Chapter Sixteen:

Kiida looked up when the door chime sounded, curious and even a little wary of who would be walking through the door.

When she saw a green skinned Vurk male walking towards her with purpose, she swallowed nervously and motioned to her two children playing on the floor to get behind the counter.

Boorie and Calan obeyed without question, especially when more armed people filed in after the Vurk.

"May I help you?" Kiida managed to keep her voice even.

The Vurk strode up to the counter like he owned the place even as his men fanned out and began a search.

"I am Zolar. You called me about some of my men?"

Realization dawned and Kiida nodded, pointing to the shelves. "The young man who killed them put them there and told me to call it in to you. I don't know who he is, and I didn't know he would be killing anyone, or I would have sent him away before helping him."

Zolar looked to the two closest men and motioned to the place Kiida had indicated. He followed them instead of answering, and Kiida didn't need Jedi powers to sense the anger that began to radiate off of the pirate.

"What did this young man look like?" Zolar demanded, coming back to Kiida.

Boorie whimpered and hugged her mother's legs, wide eyes regarding the large alien in fear. Kiida placed a gentle hand to her head and met Zolar's eyes.

"Dark hair, brown eyes, looked to be about... I guess seventeen? I am not a good judge of human age from mere appearances," Kiida replied. "But he used Jedi powers, if you can believe that."

Zolar swore colorfully. "I can, because this isn't the first time this... boy has slaughtered my good men."

Zolar watched as his people began to carry the bodies away, and when Boorie caught sight of the impaled human, she turned green. Zolar thinned his lips, eyeing the family.

"You helped this boy?" he asked.

Kiida shifted. "Before I knew he would bring trouble, yes. I only thought he was a random customer. He did buy a lot of things from me, and I didn't question him until he brought those three here."

"He killed my men in your shop, woman," Zolar growled, and Calan, trying to be brave, stepped protectively between his mother and the man. Zolar's gaze slid to the youth, tilting his head. "And what are you going to do, boy?"

"Please don't hurt my mother," Calan spoke in a firm, but pleading voice. "She is innocent, and she didn't try to hide this when she could have. She was honest with you."

Zolar lifted his head some, considering. Kiida got a bad feeling about the way the pirate looked at Calan, and she grabbed his arm to tug him behind her.

"I think it's time for you to leave," Kiida stated.

Zolar leaned forward threateningly, and a few of his men fanned out in readiness for action should the order be given. "You are hardly in any position to make such demands, Woman."

"If you seek payment, or are here for more than information, take what you need from the store's supply and leave." Kiida's heart was pounding in fear, and she tried not to let it show.

Zolar looked around as if in thought. "Hmm, a good idea. We could do a lot with a number of these parts. Men, take what you want."

Kiida's heart plummeted some when they instantly began picking things up off the shelf and shoving them in bags, leaving almost nothing behind in their greedy wake. But at least she still had her children.

She eyed a white-skinned Twi'lek woman who entered and moved near Zolar. The Vurk turned as if to leave... and then spoke to the Twi'lek. "Take the boy."

Kiida shrieked when the woman instantly leapt over the counter. Kiida stepped firmly in between the stranger and her two children even as Boorie screamed in terror.

"Out of my way, junk dealer!" the Twi'lek snapped, and a power Kiida couldn't see shoved her away to slam into a far wall.

"Calan!" Kiida hollered as the Twi'lek grabbed up the boy and began walking out with him.

Calan shrieked and fought, twisting his body violently to try getting free. "MOM!"

"CALAN!" Kiida screamed, struggling to her feet and praying Boorie didn't try anything. Kiida rushed the woman but Zolar stepped between them and struck Kiida across the face so hard she saw stars. Blood filled her mouth and yet Kiida struggled still to reach her child.

"Please!" Kiida begged while sobbing and reaching for the child who was only getting farther and farther away while he cried frantically for her in turn. "Please don't take my boy! PLEASE! I WILL DO ANYTHING YOU ASK OF ME!"

