Interlude (Part 2): Life as a Slave
Theron opens his eyes, and looks at his surroundings. He is inside a shop of sorts due to the walls made of sand.
"What the hell?" He mutters. "This better not be another vision of the past."
He then walks out of the room to see more junk being displayed on the walls or shelves. Then, he notices a Toydarian behind the front counter. Curious, Theron attempted to get his attention but it only resulted in phasing right through certain objects in the junk shop.
"God damnit." He angrily huffs. "Of course it's a vision. And why am I on Tatooine of all places?"
32 BBY
Tatooine
Mos Espa
Suddenly, the door chime rings to life as a tall, bearded man wearing a poncho (If you the audience know, he's the spitting image of Liam Neeson) - accompanied by a Gungan (who looks rather clumsy given his behavior), a 14 year old girl in rough peasant clothes, and a dome-headed, blue astromech droid - enters the shop.
Theron immediately recognizes her.
"Wait a sec! That's the girl from that other vision! Padme, was it? But what's she even doing in a place like this?" He wonders in thought.
With his wings on his back, the Toydarian flies out of his seat behind the front counter and greets the bearded man in Huttese. Theron could only make out what little he knows about that disgusting language as the shop owner is asking the man on what he wants to buy.
The man answer was that he's looking to buy a new Nubian hyperdrive generator. The Toydarian was thrilled that he finally has a customer willing to buy an expensive part that are exclusively used on Naboo royal ships. He then calls out to his assistant who then immediately comes in. It was a boy who is no older than 9 years and Theron recognizes him as well.
"It's him!" He deduces.
The Toydarian then tells the boy to watch the shop while he takes the tall man out in the back so he can barter with him on price of his order. Like that, the man and droid follows the shop owner out in the back. Meanwhile, the boy hitched himself up onto the counter and begins talking to her.
"Are you an angel?" The boy blurts out.
The girl turns around, smiling at him but confused to his odd question.
"What?"
"An angel." He responded as she stepped closer to him. "I've heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They are the most beautiful creatures in the universe. Thry live on the Moons of Iego, I think."
"You're a funny little boy." She said sweetly. "How do you know so much?"
"I listen to all the traders and starpilots who come through here. I'm a pilot, you know, and someday, I'm going to fly away from this place."
"You're a pilot?" She asks, as if she found it hard to believe that a young boy like him would be capable of flying a ship.
"Mm-hmm. All my life."
"How long have you been here?"
"Since I was very little, three, I think. My mom and I were sold to Gardulla the Hutt, she lost us, betting on the Podraces."
Sounding surprised and alarmed, the girl learns that he's a slave.
"You're a slave?"
Even though the girl is technically correct, the boy didn't like being called one, and he felt stung by her question.
"I'm a person, and my name is Anakin." He answers with a glare.
Theron perks up in shock.
"This boy is Anakin Skywalker, the Hero with No Fear?!" Theron exclaims. "And he was a slave?! The Old Jedi and galactic records never mentioned anything about this."
Suspicious, Theron continues to listen in on their conversation.
"I'm sorry. I don't fully understand." She apologizes as she glances around the shop's interior, as if seeking answers from the assorted scrap that lined the walls. "This is s strange place to me."
Anakin senses her emotions and realizes she meant what she has said. Therefore, he accepts her apology with a mental nod in his head. He remembers his own arrival to Tatooine, and had to admit that he'd found it strange too.
A few minutes later, the tall man and the droid returned with the Toydarian named Watto. The man announced that his group is leaving, and Anakin felt heartsick as the girl walked out the door.
Theron notices the Gungan in his vision acting all clumsy when he was carrying parts in his hands, wobbling before he fell on his back with a scream. The Gungan then gets up and walks away from the mess he made, following his group outside the shop.
"Dumbass." Theron rolls his eyes at the idiocy of the Gungan's actions. "No wonder a Gungan's mind is so easy to manipulate. But other than that, seeing Anakin as a slave isn't what I was expecting in his childhood. And despite Watto being a slaver and shop owner, he's not cruel at all, no matter his gruffy appearance and Italian accent. Sometimes, slavers have a sense of honor and have always hated slavery like most of the Americans did back during Earth's 19th Century."
After Watto gave Anakin permission to head home for the day, the boy decides to catch up with the off worlders that had just left the shop.
Theron then decides to follow him outside, only to end up in a different building via Force vision fast forwarding.
"Oh come on!" He laments as his surroundings changed from the blinding light.
...
