Hey hey, the end has finally come! I have no excuse for not updating this before now. Your forgiveness would be mightily appreciated!

Oh yes! To avoid further annoyance, I shall completely type out my future stories before I begin to post it. Thank you for the wonderful reviews!

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to Lucasfilm, blady-bla.

---

The sound of alarm klaxons was Boba's wake up call. Cursing softly, he ran a diagnostic and saw that the Slave's hyperdrive had blown due to a space mine.

Pirates often set mines along frequently traveled hyperspace lanes in order to loot and commandeer the hapless vessels. Unfortunately for the pirates, the Slave was not some

helpless luxury cruiser. As the Slave reverted to real space, Boba began charging up lasers and shields. The Slave gave groaning shudder and dropped out of hyperspace. Boba

almost blanched as he looked at the site set before him—outside the transparisteel viewscreen was an armada of five pirate vessels. Sweat beaded on his forehead as the enemy captain hailed him.

"Slave I this is Captain Jer'def of the pirate band Howlrunner. Surrender your ship and power down your weapons or face our wrath."

The Slave didn't stand a chance against nine warships and Boba knew it. He swallowed hard and briefly thought of how bad his luck had been on this hunt.

"Slave I, do you comply?"

Boba shut his eyes befor answering, hating himself even as he pressed the switch to reply. "This is Slave I. I comply."

A gravelly chuckle answered him. "Slave I. That name sounds mighty familiar to me. I am… very eager to make your acquaintance, Captain. Follow your 'escorts' to my flagship, Efficacious, and go to landing bay 4. And Captain, don't try to pull anything, or I will personally blow your ship out of the sky."

---

Boba remained silent as he slowly walked down the ramp into the landing bay. Despite the situation, he was slightly amused to see the amount of weaponty being aimed at him. He even spied an E-web cannon.

At the bottom of the landing ramp stood a huge, brown skinned man with a shocking mane of unruly, blonde hair. Boba judged him to be in his late twenties—very young for the leader of such a large pirate band. Very ambitious. And most likely very dangerous.

"I am Captain Jer'def. And you must be the infamous Boba Fett." Jer'def smiled sinisterly at him. "I have wanted to meet you for so very long a time."

Boba said nothing.

"Don't you even want to know how I found you?" Jer'def's voice took on a hard edge. "Or why I wanted to meet you?"

Boba cocked his head slightly. "The thought crossed my mind."

Jer'def's eyes glinted in the harsh light of the landing bay. "Tracking you was easy. You have gotten very sloppy, Fett. Perhaps you should reconsider which informants you contact. But you won't be leaving the Efficacious, will you? Not alive, anyway." Jer'def smirked as his entourage snickered appreciatively. "Do you know why you're here, Fett?" Jer'def asked as he began to slowly circle Boba. "You're here because you murdered my brother."

Ah. This was definitely not a good thing, Boba decided as he tried to remember who Jer'def was reffering to.

"You shot him, an unarmed prisoner at your mercy, at point black range with no provocation. You probably don't even remember him because he wasn't the bounty—you just killed him because he was an unfortunate snag in your hunt. He died in my arms. And I promised to avenge his death. You are the object of my displeasure, Fett. And that is very unfortunate for you."

Boba narrowed his eyes at Jer'def when he remembered the hunt.

---

The hunt had been long and grueling, and the bounty had been a sly one. Boba had tracked him to his hideout, which had been situated in the seedy town of Mos Eisley. The capture had been sickeningly easy. As Boba began making his way back to the Slave with the prisoner in tow he had happened upon two men mercilessly beating an elderly man and his wife. Although not being a compassionate man, something made Boba help those two people. As the thugs ran off, one drew a blaster and without provocation shot the old woman right in the chest. She died without a sound, silently dropping to the ground to the frantic cries of her husband. Rage had welled up in Boba's chest: he knew what loss felt like. He understood what this man was going through, and he wasn't going to let another murderer go without justice. Without conscious thought Boba had stunned his prisoner and given chase to the young man, who unknowingly had sealed his fate with a single shot.
The young man had surrendered to Boba, babbling non-stop and begging to be left alive. Boba remembered what he had said. He had looked into the man's eyes and seen cowardice.

