Master Apprentice
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(continued from part 1)
Great. First I was stuck in a basement, now I've got Luke and Leia crying on my shoulders. I wish those two would sort out their differences and talk to each other.
What's worse is that some joker's finally gone and sabotaged the buildings for Luke's Academy. Luke's luck held though, and the bad guys botched the job. But they had the right idea. Use Lanchneck; it's one hell of a chemical weapon. It's easy to slip though security checks - I've never come across a reliable way to detect it - and a small amount can contaminate a building for centuries. Only they didn't use it right and the Academy's only due to be out of bounds for a few days.
So now we're bound for Yavin IV to check out what happened. We're going back a bit early, so Leia's on one side worrying if it's all an attempt to disrupt the Dantooine conference and the saboteurs are actually out to damage the New Republic and not just the Academy. Luke, on the other shoulder, is worrying if R2-D2 and C-3PO are okay. We've had a message that they're fine and nobody else was nearby when the explosion happened, but you can't tell him that. But what makes my life worse is that they're both on my ship and barely speaking to each other, just because Leia didn't want Ben along and Luke wouldn't leave without him. All in all I'm beginning to miss the basement.
At least Ben has had the good sense to stay low the whole trip and I've barely seen him. Lando's coming back with us as well but he's using his own ship - lucky him. At least Lando and I came up with some results after hunting through those forty-year-old records.
"Some records did escape the Jedi purges," I told Luke and Leia in the Falcon's lounge. Ben was asleep in his cabin. I'd checked and Chewie would warn me if he woke. "He does look like Obi-Wan Kenobi. The date also checks out okay. Certainly there was a major accident on Theliope about then, but I can't find anything about time travel experiments or any mention of Qui-Gon Jinn."
"That doesn't mean anything," Luke protested. "The Empire routinely destroyed records, especially those that dealt with the Jedi."
"But didn't General Kenobi tell you he was taught by Yoda?" Leia asked.
Luke looked towards her, doing his best calm Jedi impression. He's good but I can tell he's upset.
"There is more than one past, just as there is more than one future. He couldn't have come from our past, so why can't there be differences in where he's from?"
"Luke, you're not thinking logically here," Leia said, kneading her forehead. "Even supposing for a moment that you're right and where he's come from is very different from our past, that only makes him more dangerous. In his Universe he could have been trained as a Sith and not a Jedi - have you even considered that?"
"Yeah, and why should he turn up here and now?" I said. I've been trying to keep out of this but sometimes I just can't keep my big mouth shut. "I suppose you believe that the Force summoned him or something."
"That's exactly what I believe," Luke replied. "I..."
"Shall I tell you what I believe?" Leia interrupted. "I believe you lost something you wanted and now you see a chance to have it. It doesn't matter what evidence we supply, you are going to go straight ahead and involve him in the Academy anyway."
"Leia, please," Luke pleaded. He was trying a new way to get round my wife. "I'm so alone here. I'm rebuilding the Jedi but I have no one to help me. I don't think I can do it alone. I... I need him."
"Luke, this isn't even just about the Academy," Leia retorted. "You want more from him than just his experience in Jedi training."
Luke looked quickly toward me. I had had to tell Leia. There was no way I was keeping Luke's confession to myself. I just wish I didn't feel like such a heel about it.
However, Luke hadn't finished, but he had given up on the softly, softly approach. "Leia, you can think what you like but I believe he deserves the benefit of the doubt. So until you come up with some actual evidence against him, I'm assuming it is Ben and act accordingly."
With that he stood and left.
"Well, that went well," I said turning to Leia but she just shook her head sadly. I slid over and put my arm around her and she leant into me. I prefer it when the bad guys shoot at you. Then you really know who they are.
We landed soon after that. Luke didn't say much, he just headed off with Ben. I gave them a few hours to settle in and then went to see Luke. I knew exactly where to find him. The word was out that Ben had booked some time in the athletics area and everybody was expecting a performance. Apparently he calls it exercising - I call it showing off. He started doing it on Dantooine and his reputation got back here before we did. Now everybody's off to the viewing galleries to watch the show. They lead a quiet life on Yavin IV.
