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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"Really?" Garth'zel asks with a raised eyebrow. "Interesting. That's either a parent's sixth sense about where their child is and if they're doing something they're not supposed to, or a sign of having at least some minor Force sensitivity."

Something to maybe bring up with her another time. Assuming he even remembers about this a few months from now.

Anakin starts to shrug - but it was his Force abilities that made Garth'zel take him off Tatooine, yes? "None of the other parents were as good as she was about it."

L O O K, if it will help his mom and let him brag on how she was the best mom ever? He'd do it. All the time.

That raised eyebrow gets joined by the other one. "Mm-hmm."

Don't lay it on too thick, kid.

"She is." He's being honest if too earnest. "She told me I had to go with you." Because at the last minute, he'd lost his nerve and been too afraid to leave her.

"I know you would have preferred she came with, but trying for her too would have been pushing it a little too far. And." Garth'zel shrugs uncertainly. "The Force told me she belonged on Tatooine. It didn't tell me why, just that was the case."

Note that he did not say that the Force said she needed to be a slave forever, thank you.

Anakin exhaled slowly, looking down into his lap. "I don't want her there." It's a small, quiet protest. "Does she have to stay there forever?"

"Until whatever the Force has in mind happens. It could be tomorrow, next week, or years from now. There's no way to know because it doesn't tend to give one an itemized list of what it wants." As aggravating as it is.

"I am however, making sure she gets money every month. It's one of the things we talked about while you were otherwise occupied." Mostly meaning asleep and safely out of everyone's hair. Or wings. Whatever.

Anakin just huffs, unhappy with the Force at the moment. "What happens if you don't listen to the Force?" It's really not as insolent as it sounds, more simply not understanding why something he didn't entirely understand got a way.

"Thank you. I'm glad she won't have to hunt stuff if Watto drinks too much." That's a normal thing for a kid to worry about right?

"Sometimes nothing too bad. Other times, it turns out that listening to it was a really good idea. It's sometimes hard to tell if it's just having some 'doing things this way just makes your life easier' or when it's basically saying 'doing things any way than what I tell you to will result in really bad things happening'. And considering your mother agrees that her place is on Tatooine..."

He's not going to argue with the Force.

He gives Anakin a long look before scrubbing a hand down his face. "Would it be safe to say that she may have downplayed how much she'd need? Because currently, things are set up so she gets five hundred a month in the bank account I made for her."

Anakin digs his heels into the seat as Garth'zel talks, not liking the answer. He didn't want his mother on Tatooine, it was dangerous, and she wasn't safe there. He knows that. He just doesn't know how to say it, how to explain it.

But he sighs at the question. "Probably. Watto said I was the one worth anything, so he probably won't make sure she has enough water or food, he likes to game and drink. When he loses he drinks a lot, and he gets really mean. Short tempered. Anything which costs him money or makes him lose it..." Anakin had taken more than a few beatings from Watto over the years. "Mom doesn't really...like ask for things. She gets let down, so it's easier not to hope, I think."

"He sounds lovely," Garth'zel says in a flat tone that means anything but. "I think I better double that, then. He's also apparently too lazy to want to do his own housework, so you... probably shouldn't worry too much on that front."

And Shmi has his contact information in case of emergency. Watto doing something moronic will hopefully count as one in her mind.

"He's loads better than the Gardulla the Hutt!" Anakin answers empathetically. "But yeah, he won't clean anything. Or cook. And Mom's a great cook. Still...she doesn't know how repair things in the shop. And that's what he cares about."

Not that Watto smacking one of them around would be new. Well...just her now. It made him worry. "Holo calls are expensive, I think."

"Then he can figure out how to get help in the shop. I think he knows better than to do... anything overt, lest he answer to me." At which point, Garth'zel's Sith training will very much come to the fore. With the Jedi getting their proof that 'yep, definitely a Sith' with a side of 'why would a Sith care about this?!'.

He raises an eyebrow at him. "I've said nothing about holocalls, but yes, they are. It's not like they're the only way to keep in touch though."

Anakin shrugged. "All he cares about is money, gaming, and drinking." And the shop was a way get money, nothing else. Anakin understand that, having seen other shops compete with Watto.

"The deep-space pilots talk about them, being able to see their families or friends." See them, instead of just ping text off of them - and he knew the holonet outpost had only recently been installed on Tatooine.

"With those three things, he needs to be content with having one for certain, possibly two. Not all three," Garth'zel says tartly. Considering the latter two tend to make the first one vanish. Sometimes very quickly.

"Anakin, enough," he says firmly. "I know you miss her already, but holocalls are not going to be a regular thing."

He checks his chrono. "I should already get started on figuring out what I want to fix for us to eat." He actually already had a fairly good idea of what he wanted to do, he just needed to double-check he had everything.

Anakin just shrugs. He doesn't know, just that those are what Watto wants, and when he didn't get what he wanted, he grew cross, and Anakin and Shmi tended to end up bruised or without.

But Garth'zel's firm tone is enough to make Anakin sit up straight and pull back - protecting himself against the seat. "Ok." It's meekly said.

Anakin continues to watch, unsure what he's supposed to do now.

"You may as well go back to your personal project while I'm busy," Garth'zel says as he stands. "Calling you can be used as an exercise in you sensing things through the Force."

In the form of Garth'zel sending a non-verbal summons Anakin's way to see how long it takes him to notice.

"Ok!" Anakin jumps to his feet - youth granting him a quick rebound from his being stiff from not moving while he was working. Of course, he was going to end up that way again, not that he cared.

He'd just happy go back to work, only partly aware he was supposed to be paying attention for something to happen.

Garth'zel isn't really surprised that Anakin wasn't really paying attention to anything after that. At least he'll know where to find him, even without using the Force to sense him.

It's almost an hour later when he sends an insistent 'come here' kind of feeling. Time to see if Anakin's paying enough attention to notice or if he'll have to collect him in person.

At first it takes Anakin several minutes to notice the feeling, and a minute longer sitting up and focusing on it before poking at it a little in acknowledgement before hopping out of his bunk and going to look for Garth'zel. It takes him a wandering down the corridor wondering where he is before he realizes, oh right, he taught Anakin to feel for him. And a couple minutes after that to really focus in on Garth'zel presence and start walking towards him.

Garth'zel looks over from where he was setting out glasses of water. "I was starting to wonder if I'd need to come collect you."

He did sense Anakin's awareness of his call once the boy figured it out, but he took longer to appear than he thought he would.

Anakin grinds his toes into the floor, looking down. "I forgot how to find you for a couple minutes. And then I had to find you." He'd figured it out, clearly, but he needed practise.

"You'll learn. Eventually, you won't even need to think about it, it'll just be automatic," Garth'zel assures him as he dishes up what was basically chili. With some extra in the way of vegetables than he usually does, keeping in mind that Anakin needed the extra.

"There's enough for us to both have seconds." So no need to try to draw things out beyond the amount needed to give it time to cool enough to not burn the inside of their mouths.

"I'm sorry Sir, I don't mean to be trouble." It's genuinely apologetic, Anakin wanted to be good, wanted to learn. It was just so very strange.

But he took the bowl gratefully - and for more than the food. Space was shockingly cold, and his hands greedily stole the heat from the dish into his body, leading him to cradle it against his chest. Letting it cool was really just him using it to warm him up. Not that he really realized he was hungry - he was told it was time to eat, so he'd eat. "Is there water?"

Garth'zel cocks an eyebrow at Anakin. "I wasn't scolding you, just stating a fact. It takes time to learn how to use the Force properly."

His answer to Anakin's question was simply to nod in the direction of Anakin's glass. Use your eyeballs, boy.