A/N: Here's another chapter for you all. Enjoy! And God bless you all!
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. It belongs to Disney and George Lucas.
Bold= another language being spoken
Italic= the twins mentally speaking to each other
After lunch, when the sandstorm had died down and everyone was back out and about, Anakin and Ariana left the house to go tell Watto the news. When they entered the shop, Ariana made their presence known as the store bell rung. "Watto!", she yelled out in Huttese.
He came flying from behind the counter where he was hiding. "What? What is it that you kids want? I've already told you that you two were done working for the day."
"Qui-Gon Jinn wants to sponsor me in the big race that's tomorrow," Anakin immediately told him.
"Who?", was all he asked.
"The man from earlier today who needed parts for his Nubian ship," Ariana answered him.
"Ah, him!", their master exclaimed. "Now I remember! But I don't believe you. Surely, you two are just trying to pull my leg, huh."
"Nope," Ani countered, while his sister shook her back and forth. "This is legit!"
"He's even coming here right now to discuss the details with you," Ari informed him.
"He is, huh?", he questioned. "Well, then, I can't for him to get here to find out just how he plans on doing this."
Meanwhile, just as Ariana said, Qui-Gon as well as the others were heading their way to Watto's store. However, Padme wasn't quite yet sold on the idea. "You're sure about this?", she inquired. "Putting our fate and trust into the hands of two children that we hardly even know? The queen would not approve of this."
"The queen does not have to know," the Jedi argued.
"Well, I don't approve," the young handmaiden pouted as she sat down against the store wall.
Qui-Gon quietly smirked at this as he made his way into the shop, while the others waited outside. When the bell rang, the Skywalker twins and Watto made their way over to him.
"The kids tell me that you want to a sponsor the boy in the race," the Toydarian proclaimed. "How can you do this? Not on Republic credits, I think, huh?"
Qui-Gon pulled out a handheld holo-pad, and when he turned it on it showed a 3D image of his ship. "No, my ship will be the entry fee," he announced. This caught both Ani and Ari by surprise.
"Ah, not bad! Not bad at all. A Nubian, huh?", Watto inquired as he examined the ship.
Qui-Gon told him, "It's in good shape. Minus the parts that are needed."
"And what will the boy ride, huh? He smashed my pod in the last race. It'll take a long time to fix it."
"Oh, boy," Ariana thought to her brother.
Instead of answering her, Anakin defended himself. "It wasn't my fault really, really. Sebulba flashed me with his vents."
Ari helped him by saying, "It's true. Sebulba is a cheater who plays dirty tricks on the other racers in order to win. And besides, if it wasn't for Ani, the pod would have been in worse shape. He saved it!"
"Mostly," Ani added on as an afterthought. Ari just shot him a look that basically said that he wasn't helping. "Sorry," he mentally told her.
They got brawn back into the conversation when Watto spoke. "Mmmm. That he did, huh. The boy is good, no doubts there. But so is the girl. Why not have her race instead? After all, it would be her turn to race."
Upon hearing that, Ani bowed his head. He really wanted to race so badly in order to help his new friends. Noticing this, his sister decided to step up for him. "Watto, while Ani and I are both good pilots," she clapped Ani on the back, "he's the best of two of us. If you want to win that race tomorrow, my brother is your best chance."
Anakin smiled gratefully at his sister, "Thanks, sis."
"Don't sweat it, big brother," she smiled back at him.
"So, you think that I'm the better pilot, huh?"
"Don't let get to your head," she mentally rolled her eyes and smiled, while he laughed in his mind.
Watto spoke again, "Ah, you make a good point, girl. You make a good point. But still, what would the boy ride? I don't have a pod for him to use."
Qui-Gon then replied, "Well, it just so happens, that I've acquired a pod from playing a game of chance, the fastest to have ever been built." At that, the twins shared a quick, secret smirk.
"I hope you did not kill anyone that I know for it, hm?", the Toydarian laughed. "So, you supply the pod and the entry fee, and I supply the boy. We spilt the winnings 50-50, I think, huh?"
"If it is going to be split 50-50, then I suggest that you front the money for the entry," Jinn negotiated. "If we win, you get to keep all the winnings, minus the cost of the parts that I require. And if we lose, well, you get to keep my ship."
"What is he doing?!", thought Ari panickily.
Ani calmingly relayed back, "He's trying to bait Watto into taking the deal."
"Oh," was all that went across the young girl's mind.
