I don't own Star Wars. I'm also too tired to think of a witty way to say that.

Chapter 6. In which Anakin Terrifies Everyone

By the time Anakin was three he could speak both basic and huttese fluently, and when Shmi wasn't there often helped Ben fix things. When Shmi was there, she muttered things about ripping fingers, and poisonous fumes until Ben sent Ani to go do something else.

Ben was under one of the pod racers, three months after Ani's third birthday and five months after his nineteenth, fine tuning it, calling out instructions to Ani who was in the cockpit, when Gardulla came flying in on a grav-sled, with a blue flying toydarian at her side, too fast for Ani and Ben to hide.

"Look your worshipfulness. The little human thinks he can podrace." The toydarian spoke to Gardulla in huttesse with a laugh in his voice.

"Can you podrace, brat?" Gardulla asked, also laughing, she was clearly high on spice.

"Yes, oh great Master!" Anakin piped up standing up in the cockpit before Ben could stop him.

"Please your greatness, my Master." Ben begged, moving to block Anakin from sight, and bowing low, "my brother is too little to know what he's saying. Forgive him his mistakes, and let me take our unworthiness out of your presence."

"No, no slave. Let the little brat stand up for himself. Think you can stand against Watto's racer littlest slave?" Gardulla spoke, indicating for one of the guards to grab Ben, as he went to move forward again.

"Yes your worshipfulness! Can I?" Anakin asked, excited. Shmi emerged from outside, having sensed something, and quickly tried to protest, but was shoved aside by one of Gardulla's guards as well. She watched in horror as the scene continued.

"Of course you can. I wouldn't be so callous as to deny a child something would I?" her laugh was cruel, and everyone was forced to laugh along with her, "Watto a bet, if the child wins, your racer and pod come to me. If he loses, he and his family go to you." Gardulla was clearly completely high on spice. Either way she was pleased, in one direction she probably got to see a child die a fiery death, in the other she had a new pod and racer.

"As if I would refuse a bet from your worshipfulness. To the end of the spider snake canyon?" Watto asked gleefully, motioning for everyone to move in preparation for the race. Watto was clearly not high. His beady eyes glittered, there was no way the child would win, and if he did die then he got two new adult slaves.

"Fair enough. MAKE WAY FOR A RACE!" Gardulla yelled.

"No!" Ben called out but his cry was lost in the sea of movement and excitement as two pods were pulled out and someone hoisted Ani into one, handing him a set of googles. Focusing desperately, Ben called out to Anakin in the force.

'Ani you have to use the force!"

'Ben you in my head!'

'Yes I am Ani, we'll talk about this later. Right now you need to do what we do when we meditate. Let the force protect you, alright?'

'Yes Ben. The thing that likes me right?'

'Exactly, be safe.' And with that the connection broke, sustained much to long for a first time anyway, and Anakin was off.

Ben and Shmi couldn't even watch the race, held in the back of the cave as they were. It was torturous to hear the oohs and awhhs of the crowd. Never had it really struck home to Ben how awful the life of a slave could be before, never, despite the beating, despite the awful way they lived, despite the constant fear. The fact that his family didn't even belong to him was the worst thing he had ever experienced, the fact that despite the force, despite all his strength, he could do nothing was the worst feeling in the world. No matter his accomplishments that word slave came before all else, that he was less than a person, when he knew he wasn't, suddenly at the moment struck home.

"I'm sorry Mom, I'm sorry Anakin. I'll do better next time I promise." He whispered to himself. Suddenly he understood, this was why people turned to the darkside. This was why Jedi weren't allowed families. At that moment, at his weakest he would have accepted the power of the darkside in order to protect his family. But he wouldn't, his family would also take him to the light, if he fell the power would corrupt him and then not even his family would be safe.

Suddenly as if the force willed it, Anakin came running through the crowd, face covered in dirt and exhaust, except for round goggle shaped circles around his eyes.

