Chapter Text
Everyday, the twin suns of Tatooine roused the planet’s inhabitants as their unforgiving heat and glare bathed the arid landscape. On a planet where there rightly should have been nothing, life managed to endure, if not blossom. Despite the heat, their poor fortunes, and the shackles of poverty and drudgery holding them down, beings all across the planet would wake to face another day.
Much like Obi Wan Kenobi was doing at the moment, plodding unhappily across the sandy hills of the desert. Briefly, he remembered how Anakin had railed at the sand, before pushing the memory down, lest it brought him to tears. One had to conserve water in the desert.
Obi Wan made his way down to the hill that crested over the Lars farmstead, as was his daily routine, and hiding himself behind a convenient boulder, settled in to watch as the inhabitants of the house roused themselves. Obi Wan felt a swoop of joy as little Luke, now five years old, tumbled out of the house beside his uncle, as they went to tend the moisture generators. The Jawas and traders would be by soon, all vying for the precious water that the Lars Farms generated.
As though aware of the eyes on him, Luke looked around and spotted Obi Wan on his rock. “Uncle Owen!” Luke squeaked. “Look! It’s Old Ben! Hi Old Ben!”
Owen looked over and waved his fist at Obi Wan. “Luke, don’t wave at him.”
“Why not, uncle Owen? Old Ben is nice, he’s our neighbour.”
“Because we are feuding with him,” Owen explained. “Also, his name isn’t Old Ben, it’s just Ben.”
“What’s feudin’?” Luke asked innocently.
“Fighting.”
“But fighting is bad,” Luke said seriously, regurgitating the wisdom of his aunt Beru. “You should hug and make up, like Aunt Beru made me and Biggs do last week.”
“I ain’t huggin’ no one,” Owen grunted. “Now hush up and go and rig the pipes behind the house.”
“M’kay,” Luke said, but not before giving ‘Ben’ one last wave before waddling away. Owen watched Luke toddle away before roughly gesturing for Obi Wan to come down. Using the Force, Obi Wan propelled himself forward into an inhumanly long jump, landing directly in front of Owen.
“Argh, darn varmint,” Owen cursed the man in front of him.
“Hello Owen,” Obi Wan greeted him cheekily.
“Here now,” Owen said angrily, “what’s all this about you stalking us? I thought I told you to stay well away from m’boy. He’s mine, and I’ll be the one raising him. I won’t have you people swoopin’ in and taking him away like-” Owen gulped, “like Anakin.”
Obi Wan fought back the tears that instinctively sprung to his eyes at the mention of his late apprentice. Better dead than what had become of him, after all, even if it was only for Obi Wan’s peace of mind.
“I know he’s your child, Owen,” Obi Wan soothed the man. “I wouldn’t dream of separating him from you.”
“Then why’re you here?”
Obi Wan hesitated. “Of late, I’ve been feeling a rather strange disturbance in the Force. I can’t place it exactly, but I worry for Luke. You know that he is-”
“I know, he’s like his dad,” Owen said brusquely. “And I’ll thank you to keep that under wraps, seeing what it got Anakin. I won’t have m’lad going off and jumpin’ into all manner of hoo-ha.”
Obi Wan knew that there would be a day when he would have to step in to train Luke. The boy’s power would not be tamped down forever. But still, he had to pick his battles. “There is a disturbance in the force. I simply wanted to ensure Luke’s safety.”
“I can deal with ‘disturbances’,” Owen said, pointing at the evil looking, large grinder that routinely ground down the rocks and gravel that littered the path to the Lars household. Obi Wan winced. Well, at least he knew where to dispose of a body now.
“Erm. Fine. I’ll be on my way then.”
“You do that,” Owen said.
Obi Wan plodded away, back to his humble hut, but not before making another round of the surrounding area. Seeing nothing, he decided to go into the settlement of Mos Eisley, where, he supposed, his whole journey had started.
The cantina was blessedly cool, and Obi Wan took a seat at the bar. “A virgin gizka slammer, if you would be so kind,” he murmured to the dainty barmaid, who giggled and sashayed away, her hips betraying the rather evil looking blaster hidden under her skirt. Ah, the signature Tatooine fashion.
Obi Wa sighed and looked up, curious to take in the ever rotating clientele, and was rather unprepared for the rude shock of his life.
“Water,” a much loathed voice rumbled.
“Sure thing love,” the barmaid cooed, and Obi Wan watched in horror as Darth Maul flinched at the endearment. “Oh no, you’re sad,” the barmaid laughed. “Would you prefer that it had come from Jan over there?” She teased, pointing at the hulking hunk of a man at the other end of the bar.
Maul frowned. “Water, hold the love.”
The barmaid laughed, and Maul sank down in his chair, carefully adjusting his now cybernetic tushy. You never thought much of your fleshy, squishy, arse until it was gone.
Obi Wan moved so that he was sitting beside Maul, who merely glared at him. “I would urge you to infest another planet.”
“Get bent,” Maul hissed back, taking a vicious verbal swipe at him.
