━━━━━━𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

thrill of a chase ━━━━━━

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...CORUSCANT, CORUSCA SECTOR

𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐃𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐁𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅?

It's a simple answer:  You lose everything you once loved for a future that isn't yours.

Master Amersu once said that the will of the Force is never more powerful than hope, than love, than life itself. The Force drives life, it is the wheel that turns the silver streams of water and braids the dust on the ground into new existence. You will always have the power to choose.

In the beat of a heart. What does your heart want, Wynnetka?

The meditation chamber around her was all peace and empty, blank walls. She breathed deeply, looking for clarity. It no longer brought her any fear to meditate. Years ago, she was scared of her thoughts surrounding the future, but time had sharpened her into a worthy opponent.

Lothal was a connection point, it had to be.  It was called Milli Heima in Echani stories. Master Quinn Nallé referred to it as a World Between Worlds, a concept that the Jedi knew frighteningly little about. She warned Wynn that it might be a one-way door; to find a way in was not the same as knowing a way back out.

Wynn had wandered the grass plains, letting the wind brush over her bare arms. So peaceful, a cool spring breeze that made wildflowers dance. For days, she traveled the terrain and wandered by the light of the sun, pouring over her notes in a bound journal by moonlight. And yet, she had not found what she was looking for.

Show me where it is, Wynn asked in the darkness of the chamber. Her cheeks were wet with tears, a culmination of a decade of searching for a way in, a way to find answers. It was a disease, a desire so unlike a Jedi's calm temperament.  It woke her in the night and it would soon drive her mad.  She wanted to find this place, and there was no peace left in her heart.  Only longing and searching and seeking.

 An insatiable hunger that she knew she had come so close to on Lothal. So close, but not quite. 

This longing to know and understand might teach her that ignorance had been bliss and she should not have pressed so much.

Her focus shifted of its own accord. A new vision, a taste of what was to come.

The platform was engulfed in flames. A villain shrouded in shadows acted, a bounty hunter was hired. There was a flash of a specialized weapon, a whisper of a name: Zam Wesell. A droid was dispatched to finish the job.

With a shuddering breath, Wynn stood and disturbed the silence of the chamber. Padmé Amidala was in danger yet again.

※ ·❆· ※

IT was largely silent in the still of the outer chamber. At the literal height of luxury, no expenses had been spared in the furnishing of the Senator's penthouse. The couch cushions were fluffed by a caretaker droid earlier, and as Obi-Wan draped his cloak over one of them, he thought about taking a seat and letting his tired eyes fall shut. But there was an assassin lurking in the dark, and Padmé Amidala was keen to use herself as bait.

"You seem tired," Obi-Wan remarked.

Anakin stood looking out over the balcony where lights blinked and flashed in every artificial color imaginable. He turned his head, hand trailing over the railing. "I don't sleep well anymore."

Arms crossed, Obi-Wan stared at his padawan. "Because of your mother?"

Anakin gave a soft nod. "I don't know why I keep dreaming about her."

Obi-Wan stepped forward, focusing his gaze on the horizon. Anakin was only starting to experience the distinction of a dream and a concrete vision. "Dreams pass in time."

Upset, Anakin said, "I'd much rather dream about Padmé. Just being around her again is intoxicating."

Obi-Wan frowned at his choice of words as they made their way back inside. "Be mindful of your thoughts, Anakin. They betray you. You've made a commitment to the Jedi Order, a commitment not easily broken."

"And what about your commitment to Master Adairi?" Anakin asked testily, tired of hearing the same arguments from his Master. "It's so hard to read her emotions, but when she was around earlier I could feel yours–"

"This hasn't got anything to do with her," Obi-Wan told him. The same white-hot flash of defense burned in his chest. "That is friendship, something that sustains the roots of the Jedi's dedication to understanding others. It would do you well to remember that tenant."

Anakin looked at him with disbelief. "You're the one who's always preaching a lack of attachment to things! How is your relationship with Wynn any different?"

"Neither of us are attached," Obi-Wan told him coldly. "Wynn has made a new life for herself at the margins of the Jedi Order. She has never had any issue leaving without thought of making a return. She lives in her future, and that is her only attachment."

