Assassin (A Star Wars Fan-Fiction) Book 2

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

Denali took Boba's hand and helped him up onto the roof. Surprisingly, even though it was nothing but thick sticks tied together with straps, it held a lot of weight. The Jedi master gestured for him to hop on, and Boba jumped up onto Denali's back. She hooked her arms behind his knees as he carefully and gently wrapped his arms around her neck, holding on so he wouldn't fall off.

"Now what do we do, Master?" Chewie asked.

"Boba, where is your ship?" she asked him.

"It should be right next to Master Yoda's." Boba replied. Denali looked back at Chewie.

"Chewie, lead the way." she told him. He nodded, and they began to jump from roof to roof. For the two Jedi, this was an easy task. Jumping and balancing was simple for people with their kind of experience. And it wasn't very hard for Mi, either. But every few seconds she would stumble on a branch that had been sticking out and need to regain her footing. Denali noticed and made a mental note that they would need to practice Sehkmi's balancing skills when they got the chance.

Every few seconds or so, Denali would look over the edge of the roof to see if anyone was watching them. The roof was a little over twelve feet up in the air, easily towering over the street. Thankfully, the aliens passing through were too busy with whatever they were up to to notice the four of them up on the roofs. Which was a good thing, considering the fact that that meant Obi-Wan and Anakin weren't noticing them, either.

"We're almost to the edge of the town." Mi said as they jumped onto the roof of Gwollo's Drinks, then ran across to the very end. Only six more buildings to go before they would need to run across the desert to their destination.

"Denali, they see us!" Boba said from her back. They all turned around and saw that they were being followed. Master Yoda had bought them some time, but not very much. Denali knew that they would have only a few precious seconds before Anakin and Obi-Wan would catch them. She made eye-contact with her husband as the two raced towards them.

'I'm not going back, Obi.' she thought to him, then quickly turned to Mi and Chewie.

"Take Boba." she told them as she passed the young boy to Sekhmi. The Togruta girl held the boy on her back, just like Denali had done moments ago. "Go to the ship and start the engines. I'll distract them while you run." the three nodded to the Jedi Master, then continued to sprint across the rooftops towards Boba's ship. She stood and waited just as the two other Jedi lept up onto the roof top, joining her.

"Denali, what are you doing?" Anakin asked from a few yards away. Denali took a step back.

"I'm not going back with you. I'm dangerous-"

"Then why is Master Yoda trusting you with not only one padawan, but two?" Obi-Wan countered, interupting her.

"He said that having Chewie and Sekhmi around will keep me on the path to the light. But there's still a chance that that may not work." she told them.

"But Denali, we can help you. You don't have to run from us." Anakin told her, extending his hand. "We're all friends here, and friends stick together." Denali and Obi-Wan exchanged quick, barely noticeable, glances, knowing that not all of them were just friends. Grabbing her eye-patch, she pulled it off of her head, showing her entire face. Obi-Wan and Anakin's eyes widened as they saw and realized why she had wanted to stay away.

Her eye had gotten worse. Now her eye was red towards the inside and yellow around the outer rim. The skin around her eye socket was beginning to grow paler in color as well, the blood draining from that area.

"Something inside me is changing, but I don't know what. My appearance is scaring me, and I know that it's only a matter of time before my inner self matches the look of my outer self." her eyes began to fill with tears and she held her head in her hands. "I don't want to be a Sith. I don't want to join the Dark Side."

Anakin ran to her side and put his hand on her shoulder. "We can stop this, Denali. We can help you. The doctors at the Jedi Temple-"

"No!" she shouted, shoving his hand away. "I can't go back there. I have to get away from you. At least until I can control this." she said to them, gesturing to her hands and face. She had been so calm while the children were around her, but that was because she had to be. Denali knew that she had to be strong for her padawans and for Boba. She couldn't freak out like this around them, otherwise they would be scared.

Anakin stood there in shock. He had never seen her like this before. He had never seen her so scared as her arms and legs shook with fear. But Obi-Wan had witnessed this once before, though. When they had spent the night on Kamino and she had woken up from her awful nightmare. The Jedi Master took a step forward, carefully putting both of his hands on her shoulders, steadying them.

"Denali, Anakin is right. Just, take a deep breath and-"

Obi-Wan was suddenly interupted by the sound of a ship's engines. The wind quickly began to pick up, blowing sand through the air as a ship began to approach. Obi-Wan, Denali, and Anakin all looked up as the ship that had been stolen from the Jedi Temple came into view. The loading ramp was down, Chewie standing there with one hand wrapped around the extension pole and the other extended to her.

"Master, grab on!" he shouted over the noise. Before Obi-Wan or Anakin could stop her, she quickly slipped her eye-patch back on and jumped up, her hand reaching for her padawan's furry paw. Catching her before she could fall, Chewie helped her up onto the loading ramp and they both ran inside as it closed behind them. The two sprinted through the ship to the bridge, where Boba and Mi were controlling the large shuttle. Mi sat in the pilot's seat, while Boba sat in the co-pilot's spot beside her.

"The loading bay is sealed closed." Boba reported to Mi.

"Good, prepare to enter the atmosphere." Mi told Denali, Boba, and Chewie. Denali held tightly to the back of Boba's chair and Chewbacca held to the back of Mi's. The ship began to vibrate as the shuttle lifted up through the air quicker than it was made to do.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Chewie growled to Mi.

"Of course I do." The Togrutian answered simply. A few shaky seconds later, the ship was finally out of orbit and flying away from the large dusty planet. They all let out a sigh of relief. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to get off of that old dust-bucket. Thanks for bringing me along." Denali smiled.

"No problem, Mi. Now set a corse for Alderaan." Denali told her.

"Why Alderaan?" she asked.

"Because I have an old friend that might help us with your training. At least Boba's." Denali told them as Sekhmi began to type in the coordinates.

"Who?" Boba asked.

"My brother."