This took longer than I hoped, due to difficult scenes and schoolwork, but it's somewhat longer than most. Consider that my apology.

In other news, I'm having some trouble coming up with a summary I'm happy with. Any input would be helpful!


Chapter 9: In Earnest


Luke arrived with his aunt bright and early the next morning. He looked even more excited than he had the day before, if that was possible, and his arms were full. Of what, Obi-Wan didn't have time to note before he'd ducked past Obi-Wan and dumped his load in front of Mara.

It was a collection of four well-worn toys. Mara stared at them blankly.

"I brought them 'cause you said you didn't have any, so I thought I'd give you some of mine! Well, that one's Aunt Beru's." He pointed at a doll, which was even more tattered than the others. "She gave it to me after I told her what I was doing."

"They're... They're for me?" She frowned worriedly.

"Uh-huh! Look, this one's a spaceship and this is a bantha."

"But why'd you bring them?"

"You didn't have any! Don't you like them?"

"But–" She stared at them hard, then reached out one hand, and touched the doll. She picked it up and held it, staring.

Beru came up beside Obi-Wan. "This was his idea, you know," she said, softly. "I had nothing to do with it. He never even stopped to consider what he was giving up. He saw an opportunity to make someone happier and he was doing everything he could long before I could make even vague plans. This is why I want him here." She stared at him, hard. "Can you do that?"

"You must answer that for yourself. There was once another version of the Code, which is no longer in use. Nevertheless, I believe you will find it suitable." He took a deep breath, and recited the words he'd learned the night before.

When he finished, there was a silence filled only with Luke prattling on in the background.

"I stand by what I said yesterday," she told him. "No fiddling with his emotions."

"That was never my intention."

"Good. I'll be back in a few hours, then."


An hour later, Luke was beginning to get the hang of this meditation exercise, and both of them had been quiet for a good ten minutes. Cautiously, he eased further into meditation and then reached out into the Force, feeling for their Force presences.

He found Luke's first, a bright, unrestrained splash across the Force. Mara's was less obvious, a more controlled glow that stuck close to her and felt intense rather than bright. Both of them had his basic Force masking on them, intended to conceal them from distant searchers.

That wouldn't be enough any more, not if they would be using the Force themselves. He concentrated, reaching back in his memory and struggling with Force abilities long since gone rusty. The old shields would stay in place, but he wove a much tighter protection around them. They would need the best shields he could make. Perfection would not be too much.

He didn't reach perfection. Nevertheless, when he finished he was content.

They were the best shields he'd ever made. Even he could not unravel them now. The children would have to do that for themselves, when they were skilled enough to replace them and old enough to understand why. Until then, he would shield them whether he wanted to or not.

It was too late to turn back. He was in this for good.

He smiled.


A week later, Luke had lost his fascination with meditation, and Obi-Wan was nearing his wit's end. He hadn't had this problem with Mara. She dedicated herself to whatever task he gave her, and seemed to enjoy them. She couldn't really focus for more than an hour a day, of course, but that was expected. Within her limits, she complied with everything he asked for.

Luke didn't. For the first few days, he was interested in the exercises, and cooperated perfectly. After that, he started wriggling five minutes in at best and tended to leave off even trying to concentrate and start begging for a story instead by the time ten minutes were past.

On the third day of that, Obi-Wan gave up as soon as he saw a wriggle. He had no desire to spend another hour trying to get the boy to focus on this, and it really wasn't necesary. He'd only started with meditation to loosen and reinforce their natural shielding, anyway. Now Mara was good at it, Luke at least had the idea, and he was ready to do something else.

So he said yes as soon as Luke asked for a story. He wouldn't even have to make this one up. There were plenty of stories for younglings.

"Listen well, children, and I will tell you the story of Strider the Brave..."


A few weeks later, Beru paused in letting out Luke's hems to look at her husband. "I think Luke's almost old enough to start school. We should be thinking about that."

Owen nodded. "We'll get him registered for the long-distance program."

She paused. She'd had another idea some time ago, but she still wasn't sure about it. "Or maybe he could study with Mara."

At that, Luke looked up from his toys, beaming. He probably wanted to say something, but he kept very still and listened to the conversation instead.

Owen looked considerably more skeptical than Luke did. "And Ben, you mean?"

"He could teach Luke far more than anything other method I can think of, and besides, I'm stretched thin without adding education on top of that. More free time would be nice." She paused. "It's also nice to have him here, of course. It's just an idea."

