Chapter 21

Renn and the others where now gathered in Anakin's house and were sitting around his dinner table.

"Qui-Gon says I can go with him and become a jedi" Anakin said excitedly.

"That's great Ani, I'm so proud of you." His mother said moving over to give him a hug. She knew how much he had wanted to be a jedi so she was happy that he could make his dream happen, even if she was a little unset that they would end up being separated.

"Will you be okay if I leave?" Anakin asked his mother, Renn had helped Qui-Gon free both him and his mother from slavery, but he was worried about her on her own.

"I'll be fine, don't worry Ani." His mum tried to reassure him.

"Maybe Padme could ask the queen to help Shmi get a job working on Naboo. After all Anakin has helped you out quite a bit, so providing his mum with a safe place to live and work would be a nice thank you too for him. Wouldn't it?" Renn said looking at Padme.

"Yes, I'll ask the queen but that shouldn't be a problem, the people of Naboo owe you a great debt after all. If all goes well with convincing the republic to help us, we will return to Tatooine to help you resettle on Naboo when the problems facing the planet are solved." Padme answered smiling at Anakin and his mother.

Anakin started thanking Padme repeatedly and rushed over to hug her before blushing in embarrassment and quickly retreating.

Qui-Gon cleared his throat "well now that is sorted out maybe we should make preparations to leave for Coruscant. The queen's ship has been repaired so we should probably leave as soon as possible."

Padme agreed and Anakin left for his room to back his bag as he would be leaving with them to travel to the jedi temple on Coruscant.

"We have our own ship, so we'll meet you there." Renn said gesturing at himself, Opal, and Alpha. He wanted to go to Coruscant to make sure Anakin was okay joining the Jedi and Opal also wanted them to go as she had quickly become friends with Padme and wanted to see what would happen with them asking the republic for help. Plus, she wanted to see if she was right about Padme being the queen in disguise.

With everyone ready to go they all said their farewells to Shmi and waited for Anakin to have a tearful goodbye with his mother. Renn, Opal, and Alpha then separated from Anakin and the others as their ship was in one of the city's hangar bays while the queen's ship was on the outskirts of the desert.

-

They were walking towards the hangar bay where the Speedy Vagabond was docked when Renn started to get a bad premonition.

He couldn't explain what was wrong, it was similar to when he had been able to sense Opal on the pirate ship but wasn't as strong as back then. He looked over at Opal and saw her face was scrunched up as though she was trying to concentrate on something.

"Can you feel something through the force too?" Renn asked her and she looked at him and nodded absentmindedly.

"Yeah. I don't know, it feels like we should go that way." Opal said pointing towards a small ally to the side of the main street they were walking down. Renn nodded as he had the same feeling.

"Let's go see what's going on." Renn said and started walking towards the ally with Opal following him. Alpha was a bit confused as to what they were doing but quickly hurried after them to make sure they were okay.

They travelled further into the maze of Mos Espa's back alleys. The further in they went the stronger the sense they were getting from the force became. Soon a sense of urgency filled both Renn and Opal and they both took off running towards the source of the feeling, causing a surprised and worried Alpha to start sprinting to try and catch up to them.

Renn was in the lead and raced past a corner to find himself in a quite and poorly lit courtyard surrounded on all sides by disused buildings. He stopped to gaze at the people filling the courtyard in surprise for a moment before trying to think of what to do.

In the centre of the courtyard was a Weequay in fancy looking clothes that probably cost more than what most inhabitants of Mos Espa spent on their houses. Fancy clothes was flanked by four Gamorrean bodyguards all wielding battle-axes and looking menacing.

Two other Gamorreans were advancing towards the corner of the courtyard where a small figure was cowering in fear. Renn noticed that the small figure was a young blue skinned Twi'lek girl who looked over at him and seemed to plead for help as her big green eyes locked onto him.

Between the Twi'lek girl and the advancing Gamorreans was a small, robed figure in a combat stance and holding a vibro-knife. The figure had its back to the Twi'lek girl and seemed to be trying to protect her from the Gamorreans.

After Renn had skidded to a stop in the courtyard fancy cloths and his Gamorrean bodyguards had turned to stare at him in surprise before fancy clothes pointed at him and yelled, "kill him!"

Two of the Gamorreans hobbled towards Renn just as Opal turned the corner behind him and immediately took a step back. Opal had learned a lot training with Renn over the past year and one of the main things she learnt was she wasn't going to be much help in a fight against six armed Gamorreans.

The hooded figure protecting the Twi'lek girl suddenly lunged at one of the Gamorreans that had been advancing towards them. The Gamorreans had been distracted by Renn and Opals entrance, so the one the figure lunged towards didn't notice the impending danger until it was too late, and a vibro-knife was ripping through his thigh.

The Gamorrean screeched in pain and collapsed backwards but before the cloaked figure could do anything else the other Gamorrean reacted and delivered a heavy swing of his battle-axe into the figures side sending them crashing into the wall of the courtyard. The Twi'lek girl cried out in horror and crawled over to the collapsed figure to check on them.

Renn seeing the figure go down stopped hesitating and charged forwards. He sent a force push into the two Gamorreans advancing towards him causing them to stumble back and jumped past them and into the air.

Using the force Renn pulled the axe that belonged to the Gamorrean that the figure had stabbed towards himself. Still in the air from his jump, and now armed, Renn spun trying to put his entire body weight behind the axe and then threw it at one of the Gamorreans that was still disoriented from his force push.

The axe bit deep into the Gamorreans shoulder sending him to the ground gargling as his throat filled with blood. His friend however had recovered from the force push and sent a meaty fist into Renn's chest as he came back down to the ground.

Renn was sent falling backwards, stunned from the force of the blow. Opal shouted his name in worry and ran over to him to check to see if he was okay. Renn struggled back to his feet and tried to let her now that he was alright, not willing to back down from the fight.

The Gamorrean Renn had struck with the axe had stopped gurgling and was now staring vacantly at the sky, lying in a pool of his own blood. The other Gamorreans were now wary of Renn and another two had joined the remaining one of the pair that had tried to attack Renn. All three were now cautiously watching him and trying to manoeuvre to surround him.

The cloaked figure had also managed to regain their feet and was back to standing in front of the twi'lek girl with their vibro-knife held defensively in front of them. Although they had managed to stand, they were clearly injured as they were swaying from side to side.

The courtyard was mostly silent as everyone faced off. A tense atmosphere had descended, and the only sounds were the screams of pain from the Gamorrean that had been stabbed with the vibro-knife.

"Why are you pigs having some much trouble killing a child!" Fancy clothes yelled. "Fine I'll do it myself. You are all a waste of money!" He raged before drawing an ornately decorated blaster pistol and aiming it towards Renn and Opal.

Renn stepped protectively in front of Opal and stared defiantly at fancy clothes. He was now desperately trying to think of a way to get Opal and himself out of there. Preferable while still in one piece.

Fancy clothes grinned; he was disappointed not to see any fear on Renn's face, but he was still excited to see what kind of expression he would make when he was hit by the blaster bolt. He was about to pull the trigger when one of the courtyards walls exploded in a shower of masonry.

The dust from the explosion quickly began clearing, revealing an extremely pissed off HK-51 assassin droid.