spncentral | When Sith Beat Jedi To The Prize (Of The Chosen One)

Garth'zel had intended never to go to Tatooine again. The entire experience the first time he was there was hot and miserable. The only good point, so far as he was concerned, was meeting Andronikos. But as luck would have it, his ship ended up deciding to need minor repairs. Nothing too bad, but it did require him to land somewhere to get the parts he needed, because of course, the bit that went was something he didn't have spare parts for. The only planet within reasonable range? Tatooine.

It didn't take long for a Force-sensitive boy to catch his attention. One strong enough that he was surprised the Jedi didn't already find him. Well, their loss was his gain. ...Once he pried him loose from Watto, anyway. He suspects he actually had an easier time of it than a Jedi would, although he's not going to hang around and give one the chance to give it a shot. At least, unlike them, he's willing to come to Tatooine from time to time so Anakin could see his mother. Probably not more than a couple times a year or so, due to it being best to go there when they're at least vaguely in that part of the galaxy anyway, but it's far better than 'sorry kid, we're never bringing you back'.

Of course, there is one tiny problem with this whole thing. He's never had to raise children before and doesn't know what he's doing. With the ship safely in hyperspace and not due to come out of it for a good long while, enabling him to do things that didn't involve sitting in the pilot's seat of the ship, he's in the lounge area. Time to figure out what he's doing. "Have you managed to get any kind of schooling? Like from someone you know, sitting down with you for an hour here and there as time permitted to teach you things like how to write?"

May as well figure out what he needs to teach besides how to use the Force consciously instead of unconsciously drawing on it.

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Anakin continues to work, the links taking much longer than the loops. They took more wire, more time, more attention. Not that Anakin noticed the time it took, just quietly sitting still other than his hands as he worked. An hours passed, two, three. He was finally finished with the links, and starting to cut the wire to make the clasps that would connect to the sheets.

By then, Garth'zel's made a reappearance. He was expecting you well before now, child.

"Do you realize it's been three hours?" he asks mildly. The rest of Anakin's personal project can be saved for when Garth'zel isn't waiting on him.

As Garth'zel approaches, Anakin starts feeling anxious, though he isn't sure why until he hears Garth'zel's voice. However mild the question, it's still a reprimand in Anakin's experience. It's enough to make him jerk, the clasp falling from his hand along with his pilers, making a loud thump on the floor as Anakin jumps from the bunk to stand.

"No." But his hands are cramping, fingers almost numb, legs like lead from heel to hip and he's not sure they are actually going to hold him. And his back is screaming from his hunched posture. Maybe it had been hours. But he hadn't realized it. And for all his discomfort, he barely makes a face at it.

"Put things away and come out to the lounge. I'd been expecting you at least an hour and a half ago." Garth'zel isn't terribly amused at being kept waiting for so long. Sure, he needed to catch up on his reading, but he had other things he wanted to do as well.

"Yes Sir." Anakin scrambled to pick up and put away his tools - hard with his body objecting to what he'd put it through. It made him slow and clumsy, when he wasn't either normally.

So Anakin takes longer than he would normally have to get to the lounge, his legs burning as the blood rushes back them, flexing and extending his fingers, trying to get the feeling back in them. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize how late it was." He was also already apologizing. "I didn't mean to keep you waiting."

"You need to learn to keep track of the time when you're working on things. I can't keep coming to find you every time I'm expecting you within a certain timeframe," Garth'zel says, motioning for Anakin to sit across from him at the dejarik table. Not that it's getting turned on. They weren't there to play the game.

"I was wanting to teach you something my mother taught me. It was mostly to help with my anger issues although it came in useful for when other emotions were bothering me. Or I needed to settle down enough to get to sleep. It's also occurred to me that it'll be helpful as a sort of prelude to something else I'll eventually be teaching you." He'll probably save meditation for when Anakin's older and hopefully will be more likely to have the patience to actually have some sort of success at it instead of just failing.

"I didn't know there was a timeframe." It's not a protest, it's too quiet and unsure for that - just an explanation. He'd been told to come find his new master when he was finished, so 'timeframe' hadn't filtered into his understanding. "I'm sorry." It's a little stronger, louder, but Anakin is still watching Garth'zel with his head ducked before sliding into the seat, still pumping the blood into his fingers and subtly flexing his aching joints.

Needing help to settled down to sleep wasn't something he was overly familiar with - he was normally worked to hard to not be exhausted to sleep easily. But the rest made him curious. "What is it?"

"True, I didn't actually give a certain amount of time," Garth'zel has to concede. "But three hours is just a little excessive."

Two hours would have left him a little grumpy but still been acceptable. Barely.

"Mmm, before I answer that, is there anyplace in particular you felt safe? You don't need to tell me where, just if there was such a thing." Depending on the answer, Garth'zel may need to try to modify things.

