Before Shmi, the Skywalker family had been ordinary. They'd been a rather normal mid-rim family who had traveled into the Outer Rim and been attacked by pirates. In Shmi's generation, the family became slaves. After Shmi, the Skywalkers became the movers and shakers of the galaxy.

Anakin who had been the downfall of the Jedi Order and the father of the reason it had risen again hadn't been planned, at least not by Shmi who had no intention of having a child, and had almost not come to be despite the fact that his conception had been the will of the Force. Shmi Skywalker hadn't wanted to bring a child into slavery. She'd known how hard a life it was since she had been captured by pirates when she was six. Because she hadn't wanted to curse a child to her fate, she had taken measures, painful measures that should have been effective, to prevent such a thing in case something happened. She wasn't one to mess around, nor had anyone messed around with her - her previous owners hadn't found her attractive enough to bother messing with her - but, there was no guarantee that it would remain that way. She'd passed through enough hands already, many of them cruel and knew that a lack of beauty wouldn't always protect her.

The pregnancy she discovered after Pi-Lippa's relatives had sold her after her master had died rather than freed her as Pi-Lippa had wanted was all the more puzzling because of this.

Not knowing how she'd gotten pregnant, considering the fact that she'd never had sex and the fact that there were no suspicious gaps in her memory, she carried the child knowing that he was important somehow. As she gave birth to the boy who would be forced to share her life as a slave, it had been that belief that he'd been born for a reason and the hope that maybe he would be freed that had kept her from smothering the infant with a blanket in order to spare him from the hard life that would be ahead of him.

Letting her child go ten years later had been harder and infinitely more painful. The only reason she had found the strength to do so was because she knew that her son was special, and that no matter how hard she tried, she'd never be able to hold him back.

Author's Note: For those who are curious about the Malachy O'More challenge, see Qoheleth's profile. Qoheleth can explain it better than I can.