Chapter Text
Arriving at the Rebel Alliance rendezvous ship was a smooth affair if one did not count Shmi’s shock at such pristine working conditions. Sleek whites, blacks, and greys as far as the eye could see, and not a speck of dust or sand. People, excepting a handful of individuals, wore color-coded uniforms denoting rank and station. Han and Leia, having changed into a fresh set of clothing in the Millennium Falcon, made their way to speak to those in charge and update them on the situation, leaving Shmi inside some temporary quarters. A twi’lek donning a simple grey uniform saw to her meals for the remainder of the evening as well as the next few days. It was a little suffocating, not to mention extremely weird by the sudden change of pace she had led her whole life, but she welcomed the change of circumstances with as much grace and gratitude as she could. Fortunately, C-3PO came to make her company at the beginning of her second morning on the ship.
Almost a week after she had been confined to her rooms, a reptilian-like person opened the door and led her to a conference room, where some sort of presentation was beginning to be set up. On the way there, the officer briefly explained that High Command had allowed her to stay under the supervision of General Solo and Princess Leia. She left shortly afterward with a swift instruction to not go anywhere.
A few minutes in, a man with a pressed cream and grey uniform approached her, cocking his eyebrow and making his cape swish. The insignias on his shirt did not make sense to Shmi, but he was clearly someone of importance.
“And who might you be, my lady?”
“Shmi Skywalker,” she replied honestly, grateful Han and Leia had agreed to be transparent on at least her name.
For some reason, the man seemed to find her answer hilarious. “Oh-hoh! Any relation to Luke Skywalker?”
“There might be, though I only met the guy once.”
“He tends to leave an impression, doesn’t he?” he smiled, as if letting her in on a joke. “The name’s General Lando Calrissian. Glad to have you with us in the Rebel Alliance.” He presented a hand to Shmi, which she shook firmly.
“Glad to be here, general.”
By this time, more people, and even droids, had filled in the room. They were talking amongst themselves in hushed whispers, often glancing back at the door, probably waiting for the person who would start the meeting. From the corner of her eye, she saw Chewbacca enter the room, gesturing animately to an officer.
“It’s good to see a familiar face,” she said after being greeted by him.
“You know Chewie?” General Calrissian said. “What am I talking about? Of course, you know him. Luke probably dragged you back here with everyone after rescuing Han.”
Chewbacca roared at her something warm, although she had a little trouble making out his exact words. Shyriiwook wasn’t her forte and she hadn’t many occasions to practice.
“You know Han, general?” she asked rather rhetorically when only seconds later the man in question walked through the doors and made a beeline toward him.
“Well, look at you—a general, huh?” He put both hands on his hips as he made a show of inspecting his uniform.
General Calrissian grinned back. “Someone must have told them about my little maneuver at the Battle of Tanaab.”
“Don’t look at me, pal. I just said you were a fair pilot. I didn’t know they were looking for somebody to lead this crazy attack,” he bantered back easily, turning his head around to look at the center table.
“I’m surprised they didn’t ask you to do it.”
“Who says they didn’t?” Han chuckled, taking a seat in between Chewbacca and Shmi. “But I ain’t crazy. You are the respectable one, remember?”
An alarm chimed in softly, signaling the start of the meeting by the way the people hovering by the doors rushed to get in, including Leia, who took a seat at Shmi’s left, while those engaged in conversations of their own quieted down to look at the center, where a humanoid woman captured everyone’s attention. Despite her simple dress and lack of insignias, Shmi knew she was their leader.
The lights dimmed as the holotable turned on, showing a planet being orbited by what the woman reported to be a battle station, but would otherwise have been confused with a natural satellite. She went straight to the issue at hand, describing what Shmi recognized as an opportunity to fight back against the Empire and the Emperor himself. With her permission, Admiral Ackbar stepped in to go over the more technical talk and General Madine finished outlining the plan. It was a good one, even though, considering all the maneuvering it was likely going to need, it seemed to be very time-sensitive too. The slightest error could prove to be disastrous.
“I wonder who they found to pull that off?” Leia muttered.
“General Solo,” General Madine said, “is your strike team assembled?”
Han didn’t seem to be caught off guard at all, unlike the rest of their group. Calmly, he answered, “My team’s ready, but I don’t have a command crew for the shuttle.” Chewbacca firmly disagreed at his side, so Han added, “It’s gonna be rough, pal. I didn’t wanna speak for you.”
Chewbacca rumbled again, and Han victoriously informed General Madine of his decision to enter his crew.
“General,” Leia grinned impishly, “count me in.”
“And me,” Shmi added.
“I’m with you too,” interrupted a familiar and unwavering voice.
In the moment everyone turned to look at the newcomer, Leia had already leaped from her seat to greet him with a warm embrace. Luke had just made it down the stairs and was clearly winded from his trip to see his Jedi Master, but it didn’t stop him from returning the hug with force. Although there was nothing that Shmi could immediately name, something seemed to have changed within Luke. Leia, too, appeared to sense a change in him because she let go only to look into his eyes questioningly.
“What is it?”
Luke smiled hesitantly. “Ask me again sometime.”
Shmi, Han, Chewie, and Lando crowded around Luke as the assembly broke into smaller groups to slowly vacate the chamber. The meeting had concluded satisfactorily but their little crew still wanted to catch up.
“Shmi,—” she went in for a hug as Han clapped his arm twice “—I missed you too, Han, Chewie.”
