Above Tattooine

When Captain Fimous Piettt returned he found the boy Ani, sitting on top of a table in the mess hall, with stormtroopers all around him.

"And then I thought I was a goner cause when I woke up there they were about ten Tuskan Raiders standing around me. And I didn't have a hope cause Three-pio's a good translator but he was more scared than I was! They just walked away when the little guy told them I helped him. That was when I was six. Did I tell you about the podracer I built from spare parts I found around the junk shop? I had to keep real quite about it and make him look like he was junk, cause if Watto had seen him, he would have taken him and tried to sell him. And I built him for my mom." Captain Piett smiled in spite of himself, this Ani, had everyone as enthralled as Darth Vader had them scared.

"Ani, where are you from?"

"Oh, my mother lives on Tattooine, but I've been living on Coruscent for the past year and a half."

"Well, I have good news. We are after a Rebel who it looks like was trying to get to Tattooine. What do you say we drop you off on Tattooine, so that you can find your mother?"

"Really, and truly? I didn't think I'd see her again until I was a Jedi Knight!" Captain Piett frowned at that, this kid couldn't have been more than twelve and the Jedi had been extinct for over twenty years.

"I remember them Jedi," stated one stormtrooper.

"Yeah, I'm a padawan now," he stated twirling the longer braid, that must have meant something. "So whose this Rebel?" he asked bouncing down from the table.

"We are after a Princess Leia Organa, she's a Senator of Alderaan. Lord Vader had traced the Rebel communications to her. We are after the Rebel Alliance."

"A real life Princess? Do you think she knows Queen Amidala?"

"Possibly. Who is she?" another stormtrooper spoke up.

"She is only the most beautiful girl ever. She's older than me. She was fourteen when I saw her last and I was nine. We met on Tattooine. I thought she was an angel from Iago."

"Well, I'm sure we could get you an escape pod while we capture the Princess."

"Why would you capture her?" Many of the stormtroopers appeared disheartened at the thought of losing little Ani.

"I don't believe I properly introduced myself, I am Firmous Piett, captain of the Emperor's Imperial Navy."

"Did you say Imperial? Like an Empire?"

"Yes, Ani." Anakin shook his head, this wasn't right. He then reached out to the Force. He could feel his Master out there. He closed his eyes and sat down cross legged without an answer. He reached out with the Force, searching for his master. His master was on Tattooine. What in blazes was he doing there?

"Yes, I want to go to Tattooine."

"We will arrange it."

"Thank you."

Captain Piett turned at the sound of mechanical breathing and the stormtroopers formed a line in front of Ani.

"I sense something in the Force, something familiar, and yet unfamiliar," he stated softly as he looked around the mess hall. "Are you hiding something from me?" he asked to no one in particular.

"Lord Vader!" stated Moff Tarkin, "I have just learned that there is a boy here." Captain Piett groaned. Ani didn't cower however as Vader moved forward despite everyone's best intentes Ani darted forward. Ani stared up at the man in a large black suit.

"I'm sorry," he stated as he stood not five meters in front of the Dark Lord. "I'm sorry," he repeated, "that you have to wear that suit." Immidatly, Captain Piett spoke up, "My lord, he's going home to Tattooine, he will not be a problem."

"What is his name?" Anakin glared at the dark lord, why wasn't he addressing him.

"My name is Anakin, Anakin Skywalker."