Secrets and Suspicion (Book 1)

To Rescue a Youngling

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Padmé sat at home, sobbing in agony. Count Dooku, out of all people, had contacted just contacted her and informed her that her husband was dead. Even Dooku knew Anakin was close to Padmé. So, as always, he used his knowledge as a weapon, forcing the false fact at Padmé that Anakin was dead.

She buried her face in his pillow. She loved the smell of him, but she felt like his scent had drifted away, leaving her for good. She not only buried her face in his pillow, but soaked it with tears, too. "I love you, Anakin," she whispered. "Please let this all be a dream."

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After crawling through the long passageways in the rafters, Anakin finally jumped out of them, landing outside, behind a wall. He could see parades of droids, all marching.

All of the sudden, two droids passed him, arguing about something stupid.

"The Count said to take check on that Jedi," the one said.

"He said for us both to go," the other said. "That's what we're walking over here for."

"But what about the youngling?"

A youngling. That was it! It was a youngling that they were keeping! Anakin had thought about it before, what the thing was that they said was very precious to the Republic that they were keeping. He had to find it. Anakin followed the two idiotic battle droids, and every time that they looked back, he dove behind a wall or ducked behind cargo. Eventually, they led him to a small room. Anakin moved something with the Force loudly down the hall, creating a distraction.

"What was that?" on of the battle droids asked.

"I don't know. Let's go check it out," the other said. While both ran towards the source of the noise, Anakin took the key card from the droid's hand. It didn't even notice. Anakin smirked at the stupidity of battle droids and ran to the door of the room. sliding the card through the designated slot. The door opened, revealing a child. Anakin recognized her as one of Adi Gallia's relatives. She lifted her head from the floor. She had been lying down. "Are you here to rescue me?" she asked timidly.

Anakin smiled. "I'm here to rescue you."

"The name's Katooni. What's yours?" she asked weakly.

The kid seemed totally out of whack, so Anakin slung her over his shoulder and carried her that way, using the same technique of hiding that he did when following the droids.

When he was almost to the original rendezvous point, a droid spotted him.

"Look, over there! Runaway hostages!" A group of battle droids started shooting at him. He pulled out his lightsaber, igniting it and deflecting shots with it. He had the kid slung over his left shoulder. He ducked behind a few boxes of cargo and called his troops.

"Rex! Bring gunships to the original rendezvous point, now!"

"Right away, sir," Rex replied.

Anakin ducked in and out of blaster shots, again, deflecting them with his lightsaber and holding the kid both at the same time. Soon enough, gunships appeared, and Anakin ran to them as fast as he could. He climbed in one with Rex in it, the doors closing and taking off right away. Anakin set the kid down, laying her head against a small box of cargo.

"It's nice to see that you've returned and you're alright, General," Rex said.

"Thank you, Rex."

"I see you've go the kid."

"Yeah. To be honest, it wasn't that hard to get her in the first place," Anakin admitted. "Open fire at the base!" he directed towards the pilots of the Republic gunships.

They started firing at the base, bursting apart and metal flying everywhere from each shot. Anakin meant to shoot then on purpose, because they hasn't been armed or prepared. Anakin watched as they hovered over the base as it blew up. He wondered if Dooku would still be alive after this explosion.

"They're going to be visiting us soon enough, that's for sure. I can't imagine how upset they must be now," Rex said as the gunships started to retreat.

"Yeah, well...we got what we needed and that's really all that matters, right?" Anakin said.

Rex nodded. "That's correct, sir."

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Back at the Temple, the other Jedi awaited Anakin, Mace and Obi-Wan's arrival. They didn't have to wait for long, though, because the Jedi Cruisers had traveled at lightspeed, causing them to get there a whole lot sooner than expected.

The youngling girl named Katooni had recovered on the quick ride back to the Temple.

"The Jedi Temple! I haven't been here for a while now! Ever since those battle droids took me away, I haven't gotten any training done!" Katooni exclaimed as she walked up the steps with the three Jedi.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do, young one," Mace said.

Katooni lowered her eyes. "Yes, Master Windu, I'm aware."

Anakin, Obi-Wan and Mace had found out that when Barriss Offee attacked Anakin, Katooni and some other younglings had had a session outside the Temple. The younglings had all been ordered to retreat back inside to stay safe. Fascinated by the battle between Anakin and Barriss, Kattoni watched as the other younglings ran inside the Temple. While no one was looking, a few droids had taken her away so Count Dooku could extract information from her about the Jedi and their future military plans. Katooni didn't know anything about plans, so Count Dooku kept her locked up in a prison cell for weeks, with the exception of food every once in a while.

"You're strong, young one. What you did out there was impressive. You sacrificed your life for the Jedi Order, not giving any information to the Separatists. That's one of the major qualities we look for if your training to become a Jedi. Well done out there," Anakin complimented.

Katooni blushed. Like all of the children of the galaxy (except for the bad ones), she idolized the strong, reckless Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. It made her melt inside to know that Anakin thought so highly of her. "It's an honor, Master Jedi."

Anakin looked ahead of him, the doors to the Jedi Temple nearing them. He smiled as they approached the doors. Mace and Obi-Wan had already made their way in, but Anakin stopped and turned to Katooni, facing her. He kneeled in front of her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Keep training, Katooni. It's very important when you're practicing to become a Jedi. It will only make you stronger and more wise. If you continue to train seriously, you have the opportunity of becoming a military leader, like me and the other Jedi." He stood up. "Until we meet again, young one. I'll be seeing you around the Temple."

Katooni smiled. Just then, Obi-Wan stood right inside the door. "Coming, little one?"

"Coming, Master Kenobi," Katooni answered, waving goodbye to Anakin.

He waved back.