Prologue
It's dusk at the Lars' moisture farm as a cloaked OB1, with a baby in his arms, walks up to Beru Lars. She looks expectantly at him as he comes closer, stopping only a step away from her. "You received my message," he says.
The day before, OB1 had paid a group of Jawas to deliver a message to the Lars. It said simply that he had something for them and that he would bring it at dusk the following day. The message said that he was a friend of Anakin's…and that his name was Ben.
When they read the message together, Owen was not sure that they should accept anything from a friend of Anakin, his half-brother. But Beru had a good feeling about it and convinced her husband to change his mind. Still, when he saw the man riding towards their home the next evening Owen couldn't help but to feel uneasy. And when this Ben was close enough to see what he was carrying, Owen stepped over to the lip of their underground dwelling and looked at the setting suns.
"His mother named him Luke before she died," Ben said as he handed the child over to Beru. No more words were needed. She understood that the boy was the child of Anakin, and that he was dead. As Anakin's only living relatives, they would raise his son.
Luke was now her son…and Owen's son. She turned and carried the boy to see his new father.
Satisfied that the boy was in good hands, Ben returned to his ride and went off into the dimming orange light of Tatooine's setting suns to find a place to start his new life.
Part I: The Protector
A little over a year later we see OB1 watching the Lars' homestead from a distance. OB1 thought back to that day on Polis Massa, shortly after practically killing his best friend turned Sith Lord and bringing his wife for medical treatment, deciding to make his life's mission to safeguard the galaxy's only hope. Aside from scaring off a few native Tusken Raiders, or Sandpeople as they were sometimes called, and a close encounter with one of Tatooine's native creatures, a Krayt Dragon, there hasn't been much for OB1 to do. [note: may want to expand on this incident] Sitting on an outcropping of rock in the hot desert sands, OB1 calms himself and reaches out to Qui-Gon Jinn through the force (unlike the Kenobi novel, Qui-Gon talks to OB1). OB1 is struggling with what to do with himself as he watches over Luke from a distance. Qui-Gon tells him of his "discovery" about the force and begins to teach OB1. He also suggests that OB1 take on a new identity. To manage his loneliness, he goes to a nearby settlement, perhaps Toshi Station, to purchase some supplies. When asked his name he replies with only "Ben". He doesn't say much and doesn't have too much interaction with anyone. The only one that he feels he should talk to is Qui-Gon. Sometimes Qui-Gon talks to him when he's out, but when Ben responds it's like he's talking to the air because they can't hear Qui-Gon. People walking by give him strange looks (establishing why Owen calls him a crazy old man in ANH). Having what he came for, he returns to his home.
Next scene: A city environment on a different planet. A familiar looking woman, shoulder length black hair and dressed in plain clothes carrying a small holdout blaster, is on the run through a crowded market street. She is trying to get away from someone. She quickly ducks into an open door as someone walks out. Inside she makes her way to a window, but staying out of sight if someone looks in just as a squad of stormtroopers, led by a Mandalorian Protector, shuffle past the window. She then heads back out the door and back the way she came, grabbing a cloak on her way and covering her head. She makes her way to a docking bay and approaches a handsome young man in his twenties looking over his old pre-Clone War era small freighter (pre-flight inspection). After a few small talk comments [possible: during the small talk, she asks his name, he says a name followed by "but most people just call me Dash", he also mentions that he's saving up to buy a newer YT-2000 and that he already has a name picked out for it], she tells him that she would like passage off of the planet and is willing to pay for a ride to wherever he is going. It's apparent that he needs the credits. He accepts and tells her to get onboard. As they lift off, she asks him where he's headed. "Anchorhead, on some outer rim planet called Tatooine," he answers. "Tatooine?" she repeats, trying to remember something, "Never heard of it." From a rooftop not far away the Mandalorian Protector aims a long barreled rifle towards and departing freighter and fires. But, instead of a laser bolt, the rifle fires a tracker which attaches itself to the hull of the ship. The Protector watches as the ship flies off into space.
Back to Tatooine: Now going by Ben, Kenobi is walking through Mos Eisley. We see him ask someone where he can get a drink, to which the person points in a direction. Ben thanks the person and heads in that direction. We see him walk into a cantina…yup…that cantina. We then see him at the bar ordering a drink. With drink in hand, he turns to look for a place to sit. Seeing someone he thinks he remembers sitting at a small table in a darkened part of the room near the rear door, he goes to sit with her and says his distinctive: "Hello there," as he removes his hood. She instantly recognizes him and smiles, happy to see a familiar face. Before she can say his name he tells her that he now goes by Ben. We find out that she is Bo-Katan Kryse, with whom OB1 fought in the Clone War. They talk, but as they do she is scanning the place.