I found Luke among the crowd. He'd chosen a spot higher up in the galleries - it gave a good view and was fairly empty. Investigating the explosion by our unknown friends and finding new recruits to the Academy should have been keeping him busy, but I knew he'd be here. Okay, that at least I can understand. Down on the floor Ben was showing everyone what a Jedi can do. You couldn't buy better advertising for Luke's Academy. It didn't hurt that he was a young, good-looking kid too.
As I walked over to Luke I checked out the spectators and it didn't look good. The reaction was mixed: some looked impressed, others looked on with lust or disgust. I shouldn't have been surprised. Just talking about the Jedi can get you into one hell of an argument these days, so having such an exhibition of Jedi abilities, or at least pretend ones, is bound to cause bad feeling. I reached Luke, but he barely seemed to notice me. He was completely absorbed in watching Ben twist and turn supernaturally on the floor below.
"These moves are apparently standard training exercises for the Jedi," Luke said eventually without looking away from the floor below. "How could he have learned them in our time?"
I kept quiet. I could still believe it was a set-up. I've seen and been involved in more complicated ones. It's easy to alter someone's appearance and we'd never know if he was performing old Jedi training exercises or not.
"Luke," I said. "I know this girl who's been dying to meet you for weeks. Why don't you take her to the lake and, you know, have some fun. Take some time off."
"Han," Luke said and looked at me for the first time. "You sound as though you're trying to save me from something."
At least he was smiling.
"Maybe I am," I said. "Maybe I don't want to see you do something stupid. Like chase a dream with a man who could have been sent here to destroy you."
"Or maybe chase a dream and find happiness, as you have?"
Hell, I've never been any good at advising caution. Catching Leia had been no easy ride. "Just be careful, that's all I'm saying."
Luke looked at me again. "I will," he said, then looked back down to the floor.
I stayed there until Ben finished and watched Luke head down to meet him. I knew what that look in Luke's eyes meant. If that guy is here to wreck the Academy then it's in big trouble.
Dreams are cruel masters. Remaining out of reach, they beckon with promises of wonders beyond the wit of man. Their humble supplicants strain and strive, risking all to obtain the promised bounty, many to dying unfulfilled and broken - but worse is in store for those who actually succeed. That dream, so golden from a distance, can often turn out to be disappointing upon closer acquaintance.
But this was not yet Luke's problem. His fantasy, although now living, breathing and walking round Yavin IV still remained stubbornly elusive. And Luke was mystified. He was so sure that the Force had sent Obi-Wan and couldn't understand why he was so distant. Eventually Luke wondered if he was expecting something that wasn't on offer. Perhaps, despite his deep wish for more, he was only being given assistance with the Academy; perhaps he'd only been sent a helper and not a lover. What if the Force wasn't a matchmaker after all?
But, Luke agonised, if that was true why was the connection between the two of them directly connected to his libido? He was finding that this continual and intimate awareness of where the younger man was, or sometimes even what he was doing, was provoking an almost continual need for deep and calming meditation.
And so it went on. Luke would drop hints to Obi-Wan about working on the Academy and Obi-Wan would side-step them with skill and ease that left Luke astounded. But Luke would not give up. He fought to make his motives pure, determined to accept the limits of what he had been given, and eventually his persistence paid off.
It happened soon after their arrival on Yavin. Luke, as ever, had watched Obi-Wan exercise and felt joy and hope for the future of the Academy, if he could only get Obi-Wan to help. Afterwards, as ever, Luke went down to the changing rooms. Although potential students had gathered round him to ask for news of the Academy he had found Obi-Wan alone and once more dressed in the garments that he had arrived in. Despite the fact that he was a regular topic of conversation, the other inhabitants of Yavin rarely engaged him directly themselves - much preferring to listen to gossip or overhear the little he said to others.
And, as Luke was coming to expect, the conversation quickly turned away from the Academy.
