Chapter 10: Watto

*Buzz~!* As soon as we entered the small shop, the sound of wings buzzing attracted our attention. The Toydarian man was flapping his wings rapidly and hovering in the room, blowing dust and sand around while making a lot of noise. Fortunately he only did it for a few seconds before landing his fat ass on a stool behind the counter, “Weclome, welcome! I heard you were looking for my place specifically!”

“Your news channels are impressive then.” I snickered and walked into the building pulling the green suitcase that hovered above the ground behind me. The other case full of heavy coins was on Izsha’s back, but that little bit of weight was nothing to her, especially after eating so much earlier.

“Maoou~!” Midnight complained as he blinked his pretty yellow eyes and looked around at the shiny ‘junk’ decorated everywhere around the room. It was called junk, but realistically, there were all kinds of stolen and scavenged goods that worked perfectly well. Everything from starship engine parts to blasters and droid pieces. Then the cute kitty put his head back down and fell asleep on the Peggat case he was ‘guarding’.

“Hah~! News channels?” He laughed and told me, “That schutta Amcala taunted me and told me about some rich pretty-boy tourist who was looking for me! So tell me, ‘Amon Kal’? Is that name even real, or did you just make it up on the spot after she introduced herself?”

“I honestly didn’t even think about it until now, but it is kinda wild how similar our names are.” I snorted and laughed a bit, but then shook my head, “Anyway, I don’t really give a damn about you. But you won a pair of slaves in a bet three years ago. I’m here for them.”

“And why would you care about two random human slaves?” He asked while looking back and forth between me and Izsha. His right hand was already on the blaster pistol holstered on the left side of his yellow belly via a thin belt.

I pointed to my face and told him seriously, “Isn’t it obvious? I’m Anakin’s father.”

Watto scowled and glared at me with his big golden eyes. His trunk scrunched up as he scanned my face for a minute or so, “I won those two fair and square in a bet with Gardulla the Hutt! I don’t care if you’re his father, brother, sister or other mother, he’s my property now and has nothing to do with you anymore!”

“How much for both of them?” I put the suitcase down with a loud thump and then pushed Middy off the side of the money case, opening it up to reveal nearly a thousand Peggats. I barely spent anything thus far.

“I-I umm…” Watto was practically drooling when he saw the shiny golden coins, struggling to regain his composure, he closed his eyes and looked away painfully. Breathing deeply, he sighed out and focused on me again, “I’ve grown quite fond of the boy… I’d be willing to part with the mother for…” He looked at the number and I could tell he was counting them quickly, “Only nine-hundred and ninety-three Peggats. But the boy is worth far more than a normal slave! So you’ll have to make a better offer than that!”

“Master, can I infest him now?” She asked as she floated over to the counter and rested on it, glaring down at the greedy Toydarian.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have any research on Toydarians. Our parasites aren’t omnipotent.” I responded to her telepathically while walking over to the counter and narrowing my eyes at the surprisingly courageous bastard.

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“I don’t like the way you’re looking at me, Boy.” He glared back at me and held his hand on his blaster hilt, “You might have that fancy armor covering your body, but I can put a blaster bolt through your head before you can blink!”

“No. You can’t.” I smirked as he struggled to pull out his blaster and started panicking, “You-when did you?!” He felt the sticky purple Creep cover his hand and weapon, grimacing.

“I used the sticky side of the Force.” I turned my right palm upwards above the counter and the violet ooze floated up out of my flesh, swirling around in the form of a pulsating ball of meat.

“You’re a Jedi?! Impossible!” He shouted anxiously and fluttered his wings, but quickly got stuck in a web that covered the whole wall behind his back! He looked around anxiously and was visibly sweating, “Wait-wait-wait! You want the slaves, right?! You can have them! Only… Only nine-hundred Peggats!”

“I’m surprised. I expected you to mention Gardulla.” I snickered and the purple orb writhed above my palm, unraveling into a pretty black centipede with glowing purple eyes. I stretched out my hand and it reached out, only a few inches from his little elephant-like trunk.

“You’re no Jedi! I know what you are!” As he said that, the centipede clawed its way inside his nostril and his eyes rolled back, “Aaaaaaah~! Stop! Please! Wait! Aaaagh~!”

“Interesting.” I could feel his immune system fighting off the parasite pretty effectively. At the very least, it couldn’t take over his brain and manipulate him like a puppet. It was also having trouble surviving inside his body… But it also sampled his Essence. It tasted his blood, his brains, his everything. It was researching him from the inside out. Sending countless smaller parasites throughout his body to try to figure out how he worked. How Toydarians worked.

“We can-we can make a deal!” He thought he still had leverage, “Anakin! He has a bomb in his body! If I die, he dies! Both of them do! Both of them will die!”

“I know.” I looked up at the blue and yellow ‘man’ in the purple web, “But it’s pretty easy to find and remove a couple bombs. On the other hand, how easy is it to remove a deadly parasite that’s attached to your brain? Hmmm, it’s almost like you’re the one with the bomb enslaving you to my will now, huh? Kinda funny, isn’t it?”

“Yes! Hahaha! Yes… Master! It’s very funny!” Watto was crying on the surface, probably thinking about ways to get out of this internally. He was actually pretty smart and brave, but everyone has their breaking point and weaknesses. To be completely honest though, I didn’t give a fuck.

“Where are Anakin and Shmi?” I looked around the shop with my eyes, even the junkyard beyond that with the Force, but neither of them were in the area. Probably at home. But I didn’t know where exactly.

“They’re in the Slave Quarters! They-they have the day off, I’m not a cruel Master…” He wasn’t totally lying, he was a relatively kind Master compared to most. Hell, a lot of people treat their employees worse. There were countless people in the Republic who worked for ‘slave wages’ and lived in even worse poverty and squalor than the Skywalkers. They basically have their own house and belongings, which is wild. But that’s actually not that strange for the slaves on Tatooine.

It’s kinda ironic, but while people kill each other all the time here, they generally don’t dare to kill someone else’s slaves.

“I need a map. I’m new to Tatooine, remember?” I rolled my eyes and told Izsha, “Deal with the evidence.”

“Wait!” He was terrified as the relatively giant Zerg Drone got closer to his face. But then she just spat out a bunch of saliva all over his body. Within a few seconds, he was all lubed up and could wiggle free of the spider web. Then she started devouring it and converting everything into biomass. Best not to leave any overt evidence of Zerg infestation just yet… Even though there’s so much weird and crazy shit in the Galaxy that I doubt anyone would care until it’s too late anyway.

“Here! Here’s your damn map!” The Toydarian handed me a holoemitter that projected the whole planet, then quickly focused on Mos Espa, finally zoomed in on the Slave Quarters nearest to us where Anakin and his mother lived.

“Thanks. You’ve been really helpful.” I snickered and took a few Peggats out of the box, tossing them into the bastard’s shaky hands, “Now what do you say?”

“Thank-thank you, Master!” He grimaced and clenched the coins in his hands tightly, buzzing his wings and flying out the back of the store.

“Master, are we really going to capture the Chosen One?” Izsha was reasonably worried. Not about the Jedi or the Sith, obviously they had no idea that Anakin even existed yet. Even if they did, he wouldn’t be much of a threat or asset at this time. No, there were other beings that were far more powerful and a lot more dangerous.

“There are timelines where he dies or doesn’t exist.” Is what I said, but honestly, I was just as worried about what might happen if I actually went through with this shit.

Not to mention destroying Canon, I could piss off the Force itself. Fortunately, we’re like three years from the start of the ‘plot’, so I have time. For now though, it’s time to meet the Chosen One.