A/N- Here is the next updated chapter. If you enjoy this rewrite please review or follow. I will continue to updating regularly. Thank you all.

Chapter 5

Location: Outskirts of Theed, Naboo

Year 33 BBY

The dust blows fiercely, as the speed racers sweep past the onlookers. Shouts for certain racers blow past the racers' ears. They have one goal- reach the finish line. The finish line is several meters within the distance of every racer. The finish line is nothing more than the tree line, but the danger is spoken between the racers and the trees. If the racers did not lower their speeds at the precise moment and use their modified breaks to slow their course, there would be a bloodbath. The racer who did not slow down would be roadkill, slammed, and thrown against the trees. Their remains would be twisted and bloody and broken. One such racer had died among those trees in the past year, a young 14 year old boy named Kit.

Kit had been racing since he was nine years old amongst these racers, but he had grown bored and tired of the same speeds and desired to be able to cross the finish line without slowing down the routine speed. He yearned to be the first to reach a record speed and be able to gloat with friends. He had tried and failed- and had lost his life in the process. The other local racers hadn't attempted this since. Anakin included, as Kit had been one of his closest friends and he had learned to be careful about his speeds since his friend had perished.

Anakin's eyes stay focused on the course. His heart pumps blood faster and it feels as if it is in his ears. He grinds his teeth as he focuses on his lead. He had the lead by a mere few meters but that is all. He has an advantage after all that no one knows about. He has the ability to use the force and the force alerts him when it is time to precisely alter his speeds and to alter his positions to block the other racers. He is one of the best and unbeaten by many of the competitors. But today he has several racers on his backtail.

His senses pick up as the treeline creeps closer. It would be a matter of minutes before he reaches his destination and another victory lap will be in order. His eyes peer out of the corner of his eyes to his right. The racer in second place is gaining on him. He is distracted for a moment as his eyes peer at the small form with a serious expression on her face. Her hair is flying back behind her and her brown eyes are focused on beating her friend. Anakin smirks as he can see such focus on her features.

Not today will she beat me. She's a newbie- I should give her a break… but nah!

Anakin turns his eyes back to the front as he awaits the force to signal to him when it is time to slow down- to break. And then he feels a sudden abrupt change- the young girl is no longer behind him. She is picking up speed edging to where their speeders are aligned. She turns to him then and smirks wide. Blast! She is a quick study!

She laughs at the perplexed expression crossing his features and keeps passing him. Her speeder roaring to life as she picks up her acceleration. Anakin whirls back to his peripheral vision to see if any other of the racers are catching up to his pace. None are close enough behind him.

I only have to worry about beating her. His mind whispers to him to focus. He cannot be beaten by his friend. He is the champ around these parts. He leans into his bike to focus on the task at hand. He picks up the acceleration so that he and his friend are neck in neck. Faster, and faster the treeline comes into view. Anakin knows it will be a matter of seconds before they both need to slow down.

He feels the alternation in the force which he knows all too well. He slightly presses the brake and waits for his friend's speeder to slow as well. And yet she doesn't slow down..

His expression changes to one of fear as he watches her continue to accelerate towards the treeline of death. Slow down P- . Slow down!

He grits his teeth as he suddenly senses her fear through their bond. She begins to slow down but it isn't enough. If she doesn't receive any help, she'd splatter against those trees. It will be his fault if she dies. She asked him to teach her to race a few months ago. She is only 13 years old, far too young to be killed in an accident.

Anakin forces his bike to a halt. It whines and screeches from the abrupt change in speed. He peers at his friend who knows she's toast. He focuses on her bike and not her fear. Any force sensitive within a few miles can feel her terror. She is terrified because she knows she'll hit the treeline without assistance.

Anakin! Her mind screams to him as he concentrates on the speeder. The speeder whines underneath the girl, but begins to slow down, but not enough. The speeder begins to turn on the girl and she screams in terror as she's thrown from the bike.

NO! NO! NO!

The crowd holds their breaths awaiting to hear the smack and crack of her neck, and other important bones in her body. And yet it does not happen. Anakin opens his eyes as he watches in awe. The girl is floating in midair- only inches from where her body would have been crushed by the nearest tree to the right. Anakin focuses on bringing her down onto the ground gently.

