Chapter four

Anakin was wondering around the area that was nearest to their ship and completely covered by the canopy over head. The ground was really moist and springy under foot and he was constantly getting his foot stuck and having to stop and yank it our again. There had been nothing for miles and after a while he had decided to turn around and begin to walk back. The only life forms that he came across were some overly large, luminous orange centipedes that went around in hoards and came unnervingly close to him.

"Urgh! I hate this. What would anyone want with Felucia, anyway?"

There was a constant undertone of screeching that sounded through the forest, bouncing off the dark blue and green tree trunks and the plant ceiling above him.

Ok I've gone far enough – time to head back. Thought Anakin and he sprinted back to the ship.

Echo had been sent to go and investigate the open terrain. It was expansive and had shallow rivers running through it. She had occasionally come across a type of animal she knew as an Acklay which was a green bug with pincer legs and a white underbelly that was at least five times her height. Whenever she saw these creatures she would hide on the tree trunk that spread across the ravines hoping that they couldn't see her, the Acklay had an aggressive temperament and tended to attack and kill what ever threatened them.

She would run her hands across the upside-down bell shaped flowers that were found through out the terrain. After a while she decided to turn back, having found nothing of interest – well to her colleagues, anyway.

Once Echo returned to the ship she found Anakin lounging around in a chair in the control room.

"Took your time." He said to her as she entered.

"Well I'm sorry." she said sarcastically. "Excuse me for being able to appreciate natural beauty."

"Hey! I do appreciate beauty – just … not … that kind of beauty." He said, gesturing to the main window which displayed a perfect example of the Felucian landscape.

Some of the lights on the control panel lit up at that moment and began flashing urgently. Automatically, Anakin reached across Echo and held down the flashing button.

"It's Obi-Wan." He pressed a second button and a remarkably blurry, blue image of Obi-Wan appeared on the main screen. "Hey, master. Did you get any new information?"

"Actually I got very little. The residents are not particularly … hospitable. Keep to themselves and do not welcome strangers." Obi-Wan's image frowned.

"Well that sucks. Back to square one." Remarked Echo.

Suddenly Echo froze as a chilling presence touched her mind. She turned to see that Anakin had as well and they exchanged a concerned glance.

"Master, we feel a disturbance in the Force." Said Echo.

"I know – I feel it too." Obi-Wan's image said as he looked over his surroundings. His face turned stern and then disappeared to leave only a fuzzy blue screen and there was silence. Then came the distinct sound of Obi-Wan drawing his light sabre. Trouble. Anakin and Echo looked at each other again before he raced out of the door – Echo activated the shields before following him.

Obi-Wan turned to see a Felucian woman standing -alone- before him. She had skin a vibrant, blood red and her distinctive ear/horns were white where they joined on top of her head but as they ran down past her ears they began to be striped in blue and white. There were large white circles over her eyes that seemed to exaggerate the size of her dark eyes and she was dressed in scant armour – dressed for war. Her blue coloured light sabre was, presently, pointed to the ground and her eyes and face revealed no expression.

"Greetings. I don't believe we met earlier – I was just in the village." Said Obi-Wan with a friendly smile.

"I would prefer it if you did not disturb my people." Replied the woman - her voice expressing far more feeling than her face did.

"My apologies – I meant no harm." Obi-Wan's eyes were sincere now and there was no sign of a smile left on his face. "May I ask who you are?"

"I am Jedi Master Shaak Ti. And who might you be, young one?" Her voice was polite and cheerful though her face remained blank, cold.

Shaak Ti? Why do I recognise that name but not her face? Thought Obi-Wan. How odd that her expression should never change.

"I'm Obi-Wan Keno-"

"Obi-Wan Kenobi! You are a threat to my people!" Said Shaak Ti, she definitely appeared to recognise his name. Her stance became aggressive and she lunged at him with her light sabre.

In one stroke, Obi-Wan drew his light sabre and parried Shaak Ti's attack.

"Huh. A Jedi as well, I see. You failed to mention this. Therefore you must be treacherous!" She whipped around in the other direction to strike at Obi-Wan's neck instead. Her shots did not fail to persist and it was all Obi-Wan could do to keep up with her and neutralise every shot. Obi-Wan leapt backwards, out of the way.

"You carry a Jedi's title yet your logic is critical and you are apt to accuse anyone to be a threat with out giving conduct. And! You attacked me when every Jedi knows that our combative techniques are only ever used in defence." Obi-Wan analysed.

A wash of shock spread across Shaak Ti's face before she regained her composure. She suddenly attacked again – with increased pressure – and Obi-wan spiralled out of the way with enough force to counter her next attack as well.

