You're all in luck, there's not much of a way to leave you with a big cliff hanger right now. However I'm going to enjoy prolonging Siri and Obi-Wan's meet as long as possible, hopefully an effect that will possibly build up anxiousness and perhaps annoy you slightly. There are some parts of certain movies or books where you (or I at least) just loved to be annoyed by an event being prolonged… enjoy. Also I am currently contemplating more Sith fics. I'm stuck between two to do after this, one is where Luke becomes the Emperor's Hand, and he does not know Vader is his father, but Vader knows Padmé is alive and so he finds her and eventually betrays the Empire. The next one is about a long series of events that will turn Luke Skywalker to the dark side, that one I'd love to do as well. I am currently working out kinks with them, so look forward to a dark Luke fic after this dark Obi-Wan fic is completed, either way I am writing one, maybe I'll write both.

Chapter 14: Behind the Mask…

Tarkin smiled in triumph. Not because he was standing on his feet once more since the gravity generators were back online, but because the Imperial Star Destroyer he had been dueling for the past few dozen minutes or so was now a mere burning chunk of metal, exploding in space. He turned to the Jedi that had belayed nearly all of his orders, but for the right reason and nodded.

"I suppose I should have listened to you." Tarkin said.

"Mm, a great military commander you are Captain Tarkin." Yoda said. "But lack some wisdom you do, glad that I was here to help I am."

"Thank you Master Yoda. I believe it was a good idea to join the Rebel Alliance; the Empire is corrupt, as I see it. Take me for example, I wanted control over it."

Yoda sensed truth in his words. Although at first he had believed Tarkin joined them to complete his agenda of taking over the Empire… perhaps now he realized he was wrong. Apparently fighting for the greater good could do that to you. Yoda simply nodded, turned around, and hobbled away; there was something he had to do.

"Hear me Mace, can you?" Yoda asked through the Force. Projecting the communication as loudly as he could possibly could, there was so much pain and death here. It was unfathomable, the mess it created in the Force. How disturbed it was. The Force could be considered a stream, the water flowing as its power. When its power is used it is as though a rock is thrown in that creates ripples, when someone dies there is much the same effect, when numerous lives are lost one can only imagine how… complex the ripples become, and how hard it is the use the Force.

"I hear you Yoda." Mace's voice replied back.

"What happened?"

"Anakin is fine. He's having Padmé brought up to the ship. Leia's arm was cut off by Vader, she is in the infirmary, medics are performing immediate surgery on her."

"Vader, what happened to him?"

"He fled, he was outnumbered."

"Mm, powerful he may believe he is, but when outnumbered, flee he does."

"Yes, he is a coward. A dangerous coward however, I should have killed him when I had the chance."

"What about Anakin?"

"Anakin did not have the chance. Right now I believe he is trying to contact Luke… we've got about five minutes left."

XxX

The targeting computer told him he was more than two thirds of the way there, the exhaust port was so close now he could smell it, this time he would not fail, the Death Star would be destroyed. Wedge and Biggs were covering his flanks down the trench, Luke was grateful for that, the rest of the other squadrons were either busy pummeling the turbo lasers was blaster fire, or tangling with the TIE fighters that whoever was in charge of the Death Star had sent out to deal with the Rebels that he probably thought were here on a suicides mission. As Luke's destination drew nearer and nearer he felt someone trying to contact him through the Force. After a moment of probing (which was not easy as he was flying down a narrow trench, and having to occasionally avoid the less than frequent turbo laser fire) he found that it was his father. He opened up to let Anakin speak.

"Luke, can you hear me?" His father's voice asked loudly in his head.

"Loud and clear dad, but I'm trying to save the rebellion here, can this wait?"

"Don't think because you are in the middle of a battle you've been granted permission to take on that tone with me son." Anakin warned. "What is the situation; you should have destroyed the damn station by now!"

"It was Leia's pain that distracted me the first time around, I reached the end of the trench and overshot it. Is Leia okay?"

"She'll be fine. Just destroy it and get out of there! You've got less than five minutes."

XxX

Obi-Wan gazed out at the battle as the thoughts poured into his head. Each time one minuscule rebel fighter exploded he wondered: Why do the fools die? Their base is about to be destroyed and their fleet is in a chokehold. Why not surrender? They have no other choice… then again… whose to say I would let them surrender? I suppose it is better to die in battle, then to die after you've attempted surrender.

