Very sorry for the long wait and short beginning, but with school and other
fics it's been rather hectic.
Some reviews can be so demanding!! I shall mention no names.........
Chapter Two:
Obi-Wan?!
I couldn't be. It couldn't
But the young man across the junkyard features and age would be right. He appeared to be in his early twenties, his hair was a ginger color, still short, but shaggy. His eyes were a blue-green color, and intense was their gaze on what they fell on. He wore a roughly spun tunic that fitted loosely on his frame, obviously to stand up to the planet's harsh weather. The sleeves were closed at the wrists with bindings to keep out sand.
The only thing that seemed to be out of place was the small row of little spikes on his face. They were made of some form of alloy, were they from an implant of some kind? If so, then for what?
"Like I said," The blue flyer interrupted Qui-Gon's thoughts, "No money, no parts, no deal. And no one else has a T-14 generator, I promise you that!"
Qui-Gon forced the smallest of smiles, turned, and left.
The Jedi went to consult his next move, and.........if what the junk dealer had said was true, and the young man was his slave, there was nothing he could do, he had not come here to free slaves.
~*~
A pair of blue-green eyes followed the Jedi as he left the yard.
Maybe it wasn't him at all.........
With his first initiative he reached out to the Force to see if it was true, but a burning pain filled his head before he could feel a thing. The pain was fast, hot and so strong it made his sink to his knees until the spasm had passed.
He could feel the blood pulsing in his temples, this was only a minor one, had tried to move something try a mind trick, the pain could bring even the most resilient of species to scream from the pain. The horrid implant, he had had it for over 13 years, 13 long years he had not felt the Force.
Pulling himself to his feet again on a hefty piece of machinery, Obi-Wan felt the pain subside somewhat, at lest enough to where he could get on with his work.
There was nothing else to do, nothing else that could be done, only if the past could be changed.
~*~
A sand storm began to rise.
"Do you have shelter?" The boy they had met a short while ago.
"We'll head back to our ship." Qui-Gon answered him.
"Is it far?"
"It's on the outskirts." The girl answered him.
"You'll never reach the outskirts in time! Sandstorms are very, very dangerous." He said with meaning. "Come on, I'll take you to my place."
~*~
In the small kitchen of the adobe hovel, Shmi Skywalker wiped her hands on a ruff towel and wondered why her sons had not come home let. A buzz in the other room calmed her and she passed through the arched door and say Anakin and three other people come into the small foyer.
Anakin shook the dust from his hair and called, "Mom, Mom I'm home!
"O! Diz iz cozi." Jar Jar complemented on stepping into their small house.
"These are my friends Mom." Anakin introduced.
"I'm Qui-Gon Jinn," The tall man introduced himself and his companions, while Anakin asked Padmé if she wanted to see the droid he was making and led her off my her wrist.
"Anakin!" His mother called before he entered his small chamber, "Have you seen your brother?"
"No, I think Watto might have him staying late." He said and continued into his room.
"You have another son?" Qui-Gon asked curious.
"Well.........yes I do. He'll be home soon." Shmi said and then very softly, as if trying to reassure herself added, "He'll be home soon........."
~*~
It was getting late, the suns had set and a chill wind had begun to blow from the east. Watto had flown home and left Obi-Wan to lock up.
After straightening some baubles, perfectionist that he was, and started his sandy stretch home.
Sealing the door as he walked out he turned and went down the sand of the street. His route to the slave quarter was a dark one, with the poorly lit route, and with his diminished use of the Force, he could not sense the henchmen in the sand that the gales blew everywhere.
He felt a grip on his shoulders, as someone punched his abdomen hard enough to make his breath leave him. The hands slammed his shoulders against a wall, and he saw vivid flashes of light. Through the daze that the world had become, Obi-Wan made out the outline of someone coming toward him.
"Amazing............what you can do when a Jedi's been cut off from his precious Force." A suavely smug voice said, it was recognized immediately, and through his haze Obi-Wan met the eyes of his worst enemy.
