To Stand Alone/ Post TPM (and beyond) AU (New Post 5-16)

"I don't think I like this very much Master." Anakin wispered to Obi-Wan. "Why are they so cautious?"

"Trendas is the last of the royal family." Obi-Wan said. "They can't afford to loose him, and now you're him."

"I don't think Padme' goes through this much hassle. She's the one who tells everyone what to do, not the other way round."

"I think you may find that sometimes she has to listen to others as well. If she didn't she might not be re-elected."

"No one voted for this Trendas kid."

"That's right no one did, Vadilian is one of the last planets in the republic to have a government that is ruled by a liniage monarch, and their appointments only."

"Why is that?"

"I don't know, personally I think it's rediculous."

"But your friend, Bail Organa, he's part of a royal family."

Obi-Wan sratched behind his ear like he did when ever he was pondering one of Anakin's observeations.

"That title means nothing in the government. The fact that he gets voted to the senate or that he may one day be the head of Alderaan's council of elders, or even it's Viceroy is another matter."

"But it helps that he is the Heir to the house of Organa, doesn't it?"

"I'm sure it does."

FR-9 had not gone far and was soon reminding Anakin, the king, that he had a meeting with Governor Illis in a matter of minutes and they should get to it. They followed the droid to where she was waiting.

"So far so good." Illis beemed. "From what I could tell, no one suspects a thing."

"What is this meeting about?" Obi-Wan got to the point. "I sence you want to prepare Anakin for the appearence."

"They were right when they told me you jedi are always a step ahead. I want to give Skywalker a copy of the speech he is to give."

She handed the apprentice a few pages of flimsy-plast that the speech was printed on. At first Anakin could only think of how long it looked for a speech. As he read he found himself pleasently suprised. He smiled behind the plast in such a way that got Obi-Wan's attention.

"What's so amusing?"

"You'll be happy to hear this Obi-Wan." Anakin said as Obi-Wan raised his brow in questioning. "It says that in six months time, Vadillian will hold it's first elections."

A grin spread across the knight's face. "We were just discusing this matter." He told Illis.

"I take it as a jedi you have little liking for rulers, like myself, who are not elected by the people."

"No offence to yourself, but no. I can't understand however why the king or you would want to change anything. I give you both credit for wanting to do so."

"As soon as he became king, Trendas believed to would be the only way to keep the government out of his rivals hands."

"He'd rather give it to the people than them, correct?"

"Yes jedi that's it exactly. I fear it is why he was kidnapped. Not everyone agrees with his thinking."

"Very mature for a child of eleven."

"Judging by your apprentice, It does seem possible for inteligence and talent to be found in one so young."
(TBC)

 

Just getting all my ducks in a row.

 

Great post.

 

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I like this Trendas. I wonder what the kidnappers are going to do when they discover that the "king" is alive and well and still trying to give the government to the people. Maybe they'll decide to make his disappearance more permanent! I see danger ahead for Anakin--yeah!

 

On this I know I owe, but I've got to go.

Posted on other two.

 

On another part of the planet, one of the kidnappers was receiving a message.

"How could you let the king esape!" A man in the holo yelled. "What are you fools doing?"

"I assure you my lord," The kidnapper, Jelit, bowed. "the king is right here."

"Then why did I just see him in the pallace?" Lord Hiponum asked.

"That's impossable." The kidnapper then pulled into view the bound and gagged King Trendas. "You see."

"I do. They've found a fake. He'll give the same speech the other brat was going to give."

"What do we do with this one now? You want me to shoot him?"

"If you shoot him there will be an investigaton. just let him loose out there, he'd never find his way out of the forest. He'll die out there and we will not be his killers."

"Yes Lord." Jelit shoved Trendas to the other side of the room. "I'll give you an even chance your highness, I'll untie you."

He freed the boys hands and the boy pulled off the gag.

"Why are you doing this?" Trendas questioned. "Bring me back to the pallace."

"I'm afraid you'll have to find your own way back to the pallace."

Jelit shoved the young king out of the ship, leting him fall a few feet to the ground, then took off to see what his next orders would be.

The king was winded by the drop from the ship. He took a deap breath, he at least had to try and get back to the pallace, or anywhere that would be safe. He made his way through the thick brush. He was cut by thorns with each step. He had to abbandon his cloke because it got so caught in the uncontrolled growth.

As he struggled towards safety Tredas could not help wonder why did some of the people did not want him to declair freedom. He now knew Lord Hiponum was behind the kidnap, he understood all too well why he wanted to keep the speach from being delivered. Hiponum wanted to be king, but he did not have the nerve to kill Trendas outright.
(TBC)
Got to run

 

Jelit went back to the holo-message to see what Lord Hiponum wanted him to do next.

"You want me to grab the fake kid." The thug asked.

"That will be rather hard, he has a jedi whatching over him." Hiponum said.

"A jedi, that complicates things. So what do I do?"

"You wait. I'll get the new one to you, somehow."

With that the comunicaton was over. Anakin was trying to remember the speech, and by no means suspected that he was close to being nabbed by the same men who had kidnapped the real king.