"Either way, you win," the Jedi finished. The junk dealer groaned as he thought over the offer, but as he did that others just gave each other knowing smiles.
"Deal!", Watto exclaimed. He then clapped Qui-Gon's hand, sealing the exchange. The Jedi smiled to the two kids and then left the room. As he was doing so, the shop owner told the two kids in Huttese. "Methinks that your friend is a foolish one." Ani crossed his arms and Ari put her hands on her hips, neither of them finding the comment funny.
After they left the shop Ari spoke, "Come on, we've got to finish up on the pod if you are going to be in the race tomorrow."
"Yep," Ani agreed. "We've got a lot of work to do."
Later, behind their house, Anakin and Ariana were doing just that, with the help of their new companions. Qui-Gon was watching over them upon the balcony as he spoke to his padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, via comm link. "What if this plan fails, Master? We could be stuck here for a very long time," inquired Obi-Wan.
His master replied, "Well, it is too dangerous to call for help, and a ship with no power supply won't be able to get us anywhere." He paused before he continued. "Besides, there's something about these two children." He then cut off the transmission as Shmi Skywalker walked up to him. "You should be very proud of your son and daughter. They both give with no thought of being rewarded."
"Well, they no know nothing about greed," she told him. "They both have-"
"They both have special powers," he said for her.
'Yes," she nodded.
"They can see things before they even happen. Although it seems that Ariana can sometimes see them much sooner than Anakin. But, anyways, that is why they appear to have such quick reflexes. It's a Jedi trait," he explained. "It also appears as though that they can sense each other's thoughts and communicate that way." Shmi was startled by this and a little afraid. Sensing this, he tried to comfort her. "Don't worry, they did not tell me. I could sense them doing something on occasions. Besides," he joked, "they made it a bit obvious with their head gestures and facial expressions."
Shmi sighed in relief and then said, "They deserve so much better than a slave's life."
"Yes, I agree. Had they been born in the Republic; we would've identified them early. The Force is incredibly strong with them both. That much is certain." He then asked her, "Who was their father?"
Shmi hesitated before she told him, "There was no father. I carried them, I gave birth to them, and I raised them. I can't quite explain what happened." But as she said this something dawned on Qui-Gon. She then asked him, "Can you help them?"
"I don't know. I didn't actually come here to free slaves," he answered regrettably. Shmi just stayed silent as she turned to watch her children working on their racing pod, as other kids came running over to them full of laughter
"Hey, Ani. Hi, Ari," they all greeted, as they gathered around the Podracer.
R2-D2 was beeping something to C-3PO and R3-QT, which caught the attention of the visiting children. "Oh, cool, real astro droids!" Kitsher, Ani and Ari's best friend, exclaimed. "How did you guys get so lucky?"
"That isn't even the half of it," Anakin boasted.
Ariana continued, gesturing to her brother. "Yeah, Ani's going to be in the big Boonta race tomorrow!"
"What?" Kitsher said in disbelief. "With this?"
Their Rodian friend laughed in his native language, "Oh, you guys are such great jokers!"
Another of their friends, one of the girls said, "You two have been working on this thing forever."
"It's never gonna run," the youngest girl in the group told them.
"Come on," the red-headed boy declared. "Let's just go play ball. Keep racing, Ani. You too, Ari. You guys are just going to end up being bug squash." All of them, except Kitsher, ran off giggling.
Ignoring them, they went back to work, until Anakin spoke up. "Hey, Jar Jar," getting the Gungan's attention and causing him to accidently drop his tool. "Keep away from those energy binders."
"Ani's right, Jar Jar. That is, of course, unless you want your hand to go numb for hours by putting it into that beam," Ari said, the last sentence being sarcastic.
"Ok," was all he said as he bent down to grab the dropped wrench. But when he went to stand back up, instead of his hand, his head got caught in the beam. Standing up instantly, he ended up tossing the tool into the engine rotor that was right next him. He also discovered that his tongue was numb and his speak muddled. And when he went to retrieve the wrench, he managed to get the tool free and his hand got stuck in between the rotor blades.
While that was going about, the trio of droids were watching. "You know," 3PO told his companions, "I find that Jar Jar fellow to be quite a bit odd."
"Yeah, we've noticed," R2 chirped, while R3 whined a sigh.
As all that was happening, Qui-Gon came down the steps. Nearing the children, he heard Kitsher say, "But you guys don't even know if this thing will run."
