Chapter Text
Anakin had never left Tatooine before, she was thrilled, she hated that dust ball. The sadness Anakin felt thinking about her mother made her stomach hurt, it felt like she couldn’t breathe. Anakin knew crying was a waste of water, but she couldn’t help it, the tears were flowing and she couldn’t stop them now that they had started. Everything was so cold.
- - -
The pilots of their ship had let Anakin in the bridge, earlier they had shown what all the different buttons and levers did, they had even let her steer the ship a bit. “Kid sit down, we're coming out of hyperspace, it’s going to be a bit bumpy.” Anakin didn’t want to upset the pilots who had been kind to her so she scampered to the only unused chair.
Anakin was in awe of Coruscant, she could sense so much life. She found it all wonderful but it was also terrifying and so very loud, she didn’t know how to tune the sounds out. Master Qui-Gon came into the cockpit, telling her to get ready to leave, and that she would be meeting the Jedi Council.
After the ship landed Master Qui-Gon told her to go with Padme and the King, she did without complaint but she had a bad feeling around her, something was wrong she could feel it in her gut.
- - -
It took a couple of hours before Master Qui-Gon picked her up, she hadn’t known what to do after Padme had left so she had just been sitting on the floor staring at a wall. Master Qui-Gon took her to the speeder, helped her in, and off they were. Anakin was amazed by the amount of speeders in the sky, they almost looked like bugs all flying in different directions but not colliding.
Once they got to the Jedi Temple, he helped her out of the speeder, and he put his hand on her back and started walking. Anakin was stumbling to keep pace with his quick speed. She was looking at all the people around her. Tatooine had a lot of people from a lot of different planets, but it was nothing in comparison to the temple. There were so many beings that she had never seen before, she was trying not to stare because staring is rude, and it wasn’t her place as a slave to offend higher beings. She couldn’t tell what everyone around her was feeling and thinking, that freaked her out.
They got to the top of the spire, Master Qui-Gon flattened her frizzy hair. Once he was satisfied, he walked her forward and opened the door. The room was circular, there were chairs around the room, all of which had an old being sitting in them.
The beings in the chairs were testing her, she could tell that, but she wasn’t sure what they wanted. This whole thing was very stressful for her, it reminded her of the auctions she had been at. She couldn’t remember exactly how the auction she had been at was like, Watto had never tried to sell her or mom, and since he had won them when she was three the memories were faint. Anakin could remember how she had felt, being stripped naked and separated from her mom.
The council had told her she was scared, she thought they were pretty dumb to think she wouldn’t be, but she had failed their test. They wanted to send her back, Master Qui-Gon promised he wouldn’t send her back.
Master Qui-Gon told her they were going back to Naboo, and she was going with them. Anakin knew it wasn’t her place to say anything.
Anakin knew Master Qui-Gon had told her to stay in the cockpit, and she was… she just hadn’t stayed in the hangar. She knew that he wanted her to stay in the hangar, and really she had tried, but the ship had started moving by itself.
The cool astromech that she had been talking to earlier was in the ship, she had asked him to get them off the path they were stuck on. If they didn’t the two of them would blow up, Anakin didn’t want to die.
R2D2 had thankfully gotten them off the planned route, now she was able to control the ship. Anakin decided that she really liked flying, possibly even more than podracing. The ship was letting her zip around at fast speeds, she was dodging the red plasma which was hitting some of the other starfighters.
Anakin wasn’t sure this was a good idea but she was inside the big ship, still in her ship, flying as fast as she could. She had gone as far into the ship as she could, she used the blasters built into the ship. Anakin could feel the ship was about to blow up, she had to get out of her now. Turning the ship around as fast as possible, she asked R2 to put everything into the engine, she could feel the difference in the speed. Even going as fast as they could, she couldn’t tell if it was fast enough, she could feel the flames getting closer and closer. She could see the opening of space in front of her, she looked back and could see the flames were right on her tail, she pushed her fighter as fast as it could. R2D2 gave the last boost of speed he could and it was just enough, they made it to open space at the last moment, they were just out of the blast distance. Anakin had done it! She had destroyed the blockade.
- - -
After blowing up the trade federation’s control ship she flew her ship back to the hangar on Naboo that she came from. With R2D2’s help Anakin landed the ship. Anakin waited in the cockpit like she had been ordered too, she hoped Master Qui-Gon wouldn’t be too mad at her.
- - -
Anakin had waited, and waited, but no one came. Once the sun had set over Naboo she decided she couldn’t wait any longer. “R2 can you open the cockpit?” R2 beeped an affirmative as the cockpit opened. She climbed out, looking around, she didn’t know where to go.
Anakin closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, she let the feeling lead her. The feeling had never led her astray, it always helped her. She was going lower into the palace, she could hear the humming of electronics. For such a beautiful planet this wasn’t a beautiful area.
She was walking into a new area, she could see around her paths above and below her. Continuing on she found a hallway with barriers turning off and on, she could sense someone was in distress near her. She saw the man Master Qui-Gon had introduced as Obi-Wan, he was in significant distress. Anakin got a bit closer, she could feel her heart stop, her new owner Master Qui-Gon was dead, and if he was dead, who knows what would happen to her.
As if sensing her panic Obi-Wan looked over at her, she could see the tears forming in his eyes. He gently laid Master Qui-Gon’s carcass down, before he stood up and walked over to her. It would be an understatement to say that Anakin was terrified. When he got to her Obi-Wan put his hands on her shoulders, Anakin had to hide her flinch. “I will train you, young one” he said while staring at her face, Anakin wasn’t sure if she should make eye contact or not, so she briefly made eye contact with him before looking at the floor. She nodded, Obi-Wan led her away.
- - -
Anakin had been given a room in the palace for the night, after being given food. She was alone now, before she had left home she had never been alone, Anakin always had her mother. She was trying to think, she needed to think. Anakin didn’t know how to feel about everything. A couple of days ago she had thought the Jedi were on Tatooine to free slaves, then Qui-Gon had won her, now he was dead and Obi-Wan was his next of kin. She didn’t know Obi-Wan and didn’t know if he would be a worse owner than Watto, Watto wasn’t all bad, he didn’t beat her, he fed her and clothed her, he didn’t rent her out to the men with bad intentions. And best of all he let her stay with her mom. Anakin really missed her mom, whenever she thought about her mom she would start crying. Anakin would give anything to be with her mom.