Obi-Wan Kenobi was supposed to go to Mustafar and kill Anakin Skywalker.
That was his last mission given to him by Master Yoda and, on any other day, he would have obeyed. It would have fundamentally broken Obi-Wan, but he would have obeyed and trusted in the will of the Force.
But not today.
It was easy enough to sneak into the Senate building and to take out one of the Red Guards that were assigned to protect the Chancellor.
No. The Emperor.
It was also ridiculously easy to cloak himself in the Force, to let the faintest swirl of his own negative emotions block out the steady radiance that was his own presence. He simply hid in plain sight, just another angry soul in a building drowning in fury and hate. The whole building now reeked of the Dark Side, of the Sith, and the desperation of one young man trying to save his world from annihilation.
Later, Obi-Wan told himself, later he would try to untangle what he felt as he followed after the Red Guard.
He could sense the fight between Yoda and Palpatine and every Jedi instinct within him screamed at him to drop the charade and storm into the Senate Chamber and join the diminutive master in the fight.
But he didn’t.
He couldn’t.
Obi-Wan Kenobi was not there to fight a Sith Lord.
He was there to murder Sheev Palpatine, the man who had single-handedly destroyed everything that had ever been good in Obi-Wan’s life.
After that, he was going to Mandalore to pick up Ahsoka and whoever else he could find. The Jedi would not die out while he was alive. They would find a way.
They had to.
Obi-Wan and his fellow Red Guards stood in silence as he watched the battle in the Force, as the Light slowly fell back before the Darkness. He could almost see it, dripping little rivulets of pitch and death, leaking through the ceiling, sliding down the walls like a toxic rain. His skin crawled and he saw ghosts, tormented spirits of his brother and sister Jedi forever trapped in this temple to failure. They screamed and died, over and over, howling in betrayal.
But he closed his eyes, took a breath, and stayed his course.
The Jedi might perish tonight but so would the Sith.
He knew Yoda had lost when the Senate Building wailed out in the Force, as the Light itself screamed and clawed as the Darkness tried to devour it whole. For a moment the lights flickered, the ground trembled and the fearless Red Guards shivered in their posts. They looked at each other with brief heartbeats of doubt and fear before they recovered and returned to stand at attention.
Obi-Wan did not move.
His trap was set.
The Dark Side spilled down walls and hallways, an orgy of despair, fury, and triumph. It overwhelmed civilians, who started shivering and coughing, desperate to get some air back into their lungs, unaware of what had just taken place. Of what they had all just lost.
The call for protection went out and Obi-Wan followed, moving silently after the guard in front of him, the whole lot of them blind to a traitor in their midst.
They ran at the crest of the wave of the Dark Side which thundered victoriously in his ear, demanding his surrender, his defeat, and his supplication to the great might of hatred and despair. The Red Guards moved as one, coming to the Emperor’s side and for a moment he was blinded by the shadows.
To look at Palpatine was to stare into the void, the heart of evil and all that was wrong in the Universe. Palpatine wasn’t so much a man as he was an animated corpse, the white folds of his skin waxy and putrid and clinging to bones too small for his bulk. To the Light, he was decaying where he stood, a cancerous blight swallowed up by the Darkness: a slimy, infested rotting thing with malformed tendrils and crawling legs and teeth when there should only be an old man.
Obi-Wan wanted to throw up but he couldn’t.
Not when he was this close.
“Master Yoda attempted to assassinate me!” the Emperor seemed to cackle with unbridled glee. “Find the green traitor and arrest him.”
Obi-Wan’s cadre of guards hurried off into the Senate Building, scouring the oily darkness for the Grand Master. He had already sensed that Yoda was gone, his dull spark of life already beyond the edges of Obi-Wan’s muted senses. They searched the building from top to bottom and spent nearly two hours questioning anyone who was in the area. No one could remember seeing Yoda.
In a way, Obi-Wan was glad.
If anyone deserved the right to kill Palpatine it was him.
They reported back to the Emperor that there was no sign of Yoda, that the Jedi had escaped.
The Emperor frowned and turned to a small blue figure standing in the halo of a long distance holocom.
“Have the Separatist leaders been dealt with, Lord Vader?” The Sith Lord ask his apprentice and Obi-Wan’s heart cracked.
A man with Anakin’s voice and Anakin’s posture replied. “Yes, my Master. I await further orders.”
