My eyes opened. I looked straight forward to see a concrete wall in front of me, I realised I was lying down on the cold stone floor, not remembering how I got here, or why I was here. It was obviously the will of the Force for me to by lying here, 'But I'm Mace Windu!' I thought to myself. 'General of the Clone Army! I shouldn't be here!' I tried to get up, but an the strain I felt sheer agony in my legs, my arms, my right wrist and my ribs, and collapsed to the floor. I went to place my hands on my ribs, to see if they were broken, only to realise.

My right hand wasn't there.

I stared at the stump that was my wrist, a clean cut then had been instantly cauterised. Strangely, I didn't feel any pain in my wrist, which meant the pain must have died off, so how long was I out, and who did this? I checked my belt for my lightsaber, without success, remembering I naturally held my weapon in my right hand, which meant, wherever my seperated hand was, my lightsaber was probably with it. I battled my broken body to at least sit-up. I barely managed it. I felt down my legs with my left hand. Both were broken. I pulled up the sleeve on my right arm, unable to do it on my left, and saw scorch marks that must have been inflicted by force lightning, so the one who crippled me must've been a Sith. I'd never battled Sith before, apart from Count Dooku, but he's dead! It might be the Sith Lord that the Jedi Order are currently seeking now, I banished the thought from my mind, it would only cause me more guilt that I didn't strike the evil Sith down, guilt was a path to the Dark Side. I pushed myself up to my knees, then I slowly raised up to stand. My legs almost buckled, so I leaned against the concrete, I thought about making crutches from the abandoned pipes streaking across the opposite wall, but the Force could sustain me. I looked around my surroundings, and found I was in one of the deserted Coruscant Underworld backstreets. Just my luck! I wasn't kidding either, it was lucky I wasn't unconscious in one of the main streets of the Underworld, or else I'd be put up for sale on the Black Market with the broken droids and scrap from trash heap worlds like Raxus Prime in the Outer Rim. This made me think, did the 'Sith Lord' I believed I fought place me here, did I fall, or was the battle in this very alley? If it was the last suggestion, then I'd be dead, if it was the first, the Sith Lord would've killed me. I must've fell, but from where? I looked up in search of a possible area. The only place that seemed to fit the bill was the Senate Building, I squinted my eyes to search for broken windows or walls, I could only see one, the Chancellor's office, Palpatine's office.

Suddenly the memories flooded back, Palpatine was the Sith Lord, me, Jedi Masters Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar and Saesee Tiin were sent to arrest him for crimes against the Republic, unfortunately, all three were slain, and me and Palpatine fought to the death, then I knocked the lightsaber out of his hands, he dropped to the floor, then... Then he... I racked my brains for what happened next... then he... fell onto the floor, pleading for his life, when... Anakin Skywalker then ran into the room and demanded he be sent to jail instead of executed. Then... I vaguely remember Skywalker reaching for his lightsaber, then a blue flash, I just fell down the side of the senate building and landed... here. I noticed the alley turn off into the main streets so I walked over to it, then remembered, I didn't have a weapon, and tonnes of criminals and smugglers walking the streets outside. I contemplated whether to just go for it, or stay in the shadows. I decided to go for the latter, jumping on top a single storey building which I think was a bar. I leapt across the street then swung down into the shadows, headed for a small shop I knew a few blocks away, owned by a personal friend. I creeped along the the walls, and I saw many criminals who were wanted by the republic for the likes of murder, fraud and selling faulty machinery, I saw Drexl, Choppah, Kleef, Greedo and many others. I almost reached the store when someone blocked my path, a Rodian.

'You looked lost, friend.' He chuckled, holding a hand up to his partners, a Dug and a Gungan.

'I don't want any trouble.' I grunted, disguising my voice and keeping my head down, trying to past him.

The Rodian sidestepped to block my path. 'Come on, I'm only being polite.' He smiled.

'I don't want any trouble.' I repeated, trying to get past him again.

