Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I only own the OC Jayden Shan.


Anakin wondered if a three-meter carnivorous hunting fly bore grudges. He still held the creature in a Force grip as it flew in a straight line-more or less-toward the ship that held out the last hope of pulling off this mission. The fly didn't want to go there, and it didn't want passengers. It took all Anakin's concentration to control its direction and stop it from plunging down through the trees to scrape off what it clearly regarded either as parasites or an uppity lunch item. "When we get close enough to solid ground, Snips, jump and run." Ahsoka was now sitting astride the fly just behind its wings and in front of Anakin.

"You think it's that dangerous?" She asked, seemingly reading his thoughts.

"It's an ornithopter with the mind of a womp rat, and we caught it by luring it with a mating call, so work it out for yourself." He remarked.

"I thought you were supposed to be good with animals." She cheekily wondered.

"Machines." Anakin corrected with a smirk. "I'm good with machines." And that was what he was banking on; as the landing platform got nearer, he could see that the ship standing on it was a freighter that had seen better days. "I can get anything to fly. But I pushed my luck with this guy." Neither would say it aloud, but Anakin thought it: if he couldn't get that ship airborne, they'd be stuck on yet another plateau in hostile territory, with no way out but down into the jungle, or wrestling with the local flying fauna. Anakin glanced to one side to check that R2-D2 was keeping up. From the backpack, Rotta made awful gagging and wheezing sounds.

"Rotta's sounding pretty rough, Master." Ahsoka said worriedly.

"He's up one moment and down the next, and he's still alive. Do you know how hard it is to kill a Hutt? You can't even poison them. They regrow body parts. They can live for a thousand years. Rotta isn't some delicate snowbloom or anything." Anakin huffed.

"What is it with you and Hutts?"

"I spent too much time with them to ever like them. And that's all you need to know." Anakin regretted it as soon as he said it. He'd made it sound more as if he had some wild, dark past, and nothing was better guaranteed to keep Ahsoka asking questions than that. If he explained he'd been a Hutt's slave, she'd dig away at it until all the bad stuff came out. It was hard enough telling Padme, and she was his wife.

Wife.

It was such a serious and wonderful word. It shouldn't have been a guilty secret. Anakin wondered what would happen if he told Yoda straight out that he had a wife, that he didn't agree with all the arbitrary Jedi rules on avoiding love and attachment and ask him, respectfully mind you, what he was going to do about it.

He'd have to tell Kenobi first, though. And that was going to be much harder, because he heard that Kenobi had faced the same choice as Anakin, but had walked away from the love of his life, and done things strictly by the Jedi book.

How can that he right? How can that make us better Jedi?

No. Anakin would say nothing. He weighed the corrosive effect of keeping secrets from his old Master against the storm that would be unleashed if he confessed to his marriage.

I have a war to fight. And Padme is nobody's business but mine.

"That ship's looking worse by the minute. I'm starting to think we'd be better off on this bug." Ahsoka noted with a grimace. "But it only has to get us to Tatooine, right?"

"That's the spirit. The cup is half full." Anakin concurred.

"So, how are you going to land this bug?" Anakin needed to do some quick thinking in order to answer her.

"I'll make it settle with a Force push and hold it there while you get away with Rotta. Then I'll back away, release the Force hold, and hope it flies off relieved to be rid of us." Anakin had tried to reach out to the hunting fly in the Force, and calm it the way he'd seen Kenobi do with dangerous animals. But its mind was so alien, so unfathomable, that Anakin had backed off in case he made matters worse. The plateau loomed. What had been a slowly resolving blur of vegetation, ferrocrete, and transparisteel now rushed at him at collision speed.

He checked his comlink again. The frequencies were still jammed. Rex, I'm coming. I swear it. Just dig in. Ahsoka hadn't mentioned the beleaguered 501st men since he'd given her the pep talk. She might have been avoiding a sore subject. "Here we go…" He visualized down, a growing pressure on the fly's back and wing surfaces, and it began to drop at a shallow angle. Then he concentrated on what was, if he thought consciously about it, like a headwind in the Force to slow its approach. Weeds and surface cracks in the permacrete platform passed beneath. The combined Force influences brought the fly down a safe distance from the edge, and Anakin held the creature in position with a steady Force push while Ahsoka scrambled to release the backpack. She hauled Rotta clear and ran for the shelter of a tree.

Anakin leaped down. He would have patted the fly's back, but its whipping tail said he should quit while he was ahead. "Thanks, and sorry for tricking you," he said. "You'll find a nice female fly one day, I promise." Then he ran, releasing his hold on it in the Force. Without the weight of the Huttlet on his back, he almost felt he could fly himself. The sudden turbosaw buzz of wings behind him faded fast to silence, and when he dared to stop running and look behind, the fly was gone.

For all he knew, the creature could have been female, soaring away to tell her much, much bigger and angrier spouse about this human's outrageous hijack, and Anakin would be on the run from giant hunting flies forever.

Ahsoka fussed over Rotta and eased him out of the backpack. I don't even want to think about cleaning that pack out. Anakin decided that fussing duties were adequately covered and walked over to the freighter. The meteor-pocked panel on the hatch read Twilight. "Apt." He remarked. Please start. Please fire up. Please get us out of here. "The old crate's fading fast by the looks of it." R2-D2 rolled up next to Anakin and let out a mournful whistle. "Defeatist." Anakin patted him on his cranial dome. "We've fixed worse. Hey, Snips… I'll show you how to hotwire a ship. Essential Jedi training they tend to omit at the Temple. We'll get aboard and prime the engines," He called over his shoulder. "Assuming it has engines." He added with a mutter. R2-D2 trundled beneath the airframe, opened a cover plate, and began trying various extending probes in the slots. Ahsoka came up carrying Rotta in her arms. There were water splashes on her clothing.

"I gave him a quick rinse from my water bottle." She explained. "Hutts in confined spaces, and all that."

"Good thinking." Ahsoka had the makings of a good Jedi, and she was going to butt more than a few heads with the Jedi Council. He'd bet on it. Maybe those were one and the same thing. He thought of Rex and his handful of troops, and gestured to R2-D2 to open the hatch.

Hang in there, Rex.

The main hatch popped and air hissed from the seals. Anakin stood back to let the ramp lower. "Can I help you?" Asked a voice from behind. Anakin spun around. He was hard to startle. But he'd been preoccupied, and droids didn't leave impressions in the Force the way living objects did.

"Just leaving." Anakin was on his guard. What else had he overlooked? "Hey, you're..."

"You're the caretaker droid, I wondered what happened to you." Ahsoka interrupted, doing that little irritated frown. She'd never make a sabacc player. "Four-A-Seven, right? I thought you looked after the monastery. What are you doing here?"

"Taking care of myself, young one. I mean, soon-to-be Jedi Knight." The droid bowed his head. "The monastery has been utterly defiled again. I thought those Hutt gangsters were bad enough, but the droid army has reached new depths of profanity." He glanced at Rotta. "No offense, little one. Your path in life may yet be innocent."

"So this is your ship." Mused Anakin, ready to do a deal-or take what he needed-as long as it was now. "You're leaving?"

"I've retrieved the few holy scrolls and devotional artifacts that have not been pillaged or destroyed, and I shall keep them safe until I find monks who'll accept them." 4A-7 indicated the packing crates stacked nearby. "Yes, I intend to leave this wretched place, and as soon as possible."

"So do we." Anakin was poised to silence Ahsoka, who just frowned at 4A-7 and seemed to be gearing up for something. "Shall we leave together, then? If you don't have a destination in mind, I can think of a few."

"A reasonable suggestion, sir. Please, board my vessel and make the child comfortable. The monks I served believed that giving aid freely to another being was the highest form of worship." Anakin was about to start softening up 4A-7 to the idea that he'd have to divert or return to rescue his men, but he decided it was best left for when they were airborne. The droid might have included Clone troopers in the heathen despoilers bracket. Anakin didn't want an argument on the landing pad, or to be obliged to use force. The ship was leaving, Ahsoka and Rotta would be on it, and, when he'd worked out the details, it would be saving Rex and his surviving troopers. Anything that stood in the way of that-too bad.

He stood to the side of the hatch and gestured to Ahsoka to board the ship. R2-D2 was still trundling around checking its undercarriage and making critical beeps. Ahsoka put one foot on the ramp, then froze, and looked down in defocus at her boot as if straining to hear something. When she looked up again, her eyes were wide and the pupils fully dilated; not fear or surprise, but that feral look again, a hunter who'd detected something to chase or fight.

Sometimes she wasn't the overeager kid at all. It was all the more unsettling for that.

"Snips?"

"Artoo," she said quietly. "Artoo, take Stinky for me, will you? Just for a moment." Anakin didn't ask any stupid questions, and took her cue.

"Smell finally got to you, then?" He watched R2-D2 take the pack and roll quietly away from the ship. "No throwing up, okay?" She held her arms loose at her sides and took another step up the ramp. Anakin tried to sense what might have spooked her, but he couldn't tell, and combat zones were awash with disruptions in the Force.

"We really must make a move now, sir." 4A-7 urged. "The fighting here is escalating. We don't want to be trapped here."

"No." Ahsoka slowly agreed. "We don't." She'd drawn her lightsaber even before the first metal boot hit the ramp. Two battle droids suddenly appeared at the hatch, barring her way. Anakin drew his weapon and turned to check on R2- D2, but the droid was well clear, and 4A-7 would have to get past Anakin to reach him.

The battle droids opened fire on Ahsoka. She charged them, swatting aside the blaster bolts and slashing into their bodies before disappearing into the ship. Anakin was going to rush in after her, but she was clearly in control, and he had other business to attend to. He rounded on 4A-7.

"You nearly had me." Anakin held his lightsaber to the droid. There was no telling what else this 'caretaker' had hidden. "You're in cahoots with Ventress, aren't you? She's sent you to kill the Hutt." 4A-7 still had that smug calm about him, even now his ambush had failed.

"I suppose I'm only obliged to give you my name, model number, and parts code..." He mused. Anakin noted that the blasterfire had stopped abruptly.

"Funny."

"I have no orders to kill the Huttlet. I'm unarmed." 4A explained, lifting his arms.

"Spy, then. You'll be even more useful when your data is extracted..." Ahsoka came running toward them with her lightsaber held so tightly that her knuckles were white. She seemed lost for words for second. But she'd find some harsh ones pretty soon, he knew.

She'll have to do something about that temper. Maybe I'm the wrong Master for her.

"You're a traitor." She growled. As her lips moved, Anakin could see the little killer teeth, the ones she usually didn't show. "A tin-plated traitor."

"No, I'm not a traitor." 4A-7 calmly replied. "I'm just not on your side. I serve another government, one no less valid than yours. There is always more than one side to any story, youngling." She had no answer to that. Anakin realized he now had a logistics problem, as Rex would call it. I'm coming, Rex. Hang on. He'd have to take this spy with him, because he couldn't leave him here; and spies were no ordinary prisoners. They were dangerous every second of the day, and a droid spy-it was almost too much to think about. He could be a booby trap or a sabotage device or a surveillance system as well.

Anakin felt he was collecting problems, not solving them. Time mattered.

"Come on." He urged, and went to usher the spy droid onto the ship with the intention of having R2-D2 render him safe, like some kind of elaborate bomb. But Ahsoka was still fuming. If she'd had fur, it would have been standing on end. She had this way of being absolutely still and then exploding into movement. Right now, she was a statue.

