A Fated Duel

"Ahsoka...?" Obi-Wan questioned. "Why does that matter now?" Suspicion was attached to his voice and though his lightsaber was in a non-defensive position, the blade was still shining against the thick smoke. He was trying to make it sound like he was genuinely curious but the way Anakin's eyes darkened slightly made him think Anakin was offended by the question.

"I need her here." Anakin answered.

Obi-Wan shifted his position as Anakin took a few steps forward. "Why do you need her now?"

Whatever the reason, it couldn't have been good. The stream that Anakin left behind in the Force was tainted. Obi-Wan used to be able to read into Anakin's cognitive processes and now he was having trouble, as if Anakin had built an opaque barrier around his head. At the moment, however, Obi-Wan wasn't sure how much he wanted to know what lie behind it.

"Anakin?" Mace Windu said while keeping both his hands on his saber. "What's the meaning of this? Where's the Supreme Chancellor?"

The young boy walked over to the edge of the platform, his hands behind his back, and the white cloud of smoke that blocked his view was cleared in order for him to witness the chaotic scenery before him. He looked like an older man watching over the calm ocean horizon. A stark contrast to what Obi-wan was experiencing within his chest. He'd seen another character in the exact form Anakin was in now. One that Obi-wan could say that he hated, despite not allowing himself to encourage such feelings.

"You're keeping her from me." Anakin theorized.

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow and shook his head vigorously. "No, that's not it at all. Why would we have any reason to keep her away from you?"

Anakin sighed, keeping his eyes on the Republic military tanks and vehicles wandering through the city. "The same reason the Jedi have kept all things from me."

"I'm not sure I understand you." the Jedi Master told him.

Anakin turned, the scar across his eye looking even more visible. "The Force can be used to keep the ones we love from dying." He clenched his fist. "Did you not know about this? Or did you just pretend it doesn't exist?"

So that was it, Obi-Wan thought. "Anakin... I don't know what you think you know, or what you heard, but the Force has never been used to accomplish such a thing before-"

"You're lying." the boy's voice deepened. "You people just refuse to show it to us because you don't want other people to know how to use it. Because if someone uses it, then they're not following the Jedi ways. It makes them evil."

The boy began approaching his master, making Obi-Wan back away slowly. "It's irresponsible of us to allow such power to fall into anyone's hands..." His head perked up as a thought occurred to him. "Who are you trying to keep from dying? Is it Ahsoka?"

Anakin lowered his eyes, his hands still tightened and his eyebrow twitching slightly. Obi-wan thought he saw his student's eyes begin to well up with tears.

"...Padme?"

At the sound of her name, Anakin grabbed his weapon and stood back. "Tell me where Ahsoka is."

Obi-Wan raised his own. "Not until you answer my question." Anakin's blade was drawn. This was the last situation Obi-Wan wanted to be in. "Who told you about these powers?"

Anakin dragged an arm over his eyes as they began to overfill. "You don't know anything about what I've had to go through. The nightmares, the dread I've been feeling..." He straightened his posture and gripped his saber with both hands. "What do you care about her, anyways? You're the one who doesn't want me to save her!"

Mace Windu stepped in the way. "Skywalker! We don't want to harm you, but if you keep us from our mission to protect the galaxy, we'll have no choice."

Anakin's eyes burned with a passion that Obi-Wan couldn't say he hadn't seen before. Imagining Anakin falling to the Dark Side may have sounded like an impossibility at first, but Obi-Wan had looked after the boy nearly his entire life and had seen instances of him showing that kind of determination. Anakin raised his arm and before either Obi-Wan or Windu could do anything else, he shoved both of them back into the smoke.

The clones saw this as their opportunity to keep destroying the Temple and the remaining Jedi with it. Obi-Wan's head slammed against the concrete floor and his hearing had been impaired for a minute. He blinked several times to clear his eyesight and instinctively grabbed his saber. The smoke surrounding him was thick enough that he couldn't see in front of his figure.

When it cleared before him, he looked up to see the boy had leapt into the air, his blade right behind his head as he prepared to cut Obi-Wan's body. But the Jedi Master predicted this move. He'd seen Anakin do it in their non-deadly duels many times. Obi-Wan brought his saber in front of him and the sound of the two blades clashing rang throughout the battlefield.

Anakin's teeth were clenched and he growled as he pressed his blade against Obi-Wan's, drawing the Master's blade close enough to Obi-Wan's face that he started to feel his skin burn.

The Jedi Master kicked Anakin back and got to his feet.

"I didn't want it to come to this..." Obi-Wan said to his student.

"Yes you did!" Anakin began circling his master as Obi-Wan did the same. "You and the rest of the Council have been keeping everything from me!" He swiped his blade towards the older man. Obi-Wan blocked it by holding his blade horizontally. "You probably kept me from all of your meetings so you can find ways to eliminate me!"

Obi-Wan forced Anakin's blade back. "Do you even realize how ridiculous that sounds?"

