Hello Everyone
A much faster update this time ;)
I want to thank my beta, Carrie2sky for helping me continuing this story and I hope that I am able to update with another chapter soon :)
Chapter 20 – "What do you wish to hear? That I once believed in the code of the Jedi?" (Sith Lord Darth Traya)
The stars above filled the sea of darkness with an infinity of light.
Under that soft light he allowed himself to believe, for a single fragile moment, that everything, his entire life, had not been split apart and broken into pieces. A merciful moment he could believe that nobody won the war, and everyone he loved was still alive and safe.
He knew he was lying to himself, but right now he didn't care.
He needed this.
He needed this stolen moment of self-deception before he could acknowledge the glaring fact that everything he ever fought for was unraveling and the last chance of turning this war around had slipped between his fingers.
It was a difficult thing to admit to complete and utter failure.
The kindness, the love and the hope that had collected into his life and had made up his entire existence after Tatooine… it was over. He knew now that he had been incredibly lucky in meeting these rare people that were driven by pure ideals, hopes and the belief in a better future.
The people making up the Resistance…He had never seen such brave and beautiful people before in his life and he knew for a fact that he never would again.
He had lost the war.
It was over, and everyone he had loved was gone or better left for dead.
'…Some hero I turned out to be.' He thought bitterly.
The only consolation prize was that they were no longer around to experience this entire catastrophe. Their endings had been horrible, but at least it had ended for them. This was the last bastion that he clung to in his mind, it was the fact that their pain was over.
They would not bear witness to this macabre aftermath. They would not be a part of this funeral of freedom and democracy. They would never mourn the future that was stolen from them.
This horrible darkness that had swallowed up all the known worlds was something they would never bow down to and acknowledge as a reality.
Not like he did.
He envied that.
This was not over for him, yet.
His enemies were everywhere, and his hunters were tracking the many worlds for his shadow every second he remained breathing. Still, under this light from above, alone and defiant, he could forget that his enemies were searching the galaxy for his name.
The hunt was on.
Everyone was chasing the last true threat to the Empire.
He had seen so many of his hunters already, the faceless crowd, with minds twisted by propaganda.
They did not think they were bad people. He knew that because he had overheard them speaking to each other more than once. They had called him a criminal, a warmonger and a murderer.
What right did they have to call him that? Wasn't it their future he had been fighting for?He had been fighting for democracy, for freedom and for humanity.
This new world order that Sidious had created for the sole purpose of drowning the galaxy in complete darkness was not one he would ever want to be part of.
Did they think that he wanted to continue this poisonous circle of war, horror and death over and over? Did they think it was easy seeing the people of this galaxy looking at him as if he was the worst in all of creation?
How dare they!
How dare they leave their fight to someone else and then not just abandon them when they fail but help the enemy hunt them?
It was all he could do not to be overwhelmed by despair.
There was nothing left fighting for anymore, the people he had been trying to save had abandoned him to a life on the run, after all he had tried to do for them.
He breathed in, breathed out, but the heavy feeling pressed down on his chest and there was a tightness in his throat. Inside him, anger steadily spread like a poison. All these years of war, of fighting… and it ends like this?
It was so unfair.
If it had been Leia standing here alone in his place where all things ended, she would have forgiven them, he knew that. If it had been her waiting for the end alone, she would have been kind. If she had been there in his place, she would have found it in her heart to redeem her enemies of all their sins, no matter how they deserved to feel the consequences.
If...
But she was not here anymore and Luke was not empathetic like his sister.
He could not forget.
And he would never forgive.
As much as he had wanted to change it, Luke was not a forgiving person by heart. What he felt was not what a Jedi should feel. A Jedi should not feel this overwhelming RAGE. Every single moment, it felt like he was seconds from giving in to the dark side.
Not that he ever would.
He knew the terrible cost of turning to the dark.
But he was only human. He was weak to his own desires. That was the same reason why he had left that trap for the Inquisitors snapping at his heel. He had wanted them to pay. To hurt. To fear.
He had only stayed long enough to make sure the Inquisitor with the red hair died, despite knowing it was a needless risk to stay that long… but he had wanted to see that viper die.
He knew what crooked cause Sidious' people were fighting for and it felt right to make sure that his agents were made to feel the full consequences of thinking Luke as an easy target. If he had to admit it to himself then it was also a matter of pride.
Luke had not lasted this long to die at the hands of such inferior people.
It was an old part of his personality that had been growing in strength for a while now. It had to be a remnant of the culture of his home world. He thought he had left it behind when he left Tatooine.
But he had been mistaken.
Tatooine was an unforgiving place that was home to predatory people. The only way for predators to coexist was to establish firm boundaries and a single universal language that was easy to understand.
The universal language on Tatooine was not diplomacy. It was violence. Why else would the planet so readily accept slavery of sentient beings like it was nothing?
On Tatooine, mercy was for the weak or the dead.
On Tatooine, there were the strong and there were the dead and that was all there was to it. Might was right. It was that simple. The weak deserve to suffer at the hands of the strong, it is the way of that world.
A willingness to commit to violence was the greatest quality one could have, and it was praised to the sky when an individual demonstrated that… 'ability'.
