Well, if it didn't need fixing before, it does now!

....

Jar-Jar gets her most incredibly disappointed face as she stands directly between him and her racer protectively.  "Remember what I told you in the shop, Jar-Jar?  Do you want to feel your muscles seize and your heart stop as you touch a live wire and all the power of a fusion reactor grounds out through your tongue?  Do you want to get splattered to paste by a turbocharged engine, or fried to a crisp in exhaust?  No?  Then don't touch the machinery.  It can be very dangerous, especially this kind.  This is your last warning to think first, to ask first, when you can, before just touching things, or I'll tie your tongue in a knot next time I catch you at it.  And I really don't want to do that!  And you don't want to have it happen!  So unless you've been specifically asked to cause chaos..."

Huh, there's an idea.  "Actually, if you could ruin Sebulba's day, that might even be helpful as well as slightly, what was it, cathartic.  I'm pretty sure that if it weren't for the fact that he'd owe Watto money, I'd've suffered an 'accident' from the stuff he sneaks into his racer that no-one actually calls him on, just for daring to be good."

"My no tryen to messen yous skeebeetle," says Jar Jar. "Yousa no hafta bein so mui moppo." He sulks away, rubbing his tongue.

"...I just want to make sure you don't die.  And not being careful with machines causes a lot of deaths.  And maybe I'm a little bit overprotective of my podracer because she's my podracer that I have put many hours of sweat, tears, and blood into, and a bit frustrated at whoever raised you for not teaching you things that I've helped teach human three-year-olds, and that...leaked out.  But I really just...want you to not get hurt, okay?"

Jar Jar nods. "Meesa berry sorry for da boopjak daree."

"Kina, there you are," says Qui-Gon, striding towards them. "Padmé told me about your plan to bring refugees with us to Coruscant. Unfortunately, while I quite agree that slavery is a despicable institution, there are treaties between the Republic and the Hutts that we cannot infringe upon. As such, no representative of the Jedi Order or of the Naboo can allow them onto our vehicle."

He eyes her with a slight smile.

"It's okay, Jar-Jar."

Then, Qui-Gon shows up.

Hmm.  He's smiling.  But he's not horrible.  That means there's a trick to it.  No representative of the Jedi Order or the Naboo can allow them on, which means he can't, and Padmé can't...but there's someone who can, or he wouldn't be smiling.  He'd be sad.  ...Kina is losing what respect she had for the Republic, because if it has "you may not do the right thing" as a policy that actually gets enforced, that sort of thimg needs to be thrown out the window.  Into a sarlacc pit.

"...Those are some very specific phrasings!  Say, Jar-Jar, you don't officially work for the Naboo - government, I'm guessing?  (And isn't Naboo a planet?)  Want to go invite some of my friends to visit the ship you rode in on?"  Kina grins.  "And of course, forget to mention that there's people in some out of the way room - probably the infirmary, but actually, there's people who're better at actually organizing things like these than I am that're coming, listen to them please - until we're under way?"

With Jar-Jar hopefully causing chaos aimed directly at the Hutts, Kina muses over something.  "...So, are Jedi agents of the Republic or servants of the will of the Force, anyway?  You framed it like listening to the Force was the one Jedi thing, but you have to listen to the Republic for...some reason?  You can't do both.  Not at the same time.  Unless the Republic is run by the will of the Force somehow, but if that's true, it shouldn't be sitting there all clogged up with 'trade disputes' when there's slavers over here and nobody already in a position to stop them."

As a result of some strange coincidence, Qui-Gon was standing next to the very loud podracer engine and was unable to hear Kina tell her plan to Jar Jar, although curiously enough, he did manage to hear the question she asked afterwards. "We're not exactly a branch of the Republic, but given that it controls the galaxy, we generally do what it says."

Kina eyes him strangely.  "Then why do they acknowledge Hutt Space as powerful enough to sign a treaty with, if they control the galaxy?  If they're powerful enough, the Hutts should be trying to ingratiate themselves, not...do this, ne?"

"I think it's mostly that the Republic would prefer not to start a war? There isn't much of an army besides asking for individual planets to supply theirs. Most politicians don't want to support something that would impose costs on their own planets, even if it is relatively minor compared to the suffering caused by the Hutts. Actually, this is also part of why the Republic hasn't shut down the Trade Federation yet."

"...so, they pretend there's a unified force controlling the galaxy but it's actually a bunch of squabbling Hutts in a trenchcoat, plus the occasional compassionate person who somehow manages to be born in exactly the wrong place and land in the big chair with the moisturizer."  Padmé is a good example of this, right?  She's totally some noble lady!  "And the actual Hutts are racist enough to pull together against the Republic, while the Republic says lots of pretty things that mean almost nothing to most people because, again, it's made of squabbling Hutts that don't even have the decency of looking the part or being honest that they care about only their dot on the map.  I wonder if politicians would be better people if they had to do business as giant slimy things.  Or whatever form they were least comfortable with.  Anyway.  That explanation of politics makes more sense.  Isn't better, but it makes more sense.  And it explains why 'bleeding heart' is so often a 'backhanded highborn insult'."  Kina wasn't expecting anything more, really, but she's still unutterably disappointed.

Kina finishes tightening one last bolt with a heave of her wrench.  "Let's get this over to the starting line.  It starts soon enough we'd need to rush if we didn't leave soon, and something tells me that being alone out here is asking for trouble, though I couldn't tell you why.  Not that it won't try and find us anyway."

When Kina arrives at the race, Sebulba is already waiting. He snarls a few insults to her, then gets back to work installing flamethrowers. After screwing them in, he tosses the wrench into one of Kina's engines, then hops into his podracer.

