Chapter 20

Sabine POV

When the Absolution landed on Tatooine, both Sabine and Ezra were immediately off of it, scanning the environment with their rangefinders for any sign of Maul. While neither of them really expected him to be right at their landing zone, they knew the Zabrak too well to put it past him.

Ezra had landed the ship in a part of the planet called the Jundland Wastes. It wasn't a very hospitable area, but Tatooine wasn't known for having very polite inhabitants. The place they were currently at was supposedly going to help keep Jawas (small, brown-robed and hooded scavengers common on many desert planets) from trying to scrap their ship, though Ezra had promised Sabine that the Absolution had a few surprises in store in case they tried anyway.

Looking around and scanning for life signs, Sabine said, "I'm seeing plenty of small wildlife, mostly womp rats, but nothing humanoid."

Ezra nodded and looked off into the distance before announcing, "I see a sandstorm at point six. It's blocking the exit to the canyon. I'd suggest we fly over it, but it's probably best if we don't use our jetpacks much around all this sand. We'll have to go through it."

"Terrific," Sabine said sarcastically as she used the zoom-in feature on her rangefinder to view the sandstorm Ezra had mentioned.

Just then, a large shape appeared in front of her, obscuring her view, accompanied by a loud, challenging yell. Sabine jumped in surprise and quickly put up her rangefinder antenna to see what was right in front of her, and she saw that her and Ezra had quickly been surrounded by a number of men in sand-colored cloaks and full-head masks and goggles, all of them wielding either long sticks or blaster rifles, and the whole group was yelling loudly in sync with one another, some sort of ringing, rhythmic sound emitted deep in their throats.

Immediately, Sabine and Ezra both activated their jetpacks and flew up on top of the Absolution to get out of reach, but the men, clearly some sort of primitive natives, quickly brought up their rifles and began to fire at them. Sabine activated her energy shield to deflect the blasts and drew one of her pistols to return fire, hearing Ezra do the same beside her, but the blasts hitting her shield shook her arm with every impact.

"Their rifles are powerful. These shields will overheat soon unless we get in close," Sabine called to Ezra in warning.

Next to her, Ezra absorbed a red blast of energy in his shield and said, "'Nothing humanoid', huh?"

Sabine rolled her eyes beneath her helmet and defended herself, "They weren't in sight when I said it!"

Ezra scoffed. "What, do they just sit on top of mountains all day to jump on unsuspecting travelers?"

"Are we going to fight them or what?" Sabine called impatiently as she heard her shield begin to whine under the continuous onslaught.

Ezra immediately dropped the humor and called out, "Rotating skies!"

Sabine nodded in understanding and activated her jetpack once more, deactivating her shield and drawing her second pistol as she and Ezra flew in opposite directions, one going left and the other going right. They hovered in a circle around the natives on the ground and rained down fire upon them with their blasters. The natives continued trying to shoot them, but hitting them in flight proved too difficult for them, and the panic on the ground as their numbers quickly began to drop didn't help.

In short time, the two Mandalorians had successfully cut the natives down to only a half dozen, who all dropped their weapons and scrambled over one another trying to escape.

Sabine landed next to Ezra on the ground once again and commented, "I don't suppose you thought to use the Force during all that?"

Ezra spun his blasters and holstered them as he responded, "No, I didn't. I have the Force. That doesn't make me a Jedi."

Sabine chuckled as she looked back into the distance at the sandstorm. "We should cover up our jetpacks before we go into that," she noted.

Ezra nodded and walked to one of the fallen natives. "Not to be disrespectful to the dead, but these cloaks are perfect for keeping sand out," he said as he pulled the cloaks off a couple of their bodies.

Shortly after, the two Mandalorians walked through the sandstorm without much concern. They had tightly wrapped up their jetpacks in the cloaks of the natives. They both used the same Imperial model jetpack, which was luckily very streamlined and thus easily covered up.

As they walked, Ezra called back to her, "Are you doing alright?"

Having had only one thing on her mind as they'd traveled through the storm, Sabine complained, "This storm is gonna seriously damage my paint job!"

Ezra paused for a moment and responded, "O…kay. Is that seriously your biggest concern? I can't see a thing in this."

"Don't forget that I'll have to fix yours as well, Kryze," Sabine warned, and Ezra groaned.

"I don't feel comfortable without my armor on. Couldn't I just fix it myself some other time?" he asked hopefully.

"Neither do I, and no, you can't," Sabine answered. "No one's touching my paint job except me. And if you try, I'll know."

Ezra remained silent after that, and Sabine guessed that he was scowling unhappily, but she didn't care. She was very possessive of her work, and frankly, she didn't trust Ezra not to mess it up if he tried to fix it himself. Everyone thought painting was easy until they actually did it, and Sabine wouldn't let him ruin one of her favorite masterpieces.

