Note: From here onwards missions that happened in the Clone Wars involving Obi Wan and Anakin now involve Anakin and Farra on their own, without Obi Wan, as they become full Jedi Knights.
Chapter 8
Two weeks after the Jedi return to Coruscant after successfully rescuing Farra, the Jedi Council decided to knight Farra and Anakin. They had earned their knighthood on Geonosis when they faced and defeated Dooku. Although they hadn't killed him the fact that he'd fled was considered to be a defeat. The two Padawans had come to the council chamber and knelt in the center of the room. The council stood in a circle around them and Obi Wan stood behind them.
""Proven you have, Anakin Skywalker and Farra Sti, that strong you are. The honor and title of Jedi Knight this Council presents to you." Yoda intoned.
Obi Wan ignited his lightsaber and after adjusting the blade so it was a fraction of its usual length, picked up Anakin's braid and severed it just by his ear. He did the same to Farra.
"Now Knights you both are. Stand and join us" Yoda said.
The two new Jedi Knights stood.
"Thank you Masters" Anakin said.
Farra bowed deeply then Anakin followed suit and then the council filed out.
When the council had gone. Obi Wan turned to the two Jedi Knights and told them he was proud of them. He then gave each their severed braid to do with what they wanted. Then he left leaving the two new Knights alone. They turned to each other then hugged and talked excitedly. Farra pressed her braid into Anakin's hand.
"I want you to have this as a way of saying that yes I'll marry you after the war has ended"
"And I want you to have mine" Anakin said pressing his braid into Farra's hand.
Their braids were the only thing the two new Knights could give to each other, as neither owned anything other than their robes, lightsaber and sleepwear.
"We will be able to go on missions together without Obi Wan with us" Farra said.
"Aah freedom and privacy" Anakin said.
He smiled and kissed Farra. She responded to his kiss and they kissed hungrily. When they came up for air Farra reached behind Anakin's head and removed the band from his ponytail, letting his hair fall free. It fell in soft curls about his face.
"You look so different with your hair loose" Farra said.
She ran her hands through the soft curls as Anakin kissed her again.
"A pity about your scar" Farra said, her lips inches from Anakin's
"I think it makes me look more manly," Anakin said.
A day later Anakin and Farra had received their first mission without Obi Wan Kenobi. They are sent to Nivek to find and destroy a hidden cache of Confederacy weapons. As it is always dark there the two Jedi find that the natives, who having the advantage of being able to see in the darkness, have the advantage. Neither Jedi can see where the natives are so they are unable to make much headway against them. Farra suddenly has a brainwave and turns to Anakin.
"We need to use blindfolds and use the Force to guide us. That way our eyes won't be able to deceive us and we will be able to sense where the natives are" Farra says.
"Good idea, love" Anakin says.
The two Jedi quickly blindfold each other then stretched out with their feelings. Sensing where the natives are they ignited their blades and reduced the natives attacking them to smoking corpses. Then Anakin tells Farra he can sense the hum of machinery.
"Lead me to the source of the hum. My intuition tells me that the source of the hum will be where the weapons are also," Farra says.
Anakin wastes no time leading Farra to the source of the hum. As Farra had guessed the weapons were there. The two Knights quickly destroy them.
Enroute back to Coruscant a few hours later the two Knights are told to go to Terra Sool and help the local militia free the planet from the Confederacy. When the two Knights arrive at the planet they descend into the planet's atmosphere only to find droid star fighters there. They engage the droid star fighters but after a few minutes of fighting both find that the planet's atmosphere is playing havoc with their sensors and they are flying blind. Suddenly Farra happens upon an enemy airship, which is firing in all directions. She flies towards the airship, which is a huge hovering battle platform and skids across its top deck destroying many battle droids standing in the way by mowing them down. When her fighter comes to a halt battle droids gather around it. Anakin watches in horror thinking Farra will be captured. However Farra plays dead then suddenly bursts from the cockpit her lightsaber igniting. Anakin watches as she defeats the battle droids with lightning fast sweeps of her lightsaber. She has become very elegant and graceful when fighting. Farra then activates her comlink and tells Anakin she's cleared the upper deck and that she is going to find the bridge and shut the ship down.
"Roger that" Anakin said, "Oh before I sign off, I must say that you looked elegant and graceful before. Your lightsaber technique is very beautiful to watch. Love ya," he said.
"Love you too babe" Farra said.
It was the first time she'd called Anakin babe and it surprised her that she'd called him that.
Just then R2 D2, who Anakin has in the droid socket of his fighter, picks up some droid chatter. Anakin tells Farra via comlink that he is going to investigate it. He flies off and suddenly comes upon dozen's more of the floating platforms similarly engaged in combat with the local militia. Farra meanwhile has fought her way down to the bridge of the platform she is on and is in the process of reducing the droid pilots to scrap metal. She takes control of the airship and pilots it to where Anakin is. He has crashed on another airship and is fighting the droids there. She then sees that one of the airships has fired missiles down towards the surface of the planet.
"They are going to raze the planet," Anakin observes"
"Can you do anything to stop them?" Farra asks.
