Anakin squinted at the man before him. Older than he remembered him, which was only to be expected. Older and more tired. Nevertheless, the man that stood before Anakin, as old as he was, was no doubt Kitster. Appearances may be deceiving at times, but the Force never lied.

Kitster barely reacted to Anakin's mention of his name at all, simply smiling politely. "That's right, sir," he poked the little name tag on his shirt. "Will that only be the three of you? We offer a fifty percent discount on children and slaves."

"No, Kitster, listen, it's m-," Anakin suddenly became deathly aware of the other patrons within earshot. It wasn't arrogance that made Anakin remember how almost everyone in the galaxy knew his name. He'd pretty much been the mascot of the republic's resilience. To most everyone, Anakin Skywalker was dead. And if he wasn't, then he was an anti-Empire rebel. Exposing himself here and now might very well spell their doom. "...Yes, it's just the three of us. One night."

"Very good, that'll be one hundred and sixty credits."

Anakin heard how Obi-Wan audibly gulped. He peeked at his older brother behind him. Then, silently, he made a few hand movements that might seem like a random spasm to anyone else. Really, it was surprising he still remembered the movements; even more so that he took to them almost unconsciously. Are we unable to pay?

There was a tense moment before Anakin caught the answer motioned to him out of the corner of his eye. Not quite.

Anakin steeled his spirit. Then, before he did anything, he motioned, Trust me. Obi-Wan made no response. Anakin locked his eyes with Kitster. Despite the surface-level politeness of the man, any time he looked at Anakin there was some level of discomfort when he glanced at the innumerable scars covering his body. The only part not covered in scars was his smooth scalp, covered in a short cut of hair. "Could I speak with you in private?"

Kitster's polite smile grew strained. "Is there something the matter?"

Unconsciously, Anakin's body tensed up, hardening his form into one of intimidation. "No, there is simply something I wish to tell you, Kitster." He had hoped his use of his former best friend's name would make him relax a little, but it only had the opposite effect. The man visibly shrunk away.

"Surely, anything you would tell me in private could bear public scrutiny?"

For some reason, hearing Kitster talk like some bottom-feeding suck-up made Anakin's stomach churn. "No."

Kitster's frantic eyes hopped from person to person, finally returning to Anakin. Undergoing an impressive transformation, Kitster seemed to strengthen his resolve, balling his hands into fists should anything happen. His eye contact remained unbroken. "Very well, sir. If you'll follow me."

Kitster turned on his heel, motioning for Anakin to follow him into the back of the establishment. In the time it took to walk there, Anakin only glanced back once, there bearing witness to the subdued panic on Obi-Wan's face. Anakin nodded sharply. Trust me, he signed again. In return, Obi-Wan signed, Be careful.

The two of them stood face to face in the middle of a small room. The room itself was rather unkempt, contrasting sharply with the cleanliness of the hotel itself. However, Anakin's eyes remained glued on Kitster. At this distance, their suddenly appearing height difference was almost a little jarring, with Kitster standing at less than a head below Anakin's line of sight.

"Well?" he said. "Will you do me the honour of-,"

Kitster couldn't even finish the sentence before he was pulled into Anakin's mechanical arms. If Anakin was to be honest, he'd only barely contained this reaction ever since he laid eyes on Kitster. But now, all doors were closed. The smaller man began fervently struggling in his grip. Had Anakin had his old bodysuit prosthetics he wouldn't have had any chance of escaping. However, now that Anakin's prosthetics were weak, tawny things made from scraps and rubbish, he was able to wrangle out with only a little effort.

"What in the stars are you-,"

Anakin forcefully grabbed Kitster's shoulders. "Kitster, it's me!" Anakin cried. Kitster replied with the kind of face you'd make while trying to make out a single acorn in a hailstorm. Anakin patted his chest. "Anakin!"

Kitster's face transformed into a look of shock. "Wh-, what?" His dark eyes began studying Anakin's face with newfound fervour, only to eventually arrive at a single conclusion. "...No, that can't be right… Can it?"