"You're still a traitor." She bit. She never raised her voice. The S was hiss. "Still aiding a monster."

"If you truly believe that the Republic and the Jedi Order are wholly good, and that the Confederacy is wholly evil, then you're even more dangerous than my mistress thinks." 4A remarked in monotone. Ahsoka snapped from freeze to explosion and swung her lightsaber.

Anakin was standing too close; he jumped back instinctively as 4A-7's head hit the ground and bounced once before rolling to the foot of the ramp. In the shocked silence, Anakin could hear the droid's voice repeating something.

He ran to it and squatted down to listen, trying to make sense of what had just happened. 4A-7's voice was fading, repeating snatches of his final words. Anakin had taken the heads off many, many droids in the war so far, and it hadn't troubled him one bit. But the disembodied still-lit photoreceptors and the very human voice still talking gripped something deep in his gut. "...you're even more dangerous… you're even more dangerous… you're even more dangerous…" The voice faded to nothing and the lights died. Ahsoka stood over him. He looked up at her, for once.

"Creepy." She muttered.

"Volatile memory." Anakin had to move on to the next task, to the Hutt and to Rex. "Spy droids don't store their data when they're terminated, for obvious reasons. I believe they transmit it."

"So he's scrap." She determined in a wondering tone. Anakin watched R2-D2 roll up the ramp carrying Rotta. If Hutts could be traumatized in childhood, that kid was going to be a basket case after what he'd seen in the last day or two.

"Yeah." He replied at length. "You could say that." He sealed the hatch behind them. They made their way to the two-person cockpit as Anakin took the controls. "Let's get Stinky out of here." He pressed the startup switch, several coughing splutters from the ship's drive core giving him several second thoughts about the ship before the igniters died and the startup failed. "If we can…" He muttered under his breath. Jabbing the button again and again, the Twilight's engines simply refused to power up, always winding and churning a little before stalling out and falling quiet again. Anakin started going through the process in his mind.

Button doesn't work, it's probably old. So what needs to be looked at?

He ran through a mental checklist of option while giving the button a few more hopeful presses. But the engines failed to fire. Ahsoka loosed an exasperated sigh. "Don't worry, Snips, we can still make this work." He promised. "Artoo, see if you can spark the ignition couplers. The astromech whistled and rolled over to a droid port, plugging in and interfacing with the ship's central processors. The engines coughed again, ending in failure. Artoo warbled, his findings weren't good, the ignition coils were acting up and probably needed to be replaced. "No, that's not it… Try opening the fuel lifters all the way." Anakin prompted. Artoo did as asked and a throaty thrum filled the ship as he worked some of his astromech magic to fire up the drives, the cabin now aglow with working terminal panels. With the engines online, Anakin guided them into the air and they lifted clear in one piece. "You did a great job, Artoo." He praised. "Thanks, buddy." R2-D2 whistled. He said it was a pleasure.


Even while the battle was still going on, as Kenobi and his forces arrived, Jayden was somewhere in the monastery to report his failure to his Master. The Sith Apprentice was crouched to one knee as a holoprojector projected a hologram of the Count in front of him.

"What is it, Lord Khan?" Dooku asked.

"Master, I regret to inform you that... the Huttlet is still in the clutches of the Jedi." Jayden admitted, keeping his head bowed. "Skywalker and his Padawan have him and will leave this planet."

"Not to worry, my young Apprentice. The mission isn't over quite yet." Dooku said with a smirk. "Jabba has given the Jedi one day to bring his son back to Tatooine. So we both know Skywalker will be going to Tatooine."

"Yes, Master." Jayden nodded.

"Come and join me on Tatooine. I need you as assurance for the final phase in our ploy."

"At once, my Master." Jayden bowed as Dooku terminated the transmission. Jayden stood and left to go to the Rogue Shadow, to go to Tatooine.


Meanwhile…

Anakin knew he should never have expected things to get easier.

The trajectory he'd set took the Twilight close to the action. It was inevitable. He needed to locate Yularen's flagship, Spirit of the Republic. Once he handed over Rotta, he could get back to the fighting, or start replacing the men of Torrent Company if the ground engagement was over… or anything but this. He'd opted for the most direct course. The airspace above the jungle combat zone and up through the atmosphere into space was crawling with V-19 fighters, vulture droids, and battlecruisers. Even at maximum thrust, the Twilight climbed slowly for a pilot used to starfighters. We might as well have a big target roundel painted on us. He thought ruefully. "Master, today I did my best to stay calm, focused, and when I did everything seemed so easy." Ahsoka mused with Rotta clutched on her lap. In a confined cockpit, the smell was almost too much for Anakin to bear. The freighter shuddered as it climbed.

"Well, get focused, 'cause we're not out of the woods yet." Anakin commented. He tweaked the fuel injectors a little higher.

Come on… Come on…

Bursts of white light flared against the sky in the thinning layers of the planet's atmosphere. Anakin kept a wary eye on both the ship's sensors and what he could see with his own eyes through the viewport. He could see Spirit's transponder on the screen, but the cruiser was in the thick of it, surrounded by smaller pinpoints of light that indicated Republic and Separatist fighters. "They're too busy to worry about us." Ahsoka realized at last.

"I'll try to worry less-obviously in future." Anakin remarked.

"Yularen knows you're inbound."

"Yeah, but so does Ventress, I'll bet." He added. "She had her droids ready for us, and she knows this crate's gone. She also knows we won't be crazy enough to head for Tatooine in it. So she knows we've got to do a transfer, and that we don't have many ships to choose from."

"She might not." Ahsoka countered.

"She's smart. If I can think of this solution to our problem, so can she." Anakin adjusted course, looking to divert around a knot of V-19s chasing down a flight of vultures. Rotta whimpered. "What would you do?"

"Er… booby-trap the freighter to explode?" The Togruta wondered. Anakin's gut flipped over. He hadn't thought of that one.

"No. No, she needs Rotta. That's got to be her plan."

"Admit it, we found this tub really conveniently." Ahsoka mused. Anakin didn't answer right away. It would take a matter of minutes to reach Yularen. "She wasn't expecting us. She couldn't have planned the hunting fly. She'll have vulture droids looking out for us."

"It all hinges on who's the best pilot, then, you or a heap of smart scrap." Anakin replied. R2-D2 chirped and flashed. He said he thought that was a little organicist, speaking as a heap of smart scrap himself. Ahsoka was still learning.

"I didn't understand all that."

"I'll give you some sensitivity lessons later..." Anakin promised. The Twilight began her approach to Spirit. Any minute now, a droid sensor officer or a vulture would notice the freighter on their screen, and then it was all down to nerve, speed, and skill. Anakin knew he was weak on one of those. He realigned his instruments on Spirit and lined up with the cruiser's hangar bay. There was an awful lot of traffic in between. "All we've got to do is land on the cruiser. Hang on to our slippery friend, Snips. Here we go."

"Yes, Master." Anakin opened the comm.

"General Skywalker to Jedi cruiser, we need hangar bay access. I say again, we need hangar bay access urgently." A blip appeared instantly on the screen. A vulture had dropped out of nowhere and was skimming just above the cockpit, matching their speed. Anakin couldn't fire the Twilight's laser cannon. It was like a nasty itch in a place you couldn't reach without tearing yourself up. Another vulture peeled off from formation and headed straight for them. It was on an intercept course.

Something hit the Twilight hard. Rivets flew from the internal bulkheads as they flexed under the impact. The freighter had taken a hit. Anakin held it on course. "Maybe she doesn't want Stinky alive after all…" Ahsoka muttered worriedly. Maybe. Anakin thought.

"Nearly there. Hang on." He could see the cruiser and the hangar now. The outline of the opening was picked out in hazard lighting. But he also saw a ball of energy heading directly at the freighter, coming straight from the cruiser's aft cannon position. "Brace!" He yelled. "Ahsoka, brace!" The cannon round hit the cockpit and Anakin felt the shock wave travel up through the steering yoke to his hands and smack into his elbow and shoulder joints. The freighter shook violently.

"Are they targeting the vultures?" Ahsoka wondered in exclamation.

"No, they're firing at us!" The cruiser still had its deflector shields up.

"They must think this grease bucket is an enemy ship!" Ahsoka realized with a gasp. Anakin opened the comm again.

"Jedi cruiser, this is General Skywalker, this is a Republic friendly, repeat, freighter Twilight is a Republic friendly, hold fire, hold fire."

The comm popped in response. "Freighter Twilight, you're showing a CIS military transponder code… your call." Stang. Of course: the spy droid and his detachment would have made sure their own forces didn't fire on them. 4A-7 had had the last laugh, then.

"'Your call'? That's helpful." Ahsoka remarked with a roll of her eyes.

"Jedi cruiser, this is Skywalker. We're crawling with vultures and we need to drop off a very sick Huttlet. Open the hangar. Please." After a second's pause, Admiral Yularen's voice came over the comm.

"Skywalker, we're going to drop the deflectors, but we need to lose those vultures. Divert to the aft hangar, I repeat, aft hangar. And check your transponder next time you commandeer an enemy vessel. We've had a few suicide runs before, and we shoot first."

"Yes, Admiral." Anakin quietly replied. Wow, consider me put in my place. An admiral was lord of all he surveyed in his own fleet, and Anakin was just another pilot who should have known better. "Stand by for a possible crash landing." Anakin jerked the Twilight violently to port, leaving the pursuing vultures wrong-footed for a vital moment, and looped under the cruiser. Ahsoka gasped, Rotta shrieked, and the freighter came about facing the cruiser's stern. The hangar doors were open; the aperture rushed up on Anakin like a gaping mouth about to consume him.

The vultures were still pursuing, hammering the hull with laser fire. How the crate was holding together Anakin would never know, but it was, and that was all that mattered. Ten seconds. The vultures were still with them. He couldn't do a deck landing with them clinging to him. The cruiser knew that, and opened up with precision lasers. One vulture shattered and cartwheeled away, showering red-hot debris on the cockpit viewport. The next shot hit a vulture with unerring accuracy, too, transforming it into a ball of flame tumbling ahead of the freighter's nose. "We've made it! We've made it!" Ahsoka happily breathed in relief.

All of a sudden, the vultures broke off and streaked ahead of Twilight. Laser fire filled the hangar bay as the droid fighters pounded the exposed gap and all Anakin could see was a ball of fire and smoke where sanctuary should have been. Voices screamed over the comm channel.

"Pull up! Pull up!"

"Abort, abort, abort!"

Anakin did it without thinking. He jerked back on the yoke and sent the freighter climbing vertically. He didn't have time to worry about the cruiser or the hangar crew, but the ship had its hands full with damage and casualties now, so they couldn't worry about him, either. There was no going around for another approach.

And he was still trailing an unwelcome escort of vultures.

Just as Captain Rex had been, he and Ahsoka were now on their own. The irony wasn't lost on him. "This changes our plans," he grumbled, veering away from the smoldering ruins, "looks like we're gonna have to take this bucket of bolts all the way to Tatooine." He started priming the ship's drive core. All Anakin needed was a small window of opportunity to climb free of the atmosphere and jump to hyperspace. Any doubts that the battered freighter would survive the massive forces of acceleration to light speed and beyond were now a luxury to sweat over later. That was the great thing about problems; there was always a bigger, nastier one to put the rest in a convenient shadow. Anakin's was his escort of vultures, which were now trying to force him to land. "I can't outrun them." He realized with quiet dismay. Ahsoka had been commendably silent, no helpful suggestions that he didn't need or cheery exhortations to keep his spirits up. A Padawan needed to learn when to shut up. She had. She clutched Rotta to her chest as if he were squirming to get away, but the Hutt hung limp in her arms, eyes half closed, breathing noisily.

