I was watching Rebels with my friend and somehow came up with this ridiculous AU. Thanks to Ghost_Owl on AO3 for betaing! Enjoy!

Somewhere in the endless dunes of the desert, the Force wailed a faint note of distress. It didn't scream out immediate danger, but it was persistent nonetheless. To Ben Kenobi, it felt like a malfunctioning communicator beeping at a piercing frequency. He could no longer avoid previous night's premonitions, and so pulled on his worn-out robes, resolving himself to the journey.

Last night, the Force had whispered to Ben of a boy named Ezra who dreamt of a savior who no longer existed. Didn't the boy realize it wasn't his time?

The Force had also warned him softly of a long-lost rival seeking purpose. But Obi-Wan Kenobi had crumbled away ages ago. Didn't Maul realize he was too late?

First, Ben needed to find the boy. He didn't venture outside of his hut too often except to visit Luke, but unlike Ezra, he had experience with Tatooine's cruel deserts. The boy wouldn't have prepared for a sandstorm when rushing off to find Master Kenobi, and so Ben grabbed a medkit and a canteen of water. He had failed one boy years ago, and wouldn't fail another.

Before heading out the door, Ben pondered the second half of his vision. He was familiar with furious golden eyes haunting his dreams, but Maul's had not been the ones plaguing him for a very long time. Perhaps he could finally make right just one of the mistakes of his past… He dug his lightsaber out of an ever-present sand pile, gave it a perfunctory dusting, and strapped it onto its old home on his belt. With the long-forgotten weight at his side, Ben set off into the brewing storm.

After many years of exile, Ben had gotten used to hearing voices. He most often thought he heard his former master, but his former Padawan's voice was the most haunting. At first, Ben had submitted himself to the voices, punishing himself with Anakin's endless screams of hatred. He deserved the pain. But soon Tatooine had softened his suffering into more of an ever-present weariness, and so Ben began to tune the voices out more often than not.

So when he thought he heard another voice familiar in his memories, he gave it no thought. Ben had no time for hallucinations; he needed to get to Ezra, who was probably already half-dead. But strangely enough, instead of fading away, the voice only increased in volume as Ben drew closer.

"...And then there was the time that I captured the great Count Dooku himself! He fought valiantly, but of course he was no match for—Ezra! My boy, are you listening to me?" The figure in the distance shoved at his companion, who was staggering miserably alongside a sand-weathered droid. It can't be...

As Ben continued onwards, however, the figure became unmistakable through the haze of sand. Despite the impossibility of it all, the Weequay pirate kept walking towards him with a trademark jaunt in his step.

Ben took a deep breath. "...Hondo?" he croaked out, and the pirate froze for a second before grinning and charging forward.

"Obi-Wan!" Hondo exclaimed as he nearly barreled Ben over with a hug. "See, Ezra, I told you I could find him!" Ben winced at the overwhelming sensation. He opened his mouth to correct Hondo on the name, but oddly, he was just too relieved to care. The Force prickled with unease for a moment, but Ben pushed it aside. He felt… lighter, somehow. When was the last time somebody had touched him like this?

Beside Hondo, Ezra stood precariously and stared ahead at Ben, eyes wide in undeserved awe. His right hand clenched tightly around what appeared to be a pair of holocrons. His entire body was covered in sand, as was the astromech at his side. He opened his mouth but only managed to cough, looking understandably feeble at the mercy of the dunes. What had Ezra been thinking, being so reckless?

Memories tried to push past the floodgates, but Hondo's incessant chatter kept them at bay. "When Ezra here told me that Obi-Wan Kenobi was still alive, I almost didn't believe him, but of course you survived, my old friend!"

"Since when have we been friends, Hondo?" It felt all too easy to slip back into the role of Obi-Wan, bantering and ignoring his woes.

"Nonsense! We've always been friends, you've just forgotten in your old age!"

As Hondo continued his yammering, Ezra suddenly dropped to his knees. "Master Kenobi… I need to tell you…" he whispered before collapsing onto the sand.

The Force spiked in alarm, and Ben tried to wriggle out of Hondo's hug to grab the medkit, but couldn't escape from the iron grip.

"You know, Obi-Wan, I comm you every year for Life Day, just like old times, but you never pick up! Why didn't you want to talk to your old pal Hondo?"

Any relief Ben had felt initially had faded away into familiar exasperation. "Hondo, I don't even own a comm anymore; I apologize but an old Life Day tradition is hardly worth revealing my location to the entire galaxy. But there are more important matters to deal with at the moment. Young Ezra has fainted from dehydration and needs urgent medical attention, so could you kindly let me go?"

Hondo hesitated for a moment but released Ben before turning to his companion for what was likely the first time in hours. "I'm sure Ezra will be perfectly fine; he's a very hardy boy."

Ben sighed as he rifled through the medkit for the hypo. "I believe you are forgetting the differences between human and Weequayan heat tolerance. He needs rest and water, and so I must get him out of the suns immediately. I did not expect additional company—" well, not counting Maul "—but you're free to follow along."

"Alright, but don't think I'm forgetting about the missed comms! There is never an excuse for avoiding a Life Day comm!"