Anakin grabbed both sides of Kitster's face, forcing him to look at his face. "It's me. Anakin. I… I kinda got burnt."

A frown found its way onto Kitsters face. "...Anakin Skywalker is dead. It was all over the holonet." His voice was tinged with regret and pain. "Besides, even if he was alive, wouldn't he be a traitor or something?"

"Hey, I'm not a traitor!" Anakin said reflexively before realizing the irony of his statement. Well, okay, maybe he was a little bit of a traitor, but he was better now! Apart from the fact that now he was just a traitor to the Empire. Anakin winced. "Look, I didn't die. It's-, it's a complicated story."

Somehow, Kitster's frown deepened. A testament to his immense doubt.

"I… I'll prove it to you," Anakin said. But even if he said that, the look of complete distrust on Kitster's face made his task that much harder, making him rack his brains for an answer. In the end, the only thing to do was to raddle information about himself and Kitster. Their favourite drinks, the name of their mothers… As such information poured from Anakin's mouth, Kitster's expression only grew more and more baffled.

But, in the end, it wasn't enough. "W-, well, yeah, but… Anybody I knew as a kid could know that, right? That's just a matter of-,"

Sighing, Anakin made a nearby lamp float into the air. "Did you know any other Jedi as a kid?" Referring to himself as a Jedi somehow felt both foreign and wrong, but once he saw the astounded expression on Kitster's face, the effectiveness of the move was only proven. His eyes widened in shock, the frown completely wiped off his face, instead overtaken by a slack-jawed, open look. Even without the Force, Anakin could read exactly the series of thoughts running through his old friend's mind as his face shifted from shock, to confusion, to, finally…

Pure delight. "-Annie!" he cried, his face completely overtaken by a massive grin, and in a move that mirrored Anakin's first reaction perfectly, he slung his arms around his taller friend, bringing him into a hug. Anakin nervously accepted it. A bit more painful than should be expected, Kitster slapped Anakin's back, all the while merrily laughing. "You're alive, you're alive! I never doubted it for a second! Everybody else went on and on about how you'd been killed, but I couldn't believe it. Not my Annie!"

Despite everything, Anakin could feel a smile rising to his face. "Yeah. I wouldn't die on you."

Kitster released him only enough for their eyes to meet. Then, the both of them simultaneously erupted into face-splitting grins.

A little while later, Kitster urged Anakin into a chair, leading to the both of them sitting face-to-face, finally, after so many years. "So," Kitter said, still smiling. "What happened?"

Anakin's thin smile grew tight. "...Which part?"

Noticing his hesitation, Kitster turned apologetic, throwing up his arms. "Nothing bad meant! If you don't want to talk, that's fine, too. Really, just knowing you're alive and okay is enough for me." The enunciation on the okay part said all too much. After all, could he whole-heartedly say Anakin was okay when he looked like that?

But it wasn't as though Anakin could let Kitster remain ignorant of everything. That would be the ultimate insult to their friendship. "No, it's fine. I guess you must be wondering what happened to make me look like… Like this."

Kitster leaned forward, eyes trained on Anakin. Silently prompting him to continue.

"...It was my own fault." He raised his right arm, the only prosthetic different from the rest; built competently and formatted with thickness and strength in mind. "That's how I lost my first arm. I was rash. I swore not to do it again, but…" His eyes trailed to the rest of his body. His eyes grew distant and conflicted. "Would you believe me if I said the guy I came in with did this to me?"

Kitster scratched his chin. "The old guy?"

Anakin chuckled. "Yeah, him. But he was just trying to save me. By killing me." Kitster squinted at him. "Don't ask how that works, it just does. Only in hindsight do I understand why it was better that I survived. Despite it all." Anakin gave Kitster an uncertain look. "Kitster, I can't tell you I've been a good man all this time."

Kitster scoffed. "Yeah, right. You're the Hero With No Fear!"

