Chapter 27: Strange Homes
21 BBY, Tatooine
Anakin Skywalker hated Tatooine. He hated the heat, the sand, especially the sand, but most of all, it was the memories. The planet was a reminder of his origin, his past as a slave, and his darkest moments, his mother’s death. He tried not to think about it much, and the war had been a good distraction on that front, but setting foot on Tatooine always brought back a hint of the hurt.
He had tried to hide it as much as he could, to let it go into the Force, and he felt a lot calmer when it came to that, but given the glimpses that he saw Master Fay give him, he knew that she probably sensed something.
The young Jedi didn’t know how he felt about the Jedi Master coming with him. He knew of her, of course, but probably not as much as most people in the order, since they had grown up on stories of her and her adventures. He had honestly thought that she wasn’t even real; he couldn’t think of any Jedi who didn’t use a Lightsaber. Even Master Yoda wielded one.
Still, it had been an honour to meet with her. Anakin had sensed her kindness and power in the Force in the moment that he had met her and knew for a fact that she harboured no judgment about him, not at all. It had been fun to see Obi-Wan acting like an awed youngling in her presence, and he knew that she found it funny as well.
When he returned to the Temple after some time in the front, it had felt… different. It was as if he were less stifled, as if he could breathe more easily. Things had been brighter… better. He had sensed the disturbance in the Force. He doubted more than any Jedi didn’t, at least if they weren’t very far away from the Core, but he hadn’t expected that when he had returned to investigate it.
Obi-Wan still refused to tell him what exactly happened, though that wasn’t as frustrating as it once made him feel, even if it was embarrassing when he told the Chancellor of his ignorance in the matter. There were some rumours about an old Holocron or something being responsible. He sensed that Master Fay’s presence in Coruscant wasn’t a coincidence either, but it seemed like the specifics were being discussed mainly by the Jedi High Council.
What he did know for sure was that what happened revealed the presence of a Sith in the Senate. They were tracking them down, and Anakin worried about his wife, Padme, and his friend, the Chancellor, being near such dangerous creatures. Thankfully, he managed to convince Padme to stay away from the Senate building for now, but his wife was too headstrong for her own good sometimes… most of the time...
Anakin would have preferred that she be better protected than she was, but she refused… very loudly at that. He unfortunately didn’t have the time to convince her, as he had been assigned to join Master Fay to investigate a disturbance in the Force in Tatooine. He wasn't sure why Master Yoda seemed particularly enthusiastic about it, having told him that while drinking Hot Chocolate from the mug that Harry Potter left in the Temple. Anakin didn't like the cup, but the fact that seeing Master Yoda drink from it made Mace Windu's eyebrows twitch, and the vein on his forehead pop, he found that his opinion on it changed.
He knew that it was meant as downtime, an assignment away from the frontlines and the war, and he was grateful for it, and maybe it was also a way for the Council to show him how to not solve issues without resorting to… aggressive negotiations, while also being familiar with the working of Tatooine, but he would have preferred to stay on Coruscant and spend some quality time with Padme.
However, any protest that he felt was completely and utterly overwhelmed by the Force, all but screaming at him to go on that mission, something that he was becoming more perceptive of since what happened in the Temple in Maridun. The Force also came a lot easier to him since then, which had made battles a lot briefer and with less casualities, something that he was proud of, but he had to admit that his battalion probably needed some rest given the pace that they were working with.
Besides, Ahsoka was practically shaking in her seat at being on a mission with Master Fay. Anakin shook his head slightly in amusement, though he was not happy to see the dust ball that was once his home.
It was then that Master Fay spoke up loudly, “Skywalker, would you mind if I fly us down?”
Anakin looked at the Jedi Master with incredulity, “Did Obi-Wan say something about my flying? Whatever he said is probably exaggerated by his fear of flying.”
“Is that so, Master?” Ahsoka answered, “How many ships have you crashed in the last year alone again?”
Anakin spluttered and said, “That’s beside the point. It’s not my fault that I get shot at a lot.”
Master Fay chuckled loudly, “Master Kenobi’s… concerns aside, this has little to do with your skills, Master Skywalker. I sensed the Force guiding me towards a certain part of the planet.”
He smiled at that, but stood up, letting the ancient Jedi sit down in his seat and piloting their ship.
A few minutes later, he realised that she was not taking them near any of the usual Spaceports on the planet. In fact, it wasn’t even anywhere that he remembered being populated, somewhere in the Eastern Dune Sea, if he wasn’t mistaken.
Aside from Sandstorms and Krayt Dragons, there shouldn’t have been anything there. Well, anything other than Tusken Raiders. Anakin felt a small well of anger at them, but he closed his eyes and put it into the Force. He had already avenged his mother. Hatred against an entire people, though horrible they may be, wouldn’t help achieve anything.
Just as he expected, they landed in a vast expanse of… nothing. Just sand. Oh, how he hated sand…
He looked up and asked Master Fay, “Are you sure that this is the right place? There isn’t much out here.”
The ancient Jedi Master smiled and said, “The Force provides, young Skywalker.”
