Eyyyyy! We're finally in double digits! Or I guess we were last time, but this has officially surpassed tDoL as my most chaptered fic! It makes me kinda sad, maybe I'll work on my first fanfic a bit. But whatever! We return to the Star Wars galaxy once again!

(Some of you may be pointing out that it has been more than a month since my last post, since last chapter went up on feb 18, and this one is coming out today. But really, if you do the math, and taking into account that February only has 28 days, I technically only took 30 days to post this, 31 at most depending on time zones. So really, if you think about it, I still kept to my 'no more than a month between chapters' resolution. Kinda. Technically. From a certain point of view.)

Let's get into it!

I see the moons shedding their light, sharing their water with the spirits of Ar'Amu's children.

I see a great dragon, and chains cannot hold her.

I see a great storm, it scours and destroys, protects and makes new.

I see a sleeping desert planet, dreaming of the lush green past it once had, its cursed presence a subtle wound in the force.

I see all the old ones gathered on a distant world at midnight, drinking deeply from a cool and dark oasis, unknowing that it has been poisoned by their enemies, who once were their friends.

The very water of the oasis itself cries out, begging and whispering to me in an ancient language I can't understand.

I see a bowl of moonlight in front of me, free of the poison from the enemy.

Trusting my instincts, I pick up the bowl. I drink deeply, and the world breathes.

A cool gentle moonlight fills my soul, and my understanding is enlightened.

The whispers of the poisoned oasis become understandable.

I look around, and there are many people, but they are stoic and ignorant as if they are statues. None of them can hear the whispers.

"Cleanse me!" The whispers say. "Free me from the corruption of the fell god, that all may drink deeply without fear once again!"

"I… don't know how!" I answer. "I can't!"

The whispers respond. "Perhaps not. Not yet."

Suddenly I am summoned, as if tugged on by a thread of light.

The last image I see is a red bird, drinking carefully from the poisoned oasis, purifying the poison with its tears, beautiful drops of passion that shine like moonlight in the dark.

Suddenly, I woke up. Qui Gon Jinn's hand was on my forehead, and he smiled calmly as I opened my eyes. "Anakin. Can you hear me?"

"How can I turn poison into moonlight?" I asked. "How do I drink from the well without death?"

Qui Gon looked a bit concerned at that, and jostled my shoulder. "Anakin. Anakin. Can you hear me? Center yourself, keep your mind on the present."

I blinked a few times, then remembered where I was. I took a breath, stabilized my shields, and calmed myself.

"Yeah—I mean, Yes. I can hear you, I'm here. How long until the race?"

He sighed in relief. "Good. I'm glad you're with us. The Race is in 2 hours. You've healed quicker than we anticipated, especially your ankle, but you still aren't even close to recovered. Be careful. I'll take you to your pod for the final checks.

I nodded, my stomach doing flip flops with anxiety as I banished the strange dream from my thoughts. This was it!

The two hours passed like they were five minutes. The pod was ready to go, and when I tested my ankle and arm, I discovered that I could use them on a human level of performance as long as I enhanced their durability to superhuman levels. If I enhanced my ankle as if I were about to jump 6 meters into the air, I could use it to jog and push the pedals of the pod at a normal human level without damage. It was painful for sure, but if I could deal with it and keep my concentration, I could race.

And normally that thought would have calmed me, but there was something weird going on with my perception.

Everything seemed… sharper. Voices seemed too loud, people's emotions that once seemed like gentle background notes now blared loudly, and yet the sheer sensation of the force flowing through me seemed… slow. Like it wasn't as much as it should be.

Sometimes when I was enhancing my injured bones, my focus seemed to drop off when I started doing other things. Every time it happened I got scared, and focused deeply on the injury to make sure the force was still enhancing it, only to find that it was being enhanced, that it never had stopped being strengthened.

So why in all the nine hells did it at times feel like I wasn't enhancing it then?!

One time, when I walked from one place to another, the force warned me of an obstacle in my path. I lifted my foot to avoid it as I walked, but as I put the foot back down I hit the obstacle anyway. What the fuck? I thought I stepped over it?!

This was a problem. The force seemed strange and different in a way that I struggled to understand. Was my brain also injured, like being punch-drunk? Was my connection to the force itself stressed? Why were my senses so off? Could I even race like this? Was I doomed? Were we doomed?!

