Earlier this week the site Fanfiction Dot Net had a glitch where new chapters were disappearing shortly after they were published. This seems to have been resolved, but in case it happens again: the chapters are still visible through the App, and all of my work is also published on AO3. It's under the same username, kittystargen3.
Chapter 32 - Hutt Justice
Anakin was sitting with his daughter in his lap on the healer's table. His wife still hadn't arrived and right now he was kicking himself for not waiting on her. Leia was usually so brave when it came to this stuff, but today the nine year old became fussy as soon as the appointment began. Then the healer asked him to hold her for the booster shots she'd need. And that's how Anakin got here, restraining his crying child on his lap, feeling like he was Sithspit for doing this, and almost breaking out in tears of his own.
"Do it, FAST!" Anakin ordered the nurse. The young woman smiled understandingly at him, and he nodded apologetically back at her. The nurse received her training at Padme's Community Center and she was very accomplished in her field. She didn't deserve to be snapped at, and Anakin knew it.
Just then Leia spasmed and cried out. "MOMMY! NO-OOOOOOO!"
"Stop." Anakin ordered just before the nurse stuck Leia with the needle. He remembered what Yoda had told him about the bond between his twins, and how his other twin was with Padme right now. "Leia, honey. What's wrong? Can you tell me?"
"Luke is safe, but Momma's not." The little girl blubbered.
Anakin jumped out of his seat, leaving Leia in the nurse's hands, and he ran out to the lobby of the Med Center. He would've run all the way back to the Community Center to find his family, but he didn't have to.
"Daddy." Luke ran up and threw himself at his father.
"Oh, Luke. Where's your mother?" Anakin asked after hugging his son.
Tears started to form in the boy's eyes. "I'm sorry sir," said another voice in the room. Anakin looked up and found Han Solo.
"What happened?" Anakin asked.
"They took Mommy," Luke cried.
"I was nearby and I tried to help, sir, but I wasn't able to stop them. One looked Klatooinian. I'd bet the Hutts were involved. I just can't figure out why," Han said.
Anakin was so angry that he almost went blind for a moment. The only thing that kept the dark wave at bay was that Luke was right there. He had to be strong for his son. Anakin took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down.
Before he finished numerous medical alerts in the building were going off. Healers and Med-droids were running around like mad to confirm that their attached patients were indeed still breathing. 'Oops.'
"Come with me." Anakin said as he pulled out a Comm from his pocket. He dialed the man who would always be his first choice to go into any battle with, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Quickly a group of Jedi were gathered and met Anakin at his home. Han had gone off with Chewy earlier. They both volunteered to fly runs over the town and surrounding desert to see if they could find Padme's attackers anywhere. They were joined by several Padawans who were old enough to fly speeders.
"I am hearing back from several of our padawans. Nothing yet. I fear if they don't find her soon, we'll have to rescue her from Jabba's Palace. Anakin, what are you doing?" said Obi-Wan.
"Getting this." Anakin pulled a thick notebook out from under the couch. On the front was written the title 'Hutt Justice.' "Padme didn't like me making these. I had to hide it. Here, I think number forty-six is our best option, but plans thirty-three through forty-two may be worth considering."
There was a moment of silence as Obi-Wan's mouth opened in surprise. "We'll talk about balance later, I think." He picked up and began flipping through the notebook. "Wow, these are very detailed."
"I spent years at war, then ended up stuck on this rock with the beings who enslaved me and my mother. Pardon me for planning ahead. What do you think?" Anakin asked.
"I think this might work, with a few slight changes." Suddenly everyone leaned in as Obi-Wan laid out his alterations.
"Wa'ke Tonka." The booming voice laughed, as Padme opened her eyes.
She swung her eyes around in a panic until she realized where she was. Before her was the Giant Slug Hutt, Jabba Desilijic Tiure. Granted, most women would be filled with terror at the site, but Padme had lived through a lot more frightening than this. She also resisted the urge to puke at the sight of him, and tried to get up on her feet. Unfortunately her head started spinning when she raised it, so instead she shifted her body around till she was laying down facing Jabba.
