"So you hid in a cave, huh?"

"It was the closest place we could find," Anakin defended. It was clear to him that Obi-Wan was skeptical over the story they concocted for the governor, that when the bomb struck, they managed to jump out of the window and land on a trash transport, from which they escaped the city during the night.

"The Anakin that blew up the Trade Federation ship wouldn't have hidden in a cave."

"This Anakin has a wife he has to protect now," Anakin said, looking over at Padmé with his trademark smirk. "A very weak, frail, helpless wife."

"Still, a cave," Obi-Wan shook his head in exasperation. "I don't know what the two of you would do in a cave all night." A horrified look dawned on his face. "Actually, pretend I never said that."

"It was a valuable side trip nevertheless," the senator said evasively. "There were other refugees in the cave as well, and now we have a better picture of the civil war, and its horrible costs."

"And yet the Governor does nothing," Anakin said, his temper rising. "He would refuse even a senator."

"A senator with not a semblance of authority on Ryloth," Obi-Wan said, trying to placate the young man. This was the real Anakin, impetuous, thirsting for action, not content to sit idly by, ever. The cave story was clearly a lie...Obi-Wan knew it, and he knew they knew. They were up to something, angling towards, as they had been all trip, some ulterior motive he could not see. "This is no longer Naboo, Senator Amidala, and you are no longer a Queen."

"You don't need to lecture me on protocol, master Jedi. You have your mission, we have ours." Though her stated mission was progressing slowly, as there had been little talks their second day on planet due to the supposed terrorist attack. She instead requested assistance for Rajar, the Governor denied it, politely but firmly, and then she requested the talks be postponed for a day. They had, after all, spend the night sleepless and scared in a cave outside the city, and needed to catch up on sleep. "However," she looked slyly at Anakin, modulating her voice to sound as meek as possible, "I don't feel safe here in Bruk'ira, Ani. I think we need to find shelter elsewhere for the night."

"Then, dear wife, I will accompany you to wherever you need to go."

"Now listen here," Obi-Wan said, his frustration rising despite all of his years of training. He felt like he was dealing at once with two spoiled children, yet two wily, crafty...well, something between villains and politicians. "Governor Nikmas will be very upset if you refuse his hospitality again, and I can't very well protect you if you're off playing hide-and-seek."

"Who says we're hiding from you," Padmé said playfully.


Obi-Wan sulked as he followed his charges to the supply depot. Though the sun still shone in the brightlands, artificial satellites covered the city during the designated night hours, and they all had the cover of relative darkness as they snuck into a room filled with gigantic transport vehicles.

"What you are doing is patently illegal. You are risking your whole career..."

Padmé didn't look up from her datapad as she spoke. "You can report us to the Senate once we return to Coruscant, but for now, you are still in charge of our safety." She pointed towards several transports in the back corner. "The files show these ones going to the militias in the northern sectors. They were just stocked, so they will not be in immediate need of additional supplies."

Seeing both of them run towards the vehicles in question, Obi-Wan shook his head and continued after them. He had a feeling that were he to somehow survive these two, he would have a hell of a council meeting to answer for. Their motives were pure, of course, they wanted to help, but the Jedi did not stand for vigilantism, and neither did Supreme Chancellor Antilles.

"We'll take these two," Anakin said, pointing at the transports Padmé had singled out. "Obi-Wan, you can take that one."

"No," he said, crossing his arms. "I will not actively engage in a brazen theft of a sovereign system's properties."

"Fine," Padmé said. "You'll just passively witness it and allow innocents to starve for the sake of your own conscience."

"This is not about conscience, my..."

All three of them felt the dark presence immediately, though the two siths knew well enough not to react before the Jedi. They heard eerie hum of a lightsaber from the warehouse entrance, and saw a small, sleek woman behind the green blade. Obi-Wan squinted his eyes in disbelief.

"Asajj?" He could barely recognize any trace of master Narec's young Padawan. "I thought you were dead."

The twisted eyes of the woman ignored him, turning instead towards his companions. "Senator Amidala, it seems you are too eager to betray the hospitality of my employers. Who would have thought the rebel filth would have infiltrated even the highest levels of the Republic."

