So. Turns out that Transcript Wiki doesn't have scripts for the rest of the Clone Wars episodes I'll be covering. Fuuuuuu-

Attachments and Amendments (14)

Alliance With Enemies and Fallout With Friends

It was a relief and a mercy that Siri wasn't deployed on a mission offworld. She hadn't asked for the break, but if she had to be honest with herself, she was in no shape to lead an operation with a clear, level head.

How could she think straight after the man she loved was dead?

Siri had spent days cooped up in her quarters, sitting listlessly in one place. On difficult, taxing missions, Jedi could hone their focus to set aside thoughts of food and sleep for long periods of time. She found that grief suspended her in a similar sort of limbo, making her feel neither deprived nor satiated of worldly needs like food and sleep. No one came by to bother her, so she remained undisturbed, tucked away in the darkness and solitude of her quarters, in the roiling storm of her emotions.

One day (she didn't know exactly when; she had lost count of the date), several knocks on her door jerked her back to reality. It took Siri several moments to register the sound. As it persisted, she stumbled upright on cramped, aching feet she hadn't used for Force knew how long.

The person awaiting her on the other side of the door took her by surprise.

"Anakin? What are you doing back here so soon?" She stepped aside to let him in. "I thought you were at the Galactic Senate Rotunda, with the Chancellor."

Anakin's eyes, normally dark and brooding, glittered with an excitement that unsettled her. "He sent me back with a tip. Obi-Wan's killer is heading for Nal Hutta."

Siri's voice flattened in dismay. "You're going after that bounty hunter, aren't you?"

"Of course. He has to pay for what he did." He paced about her quarters like a restless, caged beast. "I can't just sit around when he's on the loose. I got a great lead on his location, too. I have to do something about it. Ahsoka's coming with me. You should come along too, Siri."

Apparently she didn't make her misgivings clear enough for him. "No, Anakin. I can't."

The spark fizzled out of his eyes, and his disbelief rivaled hers. "Why not?"

"Isn't it obvious? We are Jedi. We don't go after enemies eye-for-an-eye. We don't mark beings for death."

Anakin's voice grew as tight as his fist. "Marking beings for death...I heard that before. Obi-Wan said that to me once. When I had made up my mind to hunt down Krayn, in fact." He scowled at the floor. "But you're not my Master. My Master's dead."

Siri tried to relax some of the firmness in her tone. "Look, I understand how you feel—"

"Do you, really?" His glare snapped back up and bore hot holes into her. "Do you still love him, Siri?"

She forgot how to breathe. It took her the next second to remember how. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't pretend to be clueless. Obi-Wan told me all about it."

Siri took a step back. "What? Why?" Her mind reeled and tumbled, like she was plunged back into the depths of Mon Cala. Obi-Wan was supposed to keep their promise. The secret kept just between him and herself.

Anakin shook his head furiously. "That's not important right now. You're not answering my question. You still love him, don't you?"

She was too shocked to muster a rebuttal in time.

Anakin clasped her shoulders. "If he still means anything to you, Siri, you would want to avenge him."

Startled by the strength of his grip, especially from his right hand, she shrugged free of it and finally found the words. "Revenge won't bring him back, Anakin," she snapped. "Even if it could, that's not the Jedi way."

"I know he can't come back! I'm not an idiot. Still, his murderer doesn't deserve to run free." Contempt pushed down his brow and flared his nostrils. "I was wrong to think that you'd be of any help. If you're not going, Siri, then you don't care about Obi-Wan enough. You don't love him."

Siri flinched, as if Anakin had struck her in the face with that bitter accusation. He stormed out through the door, leaving her speechless and gutted. That's not true, she wanted to shout after him. Instead it came out as a weak, shaky whisper. Left alone with the wound Anakin had left her, Siri sank back into the sleep-mat and buried her face into her hands. She didn't just lose Obi-Wan. She may have lost her friendship with Anakin, too.

Obi-Wan, Eval, and Bane emerged from the wrecked hull of the ship that they had stolen. It was Obi-Wan's idea to crash it into the swamp, which would swallow it up. There would be no trace of the crash.

"Moralo Eval likes a man who plans ahead." Eval scrutinized Obi-Wan through muddy yellow eyes. "You do have a plan, right?"

"Yeah, I know Nal Hutta. We can get a new ship at Bilbousa Bazaar. But this time, we buy one. Otherwise, we'll have the authorities on us."

"We need to ditch these prison fatigues," Bane said. "We'll have a bounty on our heads for escaping. And I don't like to stand out."