Far above the race, Jabba slides into an announcer's box, as the crowd bows. "Chowbaso!" he says, and begins introducing the racers, starting with Sebulba, who receives quite a few roars of praise, not least from Jabba himself, who has a bet riding on him.

Kina looks at the wrench in her hand, shaking out her palm, then at Sebulba, then back at the wrench in her hand, then back at Sebulba.  She quirks an eyebrow in polite defiance.  "Thanks for the wrench!  Ooh, it's adjustable."

Kina's not above sabotage, when it's to sabotage the sabotage of others - so while Jabba does the introductions, she sits in her cockpit, the image of polite, professional, somewhat excited focus, and reaches out into the guts of Sebulba's racer, a metaphorical spanner in the works to go with his literal attempt upon hers.  She pulls wires, snaps control circuitry, resets disengaged safety limiters, drains fuel tanks...and, while that fragment of her mind, long-since honed to fidget with things, is idly unpicking what Sebulba just worked, the vast majority of her attention casts itself forwards, to the race ahead of her.

She is, just a bit, going to have fun with this.

And the race starts! Gasgano takes an early lead, followed by Mars Guo, Ratts Tyerell, Aldar Beedo, and Kina Skywalker. Sebulba, on the other hand, feels one of his engines explode, and is catapulted into the stands, to the shock of most of the watchers.

SOMEONE WILL FIND THEMSELVES IN THE SARLACC FOR THIS.

Honestly, he's not sure who. He can probably just throw his latest protocol droid in, that usually makes him feel better.

The racers find their way into a cavern, where Tyerell is caught by a stalagmite and crashes into the wall. As they emerge, another racer, Mawhonic, pulls up next to Kina, and their lines begin to tangle.

Kina's engines are humming right along at their sweet spot; neat, efficient.  If she zoomed off into the suns-set right now, the Hutt would notice, and that would be...bad.

And then Mawhonic's line starts tangling with hers...so Kina grins, flips up a cover, and hits the button that sets it loose, replacing it with the same purple electrorepulsion that steadies the pods themselves as she swerves up the side of the canyon to cut around the third-placer, catching and replacing the cord blowing in the wind (and sparing her further power constraints from the computation and electrical load) with her hand as she operates a joystick with her teeth.

As the second lap begins, most of the racers have fallen behind, leaving only Gasgano, Beedo, and Kina in the lead, neck and neck... and neck.

Perched on the cliffs above the race, a pack of Tusken Raiders watches, waiting for the racers to come through the cave and into the sights of their rifles.

Kina edges ahead, slowly but surely gaining a lead, engine dials nudging a bit further up the scale, as she approaches the dread cliffs...and then, right as the sun glints off a rifle scope and trigger fingers start to tense, punches it, zooming in a swaying, serpentine path that looks like it could have been the result of sputtering thrusters if you can't see how Kina's hands twitch.

It's not like they've got very good aim or well-calibrated scopes, and some of them outright drop their rifles or miss their window whether from surprise or because of Kina's interference...but every little bit helps.

Qui-Gon watches the race, anxiously. Kina is visibly in the lead, pulling around the track with Gasgano close behind her. At this point, it looks as though she has an easy win... so why is the Force screaming that something bad will happen?

Elsewhere, Darth Maul mounts his speeder, lightsaber hanging from his side, and flies across the Tatooine dunes towards Mos Espa.

As the third lap starts, Gasgano pulls to the inside of the track, swerving around boulders and ending up back ahead of Kina.

And Kina hits the boosters in a flare of supplemental rockets as she soars over those boulders, and Gasgano, her racer leaping over the rocks in a burst of motion that she lined up just so!  That danger is on the horizon; she doesn't need to worry about it now.  She needs to zoom across the finish line.

The rest of the race is pretty smooth, with no one else managing to pass Kina. There are a few more shots fired by the Tusken Raiders and a thug Sebulba had hastily hired, but none of them manage to land.

And Kina slows her racer to a stop, finally taking a proper deep breath, as she passes the finish line in an undisputable first place.  She lets her thoughts speak themselves, as she does post-flight checks and shuts the engines off.  "We did it, mom.  We're gonna go free.  We're gonna walk the sky."

And then, she runs to her mom for a big hug.  She still has a little time.  She can just be a happy kid who won a race for a minute or two.

Shmi is barely able to process what happened, pulling Kina back into the hug on autopilot and gazing up towards the stars. They can leave. They can leave.

And then she sees Watto stomping towards them, and she steps in front of Kina, looking back and forth for the others.

Qui-Gon smoothly strides into Watto's path. "I assume you're here to relinquish control of the Skywalkers," he says. "I'll need the proper devices for removal of the explosives, and I'll take the transmitter as well."

"You cheated!" snarls Watto, trying to pounce towards Kina but held back by Qui-Gon. "You sabotaged Sebulba, you - " Watto switches to Huttese, letting loose a stream of insults.

"Sebulba's flamethrower, a tool not permitted by the Classic's rules, exploded due to what I must presume was a fuel leak when he ignited his engines, Watto.  No cheating occurred except his, which bit him back for once.  And if you observe the footage at the starting line, you will see him trying to foul one of my intakes with this wrench.  So.  There was cheating and sabotage attempted, but not on my behalf."  Kina is so very done with Watto's shit.  "Thank you for delivering the transmitter promptly."  It's in her hand now, Kina swiping it off his waist (and does she have that long a reach, or did it slip loose and fall into her hand?) as he thrashes, and she pops the back off, before pulling some spare wires out, fashioning an adapter, and passing it to R2-D2 with a whistle.  <Execute hard shutdown, code:> - and here, she opens herself to the Force to check for danger, before whistling a datablock that she spent restless hours designing.  It should give the White Sun some more opportunities to smuggle people out, or smuggle bombs out of people, if the location-spoofing worm takes.  As well as deactivate her and her mom's bombs, at the minimum.

