Heyo peoples, sorry this chapter took so long! Part 2 is coming soon. :)


Chapter 47: Part 1

The world passed her by in a foggy whirlwind. She saw a cargo ship fly over her family's homestead and smother the flames in water, heard the fizzing hiss as the torrent crashed into the fire and the fire protested its death; she heard the babies cry as the steam shot up and splashes of the chilly spray nicked their faces; she sensed Anakin's protectiveness flare as he shielded his children from the steam and the sudden cold. Mostly, Acacia felt the weight of the boy on her back as his legs finally gave out (or maybe they'd given out ages ago and she just hadn't noticed?), and she had to support every ounce of his weight.

Her legs began to tremble, and her head swirled on her neck, and her eyelids kept sliding... sliding... But she hauled them back open, locked her knees, and forced herself to stay strong.

At some point, Danny was taken off her back, and then they were all in one of the storage buildings around the homestead. Strangely, Acacia recognized it. They'd kept spares of everything in here, and since it was always so full, she'd deemed it a prime place to play hide-and-seek and other games with—

Kadalia.

Her eyes darted around the crowded room, searching to make sure her best friend had actually returned and wasn't just some exhaustion-induced hallucination.

Not her... not her... not her...

She caught Kadalia's eye as the other girl came down the stairs and entered the storage room from aboveground. Relief crashed into Acacia, even stronger than she'd thought it would. But as Acacia took a shaky step towards her friend, someone's hand fell on her shoulder, and Acacia spun around to see Anakin behind her.

For the first time, she noticed how red her brother's eyes were, how the undersides were darker than the Coruscanti Lower Levels, how the hair on his chin had at some point evolved from five o'clock shadow to stubbly beard. He looked even more exhausted than she felt, and knowing how he always tried to hide his physical pain, Acacia had to think he was even worse off than he looked.

She was about to ask him if he'd slept since they'd arrived on Tatooine, but then Anakin opened his mouth and said a single sentence that both eradicated her own exhaustion and erased all notice of his. "Caish," he said, "it's Owen."


With the help of a few of the Defenders kids, Padme and Beru had lugged Owen into the storage building and done what they could to help him from there. They'd piled unused tarps and old garments on a shelf, forming a makeshift bed; they'd cleaned his wounds of blood and sand and done their best to set the leg bones, but that unfortunately was where their skills ended. Beru had sat by Owen's side as his breathing grew weaker, and then the tears came as she waited for the momenthe died.

That was when one of the kids found Lue-Ann, an outpost Corps kid, original Defender, and Jedi healer-in-training.

"Thank you," Acacia whispered hoarsely, as the kid who'd found Lue-Ann finished her story.

Lue-Ann blushed and ducked her head. "You don't have to thank me," she murmured. "This is what I do. I couldn't heal him completely, and he may have leg problems later in life, but he should live."

Acacia looked back at her oldest brother, sleeping semi-peacefully, and Beru, smiling, crying, and holding his hand. Acacia turned back to Lue-Ann and gave her a quick hug. "All the same, thank you."

The other girl gave her a shy smile, then slipped past her into the next room.

A whisper of familiarity swished through Acacia, then suddenly Kadalia was there, and she was embracing her best friend for the first time in months. "Hey." Acacia smiled, swiping at the tears that formed in her eyes. "It's..." She trailed off, gave a little embarrassed laugh. "Sorry. It's good to see you."

Kadalia smirked and tapped Acacia's shoulder with her fist. "Good to see you, too. I'd ask how you are, but I'm sensitive to your ForceMark and I was just in the same battle you were, so I'll spare you having to think up the words."

Acacia chuckled; the last of her tears spilled over, and she used the back of her fist to dash them away. "Thanks. Same to you."

Kadalia smirked again, but her smile faded as she stared over Acacia's head and her eyes scanned the people in the infirmary. Though nearly everyone had some injury or another, miraculously, no one had died. The Defenders had completely overwhelmed the clones, their numbers too great for the Imperial soldiers to give anything more than a few nicks and grazes, and those small injuries were quickly taken care of. Owen would have died if not for Lue-Ann, but her abilities had saved him just in time; Padme had been slathered in bacta and was resting next to the twins, who were being treated by the MedDroid from the Defenders' ship. Near them lay Danny, the blue-haired boy with dark blue eyes who'd used his own body to protect the twins even when he was suffering from his own bruises, burns, and broken bones.

Acacia's exhaustion hit her in another wave, and she practically collapsed onto a nearby supply box to keep from simply crumpling to the coarse sand floor. She knew she had no serious injuries, but as her exhaustion pulsed a throbbing beat in the back of her brain, the burns on her arms and legs also gained a sudden interest in making their presence known.

"Here." Something slid into her hand; Acacia blinked and realized Kadalia had handed her a small tube of bacta ointment. "There's not much in there, but you can rub on what's left. To make sure those don't get infected." Kady nodded at the seared skin showing through Acacia's singed sleeves and leggings.

"Thanks," Acacia muttered, shaking her head to try and wake up. as she slowly, methodically rubbed in dabs of the ointment, concentrating to keep her eyes open and her mind focused.

She heard Kadalia mutter something and squinted up at her best friend. "Sorry. Did you say something?"

"Not really, I just..." Kadalia shook her head, and Acacia followed her gaze to find Danny at the end of it. "I can't believe he's alive."

Acacia capped the bacta container and frowned. "What do you mean you—" And then she remembered. Kadalia's family farm had always been the one closest to the Lars homestead except for the farm of Kadalia's aunt and uncle.

A snapshot memory from her childhood: a woman with eyes like disks of the Tatooine sky on a perfect day, and a man with a haystack of dark blue hair, laughing and swinging a little boy on his back. Danny and his parents, Kadalia's cousin, aunt, and uncle, Acacia's only other friends from her childhood on Tatooine.

Dang.

She stared at Danny with new eyes, trying to reconcile the blurry image of a six-year-old Danuel Hatnim with the teenage version before her. "Force," Acacia muttered, as Kadalia walked over and almost reverently settled onto his makeshift bed. "And I didn't even remember him."

Kadalia gave a little shrug, but something in her shoulders remained tense. "It has been years. And really, he might not remember us either." She shrugged again, still staring down at her cousin. "It's... it's weird. I remember, when we were kids, I hated having him around. Ruining our fun with his boyness while we were trying to play." Acacia gave a quiet laugh at the memory, half because it amused her, half to cover the sound of her friend's sniffling. "But now..." Kadalia paused, swallowed, and Acacia could almost sense the other girl pulling herself together. "Caish, we went to my parents' farm first, then my Uncle Dan's. The clones had already hit there, and—" She took a shuddering gasp, and Acacia felt the pain in her ForceMark just before Kadalia clamped it down and pretended to be calm again. "They'd... already killed them, Mom, Dad, Uncle Dan, Aunt Lei. Burned the bodies and everything. I... I found their skeletons." Kady bit off each word, like saying them violently could make their reality hurt less.

Acacia somehow found the strength to stand and sit at her best friend's side. "I'm really sorry, Kady."

Something in Kadalia's face went hard. "Yeah, me, too. And now," Kadalia looked back at Danny. "this kid's the only family I've got left."

"Acacia, Kady." Anakin's voice sounded behind them, and they both whirled around at the roughness in it. "We're having a meeting in the other room. We need to decide what we're doing next."


Thanks for reading! Please review!