Chapter Text
“Morning, Anakin. Sorry to wake you.”
Opening his eyes, Anakin saw that Ahsoka had appeared in their bedroom through their enhanced Force bond.
“Hey Snips,” he groggily greeted his wife. “How far are you from Yavin?”
“Just dropped out of hyperspace and wanted to let you know I made it safely.”
“Thanks. Did you get any sleep at all?”
“For spending the night in a starfighter cockpit, I slept surprisingly well—and made good time,” Ahsoka said before adding with an exaggerated wink, “You can tell Padmé that your ‘midlife crisis ship’ handles like a dream.”
Anakin scowled at the mention of Padmé’s nickname for his prized starfighter, and Ahsoka grinned at his predictable reaction.
The ship was a recent acquisition courtesy of Mos Eisley maintenance crew boss, Peli Motto, who had found the old starfighter in need of restoration and knew just who to approach as a potential buyer.
“Right this way. Wait to you get your eyes on this baby,” Peli said as she led a somewhat skeptical Anakin to the back corner of the hangar where a dirty tarp covered a small and unpromisingly shaped ship.
“Ready to have your mind blown,” she declared, pulling off the tarp with a flourish. “Do you have any idea what this is—”
“A N-1 starfighter, handmade for the royal guard of the Queen of the Naboo,” Anakin answered, his lips curling into a half smile.
“A genuine connoisseur! And I’ll of course be giving you a heavy discount—on account of you saving my life and all,” Peli informed him.
With visions of the restored starfighter dancing through his mind, Anakin only half heard her as he ran an appreciative hand over the sleek ship.
“Oh Peli, she’s a real beaut. I’ve actually flown one of these back in the day,” he shared, his face now sporting a wide grin.
“See, I knew she was yours the moment I set eyes on her! And I’ve got all the parts right here,” she said before adding with considerably less confidence, “It all has a home.”
Anakin had a feeling he knew way more about where those parts went than she did, and raised a skeptical eyebrow at her assertion that she did indeed have everything necessary for the restoration job. But it was no small feat finding original handmade parts from the Galactic Republic era, and Anakin would readily admit that she’d made an excellent start.
“And—just because I like you—I’m gonna add on some custom modifications that’ll make her faster than a fathier,” Peli promised, intuiting Anakin’s insatiable need for speed.
“Plus, the N-1 doesn’t need a docking ring to jump to hyperspace,” Anakin added gleefully. A major bonus, as he’d always found docking rings a bit of a pain.
Without waiting for an invitation, Anakin wordlessly picked up a wrench, flipped it in the air, and grabbed a nearby part through the Force.
Thus, began long days of him happily helping Peli and her droids restore the vintage starfighter.
While Ahsoka knew Anakin was in his element and sent him on his way each day with breakfast to go and a kiss, Owen quickly grew annoyed with Anakin’s long absences from the vaporators. Anakin, however, had by that time automated the farm’s water collection to the highest degree possible, and readily pointed out that his additions were doing more than his share of the work.
Ignoring his grumpy stepbrother, Anakin returned to the spaceport each morning and was pleased to see that, thanks to Peli’s Jawa contacts, the rest of the parts needed to finish the starfighter soon began trickling in—including a turbonic venturi power assimilator, bolt-on aftermarket speed mods, and vintage hyperaware.
Anakin was, furthermore, happy to lend the enterprising scavengers an occasional helping hand—although if anyone asked he would neither confirm nor deny his role in stealing a cryogenetic density combustion booster from a Pyke spice runner while the ship was refueling.
Part of Anakin was troubled by the reminder of the Pykes’ increasing presence on Tatooine. However, between his longstanding distain for his home planet and the fact that the spice runners didn’t directly affect his family, Anakin ignored the nagging voice of his conscience and continued turning a blind eye to the Pykes.
Soon the starfighter was done. The sleek ship exceeded even Anakin’s lofty expectations, and flying at his preferred breakneck speed it was easy to forget all about the Spice Syndicate and anything else he didn’t want to think about.
The reaction of his two wives to his new ship was a testament to the vast difference between his two marriages.
Ahsoka didn’t voice any objection to her husband—now father to eight children—acquiring a single-seater starfighter, which Anakin primarily used to make high speed runs through Beggar’s canyon and the rest of the old podracing circuit, blasting small boulders and the occasional womp rat in an overkill display of the starfighter’s firepower.
As Anakin walked past her grave, however, Padmé was quick to christen the starfighter his ‘midlife crisis ship.’
