Chapter Ninety Two

Master Windu knew his strengths and weaknesses as a Jedi Master and as a warrior. In fact, the honesty with which he addressed those weaknesses turned them almost into strengths. Therefore, while most Master would have been leery of letting their padawan fly them, he allowed Anakin to be their pilot on missions that may or may not involve high-speed space chases or combat.

Their specially modified Delta-6 Sprite had room for two plus the astromech droid, which had been given to Anakin by the queen of Naboo as payment for his service years ago. It was armed with two forward facing lasers and a six magazine proton torpedo 'box' launcher. The term 'box launcher' in this case meant that Anakin had modified the proton torpedo launchers so that they could launch the full spread of the starfighter in one long wave rather than having to fire them in dual launches. It would burn out the launcher and damage the ship, but if they ran into a capital ship that they needed to bring down quickly it would prove its worth, Anakin was sure. Mace wasn't, but then he preferred to put his faith in the Force and in people rather than mechanics.

"Space traffic control, this is Daran and Colrain of the Ultrafighters. You should have us in your books, so please don't let anyone get itchy trigger fingers," Anakin said into the pickup, his voice sounding cocky, brash, and arrogant.

Not that that is much of a stretch for Anakin, Mace thought ruefully. For all his efforts, Anakin still could be an arrogant little so-and-so at times. If only he didn't prove to live up to his own arrogant view of himself most of the time, it would be much easier to polish that out of him.

His eyes closed as he began to meditate on their mission. Mace allowed Anakin to handle the conversation with the local space traffic controller, knowing that the youth had their identities straight for this mission. Such was the danger of their target running away the instant she knew that the Jedi were looking for her, that they couldn't come in officially. Instead their identity was that of a scout team for a mercenary guild coming in to see if this planet had any local contracts. The mercenary company in question, the Ultrafighters, were known to have a variety of different starfighter designs among their group and to be primarily a fast assault and elite strike group. Indeed, they were one of the more reputable mercenary groups out there. Which, of course, means nothing at all. But at least the identities will convince anyone who looks at our arrival that we are who we say we are.

Moments later the starfighter was cutting through the atmosphere, and Mace opened his eyes. "I sense much danger about this mission," he said without preamble. "We will have to be on our guard."

"More Yinchorri, master? They do tend to dog our steps," Anakin said, his voice a mixture of dusty dry sarcasm and humor.

"Not so much, recently, though I am still concerned about how they had any idea where we would be on that last mission," Mace replied, his stern features becoming even harder.

"I still say it was because of that homing device I found on our Consular class ship we used last time. Artoo did a great job noticing and disabling the little thing," Anakin said, while the droid in question let loose a cheerful beep-boop noise from behind Mace.

"Perhaps, but how did they get that bug there in the first place?" countered Mace.

"Easy. That first time we tussled with them we had to wait for a ship to be sent to us to take us back to Coruscant. So a few of them were ordered not to attack us, and instead they bogged our ship while we were still dealing with the locals. It was the same ship we were assigned the last two missions, master," Anakin said with a smile. "You don't have to complicate everything. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the real ones."

"And you do not need to try to simplify everything to the point where you dismiss complicated matters too much to see the whole picture," Mace retorted, but there was a smile on his face.

In the years since he had taken Anakin as his apprentice, the boy had grown, and had grown on Mace in many ways. The boy was still arrogant at times and headstrong, but it had been tampered with experience, and Mace had infused in him a certain calm acceptance of the Force. He was powerful in the Force, a dedicated student, and understood the Force far better than most his age could boast, though, there again, the fact that he did boast about it was a decided negative. His skills in piloting and mechanics were also incredible, making Anakin one of the best light starfighter pilots in the Order despite his young age. His skill with mechanics was also very sought after, as evidenced by their souped-up starfighter.

They had also worked out quite a bit of the anger that had boiled within the boy at slavery and other such things. Allowing him to contact his mother occasionally had worked wonders, though he was still, generally speaking, unpolished, and seemed to have a rather decided interest in the ladies.