The sound of his voice echoed in the chamber when he was finished.  His throat was raw, but it was nothing compared to the ache of the truth.  Platonic love was permissible in the Order.  It was important, a keystone to life.  But this was not platonic.  This was missing Wynn for all the years they had been apart and knowing that even for his irritation at her leaving, he would forgive her every single time.  Her laugh, the easy curve of her lips, her defiance, all the small ways he had learned to understand her, to know her.

Promise you'll stop waiting for me to come back, she had said.  He couldn't.

What was worse, then?  Two Jedi devoted to one another, or a doomed story where only one of them was attached?

Anakin's demeanor shifted with apology. "I'm sorry, Master."

"There is nothing to apologize for."

"I remember her telling me that I would be the first person to see every planet in the galaxy," Anakin grinned in an attempt to soften the blow of their conversation. "It was silly, some stupid thing I thought was possible when I was little, but Wynn never told me that. She only ever believed in me."

"Wynn has the gift of seeing the potential in everyone," Obi-Wan sighed.  She had believed in him once, too, but she hadn't been there to see all of the mistakes he had made.  "And she was right to believe in you, I believe in you too."

"You do?" Anakin asked. "Even right now?"

Obi-Wan shrugged a little. "I believe your emotions are clouding your judgment, but that's not to say I don't see any merit in your plan to catch the assassin."

Anakin grinned genuinely for the first time all night. "It'll work, Master, you'll see."

Obi-Wan held up a hand. Over the faint beep and rush of the traffic out the window, he sensed another activity in motion. The elevator shaft down the hallway was moving, and it wasn't any of Typho and Lyranna's guard.

"Do you hear that?" Anakin asked quietly, already igniting his saber.

Obi-Wan nodded and waved a hand towards the corridor. Swift footsteps were headed closer, the sound of someone running towards them. He would know this presence anywhere, no matter how the years changed her.

"Anakin, wait–" Obi-Wan warned, but his padawan was already charging forward with his lightsaber ready to swing down on an unwitting opponent.

Thankfully, Wynnetka Adairi was hardly unwitting.

As soon as she appeared in the entryway, Anakin jumped out and swung the saber. Without even igniting her own weapons, Wynn side-stepped him and hooked her foot behind his leg, making him stumble and loosen his grip on the saber. With the aid of the Force, Wynn pulled it right from his grasp and into the palm of her hand.

She brushed a stray hair from her eyes. "I'm sure that wasn't necessary, Anakin."

Embarrassed, the boy straightened himself out. "Sorry, Master Adairi. We're just on high alert. I didn't realize it was you."

She placed the saber back in his hand. "Next time, try not to kill me."

"What are you doing back here?" Obi-Wan accused. It was so early in the morning. "You weren't assigned to the Senator."

"You have no idea what the Council assigned me to," Wynn said, her voice hollow enough that he should have stopped.  But he wanted to know what she was up to.  "I'm not babysitting you two, but I am supposed to help if needed. Padmé is in danger." For the half-second that she held his gaze, he saw how bloodshot her silver eyes were. In the limited light of the hallway, they glowed like something almost feral. "I had a vision, I saw the person you're trying to catch."

Anakin was about to say something else, but it was already too late.

Death had arrived.

The three of them ran down the hall. Anakin burst through the door to the room first. On the bed were two Kohums, poised to strike at the Senator. Had they been a second slower, it would have been too late.

Anakin jumped onto the bed and swung, whacking them in half in a swift motion. Padmé sat up looking very confused as to why there were three Jedi in her room. For a second, Obi-Wan started to breathe normally again.

Then he saw Wynn running full speed at the window, where the shadow of a droid was silhouetted against the glass. He realized what she was doing all too slowly.

"Master Adairi–!" Anakin yelled, stumbling into Artoo in the darkness.

Too late.

In a flurry of smashed glass, she jumped. Her weight pulled on the probe droid, making it stall for a moment and rocket downwards. Then it took off, carrying Wynn away a hundred stories above the city.

For a second, all they did was stare at the broken window.

"It is too late in the evening for this–" Obi-Wan muttered.

"Is she going to be alright?" Padme asked, eyes wide with concern.

