Obi-wan Kenobi walked into Jabba the Hutt’s palace, a den for scum and villainy like ones that he’d only entered a few times before. Mostly to shut them down under his authority as a Jedi. But this time he was here for a different reason.
He moved towards the main ‘throne room’ where Jabba sat there with his jabbering court behind them, escorted by mercenaries who eyed him warily as he walked in between them. The Hutt stared Obi-wan down as he stood there stoically waiting for the Hutt to speak.
The Hutt spoke to his droid in Huttese. He probably knew how to speak Basic, but was using the translator as a sign of his power. That everyone that was in his palace must cater to his whims and not the other way around.
“The great and noble Jabba welcomes you to his home, and hopes that the negotiations will be fruitful,” the protocol droid said to translate Jabba’s words, “He is eager to begin. Our other party will join us shortly. He has been enjoying our hospitality almost since you have been traveling here from the Core, Jedi.”
Obi-wan inclined his head, but didn’t say anything in response.
He stood there for over a minute as he and Jabba remained staring at each other without any further words.
Finally the door to the side of the chamber hissed open and everyone turned to see the man who swept into the room. He was unfamiliar and wearing a heavy mask that concealed his face.
Obi-wan observed the man silently as he walked forward and stood next to Obi-wan on the metal platform in front of Jabba.
“Hello,” the man said with only a small glance to Obi-wan, “But let us not waste the great Jabba’s time. I believe that he is here to entertain our respective offers for the boy?”
“The boy and his family, you mean,” Obi-wan added sharply.
The man paused before inclining his head, “Of course. And his family as well. That was assumed. Now, I believe the Republic has offered twenty million credits, great Jabba?”
The Hutt nodded, licking his lips as he stared at the masked man with interest, “I believe that this is hardly worth the value of the boy. I’d be willing to offer… a hundred million credits for him.”
“Where are you getting these kinds of funds?” Obi-wan said sharply, “That number is absurd. Only a little less than the cost for a whole Venator class star destroyer. And even if you did have the funds, why would you pay so much for him?”
“My interest is none of your business,” The man said smoothly, “And my employer has the funds. I’ve already provided a verification certificate to Jabba proving my employer’s claims. I am simply restating the previous offer so that we can start the bidding. Is the Republic prepared to offer more?”
“I…” Obi-wan refocused as he realized he’d nearly forgotten who he was truly negotiating with, “Great Jabba, I will have to consult with the Republic for those kinds of funds. I’m sure that you understand.”
Jabba hesitated before nodding and saying something in Huttese to his droid, “The great and noble Jabba allows you to confer with your superiors. But don’t take too long. Jabba has money in front of him guaranteed. He will take this offer if a better value is not offered to him soon from the Republic.”
“Understood, great Jabba. I will not delay.”
The droid turned to one of the mercenaries and clumsily pointed at their leader, “Lead our guests to their rooms. You shall have another audience with Jabba tomorrow. Until then the illustrious Jabba demands music and entertainment!”
Obi-wan was led away by the mercenaries to a lavish room meant for guests, disturbed by what he had just learned. What was that man’s game? Surely he knew that Obi-wan was a representative of the Republic? Why would he believe that it was a wise idea to oppose their representatives so openly like this? The Senate and Jedi wouldn’t take something like this lying down even if this person was only a proxy to whoever was truly behind this.
He started meditating after taking out his communicator and explaining the situation thoroughly to the Republic commanders and his new padawan in the ship above. He felt the Force thrum through him as he took deep breaths and pondered the puzzling situation and tried to discover what piece of it that he was missing and how this mysterious stranger was connected to it all.
Barely two hours later, Obi-wan opened his eyes activated his lightsaber in a moment as his door burst open and a squad of heavily armed mercenaries poured into his chambers.
He stood at the ready, standing on his feet as the squad raised their weapons and pointed them at him threateningly. They all were at a stalemate without speaking, only the steady humming of Obi-wan’s lightsaber plasma blade breaking the silence.
“Your presence is demanded by Jabba. Immediately,” the apparent leader of the group said to break the silence, “Come with us now.”
Obi-wan eyed them all for a moment before cautiously retracting his blade and hanging it at his belt.
He was led back through the hallways towards the throne room where the mysterious man already stood in his mask calmly as Jabba shouted at him in basic. The rest of Jabba’s court was gathered and looking at the Hutt in abject fear, pressed against the walls as if not to be seen as they looked between the shouting Jabba and the masked man standing there in front of the angry Hutt.
