WARNING: Chapter has some dark references to rape!

Chapter Twenty-Five: Threat on the Coronet

I remembered everything about the day Death Watch had attacked the transport. The rattling of the ship beneath my boots-sand so far imbedded into them, I'd long since given up trying to get it out. The deep booms that echoed down the halls as the attacking ship pried open our access hatches.

Screams tore through the air when we lost pressure, creatures and droids being sucked out into space. I'd been lucky enough to be within a part of the ship that had safety latches close. I grabbed a young Rodian boy-a slave, like myself- and pulled him into a supply closet. Jabba's minions were swarming around, trying to defend against the force that had already crippled our engines.

It was a surprise attack. I'd been on the bridge with the trip's leader-a surly Weequay with a bad attitude-translating between him and our Bothan contact. The proximity alarms were high-pitched and deafening. By the time they went off, though, it was already too late. The transport shit Jabba had provided for us was far from battle-ready, preferring swift movement and stealth over cannons and shields.

We were doomed from the start.

The young Rodian boy clutched at my waist as we cowered in the supply closet together. I wasn't sure what to do. Jabba had tracers on all his ships, but would that be enough? If the beacon died, his search party may not find us. Or perhaps, despite how much he claimed to value me, maybe the resources needed for my rescue weren't profitable. I considered staying hidden, hoping that we wouldn't be found. But what if the ship was destroyed? Maybe death was better than whatever tortures the attackers had planned.

Looking back, maybe it would have been.

Warriors dressed in the dark Death Watch armor hadn't given me any ability to choose my fate, ripping open the closet door and dragging us both out. The Rodian boy was beaten for wailing, having not yet learned to take the punishments without opening his mouth. He was young, used for grunt work in the kitchens in Jabba's palace. Jabba had sent him along to try and get him more accustomed to the life of a slave.

For his sake, I hoped he learned fast.

A man appeared where we were all held in the hallway, strewn with the sparking remains of the defensive droids. There were some bodies, too, but I chose not to look at them. Chose not to feel. What were slavers' lives to me? Still, I knew if I looked, I'd either betray myself with tears, or tremble in fear.

I prefered to do neither.

The man that entered the hall, peering at us all through his dark visor, was certainly in charge of the militant group. They spoke in a harsh tongue to each other, my language-keen ears recognizing some of the sounds. I'd rarely ever heard it, since the man I'd heard it from rarely ever spoke. There was a man in armor that nearly resembled those of the warriors before me. Jango Fett. He was a renowned bounty hunter, often running jobs for Jabba, who respected him greatly. He usually spoke the common tongue, and when he did, it was brief and to the point.

But once, while scuttling about in the darkness of the back halls, I'd rushed around a corner and slammed into the hard panelling of his knee braces. Slapping backwards, he almost looked like he was about to reach for me and help me up. He stopped himself. Whether it was out of a sense of superiority or the knowledge that Jabba allowed no one to touch me, I couldn't say. Nor did I really care. His emotionless mask, strong posture, and spotless track record of bringing in bloodied bounties made me wary of him.

He mumbled something to the open air, his voice modulated through his helmet, but it certainly wasn't common. I didn't know what he said for years, later piecing it together to be something along the lines of "damned kids running around everywhere" and "watch where you're going."

At the time, though, I couldn't understand an ounce of Mando'a. But I'd pick it up quickly after being dragged aboard the Mandalorians' ship, the group dividing those of us that remained.

"You," a male voice said, the figure approaching and gripping my chin harshly in his hand. "How old are you?"

"Thirteen," I answered immediately, mentally slapping myself. I wished I wasn't fed well at Jabba's for a moment. Wished I looked like I did when I was a street urchin, or even back when I was with the Zygerrians. I was waif-like. Small. I could pass off as younger then.

The warrior hummed within his mask. "Tell me, girl," he chuckled. "Have you bled yet?"

Thinking clearer now, I feigned confused innocence at his question. We all did. None of us aboard Jabba's transport were pleasure slaves, apart from the three that were being delivered to our Bothan contact. But we would be, we all came to realize in that single moment.

