Chapter 16
Three days, it had been three days since they first went into Xanatos' mind. A day and a half since Quinlan had woken up, three hours since Micah had gotten Mace to get some sleep with the promise that he'd stay with Arlie and Dooku, an hour since Obi-Wan had done the same with Qui-Gon. Xanatos had come back half an hour ago, been majorly chastised by Yoda himself for running off for a day and a half with no word to anyone. No one knew where he had been and he had not said a word at all since he walked back in to take a seat beside his Master. Yoda had been suitably peeved that his lecture had been entirely ignored, Quinlan suggested he try again when Dooku was awake. That was twenty minutes ago, no one had spoken since. Arleia and Dooku lay in their beds, Quinlan in a seat between the two, Micah on the other side of Arlie's, Xanatos on the other side of Dooku's. Obi-Wan was standing and looking out of the window at the skyline.
"I do not think I have ever been so worried in my life." Micah says saying the first thing that popped into his head to break the deafening silence.
"I have, on the ship back from Part 3 of the mission to Telos IV." Quinlan tells them, "When Arl passed out, I was so worried she wouldn't wake up again."
"I didn't know that." Mic says.
"Neither does she." Silence falls again for a while.
"What about you Obi-Wan? When were you the most worried for someone?" Micah asks expecting some horrifying story from the war and not sure why he'd even asked.
"Anakin fell off of the balcony from our quarters when he was thirteen. I was so fucking scared my Padawan had just died, then I looked over and he was floating in mid-air. He thought I'd caught him with the force, I was so confused. Then I looked past him to a ledge far below, the one he would have landed on and I saw Xanatos standing there. I got Ani over the ledge and looked back down, and he was gone." Obi-Wan tells him, he'd never told Arl that, pretended he hadn't seen Xan since the day he pretended he died. It only would have hurt her more to know he had been so close and she'd had no idea.
"How did he fall off of a balcony?" Xan asks knowing the child in question to be quite well balanced.
"Okay, when I say fell…I mean I pushed him off." Obi-Wan says earning startled looks, "Not intentionally. I had been meditating on the balcony when he comes out yelling something about a fire in a fountain and that Arlie did it, I panicked, I was just coming back to myself and this loud thing was coming straight for me so I naturally force tossed it away. Worst fucking moment of my life when I realised what had happened." He tells them before cringing, "Well, one of. Your turn Xan, when were you the most worried?"
"When I came back to myself on Telos IV, saw Dooku unmoving on the floor. My memory was slightly fuzzy, I knew I had attacked him, I didn't know he was alive." He replies instantly.
"Well damn." Quinlan says dumbly. "What about everyone's moments when they were most worried for Arlie? She seems to cause them a lot so let's go three most worried?"
"Well, this. Um, the moment I realised she was fallen, and when Garen pointed out she was a traumatised kid that I had just yelled at during a breakdown." Micah tells them.
"You yelled at her?" Obi-Wan asks incredulously.
"I didn't think it through but yeah, I done fucked. What about you Obi-Wan?"
"Um, when I walked in and found her sobbing against a wall surrounded by the younglings Anakin had killed." Obi-Wan says first.
"Well that got dark quickly." Xanatos says.
"We are talking about our three most worried times involving Arleia Skywalker, what did you expect?" Quin counters, Xan nods accepting the point, "Go on Obi."
"Okay, the moment I found out Vader had killed Garen and I knew it would get back to Arlie. And when I watched her stay completely calm as I relayed to the council that Xanatos had jumped into acid after attempting to kill Qui-Gon."
"I thought I didn't jump?" Xan asks confused.
"You didn't, I stopped you but I also agreed to lie to everyone, told them you were dead so no one went looking for you. That included Master Qui-Gon and Arlie."
"Well my worst one would be the first time Wrath possessed me and Arlie was alone, then there was a few minutes after that when Wrath called her fallen, and then the moment he told her what her Sith name would be when she joined him…no wait, I take back the called her fallen part, it was a few seconds before that when he sent a wave of dark energy at her and she just let it pass through her."
"Mine was the moment she passed out on the ship, uh, when I saw her falling into the rage Wrath was creating, and when I found out she had jumped off of the temple."
"How about something happier? Happiest moment of your life to date?" Micah suggests, everyone is quiet while they think. "Mine is the first time I met Arl, she froze the entire council chamber, put what she called ice skates on our feet and started ice skating with Xan around the room. Next thing I know Mace and I are skating around the room too." Everyone smiles at the story.
