Chapter 3: Truth - 16 BBY
The svelte, yellow skinned beauty sat straddling his lap, her slender hips rolling against his as she moaned desperately, wantonly, but Obi-Wan wasn't giving her what she craved, what he had made her crave. He was still exploring, and the creature's mind was vastly interesting. And besides, he had time. He had all the time he wanted. It wasn't often he went to bed with a Force sensitive, and even then, it was difficult to remember when he had. Insanity had burned in his mind when he had taken Jedi Master Shaak Ti, and though it was his right as her Master to do to her as he pleased, he rarely did out of respect for Cody, who had taken something of a liking to the enslaved Jedi.
Even three years after her death, the clone was still upset about her loss, far more to him than simply the pleasure slave she originally was to him, and though Cody said he didn't love her, Obi-Wan wasn't so sure. He could have gone into the clone's mind and found out for certain, but opted against violating his friend. After all, Kenobi didn't like talking about Satine, and certainly wouldn't want Cody knowing how badly she still burned within him. Besides, he already knew, and never said a word about it. He'd earned the right to keep things to himself. The subject of Padmé Amidala was also a sensitive one.
The woman moaned as she bit at his neck, and Kenobi hissed as divine pain and pleasure rushed through him, and he looked over to see Cody opposite him in the booth and similarly engaged with a stunning blue skinned Togruta. He wasn't sure what species the woman in his lap was. She could have been Mirialan, as the red markings on her face seemed to suggest, a rare, pale yellow variety instead of the more common green that he was familiar with. It made him miss Barriss and Luminara. Poor Barriss hadn't a chance against Anakin Skywalker when he had flown to Utapau to kill Grievous, and Luminara had disappeared after Order 66, gone into hiding, presumably, but neither he nor Yoda had heard anything from her, and Ahsoka's - Fulcrum's - information network had turned up nothing. It was safe to assume she was dead, but Yoda had told her to hide. Kenobi hoped she was alive. They had always been close. The whole Sith...thing was just a minor hitch in an otherwise splendid friendship.
The point was that Cody got the better deal tonight when it came to the choice in women, but for Kenobi, this wasn't just about fulfilling the carnal urges that the Dark Side demanded of him. This was about information. This woman was an Inquisitor, and the place they sat in was almost as important as the woman that sat on his lap. He had been here once before, a long time ago, with a different friend by his side, when he was a different man, and since he had confirmed a year ago where Sidious was drawing his Inquisitors from, he had been longing to return. And now here he was, sitting in the same booth in the same loud, smokey bar, the low lighting and the haze in the air covering the rampant drug use and the open, lusty joinings of patrons tucked into corners. The years hadn't changed Dromund Kaas from the time he had traveled there, rediscovered it, with Quinlan Vos.
He'd been a different man back then. A younger man, though he didn't look it. A Jedi, one that burned with passion and fire he struggled to contain, one that had only recently fashioned the red lightsaber that he still carried to this day, one that secretly harbored a love for a young duchess that he was struggling to forget, a love he still carried with him, though the reasons for the distance between him and his goddess were different and far more tragic than they had been when he was young. Kenobi could scarcely believe that it was the same man, the one that had gotten so hopelessly drunk with Quinlan that he woke up the next morning with no memories of the night before and two beautiful, naked women in his bed. Before that night, he had only ever been with one woman before, a secret, almost shameful thing that he had tried not to think about, but now remembered it fondly, the memories of Mandalore painful, but beautiful all at once.
Now, he had come to Dromund Kaas as a man of excess, not temperance, of deep, hungry passions in place of nervous reservations about what his reckless friend was getting himself into. Though like before, he was on a mission, and while before the two Jedi had no idea what they were looking for, Darth Lumis had come with a clear and present purpose. Before, he was here to learn about the Sith. Now, he was here to irritate them.
The battles in the Western Reachers weren't going well. With Kenobi's active involvement in causing chaos, Sidious had sent not just the might of the Empire, but the might of the Sith down upon him, the dangerous duo of Tarkin and Vader crushing opposition faster than Kenobi could create it. Fighting the Empire wasn't like fighting the Republic. Sidious no longer had much of a need to keep up appearances, and outcry over brutal tactics was swiftly met with arrest or execution, and soon enough, opposition in his own government had died. During the Clone Wars, Kenobi had, on more than one occasion, captured ships and stolen them for his own use, but the prospect of doing such now was difficult, since Kenobi had no doubt that his former Master would order a hijacked ship to be destroyed immediately. It made the prospects of escaping dismal.
