Chapter 6

"No!" Anakin yelled, sitting up in his bed, a faint sheen of sweat on his forehead.

What was that? He thought to himself as he tried to recall what he had just seen.

All he could remember were fragments, flashes of his mother smiling, a huge explosion consuming the view through the visor of his helmet, and finally, a raw consuming hatred. 

The dream, or nightmare, felt so real, like it was more than the imaginations of his mind. In the end, it was just a dream and nothing more, probably conjured up from his worries of the Boonta Eve Classic race.

Still, despite his thoughts, he had the lingering feeling that the dream was more than that, but he put it to the back of his mind, choosing not to think about it.

Having calmed down, he rubbed his eyes for a moment before getting out of bed, clear headed from his rude awakening, and got started with his morning rituals.

When he entered the living room, he wasn't surprised to see his mother cutting vegetables in her usual attire. It was pretty early in the morning, around five, but that was usually the time his mother was required to get up around.

"Anakin, are you okay," Shmi asked, putting her knife down, noticing his messy blond hair and blood shot eyes.

Anakin put on his most convincing smile as he took a seat at the table. "It's nothing."

"Fine, don't tell me," Shmi said, easily seeing through him, "I'm just your one and only Mom, who loves you very much."

Anakin rolled his eyes at her words, making sure to turn his head as he did so she wouldn't see it.

Her son was as stubborn as a droid and she knew it, so she could only frown and return to the vegetables she was cutting.

Many times, she had tried several ways to get him to open up about his problems, and as much as she hated to admit, she even punished him in hopes of getting him to talk: He didn't. She had learned that day; that he would rather suffer in silence than burden her.

The Skywalker family dynamic was a weird one; Shmi wasn't able to be a hands-on parent due to her circumstances, causing Anakin to grow up and be more independent. She still tried to help him however she could, but it was hard when she rarely ever knew what to help with. All she could ever do for him was give him her undying support.

Roughly an hour after Anakin ate breakfast, the suns had risen and the others started to wake up. Soon, the house was filled with movement as everyone got ready for the big day.

The Boonta Eve Classic race started at noon, but the nerves of most everyone except Qui-Gon were on fire, causing them to rush to get everything ready, especially Padmé.

The time between eight and ten was spent mostly just checking the podracer and making sure everything was as perfect as it could be. Anakin had to personally suffer Padmé's torment as she made him check every nook and cranny of the podracer twice over under the hot suns.

At ten, they moved the podracer through the bustling streets of people rushing to get a seat at the stadium. Eventually they were able to make it inside the giant podracer hangar where all the podracers were kept until the race.

There, Anakin met up with Kitster and left the others with him to view the competition.

The entire hangar was, like most things on Tatooine, looked old and worn down. Despite that, it was filled with activity and noise as aliens from across the galaxy carried out their tasks and pilots got ready for the on coming race.

This wasn't the first time he had participated in the race, so he had expected to see the larger podracers with some even having multiple engines, but it was another thing to compare it to his own pod racer side by side. In comparison, his podracer looked puny.

Most would be intimidated by this fact, but he was only excited; excited to show them up with his superior yet smaller design in the race.

Unfortunately, to his slight frustration, Kitster did share his view on the matter.

"Are you sure your podracer can beat that one?" Kitster asked, pointing at Sebulba's podracer, which looked similar to his, except that it had an angry red exterior with giant clunky engines that dwarfed his several times over.

Anakin scratched his head in frustration. "Yes."

Anakin could have told Kitster that he had studied every podracer in there for inspiration, and that his podracer was superior in several ways that made up for its negatives, but he chose not to; simply because Kitster's constant doubt for the last hour was starting to grate his nerves.

"Alright, alright, I get it. I know you're smart, Anakin, it's just hard to wrap my head around, that's all." Kitster explained, having noticed the obvious signs that Anakin was starting to get annoyed.

