Chapter 8

Saché and Yané are well aware that Anakin Skywalker has many problems. Someone that age no matter what gender should not always wish to hang around their guardians, but Anakin Skywalker has been persistent to be around one of them as if simply being away from them would make them disappear.

However, sometimes even Anakin is a contribution for headaches.

Like who the kriff told that damn child to climb up a karking tree?!

Now, the kid miss a branch and the end result had not been pretty for the child in the long run.

It's clear that it's taking all within Eirtaé not to throttle him, something which is understandable, as she carries the injured child. They have to commend the woman for her patience.

Anakin is surprisingly not crying.

The kid never cries, it seems, at least not around them.

But he is definitely close to it.

Now, as Anakin is laid across the bed, the ladies would have to admit that they don't want to face Sabé right now. She had been so overprotective of Anakin, a notable change. It is beginning to occur in all of them; Eirtaé is more mature, Rabé is more lighter, Yané is more talkative, and Saché is more knowledgeable.

Perhaps assisting in raising a child does that to some people. Teenagers raising their own siblings are common after all or even teenager pregnancy.

So when they hear sounds of footsteps approaching, they all jump, only to be glad to see Rabé.

"What happened?" Rabé asks sternly, her icy glare making them all imagine what Sabé would do if they find out about their little companion.

"Anakin climbed up a tree, missed a branch, and fell off. Luckily he survived." Yané replies, crossing her arms across her chest.

Anakin has suffered quite the damage. His wounds across his chest varying from his legs and arms are minor, but that doesn't mean that he won't require medical attention.

"We need to get those clothes off of him, and maybe shower him off in the fresher before we let him sleep it off," Saché says. "Rabé, now that Sabé's not here, you are the closest one to him so you should do it."

"N-no," Anakin insists, struggling when Rabé lift him into a sitting position across her lap and starts unbuttoning his coveralls. "No. Don't. Don't."

His breathing grow rapid, his struggles obvious.

"Please. Don't."

Inwardly, all of them flinch. They couldn't help but remember Anakin's upbringing now. Anakin's time in slavery. There is real fear in his eyes as he tries to fend off Rabé, and he probably had to removed his clothes in a public manner for those disgusting slaves to get their sadistic pleasure out.

Hopefully, that's it, Eirtaé grimace. Not anything else. Hopefully he had never had to do graphic acts that could stain the brain of one forever.

"It's alright, Ani," Rabé says softly. "It's just me."

"S-stop. You can't," Anakin turns his face away from them and his eyes droop, even though he is evidently struggling to focus. "You can't..."

"None of us are going to hurt you, little one," Rabé says. "You know that. You're safe."

Anakin's eyes focuses on the woman. "Rabé..."

"Yeah. It's me. And you're alright."

"Stop." Anakin cling to Rabé's hand, attempting to stop her from peeling off his coveralls any further. He has been like that for weeks. He even learned how to shower on his own. Researching further, Yané and Saché discovered most of the upper lower class, and middle class people on Tatooine would have used Sonic showers. Sonic showers used the barest minimum of water and soap which than vibrated the dirt of your skin. It was the most common means horrifyingly. "You can't. You can't."

"It's alright, Ani," Rabé says. "Like I said before, no one is going to hurt you."

"You can't see," Anakin shouts out, then suddenly seems to lose all strength. His fingers slips off Rabé's and his hand goes down to his side. His eyes flutters as he tries to hold onto consciousness for a few seconds more.

"It's okay, kid," Rabé replies. "You don't have to be embarrassed."

Anakin give her one last desperate look before his eyes closed.

"I don't think I could take this," Eirtaé says as Rabé begin to work unhindered on ridding Anakin of his clothes. "So if you don't need my help, I'll be going now."

A sharp intake of breath from Rabé and a softly uttered swear stops her halfway outside. Yané and Saché even look sick and that's something new given they seen everything. Eirtaé looks down, suddenly worried. What would cause even two of their healers who have years of medical training to even look seconds away from barfing?

