Chapter Nine
The Kenobi Family
The evening following Obi-Wan and Jac's adventure in the holocron, the two families once again sat down together, this time listening to the Jedi and the Sith explain what they learned from Darth Silenus. Mayli followed along with a heavy heart. Obi-Wan explaining how he would become a Force Spirit able to manipulate the world, living on after death. He seemed excited about this new aspect of his future, but Mayli knew, as someone not sensitive to the Force, that after they parted in a few days, she would never see him again.
As they cleared the table and Jac and his son prepared to return to their ship, leaving for their own revenge on Palpatine in the morning, Mayli found herself studying Obi-Wan…Ben when she first met him. For nineteen years she knew this man, his smile, his bright blue eyes, his quick wit and gentle nature. Following the departure of the Sith, her and Zella were to leave for Chiss space in two days, leaving Obi-Wan behind to his destiny. Although Mayli knew this inevitable end to their life together meant the downfall of the Empire, she still felt an increasing emptiness. Yes, he could appear to Zella, converse with her. And yes, he could visit Mayli…but she would not know, not even sense him.
In her years with Obi-Wan, she felt no regrets or indignation over being a regular sentient, not Force sensitive…until now. Their lives could continue after he finished his time with Luke, with Vader, with the Death Star…or at least hers, with his ghost at her side. Then, she would meet him in the Force…but no, she would not know of him. No, in two days would be the final time she laid eyes on Obi-Wan Kenobi.
"Mayli?" said Jac, touching her arm and startling her from her thoughts as she stood in the kitchen, putting dishes away. "A word. Please?"
The sincerity in his voice, rarely heard as he always either seemed to be leering or joking, caught her off guard, and she stepped from the house to the garden, leaving Obi-Wan and the kids to clean up.
"I have a monumental favor to ask of you," Jac began, his face half lit in the dark of the evening by the illumination coming from within the homestead.
"Well, you've already come to take my mate. Want my daughter now?" she asked sarcastically.
"On the contrary," Jac said, his voice quiet, steady, his face falling slightly, betraying to her his real emotions. "I…I want to ask you to take my son with you to Chiss space."
Mayli could feel her jaw drop. "What?! Sam?"
"Yes. I…I fear I will not be coming back. I do not know. I cannot see my future, as I could not see Callie's fate. But the places I am going, the things I plan to do…I do not want Sam to die," Jac said, stepping forward and taking Mayli by both shoulders gently, his trembling hands gripping her. "I love my son. Sidious will not take him too." Tears now escaped his eyes, and Mayli found his vulnerability shocking. "Please, Mayli. You are our only hope."
Mayli could not find words. Of course she would take Sam, would never let a child be left behind. And she found that she understood this Jac completely, perhaps for the very first time. This man, part of the group that had done evil, killed her friend, sent her into hiding, proved himself to be human after all, loving and caring for his son enough to let him go.
Jac reached into his pocket and pulled out three data chips, thrusting them into Mayli's hands. "Bank accounts. Large ones. From my original inheritance from the Scholars. I used only another major account, will use that for my travels…for the…well, the end. But this, this will keep Sammy comfortable for several years…and beyond! His children and their children and…" He stopped, now openly crying. "And you and Zella! Pay for her school, buy a nice home, luxuries…
"I will take Sam," she said, her voice surprisingly level, but she moved the data chips back to his hand. "But keep this blood money…"
Jac pushed the account chips back. "Use it for your lives. For life! I am taking your husband away. I am sacrificing myself! This will be wasted. Take it! Take it as payment for the life I took from you."
His words startled her and she automatically looked back at the home she'd built with Obi-Wan in their nearly two decades together. She'd originally come to Tatooine to hide from Jac and the other Scholars and ended up staying, finding love, a life. In a strange way, Jac had not taken away her life but given her one.
But now he pulled her into an embrace, his lips near her ear.
"Thank you," he breathed, then pulled away, moving toward the house with purpose.
Zella listened as her father questioned Sam about his Force gift, his talent of seeing with his hands. He spoke to the younger man about a few Jedi he'd known with similar gifts, nothing as strong, but she noticed the fact others had come before seemed to reassure Sam.
Suddenly, Jac burst into the house, Zella's mother behind, looking stricken. Now what, Zella thought.
But Sam seemed to know instantly. He jumped to his feet, approaching his father angrily.
