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Childs Play

Sugar highs and the unexpected welcome

" Did you sense that Master?" Anakin suddenly said rushing to look at the tracker. Obi-Wan had reached it before his Padawan, evidently worried about the same sudden rush of emotion they had felt through the Force. " What are they doing?"

" They're grouped around something," Obi-Wan replied.

" The circus people?" Anakin asked anxiously. " Maybe we should have warned them, then they might not..."

" Well I was hoping that those people might change. It's rather irresponsible to parade around like that all the time!" Obi-Wan grumbled picking up his strewn cloak and making sure his lightsaber was firmly attached to his belt. " Come on, we had better go see if they're behaving themselves."

Within no time the two men had tracked down the children and were quite amazed to see that they were sat down calmly listening with wide eyes as the circus performers told them stories. Anakin smiled proudly at his Master.

" Well that's okay then," Obi-Wan said cautiously and he led Anakin to a nearby bar where they could watch the children inconspicuously.

" I told you everything would be fine Master, you shouldn't worry so much!" Anakin said happily as he sat down at a small table relatively out of sight. Obi-Wan smiled sardonically at the young man and went to get them some drinks. Anakin watched the children from his hiding place and smiled warmly. Sensing his gaze though, Mayco suddenly turned around and stared straight at him. Anakin pulled further back into the shadow, but it was no use, the child was already on her feet and heading towards him.

*I know you're there!* her voice rang in his mind. Anakin grinned.

*Okay so I'm here, now scat, you'll blow my cover!* he thought back fondly.

" Why do you need to have cover?" Mayco asked curiously as she sat down opposite the young man. Anakin grinned boyishly at her and shook his head.

" Mayco sweetheart, you have to learn to do as you're told!" he chuckled. Mayco shrugged her shoulders and leaned over.

" Why are you spying on us?" she asked accusingly, but her face conveyed joy at seeing him.

" We're not spying, we just... happened to be in the same place at the same time," he countered.

" A likely story, but you see you have a tracker telling you exactly where we are the whole time!" she grumbled pulling dejectedly at her tag. " Why do we have to wear these? I mean do I really have to? You know I'm not going to do anything! It's because of me that they didn't go crazy when they saw the circus people. I mean why doesn't Master Kenobi just use the Force to check up on us?"

" This is much quicker I guess, he can't check up on all of you at the same time using the Force," Anakin guessed. " And no, you have to be the same as everybody else!" Mayco scowled at him and looked away to where Obi-Wan was watching them calmly. Anakin felt horrible making her feel like this. " Hey look at it this way, at least this journey will be over tomorrow morning! It's only an overnight crossing."

" Easy for you to say, you're not dressed up like a duffel bag," she muttered, but then a happy smile crossed her impishly beautiful face. " Hey can I hang around with you guys, those circus guys are really boring. Their stories aren't nearly as exciting as yours!" She gave him a pouting look that she knew perfectly well could get her whatever she wanted as far as Anakin was concerned. Anakin smiled fondly at his little girl and wondered if Obi-Wan would let her spend the rest of the afternoon with them.

" You know I don't think that's such a good idea, I'm supposed to be treating all you guys equally," he said and he winced when her face fell.

" Yeah but they already know that you're my grown up, they don't care!" she complained looking up at 'her grown up' hopefully. Anakin laughed and shook his head, hiding how touched he felt by the words she had used to describe him.

" Yeah that may be so sweetheart, but I still have to follow orders," he said softly. Mayco sighed and nodded.

" I understand," she whimpered and looked down at her lap, the perfect personification of sadness, but Anakin could easily sense that she was only faking this display of unhappiness.

" Oh give it a rest," he laughed out loud. " We can ask him, but even if he says no, you have a whole ship to explore, why would you want to spend the next two hours hanging round with us? We're only going to be talking about the mission." Mayco looked up with a cheeky grin on her face.

" Fair enough. Hey when do we get to find out about what the mission is about?" she asked inquisitively.

" We're going to brief you at dinner," Anakin replied and he nodded cheerfully to Obi-Wan who was returning with three drinks. He smiled gratefully at his master as he sat down.

