Found A New Padawan

The Fight

Well...it's been a decent while since the last update. Sorry about that. Life has been interesting and stressful, and my inspiration/motivation keeps fluctuating. I've started and scrubbed quite a few ideas for fics and this fic just...never got me motivated to write these past couple months. I will admit, I'm not a hundred percent motivated for this chap rn, but I felt like I couldn't keep you waiting. As it is, there are a couple of my SWCW fics that might just be abandoned, which I do feel bad about, so I wanted to do this.

Now, moving on from that, this has been such a journey writing and rewriting this fic that it's hard to believe that I've been writing this for over 8 years, and we aren't even done yet! Granted, it was done at one point, but then I decided I needed to rewrite it to prove that I did grow since I first started this fic LMFAO. I want to thank you guys for your patience and encouragement through this journey, and I hope that you continue being with me on this journey to the new end! Enjoy!

The flight to Naboo had been interesting. For one thing, when they weren't talking about their various bounties or kills, they were eyeing each other down as if they were either going to pounce them, rob them, or kill them. Considering Bane killed one of the bounty hunters before the Box just for a hat, was a testament that they would kill for petty reasons. If something went south, it wouldn't surprise her if they started killing each other to escape. It was moments like these that Ikoe wished she didn't have the Force, since it was not pleasant feeling the bounty hunters lust for someone. It was all kinds of volatile that had her grimacing more than once, grateful to be wearing a helmet. For another thing, they were talking about what they would do when the mission was done, and they got paid, which was a lot of buying horrible sounding weapons. Then there was Bane who kept eyeing Obi-Wan, but luckily, or unluckily, she couldn't tell what the man was thinking about her master.

Well, he wasn't always eyeing him with a strange gleam in his eyes, he also occasionally talked with her about training routines to become a ruthless bounty hunter. Now, she can get behind more training to better defend herself and others, but...not to actively hunt someone down and make them regret living. She was a Jedi, but she was also a Mandalorian trying to balance both Haat'ade and Evaar'la'ade ideals with Jedi ideals. It was...an interesting juggle. But it was times like these that she wished she didn't have the Force. Or maybe just not have agreed to the mission. Either worked really.

When they were about halfway to Naboo however, Dooku walked into the room with his usual dignified—better than you—attitude. She never thought, or wanted really, to be thankful to Dooku for any reason. But right now, she was grateful for him appearing since it meant all the bounty hunters clearing their thoughts to focus on the briefing. While Dooku did go over how they'd go about kidnapping the Chancellor, it was vague. Instead, he focused on the plan for taking over a warehouse where they're setting up base. Once that was done, Dooku had Obi-Wan follow him out of the main area to somewhere secluded, no doubt to go over the actual plan in more detail since Obi-Wan is leading the team.

But soon enough they were on Naboo in what looked like an abandoned industrial section based on how few workers were around. Exiting the ship, they made their way to a warehouse with only a couple guards outside with, no doubt, several workers inside. Taking out all the workers was a quick affair for the group of bounty hunters, with Embo muttering something after taking out two workers. The last remaining one who had run toward the entrance where Bane walked up. "Well, hello there," Bane greeted with a wicked smirk, pulling out his blaster and shooting the man dead quickly. "All clear," he called, letting everyone gather inside the warehouse around a decently sized crate with Dooku standing on one side of Obi-Wan, Ikoe on the other with Bane on her other side.

"This is it, my friends, the day of reckoning for the Republic. I have it from a very reliable source that everything will happen exactly as we planned. Execute your roles as you've been instructed, and you will all be immortalized in history, not to mention rewarded with enough credits that you will never have to work again," Dooku said and Ikoe watched as the other bounty hunters shared wide-eyed looks of shock at how much they were going to be paid. "I will let Rako Hardeen take it from here," Dooku said, taking a step forward, while Obi-Wan moved close enough to the crate to lean against it.