Ch32

Yipeeee! Anakin recalibrated several of the meter readings on the hyperdrive. There were only several minutes left to go and he'd exit hyperspace. Soon he'd see Mom again, she'd be so happy to see him! A small niggling voice in the back of his mind warned him that this was all a bad idea and that his Master wouldn't be too happy finding out he'd been gone from the temple. But he quickly squished the voice with his minds as he pressed several more commands into the console of the ship and exited hyperspace. The Jedi were all about saving people weren't they? Besides like Obi Wan had said he wasn't a slave anymore he could do what he wanted. The bantha poodoo headed Jedi could eat sleep and meditate all they wanted. He'd be a real Jedi and he'd show them how it was done. He focused on the orange yellow planet that was his home a wide grin on his face. He'd nicked some credits chips from the requisitions room when the droid wasn't looking, it should cover buying his mom free, he hoped. Taking the credit chips was easy and it's not like he didn't mean to return it. He'd give it back later, he'd just have to figure out how to sneak away to enter those underground pod races back on Coruscant. Then he'd be in business.

He decided to land a bit away from the city. That way no one would think of stealing his ship thinking it was one of the bounty hunters. Or at least they'd have to walk all the way to the actual ship which was kind off far it being a desert and all and no one would want to do that unless they were actually sure it wasn't a bounty hunters ship. He trudged through the sand a small pack swinging on his back as he kicked up the grainy particles not watching as they settled back onto the ground. The town would take a good thirty minutes to walk to, he didn't mind but a speeder couldn't have hurt. It was several more minutes before he took a swig from a water canteen he brought along and thought of taking a short breather before something starting feeling off. He'd felt this way only several times before when something really really bad happened like when his mother got sick or when uber huge sand storms would come. But the feeling usually passed, it didn't get worse. He swallowed as he hurried his pace. Something was really really wrong. 'I have a bad feeling about this,' came to mind. Something Obi Wan would sometimes say but he'd say it sometimes as a joke and this wasn't funny.

The closer he got the more intense the feeling of wrongness got. It settled in his gut like something really dark slithery and gross. Like a sleemo eal, he broke into a run. If his master was here she'd tell him to wait and meditate or listen to the force or something but who cared about all that? He need to know what was going on and he needed to know now! He ran wind in his face as he left a trail of footprints in the sand to his house. The lively market was all but silent, streets empty. He turned to search for his house among the many. Spying it he ran towards it, the door was open and something was really really wrong.

"Stay! Stay away from there!" Mos Kila the nice old lady who lived a bit aways from his house yelled at him from where she stood in the near empty market her hands shaking. But he didn't listen he stumbled through the doorway bile in his throat as his eyes widened. "Mom? Mom!" She was on the ground and she wasn't moving. He ran to her side, "Mom, Mom come on wake up! Mom!" He bit his lip as tugged at her hand frowning when she didn't respond pushing her up and turning her over only to have his eyes widen. "Mom! NO!" He let his anger and pain out into the force as he kept staring at the hole in her gut. Suddenly he didn't feel so good. He felt hot like a thousand suns beating down on him. "Mom!" She's not moving an its not fair! I promised her I promised I'd come back for her and it's all my fault! It so dark and red and it hurts! How how could anyone do this? She didn't deserve to die! If the force really was everywhere and it was good why did it let his mom die? Why had it made her suffer? "Mom!" He didn't even realize the explosions and ripples of dark energy the blasted from his form as he yelled her name in vain.

He cried as he shook her body the heat intensifying. It slithered uncomfortably in his stomach as he shook with rage and agony he felt like he was dying, he'd never felt so terrible in his life.

"Is this the relic?"

"He's the only dark thing here…."

"Well then let's collect him and get out of here."

Anakin's head snapped to the voices. Two men stood by the door arms folded as they looked disdainfully down at him. His eyes searched them before he instinctively looked to their side. Lightsabers dangled from their belts there dark clothing obscuring all else. "Did…did you do this?" He snarled. They weren't Jedi he couldn't sense the peace but if they weren't Jedi who were they? It didn't matter whoever these sleemos were gonna pay.

"Oh yeah so what if we did brat?"