He remembered one tale above the others. The act itself had happened before he was born, but when he was a child he had grown up to tales of a stranger, that came off-world, that had slaughtered an entire Tusken tribe.
This stranger was still spoken of as a hero.
Luke knew that the Tusken tribe deserved their fate. No one mourned their dead, in fact, everyone was overjoyed that the Tusken Raiders had been slaughtered. For a good reason. Only good things happened as a consequence of that nightly attack.
For ten years following, no person had been stolen from their homes in the dark of night never to return. Still…Violence and death should not be celebrated as it still was on Tatooine, regardless of what the Tusken had done.
He knew in his heart that not all in that nomadic tribe had deserved to die, but he still did not care about them. He was still glad that they were all gone.
He was glad they were dead
He knew it was wrong, to approve of what was in fact a genocide. He knew that, but he simply could not bring himself to care when he remembered what the Tusken Raiders had done to the ones they didn't acknowledge as 'people.'
He knew it was a primitive way of thinking. Perhaps a part of him had never left Tatooine, and their violent culture had somehow become a part of him without him realizing it.
Maybe that was the reason why he simply didn't care anymore.
He understood mercy and practiced it when he could, but he did not forgive easily after Bespin. It was like that ability had been ripped from him. Mercy was something he had to force himself to apply because after Bespin it never felt natural.
But he was supposed to be a Jedi, and Jedi should not think such things.
Jedi were supposed to be the guardians of peace and the paragon for empathy and forgiveness. In many ways then, it was too bad that Luke had been born too late into a galaxy that had outgrown those outdated values.
He was not a Jedi, he knew that for a fact, and he never would be.
Pretending like he was a Jedi, while adhering to the almost primal culture of his barbaric homeworld, was nothing short of self-deception. He didn't believe in the code of the Jedi and pretending to didn't make him a Jedi Knight.
It made him a hypocrite.
Maybe that was why he lost everything, because he was just acting out a part he had been given by an old liar a lifetime ago. He had tried so hard to become an ideal of a hero, to play a role he could never truly embody.
No one could anymore.
Only Leia, but she…
He shook his head to get rid of the thought while the old lesson from Tatooine rose like an unbidden curse. 'The weak and the dead.' The old lesson whispered as if it had taken physical form.
The age-old lesson from Tatooine was cruel but undeniable.
It had been proven time and time again after he left home. Mercy had indeed turned out to be for the weak and the departed.
He was all that was left and no matter which direction he went from here, it would end in the same manner. He felt the truth of that statement in the Force. What was even the point of continuing onwards, when he couldn't change anything no matter what he did from now on?
No.
He could not afford to think like that.
There had to be something that he could do to turn this war back around, even if he had to start a new rebellion himself!
He could not be a part of this new future under Sith rule that was so distorted and completely barren of basic human kindness. He refused to accept it! He would not stop fighting as long as he was alive!
And if the worst happened and he failed…so what? There was nothing left in this world that held any value to him anymore. All the people that he loved were long gone. He had nothing left to lose at this point.
The worst thing that could happen to him, was to die fighting on the losing side of a war.
Just like his mother had before him.
::::
Fives was good at pretending to be confident, but his Force signature betrayed him. Luke could practically feel the ill, hidden deception glare back at him in the Force.
"It will be fine," Fives assured with that frustrating conviction he always had. Luke clenched his teeth from stopping the sarcastic reply that almost managed to escape him. Fives looked confident, his back was straight and his tone steady.
Luke still did not believe a word of it.
He could sense that Fives was nervous about doing this and the trooper's poor attempt to reassure him was getting on Luke's last nerve. He wanted to tell the trooper to stop treating him like he was made of glass, but at the same time he just wanted to get this over with.
He had a bad feeling about this. The Force was eerily silent and it made him nervous. It felt like a giant spider was crawling on the back of his neck.
He had been around for long enough to know that his luck was as rotten as it came and fate wasted no time hitting him with a hammer when the opportunity presented itself.
How else did he end up in this kind of scene?
The many bright lights on this street that they had made it to after crossing a lot more dilapidated streets made this place seem almost luxurious. It seemed like some sort of party district. There were painted faces, laughter and loud music. Intoxicated people came and went from the brightly lit buildings.
They were happy and seemingly unbothered by a massive fleet battle that had almost just taken place at their doorstep. People intermingle with causal ease as if they were not in the middle of a galactic war.
What kind of place was Coruscant exactly? It was barely a day after a major attack on the city, and a battleship crash-landed not far from here, but the people were acting like this was just another weekday.
The door before him was bright and colourful. It was the entrance to the place that Fives said he had a contact for the security-passes for the opera.
The intense yellow frame around the oval door was so cheery looking that it felt a little bit like an insult to look at. As if it was mocking him with its brightness.
He instantly hated it.
He had not even crossed the threshold yet and he already could not wait to leave.
Luke didn't like it. There was something about this cheerful-looking party area that gave him a foreboding feeling. Like the Force was warning him that it was a mistake to go in there.
Maybe he was just being paranoid.
… maybe not.
It was unnerving to venture into completely uncharted territory. Luke liked to have a plan about everything before he went out on a mission of any kind. He had not been like that in the beginning because everything sorted itself out somehow and events turned to his favour so often that he had started to expect it.
