69- Roots of the Skywalkers.
A H-type Nubian yacht came from hyperspace near to a very recognizable desertic planet with two suns and three moons, now completely different from its cloudy past.
"I can't believe you convinced me to do this trip." Anakin expressed.
"Come on Ani, you and I both know that our children need to know this to understand your origin, and their own." Padmé clarified.
Anakin sighed. "I know."
Meanwhile, on the back of the ship, the Skywalker twins waited excited for their destination, accompanied by their droid pals: R2-D2, C-3PO and BB-8. It seemed the entire Skywalker family was on a journey to Anakin's home planet.
"I can't believe we are going to visit dad's home world." Leia exclaimed.
"It must be comforting for you to return to the place where you were built. Right, 3PO?" Luke asked to his friend.
"Well, I have to admit it, it feels a little nostalgic. After all, it was there where your father, when he was around your age, built me with all my inner parts and designed my programming. Although it wasn't him who put me my first chassis, he constructed me from the inside out the most. And that's why he is my maker." 3PO told them.
"It was there also when you and R2 met the first time?" Leia asked next, which R2 answered with beeps of confirmation.
"That's right, my little friend. It was also there when I discovered I don't like space travels."
Leia and Luke laughed because 3PO's comment, the same as BB-8. Their parents saw the entire scene and smiled.
"See? The kids are having a good time. Even that we haven't arrive yet." Padmé said.
"Yeah, they are enjoying the trip, for the moment." Anakin admitted.
Padmé knew what was concerning her husband, the reason why he was like holding a grudge to his former home. So, she tried to comfort him.
"Anakin, I know that you have bad memories about this place. That's the reason why you are afraid of coming back, and that's also one of the main reasons why we agreed to do this trip with our children: so you can also close that chapter of your life, and leave the past behind."
Anakin listened everything his wife spoke, and very deep, he knew she was right. "Of course. All this time I have carried this burden on my shoulders, like chains on me. And now, maybe it's time to get myself free of that."
Tatooine
The ship headed to one of Tatooine's most known places: Mos Espa. For Luke and Leia, it was their first time seeing the town, on the contrary for their parents, who visited it more than once. Also, it was nothing new for R2 and 3PO, unlike BB-8, who saw through the window with the same enthusiasm as the twins. The ship landed in one of the landing ports. taking advantage of the fact that their parents were busy doing the necessary paperwork to secure the ship, the twins and BB-8 decided to do some exploring. They managed to sneak into another landing port next to theirs, and they became impressed of the ship that they found inside.
"Wow. What a piece of junk." Luke said in disbelief.
"It looks like a Corellian carrier." Leia expressed.
"That's right." A new voice called next to them.
They turned to see a teenage black boy with brown eyes and black hair. He was carrying a toolbox, so he seemed to be the ship's owner.
"Excuse us, we didn't intend to sneak inside. We just saw this ship and…" Luke started to explain themselves.
"Became impressed? I know, it has that effect on people." The teenager said.
"This ship is yours?" Leia asked interested.
"Indeed. It's a Corellian carrier, but not an ordinary one. This one is special: I managed to make some modifications to give it more effectiveness. But I also like to believe that its lucky, that is what it makes it peculiar." The teenage boy expressed putting a hand on his ship.
"And you pilot it on your own?" Luke asked next.
"Not exactly. It requires a co-pilot."
"Which is…?" Leia continued.
"There you are! So, you sneaked again to boast yourself on others. Very obvious of you, Lando." A humanoid droid with female voice said, appearing from the ship's ramp.
"Come on, L3, you are exaggerating things, I was carrying the parts in order to repair the fuel converters." The boy named Lando defended bringing the toolbox to the droid.
"Well, at least you haven't become distracted looking at the girls this time. Trust me, kids, don't act like this one." L3 advised as she went back into the ship.
"Nah, don't listen to her. She is a little hypocrite, but she has the best navigating system of the galaxy." Lando said, making BB-8 to beep amazed.
"I heard you!" L3 said, from inside the ship. "Don't forget that were your parents the ones that put me in charge of your very first departure."
"Hey! L3, why did you have to say that?!" Lando exclaimed a little annoyed as the twins and BB-8 laughed.
"A droid with character. I like her." Leia said impressed.