“I bring news from Master Yoda,” Luke revealed once Leia went over with him what was discussed in the meeting. “I’m sorry, Shmi, but before he died he told me he didn’t know why you… appeared, now of all times. He was quite certain only the Force would be capable of such a feat, however, even if he didn’t understand the reason the Force would behave so… uncharacteristically.”
“So what’s typical Force behavior then?” Han asked.
“Kind of like the wind,” Luke explained after a moment’s contemplation. “You cannot really control where or how it goes, but you can feel it moving around you and can sometimes let it carry you around. Shmi being… here and now is not the typical direction the wind moves.”
“But it’s not impossible,” Leia remarked.
“It seems like that.” He granted her point with a shallow nod of his head. “So that means there must be reason. The only thing we can do now is find it. Once we do, the flow of the wind should correct itself.”
“I feel like I’m missing something here,” Lando chimed in.
Han didn’t waste any time to put his arm over his shoulders. “I’ll fill you in, buddy.”
News that there was another Skywalker aboard spread fast. While everyone was busy doing preparations for the upcoming mission—Shmi’s first-ever one—somehow many still found the time to corner her for a chat; the number of people exacerbated by accidentally mentioning she used to know Anakin way back when. It had been a small thing, someone making small talk about their homeworlds when Shmi forgot herself. Since then, people had gotten the impression she and Anakin had grown up together in Tatooine before he was shipped off to the Jedi. The official story fabricated by High Command said they were cousins, so the rumors thankfully lined up neatly, but it was still weird to be approached by Ani’s fans hoping to coach a scandalous story out of her.
However, some of those chats were better than most.
“I knew him,” General Ackbar told her a couple of hours after the debriefing. “Met him only once, unfortunately. He was sent to my home planet as an ambassador and as protection for Senator Amidala. He was… determined. He did his best to protect us from the Separatists. I owe him and the Jedi my people’s life.” He nodded firmly, then made himself scarce.
“He freed my mom,” a young feline woman with tusks and horns said to her in between carrying supplies. Shmi had never seen anyone like that to even gander a guess at her species. “My people were enslaved until he came, alone. I know it must have been a long after you saw him, but I’m glad there’s someone else out there who remembers him. The Empire has done its best to erase every trace of him. We win every time we say his name.”
“You… look like him,” an old man in armor beamed at her, helping her load the Millennium Falcon. “You look a lot like him. I used to work with him during the Clone Wars. He was the bravest man I ever met, and the most reckless.”
He was the first person to have more than one interaction with her Ani. Shmi had almost thought brief one-time impressions, wartime propaganda, and a recounting of his military victories were going to be all the information she would get to hear about her boy.
“Really?”
“General Skywalker was one of a kind, ma’am. He took many risks to protect me and my brothers, as well as the civilians. If there was a way he could retake a planet with only him and his feisty astromech, you can bet he tried to take it.”
Setting down the weapons crate, Shmi turned to look at him. He had a wistful expression on his face and sported a warm smile.
“He was… intense. Not sure if you got to know that about him since he left his home planet very young, but he didn’t know a way not to pour a hundred percent of himself into everything. He didn’t know much about war before he was given the title of Commander, but he learned so quickly he was awarded the title of General a handful of weeks in.
“He deserved it, though. There’s no doubt about that; his accomplishments speak for themselves. Some Jedi Generals disapproved of his methods, even some of us soldiers were skeptical from time to time, but you can’t argue with the results.”
“I know he freed many planets for the Republic,” she agreed.
“Yes, ma’am, but it’s not what I’m talking about.” He lifted his gaze from the floor to meet her eyes. “The Jedi were betrayed and it’s only thanks to him that his Padawan survived.”
Shmi’s mouth fell open as blood drained from her face.
“Nobody said anything about any betrayal!” she said frantically but in a low voice. The old man's face contorted into a grimace.
“It’s not something that is… commonly known, no. It’s… complicated, the hows and the whys, and not even I have all the information, but the Jedi were betrayed by those they called friends, and they wiped them out in a night. Some managed to flee, but most…”
A trembling hand let go of her dress to cover up her parted lips, while the other fisted her borrowed clothes with double the strength.
“The Emperor…” the man continued, because there was still more in this horrible tale. “He was General Skywalker’s friend, had been for years according to the general, but he ordered his people to shoot him down just the same as the rest. I heard that he went down protecting the younglings… heard people saw him march down to protect the temple. Well, I don’t doubt it. I used to think the man was invincible… with the amount of crazy stuff he survived, how could he not… but if there was any way he would have died, it would be laying down his life for someone else and fighting until his last breath.
“General Skywalker was young among the other generals, and certainly the youngest to get a Padawan of his own—that is a student, while he was her mentor. He was… very harsh with her, with her training. Sometimes he made games out of it, but mostly he…” The man trailed off, searching for something in her face.
Shmi gave him a watery laugh. “He could be so serious sometimes. Everything was life or death, even things that didn’t need to be.”
“Precisely, that. He threw his whole self into every task, and he expected the same of his Padawan. At the time, I thought it was… I thought she would always have us to protect her. But her training… it has served her well.”
Questions about Ani’s student burned the tip of her tongue—who was she, where she was, what was she doing now, what did she remember most clearly from her old teacher—but Shmi was not oblivious to the fact that the old man had avoided so much as mentioning her name. She swallowed them down carefully, feeling the knowledge that Ani had left another part of himself in the world settle in her stomach.
Stiffly, she nodded. “I understand.”