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Cad Bane looks at the collapsing maelstrom of hyperspace, resolving into streaks of light and finally a stable and familiar starscape.
'Kriff,' Meeyan swears from the pilot's seat, 'I hate coming into multi-star systems.'
Cad grunts and does his co-piloting job without comment. They settle into a high orbit around the pale marble of Tatooine, looming large in their cockpit's canopy. There's almost no one in the scanners, and no traffic visible to the naked eye either. Tatooine is a real backwater, always was. Cad has come here for jobs often enough. It's a Hutt world, there's always people to kill, bounties to drag in to Jabba.
It's the last place he would have expected to track his old enemy. There has to be more... Some reason, some cause, that brought the Jedi here. Cad bites into his toothpick, uneasy. Things don't really add up, even though Meeyan's source seems legit.
His daughter wraps her arms around his neck, her lekku squishing against his cheek as she leans against him.
'Must you go?' She asks, soft and quiet.
Cad twists to look at her, surprised. Kenobi is the reason she had to fend for herself alone with Todo for half a year, and she'd only been a kid then, surely she gets it?
'Made the man a promise.' He says.
Meeyan sighs and looks away, to the desert planet and its beckoning prey.
They don't need to discuss matters of honour. Cad has brought her up to believe in her own truths, that she should draw all the lines that matter to her and decide on the fate of those that cross them. She's learnt that lesson well, and knows not to stand in his way.
Cad Bane holds his word, and he holds his grudges. Sometimes, they're the same thing. He promised Kenobi revenge, and he'd be loath not to deliver. His gig as Hardeen and the resulting time in prison had been a violation of far too many principles for Cad to ever forgive or forget.
'I know dad, I know,' she whispers. 'I wish you'd let me come. At least you can let me worry.'
The twin suns of Tatooine beat down on Cad Bane, scorching hot, giving him life. There are perks to being reptilian. While mammals heave, sweat all their precious water and nap the day away in the shade, Cad gains kliks. He brings down the rim of his hat and walks on, feet tracking sand, bandolier bouncing in a steady rhythm against his back.
The sand dunes might muffle noise, but Jedi senses are too fine to risk a speeder at all, out here in the wastes. Cad hasn't waited this long to spook his quarry like an amateur.
The landscape becomes more jagged as rocky buttresses and outcrops rise up from the golden sand. Cad checks his map and takes his bearings. He moves on to hard ground, soft boot soles pattering silently.
Soon, he has a visual on Kenobi's hut. He doesn't go near it, there's a security network, he can tell, but he can't spot all of it all and really, there's no point.
This isn't some cheap bounty, to be taken by surprise for convenience's sake. This is revenge, and against a worthy opponent. Cad once saved Kenobi's life—unknowingly, he wore another's face then—and told his would-be killer to do it like a man, face to face.
He can't hold himself to lower standards.
Cad squeezes into the crack splitting a massive boulder, disappearing into its shade and peering out with his binoculars. He settles for the wait. With the scorching heat of the dual suns beating up every surface, heat sensors are completely off and there's no telling if anyone is home.
But Cad Bane is a patient man. Patience is a bounty hunter's tool, as much as a vibro blade or a thermal detonator. He's searched the galaxy for five years in search of the elusive Jedi. What are a few hours more?
Finally as the suns begin to set the door opens and Obi-Wan Kenobi steps out. Cad growls, deep throaty clicks in a durese song of satisfaction and eagerness.
The desert has not been kind to Kenobi, he can tell as he watches the man climb over a tinkered Imperial speeder bike. There are white strands at his temples, and grey peppering his beard. Although, Cad isn't too sure about ageing in humans.
Kenobi heads out West, and once Cad can't make him out through the binoculars, he takes out his tools, and approaches the closest sensor.
He might not backstab Kenobi, but there's nothing wrong with a surprise entrance.
Obi-Wan parks his speeder in the dark. He's in too much of a mood to bother turning on the lights. Things didn't go well with Owen today. They rarely do, recently, and he can't help but worry. Obi-Wan wanted Luke to grow up knowing him, learning from him.