That had changed when his luck had eventually run out. Then everything started to go south and now, he never left anything to chance. Maybe that was the real reason why he hesitated right now even if he had decided that Fives could be trusted.
Maybe because he didn't think he could take another defeat.
"It is just in and out," Fives said in that gentle way that made Luke feel like that the trooper was more focused on convincing himself than Luke. It made his skin crawl and the doorway suddenly looked imposing.
Luke did not know what to say, instead he kept his silence as he kept pace with Fives when he started to move, lengthening his strides a little and, Fives unconsciously, slowed a little down from the brisk walk of nervousness that had driven him forward, so that Luke could keep up at a normal pace.
Luke notes that with a slight frown. Since when had he synchronized like that with Fives? He had not felt that natural companionship with anyone since-
He shakes his head, and banishes the thought before it gets a chance to form. Darkness falls over him as he steps through the door, while following in Fives shadow. The room they stepped into was crowded, very crowded, it was hard to see how many people were there since it was only dimly lit.
It was some type of bar or club though, the sour smell alone told him as much, and somewhere there was music playing a tune he never heard before. Many screens with different competitions and games lines the wall. One of them looked like some kind of race.
There was a long silence from Fives as they made their way through the crowd that parted in front of them fast, like the pair of them had carried a deadly plague with them. Luke tried not to be affected by it, but he could sense that Fives signature in the Force became more agitated.
Luke allowed his eyes to wander, to see if it was something that had caused that sudden increased nervousness, but there was nothing that immediately caught his eyes.
"Something wrong?" He asked in a voice no louder than a whisper. He had to lean in slightly in order to avoid someone picking up his words.
For a moment he thought that Fives would not answer, but after a few more steps he finally dragged his eyes away from the surroundings to Luke. "It might be nothing."
"But?"
"It is more packed than usual…" Fives added finally and his voice was hesitant, like it was bad luck to speak his observation aloud.
"We can turn back?" He offered, perfectly willing to do that since he really didn't want to go forward with this plan in the first place. "There must be somewhere else we can go?" He said and grimaced as he heard how pathetic his own words sounded. He hadn't meant for it to sound like a question.
"No, this is the best option," Fives answered and sighed. "It is probably nothing," he added slowly, but he did not sound as sure as Luke would have liked him to be.
That fact did nothing good for his nerves.
'Great,' Luke thought, something was already looking suspicious and they had barely passed the threshold into this place. He instantly disliked it, because it reminded him of another place like this that he had been to just before he first met Grakkus the Hutt.
What followed that event, was a lot of bad memories.
The music is obnoxious, and the room is too cold for the clothing the dancing patrons of the club were wearing. The only good thing about this place was the fact that Luke would only see it once and then never again.
Fives reaches the bar a few steps ahead of Luke and says something low to the bartender that does not carry far in the loud noise of the music. Luke turns around, leaning back against the bar to let his sense slip through the crowd, checking for Force-sensitives or worse, Jedi.
Fives talks to the bartender behind him, but Luke cannot hear a single word of it, so instead, as the conversation continues beside him, he makes sure there is no threat in the immediate surroundings.
It never hurts to make sure that there were no people with ill intent hidden in the crowd, and maybe looking through the crowd with the Force would dispel the intense feeling of dread that had formed like a stone in his gut. It felt like he was standing on a bomb about to go off.
Then, to his surprise, there is recognition peeking back at him through the Force and Luke is so shocked that he startles. Fives throws him a strange look over his shoulder that Luke barely registers because his sole focus is already searching the many different faces in the crowd.
Who was that he felt just now?
There is someone in this place that he has met before- back home. He knew he had felt this person before, but he cannot place the recognition. He has felt this person before…but when?… where…who was it?
Why couldn't he remember?
He searched the crowd with the Force more and more intensely, pouring so much of his focus into it that it feels like he has a thousand eyes at his command. At first the presences avoid his attention, then suddenly he finds them and he latches on to the presence with the Force by the neck.
'There!' he thinks the moment he located his target.
Drawn to the presence, his eyes narrow on a small shape at one of the tables. A shape that is barely visible in the changing-coloured light. The boy, for he is that, stares back at him with a calculative expression for one so young.
Luke knows for a fact that he has never seen this young face before, but there is something deeply familiar about the boy still.
Why was that?
Did he perhaps only meet a relative of this boy in the future, or did he meet this glaring child when he had grown into a man? It would make sense; Luke met new people every day at the height of the Resistance and as much as he tried, he never knew them all by name.
Why do you feel so familiar? Luke thinks, and tries again to place the boy in his memories somehow, but there is nothing that he can remember. For some reason he gets an impression of Obi-Wan's house back on Tatooine… and a fight.
But when did he meet anyone there, that wasn't R2D2 or Obi-Wan?
The narrowed eyebrows were the same dark colour as his hair and it was cut into what looked like a military style. It looked odd on someone that young. Beside him sat a male Thrandoshan, Luke had only seen another once before, a lifetime ago.
That species did not have a good reputation on Tatooine.
Not anywhere else for that matter.
