Chapter 1 - Far Away From Home, But You're In My Mind

Plot: Killed on Mustafar by Sidious while attempting to rescue Vader, Ahsoka is reborn as Luke's adopted younger sister. She struggles with constantly remembering flashes of her life as Ahsoka as she remembers more about Anakin. More than anything, she wants to find out more about her past, wants to find Anakin again in person but he's dead. Right?

Author's Note: Yes, the beginning of this is quite similar to the script but that's kinda necessary for introducing the plot of the story. Things are gonna change a lot later on. =D

Updates will be on Saturday or Sunday.

~ Tirana Sorki

Something is wrong. I can feel it in the air, crawling under my skin, from the moment Uncle Owen brought me and Luke in a hurry back inside the homestead.

It's happened countless times before, that we've been taken to the concealed room in the house to hide, in case there's going to be a Tusken attack, but something about this time is different. It feels dark, and I can't even explain why.

It happens before I'm ready – forcing myself not to shiver in the dark, pretending not to be scared, next to my brother – when I hear blaster shots, and someone coming closer, and then we run.

The sand swirls around me, biting at my small lekku and montrals, but I don't care about that right now. I've never been this scared, even if something keeps telling me I should be doing something, not running.

Luke and I have barely reached a ridge of rocks to try hiding in, when I hear the sound of a lightsaber activating. I'm a few steps behind him, enough to look back and see the blazing red blade.

What –

That's –

I know I've seen them before, but I don't know when. I don't have time to think about it either, before an invisible force catches me, throwing me off the edge of the rock I'm standing on. My head hurts, and everything hurts, and when I wake up, I'm finally in Aunt Beru's arms again, next to an equally terrified Luke.

Whoever that woman was, she's gone.

That doesn't change the strange... feeling I can't shake, that I don't know what it means.

When Uncle Owen introduces me to a man I think I've occasionally seen a distance away on our farm, the strange feeling I have only grows.

He's familiar, too familiar, and I don't understand what it means.

**w**

"Ashara, look!" my older brother's voice breaks through my concentration as I adjust the valves on one of the seemingly endless lines of moisture vaporators on our moisture farm.

I look over my shoulder to see Luke Skywalker staring up at the bright blue, cloudless sky above us through a pair of binoculars. A hot breeze stirs up the sand beneath my feet as I run over to him, looking up at the sky to see what he's watching. Barely visible over the glares of the two Tatooine suns are occasional bright flashes of light.

"Here," he urges, pushing the binoculars into my hands. I peer through the lenses up at the sky. It's hard to see much, but it almost looks like ships shooting at each other.

"A real space battle," I breathe, hardly able to believe my eyes. Unless it's some stray space pirates having a duel up there, it's probably a fight between the Empire and Rebellion. I can hardly believe we're actually witnessing it with our own eyes. That is, with our binoculars.

"Come on, let's go tell everyone," he advises eagerly, sprinting for the nearby land speeder hovering a couple feet off the ground.

"I don't think Uncle Owen is gonna like this, Luke," I warn as I dash after him, scrambling into the back as he slides into the driver's seat.

He's nineteen, and I'm sixteen now, far old enough to "be responsible and get our work done", in his words.

"We'll be back before he even knows we were gone," Luke insists, firing up the engine. Moments later, we're speeding away from the farm towards the edge of the more populated part of our town where some of our friends hang out.

The dusty streets are mostly deserted, probably because most sane people are inside to avoid the intense heat. We're only out because we have work to do. Sand whips up around us, striking my montrals and orange skin. The one thing I don't like about how my brother always speeds around is the sand hitting me and irritating my montrals. Seriously, Tatooine is no place for a Togruta.

Not a moment too soon, the speeder finally glides to a stop outside the power station, and Luke jumps out. I hop to the ground next to him, glancing around as I take in the familiar sights of this part of town.

