Opposites Attract [Complete]

As part of the clean up from her last mission, Meleana had been assigned to investigate a very exclusive high end club on Coruscant. Ones only the very famous, very rich, or very royal were allowed in to. According to Meleana’s mission briefing they had on file the finger prints of every royal from every Republic, and major outer rim systems. Meleana’s royal birth, plus previous involvement with the slavers made her the perfect candidate for the mission. The fact that she was so perfectly suited for this mission made her wonder why the council had sent another Jedi to go along with her, particularly since it could potentially complicate things.
Getting dressed up had always seemed like a strange ritual to Meleana. She’d had to look put together before, but never queenly. She found styling her hair and getting her eye makeup just right took every ounce of Jedi patience she could muster. When she had finally finished, she thought the end result was a person who looked stuck up, unapproachable, and completely full of herself; which, she assumed, was exactly what a bratty princess would look like.
She’d woven strands of jewels into her hair, which trailed down her back and sparkled against her formfitting pale pink gown. She slipped on her uncomfortable looking shoes just as the buzzer for her ship rang. She opened it to find a droid on the other side.
She slipped into what must have been the most expensive limo she’d ever seen. “Where is the other Jedi?” She asked the droid.
“Still preparing himself mistress,” The droid responded from the driver’s seat of the limo.
Meleana imagined the task of getting dressed up was even more daunting for a male Jedi than it was a female. She already missed her utility belt, tunic and lightsaber. They’d been informed that no weapons of any kind were allowed in the club, and given all of the security screening was mechanical, there wouldn’t be a way for the Jedi to talk their way into keeping their lightsabers.
Meleana fumbled with her giant jewel crusted necklace, something she’d convinced a jeweler to lend her, and stared at her reflection in the limos window. She preferred herself with messy hair and Jedi robes over the dolled up princess that was staring back at her.
Her reflection disappeared as the door to the speeder opened. The over dressed Jedi on the other side froze when he saw her.
“Garen,” Meleana said taking a second to recognize him. “I really must look unapproachable with this many credits on.”
Garen smiled nervously and slid into the speeder. “Not at all, you look lovely.” He turned away from her as the speeder began pulling away from the temple. “Awkwardly so,” he added under his breath.
“What?” Meleana asked with a giggle. “I don’t see why it should be awkward.”
Garen paused, clearly Meleana’s thought process was not following the same path as his and he wasn’t sure he wanted to steer her down that road. “I’m just not used to seeing a Jedi,” he held out his hand towards her. “Did you say, wearing so many credits?”
“I think this necklace alone could buy a star ship, a big star ship.”
“So, you’re a princess?” Garen asked, not wanting to ride to the club in an awkward silence.
Meleana nodded. “Wasn’t my background in your mission briefing?”
“It was, I was just trying to make conversation.” Garen turned to look out the window to prevent him self from staring at her. “How did your lunch go?”
“Hmm? Oh…” Meleana paused not sure Obi-Wan would appreciate her talking about the embarrassing event that had occurred that afternoon. “You should ask Obi-Wan.”
“Have I done something to offend you?”
Meleana felt her curls slap her face when she shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I just don’t think Obi-Wan would want me talking about this afternoon. Has he been acting strangely around you?”
Not when you aren’t around, Garen wanted to say. “Not that I’ve noticed.”
Meleana sensed there was something he wasn’t telling her, but decided to let it be. “I hope this doesn’t go wrong.”
“Why would it go wrong?”
“Every mission I’ve been on lately has gone horribly wrong. I’m beginning to doubt my competence.”
“That won’t help anything,” Garen turned from the window to look at her. “How could it go wrong? All we need to do is go in, see if there are any slaves, and leave.”
“The fact that the mission is so simple is even more troublesome. The last thing I want to do is mess up an easy mission… another easy mission. Really all it will take is one person who knows I’m not exactly an active member of Bierna’s royal family to make things go terribly awry. And anyone in any of the surrounding systems will know there aren’t any living members of my family in power at the moment.”
