Working Title: Space Case

Themes: Star Wars crossover, AU

Notes: It's very AU, the Star Wars stuff being mostly canon, the Detective Conan stuff being pretty much original with nods to the original storyline. ShinRan, AoKai, HeiKazu, and HakAko. Because I'm a geek at heart.

"Initiate Order 66."

"It shall be done, my lord."

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Toichi froze as his communicator beeped, announcing a message from another Jedi. It was most likely just troop directions, but the messages never ceased to make his heart jump. Luckily, his face was just as unreadable as his mind, so no other Jedi had ever suspected that he had broken one of the Order's most important laws...

"Toichi Kuroba," he said, opening up the communicator. It was an audio-only message from Ba Tik, who was the commander of a unit on a nearby planet. The message, however, was even more frightening than one stating that Minami had been found...

"Toichi, something's wrong with the clones! Get away from them now! They're-" but there was no more to the message than a blast of gunfire. Toichi's senses instantly flared up, fast enough for him to dodge a similar volley of blaster fire- from his own troops.

Toichi did the only thing he could do. He ran.

"What the hell's going on?!" he thought, panting as he ran. "Clones can't attack their superior officers... unless ordered to by an even more superior officer... but the Jedi Council ordered the troops never to harm a Jedi, and the only higher authority than them is... the Supreme Chancellor."

Had something happened in Coruscant? What had become of Palpatine? Had he been killed and replaced by someone who disliked the Jedi? Or had the Council's greatest fears come true... was a Sith...

He dodged easily through the thick undergrowth of the jungle planet, heading for a secret escape pod that he'd planted. It would take him to Minami, hiding in Naboo, originally with the intent that if the Council found out about them, he and Minami could escape to the Outer Rim. It would be difficult for the Jedi to find them there... and even more difficult for anyone without any Force capabilities. Because if the clones were going berserk like this all across the Galaxy, then Toichi was damn sure that there wouldn't be a lot of them left, and what there was would have bigger priorities than tracking down a renegade living peacefully with his illegitimate family.

He thought of Minami, of her kindness and understanding, of the powerful life that he had sensed growing within her. He had to get back to them. He had to...

He flicked his fingers, using the Force to open the door of the pod. He lunged forwards...

Blaster shots burned into his back. He collapsed, gasping in pain. His vision was fading fast. He threw his lightsaber forward, into the pod. It smashed into the manual control pad, causing the pod to revert to automatic only. And the automatic instructions were: fly to Naboo.

Toichi faintly saw it fly into the sky, taking his lightsaber and what little money and information that he had to his lover. Another round of blaster fire hit him. The last thing he saw was Minami's face, and the face of their child of which he had so often dreamed...

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Twenty years later, a shadowy figure slipped out of the vault in the Imperial Centre of Coruscant, clutching its prize with a triumphant smile. It slipped through the shadows like a phantom, heading down to the ballroom below where a party was in full swing. Straightening his suit and making a spirited if futile attempt to slick back his hair, he strode out into the ballroom as if he had been there all along.

He mingled with the crowd, smiling and flesh-pressing and pretending to be interested, just like everyone else there, and inwardly dancing at his own sheer jamminess. It wasn't just that he was crashing a party in the middle of Imperial Centre. It wasn't just that he'd stolen from the heart of Imperial Centre unnoticed, though that was certainly something to be proud of. It had probably helped that he hadn't told them that he was coming, of course. No, he had, unannounced, stolen some of the most valuable information in the Empire, stored just a floor above the party in honour of Ginzo Nakamori, and specifically the special Imperial Task Unit that had been formed just to catch- well, him. If only they knew that he was among them, and had just stolen from right under their noses. Once he was alone in his old starfighter, he'd laugh for hours. For now, however, he probably ought not to stress the boundaries of his already strained luck. He passed Nakamori himself, talking to a blond young man who served under him- one of those sickeningly Aryan officers which the Empire adored and tended to promote fast- and headed out to a balcony.

He was very surprised to see someone standing out there already. It was a young woman, breathing deeply, a little flushed- she must have drunk a little much. He leaned against the balcony, loosening his tie as if he, too, were getting some air. She glanced over at him suspiciously. He was struck by the intensity in her sparkling blue eyes, undulled by alcohol. Her long brown hair was straggling out of its decorative bun a little- he got the impression that she might have as hard a time taming her hair as he did sometimes.

He was next struck by how beautiful she was.

"I don't think I've met you yet," she commented, "which is a surprise since I'm sure my father had paraded me to every man in the party already- especially Lieutenant Hakuba. Aoko Nakamori," she said, holding out her hand for him to shake. He took it and kissed it, a custom that she was clearly unused to if the shade of red she went was any indication. "Damn, stop acting like such an offworlder, baka..."

