It was the middle of the night. I tossed and turned in my bed, a dark dream seeming to besiege my head. It felt as if my heart, my thoughts and my soul were being pulled at the same time, a pain so deep that I felt a tugging in my chest. "No,Mum. No." I turned my head back and forth to prevent the dream from penetrating too much into my subconscious.

I was confused. Everything seemed cold, lost, lonely,hopeless. Somewhere I recognized my mother, who was suffering agonies I didn't dare to imagine. She cried for help, stretched out her arm drowned in blood, and I saw fear in her eyes for the first time.

I tried to grab her, to grasp her, to save her, but every time I reached out for her hand, she only moved further away. It seemed hopeless, and all I wanted to do was cry until my tears burned me. Suddenly everything went black with my mother's last scream, after which darkness spread over me.

I snapped open my eyes and was suddenly lying in the bed in the cottage in my room. "No."I brought out, a few drops of sweat running down my face. I felt exhausted, a deep pain in my chest.

I could not fall a sleep the rest of that cruel night, haunted by the nightmares that encompassed my mother. I had been having them for a while, but by now it had reached a point where my imagination seemed to merge with reality. My dreams plagued me like a ghost.

When the sun came up, I was still lying there awake. Although my eyes were open, I did not feel real. Everything I did felt passive, as if my spirit had left my body. I finally found the strength to get up,my whole body aching with exhaustion. The warm rays of Naboo's sun tickled my sweaty skin, and I quickly put on a loose shirt before I put on my shoes. What I needed was fresh air and a little light. In my room everything seemed dark.

A cold breeze passed through my hair as I opened the front door. The people in the cottage seemed to be still asleep, but I was grateful to have a little time to myself. I closed my eyes and tried to think of something other than my cruel thoughts surrounded by blood. I would have loved to burn my way across the galaxy, to my mother and carry her home in my arms.

I quickly blinked those thoughts away. I cleared my mind, I focused mainly on the power, the balance that lay dormant deep with in me. Naboo's sun took my body, gave me the warmth. Suddenly I felt apresence. Not just any presence, it was that of a certain senator who had already conquered my heart ten years ago, and then broke it again.

"Don't go. " "I don't want to disturb you." Padme replied in surprise. "Your presence is soothiung." I said, still with my eyes closed. "You had another nightmare last night." She said softly as I opened my green eyes. "Jedi don't have nightmares." Came my defiant reply after a moment's thought. "I heard you." Padme said,letting out a soft sigh.

I remained silent for a few seconds." I saw my mother." My voice dripped with sadness. Or was it frustration? Anger? I couldn't really define it myself. I turned to face her."She's suffering,Padme." I said, taking a step toward her. "I saw her as clearly as I see you now." Then I turned away again and put my hands on my hips. I let out a deep sight.

"She is in pain."I turned back to her."I know I'm disobeying my mandate to protect you, Senator. I know I will be punished and possibly thrown out of the Jedi Order, but I have to go." I tried desperately to explain to her. My voice sounded full of despair.

"I have to help her. I'm sorry, Padme. I don't have a choice." I took a few more steps towards her. "I will go with you."The words came out of her mouth quickly, and I opened my mouth. I started to reply, wanting to contradict her, but Padme's smile kept me silent.

"That way you can continue to protect me." She explained to me. Somehow it sounded perfectly logical. " And you won't be disobeying your mandate." "I don't think that's what the Jedi Council had in mind, It's quite possible that I'll have to go into dangerous situations, and if I take you with me..." "Dangerous situations." Padme repeated, laughing. "As if this is something new for me."

I stared at her. I could hardly believe what I was hearing, but again I couldn't resist, and as light smile appeared on my lips. For a reason I didn't understand myself, I suddenly thought it was much more just ifiable to deviate from the orders of my order, just because Padme wanted to participate in it and had agreed to the plan.

After we both put on something else, we headed for the ship. We went into the cockpit, started all engines and took off. I then entered the coordinates. We left Naboo behind and stepped out of the atmosphere into space, surrounded by thousands of stars. I pushed the lever for light speed, and all atonce the stars turned into azure streaks that lengthened and lengthened until they suddenly faded into cold oblivion. We entered hyperspace.

Time flew by, and Padme and I were amazed at how quickly we had already reached the old sand planet. "Home sweet home."I said. Padme grinned. "They haven't sent coordinates yet."She remarked. "They probably won't unless we ask for them."I replied. " It's not usually done so officially here. You just find a place and land and hope no one steals the ship while you're out." "It really is still as lovely as I remember it." I looked at her and nodded.

I quickly pulled the ship down, broket hrough the atmosphere and shot across the desert landscape. "Mos Espa." I explained,as a city loomed on the horizon. I quickly descended and flew toward a ring-shaped building with an open roof,one that was often spotted in this small town, and landed.

We stood up and after I turned off the grafters, we walked out of the ship to be greeted by the hot Tatooine sun. I waved for a hover rickshaw pulled by an ES-PSA droid, a skinny little creature with a wheel instead of legs.

