Chapter Four: Back to the Past

As Anakin piloted the Aether through hyperspace, his emotions proved chaotic and unstable. Even with Ahsoka in the seat next to him, her presence did little to soothe his worries with the knowledge of The Son after them. Anakin knew what his enemy planned for them. He remembered that portion of the hellhole called Mortis vividly. The Son made his intentions abundantly clear in the brief time when Ahsoka died. Now, The Son sought them again, but through an emissary shrouded in a cloak of The Bogan, a barrier Anakin could just barely pierce currently.

I won't fail a second time, Ahsoka. Anakin promised to himself with a firm determination in his eyes as he looked over at the object of his thoughts in the copilot seat next to him. I won't let that happen again. I can't. Anakin sighed as he felt the prodding of The Force and walked away from the controls and into the small bunk area aft of the cockpit.

Once Anakin closed his eyes and began to focus on the will of The Force, Anakin saw a person in the meditation he did not expect. Shmi walked up to her son in the vision and pointed to the Lars Homestead on Tatooine. Anakin grimaced at the horrid memories he had of that place associated with the woman who stood before him. The vision of Shmi Skywalker turned to the homestead before Anakin found himself staring at an odd wooden box.

Then, Shmi spoke, "Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, Ani." Anakin couldn't help a tear as the vision of his mother flashed Anakin a sad smile and nodded at the box. "You're not my little boy anymore." She smiled. "Your father and I will be with you. We are bound in The Force forever. Remember that."

As Anakin opened his eyes, the young former Jedi found his companion as she looked at him with slight worry in her features. "Are you alright?"

Anakin spared a glance at his realigned lightsaber before he returned his gaze to the young former Padawan. "I will be, Snips." Anakin managed a dry laugh. "We have to set course for Tatooine." His eyes grew distant for a moment before Ahsoka's hand on his dispelled the momentary melancholy that accompanied thoughts of his Mom. "My Mom left something there my Dad wanted me to have."

Ahsoka grew angry at the mention of Anakin's father. The teen's face twisted into a scowl usually reserved for the worst of her enemies, like Grievous or Ventress. Ahsoka felt Anakin squeeze her hand. "I know anger isn't the way of a Jedi, but that being hurt you and your mother when he left." The young warrior crossed her arms and glared out of the side viewport as hyperspace swirled and folded around them. "I just don't understand it, Skyguy." The Togruta turned her face back to Anakin. "How can you return to a place you loath because of the man who abandoned you and your mother on that very rock to be sold and thrown around like property?"

Anakin shook his head. "First, we're no longer Jedi, Snips." A small smile passed over the young man's lips at that reminder. "Second, I do have few happy memories on that dust ball. Third, do you know why I'm even going back?" Anakin's voice grew soft and distant as if old demons were surrounding him in that moment.

Ahsoka noticed this change in tone and gently placed a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "Did something happen while you meditated?"

Anakin nodded. "I saw her, Ahsoka." He took a shaky breath as the tears began to fall. "I saw my Mom."

Ahsoka squeezed Anakin's shoulder in a bid to ground him and give him comfort. "How is that possible? She would have to be Force sensitive to do that." Ahsoka's eyes grew wide. "It couldn't be real unless The Son is trying to trick you again,"

Anakin's stomach twisted painfully at the suggestion. An aggressive part of Anakin bared its fangs at the thought. "I don't think it was a deception." Anakin looked at Ahsoka with a firm expression. "Mom told me something surprising just before I stopped meditating." Anakin felt a peace fall over him. "She said we were bound together in The Force and never truly separated."

Ahsoka nodded. "That sounds like something Master Yoda likes to say to younglings." Ahsoka racked her mind for a moment. "How could she be Force sensitive without the Jedi sensing it?"

Anakin shook his head. "There are a lot of questions and not many answers." Then, Anakin seemed to have a moment of realization. "The key to those answers is on Tatooine."

The young man set course correction in the NAV computer and looked at Ahsoka as he yawned. Ahsoka reciprocated the action before they both went to the back for rack time and let the autopilot handle hyperspace until the duo came closer to their destination. Anakin and Ahsoka both slept soundly for the first time in months.

When the alert sounded off, both Anakin and Ahsoka jumped into action and began to land not too far from Mos Eisley. The scanners showed there were no ships coming out of hyperspace after them, but that didn't stop Anakin from reaching out with The Force to be certain of this fact. Your eyes can deceive you, Anakin. One of the first lessons Obi-Wan taught his young Padawan ran through his mind at that moment. Don't trust them. So, Anakin heeded the old advice to his satisfaction before he came back to discuss a plan with Ahsoka.

After some debate on the matter, Anakin and Ahsoka left the ship shrouded in cloaks. Usually Anakin didn't like cloaks because they added another layer of cloth to an already blistering heat. However, Anakin soon found himself overruled by Ahsoka's logic.

"If we wear cloaks, it will make it harder for anyone hunting us to identify us." Ahsoka didn't take a smug expression like she normally did when she proved to have a point. Instead, a thoughtful expression stayed on her face. "We might also be able to get hired for our first job while we're here."