"Your son for the lives of my men," Zolar stated heartlessly. "You can thank the young man you helped. And thank you, by the way, for such a generous donation to the Jikati pirates."

Kiida was beside herself and as she scrambled after her child she tripped over something left behind by a pirate and when she fell she was trampled and kicked when the rest followed their leader and piled into the vehicles.

All the while Kiida heard the frantic calls of her son, and she was powerless to do anything except rise to her knees as the shuttles lifted from the ground and pulled for the sky.

"CALAN!" Kiida screamed at the top of her lungs and finally collapsing to the ground, sobbing mightily.

00000

It was a foggy night, with only the moon visible as the stars weren't bright enough to penetrate the thick mist. But that meant little to the camp of Jikati pirates who were in various stages of sleep, standing watch, or reveling in another day's spoils.

Auspa Vapasi, a Rattataki woman, looked up as several sets of landing lights appeared above them in the darkened sky of Delrakkin. Through the fog she couldn't make out the ship designs, but she still straightened, eyeing the lights with a keen interest. At first she thought it was Zolar returning, but then she noted the number of lights, and she knew that wasn't correct, and so she straightened, motioning to the pirates closest to her.

"Wake the others, be ready for a fight. I think trouble's coming," she told the other Jikati members.

One of them glanced to the sky and took off to sound the alarm while the second looked and then gazed at her. "Who do you think it is?"

"If I knew, I'd tell you," Auspa replied tartly. "Now go!"

The other shot her a dirty look and then turned tail and started shouting about the camp while the audio alert system in their camp went off.

Auspa grabbed her weapons belt and strapped it in place, donning also her energy bow upon her back. The item shot arrows of energy instead of blaster bolts and was a formidable weapon in the hands of someone who knew how to use it.

All around her she heard and saw the rest of the Jikati pirates taking up positions about the camp or trying to find a good place to take a stand from. Auspa herself decided to take up a stance behind a thick pillar used for floggings.

Silence was swift to descend as the fog finally parted enough to reveal what kind of craft was landing. A ripple of fear went through the camp as they recognized the clearly Imperial vessels.

Auspa thinned her lips, willing away any traces of despair and instead preparing herself to fight. "Hold steady! They won't take us easily!"

Several near her position murmured their assent and lifted weapons as the Imperial landing ships whirred for long, ominous seconds. Then the ramps lowered with an air of foreboding and with swift, calculated precision a wave of stormtroopers descended.

Armored as they were in the greens the Empire had switched to from the white of the Clone Wars, the troopers all but disappeared into the night of the jungle. This made them nigh-impossible to aim at too, but Auspa took aim anyway, counting on them still being clustered near their ships and taking random aim.

She loosed several arrows from her bow in deadly precision, and was gratified to hear three stormtroopers die with final screams. Taking a page from her book, other pirates also opened fire and hoped their shots hit something.

A few more troopers wet down and then red flashes came in at the Jikati pirates and in seconds five pirates that Auspa could see were killed. She stayed firmly against her pillar and then saw a man next to her go down... his night-vision goggles still upon his head.

Risking life and limb, Auspa dove for his body, snatched the goggles and then had to skip around blasterfire as it rained down upon her. She felt some heat touch her ankles, but Auspa leapt back behind her pillar and donned the goggles.

It took precious seconds for her eyesight to adjust, but when it did, Auspa stepped out and reasserted her aim with the bow. She spied a cluster of troopers trying to sneak up on the medical tent, and Auspa took three of the four out with three precisely aimed shots.

Auspa spun when something stepped up behind her and the man lifted his hands in surrender.

"Don't shoot, I'm friendly!"

Auspa swore. "Kriff it Derryn! Don't sneak up on me like," she saw something over the man's head and shot the trooper trying to kill her friend, "that!"

Derryn hunkered down on instinct when she aimed his way, and then looked to her. "What does the Empire want with us?"

