When a man is reborn into Star Wars as Anakin Skywalker, he's unsure what he wants to do with this new life of his. With all the talent of the chosen one, he is free to do, well, anything! Unfortunately, the memories and feelings of Anakin haven't disappeared. Can he save the galaxy as a reckless idiot with attachment issues? Realistic progression. Not a power wank. semi SI.
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Chosen One Reincarnation
- Thread starter Triden117
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Prologue
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2021
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Edit 2026:Finally posting this to QQ because someone on ffn recommended it. No update yet but coming soon. I'm having trouble with the font color copying weird from spacebattles so I just set it to grey, is there something a bit better I can do? I'm not really familiar with this website. I'll try and fix formatting on the first chapter then post the rest when I get it working.
A/N I know some of you might want me to update TDoL, and I promise I'm working on it. This has been one knocking around my brain for a while now, and I wanted to "put it to paper" as it were. Things have been a bit tough lately, I talk about it more in the A/N for TDoL chapter 7. The height and weight given to Rick Miller are my actual height and weight. My name obviously isn't Rick Miller, he and I differ in several personality aspects to keep things interesting for RP purposes, and I'm obviously not dead, but I did give Rick those aspects of me.
This first chapter is basically the prologue.
WARNING: mentions of non-consensual intercourse (rape) and torture, with nothing explicit actually happening.
I don't own Star Wars
P.O.V Rick Miller(deceased)
Y'know, out of all the things I've ever done, I'd have to say dying is probably the weirdest.
I don't even have an accurate measure of how long I've even been dead. I didn't see pearly gates. I didn't feel the flames of hell.
Just… nothing
Which, while that sorta makes sense, what doesn't make sense is why I STILL FUCKING EXIST!
I'm still here! I don't have a body, or if I do, I can't feel it in any meaningful way. Why the fuck am I still around?
Like ok. Let's say the atheists are right. Hard pill to swallow for some (myself included) but for arguments sake let's say that they are. I shouldn't be here right? According to them, the only reason I exist is because of a bio mechanical machine called a brain that thinks it exists, and if that dies, than so do you, and there is quite literally nothing left. I remember my death. I remember exactly how it happened. I know I'm dead.
I was kidnapped, which honestly surprised me. I never thought that a 6'6" tall 400 pound fat dude would ever be kidnapped for any reason. I thought, "400 pounds is a lot of man to cart away, and even though a lot of it is fat, a lot of it isn't. I work out semi regularly. Just enough height and muscle to be a bad mark, and I'm also fat, and thus unattractive. No one in the world would ever even think of kidnapping my big fat ugly ass."
Maybe I was being unkind in that assessment, but we are always harsher to ourselves than we would ever be to other people. But I guess what I'm saying is, I was cocky. I thought it was a non issue. I walked through parts of the city I probably shouldn't have walked through at times where it would be stupid to do so. I wasn't an ass to people, but I wasn't deferential or fearful either. I was broke as hell and dressed like it too so I never got robbed. I was just living my life as a big ol' fat guy with no fear.
But I guess what the boondocks says is true. "You ain't too fat and ugly to get raped mothafucka".
I got snatched. Hit over the head and woke up tied up and gagged in the back of a van. I was terrified at first, thinking someone got the wrong person for some mob shit, but when the guy looked back at me, I could see the giddy expression on his face. He confirmed my suspicions when he said exitedly, "we're almost home!~ we're gonna have all kinds of fun!~ I even have a plus sized dungeon CBT bench rated to 550 pounds!~"
Maybe I was still half unconscious, or maybe I'm a bit touched in the head, but at first I was honestly impressed and even kinda flattered. To know that another human being wanted me enough to buy a special table, knock me out, and drag 400+ lbs of awkward human dead weight into a van for a steamy night in was kinda comforting. Then my brain booted up fully, and the abject horror of the situation dawned on me.
I was going to be tortured, probably to death! Not to kink shame or anything, but I ain't into that shit! Not at all!
He was still talking to himself, but he had to watch the road while he drove, so he wasn't looking at me anymore. I made a muffled "hrrrrmmph!" sound around the gag and he chuckled, glancing back. The van lurched, and there was a scraping sound, and he swore, turning back to his driving. I knew I had to escape before we got to wherever we were going, while we were still technically 'in public'.
If I escaped the van, people would see me, which meant he would probably give up.
Hopefully.
I knew from movies and tv that if you have your hands tied behind you, you can curl into a ball and slide the cuffs/ties over your butt to get your arms in front of you, and then you have more options. I tried it, but I had too much belly to curl up fully, and too much ass and not enough flexibility to stretch my arms around. I grunted, trying desperately to make it happen anyway, but no luck. It was like trying to put a pair of 36" waist jeans on. It just wouldn't work.
Hearing my determined grunting, and reaching a red light, my kidnapper looked back at me. "Hah! Looks like you're tryin' ta break those zip ties, but they won't budge! Struggle! Cry! Get nice and slobbery around that gag! Get yourself ready hehehe!" Horrified, I redoubled my efforts. He kept laughing at my gagged shouts, and looked away as the light turned green.
Giving up the movie escape move as a bad job, and realizing he was probably right about the zip ties, I knew I had no other option but to cause a car accident.
The back area I was in wasn't separated from the front and passenger seats, and so I could in theory attack him if I wanted. The only problem was that my ankles were tied up too, so I couldn't get too fancy. I managed to roll over on my butt, and frog knee squat myself up into a half standing position, my shoulders pressed against the ceiling of the van. Now that I was standing I could see we were on an on-ramp to the highway, and I froze, suddenly unsure about causing an accident.
He must have heard something weird, because he looked back and jumped in surprise. I don't think he expected a fat guy like me to be able to stand up without hands. Just as I was feeling like I had won, he whipped out a pistol and pointed it at me, shouting, "Get back on the ground! Do it now!"
My heart felt like ice. I had never had a gun pointed at me before. I could die! Right here and now!
And then I realized. I would probably die anyway. A gun would be a whole lot quicker and less painful than getting tortured and fucked to death. I hadn't totally given up on life though, so I tried to say 'Ok, Ok you got me' which ended up sounding like, "fthowkuh! fthowkuh!whoghahe!"
I settled down a little lower, and made it look like I was easing myself down. He still had the gun pointed at me, but he must have bought my act because for a split second he glanced back at the road to make sure he didn't crash. I don't know if it was a conscious decision or drivers instinct, but I would take advantage either way. I leaped at him, barely making it through the gap between the two chairs and crushing down on him. His gun went off but I payed it no mind in the struggle, worming round ineffectually on top of him, trying to fuck up the steering wheel.
It was pretty chaotic, but long story short, I succeeded in causing an accident.
My shoulder had apparently clipped the steering wheel in my dive, and my weight had pushed his foot down into the gas pedal, causing him to floor it. We hit the roadside barrier and spun sideways, causing the vehicle to roll over a few times. I didn't have a seatbelt, so I bounced around like clothes in a dryer.
When the car came to a stop, and the adrenaline faded, I realized that I've never felt more pain in my whole life than in that moment. The only place that wasn't painful was my right arm below the shoulder, which I couldn't feel at all. I couldn't breathe properly, and blood bubbled up from my throat causing me to cough. I felt cold and super tired, like I was nodding off after a long day. Kidnapper man was still belted to his chair, which was on the ceiling. I guess the van was upside down.
He was sobbing and moaning, and swearing up a storm. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! You stupid bastard! You've ruined everything! You've killed me! you've killed me! You've kiiiiiiiiilled meeeeee!"
I heard the sound of sirens, which was funny to me, and chuckle-coughed, more blood staining the gag. Darkness curled at the edges of my vision, but I maintained eye contact, and said as emphatically as I could manage through the gag and the blood, "hkhkhuuuckk…hyuuuuu…" (Fuck you).
I guess he got the message, because he choked and sputtered in rage and brought up his gun, which he had miraculously kept hold of, and pointed it at my head. I saw his finger start to tense, then… nothing
So yeah. I'm pretty sure I'm dead.
A while after that, I gained a kind of awareness. I was in total sensory deprivation, but the anxiety that that would usually induce wasn't present. It was like I didn't have a body at all, just… me. It was kind of peaceful. I could still think, but everything felt… comfortable in a way.
I didn't feel tired or sleepy, but I didn't feel energetic or anxious either. I just…was.
I thought about my life, and how I died. I felt anger at my killer, and sadness for missed opportunities and the loved ones I left behind, but I also felt a bit exited! I'm still around, which means the afterlife exists! Would I see my grandparents again? My cousin? My best friend? My dogs? I hoped so! I'd just have to be patient.
For a while, I let myself bask in the peace and the tranquil comfort. I don't know how long I spent waiting. But I got bored. And I got pissed.
Why am I in limbo like this? What even is this? Am I just supposed to 'rest in peace'?! But if that's the case, why am I still conscious?! Shouldn't I have like, fallen asleep, or 'faded away' or something by now? How long am I going to be like this?!
Forever?
I don't know how long it's been. The one upside of all this is the clarity I have. I guess you need to have a brain to be mentally ill, because I haven't ever felt more at peace. I don't feel crippling anxiety or panic, and even though I don't have physical sensation I don't feel emotionally numb either. I have just enough to genuinely feel and care, but never enough to overwhelm.
I remember. I get sad. I feel happy. I get bored. I get pissed. I get scared. I get hopeless. I give up. I feel comfortable and at peace. I feel better. Rinse and repeat.
This went on for who knows how long, but eventually I started to sense something. Like a distant trail of lights, flowing from one place to another. I sensed a sort of echo to my own thoughts, but they didn't match mine, like there were millions of other people all grouped together in a line, thinking together in the distance. I could never make out what they were saying, it was like they were far away, but I could tell they were together. Why am I alone? Where were they flowing to? Why can't I be with them?
I tried to 'think loudly' by concentrating more, but it didn't seem to do any good. I screamed my thoughts, trying to get someone's attention.
Suddenly, I felt a presence unlike anything I ever imagined. It was vast and powerful, and when it spoke, its words were soft and calm, but so powerful it felt like I was being pierced down to the soul, like it was speaking to my inner being.
"What do we have here? How did you slip away, little one?"
I nearly burst with relief at finally interacting with something!
"I don't know! All I remember is dying, and then I was here!"
The voiced paused, and I felt my memories flash before my 'eyes'.
I felt shock emanate from the presence, and it spoke again. "What is this?! You died quite along time ago! How did you slip out here?"
All of a sudden I felt naked, like someone was scanning my whole being.
"Ah! I see! You are quite unique! I can hardly remember the last time I saw soul that could slip across dimensions! I didn't even consider it being a problem!"
At this I got irritated. "Hold on! You mean to tell me I could have been in the afterlife or whatever all this time, but I haven't because of a whoopsie?! What the hell?!"
The voice was silent for a few seconds, and I got nervous. "I mean… no disrespect or anything… sorry…"
I felt amusement from the presence. "I understand it is a bit disconcerting to be faced with a mistake in the afterlife… Tell you what; if you do a job for me, I'll give you another chance at life. Another go, if you will, in one of the other dimensions I'm responsible for. If you do this, not only will you have another opportunity to accumulate karma, if things go well I'll make you one of my personal agents, and give you freedom to travel to different worlds on the spiritual plane, and visit whoever you want to visit, wherever they are, so long as you don't harm anyone and act honorably. It's not a deal I can give to just anyone, you are quite lucky you know!"
I mulled this over, trying to wrap my 'head' around it all. "What if I say no? What will you do then?"
"I will return you to your rightful place in the afterlife, and remove your ability to slip between dimensions. You will go to whatever place you would have gone if none of this ever happened."
This answer surprised me a little. This being basically had me by the metaphysical balls. They could have done anything with me. They could have slapped my soul in this new life whether I wanted it or not. They could have threatened to leave me here or destroy me or something. But no… they really were offering me an opportunity. They were giving me a choice. And that thing they said about karma made me pause. I wasn't evil by any stretch of the word, but I wasn't a saint either. This was a good opportunity to live a new life with all my knowledge in tact, and be better. To be happier and more successful. To have new adventures and get to know new people! Maybe to actually get a girlfriend/get married! A clean slate! And who wouldn't want that?
Making my mind up, I responded, "It sounds like a good opportunity! What is this job I'll be doing?"
I could tell that the being felt pleased. "Wonderful! You will be saving the life of a hero that shouldn't have died. Oh, and call me… Rob" Just like that I felt myself be whisked away, like we were traveling across eons and universes in a single instant. When we finally came to a halt, my senses were restored! Looking down at my body I saw it was transparent like some kind of ghost.
Across from me I saw a child about 6 or 7 years old, who radiated a bright light. He looked passingly familiar and was dressed in some kind of worn sandy robes. I tried to place where I'd seen him before.
Our eyes met, and he seemed to startle. When he spoke, it was frank and direct, but I could tell he was scared.
"H-hello. Who are you? Where are we? Am I…dead?"
I was about to respond but Rob beat me to it. "You aren't dead yet child, but if nothing is done, you will be. There was an accident during the race, you are hanging on by a thread. This man is here, because he can save your life. By merging your souls, we can create enough energy to fully heal your body, and together you two can become something truly amazing."
Whoahwhoahwoah. Merging souls? I was told nothing about this!
The child spoke again, "Will I… or I guess will we, be free?" I could feel the hurt deep in his soul, and the desperate hope in his eyes, and my heart melted. Rob answered.
"With the knowledge this man possesses, and the power of your soul, you can indeed become free, both of you"
The boy became excited, like he couldn't believe his ears. "I'll do it!" He said with an ear to ear grin. There was a fire in his eyes, an intensity I couldn't explain.
Rob turned his attention on me and I could feel the question he was asking. I answered. "Ok. I'll do it." I turned to the kid, and extended my hand for a handshake. "Hey kid. My name's Rick Miller. I guess I'll be helping you out."
He smiled, and shook my hand like an old friend. Where our hands met, a bright light shone, and I felt a strange heat. "Nice to meet you!" He chirped sincerely, "My name is Anakin Skywalker! Thanks so much!"
I blinked in shock. "What?" I said dumbly.
The heat and light grew more intense, and as our souls flowed together, I could feel his memories, see that he was telling the truth, and it dawned on me just what kind of life I would be living. He, feeling my memories, understood exactly who he was and what he had the potential to become, the bad, or the good.
"Holy shit" we said in unison, ironically the last words either of us would speak as separate beings.
Rob P.O.V.
As the two souls fused, I directed the energy created to fully heal Anakin's body, as I had promised. With the new soul properly tethered to a functional body, it zipped down into mortal reality to resume/begin its new life. I felt genuine happiness, as the Star Wars universe was one of my favorites.
I hoped that with this foreknowledge, that they can figure out how to actually be the chosen one. I had overseen many timelines in this universe, and the vast majority never figured it out.
Will this new Anakin truly destroy the Sith as so many had failed to do before? Will he free the dark side to take back the place it once held in times past? Only time will tell.
This was the first time I had ever tried this particular strategy. Hopefully Isekai was the answer, but if not, I will still keep the promise I made to Rick. His job was 'to save the life of a hero who shouldn't have died' and technically he had already accomplished that. Even if he failed to realize the destiny of the chosen one, so long as he remained an honorable soul, he would receive his reward.
Exited, I sat back, and watched this new life unfold.
A/N: Aaaaaaannnnd that's a wrap. Like I said at the beginning, this first chapter is basically all prologue. Luckily, Tatooine is already a pretty fleshed out location, so we can get into the meat of the story right away. Anakin does plenty of dangerous shit even as a kid, so it should be pretty exiting right away.
Anakin is 7 years old at this time, and this is one of the races he did where he burned out and didn't finish. In this timeline, he was critically injured by this and would have died if Rob hadn't stepped in.
I am going to take elements from both Canon and Legends, and ignore plenty stuff from both. I like doing my own thing. I LOVE the first six movies and the clone wars tv show, so I will try to stay faithful to the universe portrayed in them. If any of you have any stories or characters from Canon or legends you like alot, feel free to tell me about them! If they work with my story, Ill put them in.
I hate cannon rehash fics, I think they are boring as hell.
As the main character changes things, events will go off the rails pretty quickly. He will obviously try to keep things predictable, but he will not succeed.
Reviews are life! Y'all have a good weekend! See you next time!
(Cross posted from ffn, Ao3, and Spacebattles, first time using QQ)
A/N I know some of you might want me to update TDoL, and I promise I'm working on it. This has been one knocking around my brain for a while now, and I wanted to "put it to paper" as it were. Things have been a bit tough lately, I talk about it more in the A/N for TDoL chapter 7. The height and weight given to Rick Miller are my actual height and weight. My name obviously isn't Rick Miller, he and I differ in several personality aspects to keep things interesting for RP purposes, and I'm obviously not dead, but I did give Rick those aspects of me.
This first chapter is basically the prologue.
WARNING: mentions of non-consensual intercourse (rape) and torture, with nothing explicit actually happening.
I don't own Star Wars
P.O.V Rick Miller(deceased)
Y'know, out of all the things I've ever done, I'd have to say dying is probably the weirdest.
I don't even have an accurate measure of how long I've even been dead. I didn't see pearly gates. I didn't feel the flames of hell.
Just… nothing
Which, while that sorta makes sense, what doesn't make sense is why I STILL FUCKING EXIST!
I'm still here! I don't have a body, or if I do, I can't feel it in any meaningful way. Why the fuck am I still around?
Like ok. Let's say the atheists are right. Hard pill to swallow for some (myself included) but for arguments sake let's say that they are. I shouldn't be here right? According to them, the only reason I exist is because of a bio mechanical machine called a brain that thinks it exists, and if that dies, than so do you, and there is quite literally nothing left. I remember my death. I remember exactly how it happened. I know I'm dead.
I was kidnapped, which honestly surprised me. I never thought that a 6'6" tall 400 pound fat dude would ever be kidnapped for any reason. I thought, "400 pounds is a lot of man to cart away, and even though a lot of it is fat, a lot of it isn't. I work out semi regularly. Just enough height and muscle to be a bad mark, and I'm also fat, and thus unattractive. No one in the world would ever even think of kidnapping my big fat ugly ass."
Maybe I was being unkind in that assessment, but we are always harsher to ourselves than we would ever be to other people. But I guess what I'm saying is, I was cocky. I thought it was a non issue. I walked through parts of the city I probably shouldn't have walked through at times where it would be stupid to do so. I wasn't an ass to people, but I wasn't deferential or fearful either. I was broke as hell and dressed like it too so I never got robbed. I was just living my life as a big ol' fat guy with no fear.
But I guess what the boondocks says is true. "You ain't too fat and ugly to get raped mothafucka".
I got snatched. Hit over the head and woke up tied up and gagged in the back of a van. I was terrified at first, thinking someone got the wrong person for some mob shit, but when the guy looked back at me, I could see the giddy expression on his face. He confirmed my suspicions when he said exitedly, "we're almost home!~ we're gonna have all kinds of fun!~ I even have a plus sized dungeon CBT bench rated to 550 pounds!~"
Maybe I was still half unconscious, or maybe I'm a bit touched in the head, but at first I was honestly impressed and even kinda flattered. To know that another human being wanted me enough to buy a special table, knock me out, and drag 400+ lbs of awkward human dead weight into a van for a steamy night in was kinda comforting. Then my brain booted up fully, and the abject horror of the situation dawned on me.
I was going to be tortured, probably to death! Not to kink shame or anything, but I ain't into that shit! Not at all!
He was still talking to himself, but he had to watch the road while he drove, so he wasn't looking at me anymore. I made a muffled "hrrrrmmph!" sound around the gag and he chuckled, glancing back. The van lurched, and there was a scraping sound, and he swore, turning back to his driving. I knew I had to escape before we got to wherever we were going, while we were still technically 'in public'.
If I escaped the van, people would see me, which meant he would probably give up.
Hopefully.
I knew from movies and tv that if you have your hands tied behind you, you can curl into a ball and slide the cuffs/ties over your butt to get your arms in front of you, and then you have more options. I tried it, but I had too much belly to curl up fully, and too much ass and not enough flexibility to stretch my arms around. I grunted, trying desperately to make it happen anyway, but no luck. It was like trying to put a pair of 36" waist jeans on. It just wouldn't work.
Hearing my determined grunting, and reaching a red light, my kidnapper looked back at me. "Hah! Looks like you're tryin' ta break those zip ties, but they won't budge! Struggle! Cry! Get nice and slobbery around that gag! Get yourself ready hehehe!" Horrified, I redoubled my efforts. He kept laughing at my gagged shouts, and looked away as the light turned green.
Giving up the movie escape move as a bad job, and realizing he was probably right about the zip ties, I knew I had no other option but to cause a car accident.
The back area I was in wasn't separated from the front and passenger seats, and so I could in theory attack him if I wanted. The only problem was that my ankles were tied up too, so I couldn't get too fancy. I managed to roll over on my butt, and frog knee squat myself up into a half standing position, my shoulders pressed against the ceiling of the van. Now that I was standing I could see we were on an on-ramp to the highway, and I froze, suddenly unsure about causing an accident.
He must have heard something weird, because he looked back and jumped in surprise. I don't think he expected a fat guy like me to be able to stand up without hands. Just as I was feeling like I had won, he whipped out a pistol and pointed it at me, shouting, "Get back on the ground! Do it now!"
My heart felt like ice. I had never had a gun pointed at me before. I could die! Right here and now!
And then I realized. I would probably die anyway. A gun would be a whole lot quicker and less painful than getting tortured and fucked to death. I hadn't totally given up on life though, so I tried to say 'Ok, Ok you got me' which ended up sounding like, "fthowkuh! fthowkuh!whoghahe!"
I settled down a little lower, and made it look like I was easing myself down. He still had the gun pointed at me, but he must have bought my act because for a split second he glanced back at the road to make sure he didn't crash. I don't know if it was a conscious decision or drivers instinct, but I would take advantage either way. I leaped at him, barely making it through the gap between the two chairs and crushing down on him. His gun went off but I payed it no mind in the struggle, worming round ineffectually on top of him, trying to fuck up the steering wheel.
It was pretty chaotic, but long story short, I succeeded in causing an accident.
My shoulder had apparently clipped the steering wheel in my dive, and my weight had pushed his foot down into the gas pedal, causing him to floor it. We hit the roadside barrier and spun sideways, causing the vehicle to roll over a few times. I didn't have a seatbelt, so I bounced around like clothes in a dryer.
When the car came to a stop, and the adrenaline faded, I realized that I've never felt more pain in my whole life than in that moment. The only place that wasn't painful was my right arm below the shoulder, which I couldn't feel at all. I couldn't breathe properly, and blood bubbled up from my throat causing me to cough. I felt cold and super tired, like I was nodding off after a long day. Kidnapper man was still belted to his chair, which was on the ceiling. I guess the van was upside down.
He was sobbing and moaning, and swearing up a storm. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! You stupid bastard! You've ruined everything! You've killed me! you've killed me! You've kiiiiiiiiilled meeeeee!"
I heard the sound of sirens, which was funny to me, and chuckle-coughed, more blood staining the gag. Darkness curled at the edges of my vision, but I maintained eye contact, and said as emphatically as I could manage through the gag and the blood, "hkhkhuuuckk…hyuuuuu…" (Fuck you).
I guess he got the message, because he choked and sputtered in rage and brought up his gun, which he had miraculously kept hold of, and pointed it at my head. I saw his finger start to tense, then… nothing
So yeah. I'm pretty sure I'm dead.
A while after that, I gained a kind of awareness. I was in total sensory deprivation, but the anxiety that that would usually induce wasn't present. It was like I didn't have a body at all, just… me. It was kind of peaceful. I could still think, but everything felt… comfortable in a way.
I didn't feel tired or sleepy, but I didn't feel energetic or anxious either. I just…was.
I thought about my life, and how I died. I felt anger at my killer, and sadness for missed opportunities and the loved ones I left behind, but I also felt a bit exited! I'm still around, which means the afterlife exists! Would I see my grandparents again? My cousin? My best friend? My dogs? I hoped so! I'd just have to be patient.
For a while, I let myself bask in the peace and the tranquil comfort. I don't know how long I spent waiting. But I got bored. And I got pissed.
Why am I in limbo like this? What even is this? Am I just supposed to 'rest in peace'?! But if that's the case, why am I still conscious?! Shouldn't I have like, fallen asleep, or 'faded away' or something by now? How long am I going to be like this?!
Forever?
I don't know how long it's been. The one upside of all this is the clarity I have. I guess you need to have a brain to be mentally ill, because I haven't ever felt more at peace. I don't feel crippling anxiety or panic, and even though I don't have physical sensation I don't feel emotionally numb either. I have just enough to genuinely feel and care, but never enough to overwhelm.
I remember. I get sad. I feel happy. I get bored. I get pissed. I get scared. I get hopeless. I give up. I feel comfortable and at peace. I feel better. Rinse and repeat.
This went on for who knows how long, but eventually I started to sense something. Like a distant trail of lights, flowing from one place to another. I sensed a sort of echo to my own thoughts, but they didn't match mine, like there were millions of other people all grouped together in a line, thinking together in the distance. I could never make out what they were saying, it was like they were far away, but I could tell they were together. Why am I alone? Where were they flowing to? Why can't I be with them?
I tried to 'think loudly' by concentrating more, but it didn't seem to do any good. I screamed my thoughts, trying to get someone's attention.
Suddenly, I felt a presence unlike anything I ever imagined. It was vast and powerful, and when it spoke, its words were soft and calm, but so powerful it felt like I was being pierced down to the soul, like it was speaking to my inner being.
"What do we have here? How did you slip away, little one?"
I nearly burst with relief at finally interacting with something!
"I don't know! All I remember is dying, and then I was here!"
The voiced paused, and I felt my memories flash before my 'eyes'.
I felt shock emanate from the presence, and it spoke again. "What is this?! You died quite along time ago! How did you slip out here?"
All of a sudden I felt naked, like someone was scanning my whole being.
"Ah! I see! You are quite unique! I can hardly remember the last time I saw soul that could slip across dimensions! I didn't even consider it being a problem!"
At this I got irritated. "Hold on! You mean to tell me I could have been in the afterlife or whatever all this time, but I haven't because of a whoopsie?! What the hell?!"
The voice was silent for a few seconds, and I got nervous. "I mean… no disrespect or anything… sorry…"
I felt amusement from the presence. "I understand it is a bit disconcerting to be faced with a mistake in the afterlife… Tell you what; if you do a job for me, I'll give you another chance at life. Another go, if you will, in one of the other dimensions I'm responsible for. If you do this, not only will you have another opportunity to accumulate karma, if things go well I'll make you one of my personal agents, and give you freedom to travel to different worlds on the spiritual plane, and visit whoever you want to visit, wherever they are, so long as you don't harm anyone and act honorably. It's not a deal I can give to just anyone, you are quite lucky you know!"
I mulled this over, trying to wrap my 'head' around it all. "What if I say no? What will you do then?"
"I will return you to your rightful place in the afterlife, and remove your ability to slip between dimensions. You will go to whatever place you would have gone if none of this ever happened."
This answer surprised me a little. This being basically had me by the metaphysical balls. They could have done anything with me. They could have slapped my soul in this new life whether I wanted it or not. They could have threatened to leave me here or destroy me or something. But no… they really were offering me an opportunity. They were giving me a choice. And that thing they said about karma made me pause. I wasn't evil by any stretch of the word, but I wasn't a saint either. This was a good opportunity to live a new life with all my knowledge in tact, and be better. To be happier and more successful. To have new adventures and get to know new people! Maybe to actually get a girlfriend/get married! A clean slate! And who wouldn't want that?
Making my mind up, I responded, "It sounds like a good opportunity! What is this job I'll be doing?"
I could tell that the being felt pleased. "Wonderful! You will be saving the life of a hero that shouldn't have died. Oh, and call me… Rob" Just like that I felt myself be whisked away, like we were traveling across eons and universes in a single instant. When we finally came to a halt, my senses were restored! Looking down at my body I saw it was transparent like some kind of ghost.
Across from me I saw a child about 6 or 7 years old, who radiated a bright light. He looked passingly familiar and was dressed in some kind of worn sandy robes. I tried to place where I'd seen him before.
Our eyes met, and he seemed to startle. When he spoke, it was frank and direct, but I could tell he was scared.
"H-hello. Who are you? Where are we? Am I…dead?"
I was about to respond but Rob beat me to it. "You aren't dead yet child, but if nothing is done, you will be. There was an accident during the race, you are hanging on by a thread. This man is here, because he can save your life. By merging your souls, we can create enough energy to fully heal your body, and together you two can become something truly amazing."
Whoahwhoahwoah. Merging souls? I was told nothing about this!
The child spoke again, "Will I… or I guess will we, be free?" I could feel the hurt deep in his soul, and the desperate hope in his eyes, and my heart melted. Rob answered.
"With the knowledge this man possesses, and the power of your soul, you can indeed become free, both of you"
The boy became excited, like he couldn't believe his ears. "I'll do it!" He said with an ear to ear grin. There was a fire in his eyes, an intensity I couldn't explain.
Rob turned his attention on me and I could feel the question he was asking. I answered. "Ok. I'll do it." I turned to the kid, and extended my hand for a handshake. "Hey kid. My name's Rick Miller. I guess I'll be helping you out."
He smiled, and shook my hand like an old friend. Where our hands met, a bright light shone, and I felt a strange heat. "Nice to meet you!" He chirped sincerely, "My name is Anakin Skywalker! Thanks so much!"
I blinked in shock. "What?" I said dumbly.
The heat and light grew more intense, and as our souls flowed together, I could feel his memories, see that he was telling the truth, and it dawned on me just what kind of life I would be living. He, feeling my memories, understood exactly who he was and what he had the potential to become, the bad, or the good.
"Holy shit" we said in unison, ironically the last words either of us would speak as separate beings.
Rob P.O.V.
As the two souls fused, I directed the energy created to fully heal Anakin's body, as I had promised. With the new soul properly tethered to a functional body, it zipped down into mortal reality to resume/begin its new life. I felt genuine happiness, as the Star Wars universe was one of my favorites.
I hoped that with this foreknowledge, that they can figure out how to actually be the chosen one. I had overseen many timelines in this universe, and the vast majority never figured it out.
Will this new Anakin truly destroy the Sith as so many had failed to do before? Will he free the dark side to take back the place it once held in times past? Only time will tell.
This was the first time I had ever tried this particular strategy. Hopefully Isekai was the answer, but if not, I will still keep the promise I made to Rick. His job was 'to save the life of a hero who shouldn't have died' and technically he had already accomplished that. Even if he failed to realize the destiny of the chosen one, so long as he remained an honorable soul, he would receive his reward.
Exited, I sat back, and watched this new life unfold.
A/N: Aaaaaaannnnd that's a wrap. Like I said at the beginning, this first chapter is basically all prologue. Luckily, Tatooine is already a pretty fleshed out location, so we can get into the meat of the story right away. Anakin does plenty of dangerous shit even as a kid, so it should be pretty exiting right away.
Anakin is 7 years old at this time, and this is one of the races he did where he burned out and didn't finish. In this timeline, he was critically injured by this and would have died if Rob hadn't stepped in.
I am going to take elements from both Canon and Legends, and ignore plenty stuff from both. I like doing my own thing. I LOVE the first six movies and the clone wars tv show, so I will try to stay faithful to the universe portrayed in them. If any of you have any stories or characters from Canon or legends you like alot, feel free to tell me about them! If they work with my story, Ill put them in.
I hate cannon rehash fics, I think they are boring as hell.
As the main character changes things, events will go off the rails pretty quickly. He will obviously try to keep things predictable, but he will not succeed.
Reviews are life! Y'all have a good weekend! See you next time!
(Cross posted from ffn, Ao3, and Spacebattles, first time using QQ)
Last edited:
A Plan and an Oath
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2021
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A/N: Hey guys! Here is the second chapter of Chosen One Reincarnation! In this chapter, and in several more going forward, I will be including a depiction of Tatooine Slave culture that is in a lot of fanfics. It was originally introduced in the Double Agent Vader series by Fialleril on Ao3, and has since been used in many other works. If you want to learn about the Tatooine slave culture, please check out that series, it is one of my favorite Star Wars fanfics, I HIGHLY recommend it!
POV: the new Anakin
(Amatakkan language translations will be provided.)
I flinched, suddenly jolting into consciousness. There was a tightness in my chest, like I'd held my breath for way to long, and I desperately sucked in air, and quickly devolved into a series of hacking coughs as I inhaled some dust.
Ugggh. I fucking hate sand!
Wait.
Holy shit!
I'm Anakin! But I'm also Rick? I remember being both! Who the hell am I?
How is it I can remember every part of a moisture vaporator and how they go together, but I also like dragonball and can name all the characters?!
Hold on! This isn't the time to be distracted! I just crashed! I crashed hard!
Joy bloomed in my heart as I passed yet another racer. The racing pod roaring beneath me like a living being, rock formations blurring by faster than most humans could comprehend. It was the last lap, and smiled at my fuel gage, which was still nearly half full. My plan to use skillful maneuvering and perfect lines to stay with the pack while conserving fuel was a success!
Feeling like I'd already won, I opened up the afterburners full tilt, the meager inertial dampeners stressed to their limit as I was pressed into my seat, using all my strength to keep my arms on the controls! I blurred past the other racers, all trying to go as fast as their fuel would allow, and cackled like a madman as I passed them one by one!
My happiness was short lived as suddenly, one of the engines began screeching horribly with the strain I was putting on it. I shoved down my anger at the subpar craftsmanship, and quickly compensated for the failing turbine, which reduced my speed. I could hear the racers I'd just passed roaring up behind me, and I cursed as the second engine wobbled unsteadily under the unbalanced load. With the pod basically falling apart around me, I was distracted enough that I didn't notice another pod veering toward me! I got nocked hard by the other racer and my left engine cable snapped! I spun out, desperately maneuvering the controls on instinct alone as the scenery spiralled around me. I managed to avoid certain explosive death by causing a controlled crash, and came skidding to a stop in a sandy basin between two large rock formations. As the pod was grinding to a stop, the rusty clip on my safety harness failed and sent me sailing through the air.
I saw the ground rushing toward me, I threw my hands up in front of my face reflexively, and then…
I blinked a few times at the memories of meeting Rob from two different people.
Looking down at myself, my clothes were completely shredded, and there was a concerning amount of blood that had soaked into the sand around me, but I had no visible wounds. I didn't feel dizzy or tired or anything, and my pulse seemed normal. My helmet felt weird on my head, and when I removed it I found it had a large crack in it, and was covered in sticky half-dried blood.
Yikes. I grimaced, and from how I felt the skin pull, I realized my face was probably covered in blood too. Feeling around my head, I didn't seem to have any wounds, but my hair was gummy and sticky as well, and my hands came away red.
I realized mister Rob had said I was almost dead, but seeing it for myself was a different thing entirely.
Looking back over at the pod, I could see that while quite banged up, it was still salvageable. Or at least, the passenger pod and the right engine were. I had no idea what had happened to the left engine, as it had flown God knows where when the connecter cable broke. A pungent smell filled the air from the burning fuel, and I felt irritated that so much hadn't been used. All that effort to stay with the pack under low speed, all the risky shortcuts and near lethal maneuvers I executed just to break even, it all would have been worth it if the pod had done it's fucking job and reach the speeds it was allegedly fucking built for.
I shouldn't have taken the salesman and Watto's words for gospel. I hadn't been allowed to modify the pod, hadn't been able to open the engines up check them or anything. At the end of the day, I lost, and was almost killed, not by lack of skill, not by biological limitations, but by shit craftsmanship. Plain and simple.
Suddenly I realized that Amu (Mom) had probably seen the crash on the holoviewer, and if my clothes were any indication, my rescue transmitter was probably destroyed! She probably thought I was dead! I rushed back over to the passenger pod, which was on its side. After kicking sand on a small fire to put it out, I carefully climbed up to the seat and opened the compartment under it. It was a bit awkward, since the chair was basically sideways, but I managed to get it open and access the wiring of the pod tracker.
The pod tracker was usually used to make sure the racers hit all the route markers, and to help the camera drones follow the race. I was going to rewire it, and use it to summon help. Hooking up the tracker to the engine start up switch was child's play, literally in my case. After I was done, I flicked the start switch on and of at regular intervals. I would have tried using a code of some kind, but the old Anakin didn't know any kind of tap code, and the old Rick had briefly learned Morse code in Boy Scouts and promptly forgot it about a month later. So I settled for a steady rhythm, one that a malfunction wouldn't cause.
The sideways passenger pod thankfully provided some shade, and since there wasn't much more I could do right now, I sat down and waited.
As I waited for rescue, my wrist starting to get sore from flipping, I realized something interesting. When I first woke up, I was in a dangerous situation, full of unknowns and urgency. Basically, I was in 'go mode', and during that time, I primarily thought of myself as Anakin. But now that I was more passive, I predominantly felt like Rick Miller. The more I sank into My memories as Rick, the more I realized just how amazing having physical senses again was! All that time I had spent as a spirit had been in total sensory deprivation, and now that I had a physical body again, it felt like it was all dialed up to eleven!
I ran my off hand down my face, gently scraping with my fingernails, and luxuriated in the sheer sensation of it!
It honestly reminded me of the time I had broken my leg as a teenager, and had to wear a cast for three months. I couldn't touch the skin or scratch the itches under the cast for all that time, and when I finally got it off, all I did was scratch and rub and massage, the sensation so intense it was both painful and pleasurable at the same time. Right now, I felt like that, but all over my body. it wasn't completely overwhelming, but it was great to be alive again!
While I was doing this, my eyes were drawn to a piece of twisted metal that was once a part of one of the engines. Lightly tapping it to make sure it wasn't hot, and finding it surprisingly cool, I picked it up. In an interesting turn of events, the sand and grit from the crash had completely stripped the paint off of it, leaving its surface shiny. It wasn't very scratched at all, which led me to believe it was Inoxium. I groaned. Inoxium is a relatively cheap, stainless metal that is hyper-resistant to wear and abrasion. This made it extremely popular as a plating component in the joints of droids, but it wasn't typically used in high performance vehicles because it wasn't all that strong, and tended to buckle and warp under high stress.
The person who built this pod must have used it for the engine components so it could run for much longer without maintenance. I'm sure they thought they were very clever for doing so, but as a consequence, the pod couldn't handle the the forces exerted on it by going full speed, and was destroyed by the stress.
As I turned the piece of metal over in my hands, I realized that I could see my reflection in it. My face and hair were covered in dry blood, and my fingernails had scraped tracks of uncovered skin down my face, which sorta made the blood look like war paint. I stared at my face. It was Anakin's face, so it was familiar, but at the same time, I felt weird about looking at it as my face. Like there was some kind of disconnect.
Taking a break from switch flipping to roll my tired wrist and shoulder, I passed the 'mirror' between hands, shifted around, and kept flipping the switch on and off with my non tired arm.
Looking at my face again, the strangeness intensified. "Who… Who am I?" I whispered, the reflection furrowing it's brow at the same time I did. I felt like I was Anakin, but I felt just as much like I was Rick! And at the same time I felt a tiny bit like… I was neither of them. I remembered the scene from Dragon Ball Z where Piccolo and Kami fused, and his reaction was that he was neither Kami nor Piccolo, but a Namekian that had forgotten his own name. I remembered Goku's reaction to meeting him, and how Piccolo cringed at being called 'Kamiccolo sama'. I chucked at the memory.
"I am neither Anakin Skywalker nor Rick Miller alone. I am a new being." I looked at my reflection once more. "But because of my appearance, I'll take the name Anakin Skywalker for convenience sake. All that he was, is still in me." At this declaration, I felt a lot better, like a pressure was removed. I knew I would probably keep having questions of identity. That I would have secrets I would most likely never tell anyone about. But right now, I felt like this was enough. I felt… at peace.
(A/N: OST The Force theme)
I tucked the Inoxium scrap mirror into a space between my back and the passenger pod wall, and looked out at the twin sunsets.
I was in Star Wars. I was in fucking Star Wars. I breathed deeply, and felt the energy of the universe flowing gently through me. The old Anakin had never noticed it, sort of like how you don't hear your own heartbeat, but after living a whole lifetime as Rick without the force, it was as plain as day to me. I closed my eyes in concentration, immersing myself in it, and felt the warmth of the twin suns. The dust around me started floating an inch or so off the ground as if caught in a gentle breeze. It was so much greater than me, and yet it responded to my desires, my focus. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever felt, and I was only an untrained novice. I couldn't even do anything with it yet.
What would it feel like to be a fully trained Jedi? To be truly powerful?
To be free?
(End OST)
My— Rick's life, had had freedom. When someone told him to do something, he could say no. If he didn't like his Boss, he could quit. If he didn't like where he was, he could leave and go somewhere else. If someone tried to threaten his life, there were legal actions he could take to protect himself.
I looked down at my body. I didn't even own myself right now. I had a master, and if I stepped one toe out of line, there was an explosive device implanted somewhere in me that could instantly kill me at the touch of a button.
Before, the old Anakin had more or less accepted that as part of life, but now that I knew what independence was? What it felt like?
I yearned for it. I needed it so desperately I felt like I'd do anything to make it so! To control my own destiny… I needed to start planning.
This race was the annual Boonta Eve Classic, and I was currently 7 years old. That meant I had exactly two years before the events of the Phantom Menace.
In the movie, Qui-Gon Jinn wasn't able to free Shmi Skywalker, and Canon Anakin had left her in slavery to go off and join the Jedi. My jaw clenched in rage at the thought. I'm sure he believed he had no other choice, but it still sickened me. Somehow, someway, I needed to gather enough money to buy Amu (Mom) from Watto by the time the Jedi came. If everything went well, I would be freed by the bet between Qui-Gon and Watto, and then Qui-Gon could buy Amu and immediately free her.
A simple, but effective plan. However, there were several things standing in the way of its success.
Number one: Slaves can't technically own money. Any money we do have is legally Watto's money, so if he ever finds out I have anywhere near the amount necessary to buy my mother, he would simply demand that I give it to him, and I would have to do it or be killed. No freedom.
Number two: I hadn't built the pod racer yet. In the movie, Canon Anakin wins because he builds a fully functioning racer. Watto always bets on Sebulba, so he would probably lose money if I actually won. The only reason he has me race at all is so he can get clout among the Huts as an official sponsor for a pod racer, and rake in shit tons of customers. The pod today was evidence enough that he wouldn't ever actually provide me with the means of winning, which means I would have to build a racer of the same caliber as the one from the movie, while again keeping it secret from Watto. For all I knew, Canon Anakin had devoted nearly all of his free time to building the racer, and I would have to split my time between Building and secretly making money.
Number Three: Fucking Tatooine. Watto didn't actually walk the slave quarters all that often, so I could easily pass off working on the pod as just tinkering with spare parts. I could theoretically do it all while still 'staying in my lane' so to speak. Making money secretly would be way more dangerous. If I stole the money, people would make every effort to track me down and kill me, and if I made it honestly, people would want what I earned and also try to kill me. I would have to get a disguise of some kind, and find a secure hideout where I could stash the money. I would have to do all of this while not being discovered by by Watto, the Huts, or any of the people I did business with, I would have to do it while also working in the droid shop every day to keep Watto happy and unsuspicious, while ALSO working on the pod so I could actually win my freedom when the time came, and ALL THIS without ever getting fucking robbed and ending up facedown bleeding out in a gutter somewhere, or getting snatched and sold into double slavery, or getting eaten by wildlife, or…
Hey… it was getting kinda dark out here!
I listened nervously for signs of any wildlife or looters. Come to think of it, don't the Tusken raiders often hang out around pod races? I shook my head. While the sand people made sport out of trying to shoot the moving racers with their slug thrower rifles, they rarely had interest in scavenging the pod racer parts.
As I the suns dropped further below the horizon, I heard the faint rumble of an engine! Sighing in relief, I flipped the switch back and forth with increased speed, and in response, I heard a honk of a horn from a speeder. Smiling, I flicked the switch one more time to the 'on' position, and walked out from under the pod. Upon seeing the speeder, my heart sank as I realized it was Watto. I quickly berated myself and put on a happy face however, as there were at least a thousand other people that would have been way worse.
I waved my arms above my head and shouted, and was answered by another honk, much closer this time. Watto was driving a bulky speeder truck, which had a flatbed hover trailer hooked up with some power loader droids on it. The repulsorlift engines thrummed as he braked to a stop. Once the speeder truck was parked, Watto opened the door, fluttering out on his small toydarian wings.
"Eeeeeeeh Ani! Good to see you in-eh one piece! That-eh was quite the crrrash, you cut it pretty close-eh this time ehehehe!" He snapped his blue fingers, and the large PL droids activated, driving towards the wreckage on tank like tracks.
Immediately, I began to defend myself. While Watto was a total asshole sometimes, and could and would use the threat of the explosive transmitter if things got serious, he was thankfully not at the same level of psychotic mustache twirling evil that some of the Huts were. He mostly let me speak freely, and trusted my word when it came to matters of my expertise.
I picked up the shard of the engine I'd been using as a mirror. "Look at this!" I nearly shouted, by brow furrowed, "this is a piece of the main wall of the engine! It got dragged so hard that the paint came off, but it's still shining like a mirror! It's Inoxium!"
At this, Watto's eyes widened a fraction. Still airborne, he fluttered closer and took the piece from me, running his hands over its surface. "Yeeeeeaahh, that's Inoxium alrright! eh-What kind of morrron uses droid pllating to build a pod engine eeeeeehhh?"
Happy he was on my side, I continued, emboldened. "You saw how good my lines were! How much fuel I saved! I had nearly half a tank left a third into the final lap! All I needed was to gun it and not crash, and I would have been in the top 5 at -least-! Instead, my pod blows up, and I almost die!" Watto got a shrewd look on his trunked face, and his eyes grew distant. "I eh-paid allot for that-eh pod… and I almost-eh llost a rare slave and a high pllacement in the rrrace, should be enough for a total eh-rrefund ehehehe…"
Watto would often speak as if I wasn't there when I was right in front of him. He always got pissed when I 'interrupted' him, so I held my tongue till his eyes focused back on me. "Next time," I said, "could I check over the pod before the race to make sure it's good? I don't want something like this to happen again."
Watto narrowed his eyes at me, and for a second, I was afraid he was angry at me, but then he nodded, "eh-sure. Wouldn't be good for you to get-eh too banged up eeeeehheheheh."
I shook my head, "no it wouldn't." I answered
Suddenly the loader droids beeped, and a quick look saw that they were done loading the wreckage. Without another word, Watto flapped up into the cab and shut the door. Knowing the drill from old Anakin's memories, I got up onto the flatbed and held on tight to one of the straps the droids had fastened the wreckage with. I slapped the back of the cab to let him know I was secure, and the speeder truck lurched forward, quickly gaining speed.
While it made sense that a hovering vehicle wouldn't bump with the terrain, I couldn't help but marvel at the perfectly smooth ride as we sped over the rocky ground. Settling in for the ride, tried to use my sleeve to scrub off as much of the dried blood as possible. Once I felt like I'd got clean enough, I looked out at the moons-lit dunes, and saw a herd of bantha being led by some sand people in the distance.
Sand people… I had mixed feelings. They hadn't done anything to anyone I cared about just yet, but as long as Amu (Mom) was on the planet, they were a clear and present danger. But at the same time, they represented Canon Anakin's first foray into the dark side. His first blood rage. His first mindless slaughter. Being within seeing distance of them made me anxious, angry, and even a little guilty all at once. That wasn't my Amu that was killed. It wasn't me that would slaughter them. It would be different this time.
I squeezed my hand through my hair, and managed to get some still liquid blood on my fingers.
Blood
I spat in my hand, the clear fluid mixing with the red.
Water
Amu had told me the slave stories of Amavikka people. Of Leiyah the Dragon, the unfettered, and Lukkah the storm, the destroyer who makes new. I knew most of the Amatakkan words for the oath, and the words I didn't know I spoke in galactic basic.
"My name is Anakin Ekkreth. My Mother, Shmi Ekkreth, will not die to the sand people. I will not fall to the Dark Side of the Force. in two years time, when the Jedi arrive, both my mother and I will be free. This I swear on blood and water. We WILL be FREE."
I scooted over to the edge of the flatbed, and squeezed the mixture through my fingers, letting the drips fall to the moonlit sand that was rushing by.
I probably hadn't gotten the words exactly right, and dripping the blood and water off the side of a speeder truck may not have been 'proper', but this was a slave oath. Pomp and ceremony have never been a requirement for Ar-Amu's (mother of mothers) help.
I felt a faint rushing of power through me. Similar to the Force I'd felt earlier, but not quite the same. It was warmer, like a fire in my soul. As quick as it had come, it vanished, so suddenly and completely I wondered if I had imagined it.
I looked up at the moons, and echoed my words from earlier under my breath, in galactic basic this time.
"We will be free."
A/N: Aaaaaaannd that's a wrap! Thank you so much for your reviews!
Watto was surprisingly difficult and interesting to portray. He is a slave owning asshole, and I needed to properly display that, but he also is basically just a law abiding citizen as far as Tatooine goes. It's a bizarre balance to hit, and I find myself unconsciously leaning towards either absolute evil, which is boring to write and to read, or towards making him reasonable and fatherly, which is unacceptable for a character that owns slaves. He's not by any means a positive role model of any kind, but he's also not a condensed ball of satanic evil distilled into mortal form. He's just…. Watto. He's an obstacle. He sucks. It's honestly kind of fun to write!
Fanfic Recommendation:
Double Agent Vader
( Ao3 series by Fialleril )
POV: the new Anakin
(Amatakkan language translations will be provided.)
I flinched, suddenly jolting into consciousness. There was a tightness in my chest, like I'd held my breath for way to long, and I desperately sucked in air, and quickly devolved into a series of hacking coughs as I inhaled some dust.
Ugggh. I fucking hate sand!
Wait.
Holy shit!
I'm Anakin! But I'm also Rick? I remember being both! Who the hell am I?
How is it I can remember every part of a moisture vaporator and how they go together, but I also like dragonball and can name all the characters?!
Hold on! This isn't the time to be distracted! I just crashed! I crashed hard!
Joy bloomed in my heart as I passed yet another racer. The racing pod roaring beneath me like a living being, rock formations blurring by faster than most humans could comprehend. It was the last lap, and smiled at my fuel gage, which was still nearly half full. My plan to use skillful maneuvering and perfect lines to stay with the pack while conserving fuel was a success!
Feeling like I'd already won, I opened up the afterburners full tilt, the meager inertial dampeners stressed to their limit as I was pressed into my seat, using all my strength to keep my arms on the controls! I blurred past the other racers, all trying to go as fast as their fuel would allow, and cackled like a madman as I passed them one by one!
My happiness was short lived as suddenly, one of the engines began screeching horribly with the strain I was putting on it. I shoved down my anger at the subpar craftsmanship, and quickly compensated for the failing turbine, which reduced my speed. I could hear the racers I'd just passed roaring up behind me, and I cursed as the second engine wobbled unsteadily under the unbalanced load. With the pod basically falling apart around me, I was distracted enough that I didn't notice another pod veering toward me! I got nocked hard by the other racer and my left engine cable snapped! I spun out, desperately maneuvering the controls on instinct alone as the scenery spiralled around me. I managed to avoid certain explosive death by causing a controlled crash, and came skidding to a stop in a sandy basin between two large rock formations. As the pod was grinding to a stop, the rusty clip on my safety harness failed and sent me sailing through the air.
I saw the ground rushing toward me, I threw my hands up in front of my face reflexively, and then…
I blinked a few times at the memories of meeting Rob from two different people.
Looking down at myself, my clothes were completely shredded, and there was a concerning amount of blood that had soaked into the sand around me, but I had no visible wounds. I didn't feel dizzy or tired or anything, and my pulse seemed normal. My helmet felt weird on my head, and when I removed it I found it had a large crack in it, and was covered in sticky half-dried blood.
Yikes. I grimaced, and from how I felt the skin pull, I realized my face was probably covered in blood too. Feeling around my head, I didn't seem to have any wounds, but my hair was gummy and sticky as well, and my hands came away red.
I realized mister Rob had said I was almost dead, but seeing it for myself was a different thing entirely.
Looking back over at the pod, I could see that while quite banged up, it was still salvageable. Or at least, the passenger pod and the right engine were. I had no idea what had happened to the left engine, as it had flown God knows where when the connecter cable broke. A pungent smell filled the air from the burning fuel, and I felt irritated that so much hadn't been used. All that effort to stay with the pack under low speed, all the risky shortcuts and near lethal maneuvers I executed just to break even, it all would have been worth it if the pod had done it's fucking job and reach the speeds it was allegedly fucking built for.
I shouldn't have taken the salesman and Watto's words for gospel. I hadn't been allowed to modify the pod, hadn't been able to open the engines up check them or anything. At the end of the day, I lost, and was almost killed, not by lack of skill, not by biological limitations, but by shit craftsmanship. Plain and simple.
Suddenly I realized that Amu (Mom) had probably seen the crash on the holoviewer, and if my clothes were any indication, my rescue transmitter was probably destroyed! She probably thought I was dead! I rushed back over to the passenger pod, which was on its side. After kicking sand on a small fire to put it out, I carefully climbed up to the seat and opened the compartment under it. It was a bit awkward, since the chair was basically sideways, but I managed to get it open and access the wiring of the pod tracker.
The pod tracker was usually used to make sure the racers hit all the route markers, and to help the camera drones follow the race. I was going to rewire it, and use it to summon help. Hooking up the tracker to the engine start up switch was child's play, literally in my case. After I was done, I flicked the start switch on and of at regular intervals. I would have tried using a code of some kind, but the old Anakin didn't know any kind of tap code, and the old Rick had briefly learned Morse code in Boy Scouts and promptly forgot it about a month later. So I settled for a steady rhythm, one that a malfunction wouldn't cause.
The sideways passenger pod thankfully provided some shade, and since there wasn't much more I could do right now, I sat down and waited.
As I waited for rescue, my wrist starting to get sore from flipping, I realized something interesting. When I first woke up, I was in a dangerous situation, full of unknowns and urgency. Basically, I was in 'go mode', and during that time, I primarily thought of myself as Anakin. But now that I was more passive, I predominantly felt like Rick Miller. The more I sank into My memories as Rick, the more I realized just how amazing having physical senses again was! All that time I had spent as a spirit had been in total sensory deprivation, and now that I had a physical body again, it felt like it was all dialed up to eleven!
I ran my off hand down my face, gently scraping with my fingernails, and luxuriated in the sheer sensation of it!
It honestly reminded me of the time I had broken my leg as a teenager, and had to wear a cast for three months. I couldn't touch the skin or scratch the itches under the cast for all that time, and when I finally got it off, all I did was scratch and rub and massage, the sensation so intense it was both painful and pleasurable at the same time. Right now, I felt like that, but all over my body. it wasn't completely overwhelming, but it was great to be alive again!
While I was doing this, my eyes were drawn to a piece of twisted metal that was once a part of one of the engines. Lightly tapping it to make sure it wasn't hot, and finding it surprisingly cool, I picked it up. In an interesting turn of events, the sand and grit from the crash had completely stripped the paint off of it, leaving its surface shiny. It wasn't very scratched at all, which led me to believe it was Inoxium. I groaned. Inoxium is a relatively cheap, stainless metal that is hyper-resistant to wear and abrasion. This made it extremely popular as a plating component in the joints of droids, but it wasn't typically used in high performance vehicles because it wasn't all that strong, and tended to buckle and warp under high stress.
The person who built this pod must have used it for the engine components so it could run for much longer without maintenance. I'm sure they thought they were very clever for doing so, but as a consequence, the pod couldn't handle the the forces exerted on it by going full speed, and was destroyed by the stress.
As I turned the piece of metal over in my hands, I realized that I could see my reflection in it. My face and hair were covered in dry blood, and my fingernails had scraped tracks of uncovered skin down my face, which sorta made the blood look like war paint. I stared at my face. It was Anakin's face, so it was familiar, but at the same time, I felt weird about looking at it as my face. Like there was some kind of disconnect.
Taking a break from switch flipping to roll my tired wrist and shoulder, I passed the 'mirror' between hands, shifted around, and kept flipping the switch on and off with my non tired arm.
Looking at my face again, the strangeness intensified. "Who… Who am I?" I whispered, the reflection furrowing it's brow at the same time I did. I felt like I was Anakin, but I felt just as much like I was Rick! And at the same time I felt a tiny bit like… I was neither of them. I remembered the scene from Dragon Ball Z where Piccolo and Kami fused, and his reaction was that he was neither Kami nor Piccolo, but a Namekian that had forgotten his own name. I remembered Goku's reaction to meeting him, and how Piccolo cringed at being called 'Kamiccolo sama'. I chucked at the memory.
"I am neither Anakin Skywalker nor Rick Miller alone. I am a new being." I looked at my reflection once more. "But because of my appearance, I'll take the name Anakin Skywalker for convenience sake. All that he was, is still in me." At this declaration, I felt a lot better, like a pressure was removed. I knew I would probably keep having questions of identity. That I would have secrets I would most likely never tell anyone about. But right now, I felt like this was enough. I felt… at peace.
(A/N: OST The Force theme)
I tucked the Inoxium scrap mirror into a space between my back and the passenger pod wall, and looked out at the twin sunsets.
I was in Star Wars. I was in fucking Star Wars. I breathed deeply, and felt the energy of the universe flowing gently through me. The old Anakin had never noticed it, sort of like how you don't hear your own heartbeat, but after living a whole lifetime as Rick without the force, it was as plain as day to me. I closed my eyes in concentration, immersing myself in it, and felt the warmth of the twin suns. The dust around me started floating an inch or so off the ground as if caught in a gentle breeze. It was so much greater than me, and yet it responded to my desires, my focus. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever felt, and I was only an untrained novice. I couldn't even do anything with it yet.
What would it feel like to be a fully trained Jedi? To be truly powerful?
To be free?
(End OST)
My— Rick's life, had had freedom. When someone told him to do something, he could say no. If he didn't like his Boss, he could quit. If he didn't like where he was, he could leave and go somewhere else. If someone tried to threaten his life, there were legal actions he could take to protect himself.
I looked down at my body. I didn't even own myself right now. I had a master, and if I stepped one toe out of line, there was an explosive device implanted somewhere in me that could instantly kill me at the touch of a button.
Before, the old Anakin had more or less accepted that as part of life, but now that I knew what independence was? What it felt like?
I yearned for it. I needed it so desperately I felt like I'd do anything to make it so! To control my own destiny… I needed to start planning.
This race was the annual Boonta Eve Classic, and I was currently 7 years old. That meant I had exactly two years before the events of the Phantom Menace.
In the movie, Qui-Gon Jinn wasn't able to free Shmi Skywalker, and Canon Anakin had left her in slavery to go off and join the Jedi. My jaw clenched in rage at the thought. I'm sure he believed he had no other choice, but it still sickened me. Somehow, someway, I needed to gather enough money to buy Amu (Mom) from Watto by the time the Jedi came. If everything went well, I would be freed by the bet between Qui-Gon and Watto, and then Qui-Gon could buy Amu and immediately free her.
A simple, but effective plan. However, there were several things standing in the way of its success.
Number one: Slaves can't technically own money. Any money we do have is legally Watto's money, so if he ever finds out I have anywhere near the amount necessary to buy my mother, he would simply demand that I give it to him, and I would have to do it or be killed. No freedom.
Number two: I hadn't built the pod racer yet. In the movie, Canon Anakin wins because he builds a fully functioning racer. Watto always bets on Sebulba, so he would probably lose money if I actually won. The only reason he has me race at all is so he can get clout among the Huts as an official sponsor for a pod racer, and rake in shit tons of customers. The pod today was evidence enough that he wouldn't ever actually provide me with the means of winning, which means I would have to build a racer of the same caliber as the one from the movie, while again keeping it secret from Watto. For all I knew, Canon Anakin had devoted nearly all of his free time to building the racer, and I would have to split my time between Building and secretly making money.
Number Three: Fucking Tatooine. Watto didn't actually walk the slave quarters all that often, so I could easily pass off working on the pod as just tinkering with spare parts. I could theoretically do it all while still 'staying in my lane' so to speak. Making money secretly would be way more dangerous. If I stole the money, people would make every effort to track me down and kill me, and if I made it honestly, people would want what I earned and also try to kill me. I would have to get a disguise of some kind, and find a secure hideout where I could stash the money. I would have to do all of this while not being discovered by by Watto, the Huts, or any of the people I did business with, I would have to do it while also working in the droid shop every day to keep Watto happy and unsuspicious, while ALSO working on the pod so I could actually win my freedom when the time came, and ALL THIS without ever getting fucking robbed and ending up facedown bleeding out in a gutter somewhere, or getting snatched and sold into double slavery, or getting eaten by wildlife, or…
Hey… it was getting kinda dark out here!
I listened nervously for signs of any wildlife or looters. Come to think of it, don't the Tusken raiders often hang out around pod races? I shook my head. While the sand people made sport out of trying to shoot the moving racers with their slug thrower rifles, they rarely had interest in scavenging the pod racer parts.
As I the suns dropped further below the horizon, I heard the faint rumble of an engine! Sighing in relief, I flipped the switch back and forth with increased speed, and in response, I heard a honk of a horn from a speeder. Smiling, I flicked the switch one more time to the 'on' position, and walked out from under the pod. Upon seeing the speeder, my heart sank as I realized it was Watto. I quickly berated myself and put on a happy face however, as there were at least a thousand other people that would have been way worse.
I waved my arms above my head and shouted, and was answered by another honk, much closer this time. Watto was driving a bulky speeder truck, which had a flatbed hover trailer hooked up with some power loader droids on it. The repulsorlift engines thrummed as he braked to a stop. Once the speeder truck was parked, Watto opened the door, fluttering out on his small toydarian wings.
"Eeeeeeeh Ani! Good to see you in-eh one piece! That-eh was quite the crrrash, you cut it pretty close-eh this time ehehehe!" He snapped his blue fingers, and the large PL droids activated, driving towards the wreckage on tank like tracks.
Immediately, I began to defend myself. While Watto was a total asshole sometimes, and could and would use the threat of the explosive transmitter if things got serious, he was thankfully not at the same level of psychotic mustache twirling evil that some of the Huts were. He mostly let me speak freely, and trusted my word when it came to matters of my expertise.
I picked up the shard of the engine I'd been using as a mirror. "Look at this!" I nearly shouted, by brow furrowed, "this is a piece of the main wall of the engine! It got dragged so hard that the paint came off, but it's still shining like a mirror! It's Inoxium!"
At this, Watto's eyes widened a fraction. Still airborne, he fluttered closer and took the piece from me, running his hands over its surface. "Yeeeeeaahh, that's Inoxium alrright! eh-What kind of morrron uses droid pllating to build a pod engine eeeeeehhh?"
Happy he was on my side, I continued, emboldened. "You saw how good my lines were! How much fuel I saved! I had nearly half a tank left a third into the final lap! All I needed was to gun it and not crash, and I would have been in the top 5 at -least-! Instead, my pod blows up, and I almost die!" Watto got a shrewd look on his trunked face, and his eyes grew distant. "I eh-paid allot for that-eh pod… and I almost-eh llost a rare slave and a high pllacement in the rrrace, should be enough for a total eh-rrefund ehehehe…"
Watto would often speak as if I wasn't there when I was right in front of him. He always got pissed when I 'interrupted' him, so I held my tongue till his eyes focused back on me. "Next time," I said, "could I check over the pod before the race to make sure it's good? I don't want something like this to happen again."
Watto narrowed his eyes at me, and for a second, I was afraid he was angry at me, but then he nodded, "eh-sure. Wouldn't be good for you to get-eh too banged up eeeeehheheheh."
I shook my head, "no it wouldn't." I answered
Suddenly the loader droids beeped, and a quick look saw that they were done loading the wreckage. Without another word, Watto flapped up into the cab and shut the door. Knowing the drill from old Anakin's memories, I got up onto the flatbed and held on tight to one of the straps the droids had fastened the wreckage with. I slapped the back of the cab to let him know I was secure, and the speeder truck lurched forward, quickly gaining speed.
While it made sense that a hovering vehicle wouldn't bump with the terrain, I couldn't help but marvel at the perfectly smooth ride as we sped over the rocky ground. Settling in for the ride, tried to use my sleeve to scrub off as much of the dried blood as possible. Once I felt like I'd got clean enough, I looked out at the moons-lit dunes, and saw a herd of bantha being led by some sand people in the distance.
Sand people… I had mixed feelings. They hadn't done anything to anyone I cared about just yet, but as long as Amu (Mom) was on the planet, they were a clear and present danger. But at the same time, they represented Canon Anakin's first foray into the dark side. His first blood rage. His first mindless slaughter. Being within seeing distance of them made me anxious, angry, and even a little guilty all at once. That wasn't my Amu that was killed. It wasn't me that would slaughter them. It would be different this time.
I squeezed my hand through my hair, and managed to get some still liquid blood on my fingers.
Blood
I spat in my hand, the clear fluid mixing with the red.
Water
Amu had told me the slave stories of Amavikka people. Of Leiyah the Dragon, the unfettered, and Lukkah the storm, the destroyer who makes new. I knew most of the Amatakkan words for the oath, and the words I didn't know I spoke in galactic basic.
"My name is Anakin Ekkreth. My Mother, Shmi Ekkreth, will not die to the sand people. I will not fall to the Dark Side of the Force. in two years time, when the Jedi arrive, both my mother and I will be free. This I swear on blood and water. We WILL be FREE."
I scooted over to the edge of the flatbed, and squeezed the mixture through my fingers, letting the drips fall to the moonlit sand that was rushing by.
I probably hadn't gotten the words exactly right, and dripping the blood and water off the side of a speeder truck may not have been 'proper', but this was a slave oath. Pomp and ceremony have never been a requirement for Ar-Amu's (mother of mothers) help.
I felt a faint rushing of power through me. Similar to the Force I'd felt earlier, but not quite the same. It was warmer, like a fire in my soul. As quick as it had come, it vanished, so suddenly and completely I wondered if I had imagined it.
I looked up at the moons, and echoed my words from earlier under my breath, in galactic basic this time.
"We will be free."
A/N: Aaaaaaannd that's a wrap! Thank you so much for your reviews!
Watto was surprisingly difficult and interesting to portray. He is a slave owning asshole, and I needed to properly display that, but he also is basically just a law abiding citizen as far as Tatooine goes. It's a bizarre balance to hit, and I find myself unconsciously leaning towards either absolute evil, which is boring to write and to read, or towards making him reasonable and fatherly, which is unacceptable for a character that owns slaves. He's not by any means a positive role model of any kind, but he's also not a condensed ball of satanic evil distilled into mortal form. He's just…. Watto. He's an obstacle. He sucks. It's honestly kind of fun to write!
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Double Agent Vader
( Ao3 series by Fialleril )
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It’s A Hard Knock Life
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2021
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A/N:Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter! Does anyone get the reference in the chapter name?
(P.O.V. Anakin)
Watto's hover truck was built for power, not speed, so it was about an hour until we got back into town. When we got back to the droid shop, Watto pulled into the scrapyard and parked, the vehicle settling down onto the ground. I stepped off the flat bed, and turned to Watto, who had fluttered out of the cab. He spoke to me in huttese, "Go home boy, and be quick about it. That mother of yours is probably pulling out her hair hehehe!" he snapped his blue fingers, and the PL droids got to work unloading the wreckage.
I didn't need to be told twice! I ran off into the dark of the night, towards the slave district. I had made it nearly two thirds of the way there, when a rail thin devaronian lunged out from a dark ally, grabbing me by the collar and lifting me off my feet! He slammed me into the wall at his eye level, and my feet dangled in the air. He inhaled deeply through the nose, smelling me, and smiled, his fetid booze breath wafting out over his rotten teeth. He spoke in huttese, his voice reedy and rat like, "Now where's a nice bloody little morsel like you going so late at night? In a bit of trouble hhmmm?" His lips were wet with saliva at the smell of my blood, and I was quick to answer, also in huttese, "I'm headed to the slave quarters! I live there!" I squeaked out desperately.
Ironically, that gave him pause. Me being a slave meant I was owned by someone who could afford a slave. Someone who most likely could also afford to get revenge on someone via a Hutt sanctioned bounty on their head for destruction of "property".
Between the part of the city we were in, my clothes, and the direction I was going, I could tell he believed me. He hissed in frustration, his foul breath puffing out, nearly making me gag. After a moment, he dropped me roughly to the ground. "Lucky you, little snack, run along!" As I scrambled to my feet and got the hell out of there, he lunged with a snarl, chomping his teeth together, then cackling when I jumped in fright and fell on my ass. As I jumped back up and sprinted off towards home, he didn't pursue me. Even after I got a few blocks away, I could still hear him laughing.
As I jogged the last few blocks toward home, I took deep, shaky breaths to calm my racing heart, and wiped the tears of fear and embarrassment that were welling up in my eyes.
Fucking Tatooine! What a fun place! Watch the pod races! Shop for parts! But oh yeah, make sure to watch out for the fucking STREET CANNIBALS! We'd like to do something about them, but unfortunately, their activities are technically not illegal! What a shame!
I fucking hate it here! Once Amu and I are free, if I never see this sand crusted hell again it'll be too soon!
The slave district was full of large buildings that had many different dwellings built into each other. My building was a long line of two story shotgun homes, and I ran over to the fifth door. I pressed the 'open' button on the door control, which buzzed loudly, indicating it was locked. I was just about to press the mic button to call in, when the door slid open with a 'fwish', revealing the worried face of my mother, Shmi Skywalker
"Ani!" She called breathlessly, dropping to her knees in the sand and pulling me into a bone crushing hug, which I returned with gusto. Tears welled up in my eyes, and it was all I could do to say, "sorry Amu, didn't mean to worry you so bad"
She stood up once more, "None of that now, it's not your fault. You did wonderfully." She said, wiping tears from her eyes. She put her hand on my head, guiding me inside and shutting the door. It thankfully didn't come away red, as all the blood in my hair had dried, but she still recognized the feel and the look of it as I stepped inside into the light. She gasped in horror. I had made a solid effort on the truck to scrape the blood off my face, but I obviously didn't do a good enough job to hide it completely.
She bustled me over to the sonic dish scrubber, grabbing a kitchen chair along the way. "Sit!" She ordered as she got out the medkit from the kitchen drawer. I did as she asked, but also began protesting, "I'm fine mom! I'm not even injured at all!" She hummed noncommittally, "We'll see about that." She said, pulling the sonic scrubberhead off its rack and turning it on my hair. I winced. The scrubber itself wasn't painful, it was the same kind as the one in the 'fresher, but the blood had dried around my hair, molding to it, and the sonic scrubber was a lot less gentle in this situation than a water wash would be.
I continued protesting as she scrubbed the dried blood off my hair, gently feeling around on my scalp for a wound.
"I'm fine. I literally don't have any injuries. I'm not exaggerating."
Mom kept feeling around my scalp, a little rougher and more thoroughly now that the blood was off and I claimed I wasn't hurt. When she couldn't find anything, she looked at me, puzzled.
"Ani… where did the blood… whose blood is this?" She asked, a hint of worry and sadness in her face.
And it was no doubt it was a whose blood, not a what's blood. While native Tatooine creatures bled red like most animals of the galaxy, their blood had a very distinctive stench that wasn't present in offworlders. The fact that my blood didn't smell meant it came from one of the non native inhabitants, in other words, a sentient being.
I briefly considered lying, but if Amu and I couldn't trust each other, than we'd have no one. I'd tell her the truth.
Weeellll… the truth 'from a certain point of view' at least. I wanted to be believed after all. I wouldn't lie outright, but the whole 'your life is a movie' thing was a bit much.
"Ok, I'm not gonna lie, it is my blood."
Mom huffed in frustration and knelt in front of me, making eye contact. When she did this, I could feel a sort of connection between us. It was weak and vague, but I could slightly feel her emotions, and I had the feeling she could feel mine as well
"Ani. Are you hurt. At all. In any way."
I responded. "No mom I'm not. This is my blood but I'm not injured any more, I was healed. I was hurt. Hurt bad. But something brought me back. It said I have a job to do."
She looked at me in silence, as if contemplating something, and finally spoke.
"I believe you."
It was more than just words. I could feel her sincerity.
"Ever since you were born, I knew you destined for more… more than…" she gestured vaguely around, "all… this."
"Amu" I said. "I don't know anything about destiny or any of that garbage."
She looked affronted, but before she could scold me for irreverence, I continued, "but I do know that in 2 years, on the boonta eve after next, we will have the opportunity to gain our freedom if we play our cards right." At that, her eyes widened. "How?" She asked. I answered, "At that time, someone trustworthy will come. A Jedi. If we help him and his people out, they'll help us out in return. I know this for a fact, I've seen it happen. If we play this right, this time two years from now, we'll be leaving this planet as free beings."
She looked at me, misty eyed, as if not daring to believe it. But soon her expression steeled with equal parts hope and conviction. "What do we need to do?" She asked.
For a moment I was stunned. Just like that? The readiness she had to believe me, to trust me, almost brought tears of gratitude to my eyes.
"The most important thing," I answered, "is to secretly gain enough money to buy at least one of us. There are ways we can multiply the money, like betting on stuff I know the outcome to…"
I told her about the plan. I roughly outlined how it would go down, (minus the pod racing, as that was a sensitive subject right now) and she agreed that "the Jedi" (Qui Gon) was the most essential piece. It wouldn't be impossible for us to collect that much money and hide it from Watto. She had often dreamed of doing just that, all slaves did at some point. The major problem with this was the third party. A slave couldn't purchase themselves with 'their master's' money, so if they wanted to buy their freedom they would have to give the money to a free third party, trust that person to not run off with the money, and further trust that person to free their new slave once they completed the purchase. On Tatooine, finding such a kind and trustworthy person among the population was nothing more than a fantasy.
But a Jedi? That could work.
Mom knew a lot more about how Tatooine worked than I did, and the fact that she said that the plan was doable made my heart soar! It would be dangerous, but it wasn't out of our reach!
After we finished our conversation, it had become quite late, and so I was sent to bed. It took a while for the excitement to wear off, but I finally went to sleep.
In the morning we woke up early and each spent about five minutes in the fresher using the sonic scrubber. It didn't need soap, and worked on clothing just as well, so we went in fully dressed, and came out with clean clothes and bodies, setting off across town for the droid shop.
While this was normal for old Anakin, I found myself missing the ritual of a water shower in the morning. It represented private time, relaxation, and an opportunity to properly wake up. Of course I also found myself wondering how much such a thing would cost on Tatooine, which would be ridiculous.
I wonder if the Hutts take showers. Honestly, they probably don't, not on Tatooine at least. They seem more like a sponge bath via a servant type of being.
As my face scrunched up at the image of having to wash between a slugs 'folds', we finally arrived at the droid shop, and let ourselves in. Even with all of old Anakin's memories, I still got a kick out of the cool sci fi door whooshing open! Seeing it in real life was awesome ok?
Even this early in the morning, it was nice to be in the temperature controlled interior of the shop instead of outside. The interior of the droid shop had a high domed section in the middle of the ceiling that hung Watto's nest. We heard the buzzing of a sonic scrubber from up there, which meant Watto was up and getting ready.
We had agreed last night that no talk of the plan would happen at the droid shop, even if Watto wasn't there. While proper holocams weren't worth installing in the slave quarters, they were all over the droid shop and the scrap yard outside. They were fish eyeball types that were protectively encased in the same type of transparisteel used in starship windows. We had caught more than one thief on camera to the point people didn't steal from the scrapyard anymore for fear of a bounty on their head. It still happened from time to time, but even when wearing a disguise worked against the cameras, it didn't work against the automatic blaster turrets.
Mom went over behind the sales counter and started getting set up. Despite the fact that this was a droid shop, she often ended up doing most of the math and profit counting at the end of the day, and was responsible for the majority of sales. Customers with large purchases or angry troublemakers were turned over to Watto to take care of. Between the calculations, the expert haggling, the product inspection, and her mechanical skills, Mom basically ran the whole business with Watto only existing for his connections and to throw his weight around. Not to say that Watto -wasn't- skilled in those things, he was the one who started the business after all, he just hardly bothered to do any of them anymore.
While Mom was running the store, I was on main mechanic duty. I fixed the droids, assembled new products, and worked on any custom orders that anyone requested. Amu had taught me everything she knew about engineering and mechanical skills, and I had expanded on it through experimentation and instinct. The Old Anakin figured that he was a pretty good mechanic, but it wasn't until the merge between him and Rick did I realize just how much of a fucking genius Anakin Skywalker truly was.
When I had an idea, it was as if I could picture the parts in front of me with perfect clarity! I could perfectly remember all their functions and instinctively know when something would or wouldn't work before I even put it together. It all just made sense. It was relaxing to me. I wonder, how much will this understanding be enhanced with the force? I remember a comic where Vader saw a piece of wreckage people couldn't identify even with advanced machines, and instantly understood what it was, and rebuilt the whole thing in a matter of seconds using telekinesis, showing it to be a starfighter.
Even now that I was Anakin and had proof I was in Star Wars, I still had trouble believing that I could have fucking SUPERPOWERS. Holy shit I couldn't fucking wait!
Speaking of which…
What was stopping me?
I cleaned the dust out of droid knee joint I needed with a rag, and slotted it into place, considering my options. Luke in episode four tapped into the force by essentially wearing a blindfold and blocking projectiles he couldn't see. Was it really that easy to actively tap into the force? I know I subconsciously did it while pod racing, so I should be able to work from there. I closed my eyes and began to concentrate, searching for that calm sensation I had felt last night as I watched the sunset, and tried to get into the state of mind I got into while racing. Just as I began to feel it, I had a powerful hunch I was going to be hit in the head from behind! Like my body was running on autopilot, I reflexively ducked out of the way just in time for Watto's hand to sail through the spot my head was! I looked at him incredulously, "What was that for?" I asked in huttese.
He responded, also in huttese, "You were slowing down! Quit your daydreaming boy!" With that piece of glowing encouragement, I crushed down my anger, tabled the issue of tapping into the force for now, and got to work. But the more I thought about what just happened, the more it excited me! It was only to dodge a hit, but I had used the force! It was every geek's dream come true!
As I finished assembling the pit stop droid in front of me and booted it up to check it was functioning properly, I noticed Amu put into place the first part of the 'get money' phase of our plan. As she finished a sale, I could see her counting the wupiwupi coins, and while she stored the majority of them, I could see the brief moment where she pocketed some. It was expertly done, I only saw it happen because I was expecting it. I glanced discreetly over at Watto, but he was on a holocall with one of his sabacc buddies with his back turned, and didn't see it happen. I casually returned to my work, continuing calmly as if nothing was out of the ordinary, but I secretly marveled at her skill. The way she was positioned with her back to the holocam made very difficult to discern what she was doing, and the casualness of her actions wouldn't draw anyone's eye.
When we talked about the plan last night, it was brought up that the most obvious way to get money was for Mom, who did most of the finance work, to skim a little off the top. Slaves didn't often do this, as the punishment was obviously severe, but it was a risk we were willing to take.
The only problem with that was, while Watto didn't go over every sale with a fine tooth comb, he did briefly check over numbers at the end of every day. The amount of money we could get doing this would have to be small, or else he'd smell something fishy, and we would be caught. We did the math, and even if we did this every day for two years, we would only get up to about a third of what was needed to buy 'one of us' (mom).
Still, it was progress, and for now, Watto was none the wiser.
Suddenly laughing and shutting off his holocall, he fluttered over to us, obviously in a jolly mood. "Hehehe! I've got some good news you two! One of the big bets from the races finally paid up! I'll be going up to anchorhead tomorrow, and I'll be back after three days. You can keep the shop closed, so take the days for yourselves! Wish me luck tomorrow ehehehe!"
I responded back in huttese, "Nice! Hope you win big!" I didn't even have to fake the smile on my face, we didn't get days off very often, and three in a row? Watto must have made a killing in this year's race to be so lax. I got back to work, but smiled at the thought of free time. While the knee jerk reaction of Anakin would be to hang out with Kitster and Wald, my two friends, I had other things to do. Mom skimming off the top of Watto's profits was one thing, but I needed to pull my weight too! I was going to have find a good disguise so I could go around freely. We also needed a secure place to stash the money we were saving, and if I could find a side gig along the way, even better!
The backfire of a distinctive run down speeder out back by the scrap yard pulled me out of my thoughts. Oh cool! The Jawas were here! They always had great stuff to sell Watto, it was how we got a lot of our specialty items! They kept coming back because in addition to paying a fair price for large items they weren't able sell to farmers, Watto was always able to get his hands on specialty food items, like stinky cheeses and raw mudhorn eggs. The Jawas always went nuts for stuff like that, so Watto always got first pick of their wares.
Watto went outside to negotiate, and as I listened to their twittering voices, I realized something! Could I disguise myself as a Jawa?! Wanting to make sure I was right, I went over and looked out the window to the scrapyard. Holy shit! Judging by their height and build, I was about the same size as they were! The clothes would be easy enough to replicate, and their dark breathing masks they wore under their hoods would be pretty easy too! Jawas often kept to themselves, and people rarely payed attention to their activities! It was perfect!
For the rest of the day I worked, alternating between working on droids inside and engines out in the scrapyard. Whatever I saw any good parts I could get away with taking, I set them aside to take home. Since a lot of the time the things I tinkered with ended up becoming new products that made Watto money, he was pretty lax about what I could take home, so long as it wasn't super expensive or unique. A good amount of the scrap we acquired ended up being smelted for raw ingots anyway, so taking parts here and there was totally fine.
Finally, when the suns started getting low in the sky, Watto told us to wrap up our work and close the droid shop. I couldn't help pumping my arm and whooping in excitement, and I scurried around as fast as I could, making sure everything was in order.
As we walked home just as the suns were setting, I didn't make the mistake of zoning out like I had done last night. I paid close attention to my surroundings, and made sure to listen to the force for any danger. As I was doing this, I noticed that whenever I got a bad feeling about a certain alley or pathway, Amu would avoid it before I had the chance to warn her.
Between this, and the fact that she seemed to be able to sense when I was telling the truth, I had to conclude that she had some level of force sensitivity. She obviously wasn't trained, and probably didn't even know what she was doing was 'using the force' or anything like that.
So far, other than the deep connection I had briefly achieved out in the desert, my experience with the force didn't feel like some otherworldly communication with a vast cosmic energy of unknowable power. Ironically, it usually felt much more mundane. Like getting a hunch. A lucky reaction. A feeling. When I wasn't actively reaching for it, drawing upon it, its effects didn't really come across to me as being something 'special' or 'super'.
It made me wonder just how many people the Jedi actually miss. How many folks go throughout their lives 'listening to their gut' not knowing that they are literally piercing the veil of time and perceiving the future in their subconscious. Never even considering that the literal energy of the universe is flowing through them, and that they are capable of so much more.
As we reached our dwelling, Amu shut and locked the door behind us. We counted the money she had gotten, and hid it away in a temporary hiding place. Quickly, we prepared for bed, but it wasn't yet time for sleep. As we sat together in sleeping clothes in our hovel carved from sandstone, Amu told me our stories.
We didn't speak in galactic basic, as that was the trader language from the stars. It was useful and inoffensive, but it wasn't ours.
We didn't speak in huttese either, that was the language of our captors, our oppressors.
We spoke Amatakkan, the language of the Amavikka people. It was the slave language. It was our language.
Amu told of Ar-amu, the mother of mothers. Of Lukkah and Leiyah, but most of all, she told of Ekkreth. The shape changer, the sky walker, the slave that makes free. It was after Ekkreth that Amu was named, and from her I was given it as well.
As she spoke, I realized I had something in common with the old Anakin. Ekkreth stories were my favorites! In them, whenever Depur (slave owners/traders) created a new means to keep the slaves bound, Ekkreth would always find a way to help them to freedom. A secret to teach, a strength to share, a shape to take. Ekkreth stories especially taught the Amavikka that though there were a thousand ways to be enslaved, there were a hundred thousand ways to be free!
We Amavikka know that the greatest weakness of a slave is also our greatest strength. Our powerlessness. Because of the explosives installed in our bodies, there can be instant deadly consequences doled out for any infraction detected from anywhere in the entire star system.
Because of this, we are deemed powerless, incapable of rebellion. And in a way, we are. However, because of this power our masters have over us, they have a supreme overconfidence in regards to how they deal with us. There were no cameras in our dwelling, no listening devices, no regular searches of our possessions. When we were not needed to work, we were generally left to our own devices with a bare minimum allowance for food and clothing.
There was an Amavikka saying that summed it up perfectly:
The Depur view us as lesser, as incapable.
We are not.
Depur view us as broken, as rightfully conquered and easily owned.
We are not!
They themselves are cowardly, and expect us to be cowardly as well, for how could we be greater than they? They think we will shrink before threat of danger, of death, to give up what makes us people!
WE! WILL! NOT!
We ARE people! We have stories! We have names! We have WILL!
And someday… we will ALL be free.
It was known as the battle cry of Ekkreth, and it was said that it was originally a rallying speech for a slave revolt that happened a long time ago. While it wasn't part of the main Ekkreth stories, which probably meant it was a more recent/real event, it was still often attributed to Ekkreth due to the nature of the words.
As I got into bed, I sighed. The fact that slavery was still rampant meant whatever rebellion it had been from had failed. Still, it lit a fire in people's soul, and that's why we remembered it. Why we passed it down.
I pulled the rough blanket up to my chin and rolled onto my side, slipping into dreamland.
I may have been a slave, but because of Amu's stories, when I finally fell asleep, it was with thoughts of freedom.
A/N: This chapter may not have been as exciting as the last two, but I think it's important to establish a day in the life of Anakin Skywalker before blasting off into major events and time skips. He works from sunrise to sunset, is beaten if he gets distracted or slows down, and has to maintain constant awareness of potential dangers to his life, and all of this at the tender age of 7.
For Anakin, the days are a slog, but I hope reading this chapter wasn't one!
If you want to hear the stories Shmi is telling our boy Ani, check out the Double Agent Vader series by Fialleril.
Since I already recommended that series in the last chapter, I have a new fanfic recommendation for this chapter!
The Desert Storm by Blue_Sunshine (Ao3 series)
In addition to using the DAV Tatooine slave culture as well, it's one of the best Star Wars fics I've ever read, and features a post order 66 obi wan accidentally traveling back in time, and taking his own teenage self as a padawan instead of Qui-Gon Jinn, among other things. It is over a million words long and in my opinion some of the best Star Wars Content currently in existence. If you are a Star Wars fan, and haven't read it already, do yourself a MASSIVE favor and check it out.
(P.O.V. Anakin)
Watto's hover truck was built for power, not speed, so it was about an hour until we got back into town. When we got back to the droid shop, Watto pulled into the scrapyard and parked, the vehicle settling down onto the ground. I stepped off the flat bed, and turned to Watto, who had fluttered out of the cab. He spoke to me in huttese, "Go home boy, and be quick about it. That mother of yours is probably pulling out her hair hehehe!" he snapped his blue fingers, and the PL droids got to work unloading the wreckage.
I didn't need to be told twice! I ran off into the dark of the night, towards the slave district. I had made it nearly two thirds of the way there, when a rail thin devaronian lunged out from a dark ally, grabbing me by the collar and lifting me off my feet! He slammed me into the wall at his eye level, and my feet dangled in the air. He inhaled deeply through the nose, smelling me, and smiled, his fetid booze breath wafting out over his rotten teeth. He spoke in huttese, his voice reedy and rat like, "Now where's a nice bloody little morsel like you going so late at night? In a bit of trouble hhmmm?" His lips were wet with saliva at the smell of my blood, and I was quick to answer, also in huttese, "I'm headed to the slave quarters! I live there!" I squeaked out desperately.
Ironically, that gave him pause. Me being a slave meant I was owned by someone who could afford a slave. Someone who most likely could also afford to get revenge on someone via a Hutt sanctioned bounty on their head for destruction of "property".
Between the part of the city we were in, my clothes, and the direction I was going, I could tell he believed me. He hissed in frustration, his foul breath puffing out, nearly making me gag. After a moment, he dropped me roughly to the ground. "Lucky you, little snack, run along!" As I scrambled to my feet and got the hell out of there, he lunged with a snarl, chomping his teeth together, then cackling when I jumped in fright and fell on my ass. As I jumped back up and sprinted off towards home, he didn't pursue me. Even after I got a few blocks away, I could still hear him laughing.
As I jogged the last few blocks toward home, I took deep, shaky breaths to calm my racing heart, and wiped the tears of fear and embarrassment that were welling up in my eyes.
Fucking Tatooine! What a fun place! Watch the pod races! Shop for parts! But oh yeah, make sure to watch out for the fucking STREET CANNIBALS! We'd like to do something about them, but unfortunately, their activities are technically not illegal! What a shame!
I fucking hate it here! Once Amu and I are free, if I never see this sand crusted hell again it'll be too soon!
The slave district was full of large buildings that had many different dwellings built into each other. My building was a long line of two story shotgun homes, and I ran over to the fifth door. I pressed the 'open' button on the door control, which buzzed loudly, indicating it was locked. I was just about to press the mic button to call in, when the door slid open with a 'fwish', revealing the worried face of my mother, Shmi Skywalker
"Ani!" She called breathlessly, dropping to her knees in the sand and pulling me into a bone crushing hug, which I returned with gusto. Tears welled up in my eyes, and it was all I could do to say, "sorry Amu, didn't mean to worry you so bad"
She stood up once more, "None of that now, it's not your fault. You did wonderfully." She said, wiping tears from her eyes. She put her hand on my head, guiding me inside and shutting the door. It thankfully didn't come away red, as all the blood in my hair had dried, but she still recognized the feel and the look of it as I stepped inside into the light. She gasped in horror. I had made a solid effort on the truck to scrape the blood off my face, but I obviously didn't do a good enough job to hide it completely.
She bustled me over to the sonic dish scrubber, grabbing a kitchen chair along the way. "Sit!" She ordered as she got out the medkit from the kitchen drawer. I did as she asked, but also began protesting, "I'm fine mom! I'm not even injured at all!" She hummed noncommittally, "We'll see about that." She said, pulling the sonic scrubberhead off its rack and turning it on my hair. I winced. The scrubber itself wasn't painful, it was the same kind as the one in the 'fresher, but the blood had dried around my hair, molding to it, and the sonic scrubber was a lot less gentle in this situation than a water wash would be.
I continued protesting as she scrubbed the dried blood off my hair, gently feeling around on my scalp for a wound.
"I'm fine. I literally don't have any injuries. I'm not exaggerating."
Mom kept feeling around my scalp, a little rougher and more thoroughly now that the blood was off and I claimed I wasn't hurt. When she couldn't find anything, she looked at me, puzzled.
"Ani… where did the blood… whose blood is this?" She asked, a hint of worry and sadness in her face.
And it was no doubt it was a whose blood, not a what's blood. While native Tatooine creatures bled red like most animals of the galaxy, their blood had a very distinctive stench that wasn't present in offworlders. The fact that my blood didn't smell meant it came from one of the non native inhabitants, in other words, a sentient being.
I briefly considered lying, but if Amu and I couldn't trust each other, than we'd have no one. I'd tell her the truth.
Weeellll… the truth 'from a certain point of view' at least. I wanted to be believed after all. I wouldn't lie outright, but the whole 'your life is a movie' thing was a bit much.
"Ok, I'm not gonna lie, it is my blood."
Mom huffed in frustration and knelt in front of me, making eye contact. When she did this, I could feel a sort of connection between us. It was weak and vague, but I could slightly feel her emotions, and I had the feeling she could feel mine as well
"Ani. Are you hurt. At all. In any way."
I responded. "No mom I'm not. This is my blood but I'm not injured any more, I was healed. I was hurt. Hurt bad. But something brought me back. It said I have a job to do."
She looked at me in silence, as if contemplating something, and finally spoke.
"I believe you."
It was more than just words. I could feel her sincerity.
"Ever since you were born, I knew you destined for more… more than…" she gestured vaguely around, "all… this."
"Amu" I said. "I don't know anything about destiny or any of that garbage."
She looked affronted, but before she could scold me for irreverence, I continued, "but I do know that in 2 years, on the boonta eve after next, we will have the opportunity to gain our freedom if we play our cards right." At that, her eyes widened. "How?" She asked. I answered, "At that time, someone trustworthy will come. A Jedi. If we help him and his people out, they'll help us out in return. I know this for a fact, I've seen it happen. If we play this right, this time two years from now, we'll be leaving this planet as free beings."
She looked at me, misty eyed, as if not daring to believe it. But soon her expression steeled with equal parts hope and conviction. "What do we need to do?" She asked.
For a moment I was stunned. Just like that? The readiness she had to believe me, to trust me, almost brought tears of gratitude to my eyes.
"The most important thing," I answered, "is to secretly gain enough money to buy at least one of us. There are ways we can multiply the money, like betting on stuff I know the outcome to…"
I told her about the plan. I roughly outlined how it would go down, (minus the pod racing, as that was a sensitive subject right now) and she agreed that "the Jedi" (Qui Gon) was the most essential piece. It wouldn't be impossible for us to collect that much money and hide it from Watto. She had often dreamed of doing just that, all slaves did at some point. The major problem with this was the third party. A slave couldn't purchase themselves with 'their master's' money, so if they wanted to buy their freedom they would have to give the money to a free third party, trust that person to not run off with the money, and further trust that person to free their new slave once they completed the purchase. On Tatooine, finding such a kind and trustworthy person among the population was nothing more than a fantasy.
But a Jedi? That could work.
Mom knew a lot more about how Tatooine worked than I did, and the fact that she said that the plan was doable made my heart soar! It would be dangerous, but it wasn't out of our reach!
After we finished our conversation, it had become quite late, and so I was sent to bed. It took a while for the excitement to wear off, but I finally went to sleep.
In the morning we woke up early and each spent about five minutes in the fresher using the sonic scrubber. It didn't need soap, and worked on clothing just as well, so we went in fully dressed, and came out with clean clothes and bodies, setting off across town for the droid shop.
While this was normal for old Anakin, I found myself missing the ritual of a water shower in the morning. It represented private time, relaxation, and an opportunity to properly wake up. Of course I also found myself wondering how much such a thing would cost on Tatooine, which would be ridiculous.
I wonder if the Hutts take showers. Honestly, they probably don't, not on Tatooine at least. They seem more like a sponge bath via a servant type of being.
As my face scrunched up at the image of having to wash between a slugs 'folds', we finally arrived at the droid shop, and let ourselves in. Even with all of old Anakin's memories, I still got a kick out of the cool sci fi door whooshing open! Seeing it in real life was awesome ok?
Even this early in the morning, it was nice to be in the temperature controlled interior of the shop instead of outside. The interior of the droid shop had a high domed section in the middle of the ceiling that hung Watto's nest. We heard the buzzing of a sonic scrubber from up there, which meant Watto was up and getting ready.
We had agreed last night that no talk of the plan would happen at the droid shop, even if Watto wasn't there. While proper holocams weren't worth installing in the slave quarters, they were all over the droid shop and the scrap yard outside. They were fish eyeball types that were protectively encased in the same type of transparisteel used in starship windows. We had caught more than one thief on camera to the point people didn't steal from the scrapyard anymore for fear of a bounty on their head. It still happened from time to time, but even when wearing a disguise worked against the cameras, it didn't work against the automatic blaster turrets.
Mom went over behind the sales counter and started getting set up. Despite the fact that this was a droid shop, she often ended up doing most of the math and profit counting at the end of the day, and was responsible for the majority of sales. Customers with large purchases or angry troublemakers were turned over to Watto to take care of. Between the calculations, the expert haggling, the product inspection, and her mechanical skills, Mom basically ran the whole business with Watto only existing for his connections and to throw his weight around. Not to say that Watto -wasn't- skilled in those things, he was the one who started the business after all, he just hardly bothered to do any of them anymore.
While Mom was running the store, I was on main mechanic duty. I fixed the droids, assembled new products, and worked on any custom orders that anyone requested. Amu had taught me everything she knew about engineering and mechanical skills, and I had expanded on it through experimentation and instinct. The Old Anakin figured that he was a pretty good mechanic, but it wasn't until the merge between him and Rick did I realize just how much of a fucking genius Anakin Skywalker truly was.
When I had an idea, it was as if I could picture the parts in front of me with perfect clarity! I could perfectly remember all their functions and instinctively know when something would or wouldn't work before I even put it together. It all just made sense. It was relaxing to me. I wonder, how much will this understanding be enhanced with the force? I remember a comic where Vader saw a piece of wreckage people couldn't identify even with advanced machines, and instantly understood what it was, and rebuilt the whole thing in a matter of seconds using telekinesis, showing it to be a starfighter.
Even now that I was Anakin and had proof I was in Star Wars, I still had trouble believing that I could have fucking SUPERPOWERS. Holy shit I couldn't fucking wait!
Speaking of which…
What was stopping me?
I cleaned the dust out of droid knee joint I needed with a rag, and slotted it into place, considering my options. Luke in episode four tapped into the force by essentially wearing a blindfold and blocking projectiles he couldn't see. Was it really that easy to actively tap into the force? I know I subconsciously did it while pod racing, so I should be able to work from there. I closed my eyes and began to concentrate, searching for that calm sensation I had felt last night as I watched the sunset, and tried to get into the state of mind I got into while racing. Just as I began to feel it, I had a powerful hunch I was going to be hit in the head from behind! Like my body was running on autopilot, I reflexively ducked out of the way just in time for Watto's hand to sail through the spot my head was! I looked at him incredulously, "What was that for?" I asked in huttese.
He responded, also in huttese, "You were slowing down! Quit your daydreaming boy!" With that piece of glowing encouragement, I crushed down my anger, tabled the issue of tapping into the force for now, and got to work. But the more I thought about what just happened, the more it excited me! It was only to dodge a hit, but I had used the force! It was every geek's dream come true!
As I finished assembling the pit stop droid in front of me and booted it up to check it was functioning properly, I noticed Amu put into place the first part of the 'get money' phase of our plan. As she finished a sale, I could see her counting the wupiwupi coins, and while she stored the majority of them, I could see the brief moment where she pocketed some. It was expertly done, I only saw it happen because I was expecting it. I glanced discreetly over at Watto, but he was on a holocall with one of his sabacc buddies with his back turned, and didn't see it happen. I casually returned to my work, continuing calmly as if nothing was out of the ordinary, but I secretly marveled at her skill. The way she was positioned with her back to the holocam made very difficult to discern what she was doing, and the casualness of her actions wouldn't draw anyone's eye.
When we talked about the plan last night, it was brought up that the most obvious way to get money was for Mom, who did most of the finance work, to skim a little off the top. Slaves didn't often do this, as the punishment was obviously severe, but it was a risk we were willing to take.
The only problem with that was, while Watto didn't go over every sale with a fine tooth comb, he did briefly check over numbers at the end of every day. The amount of money we could get doing this would have to be small, or else he'd smell something fishy, and we would be caught. We did the math, and even if we did this every day for two years, we would only get up to about a third of what was needed to buy 'one of us' (mom).
Still, it was progress, and for now, Watto was none the wiser.