I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Don't center on your anxieties young one. The force provides. Trust in it." Qui Gon said.

I nodded. "Ok, sorry mister Qui Gon."

"Don't apologize. You've done nothing wrong, I'm only trying to help. Breathe."

"Right. Thank you." I breathed in and out, and Qui Gon's force presence helped me calm down.

Using the imagery that Amu taught me, I let my fear coalesce into a tool into my mind, and put it away, on my belt. It was still there, ready for use, but not necessary right now. The force flowed through me, and my perception sharpened once again. Everything came into perfect focus as more energy flowed through me than I had ever experienced before.

I centered it all on the present moment. My perception cleared.

I was ready.

I had chosen to stay in my pod after it was towed onto the race track, and it was a good thing I did, because Sebulba came strolling around, examining my racer, his eyes darting around for a part to sabotage. "Careful Sebulba." I said in huttese and he jumped, not having seen me before. "Don't think you can beat me fair and square?"

He reddened in rage at being caught, but then quickly lost his steam at seeing my cast. "You are injured?! And still plan to race?!" He let out a sadistic cackle. "See you in hell, stupid slave worm!"

He then hand walked away, assured in his own victory.

I bristled at the insult. The fact that he hadn't even bothered to sabotage my racer once he had seen my cast just poked at my insecurities. I grit my teeth in anger. "He'll regret underestimating me." I told myself. I wasn't sure I believed it.

When the minutes before the race dropped into single digits, all the members of the group that were present offered well wishes of luck and care. Qui Gon offered his classic advice of "trust your feelings, your instincts. Feel, don't think." I nodded, trying my best to release my anxiety.

Finally, Amu came forward. Her emotions of concern, fear, guilt, and hope practically sang from her presence in the force. "You are afraid?" She asked.

I guess I couldn't hide it. I briefly considered lying, to try and project a false sense of confidence, but I quickly let that idea dissolve. This was my Amu. She deserved the truth. "I am." I said shakily.

"Good." She said with conviction.

My eyes widened in shock.

"A tool isn't useful if it isn't ever removed from your belt. Remember the benefits of fear?"

I nodded. I remembered now. "Quick reactions. More sensitive perception."

She nodded. "Mister Jinn said to trust your instincts. Fear is an instinct. Make sure it is a tool in your hand, not a fog on your brain, or a dead weight on your belt. It is alright to feel fear."

Something finally lifted. I felt lighter. I let myself fear. Accepted it. It's edge reduced. I felt like I could think again.

I am the calm within the storm

A certainty settled on me. I looked over at Amu again, and saw that there were tears in her eyes, but she blinked rapidly to avoid loosing the water.

"Let them fall Amu." I stated, the call for clearing the track of all bystanders sounding out, "Soon we'll have plenty of water."

She smiled, gave a chuffing laugh, and a tear tracked down her cheek. "Return alive." She commanded.

I nodded. "I promise."

The final call blared out, and she hurried out of the starting zone.

I started the power on my racer, warming up its support systems.

I felt fear. I felt anger. That was ok. I let them rage and spin around me, but kept the real focus as my center. Love. Freedom. Hope. It burned and shined like a sun at high noon, and the more bitter negativity of my other emotions were lessened and purified, changing from bitter poison into aromatic spice. Fear lightened into a quick and persistent focus. Anger lightened into an intense and determined resolve. It was still passion, but instead of feeling like choking threads of darkness and gloom, it felt like the ancient and soothing chill of nighttime, of looking at the stars and the moon and yearning for something more. In this more gentle state, the passion didn't war with the light anymore. They worked together, strengthening each other, like Night and Day, two halves of the same whole.

The force itself twanged deeply, humming with an ancient and lost sort of agreement.

Shaking my head I quit my musings. It was a mystery for another time.

I was ready.

""Start your engines!"" The two headed announcer called in both basic and huttese.

I did so, and the turbines of my pod roared to life, the fans of the high pressure fuel injector that I designed made a higher pitched whine that made my pod sound a bit different from the other racers.

