The Truth (Star Wars) (Complete)

[cliffc999]

Tatooine, 2 BBY

"Hello there."

"Ben?" The 17-year-old boy immediately pulled his head out from under the landspeeder's hood to look at the robed figure standing adjacent to his uncle's garage that had just greeted him. "Ben Kenobi? What are you doing here?!?"

"Good morning, Luke." Obi-Wan Kenobi nodded to him courteously. "You're looking well."

"Yeah, well, not much has changed since the last time you were here." Luke Skywalker shrugged sheepishly. "Still the same old nothing."

"When you reach my age, you learn an appreciation for 'nothing'." Obi-Wan observed wryly, and then his voice turned grave. "Are your aunt and uncle home? Something potentially serious has come up, and I need to speak to all of you."

"Sure, they're in the house. Come on." Luke hastily returned his hydrospanner to the toolbox and closed up the garage before leading the mysterious old hermit that lived in the hills near his uncle's moisture farm in to meet the rest of his family.

"What are you doing here?" Owen Lars greeted the gray-haired man in the humble brown robes gruffly as they all sat down around his kitchen table. "I'm not changing my mind, no matter how many times you ask."

"Your mind may not have changed, but unfortunately our situation has." Obi-Wan replied softly. "Several days ago, a former servant - a powerful one - of the person that we least wish to find this place made it to within ten miles of here. We are all most fortunate that they sought me out first... because if they had not done that, then they would have discovered you. I already know for certain that this… servant… had deduced or discovered another person's presence here before they died."

"You're sure that this bastard is dead?" Owen replied after a hushed pause, while Luke's Aunt Beru turned pale as a sheet.

"I buried them myself." Obi-Wan nodded gravely, as Luke turned to stare at the man he'd known only as a harmless and kind old eccentric calmly admitting to having fought and killed some type of dangerous intruder. "But you can see why I have come."

"Do you think more will come after him?" Beru asked softly. "Are we in danger?"

"I doubt that more will come any time soon. He was, to the best of my ability to determine, working alone. And for the foreseeable future I don't anticipate any more danger than that which you have already been in." Obi-Wan reassured her.

"So why you are here? Because it isn't just to tell us that we had a close call." Owen looked at the old man suspiciously.

"I am here because my recent encounter with another young man about Luke's age - one that this servant of evil was also pursuing - has led me to acknowledge at least one error that I have been making." Obi-Wan said gravely. "And I have come here in hopes of rectifying it."

"Excuse me, but what is going on?" Luke burst out frustratedly. "Who is this mysterious 'person' you're all talking about? Why does it sound like I've come in the middle of a conversation you've all been keeping from me? Who is this 'person we most fear'?"

"Remember your promise!" Owen barked at Obi-Wan.

"I do." Obi-Wan acknowledged him gravely. "I promised to not try and lure Luke away from you, or offer him any training, or in any way come between you and him without your permission or until after he had left home of his own free will. And I am not here to break that promise." Obi-Wan sighed. "However, my encounter with that other young man led me to the realization that young people who are eager - perhaps even desperate - for guidance, for direction in life, must be able to rely upon those who are responsible for providing them that guidance. That they be able to trust that the people who love them are not hiding things they need to know from them. That they can discuss even the most unpleasant truths with them, if need requires. Because if they cannot, then even a young person with the kindest heart in the world is still a fertile field for those who would use such… concealment… to make them doubt their rightful guardians or teachers. To let the lack of guidance that they are getting from those they should trust to make them vulnerable to false teachings offered by they should not trust. As young Ezra had been made vulnerable by the well-intentioned mistake of his teacher, a vulnerability that someone else exploited to trick an innocent young man into leading them to me."

Obi-Wan's eyes closed in weary sadness, as his voice filled with barely leashed heartbreak. "Just as my old student had been made vulnerable by my failings as a teacher, and the lack of trust that I had allowed to grow between him and me. And after all the tragedy that has led to, I will die before I make that mistake again with Luke. Which is why I beg of you - release me from my promise. At least to the extent that I can tell him the truth about… why he is here. Why we are here."

"Uncle." Luke turned to his guardians desperately. "If this is about me, I need to know."

"You don't-!" Owen began desperately, to be cut off by the quiet insistence of his wife.

"He does." Beru Lars' soft voice fell into the sudden silence. "Luke's already been getting restless, Owen, you know that. Sooner or later he'll leave home, like all young men eventually do. And who will he listen to then? What will he learn? Because we won't be there. Ben might not be there."

"I don't need protecting!" Luke insisted. "I'm not a little boy!"

"Luke." Obi-Wan insisted. "Despite what I said, your uncle is also correct. The things I want to tell you - they are not good things. Knowing them may bring you a perspective I believe you need, but they will also bring you great pain." Obi-Wan's face turned pinched. "A very wise friend of mine once offered me the same choice - to confront a painful truth or to continue on in ignorance. I chose the truth, and I have spent every day of my life since then wishing that I could not have."

"But you did anyway. Because you needed to." Luke replied with a flash of insight. "Because things would still have been horrible even if you hadn't, and you'd just have walked into them blind."

"You're right, of course." Obi-Wan acknowledged reluctantly. "That is precisely what would have happened."

"E chu ta!" Owen's profane outburst in Huttese shocked everyone at the table except Obi-Wan. "Fine!" His voice trailed off to a low mutter. "Tell him."

Obi-Wan nodded gravely to Owen and Beru after pausing to draw a deep breath, and then continued. "To start at the beginning… at least for you… I was present when you were born, and I was the person who brought you here as an infant to live with your aunt and uncle." Obi-Wan's voice lowered. "Your mother had passed away in childbirth, you see, and we had lost your father shortly before. So I had to bring you here, to your surviving family. You see, years before the events I am describing Owen's father Cliegg Lars had already married a freewoman named Shmi Skywalker - your grandmother."

"She died several years before you were born." Owen said sadly. "When Sandpeople raided the farm. Pa did his best, and so did I, but-" He shrugged. "The desert is cruel sometimes."

"As is the universe." Obi-Wan agreed soberly. "Shmi's son from before her marriage to Cliegg Lars - your uncle's older step-brother - was named Anakin Skywalker. Your father."

"Okay." Luke looked puzzledly around at the funeral expressions of everyone else at the table. "I'm still not hearing the 'horrible secrets' part, though!"