She closed her eyes, and slowly but surely, the dune in front of them began to rise up. Well, not exactly, the sand was covering something, specifically, a handful of Speeder bikes that floated up to them and somehow worked despite having been buried in sand for at least a decade.
Ahsoka’s eyes were widened at the display, not the telekinetic power and control, of course, but the surety and trust in the Force. Anakin would admit that he was impressed as well, but mostly with the trust that Master Fay had in the Force, and how she was able to sense the Speeders when even he hadn’t been able to.
Still, it was not long until they were all riding Speeders, following Master Fay through the Dune Sea of Tatooine. He quickly realised what they were flying towards when he saw the people.
There had to be thousands of them, having set up tents and, in a few cases, some building semi-permanent huts to stay in, all on dunes of sand.
He stayed silent as they landed their Speeders on the sand, and Ahsoka asked, “I’m not very familiar with Tatooine. Is this some kind of city?”
Anakin shook his head, “No, it isn’t. This doesn’t make any sense.”
And it didn’t; building a settlement in the Dune Sea was extremely dangerous. A single sandstorm could kill half of the people in this place, and that’s aside from the possibility of a Krayt Dragon attacking them.
He turned towards Master Fay to ask if she knew anything about it, but the woman had a content smile on her face. Did she know something that he didn’t? Anakin wasn’t sure, but it seemed so, and if she was smiling, then maybe this wasn’t exactly a bad thing.
She spoke up next, “I believe we should speak to the locals. They should help enlighten us as to what happened here.”
Ahsoka nodded, but all but followed after Master Fay like a youngling. He would probably tease her about it later, at least after they left this damned planet.
The moment that Anakin walked alone inside the settlement, he immediately thought that something was... strange. Tatooine always held a certain foreboding, at least when he used the Force to sense it. It was the despair that every slave on this planet faces, mixed with the greed of the smugglers and many criminals who come to this place.
He had never expected there to be a certain warmth, a light, emanated by the people in this place. Even without the Force, they seemed to smile more, unburdened and happy, which was not typical of Tatooine, let alone a settlement that was one bad storm away from becoming a massacre.
Was that why the Force had brought them to this place, to save them from their own foolishness? Anakin wasn’t sure, but he would admit to being curious as to what made these people so strangely happy. They didn’t even seem to mind visitors, given that a couple of Rodians were happily chatting with Snips and Master Fay, without any sort of issues, in the distance. The sight alone was eerie, and not something he would have ever expected in Tatooine.
Anakin’s thoughts were interrupted by a man speaking up behind him, “Ani, is that you?”
The voice was familiar, and he recognised its source immediately when he turned and saw who it was, “Jorin?”
He looked older than Anakin remembered, but he recognised him either way. Jorin owned a droid shop in Mos Espa, and he sometimes gave Anakin some spare parts for a discount, and even for free when he had a good week, despite him and Watto being rivals. Most of C3PO was made from the scraps that he got from the shopkeeper.
Kindness was rare on Tatooine, and it was not something that anyone forgot, Anakin included.
He smiled at the man and asked, “It is you. It’s nice to see you, all grown up. I heard that you’re a Jedi now, but I suppose seeing is believing. It’s good that I’ve seen you. I’m leaving Tatooine next week, after all.”
Anakin’s eyes widened at that, “You are?”
“I just sold the shop, probably for a lot less than I could have gotten for it. I was tempted to stay… but I suppose I came to this place to give my respects and leave.”
There was a lot that Anakin wanted to ask, but he remembered a few things. “Did Watto take your shop from you?”
He remembered how much Watto salivated at the prospect of owning Jorin’s shop, and he probably could have bought it if it weren’t for his weakness for gambling. To his surprise, Jorin burst into laughter, “Oh, Watto has a lot more to worry about than my little shop. He fled from Tatooine. He must have pissed someone off. The rumour is that someone bought all of his debts and sold them at a discount to a member of the Pyke Syndicate. You know the type… All I know for sure is that his shops were raided and emptied, and that he disappeared. I have a feeling that this debt will follow him very far.”
Anakin would have thought that the man really didn’t know what happened, at least, if it weren’t for the satisfaction and vindication that Jorin felt at his presence. He must have been involved in some way, but the Jedi decided not to voice things.
Instead, he asked something else, “I’m surprised that Jabba let the Pyke Syndicate interfere in Tatooine’s affairs so brazenly.”
This time, Jorin gave him an incredulous look, “You’re joking, right? How can you not know about that? Jabba ran away to Nal Hutta. Apparently, a few of his men found him in a hole in his own palace, surrounded by his dead men and Bounty Hunters.”
Anakin sensed some fear and a hint of deception in Jorin’s words, but that was entirely overwhelmed by the sheer shock that he felt at that revelation. Jabba the Hutt had abandoned Tatooine? It seemed completely and utterly ridiculous. Sure, it made sense that he wouldn’t be present, given that he would have never allowed for another settlement to take place, especially one outside his influence, but still, the planet itself was synonymous with Jabba the Hutt.
It was essentially his throne world, a planet completely under his control that he stayed in instead of Nal Hutta. Leaving it would be like admitting that he had lost his greatest jewel, and that meant one thing. “You do know that he’ll be back, right? When the Hutts finish their dispute, whoever wins will come back to Tatooine.”