~*~
Shmi pulled back the cloth that served as a barricade against the sand storm and peered out the narrow slot that was a window. Qui-Gon, having noticed the look of worry that was on her face, went to her.
"What is wrong?" He questioned her gently.
Shim jumped a little, not expecting the Jedi's accost and schooled her features.
"Nothing, its just............" She banished the immediate worry that came to her heart. "No, everything's alright." It was just the sand storm, she thought, that's why he was delayed.
~*~
Obi-Wan sucked his bleeding lip, he had never warranted such hatred from those men, but they just followed the orders of their chief.
Watto had not been his first owner; Kel Dor was a crime lord whose pirates captured unsuspecting craft in Outer Rim regularly, bringing in dozens of hapless individuals who then were forced to toil for him until the day they died, or were sold to another. Obi-Wan had been 13 when he was a transport that had fallen to Kel Dor's minions.
The former Jedi leaned his head against the duracrete wall, catching his breath.
Dor, at first, was oblivious to the half-trained mind of a former Padawan apprentice, until he tried his first escapes. These attempts had not been successful, after the third, Dor had caught on and had his connection with the Force cut.
It was a miracle that he survived the procedure, and the beating after it. Obi-Wan remembered after those two horrid hours he stumbled across the path of Shmi Skywalker and her small son Anakin, his adoptive family.........
It had only been a slight beating, but still he kept one hand on the wall as he walked.
~*~
"Obi-Wan, what happened?" Shmi asked fervently as she saw the blood trickling out of his mouth when he arrived.
"I'm alright," He tried to calm her.
"You don't look alright, sit down." She instructed as they went into the small, shared room. Anakin who had been tinkering with some frivolous device saw him and spurted out his anxiety before any other commands were given.
"Obi-Wan what happened?" He asked zealously rushing over.
"It's nothing Ani, don't worry about me." He said trying not to alarm the boy. It was not the first time he had come home in such a condition, but he tried to keep Anakin from seeing him so, once or twice he had seen his adoptive brother with a few bruises and maybe a cut, but nothing more serious.
Anakin responded by wrapping his arms around the older person's abdomen.
"Why didn't you come home sooner, Mom was really worried." They younger said.
Hiding his grimace of pain, Obi-Wan explained the sandstorm to him. Shmi however was not fooled and noticed the look of distress that had crossed his face. Sending Anakin into the other room she addressed Obi-Wan with firmness.
"Obi-Wan let me see our side, take off your shirt."
"Mother that's really not necessary-"
"I said off, now." There would be no refusing her; Obi-Wan had the reputation of making light of his injuries.
"Yes ma'am." He complied. Shmi saw red marks fading into a blue-black wrapping around his ribs; this frightened her now. She felt his side feeling to see if any of the bones had been broken, fortunately there wasn't any, and she sighed relief.
"Haven't I told you to be more careful?" She asked as Obi-Wan slid his shirt back on over his head. Shmi never ceased to worry for him ever since she had found him beaten and near death several years ago. Maternal instinct had driven her to watch out for him, when he was nearly beaten to death another time she heard that Kel Dor was selling him, and she had begged Watto to take him, he would have died if he didn't.
Obi-Wan to remember that time as well, he had been trying to escape from Kel Dor, but never succeeding. One night after having endured punishment he had passed out outside the slave quarters and when he woke up Shmi had been standing over him. When Watto had bought him, Shmi and her son had already more or less adopted him into their family. Over the years, they had become as close to each other as any blood related family.
"Why didn't you stay at Watto's shop until the storm was over?" Shmi asked him.
"They would have known that Watto was gone anyway, the storm just made them leave quicker." He replied, they both knew that if any slave tried to defend themselves in anyway they and their kin would live to regret it, and Obi-Wan would never bring Kel Dor's minions on Shmi or Anakin.