Once, and only once, Obi-Wan hadn't gotten off a planet quick enough, and the Imperial fleet had arrived, and with it came Darth Vader, the Sith Lord playing to his strengths and never leaving his starfighter. Obi-Wan had barely escaped the system before Vader's reenforcements closed in, an armada so large that Lumis had been certain that it was the bulk of the Imperial Forces in the Western Reaches, and after he had come out of hyperspace in a different system, he found Imperial ships waiting for him, and Vader close behind. It had taken six more jumps to escape the relentless Sith Lord, and the close call had prompted a change of pace.
The Umbra was faster than the TIE Advanced the other Sith flew, but Vader was, loathe as he was to admit it, a superior piolet than Kenobi, if only slightly, and that more than made up for an inferior ship. He had gotten cocky, perhaps overestimated his ability to hold the Empire's rapid expansion at bay, underestimated the strength of his enemy. He needed a different approach. One that played to his strength, not Sidious'. One that was safer. One that could allow room for his eventual rebellion to slowly grow, instead of fizzle out in small pockets of resistance that were quickly destroyed. One that gave him a better chance of seeing his children again.
Contested areas saw far too much Imperial activity. He needed to exist and operate within the Empire, the shadow in the darkness of the Empire, and that was a thing he was good at. After a few months of careful planning and keeping out of sight, bouncing between Dagobah and remote worlds in Hutt Space with Luke and Leia, he was finally ready with a plan, the information driving this plan taken out of the minds of one of Sidious' Inquisitors. They were looking for him frantically in the Western Reaches, where pockets of vicious Separatists still fought the battles of the Clone Wars that had long since been over, and with their attention elsewhere, it gave Kenobi the chance to walk the streets of Dromund Kaas, ancient capital of the Sith Empire, and the place from which Sidious drew his Jedi hunters. And lucky for Obi-Wan, the people of Dromund Kaas still loved Mandalorians.
He and Cody had tracked this Inquisitor for days on the planet, made her routine known to them, and when she met with her Togruta informant in the bar that Kenobi had such...non-memories of, they followed them in, made their introductions, and by the time Kenobi had removed his horned Mandalorian helmet, the Inquisitor and her informant were already under his sway. Which was why, after he was done with the Mirialan-looking Inquisitor, he felt that Cody had to share the Togruta. It was only fair, he wouldn't have had her if Kenobi didn't will it anyway. He owed him. Kenobi looked at the woman that straddled him, her forehead on his chest as she panted and tried in vain to control the maddening lust within her, and he grabbed her hips with a firm grip, drawing her closer with a possessive growl, and she excitedly keened her want.
Kenobi's thoughts couldn't help but drift to Luminara, his lost friend, and wondered briefly if she would look similarly flushed with passion. He suspected not. She was a Jedi Master, a creature of restraint and control, not the untethered creature of passion and rage and lust and hunger that those who embraced the Dark Side were. She wouldn't engage in such activities, even though he did tease her about it, both before he was Sith and after, though there had always been rumors about the two of them back when he was a Jedi, and Obi-Wan couldn't help but wonder if he'd enjoy this more if he imagined this Inquisitor were the Mirialan Master instead.
But probably not. She was likely dead anyway. But if she were alive...
Kenobi recognized it as a grim and morbid thought the moment he thought it, but couldn't help doing so. There were no Jedi anymore. That time was over, the Jedi Order dead and dismantled for three years now, the only ones left that followed the way of the light a few rogue knights that would be soon dead, a tiny green old man living in a swamp, and an army of children too young to know what being a Jedi truly meant. They were dead. Perhaps even the stalwart Luminara would understand that, would abandon the unwritten rule of the Jedi's cold Code and seek physical comfort with another. And if they ever found her, maybe she would seek it with him.
