『Steadfast』

Ento and Padmé sped back to Mos Espa's Grand Arena with the things they needed on board Watto's Landspeeder. When they finally arrived, he pulled it into the private parking area and back into its slot.

The Weequay who had signaled them before, gave a brief wave.

That man's name, Ento never knew and probably won't bother to. However he was always talking with his father around the end of every match. He could only assume the Guard knew who he was, and who that particular speeder belonged to.

Disembarking from the repulsor craft, Ento locked the goods inside of the speeder, then the two had made their way into the stands of the Arena after putting his bag on his back.

"So many..." Padmé was dragged along by Ento through the crowds of aliens, some of which she had never seen before. Naboo had a population of primarily humans and gungans, of which didn't get along due to the infamous Xenophobia of the Naboo people.

"I'm sure there's more in the senate," Ento quipped as he continued to lead her in the direction of Watto. The race was still going on and the crowd was pretty strong.

Cheers, cries and booing could be heard from all over.

He could see the large screens which showed the race, explosions, deaths. He could feel them moments before they happened. It didn't phase him though, even as their lives were wasted.

As the two emerged beside Watto, Ento jabbed him lightly in the arm with the Transponder Key. "Here's your landspeeder back," he said with a light smile across his lips.

"Ah. Thank Ento," he snatched the key shrewdly from the boy's hand. "You have the things, yes?"

Ento nodded, "Locked them in your storage compartment for you."

"Good, good. Haha, it was nice doing business with you, I think..." Watto looked over the key before stuffing it into his pouch.

The boy then looked off into the distance towards a suspended platform. He could sense Qui Gon Jin up there along with C3P0, R2D2, Jar Jar and Anakin's Mother.

"So are we going to walk back to the ship?" Padmé buzzed as she lightly squeezed his hand for his attention, apparently having tried doing so a few times now.

Ento glanced over towards her and gave her a light nod of his head. "That or we could purchase a swoop, it'd be small enough to fit into the main hold."

"Bah! Don't talk about those things around me!" Watto went go to shoo them away, "Get! Get!"

Chuckling, Ento bit his thumb at Watto before tugging Padmé right back into the crowd.

"That kid..." The winged blue alien shook his head before turning back to the races, specially the pad that was in his hand so he could watch Anakin closely. The boy had a rough start, but he was gaining quickly. Sebulba had almost taken him out once now.

As they made it to the exterior of the Arena, they walked towards one of the swoop vendors which were sponsors of the race. They rented out and sold swoops to people who needed transportation from Espa and the Arena itself.

Seated at the vending counter was a young adult twi'lek with light green skin and a blue jumpsuit. Her eyes narrowed on the two younger people coming towards them

"Toogi! You ya kickee swoop you dwana tah je? Mee naga do transport." Ento spoke Huttese, he greeted her before asking if there was any swoops that he could buy from her.

"What are you speaking?" Padmé asked curiously as she stared forward.

"Tagwa, mee wompa da u bedwana." She responded with a nod, though the words she used were rather strange and could be easily misunderstood. She said yes, there was one.

"Huttese," Ento turned to Padmé after the Twe'lik had spoken.

When he returned his attention to the female vendor, she gestured towards the Zephyr-G swoop which was at the end of the line of multiple other rentable models. It was dark blue, looked like it was able to carry at least one person with another uncomfortably perched on the drive section. It was around four meters in length from Ento's perspective and .66 of a meter in width.

"Eh... Kava naga?" Ento looked back towards the Twi'lek asking how much it was to purchase.

"Twenty peggat." The Twi'lek then flashed her ten digits twice at them.

Nodding lightly, he pulled his bag partially off his back and under his arm, unzipping it and placing exactly as much asked onto the counter.

"Thank you," Ento smiled up at her as she handed him the activation key.

The two then walked over to the swoop and he sat down first. Padme sat behind him, taking off and pulling his backpack onto her back, before hugging onto him.

The instant he started the swoop bike jolted forward, before remaining still for a few moments. "Ooookay..." Ento pursed his lips slightly, looking over towards the girl at the counter.

