Back again!

I took me like forever to write this, sorry! You will just have to try to live with the fact that I am a very unreliable writer.

I got so many lovely reviews for last chapter, thank you all so much, especially all the different guests (I got three Luxsoka requests lol).

Keep guessing on the assassin, I am just really curious about what you think will happen… A lot of spoilers in this chapter if you look closely ;)

Sorry about the fact that there might be a few misspellings in the chapter, I just really wanted to give this to you people now since I haven't updated in a month and feel really bad.

As Anakin followed his wife and the other senators into the royal palace of Mikun, he couldn't help but being a little bit overwhelmed by the great architecture of this place. Even though he was not really into arts and it had never interested him a lot, he admired the building with the hundreds of water falls and round glass tubes which broke the light into hundreds of different color shapes of the rainbow.

The round throne room, where the elected king of Mikun had his seat was not less beautiful: The big round hall with waterfalls on both sides of the black stone doors, open windows and the amazing view over the city and the lakes around was the perfect place for this peace conference. If it hadn't been a neutral planet, Anakin would have considered to take Padmé here for a vacation. Well, or sort of something like that. Obviously, he or she got rarely time of.

Mikun was so much like her beloved Naboo. Anakin sighed. He wanted to get back to Naboo, together with Padmé.

She was just greeted by the king, a human male who could not be described in any other way than: Normal. He wore something like a dress (Traditional on Mikun) and had a silver crown decorated with waves, but this was actually everything that Anakin would remember of him when he thought back of this day. And how often he would.

The king shoke his wife's hand delightedly and kissed her on both cheeks. "Very welcome, Senator Amidala, isn't it?"

Senator Skywalker, Anakin corrected silently in his head.

"Yes. It is a pleasure and an honor to meet you, Ad Kar, King of Mikun. Thank you so much for organizing and holding this peace conference. We're greatly honored by your hospitality. These are my fellow senators, Senators Trakien, Chuchi and Bonteri."

The king also kissed their cheeks delightedly (It seemed to be the greeting ritual on Mikun) and then looked curiously over to the Jedi, who were still standing in a respectful distance behind the senators.

Padmé turned smiling around to the Jedi. "These are Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, and Skywalker's apprentice Ahsoka Tano."

The king also greeted Obi-Wan, of course with a kiss on both cheeks. "What a pleasure to meet you, Master Kenobi. I have already heard from you and General Skywalker." Anakin was luckily spared to be greeted.

"The pleasure is on my side." Obi-Wan, the perfect diplomat, bowed. "We're here as additional security for our senators."

"What do you fear, Master Kenobi?" The voice did not belong to one of the Republic's senators. The Separatists had arrived, and their leader, a male of some alien species Anakin had never seen, came up to the Jedi. "Surely, no betrayal from us?"

"Not at all. We fear more for forces who want this war to continue." Obi-Wan said gently.

The Separatist-leader faced the King of Mikun. "Thanks, for your welcome King Ad Kar."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Senator Trolis."

After the greeting ritual with the senators the king only needed a short gesture and servants rushed into the hall, with little snacks and drinks.

A friendly discussion started to take place between the Senators of the different sides, kind of a small talk before the actual discussion would begin, but also to get news from each other. From the look in Padmé's eyes, Anakin could see that some of the Separatists she was now greeting delightfully had been her friends in the old days of the Republic.

Anakin caught up to his wife who was discussing different fashion brands with one of these Senators of the Separatists, apparently very delighted about a compliment she had received for today's green dress.

"Senator Amidala, may I ask for a word?"

Padmé turned around to him. "Of course, Master Skywalker. I'll be back in a moment, Clarisse."

The Separatist senator smiled nicely and joined a discussion about fuel prices, as Anakin was dragging Padmé out of all the people.

"What is it, Master Skywalker?"

"Master Skywalker?"

"Ani…" She seemed stressed. "Too many people are around, if anyone of them finds out."

"Oh, they can find out…"

"Ani! What do you want? This is really important business…"

"How's the baby?"