As they exited their starfighter, Mace leaped down, turning to look at Anakin as he followed quickly. Anakin had changed greatly, not only mentally but physically, over the past few years, while Mace had pretty much stayed the same, save for the first signs of wrinkles on his face. Many of which, Mace knew, Anakin had caused at certain points during the years.

But Anakin had changed greatly. He was more than a foot and a half taller than he had been, grown into a teenage body with wide shoulders, well-muscled, with the typical swordsman's build. He wore his simple brown and black pants and shirt easily, moving with all the athleticism of a trained lightsaber duelist. His face, too, had grown. Gone was the baby fat, and in its place was a strong, teenage face, a cocksure smile easily appearing on his mouth. Looking at him and thinking purely academically, Mace could understand why Anakin had begun to the garner a lot of interest from the younger padawans and younglings of the female persuasion.

And so long as it is only physical, the Order is willing to look the other way now, Mace thought sardonically, half worried, half amused at the idea. I would never have anticipated that all those years ago when Padawans Secura and Potter challenged us, but I cannot deny that the Order has changed greatly since then in how it views relationships.

That was one of the strangest and, in the eyes of many, the most damning change that had come over the Order in the past few years. Yoda had been pushing for more than a decade now to do away with the idea of not allowing bonds to form between Jedi. But he had made little to no headway until Harry and Aayla had proven so unequivocally that bonds such as theirs could be made to be of the Light.

Mace still remembered that: that moment where Harry challenged the rest of the High Council, his hand shining with Force light, as Aayla stood behind side him, grasping his other hand in hers. As the days grew darker, that moment helped Mace realize that there was also light.

But their bond had not been replicated, and, because it had not, the push to allow emotional and mental attachments had reversed itself entirely. The Council of Knowledge, the Council of Relocation, and even more than half of the High Council itself had simply not seen the point of allowing bonds like that. Not allowing such had kept the Oder together for one thousand years of peace, after all.

Conversely, they had been forced to acknowledge that humans and other species like them did need some physical outlet for certain urges in order to be completely effective. They weren't happy about it, and a lot of the aliens who didn't have that imperative, such as master Ranicisis, Yaddle, and others, had speculated on the idea of using certain drugs to suppress such. But that idea had been dismissed, since such drugs had negative effects on the psyche. The arguments about it had been quite vituperative, warranting Master Windu's casting a deciding vote on the matter.

Eventually it had been decided to allow Jedi to form physical bonds. However, even there, there was a noted need for oversight. If padawans or younglings formed attachments like that, they were watched closely, and if the watchers believed that the bond was changing from purely physical to emotional, they were separated swiftly. Most of the time this seemed to work, and the separated individuals went back to normal or formed further physical attachments with other people in their new clans. Other times the couple's protests had shown that they would have to be educated further in the need for serenity rather than emotion.

However Mace and several of the other human Jedi knew this was going to change one way or another. Yes, it was possible to separate physical pleasure from love, but it actually wasn't all that healthy to do so. Humans and the species like them who almost required sex in order to truly function could be celibate or fully active. This limbo between the two was bizarre and unsustainable. But as a stopgap to appease both the New and Old factions, as they were being called, it seemed to be working. Fewer Padawans had taken the Old Oath since the rules had been changed, and some of the tension between the factions had disappeared. Some, not all, and he knew there was building dissent among the Consulars, aided along by the sheer number of combat related missions the Jedi were getting now.

Anakin had, to Master Windu's certain knowledge, two, perhaps even three girls that he was frequently physical with. Yet at least in this Anakin had decided to completely follow the Order's tenets. He had not formed any emotional attachment beyond that of friendship to any of the girls, and Mace knew he had broken it off with one girl when she began to feel an emotional connection to them.

Now if only I could persuade myself that it was because Anakin doesn't want to form emotional attachments to people. But that could not be further from the truth. Anakin is a man of fierce emotions of all sorts despite my best efforts to curb them. There will come a time when Anakin will want to form an emotional attachment to someone, and I am afraid that, as with everything he really wishes to do, Anakin will embrace it wholeheartedly.