Anakin Skywalker was practically an open book to anyone who knew, except in serious situations, something Kitster often took advantage of.

"Thanks," Anakin said, wrapping his arm around Kitster's shoulders and starting to walk back to his own podracer. "Lets head back to the others, the race is going to start soon."

"Okay, I'm sure you'll definitely complete it this time!" Kitster somewhat yelled, trying to cheer him up just as they reached Anakin's sleek silver podracer with a blue emblem that floated only a foot or two above the sandy ground.

Having clearly heard Kitster's words, Padmé came up to them, a distressed tone in her voice.

"You haven't finished a race yet?" She asked, hopeful.

Kitster gave Anakin a cheeky smile as he slowly escaped Anakin's grasp and slipped away from the scene of his creation. Anakin glaring at him all the while.

"I've only raced one time before, and the only reason I lost was because Sebulba cheated; it won't happen again," Anakin promised, both her and himself. 

Padmé sighed. "I hope you're right."

"I know I am." Anakin said confidently, if not somewhat arrogantly.

His words earned him a smile.

"Hey boy, you'd better watch your friend over there, before he makes any more bets, or he'll be my slave, too." Watto said, as he slowly flew past him, looking over to Qui-Gon as he did so, who was walking over to them with a slight smile.

Anakin wanted to ask Watto what the hell was talking about, but he didn't trust him. Instead, he turned to Qui-Gon.

"What was that about?" He enquired.

"Nothing more important than you focusing on the race," Qui-Gon replied, giving him a reassuring smile.

Anakin arched his brow at the man, but decided to ask later. Qui-Gon was right, they needed to move the podracer to the race track.

The distance from the track to the hangar was by no means large, but the podracers had to be driven very slowly and carefully because of their extreme speed.

Finally, The slow crawl to his destination was over and he had reached his starting spot in the race.

Smiling to himself, he took a moment to look out into the roaring crowd that stood on his left and right. Thousands had come to see the race. 

Weirdly enough, they kind of made him think of vultures, waiting to see the death of his fellow competitors. Sure they were there to see the high speed race of master pilots, but the unsaid secret was that watching podracers turn into great fiery explosions was the real reason they were there.

Anakin lived on a planet of crooks and criminals; it only made sense that their favorite sport was centered around a high speed chase and death.

Unfortunately, he would have to wait another thirty minutes for the rest of the competition to get there and the race to start. With steel like resolve, he hopped out of his cock pit and started to give his podracer one last look.

"You can do this, Anakin," Shmi said, a reassuring smile on her face as she hugged for what might be the last time.

"Don't worry, Mom," Anakin said, hugging her back while trying to console her. He could feel her worry, boarding or pain through the Force and he despised knowing he was the source of it but was unable to do anything about it.

After a long pause, Shmi stopped hugging him and got back up from her crouched position. "Promise me to give up if it becomes too dangerous."

"I promise," Anakin said firmly, looking her straight in the eyes.

"Good luck Anakin!" Qui-Gon said, giving him a grateful nod, before he, his mother, Jar Jar, and Padme started walking to the viewing platform.

Anakin gave him a confident thumbs up in response.

Having done everything he could, Anakin took his seat in the cockpit and put his helmet on, enjoying the steady thrum from the podracers engines, and the crackling noise coming from the blue power coupling that connected the two engines.

All the podracers had arrived, and now it would only be a matter of minutes before the race started.

"I'll see you at the finish line, slave," Sebulba said from a few feet away, a triumphant and malevolent smile on his blue face.

Briefly, Anakin considered cursing him in Huttese, but in the end he decided against it, deeming it more trouble than it was worth. Instead he simply chose to ignore him.

Getting no response, the Dug snorted contemptuously and started walking towards his podracer.

As Anakin watched Sebulba walk away, he couldn't help but wonder how the Dug would react if he knew that an entire planet rested on his shoulders. 

