Chapter 5
It all went over so quickly.
While the situation didn't escalate to violence, Luke knew when he'd first spotted his father, he couldn't sit idly by and remain in the background. Part of him was tempted to stab Watto with his lightsaber and end it there. Sensing what his father had been through, whipped, forced to live off days of starvation, and enduring horrifying things that Luke didn't even want to think about, still reached something within the Jedi Master that required those years of Jedi training to resist from going in and delivering the finishing blow.
Qui-Gon's discontented eyes bore into the side of his skull. "I advise you to consider patience in the future. They're legalities concerned with freeing slaves in the Outer Rim."
"I was patient," Luke replied, understanding where the Jedi Master was coming from. Normally, Luke would have most likely reacted the same, but slavery was something tolerated for far, far too long. "I saw two innocents at risk, innocents that could be saved. I decided what was best and would face the consequences of my actions if they're any."
Qui-Gon's eyes twinkled, still displeased. "Nevertheless, it is not the Jedi way to initiate threats," the older Jedi replied, his tone not wavering.
"Slavery is also against the Jedi way," Luke responded expressionlessly, motioning to the hyperdrive. "Now, do you wish to take advantage of this?"
Truthfully, the T-14 hyperdrive generator was an afterthought. It didn't occur to Luke that they would have to steal it, but given the hole he had dug them into, the Jedi Master figured that it was too late to go back.
The older Jedi Master remained for one singular moment just to scold him one last time. "You should reconsider your methods." But he didn't argue further. He gathered up the hyperdrive, among the other parts needed, and walked out.
"Heya! What else do ya want from me?! Put that back!" Watto protested, flying up to the darker-robed Jedi, already knowing that he had a hand to deal with this.
He declared, "We will be taking what we require."
"And what do I get in exchange?!"
With indifference and apathy on the surface, the dark-robed man responded, "Your life."
"That was never the condition of our agreement! Ya already stolen two of my workers!" He spoke out, indignant.
"Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly?" Luke asked with vague mocking and full of faux-concern, tilting his head to the left, and raising both of his eyebrows.
Watto closed his mouth with an audible snap, glaring at him for two long seconds, body sweetening out with fear. "No."
"Good, it'll be unfortunate if something happens to this lovely establishment."
He flapped away to the inside of his shop, "This business is getting worse all the time," Watto mumbled.
While it did partially bother him, wishing that he could appeal to the slaver's better nature, Luke knew that just wasn't realistic. Slavers didn't think twice about leaving innocent and good people full of lifetime scars in one way or another.
"You know, you're cool," Anakin said, staring up at him, his blue eyes wide with awe and admiration.
Now, his lips broke out into a gentle smile. He wasn't entirely innocent and had seen things no child should, but there was at least fragility of pureness left. "Thank you, Anakin, but I only did what I had to do."
The young woman stepped next to Anakin. Luke was the last one to leave, wanting to make sure that the Toydarian wouldn't try anything. Detecting no danger from him or anything that could be used against him currently, he flanked the younger versions of his parents. The Toydarian would wait a few minutes no doubt before he went to report to the Hutts about a Jedi threatening him and freeing two of his slaves.
"That wasn't very discreet, you know," Padmé said, slightly nervous if anything else. It occurred to Luke that he hadn't lost his temper around her before. She didn't fear him exactly at least. More so, fear of his methods.
"You needn't fear me, miss, I won't get upset." Luke said, his voice lighter now.
She sighed, the nervousness fading away slowly. His mother was best described as naive, wanting to see the good in all. Luke did so as well, but he no longer took it to the extreme. A person too good for the galaxy, destroyed by Darth Sidious. "I won't pretend I disagree with you despite how... blunt you were."
Luke nodded. "I wouldn't have been if he didn't own slaves. At the end, this is for the best. We needn't stay here any further than necessary."
Even though several major events would be avoided. For one, Anakin Skywalker would never win the Boonta Eve Classic. That had been widely discussed, where a human did the impossible and engaged in a pod race at the mere age of nine. Not a major alternation in the grand scheme of things but would definitely send ripples for the future...
Padmé nodded, and the two stayed silent as they followed the jumpy Anakin back home, the boy only stopping to make sure his new friends were still following behind and hadn't lost his trail.
It was when he spotted Shmi Skywalker that his heart froze. Uncle Owen took the death of the woman the hardest. Even decades afterward, the man was never the same. He'd heard all of the stories from Beru. Compassionate. Friendly. Not an evil bone in her body. And Luke knew instantly that those stories weren't exaggerated. The Force was strong with her, he felt it. Connected with her. It protected and allowed her to raise her son in a lovely and safe home, because without it, she may have not had the strength and energy to fight on. She took pain for her son and did so without hesitation so he wouldn't have to feel the same.
