For fadedfool

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra hadn't known what to expect, when he's stepped through the portal, but landing face first in a desert would not have been even close to his first guess. On the other hand, this is a desert he knows - or at least as much as one could, having stumbled around nearly blindly and nearly died. But he'd bet his helmet collection that this is Tatooine.

He had even thought he'd heard Master Kenobi's voice, as he'd fallen through whatever that in between place had been. Many other voices, familiar and not, had reverberated, but Master Kenobi is the voice he'd placed first.

Now he's plodding through the desert, possibly even less equipped for it than he'd been the first time around, sweltering in storm trooper armor; he's pretty sure he remembers from his brief undercover stints Imps talking up how versatile stormtrooper equipment is supposed to be, but that is clearly exaggerated propaganda.

And a lone stormtrooper, on this planet, is much more likely to be a target than not, come to think of it. He loathes leaving anything behind, now that he's on his own without many resources, but not overheating takes higher priority. Keep the boots, and under layer, leave the rest, he decides.

Then see how far he can get. Surely the Force didn't bring him this far, just to die.

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[fadedfool]

There's a disturbance in the force.

Then again, that's all there is these days, it seems. Even so, something prods at the edge of Obi-Wan's awareness, though no amount of trying to focus on whatever it was made it any clearer. There was, however, an inexplicable pull in one direction.

Right out into the dunes under the (burning hot) twin suns. Of course he was supposed to go out into that in mid-day. That seemed right. He grumbled a bit about it, but he didn't hesitate. His hood pulled into place over his head to provide some much needed protection from the sun, Obi-Wan took to what seemed like aimless wandering through the desert sands.

And all the while, that something pulls and prods, leading his steps.

"Where are you?" he mutters - and his gaze falls on a figure in the distance, blurred by the ever-present heat on the sand. "Ah, there we are."

[ezra_of_lothal]

Said figure wavers, as Ezra with his footing in the sand. He tries to focus, reach out with his senses more, to find the best path. It's not quite the same as how Kanan (had) learned to make his way through the world, blind, but the principles apply.

Then he feels the frisson of a living presence, that's almost familiar, and he lifts his head, to squint. Someone riding...something, he thinks.

No guarantee that someone's friendly, but he'll take his chances. Lifting a hand to wave, he calls out, voice cracking in the dry heat, "Hello?"

[fadedfool]

Perhaps he would be more helpful if he spent less time ruminating and more time actually helping that poor soul out of the harsh desert sun and sand. He clucks his tongue, urging his mount forward and, within moments, is sliding down out of the saddle not far from the figure stumbling through the sand.

... not far from the kid, in point of fact, and frown settles itself on his face.

"Hello," he says, and reaches up to pull back his hood. "The middle of the Dune Sea seems an odd place to find yourself." There's a question in his words: what are you doing here, child?

[ezra_of_lothal]

He's adept at controlling his reactions when the situation calls for it, but they're in the middle of nowhere, alone. Why would he?

So he lights up in recognition. "Master-" Then, he hesitates, because the face and voice is right, but he could have sworn there was a lot more white in Master Kenobi's hair, last time.

Well, it had been dark, then, and he'd just nearly died of heat exhausion. Maybe he's misrembering.

Moving on. "I know, I know, I shouldn't be here. But I didn't decide to come," Ezra defends, fumblingly try to explain. "It was the Force. Or...the Temple? I just went through the door."

[fadedfool]

That this child - and Obi-Wan has trouble thinking of anyone under his own age as anything but a child anymore; side effect of being an old man - recognizes him somehow is all too obvious. The kid is too young to have remembered him from before the... well, from before.

How odd, then.

"The Force does sometimes have a mind of its own." He turns then, and reaches into his saddlebags. Upon handing the kid a full canteen of water, he spoke. "You know me, but I'm at a disadvantage."

He straightens the saddlebag and gives his loyal (and sometimes a little stubborn) mount a gentle pat. "Don't drink that too fast."

[ezra_of_lothal]

He takes the canteen but pauses, and says, carefully, "You knew my name, without me introducing myself, before."