"Let's hear what you have so far." Obi-Wan asked his padawan to recite what he had memorised.

The first part had nothing to do with the anouncement but with how he, the king, had escaped harm and was fine. Obi-wan still didn't like the idea of deceiving an entire planet, and wondered who was looking for the king.

Anakin had the first part memorised well enough, now he had to try and sound like the king. He kept listening to the holo he had been given, he copied Trendas' voice with great skill, after all mimicing was a jedi skill. Obi-wan was even impressed.
(TBC)
Wanted to post more but I'm falling asleep.

 

Wow things are dropping fast.

 

Obi is a darn good master. Jodi you are doing what I thought impossible, you are making me kinda like Anakin.

Now get some sleep, you must get your rest so you can post lots tomorrow!

 

Gotta agree Kelly, though I think I'd still trade him in a heart beat for Qui-Gon.

Anyway, Lord Hiponum is in for a real shock when he finds out the fake king is also a Jedi.

Looking forward to more Jodiwent.

 

You won't like him (Anakin) later. LOL
I wonder if his middle inital is S.
Aren't we all going to feel bad if he turns for a good reason in the begining, of course there really is no good reason for turning but...
I'm going to shut my mouth before my foot lands in it, in case there are any Anakin fans out there.

 

Well, I'm not an Anakin fan, and I hope that Lord Hypocrite or whatever his name was decides it's target practise time on the fake king!

 

Good thinkin' Jane, get rid of the kid before he has a chance to hurt Obi!

What happened Leona, we usually think so much alike!?! At the risk of being hunt down and burned at the stake I will say that Qui-Gon is not one of my favorite characters, he was sooooo awful to Obi in TPM and in the JA books so far he has not been much better. Thank goodness for fanfic, they have created a much better character for him! I know I am very partial to Obi, but he has been one of my favorite ever since ANH, next to Han Solo he was my 2nd favorite. Now since TPM and the JAs he has surpassed old Solo by leaps and bounds!

 

Great post!

 

FR-9 came into the room where Anakin had been studying the speach.

"Your next test your magesty." The droid announced. "You must join the others at dinner in the great hall."

Anakin let out a slow breath. Now he was really going to have to act like the king.

"Let's get going then," Obi-Wan teased. "Your magesty."

"Alright Jedi." Anakin teased back.

Out side the door the kings guards had been posted, they would accompany Anakin to the great hall unaware that he was not the king. Anakin took on all the airs that a king should as he walked to where the rest of the court waited.
Everyone greeted and bowed to 'the king'.

"Sit everyone." Anakin said. "Jedi you will sit near me."

<I hope you're having fun ordering your master around.> Obi-Wan sent to his padawan.

<Indeed Master.> Anakin grinned. "Go ahead everyone eat."

Everyone did just that. Anakin couldn't help notice that one of the young ladies of the court, sitting next to him, kept stairng at him. Did she suspect he was a fake? It turned out that she was just infactuated with Trendas, was she in for a suprise. From the tutorials he recognised her as Rosetta. Rosetta Hiponum, the daughter of Lord Hiponum. He was a little shocked when the girl kept trying to play footsie with him under the table. He looked at her with that shock on his face, she just smiled at him. No one had ever had a crush on him, he wasn't sure how the 'king' felt about her.

She abruptly stopped as soon as a man walked in, it was her father. King or not he was nervous. Lord Hiponum had with him a rather large domestic canine.

"Look your magesty my father has braught Demon back from the animal healers." Rosetta said.

"Uh, yhea." Anakin didn't remember any 'Demon'. Why had FR-9 failed to mention him. "Here boy." Anakin faked. "Here Demon."

Demon took one look at Anakin and knew it was not his master. The Canine bared it's fangs and barked at the fake king.

'Oh Crap.' Obi-Wan thought, 'One can never fool an animal.' One could however control it.

As the king's pet lunged for the young jedi his master was in deep meditation trying to make contact with the beast. Anakin on the other hand was not just going to sit there. He jumped up on the table. Everyone gasped as Demon tryed to bite his owner. Then for no apparent reason the beast backed down and went to the jedi, who calmly patted him and gave him a scratch behind the ear.

"I fear that your animal is not well your magesty." Obi-Wan said.

"Uh, yhea." Anakin said. "Yes jedi. Lord Hiponum maybe you should bring hm back to the healer's for a while."

"As your magesty wishes." A disapointed Hiponum said. He called the Canine to him wondering just what the jedi had done. He led the beast away. He was going tohave to come up with something different to deal with this fake.
(TBC)

 

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Anakin steped down from the table, and sighed in relief.

"Thank you jedi I'm partial to keeping all my limbs." Anakin said to Obi-Wan. "I don't know what got into him."

"I could sence the poor creature was not himself." Obi-Wan with a meaning only Anakin, the Governor, and the few who knew Anakin was not Trendas.