"May your soul rest in dar'yaim, aruetii."

The smell of ozone from the blaster discharge was acrid as the body fell to the ground. Boba hadn't known at the time that the shot hadn't killed him.

Boba was snapped from his reverie by Jer'def.

"You do remember, don't you?' Jer'def whispered.

Boba stared ahead stonily.

"You will pay dearly for your callousness, Fett," Jer'def said quietly before walking towards to the hangar's exit. "Search his ship, and throw him in a cell! And relieve him of any and all potential weapons."

Jer'def's right hand man saluted him and began yelling out orders as Boba felt four strong arms drag him out of the hangar and to his cell.

---

Jace Holln walked up the Slave I's ramp carefully, inspecting each step warily in case of any booby traps. He and his partner, Chon ly Hin, had been picked for the exciting duty of inspecting the bounty hunter's ship. But Jace had his doubts about what information he could glean from the computer: even though he was an excellent hacker, he knew that he probably wouldn't be able to get past the safeguards on Fett's computer.
Sighing in anticipation of the tedious work ahead of him, Jace walked into the hold of Fett's ship, his eyes automatically roving to the sterile cages in front of him. To his shock one was occupied. "Uh, hey Chon. Ya might want to contact the Cap'n about this…"

"What…? Oh," Chon said, immediately getting out his comm-link. "Cap'n? This is lieutenant Chon ly Hin. Lieutenant Holln and I found something that might be of interest to you…"

---

Captain Jer'def Deenea surveyed the scruffy, young man standing before him with a careful eye before speaking. "I am Captain Jer'def of the pirate band Howlrunner."

Fett's prisoner grinned slightly and inclined his head in greeting. "Uh, I'm Fidel."

So young and full of life… Just like my brother.

Jer'def drew in a shaky breath as the resemblance hit him full force. He knew what he would do.

"Well Fidel, I see no reason why you should remain a prisoner," Jer'def said softly, unable to break the image of his younger sibling. "You will be a guest on the Efficacious for as long as it suits you. Feel free to walk around."

The young man—Fidel—looked slightly shocked at Jer'def's gift. "Thanks."

Jer'def nodded his head sadly, lost in memories of a lifetime ago. As he turned around and headed toward the bridge, he didn't catch the devious smirk cast to him by Fidel Masdon.

---

I got the run of this place. All I gotta do is find the detention bay…

Fidel walked deliberately throughout the bowels of the Efficacious, hoping fervently that he looked like he knew what he was doing. He consciously squared his shoulders attempting to make his bearing more self-assured.

Cursed ship's too big, Fidel thought disgruntedly as he took yet another corridor.

"Hey, you! Halt!"

Fidel felt the blood freeze in his veins for a nanosecond before he regained his calm.

"You talking to me?" He asked, pointing to chest.

The man, apparently a guard, nodded his head. "Do have clearance to be on this level?"

Fidel felt his stomach sink to his feet. Think positive. Be the man. Straightening up to his full—and slightly short—height, Fidel gave the guard a superior smile before saying, "Ah, Captain Jer'def and I are buddies, and he's allowed me free reign of his ship."

The guard looked unconvinced, so Fidel quickly added, "and he would not appreciate it if his lackeys were to arrest his favored guest." The guard straightened slightly, a small smirk on his face. "And why, may I ask, are you on your way to the detention block?"

Fidel mirrored the guard's smirk. "Because," he stated patronizingly, "I wish to gloat, vaunt, and otherwise exult in my former captor's face that it is now he that is the captive, not I." The explanation appeared to pacify the guard, who simply waved Fidel on his way. Well that was… Easy…

---

Boba stared at the ceiling, attempting rather unsuccessfully to burn a hole through it with glares alone.