That will be a trying time. His power, strength, and abilities have already made him someone to respect and look up to, even emulated by many. Many will not react kindly to his skirting the rules of the Order, while others will see it as a wedge to force further changes in the Order's rules.

Still, it is not yet come, and I cannot see its specter in the Force, so I will cheerfully leave those thoughts for another day. Besides, this mission will probably call upon all of our abilities anyway.

In order to better solidify their cover, Master Windu and Anakin stayed a few days in the city first, looking for jobs for the mercenary company they were using as cover. There was no one hiring, however, the jobs for said, as three local merchants having recently hired mercenaries for an anti-pirate strike in the local star cluster had dried up the job market by the time they had arrived. The middlemen for those merchants were sorry, but that left the two ostensibly at loose ends. Further adding to their cover, the two then gambled away the money their company had supposedly given them, forcing the two to look for local short term jobs to pay for fuel to get off world once more.

This brought them to the bio-tech company, Zoa-Guard, where their target was working. While Anakin performed his morning meditations, Mace, his features still changed from his normal appearance, called ahead on their second morning on planet about interviewing for a short term security job to pay their bills. He received the okay to come in, but was warned that the interview process would take some time. After agreeing, he logged off the telecom and turned to his padawan. "You heard, of course?"

Anakin's eyes popped open and he nodded. "Yes, master. I'll be ready." He hesitated, then blurted out, "Master, why aren't I allowed to go to the Serenno Training Center?"

"It is not a question of being allowed, padawan, nor is it a matter of trust, but of need," Mace said with a faint snort. "You have no need of going there, not with having learned many of the techniques watching me."

"But not all of them, master. Only the main three," Anakin rebutted. "The STC trains younglings and Masters alike in a lot more than simple shielding, color changing, and stunning. You yourself have said as much before, so why aren't I, or even both of us, taking some time to retrain there? I'm certain that, between the two of us, we wouldn't need to be there for very long to learn everything they can teach, after all."

"Trying to appeal to my ego is beneath you, Anakin, as Jedi having egos at all should be beneath us both," Mace admonished, his face noticeably hardening. He waited until his padawan nodded, looking down at the floor, before going on. "And while you are correct that I can only use the main three, as has become their name, that is enough. More and more Masters and Knights are being rotated through the training center to learn them and retrain their lightsaber skills, Anakin, which was the main reason the Serenno Training Center was begun, and that is an area you certainly do not need help in."

That made Anakin perk up a bit and Mace once more fought not to roll his eyes. In many ways he is so advanced, but his ego is still an issue at times. After this mission I will push for further mediation and mental training for a time. A few months spent on Coruscant will do Anakin good.

With that thought Mace went on. "Anakin, you have already been favored above your fellows in many ways. You should have joined a youngling clan when Qui-Gon brought you to the temple, but instead I took you on then as my padawan. You have been allowed to retain contact with your mother, while the Order in the main is still trying to organize this for other younglings and padawans. I even started training you in lightsaber skills because your body control and Force Precognition were so advanced years before you would normally be allowed a live weapon. This does not mean that you should always expect to be treated as special. Indeed, because I have favored you so much, I demand more from you to offset that. Do you understand?"

"…Yes, Master Windu," Anakin said, with a somewhat arrogant smile curling his lips. "I will not let you down."

This caused Mace to frown. Yes. Some more mental training is definitely necessary. I will need to carefully balance it, though, so that he realizes both that he is being chastised and does not get his back up because of it. "Now, prepare yourself. We need to leave within an hour, and I want you to practice your accent for a time just in case you have to talk during the interview."

"Guh, yes, master," Anakin grumbled, bringing out a throat lozenge and setting it to the side. "I still don't see why we can't just Disillusion ourselves and walk in."

"Because Disillusion techniques don't work on robotics at range, and our target is known to prefer droids running her security. If not, we would already have done so, Anakin. Now take your lozenge and let us begin practice."

