The Chosen as Swain. By Kondoru

Standard Disclaimers

Thanks to JP for Betaing.

Um, this story is about You-know-what, or failed You-know-what. If you wanted something detailed, then I'm sorry, this isn't for you. You have been warned.

Part Ten; In Which Anakin is a slave once more.

His cover blown; Anakin and his trivurmate of feckless friends were now slaves of Queen Miraj, quite possibly the most evil woman in the Galaxy.

(When I make that claim I mean to say she was more evil than the average teenage girl. This level of Evil is hard to beat).

Obi-wan and Rex had been sent off `to examine a mining claim in the far reaches of my territory` the Queen had said, and Ashoka had been handed over to her prime minister, Atai Molec, who had gripped her by the shock collar and marched her off, muttering something in Huttese. (Anakin spoke Huttese fluently but did not understand the Zygerrians archaic accent.)

Miraj had smiled a predator's smile at Anakin. "And you, my handsome young Jeedai, are going to be my bodyguard...Obey me and I will see to it your friends are unharmed."

Anakin was beat for once, by this horrible woman who looked like a Tooka cat eying up prey. He was beginning to understand the Togrutas instinctive dislike for their oppressors. Zygerrians looked like predators.

(And incidentally, where were the Togruta he had been sent to rescue? All he had seen was Governor Rhosti...A nervous creature due to separation from his kin...)

So Anakin guarded Miraj's body all day. (What from was obscure).

He walked at a respectful distance behind her. (Never touching her shadow).

He stood behind her chair dutifully at meals.

He was the obedient slave.

And now it was bedtime. Miraj led him to her bedroom, which seemed to be a confusion of cages and pet baskets. Only because there was a huge bed did Anakin understand that this was the Queens lair.

"Now, strip."

Anakin wasn't ashamed of his body, nor was he embarrassed by nudity, he had to shower with Obi wan, Ashoka and the 501st, after all. But Miraj was up to something. (When were women not?) He doffed his armour and underrobes, looking at her, a challenge in his eye. It was not easy to cow the Champion of the Force, how dare she think she owned him?

And yet he knew Miraj had him between her taloned paws...She knew the Jedi's weak spot...His friends. Anakin could feel the horrible ambiance of this seemingly beautiful city; The Zygerrians sought not to just own the peoples of the Galaxy, but to break them in as well. Anakin had not dared to ask after Obi-wan, Rex and Ashoka. Miraj had promised that if he served her willingly, she would see to it they came to no harm.

But just what was the Zygerrian definition of `no harm`? Anakin didn't want to imagine. He couldn't imagine his friends sitting round passively awaiting their rescue anyway. In all probability they had broken loose and were coming to rescue him.

So, for now, Anakin Skywalker had to be a Good Slave.

She might own his body...But she would not get his soul.

(But as Anakin had learned in the caverns of Nelvaan...Souls could be lost. General Grievous had been a person once; Now he was the leader of a droid army, and a machine himself.) (1)

The queen walked around him, inspecting her new toy with a professional eye. Anakin followed her golden eyes with angry blue ones. She had her victory, she shouldn't expect him to be genteel about it.

He wondered if she might be repulsed by his cybernetic arm. (He hoped she would be repulsed by his cybernetic arm...)

But Miraj ran a clawed finger down the gold anodised durasteel in curiosity. She said nothing. The queen's face said nothing. Nothing but ownership of a dangerous animal who knew who its master was.

But wasn't that the Zygerrian way? They were accounted masters at taming wild beasts.

Wild beasts and wild Jedi, or so it seemed.

Anakin shuddered. Miraj smiled nastily. She came to a decision. "Get in," she gestured to her huge and intimidating bed. To a Jedi, used to a sleeping mat in the temple and a bunk shipboard, it looked like a big fluffy trap.

He got in. The bed was very soft. How was he going to sleep like this? Anakin managed not to fight the sheets. (Clean, but smelling faintly of female Zygerrian).

Miraj busied herself somewhere else in her stupidly huge bedroom. She pottered around, saying goodnight to pets.

Presently she arrived at her monstrous bed, bereft of jewellery, and wearing a simple white nightshirt.

Anakin peeked at this apparition from the dubious safety of the bedding.

"Out!" She ordered presumptuously.

"UH?"

"My beds nice and warm now; thanks to your gross hairy body."

(That was a slur, especially as Miraj's body was covered with fine red hair on her back and limbs.)

"Don't make me shock you." Miraj threatened. "Bad slave!"

Anakin scrambled out in confusion. He prostrated himself on the floor.

"There's a pallet for you in the antechamber. Goodnight."

Like a good slave, Anakin retreated to sleep in his pet basket.

(1) In volume Two of Genndy Tartakovskys `Clone Wars` Anakin goes on a vision quest and sees his future as Darth Vader. But he's not at all shocked or concerned over this prophecy (And yet as we all know, Anakin is dangerously prone to such things.) Perhaps he simply dismisses it as anxieties over his cybernetic arm, and the fact he's been in a cave with metiphic gas fumaroles in. (this scene is a marvellous bit of credible story telling with Anakin breathing in the gas and seeing the cave paintings act out a morality play. Jedi would do such things, wouldn't they? But Anakin-as-rationalist would realise that breathing such stuff could easily make him see stuff that wasn't there.) So I have him misunderstand the visions of a cyborg as being of Grievous and not himself.

Possibly the idea of him having this particular vision is handled better in the Ghosts of Mortis arc (The Clone Wars)...He is made to forget what he saw. But this is too easy a cop out, isn't it? Both Stories acknowledge that Anakin `would` have visions of his nightmarish future, wouldn't he?