Hidden in plain sight: part 6 & part 7
-Part 6 -
Half-auto-piloting the wheel with one hand, Beru had the other one free to stretch. Opening the glove locker of their biogas-speeder, Beru fetched the stored blaster pistol from the glove locker of their speeder. Just before the turn, her second hand was back on the wheel and supporting it with the ball, pistol in hand and finger far away from the trigger to not cause casualties. The open locker rattled its own flight rhythm, which enforced Beru's line of thoughts. Although it had happened a few times beforehand, Beru always felt uneasy when she did not know for certain where Luke was at that young age. Now the emotion intensified to near despair for being aware of the present danger they were in. She tucked the blaster pistol into her belt and held on tight to the wheel. On her way home, the least thing she expected to see was another speeder on a faster rate appearing on a half-curved route of line and reducing its speed somewhat. Apparently, its two passengers awaited her to catch up and Beru suspected a waylaying assault. She reduced the speed and sharply turned the wheel to the other side, as she heard a familiar voice shouting: "Beru, don't be worried. We'll he…"
She did not look back, but she heard the noise of the other speeder coming closer again.
In a short period of time, midday would set in and Owen prepared to return home for taking a siesta. Arriving there, he knew that Beru had gone to town earlier than expected from her short messaging beforehand. Though tried as he might, he could not find Luke while shouting the boy's name out of his lungs. Only silence answered and the humming of the farming electricity system for watering and cooling the quarters.
Before making his way to look outside of the building constructions again, he went to the Atrium and opened the locker panel of the small stair room to grab one of the rifles there. Then he ran up the stairs again, lumping with his artificial leg, and searched the perimeter outside of the entrance.
Leaving the all-day busy part of the entrance, Owen found smaller footprint traces at the back of the tool shed and followed them in the direction of some boulders afar. He readied his rifle and moved on.
Reva stopped the speeder outside at the entrance of the farm and stepped out. No one was to be seen, no working noises to be heard. While the Fifth Brother guarded the entrance, she stepped down the Atrium and took a look around inside the buildings. But everything was empty. Nothing looked like being abandoned hastily, nothing looked like being abandoned for a longer period of time. Reva sensed a tingling sensation, a tension amounting in the atmosphere, and returned to the Fifth Brother.
"Be prepared", she said, "for they are as well. They can't be far, for there is little choice to go elsewhere."
Owen had witnessed the arrival of an advanced and unknown speeder, far more expensive and fancier than the usual local types. Even from some distance and without technical support, the two persons getting off there he recognized well from seeing not long ago – the ones who caused the trouble in town: the female inquisitor, who questioned him and threatened his family, together with the other humanoid male inquisitor. He backed away into hiding behind one of the first boulders, torn between waiting here out of sight or risking it to follow Luke's footsteps between the growing accumulation of boulders.
Teeka and Kenobi reached the parked speeder at first. From their heightened standstill, they could see several different footprints aiming at several boulders and a formation of rocks. As Teeka started the engine again to follow them, Beru appeared behind them and managed to pass them by. A challenged female Jawa with bright eyes tried to catch up, while fast-talking several words the former Jedi need not to understand.
Crouching on a tiny ledge, Luke winced a bit. He massaged his ankle, which he had twisted. This gave him the opportunity to look back the way he came and to his home slightly to the left. He shielded his eyes with the other hand and what he saw, left him surprised and confused. The one thing which calmed him was that the person nearest to him he could clearly recognize as being his uncle, but armed. He lay down on the ledge as best as he could and tried to make himself small until the appropriate time was near to call "Uncle Owen" in a lowered voice.
Owen, who still had his eyes down on Luke's former footprints passing the rock to the other side, flinched. Then he looked up with a relieved grin: "Luke", he whispered.
They had only limited time to act. Although Owen could help Luke to reach a hiding spot within the depression, the two approaching inquisitors left him on the edge of a deepened impasse to defend themselves by attacking. This was something totally different than the usual shooting of predators. While exhaling, he looked through the telescopic sight and adjusted the weapon to his aim. He inhaled and moved the rifle steadily with the motion of the opponent and holding his breath, as a rock covered the view for a moment. He continued the movement, adjusted anew with the lateral visual contact. He exhaled again, pressed the trigger and directly ducked to let himself fall to the side against an upright rock to be in his back.
Owen heard the noise of stone which splinted into shards and a suppressed moan. The female shouted: "There!". Smaller rocks and pebbles started to move, rained down and piled beside him, the place from where he had shot from a moment ago. As Owen ran out of options, he held on tight to his rifle and waited for a face to appear above him, while he tried to steady his breath.
Instead, his muscles were cramping, his whole body was being lifted up above the ledge and pulled. Furthermore, he was choked invisibly, fighting for air.
Beru arrived unnoticed in line of sight of the two opponents and halted the biogas-speeder behind a boulder on a lower level. Her heart jumped as a shot and a shout could be heart. She hurried to climb a steep slope and then to step over on a higher level to the nearby boulder, at which the speeder parked. She suppressed a cry as she saw her husband dangling in midair over the stone near the ledge by the sheer will of the female inquisitor. At the same time the male inquisitor mumbled a short curse, holding a hand on his thigh and limped visibly. Beru intended to use his distraction, drew her blaster pistol out of her belt and changed her aim before firing. She was not surprised that only seconds after the shot an unseen force smashed her hard onto the stone by a wave of the male one's free hand. Obviously, she had not hit.
Ben jumped out of Teeka's speeder without a weapon in hand. "Stop it!" he shouted at the female inquisitor, who had been addressed as "Third Sister" during the confrontation in town, where he had hid in Rooh's stall. She turned to meet his eyes, while leaving Owen in his position in midair.
"You?" The male one exclaimed.
