A/N: Hello there!
I'm back! I'm gonna try to speed along through some time in this chapter, there are two major events I want to cover before we get to the Phantom Menace. Hope you enjoy!
I don't own Star Wars
Amu and I were walking to the droid shop as the the sun rose. It had been about a month since the Whitesuns left with the fourteen of our fellow slaves.
They hadn't returned, which made sense. They had left at the same time as a mass slave escape, leaving a pair of guards unconscious in their wake. If any members of the path did return to Tatooine, it wouldn't be the Whitesuns.
Sorry Owen. It's not like you and Beru would have children of your own, and your only connection to Luke was through Shmi, who will be leaving the planet with me, instead of marrying your Dad and getting killed by sand people.
"What are you muttering about Ani?" Amu asked, bemused.
"Oh, nothing. Just… wondering where Kitster ended up."
She sighed at that. "So do I. But there is only so much we can do. He is no longer on Tatooine, we can only hope he finds opportunities for survival wherever he ends up in the galaxy." I could feel her sadness, and I regretted bringing it up. We had planned to have kitster stay with us, as it was the least we could do. The plan was to tell him that his mother was a hero, that she had been instrumental in the escape of 14 slaves, but had tragically sacrificed herself to help them gain their freedom. It was a lie, one that we couldn't deny was self serving, but it would also give him something to be proud of. Something to give him hope for the future. Unfortunately, we never got the chance.
Shortly after his mom was found dead at the spaceport and the commotion had blown over, Kitster's Master had sold him to a visiting offworlder. It shocked me, as Kitster was his biological son, but I guess there wasn't any love there. I didn't even see him leave. Didn't even get to say goodbye. I still had nightmares about him, or perhaps they were visions. There was always a haunted empty look in his eyes as he was lead away by his new faceless master. He looked so… defeated. Like he was a dead body that still could walk. The details never changed no matter how many times I dreamed it.
Still, for everyone else on Tatooine, life had to move on. Life did move on. It was like that here. Every day, lives were destroyed, dreams were broken, people would suffer things that seemed like the end of the world for them, and the world just… kept on spinning. As a slave, I was powerless to change it. The suns rose. The market bustled. Life went on.
We still had the blasters, which were illegal for us to possess. We had managed to find a place in an abandoned building to hide our weapons and money, which I secured by welding a safe together. It couldn't be sliced, as I had used old fashioned number dials instead of a digital lock. It was buried in the dirt floor, and covered by a ratty old sinthfiber carpet that was more dirt than rug at this point. The small dilapidated hut had a hole in the roof and was home to a massive womprat's nest, which is why people didn't often go there. Womprats were usually very aggressive and their bites carried lots of nasty diseases, but with the force as our ally, they were docile and meek. Some Womp rat species out on the dunes got to be as big as two meters, but this species was smaller, each about the size of a chihuahua.
Watto had eventually returned and after that it was business as usual. We got up, we worked, I looked out for parts for the pod, Amu skimmed a little off each sale while Watto wasn't watching, the sun would set, we would go home, we had dinner, I would meditate on the force/ tinker with the parts I had, we'd go to bed, rinse and repeat. Day after day.
Except, the last several days while I was snatching an hour or so to myself for meditation, I had sensed someone. Someone powerful.
They hadn't seemed to move at all in the last week or so, and their presence was coming from out in the Jundland wastes, from the canyons that were there. I usually had a pretty difficult time sensing much of anything from that far, but their signature in the force was just that powerful. It felt calm, warm, and sturdy, like a smooth boulder that still radiated the day's warmth in the chilly desert night.
I wanted to go investigate, but Watto had worked us every day since he came back from his trip a month ago, and there hadn't been an opportunity. With every day that went by, I feared whoever it was would leave, but they hadn't so far.
As we arrived at the droid shop and began setting up, there was a groan of pain from up in Watto's nest. His face popped over the side of hanging nest bed, and he waved us away with one hand while massaging his temple with his other. His eyes were bloodshot, and his speech was slurred. "Nno work todayy-eehh. Leave! andeh bbe ehquiet!"
Yes! He had a hangover! Let's fucking go! I don't give a shit what he was celebrating last night, but I'm glad he did!
We quietly packed up what we had set up and left the shop, locking the door behind us and flipping the sign to closed.
We had the whole day ahead of us! And I knew exactly where I was going.
After Amu and I parted ways with the promise that I make it home before dark, I grabbed a leather backpack with my Jawa outfit in it and took off to the edge of town, my notice-me-not field on full blast.
I stole from a few of the nastier vendors along the way without anyone noticing, and I munched on a pallie and took a swig of water as I made it to the outskirts of town. Moving to a location on the outer wall I had previously marked, I sensed down in the sand for what I had buried and managed to pull it up with the force without breaking it. Unraveling the surrounding tarp, I revealed a quick and dirty speeder I had thrown together a couple weeks ago when I was supposed to be sleeping.
It wasn't that pretty, I had taken the base off of a hovering cargo crate, and slapped a small repulserlift engine from a probe droid on the back to propel me forward. There was a chair for sitting welded to the middle of the makeshift hoversled, and a large power cell was underneath the seat. Installed on a conduit pipe in front of the chair was a steering bar that controlled the direction that the engine was pointing, as well as the hastily wired activation controls. It's speed was decent, it's acceleration was shit, and it's handling was so fucking awful you practically needed to be force sensitive to pilot it through the desert without crashing or suddenly finding yourself spinning backwards like a disk shaped snowsled. Its name was Hank.