Watto eventually allows Qui-Gon to return to his shop, where he takes the hyperdrive and a magnetic tool that lets him remove the now inactive bombs from Kina and Shmi without much blood. He hands the device over to Kina, "in case she wants to keep it as a memento," and then calls for the ship.

The ship comes to the ground on the edge of Mos Espa. "Master Qui-Gon," says Obi-Wan, stepping out of the vehicle. "I see you haven't gotten rid of him yet," he says, gesturing to Jar Jar, "but where are the rest of our new passengers?"

"Kina's out behind the shop... saying goodbye to a few of her friends," says Qui-Gon. "Her mother and the droids are watching her. Let's head onboard, I'd like to discuss a few things with you. We can leave the entryway open; they'll come once they're ready."

Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and the rest of the group come up the ramp, and Obi-Wan follows Qui-Gon into one of the bedrooms. "What's going on?"

"You mean apart from the Chosen One?" says Qui-Gon, nervously laughing. "I'm not fully sure. But I've been sensing something, some sort of a presence that feels powerful, darker even than the Hutts. The Force seems to be very worried."

Not too far away, Maul blasts through the streets on his speeder, disregarding the crowds he crashes through, his only focus on that silver gleam of the royal starship.

Kina's getting her podracer packed into the small cargo space aboard when she feels that roiling darkness start getting closer, and brief spikes of panic rushing through the town.

"Something's coming.  Something bad.  If you're coming, get on; if you're staying on-planet, go.  Quickly.  You go get the Jedi," she says to her protocol droid, "and Artoo, help me with this engine and the bombs."

She might not have a conventional weapon on-hand, but she does have some very powerful engines, and two small remote-detonating explosive charges.  Not to mention a wrench.

C3PO rushes off to the Jedi Master's quarters, motors whirring, listening to Kina tell that crude, insouciant astromech exactly how to make an engine or electrorepulsive tether ruin someone's day.  His maker, his mistress - nevermind that she doesn't wish to be put above him, she is, by his choice; he will serve her faithfully and well, for she needs the help, with all the burdens she's put on her too-young shoulders - is scary when she's engineering, sometimes, and this is definitely one of them.

"Master Jedi, and Padawan!  My mistress says that something bad is coming, fast!"

Qui-Gon leaps from the room, and stumbles over one of several children running through the halls of the ship. Well, he can't pretend he didn't see them now, but there are higher priorities at the moment. Oh, great, the kid is now crying, and he's being pushed back by the flow of the crowd. "Shmi, can you handle this?" he shouts, seeing Shmi approach, and with some effort, he and Obi-Wan squeeze through the group.

Maul flies directly at the opening of the ship, and at the last second drops off of his speeder, sending it flying in Qui-Gon's direction, knocking him back through the ship with tremendous force and tearing up the inner walls. Ignoring the droid and the child - although something does feel interesting about that child - Maul turns back towards the entrance, where Obi-Wan is beginning to stand up, and ignites a blade of his lightsaber.

There's no time to check on Qui-Gon. Drawing his own lightsaber, Obi-Wan runs towards Maul, but has to step back as he barely blocks a brutal swing from Maul's weapon.

This is only a Padawan, he notes, and it should be easy to kill. Maul trades several blows with Obi-Wan, and sees an opening when -

His speeder was strangely wobbly on final approach, he might have noticed, but that clearly didn't stop him --

-- Kina mutters a swear as she yanks the emergency brake on the speeder with her mind --

-- she whistles piercingly, throwing a wrench at him, and R2 activates the engine welded to the side of the hold, flaring it to push him back!  "Careful!  Double blade!"

Maul's lightsaber is nearly at Obi-Wan's wrist when the wrench hits his head, and he falters long enough for Obi-Wan to deflect. Then the blazing heat of the engine throws him forwards, but he manages to turn it into a tackle. He ignites the other blade of his saber, penetrating the sand next to Obi-Wan's head.

Obi-Wan grabs ahold of Maul's lightsaber, but he can't really push it aside without turning the other blade towards him. His other hand gropes for his own weapon, but then Maul's horns slam into his head and - 

Blazing heat.

His shoulder erupts in pain as his eyes fill with shining green light -

Green?

And it's over.

Qui-Gon stands above their bodies, the blade of his saber buried in the ground next to Obi-Wan's arm - oh, that's too close to Obi-Wan's arm! He quickly turns it off, and yanks Maul's body off of his apprentice.

Maul's head, however, stays where it is.

OOOOOWWWWWWW.

Obi-Wan rolls over and manages to push himself up. He tests his fingers - they seem to still be functional, even if it hurts like hell - and looks at his shoulder -

Jedi or not, he lets out a bit of a frightened squeal when he sees it. Wincing, he forces himself to look at it again, and it seems like apart from the burn his arm is still working.

"Master Qui-Gon, with all due respect, COULD YOU AIM YOUR LIGHTSABER A LITTLE BETTER?!"

"I saved your life!" says Qui-Gon, looking over his own bruises and panting, but coming up short of breath. "I had about half a second and what appears to be a dislocated arm - " He turns back to Kina. "Are you okay?"

Kina heaves a breath as she pulls Sebulba's wrench back from where it landed after her follow-up nut shot, and R2 shuts off the engine.  "Okay.  I'm okay."  She is not okay; her voice is trembling and dull.  "At least functional and uninjured.  Okay.  We need to get going fast in case he's not the only one after us.  Qui-Gon, you told mom to take care of the kids, let her keep doing that, you can claim you thought she knew what you were supposed to mean and vanish into the medbay during preflight.  We're going to want the body.  Shocks people really well, bodies of assassins.  Should see if we can find his ride here maybe; more evidence, who sent him and how?  I think I might throw up when the panic rush fades.  Kriffing terrifying.  Medics for you and Mr. Corpse now.  And me too just in case."