"Finally, we meet, Kenobi", Reva answered, willing her weapon into her free hand and igniting the red of its blade.
Suddenly Owen fell hard to the ground of the ledge, too. As soon as he got hold on his breath again, he croaked: "Leave us alone!" But only Beru reacted and looked at him. Her lips shaped his name silently with fear in her eyes. At that moment Owen realized that his wife and himself were out of attention, that he still held the rifle in his hand and he had all three combatants in his line of sight.
Reva and Ben crossed humming blades while the Fifth Brother limped to approach with his double lightsaber in his hand from the side to further corner the former Jedi.
Teeka let out a shriek and risked a look over her shoulder. She drove her speeder hastily backwards in three short jumps and stopped again there. Luckily, there was no rock in her way. Then a single shot was heard as she reached for her repulsor cannon in the folds of her cloak. Teeka squeaked again.
The blaster shot was stopped in midair by the force and controlled by the male inquisitor's free hand. That gave Teeka the distraction she needed and it was her turn to shoot without further adjusting the direction.
Ben reacted with Teeka's shot, shifting his body position to the side and thus retreating the pressure of his lightsaber and its length for the crossing of the duel. The effect was a doubled one. On the one hand, the flying blaster shot fell abruptly to the ground and sizzled out harmlessly because the male inquisitor was immobile due to electric flashes for a few moments. On the other hand, his opponent slightly stumbled and her blade pointed thin air. Ben twisted his wrist slightly upward and grazed the upper part of the Third Sisters's lower arm behind her bracer. He retreated, while she regained herself after hissing at him. Without looking and with a wave of her free hand, the female inquisitor willed Teeka to fly out of her speeder and to also land hard on the ground. Only a grunt instead of Teeka's usual cursing could be heard. Ben turned his gaze to check on her. The female inquisitor took her chance to move towards the speeder and closed the distance to Teeka, too.
Before Ben could approach the male inquisitor, that opponent recovered and retreated to the speeder, too. Both inquisitors had their blades up defensively and circumvented Teeka without loosing their gaze locked with Ben's eyes.
Reva changed her gaze from Ben to Owen. The latter had crawled to his wife.
"Tell me about the boy!" she said.
Owen shouted at her: "He's not showing! [Obi-Wan Kenobi, S1, ep. 1, ca. 28:20 – 28:24].
Kenobi took three slow steps backwards toward them, not once loosing the sight of his opponents.
The male inquisitor arrived beside the speeder, while Teeka stood up to join the Lars' couple.
"Not your adopted one. Your sister's son, who went to the Jedi Temple!" Reva responded.
Beru shook her head disbelievingly. "That's been decades ago. He was a pilot and died in the Clone Wars."
"Concerning your young one now, I'd like to see for myself. So maybe …" Reva was interrupted by the simultaneous peeping of the Fifth Brother's and her own ComLink. "Not now!", she mumbled.
The Fifth brother risked a glance at his ComLink on his free arm. "It's him."
"Mhh", Reva muttered. "You first", she ordered and supported it with the gesture of adjusting her blade towards Ben. "We will meet again. I am sure of it."
The male one was the first to turn off his weapon and to climb into the driver's seat of the speeder, not showing signs of his wound on his leg now. Reva followed slowly with blade in hand, not once letting go her attention. He turned around the speeder leftwards and then sped up to the Lars' homestead. Meanwhile, Reva answered the call. "My apologies, master, for the circumstances that we kept you waiting."
"I need your presence at Mustafar", their black masked master demanded without further ado.
"As you wish, master." The connection ended with her last word spoken.
At the Lars' homestead, Reva changed into their speeder wordlessly.
"Where are your manners, Third Sister?", the Fifth Brother commented as he stood on the sand again.
As an answer, he activated his blade and severed the Lars' speeder at its front. The two parts plummeted to earth. Then he joined the Third Sister in their own speeder for returning to their ship and then to leave this desert planet.
"He will be pleased to learn about Kenobi", Third Sister could not resist to remark.
-Part 7 -
"As being feared before, the fight was brought to us." Owen let out a heavy breath and deliberately locked eyes with Ben.
"Where's the boy?" Ben returned, concentrating on matters at hand.
"I'll show you." Owen grasped the change of topic. "Please stay with the speeder", Owen told his wife and the Jawa female. Beru covered her mouth in worry with her palm. Owen nodded to his wife to signal her that the peak of danger should be over and turned to go ahead with his rifle still in hand.
From the dark corners of a small cave, the visible light skin and blonde hair of the boy looked at Kenobi curiously, though still hesitating to came out of his safe space. His uncle spoke to him reassuringly in a low tone while he stood watch outside.
As far as Ben could differentiate from his position, he marked the hideout as an option to inspect later on to become his new home, although even now he had some doubts if the cave contained enough room for living or opened to an appropriate height.
They all took Teeka's speeder to return to the moisture farm which was the Lars' homestead.
"This is a faster one, Aunt Beru!" Luke exclaimed.
Beru just smiled instead of her usual telling him that they had not the money for stylish ones or added power converters. Her nephew had his good mood back and not that much witnessed in his hideout except some of the sounds and speakings. It was all that mattered. Besides, Teeka's speeder was the least of all fancy, she had to admit. Furthermore, it had a certain smell to it, coming from the luggage space.
"Let us all forget soon what just occurred." Ben turned around from his passenger's front seat to Luke on the back: "May I come and visit you the next few days, if your parents allow it. I think I've got something of interest for you." The boy's eyes reacted with a gleam and an enthusiastic nod, then he looked at his aunt for permission.
A couple of days later, Kenobi guided Rooh towards Anchorhead. He was still in need of a new fleece for his evaporator and of a new job, too. He had been away from his butchering work for too long – and he did not even regret it at all.
-The end. - Thanks for reading.-