His heart was beating, his mind was racing. He knew that the meeting would come to a conclusion that he wasn't going to appreciate. They could almost see it; his home planet- Tatooine. Anakin's throat began to dry, and he couldn't seem to swallow.

Guil was studying him. She looked concerned for his wellbeing.

"Anakin are you all right?"

He nodded slightly. It wasn't true, it was obvious, and he knew she understood that, she understood him and his feelings. But the only thing that could make him relax is finding out that his mother's okay, that everything's okay.

She gave him a stern look. In a couple of minutes, they'd be landing, and a nervous, anxious Anakin is not what she needed nor wanted. She put a hand on his shoulder. The touch brought him back to his senses. He jumped a little and turned his head to look at her.

"Anakin we don't have to do this. We can go bac—"

"No, we have to do this. I have to make sure that everything is the way things are supposed to be. I have to know that my mother is fine. You don't understand what it—"

He was about to say that she didn't understand what it was like to feel like your losing someone. But he knew that he would just sound like a jerk, because of course she knew. She was worse off then he was.

"Understand what, Anakin? That I don't know what it feels like to lose someone? I didn't even have to read your mind for that one. You know perfectly well what the hell I've been through. Don't take your emotions out on me."

Her voice was hard a stern. This was the second time he heard her speak like this. He felt burned, as if she just slapped him across this face. He turned away.

Guil was starting to be annoyed. The personality she had been working on ever since the fire was starting to etch away slowly but surely. She didn't want to be kind all the time; she just wanted to be who she really was inside. If people didn't like it, she didn't care.

Enough of being accepted, I'm finished with that.

Of course she wasn't intentionally being rude or nasty, but she just hated it when people moped around about death, even when a person hadn't even passed away. It's not the end of the world, not yet at least.

I'm being mean.

She sighed. All in good time, everything would be all right again, she thought. All in good time, Anakin and I will conquer death. But all in good time.

It was almost the big moment. Only seconds stood in the way of him meeting him mother, if she was even still alive, that is. Anakin started to pace. Back and forth, back and forth, moving every time his mind changed a subject. He knew he should've been meditating, but concentrating on one thing deemed impossible to the young padawan at the current moment.

Only a couple more seconds…

At last, they landed in a large parking lot of Spaceships on the outskirts of Mos Espa. Anakin could barely wait to get out of the ship and touch his home with his own fingertips. He quickly retrieved a rickshaw and they hastily shoved themselves into the back. He barked orders to the driver to bring them Watto's shop. Guil grinned to herself for Anakin was amusing her. He was so impatient, just like a little child wanting a toy. Anakin didn't seem to notice her sudden lightness of mood, he was staring at all the sites he hadn't seen in years.

Force, everything seems to have stayed exactly the same. Sure, there are a few updates here and there, but everything pretty much stayed the same.

He was still watching everything that he didn't notice they had reached their destination so quickly. The rickshaw jerked to a stop and he helped Guil out of it.

"Wait, please," Anakin said to the driver.

As the shop came into better view, they began to notice sitting on a stool in front of the shop was Watto. He was using a small electronic screwdriver on a fiddly droid. Three pit droids are chattering away and are trying to help him, but they seemed only to make him madder.

Anakin smiled. Watto was never good with mechanics. It was always he who had fixed things around in the shop. Watto was just the business part of the deal.

Watto began to yell in Huttese, "No chuba da wanga, da wanga!" at the three droids.

"Chut, chut, Watto," said Anakin as he approached the shop keeper. He still remembered how to speak fluent Huttese.

"What?" replied Watto, not even looking up from the droid he was trying to fix.

"I said excuse me."

Watto then turned to the chattering Pit Droids. "Go ana bopa!" and when he said this they snapped into their storage position.

"Let me help you with that." Anakin took the fiddly piece of equipment and started to play with it. Watto blinked in surprise. The droid was fixed.

"What? I don't know you...What can I do for you? You look like a Jedi. Whatever it is... I didn't do it."

Watto drops the screwdriver and cursed loudly in Huttese.

He's afraid of me, thinks Anakin. Surprisingly, the feeling of power felt so good, so natural…

"I'm looking for Shmi Skywalker."

Watto looked at him suspiciously. He stares at Guil, then back to Anakin.

Guil didn't say anything. She didn't want to interrupt their conversation; this was all Anakin's.

Then hard realization washed over Watto. "Annie? Little Annie? Naaah!" said Watto in pure surprise.

"You are Annie! It is you! Ya sure sprouted! Weehoo! A Jedi! Waddya know? Hey, maybe you couldda help wit some deadbeats who owe me a lot of money..."

"My mother..." He was getting impatient. He loved talking to the guy but he needed to get to Shmi. She was his main priority right now.

"Oh, yeah. Shmi... she's not mine no more. I sold her."

" Sold her...?" Anakin's heart started racing. Sold her?

Guil had a feeling that this wasn't going to be good. She grabbed onto Ani's arm, just in case he had an urge to do something violent.

"Years ago. Sorry, Annie, but you know, business is business. Sold her to a moisture farmer named Lars. Least I think it was Lars. Believe it or not, I heard he freed her

and married her. Can ya beat that?"

