managed to dodge a lane of oncoming traffic as he spun around and pushed the controls forward, sending them into a downward pursuit after the speeder.
"Anakin!" Obi-Wan cried as he saw the large barge that the assassin had seen and avoided. "Pull up!"
The young man laughed as this was the kind of flying that he liked to do. It reminded him of podracing on Tatooine. He pulled up at the last moment and resumed their chase. "Sorry Obi-Wan," Anakin apologized while keeping up with the speeder. "I forgot that you don't like flying."
"I don't mind flying, but what you're doing is suicide," Obi-Wan said as he ducked for another speeder had flown so close to theirs that it almost took their heads off. If there was one thing he hated most, it was chaotic flying. But he also knew that Anakin got a thrill out of it and was willing to let him do it if it meant that they were keeping up with the assassin.
As Anakin continued his pursuit, the assassin led them through the exhaust flames of the Kerdos Company recycling plant, hoping that the flames would scorch the Jedi since they were flying through in an open top speeder.
Looking back, Zam saw that the Jedi were unharmed. She knew that she would have to step up her game. As she kept flying her speeder, she saw the power couplings up ahead of her. Then she got an idea. Reaching through the window on her right, she took careful aim with a small blaster and shot one of the couplings. As she sped up and made it through, the electricity instantly started crackling between the two structures.
Anakin didn't slow down. He went through the two structures, ignoring all the stray bolts of electricity that were hitting the speeder, thankfully not frying the engines.
The speeder ahead of them pulled into a sharp climb and Anakin followed.
Suddenly, Zam made a sharp turn as she sailed into a one-way access tunnel. Anakin flew past it, intending to fly to the exit of the tunnel and cut the assassin off.
"Anakin, where are you going?" Obi-Wan asked as he turned around and looked in the direction that the assassin had taken. "He went that way!"
"Obi-Wan," Anakin said forcefully. "If we keep this cat and mouse chase going any longer, whomever is driving that speeder is going to end up deep-fried. Personally, I would like to find out just who this person is and who hired him to carry out the hit. I'm pretty sure this is a shortcut." He turned the speeder around and headed back the way that they had just flown through.
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Zam wove through the tunnel, flying between speeders and other vehicles, reaching speeds of 400 kilometers per hour. When she exited the tunnel network at the Cybot Galactica droid research institute, she was surprised to not find the Jedi already waiting for her.
She smiled, knowing that she had lost them and merged with a lane of traffic that was travelling away from the tunnel. As she began to relax, she reached up and pulled off the right end of the veil that covered her mouth.
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Obi-Wan huffed as Anakin flew the speeder to the other end of the sector that they were in. The young man brought the speeder to a halt as there was no exit to the tunnel as he had thought there would be.
"Well Anakin," Obi-Wan said, clearly not happy with what his apprentice had done, "that was some shortcut. You have lost the trail that we had on the assassin."
"Sorry Obi-Wan," Anakin said, hoping to avoid another lecture from his brother and Jedi Master. He looked over the edge of the speeder at the traffic below and managed to catch sight of their quarry a couple hundred feet below them following the stream of traffic.
Obi-Wan continued speaking, unaware that Anakin wasn't listening to him. "He clearly went the other way," he said disapprovingly. "If you had just listened to me…"
"If you'll excuse me," Anakin said, interrupting whatever Obi-Wan had been about to say to finish his sentence as he gripped his side of the speeder and vaulted over the door. He kept his arms and legs spread evenly to control his descent as he made his way to the assassin's ship.
Obi-Wan leaned over the side and sighed. "I really don't like it when he does that," he said as he slid over to the driver's seat and powered the speeder back up to follow his wayward Padawan.
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As Anakin fell through the air, he mentally told himself to apologize to his brother for what he had just done, even though Obi-Wan had done it to him earlier. Then he spotted the bounty hunters speeder as it flew beneath him. Using the force, Anakin made his way over to it and reached out, grabbing onto the tail end of the fast moving yellow and green ship.
When Zam felt the bump on the outside of her speeder, she quickly looked up. Realizing that someone had landed on top of it, she quickly jerked her controls forward, sending Anakin sliding towards the front of the craft.
Luckily for Anakin, he managed to stop himself before falling off of the speeder and into open air.