Her body hits the ground with a soft toss of the leaves and grass surrounding her.

Padme' stares at the sky above her. Her breathing is labored and she cannot move. Her body screams with adrenaline. She should be dead right now. Her eyes are wide with fear. How had she been able to survive that fall? Kit had died being thrown just as she had.

" P!" She can hear her friend shouting her name as he comes running to her aid. She lays there and finds bright blue eyes again watching her. She cannot fathom any words at this moment.

All that leaves her lips is , " Ani," her voice is soft as a whisper.

He can see the solid tears beginning to form in her eyes. The realization that she had almost died settling in. He kneels down and holds the young girl as her body shakes under his hold.

He hears her soft sobbing into his shirt. She clutches on as if she is fighting for dear life.

They hear the sounds of the other racers at the edge of the treeline as well. Several of the onlookers have reached their position as well. They eye the pair and murmur whispers and one boy states, " It was like something out of those holomovies! Padme' you're amazing! Do you have some kind of powers?"

Padme pulls away from her friend's blue shirt which is now soaked from her tears. She wipes her tears away. She doesn't want to be seen as a little girl. She hangs out with all of these teens who are two to four years older than her. She smiles at them and says excitedly, " I don't think I have powers. Maybe the force has other plans for me."

Anakin helps his friend's shaking hands. He is the only one who can see her break down. He knows her pride has fallen and he chimes in, " Yeah you were like those superhuman Jedi just then! You have to teach us sometimes your secrets."

Padme's head turns to her friend's comment and she nods back laughing. Her hand squeezes his hand in knowing. It is a small gesture of a thank you.

One of the other racers turns to Anakin and asserts, " I think she's still the winner , bro."

Anakin turns to his friends and shrugs, " I guess I taught her too well."

The group laughs as they make their journey towards the awaiting speeders. Padme' fakes her laughs and smiles to get past her group of friends. She won't break down. She won't act like a baby.

Her sisters' loved to tease her about her wild behaviors. She hadn't changed much in the two years she'd been hanging out with Anakin. Believe it or not it seemed she found herself in more trouble than she had been before. Katrina always disapproves of her behavior. There were many times she came home with rips in her dresses or her hair wild around her. Moreover it doesn't help that she enjoys learning about how to take apart the speeders and learning the different portions of the moving parts. She enjoyed it because Anakin is able to explain it in a way she can understand it. She proudly helped him build the speeder she had just wrecked.

The group had been able to retrieve the broken and crushed speeder. It churned her stomach eyeing the twisted metal, which had the handlebars twisted around a tree and broken in two.

That could have been me…

Her mind whispers through the thick silence that encroaches on their way back to the estate. She hadn't managed to keep it together as her friends had disappeared into the awaiting twilight. Her hands shook and she clenched her friend's hips tighter. Anakin senses her fear and terror through the force. She cannot read his thoughts as he can hers. She knew she had come close to dying. The question she had was should she be telling her father about this.

Her father would be furious with her and Anakin. She knows it. He hardly became furious with his youngest daughter, but she had knowingly put herself in danger. He had knowingly allowed a rookie to race without supervision from an adult. But he had thought he was old enough to watch out for her. Padme' was like his little sister most of the time. He always watches out for her well-being. They had become inseparable after their first conversation 2 years prior. Gradually, Sabe and Dorme' had grown to like Anakin as well. They thought of him as part of their family. He might not be blood but they felt he was like their brother after spending so much time with him.

They reached the mansion within a matter of minutes of leaving the outskirts. The large house lights are bright in the distance and full of gathering crowds. Katrina and her father had local friends and family each summer come visit their household. Katrina loved the endless line of parties.

Anakin steers his speeder into the garage that is several meters from the main house. The garage is large enough to hold several regular speeders, a few mini speeder racers and the tools needed to attend their upkeep as needed.

Anakin spends most of his time in this garage. He had arrived as part of a group of slaves bought when he turned 9. They had come to Tatooine in search of laborers for the Inner Core Worlds. Watto had felt at the time the price given to him by the slave traders was adequate in value of his worth. He had cried his eyes out when he had to say farewell to his mother. She had told him to be strong and to not look back.