"Come on," he urges, racing up the stairs onto the outside platform of the light-colored building, me close behind. We hurry down the next few steps into the power station. I blink, allowing my eyes to adjust to the mostly darkened room, a complete change from the glaringly bright outdoors. There's only one small window here at the back which doesn't provide much light at this time of day. But at least it's so much cooler in here.

Ignoring Fixer and Camie grumbling about "wormie" showing up – how Luke tolerates that nickname, I have no idea, but at least it's not as bad as mine – we head for the back.

Luke and I both freeze when our eyes fall on the last person I expected to see here. Biggs Darklighter.

"Biggs?!" exclaims Luke finally, the first to find his voice.

Biggs turns towards us, a grin lighting up his face before the two of them hug each other.

"Hey Biggs," I grin, when they step apart.

"Hey Tiny," he smirks, giving me a one-armed hug.

I pull away from him, drawing up to my full height – which is about the same as Luke's even though I'm three years younger. Well, at least the tops of my montrals are. "Not so tiny anymore, am I?" I ask, snippily, "You'll have to find a new nickname."

"Really? Who says I need to?" he chuckles, "Besides, you're still tiny compared to me."

I roll my eyes dramatically. "Hardly."

"I didn't know you were back," Luke interjects excitedly, "When did you get in?"

"Just now," Biggs answers, "I wanted to surprise you, hot shot. I thought you'd be here. Certainly didn't expect you to be out working."

"The Academy didn't change you much, but you're back so soon?" he asks, "Hey, what happened, didn't get your commission?"

I try to ignore the instinctive feeling of irritation that coils inside of me, as I think of Luke's excitement to go to the Academy too. It's not that I don't want both of us to get out of here, but I'll certainly never be going there. I don't want to be a pilot, anyway. But he does, and it means as soon as he's able, he'll be gone, and... I can't imagine what that would be like.

"Of course I got it," Biggs responds, "Signed aboard The Rand Ecliptic last week. First mate Biggs Darklighter at your service." He gives an exaggerated salute. "I just came to say goodbye to all you unfortunate landlocked simpletons."

Everyone within hearing range bursts out laughing.

"I almost forgot!" Luke suddenly exclaims, "There's a battle going on. Right here in our system. Come and look!"

"Not again," one of the others groans, "Forget it." I knew that's what their reaction would be.

"For real this time," I insist, "If we don't hurry, we might too late."

"Fine, let's go check it out," another suggests grudgingly, and a few of them file out back, into the suffocating heat. Luke looks up at the sky through his binoculars again.

"There they are," he says, passing the binoculars over to Biggs. Without them, I can't see anything anymore. Most of the firing from earlier must have already stopped. Which means no one will believe us. Again. Oh well, their loss.

"That's no battle, hot shot. They're just sitting there," Biggs concludes after studying them for a long moment, "Probably a freighter-tanker refueling."

"But there was a lot of firing earlier," argues Luke.

"There's nothing else it could have been," I insist.

Ignoring Luke and Camie's squabble over the binoculars, I stare up at the sky for signs of anything.

"I keep telling you, the Rebellion is a long way from here. I doubt if the Empire would even fight to keep this system. Believe me, Luke, this planet is a big hunk of nothing," Fixer declares, spinning around to go back inside.

"Even if it wasn't a fight with the Empire and the Rebellion, it definitely was a battle," I assert, stubbornly. The others except Biggs ignore me, filing back into the power station grumbling to each other.

"Come on, let's take a walk and talk while we still have time," Biggs suggests.

"Sure!" Luke agrees happily.

I allow myself to fall a few steps behind Luke and Biggs, giving them room to chat with each other. He's more Luke's friend than mine after all, given their mutual flying obsession. I only spoke to Biggs often because I'm Luke's sister.

I look out at the endless sand dunes stretching all the way to the horizon, a sudden feeling of longing striking me. Not this again. It's always happening – missing something terribly but I have no idea what. I draw in a deep breath, trying to get control of myself as the feeling only intensifies, like a hole in my heart. Like I'm missing something or someone who I used to know so long ago... But I don't have any such memories. That's what makes no sense. Yes, I miss my biological parents, but it's not them I'm missing right now. Or my home planet.

