CHAPTER 2

As smoke and flame curled above the horizon flames lighting up the night sky Obi-Wan knew that he was too late. When he had felt Owen Lars's death in the force he had pushed his bantha hard, using the force to urge the creature to move faster and faster to get to the Lars Homestead. Not too long after he had reached the first field vaporator Obi-Wan was fully submerged in the force, trying desperately to make out the events he could not reach. The old Jedi had reached out and felt several unknown presences in the force disappear one after another, ignoring this loss of life, he had continued to search until he felt the presence of Beru, steadfast but full of sorrow. Her presence then glowed with new resolve but, dimmed and after a burst of emotion extinguished.

Now, Obi-Wan spied from behind a vaporator near the house as Jabba's thugs loaded their damaged speeder with looted objects. Water, clothes, plants, bits of jewelry, and equipment like spare parts and droids were all strewn about illuminated by the burning homestead. Obi-Wan took his attention away from the valuables and moved to look at the Lars compound, around twenty well-armed gangsters stood near the home pulling out more loot before scorching the walls with blaster fire laughing and joking. Obi-Wan caught glimpses of their conversations with his heightened senses.

"Dammed farmers…"

"She shot me in the shoulder! And they killed three of us! Who were these people…"

"All these desert rats are too well-armed…"

"Now the rest of em' are scared, it'll teach them all to pay the new water tax."

One of the mercenaries, a Weequay, kicked a burning heap of corpses. "These desert rats will burn in hell!"

Obi-Wan began to breathe heavily in panic, he hadn't been close with the Lars' but they had been some of the only people left in his life. He hadn't wanted to believe that they were dead but, there was his proof, one body thrown on top of the other in a hasty pile, corpses blistered and scarred beyond recognition and still burning. No one left to protect Luke.

'I hate you!'

Obi-Wan gasped and struggled for air as a shadow of the past flickered through his mind. Anakin burning on Mustafar, the smell of burning flesh choking his breath, the hate, the anger, his own struggling feelings of fear, panic and sorrow. No, now was not the time to remember. Obi-Wan began to breathe slowly and calmly, bringing him back into the now and into the force letting it flow through him and help ease his pain. Obi-Wan's face became a mask, his inner turmoil only displayed through his bloodshot eyes and lingering tears. The Jedi in him had a job to do.

The Jedi and his Ben side, his survivor side, considered his options. He could confront the gangsters…

The part of him that was Ben snapped back the survivor's mantra before Obi-Wan could finish the thought, 'Jedi stand up. Jedi stand out. Jedi get caught! Jedi die!'

His Jedi side yelled back, 'Luke is in need we must help him!'

'If we expose ourselves Luke will be in greater danger.'

'Luke is in danger now!'

He shook his head trying to decide what to do. Being held back from rushing in in a panic by what remained of the Negotiator and Old Ben. Then Obi-Wan heard one of the gangsters exiting the house.

"Hey look what I found!" The weequay leader held a blaster pistol in one hand and Luke's wrist in the other. The eight-year-old struggled, trying to escape the mercenary's grasp to no avail. And as Luke screamed and kicked, they laughed, the Weequay pulled on Luke's wrist and with his other hand punched Luke directly in the face, the boy and he crumpled to the ground. The others laughed at Luke's suffering and Obi-Wan felt waves of fear and anger from the boy powerful enough to make him think of…

'Anakin!'

And suddenly Obi-Wan couldn't breathe, the Weequay squatted down over Luke's fallen form and began to taunt him.

"Not as strong as you're mom and dad kid. You're weak like them and you'll be the one to pay the next tax."

Another mercenary chuckled as Luke screamed back "You're evil! You take from all of us for no reason and you kill for no reason!"

The Weequay grinned a smug smile and slammed Luke's head into the dirt, "Evil? Kid, we protect you this is all necessary to help you."

"I hate you!" Luke howled in pain and the near him sand began to kick up, waves of anger and sadness reverberated off the boy and a surge of the force blasted the goons surrounding him off their feet and into the dirt.

Obi-Wan gazed on paralyzed in fear as somewhere in his mind Anakin came back to his thoughts, in that moment he feared Luke as images of Anakin played through his mind.

One of the enforcers near the landspeeder looked on in confusion "What the…"

And then Obi-Wan reacted, previously paralyzed by fear and shock, now there was no more time to consider what to do, he couldn't mind trick such a large group and now that Luke had displayed his force sensitivity there was no time.

Obi-Wan was upon them in moments, his lightsaber, pulled by the force from its secret compartment, activated, blazing blue in the Tatooinian twilight. Leaping in a perfect execution of form IV he sliced through the mercenaries near the speeder one after the other his only opposition was a LOM droid easily dispatched in a quick movement of Soresu deflecting its blaster bolts to disable all critical systems. Then descending upon the fallen goons he slashed at the sand in a series of dance-like steps killing them before even a shot could be fired off.

"Ben?"

Luke turned to Ben and ran towards the old hermit. Obi-Wan deactivated his lightsaber to catch the boy as Luke's legs collapsed under him. At one moment Luke appeared hopeful but then something broke inside and Obi-Wan sensed the anger and surprise turn to sorrow as Luke began to sob and cry curling into Ben for safety. After a moment Obi-Wan opened himself up to Luke and hugged the boy, accessing the force and comforting Luke helping to dissipate his sadness, as sadness was all that he could feel from Luke.

"Why are you here?" Asked Luke choking back tears.

"Because you were in trouble Luke." Replied Obi-Wan trying to keep his voice steady.

Luke sobbed, "Why aren't Uncle Owen and Auntie Beru?"

A few tears fell down Obi-Wan's face as he looked up to gaze at the burning Lars homestead, "Because I was too late, I am sorry Luke."


The next day, Obi-Wan let Luke sleep on top of his bantha the boy had cried himself to sleep and didn't need to trouble himself with cleaning up Obi-Wan's mess. Obi-Wan burned the bodies of the mercenaries in a funeral pyre and then wrapped the damaged corpses of Owen and Beru in traditional funeral wraps. It was after Obi-Wan had emptied the landspeeder and began to dig graves next to Shimi's resting place that Luke awoke. Luke didn't reply when Obi-Wan told him he couldn't help bury his aunt and uncle and just walked over to the household sitting in the shade.

When Obi-Wan finished digging the graves and buried Owen and Beru, Luke walked over carrying two wreaths of red and blue funnel flowers. They prayed in silence for Beru and Owen and Luke placed one wreath on each grave.

Obi-Wan knew that he now had to train the boy, such a traumatizing experience had made the boy reach out to the Dark Side and now Luke had to learn before dangerous mistakes were made. Together they loaded Obi-Wan's bantha with Luke's things, a few toys, and what was left of the Lars's. Then they set out from the Lars homestead to Ben Kenobi's home.


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