Chapter 26: Grains of Freedom
21 BBY, Tatooine
Boba Fett remembered many moments in his life when he had been afraid. It was something that he was always ashamed of, not being like his father, who faced everything that the Galaxy had in store for him with a resolve that was as strong as Beskar, without a hint of apprehension. Even as he faced the Jedi, he never retreated; he stood firm until the very end, until Mace Windu killed him.
Normally, a burning rage would have enveloped him, with the thought of the Jedi who had killed his father, and yet, it was the fear that remained, fear at the last few moments that he had witnessed as Harry Potter removed his guise of the kindly stranger and let him see what lay within.
He didn’t think he would ever forget the coldness that he felt, the chill running down his spine, as he felt it… Death. The man had spoken with none of his joviality, which was instead replaced by an authority that Boba could not deny, with his piercing green eyes that almost glowed like emerald flames.
As the hologram of the large, cloaked man, Plagueis, fizzled out, a deafening silence remained in the room, one filled with an unspoken tension. Harry Potter was still staring at where the Hologram once was, his eyes intense, but then they changed.
It was as if someone had flicked a switch; his previous joviality returned to his eyes, as if nothing had happened, and Boba felt like he could breathe much more easily.
Potter turned towards them, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, and spoke up in an apologetic tone, “I’m sorry you had to see that. I get carried away sometimes when something really grates me, and unfortunately, our… guest seemed to do everything to achieve that.”
Boba nodded his head, though his heart was still beating pretty hard. Even now, he wasn’t sure what had happened exactly, but one thing was for certain: what Harry Potter had done was not something that Jedi could do. After all, Boba had seen them fight and die like every other creature in the Galaxy in Geonosis, and they had not done what he had just witnessed, not even close. No, one thing was for certain; he wouldn’t risk angering Harry Potter anytime soon.
He then felt a hand clench down on his own and looked up to see Aurra, staring at Potter, her face even paler than it used to be, with wide eyes, “What are you?”
Boba had spent enough time with Aurra to know her tells, and given how one of her arms was constantly fidgeting towards her blaster and hesitating, she was afraid. She seemed even more affected than him, as if she knew something that he didn’t during the battle, something that made her even more afraid. Honestly, she probably did; she knew a lot more than him about all this Force nonsense. He’d ask her about it later.
Potter’s smile turned mischievous, “Oh, I’m just a traveller, an adventurer if you’re kind.”
Aurra audibly scoffed in both disbelief and incredulity, but visibly seemed to relax, even if it was very slightly. Of course, her guard was still up, given that they were in the presence of someone that was very dangerous, but it was better than that.
Of course, that was when the man spoke up, “If you’ll excuse me for a moment.”
Potter then turned and walked towards his droid and the strangely intelligent bird. The droid then gently put her down on the ground, before he and the bird began to move around the cavern, though Boba didn’t know why.
They were probably looking for anything of value, or hidden, given that the droid had activated some strange map, for a few seconds, and was putting small things around the cavern in general, machines that were too small to be actual explosives.
However, Boba wasn’t that interested in that and focused instead on Potter, who had crouched down, examining the woman. She had looked so powerful then, and her scream made Boba’s ears hurt and gave him a headache, but looking at her now, she seemed… frail.
Without even thinking about it, Boba found himself walking towards her, almost transfixed. Given the sudden tension that had grown in Aurra’s frame, she wanted to stop him, but she must have seen something in his eyes, something that showed her why he felt that this was important. Soon, he found himself standing next to Harry Potter’s kneeling form. The man’s green eyes left the woman’s and found Boba, “Who is she?”
Potter gave him a small, warm smile, “That is a complicated question indeed. A better question would be who she was.”
He frowned at the evasion but decided to follow the man’s logic, “And who was she?”
“A wife. A mother. And before that, she was a slave.”
“Oh,” Boba simply said, not really knowing what to say, “How do you know?”
Harry Potter chuckled slightly, “Things leave traces sometimes, if they’re important, and Shmi Skywalker was important indeed. It really is no surprise that someone would have had such an interest in her, even after her death.”
Skywalker? Like the Jedi. Was she his family as well? Boba could hear Aurra suddenly stiffen at the name. However, what questions he had on the woman’s relation to the Jedi died, as his mind processed the man’s last words. “Her death? She’s still alive.”