As soon as Zam saw the Jedi in front of her, she pointed her blaster out of the right window and began to fire at the padawan in an attempt to get him off of her vehicle.
Anakin, who had no intention of letting the assassin get away, let go of the part that he was holding onto which left him hanging by his hands while he swung his feet so that he had them firmly placed against the left half of the speeder. Then he dropped his feet and jumped, grabbing onto the left side with his hands.
Zam, who had stopped firing and put away her blaster, grabbed the controls and jerked her speeder from side to side to avoid a car and then some sort of multi passenger vehicle that she otherwise would have crashed into.
Anakin, who had managed to climb up onto the front left wing of the vehicle, was a little unprepared when the person who was piloting it jerked the controls upwards, sending him sliding towards the rear of the craft. As he did, he caught a glimpse of the assassin's face and was a little startled when it changed into a green lizard like appearance before settling back into a more human like facial feature. He filed away the fact that their perpetrator was a changeling as he knew that Obi-Wan would want to know just who they were up against and grabbed hold of a small bump on top of the cockpit.
Zam looked up and saw that the Jedi was up to something. She knew she had to pay attention to the lane that she was currently flying in, so she focused her attention on what she was doing, while simultaneously getting her blaster ready.
Anakin grabbed his lightsaber, but Zam already had her blaster ready and waiting. As soon as Anakin ignited the blue blade and thrust it through the roof of the ship, inadvertently knocking out the guidance systems, she started to fire in return. One of the laser blasts missed his hand, but knocked his lightsaber free. Anakin watched it tumble away and for a moment worried about what Obi-Wan would say to him.
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Obi-Wan, who had followed the bond that he shared with his padawan, caught up with him and saw the yellow and green speeder flying as if whomever was driving it didn't care about how much chaos or destruction they might cause.
Then the Jedi Master caught sight of a silver and black hilt as it flew through the air. He flew the speeder up a little, reached out with his right hand and caught Anakin's saber. He softly sighed as he knew that something must have happened to make his padawan let go of it. He placed it on the passenger's seat next to him and kept driving.
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Anakin thrust his hand into the hole that he had made and began to grapple with the bounty hunter for control of the blaster. While they were fighting for control, the blaster went off and hit a portion of the engines which immediately caught fire.
Anakin hung on as the speeder listed to the side. As he looked inside, he could see that the bounty hunter had dropped the blaster in favor of grabbing the controls.
The engines started to smoke and the ship lost altitude as its systems failed. Zam jerked the controls to the side as she attempted to keep them both in the air.
As they got close to the ground, the ship rocked from side to side unpredictably as Zam tried everything in her power to keep the speeder in the air. It was of no use and she knew it. She tilted the ship to the side, causing Anakin to let go and roll as his shoulder came into contact with the ground. He came to a stop as he crashed into a few boxes that were in front of him.
Zam felt her speeder land on a walkway and then crash into the base of a statue that crumpled the front end of the yellow and green ship.
As Anakin got to his feet, he placed his left hand on his right ribs, checking them with the force to make sure they weren't broken. He got the sense that they were slightly bruised, but not too bad to warrant a trip to the healers. Then he looked ahead of him as he saw the pedestrians rush forward and the bounty hunter emerge from the wrecked speeder.
The bounty hunter whirled around before blending into the crowd. As he got a look at her face, he realized that the assassin was a woman.
As soon as Zam locked eyes with the Jedi Padawan, she took off, knowing that he would be coming after her.
Anakin bolted after her, shoving people out of the way, not caring about all the glares and the yells that he was receiving as he chased the woman through the busiest part of a high-end nighttime district.
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Obi-Wan glanced over the driver's side of the speeder that he and Anakin had taken, saw what was going on and turned around, heading off to find somewhere to land so he could join Anakin and find the assassin.
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The bounty hunter raced through an alleyway, hoping to lose the Jedi who just so happened to be on her tail.
Unbeknownst to her, Anakin was still chasing after her.
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As Obi-Wan landed the speeder in an empty parking spot, he turned off the engine, grabbed Anakin's saber and hopped out before taking off in the direction that he had last sensed his wayward padawan.