She doesn't know why she's giving orders, nor why she expects Qui-Gon to listen, but she's doing it, as she leans on the bulk of the engine to steady her shaking legs and trembling hands.

Obi-Wan is already on the ship by the time Kina finishes talking, but Qui-Gon trips while gasping for breath, and lands on the entry ramp. He manages to push himself up, and finds himself at the feet of the Queen Amidala.

Technically, this is not Queen Amidala, but for the moment, this is the role the decoy must play. "Master Jedi," she says, smoothly. "Do you need medical attention?"

"That might be best," pants Qui-Gon. "I may have broken a rib. Or two. The girl's with us - and she's right, we should leave, now." He climbs up into the ship, leaning on the Queen no matter how undignified it might be, and arrives in the medical bay, next to Obi-Wan.

Kina gives the person who looks like a Queen a strange look, but not an unpleasant one, more bemused than anything, as she follows Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to the medbay, before shooting off one parting comment.  "Artoo, see if the speeder can tell you anything?  I bet he was smart enough to turn off explicit tracking, but you can reconstruct where he's been from the engine and gyro data in the black box.  And that speeder definitely just crashed, so the data just dumped, so if he came straight here from wherever he had set up, we might be able to tell where his ship is.  Doesn't look like he was dressed for the weather."

Sabe is somewhat confused by Kina, but she doesn't let it show, marching into the cockpit. "Mr. Olie, enter orbit. Captain Panaka, accompany the astromech to the hyperdrive; the moment the installation is finished, I want this speeder analyzed for origin, as well as this Zabrak. And Padmé," she says, thankful to see her, "do you have anything to say?"

"I think the Jedi have something to report to you, milady," says Padmé. "Master Jinn is still recovering, but Padawan Kenobi appears to be in good enough condition to speak to us. He seemed to only want to tell this to the Queen."

"Of course," says Sabe. "Accompany me to my quarters first."

When the Queen enters the medical bay several minutes, she is now the real Queen, though Obi-Wan notices nothing different. "Master Jedi," she says, noticing his bandaged arm. "Forgive me if this is a difficult time, but I must know who that was that attacked us."

"I didn't recognize him," says Obi-Wan. "However, based on the lightsaber with the red blade, Master Qui-Gon seems to be of the opinion that he is a Sith Lord. A figure out of legend, a member of the Dark Jedi. I... doubt this theory."

"And what of the children? Padmé told me that there was a girl who might become a Jedi, but we now have nearly a dozen of them."

"I don't know much more than you," replies Obi-Wan. "If anyone knows, it would be the girl herself."

Padmé would prefer not to get too close to Kina as the Queen, considering her exceptional clarity of sight. "Could you speak with her? I... think it might be best for her to have the perspective of a Jedi at this time."

Obi-Wan nods and heads into the halls, following the sounds of shouting children. None of them, however, seem to be able to direct him to Kina. After several minutes, he hears the faint sound of breathing from a closet, and opens it to find her on the floor.

Kina looks up from where she's sitting on the floor as the door opens and the light hits her eyes, blinking in a way that just looks tired.

"...hey.  What brings you to my resting place?"  She stands from where she's resting her back against the metal of the interior wall, and steps out.  "I was...just, processing, about to get ready to go check on you, actually, but I think I missed the moment - it wasn't really urgent, anyway, whatever it was.

"Did Qui-Gon tell you what was up with the, anti-Jedi?  Because I don't know what you saw when you looked at him, but boy, I saw some shit.  It was...it was distilled, distilled, um."  She grasps for a word.  "I've been thinking about things, and...the Force is probably filling a lot more gaps than I knew I had, even after I started to consciously reach out, because I always sort of...had this impression of people, like if I looked at them the right way, I could see - their essence, I suppose?  Their emotions?  And...I saw what he looked like because, it's a reflex to look that way when something bad's coming, seeing how people feel helps you navigate through fights before they happen, but...he looked like suffering, he looked like something being blown around in a sandstorm of chaos, without even a beacon home...He looked like a person had been pared down to a glass knife - sure, it's sharp, but it breaks so easily, and I...I saw him, I saw him die, and I wished I could tell him I was sorry, that...I didn't want this for him, because even him, I don't, even Watto, even Gardulla should get to be happy, in the end, and he was never going to have a chance because of you and me and Qui-Gon, and...and he couldn't believe me, like he'd been so twisted up by whatever makes a person do this that, there was nothing anyone could say to bring him out of the dark despair...and...and now he's dead and there's not anything we can do, his soul's just lost, I think he, destroyed himself or something out of spite, or he's gone somewhere else somehow and honestly I don't know if I prefer that which scares me because I think people deserve to exist but I want him to be not-existing because if he turns up as a ghost later he'll be extra problems and it seems wrong to even make that judgement ever and...he wanted nothing more than to hurt people, like, like he had been hurt...and...and..."

She heaves a breath, and chokes back a tear.  "And you're just a kid and I'm just a kid and we both could have died if he'd been a little bit smarter, if we'd been a little less lucky, and I don't know how to deal with that, that people might try to kill me for inscrutable reasons or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and, and there's nothing even stopping them now that I don't have someone - invested in my usefulness like Watto, especially if the Jedi don't take me, and...I don't want to hurt people!  You have to all be fighters!  And I think I have to learn and I have to do it well but..."  She doesn't even know what to say.  "...at least he didn't die slowly...at least it was quick.  Small mercies...I'll take them."

"...I don't...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have...you didn't need to hear that.  I could've talked to the medic.  Has confidentiality, apparently.  But uh.  I'm not all back together, yet.  Um.  There something you wanted?"