"They'll make do," the leader sighed as he walked by, shoving my head down as he walked by. He went on to sort us between slaves they'd keep for their own means, whether it was pleasure, labor, or sadistic means. The rest were to be turned around and sold to fund their cause...whatever that was at the time.

The moon they brought us to was chilly and rocky, but also blossoming with newfound life. Their camp was made of tents and unused ships. I wanted to escape on one for some time. But for the first time in my life, it didn't take long for me to break.

"Don't I know you?"

His voice was like ice sliding under my skin, my hair rising on the back of my neck. I didn't respond, trying to keep my focus on saving the duchess, Merrik, however, saw me clench, smiling deviously.

"You do, actually," he said with a smirk, glancing at Vizsla's hologram. "This girl is Kida Fett. She claims to have been enslaved at your camp once, years ago."

"Fett?" Vizsla seemed surprised, his helmet tilting to look at me closer. "I wasn't aware that he had a daughter. If he did, I didn't have her here."

No one responded, Merrik chuckling darkly. "She seems to know you very well," he implied, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

I did my best not to tremble as Satine struggled. "Stop it," she pleaded with as much fierceness as she could muster. "You monster!"

Vizsla hummed from his hologram as I silently willed Obi-wan to move his ass faster and get here. "You're not a legitimate child, are you?" I didn't answer, of course, still staring down Merrik. "No," he surmised, chuckling as it likely started to click for him. "You were that girl he took as payment from us, weren't you?" He snapped his fingers, remembering now. "The translator from the Hutt's ship. Or should I say," he laughed now, my eyes averting from Satine's pitiful gaze. "Pleasure slave."

"If you're trying to get a rise out of me, it won't work," I warned, forcing myself to look back at Merrik and steady my shaking hands.

"No," Vizsla teased, clearly enjoying the discomfort he was causing. "I know how to get a rise out of you, don't I?" he implied, my stomach twisting. "Do you remember?"

"Let her go, Merrik," I said, still ignoring the hologram. "Before I lose my patience and shoot you."

"A bounty hunter, now?" Vizsla continued. "Look how far you've come. Though, unfortunate end for your father, no?" His hologram turned to follow me as I moved opposite of Merrik's walk across the bridge. "I do recognize you now," he admitted, his helmet tilting. "I recognize the mark I left." He dragged his gloved finger down the side of his helmet, mirroring my scar that marked my cheekbone. "You've certainly grown," he mocked, still trying to get me to lose focus and let Merrik go. "I'd like to see you again. Maybe I'll ask Merrik to bring you with the duchess. I miss those nights where you'd be so silent. Such a good slave. Until I pushed you so far that you'd fight back. Your fire. How you would-"

I shot the hologram console with one of my pistols, anger boiling in me enough that I was shaking. "Last chance," I growled as Vizsla's image faded. Something inside me told me that if I released all the anger bubbling inside me, I could shake the room. Maybe even shatter the windows.

I kept it inside me. For now.

The door hissed open behind me, the sound of a lightsaber igniting as Obi-wan entered.

"Come in, Kenobi," Merrik said with a smirk, officially ignoring me. "You're expected." Satine started in her struggling again, her face a mixture of fear, determination, and sadness as what she'd heard Vizsla say. I didn't want her pity. I'd dealt with everything I'd been through under Death Watch.

At least, I thought I had.

"Tal Merrik," Obi-wan said smoothly, unknowing about what had happened in the room. "You are under arrest. Release the duchess."

"You know," Merrik mocked. "Your little bounty hunter didn't even offer arrest. She just wanted to shoot me."

Despite Obi-wan's look, I growled, still fighting my unbridled anger. "For good reason."

"I took the precaution of wiring the ship's engines to explode," the traitorous senator explained, drawing a trigger mechanism from beneath his cloak. "I press this remote, and we all die."

"Obi," Satine spoke now. "If you have any respect for me, you will not take such risks with so many people's lives at stake."

Merrik smirked, but I only rolled my eyes. What kind of request was that? Obviously we were going to save everyone. Even if that meant I had to shoot through her.

