"You still haven't told me how you know those Jedi!", Amy snapped suspiciously. "I thought we were partners and had no secrets from each other! I told you everything! Now what are you hiding?"
Atara looked down at the ground miserably. Her friend obviously wasn't going to give up. She decided it would be too risky to tell the truth. She prepared her lie.
"I met them on Naboo. I had been sent to kill Myra Hones but things went wrong when a bomb exploded near my position. They pulled me out of the wreckage."
"Hmm", Amy frowned. She always knew when she was being lied to. "They called you Ahsoka. I'm sure I've heard that name before!"
"It's a common enough Togrutan name", Atara said nervously.
"I know!" Amy cried suddenly. "There was that girl who got chucked out of the Jedi Order for bombing the Temple! I read about it on the holo net! It's YOU, isn't it?", Amy had frozen, her eyes wide. Atara took a deep breath.
"I chose to leave. The Republic is just as corrupt as the Separatists. They betrayed me. I tried to leave it all behind but it seems the past has caught up with me."
"I can't believe you lied to me!", Amy gasped. "We would've taken you in even if we knew who you were. So that's why you don't want to kill Kenobi! He was your friend!" Atara nodded.
"I'm SO sorry Amy, but I didn't know who to trust. I thought it would be easier like this. Please forgive me." Atara's eyes watered. Luckily, Amy was a very forgiving person.
"It's OK, I understand. It can't have been easy for you", Amy smiled gently.
"Thank you!", Atara whispered. "My name is Ahsoka. Please call me that. Ahsoka Tano."
Anakin and Obi-Wan arrived at the Dancing Twi'lek Hotel at seven o'clock to have dinner with Ahsoka and Amy.
"Hello Atar-"
"Ahsoka!" Ahsoka corrected sharply. At that moment Anakin knew everything was going to work out.
"Hey Ahsoka!", he grinned. " What've you been up to today?" Amy gave him a mysterious smile. Then she laughed.
"Ahsoka and I have been on a serious mission!", she announced grandly.
"Doing what?", asked Obi-Wan.
"We've been trying to find a place where they do a nice dinner!", Ahsoka winked. The two Jedi smiled.
"Well, this is certainly a warmer reception than we had earlier!", commented Obi-Wan.
"Yeah, sorry about that. We didn't mean to be rude!", she apologised.
"Speak for yourself!", Amy hissed with pretend venom, then elbowed her playfully. "Ahsoka has told me so much about you. I'm very excited to finally have a chance to meet you properly!" Amy was back to her usual excitable self.
The atmosphere that evening was very pleasant and, just for a few hours, all four of them let their worries slide away, as if carried away by a fast flowing current. The conversation was punctuated by laughter, like commas in a sentence, as the four of them sat around the small circular table.
The next day, Ahsoka wasn't so positive. Turning to Amy, she asked:
"What are we going to do!? We have just over a week and I'm outta ideas. All I know is this. We can't kill Obi-Wan and we can't tell anyone about our mission, and if we don't do anything, we're as good as dead! Where does that leave us?"
"In a very undesirable position!", Amy joked. Ahsoka rolled her eyes.
"I'm serious Amy! Can you at least TRY to focus for once!?"
"Sorry", Amy apologised. "Maybe if we tell the Jedi they will protect us. What do you think?"
"I don't think that would work! Our client has run rings around us and now it's too late. We're trapped. As good as dead. But we can't trust the Republic.", Ahsoka cried passionately.
"What other options do we have?", Amy asked. "Do nothing and we're dead. Kill Kenobi and what does that make us? And besides, I quite like him actually." Ahsoka agreed.
"I think we should tell the Jedi", she said finally, though she sounded a little unsure.
"Whoa! I like Kenobi, but I'm not prepared to die for him!" Ahsoka had to admit, Amy had a point.
"Our mystery client left us this emergency com link to contact him if something went wrong. Maybe we can ask him for a face to face meeting and kill him.", Amy suggested. "We could say that we can't say anything over the com link as it may be bugged and then give him a riddle about where we want him to meet us! Let him have a taste of his own medicine!" Amy was very keen on the idea. Ahsoka took a deep breath and then said;
"Fine, let's do it your way." The two girls crowded around the com link. Amy pressed the button. The com link beeped once and then the sinister voice of their client filled the room.
"Why have you not killed Kenobi yet?", he thundered.
"Sorry, Sir", Amy pretended to grovel. "This means of communication isn't safe. The only way information can't be intercepted is if we meet face to face. There is a place which we believe to be safe." Amy recited a riddle the two of them had put together.
"I'll be there", he replied. Amy and Ahsoka looked at each other. This was their chance.
Senator Lux Bonteri strolled the Senate hallways restlessly, trying to find his friend and fellow senator, Padme Amidala. It was she who spotted him first and hurried over.
"How are you feeling?", she asked gently.
"I just can't believe Ahsoka hasn't contacted me yet. I thought she loved me. She even said so! Surely she knows I am always happy to see her and take her in", Lux cried out in distress. He had been thinking of spending the rest of his life with Ahsoka when she had walked out on the Jedi, the Republic and HIM. It was dreadfully unfair. Why had she abandoned him?
