Lady Obscura: Vader's Shadow [Star Wars | Luke Skywalker]

Chapter 22

Athara was never going to get used to Tatooine. She couldn't understand how Luke did it, but then, she supposed being raised here had appropriately acclimatized him. She had spent most of her life in space, so Tatooine was definitely not agreeing with her. By now it had been several weeks since she had arrived, and beyond the first few stressful days, she and Luke had managed to settle back into the comfortable companionship they'd had on Dagobah.

But it was more than that now, which did create an awkwardness of its own. They both knew there was more between them, but neither was quite sure how that changed things yet. But they were learning. By the end of the second week, Athara found that they had adapted to the shift in their relationship far easier than she had anticipated. But then, their common goals didn't hurt.

There was a wealth of knowledge hidden away in Kenobi's hut, and much of it seemed geared toward learning the ways of the Force. To Athara, it looked like Kenobi had been preparing for the possibility that Luke was going to be on his own for at least some portion of his training.

It made her wonder what else the old Jedi had known was coming.

But he hadn't been around to ask, and Athara knew that bothered Luke. Apparently the last time Luke had seen his mentor had been on Dagobah. But the texts Kenobi had left were wonderful and between Luke and Athara putting their heads together to muddle through them, they were both making remarkable progress. But the young Jedi missed the contact with his mentor, and boy did Athara know that feeling. Not only did she long for her Master's guidance (sort of...), but she missed Qui-gon's wisdom too. Like Kenobi, her own ghostly mentor hadn't made an appearance since she had arrived on Tatooine.

But there was nothing they could do about that. So they trained, and week after week they both found their powers growing. Luke was quickly becoming more confident in his abilities, and was allowing himself to trust in the Force far more easily than ever before. Even Athara was able to slowly work through her own self-trust issues, allowing her to let go of her negative feelings far more easily as the days passed.

And the weeks did pass, far too easily even, and before long they found there was a need to venture out for supplies. The provisions Athara had brought to the hut hadn't quite lasted as long as she had hoped, but then, she wasn't from a desert planet.

She also wasn't keen on venturing into the settlements. Whether they went to the small, isolated towns and hamlets or the large ports, there was a risk of them being discovered. It was a risk Athara was wary to take. But she and Luke needed supplies if they were going to be staying at Kenobi's old hovel while they trained.

Because of that simple, unavoidable fact, the first time they ventured out, they went as far as Mos Eisley. Athara was rather nervous the entire time, but it was a venture without incident, and one that was immensely successful. Not only did they manage to track down all the supplies they needed, but Luke also managed to get his hands on an old long-range communication device; one they could both use to connect with their contacts off-world. It needed a lot of work—not that that was problem with two very handy astro-droids and Luke's own tinkering skills—but Athara was especially pleased that he managed to recover it. She'd had very little luck with her contacts on Corellia, Nubia, Coruscant and Ansion, and was already paranoid about the amount of time she had been forced to spend at the public communication stations, especially as it seemed Luke hadn't had much luck with his Rebel contacts either. However, he had managed to contact Chewie; unfortunately that was the only good news.

Fett had tricked them all. He had made it seem like he was waiting out on Nar Shadda, the assumption being that he was trying to extort more money out of Jabba; they had been wrong. He'd known he was being watched—something that hadn't really surprised Athara, given her past dealings with him—and was merely biding his time before somehow managing to slip away without being noticed until it was too late. Next they had heard, Fett had delivered Han into Jabba's hands. That had been nearly a standard month previous.