Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story except for the idea.

(Dream)

/thoughts/

Normally the hours before dawn were the most peaceful and pleasant ones, the frigid cold beginning to lessen, but no blasting heat as the suns had not risen yet, everything silent and still. That was, normally.

"NO! I forbid it! Get out of here! You won't fill his head with your foolish ideas! The Order is dead, and you should let it stay so! GET OUT!" It was a wonder the homestead's only still sleeping occupant hadn't been woken up by the angry roar. Owen looked as if he wanted to throw Ben out headfirst, but stood frozen by the chair he'd flown out of.

"Get out, and stay away. I don't want you near the boy again." The man's determination and protectiveness were admirable, but right now they worked against Ben, who just sighed, nodded to Beru and walked out of the kitchen to the central plaza to do as Owen had asked. There was no reason in raising a fuss. But that didn't mean he couldn't leave Luke a little present...

(The suns were bright and golden in the sky, the desert never-ending around him as he blasted over the sandy stretches at incredible speeds. There was a cliff in front of him, but he knew the podracer could manage. Accelerating a little more, he sped out over the cliff and continued to fly into black nothingness, stars filling his vision. It was beautiful, but as always something had to mar the perfection. Something was hunting him, following behind and coming ever closer. It didn't matter how fast he tried to go, it was still there, following right behind him, but not catching up, not yet. But that wasn't the really strange thing, that was that he caught himself wanting to slow down, to turn around and see what was hunting him. Because it was strange, the thing felt both familiar and comforting and at the same time filled with looming, incomprehensible danger. He didn't know what it was, and yet it was so familiar that he wanted to turn around...

"Luke..." That..! He may never have heard his father's voice, but somehow he was sure of it, that was it! The deep, passionate rumbling couldn't belong to anyone else, of that Luke was sure.

"Luke..." He was going to stop, to turn around. He had to see if...)

"Luke! Get up!"

"AUGH!" With a surprised jerk at being so roughly torn from his dream, Luke flailed and with a thump fell off his bed, hopelessly tangled in his blanket. Blinking up at the spotted, off-white ceiling, Luke scowled.

"I'm up, I'm up." He called to his Uncle, but didn't move from his spot on the sun-warmed floor before he heard Uncle Owen move away. Muttering insults in Huttese to the world in general, Luke fought off the blanket and got up on his knees, slumping his upper body onto the bed. This was a sucky way to start the day. And somehow, he had a feeling it wouldn't get better, just continue to be filled with unpleasant revelations.

How, or why that was, he couldn't say, but it was like a combination of his gut feeling and something in the air. Sure, things can't be good forever, but Luke couldn't figure out what could make this day so much worse than any of the others. Routine doesn't change, even if it had been interrupted by the arrival of the Rodian and his subsequent winning of the repaired podracer two weeks ago. He'd raced it as often as he'd been able since then, only abstaining the afternoons he met up with Biggs and the others. He wanted to tell Biggs his big secret, but he hadn't dared. It wasn't that he thought Biggs would tell anyone, but he could, without meaning to, let it slip at some sensitive moment, and Luke didn't want to risk being found out. So he kept his 'racer a secret.

With a final sigh, Luke moved from his spot of sitting on the floor and half-lying on the bed, scouring after some relatively clean (not dirtier than anything else, at least) clothes and was about to leave his room for the kitchen and some breakfast, when an object wrapped in some cloth lying just below his window caught his eyes.

It hadn't been there before.

Picking it up, Luke studied the wrapped object. It was heavy and probably made of metal, from what he could tell from the feel of it. The cloth was nothing special, except that it was the softest thing he'd ever felt. The weave was incredibly fine, and like nothing you could find on Tatooine. Wherever it had come from, it must have cost a fortune.

Luke slowly unwrapped the object, sunlight catching the metal as it was freed and sent reflexes playing on the walls and floor. Carefully laying the piece of cloth on the bed behind him, barely catching the datapad that had been hidden by some folds, Luke studied the rectangular... thing. He could almost recognize it, but wasn't sure... Finding a button he pressed it and was probably infinitely happy the lightsaber's opening had been facing away from him, as the clear blue energy blade suddenly flashed and took form.

/A lightsaber!. / Luke's wide eyes followed the blade as he carefully waved the weapon around, listening to the humming buzz that came from the blade. This was so cool! Shutting the lightsaber off, Luke laid it onto the bed beside the cloth. /A lightsaber. But why.../ It didn't matter how he wracked his brain, Luke couldn't come up with why one would be here, since they had belonged to... to... With a frown, he realized he didn't know. It wasn't as if lightsabers were usual. Realizing he wouldn't get to know anything by just standing here staring into space, Luke picked up the slightly scratched and definitely well-used datapad, hoping it would be able to explain things. The message that appeared when he switched it on wasn't long, however.

