The Fall | Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

Chapter Twenty Five

She spent a little longer firing blasters with Boba before she snuck away to the landing pad. She had a few minutes give or take before Obi-Wan and Sylvie would come looking for her. She'd left a quick note in her room telling them that she'd left so they didn't think she'd been kidnapped by one the bounty hunters or something though she had left out majority of the details of where she'd gone and why.

Once she was out of Kamino and in hyperspace she convinced herself to try and get some sleep, leaving the borrowed Astromech with instructions to wake her up when they dropped out of hyperspace or if anything went wrong.

First there was nothing but an empty darkness, a calm dreamless sleep then predictably, the nightmares came again, the usual one this time. Her mother reaching for her and Anakin, cuts and bruised on her face which was painted golden in what looked like firelight. She'd awoken with a start only to force herself back to sleep once she saw they were in hyperspace.

The next time she woke up it was due to constant loud beeps from her Astromech in an attempt to wake her up. Alina gripped the controls tightly, taking in a deep breath she lowered her fighter into the atmosphere. As she landed on the planet her doubts and uncertainty about returning resurfaced. 'Too late to turn back now' she reminded herself as she made her way into the town. She was hit with a sense of familiarity the moment she stepped into the market.

Ten years and it was almost the same as she remembered it being, small differences here and there but it was close enough. She wasn't sure how to feel, she had bad memories with this place but she had a few good ones as well.

Her first stop would be Watto's shop, if anybody knew where her mother was it would be him. When she came up on the junk shop she paused where she stood near the road. Watto wasn't there, she couldn't sense his precense but somebody else was here. A very familiar force precense she could recognise from half way across the planet 'Anakin' what was he doing here? Had he decided to disobey orders like her? No, he wouldn't just leave Padmé without defence.

Either something went horribly wrong or Anakin had decided to disobey orders and had maybe brought Padmé along. She hadn't bothered to mask her force precense so she knew Anakin must have sensed her here.

Alina turned away from the shop, following Anakin's precense. She'd find Watto later, she needed to find her brother first. It didn't take long for  her to find him or him to find her. Next to him was a woman in a large dark spotted cloak. Padmé. So he did bring her along. Anakin made his way to her "What are you doing here?" He asked "Disobeying orders. Same as you" She responded.

"The nightmares have been getting worse for you too" Anakin said softly after a moment. Alina nodded, hanging her head. Her glare flickered over to Padmé "You brought her here?" She asked. "I decided to come along. I knew I'd be well protected with Anakin" The Senator said quickly. "Well I can't exactly judge you for impulsive decisions if I'm here too" Alina said dryly.

She wanted to ask Anakin if he had the same odd dream about their mother that she'd had. They'd gotten sidetracked. They needed to find their mother.

"Watto's not at the old shop we used to work at, I checked there already" Alina said. "Then we'll try the stall near the junkyard next" Anakin said. Suddenly the mood was serious again.  The junkyard and the stall were exactly where they had been ten years ago and sure enough, there was the overgrown disfigured fly arguing with a customer to try and con him out of more money.

"Go talk to him. I might cut off his wings or something else not very Jedi" Alina muttered, nudging her brother forward. Anakin complied moving forward as the Customer left. The Toydarian was trying to fix a droid head but wasn't having any luck. "Chut-Chut Watto. let jeesh heppo uba bettap" Anakin took the droid head from him along with a tool and began tinkering with it. Watto looked up, confused.

"what? haku bal uba huujah? wait! uba'laz  jeedai! whatevah lo ,jee  oidn't ballo!" The Toydarian raised his hands in surrender. "We'laz bosco Shmi Skywalker" Anakin said, glancing at Alina. Watto looked between the two Jedi padawans. It took a while but then it finally clicked. "Ani? Little Ani? And Lina?" Watto asked, an eager look on his face.

Anakin put the fixed droid head in front of the Toydarian. "You are Ani! It is you! And Lina too! You sure sprouted huh?" He laughed. "A Jedi! Whattaya know!" Neither Skywalker looked ammused, if he was being friendly to them he wanted something.

Watto looked around quickly, flying closer "Maybe you could help with some deadbeats who owe me a lot of money" he said. Alina glared, force he was getting on her nerves. She could already see some items lifting slightly "Hurry up Anakin" she said through the force connection "Patience Lina" he responded "Our Mother" he said to Watto.

The smile disappeared as he moved back "Oh, yeah. Shmi. Uh. She's not mine no more. I sold her" he said. "You. Sold. Her?" Alina asked, speaking for the first time. All around them a few objects began to rise into the air along with her anger. Fear flashed in Watto's gaze as he moved back further "Years ago. Sorry but you know, buisness is buisness" he chuckled. The objects rose slightly higher. "I sold her to a moisture farmer named Lars. Atleast I think it was Lars..."

Now the objects skyrocketed, their number increasing as they floated well above people's heads. Anakin put a hand on her shoulder "Calm down Lina, you'll attract attention" he warned. Alina didn't respond, continuing to look directly at Watto. She wished looks could kill. She'd like nothing more than for him to be six feet under. "Believe it or not I heard he freed her! and married her!" Watto said in an attempt to calm her down "Can ya beat that eh?" He chuckled.

"Do you know where they are now?" Anakin asked. "Long way from here. Someplace over on the other side of Mos Eisley, I think" he said. "We're not going to the other side of Mos Eisley based off of what you 'think' we need answers" Alina said. The look the Toydarian received from both Skywalker siblings was enough to make him falter "Sure, absolutely! Let's go look at my records"

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