Suddenly laughing and shutting off his holocall, he fluttered over to us, obviously in a jolly mood. "Hehehe! I've got some good news you two! One of the big bets from the races finally paid up! I'll be going up to anchorhead tomorrow, and I'll be back after three days. You can keep the shop closed, so take the days for yourselves! Wish me luck tomorrow ehehehe!"
I responded back in huttese, "Nice! Hope you win big!" I didn't even have to fake the smile on my face, we didn't get days off very often, and three in a row? Watto must have made a killing in this year's race to be so lax. I got back to work, but smiled at the thought of free time. While the knee jerk reaction of Anakin would be to hang out with Kitster and Wald, my two friends, I had other things to do. Mom skimming off the top of Watto's profits was one thing, but I needed to pull my weight too! I was going to have find a good disguise so I could go around freely. We also needed a secure place to stash the money we were saving, and if I could find a side gig along the way, even better!
The backfire of a distinctive run down speeder out back by the scrap yard pulled me out of my thoughts. Oh cool! The Jawas were here! They always had great stuff to sell Watto, it was how we got a lot of our specialty items! They kept coming back because in addition to paying a fair price for large items they weren't able sell to farmers, Watto was always able to get his hands on specialty food items, like stinky cheeses and raw mudhorn eggs. The Jawas always went nuts for stuff like that, so Watto always got first pick of their wares.
Watto went outside to negotiate, and as I listened to their twittering voices, I realized something! Could I disguise myself as a Jawa?! Wanting to make sure I was right, I went over and looked out the window to the scrapyard. Holy shit! Judging by their height and build, I was about the same size as they were! The clothes would be easy enough to replicate, and their dark breathing masks they wore under their hoods would be pretty easy too! Jawas often kept to themselves, and people rarely payed attention to their activities! It was perfect!
For the rest of the day I worked, alternating between working on droids inside and engines out in the scrapyard. Whatever I saw any good parts I could get away with taking, I set them aside to take home. Since a lot of the time the things I tinkered with ended up becoming new products that made Watto money, he was pretty lax about what I could take home, so long as it wasn't super expensive or unique. A good amount of the scrap we acquired ended up being smelted for raw ingots anyway, so taking parts here and there was totally fine.
Finally, when the suns started getting low in the sky, Watto told us to wrap up our work and close the droid shop. I couldn't help pumping my arm and whooping in excitement, and I scurried around as fast as I could, making sure everything was in order.
As we walked home just as the suns were setting, I didn't make the mistake of zoning out like I had done last night. I paid close attention to my surroundings, and made sure to listen to the force for any danger. As I was doing this, I noticed that whenever I got a bad feeling about a certain alley or pathway, Amu would avoid it before I had the chance to warn her.
Between this, and the fact that she seemed to be able to sense when I was telling the truth, I had to conclude that she had some level of force sensitivity. She obviously wasn't trained, and probably didn't even know what she was doing was 'using the force' or anything like that.
So far, other than the deep connection I had briefly achieved out in the desert, my experience with the force didn't feel like some otherworldly communication with a vast cosmic energy of unknowable power. Ironically, it usually felt much more mundane. Like getting a hunch. A lucky reaction. A feeling. When I wasn't actively reaching for it, drawing upon it, its effects didn't really come across to me as being something 'special' or 'super'.
It made me wonder just how many people the Jedi actually miss. How many folks go throughout their lives 'listening to their gut' not knowing that they are literally piercing the veil of time and perceiving the future in their subconscious. Never even considering that the literal energy of the universe is flowing through them, and that they are capable of so much more.
As we reached our dwelling, Amu shut and locked the door behind us. We counted the money she had gotten, and hid it away in a temporary hiding place. Quickly, we prepared for bed, but it wasn't yet time for sleep. As we sat together in sleeping clothes in our hovel carved from sandstone, Amu told me our stories.
We didn't speak in galactic basic, as that was the trader language from the stars. It was useful and inoffensive, but it wasn't ours.
We didn't speak in huttese either, that was the language of our captors, our oppressors.
We spoke Amatakkan, the language of the Amavikka people. It was the slave language. It was our language.
Amu told of Ar-amu, the mother of mothers. Of Lukkah and Leiyah, but most of all, she told of Ekkreth. The shape changer, the sky walker, the slave that makes free. It was after Ekkreth that Amu was named, and from her I was given it as well.
As she spoke, I realized I had something in common with the old Anakin. Ekkreth stories were my favorites! In them, whenever Depur (slave owners/traders) created a new means to keep the slaves bound, Ekkreth would always find a way to help them to freedom. A secret to teach, a strength to share, a shape to take. Ekkreth stories especially taught the Amavikka that though there were a thousand ways to be enslaved, there were a hundred thousand ways to be free!
We Amavikka know that the greatest weakness of a slave is also our greatest strength. Our powerlessness. Because of the explosives installed in our bodies, there can be instant deadly consequences doled out for any infraction detected from anywhere in the entire star system.
Because of this, we are deemed powerless, incapable of rebellion. And in a way, we are. However, because of this power our masters have over us, they have a supreme overconfidence in regards to how they deal with us. There were no cameras in our dwelling, no listening devices, no regular searches of our possessions. When we were not needed to work, we were generally left to our own devices with a bare minimum allowance for food and clothing.
There was an Amavikka saying that summed it up perfectly:
The Depur view us as lesser, as incapable.
We are not.
Depur view us as broken, as rightfully conquered and easily owned.
We are not!
They themselves are cowardly, and expect us to be cowardly as well, for how could we be greater than they? They think we will shrink before threat of danger, of death, to give up what makes us people!
WE! WILL! NOT!
We ARE people! We have stories! We have names! We have WILL!
And someday… we will ALL be free.
It was known as the battle cry of Ekkreth, and it was said that it was originally a rallying speech for a slave revolt that happened a long time ago. While it wasn't part of the main Ekkreth stories, which probably meant it was a more recent/real event, it was still often attributed to Ekkreth due to the nature of the words.
As I got into bed, I sighed. The fact that slavery was still rampant meant whatever rebellion it had been from had failed. Still, it lit a fire in people's soul, and that's why we remembered it. Why we passed it down.
I pulled the rough blanket up to my chin and rolled onto my side, slipping into dreamland.
I may have been a slave, but because of Amu's stories, when I finally fell asleep, it was with thoughts of freedom.
A/N: This chapter may not have been as exciting as the last two, but I think it's important to establish a day in the life of Anakin Skywalker before blasting off into major events and time skips. He works from sunrise to sunset, is beaten if he gets distracted or slows down, and has to maintain constant awareness of potential dangers to his life, and all of this at the tender age of 7.
For Anakin, the days are a slog, but I hope reading this chapter wasn't one!
If you want to hear the stories Shmi is telling our boy Ani, check out the Double Agent Vader series by Fialleril.
Since I already recommended that series in the last chapter, I have a new fanfic recommendation for this chapter!
The Desert Storm by Blue_Sunshine (Ao3 series)
In addition to using the DAV Tatooine slave culture as well, it's one of the best Star Wars fics I've ever read, and features a post order 66 obi wan accidentally traveling back in time, and taking his own teenage self as a padawan instead of Qui-Gon Jinn, among other things. It is over a million words long and in my opinion some of the best Star Wars Content currently in existence. If you are a Star Wars fan, and haven't read it already, do yourself a MASSIVE favor and check it out.
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The Importance of Proper Sheilding
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2021
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- 15
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- 4
I woke up with the suns streaming the first light of the morning through the small window in my room, and a jolt of fear ran through me! The sun was up?! We're late!
I was out of bed and was halfway to the fresher before I remembered that Watto was away, and we had the day off.
A smile spread on my face, "Heh. Oh yeah!" I sighed in contentment and returned to my bed. I tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use. I had the body of a restless child, and I simply had too much energy! Getting up, I went over to moms room and heard her gentle snoring through the door. I briefly considered making breakfast for the both of us, but we were all out of cooking ingredients and only had bland nutrient blocks left. There wasn't much I could do with just those, they didn't require much prep. I grabbed one, filled my water bottle with my morning water ration, and returned to my room. My room was quite small, only with enough room for my child sized bed and a small stretch of floor beside it. I sat on the floor with my back against the wall and had a bland breakfast, making sure not to spill even a drop of water or a crumb of food.
After I was done, I crossed my legs and rested my hands on my knees in what I thought was a good enough 'meditation pose'.
It was time. While I was pretty worried about accidentally drawing on the dark side and thus ruining my chances with the Jedi/driving myself to psychopathic insanity, the truth of the matter was that force was too much of an advantage to hold back from. I needed the power if I wanted to save my Mom. I would just have to be careful to not use it offensively or pull on it in anger or passion until I found myself a proper teacher. It shouldn't be that difficult. I could handle it.
I breathed deeply, in through the nose then out through the mouth. Completely fill the lungs with each inhale, completely empty them with each exhale.
Reaching for that feeling I had tapped into back in the desert, my mind opened once again, and I could feel the force flowing through me. I marveled at how something so powerful felt so… gentle.
I slowly opened my eyes, maintaining my active connection with the force. Reaching out my hand towards my parts pile in the corner, I tried to 'command' with my thoughts for one of the parts to fly into my hand. 'Summon.' I commanded mentally.
Nothing.
I pictured an invisible hand picking up a power converter and bringing it to me.
Again, nothing happened.
I felt frustration, and the force seemed disrupted by that. Like it was less gentle and more.. sharp.
Freaked out by this, I tried to calm myself and focus on my breathing, but the more hostile and violent the force felt, the more terrified I was of the dark side effecting me, and the more I fueled my connection to it. My senses expanded, and I could hear foul whispers of death, extortion, and slavery from all around me. I could feel the emotions and intentions of the scum and villainy that populated Mos espa, and the psychic screams of their victims crying out in despair and bitter hatred.
I opened my mouth, but I couldn't scream, choking like there was no more air in my lungs. I felt like I was drowning, like there was a dark pressure crushing down around me, whispering to be let in. To be used. Just once.
I could end it all. The pain, the savagery, the disorder. Those so called people out there?! I could break them. Force them all to heel. I just needed to claim the power. I just needed to let in the dark. I could be free right now! What was the power of an explosive transmitter compared to the force?! Nothing! Surely I would survive it even if it was activated!
The reasons for resisting were wearing thin in my mind. The pressure was increasing, and I knew I couldn't last much longer.
I'm not sure I wanted to.
I was doubled over, choking and gasping, my fingernails digging bloody tracks down my knees, when salvation arrived.
Shmi Skywalker, mother of the fucking century, came bursting into my room with bed head and manic eyes, slid down onto the floor, and threw her arms around me.
Her presence in the force was like a beacon of light, and as I focused on it, I could feel her energy wrapping around me like a gentle cloak, and as it did, the whispers subsided. I sucked in great gasping breaths, and she held me tight, physically and with her presence in the force.
As we connected in the force, I saw snippets of memory. I saw how as a young girl owned by Gardulla the Hutt, she had wished with all her heart to be unremarkable, unnoticed, safe. I saw how she had worn those desires like a cloak, and how, when she was particularly focused, people's eyes seemed to slide over her, sometimes not even realizing there was a person there at all.
It was this instinctive cloak of protection she wrapped around me now, and as she did, the darkness from the minds of the scum of Tatooine seemed to flow harmlessly around us, not finding anything to cling on to. Slowly, the pressure and whispers subsided, and the force settled back into a neutral state. I felt hidden in the force.
I felt safe.
I took more deep shuddering breaths, and pressed my face into her shoulder, silently crying tears of relief. Softly, Amu spoke. "Shhh Ani… it's alright." She rocked back and forth, humming a soothing tune.
Finally, when I had calmed down somewhat, she spoke again. "Ani… what was that? What happened? You felt…" she trailed off, not sure how to put her thoughts into words.
I spoke up, telling her what I had been doing, what I was feeling and how I could sense her protecting me.
She responded, "could this happen again? How do we stop it?"
"I need to learn how to do what you're doing. How to hide, how to shield myself." I answered.
She had never thought of it as a 'technique' per say, but as I walked her through what I was feeling, she began to be consciously aware of the force.
We talked back and forth, helping each other, and finally, I could produce the 'notice me not' shielding without assistance. I had the feeling it would have an even stronger effect now that we were aware of it. After checking a final time that I was alright, she went into the kitchen area to grab a nutrient block and some water for herself.
As she was getting breakfast, I looked down at the hand I had been trying to summon the power converter to.
Commanding the force with mental words didn't work, and imagining a physical image didn't work either.
The 'notice me not' field didn't use either of those things. It worked on… desire? No. Focus. Amu focused on a feeling of undetectability and safety, and her focus determined her reality.
I stretched out my hand again, making sure that my newly acquired shields were up, and focused. I had to believe that the power converter could be summoned. That it was possible. The force flowed through me, and I could sense my connection to the part on the floor.
It twitched, sliding closer to me.
I focused, trusting it was possible with the force.
It flew up into my hand with a small smack, and I fumbled in surprise, nearly dropping it.
Holy shit!
I opened my hand with the power converter resting on my palm, and focused with greater certainty. It was much easier to believe this time, After all, if it happened once, it could surely happen again!
The power converter floated upwards, levitating a few inches above my hand. I could sense how the force was flowing through me, and how it was interacting with the part. As the certainty that what I was doing was actually possible increased, it became easier and easier to manipulate the object, and I carefully weaved it through my splayed fingers without touching them.
A wide, joyful grin stretched across my face.
"Wizard!"
After I experimented with telekinesis a bit more, Amu finished her breakfast and we went to the market district. Keeping my shields up was starting to get tiring, so I experimented a bit and found something interesting. The technique had two major functions, safety and stealth. If I only focused on keeping other people's dark emotions out, but didn't make an effort to enhance my stealth, it was much less tiring to maintain. While I didn't know exactly why this was the case, I think it's probably because I wasn't constantly emitting the necessary energy for a AOE mind trick.
Whenever we would get anything, Amu would haggle for it, and I could sense the emotions of the vendors, and with humans/near humans I could even sometimes get a sense what they were thinking about, or if they were lying, and about what.
I briefly considered trying to mind trick someone into giving us a better deal on water, but quickly discounted the idea. Using the force to 'fly under the radar' was one thing, but directly influencing someone's behavior to make them do something they would never have done otherwise was just… I don't know. It left a bad taste in my mouth. Besides, knowing when someone was lying was enough of an advantage.
Nutrient blocks did the job of fueling our bodies, but they were slightly bitter and not very appetizing. Because of this, we often bought ingredients from the market to cook meals with. As Amu walked over to a produce stand to buy some pallies, she sent me over to a bantha milk stand with some money to get a small wheel of herb cheese.
While I was looking to try and find the one Amu wanted, a girl about my age came up to me and stared over my shoulder, watching what I was doing. As you can imagine, this made me nervous and a little irritated. When I had finally turned to tell her off, she spoke before I could get a word in.
"Hi!" She chirped cheerfully.
"Uhh… yeah. Hi." I responded.
"My name is Beru. Beru Whitesun. My folks own this stand. Are you a slave?"
I was thrown by her bluntness, so it took me a few seconds to realize just who I was talking to. After I processed meeting another 'canon character' as a real person, I responded in the typical fashion.
"I'm a person, and my name is Anakin. I want to buy some herb cheese. You got any?"
"Right there" she pointed into the booth. "I never said you weren't a person." She continued, "I asked if you're slave. I'm just curious." As I went and got a small cheese wheel, I tried to brush her off, but she kept following me.
"You're certainly dressed like a slave."
At this I looked down at my rough clothes and flushed in embarrassment. "Yeah? Maybe I am. What's it to you?" She cleared her throat obnoxiously, and I finally noticed she was subtly pointing to a symbol carved into the side of one of the shelves. It was a red bird, the sign of Ekkreth, the shape changer! It was used to signify members of 'the path' which was basically the Star Wars version of the Underground Railroad. My eyes widened slightly before I regained my composure, and falsely adopted my earlier irritated tone, but spoke in Amatakkan, holding up the cheese wheel as if I was bargaining.
"My mother and I both were born slaves. Our transmitters were placed when we were infants, between the heart and the spine. It would take more than a burnt knife and a wet cloth in a back alley to free us."
She responded in Amatakkan, a look of pity in her eyes that pissed me off. "I'm so sorry. My family just recently moved here, I thought…"
I cut her off, switching to huttese "I might not be a… customer, but I do know some people who could use your family's services. How much is this cheese?"
She blinked at the non sequitur and the language change, but then realized what I was doing.
"Really?" She responded, "we have a scanner to find foreign objects, in the cheese of course, and we will be checking people's health at midnight tonight behind the mod shop three blocks west of here. Just that wheel? That'll be 11 wupiwupi."
I threw up my hands dramatically, "11?! There's no way this cheese is worth any more than 5!"
While I outwardly continued arguing on the price of cheese, inside I was smiling a shark toothed grin. The Whitesuns were locating and removing slave-chips tonight! While all of the hutt's personal slaves (including Amu and I) had chips that would be lethal to remove without a dedicated medical bay, those slaves that were captured as adults or by third parties were different.
Instead of a costly surgery, they had their chips quickly installed by a device similar in appearance to an epi pen, known as a 'punch needle'. This usually done with the victim unconscious. They weren't nearly as deep or as dangerous to remove, and the only obstacle to removing it was figuring out where it was in the body. I'm sure Amu knew several people with those, who could taste freedom tonight! And since we didn't have work tomorrow, we could stay up as late as we needed without arousing suspicion at work.
After we got home, I talked to Amu about what had happened with Beru. Wide eyed, she kissed me on the cheek and immediately went to go share the news to the people who could take advantage of it.
While Amu was doing her preparations, I decided to do some of my own. We were doing some super illegal shit tonight, and I would need a weapon if we got caught. We would of course be concealing our identities, but I wasn't content with that. I needed firepower.
Going over to my collection of accumulated parts, I got out all the working droid shock arm attachments I had, which ended up being six, and some assorted blaster parts. I was never allowed to take home the gas cartridges, but everything else I was allowed to tinker with.
The blaster part that I was going to make use of was the plasma isolator, located in the barrel of most blasters. Blasters worked by creating superheated plasma encased in a 'bubble' of energy, which was accelerated out the barrel at roughly 1/4 to 1/3 the speed of light. The 'beam' that people saw was the ignition flash made from the blaster bolt passing through the air. The plasma isolator was the mechanism within the barrel that created the energy bubble around the plasma.
Instead of using blaster gas, which I didn't have access to, I would be using the shock arm attachments. While many believed that they were little more than glorified tasers, they were much more complex than that. They were able to cast a weak invisible path of energy at a specific target, and the electricity would follow that path to whatever target it was aiming at. If it was aimed properly, the lightning wouldn't arc to the nearest path to ground, but instead continue past it to whatever the droid arm was aiming at.
Using a plasma isolator from a blaster, I could in theory channel the electricity from the shock arm attachments into a condensed ball of lightning, and launch it like a blaster bolt! At least that was the idea.
I started by removing the shock attachments from the droid arms, and making all six work in tandem. Just to see if I could, I tried to guide the wires with the force instead of my hands, and while it was tricky at first, I found out it was much more convenient! Normally I would have to weave the wires over each other and lace them through holes by hand, which was annoying. But with telekinesis, I could just make the wire snake itself wherever it needed to go without hands or tools getting in the way! It was super nice.
I mounted the shock attachments on the stock of a heavy ugnaught hand cannon that sorta reminded me of an old sawed off shotgun from rdr2. Ugnaughts were small, so it fit my hand just fine. I mounted the shock attachments in a circle around where the barrel would be, with the wires snaked through the middle and connected to the main power cell. I smiled at how it looked. The shock attachments were cylindrical and about the size of a small handheld flashlight, and with them mounted on the gun like they were, they looked like the main cylinder on a cartoonishly oversized six shooter revolver that was missing its barrel.
While I still needed to hook up the plasma isolator, the weapon could theoretically work as it was, just as a ridiculously powerful shock arm for short range blasts of guided lightning.
Curious, I set up a piece of scrap plating in the middle of the floor. Stepping back about 3 meters, I powered up the half finished gun, and aimed at the target. When I fired off a shot, I was nearly deafened.
KKHKRAAAAKKK!
All six shock attachments working together produced a massive bolt of lightning as thick as my wrist, which traveled in a straight line to the scrap plating, blasting it away to be imbedded red hot in the far wall. I could feel the literally thunderous shock wave in my chest as I stumbled back in surprise, my ears ringing as loose dust drifted down from the ceiling.
Holy fucking shit that was fucking loud.
Looking at the smoking end of the weapon, I realized that the shock attachments were in a cooldown cycle, which shouldn't happen unless they fired at least 5 shots in quick succession. Checking the power cell and doing the math, that one blast had drained almost 30 shots worth of power! The way I had arranged them must have amplified the amount of power that the combined guidance beams could draw from the power cell, and by nearly five fold!
That was dangerous! I had intended on making a stun gun, but instead I ended up making some kind of hand-held ion cannon!
A Thor gun?
Heh. Yeah! A Thor gun!
Suddenly the front door swooshed open, and I reflexively chucked the Thor Gun (tm) under my bed, remembering at the last minute to guide it under with the force to avoid damaging it. If a slave owner found me making weapons, it would be really bad.
I needn't have worried, as it was Kitster and Wald with their families. They were the neighbors to either side of us, and I kicked myself at basically causing an explosion in a house that shared walls with other people. They questioned me about what had happened, where was my mother, ect.
I cooked up some bullshit about experimenting with max air pressure in a metal container, and they fussed over me and examined the metal plate in the wall, and eventually they left. I don't think they fully bought it, especially Kitsters mom, who tended to be suspicious of everything, but they weren't ever going to snitch on me to their masters, so they left it as is for plausible deniability. With it being clear that I hadn't been hurt, they left with a promise of "we'll be telling your mother when she returns!"
I'm a little surprised they left me alone again, but they also let Kitster and Wald run around graffitiing people's houses, so I guess they figured it wasn't their problem. The two boys wanted to stay, but their mothers dragged them back to their homes.
After they left, I locked the door and continued working. First, I installed an adjustable power limiter so I wouldn't deafen myself again. I was able to refract the guidance beams to focus on one point in front of the shock attachments. I eventually had to cannibalize the plasma isolators from three different blaster barrels, but I finally got a stable energy bubble!
With the beams focused on the center of where the energy bubble would form, I redid my power calculations with the x5 phenomenon in mind. After double checking everything, I stuffed some clean cloth in my ears, and tentatively pulled the trigger. A small bolt of lightning perfectly arched from each shock attachment, colliding in the center of the now visible energy bubble, quickly creating a bright ball of lightning the size of a golf ball, which hovered in front of the gun like a tiny electric sun.
It was pretty and all, but why wasn't it firing? My question was soon answered, as when I released the trigger, the ball shot forward and impacted against the wall, electricity crackling around the point of impact for a few seconds. The wall was scorched, but future me could deal with that. The shot was much weaker than the Thor Blast(tm) but that was intentional. With the power limiter, even with all six shockers firing at once it only consumed about four times the power as a single droid shock. With the reduced power, I could get about twelve shots of semi rapid fire before the cooling cycle engaged, which would take three seconds, and if I paused between shots to 'let them breathe', it wouldn't have to take a cooling cycle at all!
Doing the math, I would have 867.3 shots on a fully charged heavy power cell. The number was weird because blaster bolts and droid shocks didn't consume the same amount of power.
Just from looking, I estimated the speed of the Thunderbolts(tm) was significantly faster than a ring stunner, but nowhere even close to the speed of a blaster bolt.
I chuckled to myself proudly, spinning the awkwardly balanced gun on my finger like a cowboy, and mimed putting it in an invisible holster. I chuckled again.
"I'm such a fucking genius." I bragged, accidentally dropping the gun and barely catching it before it hit the ground.
Let me tell you there were some fireworks when Amu came home. Between the metal plate in the wall and scorched mark where the bolt hit, I was in a lot of trouble. After a lengthy lecture, Amu had me scrubbing the soot from the wall, and afterwards I would have to fill in the gaps with stone putty and paint them to hide the evidence. I was begrudgingly ok with this, as it was only fair that I be the one to fix what I messed up.
While I was scrubbing in silence, I noticed she had two cloaks with hoods big enough to obscure the face. While hers was the same sandy tan color as the buildings and the landscape, she had another one in the same shade of brown that the Jawas used. As I wondered what she would do with the second cloak, she began to snip into it with sewing scissors, and after a bit I realized she was making a rough approximation of Jawa robes. We had talked about my idea to disguise myself as one, and it looked like she agreed. I was in pretty hot water, but I decided to ask anyway. "Is that for me? To disguise as a Jawa I mean. I guess what I mean to ask is… am I coming along?"
She sighed, and answered. She was holding a needle in her lips, and was talking out the side of her mouth as she worked. "Normally I wouldn't have you come with me on a trip with this much danger, but I need your help." My heart soared and I felt like dancing a little jig, but I made sure to keep a neutral look on my face, "Ah yes… very unfortunate…" At this, she snorted in laughter and shook her head. "You're not fooling anyone with that grave look on your face." I smiled, caught, and she continued, "We are getting 14 people out." My jaw dropped. Normally, you would keep the group small, only one or two escapees and a guide to avoid suspicion. Seeing my shock, Amu explained. "Now that I know that 'technique' is actually a power, and not just luck, I've been experimenting with it during my house visits today. I can hide a total of six people along with myself completely from sight so long as there is physical contact between all of us. We were able to find fourteen people who were given their chips with a punch needle. To hide them all, I need your help. If we do this, all fourteen will be free by morning."
I was shocked. While a slave or two disappearing could be written off as just being killed by the hazards of Tatooine, it would be much harder to explain away the disappearance of 14. But that didn't matter. People that are members of 'the path' are extremely rare, and these 14 might never again get the opportunity to be freed this easily. It might ruffle some feathers, but it was worth it.
"You missed a spot~." Amu commented, and I returned to scrubbing, grumbling under my breath.
Once I was finally done with scrubbing, puttying, and painting the wall, it was almost time to leave.
Amu had finished my Jawa outfit a few minutes ago, and it honestly looked pretty good! To complete the disguise, I went to my parts collection, and quickly assembled the breath mask I had got the parts for for this very reason. With the glowing yellow eye lights and the robes, I'd look just like a Jawa! When it was all set up, I put the mask and the robes on along with a pair of small black work gloves, and took a look in the mirror. Instead of Anakin Skywalker, a Jawa stared back at me! The funny thing was, my Thor gun didn't even look all that out of place, as the Jawas often made improvised weapons out of scrap.
Since Watto traded alot with the Jawas, I knew some of their language, but only enough to get by and I had a distinctly human accent. I would have to avoid talking for now, at least until I had some more practice.
I turned around, and I saw Amu was already wearing her sand colored cloak with the hood up. "How do I look?" I asked.
She responded with a twinkle in her eye, "You look very cute son, just like a little Jawa."
I pushed down the childish irritation at being called cute, and responded, "thanks I guess. Is it time?"
Amu nodded, and after ramping up our 'notice me not' fields to full blast, we stepped out into the night. If everything went well, by this time tomorrow, 14 of our fellow slaves would be off world, chipless, and free to pursue their own destiny. A flash of jealousy rose in my chest, and I smashed it down. It was the bare minimum that they deserved as sentient beings, and there was no room for ill will. Amu and I would also be free in time. We would just have to be patient.
Damn slavery. Damn Slavers. Damn Chips. Damn Hutts. Damn Gardulla. Damn the deep tissue slave-chip Surgery.
But never damn each other. We could only survive hand in hand. Divided, we would lose what little hope we had left.
Tonight, we are united. Tonight, we fight back.
A/N: I know people want me to start zooming ahead to the Phantom Menace, but there's a lot more that needs to happen on Tatooine that will set up future plot points. Trust me, this isn't just random crap, it's connected. It might be slow burn, but it will pay off. Hope this chapter was a bit more exciting than the last one, even though it was mostly just set up. I initially wanted the slave freeing mission to be in this chapter, but it was getting long enough, and this was a good stopping spot.
Fanfic recommendation!
If you somehow haven't read Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo by AkumaKami64, do yourself a favor and read it! It's the top Anakin Skywalker fic on ffn.nt for a reason, it's fantastic! It also has a sequel posted, which is ongoing.
Ciao!
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The Escape
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2021
- Messages
- 15
- Likes received
- 4
We quickly and quietly made our way to the meeting spot, keeping our stealth fields up the entire way. When we arrived, it seemed everybody was here so we relaxed our presences in the force. I immediately felt kinda bad, because as soon as we did, an old twilek man who had been looking at something in our general direction jumped in fright.
From what I could figure, our stealth technique wasn't true invisibility, but more along the lines of tricking people's brains to 'filter out' our presence, kinda like how you can technically always see your nose, but hardly ever visually register that it's there. To him, Amu and I must have looked like we had suddenly popped into existence out of nowhere.
He muttered a curse in Ryl, and his gnarled hand darted to a wooden totem he was wearing on a leather chord as a necklace in order to ward off evil. Amu pulled back her hood enough that he could see her face, and I briefly took off my Jawa mask for the same reason, and he relaxed, recognizing our faces. He whispered intensely in a thick Ryl accent, "Stars and stones Skywalker, 'ow did you do zat? Did you pop out of zhe ground? And le child as well! 'E should not be 'ere!"
Despite him speaking like a Frenchman and having sandy orange skin and lekku instead of hair, his voice and face reminded me of Leonard Nimoy, around the age he looked in the Star Trek reboot that had the black hole jelly. I blinked in shock and considered the implications of him looking like an actor. Was he important? I mean, of course he was important, he was a sentient being, but like… more important than usual? Or was this just random multiverse crap?
The others in the group turned toward us, but weren't quite as spooked, since they hadn't directly seen us appear. They probably just assumed we were exceptionally stealthy.
The only explanation Amu offered was, "Ar-Amu protects us, but I need my son's help to hide all of us from sight." Before the old Twilek could respond, another member of the group, a young Cathar man spoke up in a fierce whisper, "It is true! She practiced her gift at my house, and she could completely disappear!" Several other member of the group nodded their heads in confirmation as they had been part of the practice, and a look of awe came on the rest of the group's faces.
"Alright everyone, get into a line and hold each others hands in a chain," Amu directed, her voice gentle. As they heeded her directions, she took the lead of the group, and I went to the back of the line. The cathar man was behind Amu and had his hand on her shoulder, and I was behind the old Leonard Nimoy twilek, my hand clasping the back of his belt. Everyone else was in between us in a chain. "Ready?" Amu asked me, and when I nodded, I could feel her shielding extend along the line, reaching out to me. Concentrating, I reached out back toward her with my own shields, the energy flowing along the physical links between us. All together we were a group of 16, and Amu's record was 7 including herself, so it would be tight.
As our shield cloaks reached the middle of the group, there was some strain, and Amu's stopped just short of 8. Breathing deeply, I focused on reaching out, willing the force to flow through me more, to increase my technique's power. My shielding rushed forward and intertwined with Amu's, and now that they were connected in a stable bubble, it was easier to maintain. We took a few seconds to ensure the cloak's stability, and then Amu spoke up.
"We are shielded from sight. Remain calm and silent. This requires intense focus and your emotions can disrupt our senses." At this, the old twilek seemed to put something together, as there was a bloom of understanding and even a little reverence in his force signature. In a whisper I only heard because I was right behind him, he breathed out, "Jedi!"
I responded, also in a whisper, "Not quite, we are just slaves. But this is the force. You can trust in it." Looking back in surprise at being heard, he then nodded, and the last of his skepticism drained away, replaced by hope.
"Anakin…" Warned mother in a strained voice, and I realized I was focusing too much on the old alien in front of me. I concentrated on the task at hand, and she let a sigh of relief. "Let's go. Step as quietly as you can," She then set off toward the meeting place, the line following behind.
Along the way we walked past several people, but they went about their late night business without a care in the world, carrying on as though we weren't even there. The first time it happened, it was a Weequay enforcer for the huts, and the fear and nervousness of the group nearly broke our concentration. After we managed to make it past him unnoticed, only passing centimeters by his elbow, the group grew more confident and trusting in our invisibility, and our job became significantly easier. I didn't blame them for the difficulty. Faith and trust can be powerful, but sometimes seeing is believing.
It took about 30 minutes for us to walk a distance that would usually take 20, but we were taking care to make as little noise as possible, so the slow pace was inevitable. The less Amu and I had to prevent from being noticed, the easier it was to maintain the shielding. Gathering in an alley behind the mod shop Beru told me about, we checked if the coast was clear, and dropped our shielding. The back wall of the mod shop on our right was smooth and solid, and the only door in the alley was to the building across from it on our left. I grimaced. When I heard we were meeting behind a mod shop, I had hoped the owners were part of the path, and would let us use their sterile surgery tools and painkillers they used to mount their prosthetics. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The mod shop wasn't a part of the path, just a convenient landmark. We would be doing this the old fashioned way.
Seeing the shape of a Tatooine red bird scratched roughly beside the door frame, Amu knocked softly on the back door, and it soon swished open. A woman I vaguely remember from the cheese stand was revealed, and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the size of our group. She stood a few seconds in shock, and then quickly began ushering us in. "Were you followed?! Were you seen?!" she whisper yelled. Amu shook her head in denial. "We used a hidden way. No one saw us" the woman paused, before regaining her senses.
"Err… right! I'm Uana Whitesun, my husband and I are operatives of The Path. There are a lot of you, but if we squeeze together we should be able to fit on the transport. All…" she paused, counting, "Sixteen of you?"
"No," Amu responded, putting her hand on my shoulder, and I took off my mask, "My son and I were slaveborn to the Hutts. We cannot go. But these fourteen are ready." Mrs. Whitesun nodded, and immediately began bustling around, preparing extra tables. She called her husband for help, and another couple came down the stairs from the second story, who ended up being Mr. Whitesun's brother and and sister in law.
"Alright we'll do this 4 at a time, so if there's no complications we should get through everyone in about 2 or so hours. These walls are thick, and we have the building to ourselves, so don't worry about being totally silent. As long as we don't scream at the top of our lungs, no one will hear. I'm sorry it must be done this way, but proper medical supplies are watched like a corellian bat-hawk by the hutts, so the best we can do is hard moonshine for cleaning and tough leather to bite on. We can give you a bit to drink, but we'll have to get moving to the spaceport in three hours, so we can't have anyone too wasted. Are all of you prepared?" She looked into each of the fourteens eyes, and was met with a series of nods, some more nervous and fearful than others, but all with a steely resolve.
Slowly, the group decided amongst themselves which four would go first. When they were selected, they each got on one of the four tables, where the four members of the Whitesun family ran scanners over their bodies. While the first two of the four, a pair of women, had their chips in their shoulders, which was common, the third had his in the skin of his chest, and the last poor bastard had his chip in his left ass cheek. I suppose his captors had thought it funny to place it there, the scumbags.
Biting the pieces of leather they were given, and with some of us holding them down where instructed, the Whitesuns began the surgeries. There were muffled screams and grunts of suffering and sobbing as the incisions were made in their flesh, blood oozing out where the razor sharp scalpels were slicing them open. As quickly and gently as possible, the Whitesuns cut only deep enough into them to retrieve the transmitters, grabbed on to the vile explosives with forceps, retrieving them, and neatly sutured up the wounds with professional levels of skill.
As the painful surgeries were going on, Mrs. Whitesun looked up from her work briefly at us and asked, "Will one of you sing?" Amu Nodded.
These surgeries were painful, potentially traumatic experiences only undergone out of necessity, and it had become tradition for a member of the party to sing as a distraction for those in pain. Something pleasant for their minds to latch on to.
Amu stood in the center of the room and began a haunting Amatakkan Lullaby that I recognized as one she often sang late at night to put me to bed. The words were in the Amatakkan language, but the translation was this:
"Unfettered dragon Leiyah,
Mighty Sandstorm Lukka,
We march towards freedom,
We will receive.
The living escape,
The dead are remade,
We march towards freedom,
All will be one.
Judgement or mercy,
Compassion or wrath,
All will be balanced.
Leiyah may make free,
Or Lukka will renew,
Freedom or death."
Despite the fatalistic nature of the words, the song was comforting to me. Amu sang it to me all of old Anakin's life, but he only learned the meaning of the words later on. The last line was especially meaningful. 'Freedom or death' in Amatakkan was 'Dukkra ba dukkra' as the language used the same word for both freedom and death.
As she sang, I could feel her reaching out in the force, strengthening the minds of the patients, giving them courage and distracting them from their pain.
While the first three surgeries were completed relatively quickly, the guy with the chip in his ass took a bit longer as it was in deep, and required several attempts to dig it out before they finally managed to remove it. After he was properly stitched up and bandaged, he couldn't sit without pain and elected to lay belly down on the floor.
One by one the surgeries were performed. When Amu needed a break from singing, I took over for her. Other than earth songs, I only really knew that same lullaby, so I sang it as well, and succeeded in using the force to strengthen their wills the same way Amu did.
After a while, she took back over, and I went over to where the last patient was being worked on. While some had handled the pain better than others (a woman who had given birth before being especially in control of herself), the last one wasn't even making any noise. It was the orange twilek who looked like Leonard Nimoy, and other than a furrowed brow and a few beads of sweat on his forehead, it was difficult to tell he was in pain at all. His breathing was even and regular, and when I came up to watch him, he spoke to me in a even tone.
"Thank you little one. I had all but given up on ever escaping zis world. I almost didn't come, as I wanted to let someone younger take my limited place. Your Mozher was especially stubborn that I come, and I'm glad she was. To hide a large group from sight… I never would 'ave thought."
I nodded, "you owe us no debt. No one deserves slavery. It was the least we could do."
After a few moments of silence, I spoke up again, hoping to distract him from the pain. "What is your name elder?"
He chuckled in response, "Alask. In Ryl, it means desert."
I snorted bitterly "Ironic. I guess that's pretty fitting all things considered."
He chuckled darkly in response, and returned to silence, his breathing deliberate and controlled. I spoke up again, "Do you have any family Alask?"
At this, his hand returned to the wood bead on his necklace, which I now noticed wasn't a ward or totem at all, but a family bead for a kalikori. "Yes… I do. A son." His eyes grew misty, though I couldn't tell if it was from the pain or the memories. He continued, "'e was around your age when I was taken. 'e'd be a young man now, all grown up. Ohhh…Cham… 'ow much I 'ave missed…"
"I'm sure he'll understand if you talk to him! It's not your fault you were taken!" I argued.
Alask's gaze grew distant and his eyes narrowed. A burst of bitter hatred flared from him, so intense that it almost overcame my shields, and for a second, I saw an image from his memories.
-There was a large rotund Twilek with blue skin and four lekku surrounded by riches and finery and being attended to by attractive slave women, his chins jiggling as as he laughed like a demented french Santa, "Ohohohohohohon… you will soon be no concern of mine, Alask Syndulla! Ohohon! Guards! Take 'im away!"-
I slammed my shields closed as tightly as I could, and returned to the present just in time to hear Alask's response, a dark look on his face, "Zhat it wasn't child… zhat it wasn't…"
Holy shit! That was that senator guy! Was Alask sold into slavery by a republic senator?! How deep into republic space did the slave trade go?!
Suddenly, I felt the force swirling around me, and as I calmed myself, words came to me as if I no longer had control of my mouth. I felt no danger, so I let them through, and found myself saying, "Alask Syndulla. If you had stayed on this world you would have surely died in the next few months. I promise you however, if after you are freed you seek a proper medical bay for treatment and eat a healthy diet for the rest of your days, you will live more than a decade longer, perhaps two. You will reunite with your son, and should you survive, the future of Ryloth will be brightened by your return."
Alask's eyes widened at my use of his last name, which he hadn't told me, and as I spoke, I could feel astonishment fill him as I delivered the promises. He bowed his head, and spoke with a reverent tone, "I will, I promise! I thank you deeply for zhis blessing."
Nodding, I responded, still feeling like my words were being slightly guided. "I haven't used any grand power, I have simply stated the truth. Tatooine is harsh, and proper medical care can be the difference between life and death. When you get to Ryloth, seek out the Jedi there. They will help in bringing this conspiracy to light, and protecting you and your family in the meantime."
He nodded again. "I will!" He said with determination.
After Alask's surgery was completed, Mrs. Whitesun declared we would all rest for an hour, and then we would head out. It wasn't even 30 minutes later however, when Beru came sprinting down the stairs.
"There are Hutt enforcers gathering around, they're heading this way! There must be at least 20 of them!"
Mrs. Whitesun's face pailed in shock. She turned to us, a hint of accusation in her tone. "Your group must have been seen. We'll need to scatter, those who can make it to the spaceport, meet us at Docking bay 38!"
In response to this accusation, Amu stood up in quiet anger, and promptly disappeared. Mrs. Whitesun stepped back in shock. Amu reappeared, and snapped, "We can avoid being seen if we wish, we were NOT discovered, or we would have been stopped on our way here. Something else must be at work." She looked at the group of 14. "Somehow, the information was passed to the Hutts after we arrived. Did anyone spread the details of our escape? You were all told to inform no one." Amu's voice was calm but deadly serious, and there was a flash of guilt from one of the 14, but they were all grouped together, so I couldn't make out exactly who it came from before it was calmed.
From Amu's reaction, she sensed it too, but seemed to dismiss it, calming herself. "It doesn't matter. Line up everyone." She turned to Mrs. Whitesun. "Will you be safe without us with you?"
She nodded, "So long as we have no slaves with us, we should be able to bribe our way through. Docking bay 38, and be quick! We'll meet you there, but we will take off if they start closing up the bay roofs. Arrive before then."
Amu nodded, once again taking the lead of the line, and I went to the rear. Concentrating, we extended our shielding over the group, and we disappeared into the night.
There were several close calls, but we managed to slip by most of the enforcers on our way to the space port. We were only a few blocks away, when we reached the final obstacle. Standing on either side of the entryway to the space port were two guards. One of them was a grizzled looking weequay with a scar over his eye, but it wasn't him I was worried about. Across from the weequay, standing guard on the other side of the archway, was a man decked out in painted metal armor with at least three weapons on him and a distinctive T shaped visor on his helmet.
A Mandalorian.
Our invisibility was mind trick based, and the mandalorian people were known to have iron wills, and this resistance was only strengthened by their training. There was no guarantee we would remain hidden.
Whether Amu knew this or not, she seemed to sense the danger, and stopped the group. Sending her a 'nudge' through the force, she looked back at me, and I waved my Thor gun. She looked conflicted, but nodded. Making sure we were hidden in an alley, I disengaged from the group. Creeping up as close as I could, I took shelter behind a crate about 10 meters away from them. Just as I was about to make my move, the mandalorian spoke up, his voice sounding from an unseen speaker on his helmet.
"Did you hear that? A bit too heavy to be a rodent." He pulled out his pistol.
His weequay companion spoke up, "Watchu onnabout? I din' 'ear noffin. Is been silen' as deff ou' 'ere aw nigh'.
I blinked, trying to decipher the weequay's words. A flash of irritation came from the mandalorian. "Are you deaf? I definitely heard something just now. Didn't you?"
The weequay shook his head, his eyes rolling to heaven. "Noffin a' aw. Yous barkin' innit!"
The mandalorian's anger grew, and he turned away from where I was hiding to look directly at the weequay. "I'm telling you, I heard something!"
This was probably a good time to strike, while they were distracted. I drew on the force, using it to guide my shots. Instinctively, I knew to fire three times. Once at the weequay, and twice at the mandalorian, once directly at him, and once to his left.
The weequay went down in one, body shaking like he'd been tazed. The mandalorian must have heard the Thor gun spool up, because he dodged left, avoiding the second shot and unknowingly putting himself directly in the path of the third. It impacted the space between his helmet and armor, sending him crumbling to the ground, his muscles spasming. I could sense he wasn't unconscious yet, so I fired at him again as I rushed toward the unconscious weequay, the force guiding my hand to hit the space between his chest and back plates just as the first shot was wearing off. I ripped the blaster pistol from the knocked out weequay's hip and pointed it at the mandalorian, pulling the trigger. A stun ring shot out, sending him to unconsciousness.
I looked at the blaster. Why the hell was it set to stun? I clicked the safety switch to lethal, and pointed it at the mandalorian. I hesitated. He was unconscious. He wasn't a threat right now, but he would be in the future. I, in theory, had no problem with killing him. He was dangerous, and leaving him alive would only complicate things. He could see through our concealment. There was no logical reason to leave him alive.
Still, I hesitated. I hadn't ever killed someone before. My hands shook. Suddenly, Amu appeared beside me, and placed her hand on the blaster, gently pushing it down. "It is done Ani." She whispered, "To kill in battle is one thing, but to shoot him while unconscious would be nothing less than murder. You are not Depur."
I let out a breath, and handed the blaster to Amu. She nodded, tucking it under the belt of her tunic.
We removed the mandalorian's weapons from him, and gave them to members of the group that could shoot. He even had a vibrio knife in his boot, which I kept.
We hurried through the halls of the spaceport, making our way to Docking bay 38. As we slipped through the doors, we saw the Whitesun's ship, but they weren't here yet. Only the owner of the ship had the codes to lower the onramp, so we were stuck waiting for them to arrive.
After a few tense minutes of waiting, they arrived. "Sorry we're late" said Mrs. Whitesun, "We were held up by some enforcers and had to bribe our way through. Let's be off!" She retrieved a code transmitter from her pocket and clicked a button, which began lowering the ramp.
Suddenly, another voice sounded from the docking bay entrance. "So you're really leaving."
We froze, turning towards the speaker. What the hell? It was Kitsters mom!
"Adra!" The Cathar member of our group hissed, "what are you doing here!?"
She responded angrily. "I followed you. Or more accurately, I followed the Whitesuns! Why are you leaving me Ostar!? Why are you leaving Kitster?!"
The Cathar man, Ostar, responded incredulously, "what are you talking about? We aren't in a relationship, we've barely talked in months!"
Adra ran towards Ostar and threw herself at him, and he caught her, confused. After she seemingly hugged him, she skipped back away from us, and pointed a blaster at Ostar, the same one he had gotten from the mandalorian and tucked into his belt. He felt at his side, realizing it's a absence.
We all froze where we were, and Ostar put his hands up.
Ostar spoke up, trying to keep his voice calm but unable to fully hide his desperate tone. "Adra. It was one night, years ago!"
"It only takes one!" Adra snapped, "Kitster is your son! We slept together before I got pregnant with him!"
"Adra!" Ostar responded, "Cathar genetics are incompatible with humans, there is no way I could be—"
"Shut up! Shut! Up!" Tears streamed down her face, and her hands grew shaky. "You are his father! I know you you are! You have to be! You must!"
I grimaced. We had all seen Adra's master, a foul tempered man who ran a bar across from Watto's droid shop, and anyone could see Kitster looked exactly like him.
The strange thing about it was, she didn't feel like she was lying. Her force signature radiated pain, fear, desperation, self hatred, and a deep wanting, and all those twisted up feelings made me leery about seeking a deeper connection to find out the truth. But on the surface, she actually seemed like she believed what she was saying. The only problem is, like Ostar said, it wasn't scientifically possible.
"Adra. My chip is removed. I am going."
"No you're not!" Adra screamed, "You're staying here! With me! You can't leave!"
Suddenly, Something clicked into place in my mind. It was probably pretty dumb of me to speak, but the words left my mouth before I could think twice, "It was you! You tipped the enforcers off!"
There were a few gasps, and Ostar got visibly angry. "Adra! Is this true?! Did you put us all at risk for this… Delusion?!"
She was spitting now, and I tightened my mental shields as her mind seemed to implode, fracturing into something more primal, a desperate escape from her suffering, all of her internal fear and pain morphing into unrestrained hatred.
Shrieking like a krayt dragon, she aimed at me, the left most member of our group, and it was clear she intended to gun us all down. A warning in the force blared, she was going to shoot!
ZWAP!
The sound of a blaster bolt being fired made me flinch, but it wasn't me that had been shot. Smoking, Adra's body fell to the ground. Standing next to me was Amu, her arm extended, smoke curling from the barrel of her blaster. A shocked silence lasted a few seconds, but was broken by Amu. She spoke, her voice shaky. "We have to go. Quickly!"
At her shout, we were galvanized into action. Those that hadn't already entered the ship hurried up the ramp, and it began to close. Amu and I reactivated our stealth auras, and we quickly hurried out of the docking bay. As we passed Adra Jetster's body, on instinct, I summoned the mandalorian pistol to my hand. Engines roaring, the Whitesuns ship took off, rising up into the air.
As we jogged through the streets toward home, a few enforcers rushed passed us towards the spaceport, never knowing we were there. When we finally reached home and locked the door, Amu collapsed into a kitchen chair, tears streaming down her face. Adra and her had been neighbors, friends! What had been happening in her life to push her mind to the breaking point like that?!
"Adra…" Amu murmured, "how could you?"
She squeezed me to her body, as if reassuring herself I was there.
"I'm sorry Amu." I said, "I shouldn't have turned the blaster to lethal, I shouldn't have spoken up! If it was still on stun, than maybe—"
She interrupted, "No Ani! It's not your fault! It's… it's not your fault…" I got the feeling she was speaking as much to herself as she was to me. She rocked back and forth with me, and I tried not to think about Kitster next door, sleeping away happily, now motherless.
I felt sick to my stomach. I had felt her mind, felt how broken and fractured it had become, and I felt a black flame of bitter hatred spark into life in my heart at the thought of Nero, Adra's master. I know it was a colossally bad idea to hate as a force sensitive, but I couldn't bring myself to care at this moment in time. I hated him and all those like him.
"Should we kill him?" I asked, and I didn't need to tell Amu who I was referring to.
She opened her mouth, and I could tell she wanted to tell me no on principle, but struggled to get the words out, because she didn't agree with them. Eventually she settled on, "We… can't. It's too dangerous. We shouldn't."
I nodded. I guess that was fair. Not now didn't necessarily mean not ever, and we could only do what we could, and nothing more.
Still, it's shit like this that makes me want to command an armada, raze this planet to glass, and move on to Nal Hutta for seconds. Catching myself, I took a breath. Freeing the slaves: good. Mass planetary bombardment: bad. Mostly. No! Definitely!
I sat in Amu's arms, and stewed in our powerlessness. One day… I would return. For good or for ill, this I swear.
A/N : And that a wrap.
If you're curious about how the lullaby that Shmi sings sounds, look up Alapu Upala, A sanskrit lullaby written for Godzilla: Singular Point. While the words are different, the tune and vocals for it is what I had in mind.
Like I said in the warning, some heavy stuff. I promise I'm not writing awful shit happening for no reason. The story beats written now, WILL inform events later.
As an apology, and so we aren't leaving on such a downer, here is something extra.
POV: Qui Gon Jinn
Master Qui Gon Jinn of the Jedi Order dismounted from the transport, and waved a farewell to Master Gallia. They were currently on Genassa, having just finished mediating an official negotiation between senators that took place in the Hewett system. Master Gallia would continue on towards Coruscant, but Qui Gon had dismounted here on Genassa to pick up his apprentice, who had just finished a solo mission in the system.
Qui Gon smiled as he felt Obi Wan through the training bond, feeling proud of his padawan's success. Every time he felt his apprentices pure lightness it brought a smile to his face. Having pinpointed his location, Qui Gon set off in his direction.
Obi Wan had just recently begun going on solo missions, and he had already took to it like a duck to water. It was a surreal feeling that in a few short years, he would likely be knighted. While Feemor had achieved knighthood, Qui Gon had only taken over the last few years of his training when his previous master had died. Feemor had already had the basic principles of the Jedi imparted to him, Qui Gon had just smoothed out some of the edges really. And the less said about Xanatos du Creon, the better.
No, Obi Wan would be a knight, and a good one at that. The first knight he had fully trained. It was a surreal feeling, but one he quite enjoyed. The future looked bright indeed!
Qui Gon had met up with Obi Wan, and they were currently in the ship that Obi Wan had been allowed to check out from the Jedi hangars for his solo mission, hurtling through hyperspace.
"So, you say your life was in danger? How did that happen at a banquet between senators?" Obi Wan asked, puzzled.
"Oh it was nothing serious, an honest mistake, quickly rectified."
Obi wan rolled his eyes, which made Qui Gon quirk his brow in challenge. While Obi Wan once would have shrunk under that look, nowadays he was much more vocal. "I swear master, getting a good story out of you is like pulling teeth."
Qui Gon shrugged in response, not elaborating. Obi Wan sighed and shook his head in exasperation.
"Where is the next stop along our current hyper lane?" Qui Gon asked, deciding to test his padawan. Obi wan reached for the navi-computer to turn on the display, but Qui Gon stopped him. "Without consulting the navi-computer if you please."
The red headed padawan gave a long-suffering sigh, "Master, I already passed my Astronavigation exams last month, must I still be tested on this?"
Qui Gon responded calmly, "And because you passed a written test, the knowledge is no longer needed?"
With an irritated huff, Obi Wan sunk into a shallow meditation to improve his memory, releasing his emotions to the force. "We are currently traveling along the Celanon spur hyperlane," he muttered, "And we will pass by Ord Mantel in a day or so without needing to stop to change directions or replenish supplies, so that means…" he paused, drawing a blank. "Is it… Vicondor? No. Glee Anselm? No, that's not right, oh, navigation is for droids!"
Qui Gon remained serene, having faith his Padawan would get the right answer eventually. Their next stop would in fact be at the Dorin system to switch hyper lanes toward Coruscant, but he made sure to shield his knowledge from giving it away to Obi Wan. After all, this was a test of knowledge, not telepathy.
As his Padawan continued his mutterings, Qui Gon surmised that 'eventually' may be a bit farther off than he initially anticipated. He slipped into meditation, sinking into the force. While it was important to keep oneself rooted in the present, especially when out in the field, it was also important to be able to decipher the more distant guidances of the living force.
Many fluctuations and eddies resonated through the force, their specific meanings largely confused by the veil of the dark side. A usual Jedi might filter these out as distractions, giving up interpreting these as an exercise in futility. Qui Gon Jinn, however, was not a usual Jedi. Keeping his patience, he diligently kept unraveling each micro disturbance, his powerful will and deep immersion in the living force preventing him from drifting into the future or past. Suddenly, there was a jolt in the force, like something extremely important had just happened. Something that would effect things on a planetary scale.
Seizing on this thread, he allowed himself to pear shallowly into the future, and was able to divine were this disturbance would occur.
"Ryloth." he found himself saying.
Obi Wan jerked out of his concentration, his face incredulous. "Ryloth?! No master, I'm certain it isn't that. Ryloth is in the outer rim, on the other side of the galaxy!"
Qui Gon continued, as if uninterrupted. "I sense a disturbance in the force, we are needed on Ryloth."
Obi Wan's eyes widened, "Truly? But Master, it's on the Other side of the galaxy from here! We'd be passing by Coruscant just to get there. Surely there is someone better positioned to investigate? And don't you need to make your report to the council?"
Qui Gon stared blankly, maintaining his thread of guidance he had found with some difficulty. "Master Gallia was present, she can inform them of any necessary developments. As for another Jedi, perhaps, but I am not confident in drawing another's attention toward this thread in a timely matter. It could effect things on a planetary scale, and we must arrive as soon as possible."
Obi wan nodded, and went to program an extended rout in the the navi-computer. When the display activated, he saw the next stop his master had been testing him on. "Ah! Dorin! That's what it was!"
Qui Gon sighed, "Very good Padawan." He congratulated sarcastically.
"I am quite brilliant, aren't I? Sometimes I impress even myself." Obi wan responded cheekily.
Qui Gon snorted with laughter, but quickly sobered. The council wouldn't be happy about this little detour, but Ryloth was home to nearly 1.5 billion sentients. If it's future was in question, the Jedi must act, and as quickly as possible. The Council could hem, haw, and deliberate all they wanted, but to Qui Gon at least, the 'will of the force' was clear in this matter.
With their new course set, they speeded along the hyperlane towards Ryloth.
A/N: Hope y'all liked it! 'Till next time!
From what I could figure, our stealth technique wasn't true invisibility, but more along the lines of tricking people's brains to 'filter out' our presence, kinda like how you can technically always see your nose, but hardly ever visually register that it's there. To him, Amu and I must have looked like we had suddenly popped into existence out of nowhere.
He muttered a curse in Ryl, and his gnarled hand darted to a wooden totem he was wearing on a leather chord as a necklace in order to ward off evil. Amu pulled back her hood enough that he could see her face, and I briefly took off my Jawa mask for the same reason, and he relaxed, recognizing our faces. He whispered intensely in a thick Ryl accent, "Stars and stones Skywalker, 'ow did you do zat? Did you pop out of zhe ground? And le child as well! 'E should not be 'ere!"
Despite him speaking like a Frenchman and having sandy orange skin and lekku instead of hair, his voice and face reminded me of Leonard Nimoy, around the age he looked in the Star Trek reboot that had the black hole jelly. I blinked in shock and considered the implications of him looking like an actor. Was he important? I mean, of course he was important, he was a sentient being, but like… more important than usual? Or was this just random multiverse crap?
The others in the group turned toward us, but weren't quite as spooked, since they hadn't directly seen us appear. They probably just assumed we were exceptionally stealthy.
The only explanation Amu offered was, "Ar-Amu protects us, but I need my son's help to hide all of us from sight." Before the old Twilek could respond, another member of the group, a young Cathar man spoke up in a fierce whisper, "It is true! She practiced her gift at my house, and she could completely disappear!" Several other member of the group nodded their heads in confirmation as they had been part of the practice, and a look of awe came on the rest of the group's faces.
"Alright everyone, get into a line and hold each others hands in a chain," Amu directed, her voice gentle. As they heeded her directions, she took the lead of the group, and I went to the back of the line. The cathar man was behind Amu and had his hand on her shoulder, and I was behind the old Leonard Nimoy twilek, my hand clasping the back of his belt. Everyone else was in between us in a chain. "Ready?" Amu asked me, and when I nodded, I could feel her shielding extend along the line, reaching out to me. Concentrating, I reached out back toward her with my own shields, the energy flowing along the physical links between us. All together we were a group of 16, and Amu's record was 7 including herself, so it would be tight.
As our shield cloaks reached the middle of the group, there was some strain, and Amu's stopped just short of 8. Breathing deeply, I focused on reaching out, willing the force to flow through me more, to increase my technique's power. My shielding rushed forward and intertwined with Amu's, and now that they were connected in a stable bubble, it was easier to maintain. We took a few seconds to ensure the cloak's stability, and then Amu spoke up.
"We are shielded from sight. Remain calm and silent. This requires intense focus and your emotions can disrupt our senses." At this, the old twilek seemed to put something together, as there was a bloom of understanding and even a little reverence in his force signature. In a whisper I only heard because I was right behind him, he breathed out, "Jedi!"
I responded, also in a whisper, "Not quite, we are just slaves. But this is the force. You can trust in it." Looking back in surprise at being heard, he then nodded, and the last of his skepticism drained away, replaced by hope.
"Anakin…" Warned mother in a strained voice, and I realized I was focusing too much on the old alien in front of me. I concentrated on the task at hand, and she let a sigh of relief. "Let's go. Step as quietly as you can," She then set off toward the meeting place, the line following behind.
Along the way we walked past several people, but they went about their late night business without a care in the world, carrying on as though we weren't even there. The first time it happened, it was a Weequay enforcer for the huts, and the fear and nervousness of the group nearly broke our concentration. After we managed to make it past him unnoticed, only passing centimeters by his elbow, the group grew more confident and trusting in our invisibility, and our job became significantly easier. I didn't blame them for the difficulty. Faith and trust can be powerful, but sometimes seeing is believing.
It took about 30 minutes for us to walk a distance that would usually take 20, but we were taking care to make as little noise as possible, so the slow pace was inevitable. The less Amu and I had to prevent from being noticed, the easier it was to maintain the shielding. Gathering in an alley behind the mod shop Beru told me about, we checked if the coast was clear, and dropped our shielding. The back wall of the mod shop on our right was smooth and solid, and the only door in the alley was to the building across from it on our left. I grimaced. When I heard we were meeting behind a mod shop, I had hoped the owners were part of the path, and would let us use their sterile surgery tools and painkillers they used to mount their prosthetics. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The mod shop wasn't a part of the path, just a convenient landmark. We would be doing this the old fashioned way.
Seeing the shape of a Tatooine red bird scratched roughly beside the door frame, Amu knocked softly on the back door, and it soon swished open. A woman I vaguely remember from the cheese stand was revealed, and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the size of our group. She stood a few seconds in shock, and then quickly began ushering us in. "Were you followed?! Were you seen?!" she whisper yelled. Amu shook her head in denial. "We used a hidden way. No one saw us" the woman paused, before regaining her senses.
"Err… right! I'm Uana Whitesun, my husband and I are operatives of The Path. There are a lot of you, but if we squeeze together we should be able to fit on the transport. All…" she paused, counting, "Sixteen of you?"
"No," Amu responded, putting her hand on my shoulder, and I took off my mask, "My son and I were slaveborn to the Hutts. We cannot go. But these fourteen are ready." Mrs. Whitesun nodded, and immediately began bustling around, preparing extra tables. She called her husband for help, and another couple came down the stairs from the second story, who ended up being Mr. Whitesun's brother and and sister in law.
"Alright we'll do this 4 at a time, so if there's no complications we should get through everyone in about 2 or so hours. These walls are thick, and we have the building to ourselves, so don't worry about being totally silent. As long as we don't scream at the top of our lungs, no one will hear. I'm sorry it must be done this way, but proper medical supplies are watched like a corellian bat-hawk by the hutts, so the best we can do is hard moonshine for cleaning and tough leather to bite on. We can give you a bit to drink, but we'll have to get moving to the spaceport in three hours, so we can't have anyone too wasted. Are all of you prepared?" She looked into each of the fourteens eyes, and was met with a series of nods, some more nervous and fearful than others, but all with a steely resolve.
Slowly, the group decided amongst themselves which four would go first. When they were selected, they each got on one of the four tables, where the four members of the Whitesun family ran scanners over their bodies. While the first two of the four, a pair of women, had their chips in their shoulders, which was common, the third had his in the skin of his chest, and the last poor bastard had his chip in his left ass cheek. I suppose his captors had thought it funny to place it there, the scumbags.
Biting the pieces of leather they were given, and with some of us holding them down where instructed, the Whitesuns began the surgeries. There were muffled screams and grunts of suffering and sobbing as the incisions were made in their flesh, blood oozing out where the razor sharp scalpels were slicing them open. As quickly and gently as possible, the Whitesuns cut only deep enough into them to retrieve the transmitters, grabbed on to the vile explosives with forceps, retrieving them, and neatly sutured up the wounds with professional levels of skill.
As the painful surgeries were going on, Mrs. Whitesun looked up from her work briefly at us and asked, "Will one of you sing?" Amu Nodded.
These surgeries were painful, potentially traumatic experiences only undergone out of necessity, and it had become tradition for a member of the party to sing as a distraction for those in pain. Something pleasant for their minds to latch on to.
Amu stood in the center of the room and began a haunting Amatakkan Lullaby that I recognized as one she often sang late at night to put me to bed. The words were in the Amatakkan language, but the translation was this:
"Unfettered dragon Leiyah,
Mighty Sandstorm Lukka,
We march towards freedom,
We will receive.
The living escape,
The dead are remade,
We march towards freedom,
All will be one.
Judgement or mercy,
Compassion or wrath,
All will be balanced.
Leiyah may make free,
Or Lukka will renew,
Freedom or death."
Despite the fatalistic nature of the words, the song was comforting to me. Amu sang it to me all of old Anakin's life, but he only learned the meaning of the words later on. The last line was especially meaningful. 'Freedom or death' in Amatakkan was 'Dukkra ba dukkra' as the language used the same word for both freedom and death.
As she sang, I could feel her reaching out in the force, strengthening the minds of the patients, giving them courage and distracting them from their pain.
While the first three surgeries were completed relatively quickly, the guy with the chip in his ass took a bit longer as it was in deep, and required several attempts to dig it out before they finally managed to remove it. After he was properly stitched up and bandaged, he couldn't sit without pain and elected to lay belly down on the floor.
One by one the surgeries were performed. When Amu needed a break from singing, I took over for her. Other than earth songs, I only really knew that same lullaby, so I sang it as well, and succeeded in using the force to strengthen their wills the same way Amu did.
After a while, she took back over, and I went over to where the last patient was being worked on. While some had handled the pain better than others (a woman who had given birth before being especially in control of herself), the last one wasn't even making any noise. It was the orange twilek who looked like Leonard Nimoy, and other than a furrowed brow and a few beads of sweat on his forehead, it was difficult to tell he was in pain at all. His breathing was even and regular, and when I came up to watch him, he spoke to me in a even tone.
"Thank you little one. I had all but given up on ever escaping zis world. I almost didn't come, as I wanted to let someone younger take my limited place. Your Mozher was especially stubborn that I come, and I'm glad she was. To hide a large group from sight… I never would 'ave thought."
I nodded, "you owe us no debt. No one deserves slavery. It was the least we could do."
After a few moments of silence, I spoke up again, hoping to distract him from the pain. "What is your name elder?"
He chuckled in response, "Alask. In Ryl, it means desert."
I snorted bitterly "Ironic. I guess that's pretty fitting all things considered."
He chuckled darkly in response, and returned to silence, his breathing deliberate and controlled. I spoke up again, "Do you have any family Alask?"
At this, his hand returned to the wood bead on his necklace, which I now noticed wasn't a ward or totem at all, but a family bead for a kalikori. "Yes… I do. A son." His eyes grew misty, though I couldn't tell if it was from the pain or the memories. He continued, "'e was around your age when I was taken. 'e'd be a young man now, all grown up. Ohhh…Cham… 'ow much I 'ave missed…"
"I'm sure he'll understand if you talk to him! It's not your fault you were taken!" I argued.
Alask's gaze grew distant and his eyes narrowed. A burst of bitter hatred flared from him, so intense that it almost overcame my shields, and for a second, I saw an image from his memories.
-There was a large rotund Twilek with blue skin and four lekku surrounded by riches and finery and being attended to by attractive slave women, his chins jiggling as as he laughed like a demented french Santa, "Ohohohohohohon… you will soon be no concern of mine, Alask Syndulla! Ohohon! Guards! Take 'im away!"-
I slammed my shields closed as tightly as I could, and returned to the present just in time to hear Alask's response, a dark look on his face, "Zhat it wasn't child… zhat it wasn't…"
Holy shit! That was that senator guy! Was Alask sold into slavery by a republic senator?! How deep into republic space did the slave trade go?!
Suddenly, I felt the force swirling around me, and as I calmed myself, words came to me as if I no longer had control of my mouth. I felt no danger, so I let them through, and found myself saying, "Alask Syndulla. If you had stayed on this world you would have surely died in the next few months. I promise you however, if after you are freed you seek a proper medical bay for treatment and eat a healthy diet for the rest of your days, you will live more than a decade longer, perhaps two. You will reunite with your son, and should you survive, the future of Ryloth will be brightened by your return."
Alask's eyes widened at my use of his last name, which he hadn't told me, and as I spoke, I could feel astonishment fill him as I delivered the promises. He bowed his head, and spoke with a reverent tone, "I will, I promise! I thank you deeply for zhis blessing."
Nodding, I responded, still feeling like my words were being slightly guided. "I haven't used any grand power, I have simply stated the truth. Tatooine is harsh, and proper medical care can be the difference between life and death. When you get to Ryloth, seek out the Jedi there. They will help in bringing this conspiracy to light, and protecting you and your family in the meantime."
He nodded again. "I will!" He said with determination.
After Alask's surgery was completed, Mrs. Whitesun declared we would all rest for an hour, and then we would head out. It wasn't even 30 minutes later however, when Beru came sprinting down the stairs.
"There are Hutt enforcers gathering around, they're heading this way! There must be at least 20 of them!"
Mrs. Whitesun's face pailed in shock. She turned to us, a hint of accusation in her tone. "Your group must have been seen. We'll need to scatter, those who can make it to the spaceport, meet us at Docking bay 38!"
In response to this accusation, Amu stood up in quiet anger, and promptly disappeared. Mrs. Whitesun stepped back in shock. Amu reappeared, and snapped, "We can avoid being seen if we wish, we were NOT discovered, or we would have been stopped on our way here. Something else must be at work." She looked at the group of 14. "Somehow, the information was passed to the Hutts after we arrived. Did anyone spread the details of our escape? You were all told to inform no one." Amu's voice was calm but deadly serious, and there was a flash of guilt from one of the 14, but they were all grouped together, so I couldn't make out exactly who it came from before it was calmed.
From Amu's reaction, she sensed it too, but seemed to dismiss it, calming herself. "It doesn't matter. Line up everyone." She turned to Mrs. Whitesun. "Will you be safe without us with you?"
She nodded, "So long as we have no slaves with us, we should be able to bribe our way through. Docking bay 38, and be quick! We'll meet you there, but we will take off if they start closing up the bay roofs. Arrive before then."
Amu nodded, once again taking the lead of the line, and I went to the rear. Concentrating, we extended our shielding over the group, and we disappeared into the night.
There were several close calls, but we managed to slip by most of the enforcers on our way to the space port. We were only a few blocks away, when we reached the final obstacle. Standing on either side of the entryway to the space port were two guards. One of them was a grizzled looking weequay with a scar over his eye, but it wasn't him I was worried about. Across from the weequay, standing guard on the other side of the archway, was a man decked out in painted metal armor with at least three weapons on him and a distinctive T shaped visor on his helmet.
A Mandalorian.
Our invisibility was mind trick based, and the mandalorian people were known to have iron wills, and this resistance was only strengthened by their training. There was no guarantee we would remain hidden.
Whether Amu knew this or not, she seemed to sense the danger, and stopped the group. Sending her a 'nudge' through the force, she looked back at me, and I waved my Thor gun. She looked conflicted, but nodded. Making sure we were hidden in an alley, I disengaged from the group. Creeping up as close as I could, I took shelter behind a crate about 10 meters away from them. Just as I was about to make my move, the mandalorian spoke up, his voice sounding from an unseen speaker on his helmet.
"Did you hear that? A bit too heavy to be a rodent." He pulled out his pistol.
His weequay companion spoke up, "Watchu onnabout? I din' 'ear noffin. Is been silen' as deff ou' 'ere aw nigh'.
I blinked, trying to decipher the weequay's words. A flash of irritation came from the mandalorian. "Are you deaf? I definitely heard something just now. Didn't you?"
The weequay shook his head, his eyes rolling to heaven. "Noffin a' aw. Yous barkin' innit!"
The mandalorian's anger grew, and he turned away from where I was hiding to look directly at the weequay. "I'm telling you, I heard something!"
This was probably a good time to strike, while they were distracted. I drew on the force, using it to guide my shots. Instinctively, I knew to fire three times. Once at the weequay, and twice at the mandalorian, once directly at him, and once to his left.
The weequay went down in one, body shaking like he'd been tazed. The mandalorian must have heard the Thor gun spool up, because he dodged left, avoiding the second shot and unknowingly putting himself directly in the path of the third. It impacted the space between his helmet and armor, sending him crumbling to the ground, his muscles spasming. I could sense he wasn't unconscious yet, so I fired at him again as I rushed toward the unconscious weequay, the force guiding my hand to hit the space between his chest and back plates just as the first shot was wearing off. I ripped the blaster pistol from the knocked out weequay's hip and pointed it at the mandalorian, pulling the trigger. A stun ring shot out, sending him to unconsciousness.
I looked at the blaster. Why the hell was it set to stun? I clicked the safety switch to lethal, and pointed it at the mandalorian. I hesitated. He was unconscious. He wasn't a threat right now, but he would be in the future. I, in theory, had no problem with killing him. He was dangerous, and leaving him alive would only complicate things. He could see through our concealment. There was no logical reason to leave him alive.
Still, I hesitated. I hadn't ever killed someone before. My hands shook. Suddenly, Amu appeared beside me, and placed her hand on the blaster, gently pushing it down. "It is done Ani." She whispered, "To kill in battle is one thing, but to shoot him while unconscious would be nothing less than murder. You are not Depur."
I let out a breath, and handed the blaster to Amu. She nodded, tucking it under the belt of her tunic.
We removed the mandalorian's weapons from him, and gave them to members of the group that could shoot. He even had a vibrio knife in his boot, which I kept.
We hurried through the halls of the spaceport, making our way to Docking bay 38. As we slipped through the doors, we saw the Whitesun's ship, but they weren't here yet. Only the owner of the ship had the codes to lower the onramp, so we were stuck waiting for them to arrive.
After a few tense minutes of waiting, they arrived. "Sorry we're late" said Mrs. Whitesun, "We were held up by some enforcers and had to bribe our way through. Let's be off!" She retrieved a code transmitter from her pocket and clicked a button, which began lowering the ramp.
Suddenly, another voice sounded from the docking bay entrance. "So you're really leaving."
We froze, turning towards the speaker. What the hell? It was Kitsters mom!
"Adra!" The Cathar member of our group hissed, "what are you doing here!?"
She responded angrily. "I followed you. Or more accurately, I followed the Whitesuns! Why are you leaving me Ostar!? Why are you leaving Kitster?!"
The Cathar man, Ostar, responded incredulously, "what are you talking about? We aren't in a relationship, we've barely talked in months!"
Adra ran towards Ostar and threw herself at him, and he caught her, confused. After she seemingly hugged him, she skipped back away from us, and pointed a blaster at Ostar, the same one he had gotten from the mandalorian and tucked into his belt. He felt at his side, realizing it's a absence.
We all froze where we were, and Ostar put his hands up.
Ostar spoke up, trying to keep his voice calm but unable to fully hide his desperate tone. "Adra. It was one night, years ago!"
"It only takes one!" Adra snapped, "Kitster is your son! We slept together before I got pregnant with him!"
"Adra!" Ostar responded, "Cathar genetics are incompatible with humans, there is no way I could be—"
"Shut up! Shut! Up!" Tears streamed down her face, and her hands grew shaky. "You are his father! I know you you are! You have to be! You must!"
I grimaced. We had all seen Adra's master, a foul tempered man who ran a bar across from Watto's droid shop, and anyone could see Kitster looked exactly like him.
The strange thing about it was, she didn't feel like she was lying. Her force signature radiated pain, fear, desperation, self hatred, and a deep wanting, and all those twisted up feelings made me leery about seeking a deeper connection to find out the truth. But on the surface, she actually seemed like she believed what she was saying. The only problem is, like Ostar said, it wasn't scientifically possible.
"Adra. My chip is removed. I am going."
"No you're not!" Adra screamed, "You're staying here! With me! You can't leave!"
Suddenly, Something clicked into place in my mind. It was probably pretty dumb of me to speak, but the words left my mouth before I could think twice, "It was you! You tipped the enforcers off!"
There were a few gasps, and Ostar got visibly angry. "Adra! Is this true?! Did you put us all at risk for this… Delusion?!"
She was spitting now, and I tightened my mental shields as her mind seemed to implode, fracturing into something more primal, a desperate escape from her suffering, all of her internal fear and pain morphing into unrestrained hatred.
Shrieking like a krayt dragon, she aimed at me, the left most member of our group, and it was clear she intended to gun us all down. A warning in the force blared, she was going to shoot!
ZWAP!
The sound of a blaster bolt being fired made me flinch, but it wasn't me that had been shot. Smoking, Adra's body fell to the ground. Standing next to me was Amu, her arm extended, smoke curling from the barrel of her blaster. A shocked silence lasted a few seconds, but was broken by Amu. She spoke, her voice shaky. "We have to go. Quickly!"
At her shout, we were galvanized into action. Those that hadn't already entered the ship hurried up the ramp, and it began to close. Amu and I reactivated our stealth auras, and we quickly hurried out of the docking bay. As we passed Adra Jetster's body, on instinct, I summoned the mandalorian pistol to my hand. Engines roaring, the Whitesuns ship took off, rising up into the air.
As we jogged through the streets toward home, a few enforcers rushed passed us towards the spaceport, never knowing we were there. When we finally reached home and locked the door, Amu collapsed into a kitchen chair, tears streaming down her face. Adra and her had been neighbors, friends! What had been happening in her life to push her mind to the breaking point like that?!
"Adra…" Amu murmured, "how could you?"
She squeezed me to her body, as if reassuring herself I was there.
"I'm sorry Amu." I said, "I shouldn't have turned the blaster to lethal, I shouldn't have spoken up! If it was still on stun, than maybe—"
She interrupted, "No Ani! It's not your fault! It's… it's not your fault…" I got the feeling she was speaking as much to herself as she was to me. She rocked back and forth with me, and I tried not to think about Kitster next door, sleeping away happily, now motherless.
I felt sick to my stomach. I had felt her mind, felt how broken and fractured it had become, and I felt a black flame of bitter hatred spark into life in my heart at the thought of Nero, Adra's master. I know it was a colossally bad idea to hate as a force sensitive, but I couldn't bring myself to care at this moment in time. I hated him and all those like him.
"Should we kill him?" I asked, and I didn't need to tell Amu who I was referring to.
She opened her mouth, and I could tell she wanted to tell me no on principle, but struggled to get the words out, because she didn't agree with them. Eventually she settled on, "We… can't. It's too dangerous. We shouldn't."
I nodded. I guess that was fair. Not now didn't necessarily mean not ever, and we could only do what we could, and nothing more.
Still, it's shit like this that makes me want to command an armada, raze this planet to glass, and move on to Nal Hutta for seconds. Catching myself, I took a breath. Freeing the slaves: good. Mass planetary bombardment: bad. Mostly. No! Definitely!
I sat in Amu's arms, and stewed in our powerlessness. One day… I would return. For good or for ill, this I swear.
A/N : And that a wrap.
If you're curious about how the lullaby that Shmi sings sounds, look up Alapu Upala, A sanskrit lullaby written for Godzilla: Singular Point. While the words are different, the tune and vocals for it is what I had in mind.
Like I said in the warning, some heavy stuff. I promise I'm not writing awful shit happening for no reason. The story beats written now, WILL inform events later.
As an apology, and so we aren't leaving on such a downer, here is something extra.
POV: Qui Gon Jinn
Master Qui Gon Jinn of the Jedi Order dismounted from the transport, and waved a farewell to Master Gallia. They were currently on Genassa, having just finished mediating an official negotiation between senators that took place in the Hewett system. Master Gallia would continue on towards Coruscant, but Qui Gon had dismounted here on Genassa to pick up his apprentice, who had just finished a solo mission in the system.
Qui Gon smiled as he felt Obi Wan through the training bond, feeling proud of his padawan's success. Every time he felt his apprentices pure lightness it brought a smile to his face. Having pinpointed his location, Qui Gon set off in his direction.
Obi Wan had just recently begun going on solo missions, and he had already took to it like a duck to water. It was a surreal feeling that in a few short years, he would likely be knighted. While Feemor had achieved knighthood, Qui Gon had only taken over the last few years of his training when his previous master had died. Feemor had already had the basic principles of the Jedi imparted to him, Qui Gon had just smoothed out some of the edges really. And the less said about Xanatos du Creon, the better.
No, Obi Wan would be a knight, and a good one at that. The first knight he had fully trained. It was a surreal feeling, but one he quite enjoyed. The future looked bright indeed!
Qui Gon had met up with Obi Wan, and they were currently in the ship that Obi Wan had been allowed to check out from the Jedi hangars for his solo mission, hurtling through hyperspace.
"So, you say your life was in danger? How did that happen at a banquet between senators?" Obi Wan asked, puzzled.
"Oh it was nothing serious, an honest mistake, quickly rectified."
Obi wan rolled his eyes, which made Qui Gon quirk his brow in challenge. While Obi Wan once would have shrunk under that look, nowadays he was much more vocal. "I swear master, getting a good story out of you is like pulling teeth."
Qui Gon shrugged in response, not elaborating. Obi Wan sighed and shook his head in exasperation.
"Where is the next stop along our current hyper lane?" Qui Gon asked, deciding to test his padawan. Obi wan reached for the navi-computer to turn on the display, but Qui Gon stopped him. "Without consulting the navi-computer if you please."
The red headed padawan gave a long-suffering sigh, "Master, I already passed my Astronavigation exams last month, must I still be tested on this?"
Qui Gon responded calmly, "And because you passed a written test, the knowledge is no longer needed?"
With an irritated huff, Obi Wan sunk into a shallow meditation to improve his memory, releasing his emotions to the force. "We are currently traveling along the Celanon spur hyperlane," he muttered, "And we will pass by Ord Mantel in a day or so without needing to stop to change directions or replenish supplies, so that means…" he paused, drawing a blank. "Is it… Vicondor? No. Glee Anselm? No, that's not right, oh, navigation is for droids!"
Qui Gon remained serene, having faith his Padawan would get the right answer eventually. Their next stop would in fact be at the Dorin system to switch hyper lanes toward Coruscant, but he made sure to shield his knowledge from giving it away to Obi Wan. After all, this was a test of knowledge, not telepathy.
As his Padawan continued his mutterings, Qui Gon surmised that 'eventually' may be a bit farther off than he initially anticipated. He slipped into meditation, sinking into the force. While it was important to keep oneself rooted in the present, especially when out in the field, it was also important to be able to decipher the more distant guidances of the living force.
Many fluctuations and eddies resonated through the force, their specific meanings largely confused by the veil of the dark side. A usual Jedi might filter these out as distractions, giving up interpreting these as an exercise in futility. Qui Gon Jinn, however, was not a usual Jedi. Keeping his patience, he diligently kept unraveling each micro disturbance, his powerful will and deep immersion in the living force preventing him from drifting into the future or past. Suddenly, there was a jolt in the force, like something extremely important had just happened. Something that would effect things on a planetary scale.
Seizing on this thread, he allowed himself to pear shallowly into the future, and was able to divine were this disturbance would occur.
"Ryloth." he found himself saying.
Obi Wan jerked out of his concentration, his face incredulous. "Ryloth?! No master, I'm certain it isn't that. Ryloth is in the outer rim, on the other side of the galaxy!"
Qui Gon continued, as if uninterrupted. "I sense a disturbance in the force, we are needed on Ryloth."
Obi Wan's eyes widened, "Truly? But Master, it's on the Other side of the galaxy from here! We'd be passing by Coruscant just to get there. Surely there is someone better positioned to investigate? And don't you need to make your report to the council?"
Qui Gon stared blankly, maintaining his thread of guidance he had found with some difficulty. "Master Gallia was present, she can inform them of any necessary developments. As for another Jedi, perhaps, but I am not confident in drawing another's attention toward this thread in a timely matter. It could effect things on a planetary scale, and we must arrive as soon as possible."
Obi wan nodded, and went to program an extended rout in the the navi-computer. When the display activated, he saw the next stop his master had been testing him on. "Ah! Dorin! That's what it was!"
Qui Gon sighed, "Very good Padawan." He congratulated sarcastically.
"I am quite brilliant, aren't I? Sometimes I impress even myself." Obi wan responded cheekily.
Qui Gon snorted with laughter, but quickly sobered. The council wouldn't be happy about this little detour, but Ryloth was home to nearly 1.5 billion sentients. If it's future was in question, the Jedi must act, and as quickly as possible. The Council could hem, haw, and deliberate all they wanted, but to Qui Gon at least, the 'will of the force' was clear in this matter.
With their new course set, they speeded along the hyperlane towards Ryloth.
A/N: Hope y'all liked it! 'Till next time!
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Desert Treasures
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Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
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Amu and I were walking to the droid shop as the the sun rose. It had been about a month since the Whitesuns left with the fourteen of our fellow slaves.
They hadn't returned, which made sense. They had left at the same time as a mass slave escape, leaving a pair of guards unconscious in their wake. If any members of the path did return to Tatooine, it wouldn't be the Whitesuns.
Sorry Owen. It's not like you and Beru would have children of your own, and your only connection to Luke was through Shmi, who will be leaving the planet with me, instead of marrying your Dad and getting killed by sand people.
"What are you muttering about Ani?" Amu asked, bemused.
"Oh, nothing. Just… wondering where Kitster ended up."
She sighed at that. "So do I. But there is only so much we can do. He is no longer on Tatooine, we can only hope he finds opportunities for survival wherever he ends up in the galaxy." I could feel her sadness, and I regretted bringing it up. We had planned to have kitster stay with us, as it was the least we could do. The plan was to tell him that his mother was a hero, that she had been instrumental in the escape of 14 slaves, but had tragically sacrificed herself to help them gain their freedom. It was a lie, one that we couldn't deny was self serving, but it would also give him something to be proud of. Something to give him hope for the future. Unfortunately, we never got the chance.
Shortly after his mom was found dead at the spaceport and the commotion had blown over, Kitster's Master had sold him to a visiting offworlder. It shocked me, as Kitster was his biological son, but I guess there wasn't any love there. I didn't even see him leave. Didn't even get to say goodbye. I still had nightmares about him, or perhaps they were visions. There was always a haunted empty look in his eyes as he was lead away by his new faceless master. He looked so… defeated. Like he was a dead body that still could walk. The details never changed no matter how many times I dreamed it.
Still, for everyone else on Tatooine, life had to move on. Life did move on. It was like that here. Every day, lives were destroyed, dreams were broken, people would suffer things that seemed like the end of the world for them, and the world just… kept on spinning. As a slave, I was powerless to change it. The suns rose. The market bustled. Life went on.
We still had the blasters, which were illegal for us to possess. We had managed to find a place in an abandoned building to hide our weapons and money, which I secured by welding a safe together. It couldn't be sliced, as I had used old fashioned number dials instead of a digital lock. It was buried in the dirt floor, and covered by a ratty old sinthfiber carpet that was more dirt than rug at this point. The small dilapidated hut had a hole in the roof and was home to a massive womprat's nest, which is why people didn't often go there. Womprats were usually very aggressive and their bites carried lots of nasty diseases, but with the force as our ally, they were docile and meek. Some Womp rat species out on the dunes got to be as big as two meters, but this species was smaller, each about the size of a chihuahua.
Watto had eventually returned and after that it was business as usual. We got up, we worked, I looked out for parts for the pod, Amu skimmed a little off each sale while Watto wasn't watching, the sun would set, we would go home, we had dinner, I would meditate on the force/ tinker with the parts I had, we'd go to bed, rinse and repeat. Day after day.
Except, the last several days while I was snatching an hour or so to myself for meditation, I had sensed someone. Someone powerful.
They hadn't seemed to move at all in the last week or so, and their presence was coming from out in the Jundland wastes, from the canyons that were there. I usually had a pretty difficult time sensing much of anything from that far, but their signature in the force was just that powerful. It felt calm, warm, and sturdy, like a smooth boulder that still radiated the day's warmth in the chilly desert night.
I wanted to go investigate, but Watto had worked us every day since he came back from his trip a month ago, and there hadn't been an opportunity. With every day that went by, I feared whoever it was would leave, but they hadn't so far.
As we arrived at the droid shop and began setting up, there was a groan of pain from up in Watto's nest. His face popped over the side of hanging nest bed, and he waved us away with one hand while massaging his temple with his other. His eyes were bloodshot, and his speech was slurred. "Nno work todayy-eehh. Leave! andeh bbe ehquiet!"
Yes! He had a hangover! Let's fucking go! I don't give a shit what he was celebrating last night, but I'm glad he did!
We quietly packed up what we had set up and left the shop, locking the door behind us and flipping the sign to closed.
We had the whole day ahead of us! And I knew exactly where I was going.
After Amu and I parted ways with the promise that I make it home before dark, I grabbed a leather backpack with my Jawa outfit in it and took off to the edge of town, my notice-me-not field on full blast.
I stole from a few of the nastier vendors along the way without anyone noticing, and I munched on a pallie and took a swig of water as I made it to the outskirts of town. Moving to a location on the outer wall I had previously marked, I sensed down in the sand for what I had buried and managed to pull it up with the force without breaking it. Unraveling the surrounding tarp, I revealed a quick and dirty speeder I had thrown together a couple weeks ago when I was supposed to be sleeping.
It wasn't that pretty, I had taken the base off of a hovering cargo crate, and slapped a small repulserlift engine from a probe droid on the back to propel me forward. There was a chair for sitting welded to the middle of the makeshift hoversled, and a large power cell was underneath the seat. Installed on a conduit pipe in front of the chair was a steering bar that controlled the direction that the engine was pointing, as well as the hastily wired activation controls. It's speed was decent, it's acceleration was shit, and it's handling was so fucking awful you practically needed to be force sensitive to pilot it through the desert without crashing or suddenly finding yourself spinning backwards like a disk shaped snowsled. Its name was Hank.
Tying my backpack to the back of the chair, I tied a knot in the safety rope across my waist, fired up the hoversled and the little engine, and whooshed my way off into the desert.
At this point I had changed into my full Jawa disguise, which protected me from the sun, and I used the force in a way I had recently discovered. Similar to the notice-me-not field, it required a cloak of energy around my body, but instead of hiding me from being noticed, I had managed to 'banish' some of the energy in the air away from me, dropping the temperature significantly. It was like having my own little cool climate, and I called it the AC field.
With my robes protecting me from the sun and the force to cool me down, I had no problems operating even at noon under the binary suns.
I sped across the dunes on Hank, heading steadily toward the large force signature. Normally I would be a bit cautious, but it was so serene and peaceful I had a hard time believing it was coming from a darksider.
After about thirty minutes I made it to the more rocky terrain of the Jundland wastes, my senses cast wide for sand people. Turning a dial, I pumped more power into the repulserlifts, raising the hover height to avoid the rocks. Hover crates weren't exactly designed to go up this high, so balancing was an issue due to the stabilizers having limited range. It was fine as long as I kept my balance. It was sort of like using a unicycle, except you were traveling at 150 kmph and it still handled like a disk shaped snowsled powered by a leaf blower. But hey, that's what the force is for! It still wasn't as sketchy as podracing.
Reducing speed, I began working my way up a sloping hillside, heading for the top of the canyon wall. Once I was there, I sped back up and lowered the height back to standard, as the ground was quite smooth up here. After a while of following the canyon edge, and occasionally looking down into the fissure, I finally reached where the signature was coming from. I powered down my speeder, as it wouldn't be able to traverse the last bit of the journey. I wasn't worried about securing it, because Hank had the advantage of being so unbelievably shitty that no one intelligent would ever want to/be able to steal it.
Sitting on the top of a large rock formation with their eyes closed in a meditative pose, was a scarred, barefaced human with a slender build and long shaggy brown hair. They had rough blocky facial features and extremely well defined muscles on their arms, which made me think they were a man, but their smooth non hairy face and slender frame made me think they were a woman. They didn't have any noticeable breasts, but their chest was covered by their thick sleeveless robes, which could easily disguise any they might have.
They didn't have any noticeable provisions with them at all, no food, no water, not even Japur butter to protect their bare arms and face from the suns. The only item they had was a poleaxe with a long wooden shaft and a jagged head that looked like it was made out of some kind of stone.
I focused on their face, trying to see if they looked like some kind of actor I recognized, but nothing sprung to mind. They were just… a person.
Reaching out through the force, I brushed against their mind, and found a rigid mental defense that seemed unbreakable.
At my mental touch, they opened their eyes, looking around in confusion until their eyes settled on me, and they quirked an eyebrow.
In a voice scratchy and harsh from disuse, they spoke, "Well well well. A force sensitive Jawa. Now I've seen everything."
I took off my mask and lowered my hood.
"Hmm… not a Jawa then."
I decided to introduce myself. "Hello… I'm Anakin. How long have you been out here with no food or water? Do you need some?"
"No I don't need any. This is part of my training."
"Oh… are you using the force to stay alive? Sir…?"
She cleared her throat, a deadpan stare on her face. When she spoke, her voice was much less gunky and distinctly feminine in tone. "Maam. And yes. The force can provide many things for those who know how to ask."
"How long have you been up there?" She looked shabby, but not dangerously dehydrated, and the nut brown skin on her arms and face wasn't even burned.
"Eight days." She answered. "I plan on staying here for about a month in total, upon which I will return to my order."
"With no food or water?" I asked.
"None." She responded.
"Are you a Jedi?"
"No."
"What order are you from?"
"The Matukai."
I inhaled sharply, not expecting that. The Matukai to my knowledge were from Legends continuity, which shed some light on what kind of universe I was in.
She quirked an eyebrow again showing proper interest in me for the first time. "You've heard of us?"
"Yes," I responded, "You are great fighters that use the force and can beat up Jedi, but you don't have lightsabers."
She chuckled, clearly pleased, "I had no idea our reputation had spread so far! And beat up a Jedi? In a purely physical contest perhaps, but not much in anything else…"
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Nyra." She responded.
She seemed to have a direct personality, so I figure I'd just ask. "Will you teach me?"
She rested her chin on her fist, contemplating with her eyes closed. After a few seconds, she answered. "Yes. But only as long as I'm here. I sense we will part ways after that."
Fucking wizard!
This… was not nearly as 'wizard' as I thought it was going to be.
"Follow my movements, feel the flow of the force, and let it fuel your body. We Matukai use physical movement to meditate, focusing on our body as the house of the spirit. Energy flows from the force through your body, commanded by the spirit. Do you feel it?"
"Hah. Hah. hYeah." I responded, sweating buckets. I had initially kept my AC field up, but she made me take it down, as it was 'dividing my focus.'
"Instead of using a trick to hide from the heat, simply enhance your body against it, as I am."
"Uh yeah. Got it." No I fucking didn't. I struggled to keep from screaming. This sucked.
"Don't be distracted by anger. Acknowledge it, consider its cause, then let it pass through you."
I kept breathing through the stretches and aerobic movements, trying to get my body to drink in the energy of force as hers did. I was able to a little, but not nearly enough. I'd hazard a guess and say that Tatooine sunslight isn't an ideal place for a beginner.
It was like a hellish mixture of hot Yoga and P90X, all while also focusing the force in a way I wasn't used to. My limbs burned and cramped as I exercised muscles I didn't normally use, at ranges of motion I wasn't used to. Plus? Sand.
Fuck sand.
"You're fading fast. You should drink some water."
Oh thank all that is good and holy in the universe! Getting out of the burning stretch I was in, I rushed over to my backpack and withdrew my insulated desert canteen. I suppressed the urge to chug, sipping instead. There wasn't much left, and I felt nervous about making it back with no water, especially given how exhausted I was, physically and in the force.
She must have felt my concern, because she spoke up on the issue. "Don't worry, once it gets late I'll take you to a place to refill. There is one close."
I looked up from staring into the water bottle, confused, "I thought you said you don't need water. Have you been drinking it?"
She shook her head. "I haven't. But there is water nearby. I specifically chose this spot for my training for the temptation it provides. It isn't a proper test of Will if what you want is completely out of reach. I know I can get water, but I make the active decision to rely on the force instead. It has the perfect combination of extremely harsh environment and nearby temptation."
What the hell? Does she even know where we are? Is her brain sun-roasted? "We're in the Jundland wastes." I said deadpan, looking around. "There is no water here. Everybody knows that. Not even moisture farmers can set up here."
She looked at me with patience. "The locals seem to do just fine here. And is it truly the lack of water that drives off the outworlders? Or is it the sand people?"
I opened, then closed my mouth. I couldn't really argue with that.
She continued, "There is water here. I can sense it."
I nodded, deciding to trust in her wisdom. She was a fully trained force user after all, and I was just some random joe throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. My senses wouldn't be able to tell water apart from any other inanimate object out here.
"Take a break with your temperature cloak. I don't wish to permanently injure you. Cool off and heal your fatigue for 15 minutes, then we will continue."
I sighed in relief as I wrapped myself in the AC cloak, pushing the heat from my clothes and the surrounding air. It felt heavenly.
While I was resting, I decided to ask a few questions. "When I tried to contact you mentally, your defense was amazing! How do you make that kind of shield?"
She sighed, but thankfully answered, "It wasn't a 'shield' but my mind itself. The Jedi have access to many techniques from all over the galaxy, collected and refined over thousands of years. As such, their mental shielding techniques have become formidable and famous. The Matukai are different. Instead of creating a psychic barrier around our minds, we specialize on using the force to strengthen our minds directly. There are many ways this is less effective than the Jedi method, but it is also why fall rates among the Matukai are nearly non-existent. Our enhanced willpower allows us to more effectively resist temptation."
"Fall rates?" I asked. I had a guess as to what she was talking about, but wanted to make sure.
"Ah…" She said, realizing something. "I haven't taught you about the dark side. Right."
She proceeded to give me an explanation of the dark side that was pretty similar to the one Yoda gave to Luke.
"When one readily uses the dark side," she continued, "there comes a time when they 'fall'. Their eyes turn yellow, their personality is drastically altered, and they often show signs of extreme mental instability that were otherwise dormant in them before. It is this phenomenon that makes the dark side as dangerous as it is. I've seen it happen in real time with a self proclaimed 'grey' force sensitive cultist I used to debate with, and the difference is night and day. One moment they are a reasonable being making reasonable actions with their power, and sometimes in as little time as overnight, they change into a monster. Using the dark side in any way, no matter how justified you are in doing so, is a poison. You are drinking madness into your very soul, and while you might not instantly feel it's effects, eventually it will overwhelm you."
Oh… Damn. Really? That… didn't seem fair at all! But it also rang true with what was shown in the movies, episode 3 especially. "If you fall, can you regain yourself?" The movies and the EU would say yes, but I would be a fool if I took the risk based on that alone.
She shrugged. "After someone has fully fallen? I don't personally know of any case where that's ever happened, but I'm not exactly a subject expert. You'd have to ask a Jedi scholar about it."
I sighed. I already know what they would tell me. Impossible. Ridiculous.
"Anyway," she continued, "The Matukai have the lowest fall percentage of any order, even lower than the Jedi, and It's because we specialize on the enhancing properties of the force. A strong mind can handle much more than a weak mind that hides behind a shield."
"Why not do both? A strong mind and a strong shield."
She nodded. "That's the Jedi approach, the smart ones at least, but a generalist will never advance as quickly or as far as a specialist."
I nodded back. That makes sense. "How can I strengthen my mind?"
She smiled, "Training and meditation. Lots of it. Matukai training doesn't give you all the benefits in a convenient or timely manner. Most people, depending on their talent, don't see any meaningful results in the first year or two. On average, you would have to train every day consistently for more than a decade before you could even consider going extended periods without food, water, and sleep like I do. Not without nasty side effects at least. For now, simply let the force flow through you calmly and meditatively while you do something challenging, and it will leave a minor enhancement behind. Do this consistently, and eventually it will permanently enchant your body, progressing you beyond your limits and opening up new depth to your connection to the force."
"Wizard." I breathed out, unintentionally voicing my thoughts.
"That's enough chit chat." She declared, "Drop that temperature field and follow my movements."
Shit. 'Greater challenges brings greater strength' may sound cool and good and all, but actually doing it sucks donkey balls. Still, if what she was saying was true, it would be so, so fucking worth it.
Deciding to shoot my shot, I asked the question burning on my mind, "My mother and I are slaves, born in the care of the Hutts. Can you help free us?"
She paused, a complicated expression on her face. "No."
I scowled, gritting my teeth in anger. "Why not?" I growled out, trying my best to remain calm.
"I don't have money to buy you, or medical connections to remove your chip. Not on this planet at least."
