So, one of the cable channels showed 'A Life Less Ordinary' last night, and I forgot just how funny that movie is. Old EM is so adorably charming, one of my favorite scenes is when he and CD are in the phone booth and he just can't get the ransom demand right! Really lovely! If you are an EM fan and you haven't seen it I recommend you take a gander.

(Sincere apologies for the bad Maori! But I thought I'd give it a try!)

Anyhoo, on with the story, now where were we…

" I will be back and they will have their freedom from his destructive plans." He said this with such conviction that Kenobi could only nod in acceptance. The man truly believed what he said and there was no warning of deception through the force coming from him, only his passion to his cause.

If Kenobi was going to defeat Maul he would need help. Whenever they met, Maul always managed to have the upper hand, whether mentally or physically. He still felt he couldn't return to the Jedi Temple, they would spend weeks testing him for his loyalty and even then there was no guarantee they would even act on any information he gave them if they had any doubts about him. Yoda on his side was one thing, but he would have needed the whole Council on board to take any decisive action. Perhaps this was all his own insecurities talking, but the Temple was no place for him.

Dooku might be more sympathetic to his situation, his master had always spoken fondly of him and the force around Kenobi grew warm and as close to comforting as he had felt over the last few hours now that his thoughts were moved to seeking out the Count. No one had heard from the master in many years, not since before Qui-Gons death. He was considered one of the missing twenty and Kenobi certainly hadn't thought about him in a long time.

The whole complex suddenly rang with claxons and the lighting went from brilliant white to glaring red as security lights began flashing.

"Boba, get it going!" yelled Jango into his wrist comm. and Kenobi noticed the ship rotating.

"Let's go!" cried Jango and he grabbed Kenobi's nearest numbed limb, his right arm, and pulled him outside. Once in motion, Kenobi followed out to the ship, his bare feet slapping along on the rain soaked floor outside. Both he and Jango were completely soaked by the time they reached the ship and they ran up the ramp which was already retracting. As the hatch closed it rammed into the top of Kenobi's shoulder and he went sprawling into the ship.

"Sorry!" came a boy's voice from the front of the ship. "It's still a bit sticky and slams when wet."

Kenobi got to his feet rubbing his shoulder.

"Next time, I'll get on first," said Kenobi to Jango as he helped him to the cockpit. Blaster fire suddenly ran out at them from the security turrets placed around the landing platform.

"Er, dad?" questioned the boy, but Jango just got next to him and indicated a chair for Kenobi.

"Just get us out of here, Boba."

The lad skillfully maneuvered the craft between the blaster turrets as the ship ascended into the storm clouds, and Kenobi felt his stomach lurch as the ship suddenly shot up out of the atmosphere to break from the planets gravitational pull.

"Oh, I really hate flying!" he said as he finally managed to pull his harness closed tight around his body and settled deeper into his seat, eye clenched shut.

Jango punched in the hyperdrive coordinates and the swirl of hyperspace enveloped the ship.

"Good work, son," said Jango and he clapped the lad on the shoulder. Boba beamed with pride over his shoulder and then glared at their passenger.

"Who is he, Dad?" he asked as Kenobi shook off his nausea. A thought came to his mind, a name one of his fellow younglings had used for him when Obi-wan had proved too difficult for her to annunciate.

"I'm Ben," he said hoarsely. "Just watch where you're flying."

"It's hyperspace, stupid, the ship flies itself!" said Boba smugly.

"Boba," reproached Jango, "Ben is our guest,"

The boy turned to the ships controls and huffed.

"We can talk in the back," Jango said, indicating the back of the ship, "and I have your uniform back there."

"No thanks," said Kenobi, remembering the containment cell he'd been placed in to get to Kamino, and although he wanted to get out of the wet PJs he wasn't ready to put his old clothes back on just yet. He knew he would need to change soon, he was starting to feel cold in the cockpit, but it gave him an alertness that the dry, warm clothes would seep out of him once he felt their warm familiar embrace. "I think we can stay here to have our little 'chat'."

"Suit yourself," said Jango. "Boba, puta tatou ehinu kai."

"Otira Papa –"

"Boba! Puta tatou ehinu kai, no naia nei!"

The boy slouched out of his chair and into the galley. Jango hopped into the vacated pilot's seat and checked the readings.

"OK, then," he said, turning the chair to face Kenobi. "We're headed to Geonosis. Once I realized Maul's plans for you I used my contacts to find Dooku and from all reports, that was the last place he was spotted."

"What do you mean 'once you realized Maul's plans for me'? You didn't know why he wanted me?"

"Why should I? Maul trusts no one, and gives us underlings as little information as he can. I thought he just wanted revenge on you for surviving the encounter on the hangar deck thanks to that other Jedi. But it was clear that wasn't his plan at all, he wanted you on his side. It was the only explanation for his indulgence of your wishes over the boy."

Kenobi remembered the scene inside the hangar and Jango's part in it.

"Remind me to repay you for my friend's treatmen," he spat at the bounty hunter.

Jango just scoffed.

"Please!" he exclaimed, "you really think my intervention would have resulted in anything but my own painful death? I even tried to put the poor lad out of his misery, but Maul prevented that. The boy has to live with the mental and physical scars of that encounter. Think on that for a moment."

/Dear Nawe!/ Kenobi thought of the joyous, enthusiastic kid he had known, the realization that that lad was no more and a very changed man would emerge from such a trial.

"He's young and strong, he'll survive," said Kenobi, not looking at Jango and saying the words to convince himself rather than anyone else. "What could possibly lead you to work for such a man as Maul?" asked Kenobi, wanting to know the motivations behind this man's actions.

Jango simply replied by looking lovingly to the galley, causing Kenobi to raise his eyebrows in surprise.

"Your son?" he asked.

Jango turned to him and Kenobi saw the genuine affection in the man's eyes.

"When offered so much, how could any man refuse?"

"Maul gave you a son?" then realization set in, "He's one of the clones!"