The Master was only keeping his defense as he was trying to show young Anakin that he truly wasn't intending to hurt the boy. At the same time, he was trying to find ways to pry the information from Anakin without revealing what he'd found out. If Anakin knew the real reason behind Obi-Wan's motives, the visions might become true.

"Putting me on the Council without making me a 'Jedi Master'?" Anakin continue as he waved his blade towards the other's head some more. Obi-Wan could see that Anakin was trying to keep himself focused, but his mind was occupied. "Is it because Jedi Masters are allowed to know the full potential of the Force? And you didn't want me to know about it because you don't trust me?"

The boy's emotions were unbalanced. He was confused, that much Obi-Wan could see. The Chancellor - or Sith Lord - had poisoned his mind with false claims about the Force. An even more dangerous way of spreading evil.

"There are secrets about the Force even I don't know of, Anakin." he insisted while dodging an attack on his leg.

Anakin twirled his saber. "Well then... I guess it's nice to know the Jedi enjoy hording secrets from the both of us!"

The boy lunged forward and attempted to swipe at Obi-Wan's neck. The Jedi Master ducked and threw Anakin forward with his power. The boy fell against the concrete on his palms. He was breathing heavily through his teeth.

"Listen to me, Anakin," Obi-Wan began. "I didn't come here to fight you. I came because I was worried about you."

The apprentice turned his head ever so slowly towards the Master, like he was trying to intimidate the older man. But when Obi-Wan looked at him, all he could picture was the nine-year-old who loved pod racing and came running to his master crying over a bruised knee. Both pictures he held of Anakin caused conflict within his own heart. The Chosen One with his high midi-chlorian count and his poor methods of handling his anger could become too dangerous to be kept alive.

And at the same time, Obi-Wan knew Anakin wasn't at the point of no return. Not yet. He was standing atop of an unsteady plank balancing on a small pebble, where one way could lead him off the edge of a cliff and the other way could lead him to safety. Despite knowing that it was a biased thought, Obi-wan did not want to rid the galaxy of Anakin's presence. Even though it was against the Jedi Code to take such chances.

But Obi-Wan wasn't feeling like listening to the Jedi Code. The Jedi Code did not always see the shades of grey.

Anakin rose slowly, rotating his neck and shoulder. The embers from the fires around them and the white smoke made for an unsettling image of the boy.

"You underestimate me," Anakin said. "All of you. The Council, the Jedi... everyone."

Obi-Wan breathed in. "We were trying to protect you, Anakin. Up until this point, we believed we were doing everything we thought was right for you." The Master shook his head, realizing he sounded a lot like his own master once upon a time. "We were not always right, Anakin. No one is."

"Well..." Anakin began. "You weren't just wrong about that. You were wrong about me, too." He held his saber in front of him. "I should be the one they call 'Master'. Just look at how much stronger I am." He spread his arms apart and turned his head upwards. "I have the chance to become even stronger. But you're trying to take that away from me. Just like you're trying to take everything else."

Obi-Wan noticed the shift in tone in the boy's voice. He sounded desperate. Sad, even. He really believed he could save Padme by listening to all that Palpatine had given him.

"Nothing good will come of it." Obi-Wan said aloud. He wasn't intending for Anakin to hear it.

The boy readied his stance. "Well... let me show you just how much of a 'Jedi Master' I can be!"

The sabers collided again. Anakin's technique was now relying on his anger and Obi-Wan knew from experience with other opponents that it wasn't an effective tactic. Against anyone beneath him, it worked well. But Obi-Wan knew he was more skilled. He had earned the title of "Jedi Master" for a reason.

Still, Obi-Wan could see that Anakin has done well in terms of lightsaber training. He recalled the first time Anakin had held a training saber in his hands for the very first time. As much as he tried during his first day, he could not defend himself against the training droids. He would do well for the first couple of tries and then was swatted in the leg or the arm.

Eventually, the boy had given up.

"Forget it! This is hopeless!" the nine-year-old said as he threw his lightweight training weapon on the ground. He stomped his way over to the bench and sat with his hands holding his head.

Obi-Wan was trying his best not to chuckle. He could sense the boy was on the verge of tears. The Knight at the time approached the boy carefully, having little experience with teaching children. It was during those times that he longed for the guidance of Qui-Gon Jinn. His old master would have told him to be patient. Anakin was only a child. And like all children, he spoke with his emotions.

"Now, now," Obi-Wan said as he sat next to the child. "The Jedi Knights did not master the art of lightsaber-fighting overnight, did they?"

Anakin hung his head. "They probably had more skills than I do..."

Obi-Wan picked up the training saber.

"Anakin," he began. "They all started with the same skills you possess right now."

The boy was not convinced as he hugged his knees. "Why do we even have to fight with lightsabers?" He turned his head away from the older man. "Why can't we just use our magic?"

"Dear boy," Obi-Wan placed a hand on the boy's knee. "This 'magic' is what we call 'the Force'. To become an effective warrior, one must learn to wield their lightsaber as well as understand the Force. To maintain balance, you have to learn to battle with both."