If they ever got away, they might be delivering a dead Huttlet to Jabba after all. It didn't bear thinking about.

"Let's jettison something." The Togruta suggested at last. Laser cannonfire streaked past the Twilight's nose, and another vulture droid buzzed the ship, so close to the cockpit viewport that Anakin jerked hard to starboard in pure reflex. Vultures were not dumb tinnies. They seemed to be able to learn from their quarry, and right now they were playing a very good game of nervous nuna-harrying the freighter and making runs at it to test who would blink first.

"Jettison what? Can't dump fuel." Anakin checked the gauges. "It's not like it weighs enough to make a difference, and we've got to get to Tatooine."

"Water," Ahsoka explained. "Ballast."

"I didn't check the cargo bay."

"I'll do it." She offered and before he could stop her, she'd strapped Rotta in the copilot's seat and was making her way aft. "I jettison whatever I find, right?"

"Yeah. When you open the cargo hatch, I'll get a red warning light up here, and I'll just bring up the nose and let everything slide out. Don't waste time dragging any crates up to the tail ramp." Anakin replied, prepping several switches in advance. She vanished through the cockpit hatch. Anakin concentrated on evading the vultures. Would they really bring him down in flames now, and risk killing the Hutt? He didn't know, and he couldn't take any chances playing brinkmanship with them. As he banked, he could see V-19s beneath him locked in a fight with more vultures. He didn't dare loop over the monastery to see what was happening. He couldn't even allow himself to be distracted by listening in to the GAR comm circuit to see how Kenobi and Rex were doing. He headed out over the jungle and away from the lighting to make sure he didn't add to their woes by dropping heavy objects on them. Even a small crate falling from that height would cause some serious damage.

The cockpit intercom buzzed. "Master, I'm in the cargo bay now."

"Good. What do you see?" He asked.

"Plenty of crates, and the reserve water tanks are showing full. That's five tons at least."

"That might do it. Open the drains on the tanks and make sure you're standing behind anything heavy that's going to slide out the back when you hit the big red button." Anakin instructed.

"I know."

"Just checking. Tell me when you're ready." There was a crackling silence, and then she was back on the intercom.

"Done. Ready?"

"Let's do it, Snips." Anakin looked across to Rotta to make sure he hadn't slipped from the restraints in a pool of slime. R2-D2 chirped to get on with it. "Hit it." The console warning light flashed to life: cargo hatch open. Anakin brought up the nose and the Twilight climbed steeply. He thought he heard Ahsoka say something, but it was drowned out by the noise of air buffeting the bay. The freighter soared. Suddenly there were no vultures ahead of him, and he was heading into darker skies as the ship climbed. "Time to get out, Snips. Can't leave the atmosphere with the door open." No answer. His stomach flipped again. "Shut the hatch. Snips?" R2-D2 chirped and shot off. He'd check, he said.

Anakin had a split second to decide whether to level off and wait for Ahsoka to get clear, or carry on and close the inner cargo bay bulkhead from the cockpit, not knowing where she was and probably consigning her to certain death.

Now where're my fine words about making tough decisions as a commander, accepting that soldiers die?

He was running out of time. He checked the altitude readout as it flickered rapidly through ever higher numbers. His hand hovered over the emergency bulkhead controls. R2-D2 would be okay because astromechs were built to operate in raw vacuum, but Ahsoka…

It was a terrible way to go.

Don't think about it. Weep later. Just the mission, okay? Just the...

The red cargo bay warning light suddenly changed to green. Whatever had happened, it was done now. The sensors still showed vultures pursuing the freighter but he had enough of a lead on them now to jump clear. The sky outside changed from deep blue to jet black. The ship was in open space now, and could make the jump to Tatooine. "If you can hear me," Anakin said weakly, "prepare to jump to hyperspace." He hit the control. The stars became white-hot streaks as the ship jumped to safety. Anakin leaned back in the pilot's seat and wiped his hands over his face, exhausted and not as relieved as he thought he might have been to leave Teth behind. Rotta wheezed. "Snips? Artoo?" He wondered into the comms, fearing he'd lost them both.

To his delight, the access door opened and R2-D2 came back into the cockpit first, whistling and burbling something peevishly to himself about smart scrap saving the day yet again, and how a brief lesson on using safety lines might be a good idea. Anakin twisted in his seat to see Ahsoka emerge through the cockpit hatch. She was soaking wet, and her hands were cut and bleeding. She shook herself as if it was a reflex, flicking water all over the cockpit.

"Don't ask." Was all she said and Anakin grinned. R2-D2 volunteered the information that she'd ended up hanging on by her fingertips again, and it was just as well that he could plug into the circuit and shut the bay doors. She gave him a peeved look, but patted him on the dome. "I owe you, Artoo."

"Seeing as I'm not asking, let's worry about Rotta. Unless you need some first aid." Ahsoka shook her head and examined the Huttlet. He was still conscious, and he turned his pitiful gaze on Anakin. "Don't die on us now, Stinky. Just hang in there." The pendulum between relief and worry swung back firmly to worry again, and now their effort had to be devoted to keeping the kid alive. Even that might not prove to be enough.

Anakin tried to imagine handing a sick Rotta back to Jabba. He wasn't the kind of individual to nod gratefully and say he could see they'd done their best, so no hard feelings. He'd want the kid back in the condition he'd left him in. The Hutt held the cards, and knew it.

"There'll be a med droid in the hold." Ahsoka suggested. "Let's see if we can get it fired up." Anakin calculated the time to Tatooine.

"I hope he's a fast operator." He mumbled tiredly.


Meanwhile, on Tatooine…

Some things couldn't be safely left to others.

Dooku berated himself for delegating too much. Next time, he'd do the job personally, but right now he had to act to salvage the situation. Jabba was demanding an update in person. Dooku slipped into a storage chamber on the way to the throne room, mind- influenced the two servants working in there to go away and forget they'd ever seen him, and opened a comlink to Ventress. "Now I have to pick up the pieces." His voice was flat and did not offer even a hint of emotion. But he knew as well as she did that his disappointment in her was plainly felt. Her hologram looked as steady and implacable as ever, hands on hips, boots planted firmly in a wide stance. She wasn't one to cower and beg forgiveness, however deferential she seemed. He admired that. What he didn't admire was her failure to deliver on critical missions.

"I regret that as much as you do, Master. But I haven't given up yet. I have a ship in pursuit. We have no choice left but to destroy Skywalker's vessel and the Hutt with it."

"Stand it down." Dooku ordered. "It's too late. I shall intercept Skywalker personally when he lands and I have recalled Jayden to aid in that matter. In the meantime, prepare yourself for a display of contrition. I have to see Jabba in a matter of minutes, and when I do, I'll question you in front of him, and you'll tell me that the child is dead and that Skywalker is heading for Tatooine. Follow my lead." Asajj nodded in complicity.

"Yes, Master."

"We'll discuss your future later." Dooku didn't even wait for her acknowledgment before snapping the link shut. He swept along the passage, mentally preparing himself to look grimly determined yet suitably mortified.

Jabba watched him walk up to the dais with baleful yellow eyes. He had his full entourage around him, so a power display was in the offing.

"Uba gee cua dan gee paupe tam." He rumbled.

"Mighty Jabba demands news, Count Dooku." Dooku took out his comlink and made a show of keying in a code.

"Lord Jabba, we may hear direct from my commander in the field. The fighting on Teth has been fierce, but I might be able to contact her. I know no more than you do." He feigned a few failed connections, made an irritated sigh or two, and then the hologram of Ventress appeared. She looked convincingly battle-weary now rather than defiant. Defiant didn't go down well with Jabba. "Commander, what's happening? I'm with Lord Jabba at the moment, and he's very anxious. So am I."

"My lords, I have no easy way to tell you this," She panted, all defeat and noble sacrifice. "The Republic overwhelmed us. By the time we fought our way through and searched for Rotta… Skywalker had killed him."

A gasp went around the chamber, and Jabba froze for a breath. Then he bellowed; not his typical stream of abuse and threats, just a terrible animal cry of inarticulate grief. He was beside himself. He didn't seem to care about showing emotional weakness in front of his servants now. And, Dooku suspected, their horrified gasps were more for themselves, their fear of what would happen when Jabba had recovered his composure enough to lash out and go on a rampage of vengeance, not all of which would be aimed at those thought to be directly responsible.

Dooku aimed to appear shaken but still in control. "Most unfortunate. My condolences, Lord Jabba." He wasn't sure if Jabba had heard him, because the Hutt was now moaning pitifully in a hoarse, bubbling voice. "This is a very unexpected turn of events. The Jedi is the lowest kind of criminal, a child-killer." If not also the killer of childhoods. He mused. "There is nothing worse. Commander Ventress, you killed the scum in reprisal, I take it."

"No, Master, but no effort was spared in trying. He's on his way to Tatooine with his Padawan." She answered.

"Tee Ava un mah wei baa pahma?!" Jabba bawled. "Kee too ta bo pahma! Jee banag bai neu haku tah Jeedai kantkha woy bei jen, an hee Jee lwaa cahtane woy hunto tee-tocky da!"

"Lord Jabba demands to know where the body of his son is, so that he might see and repay the Jedi tenfold over." TC translated. Dooku cut in. Improvisation was fine, but this was getting a little too risky.

"Ventress, where is the body?"

"He took it with him, my lord, so we'd have no proof. Knowing his respect for life, he may have dumped Rotta's remains out the airlock by now." She mused with disdain rife in her voice. Excellent thinking. Jabba gulped in air, outraged. Dooku stayed steely.

"I'm sure you did the best you could. We'll discuss your failure later." He said quietly, and ended the transmission. The throne chamber was silent, waiting for the next explosion.

Dooku doubted Jabba was putting on a display. He felt the Hutt's shock and grief in the Force, like standing too close to a detonation. It was nothing to do with an insult to his power or loss of face. It was a father's bereavement. Dooku, long used to the brutal reality of the war he had to fight, inured to deaths he would have chosen to avoid in an ideal world, saw himself standing shocked in the snow at Galidraan again.

What have we done?

He shook it off. "Lord Jabba..."

Jabba found his voice. "Wonkee wohot tah koumihox'a pihoha nan wata?" He sounded broken, an odd emotion for a Hutt. A mourning father.

"Glorious Jabba demands to know why the Jedi would dare come to Tatooine?" TC intoned.

"To kill you, Lord Jabba, and wipe out your entire clan." Loud gasps met his words, as expected from the court loyalists. Dooku took a few steps toward Jabba, head slightly lowered. "The Jedi plot is quite clear now. They only promised to rescue your son to win your trust. Now Skywalker is coming here to finish his true mission… You know he hates your people, you've seen the recording, and he has scores to settle from his time in slavery here, no doubt. But it's more than that. This is about the Republic's ambitions, because they're happy to use Skywalker and his feuds as their loaded cannon. They don't want to rely on your goodwill to maintain access to Outer Rim routes. They need to control those routes themselves, perhaps even install their own puppet clan leader."

