Fading

Chapter 6 - Mos Eisley

Author's Note: Warnings are at the end. :)

Please take note of them.

Also, I do not apologize for the cliffhanger. :D

~ Amina Gila

It's been well over a week since they came here now. Padme hasn't called again – there is a risk of transmissions being monitored – and Anakin hasn't exactly found himself brave enough to ask Obi-Wan if he can call her. (He doesn't want to face a refusal, either. It's simpler not to risk it.)

They're finally leaving the cave, though. Anakin's wound is far from completely healed, but it's enough that he can walk, and he's tired of sitting around. He hasn't done that in – Never, actually. He doesn't know how Obi-Wan seems so unaffected by the jarring change, of now having nothing of great importance to do, other than hide. How does he stand it?

"You want us to ride eopies," Anakin repeats flatly.

"What?" Obi-Wan demands, sounding vaguely offended.

"A speeder is a much more efficient method of transport," Anakin points out.

"We don't have a speeder," he retorts.

"Then we can get one."

"We don't have the money for one either."

"I can fix one from a junkyard," he offers. Not as if he hasn't done that a million times over in the past.

"The Jawas will take it apart and sell it back to us, piece by piece," Obi-Wan scowls.

It's true to a point, but it suddenly makes Anakin even more suspicious. "How do you know so much about Jawas?"

Obi-Wan's expression closes off completely – if that weren't already true. "I've seen more than enough of them. I know what they're like."

Or maybe Anakin is just overthinking it because he really doesn't know how long exactly Obi-Wan was on Tatooine, back when Qui-Gon found him. He could have had many encounters with frustrating Jawas, then. Maybe. "We'll have a speeder with us wherever we go. That will make it harder for the Jawas to take it apart," Anakin points out, "And I can make special modifications for anyone unwanted trying to take it apart."

He doesn't know how, yet, but it won't be hard. Besides, he knows well what it's like to steal. He had to do it frequently on Tatooine, in the past and being here again is making him... remember things. They have to make the effort put into making it not worth what the Jawas will get in return.

"How would you do that?" Obi-Wan grumbles.

Anakin doesn't get out more a couple sentences before Obi-Wan cuts him off. "Alright. I'll let you deal with those... details. But it had better work."

"It will." He hopes. He'll need more time to think it over.

"You'll need a name," Obi-Wan says, as if it's an afterthought, "For no one to recognize you."

Right. He'd thought of it briefly, but... "We both do," Anakin agrees.

"I'm going by Ben."

"The same disguise name you used during the war?" Anakin asks, dubiously. It's jarring to think that the war is over now. It certainly doesn't feel like it. He doesn't know what it feels like now. So many of the Jedi are gone, and... No, he doesn't want to start thinking about it again.

"No one will know it out here," Obi-Wan huffs.

"It is still a risk if you're going to still go by 'Kenobi'."