"My lady," a guard said, entering the room Padme and Anakin stood in on Naboo, "a man would urgently like an audience with you."
Cautious, Padme asked, "Who is he? What does he want?"
"He says his name is Owen Lars and he's from Tatooine," he explained, "actually, he claims he doesn't want to speak with you, my lady, but with someone named Ani. He insists you know who he's talking about and is sure you know where this Ani person might be."
She glanced at Anakin, but he shook his head, confused, he said, "I don't know anyone named Owen."
Padme turned back to the guard and said, "Search him for weapons and if he doesn't have any, let him in."
"Padme," Anakin said anxiously, "this could be a trick."
"I'm still curious," she replied.
After a few moments of waiting, Owen, a young man who appeared to be a bit older than Anakin, entered the room in a rush. "I'm sorry for being so rude," he said, "but you must be Anakin Skywalker."
"I am," he said awkwardly, "but I'm sure I've never met you before."
Padme asked, "What's the problem, Owen?"
"It's a long story," he answered, "but the short of it is, we found your mother, Anakin. She's been taken by Tusken Raiders and we tried to get her back by ourselves but there's too many of them. We need your help."
Anakin could only mutter a horrified, "What?" He paused to collect himself. A jedi wasn't supposed to have any attachments, but he couldn't just leave his mother to die. His visions were true, she was dying! "You have to explain yourself. How do you know my mother?"
He explained, "I told you it's a long story. Shmi's slave bond ended 6 years ago and her enslaver decided not to extend it, so she was freed. She met my dad, they fell in love, and they got married 5 years ago. That makes us stepbrothers, by the way. Nice to meet you. Anyway, about a month ago she was taken by the sand people and my dad tried to get her back with help, but those savages are brutal! Two weeks ago they cut off his leg and it's sandstorm season now. I figured I'd track you down and see if you wanted to help."
Anakin looked at Padme and then back at Owen. She held his hand and said, "It's okay, Ani, go, I'll be fine."
"I'm not supposed to leave you," he said, "and I'm not supposed to have any attachments."
"She's your mom," she insisted, "you can't just leave her there. I'll go with you."
He stopped her, "No, it's too dangerous. Stay here and I'll be right back, I promise. Don't tell anyone I've left my post. Not even Obi-wan."
"Anakin-" she started.
He turned to Owen. "You must have gotten here somehow, right?"
"I borrowed a transport," he assured him, "I can take us back to my farm and I can show you where we left the raider's campsite through the sandstorm."
"Be careful!" Padme begged as Anakin left without so much as a goodbye.
Anakin didn't want to revisit Tatooine. He never wanted to see it again. He never wanted to see sand again, but he had to. He had to go back. He watched as Owen struggled to land the ship outside of his family's moisture farm. The sandstorm was so powerful they could barely make out the buildings despite only being a few feet away from them.
They donned goggles and masks but when they stepped outside, the sand pounded against their skin and felt like tiny bullets trying to pierce their clothes.
"I'm driving," Anakin said.
"But you don't even know where we're going," Owen said, pulling his pod out.
Anakin bragged, "I used to be the best pod racer on this planet. Point to where she is and I'll get us there in record time!" Owen pointed in a direction through the thick sand cloud, and they were off.
Anakin sped so fast into the thick of the storm, Owen had to hold on for dear life in order to not fall out.
"Is this the fastest this beat up thing can go?!" Anakin shouted over the wind.
"This old pod isn't made for racing," Owen explained, terrified, "it's made for hauling! If you keep at this pace, we'll need a new engine! Take it easy!"
He replied, "I'll worry about that later!"
It took forever for them to get to the cliffs beyond the sand dunes, and when they did, the sand people weren't pleased to have intruders. "They have radar," Owen warned, "Anakin, they'll spot us if we're not careful."
It was too late. Shots fired off into the desert, but because the wind was so powerful every shot missed its marks. Their ships and their homes came up on them fast as Anakin sped through. He turned the pod so they wouldn't crash head first. The wind came up from under them and the entire thing flipped over end on end. Anakin tried to use the force to stop it, but the storm was so strong it carried it away with ease.