Says the one who likes wide-brim hats, Obi-Wan almost said. But he kept his mouth shut and thought it best to tail them quietly. They climbed off the wrecked ship and entered the bazaar. Obi-Wan wore a mask of indifference at the sight of nearby security clubbing locals to submission.

Bane gestured to a pawn shop ahead. "Pablo's place has everything a bounty hunter needs and more."

The trio of fugitives stepped into a dimly lit, cluttered array of shelves stuffed to the brim with gear. Obi-Wan had to tread carefully to make his way through the cramped space. Bane made a grunt of satisfaction as he swiped a large gray hat off the shelf.

Picking a helmet for himself, Obi-Wan couldn't contain his wry amusement anymore. "For trying to blend in, your hat sure makes you stand out."

"I don't like to hide under a helmet," came Bane's barbed reply.

Pablo, the Rodian who ran the pawn shop, sidled up to Bane with the simpering manner that reminded Obi-Wan of so many advisors who, in his experience of high-level negotiating, tried to curry favor from their ruler. "Is there you anything else you desire, huh? A new ship?"

Irritated disappointment rang in Bane's metallic vocal chords. "Your choice of blasters is lousy this time, Pablo. Where can I get some quality blasters?"

The pawn shop owner chuckled. "Business has been at an all time high these days. Early bird gets the worm and all that. I wouldn't be too picky, being on the run like you obviously are."

Bane hoisted up Pablo by the collar and pinned him against the wall, ignoring an outburst from the blue female Twi'lek. "I'd keep my mouth shut if I were you," he growled. "We'll get our weapons elsewhere." He released his choking hold on Pablo's neck, and the Rodian bent over gagging.

The lack of ample light in the pawn shop hid the distaste on Obi-Wan's face. Was the show of force really necessary? Then again, this must be how Bane earned his reputation for being the most fearsome bounty hunter in the galaxy. Obi-Wan turned to the Twi'lek, who knelt beside Pablo and went on in distressed Huttese. He didn't need Siri around to tell what she might be saying. Feeling pity for the store owners, he extended credits to the Twi'lek. "Here, for your trouble."

The Twi'lek smacked his hand away, sending the credits flying, and exclaimed something that must have been along the lines of "get out of here!"

Crestfallen, Obi-Wan had no choice but to turn away and hit the road with Eval and Bane. Even in this disguise, he had tried to retain some trace of decency. Too bad it didn't get him anywhere.

Committing murder proved to be only the beginning of Siri's trial under fire.

Before the throne of rare greel wood he had fashioned for himself at the helm of his ship, Krayn appraised his newest recruits. "Listen, you three, you gave me a good first impression yesterday, but I'll need to see more if I'm going to entrust you with the real salt and meat of the operations. Any of you ever gone on slave raids before?"

Rashtah grunted in affirmation.

Unusual for a Wookiee to be involved in slave trade, Siri thought.

Shodo's reply oozed with casual confidence. "Did my fair share for the Hutt lords, but not on this scale and magnitude."

"I haven't," Siri admitted, and added, "but I'm a fast learner."

Propping elbows on armrests decorated in trophies (no doubt pried from the hands of his victims), Krayn interlocked his fingers. "I expect nothing less than excellent results. All but one of you may have gone on slave raids before, but probably not done my way. Here, the workflow is demanding and my standards are high. I need you to be aware of that. I funnel slaves into the spice mines, you see, and those mines make for very high turnover numbers."

Work in the spice mines was extremely dangerous. Not to mention miserable and back-breaking. No sane being looking for work would take it up, so work in the spice mines was left to the bottom-of-the-barrel caste, the ones who have no say or choice in the matter.

"Bring in fresh new slaves for the spice mine grinder, and you'll climb up the ranks to administration," Krayn went on. "Each of you will be assigned to different parts of the Outer Rim Territories, under a team of more experienced slave raiders. Do a good job for me and you'll be handsomely rewarded. My respect and trust aren't things I give out so freely."

Because Siri was the greenest among the recruits, she would have to work even harder to prove herself worthy. That meant throwing herself into direct competition against her fellow recruits to round up the most slaves for Krayn. That meant infiltrating system after system to snatch away slaves from their owners, and worst of all, their families. Hardly an honorable goal to strive for, but a necessary one if that was what it took to earn Krayn's trust.

The first world she and her team of slave raiders touched down on was Nar Kreeta. On a planet of mostly deserts, almost all cities were ports straddling the sea.

The captain of Siri's raiding crew, a snaggle-toothed one-eyed Trandoshan named Marg, wasn't one for eloquence and grand plans. All he said prior to landing was, "Take what you want and leave the rest behind to clean up!"