Anakin came bounding up to her, speaking in gibberish. It was clear that the woman didn't understand, even though she bowed before him and offered a warm smile to her young kin.
"Anakin, what have I told you about speaking clearly?" Shmi reprimanded gently.
His father seemed to realize his incoherent speech patterns and tried again. "We're free, mum!" he exclaimed. "We're free! Luke suddenly came in and freed us! You should have been there! It was fantastic!" He jumped up and down, giddy now.
"Oh, Ani..." He sensed a pain shot through her. Slaves lost hope of the very idea long, long ago. Their masters taught them nothing else, Luke reflected grimly. But much to his sadness, he wasn't focused entirely on her.
For, even now, he'd felt Owen Lars and Beru Whitesun on the planet. Sensed their youthful signatures. Luke had been tempted to seek them out and embrace them-apologizing for all the times he'd run away, apologizing to Uncle Owen, especially about all of the arguments, apologizing to Aunt Beru for all the times he'd worried her, apologizing for not being able to save them. But, they wouldn't know him now. They would think he was insane on the best of terms if he'd approached and embraced them.
Ultimately, they... were not the uncle and aunt he remembered. They were young, still finding their place in life. Beru came from a family that had been in the moisture farming business for three generations. The Whitesuns had a reputation among the farming families for being particularly well-adapted to Tatooine's rough climate. Owen currently was helping his father with their moisture farm-possibly in the middle of nowhere.
Looking at his grandmother, the woman he'd never met, at her middle-aged face and soft eyes, he was reminded of Leia. The more his grandmother's features merged with Leia's. He was in awe by how similar they were. On reflection, there were remnants of his mother in the shade of her hair and complexion, but so many of her idiosyncrasies matched his grandmother. He felt his heart break again. He'd known all too well about that journal that his grandmother had, known that the Larses treated the woman well, another member of the family. His friends and family may think it was easy to sacrifice those around him to achieve a goal. But it wasn't. It never had been. It was always a struggle. A struggle to keep the aches of losses under control. He did it, always, but it didn't mean that it could be solved overnight.
"Greetings, I am Luke," he took the chance to step forward, keeping his tone respectful and cordial, and bowed slightly in respect.
"Oh, and this angel is Padmé!" Anakin beckoned to the woman.
Anxious amusement flared off of her as she looked at the newcomers, "I hope you forgive my son. I do know he can give the impression, enough to be a jokester sometimes. I thank you for bringing him back home."
Memories came unbidden from his time on Tatooine, both good and bad. If he did this, Luke would never be friends with Biggs, he would never meet Camie, Fixer, and the rest. If Luke proceeded with what he was about to do, it would be the final pin in the coffin of an abandoned life. Even if his father fell to the Dark Side, he, or more appropriately, his younger self, would be relocated elsewhere.
Painful as it was, life was never easy.
He made a decision then and there. Shmi Skywalker couldn't stay on Tatooine. It would force Anakin Skywalker further into darkness. If she never got left behind to die horribly at the hands of the sand people, his father wouldn't go on that first murdering spree, and have no guilt about leaving her behind and not coming back to rescue her. And then that fear of losing even people who he loved drove him down the path more. He knew how much losing his mother hurt, and he would be going to do everything he could to avoid that pain. Luke couldn't fault him. If everything went to plan, it wouldn't be Owen and Beru who tucked him into bed at night, Owen and Beru who held him for hours on end, Owen and Beru who shielded him for nineteen straight years.
It would be his parents.
He was their nephew by heart, and still loved them unconditionally... but he would have to let them go. They would be safe. Be able to live full lives because Artoo and Threepio would never land on their doorstep, and thus the Empire - if it still formed - would never have any reason to kill them. That did little to dull the pain in his chest.
To save Shmi Skywalker would be a great benefit for Anakin Skywalker's development. He would save the galaxy and his family, even if it cost him what he had.
"No, ma'am," he dismissed, his voice somehow remaining unshaken as he met her wizened face, "this is no joke. You're free."
They locked eyes. Shmi looked at him, desperately clinging onto the hope that had been lost so long ago. For a brief moment, he'd spotted an image of a young girl, stolen away from her parents, and forced through many indignities which only fueled the cries of injustice and rage inside of him. His father was forced through harsh abuse, but it stopped only with physical punishment. What he felt from his grandmother sent a chill down his entire body.