“Remain where you are,” Darth Sidious answered. “I have no doubt Obi-Wan Kenobi is on his way to foolishly attempt to kill you. He will be no match for you, of course.”
“I look forward to putting an end to that old man once and for all, Master.”
It was a wonder that Palpatine could not hear the sound of Obi-Wan’s heart shattering into a million pieces, scattering across the cosmos like dust thrown out by a collapsing star.
“You have done well, my apprentice,” Darth Sidious smiled with rotten teeth, spewing hatred with each syllable. “Report back to me when you have killed Kenobi. Then you will be strong enough to save your beloved Padme.”
It occurred to Obi-Wan that when he had last seen Padme, she and the babies were in perfect health.
He wondered what Sidious had done to convince Anakin she was on death’s door.
But no matter. There were other reports to listen to, reports of captured Jedi, of his fallen comrades and systems rising up in revolt against this so-called Galactic Empire and of Separatist space roiling in confusion at the loss of their leaders. Luminara Unduli was captured on Kashyyyk and Deepa Bilaba was reported dead. Others as well.
Ki-Adi-Mundi, Aayla Secura, Plo Koon and Stass Allie.
All dead.
All screaming for vengeance.
No, Obi-Wan told himself as the Sith Lord festered in hideous delight.
Only the Dark Side craves vengeance.
There was a chime and the Emperor pushed himself back from his desk and the other Red Guards moved toward the door.
The Emperor passed in front of him and another guard as the four preceded them.
Now! The Light begged. Strike!
Time slowed as Obi-Wan broke ranks and raised a hand to close the door and bring down the blast doors.
One heartbeat.
For a brief moment, the Sith Lord was puzzled and the Darkness seems to laugh at the novelty of it all. How diverting to be surprised at the pinnacle of power and knowledge!
Two heartbeats.
The force pike whistled through the air as Obi-Wan spun toward the Emperor.
Three heartbeats.
The left guard opened his mouth and a strangled noise greeted the Emperor as the Darkness let out a scream of warning.
The Light! The Light! Its chosen warrior is here! He cloaked himself in rage and sorrow, wearing the blood and bones of his enemies!
Four heartbeats.
A gasp of shock and horror escaped Palpatine as the blade cut into his flesh, crushed through a rib, and embedded itself just below his heart.
Air whistled out of his punctured lung and the monster collapsed.
Five heartbeats.
The other guard moved to stop Obi-Wan, who flung him across the room like so much trash.
Six heartbeats.
That was all it took.
One man with a candle for a soul, hiding in the shadows until it was time to ignite the chaos of a new galaxy.
Palpatine gasped and wheezed on the floor, reaching out with the Darkness for his saber, hidden in his desk. Obi-Wan spun as it flew to the old man, ignited and crimson. The Sith Lord tried to struggle up right, to bring his blade up in a defensive stance. He failed.
Obi-Wan sneered and used the Force to drive the bladed pike deeper into the heart of the monster who had chased his shadows his whole life.
He ripped the blood-colored helmet and cloak off, throwing the latter aside to land on the Emperor’s desk and fall halfway to the floor like blood set free from an artery.
Like the growing stain of ichor on the floor where Palpatine lay.
Obi-Wan Kenobi stood triumphant over Darth Sidious.
The Last Jedi Knight looked down at the face of the Last Sith Lord.
“No! You… huaghf… this c-cannot b-be! Traitor! M-murderer!” Palpatine moaned, blood trickling past his pale, distorted fleshy lips. He struggled to pull at the spear, to call the Darkness to him. “Jedi scum! Help me! Won’t someone help me?”
There was pounding on the blast door and Obi-Wan turned his attention to the Red Guards outside. Four spirits raged against the door and then flew backwards, crashing into the walls and each other, scattered like autumn leaves before the throne of power.
The Light Side rejoiced and coiled around its chosen son, the one who stayed true.
The one who never wavered.
The Chosen One of the Light.
Obi-Wan whispered something as he drew out his saber and Sidious struggled to hear it, struggled to hear anything beyond the blistering rage that was enveloping him. If he hadn’t dueled with the Jedi hit squad. If he hadn’t just finished fighting with Yoda, if the Darkness wasn’t swirling around Kenobi and searching for purchase in that searingly pure soul he might have stood a chance.
