Chapter Text
Obi-Wan had been left alone on Melida/Daan for a month by the time he started to Fall.
He really tried his best.
At first, he just followed the directions Nield and Cerasi, the leaders of the Young, gave him and the other able-bodied fighters in their group. He was the oldest of the fighters, though, the others all aged 13 and less. As time went on, his group started coming back to their makeshift camp in the sewers with more and more injuries, and less and less useful medication and supplies, as the raids on the Melida and the Daan grew ever more dangerous. He had to do something, and he had to do something now, before the situation got worse.
He tried to focus on the present, remembering Master Jinn’s teachings - focus on the here and now, padawan - and reaching for the Force to ask for guidance during a raid. He felt something stir in the back of his mind - an answer, perhaps? Hopefully, the Force would guide his hand and help him sneak into the storage room undetected before morning came.
The Young had run out of non-perishable food a couple of days before, and were down to their last rations : this raid was their only viable chance to obtain enough supplies to feed all of the children for a few more days, before they launched their plan to force peace talks between the two Elder factions. Their scouts had identified the building a few dozen meters away from them as a storage room for the Melida’s reserve of grains, and were hoping it might also serve as a general storage location for other items, such as the medication they so desperately needed.
To his left, Cerasi waited patiently, a pair of binoculars in hand, watching carefully the Elder guarding the side door. Time passed slowly, nightfall creeping up on them before they could make a move on their target. Under the cover of the darkness, the two teenagers moved silently as one, approaching their target from behind until they were in weapons’ range.
“What do you think? Can we make a diversion?” asked Cerasi, laying down on the ground next to him.
There again. Something tingling to the back of his head, like a vague sense of warning in the force. What was that?
Unsettled, Obi-Wan backed up a little to make sure he was well out of sight, before trying to sink into a low form of moving meditation he’d once seen the knights practice in the salles of the Jedi Temple. These days, it seemed to be the only kind of meditation he was able to do, as hungry and tired as he was - he had trouble focusing and keeping his mind void of all worrying thoughts about the Young’s situation.
Focusing on his sense of the Force around him, Cerasi, and in their environment in general, he tried to reach out again.
I don’t know if you’re here, if you can hear me, but if you can - please, help us pass by undetected. Please help us get through. Please help me pass.
Something reached back.
Then, as soon as he had felt it, it disappeared.
Looking back at himself, he realized something had changed. His vision seemed clearer, his focus sharper. He didn’t feel the pang of pain that came with his constant hunger, and when he crawled back to Cerasi’s position, his week-old leg injury didn’t hurt as much as it had merely moments ago.
The Force had helped him. Out there, in a war zone, surrounded by death and despair, he was under no impression that his connection to the Force would be of much help - and yet. On this night, it might make the difference between survival for the Young or a slow death by starvation for their entire faction. If he could get any help from the Force, he was going to take it.
“Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan, look!” whispered Cerasi, pointing to the slouched form of the Elder next to the building’s door.
Slouched?
Obi-Wan checked again, and stared in disbelief. The Elder had fallen asleep at his post. Slumped over next to the door, their chest slowly rising and falling as if they were in a deep slumber already. Taking their chance, the two teens hurried to the door, Cerasi right behind him as they approached the sleeping Elder. Letting the girl slip through the door, Obi-Wan waited a second to grab the Elder’s weapon - a dirty, rusty blaster that nonetheless seemed to be in working order - and thanked his newfound peace for his ability not to flinch when his mind brushed against the unshielded one of the unconscious adult.
This was not a natural sleep. It felt more like the way sentients felt when Master Jinn used Jedi mind-tricks on them - usually to convince them to let him get out of trouble without consequences, or get them to look the other way while he slipped away.
There was no other force-sensitive on Melida/Daan, as far as he knew. Somehow, when he had asked for help from the force, he had unknowingly mind-tricked the Elder into falling asleep at his post to let him and Cerasi in.
He didn’t have the time to focus on the new development - Cerasi was urging him inside as discreetly as she could. Quickly, they both filled up their bags with as much food as they could take without making too much of a noticeable dent in the storage - if they played their cards well, they might be able to come back here in the future without being spotted, and feed more of their people this way than by making themselves known on their first trip.
A tugging feeling in the part of his mind he usually associated with the Force brought him to look at a shelving unit in the back of the room. There, behind a box of bandages and two large jugs of clean drinkable water, he felt something he hadn’t perceived on the planet ever since Master Jinn had evacuated with Master Tahl. A kyber crystal, softly buzzing from within its metal case.