I took in everything I could, scanning my pod with the force, memorizing the sound and sights of the other racers, bringing my awareness in every sense I possessed up to maximum. The air wavered with heat, thick with the smell of fuel and exhaust. The suns beat down on me from above and my pod hummed from below. The tast of dust was on my tongue, and yells, whistles, and whoops roared from spectators in the stands.

There was a spitting sound followed by the ring of a gong over the loudspeaker.

The first lap marker light blinked on.

GO!

I blasted forward along with the other racers, leaving Quadrinaros, who had engine trouble, behind.

Because I didn't have an impressive track record as a racer, I had been given a starting position close to the back, behind most of the other racers. Sebulba, of course, had been in one of the front spots.

I tried to weave through the other racers on my way forward, but I suddenly got a warning from the force about my left engine. Swerving to the right slightly, I was bewildered when no danger came. As I was easing my way back however, a saw blade was deployed from the podracer beside me, and scratched across my left engine! I swerved away again, and and a quick scan showed only superficial damage, but the fear and anxiety slammed back into me full force. What the fuck was going on with my precognition?! And why now of all times was it on the fritz?! If this had been happening yesterday with that bounty hunter I would have died!

FUCK!

As we made our way out of the starting straightaway walls, the racers spread out a little more, and I was able to pick up more speed, but with my precog failing I was suddenly confronted with the fact that as a human I was majorly under qualified to be podracing.

I still got the warnings, but the timing was always off, and I felt like I was fighting my own reflexes just to stay alive, much less win the fucking race!

Slowly I fell behind the pack of other racers, giving myself more space to react to anything ahead of me.

When we made it to the cave section it was even worse, because my vision was limited by the relative darkness. I had to lean in to my precog again, but force myself not to immediately react to it until I perceived the danger it was warning me about, and often times by then it was nearly too late, and my pod got several more scratches and scrapes. So far I had been able to avoid any meaningful damage, but it was only a matter of time before something went wrong.

Thankfully we exited the cave section, and with my full vision I was able to tighten up my reactions and get close enough to draft on the racers ahead of me.

I payed as much attention as I could to the relationship between the warnings in the force and the actual danger they signaled, and each time the timing was clearly off I swelled with frustration.

We traveled through the canyons and around the tusken raider bend, and I dodged the potshots they took with plenty of room to spare.

More room to spare than usual actually.

Huh.

As we blasted over the wide sandy flats on our way back to the spectator stands my brain caught on that fact.

I had more room to spare than usual.

The warnings hadn't been just randomly off. They had been early.

As we blasted past the stands, the lap 2 marker illuminated, and my brain went into overdrive.

If the warnings in the force were coming early than that meant I was seeing farther into the future than I ever had been able to before!

I thought about how I kept feeling like I wasn't enhancing my weak points as much as I should, only to find them fully enhanced. It was because enhancing myself fully took far less concentration than it ever had before, so it seemed to me that I wasn't giving enough effort.

And the loudness and sharpness of the force? My connection to the force wasn't damaged, my senses were just stronger than ever.

In the course of a day, I had fought at full strength in a battle to the death, had a force vision/hallucination so deep I discovered a new technique, then was guided into a trance that was far FAR deeper into the force than I'd ever been capable of, with a Jedi Master connected psychically to ensure I stayed under.

Every single one of those experiences on their own would have advanced my connection and understanding of the force, but all of them in quick succession?

There was nothing wrong with me. I was more powerful than I'd ever been before.

Suddenly I remembered a scene from a New Hope.

"Remember, a Jedi can feel the force flowing through him" Old Ben told his pupil.

"You mean it controls your actions?" Luke questioned.

"Partially," said Old Ben, "But it also obeys your commands."

As we approached the cave section again, I sunk deeper into the force than I had ever before. I didn't limit it to just giving me warnings that I could react to, but also let it guide my reactions themselves.

"Let go your conscious self, and rely on instinct."

With this new level of trust and deepness, and feeling the force flowing through me, I closed my eyes, and floored it at full tilt to enter the the center of the pack of racers as we entered the cave section, which was probably the most suicidal thing I could have done in that situation.

My awareness expanded, and I could feel the force guiding my actions, letting it bridge the gap between warning and guidance, and the forms of the other racers and the rocks and obstacles bloomed in my mind, the absolute optimal path through them clear as day.