Owen has different plans, apparently.
He's still brooding over it when he reaches out for the door's pad and freezes. Cold sweat breaks over his neck and shoulders, and a terrible sense of dread nearly bends him over.
Something terrible is about to happen, if he touches this pad, opens this door, takes another step forward.
Obi-Wan brings his breath and shaking hands under control. What choices does he have? This is his home. Where else could he go? He thanks the Force for the warning, palms his lightsaber, and opens the door.
There is nothing amiss.
The security station's lights glow a soft green in the darkness. With a flick of the Force, Obi-Wan brings the lights on. He steps in, and still, nothing. Through the muddled wrongness of the Force, Obi-Wan senses someone, close by. He goes down the stairs, trying to refine the sensation, to pinpoint his visitor's aura. Yet no one is here, nothing appears to be out of place at a glance.
It's when he goes back up that he sees him, silhouetted by Chanini's light in the open doorway.
'Bane...'
The man's graceful fingers go up to the brim of his hat, giving him a silent salute.
Obi-Wan shivers. Of all the people who could have tracked him down to Tatooine, few could be worse than Cad Bane.
'Kenobi,' the man says. 'I s'pose you know why I'm here?'
Obi-Wan lets out a faint rasp of a laugh. 'A courtesy visit? It has been a while.'
Cad Bane defies his expectations and doesn't grimace, growl or snap. He doesn't say anything, just observes him with his blood red eyes, fingers tapping a steady rhythm against his blasters. There's an air of quiet consideration about the man that wasn't there last they saw each other, what, seven years ago? Exchanging glares during Bane's all too speedy trial. Or even before that, on Nal Hutta, Serenno, or Naboo.
Bane always had a wildness about him, a sort of simmering unease that made you wonder that he was not the sort to pace. Yet here he is now, cool and collected, his mind barely making waves through the Force. It's eerie.
'You always enjoyed your snark, didn't you?' Bane says at last. 'Suited Hardeen more than you.'
Obi-Wan scowls. That entire affair... It had been deeply misguided. The rift it had driven between Anakin and him, and Ahsoka too... It had not been worth it then, and of course after Palpatine's identity was revealed, well...
Precious little of the past fifteen years felt worth anything.
'Look, I'm sure the bounty on my head is worth a lot but—'
'Oh, no!' Cad Bane exclaims, and laughs.
Again it's not his usual raspy chortle full of teeth and mean spirit. It's a genuinely amused chuckle. Like the very idea of collecting a bounty surprised him. It raises the hair on Obi-Wan's neck.
'I never bothered looking up your bounty. I'm sure it's fantastic. Hunting Jedi's never been better, though the competition is stiff. But that's not why I'm here.'
'Yes, well...'
'Promised you, didn't I?' Bane continues. 'What was it again?' He unholsters his LL-30s and spins them adroitly.
I'll give you a reward, when I plug you full of laser bolts! The captured hunter's last words to Obi-Wan as Hardeen, when the game had been up, and the Chancellor "rescued".
'Didn't it bother you? To learn of Palpatine's identity?' Obi-Wan asks, curious. 'Dooku was his apprentice. He hired you only to set you up.'
Bane gives him a toothy grin.
'You going to suggest I go after him instead of you? You know, that Sith Lord paid me a lot of good credits. Paid triple my rates for that Holocron gig, and a starfighter I'm still using. He was a good customer. Never tried to short-change me.' A flash of teeth then, and blasters coming to bear. 'He set us up, you got me caught, betrayed us... And guess who released me from prison?'
Obi-Wan shows his empty palms, tries to wave Bane down. 'Surely then we can come to an agreement?'
'Yes,' Bane says. 'You don't resist and I'll give you the burial you prefer. Promise not to take your head back to Sidious and his black dog.'
Obi-Wan puts everything he has into the shove, and sends Bane flying. He bolts outside, jumping over Bane's prone form, and makes for his speeder. Very little is worth it, but Luke... Luke is worth everything—and Bane can't find out about him.