It wasn't that Kenobi wanted something deep and meaningful. He had his chance with Satine, and lost that right the moment Maul pierced through her and their son with his bloody blade. And for a small moment, he had it with Padmé, the very memory of her soured and made bitter by what he had to do to her. And now, there was nothing. Blazing, furious passion that drove him to dominate and control and release deep within a submissive, mewling body, but he had missed the connection with his partner that he had with people he knew and cared deeply about. With the random, hopelessly beautiful women he had taken these past three years, his connection had been with the Dark Side, an obsessive drive to satisfy his own satisfaction that made him blind to the needs of his partners. Those needs were always met, of course, but it was never about them. It was about him, as it was now.
Kenobi whistled sharply as he stood, the Inquisitor sliding off his lap with a desperate whimper, and Cody looked over at him with the most irritated look Kenobi had ever seen. "Cody, get up, we're leaving."
Jaw slack, the clone looked at the Sith Lord, then to the Togruta beside him, and then back to the Sith. "You have got to be kidding."
"Of course not. We're leaving, take the girl, she's coming with us." Kenobi turned his attention back to the Inquisitor, but watched the clone out of the corner of his eye as a cocky smile slid across his face and he grabbed the Togruta's long lekku, allowing it to slide through his hand, and the woman moaned loudly. A Togruta had been his lover for two years. He knew exactly how they worked. "Would you like to come with us, pet?" Kenobi asked the Inquisitor softly, one long finger under her chin, and she nodded eagerly. Kenobi slid his helmet back on, his golden eyes piercing through the dark visor and glowing with hunger. "Come on then."
He strode out of the bar, the enthralled women following their Mandalorian seducers. Just as it was the first night he had spent in the city, the darkness of night was broken by the ever persistent flashes of lightning, the result of experiments conducted by the Sith Emperor Valkorion, a man that Lumis greatly admired and aspired to reach his heights. He, too, had been immortal, or very close to it, and Obi-Wan's own talents in mind manipulation had been learned from Valkorion's holocron, an artifact that he still kept in his possession. There could be much he could learn here in the Sith Emperor's ancient city. He'd have to return some time in the future.
"You're going to love our ship," Cody drawled to the woman by his side, and Kenobi quickly snapped his head in the clone's direction.
"How many times do I have to tell you, Cody? No sex in the Umbra!" There was silence for a moment, the clone stopping in his tracks, and then he rushed to catch up to the Sith and the women, speaking in fast, irritated tones about this great injustice, a speech that he had well practiced and rehearsed, so many times did they have this discussion. Occasionally, he would find something new to add to his list of grievances, and the tirade would become longer. After three years, it now clocked in at close to ten minutes, more than enough time to walk from the bar to the luxury hotel across the central plaza. Kenobi tuned the clone out. His mind was set on the matter, and Cody knew the reasons why, but hope sprang eternal within the clone, and Kenobi suspected that his faithful friend just wanted to have something to complain about.
The hotel there were staying at was wildly expensive, a significant upgrade to the seedy establishment attached to the bar that he and Quinlan had stayed in during their time here, but having the best was a simple thing when a slight wave of the hand and a smooth command got him anything he wanted. He felt he deserved the best. He was a Lord, after all, and he would be having a very difficult day very soon, much sooner than he would have liked, but time waited for nobody.
Obi-Wan found his thoughts drifting to Luke and Leia, as they so often did. His children were growing so fast, their powers developing quickly, and he had already begun walking them through some very basic training, mostly in concealing their presences', which they immediately showed talent in. At three years old, they were still too young to understand what it was they meant to him, what it is he had to do, what had become of their biological parents. Already Leia was beginning to ask about her mother, not Breha Organa, but the mother that brought her into this world. Luke hadn't yet, but he would soon enough, and Obi-Wan hoped that they would understand that family was so, so much more than blood, that where they came from didn't matter, that they father they grew up knowing was the only one they would ever need.
They would make that decision on their own, when they were old enough, and if they were to know the truth, so must the two families that were helping him raise them and keep them safe, and that time was fast approaching.
He was in for a hard day. He felt entitled to having some fun tonight.
As soon as the door to the large, luxurious suite closed and locked behind them, Kenobi reached out to grasp the Inquisitor's mind, the woman shivering as he reestablished and secured his control over her. Cody immediately pulled the Togruta away and into an adjoining room, the door closing firmly behind them, leaving the Sith to do his work. With a sly, predatory smirk, he circled the Inquisitor, golden eyes glowing with lust and hunger as he raked through her willing mind.