"No! No, I won't! You cannot!"
"Sam, go unpack you things from our ship and move them over to Mayli's and…"
Zella glanced over at her mother, but she was whispering to her father. Was Sam coming with them? Of course this made sense, as his father was heading out on a mission on which he would probably die. Zella felt slightly embarrassed. She's thought so much of her own plight of losing her father she did not consider Sam and his father. Tragic Sammy, who just lost his mother and would soon lose his father.
"No! I am coming with you!" Sam shouted, balling up his fists, his voice perhaps a little higher pitched than he would have wanted Zella to hear.
"That is the end of this conversation. You will not come with me. This is where we part ways. Now come down the hill and move your things to the Nebula Flame," Jac said firmly, his stern demeanor betrayed by his devastation echoing through the Force around the room.
"I…I'll go down and open up the ship for you, Sam," said Zella's mother, and her and Jac disappeared into the night.
Sam remained frozen in the middle of their living room, anger pouring from him. Zella looked at her father for guidance, and he rose, approaching the younger man.
"Sam, listen. Your father is doing the right thing here and…"
Turning toward the Jedi, Sam's face contorted in rage, his handsome features suddenly sinister. "How do you know? You are abandoning your family as well! And I am trained! I want to kill him too! He took my mother! And now…now…" and then a scream of rage came from Sam, startling Mayli. Sam walked over to the dining room table, smashing his hand down upon it, shattering the wood into a pile of sticks. Finally, he fell to his knees and sobbed.
Before she knew what she was doing, Zella kneeled beside him. "Sam, I'm angry too. But…" she paused, glancing back at her father, who regarded her with warmth as he knelt down next to the young man as well. "This is for our fathers to take care of, now. We…we're just starting out. We have our time ahead of us. Come to Chiss with my mom and I. Come to school with me. And we can work together to train in the Force, perhaps train pupils of our own someday. That is what we have to do."
She placed her hand on his shoulder, her father doing the same on the other side, and she felt Sam's body sag in grief and acceptance.
"I need to take a walk," he said finally, getting up and moving toward the door. He paused, looking back. "I'm sorry about the table."
Zella watched her father smile, then laugh jovially. "Trust me, my boy. That is not the first time a table has been destroyed in the Kenobi household."
Sam simply nodded, then disappeared into the night.
Zella looked at her father. "I'm angry too," she said.
"I know," he said. "And you have a right to be." He walked over and pulled her into an embrace, and they stood together for a long time in silence. "Do something good with your anger. Don't let it pull you to the Dark Side. Let it pull you to the Light, to doing the right thing. To making a positive change."
An hour later, Obi-Wan walked with Zella down to the two ships parked at the bottom of the hill on which the Kenobi homestead stood. The night sky lit up with stars, Obi-Wan wondered what it would be like to fly through the galaxy again amongst them, rather than simply regarding them from afar. He'd become more familiar with the night sky of Tatooine than any other place he'd ever been. Interesting indeed, since he remembered the first time he set foot on the planet, not intending to spend more than a few days, never knowing he would live here for a large portion of his life.
The end of his life.
He shuddered at the thought, but pushed it aside as he and Zella arrived at the two ships. Jac and Mayli stood outside, Jac looking troubled.
"Where is Sam?" he asked.
"He never came down?" Obi-Wan said, puzzled.
Jac shook his head. "No…and I need to leave. We moved everything over. All his belongings…but…" Jac walked up to Obi-Wan with an outstretched hand. "Thank you, Jedi. Best of luck."
"Thank you," Obi-Wan said. "You are, by far, the most interesting Sith I have ever encountered. Full of contradictions."
Jac laughed, his eyes still shifting around, looking for his son. "I admire your commitment to the well-being of this galaxy. I sacrifice myself for vengeance, you for the well-being of others."
"I'm not so sure about that," Obi-Wan admitted. "And you might not be completely selfish."
Jac shrugged, then gave a final glance around. "Well, thank you again. Farewell and good…"
"Dad!" came Sam's voice from the dark, and the younger man emerged, walked right up to his father for a tight embrace. Separating after several moments, Jac smiled at his son, turned, and walked into the yacht, closing the ramp behind him without further word. The four remaining watched the ship take the skies, disappearing into the heavens, becoming just another point of light. A sense of finality came over Obi-Wan; he would be watching the Nebula Flame take off in just two days.