The title brought Anakin a solemn smile. "That's not it, Kit. I… I turned to the dark. I went against the Jedi order." His words came out as nary a whisper. "In some ways, I was the one who brought about its downfall." Now Kitster fell silent. When Anakin looked up and met his gaze, his blue eyes were tinged with mist. "I killed Jedi. Kitster, I killed children." He averted his gaze, unable to look his old friend in the eye. His mind was overgrown with massive trees larger than Coruscant buildings. "I took slaves…"

At this, Kitster finally gave some sort of reaction. A warm hand fell on Anakin's shoulder, prompting him to look up, where he found Kitster standing above him. "...But you're back now, aren't you?"

Anakin's jaw slacked open. "Yeah, I guess."

The smile Kitster gave him said more than any words could. "Then it's fine, right?"

Anakin wanted to sneer at him, to tell him he was a fool for thinking a Sith could return so easily, that his sins still lingered in his mind, that if he could do it once, he could do it again. But he forced his mouth shut. Instead, he said, "Yeah. It is."

Kitster grinned again. "I mean, if the guy who tried to kill you is okay with you now, how am I supposed to be any different? We're best friends, damn it!"

Smiling, Anakin patted the hand still on his shoulder. "Thanks, Kit." The mention of Obi-Wan made Anakin recall part of his reason for calling Kitster to the side straight away. "On that note, could… I'm sorry for asking this of you, but could you let us stay the night for free? We're on a mission to save the galaxy, and since we had to spend every credit we have on getting smuggled off-world, we have little to nothing left for nightly accommodations." Anakin hated asking this of his friend, but he had no choice. If it was for the sake of the galaxy (or, rather, his brother and his son), he would even beg.

Flashing a brilliant smile, Kitster gave a clear thumbs-up. "Don't worry about it! I can't afford to pay for your room here, so would it be okay if you stayed at my house for the night?"

"Of course, Kit. It'll be more than enough."

Patting each other's backs happily, they emerged from the backroom to find Obi-Wan explaining (in detail) how Anakin once snuck away from home to do a flying race in an illegal sport he barely even knew anything about. Of course, in the end, it was up to Obi-Wan to save him from the maws of a massive garbage-eating worm. Obi-Wan and Anakin made eye contact. Anakin was absolutely assured that he was only telling that tale to mess with Anakin. After all, from what Anakin could hear, the tale had been scrubbed of any identifying markers.

Even so, once the old croon laid eyes on Anakin and Kitster, his relief was truly tangible. Especially so at noticing no external wounds on Kitster, not to speak of any mind-altering Force trickery.

"Shall I assume this will solve our residency issues?" Obi-Wan asked, his wizened old eyes turning to Kitster. The young man viewed him with a strange mixture of emotions, being everything from admiration to loathing. Obi-Wan couldn't understand what Anakin could have told him in such a short amount of time to leave his opinion so mixed.

Anakin nodded deeply. "We'll be sleeping with Kitster for the night."

Obi-Wan extended a hand. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Kitster."

Simultaneously, little Luke extended his hand as well. "Hi."

Kitster shook both hands at the same time. "My pleasure." After hearing the names of the two, he quickly cleared his throat. "Well, I'd love to bring you there immediately, but since my shift hasn't ended yet I do have to ask you to wait a while. It shouldn't take more than an hour."

The three accepted his offer, deciding to spend the coming hour by buying Luke a ruby bliel. Anakin had only asked if he'd had one before as a courtesy (he was still going to buy him one), but once he heard that his own son had never had a ruby bliel, there was nothing he could do but stare indignantly at Obi-Wan. And then he heard that Obi-Wan had never had a ruby bliel either. Absolutely unthinkable. To live on Tatooine for seven years only to never taste a staple of the culture!

He brought them to the best ruby bliel shop in Mos Espa without a second to spare. Surprisingly, the person who kept the shop was the same man as it had been when Anakin was a child. But even then Anakin understood deeply that he couldn't possibly tell him who he was. He just had to accept the drinks and pretend he didn't recognize him.

Anakin sipped the drink. If there was one thing from Tatooine he'd missed, it was this.

As the heretic and traitor he was, Obi-Wan didn't like it and gave Anakin the rest. Luke slurped his obediently. The sight of his own kid acting so much as he had as a kid brought a warm glow to Anakin's heart.