" See he does want me to stay!" Mayco said happily as Obi-Wan slid a bright red concoction across the table to her.

" Well the others seem so preoccupied, there's no harm with you staying with us for as bit," Obi-Wan explained and Mayco gave him a thankful smile. " How about you guys tell me a story! I bet anything that you guys can tell a much better story than those amateurs." Obi-Wan gave her a charming smile and nodded.

" Very well, any preferences?" he asked fondly. Anakin shook his head and hid his smile behind his hand. 'He's even more of a pushover than I am,' he thought to himself.

" Tell me about when you were held captive by the Gardarians and Anakin had to save you!" she begged gleefully, jumping off her seat and climbing onto Anakin's lap her usual story telling position. Obi-Wan smiled sheepishly, despite this being a rather embarrassing incident on his part, Mayco just loved hearing about it. As he burst into his animated tale Mayco's eyes glazed over happily and her imagination ran wild as she pictured the thrilling adventure.

* * *

By the time that dinner time rolled by, every single child in the set, including the reluctant Anis, were seated around the two men, revelling in their adventurous stories. Obi-Wan and Anakin's stories had been so compelling that they had easily drawn the children away from the disgruntled circus performers. As Anakin drew their third story to a close the children sat up eagerly.

" Oh no, no more stories, it's time for dinner," Obi-Wan laughed and the children looked crestfallen. " Well think of it this way. The sooner we get to dinner, the sooner you will all find out about the mission we are on." This did the trick and the children jumped to their feet. " And if we can manage to get to the restaurant in an orderly single file fashion, then you might even get desert." Anakin grinned at his Master and looked on in amazement as the children got into an orderly line and followed Obi-Wan out of the bar.

Within no time the twelve travellers had seated themselves around a large table in a secluded part of the restaurant. The children had kept what Obi- Wan had said in mind and were behaving as good as gold save for a small little scuffle as several of them struggled to have a seat near the two men. Mayco won the battle to sit next to Anakin, though she was quite put out by the fact that NathaniƩ Tessari had bagged the best spot directly between Obi-Wan and Anakin and Tio was equally put out that Derion Sabach had beat her to the other side of Obi-Wan. Those little spats sorted themselves out though, and soon enough the group had ordered their meals.

The children then continued to stare impatiently at the two men, waiting for any news of their mission. Obi-Wan smiled at them.

" Do you all know of Denari's history?" he asked the children and all but one shook their heads. Everyone turned to the small boy Julian Durron in surprise. Half human and half-unknown alien he had a strange appearance: smaller than most human boys his age, the beautiful little boy had jet- black hair, olive tanned skin, one brown eye and one green, and a mysterious skin colouration across his forehead and wrists in bands causing a blue lustre to adorn his imp-like face and wrists.

" I was told that that was where I was found by the Jedi," he explained feeling anxious that everyone was watching him. " So I tried to find out everything I could about it, I don't know why I came from there though, because I've been told my father was from the Deyer colony from the Anoat system and that my mother is from a distant system in a distant part of the galaxy. Humans rule the whole Denari system. It's a trinary system and it has two inhabitable planets and three inhabitable moons. It's really prosperous because they have a lot of natural resources and a moon full of precious metals and precious stones. The two planets share the mining rights of the moon equally, because even though it orbits Denari Minor, Denari Prime discovered it years ago." The boy stopped for breath and realised he was just going off on a tangent. " I'm sorry, I mean yeah, I know of it!" But Obi-Wan was smiling at him.

" No carry on, what else have you learnt?" he asked encouragingly and Anakin quickly flashed him an accusing smile.

*You don't deal with kids well, yeah right, you're loving it!* he accused. Obi-Wan smiled tiredly at him and then looked back to the tiny boy and nodded.