"Come along slave boy or we'll do to you what we did to her."

"You, you killed her!" The shock and horror at the death of his mother made his body shake. The fire in his blood intensified as the air thickened menacingly around him. He wanted them to feel this. His pain his rage, and how slowly he was going to kill them for it.

"Yes all part of the job, now get up slave we actually have places to be."

"I'll, I'll kill you for this!" The anger and hate seemed to pour out of his body in droves. He reveled in the feeling. It gave him power. It gave him focus.

"Will you now? Come on let's see what you got." The taller man ignited his saber with a hiss swinging at him, it was a crimson red. Anakin wasn't sure what he was doing except he was angry, angry at the galaxy at everything. His hands shot up instinctively yelling in rage and anger and hurt, a huge wave of the force slammed the two non Jedi into the wall harshly. Anakin shuddered at the effort his hands shook as he looked at them not sure what exactly he'd done only that he'd do it again and again. He could do it, he felt he could, it was like something opened up within him and he could use it to make them pay. The shorter one got up first, he ignited two sabers and force jumped on Anakin. Anakin yelled in rage as he slammed his hands through the force trying to use the force again to push them back, but he got clumsy and wasn't sure exactly how he'd done it the first time. His eyes widened as the lightsabers came down on him. Time seemed to freeze as his breath slowed his eyes widening in fear and shock, the saber was almost at his neck when another crimson blade hissed to life before him.

He swallowed thickly as he sat kneeling in front of the dead form of his mother eyes gazing at the two sabers in deadlock below and at his throat. Slowly but surely he dared to glance upward moving his head ever so slightly his eyes widening at another man in black covered with black and red tattoo's horns growing out of his skull instead of hair. He swallowed again thicker this time as his eyes met the feral alien ones of the man. A shiver of ice ran down his spine as his gaze returned to his neck. The tension between the sabers intensified. With a growl and a kick his savior threw the shorter man across the room. The taller one jumped but was shot down with a brilliant array of lightning. Anakin's eyes widened he'd never seen a Jedi do that. The shorter one spun around with both lightsabers and Anakin dodged out of the way as the man bore down on him. He tried to find his center to use the force throwing a hand out like his Master taught him but everything was so muddled. It came out more as a push then a throw but he was able to stall the attacker enough to grab the first object he found which ended up being a plate at his opponent before the man crashed through the small table cutting it down.

He suddenly felt himself being pulled towards the man with the horns. He flailed in panic only to find that it had been the man who pulled him as he choked the taller man with the force. His eyes widened. He'd never known you could do that with the force. He looked for some way to be useful but he hadn't been able to bring his training saber. The Masters would have been suspicious of why he'd been hanging out by the hangers with it and he hadn't thought of nicking a lightsaber it wasn't like the Jedi had those lying around. And for all his force powers and abilities Anakin found himself practically useless when it came to this fight. He tried the force but it just wouldn't work for him. He couldn't clear his mind like his Master taught him and whatever he'd done in his anger he couldn't seem to replicate. But if he was useless then at least he'd have the man's back. "Look out!" he yelled as the shorter man jumped in interrupting the choke hold the man with horns had on the taller man. The taller one lunged, time seemed to slow as the taller man extended his hand the blade piercing the side of his savior. The man with the horns yelled in rage and suddenly the tall man's hand was flying across the small room and the shorter man was also yelling in rage. He jumped on them both and Anakin moved out of the way so the man could fight without stepping on him but suddenly he sensed something his eyes snapped to the opposite side of the room where another crimson lightsaber emerged piercing through the wall. "There's another one!"

"Silence." He swallowed as he looked up at the now injured man with horns. He didn't look so good. The eyes narrowed as the shorter man was tossed across the room and then pulled towards him, his eyes following in morbid fascination as the man flew straight onto crimson lightsaber impaled before the man with the horns used it to decapitate the tall man yelling in agony by his feet. Anakin swallowed he'd never seen a Jedi do that before and it had all happened so fast.

"Move." He hadn't even realized he was moving until he was out of his house two more figures in black descending upon them. He threw his hands out managing to blast one as the man with the horns blasted the other one and began running. He followed only realizing he had broken out into a run after he was pulled onto a speeder behind the man. He held on tightly as the speeder screeched away into the desert three speeders emerging behind them.