"Don't worry about me," Obi-Wan said gripping Shmi's hands reassuringly, "Everything will be alright, I'm here aren't I?"
"For tonight at lest Obi-Wan, but don't you dare to ever worry me like this again." She said, knowing that he would take these beatings in silence and do everything in his power to keep her from seeing everything that had happened, so not to bring the crime lord's subordinates on her and Anakin and also to keep Shmi from what he saw as unnecessary concern.
~*~
Qui-Gon saw that there was something troubling the boy. The Jedi Master went over to where Anakin sat, slumped in a small chair by the kitchen door.
"What is wrong, Anakin?" He asked gently.
"Nothing........." Anakin lied not looking up from the floor.
"Are you sure?" Qui-Gon asked again, it didn't take a lifetime of Jedi training to see that the boy was troubled.
"Well............it's just that............well," He didn't want to think that the truth was real, "Obi-Wan came home hurt again." Anakin had long figured out that his brother had been hiding his hurts, and he knew why he always tried to hide them from him and Shmi.
"Your brother........." Qui-Gon ventured.
"Uh-huh." Anakin answered nodding and began to swing his feet a little. "I was little when I met him, he was hurt really bad.........he didn't belong to Watto then."
"He's your adoptive brother then?" Qui-Gon asked with edginess to his voice, Obi-Wan Kenobi? Was it him, the child that he had passed up as his padawan? Was this what happened to him? Had been doomed to be enslaved to a junk-dealer on his sandy planet?
"Who did he belong too? How old was he?" The Jedi asked.
Anakin's face became taunt as he strained to remember, "He belonged to some rich landlord, and I think his name was Kel Dor, he was really ruff with his slaves. When we were walking home one night, Mom found him. He was beaten really bad; he almost died. Mom sent me after Jacana, she knows a lot about medicine, Mom took him into the house, we looked out for him since then until Watto bought him and we had him stay here. I think he was thirteen when we first met him."
"Anakin." His mother called, emerging from his room. "Get me a wet rag please," Anakin obeyed and ran back to her when he had fetched it. He looked up at her with large worried eyes; Shmi crouched down to his eye level and put her hands on his shoulders, "He's going to be alright Ani," She said in a warm, comforting tone. "Don't worry," She wanted to distract him from his worries, "The storm's over why don't you show your friends your pod racer?"
"Alright." Anakin agreed half-heartedly, not wanting to wait and see how Obi-Wan was, but he went out back and found Jar Jar and Padmé, and Qui-Gon reluctantly followed.
~*~
Qui-Gon stood in the background as the boy chattered about the races to the Gungan and handmaiden, Anakin was put in better sprits as he delightedly answered the girl's and Jar Jar's questions.
Qui-Gon stood by the wall of the small courtyard, pondering the answers he had gotten from the boy earlier. Qui-Gon wanted to believe that this was all coincidence, but his heart, which knew better, nagged at him.
"You didn't come here to free slaves." Qui-Gon said to himself, he couldn't compromise his mission; weather feelings of guilt plagued him to do so or not.
Anakin suddenly stopped showing Padmé the functions in the control pod and ran up the stairs to the door of his home where his mother and brother stood. Qui-Gon's eye followed him as he bolted up the steep steps and wrapped his arms around the young man at the top of the stairs.
He lifted his head and released Anakin from his grasp; Qui-Gon then got his first look at the young man's bruised face, And finally gave into what his heart had been telling him since the moment he had saw him in the junk yard. He was aged twelve more years since the Jedi last saw him, he had grown tall and his hair that had been cropped short was now shaggy but still gingery-red color. His eyes were a blue-green sea color, but they had been aged more then any other part of him. Suffering, physical and emotional had marred them, and the light of dream had been blown out.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi he had met so long ago had grown up and was enslaved on this barren planet.
TBC
I know, I finally got my lazy butt in gear and added the next chapter, please don't hate me for taking so long, another chapter will come I promise!!!!!!