"Do you know where they are?" So I have a step dad now huh?

"Long way from here... someplace over on the other side of Mos Eisley, I think..."

"I'd like to know."

Anakin threw Watto a grim look that meant business, and he took the hint quickly. Watto needed to be specific, and Anakin wasn't in the mood to play games.

"Yeah... sure... absolutely. Let's go look in my records." They walked into the junkshop, and it too was exactly the same, as with the rest of the town. It had the same greasy smell, the same jumbled mess everywhere. He noticed Guil was still holding on to him. He didn't mind…

"Ah here we are!" Watto handed the file over to Anakin. He scanned it quickly, and flipped through the different pages.

Finally after thinking for a couple of moments, he turned to Guil. "Let's go."

Back on the ship, Anakin still had that same determined look in his eyes she had seen once he had the file in his hands. He was silent and in deep concentration, and it was starting to scare Guil. She was positive that whatever they found on Tatooine, they wouldn't like. She knew it would hurt Anakin more than he knew something could hurt a person, but that's why she was there. After today, things would be different for the both of them. Of that she was sure.

One thing she was afraid of was the things Anakin might do. He had the look of kill already in his eyes, a look all too familiar to Guil. She needed to be there with him, she needed to protect him, and protect the people he was destined to hurt. But hopefully she was wrong, hopefully, his mother would be perfectly okay, that she would welcome them both with open arms and there'd be smiles all around. But life isn't like that.

The Starship descended, hovered, and lastly landed on a bluff. As they came out, Guil was surprised at what she saw. Living on a water planet, she was so unaccustomed at how bright and dry the sand beneath her feet was. She could feel the little pieces hit her face and tangle into her hair due to the heavy winds blowing in their directions. Anakin was already on the move. A man with a mission, she thought.

He was standing at the edge of the bluff and she followed his lead. As they looked down onto the desert floor, there stood a little homestead. Anakin's home. She groped for Anakin's hand. He felt hers and clasped, and then smiled.

"Ready?" she asked him.

"No. But there's not much of a choice." He answered.

"Then let's go."

As Anakin and Guil approached, they came into view a droid working near the homestead.

It saw them and said, "Oh, hello. How might I be of service? I am See..."

"Threepio?" said Anakin in total revelation.

Guil was a bit confused but watched on.

"Oh, my... Oh, my maker! Master Anakin! I knew you would return, I knew you would!"

"Threepio this is Guil Joba. Guil this is C-3PO. I made him a long time ago."

"Hello, Threepio." She greeted.

"Oh, my circuits! I'm so pleased to see you both!"

"I've come to see my mother."

Uh-oh, thought Guil. Here it comes…

"I think... I think... Perhaps we'd better go indoors."

Anakin visibly stiffened. His hand clenched around hers. He turned to look at her with piercing blue eyes. She didn't know what to do. She was right. Something was going to happen that would hurt Anakin.

"C'mon Ani, let's go."

"Master Cliegg, Master Lars! Might I present two important visitors?" Threepio shuffled ahead of them.

Owen Las and Beru Whitesun come out into the courtyard.

"I'm Anakin Skywalker."

"Owen Lars. This is my girlfriend, Beru."

"Hello," said Beru.

"I'm Guil Joba."

"I guess I'm your stepbrother. I had a feeling you might show up some day." Owen said to Anakin.

"Is my mother here?"

Another question who's answer will hurt, thought Guil.

"No, she's not." Says a second man in a wheelchair who came out of the homestead.

"I'm Cliegg Lars. Shmi is my wife…C'mon. Let's go inside. We have a lot to talk about…"

Lars swinged from the house on a small floating chair. One of his legs was heavily bandaged; the other was missing. He balanced awkwardly and put out a hand.

Beru put several steaming cups of ardees on a tray and after exited the kitchen...

Cliegg continued what he was beginning outside.

"It was just before dawn. They came out of nowhere. A hunting party of Tusken Raiders."

Anakin couldn't breathe. He had come here knowing he would have to face the worst, and the worst news he could possibly hear were rolling off the tongue of the man sitting before him. His mother was kidnapped, but maybe she's alive.

"Your mother had gone out early, like she always did, to pick mushrooms that grow on the vaporators. From the tracks, she was about halfway home when they took her. Those Tuskens walk like men, but they're vicious, mindless monsters. Thirty of us went out after her. Four of us came back. I'd be with them, only... after I lost my leg I just

couldn't ride any more... until I heal," Cliegg said as he grimaced, easing his throbbing leg.

'This isn't the way I wanted to meet you, son. This isn't how your mother and I planned it. I don't want to give up on her, but she's been gone a month. There's little hope she's lasted this long."

Then there was silence.

Owen broke it when he asked, as Anakin began to stand up, "Where are you going?"

Anger and determination, a deadly mix, began to well up inside of Anakin.

"I'm going to find my mother."