In other words, an all-out campaign of havoc and terror. There was no thought for any sort of stealthy tactics as the crew stormed the beach, hailing their charge with indiscriminate blasterfire and war cries. Preferring to save her ammunition, Siri found the most valuable tool strapped to her to be portable interference: a device emitting signals that rendered transmitter chips useless. Without the transmitter chips to deter escape, slave owners had no real hold over their living property. Siri and her partners in crime could spirit away as many slaves as they wanted without setting off the lethal chips. Locals fled into hiding, abandoning their homes and upended vendors. Sobs and screams filled the salty air, giving it a heftier weight in Siri's lungs.

In the port cities of Nar Kreeta, slaves tended to be kept in the lowest levels of ships. With her accomplices, she tore at and kicked down ports of entry in her way, but with the actual slaves she opted for quiet, ruthless efficiency. Out of everything she saw and heard since the raid started, she hated the sobbing and screaming the most. So when she broke into ships and homes to pick off slaves, she would silence them with a headlock, so they put up no resistance as she let her brawnier colleagues lug them away.

As the raid went on, she found something she hated even more than terror from the slaves: pleas from their owners. They threw themselves at her feet, saying things like, "Please, go ahead and take my slaves. They'll be useful, and I can always get more. Just don't ruin my home and stock." Towards these lowest of the low, who treated living beings like things to throw away and collect, Siri had nothing but disgust and contempt for them. At the peak of her anger, she actually spit down at one who wouldn't stop groveling at the hem of her coat.

Finally, Marg hoisted up his blaster and fired several rounds into the air. "All right, back to the stars, boys—" then to Siri, "—and girl. Wrap it up and make sure we're not being followed."

As the crew made a run for their ships, they seized the chance to loot food and goods scattered far from their stalls. Since Siri took nothing, she was the first to make it back onboard. She kept her distance from the rest of the crew, whose loud revelry over their spoils fought for dominance with the roar of the ship's engine.

A long forked tongue flicked at the corner of her eye. Marg had trumped over to her. "Hey, new girl—Zora, is it? Good work today. You should join the party. You deserve to treat yourself."

Crossing her arms over her chest, she tried to give off an aloof air as she didn't meet his amber gaze. "No thanks. Someone's got to be sober enough to pilot the ship."

The captain's tongue flicked even harder and his snaggle-tooth flashed into full view as he laughed. "You have a point. Well, since you took up the offer to pilot, don't mind me if I swig this." He swaggered off downing a flask of what must be, from the smell of it, very strong grog.

The raids continued for the next week or so. A cargo ship could hold up to a week's worth of kidnapped slaves. When the raiding crew rendezvoused at the Kessel Run, Krayn's base of operations, Marg went out of his way to speak the highest praise of Zora during his report.

"Not much for camaraderie, but gets the job done quickly and quietly," the Trandoshan captain said. "She's efficient, which is just the thing you're looking for in a raider. I won't be surprised to see her become a captain of her own crew soon."

"I'll be the judge of that," Krayn said, then addressed Siri with the slightest nod of approval. "It's not easy to impress Marg. Consider it an honor to be the exception. Get some rest before your next raid. It's been ages since my first, but I remember it to be the most exhausting."

The cargo ship taken out for raids was much smaller than Krayn's stronghold, forcing raiders into a cramped shared quarter for sleeping. But here, finally, Siri had the luxury her own quarters, where she had stowed away her lightsaber and comlink—her only connection to the Jedi Council—under a sleep-couch. Hidden away from all other company, and thinking of all the slaves she had robbed of tears on her first raid, Siri released a week's worth of pent up crying. Looking up at a grimy mirror, she noticed that none of the black paint on her face had smeared off. Adi had taken care and made sure to apply waterproof paint. Master Gallia, the Jedi Order, the Jedi Temple...Siri curled up on the sleep couch and cried even harder as her thoughts carried her home and her heart ached for it.

Bane wasn't going free without a reprimanding word. "You should've just walked away quietly," Obi-Wan snapped. "The owner's probably calling the Hutts right now, seeing what kind of bounty there is on us."

Bane chewed at the pick between his teeth. "Relax. In this slime pool, everyone's an outlaw. Besides, they'll be looking for three of us. We'll split up. You find a ship, Eval and I will get weapons."

Obi-Wan thrust out an arm to cut off Bane's stride. "Not so fast. If it's all the same to you, I'll get the weapons."

Bane batted his hand away. "No, it's not the same to me. You crashed the ship, you get a new one."

"It does seem fair," Eval agreed with a shrug.

