Disclaimer: Star Wars isn't mine, but it's my favorite toy!
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Too Late
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The speeder rocked in the air as Anakin jerked it to a stop. Obi-Wan shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair with an exasperated sigh.
"You've lost him. Anakin, that was some shortcut. He went completely the other direction!"
His Padawan refused to look at him. "I'm deeply sorry, Master," he said, cramming a truly astonishing amount of sarcasm into those few words.
Obi-Wan squeezed his eyes shut and breathed a quick prayer for patience into the Force. "Anakin – "
"If you'll excuse me," interrupted the brash young man. Obi-Wan watched in mild surprise and extreme annoyance as his student suddenly leapt over the side of the speeder. He peered over the edge, tracking Anakin's descent with some concern. He wasn't too worried; Anakin had survived all four of his previous attempts at this trick, and the last two times, he hadn't even broken anything. Obi-Wan supposed he really should be expecting this stunt by now.
It remained, however, extremely foolhardy; not at all the sort of thing one would want to be expecting from one's Padawan. Obi-Wan couldn't suppress another sigh when he considered what Mace and Yoda would say – again.
"I hate it when he does that," he said to himself.
He began to wonder exactly why Anakin had jumped out of the speeder, anyway. Surely he had some purpose for the reckless act; perhaps he had spotted the assassin's speeder and was attempting to damage the vehicle, forcing its driver to stop.
He watched in increasing alarm as Anakin continued to fall. Then the wave of terror hit him: whatever Anakin's original intent was, it had gone wrong. He groped for the controls of the speeder to gun the engine –
Too slow. Another zooming vehicle far below slammed hard into Anakin, jerking his neck and limbs at unhealthy angles.
"No!" Obi-Wan screamed. A horrible feeling of déjà vu flashed over him as he remembered that awful moment when one end of the Zabrak Sith's double-bladed lightsaber stabbed cleanly through his Master's chest.
He pulled the speeder into a dive that rivaled his former Padawan's, even though the Force announced to him like a thundershock that he was, once again, too late.
