Rey in the hands of Unkar Plutt calls out in the Force for her mommy. Anakin hears his granddaughter's call and becomes her protector and trainer in all that he knows.
Can he keep her from repeating all of his failures on her journey to becoming th...
She found her handholds in the rough wall and crawled up into the rafters one more time. This was her safe hold—because there was nothing stored under the rafters, any intruder would just look around the empty space and spend the rest of his time searching among the shipping crates, never thinking there was anyone above him.
Rey calmed her breathing and tried emptying her mind of everything. She grabbed one of the tension poles that were stored in the rafters, barely able to lift it, but determined to push anyone back with it if they found her.
As she heard the cellar doors creak open, she tensed. A rough male voice spoke in a language she did not understand: "Koose doe nyeeka!"
Rey felt them searching through the crates. She tensed as she listened to their movements, feeling through the Force. She knew that it would not take them too long until they found Unkar. The girl quietly moved further back in the rafters, but she dropped her pole when it hit a rafter slat.
Both of the pirates looked at each other at the noise. The lead held his hand to his mouth, indicating for them to be quiet. He motioned with his hand for the other to go to the rafters. The first pirate continued searching behind the crates.
Rey crouched, ready to attack, as the second pirate tried to scale the wall, with little results. Then she heard a crash from below as a crate fell and saw a bright flash of red light, followed by a thud.
Another flash, and some of the rock wall went flying, but the second pirate was not hit. He jumped down and turned toward Unkar in one motion, bringing his weapon to bear on the Blobfish. Unkar ducked behind a crate, as the pirate hit it with his blaster fire. Unkar fired back multiple times, as the crate he was hiding behind caught fire. Finally, the second pirate went down.
Unkar yelled, "Girl, come out now. They're dead."
Rey moved cautiously, the rafters creaking. "No." She felt around her. "There's more coming."
She could feel the fear magnify in Unkar. He quickly hid behind more crates. Rey just wished she had that blaster in her hand—they would not have gotten this far.
Now another five came down the ladder, having entered from the rear of the building. Rey tensed again, wondering where her granddad was. She knew someone was taking out pirates near the front of the dwelling, and she hoped it was he.
The leader of this group yelled, "Unkar, we know you're down here! Come out!" A few tense moments of silence. "You're behind on your tribute to Voras—he was especially upset that he wasn't told about the new ship being uncovered. Come now, and it won't be so bad."
Unkar moved his blaster between crates and shot, missing everyone and giving away his position.
"Fine, we'll do this the hard way." The leader made a few hand motions, and his henchmen surrounded the corner Unkar was in. While two fired from one side of the corner, three others advanced and took Unkar.
"Please, don't shoot, don't shoot. I surrender." Unkar's legs shook in fear..
"We're not going to shoot, Unkar," the leader said with a nod to his henchmen. They punched him in the stomach, knocking the air out of him. "Voras just wants you to remember that you are in Hutt Space and that you owe your allegiance to him."
He nodded again, and a henchman hit Unkar on the back of the head with his blaster butt.
"Your tribute just went up to forty percent. What we retrieved from the bazaar will be a down payment on your back tribute. And, Voras will be leaving a tribute collector here to make sure this does not happen again. Understood?"
Unkar drew his face back and nodded his head.
"I can't hear you!"
"Understood. Understood." Unkar said weakly.
They dropped Unkar to the floor and exited the cellar. Unkar hyperventilated, grateful that they left but quietly mumbling, "I'm ruined. I'm ruined."
Rey waited patiently for Ani. She could not get down by herself, and she did not trust Unkar to touch her. Besides, she was sickened by Unkar's cowardice.
She could hear blaster fire outside, the fire from the bazaar raging. Finally the engines of spaceships firing up rattled the buildling. It would not be long before the pirates would be gone.
Finally, she felt all five craft lift off, shaking the cellar floor with the blast of their engines. After she heard Unkar crawl up into the main house, Rey breathed a sigh of relief.
Then Ani appeared. "Granddad!"
"Rey, are you all right?"
"Fine. Help me down?"
"No."
"What?"
"I was wrong, Rey. I can't be doing everything for you if you're going to survive. I thought Unkar's was safe for you, but I was wrong."
"How am I supposed to get down? Jump?"
"No. You have the means. Work it out." Ani nodded his head and looked at the long pole she held in her hands.
Rey took the pole and dragged it to the edge of the rafters near the wall where she climbed up. There was enough room to drop the pole between the rafters and lean it across the crossbeam, but it was too steep to provide a safe descent.
"Not that way. Think it through."
"How can I secure it?" Rey asked. "I don't have any rope."
"Tension. Make some tension."
Rey knew she could not prop it between two walls, but maybe if she leaned it against the crossbeam at the top and where the wall met the floor at the bottom . . . then she would slide down the pole.
When she reached the floor, Ani took the pole and broke it in half. He gave her one half and took the other one himself. Her beam ended up being about thirty centimeters taller than Rey, but thin enough that she could grasp it easily in her hands. It was heavy enough that she struggled lifting it.
"Rey, after me." Ani moved into his first position, his right hand gripped under the staff about a third of the way up with the right point held low and behind him. His right leg was pulled back behind his body, with his weight resting on it. His left leg was forward, with his left hand clenched over the staff one-third of the way from the other end. The staff was held at a 45-degree angle to the floor.
As they ran through the first few forms, Ani smiled and chuckled a little.
Rey asked, "Am I doing it wrong, Granddad?"
"No, Darling, you're doing just fine." Ani's voice caught with emotion.. "You just remind me of a ferocious Togruta I once knew, and I miss my little ner'vod."
Rey could have sworn she saw a tear in Ani's eye. I must be imagining things. Ghosts can't cry, can they?
Deze afbeelding leeft onze inhoudsrichtlijnen niet na. Verwijder de afbeelding of upload een andere om verder te gaan met publiceren.
They spent the rest of the day and the next few weeks training as Unkar rebuilt the bazaar. Each day Ani would work Rey hard in Padawan exercises, from running all over the cellar and around the exterior dwelling, to climbing over the crates, lifting objects with both her muscles and her mind, scaling the wall, climbing a rope hung from the rafters, as well as press-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups.
He knew he could not let Rey continue to be unable to defend herself, not if she was going to escape and have to fend for herself in this wasteland.