“You can’t kill me!” Sidious wheezed, his legs failing him as the pike sunk deeper into his flesh. “It will only convince the Galaxy of your treachery when the legendary General Kenobi assassinates the new Emperor!”
Obi-Wan looked down at him, his eyes glowing blue in the light thrown off by his blade. “Do you think I care, Sith Lord? Do you think I care about what history says about Obi-Wan Kenobi? About the lives he saved and the people he didn’t?”
Sidious said nothing, trying to summon the strength to lash out with the Force, his rage and fury distilled down to white-hot lighting. He was biding for time but choking to death on the blood gurgling in his throat.
Obi-Wan bowed his head and murmured something Palpatine couldn’t make out, but it did not matter. The Dark Side returned to him, defeated in its attempt to poison Obi-Wan, and he lashed out with a guttural scream.
The lighting flashed around the room and scorched the electronics, fried the door and the ventilation systems.
It died on Obi-Wan’s blade and Sidious collapsed backwards, groaning in agony as his movements jarred the tip of the blade closer and closer to his heart and spine.
“I c-cannot d-die like thisss…” Sidious gurgled in pain. “I am… S-Sith! M-my apprentice will avenge me!”
“Will he?” Obi-Wan asked, his chest empty where his heart should be, a hollow, sucking wound he knew would never heal. “Knowing him… I suppose he will. But he won’t be a Sith. Not a true one. You’ve had no time to train him, to warp his soul and break his spirit. No, my dear Darth Sidious. I’m afraid the Sith die here with you.”
And the brutal truth hurt far worse than the pike in his chest or the cowering fear of the Dark Side.
Kenobi was right.
The Sith would die with him.
At the pinnacle of their might.
At the apotheosis of their triumph over the Jedi.
The Order destroyed.
The Jedi slaughtered.
The Republic they served gone with the stroke of his pen.
And the Sith would still perish.
Sidious screamed in rage as Obi-Wan closed his eyes and whispered into the Force.
Three names.
Qui-Gon Jinn
Satine Kryze
Anakin Skywalker
With a brutal downward thrust straight into the heart of Darkness the last Sith Lord fell beneath the blade of a Jedi.
Not the last Jedi, though.
Never the last.
Obi-Wan allowed himself a moment of remorse, a moment of relief and rage and exhaustion before he remembered where he was. Escape would be difficult but not impossible.
Nothing was impossible with the Force.
“After the assassination of the putative Emperor Palpatine, the Galactic Republic was thrown into chaos as the two sides warred for control, fascists versus republicans. Individual Separatist systems were courted by one side or the other, both desperate to gain a majority over the other.
“The Jedi seemed to vanish overnight as if the Emperor had simply swept them off the board. They made a few appearances after Operation Knightfall, mostly to rescue imprisoned colleagues or to accept the allegiance of Republic ships that wished to defect.
According to some reports, the Jedi, in a fleet numbering as little as one to as many as ten battle cruisers, took off for the Unknown Regions, determined to leave behind the Galaxy that betrayed them while others believed that they would return one day, stronger and in greater numbers.
They would return when the Galaxy needed them most.
I cannot say one way or the other what happened to General Kenobi after his brilliant assault on the Citadel and the rescue of his brothers and sisters there, but selfishly admit to hoping that he is still out there, the last great Jedi Master watching over us and still finding this galaxy worthy of protecting.”
-Excerpt from Jedi v Sith: The Definitive History of the Galactic Civil War and the Plot to Destroy Democracy by Dr. Quetz Tinneranda of the University of Alderaan
OH GOD NO BUT THAT WOULD BE PERFECT. how did the jedi not think of that?
what is anakin’s biggest weakness? attachments.
you know who needs lots of attachment? babies. small children.
anakin should not have been made to study murder: he should have been put in charge of Small Things. He would have bonded with all of them instantly, and it would have given his life Meaning and Purpose.
He’d bond with the kids, but he’d be able to move on because they are Bigger now and they have to go to the Big Kid Class but he still sees them around all the time, and it finally teaches him how to let go of his attachments??? He’d find a kid that he’s particularly fond of and go to Obi-Wan and say “I have found your newest padawan.”
this could have fixed so. many. things. ;_____;
Heh, and Anakin would keep picking Obi-Wan’s padawans for him, and it would be annoying but damn if he wasn’t right every single time.