"Mine's the first time I had my little brother on my lap and our baby sister in our arms. We were beside our mother in the medical ward and our father was kneeling beside us, Uncle Moo Moo was making silly faces to keep Nih-Lo smiling at the camera." Obi-Wan tells them.
"Mine's the day I was knighted, Master Tholme did it on my eighteenth birthday and then paid for me and a few friends to go out drinking to celebrate both. I surprised him by asking him to come along, the look on his face was the happiest I've ever seen him." Quinlan told them.
"Mine was the first time I sparred in front of Arlie, she, Master Windu and Master Dooku were watching Master Qui-Gon and I. She stood up for me, that night Master Qui-Gon said he was proud of my accomplishments. It was the nicest moment we'd had in months and I thought maybe everything could be okay." Xanatos tells them, they lapsed into silence again.
"We need to find the link to your mind." Dooku tells Arl who nods.
"One would assume it's little me in there, how he is representing it as dormant we may have to work around, it will depend on how he does so." The two move into Mos Espa looking around, Arl lead them through the marketplace towards Hego's old house when they heard a high pitched scream.
"PAPA!" They both run towards the scream and find young Arleia, Arl sees the scene playing out and collapses to her knees, hands over her mouth as she chokes back a sob.
"Arl." Dooku asks not sure what is happening, all he knew was that many were slaughtered.
"This is the day Mama made him leave." She whispers to him as he puts an arm around her.
"When you told us, I got the impression you left the worst part out."
"I did."
"What was the worst part?"
"I spent a long time debating that with myself and hating myself for the answer I came to."
"Which was?" Dooku pushes.
"That I didn't come back." Hego's voice says from behind them, they turn to find a young version of him covered in blood.
"She sent you away." She tells him, he shakes his head.
"No Lei, I left you, both of you. I saw the fear in your eyes, in your mother's and I thought I was doing what was best. I used this memory to help me fight because thinking of it made me remember that I did not do what was best, I ran away and left you two to pick up the pieces. I promised myself I would never fail you again and it gave me the strength to keep fighting, is giving me the strength to. The truth is Arleia, I love you. You are my daughter, I love your mother as well. But I made a decision to be a Sith and a dark one, I cannot undo the darkness in my heart and I cannot change the past. But I can keep it away from you." Arlie starts crying, he wipes away the tears. "I have to stop fighting Wrath now, you need to go. Do not mourn me Lei, just be better than I am, and make our sacrifice worth this." He says looking at the despair on young Arleia's face. Arl looks back to him, but he is gone. She and Dooku go over to little Arlie and each grab one of her shoulders.
"It'll be okay, Papa loves you, always." Arl tells her younger self before allowing herself to fall back into her own mind. As requested Dooku helps her destroy the link in her mind before she pushes him back into his own mind.
Arl opens her eyes and sees her Master asleep beside her, she puts a hand on his bald head which wakes him.
"Morning sleepyhead, I was beginning to think you'd sleep the whole day away." Arl jokes, Mace stutters out a laugh as he holds her close to him and she hugs him back.
"I love you Arl." He tells her, she smiles into his shoulder.
"I love you too Master."
Xanatos, Dooku, Mace and Arl had been the only ones in the room, everyone else had been dragged to a dinner Shmi had put together to make sure everyone actually ate something beyond a quick snack. Knowing Shmi had a habit of cooking way too much now that she had ingredients to work with, the four felt no guilt about turning up unannounced.
"Room for four more?" Dooku asks from the open doorway, they had been in Mace's quarters since it was largest of all the ones they could have used.
"Arlie!" Garen, Obi-Wan, and Anakin all shouted happily at once as they ran over to her, she attempted to hug them all but, little arms, they ended up hugging her as she nuzzled their shoulders. She then went over to her other Master and hugged him, then went and sat on her mother's lap at the table, curling into her and closing her eyes at the safety and warmth that she felt. Most seem surprised at the display though happy because it certainly seemed to be a step in the right direction, Dooku just smiled, maybe Hego's words would give the two a chance to heal.
The next day found Depa, Adi, Eeth, Ki-Adi, Saesee, Shaak, Yoda, Mace, Micah, Tahl, Bant, Plo, Kit, Quinlan, Terza, Tholme, Bellan, Dooku, Xanatos, Garen, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan sitting around the table in the meeting room once again. They had had to bring in more chairs and a square table to add onto the already present meeting table but they all fit in the end.
