A Young Pupil of Mine

Hi, all! Well, it's been a while, I know, but pharmacy school does take its toll...

Anyway, I was floored by Revenge of the Sith (got to see it opening day!) and was inspired by the duel scene at the end, particularly Ewan's performance.

(Anyone who knows me well knows I have a....serious screen crush on Ewan McGregor! *sigh*)

OK, back on track...here goes....


A YOUNG PUPIL OF MINE

With a small wave of his hand, Obi-Wan closed the door to the small storage compartment he had decided to stow away in. For some time he simply sat there, mind numb and unable to think. Dimly, he was aware that as his hands rested upon his lap, they were shaking uncontrollably.

//How could this be happening?// he thought, his mind twisting with anguish. //How could it be Anakin?//

Before Obi-Wan knew what was happening, wracking sobs had overtaken his body, and the tiny part of his brain still capable of rational thought thanked the Force that the compartment he was in was soundproof. Unbidden memories began to drift before Obi-Wan in his mind’s eye; thirteen years worth of friendship, laughter, tears, and brotherhood.

Obi-Wan saw, as clearly as if it were happening before his very eyes, a ten year old boy looking up at him fearfully, depending upon him for strength. He saw an awkward teenager, amazingly strong yet still uncertain. He saw a confident young man, fighting by his side and wielding the Force with exceptional skill. Above all the memories, however, came words that haunted Obi-Wan and would for years to come.

“You are strong and wise, Anakin, and I am very proud of you. I have trained you since you were a small boy. I have taught you everything I know. And you have become a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be.”

Obi-Wan’s sobs ceased as he remembered saying these words, and he went ominously still. Something new was pulsing through his veins now and it was beyond sorrow or tears; it was betrayal. It seeped into his blood like hot poison and fogged his mind with a white haze.

//Thirteen years; how could he just throw away thirteen years?//

It made no sense to Obi-Wan, and yet the image of Anakin spilling innocent blood would not be banished. His head began to spin and he felt his mind slipping into the gathering darkness within him. Instinctively, desperately, he reached for the Force, trying to center himself as he had always done. He knew he would need all his focus in the upcoming ordeal. At first, all he felt was the bleak, barren, cold of the ever-growing dark side. His desperation reached a fever pitch, and for several horrifying moments he was afraid he would not find his center once more.

Then, unexpectedly, the bright presence of Padme and the life growing within her seemed to fill the Jedi master’s mind. It cleared the dense haze from his brain and helped restore his tranquility, his calm. He focused on those radiant presences within the Force and gradually his breathing slowed, his muscles relaxed, and he prepared himself for the confrontation he knew lay ahead.

He felt the ship slow, then the unmistakable thud of the landing gear meeting solid ground. Opening the door silently, Obi-Wan made his way slowly along the corridor of the luxurious ship. By the time he reached the hallway adjacent to the entrance ramp, he could hear two voices raised in heated conversation, which he immediately identified as Anakin and Padme’s.

“-I've done it for you. To protect you.” Obi-Wan could not fail to hear the fear in Padme’s reply.

“Come away with me. Help me raise our child. Leave everything else behind while we still can!”

“Don't you see, we don't have to run away anymore. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I can overthrow him, and together you and I can rule the galaxy. Make things the way we want them to be.” Obi-Wan was startled to hear his own name enter the conversation.

“I don't believe what I'm hearing . . . Obi-Wan was right. You've changed.”

//You don’t know how much I wanted to be wrong, Padme.// Anakin was speaking once more.

“I don't want to hear any more about Obi-Wan. The Jedi turned against me. Don't you turn against me.” Obi-Wan could hear the cold menace in his apprentice’s-former apprentice’s- voice. Padme’s desperate pleading echoed Obi-Wan’s own turmoil.

“I don't know you anymore. Anakin, you're breaking my heart. You’re going down a path I can't follow.” At this, Obi-Wan made his way to the entrance ramp proper. He could see Anakin, eyes ablaze with rage and resentment.

“Because of Obi-Wan?”

“Because of what you've done! What you plan to do. Stop, stop now. Come back! I love you.”

Obi-Wan saw Anakin’s eyes raise to meet his own. It took all of Obi-Wan’s experience and training to keep his gaze level with the man standing there. It looked like Anakin, but he did not recognize the eyes. The eyes looking back at him were foreign, cold, and empty.

“Liar!” rang through the air, seeming to rise above them, a damning accusation. Padme whirled, glancing fleetingly and fearfully at Obi-Wan.

“No!”

“You're with him. You've betrayed me! You brought him here to kill me!”

Before Obi-Wan could move, before he could do anything at all, Anakin’s hand had shot out, enclosing Padme’s throat in a vice-like grip generated by the dark side. Padme could not even make a sound.

“Let her go, Anakin,” Obi-Wan called, his voice ringing and imbued with the Force. “Let her go!!” Releasing Padme savagely, Anakin watched as she crumpled, limp, to the ground.

