Ki-Adi kept running after he'd gotten off the phone with the police, only to find that the black vehicle his daughter was in was no longer in sight.
"No!" He gasped. "No, it's gone! It can't be gone!"
Ki-Adi continued running and called for Comedia as he looked around for the ship Comedia was taken in. He looked and looked in all directions, but it wasn't anywhere! It was as if it had vanished into thin air.
Desperate, Ki-Adi needed to ask anyone who might've seen the ship pass by.
"Has anyone seen a speeder?!" He shouted. "Someone, please! Help me! They took my daughter!"
But people either pushed him away or ignored him completely. Still, Ki-Adi desperately pleaded for help.
"Look out!" exclaimed a female voice.
And Ki-Adi fell back, whoever ran into him on top of him. He was surprised to see it was Depa.
"What are you doing here?" They asked each other at the same time. "I was chasing the kidnappers!"
"I rushed after you to make sure Caleb was okay," said Depa, helping Ki-Adi up. "and then I saw the vehicle that took him. I saw it come around here, but now I've lost it!"
Ki-Adi started to cry as the fact that he had no idea where those kidnappers were taking Comedia, or why they'd taken her and Caleb. Depa hugged him as tears came to her own eyes, knowing that there was a chance she may never see her son again.
However, the two of them were soon approached by another familiar figure in the form of Qui-Gon Jinn.
"Mr. Mundi. Ms. Billaba. Thank goodness I've found you two." said the teacher.
"Mr. Jinn?" said Ki-Adi. "What's happened to the other children?"
"Don't worry. The others are fine and are being escorted safely home. I need you both to come with me immediately."
The two distressed parents followed Qui-Gon to another vehicle. And after they got in, they were confused when Qui-Gon drove them to an ice cream shop.
"Is now really a good time for hot fudge sundaes?" said Depa.
"I know we're all upset about our children," said Ki-Adi. "But I don't think emotionally eating ice cream is healthy."
"We are not here for ice cream." Qui-Gon said.
It also seemed odd that he was taking them to the back room. Ki-Adi and Depa weren't sure what to expect other than Qui-Gon perhaps having a part-time second job at an ice cream parlor, and then Qui-Gon placed his hand on a hidden panel, and then some of the wall parted to reveal a secret elevator.
The others were astonished.
"Come with me." Qui-Gon said, escorting the distressed parents into the elevator.
The elevator took the three newcomers into what looked like a big facility filled with all kinds of gadgets, and everyone was dressed in what appeared to be brown or black suits.
"What is this place?" asked Ki-Adi.
"This is the headquarters of the Justice Elite Department of Intervention. Or Jedi, for short." Qui-Gon explained, and he pulled out his official badge. "I am known here as Agent 607. For the last thirteen years, I have been working undercover as a school teacher in order to ensure protection of the city's children."
"By why come out of hiding now?" Depa asked. "Why reveal your identity to us?"
"Both of you have seen the vehicle that took your children, and at least one of you has seen the faces of the perpetrators."
"I did see them. Do you know who those people are or why they took my daughter or Caleb?"
"Why they have done so has yet to be determined." Qui-Gon said. "We do know, however, that you must give a description, and two of our best field agents have arrived to assist."
But Ki-Adi was even more shocked when he met his neighbors Plo Koon and Shaak.
"You're secret agents too?" Ki-Adi said. "How many undercover agents have I been living amongst?"
"Many, I am afraid." Plo said. "We were assigned to live in that apartment complex primarly for the purpose of protecting your daughter and any other children who lived there."
"But why? From what?" Depa asked. "Why did those people kidnap our children?"
"First," said Shaak. "We will need Ki-Adi to identify the suspects."
"Shouldn't we go to the police for that?"
"I'm afraid that the police are out of their element with this case, if the kidnappers are who we suspect."
Shaak pulled up a projection screen and pulled up some mugshots of various criminals in black robes, and asked Ki-Adi to tell them if he recognized anyone.
"Take your time now."
Ki-Adi looked carefully at the mugshots and spotted two Dathomirian males.
"That's them! Those are the men who I saw attack and kidnap Comedia!"
According to the agents, those men were Darth Maul and Savage Oppress, two field agents of the Sidious Institution of Treacherous Heights, a.k.a. Sith.
"This is not good at all." Plo said.
"We have been trying to put the Sith behind bars for years," said Qui-Gon. "Unfortunately, they have always managed to slip from our grasp before we can discover the location of their headquarters."
"Who are these Sith exactly?" Depa asked.
"The most dangerous crime gang to ever exist."