"Thanks. Bother you if I need your little friend for the final touches here?" L3 said showing her head from the ramp's entrance.
"Of course not. Go on, BB-8." Luke affirmed.
BB-8 went inside the ship, following L3.
"Sorry you had to see that. Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet. Name's Calrissian: Lando Calrissian, at your service. That one is my droid partner, L3-37. Despite her personality, very deep she is a good friend, and a true protector of droid rights."
"It's a pleasure to meet you both. My name is Luke Skywalker, and this is my twin sister Leia." Luke introduced himself and his sister.
"We came here on an excursion with our parents. Now that you mention, they must be wondering where we and BB-8 went, we shall return by now." Leia reminded.
And just in that moment, BB-8 exited the ship.
"Lando, time to go." L3 announced.
"Guess we have to go as well. It was a pleasure to meet you." Lando said in goodbye, entering the ship.
"Come on kiddo. I will let you pilot this time." L3 encouraged him.
"Ah, and in case you and your friends want to meet me again, just ask for this jewel of mine: The Millennium Falcon." Lando said before the ramp closed at all.
The twins and BB-8 returned back were they came. Later, the family was having a walk on the streets of Mos Espa.
"So, this is the town where you lived when you were little? It looks a nice place." Luke said.
"It was, even for the kind of person I was." Anakin expressed.
"Huh? What do you mean with that?" Leia asked confused.
"When he was little, your father and his mother were slaves. In that time, they were very common on Tatooine. Do you remember when we told you that Naboo was once invaded by battle droids?" Padmé retold, as the kids nodded.
"Long before the Clone Wars." Leia assured.
"When I was queen and he was a padawan, Obi Wan and his master, Qui-Gon Jinn, were sent to our home in order to stop the Trade Federation and his blockade on the planet's orbit. They tried to escort me to Coruscant for asking the Galactic Senate to do something about it, but our ship was damaged and we were forced to go here to find some refuge meanwhile the ship was repaired. That's the moment when I met your father. Alongside his mother, he was a slave and forced to work, even when he was like your age. But Obi Wan's master managed to free him, allowing him to enter the Jedi Order."
"He sensed the incredible potential of the Force in me, one like anyone sensed before." Anakin said.
"And how he managed to free you?" Luke asked interested.
"Master Anakin won a Pod race with one he built by himself. R2 and I were there when that happened. Oh goodness, I will never forget that moment." 3PO expressed, and R2 added with beeps.
"Wow! You were not only a racer, but also a Pod race champion?! When we tell Han about this, he will not believe it." Luke said in excitement.
Anakin laughed of that reaction. "Well, it sounds better said than done. Of course, it wasn't an easy race. How lucky that I was already a good pilot."
"Do you think you can build another pod of those and give us a ride?" Leia pleaded. "Please dad, please."
"Oh no, little ones. You're not going to ride on one of those things. You have enough with your own Autobot guardian." Padmé objected.
Anakin laughed again, this time on the reaction of his wife about that petition.
"But I don't know. I think I hear that problem is not anymore." Luke assured.
"And that's correct. Now that the Hutts' influence on the galaxy is no more, worlds like this one are now better places for people who wants to start a new life." Padmé revealed.
"Seriously, I don't know why people would want to live in a place like this. They have to be crazy to choose a desert for their home." Anakin said sincerely.
"Who knows? Maybe because they are very optimistic."
"What? Are you saying I am not optimistic, Padmé? There is no one more optimistic than I."
"Yeah, right." She said in some laughs.
"Come on, you know it's true, all of you." Anakin continue following her game, something their children found amusing too.
The family continued with their walk until they stopped near to a place that only Anakin and Padmé recognized.
"What is this place?" Leia asked curious.
"This was the former home of your father when he was a child." Her mother answered. "Here is where he used to live with his mother, your grandmother."
"Our grandmother? And where is she?" Luke asked.
"We'll tell you later about it, but first we are going to visit your relatives from here on Tatooine."
"We also have family here?" Leia exclaimed excited.
"Indeed. But they don't live here. We need to get the ship to travel to the outsides, that's where their farm is located." Anakin said.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go! Come on guys, a race to the ship!" Luke proposed to his sister and the droids.
"Hey! Not fair! I cannot go that faster like you!" 3PO complained as the kids, R2 and BB-8 started to race.