Racers squealed and shouted with shock as I passed them with mere centimeters to spare between my pod and theirs, fully showcasing my creation's speed for the first time in the race.

The true form and nature of any danger or obstacle was laid bare before me, and as my physical reflexes got used to and aligned themselves to my new level of precog and force guidance, I weaved between racer and danger alike with far greater grace and efficiency than I'd ever believed possible.

As we exited the cave with me at the front of the main pack of racers I felt a pulse of shock, and then elation and relief from a bond with Amu, which I was only just now consciously realizing existed. I smiled, and let the gap between me and the racers behind me grow ever wider. I may have passed the main pack of stragglers, but there was still Sebulba and a string of other challengers that trailed behind him ahead. This race wasn't over yet.

Qui Gon's eyes widened as he sensed the boy, and he stood up from his seat in shock.

When he first met the child, the shielding that blanketed him had been so ingrained and flawless that he'd assumed the boy to be a true force knull.

Later, he had been allowed brief glimpses of Anakin's inner potential, but its full depths had never truly broken free.

But now, any disguises or self imposed limits had been shed, and the child shone so brightly in the force he seemed to be a supernova, more like a temple-grade force nexus than the signature of a single being. A living vergence in the force.

If he had any doubts remaining that this boy was the chosen one, finally sensing his fully unleashed power and potential had put them to rest.

So raw, so untrained, and already the sensation of his presence brought to mind force titans like masters Windu and Yoda, with the clear potential to one day exceed all of them.

Qui Gon sat back down in his seat, calming himself. The race wasn't over yet. Their hopes still rode on Anakin. The present needed his attention right now, not daydreams of a possible future. Still, he couldn't help a smile of excitement at the feeling. "Go Anakin!" He cheered quietly, clenching his fist. "Go!"

Using my speed I drove up onto the canyon wall, hovering along it sideways as I passed one racer, one of the only spots in the canyon that was smooth enough to make the transition, then on the dismount I closed the bottom vents on the right engine, which was riding high on the wall. Offgassing a bit of extra fuel into the closed vent, I saturated the air within, then opened the vent once more to give it oxygen. A violent explosion emanated from the bottom vent, blasting me off the wall and sending my podracer spinning in a corkscrew roll through the air to dodge an upcoming outcrop on the canyon wall by mere centimeters.

Approaching the ground I diverted extra power from the engine turbines to the hover stabilizers in the exact instant that I landed to cushion my fall, then immediately rediverted the power back to the turbines to speed ahead once more. I chuckled when I felt the racer behind me slow down, his grip on his controls likely slackening in shock.

One after another I passed the string of racers, sometimes in spectacular fashion and other times quite smoothly with superior lines.

The fact that the engine cylinders of my pod were made out of a superior durable alloy wasn't the only thing that was amazing about them, the fact that they came from a stunt fighter allowed for superior mobility, allowing me to divert thrust sideways to make wild drifting maneuvers that had my pod seat swinging back and forth like a pendulum. The thrust and momentum of the drifts allowed me to take incredibly tight corners with so much velocity that the nose fins of my engines sometimes nearly kissed the sides of each obstacle I swerved around with only millimeters to spare.

Each racer normally braked and swerved and slowed their pods to maneuver, but that wasn't necessary for me. I could take everything this course threw at me while flooring it Mario kart style.

It wasn't long before we ripped through the stands once again with the third lap marker lighting up.

I passed one more racer on the stretch to the cave section, which only left two racers in front of me, Sebulba, who was the leader, and Teemto Pagalies, who trailed a bit right beside him in an attempt to pass.

As we entered the cave section once more, Sebulba activated one of his heat 'vents', spewing a tongue of fire at Teemto which flash cooked him, his light blinking out in the force. His now riderless racing pod veered left and slammed into one of the large pillars in the cave, sending an explosion of flame, boulders, and metal shrapnel across the path I was taking, and from the satisfaction and complacent confidence that now radiated from Sebulba, the placement had to be intentional.

Undeterred, I flicked two of my fingers and the boulders and debris bent around me and my pod racer like it had spontaneously grown a deflector shield, letting me race forward without loosing any speed.