Eirtaé's eyes fall on Anakin's exposed skin then, and her jaw goes slack in horror.

Because Anakin's skin is nothing ranging of varying scars.

On his right arm are endless marks cut into his skin. Five straight slashes running up and down, connected by a longer diagonal slash that cut through them. Then five more straight lines. Someone has used his skin to count to seven, burying their count into his flesh.

Near his left collarbone are burn marks, small and circular. And lots of them. Eirtaé count at least a dozen at a single look but there are obviously so much more. Their shape is too accurate, and their placement to imperfect to be anything accidental. Someone - likely Anakin's Master or Masters - had taken something hot and round, like a cigarette, and pressed it against Anakin's skin repeatedly, again and again, burning those little circles into his flesh.

On his left arm, at his elbow joint, are needle scars. Eirtaé feels vomit rise in her throat, which she forces down. Who the kriff could ever do this to a child that never hurt anyone?!

Then there is a scar over his left wrist, that is perhaps more worrying than everything else combined.

None of the scars are accidental and that's what scary because someone had clear joints of pleasure to hurt this child as long as they have a slave out of him. There are few that looks completely insidious, like an almost surgically horizontal scar running down the side of his stomach, and what could have been a botched slave brand over his heart.

But then there is Anakin's back. Blanketed in long, slender scars that stood out, a dark purplish pink on his skin. Those scars are without doubts whipping marks. His backside has suffered similar treatment. This is not corporal punishment as no spankings should leave marks but someone who clearly did this for some satisfiaction.

Eirtaé had been on the receiving end from her parents when she was younger, and while it hurt, there were no marks. Yané and Saché can say the same thing. Spankings are meant to correct a kid and is only used as a last resort, not for sick sadistic pleasure of another and leaving permanent marks.

"Kriff it all," Rabé swears.

Eirtaé tear her eyes away. No wonder Anakin had been fighting them without end. Anakin didn't want them to see his scars because he knows he would be judged. They might not be able to look at him the same after this, something that is true but for different reasons than the kid might think.

What if the kid didn't want sympathy? What if he couldn't take those soft looks and being looked as if he is royalty? Eirtaé could help but think.

Her eyes travels to Rabé, and her expression sends a drum of fear through her, even though she knows her rage isn't directed at her at all. She seems possessed by something and want blood against all the slavers, something that Eirtaé agrees with. She has never seen Rabé look so scary before in her life but flames appear to be burning in the back of her eyes. Helpless anger is across her beautiful face as she hold Anakin against his chest, like she is trying to protect him.

But she couldn't protect Anakin from his past. It has already occured. There is no changing it, no undoing the things he has suffered. Those marks are there to stay for perhaps a long time, permanent testimony to the many hardships Anakin had faced - and even after so many years they probably would fade but still be present in his memory -, and the times he'd lived through that made him still trying to help other people even after the things he suffered.

"I'm going to run an medical test to see if he faced sexual abuse," Yané declares, knowing it is an invasion of privacy but she has to make sure Anakin's condition is not that deep for the near future.

Rabé looks sharp as daggers at that statement, her mere expression terrifying them all. Undoubtedly, if the test comes back positive, nothing would be able to hold Rabé back from storming to Tatooine and raising hell.

Yané collects the things she need with a small tube while writing down notes. She had enough to run intel on him.

Saché continues. "We need to get the kid washed off. It's not like none of us have scars after facing the invasion of Naboo."

"Right," Rabé agrees. She still look a little dazed and blinked several times, like she is trying to collect her thoughts and hold back something within her. "Right."

Then she stares back down at the scars that married the poor child's skin. Her teeth gritted.

But she stand, lifting Anakin, glaring when Saché offers to take him. Saché backs off quickly in the face of that glare. And Rabé carries Anakin the rest of the way to the fresher, still half dressed. Eirtaé and Saché trails after her until the refresher door shut behind her, right in their faces.

"Well that went well," Saché tries to humor the situation.

"Thought Rabé was going to explode," Eirtaé agrees, playing along.