“You certainly know a lot about your history.”
“My last mission with my Master was to my home world. We were supposed to help negotiate peace between the rebels and the acting queen.”
“How did it go?”
“Horribly wrong, we were dismissed by the Queen, who wouldn’t stop accusing me of trying to usurp her crown, and the rebels kept trying to convince me to take over the world. Then a bounty hunter killed my Master and left me half drowned and near death at the bottom of a cliff,” Meleana’s tone was surprisingly cheerful given the grizzly subject matter.
“Were you even the slightest bit tempted? Being Queen does have its perks.”
Meleana shook her head vehemently. “Not in the slightest. Billions of people depending on me to sort out their lives and fix their problems? No thank you.”
“As opposed to being a Jedi and having trillions of people expecting you to fix their problems with none of the perks?”
“Jedi have their own perks and restrictions. I think it’s outrageous the way some in the order abuse those perks and that that is more acceptable than dabbling in certain restrictions.”
“I have a feeling this could be a long conversation.”
Meleana gave him a half smile. “I don’t think we have the time to get into it right now.”
“Speaking of perks, you have a starship?”
Meleana nodded. “It was a training exercise.”
“I was part of the Jedi starfighter piloting program.”
“Never heard of it,” Meleana said as gently as she could. “I was probably too young to keep up on that sort of thing. I was never really passionate about starships or piloting for that matter, like I said, my Master made me do it. I had to build that ship from scraps. He gave me a frame, sat me down in the archives, and told me not to come out until I’d figured out what I was doing. Then I had to track down all the parts… it was a long drawn out ordeal.”
Garen turned in his seat to face her. “What about now? Have your piloting skills improved?”
“I think you’ll just have to go up against me in a simulator to find out.” Meleana looked down towards the lower levels of Coruscant as the limo ascended. “It’s funny that we’re going to the upper level for this.”
“Crime is everywhere.”
Meleana squinted to see how far down her vision would reach. “Somewhere down there is a young girl who was forced into prostitution, but that’s not large scale enough to get Jedi involved, too wide spread for the other authorities. Drug dealers are preying on young people, people down on their luck… If there are slaves in this club, there is no way someone wasn’t aware of it. The rich buy peoples silence and the poor can’t afford to be heard.”
Garen looked at the city bellow them. “You’re not wrong, but I don’t think things are as bleak as you’re making them out to be.”
“No, not for everyone,” Meleana omitted the rest of her theory, assuming Garen would get the point.
Garen agreed with her, but there was too much injustice in the galaxy for even the Jedi to fix. Dwelling on it only made the work they did do seem meaningless. “The scanners at the club won’t know you’re a Jedi, will they?”
Meleana shook her head. “No, they only go off of the information in public records. The Jedi removed any mention of me after coming to Coruscant and added in a few new details. Didn’t you read the mission brief?”
“For the most part,” he said with a shrug. “I’d assumed we would use this time to go over the details.”
“You certainly waited long enough. I’m a spoiled rotten princess with a history of partying to hard, and you are my on again off again boyfriend, who is the son of a wealthy business man from Dedra, one of Beirna’s neighboring systems. People of my home world are known for their fiery tempers, tendency towards over indulgence of all things, and nudity.”
“Known for their nudity?”
“It’s a very free country… at least it was. At any rate in this version of my planets history I am not a Jedi, I’m a princess who would rather burn through money than rule, and so I have left the job of Queen to my step mother.”
“And I am?”
“You’re dating a princess who likes to over indulge, spend money, and get naked. How hard can your role possibly be to play?” Meleana shook her head at the amused look on Garen’s face. She pulled her datapad out of the small handbag she was carrying and opened up a file she had made on all of the neighboring systems politicians. “These are all the people we need to avoid, well at least the obvious ones I could find in an afternoon. There are a few from Bierna that I might recognize; otherwise we just have to hope no one in there knows much about my planet.”
