Five years ago… Empire Day.

Two men sat at a polished table in a white conference room, discussing the lives of two infants with the clinical detachment of droid merchants. Or at least that's how it felt to Obi-Wan as he sat with them.

The girl was to go to Alderaan, raised in the arms of luxury, a dearly wanted daughter for the childless royal couple.

The boy was to go to Tatooine, to be raised as an obligation to people he shared no kinship with on a planet that was drowning in sand.

No!

Obi-Wan covered his mouth, faking an expression of deep thought to hide the sudden, blistering rage that sprang forth within. He wondered if Yoda sensed his almost primal reaction, and was glad when Bail Organa took his leave of the two Jedi, none the wiser to his growing fury.

"More to say have you, Master Kenobi?" Yoda asked, coolly observing the exhausted Jedi in singed robes before him. "Anger I sense in you. Passed this test already, you have."

Obi-Wan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, turning to look at the former Grand Master of the Jedi order.

"I do not understand why Luke is to be sent away to the Lars family," he began, picking his words with great care. "Surely there are other families, friendly to the Jedi, that would be more than willing to raise Luke. Tatooine is so… desolate."

Yes, that sounds more than reasonable. Surely Master Yoda will reconsider.

"No," Yoda replied, hopping off his chair with a puff of exertion. "To Tatooine and his family, the child goes. Far from the Empire he will be."

Anakin would hate the idea of strangers raising his son. To say nothing of doing so on Tatooine!

No. He needed to make Yoda see reason.

"But Master Yoda," the younger Jedi said, following after his venerable elder. "There is no guarantee that the Lars family will want to raise Luke. They are not his blood."

"Understand, you will make them," Yoda said, a faint thread of disapproval in the rasping tone of his voice. "Best for both the boy and you, this is. Training I have for you during your solitude."

"Training?" Obi-Wan echoed, confused and irritated. Why, in the face of everything they had just lost to the Sith, was Yoda so damn set on this decision? Did he not understand that the Jedi Order was no more? That the customs and traditions of the Order went up in flames with the temple and the thousands of dead Jedi across the galaxy?

Was Obi-Wan to just leave Anakin's son on a sandy doorstep and hope these people he had never met were caring and compassionate?

Was he to give up even this child? After everything the Force and the Order had taken away from him, it now asked for this final piece of his heart?

This was Anakin's child!

This was all he had left of his padawan, his friend, and his brother.

This perfect, tiny being made of Anakin and Padme's love for each other.

Was there no end to the things he was to lose?

First the Dark Side stole Qui-Gon.

Then it murdered Satine.

Ahsoka left.

Padme died.

And Anakin…

Darth Vader devoured Anakin from the inside out.

A black hole of fear and anger had swallowed whole the light of the man who had trusted him, who had bled with him, who had saved his life more times than he could count. He was… They were…

Skywalker and Kenobi.

Two halves of a single warrior.

If Anakin could not raise his son, then Obi-Wan would raise him in his stead.

"I will raise Luke," he told Yoda, collecting himself, suddenly recalling his old master's defiance in front of the council and the quirked eyebrow of Master Windu at Qui-Gon's determination.

Gone. All gone.

"Qui-Gon's defiance, lives in you still," Yoda rasped, closing his eyes and running a clawed hand over what remained of his sparse white hair. "Dangerous that is. Strong attachment to the boy you have. Need that, you do not."

Obi-Wan said nothing, letting the memory of Qui-Gon's defiance hover in the air between them.

"Stop you I cannot," Yoda sighed and climbed back onto his meditation cushion by the room's large window. "Foolish and reckless, Skywalker made you."

Obi-Wan continued his silence, waiting for the tension between them, between the last two Jedi Masters in the galaxy, to ease.

When it became clear Yoda would say no more, Obi-Wan turned and walked out, his heart aching at such a bitter parting.

He prayed they would meet again and the ancient Master would see that he had made the right decision.

His mysterious 'training' would have to wait.

Back in the conference room, Yoda spoke to no one and everyone. "Your padawan, he is. Defiant and reckless, Kenobi has become, like Skywalker."

"He will learn in time." The low, warm tones of a long-lost voice filled the room. "No one will love the boy more than Obi-Wan. Trust in the Force, old friend, and all will be well."

"Your faith in this, share I do not," Yoda replied, closing his eyes and settling into a deep meditation.