Chapter Text
It felt like Obi-Wan Kenobi had been on Tatooine forever. Sometimes, it was as if his time as a Jedi Master on the Council had just been a wonderful and horrible dream. Sometimes it was as if his brotherhood with Anakin had just been something he imagined. Although for so many years, he had been the only family Obi-Wan had. And he loved him. There was still part of him that did.
But his brother was dead, even if technically he wasn’t. Anakin Skywalker had died that day and now only the Sith Lord was left. Not the caring brother who had been a good mentor and teacher to Ahsoka, who probably was gone now too, and a great Jedi. Now only the dark side of him was left.
And Obi-Wan didn’t want to see him again if he didn’t have to.
Still, despite how much it hurt to remember what he had lost, he visited Anakin’s mother Shmi’s grave regularly. It was the least that he could do after everything that had happened.
“I apologize,” Obi-Wan said as he left flowers on her gravestone. “I failed Anakin. I should have known that he… that he was so conflicted.” Obi-Wan knew that he shouldn’t, but sometimes he would replay the mistakes he had made over and over again. He would think about what he should have done differently.
And that wasn’t even only true when it came to Anakin. He thought about it regarding Satine too. Satine, the love of his life, Anakin, his brother, and Qui-Gon, who had been like his father, all gone. Obi-Wan had failed them all.
“I should have done things differently.” He ran his fingers over the cold head stone. “But I won’t fail your grandson or your granddaughter. I’ll do whatever I can for both of them. I won’t let them get hurt and I won’t let them meet the same fate as their father.”
Leia should be all right. She was with the Organas. And they would be amazing parents. She was a lucky girl. Now she was a princess. Obi-Wan could tell that the Lars family loved Luke too, but Obi-Wan was still here, ready to defend Luke from anyone who might want to hurt him. The Organas should be able to defend Leia.
But he would go to Alderaan to help her if needed to at a moment’s notice.
Obi-Wan stayed there for awhile longer. It was the least he could do. He knew that the Lars family would visit Shmi’s grave, but Anakin never did. It was good for Obi-Wan but still sad. Anakin had adored his mother. That part of Anakin was gone too. His love for his mother which had always been so strong, even though Jedi weren’t supposed to have attachments. Obi-Wan had discouraged it.
Probably yet another way he had failed his former padawan. He should have been more understanding. He knew that Anakin was different, but he had still tried to follow the council. Exactly how Qui-Gon wouldn’t have. Qui-Gon would have been better for Anakin. Everything would have been different if he had survived.
Obi-Wan eventually left. The suns burned down on him like it always did. He didn’t care for this planet. Really, he never had. He had been disappointed when Qui-Gon had taken them here and they had been stranded for a short time. Even then, years after he had left Mandalore and Satine, he had sometimes imagined what it would be like if he was there. If he had left the Jedi Order for her.
Now he thought about this even more, which probably wasn’t the Jedi way. No, it wasn’t at all.
But he still would imagine what their life could have been like, together on Mandalore. Happy. Maybe they could have had a family. He would have supported her. Ruling Mandalore, especially when she had been so young couldn’t have been easy, even if she did have her mother. She was still the one who was ruling.
If Obi-Wan had stayed there, maybe he could have made it a little easier for her. And maybe things would have turned out different for Satine. She might still be here to this day. They would have been happy. He had almost always been happy when he was around her, even when they had been arguing.
He would always miss her.
Things could have been different for Mandalore if he had stayed maybe too. Obi-Wan didn’t get news updates as much as he would like here. But he did know some things that had occurred there. Satine’s baby sister, Bo-Katan, who was somehow in her twenties now, wasn’t in charge of Mandalore anymore either. Gar Saxon was… not that Obi-Wan could remember who that was.
The Mandalore clans had always confused him, despite how hard he tried to learn about Mandalore to impress Satine.
He had a feeling that Satine wouldn’t approve of the Saxon brothers who appeared to be the Empire’s puppets. Mandalore sounded like it was being used for soldiers for the Empire. Satine would be devastated. She had tried to save Mandalore from war, but now it was being used for that.
Obi-Wan sighed and tried to push those depressing thoughts away. He should go back to his place. He had checked on the Lars family from afar and they had seemed fine. Luke seemed happy. Happier than Anakin had ever been.
