Betrayal

I stand on the Tatooinian rock outside the small hut I now have to call 'home'. Over in the East, the second sun is setting, bathing everything on a deep orange. It is the only claim the planet has to natural beauty. I sigh. With the Clone Wars taking up every second of my time recently, I have seen so little beauty.

The clones. I remember them well- soldiers commissioned by a mysterious person for the Republic. I remember seeing the embryos on Kamino, their identical peers in the classrooms, eating hall and training area. I remember Cody, my friend and companion. The man I had to kill.

I keep telling myself it wasn't my fault- Palpatine ordered the clones to kill the Jedi- but somehow, it never worked. I feel I betrayed Cody just as Anakin had betrayed me. And Padmé.

Poor Padmé. Living a lie. Marrying a Jedi Knight. A Jedi who had chocked her and flung her against a wall in his rage. A Jedi I trained. But she had still loved him. It was heartbreaking to watch her die, an assumed widow and mother-of-two. It was just as heartbreaking to tell her Anakin had been killed.

Anakin. I don't know whether I have betrayed Anakin or Anakin has betrayed me, like he betrayed so many others. Family. Friends. Friends like Iseila.

Iseila Palon and my apprentice were very close, despite the large age gap. She had been a great comfort to Anakin after his mother Shmi had died. She was ten years younger than Anakin, but her red albino eyes saw too much in her short life. At the mere age of eleven, she had cradled her dying mistress in her arms on Geonosis. Perhaps that was why she had been so careful with life. Why she had given her own 14-year-old life to save the younglings from Anakin. When I was at the temple that fateful day, I saw Anakin cutting her down as she stood between the younglings and my apprentice. My apprentice who had destroyed all he had once stood for and more.

Anakin had loved Padmé- enough to risk expulsion from the Order to marry her. I silently curse myself. Why didn't I tell anyone about the love that had blossomed between the two of them? Perhaps I had thought the council would be able to guess and work it out for themselves. After all, the clues had been obvious- the fleeting glances, the teasing words from Anakin. It had been almost as obvious as the lies Palpatine had been feeding into him.

Palpatine. If Jedi were allowed to hate, I would hate the new 'Emperor' more than anything. Thanks to Palpatine, the galaxy is now in uproar. Thanks to Palpatine, millions of beings- civilians and Jedi alike- are dead. Thanks to Palpatine, Anakin was dead. Thanks to Palpatine, a black monster is hunting down all that remains of the Jedi Order. A black monster that was Anakin Skywalker, once upon a time.

I shake my head. Vader cannot be Anakin. Vader was the exact opposite of my funny, cocky young apprentice who had been a Galaxy hero. The apprentice who broke almost every rule in the Jedi book by marrying Padmé and becoming a father.

A father. The son was the reason why I am here. And one day, the son will kill the father (not father, monster) and bring peace and order back to the Galaxy. Luke meant light. It is a good name for him. I shut my eyes. At least there is hope.

That reminds me of Padmé too. In her last moments, I talked to Padmé, trying to keep her alive by reassurance. What did I say again? It seems like an aeon ago, although it, in reality, has only been a week.

"There is always hope." That was what I said. And she had replied- even though it had been an immense effort for her.

"I gave all my hope to others. I kept none for myself."

I knew who the 'others' were. Me and Anakin, my padawan in particular. He had been in love with her since he was nine. When she had died, I had felt a scream rip through the Force. The voice had been alien, unrecognisable and yet eerily familiar. I later found it had been Anakin, or Vader as he is now called. New names for master and apprentice. Vader and Ben- for Ben is what I shall be called now. With another sigh, I force my tired feet to carry me indoors.

20 years later.

Kenobi and Vader duelled fiercely. An old man against a black monster. Obi-Wan was reminded of an ancient legend- a maze full of death guarded by a half-man, half monster, an evil creature who was slain by a young man. The maze was the Death Star. The creature was Vader. The young man was Luke. Obi-Wan wondered who he was.

They continued to duel.

Soon, they were in the hangar. Out of the corner of his eye, Kenobi saw stormtroopers rushing to them. He didn't care about them. He only cared about the three figures making a dash for the Millennium Falcon. It took a moment to realise what he had to do.

He looked Vader squarely in the face for the last time, then shut his eyes and raised his lightsaber. The last thing he heard was an anguished "NOOOOOOOO!" before the Force claimed him.

There was another character in the legend of the maze. An old man sacrificed his life so that the young man could fulfil his destiny. Obi-Wan Kenobi was the old man.