That took most of the wind out of my sails.
She continued. "But even if I could, I wouldn't."
My eyes widened in rage, "Why not?!"
"Because this is your trial. I will not deny you the growth that will come from overcoming it. It is better for someone's self perception to free themself, and remain debtless, than to trade one master for another. It may seem cruel of me, but I know this to be the truth. With the force, all things are possible, and I believe in you kid. And by training you, however briefly, I am doing what I can to enable you to seek your own freedom."
I scowled. Talk about 'tough love'. She doesn't seem to be taking into account all the irreversible trauma I might receive in the meantime. Still, the pure unbridled faith in her eyes when she spoke, when she looked at me, made it seem like she was looking into my eyes and seeing herself, like she was imparting wisdom to me that she wished someone would have told her when she was young. It made it hard to be angry with her or to truly disregard her point of view. If she was speaking from experience, than… maybe I could respect her stance, even if I didn't personally agree with it.
"Like I said before, enough talk! Ready? Begin!"
Grumbling, I mirrored her movements as best I could, with her offering corrections along the way. Nyra explained that the basic Matukai code was:
Through exercise, discover the Force.
Through the Force, discover tranquility.
Through tranquility, discover vitality.
While this was important to remember, she had her own understanding of Matukai principles which was a bit more effective for her, and the personal mantra she gave me was the one I ended up repeating over and over as we worked.
Challenge grows the will.
Will focuses the force.
The force brings me past my limits.
Remain serene, and find peace in adversity.
I am the calm within the storm.
Even with as cool as that sounded, I had a sneaking suspicion that this was gonna be a loooooooong day.
To make a long story short… It was. It was a very, very long day. The workout we did before our conversation was apparently a warm up and it only got harder from there. The exercises were so… demanding in a way I can't describe. Not just physically, but mentally and in the force as well. They seemed to be designed to push me as far as possible and to only come just short of me breaking. Nearly every second we worked made me want to quit, cry, swear a blue streak, throw up, or maybe all of them at once.
The whole time I desperately focused on the force, practically begging it to help me, to refill my stamina, to protect me from the elements, to make me stronger, tougher, and more flexible. It didn't feel like it was nearly enough. While Nyra's body seemed to effortlessly absorb the force's energy like a deep river flowing steadily into a lake, I felt like I was trying to breathe by sucking air through a coffee straw. It just wasn't enough. My body simply wasn't used to drawing on the force in such a manner yet.
"Alright. That's enough for today. You said you had to be home by dark? You'll need to get going soon."
I collapsed. Holy shit. It was over. Aside from the normal symptoms of exhaustion, my body seemed to hum with otherworldly energy, and it strangely felt like I had to concentrate in order to keep my body from disappearing into the force, which I hoped was a psychological phenomenon and not an actual risk.
"I assume you are out of water then? I'll show you where to get some."
I nodded, and she hopped off the outcropping, jogged over to the cliff's edge and leaped across the six meter chasm like it was nothing, landing easily on the other side. She looked back at me, expectantly. I gulped in trepidation. I knew how deep the canyon was. If I didn't make the jump, all that waited was certain death.
"Master your fear Kid. You have all the tools necessary to follow."
I grumbled. Someone having faith in me may be nice most days, but right now it was a pain in the ass. I hadn't sensed her use any kind of telekinesis or levitation or anything, she had simply leaped across with brute strength. But just because she did it that way, doesn't mean I had to.
In the month since the fiasco with the Whitesuns, I had been experimenting with telekinesis and had discovered that while my base instinct was to use the force around me as a sort of 'counterweight' or 'anchor' so I could move heavy things without being effected, I was also, with proper concentration, able to 'un-anchor' myself, which tossed me on my ass when I first tried it while pushing a rather hefty rock. It was this discovery I would leverage now.
Gathering the force around me, I took off towards the gap to gain speed, and when I planted my foot for the last time to leap, I shoved against the ground with 'unanchored' telekinesis, which boosted the jump. With the extra thrust, I sailed across the canyon like a cork from a bottle! When it came time to land I used the force again, telekinetically cushioning my landing. After such an exhausting day, even this was nearly too much effort for me to handle, and I stumbled, almost eating shit before Nyra caught me.
She had a dry expression on her face, as if she was slightly disappointed, but not at all surprised. "Nice Jedi jump. Try to focus more on enhancement and less on telekinesis, ok? A sturdy foundation is what we're trying to build, you can play around with tricks after your body has been properly trained."
She walked off and I followed, my brow furrowing. 'Play around'? With 'tricks'?! It wasn't like I was cheating at sabaak, telekinesis was an incredibly powerful technique!
She huffed in exasperation, no doubt sensing my emotions. "Don't be so frustrated. You are learning from a Matukai, not a Jedi. Focus on enhancement, other techniques will come after."
I sighed, it was pretty annoying that my emotions weren't nearly as private as I would prefer, but at least she wasn't a full on mind reader. I think. I hope. Shit!
'I'm… wearing ladies underwear!'
I gauged her reaction. Nothing.
'I'm… a gungan in human form planning to overthrow the republic!'
Nothing again.
She interrupted my thoughts, "You admire the Jedi?" She questioned. I relaxed somewhat. She was still on the topic from earlier.
"Yeah, I do. I've always imagined myself as one, ever since I was little. Dreamed about what it would be like."
"You still are little."
I jolted in fear. Had I given it away? "Around here… you don't stay little for long."
She looked remorseful, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to trigger any bad memories."
"It's fine." I nearly sighed in relief. She could sense my emotions, but not my exact thoughts. She assumed she had triggered a fear response from some kind of trauma.
Going back to the earlier subject, she continued. "The Jedi are very famous, and therefore glamorous, but they aren't all they're cracked up to be. They are quite elitist, and their training lacks depth. They compensate by training shallowly in as many different disciplines as they can set eyes on, never fully committing to one or the other. They have a hyper fixation on those sabers of theirs, and devote themselves to serve at the whims of corrupt politicians. They are more a force of self important, interrupting busybodies then they are true ascetics, only holding to their code of so called 'compassion' when it suits them, and throwing it away as soon as it is easier to be callus and cold."
My mouth hung open. What she was saying matched up uncomfortably well with the flaws from the movies, but it still pissed me off to hear her slander my childhood heroes like that. I argued back, "Believe me, I know the Jedi aren't perfect. If they were, I wouldn't be a slave. But just in case you weren't listening to yourself just now, do you honestly think refusing to do anything to free me is any more compassionate than what the Jedi do? At least they are busy trying to do something about the state of the galaxy. All you came here to do was sit on a rock!"
She tossed her hair and sniffed, and I told myself she was deeply offended, which gave me satisfaction, even if it probably wasn't true.
She responded with a calm tone. Was it forced? I couldn't tell. "I am helping you. Give a man a kill and he'll eat for a day. Train him to hunt and he'll eat for a lifetime. I don't have to teach you anything. This is my compassion. If you only ever rely on others to shelter and take care of you, you will never know the real world, and remain a slave forever. A little help is valuable, but too much is crippling, especially if one day all that help is ripped away like a rug from under your feet, never to return. All that was promised would be a thing of the past, and you would be left helpless, friendless, and with no future to speak of. No. That is not my way."
Her voice actually rose by the end of her monologue. For the first time in the day I had known her, her serenity was wearing thin. Maybe her offense wasn't as imaginary as I thought. Still… what she said at the end didn't make a whole lot of sense. It isn't coddling to free someone from slavery, it's basic human decency! Was she projecting? Remembering something from her past? I couldn't tell.
"S-Sorry. Thank you. For training me I mean. I didn't mean…"
She sighed. "Just… don't put the Jedi on some kind of pedestal. Trust me, It will only lead to disappointment. There is more light to be found in the galaxy outside of them and their teachings. I promise you that."
I nodded, but still was displeased. I hadn't met the real life Jedi yet, but I still had memories of Rick Miller's childhood, of playing with a plastic Obi Wan lightsaber with a telescoping blade. Of making up my own Jedi characters, of reloading my same KOTOR save over and over so I could finally save Bastila from the dark side and get the perfect light side ending. Of making shitty short films with my friends, and always playing the Jedi, always being the light side. I… loved the Jedi. Or at least… I loved the idea of them. "Some of them probably suck, but they can't all be like that… right?"
She looked at me, irritated. "Why do you have so much faith in them? Have you ever even met a Jedi?"
Embarrassed, and knowing I was about to lose the argument, I deflected. "Have you?" I said, not giving an answer to her question.
She sighed. "Kid, I was raised by the Jedi."
I sucked in a breath. That… shit. There wasn't much I could say to that.
She continued. "All my life, all that I had was the order. All that I knew was the temple. Like all initiates, it was my dream to become a Jedi knight. I trained hard. Harder than most of my peers. I studied. I skipped breaks to practice my saber play. But… my power, my so called inborn talent just… wasn't enough. No matter how I worked, how hard I tried, it was never good enough. I was never good enough. I attended the gathering, got my own lightsaber, sparred in the tournaments, did EVERYTHING I possibly could to attract a master and in the end… it wasn't enough. I wasn't picked. And suddenly, all that future, all that hope… was gone. Not a Jedi knight… but a farmer. Your lightsaber is your life? What a joke. What was the point of me even getting one, of making that so called 'sacred' connection, if it was just going to be taken away from me? Not a guardian of peace and justice, but a simple farmer spreading shit on a field for the rest of my life. Demoted. Kicked out. Abandoned."
I was too shocked to say anything, and we walked in silence. Before I could think of anything, she spoke up again. "We're here."
I looked around. We were on the edge of yet another canyon, and there wasn't any signs of a mud pit we could strain here or down on the canyon floor. Furthermore, the ground was far to hard and rocky for black melons. Was there really water here? Before I could say anything, she grabbed me around the waist and leapt into the narrow fissure.
As I swore up a blue streak in panic, she fluidly drew her axe off of her back, and plunged it into the canyon wall, her iron grip on her weapon not faltering in the slightest, the axe blade cutting through the stone like cheddar cheese, slowing our decent. After the initial scare, it was actually kind of cool, like being in a pirate movie!
"What is that axe head made of?" I asked once we were on the canyon floor.
She smiled, and I relaxed. I'm glad she wasn't mad at me. "Simple flint. The body isn't the only thing the force can enhance."
My eyes widened, and I nodded.
She made her way over to where the canyon fissure seemed to branch off into a dead end, and hopped up onto a minivan sized boulder that was resting against the wall. She paused, as if sensing for something, then nodded, leaning her back up against the wall, with her feet placed on the boulder. I felt her draw deeply on the force, and my eyes nearly popped out of my head when, with pure bodily strength, she pushed the boulder away from the canyon wall without a hint of telekinesis. With the boulder pushed about a half a meter from the wall, a cave entrance was revealed behind it, looking like it had been eroded by an ancient water flow.
A cool breeze emanated from the cave mouth, and my heart quickened in excitement as I smelt humidity on the air. All of a sudden, I realized that this wasn't a mud pit or a black melon patch. This was something infinitely more valuable.
We made our way through the cave, following its downhill slope deep underground. The smell if water and the feel of humidity increased as the temperature dropped, and eventually I heard the most heavenly sound I had heard in a while.
The trickling sound of flowing water.
I could feel something up ahead in the force. Glowing in my senses like it was alive, but at the same time, not. "Is that what water feels like?" I asked, looking at Nyra for confirmation, but her brow was furrowed in confusion.
"No… that's something else. I don't know why I didn't sense it before, but it almost feels like…" she trailed off, not finishing her thought.
"Like…?" I prompted, hoping she would finish her sentence. She didn't.
"Do you hear that?" She asked, "it sounds like… humming."
I shook my head, "No, I don't hear anything. What does it feel like?" I prompted yet again.
"No point speculating. Let's go see." She hurried forward. I rolled my eyes, then followed.
As we traveled deeper into the cave, the sound of running water got louder and clearer, and there was a soft glow coming from around a bend in the tunnel. We both ran toward the light, and when we turned the corner, we both gasped at the sight before our eyes.
In front of us was a spacious cavern with several large pools of clean crystal clear water. The smallest of the pools was more than 15 meters across, and they were all quite deep. Each of the pools were connected by a small flow of water, trickling from the lip of each basin into the next in line. The old Anakin had never even seen such a massive amount of water.
The light that actually let us see the pools of water came from an unlikely source. All over the ground, the walls, and the ceiling were beautiful formations of crystals, glowing and resonating with the force. The crystals all shone with warm shades of gold, orange, magenta, and the occasional silvery white.
The presence they gave off in the force felt… familiar. Suddenly I realized where I recognized it from.
Looking at Nyra to tell her what I figured out, I was shocked to see a tear sliding down her cheek. "It feels… just like Illum." Her eyes looked far away, like she was caught in a memory. "How is it possible? That I sensed the water but not the crystals?"
I had helpful information, so I shared it. "These look like Jawa rocks to me, but I've never seen such clear ones before."
She started, as if she had forgotten I was there. "Jawa rocks?" She repeated.
"Yeah," I continued, "Occasionally you can find crystals like these in the sand. The Jawa's use them to make the lenses for the eyes on their masks. They are interesting because you don't really sense them until you're up real close, and then all of a sudden they have a kind of… presence I guess. As a toddler I used to call them 'shy glass'. I guess I was sensing the force in them. The ones you find in the dunes aren't nearly this pretty or pure though. That's probably why they feel so powerful down here."
Nyra's brow furrowed, like she was trying to solve a riddle. "Shy… glass…" she muttered, and suddenly, her eyes flew open in realization. "By the force, these are Durindfire crystals!"
I was lost. That sounded like something from Lord of the Rings. "Are they valuable?" I asked.
Nyra whipped around towards me, a look of reproach on her face. "Durindfire crystals can be used in lightsaber construction. They are famously used by the Halcyon family of the green Jedi in Corellia, but the location where they got theirs was always kept a secret! I've sensed them before, they have a certain… subtlety that other crystals lack. They are notoriously hard to find because they only reveal their presence when a force sensitive is physically nearby!"
"So these are kyber crystals?" I asked in excitement.
"No." She responded. "Kyber is found on Illum, Jedha, and a few other places. Durindfire crystals are different, but they can still be used in lightsabers just as well."
I nodded, but sighed in disappointment. Even if they were valuable to some Jedi, I probably couldn't convince anyone on Tatooine to buy them as anything more than a knick knack. Sure they were extremely pure and some were quite large, but you could also spend like an hour digging through the dunes and you would find a few, shitty in quality they may be. They were about as common on Tatooine as quartz was on earth. It wasn't the famous kyber, so regular people wouldn't give a shit. Still, It was pretty cool that you could use them in a lightsaber!
I turned away from the crystals, and back towards Nyra. "You said you heard a humming?" I asked.
She nodded, "Yeah. From over there, deeper into the cave. This place… it reminds me of Illum. The force is almost as thick here as it is there. It just…" she wiped another tear, "brings back memories. Memories of hope. And of disappointment."
I blinked, considering her words. "Do you want to pick one?" I said gesturing to the crystals.
She turned to back me, her face in a pained expression, "Lightsabers are weapons of the Jedi. I… I'm no Jedi. Not anymore. I've found new meaning with the Matukai."
I shrugged. "So don't make a lightsaber then, make a necklace or something. My point is that you can hear something calling you, and I can't. Obviously the force brought you here for a reason. The whole time you were training me you were calm and serene, but as soon as the Jedi came up you cracked. Maybe this is a way for you to heal that wound."
She walked over to the water, and looked at her reflection, staring at it in silence for a few moments. Her expression grew determined, and she seemed to decide something. "Alright. Yeah, ok." She nodded, "I'm going." She looked over where she had pointed to before. "Drink some water, and fill up your canteen. I'll be back." She walked over to a crystal filled tunnel, venturing deeper into the cave.
With Nyra taking care of her business, I headed over to the reservoir to refill like she said. I filled my canteen, and drank. It tasted heavenly, without a trace of the bitter dusty aftertaste you got from a vaporator. I filled my canteen again, and replaced it on my hip.
I looked over the water, and rubbed my hands together in excitement. This was my big break. This would free Amu and I from slavery. I couldn't sell the water directly, a single taste and people would know it was mineral water, and a quick analysis after that would show it wasn't from any of the known hutt controlled reservoirs, and once that happens, I give myself a week at most before I get Jawa-napped off the street and unmasked before Jabba and Gardulla themselves, the slugs eager to torture the location of my wealth from me.
I couldn't sell the mineral water directly, but it was so humid in here that if I set up a few vaporators it wouldn't matter. So long as this place remained a secret I could basically print money! I could probably get a years worth of moisture harvest in a single month with a single vaporator, all I needed was to set up the equipment here, maybe build a simple droid to change the water tanks to harvest as much water as possible. Then all I would have to do is sell some water every night in my Jawa disguise, and bing bang boom! Money for freedom! It wasn't foolproof, there were still -plenty- of ways I could fuck this up, I'd have to transport the equipment and avoid getting caught. But the point was, there was hope! I had a solid way to get us out of this!
I sat down, and laid my back down on the ground. The cool humid air was quite soothing, and it wasn't long before I dozed off, the pure happiness and relief of the situation relaxing me far more than normal.
I was awakened by a foot nudging my shoulder. "Wh-huh? What's up?" I sat up groggily and rubbed my eyes, and when I saw Nyra, for a split second I thought she was a different person. With as young as my body was, I didn't really experience attraction the same way I did as Rick, but I could still freely admit when someone was beautiful. When I first met her, it had been in the harsh desert sunlight, her hair had been sand crusted and dry as hell, and she had been wearing thick, unflattering robes. She had obviously done some swimming to get her crystal, because she had shed her outer robe and trousers, leaving only a pair of tight exercise shorts and sports bra, revealing her subtle curves and lithe muscle. Her hair didn't look shaggy and dry anymore, but sleek and shiny, and her face was lit by the soft, gentle light of the glowing crystals. Sure, she still had a stronger jaw and her nose was a bit roman, but it didn't detract from her appearance, especially in the gentle lighting down here.
Still half asleep, I found myself saying, "Wow, you're really pretty. You don't look like a man at all right now."
She snorted with laughter, rolling her eyes. "Gee, thanks. Anyway, look at this." She crouched down, opening her hand, revealing a brightly glowing magenta crystal. It was about the size of one of the souvenir lightsaber crystals they sold at Disneyland, but the shape was narrower and a bit more jagged. I could feel the force flowing through her into the crystal, and flowing back into her, slightly amplified. Like it was catching the unused energy her body gave off, allowing her to use the force with much greater efficiency.
"Woah." I said intelligently.
She smiled, looking at the crystal with misty eyes, "Yeah. Woah is right. I feel… like I was missing a piece of myself, and I only now just got it back. Like I'm complete again, for the first time since I had to give up my lightsaber…"
I smiled, happy for her. "And this one doesn't come with strings attached. It's just yours. It belongs to nobody else."
She beamed, a tear falling down her cheek. "Yeah. Yeah it is."
She stood up again. "Alright, let's go. It's probably past dark, and you need to get home."
I shot up, fully awake. "Oh yeah! My mom's gonna kill me!" I scrambled around, putting my Jawa cloak back on and making sure I had all my equipment. As I was getting everything in order, I looked back over the water and couldn't help grinning like a madman, my heart joyful.
Nyra must have sensed my joy, "What are you so happy about?"
I responded. "Sorry, it's just… money has been the main barrier between me and my freedom until now… and now I finally can bridge that gap…"
Nyra was appalled, "You are NOT selling these crystals!"
I blinked. "I'm not gonna sell the crystals! I'm gonna sell the water!"
"Oh." She said, the wind out of her sails.
"Yeah. With this, I can free my Mom and I, all we have to do is survive till the Boonta eve after next, and keep this place a secret."
"Alright, fine. So long as you promise not to mine the crystals, I won't tell anyone else about the cave. Out of curiosity, what happens the Boonta eve after next?"
I paused, contemplating my answer. "I've had a vision. The Jedi will come to this planet, and I will have the opportunity to help them. If I have the money to free myself, I can use them as an intermediary."
She scowled. "Visions are often temperamental. There is no guarantee they will actually come true. Your faith is misplaced."
I responded. "Their names are Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi. Master Jinn has a green lightsaber and Padawan Kenobi has blue. I've never met these men in my life, but I have seen them clear as day. They will be here."
She stood still, shocked. "I… guess that's pretty detailed. If they don't end up showing, call me. I'll give you my comm number tomorrow. I expect you here bright and early for training." She started walking up the tunnel towards the exit, and I followed.
I shook my head. "The only reason I could show up today was because my master was hungover and he closed the shop. The last day off I had was about a month ago. Slave, remember?"
"What?! That's…" she went silent, contemplating. "Tomorrow, I'll go get a data pad from my ship, and write up a training document for you. I'll record the exercises you need to do and copy some material for you to study. At the end of the month before I leave I'll find you and drop it off, along with my comm number."
I smiled, "That would be awesome! Thank you!"
I could see her face, and it looked conflicted. Like she was second guessing herself. I spoke up. "I will free myself. I promise you that. Your time and effort won't be wasted."
She smiled in relief. "You'd better! Stay safe out there kid."
Even if she just up and took Amu and I with her, The chips were proximity coded. I'd explode if I got too far from the system. And with the dark side being as dangerous and corrosive as she said, I wouldn't ask her to torture the remote code out of Watto, or destroy his mind for it, if that was even possible.
And maybe I was catching her brand of crazy, but the thought of freeing myself, with my own power… I won't lie, it was quite attractive. I would use her training tools to gain whatever strength I could.
"Hey…" she started, "Are you sure those are their names? Master Jinn and… Obi Wan Kenobi?"
I nodded. "Yes."
She shook her head, but had a small smile on her face. "Can't believe little Obi Wan made it. I was about a two years older than he was, but when I left without a master it seemed like he would follow the same rout when he came of age. He wasn't very impressive as far as initiates go. One of his nicknames was 'Oafy Wan'…" she sighed, "And now he'll be a knight."
Her eyes were distant, and for a moment there was a bit of longing in her gaze, but she quickly shook it off. "Everyone's destiny is different. Good for him." She concluded.
After a while we got back to the cave entrance, and replaced the boulder in front, covering it. I used my telekinesis to kick up the sand around it like a whirlwind, wiping out the track in the dirt that dragging the boulder made. When we were done, it looked just like it did before, just another part of the canyon wall.
We made it back to Hank the junk scooter, and Nyra sat back down on her rock formation. We waved at each other, and I carefully drove away, heading back towards home.
Eventually, I made it back to the dunes and was able to lower the craft back down, which freed up my focus for some contemplation, and I smiled like a fool under my Jawa mask.
We could make more than enough money to free ourselves with that water. Now all I had to do was focus on keeping the cave secret, building that pod, and not dying in the meantime. Finally, I could see light at the end of the tunnel. I just had to not screw it up.
But hey! It me right? It's not like I, Anakin Skywalker, am some kind of trouble magnet…
Suddenly I realized what I was thinking. Oh boy… I better be more careful. I'm just glad I didn't say any of that out loud!
A/N: Aaaaaand that's a wrap! Two out of the three fateful encounters I planned have now happened! And for anyone who doesn't feel like Kitsters story had closure, that's by design. It's not the last we have seen of him.
There will be a significant time skip next chapter, which will cover the third and final Tatooine butterfly event and some other things, and the chapter after that should be the start of the phantom menace!
Sorry if there is a bit of a tonal shift in this one. I'm trying to take a sort of 'slice of time' method where Anakin is feeling differently in each chapter, but I'm not sure it's coming across that way.
How do y'all like Nyra? I'm trying to write her as a bit flawed but still likeable. her original name was going to be Lyra, but that was too similar to an existing character, and I changed it to avoid confusion. hopefully i got all the names changed.
BTW, Nyra's perception and opinions on the force and the Jedi are colored by her upbringing, experiences, and the Matukai teachings. The things she says about the force and the Jedi are not necessarily the complete truth of how I the author will write the force and the Jedi. She's not lying, or even wrong, at least not totally, but she definitely doesn't see the whole picture. There is a lot more nuance to the situation than she would have Anakin believe. The Jedi have flaws, don't get me wrong, but they don't totally suck. Her perception of them is quite unforgiving and judgmental, especially her perception of the agricorps as "simple farmers spreading shit on fields" they are much more than that.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not bashing the Jedi, this isn't a 'evil dumbledore' story if that makes sense. It's just a character whose opinions have been colored by past hurt, and there will be more development in the future.
I don't actually hate the Jedi at all, I'm just trying to write a more complex world with multiple reasonable sides to complex issues.
Anyway, see you next time! Have a good night!
They hadn't returned, which made sense. They had left at the same time as a mass slave escape, leaving a pair of guards unconscious in their wake. If any members of the path did return to Tatooine, it wouldn't be the Whitesuns.
Sorry Owen. It's not like you and Beru would have children of your own, and your only connection to Luke was through Shmi, who will be leaving the planet with me, instead of marrying your Dad and getting killed by sand people.
"What are you muttering about Ani?" Amu asked, bemused.
"Oh, nothing. Just… wondering where Kitster ended up."
She sighed at that. "So do I. But there is only so much we can do. He is no longer on Tatooine, we can only hope he finds opportunities for survival wherever he ends up in the galaxy." I could feel her sadness, and I regretted bringing it up. We had planned to have kitster stay with us, as it was the least we could do. The plan was to tell him that his mother was a hero, that she had been instrumental in the escape of 14 slaves, but had tragically sacrificed herself to help them gain their freedom. It was a lie, one that we couldn't deny was self serving, but it would also give him something to be proud of. Something to give him hope for the future. Unfortunately, we never got the chance.
Shortly after his mom was found dead at the spaceport and the commotion had blown over, Kitster's Master had sold him to a visiting offworlder. It shocked me, as Kitster was his biological son, but I guess there wasn't any love there. I didn't even see him leave. Didn't even get to say goodbye. I still had nightmares about him, or perhaps they were visions. There was always a haunted empty look in his eyes as he was lead away by his new faceless master. He looked so… defeated. Like he was a dead body that still could walk. The details never changed no matter how many times I dreamed it.
Still, for everyone else on Tatooine, life had to move on. Life did move on. It was like that here. Every day, lives were destroyed, dreams were broken, people would suffer things that seemed like the end of the world for them, and the world just… kept on spinning. As a slave, I was powerless to change it. The suns rose. The market bustled. Life went on.
We still had the blasters, which were illegal for us to possess. We had managed to find a place in an abandoned building to hide our weapons and money, which I secured by welding a safe together. It couldn't be sliced, as I had used old fashioned number dials instead of a digital lock. It was buried in the dirt floor, and covered by a ratty old sinthfiber carpet that was more dirt than rug at this point. The small dilapidated hut had a hole in the roof and was home to a massive womprat's nest, which is why people didn't often go there. Womprats were usually very aggressive and their bites carried lots of nasty diseases, but with the force as our ally, they were docile and meek. Some Womp rat species out on the dunes got to be as big as two meters, but this species was smaller, each about the size of a chihuahua.
Watto had eventually returned and after that it was business as usual. We got up, we worked, I looked out for parts for the pod, Amu skimmed a little off each sale while Watto wasn't watching, the sun would set, we would go home, we had dinner, I would meditate on the force/ tinker with the parts I had, we'd go to bed, rinse and repeat. Day after day.
Except, the last several days while I was snatching an hour or so to myself for meditation, I had sensed someone. Someone powerful.
They hadn't seemed to move at all in the last week or so, and their presence was coming from out in the Jundland wastes, from the canyons that were there. I usually had a pretty difficult time sensing much of anything from that far, but their signature in the force was just that powerful. It felt calm, warm, and sturdy, like a smooth boulder that still radiated the day's warmth in the chilly desert night.
I wanted to go investigate, but Watto had worked us every day since he came back from his trip a month ago, and there hadn't been an opportunity. With every day that went by, I feared whoever it was would leave, but they hadn't so far.
As we arrived at the droid shop and began setting up, there was a groan of pain from up in Watto's nest. His face popped over the side of hanging nest bed, and he waved us away with one hand while massaging his temple with his other. His eyes were bloodshot, and his speech was slurred. "Nno work todayy-eehh. Leave! andeh bbe ehquiet!"
Yes! He had a hangover! Let's fucking go! I don't give a shit what he was celebrating last night, but I'm glad he did!
We quietly packed up what we had set up and left the shop, locking the door behind us and flipping the sign to closed.
We had the whole day ahead of us! And I knew exactly where I was going.
After Amu and I parted ways with the promise that I make it home before dark, I grabbed a leather backpack with my Jawa outfit in it and took off to the edge of town, my notice-me-not field on full blast.
I stole from a few of the nastier vendors along the way without anyone noticing, and I munched on a pallie and took a swig of water as I made it to the outskirts of town. Moving to a location on the outer wall I had previously marked, I sensed down in the sand for what I had buried and managed to pull it up with the force without breaking it. Unraveling the surrounding tarp, I revealed a quick and dirty speeder I had thrown together a couple weeks ago when I was supposed to be sleeping.
It wasn't that pretty, I had taken the base off of a hovering cargo crate, and slapped a small repulserlift engine from a probe droid on the back to propel me forward. There was a chair for sitting welded to the middle of the makeshift hoversled, and a large power cell was underneath the seat. Installed on a conduit pipe in front of the chair was a steering bar that controlled the direction that the engine was pointing, as well as the hastily wired activation controls. It's speed was decent, it's acceleration was shit, and it's handling was so fucking awful you practically needed to be force sensitive to pilot it through the desert without crashing or suddenly finding yourself spinning backwards like a disk shaped snowsled. Its name was Hank.
Tying my backpack to the back of the chair, I tied a knot in the safety rope across my waist, fired up the hoversled and the little engine, and whooshed my way off into the desert.
At this point I had changed into my full Jawa disguise, which protected me from the sun, and I used the force in a way I had recently discovered. Similar to the notice-me-not field, it required a cloak of energy around my body, but instead of hiding me from being noticed, I had managed to 'banish' some of the energy in the air away from me, dropping the temperature significantly. It was like having my own little cool climate, and I called it the AC field.
With my robes protecting me from the sun and the force to cool me down, I had no problems operating even at noon under the binary suns.
I sped across the dunes on Hank, heading steadily toward the large force signature. Normally I would be a bit cautious, but it was so serene and peaceful I had a hard time believing it was coming from a darksider.
After about thirty minutes I made it to the more rocky terrain of the Jundland wastes, my senses cast wide for sand people. Turning a dial, I pumped more power into the repulserlifts, raising the hover height to avoid the rocks. Hover crates weren't exactly designed to go up this high, so balancing was an issue due to the stabilizers having limited range. It was fine as long as I kept my balance. It was sort of like using a unicycle, except you were traveling at 150 kmph and it still handled like a disk shaped snowsled powered by a leaf blower. But hey, that's what the force is for! It still wasn't as sketchy as podracing.
Reducing speed, I began working my way up a sloping hillside, heading for the top of the canyon wall. Once I was there, I sped back up and lowered the height back to standard, as the ground was quite smooth up here. After a while of following the canyon edge, and occasionally looking down into the fissure, I finally reached where the signature was coming from. I powered down my speeder, as it wouldn't be able to traverse the last bit of the journey. I wasn't worried about securing it, because Hank had the advantage of being so unbelievably shitty that no one intelligent would ever want to/be able to steal it.
Sitting on the top of a large rock formation with their eyes closed in a meditative pose, was a scarred, barefaced human with a slender build and long shaggy brown hair. They had rough blocky facial features and extremely well defined muscles on their arms, which made me think they were a man, but their smooth non hairy face and slender frame made me think they were a woman. They didn't have any noticeable breasts, but their chest was covered by their thick sleeveless robes, which could easily disguise any they might have.
They didn't have any noticeable provisions with them at all, no food, no water, not even Japur butter to protect their bare arms and face from the suns. The only item they had was a poleaxe with a long wooden shaft and a jagged head that looked like it was made out of some kind of stone.
I focused on their face, trying to see if they looked like some kind of actor I recognized, but nothing sprung to mind. They were just… a person.
Reaching out through the force, I brushed against their mind, and found a rigid mental defense that seemed unbreakable.
At my mental touch, they opened their eyes, looking around in confusion until their eyes settled on me, and they quirked an eyebrow.
In a voice scratchy and harsh from disuse, they spoke, "Well well well. A force sensitive Jawa. Now I've seen everything."
I took off my mask and lowered my hood.
"Hmm… not a Jawa then."
I decided to introduce myself. "Hello… I'm Anakin. How long have you been out here with no food or water? Do you need some?"
"No I don't need any. This is part of my training."
"Oh… are you using the force to stay alive? Sir…?"
She cleared her throat, a deadpan stare on her face. When she spoke, her voice was much less gunky and distinctly feminine in tone. "Maam. And yes. The force can provide many things for those who know how to ask."
"How long have you been up there?" She looked shabby, but not dangerously dehydrated, and the nut brown skin on her arms and face wasn't even burned.
"Eight days." She answered. "I plan on staying here for about a month in total, upon which I will return to my order."
"With no food or water?" I asked.
"None." She responded.
"Are you a Jedi?"
"No."
"What order are you from?"
"The Matukai."
I inhaled sharply, not expecting that. The Matukai to my knowledge were from Legends continuity, which shed some light on what kind of universe I was in.
She quirked an eyebrow again showing proper interest in me for the first time. "You've heard of us?"
"Yes," I responded, "You are great fighters that use the force and can beat up Jedi, but you don't have lightsabers."
She chuckled, clearly pleased, "I had no idea our reputation had spread so far! And beat up a Jedi? In a purely physical contest perhaps, but not much in anything else…"
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Nyra." She responded.
She seemed to have a direct personality, so I figure I'd just ask. "Will you teach me?"
She rested her chin on her fist, contemplating with her eyes closed. After a few seconds, she answered. "Yes. But only as long as I'm here. I sense we will part ways after that."
Fucking wizard!
This… was not nearly as 'wizard' as I thought it was going to be.
"Follow my movements, feel the flow of the force, and let it fuel your body. We Matukai use physical movement to meditate, focusing on our body as the house of the spirit. Energy flows from the force through your body, commanded by the spirit. Do you feel it?"
"Hah. Hah. hYeah." I responded, sweating buckets. I had initially kept my AC field up, but she made me take it down, as it was 'dividing my focus.'
"Instead of using a trick to hide from the heat, simply enhance your body against it, as I am."
"Uh yeah. Got it." No I fucking didn't. I struggled to keep from screaming. This sucked.
"Don't be distracted by anger. Acknowledge it, consider its cause, then let it pass through you."
I kept breathing through the stretches and aerobic movements, trying to get my body to drink in the energy of force as hers did. I was able to a little, but not nearly enough. I'd hazard a guess and say that Tatooine sunslight isn't an ideal place for a beginner.
It was like a hellish mixture of hot Yoga and P90X, all while also focusing the force in a way I wasn't used to. My limbs burned and cramped as I exercised muscles I didn't normally use, at ranges of motion I wasn't used to. Plus? Sand.
Fuck sand.
"You're fading fast. You should drink some water."
Oh thank all that is good and holy in the universe! Getting out of the burning stretch I was in, I rushed over to my backpack and withdrew my insulated desert canteen. I suppressed the urge to chug, sipping instead. There wasn't much left, and I felt nervous about making it back with no water, especially given how exhausted I was, physically and in the force.
She must have felt my concern, because she spoke up on the issue. "Don't worry, once it gets late I'll take you to a place to refill. There is one close."
I looked up from staring into the water bottle, confused, "I thought you said you don't need water. Have you been drinking it?"
She shook her head. "I haven't. But there is water nearby. I specifically chose this spot for my training for the temptation it provides. It isn't a proper test of Will if what you want is completely out of reach. I know I can get water, but I make the active decision to rely on the force instead. It has the perfect combination of extremely harsh environment and nearby temptation."
What the hell? Does she even know where we are? Is her brain sun-roasted? "We're in the Jundland wastes." I said deadpan, looking around. "There is no water here. Everybody knows that. Not even moisture farmers can set up here."
She looked at me with patience. "The locals seem to do just fine here. And is it truly the lack of water that drives off the outworlders? Or is it the sand people?"
I opened, then closed my mouth. I couldn't really argue with that.
She continued, "There is water here. I can sense it."
I nodded, deciding to trust in her wisdom. She was a fully trained force user after all, and I was just some random joe throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. My senses wouldn't be able to tell water apart from any other inanimate object out here.
"Take a break with your temperature cloak. I don't wish to permanently injure you. Cool off and heal your fatigue for 15 minutes, then we will continue."
I sighed in relief as I wrapped myself in the AC cloak, pushing the heat from my clothes and the surrounding air. It felt heavenly.
While I was resting, I decided to ask a few questions. "When I tried to contact you mentally, your defense was amazing! How do you make that kind of shield?"
She sighed, but thankfully answered, "It wasn't a 'shield' but my mind itself. The Jedi have access to many techniques from all over the galaxy, collected and refined over thousands of years. As such, their mental shielding techniques have become formidable and famous. The Matukai are different. Instead of creating a psychic barrier around our minds, we specialize on using the force to strengthen our minds directly. There are many ways this is less effective than the Jedi method, but it is also why fall rates among the Matukai are nearly non-existent. Our enhanced willpower allows us to more effectively resist temptation."
"Fall rates?" I asked. I had a guess as to what she was talking about, but wanted to make sure.
"Ah…" She said, realizing something. "I haven't taught you about the dark side. Right."
She proceeded to give me an explanation of the dark side that was pretty similar to the one Yoda gave to Luke.
"When one readily uses the dark side," she continued, "there comes a time when they 'fall'. Their eyes turn yellow, their personality is drastically altered, and they often show signs of extreme mental instability that were otherwise dormant in them before. It is this phenomenon that makes the dark side as dangerous as it is. I've seen it happen in real time with a self proclaimed 'grey' force sensitive cultist I used to debate with, and the difference is night and day. One moment they are a reasonable being making reasonable actions with their power, and sometimes in as little time as overnight, they change into a monster. Using the dark side in any way, no matter how justified you are in doing so, is a poison. You are drinking madness into your very soul, and while you might not instantly feel it's effects, eventually it will overwhelm you."
Oh… Damn. Really? That… didn't seem fair at all! But it also rang true with what was shown in the movies, episode 3 especially. "If you fall, can you regain yourself?" The movies and the EU would say yes, but I would be a fool if I took the risk based on that alone.
She shrugged. "After someone has fully fallen? I don't personally know of any case where that's ever happened, but I'm not exactly a subject expert. You'd have to ask a Jedi scholar about it."
I sighed. I already know what they would tell me. Impossible. Ridiculous.
"Anyway," she continued, "The Matukai have the lowest fall percentage of any order, even lower than the Jedi, and It's because we specialize on the enhancing properties of the force. A strong mind can handle much more than a weak mind that hides behind a shield."
"Why not do both? A strong mind and a strong shield."
She nodded. "That's the Jedi approach, the smart ones at least, but a generalist will never advance as quickly or as far as a specialist."
I nodded back. That makes sense. "How can I strengthen my mind?"
She smiled, "Training and meditation. Lots of it. Matukai training doesn't give you all the benefits in a convenient or timely manner. Most people, depending on their talent, don't see any meaningful results in the first year or two. On average, you would have to train every day consistently for more than a decade before you could even consider going extended periods without food, water, and sleep like I do. Not without nasty side effects at least. For now, simply let the force flow through you calmly and meditatively while you do something challenging, and it will leave a minor enhancement behind. Do this consistently, and eventually it will permanently enchant your body, progressing you beyond your limits and opening up new depth to your connection to the force."
"Wizard." I breathed out, unintentionally voicing my thoughts.
"That's enough chit chat." She declared, "Drop that temperature field and follow my movements."
Shit. 'Greater challenges brings greater strength' may sound cool and good and all, but actually doing it sucks donkey balls. Still, if what she was saying was true, it would be so, so fucking worth it.
Deciding to shoot my shot, I asked the question burning on my mind, "My mother and I are slaves, born in the care of the Hutts. Can you help free us?"
She paused, a complicated expression on her face. "No."
I scowled, gritting my teeth in anger. "Why not?" I growled out, trying my best to remain calm.
"I don't have money to buy you, or medical connections to remove your chip. Not on this planet at least."
That took most of the wind out of my sails.
She continued. "But even if I could, I wouldn't."
My eyes widened in rage, "Why not?!"
"Because this is your trial. I will not deny you the growth that will come from overcoming it. It is better for someone's self perception to free themself, and remain debtless, than to trade one master for another. It may seem cruel of me, but I know this to be the truth. With the force, all things are possible, and I believe in you kid. And by training you, however briefly, I am doing what I can to enable you to seek your own freedom."
I scowled. Talk about 'tough love'. She doesn't seem to be taking into account all the irreversible trauma I might receive in the meantime. Still, the pure unbridled faith in her eyes when she spoke, when she looked at me, made it seem like she was looking into my eyes and seeing herself, like she was imparting wisdom to me that she wished someone would have told her when she was young. It made it hard to be angry with her or to truly disregard her point of view. If she was speaking from experience, than… maybe I could respect her stance, even if I didn't personally agree with it.
"Like I said before, enough talk! Ready? Begin!"
Grumbling, I mirrored her movements as best I could, with her offering corrections along the way. Nyra explained that the basic Matukai code was:
Through exercise, discover the Force.
Through the Force, discover tranquility.
Through tranquility, discover vitality.
While this was important to remember, she had her own understanding of Matukai principles which was a bit more effective for her, and the personal mantra she gave me was the one I ended up repeating over and over as we worked.
Challenge grows the will.
Will focuses the force.
The force brings me past my limits.
Remain serene, and find peace in adversity.
I am the calm within the storm.
Even with as cool as that sounded, I had a sneaking suspicion that this was gonna be a loooooooong day.
To make a long story short… It was. It was a very, very long day. The workout we did before our conversation was apparently a warm up and it only got harder from there. The exercises were so… demanding in a way I can't describe. Not just physically, but mentally and in the force as well. They seemed to be designed to push me as far as possible and to only come just short of me breaking. Nearly every second we worked made me want to quit, cry, swear a blue streak, throw up, or maybe all of them at once.
The whole time I desperately focused on the force, practically begging it to help me, to refill my stamina, to protect me from the elements, to make me stronger, tougher, and more flexible. It didn't feel like it was nearly enough. While Nyra's body seemed to effortlessly absorb the force's energy like a deep river flowing steadily into a lake, I felt like I was trying to breathe by sucking air through a coffee straw. It just wasn't enough. My body simply wasn't used to drawing on the force in such a manner yet.
"Alright. That's enough for today. You said you had to be home by dark? You'll need to get going soon."
I collapsed. Holy shit. It was over. Aside from the normal symptoms of exhaustion, my body seemed to hum with otherworldly energy, and it strangely felt like I had to concentrate in order to keep my body from disappearing into the force, which I hoped was a psychological phenomenon and not an actual risk.
"I assume you are out of water then? I'll show you where to get some."
I nodded, and she hopped off the outcropping, jogged over to the cliff's edge and leaped across the six meter chasm like it was nothing, landing easily on the other side. She looked back at me, expectantly. I gulped in trepidation. I knew how deep the canyon was. If I didn't make the jump, all that waited was certain death.
"Master your fear Kid. You have all the tools necessary to follow."
I grumbled. Someone having faith in me may be nice most days, but right now it was a pain in the ass. I hadn't sensed her use any kind of telekinesis or levitation or anything, she had simply leaped across with brute strength. But just because she did it that way, doesn't mean I had to.
In the month since the fiasco with the Whitesuns, I had been experimenting with telekinesis and had discovered that while my base instinct was to use the force around me as a sort of 'counterweight' or 'anchor' so I could move heavy things without being effected, I was also, with proper concentration, able to 'un-anchor' myself, which tossed me on my ass when I first tried it while pushing a rather hefty rock. It was this discovery I would leverage now.
Gathering the force around me, I took off towards the gap to gain speed, and when I planted my foot for the last time to leap, I shoved against the ground with 'unanchored' telekinesis, which boosted the jump. With the extra thrust, I sailed across the canyon like a cork from a bottle! When it came time to land I used the force again, telekinetically cushioning my landing. After such an exhausting day, even this was nearly too much effort for me to handle, and I stumbled, almost eating shit before Nyra caught me.
She had a dry expression on her face, as if she was slightly disappointed, but not at all surprised. "Nice Jedi jump. Try to focus more on enhancement and less on telekinesis, ok? A sturdy foundation is what we're trying to build, you can play around with tricks after your body has been properly trained."
She walked off and I followed, my brow furrowing. 'Play around'? With 'tricks'?! It wasn't like I was cheating at sabaak, telekinesis was an incredibly powerful technique!
She huffed in exasperation, no doubt sensing my emotions. "Don't be so frustrated. You are learning from a Matukai, not a Jedi. Focus on enhancement, other techniques will come after."
I sighed, it was pretty annoying that my emotions weren't nearly as private as I would prefer, but at least she wasn't a full on mind reader. I think. I hope. Shit!
'I'm… wearing ladies underwear!'
I gauged her reaction. Nothing.
'I'm… a gungan in human form planning to overthrow the republic!'
Nothing again.
She interrupted my thoughts, "You admire the Jedi?" She questioned. I relaxed somewhat. She was still on the topic from earlier.
"Yeah, I do. I've always imagined myself as one, ever since I was little. Dreamed about what it would be like."
"You still are little."
I jolted in fear. Had I given it away? "Around here… you don't stay little for long."
She looked remorseful, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to trigger any bad memories."
"It's fine." I nearly sighed in relief. She could sense my emotions, but not my exact thoughts. She assumed she had triggered a fear response from some kind of trauma.
Going back to the earlier subject, she continued. "The Jedi are very famous, and therefore glamorous, but they aren't all they're cracked up to be. They are quite elitist, and their training lacks depth. They compensate by training shallowly in as many different disciplines as they can set eyes on, never fully committing to one or the other. They have a hyper fixation on those sabers of theirs, and devote themselves to serve at the whims of corrupt politicians. They are more a force of self important, interrupting busybodies then they are true ascetics, only holding to their code of so called 'compassion' when it suits them, and throwing it away as soon as it is easier to be callus and cold."
My mouth hung open. What she was saying matched up uncomfortably well with the flaws from the movies, but it still pissed me off to hear her slander my childhood heroes like that. I argued back, "Believe me, I know the Jedi aren't perfect. If they were, I wouldn't be a slave. But just in case you weren't listening to yourself just now, do you honestly think refusing to do anything to free me is any more compassionate than what the Jedi do? At least they are busy trying to do something about the state of the galaxy. All you came here to do was sit on a rock!"
She tossed her hair and sniffed, and I told myself she was deeply offended, which gave me satisfaction, even if it probably wasn't true.
She responded with a calm tone. Was it forced? I couldn't tell. "I am helping you. Give a man a kill and he'll eat for a day. Train him to hunt and he'll eat for a lifetime. I don't have to teach you anything. This is my compassion. If you only ever rely on others to shelter and take care of you, you will never know the real world, and remain a slave forever. A little help is valuable, but too much is crippling, especially if one day all that help is ripped away like a rug from under your feet, never to return. All that was promised would be a thing of the past, and you would be left helpless, friendless, and with no future to speak of. No. That is not my way."
Her voice actually rose by the end of her monologue. For the first time in the day I had known her, her serenity was wearing thin. Maybe her offense wasn't as imaginary as I thought. Still… what she said at the end didn't make a whole lot of sense. It isn't coddling to free someone from slavery, it's basic human decency! Was she projecting? Remembering something from her past? I couldn't tell.
"S-Sorry. Thank you. For training me I mean. I didn't mean…"
She sighed. "Just… don't put the Jedi on some kind of pedestal. Trust me, It will only lead to disappointment. There is more light to be found in the galaxy outside of them and their teachings. I promise you that."
I nodded, but still was displeased. I hadn't met the real life Jedi yet, but I still had memories of Rick Miller's childhood, of playing with a plastic Obi Wan lightsaber with a telescoping blade. Of making up my own Jedi characters, of reloading my same KOTOR save over and over so I could finally save Bastila from the dark side and get the perfect light side ending. Of making shitty short films with my friends, and always playing the Jedi, always being the light side. I… loved the Jedi. Or at least… I loved the idea of them. "Some of them probably suck, but they can't all be like that… right?"
She looked at me, irritated. "Why do you have so much faith in them? Have you ever even met a Jedi?"
Embarrassed, and knowing I was about to lose the argument, I deflected. "Have you?" I said, not giving an answer to her question.
She sighed. "Kid, I was raised by the Jedi."
I sucked in a breath. That… shit. There wasn't much I could say to that.
She continued. "All my life, all that I had was the order. All that I knew was the temple. Like all initiates, it was my dream to become a Jedi knight. I trained hard. Harder than most of my peers. I studied. I skipped breaks to practice my saber play. But… my power, my so called inborn talent just… wasn't enough. No matter how I worked, how hard I tried, it was never good enough. I was never good enough. I attended the gathering, got my own lightsaber, sparred in the tournaments, did EVERYTHING I possibly could to attract a master and in the end… it wasn't enough. I wasn't picked. And suddenly, all that future, all that hope… was gone. Not a Jedi knight… but a farmer. Your lightsaber is your life? What a joke. What was the point of me even getting one, of making that so called 'sacred' connection, if it was just going to be taken away from me? Not a guardian of peace and justice, but a simple farmer spreading shit on a field for the rest of my life. Demoted. Kicked out. Abandoned."
I was too shocked to say anything, and we walked in silence. Before I could think of anything, she spoke up again. "We're here."
I looked around. We were on the edge of yet another canyon, and there wasn't any signs of a mud pit we could strain here or down on the canyon floor. Furthermore, the ground was far to hard and rocky for black melons. Was there really water here? Before I could say anything, she grabbed me around the waist and leapt into the narrow fissure.
As I swore up a blue streak in panic, she fluidly drew her axe off of her back, and plunged it into the canyon wall, her iron grip on her weapon not faltering in the slightest, the axe blade cutting through the stone like cheddar cheese, slowing our decent. After the initial scare, it was actually kind of cool, like being in a pirate movie!
"What is that axe head made of?" I asked once we were on the canyon floor.
She smiled, and I relaxed. I'm glad she wasn't mad at me. "Simple flint. The body isn't the only thing the force can enhance."
My eyes widened, and I nodded.
She made her way over to where the canyon fissure seemed to branch off into a dead end, and hopped up onto a minivan sized boulder that was resting against the wall. She paused, as if sensing for something, then nodded, leaning her back up against the wall, with her feet placed on the boulder. I felt her draw deeply on the force, and my eyes nearly popped out of my head when, with pure bodily strength, she pushed the boulder away from the canyon wall without a hint of telekinesis. With the boulder pushed about a half a meter from the wall, a cave entrance was revealed behind it, looking like it had been eroded by an ancient water flow.
A cool breeze emanated from the cave mouth, and my heart quickened in excitement as I smelt humidity on the air. All of a sudden, I realized that this wasn't a mud pit or a black melon patch. This was something infinitely more valuable.
We made our way through the cave, following its downhill slope deep underground. The smell if water and the feel of humidity increased as the temperature dropped, and eventually I heard the most heavenly sound I had heard in a while.
The trickling sound of flowing water.
I could feel something up ahead in the force. Glowing in my senses like it was alive, but at the same time, not. "Is that what water feels like?" I asked, looking at Nyra for confirmation, but her brow was furrowed in confusion.
"No… that's something else. I don't know why I didn't sense it before, but it almost feels like…" she trailed off, not finishing her thought.
"Like…?" I prompted, hoping she would finish her sentence. She didn't.
"Do you hear that?" She asked, "it sounds like… humming."
I shook my head, "No, I don't hear anything. What does it feel like?" I prompted yet again.
"No point speculating. Let's go see." She hurried forward. I rolled my eyes, then followed.
As we traveled deeper into the cave, the sound of running water got louder and clearer, and there was a soft glow coming from around a bend in the tunnel. We both ran toward the light, and when we turned the corner, we both gasped at the sight before our eyes.
In front of us was a spacious cavern with several large pools of clean crystal clear water. The smallest of the pools was more than 15 meters across, and they were all quite deep. Each of the pools were connected by a small flow of water, trickling from the lip of each basin into the next in line. The old Anakin had never even seen such a massive amount of water.
The light that actually let us see the pools of water came from an unlikely source. All over the ground, the walls, and the ceiling were beautiful formations of crystals, glowing and resonating with the force. The crystals all shone with warm shades of gold, orange, magenta, and the occasional silvery white.
The presence they gave off in the force felt… familiar. Suddenly I realized where I recognized it from.
Looking at Nyra to tell her what I figured out, I was shocked to see a tear sliding down her cheek. "It feels… just like Illum." Her eyes looked far away, like she was caught in a memory. "How is it possible? That I sensed the water but not the crystals?"
I had helpful information, so I shared it. "These look like Jawa rocks to me, but I've never seen such clear ones before."
She started, as if she had forgotten I was there. "Jawa rocks?" She repeated.
"Yeah," I continued, "Occasionally you can find crystals like these in the sand. The Jawa's use them to make the lenses for the eyes on their masks. They are interesting because you don't really sense them until you're up real close, and then all of a sudden they have a kind of… presence I guess. As a toddler I used to call them 'shy glass'. I guess I was sensing the force in them. The ones you find in the dunes aren't nearly this pretty or pure though. That's probably why they feel so powerful down here."
Nyra's brow furrowed, like she was trying to solve a riddle. "Shy… glass…" she muttered, and suddenly, her eyes flew open in realization. "By the force, these are Durindfire crystals!"
I was lost. That sounded like something from Lord of the Rings. "Are they valuable?" I asked.
Nyra whipped around towards me, a look of reproach on her face. "Durindfire crystals can be used in lightsaber construction. They are famously used by the Halcyon family of the green Jedi in Corellia, but the location where they got theirs was always kept a secret! I've sensed them before, they have a certain… subtlety that other crystals lack. They are notoriously hard to find because they only reveal their presence when a force sensitive is physically nearby!"
"So these are kyber crystals?" I asked in excitement.
"No." She responded. "Kyber is found on Illum, Jedha, and a few other places. Durindfire crystals are different, but they can still be used in lightsabers just as well."
I nodded, but sighed in disappointment. Even if they were valuable to some Jedi, I probably couldn't convince anyone on Tatooine to buy them as anything more than a knick knack. Sure they were extremely pure and some were quite large, but you could also spend like an hour digging through the dunes and you would find a few, shitty in quality they may be. They were about as common on Tatooine as quartz was on earth. It wasn't the famous kyber, so regular people wouldn't give a shit. Still, It was pretty cool that you could use them in a lightsaber!
I turned away from the crystals, and back towards Nyra. "You said you heard a humming?" I asked.
She nodded, "Yeah. From over there, deeper into the cave. This place… it reminds me of Illum. The force is almost as thick here as it is there. It just…" she wiped another tear, "brings back memories. Memories of hope. And of disappointment."
I blinked, considering her words. "Do you want to pick one?" I said gesturing to the crystals.
She turned to back me, her face in a pained expression, "Lightsabers are weapons of the Jedi. I… I'm no Jedi. Not anymore. I've found new meaning with the Matukai."
I shrugged. "So don't make a lightsaber then, make a necklace or something. My point is that you can hear something calling you, and I can't. Obviously the force brought you here for a reason. The whole time you were training me you were calm and serene, but as soon as the Jedi came up you cracked. Maybe this is a way for you to heal that wound."
She walked over to the water, and looked at her reflection, staring at it in silence for a few moments. Her expression grew determined, and she seemed to decide something. "Alright. Yeah, ok." She nodded, "I'm going." She looked over where she had pointed to before. "Drink some water, and fill up your canteen. I'll be back." She walked over to a crystal filled tunnel, venturing deeper into the cave.
With Nyra taking care of her business, I headed over to the reservoir to refill like she said. I filled my canteen, and drank. It tasted heavenly, without a trace of the bitter dusty aftertaste you got from a vaporator. I filled my canteen again, and replaced it on my hip.
I looked over the water, and rubbed my hands together in excitement. This was my big break. This would free Amu and I from slavery. I couldn't sell the water directly, a single taste and people would know it was mineral water, and a quick analysis after that would show it wasn't from any of the known hutt controlled reservoirs, and once that happens, I give myself a week at most before I get Jawa-napped off the street and unmasked before Jabba and Gardulla themselves, the slugs eager to torture the location of my wealth from me.
I couldn't sell the mineral water directly, but it was so humid in here that if I set up a few vaporators it wouldn't matter. So long as this place remained a secret I could basically print money! I could probably get a years worth of moisture harvest in a single month with a single vaporator, all I needed was to set up the equipment here, maybe build a simple droid to change the water tanks to harvest as much water as possible. Then all I would have to do is sell some water every night in my Jawa disguise, and bing bang boom! Money for freedom! It wasn't foolproof, there were still -plenty- of ways I could fuck this up, I'd have to transport the equipment and avoid getting caught. But the point was, there was hope! I had a solid way to get us out of this!
I sat down, and laid my back down on the ground. The cool humid air was quite soothing, and it wasn't long before I dozed off, the pure happiness and relief of the situation relaxing me far more than normal.
I was awakened by a foot nudging my shoulder. "Wh-huh? What's up?" I sat up groggily and rubbed my eyes, and when I saw Nyra, for a split second I thought she was a different person. With as young as my body was, I didn't really experience attraction the same way I did as Rick, but I could still freely admit when someone was beautiful. When I first met her, it had been in the harsh desert sunlight, her hair had been sand crusted and dry as hell, and she had been wearing thick, unflattering robes. She had obviously done some swimming to get her crystal, because she had shed her outer robe and trousers, leaving only a pair of tight exercise shorts and sports bra, revealing her subtle curves and lithe muscle. Her hair didn't look shaggy and dry anymore, but sleek and shiny, and her face was lit by the soft, gentle light of the glowing crystals. Sure, she still had a stronger jaw and her nose was a bit roman, but it didn't detract from her appearance, especially in the gentle lighting down here.
Still half asleep, I found myself saying, "Wow, you're really pretty. You don't look like a man at all right now."
She snorted with laughter, rolling her eyes. "Gee, thanks. Anyway, look at this." She crouched down, opening her hand, revealing a brightly glowing magenta crystal. It was about the size of one of the souvenir lightsaber crystals they sold at Disneyland, but the shape was narrower and a bit more jagged. I could feel the force flowing through her into the crystal, and flowing back into her, slightly amplified. Like it was catching the unused energy her body gave off, allowing her to use the force with much greater efficiency.
"Woah." I said intelligently.
She smiled, looking at the crystal with misty eyes, "Yeah. Woah is right. I feel… like I was missing a piece of myself, and I only now just got it back. Like I'm complete again, for the first time since I had to give up my lightsaber…"
I smiled, happy for her. "And this one doesn't come with strings attached. It's just yours. It belongs to nobody else."
She beamed, a tear falling down her cheek. "Yeah. Yeah it is."
She stood up again. "Alright, let's go. It's probably past dark, and you need to get home."
I shot up, fully awake. "Oh yeah! My mom's gonna kill me!" I scrambled around, putting my Jawa cloak back on and making sure I had all my equipment. As I was getting everything in order, I looked back over the water and couldn't help grinning like a madman, my heart joyful.
Nyra must have sensed my joy, "What are you so happy about?"
I responded. "Sorry, it's just… money has been the main barrier between me and my freedom until now… and now I finally can bridge that gap…"
Nyra was appalled, "You are NOT selling these crystals!"
I blinked. "I'm not gonna sell the crystals! I'm gonna sell the water!"
"Oh." She said, the wind out of her sails.
"Yeah. With this, I can free my Mom and I, all we have to do is survive till the Boonta eve after next, and keep this place a secret."
"Alright, fine. So long as you promise not to mine the crystals, I won't tell anyone else about the cave. Out of curiosity, what happens the Boonta eve after next?"
I paused, contemplating my answer. "I've had a vision. The Jedi will come to this planet, and I will have the opportunity to help them. If I have the money to free myself, I can use them as an intermediary."
She scowled. "Visions are often temperamental. There is no guarantee they will actually come true. Your faith is misplaced."
I responded. "Their names are Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi. Master Jinn has a green lightsaber and Padawan Kenobi has blue. I've never met these men in my life, but I have seen them clear as day. They will be here."
She stood still, shocked. "I… guess that's pretty detailed. If they don't end up showing, call me. I'll give you my comm number tomorrow. I expect you here bright and early for training." She started walking up the tunnel towards the exit, and I followed.
I shook my head. "The only reason I could show up today was because my master was hungover and he closed the shop. The last day off I had was about a month ago. Slave, remember?"
"What?! That's…" she went silent, contemplating. "Tomorrow, I'll go get a data pad from my ship, and write up a training document for you. I'll record the exercises you need to do and copy some material for you to study. At the end of the month before I leave I'll find you and drop it off, along with my comm number."
I smiled, "That would be awesome! Thank you!"
I could see her face, and it looked conflicted. Like she was second guessing herself. I spoke up. "I will free myself. I promise you that. Your time and effort won't be wasted."
She smiled in relief. "You'd better! Stay safe out there kid."
Even if she just up and took Amu and I with her, The chips were proximity coded. I'd explode if I got too far from the system. And with the dark side being as dangerous and corrosive as she said, I wouldn't ask her to torture the remote code out of Watto, or destroy his mind for it, if that was even possible.
And maybe I was catching her brand of crazy, but the thought of freeing myself, with my own power… I won't lie, it was quite attractive. I would use her training tools to gain whatever strength I could.
"Hey…" she started, "Are you sure those are their names? Master Jinn and… Obi Wan Kenobi?"
I nodded. "Yes."
She shook her head, but had a small smile on her face. "Can't believe little Obi Wan made it. I was about a two years older than he was, but when I left without a master it seemed like he would follow the same rout when he came of age. He wasn't very impressive as far as initiates go. One of his nicknames was 'Oafy Wan'…" she sighed, "And now he'll be a knight."
Her eyes were distant, and for a moment there was a bit of longing in her gaze, but she quickly shook it off. "Everyone's destiny is different. Good for him." She concluded.
After a while we got back to the cave entrance, and replaced the boulder in front, covering it. I used my telekinesis to kick up the sand around it like a whirlwind, wiping out the track in the dirt that dragging the boulder made. When we were done, it looked just like it did before, just another part of the canyon wall.
We made it back to Hank the junk scooter, and Nyra sat back down on her rock formation. We waved at each other, and I carefully drove away, heading back towards home.
Eventually, I made it back to the dunes and was able to lower the craft back down, which freed up my focus for some contemplation, and I smiled like a fool under my Jawa mask.
We could make more than enough money to free ourselves with that water. Now all I had to do was focus on keeping the cave secret, building that pod, and not dying in the meantime. Finally, I could see light at the end of the tunnel. I just had to not screw it up.
But hey! It me right? It's not like I, Anakin Skywalker, am some kind of trouble magnet…
Suddenly I realized what I was thinking. Oh boy… I better be more careful. I'm just glad I didn't say any of that out loud!
A/N: Aaaaaand that's a wrap! Two out of the three fateful encounters I planned have now happened! And for anyone who doesn't feel like Kitsters story had closure, that's by design. It's not the last we have seen of him.
There will be a significant time skip next chapter, which will cover the third and final Tatooine butterfly event and some other things, and the chapter after that should be the start of the phantom menace!
Sorry if there is a bit of a tonal shift in this one. I'm trying to take a sort of 'slice of time' method where Anakin is feeling differently in each chapter, but I'm not sure it's coming across that way.
How do y'all like Nyra? I'm trying to write her as a bit flawed but still likeable. her original name was going to be Lyra, but that was too similar to an existing character, and I changed it to avoid confusion. hopefully i got all the names changed.
BTW, Nyra's perception and opinions on the force and the Jedi are colored by her upbringing, experiences, and the Matukai teachings. The things she says about the force and the Jedi are not necessarily the complete truth of how I the author will write the force and the Jedi. She's not lying, or even wrong, at least not totally, but she definitely doesn't see the whole picture. There is a lot more nuance to the situation than she would have Anakin believe. The Jedi have flaws, don't get me wrong, but they don't totally suck. Her perception of them is quite unforgiving and judgmental, especially her perception of the agricorps as "simple farmers spreading shit on fields" they are much more than that.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not bashing the Jedi, this isn't a 'evil dumbledore' story if that makes sense. It's just a character whose opinions have been colored by past hurt, and there will be more development in the future.
I don't actually hate the Jedi at all, I'm just trying to write a more complex world with multiple reasonable sides to complex issues.
Anyway, see you next time! Have a good night!
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CERVESA CRISTAL!!!
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
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A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I've got some shit going on, I'll try to be better about writing every day, even if it's just a sentence, so hopefully I can get these chapters out a bit quicker.
This chapter is less of a single narrative, and more of a series of snapshots occurring over the course of the two years leading up to the events of TPM. Still, there's important shit in here, I promise it isn't filler. These are plot points I need to cover. Hope you enjoy!
Hank the junk scooter hummed as I sped across the nighttime dunes. Since my fateful encounter with Nyra six months ago, I had made several upgrades to it, and it was -much- more sophisticated a machine now than it was before.
I had cannibalized the repulser-lifts from three other hover crates, and replaced the stabilizers to ones with greater range that actually belonged on a speeder bike, so balance was no longer an issue. I managed to weld together a load bearing frame and a trailer hitch which were strong enough to hold cargo, and replaced the probe droid hover lift I had been using with a proper speeder engine. Over the last six months, I had gradually replaced almost the entire makeup of the scooter to the point it was pretty much unrecognizable from its humble beginnings.
It was a bit of a 'grandfather's axe' situation (father replaced the head and I replaced the handle, but other than that it's completely original!) but because the changes didn't happen all at once, I still thought of it as Hank. It looked like a wheel-less hovering Harley, and I was able to attach a chain of three connected hover crate trailers to the back and haul them without issue.
The part that I was most satisfied with was that I was now able to outrun and outmaneuver the occasional raider or bandit, which meant my custom built, from-the-ground-up creation was actually better than the speeders other people used.
My Thor gun, Hank mk1, and several other creations of mine had always been effective and usable, but they weren't ever objectively better than regular equipment other people could just buy. Sure they were creative, and they had strange uses that might catch people off guard, but at the end of the day they were junk. Lovable, workable junk, but junk nonetheless.
Hank mk2 was different. It straight up outperformed other speeders. And every time I was in a jam and got out of it by being faster or more nimble, I grinned like a loon at the fact that I, a fucking slave could build something that was better than what their money could buy.
It just tickled my funny bone. Checked a feel-good box in my chest. It made me feel like iron man.
And speaking of getting in jams, I had ran into ALOT of trouble over the past six months. Many people wanted to know where the "Water Jawa" was getting his product, but with Hank Mk2 and the force as my ally, I managed to avoid them.
Not feeling comfortable with hiding our money in the city where anyone with a blaster could get past the womp rats, we had moved our money and blasters to the Crystal Cave, which I had set up with a moisture vaporator and homemade maintenance droid. It produced about twelve keg sized jugs of water a week, and drew power from a bank of cells that had about 2 weeks of power for the vaporator and the droids. I had set up a hidden solar station elsewhere in the wastes, which I used to recharge the cells used in the power bank.
At first the locals had been a problem, but with regular gifts of water and showing them how to use the solar bank, they had begun to appreciate my presence, and I hoped that if anyone ever was stupid enough to follow me all the way into the wastes, I could count on them to be the enemy of my enemy. I never allowed them to follow me anywhere close to the cave, liberally using the force to avoid their attempts.
From the way they kept their distance from me, and from the emotions I sensed, I'm pretty sure I was reaching Cryptid status among them.
When I was in the city or in the canyons of the wastes, there was a lot of cover and my notice-me-not cloak made it so I was pretty much untraceable. The only problem with it was that it's range was limited, so out in the dune sea, those that were far away could make me out, and once they had eyes on me it was much more difficult to trick their attention. I had to duck behind cover to break their line of sight before the cloak affected them again, and I had taken to collecting grenade sized rocks and dropping them behind me, then using the force to blast up heavy plumes of sand to obscure their vision.
They hadn't yet realized they weren't actual grenades, and I sincerely hoped they never figured it out.
A humorous consequence of this was that they wasted a large amount of time casing out weapon shops that sold grenades, because I had to be getting them from somewhere right? They even came into Watto's shop once to inquire about the model of Hank mk2, with Watto obviously not recognizing the model and declaring it a custom job.
Then they had wasted even more time questioning the body shops and mechanics in the area, which again led them to only dead ends.
I had anonymously contacted the buyers of the water through the network of slaves and merchants we were a part of, and made my deliveries in the middle of the night. So far only one person snitched, and I had luckily sensed the ambush, escaped, and never sold to them again.
Eager to hang on to their source of cheap water, everyone else kept their mouths shut.
About a month ago the raiders stopped pursuing me as doggedly, so I'm pretty sure they've given up. There's only been token engagement in the dune sea since.
It had only been six months, and we already had nearly half of what we needed to free one of us. The fact that if things kept going at the rate they were, we would meet our goal roughly 10 months before the Boonta eve classic where it would all go down was exhilarating. Hell, if something good happened and I stumbled into some extra cash, I might not even need to race at all!
Of course I still would race, the Jedi would need their parts after all, and I couldn't just not beat sebulba's smug cheating ass and finally rub his nose in the stench of his defeat, but it was the principle of the matter. I wouldn't be freed without my knowledge through someone else's schemes, but by my own efforts. This would be an equal exchange, not a charity.
Finally reaching the city wall, I was pulled out of my musings as I cast out my senses to see if anyone was watching.
Once I was sure I was unseen, I used the force to secure Hank mk2 in its tarp and buried it under the sand. I had already performed my deliveries and returned the carts and my earnings to the cave, so all that was left was to return home.
As I walked through the nighttime streets of mos espa, I lamented the fact that I would have to wake up in as little as 3 and a half hours to go to work. I only did this once a week when I had enough water, but it was still a total bitch to deal with the next day at work. Today was especially tough, because I had seen a Krayt dragon roaming the dune sea and had to wait for it to pass before I dared drive home. I would seriously suffer from lack of sleep tomorrow.
I had been religiously practicing the Matukai training Nyra gave me every single night, but so far it hadn't made any difference to the amount of sleep I needed. One of the exercises she laid out in the document was to call upon the force and have it with you when you were calming down to fall asleep.
The force was supposed to enhance your body's ability to recover mentally and physically, as well as cataloging memory more effectively and efficiently.
Eventually this would compound and develop into the ability to sleep like an hour a week and be totally fine, with no medical difference from someone who got eight uninhibited hours every night.
The only problem was that training your bodies ability to 'sleep with the guidance of the force' was something that took a ridiculous amount of time and dedication, and most people's bodies didn't start 'getting it' until like five or so years into the training.
Apparently the Jedi didn't bother with this, deeming a healing trance efficient enough for their purposes, which Nyra claimed in her writings didn't supply all the benefits of proper sleep, and caused REM sleep deprivation in Jedi who overused it as a substitute, as healing trances were more like a temporary coma than actual sleep. The upside was that a healing trance could be learned much quicker, most people successfully pulling it off after a month of training.
Which, while interesting, didn't help my current situation at all. Until my body started figuring out how to subconsciously 'enhance my sleep with the force', I was stuck needing eight hours a night just like everyone else.
I sighed. Work was gonna be a bitch tomorrow.
Spoiler alert: it was. I basically had to use the force to enhance myself just to get up to my baseline level of competence. The entire day was a moving meditation, but instead of my Matukai exercises Amu and I had been doing every night, it was just regular work.
There were several times where Watto said something to me and I didn't register at first, or when I openly used the force a few times to snake wires or loosen bolts like I do at home and Amu caught me and frantically reminded me of where we were. Luckily Watto didn't catch me any of these times, but it was a close thing.
Amu gave me the 'this can't go on, we WILL be talking about this later' face, and I knew there would be an argument later tonight. I sighed.
It was almost at the end of the day when a subtle hint sounded in the force like a tinkling bell. I was out in the junkyard fetching a droid part when it happened, and I followed the feeling to its source over at one of the totaled ships that had been recently dropped off. It was a compact stunt fighter that had been mangled to the point that it was nearly in half, and most of the surviving parts had already been stripped away. From what I could tell, the original shape of the fighter had been boomerang shaped with two oversized cylindrical engines at the halfway point of the wings.
The structural frame had been made from two types of metal, a lighter, slightly more flexible alloy for the body and wings, but a tougher, more durable metal for the engine housing. The main cabin area had been thoroughly destroyed, but a quick check showed both engine frames were perfectly straight.
That was odd! If the ship collided hard enough with an object that it basically folded in half, wouldn't the engine housing also be bent? But it wasn't… what was it made of?
After a few tests, I realized I hit the jackpot! It wasn't just regular durasteel, it was a Quadanium alloy! It was relatively high percent too, about 30% Quadanium to 70% durasteel!
Quadanium was ridiculously durable and had a stupidly high heat resistance! It wasn't legendary like beskar or anything, but to a desert junk rat like me, it may as well have been!
I quickly deleted the scan results and ran in to talk to Watto, and began speaking in huttese. "Watto sir? I was wondering if I could start cutting up that folded stunt fighter for its frame?"
He waved his hand dismissively, responding also in huttese, "If you want to. It's frame is a bit soft for a fighter, and I've stripped everything I need off of it so I was just going to let the Jawas take it, but if you think you can get some ingots melted, go right ahead".
Yes! He hadn't realized the engine cylinders were made of a tougher alloy! "Alright." I responded easily, desperately not showing my enthusiasm. "I'll see what I can separate and hawk the rest of the junk to the Jawas."
Watto nodded and waved me off dismissively.
Once I was out of sight I quickly began separating the tougher engine segments from the rest of the wreckage. When I was done I had two large cylindrical tubes of stupidly strong metal, and perhaps it was a coincidence, but they were the exact same size as the engines from Anakin's pod from the phantom menace! With engine walls this tough, I could power my engines with fucking dynamite and it still wouldn't deform. These would be the base of my pod racer!
With the extra strength of the engine walls I could compress the fuel to create a far more violent combustion, getting more bang for my buck fuel wise! While this would normally be too dangerous to risk with normal materials, with Quadanium alloy it would be fine! This also would explain why canon Anakin could have a lot of his fuel leak and still win the race! This must be what he used!
I had the droids load up the engine cylinders and the rest of the junk that couldn't be melted down. But as I drove the flatbed out to the place where we usually met the Jawas, I made a quick stop by the back of the slave quarters to drop off the very first components for what I hoped would be the fastest pod racer ever built!
After we went home I did my Matukai exercises tiredly, working through the motions with a wooden staff Nyra had left for me. She had even recorded holograms of the different motions, so Amu and I could make sure we were learning the correct moves. There were three sets of holograms with different katas on them. First, there was the regular exercise forms, which were geared towards working out, not fighting, so they didn't have much use in combat. These were the kind she had me do in person on the day that I met her. The second type was the unarmed forms, which dealt with hand to hand combat, and Third was staff forms, which is what I was doing tonight.
After I was done, I sat in front of my mother, ready to endure a talking about staying out too late. Instead of a lecture, she picked me up and carried me to my room. "Your head looks like it's bobbling on a spring." She commented with an exasperated laugh, "We'll talk in the morning." She said. I sighed in relief.
I was unconscious before I was in my bed.
While we did talk about doing things differently, multiple times, it would always circle around to the fact that we couldn't really do it any other way. Hank was kid sized and people thought I was a Jawa, and having a human partner would make me far more easily identifiable.
Amu and I would get into a lot of fights about it over the next few months, but we never really came up with an alternate plan to make extra money that was as viable and relatively risk free as our current one. I wasn't cutting into the hutt's profits so they never sent anyone skilled after me, I never killed any of my pursuers so nobody put a bounty on me for revenge, and I was so slippery and skilled that even the most desperate raiders only gave token efforts, and I could sense that they didn't actually believe they would catch me, they just hoped to maybe get lucky.
Despite that, I could tell it burned at Amu's conscience that I, the child, was doing was she believed was her, the parent's, responsibility. I could feel the guilt and worry every time I came home, and we would spend the next day meditating and 'discussing' alternatives. Honestly this was probably the biggest rift between us. Still, even with all this I was never able to sense any resentment or anger towards me. She never blamed me, she always loved me, but she absolutely hated that I was putting myself in danger. She hated the situation that forced me to to risk my life for her.
But at the end of the day, she always was able to let those feelings calm, to let them go. When I asked her how she was releasing her emotions into the force so effectively, she told me something I'll never forget.
"I'm not releasing my emotions into the force Anakin." She said calmly.
I blinked in confusion. "But you feel so… serene! When I get mad or really worried I get all prickly for hours, how are you so… at peace?"
She smiled with a quirked eyebrow. "Well. I'm glad I come across so calm and collected Ani, but I'm not banishing my feelings or tossing them away."
I was even more confused. She must have realized, because she hummed in contemplation the way she did when ordering her thoughts about something complicated.
Finally she seemed to come to a realization. "Emotions, specifically negative emotions… are like tools."
Um what? Tools?
She continued. "Fear is a useful tool. It alerts you to threats and danger. It quickens your reactions. Anger is a useful tool. It alerts you to injustice. It gives you the courage to act in a tense situation. But just as a tool like a hydrospanner can also be used as a weapon to harm others, or when used carelessly can harm ourselves, so can our emotions harm others and ourselves. Their main purpose is to be helpful, but they can easily get out of hand. Fear and anger are useful. Panic and rage are not. When I feel an emotion strongly, I evaluate if it is helping or harming. If my fear or anger has fulfilled its rightful purpose, I am thankful to it for alerting me, resolve to act if I can, and let it settle down until it's needed again, before it grows into something unmanageable. I suppose the best way to put it would be… putting it back in my tool belt, instead of continuing to brandish it in my hands."
"Huh. Damn." Was my elegant response. "Wait, you actually thank your fear? Thank your anger?"
She nodded and smiled. "My body and mind are performing well, why would I not be grateful? And you would be surprised how calming gratitude can be. I say in my mind, 'thank you fear, I am aware of that threat now. I can now act on this knowledge.' And let it slide back into the background. I can still feel it, like the weight of a tool on my hip, but I am not using it unwisely or cruelly. In a world where we can control little about our situation, we must have control over ourselves. And control of emotion is not the same as the absence of emotion. To function properly, we must have mastery of our tools, not forsake them. Our emotions will always be with us. How they affect our actions, is up to us."
"Wow…" I said. "Thank you! I'm going to try that!"
She nodded, and gave me a hug, "I'm so glad I could help… Just be careful alright? I die knowing there's little I can do to help you when you're out there on the dunes."
I was at a loss for words, so I did the only thing I could do. I nodded, and hugged her back with all my strength.
Honestly, her ways may not have been Jedi like, but they were real. Nothing about them was based on second hand parroted theory, but were crafted and forged from actual experience of someone going through real hardship. Over the months I learned as much as I possibly could from her, and I became a more calm and effective person because of it. When she taught me, it was like a mental block was relaxed, and spiritual concepts from the Matukai writings that I was struggling with seemed to just click and become clear.
Once I realized this, I vowed within myself that even if I joined the Jedi, I would find a way to regularly talk to her and hear her wisdom. I would sneak out of the temple and use a public com station in the fucking undercity if I needed to, but I would contact her. Regularly. She was my Mother, and her wisdom wouldn't lead me down a wrong path. Attachment and connection were two different things, and I wouldn't be convinced otherwise.
Before we knew it, the next Boonta Eve had come and gone, and there was less than a year before the fateful day. I had raced, but I hadn't tried to win, just to finish, which I succeeded at. I placed 14th out of 25, which sucked, but at least I placed. The entire time was practically torture, as I had to hold myself back from what I really wanted to do, catering to the pods limits, which once again were shit. It made me think dreamily to the masterpiece I was crafting in secret at home, which I wished I could be using right now.
Still, Watto gave us a little bonus for placing, which considering the amount we had stored away wasn't that impressive, but we made sure to spend it so he wouldn't get suspicious, which was nice.
It had been about a week since the last Boonta Eve, and I was entering the crystal cave for the second time that night, storing the empty jugs and trailers safely in the cave for the week. I sat in my usual spot near a large crystal formation to take a quick breather before heading out again, before noticing something strange.
Growing in the damp sand was a little green plant, wrapped around the Crystal to absorb its light. I couldn't place it for a second before I realized that it was a pallie plant! Normally when we got 'pallies' they had been ground up into a paste and stretched with grain fillers, but with the bonus from Watto we had bought a sack of the actual fruit from Jira, one of the slave grannies that sold them.
Unlike the ground up ones, which mixed the bitterness of the seeds with the sweetness of the fruit, buying the fruit itself allowed you to eat the sweet fruit while spitting out the bitter seeds, which I had been doing at this spot for the past few days. I hadn't realized that pallies, who need a lot of sun, would be able to grow in such a dim environment, but I guess light is light at the end of the day. I smiled. Other than being able to eat pallies for free, maybe this could be another source of income!
After I was rested enough, I headed back out towards home.
I stood on a stool by the kitchen counter, separating pallie fruits from their seeds in order to make some juice. It was a rare day off from work, and I wanted to do something fun for Amu.
It had been six months since I first saw the pallie plant in the crystal cave, and after half a year of waiting, we finally got a crop of ripe fruit to try! I'm honestly happy they are a vine fruit, not a tree, or else it probably would have taken years before bearing fruit.
Done with my extracting, I sat down and methodically mashed the now seedless fruits in a bowl on the floor with a japor club. As I worked, I thought about the progress I had made in the year and a half since I got here.
My racing pod was more than halfway done, and while there was a definite resemblance between it and and the movie version, there were slight differences that made my version better in my opinion. After working in Watto's junk shop every day and using it as a sort of moving meditation (cus what the hell else am I gonna do at work) I've started being able to connect with machines with the force. I can see and work on the inside of complex machinery without opening it up, and can even do more risky experiments and have a rough idea if it will blow up in my face or not, and be able to specifically sense where in the machine the problem is and a general instinct on how to fix it, all before I even fire it up! It streamlined the process so much that I was able to make major advances just by tinkering. I of course recorded and reviewed the results of me fucking around, which makes it science. Pretty sure that's how that works.
Basically, at the end of the day, my pod will be the best fucking racer on the face of the planet. Maybe even the whole galaxy. Which, to be fair, isn't exactly a high bar to reach. Civilized trillionaire scientists from the core don't exactly spend their time strapping rocket engines onto lawn chairs to see who whut go faster an' not 'buy the depp'.
If they did, they probably could make a better pod than me, but since my competition is a bunch of rednecks, I'm gonna absolutely smoke all of them.
As I continued mashing the pallies into juice, Amu came back from her trip to the market. "That's an interesting color." She commented, and I nodded.
Unfortunately for my plans of selling them, the pallies grown in the Crystal cave had a different color inside than regular ones, which would draw suspicion on where we got them. While the usual inside of a normal pallie was a pinkish red that reminded me of beats or pomegranate juice, these cave grown ones had a much more mild amber color. I had briefly tasted one before I started juicing and it was still really good, maybe a tiny bit less sweet with an undertone of mintyness which was refreshing. They also were larger and more juicy, but that was just because they grew in a humid environment.
After I was finished juicing, we strained the fibrous pulp out of the juice, and chilled it in the Star Wars equivalent of a fridge, called a conservator.
Later, when it was good and cold, we poured ourselves glasses, and drank.
Almost simultaneously, both Amu and I let out sighs of appreciation, then laughed at each other at the coincidence. It was surprisingly different from regular pallie juice, which was rare enough to have. It was sweet like apple juice, with a bit of prickly pear tartness and a hint of mint and citrus. Compared to what we usually had to eat, a unique tasting fruit juice was an unparalleled luxury that just felt wrong and disobedient in the best way possible. The fact that we had made it ourselves under the nose of a slave master who had no idea made it taste that much better. It was our juice. No one else's. And Fuck was it good!
I hummed in appreciation as I took another sip. Idly I voiced my thoughts, "Hey… I wonder if we could make booze outta this?"
Amu let out a snort of laughter and shook her head in disbelief. "Anakin! No!" She said reproachfully, though the effect was ruined by her laughter.
I shrugged and laughed it off, taking another sip. Oh well. Just a thought.
It had been a few hours since we had drank the juice, and I had an absolutely excruciating headache. Amu had one as well, but she was either taking it like a world class champ, or her headache wasn't as bad as mine was. Voices whispered indistinctly at the edge of my perception, and it felt like the force was pounding into my mind like a wedge into a log.
Y'know, I kinda regret eating the strange force mutated fruit now. Looking back, that probably should have been a red flag.
The sound of screaming, lightning, praying, chanting, lightsabers clashing, blasters firing, and a million other sounds seemed to meld together in one painful cacophony that clashed against each other in my mind like dark and light. Thousands of sermons and speeches and clashes by Jedi and Sith alike, made incomprehensible by their overlap. Why do they fight? Why does the dark hate and covet the light?! Why does the light fear and condemn the dark?! Why can't they settle?! Why can't they be one?! It's painful! Can't the conflict ever stop?! This isn't right! This isn't fair!
The pain reached new heights, and my mind was overwhelmed by incomprehensible visions as I lost consciousness.
The next day, I woke up feeling like I'd been half digested by a sarlacc. Light was too bright and sounds were too loud, and I could barely remember what I saw in the visions I had while I was unconscious. It was like trying to watch a piece of old film that had been recorded over several different times til it was incomprehensible, as if the force had been stuffing multiple visions into my head all at once.
I hobbled over to the fresher and activated the sonic scrubber and noticed that my sweat had a slight amber glow that reminded me of the crystals from the cave.
As the day went on and I sweated more, the effects of the crystal juice wore off as I sweated it out. By the next morning, my sweat didn't glow at all, and I had slept normally. I theorized that there were parts of microscopic crystals in the fruit, and I had just passed them. And while logically this should mean I should probably steer clear of eating/drinking any more of it, I had been having a problem lately. I had nothing to train my mind against. My rudimentary shielding had been torn like wet tissue by the visions and my mind itself had been strained. This was the perfect opportunity to train my mental strength and willpower!
Over the next few months, with Amu's tentative approval, we drank some of the juice every few days. Amu drank a full glass, as the effects were a bit muted for her for some reason, where I only consumed a shot glass worth.
Before the discovery of the Durindfire pallies, I had not made much progress training my mind.
Nyra's training guide had said that having a strong image allowed for a quicker development of mental strength, and she shared that the image she used was a boulder. The image that I had been using was durasteel, however after getting strained so much from the visions I realized that it was far too limited an image. One day as I was pondering this at work, I realized that Watto's mind was a bit unique feeling in the force.
I had always chalked it up to him being alien and having some kind of unique brain chemistry that prevented mind tricks, but now I reconsidered.
Perhaps a toydarians resistance was more of an unconscious minor force ability. After all, even a non force sensitive has the force flowing through them, and there are many other races like Wookiees or the Yinchorri who show minor force like abilities despite true force sensitivity being extremely rare among them.
Watto's mind was strange in that it seemed flexible as a rubber band, but also at times tough as an old tire, bouncing and swaying away at attempts to mind trick, but always rebounding back to its original shape.
Observing this made me realize that my mental image needed to be more creative and intricate than simply saying 'metal is stronk'.
I imagined a material that could change and grow, but could also firm up and defend. When my defense was relaxed, my mind would be flexible as water, open and ready to accept new concepts and learn new things, but when tensed would be stronger and more unbreakable than bescar.
It was a fantastical material that didn't exist in reality, but it didn't need to. It only needed to exist within my mind to be effective, and effective it was. I needed to increase my mental defense without becoming too stubborn and uncompromising. When relaxed, I would embody all the flexibility and plasticity of a young child ready and able to learn, but could easily 'tense' my mind into an unbreakable existence impossible to destroy or alter.
When I took shots of the Durindfire juice, I was able to test and train my mental resilience, and later on, I even sometimes managed to untangle individual visions from the flood of information.
All the times I had managed to access a single comprehensible vision, it was honestly pretty random. The only similarity between the visions was that each one featured someone connecting with the force. Was it easier to connect with other force sensitives?
A seasoned Jedi meditating. An untrained smuggler unconsciously sensing danger and guiding their blaster shots. A child playing with a ball by making it levitate. An ancient pure blood sith obliterating their enemies with lightning and fury. Every vision was a different person, at a different time. None of them had connected with each other yet. A few lucky times I was able to witness battles between force sensitives, and what little I was able to visually track fucking terrified me. I didn't realize just how limited the fights shown in the movies were, with their non superhuman actors and finite effects budgets. That's not to say the movie duels were bad by any stretch, but they were just that. Movie duels. Choreographed dances with props between amateur swordsmen playing a part.
Real saber duels between masters were fought at an incomprehensible, superhuman level of speed, agility, and skill that made the fights that once seemed so spectacular to childhood me look like something put on by the ember island players.
However, it all changed when one day, I saw something I never would have expected. The scene that entranced the earth.
Luke Skywalker's run on the Death Star.
I had been thinking about the scene, wondering how it would look in reality as opposed to on the television screen, and it seemed to magnetize to my mind through the force, coming easier than any other vision before! I saw it as if I was in the X wing right along side Luke. Feeling his wingmates wink out as they were killed, feeling the oppressive darkness behind us coming from… me?
No! Not me! With how much I have changed and plan to change it's pretty much impossible that this scene will play out exactly like this! Which means I'm viewing the main timeline, the one without me. The one with canon Anakin.
The future is always in motion, but normally isn't seeing specifics about the future difficult? I could only guess, but I'm pretty sure it's because I have actually seen it before, instead of just speculating or asking the force a question about an uncertain future. I know exactly what I'm looking for, so it's easier to get a vision about it. So while I won't necessarily be able to find out new information, I'll be able to refresh my memory on the scenes I do remember, and be telling the absolute truth when I tell people I 'saw it in a vision'. This was huge!
Considering my current circumstances, the next scene I wanted to observe was the fight between Maul, Qui Gon, and Obi Wan. Something weird was interfering though! It was like something was attempting to blur my sight, or cloud it somehow?
Was it the veil of the dark side? Was it interfering because it was too close to the present? A part of the sith grand plan that was close to being executed? I'm not sure...
But the advantage of having actually seen the events I was looking for pulled through for me again, as I finally saw the fight by imagining the flashy way Maul pulls out his saber.
Though this vision was particularly blurry and obscured, I could still make out most of the details. And may I just say? Maul was terrifying. Even through the blurry dreamlike quality of the visions his malice and bloodlust were overwhelming, and his blade work was horrifyingly fluid and deadly. While much of the actual sword movements were different from the movie, there was one that remained the same.
Maul smashing Qui Gon's face with his hilt, and running him through while he was stunned.
Obi Wan's scream as he saw—
Suddenly, I felt a dark presence drawing near to me in the force. It was stronger than Nyra, than Maul, stronger than anything I'd ever felt, and it was almost on top of me! Quickly I banished the single vision, letting it dissolve into a cacophony of indistinct and overlapping points in time once again, then throwing up my stealth aura and desperately hiding myself in the force. It seemed to do the trick, and the last thing I sensed from the presence was a mix of intrigue and frustration before it dissipated entirely.
Holy shit.
HOLY SHIT!
I didn't dare speak the name or even focus too hard on how his face looked. I was still under the influence of the Durindfire juice, and I didn't want to get drawn into a vision that… the future emperor… could track.
My heart pounded in my ears and sweat beaded on my skin as I trembled in shock and panic. He… almost got me. He almost got into my FUCKING HEAD!
Oooooooookaaay, not doing that again for a while, not as long as I enjoy NOT being a vegetable.
I managed to calm myself eventually, waiting until the effects of the juice tapered off, and then started planning. If I could have successfully seen a vision of Darth Sidious, and confirm the accuracy of my visions by exactly 'predicting' other events, I could have easily unmasked him to all the Jedi!
However, as I just experienced, that was much MUCH too naive. When his presence drew close to me, I felt like my life was legitimately in danger. He wouldn't have just known my location, he would have had direct access to my mind, and I have absolutely no delusions about which one of us would come out on top in a mental battle.
Sidious is so fucking dangerous that if I make a single mistake I'm dead.
Above all else, I can't let it spread that I know his identity until I'm ABSOLUTELY sure I can actually do something about it, preferably with a fucking SQUAD of Jedi masters at my back. And I won't be able to convince them without proof! So I'm back to square 1.
All I know is this. The longer he's in office, the more influence he has and the less chance I have at fighting against his hold on the galaxy. If there was a way to destroy the Sith right here right now, I'd do it, even if it left me in a child sized Vader suit to do so. It would be well worth the sacrifice.
FUCK! I wish I had more time! If I could have risen to the rank of respected Jedi Master -before- the Naboo crisis I would have so much more to work with! Why do I have to be a fucking child when arguably the best window to revealing his bullshit is already close at hand!
I breathed deeply, calming myself down. I needed to focus on one thing at a time. Freedom from slavery first, THEN saving the galaxy (cuz I'm one of the idiots who lives in it) second.
Don't center on my anxieties. Keep my focus here and now, where it belongs.
I looked at the calendar on the wall.
Just a few months left.
A few months 'till freedom.
I stood at my desk, working in the droid shop tirelessly, practically counting down the minutes. To an outsider looking in, there was nothing to differentiate this day from any other day like it. I breathed steadily and deliberately to hide my nerves from Watto. It was only 3 days till Boonta eve, and not just any Boonta eve, but THE Boonta eve.
I felt restless and even a little irritated that I still had to work in this shop, kinda like a kid having to attend the second-to-last day of school before summer break. Although, I had to remember that this wasn't a guaranteed outcome. The next few days were absolutely up in the air!
The actions I would take in this upcoming week would earn us our freedom. We had the money. We had the tools. We had the pod, and hell if it wasn't the fastest damned pod ever fucking built. We were set. The plan was set, All that was left was the execution.
Adventure and opportunity await, all I needed was to not fuck it up. To not choke.
Well… and for the universe to cooperate by sending us Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi. Even so, I had back up plans if the Jedi didn't show up. I have Nyra's comm number after all, if the whole Jedi thing doesn't work out, she's the plan B. We would be free, one way or another.
But hell, I wanted to be a Jedi. I could do so much more for the future as a Jedi than I ever could as a Matukai. Jedi didn't just have combat power, they had societal power. Political power. They were recognized as powerful and skilled across the entire galaxy, and inherently trusted to frankly ridiculous degrees by pretty much the entire republic, at least on an administrative and governmental level. It would give me the freedom and influence to remove the threats that wished to bring the galaxy to heel. Freedom and power go hand in hand, and I need large amounts of both.
I paused, cautiously sorting through my desires. Did I lust for power? Hmmmm. Perhaps I did, I admitted to myself. But it wasn't power for powers sake, and it wasn't for the sake of dominating others or gaining any kind of superiority over them. I just want to live, love, and protect what's mine without anyone else being able to fuck it all up. That's it. I want a safe and secure society in which I can relax and adventure to my hearts content. Peace! Freedom! Justice! Security! And not just for me, but for my family and friends! Those aren't bad things! I nodded. Not bad things at all. I only wish for the strength to protect my people.
I was suddenly overcome with a strange sense of deja vu, but after a few moments of failing to remember, I dismissed it.
Alright. My path is true, or at least true enough, to avoid madness at least. In engineering there's a concept called "close enough" after all. Now all I need is—
My head shot up and my eyes widened as my thoughts were interrupted by what I was sensing.
On the edge of my range of detection was a bright, powerful signature. Slowly, but steadily and purposefully, it made its way through the streets towards here, hardly ever stopping, and never taking a wrong turn.
The presence was vibrant and lively, yet tempered and patient, and had a massive depth to it that could only mean they were a force sensitive, and a powerful one at that, more powerful than almost any I had ever sensed, my close shave encounter with Sidious being the only exception.
Without meaning to I reached out, and briefly received an impression of a sunlit clearing in a lush leafy forest, with the smell of dew and loam in the air. The presence pulsed in mild surprise and intrigue, and I hastily retreated, embarrassed at being caught.
Holy fucking shit. I'm like, 99.999% sure that's Qui Gon Jinn.
It's happening.
It's happening!
It's fucking HAAAPPPENNIIIIING!
Holy shit me! Calm your geek heart and quit Ricking out! I'm Anakin fucking Skywalker! I can do this! Be cool!
mmmmmmHoly shit on a stick this is easily like 10,000 times cooler than meeting any celebrity at a Comic-Con!
As he got closer to the store however, I was distracted from his presence by the two people with him.
The first was most likely Jar jar, he felt as non force sensitive as you can get, and was anxious, curious, simple, and fairly miserable under the dry heat of Tatooine.
However, the final member of their group was who gave me pause.
With every presence I've ever sensed, they've always been hardened and insular in some shape or form, no matter how good they were as a person. Nyra felt like a solid boulder, hard and unyielding. Mother felt like a well crafted piece of handmade leatherwork: artful, patient, and skilled, but also tough, weathered, and as cautious and rationed with her trust as she was with our water. Even Qui Gon Jinn, from what I could currently sense, was guarded and dangerous, like a predator calmly basking in the jungle sun.
OST: Across the Stars
The third and final member of the group was awe inspiring. While she didn't have the same depth of power or sheer quantity as Qui Gon, or any other force sensitive for that matter, the quality of her force presence didn't lose out to the Jedi master's one bit. It was bright, generous, and felt like an impossibly clean and cool oasis in the festering greasy oil pits of darkness that were the force presences of the mos Espa inhabitants.
While other's presences were stagnant and selfish, hers was kind and generous, as even as I could feel her misery at the heat and her fear for her situation, her presence still seemed to unconsciously reach out to those around her in compassion, even now wondering idly how their situations could be helped.
As they entered the shop and I could sense them more clearly I was further stunned by her. Not by her looks, though she was quite beautiful, but by the clarity and wonder of her soul. While Qui Gon Jinn was like a jungle and Mother was like leather, Padme was like a river of cool clean water. Enriching wherever she went, making her lands green and her people well, I briefly felt the power of her destiny, how she would change the fate of worlds, could shape the spiritual landscape of the very galaxy itself, and even with all that position, power, and potential, she still, even now, took no thought for what people could do for her, but what she could do for people.
If ever there was a presence of a true queen, this was it. Her presence, her soul, was both stunning in its beauty and foreign in its gentleness. Unhardened. Unpoisoned. Never in a million years could such a soul be brought up on Tatooine. Tatooine was harsh and unforgiving, and tended to make people that matched. Compared to us, she felt otherworldly. Angelic.
As Qui Gon turned to Watto to talk about the parts they needed, I found my voice. "H-hello" I stammered like a fool.
Padme turned to me, and smiled politely. She didn't even know me, I was a complete and total stranger to her, and I could sense that she gave me just as much room in her regard as anyone else, even the Jedi beside her. I could clearly feel that she knew nothing about me, but didn't view me as a desert rat, a slave, a tool, an obstacle, or anything of the kind.
She looked at me and saw a person. A being. It was her default way of viewing others. She saw me, a stranger, a slave, and saw someone just as important and deserving and worthy of happiness as herself, an actual fucking Queen, and it absolutely floored me.
