Chapter 24 – The Menace

Padmé stood frozen in the doorway, unable to move or even speak. For a moment the eyes of the two women met. A shudder ran through Padmé's body, but she couldn't flinch.

"So you're Skywalker's jewel," she remarked, smiling slightly.

Not a second later, Anakin was at the door, hiding Padmé from the assassin's eager gaze. "Ventress," he hissed angrily. "Dare even think about harming her and it will be your last thought!"

Asajj managed a throaty laugh and pushed the door open a crack. "I didn't remember you being so rude, Skywalker. How lucky your student isn't following your example too much, isn't it?" She nodded to Ahsoka, who was still sitting on the mattress.

"Master, don't be like that now! She won't harm anyone, will she, Ventress?" Ahsoka's voice was confident, so Anakin broke his defensiveness and gently hugged Padmé while motioning for Asajj to come inside.

Padmé sat back down on the mat while Anakin eyed Asajj uncertainly. "What brings you to us? And don't try any tricks!" His voice sounded unfriendly and curious at the same time.

The assassin ignored him completely. She stood in front of the mats and seemed to think for a moment. "My agents have learned something," she said in a velvety voice. "Something that will affect you, too." She hesitated and fixed on Anakin. "What do I get if I share it with you guys?"

Ahsoka exchanged a quick look with Anakin. They knew the assassin's tricks. Asajj only thought of her own needs and would only try to get the best for herself. The young Jedi laughed grimly. "And what guarantees us that you really stand by your word?"

"Hm, let me think about it for a moment." Dooku's former student turned her gaze to Padmé, but the senator remained calm. She returned the gaze with a sure superiority. "Nothing, really," Ventress said. "But I'm sure you want the information, after all your senator is also affected." Asajj's smile wasn't friendly, but rather demanding.

But before anyone else could react, Anakin lunged forward and grabbed the assassin's arm. His face was contorted with anger, his eyes blazing with anger. Padmé gave him a reproachful yet worried look that he didn't even seem to notice. "How dare you?" he ground out, trying to keep his voice under control, failing. "This is idle chatter from a person who has only her own interests in mind and is fine with other people being harmed by it." He hissed the last words at her.

"Would you please let me go, Skywalker?" At that, Asajj jerked herself away from him, looking at him in amusement. "You Jedi always try to see the bad in people, but you're wasting your time on the wrong person. That's why you haven't been able to unmask Palpatine, because you never doubted his qualities. It's usually the ones that seem perfect that actually have evil in them."

Those were wise words, though Anakin didn't want to admit it to himself. Padmé smirked slightly and Ahsoka nodded appreciatively. If she trusted the assassin, then so should they, right?

"Just a word of warning," he said firmly. "No games."

Asajj nodded halfheartedly.

Anakin, meanwhile, sat down next to Padmé and watched Ventress.

She turned away from the two and looked at Ahsoka. "You know why I'm here, I've already told you. Did you tell the others?"

The Togruta nodded humbly but didn't dare to speak or look at her Master. This must have made him even more angry than he already was.

"Well, then I can state my condition." She grinned. "I demand the official protection of the Jedi and if it should really come to a war against the Emperor, that you and the Jedi fight at our side."

Padmé turned to Anakin in shock, as if expecting an outburst from him. And she was right. His eyes flashed angrily. How could she even allow herself that? The Jedi Council would never even come close to agreeing with this, and certainly not with Mace Windu in control.

"You can't be anywhere near serious," he ground out.

Padmé ignored him. "We must do something, and for the safety of all of us, I offer you, assassin, my full support for acceptance into the witness protection program of the Jedi temples. That's all I can offer."

Anakin stared at his wife, startled. "You can't be serious, Padmé," he said, staring at her angrily. "You don't even know her!"

"Sometimes you can judge people you don't know all the better because you can look at the situation objectively."

Her words only seemed to make him angrier. Ahsoka looked out the window annoyed. Why couldn't her Master jump over his shadow? Everyone deserved a second chance. Also Asajj Ventress. Especially now. In times like these, you needed allies. Lost in thought, she looked out of the only small window in the room. The sun was bright above the skyscrapers. Another lost day.

