(11 Years After the Rise of the Empire)
Luke squirmed in his seat in one of the more secluded corners of the cantina his mother owned, bent over the table as he reached for the datachip that had skidded to the opposite side when he dumped his studies bag on the table. Once he finally got his hands on the chip, he plugged it in and eagerly settled down for some reading about piloting and recent ship models.
He'd love to do some reading of his Jedi studies, but his mother didn't want him reading any of his Jedi stuff in public in case someone happened to see, so these days where Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru couldn't pick him up from school and his mother had a longer shift at the cantina gave him the perfect opportunity to catch up on piloting.
The cantina was loud and bustling with activity, but he'd grown accustomed to it by now, able to block out the sound and focus on what he was doing. His mother had been bringing him here before she owned the cantina, though back then she wouldn't let him linger long on the floor, mostly keeping him hidden away in the back. She'd finally allowed him to sit in an actual booth instead of crammed in a corner in the busy back room a little while after she inherited the cantina, her reason being something along the lines of she'd had time to lay down rules and get people used to following them.
He didn't know how. Even he had been able to hear some of the ugly fights that broke out from the back before his mother owned the cantina.
There was a roar of sound from one of the gambling tables, and Luke looked up just long enough to see Han Solo putting on a show as he raked in the pot he'd just won in a game of sabaac. One of the other gamblers at the table looked like he was ready to fight Han over it, and something—perhaps a prompting from the Force—was telling Luke that a fight was definitely about to break out.
The gambler Luke had been looking at did in fact lunge across the table at Han, who immediately responded—in a more defensive manner, though. Within moments Ameenah was there to throw the offender off Han, promptly picking the sprawled Rodian back up and carrying him out the door while Luke's mother swooped in from where she'd been bringing a table's drinks to make sure Han was in one piece.
As the fight was being swiftly dealt with, a shadow suddenly loomed over Luke in his already darker lit area (due to his mother's discomfort with the idea of 'shining a spotlight on him' in a Tatooine cantina known to attract the lowest of criminal elements). Luke only had enough time to look up and register that it was a human man that seemed to tower over him with a mess of black hair and shadowy beginnings of a beard before the man grabbed Luke by the arm and hoisted him out of the booth he'd been sitting in. Luke was about to let out a shout of protest before a slim and blunt cylinder was pressed just below his ribcage hard enough to make him flinch back, though he was held in place by the man. Luke immediately sucked in a breath, terror slipping down his spine like a damp slime as he realized it was a blaster muzzle the man was pressing into him.
"Not a sound, boy," the man said when Luke looked up at him with wide eyes. A slimmer, slightly shorter man appeared around the corner, making an impatient motion with his hands as if to encourage the one holding Luke to hurry.
"The owner isn't very kind to the slave business—if she catches us, it won't be pretty," the shorter one hissed as Luke was yanked forward away from the table and towards the back exit of the cantina.
Slave business!
Panic snapped through Luke like a krayt dragon's bite, making him dig in his heels as much as he could as he tried to resist being dragged out of his mother's cantina, though the man was much larger and stronger than Luke, making the gesture futile. Though he wanted to scream and shout for his mother, he kept silent, painfully aware of the blaster that could kill him in a moment. He wanted to use the Force to try and slip away, but his mother's warnings about what could happen if someone saw him use the Force and the fact he was in a crowded cantina was stronger than that urge.
But he still screamed inwardly in a primal cry for help that was made more of feeling than words, with everything he had.
The short one grabbed Luke by the chin, tilting Luke's head around like he was examining an eopie. "He is a fine stock—probably will be worth the trouble if he's worth as much as you say that woman will pay us for him."
"She likes them young and pretty—they last longer that—" the one holding Luke said before he was suddenly yanked away from Luke with enough force that he crashed through two tables and knocked over another before coming to a standstill, his blaster not even making it to the floor before it was kicked through the air to the opposite end of the cantina.
Luke staggered back and fell to the floor as the opposing force that had been keeping him from pulling away suddenly disappeared, staring in shock as he realized it had been his mother who had intervened. He watched as she instantly turned on the second, shorter man, knocking aside the man's arm in a move his mother had taught Luke on day one of his self-defense lessons, except while the blaster he'd been drawing was knocked out of his hand, her grip shifted and tightened on the arm instead of releasing, knee coming up into the man's stomach to make him double over before her elbow came down hard on the arm she was holding stretched out, making it snap and bend at an unnatural angle before she twisted that same arm behind and up into the man's back and pushed him up against the wall. The tall one had recovered, and was charging at his mother from behind with a broken shard of glass in hand.
"Mother!"
His mother grabbed the short one by the hair, pulling his head back and smashing it hard against the wall, pressing and shoving down with enough force to leave a streak of red on the wall, letting the short one drop to the ground as she whipped around to face the second, taking one step back and coiling into a ready position. As the tall one came at her in a low charge, she hooked her arm around the arm of the hand holding the glass, her other free hand finding a place on the back of his neck to stop him before it slid around his chest, the leg closest to him coming inside so she could flip him over onto his back. Her hands shifted so the one that had been hooked around his arm moved to grab under his chin and push his head back to expose his neck, her other hand sliding back to hold the man's arm trapped while she shifted her stance so her knee kept his head pinned down into the ground. The man tried to struggle free, but couldn't with the way she had him pinned. In fact, when he struggled, she pulled back with the arm that was hooked around his so that it bent unnaturally around her back as she used enough force there was another breaking sound, and the glass clattered out of his hand as the man screamed.
A mass of fur suddenly obscured Luke's vision of the brutal fight, strong paws gripping him by the arms and picking him up as his mother snapped out a sharp command.
"Get him out!"