Of course, Obi-wan may not have felt the same way.

"Satine," he breathed, his brow furrowing as Merrik forced Satine to move towards the door. "Don't."

We followed the senator and his hostage through the halls, our weapons at the ready for whenever he would take a wrong step. "I suppose we can safely say that the Death Watch is backed by the Separatists now," I mused, hearing the sounds of battle coming from somewhere on the ship.

"Our influence is more widespread than ever," Merrik stated smugly. "Everything has already begun. It's too late."

"You're going to be sadly mistaken," Obi-wan rebutted. Despite his confident words, I could feel the anxiety rippling off of him. Similarly, he could feel my festering anger...and how badly I wanted to shoot something. "What happened?" he muttered, knowing that I was feeling him prod at my mental wall.

"Later," I responded curtly, rounding the corner after them.

"This is Merrik," the senator said into his wrist comm, backing towards a Seperatist boarding ship that had crashed into the side of the hallway. "Standby to disengage." He smirked between Obi-wan and Satine. "Say farewell, Duchess."

"Obi-wan," Satine said breathlessly, my eyebrows raising as a wave of desperate sincerity rose from her. "It looks like I may never see you again. I don't quite know how to say this, but...I've loved you from the moment you came to my aid, all those years ago."

Merrik and I shared the same expression of shock, perhaps mixed with a mildly amused exasperation. "I don't believe this," the senator said with a roll of his eyes.

"Satine." Obi-wan was flustered. Shocked. "This is hardly the time or place for-" his voice cut off under her earnest gaze. "Alright," he sighed, catching me by surprise as sadness rippled from him in the force. "Had you said the word, I would've left the Jedi Order."

"That is touching," Merrik mocked. "Truly it is. But it's making me sick, and we really must be going."

Satine scoffed. "You have the romantic soul of a slug, Merrik!" Finally, she did something, slamming her heel onto his toe and twisting away, grabbing his blaster as she did. "And slugs are so often trod upon."

I lifted my brows at her. I liked her ferocity, but I admitted that it took her long enough to do something. I wondered for a moment if her confession was a plan to rattle Merrik enough for her escape. Maybe it was, but it didn't change the fact that her words had been genuine.

As had Kenobi's…

"Interesting turnabout," Merrik chuckled, looking at all the weapons trained on him. "But even if I do not deliver the duchess alive to the Separatists, I still win. The second I'm away, I'll hit the remote and blow the Coronet to bits!"

"I will not allow that!" Despite the surety in her words, Satine couldn't keep her hands from shaking around the blaster.

"What will you do?" Merrik teased. "If you shoot me, you prove yourself a hypocrite to every pacifist ideal you hold dear. And you, Kenobi," he said, looking between the jedi and I. "You and your lacky are no strangers to violence. Either of you would be hailed as a hero by everyone on this ship." His eyes cut to Satine. "Almost everyone." The senator chuckled, Obi-wan raising his hand to lower my blasters gently.

"What are you doing?" I whispered harshly. I knew it was because he valued what Satine thought. As per my usual demeanor, I really didn't give a damn.

"Come on, then," Merrik asked. "Who'll strike first and brand themselves a cold-blooded killer?"

Satine still shook, Obi-wan looking unsure of how he wanted to act. I rolled my eyes, stepping sideways, and lifted my pistol. A quick squeeze of the trigger left Merrik with a smoking hole in his chest, the man falling to the ground.

Anakin had entered, ready to take out the senator as well. Instead, he scooped down and swept up the falling detonator. "Good timing, Kida," he smirked at me.

"Kida," Obi-wan said my name again, more disappointed sounding than Anakin.

I shrugged at him. "He was going to blow up the ship. And you might care what the duchess thinks of you, but I really don't." I glanced at her, seeing her throw the blaster away from her like it was vile. "And she knows I worked on my own decision, not yours."

"Obi-wan," Satine said gently, approaching the jedi. I stepped away to be beside Anakin, returning his small smile. "I-" she was cut off as Cody entered the room.