"It's wonderful to see you again, Bo," Kenobi says with a smile on his face. He's clearly happy to be speaking with a friendly face from his past…someone living, in the flesh. He continues. "You look different," he pauses to look her over a bit more as she touches her hair, "without your armor I mean." Her eyes stop wondering around the room to lock onto his for a moment. Leaning toward him slightly, in a hushed voice, she replies, "That's the idea."
Still in a good mood, Ben uses the force to sense the fear and anxiety that is evident in woman's voice and demeanor. Considering that she is constantly scanning the darkened room with her eyes instead of maintaining eye contact with him he asks her, "Are you alright?" in a concerned tone.
"No, not really," she answers.
Not the answer he was hoping to hear. His curiosity peaked, he asks, "Has something happened? The last I heard Ahsoka and her soldiers left Mandalore with you as their provisional leader. What happened after that? What brings you…" he gestures the seedy looking room "…here?"
"After the Republic came in and cleared out Maul's Death Watch and the remaining Shadow Collective…" she paused and reached across the small table to put her hand on his arm. "Thank you, by the way, for sending Ahsoka and the Republic."
Ben placed his other hand gently over her hand that was on his arm. "It wasn't all my doing." He said with a smirk. "But it was the least I could do for Satine's sister."
She could see in his eyes the love that he had had for her sister. Smiling and dropping her head a little she fondly remembered her sister and wished that they had not been on opposite sides for so long. Then her thoughts drifted to Satine's death and she grew angry at her sister's murderer, Maul, and all that had happened to Mandalore because of him. "Things were going well at first," she continued from her previous comments. "We were preparing for elections. People wanted to get back to who we were, to regain our culture and our history. Then we heard about what happened to the Republic. We heard about the Supreme Chancellor making himself an emperor and reforming the Republic into a Galactic Empire. And we heard about…the jedi." She looked at his face and saw the disappointment and the sadness.
"Bo…" he started to say. But she cut him off.
"I didn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. Not after what you, Ahsoka and the Republic did for Mandalore." She smiled to reassure him that she wasn't his enemy.
"Thank you," was all he could say.
She continued her story. "It wasn't long before they, the new Empire, showed up and took over." She sighed. "Everything changed. After all of the chaos Mandalore went through before, most people seemed to welcome the new order the Empire promised. Sure there were some that openly opposed them, but they were always dealt with quickly. I, still being the provisional leader, saw what was happening. I saw our culture disappearing. The Empire even went as far as outlawing parts of it. So, I tried to do something about it."
Ben sat back in his chair and stroked his bearded chin. "Oh I don't like where this is headed."
"I amassed a small following…my Nite Owls of course, and some others. We vowed to oppose the Empire's rule. But the Protectors sided with the Empire and helped them hunt us down." Her eyes were sad. "I'm the last one," she said, her eyes welling with tears.
"Oh, Bo." He tried to console her.
"I've been on the run ever since. From system to system, the Protectors keep finding me. I made it here a couple days ago by hitching a ride with a young freighter pilot."
"I see," Ben said, thinking of something he could do for her.
"I've been keeping a low profile here in Mos Eisley. So far, so good. I haven't noticed any Protectors, so I think I may be safe here for a while."
