Meditation was vital for those who were sensitive to the force. It was seen as a way to keep oneself balanced. For those who believed in the light side of the force, who wanted to do good, it helped to fight back the thoughts of evil and the emotions that led to going down potential dark path that all living beings faced. It helped to control those thoughts and emotions, and keep them in check, to refocus that power and use it for positive instead of negative. For those who believed in the dark side of the force, it was used to increase strength and powers through the use of the force, based on whatever was the emotion that person relied on. Meditating and focusing on their hatred if they used that emotion to draw their power from, caused them to grow stronger by focusing on things that triggered said emotion. 

Anakin believed in the light side, as did most Jedi, and had been trained in it from the time he was eight years old. He didn't care much for meditation though. Normally all closing his eyes and trying to calm himself did was either cause him to reflect on his past losses and failures. If it didn't bring him views of the past it brought him hazy and partial views of the future that filled him with great confusion and fear, something which a Jedi shouldn't feel. Lately though, Anakin's feelings toward meditation had changed. This wasn't necessarily a good thing as the cause for change wasn't exactly a good thing. What it meant to Anakin, was that reality was now more bleak than his thoughts and visions of both the past and the future. Anakin found the irony funny, that it took for everything around him to be bleak and bad for him to finally find some modicum of peace in his meditation. He was sure his master would not share his views. 

Anakin had made some progress in the meantime since his arrival on this strange new planet called Earth. He had found a home in an apartment residence in a place called New York. He had agreed to give his services to a group there who called themselves that New York's Elite, which he also found ironic. He was supposedly the Chosen One back where he came from, the one who was said to bring balance to the force and help lead Jedi to greater times, and now he was lost on a whole new world and had joined a group of people calling themselves Elite. He at least hoped Obi-Wan would get a laugh out of that when he told him, if he ever got to see him again. 

Anakin's peace was disrupted with the flash of hopelessness he felt briefly at that thought of never seeing his master again, and then was further interrupted by the following flash of rage he felt at his own despair. Anakin gave a deep sigh, as he realized he'd lost his center when it came to his time to meditate and it would take forever to get back there again. He just didn't have it in him to wrestle with and calm down all his emotions all over again to get back to that place, so he opened his eyes and gave up on meditation for the time being. When he did he was rewarded to the sight of that apartment he called home. It wasn't much at all but it got the job done, and for the time being was the most affordable to him. It was a one bedroom where everything was, not even a stone's throw away from each other. A couple of steps in either direction would put you in the next room, and he had to go elsewhere if he wanted showers or baths, but it was food enough for the most part. It was much better than sleeping outside, especially since sometimes this planet could get extremely cold in some places and really hot in others. 

It also provided a protected place to meditate. Jedi were trained to meditate in the worst places and under the harshest conditions, in case they needed to call upon their focus or powers at a moments notice. Still trying to calm oneself in a place as busy and loud as New York would be quite the challenge even to the most seasoned of Jedi. 

'This place is worst that Coruscant, and completely makes Nar Shadda look entirely calm and peaceful.' Anakin thought to himself.

Heaving another sigh he got up off his bed, which he had been seated on, and got dressed for the day in his traditional Jedi robes. Laundry was another wonderful thing. There was no one here to do that for him or show him how that whole thing worked. He would've almost ended up having to buy the place he went to to clean his clothes a whole other machine, due to him breaking one the first time he went. Luckily his ability with repairing machines had not been lost when he landed on this planet. He needed to use the force to guide him through it at times as he didn't fully know what he was doing at first, but the more he went along he relied on his own instincts with fixing electronics and appliances to help him finish the job. The owner was amazed, relieved, and seemingly annoyed all at once. Anakin predicted the annoyance was because he was looking to get some free labor out of him, until he would be able to pay to have the machine fixed. 

Anakin smirked at the memory and how even down here he was able to use his abilities to escape unwanted fates. He shook that off before his mind took a darker turn to focus on the fact he couldn't escape the ultimate unwanted fate of not being able to get back home at this moment. He sighed again as it seemed he would never be able to keep his mind away from thoughts of home, or not being able to get there at this time, for very long. So instead he turned his mind to figuring out ways to get out of this funk. 

