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Author's note: This was just a random bunny that bit! I've tried to leave it open to interpreation so I hope it isn't too confusing.

Demons

Obi-Wan Kenobi woke with a confused start. Sitting up, he looked around the bedroom of his small house. Darkness was all that met his eyes. Utter and complete darkness. Something wasn't right. He had thought he had heard…

"Master?" he called into the darkness. Silence was all he heard—was all he felt. It was pressing in upon him, much like the darkness. But there it was again! A faint murmuring off to his right, by the window. Quickly he gathered the Force about him and reached for his lightsaber. He ignited it, holding it in as much of a ready stance as he could in his current position. No, something definitely did not feel right. Perhaps, he thought after several more moments of silence, it was just some Tusken Raiders. They had been coming a bit close lately. And then he heard it: A low, harsh whisper.

"Obi-Wan," it called.

"Qui-Gon, is that you?" Obi-Wan said, uncertainly. Yet he knew that is wasn't. He would have felt his old master's presence, he was sure. He felt the Dark side of the Force pulse uncomfortably and he immediately sprang into a kneeling position, holding his lightsaber steady. As his eyes slowly adjusting to the dark, he saw it. Something was there. Its Force signature…was so familiar. Like something from a dream that he had once had but could not quite grasp…no—a nightmare.

"Who's there?" he called into the darkness. All he could see was a shadowy form, unmoving. And yet it seemed to…breathe? Obi-Wan sensed this rather than actually feeling it, and it made him shudder uncomfortably.

"Obi-Wan!" the shadowy figure called again.

"What do you want?" he replied, holding his lightsaber firmly.

"Why, Obi-Wan?" It's harsh tone having been replaced with a pleading whisper. Listening closely to the shadow's voice, it seemed familiar as well. A man's voice with what sounded like a slightly Coruscanti accent. The name was at the tip of his tongue…and yet so far away.

"Why?" Obi-Wan asked, confused.

"Why weren't you enough?" was the only reply. The tone reminded him of a small child he had once known at the Jedi temple. He had innocently asked Obi-Wan if he thought perhaps Anakin might take a Padawan. The child could not have been more than six standard years, but Obi-Wan found his behavior reminiscent of his own at that about age. So eager to please, so eager to become a Padawan. But he pulled himself out of these thoughts and lowered his lightsaber slightly, puzzled.

"Enough? For what?" he asked gently.

"For them. For any of them," the shadow whispered, almost conspiratorially. "The Masters."

"I wasn't good enough?" Obi-Wan bristled. "Who are you?"

"You know me," it replied, it's tone harsher now. Obi-Wan was thrown off but this new tone of voice. He had almost recognized it and then it seemed to change.

"You weren't good enough. You were clumsy and angry. They didn't want you."

"What are you talking about?" Obi-Wan called, trying to bait the shadow to speak again. He just needed to hear the voice one more time.

"Even your own Master didn't want you," Blast! He had thought he knew that voice. He wasn't even sure about the accent anymore. Why did it sound so familiar and at the same time, not so? "He took you out of pity. But you didn't even live up to his "failure" of an apprentice. So I ask again: Why weren't you good enough?"

"I was young. I made mistakes. I have learned from them, and my Master knew that."

"Did he, Obi-Wan?" the shadow replied, pityingly. "Or did you just convince yourself that he did? He didn't really want you. He wanted Anakin. Just a plain Padawan like you wouldn't do. He wanted The Chosen One."

"Qui-Gon was trying to do what he felt was right," said Obi-Wan. Now he was upset. What was this thing, this creature that had broken into his home and was baiting him to anger? A Jedi shall not know anger.

"And how did you repay him?" the shadow's tone became sharper than before. "You stood by and watched him die!"

"No!" Obi-Wan cried helplessly. "There was nothing I could do! I have accepted that."

"And then you killed the Sith. You acted against everything your Master had taught you. 'Let go of your anger, a Jedi does not seek revenge.' And you received glory for it. The first Jedi to kill a Sith in over a 1,000 years. Do you think your master was proud?"

"I have learned," Obi-Wan said, more to himself than to the shadow, "I am wiser now. I have learned from my mistakes and I move on." Nor hatred.

"And yet you made the same mistake. You didn't save her either. You couldn't. You were too weak. She trusted you."

"Why are you saying this?" Obi-Wan pleaded. "I couldn't save either of them, I know. Must you open a healed wound all over again."

"This wound is not healed, Obi-Wan," the shadow seemed to move now, seemed to get larger. "If it were healed, you would not have made the same mistake."

"No," Obi-Wan practically shouted. "Do not say it. I beg of you, do not say it." Nor fear.

"You failed them all, Obi-Wan. In your arrogance you thought that you were strong enough to help him."

"You know nothing!" Obi-Wan cried, his heart racing.

"You knew his weaknesses, and you ignored them. You did not listen to your feelings. You trusted in your head. You made the same mistake your Master made. You let your feelings get in the way. You taught Anakin to do the same. How many times had Qui-Gon told you to listen to the Force?" He knew these words only too well. How many times had they run through his head, keeping him awake late at night?

"You failed him. You failed them all. Why weren't you good enough?"

"I loved him! He was my brother, my very kin! I would have died for him if it could have saved him." The Jedi cried, holding back a sob. There is no emotion.

"And yet," the shadow whispered softly, almost consolingly. "You could not do it. And you could not save him."

"I'm only a Jedi…" he said as he deactivated his lightsaber. Holding his head in his hands he let out a strangled sob.

"Why weren't you enough?" the shadow asked once more. Obi-Wan's head shot up. He knew that voice. He knew that voice so well. Almost better then he knew his own. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he realized his folly. But his thoughts were interrupted when the shadow spoke once more.

"Why can't you save me?" it's voice shaking. Before Obi-Wan had time to respond, the silence with filled with the most haunting sound Obi-Wan had ever heard. It ripped at his heart.

The wind howled wildly and the sand flew about him, but Obi-Wan did not care. Anything to try and block out that noise. He had woken up that morning, not entirely sure if he had had a nightmare, a vision, or if the events of the night before were real. All he knew was that he would never be able to forget that sound. That eerie, haunting sound. It had not taken him long to recognize it when he first heard it. How many time had he heard it when he had comforted his young Padawan when he had had a nightmare. Dreams pass it time, he had always told him. But the memory of them, he realized, does not. No, he would never forget that sound. When the darkness wept.

THE END

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