After the funeral, Anakin and I left Naboo about three or four days later. All the days went by in a sort of blur, with Anakin's becoming my Padawan, the final details to the treaty between the Gungans and Naboo being sorted out, and Senator Palaptine's ascension to becoming Chancellor. After all that was finished and complete, I found myself in a position I'd been dreading. Which was having to bid farewell to Sabe. We stood under an outcropping of roof to say our good-byes. It was raining, and I held her close.
"Promise me you'll come back," she begged. I couldn't say no, and I hoped more than I should have that I would see her again, so I promised.
"Yes. Always. I promise," I told her. I felt like something here had been set in motion, something I couldn't quite figure out. "Whether I have to take on another Sith Lord or a ten Trade Blockades, I will come back!"
"I hope you won't have to." She leaned into me. "I wish you didn't have to go. I think something bad and terrible is going to happen! I'm just not sure what."
Having to finally leave was awful. We kissed, but I sensed someone was coming so we had to say good-bye hurriedly.
I looked back at her and Naboo until we went into hyperspace.
---------------
I didn't get to fulfill my promise until ten years later. Whenever I would try to get away, a mission would come up or something. Finally, after the battle on Geonosis, Anakin said he was taking Padme (who was now a Senator) back to Naboo. So I told him he couldn't go without a chaperone, could he? He reluctantly agreed, and we were off to Naboo.
To Sabe.
I feigned an excuse to go separately from them, telling Anakin we'd be staying here until the next day, and no longer. I asked around and found where Sabe was living. When I got there, I pressed the button to let her know someone was there. The door opened.
"Yes?" she asked. Surprised, I looked at myself. Oh. I had grown a beard in the ten years we'd been apart, and my hair had grown a bit longer. I was also missing my Padawan braid.
"Hello, Sabe," I said, and her face lit up.
"Ben!" She rushed at me, and I caught her before she crashed, which would've knocked us both backward.
"Hi, love," I smiled at her, and she couldn't say anything. We stood there, just holding each other up, both of us weeping slightly. I finally got her inside, and we sat on the couch.
"I kept my promise."
"What prom... Oh! Yes. Its about time!" she answered with mock accusation. "I was about to fly to the Temple myself and drag you back home to me."
"Well, I think that might've actually been something Master Yoda hasn't seen." I teased.
We had dinner, and I called Anakin and told him that he could stay where he wanted, I found somewhere to stay. He sounded busy and preoccupied and a little embarrassed. What's he doing? I wondered.
"Sabe?" I called from the hall outside of her room.
"Yes?" she called back, poking her head out.
"Do you have a spare room I could sleep in?" She laughed.
"Come on, silly, there's room in here!" She opened the door completely. She sat on the bed. I just stood there like an idiot.
"You mean, with you?"
"Well, yeah. If you'd rather not, there is a spare room right across from here."
"No, no its just..." I trailed off. Its just I'd never shared a bed with anyone unless we were on a freezing planet and the only way to stay warm was to huddle together. Its just I've never, ever, ever slept with anyone but myself, let alone someone of the opposite gender.
She patted the spot on the bed next to her. Gingerly, I sat. We sat silently, just looking at each other. Then she kissed me.
This kiss got us lost in ourselves that night. We did something I should never have done. But, it just felt right.
I woke sweaty and disheveled the next morning. I sat there, hugging my knees, thinking.
That was wrong. I shouldn't have done it.
So?
Its against the Jedi Code! What would Qui-Gon have said? Ugh...
"Its what Sabe wanted, right?
Well, yes...
And was it nice?
Kind of...But its wrong!
Before my evil half could argue back, Sabe woke. She looked just as disheveled as I was.
"I shouldn't have..." Her hand over my mouth stopped me.
"I know. We shouldn't have. I'm sorry."
"Mmfphglm" She pulled her hand away. "Don't be sorry. You're perfectly allowed to do that. I'm not."
"I know."
She watched me from the bed as I dressed and showered. I went to the door of her home, and paused.
"Sabe?"
"Obi-Wan?"
I pulled her into a hug. She squeaked.
"I love you."
She stopped squeaking and wriggling.
"I love you, too." I left, my heart already hurting with the pain of being away.
---------------
After that one time, I tried to visit, but whenever I'd start to go, a mission would come up. I so wanted to see her. I was suffering the horrible nightmares again. I didn't see her after that one visit until after what had happened on Mustafar. Saddened by what had occurred between myself and Anakin, and grieving the death of Padme, and trying to hold off going to Tatooine with Anakin's son as long as possible, I visited Sabe. I'd went to Naboo to silently and secretly pay my respects to Padme at her funeral. On my way to leave, I'd stopped to visit Sabe. I knocked on the door. It opened.
"Hello?" asked Sabe suspiciously. She had some gray in her black hair, but she was still beautiful. "May I help you, sir?"
