Note: Thank you again to those who've left feedback! Definitely provides some great motivation. I hope you enjoy this chapter :) I'm working on the next one as we speak so that you won't have to wait as long!
Chapter Ten
"You did what!?" Qui-Gon asked through clenched teeth.
Anakin flinched. He could feel his master's ferocity practically bursting from behind his tightly controlled shields. "Padawan, I did not just hear you say what I thought you did."
"You heard me correctly, Master. I signed up for a podrace, and if I win, we will get enough money to purchase the hyperdrive and comm systems we need." Anakin fought to keep his voice steady, just like Xanatos had instructed. Don't sound annoyed or overconfident, just state it as a fact.
Obi-Wan poked his head through the dining area of the ship. "Anakin! You're back!" He grinned, his hair sticking up at odd angles. He'd clearly just woken up and Anakin envied him.
"Hey, Obi-Wan," Anakin gave him a tight smile. "Your master is—"
"Bring him here, Obi-Wan. Now," Qui-Gon ordered.
"Um, um, yessir," Obi-Wan spun on his heel, blinking sleep out of his eyes to fetch his master.
A few moments later, their entire lineage was in the dining area with Qui-Gon having lost all sense of calm. "How dare you allow my apprentice to sign up for a podrace!? Do you have any idea, any idea, how dangerous those can be?"
"I am aware, Qui-Gon, but it was the will of the force. We both felt that it was the right thing to do, and Anakin is a talented pilot," Xanatos responded calmly.
"The will of the—the will of the force!?" Qui-Gon took a deep shaking breath.
"Master, it was my decision," Anakin said. "Besides, we don't have many options. This is one of the ways we can get enough money to buy the parts we need in a reasonable amount of time."
"Your feelings are clouding your judgement, Master," Xanatos murmured. "Your concern for Anakin's safety is preventing you from listening to the force with clarity. But—"
"Xanatos, I swear—"
"But we should have consulted with you before we made the decision," Xanatos interrupted before Qui-Gon could finish his statement. "We made a decision this morning, albeit rashly, and we shouldn't have made it without discussing it with you first. For that, I apologize."
Qui-Gon opened his mouth and then closed it in surprise.
Xanatos continued, "Now, Anakin's mother has graciously offered to house us—all of us in her hovel for the time being. It's small, but surprisingly comfortable. We can all fit in there while we work for Watto."
"I'm sorry—I must have missed the part where you told me about that," Qui-Gon scowled, folding his hands into his sleeves.
"Right..." Xanatos winced and cleared his throat.
Anakin was glad that the older jedi was in charge of relaying their decisions to his master. It'd never been better to have an older jedi brother. "So, the only way to get the money in time to purchase parts for the podracer was for me to volunteer all of us for free labor at his shop for the next two days."
"You realize that you volunteered two royal women to commit to free manual labor..."
"Well, we needed to keep them with us, didn't we? This was the only way."
"This is why I should have been the one to go," Qui-Gon groaned. "You're all young and rash."
Both Xanatos and Anakin snorted at that. "And who exactly do you think we learned our decision-making from?"
"Such insolence," Qui-Gon mock-glared at Anakin. "Do not learn from Xanatos. Do you hear me? I am still in charge of your punishments."
Anakin held up his hands and grinned. "Hey, I'm learning from you, Master. Only you."
"Mm hmm...and Xanatos, you get to be the one to tell our young queen and duchess that they'll be working in a junk shop for the next few days for food and supplies to build a podracer, in which my very young apprentice, who has never flown a podracer in his life, mind you, will race, and we will bet on him and hope and pray that he wins so that we will have enough money to purchase the parts we need for the Nubian ship to get off this blasted sith-hell of a planet."
"Well, when you put it like that..." Xanatos shared a worried look with Anakin.
At the junk shop, Anakin could feel everyone's eyes on him. He understood their concern, his master's especially, but couldn't they all just kriff off? So what if his mother was a slave? He wasn't. He was a jedi. And he was going to free her, he decided. If not today, then one day. He would come back and he would free her and all of the other slaves. No one deserved to live a life like this.
Anakin fixed Watto's helper droids at break necking speed. The sooner he completed all of their tasks, the sooner they could work on building the podracer. He wanted to at least practice flying the thing before the Boonta Eve.
/Padawan, are you all right?/ Qui-Gon asked.
/I need you to stop asking me that, Master. I'm fine./
/Very well. We will meditate together tonight. /
Anakin internally groaned. He hated meditation.
Watto fluttered around his junk yard and junk shop, stroking his chin as he observed everyone working. "Very fast, all of you, eh?" he said.
"Yes, we are very efficient," Xanatos said. "You're not going to have very much for us to do in a few hours. Remember our deal. If we finish your tasks, we are free to obtain parts for the podracer." Their goal had been to finish most of their tasks in one full day and be free to spend the next few days working on and testing the podracer.
"I should..."
"Don't even think about it," Xanatos growled. "We are not your slaves."
"Okay, okay," Watto fluttered backwards and held his hands up.
Obi-Wan sat beside Anakin and gestured at last of the broken droids in Anakin's pile. "I can help with that one. I finished all the tasks on my end."
