Notes: Timeframe is approximately one month before the start of ANH.
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"C'mon, Rover! We got to move on to the next vaporator!" Luke hurried the range droid that accompanied him during his repairs. He certainly did not to spend his whole day out here. Luke strode back to his landspeeder, slinging his toolbox into the backseat. The quicker he finished the sooner he could hang out with his friends at Anchorhead.
"I will leave you if you don't hurry!" Luke threatened. He wouldn't leave the little guy, but it was good for motivation.
The droid sent a panicked beep as it tried desperately to roll over whatever was in its way. Luke rolled his eyes. What was the darn thing bumping into now? He wished his uncle could afford a better maintenance droid. "You're stuck again, Rover?" he called.
The droid beeped an affirmative.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming!"
Luke found Rover bumping against what appeared to be a humanoid leg. The person's upper body still was half buried in the sand. "Go around it, dummy!" Luke swerved the robot around the carcass. This poor soul must have gotten caught in the sandstorm from yesterday. Luke bent down and swept away the sand from the person's face. He gasped when he saw what he had uncovered.
A girl.
By the looks of her ruby orange skin and white markings in the shape of diamonds on her forehead, she was not human, but it made no difference regarding her beauty. Was she even alive? Luke felt for a pulse on her neck and to his surprise found a weak one.
"Ma'am? Ma'am!" He yanks her up.
"Mmh..." she coughed hoarsely. "Wha… what year is it?" she croaked, her voice caked with sand.
The question caught Luke off guard, but he answered her none of the less.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Luke's senses were flooded with the woman's despair. Since he was a boy Luke had always been able to sense emotions on a higher level than most people. Aunt Beru considered it a gift while Uncle Owen would roll his eyes and bark at him to "Man up already."
She squeezed her eyes tight. "So, I sprung forward…" she moaned. "…great… just great…"
Luke didn't have the faintest idea what she was muttering. She was probably delirious from the heat. "Steady!" he hosted her up and helped her into his landspeeder. "Let me help you."
The vaporators could wait until tomorrow, Luke decided. He took her to his home and administered some first aid in the form of Hydro strips. After he was done, Luke sat beside her. Watching her sleep for nearly 30 minutes before growing bored.
His eyes fell upon two identical cylinders clipped onto to her belt. Curiosity getting the best of him, Luke unhooked one. What a curious thing. Luke peered down into the bladeless hilt. As he rotated it, his thumb accidentally pressed a button on its side. A white beam of energy shot up from the handle.
"KRIFF!" Luke swore, dropping with the weapon. Once it hit the ground, the energy blade receded back into the hilt of the sword. The woman jerked awake at all the racket he was causing.
"No, no it's okay!" Luke assured her. "You are safe here!"
She peered around beadily. "...where am I?" she rasped.
"The Lars homestead."
Her eyelids drooped, mumbling something incoherent under her breath, the girl slumped down and fell back asleep.
Luke took one look at the mess he made and groaned. "Oh, no, not Aunt Beru's favorite armchair!" he lamented seeing the singed chair completely lanced in half. His uncle and aunt were away for a few days due to business so maybe he could try to replace it before they returned. His hair, however, would take more time to recover. Luke sighed as he felt what remained of his charred bangs. He cleaned up the mess he unwittingly made and trimmed the remainder of his bangs the best he could.
It was late in the afternoon when the girl woke up again. She now had the strength to sit up at the dining room table. Luke got her some Electroqua to drink. It's what Aunt Beru gave to him whenever he was severely dehydrated.
"Here, this will help rehydrate you."
"Thanks," she gulped down the cool tangy liquid, letting out a tiny blech. Looking sheepish she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. "Excuse me…" she pardoned herself.
"About two cups should do it," he refilled her cup. "You're incredibly lucky to have survived a sandstorm the way you did," he remarked.
"Tell me," her voice sounded stronger and clearer now. "Is the Empire still in power?" she asked.
"…yes?" Luke answered slowly, almost warily. "Why wouldn't it be?"
The girl sighed. "You're right…" she agreed, sounding absolutely defeated. "Why shouldn't it be?" she glanced up at him for the first time with focused eyes. Her sadness melting away into shock as her jaw went slightly slack.
