Although the sight before Bail wasn't completely what he'd been hoping for, the situation could've been worse.

The senator's best friend, as well as his best friend's wife, were still alive and breathing- barely. The two twi-leks were clad in their traditional senate garbs, though the fabrics were splattered with specks of blood. Tied at their wrists and ankles, as well as gagged with cloths, the married couple were seated on chairs across the room, closest to the broken window where the draft seemed to be coming from. Despite the black eye Agost sported and the cut on his wife's chin, it appeared that a lot of the blood wasn't their own. The answer to the question of its ownership was answered the second a man stepped out from behind the opened closet door to Bail's right.

The man was human, sported a thick, black coat that reached his knees, and two boots that glistened with red on their tips. His gloved hands held two blasters; a quick glance showed the handle of a jagged knife haphazardly hanging from its sheath strapped to the bounty hunter's thigh.

Yes, the man was indeed a bounty hunter. And Bail knew that for a fact because-

"Hey there, Bailey. Long-time no-see."

The senator scowled in disgust at the sight of the man's sinister, yellow-toothed smile.

"Tobias Beckett," Bail nearly snarled as he kept his blaster aimed for the infiltrator's chest. "Why exactly did you think killing all those innocent workers was necessary? I thought you were a bit cleaner than that." Tobias just chuckled and shook his head in dismay, his short blonde hair waving with his movements.

"You know better than I that when a client wants a job done thoroughly, you do it to their exact specifications or you don't get paid," Tobias scratched at his mustache casually before resting his two blaster-wielding hands on the shoulders of Bail's friends. "Which is why I let these two live. You're welcome."

"Get to the punchline already, Beckett," Bail snapped.

Tobias Beckett was a scoundrel, just like any other back-water bounty hunter with nothing better to do than make a quick buck. At one point, he'd been affiliated with the Rancor Slayers- that being the only reason Bail knew him in the first place- but that didn't last long once Crimson Dawn offered him a better price for his services. He'd known the man to do things that would seem distasteful to the public eye, but Bail never thought he'd slaughter over twenty civilians without a second glance. Tobias sighed.

"Always straight to the business. What, no small-talk? You're a politician, I thought you lived for these moments," The graying nerf-herder questioned, inching the barrel of his weapons closer and closer to the necks of Bail's friends.

"The police are already on their way by now, so if you have a message for me, I suggest getting to the point. Unless you'd like to have this conversation through a hologram from the penitentiary." Tobias sighed once more, though he seemed to finally get the point as he slid his blasters back into their holsters and scratched at the stubble on his chin.

"Look, I'll be frank with you. This was a warning, Bail," The senator wanted to scoff, as if that was unknown knowledge at this point, but kept his mouth shut and continued to listen to the bounty hunter's words. "There are eyes everywhere, and they've noticed what you're trying to get started here."

"I have no idea what-"

"Cut the bullshit," It was Tobias who snapped this time, his joking demeanor transforming into one of pure seriousness. His forehead wrinkled and his eyes narrowed from across the room at the man holding the blaster. No more smiles, no more chuckles. This was real. "Verrat is familiar with your...open-mindedness...in regards to a free higher-powered government. And for that, he's been keeping tabs on you since the Empire first rose up. He has eyes on your bank-accounts, your purchases; everything from the food you eat to the toilet-paper you wipe your ass with. You aren't safe here or anywhere. Same goes for your family and friends. Obviously." As he talked, the gunslinger began to make his way from his captives back over to the shattered window, the breeze blowing his hair and the sound of traffic leaked in from the gaping hole in the glass.

"Don't take another step, Tobias," Bail warned, making it obvious that he was turning his blaster from stun to kill as he trailed his aim with each stride Beckett took. "I'll do it." To that, Tobias turned his head to face the senator and sent him an icy glare.

"No, you won't. I didn't have to stay. I didn't have to keep your buddy here and his beautiful wife alive. I'm skating on the fine-print of this deal for you; I've made Verrat's message to you clear as day so you know exactly what's coming to you if you don't follow his orders. I'm doing you a favor."

"A favor?" Bail growled. "Killing all those people-"

"Instead of going for your daughter," Tobias hissed right back. A rock suddenly formed in the back of Bail's throat and he felt it sink to his stomach at the mention of Deidre. His eyes widened and his grip on his blaster faltered just enough to give the bounty hunter the advantage he needed.

In an instant, Tobias had leaped from his spot and charged at the man. Like a brute, he ducked his head and rammed his shoulder into the senator's stomach, bashing his body against the nearest wall and rushing the air from his lungs. Bail gasped for oxygen, but Beckett didn't give it to him- his hand latched around Bail's throat like a python and Tobias pulled his face in close, their noses barely a hair's-width apart.

