Title: Anakin Watched
Rating: PG
Pairing: Obi-Wan/Anakin Skywalker
Summary: Anakin watches, over the span of almost three decades.
Author's Note: No, I don't have some rabid dislike for Padme. I
just happen to like slash more, and this particular plot-bunny
refused to stop hopping after me. Beta'd as per usual by the lovely Teza.
Anakin
Skywalker watched Obi-Wan Kenobi's face when he told Anakin he'd
loved him like a brother, in the last moment
before the lava engulfed
the newest Lord of the Sith. The Jedi Master's expression held far
more than brotherly love. Anakin
pondered this briefly: Obi-Wan loved
him, but Obi-Wan would not save him. Darth Vader took over then and
screamed his
hatred at Obi-Wan before he fell to fiery oblivion.
Darth
Vader watched Leia Organa glare defiantly, and something about her
face hinted at a memory just beyond his reach.
Two pairs of eyes
stared at him through the years, both loving, both desperate, and
both shadowed with heart-break. He
almost shook his head to clear
it, but he caught himself: Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, was not
bothered by insignificant
memories and emotions.
Obi-Wan
Kenobi was old. It surprised Darth Vader, even shocked him. As he
taunted the old man who had replaced his
former master, Darth Vader
recognized the faint current of desperation in Obi-Wan's expression
from memories of years past:
a desperation overshadowed by the grim
determination to either return his former Padawan to the Light or
fight him. Darth
Vader watched Obi-Wan's gaze flicker towards the
hanger door before focusing on him again; he watched Obi-Wan's faint
smile when the man held up his lightsaber and accepted his own death.
Darth
Vader watched the boy--the man--in front of him and wondered why he
hadn't seen the resemblance before: Luke
Skywalker was almost a
carbon copy of Anakin Skywalker, from the sandy blond hair to the
skin still tan from countless years
on Tatooine. He regretted
cutting off the boy's hand, but he did not regret telling Luke what
Obi-Wan would not: Luke was his
son. Before Luke fell, Darth Vader
saw his son's desperation, so very much like another's ages ago.
Anakin
Skywalker watched Emperor Palpatine fall and let the residual dark
side energy wash over his black prison; he felt Luke pull him back
from following, the younger Skywalker holding Anakin until both
mustered enough strength to move
towards the shuttle-bay. Memories,
light and dark alike, flooded in: it seemed impossible that he could
have missed the
reflection of Padme's strength and determination in
Leia Organa Skywalker's delicate features, a mirror image of the
mother
she never knew. Anakin watched Luke through his own eyes,
content to take this last memory into death.
Anakin
Skywalker watched Luke and Leia reunite, trying to conceal his
disbelief every time he looked down and saw his body
as it had been,
strong and unscarred; he turned his head and saw Yoda, saw the
satisfaction on the ancient Jedi's face, and
beyond him Obi-Wan,
still shockingly old but proud of Luke and proud of Anakin.
Luke
faded. Their surroundings faded. Anakin watched as a new reality
replaced the trees and huts of Endor. He saw faces he
knew, people
he had known, their expressions full now of approval. He felt more
than saw the figure that wrapped her arms
around him, and was
surprised by how solid she felt. Padme: the woman he had loved and
married, the woman he had
betrayed and murdered, and
the woman he hadn't loved as well as she deserved.
"I
knew there was good in you, Ani. I watched our children, and I knew
one of them would save you." He
had to turn away
from the brilliant honesty in her gaze; he had to
look down, away from that knowing look. "Anakin.
It's over. You're here. Go
to him." She released him and
turned to look at someone.
Anakin
wanted to protest, wanted to point out that the Obi-Wan he'd
loved--still loved?--was gone, but he followed her gaze
and saw the
man again. Obi-Wan wasn't the old man he'd been when he'd died;
Anakin realized he'd taken that form because
Luke had known him like
that. This Obi-Wan was younger, the way Anakin remembered him before
their last battle, but the
lines of age and worry were gone. He
stepped forward when Anakin did, and they met somewhere in the
middle, hugging one
another tightly. The embrace echoed what Anakin
had seen and realized before the lava had taken him.
"Welcome home, Anakin," Obi-Wan whispered, and leaned back to kiss him tenderly on the forehead.