Some reviews can be so demanding!! I shall mention no names.........
Chapter Two:
Obi-Wan?!
I couldn't be. It couldn't
But the young man across the junkyard features and age would be right. He appeared to be in his early twenties, his hair was a ginger color, still short, but shaggy. His eyes were a blue-green color, and intense was their gaze on what they fell on. He wore a roughly spun tunic that fitted loosely on his frame, obviously to stand up to the planet's harsh weather. The sleeves were closed at the wrists with bindings to keep out sand.
The only thing that seemed to be out of place was the small row of little spikes on his face. They were made of some form of alloy, were they from an implant of some kind? If so, then for what?
"Like I said," The blue flyer interrupted Qui-Gon's thoughts, "No money, no parts, no deal. And no one else has a T-14 generator, I promise you that!"
Qui-Gon forced the smallest of smiles, turned, and left.
The Jedi went to consult his next move, and.........if what the junk dealer had said was true, and the young man was his slave, there was nothing he could do, he had not come here to free slaves.
~*~
A pair of blue-green eyes followed the Jedi as he left the yard.
Maybe it wasn't him at all.........
With his first initiative he reached out to the Force to see if it was true, but a burning pain filled his head before he could feel a thing. The pain was fast, hot and so strong it made his sink to his knees until the spasm had passed.
He could feel the blood pulsing in his temples, this was only a minor one, had tried to move something try a mind trick, the pain could bring even the most resilient of species to scream from the pain. The horrid implant, he had had it for over 13 years, 13 long years he had not felt the Force.
Pulling himself to his feet again on a hefty piece of machinery, Obi-Wan felt the pain subside somewhat, at lest enough to where he could get on with his work.
There was nothing else to do, nothing else that could be done, only if the past could be changed.
~*~
A sand storm began to rise.
"Do you have shelter?" The boy they had met a short while ago.
"We'll head back to our ship." Qui-Gon answered him.
"Is it far?"
"It's on the outskirts." The girl answered him.
"You'll never reach the outskirts in time! Sandstorms are very, very dangerous." He said with meaning. "Come on, I'll take you to my place."
~*~
In the small kitchen of the adobe hovel, Shmi Skywalker wiped her hands on a ruff towel and wondered why her sons had not come home let. A buzz in the other room calmed her and she passed through the arched door and say Anakin and three other people come into the small foyer.
Anakin shook the dust from his hair and called, "Mom, Mom I'm home!
"O! Diz iz cozi." Jar Jar complemented on stepping into their small house.
"These are my friends Mom." Anakin introduced.
"I'm Qui-Gon Jinn," The tall man introduced himself and his companions, while Anakin asked Padmé if she wanted to see the droid he was making and led her off my her wrist.
"Anakin!" His mother called before he entered his small chamber, "Have you seen your brother?"
"No, I think Watto might have him staying late." He said and continued into his room.
"You have another son?" Qui-Gon asked curious.
"Well.........yes I do. He'll be home soon." Shmi said and then very softly, as if trying to reassure herself added, "He'll be home soon........."
~*~
It was getting late, the suns had set and a chill wind had begun to blow from the east. Watto had flown home and left Obi-Wan to lock up.
After straightening some baubles, perfectionist that he was, and started his sandy stretch home.
Sealing the door as he walked out he turned and went down the sand of the street. His route to the slave quarter was a dark one, with the poorly lit route, and with his diminished use of the Force, he could not sense the henchmen in the sand that the gales blew everywhere.
He felt a grip on his shoulders, as someone punched his abdomen hard enough to make his breath leave him. The hands slammed his shoulders against a wall, and he saw vivid flashes of light. Through the daze that the world had become, Obi-Wan made out the outline of someone coming toward him.
"Amazing............what you can do when a Jedi's been cut off from his precious Force." A suavely smug voice said, it was recognized immediately, and through his haze Obi-Wan met the eyes of his worst enemy.