"An tah doth Republica mee sacaphokoha. Republica me geieueyolea." Jabba was getting a grip of himself now, coming back harder, angrier, and even more dangerous an enemy. "Jee hatkocanh woy hoohah dabobaha tah."

"Almighty Jabba promises to make the Republic regret their actions." TC-40 said. That was so understated and quiet for a Hutt that Dooku knew it meant all-out vengeance of a kind seldom seen.

"Lord Jabba, allow me." He offered. "I would like to go some way toward making up for our failure to save your son. I have MagnaGuards ready for him and can summon an agent most powerful and expert in dealing with Jedi. I will deal with Skywalker personally." Jabba drew himself up to full height again, his composure dark and hateful.

"Bo phona." He rumbled. "Kacay, Jee banag bo phona."

"You will bring Lord Jabba the Jedi's skull."


Back on the Twilight…

With some fiddling, the 2-1B model medical droid booted up, its bright white photoreceptors greeted a relieved Ahsoka. "I am designated medical unit TB-2." It announced.

"Hey, Doctor Droid, can you hear me?" She wondered, waving her hand before ts face.

"Yes. What seems to be the problem?" The droid politely inquired. Ahsoka grinned, much better than 4A-7.

"I've got a sick Huttlet here, can you give me a remedy?" She hurriedly asked, placing Rotta down on a nearby table.

"Permit me to scan the patient." TB asked, using his external access signals to boot up the scanning equipment hanging above. Ahsoka backed off to let it work, standing with Anakin.

"Why do freighters have expensive med droids?" She asked, watching TB-2 examine Rotta on the scan table.

"Piracy." Anakin said simply. A lot of men had died to get the smelly little slug this far. No, Anakin was going to get Rotta home or die trying himself. "They get shot at a lot. Pays to have good first aid on board. Come on, Tee-Bee. Get on with it." The med droid peeled monitors and probes from the Huttlet's skin. They came away with a wet sucking noise, trailing slime. "The patient is feverish and suffering from an unknown bacterial infection. He is also dehydrated and requires an electrolyte liquid. I prescribe a generic antipyretic suitable for Hutts to reduce his temperature, a broad-spectrum antibacterial, and one liter of liquid by mouth per hour." Anakin had one eye on the chrono, counting down the time to arriving on Tatooine. "We're some way from a pharmacy." He remarked.

"I can dispense the necessary medical boosters." It responded.

"Better make it snappy, then, Tee-Bee." Anakin replied, excusing himself as he went back to the cockpit and fretted at the lack of action open to him. It was the first time he'd had literally nothing to do, rare and precious time that he would have welcomed in any other situation, but he couldn't comm from hyperspace. R2-D2 rolled along with him, whistling helpfully. "I know, Artoo. Good time to take stock. But we've still got a long way to go. Ventress knew where we were heading, and if she hasn't arranged a welcome home for me, I'll be very surprised."

Anakin composed a message to Padme, glossing over the events of the last few days and concentrating on how much he missed her, and then recorded a message for Rex. Once this mission was over, there was a large hole to plug in the 501st, good men who would be missed, and Anakin understood the subtleties of leadership well enough to know that it wasn't simply a matter of replacing numbers. There were friendships, all the more keenly missed by men who had no family, and there was morale.

Anakin wondered how many times he would go through this before the war was over.

"Better make sure we have operational cannon before we land, Artoo." He instructed. "Leave the deflector shields for later." The astromech rumbled out from behind an open bulkhead panel with tools in his claspers and whistled. He had it in hand, he said, but nobody could expect a freighter to hold its own against a military vessel. It was down to pilot skill in the end. "No pressure, then." He remarked with a bemused smirk. Ahsoka returned to the cockpit with Rotta in her arms and something clutched in her fist.

"I could do with some help if you're not busy." She said.

"Does it involve anything messy?"

"Not really. He's not eaten anything for a while, so no problems there. I just need an extra pair of hands, literally." She laid Rotta on a seat and held out her unclenched fist. There were two stimplugs in her palm. "I have to get him to swallow them."

"Can't you grind them up in his electrolyte fluid?" Anakin queried.

"Did that. He spat it clear across the compartment. Had to mix a new batch." Ahsoka explained with a slight frown. Anakin rolled up his sleeves.

"Okay. What do I do?"

"Grab hold of him and stop him from squirming away." Ahsoka instructed. It was easier said than done. Anakin grabbed Rotta in a two-arm arresting hold that would have done a CSF officer proud, and pinned him. For a sick Hutt, and a tiny one at that, he was still a handful. The layer of slime made it harder. He twisted furiously.

"Come on, sweetums. I've got some yum-yum for you." She cooed, trying to ease the process for him. Anakin held on while Ahsoka grabbed Rotta's head like a zone-ball and forced the tablets into his mouth. Then she clamped one hand over his mouth while she held on to his head.

They waited.

Rotta held his breath.

"I can wait all night, Stinky." Ahsoka remarked. "Just give in. You're outgunned and outnumbered. You'll take it and you'll like it." Anakin was holding his breath, too, and he wasn't sure if he could hang on longer than the Huttlet. He wondered how he'd ever get the smell out of his robes. Eventually there was a glumph sound and Rotta shuddered. Ahsoka removed her hand and put her thumb in his mouth to make him open wide.

"There." She mused contentedly, peering into the open maw. "All gone. Was that so bad? You'll be all better now."

"Impressive." Anakin commented, retreating to wipe his clothing. R2 burbled and held out an oily rag to him. "Most impressive."

"You care what happens to him, really. Don't you?" Ahsoka wondered with a smirk.

"No, I don't. But I care what happens to our army. He's a means to that end."

"I don't think you're as callous as you act."

"Don't worry, I'll be on my best Hutt-loving behavior when we land." Anakin joked as he sat back down. Ahsoka took her place beside him, satisfied that Rotta was in better straits now.

"You think Rex and Obi-Wan made it out okay?" Ahsoka queried.

"If I know my old master, he has things well in hand." Anakin promised warmly. "Now help me with this. I want the primary systems fully repaired by the time we reach Tatooine." He urged, climbing up onto his seat and pulling out his personal hydrospanner, popping open a panel and setting to work on the inner electrics.

"You grew up on Tatooine, right? That's where Master Kenobi and Master Qui-Gon found you. So, this trip is like going home." Ahsoka mused. Anakin paused, dark memories flooding his mind. The word 'Tatooine' alone brought only thoughts of hardship and cruelty to his mind, of sorrow and death and a gaping maw that had once been love and affection ripped open within him.

"Yeah… Home…" He muttered, trying to focus on fixing things. That always made him feel better.

"How does it feel to be going home? How long has it been?" She curiously and innocently wondered. Anakin wondered how she'd rate him on the callous scale if she knew what he'd done in the Tusken Raiders' village. I kill people. I've kill men, women, and children. But he always had a reason. So far he wasn't ashamed of anything he'd done, only the things he hadn't done. He wondered what Rex would make of it, a man who did his fair share of killing but had rules of engagement. He couldn't imagine Rex losing it and going on a killing spree no matter what the provocation.

He never answered her.

Hours passed and Rotta the Hutt slept peacefully on a bunk off the main compartment. Ahsoka checked on him every few minutes. Eventually she came back with a triumphant grin and held up a dribble-soaked piece of blanket. "Guess that medicine worked. His fever broke, I think he's gonna live to stink another day." Ahsoka quipped.

"Great. Keeping him alive wasn't as easy as you'd hoped, was it?" Anakin remarked, patching together some wires.

"Master, if you've taught me one thing, it's that nothing is easy when you're around." Ahsoka teased. "He's awake, and he's hungry. He's on the mend."

"That is so cute…" Anakin said in a flat, sarcastic tone.

"Try to see the positive side." Ahsoka chided in retort.

"Try to find him something more nourishing." Anakin fumbled in his pocket and tossed a small sealed package to her. "Here, he can have my dry rations. Hutts can digest anything. Just mash it all up with some water."

"Okay, I get it. You want to get Tatooine over with and get out." Ahsoka curtly responded. Explaining was asking for trouble. He let her go on thinking he was just a Tatooine boy who hated Hutts, like a lot of other humans who came into contact with them. Once again, he needed to change topics.

"You were afraid back there." He said aloud. Ahsoka stopped what she was doing and looked up. "I could sense it. Fear took complete hold of you when we were fighting that Sith." Anakin waited for a response, hearing nothing but sensing her emotions droop through the Force. "I know Rex told you it's good to be afraid. But what you felt back there was not what he was referring to. You were paralyzed, scared stiff." His thoughts and heart went out to her, it was perfectly understandable why she froze. Here she was, a fourteen year old girl, thrust into a war and her first real challenged involved one of the most brutal and ruthless combatants he'd seen so far. The closest comparison might've been that Gen'Dai Obi-Wan battled on Muunilinst, but Anakin had no first-hand experience with Durge.

"I'm sorry, Master." She quietly apologized. "I'll do better next time." Anakin exhaled softly, trying to find the right words to comfort her. He looked at the two-piece circuit board in front of him. Why didn't interpersonal things work like machines did?

"I'm not mad or disappointed, Ahsoka. But you know as well as I do that fear is a path to the Dark Side. You can do all kinds of things when you're afraid, and a lot of them will lead you astray." She put up a bold front and he'd give her credit for stuffing things down. But some things needed to be dealt with instead of ignored. "If that Sith is going to be a constant player in this game, you're going to wind up facing him again sooner or later." He turned as the Togruta took a seat next to him again. "I know he's scary but, hell, everyone you face in this war is gonna be scary. The trick is to make them not scary."

"Well… how am I supposed to do that?" She asked, genuinely wondering. Anakin didn't have an exact answer in mind and that bothered him.

"It's different for everyone. I look at droids like machines, I can take them apart just as easily as I can put them together." He proffered.

"I don't think holocoms can shoot you, Master."

"You've never been shocked by an improperly-wired direct current circuit, have you?" Anakin asked with a smirk. Ahsoka returned it, chuckling a little. "I wish I could give you a quick-fix, Ahsoka. Believe me, I do. Right now, all I can say is to trust in the Force. Let it handle your fear so you don't have to." Ahsoka leaned back in her seat, staring silent out the viewport as she dwelt on his words.

A few more hours later, the Twilight dropped out of hyperspace facing the twin suns, its viewport filters reducing the glare to an amber haze. Tatooine was just a black disk against the light. "I was hoping I'd never have to lay eyes on this dust ball again." Anakin muttered. He couldn't focus on that now, though, and primed the controls. "Ready, Artoo? Snips? Stinky?" Ahsoka tightened her restraints. Rotta lay oblivious of his destiny on a ledge in the cockpit.

"He's fed and sleeping." She answered.

"Okay, this is it. Snips, watch the scanner for anything that isn't supposed to be there." Anakin set the Twilight on course and had the laser cannon on standby. He wondered if this would be one of those rare, lucky times when the predictable worst didn't happen, but life wasn't like that, and Dooku was only thinking the way Anakin would have in his position. R2 whistled an inquiry concerning the defensive measures the ship had available. "No, Artoo, make sure that cannon is operational. Leave the rear deflector shields for later." His apprentice arched a brow.

"No rear shields, Master? That's awful risky…"

"A strong attack eliminates a need for defence, Snips." Anakin responded, guiding the ship forward as R2 wandered off to do his thing.