The Zoa-Guard company's facility was an out of the way set of buildings about ten minute's flight out of the capital, well away from anyone else, like most bio-tech company buildings were both on this planet and on many others. While the universe needed bio-tech, given the proliferation of diseases, that didn't mean the work was trusted by the locals. After all, a serum designed to get rid of bacteria could spiral out of control all too easily, and that was just one example of the Pandora's box that was biotechnology.

The interview happened in a small, out of the way room off of a corridor through the facility, which was small but sprawling, a single story set of buildings all connected by walkways. It was distressingly like many rooms in hospitals the galaxy over, white and almost aggressively bland. The interviewer sat across from the two Jedi in disguise, a Gran who was a rather obese example of his race, his voice a drone.

Windu fielded all the questions quickly and easily until the Gran began to wind down. "…and finally, as the last part of our medical background, you will have to submit a blood sample."

This caused Windu to lock his expression down as wariness crept into him, the Force beginning to niggle at his senses. Our target needs no further access to Jedi blood given her experiments in that direction from before her incarceration! "Why'd a need to be doin' that, eh? It be well beyond what most be needin'."

"Because this is a bio-tech company," the Gran said, his voice shifting into a 'talking to idiots' tone. "We need to see that you are not carrying any diseases before we allow you to work here, even for a short term protection job like this."

Windu allowed his face to shift into a wary look before sighing. "A'ight. We's be agreeing to that, so long as we take's it with our own equipment." The Gran scowled, and Windu went on, gesturing at the IDs on the table between them. "We's be mercs, boyo, and we's not be so without getting' our hands dirty. Ain't gonna let you keep a sample and turn around and sell to da authorities after dis when it comes time to pony up the creds."

As he spoke Windu reached out with the Force, using the hand he was gesturing to the IDs with to direct it for a moment, influencing the Gran's mind to agree to that point. This, coupled with Windu's reasoning, which matched what a real merc would be worried about, worked, and the Gran nodded.

However, an instant later the mission went to hell in a handbasket. Sitting beside Windu, Anakin's Force Precognition flared a warning, and he looked around wildly, catching a glimmer of movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw a vent opening there in the wall, and, needing no further warning, he broke character, shouting, "Watch out, master!" hurling up a Force shield at the same time.

Both Jedi swiftly stood up, but there was no physical threat at the moment. Instead air was simply blasted into the room, an odorless and colorless gas quickly spreading towards the three sentients in the room. "Shrink the shield! Make it impervious!" Windu barked, joining his power to his padawans as he did. Normally a shield had to be slightly permeable in order to let in air, but facing a gas like this, that would have been just as useful as no shield at all.

"Do you take me for a fool, Jedi? Your features might not match any Jedi on record, but the phrase 'it is only paranoia if they aren't after you' is a survival trait!" said a female voice from a nearby speaker. It would have sounded nice, possibly even attractive, if not for the strident, almost manic tone. "I don't know what twigged you to my presence here, but you won't be leaving!"

Mace scowled at that, while the Gran, caught up in their shield with the Jedi along with his desk and the three chairs, looked around wildly, his three eyes waving wildly on their short stalks. "Jenna Zan Arbor, you are under arrest for breaking Republic Bio-tech regulations, the Rights of All Sentients Act, by experimenting on sentients against their will, illegal kidnapping, and jail break! Come along quietly!"

"Oh please, you Jedi and your self-righteous pap! I've done my time for all of those already, thank you, and breaking out of jail was simply me releasing myself on my own recognizance," the voice said, almost conversational now, but this was merely a cover.

As Arbor spoke the door opened with a bang, and several attack droids, the same type favored by the Trade Federation but with somewhat larger shoulders and a recessed head, came in. They immediately opened fire on the Jedi, their blasts battering at the Force shield.

"Now!" Mace shouted over the blaster fire, but Anakin had already released his shield, racing forward with his lightsaber already activating. The first two droids were cut down by a single slash of his blade, but the others backed away, firing at Anakin and falling back into the corridor.