“Does it matter that I skipped the part of the briefing that included the history of your planet?” Garen asked with a slightly embarrassed smile. It had taken him so long to get himself ready that he hadn’t had the time to read the mission brief in detail.
“Not really, but did you skip the portion of the brief that included the history of your home planet?”
Garen nodded with a pained expression. “Most of it.”
“Then read, quickly.”

The limo pulled up at the top floor of a large modern building. There was nothing outside that would indicate there was an exclusive club inside. Garen slid out of the limo and offered his hand to Meleana. She took it and stepped out onto the skywalk that surrounded the building. The two Jedi walked around the exterior of the building, there weren’t any obvious doors or entryways.
“There,” Meleana said pointing to a small seem in the wall. Meleana walked up to the crack in the wall and tapped her finger against it. An invisible panel slid open and she pressed her thumb to it.
“Welcome Princess Ariadne,” A silky female voice said as the door slid open.
Meleana linked arms with Garen and walked into the entryway. There was a slight mechanical hum as scanners slid from top to bottom before the main doors opened. A jeweled chandelier was the first thing they saw as they walked into the nightclub. The club’s color scheme was very neutral, all of the color came from exotic plants and lighting. Meleana looked around the room, all of the clubs white leather seats were occupied by the well dressed clientele.
Meleana lead Garen towards the bar as they scanned the room for any obvious signs of slavery.
“They wouldn’t be offered too openly,” Garen said. “After all there are people in the republic who are offended by such things.”
Meleana nodded and looked at the upper balconies of the club, all covered in sparkling backlit screens. “Up there would be the most likely place to find them.”
Garen looked for the way up. Two droids stood guard over a turbolifts doors.
Meleana suppressed her usually warm greeting as the bar tender, an attractive young human male, approached them.
“How can I serve you milady?” He asked giving her a slight bow.
Meleana pouted. “I’m not sure,” she looked at Garen. “Baby what do I want?”
“You want everything.”
Meleana blinked at the bartender. “You heard him, everything,” she snapped when he didn’t move.
The bartender’s eyes widened, but he obviously knew better than to argue with them. “What table shall I have the bottles sent to milady?”
Meleana gave him a catty smile and leaned forwards on the bar. “Well you see,” she started in an obnoxiously cute voice. “It would seem we don’t have a table. Now can you tell me why I wouldn’t have at least a table, or better yet a private section, cleared for me as soon as my name was announced outside?”
“The Princess is not pleased.” Garen said shaking his head.
“No I’m not!” she said in agreement.
Meleana tapped her foot loudly as the bartender scrambled to pull up a holo screen of reservations. “I hate this!” Meleana whined, hoping if she caused a scene she’d be given a private room without any questions. Using a Jedi mind trick would be too easily noticed at the crowded bar. “I come to the core because I want to have fun and look at how they treat me!”
“It’s not right,” Garen said in monotone.
“No it’s not!” Meleana almost shouted. “I don’t understand! I’m nice and I’m pretty and everyone just hates me!” She sounded as though she were on the verge of tears and frowned as she caught the bartenders gaze. “Why do you hate me? You don’t even know me!” Meleana collapsed dramatically into Garen’s chest. “Why does everyone want to hurt me!”
Garen pat Meleana on the head and gave the bartender a pleading expression.
“Uh…” The bartender clamored nervously. “We have a private room available your highness. I’ll have a server bring up your order along with a complimentary dessert platter. Is there anything else I can do to serve you your highness?”
Meleana looked up from Garen’s shoulder. “No that’s fine thank you.” She pointed towards the turbolift. “Just through there?”
“Yes your majesty, there will be a droid waiting for you upstairs to personally serve you.”
Meleana nodded and walked towards the turbolift. Garen paused just long enough to slap a handful of credits down on the bar. That poor man probably had to deal with worse than this on a nightly basis.