Fifteen minutes later, Rabé emerges, carrying Anakin in towels, one around his waist, the other around his torso. Anakin is completely unconscious. Not once did he twitch or stir on the way to his room.

After Rabé places Anakin onto the bed, she goes and find Saché and Eirtaé in the common room. Yané is there as well. They are all sitting around in chairs outside, looking helpless and stressed.

While Rabé wants to know the condition right now, she has some words to say. She indicates for them to follow her, and they do, interested in Anakin's current state.

"We won't be talking about this," Rabé tells them.

They look up, shocked.

"But –" Eirtaé begin to say.

"It's not our place to ask questions about it," Rabé beat down any argument. "Ani is going to know that we know. Even though he obviously didn't want us to know. If there's anything else he does want us to know, then he'll tell us. But it's not our place to push him about this, nor tell anyone else, not even Padmé."

Rabé would always love Padmé like a younger sister and is glad to serve her, but it's none of her business quite frankly.

"What about Sabé? You're going to tell Sabé about this?" Yané asks curiously.

Rabé just give her a look. One that said of course she is going to tell Sabé. Saché and Eirtaé think it is a good idea to compete with that. Perhaps it is a breach of Anakin's privacy, but Sabé is the closest thing the kid has to a mother now until they returned to Tatooine to rescue Anakin's biological mother, and this is the kind of thing parents needed to know.

"I won't say or ask anything about his scars," Eirtaé says, knowing that's what Rabé is waiting for.

Rabé looks to Yané and Saché.

"Of course we are not going to tell anyone," Saché speaks for the both of them. "He'll tell us when he's ready. Or more likely it'll come out on its own, probably at the worst possible time. But we know all too well what invasion of privacy is. You can count on us, Rabé."

Rabé relax slightly now that she had their word. "I know," she admits. Then she turns to begin heading to Sabé's chambers.

"Rabé."

Rabé pauses and glances back at Saché, who receives a fierce glare.

"Try to remember, he turned out alright. Whatever happened, he survived it. We would make sure that he never has to go through this again. There is no healing the past but there is a way to help him in the future."

"Additionally," Yané says. "I ran data on what I have collected from him three times. If it is of any cold comfort, there was no signs of penetration nor does his pelvis seem to have been utilized in the past, meaning he has never been raped."

They each breathe a sigh of relief.

And Rabé appears to calm only slightly.

"Well that's a relief," Eirtaé responds, placing her hand on Anakin's hair as if to comfort him in his deep sleep.

Rabé gives a curt nod, then continues on her way to talk to Sabé.

They never would find out where Anakin had gotten each of those scars. But in time, they will find out where he got most of them.

Anakin is laid across the bed, and Sabé has to admit she is sick to her bone when she sees him. When Yané and Saché reluctantly removes the towels and shows off his scars from head to toe, Sabé feels the urge to throw up. She is going to be very trigger happy when she finds the individuals that did this to him.

"Sabé," Yané's voice breaks through her thoughts, sounding nervous. "I didn't want to tell Rabé this, but it turns out that the Jedi forgot to mention or didn't know that Anakin has a slave chip inside of him."

Sabé arches an eyebrow. "What's a slave chip?"

Yané shrugs only slightly. "I have no idea. I never heard of it. I know you are pissed, Sabé, but when he awakes, you could not let him know that you are angry nor disgusted, for he would presume those emotions are targeted at him. Believe me, I am too, but he needs our support."

Sabé sighs and heaves her shoulders, glaring down. She didn't want Anakin to feel that way in front of her but she knows that she needs to find it out without shaking it out of him. She didn't want for him to feel ashamed and full of more insecurities than he already has, but the fact that he has a very positive attitude to everyone around him is amazing.

The women wait outside for Anakin to wake up. Wanting to learn the condition of his injuries, Sabé wait outside the door, and she slept in that chair that night until the next morning.

