STARWARS: Fallen Future

Part I: Path of Shadows

Chapter XIX: The Final Stand

-"It's time to go! Death or Glory!!!."—Ken Ibonek

-"Ouch that hurt! Master watch out!"—Anakin Skywalker

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Ken/Obi-Wan whirled and slashed, Qui-Gon and Zora blocked and parried, the rain and wind lashed all three of them.

It was one of the odd sort of battles where nobody was quite at there best; not that that made it any less dangerous. Ken/Obi-Wan was tired after hours of fighting, but he was determined to buy Jango as much time to get free as he could. Siri had not handled a lightsaber for years, but she had been a powerful Jedi apprentice the last time she had. And Qui-Gon was a Jedi Master who rivalled both of them in power, but he was marred by both his concern for his current apprentice; and by his reluctance to actually hurt Obi-Wan.

Ken/Obi-Wan swung at Siri's waist. Which she blocked vertically with her blade running from her shoulder, down to her waist. Qui-Gon swung to his left across Siri at Ken/Obi-Wan's knee, Obi-Wan/Ken dropped his hands to deflect it before delivering a kick to Siri's chest, which sent her tumbling backwards. Ken/Obi-Wan struck a flurry of blows at Qui-Gon: high vertical, waist high right, left and right again before pirouetting into a slash at his knee. Qui-Gon blocked them all.

Ken/Obi-Wan brought his blade into a lock with Qui-Gon's, straining with all his might against the taller man. "Let me help you Obi-Wan, I can set you free." Claimed Qui-Gon over their sparking blades.

"My freedom was forfeit long ago." Growled Ken/Obi-Wan in response. He leaped back from the lock causing Qui-Gon to loose his balance, but he was prevented from making a follow up strike by loosing his own grounding on the wet and slippery floor.

He didn't get another chance as Siri leaped back into the fray, striking high at Obi-Wan's head.

Obi-Wan rolled backwards out of the way and sprang to his feet, whirling around to block both Qui-Gon and Siri as they both came at him at the same time from opposite sides with horizontal attacks. With a flip over and between them he swept his blade around at head hight, forcing them to both leap out of the way.

Qui-Gon sent a strong Force Push at Obi-Wan, sending him sailing into a pile of crates, which knocked them everywhere. Siri leaped after Obi-Wan, but not before the lost apprentice could throw one of the large crates at her with the Force, forcing her to dive out of the way. The crate struck the ground several metres behind her and exploded in a fireball. That still didn't give him much reprieve, Siri was on to him in a furry of blows, none of them deadly, but most of them would be more than enough to do serious damage. Obi-Wan/Ken struggled to ward off the ferocious attack.

"Please, don't do this Obi-Wan." Begged Siri, "You where my best friend, I lo…"

With a snap kick to Siri's stomach, Obi-Wan/Ken broke away from the attack. Quickly gathering his focus again, he sprang forward with an over head strike at Siri's shoulder, forcing her back. With a flick of his wrist, Ken/Obi-Wan sent an unbalanced Zora sloshing across the wet ground with a Force push.

Qui-Gon sprang forward at Obi-Wan/Ken, but he was thrown onto his back when Ken/Obi-Wan greeted him with a harsh kick to the knee – depositing him onto the ground directly below the younger man's blade.

Obi-Wan/Ken raised his lightsaber above his head with the blade pointing down, ready to plunge it through Qui-Gon's chest. And he hesitated. Then, the next moment he was jumping three metres into the air when, with a cry of his own, Anakin – fried nerves and all – joined the fight with a cork-screwing leap at Obi-Wan/Ken's back. Barely missing skewering the turned Jedi.

Ken/Obi-Wan landed and immediately had to block a blow from behind, as Siri swung at his right shoulder. He swung into a back-flip over Siri's head and landed facing the three Jedi atop one of the remaining large crates.

Obi-Wan/Ken desperately panted for breath. His best just wasn't good enough. His opponents here weren't Jedi taken by surprise in the middle of the night. Nor where they hired muscle with blasters – how ever efficient.

These where fully trained Jedi knights, as fresh as it was possible to be under the circumstances and he just wasn't strong enough.

And they knew it.

It of course, also didn't help that he had been fighting for several hours previously.

"Stop this Obi-Wan!" called Jinn "You don't have to destroy yourself!"