Luke, this lightsaber belonged to your father. I'm sure he would have wanted you to have it. Be careful and take good care of it. /Ben

P.S Don't let your Aunt or Uncle see it, as I'm sure they would be rather upset.

Staring incredulously at the message, Luke shook his head slowly. This didn't tell him anything! No, wait, it did. His father had had a lighsaber. It had been his father's! But how? Where had he gotten it from, and why had he had it? Ben's short message didn't really tell him anything at all...

With a frustrated growl, Luke deleted the message (wouldn't do to let Uncle Owen find it), placed the datapad with his others since there was no sense in not using a fully functional one, rewrapped his father's lightsaber in the cloth it had come in, and hid it inside his clothes, wedging it inside his belt. It was a little bulky, but since all his clothes were slightly too large anyway, he was sure neither Aunt Beru nor Uncle Owen would notice.

Now he had to go over to Ben's sometime soon. Ben must surely have known his father, since he had said Luke looked like him, and had given him his father's lightsaber. Plotting a time to sneak away to Ben's, Luke finally left his room for the day, trying to shake off the feeling that this was the last he would see of his room, and Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen, for a long time. But that just couldn't be true.

Sun burning from above and the wind tearing at his clothes, Luke felt fierce happiness and freedom, however temporary, sing through him. He'd almost forgone his almost-daily race and sneaked off to Ben's instead, but he hadn't been able to resist the lure of speed and the feelings that came with it.

So here he was as usual (when he wasn't with Biggs), tearing through the desert of Tatooine, but keeping well away from any settlements. It would be stupid to have kept the 'racer this long and be seen by some farmer spreading the rumor of someone racing in the desert. Somehow, he just knew Uncle Owen or Aunt Beru would connect it with his elation these past few weeks and confront him about it. And then there would be nothing to it but confess.

And that had to be avoided at all costs.

He was almost back to where the Rodian had shown him he could hide the 'racer with the Rodian's own, when the suns struck something that glinted in the sunlight. With a frown, Luke closed up on it, slowing down. It was a ship, a rather large one too. What was a ship doing out here in the nothingness? Stopping fully, Luke released the straps and jumped out of the podracer, staying right beside his craft and trying to spot any reason for the ship to be standing here. The shadows at the lowered ramp moved, and then someone Luke recognized detached himself from them. The Rodian.

"Uh, you okay? I mean, should you really be standing here in the middle of nowhere? You never know when Sandpeople might show up." Luke asked, feeling nervous for some reason. He'd taken off his helmet, and was now playing with the loose straps hanging down from it. Pushing up the goggles onto his forehead (the very same pair the Rodian had given him at the race, he liked them, and since the Rodian didn't ask for them, he'd kept them), Luke leaned against the side of his 'racer, shifting nervously. The Rodian shrugged, and while you couldn't really go on his facial expressions or his eyes to figure out his moods, there was nonetheless something in the Rodian's opaque, inscrutable eyes that Luke didn't like.

"I assure you, everything is as it should be. The question is rather why you'd stop at the first sign of something off, boy? Do you have that little self-preservation?" The Rodian's voice was taunting, and Luke stiffened.

"Hey! Someone could have been in trouble! I have to check at least. If I could have helped I can't just blast past and ignore it!" Luke protested, eyes narrowing. "But fine! Since everything's alright here, I'm leaving!" Turning around to jump into the podracer's cockpit again, Luke barely avoided the ray of energy headed for him. As it was, had he not have been racing these past two weeks and listening much more attentively to his "gut feeling", he would have been hit. Helmet landing with a soft thunk in the sand beside the 'racer, Luke's body hit the ground and rolled before he jumped up to a crouch, eyes wild.

"What the..!" The next stun blast almost hit him, Luke throwing himself to the sandy ground just in time for it to strike where he'd been last. Unfortunately, he'd landed full on his stomach, and as he scrabbled to get onto his feet, he was hit in the back. Half-strangled gasp as the stunning blast of energy took hold, a mental cry dying quickly in his mind.

Father!

The Rodian stood still for a moment; blaster trained on the still body in the sand before he grunted contentedly and holstered the weapon. The boy had resisted longer than he'd thought, but in the end, the result had been the same. He'd get those money and be free of that rancor of a female.

For the second time in short order, Ben was ripped from his meditation by Luke's Force presence flaring in panic and fear and then... quiet. Calming himself before he stretched out to look for Luke's distinct signature, what he found made his insides churn. It wasn't gone, but that didn't mean anything.