Tatooine loomed in the forward viewport, a mottled black and red dusty ball with high, wispy clouds that gave the false impression of seas on first glance. They'd hit the atmosphere soon. If anything was going to go wrong-

Sensor alarms sounded.

"Master, there's two traces on the scanner, moving on an intercept course. Attack ships closing!" Ahsoka exclaimed. Something smashed into the Twilight's hull, rocking them all. Anakin knew laserfire impact when he felt it.

"Somebody doesn't want Stinky home in one piece." Anakin mused, his body shuddering as another laser impact jarred them. "Ahsoka, stand by. I need to do a little maneuvering." Anakin swung the freighter in as tight a loop as he could and came about to face the attacking ships. He was expecting vultures, the ubiquitous air asset of the Separatist forces, but when he checked the scanner's magnified image what he could see picked out in the raw light from the twin suns was much, much worse.

Two Rogue-type Porax-38 fighters, piloted by the elite personal Magnaguard of General Grievous, were pursuing the ship.

Anakin was nose-to-nose with them in terms of the scale of space. The cannon was charged and primed; his only option was to open fire, because he'd never outrun those, not even if he jettisoned every last bolt in the ship. The Rogue fighters peeled away in opposite directions, looping to start an attack run on his blind spots.

Because that's what I would do if I were them. Anakin realized. "Cannons are locked in the forward position! Too bad you decided not to repair the rear deflector shields!" Ahsoka remarked.

"Are you doubting my choice, Padawan?" Anakin wondered with a cocky grin that read 'watch this'. He could fire on only one. He picked the first fighter that flashed in the reticle of the targeting array, and squeezed the button set in the steering yoke. White bolts of energy streaked toward the fighter, and it was swallowed in a ball of white fire.

"Wow, good shooting!" Ahsoka praised as she gripped the armrests of her seat as if she were digging in claws. "One down, one to go!" But, as Anakin had already worked out, life wasn't like that. He hated denting Ahsoka's faith in him to save them. Taking out a Porax-38 with a crate like this was lucky, very lucky, and Anakin had used up most of his lucky quota for the day. The other Porax was nowhere to be seen. Then the trace showed up on the scanner again, and Grievous's finest looked as if it was making a run on the Twilight's stern.

It was. Laserfire smacked into the cargo bay section, setting off alarms across the console and throughout the ship. There was a hull breach; atmosphere was venting. The hull creaked and screamed as if something was going to shear off.

"Hang on," Anakin ordered, as if there were anything else they could do. "I think we lost a maneuvering thruster as well." The freighter rolled. "Go secure Stinky!" Ahsoka snapped off her restraints and dived like a bolo-ball goalkeeper to grab Rotta before he rolled off the ledge. R2-D2 thrust out a clasper arm to steady himself. Anakin was now ahead of the Porax fighter with no functioning aft cannon and a lot of space between him and a landing… if he could land at all. The ship shuddered again as more laser rounds hit it. Without an aft canon, Anakin needed to find a way of firing astern.

"Master's there's no way to secure any of us! Not with your flying, anyway!" The Togruta retorted.

"Not now, Ahsoka!" Anakin cried, fighting with the controls. "Artoo, can you move the forward cannon past its safe range?" The arc of fire was limited so that freighter crews wouldn't blow their own vessel apart by firing too close to the hull. It was all too easily done when frantically emptying a magazine into a hostile vessel. "I need to move it one-eighty degrees." The droid plunged a probe into the console and bleeped, explaining that he was overriding the safety control, but that it was a very bad idea. "I think that's going to be academic, buddy!" Anakin said. More direct hits shook the freighter. R2-D2 burbled something about not having much of a hull left, and Anakin waited long seconds for the okay to fire. "Artoo, sometime before we plummet in flames would be good…!" He cried.

Then the Twilight shuddered dramatically as if in its death throes. Anakin waited for a ball of flame to come rolling through the ship, but the scanner showed an expanding ball of hot debris in the freighter's wake.

The Porax-38 was gone. R2-D2 spun his dome antenna in celebration, whistling happily. It was a very tight shot, he explained, and best done by a precise robotic hand, not a human, however good a gunner that human might be. "Nice shot, Artoo," Anakin complimented, breathing a sigh of relief, "I'll be out of a job soon if I don't buck up. If we useless meat-bags don't make it through a landing… you know where to take Rotta." Hutts didn't have bones, and they were basically an immensely strong bag of muscle. Stinky might survive a crash that killed humanoids. "Strap in, Ahsoka!" He ordered as he tightened his own restraints.

"You've got that 'we're in trouble' look." Ahsoka noted as she did so, Rotta in one arm.

"Sorry, Snips. I got you into this." He mumbled. Tatooine rushed up to greet him, and with an out-of-control ship, Anakin was even less pleased to see it than he'd imagined. Comm silence wasn't an issue now. He needed to get a message to Kenobi, just in case it was his and Ahsoka's last. "Master, this is Anakin. Are you receiving me? I'm making a crash landing on Tatooine. Rotta's alive, hostiles in pursuit, and..." He lost the comm frequency on reentry. But at least Kenobi now knew they'd come this far. He looked to see Ahsoka shielding Rotta with her body. He didn't have the heart to tell her that she could have used a Hutt as a crash bag. "Ahsoka, Artoo, brace for impact." Anakin urged, voice strong and focused despite the unfolding emergency. "Because this is going to hurt a bit…"


"Your plan's fallen apart." Ziro the Hutt rasped. "I've got a Senator here begging me to tell Jabba the kidnap is a plot by you to discredit the Jedi." Dooku had no time for those quick to panic, especially not when he had to hunt down Skywalker. He stood in front of the hologram in his best you're-not-backing-out-on-me-now pose.

In the quiet, private space of his personal ship, the Count had gotten in touch with the second end of this complex plan. Ziro the Hutt, Jabba's uncle, was a Coruscant crime lord who ruled a good portion of the underworld right under the Republic's pompous nose. The scab beneath the makeup. Dooku hated dealing with such lowlifes, but he was willing to do what was necessary in order to ensure the Confederacy achieved its true goals. "My plan, is it? Let's not forget this was an agreement for mutual advantage." He countered in a stern tone.

"Okay, okay, our plan." The corpulent slug corrected. "It's still in tatters."

"Think this through, Lord Ziro. Of course there'll be those who think the Separatists are behind this. And there'll be those who think the Republic is. I'm certain that Jabba thinks both sides are equally capable of it and trusts neither, so all he wants is proof of who's guilty this time. I've got it under control. I've told Jabba that the Jedi murdered his son, and that they're on their way to kill him, too." He stated. Ziro wobbled with exasperation.

"Jabba will kill the Jedi on sight!"

"Will you lose any sleep over that?" Dooku inquired calmly and plainly

"No, but-"

"If Jabba kills the Jedi, then the Jedi Order, exercising their great moral authority, will be obliged to bring Jabba to justice. Which means you're left to take control of all the Hutt clans. That's what you want, isn't it?" He pressed in that smooth, elegeant tone of superiority that won him over as a public speaker. Ziro's ghostly blue image considered Dooku in silence for a moment, as if the Hutt lord had suddenly realized something.

"Ah. So that's how you intended to do it." He murmured after some thought.

"Does that not meet your needs?"

"It does, Count Dooku." The Hutt confirmed.

"It meets mine, too. I get a dead Jedi or two out of it, and my armies get sole access to the Outer Rim. Why does the strategy come as a surprise?"

"Jabba would lose authority if he was seen to be held to ransom by the Republic. That would have been enough to unseat him. But your way is much more emphatic." Ziro concurred, praising him. This Hutt was a groveller, far less imposing or threatening than Jabba. Easily manipulated, just as Dooku preferred them.

He smiled. It was reassuring to think that it looked so seamless from the outside. Yes, it was planned, but the plan had needed constant adjustment every time one component had failed, and it still did. "I'm glad we're both happy, Lord Ziro."

"But what do I do with this Senator?" Ziro demanded.

"Ignore her." Dooku stated simply. "What else would a Republic Senator claim? Of course she'll accuse the filthy enemy of doing something outrageous. Counterpropaganda, conspiracy theory, call it what you will. Governments in wars accuse one another, their own people included. It would only be worthy of attention if she didn't."

"I can't ignore her." Ziro was very slow on the uptake sometimes, considering his flashes of subtle gamesmanship, and for a moment Dooku wondered if he was trying to get him to say something incriminating on record. That struck Dooku as amusing, given recent events. He checked the chrono. He had to cut this short and plan for the inevitable. He had Jedi to kill.

"Senators are very accident-prone individuals." He mused after a time. "See that she has one, and my contacts will ensure that's how it's recorded. A tragic waste of a young and promising politician. State funeral. You know the drill." There was a faint scuffle at Ziro's end of the link, and the Hutt turned suddenly as if someone had come into the chamber. One of his sentry droids appeared in the image dragging Senator Padme Amidala.

"No, I meant that I have no option to ignore her." Ziro clarified, the truth made evident. "She shot a sentry droid when he caught her spying on me. So an accident is the only choice now." Dooku looked at her, and that meant she could see him. This was why he often preferred audio-only comlinks, but the fact that she'd seen him changed nothing.

"Senator," he politely greeted, even bowing. "How are you? I'm late for another appointment, so you'll have to excuse me." The young Nabooian looked contemptuous of him. She usually did.

"So you're behind this, you poisonous traitor." She spat.

"Senator, I wish we could get one thing straight: I'm not a traitor. I was never on your side. I'm called the enemy." Dooku retorted. He had to leave now. "Lord Ziro, you might want to rethink my accident suggestion. Some of my Separatist allies will pay you a handsome price for her." He added, savouring the look on Padme's face, the subtle fear hidden behind a thin shield of defiance. Ziro blinked as if he was basking in warm sunlight.

"Excellent suggestion, Count Dooku. I can defray the costs of replacing my droid, too." He realized gleefully.

"Keep the change." Dooku remarked, and shut the link. No sooner had he stored his commlink away than the sound of boots resounded within his ship. The Count turned and watched as one of his two Apprentices, the one who truly impressed and had come a long way in his training, Jayden enter and stand before his Master.

Without a word, Jayden held out a holoprojector, a planetary map of Tatooine was revealed, along with a single blinking signal above the world.

"Skywalker survived the trip over." Dooku quietly noted. "And now we spring our final trap for the Jedi."

"Yes, Master." Jayden nodded.

Dooku gave a rare smile as he placed a hand on Jayden's shoulder. "You've done well, Jayden. I knew I didn't make a mistake when I found you all those years ago and took you on as my Apprentice along with Ventress. You understand your mission, yes?"

"Find Skywalker, his Padawan and the Huttlet... and kill them all." Jayden said darkly and coldly.

Dooku nodded. "Taking the life of an innocent child is a hard thing, but it must be done in service of a greater cause. In war, there are no innocents. Do what must be done, Lord Khan. Do not hesitate, show no mercy. I will deal with Skywalker personally. You will pursue his Apprentice. Remember, she must live past the encounter so that Jabba might have someone to direct his rage towards."


In the Dune Sea…

The Twilight was full of fire-suppressant foam, sand, and smoke. But it had landed, and everyone was alive.

"Well… the landing was a little rough." The Knight mused as he pulled himself from the wreckage. Then he turned to help his Padawan out.