There were two woman and a men. One shot lightning at their speeder. Their speeder shifted and the lightning narrowly missed hitting off only several inches away from where they had been only seconds before. He turned slightly trying to concentrate but nothing came out. The man in front made a frustrated hissing sound. "Have you ever driven a speeder?"

"I'm a pod racer." It came out as a fact and he realized he'd forgotten to feel any pride for it after he was dumped into the seat. He focused all his efforts on the path ahead forgetting that he'd been a slave, that his mother had just died, that he had nearly died, he forgot the Jedi, the fight everything, his mind was an odd blank as he focused on the sand dunes ahead. They'd have to lose the assassins or whoever they were before he could bring the man with the horns to his ship. He turned sharply as a bout of lightning shot out narrowly missing the speeder. Whatever the man with tattoos was doing was working. There were less bouts of lightning and less force waves he had to maneuver. There beyond those caves! He turned sharply letting the chase continue. Something felt wrong. His turned to look back only to see a rider less speeder slamming into his. He felt himself flying out of the speeder as it exploded in a violent display of fire and metal parts. Then there was darkness.

He woke up blearily to the bright sun realizing he must have blacked out. He quickly checked his injuries before the day came crashing down on him. The man! The assassins! He looked around to see only debris and no one in sight. He pushed himself up from the half sitting position and rose looking around at the wreckage. His eyes widened as he spied a body not too far away. It was black and red the shirt burned almost completely off. He ran over kneeling by the body. "Hey, hey are you ok?"


Maul was not ok. In fact Maul was far from ok. What had started as a demeaning treasure hunt had turned into an all-out battle between himself and Darth Plagues's acolytes. He snarled, inwardly, they were weak. The whole lot of them. How dare they presume they could take him on? He shifted pain coursing and pounding through his body as the face of the blonde brat he'd rescued hovered before his eyes.

"Look I'm going to show you fingers, you can tell me how many there are right?" The hand waved before his face and he had the urge to grab and maybe even snap it in half for good measure but he held himself back, not just because he wasn't sure how much he could move at this point but because whoever this boy was he was powerful. Very very powerful, it was what had made him so interested in ensuring this human child's survival. "Do you have water?" He licked his lips as he frowned at the memory of Kenobi spilling a flask before his very eyes.

"Oh sorry right, here." He drank slowly and sparingly from the small looking canteen Jedispit only new how long they'd be out here on this dust ball now that his speeder was all but spare parts. "Do you think you can move?" His eyes narrowed causing the human child to fidget only further grating on his foul mood. "There's Tuscan raiders out here sometimes. You never know when they might come. They don't like humans."

Oh what a bad day this had been indeed. Not only was he wounded and stranded on some dust ball with no speeder and possibly no ship if Plagues's acolytes hadn't gotten to it. Not only was there a possibility that Plagues's acolytes were still after him but now there were some local species here that did kriff knows what to humans and Zabracks. He shifted, it was painful but he'd had worse. He let the pain fuel him as the darkness seeped into him giving him strength. Slowly but surely he rose into a half sitting position before force chucking the metal that had been pinning him down at the cave like structures looming over them.

"That doesn't look so good." His eyes looked down to see a chunk of metal embedded in his side. He growled as he pulled it out clamping over his right side which had not only received a lightsaber burn but was now bleeding from shrapnel as well. "There's bacta patches, if you can find the med kit." The brat scurried off and he was left to seethe to himself on his rotten day.


For those of you expecting more from Anakin at his mother's death it will come once the rush of battle wears off. He's just in shock and the whole attack and escape have him running on adrenaline from all the crazy going on so he's just barely reacting to everything while trying to process the death of his mother. Wow this was such a hard scene to write ugh. So sad. Also Anakin may have tapped into the dark side but you need training in it for a reason, were he older he'd fare better but he still hasn't learnt enough about the force in general so while he can use raw dark side energy he's still rather new at this whole force thing. Sorry for the long wait for the update hit writers block and of course I have College. For those of you wanting more sw from me you can check out my Clone wars ficlet on Commander Wolffe. Laters!