Nineteen Years Later, During "A New Hope"
They were dead.
Luke gaped in horror and disbelief at the charred remains of his aunt and uncle. For the rest of his life, he would be glad that at least he didn't have to see it happen. But for now, his entire life crumbled around him, and inside of him.
Luke fell to the sand. He cried. He sobbed. At points he screamed and slammed his hands into the sand. Other times he grabbed fistfuls of it and threw it against the wreckage of the Lars' home -- his home. He would later recall that this went on for what seemed to be an eternity to him at the time.
The Imperials were not anything Luke considered honorable. They were cold, vicious killers.
His entire world just seemed so much darker. The Imperials are going to pay. I will destroy every one of them for taking everything away from me. At one time as a younger man, Luke had very briefly entertained the notion of joining the Imperial Academy. The thought now made him nauseous.
It wasn't enough that they decimated the entire farm and had taken his aunt and uncle's lives needlessly. It was the fact that they did it with no remorse for those lives they were taking. Luke wondered how many other beings they had killed in this manner; how many other lives they had destroyed.
I knew I would leave someday, but I didn't want it to be like this!
Luke sat in the sand in which he had fallen during his tirade, longing for the scene before him to disappear and for things to go back to the way they were. But, wishing was not going to make it so.
He stood up after a very long time, almost falling again. His knees hurt and buckled from being on the ground for so long. He stumbled around, assessing all the damage for what it was worth. His walking soon became aimless, as he began to wonder if the stormtroopers had left anything intact. Hopelessness and despair were flooding his senses until he saw something that he had missed when he first stood up.
I can't keep Ben waiting. But first, I've got something to do.
He walked over to where it was standing, unscathed by a single blaster bolt or detonator charge. His hands working feverishly, he spent at least another hour piling sand on it until it was completely covered up.
I'm never coming back to this place again. There is nothing left here for me here now.
He climbed into his speeder and headed back to an undoubtedly concerned Ben Kenobi.