"Thanks," Anakin murmured.
Obi-Wan picked up the droid and fiddled with it. Anakin had taken all of the more complicated tasks being the more talented mechanic of the group. "You nervous about the race?" Obi-Wan asked.
Anakin swallowed, but was thankful that Obi-Wan had skirted the topic about his mom. "Nah, I have the force. It'll be fine."
"Yeah...um...kriff the force. It works in such mysterious ways. What if it decides you die?"
Anakin's head shot up and he stared at Obi-Wan who was also looking at him with wide horrified eyes. Did he hear Obi-Wan correctly?
"Um...I don't know why I even said that," Obi-Wan stuttered. "It just—it just came out, I guess. Kriff, I must be more tired than I thought."
"Jeez, Obes, way to boost my confidence," Anakin laughed at Obi-Wan's comical expression and gave him a friendly shove.
"Sorry, I am so sorry. You'll be fine. The force is on our side."
"Yes, because it always is, right?" Anakin grinned. "Hence why we're stranded on this desert hole."
"Exactly," Obi-Wan nodded. "We're on this planet for a reason. Maybe we'll...free everyone or something."
"Doubt it, Obi-Wan," Anakin mumbled, sparing a glance at his mother and then his master. "Not part of the mission objective, remember?"
"Could be...I have an idea. We might get in a lot of trouble for it, but I think I have an idea on how to free your...mother."
Anakin swallowed hard. The thought of having a mother still confused him. Jedi weren't used to having families. The jedi were family. But the thought of his mother being a slave disturbed him. "Anakin, I'm not leaving her here. I'm freeing her. You can help me or not. Your choice."
"I thought you were a rule follower."
"Rule bender," Obi-Wan grinned. "Learned that from my master. Now, come on, let's go talk to Watto. I got the girls to keep our masters distracted."
Did he hear Obi-Wan correctly? Did he just refer to the two royal young women as 'girls'? He'd always thought of Obi-Wan as someone who was kind of stuffed up and rigid and followed the code to the letter. He'd definitely assumed that Obi-Wan was much more serious and formal than most other padawans.
"You coming or what, Ani?"
"All right," Anakin shrugged. It seemed that he didn't know Obi-Wan as well as he'd originally thought. They did run in different friend circles, after all. Maybe after this mission they'd be closer friends. Obi-Wan was pretty cool.
Xanatos gave Obi-Wan a questioning glance when he saw him walk by with Anakin and ask to speak with Watto outside. He prodded his padawan's mind, but was met with a wall. His apprentice's mind was completely closed off to him. Interesting. "My padawan is up to no good, I'm afraid," Xanatos sighed to Qui-Gon. "I wonder what he's getting himself into this time."
"Are you going to find out?" Qui-Gon raised a brow.
"I'm intrigued to find out what he's going to do," Xanatos smirked, tightening a screw on the droid he was working on. "My padawan isn't that rebellious. How much trouble could he possibly get into?"
"Are we talking about Obi-Wan? Based on his reputation in the creche, I'd say a lot."
Xanatos chuckled, "He was a bit of a rascal, wasn't he? But never intentionally." He placed the finished droid down and clapped his hands together. "All right, let's grab the podracer parts and head to the hovel."
Padme and Satine appeared in front of them with a droid in their hands. "I'm tired," Padme pouted.
"Please just clean this one for us. We are so sick of this. This is not what we signed up for," Satine scowled.
Xanatos frowned. Nothing grated on his nerves more than a person whining. "And we didn't exactly sign up to protect either of you, did we?"
"Xanatos..." Qui-Gon said disapprovingly before taking the droid from the girls' hands. "No one signed up for this situation, ladies. We do the best we can given the situation. I thought two women like you would know that and would be more adaptable given your roles on your planets."
Padme and Satine glanced at each other and flushed with shame. Xanatos admired how his former master was able to speak with such calm and still elicit the response that Xanatos had been hoping for from the girls. "We apologize," Padme murmured and took the droid from his hands. "We will complete this task."
"Good," Xanatos said and walked away.
Qui-Gon stood with Xanatos and followed him out into the junkyard, just in time to see their padawans shaking hands with Watto. Xanatos could sense the pure joy radiating off the toydarian. "It seems that the queen and duchess were stalling us," he murmured to Qui-Gon. "Our padawans are indeed up to no good."
Watto grinned widely and fluttered over to Xanatos and Qui-Gon. "We've finished our tasks. We would like to collect the podracer parts," Xanatos said.
"Yes, yes, you need your parts and all of the luck the desert sands can offer you. I hope your son and brother don't end up dead. Based on how they gamble, they probably will be dead sooner than later!" Watto laughed and gestured for the two men to follow him.
/Padawan?/ Xanatos questioned along the still closed off bond. He tapped against Obi-Wan's shields.
/Later, Master...when we are alone and I am ready for a lecture./
/What did you do, Padawan?/
/Nothing too terrible, Master. Don't worry./
/Now I am definitely worried./
Xanatos turned to see Obi-Wan flash him a cheeky grin. He had a bad feeling about this.
/Master Qui-Gon might shout at us again.../
Yes, he definitely had a bad feeling about this.