Anakin trembles when he wakes up. He feels strangely exposed like when he stepped out in front of the slavers along with the other slaves children, each to be decided of their fates, but luckily he remained with his mother all the time, one of the few luckys compare to others, who never seen their parents again like Kitster for example..

Sabé walks in and places a hand on his forehead. "Hey, you okay?"

Anakin doesn't say anything so Sabé decides to be more brief. "Anakin, look at me." Anakin stays silent. "Fine, if you want to play it that way."

Sabé sits across from him.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not leaving you," Sabé replies softly. "If you think you are going to push me away, you will find yourself disappointed." She breathes a few times before continuing. "Answer the question, Ani."

Anakin sighs. "I'm fine."

Sabé smiles, though something within Anakin can tell it's strained. "See was that so hard? I have been thinking about your mother. When Master Qui-Gon found you, did he even tried to free your mother?"

"Oh." Anakin's brows knit, not expecting the question. "No. I asked him if Mom was free too, but he just said there wasn't enough money, and that my Master didn't want to trade. And then I knew that meant that Watto was mad, because that's how he always is when he loses bets, and he probably brought up mom's price."

Sabé is starting to see why Anakin hadn't told anybody about the wounds on his body, let along why he had been following behind the Jedi. "So Qui-Gon bought you and set you free, and then left your mother there, and you're concerned that she would get sold before we could save her."

"Yeah." Anakin replies, tears in his eyes.

"Okay." Sabé hesitates, then decides to correct an assumption Anakin has. "Ani." The kid glances up to her. "While Qui-Gon would forever be honored as an hero on Naboo, the way he didn't even try to use his Jedi authority and left you motherless is wrong, leaving you without her for weeks. We would find a way to free her without any beverages." She then scowls, deciding to be brief. "Ani, did you know that you have a slave chip inside of you?"

Anakin nods, his eyes going wide. "Yes, Master Qui-Gon promised to have it surgically removed, but he forgot to tell the Jedi, I think."

"Okay, so tell me. I don't know what this… slave chip is, but tell me what this does?" Sabé questions. "Is it like something that monitors you or something?"

Anakin shifts a little, glances up at her again, and replies. "Well… when a slave becomes free, that's the first thing you gotta removed, or their masters will use the remotes next time you are near range. Not all the slaves dies. You gotta find them, or you might already know where they are, and then you gotta do surgery to get them out."

"They're in your body?" Sabé asks, disgusted.

Anakin give her a unreadable look. A part of him is afraid she also use this as a way to keep him in control like the slavers did. "Well, yeah. That's what makes them so dangerous," he replies, as if explaining common logic to people. "I don't know where mine is. Nor do I want it remove if it's going to piss any of you off-"

"Of course not! Ani, had you told us this, we would have removed your chip a couple of weeks ago!" Sabé shouts, her hands going up to her hair, wanting to tear it out.

He pauses, surprised at the conviction in her voice, before continuing. "Anyway, every slave has got one, I think. Sometimes if the slaves are super expensive, the chip has a certain way that someone can go, and if they go outside that range, electricity shocks them until they pass out or it just blows up unless removed."

"That's-" Sabé says. "That's horrible."

"But that's just the expensive slaves, because they have more 'freedom' with the chip," Anakin elaborates, matter-of-fact. "So the chips like Mom and I have just explode if the Master thinks the slave is running away. Since Qui-Gon deactivated mine, it won't blow up, but if my mom displease Watto, he would blow her up."

Anakin sounds so afraid when he says that that Sabé stares down and clench her hands up into fists. There is a moment where the disdain and horror just did not register. In just a short few weeks ago, Sabé would have ran away from Anakin as if he is a ticking time bomb, but now that they have grown more attached she would not let his life be placed in the hands of others.

"The slave chips are bombs," Sabé says, a sudden flash of revelation flashing across her face.

"Yeah?"

"And you have one inside you."

"Yeah."

"And your former Master could easily turn it back on and blow you up!" Sabé almost shouts. Why didn't Qui-Gon Jinn thought it wise to get it removed shortly beforehand?! What the kriff is wrong with the Jedi?!