"Hey bounty hunter, how does it feel to be the bounty for once?"

Boba didn't answer, ignoring the wheezes of laughter from his two rather immature guards.

"Hey bounty hunter, how did you ever get that dirt-crate that you call a ship into the air?"

More snorts of laughter. Boba sighed inwardly. Jer'def's two goons had been going on like this for the past hour. And it was starting to annoy.

"Hey hunter—"

"Hey guard. Do you want me to show you how to execute an extremely effective and painful punch to the sternum?" Boba finally growled.

The two guards, obviously not expecting Fett to talk, just stared at him. Then one of them, a short guy with blonde hair, grinned idiotically and nodded his head.

"I sure do, hunter, so why don't you show me?"

Boba looked at him evenly and retorted, "Well why don't you come on over and I will."

The blonde guard looked at Fett with a haughty expression before punching in the code to de-activate the force-field.

"Jec, what're you doing?" The blonde's partner hissed.

Jec smiled and looked back at his friend. "I'm going to teach this hunter lesson."

"Oh sure, Jec, you do that and then get your head ripped off by the Cap'n!"

Jec faced his companion, self-assured smile still in place. "The Cap'n won't do anything of the sort, Sifuun—not if he thinks the prisoner was escaping." Jec turned back to the codes.

"Jec, you're no match for a bounty hunter! He'll beat you like an egg! And then whip you some…"

"Why don't you just shut up, Sif? I know what I'm doin'," Jec stated stoutly although he had stopped punching in the code. Boba saw his rather unlikely chance at escaping begin to slip through his fingers.

"What is the matter, Jec? Are you frightened of a tussle with a simple hunter like myself? If it would make you feel better, I'll even let you tie my hands behind my back." Boba said provocatively.

"Just what are you insinuating, bounty hunter?" Jec spat.

Boba just looked at him. With a slight growl, Jec punched in the few remaining code numbers. "Jec, what the kriff are you doing?" Jec faced his friend as the control pad chirped confirmation of the correct code. "He insulted me, and where I come from that is enough of an offense to warrant death." The force field frosted and then deactivated. Within thirty seconds both Jec and Siffun were unconscious.

---

Oh great. Another passageway, Fidel thought with a scowl on his face as he stalked up the corridor. Why don't they put something useful on these walls? Like maybe a lay out of the ship…? Fidel thought, not for the first time. As he rounded a corner, he only heard a whisper of a warning before something laid him flat on the floor.
The air went out of him with a spectacular whoosh and he found himself staring at a familiar T-shaped helmet.

"You know something Fett?" Fidel wheezed, "you really shouldn't greet people like that—it's impolite."

Fett, as expected, ignored Fidel's statement. "Get up."

"Where we goin' Fett?" Fett began to walk. "Come on, you at least owe me an explanation."

Whether Fett merely decided to humor him, or whether he really did think that he owed him an explanation, Fidel would never know. But when Fett did answer, Fidel was struck speechless:

"I'm going to blow up this ship."

---

Boba froze behind a pile of crates as two security officers walked by. He remained still for a minute to ensure that they had passed a sufficient distance before quietly easing to a standing position. By that time, Masdon was beginning to squirm. Ignoring the young man for the nth time, Boba slid from behind the crates and quickly but casually walked to the blast door on down the hall. And what is in the room behind the blast door? Boba thought to himself with an evil grin. Explosives.

---

Several tense hours passed by as Fidel and Boba placed explosives strategically across the ship. There had been several close calls in the two almost getting captured, but Fidel had been able to weasel his way out of the guard's suspicious questions while Boba snuck up behind them and knocked them out. Now, he and Fett were in a small alcove overlooking the hangar bay in which the Slave I was impounded. Fidel heard Fett curse when it became apparent that the Slave was being heavily guarded.