BUT CAN YOU
JUST IMAGINE HOW ANNOYED PALPATINE WOULD BE his life would be never-ending
string of trying to get a hold of Anakin (I mean, would Anakin give him a time of day if he can spend it with small kids who absolutely adore him instead?)
he keeps
comming over the years, but it’s always like
BEEP
“Anakin, my
boy, we haven’t seen each other in a while—“
“I’m sorry,
Chancellor, now’s not the best time. I’m tutoring a class.”
BEEP
“My dear
boy, I wonder if we could meet for a chat—“
“Well, it
can’t be this week, we’re going to Ilum, but maybe later…”
BEEP
“Anakin,
I’d like to—“
“I’m
terribly sorry, Chancellor,” Obi-Wan Kenobi answers. The apologetic tone might
be just a tad exaggerated. “Anakin is on a trip with younglings, he
must’ve left his comlink behind accidentally.”
BEEP
“You’ve
reached Anakin Skywalker’s private comlink. Leave the message after the tone.”
BEEP
“It’s such
a shame that Council doesn’t consider sending you on this campaign, considering
the lightsaber skills you demonstrated when I was last visiting the Temple,
Anakin.”
“Thank you,
Chancellor, but this is precisely why I need to stay behind. In fact just the
last week, the Masters decided I should take over some advanced lightsaber
classes, considering senior Padawans accompanying their Masters on the frontlines
need the training. I might take the Bear Clan along, make it a learning
opportunity for the young ones—“
Palpatine
closes his eyes slowly. He knows this from experience; Anakin won’t let himself
be budged from the topic of little monsters for at least another half an hour.
BEEP
“Ah,
Chancellor Palpatine. Anakin left his comlink behind again, he’s in class—“
BEEP
“Anakin, I
hoped you—“
“Oh! Chancellor,”
the voice on the other end is distinctly female, and Palpatine recognizes it after
a second. Kenobi’s second Padawan. He barely restrains the urge to gnash his
teeth. “Um, Skyg—I mean, Master Skywalker can’t pick up now. I can tell him you
called? It’s just that he was helping me with forms, and he forgot his comlink,
and he’s probably already in crèche…”
BEEP
Then there’s
that one time when an actual youngling picks up the call. The less said about his
reaction to that incident, the better.
BEEP
“—fortunately,
they were all right in the end. But in my opinion, this should never happened
in the first place, Chancellor.”
Palpatine
snaps awake. Was that… was that anger? Finally, the hours of listening to
worthless drivel about Jedi younglings paid off.
“My boy, I
absolutely agree,” he begins slyly, but before he can continue, Anakin steamrolls
on.
“I think Jedi
Order is too deeply entwined in the conflict! I honestly don’t think even
senior Padawans should be anywhere near battles, not to mention in command of
GAR, but now even younglings are acceptable targets for Separatists and pirates!
Master Yoda and I were talking about this lately, and—“
Palpatine
swallows a scream of rage with some difficulty.
BEEP
“Forgot his
comlink again, Master Skywalker has. With younglings, he is.”
Slaughtering
younglings moved to the top on the list of things Darth Sidious will do after
taking over galaxy some time ago.
That is what the Council would have done if they were smart. Seriously. Here’s Yoda saying Anakin should not be taught because he senses too much fear in him, and it’s fear for the people he cares about, something everyone present realizes fully because when it comes to his own safety, Anakin couldn’t be more reckless.
Then Qui Gon announces he’s training him anyway, someone points out he might fulfill the prophecy and bring balance to the Force, and nobody, NOBODY, thinks that MAYBE giving him a job that’s more about caring than killing might be an idea. Nope. Okay, we’re training him, let’s foster the loose canon aspect of his personalities, make him a war general and keep pushing him into vicious battles to the death. Sounds perfect for his mental health.
The Jedi Council were a bunch of idiots with their head so far up their own asses even a lightsaber shoved up there to the hilt would not provide them enough light to see further than their own noses.
I think I got lost somewhere in this metaphor. You get the point.
After ten years, Palpatine loses his patience and decides to change his plans. Fuck it, Skywalker has kids now–two adorable little moppets who can be captured, broken, and twisted into twin powerhouses of the Dark Side. Torture one while the other watches, convince them Daddy doesn’t love them, easy-peasy.