"Ben! Moma! Podracers fun! Force liked me like you said. Can I go again? Again? Please, please?" Ani begged, jumping up and down in front of Ben. Ben scooped him up into a relieved hug, desperately gasping Ani's name over and over into Ani's hair, as he was suddenly released from the hold of the guard. The reason for this appeared from behind Anakin, in the form of a blue toydarian.

"You belong to Watto now boys." Gardulla called over the heads of the crowd, the spice thankfully still making her mellow.

"What're you're names slaves?" Watto asked. Shmi stepped forward then, taking Anakin from Ben, and gripping Ben's wrist again. She was not letting either of them out of her sight.

"These are my sons, Ben and Anakin Skywalker, I am Shmi. I speak for this family, my new master. Please have mercy upon us." She bowed to the toydarian.

He nodded grudgingly, his blue stubbly snout bouncing up and down, and then turned back to Gardulla, expecting the family to follow him. He spoke with Gardulla for sometime, Ben quickly making sure that the model fighter was tucked in Anakin's hand, the tool kit he had had with him since the temple was firmly in his pocket and Quinlan's cloak slung over his mother's shoulders, before taking his place beside his mother and little brother to follow behind Gardulla and Watto. Eventually the transmitters for their chips found their way into Watto's hand, and after a few more drinks, they found themselves following Watto into a speeder parked outside, and towards Mos Espa.

The force was oddly humming, a rather smug little innocent tune. It felt like things were finally happening, but at the same time still waiting. Ben was rather annoyed with it, he felt like sticking his tongue out at it, as Watto dumped them at his shop, taking the transmitters with him, and warning them not to go beyond the shop. Then he flew up to his nest in the roof, leaving them to fend for themselves.

It was freezing, pitch-black and repulsive.

"What is it" Ben muttered, as he spread Quinlan's cloak across the ground in the main room, "with reptiles, and cleanliness?"

"I'm not sure Watto and Gardulla are reptiles, Beni."

"Benny?" Ben muttered, as they laid down, Anakin already half asleep between them, worn out from his grand podracing adventure.

"Yes, Beni. Beni and Ani, my two brave sons, I like it."

"The team: Skywalker and Kenobi, sounds cooler."

"Story?" Anakin piped in at the names of his two favorite heroes, still half asleep.

"Not tonight Ani, go back to sleep, and it does too sound cooler."

"Oh hush Beni." Shmi whispered, rubbing a particularly oily spot on Ben's cheek. Not that that did much, merely smudged the dirt around.

"Mother, I'm nineteen." Ben gripped, but leaned into her touch anyway.

"I know Beni, I know." Shmi sighed settling into the cloak on her side, keeping both her sons in sight. Once they fell asleep she took one of each of their hands, and held on even after she had drifted off.

In the morning Watto found them a place in the slave quarter, also filthy, and small, but still a place of their own. They had neighbors who had come out to greet them, friendly and curious, and a kitchen and bedrooms, and a front courtyard. It was wonderful.

The started work that afternoon. It was pitifully easy after practically designing racers; repairing individual parts, cataloguing, ordering and salvage. They had so much freedom as well. Watto had set their trackers to three miles beyond the edge of town, so they could trade with Jawas.

Watto himself wasn't half bad. He was gruff, but he treated them all right, he didn't seem the kind to beat. Toydarians tended not to really register other species aside from their own unless they had money. He treated them really like droids, there only if he needed them. Although even after just a week he seemed fond of Anakin, often calling him little Ani. Ben, he was more annoyed with then not, Shmi reckoned he felt threatened by a younger bigger male then him, although he did enjoy the benefits from the strength that Ben had.

It was a month in when Ben found the most unpleasant aspect of being owned by Watto. A human woman, a smuggler by the looks of her, waltzed in for some parts. Then as she was paying for her purchases, she had said the unthinkable.

"How much for a night with your boy."

"One sec." Watto turned to Ben switching to huttese, which was much more eloquent than his basic, "Ben, how much did your last Master charge for you." Ben his hands shaking had put down the part he was making and very calmly replied.

"Nothing Master, Gardulla didn't notice me, and before I was too young and my Master was kind." The part about being too young may have been a tiny fib, but there was no need to explain about Pi-Lappa. He still often saw Pi-Lappa's prone form lying on the floor of her office in his dreams. Watto nodded and turned back to the customer.