Obi-Wan knew that he shouldn’t, but he stopped in town and got some liquor. He did that perhaps more than he should, but it… well… he felt better when he had that and it wasn’t like there was much to do in Tatooine. He had spent so many years constantly busy, and now he spent days doing nothing.
Yes, he could communicate with Qui-Gon’s spirit, but he couldn’t even do that all the time. So most of the time, he was left with his thoughts.
He hoped if Ahsoka was still alive that she had found happiness. But she was probably gone like so many Jedi. She would be one with the Force. So many good Jedi and people were gone now.
Before Obi-Wan even had a good look at his small place, he could tell something was wrong. He could sense something… some people. People he didn’t know and yet somehow it felt similar, but like something he hadn’t felt in a long time. But these people weren’t supposed to be here.
Obi-Wan thought about bringing out his lightsaber, but he didn’t sense danger. And Obi-Wan was supposed to be keeping a low profile. And he thought that he was doing a decent job of it, even though he hadn’t even changed his last name.
Bringing out his lightsaber… that would not be keeping a low profile. Everyone knew that was a Jedi’s weapon.
So he wouldn’t bring that out unless he had to and he didn’t think that would be the case. And it wasn’t, but he couldn’t believe what he saw.
Two little Mandalorian children were on his roof. He knew they were Mandalorian right away because they were wearing complete Mandalorian armor, including little jetpacks which were probably toy ones designed to teach them how to use them. Their armor was blue and reminded him so much of Satine’s sister Bo’s. They looked like little Nite Owls.
The slightly shorter of the Mandalorian children let out a cry and leaned toward the taller one as if she was whispering in her ear. She was afraid. Obi-Wan could sense it. He didn’t want to scare her. He actually loved kids. He always had.
Obi-Wan didn’t know how to react at first. He didn’t see Mandalorians often. Actually he hadn’t since the war. Yes, he had heard that Boba Fett had been here a few times, but Obi-Wan had never seen him. And besides was he even Mandalorian? He remembered Satine hadn’t thought so. Still he was Mandalorian enough. He had beskar armor.
Obi-Wan paused and went closer to the house. The taller one stood up straight and put her hands on her hips.
“Hello there,” Obi-Wan said to the two. They might have been girls, but it was hard to tell because of the armor. “What are you two—”
“We have the high ground so you better not try anything,” the older or at least taller of them said. She was a girl. And she actually pulled out a toy—at least he thought it was a toy— blaster and pointed it at him. You could never know for sure with Mandalorians. It could be a real blaster. “I’m not going to let you hurt my sister.”
He put his hands up, even though he wasn’t worried about the blaster regardless of if it was a toy or not. “Don’t worry. I don’t have any plans to hurt you or your sister.”
“You can’t because I have the high ground,” the girl said matter of factly.
“Yes, that’s very important,” Obi-Wan said. “I’ve always tried to teach people about the importance of the high ground.”
But so many people wouldn’t listen. These two were Mandalorians and Mandalorians did realize the strategic benefit of having the high ground.
“Are you… are you Obi-Wan?” the smaller girl asked. She was clutching her sister’s arm and looking at Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan’s stomach twisted. How did these little Mandalorian girls know who he was? He hadn’t even heard from anyone in Mandalore since Ahsoka and Bo-Katan had contacted him all those years ago. Right before Anakin had succumbed to the dark side. And yet here were two little Mandalorian girls and they somehow knew who he was.
He paused, trying to decide what he was going to say.
“You are,” the older one said. She hesitated but then she used her jet pack to land on the ground. Her little sister followed her but stood back, closer to Obi-Wan’s place, but further away from him. “You weren’t supposed to be back yet.”
“What do you mean?” Obi-Wan asked.
The girl sighed and then took off her helmet. And for a moment, Obi-Wan couldn’t even breathe. This little girl… she looked so much like Satine. She was exactly how he imagined a young Satine would look. Or rather how Satine’s daughter would if Satine had ever been able to have one.
It… He didn’t even know how to react. It was as if he was seeing a ghost. She had the exact same eyes as Satine.
“I’m Ceres,” the girl said as she adjusted the flowers which had been tied in her strawberry blonde hair into a crown. Flowers and… maybe wheat? Her sister still didn’t move toward them.
Obi-Wan tried to snap out of his trance that he was in. Yes, she might look like Satine, but she wasn’t Satine and she wasn’t her daughter. Any chance Satine had to have a daughter had been stolen from her by Maul.
“Hello, Ceres,” Obi-Wan said. “That’s a beautiful name.”