As we approached the cave exit I noticed the shape of the opening, which resembled a teardrop. Wide enough for a racer to pass through at the bottom, but became quite narrow at the top.

Once again I closed the bottom vents of my racer, this time on both engines, and prepared them with a bit of fuel. Right as we were about to exit the cave, I opened the left vent first and the right one after, exploding me upwards into another corkscrew maneuver, and time seemed to slow as I sailed sideways through the narrow top section of the cave exit right over Sebulba, ducking my head down and ignoring the pain in my ribs as the rock wall grazed the top of my windshield. As my racer rotated upside down in the air I looked upwards down at Sebulba, his mouth and eyes blown wide in absolute shock.

I cackled with glee as the brief image was cemented into my brain, and my pod continued its corkscrew motion until I landed right side up in front of Sebulba, my racer slowly gaining distance from his in the rocky canyon section until I couldn't even see him behind me anymore.

My heart soared with elation, and I let out a loud whoop as I rocketed ahead as the new leader.

""AND WITH ANOTHER TOTALLY UNHEARD OF MANEUVER SKYWALKER PASSES ABOVE SEBULBA SIDEWAYS THROUGH THE TOP OF THE CAVE EXIT! THIS HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN IN RACE HISTORY! THEY'LL BE CALLING THAT THE SKYWALKER SPIN JUMP FROM NOW ON! WE NOW HAVE A NEW COURSE LEADER ON THE THIRD LAP, AND SEBULBA SEEMS TO HAVE NO CHANCE AT CATCHING UP! THIS IS THE GREATEST UPSET IN POD RACING HISTORY!""

The commentator's excited screaming emanated from the datapad and filled the ship as Obi Wan's hand covered a burp with a fist, and he shook his head, half impressed, half nauseated.

If he knew anything he knew this: he never wanted to be in any vehicle with Skywalker in the pilot seat. Still, he fully admitted that the boy was a hell of a pilot. He swallowed the gag, and cheered along with the Naboo pilots and hand maidens at a race that was likely won.

As I ripped through the canyon section on my way to victory, my eyes widened in shock as I saw another racer ahead of me!

Sebulba definitely wouldn't have felt so confident earlier if someone had already passed him, and while my racing pod was fast, it wasn't so fast that I'd be lapping someone, at least not yet, so who the karking hells was this?!

Their racer was small and nimble, similar to mine, but unlike mine (which I didn't bother to paint and just left in bare metal tones) the engines were painted in a bright yellow, the Crome polished pod seat adorned with blue stripes.

I gained ground on them slowly, as their pod was surprisingly fast, and they took each turn with astounding grace, and I kept chasing after the strangely familiar pod, waiting for them to make a mistake.

They didn't.

"I had a dream I was a Jedi. I came back here and freed all the slaves."

As we came out of the canyon section and into the tusken raider area, I noticed that their racer's engines didn't kick up any dust, didn't leave a shadow. They were slightly transparent, as if I was racing a phantom.

Across from me I saw a child about 6 or 7 years old, who radiated a bright light. He looked passingly familiar and was dressed in some kind of worn sandy robes. I tried to place where I'd seen him before.

Our eyes met, and he seemed to startle. When he spoke, it was frank and direct, but I could tell he was scared.

"H-hello. Who are you? Where are we? Am I…dead?"

I was about to respond but Rob beat me to it. "You aren't dead yet child, but if nothing is done, you will be. There was an accident during the race, you are hanging on by a thread. This man is here, because he can save your life. By merging your souls, we can create enough energy to fully heal your body, and together you two can become something truly amazing."

The child spoke again, "Will I… or I guess will we, be free?" I could feel the hurt deep in his soul, and the desperate hope in his eyes, and my heart melted. Rob answered.

"With the knowledge this man possesses, and the power of your soul, you can indeed become free, both of you"

The boy became exited, like he couldn't believe his ears. "I'll do it!" He said with an ear to ear grin. There was a fire in his eyes, an intensity I couldn't explain.

I drew closer to the phantom racer, and saw who was in the pilot seat. He was a bit thinner than me, and slightly shorter, likely due to malnutrition that I had avoided with my Matukai training that allowed me to draw nourishment from the force. His clothes were different as well, wearing a grayish tunic that I had grown out of months ago and given to another slave child who needed it. Soot coated his face around his goggled helmet, and as I passed him, our identical glacier blue eyes met.

