Hello there!
Finally I managed to finish this chapter -it gave me a real headache to how to build up the back-ground of the doppelganger, as I had a vastly different original idea. Unfortunately I planned it out half a year ago, but didn't write it down, so only the base has remained in my memory.
nat13cat, AldamonBurst, Crazy Chick 08 thank you for the reviews. CC08 don't worry, I'm not planning to keep Anakin a jerk-he was like that only because he was upset about his nightmare.
I'd like to ask everyone, to point out my mistakes in your reviews. I don't mean maily the grammar -albeit I could use some help with that too- but rather the logical ones.
And finally I have little bit sad news: I decided to put two of my Stories (The War of Ragnarok and The True Story of the Royal Knights) on a break, due to my dwindled interest in Digimon, and beacuse I developed a "writer's boredom" about the stories. I'm really sorry about it, but I'm just unable step forward with them. So I guess I can call this story a refreshment, in order to regain my enjoyment in writing.
I'm already on Ch3, hopefully I'll be ready with it by Sunday.
Hope you'll like it!
„Who the hell is this guy?" Anakin cried out. „Is he a clone?"
„No, not quite." Obi-Wan replied calmly.
„Then what is he? Don't tell me he's my lost twin brother!"
„No, he's not. We've already made a blood test. He's not related to you at all."
„Who is he?" Ahsoka repeated the question, while she was looking from her Master to the „prisoner" and back. „Did he comit something?"
„Why do you think that Padawan?" Windu's hologram asked her.
„Otherwise a doppelganger wouldn't be a reason for an emergency call."
„Oh come on Ahsoka, don't tell me you can't feel it!" Anakin yelled at her angrily. She looked at him huffily, but calmed down her mind, focused on the Force, and shrieked when she felt the man's dark aura. He was obviously well trained in the usage of the Dark Side, and he was nearly as powerful as Master Kenobi.
„So, is he a Sith, or just another one of Dooku's Acolytes?" Anakin asked contemptuously.
„Neither. I don't know what kind of training did he receive, but it certainly was not by Jedi, nor by Sith. His ship came out from the hyperspace right in front of us. We tried to connect them on radio, but they didn't answer, so we were afraid of they're Separatists, and since I sensed his presence, I thought maybe Ventress is onboard. So we caught them with the tractor beam."
„Did he let himself to be captured?" Ahsoka asked.
„No, he tried to resist. He used this." Obi-Wan showed a strange, black bladed sword.
„Wait." Anakin took it from his former Master and examined it carefully. „Is this blade, strong enough to be used against a lightsaber?" he asked bewildered.
„Sure it is. I think it's atomic structure was manipulated by the Dark Side."
„I want to speak with him." Anakin stated, but Obi-Wann shook his head:
„As much as I hated it, we had to stun him, so we can't question him right now. Anyway, I doupt he'd say anything, and he's way too strong to use Mind Control on him. Fortunately, he had someone else on board with him."
„Who?" Obi-Wan made a grimace while he replied:
„A Togruta girl, about the same age as you Ahsoka."
„Alright, this is starting to get ridiculous." the girl answered. „We bump into a doppelgänger of Anakin with a Togruta of my age. What are the chances for this?"
„Wait until his name you hear." Yoda's hologram introupted with a troubled tone.
„Why, what is it?" Anakin asked, without looking at the Masters. He couldn't tore his eyes of off the man.
„Well according to the girl, he's surname is…" Obi-Wan started, scratching his beard. It was obvious that he felt awkward.
„So what is it?" Anakin finally managed to turn his back to the window, facing Obi-Wan.
„Well… it's Hellrider." Anakin dropped his chin, paused, then yelled at the Masters:
„That's enough! He looks like me, he is a Force-user, he has a teenage Togruta with him, and his name is the polar opposite of mine? Tell me this is a joke!"
„I wish I could." Obi-Wan said with a sad smile. „We should move on. The girl is in the other room. We delayed questioning her until you got here."
„Fine. Let's see her." Anakin replied, sending one more glimpse at „Hellrider", stepped to the door, but turned back when he realised nooneelse moved except him.
„What?" he asked impatiently.
„Skywalker, that girl was the slave of this man, she was presumably abused and now she's tremblening in fear for her life." Master Windu explained „I don't think it would be good for her, if she saw you. She could mistook you and this guy, and do something silly." Anakin couldn't move or say anything for seconds after he heard this. Finally he managed to gaspe a question:
„Did you say slave?" he was trembleing from anger. He didn't hate anything more than slavers. He remembered all too well his childhood on Tatooine. The years with Watto were tolerable, but the memories of the few months while Shmi and he had been the properties of Gardulla, still made him sick to the stomach.