"Do you know who I am?" Kenobi asked softly, the woman's unfocused eyes drifting to him and looking at the Sith with mindless adoration and lust so strong he could feel the Dark Side pulled to her, a hungry beast preying on passion uncontrolled. "Oh, come now," he gently scolded when she responded to him with a soft, pitiful moan, words failing her in the haze of the Dark Side. "You're an Inquisitor. Have some pride, some respect. You're supposed to be a representative of the Dark Side, so look inside yourself and find the name of your Master."
The Inquisitor swayed on unsteady legs, her jaw clenching as she struggled to follow the Sith's command, her eyes slipping in and out of focus as she looked at the face before her, far too young to command the mastery that he did. "You're Obi-Wan Kenobi," she said, her voice thick as she fought against the haze the Sith caused in her mind. "The Separatist leader. The Negotiator."
"Mm. You know me by a different name, yes?" he asked smoothly, and the woman shivered, a whimper in her throat that screamed her submission.
"Darth Lumis. Lord of the Sith."
"And?" he asked, sing song and expectantly, and the woman moaned when her mind gave way to the man that rushed through her mind like he owned it. Which he did.
"Master."
"Kneel." She dropped to the floor with a groan and leaned into the Sith's touch when he laid a hand on her head. "Tonight," he said slowly as he circled around her, taking in the sight of the woman and his breath quickening as his blood rushed with power and burning lust brought on by the depths of the new awakened Dark Side. He had been playing before, but now the darkness would have what it was owed. "Tonight, you're going to give me everything. You're going to pleasure me in every way you know how, until every part of you is filled with nothing but me, understand?: A sinister grin crossed his face when the woman absently nodded and laid a hand on the armor and robes that covered the space between his hips. "And," he chirped, "We're going to send a recording of it to the Emperor! For his birthday!"
"That's so good of you, Master..." she muttered, whining in frustration when she reached around to undo his armor and couldn't find the straps and fastenings underneath the black robes woven into it.
"Mm, I know. Poor Darth Lumis never gets the appreciation he deserves for being so thoughtful." He hooked his fingers under her chin and forced her to look up at him, a pleasured and fearful shiver running through her as she met piercing, hungry eyes. "In the morning," he began softly, his voice low and commanding and laced with the menace of the Dark Side, "you will take me to your Temple. I was there once before, a long time ago. Twelve people died by my hand that day."
"It's your right..."
"Yes, it is," he hissed, his fingers tightening on the gasping woman's chin. "But I go there for a different purpose now. This time, you are all going to kneel before me. This time, every single one of Sidious' dark acolytes will call me Master. I'll record that too, I'm sure he's going to love it."
"And nobody will die?" she asked softly, and Lumis looked at her carefully, her eyes unfocused but filled with...concern, perhaps.
"By my hand?" A small smile touched his lips as he chuckled. "I'll demand a sacrifice, of course. Tribute, if you will, for not slaughtering the lot of you, I'm going to consume the Force itself from the strongest among you, it's been so long since I've fed that particular hunger, and you Force sensitives are so much more potent..." It had only been a few years, and Kenobi felt it was long enough. Of all the addictions the Dark Side inspired, this one was the worst, the most dangerous, the easiest to fall into. Even now, just at the thought, he could feel his body crave it, could feel his mind flood with a preemptive high in anticipation for what would soon be his. It was no wonder Darth Nihilus became what he did. So far, temperance on this matter had worked. Stopping wasn't an option, he'd just have to continue to manage the addiction.
With a wolfish grin, he unfastened his belt and the top straps of his armor, quickly discarding his chest plate and the robes woven into them. "Well?" he asked softly. "What are you waiting for? Get to it."
With an almost frantic whine, the Inquisitor hooked her fingers around the belts and straps of his armored legs. Sidious was going to writhe when he saw what his wayard student had done. It was going to be a very good night.
