Wow. Yeah, I've been offline for a while. Still getting used to a place all to myself and being out on my own, so... Anyways, here's the next chapter!
Whispers of Menace
A Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Alternate Universe
Chapter Eleven:
Collecting Prizes and Two Attacks
Once Watto had grudgingly delivered the parts to the arena hangar, Master Jinn decided that I'd take the most work-intensive bits to the ship with one eopie. He would sell the pod, and then bring the rest of what we needed with the second animal. Then I would bring both creatures back to Mos Espa, collect Anakin, and return to the vessel just as the repairs were finished.
However, my small friend didn't seem to believe that I'd actually be back for him. He clung stubbornly when I moved to mount up, and I had to peel him off.
"I'm not leaving you here, buddy," I assured him. "I promise. Some of these need my personal attention, but we will not lift off without you."
"Really?" The disbelieving tone told me that promises had been made to him before, but weren't kept.
"I'll tell you what." One hand moved to my belt. "Why don't you hold on to this for me, okay?" I unclipped one of my lightsabers and wrapped both of his hands around it.
"But you need this," he whispered, stricken.
"I need you far more. Its place may be on my belt, but you belong here and here." I touched my chest and one temple. "And I'll be back for both of you." He threw his arms around my neck. "I will."
"What if someone tries to hurt you?"
"I have another, but I fight better with both blades." Shmi still had to pull him off me so that I could go.
Jar Jar nearly talked my headtails off as we rode. I'm not sure how I convinced Padmé to lock him in a 'fresher when we got to the ship, but maybe he annoyed her just as badly. At least he was out of the way while the worst of the repairs were completed.
"Master Qui-Gon sent me a blood sample," Obi-Wan commented as we switched out the generators. "Wanted it tested—oomph—for midi-chlorians."
"How'd Anakin check out, then?" I wheezed, pushing a particularly heavy and stiff linkage into the correct position.
"Bloody hells, you mean it came from an actual person?"
"Where did you think he got it?" I snapped back.
"The number I got back just isn't possible!" My death glare made him flinch. "Thirty-some kriffing thousand parts per million, all right? That's more than half again Master Yoda's count! There's no way!"
"That's my Padawan you're talking about," I growled, poking him in the chest the moment I wriggled out from behind the generator. "And he's the reason we got these parts. You haven't even met Ani, so save your opinions 'til you have!"
Force be thanked, that was when Qui-Gon showed up with Artoo and the rest of the parts. I nearly yanked the reins out of his hands the moment he offered them to me.
"What did you say to her?" I heard him ask the younger man as I kicked my mount into a run. It didn't help that I could sense Ani working himself into a state, thinking I was leaving him behind with an angry Sebulba on the warpath.
The bookie was less than pleased when I showed up with my claim chip, but he thought twice about giving me any grief for cleaning him out. It took just a few minutes to purchase a small comm set for Shmi, and then I headed for the slave quarters at a pace just short of a run. When I rounded the last corner, I found my little friend sitting in the open doorway of his home, his face tear-streaked and my lightsaber in his lap.
"You… you did come back…" His face lit up as he saw me.
"I promised, didn't I? Go on and pack up." He hugged me, then ran for his room, pausing at the last moment.
"What about Mom? Is she free, too?"
"We tried, Ani, but Watto wouldn't go for it. I had a backup plan, though." I held up the jingling bag of coins from the bookie. "This should be enough to help Mr. Lars, yes?" This question was directed at Shmi.
"Y-yes," she stammered, eyes wide. "Oh, yes." After a beat, Ani did duck into his room, and I heard him start talking to Threepio. I put the purse and comm set on the table and sat down.
"The sooner you can get out of Mos Espa, the better," I told the older woman bluntly. "Sebulba is likely to recruit rowdies the moment he finds out where you live. I won't be surprised if he loses a large chunk of his sponsorship over this, unless he finds someone to cover his rear."
"Yes, you're probably right," she whispered. A second later, she turned on the device and started a brief message. When she tried to hand it back to me, I shook my head.