Pulling open the lid of a wooden box confirmed what he had already sensed when entering the room : this was Master Tahl’s lightsaber, taken from her by the Melida when they had captured and tortured her for information, and stored here ever since. It had clearly been forgotten, the dust on the box’s lid attesting to that.
He couldn’t leave it there. In untrained hands, a lightsaber was a terrible accident waiting to happen - if the Melida’s fighters had tried to use it at first, they had probably hurt themselves enough in doing so that they had essentially given up on wielding it in battle against their enemies. But in the hands of an ex-Jedi Padawan, even one as untrained as him, it could turn the tides of the war. This could be their chance to force the Melida and the Daan to come to the negotiating table!
Outside, the sleeping Elder stirred slowly. Cerasi and Obi-Wan moved quickly, getting out of the storage room with their stolen food and medicine, the lightsaber weighing heavily in his bag. As they passed the still unconscious guard, Obi-Wan couldn’t help but reach out again into the Force, trying to get a feel for what it was exactly he had done to get him to fall asleep at his post so quickly. He couldn’t stay around too much to try and understand it more, but tried to commit every detail of the way his force-controlled mind felt - in case he ever needed to do it again. Master Jinn didn’t usually go that far with Force-suggestion, but this was war - any advantage was worth practicing and using, if he could get to a point where it became a reliable skill.
On the way to their main camp, Cerasi seemed to struggle to say something. Finally, a few hours of walking away from their destination, she stopped to catch her breath.
"Is that hers? The Jedi that your master came to rescue?"
"Yes", he answered. "They must have tried to use it, but they couldn't make it work for them safely, so they just… gave up, I guess, and tried to keep it away from the Daan."
Curious, she frowned. "I don't understand. If they've had it all this time, why didn't they use it? It's really powerful, isn't it? Do you think… Do you think you could use it, yourself?"
For the first time in weeks, Obi-Wan could feel a glimmer of hope in her presence in the Force. She tried her best not to let it appear in her voice, clearly not wanting to push her friend if he had to give her a disappointing answer, but his newfound calm and focus gave him an enhanced perception of her emotions. Hopefully, he’d be able to maintain that state of mind when they came back to camp - that would most certainly help him in caring for the wounded children they had found some medicine and bandages for during their nocturnal adventure.
Keeping her words in mind, he reached into his bag and took out the lightsaber hilt. In Master Tahl’s hands, he reasoned, it must have been a perfectly good weapon. The noorian master was taller than even Master Jinn, and had a very acrobatic fighting style, using her lightsaber like a two-handed sword most of the time. In his hands, however, as young and small as he was, it seemed inordinately long and awkward to handle. If he was to be using it for the foreseeable future, he would have to practice for a while with it to make sure he wouldn’t hurt himself or others when wielding it. Still, it was a majestic weapon, and he could feel the soft thrum of its kyber crystal inside the metallic casing, calling out to him.
“I… I think I could. I’ll need to practice, but… yes.” he said, his words more and more assured as he inspected the lightsaber more closely. “I’ll be able to use it.”
Pointing the emitter away from their bodies, he tried to figure out a way to hold it as securely as possible, before turning it on for the first time. A large blue blade sprung to life. Obi-Wan had been right - this was much bigger than the lightsaber he’d given back to Master Jinn when the older man accepted his resignation from the Jedi Order.
He spared a thought to the two Jedi masters, wondering if Master Tahl had managed to make a full recovery once Master Jinn had gotten her to the halls of healing. He didn’t harbor much ill will towards the older man - he knew the choice they were presented with was an impossible one, and they’d both chosen to do what they felt was the right thing in this situation. Still, he was glad to have the familiar weight of a lightsaber in his hands, even if it wasn’t his, not really. He hoped Master Tahl didn’t miss it too much, and wouldn’t be mad at him for using it to protect the Young.
Giving what he hoped was a reassuring smile to Cerasi, Obi-Wan turned off the blade and stored it back into his bag for the time being. As they made their way to their encampment again, his thoughts were focused on one thing : even if he couldn’t be a Jedi, he could still use the Force for good, to protect the children here. He could practice his force-suggestion and lightsaber skills, and do his very best to make sure the others survived until the end of the war. He had faith in Cerasi and Nield’s plans to get the Elders to agree to peace talks - they just had to hold on until then, and these abilities would greatly increase their chances of survival.
***
Obi-Wan Kenobi had been left alone on Melida/Daan for a month by the time he started to Fall.
By the time the peace talks concluded, it was too late to turn back.