The time has come.

I never thought I'd return to Tatooine. I never thought I'd return to it in such circumstances.

We'd rented out animals to make the trek across the desert to the homestead, Luke's future home. He's going to be with my mother's widowed husband's son and his daughter-in-law. Wow that's a mouthful, and slightly confusing. The two are a young couple, which will work out just fine. Though they may not have any parenthood knowledge, I have no doubt Luke will be in good hands.

Dusk is setting across the desert as the small homestead comes into view. Obi-Wan and I halt our animals, and the four-legged creatures kneel on the sandy floors to allow us off their backs. I take more time, as I've got Luke's blanketed body held against me. I look ahead to the homestead, to the two setting suns in the sky. They give the sky a beautiful backdrop.

"I-I don't know if I can do it," I tell Obi-Wan honestly. I look down at Luke's sleeping face. I know we'll watch him from a distance, but at the same time I want to be part of his life. I don't want to be nothing to my nephew. I want him to know me.

"This is the best for him," Ben tells me softly. "It's the safest. You can stay here, I'll take him up."

"Is this what Padmé would've wanted for her children? For them to be separated, to maybe never know their family?"

"If she understood the circumstances, perhaps. Or perhaps not, but we'll never know. I, um, I need Luke now."

Reluctantly, I pass my nephew into Obi-Wan's arms. I inhale deeply, refusing to let emotion get the better of me. With his brown cloak draped over him, Obi-Wan heads to the homestead while I watch from a distance.

I think back to all the memories Tatooine gave me, the good and the bad. It gave me an unpredictable path I never thought I'd be on. My mother is buried on her home planet, though she died in the cruelest way imaginable according to my brother.

Then again, I have to wonder where I would be had I not been taken by Maul all those years ago. Perhaps I would've been found like Anakin had been here, been freed from slavery, and pursued a career and life as a Jedi.

Unfortunately, I cannot see into alternate universes, so that will never be known.

I kick at the sandy floor below me. I forget just how much I dislike the stuff. It's bland, it's rough. Yet, it's a piece of home.

"This won't be goodbye," I murmur to myself. "Someday, Luke, we'll meet. I hope to be part of your life, even if I can never be part of Leia's. I'll do everything I can to ensure you never know the truth about your family." I cut my speech to the air off as Obi-Wan returns, without my bundle of joy of a nephew. "So...where to next?"

"The question remains: do you want to stay here?" he asks.

"If it means I can keep an eye on him, yes. It's not the greatest planet to live on, though. The sandstorms are dangerous. There is no beauty on this planet." I swallow. "This shouldn't even be possible, Ben. He and Leia should be raised on Coruscant, or on Naboo, with their mother. They shouldn't be split like this." I rub my forehead.

"It's for their safety."

"Yes, thank you for the constant reminder. Can we just...can we go?" My eyes are watering with incoming tears. "The longer we linger, the more I'll feel the need to take Luke back and raise him."

Though it's not openly said, a lot of larger questions loom. For now, they have to be unanswered. For now, Ben and I need to figure out how we are going to survive in the age of the Empire.

Maybe if we're lucky, the Empire will assume we died, and they'll leave us alone to age gracefully. But, knowing our luck, I have a bad feeling that that may not be the case.