Luke was startled awake when a hand closed on neck and lifted him clean into the air, like he was some Eopie pup. He was hauled up to stare right into the face of one of the Weequays. The thing was all leathery wrinkles and sneer.
"It's a human," it said in disgust. "One of the small ones."
"I needed transport," Luke said, squirming to try and break free. "I didn't hurt your profits."
"Nah, just had a free lift, didn't it?" A Weequay behind sneered. "Think we're running a charity, small human?"
"I'll fix something," Luke offered. "I can fix things. Something you'd lose a profit on anyway."
He was tossed towards the other one and then picked up like a sack of garbage. He winced as he was brought out into the light. A frantic glance told him they were definitely on a different planet. There were flashes of stick line things and flashes of colours that he wanted to stare at.
But there were more important things he needed to pay attention to.
He could spot the leader right away. The Weequay stood without moving, arms folded and his eyes glaring under the googles. Weequay's always looked like they were scowling, Luke had found, but this one looked furious.
"It says it can fix things," the one carrying Luke declared as he dropped Luke to the dusty ground.
"Can it?"
Luke reared back at the tone and then set his jaw because no-one in the galaxy ever cared if you were frightened.
"I can fix something to pay for the lift," he offered again. "Might as well, I've done it now."
It might be stupid to remind them of the fact that he'd stolen a lift. Most of the Weequays hissed at the reminder. "Sell it," one sneered.
"How old is it?" the Weequay asked, cutting through the noise. Most of them looked blank.
"I'm thirteen," Luke lied.
"Almost grown," a Weequay translated and Luke felt a small puff of pride that he'd managed to fool them.
"It's short," the leader huffed. "Taller humans get a better price."
"I…we grow suddenly," Luke tried, trying to stall for time. "Sometimes," he added when a few started to look doubtful.
The Weequay in charge gestured at one of his crew and a staff was brought forward. It has been crushed by the looks of it and Luke stared at the object as it was tossed down to him. "Fix it," he was told. "Or I will sell you to the slavers."
Like they were hard to escape from. Luke couldn't count the amount of people he'd met who had once been aboard a slavers ship. But Luke schooled his expression in such a way that he hoped it looked scared and then reached up for the staff.
There were power couplers at the end and it looked like, when on and working, it would conduct energy across the ends. "It's a weapon," Luke mumbled, a little surprised that he'd never seen a weapon like it.
"You have an hour."
"I need tools," Luke said, turning it over and studying the other, functioning side. He turned it on and blinked for a moment as the sound briefly reminded him of Old Ben's lightsabre.
He turned it off and studied it a moment longer. When he looked up, the Weequay in charge was watching him with an odd expression on its face.
"Humans are stupid," it muttered.
Luke ignored him. Instead, he sat cross legged and fascinated by the thing in front of him. He'd been half sure that he'd seen most weapons and yet, this one was new to him. By the time they brought over the tools and dumped them with a rattle and clang, he was pretty sure he understood how it worked.
This was easy work. The amount of times that Old Ben had bartered them onto a ship with Luke's ability was stupid. Often Luke would be left with the crew if Old Ben deemed them safe enough and then Ben would find him a month or two down the line, picking him up and dumping him on the next ship and the next and the next.
There had been a time when it had been different. He remembered the sand of Tatooine and his aunt and that she had sung to him and that he'd had friends his own age.
He didn't know why it had changed. He didn't know why Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen hadn't come with him.
He never knew why.
"You said an hour," a Weequay snapped at him later.
"I'm making it better," Luke huffed. "The other side is loose."
The staff was snatched from his hands and Luke glared up, squinting again. The leader (Luke was almost sure it was the leader) studied it, and then nodded. "Close this up," he ordered. "You can have this," he offered another of his men. "Give them Jedi something to think twice about."
Jedi?
The Jedi were dead. Old Ben was all that was left. Luke took the staff back and closed up the panel, re-screwing the ends.
"You wanna say something?" The Weequay sneered at him. "Move quickly, small human."
Obeying, Luke handed the staff back then watched the Weequays start to prepare for something. There was a flurry of activity and a lot of muttering. Clearly, the Weequays were unhappy about something though they handled their blasters with glee.
He hesitated when the leader turned to him once more.
"You are not a nearly grown, human," it said to him.
"Prove it."
Weequays never smiled. Not that Luke had seen, but he'd swear there was almost one of this one's face. "Two of the Jedi are human," he said. "They'd probably prove it easily."
Kriff. Trying to act like he didn't care, Luke shrugged.
"If we win, they will be my hostages," the Weequar said. "If we lose…well…go down yourself. Either way, you will bother them with your survival and not me. There is no profit to be made from you."