The sounds of the fight continued, complete with screams and blaster shots, but Ameenah kept herself firmly between the fight and Luke's field of vision as she quickly brought him out the back, refusing to let him go even after they had left the cantina and the fight behind.
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(Zelina's POV)
As Ameenah carried Luke out of the cantina and out of harms way, the second kidnapper actually managed to get back up...partially. Enough that he was making a desperate lunge towards his discarded blaster she hadn't used the Force to precisely kick far from Luke like she had with the blaster of the man she currently had pinned to the ground.
Pressing the head of the man she was currently on top of harder into the ground with her knee, Zelina quickly shifted her grip on his broken arm so she was holding it trapped with one of her arms hooked around the broken limb to hold it against her chest and free her other hand. She pulled her work blaster from it's usual hiding place in a shoulder holster under her thin second layer, taking aim and shooting both hands of the one crawling for his discarded blaster to discourage him from reaching for it.
Finally, the fight came to a halt.
Zelina got to her feet, hauling the man who'd been holding a blaster on Luke with her, before she slammed him into the nearest table that was still intact and upright, pressing his face into the table while twisting his broken arm up into his back and holding her blaster muzzle at his cheek.
Rage was too mild a word for the emotion pumping through her veins at the moment.
"Did you really think it would be that easy to smuggle my boy out of my cantina? I can't believe you had the audacity to think I'd let anyone snatch my boy up to be sold as a slave!" she spat, blaster digging deeper into the man's cheek. "The only reason you're still alive is so I can make an example of you."
Zelina cast a dark glare around the cantina, the only sound in the establishment the whimpers of the man on the floor behind her. "If anyone lays a finger on that boy, they'll have to answer to me."
In order to make sure everyone understood her perfectly, Zelina dropped her blaster so it was aimed at the man's gut and fired, letting him drop to the ground before she turned and shot the other man in the same spot. Considering she had no intention on letting either of them receive medical attention, it was going to be a very slow and grotesque death, and everyone who knew anything about blaster wounds knew that.
It wasn't a mess she was going to want to clean up, either, so she'd probably have to get Ameenah to bring these two out back...after she took care of Luke.
"You better make it well known, because I will not be repeating myself," Zelina finished, letting her gaze roam the cantina before she holstered her blaster, stepping over the now-dying men on her way to the bar where Benon was, Eny already rushing past her to try and clean up the part of the mess that didn't include dragging the two men out back.
"Keep an eye on things, I'll send Ameenah in to bring them out back. I'm going to cut my shift short and take Luke home," she said, tone clipped as the cantina slowly started to go back to business as usual. Benon nodded, a cautious look on his face that Zelina purposely ignored as she stalked to the back room.
She paused before she left the cantina in its entirety, sensing Luke's still-scared presence on the other side of the door. With hand hovering over the panel to open the back door, Zelina took several long, slow breaths, trying to calm herself back down and shove the darkness that had reared its head inside her back down. She forced herself not to think about what had just happened, to focus instead on happier, lighter thoughts. Thoughts of quiet, peaceful times with Anakin, of Anakin holding her when she was scared or upset, of quiet moments with Luke, of the pride she felt when she taught him, of the kindness and light she saw inside the boy...
When her anger was once more a simmer in the back of her mind and the adrenaline had left her system, Zelina finally opened the door, carefully stepping outside as she made sure that she did have a handle on her darker emotions once again.
"Mother!" Luke cried out again when he saw her, and Zelina looked off to her right to see Ameenah standing just behind Luke, who was rushing over to Zelina's side. She dropped to one knee as the boy ran towards her, surprised when he stopped just short of being within her arm's reach. She could sense a hint of fear rolling off of him, fear that was directed towards her and what had happened inside.
She'd scared him with her reaction. The realization cut, and she felt a flash of shame rush through her. She'd never intended to let that side of her come out around him, not while he was still so young at the very least. She wouldn't apologize for protecting him so fiercely...but this fear he looked at her with for her dark reaction would haunt her for years to come.
She needed to show him it was all right, that she was still herself.
"Th-they tried to take me, they w-were talking about a-a w-woman who'd b-buy me, and—"
Zelina's blood started to boil once again as Luke's shaking voice recited the intent of the two men, and she had to fight to keep the image of the short one looking Luke over like he was stock to be examined out of her mind. Doing her best to ignore the anger and keep it restrained, especially since the two had already been dealt with, Zelina scooted close enough to put her hands on Luke's arms, gently rubbing his arms to try and reassure him.
"I know, Little Dragon, I know, but it's over now, okay? They're never going to threaten you again—no one will. You're safe as long as I'm here," she told him in a soothing voice, holding his gaze. He was still shaking underneath her grip, and she gently pulled him towards her so she could wrap him up in a tight hug. Her hand threaded through his hair as Luke all but collapsed into her arms, clenching to her shirt as a few shaken sobs made it past his control—clearly he was trying to be strong, but was still shaken by the close call.
Zelina looked at Ameenah over Luke's shoulder, gesturing with a simple pointed glance back towards the door to tell her to head back inside. Ameenah nodded, leaving the two alone as Zelina focused all of her attention on Luke.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Luke, all right? You're safe, it's okay, I'm here now. I'm here," she murmured, rocking him in place as she felt his roiling presence slowly soothed by her calming words.
She was never going to get the sensation of Luke sending out an instinctual, terrorized scream for help directly towards her in the Force, was never going to forget the feeling or the sound that had vibrated through her being on a level only a Force Sensitive could understand, was never going to forget the protectiveness that had ripped through her and the fear as the threat of slavery suddenly latched onto Luke.
She meant what she said. She would never let anything happen to Anakin's son, not if there was anything she could about it.
And woe was the person who tried to stop her.