"I don't know what - if anything - your uncle Owen has told you about your father, but I very much doubt it was anything but a cover story." Obi-Wan began.

"I told him that Anakin had been a navigator on a spice freighter, and that one day he'd jumped out and just never come back." Owen admitted reluctantly. "And yeah. It wasn't true, Luke. We couldn't tell you the truth."

"Don't blame your uncle." Obi-Wan interceded hurriedly. "The truth would have brought horrible consequences down upon you all, if you had so much as whispered any of it where anyone could hear. Even if I hadn't promised your uncle to keep silence, I still would have withheld it until you were at least old enough to keep a secret. And even now, as I acknowledge the need to tell you, I still wish that I could withhold it yet longer."

"Well, I'm certainly old enough now." Luke insisted impatiently. "So spill!"

Obi-Wan stood up and drew back his robe to reveal a silver cylinder hanging from a hook on his belt, which he unclipped and held upright. Luke's jaw fell open as a brilliant blue blade of pure energy leapt from the mouth of the cylinder. Obi-Wan held his pose just long to let the sight sink in before deactivating the blade and sitting back down.

"Was that a…?" Luke whispered.

"A lightsaber." Obi-Wan confirmed. "The weapon of a Jedi Knight. Because your father and I were both members of the Jedi Order… before the dark times. Before the Empire."

"No wonder you've been living like a hermit." Luke agreed. "If you were a Jedi, you're an Imperial fugitive."

"On the Most Wanted list, in fact." Obi-Wan agreed. "As your father would have been as well… were it not for what happened."

"How did he die?" Luke asked softly.

Obi-Wan sat still as a statue for a long moment, and Luke's eyes widened in curiosity as he felt an invisible something ripple in the air, as if he could actually feel the surge of grief that had washed through the old Jedi at that moment. "This is the truth that I wished to conceal from you the most, Luke, Your father is alive." Obi-Wan blinked away a tear and forced himself to continue. "And… and he serves the Emperor."

"The man you fought-?!?" Luke asked in horror.

"The other day? No, that was a Zabrak named Darth Maul - one of your father's predecessors as the Emperor's apprentice. " Obi-Wan reassured Luke. "Although your father and I have battled since he chose to turn against the Jedi and help the Emperor destroy us. Twice, in fact." Obi-Wan shook his head. "I injured him severely in our first battle, but he escaped alive when I had thought his death to be certain. Years later we encountered each other again, and that time I was the one to barely escape alive. I've never left Tatooine since."

"Why?" Luke cried, his voice breaking. "You're saying that my father- that he was a traitor? He hunted Jedi? He helped the Emperor take over the Republic?"

"Yes." Obi-Wan shook his head. "He was all of those things. And before he was them, he was my brother in all but blood. My dearest friend. My most trusted student." His shoulders shook momentarily. "I don't know why your father fell, Luke. I know some things - I know that at the end he was terrified and desperate of losing those he loved. And that he felt a terrible bargain with the evil one was the only way that he could save them. But I am still lost as to how he could have believed such things. Or why he couldn't come to me. Or why at the end he couldn't even listen to-"

Obi-Wan choked. "The last words your mother spoke were to me, when she begged me to believe that even though your father had fallen to darkness that there was still a spark of goodness buried in him somewhere. The next to last words she had spoken were to him, begging him to not go down a path of darkness where she could not follow. To abandon his mad quest in the Emperor's name and just go off with her instead to live in peace. But on that final day of madness he would not listen to her, any more than he would listen to me. And this was the woman he had loved more than anything in the universe."

"Father. He didn't… hurt… my mother. Did he?" Luke tearfully begged.

"No, Luke." Obi-Wan rushed to reassure him. "He did strike at her in his rage - his madness - but it was a purely superficial blow. He didn't even knock her unconscious. And after I had defeated your father I rushed your mother to the best medical facility I could find on short notice, as she was very close to term. The most advanced diagnostic droids in the galaxy found nothing physically wrong with her save the normal exhaustion of childbirth and some trivial bruises. Yet she passed anyway, and we never knew why." Obi-Wan sighed. "She lived long enough to see you born, to hold you in her arms and give you your name. But that was all the time she was allowed to have."

"We met her once, briefly, when your father visited the farm to help… bury your grandmother." Beru said sadly. "She was the kindest woman I'd ever met. And as beautiful as a queen."

"Her name was Padme Naberrie Amidala." Obi-Wan answered Luke. "She was from Naboo, a peaceful water world in the Mid Rim. You could not find a planet more unlike Tatooine anywhere in the galaxy, fully as much your homeworld's opposite as she was your father's opposite. But they still fit together beautifully… until it all fell apart."

All three adults waited patiently as Luke paced around the room in vexation, desperately trying to regain his composure. "All right. All right. I- I can see why none of you wanted to tell me this. And you're right- right now I'm wishing I didn't know, that I never knew." Luke closed his eyes firmly shut, then opened them as he turned to stare intently at his guardians and the aging Jedi Master. "So tell me why I needed to know these things."

"I'm not sure exactly how much you know about Jedi, so I will start with the basics." Obi-Wan answered soberly - before opening his palm and letting his lightsaber float up from where he'd left it lying on the kitchen table to hover directly in front of Luke's incredulous eyes in mid-air for a long moment before turning to the table. "The source of a Jedi's more extraordinary abilities - one of which I just demonstrated for you - is an energy field that we call 'the Force'. It's generated by the collective life energy of all living things, and it flows through and between everything in the universe. All of creation is ultimately bound together, resonating together, on a fundamental level that only a small fraction of people can even dimly perceive. The ability to do so - to consciously manipulate the Force by acts of will and specialized training - is called 'Force sensitivity', and it is a talent that only some people are born with. I am respectably talented in such a fashion, but your father was the single strongest Force-sensitive that anyone had ever seen." Obi-Wan's somber glare pinned Luke to the floor. "And Force-sensitivity runs in families. The Emperor made great efforts to subvert and recruit your father because he coveted his power. Just as he would covet the power of any child of Anakin Skywalker, should he ever learn of their existence."

"Powerful? Me?" Luke burst out incredulously. "Come on! I'm nobody special! I mean, I'm a pretty hot pilot, and a good shot, but I can't do anything like what you just did!"