I sink onto a bench outside the building, Luke and Biggs' voices seeming to come from miles away. The longing only builds inside of me as I subconsciously try in vain to remember.

The voices seem to fade completely for a moment, an image suddenly flashing before my eyes, a young man with sandy blond hair standing in front of me, amusement dancing in his bright blue eyes. A scar runs along the side of his face, crossing his right eye. He's wearing dark robes, a glove on his right hand. I don't manage to get a clear picture of the room behind him before the image fades from my mind.

Uncalled for tears suddenly sting my eyes, spilling down my cheeks as I try blink them back. Nearly unbearable pain and longing stab through my heart. I miss whoever that person is so much right now, and I can't even explain why. He feels so familiar, but I don't even know who it is.

"Ashara?" Luke's worried voice breaks through my thoughts, "Are you alright?"

I jump, looking up to see him standing over me, regarding me with concern. I hadn't even registered him approaching.

"M'fine," I mumble, hastily wiping my eyes.

"No, you're not," he replies, flatly.

Because yes, me randomly crying in public for no reason at all is highly out of the ordinary. I suppose I can hardly lie about that. I shake my head, quickly standing up, my gaze jumping to Biggs standing a few feet away watching us. "I'll tell you later."

"I've been meaning to tell you this..." Biggs is the first to break the awkward silence that falls on us. He looks over at me, smirking slightly. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course!" I exclaim, taking a step closer, leaning in conspiratorially, "What are you up to?"

His expression grows graver, and he glances around as if to make sure no one else is listening before speaking. "I didn't come back just to say goodbye. I shouldn't tell you this, but you're the only ones I can trust, and if I don't come back, I want somebody to know."

"What are you talking about?" demands Luke, looking at him almost wide eyed. My thoughts exactly.

"I made some friends at the Academy," Biggs continues, his voice dropping lower, "When our frigate goes to one of the central systems, we're going to jump ship and join the Alliance." Wait a minute – join the Rebel Alliance? Seriously?!

Both of us stare at him, stunned in silence. "Join the Rebellion?!" Luke exclaims far too loudly, the first to break the silence, "Are you kidding! How?!"

I elbow him, hard.

He shoots me an irked look.

"Quiet down, will ya?" hisses Biggs, "You got a mouth bigger than a meteor crater!"

"I'm sorry," Luke quickly apologizes, "I'm quiet." His voice drops to a very low whisper so I can hardly make the words. "Listen how quiet I am. You can barely hear me."

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, Luke, we can hear how quiet you are now after you already shouted the news to the whole town."

"Hey!" he protests, "There was no one close enough to hear."

"We hope."

An exasperated sigh escapes Biggs. "My friend has a friend on Bestine who might help us make contact."

"Might?" I repeat, dubiously. I really wouldn't want him to get in trouble with the Empire by trying to just find the Rebellion. Even that would probably be a death sentence. Literally.

I don't have any liking for the Empire, with how much it's oppressing people everywhere, but joining the Rebellion to fight is so unreachable and unrealistic. Even if I think it sounds a lot more fun than working on vaporators.

"You're crazy!" Luke blurts out, "You could wander around forever trying to find them."

"It's not like they're out in the open and the Empire has spies everywhere looking for them," I concur. Snooping around trying to find it could be even more risky than actually fighting for it.

"I know it's a long shot, but if I don't find them, I'll do what I can on my own," Biggs replies, "It's what we always talked about. I'm not going to wait for the Empire to draft me into service. The Rebellion is spreading, and I want to be on the right side – the side I believe in."

"And we're just stuck here," Luke grumbles, scowling down at the sand.

"That won't be changing any time soon," I reply, crossing my arms.

"It would help if I could get in to the Academy," he says, unhappily.

"Don't count on Uncle Owen letting that happen any time soon."

