Chapter 2
"It's over Anakin, I have the high ground!"
An empty threat, they both knew it, but Obi-Wan was desperate. This was his final chance to convince Anakin to lay down his lightsaber and stop this madness.
Anakin, please, He thought. You can still turn back from this. I'll help you.
"You underestimate my power."
Where is the boy I trained?
"Don't try it."
That's not Anakin. No, Anakin is already dead.
With a hellish scream, Darth Vader threw himself toward Obi-Wan Kenobi. Swinging upward, Obi-Wan brought his lightsaber to meet the dark lord's weapon.
But instead found flesh.
The blue-white blade cut across Darth Vader's waist, cutting him cleanly in two. His body hit the black Mustafar sand and rolled, slowly, for what seemed to Obi-Wan as an eternity, down the slope. As he reached the edge, Vader frantically reached for something to grab a hold of, but there was nothing. In terror, Anakin looked up at the Jedi standing on the hill.
"Master," was all he could say before falling into the red and orange sea.
"Anakin!" Obi-Wan shouted as he sat up in bed, covered in sweat and breathing heavily. He'd been forced to relive his former padawan's death for countless days now, every night Anakin wouldn't listen, and every night the boy met his doom.
No, Darth Vader was defeated. Anakin was already dead.
But, Obi-Wan didn't truly believe that. There had been something there, fleeting, but real, in the boy's last moments. Obi-Wan had felt the bond that had almost completely vanished between them suddenly fill with newfound energy, and then disappear completely.
"Anakin had called out to me." Obi-Wan said outloud. "He'd begged me to help him."
This he already knew, but every morning it felt as if he had only just figured it out. Every morning he felt the crushing realization that he could have saved Anakin, if he had just been fast enough.
"I failed you, Anakin. I failed you."
"You did only what you had to." A voice from nowhere said. Obi-Wan sprang out of bed, igniting his lightsaber before he even realized he was holding it.
"Who are you?" He asked.
There was no response. Reaching out with the Force, Obi-Wan could feel no other life near him except his eopie, Rooh, who was tied up outside.
Then who said that? Funny, it had sounded just like... no, it couldn't have been.
Forgetting about his nightmare, Obi-Wan deactivated his lightsaber and made his way outside. The cool breeze that followed a Tatooine night descended upon him, offering a respite from the hot sweat he was covered in. There were no moderates when it came to the desert planet's climate. Soon it would be sweltering hot, only to be replaced by frigid temperatures again at night. He understood now why Anakin had hated the planet.
Anakin.
No, Obi-Wan. It has been a whole year. Anakin is gone.
But the thoughts stayed, persistent, creeping beneath his stoic shield that had protected him for years. He felt the cracks making their way through him.
No attachment, no emotion. That is the way of the Jedi. Obi-Wan, pull yourself together!
He fell to his knees and wept.