Providentially, during their excursion of finding the explosives(Fidel had bemoaned the fact that they had no naquadah, saying that if they had had it, it would have increased the blast radius by ten times. Fett had then looked at him disbelievingly and said that naquadah was from a science-fiction, holo-vid show, and didn't he know why it was called "science-fiction?") Fett had managed to find his arsenal of weapons in the armory.

Drawing a thermal detonator from one of his many pockets, Fett stood up quickly and lobbed it across the hangar bay. There was a sudden, loud explosion followed by a violent shuddering as the blast's shockwave hit the surrounding walls. That would cause a sufficient distraction.

---

"Enter proper identification code."

The Slave had never sounded so beautiful. Boba punched in his code(s) and hurriedly began warming up the Slave's engines. There was suddenly a loud, almost sub-sonic boom followed by a series of smaller explosions as Boba's detonator began a chain reaction throughout the Super Star Destroyer. There was a series of pings as debris from the hangar began peppering the Slave mercilessly.

"Fett…." Boba heard Masdon say warningly, knowing that the unspoken meaning was "We need to get moving now."

Done. With the engines screaming in protest Boba shoved the throttle to full and guided the ship skillfully out of the exploding hangar bay and into the vast expanse of space. Grinning smugly from behind his helmet, Boba hailed the Efficacious.

"Fett? How did you escape?"

Boba could hear the fury in the man's voice. "That is not important."

There was a snort over the comm. "Oh, so you're just calling to gloat over your victory in escaping? You should have killed me first, Fett. Know this: I will hunt you down and slit your throat myself."

"I'm sure you might have tried."

"What?"

"I actually hailed you to give you advice. Ignorance can be unhealthy, Jer'def."

At that moment alarm klaxons began wailing over the comm. "Fett! What did you…"

Boba could see in his mind's eye Jer'def's realization at what was happening.

"You blasted—"

Static abruptly cut off Jer'def's statement. Boba glanced at his short range scanner: the blip that had been the Efficacious blinked off the screen.

---

"Fett, that was some brilliant thinking back there!" Fidel whooped enthusiastically. Not waiting to see if he actually got an answer, he continued: "Escaping from those guards, setting up the ordnance, disabling the sensors in the hangar bay and disabling the escape pods… Yeesh, remind me to never get on your bad side, granted that I'm already on your bad side sorta 'cos I'm the bounty and all, but…" Fidel let the sentence hang in the air, fairly sure that Fett had no inclination to hear it. "Masdon. Back in the cage."

"What? What are you saying? After all we've been through you want me to get in the cage? Fierfek, you and me are, like, brothers!"

Fett raised his head very slowly and glanced at Fidel.

"Okay, maybe not brothers, but hey…"

---

Boba grimaced tiredly and looked at his ship's computer again. It showed roughly the same thing as it had a few minutes ago: Corellia was still four hours twenty-three minutes and eight seconds away, granted that before it had been four hours, twenty-seven minutes, and five seconds until planetfall.

Thankfully, after his and Masdon's escape from the doomed Efficacious, the ships in Jer'def's fleet had been thrown into too much confusion to be concerned about their boss's enemy escaping.

With the Slave's hyperdrive being busted Boba deducted that there were two possible places where he could make berth, Coruscant and Corellia. Corellia was Boba's first choice, not because it was closer, but because he just wanted this dang hunt to be over with. It would be a tight squeeze regarding fuel, but it would be worth it. The hunt was coming to an end.

---

Corellia was a beautiful planet, even by Boba's standards. Acres upon acres of lush meadows broken here and there by a small farm or a patch of woods. The Slave I whined painfully as Boba brought her in to land, the damage of the space mine taking it toll . As the hum of the engine began a fade, he leaned his head against the back of the captain's seat. Almost over. Just a few hours and I'll be done. This was it. The homestretch. Boba stood up quickly and went to collect his bounty. Might as well not put it off.

---

"Ah, Mr. Fett. Master Carl has been expecting you," an elderly man said by way of greeting, his voice trembling slightly. Boba couldn't tell if it was from fear, or merely from old age. The old man gave Fidel an appraising look. "We haven't seen the likes of you for near fifteen years, son."