Owen didn't respond.


Owen stayed unusually quiet until evening, after Luke was asleep. Finally, when he was sitting on the steps that led outside, he spoke as she walked past.

"Luke's never going to be a farmer, is he? Not after we let the old wizard talk to him."

Beru stopped and came to sit beside him. "There was never a chance of it, I think," she told him. "Even if he'd had the temprement, well, I doubt a Jedi would come out here to watch a farmer. But I think Luke's got the stars written on his heart."

"I just want him to be safe. Happy."

"I know. I wish he could have been content in this life. But you've seen him coming home from Ben's. All the stories that would just make us glad to be where we are fill him with dreams of flying away. I think the best we can do is to let him learn from a good man before he does leave."

"Right. That was Shmi's plan, and look how well that turned out."

"Ben's learned since then. He won't make the same mistakes again."

"I wish I could believe that."


Obi-Wan looked up from straightening his house (astonishing, how so little could become such a mess, when children were near), and saw Beru standing, looking bemusedly at Luke and Mara, who were playing some variant of tag that involved quite a lot of climbing over furniture.

"Good day. I see you've noticed my greatest concern."

She looked at him, surprised.

"There's no room for them to run around inside, but there's nothing alive that would feel energetic out in the heat. I'm still searching for a solution," he explained.

"Ah. Try a cave, maybe. You find them in ravines, sometimes."

"Good point." He paused, but she didn't make any moves toward calling Luke from his play. "Was there anything you wanted?"

"Well, yes. Another drain on your time, in fact. We were wondering if you might consider teaching Luke."

"...I don't believe I understand."

"He's old enough to be in school. We thought you might be willing to teach him."

Obi-Wan was struck by how incredibly forgetful he'd been, and how astonishingly obvious this idea was. He'd entirely forgotten about basic education. Last time he'd been in charge of a youngster, that had happened without his intervention.

This went right behind toys in the list of things he was incredibly embarrassed about forgetting. He had a feeling it would just keep growing.

"...This is acceptable to all of you?"

"Luke was thrilled by the idea, of course. Owen and I, well, we agreed that it would work best."

"Well, then. I can't think of any reason why not. I'll have to get books and so forth, of course. I'll have to look in to that."

"Thanks."


There was, in fact, a ravine barely a stone's throw from Obi-Wan's house. That afternoon, while Mara was catching up on meditation, he climbed down into it and looked around.

A couple of the crevices looked large enough to crawl inside, but when he investigated more thouroughly, they turned out to lead nowhere but tiny passages, which were usually already inhabited. The third time he stumbled across a den of Womp Rats and was forced to calm them down and escape rather quickly, he started to be rather discouraged. He could spend all day poking through these cracks and never find anything but wildlife. Time fore a different approach.

He closed his eyes and stepped forwards, and suddenly he was a mere Initiate, sent out blindfolded to find a treat. This was familiar territory.

It occurred to him that others might feel foolish, stepping forwards and turning as if by whim, unable to see anything. Not him. For him, it was the other way around.

He soon came again to the wall of the canyon and, putting his hand in front of him, felt a large, rough rock. It didn't seem likely that a rock was the answer to his search, but he opened his eyes anyway.

The first thing he noticed was that he had gone a remarkably short distance. He'd noticed this rock a couple times, since it was fairly massive and protruded from the wall. At the time it had seemed unimportant, barely enough of an anomaly to be notable. Now he gave it rather more attention.

It was astonishingly regular in shape, and seemed to be leaning against the wall rather than of a piece with it. Clearing the sand around the base, he found it to be standing in something which looked rather like a grove too smooth to be natural.

He set his shoulder to the side, and leaned into it.


It took a while. Nobody had done this in quite some time. The opening appeared, though, just as he'd hoped. As soon as it was wide enough, he squeezed through, blinking a few times to see into the dim tunnel. As soon as his eyes adjusted, he looked around, and his jaw dropped slightly.

It was an absolutely ideal lightsaber arena. A tightly-packed sand floor, large enough to maneuver in, high enough for flips, a couple of obstacles to be mindful of, but none of them in the center of the room. Light filtered through cracks in the front wall, so it was bright enough to see. Everything he would have asked for.

He doubted the original users had ever thought of this. He doubted he'd ever know, unless the odds and ends scattered around the room gave some clue. Nevertheless, he was grateful to them.

They would never know what a gift they'd given in preserving this cave.