"I owe you a great debt," Obi-Wan said as he stood ramrod straight in the changing room gazing steadily at Luke. Luke thought such discipline only made the other man looked even younger than the twenty odd years he actually was.
"A debt I have no way of repaying," Obi-Wan continued. "You took me in after the battle with the pirates without knowing anything about me. I am very grateful, but I can not rely on your charity forever. I shall have to learn to support myself until I can find a way back to my own time."
Luke was astounded and had to use all his skill to keep the shock from his face.
"There isn't a way back," Luke said as calmly as he could. "Time travel is still illegal and even the Emperor didn't work on it. And even if there was, you'd never return to the time strand you came from."
"But I have no place here," the younger man replied and started pacing. "In your time the Jedi are gone."
"But I am a Jedi and I am still here. I refuse to be the last. You could be the bridge between the old and the new. You could stay and help me rebuild the Jedi here and now "
"Rebuild the Jedi?"
Hope flared within Luke as Obi-Wan stopped pacing and looked at him. Maybe his words had finally sunk in and he wouldn't have to go on alone, neither in his heart nor in his work.
"Yes. In your time one Jedi more or less won't make much difference. Here it would mean everything. I need your help. I can't do it alone." Don't leave me, Luke wanted to add.
Obi-Wan turned away from Luke and handled the thin braid hanging behind his ear. Luke fervently wished he knew what it symbolised. But he didn't - it was just one more thing he didn't understand about this maddeningly desirable man. Then Luke felt a change in the connection between them, but Obi-Wan didn't speak and Luke didn't rush him, so the silence stretched on between them.
"You are right," Obi-Wan said at last, still turned away from Luke. "Please forgive me, my reluctance was for purely selfish reasons. In my own time I had certain hopes that I did not want to abandon, but I can see that the Force sent me here for a reason. It expects me to help you. What I wanted is nothing in comparison with that."
"I have spent all my life learning to be a Jedi," he continued quietly. "And now I shall never be one, not in the way I dreamed." He looked down and his shoulders slumped a little in defeat - but when he finally turned back to Luke he looked proud and defiant. "I will help you," he said firmly. "If that is what you wish. I suggest we start in the morning: the Academy grounds should be decontaminated by then."
Victory, especially after a long and hard-fought battle, often comes as a shock. So, despite building all his hopes upon it, Luke could barely believe what had happened and was suddenly completely at a loss what to do next. He stood frozen, and barely returned Obi-Wan's departing bow.
Luke had won but it wasn't enough. He still wanted it all.
Just because it wasn't easy doesn't mean that it wasn't meant to be. Maybe Obi-Wan had only been sent to help with the Academy - but that didn't prevent him from being more. After all, Luke had never considered the Force to be judgmental. Suddenly Luke decided that he had waited long enough and he felt his desire for the younger man wake and writhe inside him.
Tonight, he would do it tonight. And tomorrow would be the start of everything.
Luke managed to wait until he was sure Obi-Wan had retired. He thought about knocking but changed his mind and used an override code to open the door to Obi-Wan's quarters. And as the door opened Luke's confidence fled. This man was different in so many ways to his beloved mentor. What if he didn't return Luke's desire? He could be about to drive away the only person who could help him with the Academy! But it was too late; the door had shut behind him, leaving them together in the dark with their connection singing out in the Force.
"Don't tell me you don't know why I'm here," Luke said in the darkness, all attempts at pretence abandoned. "I know you can feel the connection between us."
Luke stepped forward towards the bed and through the Force he saw Obi-Wan sit up and clutch the sheet protectively to his naked chest. Luke sat next to him on the bed and took Obi-Wan's free hand in his. Obi-Wan didn't resist.
"I know you can feel it here," Luke said as he undid his own tunic and slid Obi-Wan's hand inside to rest over his heart. Luke relished the warm feel of the hand against his skin. Neither of them moved.
"I... I was waiting for my Master," Obi-Wan said hesitantly.
"But you can never go back to him. You are here with me now." Luke hadn't known that but it didn't matter. Nothing else mattered now.