Fidel didn't answer, but stared stonily ahead.

"Your father is really—anxious to see you, Fidel."

No answer.

Boba quickly broke in before the man could continue. "I assume my employer has a means of transportation for me?"

The elderly caretaker bobbed his head. "Yessir, if you'll just follow."

Boba had a feeling a dread in his stomach. He had not seen one speeder upon landing in this particular spaceport. Just, he shuddered inwardly, domesticated riding mounts. And he had a niggling feeling that he and Fidel were probably going to have to ride one of them… The wrinkle-faced caretaker stopped in front of two tacked up, stocky looking animals. "Here are your mounts, Sir."

"Why don't I just use a speeder?" Boba all but growled, not at all liking the prospect of riding an animal who, unlike a machine, had a mine of its own.

"Well Sir, normally we would have a speeder for you, but this is the week of the Celebration of the Cosmos, in which we, the population of Cannat, Corellia honor our planet by refraining to use transportation that pollutes her atmosphere."

"You allowed me to land here," Boba pointed out bluntly.

"Yes. Unfortunately, we are unable to completely restrict ships from landing here. Nowadays the Celebration consists only of refraining from using speeders."

Taking the unexpected situation in stride, Boba nodded.

"Master Masdon's farm is—"

"I do not need directions." The caretaker clamped his mouth shut and watched silently as Boba shoved Fidel unceremoniously into a saddle. "Goodbye, Sir."

Boba didn't answer as he mounted his own animal and started off.

---

The steady clop of the riding mount's hooves was the only thing breaking the silence. Boba estimated that they had been traveling steadily for about an hour now and—though he was loath to admit it—he was beginning to enjoy it. The Sadains, their mounts, were stocky creatures, with a single, large nostril in the front of their faces. They were not the most pretty creatures to look at, but they certainly made for a smooth ride.

Boba sat up straighter in his saddle as he finally saw his destination. Clucking to Sadains to pick up their pace, Boba felt a deep sense of relief that his job was practically over.

The sun was setting when Boba made it to Carl Masdon's mansion. Before he could dismount, Carl himself came striding down the front steps, followed closely by five rough-looking men.

"Fett, I see you've found my son. Your payment has been transferred into your account."

Boba took a moment to check. He nodded. Masdon nodded back, obviously dismissing him before turning to his employees and growled, "Get him."

The men didn't have to be told twice. Grinning with sickening anticipation, they converged on Fidel's Sadain and roughly drug him from it. The Sadain's eyes rolled wildly at the commotion.

Boba watched detachedly as the men began roughing Fidel up. The elder Masdon glanced at Boba. "You can leave now, Fett." Boba didn't give the man the honor of a reply, instead turning his Sadain around and steering it towards the spaceport.

---

Fidel braced himself with grim determination in anticipation of what was to come. His father was smiling at him in a sadistic way that made him want to cringe. But he wouldn't give him that pleasure. "Fidel, it has been a long time. Much too long. In fact, while you were so childishly trying to run away your dear mother passed away."

Fidel blinked his eyes in shock of what his father said.

"Mom's gone?"

The question came from him without any conscious thought. His Mom, gone? Fidel felt a large ache begin to pulse in his chest. His "father" laughed humorlessly.

"Oh yes, Fidel. She broke her neck while trying riding her Sadain. Fortunate, really. Her medical bills were beginning to inconvienece me—"

"Don't you dare talk about Mom like she was a nuisance!" Fidel snarled hatefully. His mother may have always been sickly, but she was-had been-the kindest person in the galaxy.

"But, you see, she was. It's terribly sad that you inherited that trait from her," Carl said smoothly, not in the least bit intimidated by his son's anger. "And you, must be taken care of as well. Though your fate will be much more painful than hers."

Ice-cold clarity washed over Fidel. "You murdered her, didn't you?" He managed to choke out.

