Disclaimer: Still don't own anything except this idea which I'm playing around with.

Third chappie, hope you'll like it!

Space was cold. While he couldn't feel much of it due to the clothes he wore, and not having much of a body left to indeed feel the cold with, this was a piece of knowledge that had burned itself into his brain with cold star-fire, forever sticking with the Tatooine-bred boy.

He was used to it though. And besides, it was part of it. The austere beauty of space with the stars dotting the void surrounding the lone Star Destroyer was all part of why he loved space. It gave him the freedom of flying, the only freedom he had kept through the years, and it was the complete opposite of the baking heat of the twin suns that Tatooine circled.

Tatooine.

The cursed planet he couldn't seem to escape even when he swore he would never return again.

"Lord Vader? We're nearing our destination. We'll drop out of hyperspace within the hour." Nodding to the Captain, but not turning around, Darth Vader continued to stare out the large view port currently displaying the star-streaked hyperspace. Captain Millet lingered for a moment before walking away, doing his best to appear as if he wasn't fleeing from the oppressive presence of the dark lord.

Anakin Skywalker.

The name buzzed around in Luke's brain like a drunken fly, bouncing against his cranium, up, down, sideways, back, until Luke was cross-eyed with following the thought. His father had been a slave? And been the only human to ever fly a podrace, and win too?

But what had happened after he had won that race? Where had he gone? Used the money to free himself and gone on to be a navigator on a freighter as Uncle Owen had told him? But that just didn't add up. The money would have belonged to the Toydarian who owned him. So what then..?

"Hey, boy! You just gonna to sit there frying or are we gonna do this? I can pack up and go back you know. Ain't me wanting a podracer." The Rodian's voice broke through Luke's amazed and dumbfounded mind. He wanted to tell the alien off, it isn't every day you get some information about your dead father, but he had to bite his tongue, nod, and stay quiet.

Here was the reason his gut feeling had told him to use the Lars name instead. Had he told him it was 'Luke Skywalker', the Rodian would no doubt have refused to tell him anything and possibly even backed out of their deal and thrown him out on his ear. Of course, Luke didn't know that, but he was rather sure of it.

Tightening the straps keeping him in the seat of the 'racer for one last time Luke nodded and the Rodian threw the small smoke-charge on the ground between their podracers. It would only produce a small puff of smoke when it went off, but would effectively send them on their way as their starting signal. Luke fingered the control-handles nervously. This was it. The seconds ticked by torturously, and Luke wondered if 15 seconds really was that long, it couldn't be...

He'd been so concentrated on the smoke-charge so that when it went off he wasn't even aware of engaging the podracer's engines. He was suddenly just slammed back into the seat, almost loosing his light grip on the control-handles in the process. Reflexively grabbing the handles harder, Luke concentrated on the machine under and around him, the speed and the wind whipping his hair back.

It was...

The podracers had started quite a ways from the Canyon's opening, just to give Luke a fair chance at getting used to the 'racer. The Rodian was certainly not lacking in confidence. Which wasn't strange, since only one other human had ever competed in podraces and he'd soon left the scene for reasons unknown. It wasn't as if Luke portrayed any sort of threat now was it?

... perfectly...

Luke let out a whoop of delight as they entered the Canyon, shadows drenching him and the Rodian, the suns not reaching down here.

... exhilarating!

There had been a few close calls during the first twisting turns of the race, but Luke proved to be a quick learner when it came to hands-on learning. He had all the relevant theoretical knowledge, and the crash-course in the beginning of the Canyon had cemented it into real potential skill.

Which was lucky, since otherwise the race would have been over real quick. This was easy, direct, no time for hesitation or thoughts. He had fumbled with the instincts telling him when, how, and now! at first, which accounted for nearly slamming into the cliff wall instead of turning at a bend, one of the engines getting clipped instead, but remaining unharmed. After that he learnt not to ask stupid questions but just follow the small tugs if he wanted to not only win but also stay alive.

A rock jutting out of the canyon floor had him jerking to the side to avoid greeting it headfirst. He had wanted to go above it, but the Rodian had cut him off, so he had to settle for the next best thing. The reason for the Rodian taking the "upper" path was suddenly clear when the corridor they were in became drastically smaller on the bottom, but staying the same size higher up.

Luke gritted his teeth, slammed the brake for a second to drop behind the Rodian and his podracer and then pushed the accelerator again, angling for staying behind the Rodian until... such... that he could go beneath and in front of him! without having to worry about the corridor-space lessening on him. Maneuvering the next zigzag turn easily, Luke grinned. He was definitely getting the hang of this; the machine was now not separate from him, but a part of him, humming all around him.

