Edit: 5/17/2020 dialogue tags fixed.
"They're called Stormtroopers."
Ben's world had fallen out from under his feet once more. The flickering form of the cl-
They weren't clone troopers. Not anymore. He couldn't call them that. In fact, the longer that Ben stared at the image, the more he realized something sad.
The armor was blank. There were no markings on them. Their individuality was gone.
"They're being sent here within the week on order of the Empire," Owen informs the two. Ben can feel the stares of the couple on him and he finally looks up.
"What do we know about them?" His voice cracks but he pays no mind to it. He's not hiding how he feels about this.
These were his men. They were his friends. They were-
"The one's the Empire has right now are all the original clones from the GAR." Owen supplies and Ben feels his heart stutter. His knees buckle and he falls to the ground.
The realization that he could know some of the men coming to Tatooine-
"Ben?" Beru's voice breaks him out of his thoughts and he looks at her. He swallows thickly, knowing he would have to share his thoughts with them.
"I'm just thinking that there's a possibility some of the men coming here could have been part of my battalion." He watches them both flinch at the idea.
"You're not leaving this place." The sudden demand startles Ben as he focuses solely on Owen. "They could recognize you. What happens if they do?"
Ben's not as surprised at the growl in Owen's voice as he would have been a week or two ago.
"Then they recognize me." He whispers out. "Owen, you can't keep me in here. You know you can't." Ben's tongue flicks out onto his lips. "I'm going to have to go back to my home." He meets both of their gazes unflinchingly. Ben can see the argument they both want to start in their minds, and he stops them before they can utter a sound. "It's too dangerous for me to stay here. I won't let them harm you or Luke because they recognized me." Ben rises shakily to his feet and grabs the small bag that he had brought with him.
He tosses his meager possessions into the bag without care for where or how they land.
"I appreciate all you've done for me, I truly do." His apology is sincere, but Beru and Owen won't have it.
"You're not leaving." It's a harsh demand that has Ben stopped in his tracks. His fingers twitched above the projector he showed Luke a few days ago. "I don't care what you think. You're not going out there by yourself. You'll be safer here. We can hide you!"
"Then what?!" Ben surprises himself with the raw power in his voice. "They find out you're hiding an enemy of the Empire in your home! What will they do?" His chest heaves with the force of his words and he watches them think. "They will kill you before either killing me or taking me straight to the Emperor." Oh, how the thought aches in his heart. "I won't let them kill you." It's a promise that causes his voice to go softer.
Ben should have known by now that Beru and Own Lars were not ones that backed down from helping someone.
That's how Ben found himself still in their home a week later.
That's how everything started to slowly get better and worse.