Remembering his shoddy bang from earlier, Luke selfconsciously turned away. "Is… is something on my face?" he muttered.
"Sorry," Now the girl looked embarrassed. "Let's just say you remind me of… a certain someone," she answered cryptically.
Luke looked back at her shyly. "Is that a good thing?" he hoped.
"Yeah, it is." As if she was savoring a memory, a smile slowly spread across her face. "So, what is the name of my rescuer?"
The young man brightened. "I am Luke, Luke Skywalker-"
The cup in her hands fell to the ground with a clatter and the liquid spilled across the tiled floor. "S-Sorry!" she gasped.
The girl was about to descend to the floor when Luke caught her by the wrist. "No, it's okay!" he ducked under the table to retrieve it. "I got it!" He dumped it into the sink and retrieved a kitchen rag to wipe up the mess.
"Do… do you happen to be related to a man named Anakin Skywalker?" she asked urgently, her eyes desperately hopeful.
The young man stood straight, practically preening. "He is my father," he announced with great pride.
"So he is alive!" She sounded so relieved. "Does Anakin live here with you? Please let me see him!"
Something broke in Luke at the sight of her joy, and he hated himself for giving her false hope. "No, wait, I'm sorry! I should have been a bit more specific… What I meant to say is that he was my father," Luke reluctantly corrected her. "He's dead."
"…oh," the woman slumped. "As I thought… I... I am sorry for your loss…" she bowed her head almost in reverence.
Luke shook his head. She was too beautiful to look so sad. "Don't be sorry, you didn't know."
"What happened to him?" she murmured.
"He had been a navigator on a spice-freighter until his death-"
"He was a what? Boy, please!" she hooted. "Anakin must be rolling in his grave to be remembered as a drug runner!"
Luke flushed. "T-That's what I was told… so, how did you know him?"
"He was my master."
Luke gasped in alarm. "You… you were his slave!?" He found this information disturbing. Having a slave owner as a father was something he did not envision for himself.
"What? No!" the girl corrected him. "He never owned me! I was only learning from him because I was his Padawan!"
"Oh…" Luke blinked, sinking back in his seat feeling relieved. "What's a padawan?"
"An apprentice to a Jedi Knight."
Luke blinked, his baby blue eyes going wide.
Unsure if he understood or not, the girl asked him, "Um... do you know what a Jedi is?"
"You're saying my father was not a spice smuggler but an actual…" Luke trailed, his mind spinning. "That means… you're a Jedi too!" he breathed with awe. "I thought they were all extinct!" Luke instantly regretted his words when he saw her flinch.
She self-consciously shifted her hands to her waist and found one of her cylinders missing. "Where is my other lightsaber?" She did not yell, but the fervency in her voice demand shook him to the core. "Did I lose it in the sands…" her eyes turned sharp. "…or did you take one?"
Luke held up his hands. "Don't be upset!" He fretted. "It's right over there!" He pointed to the counter.
The humanoid stood up abruptly to retrieve her weapon.
"Sorry, I, um, I looked at it while you were unconscious…" he confessed.
Her lips twitched. "Is that why you're missing a bang?" Luke's cheeks flushed as she began to laugh at his expense. "Well, at least you didn't burn a hole through your head!"
This couldn't get any more humiliating as he embarrassed himself in front of his father's student. Luke's brow wrinkled when a thought came to him. "Wait... you said you were trained by my father before he died?"
"Yep," she nodded. "I was his apprentice for over two years."
Luke cocked his head to the side. "But you look so…um, actually, I not sure how your species age but-"
"I am nineteen," she answered with amusement.
"Okay, now this really doesn't make sense," Luke stated decisively. "How could you be trained by him and yet be the same age as me?"
She glanced over her shoulders. "Of course it does," she insisted. Luke felt his heart flutter at the sight of those sky-blue eyes twinkling for the first time. "When one uses time travel."
Time travel?
Luke fell back into a stunned silence. It sounded too surreal to be true and yet, here she was. He recalled her words from earlier. The first thing she had asked him was the stardate and muttered despairingly about "springing forward."
"…okay…" he decided to indulge her. "...somehow you ended up in the future. So what were you really trying to do?"