Lyranna ran into the room a second later, out of breath. "Did I just see Wynn fly past the window?"

"Unfortunately," Obi-Wan answered.

"Don't worry, Master Adairi only follows her instincts when she's sure of something," Anakin reassured her, clipping his lightsaber back into his holster. "Right, Master?"

"Of course," he told them all, more for the sake of reassurance than telling the truth. "But we don't have a lot of time, Anakin. Let's go."

"Go where?"

"To catch her," Obi-Wan said over his shoulder. "Otherwise, we're going to have yet another problem on our hands."

※ ·❆· ※

WYNN had foreseen the danger to Padmé.

She had begun to catch inklings of it when she had first found Lyranna, and again when she was meditating. Still, nothing in her head had told her she would be swinging from a probe droid trying to avoid Coruscant's traffic with no telling when help would come.

That one had been all her. However, If she hadn't jumped, they would have lost any lead they might have on Zam Wesell.

"Ow!" she yelped as the droid shocked her. The defensive systems on the little probe made her lose her grip with one hand.

Her heart thundered in her ears as she swung to readjust her grasp on the metal. She risked a peek below her. Her knuckles were aching from the strain, but the dizzying drop was a terrible alternative. Through the loose hair that was flying in front of her eyes, she could see the streets below in their delicate traffic patterns. Very far below.

The droid had more ideas. It was a creative little thing.

It bumped into a wall, desperately trying to shake her loose. She swung her body weight, letting the night wind calm her senses and help her see with clarity. The droid moved in front of a speeder's afterburner. If it couldn't kill her, it was going to cook her.

A startled creature turned around and screamed at Wynn. "Watch it, you lunatic!"

She grunted, using her momentum to jostle the droid away. It shot off toward a building, peeling toward one with neon pink signs glowing brightly. It was trying to get home to its master. A shadowed figure moved on the balcony.

The bounty hunter.

She felt their presence and the weight of their rifle a second before they raised it and shot. But at the same time, Wynn felt relief. If she fell now, it was going to be alright. There is always faith before the fall.

So a second before the blast shattered the droid, she let go.

At first, she kept her arms stretched out, but then as she felt him draw nearer, she moved into a dive, falling headfirst through the midnight-coated city. Neon pinks and flashing greens and blues all blurred in front of her eyes as the wind flowed across her skin like a tidal wave.  An echo of a laugh rattled in her chest at the taste of freedom.

The speeder was bright yellow, and she could see two figures. One driving, and one sitting in the passenger seat. Her best shot was to aim for the back row.

She tucked her body and flipped backwards, using the speed to her advantage. In one roll, she stuck the landing, feet landing firmly in the back seat.

"Awesome," Anakin laughed, at the same time Obi-Wan whipped his head around to say, "What were you thinking?!"

"There!" Wynn pointed ahead of them, leaning forward so Anakin could see the lime green Koro-2. "The bounty hunter."

"On it," Anakin replied, pulling the speeder into a steeper dive.

Before Obi-Wan could say anything else, she said, "What took you so long?"

Obi-Wan looked ready to explode.

Anakin just laughed again. "Oh, you know, I couldn't find a speeder I really liked, with an open cockpit and with the right speed capabilities–" he listed them off as he steered "–and then you know I had to get a really nice color."

Wynn laughed, still out of breath. "The yellow is just, awful."

"Would you two please focus on the situation at hand!" Obi-Wan exclaimed.

Anakin spun the ship in a dizzying loop and plunged, pulling them straight down toward the heart of Coruscant. She gripped the seat in front of her as the sheer force of gravity shoved her back.

"Pull up, Anakin!" Obi-Wan yelled as they grew closer to a domed building. "Anakin, pull up!" he said again, his voice tight and scared for his life.

Anakin gave a frightening laugh and finally listened, pulling the speeder up to a flyable angle. They barely missed the roof of a building.

"Sorry, I forgot you don't like flying, Master," Anakin said with a shit-eating grin.

"I don't mind flying, but what you're doing is suicide!" Obi-Wan insisted as they flew uncomfortably close to another craft. He glanced behind him to make sure Wynn was still there.

