Anakin was having the time of his life! He had forgotten how simple things could be if you just let them. Podracing was how Anakin had won his freedom... why had he forgotten how fun they could be?

The Clone Wars and later the rise of The Empire, sucked all the life out of him. Being groomed since he was nine years-old had also affected him. Anakin blamed most of his mistakes on Palpatine, it was not simply a way to excuse his many, many, many mistakes. He knew what he had done. Anakin knows that he is not a good person, he was possessive and obsessive. He truly pitied those that fell in love with him and those that he fell in love with.

However, people did not give Palpatine's manipulation enough credit. Anakin came from being a slave, to be freed, lose the teacher he had been promised, given to a mourning teenager that had called him dangerous and to an order that had resented him. He also had to call them Masters. Was he truly freed? Or did he only get a new master? Not to mention, he had not been explained anything, had thought the Jedi Order hated him, and had been planning on returning him to slavery.

Yes, none of that was true and there had been too many misunderstandings on both sides. But Anakin had not known that then.

Anakin had been served on a silver platter to Palpatine. Perfect for grooming.

To that you needed to add the many mind leeches from the dark side and all those night terrors, which had left Anakin exhausted, isolated, paranoid, and with a little dark voice in his mind that kept on hissing: "kill them... K them... KILL THEM ALL!"

No wonder, he had fallen. What is so surprising is how long it had taken him to fall. Even with a war going and being forced to work with slavers! Force! Anakin's will was strong… but Palpatine had always been ten steps in front of them.

Now, at ten years old it was quite clear how much damage Palpatine had done. Anakin did not remember a time he had felt lighter in his life. Has breathing ever been so simple and effortless? And the Force... Gosh! It was. so bright! Warm, open, like the hugs of Anakin's mother. When had he closed himself to the Force?

Kriff you Sidious! Anakin though viciously, as Master Plo went to get him a chocolate ice-cream cone.

"Here you go," Anakin looked up with a beaming smile and accepted the cone- he did not have too see it, but knew that Master Plo was smiling behind his mask.

"Thank you!" Anakin took a bite. "So cold!"

"It is," Plo agreed with a laugh, enjoying his padawan's happy reaction. "Do you like it?"

"I do!" Anakin nodded excitedly, not even acting. He had forgotten how good a simple ice-cream tasted. "It's cold and sweet! We don't have anything like this in Tatooine!"

"I'm glad," Plo smiled fondly at the little boy. Plo's heart ached at how much this boy had suffered, how he constantly asked if it was ok to waste precious water on him. Plo swore to protect this adorable angel, and he will! "Did you have fun? I quite enjoyed flying with you! You have a lot of talent."

"Thank you!" Anakin flushed at his praise.

He knew he was good at flying. He had won the Boonta Eve Classic race for Force's sake! But most people rather complained about his recklessness, than praise his talent and that he landed-crashed when most people would have failed and died. "I had so much fun! Can we go flying again?"

"Of course!" Plo beamed. "Maybe next time, we can ask your padawan sisters to join."

"I have sisters?" Anakin asked in "awe."

"You do," Plo told him gently. "Two of them!"

Anakin smiled as he listened to Plo gush about his ex-padawans. Once upon a time, Anakin had a brother in Obi-Wan. Now he has a two sisters. That was new and will be interesting.

Obi-Wan will no longer be my Jedi Master. Anakin thought, as Plo continued to gush. What will be my relationship with him now? As Anakin wondered, the Force was laughing.

Before he could even touch the fact that the Force was laughing at him, Master Plo interrupted him, gaining back his attention with a deep sigh. "Sorry, padawan, but it seems that we have a mission. A possible youngling with strong force sensitivity."

"We better get them then!" Anakin exclaimed.

Anakin was honestly quite excited about it. Missions with Obi-Wan were mostly guardian dignitaries in danger or negotiating peace. Being a searcher was new and thanks to Anakin's affinity within the Force, he was quite good at tracking down force sensitive beings... he did that quite a lot for the Empire.