Obi-Wan smiled. "And neither could your father, not until after I had begun to train him in the ways of the Jedi. But when I first met him he was already a great pilot, and a surprisingly good marksman." His face turned serious again. "Without training, the commonest expressions of Force-sensitivity are simply to augment the mundane talents that a person already possesses. To make their reactions sharper and quicker, their perceptions more keen, their instincts more reliable. You may not know how exceptional you are in all of those qualities, Luke, but I certainly do. In pure potential you are one of the very strongest Force-sensitives I have ever even heard of… and the only others in your class were your father, the onetime Grand Master of the Jedi Order, and the Emperor."

"The Emperor used to be a Jedi too?" Luke's eyes goggled.

"Certainly not." Obi-Wan's lip curled wryly. "The Force is not the exclusive purview of the Jedi. We were merely the most public users of it. There are other traditions, other sects of Force-users throughout the galaxy, all far more obscure. And the worst and most fearsome - the most evil - of all these sects are the Sith. They are the masters of the Dark Side of the Force, the perversion of all our powers turned towards selfish and cruel ends. Emperor Palpatine - or to call him by his Sith title, Darth Sidious - is the reigning Dark Lord of the Sith. And first and foremost among his servants is his apprentice, the Sith Lord Darth Vader." Obi-Wan's voice lowered. "Who at one time was Anakin Skywalker, before he fell to the Dark Side and willfully abandoned that identity forever."

"You make it sound like he's become a completely different person!" Luke said. "If he changed sides, then can't he possibly change back?"

"It's not as simple as choosing who to gamble upon in a pod race, Luke." Obi-Wan reproved mildly. "Using the Force requires emotional balance, or else you will do your own psyche great damage. It's not a landspeeder where you simply push a throttle or turn a wheel, it's a fundamental expression of your heart and soul made manifest in the physical universe. Or as an old friend once told me - 'Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.'" He stared intently into Luke's eyes. "To use the Dark Side is to take the quicker and easier path - to fuel your powers with strong emotions such as rage, fear, hatred, and pain. And no doubt you are already aware that the more often you let yourself lose control of your emotions, the easier it becomes to lose control in the future. Now imagine that same phenomenon occurring when actual power comes to you from such loss of control; when you become stronger, faster, more able to achieve your goals and defeat your enemies… but at the cost of your reason, and your ability to even feel the softer emotions - such as compassion. Or loyalty. Or even love."

"Is that what happened to my father?" Luke sat down, his voice softly horrified.

"Yes." Obi-Wan nodded. "As it happens to all those who devote themselves to the Dark Side."

"Has anyone ever come back?" Luke pleaded.

"To brush against the Dark Side - to only momentarily lapse but not to surrender yourself to it fully - can be recovered from." Obi-Wan agreed. "I had several friends among the Jedi who have done such things." Obi-Wan's lips pursed briefly. "And I did it myself once, as a young Jedi who had just witnessed a much younger Darth Maul murder his Jedi Master directly in front of him. Tapping my anger then allowed me to defeat a foe that would otherwise have slain me with ease, just as he had slain my teacher. But I was months recovering my balance after such a lapse, and only with the assistance of Grandmaster Yoda."

"Anakin did this Dark Side thing as well, didn't he? I mean, a few years before he actually went crazy for real." Owen broke in surprisingly. "When he came here and killed all the Sandpeople who'd killed his mother."

"In hindsight, yes, that was almost certainly Anakin's first brush with the Dark Side." Obi-wan agreed. "But if that was where it had ended - if Anakin had simply told me about it, and let me help him shed the Dark taint from such an action while he still could - then perhaps everything could have been different. Instead, he kept it concealed from everyone until it was too late… and worse yet, allowed himself to believe that it would do him no harm to tap such power again, if and when he needed to." He shook his head angrily. "And then Palpatine came to Anakin, back when he was still Supreme Chancellor and the Jedi still trusted him, and tempted him away."

"So the Dark Side… it's very bad to touch, but if you don't go too far in then you can maybe come back out. If you try hard enough." Luke reasoned out. "But Father's… gone very far in, hasn't he?"

"I'm afraid so, Luke." Obi-Wan agreed. "Just like your mother did, I begged with your father to turn back, pleaded with him. I begged for his forgiveness, apologized for all my failings as his teacher. And then he drew his lightsaber on me and I was busy fighting for my life. He didn't listen to me, and he didn't listen to Padme. I can't imagine who he'd possibly listen to, if we both failed to reach him."

Luke breathed heavily, his face still pale from shock. "He tried to kill you. Would he try to kill me, if he found out about me?"

"I very much doubt it." Obi-Wan shook his head. "But in many ways, that would be far worse. You see, if he did not kill you then he would either try to train you in the ways of the Dark Side himself or he would take you to the Emperor. And neither Sith Lord would stop until your soul had been destroyed, until you had gone deeply enough into the Dark Side that 'Luke Skywalker' was gone and 'Darth Whoever' was all that remained. Or until you had died failing to complete your training, as many aspiring Sith have done before."

He looked up briefly and then continued. "Worse yet, people who are strongly Force-sensitive can be detected at a distance. Sometimes at a very great distance. Many young Force-sensitives of lesser power have been taken and broken by the Emperor and Vader into becoming his Inquisitors. Enforcers that are tasked with hunting down and either killing those who have Force potential before they can potentially be trained as Jedi, or conscripting them to be broken and brainwashed into becoming Inquisitors themselves. If you had lived on any world even slightly less out of the way than Tatooine - if I had not spent the past seventeen years keeping watch over you and using my own abilities in the Force to conceal your presence from possible searchers - you would already have long since been found and taken. That is what we were protecting you from - a fate where one way or the other, your only two choices would have been death or the Dark Side."

"So that's why you made that promise." Owen said scornfully. "You knew it had an expiration date. Eventually Luke would have to come you to be trained, or else he'd leave home and get snatched by some Inquisitor… and then you'd come to rescue him. You'd get your new Jedi either way."

"Absolutely not." Obi-Wan retorted heatedly. "Once before I made the moral compromise of fighting a war with people who had been forced to be there, and that only played right into a Sith trap and helped lead to the destruction of everything I loved! I won't pretend that I haven't made many mistakes in my time, but the entire point of this conversation is me trying to not repeat them!"

"Owen." Beru said urgently. "I'm certain that the only thing Obi-Wan intended was to wait until Luke was old enough that we didn't have a veto power over this discussion any longer, and nothing more. To put it all in front of him and let him make his own choice. Was that it?"

