binary stars (a.s)

chapter one

Sometimes, the glittering lights of Coruscant looked like faraway nebulas to Anakin. He'd seen enough of them over the years, had even raced through them at the helm of his starships, and yet the little balls of fire and their enchanting auras had followed him all the way back to Coruscant, where he could watch them from the tall windows of the Jedi Temple.

Even now, through the heavy sheets of rain beating against the glass, could he make out the lights shining from within the darkness. They twinkled and they shimmered, they flickered and they faded, but never once did they falter against the steady shadows of the night.

Anakin huffed. It was a comforting thought, but one he hadn't placed in his mind of his own volition. He'd never once been one to dwell on lights and stars for more than an appreciative yet passing glance from the window of a ship or a cruiser. No, he thought of something else now, against the intrepid glow of the city.

Or rather, someone else.

He heard her velvet laugh in the muted bustle of Coruscant, in the sound of echoing footsteps through the halls of the temple. He saw the warm glow of her dark eyes in the way the sunset turned the horizon molten. And he saw her cunning, conniving, wicked little smile every time he looked in the mirror.

She haunted him. A spirit he could never rid himself from. And it didn't help one bit that the first thing he saw upon walking into the council room was her face, turned digital in the center of a transponder.

Every muscle in his body went rigid and relaxed at the same time. Great.

"There you are, Anakin," Obi-Wan said from the center of the room. "Glad you could finally join us."

Anakin willed his feet to move and stormed ahead to where the High Council had gathered around the transponder beam. "Wish I could say the same," he muttered, eyes locked on her.

Even in bits of light and technology, she was captivating. Her mugshot would be a hazy sort of thing, as if it'd been taken while she already had one foot out the door, but it suited her. All windblown dark hair and piercing amber eyes, with that feline smirk that always seemed to grace her ruby lips.

There you are, Skywalker, he could imagine the rendering saying. What trouble am I in now?

"Anakin."

He snapped out of his reverie to find Mace Windu staring at him expectantly. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. Just a little puzzled as to why we're gathered here."

Master Windu didn't seem to buy it, but if he hadn't, Anakin couldn't tell. He just motioned to the rendering and said to the Council, "This is Eola Vex, a mercenary and spy also known by the names Commander Vex and Lady Vex. Wanted for numerous crimes against the republic, including but not limited to theft, espionage, smuggling, and occasionally, murder." He cut a glance at Anakin. "Ring a bell?"

Anakin narrowed his eyes at the image of Eola, crossing his arms across his chest. "A few," he said, jutting his chin towards her. "Her, I know."

"Dangerous, she is," Master Yoda said with a nod. "A powerful manipulator of the Force."

"Was she a Jedi?" Master Shaak Ti asked. She raised a white brow at the image in the center of the room. "I do not recognize her visage."

"Never a Jedi," Master Windu said. "But she is a Sith."

"How is that possible?" Anakin asked, even though he suspected the answer. He'd seen it in the glow of her lightsaber, and how her eyes had darkened once he'd put two and two together that day on Canto Bight.

So you are as smart as they say. Took you long enough.

Master Windu just waved a hand in dismissal. "Never mind that. What matters is that she is Darth Tyranus' apprentice, and she's been spotted in Coruscant."

The rendering shifted from Eola's mugshot to a photo that must have come from one of the security cameras around a highly-populated avenue of Coruscant. It didn't take him long to spot a young woman just barely out of the camera's reach, smiling and looking up at it as if she knew that they'd be looking. That he'd be looking.

Frustration welled up in Anakin's soul and he scowled at the image before turning to Master Windu. "When was she spotted?"

"Last night," Master Windu said, returning the rendering to Eola's mugshot. Anakin tried to ignore the way her smirk taunted him, focusing instead on what Master Windu was saying. "Knowing her abilities, and her crimes, we must apprehend Commander Vex before she can execute whatever it is she's planning."

"Is she planning something?" Obi-Wan pondered, eyeing the image carefully. His eyes drifted to Anakin, glinting with knowing. "Is it possible that she may have just been wandering through the city?"

"Unlikely, it is," Master Yoda said. "Afford to find out, we cannot."

"Master Yoda's right," Anakin found himself saying, returning his focus to Eola's picture. "If Commander Vex is in Coruscant, we can't run the risk of waiting to find out why."

"Then it's settled," Master Windu said, shutting off the image. The Jedi Council room filled with darkness in the absence of its glow. "Anakin, you've dealt with Commander Vex before. You will go ahead and find her."

Anakin could feel Obi-Wan's gaze on him, how it compelled him to look at him and reject the mission or let someone else accompany him. He'd dealt with Commander Vex before, this was true, but it was because of him that she'd gotten away the first time. Right into the arms of her growing forces and the source of the Jedi's own struggles.

But she was in his territory now. He knew Coruscant, every alley and level, like the back of his hand. There was nowhere she could go where he wouldn't find her, and she'd brought the chase to him from whatever smuggler's den or nightclub or dingy alley she was hiding in.

He wouldn't fail this time. He'd find her. And yet as the Jedi Council adjourned and Anakin left the room, the security camera footage danced through his head, an answer he couldn't pinpoint. There was something in how she'd been looking at it, just from the edges of its scope, that made Anakin wonder if he would find her, or if she would find him first.