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Jon knew they were being watched, spied on, and probably recorded by multiple cameras in addition to people. He couldn't exactly refuse this slave without having a very good reason, and he had none.
The Twi'lek was young, beautiful and healthy, her "outfit" showed off her body - if you could call some sort of imitation gold plated underwear, some strings and bits of leather clothing, which Jon did not.
A human male and bounty hunter had no reason to refuse.
Not to mention the fact that officially Jon Antilles no longer existed. Yet. But this time Master Kenobi had been an ideal witness. That is, before he died, of course. He and all Jedi.
"I gratefully accept this gift, O great Jabba. I will make good use of it."
What a mess! Jon couldn't send her to the slave rehabilitation facility with his usual identification if he didn't want to be found out, and with the slave networks that existed during the war with the Separatists, a young Twi'lek slave with no family, no ties, and no support would soon be captured again.
Not to mention the fact that the Empire didn't seem interested in regulating or destroying slavery.
She... she would be safer with him. Even if she lowered her eyes to the ground and didn't meet his gaze.
Submissive, silent, almost invisible but beautiful to look at.
A slave.
A slave he owned.
Bib Fortuna tugged at the chain on the Twi'lek's collar and she stood up under silent command. The man let him have the chain, and for a brief second their eyes met. She had large brown eyes whose sadness made Jon's heart waver. She had the look of those who have lost everything, their life, their body, their heart... their soul.
"The great Jabba warns you never to remove her explosive necklace. She has strange powers, she could use them."
She looked down. Jon struggled to articulate and speak. This woman... if he understood correctly, this woman had been a Jedi.
"Thank you for the advice."
Jon collected his reward and left the Rodian smuggler to Jabba and his fury with no regrets. He had no mercy for such criminals.
The Twi'lek followed him, and Jon pursed his lips under his hood and face mask. She had the resigned air of ones who walks to their death and accepts it.
They entered his ship - his ship that had only one room besides the cockpit and the cargo bay, but he would think about that later - and he guided her to sit in the unused co-pilot's seat. She sat down without resisting and without saying anything. He wished he knew what to do with her, what to say, but talking was not his forte, and he didn't want her to know he was a Jedi.
In the meantime, all he wanted to do was get off Tatooine, and fast. He hated this planet.
Where to go? He'd have to take care of deactivating the explosive and also check on the girl's health, by the way...
"Your name?"
"I'll be whoever you want me to be, Master," she replied with a docility that made Jon shudder.
If he didn't have an implant regulating his presence in the Force to make him look like a civilian when activated, he'd probably crack a few metal plates.
"I'll use your real name, or another one if you want, but you choose."
Jon pretended not to see the blue lek's anxious movements in the reflections of the instruments and waited, until she finally answered.
"Aayla. My name is Aayla."
"Call me Ash."
"Yes, Master."
He'd sort out with her later that he was going to release her and that he wasn't anyone's Master, the only person he'd have been willing to hear that term from would have been a Padawan, but he'd never had the opportunity or inclination to take one.
It would be Axxila. There would be sufficient medical facilities for her, and he could put her to sleep,
remove the explosive collar, and implant the chip regulating the Force projection emitted by the Jedi. Almost all of the Jedi Shadows used them on missions, it was a discreet and hard to access technology, but incredibly useful and effective... so much so that Jon had not been spotted by Empire Inquisitors who walked right by him. It was effective, and it would ensure her survival. After that, she would do what she wanted.
But in the meantime, she was a slave in a slave outfit, the first step would be to make her feel like a free woman again.
She had better get changed, he was big enough for her to fit into his clothes.
"Follow me."
He led her to his small bathroom, which was actually a tiny space in his already small and optimized bedroom, and handed her a towel.
"Take off your clothes," he said, opening his clothes wardrobe. "What size are you-what are you doing?!" he said with unfeigned panic when he found her completely naked and right next to him with a vacant look, her muscles relaxed.
"I'm undressing. Master."
"Yes, but not for- not for that, to wash you, not for... I'm sorry, I should have been clearer, I just wanted to give you a chance to change your clothes and freshen up, that's all."
