Luke and his Father

Chapter One

Luke sighed as he gazed up at the twin Tatoonian suns. He wondered what was out there in Space—stars, planets, interesting people—Luke felt as I it was his destiny. There was nothing for him on Tatooine apart from the Moisture Farm.

Luke snorted as he thought about his Uncle Owen. All Owen wanted was for him to be a Farmer for the rest of his life.

Like that's gonna happen! Luke may have been only nine, but he certainly knew that he was not spending the rest of his life there.

"Luke! Dinners ready!" his Aunt Beru called.

"Coming Beru!" Luke replied, brushing the sand off of his clothes. Beru would probably scold him for coming home all sandy, but it couldn't be helped.

When Luke finally got to the little homestead, he could already smell his dinner. Bantha Steak, his favourite. Luke rushed indoors, making sand scatter everywhere on the floor.

"Luke!" Beru scolded, dusting him down herself.

"I'm sorry Aunt Beru." Luke repeated. It seemed to be routine with them: Luke would come home and make everything sandy, Beru would reprimand him, and Luke would apologize.

He was used to it.

"Why are we having Bantha Aunt Beru?" Luke asked, sliding into a seat. He wasn't complaining though, far from it. It wasn't often they had such expensive food.

"We're celebrating your birthday." Aunt Beru said kindly. Luke stopped scoffing his food down and looked up.

"But my birthday is tomorrow—"

"Everyone is celebrating Empire Day tomorrow." Uncle Owen snapped, Luke pouted.

"You've never done all this before!" Luke complained, drinking the last of his Blue Juice.

"Well, you're going to be a Big Boy now. Ten is double-digits." Luke grinned to himself.

"Does that mean I can do whatever I want?" Luke knew they'd say no, but maybe he'd be lucky and they'd let him do something fun and exciting—

"Absolutely not, boy." Uncle Owen snapped.

"Yes sir." Luke said dejectedly. Once everyone had finished eating, Beru produced a neatly wrapped package from behind her back.

"For me!" Luke chimed, eagerly shredding it apart.

It was a complete set of new tools, all wrapped up in a thin sheet of some sort.

"Wow!" Luke's eyes grew large, and he hugged Beru and Owen. Owen grumbled slightly but Owen ruffled his hair up.

"Go try them out on that broken droid Luke." Owen suggested, well, it was more of a demand, but Luke complied anyway.

When he had firmly shut the door behind, they instantly started talking in hushed whispers. Luke, who was a very curious child, gently pressed his ear against the door.

"That crazy old wizard said his Force powers may show up around this age!" Owen grumbled.

"I know, he's so much like his Father, Anakin." Beru sighed.

"That no good son-of-a-hut. He's better off dead!" Luke bit his lip before fleeing to the safety of the little room which contained all their droids.

His fingers set to work, but his mind wandered elsewhere.

My Father's name was Anakin. I wonder if I look like him… Luke sighed. His elation at having new tools had steadily gone downhill until it disappeared altogether.

He wrapped them up, realising it was late, and retired to his bed, dreading Empire Day tomorrow. The only thing that was keeping him happy was the thought of his birthday. He couldn't wait.

Meanwhile, in Coruscant…

Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith and Second in Command of the Empire, could not help but remember that this day was the day that his beloved Angel had died. Died by his hand. Padme and their child. Their unborn child.

Today would be nothing but unnecessary dinner-parties and speeches. Vader, who wasn't the most social person ever, loathed it, sitting with everyone while they chatted and ate food…food which he would then have to eat on his own in private,.

Back to Luke on Tatooine…

Owen, Beru and Luke piled into the speeder, heading to Mos Eisley. When they reached there, everything was already in full-swing. Grabbing some drinks, everyone sat down to watch the large Holo-vid on the wall. It would be broadcasting the ceremonies everywhere.

The Emperor's speech was always saved till last, and then there would be a small documentary on the success' the Empire have had, and how they are making everything peaceful and whatnot.

Luke didn't care for these boring speeches, the only reason he didn't kick up a fuss was because: 1) he liked the firework display on the Holo and 2) he liked looking at Darth Vader.

Ever since Luke could remember, he had always had this compelling feeling to see the Dark Lord. He also wanted to tug on the large, black billowing cape.

He slurped loudly on his milkshake, causing Uncle Owen to tell him off. He got a large strawberry one since this was the day he actually turned ten.

Unbeknownst to both Father and Son, the Force was at work, and within the next 24 hours they would be together for the first time…

24 hours later…

"Thomas!" Luke called, racing up to his latest friend. Thomas was a Slave, unfortunately, and rarely had any time to play about. Thomas' face lit up and he waved excitedly. Another unfortunate thing was that Thomas was mute. No one else wanted to play with him, even the slaves ignored him.

He carried around a little slate and a pencil, and used that to communicate.

"Are you free to play a bit? Uncle Owen told me to stay out the house until dinner." Luke frowned, he knew Uncle Owen didn't like him, but he had never been banned from coming home.

Why? Thomas wrote down.

"I think it was because I spilt my milkshake on him and laughed about it." Luke confessed, his cheeks slightly pink. Thomas shook with silent giggles.

Suddenly, Thomas shook Luke and pointed to the sky. There was an Official Imperial Ship coming to land on the sandy dunes not far from them. Both the young boys turned to look at each-other before running nearer the ship.

Darth Vader had decided he would try to put a stop to some of the slavery going on in Tatooine. He had been hesitant to set foot back on this planet, but he had sworn as a young boy to his mother that he would free the slaves…

Yet he felt as if he was letting Anakin Skywalker take over. He would simply deal with the situation and leave. People scuttled into their homes like frightened rabbits. At this rate, it would take quite a while to find any slave children.

Something tugged at his Force…

A Force-Sensitive? Vader thought, stretching out, he found that it was. The child was untrained and seemed surrounded by nothing but pure light. It made the Dark Lord feel light-headed.

"Go and free any slaves, make sure their owners are killed. Come back to the ship in 3 hours." He ordered the Storm Troopers and General's. They saluted before going of in small groups.

Vader then spotted the two boys hanging around nearby, looking at him. He recognized the blonde one as the Force-Sensitive he had been feeling. He walked towards them in three large strides and stared down at him. He had a feeling that the blonde one should be familiar to him… The eyes. He thought, they were the colour his had been.