Little do they know that the Protector has tracked Bo-Katan to Tatooine. Kenobi agrees to help her. As they start to leave, various patrons try to capture Bo-Katan, but, together, they manage to evade capture. This is an extended sequence of different chases and close calls which force Ben and Bo-Katan to rely on each other to get through it. The relationship between them that was formed (in TCW) and during the Siege of Mandalore is quickly rekindled. At different times during the escape Ben saves Bo-Katan from capture and she, in turn, saves his life from certain death. All the while, Ben is trying to conceal the fact that he is a jedi. This sequence is where Ben learns that Mos Eisley is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. There's a point where the odds seem overwhelming, but they get away and, for the moment, are safe at his hut. Both of them are near exhaustion, bruised, and bleeding from minor cuts and scrapes. The shared near death experiences draws them closer and they have a moment of intimacy before falling asleep. The next day she is talking to him and hoping that he'll come with her, but he tells her that he can't, that he has a mission on Tatooine that will take many years. However, he promises to help her get off world. They get into his speeder and head out, seemingly to another space port. They don't get too far before discovering that the Protector has found them. Ben has no choice but to fight Protector to allow her to escape. He jumps off of their speeder and onto the Mandalorian's. A fight ensues as Bo-Katan reluctantly speeds off towards a nearby settlement. (The fight is reminiscent to OB1's short battle with Jango Fett in AotC, but it is clear that he has learned how to deal with Mandalorians since then, but the Protector has new tricks) After an intense battle in which both are wounded, the Protector believes that OB1 is dead and staggers away. Ben is not dead, but badly wounded and is conflicted. Part of him wants to pursue to finally put an end to his threat to Bo-Katan, but he realizes that his mission is to protect Luke. The Mandalorian warrior pursues Bo-Katan, almost catching up to her, but is suddenly knocked off of his speeder by a giant Krayt dragon. Before the warrior can stand, he quickly becomes the dragon's snack. Bo-Katan is able to escape off planet.
A few weeks later, still bruised from the battle, Ben is sitting alone on a large rock in the desert. He is watching Luke from a distance and finishes writing an entry in a journal (yes, the one from the Marvel comics). He closes the journal, calms himself, and calls to Qui-Gon. He asks Qui-Gon, "I'm ready to begin the next lesson."
A few years later, in another part of the galaxy, Bo-Katan is running from Stormtroopers. She is carrying something in her arms. There's no place for her to hide to escape the Stormtroopers' in pursuit. She continues to run, shielding the object in her arms with her body. Suddenly, a blast of blue energy slams into her, instantly knocking her unconscious. She falls to the ground…with a young daughter in her arms. The Stormtroopers' orders are to deliver the child to the Inquisitors. The end of part one.
NOTE: With the release of the Rebels episodes with Bo-Katan returning with a few more Mandos, I'll have to figure out a way for her to survive her encounter with the Stormtroopers. Somehow, while she is still unconscious, someone, or several someones, rescue her. When she comes to, they tell her that the child is gone, implying that the child was killed. She later spends some time searching for her, but never finds her daughter, but instead finds a Mando from her clan. They then determine to look for more survivors to eventually retake Mandalore.
**I originally had Maul be the one to pursue Bo-Katan to Tatooine and fight OB1, but think that Rebels made that not work as well. It just would have been Maul fighting OB1 too much for neither of them to "win".
NOTE: I was struggling with a reason for Bo-Katan to be on the run from the Empire and/or Death Watch. While reading some things about the latest Rebels episode, about the last time that Ahsoka saw Anakin, I did some research. I found out that Dave Filoni had intended for the wrap-up of the TCW series to be about the Siege of Mandalore in which Ahsoka would instate Bo-Katan as provisional leader of Mandalore after the Republic intervenes to remove Maul's Death Watch from power. He also said that, afterwards, when the Republic becomes the Empire, the Imperials take over rule of Mandalore, ban their mercenary practices/culture, and set up an Imperial Academy there. So, based on Bo-Katan's history with Death Watch, the Nite Owls, fighting along side Obi-Wan, (essentially everything we see of her in TCW), and then being on the Republic's side during the siege, it's pretty clear that she would oppose Imperial rule and what they do to Mandalore. She would most likely fight them in some way, making her a criminal to the Empire. And since we also know, through Rebels, that the Protectors side with the Empire, well, I think that makes a pretty good case for her to be fleeing from the Empire. Oh, and with this info/new idea, I changed Death Watch to the Protectors. I also think it would be a good idea for her to at least dye her hair (probably black), making it a little more difficult for OB1 to recognize her at first. In fact, I think she'd recognize him first, then he senses it and goes to investigate.
Katie Sackhoff is supposed to reprise her role as Bo-Katan in Rebels. In a recent episode, Sabine Wren is told that her mother is looking for her. I did some more research and found a little tidbit that Satine Kryze had two siblings…Bo-Katan Kryze and some other character. I couldn't find any info on that other sibling, but I speculate that it's another sister who marries into the Wren family. So, I'm hoping that, in Rebels, Bo-Katan, having escaped the Empire, finds Sabine (her niece) in her search for her "stolen" daughter.