After an hour, they returned to find Kitster standing outside the Three Moons hotel. He welcomed Anakin with a hug and a pat on the back, much like long-lost brothers might.

Since the suns were already steadily waning, Kitster quickly led them to his house on the edge of Mos Espa. According to Kitster, he'd been living with his mother until only recently, but after her passing, he decided to take over the house on his own. Right now, he had actually worked off his debt, rebuying himself. In essence, he was no longer a slave. This made Anakin extremely happy.

Well at Kitsters house, he made them some dinner, and while they ate, he and Anakin recounted stories of their youth. Of course, whenever the conversation was open for it, Obi-Wan interjected with some story of Anakin's time at the Temple, something Kitster was always excited to hear. About halfway through the night, Kitster admitted, somewhat hesitantly, that he'd followed Anakin's career quite intently since he was almost like an idol to him. And not just him either. According to Kitster, almost everyone else on Tatooine felt the same. It was a miraculous story, so what was so wrong with slaves and ground-bound children looking for a hero to idolize?

When Obi-Wan asked somewhat abashedly what the slave children thought about the Hero With No Fear's companion, The Negotiator, all Kitster could reply with was, "Who?"

Apparently, the idea of slashing your masters apart with a lightsaber appealed a lot more than having a civilized conversation with them. Obi-Wan mumbled something about how Anakin could hardly be a good role model to children of all things, but Luke quickly affirmed that Jedi were awesome and extremely cool. Kitster wholeheartedly agreed.

Later in the night, after Luke had gone to bed prematurely, when only the three adults remained, the talks grew more serious.

Although Kitster loved hearing about the heroic side of his friend from the mouth of the person closest to him, he was equally curious about everything else; about what they couldn't say in front of Luke. Well, it was less so that he was curious and more so that he simply had to know. As Anakin's friend, it was his duty to know.

So they told him. Of Anakin's victories and defeats, of his mistakes and successes. They described the splatter of separatist blood on his record, his ruthlessness, his absolute willingness to win at any cost. When Anakin spoke of this side of him, he seemed distant, analytical - as if it hadn't actually happened to him, but to some other part of himself. Some part that was dead by his hand.

Yes, they spoke of that too.

Of Anakin's role in the fall of the republic. Of his most dire mistakes. Of the innocents slain by his blade. Much as how Anakin had listened to his warring exploits with coolness and distance, so too did Kitster hear about this side of his friend. After all, to him, it might as well have never happened. He only knew Anakin as he was now, as he was as a child, and as he was as a hero. Everything else was just a blur, caused by a character whose name Kitster was only remotely aware of.

By the end of the night, although Kitser was far more knowledgeable on what Anakin had truly been up to, to him, it didn't actually change much. Anakin was Anakin. Always had been, always will be.

Night fell, everyone went to sleep.

In the morning, they gave a quick but thankful farewell to Kitster, Anakin hugging him just a little longer than might be necessary, promising to return one day. Kitster didn't doubt it, since he had already returned once before.

And off they were, heading towards the cantina.

Much like yesterday, Anakin waited with Luke outside the cantina, mostly for his own sake. He just didn't like them. The people in there were all scum with no care for their fellow men, happy to kill even their own family for the right amount of credits. Anakin scowled darkly. Even though the whole event had just been a ruse, those anxious few days where Anakin had been tricked into believing Obi-Wan was dead still weighed heavily on his conscience. The whole event had really shaken him. Maybe he should have taken a larger note of how his first instinct had been to try to take revenge.

Or maybe he should have realized just then how being on his lonesome would never work.

A deep sigh escaped Anakin. His brain felt far too crowded. Talking with Kitster had been a great release, but it wasn't as though his friend actually understood much of what he heard. He might have tried to make a case against it, but Anakin could tell straight away that all the stuff about the Sith passed right over his head. Which is only to be expected. Kitster may be one of Anakin's closest friends, but he was no Jedi. He was just a former slave in the outer rim.