The Sith were no ordinary crime gang. They did more than money laundering, hacking, mass murder, grand arson, or black market dealings. Their worst crime ever, child trafficking. When Ki-Adi's family was killed, the Sith weren't just looking to murder grown-up Jedi; they were on a mission to kidnap Jedi younglings in the hopes of training a new generation of Sith warriors.
Any surviving Jedi went on the case to find the Sith and destroy them for good, but had no success. Any time they managed to rescue a child from an attempted kidnapping, the Sith got away. Whenever they searched for clues to lead them to the Sith headquarters, they always hit a dead end. And in the rare occasion they captured a Sith agent, they slipped away without a trace.
The Jedi began to get frustrated, and many parents feared for their children's safety.
The police encouraged parents to teach their children many safety precautions, enroll their children in martial arts, install security systems in their homes, and for schools and parents to strongly emphasize the importance of stranger safety.
But security systems and knowledge of stranger danger wouldn't be enough to ensure the children's safety. Therefore, the Jedi saw only one solution. They got as many agents as they could spare certified as school teacher and had them go undercover at schools across all the cities the Sith were known to hit. That way, if a Sith came by, there would already be an agent on the scene to blow the whistle.
And it seemed that they'd finally caught some Sith agents on camera and had witnesses who lived to give a description. But sadly, the agents got away.
"You saw the vehicle the children were taken in." Qui-Gon said. "Did you happen to catch the license plate number?"
"Unfortunately, no. But I could recognize the model from a picture, and I recall the last street I was on before I lost it. I believe it was on Mon Cala Boulevard and Quarren Avenue."
Qui-Gon then got a tablet out and pulled up a list of various ship models for Ki-Adi to look at so they could check any security footage they could find. And Ki-Adi eventually did find a ship that matched the one he'd seen taking his daughter. Unfortunately, when they checked security footage, the vehicle turned to a tunnel where no cameras could see them, nor did they know where that tunnel led.
"How are we supposed to find the children now?" Depa panicked with tears in her eyes.
Ki-Adi was about to start crying too, when he suddenly remembered something.
"The beacon!" Ki-Adi said.
"What beacon?" Depa asked.
"Right before the field trip, I gave Comedia a special panda bear necklace, and I told her to never take it off. She was still wearing it when she was taken. Comedia doesn't know, but the panda bear charm has a little tracking device hidden inside it so I can find her. I had it specially made for events such as this."
"That... is actually really smart."
Agent Windu then pulled up some tracking software on his computer and attached Ki-Adi's phone with the correct app to track Comedia's necklace. As long as she was still wearing it, they would be able to track her down. But, it required a code to unlock the tracking device. And Ki-Adi knew that code by heart: Adira, the middle name he'd given Comedia when he adopted her.
The computer pinged and showed a map with the GPS system, a little panda bear icon pinpointing the exact location. Comedia's necklace was on the move, and it was only moving faster, heading towards the Coruscant Airport.
"We must hurry if we are to rescue those children!" Qui-Gon said.
Qui-Gon sounded the alarm and alerted all agents that they had to make a run for the airport to capture the Sith.
"This may be our only chance to catch them!"
Of course, Ki-Adi rushed with them and so did Depa; those were their kids, and they had to get them back.
Comedia struggled as she was muzzled and thrown into a crate that was sealed tight with only a few holes for air in the sides. The same was done with all the other children who were kept in the ship the Sith kidnapped them in.
"That's the last of the load, General." Savage told General Krell.
"Good. Start the jet. The boss wants these children prepped and delivered immediately."
And that was when a woman by the name of Asajj Ventress burst in.
"We've got company!" she said. "Jedi agents are closing in."
Krell ordered the Sith to start the jet immediately and close the hold. The Jedi were closing in fast, but the Sith moved faster.
Agent Aayla Secura steered her speeder towards the airport and spotted the Sith about to take off.
"This is Agent Secura. The sith are about to take off!"
"Aim for the engines!" said Agent Windu.
But just before any Jedi could blast the Sith, the latter fired first, and shot down every Jedi aircraft or vehicle. Fortunately, all the drivers and passengers jumped out before they could be blown up as well. Unfortunately, the Sith's aircraft took off and disappeared into the clouds, to the parents' great horror.
"NOOOO!"
Depa and Ki-Adi both were overwhelmed with despair as they watched the craft disappear with their children, possibly forever. Quickly, Ki-Adi took out his phone and tried to track Comedia's necklace again, but... the signal went offline.
"What?! No!" Ki-Adi tapped the screen repeatedly to get it working again. "URGH!"