Behind him Mace let his own shield drop, looking down at the Gran. "Don't try to run. We might be questioning you later," he said, before moving to follow Anakin out the door. As he did he reached out with his Force senses, making certain that Anakin's trail of destruction was going in the direction of their quarry.

It was, and Mace hurried to catch up, just as the room they had been in exploded. Later Mace would discover some explosives had been emplaced in the Gran's desk, but the Jedi had escaped the room too quickly, and a hurried Force Shield saved Mace from injury, though the effort took some energy out of him. The Gran, however, was not so lucky, his body shredded by the explosion before he could even scream.

From the entrance to the building they had entered from came more droids, and Mace turned in that direction, his lightsaber flashing. He could have used another Force Shield, but he wanted to concentrate most of his Force powers on trying to discern what Arbor would do now that she had been discovered. Will she run or try and fight?

The answer came to him just as Anakin reached the end of the corridor and found himself being attacked from both sides. But Anakin handled this easily: a Force Push in one direction coupled by a brief Force Shield to block the bolts already shot while he concentrated his lightsaber defense to the other side.

She's going to trap us here and run, Mace sensed, a feeling of great danger and death welling up from one direction. "Anakin, switch off!" he ordered, sending a Force Crush out, destroying the droids coming in from the exterior of the building.

"What? Why, master?" Anakin asked, not turning to look at the older Jedi as he dueled with both several guard droids at the far end of the corridor and two quad laser barrels which had swung out of the walls.

"She's going to run! we need you to…" Mace said, catching up to the youth just in time to be caught in yet another explosion, the floor of the intersection exploding up at the two Jedi. The Force was screaming at them, but, unable to raise shields in time, both Jedi were just able to leap away enough to avoid a messy death. Anakin jumped forward, landing in among the droids, only getting his back seared slightly. Being closer, Mace had to leap up onto the ceiling and then away, only to fall short as he was caught from behind by the explosion.

Pain shot through Mace's back, side, and head, as his shirt was fried from his back along with his leggings, his skin burning and shrapnel slamming into his back and shoulder, but Mace was an old hand at using the Force to deaden the pain, and he did so now without even thinking about it. Rolling to his feet and making another leap to land near his padawan while hacking down one of the two quad lasers, Mace continuing talking almost as if the explosion hadn't happened. "She, she's going to run. We need you to be in the air to stop her. I can't imagine the locals will be able to close down the space traffic, and if she breaks the gravity well she'll jump. The Republic can't afford a bioterrorist like her to run free. Go!"

Anakin nodded, quickly racing off, the Force pouring into his body and heightening his speed to a level few Jedi Masters could match, as he made for the company's tarmac. Windu, meanwhile, moved forward alone, using more of the Force to keep from fainting due to the pain of his wounds and using the Force to jumpstart the healing process at the same time. Anakin was still too late to stop a small, single person yacht from taking off from a hanger to one side. The ship, however, thankfully didn't have any weapons and simply raced for open space.

But Anakin was on its heels almost immediately in the modified Delta-6. Lining up a warning shot, he fired while, at the same time, linking his system into the local space traffic. "Attention, local space control. This is Jedi Skywalker. Am in hot pursuit of an intergalactic wanted fugitive. Do not get in my way." With that done he switched frequencies using the Force to figure out which one to use to contact the escaping yacht. "Arbor, put down now or I will be forced to blow you out of the sky!"

"You wouldn't dare, Jedi, if you know what I have left behind. Don't think mere explosives are all of it. I've left a little surprise, just waiting in my lab to add to the surprise I left behind on the penal world you lot stuck me on! You'll need to take me alive to get the antidote, or else it'll be released into the planet's air. Needless to say, it will go viral quickly. Do you want the deaths of this planet on your conscience? Let me go, and I'll give you the code to shut the release agent down safely when I reach open space."

