Standing on top of the Trade Federation Office Tower clad in a set of blue and grey Mandalorian armor was Jango Fett. Otherwise known as the greatest bounty hunter alive in the Galaxy. His attention was centered on a nearby speeder that was pulling up towards him.
The occupant of the speeder was his longtime partner: Zam Wessel. The Clawdite bounty hunter climbed out of the cockpit and stepped onto the ledge in front of the bright financial advertisements.
"You know that we failed?" Jango asked masking his frustration. Wessel felt uneased by this.
"You told me to kill those in the Naboo starship," Zam replied. "I hit the ship, but they used a decoy. Those who were aboard died." She said.
Fett hid his frown. His employer had angrily told him about today's Senate discussion. He wanted Amidala dead, and he wanted her dead now!
"We'll have to try something more subtle this time. My client is impatient. There can be no mistakes this time." He said before handing Zam a tube filled with two centipede-like creatures trying to wiggle their way out of their little prison.
"Kouhuns. Very poisonous." Jango informed his partner.
The Clawdite inspected the tube eagerly, her veil hiding the grin plastered on her face. She looked at Jango and nodded.
The Mandalorian started to walk away before pausing and looking back at the Clawdite. "No mistakes." He said darkly. "Tidy yourself up when you're done." And with that, he activated his jetpack and flew off into the twilight of Coruscant's skyline.
Anakin stood in the living room of Padmé's apartment with his eyes shut, getting a feel of the surrounding area, using the silence to tap into the force.
Despite his notorious record for being arrogant and impulsive, Skywalker could sense a disturbance in the Force better than some of the members of the Jedi council. Arrogance or not, this feat impressed many in the order.
When the door slid open, his eyes opened up, expecting an intruder he grabbed his lightsaber. Only to relax once he noticed that it was Obi-Wan walking into the room.
Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow, noticing Anakin's lightsaber in his hand "I hope you're not planning to spar in the good Senator's apartment," he smirked, much to Anakin's embarrassment. "Captain Typho has more than enough men downstairs. No assassin will try that way. I take it that there's no activity up there?"
"Quiet as a tomb," Anakin replied. "Though…I don't like waiting in here. I just feel like something is ready to just pop in here and attack."
"Well, unless this assassin uses a cloaking device, I think we're safe for the time being." Obi-Wan said.
Anakin shifted uncontrollably. "Padmé… Senator Amidala covered the cam, I don't think she liked us watching her."
"I take it Artoo is watching her?" Obi-Wan asked cocking an eyebrow.
Anakin was surprised yet again. He thought Obi-Wan would've gotten angry
"Y-yes," he stammered. "She programmed Artoo to warn us if there's an intruder." Anakin was shocked, he didn't know if he liked this new Obi-Wan or not. Anakin was about to bring this up when Obi-Wan cut him off before he could say anything.
"You look tired." Obi-Wan commented noticing the lines under Anakins' eyes.
Anakin shrugged, not disagreeing. "I don't sleep well anymore."
"Shmi… Let me take command." Ben ordered.
Obi-Wan hesitated, but he knew Ben would probably do a better job with this part. Obi-Wan gave Ben control of their body.
"Because of your mother?" Ben asked cautiously.
Anakin sighed, a mixture of confusion and frustration showed with tiredness. "I don't know why I keep having these dreams. I haven't seen her since I left."
"Your love for her was, and still is, deep," Ben said. "That is hardly a reason for despair."
"But these are more than that… I don't know if they're dreams of if they're visions. Are they images of what has been, or do they tell of something that is yet to be?"
Ben was taken aback. He had no idea about how serious these dreams were to Anakin. He needed to be careful when discussing this with Anakin.
"Well, there have been numerous stories involving Jedi of the Old Republic seeing visions of those they knew in pain or worse. I'm sorry, Anakin, but I fear your mother may be one of them." Ben said with all of his sympathies.
"Oh, no." His padawan groaned, leaning back against the balcony in support. He felt nauseous. "Wh-what am I supposed to do? If I don't do anything, she may be, or already is, dead?"
Both Kenobis felt sympathetic to Anakin's plight.
"I had no idea it was that terrible." Obi-Wan said remorsefully.
"I had no idea either. However, now is not the time for self-pity." Ben told his younger self.
Obi-Wan took control again wanting to say something, but as if on cue, a sudden ringing rang loudly in his ears. He turned to Anakin whose face was paler. "I sense it, too," his voiced cracked.