"Entirely." Obi-Wan agreed.

"What choice are you even talking about?!?" Luke blurted. "Are you saying that you want me to be a- a Jedi?"

"You have the potential to be the strongest Jedi in history… like your father could have been, if he had not lost his way." Obi-Wan said. "And no matter how much the Rebel Alliance can do with ships and armies and spies, the Empire will continue until someone brings down the Emperor. Even if he lost everything else, with his vast powers in the Dark Side he could build it all up again in time, just as he built it all up the first time. And I cannot hope to defeat him. The day Palpatine first proclaimed the Empire half of the Jedi High Council, led by one of our two strongest fighters, went to confront him. And he single-handedly slew them all." Owen and Beru both gasped, and Obi-Wan continued. "Later on our very strongest member, Grandmaster Yoda himself, made a desperate attempt to assassinate the Emperor - and he was defeated. Narrowly defeated, but the advantage was still Palpatine's. And Master Yoda knew that he'd have no hope in a second attempt. He was already very old, and certainly getting no younger. While Palpatine is still in the prime of his power, and will not begin to weaken for quite some time."

"So either I eventually train up to do it, maybe when the Emperor's older and slowing down, or nobody does." Luke said.

"In actuality there is at least one backup possibility other than you, but for security's sake I am not going to even hint at who or where at this time." Obi-Wan said. "So no. You can still refuse, and I will still respect that choice."

"What do you think I should do?" Luke plaintively asked no one in particular.

"Stay home!" Owen insisted. "What Kenobi's asking you to do isn't some heroic adventure, Luke, it's suicide! And you'll notice that he hasn't mentioned a damn thing about eventually having to face your father!"

"Defeating Sidious is the only essential. While Vader is incredibly dangerous as his master's servant, his ambitions are not… ambitious. Or else he would have made at least some attempt to overthrow his master in the past seventeen years, but he has not." Obi-Wan said. "And I honestly would be overjoyed if we could find a way to defeat the Emperor that involved Luke and his father never so much as being in the same star system, let alone Luke having to confront him. Even if, yes, we almost certainly will not be that fortunate."

"Didn't think so." Luke agreed. "But… yeah. I don't even begin to know how I should feel about all this! The fate of the galaxy? My father being a monster? Me maybe having to kill the Emperor? Where do you even begin with that?"

"By taking a moment to stop and breathe." Obi-Wan said soothingly. "Close your eyes. Calm your heart. Reach out with your feelings, and… listen."

"Listen to what?" Luke asked, his eyes shut.

"The Force. And yourself." Obi-Wan said soothingly, his voice almost entrancing.

"I… I…" Luke stammered, as the moment balanced on a knife-edge. "I don't know." Luke collapsed. "I'm thinking a million things in a billion directions right now, and I can't stop!"

"It's all right." Obi-Wan agreed calmly. "I'd be shocked if you could come to any immediate decision right now. After all, we just dumped a tremendous amount on you in a very short time."

"Aunt Beru? Uncle Owen's told me his opinion, and so has Obi-Wan. Do you…?"

Beru sighed, her voice weighed down with the sad echo of all mothers standing and watching their sons balance on the precipice of war. "I think you could stay out of if you wanted, and all of us - even Obi-Wan - would agree if you did. But we're not the people whose agreement you need here. You are. So… can you stay out of it, Luke? Would you be all right knowing that?"

"… no." Luke shook his head. "It'd be like… like letting other people take all the risks and you taking all the profit. Like everything you taught me not to do. Besides, I was already thinking about leaving to go to the Academy when I was old enough." He admitted embarrassedly. "And then defecting to the Rebels after the Imperials had trained me how to fly starfighters, just like Biggs was planning to do. This is just like joining the Alliance, only bigger."

"And with even poorer odds of survival. I would feel dishonest if I didn't remind you of that before you committed yourself." Obi-Wan conceded, to Owen's brief start of surprise.

"Train me." Luke begged Obi-Wan. "Whatever it takes, wherever I have to go. I want to be a Jedi, like my father was… like he should have been." Luke's voice caught.

"Luke, are you really certain that you wish me to train you?" Obi-Wan said pensively. "After all, I was the man who trained your father... and look at him now. I've already admitted that it was my shortcomings as a teacher that left him vulnerable to Palpatine. Even if I am trying not to repeat those mistakes, trying does not guarantee that I will succeed." Obi-Wan sighed. "Trying. Master Yoda's favorite saying was 'Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.' And so far, I have only managed 'not'."

"But this time you'll have help." Beru broke in insistently. "Because if we see you doing something stupid while training Luke, we'll tell you." She raised an eyebrow. "Surely you didn't think you were doing it anywhere but here?"

"Wasn't keeping Anakin away from his family until it was too late how you Jedi kriffed it up last time?" Owen agreed. "If you really have to then you can show Luke all about this Force poodoo as best you can. But we'll help you with making sure that Luke remembers the difference between right and wrong."

Obi-Wan's eyes opened in wonder as the realization began to sink in. "I had been imagining more of a traditional master-and-apprentice situation off in my hermitage, but… why not? You've done a fine job raising Luke so far, and… and you are entirely correct in that I can hardly do worse than I did last time."

"You can move your stuff into one of the outbuildings. I'll have it set up as a guest house." Owen agreed. "We'll tell people that you're some relation of Beru's who moved in with us because you were getting too old to live by yourself. That'll explain your being here to everybody in Tosche Station and nobody will be curious. Her family isn't local anyway, not like mine." Owen snorted. "Besides, there's no way I'm letting you take Luke away from the farm full-time while I still can't afford to hire any new hands. I hope you're prepared to put in some contributions of your own to make up for the time we'll lose when Luke is training."

"And to think that I was once famous as a negotiator." Obi-Wan observed with a crooked smile. "You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Lars."

"You don't survive moisture farming on Tatooine if you can't." Owen nodded. "So, is it a deal?"

"It is." Obi-Wan agreed. "Luke? Are you still certain?"

"Of course!" Luke said.

"Then… Luke Skywalker, would you do me the honor of becoming my padawan learner? My student in the ways of the Force?" Obi-Wan continued.

"Yes sir!" Luke nodded vigorously. "Err… what do I call you now? Master? Teacher?"