Padmé had say that in order to save Anakin some discomfort and harm, knowing that what happened to his mother was one of his most painful moments. But very deep of himself, he knew that sooner or later his kids would sense his emotions. Some time later, the ship arrived in middle of nowhere; on the Jundland Wastes, with no signs of civilization in sight, except a moisture farm nearby: the home of the Lars family. Luke and Leia didn't know nothing about this place, but it seemed like the couple that lived there knew something about them for some time, because the man and the woman looked like knowing their parents, and they looked happy to see the kids too for the first time in person.
"Oh, so these are your children? They are so adorable." The woman said stroking the twins faces gently.
"It's so good to meet you in person finally. Your parents have told us much about you." The man said stroking their heads.
"Luke, Leia, meet Owen and Beru Lars, your uncle and aunt from Tatooine." Anakin introduced.
"We are glad to be here at last. 3PO has told us some things about here." Leia exclaimed hugging her aunt.
"You arrived just in time. Meal is almost ready." Aunt Beru informed.
"It would be our pleasure if you join us." Uncle Owen offered.
"Of course. After all, we came here to visit." Padmé told them.
"If there is nothing wrong with that." Anakin added.
"Of course not. This way." Owen said leading the way down stairs.
The family was later in the dinning room eating and talking about the things that changed all that time since their last visit, with 3PO helping with the service like he did long ago.
"As you see, things have become more peacefully here. Just peace and quiet." Owen retold.
"Indeed. Even there have been no news about the Tusken raiders for years. It seems they went far away into the most unknow places of the Dune Sea. So life here has become more safety and calm, except when that disaster happened." Beru continued.
"What do you mean?" Anakin asked.
"Well, a while ago, a huge mysterious storm raged near here, one that I've never seen before. I don't thing it was a natural one for this planet. It looked like a tropical storm, but more like the size of a huge hurricane." Owen revealed.
"It was terrifying: shooting so much lighting, lots of raining like I never saw in my life. The entire desert was flooding with water, all that after a strange big meteor impacted far away from here. And such like that mysteriously started, it ended the same way." Beru retold.
"The storm banished itself like nothing. Like if something made it to be gone."
On the contrary of the Lars, Luke, Leia, their parents and the droids knew exactly what they were talking about: the time when, like many other planets, Tatooine was infected with a dark energon asteroid that affected their natural facts to become chaotic, because of the awakening of Unicron on Planet X. Of course, they couldn't say that to them.
"Well, the thing is that… Tatooine was not the only planet that suffered something like. Many others passed through something similar because of some galactic-sized planetary alignment." Luke told.
"Yeah, Naboo was also victim on that manner. We saw a huge volcano erupting lava and volcanic bombs in middle of the plains. It was very scary." Leia confessed.
"But we were lucky that some special friends of us managed to do something to bring things back to normal."
"Good to know. Well the good thing is that large amount of water has created a lot of huge oasis around the planet, helping native life to have better conditions for survival, and for farmers like us is going to become very useful for the future harvesting seasons, we won't have problems of that kind in some years." Owen concluded.
"It wouldn't be better for the desert to become a one big pool?" Luke asked in some possible funny idea.
"Oh, I would be glad to see that happening." Anakin responded, making everyone to laugh of that.
Some time later, Leia and Luke were playing on making sandcastles with R2 and BB-8, but in order to make it the bigger possible, they decided to use the Force for making the game more interesting. And the result? They managed to create a very big one, and stable.
"What do you thing, Luke? It looks good to you?" Leia asked her brother.
"I think it's great! I had never seen one like that before." Their mother said arriving.
"You like it, mom?" Luke asked hopefully.
"I love it. It's a masterpiece. Come, there's something you must see." Padmé said taking them both with her, while the droids simply observed.
BB-8 beeped in confusing, wondering where they were going.
"I believe that's something personal for them, so we better let them go and don't bother." 3PO simply answered.
The three walked just were Anakin was: he was down on his knees in front of some kind of tombstone, so that meant it was a tomb. As they approached, the children could sense some emotions coming from their father: feelings of sadness and hurt.
"Dad, are you alright?" Luke asked concerned.
"What is this?" Leia asked, referring to the tomb.
"Here…" Anakin began with a sad tone. "…is where your grandmother lies."