"Hello, I'm Padme. How are you?"
"Uh, Um, I'm Anakin" I responded, and promptly realized that that wasn't what she fucking asked me. "I'm doing fine! Quite uh, fine indeed." What the fuck am I saying? qUiTe FiNe InDeEd?! What am I, some moron at a tea party? I needed to salvage this! Girls like honesty right? "N-now that uh, you're here I mean" I finished.
FUCK!
Not expecting the flattery, she laughed, which sounded wonderful, "Why thank you, Its a pleasure to meet you too Anakin."
Oh.
Oh man.
end OST
A/N: I gotta tell ya, I had a great time writing this last part.
Padme: Views people as, y'know, -people-.
Anakin: I am confusion!
Conversely, I'm not sure about the almost confrontation with Sidious. I feel like I could make it better, but I'm not quite sure how. We'll see the other side of it next time.
I'm planning an interlude chapter next to cover what Nyra, Qui Gon, Obi Wan, and Darth Sidious have been doing the past two years, and then diving into episode 1 in the chapter after that.
While some of y'all might want me to spend a lot of time on the Phantom Menace, I'm pretty much only going to focus on what happens differently, and breeze past everything else. Aside from the character interactions between SI Anakin and other people, and the plot differences and butterflies, we'll be going at a pretty fast pace.
Sorry if I end up skipping someone's favorite scene or character or something, but I feel like if you want to experience a scene unaltered just go watch the movie lol. You don't need me to write it out for you.
Also, while the force mutated fruit seem kinda strange, there are many precedents set for different herbs, plants, and substances greatly affecting one's perception/connection with the force, so I figured it wasn't too weird. I promise they are plot relevant, they are one of the first plot points I ever came up with for this story, and that was WAY before i learned about the cerveza cristal memes. The fact that it all worked out like that is a happy coincidence lol.
I'm excited for next time! See y'all then!
Ciao!
This chapter is less of a single narrative, and more of a series of snapshots occurring over the course of the two years leading up to the events of TPM. Still, there's important shit in here, I promise it isn't filler. These are plot points I need to cover. Hope you enjoy!
Hank the junk scooter hummed as I sped across the nighttime dunes. Since my fateful encounter with Nyra six months ago, I had made several upgrades to it, and it was -much- more sophisticated a machine now than it was before.
I had cannibalized the repulser-lifts from three other hover crates, and replaced the stabilizers to ones with greater range that actually belonged on a speeder bike, so balance was no longer an issue. I managed to weld together a load bearing frame and a trailer hitch which were strong enough to hold cargo, and replaced the probe droid hover lift I had been using with a proper speeder engine. Over the last six months, I had gradually replaced almost the entire makeup of the scooter to the point it was pretty much unrecognizable from its humble beginnings.
It was a bit of a 'grandfather's axe' situation (father replaced the head and I replaced the handle, but other than that it's completely original!) but because the changes didn't happen all at once, I still thought of it as Hank. It looked like a wheel-less hovering Harley, and I was able to attach a chain of three connected hover crate trailers to the back and haul them without issue.
The part that I was most satisfied with was that I was now able to outrun and outmaneuver the occasional raider or bandit, which meant my custom built, from-the-ground-up creation was actually better than the speeders other people used.
My Thor gun, Hank mk1, and several other creations of mine had always been effective and usable, but they weren't ever objectively better than regular equipment other people could just buy. Sure they were creative, and they had strange uses that might catch people off guard, but at the end of the day they were junk. Lovable, workable junk, but junk nonetheless.
Hank mk2 was different. It straight up outperformed other speeders. And every time I was in a jam and got out of it by being faster or more nimble, I grinned like a loon at the fact that I, a fucking slave could build something that was better than what their money could buy.
It just tickled my funny bone. Checked a feel-good box in my chest. It made me feel like iron man.
And speaking of getting in jams, I had ran into ALOT of trouble over the past six months. Many people wanted to know where the "Water Jawa" was getting his product, but with Hank Mk2 and the force as my ally, I managed to avoid them.
Not feeling comfortable with hiding our money in the city where anyone with a blaster could get past the womp rats, we had moved our money and blasters to the Crystal Cave, which I had set up with a moisture vaporator and homemade maintenance droid. It produced about twelve keg sized jugs of water a week, and drew power from a bank of cells that had about 2 weeks of power for the vaporator and the droids. I had set up a hidden solar station elsewhere in the wastes, which I used to recharge the cells used in the power bank.
At first the locals had been a problem, but with regular gifts of water and showing them how to use the solar bank, they had begun to appreciate my presence, and I hoped that if anyone ever was stupid enough to follow me all the way into the wastes, I could count on them to be the enemy of my enemy. I never allowed them to follow me anywhere close to the cave, liberally using the force to avoid their attempts.
From the way they kept their distance from me, and from the emotions I sensed, I'm pretty sure I was reaching Cryptid status among them.
When I was in the city or in the canyons of the wastes, there was a lot of cover and my notice-me-not cloak made it so I was pretty much untraceable. The only problem with it was that it's range was limited, so out in the dune sea, those that were far away could make me out, and once they had eyes on me it was much more difficult to trick their attention. I had to duck behind cover to break their line of sight before the cloak affected them again, and I had taken to collecting grenade sized rocks and dropping them behind me, then using the force to blast up heavy plumes of sand to obscure their vision.
They hadn't yet realized they weren't actual grenades, and I sincerely hoped they never figured it out.
A humorous consequence of this was that they wasted a large amount of time casing out weapon shops that sold grenades, because I had to be getting them from somewhere right? They even came into Watto's shop once to inquire about the model of Hank mk2, with Watto obviously not recognizing the model and declaring it a custom job.
Then they had wasted even more time questioning the body shops and mechanics in the area, which again led them to only dead ends.
I had anonymously contacted the buyers of the water through the network of slaves and merchants we were a part of, and made my deliveries in the middle of the night. So far only one person snitched, and I had luckily sensed the ambush, escaped, and never sold to them again.
Eager to hang on to their source of cheap water, everyone else kept their mouths shut.
About a month ago the raiders stopped pursuing me as doggedly, so I'm pretty sure they've given up. There's only been token engagement in the dune sea since.
It had only been six months, and we already had nearly half of what we needed to free one of us. The fact that if things kept going at the rate they were, we would meet our goal roughly 10 months before the Boonta eve classic where it would all go down was exhilarating. Hell, if something good happened and I stumbled into some extra cash, I might not even need to race at all!
Of course I still would race, the Jedi would need their parts after all, and I couldn't just not beat sebulba's smug cheating ass and finally rub his nose in the stench of his defeat, but it was the principle of the matter. I wouldn't be freed without my knowledge through someone else's schemes, but by my own efforts. This would be an equal exchange, not a charity.
Finally reaching the city wall, I was pulled out of my musings as I cast out my senses to see if anyone was watching.
Once I was sure I was unseen, I used the force to secure Hank mk2 in its tarp and buried it under the sand. I had already performed my deliveries and returned the carts and my earnings to the cave, so all that was left was to return home.
As I walked through the nighttime streets of mos espa, I lamented the fact that I would have to wake up in as little as 3 and a half hours to go to work. I only did this once a week when I had enough water, but it was still a total bitch to deal with the next day at work. Today was especially tough, because I had seen a Krayt dragon roaming the dune sea and had to wait for it to pass before I dared drive home. I would seriously suffer from lack of sleep tomorrow.
I had been religiously practicing the Matukai training Nyra gave me every single night, but so far it hadn't made any difference to the amount of sleep I needed. One of the exercises she laid out in the document was to call upon the force and have it with you when you were calming down to fall asleep.
The force was supposed to enhance your body's ability to recover mentally and physically, as well as cataloging memory more effectively and efficiently.
Eventually this would compound and develop into the ability to sleep like an hour a week and be totally fine, with no medical difference from someone who got eight uninhibited hours every night.
The only problem was that training your bodies ability to 'sleep with the guidance of the force' was something that took a ridiculous amount of time and dedication, and most people's bodies didn't start 'getting it' until like five or so years into the training.
Apparently the Jedi didn't bother with this, deeming a healing trance efficient enough for their purposes, which Nyra claimed in her writings didn't supply all the benefits of proper sleep, and caused REM sleep deprivation in Jedi who overused it as a substitute, as healing trances were more like a temporary coma than actual sleep. The upside was that a healing trance could be learned much quicker, most people successfully pulling it off after a month of training.
Which, while interesting, didn't help my current situation at all. Until my body started figuring out how to subconsciously 'enhance my sleep with the force', I was stuck needing eight hours a night just like everyone else.
I sighed. Work was gonna be a bitch tomorrow.
Spoiler alert: it was. I basically had to use the force to enhance myself just to get up to my baseline level of competence. The entire day was a moving meditation, but instead of my Matukai exercises Amu and I had been doing every night, it was just regular work.
There were several times where Watto said something to me and I didn't register at first, or when I openly used the force a few times to snake wires or loosen bolts like I do at home and Amu caught me and frantically reminded me of where we were. Luckily Watto didn't catch me any of these times, but it was a close thing.
Amu gave me the 'this can't go on, we WILL be talking about this later' face, and I knew there would be an argument later tonight. I sighed.
It was almost at the end of the day when a subtle hint sounded in the force like a tinkling bell. I was out in the junkyard fetching a droid part when it happened, and I followed the feeling to its source over at one of the totaled ships that had been recently dropped off. It was a compact stunt fighter that had been mangled to the point that it was nearly in half, and most of the surviving parts had already been stripped away. From what I could tell, the original shape of the fighter had been boomerang shaped with two oversized cylindrical engines at the halfway point of the wings.
The structural frame had been made from two types of metal, a lighter, slightly more flexible alloy for the body and wings, but a tougher, more durable metal for the engine housing. The main cabin area had been thoroughly destroyed, but a quick check showed both engine frames were perfectly straight.
That was odd! If the ship collided hard enough with an object that it basically folded in half, wouldn't the engine housing also be bent? But it wasn't… what was it made of?
After a few tests, I realized I hit the jackpot! It wasn't just regular durasteel, it was a Quadanium alloy! It was relatively high percent too, about 30% Quadanium to 70% durasteel!
Quadanium was ridiculously durable and had a stupidly high heat resistance! It wasn't legendary like beskar or anything, but to a desert junk rat like me, it may as well have been!
I quickly deleted the scan results and ran in to talk to Watto, and began speaking in huttese. "Watto sir? I was wondering if I could start cutting up that folded stunt fighter for its frame?"
He waved his hand dismissively, responding also in huttese, "If you want to. It's frame is a bit soft for a fighter, and I've stripped everything I need off of it so I was just going to let the Jawas take it, but if you think you can get some ingots melted, go right ahead".
Yes! He hadn't realized the engine cylinders were made of a tougher alloy! "Alright." I responded easily, desperately not showing my enthusiasm. "I'll see what I can separate and hawk the rest of the junk to the Jawas."
Watto nodded and waved me off dismissively.
Once I was out of sight I quickly began separating the tougher engine segments from the rest of the wreckage. When I was done I had two large cylindrical tubes of stupidly strong metal, and perhaps it was a coincidence, but they were the exact same size as the engines from Anakin's pod from the phantom menace! With engine walls this tough, I could power my engines with fucking dynamite and it still wouldn't deform. These would be the base of my pod racer!
With the extra strength of the engine walls I could compress the fuel to create a far more violent combustion, getting more bang for my buck fuel wise! While this would normally be too dangerous to risk with normal materials, with Quadanium alloy it would be fine! This also would explain why canon Anakin could have a lot of his fuel leak and still win the race! This must be what he used!
I had the droids load up the engine cylinders and the rest of the junk that couldn't be melted down. But as I drove the flatbed out to the place where we usually met the Jawas, I made a quick stop by the back of the slave quarters to drop off the very first components for what I hoped would be the fastest pod racer ever built!
After we went home I did my Matukai exercises tiredly, working through the motions with a wooden staff Nyra had left for me. She had even recorded holograms of the different motions, so Amu and I could make sure we were learning the correct moves. There were three sets of holograms with different katas on them. First, there was the regular exercise forms, which were geared towards working out, not fighting, so they didn't have much use in combat. These were the kind she had me do in person on the day that I met her. The second type was the unarmed forms, which dealt with hand to hand combat, and Third was staff forms, which is what I was doing tonight.
After I was done, I sat in front of my mother, ready to endure a talking about staying out too late. Instead of a lecture, she picked me up and carried me to my room. "Your head looks like it's bobbling on a spring." She commented with an exasperated laugh, "We'll talk in the morning." She said. I sighed in relief.
I was unconscious before I was in my bed.
While we did talk about doing things differently, multiple times, it would always circle around to the fact that we couldn't really do it any other way. Hank was kid sized and people thought I was a Jawa, and having a human partner would make me far more easily identifiable.
Amu and I would get into a lot of fights about it over the next few months, but we never really came up with an alternate plan to make extra money that was as viable and relatively risk free as our current one. I wasn't cutting into the hutt's profits so they never sent anyone skilled after me, I never killed any of my pursuers so nobody put a bounty on me for revenge, and I was so slippery and skilled that even the most desperate raiders only gave token efforts, and I could sense that they didn't actually believe they would catch me, they just hoped to maybe get lucky.
Despite that, I could tell it burned at Amu's conscience that I, the child, was doing was she believed was her, the parent's, responsibility. I could feel the guilt and worry every time I came home, and we would spend the next day meditating and 'discussing' alternatives. Honestly this was probably the biggest rift between us. Still, even with all this I was never able to sense any resentment or anger towards me. She never blamed me, she always loved me, but she absolutely hated that I was putting myself in danger. She hated the situation that forced me to to risk my life for her.
But at the end of the day, she always was able to let those feelings calm, to let them go. When I asked her how she was releasing her emotions into the force so effectively, she told me something I'll never forget.
"I'm not releasing my emotions into the force Anakin." She said calmly.
I blinked in confusion. "But you feel so… serene! When I get mad or really worried I get all prickly for hours, how are you so… at peace?"
She smiled with a quirked eyebrow. "Well. I'm glad I come across so calm and collected Ani, but I'm not banishing my feelings or tossing them away."
I was even more confused. She must have realized, because she hummed in contemplation the way she did when ordering her thoughts about something complicated.
Finally she seemed to come to a realization. "Emotions, specifically negative emotions… are like tools."
Um what? Tools?
She continued. "Fear is a useful tool. It alerts you to threats and danger. It quickens your reactions. Anger is a useful tool. It alerts you to injustice. It gives you the courage to act in a tense situation. But just as a tool like a hydrospanner can also be used as a weapon to harm others, or when used carelessly can harm ourselves, so can our emotions harm others and ourselves. Their main purpose is to be helpful, but they can easily get out of hand. Fear and anger are useful. Panic and rage are not. When I feel an emotion strongly, I evaluate if it is helping or harming. If my fear or anger has fulfilled its rightful purpose, I am thankful to it for alerting me, resolve to act if I can, and let it settle down until it's needed again, before it grows into something unmanageable. I suppose the best way to put it would be… putting it back in my tool belt, instead of continuing to brandish it in my hands."
"Huh. Damn." Was my elegant response. "Wait, you actually thank your fear? Thank your anger?"
She nodded and smiled. "My body and mind are performing well, why would I not be grateful? And you would be surprised how calming gratitude can be. I say in my mind, 'thank you fear, I am aware of that threat now. I can now act on this knowledge.' And let it slide back into the background. I can still feel it, like the weight of a tool on my hip, but I am not using it unwisely or cruelly. In a world where we can control little about our situation, we must have control over ourselves. And control of emotion is not the same as the absence of emotion. To function properly, we must have mastery of our tools, not forsake them. Our emotions will always be with us. How they affect our actions, is up to us."
"Wow…" I said. "Thank you! I'm going to try that!"
She nodded, and gave me a hug, "I'm so glad I could help… Just be careful alright? I die knowing there's little I can do to help you when you're out there on the dunes."
I was at a loss for words, so I did the only thing I could do. I nodded, and hugged her back with all my strength.
Honestly, her ways may not have been Jedi like, but they were real. Nothing about them was based on second hand parroted theory, but were crafted and forged from actual experience of someone going through real hardship. Over the months I learned as much as I possibly could from her, and I became a more calm and effective person because of it. When she taught me, it was like a mental block was relaxed, and spiritual concepts from the Matukai writings that I was struggling with seemed to just click and become clear.
Once I realized this, I vowed within myself that even if I joined the Jedi, I would find a way to regularly talk to her and hear her wisdom. I would sneak out of the temple and use a public com station in the fucking undercity if I needed to, but I would contact her. Regularly. She was my Mother, and her wisdom wouldn't lead me down a wrong path. Attachment and connection were two different things, and I wouldn't be convinced otherwise.
Before we knew it, the next Boonta Eve had come and gone, and there was less than a year before the fateful day. I had raced, but I hadn't tried to win, just to finish, which I succeeded at. I placed 14th out of 25, which sucked, but at least I placed. The entire time was practically torture, as I had to hold myself back from what I really wanted to do, catering to the pods limits, which once again were shit. It made me think dreamily to the masterpiece I was crafting in secret at home, which I wished I could be using right now.
Still, Watto gave us a little bonus for placing, which considering the amount we had stored away wasn't that impressive, but we made sure to spend it so he wouldn't get suspicious, which was nice.
It had been about a week since the last Boonta Eve, and I was entering the crystal cave for the second time that night, storing the empty jugs and trailers safely in the cave for the week. I sat in my usual spot near a large crystal formation to take a quick breather before heading out again, before noticing something strange.
Growing in the damp sand was a little green plant, wrapped around the Crystal to absorb its light. I couldn't place it for a second before I realized that it was a pallie plant! Normally when we got 'pallies' they had been ground up into a paste and stretched with grain fillers, but with the bonus from Watto we had bought a sack of the actual fruit from Jira, one of the slave grannies that sold them.
Unlike the ground up ones, which mixed the bitterness of the seeds with the sweetness of the fruit, buying the fruit itself allowed you to eat the sweet fruit while spitting out the bitter seeds, which I had been doing at this spot for the past few days. I hadn't realized that pallies, who need a lot of sun, would be able to grow in such a dim environment, but I guess light is light at the end of the day. I smiled. Other than being able to eat pallies for free, maybe this could be another source of income!
After I was rested enough, I headed back out towards home.
I stood on a stool by the kitchen counter, separating pallie fruits from their seeds in order to make some juice. It was a rare day off from work, and I wanted to do something fun for Amu.
It had been six months since I first saw the pallie plant in the crystal cave, and after half a year of waiting, we finally got a crop of ripe fruit to try! I'm honestly happy they are a vine fruit, not a tree, or else it probably would have taken years before bearing fruit.
Done with my extracting, I sat down and methodically mashed the now seedless fruits in a bowl on the floor with a japor club. As I worked, I thought about the progress I had made in the year and a half since I got here.
My racing pod was more than halfway done, and while there was a definite resemblance between it and and the movie version, there were slight differences that made my version better in my opinion. After working in Watto's junk shop every day and using it as a sort of moving meditation (cus what the hell else am I gonna do at work) I've started being able to connect with machines with the force. I can see and work on the inside of complex machinery without opening it up, and can even do more risky experiments and have a rough idea if it will blow up in my face or not, and be able to specifically sense where in the machine the problem is and a general instinct on how to fix it, all before I even fire it up! It streamlined the process so much that I was able to make major advances just by tinkering. I of course recorded and reviewed the results of me fucking around, which makes it science. Pretty sure that's how that works.
Basically, at the end of the day, my pod will be the best fucking racer on the face of the planet. Maybe even the whole galaxy. Which, to be fair, isn't exactly a high bar to reach. Civilized trillionaire scientists from the core don't exactly spend their time strapping rocket engines onto lawn chairs to see who whut go faster an' not 'buy the depp'.
If they did, they probably could make a better pod than me, but since my competition is a bunch of rednecks, I'm gonna absolutely smoke all of them.
As I continued mashing the pallies into juice, Amu came back from her trip to the market. "That's an interesting color." She commented, and I nodded.
Unfortunately for my plans of selling them, the pallies grown in the Crystal cave had a different color inside than regular ones, which would draw suspicion on where we got them. While the usual inside of a normal pallie was a pinkish red that reminded me of beats or pomegranate juice, these cave grown ones had a much more mild amber color. I had briefly tasted one before I started juicing and it was still really good, maybe a tiny bit less sweet with an undertone of mintyness which was refreshing. They also were larger and more juicy, but that was just because they grew in a humid environment.
After I was finished juicing, we strained the fibrous pulp out of the juice, and chilled it in the Star Wars equivalent of a fridge, called a conservator.
Later, when it was good and cold, we poured ourselves glasses, and drank.
Almost simultaneously, both Amu and I let out sighs of appreciation, then laughed at each other at the coincidence. It was surprisingly different from regular pallie juice, which was rare enough to have. It was sweet like apple juice, with a bit of prickly pear tartness and a hint of mint and citrus. Compared to what we usually had to eat, a unique tasting fruit juice was an unparalleled luxury that just felt wrong and disobedient in the best way possible. The fact that we had made it ourselves under the nose of a slave master who had no idea made it taste that much better. It was our juice. No one else's. And Fuck was it good!
I hummed in appreciation as I took another sip. Idly I voiced my thoughts, "Hey… I wonder if we could make booze outta this?"
Amu let out a snort of laughter and shook her head in disbelief. "Anakin! No!" She said reproachfully, though the effect was ruined by her laughter.
I shrugged and laughed it off, taking another sip. Oh well. Just a thought.
It had been a few hours since we had drank the juice, and I had an absolutely excruciating headache. Amu had one as well, but she was either taking it like a world class champ, or her headache wasn't as bad as mine was. Voices whispered indistinctly at the edge of my perception, and it felt like the force was pounding into my mind like a wedge into a log.
Y'know, I kinda regret eating the strange force mutated fruit now. Looking back, that probably should have been a red flag.
The sound of screaming, lightning, praying, chanting, lightsabers clashing, blasters firing, and a million other sounds seemed to meld together in one painful cacophony that clashed against each other in my mind like dark and light. Thousands of sermons and speeches and clashes by Jedi and Sith alike, made incomprehensible by their overlap. Why do they fight? Why does the dark hate and covet the light?! Why does the light fear and condemn the dark?! Why can't they settle?! Why can't they be one?! It's painful! Can't the conflict ever stop?! This isn't right! This isn't fair!
The pain reached new heights, and my mind was overwhelmed by incomprehensible visions as I lost consciousness.
The next day, I woke up feeling like I'd been half digested by a sarlacc. Light was too bright and sounds were too loud, and I could barely remember what I saw in the visions I had while I was unconscious. It was like trying to watch a piece of old film that had been recorded over several different times til it was incomprehensible, as if the force had been stuffing multiple visions into my head all at once.
I hobbled over to the fresher and activated the sonic scrubber and noticed that my sweat had a slight amber glow that reminded me of the crystals from the cave.
As the day went on and I sweated more, the effects of the crystal juice wore off as I sweated it out. By the next morning, my sweat didn't glow at all, and I had slept normally. I theorized that there were parts of microscopic crystals in the fruit, and I had just passed them. And while logically this should mean I should probably steer clear of eating/drinking any more of it, I had been having a problem lately. I had nothing to train my mind against. My rudimentary shielding had been torn like wet tissue by the visions and my mind itself had been strained. This was the perfect opportunity to train my mental strength and willpower!
Over the next few months, with Amu's tentative approval, we drank some of the juice every few days. Amu drank a full glass, as the effects were a bit muted for her for some reason, where I only consumed a shot glass worth.
Before the discovery of the Durindfire pallies, I had not made much progress training my mind.
Nyra's training guide had said that having a strong image allowed for a quicker development of mental strength, and she shared that the image she used was a boulder. The image that I had been using was durasteel, however after getting strained so much from the visions I realized that it was far too limited an image. One day as I was pondering this at work, I realized that Watto's mind was a bit unique feeling in the force.
I had always chalked it up to him being alien and having some kind of unique brain chemistry that prevented mind tricks, but now I reconsidered.
Perhaps a toydarians resistance was more of an unconscious minor force ability. After all, even a non force sensitive has the force flowing through them, and there are many other races like Wookiees or the Yinchorri who show minor force like abilities despite true force sensitivity being extremely rare among them.
Watto's mind was strange in that it seemed flexible as a rubber band, but also at times tough as an old tire, bouncing and swaying away at attempts to mind trick, but always rebounding back to its original shape.
Observing this made me realize that my mental image needed to be more creative and intricate than simply saying 'metal is stronk'.
I imagined a material that could change and grow, but could also firm up and defend. When my defense was relaxed, my mind would be flexible as water, open and ready to accept new concepts and learn new things, but when tensed would be stronger and more unbreakable than bescar.
It was a fantastical material that didn't exist in reality, but it didn't need to. It only needed to exist within my mind to be effective, and effective it was. I needed to increase my mental defense without becoming too stubborn and uncompromising. When relaxed, I would embody all the flexibility and plasticity of a young child ready and able to learn, but could easily 'tense' my mind into an unbreakable existence impossible to destroy or alter.
When I took shots of the Durindfire juice, I was able to test and train my mental resilience, and later on, I even sometimes managed to untangle individual visions from the flood of information.
All the times I had managed to access a single comprehensible vision, it was honestly pretty random. The only similarity between the visions was that each one featured someone connecting with the force. Was it easier to connect with other force sensitives?
A seasoned Jedi meditating. An untrained smuggler unconsciously sensing danger and guiding their blaster shots. A child playing with a ball by making it levitate. An ancient pure blood sith obliterating their enemies with lightning and fury. Every vision was a different person, at a different time. None of them had connected with each other yet. A few lucky times I was able to witness battles between force sensitives, and what little I was able to visually track fucking terrified me. I didn't realize just how limited the fights shown in the movies were, with their non superhuman actors and finite effects budgets. That's not to say the movie duels were bad by any stretch, but they were just that. Movie duels. Choreographed dances with props between amateur swordsmen playing a part.
Real saber duels between masters were fought at an incomprehensible, superhuman level of speed, agility, and skill that made the fights that once seemed so spectacular to childhood me look like something put on by the ember island players.
However, it all changed when one day, I saw something I never would have expected. The scene that entranced the earth.
Luke Skywalker's run on the Death Star.
I had been thinking about the scene, wondering how it would look in reality as opposed to on the television screen, and it seemed to magnetize to my mind through the force, coming easier than any other vision before! I saw it as if I was in the X wing right along side Luke. Feeling his wingmates wink out as they were killed, feeling the oppressive darkness behind us coming from… me?
No! Not me! With how much I have changed and plan to change it's pretty much impossible that this scene will play out exactly like this! Which means I'm viewing the main timeline, the one without me. The one with canon Anakin.
The future is always in motion, but normally isn't seeing specifics about the future difficult? I could only guess, but I'm pretty sure it's because I have actually seen it before, instead of just speculating or asking the force a question about an uncertain future. I know exactly what I'm looking for, so it's easier to get a vision about it. So while I won't necessarily be able to find out new information, I'll be able to refresh my memory on the scenes I do remember, and be telling the absolute truth when I tell people I 'saw it in a vision'. This was huge!
Considering my current circumstances, the next scene I wanted to observe was the fight between Maul, Qui Gon, and Obi Wan. Something weird was interfering though! It was like something was attempting to blur my sight, or cloud it somehow?
Was it the veil of the dark side? Was it interfering because it was too close to the present? A part of the sith grand plan that was close to being executed? I'm not sure...
But the advantage of having actually seen the events I was looking for pulled through for me again, as I finally saw the fight by imagining the flashy way Maul pulls out his saber.
Though this vision was particularly blurry and obscured, I could still make out most of the details. And may I just say? Maul was terrifying. Even through the blurry dreamlike quality of the visions his malice and bloodlust were overwhelming, and his blade work was horrifyingly fluid and deadly. While much of the actual sword movements were different from the movie, there was one that remained the same.
Maul smashing Qui Gon's face with his hilt, and running him through while he was stunned.
Obi Wan's scream as he saw—
Suddenly, I felt a dark presence drawing near to me in the force. It was stronger than Nyra, than Maul, stronger than anything I'd ever felt, and it was almost on top of me! Quickly I banished the single vision, letting it dissolve into a cacophony of indistinct and overlapping points in time once again, then throwing up my stealth aura and desperately hiding myself in the force. It seemed to do the trick, and the last thing I sensed from the presence was a mix of intrigue and frustration before it dissipated entirely.
Holy shit.
HOLY SHIT!
I didn't dare speak the name or even focus too hard on how his face looked. I was still under the influence of the Durindfire juice, and I didn't want to get drawn into a vision that… the future emperor… could track.
My heart pounded in my ears and sweat beaded on my skin as I trembled in shock and panic. He… almost got me. He almost got into my FUCKING HEAD!
Oooooooookaaay, not doing that again for a while, not as long as I enjoy NOT being a vegetable.
I managed to calm myself eventually, waiting until the effects of the juice tapered off, and then started planning. If I could have successfully seen a vision of Darth Sidious, and confirm the accuracy of my visions by exactly 'predicting' other events, I could have easily unmasked him to all the Jedi!
However, as I just experienced, that was much MUCH too naive. When his presence drew close to me, I felt like my life was legitimately in danger. He wouldn't have just known my location, he would have had direct access to my mind, and I have absolutely no delusions about which one of us would come out on top in a mental battle.
Sidious is so fucking dangerous that if I make a single mistake I'm dead.
Above all else, I can't let it spread that I know his identity until I'm ABSOLUTELY sure I can actually do something about it, preferably with a fucking SQUAD of Jedi masters at my back. And I won't be able to convince them without proof! So I'm back to square 1.
All I know is this. The longer he's in office, the more influence he has and the less chance I have at fighting against his hold on the galaxy. If there was a way to destroy the Sith right here right now, I'd do it, even if it left me in a child sized Vader suit to do so. It would be well worth the sacrifice.
FUCK! I wish I had more time! If I could have risen to the rank of respected Jedi Master -before- the Naboo crisis I would have so much more to work with! Why do I have to be a fucking child when arguably the best window to revealing his bullshit is already close at hand!
I breathed deeply, calming myself down. I needed to focus on one thing at a time. Freedom from slavery first, THEN saving the galaxy (cuz I'm one of the idiots who lives in it) second.
Don't center on my anxieties. Keep my focus here and now, where it belongs.
I looked at the calendar on the wall.
Just a few months left.
A few months 'till freedom.
I stood at my desk, working in the droid shop tirelessly, practically counting down the minutes. To an outsider looking in, there was nothing to differentiate this day from any other day like it. I breathed steadily and deliberately to hide my nerves from Watto. It was only 3 days till Boonta eve, and not just any Boonta eve, but THE Boonta eve.
I felt restless and even a little irritated that I still had to work in this shop, kinda like a kid having to attend the second-to-last day of school before summer break. Although, I had to remember that this wasn't a guaranteed outcome. The next few days were absolutely up in the air!
The actions I would take in this upcoming week would earn us our freedom. We had the money. We had the tools. We had the pod, and hell if it wasn't the fastest damned pod ever fucking built. We were set. The plan was set, All that was left was the execution.
Adventure and opportunity await, all I needed was to not fuck it up. To not choke.
Well… and for the universe to cooperate by sending us Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi. Even so, I had back up plans if the Jedi didn't show up. I have Nyra's comm number after all, if the whole Jedi thing doesn't work out, she's the plan B. We would be free, one way or another.
But hell, I wanted to be a Jedi. I could do so much more for the future as a Jedi than I ever could as a Matukai. Jedi didn't just have combat power, they had societal power. Political power. They were recognized as powerful and skilled across the entire galaxy, and inherently trusted to frankly ridiculous degrees by pretty much the entire republic, at least on an administrative and governmental level. It would give me the freedom and influence to remove the threats that wished to bring the galaxy to heel. Freedom and power go hand in hand, and I need large amounts of both.
I paused, cautiously sorting through my desires. Did I lust for power? Hmmmm. Perhaps I did, I admitted to myself. But it wasn't power for powers sake, and it wasn't for the sake of dominating others or gaining any kind of superiority over them. I just want to live, love, and protect what's mine without anyone else being able to fuck it all up. That's it. I want a safe and secure society in which I can relax and adventure to my hearts content. Peace! Freedom! Justice! Security! And not just for me, but for my family and friends! Those aren't bad things! I nodded. Not bad things at all. I only wish for the strength to protect my people.
I was suddenly overcome with a strange sense of deja vu, but after a few moments of failing to remember, I dismissed it.
Alright. My path is true, or at least true enough, to avoid madness at least. In engineering there's a concept called "close enough" after all. Now all I need is—
My head shot up and my eyes widened as my thoughts were interrupted by what I was sensing.
On the edge of my range of detection was a bright, powerful signature. Slowly, but steadily and purposefully, it made its way through the streets towards here, hardly ever stopping, and never taking a wrong turn.
The presence was vibrant and lively, yet tempered and patient, and had a massive depth to it that could only mean they were a force sensitive, and a powerful one at that, more powerful than almost any I had ever sensed, my close shave encounter with Sidious being the only exception.
Without meaning to I reached out, and briefly received an impression of a sunlit clearing in a lush leafy forest, with the smell of dew and loam in the air. The presence pulsed in mild surprise and intrigue, and I hastily retreated, embarrassed at being caught.
Holy fucking shit. I'm like, 99.999% sure that's Qui Gon Jinn.
It's happening.
It's happening!
It's fucking HAAAPPPENNIIIIING!
Holy shit me! Calm your geek heart and quit Ricking out! I'm Anakin fucking Skywalker! I can do this! Be cool!
mmmmmmHoly shit on a stick this is easily like 10,000 times cooler than meeting any celebrity at a Comic-Con!
As he got closer to the store however, I was distracted from his presence by the two people with him.
The first was most likely Jar jar, he felt as non force sensitive as you can get, and was anxious, curious, simple, and fairly miserable under the dry heat of Tatooine.
However, the final member of their group was who gave me pause.
With every presence I've ever sensed, they've always been hardened and insular in some shape or form, no matter how good they were as a person. Nyra felt like a solid boulder, hard and unyielding. Mother felt like a well crafted piece of handmade leatherwork: artful, patient, and skilled, but also tough, weathered, and as cautious and rationed with her trust as she was with our water. Even Qui Gon Jinn, from what I could currently sense, was guarded and dangerous, like a predator calmly basking in the jungle sun.
OST: Across the Stars
The third and final member of the group was awe inspiring. While she didn't have the same depth of power or sheer quantity as Qui Gon, or any other force sensitive for that matter, the quality of her force presence didn't lose out to the Jedi master's one bit. It was bright, generous, and felt like an impossibly clean and cool oasis in the festering greasy oil pits of darkness that were the force presences of the mos Espa inhabitants.
While other's presences were stagnant and selfish, hers was kind and generous, as even as I could feel her misery at the heat and her fear for her situation, her presence still seemed to unconsciously reach out to those around her in compassion, even now wondering idly how their situations could be helped.
As they entered the shop and I could sense them more clearly I was further stunned by her. Not by her looks, though she was quite beautiful, but by the clarity and wonder of her soul. While Qui Gon Jinn was like a jungle and Mother was like leather, Padme was like a river of cool clean water. Enriching wherever she went, making her lands green and her people well, I briefly felt the power of her destiny, how she would change the fate of worlds, could shape the spiritual landscape of the very galaxy itself, and even with all that position, power, and potential, she still, even now, took no thought for what people could do for her, but what she could do for people.
If ever there was a presence of a true queen, this was it. Her presence, her soul, was both stunning in its beauty and foreign in its gentleness. Unhardened. Unpoisoned. Never in a million years could such a soul be brought up on Tatooine. Tatooine was harsh and unforgiving, and tended to make people that matched. Compared to us, she felt otherworldly. Angelic.
As Qui Gon turned to Watto to talk about the parts they needed, I found my voice. "H-hello" I stammered like a fool.
Padme turned to me, and smiled politely. She didn't even know me, I was a complete and total stranger to her, and I could sense that she gave me just as much room in her regard as anyone else, even the Jedi beside her. I could clearly feel that she knew nothing about me, but didn't view me as a desert rat, a slave, a tool, an obstacle, or anything of the kind.
She looked at me and saw a person. A being. It was her default way of viewing others. She saw me, a stranger, a slave, and saw someone just as important and deserving and worthy of happiness as herself, an actual fucking Queen, and it absolutely floored me.
"Hello, I'm Padme. How are you?"
"Uh, Um, I'm Anakin" I responded, and promptly realized that that wasn't what she fucking asked me. "I'm doing fine! Quite uh, fine indeed." What the fuck am I saying? qUiTe FiNe InDeEd?! What am I, some moron at a tea party? I needed to salvage this! Girls like honesty right? "N-now that uh, you're here I mean" I finished.
FUCK!
Not expecting the flattery, she laughed, which sounded wonderful, "Why thank you, Its a pleasure to meet you too Anakin."
Oh.
Oh man.
end OST
A/N: I gotta tell ya, I had a great time writing this last part.
Padme: Views people as, y'know, -people-.
Anakin: I am confusion!
Conversely, I'm not sure about the almost confrontation with Sidious. I feel like I could make it better, but I'm not quite sure how. We'll see the other side of it next time.
I'm planning an interlude chapter next to cover what Nyra, Qui Gon, Obi Wan, and Darth Sidious have been doing the past two years, and then diving into episode 1 in the chapter after that.
While some of y'all might want me to spend a lot of time on the Phantom Menace, I'm pretty much only going to focus on what happens differently, and breeze past everything else. Aside from the character interactions between SI Anakin and other people, and the plot differences and butterflies, we'll be going at a pretty fast pace.
Sorry if I end up skipping someone's favorite scene or character or something, but I feel like if you want to experience a scene unaltered just go watch the movie lol. You don't need me to write it out for you.
Also, while the force mutated fruit seem kinda strange, there are many precedents set for different herbs, plants, and substances greatly affecting one's perception/connection with the force, so I figured it wasn't too weird. I promise they are plot relevant, they are one of the first plot points I ever came up with for this story, and that was WAY before i learned about the cerveza cristal memes. The fact that it all worked out like that is a happy coincidence lol.
I'm excited for next time! See y'all then!
Ciao!
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Interlude
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Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
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A/N: Hi everyone! Got a pretty big question for you guys, but we'll talk about it at the end of the chapter. Here it is!
Interlude #1: a Mando and a Matukai
P.O.V. Nyra, only one month after her and Anakin's first meeting.
A lot had changed for Nyra in the past month. To be honest, she had been in a bit of a rut before coming to Tatooine. Back When she first started her Matukai training she been grateful for the routine, the simplicity of it. It had helped her shed the broken dreams and insecurities left after her departure from the Jedi, and gave her a much needed sense of stability.
But after graduating the basic training and becoming a full fledged member of the order, she felt… lost. While she had discovered through her meditation and training that her overlarge ambition and thirst for attention and accolades was one of the things holding her back, now that she had acknowledged and mostly overcome this flaw, she found herself on the opposite side of the spectrum. Without a driving goal, without a purpose.
The path of growth stretches ever longer to the horizon, and the tasks of life don't change no mater how enlightened you are, so she had accepted this feeling as her next trial and set out into the wider galaxy to gain greater understanding of herself and the universe, to push herself and her training to new heights of challenge and depths of understanding.
She had visited many different planets with harsh environments before Tatooine, braving many challenges and setbacks to deepen her connection to the force and herself.
And while her skills and resilience increased, she also felt like she wasn't really learning anything deeply new. Drifting aimlessly like a leaf in the wind from planet to planet with no goal and little money had only taken her so far.
And then came the day she met Anakin. That whole experience, the canyons, the cave, and the crystal, had restored some piece of herself she had long thought lost, and her subsequent meditation and writing of the Matukai training text had gifted her with new understanding.
The composing and recording of the different lessons, forms, and philosophies of the Matukai allowed her not only to gift her knowledge to another, but also to retrain herself in the basics from the ground up, which led to the fixing of many flaws, and the development of much greater progress. While she hadn't been able to meet with her student every day from sunrise 'til sunset like she would have preferred, they had been able to meet every few days for an hour or two, which had allowed Anakin to ask questions and gain clarification of concepts he didn't understand, which in turn forced her to contact her elders and do research to answer his question satisfactorily, and several times she found herself gaining new perspectives and insights on topics she had long assumed she had fully mastered.
And now, at the end of her sojourn here on this desert world, the datapad in her hand as she waited for Anakin to meet her and retrieve it's final version (reviewed and approved by the masters of the Matukai order, whose sincere praise and genuine excitement at her teaching a pupil had put a tear in her eye), she admitted she would miss this place. Not the people, no, certainly not, save Anakin and a few other individuals, the vast majority of the sentients here were the worst kind of scum. But she would always appreciate what she learned here.
What she hadn't realized until now, was that there can only be so much peace and joy that you can derive from helping and working on yourself only. To find true meaning, she also had to reach out and help others as well.
She now knew this about herself, and realized it was one of the reasons she wanted to be a Jedi so badly in her youth, to cruise about the galaxy helping people and being a source of positive change in the republic and beyond.
She found she quite liked being a teacher, and wanted to explore it far more than she was currently able to. She wished she could take Anakin as a full time pupil, to take him away from this world and Have him join the Matukai order, but she could feel in the force that his destiny was far greater than that, that his goals of joining the Jedi were far more than childish enamorment, but genuine foresight.
He needed to free himself, and as much as she grumbled to admit it, he needed to join the Jedi. Whether he would stay with them was anyone's guess, but she felt his path in the force, and knew that the Jedi order would be an integral part of that path, for good or for ill. She just hoped it would be the former.
She was drawn out of her musings by a familiar child sized figure in Jawa robes turning around the corner. Ha! 'Speak of the devil and he shall appear'. She smiled at the sight, and strolled over to him to give him the datapad and bid him goodbye.
Up on a rooftop a few blocks from the pair, an armored man in a helmet with a T shaped visor spied on their meeting through a pair of macrobinoculars. As he zoomed in on the two figures, he paid special attention to the Jawa, specifically the gun on its hip.
Tapping a few times on the screen of his vambrace, he pulled up a still frame on his hud from the helmet recording of his previous confrontation with the Jawa. Comparing the captured footage of the gun with the one he was currently seeing on the small being's hip, he was certain it was the same weapon. It couldn't even be argued that it was just a similar model, because it was very clearly a custom job built out of scrap.
Finally! He had the little fucker, and he'd make sure to get payback for being electrocuted like a nerf prodded by its herder!
Daring to stalk a little closer, he got within range of the macro's advanced microphone and listened in on their conversation.
"So when are you going to stop using that mind trick field and learn actual nimbleness and physical subtlety?" The woman asked, her voice a mix of smug teasing and genuine advice.
Mind trick?! Of course! That's why his osi'kovid of a partner hadn't seen or heard the little shebs'palon, it was a Taungdamned Jeti! And this woman must be it's master! He grit his teeth in hatred as his vision tunneled, and he quickly pushed back memories of sabers, explosives, and blood. Pushed back memories of betrayal, death, and cowardice. No! This is why he had fled here to the ass end of the galaxy! To get away from all this!
Now far more keyed up than a simple observation job should have made him, he ground his gritted teeth as his heart pounded in his ears. Curse them! He made up his mind then and there to kill the both of them.
As soon as the decision solidified in his mind, the woman tensed, her eyes glancing around for the source of the danger signal. Haar'chak! Had she sensed him already?!
She quickly ushered the Jawa on its way, bidding it goodbye, and the voice of a human child responded as farewells were exchanged. Not a Jawa then, but a child in disguise.
Before he could do anything with this discovery, the woman vanished in a blur of motion.
Frantically he adjusted his macros, trying to find where she had darted off to, and nearly jumped a foot in the air when he heard her voice from behind him, on the other side of the rooftop. He quickly rolled over from his stomach onto his back, his hand hovering by the blaster pistol on his right hip.
"That's quite a lot of malice to be throwing around mando, you should be careful who you challenge. You might bite off more than you can chew." She said with a stoic calm.
Not bothering to get up from his prone state he drew his blaster from its holster with speed faster than most sentients could even perceive, only for the woman to blur forward and kick the weapon from his hand before he could fire a single shot.
Embarrassingly enough, this stunned him.
Both the speed and accuracy of his hip fired quickdraw was noteworthy even among other mandalorians, and for her to move her entire body across the multiple meters that had existed between them, in less time than he could move just his hand 20 cm, wasn't something that he had considered possible.
She scoffed, breaking the tension. "Get up. I don't fancy fighting a downed opponent." She stepped back a few paces, waiting for him to get on his feet.
Slowly, carefully, the mandalorian got up, retrieved his pistol with shaking hands, and stood up in a ready stance.
The woman made no moves, simply observing and waiting.
He needed to make the first move. He had to!
His hands shook more. He stood still.
Come on! For years he'd hated the Jedi for what they'd done! This was his chance! To face his failure! To triumph against his cowardice! To prove that the mandalor's faith in him wasn't a painful fiction from the old days, but a inherent trait, a value he could access years after Fett's disappearance! He was a true mandalorian! He was!
His emotions swelling, he made to step forward, and the jeti woman drew her weapon, a long poleaxe, in response to his intent.
He stumbled back in fear.
A honest look of dumbfounded shock came to her face, before being replaced by a sneer of pure disdain. "Pathetic!" She spat, and turned her back to him, sheathing her poleaxe once again and began walking away, toward the edge of the rooftop.
Rage overcame his fear. "STOP!" He shouted, stepping forward. He didn't shoot while her back was turned, a small remanent of his past cringing at the dishonor such an act represented. But as soon as she turned, the very moment she had him and his weapon in her sights, he open fired.
He had pictured fighting a Jedi thousands of times over the years since that day, and knew that regular bolts would be reflected by a lightsaber with often lethal accuracy. Because of this, he used stunblasts. They had a wider spread and simply dispelled on contact with a lightsaber instead of being reflected, so they were by far the safer option. As soon as the Jeti was on the ground and unconscious, he'd send a proper blaster bolt through her skull.
The reality of the situation was quite different than what he pictured, as the woman he was fighting wasn't a Jedi, and didn't have a lightsaber.
Again taking out her flinthead axe, Nyra sliced through the stun rings with contemptuous ease, which highlighted the other downside of stun rings when compared to blaster bolts. They were significantly slower, and thus easier to block.
The mandalorian ground his teeth in frustration, which went unseen beneath his helmet. He was hoping some of the energy from the stun rings would have reached her, but the reach of her pole arm was far too long for any to pass the distance.
Seeing that she didn't have a lightsaber, he cursed himself for his assumption, she had been carrying the axe the whole time, but he had ignored it, too caught up in the past.
Firing off his vambrace flamethrower, they lost sight of each other as the massive plume of flame obscured their vision. Using this as both an attack and a distraction, he fired a stun ring through the flames, as well as a pair of knee darts many members of the True Mandalorians favored. An atmospheric barrier technique would work on the flames, but not on the ring or the darts. Jedi often had techniques that allowed them to block the burning gas of the flame thrower or the energy of a stun ring or the physical threat of the knee darts, but rarely all three simultaneously.
Furthermore, the danger sense a Jeti felt from the flame was apparently quite 'loud' to their senses, which effectively masked the danger of the stun ring and the darts.
After the plume of flame dissipated, an empty rooftop was all that met the Mandalorian's vision.
Wh-what? Where did she go?
A clicking tongue from behind had him wheeling around to find her standing behind him!
Activating his jet pack in a short burst to gain distance, he landed a good distance away, furious at her so obviously toying with him. How had she disappeared?! Had she teleported?!
"Cease your deception and illusion, Jeti sorcerer, and fight me directly!" He spat with the fury of his ancestors.
The woman scowled, angry at the accusation. He must have touched a nerve with that one.
"MANDALORIAN!" she shouted, her enhanced lungs projecting her voice at superhuman levels, which made him step back in shock, his helmet's dampeners registering it as a minor explosion. "Do not take me as some conjuror of cheap tricks! I am no Jedi!" she spun her poleaxe theatrically, it's movement so fast it looked like a singular blurry wheel, before slamming the butt of her weapon into the stone surface of the roof with a mighty CRACK.
Holding the shaft of the planted axe with one hand, she thrust out her other palm toward him in declaration. "When I made my way to this building, it is simply because I ran! When I reached this rooftop, it is simply because I Jumped! And when your attacks did not reach me, it is simply because I got out of the way! There is no illusion! There is no trickery! There is no teleportation or barriers or clouding of the mind! My combat is direct! My body refined! My will unyielding! My soul empowered! I am a Matukai!"
At this, her voice returned to its regular volume, but her tone was no less biting. "And if you continue your attack, I will crush you with direct combat, huttservant!"
Perhaps under other circumstances he would have found her actions and words overly dramatic, almost to the point of watching a holofilm or a play. And yet, there was a part of him long thought dead that cried out with religious fervor, reveling in her zeal and conviction the same way he reveled in the Mandalor's.
To hold honor above all else! To fight with purpose! To have ones very own blood pound and flow with fury and devotion!
Shining out through the cracks from under more than a decade of cowardice, depression, and self loathing, was a lust for life he had long thought impossible to feel again!
His blaster slipped from his hand, clattering on the ground. She raised an eyebrow in question.
"I will not move against you or your house for as long as I live, honored warrior." He said with an air of ritual. "Honored Matukai" he amended.
He raised his fists, and she blinked in confusion. "I challenge you, to a bout of honorable combat, with no weapons, to the death."
She scoffed, not believing his words for a second. "You want me to abandon my weapon? And why should I indulge you, who serves the hutts and enforces their slavery? I was under the impression that being the lesser to a Hutt was a great insult in your culture."
His fury burned for a moment in his chest, but it was quickly doused by a much greater portion of guilt and shame. Her words may have been harsh, but they rang with truth. "I-I had to survive somehow! If the damned Jeti hadn't helped the Deathwatch slaughter us true Mandalorians at Galidraan, none of this would be necessary! The hutts may give jobs and protection but I do not belong to them! I have never captured slaves or anything of the sort! I was only told that night to protect the hangar from thieves!"
Most of what he said went unheard, as Nyra focused on one thing he said. "You were at Galidraan?" She whispered, shocked, a look of pity on her face. "How did you survive?" She inquired.
"I… I…" he clenched his fists. "If I tell you, will you accept my challenge?"
"Perhaps. It certainly wouldn't hurt." She said calmly, implying much and promising little.
He sighed explosively through his teeth. "I ran." He stated. "When the fighting broke out, and the first Vode was bisected by a saber, I…" he gulped, forcing the words out. "I fled! My brothers and sisters needed me and I fled! The true mandalorians were slaughtered to a man and I couldn't do any more than save my own hide!" He paused to gather himself, not willing to let tears fall, even beneath his helmet. "When I heard alor Fett survived I scrubbed my armor of its symbols and headed for huttspace. I disappeared, hiding from my dishonor."
"You abandoned them." The woman said. It was like a lance to the heart, filling him with searing pain, but he gritted his teeth and bore it. It was true after all, he deserved her words and more.
"So you understand. Allow me an honorable death. Let me leave life as a warrior."
She scoffed. "I will not be the instrument of your suicide. We can fight, but it will be to surrender, not death."
His bowed head shot up, his fury emanating from his t shaped visor. "You would go against your promise?! You would deny me this final honor?!"
"First of all," she shot back, "I made no promise! I said 'perhaps'. That is not even close to a promise! Second of all, me beating you to death won't change what you did in the past, it won't fix your mistakes, and it certainly won't suddenly make you an honorable person!"
He flinched with every censure. She continued.
"Honor is not bestowed nor taken by another person. It is a cumulative quality that is dependent on the sum of your own actions! It can only be restored by your own conduct, and by nothing else! It is not how you die that matters, death is only a singular moment. What's truly important, is how you live."
He slumped, defeated, his arms falling by his sides.
"What are you doing?" She asked. "We have a fight to get to, don't we?"
He scowled beneath his helmet. "For what purpose? You will not kill me, and I cannot kill you."
"Because," she began, "I may not be a Jedi, but I do draw strength from the force. I just said honor is based on action right? So act! Reclaim your courage!" She took a fighting stance.
She was doing this… for him?
How was it, that all the treachery, the bowing, the scraping, the wallowing in his own misery and self hatred for all these years didn't sear half as painfully as this simple act of compassion?
He felt a near feral defensive rage, which made tears come to his eyes for the first time in years, feeling so deeply after years of emptiness was agonizing down to his soul. "Why…. How… Harchaak! Why are you doing this for me?! Why are you being so fucking kind?!"
She smiled. "This is my way." She responded.
The practiced response of 'this is the way' was halfway on his tongue before he realized what exactly she said. His eyes, widened. It was that simple? Just because she felt like it? That… that was impossible! But he saw no deception in her eyes. Unbidden, blurry memories of Jaster Mereel and much clearer ones of Jango Fett rushed forward from his past, the zeal that they inspired, the compassion they treated their clan with, and the brutal fierceness they showed when defending their own. He had given up feeling like that about anyone ever again.
And here he was now, the painful heart of his emotion newly thundering in his chest, reminding him of the lifestyle of loyalty, honor, and hope he thought he'd never capture again. She was so so different from the Mandalore in almost every way, but at the same time, in this moment, she didn't seem all that different them after all. This is her way eh? Well then… perhaps it was a way worth following.
He took a fighting stance. She smiled, and waited for him to make the first move against her.
Staying nimble on the balls of his feet, he dashed toward her without breaking his posture, and the very instant he was in range, he threw a blisteringly fast jab, flickering through the air faster than a baseline human could ever perceive.
Compared to her, it might as well have been moving through jogan syrup.
Slipping outside his left jab, she sent a left handed palm strike to his chest plate, sending him hurtling back through the air with a loud gonging noise, a shallow hand shaped dent in his impure armor.
He trembled in fear. This speed! This precision! It was just like back then! And the strength?! If it hadn't been for his chest plate, his ribs would have been pulverized and his chest caved in! It was like being hit by an angry gundark! Fear pounded in his veins as he struggled to regain his breath. This wasn't some friendly match! She may not be aiming to kill, she would have struck his unarmored throat if she was, but she certainly wasn't holding back her power either! He should surrender! There was no way of winning!
Looking up at her face, it was perfectly serene, without a hint of urging one way or the other. She was simply waiting, the very picture of patience. She was leaving the decision to him. He could surrender. It would be easy! She wouldn't pursue him, there would be no consequences to giving up!
He stood back up and retook his stance.
She smiled
He rushed back in.
He didn't know how long the fight lasted. He started getting used to her speed, utilizing his armor to get away with glancing blows, every one of her hits leaving a dent.
There was something terrifying about the way she moved, like she had both an apex predator's innate instinct mixed with the most ancient and pious monks practice. Her style of fighting went beyond martial arts, every new strike he sent was met with a perfect counter as if she had seen him do it 1000 times. It was if she had attained understanding of the flow of movement and combat beyond the levels of standardization and human teaching. There were no flourishes, no telegraphing, not a single hint of unnecessary movement.
Each of her strikes pounded into his armor, flesh, and soul like an armorer beating the impurities out of an ingot.
And every time he went down even for a second she showed him that perfect poker face, with no hint of recrimination or distain. Allowing him a way out, allowing him the choice to flee.
And every time he got back up, her smile returned brighter than before, and his mandalorian blood pounded in his ears.
The rust was shaken off, his instincts reawakening as he moved faster, better, and more skilled as his body sung with the blood of the Mandalorian crusaders of old, Millennia of war flowing down through his ancestors and into his very being, Every time he rose up from defeat he lasted longer, his potential drawn out with every round.
She never slowed, never even breathed hard.
But she was starting to sweat, and she had a slight hint of a flush of exertion.
She was as strong as a gundark, as graceful as a nexu, and as wiley as the most cunning fighters of Mandalore.
She was terrifying and cunning and brutal and unyielding. A tester of limits. A bringer of pain. And then he realized. She wasn't an enemy, or a trickster, or even a Jedi.
She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his entire fucking life.
Apparently yielding to the limits of mortality, the Mandalorian crashed to his knees. He visibly tried to rise, but his muscles simply had no more to give.
Nyra breathed regularly and steadily, regaining her stamina. She was honestly shocked at the level of combat this mando had achieved without out even a whiff of force usage. She was confident he would absolutely destroy every baseline human he ever came across in a straight fight, old bloodline Mandalorians were just that terrifying. Whether the rumors of neocrusader gene therapy were true, or if natural selection had just done its job spectacularly well over multiple millennia of unending war, the mandalorians and the surrounding systems that descended from them were a people that broke the limits on what was considered possible for humanity.
A rasping came from the tinhead's bucket, and she couldn't quite make out the words.
"What was that?" She asked.
Reaching up shakily, he removed his helmet, which went clattering to the floor.
"Teach… me…" he rasped between large shaking breaths. "Please…" he finished.
She stared at him, shocked, but not just because of his question.
When she had learned he'd fought at the battle of Galidraan, she had assumed he was in his late 30s or early 40s. She had expected a face worn by several decades of hard living, maybe with crows feet or perhaps some graying temples. What she saw was a man her age, several years away from 30, with flowing blonde locks, minty green eyes and a strong scruffy jawline. A light scar ran through one eyebrow, and his nose was ever so slightly crooked, as if it had been broken and reset at least once, but not nearly jarringly crooked enough to be to detract from his looks, even giving his face a roguish vibe, which Nyra found only enhanced his appearance. However, despite her awareness of his good looks in the back of her mind, something else took center stage.
"How… how old are you?" She asked, hoping she was wrong. Perhaps mandalorians aged more gracefully than she thought?
Puzzled, but far too tired to be contrary, he answered her truthfully between gasps of air. "I'm… 25… standard" he breathed out.
"The battle of Galidraan was 11 years ago…" Nyra whispered in response, horrified at the implications. "You were only fourteen! In an active warzo—"
He interrupted her, defensive, "I had passed my verd'goten! I was a man!"
"You were a CHILD!" She shot back, not missing a beat. "Even Jedi padawans have to be at least 18 before they are sent to fight in a confirmed war zone! And even then they have the force on their side!"
"And I had my vode!" He finished mulishly, making fierce eye contact as if daring her to contradict him. She wanted to lash back, to point out if they were comfortable sending a non force sensitive 14 year old to his likely death, or to possibly be captured by an enemy and tortured for information, than maybe they weren't so great after all. But before she could get the words out, he slumped again, defeated.
"And I betrayed them." He finished. Downtrodden.
She sighed. "Do you… really want me to teach you? You know I use the force right?"
His head shot back up, looking up at her with hope shining in his eyes. "Yes! I do! Please! I don't need to learn any Jeti trickery, I just wish do learn your ways of combat! To transcend my limits as you have! I beg of you!"
There was something about that look of pleading and hope that strangely enough reminded her of the adorable golden furred fetch hounds that were popular on Alderaan, and she looked away, a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Hold on! I-I'll check to see if you can learn! Just… close your eyes and concentrate" She redirected, a bit flustered.
He did as she asked, and she connected with his force signature, placing her hands on either side of his head.
He hadn't used the force at all during combat, which was telling. Anyone with any kind of talent in the force wouldn't be capable of at least receiving some guidance, but that didn't necessarily mean he was completely force blind. Just… very untalented.
Subtly, she extended a tendril of energy toward his mind, brushing against his consciousness.
His breath hitched slightly, and she could feel his surprise and confusion.
She withdrew. Not feeling her hands on the sides of his head anymore, he opened his eyes. "Was that… you?" He asked.
"Yes." She answered. "Okay so, good news and bad news. Good news is, you aren't totally force blind, which means I can technically teach you."
At this he perked up a bit, but was still ready for the other shoe to drop. "And the bad news?"
She sighed. "Bad news is you are incredibly untalented in the force. You would have never in a million years gotten picked up by the Jedi, and if your M-count is even a single point over 4000 per cell, I'll incinerate all my winter clothes and permanently move to Hoth.
"It will be extremely difficult for you to make it even to the beginning stages of training a force sensitive. I don't even know if it will be possible to get you to the starting line."
He steeled his expression, his face the very picture of determination. "I'm no stranger to hard work" he declared.
"Heh! Good! Let's get you up, we'll get your things ready to move. Do you have a ship?"
He shook his head no as he struggled onto his feet. "Sold it when I got here. Been using the hutts transportation since."
"Then we'll use mine." She said.
"We are leaving?" He asked
"Yes." She declared, "My time on Tatooine is at an end. I had initially intended to return to my order, but I sense that the force is calling elsewhere."
He rolled his eyes and put on his helmet. "If you say so. I'll get my affairs on this planet in order."
She paused, contemplative. Without his helmet on he was simply a regular (admittedly very handsome) guy her age. But when he put back on his helmet all she was met with was the cold calculating gaze of a T shaped visor. Even his voice now had regained the deadly metallic edge of the vocoder, and his entire bearing screamed 'hyper lethal'.
She briefly wondered if she was making a mistake with his training, before dismissing the thought. Any character defects he had would either be worked through during training, or cause them to part ways before he made measurable progress. Either way, he wasn't force sensitive enough to be easily corrupted by the dark side, or pose an unbeatable threat with any minor powers he might gain.
It was funny, Her first ever student, Anakin, was most likely the most talented force sensitive she had ever seen bar none, and her second student would be barely be Force sensitive at all. Funny how things work out.
"Where will we be going?" He asked.
"Hmmmmmm…" she pondered. No planet immediately sprung to mind, but she could tell that she was being called somewhere. "I am unsure. I will need to meditate on this to gain more clarity on our path. For now, I'll settle on making it to a nearby maintenance station that'll safely put us up for a few days."
The Mandalorian nodded. He supposed he would have to get used to a force user utilizing her gift for navigation if he was to properly follow her. "What is your name?" He asked.
She laughed. Had she really forgotten to introduce herself? "Nyra. My name is Nyra."
He nodded. "Aran." He shared. "Aran… Naasade" he clarified, seeming to come to a decision.
Nyra nodded. "Well, Aran Naasade, I suggest you prepare yourself. The journey to enlightenment is never easy, and if you thought you attracted trouble as a Mandalorian, you're in for a whole new level of action as a force sensitive."
"Hn." He grunted. "I welcome the challenge." Superstition only let him believe so much. In his experience, the big kind of planetary trouble usually only came to those who actively looked for it. How bad could it really be? It wasn't like they were living in the old glory days of Mandalore, with a galaxy spanning conflict every few decades. Things were boring and peaceful, and with the Sith extinct, Deathwatch defeated, and Mandalore ruled by a fucking pacifist, the galaxy was sleepy and boring, and would most likely stay that way long after he died of old age. Really, under the circumstances, how much trouble could he possibly get sucked into?
End of interlude 1
Interlude 2: A Sith and a Feeling
Darth Sidious, by day known as Sheev Palpatine, was deep in meditation.
The Sith apprentice, Hopefully soon to be Sith Master, had always had a gift for peering into the future. This ability was prized by his Master, Darth Plagueis, who's own foresight had been damaged in a confrontation with his own master years ago.
The Sith had used foresight over the last millennia to great effect, allowing them to avoid detection from the Jedi and weaken the republic from within. Because of this, they were able to not only utilize cunning, but also to practically weaponize luck itself, as they could always be in just the right place at just the right time. Because of this, times where they were caught off guard were far and few between, and they almost never faced an unknown threat they hadn't already studied and made plans for.
Between this, and the veil of the dark side the line of Bane had created which prevented all but the most talented of Jedi seers from using the same ability, the future was the domain of the Sith, with no one else able to intrude with any effectiveness or clarity.
Or at least, that's what he had assumed, until a few weeks ago.
It had started with a feeling. Like there was a single consciousness split into tiny bright fragments, dancing through vastly different points in time like glitter on the wind. He had tried to follow one of these pitifully bright fragments to its source, but was only led to strange random points in time, completely unrelated to one another and far too minuscule to trace back to a single user.
This strange phenomenon had Sidious stumped. He found it hard to believe that a single person would be responsible for all the fragments scattered through time and space, but they all had the same force signature! Could it be a hive minded swarm of force sensitive insects that grasped clairvoyance before gaining sentience? Certainly it couldn't be a single person, that wasn't the way people minds naturally received visions, so it couldn't be a technique a single being learned! Perhaps some kind of unique herb or unheard of arcane ritual?
Over the next month or so, whenever he had time to meditate, Sidious observed the fragments. While he could tell that they were perceiving the future, he couldn't actually sense what they were seeing, just that they were in the process of seeing a vision, and the level of skill by which they did so.
They didn't always appear, but when they did, they were closer and more centered every time, until he was even able to pick up brief glimpses through them, though they were still too warped and prismatic to make heads or tails of, like looking through the viewfinder of a Kaleidoscope.
Sometimes the fragments would even solidify into what must have been one singular vision, but it was always too far in the future for him to chase after with any clarity, and the individuals presence was too strangely obscured for him to view for himself whatever it was they were seeing.
It was bizarre! Seeing the future had limits, the most important of which were focus and specificity. Without focusing on what you wanted to see, with little knowledge of what you might find, it was almost impossible to pin down a related future that would give useful information.
Simply meditating on 'how do I win?' Was an incredibly vague and therefore weak and ineffective method of seeing the future, where as 'what are the direct ramifications of this specific plan I have in place, if I were to implement it by the end of this week, which I am able and willing to do, as I have all the methods and people already in place' would pierce into future far more accurately and reliably.
It was imperative that one narrow the field if they wanted usable visions that didn't require expending large amounts of power and effort.
So the only way to see that far into the future with any clarity, especially for someone that wasn't Sidious and was therefore much less powerful by definition, would be to know exactly the events they wanted to witness before they had actually seen them, which was ridiculous!
And, this narrowing of field made an actual sensory difference in how he perceived their temporal probe, making it feel sharper and more durable in the force, so he could tell without a shadow of a doubt that that is what this new player was doing, he just for the life of him couldn't fathom how it was possible.
If you already knew exactly what you were going to see, then why in all the nine Correlian hells did you even need to view it in a vision in the first place? You already knew what would happen!
Furthermore, if this seer did already know such incredibly detailed and specific information of a single distant future possibility, than how in the flying fuck did they know about the event at all, if they hadn't seen it in a vision first?!
It was a circular paradox! They couldn't have seen a vision that far into the future without knowing what exactly they were looking for, and they couldn't have known exactly what they were looking for if they hadn't seen it in a vision! It was frustrating in the extreme!
A raspy voice filtered by an electronic vocoder interrupted "You are ruminating on our temporal intruder again."
Sidious did not jump, he was too well trained for that, but a jolt of surprise flared behind his shields, as he had not detected his master entering the room. He slowly opened his eyes, the very picture of calm. "Temporal intruder?" He questioned.
"Yes." His master replied, his eyes bright with fascination, which irritated Sidious. This was a setback, a potential threat and his master only viewed it with scientific curiosity, rather that the anger and contempt such an anomaly deserved. Smirking at his Apprentice' irritation, Plagueis continued. "I meditated on what you have previously told me, and this is my main theory. Our intruder is able to pierce into the future with such effectiveness because they personally witnessed the events firsthand. They are a time traveler."
Sidious blinked in shock, wondering if he was being mocked. "Really master? Time travel?"
Plagueis nodded seriously. "I always consider time travel as a possibility. My master did a great deal of study on the subject, and though he never was able to work out the technique itself, the alchemical formulas always resolved themselves as possible within the force. Furthermore, there are ancient references of an inter-time nexus known as the 'world between worlds' in the most ancient holocrons and records of force users, which are consistent between several cultures with no contact with each other. Just because we don't currently know how it can be done, does not mean it is impossible.
Sidious curled his lip in distain. "You are implying that there is a force user with more advanced knowledge of temporal matters than us?! Impossible! I would have sensed them!"
His master quirked an eyebrow. "You are sensing them currently. You are always so quick to assume your own superiority apprentice, and are thus caught off guard when it is challenged. It is your most dangerous flaw. You would rather continue in vain overconfidence rather than use this challenge as an opportunity for growth. Being faced with a phenomenon we do not understand simply means there is an opportunity to gain knowledge we did not previously have. You should relish the opportunity for study, for experimentation." The manic glee in his eyes increased at the final word, showing his excitement at their current situation.
Sidious' hatred burned behind his impeccable shielding. His master was always like this! Always so meandering, so methodical. If Plagueis remained the master of the Sith, the Grand Plan would likely take another century to complete! Risks must be taken. Plans must be progressed. And though his master was incredibly powerful, In Sidious' opinion Plagueis was a scientist first and a Sith Lord second, which was an unacceptable quality for the any emperor of the galaxy to have. 'Soon,'. He thought, 'The time of your death has nearly arrived my master, and oh it shall be exquisite! And then we will see who is overconfident! We will see who the real master is!'
"Yes, my master." Was all that escaped his lips.
Plagueis hummed at this, knowing his apprentice was fuming at the lecture, but there was no slip in his shields. Good. Any slip up in mental defense could alert the Jedi to their presence. He stood, and was about to leave when they both felt the veil of the dark side ripple. Someone was attempting to penetrate it! If they succeeded, it was possible, however unlikely, that they would be discovered, that this new interloper would find a weakness and exploit it. "Find them!" He commanded his apprentice.
Sidious was quick to comply. Scanning quickly, he immediately sensed the strange fractal presence from earlier, but instead of using its extremely refined specificity to reach into a possible distant future, it was reaching through the veil into the very near future! They could not allow anyone to possess knowledge of the grand plan that wasn't under their absolute control! Projecting his power toward the hated prismatic irritant, Sidious immediately attempted to trace it to its origin!
It was not to be however. With a jolt of fear the presence disappeared completely, leaving only a single glimpse of a sandy colored duracrete wall before being lost.
Sidious snarled in rage at the failure! Beige duracrete?! That could be literally anywhere in the entire thrice damned Galaxy! And because of whatever method they were using to to achieve that strange fractal state, for the short period of time that he was able to sense them, they appeared to be all over the galaxy while also being nowhere at the same time! Lighting crackled around Sidious' fingers as he relayed this to his master.
"Fascinating!" Was the Muun's only response.
Sidious wanted to loose his power at his Plagueis right then and there, but from the knowing gaze of his master, it would not go uncontested. A twinge of fear traveled down his spine. He scoffed, and turned away. Plagueis smirked beneath his breath mask, and left the room.
'Soon,' Sidious promised himself. 'Soon.'
End of interlude #2
A/N: Hey guys! Been a while, but I'm back! I originally planned for three interludes to this chapter, but the one about what's happened on Ryloth since Alask, Obi Wan, and Qui Gon showed up was feeling super rushed and unsatisfying. I honestly think I have enough for a multi chapter story, and actually have it be amazing to read through with twists and turns, good characterization, and awesome scenes and training, and I'm feeling super unsatisfied with just chopping it all down into a quick and dirty summary.
However, I also really want to get into the phantom menace and finally get the 'Jedi Order' section of the story underway, which I consider the meat of what I have planned.
So this is the question is for you guys. Do you want me to publish the Ryloth chapters (hopefully only 2 or maybe 3) next and then after go on with the phantom menace and our SI?
Or should I work on it as a side story and get to publishing the phantom menace with only vague spoiler free references to what happened on Ryloth, and get to the phantom menace right away? I'm not sure what I want to do, because I said we'd get to the phantom menace soon and the Ryloth arc wouldn't have SI Anakin in it at all, but is relevant to the greater story later on.
Alternatively, I could break the arc into parts, which only the beginning stages of the conflict happening before TPM, and the next most juicy parts happening after, but I don't want to shuffle characters around as I really like Qui Gon being there for many of the scenes, and splitting it in half like that would break the momentum of the story. But even with all that, I can still have most of what I have planned happened anyway, just with a few tweaks. Idk
What do y'all think? Also, how did you like the chapter lol? Reviews fuel me!
Ciao!
Interlude #1: a Mando and a Matukai
P.O.V. Nyra, only one month after her and Anakin's first meeting.
A lot had changed for Nyra in the past month. To be honest, she had been in a bit of a rut before coming to Tatooine. Back When she first started her Matukai training she been grateful for the routine, the simplicity of it. It had helped her shed the broken dreams and insecurities left after her departure from the Jedi, and gave her a much needed sense of stability.
But after graduating the basic training and becoming a full fledged member of the order, she felt… lost. While she had discovered through her meditation and training that her overlarge ambition and thirst for attention and accolades was one of the things holding her back, now that she had acknowledged and mostly overcome this flaw, she found herself on the opposite side of the spectrum. Without a driving goal, without a purpose.
The path of growth stretches ever longer to the horizon, and the tasks of life don't change no mater how enlightened you are, so she had accepted this feeling as her next trial and set out into the wider galaxy to gain greater understanding of herself and the universe, to push herself and her training to new heights of challenge and depths of understanding.
She had visited many different planets with harsh environments before Tatooine, braving many challenges and setbacks to deepen her connection to the force and herself.
And while her skills and resilience increased, she also felt like she wasn't really learning anything deeply new. Drifting aimlessly like a leaf in the wind from planet to planet with no goal and little money had only taken her so far.
And then came the day she met Anakin. That whole experience, the canyons, the cave, and the crystal, had restored some piece of herself she had long thought lost, and her subsequent meditation and writing of the Matukai training text had gifted her with new understanding.
The composing and recording of the different lessons, forms, and philosophies of the Matukai allowed her not only to gift her knowledge to another, but also to retrain herself in the basics from the ground up, which led to the fixing of many flaws, and the development of much greater progress. While she hadn't been able to meet with her student every day from sunrise 'til sunset like she would have preferred, they had been able to meet every few days for an hour or two, which had allowed Anakin to ask questions and gain clarification of concepts he didn't understand, which in turn forced her to contact her elders and do research to answer his question satisfactorily, and several times she found herself gaining new perspectives and insights on topics she had long assumed she had fully mastered.
And now, at the end of her sojourn here on this desert world, the datapad in her hand as she waited for Anakin to meet her and retrieve it's final version (reviewed and approved by the masters of the Matukai order, whose sincere praise and genuine excitement at her teaching a pupil had put a tear in her eye), she admitted she would miss this place. Not the people, no, certainly not, save Anakin and a few other individuals, the vast majority of the sentients here were the worst kind of scum. But she would always appreciate what she learned here.
What she hadn't realized until now, was that there can only be so much peace and joy that you can derive from helping and working on yourself only. To find true meaning, she also had to reach out and help others as well.
She now knew this about herself, and realized it was one of the reasons she wanted to be a Jedi so badly in her youth, to cruise about the galaxy helping people and being a source of positive change in the republic and beyond.
She found she quite liked being a teacher, and wanted to explore it far more than she was currently able to. She wished she could take Anakin as a full time pupil, to take him away from this world and Have him join the Matukai order, but she could feel in the force that his destiny was far greater than that, that his goals of joining the Jedi were far more than childish enamorment, but genuine foresight.
He needed to free himself, and as much as she grumbled to admit it, he needed to join the Jedi. Whether he would stay with them was anyone's guess, but she felt his path in the force, and knew that the Jedi order would be an integral part of that path, for good or for ill. She just hoped it would be the former.
She was drawn out of her musings by a familiar child sized figure in Jawa robes turning around the corner. Ha! 'Speak of the devil and he shall appear'. She smiled at the sight, and strolled over to him to give him the datapad and bid him goodbye.
Up on a rooftop a few blocks from the pair, an armored man in a helmet with a T shaped visor spied on their meeting through a pair of macrobinoculars. As he zoomed in on the two figures, he paid special attention to the Jawa, specifically the gun on its hip.
Tapping a few times on the screen of his vambrace, he pulled up a still frame on his hud from the helmet recording of his previous confrontation with the Jawa. Comparing the captured footage of the gun with the one he was currently seeing on the small being's hip, he was certain it was the same weapon. It couldn't even be argued that it was just a similar model, because it was very clearly a custom job built out of scrap.
Finally! He had the little fucker, and he'd make sure to get payback for being electrocuted like a nerf prodded by its herder!
Daring to stalk a little closer, he got within range of the macro's advanced microphone and listened in on their conversation.
"So when are you going to stop using that mind trick field and learn actual nimbleness and physical subtlety?" The woman asked, her voice a mix of smug teasing and genuine advice.
Mind trick?! Of course! That's why his osi'kovid of a partner hadn't seen or heard the little shebs'palon, it was a Taungdamned Jeti! And this woman must be it's master! He grit his teeth in hatred as his vision tunneled, and he quickly pushed back memories of sabers, explosives, and blood. Pushed back memories of betrayal, death, and cowardice. No! This is why he had fled here to the ass end of the galaxy! To get away from all this!
Now far more keyed up than a simple observation job should have made him, he ground his gritted teeth as his heart pounded in his ears. Curse them! He made up his mind then and there to kill the both of them.
As soon as the decision solidified in his mind, the woman tensed, her eyes glancing around for the source of the danger signal. Haar'chak! Had she sensed him already?!
She quickly ushered the Jawa on its way, bidding it goodbye, and the voice of a human child responded as farewells were exchanged. Not a Jawa then, but a child in disguise.
Before he could do anything with this discovery, the woman vanished in a blur of motion.
Frantically he adjusted his macros, trying to find where she had darted off to, and nearly jumped a foot in the air when he heard her voice from behind him, on the other side of the rooftop. He quickly rolled over from his stomach onto his back, his hand hovering by the blaster pistol on his right hip.
"That's quite a lot of malice to be throwing around mando, you should be careful who you challenge. You might bite off more than you can chew." She said with a stoic calm.
Not bothering to get up from his prone state he drew his blaster from its holster with speed faster than most sentients could even perceive, only for the woman to blur forward and kick the weapon from his hand before he could fire a single shot.
Embarrassingly enough, this stunned him.
Both the speed and accuracy of his hip fired quickdraw was noteworthy even among other mandalorians, and for her to move her entire body across the multiple meters that had existed between them, in less time than he could move just his hand 20 cm, wasn't something that he had considered possible.
She scoffed, breaking the tension. "Get up. I don't fancy fighting a downed opponent." She stepped back a few paces, waiting for him to get on his feet.
Slowly, carefully, the mandalorian got up, retrieved his pistol with shaking hands, and stood up in a ready stance.
The woman made no moves, simply observing and waiting.
He needed to make the first move. He had to!
His hands shook more. He stood still.
Come on! For years he'd hated the Jedi for what they'd done! This was his chance! To face his failure! To triumph against his cowardice! To prove that the mandalor's faith in him wasn't a painful fiction from the old days, but a inherent trait, a value he could access years after Fett's disappearance! He was a true mandalorian! He was!
His emotions swelling, he made to step forward, and the jeti woman drew her weapon, a long poleaxe, in response to his intent.
He stumbled back in fear.
A honest look of dumbfounded shock came to her face, before being replaced by a sneer of pure disdain. "Pathetic!" She spat, and turned her back to him, sheathing her poleaxe once again and began walking away, toward the edge of the rooftop.
Rage overcame his fear. "STOP!" He shouted, stepping forward. He didn't shoot while her back was turned, a small remanent of his past cringing at the dishonor such an act represented. But as soon as she turned, the very moment she had him and his weapon in her sights, he open fired.
He had pictured fighting a Jedi thousands of times over the years since that day, and knew that regular bolts would be reflected by a lightsaber with often lethal accuracy. Because of this, he used stunblasts. They had a wider spread and simply dispelled on contact with a lightsaber instead of being reflected, so they were by far the safer option. As soon as the Jeti was on the ground and unconscious, he'd send a proper blaster bolt through her skull.
The reality of the situation was quite different than what he pictured, as the woman he was fighting wasn't a Jedi, and didn't have a lightsaber.
Again taking out her flinthead axe, Nyra sliced through the stun rings with contemptuous ease, which highlighted the other downside of stun rings when compared to blaster bolts. They were significantly slower, and thus easier to block.
The mandalorian ground his teeth in frustration, which went unseen beneath his helmet. He was hoping some of the energy from the stun rings would have reached her, but the reach of her pole arm was far too long for any to pass the distance.
Seeing that she didn't have a lightsaber, he cursed himself for his assumption, she had been carrying the axe the whole time, but he had ignored it, too caught up in the past.
Firing off his vambrace flamethrower, they lost sight of each other as the massive plume of flame obscured their vision. Using this as both an attack and a distraction, he fired a stun ring through the flames, as well as a pair of knee darts many members of the True Mandalorians favored. An atmospheric barrier technique would work on the flames, but not on the ring or the darts. Jedi often had techniques that allowed them to block the burning gas of the flame thrower or the energy of a stun ring or the physical threat of the knee darts, but rarely all three simultaneously.
Furthermore, the danger sense a Jeti felt from the flame was apparently quite 'loud' to their senses, which effectively masked the danger of the stun ring and the darts.
After the plume of flame dissipated, an empty rooftop was all that met the Mandalorian's vision.
Wh-what? Where did she go?
A clicking tongue from behind had him wheeling around to find her standing behind him!
Activating his jet pack in a short burst to gain distance, he landed a good distance away, furious at her so obviously toying with him. How had she disappeared?! Had she teleported?!
"Cease your deception and illusion, Jeti sorcerer, and fight me directly!" He spat with the fury of his ancestors.
The woman scowled, angry at the accusation. He must have touched a nerve with that one.
"MANDALORIAN!" she shouted, her enhanced lungs projecting her voice at superhuman levels, which made him step back in shock, his helmet's dampeners registering it as a minor explosion. "Do not take me as some conjuror of cheap tricks! I am no Jedi!" she spun her poleaxe theatrically, it's movement so fast it looked like a singular blurry wheel, before slamming the butt of her weapon into the stone surface of the roof with a mighty CRACK.
Holding the shaft of the planted axe with one hand, she thrust out her other palm toward him in declaration. "When I made my way to this building, it is simply because I ran! When I reached this rooftop, it is simply because I Jumped! And when your attacks did not reach me, it is simply because I got out of the way! There is no illusion! There is no trickery! There is no teleportation or barriers or clouding of the mind! My combat is direct! My body refined! My will unyielding! My soul empowered! I am a Matukai!"
At this, her voice returned to its regular volume, but her tone was no less biting. "And if you continue your attack, I will crush you with direct combat, huttservant!"
Perhaps under other circumstances he would have found her actions and words overly dramatic, almost to the point of watching a holofilm or a play. And yet, there was a part of him long thought dead that cried out with religious fervor, reveling in her zeal and conviction the same way he reveled in the Mandalor's.
To hold honor above all else! To fight with purpose! To have ones very own blood pound and flow with fury and devotion!
Shining out through the cracks from under more than a decade of cowardice, depression, and self loathing, was a lust for life he had long thought impossible to feel again!
His blaster slipped from his hand, clattering on the ground. She raised an eyebrow in question.
"I will not move against you or your house for as long as I live, honored warrior." He said with an air of ritual. "Honored Matukai" he amended.
He raised his fists, and she blinked in confusion. "I challenge you, to a bout of honorable combat, with no weapons, to the death."
She scoffed, not believing his words for a second. "You want me to abandon my weapon? And why should I indulge you, who serves the hutts and enforces their slavery? I was under the impression that being the lesser to a Hutt was a great insult in your culture."
His fury burned for a moment in his chest, but it was quickly doused by a much greater portion of guilt and shame. Her words may have been harsh, but they rang with truth. "I-I had to survive somehow! If the damned Jeti hadn't helped the Deathwatch slaughter us true Mandalorians at Galidraan, none of this would be necessary! The hutts may give jobs and protection but I do not belong to them! I have never captured slaves or anything of the sort! I was only told that night to protect the hangar from thieves!"
Most of what he said went unheard, as Nyra focused on one thing he said. "You were at Galidraan?" She whispered, shocked, a look of pity on her face. "How did you survive?" She inquired.
"I… I…" he clenched his fists. "If I tell you, will you accept my challenge?"
"Perhaps. It certainly wouldn't hurt." She said calmly, implying much and promising little.
He sighed explosively through his teeth. "I ran." He stated. "When the fighting broke out, and the first Vode was bisected by a saber, I…" he gulped, forcing the words out. "I fled! My brothers and sisters needed me and I fled! The true mandalorians were slaughtered to a man and I couldn't do any more than save my own hide!" He paused to gather himself, not willing to let tears fall, even beneath his helmet. "When I heard alor Fett survived I scrubbed my armor of its symbols and headed for huttspace. I disappeared, hiding from my dishonor."
"You abandoned them." The woman said. It was like a lance to the heart, filling him with searing pain, but he gritted his teeth and bore it. It was true after all, he deserved her words and more.
"So you understand. Allow me an honorable death. Let me leave life as a warrior."
She scoffed. "I will not be the instrument of your suicide. We can fight, but it will be to surrender, not death."
His bowed head shot up, his fury emanating from his t shaped visor. "You would go against your promise?! You would deny me this final honor?!"
"First of all," she shot back, "I made no promise! I said 'perhaps'. That is not even close to a promise! Second of all, me beating you to death won't change what you did in the past, it won't fix your mistakes, and it certainly won't suddenly make you an honorable person!"
He flinched with every censure. She continued.
"Honor is not bestowed nor taken by another person. It is a cumulative quality that is dependent on the sum of your own actions! It can only be restored by your own conduct, and by nothing else! It is not how you die that matters, death is only a singular moment. What's truly important, is how you live."
He slumped, defeated, his arms falling by his sides.
"What are you doing?" She asked. "We have a fight to get to, don't we?"
He scowled beneath his helmet. "For what purpose? You will not kill me, and I cannot kill you."
"Because," she began, "I may not be a Jedi, but I do draw strength from the force. I just said honor is based on action right? So act! Reclaim your courage!" She took a fighting stance.
She was doing this… for him?
How was it, that all the treachery, the bowing, the scraping, the wallowing in his own misery and self hatred for all these years didn't sear half as painfully as this simple act of compassion?
He felt a near feral defensive rage, which made tears come to his eyes for the first time in years, feeling so deeply after years of emptiness was agonizing down to his soul. "Why…. How… Harchaak! Why are you doing this for me?! Why are you being so fucking kind?!"
She smiled. "This is my way." She responded.
The practiced response of 'this is the way' was halfway on his tongue before he realized what exactly she said. His eyes, widened. It was that simple? Just because she felt like it? That… that was impossible! But he saw no deception in her eyes. Unbidden, blurry memories of Jaster Mereel and much clearer ones of Jango Fett rushed forward from his past, the zeal that they inspired, the compassion they treated their clan with, and the brutal fierceness they showed when defending their own. He had given up feeling like that about anyone ever again.
And here he was now, the painful heart of his emotion newly thundering in his chest, reminding him of the lifestyle of loyalty, honor, and hope he thought he'd never capture again. She was so so different from the Mandalore in almost every way, but at the same time, in this moment, she didn't seem all that different them after all. This is her way eh? Well then… perhaps it was a way worth following.
He took a fighting stance. She smiled, and waited for him to make the first move against her.
Staying nimble on the balls of his feet, he dashed toward her without breaking his posture, and the very instant he was in range, he threw a blisteringly fast jab, flickering through the air faster than a baseline human could ever perceive.
Compared to her, it might as well have been moving through jogan syrup.
Slipping outside his left jab, she sent a left handed palm strike to his chest plate, sending him hurtling back through the air with a loud gonging noise, a shallow hand shaped dent in his impure armor.
He trembled in fear. This speed! This precision! It was just like back then! And the strength?! If it hadn't been for his chest plate, his ribs would have been pulverized and his chest caved in! It was like being hit by an angry gundark! Fear pounded in his veins as he struggled to regain his breath. This wasn't some friendly match! She may not be aiming to kill, she would have struck his unarmored throat if she was, but she certainly wasn't holding back her power either! He should surrender! There was no way of winning!
Looking up at her face, it was perfectly serene, without a hint of urging one way or the other. She was simply waiting, the very picture of patience. She was leaving the decision to him. He could surrender. It would be easy! She wouldn't pursue him, there would be no consequences to giving up!
He stood back up and retook his stance.
She smiled
He rushed back in.
He didn't know how long the fight lasted. He started getting used to her speed, utilizing his armor to get away with glancing blows, every one of her hits leaving a dent.
There was something terrifying about the way she moved, like she had both an apex predator's innate instinct mixed with the most ancient and pious monks practice. Her style of fighting went beyond martial arts, every new strike he sent was met with a perfect counter as if she had seen him do it 1000 times. It was if she had attained understanding of the flow of movement and combat beyond the levels of standardization and human teaching. There were no flourishes, no telegraphing, not a single hint of unnecessary movement.
Each of her strikes pounded into his armor, flesh, and soul like an armorer beating the impurities out of an ingot.
And every time he went down even for a second she showed him that perfect poker face, with no hint of recrimination or distain. Allowing him a way out, allowing him the choice to flee.
And every time he got back up, her smile returned brighter than before, and his mandalorian blood pounded in his ears.
The rust was shaken off, his instincts reawakening as he moved faster, better, and more skilled as his body sung with the blood of the Mandalorian crusaders of old, Millennia of war flowing down through his ancestors and into his very being, Every time he rose up from defeat he lasted longer, his potential drawn out with every round.
She never slowed, never even breathed hard.
But she was starting to sweat, and she had a slight hint of a flush of exertion.
She was as strong as a gundark, as graceful as a nexu, and as wiley as the most cunning fighters of Mandalore.
She was terrifying and cunning and brutal and unyielding. A tester of limits. A bringer of pain. And then he realized. She wasn't an enemy, or a trickster, or even a Jedi.
She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his entire fucking life.
Apparently yielding to the limits of mortality, the Mandalorian crashed to his knees. He visibly tried to rise, but his muscles simply had no more to give.
Nyra breathed regularly and steadily, regaining her stamina. She was honestly shocked at the level of combat this mando had achieved without out even a whiff of force usage. She was confident he would absolutely destroy every baseline human he ever came across in a straight fight, old bloodline Mandalorians were just that terrifying. Whether the rumors of neocrusader gene therapy were true, or if natural selection had just done its job spectacularly well over multiple millennia of unending war, the mandalorians and the surrounding systems that descended from them were a people that broke the limits on what was considered possible for humanity.
A rasping came from the tinhead's bucket, and she couldn't quite make out the words.
"What was that?" She asked.
Reaching up shakily, he removed his helmet, which went clattering to the floor.
"Teach… me…" he rasped between large shaking breaths. "Please…" he finished.
She stared at him, shocked, but not just because of his question.
When she had learned he'd fought at the battle of Galidraan, she had assumed he was in his late 30s or early 40s. She had expected a face worn by several decades of hard living, maybe with crows feet or perhaps some graying temples. What she saw was a man her age, several years away from 30, with flowing blonde locks, minty green eyes and a strong scruffy jawline. A light scar ran through one eyebrow, and his nose was ever so slightly crooked, as if it had been broken and reset at least once, but not nearly jarringly crooked enough to be to detract from his looks, even giving his face a roguish vibe, which Nyra found only enhanced his appearance. However, despite her awareness of his good looks in the back of her mind, something else took center stage.
"How… how old are you?" She asked, hoping she was wrong. Perhaps mandalorians aged more gracefully than she thought?
Puzzled, but far too tired to be contrary, he answered her truthfully between gasps of air. "I'm… 25… standard" he breathed out.
"The battle of Galidraan was 11 years ago…" Nyra whispered in response, horrified at the implications. "You were only fourteen! In an active warzo—"
He interrupted her, defensive, "I had passed my verd'goten! I was a man!"
"You were a CHILD!" She shot back, not missing a beat. "Even Jedi padawans have to be at least 18 before they are sent to fight in a confirmed war zone! And even then they have the force on their side!"
"And I had my vode!" He finished mulishly, making fierce eye contact as if daring her to contradict him. She wanted to lash back, to point out if they were comfortable sending a non force sensitive 14 year old to his likely death, or to possibly be captured by an enemy and tortured for information, than maybe they weren't so great after all. But before she could get the words out, he slumped again, defeated.
"And I betrayed them." He finished. Downtrodden.
She sighed. "Do you… really want me to teach you? You know I use the force right?"
His head shot back up, looking up at her with hope shining in his eyes. "Yes! I do! Please! I don't need to learn any Jeti trickery, I just wish do learn your ways of combat! To transcend my limits as you have! I beg of you!"
There was something about that look of pleading and hope that strangely enough reminded her of the adorable golden furred fetch hounds that were popular on Alderaan, and she looked away, a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Hold on! I-I'll check to see if you can learn! Just… close your eyes and concentrate" She redirected, a bit flustered.
He did as she asked, and she connected with his force signature, placing her hands on either side of his head.
He hadn't used the force at all during combat, which was telling. Anyone with any kind of talent in the force wouldn't be capable of at least receiving some guidance, but that didn't necessarily mean he was completely force blind. Just… very untalented.
Subtly, she extended a tendril of energy toward his mind, brushing against his consciousness.
His breath hitched slightly, and she could feel his surprise and confusion.
She withdrew. Not feeling her hands on the sides of his head anymore, he opened his eyes. "Was that… you?" He asked.
"Yes." She answered. "Okay so, good news and bad news. Good news is, you aren't totally force blind, which means I can technically teach you."
At this he perked up a bit, but was still ready for the other shoe to drop. "And the bad news?"
She sighed. "Bad news is you are incredibly untalented in the force. You would have never in a million years gotten picked up by the Jedi, and if your M-count is even a single point over 4000 per cell, I'll incinerate all my winter clothes and permanently move to Hoth.
"It will be extremely difficult for you to make it even to the beginning stages of training a force sensitive. I don't even know if it will be possible to get you to the starting line."
He steeled his expression, his face the very picture of determination. "I'm no stranger to hard work" he declared.
"Heh! Good! Let's get you up, we'll get your things ready to move. Do you have a ship?"
He shook his head no as he struggled onto his feet. "Sold it when I got here. Been using the hutts transportation since."
"Then we'll use mine." She said.
"We are leaving?" He asked
"Yes." She declared, "My time on Tatooine is at an end. I had initially intended to return to my order, but I sense that the force is calling elsewhere."
He rolled his eyes and put on his helmet. "If you say so. I'll get my affairs on this planet in order."
She paused, contemplative. Without his helmet on he was simply a regular (admittedly very handsome) guy her age. But when he put back on his helmet all she was met with was the cold calculating gaze of a T shaped visor. Even his voice now had regained the deadly metallic edge of the vocoder, and his entire bearing screamed 'hyper lethal'.
She briefly wondered if she was making a mistake with his training, before dismissing the thought. Any character defects he had would either be worked through during training, or cause them to part ways before he made measurable progress. Either way, he wasn't force sensitive enough to be easily corrupted by the dark side, or pose an unbeatable threat with any minor powers he might gain.
It was funny, Her first ever student, Anakin, was most likely the most talented force sensitive she had ever seen bar none, and her second student would be barely be Force sensitive at all. Funny how things work out.
"Where will we be going?" He asked.
"Hmmmmmm…" she pondered. No planet immediately sprung to mind, but she could tell that she was being called somewhere. "I am unsure. I will need to meditate on this to gain more clarity on our path. For now, I'll settle on making it to a nearby maintenance station that'll safely put us up for a few days."
The Mandalorian nodded. He supposed he would have to get used to a force user utilizing her gift for navigation if he was to properly follow her. "What is your name?" He asked.
She laughed. Had she really forgotten to introduce herself? "Nyra. My name is Nyra."
He nodded. "Aran." He shared. "Aran… Naasade" he clarified, seeming to come to a decision.
Nyra nodded. "Well, Aran Naasade, I suggest you prepare yourself. The journey to enlightenment is never easy, and if you thought you attracted trouble as a Mandalorian, you're in for a whole new level of action as a force sensitive."
"Hn." He grunted. "I welcome the challenge." Superstition only let him believe so much. In his experience, the big kind of planetary trouble usually only came to those who actively looked for it. How bad could it really be? It wasn't like they were living in the old glory days of Mandalore, with a galaxy spanning conflict every few decades. Things were boring and peaceful, and with the Sith extinct, Deathwatch defeated, and Mandalore ruled by a fucking pacifist, the galaxy was sleepy and boring, and would most likely stay that way long after he died of old age. Really, under the circumstances, how much trouble could he possibly get sucked into?
End of interlude 1
Interlude 2: A Sith and a Feeling
Darth Sidious, by day known as Sheev Palpatine, was deep in meditation.
The Sith apprentice, Hopefully soon to be Sith Master, had always had a gift for peering into the future. This ability was prized by his Master, Darth Plagueis, who's own foresight had been damaged in a confrontation with his own master years ago.
The Sith had used foresight over the last millennia to great effect, allowing them to avoid detection from the Jedi and weaken the republic from within. Because of this, they were able to not only utilize cunning, but also to practically weaponize luck itself, as they could always be in just the right place at just the right time. Because of this, times where they were caught off guard were far and few between, and they almost never faced an unknown threat they hadn't already studied and made plans for.
Between this, and the veil of the dark side the line of Bane had created which prevented all but the most talented of Jedi seers from using the same ability, the future was the domain of the Sith, with no one else able to intrude with any effectiveness or clarity.
Or at least, that's what he had assumed, until a few weeks ago.
It had started with a feeling. Like there was a single consciousness split into tiny bright fragments, dancing through vastly different points in time like glitter on the wind. He had tried to follow one of these pitifully bright fragments to its source, but was only led to strange random points in time, completely unrelated to one another and far too minuscule to trace back to a single user.
This strange phenomenon had Sidious stumped. He found it hard to believe that a single person would be responsible for all the fragments scattered through time and space, but they all had the same force signature! Could it be a hive minded swarm of force sensitive insects that grasped clairvoyance before gaining sentience? Certainly it couldn't be a single person, that wasn't the way people minds naturally received visions, so it couldn't be a technique a single being learned! Perhaps some kind of unique herb or unheard of arcane ritual?
Over the next month or so, whenever he had time to meditate, Sidious observed the fragments. While he could tell that they were perceiving the future, he couldn't actually sense what they were seeing, just that they were in the process of seeing a vision, and the level of skill by which they did so.
They didn't always appear, but when they did, they were closer and more centered every time, until he was even able to pick up brief glimpses through them, though they were still too warped and prismatic to make heads or tails of, like looking through the viewfinder of a Kaleidoscope.
Sometimes the fragments would even solidify into what must have been one singular vision, but it was always too far in the future for him to chase after with any clarity, and the individuals presence was too strangely obscured for him to view for himself whatever it was they were seeing.
It was bizarre! Seeing the future had limits, the most important of which were focus and specificity. Without focusing on what you wanted to see, with little knowledge of what you might find, it was almost impossible to pin down a related future that would give useful information.
Simply meditating on 'how do I win?' Was an incredibly vague and therefore weak and ineffective method of seeing the future, where as 'what are the direct ramifications of this specific plan I have in place, if I were to implement it by the end of this week, which I am able and willing to do, as I have all the methods and people already in place' would pierce into future far more accurately and reliably.
It was imperative that one narrow the field if they wanted usable visions that didn't require expending large amounts of power and effort.
So the only way to see that far into the future with any clarity, especially for someone that wasn't Sidious and was therefore much less powerful by definition, would be to know exactly the events they wanted to witness before they had actually seen them, which was ridiculous!
And, this narrowing of field made an actual sensory difference in how he perceived their temporal probe, making it feel sharper and more durable in the force, so he could tell without a shadow of a doubt that that is what this new player was doing, he just for the life of him couldn't fathom how it was possible.
