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13. Old Friends Are Gold and Gems

Obi-Wan tried to maintain conscious thought. There was no lava, no Darth Vader, no Darth Sidious. He was safe, and surrounded by his friends. He was looking into the worried faces of Bant, Siri and nine-year-old Anakin, not the hateful, burned, defeated visage of Darth Vader.

Rationally, Obi-Wan realised that he had reacted traumatically to Siri using the same desperate move that Vader had tried on Mustafar before his dismemberment and subsequent demise. He realised that Siri was lucky, and unaware of the danger she had put her limbs in. If he had reacted physically, rather than mentally, Siri would right now be fighting for her life in the Temple Medcentre.

Obi-Wan realised that he was leaning against his old Master, and felt Yoda's efforts through the Force to siphon away Obi-Wan's visions.

"There is something you must know. Siri, Bant, Anakin… there's a lot about me you know nothing of. But if something happens to me, I know that the Council will watch and wait, not acting but reacting, and all will be lost."

Yoda broke the worried silence. "Go to a private room, you should. Padawan Eerin, you are tasked with ensuring Knight Kenobi's health. Padawan Tachi, Padawan Skywalker, a lot to learn from your friend, you have. A long story to tell, Obi-Wan has."

Bant and Siri pulled Obi-Wan to his feet, and Qui-Gon released him to the support of his comrades. Anakin followed the three friends out of the training hall, with a concerned glance to his Master, who encouraged him to accompany Obi-Wan.

They eventually reached what Anakin guessed was either Bant or Siri's apartment, and the young women lowered the Knight to a couch. Bant sat beside him, and Anakin tucked himself into Obi-Wan's other side. Siri fell down into an armchair, and the silence was finally broken by Obi-Wan.

"I didn't want to tell Anakin, for fear that he would believe himself destined, or think he is Dark inside. But I can't keep this secret from my best friends. I never had a vision on Tatooine. I experienced something unheard of, the Force itself put me on a mission which may take my life and many others besides. You know that Qui-Gon believed there was a Chosen One who would bring balance to the Force." Siri and Bant nodded, but Anakin remained silent. He had heard the words, but did not understand the meaning.

"This One does exist. In fact, he's our Anakin."

Bant gasped, and Siri's eyes widened. Anakin asked, "What does that mean?"

Obi-Wan looked down to Anakin. "It means that, if people find out, they will expect you to do things that no-one can do. They will expect you to be a better Jedi than any raised at the Temple from infancy. It means that you will bring balance to the Force."

Anakin nodded, though he didn't really understand. So he was special? He was different from the other Jedi?

"I came back from a terrible future, where Qui-Gon died on Naboo, Anakin was left to be trained by me, who was not ready for a Padawan, and was barely prepared for Knighthood. Anakin was noticed by the Sith Lord, and though I killed his apprentice after he'd killed Qui-Gon, he simply trained another. He kept his eye on Anakin for his entire adolescence, poisoning him against the Jedi, who treated him as an outsider more often than not. I can't say I was blameless, for I unintentionally kept Anakin at arm's length, when what he needed was a loving environment."

"You came back from the future?" Siri asked, bewildered.

"Let him talk, he'll explain it in time," Bant chided. "Obi-Wan?"

He took a deep breath. "Anakin fell to the Dark Side, he became a Sith. There was a galactic civil war, in which the Jedi had become Generals of a clone army, and in an instant, when Anakin became Darth Vader, thousands of Jedi Knights, Masters and Senior Padawans were cut down by their own troops. Master Yoda and I survived by chance, and rendezvoused on a trusted Senator's spacecraft. I don't know if any others survived."

Tears leaked down Bant's cheeks, while Anakin sniffled. Siri, ever the strong one, reached out to pat Obi-Wans shoulder in a gesture of support.

"Anakin, now Darth Vader, went to the Jedi Temple. He killed everyone there, from the few Masters still on Coruscant to the smallest infants in their cradles. Yoda and I saw a security holovid of some of it, and then Sidious sent him to take care of the leaders of one side of the war, to murder them on Mustafar. Yoda engaged Sidious in a duel while I fought my old apprentice, and now my mortal enemy."

By now, even strong Siri had tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I gained the high ground, and Anakin tried the same move Siri began today. I did what I had to, and cut off his left arm and both legs in a single motion. Defeated and dying, he lay on the bank of a lava flow, his mechanical hand – the original had been lost duelling the previous Sith apprentice – grappling for purchase on the black sand. I left him there, burning, and he yelled that he hated me. I still loved him, or what he had been, and I told him that he was my brother, and I'd loved him. I told him that he was the Chosen One, he'd known since he joined the Jedi, and that meant he was to bring balance to the Force, but all he'd done was darken both it and the galaxy."

Anakin buried his face in Obi-Wan's tunic. Obi-Wan continued to speak, rubbing comforting circles into Anakin's back.

"Yoda must not have succeeded, for Sidious sought me out on that fiery death trap of a planet. We duelled, the Last Jedi Master and the Last Sith Master, and he wore me down, for the Dark offers unlimited power, while I was relying on duty and honour and determination to do the right thing to keep me alive. But I had nothing to live for, and I was exhausted already. He overcame me, and I fell into the lava, to join my family, the Jedi Order, in the Force, which had become tainted by the Sith."

"You died?" Anakin asked hollowly, while Bant hugged Obi-Wan tightly.

"I died. But when I'd accepted my failure, the Force did the most unexpected thing. It somehow brought me back to life, in a place and time where I could make a difference. I realised that the relationships between people were the cause of the Jedi Order's fall, and the Sith's rising, and have been attempting to create and maintain strong bonds of trust and friendship with all whom I hold dear. I admit that I meddled in your life, Anakin, and that I still am. I ensured that you wouldn't become a hero of Naboo, so that Palpatine would never notice you or your potential. I made sure that no-one at the Temple knew that you were anything but an ordinary Padawan who started training late. I also made certain that Palpatine would not become Supreme Chancellor."