A second later, Shmi Skywalker took one step back and then another, her lower lip trembling as the realization of the situation came down on her. Those words were what she'd never thought she would hear.
For the first time in a long while, the light reignited in her eyes, and it shone across her face, her heart glowing. Hope and elation thought dead so long ago for not only herself but more for her son crashed over Shmi with such force she felt like she was going to fall faint. This... this was a dream come true! No slave on Tatooine could even whisper about freedom without getting laughed out, mocked, and greatly punished all at once! Auctioned, too!
In a daze, Shmi collapsed back into the nearby couch, cushioning what would have been a nasty fall.
"Mom, are you alright?!" Anakin dashed over, concerned for the woman. It took much within Luke to stop himself from doing the same.
"We're free..." She said lowly.
"Yes, mom, and one day every slave will be free," Anakin nodded.
An empty notion, if it wasn't for the fact that Luke Skywalker was determined to see that through. The Force hummed in satisfaction and contentment, showing it agreed with that course of action. He knew that realistically they wouldn't be able to free all of the slaves here. Many were doomed to devastation. It just didn't work that way.
But now, he had to worry about the present instead of the future.
"It is wise that we move quickly," Luke announced. "Your freedom wasn't... legal." It disgusted him to word it that way. "The Hutts would catch wind of our presences here and would come for us."
She nodded, as the Jedi moved in. They hefted whatever items they could in the various bags.
"Oh, mom, we can't forget about Threepio!" Anakin exclaimed from the other room.
She laughed. "Of course."
The Jedi Master moved over and examined the half-built Threepio. He smiled slightly, knowing of what aid and trusted friend he would become, when he was finished, that was. He gripped the unfinished protocol droid and placed it on his back.
Padmé assisted in helping clean things out. Let it never be said that his mother needed her Handmaidens to do everything. For a petite figure, she was quite strong.
Luke was the one carrying the most possessions, but it hardly wavered him.
"Is there anything else?" Padmé inquired, arching her eyebrow in concern. "We'll come back if we have to."
"Oh, no, dear," Shmi dismissed, with a gentle smile. "We'll get different living necessities elsewhere."
Luke nodded. He knew that moving packed would attract unwanted attention, so he went down less populated streets and areas, discreetly avoiding the people. He didn't want to paint his family as bigger targets than they already were.
Eventually, they moved through the countless arenas of sand, the heat of Tatooine proving to be merciless as always. But the two slaves were determined to get out of there. Soon enough, they wouldn't have to deal with these types of conditions ever again.
"Oh," Padmé stumbled over, the extra items in her possession proving to trip her up now out in the sand dunes, adding sarcastically, "how do people survive on this planet?"
"Comes with the territory," Luke retorted as he moved over nevertheless and helped a few of the items off of his mother. When she was able to move again, he was sated.
The two slaves moved forward, looking at the Nubian with hope in their eyes.
The pilot wanted to make sure things were in order before they could take off. No one protested, their short time on Tatooine being a relief more than anything else as it was one more step from liberating Naboo from the hands of the Trade Federation when they arrived to Coruscant. The few guards loaded up the Skywalker's supplies in what settled for their storage room.
Anakin, who had been in awe about his surroundings, eventually snapped out of it and walked outside. Luke followed, wanting to make sure his father would be alright. The boy stepped on a nearby ledge of a nearby sandhill and looked into the distinct twin suns. The same one Luke looked at many years later.
The boy was gazing as if everything waiting for him — fun, adventure, importance — were all just beyond that horizon. He looked down briefly before he stared back up, Tatoo I set over the horizon as Tatoo II descended into darkness. For Luke, it was symbolic. Two paths awaited Anakin Skywalker as they'd awaited Luke so many years ago.
Diverging destinies.
Darkness was a part of him, predictably. His time as a slave left a poison in his soul. Seeing what his mother and friends have been through was worse than being dealt the bad hand himself.
Anakin had a morally gray area with which Luke was familiar with. That left Luke with another food for thought. Would his father be a Gray Jedi? No, the idea of a Gray Jedi was an injudicious, extravagant conceptualization. Darkness is part of all humans naturally. Abilities didn't make one evil so one could dabble in that, but giving into the Dark Side was a path to destruction and dissonance. The Dark Side was just extorting the Force to your will while the Light Side communed with it. There wasn't an equidistant, just layers of severity. One could feel fear, anger, hatred, rage, suffering, and negative emotions of all types, but they mustn't give into it. The problem with the Jedi was not the Light Side; it was just that they took their own fear of the Dark Side to the extreme, having a major disconnect from the galaxy, and that was part of what destroyed them. Managing those emotions salubriously strengthened the natural side of the Force.