If you already knew exactly what you were going to see, then why in all the nine Correlian hells did you even need to view it in a vision in the first place? You already knew what would happen!
Furthermore, if this seer did already know such incredibly detailed and specific information of a single distant future possibility, than how in the flying fuck did they know about the event at all, if they hadn't seen it in a vision first?!
It was a circular paradox! They couldn't have seen a vision that far into the future without knowing what exactly they were looking for, and they couldn't have known exactly what they were looking for if they hadn't seen it in a vision! It was frustrating in the extreme!
A raspy voice filtered by an electronic vocoder interrupted "You are ruminating on our temporal intruder again."
Sidious did not jump, he was too well trained for that, but a jolt of surprise flared behind his shields, as he had not detected his master entering the room. He slowly opened his eyes, the very picture of calm. "Temporal intruder?" He questioned.
"Yes." His master replied, his eyes bright with fascination, which irritated Sidious. This was a setback, a potential threat and his master only viewed it with scientific curiosity, rather that the anger and contempt such an anomaly deserved. Smirking at his Apprentice' irritation, Plagueis continued. "I meditated on what you have previously told me, and this is my main theory. Our intruder is able to pierce into the future with such effectiveness because they personally witnessed the events firsthand. They are a time traveler."
Sidious blinked in shock, wondering if he was being mocked. "Really master? Time travel?"
Plagueis nodded seriously. "I always consider time travel as a possibility. My master did a great deal of study on the subject, and though he never was able to work out the technique itself, the alchemical formulas always resolved themselves as possible within the force. Furthermore, there are ancient references of an inter-time nexus known as the 'world between worlds' in the most ancient holocrons and records of force users, which are consistent between several cultures with no contact with each other. Just because we don't currently know how it can be done, does not mean it is impossible.
Sidious curled his lip in distain. "You are implying that there is a force user with more advanced knowledge of temporal matters than us?! Impossible! I would have sensed them!"
His master quirked an eyebrow. "You are sensing them currently. You are always so quick to assume your own superiority apprentice, and are thus caught off guard when it is challenged. It is your most dangerous flaw. You would rather continue in vain overconfidence rather than use this challenge as an opportunity for growth. Being faced with a phenomenon we do not understand simply means there is an opportunity to gain knowledge we did not previously have. You should relish the opportunity for study, for experimentation." The manic glee in his eyes increased at the final word, showing his excitement at their current situation.
Sidious' hatred burned behind his impeccable shielding. His master was always like this! Always so meandering, so methodical. If Plagueis remained the master of the Sith, the Grand Plan would likely take another century to complete! Risks must be taken. Plans must be progressed. And though his master was incredibly powerful, In Sidious' opinion Plagueis was a scientist first and a Sith Lord second, which was an unacceptable quality for the any emperor of the galaxy to have. 'Soon,'. He thought, 'The time of your death has nearly arrived my master, and oh it shall be exquisite! And then we will see who is overconfident! We will see who the real master is!'
"Yes, my master." Was all that escaped his lips.
Plagueis hummed at this, knowing his apprentice was fuming at the lecture, but there was no slip in his shields. Good. Any slip up in mental defense could alert the Jedi to their presence. He stood, and was about to leave when they both felt the veil of the dark side ripple. Someone was attempting to penetrate it! If they succeeded, it was possible, however unlikely, that they would be discovered, that this new interloper would find a weakness and exploit it. "Find them!" He commanded his apprentice.
Sidious was quick to comply. Scanning quickly, he immediately sensed the strange fractal presence from earlier, but instead of using its extremely refined specificity to reach into a possible distant future, it was reaching through the veil into the very near future! They could not allow anyone to possess knowledge of the grand plan that wasn't under their absolute control! Projecting his power toward the hated prismatic irritant, Sidious immediately attempted to trace it to its origin!
It was not to be however. With a jolt of fear the presence disappeared completely, leaving only a single glimpse of a sandy colored duracrete wall before being lost.
Sidious snarled in rage at the failure! Beige duracrete?! That could be literally anywhere in the entire thrice damned Galaxy! And because of whatever method they were using to to achieve that strange fractal state, for the short period of time that he was able to sense them, they appeared to be all over the galaxy while also being nowhere at the same time! Lighting crackled around Sidious' fingers as he relayed this to his master.
"Fascinating!" Was the Muun's only response.
Sidious wanted to loose his power at his Plagueis right then and there, but from the knowing gaze of his master, it would not go uncontested. A twinge of fear traveled down his spine. He scoffed, and turned away. Plagueis smirked beneath his breath mask, and left the room.
'Soon,' Sidious promised himself. 'Soon.'
End of interlude #2
A/N: Hey guys! Been a while, but I'm back! I originally planned for three interludes to this chapter, but the one about what's happened on Ryloth since Alask, Obi Wan, and Qui Gon showed up was feeling super rushed and unsatisfying. I honestly think I have enough for a multi chapter story, and actually have it be amazing to read through with twists and turns, good characterization, and awesome scenes and training, and I'm feeling super unsatisfied with just chopping it all down into a quick and dirty summary.
However, I also really want to get into the phantom menace and finally get the 'Jedi Order' section of the story underway, which I consider the meat of what I have planned.
So this is the question is for you guys. Do you want me to publish the Ryloth chapters (hopefully only 2 or maybe 3) next and then after go on with the phantom menace and our SI?
Or should I work on it as a side story and get to publishing the phantom menace with only vague spoiler free references to what happened on Ryloth, and get to the phantom menace right away? I'm not sure what I want to do, because I said we'd get to the phantom menace soon and the Ryloth arc wouldn't have SI Anakin in it at all, but is relevant to the greater story later on.
Alternatively, I could break the arc into parts, which only the beginning stages of the conflict happening before TPM, and the next most juicy parts happening after, but I don't want to shuffle characters around as I really like Qui Gon being there for many of the scenes, and splitting it in half like that would break the momentum of the story. But even with all that, I can still have most of what I have planned happened anyway, just with a few tweaks. Idk
What do y'all think? Also, how did you like the chapter lol? Reviews fuel me!
Ciao!
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The Phantom Menace Begins!
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
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Hey everyone! So, after reviewing everybody's preferences, I decided to go right into the Phantom Menace, however, there is one thing that I have to share! I was a bit mistaken in referring to the Ryloth arc as just an interlude, as it is 100% necessary for future story arcs. The only catch is, it won't be necessary for a little while. So essentially, I've decided include the Ryloth arc as a flashback after I have finished the Phantom Menace and will probably take a very small break anyway. I work in retail, so now that we are out of the Christmas season I should be able to speed up the amount of updates as I have more time off. So I'm going to finish the Phantom Menace arc, then, before it becomes relevant, I will eventually cover the Ryloth arc in a flashback, or maybe break it up into a few flashbacks. Whatever I need to do to make it palatable. For me, I thought this was a start of a new arc, and that it would be a good place for an interlude, but I realize now that I already had started the PM arc in chapter 7, so leaving things how I did was a major cliffhanger, and for that I am sorry.
For some parts of this chapter, I referenced the script of tPM. I dont want to make a habit of this, so hopefully I won't have to again in the future. I don't own Star Wars.
So without further ado, Let's get into it!
Previously on COR:
"Hello, I'm Padme. How are you?"
"Uh, Um, I'm Anakin" I responded, and promptly realized that that wasn't what she fucking asked me. "I'm doing fine! Quite uh, fine indeed." What the fuck am I saying? qUiTe FiNe InDeEd?! What am I, some moron at a tea party? I needed to salvage this! Girls like honesty right? "N-now that uh, you're here I mean" I finished.
FUCK!
Not expecting the flattery, she laughed, which sounded wonderful, "Why thank you, Its a pleasure to meet you too Anakin."
Oh.
Oh man.
A few seconds go by, and I quickly speak up before it gets to awkward. "So! Uh… Padme! You guys are here for some parts, a J- type Nubian right? The hyperdrive is busted?"
She blinked in surprise, "Yes. We are… but how do you know that?"
Looking around, I realized that Qui Gon and Watto had already gone out back to look at parts. There's no way I could have overheard them. Thinking quickly and in a slight panic, I said the first thing that came to mind. "I listen to all the traders and star pilots that come through here. You guys landed a J type Nubian on the edge of the dune sea. Real shiny, a mirror finish. And if you're here, that means someone let you know we have a hyperdrive for it, which means that you are in need of a hyperdrive. News travels fast around here, if you are in the right circles. Circles that I happen to be in."
Her eyebrows raised, Impressed. "You're quite smart for a little boy, how do you know so much about ships?" She looked around the shop, and then at me and my grease stained hands and face, "Do you… work here?" She finished.
I nodded. "My mother and I are currently owned by Watto. We are slaves, so we work."
Her eyes widened in shock, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize—"
"It's alright, you didn't know—" we interrupted each other.
I laughed. "It's alright Padme, I've got a good feeling my Mom and I will be free pretty soon. The Boonta eve classic, a pod race, just a few days from now. A lot of goods and currencies change hands based on bets, including slaves and perhaps a J type Nubian hyperdrive." I paused. I hesitated to reveal a secret to someone I didn't truly know, but I was pretty much guaranteed to be able to trust her. "It's a good time for change especially if you've got…" making sure Watto was still outside talking to Qui Gon, I levitated the droid elbow I was cleaning a few inches above my hand, causing her eyes to once again widen in shock. "Luck on your side."
"You're a Jedi?" She whispered, catching on that I didn't want Watto to know.
"Not really." I responded, pausing to stop jar jar and a little pit droid from wrecking the shop, 'hit the nose!' and continued our conversation. "I picked up some tricks here and there from people passing through, but I've always been a slave. I've never even been off planet, but like I said, that's about to change. The forcehelps my reflexes keep up with the other pod racers. I'm gonna smoke em all this year."
"Wait. Hold on." She said incredulously, her hand raised in a gentle 'stop' gesture. "You're actually going to race?! Aren't racing pods extremely dangerous? Aren't they just 2 overpowered engines with a glorified chair hanging off them?"
I snickered. "Basically. Yeah."
A bloom of anger shined from her force presence. "This… this isn't right! A kid like you shouldn't have to—"
"Shouldn't?" I interrupted. I probably shouldn't have, but It was a bit irritating to be treated like a kid, even though I technically was one. "There is no 'shouldn't' out here when it comes to danger and freedom. 'There is no want. There is no need. There is only what must be.' This is my path forward. My path towards freedom. And that is a path I will not give up on no matter what."
Padme stared at me, shocked. Several emotions flickered through her. Finally she settled on resolve. "How can I help?" She said, a fire in her eyes.
Now it was my turn to be shocked. "What? Why? Don't you have your own things going on?"
She deflated slightly for a moment, but quickly regained her fire. "Yes… I do. But right now we are stranded on this planet until further notice. I'll do what I can for however long I am on this planet, and if they take our republic credits for the parts, I can easily arrange to pay for your freedom."
I quirked my eyebrow at the casual mention of wealth, but continued. "Thank you, but I don't see that happening. Republic law and credits are worthless out here. Plus, I'm not just going to free myself, but my mother too. I'm going to have to race. But maybe we can help each other out?"
She paused, then nodded, and I smiled.
Watto and Qui Gon walked back in soon after that, and Qui Gon declared that they were leaving. My heart leaped in nervousness as I realized my time was limited. I needed to prove that my visions were reliable as early as possible, so that Qui Gon might actually trust my advice. I quickly did the simplest thing I could think of to prove my foresight. "Good bye Padme! Jar jar! Goodbye Mr. Qui Gon Jinn sir!" I called after them. Qui Gon startled quite noticeably, presumably at my use of his full name, looking back at me, then glanced at Padme, sighed with exasperation, and continued out the door.
Padme looked shocked. She had never told me Jar Jar or Qui Gon's name.
As the door closed behind them, Watto fluttered up to me, irritated at Qui Gon's attempt at negotiation. "Ootmians! Chasa hopoe ma booti na nolia!" (Outlanders! They think we know nothing!)
I shrugged, and forced myself to appear nonchalant. I couldn't let Watto know I was up to something. "La lova num botaffa." (They seemed nice to me.)
Watto scratched his chin, and I could tell he hadn't really cared to hear what I said. He was thinking about something else. He looked around, and saw some of the mess Jar Jar made on the droid racks. "Fweepa niaga. Tolpa da bunky dunko." (Clean the racks, then you can go home.) he decided.
I smiled, hopping off the counter where I had been sitting. "Yes!" I shouted, pumping my fist in the air, then ran over to straighten Jar jar's mess.
Watto snorted in derision and rolled his eyes at the emotional display, turning away.
Qui Gon had led his group out into the streets, where they took shelter from the sun in a small alleyway. He had called Obi Wan, seeing if they had anything of value to sell, but they didn't have anything near approaching the value of the parts they needed. Sighing, Qui Gon hung up. He turned to Padme. "I'm aware that I didn't ask you to keep our names a secret, but I did communicate that we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves. Why did you tell the boy our names?"
Padme was already shaking her head no. "I didn't. The only name I gave was my own. In fact, 'the boy' and I had quite the interesting conversation." she then preceded to go over what she and Anakin talked about.
Qui Gon's eyes widened minutely as a few pieces fell into place. Earlier he had felt a gentle touch of curiosity on his mind earlier, he had assumed it was perhaps another jedi under deep cover, and his next option after regrouping was to track this jedi down and see if they could gain assistance. Conversely, When he had walked into the droid shop, he had assumed the boy had been force null, because of his complete lack of presence in the force. This was incredibly uncommon, but not unheard of, so he dismissed it.
Only now did he put two and two together. The boy hadn't been a force null, he had been shielding. And not just any shielding, but the kind of advanced shielding that was able to leave him undetectable to a master of the Living Force, the kind of subtle shields that took jedi shadows years of training and field experience to achieve. Who had trained this boy? A Lost jedi? Or someone more sinister?
Either way, Qui Gon sensed vaguely that this boy was connected to their ability to escape this planet, either by helping them directly, or leading them to his master.
After I finished cleaning up Jar jar's mess I forced myself not to sprint out of the shop. Letting the force guide me, I made my way over to the orange amphibian himself, in the middle of getting threatened by Sebulba. Taking a running start, and enhancing myself with the force, I launched myself straight at Sebulba feet first, luchador style. With his ultra quick reflexes, Sebulba caught my foot and redirected my momentum up and over him, forcing him to let go of Jar Jar in the process.
Now careening toward the awning of the food stand they were by, I reoriented myself mid air, kicked off the awning pole, flipped once mid air, and landed on the dirt between Sebulba and Jar Jar. "Careful Sebulba," I said in huttese, "Mess with the wrong people, you might get hurt. I don't want you to use anything as an excuse when I smoke you on Boonta eve."
Sebulba growled aggressively, though he smirked at the challenge. "You're lucky you're a slave brat, or I'd skin you alive right here right now! You may be quick for a human, but that doesn't mean poodoo compared to a real pod racer! As soon as that race starts, I'll roast you crispy with my flame vents!"
I smiled, "Whatever helps you sleep at night sleemo. See you then."
He growled and went back to his table.
I turned back to Jar Jar. "You know, if you wanted to steal food, you should probably make sure it isn't tied down first."
Jar Jar scratched the back of his head, and inhaled to speak, but was interrupted by Qui Gon Jinn. "You should not steal food at all. Especially when we are trying not to draw attention to ourselves. Jar jar nodded sheepishly.
Qui Gon turned to me. "Thank you for helping our friend," he gave a slight bow at the waist, which I returned. "You have been trained in the ways of the force." He said directly.
I nodded. "I was taught combat by a Matukai who passed through a while ago, and my mom taught me her shielding technique." I'm not sure why I had been prompted by the force to mention my shielding, but it paid off.
Qui Gon nodded. "I would very much like to meet this Mother of yours, if you would be willing to introduce us?"
I nodded. "A storm is coming, and soon. You might as well stay at our place until it lets up."
He gave another shallow bow. "We would be honored."
I rushed into the house, and made a beeline for Amu. "Mom! Mom!" I stage whispered. She turned to me frantically, a twinge of fear pulsing through our force connection.
"What?! What happened?!" She whispered back.
I laid her fears to rest. "It's happening! They are here!"
"The Jedi?!" Her eyes widened, then a light entered her eyes when I nodded in confirmation. It was a mixture of anxiety and excitement and fear and hope.
We walked back over to the main entrance, and I introduced her to everyone.
Amu spoke up. "You are here at last. How much has my son told you of his visions?"
Qui Gon and Padme exchanged glances, then Qui Gon spoke for the both of them. "Nothing, other than the fact that he knew my name without being told."
Amu nodded, and led us over to the table where we all sat. I was surprised she took charge at all in the face of Qui Gon Jinn, who was an exceptionally tall man and solidly built, but with all the preparation that went into these next few days, she was able to get into the mode she channeled during missions we did for the Path. This was just another flight of Ekkreth. Except now, we would be the ones taking flight. Now, it would finally be our turn.
She nodded at me to go ahead. I inhaled to speak, but Qui Gon preempted my explanation. "Before you begin, would you let down your shields? It would be expedient if I could feel the truth of your words."
"You can't sense us? But aren't you a Jedi Master?" I said, surprised.
"No." He responded. "Your shields are quite seamless."
I looked at Amu. She nodded. Slowly, carefully, we both let our protective shields loosen from around us, unfurling until they let our inner selves shine through. Qui Gon's breath hitched, and he noticeably relaxed quite a bit.
"Fascinating. For how completely they erase your presences, your shields are remarkably delicate. You made this technique yourself?" Amu Nodded. Qui Gon continued, "Your presences in the force are remarkably light." He complemented, "Im ready to listen to your journey."
I started with an apology. "Padme. Remember earlier when I said I heard about your ship by listening to speeders? That was a lie. I saw this whole thing happening in the force. Through a vision." She nodded her acceptance of my apology, but a hint of distrust entered her gaze, which felt awful. i pushed it down and continued. "Two years ago, I got into an accident, A bad one. I was basically between life and death, and in that state, something… happened to me. I saw so much, I became… more than I was before. I gained knowledge of many things. And since then, I've been able to access these visions through meditation. In the visions, I saw a specific future in extreme detail."
"How detailed?" Padme asked.
I turned to her. "Enough to accurately know you were coming. The specific future I saw was one in which I hadn't seen the vision, so the 'me' I saw didn't prepare for your arrival. But even if I've changed a few things since then, there shouldn't be much that is different."
Qui Gon stroked his beard. "I have to admit… I haven't ever heard of a vision so far reaching and specific before. But being in a near death state has temporarily deepened a Jedi's connection to the force before."
"Here! Let me prove it. Umm…" I wracked my brain. "You and Obi Wan fly in a transport onto the trade federation ship over Naboo. Obi wan has a bad feeling, somewhere else, elusive, you remind him to not center on his anxieties but to—"
"Keep your focus on the here and now where it belongs." Qui Gon finished, astonished.
I continue. "Trade federation blows up your ship and everyone on it. Gasses your chamber but you escape and outrun some rolling destroyer droids. Obi wan says 'you were right about one thing master, the negotiations were short'. You descend onto Naboo's surface, meet Jar jar, you say 'the ability to speak does not make you intelligent' shall I go on?"
Qui Gon says nothing, simply stoking his beard in wonder, trying to wrap his head around all this.
Padme isn't so trusting.
"I am assuming there were battle droids present for all those lines?" She said with a quirked eyebrow.
"How about this?" I counter, pointing to R2, "'what is the droid's designation? 'R2-D2 your highness.' 'He is to be commended'. the... queen commands you to clean the droid, you and Jar Jar talk about Naboo. Captain Panaka doesn't want to land here. 'The hutts are vile gangsters' he says. 'The difference is that the hutts aren't looking for her, and that gives us the advantage, says Qui Gon."
Her eyes widen. The royal escape ship had been scanned for tracking devices and was not connected to the holonet, furthermore the ship was currently guarded by the rest of the group, so the information couldn't have been retrieved in person. There was no way I could have known that, those conversations.
I turned back to Qui Gon. "These last two years we've been collecting money behind our master's back, preparing for the time when you would come. We have enough to free both of us from slavery, but not enough to also get the parts that you need. So here is the deal. We can't spend the money because anything we earn by Tatooine law is technically owned by Watto, not us. You take the money, bet it on me winning the pod race, and once it's multiplied you buy your parts, purchase our freedom and take us off this rock. We'll be free. You'll be on Coruscant, the queen will get back to her people, and everyone here will get what they want, and you can continue dealing with the trade federation sleemos blocking your planet."
"Betting on the pod race seems like an unnecessary risk." Padme says. "If you trust us to use the money to purchase your freedom, than let us use it to buy the parts we need and I swear on my honor we will return with resources and free you."
Amu shakes her head. "No. We can only trust so much. We will be free by the end of this Boonta eve, and not a moment later. It is our money, so we say where it goes. Unless you plan to extort us? You should know that the money is not here. It is hidden in a different location, somewhere safe."
Padme is quick to respond, "that's not what I meant! The only reason I am uncomfortable, is if your son looses, then you won't be free, your money will be gone, and we won't have our parts! We will all lose!"
I stared at her straight in the eye. "I will win. I have seen it. I know the skill level necessary and have exceeded it. My pod is better, my skills are better, my connection to the force is deeper. I will win." I declare.
She stared at me, and for a second it felt like we were staring into each other's souls. She wanted the most absolutely risk free, direct and efficient method to help her people. I respected that. I understood that. My irritation at her lack of faith in my ability drained out of me like water in a sink, left with respect for her priorities and admiration for her strength.
Conversely, she seemed to also see something in my eyes, because she murmured, "I believe you."
I nodded. "Thank you. I know how much this means to you. I won't let you or your people down."
She smiled. "I'll hold you to that little Jedi."
"I'm no Jedi. Though I'd like to be if possible." I said, my eyes unintentionally flashing to Qui Gon. Shit! Did I overplay my hand?
To both my relief and irritation, Qui Gon only hummed, which I took to mean 'we shall see'.
For the next few minutes, we discussed our plan in detail, including the individual roles we would all play. The pod was done, but there were a few things I wanted to tune up and a few checks I wanted to make. It was the day before Boonta eve, so Watto would be out making bets and schmoozing hutts, so I would have the day off. We basically settled on a similar game plan as what I remember from the phantom menace.
Once all the plans were finalized, and all that was left was spending the night waiting out the storm, we dispersed through the dwelling.
While Qui Gon was having a conversation with Amu, the rest of us (Padme, R2, Jar Jar and I) were swapping stories. They had told me about Naboo and what was going on with the trade federation, as well as other stories about their childhoods on Naboo. Interestingly enough, Padme and JarJar knew surprisingly little about each others cultures, and asked each other just as many questions as I asked them or they asked me. I told them about the 'flight' we did with the Whitesuns, and they were surprisingly shocked at the tale.
"Wait. Hold on!" Padme interrupted. "Alask? An old, sandy colored, male Twilek, freed from slavery? Certainly you don't mean Alask Syndulla?"
"Uh, yeah, I do. Do you know him or something?" I asked.
"Well I don't know him personally, but he was recently inaugurated as Ryloth's new senator after Orn Free Taa was convicted for corruption and human trafficking! Ryloth's whole economy and ruling body got flipped on its head, and it lead to a serious inquiry into many senators personal lives!"
"Indeed it did." I jumped at Qui Gon's voice from behind me, as I had been too focused on our conversation to keep my guard up. He continued, "My padawan and I were present for the conflict on Ryloth, and are close personal friends with Alask Syndulla, As well as the person who wrote this." Qui Gon pulled a familiar datapad from his sleeve, and I realized it was the one that Nyra had given me with all the Matukai learning materials on it.
"What?! You know Nyra?!" I asked, wondering how they had met.
He didn't explain, only nodding. "You've been studying these?" He questioned.
"Yes, I have." I said, irritated at the subject change. "How do you know Nyra?" I asked once again.
"Enough to have heard of you, though she didn't tell me your name. She did mention you as 'far more gifted than her current student.' The rest, however, is a story for a different time."
I sighed, grumbling. How the hell did he know Nyra? They must have met recently, after she had left the planet. What the hell was going on?! I looked at Qui Gon, who was the picture of serenity, but also seemed to radiate a cryptic smugness. It seemed like he would tell me about his connection to my old teacher when he was good and ready, and not a moment sooner.
"Would you be willing to show me what she taught you?" He asked.
I sighed again, then nodded, and got out the staff I used to practice the Matukai pole-arm forms. I had made the staff myself, it was a long metal pole with high powered electro stun sticks built into each end. It wasn't as powerful or as durable as the electro staff of a magma guard, but it was strong enough to put someone on their ass.
I moved into the main living area, which was the only room in the house big enough for practice, and gently used telekinesis to lift the table and move it to the wall to make room, which earned an "Oooooo! Bombad the force!" From Jar Jar, and a small golf clap from Padme. For a second I thought she may be mocking me, but when I looked and sensed her I found she had a smile on her face and genuine curiosity and wonder in her eyes, which brought heat to my cheeks. I guess Telekinesis was pretty cool. I forgot that was the case sometimes with how often Amu and I use it in private.
Still, I got into the correct beginning stance, and began to fluidly work through the combat staff katas that Amu and I had been practicing for the better part of 2 years now. When I first started Matukai training, enhancing my body with the force felt like breathing through a coffee straw, but now? Now it was like the force flowed through me as if it was my own blood, thrumming through my body and energizing my movements. Slowly I ramped up my speed, surpassing what was humanly possible as the staff and my body felt lighter and more precise. I worked my way around in a circle, ramping up until I was at the very limit of my force ability, then kept up the pace, focusing on form and footwork even as I exerted my maximum.
Amu and I used to spar with each other at full tilt, but that stopped happening about 6 months in when my power in the force surpassed the strength and reach advantage she had as an adult, and I started winning every spar with relative ease. We still sparred of course, but it was at her speed, not mine.
So when Qui Gon joined the spar using Amu's slightly too short for him staff, and matching my maximum speed no less, it initially took me off guard. I was quick to adapt however, pushing myself to the maximum against him, and found myself grinning from ear to ear as I pushed myself to the limits against someone for the first time in a while! The spar went on for what seemed to me in my accelerated state like hours, but was probably only a few minutes of real time. Eventually however, all good things must come to an end, and Qui Gon was able to catch my staff on his in a position where he had superior leverage, disarming me. He casually caught my staff with the force before it could smack into the wall, and I fell to my knees in exhaustion.
"Very good!" He commented emphatically, making me smile bashfully, especially when I realized Padme and Jar Jar were clapping at the spectacle.
"That was amazing!" Padme commented, which made my face burn even more, and she continued. "There were times when I couldn't even make out individual movements! You both looked like a storm of weapons and stun shocks! You even looked like your limbs multiplied some times!"
"Oh uhh…um…" I responded articulately. Amu shot me a knowing look, quirking one of her eyebrows and smiling smugly at my reaction, which only made me more embarrassed.
Qui Gon took this opportunity to speak. "You have been trained well. The kind of footwork you showed cannot be mastered with self study. How long did Nyra train you for? A year?"
Amu answered his question. "Nyra was only here for a month. To master the footwork, we worked together, one of us would perform the stances, while the other would compare them to the holos Nyra left us. Only by cooperating like this did we master the movements."
Qui Gon looked back at her, shocked at the truth ringing through the force at her words. "And what you said earlier about… his father, is it really true?"
Amu nodded, "Yes." The force once again pulsed in recognition of truth.
Qui Gon ran his hand through his beard. "Anakin…" he began, "May I run a quick blood test? It won't take long or be painful, just to check your health and aptitude."
I my heart nearly beat out of my chest in excitement, but I kept my shields up and my face calm, and nodded. "Sure. But only if you run it on Amu as well. I wanna know if she's healthy too."
He nodded his acceptance.
Amu's M count ended up being around 14,000 per cell, far above the minimum level to be accepted into the Jedi, if she had been found early enough.
My count had been the same as the movies of course, but there was something about it that I had misunderstood.
Apparently, according to Qui Gon, Midichlorians were almost infinitesimally tiny, nearly invisible even under microscopes that showed mitochondria and their DNA in detail. Midichlorians were actually closer to particles than cellular organisms, the only reason they were considered alive by some was their behavior, and even then it was up for debate.
The important part of all this was that the blood scanner didn't actually 'see' the Midichlorians themselves in each cell, but just measured the amount of energy the cells gave off and extrapolated the M count from there. After a certain point however, a high enough density of Midichlorians didn't give off a measurably consistent increase in energy, giving fluctuating readings the higher the count was, and as such, the absolute maximum the scanner was calibrated to detect was 20,000. No one had bothered programming or manufacturing anything sensitive enough to measure past that accurately, because since the discovery of Midichlorians about 700 years ago no one on record had ever surpassed 18,600, which was master Yoda's count.
Essentially, my M count wasn't actually the exact value of 20,000 per cell. My M count was apparently so high it literally couldn't be measured accurately with the tools we had on hand. My potential in the force made a fucking overflow error.
Which was… both exhilarating and terrifying. On one hand I hungered for that kind of power, but on the other, wasn't it bad to be exited by that? I didn't actually know, but I did know I didn't want to go to the dark side. What use was power if it turned you into a monster to get it? But still, I didn't have to turn to the dark in order to get power. If I went with the Jedi, I could achieve my potential without going crazy. But hadn't Canon Anakin done the same? And we all saw how that worked out for everyone involved.
It was these thoughts that accompanied me as I slowly drifted off on the blanket on the floor I was using as my bed tonight (because there was no fucking way in a billion years that I would take my bed while a literal Queen of an entire fucking planet slept on the floor, so I had insisted she take it) when just as I was drifting off in the dark, I could feel Amu kneel beside me. "Amu? What's up?" I questioned groggily.
"You are going to join the Jedi."
It wasn't a question, nor was it a command, but a realization of fact. We had talked about it before, but I guess it was just now becoming real for her. I looked at her, and realized that it would be goodbye, Likely for a long time. Something inside me clenched painfully. Suddenly… I realized something. I didn't want her to go. I had spent my whole life with her, or at least my Anakin life, and when I pictured myself off having adventures with the Jedi I had always subconsciously pictured that she would be there too, no matter how impossible that actually was. "I… I don't know now." I spoke truthfully, "I've wanted to be a Jedi for as long as I've known about them, but now? If it means leaving you behind…"
She sighed, running her fingers through my hair. "Anakin." She stated. "Don't you dare give up on this path just because of me. If you try it out, and decide it genuinely doesn't work for you, then, and only then, can you leave. But if you gave up this opportunity now, before you have even started, I have no doubt you would regret and wonder about it for the rest of your life. And I would never want that for you."
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I sniffed to try and fend them off. "I'll comm you. Even if I'm not allowed. Connection isn't the same as attachment. And I'll always need you. You'll always be my Amu."
Her voice was choked with emotion, and though she did not let the water of her tears fall, I could tell it was a close thing. "And you'll always be my Vikki-ka" (small male child/baby) "I'll look forward to your comm calls." She kissed me on the forehead, and retreated to her own bed.
Amu may have been able to keep her tears from falling, but that night? In that darkness? I wasn't nearly so controlled.
Tomorrow would be the start of the plan that would lead to our freedom. The beginning of my journey as a Jedi, as a free being, and as someone with the whole Galaxy in front of me. There would be plenty of time for exhilaration and happiness.
Right now, I let the tears fall.
A/N: Can I just say… writing Qui Gon Jinn well while also juggling an altered version of a pre-existing script is SOOOOOOO HHHAAAAAARRRDDD!
I don't want to make him boring! I want him to be wise and kind but also stubborn, a little prideful, and a bit of a troll/maverick. But I realized halfway through writing this chapter that most of those qualities are mainly on display in the original Phantom Menace when he makes the plan to rescue Anakin all in the middle of everything else, taking major risks that eventually pay off, because it's the 'will of the force.'
But in this story, Anakin has already been planning on all of this happening, has clearly communicated this plan, and everyone has fully agreed with it! So in doing this I inadvertently took all those moments away from Qui Gon, leaving him mostly a passive observer! Which while that makes sense for a Jedi, it comes across as him being boring and bland! AAAAHHHH I HATE SCRIPT COPY SECTIONS!
Fortunately I was able to write a few original scenes at the end there, so I -hope- his character shone through, at least a little bit. I'll make sure to do more with him in the next few chapters, as I quite like him as a character.
I should have alot more free time going forward so expect updates to be more common than they were around Christmas.
Anyways, happy new year everybody!
Ciao!
For some parts of this chapter, I referenced the script of tPM. I dont want to make a habit of this, so hopefully I won't have to again in the future. I don't own Star Wars.
So without further ado, Let's get into it!
Previously on COR:
"Hello, I'm Padme. How are you?"
"Uh, Um, I'm Anakin" I responded, and promptly realized that that wasn't what she fucking asked me. "I'm doing fine! Quite uh, fine indeed." What the fuck am I saying? qUiTe FiNe InDeEd?! What am I, some moron at a tea party? I needed to salvage this! Girls like honesty right? "N-now that uh, you're here I mean" I finished.
FUCK!
Not expecting the flattery, she laughed, which sounded wonderful, "Why thank you, Its a pleasure to meet you too Anakin."
Oh.
Oh man.
A few seconds go by, and I quickly speak up before it gets to awkward. "So! Uh… Padme! You guys are here for some parts, a J- type Nubian right? The hyperdrive is busted?"
She blinked in surprise, "Yes. We are… but how do you know that?"
Looking around, I realized that Qui Gon and Watto had already gone out back to look at parts. There's no way I could have overheard them. Thinking quickly and in a slight panic, I said the first thing that came to mind. "I listen to all the traders and star pilots that come through here. You guys landed a J type Nubian on the edge of the dune sea. Real shiny, a mirror finish. And if you're here, that means someone let you know we have a hyperdrive for it, which means that you are in need of a hyperdrive. News travels fast around here, if you are in the right circles. Circles that I happen to be in."
Her eyebrows raised, Impressed. "You're quite smart for a little boy, how do you know so much about ships?" She looked around the shop, and then at me and my grease stained hands and face, "Do you… work here?" She finished.
I nodded. "My mother and I are currently owned by Watto. We are slaves, so we work."
Her eyes widened in shock, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize—"
"It's alright, you didn't know—" we interrupted each other.
I laughed. "It's alright Padme, I've got a good feeling my Mom and I will be free pretty soon. The Boonta eve classic, a pod race, just a few days from now. A lot of goods and currencies change hands based on bets, including slaves and perhaps a J type Nubian hyperdrive." I paused. I hesitated to reveal a secret to someone I didn't truly know, but I was pretty much guaranteed to be able to trust her. "It's a good time for change especially if you've got…" making sure Watto was still outside talking to Qui Gon, I levitated the droid elbow I was cleaning a few inches above my hand, causing her eyes to once again widen in shock. "Luck on your side."
"You're a Jedi?" She whispered, catching on that I didn't want Watto to know.
"Not really." I responded, pausing to stop jar jar and a little pit droid from wrecking the shop, 'hit the nose!' and continued our conversation. "I picked up some tricks here and there from people passing through, but I've always been a slave. I've never even been off planet, but like I said, that's about to change. The forcehelps my reflexes keep up with the other pod racers. I'm gonna smoke em all this year."
"Wait. Hold on." She said incredulously, her hand raised in a gentle 'stop' gesture. "You're actually going to race?! Aren't racing pods extremely dangerous? Aren't they just 2 overpowered engines with a glorified chair hanging off them?"
I snickered. "Basically. Yeah."
A bloom of anger shined from her force presence. "This… this isn't right! A kid like you shouldn't have to—"
"Shouldn't?" I interrupted. I probably shouldn't have, but It was a bit irritating to be treated like a kid, even though I technically was one. "There is no 'shouldn't' out here when it comes to danger and freedom. 'There is no want. There is no need. There is only what must be.' This is my path forward. My path towards freedom. And that is a path I will not give up on no matter what."
Padme stared at me, shocked. Several emotions flickered through her. Finally she settled on resolve. "How can I help?" She said, a fire in her eyes.
Now it was my turn to be shocked. "What? Why? Don't you have your own things going on?"
She deflated slightly for a moment, but quickly regained her fire. "Yes… I do. But right now we are stranded on this planet until further notice. I'll do what I can for however long I am on this planet, and if they take our republic credits for the parts, I can easily arrange to pay for your freedom."
I quirked my eyebrow at the casual mention of wealth, but continued. "Thank you, but I don't see that happening. Republic law and credits are worthless out here. Plus, I'm not just going to free myself, but my mother too. I'm going to have to race. But maybe we can help each other out?"
She paused, then nodded, and I smiled.
Watto and Qui Gon walked back in soon after that, and Qui Gon declared that they were leaving. My heart leaped in nervousness as I realized my time was limited. I needed to prove that my visions were reliable as early as possible, so that Qui Gon might actually trust my advice. I quickly did the simplest thing I could think of to prove my foresight. "Good bye Padme! Jar jar! Goodbye Mr. Qui Gon Jinn sir!" I called after them. Qui Gon startled quite noticeably, presumably at my use of his full name, looking back at me, then glanced at Padme, sighed with exasperation, and continued out the door.
Padme looked shocked. She had never told me Jar Jar or Qui Gon's name.
As the door closed behind them, Watto fluttered up to me, irritated at Qui Gon's attempt at negotiation. "Ootmians! Chasa hopoe ma booti na nolia!" (Outlanders! They think we know nothing!)
I shrugged, and forced myself to appear nonchalant. I couldn't let Watto know I was up to something. "La lova num botaffa." (They seemed nice to me.)
Watto scratched his chin, and I could tell he hadn't really cared to hear what I said. He was thinking about something else. He looked around, and saw some of the mess Jar Jar made on the droid racks. "Fweepa niaga. Tolpa da bunky dunko." (Clean the racks, then you can go home.) he decided.
I smiled, hopping off the counter where I had been sitting. "Yes!" I shouted, pumping my fist in the air, then ran over to straighten Jar jar's mess.
Watto snorted in derision and rolled his eyes at the emotional display, turning away.
Qui Gon had led his group out into the streets, where they took shelter from the sun in a small alleyway. He had called Obi Wan, seeing if they had anything of value to sell, but they didn't have anything near approaching the value of the parts they needed. Sighing, Qui Gon hung up. He turned to Padme. "I'm aware that I didn't ask you to keep our names a secret, but I did communicate that we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves. Why did you tell the boy our names?"
Padme was already shaking her head no. "I didn't. The only name I gave was my own. In fact, 'the boy' and I had quite the interesting conversation." she then preceded to go over what she and Anakin talked about.
Qui Gon's eyes widened minutely as a few pieces fell into place. Earlier he had felt a gentle touch of curiosity on his mind earlier, he had assumed it was perhaps another jedi under deep cover, and his next option after regrouping was to track this jedi down and see if they could gain assistance. Conversely, When he had walked into the droid shop, he had assumed the boy had been force null, because of his complete lack of presence in the force. This was incredibly uncommon, but not unheard of, so he dismissed it.
Only now did he put two and two together. The boy hadn't been a force null, he had been shielding. And not just any shielding, but the kind of advanced shielding that was able to leave him undetectable to a master of the Living Force, the kind of subtle shields that took jedi shadows years of training and field experience to achieve. Who had trained this boy? A Lost jedi? Or someone more sinister?
Either way, Qui Gon sensed vaguely that this boy was connected to their ability to escape this planet, either by helping them directly, or leading them to his master.
After I finished cleaning up Jar jar's mess I forced myself not to sprint out of the shop. Letting the force guide me, I made my way over to the orange amphibian himself, in the middle of getting threatened by Sebulba. Taking a running start, and enhancing myself with the force, I launched myself straight at Sebulba feet first, luchador style. With his ultra quick reflexes, Sebulba caught my foot and redirected my momentum up and over him, forcing him to let go of Jar Jar in the process.
Now careening toward the awning of the food stand they were by, I reoriented myself mid air, kicked off the awning pole, flipped once mid air, and landed on the dirt between Sebulba and Jar Jar. "Careful Sebulba," I said in huttese, "Mess with the wrong people, you might get hurt. I don't want you to use anything as an excuse when I smoke you on Boonta eve."
Sebulba growled aggressively, though he smirked at the challenge. "You're lucky you're a slave brat, or I'd skin you alive right here right now! You may be quick for a human, but that doesn't mean poodoo compared to a real pod racer! As soon as that race starts, I'll roast you crispy with my flame vents!"
I smiled, "Whatever helps you sleep at night sleemo. See you then."
He growled and went back to his table.
I turned back to Jar Jar. "You know, if you wanted to steal food, you should probably make sure it isn't tied down first."
Jar Jar scratched the back of his head, and inhaled to speak, but was interrupted by Qui Gon Jinn. "You should not steal food at all. Especially when we are trying not to draw attention to ourselves. Jar jar nodded sheepishly.
Qui Gon turned to me. "Thank you for helping our friend," he gave a slight bow at the waist, which I returned. "You have been trained in the ways of the force." He said directly.
I nodded. "I was taught combat by a Matukai who passed through a while ago, and my mom taught me her shielding technique." I'm not sure why I had been prompted by the force to mention my shielding, but it paid off.
Qui Gon nodded. "I would very much like to meet this Mother of yours, if you would be willing to introduce us?"
I nodded. "A storm is coming, and soon. You might as well stay at our place until it lets up."
He gave another shallow bow. "We would be honored."
I rushed into the house, and made a beeline for Amu. "Mom! Mom!" I stage whispered. She turned to me frantically, a twinge of fear pulsing through our force connection.
"What?! What happened?!" She whispered back.
I laid her fears to rest. "It's happening! They are here!"
"The Jedi?!" Her eyes widened, then a light entered her eyes when I nodded in confirmation. It was a mixture of anxiety and excitement and fear and hope.
We walked back over to the main entrance, and I introduced her to everyone.
Amu spoke up. "You are here at last. How much has my son told you of his visions?"
Qui Gon and Padme exchanged glances, then Qui Gon spoke for the both of them. "Nothing, other than the fact that he knew my name without being told."
Amu nodded, and led us over to the table where we all sat. I was surprised she took charge at all in the face of Qui Gon Jinn, who was an exceptionally tall man and solidly built, but with all the preparation that went into these next few days, she was able to get into the mode she channeled during missions we did for the Path. This was just another flight of Ekkreth. Except now, we would be the ones taking flight. Now, it would finally be our turn.
She nodded at me to go ahead. I inhaled to speak, but Qui Gon preempted my explanation. "Before you begin, would you let down your shields? It would be expedient if I could feel the truth of your words."
"You can't sense us? But aren't you a Jedi Master?" I said, surprised.
"No." He responded. "Your shields are quite seamless."
I looked at Amu. She nodded. Slowly, carefully, we both let our protective shields loosen from around us, unfurling until they let our inner selves shine through. Qui Gon's breath hitched, and he noticeably relaxed quite a bit.
"Fascinating. For how completely they erase your presences, your shields are remarkably delicate. You made this technique yourself?" Amu Nodded. Qui Gon continued, "Your presences in the force are remarkably light." He complemented, "Im ready to listen to your journey."
I started with an apology. "Padme. Remember earlier when I said I heard about your ship by listening to speeders? That was a lie. I saw this whole thing happening in the force. Through a vision." She nodded her acceptance of my apology, but a hint of distrust entered her gaze, which felt awful. i pushed it down and continued. "Two years ago, I got into an accident, A bad one. I was basically between life and death, and in that state, something… happened to me. I saw so much, I became… more than I was before. I gained knowledge of many things. And since then, I've been able to access these visions through meditation. In the visions, I saw a specific future in extreme detail."
"How detailed?" Padme asked.
I turned to her. "Enough to accurately know you were coming. The specific future I saw was one in which I hadn't seen the vision, so the 'me' I saw didn't prepare for your arrival. But even if I've changed a few things since then, there shouldn't be much that is different."
Qui Gon stroked his beard. "I have to admit… I haven't ever heard of a vision so far reaching and specific before. But being in a near death state has temporarily deepened a Jedi's connection to the force before."
"Here! Let me prove it. Umm…" I wracked my brain. "You and Obi Wan fly in a transport onto the trade federation ship over Naboo. Obi wan has a bad feeling, somewhere else, elusive, you remind him to not center on his anxieties but to—"
"Keep your focus on the here and now where it belongs." Qui Gon finished, astonished.
I continue. "Trade federation blows up your ship and everyone on it. Gasses your chamber but you escape and outrun some rolling destroyer droids. Obi wan says 'you were right about one thing master, the negotiations were short'. You descend onto Naboo's surface, meet Jar jar, you say 'the ability to speak does not make you intelligent' shall I go on?"
Qui Gon says nothing, simply stoking his beard in wonder, trying to wrap his head around all this.
Padme isn't so trusting.
"I am assuming there were battle droids present for all those lines?" She said with a quirked eyebrow.
"How about this?" I counter, pointing to R2, "'what is the droid's designation? 'R2-D2 your highness.' 'He is to be commended'. the... queen commands you to clean the droid, you and Jar Jar talk about Naboo. Captain Panaka doesn't want to land here. 'The hutts are vile gangsters' he says. 'The difference is that the hutts aren't looking for her, and that gives us the advantage, says Qui Gon."
Her eyes widen. The royal escape ship had been scanned for tracking devices and was not connected to the holonet, furthermore the ship was currently guarded by the rest of the group, so the information couldn't have been retrieved in person. There was no way I could have known that, those conversations.
I turned back to Qui Gon. "These last two years we've been collecting money behind our master's back, preparing for the time when you would come. We have enough to free both of us from slavery, but not enough to also get the parts that you need. So here is the deal. We can't spend the money because anything we earn by Tatooine law is technically owned by Watto, not us. You take the money, bet it on me winning the pod race, and once it's multiplied you buy your parts, purchase our freedom and take us off this rock. We'll be free. You'll be on Coruscant, the queen will get back to her people, and everyone here will get what they want, and you can continue dealing with the trade federation sleemos blocking your planet."
"Betting on the pod race seems like an unnecessary risk." Padme says. "If you trust us to use the money to purchase your freedom, than let us use it to buy the parts we need and I swear on my honor we will return with resources and free you."
Amu shakes her head. "No. We can only trust so much. We will be free by the end of this Boonta eve, and not a moment later. It is our money, so we say where it goes. Unless you plan to extort us? You should know that the money is not here. It is hidden in a different location, somewhere safe."
Padme is quick to respond, "that's not what I meant! The only reason I am uncomfortable, is if your son looses, then you won't be free, your money will be gone, and we won't have our parts! We will all lose!"
I stared at her straight in the eye. "I will win. I have seen it. I know the skill level necessary and have exceeded it. My pod is better, my skills are better, my connection to the force is deeper. I will win." I declare.
She stared at me, and for a second it felt like we were staring into each other's souls. She wanted the most absolutely risk free, direct and efficient method to help her people. I respected that. I understood that. My irritation at her lack of faith in my ability drained out of me like water in a sink, left with respect for her priorities and admiration for her strength.
Conversely, she seemed to also see something in my eyes, because she murmured, "I believe you."
I nodded. "Thank you. I know how much this means to you. I won't let you or your people down."
She smiled. "I'll hold you to that little Jedi."
"I'm no Jedi. Though I'd like to be if possible." I said, my eyes unintentionally flashing to Qui Gon. Shit! Did I overplay my hand?
To both my relief and irritation, Qui Gon only hummed, which I took to mean 'we shall see'.
For the next few minutes, we discussed our plan in detail, including the individual roles we would all play. The pod was done, but there were a few things I wanted to tune up and a few checks I wanted to make. It was the day before Boonta eve, so Watto would be out making bets and schmoozing hutts, so I would have the day off. We basically settled on a similar game plan as what I remember from the phantom menace.
Once all the plans were finalized, and all that was left was spending the night waiting out the storm, we dispersed through the dwelling.
While Qui Gon was having a conversation with Amu, the rest of us (Padme, R2, Jar Jar and I) were swapping stories. They had told me about Naboo and what was going on with the trade federation, as well as other stories about their childhoods on Naboo. Interestingly enough, Padme and JarJar knew surprisingly little about each others cultures, and asked each other just as many questions as I asked them or they asked me. I told them about the 'flight' we did with the Whitesuns, and they were surprisingly shocked at the tale.
"Wait. Hold on!" Padme interrupted. "Alask? An old, sandy colored, male Twilek, freed from slavery? Certainly you don't mean Alask Syndulla?"
"Uh, yeah, I do. Do you know him or something?" I asked.
"Well I don't know him personally, but he was recently inaugurated as Ryloth's new senator after Orn Free Taa was convicted for corruption and human trafficking! Ryloth's whole economy and ruling body got flipped on its head, and it lead to a serious inquiry into many senators personal lives!"
"Indeed it did." I jumped at Qui Gon's voice from behind me, as I had been too focused on our conversation to keep my guard up. He continued, "My padawan and I were present for the conflict on Ryloth, and are close personal friends with Alask Syndulla, As well as the person who wrote this." Qui Gon pulled a familiar datapad from his sleeve, and I realized it was the one that Nyra had given me with all the Matukai learning materials on it.
"What?! You know Nyra?!" I asked, wondering how they had met.
He didn't explain, only nodding. "You've been studying these?" He questioned.
"Yes, I have." I said, irritated at the subject change. "How do you know Nyra?" I asked once again.
"Enough to have heard of you, though she didn't tell me your name. She did mention you as 'far more gifted than her current student.' The rest, however, is a story for a different time."
I sighed, grumbling. How the hell did he know Nyra? They must have met recently, after she had left the planet. What the hell was going on?! I looked at Qui Gon, who was the picture of serenity, but also seemed to radiate a cryptic smugness. It seemed like he would tell me about his connection to my old teacher when he was good and ready, and not a moment sooner.
"Would you be willing to show me what she taught you?" He asked.
I sighed again, then nodded, and got out the staff I used to practice the Matukai pole-arm forms. I had made the staff myself, it was a long metal pole with high powered electro stun sticks built into each end. It wasn't as powerful or as durable as the electro staff of a magma guard, but it was strong enough to put someone on their ass.
I moved into the main living area, which was the only room in the house big enough for practice, and gently used telekinesis to lift the table and move it to the wall to make room, which earned an "Oooooo! Bombad the force!" From Jar Jar, and a small golf clap from Padme. For a second I thought she may be mocking me, but when I looked and sensed her I found she had a smile on her face and genuine curiosity and wonder in her eyes, which brought heat to my cheeks. I guess Telekinesis was pretty cool. I forgot that was the case sometimes with how often Amu and I use it in private.
Still, I got into the correct beginning stance, and began to fluidly work through the combat staff katas that Amu and I had been practicing for the better part of 2 years now. When I first started Matukai training, enhancing my body with the force felt like breathing through a coffee straw, but now? Now it was like the force flowed through me as if it was my own blood, thrumming through my body and energizing my movements. Slowly I ramped up my speed, surpassing what was humanly possible as the staff and my body felt lighter and more precise. I worked my way around in a circle, ramping up until I was at the very limit of my force ability, then kept up the pace, focusing on form and footwork even as I exerted my maximum.
Amu and I used to spar with each other at full tilt, but that stopped happening about 6 months in when my power in the force surpassed the strength and reach advantage she had as an adult, and I started winning every spar with relative ease. We still sparred of course, but it was at her speed, not mine.
So when Qui Gon joined the spar using Amu's slightly too short for him staff, and matching my maximum speed no less, it initially took me off guard. I was quick to adapt however, pushing myself to the maximum against him, and found myself grinning from ear to ear as I pushed myself to the limits against someone for the first time in a while! The spar went on for what seemed to me in my accelerated state like hours, but was probably only a few minutes of real time. Eventually however, all good things must come to an end, and Qui Gon was able to catch my staff on his in a position where he had superior leverage, disarming me. He casually caught my staff with the force before it could smack into the wall, and I fell to my knees in exhaustion.
"Very good!" He commented emphatically, making me smile bashfully, especially when I realized Padme and Jar Jar were clapping at the spectacle.
"That was amazing!" Padme commented, which made my face burn even more, and she continued. "There were times when I couldn't even make out individual movements! You both looked like a storm of weapons and stun shocks! You even looked like your limbs multiplied some times!"
"Oh uhh…um…" I responded articulately. Amu shot me a knowing look, quirking one of her eyebrows and smiling smugly at my reaction, which only made me more embarrassed.
Qui Gon took this opportunity to speak. "You have been trained well. The kind of footwork you showed cannot be mastered with self study. How long did Nyra train you for? A year?"
Amu answered his question. "Nyra was only here for a month. To master the footwork, we worked together, one of us would perform the stances, while the other would compare them to the holos Nyra left us. Only by cooperating like this did we master the movements."
Qui Gon looked back at her, shocked at the truth ringing through the force at her words. "And what you said earlier about… his father, is it really true?"
Amu nodded, "Yes." The force once again pulsed in recognition of truth.
Qui Gon ran his hand through his beard. "Anakin…" he began, "May I run a quick blood test? It won't take long or be painful, just to check your health and aptitude."
I my heart nearly beat out of my chest in excitement, but I kept my shields up and my face calm, and nodded. "Sure. But only if you run it on Amu as well. I wanna know if she's healthy too."
He nodded his acceptance.
Amu's M count ended up being around 14,000 per cell, far above the minimum level to be accepted into the Jedi, if she had been found early enough.
My count had been the same as the movies of course, but there was something about it that I had misunderstood.
Apparently, according to Qui Gon, Midichlorians were almost infinitesimally tiny, nearly invisible even under microscopes that showed mitochondria and their DNA in detail. Midichlorians were actually closer to particles than cellular organisms, the only reason they were considered alive by some was their behavior, and even then it was up for debate.
The important part of all this was that the blood scanner didn't actually 'see' the Midichlorians themselves in each cell, but just measured the amount of energy the cells gave off and extrapolated the M count from there. After a certain point however, a high enough density of Midichlorians didn't give off a measurably consistent increase in energy, giving fluctuating readings the higher the count was, and as such, the absolute maximum the scanner was calibrated to detect was 20,000. No one had bothered programming or manufacturing anything sensitive enough to measure past that accurately, because since the discovery of Midichlorians about 700 years ago no one on record had ever surpassed 18,600, which was master Yoda's count.
Essentially, my M count wasn't actually the exact value of 20,000 per cell. My M count was apparently so high it literally couldn't be measured accurately with the tools we had on hand. My potential in the force made a fucking overflow error.
Which was… both exhilarating and terrifying. On one hand I hungered for that kind of power, but on the other, wasn't it bad to be exited by that? I didn't actually know, but I did know I didn't want to go to the dark side. What use was power if it turned you into a monster to get it? But still, I didn't have to turn to the dark in order to get power. If I went with the Jedi, I could achieve my potential without going crazy. But hadn't Canon Anakin done the same? And we all saw how that worked out for everyone involved.
It was these thoughts that accompanied me as I slowly drifted off on the blanket on the floor I was using as my bed tonight (because there was no fucking way in a billion years that I would take my bed while a literal Queen of an entire fucking planet slept on the floor, so I had insisted she take it) when just as I was drifting off in the dark, I could feel Amu kneel beside me. "Amu? What's up?" I questioned groggily.
"You are going to join the Jedi."
It wasn't a question, nor was it a command, but a realization of fact. We had talked about it before, but I guess it was just now becoming real for her. I looked at her, and realized that it would be goodbye, Likely for a long time. Something inside me clenched painfully. Suddenly… I realized something. I didn't want her to go. I had spent my whole life with her, or at least my Anakin life, and when I pictured myself off having adventures with the Jedi I had always subconsciously pictured that she would be there too, no matter how impossible that actually was. "I… I don't know now." I spoke truthfully, "I've wanted to be a Jedi for as long as I've known about them, but now? If it means leaving you behind…"
She sighed, running her fingers through my hair. "Anakin." She stated. "Don't you dare give up on this path just because of me. If you try it out, and decide it genuinely doesn't work for you, then, and only then, can you leave. But if you gave up this opportunity now, before you have even started, I have no doubt you would regret and wonder about it for the rest of your life. And I would never want that for you."
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I sniffed to try and fend them off. "I'll comm you. Even if I'm not allowed. Connection isn't the same as attachment. And I'll always need you. You'll always be my Amu."
Her voice was choked with emotion, and though she did not let the water of her tears fall, I could tell it was a close thing. "And you'll always be my Vikki-ka" (small male child/baby) "I'll look forward to your comm calls." She kissed me on the forehead, and retreated to her own bed.
Amu may have been able to keep her tears from falling, but that night? In that darkness? I wasn't nearly so controlled.
Tomorrow would be the start of the plan that would lead to our freedom. The beginning of my journey as a Jedi, as a free being, and as someone with the whole Galaxy in front of me. There would be plenty of time for exhilaration and happiness.
Right now, I let the tears fall.
A/N: Can I just say… writing Qui Gon Jinn well while also juggling an altered version of a pre-existing script is SOOOOOOO HHHAAAAAARRRDDD!
I don't want to make him boring! I want him to be wise and kind but also stubborn, a little prideful, and a bit of a troll/maverick. But I realized halfway through writing this chapter that most of those qualities are mainly on display in the original Phantom Menace when he makes the plan to rescue Anakin all in the middle of everything else, taking major risks that eventually pay off, because it's the 'will of the force.'
But in this story, Anakin has already been planning on all of this happening, has clearly communicated this plan, and everyone has fully agreed with it! So in doing this I inadvertently took all those moments away from Qui Gon, leaving him mostly a passive observer! Which while that makes sense for a Jedi, it comes across as him being boring and bland! AAAAHHHH I HATE SCRIPT COPY SECTIONS!
Fortunately I was able to write a few original scenes at the end there, so I -hope- his character shone through, at least a little bit. I'll make sure to do more with him in the next few chapters, as I quite like him as a character.
I should have alot more free time going forward so expect updates to be more common than they were around Christmas.
Anyways, happy new year everybody!
Ciao!
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An Old Friend
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2021
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Hi everyone! I'm back!
Thank you all so much for your responses and reviews, it makes me so exited to write!
Let's get into it!
Everyone had woken up bright and early the next morning, and had all taken turns using the sonic scrubber, which Padme had to be taught how to use, and she let slip that she had only ever used water showers, which briefly stunned Amu and I.
So Amu explained it to her (no it doesn't have a door, no you don't need to disrobe, no it won't ruin your clothes) and she seemed… embarrassed? With a hint of guilt?
"You don't need to feel guilty." I said. "Neither of us selected the circumstances of our birth. It is common sense to take whatever opportunities you have. From what I can tell you are the type to use your wealth to help others whenever you can."
She ducked her head, embarrassed, then responded, "I am very fortunate to have been selected as one of the queens handmaidens."
I held her gaze, unreasonably irritated. It was logical for her to lie to me, she only knew me less than a day and she was essentially in 'enemy territory'. Still, I couldn't help but be a bit hurt.
Breathe in, breathe out. We have work to do today.
We had only one more full day before Boonta eve, and since the race was in the late afternoon around 4:30, we had about a day and a half to prepare.
Qui Gon Jinn would be making the same bets with with Watto as he did in Canon, while I would be retrieving our money from the cave, then meet up with Obi Wan at the ship, who would place his own bet on me winning. If Qui Gon was the one to place the bet, it might draw suspicion as to where he got the money, which might tip Watto off.
While Obi Wan was out meeting me with the money and then placing the bet afterwards, Qui Gon and the others would be briefly staying at the ship to make sure the 'Queen' was never unguarded. Once Obi Wan returned, Qui Gon would once again return to town and help me do the last preparations for the race.
Right now I was working on the pod, not really replacing anything major, just going through some final checks. Qui Gon's presence bloomed behind me, and I realized it was time for us to go complete our tasks. Qui Gon would negotiate with Watto, and I would get the money.
Preparing to leave, I engaged my stealth field at full blast. I was about to go when Qui Gon put his hand on my shoulder. Surprised, I looked up at him.
"That's a good trick for non sensitives, but to a trained force user, the mind trick gives you away, like a buzzing beacon of mental pressure. If you are ever avoiding a force adept, you'll be much better off using those basic shields your Mother and you showed yesterday, the ones based on a feeling of safety only."
My eyes widened. I had no Idea! But… "Thank you for the advice, but why tell me that now?"
"I suppose I enjoy teaching. I also have begun to sense an additional presence on the planet with us. Its darkness makes it difficult to tell its location, but I believe it is somewhat close. You should be fine to use the mind trick field for now, but if you are chased by a dark sider…"
"Turn the mind trick off and just wrap the force around me and let it flow past, like Amu taught me."
"Just so." Qui Gon replied. "Most force users rely so heavily on their force senses that we at times lose our conventional eyes for movement. Totally erasing your presence while still maintaining your senses and connection to the force is far more of an advantage against other sensitives than I think you realize. Stay safe. Return well, and win passage for all of us off this rock."
I committed his words to memory, recognizing the value in them. "Ok! Got it. Thank you."
He did that Jedi bow of his, and I returned it. Then, I set off on my last ever journey to the Durindfire cave as a slave, as he set off to negotiate with Watto.
As I blasted across the dunes on Hank II, I gulped in trepidation at the feeling of unease that was creeping into my surroundings. Honestly, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but I didn't know if it was the force telling me something, or just my own anxiety clouding my judgment. How do you even tell the difference between your own fear and a warning from the force?
I glanced back, cursing the fact that the water carrier trailer was left in the cave, or I could have brought Obi Wan with me. Of course, that would have left "the queen" unguarded, so that was still a no go, but it would have made me feel a lot better. I had my disguise on, but this was the first time I was making this journey in broad daylight. This also wasn't a water run, it was the FINAL run for all the marbles. For our freedom.
I shook my head to clear it. I had done this mission hundreds of times before. There was little use to stressing about it now.
Looking back, I should've realized that the force was warning me. It wasn't until I had reached the boulder covering the cave mouth and shut off Hank II's engine, and still heard the sound of a speeder in the distance, slowly getting louder, did I realize what was happening.
Somehow, I had been followed.
Shit! Who was it?! Was it Darth Maul?! Was I fucked?!
Remembering Qui Gon Jinn's advice, I disengaged the stealth mind trick, hid behind a rock, and smoothed out my shields as best as I could.
I was nothing. Just a rock. I focused on safety as I palmed my shock staff, my Thor gun at the ready in my dominant hand.
The speeder rounded the corner, and while I couldn't see it, the sound it made was… strange. It was relatively loud and chuggy, similar to how Hank II sounded, which isn't how I remember Darth Maul's speeder sounding from the movie. Didn't he have top notch equipment?
I heard the rider get off with a soft thud of feet onto the sand of the canyon floor, and a type of reptilian hissing that reminded me of a crocodile.
That… definitely didn't sound like a Zabrak.
Whoever was on the other side of the rock started sniffing heavily, then let out a raspy chuckle. "Haaa… hsssss… you finally realize your mind trick doesn't work on me eh? hssss… I smell you little rat. hssss… I'm glad I heeded the rumors… ssssA force sensitive Jawa would be a unique gift… hssss… for the scorekeeper…"
That speech pattern, that mention of a 'scorekeeper', it was a Trandoshan! Shit! It was honestly awesome that it wasn't Darth Maul, but I didn't have the energy to be relieved, because a Trandoshan was still plenty dangerous! Their home planet was in the same system as Kashyyyk, and they often got into physical conflicts with Wookiees! And while Wookiees were generally considered to be the stronger of the two species, they were both still comfortably in the 'can casually rip the limbs off a adult human male with very little effort' weight class of strength. Put that together with the mental strength to resist my mind trick, the intelligence, research, and planning to pick a speeder with the same engine sound as mine to remain undetected, as well as the fact the they knew I was force sensitive, and would have prepared accordingly…
Well, with all that they didn't really need to be the legendary Darth Maul to be a major fucking problem.
They kept sniffing, their footsteps going over to the main boulder entrance. I had frequented this area, so my scent would be all over it. I risked a peek over the boulder, and got my first look. By the long nobbly red crests on his head he was male, and an old one at that. He had plenty of wrinkles on his scaly skin, which did little to hide a ridiculous amount of lean corded muscle that rippled with every idle movement.
He was hunched over, inspecting the disturbed dirt around the main boulder entrance, and I noticed that his skin seemed especially pale and discolored, with bits of painful looking stuck shed crusting him around his eyes and the corners of his mouth.
Suddenly the wind shifted, and the force spiked with a feeling of danger as I quickly ducked back into my hiding place.
It was no good, even if I hadn't been seen, he had caught my scent, and I could feel his force presence rushing towards my hiding spot!
Shit! I'd been found!
Blasting upwards with a telekinetic jump, I used the force to guide my hand as I fired off shots from my Thor gun as fast as the weapon would allow.
Quick as lightning, the reptilian bounty hunter brought up what appeared to be a high tech African Zulu shield, which absorbed all my shots.
After I landed I quickly dodged to the side, just in time for him to fire a mandalorian heavy slug repeater one handed at my former position with a BOOM so loud I could feel the shockwave.
The massive recoil of the belt fed monstrosity barely seemed to faze him, as he kept firing with extreme accuracy as I dove, juked, and generally had my ass saved by danger sense and precognition.
Every time he got a good lead on me, the force warned me and I was able to jink and dodge the instant before he pulled the trigger, the heavy slugs ripping through air invisibly where I was the moment before.
He was keeping me moving, keeping me distracted, keeping my focus occupied so I couldn't use the force against him, and it was working.
His fire was so constant and accurate that if I used the force for anything other than predicting danger and enhancing speed I'd get hit. I needed cover! I needed space! I needed time to focus!
Suddenly I had an idea! As crazy as it seemed, I needed to get closer. Dodging the fire line of a gun was easier up close, as he'd have to move the gun more to keep up with me and I'd be able to circle behind him more easily.
I began working my way towards him, darting left and right, and when I was in range I pulled my trick.
I leaped up like I was trying to launch myself over him, causing him to to smirk and bring his gun up to shoot the immobile air target, but right after I had pushed against the ground with the force to launch myself, I pulled at the ground to suck me right back down in front of him.
For a split second he lost sight of me, as the laws of physics said that gravity shouldn't randomly increase on people and their flight through the air should be predictable, and that was enough of a gap in time for me to gather enough power to PUSH.
As I threw my hands forward with a deep audible thrum of the force, the scaly old hunter went blasting back and smashed against the canyon wall. At this impact, his slug thrower discharged in his slack hand, the kick sending it sailing out of his grip.
I quickly pulled massive gun to my hand, and briefly considered firing it before realizing the shoulder rest was sawed off and using it would probably break my wrist. (Never mind that it would likely turn the Trandoshan's head into red mist, I still hadn't killed before and was scared of doing something so permanent.)
Using the force, I launched the overpowered gun up and over the top of the canyon wall.
He let out a wheezing snarl, a trickle of blood dripping from his mouth, and pulled out a long vibro dagger from a sheath on his hip. The blade was single edged, curved, and wickedly sharp, and honestly it was more accurate to call it a short sword than a dagger. Sweat dripped down my cheek as the vibroblade hummed ominously.
Taking my lessons from Indiana Jones, I quickly pointed my Thor gun and fired.
Ready for this, he once again snapped up his Zulu shield, absorbing the blasts, their only damage an ineffectual zapping sound as he rushed forward.
Panicked, I tried to force push him again, but he dug the bottom point of the shield into the dirt, only being blasted back about a meter.
Irritated, I tried to rip the accursed shield out of his hands with the force, but this was a HUGE mistake as he hopped upwards, yanking the shield out of the dirt and riding my powerful pull to sail towards me, closing the distance!
I frantically tried firing again, but the swipe of his sword hit my Thor gun with a zap, knocking it out of my hand and likely damaging it beyond repair.
It was only due to the force guiding my hand that I was able to perfectly deflect his next swipe with my electro staff, as if I had blocked it head-on my weapon would have been smashed from my hands. I frantically backpedaled, using every ounce of physical and telekinetic strength I had to keep deflecting and avoiding his hits, his blows feeling like hammer strikes despite only glancing off my indirect guard. Rushing forward just as fast as I backpedaled, He quickly reminded me that the sword wasn't his only weapon as he thrusted the Zulu shield forward, using its bottom point as a blunt spear.
Honestly, that move probably would have worked if I wasn't a precog using little cheater, but as it was I took the opportunity to leap upwards, using the extended shield as a spring board to flip over his head and strike him in the back of his scull at maximum voltage.
With my opponent off balance and stunned with pain, I gathered power for a moment and sent another howling PUSH, blasting him forwards once again.
As bad luck would have it, our orientation was such that he didn't hit a wall, simply tumbling head over heels through the canyon away from the cave entrance, meaning my push didn't do nearly as much damage as I was hoping.
His grip on the shield was loose, and using the force I yanked at it, sideways this time, successfully removing his defense as it ripped free from a hand strap. It was far too heavy for me, so I sent it up over the canyon wall like I did his gun.
The sword had fallen in the tumble, and he lunged for it, but I called it to my hand before he could reach it.
We both froze, wary of what each other would do next. At this point I was breathing kinda heavily, but the Trandoshan was far worse as he wheezed wetly, his limbs shaking with fatigue as blood dripped slowly from his mouth.
Suddenly I saw his mottled and flaky hide in a new light, the dots connecting in my brain.
"Leave!" I commanded, using the force despite knowing he'd probably resist it. "You have no weapons, and you are obviously weakened from a disease of some kind! It's no longer a fair fight, so go! We can fight and appease the scorekeeper at a later time when you are recovered and well!"
He started hissing, I didn't know whether from anger or humor, but he suddenly threw his head back, roaring with bitter laughter. "The only disease I have, worm, is old age!"
My eyes widened.
He continued. "How fortunate I am to find a worthy opponent into this place! This will be my final hunt!"
An icy hand gripped my heart. "No! Don't do this! It doesn't have to be this way! Please don't make me—"
"You know nothing!" He hissed with simultaneous rage and excitement, "I have searched these past months for a worthy opponent, and I have found one! I WILL NOT SLIP QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT! I WILL NOT FADE AWAY ON SOME… SICKBED!"
He rushed forward and I stumbled back, a primal fear at facing a being who was rushing towards death with nothing to lose and would take me with him briefly overtaking my heart.
When he was about halfway toward me he swung his arm as if throwing something, and I had already dodged the danger when I realized he had launched a cable dart hidden in is sleeve.
While I had dodged the projectile itself, I hadn't accounted for the attached cable, which wrapped around me, and he pulled me toward him with a yank. I managed to catch the ground with my feet and jumped, launching diagonally up and towards him, loosening the cable enough that I could use the force to repulse it away from my body, freeing myself.
Sensing a blow only an instant before it happened, I could only enhance myself with the force and gather whatever telekinetic power I could in front of me as a buffer as he performed a devastating high kick to my flying form, and I felt the bones in my arm and a few of my ribs give as I was launched back by his immense strength. Hurtling towards the canyon wall, I only barely managed to cushion myself with the force, avoiding further injury.
He rushed me once again and I wrapped my telekinetic grip around my arm to hold it in place, and I turned and dashed for my staff that I had dropped when he kicked me, but he got to me first, his claws snagging the back of my robes and slicing shallowly into my back.
He reared me up to slam me into the ground, and I frantically flailed around for any handholds and grabbed the loose cable still attached to his other hand, using it as leverage to pull myself free, my robes ripping free from his slightly bloody talons.
Tarzan swinging around him on the cable like a tether ball, I kicked off the ground and swung up and behind him, landing on his back and wrapping the loose cable around his neck, and using all my force enhanced strength to pull it tight.
Instantly my reptilian foe began desperately slashing and reaching behind his back where I hung, not having the flexibility or leverage to properly hit or grab me. Even while dodging, I continued to pull with all my might, the rough texture of the cable sawing painfully into my hands.
Frantically he rushed backwards toward the wall, and I just barely managed to use the force cushion myself to avoid becoming a red spaghetti stain on his back, but not enough to prevent my shoulder from smashing against the canyon wall, popping it painfully out of place.
Frantically I wrapped the force around my shoulder as well, pretty much just using telekinesis to hold all of me together.
He reared forward to build momentum, and this time I was prepared, cushioning myself fully from the impact as he smashed backwards into the wall.
As he continued to struggle, My entire body thrummed with otherworldly energy, and as his flailing continued I was met with a sudden certainty.
He wouldn't stop. If I let go here, I wouldn't be able to win. I was too injured. I would die.
If I let go of this cable I would die.
He flailed and struggled and made horrible garbled screeching sounds that made a distant part of me whine with empathy.
I held on.
The cable sliced deeper into my hands, blood streaming down my wrists and ripping off my elbows.
I held on.
He fell backwards to the ground twitching on top of me, clawing weakly, and my ankle was smashed painfully between his armor and the ground.
I held on, pulling with all my might.
And suddenly, something happened that I had sensed countless times before, but never had ever been the direct cause of.
His force presence flickered weakly like a candle in the wind, then…
It was gone. Snuffed out.
I released my grip, shocked at the sudden void the lack of presence left.
He was dead.
I killed him.
I killed him.
I breathed in and out. Shouldn't I… feel something about this? Shouldn't I cry?
Nothing.
Shouldn't I feel for an innocence lost? Shouldn't I vomit in horror? I feared taking a life so much, dreaded it and…
Nothing. Nothing except relief, pain, and the slow creeping joy of being alive.
I pulled my leg out from under the body, and when I tried to stand on it I collapsed to the ground.
Shit.
My right arm, my ribs, my left shoulder, and my left ankle. All broken.
My eyes were blown wide as my limbs shook, my body in shock.
I giggled.
The giggling devolved into maniacal laughter, the kind that rips out of you when you are at your limit, the kind where everything seems funny and unreal. Darkness curled at the edges of my vision, and I collapsed on the ground, fighting to stay conscious.
Hadn't I healed from something like this before? Oh yeah, when Rick died and the big soul fuse happened. Anakin was pretty injured then, but we healed! I tried to replicate that feeling, that supernatural awareness of my own body and primal healing energy.
The force thrummed, and suddenly I felt like I saw my body from the outside, just like I did back then. I had the awareness, but where was the energy?
Oh yeah. The energy came from our souls fusing. There wasn't any left. I couldn't heal.
But maybe I could use this new awareness I had!
It seemed like there was a disconnect between how my body was, and how it… should be? I felt like I had two bodies, one heavy and flawed and broken, and another finer, more ethereal body that was uninjured. Ideal.
So… even if I can't actually heal the damage, it would still be good if the heavy, broken body matched the floaty undamaged one right? Matching was good!
Using a finer application of telekinesis than I had ever been capable of before, I brought the insides and broken pieces of the heavy body back into the complete natural shape of the ethereal one, so they would match.
The force dulled my pain, but it didn't completely remove the agony of all my broken bones being forced back into place, my shoulder re setting itself in its socket and all the fragments of my crushed ankle realigning perfectly into their places, like a puzzle being completed.
Woah.
That felt… really weird.
My limbs were straight though. They were set.
I tried to get up and walk, but my ankle bone bits crushed out of place slightly, and I cursed my poor memory as I fell into the sand. I hadn't actually healed myself, I was just… holding everything in place.
I pulled my ankle bits back into line so they matched my ethereal body, but my awareness of it was fading away as I drew closer to regaining full consciousness.
I managed to get all the pieces back into their place, and then wrap them up with telekinesis, psychically holding them all together.
I drifted back into full consciousness.
What… the FUCK was that?!
I maintained the technique, not sure if I could perform it again if I let it slip.
Slowly, I walked, holding my body together from the inside out.
I couldn't waste time wondering what the fuck just happened or how I had done that what the FUCK that second body was.
I wanted to sleep. I wanted to go home.
But not yet.
I had a job to do.
Obi wan Kenobi stood at the outskirts, waiting for the person he was supposed to meet.
Qui Gon had returned to the ship, and it was Obi Wan's job to act as a proxy to use the child's money to place a bet on said child winning the pod race. It was all a bit paranoid and complicated, as he felt Qui Gon could do it himself, but he supposed that paranoia was good when they really were out to get you, and with the queen on the planet and the entire trade federation baying for her blood, they were 'out to get them' indeed. He just hoped the child would deliver on his pod racing promise.
He faintly heard the wubwubwubing of a speeder bike in the distance, and turned to see if it was the child he was looking for, and immediately sensed there was something wrong. Pain radiated off the small figure, and he was using the force… in a way Obi Wan hadn't sensed before.
"Are you alright? Why does it feel like you are… choking the inside of your ankle?" Obi wan questioned.
"Ran into trouble. Broke my ankle. Holding it together." The small figure in Jawa robes uttered jerkily, as if trying to talk and balance on something difficult at the same time.
"You're—I beg your pardon, you're holding your bones together?!"
"Yes." The figure replied. "It takes a lot of concentration so if you don't mind, be quiet and let me focus."
Obi Wan blinked in shock. He supposed it was possible, but you would have to have a ridiculous knowledge about your body's inner workings! If you weren't careful, you could set something wrong and have to re break it down the line. The ankle must not be that horribly damaged, most likely a clean break.
He wanted to ask the child many, many questions, but like the child pointed out, they had a job to do. Obi wan accepted the messenger bag full of money, and a written note on how much was exactly there.
When the child turned away he noticed the torn cloak and slashed back.
"I'll take care of that bet. you go to the ship. We have some bacta patches and some medical casting jell. Take care of yourself."
"I can't… I have to go home, to make sure they know I'm safe, that everything is ok."
"Qui Gon is on the ship, he can contact your mother. Get medical treatment. now."
The child sighed. "Ok." He answered, but seemed to hesitate.
Obi Wan knew that look, that hesitation, from all the times it had appeared on his own face. It was a 'I'll pretend I'm going to get help just long enough for you to leave so that I can escape and avoid the healer' look. "On second thought, I'll escort you." He concluded.
"What?! No! I'm fine!" The child protested.
"No, it's too late." Obi Wan said smugly. "You've already admitted to a broken bone and I can clearly those cuts on your back. Ship. Let's go."
Grumbling, the child walked slowly and carefully to the ship, with Obi wan making sure he entered, and that master Qui Gon knew he was injured.
Once the child was inside, Obi Wan turned away to complete his end of the plan, heading towards town.
Obi Wan's stomach filled with anxiety. There was no guarantee that child could race, injured as he was. And even if he could, it wouldn't be moral to force him to.
This was all taking an enormous risk. One that wasn't necessary. Qui Gon seemed to have faith in him but… putting all this on the shoulders of a young boy, and an injured one at that was just…
Obi Wan looked down at the satchel full of money.
The child was right. They did have a job to do. Once this was over, it could all be sorted out.
Once I was in the ship, the next hour or two passed in a flurry of concern and admonishment. Surprise surprise, one quick medical scan showed my condition was FAR worse than anyone guessed.
All of the surface wounds were treated with bacta patches, and my broken limbs were taken care of with almost their entire supply of quick dry medicrete.
As I feared, the more I relaxed I got the more tired I became, I could feel the pain as the adrenaline faded, and the fear I held in my chest began to claw its way up.
I was in no condition to race.
No! I could race! I held myself together out there, I can do it again!
I performed that technique in a state of semi consciousness near a major crystal nexus, and I'm also pretty sure I hallucinated having two bodies at the same time. There's no guarantee I can figure out what the hell I did to perfectly set all my bones together when such a feat should have been impossible for someone without Jedi master level medical and sensing skills, which I certainly don't have, at least not yet.
Would racing anyway cripple me? Leave me with a bum leg or fucked up shoulder?
Could I even win like this?
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
Fuck!
At some point in the night, I nodded off, only to awaken on Obi Wan's return.
He looked at me bandaged and casted up like a mummy in plaster armor, then did a double take, shock on his face.
"How injured are you?!" He spat.
I stayed silent, avoiding his gaze.
"We just bet your entire savings, our ship, you and your mothers freedom, and potentially the fate of the entire planet of Naboo on the outcome of this race."
Funny enough, on some level I relaxed. That much money in one place always made me nervous, as someone could steal it. The fact the he actually bet it instead of using it for something else relaxed one of my fears. "You used the official bookies? The ones backed by the interstellar racing league and the hutt clans?" I questioned.
Obi wan sighed. "Yes, of course. I went to the exact building and person as planned. I even received this datapad."
I looked over it and everything was official. They had given me 1/30 odds to win, which would be a fortune when all was said and done. Even after buying Amu's freedom, she'd be able to buy a ship, and not just some junker, but one with top shelf Armaments, shields, hyperdrive, and anything else she needed. Conversely, she could probably also get an education at a decent republic university, or buy a nice house somewhere.
The point was, she would have total freedom.
"Good. That's… great…"
She would have total freedom… if I won the race.
I know what a pure Anakin in this situation would do. I could feel the instincts and experiences all screaming the same thing.
You must prove your usefulness. Your worthiness. You are a slave. You can be more, but only if you prove yourself. If you ask for assistance, you are a drain. A net negative in the system. If you need assistance, you are weak. Lesser. Asking for help is showing your belly, and will never work out well, with Amu being potentially the only exception, but even then, she has to deal with all the same stuff as you, so it would still be super unfair and uncomfortable to ask.
Do it yourself. Bottle it up. Find a way to manage, no matter how broken it leaves you, because asking for help will let people find out you are lesser, and they will never respect you again. They will find out who you really are, and your many flaws will only cause distain and rejection. This is the only possible outcome.
Except for Amu. But she is… Amu. She is special. Unique. She loves you for who you are, not what you can do. No one else is like her. No one.
This so called 'knowledge' of Anakin's was currently clashing heavily with what I knew from my Rick side.
Years of therapy and life experience taught Rick that no one exists in a vacuum. That living in an environment of slavery and exploitation had skewed Anakin's perception of 'normal'. Showing weakness could literally get you killed on Tatooine, or at least shaken down in an alley, or kidnapped and sold.
But among allies? Friends? People that actually cared? Letting them help you didn't de-value you. There was nothing wrong with it, in fact, It sometimes brought you closer. Letting people in let you analyze your own emotional insides, to let the bad stuff out, and that thread of trust that was created in the process brought understanding, sometimes even intimacy. It wasn't a negative thing, at least, not to the people that mattered.
"I need…"
Obi wan quirked his eyebrow in curiosity.
My sides warred with each other. People were surely different on earth. This was Star Wars. All this 'asking for help' shit might just be earth brand insanity parroted by first world namby pambies who always had enough, who don't have to kill their own food and eat insects and worms as literally the ONLY alternative to starving to death, who can still count the amount of times they have even seen a dead person on a single hand, and for the majority that number is zero.
But Amu wasn't like that. She loved me. She helped me, and never used that against me. She was proof that people could help without distain or judgement. She always said the the biggest problem in this galaxy is that nobody helps each other. My heart pounded against my chest as I took the plunge.
"I. need… help."
Obi wan hummed in acknowledgment, as if I had commented on the weather. As if what I just did was easy and normal.
Oh wait.
"What can we do to help?" He responded easily.
Damn.
"I… don't know. Could you put me in a healing trance? Do something to speed up my recovery? I…"
Obi Wan got a look on his face, a mixture of pity and anger that MAJORLY pissed me off, until I realized his anger wasn't pointed at me.
"You shouldn't have to do this. Any of this. Force it's like melida daan all over again. Yes we can put you into a healing trance, but it won't help you recover fully, not even close. At most, if we get master Qui Gon to help guide you deep, then you could have about a weeks worth of normal recovery happen in the time between now and the race tomorrow. Your bones won't be fully healed in that time, your body will only have made a light scaffolding of bone between the pieces, not enough to walk on or use your arms at full strength. Using your limbs in that state would be extremely painful, and you will likely re-break them in the process."
A rush of relief. I forced myself to speak calmly, to not let my inner mess show. "That's… fine." I replied. "We—we are talking about freedom here, not only that, but saving a planet. I uh, I can handle pain, and we can get proper medical treatment once we get to Coruscant right?"
Obi Wan nodded, "Of course." He said as if professional medical care was a trivial matter where he came from, a given.
Oh wait.
Holy shit I wanted that. That nonchalant access to things that were practically a dream here on Tatooine. My resolve firmed. "This race can change everything. I'm not letting some karking 'ouchies' get in the way of that."
Obi Wan pinched the bridge of his nose. "Language." He chided, and I could feel guilt ripple briefly through his near impeccable shielding before he closed it off, his inner self once again hidden under the facade of a perfect Jedi.
Distractedly I wondered how powerful and seamless his shields would one day become. After a certain level of development, would anyone ever see through the mask? See that he felt just as deeply, and hurt just as painfully as anyone else? I knew from meta knowledge that he did, but if I didn't know that beforehand? There was almost nothing I could feel from him right now that suggested anything other than peaceful serenity. That he was anything other than a perfect unfeeling Jedi, and it was honestly a little off-putting. Like a mirror smooth, placid lake with the fresh smell and light mist of morning, only occasionally rocked by minor ripples and waves. Who knows what went on under the surface?
Still, there were other ways I could gage his emotional state, like micro expressions on the face and body language. In this way, I could tell he was currently very uncomfortable. Most likely about me racing for them.
Captain Panaka spoke up, interrupting my thoughts. "I don't feel comfortable with this, but even so, as a man from Naboo I understand that sometimes people are special, that there are things only they can do, no matter how young they may be. The queen is only fourteen, and yet she is able to run the planet more effectively than many of her predecessors. If it would help, we still have some bacta that we can harvest from the remaining medi patches. If we use one of the longer vaccination needles we have for shaak rabies, we might be able to perform a single bacta injection to the interior of a bone. Paired with your… healing trance, it should help, but it will be extremely painful."
I brutally smashed down my trepidation at the thought of a needle down to the bone. This was good. Anything to give me an edge. "My ankle. It by far the worst off, and will take the most concentration to hold together, plus I'll need to be able to push and switch between the pedals quickly in order to control acceleration and fuel routing."
Nodding, Panaka went to the other room to prepare the injection.
With Obi Wan and I alone, we sat in silence, waiting for Qui Gon to return.
"Your injuries aren't the only thing bothering you." Obi wan stated.
I sighed. Stupid Jedi empathy powers. Still. Asking for help had worked once, so let's ride this momentum and get a streak going. "Yeah."
"Would you like to meditate on it? I can help you work through the nerves, to release the anxiety to the force." Obi wan offered.
I made a face. "As much as I appreciate it, I need to talk about something specific. It's about how I got injured."
"Ah yes. You were attacked by a wild animal of some kind? You were lucky to escape. That must have been quite frightening." He looked at me with compassionate eyes, not a trace of judgment.
I guess we'll see how long that lasts.
"It wasn't a wild animal, it was a person. A Trandoshan bounty hunter." I corrected.
Obi Wan's eyes widened minutely, his face betraying his Jedi control and perfect shielding.
I continued. "And I didn't escape. I… I killed him. These wounds on my hands?" I nodded my head downward, gesturing to my bandaged palms. "They weren't from the spines of some beast. They were from a the metal cable of a grapnel dart. I managed to wrap it around his neck. I strangled him to death. I felt his life go out."
Shock briefly rippled through Obi Wan's shields, briefly allowing me to sense his emotions. "Ah." He seemed to think for a while, then spoke up. "Perhaps I should know… the context behind this act?"
I nodded, and told him everything. I told him how I tried to talk him down, how terrifying it was to face someone who didn't fear death, how I fought and how afterwards… I didn't feel anything bad. I didn't vomit or have some kind of dramatic crisis. I just laughed like a maniac and then hallucinated a bit due to injury, then forced my bones into place, and came straight here. But even now, it didn't feel anything about killing him.
There was a pause in the conversation as Obi Wan seemed to formulate a response.
I continued. "Shouldn't it be… different? I mean, I've killed animals before, and I've sensed plenty of people die," Obi Wan blinked in shock at this admission, but I continued, "but shouldn't it be like, especially horrifying when I'm the one who killed him? Shouldn't I feel like I've changed? That I'm someone new? Killing is supposed to be a big deal!"
I remembered all the times Rick saw a character freak out about killing on TV or in a book, how being knocked out was something trivial in all the shows he watched, how none of Batman's victims EVER died from their injuries. Killing someone was supposed to be something different. Something more. Something that changed one's inner being. Made you someone different than who you were. Killing wasn't something you were supposed to just shrug off. It should be like the time pre fusion Anakin first killed a sand lizard for food and cried about it, but even worse.
Suddenly, I almost laughed at the brief intrusive thought that I'd killed a lizard this time too, just a bit bigger, and was immediately horrified at myself. Was I… a monster? A killer?
"You're not a monster." Obi Wan spoke, seemingly reading my mind. "I first killed a man when I was fourteen." He continued. "It was… horrifying I admit, but… it wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated. The feeling of his life being snuffed out was exactly the same as when someone died around me for other reasons. Killing someone with a weapon, and simply being present while someone dies… aren't really all that different in the force. It's just… death. The first time I killed wasn't quite as shocking as the first time I felt someone die. That was truly awful"
I interjected, "But it sounds like you freaked out about it! Like you were horrified!"
"And you aren't?" He answered
"No!" I insisted.
"Then why do you feel the need to talk about it? And don't lie and say you don't. We are having this conversation for a reason."
My mouth clamped shut.
Obi Wan continued. "The truth is… killing someone is… easy. Not emotionally but… logistically. Practically. You can just… do it, you are always capable of it, especially in a fight, and especially as a Jedi, to the point where it can even happen by accident. We are far more capable of destruction than regular people, and it is far less difficult than it feels like it morally should be. Sometimes it feels like there should be some kind of final box to check, or form to sign, but it just… happens. People die in combat. This is why control is so unbelievably important for a Jedi. We must hold back, explore every option before lethal force."
I responded, my brow furrowed. "It didn't feel like I had much of another option. If I hadn't killed him I would have died."
Obi Wan nodded, agreeing. "I believe that you are right. Sometimes there is no other option." The tightness in my chest finally began to loosen.
"Anakin." Obi Wan spoke, and I looked into his eyes.
"Yeah?"
"When was the first time you felt someone die? In the force."
I thought about that. Really thought. "I'm… not sure. Mom has stories about me crying at random times as a baby, and I can vaguely remember being woken up in the middle of the night when I was smaller, like maybe 2 or 3, being scared that one of the 'lights' outside went out but… eventually I just got used to it, I guess. It hasn't bothered me in a while, it's just… a thing that happens."
Obi Wan pulled me into a hug, "I'm so sorry."
"It's…OK. I guess death and I are old friends."
"No, it's not ok. Children shouldn't be desensitized to feeling death in the force."
"But I am."
"That's NOT your fault." Obi Wan said, and his words echoed with truth.
It wasn't my fault.
Something broke. The stress from the fight, the emptiness, all the times when I was bombarded with pain and suffering growing up, when a kid my age had made the mistake of asking Gardulla for some water because she was thirsty and they drowned her while laughing, only barely stopping before she died and leaving her mute from the trauma, all while I was connected to her, felt the fire in her/my lungs, fuck she had been my best friend and I didn't even remember her name, don't even know if she was still alive. I remembered the whippings, the old slave mother left out in the sandstorm as punishment and never making it back alive and Amu bawling because even if old Mama Skywalker wasn't Shmi's biological parent she had been her Amu and I cried along too without truly understanding what we were even crying about but feeling the sorrow just the same.
It all seemed to bubble up from the forgotten past like dark lava from a hellish volcano and erupted out as I began sobbing violently and screamed into Obi Wan's shoulder. He tensed, shocked and unsure what to do at this extreme reaction seemingly from nowhere, but soon re tightening the hug, wrapping the force around me like a blanket made of light.
"We will get you out of here." Obi Wan said solemnly, "You and your Mother. We'll do it even if we have to steal a ship and bust everyone out of the hangar."
I held on tighter at the promise, and cried some more.
Eventually, Qui Gon returned with Amu with him. He looked between Obi wan and I, noting that there was a new closeness between us, but left it at that.
Amu met Obi Wan, and fussed over me and my injuries, but paused as I gave her a hug. I had missed her, even for the short time we were apart.
But eventually it was time.
Captain Panaka was right. The bone injection did hurt. Like, a fucking shit ton. It was only Amu's singing that got me through. I could feel her distress, not only at my injury but at the situation.
Qui Gon guided me through the healing trance, and just before I went under, I thought of a joke. "Wake me, when you need me." I said, trying and failing to make my child voice sound like master chief, but still feeling pretty badass anyway, even if no one got the reference.
"Alright Anakin, we will," said Qui Gon, "Just ease yourself into the force, let it envelop you,"
And I did just that.
A/N Aaaaalllllright! Drama this chapter with the race next time!
You may say that I only did this to inject tension into a race that was practically already won and to that I say… well I can't say that isn't true, but it's not the ONLY reason. I knew I wanted Anakin to have to deal with killing someone before he left Tatooine, and I didn't want it to feel like it had no consequences either, so the injuries were a good way to do that.
I also wanted to give Ani and Obi time to bond and understand each other a bit, for Obi to really understand what Anakin has been through, and for Anakin to be able to see past Obi Wan's unintentional facade, and realize he isn't emotionless like how his natural talent with shielding lets him come across as. I feel like these are things the two of them desperately needed in the original, though I'm NOT confirming or denying that Obi Wan will be Anakin's master, just that they will have a connection going forward.
How did you like the fight? Was it good? Hopefully it wasn't too confusing.
How did you like the conversation afterward? Did it feel natural?
Have a great week everybody!
Ciao!
Thank you all so much for your responses and reviews, it makes me so exited to write!
Let's get into it!
Everyone had woken up bright and early the next morning, and had all taken turns using the sonic scrubber, which Padme had to be taught how to use, and she let slip that she had only ever used water showers, which briefly stunned Amu and I.
So Amu explained it to her (no it doesn't have a door, no you don't need to disrobe, no it won't ruin your clothes) and she seemed… embarrassed? With a hint of guilt?
"You don't need to feel guilty." I said. "Neither of us selected the circumstances of our birth. It is common sense to take whatever opportunities you have. From what I can tell you are the type to use your wealth to help others whenever you can."
She ducked her head, embarrassed, then responded, "I am very fortunate to have been selected as one of the queens handmaidens."
I held her gaze, unreasonably irritated. It was logical for her to lie to me, she only knew me less than a day and she was essentially in 'enemy territory'. Still, I couldn't help but be a bit hurt.
Breathe in, breathe out. We have work to do today.
We had only one more full day before Boonta eve, and since the race was in the late afternoon around 4:30, we had about a day and a half to prepare.
Qui Gon Jinn would be making the same bets with with Watto as he did in Canon, while I would be retrieving our money from the cave, then meet up with Obi Wan at the ship, who would place his own bet on me winning. If Qui Gon was the one to place the bet, it might draw suspicion as to where he got the money, which might tip Watto off.
While Obi Wan was out meeting me with the money and then placing the bet afterwards, Qui Gon and the others would be briefly staying at the ship to make sure the 'Queen' was never unguarded. Once Obi Wan returned, Qui Gon would once again return to town and help me do the last preparations for the race.
Right now I was working on the pod, not really replacing anything major, just going through some final checks. Qui Gon's presence bloomed behind me, and I realized it was time for us to go complete our tasks. Qui Gon would negotiate with Watto, and I would get the money.
Preparing to leave, I engaged my stealth field at full blast. I was about to go when Qui Gon put his hand on my shoulder. Surprised, I looked up at him.
"That's a good trick for non sensitives, but to a trained force user, the mind trick gives you away, like a buzzing beacon of mental pressure. If you are ever avoiding a force adept, you'll be much better off using those basic shields your Mother and you showed yesterday, the ones based on a feeling of safety only."
My eyes widened. I had no Idea! But… "Thank you for the advice, but why tell me that now?"
"I suppose I enjoy teaching. I also have begun to sense an additional presence on the planet with us. Its darkness makes it difficult to tell its location, but I believe it is somewhat close. You should be fine to use the mind trick field for now, but if you are chased by a dark sider…"
"Turn the mind trick off and just wrap the force around me and let it flow past, like Amu taught me."
"Just so." Qui Gon replied. "Most force users rely so heavily on their force senses that we at times lose our conventional eyes for movement. Totally erasing your presence while still maintaining your senses and connection to the force is far more of an advantage against other sensitives than I think you realize. Stay safe. Return well, and win passage for all of us off this rock."
I committed his words to memory, recognizing the value in them. "Ok! Got it. Thank you."
He did that Jedi bow of his, and I returned it. Then, I set off on my last ever journey to the Durindfire cave as a slave, as he set off to negotiate with Watto.
As I blasted across the dunes on Hank II, I gulped in trepidation at the feeling of unease that was creeping into my surroundings. Honestly, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but I didn't know if it was the force telling me something, or just my own anxiety clouding my judgment. How do you even tell the difference between your own fear and a warning from the force?
I glanced back, cursing the fact that the water carrier trailer was left in the cave, or I could have brought Obi Wan with me. Of course, that would have left "the queen" unguarded, so that was still a no go, but it would have made me feel a lot better. I had my disguise on, but this was the first time I was making this journey in broad daylight. This also wasn't a water run, it was the FINAL run for all the marbles. For our freedom.
I shook my head to clear it. I had done this mission hundreds of times before. There was little use to stressing about it now.
Looking back, I should've realized that the force was warning me. It wasn't until I had reached the boulder covering the cave mouth and shut off Hank II's engine, and still heard the sound of a speeder in the distance, slowly getting louder, did I realize what was happening.
Somehow, I had been followed.
Shit! Who was it?! Was it Darth Maul?! Was I fucked?!
Remembering Qui Gon Jinn's advice, I disengaged the stealth mind trick, hid behind a rock, and smoothed out my shields as best as I could.
I was nothing. Just a rock. I focused on safety as I palmed my shock staff, my Thor gun at the ready in my dominant hand.
The speeder rounded the corner, and while I couldn't see it, the sound it made was… strange. It was relatively loud and chuggy, similar to how Hank II sounded, which isn't how I remember Darth Maul's speeder sounding from the movie. Didn't he have top notch equipment?
I heard the rider get off with a soft thud of feet onto the sand of the canyon floor, and a type of reptilian hissing that reminded me of a crocodile.
That… definitely didn't sound like a Zabrak.
Whoever was on the other side of the rock started sniffing heavily, then let out a raspy chuckle. "Haaa… hsssss… you finally realize your mind trick doesn't work on me eh? hssss… I smell you little rat. hssss… I'm glad I heeded the rumors… ssssA force sensitive Jawa would be a unique gift… hssss… for the scorekeeper…"
That speech pattern, that mention of a 'scorekeeper', it was a Trandoshan! Shit! It was honestly awesome that it wasn't Darth Maul, but I didn't have the energy to be relieved, because a Trandoshan was still plenty dangerous! Their home planet was in the same system as Kashyyyk, and they often got into physical conflicts with Wookiees! And while Wookiees were generally considered to be the stronger of the two species, they were both still comfortably in the 'can casually rip the limbs off a adult human male with very little effort' weight class of strength. Put that together with the mental strength to resist my mind trick, the intelligence, research, and planning to pick a speeder with the same engine sound as mine to remain undetected, as well as the fact the they knew I was force sensitive, and would have prepared accordingly…
Well, with all that they didn't really need to be the legendary Darth Maul to be a major fucking problem.