"We're even," Luke checked.
He didn't get a reply but he did get a noise that was the equivalent of a Weequay rolling his eyes.
Xxx
Luke followed them. For the most part, the pirates didn't seem to care and he watched enviously as they got on the speedbikes and took off over the ridge.
No-one ever let him control anything that could be called speedy. Old Ben usually threatened everyone he left in charge of Luke that he was to go nowhere near piloting or driving.
The sounds of blasters could be heard and Luke peered over, curious. Down below there was a set of buildings that he vaguely recognised probably did some farming and there were plants with thick stalks and ridges that looked like thin platforms going all the way up the stem. Distracted, he found himself gazing at all the colours rather than the battle that was going on below.
He didn't stay distracted for long though. He clung to the ground and peered over and then stared, wide-eyed at the three lightsabers that were being wielded.
Jedi warriors.
Gasping, he edged forward, darting over them and trying to take everything in. To his side and on the edge of the cliff, the Weequays were getting vicious with the guns they were firing down into the valley and Luke gazed at them, a little relieved that there was some distance between him and them.
It seemed an obvious ending. The Weequays withdrew when it became clear it was more effort than the battle was worth and Luke squinted up as their huge ship roared up into the sky. He'd guess the smaller one he'd come in was docked in there somewhere. And then they were gone, the villagers below cheering and the Jedi standing tall against the sky, watching them leave.
It was like something out of a story that smugglers told when drunk. The kind when they got sad and wanted to talk about the past. The kind of stories that weren't real because life wasn't like that.
It was probably a trap. Luke knew that. Had been warned against it so many times. But the Weequays were flying away and, well…he wasn't really sure what other options he had because he needed to get off this planet, whatever it was.
He flexed his fingers in the dirt underneath his fingers and hummed to himself, trying to weigh it up. A small part of him was waiting for some hint to come from Old Ben, but he'd felt nothing since he'd left the Temple, however many hours ago that had been.
In the end, he climbed down the ridge, grinning as he gained speed and ended up tearing down the slope. The stalks with the colourful ridges were easy enough to climb as a bit of a distraction and he could see ahead where most of the fighting had been. Small figures were wandering around the village ahead and a few taller figures seemed to be talking to them seriously.
Maybe…maybe getting closer would help him make up his mind.
He clambered down and jumped to the ground, then scampered closer to the village, pausing only to study some of the crashed speeder bikes before admitting that even he would struggle to put it back together without some tools.
He froze when a creature opposite him was doing the same. It had a long face, all nose and kind eyes. He was dressed as if he'd been in battle, but he didn't walk like any fighter that Luke had seen. He had to live in the village that Luke had seen earlier.
They stared at each other warily and then Luke edged a little to the side, hoping to get by without a word being said.
"There's a small human," the thing yelped loudly. "A small human. Come. Quick."
Poodoo!
Luke turned and ran.
He didn't know where he was going, only that he needed to make sure that he wasn't captured by anyone again. The huge plant life made it easy to lose himself in what was becoming a maze of thick stalks and colourful ridges, but he could hear noises as if they were giving chase and that wasn't good.
He sprinted as fast as he could, skidding underneath the ridges and not daring to look back in order to keep himself weaving through the plants.
Should have stuck with the pirates. At least they were easy to trade with and predict.
A flutter of panic wove through his belly.
Then strong hands gripped him and lifted him up so that his feet almost ran through air for a second as his brain started to adjust. And this time he was being held by his upper arms rather than the scruff of his neck and it was a secure solid grasp rather than a careless irritated one.
"By the force," a familiar voice rung out. "What are you doing out here, youngling."
And Luke found himself staring into Old Ben's eyes in a much younger version of the man's face and felt a deep sinking feeling in him when it wasn't followed by the usual tirade about how careless and foolish he had just been.
No. Instead, Old Ben looked as if he didn't have a clue who Luke was.
Xxx
They didn't let him go. Luke was hauled into a ship that he'd have to blind not to recognise as one that belonged to bounty hunters. He was put in a corner as they hopped a lift to some outpost where they were then given a ship (who gave people ships?!).
Once inside their own ship, they gave him food. Finally. Luke sat in the edge of the ship and messily wolfed the rations down, not caring when the Togruta Jedi apprentice stared at him with disgust.
You ate when you could. Everyone knew that.
"Is there more?" he asked hopefully, when he'd licked the cartoon clean.
The Jedi human who wasn't Old Ben, the one who was younger and dressed in darker clothes, threw him a stunned look. "Do you ever stop eating?" he asked wearily as he reached in for another pack.