~*~
Shmi pulled back the cloth that served as a barricade against the sand storm and peered out the narrow slot that was a window. Qui-Gon, having noticed the look of worry that was on her face, went to her.
"What is wrong?" He questioned her gently.
Shim jumped a little, not expecting the Jedi's accost and schooled her features.
"Nothing, its just............" She banished the immediate worry that came to her heart. "No, everything's alright." It was just the sand storm, she thought, that's why he was delayed.
~*~
Obi-Wan sucked his bleeding lip, he had never warranted such hatred from those men, but they just followed the orders of their chief.
Watto had not been his first owner; Kel Dor was a crime lord whose pirates captured unsuspecting craft in Outer Rim regularly, bringing in dozens of hapless individuals who then were forced to toil for him until the day they died, or were sold to another. Obi-Wan had been 13 when he was a transport that had fallen to Kel Dor's minions.
The former Jedi leaned his head against the duracrete wall, catching his breath.
Dor, at first, was oblivious to the half-trained mind of a former Padawan apprentice, until he tried his first escapes. These attempts had not been successful, after the third, Dor had caught on and had his connection with the Force cut.
It was a miracle that he survived the procedure, and the beating after it. Obi-Wan remembered after those two horrid hours he stumbled across the path of Shmi Skywalker and her small son Anakin, his adoptive family.........
It had only been a slight beating, but still he kept one hand on the wall as he walked.
~*~
"Obi-Wan, what happened?" Shmi asked fervently as she saw the blood trickling out of his mouth when he arrived.
"I'm alright," He tried to calm her.
"You don't look alright, sit down." She instructed as they went into the small, shared room. Anakin who had been tinkering with some frivolous device saw him and spurted out his anxiety before any other commands were given.
"Obi-Wan what happened?" He asked zealously rushing over.
"It's nothing Ani, don't worry about me." He said trying not to alarm the boy. It was not the first time he had come home in such a condition, but he tried to keep Anakin from seeing him so, once or twice he had seen his adoptive brother with a few bruises and maybe a cut, but nothing more serious.
Anakin responded by wrapping his arms around the older person's abdomen.
"Why didn't you come home sooner, Mom was really worried." They younger said.
Hiding his grimace of pain, Obi-Wan explained the sandstorm to him. Shmi however was not fooled and noticed the look of distress that had crossed his face. Sending Anakin into the other room she addressed Obi-Wan with firmness.
"Obi-Wan let me see our side, take off your shirt."
"Mother that's really not necessary-"
"I said off, now." There would be no refusing her; Obi-Wan had the reputation of making light of his injuries.
"Yes ma'am." He complied. Shmi saw red marks fading into a blue-black wrapping around his ribs; this frightened her now. She felt his side feeling to see if any of the bones had been broken, fortunately there wasn't any, and she sighed relief.
"Haven't I told you to be more careful?" She asked as Obi-Wan slid his shirt back on over his head. Shmi never ceased to worry for him ever since she had found him beaten and near death several years ago. Maternal instinct had driven her to watch out for him, when he was nearly beaten to death another time she heard that Kel Dor was selling him, and she had begged Watto to take him, he would have died if he didn't.
Obi-Wan to remember that time as well, he had been trying to escape from Kel Dor, but never succeeding. One night after having endured punishment he had passed out outside the slave quarters and when he woke up Shmi had been standing over him. When Watto had bought him, Shmi and her son had already more or less adopted him into their family. Over the years, they had become as close to each other as any blood related family.
"Why didn't you stay at Watto's shop until the storm was over?" Shmi asked him.
"They would have known that Watto was gone anyway, the storm just made them leave quicker." He replied, they both knew that if any slave tried to defend themselves in anyway they and their kin would live to regret it, and Obi-Wan would never bring Kel Dor's minions on Shmi or Anakin.
