A/N:
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To the point! 8D The new chapter, Chapter 8: Chill. Have fun!
Chapter 8: Chill
Jedi Skywalker took another bite of his sandwich, catching up on a missed dinner. The dark lighting in the computer room made it so the projected screen reflect in his eyes. The decoding process was taking some time, due to how most of the anonymous files worked on were unimportant and useless.
He sighed typing in more code after he set the tasteless meal down.
Obi-Wan was with him, reclined in a chair nearby, "Nothing?" he queried.
"Affirmative," Anakin grumbled searching through more files.
"Hm, perhaps we were wrong?"
He nodded negatively, "I don't think so."
"Oh? Why not?"
He sighed again, scrolling through more, "I'd rather not talk about it."
"Would you rather talk about your visit to Padme's?" Obi-Wan said with a knowing smile.
"As a matter of fact, yes," he retorted with a grin. It was nice being able to talk about his family openly. Beyond nice—wonderful.
"You're not even curious how I knew?"
"No, not really," he scanned through more files.
"Good, I'll tell you," he stated ignoring the words. Kenobi leaned back again, "First: you came back happier than when you left, and second: you smell like infants," he sniffed for affect.
Anakin panicked a little, looking down at his brown cloth and black leather Jedi garb, "Blast! I didn't even think of that," he put his sleeve to his face and smelled it. The comforting smell of his children, and even his wife, indeed drenched him like cologne.
Obi-Wan simply chuckled, "Well, you certainly will now."
"Yes, I will. I'll have to keep a change of clothes here…" he murmured on, planning out a way to solve the problem like he had done it a thousand times before.
'He probably has…' Kenobi reflected.
"I see you know how to handle it," he stated, almost sounding hurt. For years— years— Anakin had successfully hidden a marriage from a building full of incredibly intelligent minds, and him…
Skywalker read his brother's emotions. He understood, entirely. Deceit is the worst kind of hurt. Guilt swiftly pumped, until it bubbled to the surface in word form, "I'm sorry, Obi-Wan… I'm… I'm sorry for hurting you with my deceptions."
"I think you did what was best… probably," the Jedi Master added, "If you had told me right off… I'm not sure how I would have reacted, or how long the Council would be left in the dark."
"I lied, nothing is—"
"Brother, your choices are in the past and cannot be changed. I have forgiven you for your past, so let's move forward."
Skywalker found no way to accompany these heart-touching words and remained humbly silent.
Obi-Wan stood up, "I'll be back," he said heading towards the 'fresher.
Soon after Kenobi left, Anakin found something, "What have we here?" he smirked to himself.
He used his mastery skills and decoded a file that was longer than the others. Once the massive file opened, hundreds of other files and images popped up. Anakin squinted his eyes, tracking the endless currant of data, trying to understand the material.
After a few seconds of catching the fast-paced download, he froze with the tumultuous jumble of information.
What in the worlds was going on here?!
Billions, if not trillions, of credits going towards enemy funding?! Untraceable transitions from Republic subsidy?!
One illegal act caught his attention more than others… It was made only a few days ago, to an account number that belonged to a wanted bounty hunter, Taitun Erfint. This much he was sure of.
He clicked on it.
'1,000,000 credits wired to account number 298OB85765-009N on… '
Skywalker read further, trusting his gut feel.
A holo had been sent out to the same bounty hunter, recorded by the Chancellor himself. A blue 3D image wavered to life, that of a cloaked man, who Anakin recognized from an intercepted transition as The Missing Sith.
'But—!' just then, the holo started:
'Your target is Senator Padme Amidala's infant daughter, and only her. She is located within 500 Republica, Senatorial Apartment Building, Penthouse. It is of the utmost importance this job is successful and quick. Your payment will be 1,000,000 credits in advance, and your life debt to me removed once completed.
I shall send another message precisely thirty minutes before the task must be done.'
As if that wasn't enough to entirely fossilize the young man, there was another recording, sent only moments ago, from an unknown location:
'Now is the time, and do not fail me….'
Anakin literally felt his blood crystallize like rime.
Before he knew it, his stomach was in his throat, and kept rising. He'd never had to throw up before, but he did now. It was an acrimonious experience.
Conveniently, the Master came back into the room, saw his former padawan bend over the side of his chair just in time to rench, and rushed towards him, "Anakin! For force's sake!" Instantly thinking it was the food, "You should never eat leftover rations…" he spoke, walking around the desk.
Anakin wiped his bitter mouth and sprung up. "THE MONSTER!" he roared, anger at its zenith. Then, then the pure terror again. "He can't take Leia away from me…" he quietly trembled through his lips.
He had to go, he had to go now.
That worthless-nerf-herder-bantha-crap cannot get his bloody hands on his daughter… his little angel.
Palpatine, he—he was—! None of this made any sense. It shook his core's foundation, hard.
Leia—NO!
'What if I don't…' he forced himself to stop that line of thought. He can't afford to think that way.