Luke eyed him up and then darted forward to snatch it up from the man's grasp. "I'm hungry," he muttered.
"When was the last time you ate?" Old Ben asked, folding his arms and frowning down with some concern.
When you last fed me, Luke wanted to say. But there was something strange going on and he wasn't about to be stupid. "Dunno," he said with a shrug. "Pirates didn't feed me."
"So you were with them?" the other Jedi asked, and there was a little bit of a sneer on his face.
"No. Fixed their staff thing so they wouldn't sell me to the slavers for sneaking on their ship." Luke tore into the rations and scooped the mush out with his fingers, going a little slower now that the burning hunger had lessened. "I fix things," he added, just in case he needed to barter his services. He drew his knees a little closer to his chest, part of him sure that things would go better of he took up less room on the ship.
Though he was with Old Ben now, he thought glancing at the man and feeling a weird unease when he did. This wasn't how things usually went.
Old Ben exchanged a look with the other Jedi and sighed. "Where are you parents?" Old Ben asked quietly as the Togruta Jedi seemed to find the end of her patience with watching him eat and climbed into the cockpit.
The human Jedi watched her go with an almost envious look on his face.
"Dead," Luke said with a careless shrug, peering after the female and half tempted to see if maybe he could at least just watch her fly the ship. Like, he wouldn't touch of nothing, just see the controls and maybe remember and-
Now the other Jedi was pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "We don't have time for this, Obi Wan. Hand him over to the GCS. They must have an outpost somewhere."
He was annoyed. Luke chewed on the mush and glanced between the two men as the female closed the cockpit door with what he was sure was a smirk at the other human Jedi.
Old Ben had said…
Maybe it was a game, Luke thought, staring at him as he dunked his fingers into the mush again. Shovelling another scoop into his mouth, Luke decided it might be worth taking a risk. "I was told to find you," he risked as he licked his fingers. "On Coruscant though," he added still thinking that was mad. "Like anyone's dumb enough to do that."
That seemed to have an effect. The Jedi exchanged a look, their brows creasing in a way that many people's faces did when they were confused and then Old Ben was in front of him, kneeling down and still looking younger as he frowned. "Who told you to find me?"
"Old Ben." Luke stared at the floor now, food forgotten. "He said he was talking to you," he added in a small voice, still confused by that.
But it must have meant something because Old Ben knelt down by him and moved the ration tin to one side, the sound ringing out loud as metal scraped against metal.
"What is it?" the other Jedi asked.
"I'm not sure?" Old Ben replied as he reached out for Luke's forehead. Luke jerked away, bumping his head on the ship's hull behind.
"I will not hurt you," Old Ben promised but he still talked as if Luke was a stranger and it was weird to hear him be nice and not really care at the same time. "Let me see."
Old Ben was clever when it came to the mind. Luke could keep everything tightly coiled up and hidden and Ben could layer stuff over the top that Luke had no control over.
And this he saw.
The moment Old Ben prodded, Luke could see events he couldn't understand. Old Ben looking younger and staring at the other Jedi man with worry. A pretty woman with the nicest smile Luke had ever seen. There was a long dress that still showed a bump when she moved at a strange angle. A whispering shadowed hooded figure. A baby crying and the woman screaming and the other Jedi's eyes going red.
And then images that were familiar. Luke, younger and playing with Aunt Beru while Uncle Owen and Old Ben watched on. A news cast about the assassination of the royal house of Aldaraan. Him and Old Ben running. Always running. And the heavy breathing that Luke pulled them away from because he didn't want to remember that moment.
And then the Temple. Old Ben staring at them earnestly, as if it were important beyond words. "What happened here, in this time. Do not let it happen again. The boy will save Anakin, but I cannot predict how that will change things. Vader died the moment he had to choose between the boy and his power. Luke is the key and he is all you will need to save us all."
And then the image was gone and Luke stared up into Old Ben's eyes that actually, for a moment looked like they used to before Old Ben yanked himself away and stood shaking.
"Master?" the other Jedi asked, stepping forward in a sort of protective manner as he glared down at Luke, like it was Luke's fault that Old Ben had left a message for himself in Luke's head.
Thankfully, Old Ben waved a hand at the man, stopping him in his track. "Don't," he croaked, hoarse. "I cannot…this is unheard of," he whispered.
"Master?" It was a more urgent demand this time.
"The youngling is from the future," Old Ben breathed, staring down at Luke in horror. "How are you from the future?" he asked.
The future? "I'm from Tattooine," Luke mumbled, not understanding and pushing a little more into the ship's hull.