"Pleased to meet you," he said. "I'm afraid that I arrived a little late. Call me Arsene Lupin. You must be Captain Nakamori's daughter."

"Yep," she sighed, dropping the formality as she leaned against the railing with a sigh. "Pardon me if I drop the formalities, but it takes a lot of alcohol to make a conversation with the Lieutenant bearable, and I think the hangover's coming on before the inebriation ended."

"I'm not sure if it's acceptable for a gentleman to be alone with a heavily inebriated lady," He chuckled. He leaned closer to her, inexplicably drawn by this girl. He reached out, touching a brooch on her dress adorned with the Imperial symbol. "Such an ugly thing for such a pretty girl to wear," he murmured. She stared at him oddly.

"This...?" she glanced down at the brooch. He felt his starfighter drawing closer, his special cloaking programs keeping it from being noticed by the Imperial radars. He was quite fond of the old Jedi starfighter, a broken-down thing that he had bought for almost nothing since the junk trader was certain that it was cursed. He'd almost built the thing from scratch, it was so smashed. It wasn't hard to guess what had happened to the pilot. His mother had told him stories of the terrible truth of the Jedi purges, something which in Imperial history was described as the destruction of a dangerous cult which had attempted to take over the universe. In reality, it had been a cold, merciless genocide.

The bit that he really liked about the starfighter, however, was that it could be activated and controlled with the Force. It was designed for Jedi use, after all...

He glanced over the railing, sensing the presence of the fighter below. Something clicked behind him.

"Doors closed an hour ago when all of the guests arrived," Aoko's voice said matter-of-factly. "And Arsene Lupin is a rather obscure fictional thief. Not obscure enough for me to miss the reference... number 1412."

"Brains and beauty," Kaito chuckled, glancing at the blaster levelled at his head.

"Besides, the only person who would dare insult the Emperor in the very heart of the Imperial Centre," she said, fingering her brooch with her free hand, "would be someone who already intended to leave... unconventionally." People within the hall had noticed Aoko with her blaster raised and were pointing and staring. Kaito smirked.

"Too bad we're not free to use those brains," he said softly. "Well... give the Emperor my thanks for the party favours..." Aoko fired. It was only a stunner shot, but it would have disabled him for a dangerously long time if he hadn't dextrously dodged. He clicked his fingers, and her blaster flew from her hand, pulled by some unseen force. He vaulted over the barrier, flipping up the skirt of her ball gown as he went.

"Blue," he chuckled. "How appropriate."

"You-" she screeched, but Kaito had already landed in his fighter and was zooming away.

Which hyperspace coordinates do you need, master? The writing scrolled across the screen as the onboard computer translated the messages coming from his Astromech droid, G1-K0.

"Somewhere in the outer rim... surprise me, Jii," Kaito said. "I'm going to need to be well out of the Empire's reach for a while."

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"Wow, this is delicious!" The little boy said happily, diving into the enticingly-scented bowl. "Way better than your cooking, niichan..."

"Spare me," the young man muttered, handing over a few coins to the woman behind the stall. "I guess I'll have a bowl too."

"Here you go," the girl said, spooning some food out and handing the bowl to him. He glanced at her, chewing on a piece of meat, then his eyebrows shot up, almost disappearing into his dark fringe.

"This is womprat?" he said in surprise, raising another piece of meat. "Wow, you are good... I had no idea womprat could taste this good..." The girl went bright red.

"H-how'd you know it was womprat?" she asked nervously. He glanced behind her.

"I just spotted it out of the corner of my eye," he said. "Womprat bones buried in the sand behind your little hut here... If you'd just killed them as vermin getting into the hut, you wouldn't have stripped the meat from them, and the heat and dryness of the sand would have mummified them, not stripped them to the bone..."

"Wow," she said. "Um... so...?"

He took a big bite, smiling at her. "Hey, I'm not complaining. It's delicious. I know most people see 'em as vermin, but who cares if it tastes this good?" she smiled back with a flush.

"Even vermin are more edible than the stuff you make..." his little brother muttered.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Conan," his big brother said.

"So with a mind like that, I guess you're not your ordinary droid trader, are you?" the girl said curiously. "Mr...?"

"Call me Shinichi," he said with a friendly smile. "Miss...?"

"Ran," she replied. "So come on. I'm not a gossip. What're you really here for?" he glanced around, but her stall was right at the edge of town, right by the desert edge. Most people didn't stop this far out.

"I'm looking for Big Wan," he said, leaning over. "I need to... talk to him. I'm just not so sure that he'll want to talk to me..." Now it was Ran's turn to raise her eyebrows.

