The End of All Things [Obi-Wan Kenobi, G]
Jul. 15th, 2008 11:30 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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starwarsficfestTitle: The End of All Things
Author:![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jedi_em
Rating: G
Word count: 399
Prompt: PT, Obi-Wan: His breakdown behind the door to a storage compartment on Padme's ship prior to his battle with Anakin on Mustafar.
Characters: Obi-Wan, mentions of Anakin and Padmé
Summary: Obi-Wan ponders his own guilt
Author's Note: I'm treading familiar ground here, so I hope this doesn't come off as too repetitive for those of you who have been following my untitled post-RotS ficlet series. Oh, and yes, the title definitely was inspired by a line from The Lord of the Rings.
The compartment door slides shut with the motion of his hand and an ominous dread begins to pool low in his stomach. He can sense Padmé’s distress keenly in the Force, but even that provides little distraction. For the first time all day, Obi-Wan has nothing to do but think about everything he’s done wrong.
**
There had been a change in Anakin after Tatooine, after Geonosis. After Naboo. He hadn’t commented on it at the time, of course. Anakin had had his new prosthetic arm to deal with and, Obi-Wan had thought, a rather considerable and obvious infatuation with Senator Padmé Amidala to expunge. Obi-Wan had trusted that the young Senator would set the situation with his apprentice to right.
He’d never even considered that Padmé had become as irrational as he in her own love for Anakin.
**
Even closing his eyes affords him no reprieve. Whether it’s the most recent visions of his former Padawan mercilessly cutting down fellow Jedi, or the remembrance of a small boy in need of the kind of guidance and love that had just been taken so suddenly from him, it makes no difference. Each memory, each thought brings only fresh guilt, layer after layer until his head aches with it.
**
The acknowledgment in Padmé’s eyes had almost been a sweet relief. The way she’d cast her gaze down toward her midriff, the way she’d run her hand over its swell – these gestures had been answer enough. He found a sad comfort in her unspoken admission.
He’d known in that moment that she would go to Anakin. And that, in so going, she would lead the three of them to the end of all things.
**
For the first time in his entire life, Obi-Wan wishes he could simply run away.
Guilt and regret, love and grief, emotions from a life that should have been different from this one. He’d told Yoda that he should have fallen to the Zabrak on Naboo, that if he’d only died alongside Qui-Gon, Anakin would never have been taken from his home, would never have become a Jedi. But now he wonders if even that would have prevented this reckoning.
As the tears rise in his eyes, as he realizes he is helpless to stop them, he wonders if he can really still call himself a Jedi. He wonders if he ever should have.
Author:
jedi_em Rating: G
Word count: 399
Prompt: PT, Obi-Wan: His breakdown behind the door to a storage compartment on Padme's ship prior to his battle with Anakin on Mustafar.
Characters: Obi-Wan, mentions of Anakin and Padmé
Summary: Obi-Wan ponders his own guilt
Author's Note: I'm treading familiar ground here, so I hope this doesn't come off as too repetitive for those of you who have been following my untitled post-RotS ficlet series. Oh, and yes, the title definitely was inspired by a line from The Lord of the Rings.
The compartment door slides shut with the motion of his hand and an ominous dread begins to pool low in his stomach. He can sense Padmé’s distress keenly in the Force, but even that provides little distraction. For the first time all day, Obi-Wan has nothing to do but think about everything he’s done wrong.
**
There had been a change in Anakin after Tatooine, after Geonosis. After Naboo. He hadn’t commented on it at the time, of course. Anakin had had his new prosthetic arm to deal with and, Obi-Wan had thought, a rather considerable and obvious infatuation with Senator Padmé Amidala to expunge. Obi-Wan had trusted that the young Senator would set the situation with his apprentice to right.
He’d never even considered that Padmé had become as irrational as he in her own love for Anakin.
**
Even closing his eyes affords him no reprieve. Whether it’s the most recent visions of his former Padawan mercilessly cutting down fellow Jedi, or the remembrance of a small boy in need of the kind of guidance and love that had just been taken so suddenly from him, it makes no difference. Each memory, each thought brings only fresh guilt, layer after layer until his head aches with it.
**
The acknowledgment in Padmé’s eyes had almost been a sweet relief. The way she’d cast her gaze down toward her midriff, the way she’d run her hand over its swell – these gestures had been answer enough. He found a sad comfort in her unspoken admission.
He’d known in that moment that she would go to Anakin. And that, in so going, she would lead the three of them to the end of all things.
**
For the first time in his entire life, Obi-Wan wishes he could simply run away.
Guilt and regret, love and grief, emotions from a life that should have been different from this one. He’d told Yoda that he should have fallen to the Zabrak on Naboo, that if he’d only died alongside Qui-Gon, Anakin would never have been taken from his home, would never have become a Jedi. But now he wonders if even that would have prevented this reckoning.
As the tears rise in his eyes, as he realizes he is helpless to stop them, he wonders if he can really still call himself a Jedi. He wonders if he ever should have.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-16 06:04 am (UTC)Heee, poor Obi-Wan, I really SHOULD love him more.Poor, poor Obi-Wan... and he's only going to screw up again by leaving Anakin to burn on Mustafar!
I think it's his crying at the end that really gets to me. The stoic Jedi losing it. he wonders if he can really still call himself a Jedi. He wonders if he ever should have. Yes, Obi-Wan, you'll be a great help to Luke later! *pets*
Also, "expunge" is totally a kickass word.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 12:17 pm (UTC)Thank you for reading, my sweet.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 01:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-16 06:27 am (UTC)Each memory, each thought brings only fresh guilt, layer after layer until his head aches with it.
Heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking. *hugs Obi-Wan*
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-16 03:01 pm (UTC)I can imagine Obi-Wan going over and over everything during all those years on Tatooine, imagining all the ways he could have done things differently. I know he loved Anakin but I think he never really saw him, and that's why Anakin never trusted him enough to confide in him about some things.
But you packed so much emotion into this story, loved it.:)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 12:20 pm (UTC)While I can certainly see Obi-Wan's faults, I also have a soft spot for the guy, which is why I snapped up this prompt right away. Heh.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-16 03:55 pm (UTC)This was a nice lead for the final sentence, the both of them loving Anakin and only Obi-Wan, as a Jedi, truly considering that this was beyond-the-pale behavior. I liked the sense of doom, the sense of one day Obi-Wan saying and meaning, "Yes, I was once a Jedi Knight, like your father."
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 08:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 11:23 am (UTC)Wonderful job.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 08:39 am (UTC)The use of the present tense really helps bring the impact home - good job!
*enjoys, for fish*
Sealgirl
no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 01:15 pm (UTC)*throws more fish*