"It's fine, everything is fine, Ani." She was really annoyed. About him?

"But you'll tell me if anything is wrong, right?"

"Of course, I'll do." She took his hand and smiled.

"I don't trust this Separatist scum."

"Ani, these people here are friends, they've done nothing. I know Clarisse since my first year in the senate." She hesitated. "They just have different opinions about some things."

"Arg, I'll never get it."

"Luckily for you, I don't expect you too. See you tonight, love." She disappeared into the crowd again.

"Good bye, my love." He already missed the warmth of her hand.

-/-/-

The Jedi Master looked calmly out of the starship's window; it even seemed as if she was bored. But in her mind, Shaak Ti was everything else then bored. In her mind, thousands of thoughts were racing each other, and couldn't stop to bump into each other. They were as calm as the stars flying by, so not calm it all.

One thing came back again and again. Was Master Mundi dead?

Well, there was a pretty good possibility… And how often had people close to Shaak already died?

She should stop thinking like this, it would only distract her from the mission…

But weren't attachments what could make a Jedi strong as well? Hadn't both her masters taught her so?

Shaak, she told herself, stop it! You're masters were both banished from the order, you know that… It is actually forbidden that you only spent one thought over them.

Banished because the Jedi council did not like their ideas…

"General?" The voice of the clone trooper brought her back to reality. "General?"

Shaak turned around with her always sad smile. "Yes, Fives, what is it?"

"We'll arrive at the last known position of Master Mundi in two minutes, Sir."

"Well, prepare the men for battle, even though I have the feeling that we will be too late…"

"Yes, Sir."

Shaak Ti's eyes followed the ARC-trooper as he was telling his men to prepare the weapons and get in position.

Fives was a born leader, and one of these clones who would not only fight but think. He would get along after the war…, wouldn't he? What was going to happen to all the clones she had practically raised while her time on Kamino when the war was over? What would happen to the ones just born? What would happen to defect HT-units?

With a sudden stop, the star ship fell out of hyper space, and Shaak Ti gasped.

-/-/-

Obi-Wan was after several small talks just about to get to Anakin and Ahsoka, who seemed to have a pretty good time outside the senators, as Senator Trolis hold him back. "Master Kenobi, may I have a word?"

"Of course." Obi-Wan faced the Man in front of him, a Methuse, with a smile.

"To be honest, General, we did not expect the Republic to bring three Jedi as their own security…" He stopped.

"Go on speaking."

"Right. The Separatist alliance insisted on bringing ourselves security as well. They arrived late a little bit late, but we brought two bounty hunters, guaranteeing our safety along." The Separatist senator pointed at two people in the corner.

Obi-Wan smiled: "Thanks for telling us so. I will get over to them to talk about a combined strategy to keep you all safe." He bowed and made his way up to the two bounty hunters, who he finally took a short look at.

He recognized both of them immediately. One of them was a Zabrak lady, Sugi. As Bounty hunter, she must have shifted the sides of this war again, apparently now working for the Separatists after he had last seen her rescuing Ahsoka with a bunch of Wookies.

But the other one, Obi-Wan knew even better.

It was… Ventress.

What was she doing here? How did she get here?

"Master?" Anakin had appeared next to him. "What is it?"

Obi-Wan hadn't even noticed that he had frozen at the sight of the two bounty hunters. Now he swallowed. "Take a look who's helping us to secure the senators."

Anakin followed his eyes and froze in shock as he saw Ventress. "What is she doing here?" He turned to him with a serious face. "We can't allow this, Obi-Wan. She might be a spy."

"Allow what?" Ahsoka had reached them, but she didn't need to ask any further. "Ventress?"

The three Jedi looked at the assassin in disbelief. Obi-Wan was the first one to speak again: "Well, let us at least greet her properly."

After a short hesitation, Anakin nodded. "It's the least we can do before I kill her."

"Anakin!"

"Okay. But…"

"Be silent for a few minutes, okay?" Nothing would have been more embarrassing than the peace conference being a failure because the bounty hunters and Jedi fighting each other.

