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Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of these million imperfections
Stats:
Published:
2025-10-19
Completed:
2025-12-08
Words:
843
Chapters:
4/4
Comments:
20
Kudos:
210
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2,333

slipping through the cracks

Summary:

Luke, Leia and Han travel to the past and meet sixteen-year-old Anakin Skywalker.

It is a reckoning.

Or: the Jedi are not ready for Luke or Leia, nor is the galaxy. For Anakin, he's just happy to finally have some friends.

Notes:

hello! this is a series of loosely connected ficlets feat. a time travelling OT interacting with a sixteen-year-old anakin skywalker and being like: damn you lived like this? no wonder the republic fell!

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Luke unnerves Anakin.

Not in a bad way, not necessarily. But he says he is a Jedi - albeit a Jedi from the distant future - and yet, he acts like no other Jedi Anakin has ever met. He verges on being heretical.

Luke talks back to Yoda, to Obi-Wan. Sometimes, he even compliments Anakin, something that Obi-Wan never bothers to do.

He has even taken Anakin's dream to free the slaves of Tatooine seriously.

"My father was a slave," Luke had said, eyes dark. "No one should live like that. So, where does your mother live again? I think it's an excellent time to visit Tattooine."

One month later, Shmi was free.

No other Jedi had ever cared about his mother, not really. Or Anakin, not truly.

But Luke cared, and for some strange reason, he cared about Anakin, deeply and unrestrained.

It was overwhelming.

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Leia Organa had been prepared to hate Anakin Skywalker, but she had found herself wanting.

It was difficult to hate a lonely teenager.

Leia had known that the Jedi were not perfect: Bail had told her of all of their faults, of all the Republic’s faults, so she did not repeat her forefather’s mistakes.

Still, the Rebellion had a rose-tinted view of the Jedi, Luke their only true exemplar.

Luke had been exceptional.

These Republican Jedi were far from Luke’s calibre.

These Jedi did not like Luke loving Leia as his sister, Han as his brother.

Instead, they rather looked down on it, and it makes Leia wonder how it took them centuries to fall, the sheer arrogance and unflinching loyalty to tradition staggering.

She is talking to Anakin, a sixteen-year-old boy who preens at any positive attention, which is not a good thing, not a good thing at all.

Why, he’s almost -

“and Palpatine - sorry, the Chancellor, is going to take me to the opera tomorrow, which is boring, maybe you’d like it, but he takes me to races, too, so I guess it’s all worth it -”

perfect for grooming, Leia thinks, ill. Palpatine becomes even more sinister.

“How long have you known the Chancellor, Anakin?” Leia asks, reserved.

Anakin brightens. “Oh, ages! We first met after I blew up the control ship on Naboo, and he said he’d watch my career, but we only met again when I was twelve, three years later. He was impressed by my duelling - no one else was - and he took me - well, I shouldn’t tell you this, but I will - to the lower levels, which was rather exciting!”

“Right,” Leia says, faintly. Normal activities for the Chancellor of the Republic to be taking with a twelve-year-old ward of the Jedi.

It almost felt like the Jedi were trying to make Anakin fall!

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Luke Skywalker expected many things, coming into the past.

He did not expect disappointment: disappointment in the Republic, for catering to the elite and leaving everyone else in the dust, disappointment in the Jedi, for enabling them, disappointment in the apathy seeped into the very streets of Coruscant.

Disappointment, yes, but never surprise.

Glossy, exalted institutions, never as good as they sounded. He grew up on a world where slavery was centuries old. The Republic, the Empire… before his aunt and uncle were killed, they were semantical differences to him, really.

The only thing that hasn’t disappointed him is his father.

How can one be disappointed in a sixteen-year-old who tries so hard to belong, only to be spit out and ignored?

Han wanted to kidnap him; Leia wanted to confront the Chancellor. Luke just freed his grandmother - for real, this time, not the gilded chains of Cliegg Lars, which was one hundred degrees of uncomfortable and explained why Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen had never talked about him - but it will take more than one freed slave to fix this mess.

Paying Anakin Skywalker more than one snarky compliment per year certainly can never hurt.

Chapter 4

Summary:

han solo time

Chapter Text

Han Solo never planned to steal Anakin Skywalker from the future Emperor.

He does so anyway.

Look, Han Solo was never a fan of Darth Vader, and hadn’t given much thought to Anakin Skywalker.

But seeing itty-bitty Skywalker, who looked eerily like a depressed and stressed tall version of Luke if the light hit just right, being neglected by everyone around him but the future Emperor, who certainly did not have his best interests at heart… well, Han simply couldn’t help himself.

It wasn’t difficult to grab little Skywalker’s interest, or to hold it. He talked Han’s ear off about ships, but Han didn’t mind. It was a real shame that the Millenium Falcon hadn’t come to the past with them.

Stealing from Palpatine was simply a bonus, as was all the tech upgrades. Did Han, strictly, need an astromech with rocket boosters? No, but it was cool, like Han.

They were in the past to fuck over the Emperor, and if befriending itty-bitty lonely little Anakin Skywalker (who was, unfortunately, already taller than Han) did it, Han was more than happy to take the tech-wizz under his wing.

Your loss, space wizards!

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