Hello... good to see you back again!
A quick note about previous chapters- I will be making changes, due to inconsistencies both realised by myself and pointed out to me by reviewers (see? It pays to review! hinthint)
One such change is the learning of Basic. No one could pick it up in three days, I know. I've been doing a lot of midnight-writing recently, and my brain stops working around 5pm. So it's been extended to three weeks. Yes, still unbelievable, but MEH.

Right... STOP- DISCLAIMER TIME! (hammertime style, folks)
I don't own Star Wars. I don't own Tuskens, Jedi, Tattooine, etc.
If anyone CAN own a Jedi, you're Obviously some sort of NinjaFreak.
Or a member of the 501st.
Must stop to cry now... WAAAHHHHHHHH! SO SAAADDDDDD...

I didn't have to work too hard to recognise Owen's surprise. He rocked back and forth for a moment, mouth hanging open.

"Sister?"

"Sister."

His face lost all discernible shape, jaw dropping and the like. His expression changed to wide eyes and back again several times before composure was regained.

"You expect me to believe that?"

Obi-Wan touched my arm to calm me. "She's telling the truth."

"Of course she is. Any more relations you'd like to bring me?"

"Excuse me?"

I was ignored.

"Excuse me!"

"What?"

"If you're going to shout at someone… don't."

He fell into silence for a moment. "Why are you here?"

I swallowed back tears that threatened to fall. "You're my brother. I wanted to know you."

After an awkward silence, Owen invited me inside. I stayed relatively close to Obi-Wan, especially when I saw the interior. Everything was scrubbed bright white- it was eerie. A woman was busy at a bench, preparing some sort of food.

"Beru?"

"Owen! What was Luke doing back in here? I thought you- ohh. Hello."

She noticed her guests.

I showed off my most practised and impressive smile. "Hello."

"Hi. I- Ben?"

"If I'm not welcome, I'll leave."

"No no no, not at all. Sit down, you three. Lunch is almost ready…"

"Beru?" Owen tried to cut her off.

"I'll call in Luke, I sent him out again…"

"Beru!" He failed.

"And who are you, sweetheart?"

"Olive. And I'm no one's sweetheart."

"Pleased to meet you, Olive. You're staying for lunch? What brings you here?"

"I'm Owen's sister."

That shut her up. Finally.

"I think we all need to talk." Obi-Wan mediated.

Beru sat down next to Owen. She grasped his hand that was laying tensed across the table.

"Can we start from the start, then?" Owen looked me in the eye.

I matched his gaze. "Seems the best place."

Beru decided to speak again, but with more restraint this time.

"I don't understand this. Shmi was your mother?"

I looked at Obi-Wan. He took the hint and answered for me.

"We believe so."

"But, how?" Owen grabbed his mate- wife's hand tighter.

"I don't know. I was hoping you had some answers."

Beru's face showed something I didn't know. It was complex. "Owen- you know what this means? She did have the child. Despite everything, she had the child."

"Am I 'the child'? If so, stop calling me 'the child'. My name's Olive."

"Sands and suns… Owen, it's true!" Beru's face became happy.

"Olive?"

"Yes, Owen. That's my name."

"Shmi was going to call him Oliver. Dad said."

"He? If you're still talking about me, I'm a she."

I couldn't really tell, but I thought Obi-Wan suppressed a smile.

Owen shook his head. "Of course you are. It's just a bit of a shock for me. We all thought you'd died along with Shmi."

"What?"

"You don't know? Oh, of course you don't. Shmi… there's no easy way to put this, but she-"

"-Died. I know she's dead."

I guess they were shocked at my bluntness.

"Look, Shmi was like my mother-"

"She's not your real mother?"

"My real mother died when I was young. Shmi was my step-mother- Dad's second wife."

"So who are my real parents?" My mind felt like a grain of sand in a furious storm.

"Shmi and Cliegg." Beru said quietly.

I nodded thankyou. Clarification was good.

"So you're my half-brother. Who was your mother?"

"Her name was Aika."

"She died and Cliegg remarried?"

I thought it was a normal question. I was confused, after all. What sort of a man takes two mates- wives? It was barbaric. But I had to hear Owen out. Somehow I think I'd insulted him. His answer was very short.

"Yes."

I felt my temper rising. I had a right to ask these questions! Obi-Wan placed a hand on my shoulder. It served to calm me, make me slow down to ask the next question- a question I had wanted answered all my life.

"How did my mother die? Do you know?"

There was a long silence. Beru looked at me for a long time, in what I guessed was sympathy. I wasn't sure. Owen seemed to find something on the tabletop interesting, because he kept staring at it. I couldn't see anything. Finally he took a deep breath and looked at me straight.

"You're- you're sure you want to know?"

"I wouldn't ask otherwise, would I?"

I felt Obi-Wan's hand again, my personal anger meter. It was something I had discussed with the two Jedi- my 'short fuse', as they called it. I was quick to temper, but maybe that was just in my nature. I had always been this way- it had never mattered before.

"It was when Shmi was pregnant with you- just over eight months."

I had no idea why eight months was relevant. How long were humans pregnant for?

"She went out, just to pick mushrooms. Just like she did every morning. But this time, they were waiting."

"Who?" I couldn't help interrupting his dramatic pause.

"Sand People."

"Sand People?" I asked, having never heard the term.

"Tuskens." He almost spat.

Suddenly I could hear my blood pumping, up through my ears, across my chest and down to my feet. The storm of my mind raged ever fiercer. Tuskens. I didn't want to hear what was coming, but something told me I had to. I had to.

"They took her, stole her from us."

Owen's hands were shaking. My entire body was.

"They captured her like an animal. Like she was the animal. But they were. We gathered a party to rescue her, but the beasts set a trap. Most of us were killed. Our father lost his legs. And I… I was unharmed. We didn't find her, though. All that sacrifice for nothing."

He stopped talking, consumed in an unidentifiable emotion. Beru put her arm around his shoulders, and continued the tale.

"It was a month before… before Anakin came."

"Who's Anakin?"

Obi-Wan answered for me. "Your other brother."

"The dead one?" Too blunt, I chastised myself. But I was right.

"Anakin came looking for Shmi. When Cliegg told him what had happened, he went after them. The next day he returned with her body. We just assumed... they're animals, the Sand People. We thought you'd have perished before Shmi."

"What about… my father?" It was a struggle to keep words coming.

"Cliegg never recovered from his wounds, and the loss of Shmi. He passed away within a year."

"But he knew about me?"

"We thought you hadn't made it."

"Well, what about Anakin?"

Owen began to speak again. " We never even told Anakin about you."

"Why not?"

"It was easier if he didn't know. The grief he felt was greater than anything I've ever seen. He…"

Beru again took over. "A few days later, Owen and some others came across the camp. It was destroyed, burned to the ground. There were no Sand People left."

"You mean… Anakin killed the entire clan?"

"Clan?"

I instantly regretted my slip of the tongue. But that was secondary to my other feelings.

The 'lost' clan had performed a bloodrite on my own mother. My Sand-Mother had watched my real mother die.
The Desert Demon we had so long feared. It was my brother.
No matter which way I looked at it, Tusken or Human, I was the same.

An animal.