The world changed in the space between heartbeats.
In one moment, Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi stood in the royal hangar of Naboo beside Qui-Gon Jinn and facing a red-and-black-faced Zabrak who positively reeked of the Dark Side of the Force.
In the next, he was…elsewhere, sitting on a bench rather than standing beside his master, his inert lightsaber at his hip rather than blazing in his hand.
Obi-Wan stretched his senses through the Force and concluded that he was in the common area of some sort of ship in hyperspace, judging by the vibrations and the feeling in the Force around him.
Not far from him, in a relatively open area, a young Human-appearing male who might be Obi-Wan's age or a little younger held a lightsaber and faced a training droid similar to ones Obi-Wan himself had trained with when he was a youngling.
Beyond the young man, along the far side of the room, a Wookie sat playing a holographic strategy game against a pair of droids, one a golden protocol droid and the other an astromech that looked familiar…
Oh, right. One of the queen's astromechs, the one that survived their escape from Naboo. This ship, however, didn't look anything like the royal starship. Still, the droid might be able to answer some of his questions.
"R2-D2?" Obi-Wan asked. "Can you tell me where we are?"
That simple question threw everything into chaos that seared into Obi-Wan's awareness in a jumble of impressions-
-R2-D2's alarmed/excited squeal-
-"Oh, dear," in a prissy mockery of a Coruscanti accent from the protocol droid-
-a howl from the Wookie that roughly translated to, "Captain, get your ass back here!" even as said Wookie drew a blaster from beneath the game table to aim it at Obi-Wan-
-and a yelp from the Human as the training droid scored a hit.
The Human deactivated his lightsaber to the sound of echoing, fast footsteps. Another Human male appeared in a doorway, his blaster drawn. In a heartbeat, he scanned the room and had his blaster aimed at Obi-Wan.
"Who are you and how'd you get aboard my ship?" the man demanded. He appeared to be about a decade older than the lightsaber-wielder, though the variance in Human-appearing species made that a guess at best.
At least no one had actually shot at him yet. Obi-Wan thanked the Force for that small victory.
"My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi," he said, "and as to how I got here, I assure you I haven't the faintest idea. A moment ago, I was on Naboo. Can you tell me where we are and what we're doing?"
"Obi-Wan?" the lightsaber-wielder said with a frown. "You can't be Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's much older than you are."
Obi-Wan's eyebrows leapt for his hairline. "Older? Then perhaps the better question is, what year is this?"
R2-D2 whistled, and Obi-Wan blinked. That couldn't be right.
"Galactic Standard Calendar year 25053," the older male – captain of this ship, presumably – said. It was an echo of R2-D2's statement, though whether the captain understood Binary or not remained to be seen.
Obi-Wan blew out a breath. "Then I have come forward in time as well as shifted position in space. I was in 25021."
"That was the year Palpatine was elected Supreme Chancellor," the lightsaber-wielder said.
"Just a few days ago," Obi-Wan said. "But again – where are we and what are we doing? And, my apologies, but other than R2-D2, I don't know any of your names…?"
Quickly, he was introduced to Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon, the ship they were on; Chewbacca, the Wookie first mate; C-3PO, human-cyborg relations; and most unnerving, though Obi-Wan hoped he didn't show his reaction, Luke Skywalker.
As for what they were doing, R2-D2 projected a holomessage of a young woman. Like Skywalker – Anakin's son? brother? nephew? – she appeared a little younger than Obi-Wan. She wore her hair in braided coils on either side of her head and was dressed in a simple white gown that spoke of understated wealth.
"General Kenobi," she began. "Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack, and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."
"So we are en route to Alderaan," Obi-Wan observed. No one contradicted him.
"You don't look old enough to be a general," Solo said. "No offense."
"I was a general at thirteen," Obi-Wan answered absently. "But this woman…though she looks familiar, I'm sure I've never met her."
"You wouldn't have, though, right?" Skywalker said. "She said you served her father years ago, but she was talking to Old Ben, not to younger-you."
Obi-Wan wasn't certain how to feel at hearing himself referred to as Old Ben. It wasn't really him Skywalker referred to, after all; Skywalker referred to some future Obi-Wan, or Ben, Kenobi that Obi-Wan might not ever become now, even if he did somehow return to his own time.