For a brief moment, Obi-Wan remembers the first time his own life was at stake, the first time he'd ever had thoughts like the ones Kina was having now. Only he wasn't having them, it wasn't these thoughts because it was careful, it was prepared for, it was safe enough to barely count as a risk. At a certain point in the Jedi training, a year or two after he had entered his apprenticeship to Qui-Gon, they had gone on a trip through Coruscant, carefully close enough to the Jedi Temple that Obi-Wan wouldn't be too uncomfortable. They had tracked down a common criminal that had been shooting people in an alley, and Obi-Wan had ignited his lightsaber and weaved around the poorly aimed blasts that had come his way. Qui-Gon had supported him in the fight, but it was Obi-Wan who grabbed him and knocked him out. Afterwards, Obi-Wan had felt a little of what Kina was feeling, but most of it was just the pride of knowing yes, he could handle this, that wasn't even one of the tougher things he had gone through. And then, over time, he had been exposed to more and more danger, but gradually, in that sanitized Jedi form that kept you off of the dark path of fear. And Kina... she wasn't much more than half the age he had been, and right away she had been hit by what was even for him one of the more deadly experiences. What did that have to be like? Being hit by the realization it might just end right now, being forced to weigh her values against each other to the point that she was already hoping her enemies would have quick deaths?

He manages to stutter out a reply, something about being sorry and that the Queen was wondering about the children. Honestly, he isn't even listening to himself at this point.

...And now Kina is hugging Obi-Wan.  "It's...Tatooine was already a rough place.  It's.  This is more than I was, expecting.  But...I've had to get used to the concept of protecting people by hurting people.  And being hurt for people.  And...this is, that, like...mom can probably tell you she's proud but I don't wanna because it sucked in the moment...just...bigger.  With different stakes, but it's still sabaac.  I know the rules.  I'm just...off-balance, because, flying high from the Classic, then this, then all of that's got a mysterious prophecy too...yeah.  I'm a kid.  I get to have my emotions go on swoop rides."  She gives him a watery grin.  "I'm...I'm gonna go get a hug from my mom; you don't worry like I'm dying, 'cause I promise you, I'm not.  Alright?  And you talk to someone too!  Dunno what the Queen wanted but I'm sure she'll find me if she needs me urgently.  Or I'll find her."  And if Obi-Wan agrees to go talk to somebody about his near-death experience, and it's not her, off she goes, to find her mom and get a hug.

Obi-Wan hugs her back and then lets her leave, still lost in his thoughts. Maybe he does need to talk to Qui-Gon, once he recovers. But by now, there wasn't much to say on the topic of approaching death that hadn't been said countless times before.

And he knew that sooner or later, Kina would be back in this place herself.

At least she's safe from it here, for the moment.

Kina spends most of the trip to Coruscant drinking in an unfiltered holonet connection like a sponge, in between bouts of tinkering with whatever's at hand (she needs something to defend herself with literally yesterday; she'll settle for 'now'), doing her part to help keep the rescued kids comfy, and getting an overview of what the Jedi Order's like for a kid from Obi-Wan.  However, a few days before their arrival, she goes looking for Padmé, if Padmé hasn't found her first.

Kina finds Padmé walking through the halls, back to a simple handmaiden's set of clothes. "Kina! I haven't seen you in a couple days, is everything all right?"

"I think it's...as alright as it can be, considering recent events, but you're nice so I'd hardly say no to a hug.  And maybe shooting lessons?  I...don't think I can solve all my problems with a thrown wrench."

"Shooting? Kina, you're still - " She remembers all the times people have said those same words about her being queen, and she can't tell her she's just a kid, she knows that only encourages people to keep going... but still, "Kina, I know you helped out Obi-Wan, and believe me, we're all very grateful, but... you don't have to become a fighter!"

For the first time, she can really sympathize with her parents, and political opponents, and everyone else who had... was this what had been going through their heads then?

"...Miss Padmé, if you can convince me that I'm not going to get tied up in this mess and everything that comes after just by sheer proximity and unprecedentedness - did Qui-Gon tell you I broke his midi-chloran counter? - then I'll drop the subject.  But if I have to expect - more surprise assassins with lightsabers, because I'd put money I don't even have on there being more where the Zabrak whose name we don't know came from, with an agenda and eyes - then I do have to be able to defend myself.  So...would you like to help me learn?"

"I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to defend yourself! It's just..." It's hard to put into words what it is! "I guess I just don't want you to get so involved in these battles! It's... I've taken on a lot of - " oh crap she can't say the truth make something up "danger to myself because I'm always around the Queen, and it's... it's not something I want you to have to deal with! Kina, do you realize what you're getting into with the Jedi?"

"Padmé, I...If I don't get into things with the Jedi, then I'm still going to get into something all on my own, and then I won't even have...well, the Jedi.  They're pretty good at their thing.  I...I can't just say 'I've saved myself, good job, I'm done'.  I could, I mean, nothing's stopping me from saying those words, but...I can't mean them.  You don't want me to be in danger and, I respect that, I don't really want to be in danger either, I plan to do my best to avoid it, but Hutt Space continues to exist.  That's not just going to stop happening.  And...if I sat by and let it, I'd be killing the force for good I could otherwise become in bits and pieces, and that's a danger too."

She blinks at Padme's flicker of anxiety and momentary stutter, but doesn't press on it.

It's agonizing, and the worst part is that she's right. "Then at least promise me to be as careful as you can," she says. "And Kina, believe me, even if you are determined to do this, we will always be here to protect you, me and Qui-Gon and your mom and Captain Panaka and the droids and... Jar Jar, even. If you ever are worried, about anything, you can always turn to us."

