A Single Thread
Part I: A New Hope
Act IV
Everything was going according to plan.
All of the pieces were now falling swiftly into place, and soon the dejarik game would be over and his.
From a young age, he had shown a remarkable aptitude for strategy, and, he was willing to concede in the privacy of the shadowed corners of his mind, his Jedi training had nurtured that skill.
It was everything else inside of him that the Order had tried to kill.
But that was of little importance anymore, he had brought the Jedi to their knees and showed them the true power of the Force, what it meant to master that power instead of allowing oneself to be mastered by it. The Jedi were gone now, they could not hurt him further or take anything more from him.
He had seen to that.
Once the Jedi had numbered in the tens of thousands, once they had been a force to be reckoned with, a great power in the galaxy, but that was long ago.
Now the Jedi had all died out, save for one.
Turning his focus back to the man seated before him at the long, black table, Darth Vader stared hard at Governor Wilhuff Tarkin for a long moment, pondering whether or not the man's usefulness had yet to fade. The large, dim office was meant to inspire fear and intimidation in all those who entered, and perhaps it did just that to lesser man, but Vader found the decor amusing at best.
In truth, there was very little that could frighten him anymore.
"He is here," Vader declared evenly, watching Tarkin closely for the man's reaction, and he was not disappointed.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Tarkin replied, looking up with a startled, and somewhat apprehensive expression. "What makes you think so?"
"A tremor in the Force," Vader answered vaguely, and beneath his mask a small, bitter smile tugged onto his scarred lips. "The last time I felt it was in the presence of my old Master."
"Surely he must be dead by now," Tarkin protested as he rose from his chair, and it was clear that the man desperately wanted Vader to agree with him.
The idea of a Jedi on the loose, especially one who had once been among the most respected and renowned Masters in the Order, was quite alarming from an Imperial perspective. Vader could sense the churning mess of fear and anxiety stirring within Tarkin, and he almost chuckled despite himself.
Whether Tarkin knew it or not, he had much more to fear than Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Gloved fingers flexed of their own accord at his belt, itching to squeeze the man's throat until it crushed itself under the power of the Force.
Patience, he reminded himself coolly. The time for that will come soon enough.
"Don't underestimate the power of the Force," Vader told him lowly, and a wiser man would have heard the undercurrent of warning in his tone.
"The Jedi are extinct," Tarkin argued pompously, and the comm-unit installed into the table chirped, alerting an incoming message from somewhere within the looming battlestation. "Their fire has gone out of the universe."
As if Vader needed to be told that, when he was the one who had snuffed out the once brilliant flame.
"You, my friend," Tarkin said with a tight smile as he moved to the comm-unit. "Are all that's left of their religion."
Something inside of Vader stiffened at those words, and he glared at Tarkin from behind the mask. The insinuation, whether it was intentional or not, that he was the remnant of the Jedi Order, something born out of the ashes of the Jedi, unsettled him deeply.
The Jedi in him had been murdered a lifetime ago.
"Yes?" Tarkin called into the comm-unit.
"We have an emergency alert in Detention Block AA-23," a security officer's announcement filled the room from the hidden speakers inserted into the surface of the table.
"The princess?" Tarkin concluded grimly. "Put all sections on alert."
Vader waited for the Governor to cut the comm-link, inwardly taking great enjoyment from the sudden ashen hue of the man's face, before speaking. "Obi-Wan is here," he reiterated smugly. "The Force is with him."
"If you're right," Tarkin replied shakily. "He must not be allowed to escape."
"Escape is not his plan," Vader assured him evenly, and a gloved hand moved to the hilt of his lightsaber at his side. "I must face him," he paused to fix Tarkin with a hard look. "Alone."
Without waiting for a response, the Sith Lord turned and strode out of the room, his cloak fluttering behind him, and started down the durasteel corridor in the direction of the detention center. He dared not reach out to Leia with his former Master so close in proximity, but he contented himself with looking inward with the Force, and sensing that she was on the move.
He would have to trust that Obi-Wan's friends would get her safely away from the Death Star, and that if anything came up Leia would be able to handle the situation on her own.
She was, after all, his daughter.
And the Force was strong with her, which was a reassurance he was grateful to have after seeing the scrapheap of a ship that Obi-Wan had come here on. The battered freighter was of Corellian design, a YT-1300 if his guess was right, which he was certain it was, there wasn't a ship in the galaxy that he couldn't figure out in a matter of minutes.
