Assassin (A Star Wars Fan-Fiction) Book 2

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Well, I've had better landings." Obi-Wan coughed as he brushed the dust from his clothes. After chasing Dooku out of his own ship, they had caused him to crash on a dark, gloomy-looking planet covered in rocks and filled with caves. But unfortunately, Dooku had retaliated, hitting Anakin and Obi-Wan's ship with one of his vulture droids and making them crash as well. Anakin coughed and looked up.

"Dooku." he said, pointing to the ship that they had crashed beside. It definitely belonged to the Count as they both approached the damaged shuttle. Obi-Wan walked up to it, seeing that there was a small circular device attached to the hull.

"What's this?" the Jedi Master asked out loud as he ran his fingers over the small beeping object. "A homing beacon?"

"Which means the distinguished Count is waiting for help. He can't be far off." Anakin declared. Obi-Wan bent down, examining how badly the Count's ship had been damaged during the crash. After looking, Master Kenobi stood up.

"His engine is damaged, which means he's not going anywhere." 

"Not without a homing beacon." Anakin said as he quickly ignited his lightsaber and smashed the small blinking device. Smarks flew as the beacon was disabled and fell to the dusty ground. The two walked away from the wrecked ships, examining the land and trying to figure out where the Count may have wandered off to. After a moment of scanning the area Obi-Wan noticed a cave nearby.

"There." he said as he extended his hand in the direction of the cave. Anakin followed the way his master was pointing and saw what his master had been talking about. "Caves are as good a start as any."

And with that, the two began their search into the dark caves.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"How much do you think Danik will pay for her?" 

"I'm more concerned about how much the Seperatists will pay, considering the fact that she's secretly a Jedi!" 

A sudden burst of pain erupted in Denali's chest as a boot made contact with her ribcage. She gasped for air as her eyes shot open, pulling her back into reality from the darkness of unconciousness. Pain filled her head as light flooded into her eyes, temporarily blinding her as she struggled to comprehend what was happening.

She was in a prisoner's cell. Her hands were bound together with an electric cord and metal cuffs. After regaining her breath, she attempted to break the cuffs with the Force, but only received a painful electric shock in return. As she waited eagerly for the pain in her wrists to subside, she heard the sound of chuckling behind her as she sat up. Breathing heavily, she glared up at her captors.

"Well, it's nice to see that you've woken up, Master Bleway." he hissed down at her, his wrists resting against his hips. He would've had his hands on his sides, if only he hadn't been holding Denali's two lightsabers in his grasp. He noticed that she had seen them and smirked. "When exactly were you planning on informing me of that little ittie-bittie detail, Denali?"

"I don't know. I guess when you gave up drinking. That seemed like a good time." Denali replied sarcastically. For that comment, one of Hondo's men slapped her across the face. She didn't flinch. Hondo knelt down beside her, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look up at him. His face was deathly serious.

"From the new information we dug up about your 'Jedi career' you decided to hide from us, we have realized that you're worth more than you lead on. Not only are you going to fight for us, but as soon as you can't fight anymore, we're going to inform your brother, the Jedi Council, and the Seperatist Council of your situation. I'm going to give all three of them an offer, and if they refuse my first proposal, I will personally assign one of my men to torture you for a whole hour, non-stop. That means bringing out the whips, knives, and other dangerous devices. I will even record the entire torture session and show it to them so that they will be more...-how could I put this gently?-.... persuaded to agree to my terms. Then, I will tell them my terms and conditions once again. If they refuse, we will continue this process for as long as it takes. Understood?"

Denali glared up at him, but nodded. Hondo smiled and stood up.

"I'm hurt that this couldn't have gone better. Boba is going to be heart-broken when he finds out about this." Hondo called behind his shoulder as he left the room. The cell door slid closed, locking behind the leader of the pirates as he walked away, most likely going to contact everyone who he assumed would want to buy Denali. She hung her head and slowly staggered to her feet. Blood flowed to her face as her cheek began to swell up where Hondo's goon had slapped her.

"Well, wasn't that an interesting show."

Denali looked up immediately at the corner where the voice had come from. Seeing Dooku sitting there, she didn't feel as bad about getting caught since she hadn't been the only one unable to fight back at the pirates.

"Did he give you that lecture, too?" she asked him.

"Not exactly that version of it, but definitely somewhere along those lines." the Count told her.

"How exactly did you end up here?" she asked the Sith. He stared at her strangely.

"Why do you think I would tell you?" he countered. Denali shrugged her shoulders.

"It was just an honest question." The Jedi Master defended herself. "But I guess I shouldn't expect any answers from you." 

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Why do you care? We're both full of unanswered questions, Count." Denali shot back.

There was a long and awkward silence after that. Denali knew that this was going to be one of the worst moments in her life.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Boba sat in Chewie's bedroom, reading from his tablet that he had gotten from his Uncle Danik as he sat on the Wookiee's bed. Chewbacca was meditating silently on the floor with his legs folded. Over the past two years, Chewie and Boba had grown close. Boba was like the Wookiee's little brother and Sekhmi was like their older sister. The two had sat like that for a few hours in silence.

But that silence was broken as Sekhmi ran into the room, a panicked expression on her face.

"Guys, Denali's gone."