"Okay, so, Xanatos is now safe?" Garen asks when no one speaks. It seemed to be a case lately of when speaking about this topic, everyone was an equal.
"For now, Wrath was beaten down too much, rendered too weak to recreate the link I destroyed." Xanatos tells them, "Who knows how long that will last though."
"Possibly a while, minds only heal properly when in their own head, Wrath cannot be so his healing process will be quite drawn out if possible at all." Obi-Wan tells them.
"How'd you beat him down anyway?" Bant asks, Dooku and Arlie exchange looks.
"It was my idea," Arlie begins at the same time Dooku says, "We had no choice by that point."
"Well that's a comforting way to begin." Tholme says before wincing as his former Padawan kicks him under the table.
"We may have, kind of…" Dooku trails off awkwardly.
"What did you do Master?" Xanatos asks warily, Dooku had been honestly surprised to see him sitting there when they woke up, the hug he had gotten was even more surprising though happily returned. Later that night he and Xan had had a long conversation of him answering any and all questions Xanatos had thought up. This morning they seemed to be okay, if a little awkward.
"I did it." Arl says prompting all eyes to turn on her. "We were in Feral Oppresses mind." Arl says confusing everyone but Obi-Wan.
"Fuck." He says.
"Language padawan." Qui-Gon says with the air of someone tired of saying the same thing over and over again.
"Sorry Master." Obi says as though it were the next part of a long ago memorised script. "So Feral."
"Yes, he was being tortured."
"So we heard." Mic says gesturing with his head to Quinlan and Xanatos.
"Right, well we worked out who must have been doing it." Dooku says.
"How?" Saesee asks, Dooku flinches.
"We may have searched through his memories." He replies.
"…" Obi stares at Arlie.
"…" Arlie stares back.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…" this went on for a while.
"I assume you found something useful, so who was it?" Obi-Wan asks finally looking away, Arl looked slightly calmer.
"Darth Plagueis." Arl says losing all semblance of the calm she managed to obtain for half a kriffing second.
"And what did you do with this information?" Bant asks.
"Asked for help." Dooku replied, Qui-Gon froze looking at Dooku, as did Xanatos.
"Well I did anyway, I knew he'd help me." Arl says noticing the interaction, Qui-Gon and Xanatos immediately relaxed while everyone else tensed.
"He did, allowed us passage into his mind while he held Wrath off, we escaped through his mind into Arlie's and then I continued to my own after breaking the link between Arlie and Darth Plagueis."
"Can't do things the easy way, can you?" Garen asks. "Okay, you went into Sheev Palpatine's mind, did you learn anything useful there?"
"Well we made contact with Palpatine. He was…not doing so great. But Quinlan helped him I think, he was stronger when we left. He's ready to fight for control when we give him an opening." Dooku replies.
"So now we just have to give him that opening, have you found anything more on getting Wrath out of Sir Palpatine?" Bellan asks looking to Bant and Tahl.
"Not as of yet, we wish to go to the library on Naboo, unsurprisingly, the Nubians have a history of a cult who dealt with possession a lot. Some of the old accounts are in their public library in Theed." Bant replies.
"That's a good idea but be careful, he has a lot of influence there currently and may be waiting for someone to do exactly that." Arleia reminds them.
"If you run into trouble, ask to speak to Ruwee Naberrie and tell him you are a friend of mine and need help. He's my sister's godfather, we were quite close once." Obi-Wan says as explanation, Bant and Tahl nod in understanding before Terza bursts, having been holding laughter in for the last few minutes, everyone looks at her in confusion while her Padawan drops her head to the table, obviously knowing what is happening.
"Is no one going to mention the fact that all the Masters and Knights in the room have sat around not knowing how to proceed while the Padawans have taken control and made more progress in a few minutes than we have in a month?" Terza asks, Qui-Gon smiles while Mic sniggers.
"Surprising it is not." Yoda says happily.
"In the meantime, Obi-Wan sat through the evaluation while certain parties were taking an 'extended nap' and has consented for the results to be known to all. We agreed that it may be important should anything happen for you all to have a vague idea of what to expect. If she consents we are hoping whoever evaluates Arl will do the same." Bellan tells them all, they are quiet waiting for her to continue. "Well, in my almost professional opinion…he's nuts." Several people sputter out a laugh, Qui-Gon, who had been taking a sip of water, spit it out and proceeded to choke.
