Chapter Eleven - Opening Moves

"It's against my programming to impersonate a deity."
- C-3PO

#

Ahsoka Tano and Asajj Ventress walked side by side, Ventress content, for the moment, to follow Ahsoka's lead. After another quarter of an hour, she finally broke her silence.

"Do you have any idea where you're actually going, Tano?"

Ahsoka paused and looked thoughtfully at Ventress. "No. But I figure if I walk around enough eventually I'll get a feeling."

"Force save us from your feelings, Ahsoka, I can't believe-"

Ventress' scathing response was interrupted when Ahsoka stiffened and stilled completely. She then began running and jumped into a nearby shuttle. Ventress, caught off guard, had to catch up to her.

"What?" Ventress hissed.

"We have to go...trouble." Ahsoka said flatly.

"Go where?!"

"Take us to 500 Republica, now!" Ahsoka commanded the driver.


Bane watched his targets leave the Temple several hours after the senators had left. They walked together along with Obi-Wan Kenobi to a nearby speeder. Decisions, decisions, he mused. Keeping a low profile was not something to be accomplished by an assassination attempt on the steps of the Jedi Temple. He would just have to follow them and take them when they reached their destination. He grinned. Jedi were such a challenge.

#

[Do you feel it, Mara?]

[Of course I do, Farm Boy, believe me, I know what it feels like to both hunt and to be hunted and we are most certainly being watched. i do believe we've been marked.]

[If the Emperor is on to us, how much do you imagine he knows?]

[I can't imagine he knows much, but the best way to tell will be to catch whoever is watching us. The severity of the attempt might also answer that question, in part. Be ready, Luke.]

[Of course, Mara.]

"Obi-Wan?"

"Yes, Luke?"

"I do believe we're about to receive the future would-be Emperor's first welcoming present."

#

"Luke just commed," Padmé told Anakin, putting her arms around his waist., "He and Mara are on their way back. Obi-Wan is with them, too."

Closing his eyes, he leaned into her touch, trying to release some of the tension that was knotting his stomach.

"I'm going to have a lot to talk about with Obi-Wan," he sighed looking glum. "Anything else?"

"He might have mentioned that we should stay away from our apartment for a little time. He thinks that he and Mara are being watched, and that Mara feels that 'impending violence is nigh'."

Anakin's eyes popped open and he hurled himself away from her grasp. "Padmé, we have to go! We have to keep you safe! We-"

He was cut off by fingers pinching his ear and dragging his head down to level his gaze with that of his wife's.

"Ani, we have a quarter of an hour and I'm already ready to go. Gently, Anakin, be calm. We can pick up the droids now and introduce them to Luke and Mara once all the mayhem has finished." Padmé smiled. "I pity the poor fool who tries to kill our son; they'll have to deal with Mara first."

Anakin couldn't help the smile. Poor fools, indeed.

"Let's go pick up Artoo and Threepio then, and give Mara some playtime. With Obi-Wan around, I don't imagine much could happen to our son."

#

"They're gone?" Mara asked.

Luke nodded.

"Excellent, in that case...here's where the fun begins," Mara said a little too gleefully for Obi-Wan's comfort.

"It's official," Obi-Wan sighed, "the Skywalkers, even if you're one by marriage, are kriffing insane."

"I was crazy even before I married Luke," Mara smiled, "I was a genuine 'hearing voices telling me to kill people' kind of crazy."

Luke rolled his eyes, "Well, Mara, in your expert opinion, when will the assassin attack, and in what form?"

"As soon as we land and it'll be up close," Mara said immediately. "If he knows we are Jedi, then he'll know trying a long range shot won't do him much good. I feel bad that we might wreck Padmé's place up, but if we deviated our course it might alert him."