"No! This ends here!" cried Ken/Obi-Wan, he would not give himself up to the Jedi to be sent to prison. With a quick flip he jumped off his crate, and ran at the three Jedi. Skywalker was to the left, Jinn raised his lightsaber into a defensive guard in the centre, and Zora to the right. Skywalker tried an overhead strike, simple but deadly. Ken/Obiwan smashed aside the Boy's attack, but he was unable to follow through because he had to turn to meet an attack from Zora on the other side, he followed up with a parry to an overhead strike from Jinn.

Reaching behind him, he grabbed one of the large crates through the Force, intending to hurl it at one of the Jedi. He neatly turned a strike from Zora into the path of a strike from Jinn – rather cleverly he had to say – effectively stopping both attacks. Then he turned to face Skywalker; a second too late.

He turned just in time to see the boy's lightsaber plunge through his stomach.

Pain unlike any other he had ever felt ripped through him. A sharp pain that seemed to burn and freeze and the same time.

'Blast! I think I under estimated him. Oh the bitter, bitter irony.' He thought with a mental groan. In what felt like slow motion he fell to his knees, starring up past a bright pulsating green bar to a face frozen in horror – no doubt he was the first person to fall by the boy's hand. His own weapon rolled to the ground uselessly; deactivating as it hit the ground.

It was only at this moment, with Skywalker finally shutting off his lightsaber that Ken/Obi-Wan remembered the tiny little issue of the large crate suspended somewhere behind him by nothing more than the power of his concentration…

Too late. It slipped through his proverbial grasp and fell ground-wards. Dimly he was aware that Jinn was shouting something, and somewhere in his mind he also registered as the boy was blasted clear by a force push. But the main thing that occurred to him was the source of their panic; all of the crates on the landing platform where full of fuel cells – which meant that his career was about to come to a very final and explosive end…

With a terrific fire ball and an equally impressive accompanying bang, the crate full of explosives hit the ground a metre or so behind him and detonated. The concussion from the blast jolted him roughly forward to land awkwardly on the ground. Dimly he was aware of people shouting as he lay groaning on the ground, his body stinging all over from burns and shrapnel injuries, as well as the overwhelming pain from the lightsaber wound in his gut. Dimly he was aware of a pair of strong arms cradling him. "Obi-Wan? Obi-Wan, are you alright?" a voice seemed to say.

But Obi-Wan's thoughts where somewhere quite different; 'Now I know how Cerasi felt,' a part of his mind told him. But that tripped him up – who was Cerasi? 'Don't you remember?' That same part of his mind told him, 'She was your best friend on Melida/Daan.' And with that thought, suddenly a flood of memories overtook him – everything came rushing back.

Being a Jedi Padawan; his long crusade to get a master; Qui-Gon Jinn finally accepting him on Bandomeer, a few days before the opportunity was lost forever; the fiasco on Melida/Daan; his many trials of apprenticeship; his falling in love with Siri, but being forced to deny their feeling because of the Jedi Code. All of these images flashed through his head in a moment, and, for the first time in three years, he was Obi-Wan Kenobi.

He struggled to open and focus his bleary eyes, the problem with being Obi-Wan again, was that he felt like he was someone else as well. Images whirled around his head and although he knew they where all memories of things that he had experienced, he couldn't work out when or where they had happened. His vision slid into focus to reveal he was looking up at the cloudy skies, still pouring with rain. Above him, blocking the rain from falling directly onto his face, where the features of the face of a man he knew probably better than his own.

"Master?" he choked out.

"I'm here Obi-Wan." Replied Qui-Gon with a small smile.

"I don't feel so good." Commented Obi-Wan, trying to inject what Qui-Gon phrased 'his trademark' humour into the situation. In truth he felt downright awful. He was losing his grip on consciousness, and fast.

"You'll be alright Obi-Wan." Called Qui-Gon desperately as he slumped further into his arms. "Everything is going to be alright."

Obi-Wan smiled weakly back up at his master. "I've had… such a bad dream, master…" he said as darkness and oblivion swept up to take him, "Such… such a bad dream…"

TO BE CONCLUDED?

AN: Aren't I mean? Leaving it there? So is Obi-Wan dead? Will he survive long enough to tell Qui-Gon and Siri everything? Find out when I could be bothered to post next! Mwah ha ha ha ha! By the way, reviews might help speed me up. Hint, hint. More of the Path of Shadows (Or what's left of it anyway) coming to your galaxy… soon!

PS: I meant to have that posted last night, but the Fan fiction . net wouldn't let me... grr, stupid server.