Light hummed in the interior of Ben's modest home built underneath the barren desert landscape. The door hissed open and closed as he and Kir entered warily, exhausted from the rush of escape and flush from the heat. It was modestly furnished and carried little in the way of sentimental value displaying the simple life he was used to living. There were tools that lined the shelves with projects under repair close by as a possible source of income and a way for him to pass the time. The only object out of place looked to be a smooth river stone set out upon a mantle. It was evident he was very much alone and isolated so far from another more often than not.
From under his loose sleeve he produced the device, connecting it to his console to bring up the files on the holoprojector. Immediately, wanted posters were displayed detailing bounties of traitors, criminals, and Jedi, their faces revealed alongside price and information. Most of the faces he flipped through held no familiarity, but he studied them all the same to try and find connections or a reason for them all to be lumped on the same device. The console clicked as he passed from one wanted posting to the next until he found one that caused a pit to form in his stomach.
His face stared back at him from the holoprojector detailing him as the missing Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi. He could feel Kir's gaze on him, her silence a testament to her hesitancy in the situation. This is what she meant by messing up their separation of lives. She now was privy to the location of a wanted individual in an already risky line of business. Not only that, she had been meeting with him regularly for years. While it wasn't her fault she looked over the contents of the device, he still felt partially responsible as now their association could warrant her the same fate.
"Is this the only thing you wanted me to see?" Obi-Wan asked as he motioned over to the flickering blue rendering of his face.
"Keep looking," Kir prompted quietly, and he turned a knob to select the next file. Replacing the image of himself was a devaronian clad in mismatched armor elaborately hand painted over each piece to make them a cohesive whole. The lighting hollowed his eyes and sharpened the angles of his features to match the two jutting horns from his forehead. Tightly held at his side was a young girl no more than eight, well dressed and frightened, yet holding her composure as best a young girl her age could muster.
"Bail Organa," the devaronian began in a cool tone. Obi-Wan felt the pit in his stomach sink further into his core as realization settled in. He was looking at Leia. "We have your daughter. If you do not bring us the information we asked for, I'm afraid we will have to take extreme measures. Again, we've provided you with the files of wanted people you and your ilk are hiding. We don't care about your political moves, but if we don't get what we want we will kill your only daughter and expose you to the Empire for whatever price we can negotiate with them. How important is that movement of yours I wonder? Worth more than your daughter?"
The devaronian pulled Leia's hair to create a tone of vulnerability in the girl, but she grit her teeth and held her ground, her face pushed into a concentrated scowl as the message flickered to its end. For a moment they sat in silence as Obi-Wan mulled over the predicament, fingers gently brushing over his neatly trimmed beard. He was a patient man, methodical and thoughtful in every act as if to calculate the variables all in one sitting. Eventually, he leaned forward and removed the device from his console and held it out to Kir.
"You should return it to those pirates," he said. His words caused Kir to rise from her seat in shock, eyeing the man over in disbelief.
"That girl is in danger," she said. "Keeping that device from getting to her parents is prolonging her life."
"It's delaying the inevitable," he said, "but it won't save her. And it isn't helping you any."
"You can help her," she cut in. "You're Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're a Jedi."
"That's exactly why I can't get involved," he said with a bit more force ladened in his tone. "I can't help them without implicating them. My presence would put their lives in danger and they are very aware of this. My life is here. My work and my duty is here. Bail Organa is a capable man without my intervention. I can't risk throwing Alderaan into disarray. You saw what was on this device. They already suspect he knows me."
Her disappointment was still quite evident, but he met her gaze with resolution. It was a difficult task now to keep his emotions at bay knowing a child he swore to protect now faced real danger. Did these pirates know her true parentage? Did the Empire? Deep within him he desired to help, to rush to her aid and return her to her parents safely. She was out there somewhere among the stars, snatched away and afraid.
He cared about a child he had never properly met, and the vision of their mother as she died crept back to haunt him.
"Tell me what I need to know so that I can do it, then," Kir said with determination. He expected venom in her tone, yet was met more with focus. Perhaps she did not quite understand why Obi-Wan felt unable to act, but she did not question it further or spit moral rhetoric.
"I thought you didn't care much for political affairs," Obi-Wan said. "You'll be placing yourself at the heart of a deep conflict. One on the verge of manifestation."
"That little girl doesn't deserve to be in the middle of it," she said. He was quick to agree.
"She doesn't," he said. "And I'm not trying to convince you to step down as I have. I just want you to be aware of what you're getting into."
"I'm quick on my feet with a good crew to back me up," she assured confidently. "I just need a plan. You can help me plan it at least."