The private room’s décor looked much like the rest of the clubs. Two large white leather sofas framed a low central table, topped with another brightly colored chandelier.
“There is a control panel by the door with a list of our services and menus. Please do not hesitate to ask should you require further service I will be waiting outside your door.” The silver protocol droid said.
Meleana looked at the droid with some disdain. “I want a sentient being to serve us.”
Garen looked up at Meleana as he took a seat on one of the sofas. “Preferably one willing to do whatever my Princess wants and one that won’t argue should she decide to take it home with her.”
“I will see what kind of arrangements can be made to accommodate your request.”
Meleana sat down on the sofa next to Garen. She leaned back against the arm rest to face him. “Biernan’s are also not terribly fond of droids. Mostly droids are reserved for only the most repulsive tasks.”
“Is there anything else I should know?”
Meleana shrugged, “Probably, but nothing I can think of.”
The door opened again, the protocol droid wheeled in a three layer cart filled with bottles; a second droid came in behind it with a cart filled with glasses, ice, and desserts.
“You had to order everything?” Meleana asked after the droids had left. She got up to pour her self a drink. She grabbed one of the larger glasses and started pouring small shots from each of the bottles into it.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m fixing you a drink. You did want everything.”
“Shouldn’t we be sober?”
“Will one drink have you dancing naked on the balcony?” Meleana asked with a smile as she finished Garen’s special order. She tossed in an ice cube, and grabbed a piece of fruit off one of the dessert trays to stick on the edge of the glass. “We’ll call it… the Garen surprise, both for the taste, and my surprise at your order.”
“Wonderful,” Garen took the drink from her and smelled it. It smelled toxic. “This will kill me, I’m sure.”
“Don’t be such a baby,” Meleana sipped her drink. “If you don’t drink it I will. Besides, we’re supposed to be two young people out to party, a bit of drunken behavior won’t seem out of the ordinary.”
“We’re supposed to be on a mission.”
“And so we are. We’re actively seeking out slaves. This mission isn’t exactly life and death. All we have to do is play our parts and convince someone to give us access to the slaves, if there are any. If there aren’t, then we may as well enjoy ourselves. We did get all dressed up after all.”
Garen moved the drink towards his mouth, caught a whiff of it and pulled it away. “What if drinking this makes me throw up all over our pretty clothes?”
Meleana gave him a big mischievous grin. “Then we’ll just have to flaunt some of that famous Biernan nudity.”
Garen blushed and lifted the drink to his lips to hide his face. As he gulped down the disgusting cocktail it occurred to him that chugging his beverage was a bad idea. For one thing it would give her the impression that he wanted to see her nude, more so than his blushing would have, and he could already feel the mix of alcohols going to his head. Some how he had the feeling he’d have a few things to explain to Obi-Wan in the morning if things continued the way they were headed.
He heard Meleana giggle has he set down his half empty glass and waited for the inevitable teasing he would receive.
“Now… should I take that as a sign of your desire to cut loose or for something else?”
Garen laughed nervously, not sure what else to do. He couldn’t picture Obi-Wan interacting with this woman for longer than he was required to. He stopped his thought process, noting that he had suddenly begun to justify himself by deeming Meleana ill suited for Obi-Wan.
“So how is it?”
Garen looked back at the drink. “It is awful.”
Meleana leaned over and grabbed the drink. She took a sip of it and gagged. “How did you drink so much of that?”
“I thought you said if I drank it you wouldn’t. I was trying to spare you the unpleasantness.”
Garen watched Meleana’s pink dress twirl around her ankles as she made her way back to the two carts. She picked up a bottle of clear alcohol and poured half of it out into the ice. She grabbed two shot glasses and set them down on the table along with the bottle. Meleana moved the dessert cart over to the table and unloaded the tray onto the cocktail table. She grabbed two utensils and pushed the cart back towards the door.
She sat down and poured two shots. “They need to look like they’ve been used.” she said with a sly grin as she handed the glass to Garen.
