Prologue – Episode III
by superninja
This is my supposition of the events that take place after the final film of the Prequel Trilogy. All characters belong to Lucasfilm, yada, yada, yada. It is pretty dark, in my mind, and rather sad. So if you don't like that kind of stuff, you might want to steer clear.
The stolen shuttle sped away from the bowels of Coruscant into deep space. There would be no one following, he knew that now. The others had prepared for their escape if things went awry, and the small vessel had a cloaking device, which he had immediately activated. No one had met them in the hanger. That could only mean...
He felt the darkness closer than ever, closing over him, swallowing him whole in this state of panic. A drip fell into his eye, and with a shaking hand he wiped it away. Was it sweat or tears? No, don't think about that. You can't think about that! He resumed the controls to enter the coordinates for the jump to hyperspace, and couldn't stop his hand from shaking. Clenching a fist desperately, he tried desperately to regain control and found great heaving sobs threatening to come to the surface.
He clenched his eyes. No! A flood of images entered his head. Anakin's face, full of hatred as he fell backwards into the molten pit. Amidala lying motionless on the floor. An explosion. Palpatine looking down into the molten pit and then smiling up at him.
His weight fell towards the control panel, and he caught himself. Then, he screamed. It was not a scream of anger or terror but pure agony. Those moments would remain a part of him until the day he died. They would haunt him every night. With great gasping breaths, the punched the coordinates in with a heavy hand and then collapsed to the floor and wept.
"I failed you," he muttered. "How I failed you..."
How long had he slept? Sliding a hand over his face, he took a quick inhale and rose to his feet. The display said he had finally entered the Degobah system. Good. Yoda was only several minutes away. But he had to regain his composure between now and then, if he was to convince the jedi master of his plan.
Making his way down through the ship to its spartan medical facilities, he splashed his face with water, staring down into the basin. Emotion was threatening to take control again. Steeling himself, he looked up into the mirror gazing into the blue-eyed reflection -- challenging him.
His focus dimmed as it looked to the object on the med-table behind him. An audible swallow was his only response. Turning, he walked over to the table, and placed a hand lovingly on the woman's brow.
There was a peaceful expression on her face; she almost looked as if she was sleep...
"Don't tell yourself that, you fool," he said to himself aloud.
There was no indication of the traumatic way in which she had died. For a moment the image of Palpatine's wicked grin jumped into his mind, and the bitter hatred that followed. How strong she had been, even at the end.
"It's my turn to be strong now, my Queen. I will..." he choked on his words. "I will not fail you this time, my Queen. I promise!"
Kneeling before her, he took her cold white hand in his, and kissed it gently. He began to replace it, but then grabbed it greedily and clasped his hands around it, letting a tear fall upon it. Then he put it gently across her chest and rose.
"Goodbye, Amidala."
---
The rain poured down outside on the small hovel. Kenobi shifted uncomfortably as he watched the jedi master spoon something that smelled and looked inedible onto a bowl. The expression on his face didn't go unnoticed, and Yoda made a curt noise that caused him to look away in embarrassment. His gaze fell on the tumble of blankets in the corner and the small crop of sand-colored hair poking out from the top. Putting down the bowl and his utensil, he made his way over to it.
He hadn't seen the boy since his birth two years ago, when he had given the child over to Master Yoda. Gently, almost timidly, he touched the boy's head. The child stirred, and finally turned over towards him. The sight broke his heart.
Obi-Wan quickly looked away.
Yoda sighed. "What expect, did you?"
Kenobi forced himself to look back at the child, who had muttered something in his sleep. His blue eyes looked about in confusion, then, with a lack of interest, he settled back down and went to sleep. He looked just like…Obi-Wan didn't want to say his name.
"Like his father he is," Yoda continued, "Sense it already, do I."
Kenobi felt a bit of defensiveness rise in him. "He's just a child."
"As was your apprentice, once. The Emperor now his teacher is."
Obi-Wan felt his eyes wide. So Yoda knew that Anakin wasn't dead. The flashback popped into his head again -–Palpatine moving like a serpent gazing down into the pit and the smile that stretched across his face. Yes, Anakin was alive. He had known from that moment, yet he hadn't wanted to believe it. Truly the, he had failed. Kenobi shut his eyes and shook the thought from his head.
