|19 BBY|
|Colonies Region, Cabarria|
"This is the location?" Darth Vader asks the Ninth Sister as they arrive at a cantina.
"Yeah. This is it. Bar fight in here, a few days ago. Someone reported seeing a person use the Force to get out of it. Said they maybe even had a lightsaber. Not many details. This is definitely the spot, though," the Ninth Sister responds.
"But I gotta ask, Lord Vader. Why are we here?" she asks.
"A foolish question, Ninth Sister," he says.
"No, I... I asked that wrong. I don't mean we. I mean you," she clarifies. "Odds are this won't turn out to be anything. Ever since the Empire set a bounty on Jedi, we have had false reports all the time. Somebody's got a hydrocylinder on their belt, and it looks like a lightsaber hilt, things like that. I should be out here by myself, checking it out, sending back a report. But here you are."
"As I said, a foolish question. I have already taught you the meaning of loss, so here is another one. Don't ask questions when you know the answer. I find your presence to be bothersome," Vader turns around and walks to the entrance.
"Yeah. I can see that. I will not forget that likely. It cost me an eye after all. But I don't think that's why you're here. You're here in case we get lucky."
The Ninth Sister continues to speak, despite knowing better.
"You know a lot about Jedi, but you might not know we weren't all the same. Back in he temple, we all had our little specialities. One gal might be good with a lightsaber, another guy could influence even the strongest minds. Me, though? I'm the sensitive type. I was always good at reading emotions, and now that I'm touching the Dark Side, I'm even better. You... you're eager. You want to fight another Jedi. And badly."
"I tire of this. You repeat the same words over and over. Remain here. Do not enter unless I call for you. Take no action unless I order it," Vader says and finally enters the cantina.
"Uh-huh. Poor, sadistic monster, doesn't know himself at all. Dying to fight... dying to die."
.
Vader enters the cantina and looks around, feeling the eyes on him. He has come here for supposed Jedi sightings, and he won't leave before the situation has been solved. He looks at a table that desperately tries not to look at him, or react and be seen.
"Tell me about the Jedi," Vader asks the four men.
He takes a step forward, but feels danger. His lightsaber is being pulled from his belt, towards the higher platform. Vader reacts immediately, holding out his hand and stopping the lightsaber mid-air. On the first floor, a young woman, the daughter of a bounty hunter pair named Chanath Cha, is holding a tractor rifle and tries to snatch his lightsaber from him. Vader holds out his second hand and starts to choke the girl.
"Kakk... Mo... ther... wha-"
*Beep*
The mother of the young girl, Ramat Cha, throws an ion grenade towards Vader, trying to distract him. Chanath Cha stops using the tractor rifle and reaches to her neck, trying to get the invisible hand away. The lightsaber flies back to Vader's hand, but at that moment, the ion grenade explodes.
*PNNNNNNGG*
The ion grenade renders all the other weapons in the cantina useless. Together with the strain from the tractor rifle, Vader's pull and the ion grenade, his lightsaber is damaged and almost breaks apart. Vader looks at his lightsaber and holds it together using the Force. From the balcony, the father of the bounty hunter family, Bhada Cha, addresses the entire cantina.
"Let's all stay calm, neh? We're just here for the Jedi," Bhada says.
"You've probably noticed your weapons are fried. Those pretty lights you just saw were an ion grenade going off. That means we're the only ones with working blasters in here," Ramat says.
"That was purposeful. We wanted to avoid a firefight. Like I said, we're just here for the Jedi. We don't take life unless we have to. No one else needs to get hurt," Bhada explains.
"I disagree," Vader says.
He holds out his hand again and starts to choke Chanath Cha. The girl rises into the air again, and Vader pulls her towards him, as her father shouts.
"Activate your shields!"
The girl activates her personal energy shield. Vader's control is interrupted, but Vader doesn't stop. He starts to choke the people inside the cantina and uses them as projectiles, hurling them at the Cha family members. The father and the mother activate their personal energy shield as well. Through the speed of the bodies, they crash into the energy shield and break, causing their bodies to turn into puddles of gore and blood. Vader uses the broken bodies and the gore to lift up the three family members inside their shields and causes them to crash into one another.
Bhada shoots at Vader, forcing him to block the attack with his hand, using Tutaminis to absorb the energy. He activates his comlink and contacts the Ninth Sister.
"Ninth Sister, I am under attack by bounty hunters. They triggered an ion pulse and almost destroyed my lightsaber. Get in here and take care of them. Show me that you're useful for something," he says.
Outside, the Ninth Sister listens and smiles. She chooses to ignore the call from Vader, going to blame the ion grenade to claim that it fried her comms unit.
Understanding that she won't come, Vader's anger grows at the blatant disrespect. He uses more people as body shields and blocks the blaster fire from the Cha family. He continues to throw them against one another, pushing their batteries to the limit and making them deplete faster. He doesn't quite manage to grab the energy shields themselves, but doesn't stop trying.
"Bhada, this is too much! He has already killed everyone in here, and our shield batteries are running dangerously low. He's mad!" Ramat shouts at her husband.
"Agreed. We need to get out of here, now!" he says. "Chanath! We're done here. Pull back! Now!"
But Vader is angry and has finally grown enough to grab the energy shield itself, holding it back before they can get out of the cantina.
"You will go nowhere," his dark voice declares, causing a shudder to run down their backs.
Bhada feels his energy shield stopping him, his wife, and his daughter from getting out. His eyes widen, and he thinks fast. He realises that they won't make it all. So he makes the hardest and easiest decision in his life. He turns his personal energy shield off and throws several grenades towards Vader, and starts shooting at him.
"Ramat! Chanath! Get out of here! NOW!" he roars and moves backwards, continuing to shoot.
