"But, Daddy. Why can't we help?" Gabby asked as he walked his children to their horses.

"Gabby, I understand, but why are you sending me home?" Boba asked. "I walked across bounty hunters, for Pete's sake!"

"Bounty hunters are nothing compared to slavers!" Anakin said. "You can never fully understand what I went through. For years, I had to watch as your grandmother was tortured, and had to live with a transmitter inside of me, meaning no escape."

The kids looked at their father worriedly.

Anakin sighed and caressed his kids' faces.

"Look, I don't want to risk either of you getting captured and enslaved." He said. "I've already come close to losing one or both of you too many times to count. I'm not willing to gamble with your freedom. If those slavers got you, it would be a fate much worse than death."

Anakin ordered Remix to take the kids home while Carousella and Peppermint both stayed to assist in the mission.

Ahsoka asked Obi-Wan what got Anakin so upset and why he was sending his kids away.

"Anakin has never talked about his past, has he?" Obi-Wan answered.

"Only to tell me he won't talk about it." Ahsoka shrugged. "And Gabby and Boba both say he tells them never to speak of it to anyone."

"As a child, Anakin and his mother were sold into slavery by the Hutt clans."

Ahsoka looked down, starting to understand what her master was feeling. It was obvious he wanted to protect his children from going through the same things he did.

"Oh. And these Zygerrians, they're slavers?"

"Anakin has struggled to put his past behind him." Obi-Wan said.

"And now he just wants to protect his kids and give them the freedom he never had as a child." Peppermint said, looking at Anakin.

"Precisely."

Ahsoka sighed and said, "Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on him."

"Yes. Make sure you do."

"He'll need all the emotional support he can get." Peppermint said before following Obi-Wan to the tower in case he needed backup.

In the tower, a Zygerrian named D'Nar sat in a desk, receiving a transmission call from another Zygerrian and Count Dooku, telling him that their latest shipment had been received.

"I understand the Jedi have attacked. Why are you still there?" asked the other Zygerrian.

"I'm going to make the Jedi pay for their arrogance." D'Nar growled. "I have them right where I want them."

Obi-Wan soon arrived.

"Do tell." said the Jedi. Two droids aimed their blasters at him. Obi-Wan just raised his hands, showing no signs of fear.

"Gentlemen, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight." Dooku introduced.

The Zygerrian beside Dooku growled.

"D'Nar, bring him to me..." Dooku ordered. "on his knees."

"With pleasure." said D'Nar, who ended the transmission.

Obi-Wan walked towards the Zygerrian.

"We were going to discuss surrender?" asked the human.

"Yes." D'Nar put his boots on the table. "You will surrender."

"We obviously have a misunderstanding, my friend."

Obi-Wan secretly activated his communicator, which alerted Anakin.

"No, you are wrong, Jedi." said D'Nar.

"Am I? You're no doubt aware that your droid forces have been destroyed and you are surrounded. Do the honorable thing and give up now, D'Nar. I promise you will receive fair treatment."

"You've broken through my defenses. You think you've won. Think again. I have planted bombs all over the city. No one will survive. Now, surrender."

"If you're not bluffing, then I must concede, but you'll have to make considerations. First, you release the colonists."

"Here is my counteroffer."

A droid hit a button, and a building right near where Anakin and the rest of the team were blew up.

Obi-Wan rushed over to the window and saw the remains of the blown up structure.

"There were no colonists in that structure," said D'Nar. "but there could have been. Now, bow down and surrender to me, you Jedi filth."

Without Gabby to heal the clones, the team had to rely on medics to help the injured clones.

"R2, where are you?" Anakin said, and the astromech beeped and rolled to him. "Watch yourself, buddy. This is still a war zone. Cody, we don't have time for the planetary scan. Hook R2 up, and he'll locate the bombs. Ahsoka, Carousella, let's go."

"Where are we going?" Ahsoka asked.

"To disarm the bombs while Obi-Wan and Peppermint negotiate."

Anakin and Ahsoka climbed onto some runner vehicles while Carousella stuck with flying.

"I hope he can buy us some time." Anakin said.

"Knowing Peppermint, she'll sweeten the deal enough to give the Zygerrians a mouthful of cavities." Carousella said.

And the Jedi and alicorn took off.

Meanwhile, Obi-Wan placed his lightsaber on D'Nar's desk in surrender.

"Very well. I surrender." said Obi-Wan.

D'Nar smirked and said, "Long before this war, you Jedi destroyed the great Zygerrian Slave Empire. I would kill you now, but Dooku would prefer you alive."

"I understand your frustration. It is unfortunate you and I cannot resolve our differences as you do in the Zygerrian tradition."

D'Nar's bird-like pet chirped and flew away. The Zygerrian, however, laughed at Obi-Wan and said, "With no weapons, you would fight me?"