Obi-Wan stepped out protectively in front of the two. "Now Asajj, I can assure you they are not rebels."

"Stay out of this Jedi," she hissed at him. "If you do not stand with Ryloth, then you stand against all of us. You will not be the first to fall upon my blade."

"We stand for Ryloth," Padmé protested, "but we stand for its people, not their short sighted rulers."

"I sense the Dark Side in you, young Ventress. I do not condone the Senator's actions..."

The dark acolyte flew through the air until she was standing in front of them, blocking any escape.

"Then hand them over, Jedi."

Obi-Wan lit his blade. "I will not let you harm them."

"Then die." She sprung into action, attacking the older Jedi with quick, vicious cuts. He parried off every one of them with ease, yet seemingly was willingly letting the girl advance on them.

He's holding back, Padmé said to Anakin through their bond. He sees her as a misguided child, and doesn't want to hurt her.

Let's force his hand then. Pulling out their blasters, they rolled to either side of the duel and using the Force, guided their shots expertly to places where the Ventress woman could least afford to deflect, but despite the many opportunities he had to strike a killing blow, Obi-Wan held back. Anakin increased the pace of his shots even as he sensed his wife subtly manipulate the Force around Ventress, and suddenly the rogue Jedi found her movements sluggish, her power and her swings of the blade weakened. Sensing something was wrong, she turned angrily at Obi-Wan, thinking he was wielding some Jedi power she did not know of.

"This isn't over," Ventress screamed, and with a magnificent leap backwards, jumped onto the roof of a transport and ran back towards the entrance. "You won't escape this treachery."

Still marveling at what happened, and how his mission had somehow been so complicated so quickly, Obi-Wan muttered "I have a bad feeling about this." He looked over at the Senator and Anakin, who both seemed a bit too eager to pull out their guns. "They've caught us red-handed. I sense this will be the end of your negotiations, Senator, and that will be the least of all our concerns."

Surprisingly, the senator shrugged, not at all concerned about the failure of their diplomacy. "Well, if we're already screwed, we may as well bring these supplies to the helpless before they put us all in front of the firing squad." Without another moment of pause, they each jumped into the cockpit of a transport.

"You riding shotgun, Obi-Wan," Anakin called out as his freighter's engine came to life, "or you going to put those famous Jedi piloting skills to good use?"

Obi-Wan sighed, loudly for dramatic effect. "Somehow I think you're going to be the death of me. Both of you."


The city buzzed with hope, and despite all his misgivings, as he watched the lines of twi'leks, families, children waiting for their share of much needed rations, Obi-Wan couldn't help but feel grateful for the rogue actions the senator and Anakin had undertaken. The Jedi in him said this was all for naught when the war finally comes for Rajar, but then what was the harm in nourishment for the innocent, even if to ameliorate their suffering for a day or two. The injustice of the local government was obvious to him, but it was not the job of the Jedi to right every local wrong committed. But whose role was it then? Master Yoda would say the Force wills what it wills, that a balance will eventually settle. Yet, as he watched the grateful residents of Rajar receive their first ration of hope for a long time, he wondered whether master Yoda was right after all, and this scene before him was indeed the will of the Force.

He will bring balance to the Force, his old master's words rang through his head. Words long dismissed by the council, by himself, as misguided...wrong altogether. But as he watched the boy now, handing out the supplies with a smile on his face, goodwill ringing through the Force, he wondered.

"Words cannot thank me for all that you have done for us," Paan said. "Luke and Leia Thule, Rajar has your eternal gratitude, as do I."

Obi-Wan abruptly turned his attention to Amidala, who stiffened at the mention of the name she had given them, her brown eyes pleading with him to not say anything. "Luke and Leia Thule..."

"They saved all of us," Kara said. Her eyes looked weary. Even with all that she had been through, she had insisted on asking the mayor on what she could do to help all of the recent captives, and there had been no shortage of tasks.

"They certainly did," Obi-Wan remarked, returning his attention to the couple. "Luke and Leia Thule...you know, Luke and Leia Thule, I've never thought to tell you what lovely names they are. Just flows off the tongue like...like the finest Corellian brandy...doesn't it. Luke and Leia Thule."