It was then that Obi-Wan heard footsteps behind him. Finally the women were being let in, he was eager to talk to Mara to see what she wanted; he swiftly turned and was pleased to see his request would be granted as Mara Jade alone was led onto the bridge. She shrugged off the storm troops that were escorting her rather rudely and strode up to Obi-Wan.

"Mara Jade," he acknowledged.

"I don't have time for this Vader," Mara snapped. "I have someone here who needs to see you."

"You would do well to be cautious in the way you go about speaking to your superiors. Just because you are the Emperor's Hand does not mean you will get any sort of special treatment."

"I know, and I'm totally dispersible too, you have something important to tell me or will you let me bring in the two others with me? One really needs to speak with you!"

"Very well," Obi-Wan said, averting his gaze to the guard at the door to the bridge.

"Bring them in," he ordered, then turning back to Mara asked, "What is so important now that I need to see this other person."

Mara rolled her eyes disrespectfully as the two women were led in. Obi-Wan paid no attention to them at the moment; he waited intently for Mara's answer.

"Trust me Vader; it would take me hours to explain this to you." Mara replied. Before Obi-Wan could open his mouth she stepped out of the way, he now found himself facing the two women. Raz Vena he recognized outright, the cunning Sith wannabe who stole his chances to bring Siri back to life… but… Siri was standing right next to her!

He did not even dare to believe his eyes, it was impossible! He blinked several times and then finally opened them. She was still standing there. He could see her as clearly as he could see Piett in the background behind them, Siri… Siri was alive.

XxX

"Luke, there are three TIE fighters coming in behind us!" Bigg warned.

"Take them out, we're almost there." Luke ordered, he could clearly see the end of the trench. He briefly glanced back as both Wedge and Biggs pulled up sharply and swooped back behind the TIEs, two went down immediately, crashing into the hull of the battle station and exploding on impact. Luke stopped paying attention then, he was right at the end. With lightning fast reflexes he locked onto the exhaust port and pulled the trigger. He pulled up at the last moment, just as the proton torpedoes exploded from their launchers, all he could do now was pray to the Force that they would enter, there was not enough time for another go at it.

XxX

"It's difficult to explain," was all Siri could manage to say in the uncomfortable silence that had fallen upon her entry. Obi-Wan's eyes were locked on hers, though she could not see them. This was the moment that his whole world came crashing down upon him, it felt like the day she died. Everything was confusing, nothing made since; the entire universe had turned completely around. He was so distracted, and so mystified by her standing right in front of him, as alive as he was, that he barely acknowledged the huge explosion out in space that engulfed the Death Star. The crew however stared wide eyed at it, Obi-Wan continued to stare at Siri, and she back at him. Mara stood unsurely, would this make him inclined to want to kill the Emperor, or would it now? She could not do it without him. Raz simply tried to remain anonymous, the last thing she wanted was for Darth Vader himself to find out if was her fault that he had lost his only child.

"Milord, what are your orders?!" Piett barked, breaking the silence. Obi-Wan tore his gaze away from Siri and turned to the Admiral.

"Get out."

"What?! Lord Vader are you serious, we can't leave the bridge, who will control the ship?!"

"I said GET OUT! All of you get out of here now! Tell the fleet to cease fire." Obi-Wan barked.

"Lord Vader have you lost your mind?!" Piett cried. "We outnumber them, even though the Death Star is gone we can still take them out, we cannot surrender!"

"This is not a surrender Admiral, the situation has become complicated, follow my orders and leave. All of you leave now."

"With all due respect Lord Vader, is the situation complicated because you have to speak with an old girlfriend, is that why you are halting the battle?" a very brave, very foolish, very idiotic crew member dared to ask. Obi-Wan's eyes flashed sickly yellow under the mask; he snapped his gaze from Piett to the crew member and one final time said,

"Get out," with a deadly and dangerous conviction. So everyone filed out of the bridge, including Mara and Raz, the crew members shot nervous glances back at their respective stations. The Executor was mostly automated in its control systems; it really did not make a difference at the moment whether or not the crew was on the bridge.

As the blast doors slammed shut Obi-Wan looked at his dead wife again, who was in fact alive.

"Siri, what happened?"