Anakin rushed past Obi-Wan and towards Padmé's room, he activated his lightsaber before the door opened and sliced the two Kouhuns on the Senator's bed with such precision he was actually impressed himself.
As he entered the room, Ben told him where the ASN courier droid was hovering outside Padmé's window. He pulled out a tracking beacon from his belt and threw it onto the droid's side, as it detracted from the window and blasted off as quickly as its repulsorlift could take it.
"Anakin?!" Padmé sputtered, turning towards Anakin.
Skywalker had an intense look in his eyes. "Stay here!" he instructed, dashing out of the room behind Obi-Wan, as Captain Typho, a couple of guards, and Dormé charged in.
"Milady," Dormé asked in a panic. "Are you alright?"
Padmé did not respond. All of her attention was on the spot Anakin was, the man who had just saved her life.
"If the beacon is right, we should be able to track the droid back to its source of origin." Obi-Wan shouted over the screeching of Coruscant's traffic, as they approached the garage of where the speeders resided.
Anakin didn't respond. His only attention was on capturing the droid that nearly assassinated Padmé. He noticed Obi-Wan leap into the vehicle they were going to take. Anakin copied Obi-Wan and landed in the driver's seat. He was almost surprised Obi-Wan would consider jumping into the speeder. Guess he really wanted to capture this assassin.
Wessel stood on the building's balcony, rapidly tapping her foot in annoyance. How long could it possibly take to kill a senator in her sleep? Suddenly, she potted a small moving object floating towards her at high speeds; a dark smile grew underneath her veil. Looked like the droid did its job. Now whoever hired Jango didn't have to worry about the Naboo senator.
Suddenly, a small beeping noise could be heard. She looked around for the source of the noise until she realized where it was located. She hurriedly grabbed the droid and spun it around until she found, to her horror, a tracking device.
She then spotted a bright yellow speeder from the corner of her eye. It was coming towards her dodging all of the other crafts with amazing skill. She grit her teeth and got her KYD-21 blaster pistol at and shot the droid. It exploded over the balcony and she ran to her speeder. She began to leave the crime scene as fast as she could. However, the Jedi were still chasing her and had no intention of letting her go.
"There's the assassin!" Obi-Wan shouted, pointing at Wessel's Koro-2 all-environment exodrive airspeeder gliding through the air traffic. "Keep on him."
"I'm on it!" Anakin replied, increasing his speed to catch up with the assassin.
Almost immediately, an arm came out of the speeder's open window, holding a blaster pistol, and she squeezed off a series of shots.
Obi-Wan dodged one as it came a little too close to his face. Ben apparently remembered something he didn't miss: Anakin's flying. "You know if you'd spend as much time on your lightsaber skills as you do on your flying, you would rival Master Yoda!" He joked.
"I thought I already did." Anakin smirked arrogantly, as he began to make a series of evasive turns.
"Only in your mind." Obi-Wan replied.
The chase went on exactly as it did in Ben's timeline, with the Jedi chasing after the Clawdite assassin while dodging the dangers of the Coruscant skylanes from civilians, speeders, and the train. The chase continued on through the CoCo District until Wessel disappeared down the passageway that led her to the Uscru District.
The two continued on until Anakin settled them into a hover some fifty stories up from the street of where the assassin is.
"I take it we lost him." Obi-Wan said until Anakin decided to, literally, jump into action.
Anakin looked sheepish "Well…"
"He went the other way, didn't he?" Obi-Wan questioned.
"I don't know yet." The way Anakin said that sentence, while he was looking down told Obi-Wan everything.
"What are you doing?"
A grin formed on Anakin's face. "If you excuse me for a moment." And with that, Anakin leaped out of his seat and plummeted towards Zam's speeder five stories below.
"Why am I not surprised?" Obi-Wan asked himself. Luckily, he knew how this was going to end.
"Like son, like father." Ben said having been reminded of Luke.
Obi-Wan took the controls and went after the speeder. Wessel was firing at Anakin who was dangling on one of the twin front forks of the speeder. After a series of maneuvers, Anakin managed to get on the roof and activated his lightsaber, plunging it inside and slowly started to cut through the roof. However, the assassin fired a series of shots at Anakin causing him to drop the lightsaber. Luckily, Obi-Wan had caught it just like the original timeline.
