Even at hyperspeed, the vastness of space often took hours, days, or even weeks to traverse. Truth be told, Ben had no idea whether he was even in the same galaxy as Luke anymore, but it did not matter. Through the Force, all things were possible, Qui-Gon had once told him on Tatooine.

Apparently that included soaring through the trench of a space superweapon alongside a starfighter at a respectable fraction of lightspeed. The design of this particular fighter was unfamiliar to Ben, though it bore some resemblance to the ARC starfighters from the Clone Wars. What was familiar however, was the blue and silver dome of an old friend.

R2-D2 beeped and trilled, and Ben, though he had no physical body, smiled fondly. He only had a vague idea of what the droid was saying- Anakin had always understood the droid binary language better- but Ben could tell that R2 was warning Luke that he had better take his shot soon.

Within the cockpit, Luke was lining up his targeting computer, thumb over the trigger. Ben wasn't sure how he was aware of this this (it was probably the Force), but as surely as he knew that Luke was preparing to fire proton torpedoes into the Death Star's weak point, and that the Rebel Alliance had no time for another run, Ben knew that if Luke used the targeting computer, his bombing run would fail and the Empire's weapon would destroy the Rebels.

"Use the Force, Luke. Let go." Ben intoned, knowing the boy would hear him. "Luke, trust me."

The shadow of the Sith approaches from behind, and Ben is dimly aware of a trio of Imperial fighters pursuing Luke through the narrow trench, led by Darth Vader himself. Strangely though, this doesn't alarm him, even when R2 is shot. His attention is entirely on Luke, who's switched off his computer and is concentrating on the path ahead.

As always, the Force provides a solution, in the form of a battered Corellian freighter flying in from above to blast the Imperial fighters, killing two and sending Vader careening away.

"You're all clear, kid! Now let's blow this thing and go home!" Han Solo shouts over the comms as he pulls the Millennium Falcon up and away.

Ben watches with quiet pride as Luke inhales, preparing to fire. Even with barely any training, the boy is every bit as naturally talented as his father, drawing on the Force to guide the proton torpedoes straight down the Death Star's exhaust port and into the core of the superweapon. Only after he's fired and pulled up out of the trench does Luke let out the breath he'd been holding, flying away as the Death Star explodes.

As Luke and the Rebels fly away, the stars fade from view, replaced by the black plane Ben had found himself in after Vader had killed him. This time however, he is not alone.

"Hello, Obi-Wan." Qui-Gon Jinn looks as he did in life, a tall man with long, thick brown hair and warm blue eyes.

"Qui-Gon." Like it did with everything else, time on Tatooine had eroded away the strictures of formality between them, especially as Ben reached and then surpassed his former master's age. "It is good to see you again."

The two Jedi embrace, before the shorter one pulls away and looks around. "What is this place?"

"This is the World Between Worlds, also known as the Vergence Scatter." Qui-Gon folds his arms beneath his sleeves. "It is a place outside of and untethered from time and space. From here, one can access anywhere and anywhen that has ever been and ever will be."

"So is this where you've been ever since Naboo?" Since Maul killed you. It hung between them unsaid. It was another old pain, but this at least Ben was able to speak of without his heart feeling fit to break.

"Yes. I learned of this place from a shaman of the Whills, when she taught me how to preserve my consciousness within the Force. It is how I was able to converse with you and Master Yoda after my death, and pass on the shaman's teachings." Qui-Gon begins to walk, and Ben follows. "I was unable to complete my own training before Maul killed me."

Ben frowned. As far as he knew, he had been training to maintain his sense of identity in the Force even after physical death as Qui-Gon had. And for Qui-Gon to be able to speak to Ben, he had to have achieved that, right?

As if sensing his former apprentice's confusion, Qui-Gon spoke. "I may have been able to preserve myself in the Force, but imperfectly. Observe." He walked over to one of the circular gates that populated the plane. Like the others, this one had markings surrounding the circle, and as Qui-Gon waved his hand over them, they began to glow. Within the circle, an image faded into view, of a clearing in a snowy forest with a metal lamppost at the center.

Qui-Gon reached toward the winter landscape, but his hand was stopped as though pressing against transparisteel. "While I can activate and look through the Vergence Scatter's gates, I cannot pass through them as you have. At best, I can only speak through them to willing listeners, as I have with you during your exile."

Ben reached out with his own hand, and felt no resistance as it passed through the circle and into the cold air of the snowy clearing. He pulled his hand back, and the image faded back to nothing. "It seems I am not so limited."

"Indeed." Qui-Gon began walking again, and Ben followed.

Ben and Qui-Gon stopped at another circle. A wave of the elder Jedi's hand, and the gate activated, showing Luke getting out of his starfighter and joyfully greeting his companions. "You have set him on the right path, but he will need to find his own way for now." Qui-Gon said, shocking Ben. He held out his hand, forestalling any questions. "He is in need of training, but you are not ready to give it to him."