"Yes, I saw," Old Ben said, his tone gentling as he stared at Luke and seemed to get some control again.
"The future?" The other Jedi sounded as if he'd never heard something so stupid in all his life. "Obi-Wan, you can't seriously…"
"Search the force, Anakin. Search around him. He is out of place. Once you see it, it's hard to understand how you didn't."
The other man…Anakin? blinked and then looked down at Luke for a long moment. For a moment, he just stared at Luke and it made him shift, feeling the weight of that gaze. Then suddenly Anakin's eyebrows rose a little. He sucked in an odd breath and stepped back, leaning back against the ship's hull so that he was almost directly opposite Luke.
He wasn't sure what they were doing, but they both seemed fascinated by him.
"And…I believe there is something that you should have told me, Anakin."
"Maybe we should deal with the youngling from the future before you start scolding me for whatever it is you've decided to take issue with today."
Old Ben opened his mouth and then looked oddly resigned before he turned to the Jedi. "His name is Luke Skywalker."
Anakin opened his mouth and then his jaw dropped, as if moving without his say-so.
That was a secret. They weren't meant to ever say the last name. Glaring at Old Ben, Luke folded his arms. "Not meant to tell people," he huffed.
"I imagine not," Old Ben muttered before he scrubbed a hand over his face. "Anakin?"
The other Jedi was shaking his head still. There was a noise as the cockpit opened and the Togruta Jedi blinked at them all, but let her eyes rest of Anakin. The silence was so heavy that Luke found himself dragging his eyes away from the three of them and searching desperately for a place to wriggle off to so that they would forget he was there.
"Here," Old Ben said, handing Luke the food again. "Eat. We need to have a conversation." He almost had to steer the Anakin out of the room and into the single privacy cabin that they had on the ship. The Togruta opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it when Old Ben shook his head at her. With a wide-eyed glance at Luke, she settled back into the cockpit, though she didn't close the hatch this time.
It didn't take long for him to hear the voices of the Jedi men as they started to get louder and louder. Luke stared at the door, unsure. He gulped down the rest of his food and then looked around, a little defeated already because it was a small ship and there wasn't room for him to hide just for a little while so he could sleep.
He jumped when the door opened. Anakin stood and stared at him as if he'd forgotten that Luke would be there. Then with an odd noise, he stormed past Luke and went into the cockpit, slamming the door closed.
Almost two minutes later the door opened again and the Togurta came out, glancing over her shoulder with worry as she carefully shut the hatch. Luke pressed back into the wall, uncertain because Old Ben still hadn't come out of the room.
The Togruta came over to him, rummaging through the pack to hand him some cloth. "For your face," she explained when he stared at her blankly. "Here." She took it and wiped around his mouth. "My name is Ahsoka," she said softly. "How old are you, Luke?"
"Twelve," he tried.
"Really?" she asked, sounding almost as if she found his claim funny.
For a moment, Luke debated a smaller lie and then he gave up, feeling oddly tired. "Seven." Over her tentacles, he could see the privacy chamber door open and Old Ben stood, leaning against the doorway with a frown.
Ahsoka turned around to look up at Old Ben. "Is he…is he Anakin's?"
Old Ben nodded slowly. "Doesn't take a genius to work out who the mother would be," he added, sighing heavily and leaning his head against the door frame. "You said…you said your parents were dead?" he asked after a moment of staring at Luke.
Nodding, Luke darted a glance around again, desperate for some maintenance hatch he could curl up in and leave the conversation behind for a bit.
"Do you remember when your parents died?" Old Ben pressed which was so strange because Old Ben was the one that told Luke most of the information about his parents. You know, when he was in a weird mood.
Luke shook his head. When they kept staring at him, he chewed on his thumb nail. "I…I don't really remember them," he mumbled.
"And who's been looking after you since then?" Ahsoka said, looking worried suddenly. She tried to exchange a fierce look with Old Ben, but the man was ignoring her in favour of staring at Luke.
Luke gazed up at Old Ben and then shrugged, still not understanding what they were doing.
Xxx
In the cockpit, Anakin punched in the holo key and the authorisation code to contact his wife because he hardly needed to keep that one secret now thanks to-
He wasn't even thinking about HIM.
Refused to.
Despite everything, his heart brightened a little at the sight of Padme as she answered the call. It was probably just before a meeting, he recognised the heavy robes and the hair that was probably about to have the finishing touches set to it.
The things he had learned since being married to her.
"Jedi Skywalker," Padme said, smiling as she answered the call. "Can I help you?"
"They know."