"I feel for you," Biggs replies sympathetically, "You're going to have to learn what seems to be important or what really is important. What good is all your uncle's work if it's taken over by the Empire? You know they're starting to nationalize commerce in the central systems. It won't be long before your uncle is merely a tenant, slaving for the greater glory of the Empire."

I scowl to myself. And that is one of the reasons I hate the Empire so much. They don't treat any of the general populace fairly, especially non-humans. But the thought of them coming all the way out here to do it? A shiver runs through me, despite the tremendous heat beating down on our heads. For whatever reason, the thought of getting anywhere near someone higher up in authority in the Empire makes me just want to... run. Which is ridiculous because I don't run from things.

The last people to harass me in town because they thought I was a slave they could annoy without consequences ended up with a broken nose and a few teeth marks for their efforts.

"It couldn't happen here," Luke argues, sounding uncertain of his own words, "You said it yourself. The Empire won't bother with this rock."

"Things always change," Biggs responds with a sigh.

"How long will you be staying here?" I question, breaking the heavy silence descending on us.

"I'm leaving in the morning," he answers.

Luke looks disappointed. "Then I guess I won't see you."

I frown, sighing quietly. It's hard to believe that this is a goodbye for the indefinite future, maybe forever. It's unlikely we'll ever see him again.

"Maybe someday," Biggs murmurs, "I'll keep a lookout."

"Well, I'll be at the Academy next season," Luke replies, "After that, who knows. I won't be drafted into the Imperial Starfleet, that's for sure."

"What do you plan to do, then? Blindly search for the Rebellion too?" I ask.

He shoots me a look. "I don't know. But I'm not gonna be fighting for the Empire."

"Then maybe flying cargo ships would be a good start."

"Would be better than cleaning moisture vaporators all the time."

The lingering irritation inside of me only tightens. "Yeah. Then I can do all your cleaning for you."

"Hey, I'm sure you'll find a way outta here too, eventually," Luke objects.

Biggs interrupts us, finally, for a final goodbye, before heading to the power station.

Moments later, we're in the speeder, zooming back towards the farm. "What was... that all about back there?" Luke finally asks, hesitantly.

Right. He's talking about my random crying spree. I wish I could just get some answers already. "I had one of those memories again... or whatever they are."

"Of what this time?"

"Someone... A man," I answer, shrugging, "It was like I used to know him." And I really miss him, even now. I don't feel comfortable adding that, so I keep it to myself.

The speeder finally comes to a halt near the vaporators, and we jump to the ground. "Your theory as to why this is happening is possible," Luke admits, finally when I'm beginning to think he isn't planning on responding at all, "It's just... unlikely."

"I know," I grumble, "But there's not any way we could prove it."

"Well, all things considered, even if you are having memories from a past life, it's still in the past. This is your life now. You're Ashara Lars now, not whoever you used to be, and that's what matters, right?" he responds, with a half-smile.

"True," I admit, ignoring the feeling way inside of me that as time goes on, the memories from my forgotten past may actually be more important.

"Luke! Ashara!" I faintly hear Aunt Beru shouting from the house. Luke continues working, as if oblivious. He probably didn't hear. I only heard because my hearing is far better thanks to my montrals.

"Coming!" I yell and break into a run towards the house, "Race you!" I call over my shoulder.

"How many times have I told you –" huffs Luke, trailing off, panting as he takes off after me.

I skid to a stop at the entrance to the courtyard where Aunt Beru is waiting for us, to give us instructions on the droids Owen wants.

"We'll remind him," Luke assures, coming to a stop behind me. I smirk at him which he returns with an unimpressed glare.

"Come on," I chirp, "Let's get going."

**w**

"I have no need for a protocol droid," Uncle Owen declares, a slight scowl on his face as he scans the group of droids the Jawas are displaying.

Inexplicably, my attention is drawn to the golden protocol droid at the front of the group, its bright plates glinting in the blinding sunlight. Something about that droid... it looks vaguely familiar. I shake the feeling off. Maybe I saw it or one similar when it still belonged to someone else.