Granted, he'd never figured out how exactly Master Kenobi knew who he was. But he can't fathom what reason Obi-Wan would have to pretend not to recognize him, now.

His gaze darts around, and he flings his senses even deeper into the Force, searching for some hint that this might be a extremely vivid vision, or a trick, of some kind.

Everything seems solid. Real. Passingly familiar.

He turns his attention to focus more intently on Master Kenobi, as he slowly takes a sip of water.

[fadedfool]

"Did I now?" Obi-Wan crosses his arms, raises a brow. That was a comment he hadn't expected, but something settled in the Force with it - a brush of rightness, like a mentor's hand settling on his shoulder. (He almost glanced aside, wondering perhaps if Master Qui-Gon was standing there with that insufferably knowing smirk playing about his lips.)

"How odd." He turns away from the intense gaze and adjusts the saddle, checking reins and honestly just giving himself a bit of busywork. "Are you going to stand there in the suns all day, or are you coming back to shelter with me..." a pause and then, "... Ezra?"

Right, so maybe he'd picked up a few insufferable traits from his own Master.

[ezra_of_lothal]

The young man out right squints, for a second, a mix of confused, suspicious, and exasperated.

He's being played here somehow, even if it's by the Force itself. Ok, he'll roll with it for the moment.

"That's right," he confirms. "I...would be grateful for shelter. Thank you," he adds, a little awkwardly, and holds out the canteen for Obi-wan to take back.

It's the mount Ezra turns his attention to, next, reaching for the connections he has a particular gift in, with certain living beings. "Are you up for another passenger?" he questions gently, with a hint of teasing.

[fadedfool]

He's seen that look before, on a young Togruta's face in the midst of a war a child shouldn't have been involved in, and it claws at his heart, wrenching and tearing. He's almost certain some of it shows on his face, it catches him so off-guard. He never thought he'd miss the war, but here he stands now, awash in memory and grief, wishing for that camaraderie once more.

Obi-Wan tucks the canteen back into the saddle, then scratches the beast's neck as Ezra turns his attention to her. "She's strong," he says, though he knows it's not him that Ezra will be listening to.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Out of the corner of his eye, the edges of his senses, Ezra clocks Master Kenobi being hit with some sort of wave of emotion, although he doesn't have the context to grasp the specifics. Well, a measure of awareness of emotional landmines the adults in his life carry - especially the survivors of the Purge -is nothing new. He simply files that observation away, keeping his focus on the beast.

His touch in the Force is light; he's not really trying to persuade, merely checking in, with the side benefit of grounding himself more in the Living Force. She snuffles and physically nudges his shoulder gently in return. Satisfied with their accord, Ezra breaks into a tired smile and goes to clamber onto the available space on her back.

[fadedfool]

Obi-Wan waits until Ezra clambers up on the creature's back and, with a small smile, he scratches her neck one more time before mounting a little more gracefully. He takes up the reins -- though he really does not need them -- and turns toward home.

Well, as much a home as a literal cave in the desert can be. Perhaps someday he'll upgrade. Perhaps not.

"We won't be back under shelter until nightfall," he tells Ezra. "The canteen is within your reach. Drink when you need."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Understood. Thank you," he murmurs, again.

Now that he's off his feet, it doesn't take long for him to feel himself beginning to slide towards mentally drifting. It's been the longest week in his life, in many ways. Sleep has been elusive since - since Hera was captured, honestly.

He shakes himself a little, to rouse himself, and then tries to figure out what to talk about to keep himself a little more focused. "Do you...know much about the temple on Lothal?" he asks, cautiously.

[fadedfool]

All things considered, that's not the oddest question. Here he is, in the middle of the Dune Sea, having followed what amounts to a hunch and found a kid who seems... out of place yet...

Yet definitely in the right place. Mysterious ways, indeed.

"Not much," he admits. "Truthfully, I never had the chance to visit many of the Temples."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"It's the only one I've had a chance to visit," Ezra replies, with a mournful sigh. But given what's happened to that temple, the Inquisitors follows them to it, the Empire taking it apart to study it...maybe that's a good thing.