Kina gives Padmé a fervently-meant hug.  "I promise, I will, m-Padmé.  I'll be careful as I can and I'll get help from, my friends, the people who care.  Like you and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and mom and Artoo and Threepio.  And even Jar-Jar," she giggles.  "He really does mean well."

"Ooooo... yousa right, my meant well?" offers Jar Jar, from the ground. One of his ears is caught in a rolling oil bath that has splattered on Kina and Padmé, as well as knocking over its occupant, a now very annoyed R2-D2.

"...You do, Jar-Jar, you do.  That doesn't really quite mean you can wave it around to make messes go away though, so let's clean this up, huh?" (She sounds so much like her mom, when she talks like this.  It's almost eerie.)  "Get the bath, would you?"  ...She hasn't tried moving liquids before, but she knows oil, she's worked with it for years...so, maybe...?

Padmé helps clean up the spill, although mostly, she's just watching Kina trying to pick up droplets of oil with her mind.

Some time passes.  The oil actually does get moved.

"...so, what happens when you get to Coruscant, then?  What do, the Naboo, plan on doing?"

"Well, the first step is contacting Senator Palpatine, he's our representative and has a lot of influence in the Senate. If we can get the invasion recognized as against the laws of the Republic - which it in fact is - the Trade Federation won't be able to continue. What I'm worried about isn't that they'll be able to continue it forever, it's how long it'll take until it does end. Quite a few of the Senators have connections to the Trade Federation, and the Chancellor really doesn't have much power to override them if they start a filibuster. They're trying to hold the lives of our people for ransom, and I'm worried the Queen might have to surrender to protect them."

"If we can't force the bill through in time, I don't know what we'll have to do. Naboo only has a small police force, not anything that can stand up against the battle droids. And the Jedi have already expressed that they can't fight for us in any capacity other than protecting the Queen."

"...You have to pass a bill to enforce laws?  That's!  Really weird!  Who came up with that?  ...We do have an actual Sith's corpse right here on the ship...can Artoo make a holo of the fight? And then...well, we have the lightsaber, we have the corpse, we can make it a question of 'do you want to be next?'  Get the squabbling Hutts united against an external enemy.

"...And what if we hack the droids?  Do you know if the specs are anywhere?  I'm good with machines!"

"In theory, the laws are automatically enforced. In theory, the Republic should have already gathered an army and sent a rescue mission. In practice, not so much. I'm not sure how much the Sith will scare them, though... I didn't know what a Sith was myself until Qui-Gon told me, and besides, he can't look very menacing if he's cut apart." Although the Senate wasn't the only powerful group on Coruscant... "Actually, though, if we can prove a connection between the Sith and the Trade Federation, we can probably get it classified as Jedi jurisdiction, and send some of them to Naboo. I'm not sure whether that's worth trying or if it'll make it last even longer while the Chancellor assembles some subcommittee of historians."

Hack the droids? They were run from a Trade Federation battleship, one of the most advanced droid networks in the galaxy! Kina couldn't actually... then again, she might have said the same thing about winning Podraces and such early skill in the Force.

"...I certainly don't see how the Sith can't be related to this, because the timing and placement is just...too suspicious, even without any of the other data.  He was looking for you.  He wasn't after the Jedi, in their position as Jedi, because he ignored me, the most powerful Force-sensitive in the room.  He was trying to make sure the Naboo delegation would not reach the Senate."

The Trade Federation is Watto writ large, and Watto is a cheapskate.  So Kina's money is on them being the shittiest quality work they can get away with.

"Agreed, but just because something's blindingly obvious doesn't make the Senate accept it," Padmé says, bitterly. "I'm not sure how much evidence was on him. Let's get cleaned up, and then we can look it over."

"Yeah."  Kina's got a somber look on her face as she thinks about that.  "We should do that.  Is Qui-Gon...moving around, yet?"

"Yeah, he's still a bit fragile but he says he's feeling fine."

"He should probably come too; he knows more about the Sith than either of us."

Padme nods, and she sets off for her quarters to take a bath and get a change of clothes. They meet back up a little later and find Qui-Gon already waiting with the body.

"Kina, Padmé, it's good to see you," says Qui-Gon, privately wondering why that one handmaiden seems to turn up everywhere. "The body wasn't recognized, but I've looked over everything the Sith was carrying." He gestures to a collection of objects on the table, including the ominously large lightsaber. "The message history on his communicator was almost entirely encrypted, but R2-D2 managed to map out the general locations of everything he's recently sent and received. Several to Naboo - where the only functioning signal is controlled by the Federation - as well as another few to Coruscant. He might have been contacting Senator Dod, but it's also possible he has other contacts there. R2 did notice that his robes match a Coruscant style, so he's likely been there before. How the Jedi didn't detect him, I don't know."

"That's still proof he's been contacting the Trade Federation!" says Padmé. "Even if we can't fully prove a conspiracy, it's sufficient grounds to authorize a Jedi investigation on Naboo."

"When did he send those messages, relative to events on Naboo?  Can we track the path his messages took to get where they ended up or started from and figure out who his co-conspirators are, since we know the source of the messages and the contents?  Can we dial his most recent contact and see who that is?  And can someone tell me what happened on Naboo?  It feels really weird for a bunch of Wattos to suddenly become Sebulba; are we sure that the Trade Federation was in charge?"

"There's no history on the device since a few days before we landed on Naboo," Qui-Gon replies, "but that doesn't mean he wasn't already in communications with them. I really don't know what inspired the Federation to do this, although I suspect this isn't the only Sith we'll have to deal with. The Order should be able to prove a connection once we make it to Naboo, possibly by reverse-engineering the signal. But as of yet, I don't think we have enough to authorize open combat, although we can escort the Queen back into her palace if necessary."