"He's what?!" Owen cried, looking in bewilderment at the Sith Lord. Kenobi didn't look at him. He kept his eyes focused on his work, a giant, mechanical creation that sat heavy upon the workbench in the Lars garage. The speeders, both the new one and the old one that had been repaired and refurbished, had been moved out to make room for the device. It was a vaproator, or would be one shortly. Kenobi had aquired the schematics of the devices that filtered the limited water out of Tatooine's hot, dry air, an extremely valuable resource farmed by extremely expensive machines. Owen kept many on his land, and sold the majority of the water he harvested to nearby Anchorhead, though his machines were old and damaged by sand and sun, and they had been forced to compete with another farmer by the name of Gault, who was far more wealthy and worked with machines that were state of the art.
Kenobi found it offensive, and upon his return from Dromund Kaas, hd set himself to the task of learning how the damned things worked so he could build a better one for the man that cared for his son. If Luke was going to be spending a fair deal of his childhood in this miserable, insignificant desert, he was going to have the very best. Also, he was hoping that the gesture would soften the blow of the news he had to share. As fun as his time in Dromund Kaas had been, he had to return to life eventually, and that meant having a very necessary talk with Owen Lars and Bail Organa. For the children. Always for them.
Owen was too stunned to say anything when Kenobi didn't answer, and the room fell into an uncomfortable silence, save for the even breathing and low, menacing growl of the rancor, the beast taking up half the space of the room. More than once, Bail began to say something from his place by the wall, but stopped himself every time. He wasn't sure why Kenobi had asked for his presence as well, since he had already known the dark fate of Padmé's secret husband, though he suspected there would be an equally awkward reason.
Over the course of the three years he had known Kenobi, he never knew the man to be open or honest, and a conversation like this was something to be nurtured with understanding so similar behavior could be encouraged. As for the Prince's presence, well...Kenobi probably wanted to consolidate uncomfortable truth into one single conversation. He was nothing of not efficient. Owen's wife had been asked not to attend this talk, which Bail was secretly grateful for. Young Beru Lars had been fawning, struck with wonder at having a prince in her home, and he hadn't been able to divert the woman's attention elsewhere for more than a moment.
He took a deep breath, began to speak, and stopped again, shaking his head as he leaned against the wall, smiling awkwardly at Cody and his teenage son when the two began to chuckle. He smiled as he watched Luke crawl over the pieces and parts on the work bench, taking tools and components into his hand, standing, and toddling on slightly unstable legs to deliver them to his father's hand, the three year old's blue eyes staring in rapt attention as the Sith Lord worked. Smiling, Bail shot a protective glance toward Leia, the little girl's hair a mess as she stood on the rancor's lip and grabbed on to it's large, sharp, jutting fangs. Despite the beast's growing, Leia was unafraid, almost as if she intuitively knew that Yoda was growling not at her, but in response to anger toward his Master.
"Anakin Skywalker," Kenobi said finally, softly, as if it was some dull thing hardly worth mentioning, "is alive. Technically."
"Technically!" Owen shouted, his hands quivering in rage and oblivious to the snarl of the rancor. Leia shrieked with laughter as she hung off the fangs. "What does that mean? If he's alive, his son-"
"My son!" Obi-Wan hissed, standing from his chair and snatching Luke from the table, the boy's eyes suddenly wide and uncertain as he gripped the Sith's robes as if his life depended on it. "Luke is my son! Your brother gave up that right a long time ago!" Owen was too furious to speak, and inched away from the rancor when it's large, black eyes began to swirl with red and yellow, feral and dangerous. Bail made a move to grab for Leia, but backed off quickly when the beast snarled viciously, the little girl grasping tightly to Yoda's nose. Kenobi wasn't worried, and neither was the girl. She was in no danger, it seemed.
Luke, confused, looked between his suddenly warring caretakers, blue eyes wide with concern, the look about him like he had done something wrong. "Daddy?" he asked, peering up at the man that held him. "You mad?"
It seemed to take all of the anger out of the Sith Lord, his hard, darkened features softening considerably as he looked at his son and smiled softly, almost sadly. "No, I'm not mad," Kenobi said, planting a kiss to the boy's blond head. "Daddy's had to make some difficult choices that he hasn't had to face until now." Luke blinked, not understanding, and Leia let go of the rancor's nose, falling to the ground in a heap, but quickly rose, brushed herself off, and scampered over to hug the Sith's leg upon feeling the distress of her father and brother. Obi-Wan picked her up, and sat back down in his seat, the twins perched upon his legs.
