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If I understand this right, there could be people here I know, despite that I could swear I just talked to them at home, right? [Luke frowns, looking rather tired as he runs a hand through his hair, sitting at the console in the Welcome Center.] In that case, if anyone knows if Leia Organa or... [A pause, because does it work if the last you knew someone was frozen in carbonite and basically in coma?] Han Solo are here, please tell me. Or tell them Luke's looking for them.

[He smiles briefly, his expression brightening a little in general. Something strikes him then, though, and Luke's gaze lowers for a moment, frowning at something out of view before he looks up again.]

Aside from that, I'd like to know what sort of prosthesis are available, and the tools to repair them. Or if the tools could be adjusted for already existing ones. I don't need any of that at the moment, but you never know.

[Better be as prepared as he can, before something happens, for once. Especially in a new place. He's had his new hand not two weeks yet, and he's very, very aware of it... which is probably why this occurred to him at all.]

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[What? Did he think she'd never get upset about that? Tatooine is literally the last place she'd leave one of her children. Understandable or not, it's a horrible truth she hasn't wanted to think about.]

Oh, I understand the wisdom in the choice, in light of circumstances. It doesn't mean I have to like it, Luke.

[It's strange to talk about her past like this, but she enjoys it as well. It may be the only chance they have.]

Oh, yes, he was nine and I was fourteen at the time. From what I understand, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had to make the Order take him since he was much older than most of the children that the Jedi took into the temple.

[She swallows harshly, unable to speak for a minute.]

Had things ended up differently, your sister and you would have been taken to the temple before you were a year old and I wouldn't have had much contact with you. They never encouraged attachments.

Wouldn't have minded growing up somewhere else, no. [Luke grimaced, sighing a little, then shook his head and reached out, squeezing his mother's shoulder.] But it's all right.

[Not really, though. It was a sand-infested, Hutt-controlled hellhole, after all. And if he'd been elsewhere, then Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen would still be alive--- and someone else dead, instead. Biting his lip as he listened, Luke frowned.]

Would you... would you or Father have let them, though?

[Something suddenly makes a lot of sense, when Padmé says they never encouraged attachments. Neither Ben nor Yoda phrased it that way, but, aside from some angles of their arguments that Luke knew, objectively, were true, the vehemence might partly be because of that.

He feels even less sorry for leaving, now, even if it still was a catastrophic decision.]

[His words, meant to reassure, do the opposite and cut her to the quick.]

No, it's not all right, Luke. You deserved to grow up with your actual family. I know that Owen Lars is a good man, but he isn't grandparents and an aunt and uncle and cousins. All of which you and your sister were deprived of by people not your family.

[If she sounds bitter and angry, she is. And she'll apologize later when it isn't a huge gaping wound with enough salt to burn forever.

His question knocks her out of her self-pity and she turns to look at him, really look at him.]

No. I would have wanted to take you both to my home world and raise you there as befitting my children. With your father by my side. But that choice was taken out of my hands, from what I understand.

[Death will do that.]

I have...

[The idea that he (and Leia, and he's vaguely relieved Ben had slipped that revelation earlier so he didn't have to add that on top of this) might have more family, which might be still alive leaves him a little breathless.

But, catching the look she's giving him and what she's saying, Luke stops walking and, after a slight hesitation pulls her into a hug. It doesn't last long, but it feels strangely easy, like everything with Leia did from the moment he met her.

Something which seems so very obvious, now.]

I'll find out about them, if we forget things that happen here when we go back, and go visit them. And if I don't forget, I'll still go visit them, of course.

... I can't believe I could still have that much family left, aside from Leia...

[And Vader, but despite the slightly lessening anxiety about it, that's still... an aching spot. Luke does, however, sound pretty amazed when he thinks about the possibility of more family.]

[The hug is so sudden that she freezes before she wraps her arms around her son and squeezes him as she would her sister or any other family member.

Except, it's not like that at all. It's like holding a piece of herself and her breath hitches as she holds him tighter than she probably should.]

They'll love you. They'll have to because you're mine. My parents are Ruwee and Jobal Naberrie. My sister's name is Sola and your cousins are Ryoo and Pooja Naberrie.

Anakin is an only child, but my sister was old enough to have other children as well. I don't know who's been elected sovereign, but Naboo was a free planet before the Empire took over.