“You turned her against me!” Anakin yelled, his eyes alight with an insane fire as he began pacing like a wild animal.

“You have done that yourself,” Obi-Wan said, his voice clear and strong even as his blue-silver eyes betrayed his bewilderment.

“You will not take her from me!” Removing his cloak Obi-Wan calmly replied, his voice didactic yet powerful.

“Your anger and your lust for power have already done that.” As he spoke, he slowly circled around Anakin, making his way toward the unconscious Padme.

“You have allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind until now . . . until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy.” Kneeling, Obi-Wan gently placed a hand on Padme’s temple. She was alive, but weak…very weak. Anakin spoke, his back turned to the older man.

“Don't lecture me, Obi-Wan. I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side as you do. I have brought peace, justice, freedom, and security to my new Empire.” Obi-Wan got to his feet, his voice laced with incredulity as he spoke.

“Your new Empire?”

“Don't make me kill you,” Anakin replied, a palpable disdain in every word. Obi-Wan stared at Anakin’s back, his anger rising.

“Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic ... to democracy!”

“If you're not with me, you're my enemy,” Anakin said, his back still turned. Obi-Wan calmed himself once more as he took a deep breath.

“Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes.” Obi-Wan now knew that the moment he had been dreading had finally come. Slowly, he reached for his lightsaber and ignited it, taking a defensive posture as he did so. “I will do what I must.” Anakin’s reply was haughty, overconfident.

“You will try.”

Anakin lunged at Obi-Wan, and there was no more time for words. The two blades crashed against each other with crushing force, blindingly fast. It was unlike anything Obi-Wan had ever experienced. He had trained Anakin for years, and he knew every one of the younger man’s strengths and weaknesses. Anakin, in turn, knew each of his. On they fought, out into the brutal heat of the lava planet. Molten earth flowed around them and rained down upon them, but they hardly noticed. The fight seemed to go on interminably, neither man gaining the upper hand. The heat continued to build, the mining platforms around them disintegrating even as they continued to duel upon them.

Jumping onto one of the shielded platforms above a river of lava, Obi-Wan waited for Anakin to follow. In short order, of course, he did. Taking a deep, cleansing, breath, Obi-Wan raised his lightsaber in front of him for a moment. He let himself fall into the flow of the Force, and felt the darkness closing in on him once more. Nodding resignedly, Obi-Wan looked into the eyes of the man who had once been his best friend.

“I have failed you, Anakin. I have failed you.”

“I should have known the Jedi were plotting to take over!” Obi-Wan tried once again, desperately, to make Anakin understand. The teacher in him, it seemed, would not be silenced.

“Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine is evil!!”

“From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!” This reply staggered Obi-Wan, and he answered reflexively.

“Well, then you are lost!”

It took several moments for Obi-Wan to fully understand the implications of these words but when he did, a cold desolation gripped him. Once and for all he was forced to accept that only one of them, master or apprentice, would walk away from this. As if in confirmation of this realization, Anakin’s words broke into the older man’s thoughts.

“This is the end for you, my Master.”

Obi-Wan saw the hatred in Anakin’s eyes, and there was no doubt in his mind that Anakin would kill him…if he allowed it. Obi-Wan Kenobi was not an easy man to kill, and it was a lesson that his former apprentice would learn the hard way.

Flipping over the younger man’s head onto solid ground, Obi-Wan called back toward his opponent. It was a last desperate plea, a plea that could be seen in the Jedi master’s eyes.

“It's over, Anakin! I have the high ground.” Once again, the insane fire lit the eyes of the younger man.

“You underestimate my power!”

//Don’t do it, Anakin//Obi-Wan thought, //I’ve taught you better than that!// Images played themselves within Obi-Wan’s mind again, lessons about the advantages of the high ground in combat. The master tried, one last time, to reach the apprentice.

“Don't try it.”

The dark side, however, had a powerful hold.

//No!!// Obi-Wan thought as Anakin arced through the air. Obi-Wan had no options left, no recourse.

Spinning deftly, Obi-Wan cut an arc through the air with his lightsaber which separated Anakin’s legs from his body. Obi-Wan watched as Anakin struggled to keep himself from sliding into the river of lava below him. He felt hot tears slide down his face. His world seemed to bend and shatter around him, and he knew he would never be the same from this moment forward. All the grief, all the anger within him poured out, and his voice was hoarse as he spoke.

“You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them. That you would bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!”

Tears still streaming down his face, he picked up Anakin’s lightsaber. It was the weapon and symbol of a Jedi knight. The man it had belonged to did not deserve to wield it any longer. As Obi-Wan turned to walk up the small slope above him, Anakin’s voice stopped him in his tracts.

“I hate you!” There was no answer Obi-Wan could give but the painful, simple, truth.

“You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you.”

Obi-Wan continued walking as the man who had been his apprentice, along with his old life, became consumed by the molten earth.

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