Unfortunately, he fails to reckon with the fact that not only is he going up against Anakin Fucking Skywalker, but that Anakin Fucking Skywalker is the surrogate father/big brother/best friend/cool teacher of ninety percent of the current Padawans and young Knights in the Order. And while the Council might make decisions and talk about the Will of the Force and stuff, those Padawans and Knights only care about the fact that the man who scared away the monsters under the bed–made it feel less lonely and frightening to be away from home when they were small–is now hurting and scared for his own children.
Just like Palpatine always wanted, Anakin ends up leading an army. An army of young Jedi who smash the ever-loving shit out of everything “Darth Sidious” can throw at them, rescue the terrified Skywalker twins, and drag the Chancellor hisownself before the Senate with conclusive proof that he’s an evil Dark-Side-wielding bastard who kidnaps adorable kids.
Attachments FTW.
God, YES
Luke and Leia would have grown up with 500 brothers and sisters of assorted species. Whenever you see Anakin there are 10 kids with him, occasionally actively hanging off of his arms or riding on his shoulders. (Anakin looks downright gleeful about this). Padme thinks it’s the most adorable thing ever.
20 years later by the time “A New Hope” would have begun, Anakin is 45. Padme is the new Chancellor. Luke and Leia are finishing their own Jedi training. 90% of the current young Jedi order calls Anakin ‘Dad’. He has amassed the galaxy’s largest collection of refrigerator art. After that incident with Chancellor Palpatine 15 years back, Yoda was forced to admit to Qui Gon’s very smug force-ghost that he was right. Everything is right with the galaxy.
I am so sorry this ate my brain and then things ran away from me. I AM SORRY.
So. Anakin leads an army to retrieve his children and it’s this twisted version of everything Sidious ever wanted and he’s prepared for that.
But Sidious always underestimates how love changes things. And while he’s prepared to fight Anakin’s devoted army of former crechelings, he underestimates how that’s changed the rest of the Order.
Because Obi-Wan is quieter about whom and how he loves but doesn’t make it any less strong. When Obi-Wan loves someone it is unconditional and unyielding and he has never loved anyone as much as he loves Anakin Skywalker. Then the twins are born and Anakin is bashfully about it but he’s not ashamed and of course Obi-Wan has to know, he can’t imagine Obi-Wan not knowing his children (Obi-Wan totally already knows, he has been rolling his eyes about this for months and waiting for Anakin to come to him so he doesn’t spook him or for Padme to knock some freaking sense into him, which she does, because not-dying Padme is scary post-pregnancy and not willing to deal with the stupid anymore) and then Padme hands him Leia and everything stutters to a halt for a moment because oh, oh no, Anakin has found him another padawan.
There is no one Obi-Wan will ever love as fiercely as Anakin, except for Anakin’s children, who may as well be his own children. And he knows from the moment he first holds her that Leia will be the greatest Jedi he ever has a hand in raising.
(It becomes a joke among the Knights and Masters at the temple after the Skywalker twins arrive. If you even think that you might like to take Leia as your padawan, you can feel Obi-Wan glare at you no matter where he is in the galaxy.)
And when Sidious kidnaps Anakin’s children – his future padawan – Obi-Wan is the only Jedi in the galaxy who can put a hand on Anakin’s shoulder and say we need a distraction to do this safely, trust me to bring them home for you. Anakin will lead the frontal assault and tear down all of Sidious’ carefully constructed plans. Obi-Wan will sneak in and safeguard their children and bring them home.
That’s the plan, anyway.
Here’s what none of them expected:
When Luke Skywalker came screaming and red-faced into the world, an ancient, meddling, troll of a Jedi Master who had vowed never to take another padawan felt it and thought: fuck.
Whereas Leia is, even as a child, stubborn and willful and silk hiding steel, Luke is twin balls of sunshine. Raised among Jedi, he is so bright a presence it hurts. Even raised among Jedi, he wears his heart on his sleeve and has absolutely no guile and he pouts when the cafeteria doesn’t serve his favourite dessert but will cheerfully walk across the room and give it to someone else if he senses that person is still hungry. The first time Luke sees Yoda he stares at him, all big blue eyes and pudgy baby hands, then grabs his ears and won’t let go. Everyone is horrified. Yoda harrumphs at him and tell him, “Patience, young one.” He toddles after Yoda from the time he can crawl and no matter how grouchy Yoda seems he never actively dissuades him from it.