"I'm going to tell you a little secret, free of charge," Beckett stated over the sound of Bail's struggling gurgles, his hands punching and hitting at Tobias' wrist and chest but seemingly doing no damage at all. After a quick glance at the twi-leks, the bounty-hunter tilted his head and brought Bail's ear close to his lips. "Stop pissing the wrong people off or the next bounty isn't going to be a bunch of servants."

Tobias wasn't wrong; Bail had always been sewing seeds of doubt in the Empire, ever since the fall of the Republic. The senator wasn't one to stay silent when injustice was involved. And he wasn't one to be frightened by such threats.

"I've got allies in high places, Beckett," Bail whispered back with even more fury in his words. "Allies that are already going to be on guard after this little stunt. I doubt Verrat will be staging any more scare-tactics in the days to come." Tobias shook his head.

"Not days, no. But he's a patient man. As scary as it can be working in the smuggling and bounty industry, its times like these that make me feel lucky to not be on his radar."

Then there was a sharp jab of pain in Bail's side like a knife had cut through his clothes. One look down at his abdomen told him he wasn't far off from the truth; a needle attached to a small vial stuck out of his flesh. Petrified, he watched as the purple liquid within the small glass cylinder disappear into his body and Tobias shoved the senator to his knees.

"That right there is two millilitres of ardrahk venom," The bounty hunter explained as he lazily began his walk back over to the window's ledge. All feeling in Bail's chest began to vanish, the venom working down his arms and legs as well now like an infection. With a quick intake of breath, the senator collapsed completely to the ground, his head turned slightly so he could still see Tobias make his big escape. "It won't kill you, just turn you into a vegetable for a while. Enough time to let me disappear."

"Youaa-" Bail tried to speak, but his cheeks had turned to jelly and all sensation in his lips had fled. "Yaaa 'asdard." The words bubbled out in gibberish; Tobias snickered to himself.

"Til we meet again, buddy."

Giving the man one final salute, Beckett leaned backward and out of the broken windowpane.

***

It was dark and the cold had a grip on her that she couldn't escape. As if her clothing were made of ice itself, the whipping breeze did nothing to aid stalling the hypothermia. Beneath her body was rough, gritty snow, and the tight bindings around her wrists were the only thing keeping the feeling in her hands, despite it being a painful sensation.

"She'll bring us a hefty sum of cash from Crimson Dawn," A coarse voice rang out through the howling wind and someone grabbed hold of her blindfold, seeming to adjust it as she sat on the frozen ground. 

"Shut up and keep digging," Another person snapped, a man's voice from the sound of it, and the dull clicking of shovels began to ring in her ears. "We need to hurry this along if we want to get those idiots off our tracks."

"This plan will work, Bane," A woman this time; her tone was agitated, possibly hinting at a hidden anger within her words. "We'll get the explosives planted, wait until the right moment and blast this entire mountain to hell."

A wave of fear washed over Deidre like a tsunami. Not for herself oddly enough, though she couldn't think of who her heart stalled for at that second. Who exactly were the "idiots" this "Bane" person was talking about?

"Look, this is all just a big misunderstanding-" Deidre tried to reason with her captors, but received only a strike across the face by a spindly, long-fingered hand. 

"Shut up, brat," The woman spoke once more. Pain blossomed in Deidre's cheek and the wet warmth of blood dripped down her skin, gathering into droplets at the bottom of her chin before dropping into the snow below. "Believe me, girl, nothing is lost in translation here. If we did things my way, you'd be dead already. So until Dryden pays us for your annoying ass, do what we say and keep your mouth shut or a little cut will be the least of your worries."

Deidre was silent after that, knowing full and well what position she was really in. If she wanted to live to see her father again, she'd have to leave the negotiating behind and stay compliant ... though she couldn't help but get the gears turning in her head for a chance at escape. As the sound of digging into the mountainside continued, the teenage girl lifted her bound hands to her face to wipe the blood from her cheek, then set them nonchalantly on her lap after enough blood had seeped onto her wrists.

She may not have been in a position to barter her freedom with these people, but there was no way she was going to allow these criminals to kill people over her. Especially not people who must've been trying to help her, otherwise this band of scoundrels wouldn't be putting in the effort to blow up a mountain.

Using what little time she had left, the girl cautiously, slowly, began to loosen her tied restraints, the gears in her mind still turning as a plan began to formulate.

___

(This note has nothing to do with the book series, I just finished watching the latest episode of the Clone Wars, Shattered, and I sobbed for half an hour as I ate a McFlurry. Still in a complete state of depression. Hope I'm not the only one. Dreading next week already.)