Still, all he said was, "An excellent point. Do any of you know who this young woman is?"
"That," C-3PO said, "is Princess Leia, daughter of Queen Breha and Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan."
R2-D2 whistled, and C-3PO said, "Well, of course I know the Senate has been disbanded. Still, it is only polite to refer to him by his title."
The Senate disbanded? Obi-Wan fought the urge to demand decades' worth of history in a few minutes, though he did make a mental note to research the matter if he remained in this time very long.
For now, since he could see no other role for himself than escort and guard, he focused on Skywalker. "Is that your lightsaber? Are you a Jedi?"
"You – I mean, Old Ben told me it was my father's," Skywalker answered. "You – he – gave it to me just before we left Tatooine. He was just teaching me how to use it."
Obi-Wan couldn't help chuckling. "The basics of how to use it, you mean. It takes many years to master even one form, and a lifetime to master them all."
He stood and drew his own lightsaber, activating it and taking the opening stance of Form I. "This is the first form we learn-"
Skywalker reactivated his lightsaber and copied Obi-Wan's stance.
Before Obi-Wan could offer a correction, Chewbacca growled softly.
Solo rose. "We're coming up on Alderaan. We'll be slowing down shortly and going back under lightspeed. Come on, Chewie."
"Later?" Skywalker asked.
Obi-Wan nodded and followed the other man into the cockpit, where Solo and Chewbacca guided them out of hyperspace…
…and into a meteor shower. The ship's deflector shields shunted them aside, but the ship shuddered violently.
"What the-?" Solo asked as his and Chewbacca's hands flew across the control consoles.
"What's going on?" Skywalker asked, saving Obi-Wan the trouble.
"We're back in normal space," Solo answered, "but we've come out in the middle of the worst asteroid storm I've ever seen. It's not on our charts."
Chewbacca growl-roared. Obi-Wan could hold a basic conversation in Shyriiwook, but technical jargon was beyond him.
"I see it, Chewie," Solo said before glancing back at Skywalker and Obi-Wan. "I've triple-checked the coordinates, and there's nothing wrong with the nav 'puter. According to the galactic atlas, our position is correct. It's just – Alderaan is missing."
"How is that possible?" Skywalker asked. "It would take a thousand ships or more, with far more firepower than I thought existed."
Obi-Wan was distracted by the thought of an entire planet, with a population in the millions, if not billions…gone. Just gone.
How had he not felt it? How had the Force remained silent in the face of such an atrocity?
He first thought that being in hyperspace might have dulled his perceptions of anything besides the ship and the people aboard, but…the Force was a part of and surrounded everything, including hyperspace. Shouldn't he have felt so many deaths regardless of being in hyperspace?
Then he remembered.
He'd been facing a Dark Side user, if not an actual Sith. He'd had his shields firmly locked against the other's intrusion, even only barely aware of his training bond with Master Qui-Gon.
He wouldn't have felt much of anything with his shields that tight.
Now, though, now he wasn't in hyperspace and he wasn't facing a maybe-Sith. He could take a moment to stretch out his senses through the Force.
So he did-
-and swallowed back bile.
The Force was…
The Force was empty. And where it wasn't empty, it was Dark.
Where were the lights that were his brothers and sisters in the Order?
Just what had happened in the last thirty years?
BREAK
Obi-Wan didn't get an answer to his question before he found himself sneaking through the corridors of the spherical object – a battle station of some kind – that had apparently destroyed Alderaan.
The very same battle station that had captured the Millennium Falcon in a tractor beam that had to be deactivated from a central power source, not just the control panel across the hangar from them.
He'd volunteered for that task, not just to give him something to do rather than focus on the emptiness around him, but mostly because, as he'd told Solo and the others, the Force would help him hide from scouts.
"Like you – older you, I mean," Skywalker said, "did back on Tatooine, when you got us past the Imperial patrol."
Obi-Wan must've looked as confused as Solo did, because Skywalker continued, "He just wiggled his fingers and told the troopers we didn't have the droids they were looking for and we could go about our business. And they let us."