Apparently, Ki-Adi didn't know that the signal of the beacon didn't work while the necklace was thousands of feet in the air, as it was designed to automatically go into air mode when it pinged near the signal of a craft that went to such heights.
"Comedia..."
This time, Ki-Adi was even more heartbroken. He had no idea where that craft was taking his little girl, or how he was going to find her. Depa was equally devastated; she'd fought so hard to keep her son and to continue to love and raise him, only for him to be taken from her by a fate worse than death. She hugged Ki-Adi, and they cried into each other's shoulders.
The Jedi felt awful now. They'd come so close to stopping the Sith, and they failed once more.
"All we can do now is wait for the Sith to strike again," said Mace.
"WHAT?!" said Ki-Adi and Depa.
"You mean that's it?!" Ki-Adi said furiously. "Our children were just kidnapped by deadly criminals, and you want to sit around and wait?! The children could be in grave danger right now, and you are wasting precious time."
"Look, you don't know the Sith like we do. They are very tricky," said Agent Fisto. "They never leave a trail, and even when we think we've found one, it only turns out to be a wild goose chase. For now, we must wait for them to commit another crime, giving us another chance to capture them."
"What about our children?" Depa snarled. "Does it not concern you in the least that those beasts could be torturing them, experimenting, dissecting, or selling our children to much more dangerous monsters?! You said so yourselves that you don't know what the Sith plan to do with those children! And who knows how many other children will suffer if we don't go after them right now!"
But, the Jedi just told the parents to get themselves home and hang tight, promising to find their children as soon as possible.
Ki-Adi and Depa were about to go home, but they each felt a strong but gentle hand on one of their shoulders. They looked to see those hands belonged to none other than Agent Qui-Gon Jinn.
"Don't worry, you two. I will help you find your children, and we will do so immediately."
"You... you will?" sniffed Ki-Adi.
"My own children were taken by the Sith long ago, and I have never stopped looking for them. The Jedi may be willing to allow precious time to be risked at the cost of more children's lives, but I am not."
Qui-Gon, fortunately, knew of a way they could follow the Sith right then and there.
Ki-Adi and Depa walked into a vehicle warehouse with Qui-Gon, where there were several vehicles, but only one Qui-Gon trusted to aid on their mission.
"This is the Jedi fighter Skywalker, named after my wife Shmi."
"Does she know about all of this?" Depa asked.
"The other agents don't know she does. Let that be our little secret."
Qui-Gon promised his wife long ago that he wouldn't rest until he found their missing children and brought them home safe and sound. Other Jedi thought he was crazy, but Agent Jinn could just feel that his children were alive and he had to bring them and all the other children the Sith kidnapped home.
"How will we track the Sith if Comedia's beacon isn't even working?" Ki-Adi asked.
"Fortunately, I know how to override the programming on such things." Qui-Gon said, taking Ki-Adi's phone and typing in some codes to hack into the system. "With a little tweaking, we will be able to pinpoint what direction your daughter is headed. We find her, we find the Sith's headquarters, and hopefully where all the other children are being held."
And so, the Jedi agent and his two friends set out to go and find the missing children.
Real world:
"Oh, come on, Comedia! Don't stop there." Gabby said. "What happens next?"
"I don't know yet," said Comedia. "That's all I've written so far."
"Fantasia, Dream Heart, Forsythia. Your father's here to pick you up." Ki-Adi called.
"Awww!" the three sisters groaned.
"Kids, time to go home for dinner," said Anakin.
"Coming, Dad." Omega said, reluctant to leave.
"Don't worry," said Comedia. "I'll keep working on the story, and hopefully it'll be really exciting next play date."
"Can't wait." Boba said. "It's great so far."
"Comedia, make sure you wash up for dinner." Ki-Adi said.
"Yes, Daddy." Comedia answered.
Comedia sat at dinner with her father and told him how she was really excited about the story she was working on, and her friends thought it was great too, but she was only about halfway through it.
"So far, I've got agents, jet fighters, and daring characters. But, I think I can add more to make the adventure even better. Something that adds that je ne sais quoi."
"Well, you are a very creative young mare, Comedia." Ki-Adi said. "You've been writing a new story for yourself in reality, and doing so very well I might add. I'm sure you can write a wonderful fictional tale as well."
And as Comedia went to sleep that night, she started to get some new ideas, which caused her to wake up.
Quietly, not wanting to wake her father by making too much noise, Comedia hid under the blankets on her bed and used the light from her horn to see what she was writing in her notebook.
"Meanwhile, in an unknown area somewhere far away from home..."