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Zam burst out onto an open walkway and ran into one of the clubs along the street that catered to people who wanted to get away from whatever had gone on during their day and just act seedy for a night.
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Obi-Wan came running around a corner and caught sight of his brother as he was about to head into the club that he was sure the assassin had run into. "Anakin!" He called, watching as the young man came to a stop just outside of the entrance.
Anakin looked up as Obi-Wan came to a halt in front of him. "The assassin went into that club," he said as he pointed to the entrance.
"Calm down," Obi-Wan told him. "Use the force and think."
"Yes Master," Anakin responded. As he turned away and took a step forward, wanting nothing more than to head inside and find the assassin, he stopped in his tracks as he felt Obi-Wan place his right hand on his arm.
"This club is a perfect place for the assassin to hide, not run. It will be very easy for him to blend in and slip back out. We need to be on our guard when we go in," Obi-Wan told him.
Anakin nodded, as he acknowledged what was being told to him.
Obi-Wan held up Anakin's saber that he had been holding in his left hand. "Next time, try not to lose this," he said.
"Yes, Obi-Wan," Anakin responded.
"This weapon is your life," Obi-Wan said as Anakin reached out and took it, hooking it onto his belt. "Please treat it with care."
"I will," Anakin told him as he followed him into the club.
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The pair headed into the club.
"You're almost an adult Anakin," Obi-Wan said as he walked ahead of the younger man. "If you are not more careful, I fear that you will be the death of me."
Anakin felt a spike of panic inducing fear flow through him as soon as he heard the words that came out of Obi-Wan's mouth. "Please don't say that. You and Qui-Gon are the closest things I have to a family. I honestly can't imagine my life without either of you."
Obi-Wan reached for their bond and sent soothing feelings to the young man who was now walking beside him. "I wish you would listen to me more."
"I am trying to," Anakin replied as they both descended the steps into the main area of the club.
They stopped in their tracks and looked around. On one side of the club were three viewscreens surrounded by tables and patrons. One of them was displaying a podrace, another was showing a game of space football and the third screen was showing a race between some fast creatures. Walking around the club were some waitresses and waiters, who were offering drinks to the patrons. The assassin was nowhere to be seen.
"Have you been able to spot him?" Obi-Wan asked.
"I think he is actually a she," Anakin said, remembering that he had seen her features shift earlier that evening. "And I think she is a changeling."
Obi-Wan frowned as he glossed over the new information Anakin had just told him. "Well then, we'll have to be extra careful," he said as he looked around again. "Go and find her." He headed towards the bar.
"Where are you going?" Anakin asked, bewildered at his change in attitude.
Obi-Wan stopped in his tracks and turned around to face his younger brother. "I'm going to go get a drink," he said, his tone implying that should have been obvious. He walked away.
Anakin centered himself in the force and began to casually walk around, scanning the people as he searched for the bounty hunter's signature. He knew that the woman was inside the club, but didn't know exactly where she was located.
He stopped to casually wave at a plump, pink Twi'lek who turned from her companion to greet him with a seductive grin much to her companion's annoyance.
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"Thank you," Obi-Wan told the bartender as he delivered the drink that the Jedi Master had ordered. Like most of the Jedi who belonged to the Order, he wasn't that big of a drinker. Still, Obi-Wan wasn't one to turn down a drink, especially when it helped on occasions like this when he needed to blend in.
"Do you want to buy some deathsticks?" A voice next to him asked.
Without even looking at the man who was next to him, Obi-Wan turned in the other direction and casually waved his left hand. "You do not want to sell me any deathsticks," he said.
"I do not want to sell you any deathsticks," the man replied as he put the item away and picked up his drink, intending to take a sip from it.
With another wave of his hand, Obi-Wan said, "You want to go home and think about what you've been doing with your life."
"I want to go home and think about what I've been doing with my life." Elan Sel'Sabagno said as he left his drink on the counter, got up and left.
Obi-Wan smiled just a little and finished off what was left of his drink, knowing that he had just helped a man turn away from a life of selling drugs and then spending years in jail when he got caught.
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Zam spotted the older Jedi who was sitting at the bar by himself, drinking. She softly smirked to herself and began to make her way through the club as she headed over to the bar. The sounds of her footsteps were muffled by the echoing music and shouts from the patrons who were having a good time.