"Huh," Solo said. "Seems like that's a handy talent to have."
"Sometimes," was Obi-Wan's only response to that.
Then he'd gotten a schematic of the battle station from R2-D2 – the plans his older self had been trying to deliver to Alderaan – tugged his hood over his head, and slipped from the Falcon.
He had to dodge more patrols than he'd expected, although he had no idea whether his expectations had any grounding in the reality of this time, but between some tricks Quinlan Vos had taught him and a little mental misdirection, no one noticed him, despite the hooded brown robe he wore standing out like a bantha in a bathtub among the white-armored troops and the gray-uniformed officers.
Once he reached the main power center, it was the work of nothing to disable power to the tractor beams and cover his tracks. With any luck, the Falcon would make a clean escape and no one aboard the battle station would have the faintest glimmer of an idea what had happened.
The return trip to the hangar bay would be much faster than the route to the main power, now that he knew what to expect and where the best places to conceal himself from passing patrols were.
Except that Obi-Wan had never had that kind of luck.
Two turns from the hangar bay, he slowed. One of the patches of Darkness he'd sensed was between him and the hangar.
With the way clear except for the Darkness, Obi-Wan risked a glance at the plans R2-D2 had given him. Perhaps there was another route to the hangar, one not quite so … crowded.
The plans showed several alternate routes. Unfortunately – his luck again – all of them ran through either the command center or nearly the entire circumference of the battle station. If he chose any other route, the Falcon would leave without him.
Obi-Wan didn't know much about this Dark future he'd found himself in, but he did know that he didn't want to be stuck on a battle station full of people who had no problem destroying an entire planet.
With a silent sigh, he tucked away the small datapad that held the plans and resumed his trek toward the hangar.
Fifty steps, and a familiar low hum echoed through the corridor.
The Darkness, a being of some kind, had a lightsaber. An active lightsaber.
Apparently, the Force had decided to take him from one battle with a Dark Sider and drop him into another one – thirty years in the future.
Some days, he wished the Force didn't have it in for him quite so much.
He pulled his lightsaber from his belt as he moved forward, toward the Darkness that waited.
One left turn later, he paused to stare at the being before him.
Human-appearing male, taller and broader than Obi-Wan, clothed in black from helmet and facemask to boots, except for the blinking lights on his chest. Some kind of life-support system, perhaps? Whatever the lights were, they were outshone by the red-bladed lightsaber he held casually in one hand.
"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan." The man's voice echoed through, presumably, a vocoder in his facemask, and a harsh breathing sound punctuated his statement.
"We meet again at last," the man continued. "The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master."
Obi-Wan stared at the black-clad man for a long moment. There was only one thing appropriate to say in this situation.
"Well, kriff."
BREAK
The trouble with the man's helmet and facemask was that it covered all of his facial expressions, and the Darkness around him meant that Obi-Wan couldn't read his emotions through the Force. He had no idea what the man was thinking or feeling, let alone who he might be.
So he did the only thing he could think to do.
"I am no master." With his free hand, Obi-Wan nudged his hood back and down off his head. "Not yet, anyway. So you have me at a disadvantage."
The breathing stopped for long moments as they faced each other.
"This cannot be…." the Dark Sider muttered. "How can this be?"
"They do say all things are possible with the Force," Obi-Wan quipped. "Though I admit, I had not considered time travel to be included in the all. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to know the name of the person I'm about to duel."
"Darth Vader."
Not just a Dark Sider, then, but an actual Sith.
Well, kriff, indeed.
Still, Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. "That's not the name I would have known you by, if I were your master."
The man hesitated. "That name no longer has any meaning to me."
"Would it to me?" Obi-Wan asked softly.
"…Perhaps." The man hesitated again before, "When did you…leave…from?"
"25021."
"…Then we have recently met."
A chill flooded Obi-Wan's blood. There was only one person that could be, but it couldn't be – could it? "…Anakin?"
The man – Darth Vader – inclined his head wordlessly except for the breaths echoing through his facemask.
"Oh, Anakin." The words felt torn from Obi-Wan, his throat aching around each syllable.
