"It is only fitting, my Master, that you return to the place where your treachery began," the deep, mechanized voice resonated as the quiet chamber became awash in the steady, automated breathing of Darth Vader. The dark caped figure stalked across the floor. Moving without hesitation, he activated his crimson lightsaber, which cast an ominous glow in the muted lighting. Long strides never faltered until he reached the kneeling figure.
Obi-Wan opened his eyes but remained motionless, his unprotected back exposed to the dark lord. Instead of shielding himself, he reached for the Force, seeking its calming energies.
Spoken in that slow bass, Vader taunted, "Does he speak to you, my Master, the way he had so often whispered to me?"
My master.
Sighing heavily, Obi-Wan closed his eyes and bowed his head. Even the gentle ebb and flow of the ancient energy could not ease the anguish that rushed up through him at the cruelty inflicted upon those words. Struggle though he might, the Jedi knew the peace he needed would not be with him this day.
"He saw you for what you are, a failure." Vehemence laced every word, especially the last driving it into the quiet older man. "Your failing as a master is now complete." The dark lord paused and turned as if listening to something only he could hear. The cape that draped his armored shoulders swung out like a great bird of prey swooping toward the Jedi before being swept back by a leather encased hand.
Words, nothing more and they could not harm him, Obi-Wan swore. Not if he did not let them.
Yet it was a war he fought everyday, more often than not losing as their pronunciations crept into his consciousness.
"You must have been a great disappointment to Qui-Gon Jinn to be so easily cast aside for a slave boy he had only just met."
With a fire more powerful than any lightsaber, grief pierced Obi-Wan's heart but his expression remained serene.
Vader turned to stare toward the melting pit, the lights reflected pitifully off the smooth black helmet that separated the mechanized man from his former self. "Was it your failures as an apprentice or jealousy that cost Qui-Gon his life?"
No, it was not jealousy! Never jealousy.
The cruel lines of the false face turned to focus on the silent Jedi.
It was failure.
The words bit hard and demanded the Jedi answer them out loud. With inborn grace, he rose to his feet and calmly turned to face the embodiment of the Dark Side.
The culmination of his failings.
Vader slashed at the air with his weapon bringing the fiery tip dangerously close to the still figure before him. "Did you imagine me so blind, my Master?" his voice vibrated against the unyielding walls. "You allowed him to be cut down. For all of your Jedi honor, your sins are no less than mine for you set all this in motion." A sweep of a gloved hand motioned to the crumbling room and stirring the dust ever so slightly.
Motioning back to his shattered form.
The dark lord was not the only one bearing a mask, for Obi-Wan kept the turmoil raging inside carefully checked behind his own calm gaze. A deep exhale met Vader's boldness the instant the dark lord closed the space between them.
The menacing hum of the Sith's lightsaber was nearly deafening. He held out his leather-encased hand for the Jedi to see. "Just as easily as you cast Qui-Gon into his death, your jealousy tossed me to my doom." He drew his hand into a tremulous fist. "You let go."
Obi-Wan said nothing.
"You could have saved me, my Master." The glowing red blade at Vader's command was not the weapon of choice as he delivered another accusation, "Out of jealousy you held me back when it was clear I was far superior to you and when that would no longer suffice, you sent me tumbling to my death." With all the menace and power of the Dark Side, Vader boomed, "I was destined to be the greatest of the Jedi!"
"In raw power only," came the soft reply.
The Force bubbled with Vader's silent rage.
Sadness clung to Obi-Wan's pale blue eyes as he studied the monster that had once been Anakin Skywalker. "Power alone does not make a Jedi great."
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Anamnesis:
Sparks exploded and rained down over the metal floor as Anakin cried and stumbled away from his former master. "Lies," he snapped. "She would never go along with your treachery." Twisting to better examine the singed material of his black tunic sleeve, he pulled at the smoldering section revealing the damaged components of his mechanical arm beneath. "You tricked her into betraying me and now hold her hostage." Fury simmered in hooded eyes.
Obi-Wan knew words would only fall upon deaf ears. Anakin would never believe–never accept–that Padmé feared him as much as she loved him. She knew the only way to protect herself and her unborn child was to go into hiding, even if that meant hiding from her husband. "If you will just stop. Please," the Jedi begged, lowering his weapon. If only Anakin would calm down and listen. In desperation, he conjured up the memory of his last conversation with the young woman before she was spirited away to safety. He did not know what the words meant, but he hoped as she did, that Anakin would. "Padmé wants you to know that there is a galaxy full of stars out there."
The lightsaber trembled in Anakin's grip as he shrugged off the injury and returned his gaze to his former master. Anger bled into grief and his expression softened into one of heartache. He seemed to sink into himself. "The Lord Chancellor was right," he half whispered. "My wife and my master have betrayed me."
"No, Anakin, she told me–"
"You were always jealous of me. It was not enough to hold me back when I should have been knighted. You had to take my wife too," Anakin said with a dangerous calm. "You were jealous of everything I possessed and I was blind, but the Lord Chancellor has seen all and he has shown me the truth."
"And what truth is that, Anakin?" the Jedi asked, for words while they stung could not wound him like a saber blade.
The younger shook his head, the wounded look falling behind an icy mask. "I will kill you and then I will find Padmé and there is nothing in the galaxy that will stand in my way."
"He has lied to you. Padmé would never–"
"This ends now!" the young man barked and raced forward slashing at the air and driving Obi-Wan into the bent rails. The dark side bloomed as he brought his weapon about before delivering a powerful thrust.
Deflecting the attack, Obi-Wan twisted, tightly coiled muscles moving in perfect harmony just centimeters beyond the killing fire. The force of the blow glanced Anakin's blade off Obi-Wan's and sent it searing through the floor and a support.
It was one too many as a terrible metallic cry rang out causing the platform to wrench from its anchors and fling the two men toward the edge.