And Kina slows her racer to a stop, finally taking a proper deep breath, as she passes the finish line in an undisputable first place.  She lets her thoughts speak themselves, as she does post-flight checks and shuts the engines off.  "We did it, mom.  We're gonna go free.  We're gonna walk the sky."

And then, she runs to her mom for a big hug.  She still has a little time.  She can just be a happy kid who won a race for a minute or two.

Shmi is barely able to process what happened, pulling Kina back into the hug on autopilot and gazing up towards the stars. They can leave. They can leave.

And then she sees Watto stomping towards them, and she steps in front of Kina, looking back and forth for the others.

Qui-Gon smoothly strides into Watto's path. "I assume you're here to relinquish control of the Skywalkers," he says. "I'll need the proper devices for removal of the explosives, and I'll take the transmitter as well."

"You cheated!" snarls Watto, trying to pounce towards Kina but held back by Qui-Gon. "You sabotaged Sebulba, you - " Watto switches to Huttese, letting loose a stream of insults.

"Sebulba's flamethrower, a tool not permitted by the Classic's rules, exploded due to what I must presume was a fuel leak when he ignited his engines, Watto.  No cheating occurred except his, which bit him back for once.  And if you observe the footage at the starting line, you will see him trying to foul one of my intakes with this wrench.  So.  There was cheating and sabotage attempted, but not on my behalf."  Kina is so very done with Watto's shit.  "Thank you for delivering the transmitter promptly."  It's in her hand now, Kina swiping it off his waist (and does she have that long a reach, or did it slip loose and fall into her hand?) as he thrashes, and she pops the back off, before pulling some spare wires out, fashioning an adapter, and passing it to R2-D2 with a whistle.  <Execute hard shutdown, code:> - and here, she opens herself to the Force to check for danger, before whistling a datablock that she spent restless hours designing.  It should give the White Sun some more opportunities to smuggle people out, or smuggle bombs out of people, if the location-spoofing worm takes.  As well as deactivate her and her mom's bombs, at the minimum.

Watto eventually allows Qui-Gon to return to his shop, where he takes the hyperdrive and a magnetic tool that lets him remove the now inactive bombs from Kina and Shmi without much blood. He hands the device over to Kina, "in case she wants to keep it as a memento," and then calls for the ship.

The ship comes to the ground on the edge of Mos Espa. "Master Qui-Gon," says Obi-Wan, stepping out of the vehicle. "I see you haven't gotten rid of him yet," he says, gesturing to Jar Jar, "but where are the rest of our new passengers?"

"Kina's out behind the shop... saying goodbye to a few of her friends," says Qui-Gon. "Her mother and the droids are watching her. Let's head onboard, I'd like to discuss a few things with you. We can leave the entryway open; they'll come once they're ready."

Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and the rest of the group come up the ramp, and Obi-Wan follows Qui-Gon into one of the bedrooms. "What's going on?"

"You mean apart from the Chosen One?" says Qui-Gon, nervously laughing. "I'm not fully sure. But I've been sensing something, some sort of a presence that feels powerful, darker even than the Hutts. The Force seems to be very worried."

Not too far away, Maul blasts through the streets on his speeder, disregarding the crowds he crashes through, his only focus on that silver gleam of the royal starship.

Kina's getting her podracer packed into the small cargo space aboard when she feels that roiling darkness start getting closer, and brief spikes of panic rushing through the town.

"Something's coming.  Something bad.  If you're coming, get on; if you're staying on-planet, go.  Quickly.  You go get the Jedi," she says to her protocol droid, "and Artoo, help me with this engine and the bombs."

She might not have a conventional weapon on-hand, but she does have some very powerful engines, and two small remote-detonating explosive charges.  Not to mention a wrench.

C3PO rushes off to the Jedi Master's quarters, motors whirring, listening to Kina tell that crude, insouciant astromech exactly how to make an engine or electrorepulsive tether ruin someone's day.  His maker, his mistress - nevermind that she doesn't wish to be put above him, she is, by his choice; he will serve her faithfully and well, for she needs the help, with all the burdens she's put on her too-young shoulders - is scary when she's engineering, sometimes, and this is definitely one of them.