“My daddy gave it to me,” Ceres said. She looked at her helmet, which now that Obi-Wan was closer to her, he realized looked even more like Bo-Katan’s than he thought it had at first. Could this girl be Bo-Katan’s? But there was no way Bo-Katan would leave her daughter around Obi-Wan.
Bo-Katan didn’t care for Obi-Wan. That had always been obvious.
Really maybe this girl didn’t look as much like Satine as he thought. Maybe his mind was showing him what he wanted to see. He missed Satine so much so it could be telling him the girl looked more like her than she did. Perhaps this was his mind tricking him because he missed Satine so much.
But why would he see a smaller version of her then. Unless his mind was trying to tell him what Satine and his child could have looked like.
No, Obi-Wan was being foolish.
“Where is your daddy?” Obi-Wan asked.
“He’s—” But Ceres didn’t get a chance to finish because that was when the other girl let out a cry.
“Daddy!” she said and that was when a man wearing Mandalorian armor landed. The little girl ran toward him and he picked her up and spun her around. After he put her on the ground and then took off his helmet.
This man… he looked to be in his twenties, and Obi-Wan… he felt he should know who he was. He wasn’t sure he had ever met him, but he should know him or at least of him. And yet, he didn’t. There was something so familiar about him.
“Don’t worry, Daddy,” Ceres said as she went over to him. “I was watching him.” She motioned to Obi-Wan. “I was making sure he didn’t do anything he wasn’t supposed to.”
“You don’t need to do that, Ceri,” the man said, laughing nervously. He looked at Obi-Wan and then bit his lip.
“Auntie told me to. I’m doing a good job,” Ceres said, pride in her voice. “I’m not going to let him do things that he shouldn’t.”
“This… excuse me, it’s… it’s nice to meet you all but I—” Obi-Wan tried to say.
Ceres sighed dramatically and looked at her father.
“I’m sorry,” the man said. “I’m sorry that we just showed up like this, but I… I need your help, and I didn’t know who else to go to.”
Now Obi-Wan was even more confused than before. This man needed his help? Obi-Wan liked helping people, but this was random. He didn’t even know who he was. And he was supposed to stay and watch Luke Skywalker.
“I apologize,” the man said. “I should introduce myself. I’m Korkie. Korkie Kryze.”
Korkie. Korkie Kryze.
“That’s… You’re…” But he couldn’t be Bo-Katan’s son. Bo-Katan was too young to have a grown son. He looked like he was only a few years younger than she was. And Satine… well, unless he was forgetting something she didn’t have any other living siblings.
And Obi-Wan wouldn’t have forgotten something like that again. He tried to remember all he could about Satine.
“You’re related to one of Satine’s cousins.” Maybe he should have called her duchess Satine, but she was always just Satine in his head. The love of his life who he would always miss. He treasured almost every memory he had of her, even the ones when they weren’t getting along.
He had loved how opinionated and strong she had been.
“Well, I suppose, but I’m not their son,” Korkie said. He paused. “I should probably just tell you.”
“Yes,” Obi-Wan said. He knew that he needed to hear what Korkie was going to say. Korkie… Ahsoka might have mentioned him once, but Satine never had. Now that he thought about it, it was strange, since she had been taking care of him.
But Satine had kept him in the dark when it came to some things. They had both lived in completely different worlds.
But that could have been different if he had left the Jedi Order. They could have had a real relationship instead.
“The Duchess… Satine was my mother,” Korkie said after a long pause. He didn’t break eye contact with Obi-Wan.
Silence. Obi-Wan couldn’t even think at first. Had he really said that Satine was his mother? He stared at Korkie, hoping that this would start to make more sense. Right now, it made none.
“What?” Obi-Wan asked, not even meaning to say that. It just slipped out. “Satine never told me that she had a child, especially…”
And then it hit him. Korkie wasn’t young. No, he was in his twenties and he… he could easily be the age that… Stars… It just couldn’t be, but now that he looked closer, he noticed that Korkie looked like a mix of Obi-Wan and Satine. Stars, if anything, he looked more like Obi-Wan than Satine.
“You… you can’t be,” Obi-Wan said, taking a step back. He kept looking at Korkie, trying to find something that proved that Obi-Wan was wrong. “You… Satine would have told me.”
“She felt she couldn’t. I can explain more to you if you want. But I’m your son. I’m Satine and your child.”