"Why?" Leia asked, looking at him with Padmé's big, brown eyes, and he sighed. This was...difficult.
"Because," he said slowly, "it hasn't come up. Because I haven't brought it up. Because you two are more important, and it hadn't mattered until now that you are beginning to ask questions. One day, you will be old enough to understand, and when that day comes, it will be easier if the adults in your life haven't been lying."
"You shouldn't lie," Luke said proudly, and Leia simply shrugged her little shoulders.
"Only sometimes," the little girl said, and Luke wrinkled his nose.
Kenobi smiled and held them closer, ignoring the increasingly angry Owen and the growling of the rancor that matched him. "You shouldn't lie to family, yes," Obi-Wan said softly. "That's why we're here."
"You knew," Owen gasped. "You knew! This whole time, Anakin's been alive, and you didn't think to say anything about it!"
"He is alive, yes," Kenobi said softly, looking pointedly at the farmer. "But not to you." Owen looked at him, bewildered and confused, his temper growing, and Obi-Wan put up a hand so the man would hold his silence for a moment longer. "Anakin Skywalker died. Everything he was is gone, replaced by something else. Something..." He scoffed softly, a smile coming to his face. "Something like me."
"Jedi Master Yoda told me," Bail cut in, and Owen looked at him, almost pleading to hear something good. "He said that Anakin fell to the Dark Side."
"I don't know what that means," Owen said, shaking his head, and Obi-Wan sighed.
"Put as simply as possible, your brother is solving problems with murder." He shrugged. "It's effective, if nothing else. But know this. Anakin Skywalker is dead. They call him Darth Vader now"
Owen stared in disbelief at the man. He didn't understand any of this. He never understood any of this. But he understood murder, and he knew Anakin was capable of it. He'd seen it on the night their mother died. Anakin had run out and killed six of the Tuscans in the camp that night, a surprise attack that only saw two try to fight back while the rest turned and ran, and it was Owen that shot the two fighters. Upon seeing a weapon they didn't understand prove fatal to the touch, the Tuscans had avoided Anakin and his lightsaber, opting to run instead. And the last time he had seen him, he was so angry. Owen had tried to help, but Anakin had made him very nervous. There had always been a streak of darkness in Anakin, but Owen had thought the Jedi were helping with that.
The farmer's face darkened, but the Sith Lord was ignoring him, focusing instead on the two children that lay now sleeping in his arms, soothed by his presence and the strong, slow beating of his heart. "You did this," he hissed, the rancor finally beginning to rear up until Kenobi extended his hand and immediately calmed the creature.
"That's at least partially true," Obi-Wan said softly. "But not entirely. The Jedi and the man that's currently his Master are to blame as well. The Jedi set him up as the counter-balance to me, which forced him to have to deal with me, which was a serious mistake, but it was Sidious that twisted him into what he became."
"And you?" he growled. "What did you have to do with it."
Kenobi looked at the ground. "A great deal, I'm afraid, and all for reasons that will look like excuses to you."
"He said you cut off his arm!" Owen said, desperate and horrified, and the Sith's eyes seemed to brighten.
"I did," he said softly. "Though that has little bearing on this. Severing his arm never pushed him toward darkness." He held the twins closer. "But I did take his wife from him. A thing he could have handled had his Master not been killed, and after..." He trailed off as he looked down to his sleeping kids. "After that, it was over for him. Sidious had already gotten deep within him, filled him with suspicion and doubt that had been planted long ago, and when he found out she was pregnant, he...questioned their lineage, if you will. Rightfully so, perhaps, but she had been tested, and broke things off with me when she found out."
"You are a snake," Owen growled, and Kenobi nodded ad he looked over at Bail Organa, his back pressed against the wall and his jaw tight. It was possible that he knew about this, but not terribly likely.
"Yes," Obi-Wan whispered. "But not for that. I wanted to take what was his, yes, but Sidious made it possible. When I broke his hold on her, she and I stopped being lovers." He paused. "For a time..." Finally, he met Owen's eyes again. "Until Skywalker threatened to kill her children if they were mine, or if he suspected them of being corrupted by me."
"No," Owen said, shaking his head and backing away. "No, you're lying."