Anakin chuckled and shook his head as they walked through the paths of the main settlement. Then, he began looking around for two speeders to make the trek out to the Lars Homestead in a decent time. "Patience, Ahsoka. The Force sent us here to help me discover myself." Anakin said calmly. "If we're distracted by a job, we will be divided, and that would give our target an advantage."

Ahsoka nodded before she pointed to a junk shop. As The Force would have it, the old shop had much significance for Anakin. The shop seemed dirtier than the former slave remembered, but for the most part, it was the same as it was about fourteen years prior apart from droids serving as the workforce in the shop instead of the slave boy himself.

"Snips, do you know where we are?"

Ahsoka could sense the unease in her older companion and decided to take the initiative with a motion towards the speeders tucked away in the corner of the main shop when she noticed a particular lifeform, a Toydarian floating over by what passed as a service desk, to be the source of Anakin's anxiety. "Are those speeders for sale?"

The being floated over to them nervously. "Yes, miss," Anakin's old master looked at the pair for a moment with a hint of recognition in his eyes. "However, I don't think you have anything for trade."

Anakin sighed. He hoped his stash of currency hadn't been found by Watto and went straight for the shelf he built himself near where the droids were kept in power down. When he felt the small "crack" in the side of the shelf, he mentally let out a yell of relief. Hidden in the recess under the top sat a small sack of currency from years prior when Anakin convinced Qui-Gon to give him a relatively small percentage of the funds earned from selling the pod behind the boy's happiest moment up to that point.

As Anakin returned with the small pouch of coin, Watto finally recognized the young man. However, he seemed different, less angry and more in control. "Hello, Little Ani."

Anakin nodded to the Toydarian, "…the speeders?"

The old being scratched his head nervously. "Yeah, sure." He looked at the worn cloth pouch. "Where did you get that?"

Anakin dropped the pouch on the desk with a dull thump. "Give us the speeders, and you can have every bit of it, no questions asked."

Watto looked at the coins with a longing that told Anakin all he needed to know. It seemed Watto still had not learned his lesson about greed since Qui-Gon suckered the Toydarian in the bet that ultimately won Anakin his freedom. Greed is a powerful ally, indeed. Anakin thought triumphantly as Ahsoka shared a knowing look at the deviousness of her friend.

Once they were out of earshot and well on their way to the homestead, Ahsoka nodded at him with a sneaky grin, her Jedi reflexes and knowledge of Anakin giving her a fair idea of where the coin actually ended up while the bag was filled with worthless gravel. Ahsoka found a feeling of intrigue and another sensation she couldn't identify as she considered Anakin's move with the money and the possibilities ready capital, no matter how small, would open to them after exchanging the coinage for Republic money when they went back to Republic Space.

Anakin rode in silence as Ahsoka did, but his reason for doing so was vastly different than hers. The young man felt the ghosts of his last time he came to the home of his step-family around him as he rode. The screeches of Tuskins as they died under the harsh blue glow of his saber ran freely across Anakin's mind as his hands tightened around the handle bars of his speeder in a mix of pain and anxiety. If I let this build, I'm going to be useless in a fight against The Son or anyone he sends after us.

In an instance of possible prodding from The Force, something drew Ahsoka to look to her left. In a split second, Ahsoka watched Anakin lock up the brakes on his speeder and slide to a halt in a thick dust cloud. A single microsecond of reading from Anakin's Force Signature brought Ahsoka to a halt as well. "Talk to me, Anakin." Ahsoka pleaded. "What's happening?"

"They're screaming, Snips…can't stop!"

Ahsoka shivered at the waves of fear and regret coming off Anakin and followed an odd impulse without question; she dismounted from her own speeder and knelt in the sand before she held him tight. "Anakin, find my voice." The young Togruta smiled softly at the man reeling from buried emotional pain in her arms and stroked his brown hair in a feeble attempt at comfort.

In Anakin's mind, the nightmare began to wane, and the voices of the slaughtered Tatooine natives gradually faded in the man's mind, replaced with the soothing voice of his Ahsoka. Wait! Hold on a minute!

In response to his mind's particular view of Ahsoka, the young Force user didn't come out of his PTSD flashback slowly but shot up to a sitting position quickly with a minor blush on his face which he hoped Ahsoka would read as heat exposure. To that end, he tried to sound upbeat but failed spectacularly. "That was quite a ride, huh?"

Ahsoka couldn't believe Anakin. The young former Commander of the 501st found herself fighting tears as a torrent of emotions overcame her. "You nearly fling yourself from your speeder, have debilitating visions of the most painful time of your life, and scare me more than you ever have in the past." The former Padawan glared hard at Anakin. "All you can think to say is, 'That was some ride, huh?' Anakin Skywalker, you are the most brainless being sometimes!"

Anakin couldn't help but notice the struggle Ahsoka had to keep an angry expression on her face. Before he could stop himself, Anakin barked back, "You know you love me, Snips."

Everything came to a screeching halt at that statement. For a few moments, no one spoke. The pair just looked at each other awkwardly. Anakin's face reddened to rival the color of a bright Sith saber while the tips of Ahsoka's lekku took on a lovely variation of royal blue of a similar shade to the markings on Captain Rex's helmet.