A glint of interest flickered in her brown eyes before fading again and she turned off her hesitation to obey, much to Jon's dismay as he had no idea what to say or do to not make the situation worse. He quickly estimated the size of the clothes and the most suitable build for the collar to fit the Twi'lek's leks and set the clothes down just outside the exit and stepped back, trying to look everywhere but at her, but his eyes kept coming back to the same place.
Her back was burned very intensely, she must have taken about twenty blaster shots to the back before she almost succumbed. Whoever it was had been working on her. And clearly the treatment hadn't been wonderful, as the skin on her back was a mess of shiny grey marks and gashes.
It reminded Jon of his own body and the marks that ran through it.
He could sympathise, it wasn't nice to be different, people always looked at you differently.
Suddenly, despite the blockers, he heard something like a call in the Force. It was powerful, and it spoke of distress.
"Stay in this room!"
Jon didn't hesitate, rushing his ship to a dune and he felt his eyes widen under his hood at the unusual sight of two fighters engaged in a fierce lightsaber duel. An enraged young Tusken man and... a person Jon never thought he'd see again.
Kenobi.
And the other... he was a former Jedi, another one. Why was he meeting more Jedi after their extermination than in all the years before? And on Tatooine, of all planets. The Force was indeed strange.
Jon wasn't going to get involved in such a fight, however there was another presence he needed to check, as its vulnerability seemed stronger, and what he found was almost as shocking as two Jedi foolish enough to fight with weapons that any bounty hunter - like himself - could see and report to the Empire for credits. A baby, barely old enough to walk, crawling clumsily through the dunes. The baby was alone, and Jon felt no one nearby.
He couldn't leave the child alone in the desert, it would mean his death, and he didn't exactly want to leave a Force-sensitive youngster next to the two fighters, who knows what they might do to him - what if they tried to turn him into an indoctrinated apprentice to serve their new cause, whatever it was?
Jon couldn't accept that, so he did the only sensible thing, he picked up the child and quietly returned to his ship, comforting as best he could the small blonde child who didn't actually look like he needed comforting.
He found the Twi'lek sitting warily on the bed, thankfully fully dressed.
"Here, take care of him."
She held out her arms reflexively before looking warily and then in wonder at the child. She probably hadn't expected such a bright, pure child to survive in the Empire. Jon would have him implanted with a protective implant as well.
Jon then took off quickly, towards Axxila. The Twi'lek - Aayla, she had said her name was Aayla - returned to sit beside him and stared into the void of space for a moment before looking at Jon, or at least trying to, for he was well protected by his clothes.
"He had no relatives in sight, he was alone in the dunes and he was about to be caught in a fight, he explained briefly," not wanting to detail that the relatives were probably dead, killed by Tuskens who attacked those who encroached on their sacred lands and only refuge, often for moisture farms or mineral extraction.
She doubted his version of events, but she also seemed to have a reluctant respect for him, that was enough.
"I have no interest in having a slave, do you have family I could leave you with?"
Uncertainty, pain, fear, sadness, hope, it was all mixed up in a cry of distress in the Force until only hope remained, tiny, flickering, but still present.
"I may have... a family, somewhere. But I don't know where."
"That's not a problem, we can find them. Who are they?"
"A Kiffar, a human and a Neti. I don't know if they're still alive, it's... it's been a long time since we've seen each other."
Not since the Purge, Jon understood quietly.
"Right. Okay, we'll try to find them. And you, boy, what's your name?"
"Luke Skywalker!" replied the little boy with a smile. "And I want to be a pilot when I grow up!"
Jon smiled from under his hood and took the child on his lap.
"Well, Luke, watch how I do it. Here you have the button for-"
As he explained the operation of his ancient ship, Jon thought.
Skywalker, as in Anakin Skywalker? It was no coincidence that a young boy of the right age to be the child of a Jedi Knight was close to an exiled former Jedi Master who had been the teacher of said Jedi Knight.
Jon knew now that he had done the right thing in bringing Luke along. Whatever Kenobi wanted to accomplish, he could do it on his own, no need to drag an innocent child into it.
Decision made, Jon continued to talk more on this trip than he had in the past few years, answering eager questions from a little boy who fell asleep on him with confidence.
They would be fine.