"Obi-Wan!" Came a cry from his right. Anakin! Thought Obi-Wan and a smile spread across his face. Now it was two on one.

Together they began to take control of the fight; however, Shaak Ti knew the terrain better and managed to use this to her advantage. Obi-Wan and Anakin fought Shaak Ti backwards, away from their ship but she leapt back and down off a short ledge about waist deep, form there she swiped at Anakin's leg leaving a deep gash across his calf – sending him collapsing to the ground. Obi-Wan jumped over him and down the ledge himself to battle her alone.

Echo came skidding to a halt and crouched next to the fallen Anakin, she placed her arm behind his shoulders to support his weight as he clasped his leg.

"Where the … hell have you been?" he winced, looking up at her.

"The shields buggered up." Echo shrugged. She grinned at him and he groaned as she stood up letting him fall again. She stood with her hands on her hips facing the brawl between Obi-Wan and the strange Jedi. "Hey!" she shouted, and Shaak Ti turned. "Forget me?" Echo lifted her right hand and Forced her away, sending her flying into a distant rock. Obi-Wan ran back towards his padawans, leaping back up onto the ledge.

Shaak Ti shot a menacing glare towards the trio before pelting in the opposite direction. There was utter silence except for the occasional hiss from Anakin as he tried to move.

"Come on then. Let's get you back to the ship and Echo'll stitch you up again." Obi-Wan sighed, sending a smirk in Echo's direction. He took one of Anakin's arms around his own neck and lifted him to his feet as they headed back.

"Ow!"

"Hold still, you big baby. It's just cleaning fluid." Echo being the strongest medic of the three had been assigned the seemingly impossible task of mending Anakin's wound – made impossible not by the wound itself but by the patient. The strange, scarlet Jedi had caught him across the back of his left calf leaving a huge burn through his flesh. Echo and Anakin were sitting in the small main cabin at a close right angle with Anakin's left knee bent, foot resting on her lap – so that she could access the back of his leg easily.

"Ooowwww!" Anakin yelled again as Echo lightly dabbed at him with a fluid soaked cloth.

"I barely touched it!" Protested Echo. "Right, that's it I am using a local."

"Thank you." He sighed.

Echo filled a needled syringe with local anaesthetic and inserted half of it above the wound and the rest along the side of it to completely numb the area.

Anakin smirked as Echo continued to tend to his leg. "See. I don't understand why you didn't do that to start." This resulted in her stabbing him in the thigh with the handle of a scalpel in her other hand. She began to cut away the burnt flesh from the fresh skin.

"I wonder how Obi-Wan got on."

Right on cue, their master walked in from the control cabin, deep in thought.

"Well, turns out that Jedi Master Shaak Ti used to work on Coruscant but returned to her home planet – Felucia – when she began to train her padawan. Apparently she was around when I was young … but I don't remember her…" he trailed off for a bit. "In any case, they say she's harmless, really." He shrugged.

"Harmless! Yeah, completely." scoffed Anakin.

Obi-Wan chuckled. "I know. Hmm. She seemed a bit out of character, in any case… and behaved very … oddly."

"Are you suggesting possession, master?"

"Oh come on! Evil spirits? Really?" Echo couldn't believe her ears.

"Not 'evil spirits', per say, but I suspect mind tricks may be in play." ventured Obi-Wan. "Your thoughts?"

"No I don't think so. If she's a trained Jedi she wouldn't have fallen for that." said Echo. Anakin remained silent.

"It's possible if she were particularly vulnerable. She lives at home so she could have been through trauma … with a parent, possibly? I think we need more information. Dilemma being that I'd be recognised in the village now and we need to keep a low profile and appear detached." He looked meaningfully at Echo.

"I'll go if you wish, master." She smiled as she stitched up the outside of the wound.

"Good. We had better get a move on – I feel that we are running out of time. Anakin, you best stay here and I will go looking for trouble elsewhere. We need to find these droids."

"Done." said Echo, proudly.

"Finally!" Anakin teased, grinning at Echo.

"Do you wanna do it yourself next time?" asked Echo disapprovingly,

Obi-Wan shook his head.

"Come on, let's start moving."

The village was tiny and relatively quiet with only a few residents slinking around, hunched over and watching the treacherous ground below their feet. There was very minimal light and the atmosphere was thick and hazy. The village felt like it had been built into the ground and cut in levels; in each level there appeared to be buildings – homes, stores – etched into the jet coloured earth and there were dark wooden doors lined along the edges leading to god knows how much more.

Echo made her way to a tavern to find more information – as instructed by Obi-Wan – and found that it was even darker inside. All the furniture was made of a strange wood – the same colour as the earth walls – and it was meekly lit up by the occasional lantern. The room was small yet it seemed that almost the entire village was in there, drinking away their concerns. There was a long bar against the opposite wall and Echo slowly made her way towards it, taking caution towards the people and conversations around her.