"I know what's needed. I need a distraction." He exclaimed. 

He then began to think about how he was going to go about doing that. He didn't have the ability to just go out and do whatever he wanted because he didn't fully understand the planet yet. He'd gotten a lot better and more knowledgeable in a lot of things since he got here but he was not fully confident in knowing absolutely everything about it all. He also quickly realized that money ruled a lot more things around here than it did where he was from. Credits were very important where he was from too, but this place focused much more on money than his home did. 

That was one of his biggest things, he needed to figure out a way to actually make more money. He'd tried doing small jobs and odd favors for people here and there but he needed something bigger. He thought he might've scored big at place on the planet he visited a few times, but that was a slow work. He needed something for himself that he could count on, that would provide him with reliable income, but what? The Elite hadn't given him consistent work quite yet, so he needed to establish something on his own. He gave this thought for a few minutes but nothing came to mind right away. He found himself becoming more frustrated the more he continued to stump himself.

Then suddenly, like a light bulb went off over his head, Anakin's eyes widened as an idea had finally struck him. The person who helped him when he didn't know where to go to begin with, who pointed him in the direction of the airport when he was asking about flying and ships to begin with in the first place. The man who kept the bar in that place he had landed. He knew that place was far away from his current location, and he'd be in for another long flight on one those plane things, but he never minded flying, even if he wasn't the one doing the flying, he just didn't enjoy it as much as when he was in control. With his mind made up on his next move, he prepared himself to go on this trip. He didn't have anything like luggage to take with him. Just his clothes and his robes which were already on his body, and his lightsaber which was always attached to his hip, clipped onto his belt. He walked to his front door and looked back at his apartment one last time before leaving it completely.

"Looks like I'm headed back out West." He said aloud to no one in particular.

The flight out west was a long one.  It did nothing to settle these feelings of unease and negativity he was feeling lately. All it actually did was make him feel more restless than he was to begin with. Thinking about it now, part of this may have been his lack of actual physical activity. While he was not the type to go out and seek violence when there was no cause for it, he was trained for combat and problem solving. He hadn't been able to do much of either since he first arrived here nor had he trained, since he was constantly struggling to find his place in this world. It reminded him a lot of when he was younger trying to figure out what exactly was his destiny. He thought he'd found it with the Jedi but since being stranded here that evidently wasn't it, or at least wasn't for now. 

Anakin cleared his mind and took a deep breath as he began his walk to the bar from the airport. Walking long distances was nothing for him, as he had been doing that and other strenuous activities for most his life. Even in the toughest of conditions, it took a lot to wear him out physically, especially with something as simple as walking. He remembered how to get to the bar he first visited  from when he was last in this city. He let himself take in more of the scenery of the city this time around on his way to the bar. The city did truly have it's beautiful sights and areas about it, especially when he didn't have to constantly ask for direction to where he was going, and receive judgmental looks on the way.  Although the time of day different than it was the last time he went looking for this place. It was a late afternoon when he stepped into the streets of Los Angeles this time instead of late morning. 

Before he knew it, and thanks to him reflecting back on his last trip through these streets, he was at the bar quicker than he thought. As soon as he was through the door, his eyes immediately went to scanning the bar looking for the familiar face he had come all this way to see. Once he spotted it he made his way to the man. This man must've had some kind of strong sense that he was being seeked out, as he had stopped looked up from the glass he was currently cleaning, and spotted Anakin before he had even arrived at his location. The man gave off a deep sigh and rolled his eyes, letting his exasperation show clearly on his face. 

"Not you again." The man said. "I thought that when I hadn't seen you for awhile that I was finally rid of the weirdo in my life. What could you possibly want this time? A super computer that doesn't need to be plugged in to work? Some kind of car that can drive itself? Or a machine that allows you to jump back and forth in time?" The man sarcastically asked. 

Anakin wasn't fazed one bit by any of it. He was expecting the man to be difficult with him, it was how he was the first time so why would he be any different this time around. Instead he just smiled, amused at the older man's attitude. He even let out a small snort. 

"I would've thought you'd be happy to see me." Anakin replied giving the man an equally hard time. 

