Au: Kid Ibani-Tatooine Era Obi-Wan Kenobi

[last_kallig]

(OOC: Content warning for mention of torture, harm done by and to children, suicidal ideation and quite possibly suicide attempt.)

Ibani is a fourteen year old Sith Acolyte and her life of pain is written in her body for those who can read it. The scars of a slave collar on her neck, the letters and numbers carved under one eye like a bantha brand, those were only the beginning. She's been shocked regularly with force lightning for years as well as being subjected to more primitive methods of torture, and all have left their mark. Scars from teeth, claws and blades mark her skin, the echoes of broken bones still visible if you look the right way in the Force.

She should be dead, and she might be shortly, despite her struggles. She doesn't know how she got HERE, wherever this hot desert is, instead of the cold desert of Korriban. The gravity is wrong, the temperature is wrong, and while the Force shouted just before she landed here it is strangely silent now. (She might be insane, in which case she should put herself down before she harms anyone, but she's waiting for more evidence on that one way or the other.) She's dying by inches of heat and thirst and she can't push her body any further, even with all the Force tricks she knows.

She crawls on her belly under an overhang of rock, collapses. She can enter a trance, reduce her need for water, but that means that without help she will simply fail to ever wake, will slip away into the Force in death. It's a long shot, but she's worth more alive than dead even to the most nefarious of persons. (She knows better than to expect mercy or kindness from strangers.)

Ibani sinks into the Force, awaiting aid or death.

Comments

[last_kallig]

"The heat takes some getting used to," Ibani replies, tone desert dry. "But the company so far has been a definite improvement."

Understatement of the century.

[acertainpov]

"It's a hellhole," Craya says cheerfully. "And he's a heartbreaker. And slyer than he looks. You can trust him with your life, but don't try and win against him at Sabacc."

Ben looks at her like she's just mortally wounded him and she laughs, nudging him in the side.

"I'm not going to ask," she adds, looking between them, "but if you need my help, old man, you know where to find me."

Ben nods. But of course, he has no intention of taking it.

[last_kallig]

"I'm used to hellholes," Ibani replies, grinning at Craya. "And I'll keep your advice about Ben and Sabacc in mind."

She's amused at Ben's mortally wounded expression.

Ibani waves goodbye when they're leaving. "I'm glad they have you," she says once they're out of earshot. "It's been more than three years, but I remember what it was like."

[acertainpov]

"It doesn't leave you."

He's not speaking directly from personal experience beyond a few weeks during the war, but he saw it in Anakin, and he sees it in Craya and her team.

"But they've found a channel for it, something to fight for. They don't really need me, but I do have a healthy crop of black melon that grows near my hut, and it's not always easy to pay for water around here.

"Which is our last stop, I think. See if there's any moisture on sale we can take back with us."

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods, feeling that he's seen that it doesn't leave you.

"Purpose is important," Ibani says quietly. She doesn't have one, not here. But that won't matter for much longer.

"Where does the water come from, underground?"

[acertainpov]

"Around here it's imported," Ben says. "But out in the flats it's farmed from the air. The hut I live in was an old moisture farm, but I never had the patience to get it working properly.

"It's heavily monitored though. Which is why people who don't want to attract much notice like Craya and her friends usually rely on plant based sources."

[last_kallig]

"That makes sense," Ibani agrees.

She scowls slightly. "And whoever controls the water has the power, a different kind of chain on people, but a chain all the same."

The area where the moisture is sold is busy, unsurprisingly. Ibani sticks close to Ben, unwilling to risk trouble at the moment.

[acertainpov]

"The chains are usually held by the same hand," Ben says, but quietly and he stops talking before they reach the crowds. He steers Ibani in front of him, a hand on her shoulder protectively, as he navigates the crowd, occasionally with a smile and a nod to some acquaintance or other.

He exchanges a couple of wupiupi coins for a pitifully small amount of water shared between two gourds, and hands one to her. "You can drink some when we get out of the city," he says, "but hold on to it until then."

[last_kallig]

There is a feeling of agreement and understanding in the Force when Ben says that the chains are usually held by the same hand. She's not surprised, not with what she's seen in her life about what people can be like.

It's strange to have someone be protective of her, but she likes it.

"I understand." And she needs to leave, soon. She's getting attached, too attached.

Ibani is restless as they make their way toward leaving the city.

[acertainpov]

Ben makes them stop before they get to Dolo, long enough to exchange a half-wapiupi piece for a bag of two wamp rat pies and a handful of manak leaves. It will make a change from the remains of Dolo's brother back that the hut, and he has a guest so it's worth splashing out.

He's also inclined to delay the inevitable, because he's tired and he would rather not deal with it today. Still though, it's going to have to come eventually.

He greets Dolo with the manak and a scratch behind her horn. "Thank you for waiting, my friend," he says, and offers Ibani a hand to help her up.

[last_kallig]

Ibani discreetly slips her pie and her water into what's packed on Dolo while Ben is feeding her. She's not going to need them.

Ibani calls the Force and pushes just a little on Ben's mind, with a hand gesture that will be very familiar to Ben. "I'll be okay on my own for a bit, I can look after myself."

If she knew his reputation, she'd never try the mind trick on him, but she doesn't.

[acertainpov]

Ben tilts his head, studying her for a few seconds, his face carefully blank.

Would she make a scene in front of other people? Where she could be watched? He doubts it - she's trying to protect his feelings, so she's probably not inclined to traumatise anyone in Mos Eisley.

"You'll be okay on your own for a bit," he echoes. "You can look after yourself."

He does a pretty good impression of someone under the influence, given how many times he's heard this exact intonation before.