Tying my backpack to the back of the chair, I tied a knot in the safety rope across my waist, fired up the hoversled and the little engine, and whooshed my way off into the desert.
At this point I had changed into my full Jawa disguise, which protected me from the sun, and I used the force in a way I had recently discovered. Similar to the notice-me-not field, it required a cloak of energy around my body, but instead of hiding me from being noticed, I had managed to 'banish' some of the energy in the air away from me, dropping the temperature significantly. It was like having my own little cool climate, and I called it the AC field.
With my robes protecting me from the sun and the force to cool me down, I had no problems operating even at noon under the binary suns.
I sped across the dunes on Hank, heading steadily toward the large force signature. Normally I would be a bit cautious, but it was so serene and peaceful I had a hard time believing it was coming from a darksider.
After about thirty minutes I made it to the more rocky terrain of the Jundland wastes, my senses cast wide for sand people. Turning a dial, I pumped more power into the repulserlifts, raising the hover height to avoid the rocks. Hover crates weren't exactly designed to go up this high, so balancing was an issue due to the stabilizers having limited range. It was fine as long as I kept my balance. It was sort of like using a unicycle, except you were traveling at 150 kmph and it still handled like a disk shaped snowsled powered by a leaf blower. But hey, that's what the force is for! It still wasn't as sketchy as podracing.
Reducing speed, I began working my way up a sloping hillside, heading for the top of the canyon wall. Once I was there, I sped back up and lowered the height back to standard, as the ground was quite smooth up here. After a while of following the canyon edge, and occasionally looking down into the fissure, I finally reached where the signature was coming from. I powered down my speeder, as it wouldn't be able to traverse the last bit of the journey. I wasn't worried about securing it, because Hank had the advantage of being so unbelievably shitty that no one intelligent would ever want to/be able to steal it.
Sitting on the top of a large rock formation with their eyes closed in a meditative pose, was a scarred, barefaced human with a slender build and long shaggy brown hair. They had rough blocky facial features and extremely well defined muscles on their arms, which made me think they were a man, but their smooth non hairy face and slender frame made me think they were a woman. They didn't have any noticeable breasts, but their chest was covered by their thick sleeveless robes, which could easily disguise any they might have.
They didn't have any noticeable provisions with them at all, no food, no water, not even Japur butter to protect their bare arms and face from the suns. The only item they had was a poleaxe with a long wooden shaft and a jagged head that looked like it was made out of some kind of stone.
I focused on their face, trying to see if they looked like some kind of actor I recognized, but nothing sprung to mind. They were just… a person.
Reaching out through the force, I brushed against their mind, and found a rigid mental defense that seemed unbreakable.
At my mental touch, they opened their eyes, looking around in confusion until their eyes settled on me, and they quirked an eyebrow.
In a voice scratchy and harsh from disuse, they spoke, "Well well well. A force sensitive Jawa. Now I've seen everything."
I took off my mask and lowered my hood.
"Hmm… not a Jawa then."
I decided to introduce myself. "Hello… I'm Anakin. How long have you been out here with no food or water? Do you need some?"
"No I don't need any. This is part of my training."
"Oh… are you using the force to stay alive? Sir…?"
She cleared her throat, a deadpan stare on her face. When she spoke, her voice was much less gunky and distinctly feminine in tone. "Maam. And yes. The force can provide many things for those who know how to ask."
"How long have you been up there?" She looked shabby, but not dangerously dehydrated, and the nut brown skin on her arms and face wasn't even burned.
"Eight days." She answered. "I plan on staying here for about a month in total, upon which I will return to my order."
"With no food or water?" I asked.
"None." She responded.
"Are you a Jedi?"
"No."
"What order are you from?"
"The Matukai."
I inhaled sharply, not expecting that. The Matukai to my knowledge were from Legends continuity, which shed some light on what kind of universe I was in.
She quirked an eyebrow again showing proper interest in me for the first time. "You've heard of us?"
"Yes," I responded, "You are great fighters that use the force and can beat up Jedi, but you don't have lightsabers."
She chuckled, clearly pleased, "I had no idea our reputation had spread so far! And beat up a Jedi? In a purely physical contest perhaps, but not much in anything else…"
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Nyra." She responded.
She seemed to have a direct personality, so I figure I'd just ask. "Will you teach me?"
She rested her chin on her fist, contemplating with her eyes closed. After a few seconds, she answered. "Yes. But only as long as I'm here. I sense we will part ways after that."
Fucking wizard!
This… was not nearly as 'wizard' as I thought it was going to be.
"Follow my movements, feel the flow of the force, and let it fuel your body. We Matukai use physical movement to meditate, focusing on our body as the house of the spirit. Energy flows from the force through your body, commanded by the spirit. Do you feel it?"
"Hah. Hah. hYeah." I responded, sweating buckets. I had initially kept my AC field up, but she made me take it down, as it was 'dividing my focus.'
"Instead of using a trick to hide from the heat, simply enhance your body against it, as I am."