They kept sniffing, their footsteps going over to the main boulder entrance. I had frequented this area, so my scent would be all over it. I risked a peek over the boulder, and got my first look. By the long nobbly red crests on his head he was male, and an old one at that. He had plenty of wrinkles on his scaly skin, which did little to hide a ridiculous amount of lean corded muscle that rippled with every idle movement.
He was hunched over, inspecting the disturbed dirt around the main boulder entrance, and I noticed that his skin seemed especially pale and discolored, with bits of painful looking stuck shed crusting him around his eyes and the corners of his mouth.
Suddenly the wind shifted, and the force spiked with a feeling of danger as I quickly ducked back into my hiding place.
It was no good, even if I hadn't been seen, he had caught my scent, and I could feel his force presence rushing towards my hiding spot!
Shit! I'd been found!
Blasting upwards with a telekinetic jump, I used the force to guide my hand as I fired off shots from my Thor gun as fast as the weapon would allow.
Quick as lightning, the reptilian bounty hunter brought up what appeared to be a high tech African Zulu shield, which absorbed all my shots.
After I landed I quickly dodged to the side, just in time for him to fire a mandalorian heavy slug repeater one handed at my former position with a BOOM so loud I could feel the shockwave.
The massive recoil of the belt fed monstrosity barely seemed to faze him, as he kept firing with extreme accuracy as I dove, juked, and generally had my ass saved by danger sense and precognition.
Every time he got a good lead on me, the force warned me and I was able to jink and dodge the instant before he pulled the trigger, the heavy slugs ripping through air invisibly where I was the moment before.
He was keeping me moving, keeping me distracted, keeping my focus occupied so I couldn't use the force against him, and it was working.
His fire was so constant and accurate that if I used the force for anything other than predicting danger and enhancing speed I'd get hit. I needed cover! I needed space! I needed time to focus!
Suddenly I had an idea! As crazy as it seemed, I needed to get closer. Dodging the fire line of a gun was easier up close, as he'd have to move the gun more to keep up with me and I'd be able to circle behind him more easily.
I began working my way towards him, darting left and right, and when I was in range I pulled my trick.
I leaped up like I was trying to launch myself over him, causing him to to smirk and bring his gun up to shoot the immobile air target, but right after I had pushed against the ground with the force to launch myself, I pulled at the ground to suck me right back down in front of him.
For a split second he lost sight of me, as the laws of physics said that gravity shouldn't randomly increase on people and their flight through the air should be predictable, and that was enough of a gap in time for me to gather enough power to PUSH.
As I threw my hands forward with a deep audible thrum of the force, the scaly old hunter went blasting back and smashed against the canyon wall. At this impact, his slug thrower discharged in his slack hand, the kick sending it sailing out of his grip.
I quickly pulled massive gun to my hand, and briefly considered firing it before realizing the shoulder rest was sawed off and using it would probably break my wrist. (Never mind that it would likely turn the Trandoshan's head into red mist, I still hadn't killed before and was scared of doing something so permanent.)
Using the force, I launched the overpowered gun up and over the top of the canyon wall.
He let out a wheezing snarl, a trickle of blood dripping from his mouth, and pulled out a long vibro dagger from a sheath on his hip. The blade was single edged, curved, and wickedly sharp, and honestly it was more accurate to call it a short sword than a dagger. Sweat dripped down my cheek as the vibroblade hummed ominously.
Taking my lessons from Indiana Jones, I quickly pointed my Thor gun and fired.
Ready for this, he once again snapped up his Zulu shield, absorbing the blasts, their only damage an ineffectual zapping sound as he rushed forward.
Panicked, I tried to force push him again, but he dug the bottom point of the shield into the dirt, only being blasted back about a meter.
Irritated, I tried to rip the accursed shield out of his hands with the force, but this was a HUGE mistake as he hopped upwards, yanking the shield out of the dirt and riding my powerful pull to sail towards me, closing the distance!
I frantically tried firing again, but the swipe of his sword hit my Thor gun with a zap, knocking it out of my hand and likely damaging it beyond repair.
It was only due to the force guiding my hand that I was able to perfectly deflect his next swipe with my electro staff, as if I had blocked it head-on my weapon would have been smashed from my hands. I frantically backpedaled, using every ounce of physical and telekinetic strength I had to keep deflecting and avoiding his hits, his blows feeling like hammer strikes despite only glancing off my indirect guard. Rushing forward just as fast as I backpedaled, He quickly reminded me that the sword wasn't his only weapon as he thrusted the Zulu shield forward, using its bottom point as a blunt spear.
Honestly, that move probably would have worked if I wasn't a precog using little cheater, but as it was I took the opportunity to leap upwards, using the extended shield as a spring board to flip over his head and strike him in the back of his scull at maximum voltage.
With my opponent off balance and stunned with pain, I gathered power for a moment and sent another howling PUSH, blasting him forwards once again.
As bad luck would have it, our orientation was such that he didn't hit a wall, simply tumbling head over heels through the canyon away from the cave entrance, meaning my push didn't do nearly as much damage as I was hoping.
His grip on the shield was loose, and using the force I yanked at it, sideways this time, successfully removing his defense as it ripped free from a hand strap. It was far too heavy for me, so I sent it up over the canyon wall like I did his gun.
The sword had fallen in the tumble, and he lunged for it, but I called it to my hand before he could reach it.
We both froze, wary of what each other would do next. At this point I was breathing kinda heavily, but the Trandoshan was far worse as he wheezed wetly, his limbs shaking with fatigue as blood dripped slowly from his mouth.
Suddenly I saw his mottled and flaky hide in a new light, the dots connecting in my brain.
"Leave!" I commanded, using the force despite knowing he'd probably resist it. "You have no weapons, and you are obviously weakened from a disease of some kind! It's no longer a fair fight, so go! We can fight and appease the scorekeeper at a later time when you are recovered and well!"
He started hissing, I didn't know whether from anger or humor, but he suddenly threw his head back, roaring with bitter laughter. "The only disease I have, worm, is old age!"
My eyes widened.
He continued. "How fortunate I am to find a worthy opponent into this place! This will be my final hunt!"
An icy hand gripped my heart. "No! Don't do this! It doesn't have to be this way! Please don't make me—"
"You know nothing!" He hissed with simultaneous rage and excitement, "I have searched these past months for a worthy opponent, and I have found one! I WILL NOT SLIP QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT! I WILL NOT FADE AWAY ON SOME… SICKBED!"
He rushed forward and I stumbled back, a primal fear at facing a being who was rushing towards death with nothing to lose and would take me with him briefly overtaking my heart.
When he was about halfway toward me he swung his arm as if throwing something, and I had already dodged the danger when I realized he had launched a cable dart hidden in is sleeve.
While I had dodged the projectile itself, I hadn't accounted for the attached cable, which wrapped around me, and he pulled me toward him with a yank. I managed to catch the ground with my feet and jumped, launching diagonally up and towards him, loosening the cable enough that I could use the force to repulse it away from my body, freeing myself.
Sensing a blow only an instant before it happened, I could only enhance myself with the force and gather whatever telekinetic power I could in front of me as a buffer as he performed a devastating high kick to my flying form, and I felt the bones in my arm and a few of my ribs give as I was launched back by his immense strength. Hurtling towards the canyon wall, I only barely managed to cushion myself with the force, avoiding further injury.
He rushed me once again and I wrapped my telekinetic grip around my arm to hold it in place, and I turned and dashed for my staff that I had dropped when he kicked me, but he got to me first, his claws snagging the back of my robes and slicing shallowly into my back.
He reared me up to slam me into the ground, and I frantically flailed around for any handholds and grabbed the loose cable still attached to his other hand, using it as leverage to pull myself free, my robes ripping free from his slightly bloody talons.
Tarzan swinging around him on the cable like a tether ball, I kicked off the ground and swung up and behind him, landing on his back and wrapping the loose cable around his neck, and using all my force enhanced strength to pull it tight.
Instantly my reptilian foe began desperately slashing and reaching behind his back where I hung, not having the flexibility or leverage to properly hit or grab me. Even while dodging, I continued to pull with all my might, the rough texture of the cable sawing painfully into my hands.
Frantically he rushed backwards toward the wall, and I just barely managed to use the force cushion myself to avoid becoming a red spaghetti stain on his back, but not enough to prevent my shoulder from smashing against the canyon wall, popping it painfully out of place.
Frantically I wrapped the force around my shoulder as well, pretty much just using telekinesis to hold all of me together.
He reared forward to build momentum, and this time I was prepared, cushioning myself fully from the impact as he smashed backwards into the wall.
As he continued to struggle, My entire body thrummed with otherworldly energy, and as his flailing continued I was met with a sudden certainty.
He wouldn't stop. If I let go here, I wouldn't be able to win. I was too injured. I would die.
If I let go of this cable I would die.
He flailed and struggled and made horrible garbled screeching sounds that made a distant part of me whine with empathy.
I held on.
The cable sliced deeper into my hands, blood streaming down my wrists and ripping off my elbows.
I held on.
He fell backwards to the ground twitching on top of me, clawing weakly, and my ankle was smashed painfully between his armor and the ground.
I held on, pulling with all my might.
And suddenly, something happened that I had sensed countless times before, but never had ever been the direct cause of.
His force presence flickered weakly like a candle in the wind, then…
It was gone. Snuffed out.
I released my grip, shocked at the sudden void the lack of presence left.
He was dead.
I killed him.
I killed him.
I breathed in and out. Shouldn't I… feel something about this? Shouldn't I cry?
Nothing.
Shouldn't I feel for an innocence lost? Shouldn't I vomit in horror? I feared taking a life so much, dreaded it and…
Nothing. Nothing except relief, pain, and the slow creeping joy of being alive.
I pulled my leg out from under the body, and when I tried to stand on it I collapsed to the ground.
Shit.
My right arm, my ribs, my left shoulder, and my left ankle. All broken.
My eyes were blown wide as my limbs shook, my body in shock.
I giggled.
The giggling devolved into maniacal laughter, the kind that rips out of you when you are at your limit, the kind where everything seems funny and unreal. Darkness curled at the edges of my vision, and I collapsed on the ground, fighting to stay conscious.
Hadn't I healed from something like this before? Oh yeah, when Rick died and the big soul fuse happened. Anakin was pretty injured then, but we healed! I tried to replicate that feeling, that supernatural awareness of my own body and primal healing energy.
The force thrummed, and suddenly I felt like I saw my body from the outside, just like I did back then. I had the awareness, but where was the energy?
Oh yeah. The energy came from our souls fusing. There wasn't any left. I couldn't heal.
But maybe I could use this new awareness I had!
It seemed like there was a disconnect between how my body was, and how it… should be? I felt like I had two bodies, one heavy and flawed and broken, and another finer, more ethereal body that was uninjured. Ideal.
So… even if I can't actually heal the damage, it would still be good if the heavy, broken body matched the floaty undamaged one right? Matching was good!
Using a finer application of telekinesis than I had ever been capable of before, I brought the insides and broken pieces of the heavy body back into the complete natural shape of the ethereal one, so they would match.
The force dulled my pain, but it didn't completely remove the agony of all my broken bones being forced back into place, my shoulder re setting itself in its socket and all the fragments of my crushed ankle realigning perfectly into their places, like a puzzle being completed.
Woah.
That felt… really weird.
My limbs were straight though. They were set.
I tried to get up and walk, but my ankle bone bits crushed out of place slightly, and I cursed my poor memory as I fell into the sand. I hadn't actually healed myself, I was just… holding everything in place.
I pulled my ankle bits back into line so they matched my ethereal body, but my awareness of it was fading away as I drew closer to regaining full consciousness.
I managed to get all the pieces back into their place, and then wrap them up with telekinesis, psychically holding them all together.
I drifted back into full consciousness.
What… the FUCK was that?!
I maintained the technique, not sure if I could perform it again if I let it slip.
Slowly, I walked, holding my body together from the inside out.
I couldn't waste time wondering what the fuck just happened or how I had done that what the FUCK that second body was.
I wanted to sleep. I wanted to go home.
But not yet.
I had a job to do.
Obi wan Kenobi stood at the outskirts, waiting for the person he was supposed to meet.
Qui Gon had returned to the ship, and it was Obi Wan's job to act as a proxy to use the child's money to place a bet on said child winning the pod race. It was all a bit paranoid and complicated, as he felt Qui Gon could do it himself, but he supposed that paranoia was good when they really were out to get you, and with the queen on the planet and the entire trade federation baying for her blood, they were 'out to get them' indeed. He just hoped the child would deliver on his pod racing promise.
He faintly heard the wubwubwubing of a speeder bike in the distance, and turned to see if it was the child he was looking for, and immediately sensed there was something wrong. Pain radiated off the small figure, and he was using the force… in a way Obi Wan hadn't sensed before.
"Are you alright? Why does it feel like you are… choking the inside of your ankle?" Obi wan questioned.
"Ran into trouble. Broke my ankle. Holding it together." The small figure in Jawa robes uttered jerkily, as if trying to talk and balance on something difficult at the same time.
"You're—I beg your pardon, you're holding your bones together?!"
"Yes." The figure replied. "It takes a lot of concentration so if you don't mind, be quiet and let me focus."
Obi Wan blinked in shock. He supposed it was possible, but you would have to have a ridiculous knowledge about your body's inner workings! If you weren't careful, you could set something wrong and have to re break it down the line. The ankle must not be that horribly damaged, most likely a clean break.
He wanted to ask the child many, many questions, but like the child pointed out, they had a job to do. Obi wan accepted the messenger bag full of money, and a written note on how much was exactly there.
When the child turned away he noticed the torn cloak and slashed back.
"I'll take care of that bet. you go to the ship. We have some bacta patches and some medical casting jell. Take care of yourself."
"I can't… I have to go home, to make sure they know I'm safe, that everything is ok."
"Qui Gon is on the ship, he can contact your mother. Get medical treatment. now."
The child sighed. "Ok." He answered, but seemed to hesitate.
Obi Wan knew that look, that hesitation, from all the times it had appeared on his own face. It was a 'I'll pretend I'm going to get help just long enough for you to leave so that I can escape and avoid the healer' look. "On second thought, I'll escort you." He concluded.
"What?! No! I'm fine!" The child protested.
"No, it's too late." Obi Wan said smugly. "You've already admitted to a broken bone and I can clearly those cuts on your back. Ship. Let's go."
Grumbling, the child walked slowly and carefully to the ship, with Obi wan making sure he entered, and that master Qui Gon knew he was injured.
Once the child was inside, Obi Wan turned away to complete his end of the plan, heading towards town.
Obi Wan's stomach filled with anxiety. There was no guarantee that child could race, injured as he was. And even if he could, it wouldn't be moral to force him to.
This was all taking an enormous risk. One that wasn't necessary. Qui Gon seemed to have faith in him but… putting all this on the shoulders of a young boy, and an injured one at that was just…
Obi Wan looked down at the satchel full of money.
The child was right. They did have a job to do. Once this was over, it could all be sorted out.
Once I was in the ship, the next hour or two passed in a flurry of concern and admonishment. Surprise surprise, one quick medical scan showed my condition was FAR worse than anyone guessed.
All of the surface wounds were treated with bacta patches, and my broken limbs were taken care of with almost their entire supply of quick dry medicrete.
As I feared, the more I relaxed I got the more tired I became, I could feel the pain as the adrenaline faded, and the fear I held in my chest began to claw its way up.
I was in no condition to race.
No! I could race! I held myself together out there, I can do it again!
I performed that technique in a state of semi consciousness near a major crystal nexus, and I'm also pretty sure I hallucinated having two bodies at the same time. There's no guarantee I can figure out what the hell I did to perfectly set all my bones together when such a feat should have been impossible for someone without Jedi master level medical and sensing skills, which I certainly don't have, at least not yet.
Would racing anyway cripple me? Leave me with a bum leg or fucked up shoulder?
Could I even win like this?
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
Fuck!
At some point in the night, I nodded off, only to awaken on Obi Wan's return.
He looked at me bandaged and casted up like a mummy in plaster armor, then did a double take, shock on his face.
"How injured are you?!" He spat.
I stayed silent, avoiding his gaze.
"We just bet your entire savings, our ship, you and your mothers freedom, and potentially the fate of the entire planet of Naboo on the outcome of this race."
Funny enough, on some level I relaxed. That much money in one place always made me nervous, as someone could steal it. The fact the he actually bet it instead of using it for something else relaxed one of my fears. "You used the official bookies? The ones backed by the interstellar racing league and the hutt clans?" I questioned.
Obi wan sighed. "Yes, of course. I went to the exact building and person as planned. I even received this datapad."
I looked over it and everything was official. They had given me 1/30 odds to win, which would be a fortune when all was said and done. Even after buying Amu's freedom, she'd be able to buy a ship, and not just some junker, but one with top shelf Armaments, shields, hyperdrive, and anything else she needed. Conversely, she could probably also get an education at a decent republic university, or buy a nice house somewhere.
The point was, she would have total freedom.
"Good. That's… great…"
She would have total freedom… if I won the race.
I know what a pure Anakin in this situation would do. I could feel the instincts and experiences all screaming the same thing.
You must prove your usefulness. Your worthiness. You are a slave. You can be more, but only if you prove yourself. If you ask for assistance, you are a drain. A net negative in the system. If you need assistance, you are weak. Lesser. Asking for help is showing your belly, and will never work out well, with Amu being potentially the only exception, but even then, she has to deal with all the same stuff as you, so it would still be super unfair and uncomfortable to ask.
Do it yourself. Bottle it up. Find a way to manage, no matter how broken it leaves you, because asking for help will let people find out you are lesser, and they will never respect you again. They will find out who you really are, and your many flaws will only cause distain and rejection. This is the only possible outcome.
Except for Amu. But she is… Amu. She is special. Unique. She loves you for who you are, not what you can do. No one else is like her. No one.
This so called 'knowledge' of Anakin's was currently clashing heavily with what I knew from my Rick side.
Years of therapy and life experience taught Rick that no one exists in a vacuum. That living in an environment of slavery and exploitation had skewed Anakin's perception of 'normal'. Showing weakness could literally get you killed on Tatooine, or at least shaken down in an alley, or kidnapped and sold.
But among allies? Friends? People that actually cared? Letting them help you didn't de-value you. There was nothing wrong with it, in fact, It sometimes brought you closer. Letting people in let you analyze your own emotional insides, to let the bad stuff out, and that thread of trust that was created in the process brought understanding, sometimes even intimacy. It wasn't a negative thing, at least, not to the people that mattered.
"I need…"
Obi wan quirked his eyebrow in curiosity.
My sides warred with each other. People were surely different on earth. This was Star Wars. All this 'asking for help' shit might just be earth brand insanity parroted by first world namby pambies who always had enough, who don't have to kill their own food and eat insects and worms as literally the ONLY alternative to starving to death, who can still count the amount of times they have even seen a dead person on a single hand, and for the majority that number is zero.
But Amu wasn't like that. She loved me. She helped me, and never used that against me. She was proof that people could help without distain or judgement. She always said the the biggest problem in this galaxy is that nobody helps each other. My heart pounded against my chest as I took the plunge.
"I. need… help."
Obi wan hummed in acknowledgment, as if I had commented on the weather. As if what I just did was easy and normal.
Oh wait.
"What can we do to help?" He responded easily.
Damn.
"I… don't know. Could you put me in a healing trance? Do something to speed up my recovery? I…"
Obi Wan got a look on his face, a mixture of pity and anger that MAJORLY pissed me off, until I realized his anger wasn't pointed at me.
"You shouldn't have to do this. Any of this. Force it's like melida daan all over again. Yes we can put you into a healing trance, but it won't help you recover fully, not even close. At most, if we get master Qui Gon to help guide you deep, then you could have about a weeks worth of normal recovery happen in the time between now and the race tomorrow. Your bones won't be fully healed in that time, your body will only have made a light scaffolding of bone between the pieces, not enough to walk on or use your arms at full strength. Using your limbs in that state would be extremely painful, and you will likely re-break them in the process."
A rush of relief. I forced myself to speak calmly, to not let my inner mess show. "That's… fine." I replied. "We—we are talking about freedom here, not only that, but saving a planet. I uh, I can handle pain, and we can get proper medical treatment once we get to Coruscant right?"
Obi Wan nodded, "Of course." He said as if professional medical care was a trivial matter where he came from, a given.
Oh wait.
Holy shit I wanted that. That nonchalant access to things that were practically a dream here on Tatooine. My resolve firmed. "This race can change everything. I'm not letting some karking 'ouchies' get in the way of that."
Obi Wan pinched the bridge of his nose. "Language." He chided, and I could feel guilt ripple briefly through his near impeccable shielding before he closed it off, his inner self once again hidden under the facade of a perfect Jedi.
Distractedly I wondered how powerful and seamless his shields would one day become. After a certain level of development, would anyone ever see through the mask? See that he felt just as deeply, and hurt just as painfully as anyone else? I knew from meta knowledge that he did, but if I didn't know that beforehand? There was almost nothing I could feel from him right now that suggested anything other than peaceful serenity. That he was anything other than a perfect unfeeling Jedi, and it was honestly a little off-putting. Like a mirror smooth, placid lake with the fresh smell and light mist of morning, only occasionally rocked by minor ripples and waves. Who knows what went on under the surface?
Still, there were other ways I could gage his emotional state, like micro expressions on the face and body language. In this way, I could tell he was currently very uncomfortable. Most likely about me racing for them.
Captain Panaka spoke up, interrupting my thoughts. "I don't feel comfortable with this, but even so, as a man from Naboo I understand that sometimes people are special, that there are things only they can do, no matter how young they may be. The queen is only fourteen, and yet she is able to run the planet more effectively than many of her predecessors. If it would help, we still have some bacta that we can harvest from the remaining medi patches. If we use one of the longer vaccination needles we have for shaak rabies, we might be able to perform a single bacta injection to the interior of a bone. Paired with your… healing trance, it should help, but it will be extremely painful."
I brutally smashed down my trepidation at the thought of a needle down to the bone. This was good. Anything to give me an edge. "My ankle. It by far the worst off, and will take the most concentration to hold together, plus I'll need to be able to push and switch between the pedals quickly in order to control acceleration and fuel routing."
Nodding, Panaka went to the other room to prepare the injection.
With Obi Wan and I alone, we sat in silence, waiting for Qui Gon to return.
"Your injuries aren't the only thing bothering you." Obi wan stated.
I sighed. Stupid Jedi empathy powers. Still. Asking for help had worked once, so let's ride this momentum and get a streak going. "Yeah."
"Would you like to meditate on it? I can help you work through the nerves, to release the anxiety to the force." Obi wan offered.
I made a face. "As much as I appreciate it, I need to talk about something specific. It's about how I got injured."
"Ah yes. You were attacked by a wild animal of some kind? You were lucky to escape. That must have been quite frightening." He looked at me with compassionate eyes, not a trace of judgment.
I guess we'll see how long that lasts.
"It wasn't a wild animal, it was a person. A Trandoshan bounty hunter." I corrected.
Obi Wan's eyes widened minutely, his face betraying his Jedi control and perfect shielding.
I continued. "And I didn't escape. I… I killed him. These wounds on my hands?" I nodded my head downward, gesturing to my bandaged palms. "They weren't from the spines of some beast. They were from a the metal cable of a grapnel dart. I managed to wrap it around his neck. I strangled him to death. I felt his life go out."
Shock briefly rippled through Obi Wan's shields, briefly allowing me to sense his emotions. "Ah." He seemed to think for a while, then spoke up. "Perhaps I should know… the context behind this act?"
I nodded, and told him everything. I told him how I tried to talk him down, how terrifying it was to face someone who didn't fear death, how I fought and how afterwards… I didn't feel anything bad. I didn't vomit or have some kind of dramatic crisis. I just laughed like a maniac and then hallucinated a bit due to injury, then forced my bones into place, and came straight here. But even now, it didn't feel anything about killing him.
There was a pause in the conversation as Obi Wan seemed to formulate a response.
I continued. "Shouldn't it be… different? I mean, I've killed animals before, and I've sensed plenty of people die," Obi Wan blinked in shock at this admission, but I continued, "but shouldn't it be like, especially horrifying when I'm the one who killed him? Shouldn't I feel like I've changed? That I'm someone new? Killing is supposed to be a big deal!"
I remembered all the times Rick saw a character freak out about killing on TV or in a book, how being knocked out was something trivial in all the shows he watched, how none of Batman's victims EVER died from their injuries. Killing someone was supposed to be something different. Something more. Something that changed one's inner being. Made you someone different than who you were. Killing wasn't something you were supposed to just shrug off. It should be like the time pre fusion Anakin first killed a sand lizard for food and cried about it, but even worse.
Suddenly, I almost laughed at the brief intrusive thought that I'd killed a lizard this time too, just a bit bigger, and was immediately horrified at myself. Was I… a monster? A killer?
"You're not a monster." Obi Wan spoke, seemingly reading my mind. "I first killed a man when I was fourteen." He continued. "It was… horrifying I admit, but… it wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated. The feeling of his life being snuffed out was exactly the same as when someone died around me for other reasons. Killing someone with a weapon, and simply being present while someone dies… aren't really all that different in the force. It's just… death. The first time I killed wasn't quite as shocking as the first time I felt someone die. That was truly awful"
I interjected, "But it sounds like you freaked out about it! Like you were horrified!"
"And you aren't?" He answered
"No!" I insisted.
"Then why do you feel the need to talk about it? And don't lie and say you don't. We are having this conversation for a reason."
My mouth clamped shut.
Obi Wan continued. "The truth is… killing someone is… easy. Not emotionally but… logistically. Practically. You can just… do it, you are always capable of it, especially in a fight, and especially as a Jedi, to the point where it can even happen by accident. We are far more capable of destruction than regular people, and it is far less difficult than it feels like it morally should be. Sometimes it feels like there should be some kind of final box to check, or form to sign, but it just… happens. People die in combat. This is why control is so unbelievably important for a Jedi. We must hold back, explore every option before lethal force."
I responded, my brow furrowed. "It didn't feel like I had much of another option. If I hadn't killed him I would have died."
Obi Wan nodded, agreeing. "I believe that you are right. Sometimes there is no other option." The tightness in my chest finally began to loosen.
"Anakin." Obi Wan spoke, and I looked into his eyes.
"Yeah?"
"When was the first time you felt someone die? In the force."
I thought about that. Really thought. "I'm… not sure. Mom has stories about me crying at random times as a baby, and I can vaguely remember being woken up in the middle of the night when I was smaller, like maybe 2 or 3, being scared that one of the 'lights' outside went out but… eventually I just got used to it, I guess. It hasn't bothered me in a while, it's just… a thing that happens."
Obi Wan pulled me into a hug, "I'm so sorry."
"It's…OK. I guess death and I are old friends."
"No, it's not ok. Children shouldn't be desensitized to feeling death in the force."
"But I am."
"That's NOT your fault." Obi Wan said, and his words echoed with truth.
It wasn't my fault.
Something broke. The stress from the fight, the emptiness, all the times when I was bombarded with pain and suffering growing up, when a kid my age had made the mistake of asking Gardulla for some water because she was thirsty and they drowned her while laughing, only barely stopping before she died and leaving her mute from the trauma, all while I was connected to her, felt the fire in her/my lungs, fuck she had been my best friend and I didn't even remember her name, don't even know if she was still alive. I remembered the whippings, the old slave mother left out in the sandstorm as punishment and never making it back alive and Amu bawling because even if old Mama Skywalker wasn't Shmi's biological parent she had been her Amu and I cried along too without truly understanding what we were even crying about but feeling the sorrow just the same.
It all seemed to bubble up from the forgotten past like dark lava from a hellish volcano and erupted out as I began sobbing violently and screamed into Obi Wan's shoulder. He tensed, shocked and unsure what to do at this extreme reaction seemingly from nowhere, but soon re tightening the hug, wrapping the force around me like a blanket made of light.
"We will get you out of here." Obi Wan said solemnly, "You and your Mother. We'll do it even if we have to steal a ship and bust everyone out of the hangar."
I held on tighter at the promise, and cried some more.
Eventually, Qui Gon returned with Amu with him. He looked between Obi wan and I, noting that there was a new closeness between us, but left it at that.
Amu met Obi Wan, and fussed over me and my injuries, but paused as I gave her a hug. I had missed her, even for the short time we were apart.
But eventually it was time.
Captain Panaka was right. The bone injection did hurt. Like, a fucking shit ton. It was only Amu's singing that got me through. I could feel her distress, not only at my injury but at the situation.
Qui Gon guided me through the healing trance, and just before I went under, I thought of a joke. "Wake me, when you need me." I said, trying and failing to make my child voice sound like master chief, but still feeling pretty badass anyway, even if no one got the reference.
"Alright Anakin, we will," said Qui Gon, "Just ease yourself into the force, let it envelop you,"
And I did just that.
A/N Aaaaalllllright! Drama this chapter with the race next time!
You may say that I only did this to inject tension into a race that was practically already won and to that I say… well I can't say that isn't true, but it's not the ONLY reason. I knew I wanted Anakin to have to deal with killing someone before he left Tatooine, and I didn't want it to feel like it had no consequences either, so the injuries were a good way to do that.
I also wanted to give Ani and Obi time to bond and understand each other a bit, for Obi to really understand what Anakin has been through, and for Anakin to be able to see past Obi Wan's unintentional facade, and realize he isn't emotionless like how his natural talent with shielding lets him come across as. I feel like these are things the two of them desperately needed in the original, though I'm NOT confirming or denying that Obi Wan will be Anakin's master, just that they will have a connection going forward.
How did you like the fight? Was it good? Hopefully it wasn't too confusing.
How did you like the conversation afterward? Did it feel natural?
Have a great week everybody!
Ciao!
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GoGoGo Ani! The Mystery of the Phantom Racer!
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2021
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Eyyyyy! We're finally in double digits! Or I guess we were last time, but this has officially surpassed tDoL as my most chaptered fic! It makes me kinda sad, maybe I'll work on my first fanfic a bit. But whatever! We return to the Star Wars galaxy once again!
(Some of you may be pointing out that it has been more than a month since my last post, since last chapter went up on feb 18, and this one is coming out today. But really, if you do the math, and taking into account that February only has 28 days, I technically only took 30 days to post this, 31 at most depending on time zones. So really, if you think about it, I still kept to my 'no more than a month between chapters' resolution. Kinda. Technically. From a certain point of view.)
Let's get into it!
I see the moons shedding their light, sharing their water with the spirits of Ar'Amu's children.
I see a great dragon, and chains cannot hold her.
I see a great storm, it scours and destroys, protects and makes new.
I see a sleeping desert planet, dreaming of the lush green past it once had, its cursed presence a subtle wound in the force.
I see all the old ones gathered on a distant world at midnight, drinking deeply from a cool and dark oasis, unknowing that it has been poisoned by their enemies, who once were their friends.
The very water of the oasis itself cries out, begging and whispering to me in an ancient language I can't understand.
I see a bowl of moonlight in front of me, free of the poison from the enemy.
Trusting my instincts, I pick up the bowl. I drink deeply, and the world breathes.
A cool gentle moonlight fills my soul, and my understanding is enlightened.
The whispers of the poisoned oasis become understandable.
I look around, and there are many people, but they are stoic and ignorant as if they are statues. None of them can hear the whispers.
"Cleanse me!" The whispers say. "Free me from the corruption of the fell god, that all may drink deeply without fear once again!"
"I… don't know how!" I answer. "I can't!"
The whispers respond. "Perhaps not. Not yet."
Suddenly I am summoned, as if tugged on by a thread of light.
The last image I see is a red bird, drinking carefully from the poisoned oasis, purifying the poison with its tears, beautiful drops of passion that shine like moonlight in the dark.
Suddenly, I woke up. Qui Gon Jinn's hand was on my forehead, and he smiled calmly as I opened my eyes. "Anakin. Can you hear me?"
"How can I turn poison into moonlight?" I asked. "How do I drink from the well without death?"
Qui Gon looked a bit concerned at that, and jostled my shoulder. "Anakin. Anakin. Can you hear me? Center yourself, keep your mind on the present."
I blinked a few times, then remembered where I was. I took a breath, stabilized my shields, and calmed myself.
"Yeah—I mean, Yes. I can hear you, I'm here. How long until the race?"
He sighed in relief. "Good. I'm glad you're with us. The Race is in 2 hours. You've healed quicker than we anticipated, especially your ankle, but you still aren't even close to recovered. Be careful. I'll take you to your pod for the final checks.
I nodded, my stomach doing flip flops with anxiety as I banished the strange dream from my thoughts. This was it!
The two hours passed like they were five minutes. The pod was ready to go, and when I tested my ankle and arm, I discovered that I could use them on a human level of performance as long as I enhanced their durability to superhuman levels. If I enhanced my ankle as if I were about to jump 6 meters into the air, I could use it to jog and push the pedals of the pod at a normal human level without damage. It was painful for sure, but if I could deal with it and keep my concentration, I could race.
And normally that thought would have calmed me, but there was something weird going on with my perception.
Everything seemed… sharper. Voices seemed too loud, people's emotions that once seemed like gentle background notes now blared loudly, and yet the sheer sensation of the force flowing through me seemed… slow. Like it wasn't as much as it should be.
Sometimes when I was enhancing my injured bones, my focus seemed to drop off when I started doing other things. Every time it happened I got scared, and focused deeply on the injury to make sure the force was still enhancing it, only to find that it was being enhanced, that it never had stopped being strengthened.
So why in all the nine hells did it at times feel like I wasn't enhancing it then?!
One time, when I walked from one place to another, the force warned me of an obstacle in my path. I lifted my foot to avoid it as I walked, but as I put the foot back down I hit the obstacle anyway. What the fuck? I thought I stepped over it?!
This was a problem. The force seemed strange and different in a way that I struggled to understand. Was my brain also injured, like being punch-drunk? Was my connection to the force itself stressed? Why were my senses so off? Could I even race like this? Was I doomed? Were we doomed?!
I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Don't center on your anxieties young one. The force provides. Trust in it." Qui Gon said.
I nodded. "Ok, sorry mister Qui Gon."
"Don't apologize. You've done nothing wrong, I'm only trying to help. Breathe."
"Right. Thank you." I breathed in and out, and Qui Gon's force presence helped me calm down.
Using the imagery that Amu taught me, I let my fear coalesce into a tool into my mind, and put it away, on my belt. It was still there, ready for use, but not necessary right now. The force flowed through me, and my perception sharpened once again. Everything came into perfect focus as more energy flowed through me than I had ever experienced before.
I centered it all on the present moment. My perception cleared.
I was ready.
I had chosen to stay in my pod after it was towed onto the race track, and it was a good thing I did, because Sebulba came strolling around, examining my racer, his eyes darting around for a part to sabotage. "Careful Sebulba." I said in huttese and he jumped, not having seen me before. "Don't think you can beat me fair and square?"
He reddened in rage at being caught, but then quickly lost his steam at seeing my cast. "You are injured?! And still plan to race?!" He let out a sadistic cackle. "See you in hell, stupid slave worm!"
He then hand walked away, assured in his own victory.
I bristled at the insult. The fact that he hadn't even bothered to sabotage my racer once he had seen my cast just poked at my insecurities. I grit my teeth in anger. "He'll regret underestimating me." I told myself. I wasn't sure I believed it.
When the minutes before the race dropped into single digits, all the members of the group that were present offered well wishes of luck and care. Qui Gon offered his classic advice of "trust your feelings, your instincts. Feel, don't think." I nodded, trying my best to release my anxiety.
Finally, Amu came forward. Her emotions of concern, fear, guilt, and hope practically sang from her presence in the force. "You are afraid?" She asked.
I guess I couldn't hide it. I briefly considered lying, to try and project a false sense of confidence, but I quickly let that idea dissolve. This was my Amu. She deserved the truth. "I am." I said shakily.
"Good." She said with conviction.
My eyes widened in shock.
"A tool isn't useful if it isn't ever removed from your belt. Remember the benefits of fear?"
I nodded. I remembered now. "Quick reactions. More sensitive perception."
She nodded. "Mister Jinn said to trust your instincts. Fear is an instinct. Make sure it is a tool in your hand, not a fog on your brain, or a dead weight on your belt. It is alright to feel fear."
Something finally lifted. I felt lighter. I let myself fear. Accepted it. It's edge reduced. I felt like I could think again.
I am the calm within the storm
A certainty settled on me. I looked over at Amu again, and saw that there were tears in her eyes, but she blinked rapidly to avoid loosing the water.
"Let them fall Amu." I stated, the call for clearing the track of all bystanders sounding out, "Soon we'll have plenty of water."
She smiled, gave a chuffing laugh, and a tear tracked down her cheek. "Return alive." She commanded.
I nodded. "I promise."
The final call blared out, and she hurried out of the starting zone.
I started the power on my racer, warming up its support systems.
I felt fear. I felt anger. That was ok. I let them rage and spin around me, but kept the real focus as my center. Love. Freedom. Hope. It burned and shined like a sun at high noon, and the more bitter negativity of my other emotions were lessened and purified, changing from bitter poison into aromatic spice. Fear lightened into a quick and persistent focus. Anger lightened into an intense and determined resolve. It was still passion, but instead of feeling like choking threads of darkness and gloom, it felt like the ancient and soothing chill of nighttime, of looking at the stars and the moon and yearning for something more. In this more gentle state, the passion didn't war with the light anymore. They worked together, strengthening each other, like Night and Day, two halves of the same whole.
The force itself twanged deeply, humming with an ancient and lost sort of agreement.
Shaking my head I quit my musings. It was a mystery for another time.
I was ready.
""Start your engines!"" The two headed announcer called in both basic and huttese.
I did so, and the turbines of my pod roared to life, the fans of the high pressure fuel injector that I designed made a higher pitched whine that made my pod sound a bit different from the other racers.
I took in everything I could, scanning my pod with the force, memorizing the sound and sights of the other racers, bringing my awareness in every sense I possessed up to maximum. The air wavered with heat, thick with the smell of fuel and exhaust. The suns beat down on me from above and my pod hummed from below. The tast of dust was on my tongue, and yells, whistles, and whoops roared from spectators in the stands.
There was a spitting sound followed by the ring of a gong over the loudspeaker.
The first lap marker light blinked on.
GO!
I blasted forward along with the other racers, leaving Quadrinaros, who had engine trouble, behind.
Because I didn't have an impressive track record as a racer, I had been given a starting position close to the back, behind most of the other racers. Sebulba, of course, had been in one of the front spots.
I tried to weave through the other racers on my way forward, but I suddenly got a warning from the force about my left engine. Swerving to the right slightly, I was bewildered when no danger came. As I was easing my way back however, a saw blade was deployed from the podracer beside me, and scratched across my left engine! I swerved away again, and and a quick scan showed only superficial damage, but the fear and anxiety slammed back into me full force. What the fuck was going on with my precognition?! And why now of all times was it on the fritz?! If this had been happening yesterday with that bounty hunter I would have died!
FUCK!
As we made our way out of the starting straightaway walls, the racers spread out a little more, and I was able to pick up more speed, but with my precog failing I was suddenly confronted with the fact that as a human I was majorly under qualified to be podracing.
I still got the warnings, but the timing was always off, and I felt like I was fighting my own reflexes just to stay alive, much less win the fucking race!
Slowly I fell behind the pack of other racers, giving myself more space to react to anything ahead of me.
When we made it to the cave section it was even worse, because my vision was limited by the relative darkness. I had to lean in to my precog again, but force myself not to immediately react to it until I perceived the danger it was warning me about, and often times by then it was nearly too late, and my pod got several more scratches and scrapes. So far I had been able to avoid any meaningful damage, but it was only a matter of time before something went wrong.
Thankfully we exited the cave section, and with my full vision I was able to tighten up my reactions and get close enough to draft on the racers ahead of me.
I payed as much attention as I could to the relationship between the warnings in the force and the actual danger they signaled, and each time the timing was clearly off I swelled with frustration.
We traveled through the canyons and around the tusken raider bend, and I dodged the potshots they took with plenty of room to spare.
More room to spare than usual actually.
Huh.
As we blasted over the wide sandy flats on our way back to the spectator stands my brain caught on that fact.
I had more room to spare than usual.
The warnings hadn't been just randomly off. They had been early.
As we blasted past the stands, the lap 2 marker illuminated, and my brain went into overdrive.
If the warnings in the force were coming early than that meant I was seeing farther into the future than I ever had been able to before!
I thought about how I kept feeling like I wasn't enhancing my weak points as much as I should, only to find them fully enhanced. It was because enhancing myself fully took far less concentration than it ever had before, so it seemed to me that I wasn't giving enough effort.
And the loudness and sharpness of the force? My connection to the force wasn't damaged, my senses were just stronger than ever.
In the course of a day, I had fought at full strength in a battle to the death, had a force vision/hallucination so deep I discovered a new technique, then was guided into a trance that was far FAR deeper into the force than I'd ever been capable of, with a Jedi Master connected psychically to ensure I stayed under.
Every single one of those experiences on their own would have advanced my connection and understanding of the force, but all of them in quick succession?
There was nothing wrong with me. I was more powerful than I'd ever been before.
Suddenly I remembered a scene from a New Hope.
"Remember, a Jedi can feel the force flowing through him" Old Ben told his pupil.
"You mean it controls your actions?" Luke questioned.
"Partially," said Old Ben, "But it also obeys your commands."
As we approached the cave section again, I sunk deeper into the force than I had ever before. I didn't limit it to just giving me warnings that I could react to, but also let it guide my reactions themselves.
"Let go your conscious self, and rely on instinct."
With this new level of trust and deepness, and feeling the force flowing through me, I closed my eyes, and floored it at full tilt to enter the the center of the pack of racers as we entered the cave section, which was probably the most suicidal thing I could have done in that situation.
My awareness expanded, and I could feel the force guiding my actions, letting it bridge the gap between warning and guidance, and the forms of the other racers and the rocks and obstacles bloomed in my mind, the absolute optimal path through them clear as day.
Racers squealed and shouted with shock as I passed them with mere centimeters to spare between my pod and theirs, fully showcasing my creation's speed for the first time in the race.
The true form and nature of any danger or obstacle was laid bare before me, and as my physical reflexes got used to and aligned themselves to my new level of precog and force guidance, I weaved between racer and danger alike with far greater grace and efficiency than I'd ever believed possible.
As we exited the cave with me at the front of the main pack of racers I felt a pulse of shock, and then elation and relief from a bond with Amu, which I was only just now consciously realizing existed. I smiled, and let the gap between me and the racers behind me grow ever wider. I may have passed the main pack of stragglers, but there was still Sebulba and a string of other challengers that trailed behind him ahead. This race wasn't over yet.
Qui Gon's eyes widened as he sensed the boy, and he stood up from his seat in shock.
When he first met the child, the shielding that blanketed him had been so ingrained and flawless that he'd assumed the boy to be a true force knull.
Later, he had been allowed brief glimpses of Anakin's inner potential, but its full depths had never truly broken free.
But now, any disguises or self imposed limits had been shed, and the child shone so brightly in the force he seemed to be a supernova, more like a temple-grade force nexus than the signature of a single being. A living vergence in the force.
If he had any doubts remaining that this boy was the chosen one, finally sensing his fully unleashed power and potential had put them to rest.
So raw, so untrained, and already the sensation of his presence brought to mind force titans like masters Windu and Yoda, with the clear potential to one day exceed all of them.
Qui Gon sat back down in his seat, calming himself. The race wasn't over yet. Their hopes still rode on Anakin. The present needed his attention right now, not daydreams of a possible future. Still, he couldn't help a smile of excitement at the feeling. "Go Anakin!" He cheered quietly, clenching his fist. "Go!"
Using my speed I drove up onto the canyon wall, hovering along it sideways as I passed one racer, one of the only spots in the canyon that was smooth enough to make the transition, then on the dismount I closed the bottom vents on the right engine, which was riding high on the wall.
Offgassing a bit of extra fuel into the closed vent, I saturated the air within, then opened the vent once more to give it oxygen. A violent explosion emanated from the bottom vent, blasting me off the wall and sending my podracer spinning in a corkscrew roll through the air to dodge an upcoming outcrop on the canyon wall by mere centimeters.
Approaching the ground I diverted extra power from the engine turbines to the hover stabilizers in the exact instant that I landed to cushion my fall, then immediately rediverted the power back to the turbines to speed ahead once more. I chuckled when I felt the racer behind me slow down, his grip on his controls likely slackening in shock.
One after another I passed the string of racers, sometimes in spectacular fashion and other times quite smoothly with superior lines.
The fact that the engine cylinders of my pod were made out of a superior durable alloy wasn't the only thing that was amazing about them, the fact that they came from a stunt fighter allowed for superior mobility, allowing me to divert thrust sideways to make wild drifting maneuvers that had my pod seat swinging back and forth like a pendulum. The thrust and momentum of the drifts allowed me to take incredibly tight corners with so much velocity that the nose fins of my engines sometimes nearly kissed the sides of each obstacle I swerved around with only millimeters to spare.
Each racer normally braked and swerved and slowed their pods to maneuver, but that wasn't necessary for me. I could take everything this course threw at me while flooring it Mario kart style.
It wasn't long before we ripped through the stands once again with the third lap marker lighting up.
I passed one more racer on the stretch to the cave section, which only left two racers in front of me, Sebulba, who was the leader, and Teemto Pagalies, who trailed a bit right beside him in an attempt to pass.
As we entered the cave section once more, Sebulba activated one of his heat 'vents', spewing a tongue of fire at Teemto which flash cooked him, his light blinking out in the force. His now riderless racing pod veered left and slammed into one of the large pillars in the cave, sending an explosion of flame, boulders, and metal shrapnel across the path I was taking, and from the satisfaction and complacent confidence that now radiated from Sebulba, the placement had to be intentional.
Undeterred, I flicked two of my fingers and the boulders and debris bent around me and my pod racer like it had spontaneously grown a deflector shield, letting me race forward without loosing any speed.
As we approached the cave exit I noticed the shape of the opening, which resembled a teardrop. Wide enough for a racer to pass through at the bottom, but became quite narrow at the top.
Once again I closed the bottom vents of my racer, this time on both engines, and prepared them with a bit of fuel. Right as we were about to exit the cave, I opened the left vent first and the right one after, exploding me upwards into another corkscrew maneuver, and time seemed to slow as I sailed sideways through the narrow top section of the cave exit right over Sebulba, ducking my head down and ignoring the pain in my ribs as the rock wall grazed the top of my windshield. As my racer rotated upside down in the air I looked upwards down at Sebulba, his mouth and eyes blown wide in absolute shock.
I cackled with glee as the brief image was cemented into my brain, and my pod continued its corkscrew motion until I landed right side up in front of Sebulba, my racer slowly gaining distance from his in the rocky canyon section until I couldn't even see him behind me anymore.
My heart soared with elation, and I let out a loud whoop as I rocketed ahead as the new leader.
""AND WITH ANOTHER TOTALLY UNHEARD OF MANEUVER SKYWALKER PASSES ABOVE SEBULBA SIDEWAYS THROUGH THE TOP OF THE CAVE EXIT! THIS HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN IN RACE HISTORY! THEY'LL BE CALLING THAT THE SKYWALKER SPIN JUMP FROM NOW ON! WE NOW HAVE A NEW COURSE LEADER ON THE THIRD LAP, AND SEBULBA SEEMS TO HAVE NO CHANCE AT CATCHING UP! THIS IS THE GREATEST UPSET IN POD RACING HISTORY!""
The commentator's excited screaming emanated from the datapad and filled the ship as Obi Wan's hand covered a burp with a fist, and he shook his head, half impressed, half nauseated.
If he knew anything he knew this: he never wanted to be in any vehicle with Skywalker in the pilot seat. Still, he fully admitted that the boy was a hell of a pilot. He swallowed the gag, and cheered along with the Naboo pilots and hand maidens at a race that was likely won.
As I ripped through the canyon section on my way to victory, my eyes widened in shock as I saw another racer ahead of me!
Sebulba definitely wouldn't have felt so confident earlier if someone had already passed him, and while my racing pod was fast, it wasn't so fast that I'd be lapping someone, at least not yet, so who the karking hells was this?!
Their racer was small and nimble, similar to mine, but unlike mine (which I didn't bother to paint and just left in bare metal tones) the engines were painted in a bright yellow, the Crome polished pod seat adorned with blue stripes.
I gained ground on them slowly, as their pod was surprisingly fast, and they took each turn with astounding grace, and I kept chasing after the strangely familiar pod, waiting for them to make a mistake.
They didn't.
"I had a dream I was a Jedi. I came back here and freed all the slaves."
As we came out of the canyon section and into the tusken raider area, I noticed that their racer's engines didn't kick up any dust, didn't leave a shadow. They were slightly transparent, as if I was racing a phantom.
Across from me I saw a child about 6 or 7 years old, who radiated a bright light. He looked passingly familiar and was dressed in some kind of worn sandy robes. I tried to place where I'd seen him before.
Our eyes met, and he seemed to startle. When he spoke, it was frank and direct, but I could tell he was scared.
"H-hello. Who are you? Where are we? Am I…dead?"
I was about to respond but Rob beat me to it. "You aren't dead yet child, but if nothing is done, you will be. There was an accident during the race, you are hanging on by a thread. This man is here, because he can save your life. By merging your souls, we can create enough energy to fully heal your body, and together you two can become something truly amazing."
The child spoke again, "Will I… or I guess will we, be free?" I could feel the hurt deep in his soul, and the desperate hope in his eyes, and my heart melted. Rob answered.
"With the knowledge this man possesses, and the power of your soul, you can indeed become free, both of you."
The boy became exited, like he couldn't believe his ears. "I'll do it!" He said with an ear to ear grin. There was a fire in his eyes, an intensity I couldn't explain.
I drew closer to the phantom racer, and saw who was in the pilot seat. He was a bit thinner than me, and slightly shorter, likely due to malnutrition that I had avoided with my Matukai training that allowed me to draw nourishment from the force. His clothes were different as well, wearing a grayish tunic that I had grown out of months ago and given to another slave child who needed it. Soot coated his face around his goggled helmet, and as I passed him, our identical glacier blue eyes met.
"Now I am complete."
"Stay with me Amu! Please! Every— Everything is going to be alright!"
"Ani… I… love…"
We raced around rocks and obstacles on opposite paths, passing through each other as we navigated the final third of the last lap of the course.
As we entered the final sandy stretch, his pod drew closer, overlapping mine a bit, which was slightly ahead of his.
He looked into my eyes once again, and though his voice didn't make a sound, I could clearly read the words on his lips.
'Go. Be better.'
I nodded with a fierce determination on my face, and he closed his eyes with a smile, the phantom racer fading away.
I squeezed my hand through my hair, and managed to get some still liquid blood on my fingers.
Blood
I spat in my hand, the clear fluid mixing with the red.
Water
Amu had told me the slave stories of Amavikka people. Of Leiyah the Dragon, the unfettered, and Lukkah the storm, the destroyer who makes new. I knew most of the Amatakkan words for the oath, and the words I didn't know I spoke in galactic basic.
"My name is Anakin Ekkreth. My Mother, Shmi Ekkreth, will not die to the sand people. I will not fall to the Dark Side of the Force. in two years time, when the Jedi arrive, both my mother and I will be free. This I swear on blood and water. We WILL be FREE."
I scooted over to the edge of the flatbed, and squeezed the mixture through my fingers, letting the drips fall to the moonlit sand that was rushing by.
I probably hadn't gotten the words exactly right, and dripping the blood and water off the side of a speeder truck may not have been 'proper', but this was a slave oath. Pomp and ceremony have never been a requirement for Ar-Amu's help.
I felt a faint rushing of power through me. Similar to the Force I'd felt earlier, but not quite the same. It was warmer, like a fire in my soul. As quick as it had come, it vanished, so suddenly and completely I wondered if I had imagined it.
I looked up at the moons, and echoed my words from earlier under my breath, in galactic basic this time.
"We will be free."
My engines grew louder, changed pitch, and blared forth with the sound of greater Krayt dragon roar. The force surrounded me in a fiery warmth, and as I passed through the finish line one last time, I heard clear as day the metallic ringing of chains being broken.
As I slowed down, the roar of the crowd was dim, like I was listening to it from under water. The rushing sound of my gasping breaths and the beating drum of my heart thundered in my ears.
I looked up, saw the crowd, saw their excitement, and everything came back into focus.
The roar of the crowd was deafening. People rushed onto the track, approaching my racer with cheers, Qui Gon grabbed me under the arms and lifted me out of the pod and onto his shoulders and paraded me around, our group following us around. My friend Wald was loosing his shit with the hype, and Watto looked pale, like someone had told him the worst news of his life.
I was free.
I looked at Amu, and she nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks, her face in a beaming smile.
And soon, she would be too.
Excitedly, I packed some of my most important things into a bag, and pausing when I looked at a protocol droid's unfinished head. I had found the data chip with over six million forms of communication loaded onto it a while back, and hadn't been able to resist taking it. I'm not sure if it was duty, or intrigue, but I had been practically guided by the force in using it for the construction of a droid brain, which I had loaded up with processing power and plenty of cpu room for personality growth, but hadn't built much more of him then the head. I connected the head to a power circuit and turned it on.
"Hello. I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations. How may I assist you? Oh! Master Ani! The Maker! Am I finally going to get a body? A proper one with coverings?"
I grimaced, both at his use of the term 'master', which was hard coded into his greater 'polite speech' database on the chip I found, and also at my neglect towards him so far. The C-3PO from the movie had been mostly finished, with a functional body that just lacked plating, but with my time taken up with everything else I hadn't been able to make much more than his head.
"Good news Threepio, I've been freed, and Mom is being freed also as we speak! We are headed off of this sandy rock. Once we get somewhere better I promise I'll make you a full body, with gleaming gold colored plating!"
"Oh Master Ani that sounds positively wonderful! I can hardly wait! But will we have to travel through space on one of those dreadful starships to get where we are going? You know the odds of encountering pirates in this region of space is—"
"Quite high, yes, I know." I interrupted. "But it's a risk We'll have to take."
He let out a staticky metallic huff. "Oh very well. If it is absolutely necessary. Will you be pulling my power to transport me?"
"Yeah, sorry. I'll get you fitted with a proper power cell as soon as possible, I promise."
"Wonderful! I'll shut down now if that's all right."
I nodded, and the light in his eyes blinked off. I unplugged him, and wrapped the droid head in a protective cloth and put it in my bag.
Going outside I was met with the sight of Jabba the Hutt and his bodyguards. I froze.
"Hello young Skywalker." He rumbled in huttese, a cunning and greedy glint in his eye, "Your race today was quite impressive my boy, and yet I heard that Watto, your owner, is in dire financial straits. Is this true?"
I nodded, desperately thinking of a way to get out of this. I couldn't just straight up lie, as Jabba was too smart to be fooled by an utter falsehood, but I couldn't tell him the truth of my freedom either, as he would simply have his people re-capture me before I could leave the planet.
I responded, also in Huttese, "I was one of the things Watto bet on the race your great and mightyness, and so my ownership has changed. I'm packing up to join my new Master now, a tall human outworlder with long hair and a beard. He usually hangs out in the local cantina in the mornings, and he's sure to be celebrating there from now till tomorrow, you know, because of his big win. He bet on me and got odds of thirty to one."
I was afraid Jabba would see through my deception, but he smiled, taking it hook line and sinker. "Ah, yes! I have seen this outworlder myself, the one who carried you after the race. I shall leave him to his celebrations for now, but tell him that I will meet him at the cantina tomorrow afternoon at 3pm standard. If he does not arrive, I will be most… displeased."
I kept my triumph off my face. Jabba planned to bully ownership of me away from my new 'owner' tomorrow. Too bad I'd be freed and well out of Hutt space by then. "I shall tell him, great and powerful one."
At this, Jabba nodded in a self satisfied way, and slithered off to attend to his next bit of business.
That was way too close. Guess I had been a bit too flashy in my racing. But whatever. I'd soon be away from all of this.
Between the sale of Anakin's Pod, and the winnings from the bet, Obi wan had quite an enormous sum of money on him. Two would be thieves had already attempted to relieve him of it, but they had suddenly realized they had forgotten an urgent meeting and rushed off to make their appointment.
The negotiations with Watto were relatively straightforward. He asked for a price for Shmi, the lady Skywalker, and when Watto stated an absurd amount, Obi Wan accepted. It was less than a tenth of what he currently had in the bag after all.
Watto had sputtered and attempted to increase the amount, but Obi Wan had flashed a blaster on his hip, and insisted Watto obey their agreement. The toydarian quickly caved, and Obi Wan was soon on his way to the ship with one Shmi Skywalker, her own remote transmitter in her hands.
She had a giddy smile on her face, which made her look at least ten years younger.
"You could have bartered a little." She said to Obi Wan with a stern tone of voice, her face and force signature betraying her joy.
"Any sum of worldly money hardly compares to your immeasurable worth as a sentient my lady, but if you wish for me to compensate you for the loss, I will do so freely." He said primly, handing the money to her with a smile.
She accepted it, blushing at such a handsome young man with such a highbrow accent calling her 'my lady', and enjoying the threat-free flirting with the young oath-bearing monk. "That won't be necessary, the remaining sum is more than enough." She answered with a smile.
He nodded, "Shall we be on our way then?"
She nodded back. "We shall."
Qui Gon Jinn and I had met up after he had finished transporting the parts to his ship, and he handed me my remote, deactivated. I didn't have much time to process the magnitude of what was in my hands, before Qui Gon hurried me along. "I sense we are being followed, We must make haste!"
We were currently on our way to the ship, our speed lessened to relatively normal human levels by my injuries. I could sense that Amu, Obi Wan, Padme, and everyone else in our party had already made it on, which was a major relief.
"Anakin! Drop!" Qui Gon commanded. I immediately did so, sensing the danger. A speeder rushed over me and Darth Maul leaped off and ignited his crimson lightsaber, engaging Qui Gon in battle.
Hopping onto my feet, I made a break for the ship. As I speeded up the boarding ramp, Qui Gon called, "Tell the pilot to take off!"
I sprinted down the ship and told the pilot, and when we did so, Qui Gon was able to leap up into the ship just as the ramp closed.
Qui Gon had a bit of sweat on his brow, but didn't seem exhausted. Seeing that he was ok, I rushed back up to the pilot's area.
After I asked if I could watch, one of them lifted me up to sit on their lap, which I couldn't muster up the energy to be irritated about, because it gave me a front row seat of outer fucking space.
I had always been fascinated by space, in both lives. I remember wanting to wear a buzz lightyear suit wherever I went as a tiny little kid, learning all the planets in order and being genuinely devastated when Pluto was disqualified, and dreamed of being an astronaut through most of my childhood.
I was already giddy, already fucking wired by the day I just had, but seeing the blue glow of the sky fade away, and the stars coming into focus? Feeling the vibrations of the ship underneath me?
It was a fucking dream come true.
The only way to make it better would be to turn off artificial gravity and float around a bit in zero Gs, but unfortunately the pilot refused. Still, they did spin around the ship once we had a good amount of momentum towards the edge of the gravity well, letting me look at Tatooine from all the way up here.
It was an amazing yet bizarre feeling, knowing that all the pain, all the effort, all the triumphs, and struggles, and setbacks, and success, all of it, took place on that little tan marble in the starry sky in front of us. A tan marble that was getting smaller little by little as we drifted further away into space. I was leaving it behind.
We were leaving it behind.
"I feel… strange." I said to the pilot. "All my life I've wanted to see the stars, to escape that dustball, and that hasn't changed but…" I struggled to articulate my thoughts. "It feels sorta like… I left a light on, or… a motor running. Like I'm leaving something behind."
The pilot nodded. "Even though it was probably rough growing up there, it's still the only home you had, and you're still leaving it behind. I grew up in the lower slums of Correlia, so I kinda know the feeling. Even with all the bad memories, there had to be some good ones every once in awhile too right?"
I thought about it. My time tinkering. My time with Amu, with my friends, meeting Nyra, finding the Crystal cave, the look on Sebulba's face when I passed him, winning the race... "Yeah. There were a few good times. Every once in a while."
He nodded knowingly. "Hey, that's the beauty of space travel though. If you ever wanna come back to face some demons or even just visit, you can. And if you wanna never come within 1000 light years of this planet ever again for the rest of your days, you can do that too. It's your choice. You got the whole Galaxy ahead of you kid."
Adjusting the controls, the pilot rotated us back around to face empty space. "Exiting the gravity well now, the Hyperdrive's lookin green?" He asked over comms. After he got an affirmative, he flicked a few more switches, and I heard the hyperdrive spooling up. He gestured to the main hyperdrive throttle on our left. "Do you want to do the honors?" He asked me.
I nodded so fast I almost tweaked my neck out of place. He laughed.
I reached forward with a shaky hand, and put it on the smooth metal surface of the hyperdrive throttle, a shakey smile on my face. I may have been a child right now, but even if I was doing this as an adult, I wouldn't have been any less enthusiastic!
I had the whole galaxy ahead of me.
I pushed the throttle forward, my wide eyes staring excitedly through the transparasteel cockpit window. And just like I'd seen many times before in movies, but never in real life, the stars lengthened from points into lines, and with a final jolt forward and a low pitched boom, we made my first jump to hyperspace.
Aaaaaannnnndd that's a wrap! How did y'all like it? Was the race good? what do y'all think about the vision in the beginning? Sorry if a few things get breezed by, but I wanted to get off Tatooine finally lol.
Did things feel rushed? Or were they ok?
I gotta tell ya, I loved writing the race, and I hope y'all had fun reading it too!
(Funny little side note, some dude got super heated about the fact that in my story I chose to have Shmi be a slave from birth, when in some minor legends comic or some shit it states that she was captured as a young woman or something. I guess Bro didn't bother reading the A/N about me using and/or ignoring whatever I felt like from both legends and/or canon. The funniest part is that they actually seemed genuinely butthurt about it, which is so fucking hilarious to me. They actually typed out "twitch…twitch" to narrate their displeasure XD XD. Bro needs to take a deep breath and rethink their priorities in life. I promise it's not that deep lol. This shit's Fanfiction. It's just for fun.)
Hope you liked the chapter, see you next time!
Ciao!
(Some of you may be pointing out that it has been more than a month since my last post, since last chapter went up on feb 18, and this one is coming out today. But really, if you do the math, and taking into account that February only has 28 days, I technically only took 30 days to post this, 31 at most depending on time zones. So really, if you think about it, I still kept to my 'no more than a month between chapters' resolution. Kinda. Technically. From a certain point of view.)
Let's get into it!
I see the moons shedding their light, sharing their water with the spirits of Ar'Amu's children.
I see a great dragon, and chains cannot hold her.
I see a great storm, it scours and destroys, protects and makes new.
I see a sleeping desert planet, dreaming of the lush green past it once had, its cursed presence a subtle wound in the force.
I see all the old ones gathered on a distant world at midnight, drinking deeply from a cool and dark oasis, unknowing that it has been poisoned by their enemies, who once were their friends.
The very water of the oasis itself cries out, begging and whispering to me in an ancient language I can't understand.
I see a bowl of moonlight in front of me, free of the poison from the enemy.
Trusting my instincts, I pick up the bowl. I drink deeply, and the world breathes.
A cool gentle moonlight fills my soul, and my understanding is enlightened.
The whispers of the poisoned oasis become understandable.
I look around, and there are many people, but they are stoic and ignorant as if they are statues. None of them can hear the whispers.
"Cleanse me!" The whispers say. "Free me from the corruption of the fell god, that all may drink deeply without fear once again!"
"I… don't know how!" I answer. "I can't!"
The whispers respond. "Perhaps not. Not yet."
Suddenly I am summoned, as if tugged on by a thread of light.
The last image I see is a red bird, drinking carefully from the poisoned oasis, purifying the poison with its tears, beautiful drops of passion that shine like moonlight in the dark.
Suddenly, I woke up. Qui Gon Jinn's hand was on my forehead, and he smiled calmly as I opened my eyes. "Anakin. Can you hear me?"
"How can I turn poison into moonlight?" I asked. "How do I drink from the well without death?"
Qui Gon looked a bit concerned at that, and jostled my shoulder. "Anakin. Anakin. Can you hear me? Center yourself, keep your mind on the present."
I blinked a few times, then remembered where I was. I took a breath, stabilized my shields, and calmed myself.
"Yeah—I mean, Yes. I can hear you, I'm here. How long until the race?"
He sighed in relief. "Good. I'm glad you're with us. The Race is in 2 hours. You've healed quicker than we anticipated, especially your ankle, but you still aren't even close to recovered. Be careful. I'll take you to your pod for the final checks.
I nodded, my stomach doing flip flops with anxiety as I banished the strange dream from my thoughts. This was it!
The two hours passed like they were five minutes. The pod was ready to go, and when I tested my ankle and arm, I discovered that I could use them on a human level of performance as long as I enhanced their durability to superhuman levels. If I enhanced my ankle as if I were about to jump 6 meters into the air, I could use it to jog and push the pedals of the pod at a normal human level without damage. It was painful for sure, but if I could deal with it and keep my concentration, I could race.
And normally that thought would have calmed me, but there was something weird going on with my perception.
Everything seemed… sharper. Voices seemed too loud, people's emotions that once seemed like gentle background notes now blared loudly, and yet the sheer sensation of the force flowing through me seemed… slow. Like it wasn't as much as it should be.
Sometimes when I was enhancing my injured bones, my focus seemed to drop off when I started doing other things. Every time it happened I got scared, and focused deeply on the injury to make sure the force was still enhancing it, only to find that it was being enhanced, that it never had stopped being strengthened.
So why in all the nine hells did it at times feel like I wasn't enhancing it then?!
One time, when I walked from one place to another, the force warned me of an obstacle in my path. I lifted my foot to avoid it as I walked, but as I put the foot back down I hit the obstacle anyway. What the fuck? I thought I stepped over it?!
This was a problem. The force seemed strange and different in a way that I struggled to understand. Was my brain also injured, like being punch-drunk? Was my connection to the force itself stressed? Why were my senses so off? Could I even race like this? Was I doomed? Were we doomed?!
I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Don't center on your anxieties young one. The force provides. Trust in it." Qui Gon said.
I nodded. "Ok, sorry mister Qui Gon."
"Don't apologize. You've done nothing wrong, I'm only trying to help. Breathe."
"Right. Thank you." I breathed in and out, and Qui Gon's force presence helped me calm down.
Using the imagery that Amu taught me, I let my fear coalesce into a tool into my mind, and put it away, on my belt. It was still there, ready for use, but not necessary right now. The force flowed through me, and my perception sharpened once again. Everything came into perfect focus as more energy flowed through me than I had ever experienced before.
I centered it all on the present moment. My perception cleared.
I was ready.
I had chosen to stay in my pod after it was towed onto the race track, and it was a good thing I did, because Sebulba came strolling around, examining my racer, his eyes darting around for a part to sabotage. "Careful Sebulba." I said in huttese and he jumped, not having seen me before. "Don't think you can beat me fair and square?"
He reddened in rage at being caught, but then quickly lost his steam at seeing my cast. "You are injured?! And still plan to race?!" He let out a sadistic cackle. "See you in hell, stupid slave worm!"
He then hand walked away, assured in his own victory.
I bristled at the insult. The fact that he hadn't even bothered to sabotage my racer once he had seen my cast just poked at my insecurities. I grit my teeth in anger. "He'll regret underestimating me." I told myself. I wasn't sure I believed it.
When the minutes before the race dropped into single digits, all the members of the group that were present offered well wishes of luck and care. Qui Gon offered his classic advice of "trust your feelings, your instincts. Feel, don't think." I nodded, trying my best to release my anxiety.
Finally, Amu came forward. Her emotions of concern, fear, guilt, and hope practically sang from her presence in the force. "You are afraid?" She asked.
I guess I couldn't hide it. I briefly considered lying, to try and project a false sense of confidence, but I quickly let that idea dissolve. This was my Amu. She deserved the truth. "I am." I said shakily.
"Good." She said with conviction.
My eyes widened in shock.
"A tool isn't useful if it isn't ever removed from your belt. Remember the benefits of fear?"
I nodded. I remembered now. "Quick reactions. More sensitive perception."
She nodded. "Mister Jinn said to trust your instincts. Fear is an instinct. Make sure it is a tool in your hand, not a fog on your brain, or a dead weight on your belt. It is alright to feel fear."
Something finally lifted. I felt lighter. I let myself fear. Accepted it. It's edge reduced. I felt like I could think again.
I am the calm within the storm
A certainty settled on me. I looked over at Amu again, and saw that there were tears in her eyes, but she blinked rapidly to avoid loosing the water.
"Let them fall Amu." I stated, the call for clearing the track of all bystanders sounding out, "Soon we'll have plenty of water."
She smiled, gave a chuffing laugh, and a tear tracked down her cheek. "Return alive." She commanded.
I nodded. "I promise."
The final call blared out, and she hurried out of the starting zone.
I started the power on my racer, warming up its support systems.
I felt fear. I felt anger. That was ok. I let them rage and spin around me, but kept the real focus as my center. Love. Freedom. Hope. It burned and shined like a sun at high noon, and the more bitter negativity of my other emotions were lessened and purified, changing from bitter poison into aromatic spice. Fear lightened into a quick and persistent focus. Anger lightened into an intense and determined resolve. It was still passion, but instead of feeling like choking threads of darkness and gloom, it felt like the ancient and soothing chill of nighttime, of looking at the stars and the moon and yearning for something more. In this more gentle state, the passion didn't war with the light anymore. They worked together, strengthening each other, like Night and Day, two halves of the same whole.
The force itself twanged deeply, humming with an ancient and lost sort of agreement.
Shaking my head I quit my musings. It was a mystery for another time.
I was ready.
""Start your engines!"" The two headed announcer called in both basic and huttese.
I did so, and the turbines of my pod roared to life, the fans of the high pressure fuel injector that I designed made a higher pitched whine that made my pod sound a bit different from the other racers.
I took in everything I could, scanning my pod with the force, memorizing the sound and sights of the other racers, bringing my awareness in every sense I possessed up to maximum. The air wavered with heat, thick with the smell of fuel and exhaust. The suns beat down on me from above and my pod hummed from below. The tast of dust was on my tongue, and yells, whistles, and whoops roared from spectators in the stands.
There was a spitting sound followed by the ring of a gong over the loudspeaker.
The first lap marker light blinked on.
GO!
I blasted forward along with the other racers, leaving Quadrinaros, who had engine trouble, behind.
Because I didn't have an impressive track record as a racer, I had been given a starting position close to the back, behind most of the other racers. Sebulba, of course, had been in one of the front spots.
I tried to weave through the other racers on my way forward, but I suddenly got a warning from the force about my left engine. Swerving to the right slightly, I was bewildered when no danger came. As I was easing my way back however, a saw blade was deployed from the podracer beside me, and scratched across my left engine! I swerved away again, and and a quick scan showed only superficial damage, but the fear and anxiety slammed back into me full force. What the fuck was going on with my precognition?! And why now of all times was it on the fritz?! If this had been happening yesterday with that bounty hunter I would have died!
FUCK!
As we made our way out of the starting straightaway walls, the racers spread out a little more, and I was able to pick up more speed, but with my precog failing I was suddenly confronted with the fact that as a human I was majorly under qualified to be podracing.
I still got the warnings, but the timing was always off, and I felt like I was fighting my own reflexes just to stay alive, much less win the fucking race!
Slowly I fell behind the pack of other racers, giving myself more space to react to anything ahead of me.
When we made it to the cave section it was even worse, because my vision was limited by the relative darkness. I had to lean in to my precog again, but force myself not to immediately react to it until I perceived the danger it was warning me about, and often times by then it was nearly too late, and my pod got several more scratches and scrapes. So far I had been able to avoid any meaningful damage, but it was only a matter of time before something went wrong.
Thankfully we exited the cave section, and with my full vision I was able to tighten up my reactions and get close enough to draft on the racers ahead of me.
I payed as much attention as I could to the relationship between the warnings in the force and the actual danger they signaled, and each time the timing was clearly off I swelled with frustration.
We traveled through the canyons and around the tusken raider bend, and I dodged the potshots they took with plenty of room to spare.
More room to spare than usual actually.
Huh.
As we blasted over the wide sandy flats on our way back to the spectator stands my brain caught on that fact.
I had more room to spare than usual.
The warnings hadn't been just randomly off. They had been early.
As we blasted past the stands, the lap 2 marker illuminated, and my brain went into overdrive.
If the warnings in the force were coming early than that meant I was seeing farther into the future than I ever had been able to before!
I thought about how I kept feeling like I wasn't enhancing my weak points as much as I should, only to find them fully enhanced. It was because enhancing myself fully took far less concentration than it ever had before, so it seemed to me that I wasn't giving enough effort.
And the loudness and sharpness of the force? My connection to the force wasn't damaged, my senses were just stronger than ever.
In the course of a day, I had fought at full strength in a battle to the death, had a force vision/hallucination so deep I discovered a new technique, then was guided into a trance that was far FAR deeper into the force than I'd ever been capable of, with a Jedi Master connected psychically to ensure I stayed under.
Every single one of those experiences on their own would have advanced my connection and understanding of the force, but all of them in quick succession?
There was nothing wrong with me. I was more powerful than I'd ever been before.
Suddenly I remembered a scene from a New Hope.
"Remember, a Jedi can feel the force flowing through him" Old Ben told his pupil.
"You mean it controls your actions?" Luke questioned.
"Partially," said Old Ben, "But it also obeys your commands."
As we approached the cave section again, I sunk deeper into the force than I had ever before. I didn't limit it to just giving me warnings that I could react to, but also let it guide my reactions themselves.
"Let go your conscious self, and rely on instinct."
With this new level of trust and deepness, and feeling the force flowing through me, I closed my eyes, and floored it at full tilt to enter the the center of the pack of racers as we entered the cave section, which was probably the most suicidal thing I could have done in that situation.
My awareness expanded, and I could feel the force guiding my actions, letting it bridge the gap between warning and guidance, and the forms of the other racers and the rocks and obstacles bloomed in my mind, the absolute optimal path through them clear as day.
Racers squealed and shouted with shock as I passed them with mere centimeters to spare between my pod and theirs, fully showcasing my creation's speed for the first time in the race.
The true form and nature of any danger or obstacle was laid bare before me, and as my physical reflexes got used to and aligned themselves to my new level of precog and force guidance, I weaved between racer and danger alike with far greater grace and efficiency than I'd ever believed possible.
As we exited the cave with me at the front of the main pack of racers I felt a pulse of shock, and then elation and relief from a bond with Amu, which I was only just now consciously realizing existed. I smiled, and let the gap between me and the racers behind me grow ever wider. I may have passed the main pack of stragglers, but there was still Sebulba and a string of other challengers that trailed behind him ahead. This race wasn't over yet.
Qui Gon's eyes widened as he sensed the boy, and he stood up from his seat in shock.
When he first met the child, the shielding that blanketed him had been so ingrained and flawless that he'd assumed the boy to be a true force knull.
Later, he had been allowed brief glimpses of Anakin's inner potential, but its full depths had never truly broken free.
But now, any disguises or self imposed limits had been shed, and the child shone so brightly in the force he seemed to be a supernova, more like a temple-grade force nexus than the signature of a single being. A living vergence in the force.
If he had any doubts remaining that this boy was the chosen one, finally sensing his fully unleashed power and potential had put them to rest.
So raw, so untrained, and already the sensation of his presence brought to mind force titans like masters Windu and Yoda, with the clear potential to one day exceed all of them.
Qui Gon sat back down in his seat, calming himself. The race wasn't over yet. Their hopes still rode on Anakin. The present needed his attention right now, not daydreams of a possible future. Still, he couldn't help a smile of excitement at the feeling. "Go Anakin!" He cheered quietly, clenching his fist. "Go!"
Using my speed I drove up onto the canyon wall, hovering along it sideways as I passed one racer, one of the only spots in the canyon that was smooth enough to make the transition, then on the dismount I closed the bottom vents on the right engine, which was riding high on the wall.
Offgassing a bit of extra fuel into the closed vent, I saturated the air within, then opened the vent once more to give it oxygen. A violent explosion emanated from the bottom vent, blasting me off the wall and sending my podracer spinning in a corkscrew roll through the air to dodge an upcoming outcrop on the canyon wall by mere centimeters.
Approaching the ground I diverted extra power from the engine turbines to the hover stabilizers in the exact instant that I landed to cushion my fall, then immediately rediverted the power back to the turbines to speed ahead once more. I chuckled when I felt the racer behind me slow down, his grip on his controls likely slackening in shock.
One after another I passed the string of racers, sometimes in spectacular fashion and other times quite smoothly with superior lines.
The fact that the engine cylinders of my pod were made out of a superior durable alloy wasn't the only thing that was amazing about them, the fact that they came from a stunt fighter allowed for superior mobility, allowing me to divert thrust sideways to make wild drifting maneuvers that had my pod seat swinging back and forth like a pendulum. The thrust and momentum of the drifts allowed me to take incredibly tight corners with so much velocity that the nose fins of my engines sometimes nearly kissed the sides of each obstacle I swerved around with only millimeters to spare.
Each racer normally braked and swerved and slowed their pods to maneuver, but that wasn't necessary for me. I could take everything this course threw at me while flooring it Mario kart style.
It wasn't long before we ripped through the stands once again with the third lap marker lighting up.
I passed one more racer on the stretch to the cave section, which only left two racers in front of me, Sebulba, who was the leader, and Teemto Pagalies, who trailed a bit right beside him in an attempt to pass.
As we entered the cave section once more, Sebulba activated one of his heat 'vents', spewing a tongue of fire at Teemto which flash cooked him, his light blinking out in the force. His now riderless racing pod veered left and slammed into one of the large pillars in the cave, sending an explosion of flame, boulders, and metal shrapnel across the path I was taking, and from the satisfaction and complacent confidence that now radiated from Sebulba, the placement had to be intentional.
Undeterred, I flicked two of my fingers and the boulders and debris bent around me and my pod racer like it had spontaneously grown a deflector shield, letting me race forward without loosing any speed.
As we approached the cave exit I noticed the shape of the opening, which resembled a teardrop. Wide enough for a racer to pass through at the bottom, but became quite narrow at the top.
Once again I closed the bottom vents of my racer, this time on both engines, and prepared them with a bit of fuel. Right as we were about to exit the cave, I opened the left vent first and the right one after, exploding me upwards into another corkscrew maneuver, and time seemed to slow as I sailed sideways through the narrow top section of the cave exit right over Sebulba, ducking my head down and ignoring the pain in my ribs as the rock wall grazed the top of my windshield. As my racer rotated upside down in the air I looked upwards down at Sebulba, his mouth and eyes blown wide in absolute shock.
I cackled with glee as the brief image was cemented into my brain, and my pod continued its corkscrew motion until I landed right side up in front of Sebulba, my racer slowly gaining distance from his in the rocky canyon section until I couldn't even see him behind me anymore.
My heart soared with elation, and I let out a loud whoop as I rocketed ahead as the new leader.
""AND WITH ANOTHER TOTALLY UNHEARD OF MANEUVER SKYWALKER PASSES ABOVE SEBULBA SIDEWAYS THROUGH THE TOP OF THE CAVE EXIT! THIS HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN IN RACE HISTORY! THEY'LL BE CALLING THAT THE SKYWALKER SPIN JUMP FROM NOW ON! WE NOW HAVE A NEW COURSE LEADER ON THE THIRD LAP, AND SEBULBA SEEMS TO HAVE NO CHANCE AT CATCHING UP! THIS IS THE GREATEST UPSET IN POD RACING HISTORY!""
The commentator's excited screaming emanated from the datapad and filled the ship as Obi Wan's hand covered a burp with a fist, and he shook his head, half impressed, half nauseated.
If he knew anything he knew this: he never wanted to be in any vehicle with Skywalker in the pilot seat. Still, he fully admitted that the boy was a hell of a pilot. He swallowed the gag, and cheered along with the Naboo pilots and hand maidens at a race that was likely won.
As I ripped through the canyon section on my way to victory, my eyes widened in shock as I saw another racer ahead of me!
Sebulba definitely wouldn't have felt so confident earlier if someone had already passed him, and while my racing pod was fast, it wasn't so fast that I'd be lapping someone, at least not yet, so who the karking hells was this?!
Their racer was small and nimble, similar to mine, but unlike mine (which I didn't bother to paint and just left in bare metal tones) the engines were painted in a bright yellow, the Crome polished pod seat adorned with blue stripes.
I gained ground on them slowly, as their pod was surprisingly fast, and they took each turn with astounding grace, and I kept chasing after the strangely familiar pod, waiting for them to make a mistake.
They didn't.
"I had a dream I was a Jedi. I came back here and freed all the slaves."
As we came out of the canyon section and into the tusken raider area, I noticed that their racer's engines didn't kick up any dust, didn't leave a shadow. They were slightly transparent, as if I was racing a phantom.
Across from me I saw a child about 6 or 7 years old, who radiated a bright light. He looked passingly familiar and was dressed in some kind of worn sandy robes. I tried to place where I'd seen him before.
Our eyes met, and he seemed to startle. When he spoke, it was frank and direct, but I could tell he was scared.
"H-hello. Who are you? Where are we? Am I…dead?"
I was about to respond but Rob beat me to it. "You aren't dead yet child, but if nothing is done, you will be. There was an accident during the race, you are hanging on by a thread. This man is here, because he can save your life. By merging your souls, we can create enough energy to fully heal your body, and together you two can become something truly amazing."
The child spoke again, "Will I… or I guess will we, be free?" I could feel the hurt deep in his soul, and the desperate hope in his eyes, and my heart melted. Rob answered.
"With the knowledge this man possesses, and the power of your soul, you can indeed become free, both of you."
The boy became exited, like he couldn't believe his ears. "I'll do it!" He said with an ear to ear grin. There was a fire in his eyes, an intensity I couldn't explain.
I drew closer to the phantom racer, and saw who was in the pilot seat. He was a bit thinner than me, and slightly shorter, likely due to malnutrition that I had avoided with my Matukai training that allowed me to draw nourishment from the force. His clothes were different as well, wearing a grayish tunic that I had grown out of months ago and given to another slave child who needed it. Soot coated his face around his goggled helmet, and as I passed him, our identical glacier blue eyes met.
"Now I am complete."
"Stay with me Amu! Please! Every— Everything is going to be alright!"
"Ani… I… love…"
We raced around rocks and obstacles on opposite paths, passing through each other as we navigated the final third of the last lap of the course.
As we entered the final sandy stretch, his pod drew closer, overlapping mine a bit, which was slightly ahead of his.
He looked into my eyes once again, and though his voice didn't make a sound, I could clearly read the words on his lips.
'Go. Be better.'
I nodded with a fierce determination on my face, and he closed his eyes with a smile, the phantom racer fading away.
I squeezed my hand through my hair, and managed to get some still liquid blood on my fingers.
Blood
I spat in my hand, the clear fluid mixing with the red.
Water
Amu had told me the slave stories of Amavikka people. Of Leiyah the Dragon, the unfettered, and Lukkah the storm, the destroyer who makes new. I knew most of the Amatakkan words for the oath, and the words I didn't know I spoke in galactic basic.
"My name is Anakin Ekkreth. My Mother, Shmi Ekkreth, will not die to the sand people. I will not fall to the Dark Side of the Force. in two years time, when the Jedi arrive, both my mother and I will be free. This I swear on blood and water. We WILL be FREE."
I scooted over to the edge of the flatbed, and squeezed the mixture through my fingers, letting the drips fall to the moonlit sand that was rushing by.
I probably hadn't gotten the words exactly right, and dripping the blood and water off the side of a speeder truck may not have been 'proper', but this was a slave oath. Pomp and ceremony have never been a requirement for Ar-Amu's help.
I felt a faint rushing of power through me. Similar to the Force I'd felt earlier, but not quite the same. It was warmer, like a fire in my soul. As quick as it had come, it vanished, so suddenly and completely I wondered if I had imagined it.
I looked up at the moons, and echoed my words from earlier under my breath, in galactic basic this time.
"We will be free."
My engines grew louder, changed pitch, and blared forth with the sound of greater Krayt dragon roar. The force surrounded me in a fiery warmth, and as I passed through the finish line one last time, I heard clear as day the metallic ringing of chains being broken.
As I slowed down, the roar of the crowd was dim, like I was listening to it from under water. The rushing sound of my gasping breaths and the beating drum of my heart thundered in my ears.
I looked up, saw the crowd, saw their excitement, and everything came back into focus.
The roar of the crowd was deafening. People rushed onto the track, approaching my racer with cheers, Qui Gon grabbed me under the arms and lifted me out of the pod and onto his shoulders and paraded me around, our group following us around. My friend Wald was loosing his shit with the hype, and Watto looked pale, like someone had told him the worst news of his life.
I was free.
I looked at Amu, and she nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks, her face in a beaming smile.
And soon, she would be too.
Excitedly, I packed some of my most important things into a bag, and pausing when I looked at a protocol droid's unfinished head. I had found the data chip with over six million forms of communication loaded onto it a while back, and hadn't been able to resist taking it. I'm not sure if it was duty, or intrigue, but I had been practically guided by the force in using it for the construction of a droid brain, which I had loaded up with processing power and plenty of cpu room for personality growth, but hadn't built much more of him then the head. I connected the head to a power circuit and turned it on.
"Hello. I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations. How may I assist you? Oh! Master Ani! The Maker! Am I finally going to get a body? A proper one with coverings?"
I grimaced, both at his use of the term 'master', which was hard coded into his greater 'polite speech' database on the chip I found, and also at my neglect towards him so far. The C-3PO from the movie had been mostly finished, with a functional body that just lacked plating, but with my time taken up with everything else I hadn't been able to make much more than his head.
"Good news Threepio, I've been freed, and Mom is being freed also as we speak! We are headed off of this sandy rock. Once we get somewhere better I promise I'll make you a full body, with gleaming gold colored plating!"
"Oh Master Ani that sounds positively wonderful! I can hardly wait! But will we have to travel through space on one of those dreadful starships to get where we are going? You know the odds of encountering pirates in this region of space is—"
"Quite high, yes, I know." I interrupted. "But it's a risk We'll have to take."
He let out a staticky metallic huff. "Oh very well. If it is absolutely necessary. Will you be pulling my power to transport me?"
"Yeah, sorry. I'll get you fitted with a proper power cell as soon as possible, I promise."
"Wonderful! I'll shut down now if that's all right."
I nodded, and the light in his eyes blinked off. I unplugged him, and wrapped the droid head in a protective cloth and put it in my bag.
Going outside I was met with the sight of Jabba the Hutt and his bodyguards. I froze.
"Hello young Skywalker." He rumbled in huttese, a cunning and greedy glint in his eye, "Your race today was quite impressive my boy, and yet I heard that Watto, your owner, is in dire financial straits. Is this true?"
I nodded, desperately thinking of a way to get out of this. I couldn't just straight up lie, as Jabba was too smart to be fooled by an utter falsehood, but I couldn't tell him the truth of my freedom either, as he would simply have his people re-capture me before I could leave the planet.
I responded, also in Huttese, "I was one of the things Watto bet on the race your great and mightyness, and so my ownership has changed. I'm packing up to join my new Master now, a tall human outworlder with long hair and a beard. He usually hangs out in the local cantina in the mornings, and he's sure to be celebrating there from now till tomorrow, you know, because of his big win. He bet on me and got odds of thirty to one."
I was afraid Jabba would see through my deception, but he smiled, taking it hook line and sinker. "Ah, yes! I have seen this outworlder myself, the one who carried you after the race. I shall leave him to his celebrations for now, but tell him that I will meet him at the cantina tomorrow afternoon at 3pm standard. If he does not arrive, I will be most… displeased."
I kept my triumph off my face. Jabba planned to bully ownership of me away from my new 'owner' tomorrow. Too bad I'd be freed and well out of Hutt space by then. "I shall tell him, great and powerful one."
At this, Jabba nodded in a self satisfied way, and slithered off to attend to his next bit of business.
That was way too close. Guess I had been a bit too flashy in my racing. But whatever. I'd soon be away from all of this.
Between the sale of Anakin's Pod, and the winnings from the bet, Obi wan had quite an enormous sum of money on him. Two would be thieves had already attempted to relieve him of it, but they had suddenly realized they had forgotten an urgent meeting and rushed off to make their appointment.
The negotiations with Watto were relatively straightforward. He asked for a price for Shmi, the lady Skywalker, and when Watto stated an absurd amount, Obi Wan accepted. It was less than a tenth of what he currently had in the bag after all.
Watto had sputtered and attempted to increase the amount, but Obi Wan had flashed a blaster on his hip, and insisted Watto obey their agreement. The toydarian quickly caved, and Obi Wan was soon on his way to the ship with one Shmi Skywalker, her own remote transmitter in her hands.
She had a giddy smile on her face, which made her look at least ten years younger.
"You could have bartered a little." She said to Obi Wan with a stern tone of voice, her face and force signature betraying her joy.
"Any sum of worldly money hardly compares to your immeasurable worth as a sentient my lady, but if you wish for me to compensate you for the loss, I will do so freely." He said primly, handing the money to her with a smile.
She accepted it, blushing at such a handsome young man with such a highbrow accent calling her 'my lady', and enjoying the threat-free flirting with the young oath-bearing monk. "That won't be necessary, the remaining sum is more than enough." She answered with a smile.
He nodded, "Shall we be on our way then?"
She nodded back. "We shall."
Qui Gon Jinn and I had met up after he had finished transporting the parts to his ship, and he handed me my remote, deactivated. I didn't have much time to process the magnitude of what was in my hands, before Qui Gon hurried me along. "I sense we are being followed, We must make haste!"
We were currently on our way to the ship, our speed lessened to relatively normal human levels by my injuries. I could sense that Amu, Obi Wan, Padme, and everyone else in our party had already made it on, which was a major relief.
"Anakin! Drop!" Qui Gon commanded. I immediately did so, sensing the danger. A speeder rushed over me and Darth Maul leaped off and ignited his crimson lightsaber, engaging Qui Gon in battle.
Hopping onto my feet, I made a break for the ship. As I speeded up the boarding ramp, Qui Gon called, "Tell the pilot to take off!"
I sprinted down the ship and told the pilot, and when we did so, Qui Gon was able to leap up into the ship just as the ramp closed.
Qui Gon had a bit of sweat on his brow, but didn't seem exhausted. Seeing that he was ok, I rushed back up to the pilot's area.
After I asked if I could watch, one of them lifted me up to sit on their lap, which I couldn't muster up the energy to be irritated about, because it gave me a front row seat of outer fucking space.
I had always been fascinated by space, in both lives. I remember wanting to wear a buzz lightyear suit wherever I went as a tiny little kid, learning all the planets in order and being genuinely devastated when Pluto was disqualified, and dreamed of being an astronaut through most of my childhood.
I was already giddy, already fucking wired by the day I just had, but seeing the blue glow of the sky fade away, and the stars coming into focus? Feeling the vibrations of the ship underneath me?
It was a fucking dream come true.
The only way to make it better would be to turn off artificial gravity and float around a bit in zero Gs, but unfortunately the pilot refused. Still, they did spin around the ship once we had a good amount of momentum towards the edge of the gravity well, letting me look at Tatooine from all the way up here.
It was an amazing yet bizarre feeling, knowing that all the pain, all the effort, all the triumphs, and struggles, and setbacks, and success, all of it, took place on that little tan marble in the starry sky in front of us. A tan marble that was getting smaller little by little as we drifted further away into space. I was leaving it behind.
We were leaving it behind.
"I feel… strange." I said to the pilot. "All my life I've wanted to see the stars, to escape that dustball, and that hasn't changed but…" I struggled to articulate my thoughts. "It feels sorta like… I left a light on, or… a motor running. Like I'm leaving something behind."
The pilot nodded. "Even though it was probably rough growing up there, it's still the only home you had, and you're still leaving it behind. I grew up in the lower slums of Correlia, so I kinda know the feeling. Even with all the bad memories, there had to be some good ones every once in awhile too right?"
I thought about it. My time tinkering. My time with Amu, with my friends, meeting Nyra, finding the Crystal cave, the look on Sebulba's face when I passed him, winning the race... "Yeah. There were a few good times. Every once in a while."
He nodded knowingly. "Hey, that's the beauty of space travel though. If you ever wanna come back to face some demons or even just visit, you can. And if you wanna never come within 1000 light years of this planet ever again for the rest of your days, you can do that too. It's your choice. You got the whole Galaxy ahead of you kid."
Adjusting the controls, the pilot rotated us back around to face empty space. "Exiting the gravity well now, the Hyperdrive's lookin green?" He asked over comms. After he got an affirmative, he flicked a few more switches, and I heard the hyperdrive spooling up. He gestured to the main hyperdrive throttle on our left. "Do you want to do the honors?" He asked me.
I nodded so fast I almost tweaked my neck out of place. He laughed.
I reached forward with a shaky hand, and put it on the smooth metal surface of the hyperdrive throttle, a shakey smile on my face. I may have been a child right now, but even if I was doing this as an adult, I wouldn't have been any less enthusiastic!
I had the whole galaxy ahead of me.
I pushed the throttle forward, my wide eyes staring excitedly through the transparasteel cockpit window. And just like I'd seen many times before in movies, but never in real life, the stars lengthened from points into lines, and with a final jolt forward and a low pitched boom, we made my first jump to hyperspace.
Aaaaaannnnndd that's a wrap! How did y'all like it? Was the race good? what do y'all think about the vision in the beginning? Sorry if a few things get breezed by, but I wanted to get off Tatooine finally lol.
Did things feel rushed? Or were they ok?
I gotta tell ya, I loved writing the race, and I hope y'all had fun reading it too!
(Funny little side note, some dude got super heated about the fact that in my story I chose to have Shmi be a slave from birth, when in some minor legends comic or some shit it states that she was captured as a young woman or something. I guess Bro didn't bother reading the A/N about me using and/or ignoring whatever I felt like from both legends and/or canon. The funniest part is that they actually seemed genuinely butthurt about it, which is so fucking hilarious to me. They actually typed out "twitch…twitch" to narrate their displeasure XD XD. Bro needs to take a deep breath and rethink their priorities in life. I promise it's not that deep lol. This shit's Fanfiction. It's just for fun.)
Hope you liked the chapter, see you next time!
Ciao!
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Hyperspace Schemes and Jedi Hatred
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2021
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Hi everyone! I'm back!
I cannot TELL you how much this chapter kicked my ASS! Writers block hit like a freight train and I just couldn't shake it, plus the switch two came out along with some other things.
I'll talk a little bit more about why it's been SO long after the chapter is done.
This chapter is an establishment chapter in which a shit ton of things are set up, and I knew I wanted to foreshadow several future plot points, but I also know that set up can be kinda boring some times.
I knew I didn't just want to info dump, so I broke it up with some alternate POV sections, and at the end of the day, I STILL am honestly not quite satisfied with it.
Still, this paralysis of writing has gone on long enough. Writing and sharing my work honestly makes me happy, and I'm not giving up on it just because it takes more effort than doomscrolling YouTube shorts!
So here we go. Let's get into it!
I stared into the swirling blue of hyperspace. There was something… mesmerizing about it. Seeing it on a screen did nothing to convey the sheer depth the corridor of energy had, how far it went, like you could see through to the edge of the universe, really made me think about everything, or perhaps think about nothing. I folded my arms in contemplation as I stood straight backed between the two pilots seats, my brow furrowed slightly in concentration, trying to see deeper. Trying to understand.
The cockpit was currently empty, after we had made the jump to hyperspace the ship would pretty much fly itself along the rout we calculated, so the pilots had left the room.
Pretty soon however, one of them came back in. It was Cooreev, the pilot from Naboo. He seemed to have a bit of a nervous personality, and though I could barely hear his light footed steps, I could sense him easily in the force. When he saw me, he froze, his anxiety blooming like the taste of straight vinegar in the force, which I did not appreciate. I myself found it a bit difficult to manage my anxiety sometimes, so I found I quite disliked him already for constantly disrupting my inner peace with his incessant worrying, though I suppose it wasn't his fault. Still, I much preferred the cool and collected feeling of Dan, the pilot from Corellia, which reminded me of a refreshing morning breeze.
Instead of calling my name, y'know, like a normal person, Cooreev seemed to deliberate internally before almost tiptoeing up behind me, then reaching his hand out with a finger extended, intending to tap my shoulder annoyingly.
"Can I help you?" I said before his finger reached my shoulder.
He flinched, but the anxiety drained out of him, which did wonders for my mood. He spoke, "Oh, thank the force! I thought you had gotten hyper rapture!"
I was unfamiliar with the term. "Hyper rapture?" I asked, feeling a bit guilty for being so irritated earlier. He was only concerned about me, and wasn't force sensitive so didn't understand how his anxiety affected me. It wasn't his fault.
He nodded, "Yes! You need to be careful about staring into hyperspace like that, you could be entranced! The human mind wasn't meant to comprehend hyperspace, and staring into it can drive you mad! You need to be more careful!"
There was a snort from behind us as Dan, the other pilot from Corellia, entered the cockpit. "Quit filling the kids head with tales Cooreev. Hyper Rapture is just an old spacers yarn."
Cooreev bristled, and his anxious presence blared in the force once more. "Hyper Rapture, a spacers yarn?! I'll have you know it's a legitimate concern! My Uncle knew of a man on Ord Mantel who—"
Dan interrupted, "Oh your uncle knew. Wow. And what about you? Who do you know who got hyper rapture? Personally. Anyone?"
Cooreev bristled further. "Are you calling my uncle a liar?!"
Dan responded, holding his hands up in surrender and speaking with a chilled out drawl, "Look, I have no idea what your uncle saw or how the story has been reinterpreted and retold over the years. All I know, is that I've been from one side of this galaxy to the other, and in all that time I've never once met anyone who actually got hyper rapture. People will talk about it, sure, but it's always some guy that one of their buddies or family members heard about once upon a time. I stare into hyperspace all the time, and I'm no worse for wear."
Cooreev scoffed, "That's debatable." He turned to me. "Whether its existence is acknowledged or not, it's a risk you shouldn't take. It only takes once." He walked out of the room in a huff, leaving Dan chuckling.
Dan sat down in the pilots chair, and stirred his caf and took a sip. Then he gestured to the swirling funnel of hyper space. "Shall we enjoy the show?" He asked with a smirk on his face.
"Nah." I said, unsure. "Until I can look up a scientific study one way or another I'd rather not risk it."
He sighed, then shrugged. "That's fair." He turned back to the transparasteel canopy, and began to type on a datapad, occasionally gazing into hyperspace, as if looking for inspiration. Recognizing someone in the midst of relaxation, I headed out of the cockpit.
One thing that gets cut out of the movies that I wasn't anticipating is just how much time traveling through hyperspace takes. And yeah, I know that's dumb to say it takes a long time when we are literally traveling halfway across an entire fucking galaxy in a little less than a week, which is ridiculously fast, but still. Even using the most direct and well charted hyper routes, the journey from Tatooine to Coruscant takes a little more than six days. And Tatooine is smack dab in the middle of a major hyperlane, and so is Coruscant! I don't know why, but I always assumed hyperspace travel would be a lot faster.