She didn't recognize me. I looked down at myself and could see why. I was covered in ash and had slight burns on my clothes from the battle on Mustafar. I'd also grown a beard and lost my cloak somewhere.
"Sabe, its me." I said. "It's Obi-Wan." She gaped at me.
"No..." she whispered, disbelieving. I tried to smile, but I was overcome with emotion.
"Yes, its Ben." As soon as I said, 'Ben' she gasped.
"But...but...I heard on the HoloNet you were dead! That you got killed on Utapau!" she ran forward, so part of her sentence was muffled by my tunic. She pulled back. "You smell like a fire."
"Thank you. I've been somewhere fiery today. Well, I guess the HoloNet was wrong, huh?" I said, and I hugged her. "Seems like we're still in love."
"Oh, Ben, I've missed you!" she was crying.
"Hey, hey, come on, don't cry, I'm here. I'm here," I soothed her, gently rocking side to side. Suddenly, I heard a noise from another room. "What was that?"
"Oh! Wait here!" She left, and I looked around. Her entry room was very nice, with lots of little pictures and everything. I could her HoloNet playing in the kitchen, and soothing noises from the room she'd gone into. She came out carrying a boy around one and a half.
"Wh-wh-who is that?" I asked, dropping to the floor on my knees. I had an idea, but...
"This is Deryll," she said, trying to hide a smile. "Deryll Kenobi."
"No..." I tried to find words, but I was stammering and stuttering like a child. Deryll's hair was darker than mine, but had a slight reddish shine that was barely noticeable, just like I had. He had blue-green eyes like mine, but everything else was Sabe. "Can I...?"
"Of course you can!" She laughed and handed me my baby.
"Hey, little guy," I whispered. I rocked him. "Hey Deryll." My son.
I stayed with Sabe until the next day. We sat at the table after Deryll had gone back to bed, and talked.
"Anakin did that? I can't believe it!" She replied when I told her about Anakin's betrayal. "He was such a sweet little boy..."
"Obviously, what you're like when you're young doesn't reflect what you'll turn out to be." I gave her a detailed account of my battle with my former Padawan, Padme's death, and then she told me what had happened since the last time I visited. There wasn't much. She had her hands on the table, and I covered them with mine.
"I suppose we don't have to hide anymore, huh?" I remarked as we were getting ready for bed. She tossed her head back and laughed, just like she used to.
That night was peaceful.
The next morning, I woke before her and watched her sleep. I guess she sensed me, because she startled awake.
"Good morning, love," I greeted her softly. Wailing came from Deryll's room, and Sabe started to rise. I was up and out of bed before she even had the covers off.
"Still as fast as ever, I see." She gestured towards the door. "His room is right across the hall."
I enetered his room and he was standing up in his crib, screaming. Lifting him out, I sensed something. No, no! He can't! If he gets discovered...
"Sabe?" I called.
"Yes?" Her answer floated out of her room.
"Is Deryll Force-sensitive?" I waited anxiously for her to come in.
"What? No!" she said defensively.
"Why does he do that then?" Deryll was moving his toys around without touching them.
"No..." she whispered.
"He won't get discovered. Trust me."
We spent the morning making breakfast, trying to not think about the possibility that Deryll might get discovered.
"Remember those dreams I told you about?" I asked her. She turned towards me.
"The nightmares? Yes."
"All but one has come true."
"Oh, Obi-Wan..."
"The Temple was burning, Qui-Gon died, and I was battling Anakin on a lava planet. Everything was the same. The only one that hasn't come true was me dying."
"Ben, don't talk like that! You won't die until you're old and fusty and crotchety!" She was reassuring me as much as herself. When we finished cleaning up from breakfast, I told her I had to go.
"I will try and visit, but I don't know if I'll be able to."
"You don't have to leave!"
"I do." I told her about Luke, Anakin's son, and that I had to look after him. She finally agreed that I should go, and brought Deryll to say good-bye.
"Good-bye, son. Try to not annoy your mother too much." I brought him closer to me. "May the Force always be with you, son. I love you," I whispered and then set him on the floor. He looked solemnly up at me.
"Day, I wuv you! Stay wiv Momma and me!" he begged. It took all of my willpower not to stay.
I turned to Sabe, who was already crying. I started to cry too. "Sabe," I began. She rushed to me. "Sabe, I love you. I will never stop loving you. Take this," I handed her a holocommunicator and a holoprojector. "And whenever you want to talk, use the communicator. I put some pictures of from when we first met, when I was a child, and of Padme on the projector. Use it to remember, okay?" She nodded and took them.
"I'll miss you, Ben! I'll miss you forever!"
"Right back at you," I said, trying to make her smile. It worked. We kissed and I ran my hands through her hair. She was sad. I reached behind me to open the door, and silently I left.
I took her nickname for me as my real name. That's what I'm known by now. Ben Kenobi, the hermit.