Chapter 19

Part Two

This was it. Obi-Wan saw what was happening—he knew how to take it in his hands. He knew how to handle it.

He knew how to deal with it.

His stark blue lightsaber ignited, the snap hiss louder than ever. The brilliant blue bar of light reflected over Obi-Wan's face, and soon Anakin's. His old padawan didn't flinch, he just stared up at Obi-Wan with big, blue eyes.

He was frightened.

Obi-Wan hadn't seen Anakin afraid of a lightsaber since he was put in the youngling class, when he picked up the weapon for the first time. He held the learner's weapon in front of him, very far away, and he watched as his wrist twirled it with very large blue eyes. He held the weapon so far away from him—and then Obi-Wan came to help him, coming from behind him to guide in him way…

"No!!"

A sandy blonde haired boy Obi-Wan knew too well entered the room, coming behind Obi-Wan like the Jedi Master did so many years ago. Except Luke wasn't helping Obi-Wan, he was—he was… saving Anakin?

Didn't he feel the same way Leia did?

Evidently…

"Don't do it," came the boy's small voice. "Don't kill him." He backed away from Anakin and Obi-Wan, letting Obi-Wan make his choice. Luke had a sneaking suspicion what it would be, as terrible as it was.

"Luke, take your sister," Anakin spat, underneath Obi-Wan's blade, "Take Leia and run away. Far away."

"But—"

"It doesn't matter," he told them, "Leave everything else behind while you still can."

Run away with me… leave everything else behind while we still can…

Luke backed away so he was standing next to a shaking Leia. He took her hand, and held it tight. He wished he could tell his sister that everything would be okay—that everything would be fine, that Obi-Wan would come to his senses…but Anakin wasn't positive that was what Leia wanted.

It didn't matter.

Anakin quivered, his mind flashing with images of his beloved. He couldn't get them out of his head, either. At the last moments of your death, aren't you supposed to see flashes of your past? Aren't you supposed to see the most important parts in you life? When nothing mattered?

"Master Kenobi!" Luke yelled, as if Obi-Wan couldn't hear him. "I know in years you're going to regret killing Anakin—"

Leia interrupted, "Just as you've regretted going abroad our mother's ship on the way to… um…"

"Mustafar."

She was finally seeing it. She was finally seeing the light to the Anakin/Obi-Wan ploy. Ben Kenobi was wrong at the point. Darth Vader had blood on his hands, but he washed it off—he now had his children, he killed the emperor. Everything was practically perfect…

Obi-Wan's green eyes widened upon hearing Luke and Leia work as a team—together—and it was almost like he had never seen two people work together so ornately before.

Wait—Kenobi and Skywalker were once a team. They were The Team. They were together once—they saw eye to eye, and worked together during the Clone Wars. Those four years were something Obi-Wan had tried to forget, and he didn't fail. He passed. He forgot about the good in Anakin… he way he was as a friend…

After saving your skin for the tenth time…

Ninth time!

He hadn't forgotten Padmé's last words, though. He hadn't taken them seriously until today, until he realized the truth behind them…

There's good in him… I know, I know… there… is… still…

The good in Anakin had reappeared by finding Luke and Leia.

"Listen to them, Obi-Wan," Anakin echoed, his hands relaxing for once after grasping the chair he was seated in ever so tightly. "For once, listen…"

"We're not leaving you, father," Luke said, "We're not going anywhere."

"Let him go, Kenobi," Leia growled. Luke flashed her a bravo kind of smile, but Leia couldn't find the guts inside of her to return it. "He's really Anakin Skywalker—not Darth Vader." There was a certain truth behind Leia, and she realized that she had been calling Anakin 'father', but she didn't mean it until now…

The brilliant blue bar of light that once reflected off of Anakin and Obi-Wan's faces was diminished, disappearing into the ornately crafted handle. The Jedi Master tossed it aside, and a soft smile broke from his face.

