Stories I started and never knew where to take them...
I have a bunch of story snippets and ideas and things I played around with and many of them I just couldn't decide where to take them.
This one I liked but it seemed to be just too much like so many other stories of the same theme so it just sat there as I tried to come up with something different. So far, nothing different has occurred to me...
Apparently, suiciding via Darth Vader’s lightsaber to save Vader’s own children was considered, by the Light, to be worthy of a second chance. Obi-Wan’s claim of being more powerful than his once-upon-a-time friend and brother had perhaps been a bit grandiose, if well intentioned. Oddly it turned out to be true, even if indirectly, when the said Force determined that balance must be achieved by returning a tired old Jedi into the body of a somewhat less tired and younger Jedi at a pivotal moment in his past life.
And when he returned to life and rather quickly recognised his situation, it seemed to be time to reconsider his options, especially as it related to Anakin Skywalker, and the aspect of the Force that needed to have balance applied to it.
Obi-Wan shuddered. One moment he’d felt the scarlet lighsaber slice through him and being taken from life and into the Force, and the next – he was staggering upright, a lit lightsaber in both hands, and very much alive. He blinked, trying to clear his focus and the Force hit him in a wave of familiar power. The world around him was dark but that was simply the lack of normal light because it was night, and the weapon in his shaking hands cast a blue/white glow, almost blindingly bright. But that voice was also all too familiar. He lowered the ‘saber as he tried to collect his thoughts, to make sense of what had happened.
But it seemed he wasn’t going to be given a lot of time to make sense of anything because the undeniable living bulk of Darth Vader…Anakin..started stomping towards him, the same lightsaber that had quite recently killed him held in his hands.
Mapuzo his damaged memory supplied. Or perhaps the Force did in a handy sudden download of information to his aching mind. He’d fought (fairly badly) against Vader there and barely escaped with his life after Vader had given into an urge to torture his old Master. And for some reason the Force or Fate or something else had deposited him back there to enjoy the experience again.
“Wait!” He held up a hand and, surprised, Vader had stopped. “We need to talk.”
A snort of dark amusement came from the masked figure. “We do not.” He started walking again and, despite a reasonable instinct to back up, Obi-Wan stayed where he was. As Vader reached him, he remembered the words he’d seen carved in the wall of the hut not far from where they stood.
Only when the eyes are closed can you truly see
He needed to focus, to block out everything, to think. He closed his eyes and sought the Way. Normally it would show him the Light but this time he sensed the Darkness in Vader, growing stronger moment by moment. The Way of the Force, it seemed to say, was this time not into the Light, but closer to the Darkness, to find that balance in the Force that Anakin was meant to be. It seemed more was required of him than to simply die again.
Obi-Wan opened his eyes that were filled with the humming buzz of a lightsaber very close to him and the man who held it filling his vision.
“No,” he whispered. He looked at the lightsaber in his hand tossed it away. No more fighting, no more cutting away at whatever was left of his friend. “No,” he said again as he watched the dark figure pause, sensed his curiosity. “I will not fight you. Not again.”
Darth Vader…Anakin…walked the last couple of steps towards him, using a sliver of the Force to lift the fallen lightsaber into his hand. “If you hope for mercy from me, you will be disappointed.”
“I expect nothing,” Obi-Wan said, holding himself firm as Vader came very close, the red light of his lightsaber casting an eerie glow in the half-dark. “I am yours to do with as you wish.”
“Why?” The voice was harsh, edged with uncertainty.
“Because I am tired. Tired of living in holes and hovels, sleeping in the dirt and scrounging for food. I am tired of losing, it’s taken too long to get to the end of that loss. And I’m very tired of being alone.”
Vader clipped Obi-Wan’s lightsaber to his belt as he stood and raised his own bright blade and Obi-Wan closed his eyes to not see another fatal strike. He waited for the pain but when it didn’t come he opened his eyes and watched the brightness disappear. A fierce mechanical grip took hold of his arm and pulled him forward so that he stumbled into the armored body and was held in place, looking up and up.
“I have searched for you for a very long time.”
“I didn’t even know you were alive.”
“And now that you do, you think you know me, know what to expect from me?”
The grip had hardened as both hands held him and he wondered if he imagined the brief shudder in that regulated breathing, or the slight shake of the iron grip. “I don’t know what you are now, or how much of what you were remains. We have each lost so much of ourselves.” He licked dry lips and thought of ashes. “But I would like to find out.”
He was released so suddenly that he stumbled, but managed to stand. Vader stepped back and turned. “What you wish or like is irrelevant. You will follow me.”
There was the assumption of control in that deep, mechanical tone but then Obi-Wan had basically handed himself over so running away again was hardly an option. He followed, walking to one side and slightly behind the striding figure, feeling strangely serene. He hoped that Tala had Leia and was on her way to Alderaan, but all of that was currently outside his control. All he could do was centre Vader’s attention him and bury every thought and feeling about the children as deeply as he could. The knowledge of Luke and Leia was one part of himself he could not reveal. The rest was unpredictable, and oddly exciting.
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