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Auspa replied, placing a blaster into his hands since he was without one. The man instantly looked for something to shoot. "But ask questions later. Shoot now."

"Right," Derryn replied as he stood at her back, lowering his own goggles and adding to the damage she was causing.

Auspa noticed that the Imperial troopers were still coming, and she wondered just how many there were... and then a new sound penetrated the chaos, and despite herself she shivered.

Unable to contain her morbid curiosity, Auspa leaned out and watched as a tall, proud form all but flew off his shuttle and began to mow down pirates who were trying to come at the ships to destroy them and end the influx of stormtroopers.

A crimson lightsaber moved like an extension of the man's hand, and Auspa narrowed her eyes as she watched yet more of her friends be killed.

"Auspa, don't do anything stupid!" Derryn whispered when he caught sight of her.

Growling low in her throat, Auspa leapt from cover and took aim as Darth Vader was busy moving in at another cluster of pirates. A grenade was launched at a squad of troopers coming at the main building of the camp and the flare from the explosion lit the Emperor up like a destroying angel.

It also momentarily blinded Auspa, as her goggles were meant to see in the dark. But her aim had already been true, so she loosed an arrow. She regained her vision in time to see the Emperor spin in a flurry of robes and then her arrow was deflected... right back at her.

She leapt aside and charged the man while shooting more arrows his way. Darth Vader turned fully towards her and lifted a gloved hand. The weapon in her grasp jerked free and went wide left.

Not halting in her stride, Auspa produced a vibroblade next and descended upon the Emperor with a vengeance. The man's lightsaber met her blade easily, and she traded several fierce blows with him before something grabbed her by the throat and Auspa's eyes widened in alarm.

But then she saw his upraised hand, with fingers clenched just so and she knew what was happening. Unafraid, and determined to defy to the last, Auspa met the Emperor's gaze defiantly even as she gasped fruitlessly for air.

She was pretty sure her vision was fading by the time the man before her tilted his head and released her. Auspa collapsed to the ground, heaving in great gulps of air even as she was surrounded and abruptly the fighting ended when the Emperor barked out a command that rang through the air.

"ENOUGH!"

Auspa wondered at how all pirates instantly froze, and she realized only then that some power she didn't understand held her in place. Then she recognized that the Emperor was more than likely using the Force to hold everyone down while swarms of more stormtroopers filled the camp to hold all those still alive at blaster point.

"Round them all up and bring them to me!" Emperor Vader commanded.

The power left her and Auspa waited and watched as her remaining Jikati friends were gathered and herded into the middle of the camp like nerfs. All the while she was the focus of the Emperor, who regarded her with something akin to... was that respect she saw?

Maybe, even if it was just a glimmer.

Once the group was complete, with a thorough search of the camp being had, Auspa saw a stormtrooper marked as a commander approach Darth Vader.

"That's all of them, Your Majesty."

"Good work Commander Cody." Vader praised. "Their leader was not found?"

"No, Majesty." Cody gestured. "But we have a droid looking into the logs of the landing field. It is possible Zolar is off-planet."

"Very well."

Vader paced before the group of pirates, eyeing them as if they were a bunch of slaves ripe for the picking. "Let me make myself very clear: you are now mine. Your lives now hinge on your obedience to my commands. You serve me, and when Zolar returns, he will too."

"And why would we do that?" someone demanded from the back.

Vader lifted a gloved hand and choking sounded even as a shadow passed over the heads of those kneeling on the ground. Auspa recognized it as Cole, a well-known troublemaker even among their ranks. The kid never did know when to shut his trap, Auspa mused as the young man went blue moments later and then sagged limply.

However, the Emperor did not drop him, instead holding his body up for the rest to see. "Would anyone else like to question me?"

Silence reigned, and Auspa felt the fear around her increase. Vader turned to Cody. "Hang this thing up for all to see and remember."

"As you wish," Cody replied and with an exchange of orders the body was taken and positioned in a strategic place in the camp so all could see.