Despite her stillness, the woman’s chest was still beating, and her face’s expression was not that of a dead woman. Even her face changed slightly, as if the woman was sleeping, but having a nightmare. So, why did Potter say that she was dead?
“Is she?” Potter gently answered, “No, poor Shmi died some time ago in her son’s arms, her soul having passed on. It was sad and tragic, but life often was.” The man’s tone then darkened, “However… Plagueis took her corpse, trying to unravel its secrets, trying to create a weapon, giving it this mimicry of life. No, young Boba, Shmi Skywalker has been dead for a while, and what you are seeing is not her.”
Boba froze. For a few moments, he had hope, faint as it was. Perhaps someone could have done the same to his father, brought him back. But he remembered the woman’s eyes during the handful of seconds that she had been awake, the truth of it. There was very little but rage and anger within them, and no signs of life or intelligence. No, that would not be helpful, not at all. He would not subject any part of his father to this.
As if he had read his thoughts, Harry Potter’s smile turned into one that was filled with pride. Boba looked away, remembering the same look on his father’s face once upon a time. Instead, his gaze fell on what was in front of him, namely the woman, who was still writhing in her own skin. “She looks in pain.”
The man’s smile turned gentle, “That she is. The way that she had been brought back to life isn’t natural. Plagueis pulled an echo of her into this body, an existence that should have never been bound in a body. He got around it by making it maintain itself through pure hate, rage, and pain, trying to mimic the life that was once her own. He failed, of course, but what little life resides in this body will never know a single moment of peace, as the universe will constantly be rejecting her, trying to undo the abominable act of her creation.”
Boba’s pity for the woman increased. He had seen her power, even if it was brief, but it felt like an existence like hers was a terrible price to pay for it. He turned to the man and asked, “Can you help her?”
Harry Potter smiled gently at him, “Yes, I can.”
The man then leaned down and pressed his finger onto the forehead of the writhing woman. Then, her shaking stopped, and her expressions turned almost peaceful. Her eyes then opened, and this time, did not hold their earlier rage, and she smiled at them. She only whispered two words to them, “Thank you.”
It was then that her eyes closed, and her breathing slowed down until she stilled completely.
As she died, a small ball of light left her mouth and floated above it for a few moments, and then, Boba saw the symbol that Potter had traced down to this cavern begin to glow similarly. However, other symbols appeared on the walls as well, ones that Boba also did not recognise.
It was then that he noticed that all around them, the small devices that the droid had put around the room began to float, all of them also glowing slightly, and Harry Potter set Shmi Skywalker’s neck down, letting her lie completely on the ground, before standing up once more, “I suggest that we leave.”
The man walked out, and Boba did the same, deciding to follow the man’s lead, especially when it came to strange glowing things that he didn’t understand.
As they left the cave, he turned, and his eyes widened as he realised that Aurra had not followed them. He almost called back for her, only to see her return with something in her hands, specifically, a corpse, that of the Mandalorian, given his Beskar armour.
He gave her a questioning look, and Aurra smiled; this time, its vicious tint was reassuring; at least something remained consistent, “Only an idiot would leave behind a full armour made of Beskar.”
Boba snorted at that, but didn’t say anything. He would admit that it was curious as to his heritage as a Mandalorian. His father always talked of the ‘True Mandalorians’, and if he had survived the battle in Geonosis, Boba was sure that his father would have taught him more about it. But now, thanks to Mace Windu, he would never know.
Still, he knew enough to realise just how valuable the armour is, and that he could easily use it to pay any Mandalorian group to help him hunt down and kill a Jedi.
They all stopped walking when they were near Potter’s speeder, and the man turned towards the cavern as if he was waiting for something. Aurra then spoke up quietly, “You do know that he will come for you, don’t you? Sith are not ones to let things go.”
Potter seemed amused by it but did not say anything. Aurra then continued, “And Jabba. Hutts are surprisingly hard to kill. It might take him some time, but he will be back, and he’s known for carrying grudges.”
This time, the man snickered, “And what is he going to do, exactly? Put another bounty on my head?”