“I’m beginning to suspect you have a problem with drinking.” Garen said setting his empty shot glass down.
“I assure you I will not drink enough for it to interfere with our mission.”
Meleana had just taken a huge bite of one of the desserts when there was a knock at the door. Garen stood to answer it and stepped aside to allow a well dressed man in.
“I’m Pavra Choon,” he said with a bow to both Garen and Meleana. “Let me start by saying what an honor it is to have someone of your caliber as a guest in our establishment Princess Ariadne.”
Meleana smiled at him and wiped the food off her face.
“I understand you are displeased with your server?” Pavra asked as Garen took a seat.
“Sit,” Meleana said motioning to towards the other sofa. “Droids are so impersonal,” Meleana said as he took a seat.
“Of course we can have a server of your species of choice brought up immediately, but I understand you were looking for something a little more… permanent?”
Meleana nodded. “We like Coruscant, we’re thinking of staying, but in our haste to leave our home world, we forgot to bring our servants.”
“I assume money is no object?” Just as Pavra finished speaking the door opened and a droid wheeled in two more carts filled with bottles before quickly retreating.
Meleana gave Garen a side glance. “No it isn’t.” she said with a smile.
Pavra slipped a datapad out of his jacket pocket. “Here is a list of all of our specialized servers. Should you enjoy their company you may purchase them at the end of the night.”
Meleana took the datapad from him and flipped through it. “We’ll summon you again when we’ve made our decision.”
Pavra stood and bowed. “Of course, the consol on the wall will alert me.”
Meleana nodded as he walked out. “Garen… I don’t think these are slaves, and my intelligence has been insulted.”
“Why is that?”
“Because half of these slaves are celebrities, and I doubt they’ve abducted this many high profile people without anyone noticing.”
“Human replica droids,” Garen said looking over her shoulder at the screen. “So why would the slavers send us out here?”
“Maybe they modeled some of the not-so-famous droids out of slaves? Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem like they’re selling slaves here.”
“Unless the celebrities do paid appearances, maybe you can’t take the famous servers home with you?”
Meleana turned to give Garen a shifty eyed look. “It’s doubtful. I’m a princess, I get what I want. Some of these people have armies at their disposal. Why risk pissing them off by not letting them take home their favorite celebrity? Why offer them under the pretense that they are available for sale if they aren’t?” Meleana put down the datapad. She walked over to the comstation on the wall and contacted Pavra. “Are these all HRD’s?” She asked when he’d answered.
“Yes your majesty they are. I assure you though they are indistinguishable from their human counterparts.” he said after a slight pause.
“So there is no way we can get an actual being up here?”
“Only for the evening your highness, they would need to be returned by the end of their shift. The HRD’s give you many different entertainment options not offered by living beings.”
Meleana looked back at Garen and muted the com. “Satisfied?”
Garen nodded curtly and finished the rest of his terrible cocktail.
“Do you know anyone in the core who might be able to supply us with beings?”
“No you’re highness. I mean no offense, but I feel it is my duty to remind you that slavery is illegal in the Republic.”
Meleana broke of the communication. “Good enough for me.”
“You’re not going to order an HRD?” Garen asked with a grin.
“No,” Meleana said mixing herself a drink. “I think you’ve run up our tab enough for the evening.”
Garen frowned and shook his head. “It can’t be that bad.”
Meleana held up a bottle. “This is forty thousand credits a bottle.”
Garen’s eyes widened. “Can we return that one?”
Meleana looked at the bottle and back at him with a wicked gleam in her eye. “No Garen, I think you should drink it.” She broke the seal on the bottle before he could argue. “Come on we’ve finished our mission, we may as well enjoy ourselves.” She sat down next to him and held the bottle out.
Garen sighed and took the bottle from her. “You’re a bad influence.”
“Well if the Council asks, tell them I forced you.”
“I’m sure that excuse will work wonders.”