„Anakin!" Obi-Wan said in a partly warning, partly comforting tone „I know how much you hate slavery, but don't let your temper out of control!" Anakin took a deep breath, and calmed down his mind before replying:
„Pardon, Masters. Does she have a transmitter?"
„Yes, but I already deactivated it. Fortunately, the de-activator was on their ship. Later we'll send her to a hospital on Corruscant, and remove that thing."
„Allright then, who shall speak with her?" odd silence was the only reply he got, until Yoda broke it:
„Very afraid she must be. Tano Padawan, the best chance of speaking with her, you have." Upon hearing this, the girl suddenly wanted to be somewhereelse.
„Master Yoda, with all the respect, are you sure about this? I've never done an interrogation before."
„Well you won't do it this time either." Anakin snapped on it. „You'll only have to speak with her friendly, ask for her, and offer our help. Don't worry, I'm sure you can handle this." and he gave her a courageing smile, which was enough to convince her. She nodded and she, Anakin, Obi-Wan and the droid who projected the hologramms of the other Masters left the room.
Ahsoka stopped in front of the door of the quarters, where her fellow Togruta was accomodated, and knocked. The door slid open with a rustling noise, and she stepped in. The other girl was sitting at the table, finishing the last of her dinner. Judged by the speed she bolted it down, Ahsoka was sure about that she hadn't eaten enough for quite a long time. Her unhealthily thin, bone-and-skin figure proved this as well. She looked up, and seemed to be surprised at the sight of Ahsoka. The young Padawan took a deep breath and greeted her:
„Hello, my name is Ahsoka Tano." she said with a smile. The girl measured her suspiciously, and answered only after a long pause:
„Hi, I'm Ala Tiannai. Are you a Jedi?"
„I'm just a Padawan, a learner." Ahsoka felt a huge relief for that Ala even replied to her at all.
„Look Ala, I know you must have been through horrible things, but we must get answers to a few questions. Do you think you could give us them?" the girl nodded, and Ashoka continued:
„Thank you. First of all who is this man, and how did you end up with him?" Ashoka saw the pain, anger and fear in the other girls eye, and was about to apologise and reindite the question, but before she could Ala asked back, whispering:
„How is he? Can he hear us? Can he get here?" Ahsoka looked at her surprised, but shook her head and replied:
„There's no way. He is at the other end of the ship, he's stunned and fettered. Besides there are two of the strongest Jedi aboard with us, along with 2000 troopers. Don't worry, he can't hurt you." Ala gave a timid, unsure nod, then started to speak, so silently, it was barely more than whispering:
„It all started eight years ago, when I was nine. I had lived in a small village on Shili, until one night a pirate fleet ambushed us." her eyes clouded as she remembered. „They had bombarded the village with incendiaries, captured everyone who managed to get out of the houses and hadn't been injured. They left the ones who caught fire or trapped inside to burn to death." she paused, fighting her tears.
„I'm so sorry." Ashoka tried to say, but couldn't master her voice. She wanly remembered hearing about something like this in the Temple, but she had been only seven at that time, and had been barely able to recall anything about her home planet. Ala slowly calmed down, and continued:
„I was relatively lucky, because I had been out with my father and sisters. Unfortunately their marauders found us. Dad tried to hold them back, but they stunned us all. When I regained my consciousness I was in the cargo bay of a ship, along with dozens of other captives. Twi'leks, Dugs, Togruta, Talz even a few Humans and Wookies were there, but I couldn't find anyone from my village. I guess they were imprisoned on the other ships. The pirates took us to a Slave market on Nar Shaddaa –I know it, because we heard the pirates talking about how much they will be paid for us. From that, everyone I spoke with, was afraid of being sold to one of the Hutts. I almost wish that, that had happened."
Anakin clenched his mechanic fist as he listened Ala's „story". His former Master noticed it, and put his hand on his shoulder:
„Easy, Anakin. I know you're frustrated, but keep your cool." Anakin took a deep breath, and nodded. He and Obi-Wan were monitoring the questioning through the camera, that Ashoka took with her. Ala's image on the screen continued:
„There were roughtly threehundred captive aboard the four pirate ships. However before the pirates took us to the market, they met someone else in the docks. I think he was a Devaronian, but his white as a ghost, and he didn't have irises. Just the whites, and blacks of his eyes." she shrieked as she recalled „He simply walked around, and chosen fifty out of us: twenty Twi'lek, Human and Togruta female -including me, albeit I was only a child, while all the others were adults-, and thirty males of various species, but mainly Talz and Wookies. Then his men dragged us to their own ships, and they took off. We were locked up in the cargos again. Neither the Devaronian, nor the crew told us a word during the whole trip."