He needed to get control of himself. That shouldn't have been how he told her and he could see the wobble in her expression before she schooled her face into something perfectly neutral. "Know what?"
He couldn't say it, but his face must have been enough because her eyes warmed with sympathy. "Ani," she whispered softly. "Are you sure?"
"I admitted it to Obi-Wan," he confessed. "There was…" he groaned and leaned forward, tugging at his hair with his fingers.
"Ani, I need you to explain what happened," she said firmly. "I need to know what's happening so I can help."
Help. She would help because they were a team and this was why he couldn't ever cope without her. Slowly, he raised his head and stared at her, wishing desperately that he was closer and could just hold her, just briefly. It would be all that he needed to tackle this head on.
"I…" he sat back a bit. "We were on Felucia," he said. "Ran into pirates and-" he waved a hand because it was hardly important now. "The force…"
"Ani," she snapped. "Quickly. Before I have to talk to the council."
"We found a boy who's from the future and when Obi Wan looked in his head it turns out he might be our son. From the future."
There. The ridiculous kriffin' situation all laid out for her. He watched her as she lifted her gaze away from the screen and seemed to be staring at something over his head. A muscle in her jaw ticked and she took several breaths.
"I…that's…are you…" she closed her eyes and shook her head. "Of course you're sure, you wouldn't have confessed if you weren't." She looked down and he could see her gathering herself together. He watched closely, half hoping that she would give him some hint of how to deal with this.
"A child?" she asked eventually and he felt a stutter of panic at the hopeful tone in her voice. "How old?"
He had no idea. "About," he tried to measure with his hand before remembering that she couldn't see how far off the floor he was indicating. "I don't know," he confessed. "It wasn't…Obi Wan knows," he said, unable to get past that key fact. "He's going to tell the council."
"We knew this could happen," she said after a moment. "And you need to prepare for-"
Anakin closed his eyes. "We're at war," he said, uselessly. "I can help."
She nodded seriously. "You don't need to be a Jedi Knight to help people," she said quietly and he loved her a little bit more for the certainty in her voice. "Are you coming back then?"
"Oh yeah," Anakin said opening his eyes and tracing his finger over the screen. "It's the only bearable thing about this. I'll be seeing you shortly."
"Obi Wan will contact the council after you finish this," Padme said with certainty. "Ani…what are the chances that they'll try to take the child?"
The child?
Anakin glanced back at the door and thought about the wild feral thing that ate like a creature and helped pirates. If the council had almost turned him away as a child, he doubted they'd want the one on the other side of the door.
"Not to train," he said, and there was not a moment's hesitation there. "But…they will need to know what happened in the future. Obi Wan left himself a message in the boy's mind. Apparently there's a danger threatening-"
He broke off as the boy's frank statement earlier hit him again. He'd said his parents were dead.
Both of them.
He and Padme died young in the future if nothing changed.
"I'll deal with it," Padme said firmly. "Just get both of you back here in one piece."
Both of them? Anakin nodded and almost protested as the screen went blank. What if…what if the council didn't want him and they didn't want the boy? From the sounds of it, Padme wanted to at least meet him. And she was good, she would probably want to look after the child…
He had no idea how he felt about that.
xxx
Luke fell asleep at some point, huddled against the metal walls of the ship. He usually fell asleep when he found Old Ben again, like some instinct was fine with him finally resting because Old Ben was there to take care of things again.
He woke because it felt miserable and frustrated. And what 'it' was, he couldn't say exactly, but he felt it and he curled up tighter because he didn't like it.
"-how could I not tell the council?"
"We're at war," Anakin was saying. "We need every fighter out there. He doesn't change that."
"But it does change you," Old Ben said firmly. "Anakin, for force sake, you are married!"
Luke peeped an eye open. Old Ben and Anakin were sat at the tiny table. Anakin had his elbows on the table and head in his hands as if his world was coming to an end.
"And the world I saw… it was jumbled Anakin, I cannot lie. I barely understood what I was seeing. But there is a malevolent force out there and somehow that boy will save you-"
There was a snort that Luke felt was just a bit rude. Like Luke was incapable of saving people.
"Do you think you can ignore this?" And that tone, Luke knew well. Old Ben was changing his argument just to make sure that he completely won the disagreement. "Will Padme agree that you should walk away from this child?"
"He isn't…" Anakin trailed off. "I don't feel anything for him. He's…"
"You will." Old Ben sounded odd suddenly. "It is the one thing I am certain of in this, Anakin. One day you will love him above everything else and, somehow, that will save you."
Luke closed his eyes when he felt both men were about to look over at him. Thankfully, the frustration was easing and it was easier to get to sleep.