"Don't worry about me," Obi-Wan said gripping Shmi's hands reassuringly, "Everything will be alright, I'm here aren't I?"
"For tonight at lest Obi-Wan, but don't you dare to ever worry me like this again." She said, knowing that he would take these beatings in silence and do everything in his power to keep her from seeing everything that had happened, so not to bring the crime lord's subordinates on her and Anakin and also to keep Shmi from what he saw as unnecessary concern.
~*~
Qui-Gon saw that there was something troubling the boy. The Jedi Master went over to where Anakin sat, slumped in a small chair by the kitchen door.
"What is wrong, Anakin?" He asked gently.
"Nothing........." Anakin lied not looking up from the floor.
"Are you sure?" Qui-Gon asked again, it didn't take a lifetime of Jedi training to see that the boy was troubled.
"Well............it's just that............well," He didn't want to think that the truth was real, "Obi-Wan came home hurt again." Anakin had long figured out that his brother had been hiding his hurts, and he knew why he always tried to hide them from him and Shmi.
"Your brother........." Qui-Gon ventured.
"Uh-huh." Anakin answered nodding and began to swing his feet a little. "I was little when I met him, he was hurt really bad.........he didn't belong to Watto then."
"He's your adoptive brother then?" Qui-Gon asked with edginess to his voice, Obi-Wan Kenobi? Was it him, the child that he had passed up as his padawan? Was this what happened to him? Had been doomed to be enslaved to a junk-dealer on his sandy planet?
"Who did he belong too? How old was he?" The Jedi asked.
Anakin's face became taunt as he strained to remember, "He belonged to some rich landlord, and I think his name was Kel Dor, he was really ruff with his slaves. When we were walking home one night, Mom found him. He was beaten really bad; he almost died. Mom sent me after Jacana, she knows a lot about medicine, Mom took him into the house, we looked out for him since then until Watto bought him and we had him stay here. I think he was thirteen when we first met him."
"Anakin." His mother called, emerging from his room. "Get me a wet rag please," Anakin obeyed and ran back to her when he had fetched it. He looked up at her with large worried eyes; Shmi crouched down to his eye level and put her hands on his shoulders, "He's going to be alright Ani," She said in a warm, comforting tone. "Don't worry," She wanted to distract him from his worries, "The storm's over why don't you show your friends your pod racer?"
"Alright." Anakin agreed half-heartedly, not wanting to wait and see how Obi-Wan was, but he went out back and found Jar Jar and Padmé, and Qui-Gon reluctantly followed.
~*~
Qui-Gon stood in the background as the boy chattered about the races to the Gungan and handmaiden, Anakin was put in better sprits as he delightedly answered the girl's and Jar Jar's questions.
Qui-Gon stood by the wall of the small courtyard, pondering the answers he had gotten from the boy earlier. Qui-Gon wanted to believe that this was all coincidence, but his heart, which knew better, nagged at him.
"You didn't come here to free slaves." Qui-Gon said to himself, he couldn't compromise his mission; weather feelings of guilt plagued him to do so or not.
Anakin suddenly stopped showing Padmé the functions in the control pod and ran up the stairs to the door of his home where his mother and brother stood. Qui-Gon's eye followed him as he bolted up the steep steps and wrapped his arms around the young man at the top of the stairs.
He lifted his head and released Anakin from his grasp; Qui-Gon then got his first look at the young man's bruised face, And finally gave into what his heart had been telling him since the moment he had saw him in the junk yard. He was aged twelve more years since the Jedi last saw him, he had grown tall and his hair that had been cropped short was now shaggy but still gingery-red color. His eyes were a blue-green sea color, but they had been aged more then any other part of him. Suffering, physical and emotional had marred them, and the light of dream had been blown out.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi he had met so long ago had grown up and was enslaved on this barren planet.
TBC
I know, I finally got my lazy butt in gear and added the next chapter, please don't hate me for taking so long, another chapter will come I promise!!!!!!