[last_kallig]

Ibani had almost not expected that to work, but she's relieved when it appears to do just that. She starts to walk, slowly, toward the edge of the city. (Running attracts attention, and she doesn't want attention right now.)

If he lets her break his line of sight, she really WILL vanish. Force cloaks are useful like that. Hiding her path through the sand will slow her down, but she'll manage.

The Force can be both irritating and helpful with the visions it provides. It shows Ben a place he knows, a place where a krayt dragon lairs, shows him Ibani's hands red with blood and holding her sword. The hand position and the amount of blade visible are all wrong for the blade to have been turned on someone ELSE.

[acertainpov]

Ben had climbed on to Dolo's back as he watched Ibani go, but he shortly slides right off it and taps her on the shoulder. She'll rejoin her herd, and he'll catch up with her later.

He puts his hood up and steals after her. No need for a Force Cloak like she can do, when you can just work the conscious mind like he can.

When she vanishes, he still knows where she's going.

[last_kallig]

She's hiding herself even in the Force, hiding her mind and her force presence. She's used to being surrounded by Force sensitives after all.

Which would be more useful if the Force hadn't told Ben where she was going. It's like it wants her alive for some reason....

It's a way into the desert, but she doesn't stop, doesn't rest, until she finds the lair. The krayt is massive, towering over Ibani.

"Well? Eat me, damn it!" Ibani growls at the beast. She's used to the wildlife on Korriban who view humans as tasty snacks and are unnaturally aggressive to boot.

"The wildlife on this planet is defective," she mutters to herself. She moves to draw her sword.

[acertainpov]

And that is when the krayt attacks, hurling itself at her tiny form with a deafening bellow. It opens its mouth wide and snaps at her sword and her arm.

Maybe it thought she was drawing her sowrd on it. Maybe something else suggested that it should attack.

[last_kallig]

Ibani has the sword out by the time the jaws draw near her arm, which keeps the krayt from actually ripping off her arm. The teeth still hurt like fire and her arm is bleeding quite a bit as the blow sends her flying back.

She forces herself to her feet, because there is such a thing as pride, even here and now.

"Should have tried for my head," she informs it, her voice and smile fey and strange.

[acertainpov]

The krayt crouches low and snarls, its front claws pawing angrily at the sand as it prepares to attack again. It doesn't need to aim for any particular part of her, it's big enough to snap her cleanly in two, but instead it lowers its head and charges like a bantha, in order to knock her down again.

[last_kallig]

Okay, this behavior is STRANGE, Ibani realizes.

Ibani calls the Force into her body and tries to leap over the charge, hoping to land on its back.

"Let it go, Ben!" she calls out. Call it a hunch. "Although I wouldn't begrudge a former Jedi the chance to do me in and take their time about it, I don't think that's what you're here for." Another hunch, the former Jedi bit.

[acertainpov]

The Krayt roars again when she lands on its back, twisting its head and neck to try and get at her.

Meanwhile Ben eventually appears, fighting across the dunes. He's closer than he should be for appearing like this. Rather than coming over the horizon it's more like he slips into notice.

But the suns are high and the desert is harsh and he's an old man, so his approach is a slow struggle.

"I'll let him go when you do," he says. "You didn't need to bring him into this, you know."

[last_kallig]

"Fair enough," Ibani allows.

She lets go of the krayt, leaps far off his back, and onto the sand. At least the krayt can eat her once she's dead, for his trouble

She sighs. "I didn't want you to see this, you know." Her smile at him is fey and sad. "There is no justification for my continued existence, not anymore."

Fortunately, at least for Ben, trying to maneuver her weapon, which has a solid and fairly lengthly blade, to cleanly stab herself in the heart is giving Ibani trouble, so he has a little time before she does herself any more harm.

[acertainpov]

Ben sighs. He shakes his head and looks down at the sand for a second before he looks up and holds out a hand.

The strength in his Force is impressive. A single pull on the sword hilt as strong as if it were his own lightsaber. It comes seemingly out of nowhere and yanks hard on the metal, pulling it directly to him.

He's not just any former Jedi.

[last_kallig]

Ibani snarls at him as her sword is pulled away, anger joining the despair and self-hatred in the Force.

"Why won't you let me die?!" she demands.

Her hands and her voice shake. "I was trained as an Inquisitor and an assassin. I've murdered, tortured, broken minds, adults and fellow acolytes, I couldn't even give you an estimate as to how many there have been. I could have refused."

They would have killed her, of course, but she could have refused.

"When I was eleven I murdered my only friend, when she was tied up and begging me not to hurt her, because they asked it of me and I did not want to die." And her tone turns a bit hysterical at that, at the terrible irony of it.

"I am a monster, out of place and out of time and the galaxy has monsters in it enough already."

[acertainpov]

Ben drops the sword at his feet, where a sudden eddy in the sand stirs up and covers it deeply, out of reach for her and anyone else for the current time. Apart from that he just continues forward towards her, past the Krayt, that is now lying calmly and watching them.

"Because you're not broken," he says as he approaches.

"Because I've let too many people die." Tens of thousands of his fellow Jedi. Millions of clones. Billions of innocents caught in the middle of a war that the entire Galaxy lost.

"Because," as he gets closer her reaches out a hand to her shoulder, pulls her to him, "you have the chance for new life now. You have the chance for hope, and I am not going to let you throw that away."

[last_kallig]

She's shaking as he holds her and the smell of ozone is in the air.

She can feel that he means it, every word, and those words slam again and again into the shields and walls she's built around her heart. The walls crumble and she sobs, a harsh, broken, sound, years of pain and anguish finally given an outlet.

She clings to him like a lifeline or like a child might cling to their parent.