Trigger warning: violence, especially gunfire in a public place

Chapter 15 - The Iktotchi Curse

Shmi set the table today with a smile on her face. She poured a cup of a drink her contact in Anchorhead said off-worlders really liked.

'Caff, huh. It's brewed so dark. I hope I did it right.' Shmi took a tentative sip, to test the beverage… Then spat it out. 'Yuch! I can't serve this.' She moved the pot over to the side to let it cool. When it cooled down, she was going to water her garden with it. On Tatooine you don't let any water go to waste.

While she was up, she heard C3-PO startle. "Oh, my... oh, my! Master Anakin! My goodness, I can hardly believe it!"

And with that Shmi smiled. She almost dropped the coffee, but instead placed it on the counter, and ran out to her boy. Her heart sang with joy inside her chest.

"Mom!" Anakin shouted the moment she came into view.

"Oh, Ani!" Shmi had imagined meeting her Son in a civilized fashion, but in this moment she could do nothing but grab him as tears streamed down both of their faces.

'What do my son's new caretakers think of me now?'

"Oh Ani," she gulped, struggling to say anything. "Look at how much you've grown."

Behind him a young man with auburn hair walked up. "Greetings, ma'am. I am Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's nice to meet you. Anakin has told me so much."

Shmi hastily wiped her eyes. "Greetings."

When her eyes were dry and she could see clearly she studied her son's companions. Master Windu and Master Yoda, from the night before, were there. Along with a silent Iktotchi.

There was also a Kel Dor wearing an Antiox Breath Mask. "Plo Koon," he introduced himself.

Next there were a pair of Thelothian women, who looked related, Shmi thought. They introduced themselves as Master Adi Gallia of the High Council, and Master Stass Allie, of the Healing Circle.

In all these faces, Shmi looked for the one face of the Jedi she knew. "Master Qui-Gon, is he with you?"

"Regrettably, no. Master Jinn sends his regards, but he was unable to come," said the one named Obi-Wan.

"Qui-Gon had to stay to help the Creche Master, otherwise the nursery would be chaos and the babes would be running things." Anakin answered seriously.

Obi-Wan hid a chuckle at the boy's explanation.

"Oh, okay. Please tell him that I send my good wishes," Shmi said.

"We will." Obi-Wan promised.

"Is this your new house?" Anakin moved on. "Wow, it's so big!"

"My Cliegg owns the whole farm. We harvest water vapor from the air in those Vaporators that are in the fields." Shmi pointed.

Anakin nodded. "Refrigerated Condensers, or ionization fields?"

Trust her Ani to jump straight to the technical questions. "You know, I don't know. Perhaps when you meet Cliegg, you can ask him." Shmi hoped the Jedi weren't too displeased with her forward answer. She could feel them shift as her son processed that answer.

"Where is he? Is he here?" Anakin strained his neck, stretching to see the open door into her home.

"No, Cliegg had some business in Anchorhead, and Owen went with him," Shmi said.

"And they left you here, alone?" Shmi almost laughed. Her Ani, always at her defense.

"They knew I had you to keep me company. Come on inside. I want to hear everything about your training with the Jedi," Shmi changed the subject.

"Okay, Everyone." Mace tried to quiet his audience. Stass knew sometimes it took forever to get the council to reach a decision, only she never imagined it so chaotic. The whole council wasn't even on Tatooine. Many of them were only there via hologram.

"Attention!" Still no one looked up.

Suddenly Master Yoda's favorite stick was tapped against the ground, making an unusually loud noise for its size, and everyone turned to look at the little green Grandmaster. "Begin, you may. Master Windu."

"Okay everyone, I understand we all have different opinions on this, but we have come together so that those of you who weren't at the visit today can hear what happened when Initiate Skywalker met his mother. As we decide what to do next, it's important for you to have all the facts. And, as we were motivated partly for Skywalker's mental health Master Allie was one of those present for the meeting, I've invited her here."

Stass gave a polite nod.

"First, Master Koon has prepared a short description of those events. Master Koon," Mace summoned the Kel Dor. Then he collapsed back to his seat. Being the Master of the Order was understandably a tough job. As was Grandmaster. Stass did not envy either their role.