Six days. You know, after all I've been through I should probably enjoy just sitting and relaxing for a week, but I was so used to being busy all the time that I was honestly coming on with a bit of cabin fever. After the conversation I had with the pilots about 'hyper rapture', I had explored the ship, dismantled my transmitter remote with Amu, discussed what our plans were, (I'd go to the Jedi if I could, she'd get an education with the money and connections we now had, and if the Jedi didn't accept me I'd go with her and get an education myself) studied the ship's blueprints, used what parts I had to build up threepio's neck connector, do my daily exercises (much slower and more carefully than usual), and all of that only took the first day.
We had five more.
Which leads me to where I am now.
Contemplating something totally insane.
It's the third day of our journey, and I've already had lengthy conversations with everyone on the crew, and now I'm sitting and contemplating on one of the three flasks I have that each contain a liter of Durindfire juice.
Wondering if I should give one to Palpatine.
Wait! Let me explain! I know you're probably thinking I've taken leave of my senses, and maybe I have, but let me explain properly before you tell me that I'm the dumbest fucking idiot that exists in the galaxy. (Jury is still out on that one)
This whole idea started on the second day. In my boredom, I had decided to ask Qui Gon for some Jedi training, even though I technically wasn't a Jedi yet. He was busy in deep meditation on the currant situation however, and so I went to Obi Wan instead.
"Can you help me with my shields? Matukai training focuses more on enhancing the mind directly rather than protecting it with a barrier, and I'd like to have as thorough a defense as possible. Even if I don't end up getting accepted, shielding my mind won't be dangerous, as it will only protect me from the Dark side. Right?"
Obi Wan contemplated this for a few seconds. "Alright. Shielding the mind from darkness is something we are cleared to teach other sensitives not from our order, so it isn't against the code to teach you. Meditate with me."
We sat in seiza knee to knee, and he guided me through mental exercises. What we discovered together, was that my shields that I already had had little in common with the ones that the Jedi used. Mine were flexible and thin, providing safety through stealth, but didn't really stand up to any kind of directed mental attack. While Obi Wan's initial plan was to upgrade my existing shields to be more sturdy, it became clear that the hide/safty/stealth shielding technique that my mom created wasn't compatible, and would lose a lot of it's effectiveness if changed. So instead, he helped me construct an entirely new layer of defense underneath the initial stealth shields.
The Jedi shields he taught me were sturdy and resilient, but also did nothing to hide my presence, leaving me bright and noticeable in the force. The purpose of them was to maximize mental defense without restricting someone's connection and power in the force in any way. There was no need for hiding. While my old shielding was based on feelings and instinct, these were more about a pure exertion of will, not connected to any one emotion.
It took a few hours, but I was able to construct a proper Jedi shield, and it felt amazing. I could feel the presence of people's emotions just as accurately, but there was now a clear divide between their emotions and my own. I didn't have to fight to keep my anxiety down when in the presence of Cooreev, which went a long way towards making me like him, or at least, dislike him much less than before.
With a bit of practice I was also able to layer my old 'cloak style' shielding over the new ones, allowing me to still utilize all my tricks.
My mind now had four layers of defense.
The first was the fragile cloak shield. The second was the sturdy Jedi shields. The third was the sheer strength and flexibility of my mind itself, which had been tempered and enhanced by Matukai training and hardship.
And the fourth? The fourth was another little trick Amu and I had discovered. One that was perhaps more potent than either of us realized.
Once I understood the concept behind Jedi shields, Obi Wan began testing them by 'attacking' them with a mental probe. My awareness of the force and experience with shielding meant that I didn't have any glaring weak spots, but there were still some subtler ones Obi Wan was able to sense and break through. My defensive shields were new, and so they were breached rather easily. It was difficult, and gave me quite a headache, but I welcomed the challenge.
Whenever Obi Wan breached my shields, I 'tensed' my mind, holding the image of unbreakable metal. And while this worked initially, Obi wan was still able to find paths of lesser resistance and use them to infiltrate my mind, attempting to gain information.
In this he showcased both the strength and weakness of Matukai mental techniques. While the sheer accumulated strength of my mind and willpower meant that my mind was highly resistant against being forcibly altered, corrupted, or damaged, it wasn't that good at thwarting attempts to gather information.
Try to mind control or trick a Matukai master with illusions or mental corruption? They'd bust through all that unharmed. But try to read their mind without trying to change or harm anything? That was far easier.
Which brought me to the fourth level of defense. Some nights, when Amu and I were able, we had tested each other's defenses in a similar way that Obi Wan was doing now, following Nyra's instructions.
With the discovery of the effects of the Durindfire Pallie juice, and the training we both did with it, we began to understand the strange prismatic effects that it had on the perception, and were able to on some level replicate those effects, even when not under its influence.
When being mentally attacked, A mind probe that breached your defenses had a specific intent to it. When that intent was to gather information, it acted almost like a psychic vacuum, drawing information toward itself.
By replicating the fragmented and overwhelming nature of the Durindfire visions, we discovered we could 'feed' each other's mental probes with prismatic and confusing bits of multiple simultaneous timelines, using our memories of the Durindfire visions as fuel. It was basically like feeding the probe a bunch of unusable 'junk' data, instead of actually revealing true thoughts. Because we were both familiar with the effects of the Durindfire juice, we were able to use our experience to 'decode' the information, but it took a lot of concentration.
Because it was something you could make sense of if you were used to it, we didn't think it was all that strong. Just a stop gap, an encryption of data so to speak. If you had the right key, or enough processing power, you could break an encryption.
But it seems we underestimated how awful it is to someone who's never experienced it before.
The first time Obi Wan breached my mind seeking information, I did as I had done before in practice with Amu. I fed him the 'encrypted junk data' instead of real thoughts. It was supposed to confuse. To befuddle with nonsense. It wasn't supposed to hurt.
"Aaah!" Obi Wan cried out, recoiling away from me as his hand jumped up to his forehead. A lance of pain rang through the force like a tremor before he clamped his shields down over it. "What… was that?!" He asked after gathering himself.
I blinked. We hadn't actually named the technique, so I pause briefly before coming up with one. "Prismatic encryption. Mind probes are made with the intention of seeking information. They're… hungry for it in a way. Instead of feeding them with information about real thoughts, you just send them junk data that's all mixed around. Encrypted, if you will. You won't be able to tell what parts are my actual thoughts and which parts are visions of the past or future."
"Well It's highly effective." Obi Wan said grumpily, rubbing his forehead. "How do can you possibly layer so many vision fragments over each other like that? That is not a natural state of perception. How can you comprehend it enough to… feed it to someone else?"
I theoretically knew Obi Wan was trustworthy. He wouldn't intentionally reveal anything to anyone harmful, but they also say that the only way two people can keep a secret is if one of them is dead. "Trade secret." I said smugly. "Maybe if I'm accepted into the order I'll share."
He rolled his eyes, but a mischievous glint entered his gaze. "Very well. Though we aught to have master Qui Gon try it. I'm sure he'll be able to decipher your… 'prismatic encryption'. Without being warned beforehand, as it's only fair he experience it in a way similar to myself. Factors must be kept consistent after all."
I smirked. "Alright, let's see."
While Obi Wan had felt a brief pain, he was also just a padawan. His willpower and mental defense were surely less developed and powerful than Qui Gon, a full Jedi master. Because of this, we didn't really see anything harmful about our prank.
When Qui Gon had finished his personal meditation, we had him test my mental defenses, which quickly turned from a funny joke into frightful mistake. Where Obi Wan had let out a bark of surprise, Qui Gon had let out a full on yell of pain.
Both of our smirks dropped off our faces, and we quickly rushed forward with concern. I could immediately sense the difference between how it was effecting Qui Gon as opposed how it did earlier with Obi Wan. There were many more vision fragments clustered around him, drawn to his powerful and well developed connection to the force like moths to a flame. He quickly dispelled it but his face was flushed red and he held a hand to his brow.
"What. Was. That." He said, his force signature briefly tinged with anger before he released it into the force.
Both of us frantically explained our intentions, calming the stoic Jedi master.
"We had no idea it would be that bad!" I said, "Amu and I use it on each other, and when I used it on Obi Wan earlier it wasn't anywhere close to that severe!"
Obi wan backed me up, "Its true master, We had little reason to believe it would cause that kind of reaction."
Qui Gon nodded. "I sense you are telling the truth. I fully accept your apology, however, you must promise me you will not use that technique on other Jedi, especially Jedi seers. It is an unnatural effect, one I fear is multiplied by the strength of one's connection to the force. Such a defense would be useless against pirates and outlaws, but debilitating for certain Jedi masters, at least until they can train themselves against it. Its use in a modern world will be quite rare. You are forbidden from using it again against your fellow Jedi until further notice, is that clear?" His gaze pierced into my own.
I nodded hurriedly, still quite guilty, "Yes sir! I promise!"
After that, the mood was kinda killed, and so I was left to my own thoughts, reeling about what I had just discovered.
This technique was just a replica of the juice's effects, not the juice itself, so it was much weaker, but the mechanics behind it were similar. Qui Gon said that the effects might get more intense the stronger the recipient's connection to the force is, and from what I can gather, I think he's right!
I remembered how when Amu and I first tried the Durindfire juice, I had literally been rendered unconscious by the agony, while she had treated it like a particularly severe headache. Ma Jira had poured herself some on one of her visits and downed a glass before we realized what she had, and it hadn't affected her at all, as she wasn't force sensitive.
Drinking the juice itself was far more potent than prismatic encryption, you couldn't dispel its effects because they were constantly being reapplied from within by the juice itself.
And if that's what a small instant, barely a second, does to a Jedi Master, than what would it do to a Sith Lord?
A Sith Lord with a connection to the force more powerful than even Yoda?
There is an old Chinese saying, 'the only difference between medicine and poison is the dosage'.
The fact that they were Durindfire crystals meant that they couldn't be sensed in the force unless you were physically near, and as impure and tiny as the crystals were, they couldn't be sensed at all unless you actively tried to connect with them.
I had done a lot of thinking and meditating in the past on how I should deal with the looming threat that was Darth Sidious, and the thing that stood out to me the most was that the longer he was allowed to be in a high position of government, the more damage he could do to the republic, and the more powerful he could become. If there came a time that I could take him out, I needed to, and the sooner the better.
However… that was a big if.
After I had pierced the veil of the dark side, my ability to perceive the future had… changed. While before, the future had seemed murky and unknowable, now the veil seemed slightly transparent, like a tinted window. As if my experience beyond it (however brief and terrifying it was) had enlightened my understanding somewhat.
From that moment on I could perceive a bit more of the future. Not a lot, and certainly not in any kind of detail, the veil still darkened my vision, but I could now feel out the vague currants of the future.
I had meditated on just straight up telling the council about Palpatine, but I could foresee relatively clearly that it wouldn't be sufficient. They wouldn't want to believe it, they would question me extremely thoroughly, and it would eventually come to light that I hadn't even seen his identity in a vision at all, but from a source that they plainly wouldn't believe, and it would spiral downward from there. If any investigation was made at all, it would be half assed, Palpatine would be alerted, and all of my current advantages would be flushed down the crapper.
So why risk the Juice?
I knew from the time with Ma Jira that the juice only effected force sensitives. On a non sensitive, like what Palpatine claimed to be publicly, there should be no reason why it would do anything bad to him.
If he showed up somewhere after drinking it looking like death warmed over, it would be extremely strong evidence that he was force sensitive, and I might be able to back up my 'visions' enough to be taken seriously.
If you had a significant level of force sensitivity, you had to openly declare that fact to be in a position of government, to avoid people abusing force compulsion to bend the minds of people towards your point of view. If I could prove that Palpatine was lying about his force sensitivity, it should be enough to back up my claims and spark a serious investigation.
Bing bang boom, one sith lords head on a platter, comin' right up! (were it so easy)
Of course, I could just do nothing. Play it safe, keep things predictable, grow in power and influence, and take him out once I was strong enough to beat him in combat. Keeping things predictable would also allow me to make use of my meta knowledge for much longer.
But the longer I waited, the more damage Palpatine would be able to do.
My fear could keep me safe. But it could also keep me from doing what was necessary. From taking a chance that had the potential to pay off MASSIVELY.
My fear, pragmatism, and caution told me to hang back. To not get involved at all, to just stay in my lane and horde the knowledge for myself while manipulating things and people in the background to be more predictable.
But my anger, compassion, and sense of justice all deemed that approach unacceptable. Putting my head in the sand and allowing Palpatine to continue his activities when I may have something that could deal a serious blow to him or perhaps outright kill him right now? Absolutely ridiculous! Why wait? Why drag it out? Take out Palpatine right now and my future couldn't be brighter! I could relax and explore the galaxy at my leisure without the threat of the sith hanging over me! The thought of being rid of the sith so soon was incredibly tempting, to the point that I couldn't banish it from my mind! It was always there, like a specter made of honey and sunlight.
But would it actually harm Palpatine? That was the question. That's what this whole plan hinged on. If it took him out, or at least gave sufficient evidence that the Jedi would mobilize and he would be taken out that way, the path forward was obvious.
Poison Palpatine! There would be no reason not to at that point!
But what if it didn't work?
I'd be handing over a precious resource, potentially outing myself as having known about Sidious, making him aware of me as a known enemy with dangerous knowledge.
Essentially certain death, with Palpatine having an even greater command of the future, potentially dooming any chance of rebellion, and erasing the possibility of Luke and Leia ever existing, who were vital to the rebellion's success!
So do I play it safe? Or take a chance?
Play it safe! No question! Taking a chance like that with the fate of the galaxy at stake is probably the most foolish thing I could possibly do!
But… man, what if it worked?
No! If if if IF! There are too many ifs!
I stood up, running my hands through my hair in frustration as I paced back and forth.
I don't have nearly enough information to execute this plan! There is too much uncertainty! It would be completely brain dead to trust something as grand as the fate of the galaxy to a plan so half baked!
My eyes drifted back over to the juice. The potential solution to literally all of my problems.
I needed more information.
Kneeling down I began to meditate deeply. Ever since the close encounter with Sidious I had been wary about going too deep into the force in pursuit of the future. But now it was a risk that I needed to take.
If attempting to poison Palpatine wouldn't work, and would doom the galaxy in the process, that would obviously result in an incredibly dark future that I should be able to sense, even without going deep enough to be dangerous. And if the opposite was true, and really would kill or at least expose him, leading to his defeat, than that should also effect the future strongly enough to sense.
This wasn't something I could take a chance on, but if I had confirmation from the force that it would work, than there would be no reason not to! And if I knew for sure that it would fail, then that would put my plan to rest, and I could easily dismiss the temptation to just kill him now and be done with it.
But as I prepared to reach deeper into the future, my precog danger sense twanged subtly with danger.
I pulled back immediately. What was that?!
But I wasn't looking for anything specific or deep! Would Palpatine be able to sense me anyway? Perhaps it was because I didn't have the protection and obscurity of the Durindfire juice?
I meditated on drinking some, but another twang of danger gave me pause. This was easier to interpret. Drinking the juice made your signature feel way different in the force.
In just a few short hours I would come face to face to the dark lord himself. If I was sensed by Sidious it would be all over.
Besides, the durindfire juice made it easier to see a specific vision of something I already knew about, but in the past whenever I had tried to get a vision of something I hadn't already seen, it was far more fragmented and difficult to discern. I would need seek a vision without the juice.
I hummed in frustration at the twinge of danger I sensed once again. Changing my strategy, I started looking into the future again, this time trying to keep my focus as subtle and shallow as I could. I didn't try to look forward all that far, I just tried to decode the nature of the danger I kept sensing, and to get some guidance on how to avoid it.
And the feeling I got was… rather bizarre.
Patience. The window of opportunity will arrive.
So I would be able to look farther into the future safely at some point, just not now?! This was so confusing!
I tried to analyze the warning in the force to find any more detail, but nothing else was found.
Just the same feeling over and over. Patience. The opportunity will come. Patience.
I sighed. Sometimes the force was too confusing. There were times like during the podrace, where I felt like I understood it, like it was clay in my hands, And then there were times like now, where I didn't know the first thing about how it was working!
I shook my head. 'Your focus determines your reality.' All I had to do was keep my focus on my goal, and the force would take care of the timing, if I trusted it. There was no such thing as luck for a force user, just focus, persistence, and the force itself. My goal right was to look into the future to determine the potential success of my plan to poison Palpatine.
If I couldn't verify its validity in the force, I would give up on it. There was too much uncertainty otherwise.
Right now I just needed to trust in the timing of the force, and be patient.
Mace Windu massaged his temples as he got into the speeder transport, trying to banish a headache that had been plaguing him for the last few days. The last time he had perceived a shatter point with such depth and consequence was during a mission in his youth when a super volcano on an outer rim world was close to erupting, which would have killed millions instantly and had plunged the entire planet into an ashy winter, destroying the lives of billions more.
Thankfully they had evacuated everyone in the surrounding area, which had saved countless lives, but the cataclysm damaged the planet's biosphere to the point that Ithorian conservationists had only just recently managed to return the planets climate back to normal.
Mace remembered the feeling of seeing a shatter point so imminent, so violent and powerful. It had made him nauseous, had almost driven him into a panic attack.
Somehow this current one trumped that 100 times over, and it was far more illusive and distant than one from the volcano. His shields and will were much more powerful now, but somehow he was put on his ass just the same as he was way back when.
"Troubled, you are, hmmmm?" Came the pebbly voice of the wrinkled green grandmaster of the order, sounding up from the height of Mace's knee.
Mace sighed, "Yes, Master Yoda. A shatter point the likes of which I have never before experienced presses against me, one that I cannot determine the cause of."
"Hmmm…" the leathery old troll considered, closing his eyes to better focus his perception. "Sense it I do. Stirred up, the future is. Turbulent. A great crossroads we have reached, hm, yes. But distant. Illusive the event is, or its potential cause. Sense the details I cannot. Clouded is my perception of the future. Along our current path, we must continue, yes, hmmmm."
Master Windu nodded as they reached their destination, and stepped out of the speeder transport onto the steps of the senate dome. Ever since Qui Gon and Obi Wan had disappeared without further contact during their mission, Master Yoda and he had both had began to feel that there may very well be more going on with this business with the trade federation than met the eye. They were on their way now to meet the senator of Naboo to see if there was more information they could glean, or to offer help if they could.
In recent years, more and more Jedi had been lost on missions, and all too often things seemed to lead back to the trade federation in some way. Hopefully this wouldn't turn into another crisis like the stark hyperspace war.
Mace sighed explosively as his head continued to throb. Both He and master Yoda didn't necessarily need to see the senator in person, but it was clear, at least to Mace, that the situation with Qui Gon and the massive shatter point he could sense were connected in some way.
It wasn't a rational assumption, it would just be incredibly fitting for Jinn to once again be the cause of his splitting headache.
Hopefully senator Palpatine could shed some light on the situation, though it was just as likely he was just as in the dark about this situation as they were. At least they might be able to offer aid where they could.
Obi Wan, Padme, Amu, and I were sitting in a circle playing sabacc when something changed. I paused halfway through my sentence, distracted. It took a second, but I realized what was going on.
I had my window of safety. I had honestly no idea why it would work right now, but I trusted in my precog. If it was safe, I'd best not waste this opportunity.
"Ani? Are you alright?" Amu asked, a concerned expression on her face.
"I need to go!" I said abruptly, and raced out of the room, "I sense something! Have to meditate!"
I raced over to the sleeping area where my durindfire juice was kept. I wasn't going to drink any, but it would serve as a meditative focus.
I sat down in seiza and began to meditate. Before I plunged into the depths of the future, I focused intently on my danger sense. The feedback was… strange. There was no danger right now, but I got the sense that this opportunity wouldn't last forever. Not wanting to delay any further, I gathered my courage and focus, and cast my consciousness forward.
I was suspended in a black void, with many branching pathways winding forth along the floor like lightning. I could feel darkness from most of the paths, but some of them felt light. They all seemed to overlap and tangle as they changed, a million potential butterflies beating their metaphorical wings, changing the path of destiny with every decision.
Focusing intently on the decision I was about to make, I isolated the paths that sprung up as a result of this decision.
Option one:
Do nothing. Keep my head down, stick as closely as possible to canon as I could while changing as little as possible to keep things predictable, quietly gaining strength until I was powerful and skilled enough to face Sidious head on, and then defeating him when that time came.
When I held this course of action in my mind, most of the absolute darkest paths disappeared, but so did some of the brightest light ones. The paths that remained felt… gray. Some paths were darker than others, but not a single gave the feeling that Palpatine would be in power for any less than 20 or so years, and a large portion gave the impression that he'd rule for much longer than that. Themes repeated over and over without fail, the Jedi and the Sith fighting each other without end, even if Palpatine himself died, some holocron somewhere would revive the sith, or the Jedi, and the conflict would continue. It almost felt like there was a tear… or some kind of invisible tumor in the force, mysterious and unknowable, keeping the dark and the light separate and at odds, keeping the force from true balance.
In this set of futures there was no end to the conflict in sight. Clearer fragments of images I was familiar with flashed by, sometimes the Vong, or the first order, or Darth Krayt. Focusing on myself, In some I felt a vague impression of sunlight and happiness in my own life, while others had phantom pain in my limbs and chest accompanied by a hiss of a respirator, but there was a strange… emptiness in all of them. Like something crucial had been lost, and would likely never return. No matter how my life went, after my death the cycle would repeat. Conflict. War. Madness. Imbalance. Separation. Spiraling ever downward without end, on and on and on.
Within these futures, I felt the death of the force.
Darkness curled at the edges of my vision, and I yanked myself out of the future before I was lost in its depths.
Once again I was on Padme's ship.
Holy shit, holy fucking shit. I… what the fuck did I just see?! That was way more than I had bargained for. The death… of the force? What did it mean? Was the force wounded in some way? Each one of those futures had a sense of possibility and failure, as if I didn't achieve… something that I was supposed to!
As for what that something actually was?! I didn't have the faintest fucking clue!
Did the dark side actually have anything to do with balancing the force? Or was it this other thing? And what did poisoning Palpatine have anything to it all? What would taking action against him now even achieve?
I sucked a few deep breaths as I wiped the sweat off my brow. I felt like I'd just run a five k, and I had the beginnings of a headache, but I had to press on. I briefly considered writing down what I had seen, but the force twinged in warning. My time was limited. I needed to look at the futures of the poisoning plan, ASAP, while I could still do it safely. I could only hope I could find the answers to some of my questions.
Senator Sheev Palpatine, AKA Darth Sidious, could sense the ripples of someone interacting with the veil of the dark side. Seeing through it, penetrating it, defeating it.
Not only that, but they were doing so clumsily, and WITHOUT the prismatic defense that they had needled him with before. Every instinct he had screamed at him to fall into meditation, to exert the dark side to track down the breach, to invade and DESTROY the mind of this ignorant fool who thought they could poach information from the future, which was supposed to be HIS domain!
Unfortunately, these plans were frustrated by the most utterly loathsome pair of visitors with the most spectacularly bad timing he could even imagine.
Across from Palpatine, sitting on the other side of his desk, eyes full of compassion for a hard working senator of the republic, sat master thrice damned Yoda, along with master motherfucking Windu, who was rubbing one of his temples with a finger, presumably trying to massage away a headache.
Palpatine's Shields were flawless, allowing him to interact almost daily with Jedi masters without being detected. However, even with the Jedi being blind as they were, even Sidious would not be able to get away with exerting the dark side so powerfully when they were sitting right in front of him.
So he waited, a polite smile on his face, his left eyelid twitching.
The Jedi, of course, paid it no mind, continuing with their infuriating questions.
"The trade Federation has been acting increasingly erratic in previous years, it is our belief that their action on your planet may be a key to figuring out what their true motives are, if any." Master Windu paused, sighing out a breath, then continued. "It is the opinion of some members of the Jedi Council that there may be more to this crisis than meets the eye, and we would like to communicate our willingness to help in any way we can."
It is the opinion of some members of the Jedi Council that there may be more to this crisis than meets the eye?! How disgustingly indirect could you possibly be?! Of all the stagnant, sedentary, limp wristed… Why in all the darkest most forsaken tombs of korriban were they even here?! Couldn't they have inquired with his secretary?! Sent him a holocall?! Why in blazes did this meeting have to be in person?!
And the worst part about it all was, he couldn't even confront them about it! After all, what Senator wouldn't be thrilled to have the direct attention of the Jedi council in dealing with a horrible matter that plagued their home?!
"I am, of course, unimaginably grateful for your offer of assistance, and fully intend to give you everything you need to make sure my home is helped as much as possible in these dire times, but are not the motivations of the trade Federation obvious? Naboo has valuable plasma. The trade Federation are greedy. How much depth could their motivations possibly have?"
The diminutive inhuman goblin made a gravelly hum, then spoke, "Hmmm. Adept you are, Senator, at seeing the intricacies of the mundane. But as Jedi, see underneath the material and mundane we do. Penetrate deception we can. Guided be the force are we, mmm yes. Trust our greater judgment in this matter, you should."
Sidious simultaneously wanted to cackle at the irony and tear out his own hair in a black fury. Their condescension, their piss poor timing, the fact that they believed with all of their knowledge in a superiority so utterly and completely false, it all itched underneath his skin. The blatant ignorant arrogance on display made him dream of the day he could end the scummy little branch biting gremlin with his own two hands.
He let none of these feelings show on his face, and not a trace of darkness made it past his shields.
"I shall defer to your judgment on this matter then, grandmaster Yoda," Palpatine said smoothly, "What do you suspect the true motivations of the trade Federation are?"
Yoda hummed, but didn't answer. Master Windu took over. "The specifics of this matter are currently clouded to our senses. However, we are confident that it is the will of the force that we meet with you today. There must be something that can be accomplished through this meeting that will prove incredibly important, not just for your planet, but perhaps the galaxy at large. That is how much the future is being disturbed."
So the Jedi sensed it too then? Interesting… his rage began to cool into a more calculating state of mind.
Flexing his magnificent acting chops once again, Palpatine seemed unsure, "Er… Very well master Jedi, if you say so."
This was all a colossal waste of time, the only way he could possibly get rid of the Jedi in any timely fashion would be to give them what they wanted. "What information do you wish to examine? If the force truly has led you to the plight of my people, I will do my best to assist you in whatever you need to move forward! Have you yet made contact with the delegation chancellor Velorum sent?"
Mace Windu sighed. "Not yet, we still need to…
As the Jedi master continued droning on, Palpatine's eye twitched once more.
Focusing intently on my plan, I tried to look into the future. It was much more difficult to see anything concrete this time, and I got the definite sense that it was because things would change so much that my meta knowledge would become less useful. There would be factors I was unaware of, and that was limiting the specificity of my focus, making looking into the future much more difficult.
So, already I had learned something. If I went with this plan, my vision of the future would be compromised because of how unpredictable everything would become. I could still do what I was doing now, it just wouldn't be as accurate. Unfortunate.
Once again the paths spread out before me. Unlike before, where they were mostly different shades of grey, these were much more chaotic. There were some futures that were FAR darker than anything I saw if I just stood back and did nothing until I was older. It was terrifying, like vanta black lightning scars, it was as if these paths wanted to suck me into them, absorbing me like light that couldn't escape their surface.
But amongst all these dark paths, I glimpsed one that was their opposite. Blinding in its brightness, I naturally gravitated towards the safety it provided.
Doing my best to look deeper, I saw flashes of unfamiliar images, flickering by too quickly to see in detail.
A purple blade faced off against a familiar black armored behemoth, who radiated with hatred.
A strange etherial light fighting through ages, sucking up eons of darkness.
Thousands of white armored troopers, whipped into a frenzy of battle meditation and explosively fierce morale.
A tall figure in white robes with a face concealed by a pale hood, standing in a cavern of glass and speaking with a beautiful, almost seductive voice.
I saw the Darkness and the Light finally come together in harmony, mixing and exploding into a vast spectrum of color and potential and newness!
I saw my destiny fulfilled.
I saw a galaxy healed.
I saw balance brought to the force.
And just like that, I knew, deep in my soul, that I couldn't afford to let this one go.
I withdrew myself from the vision.
My connection to the bright path remained, bonded to me now with a thin thread of light protected by my shields. So long as I remained aligned with this future, I should be able to have a vague sort of instinct on how to proceed in order to make it happen.
I also considered that a good future for the galaxy might not necessarily be a good future for me, or even the Jedi, but…
I shook my head, banishing the negative thoughts. I had to try. I couldn't let myself get caught up in rumination and anxiety. I saw a bright future. It was possible. That's all I needed to know in order to rush in with all my strength!
Nodding, my decision made, I picked up the Durindfire juice and began to plan my poisoning of a Sith Lord.
Mace Windu paused in the middle of his sentence, distracted. The shatter point had broken, and the force of the event had stirred up the currents of the beyond in a way that he hadn't ever felt before.
A strange expression was on the senator's face, as if he was about to sneeze.
Master Yoda looked at Mace, his green brow quirked questioningly.
Feeling quite disoriented by the sudden lack of pressure and the strangeness of the future shifting so dramatically, Master Windu took a bit to organize his thoughts. "The distant shatter point is… resolved. The future has changed. How, I do not know. I feel a great disturbance in the cosmic force."
"Hmmm?" Yoda questioned. He had always been a bit more attuned to the living force by default, but he was no slouch at precognition either, so he closed his eyes and looked into the future, and gasped. "This… hmmm…" he paused, then continued, "Strange, this is. Very strange, mhm, yes. Apologies, Senator, but meditate with the rest of the council, on this development, we must. Forgotten, you will not be, no. A promise of assistance we have made, and a promise we will fulfill, yes, aaaaw. Execute what we have discussed, we will, and get back to you we shall."
The senator blinked a few times, decoding Master Yoda's words, then beamed with a politician's gracious smile. "Very well master Yoda, I hope to hear from you soon, my comm channel is always open."
"Ehhmmhmmhmm, yes! Indeed! Good day to you Senator, good day!" Yoda hopped down off the chair he was sitting in like a four year old, then tapped his fellow master's shins with his gimmer stick.
If Mace Windu hadn't been a seasoned Jedi Council member, he would have rolled his eyes at the small master's antics. As it was, He bent over, offering his arm, which Yoda hopped up onto and clambered onto his back, perching there like an infant simian.
Master Windu strode out of the senate building with all the dignity his station required, his attempts at taking himself too seriously hampered by the humming gremlin on his back.
Really. He had only been a padawan under Yoda for the last few years of his training after his previous master, a neti named T'ra Saa, had disappeared.
And yet still, to this day, Master Yoda treated Mace like he was one of his children.
Mace was fully content not being a part of that specific lineage, thank you very much. He had enough on his plate as it was!
A certain senator retreated to the LiMerge Power building in the works. The dark signature of the location disguised the burst of rage and hatred that would have emanated through the force.
The future was changed. How? He had no idea. None of the information he had access to suggested anything was different, which meant he was dealing with a factor beyond his control.
Whoever had been breaching the veil was in the wind, those cursed Jedi unknowingly preventing him from investigating, and he hadn't even been able to taste the force signature of whoever it was, merely feel the ripples of their passing. Useless in ascertaining their identity.
It could be denied no longer. There was a new player in this game, one that Sidious had no knowledge of. This would not be tolerated. He would find this interloper, and destroy them. The success of the grand plan depended on it! He'd find them, even if he had to burn the galaxy down to do so!
Hi everyone! Sorry I dropped off the map for so long, it's weird, I've started getting anxiety about writing. I haven't really talked about it, but I have a mild anxiety disorder that I have had to go to a recovery program for in the past, and should probably be having continual therapy for, but I haven't lol. Paired with unmedicated ADHD, it leads to some pretty potent avoidance strategies.
I love writing. I am going to continue to write. It's my dream to write professionally, and I sincerely want to publish my own original fiction.
That being said, I don't want to keep myself to a steady schedule of chapters if I don't have a healthy backlog. So I'll be posting a bit slower from now on so I can get ahead enough while still keeping things chill and low pressure, then once I have a good amount saved up, I can speed up some more.
Out of all the stories I have posted right now, this is the only one that I actually have a specific ending planned. As such, I will be focusing on this story more than my others, which will take a back seat. There was a time that I was having a great time writing every day. My goal is to get back to that.
Anyway, I'm back in the saddle again! How did Y'all like the chapter? Any questions or comments?
See y'all soon!
Ciao!
I cannot TELL you how much this chapter kicked my ASS! Writers block hit like a freight train and I just couldn't shake it, plus the switch two came out along with some other things.
I'll talk a little bit more about why it's been SO long after the chapter is done.
This chapter is an establishment chapter in which a shit ton of things are set up, and I knew I wanted to foreshadow several future plot points, but I also know that set up can be kinda boring some times.
I knew I didn't just want to info dump, so I broke it up with some alternate POV sections, and at the end of the day, I STILL am honestly not quite satisfied with it.
Still, this paralysis of writing has gone on long enough. Writing and sharing my work honestly makes me happy, and I'm not giving up on it just because it takes more effort than doomscrolling YouTube shorts!
So here we go. Let's get into it!
I stared into the swirling blue of hyperspace. There was something… mesmerizing about it. Seeing it on a screen did nothing to convey the sheer depth the corridor of energy had, how far it went, like you could see through to the edge of the universe, really made me think about everything, or perhaps think about nothing. I folded my arms in contemplation as I stood straight backed between the two pilots seats, my brow furrowed slightly in concentration, trying to see deeper. Trying to understand.
The cockpit was currently empty, after we had made the jump to hyperspace the ship would pretty much fly itself along the rout we calculated, so the pilots had left the room.
Pretty soon however, one of them came back in. It was Cooreev, the pilot from Naboo. He seemed to have a bit of a nervous personality, and though I could barely hear his light footed steps, I could sense him easily in the force. When he saw me, he froze, his anxiety blooming like the taste of straight vinegar in the force, which I did not appreciate. I myself found it a bit difficult to manage my anxiety sometimes, so I found I quite disliked him already for constantly disrupting my inner peace with his incessant worrying, though I suppose it wasn't his fault. Still, I much preferred the cool and collected feeling of Dan, the pilot from Corellia, which reminded me of a refreshing morning breeze.
Instead of calling my name, y'know, like a normal person, Cooreev seemed to deliberate internally before almost tiptoeing up behind me, then reaching his hand out with a finger extended, intending to tap my shoulder annoyingly.
"Can I help you?" I said before his finger reached my shoulder.
He flinched, but the anxiety drained out of him, which did wonders for my mood. He spoke, "Oh, thank the force! I thought you had gotten hyper rapture!"
I was unfamiliar with the term. "Hyper rapture?" I asked, feeling a bit guilty for being so irritated earlier. He was only concerned about me, and wasn't force sensitive so didn't understand how his anxiety affected me. It wasn't his fault.
He nodded, "Yes! You need to be careful about staring into hyperspace like that, you could be entranced! The human mind wasn't meant to comprehend hyperspace, and staring into it can drive you mad! You need to be more careful!"
There was a snort from behind us as Dan, the other pilot from Corellia, entered the cockpit. "Quit filling the kids head with tales Cooreev. Hyper Rapture is just an old spacers yarn."
Cooreev bristled, and his anxious presence blared in the force once more. "Hyper Rapture, a spacers yarn?! I'll have you know it's a legitimate concern! My Uncle knew of a man on Ord Mantel who—"
Dan interrupted, "Oh your uncle knew. Wow. And what about you? Who do you know who got hyper rapture? Personally. Anyone?"
Cooreev bristled further. "Are you calling my uncle a liar?!"
Dan responded, holding his hands up in surrender and speaking with a chilled out drawl, "Look, I have no idea what your uncle saw or how the story has been reinterpreted and retold over the years. All I know, is that I've been from one side of this galaxy to the other, and in all that time I've never once met anyone who actually got hyper rapture. People will talk about it, sure, but it's always some guy that one of their buddies or family members heard about once upon a time. I stare into hyperspace all the time, and I'm no worse for wear."
Cooreev scoffed, "That's debatable." He turned to me. "Whether its existence is acknowledged or not, it's a risk you shouldn't take. It only takes once." He walked out of the room in a huff, leaving Dan chuckling.
Dan sat down in the pilots chair, and stirred his caf and took a sip. Then he gestured to the swirling funnel of hyper space. "Shall we enjoy the show?" He asked with a smirk on his face.
"Nah." I said, unsure. "Until I can look up a scientific study one way or another I'd rather not risk it."
He sighed, then shrugged. "That's fair." He turned back to the transparasteel canopy, and began to type on a datapad, occasionally gazing into hyperspace, as if looking for inspiration. Recognizing someone in the midst of relaxation, I headed out of the cockpit.
One thing that gets cut out of the movies that I wasn't anticipating is just how much time traveling through hyperspace takes. And yeah, I know that's dumb to say it takes a long time when we are literally traveling halfway across an entire fucking galaxy in a little less than a week, which is ridiculously fast, but still. Even using the most direct and well charted hyper routes, the journey from Tatooine to Coruscant takes a little more than six days. And Tatooine is smack dab in the middle of a major hyperlane, and so is Coruscant! I don't know why, but I always assumed hyperspace travel would be a lot faster.
Six days. You know, after all I've been through I should probably enjoy just sitting and relaxing for a week, but I was so used to being busy all the time that I was honestly coming on with a bit of cabin fever. After the conversation I had with the pilots about 'hyper rapture', I had explored the ship, dismantled my transmitter remote with Amu, discussed what our plans were, (I'd go to the Jedi if I could, she'd get an education with the money and connections we now had, and if the Jedi didn't accept me I'd go with her and get an education myself) studied the ship's blueprints, used what parts I had to build up threepio's neck connector, do my daily exercises (much slower and more carefully than usual), and all of that only took the first day.
We had five more.
Which leads me to where I am now.
Contemplating something totally insane.
It's the third day of our journey, and I've already had lengthy conversations with everyone on the crew, and now I'm sitting and contemplating on one of the three flasks I have that each contain a liter of Durindfire juice.
Wondering if I should give one to Palpatine.
Wait! Let me explain! I know you're probably thinking I've taken leave of my senses, and maybe I have, but let me explain properly before you tell me that I'm the dumbest fucking idiot that exists in the galaxy. (Jury is still out on that one)
This whole idea started on the second day. In my boredom, I had decided to ask Qui Gon for some Jedi training, even though I technically wasn't a Jedi yet. He was busy in deep meditation on the currant situation however, and so I went to Obi Wan instead.
"Can you help me with my shields? Matukai training focuses more on enhancing the mind directly rather than protecting it with a barrier, and I'd like to have as thorough a defense as possible. Even if I don't end up getting accepted, shielding my mind won't be dangerous, as it will only protect me from the Dark side. Right?"
Obi Wan contemplated this for a few seconds. "Alright. Shielding the mind from darkness is something we are cleared to teach other sensitives not from our order, so it isn't against the code to teach you. Meditate with me."
We sat in seiza knee to knee, and he guided me through mental exercises. What we discovered together, was that my shields that I already had had little in common with the ones that the Jedi used. Mine were flexible and thin, providing safety through stealth, but didn't really stand up to any kind of directed mental attack. While Obi Wan's initial plan was to upgrade my existing shields to be more sturdy, it became clear that the hide/safty/stealth shielding technique that my mom created wasn't compatible, and would lose a lot of it's effectiveness if changed. So instead, he helped me construct an entirely new layer of defense underneath the initial stealth shields.
The Jedi shields he taught me were sturdy and resilient, but also did nothing to hide my presence, leaving me bright and noticeable in the force. The purpose of them was to maximize mental defense without restricting someone's connection and power in the force in any way. There was no need for hiding. While my old shielding was based on feelings and instinct, these were more about a pure exertion of will, not connected to any one emotion.
It took a few hours, but I was able to construct a proper Jedi shield, and it felt amazing. I could feel the presence of people's emotions just as accurately, but there was now a clear divide between their emotions and my own. I didn't have to fight to keep my anxiety down when in the presence of Cooreev, which went a long way towards making me like him, or at least, dislike him much less than before.
With a bit of practice I was also able to layer my old 'cloak style' shielding over the new ones, allowing me to still utilize all my tricks.
My mind now had four layers of defense.
The first was the fragile cloak shield. The second was the sturdy Jedi shields. The third was the sheer strength and flexibility of my mind itself, which had been tempered and enhanced by Matukai training and hardship.
And the fourth? The fourth was another little trick Amu and I had discovered. One that was perhaps more potent than either of us realized.
Once I understood the concept behind Jedi shields, Obi Wan began testing them by 'attacking' them with a mental probe. My awareness of the force and experience with shielding meant that I didn't have any glaring weak spots, but there were still some subtler ones Obi Wan was able to sense and break through. My defensive shields were new, and so they were breached rather easily. It was difficult, and gave me quite a headache, but I welcomed the challenge.
Whenever Obi Wan breached my shields, I 'tensed' my mind, holding the image of unbreakable metal. And while this worked initially, Obi wan was still able to find paths of lesser resistance and use them to infiltrate my mind, attempting to gain information.
In this he showcased both the strength and weakness of Matukai mental techniques. While the sheer accumulated strength of my mind and willpower meant that my mind was highly resistant against being forcibly altered, corrupted, or damaged, it wasn't that good at thwarting attempts to gather information.
Try to mind control or trick a Matukai master with illusions or mental corruption? They'd bust through all that unharmed. But try to read their mind without trying to change or harm anything? That was far easier.
Which brought me to the fourth level of defense. Some nights, when Amu and I were able, we had tested each other's defenses in a similar way that Obi Wan was doing now, following Nyra's instructions.
With the discovery of the effects of the Durindfire Pallie juice, and the training we both did with it, we began to understand the strange prismatic effects that it had on the perception, and were able to on some level replicate those effects, even when not under its influence.
When being mentally attacked, A mind probe that breached your defenses had a specific intent to it. When that intent was to gather information, it acted almost like a psychic vacuum, drawing information toward itself.
By replicating the fragmented and overwhelming nature of the Durindfire visions, we discovered we could 'feed' each other's mental probes with prismatic and confusing bits of multiple simultaneous timelines, using our memories of the Durindfire visions as fuel. It was basically like feeding the probe a bunch of unusable 'junk' data, instead of actually revealing true thoughts. Because we were both familiar with the effects of the Durindfire juice, we were able to use our experience to 'decode' the information, but it took a lot of concentration.
Because it was something you could make sense of if you were used to it, we didn't think it was all that strong. Just a stop gap, an encryption of data so to speak. If you had the right key, or enough processing power, you could break an encryption.
But it seems we underestimated how awful it is to someone who's never experienced it before.
The first time Obi Wan breached my mind seeking information, I did as I had done before in practice with Amu. I fed him the 'encrypted junk data' instead of real thoughts. It was supposed to confuse. To befuddle with nonsense. It wasn't supposed to hurt.
"Aaah!" Obi Wan cried out, recoiling away from me as his hand jumped up to his forehead. A lance of pain rang through the force like a tremor before he clamped his shields down over it. "What… was that?!" He asked after gathering himself.
I blinked. We hadn't actually named the technique, so I pause briefly before coming up with one. "Prismatic encryption. Mind probes are made with the intention of seeking information. They're… hungry for it in a way. Instead of feeding them with information about real thoughts, you just send them junk data that's all mixed around. Encrypted, if you will. You won't be able to tell what parts are my actual thoughts and which parts are visions of the past or future."
"Well It's highly effective." Obi Wan said grumpily, rubbing his forehead. "How do can you possibly layer so many vision fragments over each other like that? That is not a natural state of perception. How can you comprehend it enough to… feed it to someone else?"
I theoretically knew Obi Wan was trustworthy. He wouldn't intentionally reveal anything to anyone harmful, but they also say that the only way two people can keep a secret is if one of them is dead. "Trade secret." I said smugly. "Maybe if I'm accepted into the order I'll share."
He rolled his eyes, but a mischievous glint entered his gaze. "Very well. Though we aught to have master Qui Gon try it. I'm sure he'll be able to decipher your… 'prismatic encryption'. Without being warned beforehand, as it's only fair he experience it in a way similar to myself. Factors must be kept consistent after all."
I smirked. "Alright, let's see."
While Obi Wan had felt a brief pain, he was also just a padawan. His willpower and mental defense were surely less developed and powerful than Qui Gon, a full Jedi master. Because of this, we didn't really see anything harmful about our prank.
When Qui Gon had finished his personal meditation, we had him test my mental defenses, which quickly turned from a funny joke into frightful mistake. Where Obi Wan had let out a bark of surprise, Qui Gon had let out a full on yell of pain.
Both of our smirks dropped off our faces, and we quickly rushed forward with concern. I could immediately sense the difference between how it was effecting Qui Gon as opposed how it did earlier with Obi Wan. There were many more vision fragments clustered around him, drawn to his powerful and well developed connection to the force like moths to a flame. He quickly dispelled it but his face was flushed red and he held a hand to his brow.
"What. Was. That." He said, his force signature briefly tinged with anger before he released it into the force.
Both of us frantically explained our intentions, calming the stoic Jedi master.
"We had no idea it would be that bad!" I said, "Amu and I use it on each other, and when I used it on Obi Wan earlier it wasn't anywhere close to that severe!"
Obi wan backed me up, "Its true master, We had little reason to believe it would cause that kind of reaction."
Qui Gon nodded. "I sense you are telling the truth. I fully accept your apology, however, you must promise me you will not use that technique on other Jedi, especially Jedi seers. It is an unnatural effect, one I fear is multiplied by the strength of one's connection to the force. Such a defense would be useless against pirates and outlaws, but debilitating for certain Jedi masters, at least until they can train themselves against it. Its use in a modern world will be quite rare. You are forbidden from using it again against your fellow Jedi until further notice, is that clear?" His gaze pierced into my own.
I nodded hurriedly, still quite guilty, "Yes sir! I promise!"
After that, the mood was kinda killed, and so I was left to my own thoughts, reeling about what I had just discovered.
This technique was just a replica of the juice's effects, not the juice itself, so it was much weaker, but the mechanics behind it were similar. Qui Gon said that the effects might get more intense the stronger the recipient's connection to the force is, and from what I can gather, I think he's right!
I remembered how when Amu and I first tried the Durindfire juice, I had literally been rendered unconscious by the agony, while she had treated it like a particularly severe headache. Ma Jira had poured herself some on one of her visits and downed a glass before we realized what she had, and it hadn't affected her at all, as she wasn't force sensitive.
Drinking the juice itself was far more potent than prismatic encryption, you couldn't dispel its effects because they were constantly being reapplied from within by the juice itself.
And if that's what a small instant, barely a second, does to a Jedi Master, than what would it do to a Sith Lord?
A Sith Lord with a connection to the force more powerful than even Yoda?
There is an old Chinese saying, 'the only difference between medicine and poison is the dosage'.
The fact that they were Durindfire crystals meant that they couldn't be sensed in the force unless you were physically near, and as impure and tiny as the crystals were, they couldn't be sensed at all unless you actively tried to connect with them.
I had done a lot of thinking and meditating in the past on how I should deal with the looming threat that was Darth Sidious, and the thing that stood out to me the most was that the longer he was allowed to be in a high position of government, the more damage he could do to the republic, and the more powerful he could become. If there came a time that I could take him out, I needed to, and the sooner the better.
However… that was a big if.
After I had pierced the veil of the dark side, my ability to perceive the future had… changed. While before, the future had seemed murky and unknowable, now the veil seemed slightly transparent, like a tinted window. As if my experience beyond it (however brief and terrifying it was) had enlightened my understanding somewhat.
From that moment on I could perceive a bit more of the future. Not a lot, and certainly not in any kind of detail, the veil still darkened my vision, but I could now feel out the vague currants of the future.
I had meditated on just straight up telling the council about Palpatine, but I could foresee relatively clearly that it wouldn't be sufficient. They wouldn't want to believe it, they would question me extremely thoroughly, and it would eventually come to light that I hadn't even seen his identity in a vision at all, but from a source that they plainly wouldn't believe, and it would spiral downward from there. If any investigation was made at all, it would be half assed, Palpatine would be alerted, and all of my current advantages would be flushed down the crapper.
So why risk the Juice?
I knew from the time with Ma Jira that the juice only effected force sensitives. On a non sensitive, like what Palpatine claimed to be publicly, there should be no reason why it would do anything bad to him.
If he showed up somewhere after drinking it looking like death warmed over, it would be extremely strong evidence that he was force sensitive, and I might be able to back up my 'visions' enough to be taken seriously.
If you had a significant level of force sensitivity, you had to openly declare that fact to be in a position of government, to avoid people abusing force compulsion to bend the minds of people towards your point of view. If I could prove that Palpatine was lying about his force sensitivity, it should be enough to back up my claims and spark a serious investigation.
Bing bang boom, one sith lords head on a platter, comin' right up! (were it so easy)
Of course, I could just do nothing. Play it safe, keep things predictable, grow in power and influence, and take him out once I was strong enough to beat him in combat. Keeping things predictable would also allow me to make use of my meta knowledge for much longer.
But the longer I waited, the more damage Palpatine would be able to do.
My fear could keep me safe. But it could also keep me from doing what was necessary. From taking a chance that had the potential to pay off MASSIVELY.
My fear, pragmatism, and caution told me to hang back. To not get involved at all, to just stay in my lane and horde the knowledge for myself while manipulating things and people in the background to be more predictable.
But my anger, compassion, and sense of justice all deemed that approach unacceptable. Putting my head in the sand and allowing Palpatine to continue his activities when I may have something that could deal a serious blow to him or perhaps outright kill him right now? Absolutely ridiculous! Why wait? Why drag it out? Take out Palpatine right now and my future couldn't be brighter! I could relax and explore the galaxy at my leisure without the threat of the sith hanging over me! The thought of being rid of the sith so soon was incredibly tempting, to the point that I couldn't banish it from my mind! It was always there, like a specter made of honey and sunlight.
But would it actually harm Palpatine? That was the question. That's what this whole plan hinged on. If it took him out, or at least gave sufficient evidence that the Jedi would mobilize and he would be taken out that way, the path forward was obvious.
Poison Palpatine! There would be no reason not to at that point!
But what if it didn't work?
I'd be handing over a precious resource, potentially outing myself as having known about Sidious, making him aware of me as a known enemy with dangerous knowledge.
Essentially certain death, with Palpatine having an even greater command of the future, potentially dooming any chance of rebellion, and erasing the possibility of Luke and Leia ever existing, who were vital to the rebellion's success!
So do I play it safe? Or take a chance?
Play it safe! No question! Taking a chance like that with the fate of the galaxy at stake is probably the most foolish thing I could possibly do!
But… man, what if it worked?
No! If if if IF! There are too many ifs!
I stood up, running my hands through my hair in frustration as I paced back and forth.
I don't have nearly enough information to execute this plan! There is too much uncertainty! It would be completely brain dead to trust something as grand as the fate of the galaxy to a plan so half baked!
My eyes drifted back over to the juice. The potential solution to literally all of my problems.
I needed more information.
Kneeling down I began to meditate deeply. Ever since the close encounter with Sidious I had been wary about going too deep into the force in pursuit of the future. But now it was a risk that I needed to take.
If attempting to poison Palpatine wouldn't work, and would doom the galaxy in the process, that would obviously result in an incredibly dark future that I should be able to sense, even without going deep enough to be dangerous. And if the opposite was true, and really would kill or at least expose him, leading to his defeat, than that should also effect the future strongly enough to sense.
This wasn't something I could take a chance on, but if I had confirmation from the force that it would work, than there would be no reason not to! And if I knew for sure that it would fail, then that would put my plan to rest, and I could easily dismiss the temptation to just kill him now and be done with it.
But as I prepared to reach deeper into the future, my precog danger sense twanged subtly with danger.
I pulled back immediately. What was that?!
But I wasn't looking for anything specific or deep! Would Palpatine be able to sense me anyway? Perhaps it was because I didn't have the protection and obscurity of the Durindfire juice?
I meditated on drinking some, but another twang of danger gave me pause. This was easier to interpret. Drinking the juice made your signature feel way different in the force.
In just a few short hours I would come face to face to the dark lord himself. If I was sensed by Sidious it would be all over.
Besides, the durindfire juice made it easier to see a specific vision of something I already knew about, but in the past whenever I had tried to get a vision of something I hadn't already seen, it was far more fragmented and difficult to discern. I would need seek a vision without the juice.
I hummed in frustration at the twinge of danger I sensed once again. Changing my strategy, I started looking into the future again, this time trying to keep my focus as subtle and shallow as I could. I didn't try to look forward all that far, I just tried to decode the nature of the danger I kept sensing, and to get some guidance on how to avoid it.
And the feeling I got was… rather bizarre.
Patience. The window of opportunity will arrive.
So I would be able to look farther into the future safely at some point, just not now?! This was so confusing!
I tried to analyze the warning in the force to find any more detail, but nothing else was found.
Just the same feeling over and over. Patience. The opportunity will come. Patience.
I sighed. Sometimes the force was too confusing. There were times like during the podrace, where I felt like I understood it, like it was clay in my hands, And then there were times like now, where I didn't know the first thing about how it was working!
I shook my head. 'Your focus determines your reality.' All I had to do was keep my focus on my goal, and the force would take care of the timing, if I trusted it. There was no such thing as luck for a force user, just focus, persistence, and the force itself. My goal right was to look into the future to determine the potential success of my plan to poison Palpatine.
If I couldn't verify its validity in the force, I would give up on it. There was too much uncertainty otherwise.
Right now I just needed to trust in the timing of the force, and be patient.
Mace Windu massaged his temples as he got into the speeder transport, trying to banish a headache that had been plaguing him for the last few days. The last time he had perceived a shatter point with such depth and consequence was during a mission in his youth when a super volcano on an outer rim world was close to erupting, which would have killed millions instantly and had plunged the entire planet into an ashy winter, destroying the lives of billions more.
Thankfully they had evacuated everyone in the surrounding area, which had saved countless lives, but the cataclysm damaged the planet's biosphere to the point that Ithorian conservationists had only just recently managed to return the planets climate back to normal.
Mace remembered the feeling of seeing a shatter point so imminent, so violent and powerful. It had made him nauseous, had almost driven him into a panic attack.
Somehow this current one trumped that 100 times over, and it was far more illusive and distant than one from the volcano. His shields and will were much more powerful now, but somehow he was put on his ass just the same as he was way back when.
"Troubled, you are, hmmmm?" Came the pebbly voice of the wrinkled green grandmaster of the order, sounding up from the height of Mace's knee.
Mace sighed, "Yes, Master Yoda. A shatter point the likes of which I have never before experienced presses against me, one that I cannot determine the cause of."
"Hmmm…" the leathery old troll considered, closing his eyes to better focus his perception. "Sense it I do. Stirred up, the future is. Turbulent. A great crossroads we have reached, hm, yes. But distant. Illusive the event is, or its potential cause. Sense the details I cannot. Clouded is my perception of the future. Along our current path, we must continue, yes, hmmmm."
Master Windu nodded as they reached their destination, and stepped out of the speeder transport onto the steps of the senate dome. Ever since Qui Gon and Obi Wan had disappeared without further contact during their mission, Master Yoda and he had both had began to feel that there may very well be more going on with this business with the trade federation than met the eye. They were on their way now to meet the senator of Naboo to see if there was more information they could glean, or to offer help if they could.
In recent years, more and more Jedi had been lost on missions, and all too often things seemed to lead back to the trade federation in some way. Hopefully this wouldn't turn into another crisis like the stark hyperspace war.
Mace sighed explosively as his head continued to throb. Both He and master Yoda didn't necessarily need to see the senator in person, but it was clear, at least to Mace, that the situation with Qui Gon and the massive shatter point he could sense were connected in some way.
It wasn't a rational assumption, it would just be incredibly fitting for Jinn to once again be the cause of his splitting headache.
Hopefully senator Palpatine could shed some light on the situation, though it was just as likely he was just as in the dark about this situation as they were. At least they might be able to offer aid where they could.
Obi Wan, Padme, Amu, and I were sitting in a circle playing sabacc when something changed. I paused halfway through my sentence, distracted. It took a second, but I realized what was going on.
I had my window of safety. I had honestly no idea why it would work right now, but I trusted in my precog. If it was safe, I'd best not waste this opportunity.
"Ani? Are you alright?" Amu asked, a concerned expression on her face.
"I need to go!" I said abruptly, and raced out of the room, "I sense something! Have to meditate!"
I raced over to the sleeping area where my durindfire juice was kept. I wasn't going to drink any, but it would serve as a meditative focus.
I sat down in seiza and began to meditate. Before I plunged into the depths of the future, I focused intently on my danger sense. The feedback was… strange. There was no danger right now, but I got the sense that this opportunity wouldn't last forever. Not wanting to delay any further, I gathered my courage and focus, and cast my consciousness forward.
I was suspended in a black void, with many branching pathways winding forth along the floor like lightning. I could feel darkness from most of the paths, but some of them felt light. They all seemed to overlap and tangle as they changed, a million potential butterflies beating their metaphorical wings, changing the path of destiny with every decision.
Focusing intently on the decision I was about to make, I isolated the paths that sprung up as a result of this decision.
Option one:
Do nothing. Keep my head down, stick as closely as possible to canon as I could while changing as little as possible to keep things predictable, quietly gaining strength until I was powerful and skilled enough to face Sidious head on, and then defeating him when that time came.
When I held this course of action in my mind, most of the absolute darkest paths disappeared, but so did some of the brightest light ones. The paths that remained felt… gray. Some paths were darker than others, but not a single gave the feeling that Palpatine would be in power for any less than 20 or so years, and a large portion gave the impression that he'd rule for much longer than that. Themes repeated over and over without fail, the Jedi and the Sith fighting each other without end, even if Palpatine himself died, some holocron somewhere would revive the sith, or the Jedi, and the conflict would continue. It almost felt like there was a tear… or some kind of invisible tumor in the force, mysterious and unknowable, keeping the dark and the light separate and at odds, keeping the force from true balance.
In this set of futures there was no end to the conflict in sight. Clearer fragments of images I was familiar with flashed by, sometimes the Vong, or the first order, or Darth Krayt. Focusing on myself, In some I felt a vague impression of sunlight and happiness in my own life, while others had phantom pain in my limbs and chest accompanied by a hiss of a respirator, but there was a strange… emptiness in all of them. Like something crucial had been lost, and would likely never return. No matter how my life went, after my death the cycle would repeat. Conflict. War. Madness. Imbalance. Separation. Spiraling ever downward without end, on and on and on.
Within these futures, I felt the death of the force.
Darkness curled at the edges of my vision, and I yanked myself out of the future before I was lost in its depths.
Once again I was on Padme's ship.
Holy shit, holy fucking shit. I… what the fuck did I just see?! That was way more than I had bargained for. The death… of the force? What did it mean? Was the force wounded in some way? Each one of those futures had a sense of possibility and failure, as if I didn't achieve… something that I was supposed to!
As for what that something actually was?! I didn't have the faintest fucking clue!
Did the dark side actually have anything to do with balancing the force? Or was it this other thing? And what did poisoning Palpatine have anything to it all? What would taking action against him now even achieve?
I sucked a few deep breaths as I wiped the sweat off my brow. I felt like I'd just run a five k, and I had the beginnings of a headache, but I had to press on. I briefly considered writing down what I had seen, but the force twinged in warning. My time was limited. I needed to look at the futures of the poisoning plan, ASAP, while I could still do it safely. I could only hope I could find the answers to some of my questions.
Senator Sheev Palpatine, AKA Darth Sidious, could sense the ripples of someone interacting with the veil of the dark side. Seeing through it, penetrating it, defeating it.
Not only that, but they were doing so clumsily, and WITHOUT the prismatic defense that they had needled him with before. Every instinct he had screamed at him to fall into meditation, to exert the dark side to track down the breach, to invade and DESTROY the mind of this ignorant fool who thought they could poach information from the future, which was supposed to be HIS domain!
Unfortunately, these plans were frustrated by the most utterly loathsome pair of visitors with the most spectacularly bad timing he could even imagine.
Across from Palpatine, sitting on the other side of his desk, eyes full of compassion for a hard working senator of the republic, sat master thrice damned Yoda, along with master motherfucking Windu, who was rubbing one of his temples with a finger, presumably trying to massage away a headache.
Palpatine's Shields were flawless, allowing him to interact almost daily with Jedi masters without being detected. However, even with the Jedi being blind as they were, even Sidious would not be able to get away with exerting the dark side so powerfully when they were sitting right in front of him.
So he waited, a polite smile on his face, his left eyelid twitching.
The Jedi, of course, paid it no mind, continuing with their infuriating questions.
"The trade Federation has been acting increasingly erratic in previous years, it is our belief that their action on your planet may be a key to figuring out what their true motives are, if any." Master Windu paused, sighing out a breath, then continued. "It is the opinion of some members of the Jedi Council that there may be more to this crisis than meets the eye, and we would like to communicate our willingness to help in any way we can."
It is the opinion of some members of the Jedi Council that there may be more to this crisis than meets the eye?! How disgustingly indirect could you possibly be?! Of all the stagnant, sedentary, limp wristed… Why in all the darkest most forsaken tombs of korriban were they even here?! Couldn't they have inquired with his secretary?! Sent him a holocall?! Why in blazes did this meeting have to be in person?!
And the worst part about it all was, he couldn't even confront them about it! After all, what Senator wouldn't be thrilled to have the direct attention of the Jedi council in dealing with a horrible matter that plagued their home?!
"I am, of course, unimaginably grateful for your offer of assistance, and fully intend to give you everything you need to make sure my home is helped as much as possible in these dire times, but are not the motivations of the trade Federation obvious? Naboo has valuable plasma. The trade Federation are greedy. How much depth could their motivations possibly have?"
The diminutive inhuman goblin made a gravelly hum, then spoke, "Hmmm. Adept you are, Senator, at seeing the intricacies of the mundane. But as Jedi, see underneath the material and mundane we do. Penetrate deception we can. Guided be the force are we, mmm yes. Trust our greater judgment in this matter, you should."
Sidious simultaneously wanted to cackle at the irony and tear out his own hair in a black fury. Their condescension, their piss poor timing, the fact that they believed with all of their knowledge in a superiority so utterly and completely false, it all itched underneath his skin. The blatant ignorant arrogance on display made him dream of the day he could end the scummy little branch biting gremlin with his own two hands.
He let none of these feelings show on his face, and not a trace of darkness made it past his shields.
"I shall defer to your judgment on this matter then, grandmaster Yoda," Palpatine said smoothly, "What do you suspect the true motivations of the trade Federation are?"
Yoda hummed, but didn't answer. Master Windu took over. "The specifics of this matter are currently clouded to our senses. However, we are confident that it is the will of the force that we meet with you today. There must be something that can be accomplished through this meeting that will prove incredibly important, not just for your planet, but perhaps the galaxy at large. That is how much the future is being disturbed."
So the Jedi sensed it too then? Interesting… his rage began to cool into a more calculating state of mind.
Flexing his magnificent acting chops once again, Palpatine seemed unsure, "Er… Very well master Jedi, if you say so."
This was all a colossal waste of time, the only way he could possibly get rid of the Jedi in any timely fashion would be to give them what they wanted. "What information do you wish to examine? If the force truly has led you to the plight of my people, I will do my best to assist you in whatever you need to move forward! Have you yet made contact with the delegation chancellor Velorum sent?"
Mace Windu sighed. "Not yet, we still need to…
As the Jedi master continued droning on, Palpatine's eye twitched once more.
Focusing intently on my plan, I tried to look into the future. It was much more difficult to see anything concrete this time, and I got the definite sense that it was because things would change so much that my meta knowledge would become less useful. There would be factors I was unaware of, and that was limiting the specificity of my focus, making looking into the future much more difficult.
So, already I had learned something. If I went with this plan, my vision of the future would be compromised because of how unpredictable everything would become. I could still do what I was doing now, it just wouldn't be as accurate. Unfortunate.
Once again the paths spread out before me. Unlike before, where they were mostly different shades of grey, these were much more chaotic. There were some futures that were FAR darker than anything I saw if I just stood back and did nothing until I was older. It was terrifying, like vanta black lightning scars, it was as if these paths wanted to suck me into them, absorbing me like light that couldn't escape their surface.
But amongst all these dark paths, I glimpsed one that was their opposite. Blinding in its brightness, I naturally gravitated towards the safety it provided.
Doing my best to look deeper, I saw flashes of unfamiliar images, flickering by too quickly to see in detail.
A purple blade faced off against a familiar black armored behemoth, who radiated with hatred.
A strange etherial light fighting through ages, sucking up eons of darkness.
Thousands of white armored troopers, whipped into a frenzy of battle meditation and explosively fierce morale.
A tall figure in white robes with a face concealed by a pale hood, standing in a cavern of glass and speaking with a beautiful, almost seductive voice.
I saw the Darkness and the Light finally come together in harmony, mixing and exploding into a vast spectrum of color and potential and newness!
I saw my destiny fulfilled.
I saw a galaxy healed.
I saw balance brought to the force.
And just like that, I knew, deep in my soul, that I couldn't afford to let this one go.
I withdrew myself from the vision.
My connection to the bright path remained, bonded to me now with a thin thread of light protected by my shields. So long as I remained aligned with this future, I should be able to have a vague sort of instinct on how to proceed in order to make it happen.
I also considered that a good future for the galaxy might not necessarily be a good future for me, or even the Jedi, but…
I shook my head, banishing the negative thoughts. I had to try. I couldn't let myself get caught up in rumination and anxiety. I saw a bright future. It was possible. That's all I needed to know in order to rush in with all my strength!
Nodding, my decision made, I picked up the Durindfire juice and began to plan my poisoning of a Sith Lord.
Mace Windu paused in the middle of his sentence, distracted. The shatter point had broken, and the force of the event had stirred up the currents of the beyond in a way that he hadn't ever felt before.
A strange expression was on the senator's face, as if he was about to sneeze.
Master Yoda looked at Mace, his green brow quirked questioningly.
Feeling quite disoriented by the sudden lack of pressure and the strangeness of the future shifting so dramatically, Master Windu took a bit to organize his thoughts. "The distant shatter point is… resolved. The future has changed. How, I do not know. I feel a great disturbance in the cosmic force."
"Hmmm?" Yoda questioned. He had always been a bit more attuned to the living force by default, but he was no slouch at precognition either, so he closed his eyes and looked into the future, and gasped. "This… hmmm…" he paused, then continued, "Strange, this is. Very strange, mhm, yes. Apologies, Senator, but meditate with the rest of the council, on this development, we must. Forgotten, you will not be, no. A promise of assistance we have made, and a promise we will fulfill, yes, aaaaw. Execute what we have discussed, we will, and get back to you we shall."
The senator blinked a few times, decoding Master Yoda's words, then beamed with a politician's gracious smile. "Very well master Yoda, I hope to hear from you soon, my comm channel is always open."
"Ehhmmhmmhmm, yes! Indeed! Good day to you Senator, good day!" Yoda hopped down off the chair he was sitting in like a four year old, then tapped his fellow master's shins with his gimmer stick.
If Mace Windu hadn't been a seasoned Jedi Council member, he would have rolled his eyes at the small master's antics. As it was, He bent over, offering his arm, which Yoda hopped up onto and clambered onto his back, perching there like an infant simian.
Master Windu strode out of the senate building with all the dignity his station required, his attempts at taking himself too seriously hampered by the humming gremlin on his back.
Really. He had only been a padawan under Yoda for the last few years of his training after his previous master, a neti named T'ra Saa, had disappeared.
And yet still, to this day, Master Yoda treated Mace like he was one of his children.
Mace was fully content not being a part of that specific lineage, thank you very much. He had enough on his plate as it was!
A certain senator retreated to the LiMerge Power building in the works. The dark signature of the location disguised the burst of rage and hatred that would have emanated through the force.
The future was changed. How? He had no idea. None of the information he had access to suggested anything was different, which meant he was dealing with a factor beyond his control.
Whoever had been breaching the veil was in the wind, those cursed Jedi unknowingly preventing him from investigating, and he hadn't even been able to taste the force signature of whoever it was, merely feel the ripples of their passing. Useless in ascertaining their identity.
It could be denied no longer. There was a new player in this game, one that Sidious had no knowledge of. This would not be tolerated. He would find this interloper, and destroy them. The success of the grand plan depended on it! He'd find them, even if he had to burn the galaxy down to do so!
Hi everyone! Sorry I dropped off the map for so long, it's weird, I've started getting anxiety about writing. I haven't really talked about it, but I have a mild anxiety disorder that I have had to go to a recovery program for in the past, and should probably be having continual therapy for, but I haven't lol. Paired with unmedicated ADHD, it leads to some pretty potent avoidance strategies.
I love writing. I am going to continue to write. It's my dream to write professionally, and I sincerely want to publish my own original fiction.
That being said, I don't want to keep myself to a steady schedule of chapters if I don't have a healthy backlog. So I'll be posting a bit slower from now on so I can get ahead enough while still keeping things chill and low pressure, then once I have a good amount saved up, I can speed up some more.
Out of all the stories I have posted right now, this is the only one that I actually have a specific ending planned. As such, I will be focusing on this story more than my others, which will take a back seat. There was a time that I was having a great time writing every day. My goal is to get back to that.
Anyway, I'm back in the saddle again! How did Y'all like the chapter? Any questions or comments?
See y'all soon!
Ciao!
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The Set Up
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
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- Apr 23, 2021
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Just in case people have forgotten, or if you skipped both the summary and the first chapter for some reason, this isn't a pure SI, its a soul merge. the MC is mostly Anakin. the complications of that begin to rear their head soon.
I traced my fingers over the second of the two japor snippet necklaces I had carved.
Padme was… I don't know. She had such a remarkable spirit, and it was enjoyable to be around her, but…
Was what I was feeling actually real? Was it old Anakin's influence on me? Or was I just giving it to her… because it was my 'destiny' or some such other bullshit?
Because honestly? The romance scenes in attack of the clones were fucking incomprehensible, like, as far as what Padme saw in Anakin. The whole thing was so utterly bizarre, and I always used to just hand wave it as 'eh, movie's gotta movie, whaddayagonnodo?' But now that she was a real person…
It was just difficult for me to reconcile the amazing person I had met and hung out with over the last few days, and someone that would ignore the fact that their boyfriend of only a few days had slaughtered an entire village worth of women and children.
Like… what the fuck?!
I shook my head. No. If that Anakin isn't me, then this Padme isn't that Padme either. And the fact that I… maybe admire this Padme a little bit has nothing to do with anything else.
And, and it's not like a japor snippet is inherently romantic or anything. It's just a memory charm. Me wanting to give her one doesn't mean anything.
Amu's voice sounded softly from behind me, startling me a little bit. Her words were surprised, and she had a spark of wonder in her eyes. "I've never seen you carve something so carefully, I didn't think you had the patience for japor carving."
I huffed, embarrassed. "Moooom. I built my own podracer. I'm good with my hands."
She huffed in amusement. "Ani, the podracer was power, it was freedom. It was practical, and dangerous, and represented something exhilarating to you. This isn't machinery, it's… art. It's sentiment. You've not had the patience for such things, not since you were much smaller than you are now." Her wonder and happiness in the force were a bit overwhelming, but not unpleasant.
"That was when we were slaves Amu, I was working towards freedom, I had a goal I couldn't deviate from. We didn't have time then. But… we do now."
She was silent for a few seconds, and began to blink rapidly, refusing to let tears fall. "Yes. We do." She whispered, and sat down next to me. "May I see them?"
I nodded, handing them over. She looked over the one I'd already finished, the one I had made for her.
She smiled at the symbols I carved, and she spoke the meanings as she thumbed her way through the beads. "Desert born…Motherhood… Spiritual Leader… Wisdom… Memory… Fortune… Freedom… Courage… Strength… Undying love…" tears welled in her eyes, and she pulled me into a hug.
"That one's for you." I said unnecessarily.
She chuckled, letting me out of the hug. "I figured. Thank you Vikki-ka."
She wiped her tears, then focused on the second necklace I made, "Hmm… New beginnings… the sign of a ruler… Clean water… the moon… Lifegiver… Admiration… Fortune… Memory… Beauty…" she paused for a moment, then a look of delight came onto her face, "Ani… Is this for Padme?"
I felt my face heat up and I cursed myself internally for blushing.
"It's not romantic or anything! I just—"
A hearty, delighted belly cackle burst from Amu's mouth, and she quickly covered her mouth in slight embarrassment, though she continued laughing.
I paused in shock. I had never heard her laugh like that. I tried to remember her ever laughing at all and… I came up empty. The most I could remember was a hum of amusement or a quick exhale through the nose. Nothing like this. It was a musical bouncing laugh, and it made me smile just hearing it.
"Oh Ani, you certainly aim high!"
"Mooomm it's not like that!" I insisted, blushing to my ears.
"Oh Ani, I know, it's just…" she seemed to sober slightly, and shockingly, tears began to fall down her face. "For some time now I've been afraid… afraid that you had been hardened and made brittle, that all you had room for in your heart was for duty and drive, that you had no child left in you. It just makes me so happy to see you… to see you…"
She pulled me into a hug, and I was absolutely stunned as she sobbed with joy and held me tight. "By ar-Amu, by Leiyah, by Lukka, by all the little gods this is real! It's all real! It's really real!" She muttered, sobbing into my hair.
She lifted me up and spun me around in the air, and I laughed as tears came into my eyes as well.
Over the past few days she had been rather placid, simply going with the flow and remaining calm, and I guess it was finally catching up with her that we were really free. Honestly, I don't know if had fully sunken in for me either. I'm just glad she still had this side of her after all this time.
I will protect that happiness. I swear it.
As the clocked ticked on I thought and meditated a lot further on this plan of mine, bouncing back and forth between brain storming and meditating on the thread of bright future, and eventually I came to a conclusion.
In order to not only execute my plan, but to actually survive for any significant amount of time in the aftermath, I'd need to follow the advice of "my" son, or rather, the actor that portrayed him.
The advice was from one of Rick Miller's favorite video games, and it went something like this:
'So how do you keep a secret from the world's greatest detective? Well? Do you know? It's easy! You stick it right in front of him, right under his long pointy nose, and wait! Haha!'
If my plan succeeded, then he would surely plot my utter destruction whether he thought the poisoning was done intentionally or not, just out of sheer spite. So instead of trying to get off scott free, which was surely impossible, I needed him in long term scheming mode rather than immediate homicidal wrath mode. After all, revenge was a dish best served cold.
So the only way I could prevent Palpatine from IMMEDIATELY killing me as retribution (if he survived) was to essentially tell him it was poisoned beforehand, but do it in a way that would still end in him deciding to willingly drink it, giving the impression that I did it innocently, with no knowledge of his true identity.
If he was certain that I didn't know, he'd be in no rush, hopefully giving him (in his mind) time to scheme and lie in wait, to plot a 'perfect' revenge rather than a hasty one, which would give me time to maneuver against him.
Which was… impossible. Why would anyone drink something they were told was poison? They'd have to be a great fool, which Palpatine was not.
I thoroughly thought of anything I could say, any angle I could possibly take to deceive the greatest and most skilled liar in the entire galaxy. I had to remember that as difficult as this was, it wasn't hopeless. He had flaws and I had advantages that would skew this interaction wildly in my favor, which was good, as I needed all the help I could get.
Firstly, he was overconfident. Arrogant. That was his flaw. The only one he trusted in the entire galaxy was himself, with everyone else being utterly beneath him, whether they actually posed a threat or not.
Secondly, I had the major advantages of not only being a child, and thus underestimated, but also knowing things that should be literally impossible for me to know. I was an out of context problem existing outside of logic. Palpatine had fooled the greatest Jedi masters of all time, interacting with them on the daily without them discovering his identity. It would be literal insanity to even consider that some random child from a desert planet in the bum fuck nowhere outskirts of the galaxy would know who he truly was before even meeting him.
I needed to leverage all of this somehow. To give him what he wanted, what he expected. I needed to say something he would hear and remember, but then dismiss as unimportant, thinking he knew better.
I wracked my brain for answers.
I thought of how I tricked Jabba the Hutt, how I used the truth to lie. I had to do something similar here.
Wait. Jabba the Hutt.
Hutts.
Huh. That could work.
I smiled.
As the final details of the plan at last started to take shape, I surfaced out of my meditation, only to realize there was a message playing in the background.
"...cut off all food supplies until you return...the death toll is catastrophic...we must bow to their wishes, Your Highness...Please tell us what to do! If you can hear us, Your Highness, you must contact me..." the recording of Sio Bibble's voice sounded out through the common area of the spaceship.
It was late in the final night cycle before we would reach Coruscant, and I had obviously been having a bit of trouble sleeping. In addition to my planning and meditating, I was also working out how to invert the function of my AC field into a heater field. I had more or less succeeded a few days ago, but I was still trying to increase the efficiency, as I felt I was still wasting a fair bit of energy.
As Sio Bibble's message finished, I opened my eyes to see Padme in deep contemplation.
"Can't sleep?" I asked, and she jumped a little.
"Ani, I didn't realize you were still up. Sorry if I woke you." She said.
"You didn't wake me, I couldn't sleep either. I heard the message. Do you think it's true? Or do you think they're trying to trick us?"
She sighed, "I don't necessarily think it's one or the other. While I have no doubt that Sio Bibble was coerced into sending that message, I can't imagine its contents are falsehoods. This kind of thing has happened before, to other planets under the Federation's… care."
I grimaced. Now I kind of felt bad. "Sorry. I've been so busy thinking about… getting off of Tatooine, that I haven't remembered that other people's situations are still really bad."
My memory of Yoda's line from ESB came back to me. "This one, a long time have I watched. All his life as he looked away. To the future. To the horizon. Never his mind on where he was! Hmmm. What he was doing! Hmpf!"
Just because I had grand plans for the future didn't mean I could neglect the people right in front of me.
Padme huffed, shaking her head as she sat down next to me. "No Ani, the last thing I would want you to do is to beat yourself up over something you can't control. You're free now, you should feel happy. I haven't given up on helping my people, the queen will bring our situation in front of the Senate. We will sort this out." She shifted around and seemed to realize something. "Goodness Ani you're burning up, are you feeling alright?" she pressed her hand to my forehead, and when my skin didn't feel feverish, she pressed her forehead against mine to make sure. I froze, unable to conjure so much as a single thought in my brain.
Finally I rebooted and choked a few words out. "I uh d-don't have a fever, it's a force technique. I use the force to heat up a layer of air around me. It's pretty cold in this ship, especially during the sleep cycle."
"Space is cold." She said idly, waving her hand in an out of my heat layer with curiosity. "Wow." She said, then suddenly began to shed the outer jacket layer of handmaiden robes.
Flabbergasted, I managed to get out, "Wha- What are you doing?"
"You're like a personal heater, and I'm cold too." She wrapped her outer jacket layer around both of us, and snuggled up close to me so we'd both fit. Ignoring my own mental meltdown, I managed to gather some presence of mind and extended my heat layer to wrap around both of us, and she sighed in contentment.
I didn't need to see myself to realize I was blushing up a storm. Find something to talk about! Anything! "Soooo… you definitely don't need to pay me what you lost in sabacc earlier. Your planet's in danger. It'd be bad faith of me to collect."
She snorted. "As a royal handmaiden of Naboo, it is below my standards of honor to allow any debt to remain unpaid." Her voice just a bit too posh and snooty for me to think she was being serious.
I smirked. "Honor huh? Well check this out." I opened my hand, and with a tug of telekinesis I summoned the sabacc deck from where it was sitting on the table from our game earlier. As the box of cards smacked into my palm, I handed them to her. "Pick a card, any card, but don't show it to me."
She shifted a bit to free her arms, then shuffled the deck and picked a card. "Ok, I've got one, now what?"
I concentrated briefly, letting my senses expand. "Commander of flasks." I stated.
Her mouth fell slightly open. "Wha— are you peeking?"
"Nope~" I said, popping the P. "Try again~"
She moved the cards behind my head so I couldn't see and shuffled them again, then picked another card.
"3 of sabers." I declared.
She shuffled them again, picking another. "The Star." I called.
She picked another. "10 of staves."
Another. "The Queen."
She stared at me in shock. Finally she spoke, "How are you doing tha—" she paused as I wiggled my fingers mystically through the air.
"The force lets you know people's cards?! But that's… that's cheating!" She said, scandalized.
I gave her a wide toothy grin, one that would've been at home on the face of a discount speeder salesman, "Of course not my lady, I'd be much too afraid to try and cheat a Royal Handmaiden of Naboo~"
"Oh you little shi—" she cut herself off before she could say anymore, her eyes widened by her slip of the tongue.
I gasped dramatically, "Oh my, did you just swear?"
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." She said haughtily.
"You did." I continued "how improper! What will the queen think?"
"I'm sure she'll forgive me." Padme said with the confidence of someone who was, in fact, the very queen in question and had already forgiven herself.
At this I couldn't hold back my snickers, and soon she also devolved into giggles, both of us valiantly trying to suppress our laughter to avoid waking up any of the other ship's occupants, which only made the situation seem even funnier, which made us laugh even harder, and we were swept away in a cycle of runaway laughter.
Once we had finally calmed down, Padme wiped a laugh tear from her eye. "Thank you Ani, I… I really needed that. I honestly can't remember the last time I laughed like that."
I nodded. "Any time."
She made a quiet happy hum, then squirmed around a bit, getting more comfortable. I rested my head on her shoulder, and she rested her head on mine.
"Hey Padme?" I asked, gathering my courage.
"Hmmm… yeah Ani?" She responded.
"The Galaxy is a really big place. After all this business is taken care of, you'll go back to a free Naboo, and I'll hopefully be accepted as a Jedi. We'll be walking different paths and… I'm thinking there's a pretty significant chance that we might not ever see each other again." I rummaged around in my pocket, pulling out the japor snippet beadwork I carved. "So I made this for you, to remember me by. I carved it out of a japor snippet. It'll bring you fortune."
"Ooohhh, Ani I love it, thank you." She paused, running her fingers across the smooth engraved surface. "Ani… despite everything that's going on back home, I'm so glad I met you. These past few days have been so difficult but also have been the first time I've ever seen the force in action. The way you and master Qui Gon and Obi Wan wield it… it's unreal. And that Podrace?"
She paused again, gathering her thoughts. "No matter what happens, I don't think I could possibly forget you for the rest of my days. You're special Anakin, and I've come to care for you quite a lot."
"Thanks Padme, I care for you a lot too."
I felt her shifting back and forth a bit as she put the necklace around her neck, then she snuggled back in, her outer Jacket robe rapped around us like a blanket.
It wasn't long before her breathing evened out into the sweet embrace of sleep, and I didn't last much longer lying next to her.
Maybe it was because of how tired I was. Logically I knew tomorrow was incredibly important, so important that it could decide the fate of the entire galaxy, and I would no doubt stress about that stuff when it was actually upon us. But today? Right now? All I could feel was contentment and happiness as I drifted off to sleep in the embrace of a dear friend.
The morning cycle came almost too quickly. I was awoken by a PA announcement from Coreev. "Attention passengers, we will be dropping out of hyperspace just outside of Coruscant's gravity well in 30 minutes. Please be prepared for landing."
I was still in the same place as where I had fallen asleep, and while I was still wrapped in Padme's outer shawl, she was nowhere to be seen. She must have woken up earlier to get ready.
While many of our group had been up for a bit, there was still a mad rush for the Sonic scrubber among the last few stragglers. By the time I was ready and in the cockpit, we were only minutes away from arrival.
When we drew even closer, I grew a bit nervous that neither Coreev nor Dan were making any attempts to pull back on the hyperdrive lever.
"Um…" I began nervously, "Shouldn't we get ready to pull the lever?" I asked.
Dan shook his head, "No, manually dropping out of hyperspace can be a bit rough. In situations like these, it's best to let the Navicomputer handle it."
Just as he finished saying this, the hyperdrive lever smoothly reset itself with a slight whir of a motor, and there was a deep sounding *thoom* as we transitioned back into real space, the stars going from lines to dots and the planet of Coruscant seemingly leaping out of the distance to halt abruptly in front of us.
I was speechless. "Holy karking banthashit" I muttered.
Dan chuckled, and as we descended further on the ecumenopolis, my head was on a swivel trying to observe everything I could.
Rick had seen the painted depiction of Coruscant that they used in the movies and tv shows, and while they were technically accurate, they still couldn't do the real thing justice. The subtle way the light of the local star shone on the planet's contours and canals, the wisps of clouds, the slight glow of the atmosphere, the way that the stars of space slowly disappeared behind the daylight sky, and the smooth transition between space and atmosphere.
"Coruscant," Dan declared, enjoying my awe and fascination, "The entire planet is one big City."
As we descended, he kept up a running commentary about different things, including space lanes and different districts he could see from where we were.
Eventually we were hailed on comms, and after some heated back and forth with space traffic control, we were given priority clearance to proceed to a private senatorial landing pad, which is when I heard the cheerful words that instantly snapped me out of any sense of wonder I was currently feeling.
"There's Chancellor Velorum's shuttle," Dan said with a smile, pointing to a craft that looked similar to our own, an entourage of people arriving with the chancellor. "And look over there," he pointed to a different spot on the landing pad where I could make out a single figure standing, "Senator Palpatine is waiting for us."
Suddenly it all got real. There he was.
Fuck. Holy shit.
I was less than 100 meters away from the man.
In a few short minutes I'd be in a car ride with him. Close enough to touch him, but more importantly, for him to be able to touch me.
The Dark Lord, Super Space Hitler, Human Supremacist Extraordinaire, Emperor of Misery and Hatred himself.
Sheev Palpatine.
I didn't dare utter his true sith name, even in the privacy of my own mind. Call me superstitious, but I didn't want to risk it with him so close. I'd lived this long by trusting my gut, and I wasn't about to stop now.
I knew for a fact that this was possible, ad that it led to a major change in the future. This wasn't a plan doomed to failure. I had seen it. It was possible. I had to remember that. To be confident in that.
Breathe in, breathe out.
I calmed myself, making sure my shields were as flawless as I could make them, then went through a few stretches, shaking out my body. Not Emperor Palpatine, Not even Chancellor Palpatine. Senator Palpatine. Just a regular republic senator, concerned about his homeland. I finally felt my fear begin to dissipate, and let my compassion for Padme and her planet fill my conscious self. Mind on the moment. Character in a story. Play my part.
"Showtime." I whispered.
I heard a hiss as the off-ramp lowered. I turned around, made sure I had my things in my pack and a full liter flask of Durindfire juice in my hands, and walked towards my destiny.
The Dark Lord of the Sith known as Darth Sidious, currently in his his civilian identity as Senator Palpatine of Naboo, let a vapid smile of false relief form on his face as he greeted the returning Queen. As he went through the proper pleasantries of greeting and introducing the queen and her entourage, he closely inspected the most interesting member of their party.
The boy.
He had already received a report from his apprentice about the child's actions on Tatooine, how he won the deadly podrace while displaying his incredible connection to the force. Palpatine had been able to feel the anger and irritation in Maul as he recounted the events, and now that the child was before him, he could see why.
The boy had a subtle layer of protection, not quite dark but not quite light either, based on fear, cunning, and the desire to be hidden.
A bit too timid for his tastes, but the fact that the boy had already began using his emotions as fuel in the force was a fantastic sign.
Palpatine's probe slipped through this defense easily, and he was both irritated and impressed by what he found underneath. Jedi shields. Good ones too, ones that didn't have any major discernible weaknesses. They were so new as well, still possessing a softness that meant they were formed only a week ago, if that.
He could easily push through if he exerted the dark side even a small amount, but this would alert both the child and the Jedi to his presence, which was obviously not an option.
Still, he could feel the surface emotions that at times seeped through. Awe at Coruscant, sympathy and admiration for the Queen, and buried under all that just a slight whiff of both conviction and utter terror.
Palpatine resisted the urge to huff as he continued his conversation with the soon to be deposed chancellor Velorum.
How typical of a slave. Presented with everything the boy could want and he still couldn't overcome an inner terror for his surroundings.
His inner self smiled nastily, even as his face was schooled in a properly concerned expression.
Fear that deeply set could be leveraged. Preyed upon. Exploited.
Magnificent.
Finally the group split their separate ways, the Jedi going back to their temple, Velorum and his entourage to their shuttle, and the Naboo plus two to a waiting speeder.
Palpatine settled back in his seat with a deep sense of satisfaction. It must have been fate, that on this day, at the turning of the age, at the beginning of the end of the Jedi and the Republic, that a perfect candidate for an apprentice had practically fallen in his lap. An omen of things to come! Soon, his master would be dead. Soon, the grand plan would commence, and Darth Sidious would be the Master of the Sith, and soon after, the Galaxy!
As the group settled into the speeder, Palpatine was intrigued that the boy had not elected to sit in the driver's compartment, as would be expected of a mechanically inclined thrill seeker of a child, but rather in the passenger compartment, with great care taken to sit across from Palpatine himself.
Interesting.
As the boy briefly fidgeted with the insulated metal flask he held in preparation to say something, Palpatine finished his conversation with the queen on the status of recent events he already knew of and took a moment to savor the flash of rage from the driver of a different speeder that they had just cut off.
Palpatine had selected his driver personally, for not only his skill but his aggression just for moments like this. His mood was further sweetened when they once again switched air lanes without signaling, and a sweet burst of panic followed by smoldering anger rang out in the force, filling him with a shot of energy and pleasure.
Ahhh, what a beautiful day.
He returned his focus to the timid child when the boy finally gathered the courage speak up.
"H-hello sir. My name is Anakin. I heard that you are the Senator for Naboo? Does that mean you speak for an entire planet, and the whole galaxy listens?"
Palpatine smiled, and was a bit surprised to find that it was almost genuine. How amusing. "While I certainly do speak for the citizens of Naboo, and will do so today, that doesn't necessarily mean that the Galaxy will listen. I dare say that the galaxy would be a better place if they would listen, the trade federation certainly wouldn't be committing atrocities."
A burst of anger made its way through little Anakin's shields, and Palpatine nearly sighed in pleasure. Already a grudge against the trade federation eh? The road to claiming the boy as His was getting clearer by the second.
"Yes," little Anakin agreed, "Tyrants like them should never be in charge. Their secrets should be dragged onto a public stage for everyone to see. I hope that will happen here today, and Justice, for Naboo and many others, will be served."
Palpatine luxuriated in the child's fear and anger as it seeped through the boy's shields. He'd need to engineer more encounters with this child and the trade federation to stoke this rage into something more. "Indeed." He agreed.
The boys mind calmed, the majority of his emotions once again cut off by his shields. "While I hope the Federation gets what's coming to them, in the meantime I have… a gift for you."
"A gift?" Palpatine clarified with false interest, the very picture of a benevolent grandfather. Whatever this puny slave child would give him would doubtless be totally worthless, but regardless he'd receive it with grace to ingratiate himself into the child's circle of trusted adults and confidants.
"Yes." The boy confirmed "I've already given the queen a Gift, so it's only right I give you one too, for some hope in this bad situation." Anakin explained.
The boy's mother made a pleased smile, ruffling his hair proudly. Little Anakin leaned into his mother's touch, showing delicious attachment. Another crowbar to be used to pry him away from the Jedi later.
A sense of confusion emanated from the Queen's decoy, but shock came from Padme as her hand came up to touch below her neckline as if fingering a concealed necklace. So the boy was aware of the Queen's identity? Perceptive!
The boy continued, lifting up the liter sized flask. "This here is Golden Pallie juice. It comes from a Golden Pallie, which are much rarer than the regular red kind. I know it probably isn't the most sought after thing around here, and Pallie Juice probably isn't much to a man of your means, but it's basically the most valuable thing I own right now."
Palpatine expertly held back a laugh, smiling graciously as he excepted the flask. How uncouth to talk openly about the price of one's gift! This child was certainly from Hutt space.
"It's best when it's chilled, and though it is meant to be non alcoholic it is stored in a barrel with proper antibacterial yeasts for preservation, so it might have a percentage or two, I hope that's alright. Any yeast has been strained out from it now, and It's really good."
Hmmm. A sweet mild wine from a rare desert fruit. As far as gifts go this was actually quite pleasing, and Sheev could admit he was surprised. "Why thank you Anakin, that sounds wonderful." He once again found himself just a bit closer to sincerity than he was used to. He did quite enjoy sampling rare fruits.
He inwardly smirked. Quite the rare fruit was in front of him now.
The boy fidgeted, working up the courage to ask something else. Palpatine simply waited, watching and smiling, the very picture of a patient uncle or grandfather, inwardly taking in the exquisite wisps of fear that escaped little Anakin's shields. To be that afraid he must be about to ask for something truly presumptuous. Slaves did not ask for things from world leaders after all, and the boy was and would always be, at his core, a slave. Palpatine was certain of that now.
"In Hutt space, there's this custom, or tradition, I guess…" the boy paused, fidgeting with his fingers, "Would you be willing to… check the juice for poison?"
Palpatine blinked. Padme spoke up before he could respond. "Anakin! Why would you ask that? Did you put poison in the juice?"
The boy defended himself, and Palpatine paid attention to the feedback in the force despite knowing it was incredibly unlikely that a child would try to poison the senator of the planet who provided his freedom. He didn't make it this far from being incautious about things like this.
"Of course I didn't add any poison! The only thing in here is the juice from a golden Pallie, and other than that the antibacterial yeast, but all of it was completely strained out when it was bottled!" The force rang with truth, and Palpatine imperceptibly relaxed. Of course the child wouldn't poison the gift. Palpatine ran through the Huttish traditions he could remember, and came to a realization.
Padme, quite confused, questioned the boy, "Anakin, if it isn't poisoned, why do you want Senator Palpatine to check if it is?"
"I believe I know what Anakin is speaking of." Palpatine interjected, highly amused by the audacity of the child before him, a wry smile that was quite genuine on his face. "In the culture of the Hutts, openly testing a gift of food or drink for poison isn't an insult, but rather a mark of respect. To a Hutt, it is expected that your peers will plot against you to the point that excessive cordiality and overt affection between Hutts is often seen as unimpressive or weak. For a Hutt to openly test another's gift for poison in front of them, it communicates that they believe that the gift giver is a respectable threat and a worthy rival, and acknowledges and honors them as such. There have been Hutts in the past that have actually taken offense when others haven't tested their gift for poison."
The boy shuffled his feet, "Oh… you know about that?"
Palpatine nodded, still greatly amused at the fast-one the Boy had tried to slip by him. Darth Sidious, soon to be the most powerful being in the entire galaxy, acknowledging a slave child as a respectable rival? Ridiculous. If it had been an adult asking Palpatine for such a thing while he was openly in his Sith persona, he would destroy them on the spot for their nerve. But a child? Asking a Republic Senator? That was just charming enough to indulge.
Furthermore It also represented an appreciation for scheming, and that the boy valued the same things as the Hutts themselves did. That at his core, he wanted to be like them, that on some deep level he saw how the Hutts basked in decadence and cruelty and instinctively found such a position desirable.
Magnificent!
And really, what was the act of taking an apprentice, if not acknowledging that they might at some point surpass you? To train your own perfect rival from the ground up? It was almost… poetic in a way that the boy would unknowingly ask for such a thing!
Upon their arrival at the senate dome they exited the speeder, and walked toward the entrance.
Padme responded as they made their way up the steps, unaware of Palpatine's inner musing. "You mean that betrayal is not only feared, but expected? I mean no offense, but that sounds miserable."
Had he not been such a phenomenal actor, Palpatine would have curled his lip in disgust and irritation at the weakness and foolish ignorance the queen was displaying. Only the truly enlightened could appreciate such things as deadly rivalry and creative, violent betrayal for the art forms they truly were. For all their disgusting inhuman filth, the Hutts at least understood this fact. The child's appreciation for such things should be encouraged, not suppressed.
"I would be delighted to test your gift in respect for the traditions of your homeland my boy, such a thing would not be inappropriate, considering the fact that you returned our queen safely to us. Such an act is certainly deserving of a show of respect."
Exhilaration wafted out from the boy's shields, as if he couldn't believe this was actually happening.
Palpatine's smiled at his own progress so far. Already he had ingratiated himself to the boy more within these first few minutes than he realistically had expected to be able to do within a period of several days. Their compatibility seemed to be quite high~.
The Boy spoke up once again, "If you're already testing for poison, you might as well also test for an allergic reaction. It's pretty rare, but it is possible."
"Of course," Palpatine responded. "All senators have scanners they use to vet gifts, which are loaded with our medical profile. Checking for anaphylaxis will be just as simple as checking for poison will be."
Once again a sense of exhilaration and happiness made it past the boy's shields, and Palpatine inwardly smirked. What a simple child. It will be so delightful to break him. He could hardly wait, but he would anyway. Let the Jedi cover the basics, let the boy's inevitable disappointment at their ineptitude turn to disdain and hatred, and he would be ripe for turning. Palpatine had to be patient. An early fruit is never as sweet as one fully ripe. The harvest would come.
He sent a grandfatherly smile at the boy, who nodded. "Great!" Said little Ani, his soft boyish features quirked in a clever little smile.
Oh and what a sweet harvest it will be!
POV Anakin
The force swirled through my mind, blurring my emotions and helping force an unnatural calm on myself. It felt strange, like there were multiple versions of me within my head, but at the same time like none of them added up to a full mind, making it seem like I was missing something I actually wasn't. Stay in the present. Stay in the role.
As we arrived at the Naboo senatorial quarters, which were quite spacious, Palpatine made a show of taking a testing strip, dipping it into the Durindfire juice, and inserting it into a receptacle on a device presented by one of the service droids that often attended the senators of the republic.
I couldn't help but hold my breath a bit, but released it when the scans turned up green for both toxicity and anaphylaxis, meaning it was 'safe' to drink.
Of course the Durindfire juice didn't have anything directly toxic in it, as it only affected force users, but I'd been a bit paranoid that it would still show up with something, no matter how ridiculous it would be to expect such a thing.
"Let it be known by all that I find you both respectable and trustworthy. I have tested your gift for poison and found that it is safe and appreciated." Palpatine said with a bit of ceremonial flair.
I can definitely see how he had fooled so many people. He was so easy to like, there were so many senators who would tell a kid to take a hike if they asked something like this, but Palpatine was the very picture of a fun and indulgent grandfather.
If I had met this man without knowing anything about him I can guarantee I would have liked him a lot, and I could tell by my mother's grateful smile at his antics that she felt similarly. There was no sense of danger about him in the force, he felt just like any non-sensitive I had ever met, but with a clean presence that indicated fairness and a solid morality, to the point that a tiny part of me questioned if I was wrong about him, despite everything from my meta knowledge being proven true so far. It was a powerful charisma that I'd need to be wary of.
I needed to warn Amu about him as soon as possible, and would as soon as we exited the lair of the beast.
Palpatine placed the Durindfire juice in a private cooler to begin chilling, before returning to his conversation with the Queen and her handmaidens about what to do next. Amu and I took this as our dismissal, and we found a bench to sit on as we waited.
I strengthened my shields, and thought of Padme, the Jedi, Coruscant, and basically anything else to make sure my anxiety and terror were buried at the core of my being underneath layers of awe and gratitude. I couldn't afford to let my guard down. Not yet.
Holy shit how am I not dead yet holy fu—
No, no. Look out the window, look at the skyline. Listen to all the speeder noises and city sounds.