She just gave him a pointed look. "Why didn't you just fly it yourself?"

"He got there faster," Obi-Wan mumbled, turning back around again.

They flew through a construction yard, moving dangerously close to the blazing fires in the air. Usually, Wynn didn't mind flying with Anakin. But if she got scorched before they got up to the bounty hunter, she was going to kill him. He was enjoying this too much.

Up ahead, she saw the bounty hunter pull out her gun. It flashed in the dim light like a silver coin.

"Anakin, don't go that way!" Wynn yelled.

The bounty hunter shot out the power coupling, igniting the purple branches of electricity a second after she flew through. Wynn couldn't tell if Anakin really hadn't understood her, or if he just really, really wanted to annoy Obi-Wan. He made no motion to change his course

"Anakin!" Wynn and Obi-Wan yelled in unison as he put the ignition into overdrive.

"How many times have I told you–!" Obi-Wan tried, but it was too late.

The electricity coursed over and through her skin, dancing like a threadless needle. In front of her, Obi-Wan was yelling something and Anakin said what sounded like "ow, ow, ow!"

She couldn't hear them, she could barely see them. Her vision was split and torn into a suspended state of her imagination. The visions she had been trying to suppress for days came at her with their full force, beckoned forward by the call of an electrical stimulus. She saw the face of Elja, lips bloody and skin lifeless as a barren plain. An older Anakin with hatred reflecting in citrine eyes. The chorus of a thousand screams being silenced all at once. The end of the entire galaxy as she knew it.

And then it was gone.

"That was good!" Obi-Wan exclaimed, sarcasm dripping like venom.

Wynn slumped backward in the seat, trying to regain a steady grip on reality. Her breath came out in a shuddering gasp.

"Aren't you so glad you listened to what Wy–" Obi-Wan began, turning around to face her. "Wynn?" He looked her up and down, trying to figure out what had happened.

She shook her head and motioned that she was fine. No you aren't, he said with his eyes, giving her a look of disbelief. She gave him a dangerous look in return. Not now.

Reluctantly, he turned back around. The bounty hunter darted into a skyway tunnel, and Wynn expected Anakin to follow. He didn't, which also was not surprising.

"Where are you going?" she said, finding her voice again. "They went that way."

Obi-Wan turned toward Anakin, also waiting for an explanation.

"Master, if we keep this chase going any longer that creep is gonna end up deep fried, and personally I'd very much like to find out who he is–"

"She," Wynn corrected.

"–whatever," Anakin waved. "Who she is and who she's working for."

"We know who she is," Wynn said. "Who she's working for is the real question."

"This is a shortcut, I think," Anakin said, ignoring her entirely.

And so, instead of flying through a convenient tunnel, they pulled around on the other side. Seeing that there was no bounty hunter to be found, Anakin slowed them down to a stop up above the city.

"Well, you've lost her," Obi-Wan deadpanned. "Wonderful job."

With every ounce of sarcasm in his teenage body, Anakin whipped his head around to face Obi-Wan, who was facing forward with his arms crossed. "I'm deeply sorry, Master," Anakin said.

"That was some shortcut, Anakin. She went completely the other way!"

"No she didn't."

"Once again you've proved–"

"If you'll excuse me," Anakin interrupted, standing at the edge of the speeder. And then he jumped.

Obi-Wan moved, but there was nothing that could be done. They both watched as Anakin fell with outstretched limbs.

"I hate it when he does that," Obi-Wan muttered.

Wynn laughed, genuinely, for the first time in days. Without wasting time, she said, "Scoot. He isn't going to make it if we can't catch up," she warned.

Obi-Wan shifted into the driver's seat and pushed the ignition into gear. He pulled the nose of the ship into a graceful spiral, one that wasn't half as dizzying as the stunt Anakin had pulled. He changed gears, pulling up and weaving in and out of traffic.  He too was an excellent pilot, just not half as insane as Anakin.

"You know who the bounty hunter is?" Obi-Wan asked, and she could tell it was killing him to not know.