Luke felt Obi-Wan's hand slowly start to move on his chest, gently circling his nipple. Luke gasped with pleasure and leant into the touch. The present and the past overlaid and Luke also felt other, older hands on his body. And it was good. The younger hands were a little different, softer perhaps, but very, very familiar in all the important ways.
"But this bond with you feels so strange," Obi-Wan said. "It is as if I know you, but I do not. Not really. On some level you are so familiar, as if you are a part of me; on others, I have no idea who you are."
Luke kicked his boots off, pushed the bedcovers aside and crawled up the bed, forcing Obi-Wan to lie back, his hand still at Luke's chest. Time slowed and Luke savoured the feel of the hard, young naked body beneath him. His clothes still formed a barrier between them but Luke was confident that it wouldn't be a problem for long. Finally, his heart beating fast enough to burst, Luke reached his objective and knelt on all fours above the younger man. Slowly, carefully he lowered himself, resting all his weight on his elbows placed on either side of Obi-Wan's head, until their lips were millimetres apart. Through the air between them, Luke could feel the equally fast beat of Obi-Wan's heart.
Luke looked into Obi-Wan's eyes and held his gaze.
"Let me show you everything about me," Luke breathed into Obi-Wan's mouth and closed the minuscule gap between them to achieve his dearest dream with a kiss.
He wasn't disappointed.
Leia just had to choose this morning to go to speak to Luke. Something had happened she said, well, she wasn't wrong - but did I really need to be there to find out too? We'd arrived early and she instantly became worried when he didn't answer his door, and overrode the door code. Then she found his bed unslept in!
I watched her pace for an hour, and wished she would stop. Except when she turned and looked angrily at me - then I wanted her to go back to the pacing.
"I'll kill him!" she said every now and then. "Aren't Jedi supposed to be able to control their urges? Why can't he see that I'm trying to protect him and his precious Academy? He'd just better not be where I think he is." I didn't say anything. It seemed healthier that way.
Eventually, Luke walked in. Leia barely waited until he was through the door.
"I really hope that the reason you're looking so pleased with yourself has nothing to do with him."
I looked at Luke. Oh yes, that was the look of a man who had had sex the night before. Yeah, sex and lots of it.
"Where is he?" I asked angrily. There was no point talking to Luke anymore.
"In the med-bay having his final check-up," Luke answered with a wistful expression.
"Okay, I'll see you later," I said and stalked out. Luke started to follow me but Leia grabbed him by the arm.
"Has nothing we've said had any influence on you?" she said as I left. "Won't you even try to see the danger? We care what happens to you, why won't you?"
I went straight to the med-bay and barged into the examination room. Ben had barely finished getting dressed. I grabbed him and flung him up against the wall.
"Okay, I want to get a couple of things straight," I said. "I don't pretend to know who you are and I don't much care, but I'm guaranteeing that you're walking on dangerous ground. Luke has friends, powerful friends and if you mess him around we'll be on you like a legion of stormtroopers. He's not a lonely farm boy, who's just lost his family, that you can take advantage of anymore. You got that?"
Ben looked levelly back at me.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," he said in his even, cultured voice.
I have to admit that he didn't look worried, and I really know how to be scary. Either he was a good actor or I just didn't frighten him. I hoped I didn't - a guy like me shouldn't be able to cower a Jedi. At least that's what they liked you to believe.
"Don't play innocent with me," I said. "I know what you were up to last night."
Ben's calm expression didn't even waver.
"And that is your business?"
"Anything that involves Luke is my business," I said as I roughly let go of him and turned on my heel. "Never forget that," I added.
He straightened his tunics as he watched me leave, his eyes bright and unreadable. I've never wanted to be wrong so much in my whole life.
The Jedi used to say that your focus determines your reality. Certainly an outside observer would have considered this to be an appalling day in Luke's life. To wake up to a personal barrage from a close relative must count as a bad start, and an afternoon spent examining the vandalism of several years' work can hardly be an improvement. However, Luke considered it one of the happiest he ever spent.
