Chapter 2

Mos Eisley, Tatooine

"Princess… Princess are you ok?" Leia heard as she regained consciousness,"Princess it's me, Carth. Are you ok?"

"I-I'm fine. Just… a little dazed," Leia's head was pounding," What happened?"

"That smack to your head did more damage than I thought. We escaped the destruction of the Endar Spire but when the escape pod crashed into the ground, you were knocked out. Luckily I wasn't seriously damaged and was able to drag you into an abandoned house. The Sith have taken control of Tatooine. Their fleet is in orbit around the planet, they've declared martial law, and they've imposed a planet-wide quarantine," Carth explained to a confused Leia.

"Any sign of Artoo or Threepio?" Leia asked, still holding on to her head," We can't let the Sith find them."

"No but outside of them, we are the only survivors. Besides I don't think they're looking for the droids. Vader thinks you have the plans, which is why we need to lay low."

"We need to find those droids before something happens to them. I think we should ask around. Maybe the cantina could be a good place to find information. Nobody there should be suspicious about us and we would be lost in a sea of people so no Sith could find us," Leia proclaimed.

"Fine, I'm supposed to follow your orders but I don't think it is wise. However I also don't see any thing else we could do," Carth gave in.

Jundland Wastelands, Tatooine

Artoo wandered through the endless chasms of Tatooine. The droid didn't know where to find this Obi-Wan Princess Leia had told him of but he kept on looking. He searched everywhere but to no avail. Suddenly screams echoed throughout the canyon Artoo was in. He was ambushed by a bunch of mysterious creatures, Sand People. Then the attackers were dragging the droid away before the stopped suddenly and scattered in fear. In their place came some Gamorreans. They seized the droid and carried him away.

From a ridge nearby, Luke watched all this unfold with his binoculars. He cursed under his breath when he saw it and then heard C-3PO scream. When he turned around, he was hit in the face by a Tusken Raider's graffi stick. He fell to the ground, knocked unconscious. The beasts then commenced in tearing C-3PO apart and scrounging through Luke's landspeeder for valuables. They were interrupted by a whistle. When they heard it, they left quickly.

In the distance, C-3PO saw a robed figure. The figure got closer and closer until it was right next to Luke. It picked up Luke and put him in the landspeeder. It then walked over to C-3PO, allowing C-3PO to see that it was an old man. The man took the broken droid and its detached arm to the landspeeder as well. Finally, he drove off into the desert.

Carth and Leia had asked around in the cantina located in Mos Eisley. They found out that an astromech droid that was in great condition had been announced as the grand prize of Jabba the Hutt's Annual Pod Race. The problem was that neither Carth nor Leia could drive a podracer. They would need to find some way to get the prize without racing in it themselves.

Luke awoke in a raggedy, old hut. In front of him sat the old hermit Ben Kenobi.

"I was beginning to wonder when you would wake up," he told Luke.

"Ben... Ben Kenobi? Boy am I glad to see you," the young man said as he rose.

"Tell me young Luke, what brings you out this far?" Ben inquired while helping Luke get up.

"I was following a astromech droid called R2-D2. He was searching for a man named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Is he a relative of yours? Do you know what he's talking about?"

"I haven't been called by that name in a long time. A long time. It was before you were even born," Ben said as he started gazing off, as if remembering the last time someone had called him that name.

"Artoo had a message for you. Something about the Republic and a princess. You wouldn't know anything about it would you?" Luke asked.

"Ah, you see I was once a Jedi Knight. I fought in the Clone Wars, alongside your father. He was a Jedi too."

"You knew my father? My uncle always told me he was a navigator on a spice freighter but he was actually a Jedi? Why didn't my uncle tell me?" Luke continued questioning the wise man.

"Your uncle didn't agree with your father's ideals. He thought he was protecting you by not telling you but he was really keeping you from your true self. Which reminds me," Ben got up out of his chair and walked over to a trunk," I have something for you. It used to belong to your father. Your father wanted you to have it when you were old enough but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow me on some wild adventure like your father used to."

He handed Luke a cylindrical piece of metal with a button on it," What is it?"

"It's your father's lightsaber. It's the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy as a blaster but instead a weapon of elegance," Ben informed Luke as Luke turned the lightsaber on.

A blue blade shot out of the metal cylinder Luke held. He swung it around a few times, admiring its grace.

"It's from a more civilized age. For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Republic. Before the dark times... before the Empire," Ben told Luke.

"How did my father die?" Luke asked after suddenly being struck with curiosity.

"A young Jedi Knight named Darth Vader, who was a padawan of mine before he turned to evil, fell to the dark side and helped the Empire destroy the Jedi. He betrayed and murdered your father. The Jedi are almost completely extinct now. Little still know the ways of the force."

"The force? What's that?" a confused Luke asked the former Jedi Knight.

"The force is what gives a Jedi -or Sith- their powers. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us and binds the galaxy together," he revealed.

Luke shook his head in astonishment. The two then sat there in silence for a time before Ben spoke again," I could teach you the ways of the force, if you wish. You could become a Jedi, like your father before you."

Luke pondered on this but answered," I don't know if I could do it. I have to help on the farm. Uncle Owen needs help, I can't just abandon him."

"Come now, that is your uncle talking. Tell me how you really feel."

"I-I don't know… wait Uncle, he and Aunt Beru must be worried about me. I have to get back home," Luke ran out of Ben's house and to the landspeeder.

He sped off before Ben could catch up. In the rush, Luke had forgotten C-3PO. Luke looked into the sky and saw smoke rising in the area where his house was located. He went even faster toward his home, suddenly terrified that something had befallen his family. When he arrived, he found a burning house with two smoldering corpses beside it.

Luke returned to Ben's house in tears. Ben told Luke that he had heard a rumor that a droid of Luke's description had been put up as the award for a pod race. Ben asked Luke if he could race in it, telling him that his father had been the best pilot he'd ever known and had once won the Boonta Eve Classic pod race. Luke said he could but they would need a sponsor and a podracer. Ben directed him to Mos Eisley, there they would surely find both.