"General Skywalker," he said, giving me a nod. "The last of the droids have been defeated, sir."

"Very good, Cody," Anakin responded, glancing at me before looking back at Kenobi and Satine.

The duchess raised her head, turning away from our jedi friend. "I must get back to the business of diplomacy."

"As you say, Duchess," Obi-wan said with a bow. "Another time," he added, his voice lower. Sadder.

He walked by us with a nod, his expression slightly worried as it passed me. I understood why. He'd confessed love. Confessed a wanting to leave the order. And I was the only person not directly involved who came out of the confession alive.

Still, his secret was safe with me. He was keeping mine, after all.

"It looks like I missed all of the fun," I mused as I walked beside Anakin, feeling the ship shift into hyperspace again. It wouldn't be long until we made it to Coruscant now.

"You did," Anakin chuckled, giving me a smile. "But there will be plenty more in this war." I hummed in response as we met up with Rex to walk towards the landing dock to prepare for docking on the Coruscanti platforms. "What did I miss on your side?"

"Mostly just more of Merrik's annoying voice as he monologued his way through his villain speech."

"His what?"

I laughed, earning a few chuckles from the clones, too. "Don't tell me you've never heard Grievous or Dooku monologue."

"I mean, I guess. I just never named their speeches." Still, Anakin was laughing now too. "That was really all that happened? Obi-wan seemed...upset."

I shrugged. "He was mad that I shot him, considering Satine asked us not to be violent. I didn't really care."

"He was going to blow up the ship," Anakin commented.

"That was my thought process." I sighed. "So yeah, apart from monologuing and finally getting to shut up the annoying senator, you missed a wonderful stroll down memory lane with Vizsla and a whole lot of following Merrik and his hostage through the Coronet."

"Woah, you talked with Vizsla?"

"It was mostly Vizsla talking at me while I threatened Merrik."

Anakin slowed in the hangar, turning to look at me with a mixture of curiosity and concern. "It rattled you, nonetheless." It wasn't a question.

"Why do you say that?"

The powerful jedi fixed me with a look. It was true. I could lock off my thoughts, but my emotions were high strung at the moment...far from being under lock and key. "I can feel your anger," was all he said.

I lifted my shoulders at an attempt at nonchalance. "He was trying to rile me up."

"He succeeded."

"He didn't keep me from saving Satine, so did he really?" Man, I really was angry. Even Skywalker was pissing me off. I needed to separate myself and cool off. Maybe punch something for a while.

Anakin's eyebrow lifted, his arms crossing. "I've never seen you like this. Do you want to talk about it?"

My eyes dropped, some of my anger shifting to sadness. "No. I really don't."

His hand touched my shoulder, nearly making me jump. "If you ever want to, know that I understand more than most. I don't tell a lot of people this, but when I was younger, I was-"

"A slave," I completed softly, keeping the men from hearing. "I know." He gave me a questioning look. "Padme told me when she found out I'd been a slave, too."

Anakin hummed, squeezing my shoulder gently before removing his hand.

"May I ask a question?" He only nodded in response. "Were you happy with how you were freed?"

His eyebrow lifted at the question, but he shrugged anyways. "I suppose. In a way, I won it myself, since I was freed on a bet on if I'd win my podrace. Master Qui-Gon brought me to Coruscant where I found purpose. A family within the Jedi Order. The strength to fight for what's right." He looked over my features as we leaned against the crates in the hangar. "Were you?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "Jabba didn't treat me poorly. Of course, no one likes being a slave, but I could have had it worse. But I wish I could have saved myself in a way like you did. By the time Jango freed me, I wasn't even me anymore. I'd lost a part of myself in the Death Watch camp."

"Maybe," Anakin mused. "But maybe you found something inside you, too. Something stronger than what you'd been before."

"What do you mean?"

"You hide your thoughts well, Kida," he smiled gently at me. "But in the moment when you were on that bridge, your mind was like a battering ram through the halls. I didn't see much," he defended at my small jump of fright. "But I saw enough." He leaned closer to me, his hand gripping my shoulder again. "Not many people can endure what you endured, Kida. Not to mention come out on the other side as strong as you are. Be proud of what you've survived. What you continue to survive. And keep fighting. Because you're damned good at it."