"Oh." Luke expressed a little surprised and sad. Now he knew why he was that affected, and why he and his sister never met their grandmother.
"We didn't know it." Leia said, holding the hand of her father.
The time had come for Anakin to tell everything about his past to his children.
"I didn't know how to tell you." Anakin confessed as he started. "Even when I departed to Coruscant to start my Jedi training, my mother remained here to continue with her life. The main reason why I wanted to become a Jedi, was to free the ones that were suffering of being slaves, and that way free her as well. Fortunately, I didn't have to. Owen's father freed her, I knew it when I came back looking for her, when I was a padawan."
"And why you came for her if you knew where she was?" Luke asked.
"I started to have bad dreams: nightmares about her, suffering. I couldn't endure it even when I was tasked to be protecting your mother, so I came here looking for her. But when I arrived, it was too late." Anakin continue relating. "She was kidnaped by a tribe of Tusken raiders, but I managed to find her, just in time to see her one last time, before she…"
But he couldn't finish, as a few tears failed from his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Ani." Padmé said, trying to comfort him.
"Then, I did something horrible. The pain, hate and rage clouded me, and I destroyed everything of the village. I tasted revenge. I…I exterminated them…all of them." Anakin said, on a tone of culpability and remorse.
The kids couldn't believe what they heard.
"I know that you believe that I am a hero, but I am not that hero, not at all. I made horrible things in the past, things that now I'm not proud of, just the opposite, I am ashamed of myself for doing that. And the worst is…that I allow the hidden Dark Lord of the Sith to know my weaknesses, which he could have used it to manipulate me like a puppet and drag me to the dark side as his slave, if it wasn't for Optimus and the Autobots' secret support. I was weak, impulsive, arrogant and irresponsible. Many people believed that I was the Chosen One, but if wasn't for the people who cared about me, I would ruin everything, doomed the galaxy to Darth Sidious's evil rule."
"That was one of the most important reasons of why we decided to bring you here today. Your father also needed to be sincere with you about these…dark chapters of his life and let the past behind, in order to understand the pain he suffered, and why he did those things. He hasn't told anyone about this, not even Obi Wan, or Ahsoka." Padmé explained.
"I'm sorry. You must be shocked about these things that I've told you, and I understand that. I know this is not what my mother wanted, nor my master, nor my disciple. The Chosen One, what a failure. In the end, I'm a nothing but a disappointment." Anakin said, letting a few tears to fall.
"No! You're not, dad. Maybe you have done great mistakes in the past, but what matters is that you recognize them." Luke started, cleaning his father's tears.
"And that you are ashamed of doing it. Only a true Jedi would do that. No one is perfect, dad, everyone makes mistakes. But the most honest people learn from it so they cannot do it again, specially if that harms others, or if you can do something to correct it or for to make up for it." Leia followed cleaning his tears too and holding his hands. "That's something Palpatine couldn't or didn't want to see. We can say that of Megatron too. But you are a hero for us. Not because what you have done, but who you are."
"Now that we know you better, we understand the history of your life. You didn't have a good life, but that's now in the past. Grandma wouldn't want you to be sad of those memories, but to be happy for what you have now. Besides, she will be always with you, and also with us. In the Force, in heart, and in the good memories about her. Just like you taught us." Luke concluded.
"See Ani? Your family understands you more than you believe. You were never alone, you have us for whatever you need." Padmé reassured him.
Anakin couldn't be more happy than now. If he leaked tears right now, it was because of happiness. The comfort he felt from his family.
"Thank you. All of you. I couldn't ask for a better family than you. I am so lucky." Anakin confessed.
"And we couldn't have a better father than you." Leia said as she hugged her father, the same as her twin brother and mother.
The four of them stayed for a while on a heartwarming family hug, seen from the distance by C-3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8. Then, the entire family, the droids included, was near the house watching the sunset of the suns: a marvelous view.
"You know? We don't have a sunset like this one at home." Luke expressed.
"You're right, Luke. It's so beautiful." Leia added.
"It's pretty indeed. It seems your home planet has something precious after all." Padmé added, close to her husband.
"So true. I was living here for a long time and I hadn't realized that." Anakin confessed.
The family stared at the incredible view of the twin suns, while in the distance someone else was watching it and them. No one else that the leader of the Autobots and the Skywalker twins Autobot guardian and friend.