In the universe, a Jedi starfighter with its engines deliberately shut down drifted silently through the darkness.
Anakin hadn't chosen to stay long on Tatooine, the place that filled him with sorrow and hatred and held so many painful memories. He hadn't accepted his stepfather's family's invitation or their pleas for him to stay, either. He'd left the desert planet that very day aboard his starfighter, and now drifted through the Arkanis sector, lying in his pilot's seat and aimlessly floating onward.
He had already planted a seed of hatred on resource-poor Tatooine. As for where in the galaxy to plant the remaining seeds, he hadn't decided... because he was still drowning in grief.
Back when Master Qui-Gon Jinn had rescued him, bought his freedom, and taken him away from Tatooine, he had repeatedly promised his mother to her face that he would come back and save her. Now he had returned, standing tall as a Jedi Knight. He'd wanted to make her happy, but who could have imagined...
Those damned Tusken Raiders, those Sand People, those foolish creatures unworthy of being called people, had killed the mother he cherished most. They had left her a cold corpse, and he, her son, hadn't even been able to see her one last time.
Perhaps...
This was what it meant when a child wanted to care for their parents, but they were already gone.
In any case, after suffering such a devastating loss, Anakin had cast the Jedi Code and its tenets aside. All those principles—
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force... and so on.
He didn't want to think about any