This is sort of a filler chapter, I suppose. The next chapter is more important to the rest of the story. Plus, I just wanted Anakin to have a chance to see his old friend :)

Padmé waited anxiously for Anakin to come home. Leia and Luke had already returned and were sleeping. Anakin had been out with Obi-Wan, working on whatever Jedi Masters did in their free time.

Finally, the door slid open and Anakin appeared. "Padmé," he said happily, but surprised. "You're still up." He frowned. "I hope you weren't waiting up for me."

Padmé stood, smoothing her dress as she did. "I was waiting up for you. We need to talk about something."

Anakin walked over and sat down on the couch beside her. Padmé sat back down. "What is it, Padmé?"

"It's about Leia," Padmé started uneasily. How was she supposed to tell Anakin that his padawan, his only daughter, wasn't satisfied with the life of a Jedi?

Anakin's frown deepened. "What about Leia?"

Padmé sighed. "We talked for a while today, after I got out of a meeting. She said she felt like she never had a choice in becoming a Jedi, that she would rather pursue…other things, if she could." Padmé paused. "Is that going to affect her training, not wanting to be a Jedi? She said she liked it well enough, but she just wishes things could have been different."

Anakin was silent for a long moment. "Well. Why didn't Leia ever say so?"

"I think she didn't want to disappoint you, Ani."

"What did she say she'd rather be doing?"

Padmé paused uncomfortably. "She said she'd rather be a senator. She was very passionate in describing it, like I was when I was her age, even younger maybe."

Anakin stood. "So, this is about Leia following in your footsteps more than mine, isn't it?"

Padmé's eyes went wide. "Of course not, Ani."

He took a deep breath, looking away. Padmé stood, placing a hand on his shoulder. When he didn't shrug it off, Padmé continued softly. "I'm not suggesting that either is better for her, or that I'd rather have her be a senator. I just wanted you to be aware of her conflict. But, don't tell her I said anything. I don't think she wanted you to know."

Anakin turned back to Padmé and embraced her tightly.

Leia followed Anakin through the docking bay in confusion. Why would they need to be here?

As if hearing her inner confusion, Anakin started talking. "We're going to Tatooine, to check out some possible Federation trouble that could be stirring up."

Leia's eyes widened. "My first mission as a padawan?"

Anakin turned to nod and grin at her. "Yes."

An excitement filled her stomach, along with nervousness. What if she messed up her first mission and the Order decided she was unworthy?

"Don't worry, Leia," Anakin assured, "It'll be easy."

Leia sat in the co-pilot's seat for the first time. At least, the first time that the ship was actually moving. Anakin was in the pilot's seat, looking like flying a ship was as easy, maybe even easier, than breathing. Leia knew that great piloting skills ran in their family, but she had never actually seen her father fly a ship before.

"Are you ready?" Anakin asked Leia, turning to her with a grin.

Leia nodded. "Yes, Master."

Anakin's hands moved about the ship's controls as if he had been doing it his whole life. The ship lifted off the ground and into the air. Leia felt her stomach drop. She wasn't used to flying.

The ship slipped into hyperspace easily, heading for Tatooine.

Tatooine's climate differed drastically from the climate of Coruscant that Leia was used to. The entire planet was sand for miles.

"Welcome to my childhood home," Anakin told Leia quietly, almost bitterly. They were nearing a small town with little markets covering either side of the road. "This is Mos Espa, the town where I was enslaved, and where I first met your mother."

Leia was silent, soaking in this new information. Neither Anakin nor Padmé had said much about how they met, or the topic of where Anakin came from. Now she could understand why.

Anakin ducked into a small shop, so Leia followed him. It was a messy little hole of a place, mechanical bits and pieces covering every inch of the walls and most of the floors.

"This," Anakin gestured with his hand, "is where I was enslaved as a boy."

A Toydarian came fluttering out of the back room. "How can I help you?"

Anakin smiled widely. "Hello Watto."

Watto squinted and fluttered closer. "Little Ani? You came back again, eh?" His eyes drifted to Leia. "And with ah…what are they called again?"

"Padawans," Anakin filled in a smile. "Yes, I became a Jedi Master and have my own padawan. This is Leia Skywalker."

Watto's eyes grew large. "So she's your daughter, eh? I shoulda known. Looks just like ya."

Anakin smiled proudly. "Yes. Both she and her brother."

"Brother, eh?" Watto chuckled. "Didn't even know you were married." He fluttered over to the counter. "What brings you back to Tatooine?"

"Jedi business," Anakin answered evasively. He glanced around. "Who's been helping out here since my mother…left?"

Watto tinkered with something at the counter for a moment. "He should be coming in soon. A smart young man."

As if on cue, Anakin's old friend Wald entered the tiny shop. "What should I do today, Watto?" He seemed to notice Anakin and Leia. "Jedi?"

Anakin grinned slowly. "Wald."

Wald's bug-like eyes got even larger. "Ani?"

Anakin embraced him like a long lost brother. "How have you been, Wald?"

"Same as always. But, you! You're a Jedi Knight!"

Anakin laughed. "Yes, I know." He turned to Leia. "This is my padawan and daughter, Leia Skywalker." Leia nodded, smiling slightly.

"Daughter?" Wald asked in surprise, laughing. "That's…surprising."

After catching up with Wald and Watto for a bit, Anakin and Leia took their leave. "No one needs to know we stopped off for a bit," Anakin told Leia with a wink. "I just wanted to see how my old master was."

Leia nodded. "Understood."

"Now, we get on with the real reason we're here." Anakin paused, looking over the rolling hills of Tatooine sand. "Mos Eisley. Just a few kilometers away. There have been rumors of Trade Federation guards seen within it." Anakin squinted ahead of him. "And if there's one thing we don't want, it's the rise of the Trade Federation, again."

Leia followed Anakin silently to Mos Eisley, surveying the wasteland of Tatooine, wondering what her father had felt like, growing up here as a boy.

They came up on another town soon. This one was as bustling as the last, but it was more filled with cantinas and bars.

Anakin lowered his head to whisper to Leia. "Be mindful, alright? Their might be Federation spies here. It could all be just a trap. The last thing we need is to spring a trap."

Leia nodded to show she understood. "Of course."

He patted her shoulder before he continued walking. Leia wrinkled her nose as sleazy men of all different species went from in and out of bars. One man in particular caught her eye.

He wouldn't have if he didn't practically run her over. He was tall, but young. Probably around twenty or so. He was obviously drunk, stumbling a bit. He bumped right into Leia, knocking her back a bit.

The man snickered. "Sorry, Your Highness." Without another word, he kept on stumbling down to a different bar.

Leia glared after the man, before shaking her head at his pathetic-ness and hurrying to catch up with Anakin.

Anakin didn't glance back at her, to show that he had even noticed what happened. He was concentrating on seeking out Federation guards that could be lurking anywhere in Mos Eisley.

He stopped suddenly, squatting down behind a speeder parked on the edge of a street. Leia hurried to duck down beside him.

"There," Anakin whispered, pointing across the street. Barely blending in the with crowd of beings and droids were clone robots with blasters. There were about five or six of them together, marching away from Mos Eisley and into the oblivion beyond.

"Are we following them, Master?" Leia asked Anakin, glancing at him.

Anakin kept his narrowed eyes on the clones' process. "Of course."