Anakin stares down at the ground. "I wasn't really worried," he replies. "I know that my Master could easily turn it on, but I'm sure if he wanted to, he would have done so already."

When Sabé could only stare at him, Anakin goes quiet, knowing that she is seconds away from exploding.

Sabé rarely acted on her urge to punch people. While satisfying, it usually made whatever she was trying to do much more difficult. When she slammed Dané onto the ground before, she had felt remorse, but now she wishes she could time travel to a month ago and punched Qui-Gon in the face when playing acting Queen.

That gentle smile across his lips. Sabé would have loved to deck him.

"Let's just get that thing out now," Sabé replies tightly, instead of marching to the Jedi Temple and demanding why they didn't even try to help the child with his current conflict.

After it is over, Anakin seems to be more exhausted, his eyes closing again, a tell-tale sign that the surgery has taken a toll on him.

"Rabé, Eirtaé, monitor him."

Both handmaidens nod before quite eagerly keeping an eye out on the unconscious child.

Sabé has to think for a while. She didn't like child duties at first, but not many adults had been wishing to after the recent invasion, and the scars are still on the boy.

An middle age woman walks up to her, causing her to flick an eyebrow. It is only so long before Sabé is able to recognize Padmé's mother, Jobal Naberrie. Despite her age, she has a youthful appearance about her.

"Hi, ma'am," Sabé says respectfully, knowing that even being Queen, Padmé would always respect her mother.

Jobal says with that gentle smile that Sabé grown use to. "Sabé, you know that you don't have to do such pleasantries around me. You are like a third daughter to me. I have been friends with your mother since we were children."

Sabé smiles. She really likes Jobal as the woman is someone so small yet demands respect with her very presence. She is also very compassionate, much like Padmé and even Sola.

"Padmé told me you took in the boy who saved us all," Jobal continues, and surprisingly enough she doesn't seem disapproving like many other adults and even the guards and other handmaidens.

Sabé decides to speak to the woman who she sees as another mother. "It was kinda something Padmé asked that I do, and I don't regret it. Anakin has been through too much at that age, but I'm helping him."

"Sabé, I had Sola when I was only 16. Me and Ruwee had gotten pregnant after a one night stand and trust me raising a child was difficult for both of us. You sometimes would be judged because it is not within our culture and many still hold those beliefs to heart, but luckily the old laws has been opening up in recent years. Teenagers are sometimes more understanding parents than even adults, as it seems teens learn things everyday."

Sabé hates when people think she is Anakin's mother. Anakin never even called her mom, and would usually refer to her by her first name, a respect unspoken but understanding by both of them. He has a mother back on Tatooine who he still loves with all his heart and would do anything for.

Sabé just is keeping watch over him, a protective guardian, for now.

"Anakin is not my child. I have custody of him in name only." Sabé responds with resignation.

"Right now, you are Anakin's guardian so yes it is right that some would think of you as his mother." Jobal shoots down the argument before sighing. "Sabé, you have to be the most sympathetic person I have ever met. Even Sola and Padmé is not like you. You are different than many on this planet, but remember, if you ever need advice in helping with Anakin or even your own mental issues, my door's always open. I'm so proud of you, Sabé, and I think your mother would have been if she was still alive; your maturity, your compassion, your understanding, and you as a person makes you a very moral individual."

Sabé smiles. Truly, she is touched by the older woman's words, and has tears going down her eyes. She didn't ever think she would have heard such things by an older woman before.

"Thank you."

Arthur's note: Let me clear up something. Contrary to many others, I don't believe corporal discipline is bad as long as you don't strike out of anger and make sure the lesson stick in a calm manner. Sometimes, children have to be corrected, and sometimes other means such as verbal reprimands do not work, so I do believe spankings should be a last resort, but can be used appropriately.

The thing that provoked me to write this chapter is in the ROTS novelization, it was said that Watto often whooped Anakin. I imagine that they were more of graphic acts than just that type of physical abuse.

May the Force be with you all always.