“How can one of your starfighters be my midlife crisis ship?!” Anakin fumed. “For all we know this is the very ship I flew as a nine-year-old to help save your planet! . . . You know, I don’t think you’ve ever been remotely grateful enough for my rescuing you when your ship broke down on Tatooine or for Artoo and I ending the Trade Federation’s blockade of Naboo!”
Given that their mutual lack of self-awareness was one of the few things they’d ever had in common, Anakin was surprised at how quickly Padmé conceded his point.
“Anakin, thank you for rescuing me when I was stranded on Tatooine and for ending the Trade Federation’s blockade of Naboo—”
Anakin relaxed his hackles—a bit prematurely as it turned out.
“—And I’m glad you could end up with one of my old starfighters as your midlife crisis ship.”
No matter who thought what about his new ship, however, Anakin was more than happy to forego his usual recreational activities so Ahsoka could take the starfighter to Yavin IV—especially since he’d started missing her the millisecond she lifted off. The lightning-fast ship would get her there and back home again more quickly than any other ship that wasn’t the Millennium Falcon.
Did you sleep okay?” Ahsoka asked through their Force bond.
Although Anakin had enjoyed the comfort of his own bed, with his wife away he hadn’t slept particularly well. Given that Ahsoka had slept in a cramped cockpit, however, he wasn’t about to complain about it.
“As well as can be expected,” Anakin said diplomatically.
Ahsoka gave him a knowing look.
“You sure you don’t want to come? ‘The Gathering’ expedition doesn’t leave until tonight. If you left this morning you could still make it.”
With the kyber crystals on Ilum plundered by the Empire after Order 66, the refounded Jedi Order initially had to make do with existing lightsabers. Master Yoda had searched long and hard, however, and at last had found another source of kyber crystals. The discovery allowed for the reinstation of ‘The Gathering’—the right of passage where Jedi younglings chose the kyber crystals that would be the heart of their own lightsabers.
Ahsoka had always loved ‘The Gathering,’ and had even volunteered herself as guide and chaperone when she, herself, was still a padawan. With their son Plo set to harvest his crystal, the upcoming trip would be a special one, and it had long been planned that Ahsoka would be part of the expedition.
Even after she’d left, she continued to try and talk her husband into coming along. As a padawan, however, Anakin had endured too many threats from Obi-Wan that he’d be shuttled off with the latest crop of younglings for a replacement crystal if he couldn’t find his once again missing lightsaber to harbor any fondness for the trip.
“The new site isn’t on a frozen wasteland like Ilum,” Ahsoka reminded.
“No threatening the kids that they’ll be frozen in the cave if they can’t find their crystals fast enough? Where’s the fun in that?” Anakin quipped.
“You’d get to see Luke in action,” Ahsoka prodded.
For not only would their son Plo be harvesting his crystal, but Master Yoda was letting Luke lead the expedition as part of his training to become a Jedi Master.
In his time with the Jedi, Anakin had been obsessed with attaining the rank of Master—for all the wrong reasons. Although Luke shared his father’s former aspirations, Anakin knew that his son’s ambition stemmed from a genuine love of teaching and a desire to grow in and pass down the ways of the Force to the next generation.
During their visits to Yavin IV, both Anakin and Ahsoka enjoyed listening in on Luke’s lessons to the younger students.
“Although the galaxy can be a dangerous place, with the Force as our ally we need not be afraid. And the galaxy is also filled with great good—good that needs to be protected. Beyond that, while attachments do not require us to forsake the way of the Jedi, we must all remember that, as guardians of peace, the Jedi are first and foremost servants—of the Light and those in need throughout the galaxy,” Luke instructed.
Anakin was immensely proud of his son, and Ahsoka was well aware that this was her strongest argument to persuade her husband to come on the trip. Even now part of Anakin was tempted to pack the kids into the family’s other starship and take Ahsoka up on her suggestion.
Contrary to what Padmé likely still thought, however, Anakin was not ignorant of his tendency to dominate a room just by walking into it. There was much Luke could learn from his stepmother—subtilties of the Force that would be impossible if Anakin was there too.
“No Ahsoka, you’re overdue for an adventure. I’ll stay home with Cody and Rey,” Anakin insisted, before adding as an afterthought, “Just try not to get kidnapped by pirates this time.”
“Haha . . . I wonder whatever happened to Hondo? It’s hard to imagine him surviving the war,” Ahsoka mused.
“I don’t know, he was always. . . resourceful,” Anakin replied, his expression darkening at the memory of the annoyingly worthy adversary.
The profit motivated Weequay was indeed resourceful—and devious, and deceitful, and surprisingly ingratiating.
