CHAPTER TWO:  LOOKING FOR TROUBLE   

Staring his attacker straight in the eye, Anakin said, "you don't want my credits,"

"I don't want your credits," the man said slowly.

"You are going to let me walk away without any trouble,"

The dust-covered man slowly moved his vibroblade away from Anakin's neck. "I'm going to let you –"

"Hey, what kind of trick is this kid trying to pull?"  Shouted the human on Anakin's left.

The scruffy man shook his head, trying to clear it from the thoughts Anakin was sending his way.  The disruption had been enough to allow him to break free from the mind trick.

Still a little dazed, he hesitated in holding up his vibroblade.  Anakin did not wait for him to remember what he had been doing only moments before.  He stuck out his fist and hit him in the face, causing the man to stumble backwards holding his nose.

Anakin drew his blaster and fired at the Rodian who had been following him.  He left her with a smoking hole in the side before she could draw her own weapon.

The odds were still against him, but he had no intention of letting them get his credits or the best of him.

The remaining ambushers formed an enclosing circle around him.  The Aqualish lunged at him, but Anakin ducked to the side and did a quick swipe with his leg, knocking the creature's feet out from under him.  While he was busy doing that, the Talz had gotten behind him and grabbed his arms, making him drop his blaster.  He fought hard to break free, but its hold was too tight.  The two remaining humans laughed at his struggles.  They took out their own vibroblades and stalked towards him.

"No, this one's mine," said the man Anakin had hit in the face.  His nose was all swollen and he was bleeding profusely from it.  "I'll teach you to mess with me, kid," he snarled and lashed out with his fist against Anakin's kidney.

He would have doubled over in pain if the Talz had not held him upright.  Laughing at Anakin's discomfort, he hit him again, this time right in his ribcage.

The dirty man pulled out his vibroblade, the bright sunlight reflecting off of it.  "Now, I'm going to repay you for what you did to my nose," he said in a dangerous voice.

Out of nowhere, a blaster bolt burned into the hand holding the vibroblade.  Crying out, he instantly dropped his weapon and looked down at the burnt circle of flesh in his palm.

"I think it's time you and your friends found someone else to harass," the newcomer said, training his blaster on the thugs, "unless you want to try me,"

Just to prove his point he fired another shot, this one landing between the feet of the man he had shot at originally.  The sand boiled and sizzled there, but Anakin's attacker made no move to back down. 

The newcomer did not seem phased by this act of stubbornness, he simply said, "then I guess we'll have to do this the hard way," he pulled out a second blaster and took out the two humans still holding vibroblades, while Anakin finally managed to shake off the Talz that was holding him.  He elbowed it in the gut and then punched it in one of its many eyes before it could recover.  Partially blinded, the Talz never saw the person creeping up behind him and send a thundering blow to its head that rendered it unconscious.  The man with the burnt hand, seeing he was clearly outnumbered, ran off into the crowded streets.

Breathing hard, Anakin bent over to pick up his fallen blaster.  He glared up at the person who had just helped to save his life.  "What did you do that for?  I could have handled it,"

"You're welcome," said Zekk, putting his blasters back in their holsters.

"I did have everything under control," Anakin insisted.

"And what exactly did you have under control?"  Zekk said.  "The Talz who was holding your arms from behind, or the guy who was going to use his vibroblade to give you a new face?"

Anakin shot him a look but said nothing more.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Zekk said, looking at the mess of bodies on the ground, "that guy might be going to get some more of his buddies,"

Without protest, Anakin followed Zekk away from the battle scene of blaster marks and fallen bodies, and back into the open streets.

Anakin dubiously eyed the plate of food in front of him.  Zekk had assured him when he had ordered it for him that it was compatible with human physiology.  It looked like meat but he was not too sure what the green and red things were surrounding it.  He wasn't really that hungry anyways.