"Making chain is fiddly." It doesn't dawn on him that his new master might not know that, but he can realize now he was working at it too long - there's thick red lines on his fingers from the wire and the tools and his legs still burn as the blood returns to them. "I didn't mean to make you wait. I'm sorry." He is, a plaintive tone in his voice. Please don't be mad at me, he wants to beg. But pride keeps him from it, especially at this juncture.

Anakin stopped to think about the answer, because he started to say 'no', his mouth almost forming the word before he ducked his chin and thought about it. "I'm not sure. Does it matter if it's real? 'Cause I think I remember something. But I might have made it up."

He isn't mad. Just. Irritated.

Garth'zel shakes his head. "Imaginary works, too. Considering this is stuff that's going to be going on in your head. I asked because needing to come up with a place would have added an extra step."

That's a finer shade of emotion than he currently has the understanding of.

"Okay. Now what?" He didn't really understand why that mattered, why he needed a place he felt safe in. But if it didn't matter if it was real or not...well.

"I want you to picture that place; get it firmly in your mind," Garth'zel instructs. "First what it looks like, then add in things like sounds and smells."

He wouldn't be surprised if Anakin closes his eyes to make it easier to do said picturing.

Anakin does close his eyes, facial muscles going tight for a long set of moments as he draws the place to his mind. Golden light washing over walls of some nondescript color, his mother's brown hair falling down over him, her dress a blue so faded is was more grey than blue anymore. Anakin knew his eyes, even in the memory-not!memory, were half closed. His mother was singing, her skin was warm under his cheek and palm as he laid and held onto her, her arm strong and sure around him as she held him in her lap. As he pulls himself deeper into his mind, his face relaxes, shoulder dropping a little.

"Picture yourself there, if you aren't already," Garth'zel says next before going quiet. He could see it was already having effect. He'll let Anakin have his time with it before talking again. It'll be easier for him to do it if he wasn't having to focus on listening to him at the same time, anyway.

Anakin nodded as Garth'zel spoke, adding more details he could pull from his mind. Or made up, he wasn't sure and decided it didn't matter. It wasn't just his face which relaxed, his entire body started to, sinking into the seat. But he was also focused on Garth'zel, and would have shot like a blaster bolt away if Garth'zel had moved towards him.

"Try not to ooze to the floor," Garth'zel says in an amused tone. "I take it you can see what I mean about it getting you settled down?"

Now that Anakin knows what to do, he can practice some more later.

"Yes Sir." Anakin's voice was quiet, almost as if he was afraid to shake himself out of the state he was in. It was different than anything he'd ever experienced, and he wanted to hold onto it.

"I want you to practice that at least a couple times a day. With enough practice, it should be easy to do in order to get your emotions under control when you're having issues with them." In other words, it's time to shake off at least some of the effects.

Anakin's reluctant to pull himself out, his posture taking something just a little reluctant. He's not going to be able to run into his mother's arms every night, or every morning, isn't going to great her with MOM I'M HOME everyday again. This is what he has, and he's not so willing to just let go now.

But obey is just too engained for him to not shake himself back some, even if the corners of his mouth are a little downturned. "I can do that." Gladly even.

Garth'zel checks his chrono to see how much time there was to work with. "There's about an hour before I need to go fix supper. That's enough time for me to teach you about what the Force is and get a start at feeling other beings' presence in the Force before we have to stop so I can get us fed."

He would rather not go hungry, thank you. He's certain Anakin wouldn't want to, either.

Anakin probably wouldn't have noticed if he was hungry, he'd learned to stop feeling hunger pangs and instead simply to eat whenever the opportunity was there. Or drink for that matter.

But he just nodded, going back to fidgeting a little to make up for his hours of cramped work. "How do you know I can do that?" Because Anakin didn't know if he could.

"Because you're one of the strongest people in the Force I've ever met, despite your age and lack of training. Training will only bring things to the fore even more. That said, the amount of raw power available will probably make doing things that require finesse... interesting. Put mildly." He's not going to worry about the things that require fine control for a while. First, there comes getting Anakin able to do some of the more obvious and big things.

That leaves Anakin feeling deeply unsettled, even if he isn't sure why. And he starts to say something, but can't really put his worries into words, raising and lowering his hand, fingers mostly curled but a suggestion of raising one in a questioning manner there. The idea of having power is just too strange to him.

"I don't understand," he finally settles on.

"You'll figure it out later. I certainly never expected to be at the power levels I am any more than you expected to hear it about yourself." A tacit admission as to his own origins.

It's almost too tacit, Anakin is clever and well versed in reading people, but there's a good deal of finer shadings of communication he's simply too young to have experience with - at first, he simply believes Garth'zel is talking about the Force.

But there's a little too much to Garth'zel - his ability to understand Shmi's worries, to being able to reassure them both, to being able to intimidate Watto. It takes Anakin a moment to parse through what's being hinted at, but he understands, or thinks he does. It still leaves him looking at Garth'zel, brows knitted and eyes intense at he studies him over, turning over in his mind how this could come to be.

"How did you end up..." He motions to the ship.