As Tenel Ka pulled up to the safe house she was immediately on edge. Something didn't feel right in the Force. She drove by the residence slowly, but did not stop. She had decided to move to safe house two when she heard shots ringing out and blaster fire ricocheted off the roof and side door panels. Allana called out in alarm and, like most children without a clear sense of danger, immediately went to look out the window to see what was happening. Tenel Ka pulled her away from the side window. The transparisteel was blaster resistant, but not guaranteed to stop every weapon.

"Get down," Tenel Ka yelled over the din of blaster fire. She stepped on the accelerator and sped off at a high rate of speed. She thought she was out of the kill zone when a high power blasterbolt hit the speeder with such force it took out the entire engine block and knocked the vehicle upside down.

The impact was violent and she was momentarily stunned as she hung upside down in her webbing restraints. Her head hurt and she could feel blood trickle from her forehead where it smacked the side window. She could here Allana crying. "Shhh," the Queen Mother said as she unbuckled her daughter and used the Force to lower the child out of her seat. "We have to get out of here," Tenel Ka said as she unstrapped herself from her seat restraints. "Are you hurt?"

The little redheaded girl shook her head as tears streamed down her face. Tenel Ka reached out for her daughter. "Come here, we are going to have to make a run for it, but first it is time to call in back-up." She pressed a series of buttons on her wrist chrono that would send her location and an emergency call for help to an elite group of soldiers within her military. She was always reluctant to call for assistance because she never knew who she could trust, but the situation was dire. As soon as she was sure the distress call was transmitting she turned to her daughter. "You ready?"

The child nodded and followed her mother as she opened the driver's door and they crawled out. Blaster fire rained down on them, but they were partially protected from the overturned speeder. 'Until they decide to use the big gun again' Tenel Ka thought glumly. She knew portable weapons of that size needed time to power back up, but it should be ready to make the killing blow within a minute or two. They needed to leave now.

She popped up from the speeder with ignited lightsaber in hand and started deflecting the weapons fire. "Get behind me, Allana." The little girl obeyed. Tenel Ka took her eyes off the shooters for a split second to check the alley behind her. She was relieved that it wasn't blocked off, but went to another side street. "We are going to go down that alley. When I give the word I want you to run."

"Okay mommy," the frightened child was trying to sound brave, but her mother could feel her underlying fear. She continued to block the blaster bolts and was successful in redirecting them back to the shooters. She heard one cry out from the rooftop. The second shooter must have ducked down for cover because he stopped shooting momentarily. "Now, run."

Allana broke out in a sprint down the alley followed closely behind by her mother who was still blocking blaster fire from the rear. She couldn't believe the police hadn't been called yet. The safe house was in a nice neighborhood, not the place where law enforcement would fear to tread.

Tenel Ka felt a flash of danger through the Force she spun around to where her daughter was running just in time to see a dark figure raise up from behind a dumpster and discharge a blaster point blank at the little girl. Allana screamed out and crumbled to the ground. "No!" the Queen cried out as she deflected two more blasterbolts from the shooter before she spun her saber down on him disconnecting his head from his body. The head tumbled into the dumpster before his body slouched to the ground in a heap. Tenel Ka immediately turned her attention to her daughter. "Allana, talk to me," she begged as tears ran down her cheek. The young girl groaned as he eyes fluttered open. "Mom…"

Tenel Ka put pressure on the wound site to stop the flow of blood. "Yes, Honey."

"I need a lightsaber of my own if this keeps up."

Tenel Ka couldn't help but give a relieved laugh. If Allana was cognizant enough to joke then she probably would pull through. The distinctive engine drone of a modified Armored Personnel Carrier could be heard overhead along with the whine of police sirens in the distance. Suddenly the ground trembled as five large men in Void Jumper armor and jet packs landed around her and Allana.

"Rodders, Jenkins sweep up the alley," a large man with officer rank barked out commands then turned to the other two soldiers. "You two secure this side."

Above them there was the deafening roar of the APC's double blaster cannons firing at an unknown target in the distance. The Officer bent down next to the Queen and her daughter. He pushed a button on the side of his helmet raising his face shield. A middle aged man with a weathered face but with kind eyes looked down at the injured child. "It doesn't look like any vitals were hit." He glanced up to Tenel Ka and gave her a disapproving look. "You should have called us in immediately!" He shook his head in frustration as he keyed his comm. "Get ready for hot extractions. Have the medic prepped. We have injured." He stood and called out to his men. "Rodders, get the Queen out of here."

Tenel Ka scooped Allana up in her arms and held her out to the soldier. "Commander Tavik get her to safety."

"I will guard her with my life," the senior officer said as he gently took Allana in his arms and without preamble fired his backpack boosters and shot up in the air. Tenel Ka watched as her daughter disappear into the night sky when a pair of armored arms wrapped around her waist. "I apologize for touching your highness, but we need to leave," the void jumper said before activating his rocket pack and propelling them both upward, hopefully to safety.

.

.