"That name-"
"No longer has any meaning to you," Obi-Wan finished with him. "So you said. But it does to me…. I was your master? Your Jedi master?"
Another slow nod.
"Then you must tell me – what did I do wrong?" Obi-Wan laughed briefly, and it sounded bitter even to his ears. "No, perhaps we don't have enough time for a complete answer to that question. What was the biggest thing I did wrong? Maybe the two biggest things?"
Vader shook his head. "You were a good master. The best."
Obi-Wan choked back a sob. "Clearly not, if you fell. Please, Anakin – please tell me something I can do to stop…this when I get back."
"If you get back."
Obi-Wan inclined his head, acknowledging the point.
Vader was quiet – except for the amplified breathing coming from his facemask – so long that Obi-Wan began figuring ways to get past him and to the hangar. Not that he expected to get past a Sith Lord without a fight, but he had to try.
"Free my mother."
Obi-Wan blinked. "Free? As in – she is, or was, a slave on Tatooine?"
"Please don't lie to me and pretend you didn't know." Even through the vocoder, Vader's – no, Anakin's – anger was clear.
"I didn't," Obi-Wan declared. "I swear to you – Qui-Gon didn't tell me. He was too busy figuring out how to dump me as his padawan to take you on. Well – he hasn't told me yet, and I…"
He paused, considering, and then decided he had nothing to lose.
"I was a slave on Bandomeer before I became his padawan," he said. "If I knew your mother – you – had been a slave, nothing in the galaxy would have kept me from freeing her."
Obi-Wan took a breath, let it out slowly, and focused his gaze on the covered eyeholes in Vader's mask. "I swear to you, Anakin – when I get back to my time, if I do nothing else to prevent this, I will free your mother."
Vader studied him for a long moment. "…I believe you."
Obi-Wan inclined his head in turn. "What else can I do?"
Long moments passed in silence before Vader extinguished his lightsaber, then turned and walked away, angling down a narrow side corridor.
Obi-Wan stared after him for a breath. Two. Three.
Then he hooked his saber back to his belt and dashed for the hangar at Jedi speed.
BREAK
The escape from the battle station – officially, the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station, according to the plans R2-D2 safeguarded – was insultingly easy. Which could mean only one thing.
"They're tracking us," Leia Organa – an unplanned addition to the Falcon's crew after Solo and Luke Skywalker rescued her from the battle station's holding cells – declared.
"Not this ship, sister," Solo shot back.
Before that exchange could devolve into an argument, Obi-Wan cut in. "Whether so or no, it is wise to check. I'd suggest setting a course for Coruscant."
"The capital?" came from three human and one droid voices, accompanied by a long shriek in Binary and a Wookie's howl.
"The trip from Alderaan is several hours at lightspeed." Obi-Wan flicked a glance at Solo. "Which I understand the Falcon can do without strain, giving us time to plan. And to distract the Empire from our final destination, the Rebel base."
Silence met that announcement, and Obi-Wan let it reign. No need to intrude upon the others' thoughts, after all.
Finally, Leia Organa spoke. "Luke and Han told me that you're a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi, who somehow swapped in time with the man my father knew?"
"I am."
"So you're not General Obi-Wan Kenobi."
Obi-Wan didn't suppress his chuckle. "That depends upon your point of view."
"Thirteen," Skywalker – Luke Skywalker, not Anakin – said. "You said you'd been a general at thirteen."
Obi-Wan nodded. "My first mission as Padawan to Master Qui-Gon Jinn. I…left the Order because the Force told me I needed to remain on Melida/Daan and help the Young fight the Elders of both Melida and Daan."
"Very well, General Kenobi," Organa only slightly emphasized his title, "please explain why you want to set a course to Coruscant, of all places."
He hated the response he had to give. "I doubt they'll destroy Coruscant."
Organa's face turned nearly as white as her gown, and even the droids were quiet.
Tentatively, Skywalker rested a hand on her shoulder. She allowed the touch, but straightened almost immediately.
"You're right, of course," she said finally. "And I apologize for my tone. I'm grateful for your assistance, and I can only hope that the elder General Kenobi is being as helpful wherever he is."