" Well yeah, so they share the mining rights. The government of Denari Prime owns their share of the mining rights and exports purely to outer- system buyers. This money funds their public services and health care and all that, so the citizens don't pay taxes. They still have a good economy though, because their planet has other natural resources that they exploit in order to have enough raw fuels and bargaining resources and all that. Denari Minor inhabitants have always envied their larger neighbours, but they can't emigrate there because Denari Prime has strict laws governing immigration numbers. They have traditionally been a more serene race though, so the problem has never escalated." With this Julian finished and looked proud with his story, even though some of the other boys looked a little sleepy by the end of it.

Obi-Wan however, was smiling even broader at the boy.

" Wonderful introduction," he said happily. " It's partially to do with the mining rights and partially to do with the immigration laws that we are going to this system. For centuries...millennia even, Denari Prime has subsidised it's smaller neighbour in times of economic fallout, but recently they have refused. This has caused a gigantic rift between the two races, and now the people of Denari Minor have placed a blockade around their moon, claiming that it is their natural resource as the mountains are to the people of Denari Prime." The children nodded knowingly.

" Hey where did you come from?" Emas asked Julian cockily. Julian stared at the table and shrugged.

" Denari Minor," he replied. Obi-Wan cleared his throat and once more the children turned all their attention on him.

" The people of Denari Minor have also raised the issue that they are being oppressed, which they are, as they originated from Denari Prime and through their constitution have just as much right to it as the race who stayed there," he explained. " So we have been called in to keep the peace and sort out a solution."

" This is mild?" Mayco asked incredulously. " It sounds kinda complicated!" Anakin grinned and shook his head.

" Complicated maybe, but no threats of violence, we don't know of any weapons that they have, so it's going to stay safe and mild," he said smiling comfortingly at his daughter.

" Who's side are we fighting on?" Mayco then asked. Obi-Wan chuckled.

" Have you spent the last seven years shutting out everything we've tried to teach you?" he asked fondly. Mayco grinned and shrugged. " We are Jedi, we don't fight on anyone's side! We're there to keep the peace so we will be mediating negotiations and encouraging peaceful proceedings that is all. There will be no fighting." The children looked downhearted.

" Hey cheer up, for all you know we could get attacked in the street by crooks, or we could face assassins or..."

" Or we could simply just have a straightforward mission where everything goes by the book," Obi-Wan cut in quickly, seeing that the children were getting hopeful looks on their faces. " For once," he added in an undertone.

" Where are we going first?" Tio asked.

" Denari Prime. So far they have refused to participate in any negotiations," Obi-Wan explained and he continued to tell them about the progress so far, or lack thereof, to the children.

* * *

It was late when Anakin suddenly woke up and sat up in bed. His eyes darted to the wall that was between him and the girls that they were supposed to be minding. There was a strong disturbance in the force, something strange was happening in that room. Anakin looked over to his sleeping Master and got to his feet silently, not wanting to disturb him. He stealthily made his way next door, gripping the handle of his lightsaber in case there was something sinister next door. As he reached the door though, he instantly let go, all he could hear from within was the giggling of lots of children. He barged right in and found to his surprise that every single child in the Set, including the outcast Anis, were either bouncing up and down manically, forming human pyramids or juggling with the various small furniture in the room.

" What is going on?" he bellowed, but it had no affect on the hyper children.

" Anakin!" Mayco cried when she saw him and she bounced over to him and jumped up into his arms. " You're missing out on the party!" Anakin stared at her with his jaw hanging incredulously.

" Party?" he demanded and he shook her slightly. " Are you intoxicated?" She looked hurt and shook her head.

" No, we're just happy!" she complained as a crash signified that one of the children had failed at their juggling attempt and moments later the sound of sobbing indicated that one of the little hooligans had been hurt. Anakin put Mayco back on her feet and saw that it was the small girl Kara who was crying and crouching on the floor cradling her hand. Anakin rushed to her side and crouched down at her side, still towering over the tiny child.

" What happened?" he asked soothingly taking her hand gently and cupping it in his own gigantic hand.

" I cut myself on the vase," Kara cried and she whimpered as Anakin inspected her hand.