Obi-Wan stared after the retreating pair, who continued a muted conversation, no doubt to discuss how much they couldn't trust him. He headed for the ship lot, where he tried to buy one from a Bith dealer. As he closed the deal for a light freighter, Obi-Wan shouldn't be so surprised that Eval and Bane came up only carrying enough weapons for two. He figured to bring indignant attention to it, anyway. "Hey, where's my weapon?"

Bane wasn't one for pleasantries or beating around the bush. "You don't have one," he replied shortly. "You're not coming."

"He doesn't want to split the fee for breaking me out of prison," Eval explained as he began boarding the ship. And with a crooked grin, he added, "Also, he despises you."

Diplomacy and negotiation was fought in a different kind of arena. No time here for gentle nudges to compromise. Siri had told him that along with threats, the other language he had to master was money. Obi-Wan raised his voice in defiance. "I'm not going anywhere without my reward."

Eval waved a dismissive hand at them. "I'm sorry. This is between you two."

Obi-Wan glared up at the Duros bounty hunter. "What's it going to be, Bane?"

Just as the question left his mouth, he heard a familiar female voice raised in a shout. It was the Twi'lek assistant from Pablo's shop, directing a pair of Gamorreans and a Nikto to the fugitive trio.

Bane looked back at Obi-Wan. "Here's your reward: I'm not killing you." Without warning, his gauntlet clicked open to spray green gas into Obi-Wan's face. The Jedi in disguise cried out and tumbled down the ship's ramp.

He writhed on the ground, feeling like his eyes were set on fire. He blinked hard to find blurry apparitions of the armed beings standing over him. So much for trying to be a team player among backstabbing scum. The Nikto raised his electrojabber high in the air, and before it slammed down on his torso, Obi-Wan thought, 'I hate being a bounty hunter.'

For the first time in what felt like an entire age in the tome of galactic history, Siri emerged from her quarters not to retreat to another part of the Temple, but to leave it entirely. As she willed her legs to keep walking, hunger slammed back into her in the form of craving for food at Dex's Diner. Dex...maybe he doesn't know about what happened to Obi-Wan. She didn't know how publicized the news would be. A fresh wave of pain washed over her chest at that. Maybe she would have to be the one to tell him. A sprinkling rain pattered down as Siri made her way to a speeder that she would take down her usual route to Coco Town. A passerby at the speeder lot made her look twice. It was a Dresselian, but not just any Dresselian.

"Siri?" he exclaimed. "Is that really you?"

"Hello, Reeft." She couldn't bring herself to smile in greeting. She hadn't talked to anyone since Anakin, so her whole face felt like a stiff, heavy mask.

Reeft wasn't alone. Three accompanying Jedi threw back their hoods. Garen, Bant, and Quinlan.

"None of us have seen you since the funeral." Reeft faltered a bit before going on, "It's probably no business of mine to ask, but going by our last conversation together, I'll go out on a limb to guess that you're heading to Dex's Diner?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Siri turned to the other three Jedi. "And I guess you're all coming along with Reeft?"

"We heard from him that there's good grub," Quinlan said. "Well, Reeft thinks that everything tastes good, but we were told that this diner is especially good."

"If you are also heading over there, Siri, you might as well come with us, if you'd like," Bant suggested gently.

"Saves us one speeder," Garen said.

Siri made her way over to them. "Sure, I'll tag along. Thanks." For their kindness, she offered to drive them to the diner. Piloting the speeder gave her focus when she desperately needed to regain it.

"Siri, Reeft! My Jedi regulars!" Dex swept up both Jedi into a near-crushing hug. He held up his two free hands at the other Jedi. "And your friends, I assume. New customers."

Reeft smoothed out his tunic after being released. "Yes, we're all friends of Obi-Wan."

"Ah, Obi-Wan! That's who's missing." Dex peered around. "Where is he, anyway? Haven't had the chance to see him as much as I want to ever since these damn clone wars broke out."

All the Jedi looked away and no one said anything for a while. Siri ventured to speak on everyone's behalf. "Dex...Obi-Wan isn't coming back here." She extended a compassionate hand to rest it on the Besalisk's shoulder. "He's...he's gone."

Dex blinked his beady eyes at her several times, then mustered the softest reply she had ever heard from a booming Besalisk like him. "Gone? As in gone forever? Or one with the Force, as you Jedi put it?"

Siri swallowed hard. "I'm afraid so."

"Oh." Unlike the emotionally reserved Jedi, Dex made no effort to hold back tears that ran down his rough face and large wattle. "Sorry, friends, I need to step out for a minute." He trundled back into the kitchen with a meaty hand over his face.

