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| - That evening Nalanda entertained several members of her family inside, Anakin and Padmé had been asked to join them but they declined the invitation. Much to the pleasure of Nalanda’s sister-in-law Vaté Sarasvati who viewed the Jedi with obvious distaste. Yet out on the terrace, as one of Naboo’s moons rose over the calm ocean, Padmé was silent. Is she thinking about what happened? Anakin wondered, watching the moonlight glaze over her, outlining her features. He wanted to kiss her again, like when they were underwater but she had been cold with him since then. Merely polite, barely saying anything at all which made him wonder what she was doing out here with him. He knew she wanted him, wanted him as much—if not more—as he wanted her. What had happened between them was not something that could really be explained, or even spoken of. It was a feeling he thought he would never experience and he was riding on the crest of it to wherever it would take him. He moved to touch her gently, yet she started as if he had pushed her. “Don’t worry,” he said in the softest of voices. “It’s all right, I’m not going to hurt you.” Why was she acting like this? He was trying to be nice, give her some idea of how he felt. He moved closer, his breath hot on her cheek… “Don’t,” Padmé said gently, yet that single word was enough to shatter the moment. “But Padmé, why are you doing this?” He looked at her critically, trying to bring back the moment they had lost. “Why?” She stared at him for a moment and turned around, watching the moonrise so he couldn’t see the hurt in her eyes. “I’m trying to stop you, that’s what I’m doing.” “Stop me from doing what?” “Stop you from doing something we are both going to regret.” She was facing him now, and there was nothing in her expression to suggest she was going to give in. “Anakin, you have to understand that this isn’t something that can happen.” “What are you talking about?” He stepped forward but she stepped back. “You…me…we have to be honest with ourselves.” She stared at him, trying to find understanding, she found none. “Anakin, you do realise what can happen if we decide to acknowledge this, don’t you? What will happen if we allow it to become real?” But it was too late for that and Padmé knew it, that single kiss they had shared completely defeated any denial or rational feelings she tried to put against it. And what’s more, Anakin knew that. “Padmé, this is real,” he protested. “What we felt, what we shared…there’s nothing wrong with this.” “I don’t have time for this.” Padmé turned away from him again. “And I’m not going to ask you to give up everything for me.” “You don’t have to,” Anakin persisted, following her as she walked past the house. “We don’t have to deny this, we could just keep it a secret.” Padmé stared at him again, wondering how he could make such a ludicrous suggestion. “Could we do that? Pretending all the while that there is nothing there and lying to everyone else? We’d just be not deceiving everyone around us, we’d be deceiving ourselves.” Anakin lowered his gaze and Padmé stepped closer to him. He had to hear this, he had to listen even if he didn’t want to. “Remember, we leave in a real world and while this one we have here might seem a lot better now, we have to leave it sometime. Besides,” she added. “The Jedi codes against attachment are there for a reason, and that’s why this has to end.” She touched his cheek, forcing his gaze toward her. “Anakin?” She needed to know he understood, that they were not going to stir from the point they had reached. “You’re right,” he replied, reluctantly accepting what she had said. “It could destroy us.” And with that he left her, the words he had not said still stirring around inside him. In the vicinity of Geonosis, an orange-coloured ringed planet no more than a parsec from Kamino, Jango Fett’s ship the Slave I broke into realspace. Yet when they emerged, young Boba noticed something rather odd on their scope. “Dad, it’s him!” He looked anxiously at his father. “I think we’re being tracked.” Jango merely smiled, should it be a surprise that the Jedi had somehow survived Kamino? It mattered not other than what had to be done now. “We’ll just have to teach him a lesson, won’t we?” Jango replied. “We’ll go into the asteroid belt, and there’ll be a few surprises if he follows.” “Yeah!” Boba shouted with a smile as Jango changed their course. Obi-Wan swore under his breath as he noticed Jango change his course. Ignoring Arfour’s scrambled protests he went into the asteroid belt after him, reaching into the Force for serenity. He knew he would need all his