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Dooku had enough local currency to buy the part needed for her ship or the two slaves, but he was also more of a mind to force the issue with Watto than Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon didn't want to leave any sore feeling behind, Dooku couldn't care less. Fay was more of Qui-Gon's mind, but also knew that thanks to their own mission they needed to leave Tatooine quickly. It was thus decided that Dooku would return with Qui-Gon to the shop early the next morning and purchase the engine, Shmi and Anakin, or bully the Toydarian into letting them go.
"We might have trouble with the Toydarian, he seemed rather attached to Anakin." Qui-Gon warned.
Anakin scoffed shaking his head. "Watto doesn't like to do his own dirty work, but if you have that much of the local currency, he'll be able to hire three or four people to replace me. He won't make much trouble."
Even so Anakin looked a little irritated, and Qui-Gon nodded his head that the boy. "You feel irritation, being freed not through your own hands but through money. It takes away from the impact, does it not?"
"Sort of," Anakin said, showing no surprise that the Jedi Master had been able to read him like that. "It's just, if I'm bought like that are I still sort of a slave?"
"No!" Qui-Gon said, shaking his head as Master Dooku leaned back, letting Qui-Gon handle this while Fay stood up looking over at Lily and moving toward the door to speak to her for a moment. "The Jedi do not keep slaves, and you will not be a slave any longer. You will be free, and we will even remove that device in your neck as quickly as possible."
Harry looked up from where he had been staring into Aayla's eyes, hugging her gently around the waist as they both turned to look at the table where the discussion was going on. "Master Fay can handle that. Her powers of healing and telekinesis are incredible."
"It feels surreal, sitting here and talking about our freedom like this as if it was a certainty," Shmi said, shaking her head, one hand rising to touch her neck where the bomb was emplaced. "Will we really be free?"
"Yes," Qui-Gon said with a nod.
Master Dooku nodded too. "I will be finding work for several dozen slaves already, honest paid work for on my estates, I can do the same with you madam. While your boy will be tested, and possibly inducted into the Order."
Qui-Gon almost jerked at the word 'possibly', but controlled himself as he looked at his Master. "You have doubts?"
"His age is somewhat against him," Dooku said delicately. "While not any longer a huge concern, it might be a factor coupled with his years as a slave."
Harry looked up from where he was leaning against the wall once again staring into Aayla's eyes until that phrase percolated through their own telepathic discussion. "It didn't matter with me."
"True," Dooku said, though he did not add aloud, but you are rather special case, and you know it Harry.
"Still, I would like to look at your Midi-Chlorian Count if you don't mind," Qui-Gon said, holding out a small device towards Anakin's arm, which he willingly stuck out swiftly. The machine took a small skin sample, and Qui-Gon moved toward the door, radioing back to Obi-Wan to check his results, only to get pulled into a discussion with his padawan about what was going on and who he had met.
Soon after that Anakin pulled a willing Padme into his lab and Fay, Lily and Shmi moved to stare out into the night form one of the windows as they talked, with Fay relaying what the Force Ghost was saying. It was a very odd experience for Shmi, but she and Lily were quickly able to bond over their son's and being single mothers. For his part Dooku pulled out a datapad and began to write up a report for the High Council about today's events.
Harry and Aayla walked outside, moving to sit down leaning against the house's outer wall just out of hearing range of the ladies' conversation. They had their own conversation, which they were about to return to when Qui-Gon, who had also come outside, his eyes widening in pleasure at something on his communicator. "I knew it… the boy is a vergence…"
"What's a vergence?" Harry asked, as Aayla frowned, not able to place the term.
Qui-Gon turned to the young padawans, eager to share his discovery. "A vergence, a being created by the Force itself… Shmi said she had not laid with anyone at the time or for months before. The Force itself used her womb to create life, powerful life. He is the chosen one destined to restore balance to the Force."
Aayla barely held back a snicker at Qui-Gon's expense at the way he said 'laid with anyone'. He made it sound so clinical yet so dirty it amused her greatly.
Feeling some of the other thoughts that went through her mind at that Harry felt his face flush, but kept his attention on Qui-Gon. "That sounds like you are quoting some kind of prophecy Master Jinn. I have to say from my… discussions with Master Fay and others that such things are always open to interpretation." Harry always remembered the prophecy that had been supposedly about him that doomed his family, and disdained such things now. That got in his way when using the Force to perceive the future or events happening away from himself, but he wasn't able to change it.
"That is your interpretation padawan, and I know others who would share it. But we masters can feel it, the Dark Side is gaining power and despite the new techniques travelling through the Order the progression is getting ever stronger. Visions of the future have been clouded for years, and now we are almost totally blind to what the future holds for the galaxy at large. The Chosen One will restore that balance."
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