The older man just scoffed and rolled his eyes once more. 

"Yeah, I missed you like I miss gettin' my colon checked. What the hell do you want weirdo?" The bartender asked again, this time a little more irritated than the last. 

"C'mon now, is that anyway to treat a customer? This time I actually brought your kind of currency you can actually do something with." Anakin informed the man as he slapped a couple of 5 dollar bills on the tabletop of the bar. 

He then slid them toward the bartender who looked at them and the young man across from him curiously, before quickly sweeping them up in his hand, and then putting them away in his pocket. He then took a breath before relaxing his facial features. 

"Alright, what is it I can do for you?" The bartender asked, straining his voice to try and sound cordial with the man. 

This only served to amuse Anakin even more if the smirk widening on his face, was anything to go by. 

"Now that's better." Anakin commented which he got a twitch of the bartenders eye in response. "You can do for me the same thing that you did for me the last time. I need some information again."

"I already told you, no matter how much you wish it true, there are no such things as ships that fly or go into space." The man explained tiredly. 

Anakin just shook his head at this. 

"I'm not here about that this time, although, I know you're wrong. I need information about work." Anakin said.

He then shot a look in either direction to see if he could visibly see any eavesdroppers. Though this place wasn't exactly filled with upstanding citizens, he didn't prefer to have a bunch of people listening in on his conversation. 

"Not just any kind of work though, I need good work that's gonna make good money in a short amount of time." Anakin further explained. 

This caused the bartender to look at Anakin seriously an raise a brow. He then also looked back and forth to see if anyone was listening that shouldn't be. Once he felt comfortable enough he leaned in closer to the younger man across the bar. 

"I've got a few contacts who could use some assistance with one project or another." The bartender answered in a hushed tone. "Most of them are small time stuff, will take awhile to build up trust or reliability before you actually see a good payday on the time you'd be investing. But if you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, there's someone who hasn't been able to find assistance with something they really need help with and the pay would potentially be real good. Does that spark your interest?" 

Anakin was certainly interested. It sounded like a dangerous kind of work that someone with is kind of experience could be able to handle. He only hoped that it didn't consist of going out a pointlessly murdering someone, that much he would not do.

"How dirty are we talking?" Anakin asked. 

The bartender took another cautious look around before leaning in a bit closer and saying in a lower voice. "Ohh, it's a physical job, but if things go well they're shouldn't be any FATAL accidents, if you catch my drift." 

Anakin most certainly did. He didn't need it to be put much more clear than that for him to understand what the man was talking about. The work could get messy but if handled correctly it shouldn't result in any death, but violence would be playing a fairly big part.

"What's the work?" Anakin asked with a straight face. 

Any trace of humor or joking was now gone from his facial features completely. 

"Capturing people who won't be captured so easily, by both authorities, and other people alike." The man said vaguely. 

Anakin arched an eyebrow. 

"Bounty hunting?" He asked. 

This got a smirk out of the bartender. 

"You catch on quick." He commented. "Yeah, that. Some are guys that aren't so dangerous, and others are guys even the cops won't touch. This contact of mine is interested in the truly dangerous ones, those are the ones that pay the most on the bounty. If you assist him with those then he'll split the bounty with you. I'll of course be expecting a convenience fee as well." 

"What?" Anakin asked outraged. "A convenience fee? What do you think this is?" Anakin asked. 

The bartender simply shrugged. 

"I call it the price of doing business. Welcome to the underworld kid." The bartender said with a smirk on his face. 

Anakin frowned and shook his head in response. He wasn't happy about having to split money first of all, then on top of that he'd have to pay this man even more just for making the connection. Anakin didn't like being in this position, but he couldn't exactly afford to turn down the opportunity either, even though it came with a lot of strings. 

"Fine, who is this contact and how do I get in touch?" Anakin asked. 

This caused the bartender to snort. 

"You don't get in touch, my contact gets in touch with you." The man replied. 

He then reached under the bar and pulled out a card and a pen. He was writing something on the card that Anakin guessed was a location to go to meet this man. He rolled his eyes this time at how secretive the man was being. Once the bartender finished writing, he then slid the small card across the bar to Anakin. 