"Uh yeah. Got it." No I fucking didn't. I struggled to keep from screaming. This sucked.
"Don't be distracted by anger. Acknowledge it, consider its cause, then let it pass through you."
I kept breathing through the stretches and aerobic movements, trying to get my body to drink in the energy of force as hers did. I was able to a little, but not nearly enough. I'd hazard a guess and say that Tatooine sunslight isn't an ideal place for a beginner.
It was like a hellish mixture of hot Yoga and P90X, all while also focusing the force in a way I wasn't used to. My limbs burned and cramped as I exercised muscles I didn't normally use, at ranges of motion I wasn't used to. Plus? Sand.
Fuck sand.
"You're fading fast. You should drink some water."
Oh thank all that is good and holy in the universe! Getting out of the burning stretch I was in, I rushed over to my backpack and withdrew my insulated desert canteen. I suppressed the urge to chug, sipping instead. There wasn't much left, and I felt nervous about making it back with no water, especially given how exhausted I was, physically and in the force.
She must have felt my concern, because she spoke up on the issue. "Don't worry, once it gets late I'll take you to a place to refill. There is one close."
I looked up from staring into the water bottle, confused, "I thought you said you don't need water. Have you been drinking it?"
She shook her head. "I haven't. But there is water nearby. I specifically chose this spot for my training for the temptation it provides. It isn't a proper test of Will if what you want is completely out of reach. I know I can get water, but I make the active decision to rely on the force instead. It has the perfect combination of extremely harsh environment and nearby temptation."
What the hell? Does she even know where we are? Is her brain sun-roasted? "We're in the Jundland wastes." I said deadpan, looking around. "There is no water here. Everybody knows that. Not even moisture farmers can set up here."
She looked at me with patience. "The locals seem to do just fine here. And is it truly the lack of water that drives off the outworlders? Or is it the sand people?"
I opened, then closed my mouth. I couldn't really argue with that.
She continued, "There is water here. I can sense it."
I nodded, deciding to trust in her wisdom. She was a fully trained force user after all, and I was just some random joe throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. My senses wouldn't be able to tell water apart from any other inanimate object out here.
"Take a break with your temperature cloak. I don't wish to permanently injure you. Cool off and heal your fatigue for 15 minutes, then we will continue."
I sighed in relief as I wrapped myself in the AC cloak, pushing the heat from my clothes and the surrounding air. It felt heavenly.
While I was resting, I decided to ask a few questions. "When I tried to contact you mentally, your defense was amazing! How do you make that kind of shield?"
She sighed, but thankfully answered, "It wasn't a 'shield' but my mind itself. The Jedi have access to many techniques from all over the galaxy, collected and refined over thousands of years. As such, their mental shielding techniques have become formidable and famous. The Matukai are different. Instead of creating a psychic barrier around our minds, we specialize on using the force to strengthen our minds directly. There are many ways this is less effective than the Jedi method, but it is also why fall rates among the Matukai are nearly non-existent. Our enhanced willpower allows us to more effectively resist temptation."
"Fall rates?" I asked. I had a guess as to what she was talking about, but wanted to make sure.
"Ah…" She said, realizing something. "I haven't taught you about the dark side. Right."
She proceeded to give me an explanation of the dark side that was pretty similar to the one Yoda gave to Luke.
"When one readily uses the dark side," she continued, "there comes a time when they 'fall'. Their eyes turn yellow, their personality is drastically altered, and they often show signs of extreme mental instability that were otherwise dormant in them before. It is this phenomenon that makes the dark side as dangerous as it is. I've seen it happen in real time with a self proclaimed 'grey' force sensitive cultist I used to debate with, and the difference is night and day. One moment they are a reasonable being making reasonable actions with their power, and sometimes in as little time as overnight, they change into a monster. Using the dark side in any way, no matter how justified you are in doing so, is a poison. You are drinking madness into your very soul, and while you might not instantly feel it's effects, eventually it will overwhelm you."
Oh… Damn. Really? That… didn't seem fair at all! But it also rang true with what was shown in the movies, episode 3 especially. "If you fall, can you regain yourself?" The movies and the EU would say yes, but I would be a fool if I took the risk based on that alone.
She shrugged. "After someone has fully fallen? I don't personally know of any case where that's ever happened, but I'm not exactly a subject expert. You'd have to ask a Jedi scholar about it."
I sighed. I already know what they would tell me. Impossible. Ridiculous.
"Anyway," she continued, "The Matukai have the lowest fall percentage of any order, even lower than the Jedi, and It's because we specialize on the enhancing properties of the force. A strong mind can handle much more than a weak mind that hides behind a shield."
"Why not do both? A strong mind and a strong shield."
She nodded. "That's the Jedi approach, the smart ones at least, but a generalist will never advance as quickly or as far as a specialist."
I nodded back. That makes sense. "How can I strengthen my mind?"
She smiled, "Training and meditation. Lots of it. Matukai training doesn't give you all the benefits in a convenient or timely manner. Most people, depending on their talent, don't see any meaningful results in the first year or two. On average, you would have to train every day consistently for more than a decade before you could even consider going extended periods without food, water, and sleep like I do. Not without nasty side effects at least. For now, simply let the force flow through you calmly and meditatively while you do something challenging, and it will leave a minor enhancement behind. Do this consistently, and eventually it will permanently enchant your body, progressing you beyond your limits and opening up new depth to your connection to the force."