[Luke doesn't mind the hug tightening; it feels like a response to something he's feeling himself, and it's... good.]

I hope so. [he laughs quietly and shakes his head.] I'll find them, when I go back. One way or another.

[Anything else is impossible, now that he knows... and if he forgets, he better find out some other way, because... He's curious. And having more family aside from Leia (and that she's his sister, at all... is incredible) wasn't something he'd ever thought he'd find.]

I knew that, about... about Father, I mean. [It feels both awkward and all too easy to be calling Anakin that, out loud, after what he knows about his own present.] And sorry... I wish I could tell you, but I don't remember, even if Leia went to Naboo a few years ago briefly. We were pretty busy, so I was focusing on hoping she'd come back okay and our evacuation.

[She doesn't want to, but she does pull back. Public displays of affection are something she's still very bad at, even with Anakin as her husband and time away from the prying eyes of the Council and Senate. She does much better in private, where she can relax.

At his declaration, he sounds so much like Anakin that it hurts, but she smiles nonetheless.] I believe you might.

But don't worry about Naboo right now. There's not much that either of us can do about it, as much as that might frustrate me. And I didn't mean for you to shift your worry to my homeworld either. I only brought it up out of force of habit.

[They're nearly at the hotel and the knot of anxiety that she'd been carrying around loosens as she opens the doors and enters, knowing that Anakin is somewhere close by.]

Tell me more about yourself.

I'll try. [Luke smiles, then snorts.] Not that much to tell... until I left Tatooine three years ago, my biggest frustration was Uncle Owen not letting me apply to the Academy. I've spent the last three years fighting against the Empire.

[Despite the brief comments, Luke is suddenly sharply aware that quite a lot of things that happened while he grew up would probably not be seen as 'nothing' (really, he knows they're not nothing, but taken as a whole it feels like it was very dull).]

I was flying a Skyhopper when I was nine. I think Ben... um, Obi-Wan, must actually have been helping, at least at points, so keep Tusken and Jabba's thugs away from the farmstead, because thinking back I know other families complained more about those.

Especially Jabba and his thugs.

[He is not going to tell his mother how not-so-theoretically close he was to being enslaved at eight. Probably shouldn't tell Anakin either, if he's asked about growing up by him as well...]

Uncle Owen had he help as much as he could around the farm, and I did my work, of course, but tried to leave as much as possible to be with Biggs or to go flying.

You're a pilot.

[She's not at all surprised. Jedi and pilot from Tatooine. He is, without a doubt, every inch Anakin's son. But the mention of Tuskens and Hutts leaves a bad taste in her mouth.]

No, I somehow doubt very much that Obi-Wan had much to do with the Tuskens. Did your Uncle Owen ever tell you the story of what happened to his stepmother, Anakin's mother, Shmi Skywalker?

As soon as I could convince my aunt and uncle to let me into something that flew higher off the ground than your average landspeeder, yes. [Luke grins briefly before he sobers up, nodding.]

Most of it, I think, yes... They were usually more willing to talk about her than my father, really. Not a lot of details, because who doesn't know what Tusken do to captives, so it wasn't really necessary, but they always made it out as that was the only time he came back and was the one to find her.

[Looking back down to his mother, Luke frowned.]

There's more?

You sound as excited about piloting as your father. [She leans over and lowers her voice.] Master Kenobi is a horrible pilot. He hates it.

Yes, there's more. I think I'm the only person besides Anakin that knows the full extent of what happened. But it was the only time he came back to that planet. With his mother dead, what was left for him on Tatooine? He was an only child with no father. Obi-Wan and I became his family after that.

Ben mentioned he was good. [He was drawn into a smile again; if there was anything he really loved it was flying, most definitely.] Really?

[He shouldn't laugh, but he couldn't help it - muffling most of the chuckles behind one hand. It stayed there for a bit even after he'd stopped and he frowned a little.]

I feel like I should ask him about it, but I doubt he'd want to talk about it.

[He wanted to know, now that she'd said there was more, but...]

He was the best I knew. I never worried when I flew with him because I knew we'd get there safely. [She shrugs a bit.] The ship might not have been whole when we landed, but I was never harmed.

[Her humor dies as she thinks back to the conversation she had with Anakin in the Lars home.]