"You go there during the afternoon tomorrow, and my contact will be in touch." The bartender told Anakin. 

Anakin looked down at the card and didn't recognize where this place was. He let the confusion show on his face and the bartender could see it because he gave a frustrated sigh. 

"Look, there's a beach not too far from here called Venice Beach. You're gonna meet him on the walkway there and that's where he'll make contact." The bartender explained. 

That explanation seemed to spark realization into Anakin, as his eyes seemed to widen once he heard it. 

"That's the place where I landed!" Anakin exclaimed. 

This drew a confused look from the bartender. 

"Yeah... Sure. Anyway go there, tomorrow afternoon and my contact will sort things out with you." The man said. 

Anakin bowed his understanding and his thanks. With that he looked the card over once more, before exiting the establishment. As he went through the streets trying to find a place to stay for the night, he hoped that this job he was going to do with this man tomorrow, would hopefully lead him into better standing and positioning to finally take care of himself on this planet.

The sun was setting by the time Anakin had arrived to the beach that he was supposed to meet the bartender's contact. He was getting better and better at telling time here on this planet as the days went on, but he already knew when afternoon was by telling the sun's position in the sky. That was how he was taught to tell time back where he was from, even though they used the same time measurements, the clock was much different than the one people used here. While he was here, Anakin went to check the location where he had first crash landed on the planet Earth. It seemed the wreckage from his ship was gone, which to be honest, was no surprise. He was beginning to understand, that some people would try to sell anything they thought held the slightest bit of value, if they could. His ship's technology was vastly superior to the kind they had down here at the moment. The good thing was, most of it was too wrecked for anybody to do anything with. 

Artoo, however was a different matter entirely. The droid was perfectly capable of taking care of itself. Anakin trusted it, so he told it to keep itself hidden here on the beach as best as it could. Since Anakin didn't find him here at the beach, then that means he must've taken the order seriously and actually followed it. Anakin hadn't been the best example setter in that department, so he was rather pleased to see that the droid didn't follow after his lead at this time. 

Anakin waited patiently for the mysterious contact's arrival. He almost wanted to sit down in the sand and meditate, but he didn't want to completely lower his guard while waiting for an unknown person to show up. He found a happy medium, as he just decided to calmly stare out at the ocean and take in the beautiful sight of the sunset. It reminded him in a good way, of some of the sunsets he'd taken in while out on missions, at some of the more beautiful planets in his own galaxy. These brought about happy and peaceful thoughts of home, the kind that made him positively miss it, and not desperately crave to be back there, or despair at the fact he wasn't there. It was while he was lost in these thoughts, that he felt a presence approaching. They were trying their best to be careful about it and stealthy, unfortunately that wouldn't work on someone like Anakin, unless he had completely zoned out. He hadn't. Anakin turned his head in the direction he felt the presence approaching from, he wasn't defensive due to the fact he felt no hostility from this person. They were seemingly more amused and intrigued. If he had to guess, Anakin would say this person was testing him. 

"Gotta give it to em. Whenever Mario sends somebody, he always makes sure they're not all there. The guy is like a magnet for weirdos." The mystery man commented with a snort. "So tell me, what makes you so interesting?" 

"I'm a Jedi." Anakin instantly responded. 

"A what? What the hell is that? Some kinda circus performer?" The man asked with a laugh.

He didn't think, nor did he remain true to trying to lower his profile here, as he was beginning to genuinely feel irritated. He knew that he shouldn't be affected by simple words and what this person was saying about him, hell, he had been looked at and called funny and more worse things since he had arrived here, but this man doubting him seemed to really get underneath his skin.  Anakin fought hard to refrain from gritting his teeth or giving this man the satisfaction to know just how mad he was getting from this man. He shook off the man's indignant question and decided to move the conversation along. 

"Nothing, it doesn't matter. The only thing you need to know is I'm your backup. The man from the bar said you'd clue me in on the job." Anakin said, trying his hardest to keep the irritation out of his voice. 

If the slight smirk on the other man's face was anything to go by, he had failed.