"I've just been talking to the Jedi. They say Ahsoka is here on Corasont, staying at the Dancing Twi'lek Hotel. Masters Skywalker and Kenobi have already been to see her", Padme informed him. Lux exploded.
"Why wasn't I told earlier? How long has she been here!?"
"Only a few days Lux. I've only just found out too. I'm going to visit her at four o'clock today, a surprise visit. Would you like to come?" Lux nodded.
"Thanks Padme. Sorry for being so rude."
"It's OK Lux, we're all still very emotional over Ahsoka", Padme comforted.
Ahsoka and Amy prepared their weapons. Their client was coming to see them in twenty minutes, at four o'clock.
"Are you sure this plan will work?", Ahsoka asked doubtfully.
"There's no time to second guess everything Ahsoka. We can pull this off!" Ahsoka smiled at her friend's confidence but she still felt nervous.
They waited outside the door, ready to greet their client, for twenty five minutes.
"I don't think he's coming", Amy sighed. Ahsoka nodded and the pair re entered the room. There, sitting behind the single shabby desk was their client. He looked them over with cold eyes before snapping,
"You're late!"
"How did you get in?", asked Amy. Ahsoka raised an eyebrow, trying and failing to hide her surprise.
"That is of no consequence", he replied. "Now tell me, children, why is Obi-Wan Kenobi not dead when you have been spending time with him for about a week now?" Ahsoka gasped. How did he know. How closely were they being watched?
At that moment the doorbell rang. Ahsoka and Amy looked at each other.
"Hello?", came a familiar voice. Oh no! thought Ahsoka. It's Padme!
"Hello Padme", Ahsoka replied.
"And Lux", came Padme's voice. "May we come in?" Amy's eyes widened.
"Get rid of them!", she hissed urgently. Lux and Padme could get in the way of the whole plan!
"Um, sorry Padme, I'm a little busy at the moment. Please will you come back in an hour?" Lux had had enough. He walked over to the door and pushed it open.
"Ahsoka, w-", he began, but stopped when he saw the three seated figures. The girls' client smiled coldly.
"Do please come in", he announced, waving his hand to a chair as if he owned the place. Amy wanted to hit him. Padme followed Lux hesitantly into the room, smiling weakly at Ahsoka. Their client turned back to Amy and Ahsoka.
"You have three days left", he said imperiously, rising to leave. Amy and Ahsoka's eyes met.
"Now!", cried Amy, opening fire with her twin blasters. Their client drew two blood red light sabers, and it was at that point that Ahsoka realized they were dealing with a Sith. Ahsoka knew the one and only rule of the Sith. There can only be two, a master and an apprentice. Somehow Ahsoka got the feeling that this wasn't the apprentice.
Ahsoka drew her light sabers, casting green light around the room. Padme and Lux ran behind Ahsoka and Amy. The Sith attacked. He swung his light sabers at her with great skill and precision and Ahsoka knew that she was hopelessly outmatched. There was only one thing for it.
"Run!", she screamed at Amy, Padme and Lux.
"Where to!?", shouted a terrified Lux.
"The window!" Ahsoka could sense Padme's bewilderment.
"We're on the ninth floor! We'll break our necks!", she cried. Ahsoka ignored these feeble protests and ran straight through the window. It smashed as she hit it full force, waving her light sabers, covering everything in a shower of broken glass. Amy ran to the window and jumped. She trusted Ahsoka with her life. Lux ran too, but Padme hesitated for just a second too long. The Sith seized her arm and placed his light sabers at her throat just as Lux jumped. Ahsoka used the Force to catch all her friends before they broke theirs necks.
"He's got Padme!", bellowed Lux. Ahsoka jumped back up to the ninth floor in a single leap Upon hearing that.
"Put down your weapons or she dies!", the Sith ordered. Ahsoka threw her lightsabers out of the window, to Amy, shouting:
"Catch! Get out of there!" Lux and Amy had no choice but to run.
"We'll get help!", Amy yelled.
"Ahsoka, run!", Padme screamed at her but Ahsoka shook her head.
"How noble", sneered the Sith. In a movement that took less than a second to execute, the Sith threw Pame out of the window and grabbed Ahsoka. Trapped behind his light sabers, Ahsoka roared:
"Padme!" At that moment the first police droids started arriving. Laughing, her client dragged her out of the window. Parked on the roof was a magnificent Solar Sailer. The Sith tied her to the wall of the Sailer and then settled down in the pilot's seat. He unhurriedly switched on the engines and then they were off.
Ahsoka was totally at his mercy and he knew it. As the Sailer entered hyperspace he walked over to her and examined her. He seemed pleased by what he saw.
"What do you want with me, Sleemo!?", Ahsoka fumed. The Sith glared at her, but then smiled.
"There is much pain in store for you, child. You will be in the hands of some friends of mine who like hurting people. They also hate being insulted, so you better watch your step." Then he lifted his hands and released blue electricity from his fingertips. Ahsoka howled with pain as it entered her body. Then she fainted.
Darth Sidious laughed and lifted off his hood. The Youngling had no idea of what horrors lay in store for her.
By the time the police and the Jedi arrived on the scene it was too late. Ahsoka had been taken.