"Crashing is rough. Landing is not." Ahsoka retorted.

"That's why it's called a 'crash landing'." Anakin quipped. He scrambled clear and checked for immediate enemy activity, but the desert looked as empty and lifeless as ever. His next thought was to open a comm frequency to Kenobi. It was just static. "Snips, have you got a comm channel to me, or offplanet?" He asked. She checked, frowning at the comlink.

"No, just noise."

"They've jammed everything, then. I'd hoped I lost Obi-Wan's signal because of reentry, but obviously the Seps are getting smarter." He pulled the hood of his tunic over his head to protect himself from the blistering sun and beckoned to Ahsoka. "All clear." She crawled out of the wreckage with Rotta tucked in the backpack. The Huttlet was now alert and curious, with no sign that he'd ever appeared to be at death's door.

"Wow, feel that heat." She whispered in awe, even the air tasted thick and barely breathable. "How far do we have to go?" Anakin gestured to the horizon at a cluster of turrets and extravagant domes shimmering in the heat haze. The sand slowed even the fittest, and they had no survival kit, which didn't bode well; they also had a slug with them, a species not exactly fitted to dry, dusty environments.

"That's Jabba's palace on the far side of the dune sea, and we've got a few hours' walk ahead. Not a great idea in this heat."

"Should we wait until it gets dark?" Ahsoka wondered, playing upon her limited survival training she learned at the Temple.

"I don't think we can afford to delay, Snips." Anakin was used to the desert, but he still didn't underestimate its capacity to kill him as surely as Dooku would. "So I'll take the Hutt. You grab as many water bottles as you can carry." R2-D2 rumbled out of the wreckage, beeping plaintively. Ahsoka coaxed him out. He didn't like sand.

"Come on, Artooie. I know. Nasty abrasive stuff. Don't worry, we'll give you a full service when all this is over." She promised. Whistling in begrudging agreement, the astromech jetted down into the sand. Anakin glanced around, he knew there would be eyes on them. There was nowhere to hide in open desert.

But the attention wasn't directed at them. Not yet, anyway. Instead, the locals were more interesting in what was left of the Twilight. A couple of hundred meters into their hike, he looked back over his shoulder to see scavenging Jawas swarming over the wreckage like insects, dismantling sections and forming a chain to carry away everything they could detach or lift.

R2-D2 swiveled his dome to watch, too, and beeped. He didn't fancy meeting Jawas in a dark alley, he said. It was the hydrospanners that disturbed him.

"Don't worry, that's never going to happen to you, buddy." Anakin promised. "Come on. Keep up."

All they could do was keep putting one foot in front of the other, and not concentrate on how far they had to go. The sun was relentless, not a cloud above or a single source of relief in sight. Ahsoka wiped her brow, the temperature readily taking its toll on her. She needed to focus on something other than walking, and the endless desert… and the heat…

"Master Yoda has a saying, 'Old sins cast long shadows'. Do you know what he means by that?" She asked. Anakin knew where she was trying to go with this.

"He means your past can ruin your future if you allow it." He described, having heard the same lesson once before. "But you forget it was Master Skywalker who said 'I don't want to talk about my past'." He added. Ahsoka huffed.

"Okay, fine. There is so much more we can talk about out here. Like… the sand." She tried again. Anakin loosed a grumbling sigh. He hated sand. It was course, rough irritating, not to mention it gets everywhere.

"The desert is merciless. It takes everything from you." He muttered irritably.

"That's a happy thought…" Ahsoka trailed off in a mumble. "It won't take us, Master. Right, Artooie?" R2 beeped his approval. Even Rotta squeaked his own version of assent. Ahsoka had made a bonnet of sorts out of a sheet of bulkhead insulation, and draped it over Rotta's head. Anakin could hear it rustling against the edge of the backpack. "It's a shame you can't see him, Skyguy. He really does look cute." She commented.

"If we see a vendor selling Neuvian sundaes, I'll buy him one." Anakin said crossly. Ahsoka started looking around as they passed the bones of a long-dead Krayt dragon, hoping for similar points of interest close by.

"So this is home." She mused aloud. Anakin could tell she was trying again.

"No." He stated firmly. There would be no debating things this time.

"Tell me about it." She insisted.

"No." He said in an even firmer tone.

"Okay..."

"The more you talk, the more you dehydrate." He said gruffly. Anakin wasn't sure if that was true, but he thought it was good advice for both of them. "The desert's a killer that way."

"I understand." The Togruta said quietly. Anakin had a horrible feeling that, even without knowing the details, she probably did.

They kept up steady pace all afternoon, stopping for regular water breaks and to check on Rotta. He gurgled happily. For a slug, he seemed to be coping with the dry heat well. Maybe it was the slime acting as a protective barrier. By the time the twin suns were edging close to the horizon, the temperature had fallen from near-unbearable to a balmy stiflingly hot. In a few hours, though, it might plummet close to freezing. The desert was out to get the unprepared every moment of the day.

Anakin felt a chill now, but it wasn't the climate. He stopped. "Feel it?" He asked. Ahsoka half closed her eyes, reaching out with combined predatory senses and the Force.

"Yes. We're not alone."

"It's the Dark Side. It's Dooku. He's coming for Rotta." Anakin stated, already working through the stages of a plan.

"He's not going to get him. Over my dead body." Ahsoka promised in a determined tone.

"Oh, he'll oblige, Snips…" Anakin replied, "time to split up."

"Master, I can do this. I don't need protecting. We should stick together." Ahsoka insisted.

"No, I have a far more important mission for you. I need you to get Rotta back to his father." Anakin scrambled up a slope and squatted on the top of the ridge, pointing out features in the desert that were almost invisible in the unending sand. "See that gully between those rocks? It's part of a network of ancient riverbeds. Take Artoo and follow it. Watch out for Dooku's droids, too. If he's borrowed any more hardware from Grievous, they'll be out searching, and there's not much cover out here, even at night. They've probably got infrared sensors." Ahsoka looked at him blankly for a moment as if digesting the enormity of the mission.

"But Dooku..."

"I'll deal with Dooku. He'll come after me." Anakin stated. Ahsoka looked at him in disbelief.

"You're crazy."

"You're best suited to a stealthy approach, and I'm the more experienced at fighting the likes of Dooku. You can't argue with that logic." Anakin replied.

"No, I can't." She relented.

"But you will." Anakin wondered. Ahsoka shook her head.

"No, Master, I won't." It was getting easier. They'd cracked it now, this Master and Padawan business. Maybe it took a war to shake things down, because he didn't remember falling into line that fast, and he wasn't sure he ever had. He nodded at her and smiled a little, the first one since they'd crashed.

"Give me the backpack. We need to make a decoy so that I look like I'm still a devoted guardian of Stinky…"


Later that night…

Anakin was almost grateful that he could feel Dooku coming. It stopped his thoughts wandering too far. He sat meditating in the cold night air, a backpack strapped to his shoulders, staring at the three moons without blinking so that they became a blur and quieted his mind. His breathing had slowed; his pulse rate had dropped dramatically. In that state, and he reached it rarely these days, things spoke to him… and he didn't always want to hear them.

There were layers in his awareness. At the top, he searched for Ahsoka moving through the dunes toward Jabba's palace with Rotta and, he hoped, R2-D2. They should have been almost there by now. He couldn't detect his astromech, however hard he tried, only the disturbances to living organisms that the droid sometimes created. Ahsoka had faded, too, drowned out by the Force impressions in the deeper layers, where Anakin felt Dooku. Precise, targeted, controlled, the Count was like a firaxa shark slicing through an ocean.

In the depths beneath that, though, there was Tatooine.

It wasn't just memories. It was the accumulated misery, greed, and desperation of ages, generations of beings in poverty and servitude, and his small experience of that was barely visible in the mass. It was the voice that got to him. A wordless voice whispered, asking why he did as he was told and never asked the obvious questions, or demanded answers.

Why didn't you make them come back for her? Why didn't you see she was throwing you to safety, sacrificing herself and sinking back into this terrible ocean so that you could have a chance at life? Why didn't you come back sooner, change the course of events, and rescue her before it was too late?

He never needed to define her. She was his mother. Tonight, she blotted out everything, even thoughts of his wife. The irony of his task, saving a Hutt, teetered on the brink of being a final message… an ultimatum to his sanity.

You must save who you can from now on. You must save those who deserve it.

Dooku got closer. Anakin rose from the depths of the Tatooine that never left him, surfacing through eddies of Dooku and Ahsoka and breaking a surface that was simply ripples made by distant strife on other worlds. He adjusted the straps of his backpack.

Dooku must have known that the sound of the speeder bike carried a long way in the desert at night. Anakin wondered why he didn't attempt an ambush. But neither of them needed physical evidence to find one another, and they couldn't hide. The Knight heard the drive cut out a few meters away. Each footstep crunched in the sand.

Finally, Dooku stood before him, robe flapping in the breeze. Something else caused a disturbance in the Force, but Anakin could concentrate only on Dooku now, and ignored it. He stood up, adjusting the pack on his back, and activated his lightsaber. "Give me the Huttlet, Skywalker," Dooku ordered quietly. "Or I'll have to kill you." He'd swallowed the ruse, then.

"I think you were going to do that anyway."

"Very well." The tone of the confrontation was strangely courteous, like an Irmenu noblemen's duel. Dooku threw out his hand and sent Force lightning crackling across the sand toward Anakin, lighting up the night. Anakin evaded the bolts and channeled the lightning to his lightsaber. "You're making progress." Dooku remarked.

"My powers have doubled since the last time we met." Anakin responded. The Count lunged forward with his lightsaber, forcing Anakin back, then somersaulted over him.

"Being here is painful, isn't it? Your home. Too many ghosts to contemplate. Stayed away too long, perhaps..." Anakin whipped his hand up almost without thinking and sent a Force whirlwind of sand sweeping from the dunes. It spun toward Dooku, enveloping him and almost knocking him to the ground. The Count crouched for a moment as it passed over him, cloak pulled tight around him, and then stood again, lightsaber outstretched. "Was I being insensitive?" He asked in a vaguely sneering tone, and walked forward. "We all have to face our ghosts, Anakin. I face mine. They never go away, you know. They can be a burden, like that Hutt you're carrying, or a teacher, if you learn to live with them."

Did Dooku know about Shmi Skywalker? He seemed to know everything else, or maybe it was the trick of a fortune-teller, casting generalities to get a client to react and reveal specifics. Whatever it was, Anakin couldn't walk away from it or shut it out. He felt every shred of pain, his and his mother's, and lunged for Dooku with his lightsaber. His attack was blind and ferocious, oblivious of the dead weight on his back, slashing and whirling at the Count until he drove him back to the softer sand where he'd lose his footing.

But Dooku had been a master duelist, even among Jedi, and Anakin forgot that for a pain-blinded moment. Dooku ducked under his frantic sweeps and spun around behind him, slashing through the rigid backpack almost to Anakin's spine. The sudden movement of the rocks packed tightly inside made Anakin pause to get his balance. "Oh dear," Dooku said mildly, "I seem to have cut Rotta in half."

"You wish." Anakin held out his lightsaber to fend off Dooku while he released the straps and let the backpack fall to the sand. Rocks spilled out. Dooku raised his eyebrows.

