My first published story in over three years! It was a joy to write and, although I'm not entirely happy with it, I'm happy to be getting my work out there again. I wanted to challenge myself so I tried to use both prompts and figured out a playlist that I thought might work well while reading it. (I may have done this for each of the things that I've written so far...)
1. Home- Machine Gun Kelly, X Ambassadors, Bebe Rexha
2. Human- Rag'n'bone Man
3. I Will Wait- Mumford and Sons
They're all fairly different, but they add a feeling to the story that I thought was pretty cool.
Happy reading!
Obikin Week Day One: Never Found AU/Storm
He was tired. Obi-Wan was not meant for a life at war.
The ropes around his wrists were cut and he was dumped onto the hard earth. The speeder that had carried him there rushed away leaving him alone.
He pulled off the rough hood that they'd thrown over him and looked around. Jabba had had his people drop him in the middle of the wastes from the looks of it.
His head dropped. Stuck in the middle of a desert planet without any supplies. There was only so much the Force could help him with.
Obi-Wan drew his robe's hood up, sweat already darkening his hair. He breathed in and out slowly, closing his eyes. Using the Force, he could sense life far in the distance off to his side. He opened his eyes and started walking.
The Council had sent Obi-Wan to Tatooine to negotiate access to Hutt space with Jabba. Obviously, it hadn't turned out anyway like how they had wanted.
He could still remember that deep, jarring laugh as Jabba had ordered his people and the hood had fallen over his head.
Obi-Wan coughed, his throat and mouth drying and he looked up in shock. All around him sand was whipping up, clouds of it in the distance.
He fell to his knees, hands fisted in the dust. Twelve years. He'd been fighting for twelve years ever since Qui-Gon had been killed in front of him.
And every mission, every planet, every single day had seemed to go wrong. It made sense that this would go badly and he would be turned out into a dust storm.
Tears leaked down his cheeks and Obi-Wan leaned forward, head on his hands. Weariness weighed his limbs down. Sand began to sting his exposed skin.
Obi-Wan staggered to his feet, forcing himself to keep going. He cursed the Council sending him here and the bloated worm that was jabba leaving him here to die. He screamed at Qui-Gon for leaving him alone and not sure how to continue living. He whispered, voice broken, to himself, calling out everything he'd done, or not done, to make his life go this way.
He fell, tumbling down a dune, breath forced from his lungs. He looked up into the clouds of sand above him. Everything in him wanted to stay where he was. Forget the war and the Jedi. Forget everything that had made Obi-Wan into this man.
But Qui-Gon had praised his stubbornness and he would continue to be so until he drew his last breaths. He forced himself to sit up, choking in air. His legs felt weak beneath him, but he stumbled away.
Each breath seemed heavy, every step felt like he wouldn't be able to make the next. The wind relented for a moment and, in the distance, Obi-Wan thought he saw a dark shape against the pale sand.
And then he was falling. Obi-Wan was unconscious before his head hit the ground.
His face was cool.
Obi-Wan opened his eyes to darkness. He tried to sit up and groaned. His whole body was a solid ache and his skin felt tight.
"Stay still for now."
He turned his head towards where the voice had come from. In the gloom he could make out a young man with a handsome face.
"Where am I?" he asked.
"In my hut on the outskirts of the city," the man answered. "You're safe here."
Obi-Wan sighed, eyes drifting shut. "Why am I so sore?"
The man snorted. "When I found you, you were dehydrated and overheating. Anything that was exposed was burnt and scraped."
The man in the bed groaned. In the quiet that followed, Obi-Wan could hear the wind blowing sand against the walls.
"I'm Anakin," the man said, taking the cloth off of the Jedi's head and dipping it into a metal bowl. He wrung it out and gently placed it back.
"Obi-Wan," he whispered and yawned. "Thank you for taking care of me."
"Do Jedi get sent to the Outer Rim planets often?" Anakin asked.
Obi-Wan shrugged, turning his head towards him, eyes still closed. "No, not often. The last time a Jedi was on Tatooine, it was...unplanned."
Anakin hummed and weariness pulled Obi-Wan under again.
The cabin was quiet when Obi-Wan woke again. The sun shone through a grimy window, illuminating the room. It was bare, a small bed, a chair, and a small table the only furnishings.
There were two doors, one open and one closed. The open one led to a hall. As Obi-Wan looked around, Anakin returned.
"You're awake," he said, smiling. "The storm ended."
"Yes," Obi-Wan replied, sitting up. "I should be going. I have to inform the Council of my mission's failure."
"Wait," Anakin yelped, hands out. "You-you're still not well. You don't want to collapse here alone again."
"But-"
"Besides, I'm not sure when you ate last. I was able to get you to drink some water, but not eat anything," Anakin admitted.
Obi-Wan sank back, tired and defeated. "Okay. But soon after I must leave."
Anakin sat down, smiling again. "I was hoping that you would say that. I have something heating now."
Obi-Wan nodded, looking down at his still pink hands.
"Would you possibly know a Master Qui-Gon Jinn?"
Obi-Wan stiffened. "I was Master Jinn's padawan," he said carefully.
"How is he doing now?"
Obi-Wan closed his eyes, leaning his head back. "Master Jinn died twelve years ago on Naboo."
Anakin sucked in a breath. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
Obi-Wan shook his head silently.
Anakin let him be quiet, something that no one at the temple had seemed to want him to do.
"How did you know him?" he eventually asked, voice rough.
"He freed me," Anakin admitted. "I was a slave. He bet my freedom if I won a pod race."
"The boy with the high midichlorian count," Obi-Wan whispered.