"We wouldn't be having this conversation at all if I intended to lie, Lars," Kenobi growled. "I've got a friend that's a ghost that'll confirm everything I'm saying." His eyes narrowed as Owen's widened. "Oh yeah, didn't you know? I'm haunted." He scoffed and waved his hand in the air dismissively.
"I saw it," Cody said softly from his place on the wall, and all eyes turned to him. "I was there on Mustafar when Skywalker came to kill Kenobi. I watched him choke his wife with a gesture. I saw the body of my lover on the ground after Skywalker killed her when she stepped forward to defend Padmé and her children." His eyes narrowed dangerously as he looked at the stunned farmer. "Don't you dare judge Kenobi for what he had to do to save the children that he chose to raise."
"Enough, Cody," Obi-Wan said softly."My part in Skywalker's fall cannot be denied, though I had never thought he would. It was certainly never the intent. Had he done as we all expected, I would have killed him, and this is a conversation we wouldn't be having because the twins would be dead, along with their mother." Obi-Wan was silent as he looked away for a moment, and Owen couldn't help but feel...sad. There was a melancholy within the adoptive father of little Luke. Perhaps, in some way, he was trying to atone.
"Can we help Anakin?" Owen asked quietly, and Kenobi shook his head.
"I'm afraid not. Not by me, at least, and certainly not by you." Kenobi sighed heavily, weariness overcoming him. "I saved Padmé from Anakin, just as I'm saving her children from him now," the Sith said softly. "They need to be kept secret. They need to stay safe. I promised their mother they would be safe in my care, and they will be." Owen said nothing. "Which brings me to this, Prince of Alderaan," Obi-Wan said slowly. "I killed Padmé."
Bail found his comfortable leaning against the wall suddenly became a lean of support as his legs went to jelly and his heart hummed in his chest. "You?" he finally managed to gasp, but Kenobi wouldn't look at him. "You killed her? You said you saved her from Anakin! She died from-"
"Causes unknown, I know," Obi-Wan said softly. "It was an easy thing to have written off. Everything is easy if you can make people believe anything."
"You are a murderer!" Bail growled, pushing off the wall, but he didn't move forward, didn't make another sound when the twins shifted and slowly began to cry in their sleep. A quick look at Kenobi's face showed Bail an expression he had never seen from the man before. Regret.
"A murderer, yes," Obi-Wan whispered. "I've killed many people. More than anyone alive today, save for Emperor Palpatine. But her life is the only one I didn't want to take."
"Then why!' the Prince snarled, but the Sith Lord just shook his head.
"Don't ask me why I did what I did. I won't cheapen her death by offering excuses."
"Is that really all you have to say?!" Bail snapped, and Kenobi finally met his furious gaze with anger of his own.
"I don't need to tell you anything, Bail. I didn't need to tell either of you these things. If I wished it, I could enter your minds and alter your memories, I could make you believe everything I did was right and justified. But instead, I came to you with the truth, because I won't have my children raised on lies that may one day be used to hurt them." He took a deep breath and clutched the children closer. Everything I do, everything is for Luke and Leia..."
"And depriving them of their mother is supposed to help them?!" Bail gasped in disbelief, and suddenly, everything fell in place for Owen as he looked at Obi-Wan, filled not with regret, but sadness, a look that he had seen often on his own mother when she thought of Anakin. He may have been a murderer, but for a moment, he just looked like a father, a man willing to make any sacrifice, no matter how great, for the safety of his children.
"Because of Anakin," the farmer whispered, and when the Sith Lord suddenly stilled, he knew he had the right of it, and from the look of it, the Prince of Alderaan slowly began to understand as well.
"You think he'd come after her," Bail said softly. "He'd know about the twins and they wouldn't be safe, is that it?" Kenobi said nothing. "You could have saved her," he insisted, more hurt and sad than angry now. "You could have done something else!"
"Maybe so," Obi-Wan whispered. "But I did the best I could with what was given to me. I promised to keep her children safe, and her sacrifice was the fastest, surest way." He chuckled softly, a pained sound that grated within his throat. "I've spent many nights thinking about what I could have done different, but I always come back to what I did as the best solution to Luke and Leia's safety. Always."
"Why bring this up, why now?" Owen asked, slowly stepping closer once again and keeping eyes on the rancor, though the beast had stopped growling.
