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.

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[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.

[acertainpov]

Ben holds her tight to him, letting his cloak fall around them both as he gently kneels, bringing her down with him so they can sit in the sand together, all the time she needs to cry.

He does eventually push her away enough to take her sword arm into his hands, and gently start cleaning it - using the physical Force to push the sand out and his own life Force to accelerate her healing, where the krayt and the sword between them have done some damage.

[last_kallig]

"I can fix my arm," Ibani protests, sniffling. "I've patched myself up plenty of times."

Ben doesn't have a lot of life energy to waste!

[acertainpov]

He's got plenty, hush!

"Too late," he says, and smiles. "All finished. You can save your energy for now."

He uses a thumb to wipe a tear away from her cheek, and starts to rise with some effort. "Are you ready to go home or do you have something else needlessly dramatic to get up to?"

[last_kallig]

Not compared to Ibani, he doesn't! Ibani helps him rise. She has younger knees!

Ben calling his house home, her home, makes her heart hurt, but in a good way. "No more dramatics, I promise," she says. "Though I'd rather not leave my sword here. I don't have a lightsaber, though I have the crystal for one. Found it not long before I got flung here."

Being unarmed makes her edgy, okay? Even if with the Force she's not exactly helpless.

[acertainpov]

He gives her a look. Not that he can't tell she's telling the truth, more that he wants her to know that he's got an eye on her and won't put up with that sort of thing.

Then he nods. "It's over here, come on."

As they walk over to the spot, he continues: "We can see about making your lightsaber later, I think. But we're going to have to be very careful about training. It's vitally important no one finds you here."

[last_kallig]

Ibani acknowledges the look with a nod. Considering what she tried to pull, she doesn't blame him.

Ibani reaches down for the blade with the Force. "I suspected as much. What with there being no Jedi anymore," she says, solemn. And she's sure that's a very ugly story indeed.

"I have experience with hiding my capabilities, thankfully. I won't thank my former so called instructors for that, but it may come in useful, now."

[acertainpov]

There are one or two around, he knows. And maybe she'll be better with them than with Ben. But he's saved her life - twice now, and he's responsibile for her.

And those few Jedi left can also never know where Obi-Wan Kenobi is. They would never let him stay if they did.

"Of course," he adds, "this is assuming you want to train. If you'd rather just learn to moisture farm we can do that too."

He looks around at the sand flats around them. It's not going to be the easiest journey home.

[last_kallig]

"I want to train, learn more about the Force," Ibani replies. "Although moisture farming might not be a bad idea either, or some other way of bringing in income. There are expenses, and it's useful for a cover besides."

[acertainpov]

He turns away from Ibani, walking towards the Krayt dragon, who lifts his head to watch his approach. Doing so gives Ben the chance to smile sadly. He's wanted to train someone for so long, and it's strange that it won't be Luke.

"I've managed alright so far," he remarks back to her.

[last_kallig]

"Yes, but you're not still growing either." Or doing physical training like he'll need to do, to teach her.

And she suspects he's underweight, after that hug.

"And I'd rather you did better than 'manage', honestly. I DO know how wide the divide is between managing to stay alive and 'in fighting shape' is," she quips.

[acertainpov]

Ben stops, a hand on the nose of the Krayt that he's hoping will take them home, and turns to look at her, a tinge of regret showing in his face.

"I'm afraid there won't be any fighting, with me," he says. "If you stay, training is all I can offer."

[last_kallig]

Ibani considers this a moment, then nods. "I understand."

He's hiding, after all, and fighting is likely to draw attention he neither needs nor can afford.

"I would prefer not to loose what I have of the forms, even if there won't be fighting, but I can work on that on my own, if need be."

[acertainpov]

"I'll teach you that," he promises. "And if you start wanting more there's a Galaxy of injustice to right. But we'll start with getting out of this sun."

He climbs onto the dragon's back, sitting just behind the head, and they lumber over to Ibani, where he offers her a hand.

[last_kallig]

"Yes, that sounds like a good place to start."

She eyes the sun. "I'm sure I'll get used to it."

She takes the offered hand after stowing her sword, and climbs up onto the dragon.

"Time to go home," and Ibani has never said those words before. Nowhere has ever been HOME, just places where she's lived or slept.

[acertainpov]

"You never do," Ben says, although now he sounds almost fond of the nasty planet he currently calls home.

He leans forward to pet the dragon on the head, and it breaks out into an elegant gallop, heading back towards Ben's homestead.