"Well…" Anakin gently removed himself from Ahsoka's hold, keenly aware he hadn't moved his head from her lap while this whole situation transpired. "We should get moving." The former Jedi Knight tried hard to keep the blush from his face as he moved toward his speeder. "The suns will set soon, and it isn't a good idea to travel the open desert after dark."

"R-Right…" Ahsoka affirmed as she started her own speeder. "How much further?"

Anakin shook his head. "Not long, thirty minutes' ride by speeder at most."

The rest of the trip to the Lars Homestead took silence like the rest of the trip but had an undercurrent of tension in it as well.

Once the pair arrived, they were quickly greeted by a cautious Owen and Beru. Something in the couple's body language told Anakin they were likely married by now. "Hello, Owen." Anakin smiled at Beru. "It seems I missed some things while fighting Separatists."

Owen laughed and nudged his step-brother. "It seems I missed a few things as well." Owen motioned for the pair of travelers to follow him inside. "We can catch up inside."

Ahsoka nodded and began to follow Owen and his now wife into the low doorway. She turned to Anakin and motioned for Owen to go on ahead without them wnen the man turned back to check on his visitors. "We'll be a few more minutes."

With that situation taking care of for the moment, Ahsoka turned her full attention to Anakin. She noticed Anakin in a similar stance to when the Jedi Knight was about to dive in and cut down countless Clankers as the battle droids marched on the legion. Ahsoka looked at Anakin and put her right hand on his shoulder. "We both are out of our element here, Skyguy." The Togruta laughed. "The Jedi don't teach family interaction or dynamics." From here, the former Commander smiled at him. "We'll learn together."

Anakin smiled at his companion and nodded in agreement with her before they went down into the main house. The interior itself wasn't anything fancy and spoke to the Spartan method of living adopted by most moisture farmers on the planet. On the far side of the main room Lars, Owen, and Beru looked as if they were just about to sit down to a meal. The table was set with typical Tatooine food and drink and had plenty of space for Anakin and Ahsoka to join, but Anakin suddenly felt a bout of hesitation.

Owen seemed to sense this and kindly motioned for the former Jedi to sit. "Come. There's plenty for both of you."

Anakin could almost hear his mom in his mind, Go on, Ani. Don't be rude.

"Thank you," Anakin said nervously as he and Ahsoka sat next to each other in space not occupied by or crowding for the others at the table.

Lars nodded his acceptance and asked, "What brings you out here again, Anakin?"

The addressee marveled a moment as soon as the food touched his tongue. The former Jedi Knight couldn't help but think yet again of his mother. When he swallowed, Anakin answered, "Excuse me." Anakin gave a look to Ahsoka Owen and Beru recognized almost instantly. The look showed pain usually only revealed to a significant other in an effort to draw strength from them. "I think Shmi might have left something for me in case I ever came back home." Anakin told Lars honestly. "It's a small wooden box." Anakin took a deep breath. "She kept as gift from my father to give to me when I was old enough."

Lars suddenly went white as if the subject of Anakin's father held horrors he didn't want to see.

Owen noticed his father's discomfort and nodded to Anakin. "I know where it is." He stated. "I'll show you after we finish eating, but first…"

"…who's your friend?" Beru finished with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"I'm Ahsoka Tano." The Togruta said evenly, not liking the tone with which the young woman asked her question. "Anakin was my teacher back before the Jedi-"

Anakin could feel the unresolved anger and pain in the only other Force sensitive present. "Easy, Snips, that's all in the past."

Owen and Beru had the same thought as they watched the interaction. Where was this Anakin when we met him the first time? The man from before did not give or receive any comfort from the girl he was with at the time. Sure, pain can make beings wear masks, but this was somehow different, more genuine.

Beru had a theory, but she would need her husband's help to test it for flaws. They obviously aren't Jedi anymore if both are showing this much open emotion. Beru didn't know any Jedi personally, but she heard stories as everyone did from time to time of the Jedi. Some she felt were wildly embellished and exaggerated. Others were more believable tales of impressive feats certain Jedi accomplished. However, all the tales of Jedi agreed on one point: Jedi were almost like basic droids with no emotive programming. They remained stoic and stable no matter who they interacted with in their duties. The first girl we saw Anakin with when Owen and I met him for the first time may have caused Anakin to pus against the Jedi and aggravate them, but something happened involving Ahsoka which finally made not only her leave the Jedi but took Anakin along with her.

As Owen got up from the table to take Anakin back to Shmi's room to look for the box, Beru stopped him halfway up and whispered, "Can you ask Anakin some questions about Ahsoka?"

Owen looked at his wife with a tired expression that turned into a knowing smile. "You want to nudge them together. Don't you?"

Beru nodded. "I'm fairly certain they care for each other." Beru made a sour face. "We just need to help them see that love isn't a thing to fear but to embrace, especially Anakin."

Owen chuckled. "I love you, Beru. You know that?" He then kissed her gently and left to help Anakin.

Hopefully, Beru thought with a small smile. He'll help Anakin find more than just his father's box while they bond.

Please Read and Review.