During the Clone Wars, Anakin and Obi-Wan had met Hondo Ohnaka on a trip to Florrum to confirm that the pirate captain and his men had indeed somehow managed to capture Count Dooku, only to find themselves imprisoned and held for ransom along with the Sith Lord.
With the Weequay’s ultimate allegiance to his bottom line, however, Hondo had been both friend and foe during their acquaintance. While Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka had squared off against the pirate gang intent on stealing crops from farmers on Felucia, Anakin had no qualms in hiring Hondo to deliver weapons to the freedom fighters on Onderon, whom the Republic could not openly aid.
That was, of course, before Hondo had attacked the group of younglings that Ahsoka had been chaperoning, with the intent to steal their newly acquired kyber crystals to sell on the black market. Ahsoka had foiled his plot but herself had been captured. In pivoting to a plan to sell her instead, Hondo had skated closer to death than he was likely aware.
Because if anything really had happened to Ahsoka, Anakin would have killed him. Revenge was not the Jedi way, but in the middle of the war Anakin would have gotten away with it.
Since, however, the pirate captain had ultimately chosen to help her and the youngling rescue party escape when the Separatists attacked Florrum, it was somehow hard to hold the incident against the brash Weequay.
“Oh well, either way we’ll probably never know what happened to Hondo,” Ahsoka mused.
Anakin felt a tremor in the Force, and knew their conversation was at an end for now.
“Kids are up. Gotta go,” he said.
He climbed out of bed and leaned down to give his wife a quick kiss through their Force bond.
“Have a good trip, Snips.”
“Will do, Anakin. Hopefully I’ll have some good stories to tell you for once.”
“I look forward to it.”
They grinned at each other affectionately before Ahsoka broke the bond and disappeared.
Anakin shrugged into his own robes, and then went about getting Rey and Cody ready for the day. Once Rey was dressed in her usual off-white tunic and Cody was secured in a onesie, the trio stopped in the kitchen for breakfast, before heading to the open courtyard to enjoy what remained of the coolness of the morning.
In imitation of Ahsoka’s routine, Anakin lay out a blanket and sat down. While Cody rolled around, Rey sat patiently in front of Anakin so he could brush out her hair.
Intricate braids would have to wait until Ahsoka returned, however, as Anakin had long ago sworn off complicated hairstyles. His vow stemmed from the unfortunate time he’d tried to romantically take down Padmé’s hair from one of her elaborate updoes, and to both their annoyance it had taken her twenty minutes to undo the tangled mess he’d made. After that he’d been banned from touching her hair until it was already down.
Today Rey would be sporting the simple three buns she’d been wearing when he met her, which was thankfully fine with the little girl.
As his hands fashioned her brown hair into buns, Anakin reflected on how peaceful and quiet it was on the homestead this morning with no one else home.
Ahsoka was not the only Skywalker currently off world. Trish had yet to see much of the galaxy and the younger Rex had decided to take her on a tour of some of the nicer planets—with Captain Rex along as a welcome guide.
Owen, Beru, and their children had left at first light to attend the semiannual gathering of the Tatooine moisture farmers. Anakin had by that point turned down so many invitations to the event that even Beru stopped asking, and Owen was more than happy to let his stepbrother stay behind and man the farm while the rest of the family socialized with the other homesteaders.
Although he had worked the Lars moisture farm for over two decades, Anakin flatly refused to consider himself a moisture farmer. Beyond which, as far as the Force user was concerned, the Tatooine farmers were hands down the most boring group of people in the entire galaxy.
In addition, the ‘festivities’ were as usual being held in Anchorhead, which was as boring as the moisture farmers themselves. Resultantly, even the promise that Luke’s friends and fellow X-wing pilots Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles would be dropping in later in the day to visit Biggs’ parents was not enough to induce Anakin to set foot in town.
With her hair in three neat buns, Rey scampered off to her room to peruse the contents of her toy box. While she was making the day’s initial selection, Anakin activated ‘Cody’s Ball.’
Roughly the size of a Jogan fruit, the toy was a gift from Leia, who informed her father that it was absolutely essential for any competent parent. All the rage on Hosnian Prime, the Ball’s changing color patterns had apparently been ‘scientifically proven’ to enhance a child’s intelligence.
While neither Anakin nor Ahsoka cared about Core World parenting fads, they did care that Cody loved the Ball. On the cusp of toddlerhood and their fussiest kid since Leia, the youngest Skywalker would spend huge swaths of time either chewing on it or happily babbling as the colors changed before his eyes—and scream bloody murder if it ran out of power, which his parents ensured never happened.