"You shouldn't have played with those guys like that," Zekk said, from the table they sat it in a dimly lit tapcafé.  "People around here don't have a problem with killing anybody who gets in their way,"

"I wasn't 'playing' with them,"

"Sure you weren't," Zekk said in a disbelieving voice, "you were just firing your blaster and waving your fists at them.  That was what got you into that mess," in a low voice, to make sure no one else except Anakin would hear him, he said, "why didn't you just use the force?  You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble,"

Anakin pushed around the food on the plate in front of him.  "I didn't feel like using it,"

Zekk gave him a strange look but did not comment further.  It was not his place to tell Anakin he had endangered his life by taking a chance like that – he was sure Anakin knew that anyways, he was a bright kid.  Besides, he had cut back on using the force himself in recent months.

"She's okay," said Anakin when Zekk remained quiet.

"Who?"  Said Zekk, between a mouthful of food.

"Jaina,"

Zekk stopped eating.  His appetite having all of the sudden disappeared.

"You really hurt her, you know that?"  Anakin said, sticking up for his older sister.

"I know I did," Zekk said in a regretful tone, "but I had to leave before I hurt her anymore,"

"That doesn't make any sense,"

Zekk raised an eyebrow.  "She never told you why I left?"

Anakin shook his head.  "I don't think she told anyone.  Except maybe Ganner,"

Zekk sat up straight in his chair.  "Ganner?"

"Yeah, they've become pretty good friends over the past month or so," Anakin said, "you know who he is don't you?"

Zekk nodded.  Everyone knew who Ganner Rhysode was, but he could not understand why Jaina was hanging around him.  She was smarter then that.   She had to know what kind of womanizer Rhysode was. 

"What brings you to Tatooine?" Zekk said, changing the subject.  "Most people don't come here if they have a choice,"

"You're here,"

"Point taken," Zekk said with a small chuckle, "but I came here because I needed to work out some stuff.  What's your excuse?"

"I just needed to get away," was all Anakin said.

"From what?"

Anakin looked down at the table.  "From Tahiri's death,"

Anakin spoke in such a low voice that Zekk was hoping he had heard him wrong, but the look on Anakin's face told him he had indeed heard correctly.

All Zekk could think of to say was, "I'm sorry,"

Anakin just kept his gaze fixated on the table's surface.

It had not sounded nearly as comforting as sympathetic as Zekk had wanted it to.  Then again, he was not quite sure why people say 'I'm sorry' when someone died.  It never makes the other person feel any better.  It had never made him feel any better when his parents had died in one of the earthquakes on Ennth.

"What happened?"  Zekk said gently.

Anakin looked up at him, his eyes full of hate, and said, "the Vong,"

Zekk did not know why that surprised him.  There was a war going on against those merciless aliens.  It was only a matter of time before someone you knew got killed.  He still did not completely understand Anakin's coming to Tatooine, but if you wanted to get away from everyone who knew you, no one would ever think to look for you on Tatooine, the giant desert ball.

He was trying to think of some comforting words to say to Anakin that would not come out sounding completely lame, when a Rodian thundered in, waving its arms and shouting in its native language to all the patrons in the dim tapcafé.

"What's he saying?"  Anakin did not understand rodian, but he could feel fear pouring off of the creature.

Slightly rattled, Zekk jumped up from his seat, saying, "we need to get out of here right now,"

Anakin looked around him at all the other customers springing from their tables and heading for the door without even bothering to finish their meals. 

He followed closely behind Zekk, and the two pushed their way through the hoards of beings trying to exit the tapcafé.  Fear and anxiety were coming off of them in waves, and when Anakin bumped into them he to cut down his force sensitivity because the sensations were so strong.  Something terrible was about to happen, he was sure of that.

When they broke free of the crowd, Zekk broke into a sprint, with Anakin right behind him.

"You still never told me what he said," Anakin shouted to him as they ran.

Not slowing down in the slightest, Zekk said, "there's two Yuuzhan Vong cruisers in the space above us," he informed him, "and if we don't get out of here fast, we may never leave,"

Let me know what you think of my story so far.

I'll try to get the next couple of chapters up soon!