Ezra POV

They'd thought that the sandstorm was bad. What was worse was getting out of it.

Shortly after stepping out of the massive cloud of swirling dust, both Ezra and Sabine began to feel like they were baking inside their own armor. Tatooine had two scorching suns that beat down upon the planet at most hours of the day. Even the nights could be warm, but at least they were cooler than the daytime.

After hours of walking, as he noticed the suns preparing to set, Ezra suggested, "Maybe… maybe we should take a rest stop. Continue after the… suns go down."

Sabine leaned against his shoulder and responded tiredly, "Where are we… going to rest? There's nothing… around in any direction. If we stop… we might not get back up."

Looking around, Ezra noticed that she was correct. There was nothing but endlessly stretching dunes of sand in all directions.

Growling in frustration, he asked, "What was our plan here? Roam this desert until we accidentally run into someone else doing the same thing, then fight to the death?"

Sabine didn't answer, simply took a few more shaky steps forward before her legs fell out from under her, and Ezra fell down right next to her, their helmeted heads laying by one another in the sand.

"In this heat… our armor makes it too hot. We're gonna get heatstroke out here," Sabine said.

Ezra nodded in agreement, then turned his head sideways and pointed out, "The storm is coming our way."

Sabine groaned. "I'd love the shade, but we're going to get buried if we stay here."

Ezra nodded and began to pull himself to his feet, grunting from the effort, and offered a hand to Sabine to help her up, which she gratefully took. They walked on, relying on one another for continued strength.

Their progress was slow and nearly impossible to determine, and the sandstorm quickly reached them once more. Once they were back in the dust, they lost all sense of direction, but they continued to go on in a straight line.

After a while, however, Ezra began to question why they were even here. He didn't care about Kenobi. He didn't even care about Maul enough to follow him all the way out here. But he did care about Sabine, and now they might die out here because of his determination to do this alone. They were on their last bits of strength and had no shelter, no clear objective, no provisions, and no way of escaping this storm. Finally, they both collapsed to their knees and Ezra tried to protectively wrap his arms around Sabine, feeling her do the same to him.

In desperation, Ezra sent out his senses in the Force to anyone who might be listening and found a single, dimly glowing light not too far from where they currently were, and it was slowly coming closer.

Not knowing or caring who it was, only that it wasn't the Empire or Maul, Ezra latched onto it and forced a thought into their mind, saying, Please. Help Sabine. The last thing he did before he lost all strength was show the presence a clear image of Sabine. When he finally lost consciousness, he was satisfied to know that the image of Sabine might be the last thing he ever saw.

Line Break

When Ezra next opened his eyes, it was nighttime. It was surprising enough that he had woken at all, but what was even more surprising was the setting he found himself in. Large rocks had been dragged over to make a small circle around a campfire, and Ezra was laying against one of them, propped up against it and sitting on the ground. He quickly determined that his helmet was still on, hiding his open eyes, so he discreetly began to scan his surroundings without moving his head.

Sabine layed on the ground next to him, unmoving, but Ezra was relieved to see that her chest rose and fell. She was still breathing. The only other living creature in sight was a large green dewback that stood off to the side, a makeshift wooden seat on its back for riding.

He still had all of his weapons on his belt. In fact, there were no visible abnormalities present except for the fire.

Suddenly, a voice right across the fire from Ezra spoke, saying, "I expected many strange things to happen while I was here."

Ezra tensed slightly at the sound, preparing to quickly draw his blaster if necessary, but did not move. He didn't know who the voice was speaking to, but he wasn't about to let the speaker know that he was awake. The voice had come from a man in tan robes and a dark brown cloak with a hood over his head. Underneath the hood, Ezra could see that the man had a white beard with only slight streaks of auburn hair.

The man continued speaking as he calmly stoked the fire with a stick. "But I must confess, I didn't expect to see a Mandalorian in this place. Much less two. And certainly not one carrying that blade at your waist."

Finally, Ezra realized that the man was speaking to him, somehow already aware that he was conscious, and he looked at him fully. The man lifted his head and looked directly at him with piercing blue eyes.

Suddenly suspecting who the old man was, Ezra asked, "Kenobi?"

The man did not accept Ezra's claim, but neither did he deny it. He simply continued speaking, saying, "And above all, I never thought I would meet a Mandalorian that was Force-sensitive. You are quite the anomaly, my friend."

Suddenly in a rush to be going, Ezra said, "Master Kenobi, we're not… We're here for an old… acquaintance of yours."

"Yes, Maul is here," Kenobi said, seeming completely unconcerned.

Ezra frowned in confusion and said, "Er… We think he's here to kill you, Jedi. Thank you for helping us, but you really should be going."