The engines' roar filled the relatively small space as the podracer easily answered his slightest touch. This was not what he had expected. In fact, this was so beyond what he had expected that he could do nothing but be filled by the speed, wind, and shadow/light flickering over them as he and his opponent hurtled down through Beggar's Canyon's alternately wide and slim corridors and maneuvered its twists and turns.

The pathway was now wide enough for both podracers to be flying side by side, the cliff walls rising around them in brown-red shades that were smeared into one continuous streak of color due to the extreme speeds they were going at. It was almost as if the Canyon itself was luring you into a false sense of security, since you could be tempted to just blast down the corridor at highest speed (which, incidentally, was what they were doing), and then be taken completely by surprise by the Stone Needle that rose up from the cliffs further down.

It wasn't very hard to avoid it, if you knew it was coming, but if you didn't... Luke knew it was coming up, but didn't slow down.

He could avoid it.

Uncle Owen had shown it to him once, pointing out the rather intimidating and impressive stone formation to an awed, eight-year-old Luke. When he saw it back then, he had decided he would thread it one day. And while he was sure he could do it now, there was no sense in taking (more) stupid risks.

Particularly since he hadn't flown a podracer before now and while things were going well, he shouldn't press his luck. Unfortunately, he wouldn't get the chance to avoid it. They rounded the last turn and the Needle came into view and suddenly the Rodian was right up beside him, too close in fact, they were going to collide!

But they didn't, their 'racers just bumped into each other and Luke was being pushed to the right...

What?

He didn't have time to understand what had happened before his situation registered. Eyes widening behind the goggles, his heart suddenly up in his mouth and three sizes too big, Luke watched the Needle come up in his vision faster than he'd ever have thought possible, no chance to avoid it, he was going to crash, he wasn't going to make it, he was...

FATHER!

The cry was instinctual and barely registered in Luke's panicked mind.

In one place not so far away, an older man was ripped from his meditation as Luke's Force presence flared more brightly for a second than it had ever done before, the distress of that presence calling out loudly.

"Luke!" Ben cried reflexively, looking around wildly before reminding himself that he was alone in his hut. Taking a deep breath Ben reached out, searching for the familiar brightness of Luke's presence.

Finding it easily, he was relieved to find that Luke was not in danger anymore. No more than usual at any rate. But he could not shake the oppressive feeling of something deeper. Something had changed, for better or worse, and Luke was in the middle of it.

Luke... and his... banishing that thought, Ben Kenobi, formerly known as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight and General of the Clone Wars, sat down in his chair again. He'd check on Luke later today, just to confirm what he already knew. Luke was alright.

In another place, much, much farther away, the shriveled shell of a man awoke from his disturbed sleep, dreams having turned into nightmares for a moment. Sitting up, the light in the room activating by his movement, Emperor Palpatine stared at the opposite wall thoughtfully, yellow eyes narrowed.
Somewhere else, a short, long-eared creature looked up from his contemplation of the cave mouth to the darker fears of one's own mind, feeling the shift that had taken place. It wasn't a large shift, really, or a dramatic one. But the brightness had pierced the general swirling light of the Force for a moment, differentiating it from the rest.

For better or for worse.

Jedi Master Yoda 'hmm'ed and shifted in place, knowing there was nothing to do right now than wait. They had waited for a long time, what was a little longer?

"No way back from the dark side, there is. Taught, this has been, for many generations." Whether Yoda was only reaffirming this fact to himself, or asking something, there was no possibility of knowing. The small, rather spindly lesser bogwing that had been keeping the green little creature company indifferently flew off into the gloom.

And in a beautiful room, a 13 year old girl woke up and felt very alone. For one moment, however brief and in her dreams it had been, she had felt whole.

Whatever or whoever had made her feel such had been in danger however, and desperate.

Hugging the soft, stuffed nerf toy to herself (which, by the way, she was going to stop sleeping with tomorrow. She was old enough not to sleep with stuffed toys, she had decided), the dark-eyed Leia Organa wowed to herself that she would become strong enough to protect whoever it was. No one that made her feel less alone should have to feel that desperate.

Harsh, artificial light bounced off polished black metal and was at the same time absorbed by the equally black cloth the man wore. A sharp movement of the helmet made the light skitter along the smooth surface as if scrabbling for a foothold as Darth Vader turned his head suddenly, startling the officer who had been reporting the latest movement of a small rebel faction's ships beyond Corellia into silence.

The man paled and fingered the datapads he held, wondering if it was he who had done something to garner that reaction from the dark lord. Vader on the other hand seemed to have forgotten that he wasn't alone in the room. In a searching and rather surprised tone of voice he said silently, wonderingly:

"Son?" No one dared to move, or even breathe, as Darth Vader uttered that lone word in his resonant and deep voice, however quiet he'd kept it.