"Sounds a lot better than Obi-Wan Kenobi," Anakin said, almost mockingly.

"Your friend is a bit odd," Wipper whispered next to him. "Does he always talk to you like that?"

"He's a Jedi," Anakin said, rolling his eyes. "But I think he is odd, even for them."

"I heard that."

He felt the approach of Paan Thothlis.

"Master Jedi, you say you cannot intervene in this war."

"I'm afraid I've already overstepped the bounds of my mandate, milord."

"If I know my father, the governor's guard will figure out what transpired. They will come after you, and I cannot protect you."

"Is that a bad thing," Padmé asked to the mayor's puzzlement. "The governor's army marching into Rajar...days, even hours, before a rebel attack."

"You told me you disabled the depot's alarms," Obi-Wan exclaimed. Yet again, he had underestimated her, just like before when she appeared a mere handmaiden. But Senator Amidala was clearly clever, yet reckless. And ruthless, a small voice echoed inside his head. "You left them on purpose. You wanted them to discover us."

"I trusted in my Jedi protector," the Senator said. Both she and Anakin grinned brilliantly, clearly elated at having outsmarted a Jedi. Padmé turned to the young mayor. "You do not need to worry about us, Paan. We will gladly turn ourselves in."

Obi-Wan frowned. Clearly the two were underestimating the capabilities of a dark Jedi. "I wouldn't be so sure," he said, speaking slowly so as to choose his words carefully. "The woman Ventress we encountered used to be a Jedi. I believe she is under the sway of the dark side, and her actions may be...unpredictable."

All the twi'lek faces reacted in horror, from the mayor to Kara and Wipper.

"This woman you speak of...she is the governor's enforcer," Kara whispered. "A shadow. A killer."

"Ryloth does not often observe the laws and conduct of the Republic," Paan cautioned, "especially not in the middle of a war. My brother Juul is officially in command, but I believe this Ventress is one they hired, and she's pulling the strings. Her reputation is as ruthless as my family. Even more so."

"Would she care more about bringing in three rogue operatives than winning a war," Anakin asked.

"You embarrassed her. Your actions embarrassed my family, the governor, and all the ruling clans. Trust me...they will do whatever it takes to save face, and they do not forget a grudge."

"Forgive me for asking, lord mayor, but do you speak of this with firsthand knowledge."

Paan hesitated before the penetrating blue eyes of the Jedi before deciding that he had nothing to lose, and nothing to hide, whether it be from a Jedi, dignitaries of the Republic, or two former slaves.

"I've always found the ways of my clan abhorrent. Even as a child, I cared little for the politics, the greed, the," he looked over at Kara and Wipper, "the slavery. I spoke my mind, and my father hated me, but there was nothing he could do. I was his firstborn son, and sometimes I swore that he would kill me before I inherited his position. So I left, when I was sixteen standard years. Ran away. I did little odd jobs here and there. I earned enough, and I studied. I went to peaceful worlds like Alderaan and Mandalore, because I wanted to learn their ways. But...those worlds were too peaceful. They were disconnected from reality, from the ugly truths I grew up with. They preached, but they did not understand true suffering. Eventually, I realized that if I were to make a difference, it had to be back on Ryloth. But I would change things in my own way. I found Rajar, but...I think Rajar found me as well. I wanted to help...but," he looked down in shame, "I didn't know that I had already condemned our people here, our entire civilization."

"You," Anakin asked in disbelief. The self-loathing he felt out of this young politician startled him. Was it arrogance, a sense of entitled narcissism he had inherited from his ancestors, that would make him take on the burden of an entire planet in his mind. "There's a war going on, and Rajar is stuck in the middle. Surely it's not your fault all the key routes pass through it."

The twi'lek slumped down into a chair. "It's about more than just Rajar. There's always been tensions between the clans themselves, and between the offworld...dealers they work with." He was referring to, Anakin realized, the slave traders that exported the locals out across the galaxy. To places like Tatooine, even, as he remembered the crying twi'lek girl they had set free on Jabba's palace. And in a far more distant memory, the dancing girls attending to Sebulba just before the Boonta Eve Classic. "They argue about power and influence and credits, who should get what share of the profits. Tensions were near a boiling point when I left...and for Clan Thothlis to lose an heir..."