I gave the address, and off we went. The droid pulled us swiftly through the streets of Mosp Espa, threading its way deftly through heavy traffic and whistling shrilly when someone didn't get out of the way quickly enough.

"Here it is." I said to the droid, and the rickshaw came to a stop in front of a store that was familiar to me. I was the first to get out of the carriage, and after that I reached out a hand to help her. "Wait here." I said to the driver while Padme waited and watched some of the residents.

Padme and I were on the look out for a certain Toydarian. The Toydarian to whom Anakin and I owed most of a childhood trauma. I finally caught a glimpse of Watto, who was grumbling at some passing droid while tinkering with what looked like a droid component with an electric screwdriver.

I headed toward him now. Padme followed me. "Excuse me,Watto. " I greeted him in Huttese, and the Toydarian looked up with a furrowed brow. "Let me help you with that. " I offered, and took the broken part from his hand, while Watto began to protest loudly.

I immediately set to work."What? I don't know you. What do you want?" After a few seconds, his facial expression changed and a wave of realization hit him. "Wait! You are Jedi." Watto said when he recognized my dark Jedi robe.

"Whatever it is...I didn't do it!"He cursed in Huttese and dropped the wrench with a loud jingle. "I'm looking for Shmi Skywalker." I explained simply. Watto eyed me suspiciously, then his gaze wandered to Padme before wandering back to me. Suddenly a new wave of realization washed over Watto.

" Timmy? " He asked me in Basic. "Little Timmy? " I answered by tugging at the spare part a bit more, and then the little thing under Surenn began to work again. With a broad grin, I put it back down. There weren't many that could work such wonders on broken droid parts."You're Timmy!" The Toydarainer shouted . "It is you!"

He began flapping his wings wildly, lifted himself off the stool and hovered in the air in front of us. "You sure sprouted, huh? A Jedi! Whattaya know! " He laughed while our facial expressions remained neutral.   "Where's your brother, the little Annie?" He then asked me, but before I could give him an answer, he continued. "Although, when I think about it, I don't really care."

Watto suddenly glanced around furtively, then came closer to me. "Hey,maybe you could help me out with some deadbeats who owe me a lot of money." "My mother." I said quietly. "Oh, yeah. Shmi." Watto nodded before he started stuttering and scratching his neck in embarrassment.

"She's not mine no more. I sold her." Watto shrugged as if she wasn't a person, but merely a commodity. I could have hunted him down right there at that moment, then I would have made sure he went to jail.

"You sold her?" I asked him indignantly. "Years ago, I did. Sorry, Timmy. But you know,business is business, huh?" He let out a laugh and I had to struggle to hold back. "Yeah, I sold her to a moisture farmer named, uh, Lars." Watto seemed to consider, then added something.

"At least I think it was Lars. Believe it or not, I heard he freed her and married her. Can ya beat that, eh?"Another ghastly laugh escaped his mouth. "Do you know where they are now?" I asked. "Ooh, long way from here." Watto replied me. "Someplace over on the other side of Mos Eisley, I think." He scratched his nonexistent beard.

"I'd like to know." I replied . I sounded grim and determined, even threatening. The way Watoo tensed clearly showed that he understood how serious I was. "Eh, sure. Absolutely!" He replied,laughing with open arms. "Let's go look at my records, huh?"

The three of us went to the store, where Watto found in his books theaddress of the wet farm of a certain Cliegg Lars. "Stay a while,Timmy." The Toydrainer suggested , after he had found the address of my mother's new owner - or was it her husband?

Without a word, I turned around and Padme followed me back to the rickshaw, where we got back on and headed back to our ship. I launched the spaceship,even faster than I had landed before, and then we left the city behind.

Soon we passed the racing area where Anakin and I had often tested our pod racers, but I barely looked left and steered the ship straight through the desert to Mos Eisley. When the town came intoview, I steered the ship north.

We spotted first one farm then a second, and finally the farm that stood in the middle of the deserted desert, an igloo made of sand that appeared to be Lars'house. I set down to land a few seventy yards from the farm. When we finally came to a stop, I shut off the engines and had the ramp opened so I could get out.

Padme grabbed her coat while I grabbed my cloak. "Stay with the ship, R8." Padme ordered the droid that had followed us earlier,then he gave a few stubborn beeps and refused to leave our side. 

 "We won't be long. We will be back before you know it."  Padme assured the droid with a small smile to which R8 answered her with a mechanical sigh before he turned and headed back aboard.

The first thing we saw on the way to the igloo was a silver droid that looked me too familiar. "Oh!Um, uh, hello. " He greeted us. "How might I be of service?I am C-" "3PO?" I interrupted him  and could barely believe my eyes when I saw the droid I had created with my brother as I child.