Meleana got up and grabbed two handfuls of shot glasses. She took the bottle from Garen and filled each of the twelve glasses to the top. “If you finish you’re first I’ll give you my ship. No dribbling, spilling or half finishing, everything must be swallowed. Deal?”
“Your ship, really?”
“Unless you can think of something else you’d want. And you have to finish your shots, even if you lose.”
“Why would I lose?” Garen put his hand on the first glass. “Ready when you are.”
Meleana gripped her glass. “Go.”
Garen heard all six of Meleana’s shot glasses hit the table before he could even get through half of his. He finished his remaining shots and gave her a sour expression. “You knew I’d lose.”
Meleana gave him half a shrug. “Maybe,” she said innocently.
“Alright one more try, all or nothing.”
Meleana raised her brow. “Really? You want to lose twice and vomit in the same night?” Meleana picked up the bottle when he nodded. “So what do I get out of this?”
“What do you want?” Garen asked, his speech already beginning to slur. He watched Meleana stare thoughtfully up at the chandelier. “I’m not sure I trust the look in your eyes.”
Meleana looked at Garen and smiled. “I’m not sure what I want… I guess you’ll owe me.”
“Then get pouring.”

Several hours later Meleana’s comlink was barely audible over the loud music blasting through the private lounge. Empty bottles and half eaten deserts cluttered the large white cocktail table.
“There’s that noise again,” Garen said. He was leaned against the arm of the sofa opposite Meleana. He kicked her leg. “Don’t you hear that?”
Meleana shook her head. “You’ve lost it. I don’t know if you even had it, but it’s definitely gone now.” Meleana tilted her head back and laughed. “The room is twirling.”
“Yeah it is,” Garen said in agreement.
Meleana stared at the ceiling for several minutes before talking again. “I’m attractive right?”
“You are very attractive,” Garen sounded a little more enthused than he had intended to even in his drunken state.
Meleana looked up at him. “So if you were having no strings attached mind blowing sex with me, why would you pin me to a cooling unit and tell me you never wanted to see me again?”
“Oh… I didn’t do that.”
“No Obi-Wan did… and now I’m really…” Meleana sighed and buried her face in her hands. “I was really starting to like him! Why would he do something like that?”
Garen shook his head. “If I were having mind blowing sex with you I would never stop pining you to the cooling unit.”
“I know! Does Obi-Wan like boys?”
“Maybe…” Garen said with a shrug.
Meleana sat up and slid closer to Garen. She leaned against his propped up knees. “I thought of the favor I want from you.”
“Oh,” Garen said nervously as Meleana pushed his legs apart and lay out on his chest.
“No ones ever broken up with me before. I mean, a few have run away screaming, but that was always my Masters fault.”
Garen’s throat tightened as Meleana’s hand ran up his thigh. “So what is it I’m doing?”
“I need you to critique me,” she said in a serious tone before turning her head to nip gently at his ear lobe. “You have grounds for comparison don’t you?”
“Yes,” he moaned as she bit gently at his neck.
Meleana turned around in his lap and kissed his lips. “Do you want me?” She asked on a breath.
Garen moaned affirmatively and kissed her again. He pushed her away again a second later. “This is wrong.”
“I’m sorry,” Meleana said, her voice was genuinely panicked. “Was it that bad?”
“No,” Garen shook his head and quickly pulled his hands off her chest. “It’s not you, it’s Obi-Wan.”
“You’re in love with Obi-Wan!”
“No!” Garen sat up on the arm of the sofa to distance himself from her. “It’s the other way around.”
“He’s in love with you?”
“Try again!”
Meleana shook her head. “What are you talking about!” Meleana’s comlink started buzzing again inside her small handbag.
“What is that sound!”
Meleana picked up her handbag and pulled out the comlink. “Yes?”
“Oh thank the force!” Rendain was barely audible over the loud music. “Someone is trying to kill us!”
Meleana grumbled. “Alright fine we’ll be there soon. Are you still at the apartment?”