The Rodian sidestepped once more, blocking my path again, he turned to his friends, who smiled at him, then turned back to me, holding a gun to my forehead. 'Well, if you keep that attitude when someone tries to help then you're run into a lot of trouble, friend.' The Rodian smiled again. I took a step back, the Rodian took a step forward. I decided I only had one chance left, and gripped the criminal with Force Choke with my left hand, the only deadly force attack I was allowed to use by the council. In the Trial Of Skill, one of the Jedi Trials, I battled against Darth Desolous, a long dead Pau'an who was a Jedi turned Sith, and slaughtered over 2,000 Jedi, he commented during combat. 'You have anger, but you don't use it.' At my actions the Dug and Gungan drew their weapons, and pointed them at me.

'Arrgh! Let the Sith go!' The Rodian struggled, at his words his comrades backed down.

'I'm not a Sith.' I told him, smashing his body against the floor, the use of the Force strained my body, and I had to hold myself up against a crate, with only one arm, leaving stump covered in my robes. Once I felt I could walk again I did, about three meters away, was the store my friend owned. I hobbled along, then knocked on the closed door with my weaker hand, but I was still being watched by the Dug, the Gungan was helping his weakened partner to his feet, although he kept stealing glances towards me.

'The store isn't open, sorry.' Came a gruff, low voice from inside the building.

'Parken, it's me.' I called.

'What? Who?' Came the voice again.

'Parken! It's me, Mace! Now let me in before I get murdered or put on a stall as a slave!' I shouted.

'Oh!' Came the voice. A few moments later the door swung open, a head appearing round the edge. 'Mace? Quickly, come inside!' The voice hissed. He shuffled me inside and sat me down in his store, which sold exotic fruits and vegetables from distant planets, the only store on Coruscant to sell these things, but nothing was there, only two knocked over chairs, the glass that should've been protecting the missing fruits was smashed and the paintings and artwork on the walls were covered in a thick miasma of greyish sludge.

'What the heck happened here, Parken?' I stared in amazement.

'We'll get to that later. Mace, what happened to you? You're using crutches and you've got gashes across your cheeks!'

'I fell out of the Senate building.' I said quickly, at my words Parken's mouth began to open, looking for words, but I cut across him. 'What happened to your store?'

'Er, okay, er.' Parken stuttered, stooping down and propping up the fallen chairs, then gesturing to me to take a seat, then took one himself. 'Er, about fifty-ish minutes ago, three Republic guards stormed in here looking for Jedi, in the heat of the moment I told them I knew no Jedi, I mean, afterwards I thought I should've told them I knew you, because maybe they were looking for you, um, if you had a little, er, misdemeanour in the Underworld, but, er, I didn't and then they, er,' Parken's face twitched. 'Slammed me into the wall then got out a bag then, er, stole all my- all my fruits and vegetables, and, er, got a few Tiarite fruit and sprayed the juice all over the wall! They then, er, knocked over the chairs then walked out the building. The reason I locked the door is because I thought they were- they were coming, um, back. But it was- just you.' I contemplated this for a while, then looked at Parken.

Parker's full name was Parken Drei. He was a Pandoran who had three yellow lines across both cheeks, a common Pandoran feature with sometimes less or more lines, or longer or shorter lines. Parken had many nerves, which was the main reason he wasn't allowed to join the Pandoran planetary guard, added on to the fact he lied about his age anyway. Despite Parken's apparent distrusting personality, he was very loyal to me and was always there when I was in need of help, especially, when I was younger and was sent on missions to the Underworld, as Parken was very well respected by all it's inhabitants, and was known as the only non-corrupt businessman in the Underworld. Parken liked in the flat above his store, where he kept many trinkets and findings from his travels, which he went on regularly, normally back to Pandora to his family, whom he'd never told of, of his residence in the Coruscant Underworld.

'Did they take anything else of value?' I asked him.

'No, er, most things of value I own are missing.'

'Most?'

'Yes, except from one thing.' He replied.

'Which is?'

Parken reached for his belt and held out an object which looked very familiar to me.

'Everything,' Parken began, igniting the blade, releasing a beam of Purple Illum energy. 'Everything except this lightsaber.'