After the twins enter the temple, Anakin always knows not to worry if Luke is missing from the crèche. Yoda will escort him back sooner or later.
(He’s always much more worried when Leia disappears because, yes, Obi-Wan will bring her back but they’ll have always gotten into trouble in the meantime.)
Yoda does not confront Darth Sidious. Yoda does not lose his duel with the Sith lord and become diminished because of it. Yoda is with Obi-Wan, sneaking into his stronghold to see the twins safe. Yoda cannot go Sith hunting when Luke is in pain and gently clinging to him, his arms around his neck, bruised and bleeding and smiled at Yoda when he saw him because Luke knew he would come.
(Sidious cannot win, with them. Leia would risk her home being obliterated rather than betray her righteous cause. Luke would willingly walk into flames rather than give up on those he loves. It hurts, oh it hurts, to see the other in pain, but Leia can watch Luke being hurt and know there are more important things at stake than the two of them and Luke can watch Leia being hurt and trust that they will be saved.)
Sidious escapes but his Empire falls before it solidifies. He will never be as powerful as he needs to be.
(It’s Anakin who notices there is something wrong with the clones. He’s not their General but Obi-Wan is and Obi-Wan is a good general. When Obi-Wan is hurt, they’re all nosey and worried and Anakin – all but glued to his former Master’s bedside when it’s really bad and first and foremost a mechanic – can tell that something is wrong. He’s not always with them so it never becomes familiar, it never becomes normal, and it niggles at the back of his brain until he’s sitting in front of Obi-Wan’s bacta tank – old training bond humming between them because Obi-Wan hates drugs and hates being sedated and he stays quieter and heals faster if Anakin is there to keep him calm – and Rex walks in to check on the General and Anakin turns around to look at him and he sees it.
The Jedi Order quietly deprograms the clone army. They trace the chip back to Palpatine. Padme and Bail Organa and Mon Mothma start quietly amassing information against him and his allies – enough for criminal charges, pushing Sidious to show his hand and try to kidnap the twins.)
Obi-Wan takes Leia as his Padawan the second she’s old enough for it to be proper. They are scarily well matched. If he was the Jedi’s best hope to keep planets from succeeding during the war, together they can talk whole systems into rejoining the rebuilding Republic.
Yoda leaves Luke in the crèche until the day before his thirteenth birthday. Everyone is worried except Luke (who knows he is meant to be a Jedi and knows Master Yoda is meant to teach him and trusts this, since he was raised in the Temple. It’s easier to have faith when you’ve always had it and it’s never been wrong). Fourteen Jedi have tried to ask him to be their apprentice. Yoda bashed twelve of them over the head with his stick before they could and Luke turned two down himself, the last three days before his birthday. He spends his last day as a twelve-year old following his dad around, both of them a little clingier than usual. Anakin has always thought that Yoda intended to take Luke as his Padawan but he’s literally hours from aging out and he’s seriously considering comming Ashoka and begging her to come act as backup, when Luke suddenly hugs Anakin hard and quick and Anakin looks over and sees Yoda waiting in the doorway.
Anakin hugs Luke back very, very tightly and then he lets him go. Luke already has his few things packed and waiting. Yoda harrumphs at him. “Ready, you are, padawan mine?”
Luke’s smile is blinding. “Yes, Master.”
Leia talks star systems into rejoining the Republic. Luke returns the Fallen to the Jedi. Dooku is the first and most fleeting (having not been killed by Anakin) – having been betrayed and split from Sidious – Luke finds him when he’s dying and gets Yoda to him in time for him to pass them information on Sidious’ new schemes and die a Jedi, with his old master at his side. There are others, after that, who Fell during the war and didn’t think they could ever return from it. Luke, bright and shiny and full of faith, sees them, thinks, I can fix this, and brings them home one by one.
After the second Return, which is unavoidably public, Leia and Obi-Wan look at each other and enlist everyone they can to begin working to make Luke the new poster boy for the Order. Luke is intensely embarrassed by this and a bit bumbling and shy about it, which just makes it more attractive to everyone. It also keeps the spotlight well away from their rebuilding efforts, which are way easier when there’s less press exposure.