He wouldn't. He'd had nightmares for weeks, premonitions, about his mother in trouble and in pain. When we got to Tatooine, we'd learned that she'd been taken by Tuskens and that the search party that went out to find her had come back decimated. The next day, he left with with your uncle Owen and returned hours later with his mother's body.

After burying her, he hid in the repair room. When I found him, he told me that he'd found her but she was dying. And he'd...slaughtered the entire encampment—every man, woman and child.

[She takes a shuddery breath and sinks into a chair.]

The scary part is that that news didn't scare me. He was supposed to be a Jedi, compassionate and above it all. But Anakin has always been more human than the Council liked.

[Tucking away those tiny gems of knowledge that was a bit more... human than much of anything he had known so far (the realisation that he'd get the chance, here, to actually find out more like that settled with light warmth in his gut), Luke bit his lip as he listened, biting his lip as Padmé talked on.

He'd always wondered what more there was to the story, because most other accounts of such kidnappings usually did mention people dying.]

Mother... [It slips out before he can censor himself, but Luke shakes his head and slips close to the chair, squeezing her shoulder.]

All Jedi are human [It's muttered, but he understands, somewhat, what she means, because he's immediately thinking back on Yoda and Ben trying to make him stay on Dagobah because it would be better for the rest of the galaxy that way. Still, the next breath is a little shuddery at the thought of children. He doesn't like Tusken, but... children never deserve it.] and it's okay. You did what you could, didn't you?

[Even though years ago, the story still leaves her a little heartsore. Remembering Anakin's face as he screamed and cried after his mother's death is always the hardest part for her, as selfish as it sounds.

But she, unlike the Jedi it seemed, understood why he'd done what he done. As horrible as it was, her husband's emotions have always burned brightly.

She looks up at her son, her perfect son, and covers the hand on her shoulder with one of her own.]

Luke, I'm not sure what the Jedi are like in your time, but for as long as I can remember, they've always held themselves apart from the rest of the peoples of the galaxy, looking down on things like romantic love and familial bonds. Had...had they been around when you and your sister showed signs of being Force Sensitive, they would have tried to take you. As early as six months old.

They never would have stopped until I agreed. I heard stories of them breaking down mothers until they caved and gave up their babies before later killing themselves.

[She shakes her head, trying not to cry herself.]

The Jedi aren't the heroes you think they are. They aren't horrible beasts, but they're so flawed that I don't know where I would begin to reform the organization if I could.

[Gritting his teeth and swallowing the lump in his throat, Luke closes his eyes. That's... worse than he had imagined, even if he'd already joked, once, that 'clearly he wasn't allowed' when he'd found out that Jedi didn't have children.

Flawed... yeah. He knows that. He hadn't really known it until a few weeks ago, and he's tried not to think about it while healing and adjusting to his new prosthetic, before he ended up here but...]

I'll make it better.

[An easy promise; there is basically nothing left to reform. He'll have to start from scratch, and whatever he can find, whenever he's ready to try. If there are many (any) Jedi left aside from Yoda, he'll have to find them first.]

It doesn't really matter what they are. I'll be a Jedi and... I'll make it better.

[Opening his eyes again, Luke shrugs and smiles faintly down at his mother. He's still trying to not think too deeply on Ben's original explanation, and the desire he'd had since hearing about his father from the old Jedi to kill Darth Vader. He'd... he doesn't know. He shrugs and squeezes her shoulder.]

[Burdening him with this information hadn't been her intention, but she's always held to the philosophy of never lying to children. It always comes back to haunt you. He might not be a child anymore, but he is still hers. And just as she's never lied to her nieces, she won't start with her son.]

From what I understand, Luke, you will have to start over. Anything that you do will be better than what is currently in place during my time.

[She squeezes his hand again before smiling.]

I've changed my mind. Come with me to the kitchen. We can talk more while I cook dinner.

[Luke would much rather be told the truth rather than lied to, especially now that he's started to realise how much he has been lied to in the last few years... and growing up.]

More or less, yes. I... I'm not sure where to start. Hopefully I can find more Jedi.

[He shakes himself and sort of shakes that off as well before nodding.]

Okay. I'd like that. [Sure, neither of them was, presumably, about to just up and disappear right this moment, but he found himself rather reluctant to leave. So he certainly didn't mind going with Padmé to the kitchen.]

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