He rolled out and drew his lightsaber. Owen hit the ground hard on his shoulder, breaking his right arm above the elbow. He felt and heard the snap and yelped in pain. The pod crashed into a cabin and took the entire building out.
The fight was on, but Anakin and his lightsaber took care of every blast with ease. Soon the raiders were retreating into their cabins.
Once the initial attack was over, Anakin crawled over to Owen and asked, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," he said in pain, "the last time I was here I saw them put her in a cabin in the middle of the compound."
"She's not over there," he said, standing up in the storm, "she's closer than that, I can feel it."
Owen stood up and walked closely behind him, careful not to lose sight of him through the wave after wave of sand cutting across their vision. Anakin sliced through the side of a tent and made his way inside to see his mother chained up and brutally injured.
"Shmi!" Owen cried, "Oh, this is bad."
Anakin cut her loose without saying a word and helped her to the ground. "Mom," he whispered.
"Ani?" she asked, looking up at him and recognizing her son instantly, "Ani, you're all grown up. And Owen, look at you." She tenderly touched their faces, her hands covered in her own blood.
"Shmi, we can get you out of here," Owen said desperately, holding her hand carefully, "you're going to be alright. We're here to bring you home!"
"Stay with me, Mom," Anakin begged, "I came back just for you." He felt her slowly slipping away in her arms. "Mom. Mom! Stay awake! Come on!" He picked her up off the ground but she was fading fast.
She whispered, "I got to see my baby again. I'm finally complete." She slowly leaned back, her breaths turned fast.
Owen tried to help lift her up, but his arm hurt too bad. "No," he said, "no, Shmi!"
Anakin looked him in the eyes, his own overwhelmed with tears, he whimpered, "She's gone."
"I'm sorry, Anakin," he said, "I thought we could save her."
"We're getting out of here together," he said, gritting his teeth, not bothering to hide his rage, "get to the pod. I'll be right behind you." He gently set his mother down and reached for his lightsaber.
Owen made it back out into the storm and found the upside pod. While the engine had been pushed to its limits on the way there, the sandstorm didn't help with getting sand in every crevasse. He could reconfigure a few things here and there, but he knew it would take a miracle to get it all the way back to the farm.
Meanwhile, Anakin stormed out of the tent and cut down the two Tusken Raiders standing outside. With the storm clouding their vision, even with goggles on, the sand people didn't know what hit them. His rage surged and boiled beneath his skin as he ran after each one. He cut them down, two, three, four at a time. The men, the women, and the children all at once. The howling wind of the sand storm masked their screams of agony as they died.
He caught up to every last one who tried to run and hide. Using the force he found them huddled in groups and cut them down in front of each other. He didn't stop until he killed them all.
When everyone was dead, Anakin finally made his way back to his mother, wrapped her body up, and walked her to the pod Owen was working on with one hand.
"If we're easy on the throttle we might make it back," Owen said, holding his arm in pain, "but we still have to hurry. If the sand people see us again we're screwed!"
"Don't worry about them," Anakin said, placing his mother inside the pod.
As they headed back to the farm, Owen held his arm tight as he navigated them through the valleys and and cliffs. Anakin found the first aid kit inside the pod and quickly fashioned a sling for him.
"I'm sorry about your arm," he said, fashioning it onto him, "I was reckless. I shouldn't have hurt you."
"I'll be alright," he replied.
Suddenly, the pod sputtered out, and crashed into the ground. The winds were finally beginning to die down, but sand still continued to fly at them, marking their clothes and stinging their skin.
Anakin leapt out and checked the engine. Sand poured out of every orifice, and as the wind ranged on, more sand piled in. He kicked at it and screamed, "I hate sand! I hate it!"
Owen walked around to the front and saw that their speeding earlier combined with all the sand, the engine was done for.