"What'll it be, eh?" asked the stocky barman who's pale skin appeared luminous against the black background.

"Kanarwel salts and soda, thanks." Echo replied from within her hood. The barman raised his eyebrows and turned away as Echo sat up on an old stool and leant her elbows on the bar.

"Make that two." Came a voice from her right. What the… Thought Echo as she glanced around the edge of her of her hood – it was the scarlet attacker from before! Echo bowed her head more, tilted to the side a bit and nodded her head slightly, in acknowledgment of her gesture.

"You know, I know who you are." said Shaak Ti.

Shit. Thought Echo.

"And I can probably venture a guess as to your reasons for being on Felucia, but … why are you still here?" she continued.

Echo took a long sip from her glass when it was placed in front of her then muttered: "Needs more salt."

"A girl of many words I see." Shaak Ti smiled. "It appears that we have … got off to a bad start – as they say." The corners of her mouth dropped. "I did what I did to defend my people."

"I understand."

"Look, I want to help you – truly. I know what you're looking for and I intend to help you get to it."

"Why should I listen to anything you say?"

"Because anything I have to say could greatly help that overly aggressive 'master' of yours and what ever plans he has been thinking up."

"Don't talk about him like that – you clearly know nothing about him – he's a great man and a brilliant master! In any case, I heard that you are a 'master' yourself but I see no padawan here by your side." Echo glared at the table in the long silence that followed. After a while, Shaak Ti spoke again:

"You are … right." Her reply was shaky and in a higher pitch than before. "I did have a padawan of my own. I trained her here, in fact. She was so talented – a real gem – but … she was killed when a rancor started a rampage on the area … it was all my fault."

She fell silent again - her whole body trembling at the memory.
"There, there." Echo turned to face her and placed her hand on hers, comfortingly. "Fate works in strange ways - I am sure that if you could have done something then you would have. Therefore it is not your fault."
Shaak Ti looked up at Echo. Her hood was now down and had released her dark pony-tail which was cascading over her shoulder; the braid that identified her as a padawan was not tied into the pony-tail but ran along side it. Her eyes were gentle and the dark shade of blue seemed to calm her - if only a little. Shaak Ti smiled meekly.
"Thank you, my dear. You are the second kind stranger to comfort me so."
"Really? Who was the first?"
"A machined being with a harsh voice but … comforting words. If it were not for him I would still be mourning."
"Machined?" muttered Echo. "Do you know who it was?"
"I ... didn't catch his name."
"Hmm... I am sorry to ask you this but ... when exactly did your apprentice die?"
"Not a month ago."

"And when did this stranger show up?"

"A few days later, about … three weeks ago." Shaak Ti looked a little confused.

Then we may have our culprit. Thought Echo. "I am truly sorry for your loss but I must leave you and return to my master – I have been gone for some time."

"Of course, I understand, and thank you for your kind words, my friend." Shaak Ti gave a smile, which Echo returned before she bowed and left."

Anakin was sitting in the control cabin – in case he was contacted by his companions – completely bored and swivelling on his chair. There had been nothing for three hours now and it was frustrating for him to know that the other two were off being useful whilst he just sat there … alone … doing nothing. Sometimes he would practice walking around on his lame leg – it was beginning to improve. He found that he could hobble quite quickly – he was lucky that the muscle wasn't damaged – and wasn't too painful as Echo had bandaged it up tightly. Though it did sting like hell.

He was about to get up and walk again when Echo burst in.

"Hey." He said cheerily.

"Hi. Um… is Obi-Wan back yet?"

"Nope, he's been gone all morning. It's just you and me."

"Ok, I'll wait then." She sat down next to Anakin, staring blankly at the floor but, almost immediately, stood up again to look out of the window. Then returned to her seat.

"Echo?"

"Hmm?" she looked at him.

"What's wrong?"

"I think I have a lead."

"Ok so it's kinda important." said Anakin, eye brows raised. He span around on the chair to access the control panel behind him and held down one of the large white buttons. "I'm not getting any signal from him."

"Try widening the range. He has to be there somewhere."

"Still nothing. How far could he get in one day?"

"Further than we can with that leg of yours."

"Then we'd better get going." He grinned.

Once he had gotten out form under the forest canopy, Obi-Wan decided to follow one of the shallow streams that crossed his path, considering from his judgement that any sensible settlement would be based near a water supply – no matter how small. He hadn't been going for long before he heard a speeder coming towards him. He ran to the side to hide behind one of the gigantic plants. Form his hiding spot he could see an assassin droid racing down the stream – and it was alone.