"Now I am complete."

"Stay with me Amu! Please! Every— Everything is going to be alright!"

"Ani… I… love…"

We raced around rocks and obstacles on opposite paths, passing through each other as we navigated the final third of the last lap of the course.

As we entered the final sandy stretch, his pod drew closer, overlapping mine a bit, which was slightly ahead of his.

He looked into my eyes once again, and though his voice didn't make a sound, I could clearly read the words on his lips.

'Go. Be better.'

I nodded with a fierce determination on my face, and he closed his eyes with a smile, the phantom racer fading away.

I squeezed my hand through my hair, and managed to get some still liquid blood on my fingers.

Blood

I spat in my hand, the clear fluid mixing with the red.

Water

Amu had told me the slave stories of Amavikka people. Of Leiyah the Dragon, the unfettered, and Lukkah the storm, the destroyer who makes new. I knew most of the Amatakkan words for the oath, and the words I didn't know I spoke in galactic basic.

"My name is Anakin Ekkreth. My Mother, Shmi Ekkreth, will not die to the sand people. I will not fall to the Dark Side of the Force. in two years time, when the Jedi arrive, both my mother and I will be free. This I swear on blood and water. We WILL be FREE."

I scooted over to the edge of the flatbed, and squeezed the mixture through my fingers, letting the drips fall to the moonlit sand that was rushing by.

I probably hadn't gotten the words exactly right, and dripping the blood and water off the side of a speeder truck may not have been 'proper', but this was a slave oath. Pomp and ceremony have never been a requirement for Ar-Amu's help.

I felt a faint rushing of power through me. Similar to the Force I'd felt earlier, but not quite the same. It was warmer, like a fire in my soul. As quick as it had come, it vanished, so suddenly and completely I wondered if I had imagined it.

I looked up at the moons, and echoed my words from earlier under my breath, in galactic basic this time.

"We will be free."

My engines grew louder, changed pitch, and blared forth with the sound of greater Krayt dragon roar. The force surrounded me in a fiery warmth, and as I passed through the finish line one last time, I heard clear as day the metallic ringing of chains being broken.

As I slowed down, the roar of the crowd was dim, like I was listening to it from under water. The rushing sound of my gasping breaths and the beating drum of my heart thundered in my ears.

I looked up, saw the crowd, saw their excitement, and everything came back into focus.

The roar of the crowd was deafening. People rushed onto the track, approaching my racer with cheers, Qui Gon grabbed me under the arms and lifted me out of the pod and onto his shoulders and paraded me around, our group following us around. My friend Wald was loosing his shit with the hype, and Watto looked pale, like someone had told him the worst news of his life.

I was free.

I looked at Amu, and she nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks, her face in a beaming smile.

And soon, she would be too.

Excitedly, I packed some of my most important things into a bag, and pausing when I looked at a protocol droid's unfinished head. I had found the data chip with over six million forms of communication loaded onto it a while back, and hadn't been able to resist taking it. I'm not sure if it was duty, or intrigue, but I had been practically guided by the force in using it for the construction of a droid brain, which I had loaded up with processing power and plenty of cpu room for personality growth, but hadn't built much more of him then the head. I connected the head to a power circuit and turned it on.

"Hello. I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations. How may I assist you? Oh! Master Ani! The Maker! Am I finally going to get a body? A proper one with coverings?"

I grimaced, both at his use of the term 'master', which was hard coded into his greater 'polite speech' database on the chip I found, and also at my neglect towards him so far. The C-3PO from the movie had been mostly finished, with a functional body that just lacked plating, but with my time taken up with everything else I hadn't been able to make much more than his head.

"Good news Threepio, I've been freed, and Mom is being freed also as we speak! We are headed off of this sandy rock. Once we get somewhere better I promise I'll make you a full body, with gleaming gold colored plating!"

"Oh Master Ani that sounds positively wonderful! I can hardly wait! But will we have to travel through space on one of those dreadful starships to get where we are going? You know the odds of encountering pirates in this region of space is—"

"Quite high, yes, I know." I interrupted. "But it's a risk We'll have to take."