Sidious, who would still like to capture and corrupt the twins, eventually stops trying with Luke because there’s only a 50/50 anyone he sends after him will come back and between years of Yoda’s training (ie dodging his stick), Luke’s innate Force sense and his dumb luck he’s practically impossible to kill.
(Sidious dies ignobly at the hands of a new apprentice, one of the Fallen who Luke has been trying to save. His defeat was always going to be someone else’s redemption.)
You people need to tag me when you write, I keep missing good stuff like above!
Oh GOSH!
Everyone predicted Leia would eventually leave the order to follow in her mother’s footsteps but the SCANDAL that erupted when she married a former smuggler had the gossip rags going for years. Because circumstances sometimes change, but the Force will always find a way for certain absolutes. They have one son, and adopt several wayward young people along the way.
Anakin is delighted by his grandson for all that he’s sad that he couldn’t share him with Obi-Wan, who passed just before he was born. Ben would follow his grandfather around like a baby duck and hated sharing him with the other younglings. He’d get so angry when he felt Anakin was giving the other children more attention than him. Anakin would gently explain that he couldn’t play favorites, but Ben would still react with anger and find a place to pout alone.
He is five when he finds a nice secluded spot in the gardens, barely visible from the main path. A fountain sits in the center and Ben lets out his frustration by throwing small stones into it. He doesn’t notice Mace until he sits down right next to him and says “I like to come here too, when I’m angry.”
Ben is startled at first. Though he’s still small and largely untrained, no one has ever really snuck up on him before. He’s also never heard a master admit to being angry before. When questioned, Mace answers that everyone gets angry sometimes. The Jedi way isn’t the eradication of emotion, but the control of it. He brings Ben back to Anakin, who apologizes to the aging master for troubling him, but Mace dismisses the apology and tells him it was no trouble at all. Anakin glances sideways at Mace; they don’t always agree on things, but he can’t help but smile. It has been decades since Master Windu last took a padawan.
As Ben grows older he excels in his lessons. He’s smart, persistent, and so, so powerful in the Force. He’s the very top of his class, and the only one who has yet to be chosen by a master. He still goes to the fountain when he finds himself at war with his emotions. Usually he meditates alone for a while until he is able to calm down, but sometimes, when he feels particularly lost, Master Windu will show up. At these times Ben will often ask for advice, but sometimes they will simply sit together in silence.
Ben is desperate the day before he turns 13. He doesn’t understand how he could work so hard and not be noticed by a single master in the entire temple (which isn’t true, nearly everyone knows Ben Solo and can feel the pull of the Force around him. They also know they were not meant to guide him). He almost, almost comms his uncle and begs to take him as his padawan, but ultimately doesn’t because he knows how Luke follows the Force and if he were going to take him, he would have a long time ago. (Luke is busy anyway; a small girl in the outer rim is about to turn 3.)
He goes out to the fountain to watch the sun set. The next day he’ll go before the Council of Reassignment to be placed into a division of the Jedi Service Corps. He supposes it wouldn’t be so bad to be placed into the Exploration Corps, he’d see much of the galaxy that way. He sits and plans and wills himself to not cry. After all, the Jedi way isn’t the eradication of emotion, but the mastery of it.
Master Windu is still able to sneak up on him even though he’s doing so with a cane these days. Ben once held the hope that maybe the old master would take him as a padawan, but everyone knows Mace doesn’t take padawans anymore. His work on the Council is too important and he can’t give his precious time to a student, no matter what sort of strange bond has formed between them over the years. They sit for a moment before Ben breaks the silence. “What do you think my chances are of being assigned to the Exploration Corps?”
Mace seems to ponder the question for a moment. “Your scores in xenolinguistics is very high. You’ve also done very well in your survival field tests. You’d be a credit to the ExplorCorps.” He pauses for a moment. “Is that what you want to to do?”
Ben doesn’t give a straight answer, “It’s an honor,” he swallows the lump in his throat, “to be a part of the Service Corps.”
Mace sighs. “For someone who feels the Force so acutely, you have so little faith in it.” Ben winces. “Your patience leaves a lot to be desired. And you never really let go of anything.”
Ben is shaking. Of course. It doesn’t matter how well he does in his studies when the fundamentals of the ways of the Force is where he has always failed. He could never be a true Jedi. But it feels like the rawest betrayal when Mace says, “You can’t go into the Exploration Corps, Ben. Being left to drift through the galaxy unguided would be disastrous for you. You’d be very susceptible to the Dark Side if left alone.”