"Ben." Obi-Wan replied. "The absolute last thing we can do is let any of your neighbors think that I'm anything but an old man living on the charity of relatives. So it's best if we stay in the habit of not even using my real name, let alone any of my Jedi titles."

"When can we get started?" Luke asked eagerly.

"Tomorrow." Obi-Wan deflated him. "Because I have to ride back to my hut and start packing up all my things."

"The day after tomorrow." Owen insisted. "Tomorrow we've still got those three vaporators to get up and running on the west side."

"But-!" Luke fumed, only to subside at the knowing glances of both his uncle and his new teacher. "All right, all right. I guess I'm not going to become a Jedi overnight, after all."

"It's only in the most absurdly low-rent holodramas that anyone even can." Obi-Wan agreed. "Don't worry, no one has actually died of boredom as a padawan. Even if all of us thought we would at one time or another."

"Wow, that sure sounds great. Are you sure it's too late for me to back out?" Luke joked, and that drew a round of chuckles even from the dour Owen and the serene Obi-Wan.

* * * * *​

Author's Note: Well, I figured that after writing such a depressing Star Wars AU that I owed you guys a more pleasant one… and today, I just had an inspiration as to how I could give you one.

This does indeed take place shortly after the episode of 'Rebels' where Ezra is tricked into leading Darth Maul to Kenobi on Tatooine and Obi-Wan finally ends him there. Only in this timeline, Obi-Wan (not being constrained by the inevitable Doylist law of 'prequels can't change anything') had a different reaction.

 

[cliffc999]

Tatooine, 0 ABY

Two lightsabers clashed against each other with elegant precision, as sparks hissed and spit in the faces of both their wielders. One brilliant blue blade struck like the desert wind, a sweeping combination of speed and power that sought to push aside any obstacle that it could overwhelm and flow around any obstruction that it could not. The other blade stood fast like a stone wall, allowing the wind to expend its energy futilely on its obdurate defense.

Luke suddenly switched his footwork in the middle of his attack kata, switching to another lightsaber form entirely as he did an elegant Djem So to Makashi transition and tried to feint Obi-Wan out of position. Obi-Wan did a brief leap to open up the distance between them and let Luke's thrust go wide, and Luke stepped into the opening created to try and cut Obi-Wan's angle of retreat off and pin him against the wall-

Both duelists instantly halted as a sudden impression of cold faintly, yet menacingly, impinged on both their minds. Luke and Obi-Wan deactivated and lowered their lightsabers, their training spar ended by wordless mutual consent, as the Force surged and pressed an insistent sense of warning on both Jedi.

"Something's wrong." Luke deactivated and lowered his lightsaber as Obi-Wan did the same. "I feel a presence… no, presences…"

"That is the Force presence of a Sith Lord. A powerful one, who is not making even the slightest attempt at concealment." Obi-Wan answered gravely. "I haven't the slightest idea how he found us, but Luke… your father is here."

"That's him I'm feeling?" Luke said incredulously. "But who's the other one?"

"Other one?" Obi-Wan's eyebrows raised curiously.

"I'm sensing two presences. The dark one - Father - and a smaller one." Luke answered wonderingly. "But they're so brilliant. They're shining like a little candle, but all the brighter because they're surrounded by the darkness."

"A light-aligned Force-sensitive that you can sense even at interplanetary distance, but I cannot? That wouldn't be possible unless you somehow had a Force bond with them-" Obi-Wan's eyes opened wide. "Leia."

"My sister is here too?" Luke burst out. "Why would she even come to Tatooine at all, and why would Father show up at the exact same time?!?"

"Bail Organa is one of the very few members of the Alliance who knows where I was hiding and why - he could have told her where to find me." Obi-Wan reasoned swiftly. "But something would need to have gone desperately wrong for her to risk making contact with me at all, and apparently it is a matter serious enough that Darth Vader is hunting her personally. He may very well have no idea we are here at all, but that does not mean we won't need to move quickly."

Both Jedi rushed out of the large equipment shed towards the main farmhouse. And at the very same moment, far above their head, the Corellian corvette Tantive IV fled desperately towards the desert planet as it was inexorably pursued by the Imperial Star Destroyer Devastator.

* * * * *​

Millennium Falcon, 0 ABY

"I still can't believe I got talked into giving two Jedi a ride." Han Solo shifted uneasily in the main control seat of his smuggler's ship. "Do you have any idea of the kind of heat you guys have drawn down on me?!?"

"Oh, I have an inkling." Obi-Wan observed with dry irony. "I didn't spend the entire time since the Jedi Purge living on one of the most desolate planets in the Outer Rim because I enjoyed the climate."

"Well I can't blame you two for wanting to haul jets when that Star Destroyer pulled up to where you were hiding." Han reluctantly agreed. "I just wish you'd found any other sucker to give you a ride." He angrily thumped his fist on the control panel. "Even with everything I did to spoof my transponder, the Imperials still got a good sensor profile on me when we blew through their blockade. If I'm tagged as an associate to harboring Jedi I won't be able to risk doing regular work for years! You guys just ruined my entire life!" He turned to angrily face his Wookiee co-pilot. "And you and your sentimentality got us into this! Saying we should pick up these strays just because you saw their lightsabers! But if we've got to hole up until the heat dies down we can't do any runs, and that means we can't pay Jabba, and that means-!"

"We'll help." Luke offered immediately. "I'm sure that the Organas will find a place for you when we reach Alderaan. Or at least find enough money so that you can pay off Jabba in full." He turned to Obi-Wan. "Because Captain Solo's right. We got him into this without telling him what he was really in for until it was too late, so we owe him."

"The Jedi are honorable and do not forfeit on debts, any more than my people do." Chewbacca answered in his native Shyriwook. "Trust that they are our way out of the trap that we were in, not a further restraint on us."

"I really hope you're right, big guy." Han muttered reluctantly. "Or else it's both our necks in the noose. In any event, we'll be coming out of light-speed soon, so you two had better-"

"Agh! Luke suddenly clutched his head in pain, as Obi-Wan turned pale as a sheet and wavered on his feet.

"Hey, you all right?" Han turned and hurriedly asked them. "You need a medkit?"

"The Force-" Luke gasped, his face sweating. "It… screamed."

"As if billions of people simultaneously cried out in terror… and were suddenly silenced." Obi-Wan continued gravely. "I fear something terrible has happened."