He reaches forward with the Force, flicks the speeder's engine on to have it ready—
The detonation lights up the night and sends flaming debris everywhere. Kenobi is thrown back, a lovely tit for tat, but not enough to hurt a Jedi. He recovers promptly and hobbles away.
'You're not escaping me!' Cad screams, going after him.
'Bane! Stop!'
But Cad has no reason to stop. His blood is pumping hard, his tongue picking up the scent of Human fear as he tails the fleeing Jedi. He starts firing, lazy strikes missing on purpose, taking fun in teasing Kenobi and hearing him swear. Now that the night has set and the sand cooled, Cad doesn't need binocs to pick up Obi-Wan's heat signature. He ignites his lightsaber as Cad aims closer, and there's no missing him at all.
'Bane, please!'
'You can beg!' Cad calls out. 'I like it!'
Finally one of his bolts makes it past Kenobi's shoddy defence and hits his calf. He collapses with a startled scream, his saber shutting down. In the sudden darkness the world takes on a lunar quality. Chenini and its satellite moons turn the sand a stark blue-white, and the human's red blood stains it black.
Kenobi flops on his back and opens a hand to summon his lightsaber. Cad takes it for an invitation to show off his marksmanship and shoots it.
'Gaaah—!' Kenobi screams, bringing his shattered hand to his chest. 'No!'
'Any last wishes?'
Kenobi grunts, his good hand swatting the air. Cad braces himself for what he knows is coming, but there's no way to resist the Jedi's foul magic.
He's tossed high into the air... And really, for someone else, it might be a problem. Cad keys his boots on, takes his bearings and brings his feet at the right angle. Kenobi is scrambling away, and Cad figures this is on him, for showing him his back at such a moment.
The bolts sizzle into the wet sand, turning it to dark glass. They tear through Kenobi's flesh, burn his robes to smouldering cinders, saturate the air with that unbearable smell of burning flesh, too close to appetising for comfort.
Cad lands and in the quiet he can make out Kenobi's rasping breath. A wet rattle, spending itself.
'Please...'
Soft leather shoes come into Obi-Wan's narrowing view, and with a pain too sharp for words, he's turned over on his back.
He can make out Bane's outline, hat still firmly in place, guns in hand... That was sloppy... Bane had always... always been good.
'Hey—' A nudge, and pain. 'You're drifting off. How d'you wanna be sent away.'
'B-burn... Pyre.' Obi-Wan mumbles. But that's not important. His body doesn't matter. If Bane leaves him out, he'll be gone before midday tomorrow. 'My... House... Don't—'
The cough, he thinks, will kill him. Cool fingers slide under his neck, turn his head aside to let the blood flow out.
'Please—'
He looks up into Bane's face, and again there's no anger there, no hate. Not even a grin of satisfaction. He's unreadable, and Obi-Wan cannot decide on what to share, what to ask for.
He's sacrificed so much for Luke, his last hope. And now that he can pay with his life, he isn't sure his silence will protect him.
Obi-Wan wants to tell Bane to have mercy. That there is a child. That he means so much, that there's hope... That—
Child.
That's Kenobi's last gurgling whisper. Cad lights him up with the fuel he finds in his secondary generator and watches the flames in silent testimony.
He wonders about that child.
Was it a fleeting ghost of a memory? Or a Kenobi brat, out there, as lost and alone now as Meeyan had once been when he hadn't come home from the Naboo gig?
He spits into the sand, disliking the taste on his tongue. Cad knows he would have received no kindness, for begging about his own child. But then, if he'd been bleeding out, and not standing trial, his perspective might have been different.
He's looked, and there's no hint of a child in Kenobi's hut. Unless you count the rough little doll, drilled out of a pretty rock and made in the shape of an akk dog.
He isn't sure what he's not supposed to be doing with the house, so he leaves it as it is. Maybe it's to be inherited. Maybe the child will know, when they enter and find the place deserted and covered in thin layers of dust and sand.
He kicks the ashes away in the morning, and leaves the lightsaber with the other one he found, hardly hidden, in a box full of clothes.
Cad leaves the place without looking back. He got what he came for. The one speeder is blown up, and it's a long walk to Mos Espa.
He's got his own kid to return to.