Must be a scout.He thought.We're a little closer than I'd thought.

The second the droid had sped past him, Obi-Wan leapt on to the speeder – behind the droid – and decapitated it in one swipe.

"Well to find the den I must follow the tracks." He said to himself. With his new mode of transport – the droid speeder – he sped back the way the droid had come.

As he followed the stream, Obi-Wan came across more and more droids; some small groups of super battle droids but mostly it was only the occasional scout. After a while he found that the plants began to close in around him and orientated around a huge tree trunk that loomed into his vision on his right. The droids seemed to be coming from the tree so he stopped the speeder and hid amongst a clump of plants as he neared the tree trunk. The trunk had been dead for a long time and had been neatly plateaued off to create a platform about thirty feet off the ground. There were droids in the area but not loads of them – it clearly wasn't a permanent spot.

There were about half a dozen immensely thick roots protruding form the trunk so when there were no droids marching past, Obi-Wan sprinted across to the nearest one and climbed up to the top.

I think I've found my base. Thought Obi-Wan as he looked over the top of the root he had climbed and watched as battalions of droids marched out of an entrance in the base of the platform. But what are they doing here?

"Hey!" Came a robotic voice next to him, whilst it pointed a rifle to his head.

Whoops. Thought Obi-Wan. He grabbed the rifle and pulled the droid off the platform behind him as he slid back down the root and sprinted back under the cover of the plants. Too late. The fall of the droid had brought his presence to the attention of the nearby droids as well and a few of them began to follow him. Once far enough away from the base he decapitated them and ran back for the speeder and headed back to the ship.

"I need to report back to the Council before this goes any further."

"Come on, can't you walk – sorry limp – a little faster?" Echo called back to Anakin, but the only reaction she received was him aiming a stone at her head. "Didn't think so." She said to herself. They had just reached a stream after wondering around in the forest-like terrain for ages.

"Wait, Echo. I think- "

"We can't stop again, Anakin. You're gunna have to man up and- "

"Echo! I can hear something."

"What?"

"Not … sure. It's motorised. Coming from behind you."

"I hear it." She fell to a whisper. "Get down. It could be a droid scout or something."

They hid just away from the edge of the stream and waited as the sound got louder and louder – approaching them.

Echo mouthed to Anakin: Stay there and ran further up the stream – still under cover – until she could just about see the speeder racing down the stream. Her eyes lit up and she walked into the water.

"Obi-Wan!"

"Echo!" He slowed down as he neared her and came to a stop in front of her.

"We came looking for you – I think I have a lead."

"Brilliant. I found a base. Wait, we? You brought Anakin hobbling along?" he grinned at her.

"Hey!" Anakin's voice came from behind them, very faintly, and they both laughed.

"Tell me about your lead."

"Well I ran into Shaak Ti and she was talking about a 'machined being' so I was thinking the Skakoan called Wat Tambor 'cos he was rumoured to be working with Count Dooku."

"Good theory but I didn't see any of his trademark technology. You spoke to Shaak Ti? Can we trust her?"

"Not really sure, but you know we were talking about how she could have been imprisoned by a Jedi mind trick – but only if she was mentally depressed? Well, she has recently lost her padawan to a rancor and she took that really hard – blaming herself and so forth – and she said that this 'being' spoke to her soon after."

Obi-Wan chuckled once. "You have done very well, my padawan. I am impressed that you managed to get all that."

"It's a woman's touch, master" Echo grinned back at him very proudly.

"Well their base is small but I do not think that we can- "

"Argh!" cried Anakin from behind them.

"Anakin?" Turned to see him lying in the water some way behind her. "What are you doing?" She began to walk back towards him but a super battle droid came out from the left on the other side of Anakin who hadn't moved. She ran towards it and deflected one of its shots towards it – using her light sabre – destroying it instantly. "Where'd that come from?"

"Anakin, can you hear me?" Obi-Wan was now crouched over Anakin – who was still not moving.

"Anakin?" Echo sounded very worried and started to walk towards the pair but span around again when hearing something coming through the trees. "Master?" she said as she backed away from the droid that was rolling out of the trees towards her. It stopped, stood and activated a shield around itself.

"Its' a destroyer, Echo! Get away from it quickly now!" shouted Obi-Wan.

No matter how many shots she deflected back at the droid Echo did not inflict any damage but managed to defend herself and her companions until a rouge beam hit her from another direction, knocking her out completely.

Crap, what now? Thought Obi-Wan, as he was surrounded by a dozen or more of these droids. "I surrender?" he said and raised his arms but the Droideka shot him anyway, leaving all three of them lying there, unmoving.

A/N like it? Please tell me by pressing the magic button ... pwitty please?