After a few moments of wrestling with the assassin, Obi-Wan saw the front of the cockpit burst into flames. The speeder was slowly beginning to plummet down to the ground. Luckily, the nearby civilians began to scatter away from the plummeting speeder. Anakin, however, began to tumble down the street. When he was starting to get up, he noticed the assassin beginning to get out of the speeder and run away.
Obi-Wan managed to land the speeder just across from the Outlander Club, where soon enough, Wessel ran inside just like the original timeline.
As he got out from the speeder, he saw Anakin running towards the club. "Anakin!" he called out, walking over to him with his dropped lightsaber in hand. Anakin took the lightsaber feeling embarrassed again. If Obi-Wan didn't scold him this time he would have to consider the end of the Galaxy was happening.
"She went into that club, Master." He said.
"Patience," he said placing a hand on his shoulder surprising Anakin. The two walked into the bar and glanced all around. "I'm sure that he didn't get that far."
"I think he's a she," Anakin added, a shrewd look in his eyes. "And I think she's a changeling."
"Then be extra careful," Obi-Wan nodded to the crowd ahead of them. "Go and find her." He started to walk over to the opposite way.
"Wait where are you going?" Anakin asked.
Obi-Wan gave a smile. "For a drink," he replied coolly to his bewildered Padawan.
Walking over to the bar, Obi-Wan signaled to the bartender, watching as the glass was placed in front of him before the liquor was poured inside it.
He sensed someone approaching him.
"Wa…" the man was about to say something before Obi-Wan cut him off without even looking.
"You don't want to sell me deathsticks," He said coolly.
"I don't want to sell you deathsticks…" the Balosar, Elan Sleazebaggano, said obediently.
"You want to go home and rethink your life." Obi-Wan finished. After saying that he noticed the Balosar starting to walk away. Obi-Wan smiled to himself.
From behind he could sense the Clawdite approach him. She was brandishing her blaster and pointing it at Obi-Wan, but in one swift movement the Jedi Knight he spun around and activated his lightsaber, and sliced through her elbow. Wessel shrieked in agony as her arm fell to the floor.
All the noise in the club disappeared before Anakin spoke up "Jedi business. Go back to your drinks."
Ben noticed how eerily similar the situation was to when he disarmed one of the criminals who attacked Luke at the Cantina where he met Captain Solo, as the clubbers immediately returned to what they were doing. Anakin and Obi-Wan then grabbed Wessel to bring her outside when Ben came through.
"No take her to a secluded place in here. Jango is outside, and I cannot fully remember where he shot her." Ben replied.
Obi-Wan noticed a nearby storage room. It was large enough to house all three of them. He nudged towards Anakin pointing towards the door.
"Why here?" Anakin asked.
"I feel this is a safer place. We don't fully know what we are dealing with." Obi-Wan replied.
They lowered her gently, as she growled ferally and winced in agony, making a death glare towards the Jedi duo.
"Do you know who it was you were trying to kill?" Obi-Wan asked her.
"The Senator from Naboo." Zam grunted in pain.
"Who hired you?"
She glared at Obi-Wan. "It was a job."
"Tell us!" Anakin demanded.
Zam Wessel began to chuckle coldly. "The Senator is going to die soon anyway," she said coldly. "It won't end with me. For the price they're offering, there'll be bounty hunters lining up to take the hit. And the next one won't make the same mistake I did."
"Who hired you?" Anakin asked in a dark tone. This concerned Obi-Wan and he put his arm in front of his Padawan.
Her lips twitched, as she started to answer. "He was Mandalorian." Hiding the complete truth.
"Does he have a name?" Obi-Wan said. He already knew of course, but he had an act to keep up.
"No, he never told me." Zam lied both Obi-Wan and Anakin could tell she was. They gave her a look that said they could tell.
"Alright, fine, Jango Fett." She relented.
"Where can we find him?" Anakin asked. He was feeling a little better.
"I don't know." Zam said, only this time she wasn't lying.
"Let's go. We have more than enough information." Obi-Wan said.
"Okay." Anakin relented. They both picked her up and went to the front entrance. Ignoring the looks they got from the clubbers. As they got out, Wessel began to tense up and go limp. Both Jedi dropped her, Anakin began to examine her, while Obi-Wan looked at the roofs and noticed Jango Fett fly away.
"He may have left us more evidence in doing so." Ben told Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan looked at Anakin who was holding a dart he pulled from the Clawdite's neck.
Alright, I hoped you all enjoyed it. Please leave your thoughts below and tell me what you thought.
