Work Text:
5 BBY
Obi-Wan felt the Force’s happiness when Luke and Leia met again, all but singing of change.
For just a moment, he could see all the possibilities that were now plausible with the two standing side-by-side, and it was beautiful. Dozens of those saw the fall of the Empire, tens of those saw Anakin redeemed through one or both of the twins.
Nearly every one of those saw the death of Palpatine, though by whose hands varied, and most of those lead to a destruction of the Sith. The Rule of Two had hindered the Sith just as it had hindered the Jedi, when Palpatine used, abused, and orchestrated the deaths of any apprentices of his line. Not just Dooku, Maul, and Ventress, but those nameless men and women that had come before Dooku and after Ventress.
The Force laughed then and he could see the bonds that would form and tie Luke and Leia, Han and Chewbacca, together for decades of love, laughter, loss, peace and war. Through them, he could see a new start and a compromise and balance the Jedi had lost.
He could also feel Vader in the Force, churning and too-bright to hide, a maelstrom of shadows twisting and coiling around him. Something about Vader felt different though then it had at Mustafar, and it was almost like catching a glimpse of Anakin through the darkness before it was gone.
His plans for facing Vader shifted again and again as he focused on Vader, tracking him through the ship and eyeing how he moved towards the hanger bay, which Luke and Leia were heading towards.
He’d abandoned the idea of facing Vader alone with the intent of fading into the Force the moment he’d had it, because his men needed him. Luke and Leia needed him. His duties weren’t done yet and there was a war to wage. He couldn’t march away into the Force yet.
He’d known there was no chance of there not being a confrontation between him and Vader, because even if Vader didn’t know about Luke and Leia, he knew something. He wouldn’t let them go until he’d found out what it was, and it was imperative they escape before they were forced to see if anything of Anakin remained in Vader to fight for his family.
He’d had a plan though when he had stepped out of the hallway into the hanger bay, eyes locked on Vader as he’d exhaled roughly, “Senator-”
Obi-Wan had smiled blandly even as amusement had danced in his eyes, because once upon a time Anakin had hated the bland smile and it had always worked to bait him, and he could read well the agitation in Vader that rose at the sight, “I’ve heard so much about you even on Tatooine, Lord Vader. Whatever have I done to earn the privilege of a personal meeting?”
He let his hands rest on his hips, dancing light fingers across the weapon that he had hidden at the back of his waist, almost able to see the tick of Anakin’s eyebrow at watching his old Master play dumb when he’d said more than once it didn’t suit and it was hard to believe from him.
Not once did he let his eyes drift to how his men joined with the three of 501st, choosing to believe that his men would trust him to get to the Falcon on his own and would get the other four there come hell or high water.
Vader stepped closer towards him, and Obi-Wan straightened from the lax stance he’d had into something a little sturdier, just a breath away from falling into Soresu.
Raspy mechanical breath filled the room.
Then the raspy droning breath stuttered, whined, then reached a pitch of shriek that Obi-Wan hadn’t heard in what felt like a lifetime, even if it was more machine than before.
“You lOVEd thE DUCHess?!!”
Obi-Wan blanched.
The tone of the shriek suggested that perhaps more of Anakin had survived than he had ever dared to hope, because no machine could replicate that moment when Anakin had found out something so shocking to his mindset as to mimic when a technical program crashed and his voice cracked like that.
The words though.
His smile wavered as he was coming up blank for a way to charm his way out of trouble, before he ditched the old plan and pulled a Skywalker and made it up on the fly.
With the truth, unaltered and not just ‘from a certain point of view’. Because it was lies that had wrecked the trust Anakin had once had in him.
If there was enough Anakin in Vader to shock with the idea of love, then he deserved the truth.
“I was very fond of her. I adored her, and admired her ideals. If she had asked, I would have married her and left the only family I had ever known without hesitation. But she didn’t, just as I didn’t, because we were first and foremost dedicated to our duties that we knew could and did leave us on opposite sides on occasion. There were many moments that could have ended far worse if we hadn’t compromised far more than we would have otherwise, that we did so for each other.”
A portion of him asked how in the fekking nine hells had Vader learned about him and Satine fifteen years after her death?
The rest of him focused on the visceral surprise that burst from Vader.
It made his smile fade into something sad, because they never should have gotten to the point where the idea that he’d loved anyone was shocking. He’d never hidden it well, and had been lectured on it since the crèche, when he’d cared for someone.
He’d never been as blatant as Anakin, but he’d loved.
And he’d lost so many that he would have said he’d loved.
Vader didn’t react when he stepped forward, or when the clones moved, racing out from cover in formation, blasters sweeping side to side and eyes moving restlessly, leading the group straight to and into the Falcon.
Obi-Wan knew he wouldn’t, not when he’d all but actually said the words I did love her. Even now, he couldn’t say it, because he had loved and lost too many. A part of him had realized by Qui-Gon’s death, that to say the words was to assure the loss, because any time he’d thought they’d applied, he’d lost them.
Saying them to Anakin on Mustafar had just assured him that such a thing was true.
He’d lost Anakin once, but he still hesitated to say it again.
You are my brother Anakin, and I love you still.
Vader didn’t move once as he stepped forward again and again, until he could have reached out and touched him.
He stood there for a long moment he didn’t really have and just looked at Vader’s face, thinking of Anakin’s face as he’d last seen him, then examined his presence in the Force.
Again, he couldn’t help but think he was seeing a glimpse of Anakin in Vader. He was almost able to see each tendril of the dark twisting and coiling and holding that too-bright light of Anakin down start to sizzle and burn.
There was a whisper of a scream in their muted, faded, but still strong, bond.
<< . . Master . . !!>>
Obi-Wan froze at the sound of the angry plea.
It was as good as confirmation that Anakin was still inside Vader somewhere.
But that meant he’d abandoned Anakin to Vader on Mustafar.
When he’d realized Anakin hadn’t died in the Temple, some part of him had dared to hope that one day he would be face to face with him again, but the dark presence of Vader on Mustafar had killed all but the slimmest remains of that hope. He’d forced himself to realize Anakin was lost to him, but still a part of himself had continued to hope.
Quinlan had clawed his way back into the Light.
So, he’d let himself hope, because Quinlan was alive and proof that it was difficult to stay balanced but where there was a will, there was a way.
Anakin had been so full of will. Too much sometimes.
If Anakin just needed a little help to be more willful than Vader, Obi-Wan would give him that.
He’d figured it out in all those years alone, that if he was faced with Vader and saw the smallest sliver of Anakin still in him, there were only two things guaranteed to get a reaction out of Anakin.
The first was family, but he would never risk Luke or Leia on a desperate hope.
The second was something Anakin had hated with a passion.
Obi-Wan shifted his grip from his Master’s old weapon to a jar he’d hung off his hip where his own ‘saber had once hung.
He stepped back, towards the Falcon, putting a little space between him and Vader, then threw the jar at Vader’s feet.
Right on cue, there was a sharp inhale.
“SAND!!! I HAte sANd! It’S COarse! IT GetS EVerYWHere!”
Obi-Wan shut down.
He hardly felt when Luke, bright and warm Luke, back-tracked and started dragging him into the Falcon.
He couldn’t look away from Anakin still screaming about sand.