“We’re in the general vicinity. Sorry it’s a little hard to pin point where we’re going to be when we’re running for our lives.”
“We’ll be there soon.” Meleana put her comlink away and stumbled to her feet. “We need to go. Someone is trying to kill my friends.” Meleana dumped all the credits in her handbag onto the table and jumped off the balcony into the main portion of the club.
Garen followed and, after crashing into a few tables and club patrons, they were back on the streets of Coruscant.
Meleana looked at the limo and back at Garen who had nearly fallen off the skywalk. “Should we let the droid drive?”
“No, I can do it,” Garen said with a wave of his hand. He opened the passenger side door to the limo and shooed the droid into the back seat.
Meleana slid into the passenger seat when Garen had taken the controls.
“Drive towards the temple,” Meleana said.
Garen sped off, a bit faster than he had intended to. He could tell he wasn’t up to his usual standards. He could sense the tension in Meleana as he narrowly missed another speeder.
“Slow down!”
“But someone is trying to kill my friend! I mean your friend.” Garen plowed through a sign and immediately slowed down.
“And they’re going too if you kill us!”
“I’ve slowed down! We’re fine!” Garen began accelerating without noticing.
“You’re still well over the speed limit!” Meleana griped as she reached for her safety belt.
“People are going to die!”
“We’re going to kill them!” Meleana winced as they narrowly avoided another collision.
“You are distracting me!”
“Well you’re a terrible pilot!”
Meleana looked at the streets. They were approaching the temple and she found herself unable to recall exactly how to get to the apartment building. It wasn’t until Garen was in the intersection that she remembered the location of the apartments.
“Go left!” Meleana shouted as though she’d had some great epiphany.
Without thought Garen veered to the left and straight into oncoming traffic. He turned the speeder in the opposite direction fishtailing the rear of the long limo into the nearby sky walk. He couldn’t stop the speeder quickly enough to avoid hitting one of the terrified pedestrians.
“Now you’ve done it!” Meleana rolled down the window and looked out at Garen’s victim. The alien was getting to his feet, apparently uninjured, but definitely unhappy. “You’re lucky he had an exoskeleton!” Meleana waved him on. “Go on, slowly this time.”
“Are you always this critical?” Garen asked merging carefully back into traffic.
“It’s constructive criticism.”
Garen rolled his eyes. “Now I’m beginning to understand why you and Obi-Wan got along o well.”
“Are you being sarcastic?”
“No.”
“Well if we got along so well then why did he break up with me?”
“I seem to recall one of you saying you weren’t in a relationship, but I can’t remember which one of you said it.”
“There they are!” Meleana shouted catching blaster fire out of the corner of her eye. She spotted Rendain’s lanky form rushing to pull Crissida into a small ally away from their attacker. “There!” Meleana shouted and pointed when Garen didn’t turn. “Down the ally!” Thinking he was about to pass the ally way all together Meleana leapt out of the limo. She landed clumsily on the skywalk and fell forward onto her knees.
Garen had already started to turn the clumsy vehicle when Meleana jumped. Suddenly worried he’d hit her he pulled over to the other side of the skywalk. Garen failed to stop in time, not seeing the wall of the building in front of him. His head slammed into the hard surface in front of him as the speeder ground into the wall and slid down the ally.

Across the way one of the bounty hunters pointed their blaster at Meleana. She reached for her lightsaber instinctively and cursed when she remembered it wasn’t there. The bolt was already flying towards her when she finally began to move. The shot grazed her shoulder. Before the pain could set in the out of control limo clipped her and she was sent flying across the floor. Metal screeched against metal as her face slid across the pavement of the skywalk. She looked up towards the bounty hunter, who’d been pinned between the limo and the nearest building. He was still alive and struggled futilely against the machine.