No, it was... subdued, was the closest word he could think of, as if Luke was asleep... or unconscious. And as he stood there, it became fainter, as if drawing further away in distance. Cold gripped Obi-Wan's insides and he whirled around, nearly tipping the chair he'd been sitting on to the floor in his haste. Whatever had happened was different from the moment of danger he'd felt two weeks ago. This time, Luke seemed to be leaving Tatooine altogether. Stopping in the middle of the hut, Obi-Wan took a deep breath and released it slowly. /Calm yourself, old man. You won't be of any help if you panic, and panic will only cloud you mind./ Calmer now, Obi-Wan left the hut for the Lars homestead. First order was to find Luke. Even if Obi-Wan knew, in the back of his mind, that they would find nothing.

Darth Vader stood patiently in front of the large view port on the bridge of the Star Destroyer the Gauntlet when the cry reached him. Fainter than the last time and seemingly almost cut off at the end, Vader was startled enough to try and reach out, but as before, the presence seemed to avoid his grasp, as if someone had gone to great lengths to shield whoever it was.

He'd been trying to track the Force-sensitive during these last two weeks, and had finally pinned it down to Tatooine. /It figures. The one planet I have no love for./ Vader sneered and barely kept the urge to strangle the closest person just that, an urge. But that cry had him... apprehensive. He had a feeling his searching had just been extended for one reason or another, and that hardly made his temper better. Tapping a gloved hand against his thigh, the dark lord waited for them to drop out of hyperspace.

"Owen! Beru?" Obi-Wan had taken as little time as he could to get to the homestead, and he was in luck, since it appeared both Owen and Beru were home. Owen on the other hand, didn't seem very happy at seeing him if his thunderous expression was anything to go by. Which wasn't so strange really, with a thought to how things had played out this morning.

"What did I say, Ben?" Owen growled angrily, "I wanted you to leave, and that means you don't come back later the very same day!"

Beru frowned at her husband and was about to ask what the older man was doing here when he held up a hand to forestall her.

"No time for that, Owen. I'm not here to tell Luke anything. Where is he?"

Owen opened his mouth to angrily tell Obi-Wan off, when he shook his head again.

"I said we don't have time for that Owen! I felt Luke cry out, something has happened that he doesn't have any say in, and it could be potentially dangerous for him!"

Beru gasped and grabbed Owen's arm.

"He went into Anchorhead, like usual. Either to go to the Tosche Station to meet his friends or to work for the Rodian who keeps an eye on the junkyard."

That was it.

Obi-Wan knew it, but he also knew he couldn't say anything.

"Let's go to Anchorhead then and check those two places. Someone must know where he is." The 'if he's still on the planet' hung heavily in the air.

Just as the Gauntlet dropped out of hyperspace close to the one planet Darth Vader had wished to never return to, he got the feeling that something very important was about to slip through his fingers.

"Captain, open a channel to whomever is in command down there." Turning back to the view port, Vader saw a ship hurtle through space and frowned.

There was... something...

Too late he realized that it was the Force-sensitive whose presence he'd felt these past two weeks that was on that ship, but it was muted, different from the 'shielding', more like as if the boy was sleeping, or unconscious. Opening his mouth to order the Captain to stop the ship and catch it with the tractor beam, the ship suddenly seemed to pause for a fraction of a section, and then disappeared into hyperspace. Slamming his fist against the glass of the view port, Vader whirled around.

"I want that ship's trajectory tracked; any possible planets in its current path listed, and is that channel open yet?" It wasn't a roar, not even close, but the restrained violence and volume in the voice had the personnel scrambling to obey his orders.

"Lord Vader, the channel is open now."

Stalking over to the comm. unit, he didn't wait for a greeting, just started talking.

"Has there been anything unusual reported?"

The man on the other side dithered for a second before answering. Must be scared stiff. For some reason, that amused him. Or would have amused him, had he not been preoccupied.

"Well, Lord Vader, not exactly. The only thing that has come in was two weeks ago, when there was a report of podracers, which are illegal as you know, being spotted in what remains of the Mos Espa Grand Arena. When troops arrived they didn't find anything though, but there were signs of recent activity. We have been keeping a look out, but whoever they were didn't return to the arena."

/Of course not. Idiot. Who would stay in the same place, where one can be easily found, when practicing an illegal sport?. / Vader wanted to sneer at the man, but as it was, he couldn't. He was about to terminate the call out of frustration when the officer on the other side continued.

"There was one thing our troops found, Lord Vader. There seems to have been a leftover holocam forgotten somewhere in Beggar's Canyon, which picked up on the podracing activity and activated, following the race up until the Arena and closing down when they entered it. The recording is of quite good quality, for such an old holocam but I don't see why you would nee-" Vader immediately ended the call and turned to the Captain of the Gauntlet.

"Ready a shuttle, Captain Millet." He hissed and stalked out of the bridge.

That was it.

He had all the pieces he needed now, really. He'd find out where the next illegal podrace where, and with any chance the recording would at least give him an acceptable picture of the podracers involved. Then it was just a matter of finding either of those at the race, because he was sure the Force-sensitive had been one of the racers reported two weeks ago.

He'd get to the bottom of this.