As Anakin got lost in thought, three people exited the cantina.

"These are your friends?" a young smuggler said, his eyes focusing on Anakin. "What happened to him? Tried to tickle a ranchor?"

Obi-Wan smiled thinly. "Not exactly." Thankfully, he didn't elaborate further. That could've gotten awkward.

However, Anakin wasn't looking at the human youth, but instead at his Wookie companion. The creature stood a head higher than Anakin, which was impressive considering that Anakin was hardly a small man either; one who had at times rivalled many Wookies in height. In that sense, for this Wookie to be even taller was merit to the creature's impressive build. A mellow sort of panic settled in Anakin's stomach. First, he wondered how in the stars the Wookie was able to escape his slaughter on Kashyyyk. He'd been very thorough, making sure to take several hundred thousand of the brawny creatures as slaves, sparing no stragglers. This must have been caused by the presence of those Jedi pests. Although he was able to slay their leader and many of their kin, a few of them - specifically, the younger woman by the name Starstone - were able to escape together with a few Wookies.

Might this one be one of those who escaped with the Jedi? Or had he left the planet before the slaughter, now unable to return? There was also the possibility that his escape had nothing to do with the Jedi.

Anakin swallowed shallowly.

If the Wookie did escape with the Jedi, wasn't there a possibility that he knew their current location?

Anakin shook his head. Those thoughts were of the past. Right now, he just had to stay in the present and let Obi-Wan do his thing. All Anakin had to do was greet the two of them, walk onto their ship and relax. Then, everything would be okay. Probably.

The young smuggler introduced himself as Han Solo while the Wookie was apparently called Chewbacca. The name did not ring any bells.

However, the more Anakin studied the Wookie, the more he felt some vague sense of recognition, though he couldn't tell if this was due to looking at him too much or simply because he had seen him before. Either way, right then and there, Anakin decided that he would make sure Chewbacca never found out who he was. Not because Anakin believed the hairy creature could defeat him or even harm him grievously, but more so because if he killed the Wookie, the young smuggler would probably bar them from using his ship. Not to even mention how disappointed his master would be.

So, almost reluctantly, he shook the hand of the smuggler and followed him to his ship. All the way there, the smuggler was bragging about his achievements and the specs of his ship. Anakin suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.

The kid couldn't be more than twenty, and going by the kind of things he deemed brag-worthy, he had only been a smuggler for a few years at best. Of course, no self-assured pilot would ever brag about being a smuggler, but the gall of the man really was quite something. If Anakin didn't know a direct conflict would probably get him booted off the ship, he might have tried to shoot back a few boasts of his own. A glare from Obi-Wan pulled the curtains on any such desires.

They arrived at the ship.

The Millenium Falcon. 7 000 credits for this scrapheap?

Not even Obi-Wan, the most technologically illiterate man Anakin knew, was impressed by the sight.

"She might not look like much, but she'll get you there like a high-speed hawk bat!" Solo assured them. A hard statement to trust when it didn't even look like the thing could actually lift off to begin with.

The only one with a different opinion was Luke. "Wow, a real starship! And I can go on it?"

Solo, flashing a killing grin, gave a thumbs up. If Anakin hadn't been holding Luke's hand, the young boy might just have passed out where he stood. In his heart, Anakin made a vow to get Luke on a real starship as soon as he could. This boy needed to know how good his dad could fly. Until then, this would just have to do.

The three passengers were soon herded onto the ship, shown their accommodations, and placed on a small couch beside a holotable.

Luke, being a hyped-up little kid who had never been off-planet, demanded to see the cockpit, even while they lifted off. He just had to see it. Anakin was similarly adamant, though he was more so anxious about the kind of flying the "outer rim's best smuggler" could do.

When the Millenium Falcon rose off the ground to the sound of Luke's excited squealing, Anakin had to accept the man wasn't too bad of a pilot.

Solo reached up to flick a few levers. Once they left Tatooine's gravity well, he began preparations for hyperspace.

Then, as the stars stretched into lines, Solo said, "To Alderaan!"

...Alderaan?