[fadedfool]

Look at them, having hardly met and already falling into melancholy together. "Perhaps someday," he said, something wistful in his voice, "there will be Jedi visiting the temples again."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"The Empire won't last forever," Ezra replies, with sudden fierceness. Maybe it won't be fall in his lifetime - but even drawing on the Dark, the Emperor can't live forever, right?

He's no political expert, but he can't see the Empire really holding together after that. It's a house of cards based on fear and egos, that does its best to stomp out competent, independent thinkers.

[fadedfool]

"No, it will not." Ezra's voice may have been filled with ferocity, but Obi-Wan's tone is a quiet certainty. No, the Empire will not stand; there are threads working against it already.

Some of those threads are bright and loud, fierce and brave; those people that stand strong and unyielding against atrocity. (Tala is the whisper through his mind and he lets himself remember that moment when she gave everything she was and is and could be to the cause.)

And some are quiet and strong, like iron weathering a storm. Some are gentle and compassionate, with no way of knowing that they will shape the future of the galaxy. (Luke, Leia -- and he sees them in his mind's eye, bright and hopeful.)

All these people together, known and unknown to him -- they are why he is so certain.

"No, it cannot," he says again.

[ezra_of_lothal]

He's young enough to feel vindicated and reassured by the calm certainty from a full fledged adult.

"So we just have to survive and keep fighting. As long as there's a Jedi in the galaxy - that someday will happen."

[fadedfool]

"There will always be Jedi in the galaxy." Perhaps not the Jedi of old, or even the Jedi of the Clone Wars. (Honestly, he hopes that the Jedi of the Clone Wars are the last Jedi of that type: those forced into service in conflict, those who bow to political whims, those blinded by the Dark Side. He counts himself among that number.)

"The Forces is part of everything," he says, "and the Jedi are one with the Force." It's trite, but... true. He pauses, then adds, "Ideally, they are one with the Force. Jedi are never infallible."

[ezra_of_lothal]

He laughs a little, or tries and coughs, and ends up reaching for the canteen again. After a small swallow, he tries talking again.

"Yeah, I've had to give some of that speech to some starry eyed types a couple of times." He slumps a little. "That -that even if I finish my training, there's no guarantee I can make the galaxy better."

[fadedfool]

"No one person can change the course of the galaxy." Obi-Wan adjusts the reins in his hands, then reaches down to give his mount a couple of good scritches -- there's a place by her withers that he knows ends up bothering her a bit after a long ride. An itch that she can't get as the saddle starts to shift a bit.

"The only thing you can do is do good in your corner of the galaxy and hope it spreads."

[ezra_of_lothal]

He knows. In his heart, he knows it's all true. But his heart is also heavy with grief.

"I was on Lothal - I'm from Lothal, but we'd been...away, working with others. But I asked people to come back with me, to try to break the Imperial blockade. Maybe even kick the entire garrison offworld, so people that it could be done."

[fadedfool]

Obi-Wan feels the kid's grief and regret almost physically, like pinpricks against his skin, his heart. There's some reason that Ezra is here -- and that Obi-Wan is the one who found him here. (Can he say that he found him, when he was following a directive from something far bigger than himself?)

"One person may be a shatterpoint," he says. "Oftentimes, there's one person who seems larger than life itself. They're charismatic, they're inspiring." That may even include his young friend here -- he thinks that maybe it does. "But they do not exist alone. Do not think that because you are not there, it will not be done."

It's a gentle rebuke, but a rebuke nonetheless. "Have a little hope, my young friend."

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra, on the other hand, is thinking of Kanan fitting that description.

"No - I know, and the people who came with me are all amazing, they'll carry one. I just-" He pauses, and says in a more hushed tones. "Can the dead send visions? If their spirit still feels...close?"

[fadedfool]

Can the dead send visions? Out of the corner of his eye, on the horizon where the suns blazing down blurs the line between sand and sky, he might have caught sight of his Master, mouth quirked in a knowing half-smile. Qui-Gon Jinn's spirit certainly feels close right now.

Or maybe he's imagining things. (He hears Master Jinn laugh in his mind.)

"Many things are possible through the Force. I do not believe that it is so far-fetched as to think that those who have joined with the Force can still be near us."