"U've kostem je drelobo co moulee-rah. Che mib u vill wamma." The Hutt bellowed.
'What language is that?' Padme questioned. "Huttese. Regrettably I am not as fluent in it as my husband."
At a gesture from Jabba a red protocol droid stepped up and spoke. "His excellency says, you've cost him lots of money. For this you will pay.' I'd suggest that you do just that." The poor droid reminded her of C3-PO. It made her feel sad to see him cared for so poorly. The droid was covered in dents and scrapes, and seemed to fear it's master much more than she did.
"We haven't done business. There is no contract between us. I don't owe your master a thing." Padme said.
Jabba threw his arms and growled, just barely missing the droid. "Mee va lossa profe-rah trecass le u. U vill wamma je k'wannoba mo u vill le myo shag!"
"Ooh, this is bad. His excellency says he has lost profit because of you. You will pay him fifty thousand credits or you will be his slave."
Padme huffed. She was very aware of the situation she was in. If she refused he could have her dragged off and killed as easily as spitting, and to tell the truth, she was quite nervous. But she was not going to tell him that. No, she glared at the Hutt as she thought. 'Where's Luke, I don't see him here, and they haven't mentioned him yet. If they wanted me to pay them, threatening my son is the obvious first choice. So they must not have him. Did he escape? With Han?' She remembered seeing him before they covered her eyes. 'So if Luke's out there, Ani will soon find out. And then: Hutt Justice!'
"No. You will free me, or you will die," Padme proclaimed.
"Ha ha ha ha." Jabba laughed. "Do shag u vill le." The hutt waved his arm and two slaves walked out and picked her up by the shoulders. They dragged her out of the throne room.
Some time later Jabba's third evening snack was interrupted when the doors to his chambers opened on their own. In walked a figure covered almost entirely in a brown cloak.
"Mighty Jabba, I have a proposal to offer." The man swung back his cloak to reveal his face.
'Tuta konchee?' thought Jabba. This man had a familiar face, someone he'd negotiated with before, but he couldn't remember. And that led to the question of how he got past his guards. A man with that kind of power, Jabba was sure to…
"Jedai!" Jabba bellowed as soon as it clicked.
"You remember me." said the Jedi. "I am honored." He bowed.
"D'emperiolo cass do che copah mo vu'loca," Jabba announced.
"The empire has a price on your head," his droid translated.
"Yes, yes. I'm sure they do." the Jedi seemed to be momentarily distracted. "But I have a proposal that will be more worth your time." He paused for a moment. "If you want to hear it."
"Alright, go. Go, go go." Anakin ushered Jedi into position. His master's entrance was flashy enough to make Jabba think that flashy was all they were going for. His people pulled the guards of Jabba's palace out of the way and donned a Force assisted disguise as they entered the palace in their place.
They had prepared for more force, but as it turns out a few mind tricks and Force sleep were all that was needed to deal with the guards.
Anakin followed after them, but he was not going to the Throne room. No, there was somewhere else he had a mind to go. Anakin turned and walked down into the subterranean complex.
When Anakin was finished, he climbed back up and joined Obi-Wan by walking into the throne room.
"Soboba, Ha. U loma hunto." Jabba argued.
'Fifteen, ha. You take ten.' Anakin's mind translated, faster than the droid. 'Obi-Wan must be negotiating his take in the fake deal. I'm right on time then.'
"Andoba Jedai!" 'Another Jedi!' Jabba interrupted Obi-Wan's reply.
Anakin stepped up and took off his cloak. "Tagwa u wermo. U caso myo cheekleka!" 'Yes, you worm. You have my wife!'
Jabba bit his tongue in shock as he looked back and forth between the two Jedi. "Akkata! Akkata!" 'Attack! Attack!' he called out.
The few slaves in the room looked around in surprise. Most of the time that was the trigger for Jabba's private army to come out with their guns ablaze. No one moved.