“...Betrayal!” Jabba’s watery voice burbled out in basic as he slammed a pudgy fist onto the large podium beneath him, “...I will discover which of you is behind this and flay them alive in my dungeons! No one disrespects Jabba this way! Not in my own palace! In my own kingdom!”
Obi-wan slowed his pace as he saw the Hutt’s flabby cheeks growing a slightly lighter green as his eyes bulged with rage. The rage filled eyes turned to Obi-wan as he entered.
“You!” Jabba warbled, “What do you know of this? Were you and the Republic behind it?”
“Behind what, Jabba?” Obi-wan said as he lowered his hand to his side to hover over his lightsaber.
Jabba’s eyes bulged even farther if that was possible, “The great Jabba. I have half a mind to throw both of you in my dungeons, you- ”
Jabba’s voice grew more heated and he slipped into warbling Huttesse and pounded his fist on his hand and pointed to the both of them angrily as he kept shouting with his cheeks growing a darker shade of green with every passing moment.
The man and Obi-wan both waited silently until Jabba calmed himself.
“The boy’s mother and the other have been taken,” Jabba said after some time, “Over a dozen of my men are killed. They are gone. I have half a mind to kill the boy now and be done with it…”
Neither of them answered as Jabba peered between the two of them suspiciously.
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The lights flickered and they looked around in surprise. Obi-wan reached down to his communicator and discovered that the line was dead. He had no contact with the Venator ship above.
The lights were dim as many of them refused to turn on again after what must be an EMP pulse that had hit the palace.
He quickly drew his lightsaber even as the man beside him drew out a small blaster from his waistband. The light from Obi-wan’s weapon lit up the room and created a circle of light around him, the mysterious man, and Jabba with Jabba’s mercenary guards and members of his court shrouded in shadow.
“Now, Master Jedi!” the mysterious man shouted, “Strike now! I’ll go retrieve the boy!”
Jabba’s eyes widened as he realized that the shield between him and the two visitors had gone down in whatever event turned off the power.
Obi-wan was too shocked to react as the mysterious man fired his blaster at Jabba and seared a burning hole between the shocked Hutt’s eyes and sent the Hutt slumping dead to the ground before anyone could stop the assassin.
The man fired two more shots at the already dead Hutt before running out of the room at top speed, and after a moment’s hesitation Obi-wan bounded after him.
The room behind them was in chaos and filled with screams as the mercenaries went to chase them even as the members of Jabba’s court jabbered in fear and demanded the mercenaries to remain behind and protect them.
Obi-wan hunted down the fleeing assassin through the Force and the faint sound of retreating footsteps, only the lightsaber and the occasional dim light in the twisting hallways of Jabba’s palace guiding his way.
All he knew was he had to capture this man and get some answers out of him before he escaped for good.
The footsteps ahead stopped and there was some hushed discussion as Obi-wan screamed around the corner before coming to a stop. There standing confidently, even in the darkness, was Anakin Skywalker. His hands were empty. The man from before was standing beside him with a blaster rifle held in his hands. With a nod at the boy, the man continued running into a side hallway to flee from the palace at full speed.
“Master,” Anakin said, “Let’s get out of here already. Jabba’s men will be here to stop us soon.”
Obi-wan eyed his former apprentice warily before hesitantly nodding and lowering his blade slightly.
“Let’s go then,” he said, “To my shuttle.”
Without another word the both of them started sprinting towards the surface together, almost like they were Master and Padawan once more. Obi-wan kept an eye on the boy suspiciously. He was too calm, something was off… But he didn’t have enough time to investigate. It could wait until they were flying away from this place and up towards the Republic cruiser above…
Anakin wouldn’t be leaving Obi-wan’s sight until he had some real answers on the tangled web of what was really going on.
— — —
Anakin groaned in annoyance as the droid reached up and fed him some more gruel as he remained floating in his cell. He had no idea he had been cooped up in this place now. Enough to know that his resistance to heat and electricity had completely faded by now and left his body back in its base form.
Anakin swallowed the last watery bite of the food and the droid turned around. But instead of leaving, the droid remained there unlike every other time it had fed him so far.
“Anakin,” he straightened as he heard Count Dooku’s voice come from the droid, “This is a prerecorded message. If you’re hearing this then both your mother and Slarena Reborn have been safely extracted from the palace by my people. The Republic has a venator class star destroyer parked in orbit, here for you. Along with Obi-wan Kenobi who is here in Jabba’s palace. Extracting you properly might expose our group’s resources to the Republic. I apologize that we can’t take that risk, not even for you.