"Just watch me honey," Anakin said.
He leapt out into the open air and chops one missile in half with his lightsaber then ricochets between the various fighters and ships cutting through each missile. Another wave of missiles are still in flight though. Anakin stretches out his arms and Force shoves a battle platform into the path of the missiles. It explodes destroying that wave of missiles.
Anakin then tells Farra to attack the other battle platforms with her airship and he'd deal with any missiles they fired. Working together the two Knights systematically destroy the rest of the airships and missiles. Sometimes Anakin has to cut missiles in half and sometimes he destroys them by Force shoving an airship into them. Other airships are blown out of the sky by Farra's airship. Finally all the airships are destroyed. However the Jedi are without their star fighters as both had crashed at the beginning of the battle. They use the airship Farra had commandeered to resume their journey back to Coruscant. Farra and Anakin hug when they are reunited on the bridge of the airship. It is on autopilot while they greet each other.
"You've become quite a good pilot, love," Farra tells Anakin.
"You're a good pilot too darling" Anakin said.
He tips Farra's head up and meets her lips with his. The two Jedi kiss as their airship heads towards home.
Upon their return to Coruscant Anakin and Farra begin talking about whether to take on a Padawan each or not. They are concerned about exposing anyone young to the rigors of war and in the end decide that it would be better to wait until the war ends to take on a Padawan each or to take on an older Padawan who had lost his or her master. Both were agreed on taking on a Padawan the same gender as them. Farra would take on a female Padawan and Anakin a male Padawan. The two Knights trained together each day as they had done since becoming Padawans together. They also meditated together each day finding it better to meditate together than apart. When they went before the council they always went together. Everyone referred to them as Anakin and Farra and when one was talked about the other's name always came up as well.
A week or so later Anakin took Farra down to Dexter's Diner for a meal. The two had become quite well known there as they went there almost every week. They couldn't go if they were on a mission but other than that they went every week. Dexter was a good friend of both, as they'd met him through Obi Wan Kenobi. On this particular occasion they were celebrating their knighting, as it was their first opportunity to visit Dexter's Diner since they were knighted. When the two arrived there they greeted Dexter and told him their good news. He gave them drinks that were on the house as his way of congratulating them. When they were all sitting down Dexter asked them what the knighting ceremony was like. Anakin and Farra eagerly filled him in about it. Dexter asked them if they intended to become Masters together. Both said that that was what they desired.
On the way back to the temple Anakin and Farra wondered if Obi Wan would be taking on a new apprentice. He had been on missions with other Jedi Masters but occasionally checked on Farra and Anakin to see how they were getting on. He was becoming like a brother to them and they both knew that Obi Wan would always be very special to them. They fully intended for Obi Wan to play a part in their marriage ceremony. In preparation for this they were both researching marriage traditions from various worlds and had agreed to take the best aspects of these and create a ceremony that would be unique to them. Of course the ceremony wouldn't be until after the war whenever that was. Anakin and Farra hoped it wouldn't go on for much longer. They also knew that if the Jedi could expose the Sith Lord behind it they could end the war.
A week later Anakin and Farra were requested to go to Null to help Lorian Nod a former Jedi to convince the four planets in an alliance that he led to remain with the Republic. Farra and Anakin traveled to Null disguised as hunters. When they arrived they found an inn and made arrangements to stay there. As they weren't married they had separate rooms. They learnt from the innkeeper the buildings on the planet were made of stone. They also learnt that there is no mortar holding the stones together which meant that one pull of the keystone would bring the whole building down. Both Anakin and Farra committed the information to memory, knowing it might be of use later on. As the two Jedi enjoyed a drink in the inn, getting refreshed before setting about their mission, they heard someone shout, "Samish Kash has been murdered. The two Knights knew from their briefing that Samish was the leader of Delaluna one of the four planets in the alliance. Anakin and Farra race to the scene of the crime in time to see Samish's body being loaded into a speeder. Lorian Nod climbs into the speeder and it leaves.
Then Anakin notices two people talking and realizes they had been in the inn when they were making arrangements to stay there and having a drink. He had noticed them in the inn as the male had had a suspicious amount of weaponry and the woman wore a green cloak. When the woman's cloak fell back Anakin suddenly realized whom she and her male companion were. They were Floria and Dane, a pair of brother and sister bounty hunters who Anakin and Obi Wan had run into on Ragoon-6. Farra hadn't been with them on that occasion as she and Ploon had been on a mission of their own. Anakin quickly filled Farra in on what had happened on Ragoon 6 so that she understood how Anakin knew the two people they were approaching.
"Let me do the talking. They know me," Anakin said.
Farra nodded and smiled encouragingly at Anakin. He had not bothered to put his hair back in its ponytail after Farra had loosened it as he had realized he no longer needed the ponytail. His hair was growing longer as he was letting it grow out of his short padawan hairstyle.
"Anakin!" Floria called out, "How are you?"
"I'm well thanks Floria and I'm a full Jedi Knight now" Anakin said.