Fives lays a hand on his shoulder and Luke removes his focus from the boy. Luke stares a moment longer at the stranger, but then abandons the thought. Whoever that boy is …. it's not important to him now. There were more pressing things that demanded his attention other than some half-forgotten memory from a planet he was never returning to.
"We are going to the back." Fives explains quietly, in a voice that is barely noticeable over that sound of the heavy music. The bartender gestures to a door behind the bar with a subtle move and without further ado Fives motions for Luke to follow. Luke throws a last look at the unknown youth, but then moves with Fives towards the backroom.
Behind him, unseen, a figure immediately stands and heads for the door.
::::
Boba stared at the door that the yellow-eyed Jedi had disappeared though. He had planned to have been gone already from this place by now, but there was something about the way the Jedi had looked at him that made him pause.
From his reaction, the Jedi clearly recognized him, but then why did he just walk past? Shouldn't a Jedi's first reaction be to try to make an arrest of a fugitive that just escaped from prison? With a member of the underground police walking right beside him, there was no way that he did not know about the prison break.
So why hadn't he done anything?
He tapped his finger on the table and looked again to the door. There was something about this that made him hesitate and he had learned to trust his instincts. He was not about to bolt for the door as he had seen another few people do as soon as the Jedi had left the room.
And since when are Jedi allowed in that back area of the club? Those rooms were not used for 'official' business.
Why would a Jedi even be here anyway?
The entire Jedi order was in a state of confusion after the temple got attacked by that huge riot that had been all over the news. So why was the Jedi in this place when so many more pressing matters demanded Jedi attention?
Boba cannot remove his eyes from that door. There is something about this situation that doesn't feel right. It was not like he was particularly interested in that random Jedi, but any information about what was happening in the Jedi order might earn him some easy credits.
And he needed credits, badly.
He preferred greater challenges in his work, but beggars could not be choosers. He needed fast credits so he could leave this planet before the Jedi got organized enough to start hunting the escaped prisoners.
He should not just sit here and waste valuable time like this.
Still, despite the sound reasoning of that thinking, he did not leave.
'I must have missed something,' Boba thought. He narrows his eyes and presses a few buttons on his holocom. The blue light lit up his face as he quickly brought himself up to speed. His heart just about stopped when he saw the face of the current highest bounty.
A very familiar face.
'What do we have here?' He thought and didn't even try to suppress his smile as he stared down at the picture of the yellow-eyed Jedi, because it was undeniably the same Jedi that just went into the back room. He had to bite his tongue when he saw the size of the bounty. It was difficult not just to grab his blaster and chase after the Jedi immediately.
This was his lucky day!
He was right to trust his instincts, with that kind of bounty, he could make a name for himself overnight and resolve his financial situation!
'Condition of delivery: capture alive,' he read that condition with little feeling, it didn't really matter to him, there was only one Jedi in the galaxy that he needed to kill eventually, and he would kill that person for free.
'What have you done to the Separatists to place this impressive bounty on your head, Jedi?' He thought as he read the information with discreet glances at the door if the Jedi reappeared. He noted with surprise the title: 'Darth…Vader?'
::::
The noise mutes blessedly when the door closes shut behind them. The room was a lot bigger than he thought it would have been, somehow the interior of it looked more luxurious than the club they just came from.
A newcomer motions for them to follow and Luke steps in beside Fives as they are shown across the room. There are many tables lined up, so many that they have to make their way around them as they walk across the room. There are people sitting at the tables doing some kind of work on different screens, but the light is low so Luke can't really get a good sense of what they are doing.
The scene disappears behind them as they cross into a hall just as dark as the one they just left.
They are led to a flight of stairs where the walls must be thinner since the sound of the music playing in the club sounds louder. The flight of stairs brings them up into another area and he is grateful to notice that this place has windows even if they have been darkened to keep outsiders from looking in.
He notes the walls were made of metal. It was clean, and orderly, the floor was not wood or steel, but the same kind of stone floor one might find in the back room of a slaughterhouse. The kind that is easy to keep clean.
He is not sure he likes that detail.
Discreetly he looks down. The floor…It looked worn, like it had been cleaned a lot, and often. There was something darker, some substance close to the wall, he cannot see what it is from here, but he does not like the image that it conjures up in his head.
He cannot help but gaze back at the door and judge the distance.
Then he collects himself with a stern thought. He had decided to trust Fives, now was the time to follow through.
'Fives knows what he is doing,' he thinks and he feels in the Force that Fives is calmer now that the wait is over. Luke does his best to imitate it with a discreet breath and fails. Then he violently tries to strangle the rising tension he can feel in his very bones as he follows Fives steps into another room, and there he sees her. The person they came here to see.
The bounty hunter sits in the middle of the room at a round table.
The room was dark, the light in the ceiling was barely enough to light up the table where she was sitting. The round table in the middle of the room looked like an island in an ocean of darkness.
She waved them closer, flanked by two bodyguards. The guards are heavily armed and Luke turns his focus to each of them, trying to gauge their threat should this turn violent.
It is not because he doubts Fives' skill so ruthlessly, but he has yet to enter a bar and leave without some level of violence. As if immediately guessing Luke's thought, she held out her palms in a calming manner.
The woman, because it was a woman that greeted them, "Security measures, nothing more," she said with a look to Luke and the undrawn lightsabre.