"So you think I'm misreading the situation?" Anakin had jumped to his feet. He couldn't believe Padmé's sudden defense. "She's a murderer, Padmé. She must have slaughtered hundreds of Clones, without having a guilty conscience!" The young Jedi's voice had grown louder and louder.

But Padmé didn't care. She could make her own decisions. "I didn't say that" she pointed out. "But you could do us all a little by jumping over your own shadow." Ahsoka looked up in surprise. The senator had also raised her voice, but spoke quietly. So that's how politicians did it.

But Anakin didn't seem to be seeing her like this for the first time and just glared at her. Padmé sighed, closed her eyes and flopped back onto the mat. "Okay," she said. "Then you just sort it out, but I won't interfere. Not now and not later, if there should be any problems."

Anakin's eyes twinkled. "You know that's unfair, Padmé." The young senator ignored him.

Instead, Asajj replied, "No, it is not. It's your own fault, Skywalker." The assassin smiled at him.

That was the last straw. "Shut your mouth! You have no right to talk to me like that! I can make my own decisions, too, and I've just decided against any cooperation with you, Ventress. Ahsoka, you may trust her, but please be careful of her anyway!" Then he angrily stalked out of the room. The door slammed shut.

oOo

Raven Dread boredly looked down at the Clone commander she was standing next to. His fingers flew across the control panel with quick movements. With an impassive look, she watched the recordings, which ran across the screens much too quickly. So far no sign of Skywalker or even the senator. Although both have been seen in the sector. Her Master wouldn't like that at all. But what could she do about it?

At that moment, the computer suddenly began to emit a loud screeching noise. Both flinched imperceptibly. "There was a consensus," the commander said. His voice was calm, as if he were doing this every day.

The woman bent down and at the same time pushed the hood of her black coat off her head. Her black hair fell over her shoulders. She was so close to the Clone that her hair brushed the armor on his shoulder. Raven eyed the Clone sideways and smiled thinly as she saw him seem to stiffen and give her a quick look. She enjoyed seeing others fear her. She saw it as a reward from her daily practice.

The Clone got the video on the screen and rewound it a bit. A petite person, probably a woman, could be seen very clearly running down an alley. Several Clones followed her. But suddenly the woman was gone. Even Raven took a second to realize that she had disappeared around the corner. They had to improve the camera systems as soon as possible if they wanted to have better results in the future. As the Clones stopped at the corner, they leveled their weapons. But at the same moment they suddenly fell over. You only saw a brief light, then it was all over.

"Do we have a camera that includes that alley over there?" The Clone took a moment to verify this. He nodded and switched the channel.

It really had been Skywalker. The senator was lying on the floor and would certainly not have survived this gathering if the stupid Jedi had not suddenly appeared and impaled the Clones with his lightsaber. Hence the light. After the two greeted each other far too effusively, two more people appeared shortly after: a young Togruta, who could be identified as Skywalker's Padawan, and an unknown man. What connected them all was still unclear. But they set off together.

"Keep following them," Raven said harshly now. She was tired of this annoying game of hide-and-seek. The only thing that mattered was to find them all, and soon!

"I can't," the Clone uttered. "The cameras in that area are damaged, and have been for quite a while. So we have no way of determining their possible whereabouts in that area."

Raven banged her fist on the control panel in anger. Surely that couldn't be true! The commander flinched, startled at her outburst. "Show me the area on the map, now," she instructed. Moments later, a map of Coruscant flashed up on one of the screens. One district was marked. A whole district with no cameras working? Raven Dread was pretty sure that this was no coincidence. She took a deep breath. "I want all cameras in this sector to be renewed and I want it now!"

The Clone was frantically typing commands into the computer. "That will be taken care of immediately," he promised. He had better not promise too much.

The young student began to think. If the whole sector was shut down then any crime rate there must have skyrocketed recently. And it was the only district where you could safely hide without even being seen by any cameras. That's where they had to be, she was sure of that.

"And send troops throughout the sector. I want every unknown angle to be searched," she added sternly.

-

Hello hello,

I hope you liked this chapter. The next one will be the last. Be prepared for some major plottwist since this fanfiction is very old and I got bored while writing it so I finished it after I started to write other fanfictions.

See you

Skyllen