Scowling, Anakin frowned, reaching out for the Force, testing the sincerity of her words and the future. Realizing with a sick horror that she was telling the truth, he started to wrestle with his conscience as the two ships made for space.

Two Headhunter type starfighters rose from behind him. But Anakin, without any pause, cut his engines for a moment, letting them roar past. An instant later he stitched up both of them with his blasters, sending first one then the other down, tapping the second with two of his ship's proton torpedoes to kill it quickly before racing after the yacht.

"Anakin, I have found and am disarming the device," Mace said over their communicator, just as Anakin regained his former position on the fleeing yacht, both ships breaking out of the atmosphere. "I was able to start up the building's emergency security program and am now locked in here. You'll have to make the call."

Anakin could sense his master's pain and something else, a sickness of the body, and realized his master was stuck inside with whatever the madwoman had tried to release. With that in mind the decision was easy to reach. Not even giving Arbor a second chance, Anakin locked onto the yacht. "You are wrong, Arbor. We want you dead a lot more than we need you alive."

The Force warning him that he'd need it to make sure of the ship's destruction, Anakin flicked a switch, activating the modified box launcher he had designed for the ship, ripple firing all four of the remaining proton torpedoes in one burst. The torpedoes struck the ship astern, the first three overloading it's overpowered shielding, and the last exploding the ship's engine, vaporizing the craft in a soundless explosion.

"I'm sorry, master," Anakin said into the communicator of his ship, his face hard and cold, while his back began to twinge, forcing him to use more of the Force to stop the pain. "I couldn't take her alive."

"You will be questioned on this, Anakin," Mace said after a sigh. "However, I cannot deny that she was going to get away, and I would rather have her dead then free to ply her vile trade." The weakened Master, most of his mind and will on his own body, trying to keep the contagion at bay, allowed a rare look of unvarnished approval to appear on his face in the pickup, and Anakin beamed back wearily, even though he could see his master was not in a good way. "You did very well, my padawan, very well. Now I need to meditate and fight this contagion. That means that you will be in charge of making our preliminary statement to the High Council and the Chancellor."

Anakin winced, holding a hand up to his head and touching the lightly burned portion. "Oh no, master, my head. I think I need a few hours of healing mediation too."

Mace raised an eyebrow and slowly shook his head, not to really emphasize his point, but more to make certain said head didn't fall off of his shoulders from the pain his body was in at the moment. "Your acting skills do not match your skills with the Force, I'm afraid."

"Feh, it was worth a try," Anakin muttered, before straightening and bowing formally to his master. "Don't worry, master. I'll handle it."

While Master Windu concentrated on healing himself, Anakin first took the time to change his clothing, then waved the Jedi Order tag for the locals, who attempted to scream his head off for the brief dogfight in atmosphere and the exploded remains of the yacht in orbit, which according to them would be a traffic hazard for some time. Once he had browbeaten them or shoved off their concerns to the side to let Master Windu deal with them later, he finally was able to use the local Hypercom network to send his report to Coruscant.

Given the fact that this mission had been given to the Order by the Chancellor's office and the severity of the threat to Republic that someone like Arbor could have become, it came as no surprise to Anakin that two of the High Council were involved in the call along with the Chancellor himself. That last might have been a surprise for most, but Anakin had been on several missions before this where the Chancellor had been involved. While the two of them had never talked, Anakin felt the older man was, if not a friend, and least friendly towards him after Anakin's part in freeing Naboo of the Trade Federation when he was a young boy. He didn't really know the man very well beyond that, and his master's distrust of politicians had sort of rubbed off on Anakin, but he was willing to give the Chancellor the benefit of the doubt more than most other politicians.

Anakin gave his report in as concise a manner as possible, not going into detail on how the two Jedi had changed their appearance, as was common practice when giving a report to anyone outside the Order. He did go into detail on the number of traps they had run into and how Arbor's paranoia had forced their hand. He ended the report by telling them all why Master Windu was not the one doing so, and how he had activated the building's security features despite still being within the building himself.