"If we time it right, we might be able to take Nute Gunray into custody. Do you think we could arrange for a group of Jedi to neutralize their central forces as a part of protecting the Queen?"

"I'm not sure. If we can convince the Jedi Council to help, we can probably pull enough strings to support a resistance, but I highly doubt the Order will get the authority to actually force the Federation to leave on our own."

"...Can't really help with the politics.  If you can prove he was getting calls on Naboo before the Federation invaded...he was scouting.  I'll work with Artoo and Threepio to see if we can crack the communicator somehow, for the next few days.  That should give us something useful, whatever it is.  And we really should set up a tracker or something, in case someone calls him.  ...I wonder...Lightsaber crystals are all...Yours is different from Obi-Wan's is different from his.  Do you think we could figure out where his crystals came from?  That would mean we'd have some idea of when and where this was made, though it feels...risky.  To try and poke it.  And I think we'd have to do something Forcey to narrow it down first.  But...I don't think we should rule it out."

"The communicator's certainly worth another try; the Trade Federation will say regardless that there's no proof the calls were about conspiracy, even if you do break into it, but it could be the key to swaying the Senate. I believe the tradition of the Sith was to forge their crystals synthetically, rather than finding them through the Force as a Jedi does. But you can take a look at the saber if you want." Qui-Gon hands it over. "I hope I don't have to tell you how much caution is necessary handling one of these."

"A lot, and then some more on top.  And then a little bit extra because this one might be evil!"

Well, Kina knows what she's doing for the remaining days of travel  - when she's not poring over communicator hardware and software and protocol with the droids, she's taking apart the lightsaber (very, very carefully) to see if any of the parts have serial numbers, and seeing if she can look into the history of things that aren't as likely to bite her face off as a Sith lightsaber.

If she can...then on the very last day they're in hyperspace, Kina Skywalker rounds up the two Jedi on this ship.

Obi-Wan is not exactly happy to see the pieces of that lightsaber again, but he recognizes that it's probably important. "What did you find?"

"It's not exactly what I've found - though there are a couple parts whose serial numbers we can trace, and there's also only so many capable forges - as much as what I hope you can help me find.  I've been...trying to look back into the past, like I can get impressions of the future, or know things in the present - and I've had some success in it just by myself...but if I'm going to use that technique on a Sith's lightsaber, to, see back to how it was made, to see who influenced its construction...I think I'd better have all the support I can.  I have...a good idea of how to do it, I think, but...this feels like it could be dangerous.  I...understand if you don't want to.  I just think we need something, something that we haven't gotten yet, because Artoo's still trying to crack that communicator even though we have made it go a million times faster, and this is a thing I think I can some."

"You want to do what?" asks Qui-Gon. Looking into the past... he wasn't sure if Yoda could do that reliably, much less Kina, even if she was the Chosen One. "If that works, it would be very helpful, but the Sith are fueled by pain and suffering. It most definitely would be dangerous."

"Yeah.  It could.  It will.  But...I think we need to take that risk.  ...can you help?  Please?"  She's...for just a moment, the child that she is, desperate for approval, desperate to help, sneaks out from beneath her mask.  "It's...I don't think I can do it alone...but we're stronger together.  Please, Qui-gon?"

"I... yes, I think we can help you get through this. Obi-Wan and I will be there with you, through the Force. Hopefully we can share a part of the burden."

"I would like to register that this is a VERY BAD IDEA and will go HORRIBLY WRONG," says Obi-Wan.

"Thank you.  The both of you.  You're not wrong about it being horrible, Obi-Wan, but so has everything else - erm, been.  Sometimes your only choice of suck is what flavor you get."  She sticks her head out the door of the room, and a brief exchange with C3PO nets them at least one droid observer - perhaps even two, if R2-D2 isn't busy at the moment.  "...alright.  Let's do this."

"I suspect an important part of the process will be to reassemble it now, and pay attention to the way it was first assembled," says Qui-Gon. "Do you have a clear image of how the saber fits together?"

Kina dims the room lights, and spreads the parts out before her as she sits on the floor, patting two spots to make a triangle of Force-Sensitives with the saber in the center.

"Yes.  I took it apart."

Then...she reaches out, tentatively, to Qui-Gon, to Obi-Wan, to anyone who will help, her presence ever so deft, ever so keen, but thready, flimsy, tentative...yet in that smallness able to weave together and entwine herself with the strength of her bonds.  Bolstered by the strength of those connections - by Qui-Gon Jinn's surety and faith in the Force, by Obi-Wan's determination - she reaches back, to when these parts before her had only ever been just that, to when this saber was a glint in its maker's eye...and the kyber crystals, glowing a bloody red, resonate.

There's a boy, not much older than Kina. He's doing exercises, running up against the wall, then taking a few vertical steps and leaping off the side with a spin. He lands, slamming into the hard ground with his bare feet, and immediately runs forward again.

After a few repetitions, the boy trips on the edge, and as he tries frantically to steady himself, he lands flat on the ground. There's an agonizing snap from his back, and as he frantically tries to move his limbs, they burst into searing pain, and he falls back to the ground, his head pounding.

"GET UP."

The boy turns his head despite the pain, to see a man standing over him, wearing a black cloak and exuding an energy fueled by pure hatred. "GET UP." The boy stutters out a plea, tears beginning to leave his eyes, and then he feels himself being thrown through the air, his limbs snapping back into place with another series of burns -

Several years later, Maul is practicing the exercise again, by now drilled down to a simple repetition, but it's been days since he slept and he's exhausted and he knows he's making more and more mistakes and he can't let himself make the mistake or he'll be angry but he can't stop because he's being watched but he can't - Maul makes one too many mistakes. This time he lands on his foot in just the wrong way, his ankle snapping beneath him, and no matter how painful it is, he's almost thankful for the chance to fall to the ground and have a brief break -

He sees the presence striding towards him. No! Wincing at the prospect of the all too familiar pain, Maul reaches for the Force towards his foot, hoping to at the very least be able to adjust it himself, be able to decide his own pain, but the Force slips from his grasp - it snaps into place anyway, under the harsher strength of his master. "ENOUGH. GO TO BED."