"Good grief, not a Hutt at all…" He murmured. It dawned on Anakin too slowly that Dooku wouldn't have been so easily fooled. This is a game. He's playing for time. Just when Anakin thought he'd passed that elusive finishing line that said adult, experienced, seen it all, he realized he was still twenty, Jedi or not, and the wounded boy in him still rose to the surface-provoked into angry violence, scared of abandonment, and still in need of approval.

Dooku was playing decoy.

"You're too late, anyway." Anakin retorted in a low, dangerous tone. He had to choose: fight Dooku to the end, or make a run for it and try to get to Ahsoka. He had his eye on the speeder bike. "She'll be at Jabba's palace by now."

"I expected such treachery from a Jedi. I assure you, my web is strong enough to catch your little Padawan." Dooku stated.

"She's more skillful than you think." Anakin stated, believing every word.

"You'll note I didn't ask where she was," Dooku said calmly, his expression unfazed. "And I know you can't comm her. But I can tell you all about a friend she's run into." At first, Anakin thought some mind-trick was being played on him. But the Count stood stationary, merely allowing the unsettling silence the time it needed for doubt to gnaw away at Anakin. When the flash of understanding crossed his eyes, Dooku smiled plainly. "Jabba's son is still a casualty of war, alas, but your Padawan is being delivered to Jabba alive, after my Apprentice is done with her." Dooku carved a slow figure-eight in the air with the tip of his lightsaber. "Jabba needs to vent his grief on something… and he won't have you to play with, will he?"

Anakin sprinted for the speeder.

He had it airborne the moment he settled into the saddle. Dooku seemed to give chase, but Anakin lost him in a cloud of sand. As he raced for Jabba's palace, he had no idea whether this was still part of Dooku's maneuvering. Am I really stronger than him, or did he choose to let me escape? Why did he tell me that, to fool me or to demoralize me into dropping my guard in a fight? Why did he...

Anakin stopped thinking. It would only distract him. He'd made his decision; he had to follow through. The only thing he knew was that Dooku had tried to delay him for a reason, and he had to take the risk that the decoy wasn't simply to provoke him into rushing to the palace.

Maybe Ahsoka had run into the Sith from Teth after all. Maybe she was already at the palace, reuniting Jabba with his son. The only way to find out was to get there…


Elsewhere…

Jabba's palace was less a shimmering mirage and more of a real stone structure now, towering tall above the desert and casting a bold silhouette across the dunes. There was a path to follow now instead of tromping across the dunes and Ahsoka followed it gratefully. With the Huttlet strapped to her back using a pair of makeshift bindings, Anakin's plan had worked and she'd evaded the Separatists, which allowed her to approach Jabba's castle unhindered. Rounding around rock outcrops and small cliffsides, the Togruta could feel victory within her grasp. So close… so close to delivering Rotta and succeeding, in spite of all the Separatists had thrown at them. Take that, tinnies. She thought with a grin.

Suddenly, R2 let out an alarmed squeal behind her at the same time her Force senses bristled. Rotta wailed, as if able to sense they danger they were in too, and Ahsoka whirled to face the danger. Her saber hilt flew into her grip, emerald blade igniting with a brilliant flash as her opponent revealed himself.

It was the Sith from Teth.

"Surrender the Huttlet or die, Jedi." The Sith demanded before he fired a blast of Force Lightning at her, which she quickly raised her Lightsaber to block but was pushed back since she had never had to block Force Lightning, not like any Jedi would use it due to it's use by Sith and Dark Side users.

"I don't think so." Ahsoka said with a firm glare. She won't let fear overwhelm her again like it did on Teth, after watching this Sith slaughter those Clones and stalk for her and Anakin like they were nothing.

The Sith said nothing, merely grabbing his Lightsaber and ignited it. The red crossguard saber hummed, it's red glow illuminating the masked, expressionless face of the Sith, the black line-shaped visor staring at her.

Beneath that visor, Jayden sized her up. All she knew was Form VI, nothing more. Not so much a Padawan and just a little more than a child in all honesty. Still, he wasn't about to give her any quarter.

He lunged and his weapon clashed with Ahsoka's. Sparks exploded from their clash before Jayden went on the warpath, striking with the force of a hurricane. Ahsoka went on the backpedal, her blade held in a defensive reverse grip as she parried each of his mighty swings. But he kept coming, he wasn't going to stop for anything, and she fought back the rising air as his saber clashed with hers.

Jayden summoned the Force for a boost, pushing hard against the teenage Togruta's defences. Ahsoka struggled against him, feeling her boots sliding across loose rock as he powered ahead. Her wide eyes locked with his dark stare as she drank in his metal visage. "A-Artoo!" She called out. Rotta had to get to Jabba no matter what, maybe he could do the job while she held this thing off for as long as she could.

The droid misinterpreted her intentions and, instead, rolled up behind the Sith with an electro-prod extending from his chassis. He gave him a quick zap, watching as arcs of electricity were rippled across his body. Earning his gaze, R2 soon found himself flying through the air after a hard back-kick, squealing as he did.

"Artoo!" Ahsoka cried in dismay, forced to duck and roll as the Sith swung for her head. The Togruta sprang to her feet behind him, turning around just in time for a heavy push kick from her foe to come crushing into her abdomen and knocked the wind out of her.

Falling off her feet with as spluttering gasp, Ahsoka pitched back and tumbled down the cliffside behind her, sliding to a halt on the sandy ground below. Rotta whined from his perch, squealing in irritation and concern. "And here I thought you liked playing in the sand…" Ahsoka groaned.

She looked up and saw her foe standing at the top of the cliff before he threw his free arm forward, sending a burst of sand right at her with the Force. Ahsoka cried out as some of the sand got into her eyes and she had to cover her face to prevent more from blinding her.

Now she can see what Anakin meant about hating sand. It's so rough! It get's everywhere!

She blinked the sand out of her eyes and her Force senses quickly alerted her to her potential danger and death as Jayden jumped down for a downward slash from the air. Ahsoka quickly jumped out the way, making sure the Huttlet was secure with her, as Jayden's Lightsaber struck the sand. The Sith stood, twirling his Lightsaber casually as they circled one another, analysing and examining each other.

Jayden didn't sense the fear of him that she had back on Teth. Her fear came from the way he slaughtered those Clones, the way he did so without hesitation, without remorse, without guilt, without mercy, he did it with a small sense of satisfaction. The Dark Side purred at his actions as he used it's power to slaughter those Clones. This young Togruta should fear him... for she will join those Clones, and then more Jedi will follow.

Jayden struck first with a growl, but Ahsoka blocked, pushed him back before twirling around for a stab attempt only for Jayden to parry that and nearly take her head off had she not ducked in time. She tried going for his legs, but Jayden used the Force to redirect her attack into the sand, then brought his own saber down but Ahsoka quickly blocked that and pushed him back with a Force push that had him sliding along the sand a little, leaving trenches in his wake. He shrugged it off as he straightened, then used the Force to blow another gust od sand at Ahsoka but she quickly dived out of the way.

However, Jayden Force-leaped over and nearly took her head off had she not ducked. She stumbled back from him as Jayden watched her with that cold, expressionless mask covering his face. Ahsoka panted a little as she tightened her grip on her Lightsaber. The only thing heard was the humming of their Lightsabers and Rotta's fearful whines.

"You won't kill him. I won't allow it." Ahsoka said with determined certainty.

Jayden almost chuckled at her bravery, but he held it back. "We shall see."

They charged and their sabers clashed in a saber lock. Ahsoka glared into the black visor of Jayden's mask while he stared back coldly, not that she saw it but she sure felt his cold gaze through that mask. She took a step forward, trying to push him back which worked as he backed up one step before he pushed back just as hard. He then surprised her when he kicked her in the midsection, swung his Lightsaber and scraped her arm.

"Ahh!" Ahsoka screamed as she backed away, falling to her knees and looking at her arm. It would be sure to scar when it's fully healed. She hissed in pain before she sensed danger and rolled out of the way to avoid Jayden going for the killing strike. However, as she dodged, Jayden swung his Lightsaber again and cut the straps of her makeshift bindings and Rotta fell to the ground with a wail. "Stinky!"

Jayden took advantage and kicked her in the face, knocking her onto her back. The Sith Apprentice turned his attention to the Huttlet and raised his Lightsaber to end the little slug's life.

Ahsoka heard his cries and instantly jerked her head towards him, reaching out with the Force as she felt Rotta's fear and sensed Jayden's intentions, recognizing the immediate danger the Huttlet was in across the span of half a second.

Her reaction followed in even less time, her maternal instincts kicking in and driving her beyond anything pain or daze could hinder.

"No… No!" She screamed, lashing out with the Force. In a split second, her mind had carved a pathway to his as she felt out his thoughts and intentions. Using that path, she generated a telekinetic blast that could not be seen, only felt. Jayden was thrown off of his feet with a grunt and slammed into a hill of sand so hard that he was buried within it and the sand filled the hole he had made, burying him under tons of sand.

Ahsoka panted to herself at her outburst and deactivated her Lightsaber. She was exhausted from that fight. That Sith was a skilled fighter, no doubt trained by Count Dooku himself. She had a feeling she would see him again, many times in fact, as this war goes on.

Her focus was only broken by a cry from Rotta, the Huttlet still writhing on the desert ground. "W-What…? Oh, sorry Stinky." She apologized, shaking her head and getting back to reality. "Let's get you home." The threat had passed, now to finish things and return Rotta to where he belonged…


Meanwhile, inside the palace…

"Lord Jabba, we've located Skywalker." The captain of the Nikto guard came in at a brisk walk. "He's approaching the palace on a speeder bike. I've positioned snipers on the roof. Permission to use lethal force, my lord?" Jabba concentrated on not letting grief overwhelm him. Anger was a good temporary antidote, a brief respite of cold focus.

"Nobata, koose jen nei nem." He commanded. "Jee banag jen bai toupee mi haku goo doth woy cay mah wei baa pahma. Catke cohka da, Jee cha banag bai doth bom bom momeu vehpobaee killee jen. Jee hatkocanh doutmaya wa kouciukoee bacogna vehpobaee fa, in ting. An hee bu Sarlacc hatkocanh paknee ata wa kouciukoee don keemon dokwacha roy bai wat jen. Nobata, Jee nah kanbiusa Skywalker cay wa momeu kahka." Jabba had his full entourage assembled. He wanted to crawl into a dark corner and bellow until the agonizing emptiness in his chest stopped, but he had to be seen to be strong and still in control. If he wasn't, the kajidic families, and so Hutt society, would fall into chaos and leave Hutts weak. He needed an audience to witness that even in his darkest moment, he remained in command.

A Nerrian piper played a lament in the background. Rotta's crib lay empty to one side of the dais. Eventually, Jabba heard droid footsteps, and TC-70 walked in carrying a lightsaber. "Skywalker surrendered his weapon without a fight, my lord," the droid revealed. "He asked for his Padawan." Nikto and human footsteps came down the passage. Skywalker entered almost casually, certainly not a human preparing to die, and looked around as if he expected to see something. His focus seemed to fall on the empty crib. Then he looked at the piper.

"Lord Jabba, where's my Padawan?" He demanded and Jabba noted his strong Mos Espan accent. "Where's your son?" The piper stopped in midrefrain. Jabba didn't dare look away from the Jedi in case his rage now boiled over and left him helpless.

"Mah wei... doth peee uba jot bo pahma, uba killya Jeedai koumihox'a." He growled.

