AHSOKA TANO

"Yeah. I know him. I can even get you to him: but I'd like to know why you want him. He's an outlaw, according to the Emperor – not that that means much here on Tatooine. He said that he had no friends that would come looking for him."

"Well, then I guess he was mistaken, because this friend's looking for him," she said coolly, crossing her arms.

Owen broke down under Ahsoka's deep blue gaze. "All right. I'll take you to him. But there's a sandstorm coming, and those are too dangerous to cross, especially at night. We'll leave as soon as it lets up."

"I'll go prepare one of the guestrooms," said Beru, happy to escape the battle of wills.

It was quiet for a moment after she had left. Then Owen Lars spoke up. "You're a Jedi, aren't you?"

Ahsoka was surprised by the question. "Yes – or, I was. I left the Jedi Order before the attack on the Jedi Temple. And Alrina isn't my name, but I can't say my real one, because I'm wanted, too. I was Anakin Skywalker's padawan."

At the name of her old Master, Owen paled noticeably. "I think you'd better come see this."

He led her into a small room with a baby's crib in it. "This is the baby that Beru told me about, right?"

"Yeah. But this little one's also something else. His name is Luke – Luke Skywalker."

"Skywalker?! So then–"

"Yeah. This baby is Anakin's son. I was his stepbrother – his mom married my father – and I'm Luke's uncle."

She sat down in a nearby chair, thunderstruck. "He never told me anything, really, about his family, except a little about his late wife and hints as to what happened to his mom."

"He always did hate the story, and blamed himself for his mom's death. And if I'm not wrong, then he blames himself for his late wife's, too."

"Can you tell me the story? I never really did know everything that I should've about him," she said.

Anakin's stepbrother nodded. "It goes like this..."

He then told her the story, all of it. She listened patiently to the true tale of Anakin Skywalker, from his participation in a pod race to raise money for the parts, which Padawan Kenobi and Master Qui-Gon Jinn needed to get the Queen of Naboo to Coruscant, to his eventual descent to the Dark Side on Mustafar.

It was a compelling tale, but not the sort that you would tell to a small child who wanted a bedtime story. All that had been shrouded in vagueness and obscurity in her old Master's the patched recollections had suddenly been laid bare.

"I never knew," Ahsoka said simply when the story was done. She listened to the mournful sound of the sand-laden wind outside the Lars homestead.

"It's late. Beru will have the guestroom ready by now, and I think you should get some rest." He patted her shoulder in a mundanely comforting way. "You could use it, Jedi."

She perked up a little at being called by her true Jedi, and followed Owen Lars up to the guestroom. Sinking down into the rough, yet comfortable blankets on the bed, she covered herself up and fell into an uneasy sleep.