He was beginning to get more and more livid as he thought about how his mother must be suffering and how these people, his "family" weren't doing anything to help her. They were just sitting here having tea. Anakin knew this was unfair of him to think of them like this, they tried they're best, but they're best wasn't good enough. Anakin was going to find his mother, even if they didn't help him. He didn't need they're help anyway; he was good on his own.

"Your mother's dead, son. Accept it."

This comment just made him ever more irate, giving him the fuel to persist on.

"I can feel her pain, and I will find her."

Guil stared at him. He was beginning to go through what she had overcome. The pain, the sadness, the regret. She knew that Ani had to do this, this was the turning point for him, the point that would bring him to the right side, the side that made people live.

"Take my speeder bike," said Owen.

"I know she's alive."

Anakin turned abruptly and exited the house.

As Guil passed through the doorway and onto the hot desert sand, she spotted Anakin standing, looking out into the horizon. She walked over to him.

"Anakin…"

"Guil, are you coming?"

"No, this is something you need to do on your own. I'll be here when you come back though."

"Good, I don't want you getting hurt if you came."

She made a soft laugh. She would've countered him because this was more like a burn to her, as if she wasn't strong enough to defend herself. But she laughed instead, he was being sincere.

"Anakin…" She gave him a hug. "Be careful out there, okay?"

"I won't be long." He swung onto the bike. The engine came to life and roared; she watched as he sped out into the desert.

She sighed and whispered softly into the wind, "It won't be long until everything's settled," and then she added after a moment, "…Darth Vader."

Anakin rode the speeder bike toward the homestead. He was numb. He hated the feeling and yet he was experiencing it more and more. He had a tough night, and this was his reward.

Truly, for me, he thought, things just keep getting worse and worse.

Owen, followed by Beru and Guil, came out of the homestead to meet Ani. Threepio pursued and Cliegg hobbled out of the homestead on his hovering chair. They saw the look of disdain on his face and the wrapped bundle on the back of the speeder. They watched in dismay and consternation.

Anakin stopped the bike and couple of strides from the group. They ran to him as he stepped away from the speeder, carrying his dead mother in his arms.

Once again, Guil began to relate himself to what she went through. She notices the curve his body: the curve of a person trying to be strong but the weight of the burden is just too overwhelming. She notices the crease in his brows, the hurt in his eyes, the trembling grasp

Anakin stopped his trek, coming face-to-face with Cliegg. There was a brief pause, the silence that they all hated; the thick tension. After what seemed like years, Anakin broke the gaze and carried Shmi into the homestead, his back turned on them all. They returned to the homestead feeling dejected.

Guil went to the garage after checking all the other rooms and not finding Anakin. She brought with her some food, yet she knew that he would be unable to eat.

She found him.

"I brought you something. Are you hungry?"

He was standing at a workbench, repairing some part of the speeder bike.

Guil gently put the tray down.

"The shifter broke. Life seems so much simpler when you're fixing things. I'm good at fixing things... always was. But I couldn't..."

He stopped working. Tears were beginning to well up in the corner of his eyes.

"Why did she have to die…why couldn't I save her? I know I could have!"

"Sometimes there are things no one can fix. You're not all-powerful, Annie."

He turned and walked away from the bench. He was getting angry.

"I should be! Someday I will be... I will be the most powerful Jedi ever! I promise you, I will even learn to stop people from dying, like how you want to. Now I know what you went through Guil, maybe yours was worse, you lost more loved ones, but now I finally understand why you yearn to save people so greatly." There was an exact replicated look of passion in his eyes that shown in Guil's when she told him this only two days ago.

Finally, she thought, the time to tell everything is drawing nearer…

He hurled a wrench across the garage and it clatters noisily to the floor. Anakin looked at his trembling hands.

"I... I killed them. I killed them all. They're dead, every single one of them..."

Guil looked at him in disclosure. What?

Anakin focused on her like someone returning from far away.

"Not just the men, but the women and the children, too. They're like animals, and slaughtered them like animals... I hate them!"

There was silence and only Anakin's sobs radiated any noise. He trembled and Guil gathered him up in her arms.

"Why do I hate them? I didn't... I couldn't... I couldn't control myself. I... I don't want to hate them...But I just can't forgive them."

"To be angry is to be human."

"To control your anger is to be a Jedi."

"You're human."

"No, I'm a Jedi. I know I'm better than this. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"

Anakin felt like collapsing into her arms. Maybe he was already, he didn't know. He was tired of everything. The pain was just too incredible for him to bear. He wanted to rid himself of this. Thankfully Guil was there for him…Yes, she'll hold me up…

"Anakin…"

He looked at her, his eyes now a crystal blue, the tears making the stand out even brighter. There was a tear rolling down his cheek, Guil wiped it off with her finger.

"Anakin, there's something we're going to talk about, something that will bring us closer to our paths of vanishing death."

Author: Okay so my first 'cliffhanger'. Well it's not really that good of a cliffhanger but it's still one! I beat chapter 7 because this, i realized, has become the new longest chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. There probably won't be an update very soon because i'm going on vacation to St. Martin, but keep checking because i might update tommrow, or i might somehow find a computer over there. Tell me what you think is going to happen, i want to know smile.