I amSO sorry that I neglected to update this for so long!! Life has been really crazy with a lot of school stuff; everything from exams to term papers to being erroneously accused of plagiarism on one of my papers. Pretty exhausting, lol. But it's all done now and sorted out for the best, and thus, I update.
Since this chapter is so short, I'll be putting up the last one tomorrow afternoon or evening. Hope you enjoy them!
Chapter 8
Obi-Wan breathed out heavily, his heart a leaden weight in his chest. He had thought himself beyond feeling, beyond pain. How foolish of him. Where Anakin was concerned, he had always felt too strongly.
The rain that fell around him was a cascade of embers, singeing his robes and searing his eyes with harsh lights. Thunder rumbled overhead, an electrical storm that ripped through the heavy clouds that shrouded Mustafar.
But the tempest above was nothing compared to the storm that raged between the two men on the planet's surface.
Anakin's face was twisted in rage as he struck again and again with his lightsabre, blows that were clumsily blocked by Obi-Wan. Every shock through his arm from the blades meeting resonated against the Jedi Master's heart. He didn't want to be here, he didn't want to be doing this. This was Anakin he was fighting, the boy he had trained, the man that he still loved more than anything. It wasn't right.
But the Force that flowed through him and between them told Obi-Wan a different story. He could feel that the Anakin he had loved was gone, that only a twisted reflection of his former apprentice remained. It was a truth that he didn't want to accept, no matter what his rational mind told him. His heart refused to believe it, the part of him that still yearned for Anakin's caress.
He wouldn't be able to kill Anakin, no matter what his former apprentice had become. Obi-Wan simply loved him too much.
So he let go, surrendering himself to the will of the Force. He separated himself from conscious thought, allowing the raw power of the Force to fill him and control his actions. It was the only way he could fulfil his duty as a Jedi.
Obi-Wan had never hated being a Jedi before.
Anakin reached out to him, screaming as the flames began to consume his body. Obi-Wan met those hate-reddened eyes and felt the last hope that he could somehow save Anakin finally die. His apprentice was finally dead, the man he loved replaced by a monster.
"I loved you!" he screamed, knowing that the words had come far too late. He should have told Anakin before, that night that they had stood together in the rain. He had prayed that night that he wouldn't lose the man he loved.
His prayers had not been answered. The storm had torn them both apart.
"I hate you!" Anakin screamed behind him, the words piercing Obi-Wan's heart. He hated himself as well; he had failed his former Padawan completely.
Obi-Wan called Anakin's lightsabre into his hand, and turned away slowly. His eyes burned, but there were no more tears left. Though a rain of fire fell around him, Obi-Wan's heart was as cold and frozen as the ice plains of Hoth, shrouded in eternal winter.
He doubted he would feel anything again.