Anakin's musings were interrupted when aliens started walking across the race track directly in front of him, carrying tall flags, each representing a podracer. When he saw Threepio awkwardly carrying his flag across the track he couldn't help but smile.

Anticipation grew noticeably as the crowd waited impatiently awaited the start to the race.

Eventually, everyone's attention was drawn to a big building that resided in the middle of the stadium's viewing area. The building had an opening, where Jabba the Hutt would view the race. The Hutt resembled a brown slug, except it was giant and had a glint of cruel intelligence in its eyes.

Although it was hard to make out from the distance, Anakin faintly saw the Hutt spit something, hitting the gong by its side, causing the boom of thunder to echo through the stadium.

The crowd held its breath as every podracer jerked forward with blinding speed. 

Unfortunately, Anakin wasn't one of them.

Halfway through pushing the steering sticks down to speed up he stopped, knowing it was futile. Sure enough, the podracer was only able to move a few feet forward across the sandy track before the engines stalled.

Anakin cursed in Huttese as he quickly started to ignite the engines once again, hoping that would fix whatever issue the podracer was having and that would be the end to his problems.

Relief flooded him as the engines burst to life after he flipped on the ignition switch for the engines.

Without hesitation, Anakin once again grabbed the handles and pushed down as hard as he could. Suddenly, the podracer sped into motion, making Anakin's head hit the back of his seat. The air screamed into his ears as he sped down the track like a bullet, leaving a cloud of sand in his wake as he piloted his podracer inside the bend of the stadium and out into the Tatooine deserts after the other pods.

Anger was all Anakin felt at the moment; he bet his life that Sebulba screwed around with his podracer while he wasn't looking, and he would have his revenge before the race was over.

The 'race track' was more of a cleared pathway with no clear marks, requiring podracers to know the way before participating in the race. 

Besides the sheer speed other contestants went at, the most dangerous thing about the race was easily the other contestants themselves; each contestant was moving at insane speeds, and they were nearly impossible to dodge, requiring quick reactions and the ability to predict the movies of other contestants to some extent.

Because Anakin was so far behind the other podracers, he could go at full speed without having to worry about the others.

Everything was literally a blur as he passed humongous rocks left and right at full throttle, and with the wind he could barely hear himself think. Slowly his nervousness ran dry, replaced with single minded focus. Paying attention for the slightest bumps in the terrain that could mess with his podracer that hovered only two feet about the ground.

After a little less than a minute, the field of rocks opened up into one giant brown plain with deep holes in it, and beyond that a plateau came into view with a large ravine going through it, with its entrance parallel to himself. 

At the speed he was going at, it only took several seconds before he was swallowed by the ravine's entrance.

Now came the hard part: he was surrounded on all sides by stone cliffs and if screwed up a turn it meant certain death.

For a split second surprise ran through as another podracer came into view ahead of him. Subconsciously a small smirk grew on his face as his confidence soared. If he already caught up to the others this quickly, he had no doubt that winning the race was plausible.

Time to get serious, he thought, knowing he couldn't make any mistakes from now on.

As Anakin got closer to the other podracer, more of his fellow competitors came into view.

Once he was only a few feet away from the giant podracer in front of him he started to slow down. Taking a deep breath, ignoring the wind whipping at his face, he suddenly accelerated as fast as possible and maneuvered his pod so half of it was hovering over the left hand wall and the other half hovered above the ground.

The small size of his podracer allowed him to barely pass the reddish podracer in front of him. Because of the usual size of most podracers, such maneuvers were usually impossible in the narrow ravine, which Anakin took full advantage of as he used this tactic to pass several other podracers. Normally other pilots would have tried to block him from passing, but the narrow ravine made it too dangerous for them to risk incurring an explosion or damaging their own vehicles. 

The ravine was barely wide enough to fit most podracers, and inside there were dome-like structures built into the sides of the Ravine, protected from the harsh suns.