The guards at her side look on edge, because suddenly they are standing very straight, tension is visible in both of them and he can feel their unease in the Force. He sees them steal a look at the lightsabre, visible on Luke's belt, even if he had yet to make a move for it.
'Good,' he thinks mercilessly and narrow his eyes.
Their boss though looks calm. She too threw a look at the lightsabre, but in her case it was more nonchalant, as if it had been done merely as an afterthought because there is no nervousness attached to her Force signature.
"I must say after the prison break yesterday, we have been extraordinarily busy… but this is quite the picture," she said, when they had closed the distance so only the surface of the table separated them.
She meets his eyes with the lazy curiosity of an old predator discovering something new, then she turns her attention to Fives.
"Why is it that a Security officer and a Jedi have a need for such things as security passes?" Her features were partly hidden by the poor light, but there was something… off in the way she moved. It was unnatural.
Like the shape of the person didn't fit the Force presence he feels from here.
What was this?
"Who says I am security personnel?" Fives asked and sat down at the table across from her. Luke remained standing, there was an eerie air about this place that made it creep coldly up his back.
"And he is a Jedi?"
'It is part of the plan,' Luke thinks to himself as a reminder and an attempt to calm the rising tension. Despite himself he feels an uneasiness dig its claws into his nerves, it felt like a cold touch on the back of his neck. He swallowed dryly and resisted reacting to the uneasy feeling.
He had to trust Fives knew what he was doing, because everything Luke had tried to do so far had only ended in complete and utter failure. He could not afford to fail anymore. He was out of time to waste because he was too prideful. He could not sacrifice the future of the galaxy on that altar.
"I didn't just come here to get security cards," Fives says leaning over the table. "I came here to talk to you Cato Parasitti."
'What?' Luke thought. He blinked and his steeled eyes narrowed first on Fives then on the woman leaned back in the bone-white chair. Her reaction was a nonentity, she drummed her fingers on the table with the same uncaring attitude she had worn since they entered the room.
Luke was too tired to analyze what was going on here. Obviously a lot was left unsaid, but he was not about to call it out and reveal his ignorance.
He could not remember ever being this exhausted, it felt like he was barely able to drag one foot in front of the other and his Force-connection physically hurt. He could not afford to be outnumbered like this when he was this weakened.
So no one in the room would see any sign of weakness from him.
He was inescapably aware that he was outnumbered. There were three people in this room that might very well turn hostile, and they were all armed. If it came to a fight, he was not certain he would be able to protect himself… and to protect Fives as well on top of it?
Luke did not like the doubt that answered back from the Force.
"How did you know it was me?" The woman asked without commenting on Fives words, like she had already suspected the truth before they stepped in here.
Luke had no idea what the two of them were talking about.
"Is this not your usual haunt?" Fives says with a sudden superiority, that is so strange to hear that Luke almost reacts to it. It doesn't sound like Fives anymore. His signature in the Force is… different. Colder. "After the prison break yesterday, I figured the first place you would go was here."
"Fair enough," she said and something moved around her. Luke already had his hand on the lightsabre before he realized it was not an attack. It was an illusion falling apart. Then recognition dawned.
Fives had brought them to see a shape changer.
The illusion fell apart around her like ashes on the wind. She was not human after all. She was a Clawdite, Luke realized. It was a people that he had never encountered except from a few times in passing. He had never actually had any dealings with them in his own time.
As if he needed things to be even more out of his control.
"Why are you looking for me?" she asked like it didn't really interest her to know the answer. But her signature in the Force betrayed her. She felt… eager, and the eagerness had a hint of darkness attached to it.
Was everyone in this time affected by the dark side? It felt like it was everywhere on this planet and it was especially dark in the undercity.
Every second it felt like he was breathing in a fatal poison.
Why did no one else notice? It was all Luke could do not to react to it. It was almost as if the light side was aware of his distress, because it collected around him like a barrier between him and the dark world surrounding him.
Little good it would do.
He too had carried the dark here with him. He could not have avoided it and still hoped to change anything. Everything had a price that was true for both this world and the one he came from. There was no sanctuary.
"We have need of your… talents," Fives said and made a short pause that Luke, was certain had been made only for effect. Then he removed the helmet and placed it down on the table with a little too much force.
'So much for that disguise,' Luke thought but kept his silence. He wanted to see how Fives was going to play this part out.
Cato for her part did not react and her Force signature was very… still. Like she was waiting for something.
"You are calling yourself a Separatist, then… Fives is it?" Cato questioned instead of answering. Fives name rolled off her tongue as if she had practiced this moment. Maybe she had, because she had clearly already known who Fives was before they came into this room.
By the looks of it, she did not believe that Fives would agree with her statement. Heavy doubt was thick in her voice and it reflected too in the Force. "I admit I am mystified by what reason a loyal soldier of so many years would turn on his supreme commander, but if you are not a Separatist agent, why else would a Clonetrooper attempt to kill the Chancellor and betray his own brothers?"
"I am not a Separatist and I never will be and I will never betray my brothers," Fives answered with real anger in his voice. "It is for them that I am doing this."
He pulled a chair out and sat down in front of the bounty hunter. Luke made no move to follow but remained on his feet and close to the door.
