Anakin has always been different. It took him many years to understand that not everyone spoke to the connections bridging together the universe. No one else can see the strands of power between plants and people and planet and galaxy. They can't hear the truths the universe sings him to sleep with. They do not hear the comfort the blazing suns of Tatooine whisper every time Watto beats him or his mother. Most importantly, he learns that they cannot hear each other—not through speech because that is nothing but a mere facet of communication, but through the way their connection to the universe shifts and undulates with truth and lies and hate and joy.

His mother notices immediately. How can she not when Anakin answers her questions without her saying a word? She tells him to hide these things but how can he hide what he is? When she falls sick with fever one day, he lays hands on her shoulder and commands the world fix her. He stays up all night watching the gold strands of Tatooine's power flow into his mother. This is the power of shifting sands and scorching heat and the fierceness of the Kryat dragon.

In the morning, her fever has broken, and the strands return to the earth. He holds her hand and feels the warmth of her love, knows the depths of her affection for him can never be matched and will do everything to protect her. She awakens and somehow, he knows that she knows.

"Why don't you want me to be me when I can't change any more than the desert can become an ocean?" he asks in Basic, regardless that a two-year-old should not have such a command of any language.

She takes his hands and pulls him closer. "Because I don't want them to take you. You're like fire and diamonds and light all at once, and I know they'll covet you, Ani."

"I won't ever leave you. No matter how far apart we are, I will always be with you." They are connected by thick chains of that ethereal power, and even across a galaxy, he will always know where she is.

"You can't know that."

He shakes his head. "I do. Tell me a story."

His mother smiles and though they should be getting ready for the day, Anakin knows they have all the time in the world. She begins, in their language, the language of slaves toiling under the burning heat of Tatooine's twin suns.

"There was once a man who made a mistake and in repayment offered his services to a cruel man. This was the first slave and he performed his duties honourably for a cruel master. Others would follow the example of this master. One day, he spilt a glass of water on his master's favourite robes and so was tasked to find the origin of life in the desert. It was a cruel task, one meant to kill the slave slowly and painfully. So, the slave walked out from the salt plains and into the deep desert with nothing but the clothes on his back. But you see, Ani, this slave was cunning and knew the old ways of the deep.

"Only followers of the deep know kryat dragons nest over underground sources of water. Only those who sat before the grandmother's hut will know which lizard is poisonous and which leads to a sandhawk hatchery. So the slave not only lived but thrived. He found other slaves and led them to safety. In the deep desert, they built a home and then a community. And as they prospered, this slave came to find the origin of life is where you make it.

"The slave master, Depur the Cruel Striker, learnt the slave had found a life instead of death. And so he organised a raiding party to kill them all. The slave, though, was crafty and when they were captured he told his master that he had found the origin of life. Depur, greedy and foolish, let the slave speak. 'Over the cliff is the secret," the slave said, 'and if you let the slaves and I walk over it you will see it.'

"Depur the fool believed. He took the slaves to the cliff and commanded they walk. The first slave made them stand in a line and hold hands. 'Walk with me and I will give you the sky.' And so, they walked. And where they should have fallen, they instead walked through the sky and towards safety. You see, Ani, this slave was not just any slave but the first of the Skywalkers. We are his people and bear his name. You are the Skywalker who will bring the first rain."

Anakin smiles at her because he knows she speaks the truth. The universe sings with each word she says, the power of Tatooine resonating with each inflection. He mourns that she will never hear how the lava so deep beneath them swirls around them in joy or how a kryat dragon howls half the world away.

When he is three his mother takes him to the grandmother's hut to listen to the words of their venerated elders. He hears their stories and comes to love each and every slave child—Kitster who is smart as the tiny desert rat and Wald to whom kindness is as easy as breathing. He meets Jira who speaks with a wisdom only those who live off-world can know.

One day a boy who he will never remember calls him a fake for his name. "You're no Skywalker."

Anakin is standing on a crate telling the story of the first Skywalker. The universe itself roars in rage but Anakin quells it with a soft smile at this boy trying to be strong. Anakin takes a step off the crate and walks on the air.

They are silent. Kitster and Ald and Jira and the boy and the grandmothers. All of them stare at him in shock and reverence and fear.

"My name is Anakin Skywalker," he says in Basic. "The one who will bring the rain and descendant of the first Skywalker, Ekkreth himself, through Shmi, fortieth of our water-line. I have no father but the light of the universe."

He extends his hand to the boy who sought to intimidate me. "We will be free. Do you believe me?"

The boy takes his hand. "Skywalker," he whispers in reverence.

"We will be free, one day. This I promise on my name."

That night, it rains on Tatooine for the first time in centuries.