"We're going to have to leave this old piece of junk behind and walk," Anakin said.
"We can't!" Owen insisted, "After buying a hover chair for my dad, I can't afford to get a new pod. This is the only one I have."
Anakin looked away from the wind and shielded his face. He understood the feeling all too well. "Alright," he said, "get back inside. We're taking this with us." He helped him jump back in and with the power of the force, he lifted the entire pod and moved across the landscape.
The wind finally stopped, and the hot sun beat down against their windburned flesh and revealed a bright blue sky. Anakin could swear it was mocking them.
"Well," Owen said, attempting to cut through the unbearable silence, "this beats walking." He paused. "Shmi's told us all about you. How some master jedi showed up and took you away to become the best of them 10 years ago now."
"Owen," he said, "I'm sorry, but I'm not really in the mood to talk."
"It'll take our minds off this heat," he replied, "what's it like? Being a jedi?"
He explained, "I'm not a real jedi yet, I'm still an apprentice, a young padawan learner. It beats being stuck here, enslaved, with no future." He paused in anguish. "But I should have been here." He kept his eyes off of his mother's wrapped up dead body. "If I were a real jedi by now, I would have been able to save her."
Owen said, "We can't think like that. One decision can change so much. If I was a better fighter, or my dad was stronger, or if she decided not to go out that day, none of this would have happened. We can't beat ourselves up over it."
It took forever for them to make it all the way back to the farm. Cliegg, Owen's father, awaited them to hear good news.
"Dad," Owen said sadly, "we were too late."
Anakin let the pod hit the soft ground and picked up his mother's body. "Oh no," Cliegg said, sorrowful, "Shmi, my dear."
Anakin walked up to him and said, "I apologize, sir."
"You must be Ani," he said, "your mother spoke of you often. There is no one to blame for her death but the sand people, do you understand me, young man?"
He wasn't in the mood to listen to any sort of lecture or lessons attempting to help him feel better. In his mind, this was entirely his fault. He should have stayed on Tatooine. He should have helped her. Master Qui-gon never should have shown up and taken him away. The only thing he felt was regret, and then he felt bad about having such regrets because that meant he was attached to someone.
Once his mother's gravesite was covered over, Cliegg moved his hover chair over to him and said, "You seem quite conflicted, Anakin. Why don't you stay for a few days to mourn?"
"I can't," he said, "I'm supposed to be protecting the Queen of Naboo. Besides, I'm not allowed to have any attachments. It isn't the jedi way."
Owen asked, "What are you talking about? No attachments?"
"No family," Anakin explained, "no girlfriend, no connections with others deeper than friendships, and even that can get you in trouble if you take things too far. The jedi are selfless and live unattached lives in order to preserve peace throughout the galaxy with the power of the light side." He regurgitated everything he said so easily, as if it were robotically beaten into him. Owen turned and glanced at his father who gave him a similar worried look.
"You're not allowed to have a family?" Owen asked. He shook his head.
Cliegg said, "Anakin, I want you to know that if anything ever happens in the future, you always have a place here on this farm. You hear me?"
He replied, "I'm a jedi knight, I don't need a place here."
"Everyone deserves a family," Owen said, "if push comes to shove you can always tell the other jedi that we're not 'real family' since we're related by marriage. That won't get you into trouble, will it?"
Anakin shrugged, "I don't know." He didn't bother to look at them.
"Owen," Cliegg said, "let's leave him alone with his mother." He turned his hover chair away and motioned for his son to follow.
Anakin kneeled down at his mother's fresh grave and ran his fingers through the burning hot sand. It felt just as terrible as he remembered. Everything about Tatooine felt just as terrible as he remembered and now there was nothing left for him there. "I'm sorry, Mom," he whispered painfully, "I should have been here for you. If I was a better jedi-a stronger one-I could have saved you! I'm sorry I wasn't good enough." He cried silently.
When the time came, he said goodbye to his stepfamily and returned to Naboo without uttering a word of the sins he committed.