A week earlier Luke would have been devastated, but today nothing could dent his bubble of confidence and joy. 'Let them try to stop me now,' he thought as he stood amongst the damage and contamination of the explosion. Now nothing was impossible. They could destroy Yavin IV itself and he'd still build his Academy - all because he had 'Ben'.
They'd flown over to the Academy in its jungle hideaway, Luke piloting, Obi-Wan admiring the scenery. R2-D2 and C-3PO had met them there. Luke had been delighted and relieved to see them whole and well, and had dealt with C-3PO's fretting with equanimity. It even amused Luke to see how the droid tried to break the news to him gently.
The droids had been concerned at how Luke would react and were surprised at his calmness. Initially C-3PO wondered if Luke hadn't appreciated the full extent of the destruction. But he needn't have worried. Luke understood all too well, but he was equally convinced that, now he had Obi-Wan to help him, replacing a year's work would take a few months at most.
So instead of worrying about the details, all Luke could think of was how wonderful it was to have Obi-Wan examining the damage by his side. So, when Obi-Wan bent to pick up a piece of half-dissolved metal, Luke could only marvel at the grace of the other Jedi and only just restrained himself from touching and kissing the other man in front of the droids.
Instead it was Obi-Wan's remoteness that was causing him concern. Luke even found himself wondering if Obi-Wan really returned his feelings. Surely someone so much in love should show it more? Luke shook his head, he was being foolish, after last night he shouldn't really have any doubts. No one could have faked how their Force essences had joined in their ecstasy.
"The damage generally looks superficial," Ben said and Luke's thought's were rudely returned to the present.
"Fortunately a great deal of it is, sir," C-3PO replied. "R2 thinks that the saboteurs didn't get the access they really required but still did as much damage as they could. He also believes that they acted before they were ready. We found where the Lanchneck had been stored. It would have been discovered if they had waited any longer."
"Then perhaps the people who knew how to use the Lanchneck couldn't get here in time to set it up correctly," Luke said, and C-3PO nodded.
"What effect is this going to have on the Academy?" Ben asked.
Luke looked around. "We were ready to start moving people out here and start training. Now we'll have to wait."
Ben walked to the remains of one of the windows and looked out across the clearing to the nearby trees. The sun shining down on the forest was almost as bright as Luke's mood.
"I see no reason to delay," Ben said with his back to the rest. "Move the Academy here now. The initiates can help with the repairs. There is a great deal of resistance to your Academy, Luke. If your new recruits cannot handle these conditions, then it seems unlikely that they will cope with the opposition away from your protection."
"That does seems rather harsh, sir," C-3PO said.
"The life of a Jedi is not an easy option," Ben said as he turned back. "It never has been and it never will be. Regardless of everything that has changed, I guarantee that much will remain the same."
And he was right. But Luke wasn't to find out quite how much until later.
I really shouldn't have gone. We're in the middle of moving the New Republic government to Coruscant and Leia is getting swamped by the bureaucracy. Not that she'll admit it, of course, but it's doing nothing to improve her temper. I should have stayed, but I'd been checking through transport manifests for days. I needed a break and fancied visiting Luke. Okay, okay, so I was worried about him, his Academy and 'Ben'.
At first I was amazed at how much they'd managed to get cleaned up since the explosion. Most of the place looked okay. Pretty good for so short a time, but hey, the Jedi were always supposed to be hard workers. Luke needs to learn a few things about security though; I just walked right in, no checks, no locks, nothing. And he wonders why Leia and I worry! That kid seems to think that in the end everything is just gonna turn out okay. Well, I know it isn't like that; if life can kick you in the teeth it will.
There were a few people wandering around. Some I'd seen before but most were new to me. They all knew who I was, though. It's just one of the side effects of being such a hero. I got one kid to direct me to Luke. Apparently he and Ben were putting on some kind of show in the exhibition hall. Well, that's the fancy name they gave this large room with unfinished seating. Looks like it'll eventually get an oval stage with steep seats going all the way up to the roof. I arrived just as Luke was explaining to his eager audience what he and Ben were about to do. It was supposed to be some kind of exercise in Force awareness: all I know is that they wore blindfolds.
