PART ONE

The warm air rushed passed his face, ruffling his hair and
fluttering his cloak behind him. His face, drawn and tight framed
his magnetic blue eyes that were now dark, full of pain and worry.
The light had faded, and the desert was only lit up by the three
moons of Tatooine. They cast an eery half light across the red
sands, that faded into the dark recesses of the jutting rocks.
He had driven his podracer through these sands as a child. Even now
as the urgency of the situation was upon him, he remembered being
that child. So young. Innocent. Full of mischief.
Anakin remembered those days with his mother…a hard life as slaves,
but they had been happy together. The last ten years he had missed
her very much and now…
She's there. I can feel her. Every moment he could feel her getting
closer and closer to him…and with that sense he could feel her
pain. It was excruciating, to the point that he almost felt it in
his own body. Mother, I am coming. I am coming!
He was also getting closer and closer to the camp of the Tusken
Raiders. Anakin sensed them too, but not with the same warm, burning
concern. It was with an icy flare of an emotion that was agony and
anger in one. The thought of them touching his mother made him
absolutely livid.
Focus, Anakin. He told himself, filling himself with the force so
that he was devoid of anything but his purpose. I can't afford to
be distracted. Not now. She needs me.
Memories poured over him and he channelled his extra emotion quickly
into his mission. Letting out a silent sigh, he stopped the
speeder. He was very close by.
He climbed off the speeder, leaving it hidden behind a clump of
rocks, and mentally began to prepare himself.
Filled with the force, Anakin climbed swiftly towards the edge of a
cliff, moving silently and swiftly through the darkness. He stood and
surveyed the camp below him. She was there. Heart pounding, he
quickly and quietly dropped himself over the cliff…

PART TWO

Anakin stood in the shadows next to the cliff, the hood of his cloak
drawn almost entirely over his face. He was filled with the force,
it was held in him and yet it rushed through him heightening his
senses to their peak. His intense blue eyes scanned the darkness in
front of him, easily picking out the shapes of slowly moving figures
ahead of him in the darkness, their presence beaming sharp ebbs of
danger through the force.
A sharp stab of pain hit him through the force, and Anakin's face
hardened further into stoniness. Mom. I am coming Mom. She was so
close now. He could feel her. And with her strengthened presence,
came a sharper blast of pain that assaulted him physically. She was
so weak. Barely hanging on.
Mom.
Anakin slipped away from the cliff and ran silently and quickly
towards one of the first tents of the Tusken encampment. He paused,
again in the deep shadows, washing himself with the force,
focusing. If they killed her…
He let the thought hang as he stealthily crept closer to his
mother. He could feel her, her presence pulled through their bond
like a magnet. There…she was there…
His eyes settled on the tent in front of him, noticing swiftly the
four Tuscens just outside the entrance. Anakin narrowed his eyes,
and then a few seconds later was upon them fiercely, his lightsabre
in his hands. He dropped to the ground as he noticed a few Tuskens
hanging around the outside of the tent. Wiggling on his front he
moved slowly but quietly towards the hut where the strong sense of
his mother was. Once he reached the hut, he activated his sabre and
began cutting a hole in the wall. Slowly he melted away the muddy
hard wall. When finished he pushed and the wall fell inward, giving
him space to crawl through.
The interior was filled with candles, giving off very dim light, and
if it wasn't for the small shaft of moonlight that was falling
through the hole in the ceiling, he mightn't have seen her right
away.

Agony pierced him like a wall when he saw her. She was hanging from
the ceiling by her tied wrists, and covered in blood and bruises.
Her eyes were closed, and though he could feel the weak pulsing of
her life force across the room, she barely looked alive. Fear for
her pierced him. Mom.

A few moments later he had leaped across the room and was busy
cutting her down with his sabre. She dropped easily and he caught
her gently in his arms. Tenderness flooded him, and tears choked upthe back of his eyes and throat as he cradled her, afraid he would
hurt her with his touch.
"Mom…Mom….Mom…Mom…" he whispered softly, brokenly, as her scent
washed over him. He was a little boy again, all of a sudden. Not a
Jedi. Not grown up. Little Ani.

Shmi's swollen eyes, caked with blood, slowly flickered open then,
and focussed tiredly, full of exhaustion and pain on Anakin. "Ani…?"
she breathed weakly, in amazement, "Is it you?"