Maul is at the verge of crying, but he manages to swallow and force it down, and he gratefully scampers off to his room, ready for a final chance to sleep -

When he opens the door, there's a droid waiting for him, and a blast of fiery energy slams into his arm, carefully aimed not to cause permanent physical damage but to instead force as much pain and shock as possible -

By now, Maul is nearly an adult, and he's put a lightsaber together, meticulously connecting each part with his bare hands, ready to present it to his master in the hope that he'll have a slight chance of earning some respect. But it's not right, and a burst of white light flares from it at the wrong angle, crackling and hissing before it disappears altogether, and the blade pierces his leg and he screams and he wishes it would end but no his master is there and he has to hide the pain before he sees -

"I think your mistake is simple enough," snarls his master, a laugh behind his voice. Maul feels a surge of hatred towards him, and immediately pushes it away -

"No!" his master hisses with contempt. "You act like a Jedi. Pain, hatred, they are not something to be hidden away, something to be pushed down and kept outside of your world. Don't ignore your emotions! USE your pain!"

And a switch is thrown back within Maul's mind, and a mighty blast of fury pours from him, and as he roars in anger, the pieces of the blade fly apart and then shoot back together, reforming in the perfect arrangement, surrounding two crystals that have changed to a bloody scarlet. The blade ignites in Maul's hand, and with a brutal swing he attacks his master -

- and Kina knows pain, knows suffering, but this is wrong, this is not its purpose, - "Mom?  Why does my foot go ouch when I drop a wrench on it?"  "Because, little Kina, your feet aren't supposed to have wrenches dropped on them.  Pain's how your body tells you you pushed it too far.  And sometimes you have to, but you have to take care of yourself when you do, as best you can.  And if you do something that you know is going to hurt to do...Make sure it's for a very good reason." - Kina is seven, and being lashed for a theft someone else did; it was worth it, she saved a life - she's saving lives now, if she sees more, if she knows, if she hears his master's name, sees his master's face, there's still two crystals -

Qui-Gon's trying to hold back the pain, to take on as much as he can for her, but it's overwhelming even him, and the vision starts to flicker away.

He glances over at Kina, and he sees that the parts of the saber are starting to rise up, almost like in the vision, but it's different, and at the center of it all sits the crystals, and -

- they're starting to shine gold as the core of a saber forms, but Kina hasn't finished, two are still red - she can endure the pain, she was a slave on Tatooine, she can endure the suffering, you just need to brace her, make her well when it's all over, Qui-Gon, that's why you're here, support -

Now Maul sits in his room, where his master holds a hologram of a much longer lightsaber, from which two blades are emerging. He drops two clear kyber crystals into Maul's hands, and strides out of the room. Maul takes out his original blade, along with a collection of other parts, and begins to disassemble it with his mind, while his hands clench over the crystals. Maul looks into his mind, touching that one place that holds his anger, drawing from its power just as much as from the Force. He reaches for his pain, and when he opens his hands, the crystals have reached the same bloodred state as the others.

And it's over. Letting out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, Qui-Gon looks back to Kina, who now holds the reassembled blade.

"...He was just...so broken, by the time he made that second blade...I don't know if I should turn it on or not.  And...we do have to try and figure out who his master was.  Is.  Could be."

"I don't feel much of the darkness that was there before," he says. "I think you've made the crystals yours."

"How about we take a break first," suggests Obi-Wan.

Kina wobbles to her feet, handling the lightsaber like it could spit hot fiery death in either direction at any moment and thus not pointing it at anything she wants to keep intact.  "Not a bad idea.  I don't really know what to look for, anyway.  Do you do investigations?"

"We don't have a lot to go on," says Qui-Gon, "but I got a glimpse of a window and there was quite a bit of lava present; it fit the environment of Mustafar. A full planet doesn't narrow it down very far, but his master's likely somewhere around there."

"It's definitely probably worth checking the place for hidden Sith bases or what have you."

The hidden Sith base isn't on Mustafar, of course. It's on Coruscant, and it's a simple apartment, holding only a few unremarkable people, and of course Palpatine, the innocuous Senator from Naboo.

At the time, Palpatine hasn't realized much that anything is wrong. He felt a small twinge when Maul died, but he didn't feel any specific details; as best as he can tell, the Queen should be arriving on Coruscant soon, with the Jedi eliminated, and it will be time to continue his plan. And so he's waiting, standing in the open area outside the Senate dome, ready to greet them when they land. It's only when they start to enter the orbit that he feels the presence of the Jedi - and of something else.

When the ship comes to a stop, Palpatine walks forward, tentatively, a smile on his face to mask his uneasiness. He sees the Queen, accompanied by a few handmaidens and soldiers, and some droids, and yes, there they are, the Jedi. Then they did defeat Maul. He's disappointed; he had thought Maul was strong enough to resist them, but -

Wait, who's that kid?

The kid with the Force swirling around her with more power than he's ever seen, a beacon that seems to reach out to him stronger than the Temple itself.

The kid with Maul's lightsaber hanging at her side.

There are many people who might be disturbed, to find their apprentice dead, to find their most powerful relic hanging from an eerily dangerous child, to find that their plans are going to have to change in the next few seconds. Palpatine, however, isn't feeling worried at all.

He's thinking, How can I use this?