Star Wars - Kenobi

tried to move, supporting himself against the stone towers. “You’re going to kill me!”
    Ben looked back at him. “I haven’t decided about that.”
    “You haven’t decided ?”
    A weak smile came over Ben’s face. “I’m not inclined to kill to silence people. That’s something you’d do.”
    Orrin staggered from one stone surface to another, trying to make his way to the clearing. Behind, Ben sighed and turned to follow. But he walked slowly—and as he did, he switched off his lightsaber and returned it to its hiding place beneath his robe.
    He’s not going to kill me, Orrin thought, forging ahead against the pain. That led to his next thought. I’ve got a card to play.
    Orrin would go offworld and visit this Empire, and become something again. He had something to sell again: Ben Kenobi’s hide. To blazes with Tatooine, with all of it! Struggling, he stepped out into the light of the suns.
    Annileen was nowhere to be seen, nor Veeka. But Mullen was there, on the ground near the JG-8. A lone massiff stood over his body, feasting.
    Heart in his throat, Orrin dragged his broken leg across the clearing. The massiff, done gorging, wandered away. Orrin reached his son’s side and collapsed onto the ground beside him, wailing. Mullen was dead at the hands of a Tusken, just like his beloved younger son, Veeka’s twin.
    Where was Veeka? Squinting, he saw footprints and a light trail of blood heading off to the northern exit. Was it Veeka’s blood, or Annileen’s? Would Veeka really have fled back to the posse? If so, there was no helping her now, any more than if the Tuskens had gotten her.
    Ben approached, staying a respectful distance away. Orrin looked up from the mess that had been Mullen. Did Ben expect him to repent now? After all this?
    He snarled hatefully. “I’m going to tell them. The Empire! And they’ll destroy you!”
    Ben folded his hands together in the sleeves of his cloak and looked at the ground.
    Orrin struggled to stand again. “Did you hear me, Jedi? The Empire will destroy you—and everything you love.”
    Ben shook his head. “They’ve already done that.”
    The farmer ignored him. He staggered toward the damaged landspeeder. “You’d better kill me now, because I mean it!” He heaved himself into the vehicle. “I’ll do it, Kenobi!”
    “No, you won’t,” Ben said. “I’ve seen your future. I don’t think you’re going to live much longer.”
    “Because of you !”
    “Because of you. Because you didn’t turn back.” With that, Ben pivoted and started walking away.
    Orrin gawked at the man, but only for a moment. He activated the JG-8, which groaned in protest. There was no going back, not with the posse and the crooks down there. No, there was only forward, through the opening to the south, and whatever lay that way. If Veeka lived, he’d find her again—somehow.
    Ben simply stood and watched as the vehicle lurched forward a few meters at a time, starting and stopping fitfully. Orrin fought with the controls, pounding at the dashboard with his fist. “Blast you, move!”
    The younglings hidden, Annileen reentered the clearing from a narrow opening to the east. Visiting Tuskens in their place of last resort was unnerving on its own, but she nearly turned right back around when she saw Orrin hovering toward her in the battered JG-8.
    Then she realized he wasn’t heading for her at all, but rather making for the exit to the south. Orrin looked even more beat up than the vehicle, his hair covered with dust and his mouth bloodied. He seemed to be paying her no mind. Looking back, she saw Ben standing, fifty meters away, making no effort to pursue.
    Orrin seemed to notice her at last when the reluctant landspeeder came to another sudden stop. Annileen could barely recognize the man she knew—but for the wicked smile that came over his face when he saw her. His words dripped with delightful venom. “Ben’s been lying to you,” he said.
    Annileen shrugged. “ You did it all the time.”
    Orrin sneered. But before he could say anything else, the Tusken he knew as Plug-eye emerged, gaderffii in hand, from the western labyrinth near the southern opening. The adversaries saw each other. Orrin took aim and crushed the accelerator.
    The JG-8 seemed to forget its reservations, gunning forward. A’Yark stood stoically as Orrin raced to ram her—until the moment she hurled her gaderffii. The heavy implement spun through the air, striking the windshield with