binary stars (a.s)

chapter two

"I didn't take you for a gambler, General Skywalker," a voice nearly as melodious as the coins hitting the game tables around him crooned from a velvet-curtained alcove.

Anakin paused. The people around him had glanced as he'd passed, but none had been so direct as to recognize him outright. None had been so bold.

So who was?

"I didn't take the Jedi for being fun at all," the voice continued, playful and knowing. He followed it to the alcove, brushing the half-drawn curtain aside to reveal the young woman lounging at a curved velvet seat around a small table, her amber eyes widening fractionally as he came into view.

"Fun, they might not be," she said, her ruby lips turning up into a smile as she raked her gaze up and down his frame. "But I suppose they can be handsome."

"Anakin!"

Ahsoka's voice ripped Anakin from the dusky memory and he lurched backwards onto the sidewalk just as a cruiser tore past him. The driver screeched at him in an alien dialect he couldn't place before sailing out of sight down the bustling road.

"Thanks, Snips," Anakin managed, blinking himself back to reality. Coruscant flickered to life around him, all twinkling lights and flocks of people beneath the evening rain. "I didn't see that one coming."

His padawan stepped before him, her gloved arms folded across her chest. "Yeah, no kidding," she huffed with a laugh. "What's gotten into you? You've hardly said a word since we left the temple."

They continued down the sidewalk, cautious and slow so as to not miss any detail of the city around them where a Sith apprentice could be hiding. Anakin glanced at Ahsoka and tried not to balk beneath the fervor of her scrupulous gaze. "It's nothing," he said. "Just thinking."

"Thinking," Ahsoka repeated. "All right, about what?"

Anakin took a deep breath. He could lie, but what good would that do him now? He was walking into streets in a daze, lost in memories as fleeting as smoke. No, lies wouldn't help at all. But the truth was so much harder to grapple with.

"Canto Bight," Anakin said at last as they came to a busy street corner. "That's what I was thinking about."

Ahsoka raised her eyebrows, surprised. "Canto Bight? Why?"

"Because that's where I first met--encountered--Eola Vex." He kept his eyes trained on everything but Ahsoka and the undoubtedly knowing glint filling her eyes. "Canto Bight is home to some of the shadiest smugglers, murderers, and war profiteers in the galaxy. No one would bat an eye to her being there, and no one did from what I can recall."

"Except you," Ahsoka pointed out. "You seemed to notice her."

That's an understatement. Anakin shook his head. "That's not the point." He slowed to a stop at an intersection, and Ahsoka followed suit. Streams of people flowed past them, hopping into transports and speeders or filtering into the restaurants and venues along the way. "She's a criminal, Snips, and a powerful one. What's she doing on Coruscant, where the Jedi are right there to stop her?"

Ahsoka frowned, glancing around in thought. "Coruscant has its shady parts," she said. "Maybe she's doing business somewhere."

"Could be," Anakin conceded. "But why do business on Coruscant?"

Why are you here, Eola? The question thundered through his mind, searching for her in shadowy alcoves and behind velvet curtains. He could feel himself drawing closer and closer to her each time, and then that laugh would echo between his ears from far away in the darkness.