The Hunter and Hunted

Mace Windu

Mace was sitting in one of the hospital chairs by the small green creature known as Master Yoda. His head was bowed as he tried to sense the amount of force around his dear friend. 

Two days ago bounty hunter(s) had tried and almost succeeded in killing Master Yoda. They had managed to catch one of, they assumed multiple culprits, but they hadn't gotten anything out of her, so there was no way of knowing how many were involved and if Master Yoda was still in danger. 

The amount of force around the Jedi Master was small but it was greater than it had been the day before. 

'That's a good sign' Mace thought to himself. ' Master Yoda has always recovered quickly'. 

Though Mace would not admit it, he was furious. He knew he shouldn't have been because hate leads to suffering, but he couldn't help it. He was mad at the bounty hunter(s) for shooting Master Yoda, at himself for not being there to protect him, and especially at whoever hired the bounty hunter. Master Yoda was a kind and just man, why anyone would want him dead was beyond Mace. 

 The doctor, Dr. Martin, walked in while Mace was thinking about this,

" Master Windu, I apologize for disturbing you but I have some good news." Dr. Martin said.

" Yes what is it doctor?"

" We have managed to get all of the poison out of Master Yoda. Had he been brought here any later we wouldn't have been able to get all of it out. Anyway he is suspect to make as full of a recovery as a man of his age can. He'll probably have a limp after this but he's most likely prepared for this for a while."

"Yes, I'm sure he has" Mace responded as he stood up and walked towards the window. The Corasaunt skyline shining brightly in front of him, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

" And there is one more thing, sir" Dr. Martin added. " The scans you asked me to do on the prisoner to make sure she hadn't taken poison to kill herself have come in. There are some things that are quite...a...interesting about it, I think you should, um, take a..um...a look at it..." Martin trailed off as if he'd didn't know how to explain what he had found.

" Of course doctor." Mace responded more out of politeness than out of curiosity. "Please lead the way."

Just then the window shattered and Dr. Martin fell to the floor speechless. Blood was flowing through his white lab coat. 

Mace grabbed his lightsaber and jumped in front of Master Yoda as another blaster shot came through and hit him right in the leg.

 A split second later three other Jedi who had been guarding the room barged in. Their lightsabers already drawn. One, Master Qui-GonJin ran and jumped out of the window to the speeder parking two floors down to try and find who had shot the blaster.

 The other two Jedi, stopped at the doctor. Eeth Koth bent down and checked for a pulse then shook his head. Dr. Martin was dead. 

Depa Billaba walked over to the counter and grabbed some bandages, she motioned for Mace to sit back in the chair where he had been before. Reluctantly Mace did so and she began to wrap the wound on his leg.

" I wouldn't walk to much on this for a while Master Windu. It went all the way through so if you start to walk on it to much to soon it will tear open."

Mace was only half listening, if he was furious before then he was ten times that now. He had become a Jedi to protect people and now one of his closest friends was barley breathing and Dr. Martin, a great man who had saved countless lives, was dead and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it until his leg healed. 

'Or can I?' He thought. 'There is always talking to the prisoner again...' His thoughts were interrupted as Qui-Gon's Padawon, Obi-Wan Kenobi burst into the room out of breath.

" Master...Master..." He panted

"Sit down Obi-Wan, " Eeth Koth said " catch your breath and then tell us" Obi-Wan remained standing but allowed himself to catch his breath before continuing,

"Masters, it's..., it's the prisoner" he stammered.

"What about the prisoner? " Depa Billaba asked.

"She's escaped!"