Boba found himself chuckling alongside the man. After all, Harry Potter had one of the largest bounties in the galaxy. Aurra, while smiling, shook her head in answer, “At least this is over now. We need to leave this planet before the mess that you left blows up. We’ll have to get another ship too, since you blew up ours in Jabba’s palace.”
Potter’s eyes glinted in mischievousness as he answered, “You could come with us if you’d like.”
The bird, which had perched itself on the man’s shoulder, bobbed its head in approval, but Aurra immediately shook her head, “Kriff no. I had enough of all of…” she waved at everything around them, “… this, for now.”
Boba did his best not to slump in disappointment. Maybe if he had stuck around Potter enough, he would have been able to convince him to help him kill Windu, but this time, he knew that Aurra would not budge on this. Maybe it was for the best; Potter had been terrifying for just the few seconds where he faced the hologram.
Potter didn’t seem sad by their refusal, “A shame. Still, let’s get somewhere with proper civilisation. I’ve gotten a bit bored with the desert.”
As they began to walk up the Speeder, the man stopped and turned towards Aurra for a moment, “Say, Aurra Sing, what do you think would happen if Tatooine became a planet where slavery just didn’t work?”
The bounty hunter was confused by that question, but then snorted in amusement, “Yeah, that would be the day I see a thin Hutt. Why do you ask?”
It was then that it happened.
The cavern behind them began to collapse, and in its place, something began to rise. It was the statue of a woman, made from the same black stone from which the cavern had been made. When he looked closely, Boba’s eyes widened when he recognised her.
Shmi Skywalker.
She seemed fuller of life than when he had seen her in the cavern, and he saw the warmth there in her eyes, one that he had seen just moments before she closed her eyes forever.
It was then that a wave of light originated from it and began to spread everywhere. He heard Aurra gasp in shock next to him, and Boba felt warmth spread across him, a feeling of safety, that no matter what, so long as he stood on Tatooine, no chain would bind him.
Anyone who tried to do anything with the goal of putting another in chains would fail. Their devices would malfunction, their weapons misfire, whatever they may be, for Tatooine was now a planet of freedom.
He didn’t know how he knew that for sure, but he did. And he was sure that everyone that this light reached did as well.
Potter chuckled and answered Aurra’s question, “No reason.”
Boba had wanted to gape much like his teacher had, but instead, he finally understood what Harry Potter had wanted to teach him, what he had meant when he had asked him the question as to what happened to the slaves in Jabba’s palace.
He had saved them.
Boba didn’t know how he did it, but that wasn’t what was important, was it? It was why he did it, and the answer was now obvious. Harry Potter had done it because he was kind, but his act would not have been possible if he had not also been strong.
And so, as he stared at the statue of Shmi Skywalker, Boba Fett made a promise to himself.
He promised that he, too, would be strong, strong enough that he would avenge his father without needing to kill anyone who didn’t deserve it to do it, strong enough to be kind as Harry Potter was.
And, as the statue began to be eclipsed by the dunes of Tatooine, Boba Fett felt like he had just taken the very first step towards becoming the man he was always meant to be, the man that his father would have wanted him to be.
AN: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. As I said before, I’m still getting the hang of writing a Star Wars story, so bear with me if anything feels off.
This chapter was a bit on the shorter side, but I wanted to tie the Tatooine arc properly, at least on Harry's side. I thought that it would have been nice to make Tatooine a planet with no slavery, and use what's left of the Rakatan temple to do it, while also making it a tribute to Shmi Skywalker. It's pretty much a field that surrounds this planet that would make any device that was used for the goal of enslaving someone fail. That includes the bomb implants, chains, etc. There will be consequences, of course, which I'll be exploring soon, but I thought that this should shake things up a bit, especially as word begins to spread.
Still, writing from a young Boba's POV was a bit tricky. I was tempted to lean more into Mandalorian culture, but I didn't know if canonically (or in legends) he would have considered himself a Mandalorian or not. What I found made me even more confused, so I just settled on what I think is a middle ground. However, I'm not sure about how I portrayed him, so let me know if something feels off on that front. I also tried to get Aurra to seem more intimidated than Boba. As a Force-sensitive person, she would have a better idea about the ridiculousness of what Harry had just pulled off and how terrifying it is, so I hope that came out right.
As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this chapter depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.