The stars shone bright in the tapestry of Tatooine's sky. Ben glanced up at them occasionally as he tended to the fire, just to remind himself that there was still some beauty on this barren world. The gentle crackling of the fire provided a peaceful accompaniment to Hondo's decidedly unpeaceful ramblings. Ben had stopped speaking an hour prior, but having a voice speak to him outside of the back of his head for once comforted him as he healed Ezra.

Most of the novelty of reuniting with Hondo had worn off as Ben remembered more and more of why he had never truly considered them friends, but he was past the point of caring. Hondo at the very least seemed to delight in having another ear to tell his tall tales to. The world faded away as Ben poked at the fire again and Hondo continued to ramble nonsensically, trying as always to capture an elusive sliver of peace.

Across from Ben, Ezra began to stir and yawned as he uncurled his body. Ezra paid no attention to Hondo's continued chatter, presumably having heard the stories many times before. He scanned across the campsite and startled when he made eye contact with Ben.

"You're in the wrong place, Ezra Bridger," Ben said with a slight chuckle, trying to hide his apprehension at finding a way for Ezra and Hondo to leave him before it was too late.

Hondo paused long enough to say, "It's rude to interrupt when I'm speaking, Obi-Wan, didn't anybody ever teach you?" before resuming his spiel.

Ezra's jaw dropped. "Master Kenobi? It's really you?"

"Nice to meet you," Ben said, expertly evading the misnomer. He would just waste time explaining the semantics of abandoned identity. He could pretend to be Obi-Wan one more time if it would keep everyone safe. "And when you have your strength, I will help you on your way."

The boy harrumphed in indignation at being dismissed. "On my way? No, I came here to find you… To warn you." Ezra spared a glance at the lifeless holocrons beside him and biting his lip.

"About Maul?"

"Yes!" Ezra exclaimed, but confusion quickly dawned on him. Ben offered him a small reassuring smile. "Uhh, you know?"

"One doesn't survive as long as I have by being foolish or unprepared," Ben said. Past encounters with Maul came to him unbidden, and the sound of a lightsaber puncturing flesh echoed faintly in the Force. He forced himself to take a deep breath. Don't get lost in the memories, don't get lost in the memories, don't get lost… "Maul is an old adversary, and a persistent one at that."

"Ah, yes, of course, how could I ever forget about Maul?" Suddenly, Hondo was at Ezra's side, gripping one of his shoulders. Ben winced, having forgotten momentarily about him when he let his monologue fade into the background of the fated night. "He was another of your old friends! How's he doing these days?"

Ben rolled his eyes. "Maul was most certainly not a friend of mine. We have… quite an unpleasant history."

"So do him and I! That scumbag and his brother swindled and then murdered half my crew!" Hondo explained, shaking his fist emphatically.

Ezra's eyes narrowed. "Hondo, you know I only commed you for a ride to Tatooine because you said you were best friends with Master Kenobi and could help me find him. I don't need you trying to get revenge on Maul and putting Master Kenobi in danger."

Hondo laughed heartily. "My boy, you know I would do anything for credits, but I don't mess with the big crime syndicate guys anymore. Too much trouble for the money that they would steal from me afterward anyway."

A further narrowing of Ezra's eyes told Ben that he wasn't totally convinced of Ben's safety yet, and so Ben just sighed. "Maul led you here to me, Ezra. He used your desire to do good to deceive you, and in doing so he has altered the course of many things. He knows your fears, your heart, and he manipulated the truth, which has led you here, where you should never have been.

"But the holocrons, they tell the truth!" Ezra yelled. Ben recoiled slightly, unwillingly recalling a similarly headstrong boy deadset in his beliefs of truth and lies.

He resigned himself to giving the lecture. "Do they? The truth is often what we make of it." The Force only knew how many times Ben himself had been led astray by his own foolish assumptions... "You heard what you wanted to hear, believed what you wanted to believe. And now, the only one who has gained anything from all of this is—"

"Me."

Ben turned to find Maul glaring directly at him, but Maul's brow furrowed in confusion when he spotted Hondo. "What is he doing here?"

Ben sighed yet again, and turned to Ezra and Hondo. "You must go now. Both of you." They exclaimed in unison:

"But Master Kenobi, I led him to you, we can fight him together—"

"But Obi-Wan, how come you're the one who'll get all the glory of killing him—"

Ben held up his hand to signal them to stop. "I will mend this old wound. Ride north. That is your way out. Your way home."

Hesitating, Ezra gazed worriedly at Ben and Maul and grit his teeth, but resigned himself to leave and mounted the dewback waiting nearby.

Unlike his young companion, however, Hondo planted his feet in the sand. Ben glared at him. "Hondo… You must leave me. I will be fine on my own, as I have been for many years."

"I'm not worried about you, my old friend, just angry about my stolen glory!" Hondo called out, before slowly but surely walking away from the fire into the darkness.

Maul still stared, just as perplexed as when he had first arrived. "Kenobi. Things are not how they should be. This is not what was foretold! How can he be here? How can you be here?!" Maul exclaimed, his voice crescendoing into a growl that rang out in the empty desert night.