Anakin nodded. "He mentioned something like that."
"Why didn't you leave with him?" Obi-Wan asked, voicing his curiosity that he had held even as it had occurred. "I would think it would have been a dream come true for someone who'd been a slave."
"At first it was," Anakin admitted. "I could finally get away, start a new life. To be free and explore the whole galaxy. But I thought about my mother and everything I would be leaving behind."
"Was it worth it?"
Anakin smiled. "It was hard at first. No one wants to pay a scrawny kid. But I managed to find work with some smugglers and freed my mother a few years later."
Anakin stood and left the room, only to return with bread and soup. "It's a little bland, but you don't want to make your stomach ill."
"Thank you," Obi-Wan said, taking the food. He'd only just bitten the bread when they heard a knock.
Anakin froze, head turning to the door. "Stay here," he said softly. He rose, body tense. He left the room and Obi-Wan soon heard muffled voices. He staggered to the door, trying to listen.
"Your neighbors say that you went out during the sand storm, Skywalker."
"That's interesting, Aurra," the man replied. "I don't know why they'd lie, but such an idiotic lie, really? I've lived on Tatooine my whole life. I know how dangerous it can be."
The woman growled. "You know Jabba's looking for his lost Jedi."
Obi-Wan covered his mouth, muffling his gasp.
"He's either buried in the sand or long gone," Anakin replied. "Not even a Jedi can survive in the desert without supplies."
"Don't forget who gave you that ship and pays you, Skywalker," Aurra hissed. "You're Jabba's lap dog until you're buried in the sand yourself."
"Jealous, Aurra?"
The door slammed shut. After a moment he heard Anakin sigh and then footsteps coming towards him.
Anakin turned the corner and stopped, looking at the other man. "Obi-Wan?" he asked.
"Why?" Obi-Wan whispered. "Qui-Gon freed you and you chose to be a slave to that-that vile worm!"
"Obi-Wan, no-"
He reached into the Force and pushed. Anakin's legs crumpled beneath him. Obi-Wan looked down at him, the man who was supposed to be Qui-Gon's legacy. A slave in all but chains.
He turned and left.
Anakin groaned, eyes opening. He was in the empty bedroom of his planetside cabin. He flopped back onto the ground. Was he really risking everything for this one Jedi?
He felt a spike of fear in the Force and jerked up. Yes, he was.
He ran through the house and out the door. He opened the comm at his wrist and heard someone answer. "Kitster, load the cargo quick as you can."
"Anakin, what-?"
"We don't have time. Get as much as you can. We're leaving," he gasped, ducking down an alleyway. He closed his comm and kept running.
Finally, ahead of him, he saw a figure in beige. He sprinted the last few steps.
He grabbed Obi-Wan's hand and pulled him into an alley. Obi-Wan tried jerking away, but Anakin held tight.
"You don't understand," he gasped, leaning against the wall. "I felt you in the Force during the storm. I knew that you needed me."
"You work for Jabba," the Jedi argued.
"Only as a front," he said, seeing the other man freeze.
"What?"
"My crew is loading the last of our cargo. We don't have time to waste," Anakin said, pulling him down the alley.
"You weren't going to hand me to him?" Obi-Wan asked softly.
Anakin grinned back at him. "He may be dead, but I could never repay Master Jinn for freeing me by giving his padawan to that slime."
Obi-Wan smiled and ran as fast as he could.
They stopped in front of a mid-sized ship, older than most he'd seen in the republic, but obviously well taken care of.
"Kitster," Anakin said, once more speaking into his comm. "We're here."
A ramp lowered and a man with a blaster looked down at them. "Were you followed?" he asked.
"Not yet," Anakin answered, leading them up and into the ship. "We ready to go?"
"And finally leave this sand trap? Engines are primed and ready for our Captain," the dark skinned man answered.
Anakin looked back at Obi-Wan. "Kitster is my co-pilot. We've got to get us all off this planet. You're welcome to go into that hold," he said pointing. "It's the safest spot here."
As the two men ran off, Obi-Wan opened the door to the hold. Inside he found over thirty beings of all species. They were dressed raggedly and thinner than he felt comfortable with.
He sat down beside an old human female that held a togruta child. "All of you were slaves, weren't you?"
"Yes," she answered. "Skywalker saved us and many before us."
"I was wrong," he whispered.
"He plays his part well," the woman said. "Most of us don't believe him at first."
The ship tilted and a child screamed, running into him and burying their face into his stomach. He put his arms around the child and braced his body to resist each bump and rock.
It was rough, but the ship evened out. The door opened and Anakin entered. He sat beside him and touched the child's shoulder. The youngling turned teary eyes up at him. Anakin held out a piece of candy and the child hesitantly took it. They licked it, eyes growing wide before they stuffed the whole thing in their mouth.
"Are they going to be okay?" Obi-Wan whispered.
"The walls of this craft are specially lined to block any signals reaching the bombs in them," Anakin answered just as softly. "We keep them here until someone we trust can see to removing them."
"Do they have anywhere to go?"
"Not really. We're able to leave them with sympathetic groups of people usually, but we didn't have time to prepare this go around."
"Because of me," Obi-Wan said bitterly.
""They're free now, Obi-Wan," the other man said gently. "They have everything ahead of them."
Obi-Wan was quiet for a moment, before he spoke slowly. "We could take them to the temple."
Anakin stared at him, lips parted.
"Even with the war… It is our duty."
Anakin grinned and stood. "I'll plot a course."
Obi-Wan looked around as the other man left. Once the war was over he'd like to return to this-to helping people. In the meantime, it'd be nice to get to know Anakin better.