Its voice is familiar too, as it rambles nonsensically until Uncle Owen tells it to shut up.

"Shutting up, sir," the protocol droid announces. I roll my eyes. Just being quiet would have proved as much.

Uncle Owen tells us to take the protocol droid and astromech back to the house to clean up, ignoring Luke's protests.

A huff of frustration escapes me as we herd the droids towards the waiting speeder. I wish we could be anywhere but Tatooine. Or maybe I'm just finding things to complain about, to cover up the constant restlessness I feel here. It's not where I belong, but I don't know what is.

A pang of longing shoots through me as the image I saw from earlier flashes before my eyes again. I wish I could get more answers. I don't see why all of that feels so important to me, but it does. I need to find answers. Somehow.

The red astromech droid suddenly sparks wildly as a plate on its head pops up. Oh great.

"Uncle Owen?" I call.

"Yes?"

"This R2 unit has a bad motivator. Look," Luke explains, pointing.

He scowls and spins around to face the head Jawa again. "Hey, what're you trying to push on us?!"

I glance over at the protocol droid as it rolls closer to us, tapping Luke on the shoulder. "Excuse me, sir," it begins, pointing, "But that Artoo unit is in prime condition. A real bargain."

I look the direction it's pointing to see a blue and white astromech droid, which has rolled out of line in front of all the others. I frown, narrowing my eyes at it. Why does that droid –

"The desert is merciless. It takes everything from you," the blond-haired man I saw from earlier says. He's walking a short distance in front of me carrying a... is that seriously a Huttlet? The desert is unmistakably Tatooine. It stretches from one horizon to the other, the two suns low in the sky reflecting off the sand.

"That's a happy thought," I hear myself saying, "It won't take us, Master. Right, Artooie?" I look down at the identical white and blue astromech droid rolling along beside through the sand. It whistles in reply.

"Ashara? Come on," Luke's voice snaps me out of my daze. What in the world? I used to know this droid? I used to live on Tatooine... or at least came here some time? And who in the world is that person I keep seeing? For that matter, why was I calling him 'Master'?

I shake my head, trying to clear it. Focus on the present, Ashara. I quickly follow Luke back to the speeder with the new protocol and astromech droids.

Would that droid have any idea who I was if I could ask it about it? Never mind, forget that. There's no saying I even used to look the same and its memory could have been wiped a hundred times since then. Trying to talk to an astromech droid about such a thing is so stupid, I don't know why I even thought of it in the first place.

"Uh, I'm quite sure that you'll be very pleased with that one, sir," the protocol droid tells Luke, "He really is in first-class condition. I've worked with him before. Here he comes."

Minutes later, we're all loaded up and speeding back towards the homestead once more. "Now, don't you forget this," the protocol droid rants to Artoo – since that apparently was his name and still is, "Why I should stick my neck out for you is quite beyond my capacity!"

Why does the protocol droid raving at Artoo feel so amusingly familiar?

**w**

Before long, Luke and I are at work in the cluttered, gray-walled garage, late afternoon sunlight streaming in the window. Normally, I can push thoughts of my... past life? out of my mind by now, but every time I look at Artoo – which is pretty much nonstop considering that we're cleaning up the two of them – I start thinking about it again. Luke's thoughts also seem to be a million miles away, though he's certainly not thinking along the same lines as me.

Instead, he's slowly running his hand along the broken off wing of a skyhopper, looking increasingly frustrated.

"It just isn't fair!" he explodes suddenly, slamming a wrench down on the nearby workbench, "Biggs is right. I'm never gonna get out of here!"

I huff out a breath. "All we can do now is wait. Neither of us are going to be stuck as farmers on this planet forever. It's not what we were meant to do. I just have that feeling..."

He scowls. "I know, but every year it's only one delay after another. I'm sure next year there'll be another reason I can't go to the Academy yet. It feels like nothing will ever change."