Anakin shook his head, chasing the bad memories away and focusing on the task at hand. This mission should be fun and easy.

It should have been at least…

Plo frowned as he flew towards Shili. Oh, he loves his job. He is quite fond of younglings, which was why he had chosen to become a Searcher. Bringing younglings to the safety and home that's the temple for all force-sensitive beings, was quite the honor.

However, Plo did not like bringing his ten years-old padawan with him. The galaxy was a very dangerous place for younglings. However, Grandmaster Yoda had insisted. Well, the Force had insisted, and Grandmaster Yoda had enforced it.

Plo sighed, smiling fondly at his young padawan. Anakin was at awe and beaming at the stars outside their ship, as Plo flew them to Shili. Plo withheld his laughter at how bundled up the boy was. He had like three tunics and looked like a snowman. Anakin got cold quite easily, he was from a dessert world after all.

At least, one of us is happy with the situation, Plo thought amused.

"Are you ok Master?" Anakin asked sweetly. "I feel your unease in the force."

"I am just worried," Plo confessed softly. "You are too young for a mission."

"Maybe, but I am not a creche youngling," Anakin replied. "I've gone through much worse," Anakin's eyes got clouded with the horrors Plo could never imagine- though, they technically had not happened yet in this timeline. "Also, the Force would not put younglings in danger."

"It would not," Plo agreed, proud of his padawan's maturity. "We are going to take in a Tortuga youngling," Plo informed him, not noticing the millisecond in which Anakin had frozen.

Kriff you Force! Anakin curse at his "father". You sure love messing with my life! No wonder, you love that green troll so much!

"Did her parents contact the Temple?" Anakin asked softly, shaking off the Force's presence. "What?" Anakin pressed when he noticed Plo's tense shoulders. "What are you hiding?" Anakin winced at how much darkness bled into his tone. "Sorry..."

"It's ok, you are nervous as it is your first mission and here I am keeping intel from you," Plo smiled gently at his padawan. "Slavers killed her parents and kidnapped her. Luckily, she was rescued... she was one of the few younglings that were."

"What happened to the rest?" Anakin's voice was cold.

His Ahsoka could have been a slave? Over his dead body!

"There was an older slave there. She killed all the younglings, but got blown up by the slavers before she could have continued with the toddlers and infants," Plo informed him, against his better judgement.

"Freedom in death, or slavery in life," Anakin whispered brokenly, as he recalled all the initiates he had struck down during the Order 66 ordeal.

"What?" Plo turned to his padawan.

"Ar-Amu gathered her children in her chest as slavers came barging into her home. She had two choices, let them live as slaves or grant them freedom in death," Anakin retold in a hush. "Ar-Amu would never allow the slavers to have her children. She granted them mercy... the mercy of death." Anakin looked towards Plo with tears in his eyes, as his mind was on the mistakes of the past. The mercy he had granted all those younglings before they could fall into Palpatine's hands. "There was a saying in Tatooine when a slave got pregnant... By Ar-Amu's grace, I hope it gets born dead."

Plo let out a strangled cry. No child should ever say that. But here was his ten years-old-padawan, with steel in his eyes, still not letting his tears fall.

After all, you cannot waste water in tears in the desert.

It was a mark in Plo's heart that remained for the whole mission and even beyond. No matter how much guidance or meditation he did, it was hard for Plo to let go of his padawan. Even a whole years later when Anakin was finally ready to move on in his Jedi training, it was Grandmaster Yoda the one who had to push him into the right direction.

Then again, Master Plo was not the only parent of Anakin did not want to let him go.

"Is that a candle?" Jocasta Nu asked her friend, as she entered the later's apartment.

"Yes, a prayer to Ar-Amu," Shmi answered, as she knelt before the candle at the window board. "To protect and bless my son."

"He will be ok," Jocasta assured the worried mother gently. "Master Plo will make sure that he makes it back safely. Ani's also, a very good Padawan, he'll get his kyber crystal."