"Thank you," were the words that crossed Anakin's lips first.

Obi-Wan watched Anakin hop up from the chair, and rush over to the waiting arms of his small children, and his wrapped his arms around them and smiled serenely. The soft childish giggles of Leia and the silence of perfect from Luke were sounds that Obi-Wan had never heard before, and Obi-Wan felt a pang of regret, as he should—

Once Leia and Luke's excitement had left and they were brought into the picture of facing each other—Obi-Wan heard three words:

"I love you."

Obi-Wan waited outside on the veranda that overlooked the vast lake. He thought about how many leaves from the war that Anakin and Padmé had spent here, when Anakin was supposed to be, quote, 'meditating on the moons of Bogtá'.

It was a picture that Obi-Wan couldn't seem to place—Anakin and Padmé… as a couple. It always worked, really, but Obi-Wan couldn't picture it. Ever. Even when those blasted HoloNet reports of the Jedi's secret 'lovers' came in, there was a truth to some of them. 'Anakin is seen leaving Senator Amidala's apartment in the early morning…' and 'Senator Padmé Amidala and Knight Skywalker share an intimate rooftop dinner, complete with candles—could there be a kindling romance?'

Obi-Wan laughed, remembering a select few.

"Master Kenobi?" came a voice he knew all too well…

"How many times did I have to tell you to call me Obi-Wan after you became a Knight?"

Anakin smiled. "Maybe once more," he said. "I came to tell you two things—simple, I know… but… thank you." He looked down and shuffled his feet. "And—sorry."

He looked back up at Obi-Wan, "Thank you because you assisted Padmé—you were there for her when she needed to see a medic, and without you I—I don't think Luke and… Leia would… be here…"

He didn't want to think about that.

"And sorry—well, that covers a lot, doesn't?"

The two laughed. Wow, Obi-Wan couldn't think of the last time he and Anakin had laughed together, or that last time Obi-Wan had laughed alone.

Breaking the ice, "You know, Tatooine is a pretty desolate place…"

Anakin frowned. "I know… now you see why I wanted to leave so much," he said, "And Luke grew up there—I can't imagine… he was a farmer, I a slave. Different lives on Tatooine, but not really to the norm."

Obi-Wan nodded. "I watched over Luke, Anakin. From when he was a child to when he was older, and could care for himself." Almost an after thought, "You and Padmé would have been so proud…"

Anakin's frown diminished and he smiled. "She would have been proud of them, right?"

Obi-Wan nodded fiercely, "Of course, Anakin. Luke and Leia are wonderful children—they both share a special quality about them…I don't know, but they are both mixtures of you and Padmé, and it just—works."

"You knew Leia when she was young?"

Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes, well—I guess so," he decided, "Senator Organa was a member of the Rebel Alliance, where I was loosely involved."

For the one of the first times, Anakin didn't feel a rush of anxiety.

"I saw her up until she was five," he said, "And then this time. She has changed so much—she's so mature now." He chuckled, "I'd get midnight holos from Breha Organa with a wailing baby in her arms saying that they 'tried everything' but 'Leia levitates my mother's vases—I can't have that!'"

A small smile formed on Anakin's lips, and his eyes averted towards the lake, where his eyes glazed over.

"I always thought she was her father's child," Obi-Wan said, "She was always getting into trouble, even when she was a youngling."

"The mirror image of me," Anakin echoed.

"No, I think Luke is the mirror image of you," Obi-Wan said. He crossed his arms. "He had always resembled you. But I guess Leia has your spirit by Padmé's looks, and Luke has your looks and Padmé's spirit."

"There are some things that are exactly like me on Luke," Anakin said, "Like how he eats—oh my god. I thought I was looking at myself."

They both shared a short laugh, but it was cut by some seriousness. Anakin started, his eyes cross, "I want to know everything that transpired on that night on Mustafar," he crossed his arms over his chest. "Even the beginning. When I was gone—like I said, everything."