"Your son is alive, unless Dooku's Apprentice killed him along with my Padawan! She was bringing him… she should have been here by now." Anakin retorted. Jabba edged forward a little and snarled.

"Whao uba doth kae baua yae koochoo, Jee hatkocanh paknee ata mee kouwahh bakang bai hhacs mi peee becmi koutmhekala. Um uba bla ten, Skywalker, heoi pee uba doth cueoukesa wata wata, wa bou, wa pacin shag, an hee uba bla uba kantiuka mi du mah kouzaga." TeeCee was about to translate, but it proved unnecessary. The Jedi understood every word. Anakin paused for a moment, blinking.

None of them could sense the dark rage that blossomed in his soul.

And then, reached out his hand, the lightsaber hilt TC-70 was holding flew across the chamber and into the Jedi's grip, and within seconds the Nikto guards had crashed against the wall as if thrown by an invisible hand. Anakin ignited the weapon and batted away blaster fire before leaping onto the dais and holding the glowing blade to Jabba's throat.

The court collectively gasped, some of the women shrieking in horror. Jabba should have been outraged, but for a moment he felt that it would have been an end to the pain he was in. Then he found habit taking over. He did what he had always done; he sat defiant and unmoved. Hutts couldn't run. They'd made stalwart defense into a tactic instead. "Hee Dooku doth saptkhe," Jabba rumbled. "Uba killee mah wei, an ateema uba nan bai je killya." Jabba knew the Nikto guards couldn't open fire. They risked hitting him, and Skywalker might kill him simply by deflecting the bolts. Everyone froze.

"No, I didn't come here to assassinate you." Skywalker actually looked into his eyes. Jabba could see that it was a struggle for him. "I came here to negotiate."

"Hee kuna kee bancaie chateua, shag." Jabba stated defiantly.

"Somewhere out in the desert, my Padawan is making her way here with Rotta. She's been attacked by a Sith, I know that. I even fought Dooku to get here! Instead of having your heavies make themselves useless, why don't they get out and look for her?" Anakin demanded.

"Andoba kouwahh bakang ree wa koudanwohola, Jeedai?" Jabba glowered, assessing the Jedi. Surely he must have known he would be overwhelmed sooner or later, so he was buying time. Jabba felt no fear. He had no room for it right then. "Lohba!" He boomed. "Neu whao bu Jeedai baa cuewahkeu doth nan. Hee killee hoohah!" He swiveled his head to stare at Skywalker, trying to see something in the human's face that would explain how he could kill an infant. Humans, most sentient species for that matter, were disarmed by something small and helpless, even if it wasn't their own kind. It was a very primal instinct. Jabba even found baby humans quite appealing… until they grew up, of course.

But Skywalker killed children. It made him something dangerous and different. Jabba consoled himself thinking how easily humans broke, and the many ways he could break them.

The minutes ticked away. Anakin's time was running out. Jabba could see sweat on his top lip.

"My lord Jabba!" The guard's voice rang down the corridor, the nearest Jabba had heard to a Nikto sounding excited. "The Jedi's here with her droid! She's got him! It's not an explosive device!"

Him?

It took Jabba a few moments to take that in. He turned his head slowly, steeling himself against the inevitable plunge into deeper grief at a dashed hope. It couldn't mean that. It couldn't.

A tiny Togruta female, looking disheveled with her arms and shoulders cut multiple times while her skin was caked with sand and a Lightsaber wound on her upper left arm, stumbled into the chamber carrying a bundle on her back that was too big for her. She twisted from the hip, almost collapsing, as she set it down on the dais.

"Well done, Snips." Anakin praised, relieved. He let out a long sigh and shut down the lightsaber. "You look awful." She offered him a tired smile and shrugged. The Togruta unwrapped the bundle, and Jabba didn't quite manage to maintain an icy dignity. His composure slipped, but he caught it quickly.

"Rotta…?" He gasped. Rotta gurgled and squealed happily at the sound of his voice. "Kon… Kon jen nei." TC-70 stepped in.

"Lord Jabba says to put his son in his arms." Ahsoka made to do so. She looked as if it was one more effort she could hardly make, but she lifted Rotta into his arms. His son felt lighter and thinner, but he was alive. He was alive and well. Rotta squealed in delight upon seeing his father.

"Punky muffin!" Jabba cried as he embraced his beloved Huttlet.

"There you go, Stinky." Ahsoka whispered. She gave him one of those smiles, all teeth. "Safe with Dad again. I'll miss you." Jabba would have replied in her language, in Basic, but he had an image to maintain. This was his world. Foreigners spoke his language.

The court seemed to breathe again. The piper struggled for a happier tune, and the servants chattered excitedly. Jabba had his son back. He was barely able to believe it. Dooku had conned him, but so had the Jedi. They were all the same, these humans, only after his favor for what they could wring out of it in their interminable little squabbles. He wouldn't let relief get in the way of business yet.

"Ateema, Jeedai," Jabba rumbled, levelling a fat finger towards the pair, "uba bancaie chateua."

"You are to be executed immediately." TeeCee stated in monotone.

"WHAT?!" The two Jedi exclaimed in unison. Lightsabers snapped on as blasters were raised, adrenaline flowing hard and fast. "Does this always happen to you?!" Ahsoka wondered.

"Every damn place I go!" Anakin responded. He decided he should have known better. It would take more than a tearful reunion, if Hutts had that depth of feeling in them, to make Jabba see reason. "Okay, I'm the one you've got the problem with," Anakin called out. "Let Ahsoka leave with my astromech. She saved your son a dozen times since we found him on Teth. She doesn't deserve this." He bargained. Ahsoka's eyes darted from face to face; she didn't speak Huttese. She had no idea what Jabba would reply with, other than that the trouble wasn't over. She looked like she'd fought off an army. The Sith from Teth was not a battle droid. Anakin was amazed she'd survived.

She saved Rotta. In the end, she saved him, I didn't. I can't save anyone even when I try.

All of a sudden, Jabba's personal commlink began to flash, indicating an incoming transmission. TC checked on it immediately. "Your uncle Ziro is contacting us." It revealed, triggering the release of the holoprojector. A figure flickered into place, a woman, a human woman at that. A human woman Anakin recognized.

Padme. My wife. Hey, that's my wife!

The hologram of Padme appeared instantly, as if she'd been waiting for a long time to take the message. "Lord Jabba. I am Senator Amidala of the Galactic Congress." She bowed her head, ever the diplomat. "Your uncle Ziro has been arrested after conspiring with Count Dooku to kidnap your son and depose you, and incriminating the Jedi to sabotage negotiations with the Republic."

"Chiia fa."

TC-70 translated. "Lord Jabba says prove it."

"You can speak to Ziro now, Lord Jabba, from the custody cell." Padme leaned out of the margin of the image, and her place was taken by a hologram of a Hutt.

"Uba cua dan gee wa dan dokoza, Ziro…" Jabba growled. Ziro started begging right away, in Basic to the surprise of the Jedi.

"Jabba, my dear nephew! I would never harm Rotta! Dooku made me do it! He threatened me, he threatened to kill me..."

"Uba saiit yom jot jen!" Jabba thundered. "Heoi pee joppay Jee yoieu Han see uba, Jee hatkocanh woy uba bkoha biw da Yih wohot tee cahweba Yih! Jee gee neu biweoo. Eeth mi bata bai bu Banokon." Padme reappeared. Anakin edged into the transmitter's field of view so she could see him. She smiled, a little distant, but he could see she was playing the politician today. Their marriage was a secret as much for her sake as his.

"Lord Jabba says Ziro will be punished most severely." TC summarized. Padme nodded in understanding before shifting her attention to her husband.

"General Skywalker," she greeted, bowing her head again. "Thank you for your assistance in resolving this."

"And thank you, Senator." Anakin hoped he was doing his gritty warrior expression, but judging by the look on Ahsoka's face, he wasn't succeeding. It was hard to stand at the brink of death and have your secret love intervene, and not let that show on your face. "Padawan Tano, Captain Rex, and Torrent Company of the Five-oh-first were all instrumental in achieving this."

And there goes Padme, saving me.

She smiled her professional smile again, but she almost winked.

"Lord Jabba, perhaps we can now agree on Republic use of your routes for military traffic, and bring this war to an end." Jabba, bouncing Rotta on his belly the way a human would use their knee, laughed raucously, like his old self.

"Toupee bu Banokon fa baa wa bargon. An Jee banag Dooku koose bai choiala bom bom."

"Mighty Jabba says you have a deal, Senator, and asks that Count Dooku be brought to justice as well." TC translated. That was the moment at which Anakin felt he could safely let his legs give way to the adrenaline, and fall off the dais. Instead, he simply stepped down, beckoned to Ahsoka to follow him, and walked out of the chamber to find R2-D2.

If he ever came back to Tatooine again, it would be too soon.


Later, outside Jabba's Palace…

Jayden. Was. Furious!

His rage built and built until it was a damn ready to burst and the storm to explode with destruction in it's wake. For several minutes, or hours, he didn't know anymore, he had tried crawling out of the sand but he was so buried in it he didn't know how deep he had been Forced pushed into it by that Togruta girl. he grunted as he kept scratching and clawing his way to the surface, however the more sand that got in his vision, the more angry he became, the more his rage built at this humiliation, this failure.

The Dark Side swooned around him, and he used it's power as his rage finally couldn't be contained and with a powerful Force Repulse, he sent the sand around him everywhere, managing to see the sky again and he crawled out of the crater his Force Repulse had created. He grunted, shaking the sand off him before grimacing.

He hated sand.

"Lord Khan." Jayden looked to see his Master walking towards him, thankfully not covered in sand or had been caught in that explosion of sand. The Apprentice fell to a knee before his Master.

"Forgive me, my Master... I failed to kill the Jedi and the Huttlet." Jayden said, preparing himself for any punishment his Master would inflict on him.

"Rise, my young Apprentice." Dooku said calmly and Jayden did so. "You're aware of the saying about battles and wars, are you not, my boy? You can lose one and yet win the other?" Jayden nodded. "Then allow the Jedi this victory. It makes little difference to the overall course of the war. It stretches their forces more thinly. It makes them overconfident. In fact, losing this small skirmish may well be their downfall when history views the war in years to come."

Jayden paused, considering his Master's words, before he nodded. "I understand, Master."

"Good. Now, come my Apprentice. There is more work to be done… and we have overstayed our welcome on this wretched world." Jayden theorized they would no longer be welcome here at all, especially if the truth was made known to the Hutt. And it likely had been.

But Dooku was right. No point dwelling on failure, not when the road ahead was wide open with new chances and improved possibilities.

The two Sith strode off across the dunes, Master and Apprentice side by side. The war would change. The galaxy would change. The Republic would know his name and forever tremble in the face of this moment… at the rise of Darth Khan.


And that brings the 2008 film storyline to a close. Now we can get into the Clone Wars TV show stuff. In case anyone doesn't know, I edited chapter 1's opening to have Dooku give Jayden the name of Darth Khan, because I spoke with DFM23 about when Jayden can earn the title of Darth, and he pointed out that Sith after Darth Bane's time, were granted the name of Darth by their Masters. I always thought the title had to be earned, but I think that's because I did too much Star Wars: The Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic.

As for the story's picture, that's what Jayden WILL look like at some point in the future, and yes he will gain a purple Lightsaber like Revan did.