"The Chancellor betrayed me first," Fives continued with a bitterness that was very real, "and I am done paying for this war with the lives of my brothers."
Cato's fingers of her right hand drummed slowly on the surface of the steel table. Because of her long nails it sounded like the steps of a giant insect. "…Go on," she said after a long pause.
"I intend to stop this war and give my brothers the freedom that they deserve," Fives says with a serious expression. Luke knows it to be a lie, he can feel it in the Force and that does not change when Fives continues. "To ensure their freedom. There is someone I need to… talk to. "
"Have you ever heard of Nala Se?" Fives askes in a quiet tone looking like he barely resisted looking over his shoulder. "She will be visiting the opera tomorrow night, and I need an opportunity to get close to her."
"I don't understand how this connects… does she have some power over your soldier-brothers?"
"That is something I cannot tell you," Fives answered, unwilling to reveal the secret that was nestled inside the skull of every living clone soldier.
"Fair enough," she said, but her scrutiny was intense when she shifted her narrowed eyes up to meet Luke's eyes as waiting for him to say something. When the silence was kept unanswered her lips drew up into a crooked smile. The fingers on her hands finally stopped moving and remained flat on the table.
"Keep your secrets then, it is after all none of my affair," she continued with the crooked, not-smile carved on her face as her fingers drum impatiently at the table. "But why should I trust anything you say? How to I know that you are not trying to fool me and this is just some elaborate plan to capture me?"
'Excellent question,' Luke thought but kept his mouth shut. 'How are you going to answer that, Fives?' He thought, ready to intervene when Fives little act failed. She had absolutely no reason to trust anything Fives said. If Luke was in her place, he would not have believed a word of it either.
What was Fives proof that he could be trusted? Luke couldn't think of anything that might convince her.
But maybe Fives was just counting on Luke to use the Force to 'convince' Cato in the same way that Luke had mind controlled their last contact? He sighs inwardly while trying to suppress his rising frustration. What was the point of making this alliance if he was the one doing all the work?
"See that guy," Fives asked and pointed backwards with his thumb over his shoulder, right at Luke and it made his heart skip a startled beat. "Don't you recognize him?"
:::
"This Sith is a popular guy," Bossk said and sounded genuinely surprised.
Boba didn't reply but silently agreed. It was an impressive bounty this unknown Sith had earned in such a short time on Coruscant. The bounty the Republic had on General Grievous was higher, but admittedly not by much.
Lord Vader sure knew how to make friends in a hurry!
"Every bounty hunter in the system must be looking for you…" he mumbled to himself, "but the price the Separatists have put on you… that is something else."
"It has been years since I last saw a bounty that big as the one that is on his head," Bossk breathed in like he was savouring the words, but at least he had the good sense to keep his voice down.
A picture of the yellow-eyed Jedi stared up from the wanted poster he just found. It was a picture of the Jedi in front of the Jedi temple, only, the man was no Jedi. Boba narrowed his eyes and focused on the limited text beneath the photo. Designation: Sith Lord Darth Vader. Threat level: Extremely dangerous. Status on delivery: Alive.
It was extremely fortuitous that he should stumble over such an opportunity just after escaping prison. Perhaps too fortuitous, given it was the people he was running from that had put forth the bounty.
If Vader just had just shown up earlier, then he might altogether have avoided his unexpected stay at the prison. Why had he not heard about this person before? Vader must have been a part of this conflict even before Boba had been locked up.
He had never been blindsided like this before and he could honestly say he was embarrassed.
He had not been that long out of the game, the fact that a new player had entered the scene of war like this made him pause. He had prided himself of knowing everyone of relevance in this war. Everyone. Despite this, out of nowhere, comes a Sith Lord with enough power to assassinate Jedi Master Yoda.
How was he supposed to be a bounty hunter like his father when he could not even keep track of the central figures in a war on this scale?
He rechecks the page and then, driven by an afterthought, he connects to another source he had also used more frequently, and one that he can actually pursue with his current status as wanted by the Republic.
He makes a few clicks and then he freezes.
"Look at this," he says and pushes Bossk with his shoulder. Then he clicked another button and the warning on the Republic news shifted away to be replaced by what looked to be a message. The text itself was irrelevant. The Separatist's logo and his picture left little to the imagination, especially considering the number of zeroes on that number beneath the picture.
He didn't know what to think, because that simply did not make any sense. If the news reports were true and Vader had tried to assassinate Chancellor Palpatine… then why would this bounty even exist?
The Separatists should be happy that someone was trying to do their job for them.
The bounty itself was higher than that for a Jedi. The number was an obscene amount that just about made his mouth water. If he had been new to this, he would not hesitate and rush right through that door to claim that reward for himself. But he was not new to this.
Vader's bounty was just too good to be true.
The fact that both factions had placed their bids like this would make any experienced bounty hunter pause. Alienating any one of the two factions was just plain bad for business under normal circumstances.
Though… Boba's name was probably already carved into the pages of Republic's black book of undesirables. So really, why did he care about that part?
He sighed and directed a calm stare at the screen. He was more interested to know what was this supposed to mean for him going forward? If Vader wasn't sent by the Separatists, then whose side was he on?