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Anakin was still walking around, scanning people with the Force. None of the people who were around him matched the signature of the assassin who he and Obi-Wan had been chasing. Still, he kept looking, hoping to find her before something bad happened or worse, she escaped.
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Zam reached for her blaster and removed it from its holster as she drew near to the bar.
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Anakin had come to a stop as he thought he had sensed the signature that he was looking for. Reaching out further with the Force, he sensed that it wasn't a match. Then he decided to keep walking around.
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Obi-Wan sensed the woman coming up behind him and in a few smooth motions, reached for his lightsaber, turned away from the bar, ignited the blade, gave it a twirl, sliced through the arm which held the blaster and then deactivated the glowing blue blade.
As the blaster flew from the woman's grip, she let out a pained scream and stumbled back, falling against a half-raised wall, clutching the stump where the rest of her arm had been. The music seemed to stop as the patrons who nearby began to look in their direction, not knowing what had transpired.
The Jedi Master hooked his lightsaber back onto his belt and then walked towards the woman, who let out a small moan of pain as Obi-Wan grabbed her other arm. She grunted as he helped her to her feet. Suddenly Anakin materialized next to them.
Obi-Wan slung the woman's arm around his shoulder and turned to head outside with their captive.
Anakin looked out over the crowd of curious onlookers and said, "I'm afraid that this is Jedi business and does not involve you. Please, go back to your drinks and whatever else you were doing."
Then he turned to go catch up with Obi-Wan and the woman.
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Anakin caught up with Obi-Wan and the assassin as they headed into an alleyway that was littered with trash and bins. He glanced back into the club and around the alley as his older brother gently lowered the female to the ground. Then he knelt down next to them as Obi-Wan started to interrogate their only suspect.
"Do you know who exactly you were sent to kill?" Obi-Wan asked.
The assassin eyed them warily before replying, "The Senator from Naboo."
"Who was it that hired you to kill her?" Obi-Wan continued, asking yet another question.
"It was just a job," The assassin weakly muttered.
Anakin felt his blood beginning to boil when he heard the woman say that it was just a job. "Answer the question," he told her.
The woman remained tight-lipped and stared defiantly at the young Jedi. Obi-Wan felt a flash of anger drift along their bond and glanced up at Anakin, only to find his eyes narrowed in anger at the bounty hunter. 'Anakin! Don't give into your anger!'
Anakin, having heard what Obi-Wan said through their bond, gritted his teeth, desperately trying to rein in the anger that he felt. He knew that his anger would be of no use to them in this situation. But whatever he had unleashed had affected the assassin for she shuddered, stiffening in fear.
The woman flinched before answering, "It was a bounty hunter called J…"
The assassin never got to finish complete her sentence as something hit her in the side of her neck. Both Anakin and Obi-Wan looked behind them as the woman fell to the ground, only to see a man who was clad in armor activate his jetpack and take off into the night sky.
Anakin and Obi-Wan turned back to the woman, but it was too late. Her words became garbled as whatever it was did its work and her face began to shift back to what she actually looked like, the transformation finishing as she died.
"Damn!" Anakin quietly swore and watched as Obi-Wan carefully pulled the dart out of the assassin's neck.
The Jedi Master brought the dart up to his eyes, being careful not to touch the tip that was coated in the assassin's blood. "It's a toxic dart," he said.
Anakin leaned over and checked the woman's vital signs, but it was clear, even to him that the woman was dead.
Obi-Wan looked back to where the other man had been standing and then back to the dart. He frowned as he didn't recognize the type. Pulling a small bag from his belt, he slipped the dart inside and then sealed it. As soon as the bag was back in his belt pouch, he stood up. Anakin did the same. Both Jedi eyed each other, wondering just how far this assassination plot went.
AN: Anakin and Obi-Wan have caught the assassin, only to find themselves at a dead end.
Up next: The Jedi report to the Council, Anakin has a chat with Palpatine and Padmè leaves Coruscant. Don't forget to review and I'll see you all next time. (By the way, is everyone enjoying the Pokemon remakes that have launched for the Nintendo Switch? I know I am since I spent quite a bit of time today playing instead of working on this chapter)