rando snippet
woe, kenobi feels upon ye
At the last moment, as Obi-Wan raised his lightsaber before him and bowed his head, he felt a tug somewhere behind his ribs. His breath caught, lungs and stomach tightening. This was not, he thought, what letting go should feel like. This was very much not being let go of.
Qui-Gon, he thought, a desperate regretful whisper.
In the next moment he found himself standing, unrobed and disarmed, staring at the closing blast doors as Vader—oh Anakin, he thought—prodded at a brown heap of wool with booted foot.
The rest was a blur. Solo was yelling; Luke was tugging at his elbow—it was his piercing cry that had drawn the attention of the stormtroopers and the hail of blasterfire in the first place. Obi-Wan, half in a stupor, allowed himself to be dragged up the boarding ramp of the Falcon, stumbling between them as Solo and Chewbacca returned fire.
He was chivvied up into the ship and then left unmoored, standing sightless in the common area as the others dashed around him for the pilots’ seats and the guns. The shooting that followed, the fancy flying—none of it could touch him as he sagged against the common area’s dingy bench.
Bitter tears welled behind his eyes, burning to get free. Eventually everything quieted, and left only emptiness behind.
Master, Obi-Wan thought, Qui-Gon, I’m so sorry.
And turned to see the Princess staring at him, wide-eyed. Shaking.
“You got old,” she said at last.
Obi-Wan laughed. He couldn’t help it. He laughed so long and so hard that Luke and Han peered out of the cockpit and the gunport to eye him with intense concern.
“And you got a blaster,” he managed, still snickering.
Through her pallor and her tears, at last, Leia grinned. She leapt forward and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him so tight he let out a quietly pained ooff of breath.
“You two… know each other.” Captain Solo, ever quick on the uptake, was watching them with the deepest distrust.
An amused rumble from the cockpit had the captain’s eyebrows jumping up to his hairline. “You’re kidding,” he uttered over his shoulder, and received a self-satisfied chortle in response.
Obi-Wan might’ve appreciated it more if he hadn’t been holding on to a quietly sobbing Princess, Alderaan’s last survivor.