Anakin would readily admit that he’d mellowed out quite a bit as a parent in the two decades between the twins and Cody, and had also amassed a wealth of tricks to placate a fussy baby beyond even a flashy toy.
Especially—hyperspace.
No matter how inconsolably Cody was crying, all Anakin had to do was hop into his N-1 starfighter with Cody strapped to his chest, clear Tatooine’s atmosphere and engage the hyperdrive for the briefest of hyperspace jumps. Without fail, Cody would be fast asleep before Anakin had finished lowering the hyperdrive lever.
Being able to proudly present his wife with a peacefully snoring baby—who mere minutes before had been inconsolably wailing and refusing to go to sleep—never got old. That it also gave Anakin a ready come back to Padmé’s irreverent comments about his starfighter joyrides was an added bonus.
Anakin had the colorful Ball suspended in the air above Cody with the Force by the time Rey returned. Unsurprisingly, she’d brought the nine-square tic tac toe board that Anakin had made for her, which was currently her favorite game.
The little girl plopped herself and the board down in front of Anakin and looked up.
“Do you still want to be red?” she asked.
“If you still want to be blue,” Anakin replied with a smile.
Rey flashed her dimpled megawatt smile at him and handed him a sack of red stones. With the prompting of a raised eyebrow from Anakin, Rey lifted one of the blue stones with the Force and set it gently onto the board. Anakin noted with approval that Rey’s fine motor skills in moving small objects with her Force gift was improving rapidly.
They took turns setting stones on the board and exchanged smiles with every move. As usual, Anakin struck a balance between letting her win and making her learn.
The board was only half full of stones, however, when their game was interrupted by a familiar tremor in the Force—followed by the distinctive shadow of the Millennium Falcon passing across the courtyard.
Rey’s face split into an ecstatic grin.
“BEN!!” she squealed in delight.
Leaping to her feet, Rey ran full tilt out of the courtyard and up the stairs. With a sigh, Anakin rose to his feet and lifted Cody into his arms with the Force. Handing the Ball to his son so he could chew on it, Anakin followed after the overjoyed little girl to greet their unexpected guests.
Once outside the homestead, Anakin joined Rey in warmly greeting his grandson. After Ben bid farewell to his father, the two children went inside to play. Once they were out of earshot Anakin rounded on Han.
“You know Ben is welcome here anytime—but a little heads up would be nice,” Anakin bristled at the manner his assistance with childcare was being elicited.
“I could have sworn I commed you, but it must have slipped my mind,” Han flippantly replied.
Anakin, however, was well aware that Han dropping Ben off unannounced was Han’s way of getting back at Anakin for dumping Threepio on Han and Leia’s doorstep as a surprise ‘wedding gift’.
“What if I wasn’t here?” Anakin countered.
“Where else would you be?” Han replied, reminding Anakin of his son-in-law’s annoying knack for catching him in the rare moments he wasn’t actually doing anything.
“Anyway, thanks for watching Ben while I take care of some stuff for the New Republic,” Han said, adding over his shoulder as he disappeared back up the Falcon’s gangplank, “I’ll be back . . . sometime.”
Anakin wordlessly glared at Han’s retreating form. Not waiting for the ship to lift off, he marched back into the homestead.
He arrived downstairs to find that Rey and Ben had wisely moved the gameboard into the living room in anticipation of the rising temperature, and were already engrossed in setting stones onto the board through the Force in a new game.
Anakin’s annoyance subsided as he noted that Ben appeared to have already been fed breakfast and was dressed appropriately for the desert in an off-white tunic similar to Rey’s. His irritation gave way fully as Anakin conceded that, in providing a playmate for Rey, Han had actually made Anakin’s day infinitely easier.
Sinking onto the couch, Anakin deposited Cody into his playpen, before once more suspending the Ball with the Force. As he maintained the toy’s altitude with the occasional flick of a finger, Anakin was pleased to see his son turning the suspended Ball in the air with his burgeoning gift.
With all three children engrossed in activities that were somewhat educational and involved practicing their skill with the Force, Anakin kicked his feet up, sprawled his arms onto the back of the sofa, and closed his eyes—intent on seeing how few muscles he could move until it was time for the kids’ midmorning snack.
He was just hitting his stride at doing nothing when Rey and Ben shot him a questioning sense through the Force.
Cracking a single eye to ascertain what had startled the children, Anakin saw through the open door that the sky over the courtyard had abruptly grown dark.
What the . . . ?
Checking that his lightsaber was secured to his belt, Anakin rose and went outside.
To find a saucer shaped spaceship hovering over the homestead.
. . . and Hondo Ohnaka striding confidently into the courtyard.