“There will soon be an opportunity for you to escape this cell. Surrender yourself to the Republic. Behave yourself, stay quiet on what happened until I contact you, and don’t draw on the dark side of the Force. If you do this then I promise that I have a path to your freedom without being hunted by the Republic any more. The Jedi are less certain, but we will do our best. That is all. This message will be fully deleted upon delivery.”
The droid stood there for a few seconds unmoving with its eyes flickering furiously before it straightened and silently turned and walked out of the reinforced door of Anakin’s cell which closed behind it heavily.
Anakin waited for some time until suddenly the containment field around him flickered before shutting off. Anakin fell heavily to the floor and only just barely managed to stop himself from smashing his nose into the floor.
He stood to his feet and rolled his shoulders and went over to the door which was shut firmly closed. He reached up and drew deeply on the light side of the Force. As soon as he did so his stun cuffs lit up and sent electricity coursing through him, predictably sending him to the floor spasming. But after a few seconds of thrashing and building up his resistance, Anakin stood back up and drew on the Force again and grabbing the door started slowly pulling it open forcefully with a creaking groan.
He felt two lifesigns from confused guards who were on the other side of the door through his new sense as he drew deeper and deeper on the Force to work to pull the door wider. Finally with one final snap and pop, something gave in the interior of the door and it started moving slightly to the side with a loud screech and orange sparks.
Everything was dark except a single light in the exterior hallway as Anakin opened the door wide enough to squeeze his body through.
“Kriff! He’s escaping!” one of the mercenaries said in a wavering voice.
The other one yelped and fired his blaster blindly roughly where Anakin had almost fully shimmied his body through the gap in the door.
Anakin finished emerging into the hallway and charged towards the lifesign of the mercenary who’d fired his blaster. Anakin reached out and ripped the blaster from his hands before he could even react.
The man stumbled over something on the ground and started screaming bloody murder and babbling, “No! Please don’t kill me! I don’t want to end up like them in Mos Espa…”
Anakin felt the other lifesign turn and try to flee as well, and they quickly fled while stumbling into walls and tripping over things as they ran.
Anakin stood there hesitant with his stolen blaster pointed down at the man cowering on the ground as an amorphous glowing blob with only a vague impression of blobby limbs in Anakin’s senses.
Anakin raised the blaster upwards and turned and started running towards where he thought the exit might be, although he had to squint in the poor lighting of the place. He paused as he realized something and started firing at the locks of the nearby cell doors. There was some muttering of confusion from the prisoners, but Anakin didn’t have time to explain as he shot open the locks as he ran and hopefully freed as many of them as he could.
As he fired he made sure to position his arm just wrong so the plasma bolt would pass by it. Over the dozens of shots passing over his skin, he managed to build up his resistance enough that he risked a blast touch his skin, which triggered his dispersion ability.
As he found a set of stairs and moved upwards, he was fully firing at himself over and over as he built his resistance to blaster fire up even as he moved by shooting at his arm.
By the time he reached what must be the top of the stairs he heard chaos and shouting down below him from the freed prisoners and his dispersion ability had stopped activating, showing that he should now be immune to normal blaster fire.
He exited the top of the stairs and picked a random direction and started running. He diverted course slightly to the side to go around when he detected two lifesigns coming his way. He was pulsing his lifesense out wide at the moment, and something was odd with the one behind. He wasn’t sure how to describe it. It was… not brighter, but more… vibrant? It was confusing to explain, the one behind was just different and Anakin diverted course to avoid them. But the one in front seemingly sensed him too and turned to meet him in the same hallway despite Anakin trying to avoid the pair.
It was a man in a heavy mask that appeared at the end of the dimly lit corridor and ran up to Anakin without looking fearful at all. He was holding a small palm sized blaster in his hand. His mask turned to the heavy duty blaster that Anakin was holding in his hands.
“I’m with your sponsor,” the man said quickly before throwing a glance behind him even as the more vibrant lifesign approached them rapidly, “Give me the rifle. I need more than this little thing to get out of here.”
Anakin hesitated and the man reached out in a grabbing motion and gestured urgently.
“C’mon! That Jedi’s coming, no time!”
Anakin handed over the blaster, and the masked man ran off again just as Master Kenobi rounded the corner and came to a stop as he saw Anakin.
Anakin felt a wave of calm wash over himself as he realized that it was time. He wasn’t sure what Count Dooku’s plan was, but all he could do for now was play along. Dooku had earned Anakin’s trust by now. And he’d saved Mom and Slarena. That’s what really mattered in the end. Anakin could accept being captured by the Republic if it led to them being safe.
He felt oddly calm as that realization washed over him.
“Master,” he said, “Let’s get out of here already. Jabba’s men will be here to stop us soon…”