"That's what triggered this conflict," Obi-Wan asked incredulously. Mace had asked him to investigate the causes of the unrest, and somehow Senator Amidala had unwittingly led him to the source? Thank the Force indeed.

"Both my younger brothers wanted the inheritance. Juul received my father's blessing, but Sarnai had allies too among the clans. He absconded with not an insignificant share of our family's...properties..."

"Slaves," Anakin interrupted harshly.

"Yes. Slaves, among other things. My father sought to punish them. Sarnai went to some of the offworld dealers, hoping to undermine my father and cut him out...and what started as small raids and skirmishes now...threatens to consume us all."

It suddenly dawned on Anakin why the young mayor had given up on himself, and on his city. It was his guilt. It drove him back to Ryloth, and now it drove him to helplessness. He was caught in the middle of a conflict that he felt entirely responsible for...and to be consumed by it, in his mind, was the only fitting punishment.

An older twi'lek ran into the room. He was one of the mayor's aides. "Milord. I've several accounts of rebel activity. Several units have taken out the outer defenses."

"So it's begun," Paan said reproachfully at the two. "Your plan did not account for the rebels attacking us first."

"Did we not," Padmé said cryptically. With the flick of a switch, one of the doors to their transports opened, revealing hundreds of blasters and detonators. No one in the room seemed more horrified than Obi-Wan.

"That was the one I...you had me..." He stepped forward at Padmé with an aggressiveness that brought Anakin immediately to her side. "Senator Amidala, this is serious. For a Jedi to be involved in illicit arms trading..."

"Senator," the mayor exclaimed. Both Kara and Wipper seemed even more astonished.

"I apologize for the subterfuge, but with everything going on we didn't know who we could trust, so you can see why we chose to keep our identifies secret. I am Senator Amidala of Naboo, and this is Anakin Skywalker, my husband." She looked over to Obi-Wan. "Master Jedi, you can rightfully place the blame on me once we get out of this mess. Mayor Paan, will your people fight?"

"My people are not soldiers, but this will give us a fighting chance."

"Senator Amidala," Obi-Wan interrupted, his tone still scolding, "I will say this again, I am not here to fight a war."

"Then negotiate with the rebels. The Jedi are peacekeepers, no?"

He sighed, having been outmaneuvered again. "I suppose I can try." He hoped Master Yoda didn't hear him say that. Actually, he hoped Master Yoda would never learn any of the details from this rapidly unraveling mission.

"And if we are in trouble, you can always ask for backup, can't you? Surely the Jedi will save their own."

"I can send out a distress signal, but I'd rather not." He knew actually that Quinlan Vos was nearby, investigating suspicious activities on Geonosis. The Council would likely send him, and the kiffar Jedi would never let him live down a rescue.

The mayor's comlink then chose to beep. He looked at it in apprehension. "It's from the governor's guard."

"Answer it," Padmé pressed. The Senator was quick to take charge of the situation, Obi-Wan thought.

The figure that appeared was, as they expected, the rogue Jedi that had attacked them in the depot. "Mayor Thothlis. I believe you are harboring certain fugitives..."

Padmé stepped into the screen next to the mayor before he could speak. "Lady Ventress, do you not care that the rebels are mounting an offensive on Rajar."

"I have my orders," she hissed.

"You also have orders to apprehend a rogue Senator and her friends, do you not? Well, I can confirm that we are here in Rajar. If you want us, you'll have to come get us. It might get hairy here soon, so I wouldn't come alone." Ignoring the bare headed woman's snarl, she continued. "We will surrender ourselves to your custody, of course, once you arrive. But I'd suggest for the sake of your own safety you bring air cover over the city, or none of us may make it out of here."

"You will pay for your insolence," Ventress snapped, and her image abruptly disappeared.

Obi-Wan shook his head. Despite everything, he respected Amidala's fearlessness in defying a dark Jedi, though it was more likely ignorance that she truly didn't understand how dangerous Ventress was, despite his every warning. "I hope you know the game you're playing, Senator."


Nightshade's sydneylover150: Temporarily...but as you can see they're back