"Yes Master Windu," Plo stood up and bowed. "Skywalker met the lady Lars outside of her house. After a very emotional greeting, one which even I was worried about due to its intensity, they moved inside. Skywalker gave a long account of the battle at Naboo, and accurately described his part in it. Master Windu reassured her it was not the council's decision to involve her youngling. Skywalker then explained a few of his lessons to her in broad descriptions. He even demonstrated some of the beginner lightsaber moves he was taught on his way here. Overall I think his mother was very impressed. She commented to us that he was looking taller and stronger."

"Thank you Master Koon," Mace said. "Master Allie, what more should we know in deciding what to do next?"

"First, my comment on the emotional greeting. Yes, it was a moment of unrestrained control. However, my observation of him since this meeting is that he seems more in control of his emotions, rather than less. His Master confirmed this as his observation as well."

"But how could allowing him an unrestrained outburst help his control? That is what you're saying here?" Ki-Adi-Mundi asked.

"Like with younglings who need to scream to release Anger." Plo suggested.

"In a way, yes." Stass confirmed. "Anakin has years of different, less restrained rules with his mother. Expecting him to behave any differently would be unpleasant for the both of them. Anyway…" Stass moved on. "The next step would be for Anakin to meet his stepfather. I know a lot of you are anxious about this, and rightfully so. It could have awful consequences if not done properly. In the visit with his mother, his questions about Mr. Lars were ones filled with curiosity. I suggest we play on this. Keep the meeting casual."

"I wonder why we have to." Adi Gallia spoke up. "As you said, it is risky. Why even take the risk?"

Stass nodded at her cousin by blood. "Because, at this point his lack of information is a curiosity to him. It can easily become a frightening thing, however. He needs to satisfy his curiosity so this doesn't become a big bad monstrosity in his mind."

Plo raised his hand, then spoke, "Like when he asked about them leaving his mother alone." Plo looked around, then explained. "During the visit, Skywalker asked where Mr. Lars was. Mrs. Lars answered that he had business in town and took his boy with him. Skywalker came back with an accusation about them leaving her alone, to which Mrs. Lars lightheartedly reminded him that she wasn't alone."

"Yes, exactly that Plo. The boy's anxiety was centered around the safety of his mother. Now that she is free we don't want to create a new form of threat for her. Even imagined in his head, it would be a bad thing." Stass saw several heads nod, and she felt them agree with her.

"Tomorrow I have a meeting with Mr. Lars to go over the business of the land transfers." Even stated. "We could do a short introduction then."

Finally the council was making progress. Stass started to understand the look of relief on poor Kenobi's face when he was not invited to this meeting. "True, but introducing a boy to his stepfather will be a little more complicated than a business meeting between colleagues." Stass reminded them.

"Come Anakin. We're going into town today." Obi-Wan said.

"Are we going to see Mom again?" Anakin asked.

"No, we're going to meet someone else." Obi-Wan stated.

"Oh. Okay." The youngling didn't fester in his disappointment.

"Mr Lars, and some of the other men helping Master Piell with his mission."

"Mr Lars is helping to free the slaves?" Anakin's eyes opened in awe.

"Yes, he is."

"Let's go!" Anakin rushed towards the door of the ship.

"Wait, let Master Saesee Tiin go first." Obi-Wan reached out to stop him.

And Saesee walked out onto the sands of Tatooine. Given his own planet's nature, he didn't find Tatooine as uninhabitable as his fellow Jedi. Saesee reached out with the Force, becoming aware of everyone crossing their path. If all went well, he would go unseen, but this didn't bother Saesee. 'Let the others socialize. They don't see the dark sides of everyone crossing their paths.'

That was one of the difficult parts with being Iktotchi. His natural inclination towards Telepathy, combined with the way Dark thoughts became so loud in the Force, made even a basic conversation difficult. When you add to that most of your fellow Jedi being suspicious and prejudiced against you, well, it's no wonder why Saesee preferred to stick to himself and go unnoticed.

They were reaching the Town Hall in Anchorhead now. Cliegg Lars was surprised to see so many Jedi accompanying Master Piell. "Oh, Hello. I offered to help, and that's exactly what I was doing." A truthful statement. "Here, I've been going over things with your associates."