"Explosives?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Maybe to stun us, but explosives leave a lot to chance unless he plans on bringing the whole Republica down on us. Stun rounds or grenades followed by close range blaster. He's probably following us in a speeder nearby so that he can hit us as soon as possible," Mara said with an eerie calm, "It's possible he might even go so far as to stick a vibroblade in us, but he'd want to stay out of lightsaber reach if at all possible. However, if he thinks we're stunned, he might use that vibroblade just to make a sure kill. It's hard to argue with a slit throat, for humans anyways."

"Your wife frightens me, Luke."

Mara beamed.

#

Bane adjusted course as he followed the speeder the Jedi had taken. He made sure to be following at a discrete distance, but he never lost sight of them. He cursed to himself when he realized they would be landing at 500 Republica. Oh well, gonna have to keep a low profile on Coruscant for a while after this. Just got to wait for them to get out of the speeder...they'll never know what hit them

Adjusting his vibroblade, he grasped his blaster and readied one of his stun grenades.

#

"You get out first, Kenobi."

"Yes, Mistress Skywalker," and got out of the speeder before Mara could retort.

Luke and Mara then climbed out of the taxi in tandem. They walked side by side towards the entrance of Padmé's apartments when they felt the shift in the Force.

"Predictable," muttered Mara.

Luke caught the thrown grenade just as it was thrown and held it with the Force until it detonated just a meter away from the Duros responsible for throwing it. The stunned man fell down and began sliding from the speeder's roof where he had been standing on. Using the Force, Luke pulled the man wearing a truly hideous hat to where Mara and he stood. Not really putting much effort, the Duros flew through the air towards the three Jedi.

"Mara, wait!" Luke shouted as he heard Mara's lightsaber ignite. What followed was the distinct sound of two separate objects hitting the ground with a thump accompanied by the scent of charred meat.

Luke grimaced at the Duros who was now separated into two pieces on the floor.

Luke glared at Mara, "What happened to keeping him alive?"

Mara managed to look sheepish for about a moment until she set her mouth and ground out, "He was a poor excuse for an assassin. Honestly, he deserved worse."

"Cad Bane," came Obi-Wan's voice.

"That was Cad Bane?" was Mara's question that contained about as much scorn as a voice could carry. "That was...embarrassing."

"I guess he wasn't expecting Mara Jade Skywalker," Obi-Wan said with a smile.

"No one expects Mara Jade Skywalker," Luke muttered softly.

"Very good husband, I'll reward you tonight for that."

Obi-Wan's face went red at the look Mara sent Luke.

"Um...who are you?"

The young female voice surprised all of them as they turned towards Padmé's apartment. There stood a female Togrutan wielding two white lightsabers as well as a very pale-skinned woman wielding a single yellow lightsaber.

Luke's green lightsaber ignited on instinct and was accompanied by Mara's blue blade. Beside him, Luke noticed Obi-Wan was gaping.

"Ahsoka...Ventress?" Obi-Wan breathed out in shock.

"Ah...hey Master Kenobi," Ahsoka waved a lightsaber tentatively before she began looking at the dismembered body that was still on the floor.

Ventress snorted at the sight. "Which of you finally got to kill that sleemo Bane?"

Mara smiled and waved her lightsaber a little.

"Well do-"

"Snips?"

The gasp came from behind Ahsoka, and now the rainbow of lightsabers quickly turned to face Anakin, Padmé, and two very familiar looking droid.

"Hey Skyguy."


Author's Notes: Yes, that really did just happen. Luke and Mara are not fools, and yes, they are uber powerful. Cad Bane, compared to post Unifying Force Mara and Luke...is a laugh. I basically pictured Mara swinging her lightsaber like a baseball bat towards the incoming unconscious body of Bane. It amused me.

Yes, I did make a Monty Python reference, if you didn't catch it. "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition."

At this time, in canon, Ventress would actually be dead, slain by Dooku while trying to save Quinlon Vos. In my story, if it isn't obvious, Ventress kept up with bounty hunting and met up with Ahsoka Tano to do so together. Ventress did get a single yellow lightsaber for herself from the black market.