"O.k... Alright, everybody go back to normal." Anakin said very un-kingly. The others would think it because the king was shaken by his pet's behavior. None of them had a clue that the canine knew better, the canine and Lord Hiponum.

Obi-Wan already suspected Hiponum knew Anakin was a fake. Kenobi was trying to figure out why he wanted to expose Anakin, that was what he was trying to do wasn't it? Maybe he knew where the real king was.
(TBC)
got to run

 

Oh, poor Demon! Poor domestic canine! Deprived of a kingly meal! *sniff!*

I liked the way that Anakin was ordering Obi-Wan around."Jedi, you may sit near me."

Yeah, why didn't FR-9 mention the pet? Could Lord Hiponum have had something to do with his programming? And what is Lord H going to come up with next? Will he try to separate Anakin from Obi-Wan and then slip a knife between his ribs before throwing him off the roof? (Hint!)

 

Did Lord H do that to clue the others that that was not the real king??? Will Obi watch Lord H closer suspecting this???

Kelly, my fav character is Qui-Gon. Believe it or not that started after reading the first JA book, where his being so hurt by Xanatos' betrayal had me seeing him in a whole new light.

 

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Very sneaky Lord Hiponum! Love the way Obi and Ani tease one another.

Your usual excellent post Jodi!

 

Cute. He handled that well.

 

Later when the two jedi were settleing in for the night, that ment Anakin got to sleep and Obi-Wan had to act like he was guarding the king, and so the knight sat outside of the king's chambers all night. He half slept but stayed alert. It gave Obi-Wan a lot of time to think, not just about the mission, but about who was waiting for him back at the temple, if she was still at the temple.

He hope that both Zaize and Dacia were both still there when he and Anakin returned. Only two more days this charade had to continue. He thought about Lord Hiponum, there was no way that bit withthe dog was an acident. The man knew Anakin was a fake, yet didn't directly expose him. His daughter seemed to be obcessed with who she thought was Trendas. Did she really like the king or did she just want to make sure she would be the Queen someday. Obi-Wan always gave people the benifit of the doubt but had to think of all the cinical possibilitys.

Kenobi had to stick close to his apprentice, he wanted to make sure nothing happened to Skywalker, they could not trust everyone in the pallace. He wondered if they could trust any of them. Obi-Wan would have rather have been able to look around the pallace and see if there was anything he could find out.

Obi-Wan stood and started pacing, if he stayed in that chair much longer his back side was going to go numb.


Inside the king's chambers, Anakin was fast asleep. He figured there was no need for both of them to be tired. He was awakened by some noise at the window. At first Anakin hesitated, he wondered if they could be stupid enough not to guard the window, then he saw the fae of Rosetta in the window. He want to open it, he could see guards below ignoring the girl.

"What are you doing out there?" Anakin said. "You could fall."

"It never bothered you before." Rosetta laughed as she crawled in. She was dressed not in her finery of earlier that day but in something more fitting a hike in the woods. "The fish are waiting Tren."

"The fish?"

"Yhea, don't tell me you're going to let that incident the other day or that jedi keep you from sneeking out?"

'Whoa.' Anakin thought. 'This is not good.'

"Yes I am, untill I give my speech tomorrow."

"You still taking that seriously."

"Yes."

"You're getting boring. You've been acting funny the last few days. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were some one elce." Rosetta then took a good look at Anakin. Anakin saw a gape growing on her face. "You are somebody elce."

She was going to yell for the guard but Anakin grabed her and put his hand over her mouth. "Don't yell, and don't scream. If you are really a friend of the king you'll shut up." He slowly let his hand off her mouth.

"What have you done with the king?" Rosetta questioned. "Who are you? Who is that man pretending to be a jedi? Why shouldn't I just scream and bring the guards in here now?"

"Look, I could get into a lot of trouble telling you, but I don't want to have to tie you up and hide you in the closet or something."

"I'm not the.."

"Your magesty." It was Obi-wan he had senced the presence of another in the room wiht Anakin. "Don't say a word."

"I already know you fakes."

"Corection young lady only one of us is fake." Obi-Wan said.

"Then you are a jedi?"

"Yes and if you are a friend of the king you will remain silent."

"Not untill you tell me what you've done with Trendas." Rosetta still could scream and the whole jig would be up. "Is he safe?"

"Do you really care?"

"How dare you..."

"Yes, I believe you do. I'm sorry but I can not risk you knowing something about the kidnapping."

"Kidnapping, you've kidnapped the king?"

"No, someone elce did."

"You're here to find out who?"

"No, were here to."

"Make sure no one finds out. Why aren't you looking for the king?" the girl was really concerned.

"Other people are looking for the king."

"Who is this phoney? What is his perpose?"

"I'm here to make sure King Trendas' wishes of giving freedom to this planet come true."

"That stupid speech. Is that

 

Loved Obi musing about going back to the temple, wondering if they would still be there. I am so anxious for the post when he returns to the temple and hears the news, I am sure it will be good!!!!

Good thing Rosetta seems to trust them or the whole jig could be up!

Excellent post Jodi, I am not sure you are capable of a bad post!