The girl retook her seat across from him. "I wanted to go backwards in time to prevent the rise of the Empire. Those were the intentions of me and my companion, but something like this hasn't been attempted before so-"
"You had a partner helping you?" Luke wondered if that person was still out there buried beneath the sand dunes.
"Yeah, but she's long gone by now. It's been seventeen years and I doubt she hung around that long," She sighed. Her lekku swayed side to side as she shook her head sadly.
Luke watched her transfixed. He had seen Twi'leks before, but never a… whatever species she was... Her lekku were an ivory white with navy blue stripes swirling down to its tips. So pretty, so unique. There wasn't much beauty on this sizzling rock he called home. Hutts were repulsive and the suns aged humans faster than the eye could blink.
"But apparently that's not how time travel works according to the Force…"
That got Luke's attention as the young woman continued.
"What is done is done. The past cannot be changed and travelers are not permitted to go backward. It does, however, allow a traveler to go forward."
"What is the Force?" he blurted.
She gaped at him with an incredulous look. "How could you not know?"
Luke shifted uncomfortably. He did not want to look like an ignorant farm boy in front of her. "No one talks about it and the history data-cards don't contain any information regarding it. All I know it's some ancient religion of the Jedi-"
She rolled her eyes. "Geez, it's not a religion!" she retorted.
Luke held up his hands. "Sorry!" he apologized quickly. This sand angel had a bit of a temper it would seem. "That's all I was ever told!"
"Well, you are strong in the Force yourself, Luke," she remarked.
Luke blinked. "…I am?"
She nodded. "I can sense it flowing through you by just being in your presence, but still…" she trailed, looking even more disturbed. "…how could the child of my master be so oblivious in the ways of the Force?"
Luke's shoulders slumped. "It's not like he could tell me... my father was dead before I was born."
"Oh," her face softened. "So, you never knew him at all or any other Jedi?"
"No. I was raised as a baby on Tatooine with my Aunt and Uncle."
The woman bowed her head to him. "Forgive my thoughtless words."
"Naw," Luke waved off her apology. "You meant no harm."
He glanced out the window to see the last glimpse of the suns on the horizon. "It's getting late so why don't you stay the night… I… I mean! Ahem!" he cleared his throat nervously. "I mean if you want to! It's just that it's dangerous traveling the dunes at night and well I-"
"Sure, I would love to stay with my master's kid. Thanks for the offer, Luke, and thank for all you did for me today," she smiled warmly at him.
"Y-Your welcome," he gulped, feeling strangely flustered. "Let me make us some dinner," Luke got up and headed into the kitchen. "I'll make you my specialty, dustcrepes with nausage!"
"That sounds good," she got up as well. "Can I help you?"
Luke waved her off. "You don't have to-"
"But I insist," she offered. "It's the least I could do."
"Well, okay. Thanks, um..." Luke trailed. "Sorry, I never asked what your name was," he chuckled sheepishly.
She paused, chewing her bottom lip as if contemplating whether to tell him or not. "… it's Ashoka… " she answered finally. "My name is Ashoka Tano."
"Why did you hesitate to tell me your name?" Luke muttered, feeling strangely hurt.
Apologetic eyes bore into his. "I am sorry, Luke. I mean you no offense. It's been awhile since I used my real name… even before my time skip, I was on the run from the Empire for two years going under the alias, Ashla."
Luke felt a rush of pity for her. "I'm sorry, Ahsoka," he whispered softly, testing her name on his tongue.
"For what?" she wondered.
"That the galaxy is still a mess 17 years later."
Ahsoka did a half shrug. "It's not your fault, kiddo."
My Master's kid.
Kiddo.
It irked Luke to have her consistently refer to him as a child. "We're the same age!" he reminded her.
"Only in body," she replies.
When their eyes connected, Luke found a deep sadness only found through the experience of loss and hardship in her depths. Just what had Ahsoka been through? He wanted to ask, but further questions could wait until tomorrow.
"...yeah, I guess you're right," Luke agreed. "Here, you can clean and peel these gattuti roots. Put them in the strainer when you're done."
"Alright."
After washing her hands, Ahsoka got to work peeling the roots while Luke heated up the stove and reached into the fridge to retrieve some batter. They settled into a comfortable silence with only the sounds of sizzling food and clanking utensils were heard as the rich aroma of fresh-baked crepes and spicy gattuti filled the air.