One couldn't have peace and be full of pessimistic emotions. One couldn't have amicability and at the same time have disarray. Attempting to agglutinate those things into one could cause them to go deranged. Amalgamating Sith ideologies with Jedi ways would lead to nothing but disruption. One should understand that every being have light and dark inside them, which most do even to the most minimum extent, but one definitely couldn't mesh them into one. When concluded, one would not realize the conflict until it was too late and would have gone completely mad, believing that they could be one and the same.
However, Luke wasn't blind to pretend that everything could magically get better when those who embraced the path of the Dark Side were dealt with. The natural state of the galaxy was not tranquility, as the Jedi conjectured, nor was it war, as the Sith asseverated. It was a mixture of the two, an ebb and flow that both sides were unable to assimilate or acquiesce. The Force, much like the galaxy, was neither good nor evil. It was a continuum, with propensity and powers that could be used without falling to temptation or torpidity. Abilities and powers one must mobilize to understand the true nature of the Force. To put it shortly, there was the Force and there was what one chose to do with it. But what one might do with it would invariably be opposed to what another might do with it. Competition or compromise was always the result, never cooperation.
All those his father must realize before he was consumed by destruction or hypocrisy.
"Oh, hi, sorry, I was looking at th-" Anakin turned to look in his direction and seemed extremely apologetic. It natured the anger inside of him from earlier...
He pushed this down and resisted the urge to charge to town and kill all of the slavers because patience was a virtue for now. "At the twin suns," Luke finished for him when the boy stumbled over his words, a small smile breaking out across his lips. "I understand, young one, it's only natural for you to be curious about what awaits you. It's a big galaxy out there."
He placed his hand on the boy's back, watching the twin suns with him.
Anakin looked at him, before turning away and staring at the twin suns for a long moment, before he spoke, "Hmm, sir, I wanted to ask. What is the Force? I mean I know you Jedi have it, but what is it?"
Luke diverted his attention to him and smiled warmly. "The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together. It transverses from the land, the sky, everyone around us, everywhere-even the ship."
"The ship can use the Force?" Anakin asked, his face flustered.
"No," he chuckled, "it pulsates around the ship, the people inside, every beat the ship takes..."
"Okay," he bit his lip, "but if the Force is around all of us, why can't everyone like mom or Padmé use it? My friend, Kitster?"
His demeanor became understanding. "The Force is not accessible to all, young one. Inside of us, there are midi-chlorians."
"Midi-chlorians?"
"The midi-chlorians as microscopic life-forms that impart the Force's will to their hosts. They reside within all living cells. Others can detect it. For example, you. You're strong with the Force, I can feel it."
And he could. One would have to be blind in the Force not to. Had he been trained since birth, Anakin Skywalker would have been able to achieve unbelievable number of attributes at the mere age of eighteen. By twenty-five, he would accomplish his full potential.
"They live inside me?" Anakin questioned, making a face at that.
"Inside your cells, yes. And we are symbionts with them, I guess you can say."
Anakin repeated the odd word, "Symbionts?"
"Life-forms living together for mutual advantage. Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force. They continually speak to us, telling us the will of the Force. That in no way means midi-chlorians are the Force, just that they help connect us to it. There are little creatures that help sentient life become more sensitive to it."
"This is complicated. I understand a bit, but not all of it..." Anakin shook his head.
"With time, you will. You're a smart child, Anakin Skywalker." He patted him on his shoulder, smiling.
Less than two minutes later, they were onboard, the ship's doors closed, and Tatooine was behind them.
Author's Note: One thing I should make clear now, is that I am not going to have Shmi as a Force sensitive as I notice that's a rising trend in stories now (no disrespect meant. I still love y'all stories.). Yes, I know everyone is connected to the force. "It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together." -Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's just that some beings have stronger connections to the Force than others and can make the Force manifest itself in forms such as telekinesis and telepathy.
But I feel like the more Force sensitives there are, the less unique the Star Wars galaxy is. Some people can have their own unique ability without being attuned with the Force. That's the problem I have with Sabine Wren who I liked in Rebels when it seemed like she was going to wield a lightsaber but then became a Force sensitive in Ahsoka which is a random plot point that came out of nowhere and really ruins her character development in my opinion.
May the Force be with you all always.