"Wizard." I breathed out, unintentionally voicing my thoughts.
"That's enough chit chat." She declared, "Drop that temperature field and follow my movements."
Shit. 'Greater challenges brings greater strength' may sound cool and good and all, but actually doing it sucks donkey balls. Still, if what she was saying was true, it would be so, so fucking worth it.
Deciding to shoot my shot, I asked the question burning on my mind, "My mother and I are slaves, born in the care of the Hutts. Can you help free us?"
She paused, a complicated expression on her face. "No."
I scowled, gritting my teeth in anger. "Why not?" I growled out, trying my best to remain calm.
"I don't have money to buy you, or medical connections to remove your chip. Not on this planet at least."
That took most of the wind out of my sails.
She continued. "But even if I could, I wouldn't."
My eyes widened in rage, "Why not?!"
"Because this is your trial. I will not deny you the growth that will come from overcoming it. It is better for someone's self perception to free themself, and remain debtless, than to trade one master for another. It may seem cruel of me, but I know this to be the truth. With the force, all things are possible, and I believe in you kid. And by training you, however briefly, I am doing what I can to enable you to seek your own freedom."
I scowled. Talk about 'tough love'. She doesn't seem to be taking into account all the irreversible trauma I might receive in the meantime. Still, the pure unbridled faith in her eyes when she spoke, when she looked at me, made it seem like she was looking into my eyes and seeing herself, like she was imparting wisdom to me that she wished someone would have told her when she was young. It made it hard to be angry with her or to truly disregard her point of view. If she was speaking from experience, than… maybe I could respect her stance, even if I didn't personally agree with it.
"Like I said before, enough talk! Ready? Begin!"
Grumbling, I mirrored her movements as best I could, with her offering corrections along the way. Nyra explained that the basic Matukai code was:
Through exercise, discover the Force.
Through the Force, discover tranquility.
Through tranquility, discover vitality.
While this was important to remember, she had her own understanding of Matukai principles which was a bit more effective for her, and the personal mantra she gave me was the one I ended up repeating over and over as we worked.
Challenge grows the will.
Will focuses the force.
The force brings me past my limits.
Remain serene, and find peace in adversity.
I am the calm within the storm.
Even with as cool as that sounded, I had a sneaking suspicion that this was gonna be a loooooooong day.
To make a long story short… It was. It was a very, very long day. The workout we did before our conversation was apparently a warm up and it only got harder from there. The exercises were so… demanding in a way I can't describe. Not just physically, but mentally and in the force as well. They seemed to be designed to push me as far as possible and to only come just short of me breaking. Nearly every second we worked made me want to quit, cry, swear a blue streak, throw up, or maybe all of them at once.
The whole time I desperately focused on the force, practically begging it to help me, to refill my stamina, to protect me from the elements, to make me stronger, tougher, and more flexible. It didn't feel like it was nearly enough. While Nyra's body seemed to effortlessly absorb the force's energy like a deep river flowing steadily into a lake, I felt like I was trying to breathe by sucking air through a coffee straw. It just wasn't enough. My body simply wasn't used to drawing on the force in such a manner yet.
"Alright. That's enough for today. You said you had to be home by dark? You'll need to get going soon."
I collapsed. Holy shit. It was over. Aside from the normal symptoms of exhaustion, my body seemed to hum with otherworldly energy, and it strangely felt like I had to concentrate in order to keep my body from disappearing into the force, which I hoped was a psychological phenomenon and not an actual risk.
"I assume you are out of water then? I'll show you where to get some."
I nodded, and she hopped off the outcropping, jogged over to the cliff's edge and leaped across the six meter chasm like it was nothing, landing easily on the other side. She looked back at me, expectantly. I gulped in trepidation. I knew how deep the canyon was. If I didn't make the jump, all that waited was certain death.
"Master your fear Kid. You have all the tools necessary to follow."
I grumbled. Someone having faith in me may be nice most days, but right now it was a pain in the ass. I hadn't sensed her use any kind of telekinesis or levitation or anything, she had simply leaped across with brute strength. But just because she did it that way, doesn't mean I had to.
In the month since the fiasco with the Whitesuns, I had been experimenting with telekinesis and had discovered that while my base instinct was to use the force around me as a sort of 'counterweight' or 'anchor' so I could move heavy things without being effected, I was also, with proper concentration, able to 'un-anchor' myself, which tossed me on my ass when I first tried it while pushing a rather hefty rock. It was this discovery I would leverage now.
Gathering the force around me, I took off towards the gap to gain speed, and when I planted my foot for the last time to leap, I shoved against the ground with 'unanchored' telekinesis, which boosted the jump. With the extra thrust, I sailed across the canyon like a cork from a bottle! When it came time to land I used the force again, telekinetically cushioning my landing. After such an exhausting day, even this was nearly too much effort for me to handle, and I stumbled, almost eating shit before Lyra caught me.
She had a dry expression on her face, as if she was slightly disappointed, but not at all surprised. "Nice Jedi jump. Try to focus more on enhancement and less on telekinesis, ok? A sturdy foundation is what we're trying to build, you can play around with tricks after your body has been properly trained."