"Chewie, prep the deflector shields full on and arm the guns." Han ordered immediately. "If we're about to drop out of light-speed into a hot zone…"

"Wise choice." Obi-Wan nodded. "There might be little safety for us at Alderaan."

* * * * *​

Death Star, 0 ABY

"'There might be little safety for us at Alderaan.'" Han fumed mockingly as him and Luke hid out in the hangar bay office. "Yeah, no karking druk there old man."

"I'm just glad my foster parents didn't come with us when we left Tatooine." Luke agreed. "A weapon that can destroy entire planets? Even I didn't think the Empire could be that horrifying, and now we're stuck right in the middle of it."

"Horrifying. Yeah, that's a word for it." Han muttered. "You sure your Jedi Master can get that tractor beam off? And why didn't he take you with him?"

"I'm sure." Luke agreed pensively. "And I know why he didn't take me with him- he can make it to the beam, but if he doesn't make it back then…" Luke sighed.

"He'll be all right." Han said unconvincingly. "Like he said on the ship - if he's made it all the way through and since the Jedi Purge, then he's a rare survivor."

Artoo started beeping wildly from where he was standing next to one of the computer terminals.

"Knock that off before the entire station hears we're here!" Han barked. "What's wrong with him anyway?!?"

"I don't know, Captain Solo." Threepio answered pompously. "He just keeps repeating 'I've found her', and 'She's here.'"

"She's here? Who's she-?" Luke's opened wide as he risked a brief peek out into the Force, and felt the echo of a brilliant presence on the other end of the Force-bond he'd subconsciously carried his entire life. "Princess Leia! She's on this station!"

Artoo beeped a vigorous affirmative as the location of the cell block that Princess Leia was in flashed on a nearby data terminal.

"We've got to go get her!" Luke immediately turned to Han. "Right now!"

"Are you crazy? There's a million blasters on this station and as soon we make the slightest noise, they'll all be pointed at us!" Han retorted heatedly. "Even for a Jedi Knight, what you're talking about is suicide! And I've signed up for enough lost causes already!"

"You don't have to come, then." Luke agreed immediately. "Just… just tell Obi-Wan where I went and why, if he gets back before we do. But I have to do this."

"Kid, I get that you're a believer in all that hero stuff and everything." Han pleaded with him. "And yeah, even at their most bantha-brained the Jedi were always sincere. Even I'll give them that much. But right now you're just setting yourself up to die for nothing, when you've still got a chance to live for something." Han looked away, his face taut. "I used to fly starfighters for the Navy. I got to outlive a whole bunch of young hotshots who all climbed into cockpits thinking they'd heroically save the day, just like you. Don't join 'em."

"I can't just stay here, Han." Luke implored him. "She's my sister."

The two men locked gazes for a timeless instant before Luke turned away and stepped towards the door.

"Wait up!" Han called after him and Luke turned around in shock. "When you kick the gundark's nest and alert this whole station, then they'll rush the hangar bay - our only logical escape route - just as soon as they'll swarm wherever you are. So I might as well be standing next to the guy with the lightsaber when we drop in it instead of us getting split up and picked off separately." He trailed off reluctantly.

"I knew you didn't fly just for money." Luke grinned eagerly back at the cynical smuggler. "Come on!"

"And that reminds me, you'd damn well better be paying extra for this!" Han continued heatedly as the rescue party headed out.

* * * * *​

"Where you are going with this… thing?" The Imperial junior officer in charge of the cell block looked up at the manacled Chewbacca condescendingly.

"Prisoner transfer." Han Solo answered curtly from inside a 'borrowed' set of Stormtrooper armor. "Our section officer told us to bring this Wookiee down here. Sir." Han just barely remembered to add at the last minute. "He didn't tell us why."

"I wasn't notified. I'll have to clear it." The officer sneered and headed towards the console.

"You don't need to check the transfer." Luke said gently from inside his own stormtrooper disguise.

"I don't need to check the transfer." The officer agreed.

"Everything is proceeding according to routine." Luke continued.

"Everything is proceeding according to-" The officer echoed.

"Sir, are you all right?" The Imperial sergeant standing at the cell block's control desk asked. "You know that procedure is that we have to verify all transfers, scheduled or otherwise."

"I'm-" the officer blinked, snapping out of his daze. "I- you're right, this isn't routine at all-"

The confused officer's train of thought ended forever as Han Solo shot the man in the chest at point-blank range. "Well, so much for plan A!" he shouted angrily as he blasted away at the remaining troopers.

Luke's own 'borrowed' stormtrooper blaster swept up and started firing rapidly as the 'imprisoned' Wookiee's manacles fell off and he leapt to the attack. The undersized squad of cell block guards, caught entirely off-guard, barely had a chance to draw their own weapons and fire one or two shots before they died.

"Let's hope your astromech sliced all those alarms like it said it would, or else we're about to get really popular." Han muttered as he pushed the body of the fallen sergeant aside and rapidly started checking the control panel. "Get her out of her cell, we'll hold the checkpoint here!"

Princess Leia looked up scornfully as the cell door opened, only to have her expression turn to confusion as she saw that the 'stormtrooper' entering her cell was a handsome young man her age with his helmet off and a desperate grin on his face. Time seemed to stop for a moment as she felt this strange sense of recognition-

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded angrily.

"I'm Luke Skywalker. Your message to Obi-Wan got through- we're here to rescue you!"

"Obi-Wan?" Leia leapt up from where she'd been sitting on her cell's bare bunk. "Where is he?!?"

"Come on, I'll-" The sound of blaster fire crashed into Luke's statement.

"That bucket of bolts must have missed something, kid!" Han's shout echoed to them back down the cell block passageway. "Reaction squad's here and they're not happy!"

Leia immediately leaned forward and snatched the blaster carbine dangling off of Luke's gunbelt. Hurriedly checking to make sure that it was loaded and armed by trained reflex, the princess and the padawan fell back into the cell block hallway to meet Han and Chewie as they retreated from the entrance checkpoint they were no longer able to hold.

"This is some rescue!" Leia said scornfully as she added her own expert marksmanship to the volume of fire being sent back down the corridor. "When you got in here, did you have a plan for getting out?"

"He's supposed to be the miracle worker, sweetheart!" Han shouted back heatedly as he cocked his head towards Luke. "And speaking of, maybe pick up the pace a bit?!?"