"For good reason. Say, if I win, you reveal the location of the colonists and the bombs."

D'Nar was silent for a moment, then he smirked. "And if I win, I'll deliver you to Dooku in a cage, like one of these filthy creatures."

"Perhaps."

That only made D'Nar angry, and he held Obi-Wan by the neck and threw him across the room. He did it again, this time, throwing Obi-Wan against a statue.

"Careful. You're disturbing my pets. They fetch a high price."

"Well you, Sir, are angering his pet." said a female voice, and in strode Peppermint, who unleashed an angry snort.

"What is this? A unicorn?"

Peppermint held a candy cane with her magic, which she was munching on.

"The name's Twist." she bit the candy cane. "Peppermint Twist. Mess with my friend, you mess with me."

That landed a big Uh-Oh in Obi-Wan's mind.

R2 soon found the locations of all the bombs. Cody contacted Anakin to let him know R2 was transmitting the coordinates as they spoke.

Anakin looked at the map and answered Cody.

"Copy that, Cody. We're approaching the first bomb now."

And as they came across the first bomb, Carousella used her magic to blast the droids, and kicked some of them down, while Ahsoka used her lightsabers.

Ahsoka carefully opened the bomb and found some wires inside.

"There must be a wire we should cut," said the Togruta. "Or something to stop the countdown."

"Stand back." said Anakin. And he used his lightsaber to slice through every part of the bomb in two swings, shutting it down.

"Wow. How did you know that would work?"

"I trusted my instincts."

Carousella raised a brow. "You mean you guessed."

"Yeah, but it was an educated guess." said Anakin, hopping back onto his ride.

Carousella looked around and saw a bunch of new grass on the ground.

"Hmm. Grass grow fast around here."

Carousella munched some of it, having gotten a little hungry.

"Come on. There's plenty more bombs to go." said Anakin.

Meanwhile, Peppermint started to fight D'Nar, only for him to throw her against a wall and knock her out.

"Peppermint!" Obi-Wan exclaimed before D'Nar grabbed him and held him by his head.

"For thousands of years, Zygerria supplied slave labor to the galaxy." D'Nar growled. "We prospered. Our customers prospered. Then the Jedi came."

But as D'Nar was choking Obi-Wan, D'Nar screamed in pain and jumped up as he felt something bite him in his rear. Then both of them saw Peppermint gagging and spitting in disgust.

"Yuck! The things I do to protect my friends." Peppermint groaned.

A battle droid then activated a transmission, telling D'Nar there was a problem.

"What problem?" D'Nar growled.

Obi-Wan punched D'NAr.

"Our spotters are tracking two enemy walkers moving..."

Obi-Wan hit D'Nar against his transmitter, ending the call before the droid could finish.

The Jedi and his unicorn both stood defensively as the Zygerrian growled at them.

Anakin, Ahsoka, and Carousella, meanwhile, arrived at the location of the last bombs.

The Jedi sliced the droids while Carousella used magic.

"Defuse the bomb." Anakin told Ahsoka.

"We'll cover you." Carousella said, and shouted to Anakin, "Incoming on your right!"

And Anakin deflected another shot.

Ahsoka opened one bomb, only to find the other started beeping.

"Master, I think the bombs are linked." Ahsoka said.

"You're supposed to disarm them, not activate them." Anakin said.

Then Ahsoka looked up and spotted something.

"Droids! On the roof!"

The roof droids began shooting at them.

"If they're connected, we'll have to defuse them at the same time." said Anakin.

"You defuse the bombs, I'll take care of the droids!" Carousella said, flying towards the droids.

Carousella blasted more droids as hard as she could to give her friends time to defuse the bombs.

Meanwhile, Peppermint was really doing a number on D'Nar now. She tried to blast him with magic, or she led him to believe so. This time, she was intentionally missing, and turning everything into candy.

"Anakin, hurry up before Peppermint sugar coats the entire planet." Obi-Wan said, watching his unicorn fight the Zygerrian.

The bombs were very close to exploding, but on the count of three, the Jedi disarmed both bombs at the same time.

"That was too close for comfort," said Carousella, landing beside the Jedi. She then noticed more grass had grown around the area. This was getting a little strange. She didn't sense that Gabby was around. Or Wysteria.

"Let's hope Obi-Wan shares our luck." said Anakin.

"I will take revenge for my people if it's the last thing I do." said D'Nar, just barely avoiding Peppermint's magic for the twenty-seventh time.

"Sir, you have an urgent transmission." said D'Nar's tactical droid.

Peppermint stood protectively in front of Obi-Wan with an angry snort.

The droid activated the transmission.

"Sorry to interrupt sir, but you weren't responding." said the battle droid over the transmission.

"What is it?"

"Uh... the Jedi have disarmed your bombs."

