Disclaimer: Same as previous chapters

Chapter 4

Xander looked at Anakin with his mother and smiled, he hadn't seen Shmi so happy since he came here, he had heard from Watto that Anakin had left to become one of these Jedi when he was around 9 years old, the Jedi knight that had taken him, Qui-Gon Jinn, had died shortly afterwards, when Shmi and Watto had heard about that she had sent a message to the temple to inquire about her sons fate and she hadn't heard back to which Watto had been angry about.

Meanwhile in the kitchen Anakin and his mom were talking.

"Mom, who is that man?" Anakin asked with curiosity, "I haven't seen his species before; I would have remembered meeting a race like his."

"Oh Ani, don't worry about him," she had went on to explain the story as Xander had explained to them, "he is a good man and has tried to pay us back many times," Shmi said with great affection in her voice for Xander.

She had seen how thin he was and realized he had been neglected, 'oh,' Shmi thought, 'I want to have words with Xander's parents.'

"Well mom, if he really is from another galaxy why don't you let me take him back to Coruscant, maybe the Jedi archives have some information that can be used to help him mom," Anakin said.

'I would like to get to know him better,' he thought, 'if mom likes him, he must be a good man and I just wanted him to come along so I can help him.'

Clank watched the dynamics between Xander and Anakin with amusement, 'they were cut from the same cloth,' he thought, 'both were stubborn as hell and I could swear I can detect pheromones rise when the two were in the same room, but as I have little knowledge about humans and whatever Xander had become, thanks to that damned spell, it might be the fact that they were becoming better friends but I can not make a judgement on what was happening between them.'

Anakin found Xander in the garage fixing the speeder that Cliegg had lent him so he could go to Mos Espa for work with Watto. He was working on the engine, his tail wagging anxiously as he was working on a stubborn engine problem.

"Hey, need some help Xander?" Anakin called, causing Xander to slam his head against the hood of the speeder

Anakin heard Xander say several of, what he assumed, were curse words as he rubbed his head.

Xander looked and saw Anakin looking at him with amused look.

"Nah, I got most of it finished," Xander said, "and I am gonna get a bell for you. Damn, I thought that only Deadboy could appear like that."

"Who's Deadboy?" asked Anakin, "are you two close?"

"Hahahahahaha!!! Me and Deadboy close? That's a good one. Nope, not close but he is dating one of my best friends so I tolerate him and I guess he tolerates me as well so it works out alright, for now," Xander said.

"Oh, that's good I guess," Anakin said.

"Yep, it is, so what are you doing here? I thought you would want to spend time with your mom?"

"Mom asked me to find you; she wants to talk to you. She wants us to be friends, I guess."

"Well, lead the way Anakin," Xander said.

Shmi looked at Xander and Anakin and said, "I am glad that you two are getting along."

"Yeah, your son is a pretty cool guy, though I am not so sure about these Jedi he's part of yet, but I would like to meet more of them," he said.

"Good," she said, "I was thinking that it would be a good idea for you to go and see more of our galaxy, you might find a way home and you might like meeting other races."

"Also Shmi, I got question: What is Anakin doing here? I thought Jedi didn't really like members of their order coming to visit family, something about them not allowing attachments?

"Well, you're correct about that Xander, but the force sent me a vision that my mother was in danger and I had to come to see if it was true, though I was ordered stay on Naboo with the senator but then she decided to come to Tatooine to see if my visions about my mother were true," he said, and I would welcome you coming back with us to Coruscant, you seem to like machines as much as I do."

Xander smiled at Anakin, "well, looks like we have alot in common and a world wide city seems interesting," he said. 'Though I have memories of the world that Metropolis was on and it would be nice to see more of their technology,' he thought, he had improved on the moisture vaporators and nearly caused, for what must have been for the first time on Tatooine, a flood, not that anyone seemed too angry about that, alot of people went to grab as much water as they could, he chuckled softly at the memories of the people grabbing great big buckets of water and a bunch of Jawas running around with barrels of water to their huge sandcrawlers.

Padme went to talk to the little droid, Clank.

"So," she asked, "can you tell me about Xander? He seems so interesting, I have never seen his species before; they look human, except for the hair color and his tail. I know Ani is already decided he's his new best friend but that could come from being around no one but Jedi, he needs some non-Jedi friends and Xander fits that description."

"Yes, Xander can make friends with almost anyone I find, but it's been difficult for him. You see Miss Padme, he is human but there was a spell done on a local holiday and he became what he dressed up as, there was some slight problems with the spell in Xander's case and he was permanently affected, that's why he has a tail and the hair color and the next the day he heard one of his friends talk about how scared she was, he thought he had done more damage then he did and felt extremely guilty. So he decided to run away, he was quite malleable to something in his home dimension called the Powers That Be, they took control of him and were going to basically exile him in another dimension using his own technology against him, I managed to fiddle with the device and we ended up here a couple months ago," Clank said.

"You expect me to believe that?" She said, "Well, it is rather hard to believe but I think I have seen and heard more odd things in my life, so what are you going to do now?" she asked.

"Well madam, I believe we might join you and Anakin on your journeys, I believe that is what they are talking about with Shmi. She wanted Xander to explore the galaxy and maybe find a way home."

"Did you tell Shmi this story?" Padme asked Clank.

"Of course not madam, Shmi might have thought that I was crazy," Clank laughed, "but anyways, what are you doing here other then the fact about the visions that were driving Mister Skywalker here?" He asked.

"Well Clank, a couple of days ago I was attacked because I was going to vote on a very important motion in the galactic senate and, if it passes, it would lead us to war," she said, "it would force the CIS to declare war on the republic so I left one of my fellow senators to vote in my place, I hope he votes correctly, and I went into hiding on Naboo with Anakin to protect me, I didn't agree with it and Anakin and I have argued constantly," she said.

Meanwhile, Xander and Anakin were talking about life in general outside. Xander said, "I love the night here on Tatooine, I feel safe here." he said, "there's no demons, no vampires and nothing hunting for my blood or flesh or attempting to mate with me, usually a horrible combination of all three," he shuddered, "just sandpeople and wild animals."

Anakin wondered what kind of place did he come from, 'it sounded like it was Hell but I would help him as long as I am here' he thought,

"Tomorrow," he said, "you're going to come back with us to Naboo and then, hopefully, Corucant. You are going to love Naboo," he said, "its so much more beautiful then Tatooine."

Xander looked at Anakin and said, "Beauty is where you find it and Tatooine is a beautiful planet in its own way."

"I guess your right Xander," Anakin said

TBC

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