"No matter what, this is not how it should be, Maul. Look at us now. The galaxy has moved on." Ben tried to make his voice as even and calm as possible. He had missed the adrenaline of pre-duel banter, but he still did not wish to fight Maul. He had no use for revenge, only for protection.

Nevertheless, he subtly moved his hand to his side to grab his lightsaber for the inevitable confrontation, only to find—

Oh, no.

Ben could've sworn he had grabbed the dusty saber when he had ventured out that morning. E chu ta, Hondo must have taken it to sell, and now he and the saber were far out of reach, if the saber hadn't already been sold for an exorbitant amount of credits.

For a moment, Ben's thoughts strayed to another lightsaber hidden away in his hut, untouched for over a decade, its kyber still screaming out in pain after all that time—no. He couldn't. It will not come to that, he feverishly convinced himself, hoping against hope that somehow the night wouldn't end with the fight he had witnessed in his dreams. After all, the Force had already nudged things ever so slightly off track…

He smoothed over the brief flash of panic on his face and stared back at Maul's burning golden gaze. Maul looked quizzically at Ben for a second, but continued on with his unhinged monologuing about murdering a long-dead man.

"If you define yourself by your power to take life, a desire to dominate, to possess, then you have nothing." Despite himself, Ben's fingers itched for the old comfort of his saber, but all he could do was stroke his beard, a nervous habit he had never been able to break.

"And what do you have?" Maul yelled as he ignited his lightsaber, extinguishing the flames carelessly, sending sparks fleeing. The only illumination of the night left was Maul's crimson blade; the only sound to be heard for miles was the sizzle of plasma.

"Why come to this place? Not simply to hide. Oh, you have a purpose here," Maul snarled. No matter how hard he tried, Ben couldn't stop his breath from quickening ever-so-slightly. Yes, he had a purpose, and that purpose was all that mattered anymore. If he couldn't to protect Luke, then what was he worth? "Perhaps you are protecting something. No. Protecting someone—"

Maul's words died on his tongue as a blue beacon of light pierced right through his chest. The Force and Ben yelped in shock, but Maul's eyes only widened as he tumbled to the ground and Ben caught him. Maul's fall revealed an equally befuddled pirate, whose jaw dropped as he held Ben's lightsaber loosely in a forward stabbing position. Nobody said a word, the air filled with only the hum of the saber and the heavy breathing of them all, until Hondo spoke and reality came crashing back down on them.

"Um… I'm sorry?"

Ben felt a bizarre need to laugh at the absurdity of it all, as his oldest rival lay dying in his arms and one of his oldest friends stood to the side with Ben's own saber. Instead, he settled for incoherent babbling. "Hondo, I—Why would you—How did you—What?! Hadn't you left?!"

Hondo grinned. "Well, I started to leave, but I got the strangest feeling that I had to stick around. Mama Ohnaka always taught me to trust my instincts, so I waited and listened through your unnecessarily long speeches at each other. Then, when Maul said the word 'someone', I just knew I had to turn on your fancy laser sword. So, I did it! Anyway, shouldn't you be thanking me for taking care of it?"

Ben's thoughts spun around him at a million parsecs per hour. The Force wobbled on its axis, but instead of feeling off-kilter, it strangely felt more at balance than it had ever been since the Fall of the Republic. He couldn't process any of it, so he settled for yelling at Hondo again. That, at least, felt familiar.

"Why were you planning on leaving me here with Maul without my lightsaber?"

At that, Hondo grimaced slightly. "Well, you know, it's a lightsaber! They sell for quite a few credits nowadays! Surely you can't blame an old friend for simply making the most economically logical decision."

Maul clearly hadn't been listening to the bickering of the past minute, as his eyes glazed over and the Living Force slowly trickled out of his body. But he finally managed to croak out, "Kenobi," startling Ben's attention back to the man currently dying in his arms, a position all-too-familiar for him. It struck Ben as ironic, remembering that the last two people to die in such a way had been murdered by the man he now held.

"Is he the Chosen One?"

Relief flooded belatedly over Ben as he realized Luke would be safe. But before he could respond in the affirmative, Hondo spoke up with a grin.

"I've never been called the Chosen One before, but I'm quite flattered that you think of me so highly! I always knew that Hondo Ohnaka was destined for great things, but to hear it from somebody else, especially somebody who I just killed, is such an honor—"

"Oh Force, just let me die!" Maul begged, and with that, the Force finally snuffed out his flame of life. Ben exhaled and brushed his hand gently over Maul's face, closing the ever-tortured golden eyes for the very last time.

Hondo scoffed. "What did I say?"

Ben simply gazed back up at Hondo, witnessing the Force spiral a fresh web of possibility around them both. He smiled. "Perhaps you would be interested in sticking around for a little while longer, my old friend?"

Hondo grinned roguishly in glee, slinging an arm over his shoulder. "Oh, my dear Obi-Wan, there is nothing in the world I would enjoy more! Although… perhaps now that I have proven myself proficient with your lightsaber, you could maybe allow me the honor of holding onto it for just a bit longer?"

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. Things were not as they should have been. And yet, he decided, perhaps the galaxy would be better off because of it all.