Author's Note: Disclaimers are in the first chapter.
Thanks for the reviews! More "review notes" are after the chapter.
Enjoy! - Kaitie
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As soon as Obi-Wan started down the gangplank, Padme turned to her son. "Luke, I want you to go sit in the co-pilot's chair. If Obi-Wan talks in your head, yell for me."
Luke looked up, not quite understanding why but trusting his mother. He nodded and walked quickly off to the cockpit.
Padme turned her attention back to Obi-Wan and Vader. She had no illusions about what might happen – and she blinked back tears, at the prospect of her husband killing her best friend. Now at least her baby son wouldn't have to watch.
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When Vader snarled "Obi-Wan!", Bail decided that it would probably be best to get out of the way as quickly as possible. He didn't especially want to get stuck in the middle of a lightsaber fight! He ran back to his Cabinet, who were still surrounded by stormtroopers. The stormtroopers seemed to have forgotten them, however, in their fixation on Vader and his adversary.
Bail blinked, trying to clear the cobwebs from his brain. Could that reallybe Obi-Wan? It definitely looked like him, but Obi-Wan had supposedly been dead for years.
Then the man's eyes flashed over him for an instant and Bail knew: This was indeed Obi-Wan. He hoped fervently that his old friend was strong enough to rid the galaxy of Vader, once and for all.
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Obi-Wan was very calm. Although he was a little out-of-practice in dealing with life-and-death situations, he'd certainly been in enough, both as a Padawan and as a young Jedi Knight. The sticky trembling of young hands, the panicked racing of his heart, the sentimental "last thoughts" – Will this be the last time I see the sun, or smell the stars – all were far behind him now, distant memories. None of them lingered, to disrupt his concentration. He had never felt so sure of himself, so sure of the utter rightness of what he was doing.
Vader was walking towards him, even as Obi-Wan himself walked towards Vader. They would meet in the middle of the hangar, but neither seemed in any great hurry. Obi-Wan knew that Vader had been looking for him, to get rid of him once and for all, and most likely did not want to rush the moment, secure in his sense of victory.
But although Obi-Wan knew that his skills might be no match for Vader's, he was not willing to give up yet. He fought for Leia, for Padme, for Luke – for his protectees, for his former Padawan's family, for the future of the galaxy.
It was then that Obi-Wan realized what probably should have been apparent to him for a long time. He, the perfect Jedi knight, who had warned Qui-Gon about breaking the Code, who had lectured Anakin so many times on staying unattached - he had himself become attached.
I'm fighting for my … family, Obi-Wan thought, with a slight trace of wonder.
He smiled, a little inscrutable smile. Vader didn't stand a chance.
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The bad thing about hiding on a fighter, at least the kind of fighter Leia was on, was that you couldn't see behind you.
She stared at the blank wall in front of her and wished for the seventeenth time that she could see what was going on in the hangar. She just knew that there was something important happening, and all she could see was the stupid wall!
She twisted around in the big pilot's seat, and got up on her knees. The clear plastic retractable roof thing was still too high to see out of, so she braced herself on some lever and somehow managed to get herself on eye-level with the glass.
Oh, wonderful. Now she could see the wall on the other side of the hangar, and part of the ceiling. No matter how she tried, she couldn't get the right angle to see the hangar floor in between.
She plopped down on the pilot's chair again, scraping her arm on something in the process.
"Ouch." She stared at the blood on her arm. She felt like she was going to cry.
"I am not going to cry." She stamped her little foot on the floor and rearranged her features in an attempt to look fierce. "I will find a way to see, and then I will know when Obi-Wan comes to get me, and then we will go home."
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Today will be a day to remember. Obi-Wan will fall, and the last vestiges of my past will be eliminated. I will defeat both Obi-Wan and all that remains of Anakin Skywalker, my past. Then I will find Obi-Wan's precious Padawans and destroy them too.
Yes, today will be a day long remembered, the consummation of everything that Darth Vader is, and everything that Darth Vader stands for. None alive will remember that Darth Vader was once Anakin Skywalker.
You don't stand a chance, old man.
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Han pressed his nose to the window and held tightly to the windowsill, entranced. Darth Vader and another dude were moving slowly towards each other, weird lightswords on. They were talking to each other, but Han couldn't hear them. It didn't matter – he had a front-row seat on what looked like it was going to be a good fight.
"Boy, come away from there. You want to get us all killed?" His master was huddled on the floor across the room. As soon as he'd seen the men, he'd collapsed into a terrified puddle, and refused to move.
"They're not paying us any attention," Han replied. He knew his master wouldn't dare to come over and forcibly pull him away from the window. "I wanna watch."
His master didn't press the question any longer. He simply curled up more tightly and continued mumbling. All Han could make out were a couple of words – "Sith" and "Jedi". Now Sith, considering his master's frame of mind, was a perfectly legitimate word to mumble (although Han thought it a bit mild; he'd have used one of the stronger Hutt epithets, himself). But "Jedi", that's one he'd never heard.
Ah, well. He shrugged his shoulders. So his master knew a swear word he'd never heard before. So what? He turned his full attention back to the fighters. Now they were circling, but neither had made a move, and they seemed to be still talking.
"Wish they'd get to the fight already," Han mumbled to himself.
His master moaned.
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A/N: Thanks for reviewing, guys! I know it's a busy time, with the holidays and all. Thanks for sticking with my story!
SoloKenobi: Thanks! I hope your trip goes great and you find Internet. :)
Rose-Arwen-Padme: Thanks, as always. As for Padme - well, we'll see. ;)
To my new readers (The End, Ashley, and omegajewel): Welcome! I hope you enjoy my story, and thanks for your comments! It's great when people take the time to review.
To everybody: If you have any ideas, or suggestions, or typos that you saw, or anything, let me know. Rose-Arwen-Padme's call for a Padme-Vader confrontation really helped me decide how the end was going to, well, end up. So review and let me know!
Thanks! - Kaitie