"Ridding humanity of an irritant is never considered murder, Fidel," Carl said, a dark smile appearing on his face.

Snarling in rage, Fidel tried to attack his father, to pour all his misery onto the man that had killed his Mother, the only person who had truly loved him. He failed miserably. With a few laughs the five men grabbed his arms, one of them viciously punching him in the face. Fidel tasted blood where his lip had been cut by his teeth.

Before him stood his father. Carl Masdon took out his blaster with exaggerated slowness and began inspecting it. Then shoving it back into its holster spun on his heel and began walking towards a large barn. "Bring him."

With many curses and punches the band of men drug a struggling Fidel to the structure. The thugs blows were beginning to affect Fidel as one particularly hard one left stars in his vision.

"That's enough."

The ruffians immediately stopped their beating and dropped Fidel to the ground.
Fidel lay there for a second, willing the dancing, black dots to disappear from his vision. Gasping slightly, he raised his head and suddenly all breath was stolen from his body. In front of him stood his father, looking ghostly and demonic in the growing twilight. And behind him stood a spindly structure, its black silhouette sharp against the fading blue sky. Gallows.

Fidel had always been afraid of dying by asphyxiation. For as long as he could remember, he had been frightened, terrified even, of choking to death.

And his father knew it and was planning on executing the worst of Fidel's nightmares.

"You know what to do, boys."

With delightedly evil grins on their faces, Carl's goons roughly shoved Fidel up the steps to the gallows. His breath was coming in desperately fast gulps as he tried not to panic.

"Now, boys, I'll do the honor."

Fidel watched in fascinated disbelief as his father slowly walked up the steps to do the "honor"—which he knew would be placing the noose around Fidel's neck, and then dropping the floor out from under him.

"So long, Fidel," Carl sneered, "It's been fun—"

There was a sudden whine. One of Carl's five thugs dropped to the ground with a hole smoking in his chest. The other four stared at the body stupidly for minute before realizing what was going on. Diving for cover, the four men whipped out their blasters and began snapping off shots, trying to get a lock on the unseen assailant. Fidel glanced at Carl to find that his "father" was beating a rather hasty retreat towards the house. One of the thugs gave a shrill scream as a blaster bolt connected with his stomach. Fidel didn't hear it: he was too busy charging after the man that killed his mother.

---

Three shots, three kills. Boba sighed. This was almost too easy.

---

Fidel had caught up to Carl in a matter of seconds. Mentally thanking Fett for securing his hands in front of him, Fidel tackled Carl roughly. Managing to dislodge Fidel Carl fumbled around in his waistcoat for his blaster, wheezing heavily. Fidel leaped up from the ground and slammed his fist into Carl's face, wincing slightly as he felt his knuckle connect with bone.
There was a sudden, pain-filled howl before a fist suddenly connected with Fidel's stomach. The pain drove Fidel to his knees with the effort of trying to suck air into unwilling lungs. There was an audible click of the safety being taken off a blaster. Fidel found himself staring into the business end of Carl's blaster.

"Well Fidel, you managed to yet again mess up my plans. But this time will be your last," Carl growled, a satisfied sneer coming across his face.

Fidel's eyes burned intensely. There was no way in Mustafar that he was going to let his mother's death go unavenged. With an animal-like snarl Fidel shot to his feet and with a desperation born of a desire for revenge, and yanked the blaster out of Carl's hands. Within the next two seconds, Carl Masdon was dead.

---

The corpses of the five ruffians lay on the ground smoking gently, the acrid smell of burnt flesh and discharged blaster hanging pungently in the air. Fidel carefully picked his way around the bodies until he stood in front of the armoured man in front of him. Fidel nodded his head in Boba's direction, the gratitude in his eyes speaking louder than any words could. Boba, in turn inclined his head slowly before turning around and mounting his Sadain. Kicking his heels into the animal's sides, Boba gently clucked at the creature before riding off into the night.

---

Yes! It's finally over! Feedback is appreciated!