I looked around and saw Wedge sitting near the top of one the seating rakes. I climbed up to join him. He'd found about the only spot that high which had been finished. I sat down in the row in front of him.
"Hi Wedge. Finally got away from escorting all those diplomats home safely?" I asked cheerily. I've got time for Wedge, I could have used him in my smuggling days.
"Hi, Han. Yeah, no more excitement," he replied and looked quickly at me before returning to watch the action on the floor. He looked very unhappy and I was starting to get a bad feeling.
"So, you come here often."
"Sometimes," he said then paused, opened his mouth again then closed it.
I decided to say nothing. If he wanted to talk about whatever was bothering him then he would. If not, then that was fine too. In fact it was better.
On the floor Ben, in white, and Luke, in black, danced around each other for a bit longer, then stopped and got a few kids to try whatever it was they were doing.
"Did you know that Luke..." Wedge blurted out suddenly. "That he and this guy who is supposed to be Obi-Wan Kenobi are..." Wedge stopped.
"Yeah," I said after a little. It sounds as though Ben's supposed identity wasn't so secret anymore. "Is that a problem?"
Wedge looked down at me and laughed flatly. "I'd given up hoping that he was, you know, attracted to men. And then I find out..." Wedge paused. "Do you think Kenobi is an impostor, that he's here to sabotage the Academy?" he asked me desperately.
"I don't know, Wedge. I wish I did," I said, and then I had an idea. "Try and speak to this Obi-Wan guy. See if you can find out more about him. Anything that would help us prove who he is."
"I've tried, a little, but he doesn't say much. I've told him a bit about the Empire and how people see the Jedi now, to see how he would react."
"And?"
"You see, on Dantooine, I helped Luke get away to see him," Wedge blurted out, ignoring my question. "I thought it would help Luke, you know, having someone else working on the Academy. I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn't know what Luke was thinking. I just didn't realise what he wanted. What if that guy is here to cause trouble? What will happen to Luke then?"
What then? Good question, Wedge. Good question.
On Yavin they have a saying that love makes fools of us all. If that is true then Luke Skywalker was certainly no exception. For in his ardour he never even noticed the trouble which was brewing, and in not noticing so nearly lost that which was dearest to him.
It started so simply. The lovers were abed, naked but not entwined, Luke lost in the contemplation of Obi-Wan's face. He was trying to reconstruct the ageing process between the two faces he loved so much. Line by line he was gently tracing the contours on the young face with his fingertips and mentally comparing it to the older.
Obi-Wan, on the other hand, was flat on his back staring fixedly up at the ceiling. The intensity of his gaze really should have alerted Luke. But, since he was aware of the differences between this young Ben and his old mentor, Luke considered such intensity to be normal. It showed that despite his best efforts Luke did not know this Obi-Wan as well as he thought.
And so the tension rose but Luke remained oblivious and was unconcerned when Obi-Wan got out of bed. Luke lay back and dreamily waited for his lover's return only to slowly become aware of how long Obi-Wan had been absent. Finally concerned, Luke turned up the lights to discover Obi-Wan standing with his forehead pressed against a far wall. Luke was mystified and anxious so he quickly followed.
"Ben?" Luke said as he hovered nervously by his lover.
"Luke... I think it would be best if I left Yavin. My presence here is only causing problems," Obi-Wan replied.
"You would leave me alone?" Luke was stunned. His fall from grace into torment had taken the merest of moments. Suddenly the world was a sharper, crueller place; the floor cold beneath his bare feet, the dim light excruciatingly bright and time painfully slow.
"You wouldn't be alone for long. I have it on good authority that there are many who would take my place."
"No one could replace you," Luke said, placing his hands gently on Obi-Wan's shoulders. "How can you think that I'll ever want anyone else if I can't have you?" Luke's words were meant to comfort and assure but they appeared to do neither.