"You may return to your bunk rooms, but my troopers will follow you," Vader announced. "No one may leave without permission."

Vader gestured and the group of pirates rose and began to file off.

Auspa was moving to follow her queue when the Emperor spoke from behind her. "What is your name?"

Auspa turned, lifting an imperious brow. "Why do you care?"

The man came closer, and Auspa could see his glowing yellow gaze boring into her. "I could execute you here and now for attempting to kill me, but I left you alive."

"You're so kind," Auspa remarked acerbically.

Vader eyed her for a time, and then she could have sworn she spied his lips lift. "I admire your spirit, woman, but your tongue not so much."

He gestured and her arms were taken and she was brought before him by three stormtroopers. The Emperor touched her head and she felt icy fingers scratch through her mind as the man used the Force to search out all the answers he needed.

Auspa screamed in agony as he went wherever he wanted, taking all facts he needed by force and not caring how much it hurt her. Through her Vader gleaned everything on Zolar's whereabouts, and the fact that the kid hanging with Solo and the Wookiee had killed several Jikati and that was why Zolar was after blood.

She felt his was disappointed that she hadn't actually seen the boy wonder, but Vader did know they had gone to Vestar, and that was where Zolar had been... and was now on his way home.

When Vader saw all he needed he retracted his Force probe with the same suddenness that he'd entered with. "Thank you for your cooperation... Auspa."

She panted even as black fuzz closed in on her vision and she slumped to the ground, knowing no more as she slipped into unconsciousness.

She never heard Vader give orders for all Imperial ships and personnel to be hidden so Zolar wouldn't see them upon his return.

00000

Padmé looked up as Irmé appeared. "My Lady, you have a visitor."

The Empress nodded, gesturing. "Let him in, and bring refreshments."

"Yes, Your Highness." Irmé bowed and left to do as she asked.

Padmé stood from her desk and seated herself on the couch situated near the window in her office. Across from it was another of the couch Padmé sat upon, and between them stood an oval coffee table.

She waited with great anticipation as her informant, who had called ahead for an audience with her, was admitted. He entered with a deep bow and Padmé nodded to him.

"Your Highness, you look as lovely as ever," the male Ansionian said.

"Thank you, Tai-San," Padmé returned, gesturing for the other to take a seat.

Tai-San Zih bowed again and sat across from her. "I have the information you requested, Milady. You won't believe who I caught in my net so to speak."

Padmé lifted a brow, and he went on as Irmé placed a tray of food and water between them on the table.

"It is none other than Bail Organa of Alderaan, Milady," Tai-San said triumphantly.

Padmé sat up straighter. "You have proof of this?"

Tai-San produced a datapad. "I had to use a lot of spy tech, but I ran the face through the Imperial database... it's a match."

Padmé took the datapad and looked at the holo and the information next to it, as well as the official seal of the Imperial Police upon it. She grinned toothily and felt triumph sear her veins.

"Excellent work, Tai-San," Padmé said happily, gesturing for him to eat his fill. "This is exactly what I needed."

As the informant ate what he wished, Padmé looked through the rest of the information on his datapad, already trying to plan out how she would handle this.

She would not be able to outright kill Bail herself, but she could have it done and then work the man's death to her advantage in more than one way. And she would teach Leia a lesson in the meantime.

But who to have perform the act?

Padmé pursed her lips, eyeing her spy and then taking note of Irmé in her peripherals. A thought struck Padmé and at first she dismissed it, but then she paused... and decided it was perfect.

"I have another task for you, Tai-San," Padmé said, and the man looked to her curiously. "I want you to get me all information on the family of my daughter's handmaiden. I want it all, and I need it by tonight."

Tai-San blinked, but then rose, reaching for his datapad. Padmé made a copy of his files and stored them on her personal datapad and only then gave it back.

"At once, Milady." Tai-San bowed and left to do as she'd ordered.