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39BBY
Anakin Skywalker may have been raised by twin suns and sand dunes, but he was not born there on the wastelands of Tatooine. Instead, he was born on a planet ripped apart by war, where warriors bleed steel. And in the heart of Mandalore, a new fight was dawning.
The phoenix boy was three years old when he first tasted war. After centuries of conflict, yet another civil war was blossoming on Mandalore. His mother had explained it as they looked out from their window at the city of Sundari. Anakin sat on his mother's lap, his blue eyes wide. Violence was buried deep in Mandalorian culture, the two could not be separated. The planet's new Duchess was pioneering a new pacifist regime - a ray of hope to rise from their past, which had all but destroyed the planet — and had plans to exile all their warriors. Yet many did not agree with the young Duchess' sentiments.
"Will Dad have to fight? Will we?" Anakin asked. "I can fight!" He leapt off his mother's lap to pick up the wooden sword his father had fashioned for his youngest son.
Shmi Skywalker chuckled. She rose from her seat by the window and picked the little boy up, setting him on her hip. "We are safe here, Ani. The war will never reach us."
"I want to fight." Anakin protested, waving his arms to be put down. "Ryn!"
The other sandy-haired boy poked his head around the living room door and blinked at his younger brother. Oberyn Skywalker was eleven-and-a-half months older than Anakin and they were thick as thieves. To look at the boys side by side, they could be mistaken for twins — only Anakin was taller by half an inch, despite being younger, and Oberyn's hair was slightly darker.
"Yes?"
Anakin ran to his brother and diligently handed over his sword. "You be the bad guy," he paused to pick up the other wooden sword — neither was longer than the youngest boy's shin, "and I'm the good guy!"
A frown creased Oberyn's features and he pouted, holding his sword low. "You're always the good guy, and you always win. S'not fair."
"Fine." Anakin huffed. He hit his sword against his brother's, not too hard. "I'll be the bad guy."
As many times Shmi prayed to whatever Gods existed in the galaxy, the inevitable could not be restrained. The civil war affected everywhere, even their little apartment on the outskirts of Sundari. Shmi's husband, the boys' father, was Mandalorian born — he was bound to this world, to the war. And as much as it tore at his heart, he could not abandon his people, his honour. Shmi's greatest regret would be leaving him after he promised they would return to Mandalore when the fight was done. She took her sons far from the civil war, to a place where no one had heard of Mandalorians. Tatooine was not where Shmi wanted to raise her boys, but it would have to do.
"We won't be here long," she would promise Anakin and Oberyn every night before they fell asleep in their tiny sandstone hut. "Only until Dad says we can come home."
Tatooine was safe for a little while — until Shmi's past caught up with her. Her husband knew about her life before, where she was a slave passed around the Outer Rim. He was her ticket to freedom, he gave her a chance to start over. More than five years had passed since they ran away to Mandalore.
But the Hutts did not forget, and they did not forgive. And the Skywalker trio fell into the property of Gardulla the Hutt, and then a Toydarian named Watto. (All Shmi wanted was to give her sons a better life than she had, but fate was never so kind.)
For half of the next eight years, Anakin Skywalker survived under the false hope that his father would return. He'd wait by the door until sunset, look over his shoulder and study every person he passed, waiting for his father. Surely he knew where they were? Surely he was coming to take them home? There was no official ruling (news of the outside galaxy could not reach Tatooine), but Shmi knew her husband, their father, was gone — and she did not it in her to break her youngest son's heart.
The phoenix boy never forgot his life before Tatooine, never forgot Mandalore. He knew his mother had tried everything to keep him and Oberyn safe — and he knew they deserved better.
Anakin Skywalker may have been raised by twin suns and sand dunes, but he would not die amongst them. By eleven years old, he knew he could become something great: a great mechanic, the greatest podracer. He would no longer watch the stars and wonder if, one day he would be one of them.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE.
SO. anakin was born on mandalore and has an older brother 👀 ani is still a force baby dw (he and oberyn are half brothers!), but all of this will come up later — including more about who their dad was 🫣 writing this chapter was lots of fun, tiny ani is so cute.
mandalore, tatooine & aphelion has some biiiiig connections which im still outlining, but it's very fun. you'll find out!