"Cover me!" Luke answered confidently. Leia's jaw dropped as her young rescuer stood up out of cover and stepped directly into the hail of blaster fire coming from the squad of Imperials at the end of the corridor… and then dropped further as Luke walked directly through the barrage, swaying only slightly back and forth but every shot still missing him miraculously.

"What the-?" Leia turned to Han incredulously. "Who the hell are you people?"

"Hey, I'm as surprised as you are!" Han nodded back at her vigorously. "But be damned if I don't think the kid's actually gonna pull it off."

The squad of Imperial stormtroopers paused to regroup at the unexpected sight, a horrible suspicion starting to dawn in their minds- and then Luke's hand reached into the tool pouch at his belt, came out holding a small silver cylinder, and a brilliant blue blade of plasma leapt to life in his hands.

"All troopers!" An officer's panicked shout broke the sudden silence. "FOCUS FIRE ON THE JEDI!"

Luke's lightsaber swept up into a Soresu kata, swiping away the desperate hail of blaster bolts as if they were so many annoying flies. With a confident smile he broke into a trot, then a run, charging directly at the terrified Stormtroopers. Leia was the first to break cover and run down the corridor after Luke as she laid down covering fire, with the two smugglers hot on her heels.

* * * * *​

Two lightsabers crashed against each other with crushing force, as sparks hissed and spit in the faces of both their wielders. The red blade struck with the force of an avalanche, ruthlessly punishing the slightest perceived weakness and inexorably sweeping away any possible counterattack. The blue blade flickered and spun with dazzling speed, neutralizing the crushing power of the red with elegant deflections and perfect balance.


"Impressive. You have not lost as much of your edge as I might have thought, Obi-Wan." Darth Vader acknowledged his foe as they faced off against each other in the corridor just outside a hangar bay onboard the Death Star. "But you have still only grown weaker as the years have passed, just as I have only grown stronger. You should not have come back."

"You can't win, Anakin." Obi-Wan calmly answered his fallen student. "Even if you cut me down, that will be no victory. You have given yourself to the Dark Side, and it will reward you just as it has rewarded all the Sith who have gone before you - with nothing."

"When last we met, you acknowledged the truth - that Anakin Skywalker was dead and only Vader remains." The Dark Lord pressed. "Why backslide now? Has your wit gone feeble with age, old man?"

"I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me." Obi-Wan replied serenely. "Strike me down if you must; even at the end, I will not fear."

"I will strike you down, and whether you feared your inevitable fate or not will be irrelevant to the dead!" Vader spat furiously, as he pressed his onetime master further and further back. Obi-Wan's defense was beginning to slip more and more as Vader's power swelled and the aged Jedi's faded - the end was not far away.

"But not to the living." Obi-Wan answered mysteriously, as the two of them finally reached the hangar door.

"Then you will- WHAT?!?" Vader gasped incredulously as Obi-Wan Kenobi suddenly flew away from him, crossing almost twenty meters in an eyeblink as he leapt backward with impossible speed-

-as he was pulled backward, Vader realized, as the blazingly bright presence of another Jedi reached his senses. The younger Jedi had been concealing himself with admirable stealth - as Obi-Wan had deliberately failed to conceal himself so as to draw Vader's attention away from his precious new padawan, Vader suddenly realized - but that padawan had broken concealment anyway to save his master's life. And yet this young one was powerful, Vader mused to himself as he stalked towards the pair of Jedi standing on the hangar floor halfway between him and their escape ship. Where had Obi-Wan found him?

Vader's footsteps stopped dead as the young Jedi and him locked eyes, and for a moment he imagined that his heart had stopped as well. Those blindingly bright blue eyes, set under blonde hair in a face - a face that haunted the dreams Vader would not admit to still having, the memories that still echoed deep in his soul despite however deeply he suppressed them- his own face, but with subtle differences.. and borne on a young man shorter and slighter than him and holding a lightsaber that had once been Anakin Skywalker's-

Father. The young Jedi's feelings betrayed him, as the word echoed soundlessly between them.

Son. Vader sputtered incoherently in his mind. Impossible! She died when I- when I-

Mother died shortly after giving birth to me. Luke's thoughts reached the Dark Lord. You didn't kill her, Father. You didn't even seriously hurt her.

But then- Vader thought desperately.

"Run, Luke, run!" Obi-Wan's voice brought both Skywalkers crashing back to earth. "We have to go!"

The two Jedi turned and broke in a dead sprint towards the Falcon's open ramp, both of their lightsabers whirling as they deflected the blaster bolts arcing towards them from the Imperial stormtroopers now rushing into the hangar. They reached the ramp and it hurriedly closed behind them as the smuggler's ship lifted into the air and blasted at full throttle directly out of the hangar bay.

"Lord Vader, what do we do?" the hangar bay officer's voice echoed dimly in the Dark Lord's ears. "My lord? What are your orders?" the man nervously persisted, one hand involuntarily reaching up to touch his uniform's collar-

Darth Vader paid the man no mind as he stared helplessly out into space after his son - his son! - his thoughts a desperate, whirling mass of feelings he could not even describe. The nervous officer fell back, fearing for his life, as the Dark Lord ignored all the world around him for an endless minute… and then turned and strode silently away.

* * * * *​

Yavin, 0 ABY

"You sure about this, Red Five?" Red Leader asked as the X-wings streaked across the sky towards the oncoming Death Star.

"You know what General Dodonna's analysts computed. Even the best targeting computer has almost no chance of making that shot." Luke answered. "And Obi-Wan's been out of a cockpit for so many years that he'd get shot down, especially with Darth Vader flying on the other side. He can't shield his presence from Vader like I can, they've known each other way too long. So you've only got one Jedi pilot and that means I've got to take the shot. Send me in first."

"So basically we're all just decoys for you?" Red Three - Luke was still shocked to have met his old friend Biggs from Tatooine here - broke in on circuit.

"Negative, Red Five." Red Leader ordered crisply. "Vader knows the score as well as you do, and keeping him from knowing which one of us is you is the whole strategy. Tip of the spear is the logical place to find you, and that's why you're leading the second attack group. Red Two, Red Seven, you're wingmen for Red Five. I need two volunteers to come with me for the first bombing run, Red Five takes the second." Red Leader gave a gruff chuckle over the circuit. "Who knows, my targeting computer might actually get lucky."