"Oh wow" Dane said, "So that must be why Obi Wan isn't with you"
"That's right. This is Farra. She became a Knight at the same time as I and we grew up together and have trained together for years. Also she is my intended and we plan to marry once the war is over. The council has permitted our relationship as we were told by a legendary Jedi Master that we are two parts of one whole," Anakin said.
"Pleased to meet you Farra. What brings you guys here?" Dane asked.
Anakin quickly filled them in on why they were there.
"We were Samish's body guards" Floria said.
At the same time Dane caught sight of something and flew off on his swoop. The two Jedi and Floria followed as quickly as they could on foot. Suddenly Anakin leapt forward using the Force to help him and landed on Dane's swoop. After persuading Dane to stop, Anakin asked him why he had taken off like that.
"I saw someone who I recognized as a bounty hunter" Dane told Anakin.
Anakin and Farra with Dane's permission took his swoop to continue the pursuit. After they'd pursued the bounty hunter a short way he leapt off his swoop and they thought they would catch them. However they suddenly found themselves entangled in the web of a Reclumi Spider. Anakin muttered a curse and Farra reached into the Force and examined the web.
"We can cut our way free with our lightsabers, love," she told Anakin.
Anakin apologized for his reaction to being stuck and the two set to work freeing themselves. When they were free they looked around for the bounty hunter they were pursuing but he had gotten away. They realized that he was most probably the assassin they were after and that he'd returned to the village.
When the two Jedi returned to the village they caught sight of the assassin again but before they could go after him he had melted into a huge crowd of villagers who were accusing Floria and Dane of killing Samish. The Jedi asked to talk to Floria and Dane but the villagers refused to let them do so until they had given them some animal skins. Upon talking to Dane and Floria again Dane was able to tell the two Jedi that he had remembered who the assassin was. He was a man named Robior Web who used to be one of the one of the Junction 5 Guardians. The Guardians were a group who lead the planet Junction 5 through Lorian Null. Obi Wan had told Anakin about the time he and Qui Gon had been on Junction 5 prior to Anakin and Farra traveling to Null. As Lorian had lead the Guardians the two Jedi decide to question him but find that this is a dead end.
Farra turned to Anakin and the two talked about what their next move would be. Suddenly Farra realized that Robior would be looking for a swoop.
"We should find Robior and it is my intuition that he will be looking for a swoop. He will probably be trying to free Dane's swoop from the web we left it in" Farra said.
"Good thinking, my love" Anakin said.
The two Jedi returned to where the entangled swoop was and found Robior there as Farra had suspected. He had killed the spider but was having no luck in freeing the swoop. When the two Jedi arrived Robior took off and the Jedi decided to follow from a distance. Robior made his way to the landing platform where met Count Dooku.
Anakin and Farra had stopped some distance away.
"Its Dooku" Anakin hissed, when Dooku appeared.
"I wonder what his game is" Farra mused.
"Come on babe we can take Dooku. " Anakin said.
"No we should wait to see what Dooku is up to," Farra said.
"Good idea" Anakin said.
At the same time he noticed super battle droids being unloaded from Dooku's ship and he realized something else. From her behavior, Anakin suspected that Floria was in love with Shamish. Farra asked Anakin what that had to do with anything and Anakin replied that love is always relevant.
"Oh I see what you mean. Dooku knows that our love for each other makes us stronger. That's how love is relevant in our situation" Farra said.
"Correct" Anakin smiled.
The two Jedi visited Dane and Floria again and learn that Shamish is not really dead but just wounded. They and Lorian had decided to keep his survival a secret. It was then that Farra realized that the meeting with Dooku was a trap and conveyed this to Anakin. He decided they should go to the meeting place and spring Dooku's trap.
"As we know about the trap we can avoid being caught in it and maybe turn the tables on Dooku" Anakin said.
At the location of the meeting the two Jedi and Dane and Floria managed to sneak into the meeting room and hide in the shadows. The two Jedi had pulled the hoods of their robes up to conceal their faces. They watched as the members of the alliance decided to stay with the Republic. Then a hidden door opened and a dozen super battle droids rolled in led by Robior Web.
"So that's his plan. He's going to force them to join the Confederacy. Come on babe we can destroy those droids and neutralize his plans" Farra said.
Anakin nodded and the two Jedi ignited their lightsabers and leapt out from hiding. Working together they fought the droids and protected the other people in the room. Out of the corner of her eye Farra saw Dooku flee the room followed by Lorian. Anakin managed to kill Robior Web but there were still droids left. Suddenly Farra remembered the information about keystones.
"Ani, use the Force to pull out the keystone of that wall," Farra called out pointing with her lightsaber before slicing the arm off a droid.
The wall in question would fall on most of the droids who happened to be near it. Anakin reached into the Force, found the keystone and pulled it out. The wall crumbled and as Farra had predicted, fell on most of the droids. The two Jedi easily dispatched the few that were left. Then they turned to go and help Lorian but found that the rubble of the wall blocked the doorway and they could do nothing for Lorian. Later on after the rubble had been cleared they found Lorian's body and no sign of Dooku who had escaped yet again.
Chapter 9