Let your Nerdy awe take its place at the forefront of your mind.
Everything is fine.
Holyfuckingshithetookthefuckingjuicetheplanisworkin—
No no.
Hold Amu's hand. Disassociate. We are fine. We are fine.
It was a few hours later that Amu and I were summoned to appear before the Jedi. I said goodbye to "the queen" who was obviously Padme, and from the wink she gave me, it was clear she now knew that I knew. Which only made itself more obvious when she thanked me for the royal gift I had given her, bringing her hand up to touch her collar where the necklace was no doubt being worn under her royal robes.
I bowed, and kept my calm until we were in a speeder going to the Jedi temple.
With a deep exhale, I let the parts of myself that I had spiritually molded and contorted into obscurity snap back into their proper place, and suddenly my surroundings were real again. The sounds of the city blared and my heart pounded in my ears as I took a shuddering breath, wiping tears from my eyes.
Amu's gaze snapped over from where she was staring at the skyline, "Ani?! What's wrong?!"
I gulped a few times as the bloom of suppressed emotion ran its course, then responded, "Vision thing." Then reached out through our bond.
'Palpatine's dangerous, like really dangerous. I can't prove much but I couldn't show fear in front of him. We can't talk about this out loud, who knows what he has tapped.'
Her eyes widened, and she responded telepathically over the bond, 'Ani… what kind of danger does he represent? Why did you give him the Durindfire juice? Why didn't you tell me this before? And what can be done about it?'
I grimaced, 'Think of him as a Hutt lord with Jedi master powers, no laziness, and Mandalorian training. Right now he is being extremely methodical and patient, carefully avoiding making any waves. He's figured out how to spoof force senses, and so even Jedi are unaware of his true identity. If he even begins to suspect that anyone knows about his true self, then he'll stop being so careful, and things will get messy. As long as he doesn't feel cornered, Padme and the others will remain safe. The only reason I know any of this is because I've seen his true identity in the same way I knew Qui Gon and Obi Wan would come. We cannot tell anyone else. Anyone at all. At least until we are safely out of his reach. I'd prefer if we never let any of this ever leave our lips for the rest of our lives. Telepathy only.'
Amu spent a few seconds in quiet contemplation, a frown on her face. 'I believe you. Which means that he is a dragon sleeping under the sand. To avoid being eaten by a sleeping dragon, We mustn't wake him, and the best way to do that is to stay out of his territory to avoid our scent being caught. Why did you give him the juice? Why did you talk to him at all?!'
I sighed, explaining my plan, the visions, and a bit of context. By the time I had walked her through it all, we had reached the Jedi temple.
She was not happy. But she was accepting. 'We will be talking about this later. This is not the end.'
I nodded. 'Absolutely'
She sighed, then looked up at the giant building. "In all my days I never thought I'd be standing at these steps. I'm not sure what to do now that I am."
I smiled, "Well… They summoned both of us. My guess is that we walk in and find someone to talk to."
She snorted, then knelt down and gave me a hug. "I love you Ani. So much."
"I-I love you too." I responded, blinking back tears. it occured to me that this could very well be goodbye. "I'll steal a com. I'll sneak out after hours. No matter what I'll keep contact. I promise."
She laughed. "Ani… don't sabotage your future for my sake."
"The only thing that would be 'sabotaging' me is to break off contact with you. You're the wisest person I know and I don't think that's gonna change."
"Oh hush." She said with a smile on her face. She nodded towards the main entrance, which was up a large set of stairs and past several rows of extremely large rectangular pillars that were almost touching. "Shall we?" She asked, holding out her hand.
I nodded, a smile on my face. I took her hand, and we stepped forward.
Aaaand there we go! Sorry it took so long, I'm trying to get back into the groove. Hope y'all are having a good day!
Ciao!
I traced my fingers over the second of the two japor snippet necklaces I had carved.
Padme was… I don't know. She had such a remarkable spirit, and it was enjoyable to be around her, but…
Was what I was feeling actually real? Was it old Anakin's influence on me? Or was I just giving it to her… because it was my 'destiny' or some such other bullshit?
Because honestly? The romance scenes in attack of the clones were fucking incomprehensible, like, as far as what Padme saw in Anakin. The whole thing was so utterly bizarre, and I always used to just hand wave it as 'eh, movie's gotta movie, whaddayagonnodo?' But now that she was a real person…
It was just difficult for me to reconcile the amazing person I had met and hung out with over the last few days, and someone that would ignore the fact that their boyfriend of only a few days had slaughtered an entire village worth of women and children.
Like… what the fuck?!
I shook my head. No. If that Anakin isn't me, then this Padme isn't that Padme either. And the fact that I… maybe admire this Padme a little bit has nothing to do with anything else.
And, and it's not like a japor snippet is inherently romantic or anything. It's just a memory charm. Me wanting to give her one doesn't mean anything.
Amu's voice sounded softly from behind me, startling me a little bit. Her words were surprised, and she had a spark of wonder in her eyes. "I've never seen you carve something so carefully, I didn't think you had the patience for japor carving."
I huffed, embarrassed. "Moooom. I built my own podracer. I'm good with my hands."
She huffed in amusement. "Ani, the podracer was power, it was freedom. It was practical, and dangerous, and represented something exhilarating to you. This isn't machinery, it's… art. It's sentiment. You've not had the patience for such things, not since you were much smaller than you are now." Her wonder and happiness in the force were a bit overwhelming, but not unpleasant.
"That was when we were slaves Amu, I was working towards freedom, I had a goal I couldn't deviate from. We didn't have time then. But… we do now."
She was silent for a few seconds, and began to blink rapidly, refusing to let tears fall. "Yes. We do." She whispered, and sat down next to me. "May I see them?"
I nodded, handing them over. She looked over the one I'd already finished, the one I had made for her.
She smiled at the symbols I carved, and she spoke the meanings as she thumbed her way through the beads. "Desert born…Motherhood… Spiritual Leader… Wisdom… Memory… Fortune… Freedom… Courage… Strength… Undying love…" tears welled in her eyes, and she pulled me into a hug.
"That one's for you." I said unnecessarily.
She chuckled, letting me out of the hug. "I figured. Thank you Vikki-ka."
She wiped her tears, then focused on the second necklace I made, "Hmm… New beginnings… the sign of a ruler… Clean water… the moon… Lifegiver… Admiration… Fortune… Memory… Beauty…" she paused for a moment, then a look of delight came onto her face, "Ani… Is this for Padme?"
I felt my face heat up and I cursed myself internally for blushing.
"It's not romantic or anything! I just—"
A hearty, delighted belly cackle burst from Amu's mouth, and she quickly covered her mouth in slight embarrassment, though she continued laughing.
I paused in shock. I had never heard her laugh like that. I tried to remember her ever laughing at all and… I came up empty. The most I could remember was a hum of amusement or a quick exhale through the nose. Nothing like this. It was a musical bouncing laugh, and it made me smile just hearing it.
"Oh Ani, you certainly aim high!"
"Mooomm it's not like that!" I insisted, blushing to my ears.
"Oh Ani, I know, it's just…" she seemed to sober slightly, and shockingly, tears began to fall down her face. "For some time now I've been afraid… afraid that you had been hardened and made brittle, that all you had room for in your heart was for duty and drive, that you had no child left in you. It just makes me so happy to see you… to see you…"
She pulled me into a hug, and I was absolutely stunned as she sobbed with joy and held me tight. "By ar-Amu, by Leiyah, by Lukka, by all the little gods this is real! It's all real! It's really real!" She muttered, sobbing into my hair.
She lifted me up and spun me around in the air, and I laughed as tears came into my eyes as well.
Over the past few days she had been rather placid, simply going with the flow and remaining calm, and I guess it was finally catching up with her that we were really free. Honestly, I don't know if had fully sunken in for me either. I'm just glad she still had this side of her after all this time.
I will protect that happiness. I swear it.
As the clocked ticked on I thought and meditated a lot further on this plan of mine, bouncing back and forth between brain storming and meditating on the thread of bright future, and eventually I came to a conclusion.
In order to not only execute my plan, but to actually survive for any significant amount of time in the aftermath, I'd need to follow the advice of "my" son, or rather, the actor that portrayed him.
The advice was from one of Rick Miller's favorite video games, and it went something like this:
'So how do you keep a secret from the world's greatest detective? Well? Do you know? It's easy! You stick it right in front of him, right under his long pointy nose, and wait! Haha!'
If my plan succeeded, then he would surely plot my utter destruction whether he thought the poisoning was done intentionally or not, just out of sheer spite. So instead of trying to get off scott free, which was surely impossible, I needed him in long term scheming mode rather than immediate homicidal wrath mode. After all, revenge was a dish best served cold.
So the only way I could prevent Palpatine from IMMEDIATELY killing me as retribution (if he survived) was to essentially tell him it was poisoned beforehand, but do it in a way that would still end in him deciding to willingly drink it, giving the impression that I did it innocently, with no knowledge of his true identity.
If he was certain that I didn't know, he'd be in no rush, hopefully giving him (in his mind) time to scheme and lie in wait, to plot a 'perfect' revenge rather than a hasty one, which would give me time to maneuver against him.
Which was… impossible. Why would anyone drink something they were told was poison? They'd have to be a great fool, which Palpatine was not.
I thoroughly thought of anything I could say, any angle I could possibly take to deceive the greatest and most skilled liar in the entire galaxy. I had to remember that as difficult as this was, it wasn't hopeless. He had flaws and I had advantages that would skew this interaction wildly in my favor, which was good, as I needed all the help I could get.
Firstly, he was overconfident. Arrogant. That was his flaw. The only one he trusted in the entire galaxy was himself, with everyone else being utterly beneath him, whether they actually posed a threat or not.
Secondly, I had the major advantages of not only being a child, and thus underestimated, but also knowing things that should be literally impossible for me to know. I was an out of context problem existing outside of logic. Palpatine had fooled the greatest Jedi masters of all time, interacting with them on the daily without them discovering his identity. It would be literal insanity to even consider that some random child from a desert planet in the bum fuck nowhere outskirts of the galaxy would know who he truly was before even meeting him.
I needed to leverage all of this somehow. To give him what he wanted, what he expected. I needed to say something he would hear and remember, but then dismiss as unimportant, thinking he knew better.
I wracked my brain for answers.
I thought of how I tricked Jabba the Hutt, how I used the truth to lie. I had to do something similar here.
Wait. Jabba the Hutt.
Hutts.
Huh. That could work.
I smiled.
As the final details of the plan at last started to take shape, I surfaced out of my meditation, only to realize there was a message playing in the background.
"...cut off all food supplies until you return...the death toll is catastrophic...we must bow to their wishes, Your Highness...Please tell us what to do! If you can hear us, Your Highness, you must contact me..." the recording of Sio Bibble's voice sounded out through the common area of the spaceship.
It was late in the final night cycle before we would reach Coruscant, and I had obviously been having a bit of trouble sleeping. In addition to my planning and meditating, I was also working out how to invert the function of my AC field into a heater field. I had more or less succeeded a few days ago, but I was still trying to increase the efficiency, as I felt I was still wasting a fair bit of energy.
As Sio Bibble's message finished, I opened my eyes to see Padme in deep contemplation.
"Can't sleep?" I asked, and she jumped a little.
"Ani, I didn't realize you were still up. Sorry if I woke you." She said.
"You didn't wake me, I couldn't sleep either. I heard the message. Do you think it's true? Or do you think they're trying to trick us?"
She sighed, "I don't necessarily think it's one or the other. While I have no doubt that Sio Bibble was coerced into sending that message, I can't imagine its contents are falsehoods. This kind of thing has happened before, to other planets under the Federation's… care."
I grimaced. Now I kind of felt bad. "Sorry. I've been so busy thinking about… getting off of Tatooine, that I haven't remembered that other people's situations are still really bad."
My memory of Yoda's line from ESB came back to me. "This one, a long time have I watched. All his life as he looked away. To the future. To the horizon. Never his mind on where he was! Hmmm. What he was doing! Hmpf!"
Just because I had grand plans for the future didn't mean I could neglect the people right in front of me.
Padme huffed, shaking her head as she sat down next to me. "No Ani, the last thing I would want you to do is to beat yourself up over something you can't control. You're free now, you should feel happy. I haven't given up on helping my people, the queen will bring our situation in front of the Senate. We will sort this out." She shifted around and seemed to realize something. "Goodness Ani you're burning up, are you feeling alright?" she pressed her hand to my forehead, and when my skin didn't feel feverish, she pressed her forehead against mine to make sure. I froze, unable to conjure so much as a single thought in my brain.
Finally I rebooted and choked a few words out. "I uh d-don't have a fever, it's a force technique. I use the force to heat up a layer of air around me. It's pretty cold in this ship, especially during the sleep cycle."
"Space is cold." She said idly, waving her hand in an out of my heat layer with curiosity. "Wow." She said, then suddenly began to shed the outer jacket layer of handmaiden robes.
Flabbergasted, I managed to get out, "Wha- What are you doing?"
"You're like a personal heater, and I'm cold too." She wrapped her outer jacket layer around both of us, and snuggled up close to me so we'd both fit. Ignoring my own mental meltdown, I managed to gather some presence of mind and extended my heat layer to wrap around both of us, and she sighed in contentment.
I didn't need to see myself to realize I was blushing up a storm. Find something to talk about! Anything! "Soooo… you definitely don't need to pay me what you lost in sabacc earlier. Your planet's in danger. It'd be bad faith of me to collect."
She snorted. "As a royal handmaiden of Naboo, it is below my standards of honor to allow any debt to remain unpaid." Her voice just a bit too posh and snooty for me to think she was being serious.
I smirked. "Honor huh? Well check this out." I opened my hand, and with a tug of telekinesis I summoned the sabacc deck from where it was sitting on the table from our game earlier. As the box of cards smacked into my palm, I handed them to her. "Pick a card, any card, but don't show it to me."
She shifted a bit to free her arms, then shuffled the deck and picked a card. "Ok, I've got one, now what?"
I concentrated briefly, letting my senses expand. "Commander of flasks." I stated.
Her mouth fell slightly open. "Wha— are you peeking?"
"Nope~" I said, popping the P. "Try again~"
She moved the cards behind my head so I couldn't see and shuffled them again, then picked another card.
"3 of sabers." I declared.
She shuffled them again, picking another. "The Star." I called.
She picked another. "10 of staves."
Another. "The Queen."
She stared at me in shock. Finally she spoke, "How are you doing tha—" she paused as I wiggled my fingers mystically through the air.
"The force lets you know people's cards?! But that's… that's cheating!" She said, scandalized.
I gave her a wide toothy grin, one that would've been at home on the face of a discount speeder salesman, "Of course not my lady, I'd be much too afraid to try and cheat a Royal Handmaiden of Naboo~"
"Oh you little shi—" she cut herself off before she could say anymore, her eyes widened by her slip of the tongue.
I gasped dramatically, "Oh my, did you just swear?"
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." She said haughtily.
"You did." I continued "how improper! What will the queen think?"
"I'm sure she'll forgive me." Padme said with the confidence of someone who was, in fact, the very queen in question and had already forgiven herself.
At this I couldn't hold back my snickers, and soon she also devolved into giggles, both of us valiantly trying to suppress our laughter to avoid waking up any of the other ship's occupants, which only made the situation seem even funnier, which made us laugh even harder, and we were swept away in a cycle of runaway laughter.
Once we had finally calmed down, Padme wiped a laugh tear from her eye. "Thank you Ani, I… I really needed that. I honestly can't remember the last time I laughed like that."
I nodded. "Any time."
She made a quiet happy hum, then squirmed around a bit, getting more comfortable. I rested my head on her shoulder, and she rested her head on mine.
"Hey Padme?" I asked, gathering my courage.
"Hmmm… yeah Ani?" She responded.
"The Galaxy is a really big place. After all this business is taken care of, you'll go back to a free Naboo, and I'll hopefully be accepted as a Jedi. We'll be walking different paths and… I'm thinking there's a pretty significant chance that we might not ever see each other again." I rummaged around in my pocket, pulling out the japor snippet beadwork I carved. "So I made this for you, to remember me by. I carved it out of a japor snippet. It'll bring you fortune."
"Ooohhh, Ani I love it, thank you." She paused, running her fingers across the smooth engraved surface. "Ani… despite everything that's going on back home, I'm so glad I met you. These past few days have been so difficult but also have been the first time I've ever seen the force in action. The way you and master Qui Gon and Obi Wan wield it… it's unreal. And that Podrace?"
She paused again, gathering her thoughts. "No matter what happens, I don't think I could possibly forget you for the rest of my days. You're special Anakin, and I've come to care for you quite a lot."
"Thanks Padme, I care for you a lot too."
I felt her shifting back and forth a bit as she put the necklace around her neck, then she snuggled back in, her outer Jacket robe rapped around us like a blanket.
It wasn't long before her breathing evened out into the sweet embrace of sleep, and I didn't last much longer lying next to her.
Maybe it was because of how tired I was. Logically I knew tomorrow was incredibly important, so important that it could decide the fate of the entire galaxy, and I would no doubt stress about that stuff when it was actually upon us. But today? Right now? All I could feel was contentment and happiness as I drifted off to sleep in the embrace of a dear friend.
The morning cycle came almost too quickly. I was awoken by a PA announcement from Coreev. "Attention passengers, we will be dropping out of hyperspace just outside of Coruscant's gravity well in 30 minutes. Please be prepared for landing."
I was still in the same place as where I had fallen asleep, and while I was still wrapped in Padme's outer shawl, she was nowhere to be seen. She must have woken up earlier to get ready.
While many of our group had been up for a bit, there was still a mad rush for the Sonic scrubber among the last few stragglers. By the time I was ready and in the cockpit, we were only minutes away from arrival.
When we drew even closer, I grew a bit nervous that neither Coreev nor Dan were making any attempts to pull back on the hyperdrive lever.
"Um…" I began nervously, "Shouldn't we get ready to pull the lever?" I asked.
Dan shook his head, "No, manually dropping out of hyperspace can be a bit rough. In situations like these, it's best to let the Navicomputer handle it."
Just as he finished saying this, the hyperdrive lever smoothly reset itself with a slight whir of a motor, and there was a deep sounding *thoom* as we transitioned back into real space, the stars going from lines to dots and the planet of Coruscant seemingly leaping out of the distance to halt abruptly in front of us.
I was speechless. "Holy karking banthashit" I muttered.
Dan chuckled, and as we descended further on the ecumenopolis, my head was on a swivel trying to observe everything I could.
Rick had seen the painted depiction of Coruscant that they used in the movies and tv shows, and while they were technically accurate, they still couldn't do the real thing justice. The subtle way the light of the local star shone on the planet's contours and canals, the wisps of clouds, the slight glow of the atmosphere, the way that the stars of space slowly disappeared behind the daylight sky, and the smooth transition between space and atmosphere.
"Coruscant," Dan declared, enjoying my awe and fascination, "The entire planet is one big City."
As we descended, he kept up a running commentary about different things, including space lanes and different districts he could see from where we were.
Eventually we were hailed on comms, and after some heated back and forth with space traffic control, we were given priority clearance to proceed to a private senatorial landing pad, which is when I heard the cheerful words that instantly snapped me out of any sense of wonder I was currently feeling.
"There's Chancellor Velorum's shuttle," Dan said with a smile, pointing to a craft that looked similar to our own, an entourage of people arriving with the chancellor. "And look over there," he pointed to a different spot on the landing pad where I could make out a single figure standing, "Senator Palpatine is waiting for us."
Suddenly it all got real. There he was.
Fuck. Holy shit.
I was less than 100 meters away from the man.
In a few short minutes I'd be in a car ride with him. Close enough to touch him, but more importantly, for him to be able to touch me.
The Dark Lord, Super Space Hitler, Human Supremacist Extraordinaire, Emperor of Misery and Hatred himself.
Sheev Palpatine.
I didn't dare utter his true sith name, even in the privacy of my own mind. Call me superstitious, but I didn't want to risk it with him so close. I'd lived this long by trusting my gut, and I wasn't about to stop now.
I knew for a fact that this was possible, ad that it led to a major change in the future. This wasn't a plan doomed to failure. I had seen it. It was possible. I had to remember that. To be confident in that.
Breathe in, breathe out.
I calmed myself, making sure my shields were as flawless as I could make them, then went through a few stretches, shaking out my body. Not Emperor Palpatine, Not even Chancellor Palpatine. Senator Palpatine. Just a regular republic senator, concerned about his homeland. I finally felt my fear begin to dissipate, and let my compassion for Padme and her planet fill my conscious self. Mind on the moment. Character in a story. Play my part.
"Showtime." I whispered.
I heard a hiss as the off-ramp lowered. I turned around, made sure I had my things in my pack and a full liter flask of Durindfire juice in my hands, and walked towards my destiny.
The Dark Lord of the Sith known as Darth Sidious, currently in his his civilian identity as Senator Palpatine of Naboo, let a vapid smile of false relief form on his face as he greeted the returning Queen. As he went through the proper pleasantries of greeting and introducing the queen and her entourage, he closely inspected the most interesting member of their party.
The boy.
He had already received a report from his apprentice about the child's actions on Tatooine, how he won the deadly podrace while displaying his incredible connection to the force. Palpatine had been able to feel the anger and irritation in Maul as he recounted the events, and now that the child was before him, he could see why.
The boy had a subtle layer of protection, not quite dark but not quite light either, based on fear, cunning, and the desire to be hidden.
A bit too timid for his tastes, but the fact that the boy had already began using his emotions as fuel in the force was a fantastic sign.
Palpatine's probe slipped through this defense easily, and he was both irritated and impressed by what he found underneath. Jedi shields. Good ones too, ones that didn't have any major discernible weaknesses. They were so new as well, still possessing a softness that meant they were formed only a week ago, if that.
He could easily push through if he exerted the dark side even a small amount, but this would alert both the child and the Jedi to his presence, which was obviously not an option.
Still, he could feel the surface emotions that at times seeped through. Awe at Coruscant, sympathy and admiration for the Queen, and buried under all that just a slight whiff of both conviction and utter terror.
Palpatine resisted the urge to huff as he continued his conversation with the soon to be deposed chancellor Velorum.
How typical of a slave. Presented with everything the boy could want and he still couldn't overcome an inner terror for his surroundings.
His inner self smiled nastily, even as his face was schooled in a properly concerned expression.
Fear that deeply set could be leveraged. Preyed upon. Exploited.
Magnificent.
Finally the group split their separate ways, the Jedi going back to their temple, Velorum and his entourage to their shuttle, and the Naboo plus two to a waiting speeder.
Palpatine settled back in his seat with a deep sense of satisfaction. It must have been fate, that on this day, at the turning of the age, at the beginning of the end of the Jedi and the Republic, that a perfect candidate for an apprentice had practically fallen in his lap. An omen of things to come! Soon, his master would be dead. Soon, the grand plan would commence, and Darth Sidious would be the Master of the Sith, and soon after, the Galaxy!
As the group settled into the speeder, Palpatine was intrigued that the boy had not elected to sit in the driver's compartment, as would be expected of a mechanically inclined thrill seeker of a child, but rather in the passenger compartment, with great care taken to sit across from Palpatine himself.
Interesting.
As the boy briefly fidgeted with the insulated metal flask he held in preparation to say something, Palpatine finished his conversation with the queen on the status of recent events he already knew of and took a moment to savor the flash of rage from the driver of a different speeder that they had just cut off.
Palpatine had selected his driver personally, for not only his skill but his aggression just for moments like this. His mood was further sweetened when they once again switched air lanes without signaling, and a sweet burst of panic followed by smoldering anger rang out in the force, filling him with a shot of energy and pleasure.
Ahhh, what a beautiful day.
He returned his focus to the timid child when the boy finally gathered the courage speak up.
"H-hello sir. My name is Anakin. I heard that you are the Senator for Naboo? Does that mean you speak for an entire planet, and the whole galaxy listens?"
Palpatine smiled, and was a bit surprised to find that it was almost genuine. How amusing. "While I certainly do speak for the citizens of Naboo, and will do so today, that doesn't necessarily mean that the Galaxy will listen. I dare say that the galaxy would be a better place if they would listen, the trade federation certainly wouldn't be committing atrocities."
A burst of anger made its way through little Anakin's shields, and Palpatine nearly sighed in pleasure. Already a grudge against the trade federation eh? The road to claiming the boy as His was getting clearer by the second.
"Yes," little Anakin agreed, "Tyrants like them should never be in charge. Their secrets should be dragged onto a public stage for everyone to see. I hope that will happen here today, and Justice, for Naboo and many others, will be served."
Palpatine luxuriated in the child's fear and anger as it seeped through the boy's shields. He'd need to engineer more encounters with this child and the trade federation to stoke this rage into something more. "Indeed." He agreed.
The boys mind calmed, the majority of his emotions once again cut off by his shields. "While I hope the Federation gets what's coming to them, in the meantime I have… a gift for you."
"A gift?" Palpatine clarified with false interest, the very picture of a benevolent grandfather. Whatever this puny slave child would give him would doubtless be totally worthless, but regardless he'd receive it with grace to ingratiate himself into the child's circle of trusted adults and confidants.
"Yes." The boy confirmed "I've already given the queen a Gift, so it's only right I give you one too, for some hope in this bad situation." Anakin explained.
The boy's mother made a pleased smile, ruffling his hair proudly. Little Anakin leaned into his mother's touch, showing delicious attachment. Another crowbar to be used to pry him away from the Jedi later.
A sense of confusion emanated from the Queen's decoy, but shock came from Padme as her hand came up to touch below her neckline as if fingering a concealed necklace. So the boy was aware of the Queen's identity? Perceptive!
The boy continued, lifting up the liter sized flask. "This here is Golden Pallie juice. It comes from a Golden Pallie, which are much rarer than the regular red kind. I know it probably isn't the most sought after thing around here, and Pallie Juice probably isn't much to a man of your means, but it's basically the most valuable thing I own right now."
Palpatine expertly held back a laugh, smiling graciously as he excepted the flask. How uncouth to talk openly about the price of one's gift! This child was certainly from Hutt space.
"It's best when it's chilled, and though it is meant to be non alcoholic it is stored in a barrel with proper antibacterial yeasts for preservation, so it might have a percentage or two, I hope that's alright. Any yeast has been strained out from it now, and It's really good."
Hmmm. A sweet mild wine from a rare desert fruit. As far as gifts go this was actually quite pleasing, and Sheev could admit he was surprised. "Why thank you Anakin, that sounds wonderful." He once again found himself just a bit closer to sincerity than he was used to. He did quite enjoy sampling rare fruits.
He inwardly smirked. Quite the rare fruit was in front of him now.
The boy fidgeted, working up the courage to ask something else. Palpatine simply waited, watching and smiling, the very picture of a patient uncle or grandfather, inwardly taking in the exquisite wisps of fear that escaped little Anakin's shields. To be that afraid he must be about to ask for something truly presumptuous. Slaves did not ask for things from world leaders after all, and the boy was and would always be, at his core, a slave. Palpatine was certain of that now.
"In Hutt space, there's this custom, or tradition, I guess…" the boy paused, fidgeting with his fingers, "Would you be willing to… check the juice for poison?"
Palpatine blinked. Padme spoke up before he could respond. "Anakin! Why would you ask that? Did you put poison in the juice?"
The boy defended himself, and Palpatine paid attention to the feedback in the force despite knowing it was incredibly unlikely that a child would try to poison the senator of the planet who provided his freedom. He didn't make it this far from being incautious about things like this.
"Of course I didn't add any poison! The only thing in here is the juice from a golden Pallie, and other than that the antibacterial yeast, but all of it was completely strained out when it was bottled!" The force rang with truth, and Palpatine imperceptibly relaxed. Of course the child wouldn't poison the gift. Palpatine ran through the Huttish traditions he could remember, and came to a realization.
Padme, quite confused, questioned the boy, "Anakin, if it isn't poisoned, why do you want Senator Palpatine to check if it is?"
"I believe I know what Anakin is speaking of." Palpatine interjected, highly amused by the audacity of the child before him, a wry smile that was quite genuine on his face. "In the culture of the Hutts, openly testing a gift of food or drink for poison isn't an insult, but rather a mark of respect. To a Hutt, it is expected that your peers will plot against you to the point that excessive cordiality and overt affection between Hutts is often seen as unimpressive or weak. For a Hutt to openly test another's gift for poison in front of them, it communicates that they believe that the gift giver is a respectable threat and a worthy rival, and acknowledges and honors them as such. There have been Hutts in the past that have actually taken offense when others haven't tested their gift for poison."
The boy shuffled his feet, "Oh… you know about that?"
Palpatine nodded, still greatly amused at the fast-one the Boy had tried to slip by him. Darth Sidious, soon to be the most powerful being in the entire galaxy, acknowledging a slave child as a respectable rival? Ridiculous. If it had been an adult asking Palpatine for such a thing while he was openly in his Sith persona, he would destroy them on the spot for their nerve. But a child? Asking a Republic Senator? That was just charming enough to indulge.
Furthermore It also represented an appreciation for scheming, and that the boy valued the same things as the Hutts themselves did. That at his core, he wanted to be like them, that on some deep level he saw how the Hutts basked in decadence and cruelty and instinctively found such a position desirable.
Magnificent!
And really, what was the act of taking an apprentice, if not acknowledging that they might at some point surpass you? To train your own perfect rival from the ground up? It was almost… poetic in a way that the boy would unknowingly ask for such a thing!
Upon their arrival at the senate dome they exited the speeder, and walked toward the entrance.
Padme responded as they made their way up the steps, unaware of Palpatine's inner musing. "You mean that betrayal is not only feared, but expected? I mean no offense, but that sounds miserable."
Had he not been such a phenomenal actor, Palpatine would have curled his lip in disgust and irritation at the weakness and foolish ignorance the queen was displaying. Only the truly enlightened could appreciate such things as deadly rivalry and creative, violent betrayal for the art forms they truly were. For all their disgusting inhuman filth, the Hutts at least understood this fact. The child's appreciation for such things should be encouraged, not suppressed.
"I would be delighted to test your gift in respect for the traditions of your homeland my boy, such a thing would not be inappropriate, considering the fact that you returned our queen safely to us. Such an act is certainly deserving of a show of respect."
Exhilaration wafted out from the boy's shields, as if he couldn't believe this was actually happening.
Palpatine's smiled at his own progress so far. Already he had ingratiated himself to the boy more within these first few minutes than he realistically had expected to be able to do within a period of several days. Their compatibility seemed to be quite high~.
The Boy spoke up once again, "If you're already testing for poison, you might as well also test for an allergic reaction. It's pretty rare, but it is possible."
"Of course," Palpatine responded. "All senators have scanners they use to vet gifts, which are loaded with our medical profile. Checking for anaphylaxis will be just as simple as checking for poison will be."
Once again a sense of exhilaration and happiness made it past the boy's shields, and Palpatine inwardly smirked. What a simple child. It will be so delightful to break him. He could hardly wait, but he would anyway. Let the Jedi cover the basics, let the boy's inevitable disappointment at their ineptitude turn to disdain and hatred, and he would be ripe for turning. Palpatine had to be patient. An early fruit is never as sweet as one fully ripe. The harvest would come.
He sent a grandfatherly smile at the boy, who nodded. "Great!" Said little Ani, his soft boyish features quirked in a clever little smile.
Oh and what a sweet harvest it will be!
POV Anakin
The force swirled through my mind, blurring my emotions and helping force an unnatural calm on myself. It felt strange, like there were multiple versions of me within my head, but at the same time like none of them added up to a full mind, making it seem like I was missing something I actually wasn't. Stay in the present. Stay in the role.
As we arrived at the Naboo senatorial quarters, which were quite spacious, Palpatine made a show of taking a testing strip, dipping it into the Durindfire juice, and inserting it into a receptacle on a device presented by one of the service droids that often attended the senators of the republic.
I couldn't help but hold my breath a bit, but released it when the scans turned up green for both toxicity and anaphylaxis, meaning it was 'safe' to drink.
Of course the Durindfire juice didn't have anything directly toxic in it, as it only affected force users, but I'd been a bit paranoid that it would still show up with something, no matter how ridiculous it would be to expect such a thing.
"Let it be known by all that I find you both respectable and trustworthy. I have tested your gift for poison and found that it is safe and appreciated." Palpatine said with a bit of ceremonial flair.
I can definitely see how he had fooled so many people. He was so easy to like, there were so many senators who would tell a kid to take a hike if they asked something like this, but Palpatine was the very picture of a fun and indulgent grandfather.
If I had met this man without knowing anything about him I can guarantee I would have liked him a lot, and I could tell by my mother's grateful smile at his antics that she felt similarly. There was no sense of danger about him in the force, he felt just like any non-sensitive I had ever met, but with a clean presence that indicated fairness and a solid morality, to the point that a tiny part of me questioned if I was wrong about him, despite everything from my meta knowledge being proven true so far. It was a powerful charisma that I'd need to be wary of.
I needed to warn Amu about him as soon as possible, and would as soon as we exited the lair of the beast.
Palpatine placed the Durindfire juice in a private cooler to begin chilling, before returning to his conversation with the Queen and her handmaidens about what to do next. Amu and I took this as our dismissal, and we found a bench to sit on as we waited.
I strengthened my shields, and thought of Padme, the Jedi, Coruscant, and basically anything else to make sure my anxiety and terror were buried at the core of my being underneath layers of awe and gratitude. I couldn't afford to let my guard down. Not yet.
Holy shit how am I not dead yet holy fu—
No, no. Look out the window, look at the skyline. Listen to all the speeder noises and city sounds.
Let your Nerdy awe take its place at the forefront of your mind.
Everything is fine.
Holyfuckingshithetookthefuckingjuicetheplanisworkin—
No no.
Hold Amu's hand. Disassociate. We are fine. We are fine.
It was a few hours later that Amu and I were summoned to appear before the Jedi. I said goodbye to "the queen" who was obviously Padme, and from the wink she gave me, it was clear she now knew that I knew. Which only made itself more obvious when she thanked me for the royal gift I had given her, bringing her hand up to touch her collar where the necklace was no doubt being worn under her royal robes.
I bowed, and kept my calm until we were in a speeder going to the Jedi temple.
With a deep exhale, I let the parts of myself that I had spiritually molded and contorted into obscurity snap back into their proper place, and suddenly my surroundings were real again. The sounds of the city blared and my heart pounded in my ears as I took a shuddering breath, wiping tears from my eyes.
Amu's gaze snapped over from where she was staring at the skyline, "Ani?! What's wrong?!"
I gulped a few times as the bloom of suppressed emotion ran its course, then responded, "Vision thing." Then reached out through our bond.
'Palpatine's dangerous, like really dangerous. I can't prove much but I couldn't show fear in front of him. We can't talk about this out loud, who knows what he has tapped.'
Her eyes widened, and she responded telepathically over the bond, 'Ani… what kind of danger does he represent? Why did you give him the Durindfire juice? Why didn't you tell me this before? And what can be done about it?'
I grimaced, 'Think of him as a Hutt lord with Jedi master powers, no laziness, and Mandalorian training. Right now he is being extremely methodical and patient, carefully avoiding making any waves. He's figured out how to spoof force senses, and so even Jedi are unaware of his true identity. If he even begins to suspect that anyone knows about his true self, then he'll stop being so careful, and things will get messy. As long as he doesn't feel cornered, Padme and the others will remain safe. The only reason I know any of this is because I've seen his true identity in the same way I knew Qui Gon and Obi Wan would come. We cannot tell anyone else. Anyone at all. At least until we are safely out of his reach. I'd prefer if we never let any of this ever leave our lips for the rest of our lives. Telepathy only.'
Amu spent a few seconds in quiet contemplation, a frown on her face. 'I believe you. Which means that he is a dragon sleeping under the sand. To avoid being eaten by a sleeping dragon, We mustn't wake him, and the best way to do that is to stay out of his territory to avoid our scent being caught. Why did you give him the juice? Why did you talk to him at all?!'
I sighed, explaining my plan, the visions, and a bit of context. By the time I had walked her through it all, we had reached the Jedi temple.
She was not happy. But she was accepting. 'We will be talking about this later. This is not the end.'
I nodded. 'Absolutely'
She sighed, then looked up at the giant building. "In all my days I never thought I'd be standing at these steps. I'm not sure what to do now that I am."
I smiled, "Well… They summoned both of us. My guess is that we walk in and find someone to talk to."
She snorted, then knelt down and gave me a hug. "I love you Ani. So much."
"I-I love you too." I responded, blinking back tears. it occured to me that this could very well be goodbye. "I'll steal a com. I'll sneak out after hours. No matter what I'll keep contact. I promise."
She laughed. "Ani… don't sabotage your future for my sake."
"The only thing that would be 'sabotaging' me is to break off contact with you. You're the wisest person I know and I don't think that's gonna change."
"Oh hush." She said with a smile on her face. She nodded towards the main entrance, which was up a large set of stairs and past several rows of extremely large rectangular pillars that were almost touching. "Shall we?" She asked, holding out her hand.
I nodded, a smile on my face. I took her hand, and we stepped forward.
Aaaand there we go! Sorry it took so long, I'm trying to get back into the groove. Hope y'all are having a good day!
Ciao!
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Deliberation
New
Triden117
Just a dude trying to make my way in the Galaxy
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FOR TEN THOUSAND YEARS I HAVE LAID DORMANT, ONLY TO AWAKEN NOW, AT THE TURNING OF THE AGE!
(More words after the chapter lol, let's get into it.)
As we walked one of the straight paths between the large rectangular pillars, I could feel something… change in the force.
So far, every planet I'd been on had a certain unique feel to it. Tatooine had felt dry, abrasive, hostile, and above all else wounded. Like an old bruise that wouldn't heal.
Coruscant so far had been similarly dark, but in much different ways. Where Tatooine felt blasted and barren, Coruscant felt oily and festering with ridiculous amounts of sentient life and greed.
Tatooine was a lonely wound, Coruscant was a crowded sickness.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is, while both were unpleasant and dark in their own way, blocking it out was similar enough that I took it in stride.
But as we passed the pillars on the way to the front door, all of that fell away. Like a weight was lifted that I didn't know I was carrying. Even space, void of life as it was, hadn't felt as peaceful as this.
I stumbled as we passed through the main entrance as the sound from outside disappeared, the ambient city noise of honking speeders and milling sentients gave way to immediate silence.
"Whoa." I couldn't help saying, my voice echoing down the spacious entrance hall.
The force was completely different here, it was like we had stepped into a completely new world.
Ancient inaudible whispers of welcome tickled the edge of my senses, and the light seemed to engulf and comfort me, as if I had been standing my entire life and had just sat down. I exhaled, and felt the tension and stress of the past few hours roll off my back.
Reality came back into focus, and I could hear the outside noises of the city once again, though they were much quieter now that the doors were closed. More prominent now were the ambient sounds of Jedi making their way to various destinations, as well as multiple calm discussions echoing too quietly and distantly to make out.
Unlike outside, the air smelled clean and fresh, and the vast pillared hall seemed to stretch forth in front of us.
"Wow." Amu answered, equally awed.
I felt like a hick. Like a dirty homeless dude in the grand lobby of a five star hotel, and from the way Amu was adjusting her rough spun robes, she likely felt the same way.
"Shmi! Anakin! Over here!" Said a voice from our left. We looked over and saw Obi Wan walking toward us. We made our way over to him, and he led us through the grand halls of the Jedi temple towards the lift that would take us to the top of the council spire.
The whole time my head was on a swivel, looking at the murals and floor designs.
With the Durindfire juice now planted in Palpatine's hands, there was nothing more I could do to ensure the success of the plan. Furthermore, so long as I was in this building I was relatively safe from any retaliation that might happen. I'd still need to keep my guard up, but for now I was as safe as I was gonna get.
And without the fear and anxiety taking up mental space, a d different emotion was rising to the top, blasting past even the self-consciousness about my state of attire.
Pure unbridled NERD joy.
The awe and wonder pressed against my shields, and I didn't bother keeping it in, letting it billow freely out where others could sense.
Every stained glass portrait, every wall mural, every statue, I asked Obi Wan about them all like I was visiting the world's best and geekiest museum.
Obi Wan shared the stories and history freely, but eventually his comm link chirped, and he began to hurry. "They've just gotten out for a 15 minute recess, and will see you shortly after they get back. We had better get up to the council spire."
Amu and I nodded, and I managed to contain any more questions until we were in the lift.
Once we had ascended to the top of the spire, we stepped out into crescent shaped waiting room that hugged the main council chamber.
I did my best to organize my thoughts, but every memory I had of the past half hour or so seemed to spike my excitement. Everyone we had passed had been wearing some kind of robes, and every time that I had seen a fancy flashlight clipped to one of their hips and realized it was a real life motherfucking lightsaber came rushing back, and I practically vibrated in excitement to be here.
Finally I managed to temper my enthusiasm by realizing one simple fact.
There was no guarantee that they'd actually take me. Sure, they'd taken Anakin in canon, but I was already pretty different than he was. I had already killed someone by strangling them to death, hell, the injuries still stung. Would they be able to sense it?
Would the fact that Amu and I were here together make it obvious that we had a powerful bond, and thus far more "dangerous" as a result of our "attachment"?
I meditated on these possibilities, and realized that even if they didn't take me, I'd have options.
Amu and I would leave the planet ASAP, and use the fortune from the Podrace to start a home on a good planet or get an education somewhere. We could also connect back up with Nyra, find the Matukai and complete our training with them, as well as learn from other light side force sects we could find, or maybe we could convince Qui Gon to come with us. Perhaps I'd try to become mandalorian or something, I don't know.
The point is, we had options. Options outside of the Jedi. We'd have to be extremely careful, but hopefully Palpatine will be exposed by then and we could just live a wonderful life in a peaceful galaxy.
My heart calmed, and a content smile made its way onto my face.
It was just like Dan the pilot said. We had the whole Galaxy ahead of us.
It was sunset by the time they saw us. Walking into the chamber was surreal, each council member shone like a beacon of light in the force. Before, with the door closed, their presences had been mingling together in psychic deliberation and connection that had made it difficult to tell who was who other than knowing that there were a lot of people powerful in the force.
Now however, their lights had separated, making it easier to tell the difference between them, and two people immediately stood out.
Master Windu felt both serene and on edge, like a windless calm right before a hurricane. I could practically feel the stillness of the air and smell the rain and lightning on the horizon.
Yoda on the other hand, felt like an ancient jungle, the kind that makes you stop and think about your place in the universe, where you realize the world existed long before you and will continue to exist long after you're gone. There was a depth of… eternity? To him? I'm not sure how to describe it. It gave me pause.
Here I was.
Wow.
"Greetings, young Skywalkers." Said Yoda in his iconic pebbly voice. I couldn't help the burst of childlike glee that slipped through my shields at hearing the legend himself speak.
Many of the council members shifted slightly, some of them smiling, while others seemed to relax a bit.
Amu bowed, and I quickly mirrored her. "Greetings, Elder. We are greatly honored to be here."
Master Windu picked up what looked like an iPad that had a handle on it. I geeked out a little more at essentially seeing Samuel L Jackson, and once again a few smiles spread throughout the room, accompanied by a chuckle or two at the emotion I was showing.
I was trying to keep a handle on it, knowing that these next few moments could decide my future, but my inner Rick was coming out in force, and as cool as seeing Qui Gon for the first time was, this was at least 100,000 times cooler.
I was desperately trying not to implode into geekdom, but it was a close thing.
Master Windu spoke, a twinkle of good humor in his eye, which was honestly a bit surprising to me. "We will now proceed with the tests to see what level of training each of you possess. We ask that you take these tests seriously, as they may determine your future."
Amu nodded, "Of course," and I nodded along with her.
"We will start with Miss Shmi." Windu declared.
As Windu explained the IPad test to Amu, and she began to take it, I made eye contact with Yoda, and his gaze seemed to pierce through me. Suddenly, a vision came to me, unbidden, like an arc of lightning leaping between two leads, one I had seen before with the Durindfire juice back on Tatooine.
"Ready, are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained! A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one, a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!."
As I was pulled back into the present, Yoda's eyes were wide as dinner plates, his mouth hanging open a bit. Did he see the vision too? The force seemed to confirm it, and I got the impression he hadn't expected it either. I would have felt it if he went digging around in my head too, so this was definitely an accident.
As they finished testing Amu, their focus turned to me. Mace Windu held up the iPad thing again, but I decided I'd be a bit flashy. I made eye contact with Yoda again, and spoke directly to him, borrowing the form of address that my mother had used for him. "Elder… If I may?" I asked, setting my feet in a stance of stability..
"Ehmhmhmhm, proceed." Said Yoda, granting me permission with a twinkle of curiosity in his eye.
Stepping forward, I angled the palms of my hands forward, then brought them forward and up as if directing an audience to stand. One by one, starting with master Yoda and master Yaddle's chairs, each of the council members seats were lifted up several feet into the air with them still sitting atop them. I had used my telekinesis almost every day to move the massive boulder in front of the crystal cave, so it had developed to be quite strong over time. The weight of the Jedi council and their seats were quite light in comparison.
The slight stealth shielding I had been unconsciously maintaining was shed, and my full presence in the force radiated outward.
Many masters grasped the armrests of their chairs in surprise at the sudden motion, while master Windu was glaring exasperatedly at Yoda, who was giggling like a gremlin. I soon got the impression that each of them could have broken my hold if they wanted to, but they let me complete my demonstration, which I appreciated.
As I brought the chairs back down into their places, Master Windu spoke up, "Well, I suppose that covers it." He put the testing datapad away. "We will need some time to discuss, and we may pull each of you back in for individual interviews, but for now, we will need you to wait outside."
Amu and I looked at each other, then mimicked the bow that all Jedi seemed to use, and left them to their deliberation.
With the Skywalkers out of the room, The Jedi masters looked at each other, waiting for someone to speak first. Both Yoda and Windu were silent in contemplation, so Master Ki Adi Mundi spoke up. "Both of them are obviously too old to begin training." He said with air of finality.
"Hmmmm," Yoda responded. "Begin their training, they already have. In the ways of the Matukai, and not just any Matukai, but one that was once a Jedi, one that left in good standing. Speak not we should, whether to begin their training, but whether to continue it, mmm, yes."
Master Mundi thought about that for a few seconds, then nodded the point.
Master Plo Koon was next to voice his thoughts. "I agree. We shouldn't treat them as if they must be trained from scratch, the boy especially had an incredibly positive temperament and an impressive grasp of the basics. I am aware of a few knights that would struggle to do what he just did with such casual ease. This is not an untrained boy, but rather one that already received Jedi training outside the temple."
Master Rancisis hummed in disapproval. "There is more to the Jedi arts than telekinetic power. This alone should not be a deciding factor. Furthermore, while the child Anakin demonstrated advanced abilities, his mother did not. She will need to be tested further if we are to determine whether she should be considered as a Jedi trained outside the temple or simply an untrained sensitive. If it is the latter, to even consider her induction into the order would be ludicrous! I hardly sensed much from her while she stood before us."
It was Yaddle's turn to weigh in. "She was partially cloaked. The boy was too, until he pulled that little stunt and decided to reveal himself. Their mastery over such stealth shielding is quite impressive, the quality of their technique is one shadows only achieve after years in the field. It is not something one can learn through theory alone, but through experience. I would very much like to see the full extent she can shield herself when she truly tries."
"Indeed?" Said master Rancisis, surprised. "Very well then. But my earlier point still stands, skill, even impressive skill, in the use of a single force power does not a Jedi make. They have been through a great deal, all without any significant support or supervision. They seem to be calm and agreeable right now, but they may very well be hiding a deeper seated emotional instability. The spiritual tangles of a life of suffering are not so easily straightened out."
There were various murmurs of agreement and contemplation at this.
Even Piell made his thoughts known, "Are we seriously even considering this? The boy I can agree with, to reach the level of connection with the force he possesses, he would have surely had to begin his training several years ago, likely when he was four or five if my sense of his powers are correct. This is a respectable age to begin training, and so I have no problem with him being folded into the order. But the mother? There is no way she received training from anytime even approaching her childhood. She has lived her entire life in slavery, and while I feel compassion for her, that is also not a healthy environment to raise someone who will hold the kind of power and influence that a Jedi possesses."
Yaddle's brow furrowed, and Adi Galia interjected. "There is little point arguing this with the amount of information we currently have. Should we not bring her in and get a clearer view of the situation? Don't forget, we must also investigate Master Jinn's claims about the boy being conceived by the force itself."
There were a series of further agreements, and master Eth Koth rose to let Shmi back in.
Shmi felt her mouth begin to dry as she stood in front of the Jedi council once again, this time alone. As the interview had continued, they had asked many questions about her upbringing, her struggles, the depth of her training, and many other things.
It wasn't all bad, many of the masters at least seemed to be genuinely compassionate, but the more they spoke, something about some of them just felt… flat. Some part of her intuition pinged some of them as strange, with one in particular standing out.
She thought that if a freshly programmed droid had a presence in the forced to be sensed, it would likely feel much like the Cerean known as master Mundi. His entire force presence pulsed and clicked with a vast set of methodical checks and conditions, comparing every thought and every consideration to some unknown standard of beliefs.
It wasn't necessarily bad, but it was incredibly strange, and she got the feeling that whatever his world view was, it was set as an unchanging facet of his entire being rather than something flexible that could be changed based on evidence. And while he hadn't yet demonstrated that his core beliefs were wrong per se, it made her nervous to feel someone so mentally unyielding in the force. When new information was presented that agreed with how he viewed the world, he would slot it in as evidence of his own wisdom.
If evidence was presented that went against his worldview, it was ignored as wholly false.
So far he seemed to be a methodical thinker and a man possessing wisdom, but something still tickled in the back of her intuition that this man in particular could not be ever be trusted to act in her or her son's best interest, at least not completely.
Which meant he was unsuitable as a guardian, an elder, or a teacher.
This intuition was only further validated by the chain of questions he asked next.
"Who is the boy's father, and what is your attachment to him?" He asked monotonously.
Shmi was under the impression that Qui Gon had informed them on her and Anakin's situation. By the sense of faint exasperation and curiosity she could feel from some other members of the council, she understood that Mundi was not actually seeking new information, but attempting to set up some verbal takedown of some kind.
She did not want to play his game, but she did not want to lie either, no, she would not lie. The truth of the circumstances of her son's birth were precious to her, and she would not betray that value by allowing herself to be pressured into 'admitting' to some false accusation.
Her brief experience with this council had taught her that they could sense the truth just as well if not better than her and Anakin could. Intending to utilize this, she lowered her shields and let her force signature radiate outward, communicating her sincerity with nothing held back, and the force rushed through her, affirming and empowering her words.
"There was no father. I cannot explain the specific mechanism of such a thing, but I can tell you this. I carried him, I gave birth, but there was no father. No intercourse. His conception is a mystery to me."
The power and truth of her words echoed in the force, and many masters had surprised or contemplative looks on their faces.
Even master Mundi was caught off guard. He looked entirely flat footed, as if he briefly could not remember the rebuttal that he had planned for the response that he expected.
Shmi could see him glance at his fellow masters, something akin to unease coloring his gaze at their reaction. His face and shields were schooled into an impressive mask, but when he next spoke, it was with a sharper and more condescending tone, likely with irritation at his plans for verbal domination being foiled. "Truly Lady Shmi, your confidence and faith in this delusion is impressively sincere. No one here can argue that you don't believe this to be the case."
At this his voice calmed down to his regular posh monotone, as if returning to his own prepared script, "But such a thing is utterly preposterous. We must use logic and reason here. What is more likely, that there was a virgin birth? Some kind of immaculate conception through the force? I for one see a more glaringly obvious possibility. During her time is a slave, some other human forced himself upon her, and the trauma of the situation was far too great for her weakened and untrained mind to weather, and the memory was suppressed due to the pain and anguish associated with it. Such things are tragic, yet they happen every day throughout the wider galaxy, certainly more commonly than a child being conceived by the force."
Shmi's heart clenched with an intense anxiety, and she briefly found herself wanting to retreat back into the shell of a slave, to submit to the more powerful personality that was lambasting her. It was only her experience rebelling against Watto, of stealing from him every day and plotting his downfall, that gave her the strength to speak back. She and her son were free now. It was her job as a mother to model proper behavior. Even if she currently didn't feel like a free woman yet, at least not fully, she had to act like one. Even if her son wasn't in the room, she couldn't allow herself to break. She would not tell a lie just to please someone else. She would not back down.
Hands trembling with fear and anger, she spoke up anyway, her voice calm and controlled. "You say that I claim a virgin birth to discredit me, but I claim no such thing. I lost my innocence long ago when I was very young, and I assure you I remember every painful moment." She stated with a stern flinty stare.
Several Jedi masters shifted uncomfortably in their seats, while some other masters' eyes filled with compassion and sadness. Fear ebbing away, Shmi allowed her anger to mostly flow away with it, only keeping a strong iron resolve. "It was many years later that I became pregnant, and I am acutely aware of every moment during the period of time he would've been conceived. I had no blackouts. I ingested no drugs. At that time, About 18 months after I had been bought from Gadzo the Hutt by Gardulla, I was being retrained in etiquette, advanced numbers, and mechanics along with several other slave women, by an overseer who was also a woman.
"Gardulla the Hutt is extremely strict about the training of her slaves, far more so than other Hutts, and they are ruthlessly protected in order to maintain the quality of the "merchandise" as it were. There was not a single man in that compound for the entire time I received this training. In total, I stayed in that compound for two and a half years, and gave birth less than a month after I left. That is the truth."
Once again, the force reverberated with the truthfulness of her words.
Master Mundi was silent, though his brow was furrowed strangely, as though he was trying to put together a complicated model starship while stubbornly refusing to look at the directions.
But more interesting than that, was that several masters who had been skeptical about her claims before, Such as Mace Windu and Even Piell, now sported considering looks on their faces, and felt much more open in the force. It seemed that they were actually considering that her claims may be true, while before they dismissed them out of hand.
Master Yaddle gave a stern glare towards Master Mundi. "It is not the opinion of this council that you are lying to us Lady Skywalker, nor is it our place to trivialize your difficult experiences."
Masters Galia and Bilaba nodded in support of Yaddle's words, while Master Mundi sighed quietly through his nose in response, with something akin to boredom on his face.
Yaddle turned a much gentler gaze on Shmi, continuing her words. "You have endured much in your captivity, things that no one should ever have to, and here you are, having emerged with strength in your heart. I make you an oath that you will not receive such torture or punishment from us, nor will your freedoms be restricted while you are here. You are a free woman. Shackles no longer bind you. And despite the rudeness of some of our number, we promise that we mean no harm. No harm will come of this meeting, to you or your son." The force resonated with profound truth, and Shmi felt herself relax.
At this master Mundi huffed, turning to Yaddle. "Really Master Yaddle? An oath is a bit dramatic. It is Obvious she will come to no harm under the watch of the Jedi Order. It is hardly necessary to—"
Deciding to test the limits of this promised safety, Shmi gathered her courage and Interrupted the old cerean, something that would surely see her lashed under any slave master. "Thank you Elder Yaddle, for your oath. I will remember it."
Master Mundi paused, and Shmi tensed. She braced herself for shouting. For demands of punishment. Master Mundi surprised her by simply shrugging, nodding at master Yaddle, and calmly saying "Very well then."
Shmi was a bit flat footed at that. Where was the shouting? The bruised pride and malicious retaliation? And then it hit her. Ki-Adi-Mundi wasn't an enemy. He wasn't Depur. He was just… an asshole. One that was emotionally incompetent and incredibly rude, but not an active danger to her and her own. He was a neutral existence, neither predator nor prey, just a pointless and ugly rock Making an obstacle of itself on an otherwise straight and pleasant path.
For some reason Shmi had assumed that the Jedi wouldn't have assholes among them, but in hindsight she realized this was incredibly foolish. Assholes were a universal constant, like death and protection fees (AKA taxes).
All of a sudden she wanted to laugh, but at the same time she wanted to cry. She had so much emotion rushing through her as a threat response, and now that it had nowhere to go she was unsure of herself.
She took a deep breath, and put her 'tools' back on her 'belt'. Felt the comfort of their weight. The light around her seemed to rush in, and she let it, wrapping around her inner self like a comforter.
When she did this, the Masters were taken aback, many smiling despite themselves. Master Mundi's eyebrows shot up in shock, while Yaddle's eyes seemed to light up triumphantly.
"Hmmmm." The oldest among them gave a gravely hum of appreciation. "Been through much you have. Surrounded by darkness have you been, yes, for all of your life. Fearful you are. Angry also. And yet… touch you this darkness does not. Your inner self, I feel, is as bright as the morning sun, finally emerging from the dark horizon. Find no purchase, can the the hooks of the dark side find, on a diamond soul such as yours. Honest you are with your words. Open you have been with your shields also, hiding nothing. Bright is your future. Freedom you have. Deserve it you do."
Shmi appreciated the wrinkly green elder's words far more than she expected, but still sensed there was a caveat coming up. "But?" She questioned.
"Hmmmmmmm." The knee high elder answered unhelpfully, scratching his chin in deep thought.
Mace Windu picked it up from there. "That would depend on the level of training you already possess. Your resilience does you credit. It is rare even among our number for someone to go through what you have without channeling the darkness even in some small way. If your training is comprehensive, then you would be no different than a shadow returning back into our ranks from extended cover, or a Padawan trained away from the temple by a Jedi Master."
Shmi was lost for words. She felt like she was missing something. "I…" she hesitated, then soldiered on, "I have received no such training."
Master Piell blinked. "None?!" He answered incredulously.
Master Rancisis spoke up. "It was our understanding that you and your son were trained by the Matukai known as Nyra, who was once a member of this order."
Shmi paused. Did studying from a holomanual really count as formal Matukai training? She didn't know. "I never actually trained under Nyra myself, it was my son that she took as her student. She taught him personally for an hour or two every few days for about a month, and then left us with the training manual, which we followed dutifully every day for two years. If you wish to test our proficiency, my son and I would be happy to demonstrate our mastery. We also have Nyra's Comm number if that makes things simpler."
The council was stunned. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Mace Windu spoke up. "It appears that Master Jinn made several assumptions that were incorrect. If you would, please go over the events that led to your escape from Tatooine."
Shmi hummed in consideration. "I suppose our escape all started with the earliest planning stages two years ago, when my son crashed his pod racer, and received visions of the future…"
As Shmi Skywalker told the story of Her and her son, many masters found their expressions changing with surprise.
I jumped slightly as the doors to the council chambers opened. Out walked Amu, surprisingly sweaty, who nodded to me while trying to catch her breath. "What happened?" I asked.
"I was questioned, then I was tested." She answered. "I demonstrated the martial arts Katas of the Matukai, as well as my shielding and some other abilities. You may be asked to do the same."
I nodded, a bit nervous, "Are you alright?" I asked
She nodded, smiling, and I felt reassured. "Some of their personalities are honestly quite difficult, but…" there was a twinge of anger and hurt through her shields, but it quickly evened out to fair mindedness. "There is no true evil in that room. I just hope that it is goodness, and not simply uncaring neutrality that allows this to be the case."
I grimaced. Amu was one of the best judges of character I'd ever known, and it seemed like she'd already begun to clock the flaws of some of the council members. "Yeah. I hope so too." I responded. Guess I'll find out which version of this Council we are dealing with.
"No matter what happens, never think of the one known as Mundi to be your role model, especially the way he speaks of women. Feel free to ignore anything that comes out of his fool mouth." She ordered.
I snorted at the insult and nodded emphatically. "Yes, I promise!"
She nodded, and as I was summoned to enter the council chambers, I breathed deeply to calm myself.
I stepped through the doors.
First, they had me run through the basic katas of the Matukai, and then had me move on towards other abilities. My shields were tested, as was my ability to project my thoughts telepathically to others, as well as any abilities that they had heard about from Amu but hadn't witnessed in person, like my AC and Heater fields.
By the end of the demonstrations, there wasn't a single Jedi master who seemed dismissive of me, though they all had pretty great poker faces, so it was difficult to know for sure.
The first Question came from Master Mundi, "What are you aware of concerning the details of your conception?" he asked bluntly.
Ah... I'm beginning to see what Amu meant. "Not much, considering I wasn't conscious yet, My mom would know that better than me. Have you asked her about it?"
"I see." was all master Mundi said in acknowledgement. Huh. No laughter, no offence. Just 'I see' and that's the end of it? What a weirdo.
After a few moments of silence, Yoda spoke up next, "Trained you have been, yes, but not only by the Matukai hmm?"
A few masters looked back and forth between Yoda and I, confusion on their faces. "Master Yoda…" said Plo Koon, "We know from young Anakin's mother that his only master was Nyra the Matukai. What other master are you speaking of?"
"Ehehehmhmhmhmhmhm!" Yoda Cackled. "Visions you have received, young Skywalker, detailed visions. Visions of the Future, Hmmmm? And of the past, hmhm yes. Training you needed, Jedi training, and training you received, did you not? Just what you needed to hear, the force provided, hmmm?"
Caught, and checking precog to see if revealing this tidbit would bring danger to me, and only receiving warm reassurance in response, I spoke up. "Your 'size matters not' lesson on telekinesis was particularly striking in both its drama and it's usefulness, though I've wrestled quite a bit with 'do or do not, there is no try'. I can see how it's applicable to motivating a reluctant slacker, but for someone in a genuinely bad situation, sometimes trying is all you can do."
There were quite a few gasps and a general hum of muttering at that.
"Rwaaaaaahw, contemplated and applied my teachings well you have! Discuss them later we can, for even if take you as his padawan Qui Gon does not, of my lineage I fear you are!" He exclaimed, sounding anything but fearful at the prospect. His twinkling eyes and trollish smirk somehow communicating both welcoming warmth and unbearable smugness.
There were a series of groans and exclamations around the council members, "Wait." Interjected Master Windu, "Just hold on!" He paused to massage his temples, then continued, "You're saying that you learned, were trained by a future version of master Yoda, and this training was received through a vision?!"
I grimaced, I'd need to tell the truth if I wanted them to trust me. While I would be holding back on telling them a few things, It was important what I did tell them didn't mislead them to come to believe something false, or else it would inevitably come to light and all my credibility with the Jedi would be destroyed. "Not really, but kinda? I briefly watched as he trained someone else, and applied the lessons to my own training. I didn't see everything he taught his padawan either, just a some of the more important lessons."
"And you can do this at any time? Have visions of such clarity?" Windu asked, incredulous.
At this I quickly clarified, "Oh no! Normally my visions are both vague and cryptic, potentially meaning several different things, and not really making much sense until after the event has already happened."
Several masters nodded, familiar with my description. Master Windu sought more clarification, "And this Vision of master Yoda, this was the exception? Do you have any idea why it was so clear?"
"It wasn't just the vision of master Yoda," I corrected, "I'm sure my Mother told you about the crash I had two years ago when I was seven, and that I started having visions then. What really happened, and what I downplayed to my mom so she wouldn't worry…" I paused, debating what I should say, "I came really close to death. Like… really close, and if it weren't for the deep connection I made, and for the knowledge I received, I would have died that day." The force reverberated with profound truth at my statement, and I soldiered on, "I saw many things that day, and with the knowledge I gained I was able to prepare for the moment Qui Gon and Obi Wan showed up, as well as many other things.
"The problem is… the narrow accuracy of the visions both good and bad. This is good because they're coherent, they inform me of events exactly as they happen, which allows me to plan around them and take advantage of things. The downside to this, is that these visions specifically show a future where I didn't see the visions. In the vision I saw, I was completely untrained and Mister Qui Gon never managed to free my mother from slavery. So while the visions have proven very useful and extremely accurate, the more I diverge from that one single timeline that I was able to see…" I trailed off
"The less accurate the information becomes." Master Windu finished. He glanced at Master Mundi.
Master Mundi nodded, "I'd have to check with Madam Nu for exact references, but what the boy says isn't impossible. When unconscious, a Jedi draws ever closer to the force. There are many reports of the Jedi of old putting themselves into medically assisted near-death comas in order to more clearly perceive the future. This practice is, of course, much too risky for far too little pay off and was banned somewhere around 700 years ago. While ill advised, It is completely possible that a near death experience caused a series of visions of a clarity that the boy would not normally receive."
Plo Koon's voice rumbled electronically through his breath mask, "It seems like it was quite the intense experience. Do you have trouble recalling the specifics as time goes by?"
I paused at that. Do I tell them about the juice? I've already decided not to lie, so maybe…
ENEMY/LISTENING/WATCHED
Precog hit me like a truck, the force practically screaming with danger.
Did Palpatine have the council room bugged somehow?
Wait, what am I saying, of fucking course he did.
Which means I can't tell the council anything I don't want Palpatine to hear.
FUCK.
Ok… how do I play this. I want the Jedi to trust me, so I can't lie or be too bullshit with my… let's call it 'artful truth weaving'. I need to be genuine.
"Are you alright young Skywalker?" Questioned Master Koon Patiently.
"Sorry, I just got a warning in the force. A big one."
Master Piell leaned forward with a skeptical expression and inhaled, about to speak, but Master Windu beat him to it. "I felt it too." He admitted.
Many councilors shifted in their seats at this, and Master Windu Continued, "I only have a few more questions."
"Ooook?" I responded.
"Do you have some way of recalling these visions to maintain their accuracy?"
I nodded, then making sure to pay attention to precog to make sure I didn't say anything dangerous, I elaborated. "Matukai techniques allow one to not just enhance their body, but eventually their mind as well. Nyra thought me many ways to improve my memory and even review events I've been a part of." This was all true, but not the real method I was using.
"My next question is this;" Windu continued, "Have you ever used your visions to learn Sith or other Dark Side teachings?"
My eyes widened, startled at the sudden intensity but instantly relieved at how careful I'd been, so I spoke the truth, "No! Never. I've never once sought out a vision of the Sith for any reason other than the one time I wanted to see a true saber duel and it was between a Jedi and a Sith. The slave people of Tatooine have a word for a cruel person whose only aim is to dominate others and spread cruelty for their own enjoyment. We call these people Depur.
"They are the masters who leave their slaves in the storm to die a slow and painful death, they are the ones who implant people with explosive chips to force them to comply. From what little I have seen, to be a sith is to submit yourself to a cycle where one is both the most wretched of slaves and the most heinous of Depur all at once. I can honestly think of no greater nor more personal a hell for myself than to be a sith."
The force swelled with the utter truth of my words, and to my surprise, Even Piell, who up until this point seemed crotchety and skeptical of me, nodded resolutely at my words, his expression turning into a smile that almost looked… Impressed? What the hell?
The room had quieted into a contemplative sort of consideration, no one spoke for several seconds.
Master Yoda hum-grunted in approval. "Any other questions are there? Hmmm?"
The room was silent.
The little green elder clacked his cane on floor, signaling the end of the council session. "Deliberate we must, on what you and your Mother's fate will be. Escorted to the refectory, for evening meal, you both shall be. When summon you again we do, a decision will have been made. May the force be with you."
I bowed, and left the council chambers. As the door closed behind me, I let out a breath of stress. I had done all I could. The rest was up to the force.
Sorry it's been so long guys, I've just been caught up with a bunch of stuff. I've made the New Year's resolution (again) to write a little every day meaning at least one sentence, and I haven't missed a day yet, so we're looking good so far.
This gap has let me think about a lot of stuff, and I've made some plans for some of my stories that will hopefully help me rekindle my inspiration. I will NOT be on any kind of set schedule as of yet, because I'm still getting back into the groove of writing and want to workshop a few more strategies.
My goal is still to eventually have writing be my full time source of income, but right now that time hasn't come yet. I still need the time to stretch, to refine my process, and update what I want, when I want.
So while that might be a bit disappointing for people who want my work on a regular schedule, I'm afraid I can't commit to that at this time. I don't want to have anxiety about writing, especially because it's one of the things I enjoy doing the most. Sure watching YouTube is a lot easier, actually-creating something is so much more fulfilling you know. Anyway, I hope you like this, I already have the next chapter planned out in my head so it'll just be a matter of sitting myself down and actually getting it onto 'paper' as it were (easier said than done)
So yeah. I'm back. I'm alive. I'm ready to give this whole writing thing another swing, so hopefully I'll see y'all again real soon.
Love you guys, thanks for your patience.
Ciao!
(More words after the chapter lol, let's get into it.)
As we walked one of the straight paths between the large rectangular pillars, I could feel something… change in the force.
So far, every planet I'd been on had a certain unique feel to it. Tatooine had felt dry, abrasive, hostile, and above all else wounded. Like an old bruise that wouldn't heal.
Coruscant so far had been similarly dark, but in much different ways. Where Tatooine felt blasted and barren, Coruscant felt oily and festering with ridiculous amounts of sentient life and greed.
Tatooine was a lonely wound, Coruscant was a crowded sickness.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is, while both were unpleasant and dark in their own way, blocking it out was similar enough that I took it in stride.
But as we passed the pillars on the way to the front door, all of that fell away. Like a weight was lifted that I didn't know I was carrying. Even space, void of life as it was, hadn't felt as peaceful as this.
I stumbled as we passed through the main entrance as the sound from outside disappeared, the ambient city noise of honking speeders and milling sentients gave way to immediate silence.
"Whoa." I couldn't help saying, my voice echoing down the spacious entrance hall.
The force was completely different here, it was like we had stepped into a completely new world.
Ancient inaudible whispers of welcome tickled the edge of my senses, and the light seemed to engulf and comfort me, as if I had been standing my entire life and had just sat down. I exhaled, and felt the tension and stress of the past few hours roll off my back.
Reality came back into focus, and I could hear the outside noises of the city once again, though they were much quieter now that the doors were closed. More prominent now were the ambient sounds of Jedi making their way to various destinations, as well as multiple calm discussions echoing too quietly and distantly to make out.
Unlike outside, the air smelled clean and fresh, and the vast pillared hall seemed to stretch forth in front of us.
"Wow." Amu answered, equally awed.
I felt like a hick. Like a dirty homeless dude in the grand lobby of a five star hotel, and from the way Amu was adjusting her rough spun robes, she likely felt the same way.
"Shmi! Anakin! Over here!" Said a voice from our left. We looked over and saw Obi Wan walking toward us. We made our way over to him, and he led us through the grand halls of the Jedi temple towards the lift that would take us to the top of the council spire.
The whole time my head was on a swivel, looking at the murals and floor designs.
With the Durindfire juice now planted in Palpatine's hands, there was nothing more I could do to ensure the success of the plan. Furthermore, so long as I was in this building I was relatively safe from any retaliation that might happen. I'd still need to keep my guard up, but for now I was as safe as I was gonna get.
And without the fear and anxiety taking up mental space, a d different emotion was rising to the top, blasting past even the self-consciousness about my state of attire.
Pure unbridled NERD joy.
The awe and wonder pressed against my shields, and I didn't bother keeping it in, letting it billow freely out where others could sense.
Every stained glass portrait, every wall mural, every statue, I asked Obi Wan about them all like I was visiting the world's best and geekiest museum.
Obi Wan shared the stories and history freely, but eventually his comm link chirped, and he began to hurry. "They've just gotten out for a 15 minute recess, and will see you shortly after they get back. We had better get up to the council spire."
Amu and I nodded, and I managed to contain any more questions until we were in the lift.
Once we had ascended to the top of the spire, we stepped out into crescent shaped waiting room that hugged the main council chamber.
I did my best to organize my thoughts, but every memory I had of the past half hour or so seemed to spike my excitement. Everyone we had passed had been wearing some kind of robes, and every time that I had seen a fancy flashlight clipped to one of their hips and realized it was a real life motherfucking lightsaber came rushing back, and I practically vibrated in excitement to be here.
Finally I managed to temper my enthusiasm by realizing one simple fact.
There was no guarantee that they'd actually take me. Sure, they'd taken Anakin in canon, but I was already pretty different than he was. I had already killed someone by strangling them to death, hell, the injuries still stung. Would they be able to sense it?
Would the fact that Amu and I were here together make it obvious that we had a powerful bond, and thus far more "dangerous" as a result of our "attachment"?
I meditated on these possibilities, and realized that even if they didn't take me, I'd have options.
Amu and I would leave the planet ASAP, and use the fortune from the Podrace to start a home on a good planet or get an education somewhere. We could also connect back up with Nyra, find the Matukai and complete our training with them, as well as learn from other light side force sects we could find, or maybe we could convince Qui Gon to come with us. Perhaps I'd try to become mandalorian or something, I don't know.
The point is, we had options. Options outside of the Jedi. We'd have to be extremely careful, but hopefully Palpatine will be exposed by then and we could just live a wonderful life in a peaceful galaxy.
My heart calmed, and a content smile made its way onto my face.
It was just like Dan the pilot said. We had the whole Galaxy ahead of us.
It was sunset by the time they saw us. Walking into the chamber was surreal, each council member shone like a beacon of light in the force. Before, with the door closed, their presences had been mingling together in psychic deliberation and connection that had made it difficult to tell who was who other than knowing that there were a lot of people powerful in the force.
Now however, their lights had separated, making it easier to tell the difference between them, and two people immediately stood out.
Master Windu felt both serene and on edge, like a windless calm right before a hurricane. I could practically feel the stillness of the air and smell the rain and lightning on the horizon.
Yoda on the other hand, felt like an ancient jungle, the kind that makes you stop and think about your place in the universe, where you realize the world existed long before you and will continue to exist long after you're gone. There was a depth of… eternity? To him? I'm not sure how to describe it. It gave me pause.
Here I was.
Wow.
"Greetings, young Skywalkers." Said Yoda in his iconic pebbly voice. I couldn't help the burst of childlike glee that slipped through my shields at hearing the legend himself speak.
Many of the council members shifted slightly, some of them smiling, while others seemed to relax a bit.
Amu bowed, and I quickly mirrored her. "Greetings, Elder. We are greatly honored to be here."
Master Windu picked up what looked like an iPad that had a handle on it. I geeked out a little more at essentially seeing Samuel L Jackson, and once again a few smiles spread throughout the room, accompanied by a chuckle or two at the emotion I was showing.
I was trying to keep a handle on it, knowing that these next few moments could decide my future, but my inner Rick was coming out in force, and as cool as seeing Qui Gon for the first time was, this was at least 100,000 times cooler.
I was desperately trying not to implode into geekdom, but it was a close thing.
Master Windu spoke, a twinkle of good humor in his eye, which was honestly a bit surprising to me. "We will now proceed with the tests to see what level of training each of you possess. We ask that you take these tests seriously, as they may determine your future."
Amu nodded, "Of course," and I nodded along with her.
"We will start with Miss Shmi." Windu declared.
As Windu explained the IPad test to Amu, and she began to take it, I made eye contact with Yoda, and his gaze seemed to pierce through me. Suddenly, a vision came to me, unbidden, like an arc of lightning leaping between two leads, one I had seen before with the Durindfire juice back on Tatooine.
"Ready, are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained! A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one, a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!."
As I was pulled back into the present, Yoda's eyes were wide as dinner plates, his mouth hanging open a bit. Did he see the vision too? The force seemed to confirm it, and I got the impression he hadn't expected it either. I would have felt it if he went digging around in my head too, so this was definitely an accident.
As they finished testing Amu, their focus turned to me. Mace Windu held up the iPad thing again, but I decided I'd be a bit flashy. I made eye contact with Yoda again, and spoke directly to him, borrowing the form of address that my mother had used for him. "Elder… If I may?" I asked, setting my feet in a stance of stability..
"Ehmhmhmhm, proceed." Said Yoda, granting me permission with a twinkle of curiosity in his eye.
Stepping forward, I angled the palms of my hands forward, then brought them forward and up as if directing an audience to stand. One by one, starting with master Yoda and master Yaddle's chairs, each of the council members seats were lifted up several feet into the air with them still sitting atop them. I had used my telekinesis almost every day to move the massive boulder in front of the crystal cave, so it had developed to be quite strong over time. The weight of the Jedi council and their seats were quite light in comparison.
The slight stealth shielding I had been unconsciously maintaining was shed, and my full presence in the force radiated outward.
Many masters grasped the armrests of their chairs in surprise at the sudden motion, while master Windu was glaring exasperatedly at Yoda, who was giggling like a gremlin. I soon got the impression that each of them could have broken my hold if they wanted to, but they let me complete my demonstration, which I appreciated.
As I brought the chairs back down into their places, Master Windu spoke up, "Well, I suppose that covers it." He put the testing datapad away. "We will need some time to discuss, and we may pull each of you back in for individual interviews, but for now, we will need you to wait outside."
Amu and I looked at each other, then mimicked the bow that all Jedi seemed to use, and left them to their deliberation.
With the Skywalkers out of the room, The Jedi masters looked at each other, waiting for someone to speak first. Both Yoda and Windu were silent in contemplation, so Master Ki Adi Mundi spoke up. "Both of them are obviously too old to begin training." He said with air of finality.
"Hmmmm," Yoda responded. "Begin their training, they already have. In the ways of the Matukai, and not just any Matukai, but one that was once a Jedi, one that left in good standing. Speak not we should, whether to begin their training, but whether to continue it, mmm, yes."
Master Mundi thought about that for a few seconds, then nodded the point.
Master Plo Koon was next to voice his thoughts. "I agree. We shouldn't treat them as if they must be trained from scratch, the boy especially had an incredibly positive temperament and an impressive grasp of the basics. I am aware of a few knights that would struggle to do what he just did with such casual ease. This is not an untrained boy, but rather one that already received Jedi training outside the temple."
Master Rancisis hummed in disapproval. "There is more to the Jedi arts than telekinetic power. This alone should not be a deciding factor. Furthermore, while the child Anakin demonstrated advanced abilities, his mother did not. She will need to be tested further if we are to determine whether she should be considered as a Jedi trained outside the temple or simply an untrained sensitive. If it is the latter, to even consider her induction into the order would be ludicrous! I hardly sensed much from her while she stood before us."
It was Yaddle's turn to weigh in. "She was partially cloaked. The boy was too, until he pulled that little stunt and decided to reveal himself. Their mastery over such stealth shielding is quite impressive, the quality of their technique is one shadows only achieve after years in the field. It is not something one can learn through theory alone, but through experience. I would very much like to see the full extent she can shield herself when she truly tries."
"Indeed?" Said master Rancisis, surprised. "Very well then. But my earlier point still stands, skill, even impressive skill, in the use of a single force power does not a Jedi make. They have been through a great deal, all without any significant support or supervision. They seem to be calm and agreeable right now, but they may very well be hiding a deeper seated emotional instability. The spiritual tangles of a life of suffering are not so easily straightened out."
There were various murmurs of agreement and contemplation at this.
Even Piell made his thoughts known, "Are we seriously even considering this? The boy I can agree with, to reach the level of connection with the force he possesses, he would have surely had to begin his training several years ago, likely when he was four or five if my sense of his powers are correct. This is a respectable age to begin training, and so I have no problem with him being folded into the order. But the mother? There is no way she received training from anytime even approaching her childhood. She has lived her entire life in slavery, and while I feel compassion for her, that is also not a healthy environment to raise someone who will hold the kind of power and influence that a Jedi possesses."
Yaddle's brow furrowed, and Adi Galia interjected. "There is little point arguing this with the amount of information we currently have. Should we not bring her in and get a clearer view of the situation? Don't forget, we must also investigate Master Jinn's claims about the boy being conceived by the force itself."
There were a series of further agreements, and master Eth Koth rose to let Shmi back in.
Shmi felt her mouth begin to dry as she stood in front of the Jedi council once again, this time alone. As the interview had continued, they had asked many questions about her upbringing, her struggles, the depth of her training, and many other things.
It wasn't all bad, many of the masters at least seemed to be genuinely compassionate, but the more they spoke, something about some of them just felt… flat. Some part of her intuition pinged some of them as strange, with one in particular standing out.
She thought that if a freshly programmed droid had a presence in the forced to be sensed, it would likely feel much like the Cerean known as master Mundi. His entire force presence pulsed and clicked with a vast set of methodical checks and conditions, comparing every thought and every consideration to some unknown standard of beliefs.
It wasn't necessarily bad, but it was incredibly strange, and she got the feeling that whatever his world view was, it was set as an unchanging facet of his entire being rather than something flexible that could be changed based on evidence. And while he hadn't yet demonstrated that his core beliefs were wrong per se, it made her nervous to feel someone so mentally unyielding in the force. When new information was presented that agreed with how he viewed the world, he would slot it in as evidence of his own wisdom.
If evidence was presented that went against his worldview, it was ignored as wholly false.
So far he seemed to be a methodical thinker and a man possessing wisdom, but something still tickled in the back of her intuition that this man in particular could not be ever be trusted to act in her or her son's best interest, at least not completely.
Which meant he was unsuitable as a guardian, an elder, or a teacher.
This intuition was only further validated by the chain of questions he asked next.
"Who is the boy's father, and what is your attachment to him?" He asked monotonously.
Shmi was under the impression that Qui Gon had informed them on her and Anakin's situation. By the sense of faint exasperation and curiosity she could feel from some other members of the council, she understood that Mundi was not actually seeking new information, but attempting to set up some verbal takedown of some kind.
She did not want to play his game, but she did not want to lie either, no, she would not lie. The truth of the circumstances of her son's birth were precious to her, and she would not betray that value by allowing herself to be pressured into 'admitting' to some false accusation.
Her brief experience with this council had taught her that they could sense the truth just as well if not better than her and Anakin could. Intending to utilize this, she lowered her shields and let her force signature radiate outward, communicating her sincerity with nothing held back, and the force rushed through her, affirming and empowering her words.
"There was no father. I cannot explain the specific mechanism of such a thing, but I can tell you this. I carried him, I gave birth, but there was no father. No intercourse. His conception is a mystery to me."
The power and truth of her words echoed in the force, and many masters had surprised or contemplative looks on their faces.
Even master Mundi was caught off guard. He looked entirely flat footed, as if he briefly could not remember the rebuttal that he had planned for the response that he expected.
Shmi could see him glance at his fellow masters, something akin to unease coloring his gaze at their reaction. His face and shields were schooled into an impressive mask, but when he next spoke, it was with a sharper and more condescending tone, likely with irritation at his plans for verbal domination being foiled. "Truly Lady Shmi, your confidence and faith in this delusion is impressively sincere. No one here can argue that you don't believe this to be the case."
At this his voice calmed down to his regular posh monotone, as if returning to his own prepared script, "But such a thing is utterly preposterous. We must use logic and reason here. What is more likely, that there was a virgin birth? Some kind of immaculate conception through the force? I for one see a more glaringly obvious possibility. During her time is a slave, some other human forced himself upon her, and the trauma of the situation was far too great for her weakened and untrained mind to weather, and the memory was suppressed due to the pain and anguish associated with it. Such things are tragic, yet they happen every day throughout the wider galaxy, certainly more commonly than a child being conceived by the force."
Shmi's heart clenched with an intense anxiety, and she briefly found herself wanting to retreat back into the shell of a slave, to submit to the more powerful personality that was lambasting her. It was only her experience rebelling against Watto, of stealing from him every day and plotting his downfall, that gave her the strength to speak back. She and her son were free now. It was her job as a mother to model proper behavior. Even if she currently didn't feel like a free woman yet, at least not fully, she had to act like one. Even if her son wasn't in the room, she couldn't allow herself to break. She would not tell a lie just to please someone else. She would not back down.
Hands trembling with fear and anger, she spoke up anyway, her voice calm and controlled. "You say that I claim a virgin birth to discredit me, but I claim no such thing. I lost my innocence long ago when I was very young, and I assure you I remember every painful moment." She stated with a stern flinty stare.
Several Jedi masters shifted uncomfortably in their seats, while some other masters' eyes filled with compassion and sadness. Fear ebbing away, Shmi allowed her anger to mostly flow away with it, only keeping a strong iron resolve. "It was many years later that I became pregnant, and I am acutely aware of every moment during the period of time he would've been conceived. I had no blackouts. I ingested no drugs. At that time, About 18 months after I had been bought from Gadzo the Hutt by Gardulla, I was being retrained in etiquette, advanced numbers, and mechanics along with several other slave women, by an overseer who was also a woman.
"Gardulla the Hutt is extremely strict about the training of her slaves, far more so than other Hutts, and they are ruthlessly protected in order to maintain the quality of the "merchandise" as it were. There was not a single man in that compound for the entire time I received this training. In total, I stayed in that compound for two and a half years, and gave birth less than a month after I left. That is the truth."
Once again, the force reverberated with the truthfulness of her words.
Master Mundi was silent, though his brow was furrowed strangely, as though he was trying to put together a complicated model starship while stubbornly refusing to look at the directions.
But more interesting than that, was that several masters who had been skeptical about her claims before, Such as Mace Windu and Even Piell, now sported considering looks on their faces, and felt much more open in the force. It seemed that they were actually considering that her claims may be true, while before they dismissed them out of hand.
Master Yaddle gave a stern glare towards Master Mundi. "It is not the opinion of this council that you are lying to us Lady Skywalker, nor is it our place to trivialize your difficult experiences."
Masters Galia and Bilaba nodded in support of Yaddle's words, while Master Mundi sighed quietly through his nose in response, with something akin to boredom on his face.
Yaddle turned a much gentler gaze on Shmi, continuing her words. "You have endured much in your captivity, things that no one should ever have to, and here you are, having emerged with strength in your heart. I make you an oath that you will not receive such torture or punishment from us, nor will your freedoms be restricted while you are here. You are a free woman. Shackles no longer bind you. And despite the rudeness of some of our number, we promise that we mean no harm. No harm will come of this meeting, to you or your son." The force resonated with profound truth, and Shmi felt herself relax.
At this master Mundi huffed, turning to Yaddle. "Really Master Yaddle? An oath is a bit dramatic. It is Obvious she will come to no harm under the watch of the Jedi Order. It is hardly necessary to—"
Deciding to test the limits of this promised safety, Shmi gathered her courage and Interrupted the old cerean, something that would surely see her lashed under any slave master. "Thank you Elder Yaddle, for your oath. I will remember it."
Master Mundi paused, and Shmi tensed. She braced herself for shouting. For demands of punishment. Master Mundi surprised her by simply shrugging, nodding at master Yaddle, and calmly saying "Very well then."
Shmi was a bit flat footed at that. Where was the shouting? The bruised pride and malicious retaliation? And then it hit her. Ki-Adi-Mundi wasn't an enemy. He wasn't Depur. He was just… an asshole. One that was emotionally incompetent and incredibly rude, but not an active danger to her and her own. He was a neutral existence, neither predator nor prey, just a pointless and ugly rock Making an obstacle of itself on an otherwise straight and pleasant path.
For some reason Shmi had assumed that the Jedi wouldn't have assholes among them, but in hindsight she realized this was incredibly foolish. Assholes were a universal constant, like death and protection fees (AKA taxes).
All of a sudden she wanted to laugh, but at the same time she wanted to cry. She had so much emotion rushing through her as a threat response, and now that it had nowhere to go she was unsure of herself.
She took a deep breath, and put her 'tools' back on her 'belt'. Felt the comfort of their weight. The light around her seemed to rush in, and she let it, wrapping around her inner self like a comforter.
When she did this, the Masters were taken aback, many smiling despite themselves. Master Mundi's eyebrows shot up in shock, while Yaddle's eyes seemed to light up triumphantly.
"Hmmmm." The oldest among them gave a gravely hum of appreciation. "Been through much you have. Surrounded by darkness have you been, yes, for all of your life. Fearful you are. Angry also. And yet… touch you this darkness does not. Your inner self, I feel, is as bright as the morning sun, finally emerging from the dark horizon. Find no purchase, can the the hooks of the dark side find, on a diamond soul such as yours. Honest you are with your words. Open you have been with your shields also, hiding nothing. Bright is your future. Freedom you have. Deserve it you do."
Shmi appreciated the wrinkly green elder's words far more than she expected, but still sensed there was a caveat coming up. "But?" She questioned.
"Hmmmmmmm." The knee high elder answered unhelpfully, scratching his chin in deep thought.
Mace Windu picked it up from there. "That would depend on the level of training you already possess. Your resilience does you credit. It is rare even among our number for someone to go through what you have without channeling the darkness even in some small way. If your training is comprehensive, then you would be no different than a shadow returning back into our ranks from extended cover, or a Padawan trained away from the temple by a Jedi Master."
Shmi was lost for words. She felt like she was missing something. "I…" she hesitated, then soldiered on, "I have received no such training."
Master Piell blinked. "None?!" He answered incredulously.
Master Rancisis spoke up. "It was our understanding that you and your son were trained by the Matukai known as Nyra, who was once a member of this order."
Shmi paused. Did studying from a holomanual really count as formal Matukai training? She didn't know. "I never actually trained under Nyra myself, it was my son that she took as her student. She taught him personally for an hour or two every few days for about a month, and then left us with the training manual, which we followed dutifully every day for two years. If you wish to test our proficiency, my son and I would be happy to demonstrate our mastery. We also have Nyra's Comm number if that makes things simpler."
The council was stunned. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Mace Windu spoke up. "It appears that Master Jinn made several assumptions that were incorrect. If you would, please go over the events that led to your escape from Tatooine."
Shmi hummed in consideration. "I suppose our escape all started with the earliest planning stages two years ago, when my son crashed his pod racer, and received visions of the future…"
As Shmi Skywalker told the story of Her and her son, many masters found their expressions changing with surprise.
I jumped slightly as the doors to the council chambers opened. Out walked Amu, surprisingly sweaty, who nodded to me while trying to catch her breath. "What happened?" I asked.
"I was questioned, then I was tested." She answered. "I demonstrated the martial arts Katas of the Matukai, as well as my shielding and some other abilities. You may be asked to do the same."
I nodded, a bit nervous, "Are you alright?" I asked
She nodded, smiling, and I felt reassured. "Some of their personalities are honestly quite difficult, but…" there was a twinge of anger and hurt through her shields, but it quickly evened out to fair mindedness. "There is no true evil in that room. I just hope that it is goodness, and not simply uncaring neutrality that allows this to be the case."
I grimaced. Amu was one of the best judges of character I'd ever known, and it seemed like she'd already begun to clock the flaws of some of the council members. "Yeah. I hope so too." I responded. Guess I'll find out which version of this Council we are dealing with.
"No matter what happens, never think of the one known as Mundi to be your role model, especially the way he speaks of women. Feel free to ignore anything that comes out of his fool mouth." She ordered.
I snorted at the insult and nodded emphatically. "Yes, I promise!"
She nodded, and as I was summoned to enter the council chambers, I breathed deeply to calm myself.
I stepped through the doors.
First, they had me run through the basic katas of the Matukai, and then had me move on towards other abilities. My shields were tested, as was my ability to project my thoughts telepathically to others, as well as any abilities that they had heard about from Amu but hadn't witnessed in person, like my AC and Heater fields.
By the end of the demonstrations, there wasn't a single Jedi master who seemed dismissive of me, though they all had pretty great poker faces, so it was difficult to know for sure.
The first Question came from Master Mundi, "What are you aware of concerning the details of your conception?" he asked bluntly.
Ah... I'm beginning to see what Amu meant. "Not much, considering I wasn't conscious yet, My mom would know that better than me. Have you asked her about it?"
"I see." was all master Mundi said in acknowledgement. Huh. No laughter, no offence. Just 'I see' and that's the end of it? What a weirdo.
After a few moments of silence, Yoda spoke up next, "Trained you have been, yes, but not only by the Matukai hmm?"
A few masters looked back and forth between Yoda and I, confusion on their faces. "Master Yoda…" said Plo Koon, "We know from young Anakin's mother that his only master was Nyra the Matukai. What other master are you speaking of?"
"Ehehehmhmhmhmhmhm!" Yoda Cackled. "Visions you have received, young Skywalker, detailed visions. Visions of the Future, Hmmmm? And of the past, hmhm yes. Training you needed, Jedi training, and training you received, did you not? Just what you needed to hear, the force provided, hmmm?"
Caught, and checking precog to see if revealing this tidbit would bring danger to me, and only receiving warm reassurance in response, I spoke up. "Your 'size matters not' lesson on telekinesis was particularly striking in both its drama and it's usefulness, though I've wrestled quite a bit with 'do or do not, there is no try'. I can see how it's applicable to motivating a reluctant slacker, but for someone in a genuinely bad situation, sometimes trying is all you can do."
There were quite a few gasps and a general hum of muttering at that.
"Rwaaaaaahw, contemplated and applied my teachings well you have! Discuss them later we can, for even if take you as his padawan Qui Gon does not, of my lineage I fear you are!" He exclaimed, sounding anything but fearful at the prospect. His twinkling eyes and trollish smirk somehow communicating both welcoming warmth and unbearable smugness.
There were a series of groans and exclamations around the council members, "Wait." Interjected Master Windu, "Just hold on!" He paused to massage his temples, then continued, "You're saying that you learned, were trained by a future version of master Yoda, and this training was received through a vision?!"
I grimaced, I'd need to tell the truth if I wanted them to trust me. While I would be holding back on telling them a few things, It was important what I did tell them didn't mislead them to come to believe something false, or else it would inevitably come to light and all my credibility with the Jedi would be destroyed. "Not really, but kinda? I briefly watched as he trained someone else, and applied the lessons to my own training. I didn't see everything he taught his padawan either, just a some of the more important lessons."
"And you can do this at any time? Have visions of such clarity?" Windu asked, incredulous.
At this I quickly clarified, "Oh no! Normally my visions are both vague and cryptic, potentially meaning several different things, and not really making much sense until after the event has already happened."
Several masters nodded, familiar with my description. Master Windu sought more clarification, "And this Vision of master Yoda, this was the exception? Do you have any idea why it was so clear?"
"It wasn't just the vision of master Yoda," I corrected, "I'm sure my Mother told you about the crash I had two years ago when I was seven, and that I started having visions then. What really happened, and what I downplayed to my mom so she wouldn't worry…" I paused, debating what I should say, "I came really close to death. Like… really close, and if it weren't for the deep connection I made, and for the knowledge I received, I would have died that day." The force reverberated with profound truth at my statement, and I soldiered on, "I saw many things that day, and with the knowledge I gained I was able to prepare for the moment Qui Gon and Obi Wan showed up, as well as many other things.
"The problem is… the narrow accuracy of the visions both good and bad. This is good because they're coherent, they inform me of events exactly as they happen, which allows me to plan around them and take advantage of things. The downside to this, is that these visions specifically show a future where I didn't see the visions. In the vision I saw, I was completely untrained and Mister Qui Gon never managed to free my mother from slavery. So while the visions have proven very useful and extremely accurate, the more I diverge from that one single timeline that I was able to see…" I trailed off
"The less accurate the information becomes." Master Windu finished. He glanced at Master Mundi.
Master Mundi nodded, "I'd have to check with Madam Nu for exact references, but what the boy says isn't impossible. When unconscious, a Jedi draws ever closer to the force. There are many reports of the Jedi of old putting themselves into medically assisted near-death comas in order to more clearly perceive the future. This practice is, of course, much too risky for far too little pay off and was banned somewhere around 700 years ago. While ill advised, It is completely possible that a near death experience caused a series of visions of a clarity that the boy would not normally receive."
Plo Koon's voice rumbled electronically through his breath mask, "It seems like it was quite the intense experience. Do you have trouble recalling the specifics as time goes by?"
I paused at that. Do I tell them about the juice? I've already decided not to lie, so maybe…
ENEMY/LISTENING/WATCHED
Precog hit me like a truck, the force practically screaming with danger.
Did Palpatine have the council room bugged somehow?
Wait, what am I saying, of fucking course he did.
Which means I can't tell the council anything I don't want Palpatine to hear.
FUCK.
Ok… how do I play this. I want the Jedi to trust me, so I can't lie or be too bullshit with my… let's call it 'artful truth weaving'. I need to be genuine.
"Are you alright young Skywalker?" Questioned Master Koon Patiently.
"Sorry, I just got a warning in the force. A big one."
Master Piell leaned forward with a skeptical expression and inhaled, about to speak, but Master Windu beat him to it. "I felt it too." He admitted.
Many councilors shifted in their seats at this, and Master Windu Continued, "I only have a few more questions."
"Ooook?" I responded.
"Do you have some way of recalling these visions to maintain their accuracy?"
I nodded, then making sure to pay attention to precog to make sure I didn't say anything dangerous, I elaborated. "Matukai techniques allow one to not just enhance their body, but eventually their mind as well. Nyra thought me many ways to improve my memory and even review events I've been a part of." This was all true, but not the real method I was using.
"My next question is this;" Windu continued, "Have you ever used your visions to learn Sith or other Dark Side teachings?"
My eyes widened, startled at the sudden intensity but instantly relieved at how careful I'd been, so I spoke the truth, "No! Never. I've never once sought out a vision of the Sith for any reason other than the one time I wanted to see a true saber duel and it was between a Jedi and a Sith. The slave people of Tatooine have a word for a cruel person whose only aim is to dominate others and spread cruelty for their own enjoyment. We call these people Depur.
"They are the masters who leave their slaves in the storm to die a slow and painful death, they are the ones who implant people with explosive chips to force them to comply. From what little I have seen, to be a sith is to submit yourself to a cycle where one is both the most wretched of slaves and the most heinous of Depur all at once. I can honestly think of no greater nor more personal a hell for myself than to be a sith."
The force swelled with the utter truth of my words, and to my surprise, Even Piell, who up until this point seemed crotchety and skeptical of me, nodded resolutely at my words, his expression turning into a smile that almost looked… Impressed? What the hell?
The room had quieted into a contemplative sort of consideration, no one spoke for several seconds.
Master Yoda hum-grunted in approval. "Any other questions are there? Hmmm?"
The room was silent.
The little green elder clacked his cane on floor, signaling the end of the council session. "Deliberate we must, on what you and your Mother's fate will be. Escorted to the refectory, for evening meal, you both shall be. When summon you again we do, a decision will have been made. May the force be with you."
I bowed, and left the council chambers. As the door closed behind me, I let out a breath of stress. I had done all I could. The rest was up to the force.
Sorry it's been so long guys, I've just been caught up with a bunch of stuff. I've made the New Year's resolution (again) to write a little every day meaning at least one sentence, and I haven't missed a day yet, so we're looking good so far.
This gap has let me think about a lot of stuff, and I've made some plans for some of my stories that will hopefully help me rekindle my inspiration. I will NOT be on any kind of set schedule as of yet, because I'm still getting back into the groove of writing and want to workshop a few more strategies.
My goal is still to eventually have writing be my full time source of income, but right now that time hasn't come yet. I still need the time to stretch, to refine my process, and update what I want, when I want.
So while that might be a bit disappointing for people who want my work on a regular schedule, I'm afraid I can't commit to that at this time. I don't want to have anxiety about writing, especially because it's one of the things I enjoy doing the most. Sure watching YouTube is a lot easier, actually-creating something is so much more fulfilling you know. Anyway, I hope you like this, I already have the next chapter planned out in my head so it'll just be a matter of sitting myself down and actually getting it onto 'paper' as it were (easier said than done)
So yeah. I'm back. I'm alive. I'm ready to give this whole writing thing another swing, so hopefully I'll see y'all again real soon.
Love you guys, thanks for your patience.
Ciao!
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