"Yes, I look forward to hearing about them. But before we do that. I hoped you'd want to sit down with Initiate Skywalker," Even motioned to a nearby table where Anakin had already sat down with his Master.

Saesee was standing watch outside, but he could still feel the shock on Cliegg reverberate through the Force. "Of course," he said.

Suddenly, something outside distracted Saesee from the meeting. There was a lot of anger across the way. Saesee Focused on that and was perplexed for a moment. The man's anger was strong, but unfocused. 'Almost as if it was misplaced.'

"I saw your farm," Anakin said. "It's really big and impressive."

"Yes," Cliegg nodded. "We're going to be moving the farm soon actually to an even better location."

"Your Vaporators, are they Refrigerated Condensers, or ionization fields?"

Cliegg was impressed with the boy's question. "Well, I use both, depending on the ground location. Would you like to see the ground survey reports of the new farm? I've got them here."

"Yes I would!" Anakin's excitement was genuine. It always was, Saesee was learning. The youngling did not have a dishonest bone in his body.

Over the ride here, the youngling peppered him with questions. He'd heard Anakin had an interest in piloting, but he wasn't expecting… Anyways, that led to the boy telling him a story about a time he acquired a brand new part for his pod racer, only to have it not work. 'Why did he say it didn't work? It was built for the wrong type of engine.' Saesee remembered laughing with the boy over the story.

'That's it!' It hit him like a rock when it finally dawned on Saesee what those feelings meant. He'd seen it before in those hired to do dark things for other beings. 'A hitman!' Saesee rushed to locate the angry man again, and found him approaching their building, fast. There was no chance to reach him in time. He was already within distance to fire a blaster shot from. Behind Saesee, there was a large window, which the boy and his stepfather were closest to.

Saesee turned his head so his horn would hit the window first, and he jumped. As he crashed through the glass he reached out for Anakin, and shielded him with his body. Just in time too, as a Blaster began to fire at a rapid pace through the window. Cliegg, who would've been the target of many of those shots, was pushed out of the way by Saesee's Jump too. Mace and the other Jedi soon realized what was happening and they pulled out their lightsabers to deflect the shots. Obi-Wan Kenobi jumped behind Saesee to defend his posterior, to which Saesee would ever be thankful.

Mace rubbed sweat off his head. It seemed their attacker had either stopped to reload, or was forced to stop. Earlier, he had used his comlink to message their ship. A team of other knights would have been sent out immediately to track this attacker. They would try to stop him by whatever means necessary, then try to determine his motives and gather what intelligence they could. Mace was curious about that himself, but he would receive their reports when they got back to their ship. Now, he had to focus on the here and now. "Is everyone alright?"

"Aye. Yes." a chorus of affirmative replies followed.

"Ah. Yeah, I'll be okay." Reeker, a young padawan said. He was lying on the ground next to his Master.

"It's just a glancing wound, Master. He'll be fine." Billatu, his Master, explained.

"Good, where's Anakin?"

"I'm here." Anakin waved. He was between Saesee and Cliegg, sitting on the floor. The youngling looked surprisingly well adjusted, considering the potentially traumatizing experience.

"Good. I expect you're thinking differently about helping us now, Mr. Lars."

"No, actually. I think I'm even more encouraged to help. The Hutts are lawless overlords. This is exactly how they've ruled us for all my life. I'll be glad to see them gone. So will many of those here."

"I feel I should specify, my plan doesn't guarantee the Hutts leave Tatooine." Even stated.

"No, but it will allow us to write laws to limit their actions. And to hire law enforcement parties to enforce those laws and to protect our homesteads. This will be invaluable," Cliegg pointed out.

"True, and if doing business here is less profitable, perhaps they will leave on their own." Obi-Wan said. Ever the positivity of youth.

"We can only hope." Cliegg said.

Hello,

I have here another chapter for you. This one took some work perfecting to get both Anakin and Saesee to sound natural in their parts. I hope I've succeeded. I did feel it deserved a slight trigger warning, given the unfortunate similarities with things that have happened in the real world.

Next chapter there is one more person Anakin has yet to meet. And there will be more trouble too. As I can predict, this next chapter will be my last Tatooine chapter for now. But then sometimes these things tend to write themselves, and I haven't started it yet. So who knows.