A perilous assignment was undertaken during the Clone Wars by the Jedi duo of Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano: to liberate several Force-sensitive younglings. These infants had been abducted by the bounty hunter Cad Bane, who was in the employ of Darth Sidious. Skywalker and Tano piloted the Twilight freighter to the fiery planet of Mustafar, their destination deduced from an analysis of Bane's starfighter's fuel computer. Upon notification from his nanny droids regarding the Jedi's arrival, the Sith Lord commanded the immediate destruction of the facility. Skywalker, Tano, and R2-D2 successfully rescued the children; however, the facility's self-destruction, achieved by disabling its protective force fields, thwarted the Jedi's efforts to unmask the true mastermind behind the kidnapping scheme.
Back in 21 BBY, the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious, engaged the services of bounty hunter Cad Bane for a clandestine operation: to breach the Jedi Temple situated on Coruscant and pilfer a valuable holocron. Following the mission's success, Sidious tasked Bane with a new objective: the capture of Jedi Master Bolla Ropal, the custodian of a data crystal containing a comprehensive registry of all Force-sensitive children within the galaxy known to the Jedi Order. This information reached the Jedi through Cato Parasitti, a Clawdite bounty hunter who had aided Bane in the Jedi Temple heist but revealed the details out of resentment for being abandoned by Bane during their escape.
Subsequently, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, along with his Padawan Ahsoka Tano and their forces, embarked for Devaron, Ropal's assigned location, in pursuit of Bane. Under Sidious's instructions, Viceroy Nute Gunray provided Bane with a contingent of Separatist warships, which he used to assault Ropal's position and ultimately capture him. Skywalker and Tano infiltrated Bane's flagship in their search, but Bane managed to seize Tano as a hostage, compelling Skywalker to unlock the holocron and permit Bane to insert the stolen memory crystal for data retrieval. After disguising himself as a clone trooper to discreetly exit the ship before it exploded, Bane successfully fled the Resolute and returned to his sanctuary, Black Stall Station. There, Sidious instructed him to select four children from the crystal's list and transport them to the Sith Lord's secret facility located on Mustafar.
While the Jedi attempted to predict Bane's next target, the bounty hunter journeyed to Glee Anselm and abducted the Nautolan infant Zinn Toa. Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master, foresaw Bane's impending arrival on Rodia and proceeded there, but was unable to prevent the Duros from kidnapping Wee Dunn. Skywalker then foresaw Bane's travel to the planet Naboo and went there with Tano. In Jan-gwa city, the pair successfully ambushed Bane, thwarting his attempt to kidnap the Gungan child Roo-Roo Page and taking the child into protective custody. However, a thorough search of Bane's starfighter, the Xanadu Blood, yielded no clues regarding the whereabouts of the two previously abducted children. Kenobi, Skywalker, and Mace Windu interrogated Bane, pushing him to the brink of mental collapse before he reluctantly agreed to lead them to a location where he claimed the children were being held. Skywalker, wishing to inform Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the unfolding events, remained behind with Tano, while Kenobi, Windu, and Clone Commander Cody escorted Bane to the designated coordinates. Skywalker, accompanied by Tano, conducted a more thorough search of the Xanadu Blood, focusing on the often-overlooked fuel computer. This revealed Bane's recent trip to Mustafar, a detour that seemed out of place and correlated with the volcanic ash residue found on the ship. Taking the light freighter Twilight, Skywalker, Tano, and Skywalker's astromech droid R2-D2 set course for Mustafar.
Within the facility, the two nanny droids assigned by Sidious to care for the abducted children were preparing to initiate a conditioning procedure on Toa and Dunn when the Twilight's approach was detected by the building's sensors. Recognizing that the approaching starship did not belong to Bane, the droids promptly notified Sidious of the intrusion, who then ordered the immediate destruction of the facility and the relocation of the two infants to his secondary location.
Upon the Twilight's landing, both Skywalker and Tano sensed a palpable presence of the dark side of the Force. Tasking R2-D2 with guarding the ship, Tano heard the cries of the children, prompting her and her master to head towards the facility's main chamber, where the children had been confined. The two droids each seized a child and concealed themselves in the shadows, extinguishing the lights and disabling the facility's gravity supports.