“Not very aloof and sith-like of you,” Obi Wan parried.
“If you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been sith-like in quite some time,” Maul dodged. “Not since someone took most of my bum off.”
“I wouldn’t have had to if someone hadn’t killed my master.”
Maul peered evilly at him. “Touche,” he muttered, and took a sip of his ice water, a true hydro-homie. Obi Wan kept his eye on Maul while he took a careful glug of his gizka slammer. “Must you hold my gaze while you drink?” Maul asked lightly. “It could be read as erotic.”
“I trust that you know that it is not,” Obi Wan replied. “I feel only loathing towards you.”
“And yet here we sit.”
“Here we sit.”
They sat in silence, sipping away. “Why are you here?” Obi Wan asked. The last thing he needed now was an agent of Palpatine on his tail. He needed to keep Luke safe.
“Searching for meaning,” Maul hummed. “Can’t be a sith, can’t stand the jedi, can’t keep a brother, can’t be properly evil. It’s been one existential crisis after another for little old me. Also, my ship decided to get wrecked and I just happened to be in the bum end of the galaxy.”
Obi Wan snorted. “You’re plenty evil.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“What’re you going to do now?”
“Might be a teacher,” Maul mused. “Teach the art of the blade and the like. I could be an engineer. I’m a dashed good mechanic. Made my own legs, don’t you know.”
“Oh lovely,” Obi Wan winced, not keen on the idea of young minds being exposed to Maul. Although, time seemed to have mellowed the man out quite a bit. Failure could do that.
“Might duel you,” Maul suggested offhandedly.
Eek. “I wish you wouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve things to do.”
“Like what?”
Like watching over one of the two children of his late apprentice, the potential saviours of the galaxy, Obi Wan did not say. Instead, he opted for, “Why didn’t you go back to your master?”
“He’s a twat.”
“Do tell.”
“He never meant to share power, y’know. He only wanted a good little soldier, an obedient attack hound. All the guts, none of the glory. It’s not supposed to be that way. One master, one apprentice, sharing the burdens, until the apprentice grows to take over. He would have never let the natural order take place. Hence, he is a twat.”
Hell hath no fury like a Zabrak spurned, Obi Wan thought. “So you’re a free agent now.”
“Oh rather.”
Obi Wan looked curiously at Maul. “How are you so well spoken? I didn’t think you actually spoke, you know. Just growled.”
Maul looked incredibly offended. “Excuse you, I went to school. And my nurse droid was simply insistent that I spoke impeccably.”
Oh no, that was sad. Obi Wan stood up. “Well, I sensed a disturbance in the Force, so I came down. Seeing as you’re now more of an annoyance than a disturbance, I’ll be on my way now.”
“Ta ta,” Maul said, waving glibly.
Slightly shaken by the encounter, Obi Wan stepped out, and almost instantly walked into Owen and Luke. “Oh my,” he said.
Luke beamed up at him. “Hi Ben!”
Obi Wan smiled tensely. “Good day to you, young Luke. And to you, Owen. Might I suggest taht we move rapidly in the other direction? There is likely to be trouble here-”
No sooner than he had spoken did Obi Wan sense Maul’s presence behind him. Luke’s jaw dropped at the sight of the Zabrak. “Wowie! I really like your tattoos, mister!”
Maul was staring at Luke in a mixture of horror and fascination, no doubt picking up on the boy’s extreme force-sensitivity. “Thanks.” He looked at Obi Wan with an evil grin. “I didn’t know that you had a kid.”
“I don’t,” Obi Wan groaned.
Owen looked between the two and came to a hideously wrong conclusion. “I see that we’ve interrupted these gents’ date,” he said to Luke. “We’d best be off.”
“Oh my god, no, he’s not my date,” Obi Wan whinged.
“Why must you deny our love,” Maul grinned evilly.
Luke giggled. “Mister Ben, is this your boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Obi Wan glared at an unrepentant Maul, who was now sporting a smile the size of Coruscant. Evil, ugly, ex-sith, Obi Wan thought angrily. “Why’re they calling you ‘Ben’?” Maul asked. “Last I knew, that wasn’t your name.”
“It’s a nickname,” Obi Wan gritted out.
“Come on Luke,” Owen said, sounding amused, “let’s leave these two to their little date. Ben, I’ll be seeing you around.”
“Bye Mister Ben! Bye Ben’s boyfriend!” Luke called, as his uncle whisked him away.
Obi Wan sighed and looked over at a practically glowing Maul. “Oh my god, the Force does work in strange ways,” Maul said. “It has led me to that really cute kid who may or may not be your kid.”
“Not. My. Kid.”
“Still, The Force has led me here for a reason,” Maul said thoughtfully. “I have met you and the mystery kid who happens to be very force sensitive for a reason.”
“It really could just be a coincidence.”
“Well, it looks like my life has meaning again as I unravel the mystery of the powerful little boy,” Maul said, clapping his hands together decisively. “Time to set up base. I wonder what the property prices are like here.”
Obi Wan groaned as he quickly followed Maul into a property agency. This could not end well.