"He does indeed seek my death, but I will be going nowhere," Kenobi said. "Maul is an old adversary, and a persistent one at that. Our confrontation has been a long time coming. We have been in a deadly cycle for many years, and now we are two old men still foolishly stuck in the same patterns. It is past time it ended."

At that time, Sabine stirred and woke with a groan. Her arms grasped at something that wasn't there, and then she glanced around in a panic for a moment before seeing Ezra and relaxing. She then looked over at Kenobi and her eyes widened. "Master Kenobi?" she questioned.

The old Jedi nodded and said, "Greetings, Sabine Wren. Now that you are both awake, I will help you on your way."

Ezra began to climb to his feet, only too eager to be going, but Sabine said, "Wait! Master Kenobi, we came here to help you."

"He thinks he can handle Maul, Sabine," Ezra told her.

"I will do only what I must. No more, no less. But I will not be leaving this place," Kenobi said adamantly.

"Why?" Sabine asked. "The galaxy could really use someone like you these days. Jedi are few, and the Empire is everywhere. I know you're scared, but we need you!"

"This Jedi is no fighter, Sabine," Ezra said, trying to discourage her from attempting to convince him to accompany them.

Kenobi frowned at him but told Sabine, "This Mandalorian's mind is well-guarded, but I sense that he doesn't like me much. But he's correct that my fighting days are all but done, and you already have all that you need to fight the Empire, Miss Wren. You were not brought here to help me. You were brought here for one purpose only, and that was because someone wanted to lure me out."

"How perceptive," came a familiar voice from behind Sabine and Ezra, and they turned to see Maul standing only a few meters away, glaring murderously at Kenobi.

The Jedi stepped forward and gestured for the two Mandalorians to climb onto his dewback mount. "Go, Mandalorians. Take my mount and go home."

Sabine drew both of her pistols and Ezra drew one of his own as well as the Darksaber, activating the black blade as he said, "We can take him together."

Kenobi turned to him and said sternly, "No. This is not your fight. It is mine. I will mend this old wound."

Even though Ezra had been eager to leave a moment ago, now he hesitated. It was not in his nature to run from a fight, but he felt that perhaps, in this at least, Kenobi may be right. Whatever dislike of Kenobi Ezra had, he believed that a warrior should be able to fight for his own honor. And maybe Kenobi would finally avenge Ezra's mother tonight, even if it was almost two decades too late.

Sabine looked to him to see what his final decision was, and Ezra nodded to her before they both lowered their weapons. Sabine walked towards the dewback and began to mount it, and Ezra turned to Kenobi before saying, "We're not leaving Tatooine until morning. If you don't get him, we will make sure he doesn't leave this planet alive."

Kenobi just stared into his eyes for a moment before saying, "I can't hear your mind, but I can feel your heart, Mandalorian. I can sense what you feel for your compatriot, and I heard your request when you were in the storm. You asked nothing for yourself, only begged a stranger to save Miss Wren's life. That is admirable, but if I may offer you some advice-"

"If this is about the Jedi's rules against attachment, and you're about to advise me to stay away from her, you can kriff off, Jedi," Ezra growled.

Kenobi chuckled at him and said, "No. Actually, I was going to say the opposite."

Confused, Ezra asked, "What?"

"A long time ago, I loved a Mandalorian woman more than life itself," Kenobi said with a faraway, grief-stricken look in his eyes. "When she… was killed, I thought I would be ready to see her die because of my beliefs in the Force. I wasn't. I once told her that I would've left the Jedi Order for her if she asked me to, and not a day goes by that I don't regret being too cowardly to do it myself. Or at the very least, to sacrifice my soul and unleash my full power in her defense. Maybe that would've saved her. I tell you this so that you know: Whether you know it yet or not, you love Sabine in a way that, sadly, few people are lucky enough to have. I know I am in no position to make any request of you, but please. I beg you, cherish the love you have, Mandalorian. Our powers are affected by our emotions, and if there's one thing I've learned in all my years, it is that love can make or break even the best of us. So promise me."

Ezra was stunned into silence to hear these words from Obi-Wan Kenobi, a man he had despised for his whole life for being weak and heartless. Suddenly, everything Ezra had ever thought about him seemed completely wrong. He stood up straighter and said, "I promise."

Then, Maul called out, "Are you almost done saying your good-byes, Kenobi?"

Ezra glared at the Zabrak, but at a glance from Kenobi, Ezra stood down and went over to climb onto the dewback behind Sabine, and she began to steer them back towards the canyon where their ship waited for them.

With Sabine steering, Ezra was able to look behind them as they rode away, and the last sight he saw before both Kenobi and Maul's silhouettes disappeared from sight was both of them drawing their lightsabers as the firelight went out, the shining blue and red blades easily distinguishable against the black, star-filled sky.