She just gave him a friendly wiggly fingered wave as if everything was alright. Though it clearly wasn't, it normally would have been forty five peggats for one of these used.

"Hmm..." Ento pursed his lips slightly at this before using the force to feel the insides of the machine. He felt for the problems, wanting to make a quick fix for this thing.

"This isn't worth taking, is it?"

Ento's fingers moved slightly as he was continuing to use the force. He began to warp the float chamber and the throttle valve, before modifying the alignment of the primary piston. Immediately after doing so, the Swoop began to move smoothly without jumping with each movement.

"There we go..." He muttered quietly, petting the outer hull before grasping both of the handles. "Hold on!" Ento didn't hesitate to push the swoop to its maximum.

"Uwaaahaaaahaaaaaaha!" Padmé screamed and laughed at the same time, clinging to him as the wind was pushing against her face and her hair. She pressed her face into his back.

Ento was not using his eyes, as sand kicked up and attacked him. He instead chose to keep his head down and his eyes closed, using the force as his guide back to the ship.

However, there was definitely something lurking about in the outskirts. Something that wasn't human, or humane. It was dark, evil and angry. A being raised and trained to kill, a living machine of death and destruction.

In the back of his mind, Ento could picture the appearance of the shadow he had been sensing even before its arrival on Tatooine. Turning his head slightly, he sensed one of the black circular drones closing in.

Just as it did so, he took one hand off the handle and drew his saber from his sleeve, igniting it seconds before slashing the drone in half before it could get a clear reading on them.

Withdrawing his weapon back into his sleeve once it was safely deactivated, he continued to punch the swoop bike to its limits. Its repulsion engine squealed as power was shot through it.

They were making good time across the seas of sand, closing in on Mos Espa. He planned on cutting through the starport in order to get to the otherside. If he could do that, then he'd be able to get to the ship faster and it'd be harder to follow.

"Do we have to go this fast!?" Padmé hadn't heard the use of the saber, or the destruction of the droid. She peaked her head up slightly, getting a glimpse of Mos Espa before pitching her face back down into the boy's back.

"Yes! Yes we do!" Ento snickered as he aimed the swoop towards a nearby ramp leading to the tops of one of the buildings.

The moment they went off that ramp, Padmé squealed in surprise at the weightlessness before they came slamming back down on the seat. She grunted at the feeling of her pelvis hitting against him. "Ow..."

Glancing over his shoulder for a split second, he saw no one following. For now, they were riding along the many rooftops of the many buildings belonging to the starport, towards the other side, in the direction of the Naboo Royal Starship.

"Drive slower, please?!" Padmé groaned a bit, shifting in the seat with clear discomfort.

Centering his eyes forward, he narrowed his eyes on the edge of the settlement. "Unless we want to fall into the streets, it's be better just to keep going like this!"

"Gaaah!" Padmé squeezed her arms around his ribs, peering up from behind his shoulder, her eyes strained to shield them with her lashes.

Several minutes had gone by and he almost masterfully maneuvered the bike with his Jedi-like skills. Avoiding hitting people on their rooftops, definitely leaving some angry people behind, as they were closing in on the edge of the city.

Then as he reached the last building, the swoop rocketed through the air, coming in low to the sand before returning to its default altitude.

Ento still didn't slow down however, he was heading straight for the Naboo Starship nonstop.

"We're almost there!" Shouting over his shoulder, he glanced towards Padmé who was glaring up at him from his shoulder blade. "...What?"

"Why are we going so fast in the first place!?" Snapped loudly, she was breathing heavily as she sat up a bit on the seat as he slowed down.

"There were little spy droids following us," he said as his eyes shifted around, as if checking their surroundings before turning to look towards the ship in the distance.

"Moderate speed, only speed up if you see the droids," Padmé pleaded as she grasped at the quality woolen clothes he wore. "Or whoever is using them..."

"Fine, fine." Ento clicked his tongue, halving the maximum speed of the bike as he road on towards their ticket offworld once the repairs were made.