I chuckled lowly, fighting down the emotions Anakin was clearly determined at rooting up. "Are you sure jedi is the right line of work for you?" He seemed unsure at my words. "You seem much more fitted for a motivational speaker," I teased effectively getting his attention off of my emotional turmoil.

"Change the subject all you want, Kida," he said with a laugh, waving his hand as I felt the Coronet enter Coruscant's atmosphere. "But I'm here if you ever want to talk." He stopped as he began to walk away, turning back slowly with a sheepish, uncomfortable expression. "And," he added, softer. "Padme is a good listener, should you ever want to talk to her."

I smiled, appreciating it, but not taking genuine kindness like his very well. It wasn't that I didn't like it. It was more that I had seen so little of it, that I wasn't entirely sure how to react. "Can I use your private channel?" I teased, earning a look and a blush from him before he hurried away to avoid further jabs.

I stood as the Coronet docked smoothly, the duchess and her retinue entering to disembark. "You alright?" I turned to see Rex approaching slowly, his helmet tilted to examine me closely.

"I'll be fine," I assured, walking beside him as the gangway descended. "How did the fighting go? Is everyone alright?"

He nodded. "No fatalities from the Seperatist attack." His voice quieted with a bit of sadness, despite his training to detach himself. "Apart from those lost in the cargo hangar."

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Don't be. Those that survived did so because you were here to help."

I glanced at him with some surprise, smiling as we stepped off of the Coronet. "So does that mean you're finally alright with me being part of the war?"

"My opinion shouldn't influence yours."

"I never said it did."

He chuckled lowly, my own smile finding my lips despite seeing the chancellor on the platform below. Obi-wan and Skywalker approached behind me, the latter giving me a nod with his head to have me follow them. I parted from Rex with a small smile, staying behind them as they greeted the chancellor.

"A job well done, Master Jedi," Chancellor Palpatine said, surrounded by Senate guards.

"Thank you, Chancellor," Obi-wan replied with a bow.

"Your Excellency," Anakin said.

"And Miss Fett," the chancellor continued as the jedi stepped aside. "I'm glad to hear you've officially joined with the Republic cause. I'm glad to have such a capable warrior fighting alongside our forces."

I swallowed thickly, my inability to read the man unnerving. Still, I kept up my cool facade and bowed with a cocky smile. "Thank you, Chancellor," I said, mimicking what Obi-wan had said. "I'm glad to be of service."

I followed after the jedi, walking past Obi-wan as Satine approached him, to stand beside Skywalker a few feet back.

"How ironic to meet again," I heard the duchess say. "Only to find we're on opposing sides."

"The needs of your people are all that matter," Kenobi assured. "They couldn't be in better hands, with you to guide their future."

"Kind words, indeed, from a mindful and committed jedi." I glanced at Skywalker, seeing him sporting the same raised eyebrows that I did. "And yet," Satine continued, looking lost in thought.

"What?" Obi-wan seemed worried.

But, Satine only chuckled. "I'm still not sure about the beard." Her manicured fingers brushed through the reddish hair, Obi-wan grinning slowly.

"Why? What's wrong with it?"

"Is he blushing?" I whispered, leaning towards Anakin, who could barely contain his laughter.

"It hides too much of your handsome face." I smiled at Satine's words, despite the amusement I felt at their lack of attempt at subtlety. Then again, like master, like student, right? I guess I could understand where Anakin learned it.

As the duchess walked away, Anakin and I stepped forward again, the young jedi knight putting his hand on his master's shoulder.

"What was that all about?" he chuckled. Obi-wan didn't respond, his former padawan sobering. "A very remarkable woman," he admitted.

"She is, indeed."

As Satine boarded her Senate transport with the rest of the political figureheads, I leaned closer to Obi-wan giving a smile to his mildly worried expression.

"Relax," I assured. "Your secret is safe with me."