Obi-Wan gulped, and fell back in the patio chair, "You better sit down," he motioned to the pair seat next to him, "It's going to take a while."

Anakin didn't want to ask—'What's so hard? Why can't you tell me?' but decided against it. Something's were better left unsaid. He took the seat next to Obi-Wan.

"You murdered those children in the temple, Anakin," Obi-Wan started, leaning back in his seat. He stared Anakin down, almost soaking up the guilt he felt deep within, "It couldn't be left silent. Yoda sent me to kill you—"

"Please tell me you objected…"

"At first, I did," Obi-Wan held up his hand, almost to stop Anakin from speaking, "But it was my duty—Master Yoda had to face the emperor. I—I couldn't face someone with that power…"

Anakin leaned back, as well, and grunted, wryly accepting why Kenobi couldn't face Palpatine.

"I had to find you. I didn't know where to go," Obi-Wan pressed his hands to his temples, "I used my instinct—the first place I check was Senator—Padmé's apartment. I wasn't expecting you to be there, I just wanted to know if she knew where you were…

"Everything went hazy after that, basically."

"Understood," Anakin said.

"She was in the comfort of her own home—she and it was visible… for the first time… that she was… with child," he coughed, "I knew, I knew—you were the father. And she knew exactly where you were. Even with her political experience, and her fair lying, she couldn't hide it, Anakin. She knew where you were."

I shouldn't have told her… I shouldn't have told her…

"I snuck aboard her ship," he said simply, pressing her palms to his eyes. Obi-Wan heard Anakin's loud thumps of her feet on the patio, standing up—

"You had no right, Kenobi—none!" Anakin roared. "You invaded her privacy… maybe if she was still alive—!!" His eye's echoed of the past, his regrets, his feelings that he still had for Padmé after all these years… he couldn't let go…

"Don't talk like that, Anakin," Obi-Wan said unusually calmly. "She's not alive, and she won't be again."

His old master's words felt like a stab in the heart, like a blade that twisted inside his body, over and over—but he was still alive…

"If you didn't…! If you didn't go aboard her ship…"

"If I didn't, what, Anakin? You would have still choked her, she would be severely injured—she'd still be as dead as she is now."

The Jedi Master had a point. If Obi-Wan hadn't been there, Padmé, and his children, could possibly been dead. No one would have been able to help her, and all because Anakin… no, Vader… couldn't control his anger.

No.

"Don't tell me I had no right, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, still keeping his cool, "You killed innocent people—you didn't end the Clone Wars like you thought you did. You didn't help anybody… you made it worse."

The cold truth.

Anakin sat back down in his chair with a low thump, defeated.

Obi-Wan went on, "She didn't know I was on her ship. She didn't know anything until I showed up—I overheard you speaking."

You're with him! You brought him here to kill me… No, Anakin—No…Anakin, please…

"I—I choked her. I scared her… for no reason…?! She didn't betray me… she came to bring me back," Anakin echoed.

Obi-Wan nodded solemnly, murmured, "yes."

Anakin pressed his hands to his forehead, feeling a trickle of tears falling down his cheeks. He couldn't help them—they just came. He thought it to be right, too. "But when Luke and Leia were born—"

"I was there," Obi-Wan interjected. "I was there, with her. I was the one to hold her hand, Anakin. I was there when you couldn't be."

No surge of jealousy, again; he felt the surge of happiness, of praise, towards his old master. He was there for Padmé, his wife, the mother of his children, when he couldn't be. He was there…

"She died believing that there was good in you, Anakin," he said slowly, "I can see, now, that she was always right."

A smile through his wet tears shown on his face as he looked up at Obi-Wan. The blade in his heart evaporated away, but the pain was still there. He realized then, though, that the pain and guilt that he suffered through would always be there, until his dying day.

A/N: The next chapter will be the last. Feedback, please!