"Master Jedi, and Padawan!  My mistress says that something bad is coming, fast!"

Qui-Gon leaps from the room, and stumbles over one of several children running through the halls of the ship. Well, he can't pretend he didn't see them now, but there are higher priorities at the moment. Oh, great, the kid is now crying, and he's being pushed back by the flow of the crowd. "Shmi, can you handle this?" he shouts, seeing Shmi approach, and with some effort, he and Obi-Wan squeeze through the group.

Maul flies directly at the opening of the ship, and at the last second drops off of his speeder, sending it flying in Qui-Gon's direction, knocking him back through the ship with tremendous force and tearing up the inner walls. Ignoring the droid and the child - although something does feel interesting about that child - Maul turns back towards the entrance, where Obi-Wan is beginning to stand up, and ignites a blade of his lightsaber.

There's no time to check on Qui-Gon. Drawing his own lightsaber, Obi-Wan runs towards Maul, but has to step back as he barely blocks a brutal swing from Maul's weapon.

This is only a Padawan, he notes, and it should be easy to kill. Maul trades several blows with Obi-Wan, and sees an opening when -

His speeder was strangely wobbly on final approach, he might have noticed, but that clearly didn't stop him --

-- Kina mutters a swear as she yanks the emergency brake on the speeder with her mind --

-- she whistles piercingly, throwing a wrench at him, and R2 activates the engine welded to the side of the hold, flaring it to push him back!  "Careful!  Double blade!"

Maul's lightsaber is nearly at Obi-Wan's wrist when the wrench hits his head, and he falters long enough for Obi-Wan to deflect. Then the blazing heat of the engine throws him forwards, but he manages to turn it into a tackle. He ignites the other blade of his saber, penetrating the sand next to Obi-Wan's head.

Obi-Wan grabs ahold of Maul's lightsaber, but he can't really push it aside without turning the other blade towards him. His other hand gropes for his own weapon, but then Maul's horns slam into his head and - 

Blazing heat.

His shoulder erupts in pain as his eyes fill with shining green light -

Green?

And it's over.

Qui-Gon stands above their bodies, the blade of his saber buried in the ground next to Obi-Wan's arm - oh, that's too close to Obi-Wan's arm! He quickly turns it off, and yanks Maul's body off of his apprentice.

Maul's head, however, stays where it is.

OOOOOWWWWWWW.

Obi-Wan rolls over and manages to push himself up. He tests his fingers - they seem to still be functional, even if it hurts like hell - and looks at his shoulder -

Jedi or not, he lets out a bit of a frightened squeal when he sees it. Wincing, he forces himself to look at it again, and it seems like apart from the burn his arm is still working.

"Master Qui-Gon, with all due respect, COULD YOU AIM YOUR LIGHTSABER A LITTLE BETTER?!"

"I saved your life!" says Qui-Gon, looking over his own bruises and panting, but coming up short of breath. "I had about half a second and what appears to be a dislocated arm - " He turns back to Kina. "Are you okay?"

Kina heaves a breath as she pulls Sebulba's wrench back from where it landed after her follow-up nut shot, and R2 shuts off the engine.  "Okay.  I'm okay."  She is not okay; her voice is trembling and dull.  "At least functional and uninjured.  Okay.  We need to get going fast in case he's not the only one after us.  Qui-Gon, you told mom to take care of the kids, let her keep doing that, you can claim you thought she knew what you were supposed to mean and vanish into the medbay during preflight.  We're going to want the body.  Shocks people really well, bodies of assassins.  Should see if we can find his ride here maybe; more evidence, who sent him and how?  I think I might throw up when the panic rush fades.  Kriffing terrifying.  Medics for you and Mr. Corpse now.  And me too just in case."

She doesn't know why she's giving orders, nor why she expects Qui-Gon to listen, but she's doing it, as she leans on the bulk of the engine to steady her shaking legs and trembling hands.