A droid waitress rolled up to break up the awkward position the Jedi found themselves in. "I'll find you an empty table," she told them. "I'll go check in on him."

Another silence reigned as the five Jedi settled into a table. "Well," Garen finally said in a subdued voice, "I guess the news hasn't gone around much outside the Temple."

Quinlan frowned. "That's odd...you'd think that the one responsible for taking out Obi-Wan would have his name and face plastered all over the galaxy."

Reeft slumped in his seat. "I'm too sad and hungry to think about anything else. I just want to eat."

When the waitress brought them beverages, Siri stared into her cup rather than drink from it. Despite the buzz and clamor of other customers in the diner, Anakin's accusation rang through her ears: "You don't love him!" Her knuckles went white over the edges of the cup. A gentle pat on her arm made her start.

Bant pulled away her webbed hand. "Sorry, Siri, the waitress wants to know if you'll have the usual today."

"Oh. Er, yes, please."

"All right, honey, just making sure." The droid waitress rolled away. Siri was the last one to have her order taken, and she didn't realize until later that her name had been called several times to get her attention.

"We hadn't seen you around the Temple since the funeral, so we got worried," Bant said to Siri.

Reeft had already chugged down his first drink, and he sipped at the second. "Before we even left the Temple, we thought about inviting you to come with us to the diner. We came up to your quarters, but you weren't there."

"We figured you went somewhere else to be alone," Garen said. "So we went on ahead. It was a nice surprise to run into you at the speeder lot."

Siri felt a swell of appreciation for her fellow Jedi. "Thanks for thinking of me." She forced herself to take a sip of her drink. "I'm sorry, I've only been thinking of myself."

"You don't have to apologize for anything." Kindness glowed in Bant's wide-set eyes. "We've all lost a good friend. These days have been very hard on us and we're processing them differently."

"It's a wonder that we have free slots in our busy schedules to squeeze in time for dinner here," Reeft remarked. "Usually we're all spread out and occupied with the war."

"Must be the will of the Force," Quinlan said before downing his cup.

The droid waitress returned with their entrees, and with Dex in tow. Dried tears were still stuck on his stubble. "Obi-Wan...I'm gonna miss him," he said with a loud sniff. "He was my first Jedi friend, and he wasn't my last. I give you my condolences through piping hot food straight out of my kitchen."

"And we give you ours with our patronage," Siri replied.

She and Garen sat closest to him, the farthest away from the window, so Dex gave them hearty pats on the shoulder and waved at the other Jedi before lumbering back to the kitchen.

"What acquaintances Obi-Wan had made over the years," Bant remarked. "I'm not surprised, though. He's the most grounded, humble man I've ever met."

Quinlan laughed. "Why else would he bother to become friends with the likes of me? He always used to say that he never liked hanging out with me, but I can see right through him."

"I'd ask myself the same thing," Siri replied. "He and I used to be at each other's throats when we were barely Padawans."

"I remember," Garen said with a laugh. "He used to tell us how scary you were."

Siri's eyebrows shot up. "I scared him? He never told me."

"Of course he wouldn't." Quinlan had almost spit out his drink from laughing.

"Somewhere down the line he learned to try seeing the good in everyone." The only one who had ordered a salad, Bant had been taking in small forkfuls of it. "I've known him longer than you, Siri, and I know that he hadn't always been that way before. His change in heart must have had something to do with you."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Siri said modestly.

"I agree with Bant." Occupied with the impressive pile of nerfburgers on his plate, Reeft finally spoke up. "Obi-Wan and I also go way back. But ever since you went on missions with him, he came away a bit different than the Obi-Wan I had met."

"What did you do to him?" Garen asked.

"Nothing." Under the collective stares of her fellow Jedi, Siri felt her face grow hot, and not from the nerfburger she was eating. No one at this table could have known what went on between her and Obi-Wan, right? Then again, he had told Anakin. Did he tell his friends, too? If he did, though, they wouldn't be asking her. Confused and irritated, Siri flattened her brow almost to a scowl, and tried to hide most of her face behind the cup she tipped to her lips.

"Sorry, Siri, we didn't mean to tease you," Bant said. "It's just...well, we don't get to see you that much, so we don't know you as well as we would like. When we were younger, you never really mingled with us, but that's our fault."

Siri shook her head. "No, I made the decision to keep my distance. I was so focused on training and being taken seriously. I learned later on that I shouldn't have been so distant. Obi-Wan went out of his way to become my first real friend." And more, she said to herself. The wrench of her heart coincided with the grip on her cup. "I'll always be grateful to him for that. I wish I could have told him before he..." Her throat closed up before she could go on.