Ben’s eyes feel wet. He knows that too, though he’s never confessed to any of the masters about it. He was stupid to think he could hide it, though. The masters probably felt the Dark Side around him and rejected him outright. A bitter voice inside him resents them for dragging it out for so long.
Then he feels a warm hand on his shoulder. “I’m not afraid of the Dark, Ben. And you shouldn’t be either.” In spite of Master Windu’s gentle tone, Ben can’t bare to look at him. “Self mastery is a life long pursuit that no one ever really accomplishes. You have to take it day by day, even I’m still learning. You have everything you need, you just have to remember that it is a choice you must make and commit to every day.”
Ben sniffs. “Yes, Master.” But when Ben looks up at Mace, he doesn’t see the cold face of a stern teacher or the disappointment of an unsatisfied elder. He doesn’t even see the sympathy that everyone has been directing towards him as he got closer and closer to his 13th birthday. Instead there is warmth and fondness.
“However,” he continues, “it’s not a path you need to travel alone. At least not at first… if you’ll have me as your master.”
Ben lunges at Mace and hugs him tight. “Do you really mean it?”
Mace huffs a short laugh and ruffles the boy’s hair. “I’m too old to say things I don’t mean.” He pulls away. “But Ben, are you sure? I’m not the easier teacher.”
Finally able to hope again, Ben gives his master (his master!) a grin. “I’m not the easiest student!”
Mace gives an actual laugh at that. “Good!” He pulls himself up. “Alright, lets go make it official. I know that grand-daddy of yours is dying to start gloating like the gossiping old hen he is.”
No one’s quite sure where the little boy originally came from. He was found in a far-off system on a small icy planet, their names erased and replaced by code numbers, in a facility run by former followers of the late, unlamented Sheev Palpatine.
Most of the children were adopted out, but this one boy wasn’t. The reviewers found him to be strong in the Force, but some of the Council were worried about him – he was easily distracted, because he was constantly afraid of what was going to happen to him.
That first night, he lay in his bunk, in greater luxury than he’d had at Starkiller Base, and cried in terror after lights out. It was the first time he’d been alone in a room for, as far as he could remember, his entire life. He was alone, and terrified, and wondered what he’d done to be punished like this.
The door slid open, and the Training Master looked in. “Excuse me,” Anakin Skywalker, aged but smiling, looked in. “I sensed you in the Force. What’s wrong?”
The boy, who had been FN-2187, and named Finn, curled up. “’m scared.”
Anakin entered the room, closing the door, and sat down on the floor. He drew on the floor for strength and relief in his creaky joints, and smiled the smile that fifty years of younglings had learned to trust. “It’s okay. It can be scary.”
“Jedi don’t get scared.”
Anakin laughed, softly. “Oh, no, we do. But it’s not being scared that’s important. It’s what you do when you’re scared. A Jedi knows how to focus past the fear, and what fear does to you, and listen to the Force. Let me show you.” And in that moment, Anakin hears the voices of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn and Mace Windu and Yoda in his mind, all of them saying the same thing: “There you go again, Anakin.”
When Finn is thirteen, he becomes Anakin’s padawan, because of course he would, after Anakin’s first lesson, and then his time teaching that first meditation exercise to the new younglings, helping them the way he was helped, showing the compassion that was at his core. If Anakin is Dad, now they have their big brother Finn, who knows how scary it was and how one good moment can help you feel not so alone, not so scared, and how to find where you fit in.
When the time comes that Anakin must step down from active duty because he’s too old, too frail, to keep going, Finn is gobsmacked to be told he will take Anakin’s place.
And he always, always, has a bit of candy hidden in his belt, because he knows a dozen ways to calm a crying child and believes a little bit of candy is a good distraction while he figures out the best one.
And to the next generation of Jedi, Finn is the one they call “Dad”.
No, but seriously, the way Weiss threw down her weapon the second she and Yang were alone, and literally leapt into Yang’s arms, and that crack and quiver of her voice when she told Yang she missed her somuch, the way she immediately let her guard down and let her Knight down and basically surrendered all of her strength to Yang, just all of it was so freaking beautiful and touching and I couldn’t have asked for a better reunion. This is literally the scene I’ve been waiting for since I started shipping Freezerburn back in Volume 1.
konekorambles 