He let out a staticky metallic huff. "Oh very well. If it is absolutely necessary. Will you be pulling my power to transport me?"

"Yeah, sorry. I'll get you fitted with a proper power cell as soon as possible, I promise."

"Wonderful! I'll shut down now if that's all right."

I nodded, and the light in his eyes blinked off. I unplugged him, and wrapped the droid head in a protective cloth and put it in my bag.

Going outside I was met with the sight of Jabba the Hutt and his bodyguards. I froze.

"Hello young Skywalker." He rumbled in huttese, a cunning and greedy glint in his eye, "Your race today was quite impressive my boy, and yet I heard that Watto, your owner, is in dire financial straits. Is this true?"

I nodded, desperately thinking of a way to get out of this. I couldn't just straight up lie, as Jabba was too smart to be fooled by an utter falsehood, but I couldn't tell him the truth of my freedom either, as he would simply have his people re-capture me before I could leave the planet.

I responded, also in Huttese, "I was one of the things Watto bet on the race your great and mightyness, and so my ownership has changed. I'm packing up to join my new Master now, a tall human outworlder with long hair and a beard. He usually hangs out in the local cantina in the mornings, and he's sure to be celebrating there from now till tomorrow, you know, because of his big win. He bet on me and got odds of thirty to one."

I was afraid Jabba would see through my deception, but he smiled, taking it hook line and sinker. "Ah, yes! I have seen this outworlder myself, the one who carried you after the race. I shall leave him to his celebrations for now, but tell him that I will meet him at the cantina tomorrow afternoon at 3pm standard. If he does not arrive, I will be most… displeased."

I kept my triumph off my face. Jabba planned to bully ownership of me away from my new 'owner' tomorrow. Too bad I'd be freed and well out of Hutt space by then. "I shall tell him, great and powerful one."

At this, Jabba nodded in a self satisfied way, and slithered off to attend to his next bit of business.

That was way too close. Guess I had been a bit too flashy in my racing. But whatever. I'd soon be away from all of this.

Between the sale of Anakin's Pod, and the winnings from the bet, Obi wan had quite an enormous sum of money on him. Two would be thieves had already attempted to relieve him of it, but they had suddenly realized they had forgotten an urgent meeting and rushed off to make their appointment.

The negotiations with Watto were relatively straightforward. He asked for a price for Shmi, the lady Skywalker, and when Watto stated an absurd amount, Obi Wan accepted. It was less than a tenth of what he currently had in the bag after all.

Watto had sputtered and attempted to increase the amount, but Obi Wan had flashed a blaster on his hip, and insisted Watto obey their agreement. The toydarian quickly caved, and Obi Wan was soon on his way to the ship with one Shmi Skywalker, her own remote transmitter in her hands.

She had a giddy smile on her face, which made her look at least ten years younger.

"You could have bartered a little." She said to Obi Wan with a stern tone of voice, her face and force signature betraying her joy.

"Any sum of worldly money hardly compares to your immeasurable worth as a sentient my lady, but if you wish for me to compensate you for the loss, I will do so freely." He said primly, handing the money to her.

She accepted it, blushing at such a handsome young man with such a highbrow accent calling her 'my lady', and enjoying the threat-free flirting with the young oath-bearing monk. "That won't be necessary, the remaining sum is more than enough." She answered with a smile.

He nodded, "Shall we be on our way then?"

She nodded back. "We shall."

Qui Gon Jinn and I had met up after he had finished transporting the parts to his ship, and he handed me my remote, deactivated. I didn't have much time to process the magnitude of what was in my hands, before Qui Gon hurried me along. "I sense we are being followed, We must make haste!"

We were currently on our way to the ship, our speed lessened to relatively normal human levels by my injuries. I could sense that Amu, Obi Wan, Padme, and everyone else in our party had already made it on, which was a major relief.

"Anakin! Drop!" Qui Gon commanded. I immediately did so, sensing the danger. A speeder rushed over me and Darth Maul leaped off and ignited his crimson lightsaber, engaging Qui Gon in battle.

Hopping onto my feet, I made a break for the ship. As I speeded up the boarding ramp, Qui Gon called, "Tell the pilot to take off!"

I sprinted down the ship and told the pilot, and when we did so, Qui Gon was able to leap up into the ship just as the ramp closed.