Suddenly the atmosphere over the table grew heavier. Sitting next to Siri, Bant rested a webbed hand on her shoulder. "Thank you for coming out here to tell us that. Let's honor his memory with our friendship to him, and with a tighter friendship among us."

The compassion of the Mon Calamari Jedi knew no bounds, and Siri found herself smiling at that. She raised her cup toward the middle of the table. "To our friendship. To Obi-Wan."

The Jedi echoed her toast, clinking their glasses and cups together with hers.

"The ship will crash soon on Nal Hutta."

At that report transmitted to the Nikto guard, Obi-Wan took that as his cue to be released from custody. He knew that the Hutt enforcers wouldn't honor their part of the deal. No matter. With a stealthy gathering of the Force, Obi-Wan freed himself from his shackles, and grabbing the electrojabber, gave that Nikto guard a taste of his own medicine with a solid blow across the head. He retrieved his helmet from the Nikto's slack hands and snuck past the Gamorrean sentries stationed outside where he was held. Obi-Wan leapt nimbly onto the rooftop and contacted the Jedi Council through his comlink.

"I'm sorry for being out of communication. The situation was rather tenuous." Obi-Wan watched the gunned down light freighter, which left a blazing trail of smoke in its wake. "But it now seems that things may be on track soon. Here's what I propose: have the bounty hunters removed. If I can win over Bane's trust, I can find out more about Eval's plot. But there can be no more complications. No matter what reports you hear, do not contact me or send help." And feeling like a spoiled child, he added, "One more thing: I'll need enough credits to buy a new ship."

Obi-Wan waited for his accomplices at the patio of the saloon, making sure to exude an air of smugness with his feet kicked back on the tabletop and swigging a glass in one hand. He hailed Eval and Bane with a raise of his glass. "Hey, you missed me?"

Just as he had done with Pablo, Bane swept Obi-Wan off his feet and pinned him to the wall. Obi-Wan had expected as much. These bounty hunters were actually quite predictable, he realized.

Eval broke away Bane's hold on Obi-Wan. "Moralo Eval is running out of time and patience," the Phindian snapped. "Let the man talk."

"Look, I got a ship," Obi-Wan said. "You got the Hutts on your tail, so you make me a partner in everything."

Eval sighed and clumped away in his awkward, ungainly gait. "Your deal's accepted."

Bane, meanwhile, squinted at Obi-Wan. "Where did you get the credits to buy a new ship?"

Obi-Wan's mind raced for an explanation. "You thought you had left me for dead, but the Hutts owed me a favor."

"So you had them shoot us down?"

"You would have done the same thing," Obi-Wan snapped back. "The way I see it, we're even now."

The bounty hunters were all about getting even, it seemed. As Obi-Wan predicted, Bane reined in some hostility and stepped away so Obi-Wan could come along. With assurance of the Jedi Council's support, he could rest easier knowing that the road ahead was paved smoother.

The horrors of being involved in the slave trade didn't end with the raids. Because spice was a substance that couldn't be exposed to the light, processing them in the mines had to be done in the dark. All sorts of other things went on in the dark. Things that Siri wished she hadn't stumbled upon by accident.

Slaves were property, considered less than citizens, and considered expendable. They were used for more than just work. Especially the females. When Siri wasn't out on raids, she remained in the mines for slave-guard duty: monitoring the slaves to make sure they stayed in line. While on patrol, she caught a fellow slave-guard, a burly, dark-haired man taller than Siri by a head, dragging away a young Tholothian.

"Come on, give me just a few minutes with you," the man said. "Why are you fighting?" He leaned in close, his tongue darted across his lips, and his unkempt beard almost brushed her dark neck. "Wouldn't you rather spend time with me than breaking your back out there?"

High-pitched sobs caught in every breath the girl took. "Please, sir, I-I have to work."

Siri decided to step in. "Hey, hands off her," she snapped. "She's supposed to be back in the assembly line."

Still keeping a tight grip on the Tholothian, the man sneered at Siri. "What business is it of yours? Don't get so cocky just because Krayn likes you."

"Release the slave at once. She's here to work, not to be your plaything."

The man laughed, which sounded more like a wet cough. "You really are new to this business, aren't you? Listen up, new girl. I can do whatever I want with a slave, because a slave has no right to anything. If I tell her to work, then she works. If I want her for other things, then she'll do just that. And right now, I want her in my bed."

The Tholothian protested with a whimper and a futile pull of her hand.