wits about him not just to avoid the asteroids but to evade Jango. Obi-Wan had a shrewd idea that the bounty hunter would be as skilled as a starpilot as he was in combat. Jango was just ahead, swerving dangerously low to an oversized asteroid before swinging back at the last minute. Obi-Wan merely tried to keep him in sight, no tricks, no showing-off, just simple pursuit. But that was getting harder with all the asteroids between them. Perhaps Jango was thinking that Obi-Wan would simply lose sight of him and then be destroyed. But Jango apparently didn’t have this in mind, from the rear of his ship he released a small, bulky cylinder. It didn’t attract any particular attention, but Obi-Wan recognised it. “Seismic charges,” he muttered, swearing again as the bomb detonated near a rather large asteroid. He inclined his fighter into a steep dive just as the shock wave tore the asteroid apart. Bit of rock hurled in all directions, some scoring the sides of Obi-Wan ship and chipping away at his shields. “Blast! This is why I hate flying!” Obi-Wan complained as another seismic charge was released. Jango smiled as he guided his ship through the belt, it didn’t take much to get rid of a Jedi once he was without his lightsaber. “Dad! He’s back!” Boba pointed to their scoped. The next moment Obi-Wan opened fire, scoring several hits that rattled the ship. “This guy just doesn’t stop,” he muttered, diving inside an asteroid the size of a small moon then releasing another seismic charge. Too late, Obi-Wan saw the explosive. Following Jango into the asteroid had been an instinctual decision, one that Jango had apparently counted on. With his tongue between his teeth in concentration, Obi-Wan pushed his thrusters all the way forward. He was almost through, just emerging from the edge…as he came out the asteroid exploded, shooting shards of rock at him as he went. In another moment he was completely clear, and had lost sight of Jango again. Boba cheered as the asteroid exploded, but when Jango noticed the Jedi emerge from the debris he reversed the ship’s thrusters. “We’ll have to try something else then,” he muttered, waiting for the Jedi to pass below him then opening fire. “Stars end!” Obi-Wan swore as he evaded Jango’s laserfire. He needed to be out of there, this moment and wanted no more battles with Jango and his strange starship. He preferred meeting the bounty hunter on his own terms, whatever they may be. Suddenly Obi-Wan was thrown against the controls by an explosion to his right wing. Startling Arfour and frying several components. “Blast!” He was running out of options here. “Got him!” Boba cried with glee. “We’ll just have to finish him, won’t we?” Jango replied, releasing a missile from the tail of the ship. Obi-Wan didn’t need the alarm inside the cockpit or even the flashing light to know he was in trouble. The tell-tale blue trail of the missile behind him was earning enough. Yet he had one trick left, one that Qui-Gon had told him about years ago that had not yet found an occasion to use. Until now. “Arfour, prepare to jettison the spare parts canister,” he ordered, forcing his fighter into a spin as if it were hurtling out of control. Very slightly, he decreased his speed so the missile edged closer. “Do it now!” He said, and the moment Arfour compiled he increased his speed to sprint to safety as the missile was detonated by the spare parts. “He’s gone!” Boba shouted triumphantly as they noticed the explosion and the Jedi’s ship disappear from their scopes. “He’ll bother us no more,” Jango said with a smile as the edge of the asteroid field came into view. Yet Obi-Wan had not been destroyed at all, he merely hid on the side of an asteroid until Jango’s ship had passed. “I think we’ve waited long enough, Arfour,” Obi-Wan said at last. “Bring up his last known trajectory.” It didn’t take long for Jango’s ship to come into Obi-Wan’s sightings again, but this time he kept his distance. Once through the atmosphere and over the rocky, windswept terrain of the planet, Jango Fett flew lower, landing at last in a shipyard where several quite opulent starships were already docked. Once ship caught his eye in particular, he hadn't seen it since he was on the back of a goff bird on his way to Theed with Qui-Gon ten years before. It was Viceroy Nute Gunray’s personal shuttle. Clearly there was something going on here that warranted his attention, perhaps something to do with the summit on Imbroglio. After all, the planet was only a few hours away. He found a large empty cave to hide his ship in and walked towards the spiralling towers of the city.
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