"Keep it; I told you we'd write, and I know the code for that one. You'll hear from us in the next couple of weeks." Anakin rushed back out of his room, a knapsack over his shoulders.
"I will see you again, Mom, I will. I promise." She smiled and walked us outside.
"I know you will." Shmi crouched, making sure he looked her in the eye. "Our paths go in different directions now, Ani, but my love will always be with you."
"I love you, too, Mom." They hugged one last time. "I'll miss you."
"I know. Now go, and don't look back." With a fierce nod, he obeyed, holding my lightsaber to his chest with one hand and taking mine in the other.
We had almost reached the edge of town and the desert when my senses prickled in warning, danger coming from two directions. I moved without thinking, calling both 'sabers to hand. One sprang to life as it left Anakin's grip, and I brought it around in a lunge. The instant I reached full extension with that blade, I rolled the other way, stopping with the second humming tip nearly touching the snout of one extremely shocked Dug.
"Sebulba." I straightened from my fighting stance slowly, keeping him at 'saber-point as I ostentatiously levitated my other weapon back toward my Padawan. "[You'd better run, dirt-bag, and hope you and your buddies never cross my path again.]" Each of the five bruisers behind him had to mass at least twice what I did, yet they were about to soil themselves because I was a Jedi. "[I said, run.]" They scrambled to get away, and I turned to inspect the sparking remains of a pitch-black droid.
"What is it?"
"Probe droid, I think." I nudged some of the pieces apart, then nodded. "Not from any manufacturer I know of, though. And it reeks of the Dark Side, which can only be bad news." Ani's eyes were wide with shock.
"Dark Side?"
"I'll explain later, okay? Right now, we need to get going." He nodded and started jogging, following his gossamer bond with Padmé. I worried about the implications of the Darkness-saturated droid. And if the person operating the device meant to harm my Padawan…
We crested one last high dune to see the Naboo cruiser gleaming brightly in front of us. A dark speck far to one side caught my attention, and I shifted my focus. The spot grew rapidly, and a wave of Dark Side energy swamped me.
"Ani, DOWN!" I cried, and he turned his run into a dive, rolling the rest of the way down the dune. The figure on the odd-looking speeder bike launched itself at me, and I barely got a 'saber up in time to block a savage blow.
For a few moments, it was a contest of pure physical strength, one that I had no chance of winning. I twisted out from under the crimson blade only to find the Dark Sider between me and the ship, between me and my Padawan. The face under the black hood was nearly invisible, striped in dark and darker, broken only by a pair of malevolent yellow-red irises. I gave ground before his rage-fed assault.
"Get to the ship!" As Anakin regained his feet, I shouted instructions. "Tell them to take off! Go!" He vanished up the ramp as I fended off more blows.
Now that I could concentrate on my opponent alone, I discovered several things. He was a Zabrak, without a single speck of Light in his aura, and the hilt of his lightsaber was more than twice the necessary length.
"Compensating for something?" I hissed, freeing my blade to try and strike at the matte gray cylinder. It was snatched out of reach as the Zabrak parried.
"You'll wish I was," he growled, baring yellowed and pointed teeth. I flipped over him when he struck again, dropping all the way to the ground for an ankle sweep. He danced over it nimbly, but nearly fell victim to my next kick, aimed at his face.
The air filled with sand as the cruiser hovered over us, its ramp still extended. I leapt for safety, then kicked the black-gloved fingers that seized the edge of the ramp and my cloak. As the hatch closed, I collapsed against the bulkhead, heart racing at the narrow escape. That had been too close.
"Serra?" The moment our eyes met, Ani hurled himself at me. I held his shaking body tight. "I thought it was going to kill you," he whispered.
"He certainly would have liked to," I replied. "But separating us is not that easy."
"What was that?" Seeing Qui-Gon that worried was strangely gratifying.
"I can't be one hundred percent sure, but I think he's part of why the Trade Federation is blockading Naboo." I stood and met his and Obi-Wan's confused gazes. "He's a Dark Sider, strong and frighteningly well-trained. The Sith may not be as dead as history claims."
Their shudders echoed my feelings on the matter.