She walked off and I followed, my brow furrowing. 'Play around'? With 'tricks'?! It wasn't like I was cheating at sabaak, telekinesis was an incredibly powerful technique!
She huffed in exasperation, no doubt sensing my emotions. "Don't be so frustrated. You are learning from a Matukai, not a Jedi. Focus on enhancement, other techniques will come after."
I sighed, it was pretty annoying that my emotions weren't nearly as private as I would prefer, but at least she wasn't a full on mind reader. I think. I hope. Shit!
'I'm… wearing ladies underwear!'
I gauged her reaction. Nothing.
'I'm… a gungan in human form planning to overthrow the republic!'
Nothing again.
She interrupted my thoughts, "You admire the Jedi?" She questioned. I relaxed somewhat. She was still on the topic from earlier.
"Yeah, I do. I've always imagined myself as one, ever since I was little. Dreamed about what it would be like."
"You still are little."
I jolted in fear. Had I given it away? "Around here… you don't stay little for long."
She looked remorseful, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to trigger any bad memories."
"It's fine." I nearly sighed in relief. She could sense my emotions, but not my exact thoughts. She assumed she had triggered a fear response from some kind of trauma.
Going back to the earlier subject, she continued. "The Jedi are very famous, and therefore glamorous, but they aren't all they're cracked up to be. They are quite elitist, and their training lacks depth. They compensate by training shallowly in as many different disciplines as they can set eyes on, never fully committing to one or the other. They have a hyper fixation on those sabers of theirs, and devote themselves to serve at the whims of corrupt politicians. They are more a force of self important, interrupting busybodies then they are true ascetics, only holding to their code of so called 'compassion' when it suits them, and throwing it away as soon as it is easier to be callus and cold."
My mouth hung open. What she was saying matched up uncomfortably well with the flaws from the movies, but it still pissed me off to hear her slander my childhood heroes like that. I argued back, "Believe me, I know the Jedi aren't perfect. If they were, I wouldn't be a slave. But just in case you weren't listening to yourself just now, do you honestly think refusing to do anything to free me is any more compassionate than what the Jedi do? At least they are busy trying to do something about the state of the galaxy. All you came here to do was sit on a rock!"
She tossed her hair and sniffed, and I told myself she was deeply offended, which gave me satisfaction, even if it probably wasn't true.
She responded with a calm tone. Was it forced? I couldn't tell. "I am helping you. Give a man a kill and he'll eat for a day. Train him to hunt and he'll eat for a lifetime. I don't have to teach you anything. This is my compassion. If you only ever rely on others to shelter and take care of you, you will never know the real world, and remain a slave forever. A little help is valuable, but too much is crippling, especially if one day all that help is ripped away like a rug from under your feet, never to return. All that was promised would be a thing of the past, and you would be left helpless, friendless, and with no future to speak of. No. That is not my way."
Her voice actually rose by the end of her monologue. For the first time in the day I had known her, her serenity was wearing thin. Maybe her offense wasn't as imaginary as I thought. Still… what she said at the end didn't make a whole lot of sense. It isn't coddling to free someone from slavery, it's basic human decency! Was she projecting? Remembering something from her past? I couldn't tell.
"S-Sorry. Thank you. For training me I mean. I didn't mean…"
She sighed. "Just… don't put the Jedi on some kind of pedestal. Trust me, It will only lead to disappointment. There is more light to be found in the galaxy outside of them and their teachings. I promise you that."
I nodded, but still was displeased. I hadn't met the real life Jedi yet, but I still had memories of Rick Miller's childhood, of playing with a plastic Obi Wan lightsaber with a telescoping blade. Of making up my own Jedi characters, of reloading my same KOTOR save over and over so I could finally save Bastila from the dark side and get the perfect light side ending. Of making shitty short films with my friends, and always playing the Jedi, always being the light side. I… loved the Jedi. Or at least… I loved the idea of them. "Some of them probably suck, but they can't all be like that… right?"
She looked at me, irritated. "Why do you have so much faith in them? Have you ever even met a Jedi?"
Embarrassed, and knowing I was about to lose the argument, I deflected. "Have you?" I said, not giving an answer to her question.
She sighed. "Kid, I was raised by the Jedi."
I sucked in a breath. That… shit. There wasn't much I could say to that.
She continued. "All my life, all that I had was the order. All that I knew was the temple. Like all initiates, it was my dream to become a Jedi knight. I trained hard. Harder than most of my peers. I studied. I skipped breaks to practice my saber play. But… my power, my so called inborn talent just… wasn't enough. No matter how I worked, how hard I tried, it was never good enough. I was never good enough. I attended the gathering, got my own lightsaber, sparred in the tournaments, did EVERYTHING I possibly could to attract a master and in the end… it wasn't enough. I wasn't picked. And suddenly, all that future, all that hope… was gone. Not a Jedi knight… but a farmer. Your lightsaber is your life? What a joke. What was the point of me even getting one, of making that so called 'sacred' connection, if it was just going to be taken away from me? Not a guardian of peace and justice, but a simple farmer spreading shit on a field for the rest of my life. Demoted. Kicked out. Abandoned."