"Is something wrong? Can't find good help these days." Obi-Wan asked in a mock-sympathetic tone.
Jabba reached behind him and flipped a switch with a jovial expression on his face. It then turned to horror as nothing immediately happened. Then a rumbling was heard in the distance. A dais was rising up with Jabba's Sail Barge on it.
"Oh, you shouldn't have done that." Anakin laughed. "I used to be a slave once. I know how that works. You flip a switch, and your personal slaves here all go kaboom. Sure it would be a loss for you, but we'd probably die along with them. Good idea. I've got a better one." Anakin paused to stare right at the Hutt. "Lagato myo cheekleka o tutababla reknem." 'Free my wife, or total annihilation.' He held a similar switch in his hands.
"Rewiring stuff has always been my strong suit." Anakin went on. "For instance rewiring your slave chip detonators to instead trigger the dais… Child's play. Thank you for that, by the way. Now that it's here, all I have to do is push this switch here, and my own explosives on your ship will go boom. That wall is load bearing isn't it?" Anakin pointed to a wall clearly in range of the explosives. "Myo Cheekleka."
"Poodoo. Koose nenoleeya doe cheeka." '(Swear). Bring out the woman.' Jabba said. Nobody did anything. "SLAG koose doe cheeka!" 'SLAVE bring the woman!'
The slave he seemed to be yelling at crossed his arms and shook his head. Jabba growled in frustration but there was nothing he could do to make the man obey. Several other slaves looked at each other and nodded. All at the same time they jumped up and attacked their Hutt master.
Anakin stood back and watched with wide eyes. "What's happening?" He asked Obi-Wan.
"It appears you've freed the slaves," Obi-Wan replied with a touch of amusement.
"I freed the slaves. I freed the slaves!" Anakin said, at first with disbelief, then with triumph. He wasn't sure if his old master remembered, but when he was younger, Anakin insisted that one day he would free the slaves of Tatooine. He had seen it. But then Yoda always said the future was in flux, and it had been a while since those childhood dreams. But based on the smile on the man's face, Obi-Wan did remember.
Jabba fought them off as well as a fat slug can be expected to, but he was quickly overpowered. Anakin and Obi-Wan then pulled out their sabers and stabbed Jabba in what they thought was his heart, if the creature ever had one.
"My wife?" Anakin asked one of the slaves as they were cheering their victory. The former slave pointed.
"Thank you Malakili," Padme said to one of the slaves who was helping her walk out into the throne room.
"Padme!" Anakin ran to hug his wife.
"Ani!" Padme grabbed him. She gave him a kiss. "Luke?" she asked him with her next breath.
"Safe and sound at home with Leia and Leo," Anakin answered.
"Good. This is Malakili. He's a slave and an animal trainer. Jabba's got a baby rancor that he was brought in to raise. I told him about my center and he's agreed to come and teach, if we can get him his freedom," Padme said.
"That won't be a problem anymore. They're all free now," said Anakin
"You didn't." Padme turned and evaluated the dead hutt on the floor. "Well, I did warn him."
Hello Everyone,
Gee, getting the Huttese for this was hard. I had to make up a few words, but I also used a Huttese translator online too. Yes there are those.
And I know Padme did speak to Jabba once before in the Clone Wars series, but it was over a holo, so I'm just assuming he didn't recognize her here. It would've made things a lot more complicated if he had.
I also wanted to give a happy ending to Malakili and the Rancor that Luke killed in Return of the Jedi. Malakili was the slave who cried over the Rancor's death. I imagine here he adopted that baby Rancor to raise as his own pet.
And I'm pretty sure there was no dais in the throne room in the movies, but I figure a guy like Jabba would be proud of his personal sail barge, and he might've liked to admire it in his court.
Action scenes are harder for me. I hope I got this one to sound cool, though it really didn't have a big plan before I wrote it. Mainly I wanted to have Anakin free the slaves, because of something said in the Phantom Menace that I feel was dropped in the later movies.
In the next chapter we will have another short time jump. The twins may be about ten and they'll be struggling through their initiate trials.