"It's Leia and Han, isn't it?" Luke continued. "They've told you to leave. I won't let them chase you away. Leave it to me..."
"No, it is not them," Obi-Wan said, his voice muffled by the wall. "Although they are another reason. I am causing problems between you and your family."
"It's not a problem. I'll tell them to back off, make them understand..." Luke started into a stream of reassurances. Right then he would have promised anything to persuade Obi-Wan to stay at his side. But Obi-Wan turned from the wall, grabbed Luke by the shoulders and shook him into startled silence.
"Luke, stop. Please try to understand. Last month, training to become a Jedi was the sole purpose of my life. I considered it to be the noblest ambition possible in the Republic. Then suddenly I find myself here fifty years later, where the Jedi are an object of such scorn. So many people hold the Jedi responsible for the Empire. I see it even in the eyes of your new recruits and sometimes hear it in their untrained thoughts. They believe we did something terribly wrong and are determined not to make the same mistakes."
"But that's just not true!"
"You do not know that," Obi-Wan cried miserably, tears starting to fall down his face. "There is so little left from those days that you just do not know that. Strangers tell me of terrible things that Darth Vader or the Emperor did, and I do not even know who they are talking about. They say that the Jedi helped them. Some say it was the flaws of the Council which caused the rise of the Empire, others say that the Jedi were too weak to do what was necessary to resist it."
Luke clutched at the distraught man before him. His fingers dug deeply into Obi-Wan's strong shoulders.
"But you did. You survived everything that the Empire was, you never gave in and you found and taught me. You gave me the strength to defeat them."
Luke had meant to reassure Obi-Wan, to tell him just how much he was needed and how much he had achieved. But Obi-Wan staggered back as if he had been struck.
"Ben?" Luke said and reached out, completely mystified by Obi-Wan's reaction. But Obi-Wan just backed away, grabbed his robe, put it on and made for the door. He got as far as opening it only to slowly close it again after a moment. Then he stumbled back to sit dejectedly on the edge the bed with his head in his hands.
"Luke," he said sadly. "I am not the man who taught you. Whatever happened to him, did not happen to me. I used to follow the Code in everything. If it came to a choice between my heart and what the Code dictated, I would do what was expected of me, even to the extent of denying my Master." He looked up, meeting Luke's eyes, and continued with extreme earnestness. "I loved my Master but it completely embarrassed me whenever he argued with the Council. Every mistake they made I would have agreed with. If I stay and teach your students, I will only pass on the errors of the past. Now, in your time, the teaching needs to be much better than anything that I could provide."
Luke was shocked into silence. Suddenly he felt conscious of his nakedness in a situation where the intimacy of nudity was inappropriate. He quickly grabbed a tunic, pulled it over his head and sat beside Obi-Wan on the bed. He took extreme care not to touch the younger man and looked straight ahead, away from the object of his concern.
"Ben..."
"Do not call me that!" Obi-Wan said and dropped his head back into his hands. "It is not even my name. My name is Obi-Wan and it stands for everything that was wrong with the Jedi. I cannot help you avoid past mistakes because I do not even know what they were. I have no idea where, how or why we went wrong. I merely know that we did."
Luke paused. Everything depended on what he said next.
"Obi-Wan, let me tell you what I think. I think that the Force sent you to me when I needed help most. It is true that many people blame the Jedi and would be glad if the Order died out, but I think they are wrong. Without the Jedi the New Republic is in for a dark time. They need us to rebuild what the Emperor destroyed. I know we can do it together, but I'm not so sure I can manage alone."
Finally Luke turned to look at his companion. "I can't force you to stay by my side if you don't want to be there. You don't have to teach, but stay with me. Stay, if you care for me at all."
Luke willed his lover to respond to his words. He watched with trepidation as Obi-Wan lifted his head from his hands, stood and wrapped his robe about himself. Terrified that he hadn't said enough, Luke held his breath and racked his brain for a more persuasive argument but, instead of leaving, Obi-Wan turned, reverently knelt before Luke and gazed up into the older man's blue eyes.
