A/N: And here it is, the last chapter of this ficlet. And way before 14 Dec, the release date of Episode VIII in my country. I am looking forward to it, even though I have always enjoyed the original and the prequel trilogies more.

Thank you for all your reviews, alerts and favourites! As always, it comforts me to know that there's people out there reading my work.

As some of you might have noticed, I have done away with the Sith tradition of creating new names for Sith Lords. There is nothing quite like having a family name, after all, to portray the image of a Dynasty. (Not to mention the hard time I would have had trying to think of a new name for Luke).


Epilogue

Two years later...

When Luke Skywalker Vader set foot on Tatooine, he felt a shining presence in the Force, so bright and full of Light that it set warning bells off in Luke's head. It could only be a Jedi – of that Luke was certain.

Luke had been visiting his mother's family in the neighbouring planet of Naboo when he decided to take a set out to Tatooine, out of a sense of nostalgia. Foolish sentimentality, as Darth Vader would say. It was something that both his grandfather and father had tried to stamp out in him with only minor success.

But this discovery...this was a great find. The Sith had been trying to eradicate the Jedi since time immemorial. To think that one would be hiding on Tatooine, a planet that could be considered the home world of both Luke Skywalker Vader and his father, was an insult of great proportions.

Luke resolved to find and hunt down this Jedi. It would not be his first – over the past two years, he had killed a total of five Jedi. Jedi who thought that he'd be an easier target than his father or the Emperor, who soon learnt that the Sith Apprentice too was not a fighter to be trifled with. So yes, he was confident of taking down this Jedi. Regardless of whom he may be.


Golden blonde hair, icy blue eyes, a serious, almost regal demeanour and a black, stylish Imperial military-like uniform – that was Obi-Wan's first impression of Luke Skywalker. The twin suns of Tatooine, merciless and harsh, threw his features into stark relief, evoking a regal yet forbidding presence. Looking at him, Obi-Wan could well believe that this was one Lord Luke Skywalker Vader, third-in-command of the Empire.

As for his strength...He was strong in the Force, so strong in terms of pure, raw, unadulterated power that it reminded Obi-Wan of a young Anakin Skywalker. Yet his Force presence was so steeped in the Dark Side that Obi-Wan felt almost suffocated, so oppressive and cloying was young Luke's presence. It was Obi-Wan Kenobi's worst nightmare come true.

"Luke," Obi-Wan shook his head sorrowfully as he surveyed the powerful young man in front of him. "I have failed you."

"Well," Luke drawled lightly as his lips curled into a sneer. "It would depend on your definition of failure, Kenobi. If you meant injuring my father, your erstwhile good friend, to the point of grievous harm, then yes, you did fail my father. Badly." He paused as he took in Kenobi's uncomfortable shift at the mention of his injury of the man who had been Anakin Skywalker. Aiming his words to cut, and cut deep, Luke continued sardonically, "But if you meant your failure to keep me ignorant of my heritage, as a blind, naive farmboy on Tatooine, so that I could become your pawn...why then, I'm grateful for your failure, old man. In fact, I'd gladly get you a bottle of the finest Correlian whisky to celebrate this failure of yours, for it reunited me with my father. My family."

Kenobi suddenly seemed frail and weary. Gone was the hale and hearty wise old Jedi Master. Instead, to Luke's eyes, Kenobi was just plain old. Ancient. Aged beyond his years.

"Your Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were your family," Kenobi said tiredly.

Luke scoffed. "My family indeed. A moisture farmer who could not tolerate the slightest hint of deviation from his own plans to mould me into a moisture farmer as well. And a woman, who, while well-meaning, would not stand up to her husband in regards to my welfare. Would you have had me brought up as an uneducated moisture farmer, Kenobi? That would have fit right into your plans indeed. How susceptible I would've been, to your plans and to your words, if I had first heard of the Force from you, after years of living on this dustball."

Obi-Wan was speechless in the face of Luke's accusations. Had they really been that wrong? The plan had been to hide Luke and Leia from their father because they had been the galaxy's only hope. But had they ever stopped to consider what it might have meant for the children themselves?

Master Yoda, we might have made a terrible mistake. Obi-Wan acknowledged with a tiredness that he felt to his very bones.. Regardless, all of that was in the past. The only thing he could do at this present moment was to ignite his lightsaber and prepare to fight one Luke Skywalker. For the galaxy could not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Sith.

Luke ignited his own blue-bladed lightsaber gracefully and brought it up into a mocking salute. Outwardly brash as he was, mentally though, he was cautious. His father had oft spoken of Obi-Wan's skills with the lightsaber and the Force. Although Luke took pride in his abilities, as did most adepts of the Dark Side, he was not so blinded by his own arrogance that he did not acknowledge his opponents' prowess. Kenobi is a master of Form III, Luke reminded himself. To defeat a master of defense, one had to go on the offense, but in a sustained manner.

