The Knight and The Duchess (Star Wars AU) (On Hold)

19.Data Files

*Aayla's P.O.V.*
I had to been to told to 'proceed carefully'. I was told to look in the lower city and at a place called "Rex's Diner". Other than that, I had no clue what to do.

I wrapped my cloak tighter around my shoulders and signaled for my Padawan to follow. The city of glass gained a skin of dirt and grime as we descended into the lower city. It grew darker as I stepped down the staircase. When I reached the bottom, flickering neon signs shone an orange light onto alleyway and Anakin's frightened face. It was Coruscant, only it was deathly quiet. While the former was a heavily trafficked planet, on Mandalore the streets lay deserted. The humming of neon lights was the only sound beside my dusty footsteps. For such a peaceful and unassuming planet, the lower city was a sharp contrast. It reminded me of home, and I didn't want to go home. I didn't want to go back. Turning a corner and ducking my head under a sparking live-wire, Anakin and I approached the diner. It was illuminated by an electric blue neon sign, reading, "Rex's Diner".

As I swung the door open, hinges creaked and a bell on doorframe made a sickly clink. I strolled over to the counter, with Anakin on my tail, and sat down. A waitress, wearing an off-white apron and a blue jumpsuit, leaned over the counter and asked, "What do you want?"

I twirled my hand and replied, "You don't want to ask me that."

The waitress straightened and gained a blank expression, "I don't want to ask you that." I smiled and thought, Good. Anakin looked between the mind-tricked waitress and myself in awe.

I repeated my hand gesture and whispered, "You will tell me what happened to your co-worker, Clove."

"I will tell you what happened to my co-worker, Clove," she said in monotone, before switching back to her relaxed demeanor. Bending down, the waitress unlatched a door-like section of the counter. She turned and gestured for me to follow. I followed through the counter as she explained, "Clove disappeared a few weeks ago. She always came to work, she always did her job and then... Puff!" She made a miniature explosion with her hands and continued, "She was gone."

"You didn't hear from her?"

"We tried everything and she never did pick up, nothing. After the attack, we just stopped calling. We thought she was killed. What we didn't understand was why she vanished days before. If you ask me, I think she could been involved with the plot, but there isn't any evidence for that." The waitress shrugged and kept walking. Halfway to an office down the hall from the counter, she turned and asked, "Are you a cop or something?"

I twirled my mind, saying, "You will show me Clove's records and you will stop asking questions."

The waitress froze and replied, "I will show you Clove's records and I will stop asking questions." I rolled my eyes when I heard snickering from behind me. Anakin hadn't seen a funnier thing in his life. The waitress led the both of us into the office and she cleared some papers strewn about on top of a desk. She pushed a flickering button of the edge of the plastic table. When nothing appeared, the waitress elbowed the table and scowled. The power cell hummed to life and a crackling hologram appeared. The waitress scrolled through pages of records until she reached one marked Clove. There was a grainy picture in the upper right-hand corner and scarce details about their "missing" friend.

A name, a photograph and an address; that's all there was, but that was enough. I pulled out my communicator and plugged it into the computer, downloading the files. When I removed the communicator, I twirled my hand and said, "You will not tell anyone of this incident."

"I will not tell anyone of this incident," the waitress replied.

I smiled. "Thank you," I patted Anakin's back and said, "Come on Anakin, we have work to do."

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Should I put memes and art for pictures like I did for Broken?

-Amy