Listen
"Why do you let her live, master?" I asked, frustration adding a clipped edge to my voice.
He glanced at me from his place on the ground. He was reclining against a boulder, wiping his lightsaber off with a small piece of cloth. We had just finished fighting one of our toughest battles to date and were catching our breath in a clearing not far from where it had been fought. Ventress had shown up. My master had let her escape… again. He smiled slightly and then turned his eyes back on his lightsaber. "She's young, you know."
"She's a Sith!" I exploded, throwing up my hands. He could be so darn infuriating at times, him and his twisted logic.
"She's confused," he went on, voice as calm as ever. "If you would stop to listen to her, maybe you would see that."
"Listen to her? Master, all she ever tells me is that the Jedi are misguided and that I'm going to die!" I can't see how he can possibly think she's only confused.
He finally stops to look at me. He sighs. "Of course she's going to say that, Anakin. What else could you possibly expect her to say? If she says otherwise, her master would kill her." He pauses to scratch at the back of his neck. "I'm not talking about her voice. Listen to her signature. In the Force she's quite light, but no one cares enough to look past the Sith apprentice that's attacking them."
"She is not light," I argue, refusing to back down. "I've felt her, master. She's cold, filled with hate. There's nothing there that resembles even the slightest bit of hope."
Obi-wan stands up and glances into the distance, a far-off look in his eyes. Then he smiles softly and turns back to me. "Perhaps she knows that you aren't listening. She knows that you don't hear her cries, so you only see what you want to see." I have no response to that and don't try and come up with one. How can I argue against that?
A few years later I would meet Ventress again, on my own. We would fight and she would die. I killed her. I shoved her off of a cliff. As I pushed her, I finally heard it. A quiet cry of panic. I almost reached out to her, but then I realized it wasn't me she was crying to. She had shouted a name and it echoed through the Force, causing chills to run down my spine. "Obi-wan!"
I knew my master had heard her. It was clear in the torn expression on his face when I returned to tell him the good news. He only tried to offer me a smile, though it turned out more of a grimace. He put a hand on my shoulder. "Good job, Anakin."
That's all he said.
"If you don't listen, you're never gonna learn." ~ Frank Iero