"Zam Wessel," she said. A stray shard of glass was wedged into her bicep, and moving sent a jolt of pain down her arm. "All I know is her name, I stopped trying to see further as soon as I realized what was going on. Took a speeder to the Senator's apartment, almost got killed by Anakin, jumped out a window, and here we are."

"What a fun night this has become."

She smiled. "I thought so."

Up ahead, she saw the blue flash of Anakin's lightsaber plunging into the speeder. A burst of speed from Zam, and the weapon flew out of his grip and back at them. Obi-Wan caught it easily, depositing it in the space between them.

"He really needs to get a better grip on that," Wynn admonished.

Obi-Wan urged the speeder forward. "You're telling me."

They were getting closer to the bounty hunter as the ship started to shake. She heard a blaster shot, and saw a small fire started on the nose of the ship in front of them. It dove it's way down to the busy streets like a capsized boat, and a hundred heads turned up toward it and scattered. Obi-Wan brought their own speeder around, trying to find somewhere safe to land.

Just before the bounty hunter touched ground, Anakin rolled off and to safety. Zam's ship skidded forward away from the crowd before crashing in a plume of orange flames. Wynn watched as Anakin took off, chasing after the bounty hunter with blind impulse.

Obi-Wan pulled their speeder to the left, doing a nice parallel park in a legal parking space. Safely on the ground, she and Obi-Wan jumped out, wordlessly running to do some damage control.

The club had a bright, sunshine yellow sign that said Outlander Club. Music pulsed through the building and out into the street, weaving between patrons and enticing them inside.

Anakin too was about to dart inside, but Obi-Wan called out, "Anakin!" and he stopped running, looking like a womp rat in headlights.

"She went into the club, Master," Anakin rushed to explain.

Wynn walked up behind Obi-Wan, surveying the place. Very public, a good sized crowd. Zam was trying to keep her identity a secret. The bounty hunter had no goal of killing them unless she had to. Her job was solely to take out Padmé, which meant this bounty was connected to the Senate delegation and not to a disgruntled rock mining company or whatever the hell Mace Windu had said earlier.

"Patience," Obi-Wan said calmly, and Wynn knew he was going to use this as a learning experience for his Padawan. "Use the Force. Think."

Anakin looked ready to have an aneurysm. "Sorry, Master," Anakin amended, trying to get his feelings under control.

"She went in there to hide, not to run," Obi-Wan explained, stepping closer to Anakin.

"Yes, Master," Anakin agreed hurriedly, forgetting he didn't even have a weapon.

Obi-Wan pulled out Anakin's lightsaber, holding it out to him. "Next time, try not to lose it."

"Yes, Master."

"This weapon is your life."

"I try, Master," Anakin gritted his teeth as Obi-Wan stepped past him.

Wynn laid a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "You did your best."

He gave her a half smile, and they stepped inside. It was like any club on Coruscant: well-dressed people mingling, each with an exotic-looking drink clutched in their hands. She had never liked the city, and this artificial place was one of the reasons why. Her skin felt like it was crawling with grime just from breathing in the air.

"Why do I get the feeling you're going to be the death of me?" Obi-Wan asked behind him, and Wynn saw Anakin tense up.

But then he loosened, picking up his pace and leaving Wynn to follow behind. "Don't say that, Master. You're the closest thing I have to a father."

Wynn sucked in a breath. Now she saw very clearly how thin a line Obi-Wan was toeing. Anakin and his attachment would become harder and harder to break as time wore on, especially given his life on Tatooine. This dynamic between them would soon be deemed unhealthy in the eyes of the Council.

"Then why don't you listen to me?"

"I am trying."

The three of them stopped, surveying the room. There was so much light and noise going on, it was hard to focus on one thing at a time. The TV's were each playing various games, surrounding the whole room like a wall of light.

"I think she's a changeling," Anakin was saying.

Obi-Wan turned toward Wynn for verification of that statement, but she pretended not to hear. He needed to let Anakin find his own way.

"In that case, be extra careful," Obi-Wan relented. Then after a second of thought, he said, "Go and find her."

"Where are you going, Master?"

"For a drink," Obi-Wan said simply. Turning to Wynn, he said, "Care to join me?"

She glanced at Anakin, who was already deep in thought. A drink did sound nice. "Always."

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