Was there a third side he was unaware of?
Or was there something else going on?
"What do you say to this, Bossk?" Boba asks with a stiff look zeroed on the picture of Vader."If he is on the side of the Separatist faction, then why have they put a bounty on him?" He asks and unknowingly expresses Bossk's own doubts.
"I know that Cato Parasitti will like seeing that bounty," Bossk answered as he sent a look at the door that Vader had disappeared though and added. "Like it a lot."
'True' Boba thought, and immediately acted to ensure that that opportunity was barred from happening. There was absolutely no reason to give her the chance to steal Boba's prize before he got there.
The system's security was abysmal, and it barely took more than a few moments before the glaring bounty disappeared from the site. He knew that it would be fixed soon, perhaps already tonight, but it would buy him enough time to snare Vader as soon as he left here.
Of course, there was no accounting for the ones that had already seen it. But that was another problem, for another time. First, he had to wait until Vader left, then he would follow him and his companion. The latter would be dealt with fast whether he was an actual officer or just some random guy in a good disguise.
The undercity was a dangerous place, and in the small streets it was not uncommon that people disappeared. Another disappearance among the many others would be nothing special.
He scrolled down the page to see where he was supposed to deliver this Sith Lord. 'Why that remote planet?' he thought.
"Where to?" Bossk asks.
"Utapau."
:::
Panic flashed within Luke when Cato's stare reached him.
'This is part of the plan?' The thought registered again, but the thought still sounded horribly unsure. There was something moving in the Force, something sinister. Luke's heart kicked up an intense pace under his stone-cold expression. 'Keep calm!'
"Him?" She said innocently, but a smile twists the corners of her lips. "The Sith assassin every Jedi on the planet is looking for?" She asked mockingly and far too calmly, like she already had known even before they showed up, then she pressed a button on the table and his warrant from the Republic stared back at him from the surface.
The tabletop had a screen implanted into the surface, it was quite advanced, even by the standards of the future Luke came from.
"The Republic has promised quite the reward for your capture," she pointed out, unnecessarily, since the numbers over the warrant from the Republic were glaring at him in the face. His image was taken from the footage from the Library…'incident', right when Master Yoda had confronted him.
The Force around her was coloured a sickly yellow. Greed. "Come to trade?" she asked and looked back at Fives as Luke's heart missed a beat despite the fact that it was part of the plan.
'Stay calm,' he reminded himself and hid his uneasiness behind a blank expression.
"No," Fives answered, as he spoke the word loud and hard. " As I Said, we are here to ask for your unique set of skills. I know you don't trust me because I have always fought for the republic. But he is the proof I am not anymore." Then he breathes in before he continues.
Cato is not convinced, but Fives is not done.
"Would I be working with a sith if I was still on the side of the Republic?" Fives continued and the uneasiness Luke feels from him in the Force only materialized as a deep frown. "Would I have tried to assassinate the chancellor just to get into this room with you? You are many things Cato, but you are not that arrogant."
Cato raises an eyebrow and taps her fingers again on the surface of the table.
She was very interested, but clearly made an effort to disguise that fact under a blank expression. The Force betrayed her feelings.
Fives plan was working.
She was on the hook.
::::
"This is the place?" Rex asked. He knew he could not quite keep the wonder out of his voice. Somehow, even after all these years, he kept expecting something grander than reality. Military life was not what you believe it was in the movies.
The tip had been too good to pass up when the call came a moment ago. An eye witness reported the sighting of a Jedi in the company of a member of the underground police-force. It was a normal sight in the undercity, to see Jedi and the police patrol together, and under normal circumstances, Rex would not even have investigated it.
But these were not normal times.
After the attack on the Senate, there had been a temporary change of patrols, but none had been moved to this area. Not a single one.
And the report said that Jedi's eyes had been yellow.
'It might be nothing,' Rex thought, because he knew it was unlikely that Vader would come here of all places.'It could be a coincidence.'
But what if it was Vader?
Then Rex would get the chance to pay back the Sith for what he had done when he hijacked his mind along with his men. He was not sure he would ever be able to swallow the shame of being used like a puppet. It was so humiliating!
But being the one to catch that blasted Sith that was responsible would certainly help.
"Yes, Sir."
The club didn't look like much, it was just like any other random club in the immediate area and there were many other ones just like this on any street corner in this level of Coruscant.
But this was the place from the report. He signed inwardly and ignored a tired ache at the back of his mind with the hopeful promise that this might be the end of the chase.
"Deploy the drone," Rex ordered. "If it is Vader, I don't want him to know we are here."
:::
"It is a pity that I am not on good terms with the Republic. "She said with a smile directed at Luke that would look fitting on a snake. "Your bounty is quite impressive, My lord." She said with a hungry look at Luke and it made his skin crawl.
"No matter. My father always told me, if you are good at something don't do it for free… and my talents are expensive. How are you planning of paying for my services, Fives?" Cato Parasitti asked, and feigned a bored expression.
It was a good act, it might even have fooled Luke if it had not been for the yellow greedy interest that projected from her in the Force.
'Excellent question,' Luke thought but kept his silence. 'How are you going to answer that, Fives?' He thought. His own pockets had been emptied for so long that they must have forgotten what it was like to have credits to spend. He knew he did.