Young Anakin perked his head up. "Do people use the Force to hurt other people?"

Obi-Wan's smile faded. "Yes, but we are not those kinds of people. We do not use the Force purely as a weapon."

"But have some of us done it?" Anakin's eyes shined with curiosity. "Have some of the Jedi used the Force to hurt people?"

It was at that point that Obi-Wan first contemplated the correct answer to Anakin's wonderings. Perhaps the first time he'd thought of withholding the truth. All he gave Anakin was a firm expression and spoke with, "No, they have not."

Many Jedi have turned from the ways of the Order to use the Force for their own desires. One of these included using the Force completely as a weapon of destruction. In desperate times, a Jedi used the force to harm an enemy, when all other options were void. But Obi-Wan didn't want to elaborate his answer, because he worried that doing so would make Anakin believe he would have permission to use the Force in that way.

Obi-Wan could see his mistake back then as he counteracted Anakin's swipes with his blade. And he couldn't have blamed it on being ignorant of how to correctly handle the situation. He had been surrounded by resources to give him suggestions. Now Obi-Wan had to take responsibility for it.

Anakin seemed more like that nine-year-old boy now than he had in the many years Obi-Wan had known him. The boy who fought almost entirely on his emotions. But unlike that child, Anakin was now motivated to express such juvenile tendencies by the tragic events he'd experienced beforehand. Slavery, the death of his mother, the loss of his Padawan, and the vision of his wife dying by his hand. Obi-Wan could have humored that nine-year-old boy by telling him the next day would bring good fortune. That what he was experiencing was normal and he would feel like himself again, soon.

But this Anakin had been through far too many traumatizing occurrences. And he was determined to prevent any more. The willpower to resist such temptations was fading away.

Obi-Wan tried to keep this battle away from the Temple spires, trying to savor as much of the building as possible. The younglings and less trained Jedi might have still been hiding in them. He jumped out of the way as Anakin hurled a broken piece of the building towards him.

"The Jedi had no right to tell me to commit treason!" Anakin said as he waved his blade towards Obi-wan's direction.

While they fought, Obi-Wan continued to use his saber only to shield himself from Anakin's wrath. But the rips in his clothing and the burn marks on his skin were starting to multiply.

Obi-Wan brought his own blade down onto Anakin's, throwing off the younger male. Anakin had to rebalance himself and readjust the hold on his saber.

"I know it wasn't the best act the Council has committed." Obi-Wan replied. He was beginning to sweat from the heat of the blades being as close to his skin as they had.

"And where were you when the Council decided not to trust me?" Anakin said as he tossed another cluster of debris in his master's direction. "It was your idea, wasn't it?"

Obi-Wan took a second to catch his breath, but Anakin wasn't giving him the advantage. He clumsily swiped upward and managed to singe off a part of Obi-Wan's now-unkempt hair. The Master only managed to move his head away in time.

"Of course not..." he breathed. "I kept my faith in you."

Anakin growled. "You weren't there for me, Obi-Wan." He clenched his teeth as he spoke. "I came to the Council for help and you all just turned me away."

The Master bent his knees and held his saber towards the boy. He wiped away the sweat from his face with his arm. Anakin was now starting to sound like an immature child again.

"I trusted you with my life!" Obi-Wan said. "I was the one who convinced the Council to allow you to be involved in any affairs at all!"

And Anakin held the nearly-defeated Master up in the air with the Force. Obi-Wan struggled and gagged as his hands went to the invisible hold around his throat. His lightsaber fell underneath him. As Anakin walked closer, the fire in his eyes that had been mostly contained during this duel was now raging. The darkness was even stronger than it had been at the start of this conflict.

"No..." Obi-Wan choked out. It couldn't be. He couldn't have just failed Anakin.

He could feel the grip around his neck tighten slightly.

"I'm sorry, Obi-Wan..." Anakin said, his eyes overflowing with tears that fell much faster than before. "I'm not going to let you keep me from saving her..."

Obi-Wan's vision began to fill with dark spots. He squeezed them shut. Though he was worn out by the battle and the tightening feeling around his windpipe, he mustered all the strength he could to summon the Force. He focused the little energy he had to find the one woman Anakin was desperate to protect. She was lying atop of a small medical bed, crying loudly and squirming. Dressed in white in a white room, medical droids surrounding her. Her face was flustered and her cheeks were red. Her hair was damp with sweat as she strained her body. Her legs were propped up with a white sheet draped over them. Obi-Wan opened one eye to see if Anakin had been affected by it.

And he was.

Obi-Wan was dropped to the ground, gasping for air. He looked up at his apprentice and saw that the tears kept flowing, but his eyes were wide. His jaw hung open and he dropped to his knees.

"Padme..." he breathed.

Still trying to take in as much air as he could, Obi-Wan said, "She's alive, Anakin. And she needs you."