"You did the right thing Obi-Wan," Bant asserted through her tears.

"Why is it so important that Palpatine not notice Anakin? And that he not become Chancellor? Siri wondered.

Obi-Wan looked deep into her eyes, and said with chilling clarity, "Palpatine is Darth Sidious. We have to destroy him."

"I will be beside you every step of the way, Obi-Wan," Siri vowed. Bant agreed, and Anakin said he'd help as much as he could.

"Who knows?" Bant asked.

"I've only told the Council, Qui-Gon, and you three. The Queen and one of her handmaidens suspect that I have a higher mission than to protect their planet, but have not guessed at its importance. I will not let the Jedi Order fall again."

"The rule of no attachments?" Siri said, voicing an incomplete thought. "You know that attachments lead to the Dark."

"Attachment and love are two different things. One can love another without being possessive, much like one can have best friends or Masters and Padawans without being possessive. I am going to reform the Order into something that will survive the coming storm, and will be able to remove the threat of the Sith once and for all."

With that mission in mind, four Jedi began the task of a lifetime – to reform the Jedi Order, and to destroy the Legacy of the Sith.

Epilogue. The Price of Freedom

Bant followed her Master, Kit Fisto, off the transport, and into the dry, desolate desert of Mos Eisley Spaceport.

The Mon Calamari and the Nautolan stood out starkly against the multitude of desert-dwelling species inhabiting Tatooine. Bant glanced around nervously, already feeling her skin dry in the heat of the twin suns.

"Master," she began, shrinking away from the salacious leers of a pair of Dugs, "I don't think we are in the right place. How could a child as sweet as Anakin grow up here?"

Kit turned to face her for a moment, before returning his attention to the patrons of the spaceport and its adjoining cantina. "He didn't live in the Cantina, Bant. We need to find Watto's junk shop. It shouldn't be too difficult, he's a Toydarian so we'll be able to ask around." With that, the Jedi Master approached a pair of (in Bant's opinion, thuggish) pilots, one a Besalisk and the other a human.

"What you want, Jedi?" the Besalisk slurred as Kit stopped at their table. Kit smiled benevolently.

"I'm looking for a junk dealer, a Toydarian by the name of Watto. Do you know where his shop is located?"

"Watto, eh?" the human asked. The Besalisk laughed, and went back to his drink. The human looked Bant up and down, decided not to try anything as his eyes lit upon her blatantly displayed lightsaber, and then gave the pair vague directions to find Watto's shop.

By the time they finally reached the junk dealership, Bant had taken to keeping one hand on the hilt of her lightsaber as she walked, and glaring with fierce silver eyes at anyone who so much as glanced at her.

She and her Master stepped into the welcome shade of the junk shop, and were greeted by a human woman. "Hello. What are you looking for today, Master Jedi?" she smiled, looking up from polishing a droid.

Kit answered, "I'd like to speak to your master. I have a proposition to make."

"He's out back, looking over the pod." She waved Kit through, and so the Nautolan went through the back exit to bake once more in the dry sun of the back yard.

Bant approached the woman shyly. "Hi, miss. I'm Bant Eerin, Jedi Padawan."

"Shmi Skywalker," the woman introduced herself. Bant's heart leapt – they had indeed found the right place.

"You're not the first Jedi who's come by recently," Shmi mused. Bant grinned.

"Oh, you met Master Jinn?"

"Indeed. There was actually another, though he didn't look like a Jedi, who left empty handed. Name was Vos, I think."

Bant looked down. So Quinlan Vos had indeed tried to free Shmi already, unsuccessfully. "Do you know what he'd been looking for?"

"I think it was the pod," Shmi confided. "Because he didn't have enough money, and that was the pod my son won the Boonta Eve Classic in. It's worth a lot, and Watto wants to get the most out of it he can."

"I've met your son. He's a sweet kid."

"Oh? So he did become a Jedi after all. I knew that Jinn would keep his word," the slave woman truly smiled then, knowing her son was making a better life for himself.

Bant met her eyes. "He did. In fact, Master Jinn is now training Anakin as his own Padawan."

Shmi's eyes shone with tears of joy. Bant couldn't help but smile in return.

A noise from the back caught the women's attention, and Kit strolled into the store as if he owned the place, followed by Watto who was flitting around, flustered, as he protested the unfairness of whatever Kit had done.

"Bant, we're leaving. We're taking either the pod or the girl, I don't care which. You're choice." With that, the Jedi Master strode out of the shop, leaving Watto flabbergasted and silent behind him.

Bant turned to Watto, eyes cold. "I have no use for a racing pod. I'm taking the slave. Where's her remote?"

Shmi stood still, looking betrayed, and Bant attempted to ignore her, focussing on intimidating Watto. The Toydarian finally caved, handing over a slave's remote, which Bant took sharply, and then Bant left the store, calling behind her, "Shmi! We're leaving."

They walked through Mos Eisley quickly, Bant and Kit almost jogging as they could feel their skin drying up in the desert atmosphere. Shmi followed silently, and no-one spoke until they all arrived on board the mercifully humid ship the Jedi had initially arrived in.

Kit placed himself in the pilot's chair and began sequences for takeoff, while Bant turned to the silent Shmi.

"I'm sorry about that, Shmi. You wouldn't happen to know which button on this thing is the one that releases you?"

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A/N: So, we've reached the end. Here's to hoping you've all enjoyed my little tale, and I'd just like to say a huge THANK YOU to all who put Sabotage on your Favourites or Story Alert list, and especially to all those who reviewed. Any and all comments are appreciated, especially if you include ways for me to improve.