"How could I not care for you? You are so strong in the Force that it shines in you like a star. Whenever I touch you I feel it singing to me. I do not want to leave but I must. I am jeopardising everything you are working to build."
"Stay."
Obi-Wan sighed deeply and looked to the floor. "I will not teach."
"Teach them only how to feel the Force and move with it."
Victory almost in his grasp, Luke traced a finger down Obi-Wan's neck to his shoulders, then pushed the robe off his body. Obi-Wan blushed as it dropped to the floor and pooled around him, as if it was the first time his nakedness had been thus revealed. But, Luke felt that this time was different; at last his elusive mentor was finally and completely his. After this Obi-Wan could never try to leave him again.
"Undress me," Luke said and Obi-Wan's blush deepened, but he dutifully did as he was commanded, as shyly as a sheltered virgin slave. Nude, Luke raised Obi-Wan to his feet and led him to their bed. Luke would be magnanimous in victory later - but right now with the spoils of conquest spread before him he needed to re-familiarise himself with every plane and curve of the body and soul that had nearly been taken from him.
They curled around each other and flesh lay against flesh. Essence joined to essence as the Force flowed freely between then. To Luke it was joy beyond belief.
But such joy was not to be the final word. Princess Leia soon found out about Obi-Wan's change in duties and confronted Luke. She told him that perhaps Obi-Wan's reluctance to teach was because he didn't actually know what the Jedi used to do as he had never learnt from them. That maybe he was hiding his ignorance with vague stories about future disaster. Needless to say Luke disagreed, and a further rift was opened between brother and sister.
They say a good smuggler never grows too old to smell a rat. Well, something certainly stinks around here. I've always kept an eye on what comes and goes in this place. Another thing that the New Republic should be grateful for, because I've just found that someone is bringing high explosives and overpowered firearms onto Yavin IV. And why should they bother? I mean, not many people get this kind of stuff just to show off to their friends. Normally they've got some serious redecoration in mind. So what little piece of real estate could they be thinking of? Frankly there isn't much here. The place is mainly jungle, the government's moving to Coruscant and there's precious little else - apart from Luke's Academy that is. They've failed once - why do they think they'll succeed this time? Perhaps they have inside contacts they didn't have before?
Several shipments had landed before I could trace who'd brought the stuff in, but Chewie managed to track where it was being stockpiled. So all I had to do was hang around a warehouse and see who came to collect it. I was going to contact Leia and Luke, and get a few guards over as soon as I was sure. But whoever's behind this was good. This stuff has passed from contact to contact and most of the handlers didn't have a clue what it was, let alone who wanted it. I didn't want to think how Luke would react if it turned out to be Ben, but that's not my problem.
I was getting worried about Chewie, though. He'd called me to say he'd found the stuff and I should meet him in a particular warehouse. I got there and settled down to watch the crates we'd identified, but he was missing. Just as I was about to get all riled up, and about to threaten big trouble to anyone who'd harmed Chewie, my com chimed.
"Yewod, groeoww caffcck."
"What! Where?"
"Hroww roffe."
"Okay, I'm on my way," I said, cut the channel and was out of that warehouse in seconds. I'd fallen for the oldest trick in the book - swapping crates. I'd been watching a load of machine parts! Chewie'd seen the swap but couldn't contact me. They were all headed for the Luke's Academy! Now so was I.
Quite how everybody gathered there together is hard to analyse but very easy to understand.
All the students at the Academy had been set a supervised exercise to find their way through the jungle, and thus, as some noticed, left the Academy conveniently empty.
Princess Leia had sharp eyes and kept them on this Obi-Wan. She knew exactly where he was supposed to be and was painfully aware that he had strayed. As for Luke, his thoughts were rarely from his lover and fellow Jedi. He'd probably felt that something was amiss and came to investigate. Wedge, who was helping with the Academy exercise, returned with him. Han Solo and Chewbacca were chasing dubious shipments. And Lando? Well, as he said, he keeps an ear to the ground.
(continued in part 3)