"No. Not…not Anakin. Someone else. Anakin is dead."
"Hmm…," Yoda mused. "Perhaps." He paused for a moment as Kenobi turned away from the boy and went back near the fire, his thoughts drifting away. "Your plan I agree to." Kenobi's head looked up at Yoda in surprise. "Surprised are you?!" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
Kenobi nodded wordlessly, looking down at the floor. "Then it is done."
"Not so quickly, finished this is! There is more."
"What?" he asked with defeat.
"Train him, you will not."
Obi-Wan felt a rush of panic flame within him. His eyes flashed at Yoda in disbelief. "But Luke is our only hope of defeating the Emperor, you know that! If he's not trained…"
"SILENCE!" It was the first time Obi-Wan had heard Yoda truly raise his voice, punctuated by his small hand held aloft. "Once, did you question my judgement, but NOT AGAIN." The small creature's eyes bulged. "My conditions, these are. This time shall the Force work its will."
Kenobi rushed to change tactics. "Perhaps if the boy stayed here with YOU on Degobah…I could remain here, and well, and you could train him!"
"Look around you, Obi-Wan. No place is this to raise a child." He gazed steadily at the other with a look of annoyance. "Companions the boy needs, a human touch." Yoda moved across the room and sat down firmly at his rough-hewn wooden table. "Explain to the boy, shall I? 'Why am I not little and green like you, Master Yoda?'" He chuckled.
"This is no time for mirth," Kenobi responded angrily. "His mother lies dead in that transport!" He said it through clenched teeth. He didn't want the child to hear, after all.
Yoda lowered his head. "Sorry am I for that as well, Obi-Wan. Sorry am I."
The rendezvous had gone as scheduled. Bail appeared in the airlock, crossing and clasping hands with Obi-Wan.
"It's is good to see you alive, my friend. What is this business you must speak to me of? Where is Padme?"
"She is dead, Bail."
There was nothing else to do but say it point-blank. The look that crossed his face was one of a man that had considered the possibility of such an outcome. Still, his face betrayed the sad emotions, and the two made their way to the bridge in silence and sat.
"Leia must remain with you, Bail," Obi-Wan said, breaking the silence. "Your position in the Imperial (the hatred in that word was obvious) Senate will protect her from the Emperor."
"What of the boy?" Bail asked.
"You need not concern yourself with the boy's future, Bail. I know you mean well, my friend, but it is best if the children do not know of each other…for their own safety. It is bad enough that Leia is at an age where she will question Amidala's disappearance."
Bail lowered his head. "I cannot lie to the child. Already, it is plain she knows her mother is gone. She asks for her."
"Then tell her the truth, Bail. But let her never know of her father, or her brother. Promise me that, at least."
"I promise," said Bail, raising his head looking more haggard than before. "No harm will come to Leia as long as I live."
"I know my friend," he replied. A sympathetic smile came across his face, and he clasped Organa's hand. "There is one more thing that I need you to do."
She died like a Queen and she would be buried like one. The royal tombs of Alderaan were the final resting-place of Amidala Padme Naberrie, Queen of Naboo, wife of Anakin Skywalker, and mother to Luke and Leia. And keeper of his heart.
The spice transport had landed, finally. Kenobi waited until all of the sounds had left and carefully slid away the smuggling panels opening the floor above. He reached for the child, pulling him close, and hiding him beneath the jedi robes. Rising, he pulled the hood down over his head, and slowly made his way down the halls and down the ramp of the ship. The crew had been small, thankfully, so Kenobi had only needed a small distraction to bypass the single armed guard preparing to offload the shipment.
Quietly, he had slipped into a caravan making its way between the distant cities of Tatooine. No one questioned him as he walked among them out of Mos Espa. No one questioned him as he broke off from their group and headed towards the direction of Mos Eisley. Walking alone through the desert, he finally told the child he could speak if he liked. He was only two years old, but already he displayed amazing faculty, and the Force was so strong with him.
