Luke squinted at the last remains of his Uncle and Aunt's old homestead, a threadbare bag slung over his shoulder. A slow breeze picked up the sand at his feet, making it swirl lazily around him and the bases of the old, dilapidated moisture vaporators around the homestead. It was a wonder the Jawas hadn't picked off every last one of them.

The ruins of the homestead would have squinted back at him through the glare of the Tatooine suns, had they been sentient.

Why, Uncle Owen? Aunt Beru? Luke thought, Why didn't you tell me the truth about my Father?

Luke kicked the sand at his feet in frustration.

Old Ben had been the one to tell him that his father was a Jedi, after the abrupt deaths of his Aunt and Uncle. The old man had taken Luke in and helped him through his grief after that horrible day, helping to mold him into the young man he was now.

Ben had taught him so, so much.

And now he was gone. Dead. Lost to the desert, covered in sand with only a stone to mark his grave.

And he hadn't been there to stop it.

If he had just gotten there in time to stop the raiders, to help Ben fight…

No, Luke thought, Ben wouldn't want him to dwell on what-ifs. What had been done has been done, and no amount of wishful thinking could bring Ben back. Ben would want him to move on from his death, to let go, and to keep living his life.

The hardest part about all of it was accepting that, and abiding by Ben's wishes. How could he continue on with his life if Ben and his teachings were his life?

Even harder to accept, somehow, were Ben's final words.

Why didn't he tell me?

Luke's world would never be the same, now that Ben was dead. Now that he knew the secret that Ben had kept from him for all these years. And now, since everything tying him to this dustball was gone, Luke didn't have a reason to stay on this force-forsaken planet any longer.

After all, why would he stay on Tatooine when he could travel into the greater galaxy and help others? Isn't that what Jedi did, according to Ben's tales? Wouldn't Ben want him move on and learn to live on his own?

Outer Space was calling out to him, enticing him with the same promise that had led his father off of Tatooine and far, far away.

But even he knew that he wouldn't be able to leave without saying goodbye.

Mos Eisley was as dismal and dusty as Luke remembered it to be.

He had been 10 when Ben had first taken him there, staring at the crowds of sentients with big blue eyes and holding onto Ben's weathered hand like it was a lifeline. Luke had never been into a city before, and he soaked the experience in like a sponge.

Ben had looked at his wonder-filled expression, and had smiled that enigmatic smile of his. He had done that a lot, now that Luke thought about it.

"Well Young Luke," Ben had said to him, "If you think Mos Eisley is exciting, just wait until I tell you about Coruscant."

"Coruscant?!"

Ben chuckled softly at his apprentice's excitement. Although Anakin had always been good at hiding it, the glowing lights and behemoth-like buildings of Coruscant had always amazed him too.

Oh, Anakin.

There was so much of his father in Luke, but, yet, there was a lightness his father had never known to him, despite everything the young boy had already gone through in his short life.

"Well, as you do already know, young one, I used to live there."

Luke looked up at him in wonder.

"Awesome! What was it like, Ben?"

Ben looked up and put his hand to his chin, deep in thought.

"Well… it was rather… noisy, I guess. Loud. Bright. Smelly. Although, if I were you Young Luke, I wouldn't exactly trust my description. Coruscant's probably changed quite a bit since I last was there."

What Ben had meant to say went unspoken between the two of them. Coruscant, the capital world of the Republic, was now Imperial Center, the capital world of the Empire. The Empire that had killed Ben's apprentice and his Jedi comrades. That had taken everything away from him.

"Still, Ben! That's amazing!"

Ben chuckled at Luke's excitement. Moments like these were the reason he felt content, despite everything that had happened to him.

The Cantina was as shady as ever.

As soon as Luke walked in, he was hit with the smells of illicit substances being smoked and the sound of smooth jizz, played live by the band in the corner. It was almost as if he had walked into a whole new world, but it was still undoubtedly Tatooine.