"Oh, one of the makers!" C-3PO exclaimed  with excitement as he recognized me. "Oh,Master Timmy! I knew one of you would return. I knew it!" He turned to Padme, his voice echoing with glee. "And  this must be  Miss Padme,oh my." "Hello, C-3PO." She greeted and smiled  at the droid.

"Bless my circuits! I'm so pleased to see you both again!"He said excitedly, shaking his head back and forth. "I've come to see my mother." I replied, and the droid's expression seemed to grow more serious. "Oh. Um, I think perhaps we'd better go indoors." He suggested, and Padme and I exchanged a nervous glance before we followed him to the igloo, which turned out to be a hallway.

We walked down a few steps and then entered a crater with several steps and doors, in the middle a dispenser for water, I guessed. Everything was beautifully decorated with plants and paved with clay. Below stood a young man and a young woman. "Master Owen, might I present two most important visitors." C-3PO announced, and I took a step forward.

"I'm Timothee Skywalker." I introduced myself and extended my hand to him. The man shook my hand firmly. "I'm Owen Lars." He introduced himself before he gestured to the blonde woman next to him. "Uh, this is my girlfriend, Beru." "Hello." She smiled kindly at Padme and me. "I'm Padme." Padme introduced herself as well.

"I guess you're one of my stepbrothers." Owen suddenly said to me. "I had a feeling one of you two might show up someday." "Is my mother here? "I asked a little impatiently and looked around.

"No, she is not." Said suddenly a voice behind us. Padme and I turned around and saw an elderly man on his hovering chair coming toward us. His left leg was badly injured and heavily bandaged, while the other was decapitated. "Cliegg Lars." He introduced himself as he held out his hand to me and I shook it. "Shmi is my wife. We should go inside. We have a lot to talk about."

When we were seated in the dining room, Padme took off her cloak, revealing a light blue robe underneath. "It was just before dawn. They came out of nowhere." Cliegg told us while Beru got us something to drink. "A hunting party of Tusken Raiders."

A shiver came over me. I had a little experience with Tusken, but only very limited. Once I had bandaged the wound of a severely wounded Tusken, and when the man's friends came out, they let me go. Nevertheless, I did not like to hear my mother's name pronounced in the same breath as the term 'Tusken Raiders'.

"Your mother had gone out early, like she always did, to pick mushrooms that grow on the vaporators. From the tracks, she was about halfway home when they took her." I felt a part inside me break. Was it my heart?

I wanted to feel nothing at that moment. The emotions that rushed through me were unbearable, sadness, anger, hatred. I knew that hatred was against the Jedi Code, but it was the only thing I felt.

Hatred against myself and my brother, for having left our mother alone. Hatred against the Tusken raiders, for having kidnapped her like animals. Hatred against Cliegg Lars, for not taking better care of her.

"Those Tuskens walk like men, but they're vicious, mindless monsters." The man had to take a deep breath and forced himself to remain calm. "Thirty of us went out after her. Four of us came back. Three more are still out there looking. I'd be out there with them, but after I lost my leg, I just couldn't ride anymore un-until I heal."

I nodded before averting my gaze. The anger that boiled inside me grew with each passing second. I could not control the feelings inside me. "I don't want to give up on her,but she's been gone a month." Cliegg continued. "There's little hope she's lasted this long."

The words hit me like a blow, and I backed away from them, sinking into the Force. I groped,using my connection with my mother to somehow feel her presence in the Force. Then I stood up.

"Where are you going?" Owen asked me. I turned around. "I want to find my mother." I said in a voice that contained a hint of anger and a great deal of sadness. "No, Timmy."  Padme shouted worriedly as she stood up as well. "Your mother's dead, son. Accept it." Cliegg said to me. 

I sent the man an angered glare. "I can feel her pain." I said and gritted my teeth. "And I will find her. I know she's alive." "Take my speeder bike." Owen offered me kindly after a moment of silence. I nodded gratefully to my stepbrother  before I climbed the stairs. The tears that had been threatening to burst out all this time were now running down my cheeks.

As I stood in front of the igloo and let the warm Tatooine sun embrace me, hoping some warmth would spread through my body, I felt the hatred boiling up inside me. Somewhere it was giving me energy, something inside me was begging me to hold on to it and gain more power.

However, when Padme stepped out of the house, walked up to me and put her hand on my shoulder, all I felt was pure love for her. The urge to hold on to the light she radiated, to hold on to her and never let her go grew when I thought of my missing mother.

"You are going to have to stay here." I finally found my voice again. It was as if it had gotten stuck in my throat. "These are good people, Padme. You'll be safe." "Oh,Timothee." Padme murmured as she dropped into my chest.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me closer."I won't be long. I promise." I assured her after we broke away from each other, and I putting my hand to her cheek. I received a nod, whereupon I turned away from her and swung onto the nearby speeder. 

I revved the engine of the speeder before I threw back one final glance towards Padme, who smiled softly and waved goodbye. And with that, I finally zoomed off into the Tatooine's beautiful evening light to save my mother.