Chapter 20

The celebrations for Anakin winning the race continued as they brought Anakin's podracer into the hangar.

Renn was grinning as he watched Anakin's embarrassed face as Padme and Shmi enveloped Anakin in a series of tight hugs.

Looking over to the side Renn was Qui-Gon in an argument with Watto and his happy expression faded from his face as he walked over to see what was going on.

-

"You Cheated. The bet was unfair." Watto spat at Qui-Gon as Qui-Gon tried to calm the angry Toydarian.

"I did no such thing and you agreed to the bet it would be dishonourable to go back on your word now." Qui-Gon tried to reason with him.

"I don't care. The boy and his mother will stay as my slaves." Watto said ignoring Qui-Gon

"You can't do that you made an agreement. You can't back out now." Renn cut in as he walked over to the arguing pair.

"Go away kid. This is none of your business." Watto snarled at Renn.

"It's not my business either but you will listen to Renn and honour your agreement." Came a growling robotic voice as a robed figure came out of the shadows of the hangar bay.

"Oh, and what are you going to do about it. Who are you anyway some homeless burn victim." Watto mocked the strange figure.

The stranger, who was Alpha in his trusty disguise, stepped forward calmly when suddenly his hand shot out and grabbed the snout of the flying Toydarian and pulled him down to eye level.

Watto panicked and flailed around but Alpha just tightened his grip and held him in place.

"Honour the agreement or I'll stuff you and leave you in the desert to scare womp rats" Alpha growled at Watto who started shivering in fear.

"O-Okay the boy can go free, as agreed." Watto stuttered out in fear, Alpha's hand was still clamped on his snout, so his voice came out nasally and strained.

"I don't know, seeing as you tried to go back on your word we might need to renegotiate.

I think you should release both Anakin and his mother. That seems fair don't you think?" Renn said mockingly.

Watto tried to argue but Alpha increased his grip and Watto squealed before agreeing. "Yes. Just please let me go!"

Renn smiled and Alpha released Watto causing him to flap backwards in fear rubbing his nose. "Pleasure doing business with you." Renn said before walking off to re-join the celebrations Alpha following behind him.

Qui-Gon watched the confrontation without saying anything. Personally, he wouldn't use violence to threaten someone, but he wasn't going to impose his views on someone else and he couldn't deny its effectiveness in resolving the situation.

"Well, here is your portion of the prize money. I believe I can leave getting the parts I need to you. The only remaining issue left would be you releasing the slaves which I'm sure won't be a problem now will it?" Qui-Gon said happily to Watto, who glared at him before flying off to complete his task

-

Renn and Opal were sat next to each other watching Qui-Gon give Anakin the good news about him being freed from slavery.

Renn had a slightly conflicted expression on his face as he watched Anakin asking Qui-Gon to teach him how to be a jedi. Opal saw this and nudged him with her elbow.

"What's wrong?"

Renn let out a sigh before explaining. "because of my clan's history with the jedi its hard to see them in a good light." Opal nodded; she had heard about house Dredd's destruction during her time staying with Renn.

"But I can't completely blame them either. Although they pretend, they aren't the jedi are just like any organisation with both bad and good elements to it.

The jedi who caused the destruction of my clan don't represent the whole jedi order but it's still quite hard to forget about. Grandma used to say that a few years after Aruum was destroyed she befriended a jedi master who came to apologise to the survivors of house Dredd, so they weren't all bad." Renn continued before pausing in thought, Opal just stayed silent listening intently.

"Anakin is one of my only friends and he seems to want to be a jedi so much I don't want to risk our friendship by trying to convince him to do something else. It is his life so he should choose his own path I just hope it's the right path for him." Renn finished, and both he and Opal sat in silence for a moment.

"You said one of your only friends. You were trying to make it seem like there are more than just Anakin and me, weren't you?" Opal said smiling at him slightly mockingly.

"What? Of course, I've got more friends." Renn said defensively turning to face her.

"The droids and Sapphire don't count; I know you think of them as your family, so you need to think of someone else." Opal said matter-of-factly causing Renn to blush slightly in embarrassment.

"Fine, maybe I don't have a lot of friends because I'm going for quality over quantity." Renn said.

"True, I am worth more than most friends because I'm so brilliant." Opal answered while nodding sagely.

Both children gave each other a deadpan stare before they both started laughing. Renn knew that the reason Opal had changed the topic was so he would take his mind off of it, so he was thankful to her, even if she had used it as a chance to make fun of him.

"Oh, I meant to talk to you about it earlier but couldn't find the right time." Opal suddenly said looking alert and leaning towards Renn like she was going to share a great secret.

"What is it?" Renn asked curious.

"You remember when we visited Naboo a year ago?" She asked and when Renn nodded she continued.

"Well, when we were there, we visited the capital city and saw a bit of a political rally, before leaving to do something else because it was a bit boring." She told him and he nodded, remembering the events.

"The person giving the speech was a little girl who was campaigning to be the queen of the planet. I think that she is Padme." Opal said looking over at the handmaiden who was stood near Anakin and Qui-Gon smiling at the boy's excitement.

"So, you think the person we saw campaigning to be queen is now the queen's handmaiden." Renn asked her slightly confused, he hadn't been paying much attention to the speech that day, so he didn't remember much about it.

"That's the thing, I don't think she's a handmaiden at all. I think that she is the queen in disguise." Opal told him conspiratorially.

Renn though for a moment before agreeing with her. "I could see that" he nodded.

A smug grin appeared on Opal's face as held her head high and acted as though she had solved one of the galaxy's oldest mysteries. Renn smiled wryly at her act, and thought that she was probably right.