"Information," Fives answered, with self-assurance. "I know a lot of interesting facts and secrets from within the Republic military," he said and the lie was as loud as the blast of an ion-cannon in the Force.
It was bold and extremely loud to his senses and it took all Luke had not to flinch. Because what information would Fives reveal to these shady characters that could potentially harm his brothers?
Nothing, that was what.
'Is it really so much against Fives morals to pretend to be a traitor?' Luke thought, gritting his teeth and trying to bear the loudness of it, because he did not want to pull away from the Force and thereby risk missing something important. 'Fives… have you literally not thought through that you have to believe your own lie to make it not register in the Force?'
He was suddenly very grateful that the bounty hunter did not have a spec of Force sensitivity. The presence of the lie in the Force was violent and to his strained senses it felt like the statement was practically screaming into his ears.
'By the Force, that's loud!' he thought. If he had been in a position to cover his ears like a child to make it stop, he would have, his new reputation as a Sith be damned.
Fives was quite possibly the least subtle liar he had ever met.
And that was pretty bad considering that he had known C3PO.
"Why would I keep the secrets of a Republic that has only used me?" Fives asked, and made a dismissing gesture. Thankfully, his bluff was more believable than the violent presence in the Force that was getting so large that it was hard to pretend he didn't notice it.
"I trust whatever information I have will be adequate payment." He made a weak gesture with his hand before he placed it back down on the surface of the table. "After all, the Republic has many enemies that would pay handsomely for any information that could give them an advantage."
Cato leaned back in her chair and a silence followed.
Her face revealed nothing, but the greed in the Force grew.
"They are clear," a third guard said. He had been so preoccupied with the screen some ways from them that his presence had missed Luke's attention when he first entered the room.
"What took you so long?" Her words are sharp.
"There was some interference on the line, but the bounty on them both issued by the Republic checked out."
"And… the other contact?"
The man looks down on the screen in his hand. "There is nothing. I just checked it. Three times. There was some difficulty at first, but now the connection works again."
With those rather cryptic words released into the otherwise silent room, Cato stands. There was a flicker of…something in the Force, but Luke cannot tell for sure, it somehow both like relief and disappointment.
He does not know what to say to that strange display, so in the end he says nothing.
"This is dangerous. The risk is considerable…," were the words she finally uttered and there was an uneasiness to her body language now that Luke found very unappealing.
There was something moving in the Force. Something he almost couldn't sense, but it made him tense up. Because he recognized it immediately; it was the resolve to act.
The will to fight against the Republic.
"You don't mind our target?" Fives asked.
That question was unnecessary. Luke already felt the ghost of Cato's decision in the air, just as he saw the feeling attached to it. It was not just business that made Cato want to do this, it was a darker, hollowed creature that was made a long time ago.
He could not see the root of that pain, it was too old, but he could feel the cold touch of despair.
Then a feeling of wrongness suddenly got stronger in the Force. It felt like danger, but not from Cato. His eyes darted around, but there was nothing to see in the room. It was empty aside from the table and the chairs in the middle of it.
"Why would I?" She asked with honest disgust. "The Republic as a general rule never did anything for anyone that could not do something in return. It was a long time since they were not ruled by the financial interests of a selected few."
"The Separatists share that opinion… It is brave of you to say it so boldly in the heart of the Republic," Fives says in the tone Luke had come to recognize as a forerunner of his defensive stance on the Republic. Luke had only known him for a short time, and he was already getting tired of hearing it.
The Republic was clearly corrupt, and had likely been that way for years given the fact that Darth Sidious was the current leader.
Why else did this entire planet feel like it was infected with the Dark Side of the Force?
"I am not a coward. I stand by my ideals. I will not be silent just because it is not the popular opinion," she said, and there is a faint echo of hurt in the Force before it is smothered violently.
Luke sensed that there was something more to this conversation, But he had no intention of getting wrapped up in the politics of this time and the uneasiness kept growing. It felt like the faintest of pressures in the air.
But it was cold.
It was a sinister feeling that was hard to describe, but it felt dark and threatening. Like an unseen predator had just found his tracts and he, on an instinctive level, could sense it closing in on him.
"So…" Fives says and leans back in the chair like he owned the building. "You are in?"
"Not just yet," she said dryly and there is a guardedness in her expression that is so familiar to her face that it had drawn little lines in the skin. "I need more information." For the first time her expression betrayed an eerie brand of curiosity, like a spider catching a new type of prey.
Luke straightened suddenly while the conversation continued in front of him.
What was that sound just now?
It was an odd sound. A buzzing.
He threw a look in the direction the sound came for and narrowed his eyes at the window at the other end of the room. For a moment there he thought he saw a shadow, but when he reached out with the Force, he felt nothing.
Then the sound stopped.
'Strange,' he thought and wanted to investigate further, but he could not afford to be distracted at this moment. The Force was cold and still when he forced his attention back to the conversation unfolding in front of him.
:::
The light of the holocron went on in Anakin's hands and he accepted the call immediately as soon as he saw who was calling. He held his breath when Rex delivered the news.
"Ani? What is it?" Padmé asked from beside him.
"They found him."
:::