"Red Three, in on that." Biggs immediately answered on the circuit.

"Red Six, in." Porkins contributed.

"It's too risky!" Luke insisted. "You don't need to do this!"

"It's what we signed up for, Red Five." Red Leader corrected him firmly. "Gold Leader, status?"

"Gold Squadron's formed up on the decoy location. Hopefully the Imps won't even know which exhaust port is the money shot." Gold Leader answered. "As soon as you go, we go."

"All other Reds, split into pairs and fly cover. Second group, form up on Red Five and wait for your opening. First group - full throttle, follow me!" Red Leader ordered, and Red Squadron dove to the attack.

"Red Leader, advise that you abort if it gets too hot down there." Han Solo - or Red Seven, as he was currently designated - broke in. "If we jump in as soon as you peel off, that's still enough confusion and you won't need to actually die in these suicide sleds. Especially if you look like you're regrouping for another run behind us." He cut his mike and muttered to himself. "Still can't believe they talked me into this…"

"Copy that, Red Seven." Red Leader agreed as the first three-ship element dove into the trench. "Turbolaser fire's heavy but slow. Looks like they don't have any turrets calibrated for small targets."

"Start sweating it when the turrets stop." Red Seven broke in on circuit. "That'll mean their own fighters are in the air."

"Well, they haven't shown up yet." Red Five muttered. "I wonder what's keeping them."

Onboard the Death Star, a nervous Imperial Navy officer reported to Lord Vader. "We count thirty Rebel ships, Lord Vader. But they're so small, they're evading our turbolasers!"

Luke. Vader thought pensively to himself as he stared fixedly out the transparisteel viewport at the space battle. I know you are here, but where are you? I cannot risk participating in the battle until I know which pilot I must not kill! And your presence is so well-concealed, how can I-?

"You will have to destroy them ship to ship. Get the crews to their fighters." Vader ordered curtly. "I shall remain here to… co-ordinate."

"Yes my lord!" the officer nodded briskly, not showing his confusion at Lord Vader's unusual reluctance to participate in the battle personally.

Vader sensed Obi-Wan's Force presence subtly spreading out over the battle, in an attempt at Battle Meditation. Although not possessed of that particular talent to any unusual degree - certainly not on the level that had swayed entire wars, such as the legendary Battle Meditation savants of the Old Republic era - Kenobi was still a highly experienced Jedi Master and capable of the smaller-scale uses of the practice. Vader sneered and summoned his own powers, countering Obi-Wan's efforts with his own dark presence.

Feeble, old man. What did you even think- ah, of course, you are attempting to distract me from finding my son. Vader said. But you will not stop me. No normal TIE pilot will be capable of defeating one as strong in the Force as Luke is, any more than they could defeat me. And as soon as my son distinguishes himself enough in the battle, I will-

Father. Luke's voice reached Vader faintly, although Vader infuriatingly still could not sense where.

Son. Vader immediately abandoned all other efforts to concentrate on grasping at this opportunity. You must cease risking yourself in this battle. The Rebellion's efforts are futile against the power of this battle station, just as Kenobi's efforts were futile against the power of the Dark Side. You need not throw your life away. Come to me. I will help you see beyond the lies of the Jedi, help you to live your life for yourself and not as a throwaway pawn for the schemes of old meddlers. It is not too late.

Why do you serve him so, Father? Luke asked plaintively. Following him only cost you everyone you loved.

You are still here, Luke. Vader replied. And the Emperor is not what separates us. The Jedi are.

Sidious will never tolerate us both alive. Together we would be too much of a threat to him. If I turned to the Dark Side he would demand that either you destroy me, or else that I destroy you. Luke replied.

Sidious would be entirely correct. Vader agreed immediately, proud of his son's insight. And we could rule the galaxy together, as father and son! Join me, and we can end this destructive conflict! We can even save the lives of your friends, should they only follow you as loyally in my service as they follow you in the Rebellion's!

I really don't think I can do that, Father. Luke agreed calmly. I'd much rather you join me, if you could. But you are very deep in the Dark Side.

I am. Vader agreed. But that will only separate us if you choose to have it be so. Please do not make me destroy you.

We're definitely going to have a lot to deal with in the future, aren't we? Luke's sorrowful voice reached Vader. But I'm going to be a little busy at the moment, so farewell for now. Luke paused and then continued more reluctantly. Oh, and just in case we're not actually on a doomed quest against an impregnable fortress, you might want to get off the Death Star.

Vader stopped and blinked inside his mask in confusion at that, before a terrible suspicion began to fill him.

"Prepare my personal ship for launch." Lord Vader ordered immediately, as he turned and strode towards the hangar bay to join the starfighter battle outside.

After all, his son was a Skywalker. And you never counted a Skywalker out of a battle before it was over, no matter how impossible the odds.

* * * * *​

Author's Note: And that's a wrap, and we begin to see the butterflies flap.

The Larses don't die because our heroes, having actively kept up their training, are able to sense the arrival of Vader at Tatooine in time to get off the farm before the heat comes down. The droids are picked up practically as soon as they land and our heroes get off Tatooine with dispatch, arriving at Alderaan slightly earlier - but still not soon enough. And Han's trip from mercenary to Rebel has a different beginning because he's meeting different people who appeal to slightly different things. Plus I get to figure in what the original movie didn't as the prequels didn't exist then, notably that Chewbacca would of course be a total Jedi partisan given his own and his family's role in the Jedi defense of Kashyyk during the Clone Wars.

And yeah, if Han believes that he's already in too deep to get out then he'll participate in the battle from the jump - and he'll do that in a ship someone else is paying for rather than risk the Falcon. And he is canonically an ace starfighter pilot, so giving him an X-wing if he's willing to fly one is one of the most logical things the Rebellion can do here.

And yes, Luke's not sure his father can be redeemed right now - but he's not sure he can't be either, hence his giving Vader a hint to get clear rather than just do nothing and let him die in the explosion. And yes, more Rebel pilots are going to survive the Battle of Yavin given the revised strategy.

I'm not actually sure if I want to keep in the dogfight with Vader or not, so you can write it either way in your head, it's wide open. But if any two non-Force-sensitive pilots in the galaxy could stay alive in a dogfight against Darth Vader, it's Wedge and Han.