It had rumbled through all the present officers with something resembling foreboding, but that was just ridiculous. The frozen time suddenly seemed to jump-start again as Vader turned his head back from staring into what appeared to be the right-hand wall of the conference room, and faced the other occupants again.

"Continue, Lieutenant." Vader rumbled and the man nodded, swallowed nervously and after a false start continued with his report. Unseen behind his mask, Vader barely kept from rolling his eyes in annoyance. The Navy really needed less easily scared officers.

And what had that cry been?

He'd heard it as clear as if it had been uttered by someone beside him, accompanied by an intense flare in the Force, the bright presence gripped by panic. But he did not have a son.

Any possible offspring had died with his wife. Indeed, she had died pregnant with their first child and he had never been with another woman, neither before nor after Padmé. Anakin Skywalker may be dead and buried, but he would not sully his wife's memory by taking another, had it even been possible.

Even if she had turned against him in his hour of need. Obi-Wan's fault. All of it. Shaking his head to rid it of useless thoughts, he nonetheless made a mental note to ponder the desperate call later.

It was most curious.

... Son? The distant echo of a voice rumbled through Luke pleasantly, warming him from within with its darkly burning presence in the sudden ice that had enveloped him and spearing through the panic clouding his mind. Even if it had just been his imagination that his father had answered him, it helped.

Besides, it didn't really register, at least not consciously, since Luke had more pressing and immediate concerns to take care of. Closing his eyes tightly behind the goggles, Luke shifted one hand from its handle to grab a control-stick he'd added. He wasn't sure if it would work, but it had been added to give more maneuverability to the podracer.

Jerking the control-stick to the side and in a half-rolling motion, Luke turned the 'racer to "stand" onto its side. Not a moment to late either, the podracer roared through the stone formation, small rocks being shaken loose and bouncing off the hot metal, skittering down to come to a rest on the desert floor.

Luke's eyes were still closed as he maneuvered the narrow space, making small adjustments to his course to keep him from banging into the sides of the Needle, sides he somehow knew where there without seeing them. And had he not avoided them, he would most probably have lost control, veered off the path and been left as an oily, debris-flying spot on the Canyon's wall.

Opening his eyes, as he was free of the Needle, Luke righted his podracer, gripped the handle again, and pushed the accelerator. Bantha poodoo Rodian! That had been close.

Luke wanted to hurl insults that would no doubt earn him more than a month of grounding, had Uncle Owen heard him. But there was no concentration to spare to anything but the race. Gritting his teeth, Luke pushed the craft to dangerous limits, especially in a rather confined space such as this. Due to the Rodian pushing him like that, he wasn't just going to win, kreth it, he was going to blow the Rodian out of the water (... figuratively speaking of course, since there wasn't much water on Tatooine)! It didn't matter that the Rodian was most probably a professional!

With a last turn and twist through a rather small crack, they were out on the desert floor again, and now it was speed that mattered. Keeping an eye out for the Rodian, so if he came up close again to try anything, Luke could veer away, he pushed the 'racer to give its all on this last stretch.

It was apparent that it had been built for speed as it first kept about half of its engines in front of the Rodian's, and then only continued to create even more lead. The two podracers burst into the rundown remains of Mos Espa Grand Arena with Luke easily in the lead. Passing the two round towers and the crumpled walkway that reached between them (having to avoid the pieces that had fallen down in the middle of the track), Luke cut the speed and slid a little before coming to a complete stop. He had made it!

Keeping in the delighted laughter that wanted to bubble up, Luke reveled in the feeling of having won. The victory, however personal and trivial sizzled through every nerve with tingling energy. Jumping out of the cockpit, Luke took off the helmet he'd been wearing, laid it calmly in the seat, and then sprinted around his, his, podracer bouncingly. He couldn't help it!

"You're good, boy, no doubt about it. Got skill. Wouldn't want to try in a more... competitive scene?" The Rodian came up behind him, his own helmet under an arm, face unreadable (but when wasn't it?). Luke calmed himself and peered up at the alien suspiciously. While the offer was tantalizing, he wasn't stupid.

"No thanks. This was all I wanted." He said pointedly, laying a hand on the silver and blue cockpit. There was a tense silence for a moment, and then the Rodian nodded easily.

"If you say so, boy. Can't make you leave this backward rock if you don't want to."

Luke swallowed and shifted in place, not liking the Rodian's tone. He wanted to leave, of course, but Uncle Owen would never let him, especially if he said he wanted to leave to participate in an outlawed daredevil sport. Besides, he didn't want to leave just like that, leaving Aunt Beru all alone with Uncle Owen. She'd be so bored!

And he'd miss them both. He would leave one day, but not right now.

"I do want to leave, but not right now." He said aloud, not sure if it was to convince the Rodian, or himself.