" Oh no!" Anakin mock-gasped and he quickly hid her hand in his own again. " Oh no sweetheart it looks bad, yeah, I don't think we can save it," he said seeing the little girl look up at him tearfully. " This is going to need a very special treatment," he said seriously.

" It is?" Kara squeaked worriedly. Anakin nodded gravely.

" Well it takes a kiss," he began and he kissed her tiny minutely scratched finger. " And...a tickle attack!" he roared and he lunged at the child tickling her recklessly. She burst out laughing her tears already subsiding. For the second time since their arrival on the ship Obi-Wan cleared his throat at the door to gather everyone's attention.

" What is going on?" he demanded as the children continued to cause chaos. Anakin however, quickly placed the recovered girl on her feet and rushed over to his master.

" I don't know what happened, I found them like this. They're acting crazy!" he pleaded, hoping that Obi-Wan had the answers.

" I think it's the sugar," Obi-Wan eventually said and then he winced hitting his forehead with the palm of his hand. " Oh what an idiot I've been. Sugar alone didn't do this, but those deserts we gave them have an additive, one that causes intense energetic behaviour in humans!" Anakin raised his eyebrows worriedly.

" Well how long does this intense energetic behaviour last?" he stammered looking back on the children who had now started a play fight...fast deteriorating into a real scuffle.

" Not long, they'll exhaust themselves before too long," Obi-Wan replied firmly and he rushed into the heat of the fight and separated the main culprits: Kara and Mayco.

" Hey what are you two fighting about?" Anakin asked accusingly, but he immediately sensed what the matter was...not that he needed to, the venomous glare Mayco was giving the smaller girl gave her jealous feelings away in an instant. " Okay you, out," Anakin said lifting Mayco up and carrying her through to his and Obi-Wan's room. He put her down on the bed where she crossed her arms and stuck her chin defiantly into the air.

" Oh cut it out you little drama queen," Anakin laughed and he sat down next to her and pulled her into his lap. " You know you're my little fuzzyhead and no one can ever take your place!" Mayco nodded dejectedly. Anakin laughed and shook his head. " Oh there's just no talking to you when you get an idea into your head." With this he gently shoved her back onto the bed and headed towards the door.

" Where are you going?" Mayco asked softly.

" I'm going to help Obi-Wan with the other kids," he replied and with this he left.

* * *

Somehow after another hour all the children had fallen asleep exactly where their extended energies had failed them. An exhausted Anakin and Obi-Wan made their way tiredly back to their room and found Mayco sprawled out on one side of Anakin's bed.

" I should get her back to her room," Anakin said as if in a dream-like state. He rarely got to see his little girl sleeping like an angel. The sight always made him adore her.

" If you wake her she'll be impossible to handle. Leave her where she is, there's enough room for you to sleep on the other side of the bed," Obi-Wan sighed tiredly and he lay down in bed, asleep even before his head hit the pillow. Anakin lay down on his bed and gave Mayco one last smile before sleep claimed him.

* * *

" Come on, everybody up! We have to get going, we're going to be late meeting the welcoming party out on the dock!" Obi-Wan called to the children. They woke up grumbling and stared up at the Jedi groggily, but one look at his face and they were instantly on their feet and gathering their belongings.

Within ten minutes the party had assembled and Anakin and Obi-Wan were leading the children stealthily through the ship and onto the landing pad. Their welcoming party wasn't hard to miss as they were holding a colourful sign that held all their names.

" This is novel," Obi-Wan laughed.

" Probably for the kids," Anakin added and they led their tired charges over to the group, but as they drew nearer they grew slightly timid at the sight before them.

" Hey, I can see her..." Oskar began in a joking tone, but Anakin quickly held up his hand silencing the boy.

" Please, Master Jedi, accept these *Derily* as a token of our gratitude!" one of the older men in the party said as he stepped forward, indicating the half naked women standing before him. Anakin turned to Obi-Wan and he opened and closed his mouth soundlessly before turning on the children and urgently indicating that they turn around with his hand.

" Look that way right now!" he ordered and the children reluctantly turned around. Anakin then turned back on the women and gulped: this was definitely 'novel'!