Anakin choked at her words, sucking in a broken gasp as he felt her
eyes focus on his. "I'm here, Mom. You're safe. Hang on. I'm going
to get you out of here..." he whispered hoarsely, desperately,
hoping to comfort her and give her hope. Pain for her flooded him,
even as tenderness touched him as she reached out a shaking hand to
touch his face and hair. He began to try and flow peace and comfort
through the force to her, though he himself did not feel it.
"Ani? Ani? You look so handsome," she told him, not seeming to hear
his words, " My son... my
grown-up son…" her voice came brokenly, and filled with pain, "I'm
so proud of you, Ani... so proud... I missed you so much..." she
paused, staring lovingly at him, "Now..." she paused, exhaustion
evident in her voice, "I am complete…." She sighed, peace and
contentment alighting her broken face.
Alarm and fear slammed through him. "Just stay with me, Mom," he
urged her, desperately, "I'm going to make you well again.
Everything's... going to be fine." His heart caught in his throat as
he felt a devastating shift in the force. Terrified, he stared at
her. Her mouth began to move again slightly…
"I love…" her words were broken off as the life went out of her. She
slumped against him, and pain hit him full force and erupted within
him, as he felt his bond with her completely shut off. Mom! He
couldn't speak, he couldn't cry out as he held her close to himself,
burying his face in her hair. A moment later he looked up, staring
unseeingly into the air as tears burst through his eyes and a sob
broke through him. Shoulders shaking as he sobbed silently, clinging
to the lifeless form of his mother. Mom…don't die…please no! MOM!!!
I love you mom! I can't do this without you!

PART THREE

Anakin sat rocking his mother back and forth in his arms for a long
time, mumbling to her, until he had no more tears, and his movements
had stilled. Her body was now cold, and yet he still sat in the
middle of the hut, in silence, seemingly frozen in one spot. His
grief had turned to a numb vacancy inside, as the silence sunk in,
and the darkness sunk in. The hollow emptiness opened up into
himself a shallow grave of pain that bubbled up threatening to
consume him. Dark thoughts began to swirl inside his head.
Those damn Tuscens. They are what did this to her! They killed her!
Took her away from me! They stole her! They are evil, and terrible
beings…His stomach churned, as he envisioned images of the torture…
He seethed, festering the anger that had been a constant thorn in
his side. It surged through his pain giving way to hate, the hate
giving more and more fuel to his anger. A huge blast of the force
was sucked through him.
His head snapped up. Cold anger sizzled in his narrowing eyes.
They deserve to die.
Laying his mother carefully on the ground he leaped to his feet,
muscles stiff and alert, eyes beginning to blaze in a cold anger
that was burning greater with each second. He would make them pay!
Those dirty Tuscens would feel the pain of hurting his mother…he
would give them what they deserved a hundred fold!

The dark force surged through him, feeding off his pain and anger
exploding through the already residual tendency, and overtaking his
conscious thought. Darkness radiated on him, whispering all the
things he could do to make the Tuscens understand what pain was.
And he accepted it. He believed it. He became it. In a matter of
seconds his twisted with agony and anger, snapped into a deadly cold
fire, and in a flash his lightsabre was in his hands. He darted
across the hut and thrust himself out of the hole, and into the
early morning light, where Tuscens were slowly moving about.
Anger flushed him, and he attacked the first group of Tusken men
several feet away. They cried out their last breath, the killing
fuelling Anakin's hate. The hate burst through him then giving way
to his anger, and he was consumed.
His lightsabre flashed. He killed them. Women, children. He burst
into unsuspecting tents and cut them down even as they tried to
escape. It flushed him with darkness. The darkness carried him till
the end. Till Anakin was the only thing left alive in the camp.He stood there, surveying the dead, the force still thick with the
aftermath of killing. It left a sickening stench that filtered
through him, making him want to puke. But he didn't. The coldness
still remained. His eyes still held a dangerous edge.
Anakin snapped off his lightsabre, and began walking with long quick
strides back to the hut. On his way he snatched two large white
sheets off the clothesline of one of the Tusken women, and then
quickly entered the hut where his mother's body lay.
"Mom," he whispered, still broken, yet his voice now held a cold
edge. "What would you think of me now?" The question fell on an eery
silence, as his heart broke even more. I am so proud of you, Ani…
her words came back to him in a rush. Would she be proud of him now?
After what he'd just done? With a sinking feeling that he'd somehow
let her down instead of revenging her, Anakin knelt down carefully
next to her.
NO! came the warring contradiction. They deserved what they got Mom!
They had it coming after what they did to you! They did! I hate
them! I hate them for what they did to you! They took you away from
me!
He swallowed hard, his features turning cold as he layed the white
sheets out on a nearby roughly carved table, and then gently lifted
up Shmi's broken, cold body and layed her on top. Slowly, Anakin
wrapped his mother, his mind and body consumed with a violent
upsurge of warring emotion. Grief and regret. Love and Hate.
Shame and Anger. Defeat and Revenge.
They boiled within him.
They shook him.
When Anakin was done, he lifted his mother up into his arms, and
strode out of the hut, out of the camp, as fast as his long strides
would take him. He didn't want to be here anymore.
Face tense, eyes flickering watchfully over everything, he made it
to the Lars' speeder and carefully laid his mother on the back,
tying her there securely.
"I love you Mom," he whispered to himself before he threw a long leg
over the speeder and took off across the sand towards the Lars'
homestead.