To his surprise, Jorin snorted, “He won’t. I doubt that anyone in the Outer Rim would even try, not with her watching over us.”
Anakin frowned and gave him a questioning look, getting Jorin to smile gently, “I am coming to see her one last time. You can join me if you want… You should join me.”
He wasn’t sure, but Anakin felt the Force practically push him to do it, and so he nodded in silence. He followed Jorin through the dunes of the strange new settlement, still with more questions than answers. He still didn’t know why they built this place despite its dangers, why thousands of people decided to move to the Dune Sea, and what was the source of the disturbance in the Force. But something inside him urged him to be patient, that he would receive his answer.
It was only when they were at the top of a dune that he looked down, and he saw it, saw her, and when he did, he felt his heart stop.
It was a large statue of a woman made of black stone, one that had been hidden by the dune and that emerged from the ground. However, it was not exactly the statue that shook him so much, but the woman herself, one that he recognised immediately, “Mom…”
That word was whispered, but he could see its truth with his own eyes. He could see his mother’s kindness in the statue’s features, her lips with the small smile that she had on her face whenever they were together in their home.
In the Force, it was much the same; he could feel her warmth, like one of the hugs that she gave him long ago, but deep down, he feels a promise, one not just to him, but to every single person on this planet, that they would never be chained, something that he would have once considered impossible, but believed, nonetheless.
He faintly heard Jorin speak up behind him, “We call her the Mother of Freedom. Everyone on Tatooine felt it when she appeared, knowing for a fact that she would protect us all, that none of her children would ever be in chains. Since that day, slavery ended on Tatooine, and anyone who tried to enforce it failed, all because of her...”
Anakin felt his eyes sting as he walked towards the statue, absolutely transfixed. He relished the presence that the statue gave until he found himself just in front of it.
Without even thinking about it, the young Jedi Knight knelt down and put his hands on the cold black stone that made up his mother’s statue, and he pushed his presence inside. He ignored his eyes stinging and the tears silently making their way down his cheeks and looked.
There was power within it, a great deal of it, too. But inside, there was… something, something familiar.
He almost missed it, but it was there, something that felt like his mother’s presence in the Force. In it, he could feel it like an echo, buried beneath all of the power. Love. He could feel his mother’s love, pure and unfiltered, just for a few seconds, and he found himself smiling, nonetheless.
It was hard to describe what happened when he felt it, like a knot unwinding inside him, a small piece of darkness and pure grief that had been buried for so long, just letting it go, and with it, he felt lighter, with his grief and serenity, giving him a focus unlike anything that he had ever before, making him feel the currents of the Force in a way that was… clearer than they ever had been for him before.
In the background, he heard Master Fay and Ahsoka talk to Jorin, who had all followed him to the statue. He faintly heard them talking about Bounty Hunter and Harry Potter. The name alone almost made his body twitch in pure irritation, the memories of searching for him for days in the underworld of Coruscant appearing, but thankfully, his newfound focus prevailed, even if it was by a hair.
After all, he felt the Force guiding him, and it was hard not to be humbled by its depths. He found himself smiling gently as he shaped the Force as it had guided him towards the statue, using his newfound focus.
He found himself channelling the love that he held for his mother, one that he had tried to bury after her death, followed by the grief that he had felt, and how he had moved past it after Maridun, and the statue drank it all.
Anakin didn’t know how long he stayed like this, but he felt his body becoming drained, and he almost stumbled as he stood up, feeling strangely empty, and yet, free.
However, when he opened his eyes, he realised that the entire settlement had turned silent, and as he looked up, he saw the sky itself darkening before the impossible happened.
It began to rain on Tatooine.
Anakin didn’t even know if that had ever happened before. It certainly didn’t during his time on the planet, but thousands of people looked up awed, as they likely first saw the first sign of rain in their lives.
As the drops fell to the ground, Anakin’s gaze was fixed on the statue’s face, his mother’s face, as drops of rain fell from her eyes, almost like tears, and Anakin found himself whispering to her once more, “I love you, Mom, and goodbye.”
AN: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. As I said before, I’m still getting the hang of writing a Star Wars story, so bear with me if anything feels off.
This chapter is meant to tie the Tatooine arc properly, and it wouldn't have felt right without Anakin's reaction to what happened. I feel like I could have included more stuff about how slavery stopped on Tatooine, and the impact of a haven where slavery just wouldn't work would have on the Outer Rim, but I think that Anakin would have been more taken aback by the statue of his mother, and be emotional by the echo of his mother that Harry used for all of this. I also thought that it would have been a neat idea to tie up Jorin's time on Tatooine (the shopkeeper from a few chapters earlier), hence his knowledge of Harry's presence on Tatooine.
The change in Anakin is a bit different from what happened in Maridun. Whereas before, it was meant to make him stronger, or at least, access more raw power, this time, it's more like clarity and having more faith in the Force, if it makes sense. I did feel like I sort of left Fay and Ahsoka behind for the chapter, but I was trying to show Anakin ignoring everything around him, while this would also have some impact on both Ahsoka and Fay in the future.
As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this chapter depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.