"It's possible the devaronian is someone higher up in the chain of command with the pirate gang you ran into," he surmised. "Do you think they would take you in if you gave up the device?"
"Not likely," she said thoughtfully as she sat back down on the edge of her seat. "The only reason why they're interested in me is because I stole it. Once they get it back I'm either dead or discarded."
Of course it wouldn't be that simple, but Obi-Wan at least had to eliminate the concept before mulling over the next. Other possible avenues were tricky involving investigation or connections he was unsure or positive she did not have. He pushed back the feeling he could help expedite the endeavor. Emotions were what exiled him, after all.
His thoughts drifted to young Luke he was only allowed to watch over from afar with the scowl of his uncle as a reminder. Owen Lars was vocal against Obi-Wan's presence in the boy's life, and to a degree he understood. It seemed no matter how hard he tried he couldn't avoid danger. It sought him out, honing in on him throughout his entire life to the point where he never stepped back to notice until he was forbidden to see the son of his former padawan.
Despite being separated from his life, he still wanted to do right by him. He wanted to do right by both of them. Padme's final moments were gifted by their successful births in a flicker of hope before the fade; a hope she shared that Obi-Wan had dismissed in pity. The man he knew had been lost and now his efforts to protect her children were failing. With the emergence of his bounty, he put even Luke in danger just by proximity and felt a tinge of guilt he had been swallowing for nearly a decade.
Kir kept quiet as she watched the man before her with a keen sense to the war waged within him. While he was still and thoughtful, there was subtlety in the way his eyes glanced about or the way he stroked his bearded chin. It was no secret what happened to the Jedi, and most had assumed by now there weren't any. But she knew he was forced into exile, and giving up a quiet existence would be difficult.
"The girl," Obi-Wan finally began, "is a princess from Alderaan. Leia Organa. She is the only daughter of Breha and Bail Organa of the Royal House. Bail was once a senator for the Republic before the fall, and an activist against the Empire. This band of pirates knows this, by the looks of it, and is using that and Leia as a means to get exactly what they want. By doing so, it will expose him and his efforts. They'll be able to blackmail and exploit him and his family for whatever they want and gain far too much power for their own good."
"Do you think they'll rat Organa out?" Kir asked.
"It's difficult to say," he said, brows pushing together in contemplation. "They're likely positive they won't have to. Their daughter is very important to them, very loved. They will want the power that brings them."
This wasn't the first time Kir had seen a Jedi before. They had always felt so cold to her as if they repressed their emotions to the point where GNK-series power droids had more personality. There was something different about Obi-Wan in his reflection of the message beyond his cool and calm demeanor only displayed in the slightest expressions seeping through his exterior. It was, perhaps, the result of losing his way of life and forced into near isolation. Even before she knew him as a Jedi, when she knew him as Ben, he felt more human than the order he came from.
"You have a deeper connection to this," she concluded thoughtfully. His head nodded somewhat in response, his far away gaze brought back to the present to look upon the woman across from him.
"I will come with you," he said as he rose from his seat. Her eyes followed him both in slight confusion and in disbelief. The change of heart appeared so sudden to her, but he looked so resolute.
"I'll let the crew know," she said, and reached for her comm. "How long do you need to get your things together?"
Gliding over to the corner of the room, Obi-Wan stooped down to a trunk and unlocked it. "Not long here," he said as he reached in to produce a simple metallic box. Tapping the lining with his thumb, the locking mechanism clicked, the lid pulling back to reveal his lightsaber neatly stashed away within.
Taking the lightsaber in hand felt like a piece of him had been put back into place. He felt almost whole again with the connection as he felt the metal against the pads of his hands. The Force gently embraced him, welcoming the reunion that clicked his resolution into place. This was only an extension of himself, but the history contained was what ignited far too many emotions.
Memories flooded back to him as he gently grasped the hilt. This was a blade he constructed himself through communion with the Force, something he had pushed away along with his past. But he remembered the lessons from so long ago, Qui-Gon's convictions that drove him to take up the responsibility to train Anakin, the final fight where he could not bring himself to destroy him when he had the chance… This blade carried so much weight, but it was his use of it that led him to this very point. Bail and Breha Organa adopted Leia out of love and a desire to hide her away for a better life, which may not have been so substantial had Obi-Wan not failed Anakin as he did.
With his lightsaber back at his side, Obi-Wan turned to Kir. "There's something I wish to handle before we depart. Someone I wish to see."
"I'll tell the crew to meet up at the coordinates when we get there," she said, and followed him back out into the sunlight.