Hearts of Rebels | Star Wars Fanfiction

Chapter IV

Luke sat in the driver's seat of his rusted speeder, Ben sat to his right in the passenger seat, while Rhea was unceremoniously squished between the two since R2-D2 and C-3PO took up the back. She shifted uncomfortably between the pair, she wanted to say something to Luke about his decision, but what could she say?

Rhea had only known him for about three hours. She had no clue how he and Ben knew each other. She knew nothing about his family. She didn't even know his last name. Yet she felt compelled to save the young man from the fate of farming the air's moisture of this backwater planet.

She glanced at him a few times, deciding whether she should say something. She rolled her eyes at herself. She wasn't usually so indecisive.

"Stop the speeder, Luke,"

She glanced at Ben, confused before looking up to see a Sandcrawler. The main transport for Jawas and the droids they sell. He slowed the speeder to a stop, the three promptly hopping out to gaze upon the smouldering rubble and scattered remains of the Jawas. Luke studied the blast marks that scorched its massive treads and shouted to Ben.

"It looks like Sand People did this, all right. Look, here are Gaffi sticks, Bantha tracks," He pointed to all the evidence on the ground and dropped his arms to his side in defeat. "It's just... I never heard of them hitting this big before."

Ben squatted beside the tracks Luke pointed at scrutinising them.

"They didn't. But we are meant to think they did. These tracks are side by side. Sand People always ride single file to hide their numbers,"

Rhea crouched down beside Ben looking over the tracks for herself. Luke wandered off to study the rest of the Sandcrawler mumbling to himself. Ben stood up and moved over to the treads tracing the blast marks with his hand.

"And these blast points, too accurate for Sand People. Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise,"

Rhea scoffed at Ben's conclusion. She had heard otherwise of Imperial marksmanship in Anchorhead.

"But that makes no sense," Luke said, walking back to them. "Why would Imperial troops want to slaughter Jawas?"

"The Empire has more than enough droid suppliers, what would they want with sand ridden, overpriced droids?" She wondered aloud. Ben shook his head and eyed Luke, who was looking back and forth from the Jawas to his two droids until he finally spoke.

"If they traced the robots here, they may have learned who they sold them to. And that would lead them..." Luke paused for a moment connecting the dots before horror overtook his face. "Home!"

He raced to his speeder, practically flying in, starting it up within seconds. Ben moved as fast as he could to the speeder, yelling over the engines loud revving.

"Wait, Luke! It's too dangerous,"

With a large cloud of dust spraying Ben, the speeder raced off. Leaving Ben and Rhea alone with the two droids and the dead Jawas.

"Well. Now what?" She groaned.

"We'll burn the bodies," Ben declared after a moment, walking to the dead Jawas.

"Burn the bodies? Can't we leave them here it's not our problem," Rhea complained. She grimaced, looking at the dead Jawas and thinking of the smell burning them would make. It would probably attract a hungry Kryat dragon or worse, a Rancor.

"It's a Jedi tradition," Ben responded as he called R2-D2 over, the astromech ignited the deceased Jawas with one of the many tools it hid in its metal body.

"A Jedi tradition, huh? I don't think I'll ever quite grasp the point of why Jedi did these strange things,"

"You'll never grasp the point of any creature's view if you don't first understand who they are and where they are from" Ben retorted.

"Well, how do I understand then?" Rhea frowned, tired of this old man's riddles.

"Hmm... Take the Sand People, for instance. Do you know why they raid and kill the moisture farmers?"

"Because they're animals with no intelligence. They... kill to kill I guess," She shrugged. She had questioned Ben about the Jedi, not the Sand People. She didn't care about them.

"Now that's how most look at them. But what I've come to understand is the moisture farmers interfere with their religion. With their way of life,"

Rhea stopped what she was doing and looked at Ben with an amused look.

"Sand People, they have a religion? You're pulling my leg,"

"The Sand People believe all water is sacred and belongs to them. Moisture farmers come along into their home and take what is most important to them," He explained.

"What they never heard of sharing?" Rhea joked.

"How would you like it if someone came along and took all the water from your moisture farm? The very thing that allows you to survive," Ben replied wisely. Rhea had no smart remark for the old man this time, C-3PO was the one who spoke instead.

"I'll never quite understand human behaviour,"

She looked back to the burning Jawas, considering if there was any good reason why they swindled people out of money before determining there probably wasn't.

It had been about an hour since Luke had left, but now an ever-growing red dot on the horizon approached the Sandcrawler. Rhea and Ben sat quietly on the rocks as C-3PO placed one last Jawa on the bonfire that burned in front of them.

The speeder stopped where it had been parked earlier. Luke slowly got out, clearly deprived of the energy he once had in his hasty departure. Ben stood up as Luke walked over to them, placing a caring hand on his shoulder. Seemingly knowing what he had seen.

"There's nothing you could have done, Luke, had you been there. You'd have been killed, too, and the droids would be in the hands of the Empire,"

Luke looked up his eyes a bright red glistening with tears. Something had definitely distressed Luke a lot from what Rhea could tell. When he spoke, however, his voice didn't waver with sadness.

"I want to come with you to Alderaan. There's nothing here for me now. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father,"

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