I was too shocked to say anything, and we walked in silence. Before I could think of anything, she spoke up again. "We're here."
I looked around. We were on the edge of yet another canyon, and there wasn't any signs of a mud pit we could strain here or down on the canyon floor. Furthermore, the ground was far to hard and rocky for black melons. Was there really water here? Before I could say anything, she grabbed me around the waist and leapt into the narrow fissure.
As I swore up a blue streak in panic, she fluidly drew her axe off of her back, and plunged it into the canyon wall, her iron grip on her weapon not faltering in the slightest, the axe blade cutting through the stone like cheddar cheese, slowing our decent. After the initial scare, it was actually kind of cool, like being in a pirate movie!
"What is that axe head made of?" I asked once we were on the canyon floor.
She smiled, and I relaxed. I'm glad she wasn't mad at me. "Simple flint. The body isn't the only thing the force can enhance."
My eyes widened, and I nodded.
She made her way over to where the canyon fissure seemed to branch off into a dead end, and hopped up onto a minivan sized boulder that was resting against the wall. She paused, as if sensing for something, then nodded, leaning her back up against the wall, with her feet placed on the boulder. I felt her draw deeply on the force, and my eyes nearly popped out of my head when, with pure bodily strength, she pushed the boulder away from the canyon wall without a hint of telekinesis. With the boulder pushed about a half a meter from the wall, a cave entrance was revealed behind it, looking like it had been eroded by an ancient water flow.
A cool breeze emanated from the cave mouth, and my heart quickened in excitement as I smelt humidity on the air. All of a sudden, I realized that this wasn't a mud pit or a black melon patch. This was something infinitely more valuable.
We made our way through the cave, following its downhill slope deep underground. The smell if water and the feel of humidity increased as the temperature dropped, and eventually I heard the most heavenly sound I had heard in a while.
The trickling sound of flowing water.
I could feel something up ahead in the force. Glowing in my senses like it was alive, but at the same time, not. "Is that what water feels like?" I asked, looking at Nyra for confirmation, but her brow was furrowed in confusion.
"No… that's something else. I don't know why I didn't sense it before, but it almost feels like…" she trailed off, not finishing her thought.
"Like…?" I prompted, hoping she would finish her sentence. She didn't.
"Do you hear that?" She asked, "it sounds like… humming."
I shook my head, "No, I don't hear anything. What does it feel like?" I prompted yet again.
"No point speculating. Let's go see." She hurried forward. I rolled my eyes, then followed.
As we traveled deeper into the cave, the sound of running water got louder and clearer, and there was a soft glow coming from around a bend in the tunnel. We both ran toward the light, and when we turned the corner, we both gasped at the sight before our eyes.
In front of us was a spacious cavern with several large pools of clean crystal clear water. The smallest of the pools was more than 15 meters across, and they were all quite deep. Each of the pools were connected by a small flow of water, trickling from the lip of each basin into the next in line. The old Anakin had never even seen such a massive amount of water.
The light that actually let us see the pools of water came from an unlikely source. All over the ground, the walls, and the ceiling were beautiful formations of crystals, glowing and resonating with the force. The crystals all shone with warm shades of gold, orange, magenta, and the occasional silvery white.
The presence they gave off in the force felt… familiar. Suddenly I realized where I recognized it from.
Looking at Nyra to tell her what I figured out, I was shocked to see a tear sliding down her cheek. "It feels… just like Illum." Her eyes looked far away, like she was caught in a memory. "How is it possible? That I sensed the water but not the crystals?"
I had helpful information, so I shared it. "These look like Jawa rocks to me, but I've never seen such clear ones before."
She started, as if she had forgotten I was there. "Jawa rocks?" She repeated.
"Yeah," I continued, "Occasionally you can find crystals like these in the sand. The Jawa's use them to make the lenses for the eyes on their masks. They are interesting because you don't really sense them until you're up real close, and then all of a sudden they have a kind of… presence I guess. As a toddler I used to call them 'shy glass'. I guess I was sensing the force in them. The ones you find in the dunes aren't nearly this pretty or pure though. That's probably why they feel so powerful down here."
Nyra's brow furrowed, like she was trying to solve a riddle. "Shy… glass…" she muttered, and suddenly, her eyes flew open in realization. "By the force, these are Durindfire crystals!"
I was lost. That sounded like something from Lord of the Rings. "Are they valuable?" I asked.
Nyra whipped around towards me, a look of reproach on her face. "Durindfire crystals can be used in lightsaber construction. They are famously used by the Halcyon family of the green Jedi in Corellia, but the location where they got theirs was always kept a secret! I've sensed them before, they have a certain… subtlety that other crystals lack. They are notoriously hard to find because they only reveal their presence when a force sensitive is physically nearby!"
"So these are kyber crystals?" I asked in excitement.
"No." She responded. "Kyber is found on Illum, Jedha, and a few other places. Durindfire crystals are different, but they can still be used in lightsabers just as well."
I nodded, but sighed in disappointment. Even if they were valuable to some Jedi, I probably couldn't convince anyone on Tatooine to buy them as anything more than a knick knack. Sure they were extremely pure and some were quite large, but you could also spend like an hour digging through the dunes and you would find a few, shitty in quality they may be. They were about as common on Tatooine as quartz was on earth. It wasn't the famous kyber, so regular people wouldn't give a shit. Still, It was pretty cool that you could use them in a lightsaber!