"Are you a bounty hunter?" she breathed.

"How'd you know?" Shinichi asked quietly. She smiled humourlessly.

"The only people interested in Wan lately are the ones after the bounty," she said. "They don't tend to come back."

"I think I will," he said. "I'm a very persuasive person."

"You won't-"

"Hey, look, look!"

Shinichi glanced over as Ran whirled around. Three children of about Conan's age had appeared in the doorway behind her, peering at Shinichi and Conan. There was a little girl with a wilted flower in her hair (Shinichi wondered where on Tatooine she had found it), a tall skinny boy and a surprisingly large boy. Conan glanced up from his empty bowl and saw them, then waved. "Wow, it's you guys!"

"You know each other?" Shinichi and Ran said in unison. The four children looked suddenly abashed.

"Ummm..." Conan said. "Well, last night, when you left, I got kind of bored..."

"We were, umm, going somewhere," the little girl said. "We'd promised to meet someone and we kind of ran into him..."

"You snuck out of the ship while I was out scanning the bars?" Shinichi said angrily.

"Who were you going to meet?" Ran said sternly.

"I didn't go far, or for long!" Conan insisted. "I was with them a lot of the time so I wasn't on my own..."

"She's a friend of ours," the tall boy said. "But she's a slave so the only time she gets to play is late at night, when she's supposed to be in bed, but she doesn't sleep a lot anyway she says so she sneaks out..."

"Do not leave the ship without me, especially in Mos Eisley!" Shinichi said. "Do you understand? You're only ten!"

"You can't sneak out at night, even to play with your friend!" Ran said. "If her owner catches her sneaking out, she'll be in big trouble and so will you!"

"But it's lonely sitting in there on my own..." Conan complained.

"But her owner Wan's really mean to her!" the fat boy complained. "She oughta at least have some friends..."

"That's no... wait," Shinichi said, switching his attention from berating his little brother to the three strange children. "Did you just say Wan?"

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^Fetch the bounty hunter's money^, Jabba said, waving a hand at his Twi'lek assistant. The victim cowered over the Rancor pit, wondering at what moment Jabba would open it and drop him to a horrible death. Heiji glanced around the dingy throne room, wrinkling his nose at the smell of Hutt. He caught the eye of the slavegirl chained to the podium. She met him with a fierce, rebellious glare.

"A human girl?" he thought curiously. "Thought it was Twi'lek girls that got the Hutts' rocks off... eh, whatever. I'm outta here soon as I get my cash."

^Do join us in a party before you go^, Jabba said as the servant pressed a bag of coins into Heiji's hands. ^After all, you caught this thieving bag of slime. We ought to honour you.^

"Sorry, but I got other hunts ta get back to," Heiji said. The slavegirl looked surprised, and there was some murmuring among the lackeys.

"If Jabba invites you to be the guest of honour, then you will be honoured," the servant hissed. Heiji rolled his eyes. "Oh, that kinda guest of honour..."

"No offence, yer slugship, but I gotta be goin'," he said, heading for the door. A couple of guards blocked him. "Ya gonna move or am I gonna move ya?"

^Are you threatening me?^ Jabba demanded. ^Perhaps you ought to be taught some respect.^

"Perhaps you oughta know when not ta mess," Heiji said, drawing his vibro-sword and igniting the laserblade. The weapon was something that he'd built himself, based on the old lightsabres that Jedi used to use, but with a normal laser instead of that weird force-sensitive thing. It wouldn't deflect laser blasts, but it could chop a hand off no problem- as he demonstrated on the first guard to charge him. He dodged swipes from the next couple of guards, trying to make his way to the door across the dancefloor. Jabba suddenly chuckled.

"No!" the slavegirl cried. "Yer right over the-"

"Rancor Pit," Heiji thought as the ground dropped away beneath him. "Shit." He flung out his hand, reaching for something, and felt a jerk of surprise as two small hands closed over his wrist and pulled him into the air. He leaned forwards as his feet his ground, turning in time to see the slavegirl, set off-balance, tumble sideways into the pit. He could already hear the screaming of the bounty as the Rancor tore into him. "Dammit!"

He grabbed the chain, feeling a little guilty as her jerked her out by the neck. She choked a little, then recovered and flipped another guard into the Rancor Pit. Heiji shot her chain off before the weight of it dragged her back into the pit, running for the door, and she followed.

"This way!" she hissed, grabbing his arm and jerking him down a side corridor. "There's less guards."

"Why're ya followin' me?" Heiji asked.

"I ain't goin' back there, thank you," she said, leading him down another corridor. "Jabba might stink, but he's a right hygiene god compared ta that damn pet of his."