XxX

Leia had been given sedatives for her pain and she was now sleeping peacefully on a cot in the infirmary of the Relentless. Where her right arm had previously been was a new metal appendage, golden in color and polished so much that it looked like a mirror. Anakin and Padmé sat by their daughter's side, oblivious to the fact the battle outside of the Nebulon-B frigate had stopped. Anakin looked at Leia's arm and then at his own, like father like daughter he supposed. But what sort of sick joke was it that Obi-Wan had cut off his daughters arm? He would kill him for this!

Anakin was interrupted from his imagining Obi-Wan's maimed and dead corpse on the ground as a man entered the infirmary and strode up to him.

"General Skywalker,"

"What?" Anakin asked.

"Admiral Ackbar ordered me to alert you that the Death Star has been destroyed and Captain Skywalker is safe."

"I know." Anakin replied.

"Also the Imperials have ceased fire, the Admiral in command named Piett said the order came from Darth Vader himself."

This sparked Anakin's interest. What in the universe could have caused Obi-Wan to halt the battle that he was winning? Even though the Death Star was destroyed Obi-Wan was fully capable of slaughtering every last organic being with a pulse on Yavin, not to mention crushing the rebel fleet.

"What?!" Anakin shouted. That was all he could say, he was utterly baffled by Obi-Wan's order to cease fire, was this some sort of trick? No, a trick seemed wildly unnecessary, the odds favored the Imperials greatly, they have boxed them in. What was going on?

XxX

"You're supposed to be dead Siri." Obi-Wan managed to choke out as he stood face to face with her, or rather face to mask.

"Obviously it didn't go over how Gunray planned it to." Siri replied.

"What happened?"

XxX

It was a dark planet, a base of metal stood attached to the side of one of the only non volcanic mountains there was. It was engulfed in a barely visible blue shield that became evident when pieces of flying melted rock hit it. Inside in a small dim cell sat Siri Tachi, dressed in a white jump suit. She looked up as she saw three skinny battle droids enter her cell, guns held up and aimed at her head.

"Hands up Jedi!" They ordered. Siri quirked an eyebrow and put her hands up.

"On the ground!" Another commanded, this was followed by a series of "roger, roger's".

Siri bent down slightly and then leapt up, spinning in the air she kicked the heads off of each battle droid, two blasters were in either one of her hands before her three foes even hit the ground. She tore into the cell bay and ran to the exit. Droids noticed her and opened fire, with the Force as her ally she dodged the bolts easily and used her two blasters to cut them down. The end of the cell bay was near she skidded to a halt as two super battle droids came before her, she shot them in the faces, their heads exploded and they fell to the ground. The unarmed B1 battle droids in the reception area of the detention block turned to look at her and decided in their droid brains that the most viable option would be to run.

They tore off and entered the turbo lifts. Siri followed and took one to the bottom floor.

She exited it into a hallway, and took off to the nearest door, shooting droids in her path. One came out of a side corridor as she neared her exit. She leapt into the air and shot it in a mid flip. She landed as the door opened automatically and found herself on a balcony overlooking a massive river of lava. In her were seven droidekas.

They clicked to themselves, apparently communicating as several super battle droids stepped up behind them. Siri turned to see more droidekas and super battle droids coming up to her. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, both of which here highly deadly.

"On the ground Jedi!" One of the super battle droids ordered as the new group of droidekas unrolled and aimed their blaster arms at her.

If this was to be her final stand as she sensed than she was not going down without a fight. She aimed one blaster to her left and one to her right, she pulled both triggers. A volley of blaster fire erupted, super battle droids went down. The droidekas opened fire, with the Force as her ally she was able to block the bolts with her hands, the droids on their three pick like legs came at her then, she backed up towards the rail of the balcony, finally a potshot hit her in the leg, she clutched it and force pushed a good amount of droidekas away. Droidekas had a fatal flaw, their shields were designed to envelope their bodies on the ground, in the air they were not able to function properly and therefore went out. Several sheildless droidekas smashed into a wall and fell to the ground in pieces.

The rest kept on firing for several long painful minutes she kept their blasts at bay with the Force but finally one tore into her side, her hand flew to it and one last blast hit her straight in the shoulder, the force of it knocked her back and she fell over the balcony, down to the lava river below, she and her unborn child were seconds away from death.