I turned away from the crystals, and back towards Nyra. "You said you heard a humming?" I asked.
She nodded, "Yeah. From over there, deeper into the cave. This place… it reminds me of Illum. The force is almost as thick here as it is there. It just…" she wiped another tear, "brings back memories. Memories of hope. And of disappointment."
I blinked, considering her words. "Do you want to pick one?" I said gesturing to the crystals.
She turned to back me, her face in a pained expression, "Lightsabers are weapons of the Jedi. I… I'm no Jedi. Not anymore. I've found new meaning with the Matukai."
I shrugged. "So don't make a lightsaber then, make a necklace or something. My point is that you can hear something calling you, and I can't. Obviously the force brought you here for a reason. The whole time you were training me you were calm and serene, but as soon as the Jedi came up you cracked. Maybe this is a way for you to heal that wound."
She walked over to the water, and looked at her reflection, staring at it in silence for a few moments. Her expression grew determined, and she seemed to decide something. "Alright. Yeah, ok." She nodded, "I'm going." She looked over where she had pointed to before. "Drink some water, and fill up your canteen. I'll be back." She walked over to a crystal filled tunnel, venturing deeper into the cave.
With Nyra taking care of her business, I headed over to the reservoir to refill like she said. I filled my canteen, and drank. It tasted heavenly, without a trace of the bitter dusty aftertaste you got from a vaporator. I filled my canteen again, and replaced it on my hip.
I looked over the water, and rubbed my hands together in excitement. This was my big break. This would free Amu and I from slavery. I couldn't sell the water directly, a single taste and people would know it was mineral water, and a quick analysis after that would show it wasn't from any of the known hutt controlled reservoirs, and once that happens, I give myself a week at most before I get Jawa-napped off the street and unmasked before Jabba and Gardulla themselves, the slugs eager to torture the location of my wealth from me.
I couldn't sell the mineral water directly, but it was so humid in here that if I set up a few vaporators it wouldn't matter. So long as this place remained a secret I could basically print money! I could probably get a years worth of moisture harvest in a single month with a single vaporator, all I needed was to set up the equipment here, maybe build a simple droid to change the water tanks to harvest as much water as possible. Then all I would have to do is sell some water every night in my Jawa disguise, and bing bang boom! Money for freedom! It wasn't foolproof, there were still -plenty- of ways I could fuck this up, I'd have to transport the equipment and avoid getting caught. But the point was, there was hope! I had a solid way to get us out of this!
I sat down, and laid my back down on the ground. The cool humid air was quite soothing, and it wasn't long before I dozed off, the pure happiness and relief of the situation relaxing me far more than normal.
I was awakened by a foot nudging my shoulder. "Wh-huh? What's up?" I sat up groggily and rubbed my eyes, and when I saw Nyra, for a split second I thought she was a different person. With as young as my body was, I didn't really experience attraction the same way I did as Rick, but I could still freely admit when someone was beautiful. When I first met her, it had been in the harsh desert sunlight, her hair had been sand crusted and dry as hell, and she had been wearing thick, unflattering robes. She had obviously done some swimming to get her crystal, because she had shed her outer robe and trousers, leaving only a pair of tight exercise shorts and sports bra, revealing her subtle curves and lithe muscle. Her hair didn't look shaggy and dry anymore, but sleek and shiny, and her face was lit by the soft, gentle light of the glowing crystals. Sure, she still had a stronger jaw and her nose was a bit roman, but it didn't detract from her appearance, especially in the gentle lighting down here.
Still half asleep, I found myself saying, "Wow, you're really pretty. You don't look like a man at all right now."
She snorted with laughter, rolling her eyes. "Gee, thanks. Anyway, look at this." She crouched down, opening her hand, revealing a brightly glowing magenta crystal. It was about the size of one of the souvenir lightsaber crystals they sold at Disneyland, but the shape was narrower and a bit more jagged. I could feel the force flowing through her into the crystal, and flowing back into her, slightly amplified. Like it was catching the unused energy her body gave off, allowing her to use the force with much greater efficiency.
"Woah." I said intelligently.
She smiled, looking at the crystal with misty eyes, "Yeah. Woah is right. I feel… like I was missing a piece of myself, and I only now just got it back. Like I'm complete again, for the first time since I had to give up my lightsaber…"
I smiled, happy for her. "And this one doesn't come with strings attached. It's just yours. It belongs to nobody else."
She beamed, a tear falling down her cheek. "Yeah. Yeah it is."
She stood up again. "Alright, let's go. It's probably past dark, and you need to get home."
I shot up, fully awake. "Oh yeah! My mom's gonna kill me!" I scrambled around, putting my Jawa cloak back on and making sure I had all my equipment. As I was getting everything in order, I looked back over the water and couldn't help grinning like a madman, my heart joyful.
Nyra must have sensed my joy, "What are you so happy about?"
I responded. "Sorry, it's just… money has been the main barrier between me and my freedom until now… and now I finally can bridge that gap…"
Nyra was appalled, "You are NOT selling these crystals!"
I blinked. "I'm not gonna sell the crystals! I'm gonna sell the water!"