"The children are beginning to ask questions about their mother," Kenobi said swiftly. "It's difficult to talk about what happened without mentioning Skywalker as well, and it's dangerous to talk about Skywalker without talking about Vader."
"This isn't a thing for children to hear!" Bail gasped, appalled, but Kenobi shook his head.
"I won't lie to them, they need to know the truth. All of it. They won't be children forever, and the Force has a way of converging on itself." He took a deep breath and looked down at the children he cradled. "One day, they're going to stand against Darth Vader, and when they do, I want them to know exactly what it is they face. Information is power, and Sidious understands that better than most. I won't have him use this against my children."
They were silent for a long while, the Prince and the farmer standing quietly with their own thoughts, their own doubts, their own anger as they watched the man quietly begin working on the machine before him, the twins tucked safely against his body. The man had surprised them both, time and time again, and they had seen first hand the love that he had for children that he had no obligation to beyond the promise he had made to a woman he never truly loved. Where all else failed, Obi-Wan Kenobi loved Luke and Leia. That much was certain.
"So what now?" Bail asked softly, his face serious when Kenobi looked up from his work. "The fighting has-"
"We've lost the battles in the Western Reaches, you must see that," Obi-Wan said quietly. "I'll be changing my tactic. It seems senseless to get potential rebels killed in displays of resistance now when we can collect them after the Empire has established dominion." A sad smile drifted on to his face when Bail frowned. "We fight the rising tide, Bail. We cannot stop it. But if we are patient, if we bide our time and gather our strength quietly, we may just live to see the tide recede."
"You're giving up?" the prince asked in disbelief.
"No. No, I'll be infiltrating the Empire and doing everything in my power to wreck them from the inside. I did that to the Jedi and the Republic, and I can do it to the Empire. After all, I helped build this. I can take it apart, but not with brute force."
"Hey, boss?" Boba Fett said quietly, the boy finally speaking up after quietly observing. "I can talk to Jabba about utilizing his network to smuggle aid to places in need of it. Keep an ear open for discontent and potential allies, that sort of thing. If the galaxy is going to belong to the Empire, we'll need an underground, and Jabba's got one established."
A slow, sly grin spread across Kenobi's face. "Who taught you to be so clever, Fett? It couldn't have been your father."
"Couldn't have been you either, sir," Cody grumbled in return, and Obi-Wan just laughed and looked at the occupants of the room. There was anger and pain here, but in time, it would pass, he knew. The children wouldn't be punished for the sins of their father, biological or adopted, and that was all that mattered to him.
"Beru said something about making dinner," Owen grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "You know, because we have royalty here. We better go up before she really outdoes herself." The prince nodded, a smile on his face as he gently took the sleeping twins from the Sith and left the garage, the two clones filing out behind him. Owen stopped in the doorway. "You coming, Kenobi?" he gruffed, watching as fast, deft hands adjusted and connected wires on the machine that already looked magnificent, far superior to anything he kept on his land currently. Far better than anything he had ever seen.
"Oh, no," Obi-Wan said softly. "I need to get this done before I leave, and I don't think I'm the most popular man at the moment. Best to stay out of the way."
Owen scoffed. "You were never popular." Obi-Wan chuckled softly, but otherwise didn't move from his place. "...I've never been a man for lies," Owen started, "and truthful, good people don't need to clean up messes like this."
"I'm not a good man, Owen," Kenobi whispered. "I've never claimed to be."
"No, you aren't." The farmer sighed. "But you love Luke and Leia, that much is clear, so you can't be all bad, and just because I don't lie doesn't mean I don't know how hard the truth can be. It was...a hard thing to do, what you did today. I don't like you, Kenobi, but I can respect you."
A smile tugged on the corner of Kenobi's lips, but it never seemed to form. "High praise, especially coming from you."
Owen nodded. "I'll bring you some food, and we'll talk about Anakin, alright? I need to hear it all. From the beginning." Obi-Wan scoffed.
"It's a long story." The farmer shrugged.
"I have time." He motioned with his head toward the door. "Better yet, come on up. You can tell us all. We all need to hear it." With a slow, cautious nod, Obi-Wan pushed away from the work bench and followed Owen into the house, and deep within him, he could feel the warmth Qui-Gon's silent approval.