"Don't worry, Kit, it will," Ari assured him, as her bother climbed into the racing pod.
Qui-Gon then spoke up, "Well, I think that it's about time we found out." He then handed Ani a power charge and told him use it.
"Yes, sir!", the older Skywalker twin acknowledged.
"Ariana, Kitsher, come on. We don't want to be in the way," he said as he led them away.
As everyone else was moving back, Jar Jar still had his hand trapped in the jet engine rotor, trying to get Ani's attention to not turn it on yet, but his words were not understandable. Taking notice of this, Padme went over to help her Gungan friend.
R3 whistled, "Forget a bit, he's very odd."
"You are quite right, R3. He's very odd indeed," 3PO concurred.
"Yup," R2 chirped.
When Padme managed to get Jar Jar's hand out from in between the blades, he told her thanks, and they then went into the safety zone. Once everyone took a few steps back, Anakin started the racer up. It gave out a nice, steady hum and the engines weren't overloading themselves. "It's working! It's working!" Ani cried out, as Ari and everyone else smiled in victory. Shmi stood off in the background watching this achievement with a somber face, as she contemplated on her children's future.
When Ani powered down the pod and climbed out of it, the twins raced towards each other. They both danced and cheered, with everyone watching, until they jumped up and gave each other a big high-five in the air. "Ow," Ari hissed as she landed and shook her hand.
"What's wrong, sis?", her brother asked concernedly.
"It's nothing. It's just a scratch," she assured him, showing off the slightly bleeding cut on her hand. "It must've happened when I lost my grip on the tool that I was using to recalibrate the coils." She then saw Ani's forearm and pointed it out to him. "Looks like I'm not the only one who cut themselves."
Ani looked at where his sister was pointing and saw the few remnants of blood that were on his arm. "Oh, yeah," he said, shrugging it off.
Seeing this as an opportunity to confirm his suspicions, the Jedi Knight spoke up. "Come on, you two. Let's go get those cleaned up before they get infected," leading the twins back into the house.
Soon, night fell upon the planet. Qui-Gon and the kids were out on the balcony, with the Jedi working on Ariana's cut. "Stay still, Ari. Let me clean this cut." As he said this, both twins were looking up at the stars, an old habit of theirs.
"There're so many stars. Do they all have a system of planets of their own?", Ari had the urge to ask.
"Most of them."
Ani asked from his seat beside Ari, since his arm was already treated, "Has anyone ever been to them all?"
Qui-Gon chuckled, "Not likely."
"I want to be the first one to see 'em all," he declared.
"Can I come too?", Ari turned to her brother.
"Duh!", he said jokingly while smiling.
Catching on quickly, she smiled too and said, "Rude!" Qui-Gon smiled as well, watching the whole thing.
As their mother called out, "Ani, Ari, bedtime!", Ari felt her hand sting.
"Ouch!", she exclaimed, as she saw Qui-Gon prick her palm.
"There we are. Good as new," he announced.
"Ani, Ari, I am not going to tell you two a second time," Shmi declared as she passed by the back door.
"Hey, what are you doing?", Ariana inquired, as she watched him put a sample of her blood into a small device.
"Yeah," Ani said wanting to know as well. "You did the same thing with me too."
The Jedi smirked at them and said, "Just checking your blood for any infections." He then guided them back inside the house. "Go on, go do as your mother told you. Besides, it's going to be a big day tomorrow."
"Goodnight!", they told him in unison as they went into the house.
"Goodnight, you two." After they went inside, Qui-Gon turned on his comm link. "Obi-Wan?", he called.
His apprentice answered, "Yes, Master?"
"I need you to analyze two blood samples that I am sending to you."
"Wait a moment." Obi-Wan then pressed a few buttons to activate what he needed.
"I need a midi-chlorian count on both of them," Qui-Gon requested. He then sent his student the blood samples.
Upon analyzing them, Obi-Wan was astounded. "The readings are off the chart. The boy's count is 25,000."
"And what of the girl?"
"A little less than her brother's. It's around 24,000. But still, even Master Yoda doesn't have of a midi-chiorian count that high."
"No Jedi has."
"What does that mean?", the student asked his master.
"I am not sure," was all he said as turned to see Shmi. She had apparently overheard them talking about her children. When she him look at her, she left. With uncertainty hanging over the Skywalker home, they all went to sleep, unaware of the danger that was coming ever closer their way.