"He would be a remarkable jedi," Kenobi thought to himself. But he had promised Yoda, to let the Force work its will. Maybe this time Yoda was right. He looked down again and noticed the child smiling up at him. Then he realized he wasn't looking at him. He was looking at the stars.
They arrived at Owen's just before daybreak. Beru came rushing out to greet them and cautiously picked up the child, asking him if he was hungry and thirsty. The boy nodded quickly. Kenobi smiled warmly at her. Beru was such a wonderful woman. Now if only he could figure out how she ever ended up with Owen…
"Ben." Obi-Wan looked over the horizon to Owen, standing with his arms crossed at the gateway to his home.
"Owen," Kenobi answered curtly. He was trying not to be bitter. Owen didn't approve of him at all; nor of his training their half-brother Anakin, nor him whisking Anakin off to the Clone Wars so soon after they had been freed…so soon after Shmi's death. Owen had been a potential jedi once as a small boy. But he had failed his testing, and had been removed to be educated as a farmer. It had almost happened to Kenobi as well, but Qui-Gon had made him his padawaan and rescued him from pastoral life. Qui-Gon. He might have told him that Anakin and he both shared the same mother. He could've shared with him the fact she was on Tatooine, and a slave, along with his brother. That his father had been killed in a raid on their village and they were sold into slavery after he had begun his travels as Qui-Gon's apprentice. They had stopped writing, and Obi-Wan had thought it was perfectly normal – the jedi were his family now. But then Qui-Gon had a history of evading the truth when it suited him.
His mother had died, and it had meant nothing to him – he had never known her. Actually, what it meant to him was the pain it had caused Anakin, and the strange link of events that had brought an even deeper connection between their lives. But Owen had survived, and reluctantly had accepted their familial ties, and the job of raising his nephew, Luke. Beru had been pleased to no end. She couldn't bear children, and it was like a dream come true to her. Kenobi was at least encouraged by the fact that Beru would always be there to temper Owen. Owen blamed the jedi for everything – the Force hadn't saved his father, or he and Shmi from being enslaved, or from her death – what good was it? The meaning had totally escaped him. But on some small level, Obi-Wan understood.
He would be blamed for Anakin now, and he knew it.
Sometimes, he went through the few artifacts he still had in his possession, and would associate various conversations from happier times with the objects. Anakin's lightsaber reminded him of a conversation the two once had during a training session. Anakin spoke of his love for Amidala, of them someday having children, and him passing on his lightsaber to his child. Then there was the japor snippet that Anakin had given Amidala. He was reminded of her nearly losing it during the war, when they had all become heroes, and her frantic efforts to find it. Kenobi had dismissed it as a silly trinket, but she wouldn't leave it be until she finally found it (Jar Jar had found it) – and at that moment he had realized the strength of her love for Anakin, and that she would never be his.
Then he would put them back in their places, and then take long walks down through the Jundland Wastes, sometimes running into the stray traveler, sometimes evading the Sandpeople. They were beginning to learn that he was not the easy picking like their usual prey. He had even found some of them following him home once, and considered chasing them down, but then realized that it was probably good they should know he shared this land with them – they would not like him for an enemy. Already he heard whispers in some of the settlements of the ghost living in the Wastes. It was a fight not to break out into a grin or have a laugh at their expense.
And the boy grew. When he saw him, it made him happy. The few times he had tried to stop by Owen's farm, he had been chased away by his brother, but he had half-expected it.
"Let the Force work its will," he would repeat to himself under his breath. "Patience."
But being haunted is a poor way to spend the rest of your days. Yet, that was his lot in life. When he went to sleep at night, they came to him, talking of betrayal, love lost, and dying. And every night the black cloak of the Emperor would engulf the whole world, removing all the light and he would wake in a cold sweat and whisper their names and beg forgiveness.
But sometimes, he would dream of a boy coming to him through the Wastes – a youth with sandy blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. The boy would come into his home, and they would sit and talk about the future. Then he would take hold of his father's lightsaber, and Ben would say to him "You are to learn the ways of the Force." Then Ben would fade into a peaceful sleep, without any ghosts and full of the light of hope.
The End