Sharat
Anubis manifested himself near the ship in which the Mandalorian had embarked on his journey after leaving Tatooine in the hands of his new criminal leader.
The jackal-headed god covered his ears with the hood of his cloak, to protect them from the damp cold of the place. Since, although his body couldn’t be affected by the adverse climatic conditions of Truif4, he had developed the habit, after leaving the human Earth and its scorching sun, to cover his head and shoulders, unless, of course, that he was visiting the grave of his beloved on Tatooine.
The beautiful and kind Shmi Skywalker.
His eyes closed as he remembered the woman.
The first person in thousands of years capable of moving him to the point of doing something he had never done before: take a form that allowed him to be next to another being and share the same mortal breath.
Tatooine had been his refuge, for hundreds of years before she ever walked its fiery sands.
The place he had fled to once the gods abandoned human Earth and imposed the rule of no contact. There he had gone so that he wouldn’t have to socialize with his divine companions in the Overvoid.
Anubis wasn’t a team player. In that he resembled Khonshu. Anubis was a lone wolf and, frankly, he couldn't stand certain attitudes, especially from Horus and Osiris.
But these were part of the Ennead and the jackal-headed god wasn’t going to cause his mother Nephthys conflicts with her sister and her brother-in-law, especially after they had forgiven them Seth's madness... and Anubis own birth.
Then his Galaxy.
Far, far away.
That place to which none of the other gods were drawn, had been his home outside the vast and opulent Overvoid. In it he had poured his love and knowledge, once he was able to understand the creative bid that occurred within the creative energy that gave him form and which mortals called Force.
From the hands of Anubis the Jedi were born.
The eternal opponents of the destructive face of the Force.
For when he had visualized that the energy had lost control and was heading for the destruction of all that it had created, the jackal-headed god had stepped forward and forged the sensitivity that allowed the Jedi to perceive the Force and manipulate it.
And, although he rarely manifested to them, as he once did to the priests of Egypt, he had been the voice in their ears, the inspiration in their nights, the Master of their combat forms, thanks to which, they had prospered to the point where the organization hadn’t needed his constant presence and the god had been able to roam the Galaxy feeding his endless curiosity to learn and understand, to experiment and create.
Tatooine, so much like his beloved Egypt, had become his place among the different universes.
The sands that stretched out under the presence of its twin suns had kissed his feet and lulled his back through the long nights.
And the eyes of a little slave who had offered him water upon finding the god walking on those same dunes, had definitively stolen his heart and sanity.
Shmi had been an extreme sensitive being. Able to see Anubis when no one else could. To help him in his creations after the god kidnapped her from her masters. To accept him in her arms, despite all their differences.
The young woman had made him experience the illusion that he had seen populating the faces of most of the gods and the humans who served them when a new life approached, by announcing that the fruit of their union was growing in her womb.
To the god who had never been able to father another, those moments had brought eternal bliss. One that he had never been able to enjoy with his wife Anput, before she decided not to take shape again and join the energy on the Overvoid definitively.
Sadly, Osiris had been informed by his spies of Anubis' deceive and happiness was over.
His trial had been hard and long.
Facing the Ennead he was put to choose between the life of his soon to be born son and that of Shmi.
Hathor had come to his aid then.
A long friendship linked Anubis to the goddess of love. One that had been based especially on the affection that professed for this goddess, his no longer present wife. A bond so deep that the god had accepted as his partner's last wish, to pronounce as own the daughter Hathor had brought to life out of her marriage with Horus, with nothing more and nothing less than Khonshu.
Anubis shook his head with a low laugh, opening his eyes again. Kebechet had always been an adorable young woman and it hadn’t cost him anything to play the role of father with the assistance of the goddess of love, whom the other gods had pretended to buy the illusion of the friend, who was assisting Anput's husband in raising their offspring.
He wasn't stupid. Most of the divine inhabitants of the Overvoid knew or suspected the true origin of the young goddess. Her volatile character, acid humor and impulsiveness, contrasted enormously with those who claimed to be her parents, and her beauty was too similar to the Hathor not to wonder. However, as with his own birth, the gods had turned a blind eye and had whispered about behind closed doors.
In any case, they didn’t have enough time to rumor over the situation, since like her father Khonshu, Kebechet had chosen exile not long after reaching adulthood and, sporadically, the god knew of her existence, since the young goddess knew exactly her origin, and though she was grateful for the deception that allowed her to grow without worries, she considered Anubies more an uncle than a father.
The goddess of love, therefore, in gratitude, had debated with the other gods and defended his position when he had needed most. She had sustained Anubis' actions in extreme loneliness, in the loss of his wife, in the exile and in thousands of other reasons that had moved the Ennead to agree to forgive him, at a certain cost.
The one that his Shmi didn't remember who he was. The one where his son was born without his father by his side. That neither of them could, henceforth, see or perceive him. The fact that both became slaves again. The one that Anubis himself couldn’t return to the Galaxy for a period of years, in which he would remain as a servant of the gods, assisting in the reorganization of the Overvoid.
It had been a hard sentence to accept. As much as Hathor had assured him that she would see to it that Shmi and Anakin went through a gentle birth. And that, in their slavery, their burdens weren’t so hard and that they ended with a master as benevolent as possible.
The outcome of the trial had led him to deeply resent his relationship with Osiris. A gap had opened up between the two ever since.
A gap that only increased when the god discovered that the son of the leader of the Ennead had intervened in the life of his Anakin, subjecting the young Jedi to constant tensions until he turned to the dark side of the Force and, through the power that his divine origin gave him, destroy the Jedi who had been Anubis's pride and best creation, in revenge, he supposed, for his support of Horus's wife, Hathor, by covering up her infidelity.
The jackal-headed god had called for a new trial then and, supported by the goddesses, wrested permission from Osiris to protect Anakin's descendants.
Horus hadn’t had the right to intervene in such an extreme way.
Anubis hadn’t broken his punishment and, thanks to the falcon-headed god, the other gods were at fault in failing to protect the one they had promised to safeguard.
And, despite the fact that the prohibition that children, since his son had procreated twins, could see or hear him, this had been shortened to when they turned thirty-five, while his limitation on visiting the Galaxy had been raised immediately. Other hands then, had cared for the little ones, but always under his watchful eye.
They had both grown up and managed to exceed his expectations, freeing Anakin's soul from the machinations of Horus.
Luke and Leia.
Two creative forces and leaders without dispute in that Galaxy that had become their home.
Their lives had been fascinating and entertaining. And, as the grandfather of the twins, he had greatly enjoyed their rebellious and confrontational attitude. Neither the Senate of the Galaxy, nor the survivors of the Jedi Order, could contain them.
Leia and Luke were going to change the history of their universe forever.
“If only you could see them my love”
The god sighed, turning around upon perceiving the presence of the little boy who was destined to accompany his grandson Luke for the rest of his days.
“Greetings sharat (child)” Anubis expressed, bowing his head kindly “I come in peace, you can come out of hiding, you have my word that I do not represent any harm to you or your jatij (father)”