Qui Gon had a bit of sweat on his brow, but didn't seem exhausted. Seeing that he was ok, I rushed back up to the pilot's area.

After I asked if I could watch, one of them lifted me up to sit on their lap, which I couldn't muster up the energy to be irritated about, because it gave me a front row seat of outer fucking space.

I had always been fascinated by space, in both lives. I remember wanting to wear a buzz lightyear suit wherever I went as a tiny little kid, learning all the planets in order and being genuinely devastated when Pluto was disqualified, and dreamed of being an astronaut through most of my childhood.

I was already giddy, already fucking wired by the day I just had, but seeing the blue glow of the sky fade away, and the stars coming into focus? Feeling the vibrations of the ship underneath me?

It was a fucking dream come true.

The only way to make it better would be to turn off artificial gravity and float around a bit in zero Gs, but unfortunately the pilot refused. Still, they did spin around the ship once we had a good amount of momentum towards the edge of the gravity well, letting me look at Tatooine from all the way up here.

It was an amazing yet bizarre feeling, knowing that all the pain, all the effort, all the triumphs, and struggles, and setbacks, and success, all of it, took place on that little tan marble in the starry sky in front of us. A tan marble that was getting smaller little by little as we drifted further away into space. I was leaving it behind.

We were leaving it behind.

"I feel… strange." I said to the pilot. "All my life I've wanted to see the stars, to escape that dustball, and that hasn't changed but…" I struggled to articulate my thoughts. "It feels sorta like… I left a light on, or… a motor running. Like I'm leaving something behind."

The pilot nodded. "Even though it was probably rough growing up there, it's still the only home you had, and you're still leaving it behind. I grew up in the lower slums of Correlia, so I kinda know the feeling. Even with all the bad memories, there had to be some good ones every once in awhile too right?"

I thought about it. My time tinkering. My time with Amu, with my friends, meeting Nyra, finding the Crystal cave, the look on Sebulba's face when I passed him, winning the race... "Yeah. There were a few good times. Every once in a while."

He nodded knowingly. "Hey, that's the beauty of space travel though. If you ever wanna come back to face some demons or even just visit, you can. And if you wanna never come within 1000 light years of this planet ever again for the rest of your days, you can do that too. It's your choice. You got the whole Galaxy ahead of you kid."

Adjusting the controls, the pilot rotated us back around to face empty space. "Exiting the gravity well now, the Hyperdrive's lookin green?" He asked over comms. After he got an affirmative, he flicked a few more switches, and I heard the hyperdrive spooling up. He gestured to the main hyperdrive throttle on our left. "Do you want to do the honors?" He asked me.

I nodded so fast I almost tweaked my neck out of place. He laughed.

I reached forward with a shaky hand, and put it on the smooth metal surface of the hyperdrive throttle, a shakey smile on my face. I may have been a child right now, but even if I was doing this as an adult, I wouldn't have been any less enthusiastic!

I had the whole galaxy ahead of me.

I pushed the throttle forward, my wide eyes staring excitedly through the transparasteel cockpit window. And just like I'd seen many times before in movies, but never in real life, the stars lengthened from points into lines, and with a final jolt forward and a low pitched boom, we made my first jump to hyperspace.

Aaaaaannnnndd that's a wrap! How did y'all like it? Was the race good? what do y'all think about the vision in the beginning? Sorry if a few things get breezed by, but I wanted to get off Tatooine finally lol.

Did things feel rushed? Or were they ok?

I gotta tell ya, I loved writing the race, and I hope y'all had fun reading it too!

(Funny little side note, some dude got super heated about the fact that in my story I chose to have Shmi be a slave from birth, when in some minor legends comic or some shit it states that she was captured as a young woman or something. I guess Bro didn't bother reading the A/N about me using and/or ignoring whatever I felt like from both legends and/or canon. The funniest part is that they actually seemed genuinely butthurt about it, which is so fucking hilarious to me. They actually typed out "twitch…twitch" to narrate their displeasure XD XD. Bro needs to take a deep breath and rethink their priorities in life. I promise it's not that deep lol. This shit's Fanfiction. It's just for fun.)

Hope you liked the chapter, see you next time!

Ciao!