Siri grit her teeth. "Last chance to let her go, before I'll make you regret ever taking her."

The man's bottom lip quivered in a mock pout. "What's the matter, new girl? Gone soft now? Feeling sorry for your fellow female?" Then he snorted. "I guess that's what happens when you leave running slave trade to cun—"

He never got to finish. The flash of an electrojabber burst through the dimness of the corridor, followed by a pained howl and a heavy thud as the man hit the ground clutching his groin. The Tholothian slave, released from the man's hold, ran up to Siri, not unlike how a lost child would reunite with a parent. Siri gave the electrojabber in her hand a few deft twirls before tucking it back into her utility belt.

Drawn by the bloodcurdling scream, several slave-guards, including Rashtah and Shodo, filled up the corridor. Siri ignored the arrivals and attention as she glared at down at the fallen man. "Maybe you're not so smart, because I'll give you a little lesson in common sense here. Girls who are forced to let men have their way with them end up a dysfunctional mess. They get jumpy at everything, see shadows in every corner, and can't think straight, let alone work properly. A slave who can't work is a useless one. Ever thought of that? Or maybe you never cared, because you'd be on to a new girl the next night."

Siri didn't let the man answer. She drove the horn of her boot into his groin. He let out a groan and retched. Grimaces and winces rippled through the slave-guards as the sound of the man's vomiting echoed down the corridor.

The Tholothian girl shrank against Siri. "Th-thank you—"

Siri yanked her coat away from her timid grip. "Don't think you're getting off easy. You've got to make up for lost time from work. You'll work double the amount tomorrow, and I'll make sure you get that done with no interruptions." She raised her voice to the slave-guards surrounding the scene she had made. "You hear that? No interruptions. Don't let me catch anyone going against my orders."

"Sure, Zora," a Chiss slave-guard said with a nervous chuckle. "Unlike that stupid fellow you clobbered, we wouldn't dream of crossing you."

"We've wasted enough time here. Everyone get back to business as usual." Taking the Tholothian by the arm, though not too roughly, Siri led her back to the assembly line while the huddle of slave-guards saw to their humiliated colleague.

Krayn's ship held a massive armory filled to the teeth with blasters, electrojabbers, and vibro-axes, so that no slave raider had an excuse to go about unarmed. It also had ample room to practice with those weapons. Siri wasn't fond of any place within the ship or the mines, but second to her quarters, she hated it a bit less for having a space where she could stay sharp and fit.

Though she considered her actions against the offending slave-guard a win, Siri took out her frustration on blasterfire targets. She had wanted so badly to comfort the slave girl with a hug and kind words. She reminded Siri so much of her Master too, with those bright blue eyes and dark skin. But to keep up her cover and slave-trader image, Siri had to treat the poor slave like a pest for wasting her time, and treat her like a liability for not doing work as she should.

Siri lowered her blaster, chest heaving, and surveyed the singed bullseyes she had left on all the targets. Force-enhanced perception still served her well.

"Hey, none for me?"

Shodo had entered the armory to take a blaster off the rack. She, on the other hand, put hers away in favor of a vibro-axe. While his tone was dryly playful, she showed him the same gruffness as on the day they had met. "Sorry. Got carried away."

Shodo rested one hand on his hip and held aloft the blaster to prop the barrel of it over his shoulder. "What you did back in the mines...are you going to do that for every girl you see struggling in the arms of a man?"

"I'm going to do what I can." Her eyes narrowed at him. "You want to stop me or what?"

He shrugged. "I have no reason to. As long as you don't rub Krayn the wrong way, you do whatever you want." He turned away from her and cocked the blaster to try landing the same bullseyes Siri had made.

She next channeled her ire into swinging the vibro-axe, cleaving the imaginary flesh of slave-trader scum. There was very little technique to put into an axe. It was a blunt, unwieldy thing, the tool of a brute. Completely unlike the lightsaber she felt she was born for using. "An elegant weapon for a more civilized age," Obi-Wan used to say about it.

Obi-Wan...she missed him dearly. She missed his sass, their frequent spars at the Jedi Temple, which she would much prefer over this barbaric armory. She hoped that she would come out of this mission in one piece and see him again. Now there was a man who treated everyone with respect, and recognized the value and dignity of life. She would be a fool to find that kind of character in anyone working under Krayn.

Obi-Wan, Eval, and Bane only had enough fuel on the newly acquired Luxury 3000 space yacht to stop at Orondia. They refueled and were set for a smooth departure, but before they could even breach the stratosphere, something made a glancing collision from overhead.

To Obi-Wan's shock, a T-6 shuttle flew into view.