"Fine."

Led by Obi-Wan, the group encountered the two bounty-hunters, who seemed to compare their weapons with each other. Obi-Wan was also the first to speak in his flirting voice with Ventress. "Well, that's a nice surprise, Ventress."

Ventress looked up with an evil smile. "Ah, Obi-Wan." She got up and looked at him up and down. "You look even more horrible than the last time I saw you."

The last time. The last time they had fought together against Maul and Savage. An interesting pairing. If they had only stopped them back then… No, Obi-Wan had to stop thinking about this, today he had to stay focused on the senators.

"It is nice to see you again, too, Sugi."

"A pleasure, Jedi."

"So, let's get to business fast." Anakin, ignoring Obi-Wan's pleading at him to just shut up for once, wanted to get over with this as soon as possible. "Obi-Wan and my padawan will secure the senators inside, while I will be outside."

"This gives us the disadvantage, as you are two inside while only I will be there." Sugi argued.

"I am injured and don't have lightsabers with me." Ahsoka pointed at her right arm.

"Looks nasty, kid, how did that happen?" Ventress. Whatever it was in her voice… No way it could be concern.

But it gave Anakin the idea for a trap. "Oh, it happened on Himil. Made any trips to Himil lately, Ventress?" Obi-Wan recognized the view in his former student's eyes. It was determination.

Ventress sounded more than bored. "No, I did some bounty hunting for the Separatists on Dragda."

"Sounds interesting." And even though Anakin had dropped the subject… The determination remained in his eyes.

"Sugi, what have you done in the last time?" Ahsoka did not want to speak about Himil, this was clear.

"Well, I worked for the Hutts but things got… difficult, so we, let's call it cancelled the contract and I did some work for the Separatists as well. That's when I met Ventress here and they gave us the job together."

"What kind of difficulties?" Ahsoka nipped on a green cocktail, rather remaining at the small talk.

"Well, the kind of difficulties where some crazy dudes with lightsabers show, with a group of blue troopers with jetpacks and…"

Obi-Wan's glass nearly splintered on the ground if Anakin hadn't caught it with the Force. "Stop, stop, stop! Get back to the crazy guys part." But Obi-Wan already knew whom she meant.

But it was Ventress who said it first: "The Traitor and his Brother." She spitted the words out, like poison that could kill her any second.

Sugi turned to Ventress in astonishment. "You know them? How?"

"Slightly… I hunted the yellow one of them for bounty. But apparently, I wasn't successful."

Obi-Wan's voice sounded forced, as if he couldn't hold back the words. "Sorry to tell you that you'll get no money for Savage. He's dead."

Ventress turned to Obi-Wan. "How do you know, Kenobi?"

"I've ran into them… a couple of months ago." His face had hardened.

"What do you mean? Ran into?" Now he had drawn Ventress' attention on the subject.

"Well…" Obi-Wan had really no intention to talk about this with her. Why had he even brought it up, he was so stupid sometimes…

"Who wants cookies?" All eyes went to Ahsoka, who blushed due to the unsuccessful topic change.

"Nice try, kid, but I am not interested, I am listening to my good friend Kenobi, who shall tell me now what he knows." Ventress had not even blinked while staring at Obi-Wan, who began to feel rather uncomfortable.

Luckily, Padmé decided in this moment to begin the actual conference. "Please, senators get to your tables and sit down. Security…" She turned to the five guards. "Please, get into your positions as planned."
Respectful, the Jedis nodded and went to the places they had half way agreed on taking or had been put in, like in Anakin's case.

Hmm… This is going to be a memorial Peace conference, but why? What do you think?

You liked Shaak's part?

My polls for padawan and Soka's love life are still going on, and I decided that if somebody writes more than one time he wants a special relationship, I will count it more than once since I can't control the guest reviews anyway and these people seem to be really passionate.

I know it's not perfect that way, sorry

Hope to update before Christmas, otherways a Merry Christmas!