"But-"
"No, but jus- kackk... ka...kkkk" Bhada is choked and lifted into the air.
From the flames, Vader walks out, pulling the father closer to him with each step. His presence permeates the cantina, causing all three of them to feel tremendous dread. But the Ninth Sister outside also feels the darkness enter her body and reach her bones. She is very sensitive after all. She rushes inside, seeing the devastation.
"Vader, what-"
*PEW PEW*
Ramat shoots the Ninth Sister and holds her blaster at the female's head.
"Let my husband go, you monster. Or I will shoot her."
"You fabricated a Jedi sighting here and hired those fools to destroy me?" Vader asks the Ninth Sister.
"What? Lord Vader, I know better than to cross you. And if I had, I wouldn't have come here with you. I'm no genius, but I'm no kind of idiot, either," she tries to defend herself, through the pain and holding her blaster wounds.
The Ninth Sister is suddenly pulled towards Vader and into his open hand. He lifts the massive woman into the air and clenches his fist.
"So it was not deliberate, but your incompetence," he says and closes his fist.
*CRACK*
Vader drops the body of the Ninth Sister like the trash she is and focuses on the fleeing family.
.
The Cha family have fled into the parking lot and stolen a green speeder bike, which they use to get away from the cantina as fast as possible.
"Husband... have you ever seen a Jedi fight like that?"
"No, Ramat. There were no innocents in that place, but that man... that monster, was using them as... as fodder. He used their corpses and their blood to try and destroy us..."
"Yes. As if they didn't matter at all. As if they didn't exist as living creatures. He used the Force, but I don't think he was a Jedi..." Ramat says.
"Well, mother, whatever he is... he's still coming," Chanath says, seeing Vader, riding a speeder bike and chasing them like doom itself, calling them to the other side.
"Go! Whatever you do, don't stop!" Bhada says and starts firing at Vader.
Vader takes his lightsaber and uses the Force to keep it together. He has taken the lightsaber from the Ninth Sister, but still uses his own. He blocks the blaster fire.
"He's catching up!" Chanath yells.
"Use another ion grenade! He can't catch us if his speeder's dead!" Bhada says.
"Father... I... left them back there. I didn't think-"
"Ah, it's all right, Chanath. Don't be afraid. Just keep fighting. We'll beat him yet," Bhada tries to assure his daughter.
Vader uses the Force and grabs an approaching hovertruck from the approaching lane. He lifts it and hurls it towards the Cha family. His power has grown after recovering from his fight with Sidious. He could simply stop the speeder, but his rage calls for a form of release.
"Ramat! Look out, he's-"
"Blast it, Bhada, I can see what he's doing! I have nowhere to go!"
"Oh shi-"
"Activate your shields!"
*KRRRNCH-BOOOOOM*
The hovertruck crashes into the speeder bike. The family manages to use the last of their energy shield's batteries and block the attack. However, the shields break a second later, causing them harm. They slowly make their way out of the wreckage.
"Daughter! Are you alright?"
"Yes, Mother, the shield took most of it, but it used up the last of the battery."
"Mine as well. We need to-"
Chanath is pulled back and raised into the air by Vader. He stands in front of the family, casting a large shadow, both physically and mentally.
"Who hired you?" he asks.
"We don't know. It came in through the hunter net as an anonymous job," Bhada says.
"Normally, we wouldn't take one like that, but the money was too good to pass up. Honestly... we do not know," Ramat tells Vader.
"That's unfortunate," Vader says, about to kill them all.
"Wait! Please, don't hurt her!"
"Talk."
"We don't know, but that doesn't mean we can't find out. I'm a slicer. A good one. I can get into the net, trace the job back, and see where the trail leads," Ramat tries to convince Vader.
"Do it now."
"No, first she goes free," the father says.
"You are not in a position to bargain," Vader says.
"You're wrong. You need our help. We are your only path to the answers you seek. If you kill her, we will give you nothing," the mother argues.
"If she dies, then you will have taken everything from us that gives us a reason to live. We will happily die as well. The Chas will be together, one way or the other," Bhada says finally.
Vader looks at the mother and father pair. They start to have difficulty breathing, due to the pressure of his presence.
"No. You are wrong," Vader says finally.
Slowly, Vader begins to apply the Force to the young woman, twisting her limbs, starting with her fingers. She screams in pain as her pinky finger is twisted and breaks, causing blood to flow out of the wound.
"That was one," Vader says. "How long until she passes out?"
"NO! Please don't!" Ramat shouts in desperation.
"You monster!"
"Yes, yes, I am."
"All right. I'll do it! I'll do it! Just please stop. Let me patch into the hunter net. Getting to the specifics will take a little time, but I should be able to find the system where the kill order originated fairly quickly," Ramat says.
"...Someone on Coruscant doesn't like you very much."
"Continue."
"I am... this actually isn't as hard as I thought. I'm slicing right through the encryption. Looks like... the senate district. In the Republic executive building. ... I think all the way at the top..."
Vader feels that the woman is not lying.
"Yes. As I suspected," he says and drops the young woman.
"Father, Mother, I-"
"You must go, Chanath. Survive, but before you do, swear to this man that you will take no revenge," Bhada tells his daughter. "This was business, part of the risk inherent in our family's trade. Do not give this beast a reason to think you are a threat-"
"You shouldn't," Vader interrupts.
"What?"
"Go, leave. Plan your revenge. Kill me if you can," Vader says and dismisses the girl.
"You... are letting us go?"
Vader looks at them without answering their question, causing them to get up and leave quickly. They take their daughter and hurry away. Vader looks at them. A few minutes later, a vehicle arrives, and Xina and Null-7 get out.
"Are you alright?" she asks.
"Yes. Find them and take all they have in terms of resources and experience."
"And N-7?"
"Take him with you."
"As you wish."