"It's just that he is only eleven," Shmi replied, distressed. "Not to mention, he will be going on his own! Why is that? Shouldn't he go with a group of padawans?"

"Ani's force is too strong, we don't know how his test in the cave might affect the other padawans," Jocasta's answer did not make Shmi feel any better.

"How will it affect Ani's test?!" Shmi demanded to know.

"Shmi!" Jocasta snapped firmly, stopping the mother's panic. "Trust him, trust the force. Everything will be ok."

"OK," Shmi took a deep breath. "I trust him. He will be ok."

Meanwhile, in the Crystal Cave in Ilum, Anakin had a bored expression on his face.

"Like honestly! Is this the best you can do?!" Anakin crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. The scene of the Tuskan massacre and his mother's death was changed to the memory of him being abandoned in Mustafa by Obi-Wan. "Now I know you are just playing games with me!"

Suddenly, a Luke and Leia mirage appeared before him.

"Do you think you deserve a second chance?!" Leia hissed, eyes blazing with hatred and passion. "You tortured me! Your own daughter! What kind of monster does that?! As if that was not enough, you blew up my planet! Killed my real dad! You will never be a father to me!"

"Why are you doing this father?" Luke asked sorrowful, cradling his mechanic hand to his chest- the hand that Darth Vader had cut off. "I thought you had changed. That you would be better, do better. Why seek war? Why father?"

"Oh, my sweet sun and fiery moon," Anakin sighed, looking at them tenderly. "I am so sorry, you both deserve a better father... but I am not him. I might no longer be dark, but I was never light to begin with. My morals have always been ambiguous, maybe it came with being born as a slave.. or maybe I've always been fucked up," Anakin sighed, as his kids mirage stopped to listen. "What I do know, is that I am possessive and selfish. I want the 501st, my friends back. I want the Huts and the Zygerrians gone and all those slaved planets freed. I need a war for that to happen, I'm ok with it," Anakin shrugged uncaring. "I want the Senate and the Jedi Order to have a wake up call. For all these corrupt senators and Jedi, like Krell, dealt with. In war things move faster, they won't get to escape or slip through the cracks." He straightened up and looked at them with determination. "So, yes, I will allow the war to happen and hide the slave revolution I am planning in-between missions, while Padmé deals with the traitors in the Senate with the evidence I "gather". I won't ask for forgiveness or acceptance, I'm done with it! Be it the Jedi or Sith. I'll do what needs to be done and won't regret it. At. All."

Luke and Leia smiled, before disappearing. In front of Anakin, now laid a crystal. It was not his first crystal, Anakin was sure of that. The song was different. Which was ok, as he was a different Anakin.

Anakin raised an eyebrow, as he picked the crystal and noticed the orange hue. Orange? Now that is new, Anakin thought as he moved towards the exit. I've never seen an orange lightsaber … Cool!

"Ani!" Plo welcomed his padawan excitedly. He had been in the cave for four hours, not rare but Plo had expected him to be one earlier. "How are you feeling?"

"Great! Look! I got an orange crystal." Anakin told him, this time not needing to fake his giddy excitement.

"O-orange?!" Plo stuttered, eyes widening when he saw the crystal on his padawan's hand.

"Yes... is there something wrong?" Anakin asked his master-father figure worriedly, his reaction was weird. "I've never seen an orange lightsaber before… is there something wrong with this color?"

"No! Nothing!" Plo knelt down to assure his son. "It's a very rare color, but there has been one other orange lightsaber. A great Jedi hero, from the Old Republic era, Revan."

Anakin stood there silently. It took all his self-control from stopping himself from facepalming.

You kriffing force! Anakin raged internally, as he excitedly asked Plo to tell him more about Revan. Screw you! You are worse than that green troll I have as a grandmaster! Really?! Why don't you Just put a neon sign with an arrow pointing at me saying "The Chosen One Here." Much easier than creating a whole new crystal for your chosen kriffing prophecy boys!