"Another hundred and he's yours for the night, have him back in time to work."

The customer agreed, and told Ben the time and place her ship was docked at. Ben nodded and bowed and she was gone.

He hadn't needed to tell his mother. She had taken one look at his face and simply nodded.

"I want to run, but the force says it's not time yet."

"Then don't think about it. Just go and enjoy what you can. Be grateful he asked and is not just taking."

"It's a she."

"Then be twice as grateful. Unless," she gave her son a speculating look, "female's a problem?"

"No not really."

"Good to know." And that's all that was said.

When he arrived at her ship that night, he knew immediately that a mind trick would not work on this woman. She was in her early thirties, and from what he could see through the robe she greeted him with, still fit.

"Fresher's through there. Don't come out until I can eat off your abs." she purred, giving him a gentle push.

The fresher was glorious; sonics only but still wonderful. He emerged several shades paler then before, to find the woman waiting for him naked on the bed.

"You do clean up nicely don't you?"

"Yes mistress," Ben muttered to the floor, trying desperately not to look at her. Suddenly she was in front of him, like some lithe cat, tilting his chin up, to look in her eyes. Absently Ben noted she was taller than him.

"And innocent too. You've never done this before have you?"

"No, mistress." He spoke back then, meeting her gaze firmly. Take what you can his mother had told him. "Teach me please?"

Her only answer was a rather wicked smile, and to do as he asked.

Afterwards they didn't speak for several minutes, until she ordered him to fetch two glasses of cool tea from the galley. When he returned she was sitting up on the bed, and patting the space next to her, as he approached. He obliged handing her the tea as he did so.

"You did rather well for your first time."

"Thank you, Mistress." Ben replied savoring his tea. A water based drink was such a luxury. In fact this whole night had been something of a luxury.

"What's your name boy."

"Ben, Mistress."

"Lucky enough to have a last name with that?"

"Skywalker, Mistress. Ben Skywalker."

"Now tell me Ben Skywalker, how a very handsome boy like yourself" she gestured lazily at him, "managed to avoid such a situation as this until now?"

"I was very scrawny, very lucky, very careful, and a very good mechanic, still am. My mother can also be very clever when she wants to."

"You're still with your mother? That is lucky."

"Oh she's not my real mother. I don't remember the woman who gave birth to me. She's been taking care of me since I was fourteen though. You're right I was-, am very lucky to have her."

"Got a girlfriend?" Ben laughed at that.

"No. Just my Mom, my little brother, and I. Although it feels like everyone asks that."

The woman leaned back on the bed, setting her tea aside for a moment, and motioned for Ben to do the same. She ran her fingers along Ben's rather beautifully sculpted sweat soaked abs.

"Not quite clean enough to eat off anymore. When was the last time you did have a proper bath?"

"Can't remember. I've belonged to reptiles my entire life. They don't put a huge stock in cleanliness" Not strictly true, Ben Skywalker had belonged to reptiles. That year on the pirate ship didn't really count, and Obi-Wan had belonged to the Jedi, and Yoda was technically an amphibian. He almost chuckled at the though of Yoda owning him.

"If it's not too forward of me, Mistress, why did you ask for me? You are clearly an attractive woman, you should have no trouble finding some one to warm your bed."

"Ah, yes I could have my pick of men, and occasionally I do, but they would all be looking out for themselves and their pleasure. You, you looked out for me, you asked politely what I wanted, and for help, and now I have you for the rest of the night. You don't go rushing out the door." At that she snuggled up to him, and he obliged putting his arms around her. "Sleep my Ben, after all we both must work in the morning."

"Yes Mistress." The bed was far more comfortable then Ben ever thought it could be, and he soon drifted off.

In the morning she let him use the fresher once more, fed him, laughed at his amazement at the glass of water she gave him, then sent him on his way. When he returned to the shop his mother didn't say anything, for which he was grateful. She simply scolded him for being a minute or two late, and set him to work, and that was the end of that.

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