„How long did it take?" Ahsoka's voice interroupted her.
„I don't really know. There were no clocks in the cargo…after all time isn't one of a slave's concerns. But I know how long it took the way to here. We spent the last half year here. The Queen sent her son here, to spy…
„Queen? What queen?
„So, how's it going?" Anakin asked the technician, who was trying to reprogramme the Negotiator's map reader, so it could use the files they found on the captured ship's computer. It worked with highly different methods, than the Galaxy-standard -no wonder, since it came form the space beyond the hyperspace disturbance. Nearly two standard days passed since Ashoka questioned Ala. She told them everything she knew about this new „queen" and her „empire":
Flashback
„They call themselves the Conquistador Empire, althought it started out from a single pirate-ruled sector, which I think you call Crispin system. I heard only the rumors, what elder slaves told, so there could be a bunch of false information in what I know. So, if everything is right, it had started when Captain Hellfire –who later became the „Queen"- had found a hyperspace-route through the hyperspace disturbance at the edge of the asteroid belt. She decided to take her chanses and left the galaxy with her fleet, about…30 years ago, counted with your calendar. Presumably, she was hoping for easy prey and material, which she could get by slave work, not to mention a perfectly safe hiding place. But she bumped into something she didn't even dare to dream of. A miniature satellite galaxy, -albeit, it doesn't really deserves this name- about twenty-thousand parsecs over the edge of this Galaxy, containing a mere 20 star-systems. He found sentinel life on a total of ten planets in five systems. Two of them were very highly developed. In most views they vastly outclassed the best technologies she had, but they had no military technology, and even their best space-technology could reach only their neighbour systems. So Captain Hellrider, and her fleet had no problem with conquering and slaughtering them. They left only the scientists alive, and a few hundred others with „breeding" purposes, as well as to corner the scientists into co-operation. Another important discorvery was when they found a metal, which they later named superium. Silly name for a matter, right? But it covers it's attributions perfectly: if crafted on the right way, it's able to withstand even being in the middle of a supernova explosion without being melted, or crashed. She forced the captured scientists to create superium-platting for her ships, and then –leaving a few ships and about half of her crew behind to guard their captives, she returned to the Galaxy, and one-by-one forced the pirate-lords of the Outer Rim into collaboration. She also hired smugglers to steal battle-droid and spaceship drafts from the best-known corporations."
„Wait a minute…" Ashoka interroupted „Pirates aren't famous for their loyalty. Why didn't the crew she left behind took advantage of the scientists and the metal, and built their own fleet or something?"
„Because they were afraid of her. She was a witch, who could murder with a glimpse of her eyes!"
End Flashback
At first Anakin couldn't believe this part of the story, until Obi-Wan revealed that there're rumours about a planet somewhere in the Outer Rim, where Human natives lived, who called themselves Daughters of Allya, but who knew about them, mainly refered to them simply as „witches", and it's assumable, that their „magic" is an imperfect method to use the Force. However, they've been never mentioned anywhere, safe for smuggler and pirate tales. So, if this Queen Hellrider really was a witch, she must had been one of them, corrupted by the Dark Side. Ala also told them, that a few days earlier, the „Prince" got a message, about her mother had died. „Upon hearing this, the Prince laughed, and said, that it had been time for the old bitch to kick the bucket, and he decided to go back and take over the territories she had conqured in the past decades. He also planned to attack this Galaxy, once the Republic and the CIS had had deplteted each other. However to do so, first he would have to force the Pirate Lords into electing him. And it wouldn't have been easy, as his mother gave trendemous power to her personal body-guard (who's also a witch), and she also assigned her as the new Queen. However, he forgot to check the hyperdrive before we left, and it has broken down. That's how you found us."
„It's almost ready, General. I think you can call the meeting in ten minutes." the technician replied.
„Good. I have to talk with Obi-Wan anyway." Anakin said, as turned away, and left to find his brother. Something was fishy about Ala, but for some reason only the two of them seemed to notice it. The fact that Admiral Block, Cody or the other officers onboard didn't care about it, was not a wonder. The Council's ignorance didn't surprise him either, they saw only records. But he has even spoken with the girl –she told them, that she had seen him multiple times on the Holonet News broadcasts in the past months, so she knew about him and Hellfire are doppelgangers of each other-, but that even Ashoka didn't find anything strange in the girl, made him worry. „How does a slave girl know so much? Why is she acting so different from herself from time-to-time? For instance, most time when she speaks about this „Prince" Hellrider, she rather sounds as an obsessed fan, than a slave, and if she's asked about it, she denies it, and switches back to the tone she first used. Why have I the feeling when I speak with her, that with each words she tries to manipulate me?"
At this second an explosion shook the Negotiator…
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