The speeder winds down as he turns it off. Padme' lets go of his hips and hops off the bike. She peers down at her clothing and sighs. How is she going to explain her teared clothing this time?

Her tan pants had rips in both knees. Her blue flowing shirt had a slight tear at the bottom of the shirt. The rip must have happened as she had been thrown off her speeder. There were cuts on her stomach through the tear. She is lucky that is all that had happened to her.

Anakin eyes her clothes as well. He sighs and mumbles, " I'm sure your mother is going to have a fit when she sees you've torn your new clothes again."

Her brown eyes narrow at the mention of Katrina being her mother. " She is not my mother." She hisses through her teeth and mutters, " I don't need to be reminded that she'll scold me for my behavior."

Anakin's brow furrows in annoyance. " You're a child and adults should remind you of your limits."

She crosses her arms and snaps, " I'm not a child! I'm 13 years old and why can't you and anyone else stop seeing me as one?"

Anakin snaps back at her, " You almost died tonight. Then had to swallow your damn tears because you didn't want to cry in front of our friends. That is being a child. You're allowed to show weaknesses to others too."

Padme' dark eyes shine with fury. It is her fault? He's the one who promised to keep her safe! He's the one who promised to guide her and help teach her to race. She retorts, " It isn't all my fault. I was only following your guidance!"

His chiding cackle is like a scolding without him saying his next words, but he does anyway, " You didn't follow my guidance at all! I told you to not accelerate so much to the end of the bank. You must finish at a slower pace. You were selfish and didn't listen! If I hadn't saved you-" He stops himself almost revealing the truth. The truth that he must keep to himself unless he wanted to be taken away from his home.

It is illegal to use the force in the eyes of the Empire. Their laws required that all force users either be military trained or have their powers suppressed. Anakin had been able to escape this as a slave. They didn't have the resources to check his midichlorian count as a child. He had trained himself in learning to listen to this mysterious power. He still had much he could learn.

" That was you?" Padme' says in astonishment. Her brown eyes are wide. Her lips tremble as she realizes what this means. Anakin had those mystical powers they had heard about back in school.

She remembered reading about those Jedi Knights from long before her time. Her father had even allowed her to watch old holovids from the Clone Wars. Nowadays, anyone who had these kinds of powers trained in the Imperial Navy or was captured and killed.

Anakin steps forward and Padme' steps back as if she's afraid of her friend. She remembered hearing the horror stories of those Jedi who had fallen over thirty years prior. Anakin can sense her fear of him. " You think I'd hurt you? Really P?" He whispers with a tone of hurt in his voice.

She gulps with wide eyes at realizing he could hear her thoughts. Her mouth drops open at this mention. " You can read my mind?" She shudders as he tries to pull her back.

He shakes his head and mumbles, " Only sometimes. I only hear your thoughts when they are loud. But I don't want you to be afraid of me. I'd never hurt you."

She bits her lip and eyes her dear friend. She does trust him with her life. He is one of her best friends in the entire galaxy. But the idea of Anakin having some mystical connection scared her. She doesn't want to see her friend get hurt or taken away because of his gifts. She needs to keep it a secret even if it means lying to everyone around them.

She steps forward and asks, " So what else can these magical powers do?"

Anakin's smile returns bright as ever. He stretches out his hand and a screwdriver laying on the nearby stool floats into mid air. Anakin focuses on the object which is light within the force. He places it into his friend's hand and states, " That is one of the many things I can do, but these aren't magical powers. I've had them since I can remember."

Padme' nods in awe at this newfound information about her friend. And all she responds with is, " I owe you again for saving my life."

Anakin presses a hand to her shoulder in reassurance. " You never have to thank me, P. But from now on, please follow my guidance on racing."

Padme' leans into her friend and he winces a bit when her arms squeeze him tight. She murmurs against his shirt, " Okay, how about I owe you some shuraa fruit cream from the kitchen?"

Anakin's light chuckle is music to her ears and answer as he squeezes her back.

To Be Continued.