Luke scrunched his face at the assault of so many sensations.

It had been a while since he had been to a Cantina, and he'd never been to one alone.

"Mos Eisley is a hive of scum and villainy, Luke," Ben had said, "You must always stay on your toes, lest one of this lot deems you fit to rob or assault."

Luke's chest seized up at the unwanted memory. He closed his eyes, unwilling to look weak in front of a crowd of hostile, criminally inclined sentients.

He took a deep breath. In and out, in and out, just like Ben had taught him to, years and years ago.

In...

and out.

"Luke. You need to let me go," he heard a familiar voice say, seemingly into the breeze. Yet, Luke knew that the owner of this voice had been permanently silenced.

Luke's eyes snapped open, shocked. He looked around for the source of the voice, despite knowing exactly what he would find.

"Let me go, young Luke," The voice repeated.

No, no! H-how? You're dead! I saw you die! Luke thought, shaking his head.

The voice continued to speak.

"You must leave, Luke. Do not let my death control your life."

Luke took in a breath, and closed his eyes, waiting for the voice to stop. It seemed so real, yet he knew Ben was gone.

He took another deep breath, shifted his pack so that he could keep an eye on it, and headed for the nearest vacant seat.

Luke sipped at his drink idly, tired from his unexplained lapse earlier. Had he finally snapped? Had living truly alone for the past month finally gotten to him?

That voice sounded so real! Like Ben was right there, talking to me...

Maybe he just needed to meditate. After all, he hadn't even been close to getting into a meditative state since Ben…

Luke took a sip of his drink and sighed, his bangs tickling the edge of his glass.

When he was younger and the scars of his Uncle and Aunt's untimely death were still raw, Ben would tell him to get up, to move, to eventually make the pain of losing them soothe into a dull ache. Ben would convince him to do something else beside moping, somehow getting him to do even the littlest of things. And then, the smallest things, like a smile, a trip for groceries, and even meditation would make him feel better, would make the pain go away for a while.

But now, Luke was alone. Luke didn't have Ben to help him process his grief.

And the pain of the old man's death never seemed to go away.

Luke was through with this pain, through with hurting and moping. Through with just thinking of moving on, but not actually managing to get up and walk away.

"Let me go, Young Luke." Ben's voice had told him, as tired and weary as it always was in life, yet somehow lighter that Luke remembered, like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

Wasn't letting go the Jedi Way? What Ben would want for him?

Luke was going to move on, or die trying. He was going to let go, and become the Jedi knight Ben had trained him to become.

"Do not let my death control your life."

He was going to find out the truth behind Ben's last words, and settle Ben's fight, once and for all.

Tatooine's first sun had just just disappeared below the horizon when Luke had finished wrapping up his affairs and securing enough funds for passage off of the planet. After all, one couldn't live with barely any money forever, as he had learned during his time with Old Ben. They would have to take up small jobs sometimes in order to get enough to survive, after all, being a Jedi didn't exactly pay well if one was a Jedi in hiding.

It was finally time to leave this sandy old dustball for good.

Luke looked up at the sun, wistful. He had waited so long for this moment to happen, and yet, he felt as if he couldn't get himself to leave now that it had come. Was it because everyone he had lost was here?

Well, almost everyone he had lost. There was one he had never known and never truly lost, but…

If Ben was right…

He had to go. He had to find him, and finally have the one thing he had never had, but had been so close to having twice, once with his uncle and once with Old Ben…

A Father.

Luke ran to the docks like a sandstorm was at his heels. He knew somehow that if he didn't leave now, he might never.

He had made it halfway there when he had to stop for breath.

Man, I really shouldn't have slacked so much on physical training after Ben's...

It was much easier to think of the old man, now that he had made the conscious decision to let the old man go.

But that didn't mean it wasn't hard to do.

Luke sighed and picked up his bag, jostling it for good measure.

Now isn't the time for these sorts of thoughts.

He slung his bag over his back and continued to run.