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Thank you Happyeastuh for the reviews! Happy easter to you too.

OK, chapter four is up. Obi-Wan confronts Anakin. This was origionally chapters 4 and 5, but . . . I dunno . . . I stuck them together! Thus, it's long. Live with it. (LWI)

Chapter Four

Traitor.

Obi-Wan leaped off the pilot, the carnage in the house, and the other homes raided by the Imperial Army - and Anakin? - fresh in his mind. Horribly fresh. Landing heavily upon the hot dirt of Mustafar, the fiery planet where Yoda had located Anakin, he set off at a steady pace, lightsaber in hand.

If Anakin had betrayed the Jedi, the Council, him himself, then Anakin would die. His death had been ordered of what was left of the Jedi Council, now in hiding: the death of a traitor.

And if Anakin was guilty of the murder of innocent children, the death of a killer.

Stalking into one of the iron buildings, he searched for his padawan, his anger towards Anakin growing with each step. Why had Anakin turned to the Dark Side? Why had Anakin, his padawan, almost like his son, turned against him, and the Council? The light Force?

Why, padawan?

A part of the Jedi Master wanted to deny Anakin's crimes, find some way to prove Anakin innocent, if indeed he was. Another part accepted what he knew, in his heart, to be true.

Anakin was a Sith.

A killer, a murderer of woman, men, children. Infants and elderly.

He knew that Anakin was now shrouded in black.

"A Sith?" her eyes opened wide in horror. "No, that can't be true . . . you've made a mistake, Anakin would never-"

"He killed a third of the Jedi!" Mace screamed at her. "I knew that kid couldn't be trusted, I knew it!"

Padme's eyes filled with tears. Swallowing, she stared at him, speechless.

"I am sorry, lady." Mace bowed, then left. Obi-Wan was left alone with the sceneter.

"It is true." she whispered. "I know it is true . . . I have seen the . . . the . . . monster . . . that used to be Anakin . . . my Anakin . . . " tears streaked down her cheeks. "Forgive me, I didn't want to believe . . . but why?"

"It was Palpatine, with his lies and promises of power." Obi-Wan told her with cold anger. "Anakin is a Sith: one of the Dark Side."

Her head bowed under the weight of his damning words. "I love him." was all she could whisper.

"I am trying to track him down."

She lifted her head and regarded him with haunted eyes. "Will you kill him?"

Obi-Wan stared her in the eye. "Anakin is no longer Anakin, but a Sith: a monster. An empty shadow of a man. Yes, I will kill him. He has betrayed the Jedi, the Force: me, you! This monster deserves death."

She nodded, then guestured. "Please . . . leave."

He bowed his head. "I am sorry, lady. Truly, I am sorry. Were it all one big mistake, were Anakin still Anakin!"

"Maybe he is. Deep down, maybe his is." her broken heart clung to the last shred of hope. He wavered, unwilling to tear that away from her. "Maybe, lady. Maybe. We can hope." bowing, he exited, but lingered in the doorway. He turned to watch Padme. She had turned to the window and was staring out, one hand resting on her large belly. "Why, Anakin?" she lamented. "Where are you?" alone, she let her tears fall, and sobbed for her lost Angel.

He turned, tears trailing down his own cheeks, to leave.

Only a month later, Padme died.

Now all that was left was to find Anakin and hear him. Then deliver the killing thrust without anger, without malice. It would be clean, an honor to the innocent child his padawan - his ex-padawan - had once been.

Once.

"I will find you, padawan." murmered Obi-Wan, moving quicker, his hand tightening around his lightsaber.

The search was fruitless, yielding no information, and no padawan. No, ex-padawan.

Over and over he bent, trekked, ran, search the barren ruins and hills and cliffsof Mustafar, looking for Anakin. Over and over he grimly looked, and found no hint of the traitor.

Then . . .

"Ah." sighed Obi-Wan, as he quickly ducked behind a corner. His eyes fastened on a black ship, guarded by troops.

It was freshly landed, only an hour or so ago. And, by the signs, it was meaning to take off soon.

Anakin, the traitor, would be nearby.

Moving quietly, he noticed a building, bigger than the ruins he had seen, and more intact. This must be where his padawan was.