"Don't ask me how he does it, ships just love my Padawan."
Vader shook his head lightly, banishing the ghosts of another life from his mind.
Closing his eyes behind his mask for a moment, he let the stillness of the Force wash over him. He did not seek out the presence he was looking for, instead he merely listened, waited, and the presence was revealed to him soon enough, a distant and hushed whisper.
Before, he had gotten a faint whiff of it, but now it was a bright beacon, bidding him closer, drawing him in like familiar laughter that he had not heard in many long years.
He started walking again before he even opened his eyes, letting the Force guide his footsteps.
As he made his way towards the hangar bay, Vader forced his mind to become a blank slate, a calm pool of water, and did not permit memories to surface, even as they stirred more with every step he took. The closer he drew to the hangar, the more keenly he felt Obi-Wan's presence, and a shameful part of him, a small sliver that he stifled and stomped down deep into the shadows, ached at sensing the familiar presence so close, and yet so terribly far.
It was the one presence that he could never forget; it had been with him since boyhood, the single constant in a life of loss and loneliness. Once, the feel of that presence nearby would have filled him with utter relief and warmth, giving him strength and purpose, but that was a different life.
Now, he just felt numb.
"You will be a Jedi, I promise you."
He had been a fool once, to believe the promises of the Jedi, especially those of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
In the end, his former Master had shown his true colors and betrayed him. Their last meeting had been fierce and full of rage, rage which had caused him to make a fatal mistake and allow Obi-Wan to walk away from their duel while he had to crawl up out of the molten fire, little more than a whisper of life. If not for Palpatine, he would have died there that day, which had been Obi-Wan's intention.
The Jedi Master had come to Mufustar to kill him, but he had failed.
Today, Vader would ensure that their rematch had decidedly different results, and only one of them would emerge from this confrontation alive.
He came to a halt just a turn away from the hangar bay, pausing in the middle of the archway, and was momentarily startled to find his lightsaber already ignited in his hand. Had he removed it from his belt and turned it on, without realizing it while he was deep in thought?
A stirring in his mind caused him to lift his head, and he felt Obi-Wan drawing near.
"Never rush into a fight, Anakin. Be patient, peaceful, and let the fight come to you".
Emerging from the foggy memory, a hooded figure cautiously moved into sight at the other end of the corridor, an unlit lightsaber in hand, moving much slower than Vader would have expected, and paused at the sight of the towering Sith Lord looming ahead of him.
The man staring back at him was not the Obi-Wan Kenobi that Vader remembered.
This was not the young Master who had frantically buckled his crash-webbing the moment he got into a speeder with his Padawan, nor the somber Jedi Master who had confronted him on Mufustar, but an older, wearier version.
His tunic was long and faded, speckled with dirt and grime, and the dark brown robe he wore over it was tattered and dingy, the edges fraying with age.
A tanned face, older and distinctly sadder than he recalled, looked out at him beneath the flimsy hood, and a tuft of white, thinning hair was visible to match the short, wispy beard that adorned the sharp chin.
The once proud, regal looking Jedi Master had been reduced to a weak, dusty old beggar.
For some reason, that struck Vader as profoundly wrong, but he could not for the life of him explain why he would feel such a thing.
"The life of a Jedi is a simple one, young Padawan."
Simple indeed.
Moving forward purposefully, Vader kept his eyes trained on the face of his former Master, his lightsaber held low, and as he drew closer, the unlit lightsaber in Obi-Wan's hand flickered to life, pointed directly at Vader, but Obi-Wan did not make any move to act.
"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan," Vader said smoothly as he came to a halt in front of him. "We meet again at last."
Obi-Wan did not reply, shifting his weight slightly as he eyed the Sith Lord warily, both hands wrapping around the hilt of his lightsaber as he moved into a faint echo of a dueling position.
"The circle is now complete," Vader declared, bringing his own lightsaber up to mirror Obi-Wan's. "When last we met, I was but the learner. Now I am the Master."
"Only a Master of evil, Darth," Obi-Wan replied softly, with haunting regret in his blue-gray eyes.
Am I supposed to start addressing you as 'Darth' now, then? Anakin, come to your senses, before it's too late!
Echoes of the past stirring in his ears, Vader allowed Obi-Wan to make the first strike, and when the old man swung his blue blade to the left, he brought his own red one up to meet it. Obi-Wan twisted his wrists, attempting to push Vader's blade down, but Vader swiftly cut it around and over.
And their blades clashed again and again.