Luke's opening attack was swift and merciless, a flurry of swings and thrusts, yet he did not truly expect it to have any effect; it was but an attempt to sound out Kenobi's abilities. Kenobi was undoubtedly showing the effects of his comparatively advanced age; minutely slower in his reaction time, but he more than made up for it with experience.

Luke lunged. Kenobi stepped to the side, avoiding the blow, bringing his lightsaber up in a fluid motion before taking advantage of an opening in Luke's defense. Luke pirouetted, raising his lightsaber to block, before reaching out to the Force. With a swift gesture of his hands, Luke threw some of the jagged rocks buried in the sands at the Jedi. It was meant as a distraction, nothing more. Luke was ready with a side slash even as Kenobi easily sliced the rocks apart. Unfortunately, Kenobi sensed his attack at the last moment and evaded the blow with ease.

The two opponents circled each other warily. Luke frowned in concentration. Kenobi was one of the toughest opponents that Luke had ever faced. Suddenly, Luke was inexplicably grateful that he had gotten used to his newly cloned arm in record time, and that it was as good as his original arm. Even as it was, Luke's only hope lay in Kenobi's momentary distraction, but Kenobi was too experienced a warrior for that. Still, if physical distractions did not work...

"Did you know how I felt, being told year after year that I could not attend school because I had to stay to help with the moisture farm?" Luke snarled at Obi-Wan even as he swung his lightsaber at his arm in a narrow arc. Kenobi looked surprised at his words, then an expression of infinite sadness crossed his face even as he parried the blow.

"When all my friends were learning about the galaxy, and I could only learn how to repair moisture vaporators..." Luke's anger only grew as he relieved his childhood memories. He stoked the flames, using it to feed his connection to the Dark Side of the Force. "The crushing disappoint, day after day, year after 't that a useful skill to learn? Repairing moisture vaporators is such an essential skillset to have...Just imagine, I would have been the best moisture farmer on Tatooine!"

Luke's mocking words pierced Obi-Wan's heart like a blaster bolt. They had hidden Luke away for his own safety, but they had failed to consider the needs of the child.

Relentless in his verbal attack, Luke continued viciously, "You, Kenobi, denied me my heritage. You put my father into a helmeted, masked prison for twenty years! My father, the man who was your best friend! For that, I will never forgive you."

Obi-Wan's mind was a confused tangle of emotions that even his Jedi training could not curb. He had failed one Skywalker before, twenty years ago, a man that he considered a brother, a friend. To have the point driven home that he had failed another Skywalker, and one that by all rights should have been a nephew, was heart-wrenching. And to have that same Skywalker accuse him of hurting Anakin...

Given time, distance and a lot of meditation, Obi-Wan could have recovered. As it was, in the heat of battle, with his accuser pressing forth with a vicious onslaught, Obi-Wan felt a bone-deep weariness. It caused his movement to slow, perhaps only by a second, but it was enough.

Luke saw the opening and took it. With a fierce grin, he executed a somersault that brought him to Kenobi's back and thrusted upwards with his lightsaber. Kenobi was slow to block, which gave Luke those precious seconds he needed to reach out with the Force to throw another handful of sand and rock at Kenobi. Due to his slower speed, Kenobi's movement to decimate the rocks left him wide open. Then, Luke swung his lightsaber once more with a triumphant cry...and the blade hit home. Sunk into flesh, blood and bone. The acrid smell of lightsaber burning through flesh assaulted Luke's nose, even as memories of the Force vision he had experienced two years ago came flooding back. Force visions of what could have been...

At least we still have Leia. She's our only hope. That was Obi-Wan's last thought as his consciousness faded, even as he gazed into brilliant blue eyes and sandy hair, so similar to that of his once-apprentice from ages past.

Luke blinked as the old man disappeared into nothingness. His ragged clothes lay strewn around on the hot Tatooine sand. Had Kenobi truly become one with the Force? It was no matter. Luke was not interested in the afterlife for he lived in the here and now. At that moment, the only thought in his mind was the jubilant expression on his father's face when he told him the news of Kenobi's death.

As for himself, the future beckoned. Now that he had killed Kenobi, a skilled Jedi Master, in a solo duel, Luke was certain that he'd be made a full Sith Lord, with all that it entailed. Lord Luke Skywalker Vader. He liked the sound of that.


Dagobath

Amidst the oppressive air of the swamps, the green-skinned creature raised his head to the skies when he felt the disturbance to the Force.

"Passed away, Obi-Wan has." Yoda, once the oldest and wisest Jedi Master to grace the Jedi Council, murmured to himself sorrowfully. "Our only hope, Leia Skywalker is."


Well, it has been an enjoyable journey, but as all journeys must, this particular one has come to an end. If you've made it all the way to the end of this story, thank you for reading. :)

I shall now proceed to work on my next story...or rather, on finishing up one of my old stories. Not in this fandom, it's a fic that I had left to be abandoned, but cannot resist revisiting time and again. Three guesses on which one it is...;)

That's all for now, cheers!