Seeing the exit to the ravine come into view, Anakin slowed down his podracers to match the same speed as the others, knowing his tactic would no longer work.

Instead of being surrounded by cliff walls; he was now once again in a field of towering rocks that formed pillars of stone and archways.

Carefully, the young pilot made his way around said rocks while also keeping his eyes on the podracers ahead of him. Occasionally, Anakin would accelerate his max speed whenever the nearest podracer wasn't blocking his way forward and he felt the time was right. 

He didn't take the decision to pass someone lightly, even the slightest bump from another podracer could destroy his engines because of their inferior size and durability. 

A frown appeared on Anakin's face as he faced resistance for the first time in the shape of a gray pod racer that had a slightly worn down look to it, like it had seen many races before.

As much as he hated to admit it, the pilot of the podracer was good. Good enough to to maintain its speed and block all of his advances much to his frustration.

Luckily his saving grace came in the form of the ledge ahead of them; just as the gray podracer made its way over the ledge and started its downward descent, Anakin accelerated as fast as he could go and increased the antigravity from his repulsorlifts slightly, allowing him to gain more air time after he passed the ledge and pass the gray podracer.

A triumphant smile splayed out on his lips as he decreased the gap between him and the next podracer ahead of him, which had a deep blue color to it similar to his eyes with an undeniable craftsmen ship to the vehicle.

Now, he thought, seeing an opening to pass the podracer. Anakin immediately accelerated as fast as he could, unfortunately, as he passed the vehicle it slightly bumped into his left engine. He had moved to the right as much as possible, but it was impossible to dodge, and he was forced to take the hit.

Checking the engine after safely passing the vehicle, it showed no indication that it was damaged, easing some of his worries. 

As he traveled through a field of rocks, he continued to slowly pass more and more contestants. Sadly, he had to stop his streak as what would be the hardest part of the race came into view.

The entrance was similar to the previous ravine had just gone through, but he knew that just beyond the entrance was a small dark tunnel filled with thin pillars of rock that reached the roof of the tunnel.

It would easily be the hardest part of the race, but he was more than ready for the challenge.

Passing through the narrow gap going in between a giant plateau, he reaffirmed his resolve, a hard glint flashing through his eyes as he tightened his grip on the steering sticks.

Slowly he started to decrease his speed as he made twists and turns through the ravine until he came upon an ominous cave-like entrance that would lead into the tunnel. A second later he entered the darkness as he turned on his head lights.

Everyone drove in jagged zig zags, as they were forced to doge pillar after pillar of rising stone. Not only did Anakin have to worry about crashing into the pillars, he also had to pay special attention to the erratic movements of his fellow competitors. Even so, his excitement soared as his focus and use of the Force to predict the future were pushed to the limits. Every second felt like it passed in agonizing slowness, yet all too fast at the same time.

When Anakin finally exited the cavern into what appeared to be a valley filled with sand; he felt like a lifetime had passed in those caverns instead of the measly five seconds that it probably was.

Shaking his head slightly, he calmed down and started to increase his speed to go faster than the others as they traveled in the valley's bend.

His heart was beating like a hammer as the previous exhilaration coursed through him like lightning, making him recklessly pass other podracers with a calm smile and focused blue eyes.

Eventually the valley opened up to reveal the vast sandy plains of Tatooine. 

After exiting the valley he went as fast as he could, knowing that this was the easiest part of the race and the end of the first lap was close.

As he made his way closer and closer to the stadium, he continued to move side to side, making his way up the unorganized line of speeding podracers, passing them with no more trouble than it would take a master pilot to beat amateur ones.

Gleefully, he passed through the cheering stadium, catching a very brief and blurry glimpse of his mother, Qui-Gon, Padmé, and Jar Jar, who was cheering enthusiastically.

A determined look appeared on his face as he exited the stadium once again, knowing he was somewhere in the middle of the contestants.

Just two more laps, Anakin thought with determination, I got this.