"And we are certain that once the building has been cleared that Master Windu himself will be, be clear of this contagion? Forgive me, but I do not know the medical nomenclature or anything about the Jedi's ability to heal themselves," the Chancellor said at that point, looking to one side as he addressed the two Masters, Adi Gallia and Master Koon. Obi-Wan Kenobi, who Anakin vaguely recognized from their time together years back, was also there, though he remained silent, waiting until his knowledge of Jenna Arbor was called upon.

"Yes, he will be clear of it, but we will send a Jedi Healer out just in case to make certain. They will be involved in both that and will have to certify that the building has been cleared of the contagion before we open it to allow Mace out," Adi replied, while Koon simply nodded.

The Chancellor took their words at face value, and Anakin continued his report. There Koon spoke up, asking Anakin if enough of the ship had been left in one piece to identify the body. "That will be my next task, master. The Force is telling me that she was aboard, but it is best to be certain in this case," Anakin replied.

"Very well. We would have preferred her alive, but it is better that she has been dealt with rather the let free to continue her heinous experiments. The disease Arbor somehow incubated on the penal colony she was kept on will have to be solved by other means," the chancellor said sadly.

The two Jedi, however, while agreeing on that point, were more worried about how the two Jedi had been recognized. Anakin had no answer there, having simply believed that it was the way they hadn't submitted their blood for sampling immediately. Which it very well might have been, the two Masters acknowledged, but they wanted Anakin and Windu to make certain. "If Master Windu's voice was recognized despite his assumed accent, that is a problem, since such things can only be fooled so much by the Force. It would be a bad sign if records of the voices of well-known Jedi have been making the rounds of the underworld."

The two of them looked at Obi-Wan, who answered their question. "Jenna Arbor was perhaps the most intelligent, brilliant bio-chemist in the Republic at one point. She was also paranoid to a level many criminals don't reach, even before Master Qui-Gon and I captured her. If she had a hint her escape was known, she would have developed that paranoia to a fine level. I think that this was simply a sign of that paranoia rather than a sign of a larger problem. Taking precautions against any future attempts, however, should be a given. And I also believe that any nearby Jedi should be rerouted to back up Anakin while Master Windu is stuck in that building."

Koon nodded, while Adi looked quizzical, her fellow master enlightening her a moment later. "We have known for years that the remaining Yinchorri raiders have prioritized Master Windu's death over all others. If it becomes known that he is stuck in one place for a long time, they may learn of it somehow and move against him in greater numbers than they have been able to bring together in the past."

Anakin barely kept back a scowl at the idea that he would need more Jedi to help him protect his master, simply nodding instead. "That makes good sense."

"We don't have any Jedi in the area, but we can perhaps reroute a nearby Consular Master/padawan pair," Adi mused.

"I am afraid the Republic doesn't have any police forces in the area, though I will contact the planetary governor and order him to aid you in any way he can, Anakin," the Chancellor said, smiling at the teen.

Anakin smiled more happily at that, eager to have a bigger stick to beat the locals into line with. The Masters asked a few more questions at that point, with Obi-Wan warning Anakin to be wary of traps when he began to investigate the remains of the ship. "It would be just like Arbor to want to take someone with her into death. She would believe doing so would let her make one last mark on the galaxy."

After Anakin acknowledged that, the High Council signed off, not realizing that the Chancellor didn't follow them. The old man asked several more question about the mission and the response from the locals before leading the conversation gently onto more familiar ground, giving Anakin the impression that he was using the conversation as a break from his work as chancellor.

Smiling into the pickup, Sheev's eyes gleamed with amusement. "I realize that I haven't been able to follow your career as closely as I had promised all those years ago. But I believe I speak for both myself and those who knew you as a young boy that you have done our expectations proud. I was actually speaking to Padmé the other day and she, like I, remembers what you did for Naboo back then."

Fighting back a flush at the memory of the girl he had called his angel when they first met, Anakin smiled proudly before tamping the expression back down. "I am happy to hear that, Chancellor."