"Geez... oi, Otaki!" he called into his com, stopping at a fairly large window. "Just track me an' bring the speeder round here, alright?"

"Otaki?" the girl asked, stopping next to him and glancing backwards nervously.

"0T-K1," Heiji said, "Astromech. Useful things. I just pronounce it Otaki fer short." He climbed up onto the window ledge, glancing down, then jumped out, landing in the pilot seat of the rented landspeeder. He jumped when the girl landed lightly next to him a second later. "What th' hell?"

"I repeat: not going back there," she said. "Ya can just dump me at the next spaceport or whatever. First, shouldn't ya be gettin' the hell outta here?" Her point was illustrated when several blasters started firing out of the windows.

"Point taken," Heiji said, speeding away. "Just dump ya? Ain't Jabba gonna be lookin' fer ya?"

"Not likely," the girl snorted. "He'll just buy another Twi'lek girl or something. I ain't got a tracker in me, thankfully. Thanks fer saving my ass, by the way."

"No problem, ya saved me from that Rancor," Heiji said. "We're square."

"So yer the great bounty hunter Heiji Hattori?" the girl said curiously. "Yer kinda young, aint'cha?"

"I'm twenty, that's plenty ta track cheap scumbags," Heiji snorted. "So who're you?"

"Kazuha Toyama," the girl said. "Cantina waitress until my boss started owin' Jabba money. I ain't going back ta work there, that's fer sure..."

"I'll drop ya on another planet or somethin'," Heiji said as they drew nearer to a spaceport. "'Cause I'm gettin' the hell offa this one. And the first thing ya gotta do..." he glanced at her, his already dark skin going a little darker, and tossed his poncho at her, "is get some real clothes."

Kazuha flushed and pulled the poncho over the skimpy dancing outfit.

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The denizens of the bar glared at the young officer who strode up to the bar in full uniform. Once upon a time, the older ones remembered, such pomp would be the recipe for an ass-beating, but these days doing so got the bar blown up by the Empire. The barman waved his hand at a haze of deathstick smoke in the corner, and the officer approached a little more cautiously.

"Call it."

"Full house, darlings."

"Dammit... how the hell do you do that?"

"Just pay up," the young woman said, smiling seductively. The gamblers obediently shoved piles of credits over.

"Akako Koizumi?" the blond officer asked as he approached.

"Who wants to know, handsome?" she asked, taking a pull from her deathstick. Her long purple hair draped lazily over her as she leaned back, covering more skin than her skimpy black dress did. "Well, well... a visit from one of the Empire's finest? I'm honoured."

"Lieutenant Saguru Hakuba," the young man said stiffly. "I have several questions for you regarding Intergalactic Special Fugitive 1412."

"Well, I'm not answering any questions about him, darling," Akako said, lazily waving a hand at him. "Now go home and forget about that little thief, all right?"

Saguru narrowed his eyes on her. "I don't think so."

She frowned, looking confused. She waved her hand again. "You will leave me alone now."

"Not a chance," Saguru said, sitting down.

"Hey, are you disrespectin' lady Akako?" one of the men, a particularly ugly Besalisk, growled.

"It's all right, Dottor," Akako purred. The creature instantly settled down. "Very interesting. Such a strong will. Darlings, I will talk to this young man on my own." The others instantly stood and left.

"Are you controlling them somehow?" Saguru demanded.

"I only exert the natural influence that any beautiful lady holds," she said, her voice low and caressing. Saguru felt that she was lying, and watched her hand, which waved whenever she spoke. It seemed to be just to stir the deathstick smoke, but he felt like it had something to do with her control. "It does not seem to work on you, however. You must have a powerful mind, young one."

"Young I may be, but you can hardly be any older," he snorted.

"So true," she admitted. "A child born of the end of the great Clone Wars... rather like you and your darling International Fugitive. Perhaps that is why both of you can resist me..."

"So it's true that you know him," Saguru said, leaning over the table to glare at her. "Where is he?"

"Now how could I know a thing like that?" Akako said, taking a pull of her deathstick. "He comes and he goes, darling, whenever he pleases. You cannot tie him down any more than you could cage the stars."

"Have you any useful information at all?" Saguru said, holding up a very fat pouch of credits. Akako stared at the bag contemplatively.

"Ahh, the influence of men," she said lightly. "Put it away, darling, before the cheap gentlemen at the bar see it and decide to lighten you of it. Go home, Lieutenant. I do not betray my most precious darling. Dottor? Que-sa? Chiro? Would you dears like another hand? I'm sure you must have a little money left..."

"Move it, brass," Dottor rumbled. Saguru moved. He was big. He left quickly, disinterested in drawing more attention, but he did glance back at Akako as she waved a languid hand goodbye.