He now sees Anakin and his mother Shmi eating lunch with the off worlders due to a sandstorm outside that prevents the group from returning to their ship in the outskirts of Mos Espa. They went on to discuss why the group are really here on Tatooine.
From what Theron could learn, the tall man is Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, the Gungan known as Jar Jar Binks, and the girl's full name Padme Naberrie who is a handmaiden to Queen Amidala of the planet Naboo. Qui-Gon explains that he's been escorting the queen and her entourage on an important mission to the Republic capital world of Coruscant when their ship had been damaged, and they were forced to land on Tatooine without funds for the necessary repairs.
Hoping to help, Anakin explained that a big Podrace, the Boonta Eve Classic, was scheduled for the following day. He volunteered to enter the race, which offered the prize money that would more than pay for the parts they needed. Despite Shmi's protests, she reluctantly allows her son to race.
Later outside, Qui-Gon and Shmi discuss about Anakin as the boy is working on his podracer, in which the two are watching him.
"You should be very proud of your son." He says. "He gives without any thought of reward."
"Well, he knows nothing of greed." She explains, smiling. "He has a..."
"He has special powers." He finishes her sentence.
"Yes." The mother nods hesitantly.
"He can see things before they happened. That's why he appears to have such quick reflexes." He explains while they're looking at Anakin from a distance. "It's a Jedi trait."
"He deserves better than a slave's life."
"Had he'd been born in the Republic, we would've identified him earlier. The Force is usually strong with him. That much is clear." He agrees with her before asking the important question. "Who was hid father?"
Shmi looks up at him, feeling uncomfortable at that question but let's the cat out of the bag.
"There was no father." She answers.
Theron's eyes widen in shock at what she means by that before continuing to listen.
"I carried him, I gave birth, I raised him. I can't explain what happened." She finishes her story. "Can you help him?"
"I don't know." The Jedi Master answers, unsure. "I didn't actually come here to free slaves."
Theron looks down and sighs to himself before the scene changes again.
...
Later that night, Qui-Gon had just finished patching up a small injury on Anakin when Shmi calls out to the boy that it's bedtime.
"What are you doing?" Asks the boy.
"Checking your blood for infections." The Jedi Master answers with reassurance. "Go on. You have a big day tomorrow. Sleep well, Ani."
After Anakin went back inside to sleep, Qui-Gon contacts his Padawan who is left on board the queen's ship.
"Obi-Wan?" He speaks through the commlink in his hand.
"Yes Master?" The Padawan answers.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi? As in the Negotiator, is apprenticed to this old man?" Theron questions in shock, not knowing that Obi-Wan had a master like Qui-Gon. "Guess Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor might make a good pair of actors as movie partners."
"I need an analysis of his blood sample I'm sending in."
"Wait a minute." Obi-Wan replies as he is bringing up his workstation's computer online.
"I need a midichlorian count." Qui-Gon clarifies as he sends in the boy's blood sample to his Padawan.
"Midichlorian count? Is that how Anakin was discovered to be Force sensitive?" Theron wonders. However, there's more to Qui-Gon's discovery when Obi-Wan finishes his analysis.
"The reading's off the chart." He explains with shock in his voice. "Over twenty thousand! Even Master Yoda doesn't have a midichlorian count that high."
"Wait, what?! You mean Anakin is that strong in the Force?! So he's stronger than Yoda and could possibly be around Revan's level of power?! That shouldn't even be possible, but..."
"No Jedi has." Qui-Gon cuts off Theron's thoughts when the Jedi Master spoke.
"What does that mean?" Obi-Wan asks, not understanding it all.
"Good question." Theron agrees in his thoughts.
"I'm not sure." The Jedi Master answers, unsure but does have an idea of what it truly means.
...
Present Day
August 1, 2023 (Earth Calendar)
Sol System
Earth
Unfortunately, Theron ended up waking up in his pilot seat as the Ebon Hawk's navi-computer starts beeping.
"And just when things are getting interesting even more." Theron mutters in annoyance at the will of the Force being unpredictable as ever.
Theron then pulls out of hyperspace as the ship has just appeared next to the Earth's moon, where R4 has only exited hyperspace seconds before the teen did.
"Sleep well, meatbag?" R4 teases over on the Hawk's comms.
Theron groans again.
"Yes, I did." He deadpans. "I'll meet you down at our home in the Japanese countryside."
And just like that, the Ebon Hawk begins its descent to the planet's surface after the Jedi starfighter ejects from its docking ring and follows the freighter not too far behind.
To be continued...