"What?" D'Nar was filled with anger and denial, then he took the detonator and tried to activate the bombs. But... nothing happened.

"It certainly took him long enough this time." Obi-Wan said before crushing the droids with the Force.

"Sweet victory for us." Peppermint smiled.

Obi-Wan got his lightsaber back and spoke to D'Nar.

"Well, shall we discuss your surrender..." he activated his lightsaber. "...again?"

D'Nar ran to his droid and said, "I still have one bomb left, Jedi."

Then D'Nar started to press some buttons on the back of his tactical droid, where there lay another bomb!

D'Nar threw the droid onto Obi-Wan and made his escape. But Obi-Wan managed to Force-push the droid out of the window just before it exploded.

Obi-Wan immediately alerted Anakin that D'Nar was making his escape from the tower.

"On our way." Anakin confirmed.

Anakin made the runner go as fast as he could get it to go.

"We'll never catch him in time." said Ahsoka.

"I am not letting that slaver scum get away." Anakin snarled, none of the group noticing a cactus that popped up somewhere behind them.

Obi-Wan rode on Peppermint to get to D'Nar's ship, but he took off before they even reached the vehicle. Anakin and the girls, however, flew or Force-jumped onto the ship.

Anakin used his lightsaber to slice into the ship's engine. The Jedi quickly climbed onto the front of the ship.

"So what's your plan?" Ahsoka asked.

"I'm open to ideas." said Anakin.

Suddenly, the front panel of the ship opened up, the two Jedi hanging on. The two Jedi both jumped in, only for a big squid-like creature to attack, trying to grab them with its tentacles. Ahsoka sliced one with her lightsaber, but it managed to grab Anakin... until Carousella bit it and the creature dropped Anakin.

"Ahsoka, you and Carousella are only making it angry." Anakin said.

"How do you think I feel?" Carousella said, threatening to nip the creature's tentacle as it almost grabbed her.

"I'll handle this." Anakin said. "Ahsoka, go stabilize the ship."

The creature grabbed both the human and the musicorn and was about to eat Anakin first, but Anakin impaled it with his lightsaber, and the creature slid down the ramp, nearly taking Anakin and Carousella with it. Luckily, Anakin sliced the tentacles and grabbed onto the edge of the ramp before he could fall. And Carousella gave him a lift back on board.

"Good thing the ship's not the only flying thing around here, huh?" said Carousella.

And Carousella carried Anakin in as Ahsoka had D'Nar down.

"Mission accomplished, Master." said Ahsoka.

"Where are the colonists?" Anakin demanded.

"Talk, now!" Carousella made her horn glow.

"Another one?!" D'Nar said.

"Yeah, only I don't sugarcoat things." Carousella said, pointing her horn. "Now, you overgrown house cat, tell us where the colonists are."

"I will tell you nothing."

Anakin took matters into his own hands. He grabbed D'Nar and held his lightsaber at the side of the Zygerrian's neck.

"Master." said Ahsoka.

Anakin threw D'Nar back into his chair.

"My queen is going to bring back the royal slave auction as in the days before the Jedi." the Zygerrian explained. "Zygerria will be rich and powerful again. The Jedi will not stop us this time."

Anakin scoffed. "We'll see about that."

At the Jedi Temple, the Jedi Council called a meeting. Gabby and Boba both rushed in, wanting to know how their father was doing, so the Council didn't object to their presence.

"General Skywalker, I ran the bio-scan twice, but the results were negative." Admiral Yularen reported.

"Are you saying the colonists are not in the city?" Anakin asked to confirm.

"I'm saying they're not even on the planet. The entire population appears to have simply vanished."

"I haven't finished reading all my magic books," said Gabby. "But I'm pretty sure even Enchanted can't do that."

"It would take a pretty powerful spell to do that, actually." said Carousella. "And I sensed a bit of magic on the planet, but not powerful enough to make an entire population vanish."

"That's impossible. Those are my people." said Ahsoka.

"Troubling is the return of the Zygerrians." said Yoda.

"It is likely they mean to use Dooku to rebuild their slaver empire." Plo said.

"Oh no!" Gabby said. "Isn't there anything we can do?"

"We cannot allow that, Master." said Anakin, both agreeing with his daughter, and knowing they couldn't just sit and do nothing.

"Agree I do, but first, find the colonists you must." Yoda said. "In great danger they are."

"What is it, Master?" Plo asked.

"Sense I do a darker hand in this mystery. Slavery, a great tool it is for the Rise of the Sith."

"Masters, Daddy. If my brother and I can't help on this mission, at least let us find someone who is willing and able to go help them." Gabby said. "They'll need all the help they can get."

The Jedi thought about it. Gabby did know the magical creatures better than any of them, so they agreed to let her search among her friends to see if any of them were willing and able to help out. And, Gabby hoped they could help, because she had some other searching of her own to do.