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Jedi Temple: Coruscant

Jacen anxiously waited for Tenel Ka to call him back to let him know she and Allana had made it to the safe house unharmed. It had been hours with no word. He hadn't slept since he was informed of the assassination attempt and he knew there was no way he would sleep until he knew they were out of harm's way. He decided he would meditate and try to reach her through the Force, to touch her presence and hopefully find out what happened.

He sat on the floor, legs crossed and with his hands on his knees. He took a couple soothing breaths before he let himself drop deep into a meditative state. He reached out searching for answers but could not feel Tenel Ka or Allana. That was not unexpected. They were located across the galaxy from each other.

He fell deeper into the flow of the Force and felt his mind flowing, moving –whether it was into the future or the past he did not know. He learned flow-walking from the Aing-Tii Monks during his journey of discovery, but he wasn't flow-walking right now. He was being pulled somewhere, somewhere dark and grim. The blackness of his mind's eye lifted momentarily and he caught a glimpse of a large throne where a small figure sat. Jacen could not see the person's features but the size and frame led him to believe it was a small girl. From under the upraised cowl flowed long reddish gold hair.

Jacen reached out toward the girl. "Allana?"

The child didn't appear to see or hear him. Jacen was startled when he saw fearsome tentacles slither up and around the base of the throne. The small child stood and walked away from her chair before the tentacles engulfed the seat of power. From behind the throne two large humanoid creatures appeared and each placed a foot upon the withering tentacles. They were of a species unfamiliar to Jacen, but they were terrifying in appearance. Both were muscular, covered with tattoos and with faces horribly disfigured and scared; their heads were hairless, missing the cartilage of their noses and lacking lips making them look like living skulls. The two humanoids raised what looked like fighting staffs before they made a grisly, soul shaking shriek of anger.

The sound jarred Jacen out of his trance. He was sitting on the floor of his quarters shaken and sweating profusely. He needed to get back and find out if that was his daughter. He tried to drop down back into the flow of the Force but he was having difficulty doing so with his heart pounding.

He took deep calming breaths and used the Force to quiet his racing heart. He decided to try to contact his wife and daughter again...to reach across the galaxy and touch them so he would know they were alive. He closed his eyes and extended his Force senses out searching. Eventually he felt a presence approach, but it was not his wife or daughter. Some other Force-strong presence was now in his room.

He opened his eyes only to see his Grandfather, Darth Vader, looking down at him. The Dark Lord's chest rose and fell silently. There was no rasp of the ventilator that his mother and Uncle Luke often described. Jacen wasn't sure if he was dreaming, hallucinating or having a Force vision, but he wasn't taking any chances. He quickly stood and dived across his bed where his lightsaber was sitting on an end table.

"Stop," the figure commanded in a low bellowing voice. "I am not here to hurt you, but to warn you."

Jacen disregarded the words and ignited his lightsaber the light of his green blade bounced off the bed chamber walls. The figure in front of him did not react, but shimmered like a bad holorecording before it transformed to the image of Anakin Skywalker. He was young with light brown shoulder length hair and wearing full Jedi robes. "I would have initially shown myself as I appear now, but did not believe you would recognize me."

Jacen kept his saber at on guard position. "What do you want?"

The image gave a warm smile. "I am here to warn you. There will be an assassination attempt on the Queen Mother of Hapes and her daughter."

Jacen gave a caustic laugh. "You are a little late for that warning, Grandfather." He dragged out that last word with a sarcastic edge. "My wife and daughter were already attacked and escaped."

Anakin Skywalker's brow furrowed looking confused. His mouth opened and then closed again. His eyes narrowed and gave Jacen a questioning look before he spoke again. "This is a different attack. An attack that has yet to occur, Your…wife and child…are in great danger."

Jacen shook his head. "Their lives are always in great danger. I can see being one with the Force gives you a great grasp of the obvious."

The image of the former Jedi turned Sith Lord actually looked perplexed. "Jacen, the future attack will succeed unless you do something about it. You need to protect your family."

Jacen turned off his saber so he could hear the man better. He could not sense in the Force anybody physically within the room, therefore he was certain this was either a vision or an apparition. "Go on."

A slight smile crossed Anakin's face. "Go to the planet Lorrd in the Kanz sector. There you will meet one I trained long ago."

Jacen looked at him suspiciously. "Someone you trained as a Jedi or as a Sith?"

"She is a Former Emperor's Hand, but she no longer serves the darkside…although Ta'a Chume is not aware of that when she was approached to kill your family. She wants to give the information to you. Go to Lorrd City and she will find you."

Jacen shook his head. "This sounds very suspicious and convenient. My redeemed Sith grandfather shows up to tell me to meet up with another Sith because she wants to do a good deed. And there are only a few Emperor's Hands. I doubt you are talking about my Aunt Mara…so I assume you are referring to Lumiya."

"Yes," the words came out slowly. "If she came to you without announcement you would attempt to kill her on sight…and then your wife and daughter would die. You have a duty to your family. Don't fail as I once did." The image of Anakin Skywalker shimmered and then faded from the room.

Jacen knew it was a trap. He knew it with every fiber in his being, but if there was some credence in the story he owed it to Tenel Ka and Allana to find out what this new threat was. He definitely wasn't helping his family's defense by sitting in a room and meditating.

He was going to Lorrd.