"What she means is I have lasting psychological damage." Obi-Wan tells them giving her an unimpressed look as he rubs gentle circles on his Master's back to help him breathe.
"That is, I believe, what she said." Dooku tells him dryly, Arl laughs.
"Basically, PTSD, also a recovering dissociative personality disorder that he seems to have largely pieced back together except for the usual occasional regression. He's aware of the other personality and can remember actions from the other's control. The biggest problem with that being the other personality." Bellan says.
"What do you mean by that?" Terza asks, everyone is rather shocked by the assessment, Arl look at Obi-Wan questioningly who simply gestures for her to listen to Bellan.
"Well…he's a Sith…sorry Arlie…A Dark Sith." Bellan tells them, everyone looks to Obi who continues looking just as calm as before.
"I spent a little too much time in Sidious' company after Arl died." He says as though that explained it all.
"What was your…his…uh, the Sith side of you's name?" Garen asks, Mic hits him over the back of the head, "Ow! What? I'm curious!" he defends.
"It's pretty dark." Bellan warns them but looks to Obi. "And unless we wish to be dealing with him, I'm not going to say it. It was a good thing Obi-Wan warned me to restrain him for the session or…things could have been…bad."
"Yes, there is something else though." Obi-Wan tells them sounding slightly unhappy.
"What?" Mace asks wondering what the hell else there could be.
"I think we should bring him out. For one it needs to happen so that he can fully reintegrate but also, there are some previous memories of this…Sith's…that are from his time with Sidious. Memories Obi-Wan cannot access without him taking over. From what little I gathered, it seemed relevant." Bellan explains.
"Relevant how?" Arl asks.
"Well, I did not notice it until after Obi-Wan had control but…he called him 'Lord Wrath' not 'Lord Sidious'."
"Is there anything besides the Disassociation and the PTSD?" Qui-Gon asks already not liking this conversation.
"A history of suicidal tendencies, he's a moody son of a bitch but I think that is more personality than psychological damage. Also, insomnia. And he needs to be reminded that he no longer has arthritis so that he moves normally and not like he still has it. Otherwise he's going to cause it several decades early." Bellan finishes.
"I have the memories of an old man, don't act so surprised. Arthritis is a thing." Obi-Wan defends at Xanatos' concerned look.
"So not what that look was for." Xan replies disbelievingly.
"Okay so, Bant, Tahl, Dooku, and Xanatos are going to Theed. We are interviewing a Dark Sith and Anakin set the creche on fire." Arl sums up.
"HE WHAT?!" Obi-Wan yells.
"Someone was being a dick about him being a slave, another kid tried to defend him, that kid started getting beaten, Ani lost his temper and a bed spontaneously combusted." Arl says defending her brother.
"Better than the time he melted my lightsaber when he was a teenager." Obi-Wan muses.
An hour later and they'd worked out a schedule for Arlie and Obi-Wan's classes along with travel plans for the four going to Theed. It had also been decided that Bellan would evaluate Arl as well.
After the meeting, Garen and Arlie decided to visit the creche. The second they arrived Tilli was at Arlie's side along with Roland.
"Master Aa!" They cried happily. "We was so scared about you." Roland tells her, she hugs them both.
"I am all right young ones." She tells them.
"We know, the force told us, but it was still scary." Tilli told her.
"Arlie!" Anakin yells seeing his sister and sprinting over to hug her, she picks him up happily before passing him to Garen when requested.
"You two know each other?" Master Penn asks confused.
"Arlie's my big sister." Ani states proudly, she boops his nose making him giggle. Tilli begins pulling on her leg so she lifts her into her arms, once settled she moves the other arm to put around Roland's shoulders and pull him in close so he did not feel left out.
"You're his sister?" One of the initiates his age asks surprised.
"Yes Wilta." Arl tells the boy recognising him from one of her many trips.
"You know him?" Anakin asks surprised.
"I know most of the initiates Ani, I spend a lot of time down here."
"Why?" He asks.
"Well, otherwise I'd be spending all of my time with my Masters or Dooku and Xan." She says in a mock sad tone that makes him laugh as do most of the initiates though a few still look surprised at the disrespect.
"Can you tell us stories again?" One of the kids asks, Arl looks to Jey-Sahl who nods for her to feel free to. They all sit around in comfortable places, Garen watches her as intently as the initiates. He had been down here a few times but never with Arl.
"Okay, who would you like to hear a story about?" Arl asks.
"Master Dooku?" Wilta suggests, Arl nods.
