The Warrior's Path

Chapter 1 - Upheaval

Author's Note: Welcome to the sequel to The Guardian's Path! I hope that you enjoy the continuation in this universe! Originally, I wasn't planning to write it, but then, the first couple sentences just popped into my head, and I couldn't not write it. Lol.

Enjoy! :D:D:D

PS. There is a scene which I think would be considered a graphic depiction of violence later on in this fic. I will include warnings before hand, so you needn't worry if you don't want to read something that like. :')

~ Amina Gila

Even on the other side of the galaxy, Anakin Skywalker hears his counterpart, Darth Vader, scream before their bond snaps into silence. He jolts upright, heat pounding, a chill running through him despite the suns beating down on his head. This is... bad. It's very bad.

"Dad?"

Anakin starts, looking down at his eight-year-old son, Luke, who is looking up at him, expression worried. He and his son had gone out early in the morning to make some repairs on the vaporators on the north side, while Owen had taken Leia to the south side. Obi-Wan and Custos had gone into the nearby town, Mos Eisley, to get some supplies, while Beru and Padme remained inside the homesteads.

Even if Anakin and his stepbrother technically live on separate lots of land, they work together, mutually helping each other out when needed. All of them are one large family now, and he's content with that. Vader and Ahsoka left a week ago on a mission to infiltrate an Imperial base to obtain information. They were accompanied by Rex and Fives, but something must have gone wrong. Nothing like this has ever happened before, not since Anakin and Obi-Wan went to Mandalore shortly after the twins' birth, and Anakin is scared, to be honest. He doesn't want anything to happen to his siblings.

He inhales a few times, reaching out to the Force and letting it calm him. There is nothing he can do by panicking. The best he can do is finish these vaporators and wait until Obi-Wan and Custos return from their trip this afternoon to tell them the news. He knows that because of his strong bond to Vader, he is the only one who sensed what happened so strongly, and so, he must remain level-headed.

"Don't worry," Anakin assures his son, attempting to lose himself back in the interior of the machine in front of him. Repairing things has long been his way of coping or dealing with stress, and that is something which even time has not changed. He has his own unofficial repair shop on the moisture farm, and neighbors and people from nearby towns come to his small workshop so he can work his magic on their machines.

Luke makes a face, indicating that he knows his father is lying, but he says nothing, obediently continuing to pass the necessary tools up to Anakin. "Did something happen to Uncle Vader?" he asks after a few more moments, and Anakin sighs, resigned.

His son – both of his children, actually – are extraordinarily strong with the Force, of course, especially after they began their training. They are extremely entuned to the feelings of those around them, and they can hear the Force in a way that Anakin himself never learned until after settling down on Tatooine. Perhaps, it's because they had a rested childhood and began their training at a young age. They didn't have the same worries and fears and traumas that Anakin and Vader did, and for that, Anakin is grateful.

He has done his best to give his children a good life, and he doesn't doubt that he's succeeded. Sure, it's not the life he'd ever imagined having, but it's a good one, and it's a simple and happy one. That, he supposes, is what matters most. Maybe someday they'll all be able to go to Naboo, but Anakin finds that he no longer misses the planet the way he once did. Time has made him more stable, more rested, more mature.