Beru recalled how her mother used to go on about the "terrible twos." Any woman who gave birth to six children would know the phenomenon well. She loved to warn her daughter that normally sweet and calm babies would turn into terrors around the time they turned two years old.
For most of her life, Beru believed her mother had only engaged in hyperbole. For the last few months, the Tatooine housewife realized how wrong she was and how right her mother was.
Luke and Leia were excellent infants. Both twins were cheerful, curious, and loving. However, around the time of their second lifeday, their disposition changed. It was almost driving the young woman to distraction.
Still, Beru Lars deeply loved her niece and nephew and delighted in caring for them. She knew eventually this rough period would pass and she would have her darling babies back again.
Luke and Leia were a gift from the Maker himself; of that she was sure. Sometimes when she watched them sleep Beru could not help but tear up thinking about the twisted and broken path that brought these treasures into her and Owen's life.
The two children were similar in some ways; both very curious and intelligent. However, they were also wildly different in others. Their colorings were almost opposite of each other. Luke was fair haired with bright blue eyes and Leia's hair was dark with brown eyes. Sometimes it took Beru's breath away how much the girl resembled their grandmother Shmi.
Owen had not missed the resemblance. Sometimes Beru would catch him staring at the small girl with misty eyes.
Temperament wise, the twins were also different. Luke was much quieter than his sister. Leia had a powerful temper and had, on more than one occasion, let loose tantrums that would nearly shake the walls of the small hovel with her screaming.
Leia had just finished one such tantrum after refusing to lay down for her nap. It took much coaxing, but finally both twins were sound asleep.
As she prepared the family's evening meal, Beru was surprised to see her husband come into the hovel. "You're here early; is something wrong?"
Owen did not answer; instead he continued into the home and sat down at the kitchen table.
Frightened by what her husband's silence could mean, Beru immediately abandoned what she was doing and sat across from him. "Tell me what's wrong."
"I ran into Kenobi in Anchorhead."
Beru sighed; Ben Kenobi was not her husband's favorite person. "Someday you're going to have to get over whatever it is you have against him."
Ignoring his wife's gentle chiding, he continued, "He gave me some news."
Something in the even tone of Owen's voice frightened her. While his body was there, it appeared that his mind was light years away. "What news?"
"Luke and Leia's father is alive."
"Anakin's alive!" Ben had told them that Owen's stepbrother had been killed in the aftermath of the fall of the Republic. He never went into specifics, but she knew from his demeanor while talking about it that he had died horribly. "Ben said that..."
"Well, he was wrong!" He interrupted sharply. "He survived."
"There's more, isn't there?"
Owen nodded, "Oh yes, much more. I guess in the interest of full disclosure that wizard decided that he needed to finally tell us."
"Is Anakin looking for his children?" Beru asked hesitantly. She loved the twins more than anything and did not want to have them taken away.
"You'd better pray to that Maker of yours that he isn't."
Something about his tone sent shivers down her spine, "What is it?"
He sighed; it appeared to Beru that he did not even want to utter what he had learned. "Anakin Skywalker is now known as Darth Vader."
"What!" Beru did not know how to respond to something so preposterous. "I can't believe this."
"Trust me, I wish it wasn't true." Owen shook head in revulsion, "Kenobi knew what he had become, but didn't know that he had survived."
"When did he find out?"
"I don't know, I think it's been a while. He only now decided to tell us." The anger and betrayal was evident in her husband's voice.
"He must have had his reasons."
"Well he sure didn't tell me any of them!"
Beru lightly touched her husband's arm. "Owen, calm down, you'll wake the twins."
His anger seemed to dissipate somewhat. "What are we going to do?"
"I can't believe that Anakin and Darth Vader are the same. We met him, remember?"
Owen nodded, "Yes, do you also remember what he did to the sandpeople?"
Beru could not forget it. While she had not seen the aftermath of his attack and destruction of the entire Tusken camp, she remembered hearing her husband and father-in-law speak about it. Anakin had apparently killed every Tusken, even the children, with his lightsaber.
While no one grieved over the deaths of sandpeople, the community was shaken by the sheer brutality of the act. It did not seem like something a Jedi would do.
"What happened?"
"I don't know, Kenobi wouldn't tell me."
"Does he...does he know about Luke and Leia?" More than anything else, Beru feared the answer to that question.
"Kenobi doesn't think so; if he did, he would have come for them already."
"What do we do?" Beru asked again.
"I'll die before he touches them." Owen vowed. "They're our responsibility to protect, and that means protecting them from their father. He'll have to step over my dead body to get to them."
Beru reached out and grasped her husband's hand from across the table, "And mine too."
Owen sighed, "There's another thing, Kenobi wants them trained as Jedi when they're older."
"What!"
"He seems to think that they are the only ones who can restore peace to the galaxy, or some such nonsense." Owen got up and began to pace the small confines of the kitchen. "I told him what he could do with his Jedi training and that he wasn't getting near them!"
"What did he say?"
"Oh, he just continued on with it, saying that we can't deny them their destiny and I said, 'What destiny, to die just like the rest of the Jedi?'"
Beru began to cry softly. "He wants to train them to kill their own father?"
"Yeah, nice guy, isn't he?"
Beru ignored her husband's sarcasm, "What if he's right? What if they are the one who can bring down the Empire?" The thought was almost unbearable.
"I don't care; I'm not going to let him near them. Besides, the Empire is far from here."
Owen came over to his wife and pulled her into a tender embrace, "We'll be OK, Kenobi doesn't think he'll come back to Tatooine."
"It's just not fair; children should not have to bear this kind of burden."
"If I have anything to say about it, they never will."
"Owen, what are we going to tell them when they ask about their father?"
He paused to consider, "I don't know, navigator on a spice freighter? What do you think?"
"You want to lie to them?"
"Some lies are kind, Beru. Do you want to tell them that their father is a murderous machine that has the blood of countless thousands dripping from his gloved hands?"
Beru shook her head as tears continued to flow, "No, I don't."
To Be Continued...