"All right, someone want to explain to Padawan Muln what we do here while I remember one?"
"Knight Aa tells us true stories of times when Masters and Knights mess up."
"Actually, before you do, you never told us what happened on Telos IV, did you finish your investigation?" One of the older initiates ask surprising Garen, Arl talked about missions? Was that legal?
"I suppose I haven't. All right, the long awaited story of Telos IV. Then the time when Dooku didn't know how to gift." Arl offers, they all nod enthusiastically. "So Master Dooku and I returned to Telos IV, this time Quinlan Vos came with us. When we got there, we went straight back to the building we had last been to before. We searched the factory when I noticed a scuff mark that seemed suspicious to me. Does anyone know why Quinlan Vos is so good at tracking and investigating things?"
"Psychometry, that's when you touch an object and can see its history." One of them says, Arl nods.
"I asked him to do so with the scuff mark. He saw the perpetrator, but then he passed out and fell off of the beam we were standing on. I caught him with the force and lowered him down to where Dooku was. He took Quin back to the ship while I went to deal with the government, that…did not go so well. I am not really welcome on Telos anymore."
"Is that it?" one of the initiates asks, after all the build up it was a bit anti-climactic.
"Of course it isn't, when are things ever that easy? No, when Quinlan woke up he felt very ill. We began heading back here when we realised we never found the reason why the bombings had been placed or why the bad people were there to begin with. We returned to the factory one final time however we forgot to inform the Council about us returning. Now, I want you all to take what happened next as a warning to Always inform the council to any changes in plans. No one heard from us for three days. Half of that was travel time, but a day and a half of it we had been captured by the one who planted the bombs. No one knew where to look since we did not tell the council we were returning and because we weren't welcome anymore, the government of Telos IV did not know we had returned. Quin, Doo, and I have no memory of that day and a half. The last thing we remember is seeing the perp in front of us, then the factory was on fire and we were running away from it. Or I was dragging Doo away and Quin was getting the ship ready."
"You were dragging Master Dooku? Was that when he lost his leg?" Anakin asks, Arl nods.
"He lost half of his leg, Quinlan fractured and dislocated his shoulder. I broke my wrist and all of us were covered in burns from the fire. Mine were the worst." Arl says lifting her sleeves to show everyone.
"Cool! Can we touch it?" One of the older ones asks.
"Skara!" Master Penn admonishes sounding embarrassed.
"Sure." Arl answers though, a few ran their hands over the bumpy and taut skin.
"Did it hurt?" Tilli asks.
"Yes, it did."
"But you are great at healing, why didn't you heal yourself and the others?"
"Do you guys remember when I showed you how I make light using force-magic?" They nod as one, "You remember how I said a lot of it was the pattern I move my hands and finger in?" They nod again, she gestures to her hands and they see the scars extending all the way down her fingers.
"You couldn't move your hands." Skara realises, Arl shakes her head sadly.
"But that shouldn't have healed by now." Roland says furrowing his brow in thought.
"I have been instructing a Padawan training to be a healer to heal like I do. She has not quite learnt to properly yet and this was the best she managed. Still, I am not in pain and I am fully functional as are Quinlan and Dooku so none of us will complain."
"You don't remember how any of it happened?" Arl shakes her head.
"So, Dooku and gifts." Garen says after a few moments of silent thought.
"I think we all know that Master Dooku is not the most social person sometimes. But he and I have always been quite close, so when he had to buy a gift for a friend of his he came to discuss it with me. The poor guy was panicking, he'd been trying for weeks to work out what to buy for his friend, he was supposed to be giving it that night so he'd swallowed his pride to come ask me for help. We talked about some other stuff for a while because we got distracted but that's not important. I gave a suggestion, but he had very little time. So, within two hours, he went to the lower levels of Coruscant, found a shop we weren't sure still existed, hoped that they had what he wanted and made it back in time to meet his friend. Naturally I pester him about it for the next few days while he is a meanie and refuses to tell me. Eventually he admits it went well except the second he mentioned he had a gift, his friend looked at him, dead in the eyes and asks, 'How long did you wait to ask Padawan Aa for help?'." Arl tells them, everyone laughs. The initiates caught Arl up on what had been happening while she was unconscious and got advice on their current work. They separated as everyone decided to do work while Arl was there to help them. It was three hours later that they all sat together again, Garen was having a great time.
"So, what's going on now?" Kylara asks.