"Oh." She said, the wind out of her sails.
"Yeah. With this, I can free my Mom and I, all we have to do is survive till the Boonta eve after next, and keep this place a secret."
"Alright, fine. So long as you promise not to mine the crystals, I won't tell anyone else about the cave. Out of curiosity, what happens the Boonta eve after next?"
I paused, contemplating my answer. "I've had a vision. The Jedi will come to this planet, and I will have the opportunity to help them. If I have the money to free myself, I can use them as an intermediary."
She scowled. "Visions are often temperamental. There is no guarantee they will actually come true. Your faith is misplaced."
I responded. "Their names are Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi. Master Jinn has a green lightsaber and Padawan Kenobi has blue. I've never met these men in my life, but I have seen them clear as day. They will be here."
She stood still, shocked. "I… guess that's pretty detailed. If they don't end up showing, call me. I'll give you my comm number tomorrow. I expect you here bright and early for training." She started walking up the tunnel towards the exit, and I followed.
I shook my head. "The only reason I could show up today was because my master was hungover and he closed the shop. The last day off I had was about a month ago. Slave, remember?"
"What?! That's…" she went silent, contemplating. "Tomorrow, I'll go get a data pad from my ship, and write up a training document for you. I'll record the exercises you need to do and copy some material for you to study. At the end of the month before I leave I'll find you and drop it off, along with my comm number."
I smiled, "That would be awesome! Thank you!"
I could see her face, and it looked conflicted. Like she was second guessing herself. I spoke up. "I will free myself. I promise you that. Your time and effort won't be wasted."
She smiled in relief. "You'd better! Stay safe out there kid."
Even if she just up and took Amu and I with her, The chips were proximity coded. I'd explode if I got too far from the system. And with the dark side being as dangerous and corrosive as she said, I wouldn't ask her to torture the remote code out of Watto, or destroy his mind for it, if that was even possible.
And maybe I was catching her brand of crazy, but the thought of freeing myself, with my own power… I won't lie, it was quite attractive. I would use her training tools to gain whatever strength I could.
"Hey…" she started, "Are you sure those are their names? Master Jinn and… Obi Wan Kenobi?"
I nodded. "Yes."
She shook her head, but had a small smile on her face. "Can't believe little Obi Wan made it. I was about a two years older than he was, but when I left without a master it seemed like he would follow the same rout when he came of age. He wasn't very impressive as far as initiates go. One of his nicknames was 'Oafy Wan'…" she sighed, "And now he'll be a knight."
Her eyes were distant, and for a moment there was a bit of longing in her gaze, but she quickly shook it off. "Everyone's destiny is different. Good for him." She concluded.
After a while we got back to the cave entrance, and replaced the boulder in front, covering it. I used my telekinesis to kick up the sand around it like a whirlwind, wiping out the track in the dirt that dragging the boulder made. When we were done, it looked just like it did before, just another part of the canyon wall.
We made it back to Hank the junk scooter, and Nyra sat back down on her rock formation. We waved at each other, and I carefully drove away, heading back towards home.
Eventually, I made it back to the dunes and was able to lower the craft back down, which freed up my focus for some contemplation, and I smiled like a fool under my Jawa mask.
We could make more than enough money to free ourselves with that water. Now all I had to do was focus on keeping the cave secret, building that pod, and not dying in the meantime. Finally, I could see light at the end of the tunnel. I just had to not screw it up.
But hey! It me right? It's not like I, Anakin Skywalker, am some kind of trouble magnet…
Suddenly I realized what I was thinking. Oh boy… I better be more careful. I'm just glad I didn't say any of that out loud!
A/N: Aaaaaand that's a wrap! Two out of the three fateful encounters I planned have now happened! And for anyone who doesn't feel like Kitsters story had closure, that's by design. It's not the last we have seen of him.
There will be a significant time skip next chapter, which will cover the third and final Tatooine butterfly event and some other things, and the chapter after that should be the start of the phantom menace!
Sorry if there is a bit of a tonal shift in this one. I'm trying to take a sort of 'slice of time' method where Anakin is feeling differently in each chapter, but I'm not sure it's coming across that way.
How do y'all like Nyra? I'm trying to write her as a bit flawed but still likeable. her original name was going to be Lyra, but that was too similar to an existing character, and I changed it to avoid confusion. hopefully i got all the names changed.
BTW, Nyra's perception and opinions on the force and the Jedi are colored by her upbringing, experiences, and the Matukai teachings. The things she says about the force and the Jedi are not necessarily the complete truth of how I the author will write the force and the Jedi. She's not lying, or even wrong, at least not totally, but she definitely doesn't see the whole picture. There is a lot more nuance to the situation than she would have Anakin believe. The Jedi have flaws, don't get me wrong, but they don't totally suck. Her perception of them is quite unforgiving and judgmental, especially her perception of the agricorps as "simple farmers spreading shit on fields" they are much more than that.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not bashing the Jedi, this isn't a 'evil dumbledore' story if that makes sense. It's just a character whose opinions have been colored by past hurt, and there will be more development in the future.
I don't actually hate the Jedi at all, I'm just trying to write a more complex world with multiple reasonable sides to complex issues.
Anyway, see you next time! Have a good night!