And those two days flew by. The Kenobi home emptied of everything except the bare essentials he would need for his final days in solitude, as well as the holocron he hid for Luke's eventual finding, if Anakin's son made it here after the destruction of the Death Star.
Soon…too soon…Obi-Wan stood before his mate and daughter as they prepared to leave Tatooine for the final time. Sam already boarded the ship, sensing the family's need for an intimate moment.
Zella approached him first, hugging him hard.
"I'll see you again," she said, her words not a question but a statement. "Just…don't make it too long, okay daddy?"
"I love you, little one," he said, trying to keep his voice from a sob. "May the Force be with you. Always."
Zella stood back, her eyes rimmed with tears. "And you. I love you." She turned, entering the ship.
Obi-Wan finally turned to Mayli, and he flashed back to the moment they first met, her glaring down at him, a blaster pointed at his head. He remembered their first dinner out, at the steakhouse in Water, their times with friends at Jabba's, her rescuing him from the Scholars, the first time they made love, trapped for days because of a sandstorm. Thousands of little moments flooded his mind as he wrapped her in his arms and pressed his face into her warm, soft hair.
"I love you, darling," he said. "This is not farewell. I will see you again."
She pulled back, putting her hands on his cheeks. "But will I see you?" she whispered.
"I will find a way to let you know I am there," he assured her, knowing she feared this, for he himself desperately wanted to return to her, his Mayli, his beloved.
"Then this is not good-bye," she said, her composure returning, and she stepped back, squared her shoulders, and gave him her usual, confident smile. "And remember, if you need to get off world quickly…"
"Look for Han Solo. But deal with the Wookie Chewbacca first," Obi-Wan said.
"The ship may look like a piece of junk, but I can vouch for its quality Corellian manufacturing," she said, then her confidence broke again. "I love you, Ben. Return to me so we can join the Force together."
"Yes," was all he could manage without breaking down again. He pulled her back into his arms for a long, slow kiss. "May the Force be with you, my love."
"Until we meet again, Ben Kenobi" she said wistfully, then turned, walked up the ramp of the Nebula Flame, and closed the doors.
Obi-Wan watched the ship disappear and lingered, his gaze towards the sky, for over an hour. He only moved from his watch when his neck began to ache.
Alone again. Solitude. Like his first hundred days on Tatooine. But for how long this time?
A week passed before Obi-Wan sensed a notable change in the Force. A great tide shifted one morning as he sat in meditation, and soon, tangible evidence of the change could be seen in the skies in the increased TIE fighter patrols. Something was happening.
Obi-Wan studied the Death Star plans, committing everything to memory, opening up aspects of the Force he hadn't used in years to make sure he understood the design flaw in the reactor core, the changes the later contractors made, how he could bring down the shields. His mind kept drifting to the moment he would disappear, die. Would he know this moment, be able to gather together his matter, his energy, as Darth Silenus discussed? Everything hinged on Obi-Wan feeling the moment in the Force. But of course, Jac saw Obi-Wan disappear…didn't that mean success?
Increased TIE patrols, sometimes stopping in the distance, stormtroopers emerging to walk the sands of the Jundland Wastes. Obi-Wan spied on them from his hilltop with his scope. Yes, the time for him to leave was coming. But how would this proceed?
Then one day, late morning, as Obi-Wan sat on the top of his hill, munching one of the final cookies in a batch Mayli made for him before her departure, his eye caught a small band of Tusken Raiders making their way across the sand. He rose swiftly, as if pulled to his feet by the Force.
"I need to follow them," he said aloud to no one.
Donning his sand robes and grabbing a few essentials, he began to move from his homestead to trail the Sand People as they trekked across Tatooine.
Author's Note: Next time, an epilogue shows us Obi-Wan's journey as a Force Spirit.
And I have a new story in the works, to be published when I am finished with this and my other tale, Another Galaxy. Here's a preview of Raised in Darkness:
When Padme decides to join Anakin on his journey to the Dark Side, the Skywalker twins grow up under very different circumstances. Now, twenty years later, Vader begins to make his bid at power against Sidious, and Leia and Luke must decide their places in the galaxy. Vader versus Sidious. Eventual canon/EU friendships and romances. Drama, romance, humor, and angst.
Hope you will continue to read and enjoy my work. Take care, everyone!