Lost Part II

Author's Note: Vor entye bah HanuuEshe, my first ever reviewer on ff.net.

Disclaimer: Guess what, I bought Star Wars! *beat* No, wait, still not mine.

Part II

Nar Shaadda, 7 years later (2 years after the departure of the Exile)

Lifetimes passed. Atton Rand got in trouble, met a girl, got in some more trouble, helped save the galaxy, and lost the girl (at least temporarily). And wound up a Jedi, if you can beleive it. And yet, here he was, on the same sinkhole planet where it seemed like he'd spent half his disreputable existance, being chased by the exact kind of scum whose ire he would have incurred as a card shark.

It had been meant to be a quiet chat in a cantina, an exchange of information with a couple of Mandalorian mercenaries about some two-bit crime lord trying to patch the Exchange back together. Part of the Big Jedi Plan to look like they were actually being useful. The two big guys did most of the talking, but the smallest (though still rather tall) of the three, female by her voice, had said some things that made him think she'd been the one who got the information. He hadn't even gotten their names (He'd been thinking of them as Red, Blue, and Grey, for the colors of their armor), nor given his, and it should have been a blue milk run. Then the Ubese showed up. Maybe this mob boss upstart sent them,or maybe they'd just somehow caught wind that there was a Jedi about, it didn't matter. They tromped into the bar like they owned the place, led by some big shot in a mask.

The sudden sense of hostility and wrongness he felt gave him time to draw his lightsaber and drop into a defenive stance. The Mandalorians were not so fast. Red and Blue dropped like stones as the Ubese opened fire on the table, dead before they could so much as draw their pistols. Grey was quicker, and got off a pair shots before she collapsed on the floor. Down but not out, he suspected.He caught a shot at a lucky angle with his blade, and the ricochet hit one ofthe Ubese in the throat.

One, two, three, four, five of them on their terms. He didn't like those odds, so he changed them. A flick of his mind upturned the table onto them, and he bolted for the door. As much as he'd like to teach them a lesson, that wasn't his number one priority. Getting out of here with those datacards was. He clicked the comlink three times as he ran out into the night, the signal for Mira fire up the engines, now.

He slowed briefly once he was out of sight, just long enough to open his mind and reach, trying to find his pursuers. And to his surprise, sensed someone else doing the same thing. A searching presence... No one here but us rats. he thought, and it seemed to pass him by. He just barely dared hope that he'd lost them when several blaster bolts streaked by his head. He ducked around a corner, attempting to shake them in the schutta's maze that was Nar Shaadda. Someone screamed. Atton winced, hoping some innocent hadn't been hit. That scream was followed by another, and he turned down another alleyway-

And hit a dead end. Atton whirled around, bringing his blue double-saber up between him and his pursuers. Hadn't there been five before? Three stood before him now, the leader flanked by the two remaining Ubese. He looked at the leader, and suddenly felt colder than he had in a long time. Any doubts he had about this being premeditiated were banished. The scarf that hid his face was oddly reminiscent of a Sith assassin's garb, and his cloak was definitely not standard mercenary's attire. There was an air of darkness about him, as threatening and unsubtle as a brandished vibroblade. No one moved. A silence hung in the air like the deep breath one takes before plunging into ice water. It was broken by the tramp of booted feet as an armored figure clattered into the alley.

It was Grey, staggering as much as she ran. The armor on her side was burned through and she was bleeding. She'd ditched the helmet, and proved to be a sturdy blonde still in her teens, short hair pasted to her head with sweat. Anger and pain rolled off her so thick he could taste it. She was not bound by the spell that had held them, and brought a double-ended vibroblade down on one of the Ubese without hesitation. She turned her attentions to the second, and the masked man charged at Atton.

He wielded his heavy, exotic blade with cold precision, and twice Atton only just managed to divert serious blows into wicked scratches. Not that it truly mattered- the cruel blade had been poisoned, and he could feel it working. There! An opening. He brought his shining blade down on his shoulder, and the assailent crumpled like a rag doll. Atton slumped, focusing to rid himself ofthe poison, when he heard the whine of a blaster charging a shot.

Grey pointed a pistol at him with shaking hands. She fought a losing battle with her tears, her face twisted in anguish.

"That man killed my father." she said, her voice breaking. "I wanted very much to kill him." The muzzle of the blaster dipped, then she brought it back up. "Guess I'll settle for you, Jedi. You got us into this. Those men... those shots were meant for you."

Atton reflected that it would be fairly typical of the universe, to let him survive this long and then have him get shot by a grief-crazy Mandalorian teenager in a back alley. "Listen. Just... just calm down." he said in his best soothing voice. (Which admittedly wasn't very good- this really wasn't his department.) He reached out, trying to get a feel for her. Pain, grief, anger, loss, and a horrible familiarity with all four...

She flinched, as though he'd physically struck her. Huh. A Mandalorian Force Sensitive. That was a new one on him. The girl straightened, her chin went upin an expression that was stubbornness incarnate, and she seemed to compose herself. He had the damndest feeling he'd met her before. Here on Nar Shaadda? Maybe. "I'm not a murderer, and you're not the man I came here tokill." She said curtly. She looked at him, and he saw a flash of...recognition? "I was out of line, Master..."

"Rand." He responded reflexively. The girl looked like she'd seen a ghost, and she turned to walk away. Something clicked in Atton's brain. A lost little blonde girl with a stuffed toy in the middle of the Smuggler's Moon, all those years ago...

"You- the kid with the bantha, right? Six- no, seven years ago?" What was her name- Anna, Anica... An-something.

She paused, then continued her exit. "Yeah."

"You're Force Sensitive." He said suddenly, stopping her in her tracks. "Come to the Temple on Coruscant. You could be trained." When he saw her face, he was surprised to see that she was not. She looked resigned, as though she'd heard this all before.

"I don't think so. I'd make a terrible Jedi."

"Doesn't everyone." No response. "Where will you go?"

She responded with a shrug. "Kid-" he groped for her name "Ankerra? You're lost."

That got him a look of proud defiance. "What the hell makes you think so?"

She strode off into the Nar Shaaddan night. Atton did not follow, only watched her go. He hailed Mira on the comlink to tell her just how badly things had gone wrong, and tried not to think about the Mandalorian girl.

 End Part II