Bane too recognized the ship. "Jedi," he growled.

The surprise didn't end there. Obi-Wan's heart skipped a beat when he spotted Anakin, who pried open a door in the shuttle to jump onto the yacht.

Obi-Wan rose from his spot by the dashboard. "I'll take care of him."

Bane barred his way. "No, it's my turn to kill a Jedi."

Obi-Wan felt helpless as he sat back down to let Bane go. But only for a moment. He still had some degree of control over this situation. He was left to helm the ship, after all. Obi-Wan couldn't hear the blasterfire and lightsaber swings outside, but soon Bane and Anakin took their fight to the front of the yacht. Obi-Wan veered it this way and that to keep Bane and Anakin from making contact. He fired several shots ahead, destroying some of the metal pipes and sending up a plume of smoke. With a strong upward pull, Obi-Wan sent the yacht careening into the T-6 shuttle, knocking both of them from a smooth trajectory through the air.

The yacht that Obi-Wan piloted skidded onto the top of a rocky ledge, while the T-6 shuttle plunged into the factory below. Rapid emergency beeping stirred Obi-Wan from a daze, and a spike of concern for Anakin made him jump out of the ship. He descended into a large plume of dust and dirt, which still hung in the air from the ship's messy landing.

Obi-Wan drew out a blaster. Maybe his perception lost its edge from hanging around those bounty hunters for too long, because he didn't sense Anakin's presence until too late. The younger Jedi pounced on him like a Nexu, barreling the two men to the lower level of the rocky ledges.

"You're going to pay for what you did." The throaty growl between Anakin's clenched teeth sent a shiver down Obi-Wan's back.

"You shouldn't have gotten involved!"

Anakin paid no heed to the blatant warning as he charged and slammed Obi-Wan against the rock wall. Anakin pulled no punches, driving Obi-Wan to his knees with wrath-fueled blows.

Anakin ignited his lightsaber. "This is for Obi-Wan." But before he could bring down any fatal strike, Bane intervened with a timely snap of grappling rope to bind Anakin.

"You can thank me later, Hardeen." Bane yanked Anakin back and dragged him over the dusty ground. "You had your chance to kill him. Now it's my turn."

Anakin wrested himself free from the ropes, but before he could dish out some retaliation on Bane, Obi-Wan tackled him out of the way. Wrestling his way to come out on top, he brought down his fist again and again. Each punch at Anakin's face drove a punch into his own heart. There had to be some way to warn his former apprentice, his best friend, in the heat of battle, in front of enemies he pretended were his partners in crime.

Suddenly he thought back to his days of bitter rivalry with Siri, when she had used her headlock not to merely tease him, but genuinely beat him in a spar. To drive in her win, she would slip a whispered taunt into his ear before leaving him curled up and gasping on the floor.

Drawing from that well of distant memories, Obi-Wan pulled Anakin into a headlock, just the way Siri had always done it, and whispered, "Anakin, don't follow me."

Even at the peak of her resentment against Obi-Wan, Siri hadn't been ruthless enough to make him outright pass out. But here and now, Obi-Wan had to tighten his grip on Anakin enough to quietly take him out of the battle. Anakin's eyes fluttered shut and he went limp. Obi-Wan gently rolled him over onto his back.

Just as he thought that the dust had settled, Ahsoka hurtled into the scene brandishing her two green lightsabers. Obi-Wan's heart sank as she sailed through the air. He should have known that she would accompany Anakin, and had been the one piloting the ship. Bane opened fire, but Ahsoka batted away the shots with expert ease and little effort. She stood her ground before the fallen Anakin. The young Togruta's courage never ceased to amaze Obi-Wan, but he feared that it would do her a disservice this time. He would hate to land a few punches on Ahsoka, as well.

"Ship's still operational," Eval called out from above. "Let's scram."

Bane smirked at Ahsoka. "You're lucky we're in a hurry, little lady. We'll have to dance another time." He tipped his hat before turning away.

Swallowing down relief, Obi-Wan forced himself to follow Bane without any parting words to Ahsoka. She wasn't foolish enough to give chase after them all by herself. Her biggest concern would be for Anakin.

Like Obi-Wan had told the Council, he didn't want any complications. He had to make a break for it before Anakin would stir back to consciousness, so he could only hope that his warning would be heeded.

Before boarding the ship with Eval and Bane, Obi-Wan murmured, "Thank you, Siri."

Up next: Obi-Wan, disguised as Rako Hardeen, has to prove his mettle and earn a place in the scheme to kidnap the Chancellor. Siri, meanwhile, comes to terms with losing him.