But fate struck; there was a small outcropping of volcanic rock just a few feet below her. Siri grabbed it and clutched tightly, when she had completely stopped falling she pulled her other hand up, her feet dangled just thirty feet above the lava, the heat was so intense, she was immediately drenched in sweat. Calling upon the Force and all of her strength she pulled herself up, it felt as though thousands of nearly melted steel knifes were plunging into her shoulder. Finally she came up on the outcropping and rolled on her back, lying down she took several long deep breaths as the pain in her shoulder died down slightly, her leg did not hurt as much, though she was not sure how she would escape with it like that. She was alive, that was a start.

XxX

"I found a lightly guarded shuttle and took it after I got my stuff back. Then I went to Azure." Siri finished. Obi-Wan's eyes flashed crimson as she finished her story.

"I would kill every single one of those CIS rats again if I could." He growled through gritted teeth.

"Obi-Wan don't say things like that, and it wasn't the CIS that ordered my execution."

"What do you mean?"

"It was the Emperor Obi-Wan! He ordered my execution so that you would be easier to turn and so he could secure your loyalty."

Once more Obi-Wan felt his world… his universe crashing down upon him. Everything he knew to be true… or rather everything he thought he knew had just been disproved. It was the worst feeling he had ever experienced, worse than the grief and pain of Siri's death. Hell, it even topped having your legs and arms cut off and then lying on blazing hot rock near a flowing lava river. To know that his life… for the past twenty or so years had been nothing but a lie, that was a horrible feeling. He felt as though he were going to vomit, his head was so overloaded in information that his brain was trying to analyze all at the same time that he wanted to cut it off with is very own lightsaber! This could not be true, Siri must have been misled!

"How…" was the only thing he managed to choke out, he feared if he tried to put more words into the question and voice it properly then he might become insane.

"Mara found out, from the Emperor himself, when he tortured her for failing to find Raz Vena so she could lead her to me."

Raz Vena, how did Raz know Siri?! A question for another time perhaps, now the evidence was undeniable, Mara had no reason to lie, what would she gain from it, unless she wanted to earn Siri's trust to kill her, but no, Siri would be dead by now if that were true. That left only one possible answer, the Emperor. He had been behind this all, manipulating Obi-Wan's life so that he could be used as a tool, like Mara, like Dooku, like Darth Maul. Obi-Wan realized, as Mara had not so long ago that he was a mere tool, totally disposable, and most importantly Sidious had attempted to kill his wife and child… he knew what he had to do, everything he had just learned made sense, he had to eliminate the source of the problem, he had to eliminate Sidious, and he right next to the Rebel Alliance, perhaps he could bargain with them, not to mention he had half the Imperial army on his side. That was it, he would destroy the Emperor, but first things first, he had to start negotiating with the Alliance, and then create a plan of attack. After that was finished he would kill Sidious and he, Siri, and his child…

"Siri, where is our child?"

These words brought tears to Siri's eyes. "She's here; she's right on this ship."

Obi-Wan pulled off his mask then, to look upon his wife fully. She looked at his paled, burned face and more tears fell. Obi-Wan dropped the mask, it was a symbol of his master and he wanted nothing to do with it.

"Where is she Siri? Who is she?" Obi-Wan asked, approaching his wife and embracing her for the first time in years. He also felt relief in hearing his own, unaltered voice once more.

"She's… right outside the door. Mara Jade, Obi-Wan, she's our daughter." Siri said pulling herself away from her husband. At that moment Obi-Wan's Sith nature faded, he had a child, she was safe, she was outside the door, a tear slid down his face as the weight of the universe lifted and Obi-Wan realized he was no longer tied to the chains of the dark side, he felt a mixture of grief for everyone he murdered, coupled by a feeling of joy, that his child was here. Then he truly became Obi-Wan Kenobi again… the man behind the mask.

Originally I did not plan to reveal that Mara was Siri's and Obi-Wan's child until maybe the next chapter or after, but the situation called for it. Usernames are Irrelevant was correct which is why I had to say do not assume Mara is Siri's child, maybe I wanted you to think that, but in fact she is. Don't believe everything I say, read what's in the writing. One more small surprise about Sidious and his remaining Hands is to come, in the beginning of the next chapter. Anyway I would greatly appreciate it if I got a little feedback about this huge revelation. Also there is a theory that Mara is in fact Siri's child, I read about it on wookiepedia, so I decided hey, why not use that, creating OC's is fun but how am I going to create the child of Obi-Wan and Siri?