A/N: Back with a new chapter. I must say I'm overwhelmed with the fact that since I posted the first chapter I have any follows at all - you guys are great!
To the guest reviewer who asked if Evan will hit Darth Vader over the head with a pipe: that is not currently something I think will happen, but who knows? It might work its way in somehow.
I realise that I have not done a disclaimer, so here we go:
IT'S MINE, ALL MINE!
What? I'm talking about these cookies I just made. Star Wars doesn't belong to me, although if it did... *snaps out of it* Here, have a chapter!
Obi-Wan Kenobi, known to any acquaintances on this planet as Ben, started in shock. The Force had shifted suddenly, as if something fundamental had changed and nothing would remain as it once was. He settled onto the bench in his hut folded his legs, and opened his mind. The Force flowed around him, flowed through him, and Obi-Wan let himself relax into it, hoping that it would show him what had happened, or at least give him some guidance. His legs uncrossed spontaneously, taking him out of the hut, and his eyes flicked to one point in the distance, then another, further away. Obi-Wan nodded in thanks, and pulled himself out from immersion in the current that was the Force.
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Luke Skywalker raised his eyes from the droid he was working on to see the hermit, Ben Kenobi, stride into the homestead garage. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything the man walked over to the landspeeder.
"Luke, I need to borrow the landspeeder. Tell your uncle that I will return it by tomorrow at the latest."
Luke shook his head.
"I can't let you just take it – Uncle Owen would have a fit. Besides, he doesn't like you – he's always saying you're no good."
Ben smiled wryly.
"Believe me, he will understand. And it's not me personally he doesn't like, it's what I represent." He paused. "You can come with me, if you like, to make sure the speeder is fine…"
Luke put down his tools and looked straight at Ben. "Do you even know how to pilot a speeder? You always go around on that old eopie. I'll need to come with you to make sure you can start it correctly."
Ben appeared to stifle a laugh, but nodded and gestured toward the landspeeder. "Hop aboard then, my young friend. We must hurry if we are to get there before the Sand People."
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Remarkably, Evan appeared to be in one piece, although his clothes were a little worse for wear. He'd already noticed that there was nothing at the top of the cliff to suggest a way back, and the rock face appeared pretty hard to climb anyway. He turned to look at the flat desert in front of him, and almost lost his balance on the rocks when he caught a glimpse of the suns, plural, casting that burning light on him, before he looked down, blinking away the afterimage. Evan had a sneaking suspicion, even though it seemed impossible, that he knew where he was.
Standing up, Evan picked a direction at random, and began to walk. It wasn't as if anyone was likely to find him at the base of the cliff, and he needed some form of shelter and hopefully water in this blistering heat. His feet sank into the sand far too easily, and each step was an effort, but there was nothing else he could do.
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Thirsty.
Evan collapsed onto the hot sand, his energy spent. He'd been walking for what felt like hours, and not seen a sign of civilisation or water in all that time. Sunlight glinted off an object in the distance, and Evan raised a hand, squinting to try and make it out. The object quickly got larger, and Evan could see it appeared to be a vehicle, with two figures in it, one larger and one smaller. A small dust cloud billowed up behind the vehicle, hanging in the still air before slowly settling. As the vehicle drew closer, Evan could see that there appeared to be nothing beneath it. A landspeeder. A real landspeeder. I'm… I'm on Tatooine!
The landspeeder stopped abruptly a few yards away, and a sandy-haired boy jumped out and ran over, followed by a man dressed in brown robes, with greying hair and a well-kept beard.
"Are you alright, mister? We came as quickly as we could, and Ben says –"
"Yes, thank you, Luke. That will be enough." The man turned towards him. "Hello there. It is not wise to wander alone, dressed as you are, in the Southern Dune Sea."
Evan just nodded, too tired to put together a sentence.
"Come, my friend. Let us take you somewhere you can rest, and tell us of your journey."
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The landspeeder slowed to a halt outside a low, domed building with a set of steps leading downwards into it, set into the ground. Luke tilted his head at Obi-Wan and asked, "Can I go in now? Uncle Owen will be wondering where I got to."
"Of course, Luke. Go on in, and ask your aunt if it might be possible for two travellers to spend the night."
Luke hopped out of the landspeeder and dashed inside, and Obi-Wan couldn't help but be reminded of another young boy with sandy hair and blue eyes, similarly excitable and… Obi-Wan tore himself away from that train of thought before he could go any further. Instead, he looked at the young man, asleep in the back of the landspeeder, who seemed to have been the cause of the disturbance in the Force. He looked completely unremarkable, and when Obi-Wan tentatively reached out for his mind, there was no answering prod from an untrained Force-sensitive – it was completely open. Before he could ask any guidance from the Force, however, angry footsteps came up behind him. He had only a moment to take in the face of Owen Lars, red with anger, before an accusing finger was thrust into his face.
"What are you doing here, eh? Planting ideas in Luke's head, I'll warrant, with tales of those damned foolish idealistic Jedi and their crusades. I've told you, and I'll say it again, you can keep an eye or whatever you're doing, but do it out of sight and without Luke knowing. It's bad enough he's got questions about his father, without you sticking your nose into it. You should've kept out of it back then, and I'll thank you to keep out of it now."
Obi-Wan stood calmly, his expression peaceful and unmoved by the Lars patriarch's diatribe.
"Luke will have to know, and soon. Things have changed, and this planet is no longer as anonymous a place as it once was. The Empire will be on its way, if it isn't already-" – his eyes flicked once more towards the young man in the landspeeder – "and it is better that Luke is prepared to flee with me than he stay with you, and all of you fall under the direct gaze of Darth Vader or worse, the Emperor himself."
Owen scowled, and spat at Obi-Wan's feet.
"You take him, then, and keep well away. We don't want any of that Jedi business here, understood?"
Obi-Wan nodded gracefully, although inside he wished Owen could have been a little more polite. Some people were just so uncivilised. He strode past Owen and inside to fetch Luke, leaving Owen muttering behind him.
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Luke couldn't help but feel that he should have been sadder or something upon leaving his aunt and uncle. Uncle Owen would miss his help when the harvest came, and he was very good at patching up the droids when they broke. He would miss them, he knew, but he couldn't help his excitement when Ben told him that he had been a Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars, and fought in them alongside his father, Anakin Skywalker – not a spice freighter navigator, but also a Jedi! – for several years.
Luke entered the hut behind Ben, who was carrying the man they had found – amazingly still asleep, despite the bumpy journey through the Jundland Wastes to Ben's home. Ben set him down on a bench, and turned to Luke.
"Why don't you put your things over on the side table there, while I wake our friend?"
A/N: This chapter is a bit longer, probably because I'm getting into my stride a little more. Sorry if it seems slow at the moment, but Evan will awake next chapter, and things will hopefully pick up a bit.
Thoughts? Stick 'em in the review box just down there. Go on. You know you want to...