"Well Kyla, now that the old writing has been translated into Basic more or less accurately, the team is looking for more material. It did not give us as much information as we hoped so we need to find something to explain the first thing."
"That's annoying." One of them comments.
"Quite, on the other hand, the boy from Telos that had been influenced by the bad people is now completely free of it." The kids cheered.
"How is your friend's crush going?" One of them asks, several of the little boys said 'ewww' but 90% of the room seemed interested in the answer, including Master Penn. Arl always left names out of those kinds of stories so Jey-Sahl felt it was not an invasion of privacy to be caught up in the tales she tells.
"Growing, quite fast now that he's getting older." Arl says with a sigh.
"I still do not understand how someone can have a crush on their Master." Wilta says with a grossed out look on his face.
"It is surprisingly common among Padawan's, especially those with relatively young Masters, not that this one is, but that's beside the point."
"Did you ever have a crush on Master Windu or Master Giiett?" Garen laughs at the initiate's question even while cringing at the grossness.
"Gods no, but neither of them are really my type. Plus, they are waaay too old. Remember that most of my friends are quite a bit older than me." Arl reminds them.
"What do you mean not your type?" One of the younger boys asks, Arl hesitates as Master Penn starts laughing when she looks to her for help.
"You got yourself into this, you can deal with it." Jey-Sahl tells her.
"So…many cultures have different views on love and relationships, the Jedi for instance, admonish it and all attachments though many Jedi ignore that part, they just keep it behind close doors and do not let it interfere with their jobs. With these cultures people are raised to believe different things and to like different things. Sometimes people ignore it and decide to love whoever they want." Arlie begins explaining.
"You're one of those people, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"And on this day, no one was surprised." Dionadair says, several snickers are heard.
"Anyway, my home planet, there was a religion, or a few actually, that believed love should be between a man and a woman. Those were supposedly the only two genders on the planet, there were more but these religions do not recognise that. Anyway, I decided that for me, love would be between a woman and a woman." Arlie finishes, they seem to understand, Jey-Sahl looks extremely impressed with her, it may have started off awkwardly but it ended quite eloquently. She fought back the urge to clap.
"So, you don't have a crush on either of your Masters because they are not girls?"
"Well that is not the only reason…" Arlie begins but gets cut off.
"If they had surgery for some reason and became girls, would you love them like that then? If they were Meeka Giiett or Macey Windu?"
"This derailed quickly." Garen comments, his voice and eyes filled with amusement.
"I'll say." Micah says, everyone looks to the side to see him standing there with Qui-Gon and Tahl. Qui-Gon was red with the effort not to laugh while Tahl was laughing so hard it was silent.
"Master, your timing is brilliant, would you like to join the conversation of reasons why Arl Aa does not have a crush on either of her Masters? We were just about to hear if that would change should either you or Mace get sex-changes at any point in the future." Garen says, Qui-Gon begins losing it and has to walk away, kind of whimper/whine/laughing-ish.
"I think it is in my best interests to walk away now, but for the record, I'd make a great woman." Micah says before walking out, Tahl continues to die in the hallway as she follows after him, eventually they hear a very loud laugh as Qui loses the last of his control. Arl is hiding her face in her hands by this point as half the room laughs at her and the other half look on in pity.
"So your friend with the crush." Skara says offering her an escape.
"My friend with the crush, it's growing, uncontrollably."
"Well he's legal in two years, wait and see what happens?" Bhaille suggests, Arl nods in agreement.
"Legal for what?" Anakin asks confused.
"Intimacy." Roland replies, Garen laughs again as many in the room look surprised that the three-year-old had understood.
"There's an age limit on that on Coruscant?" Anakin asks curiously.
"There is on every planet." One of the older kids replies.
"Not on Tatooine." Anakin tells them, they seem surprised.
"That's because there are no laws on Tatooine." Garen tells them.
"Well, not for the freemen. There are for slaves." Arl informs them.
"If your brother was a slave does that mean you were?" Arl nods.
"But I thought slaves had the will to fight beaten out of them when they were kids." Someone says, Garen holds Anakin tighter protectively.
"That's not true!" Anakin refutes immediately, Arl puts a hand up to quiet him.
"Some slaves are treated terribly from birth and never learn to fight back, some do lose that will over the years. We were lucky, we have a mother who taught us to keep fighting." Anakin smiles warmly at her.
"Sometimes I think you took that lesson a little too seriously." Garen comments to break the tension, everybody laughs as Arlie glares at him.
"You suck."