Leia… Leia… Leia…! His heart screamed. Anakin's fingers scrambled to call his wife's suddenly soap like com. It kept ringing. 'Why isn't she answering!?' That wasn't like Padme at all… it was already happening!
'NO!' Skywalker mentally screamed. His empty stomach threatened to dump again with a dry squeeze.
For the second time, Skywalker, with a confused Kenobi, rushed to Padme's apartment; in a treacherous race against time.
Bounty Hunter Taitun Erfint laid this operation out carefully. Made sure he knew every inch of Senator Amidala's apartment by ways of blueprints, observation and other such means, memorizing them for the last two days.
He wasn't a child killer—or at least, not before this.
But he couldn't afford to be in Darth Sidious' debt. After this, he would be free at last.
Taitun had hoped a distant sniper shot could do it, but the shot couldn't be accessed. The twins' cradles were on the wrong side, away from a window's viewpoint, almost purposefully…
He would have to break into the Senator's house- and since Amidala never left- stun her, get into the room and get the right target, then terminate the child point blank. As if that wasn't grueling enough, apparently the apartment had a personal bodyguard, the Anakin Skywalker himself. By chance, he was gone right now.
'But for how long…' he fretted with a bouncy fidget.
This seemed like a suicide mission.
If he failed, no doubt he was finished that way, too.
"Hell…" he grumbled riding the elevator up to the top of the extravagant apartment complex, "this is one terrible thing." He readjusted his sophisticated weapon, rechecking stun settings.
Amidala heard something, or someone, in her home. And the chill that spread throughout her core signaled that it was not her husband. She heard something clink to the ground, like a heap of metal. Just before that, she swore she heard C3PO say something…
Action—she needed to take action.
Padme was in the nursery, but she didn't want the intruder in there. She wanted to draw him away, keep her precious and defenseless children safe.
Her living space is a habitable weapon's stash. Every nook and cranny she could get a weapon into there was one.
She reached behind a decorative table; soon pulling out a Nubian hand-blaster. Holding it up, she entered stealth mode and wisped into the sitting room, aimed for the com.
Her com had no connection. The her apartment's signaling-system must have been tampered with…
'Blasted!' she mentally cursed. Alone- that is what she officially was now.
Alone.
A whole new gear switched on. She wasn't letting anything into this room.
Padme was now a mother protecting her young, and nothing would get in her way.
She took a position besides the doorway to the sitting room.
Everything went silent, just faint steps from the enemy made noise.
She waited, carefully.
He had stopped only a yard away.
Her figure taunt, ears listening to the intruder's sound, and finger laced with the trigger.
Just, waiting.
No movement.
Then, a small device was rolled into the room.
Padme's adrenaline-enhanced senses watched in a panic as it rapidly blinked. She began to dive away.
A blinding light flashed with an electric pound; Amidala was instantly consumed by pain.
In the seconds he had, Titan walked into the room and stunned the senator, who let out a small shrill. Not from the unavoidable pain, but from horror of defeat.
Her body fell to the ground since it lost all control.
He looked at her, "I don't have a choice, you know…" he tried to justify.
With a painful sigh, the hunter moved past the crumpled mother. Soon to be mother of one.
"I'm sorry," he whispered aiming at the child.
"N-no…" the woman choked, hardly able to crook her head to see what the man was doing. She had to regain control of her body now. "No, no…" she tried to move her unresponsive body. Her fingers moved, and she clumsily flopped an arm, but that wasn't enough to stop anything.
He froze; he put the weapon on the highest stun setting. She should barely be breathing, much less talking and twitching.
Taitun looked at the woman and soon turned away.
He closed his eyes.
The room fell dead silent.
He fired.
With an unexplainable event, the reliable weapon—jammed.
Stunned, the man attempted to fix the weapon.
While the man was engrossed, Padme reached for her dropped gun and tried to get the delicate hold on the trigger.
A sudden noise drew the attention of the bounty hunter. Pounding strides were closing in. 'Skywalker…' His face turned ten shades lighter. The weapon happened to unjam. He had to finish and get out of here fast.
With a supernatural serge of energy fueled by undying will, the Senator rose up to her knees. Blazing determination and strength glazed her gaze.
In seconds, her arms raised and a blaster-bolt was sent into his head.
The bounty hunter then no longer possessed senses.
Skywalker raced into the room, lightsaber drawn, freezing while assessing the situation. Relief instantly captured him sensing the intruder: dead. His daughter: alive. He deactivated the elegant weapon, "Thank the force, Padme!" he said running up to her. He felt like a galaxy had been lifted off of him.
He stopped, his heroic wife remained frozen. He knew then something was wrong.
She let out a breath and swayed as every muscle re-failed her.
Strong arms caught her before gravity. Skywalker instantly thought she was injured and frantically searched her body for any signs of wounds. Nothing.
All her weight was slumped in his cradling hold. He looked at her eyes, she was slipping into unconsciousness. "Padme?!" he called just before she drifted away.
To be continued…
A/N:
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