Kenobi Chronicles

Episode 4 (part 1)

Kenobi reached a weak arm up, despite the crushing pain in his shoulder. He could stop the blaster shot from hitting Haja—at least, he could if he hadn't been cut off from the deep ways of the Force for ten years. Nevertheless, he tried. He reached deep and wide around Haja, repelling the shots that now slowly inched towards him.

"Move!" Kenobi cried. Haja however, stared straight into the barrels of the blasters—too frozen with fear to run. Kenobi thought at that moment he would surely lose the only friend he had made in the city. But just when the white-hot laser beams were ready to sear into the swindler's chest—they turned direction and crashed into the wall next to them.

Kenobi tilted his head, questioningly. He had not redirected those shots. Haja turned back to the old Jedi, displaying his palms wide open.

"I'm a Jedi!" Haja cried out excitedly.

But the sound of a saber igniting behind them drew their attention. Kenobi could not believe his eyes as he saw the blue blur of a lightsaber slice through the enemy bounty hunters. Haja stared in shock as well. The only sound rending the dark shadows was that of the saber's buzzing—and the screams of the enemy as they were cut down protested only by a few scattered blaster shots.

In a matter of seconds—the threat was gone, and a lonely shadow stood in the dark, his back partially obscuring his blue saber. Kenobi watched as the figure turned around, his pale face partially lit by the dim lamppost yards away.

The figure smiled. A twanging sound of a small droid's feet pattered near his own. The figure knelt down next to it and patted its head lovingly.

"Hey, buddy—look what I found here—" he talked to the droid as if it were his child. He stood back up to his full height. "An old Jedi Master—who seems to have taken a very bad turn."

The droid wiggled in delight before climbing the figure's back and peeping over his shoulder. They both approached where Kenobi lay, but before he got too close, Haja stepped in between.

"Hold it! Stay back! What do you mean to do?" He asked. The figure raised a red eyebrow in surprise.

"A nice 'thank you' would suffice, junker." The figure retorted. Haja gasped.

"I am not a Junker, you child!" Haja protested, but the arguing was cut short with Kenobi raising himself to his feet. It was then that Kenobi sensed a familiarity with the figure who stood before him—and the figure sensed it, too.

"Of all the people I thought I'd meet in the understreets of Daiyu—Master Obi-wan Kenobi was pretty low on that list." The pale face smiled a boyish smile at him, despite having become a man long ago.

"My name is Cal Kestis—and I guess I'm here to rescue you."

"What are you doing here?"

Reva's voice was tight, and did not journey far beyond her and the green humanoid in front of her. Her companion smiled arrogantly.

"I hunt for Jedi—same as you." His voice bounced off the Daiyu docking bay walls. The Fifth Brother never would grasp secrecy and tact.

"Since when did you journey beyond the mid-rim, unaccompanied?"

The Fifth Brother threw up his arms and made a sweeping gesture to the white stormtroopers around them.

"You call this alone?"

"You're right—" Reva cast a glance at them. "I never did take you for the type to be without an armed guard."

"What do you mean by that?" The Fifth Brother took a step forward, towering over her. But Reva did not brake contact with his jaded eyes.

"I'd be mindful where you trod." Reva echoed her threat from their last conversation, and then added. "I'm on official business from Lord Vader now."