In his frustration the bounty hunter aimed his blaster at the unconscious driver. Meleana waved her hand and pushed him back before he had a chance to fire. The bounty hunter’s head slammed into the wall behind him hard enough to create another crater in it then landed with a heavy thud on the hood of the speeder.
Meleana looked over at Rendain and Crissida, who’d come out of their hiding spot and were staring at her with wide questioning eyes.
Meleana pointed at Rendain. “You make sure he’s ok,” she slurred waving her hands towards the wreckage across the street. Meleana wrapped an arm around Crissida. “My legs are like noodles. Delicious.”
Crissida perked her brow at the drunken Jedi. “Is this normal for a Jedi?”
“Nah… I’m dressed all fancy.” Meleana looked at the shorter woman. “Oh you mean the drink? Yeah. I mean, no. It’s just… we had to do it for work. We needed to sell it.”
Meleana looked away from Crissida towards the shouting coming from the speeder.
“Jedi business officer! Move along!” Garen waved his hand at the pale man leaning next to him, but hadn’t remembered to put any force behind the gesture. “People’s lives need me.”
Rendain cocked his head at Garen as he inspected the gash on his forehead. He felt he should say something to calm the hysterical Jedi down, but wasn’t sure what. “That’s very sharp attire for a Jedi,” he finally blurted in a casual tone.
Garen furrowed his brow. Was this security officer flirting with him? “I’m not looking for you. I had a girl in this speeder.” The man gripped both his arms firmly and pulled him to his feet. “No, she’s real. She wants to have sex with me,” Garen fell forward onto the rather tall man’s chest. “I’m not though… why does he get all the pretty ones first? It’s not right. It’s wrong.” He looked around and saw Meleana leaning against a brown haired girl across the street. “It’s that one.”
“She sleeps with all the pretty girls?” Rendain shrugged, that made enough sense to be plausible.
“No… do you think its ok? I mean just once? He did tell her no. I won’t talk about it.”
“It’s not ok.” Rendain said supporting Garen as they walked down the skywalk. “I’m Rendain by the way, and I also like pretty girls.”
“Well I don’t think that’s fair. I can’t have her, but you can’t just step right in. That’s not right.”
“Oh trust me, I am the last man on Coruscant that would be in anyway attracted to that young woman.”
Garen looked back as they continued to walk and noticed Meleana and the brunette were following. He wondered where they were going, but worried if he asked, and didn’t like the answer, he would be unable to walk away on his own. It seemed they were being led back to the temple until the man led him into a large structure a few blocks away.
“What are we doing here?”
Rendain pressed the call button for the lift. “We need protection, and you two shouldn’t be walking back into the temple in your condition.”
Garen nodded. “That’s smart.”

Meleana woke up with a moan. She turned her face towards whatever she was sleeping on to avoid the morning sun. She sat up straight when she felt her pillow breathing. She looked around. She’d passed out in a corner on top of Garen. They were in an unfurnished room. The window pouring sun on her had a stunning view of the Jedi temple. Meleana gently shook Garen’s shoulder.
“Garen,” she said in a hoarse voice.
Garen opened his eyes slowly then closed them again when the sun hit his eyes. “Where are we?”
“I think we’re in my friend’s apartment. We should probably get back to the temple, they’ll be wondering why they haven’t heard from us.”
Garen swallowed hard and sat up. “How are we going to explain our hangovers?”
“I’d be more worried about explaining the makeup all over the crotch of your pants.”
Garen opened his eyes and looked down. “I can’t explain that.”
Meleana leaned against the wall next to him. “Maybe we should just call them.” she said, not wanting to deal with any Jedi Masters.
Garen peered out the window; it looked to be late in the afternoon. “How are we going to explain the delay?”
“Why do you keep bringing these things up?” Meleana grumbled.
“Well inevitably they’re going to ask, how was the mission? What took you so long to report back? What’s wrong with you two? And why is their makeup on your crotch?”
She got to her feet with a frustrated sigh, “Don’t worry I’m sure they’ll blame me for everything.”