Kamino: Landing.

Gabriel watched the blue planet surrounded by clouds through the window. They had just exited hyperspace and were now approaching for a landing. During this time, Boba had fallen asleep, and the adults decided not to wake the child. So, the captive and the kidnapper spent the entire hyperspace journey in complete silence. Unable to resist, Hassan glanced at the Togruta, who appeared to be asleep. However, knowing the ways of the Jedi, he assumed she was meditating, so the Sith just sat there, staring at the ship's wall in solitude.

"We've arrived," the boy sleepily uttered, waking up at the right moment.

This somewhat surprised Gabriel. Boba had woken up just in time to handle the exit from hyperspace. Hassan couldn't help but wonder if this was a result of the training conducted by Boba's father specifically for his son. Had Jango Fett trained the boy to sense the exit from hyperspace? If so, Hassan was impressed.

"Are you sure you can land on this planet?" Darth asked one more time, not wanting any additional problems.

"Absolutely," the boy reassured him, patting the ship's computer. "My father and I used to live here. So, there won't be any problems with the landing."

"Good."

Hassan found Boba's words intriguing. The legendary bounty hunter had lived on such a strategically vital planet, right under the Republic's nose? Something didn't add up. Either Jango was incredibly skilled at hiding in plain sight, or Gabriel was missing some crucial information. Despite his relatively superficial knowledge of the Star Wars universe, he couldn't help but feel that things were rarely as simple as they appeared.

They smoothly landed on Kamino, and to Gabriel's surprise, there was no security check or escort. They simply landed in an unguarded hangar on the rainy planet. While Gabriel was relieved by this turn of events, he couldn't shake a feeling of disappointment. Could it really be this easy? It seemed so.

Boba pressed a few buttons, shutting down the ship's systems and engine, then jumped out of the pilot's seat and headed toward the ship's rear. Gabriel would have liked to follow him, but carrying a bound Jedi on his back didn't seem like the best idea. Nor was it safe to leave her alone on the ship. 

"Can you find the book on your own?" Gabriel approached the pilot.

"I can," the boy said confidently, pressing a button to open the ship's ramp and stepping out onto the platform.

Without much hesitation, Gabriel also pressed the same button to close the ship, then returned to Shaak Ti, turned the pilot's seat to face him, and sat down opposite the captive. The Jedi had already awakened or come out of her meditation.

"Darth Hassan, I'd like to talk to you," the Jedi Master began the conversation in a rather formal tone.

"What's on your mind?" the young man leaned forward.

"It's about Boba Fett," she looked at Gabriel's mask attentively. "I'm asking you to convince him to fly to Coruscant."

"To Coruscant, with both you and me?" Darth furrowed his brow.

"No," the girl glanced away for a moment but then returned her gaze to him. "Boba can drop us off on any planet you choose, but after that, please let Boba go to Coruscant, where the Republic will take care of him. I'm asking you."

The young man leaned back in his chair. What the girl was suggesting was morally right, but Gabriel didn't want to lose such a strong combat asset as an adult Boba Fett. Such a figure would undoubtedly be needed in the future for the self-proclaimed Sith, especially considering the chaos that always seemed to be brewing in the Far Far Galaxy.

"Forgive me, Shaak Ti," the young man hung his head. "But I can't fulfill your request."

"Why?" the Jedi stared at him with a questioning look.

In her eyes, he could clearly see hope for something. It seemed she wanted to hear something that would prevent her from being disappointed in her captor, as strange as that might sound. Gabriel had no intention of ruining his relationship with the Togruta, so he needed to be as honest and concise in his response as possible.

"In the future, if you lack power and influence, you will either be subjugated or killed. Trust me, Shaak Ti, if he becomes what I envision him to be in the future, he will survive."

"He'll become a bounty hunter like his father, won't he?" the captive asked sadly.

"Yes," Gabriel no longer saw any reason to hide it.

"What kind of future do you see?"

"A dark one," he answered as vaguely as possible.

Honestly, Hassan didn't know how to succinctly answer this question. The future was clearly bleak, but even during the rule of Palpatine, there was hope. The problem was not so much that the Republic would lose. Even if it somehow managed to win, Palpatine would still emerge victorious. That old schemer could manipulate any situation in his favor, especially when he pulled the strings on both sides of the conflict.

"It's not even about the Republic losing," Hassan ran his hand over the mask. "Shaak Ti, the future is complicated. I can only say with confidence that it will be challenging, so Boba must grow up as strong as his father. It's for his own survival."

A silence fell, during which the girl closed her eyes, lost in thought. Gabriel also contemplated. Palpatine would surely try to eliminate, let's say, a competitor in his profession. Besides him and maybe Dooku, who answered to him, there were no major representatives of the Dark Side of the Force in the Far Far Galaxy. Or perhaps there were, and Gabriel simply didn't know about them.

"Shaak Ti," Hassan interrupted the prolonged silence, "even if I talk to him, he won't listen to me. I think Django was an authority figure for him, so he's unlikely to take my words seriously."

"I think you're right," the girl raised her eyelids, "I just... don't want the child to suffer."

"I understand," Gabriel clenched his fists in front of him, and electric sparks ran over them, "children shouldn't suffer."

"Was it the same for you?" Hassan glanced at the captive.

Jedi have a way of sensing everything. Although Hassan was partly to blame for this. It seemed that in his last words, he couldn't hide his bitterness, even the mask that distorted his voice didn't deceive the girl. She was a very insightful Jedi, and Gabriel couldn't afford to let his guard down around her.

"Yes," he sighed heavily, "my childhood wasn't the happiest."

"Because of your teacher?"

"Teacher?" he snorted again. "I never had a teacher. I achieved everything by myself, with my own hands," he raised them in front of him for emphasis, "with my sweat and blood. I lied a lot, got beaten up multiple times in the slums of the city, and look at what I've become," Hassan let lightning dance between his open palms.

Due to the high concentration of electricity, Shaak Ti began to deafen the loud, unpleasant noise, and the frequency and strength of the lightning began to blind the girl. For a moment, she even thought that such a concentration of the Force in the form of lightning might burst, but Gabriel soon dispelled the technique.

"I'm not proud of my actions, Shaak Ti," he kicked one leg over the other and leaned back in the chair, "but I couldn't do it any other way... Not only my life depended on it."

Remembering his difficult childhood was tough for the young man, and the Togruta could see it. No, she felt it in some mystical way. It was as if an invisible bond had formed between them in such a short time, one that the girl could clearly feel but didn't know what to do with. Destiny? A manifestation of the Force? Or mere chance?

"I'm sorry we didn't find you, Hassan, the Jedi," the girl said apologetically.

"The Jedi are not to blame for anything; I don't hold a grudge against you," Gabriel waved his hand, "there's no point in dwelling on the past. We should focus on the future."

"Wise," a smile appeared on the Togruta's face for the first time in a long time.

"I'm smiling too now," Hassan clasped his index fingers just below the middle of the mask, where the mouth was located, and then spread them in different directions, forming a smile.

"I'll try to imagine it if you don't want to take off the mask."

"No thanks," Darth shook his head in front of the mask with his index finger.

"You..." she suddenly glanced at the window. "Oh, the Force..."

Gabriel turned around and saw a starfighter entering the hangar... The same one that had pursued them on Geonosis. Hassan jumped up from his seat and pressed his mask against the same window to see where the pursuer would land... The starfighter landed next to their ship. Darth slowly moved away from the window, then looked at the Togruta, who was clearly confused. Neither of them had expected this turn of events.

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