"But, I don't understand." Ben's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "For nineteen years, I've watched over Luke, waiting until the right time to teach him. I need to train him if he is to bring balance to the Force and restore the Jedi."

"And that is why." Qui-Gon looked at Ben sadly. "You do not see young Luke for himself, only as a means towards fixing your mistake with Anakin, just as you only saw Anakin as a duty I thrust upon you."

"Don't." Ben clenched his fists, a spark of true anger igniting within him, hotter than the mere irritation he'd felt earlier. "Anakin was my Padawan, my best friend. I loved him as a brother."

"But would you have trained him if I hadn't asked you to?"

"Asked?" Ben hisses, his composure cracking under the weight of ill-repressed anger. Force almighty, he'd forgotten how frustrating Qui-Gon could be. "You ordered me to! With your dying breath, you told me he was the Chosen One, and that he must be trained!"

Ben's voice shakes as decades-old hurts unearth themselves from within his heart. He draws in a deep, shuddering breath before continuing. "You were willing to toss me aside for Anakin. You and I both know I was not ready for the Trials, that you only told the Council I was so I wouldn't be in the way of the Padawan you really wanted, and when you couldn't train him yourself, you had me do it instead. And look how well that turned out!"

"Oh, Obi-Wan." Sorrow and remorse flow outward from Qui-Gon in a steady wave, intermingling with Ben's anger and grief in a melancholy chorus. "You think too lowly of yourself. You were the best of the Jedi, even as a Padawan. Anakin's fall to the Dark Side was not because of your shortcomings."

"So why then do you say I am not ready to train Luke?" Ben asks, his heart aching. "I've had two decades to understand my mistakes with Anakin. I won't repeat them with his son."

"No, you wouldn't." Qui-Gon agreed. "You would make new ones, like hiding the truth of his destiny and parentage from him instead of making sure he knew how important he was from the start."

Ben flinched at that. After a tense moment, he said, "It is the truth, from a certain point of view."

"Luke won't see it that way."

"No, he won't." Ben sighed. "But it's a necessary deception, to make sure his attachments don't cloud his judgment like Anakin's did."

"No, Obi-Wan, no." Qui-Gon shakes his head. "Training Luke to be a Jedi like Anakin will only repeat the mistakes of the Order. The Sith evolved while the Jedi clung to centuries of tradition and dogma. That is why we lost the war before it even began. The old ways will never be able to free the galaxy from the Empire's tyranny."

Ben gaped. A long silence passed before he finally spoke in a small voice. "So that's it then? Everything I've ever done, was it all for nothing?"

"Absolutely not." Qui-Gon reached out with a massive hand and grasped Ben's shoulder. "Luke will defeat the Sith, though not in the way that you think. But it is thanks to the foundation you have set by teaching him to trust in the Force that he will succeed."

"How can you be sure of that?" Ben asked. "Isn't the future always in motion, ever changing?"

"Through the Force, all things are possible." Qui-Gon's beard twitched in a smile. "And Luke is as much Padme's son as he is Anakin's. But do not dwell on that which you cannot control. Be mindful-"

"Of the here and now." Ben finished, rolling his eyes. "So you've told me a thousand times at least."

"Good, so you were listening." Qui-Gon beamed. "Though your destiny is no longer intertwined with that of young Luke, it continues in the magical world you've entered."

"I suppose the Force has decided someone there needs my help? Though I'm not sure how much I can do against such potent power as I've encountered there- ouch!"

Qui-Gon had flicked Ben's ear rather hard, as he often had when Obi-Wan was a rebellious and disobedient young Padawan. "Ah, you sell yourself short, Obi-Wan, even as you presume much of yourself. Perhaps it is you who is in need of help, and the Force's will is for you to find it on Earth."

What exactly his former master meant by that, Ben had no time to ask, as the World Between Worlds began to fade. Qui-Gon too began to vanish, though not without a final word. "Trust in the Force, Obi-Wan."

And with that, Ben was left floating in empty darkness.


A/N: Given the way the story begins, I felt it was necessary to address the times that Ben speaks to Luke. Fortunately, they don't talk again until Luke nearly freezes to death on Hoth, and that takes place several years after the Battle of Yavin, so this should be the last of the Star Wars scenes, at least for a while.

Speaking of that though, this seemed like a good way to explain why Ben won't appear to Luke to continue his training, though he is capable of doing so. While Ben has more or less completed the training necessary to be a Force spirit, he has his own journey to complete, which is why Qui-Gon shows up to explain that the Force has need of him elsewhere.

In the course of writing this chapter, I realized that the Kenobi show coming out very soon is very likely to introduce new information about Ben's time on Tatooine, so what I write will more likely than not contradict Star Wars canon. However, this was always the expectation, as I plan on referring to characters and events from Legends. I won't do anything truly outlandish like introduce an OC Padawan that Obi-Wan had during the Clone Wars, but neither will I waste effort trying to adhere to an evolving canon, and it's likely Ben will change from even his characterization in the Original Trilogy.