He entered a side door, and, sticking to the wall, hurried swiftly through the corridors, looking for a sign of Skywalker. He noticed a faint trail of footsteps in the fine dust that covered the foor: Anakin's footprints. He moved faster.

Down a curving corridor, and then-

He halted abruptly, staring. He had come to the part of the building that met the lava. Curving in a balcony that housed one thin rail, he stared.

There was a hooded figure, standing at the rail, looking over the lava.


Anakin knew someone was there. He had been expecting Obi-Wan, but not so quickly: but it made no difference. None at all.

"Obi-Wan." he stated as the white-clothed Master approached him.

"Padawan." was the reply.

"You have come to kill me." the statment was cold and indifferent, as if it did not matter.

"Yes."

Obi-Wan had been prepared to kill Anakin. But as he looked at the robed figure, he found a bit of himself balking at the thought.

"Anakin." his voice broke the silence. "Padawan. Take off that hood, Padawan, and look in the mirror. What have you become? A Sith. Evil. Black. Take off that hood, padawan, and look me in the eye!"

Anakin stared at the lava. Here was Obi-Wan, the master that had held Anakin back for so many years. The man who had prevented his full petential, and had, in effect, prevented him from gaining the power to keep his Angel, and maybe even his mother, Shmi, from dying.

And yet the man who had been almost like a father to him, the man who had taught him the ways of the Force.

Slowly, he raised his hands - one mechanical, one flesh and blood - and lowered his hood. Turning, he stared his Master in the eye.

Obi-Wan's soul recoiled at the sight of Anakin's face. Once expressionate, passionate, warm, handsome: nowexpressionless, passionless, cold, ugly.What, however, stabbed so profoundly at Obi-Wan's heart washis padawan's eyes: cold.Hard. Empty.

Dark.

For several minutes, Anakin an Obi-Wan staredat eachother, Obi-Wan with cold anger and horror, Anakin with no emotion at all. Then, Obi-Wan spoke.

"You. You betrayed us. You betrayed us all."

This brought no answer at all from the former Jedi.

"The Council:" Obi-Wan continued. "your wife, Padme! Me!"

Anakin turned from his former master and stared out at the lava.

"Why?" Obi-Wan pressed desperately. "Why, Anakin? Why did you turn on us all? Why?"

"You cannot know." Anakin answered in a flat, emotionless voice that sent a shiver down Obi-Wan's spine and brought a surge of anger to flood his gut. He continued to stare out at the lava, unblinking.

"For power?" Obi-Wan spat the word out.

"Partly."

Obi-Wan stared at this wraith of a man, than drew and activated his lightsaber. "You admit you are guilty of these crimes?"

Anakin slowly lifted his hand and loosened the ties of his cloak. It fell to his feet, crumpling around his booted ankles.

"Answer me, traitor!"

Anakin drew his saber.

"Well?"

The weapon hissed as it activated.

"You are guilty, padawan!" Obi-Wan's voice hardened. "I have no choice but to deliver justice."

Anakin laughed.

It was cold, hard, mirthless laughter, and it chilled Obi-Wan's blood. Anger flared in his soul. "Very well."

Up came his saber.

Anakin's was there to block it. Both weapons hissed in protest as they clashed together, brother against brother.

"So." Anakin, no longer laughing - if it could be called a laugh- hissed, his eyes flaring suddenly with a black anger. "It has come to this. Very well."

Suddenly, quickly, his hand snapped away and slashed at Obi-Wan's chest. Obi-Wan parried it away, and advanced towards the waiting Sith.

"Come, traitor. Let us finish this now. Justice will prevail."

"Justice." spat Anakin. His dark eyes narrowed, burning with hatred and anger. Forget good and evil. Forget master and apprentice. Forget the past, and fututre be damned. This was the man who had held him back, who had limited him out of jealousy, who had left him when he had been needed most.

This was the man who had, in effect, insured his Angel's death. Yet Anakin was responsible for the threat of death to his Angel.

If Anakin killed Obi-Wan, he would partly avenge his Angel. If Obi-Wan killed Anakin, he would partly avenge Padme.

If they both died, now, slain by eachother's hand, then they would both avenge his Padme, his Angel, in full.

So be it.

Up slashed the lightsaber.


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