"Is there anything I might do to help?" asks the protocol droid.

Luke smiles ever so slightly at that. "Well, not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest, or teleport us off this rock!"

"I don't think so, sir," the droid responds, completely seriously, "I'm only a droid and not very knowledgeable about such things. Not on this planet, anyways. As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure which planet I'm on."

"One of the most ugly, boring planets in the galaxy," I offer, not for the first time missing my home planet of Kiros. I have faint memories from before my father brought me to Tatooine. I quickly squash the memories of that incident. Kiros was covered with rivers, meadows, and forests – the kind of place Togrutas really belong living in, considering what our species is like.

"If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from," Luke grumbles.

"I see, sir," the droid says, sounding just as confused as before.

"Uh, you can me Luke," he quickly interjects.

"And me Ashara," I add.

"I see Sir Luke... Mistress Ashara," it replies slowly.

"Just our names please," I laugh.

"And I am See-Threepio, human-cyborg relations," Threepio finally introduces himself, "And this is my counterpart –"

"Artoo-Detoo," I blurt out without thinking.

Luke's head swivels towards me in surprise. "Wait, how did you know?"

Artoo beeps something that I think I'm thankful Threepio doesn't translate.

"Um..." I trail off awkwardly, and shrug, feeling my montrals blushing, "It was obviously an Artoo unit."

"That doesn't –"

"Come, let's finish up here," I interrupt, quickly turning to get back to work on Threepio. Maybe I'll explain it to Luke later, but not when there are two droids here listening. I don't really want them repeating it to anyone else. I'm not comfortable talking about it to anyone other than Luke, not even Aunt Beru.

Luke sighs. "Okay, fine." He moves across the room, unplugging Artoo and getting to work on cleaning him up. I help Threepio wipe the oil off himself after he steps out of the tub.

"You got a lot of carbon scoring here. It looks like you boys have seen a lot of action," remarks Luke as he inspects part of the Artoo unit.

"With all we've been through, sometimes I'm amazed we're in as good condition as we are, what with the Rebellion and all," Threepio responds. Wait a minute –

"You belonged to the Rebellion?" I exclaim in shock.

"You know of the Rebellion against the Empire?" Luke demands, perking up.

"That's how we came to be in your service, if you take my meaning," Threepio explains. Oh. So they belonged to the Rebellion... or maybe the Empire, I guess I'm not sure which, and maybe because of the battle we saw above Tatooine earlier they ended up on the planet? Something like that anyway.

"Have you been in many battles?" inquires Luke, eagerly.

"Several, I think," the droids answers reflectively, "Actually, there's not much to tell. I'm not much more than an interpreter, and not very good at telling stories. Well, not at making them interesting, anyways."

"I'd like to hear them anyway, sometime," I reply, "Doesn't matter whether you make them interesting or not. It's the facts that count."

"I see, Ma'am," Threepio says. I decide not to comment that I just told it not to call me a title.

Having finishing taking care of the protocol droid, I move over to join Luke next to Artoo. The droid suddenly beeps and whistles.

"What's he saying?" I ask, glancing up at the golden droid as it approaches us.

"He is asking you if you were remade," Threepio translates, sounding extremely confused.

"Remade?" I echo, "Uh... no?" Remade? Is that some sort of droid terminology for... I'm not sure, honestly.

Artoo beeps again, his lights flashing. "He says that you look identical to someone that he used to know, but it's been so many years, there's no way you could be the same person," Threepio explains, "But I'm afraid I don't know what he's talking about. This may be another one of his delusions of grandeur." Artoo whistles an angry retort, but I hardly hear it.

You look identical to someone that he used to know... been so many years... no way you could be the same person. And then there's that memory I had earlier when I saw the droid.

Artoo knew whoever I used to be. I'm certain of it now. And apparently, I looked the same. There's no way this could be a coincidence. Luke exchanges an equally surprised look with me. Yes, I definitely need to find a private moment to ask Artoo about this.

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