"I need to know what you can do first. The people that we'd be going after don't play any games and would do damn near anything to preserve their freedom, which we're trying to take away from them for some quick cash. Men that have been grizzled by the world and are willing to face even bigger fish than they currently are just to earn some more money and opportunities, than they're getting now. I need to know I'm not taking some clown who dresses funny and doesn't use makeup with me. Where's your gun? What can you shoot? How good a shot are you?" The man asked in rapid succession. 

Anakin was able to keep a straight face this time around and not even pay attention to the remarks about his state of dress and what the man thought he might be. 

"I don't shoot. Guns are a weapon Jedi have no use for." Anakin informed the man. 

He fought back the smirk trying to make it's way on his face, as he thought about showing the man a bit of what he could do. He hadn't used his weapon since he first crash landed here. He hoped it was still in working condition, or else he'd have even bigger problems than this man talking down to him. He reached inside his robes onto the left part of his hip, and unclipped his lightsaber from his belt. Once held properly in his hand he hit the button to activate it. Nothing ended up happening. He tried it a couple more times and still nothing. The man across from Anakin just looked at him confused and entirely unimpressed, as Anakin inspected the weapon to try and figure out what it's malfunction was. 

"What the hell is that?" The man finally asked, growing bored with seeing Anakin fiddle around with the thing. 

Anakin ignored him completely and continued to inspect the weapon. He shook it a bit and hit it at the bottom of the hilt hoping to realign it a little. He was rewarded when he once again tried to ignite the weapon and the top part of it lit up blue and emitted a low sounding hum from where it was lit. He then shot a triumphant look at the man, who still continued to look at Anakin unimpressed. 

"So it's a glow stick? Or a giant stick shaped flashlight?" The man asked in an even tone of voice.

Anakin immediately frowned. 

"It's a lightsaber. A blade made of light that can cut through almost anything. With my powers and training it brings quite the advantage in battle, much more than any gun." Anakin proclaimed. 

The man just begun chuckling to himself before he completely outright laughed. 

"If you think some kinda light blade, sword, glowing stick, or whatever brings you more benefits than a gun then you've never heard of the samurai, or any other wacko that thought something similar. You're a true dope indeed. One who'll more than likely get himself killed, but I guess the best I could use you for, is to make the fools laugh at your ridiculousness, or at best, a meat shield." The man said. 

Anakin was glaring at the man now. He could only take so much and he was long past his limit. It wasn't full on rage he was feeling, but he was pretty angry with the man standing in front of him and laughing at him. He knew it wasn't the proper way to do things, but he didn't appreciate being mocked or laughed at. His master would expect him to let it go, or just ignore it, but his master wasn't around right now. The laughs coming from the man were annoying him and Anakin just wanted them to stop. He wanted to shut the man up. He didn't notice he had clenched his hand into a tight fist. The man continued to laugh before all of a sudden his laughs turned to coughs. His airway in his throat began to get tighter by the second and his coughs continued to get worse and worse. 

He quickly began having a full on coughing fit, and was bent over with a hand on knee and one on his throat, did Anakin realize what was going on. He released the fist that he was clenching and the man instantly fell to his knees, and began gasping in air. Anakin didn't know if he should apologize or just not say anything. He chose the latter as he just hoped the man would choose to believe it was just his own body that was acting up. Anakin patiently waited until the man was able to collect himself, get his air back, and stand once more. The whole time he was focused on calming down his own anger. Once the man had caught his breath and the fear of losing his life had left him, Anakin decided he'd better speak up. 

"So about the job?" Anakin asked calmly. 

The man shot him a look of anger which he responded to with cool indifference. Not having the energy or the confidence from earlier to debate Anakin, he just decided to answer his question. 

"Meet me back at Mario's bar tomorrow at noon. I'll fill you in then. Be prepared for the worst, we'll be moving on the target after the briefing. So make your final arrangements." The man shot back and then began to walk away to make his exit. 

Anakin just bowed slightly at the man to say he understood and to bid him farewell. He then went off in search of a place to meditate. He needed to ponder on what he was just able to do. He knew it was wrong and probably not something a Jedi should be able to do or use. He also needed to ponder on this slight feeling of satisfaction he got from doing it and shutting the man up. He knew it was wrong but he couldn't help that he felt more good about it than bad.