Their Lady Adyé [Star Wars]

She Was Alive

No matter his decades of experience at shedding his feelings, Obi-wan was anxious. He hid it well. He knew he did. The assurance of yet more decades of experience told him that.

But he was anxious to see Him face-to-face again.

He strode calmly yet quietly down the empty auxiliary hall of the Death Star, making his way back up toward the hangar where the Millennium Falcon waited, trapped.

After all these years, the thought of meeting his former apprentice again was enough to unsettle his carefully cultivated control. It wasn't enough to sway him from his course, but it was enough to shake his calm. Thankfully, it didn't affect his alertness, nor did it distract him. He couldn't let it. He had a practiced ease at dealing with distracting thoughts.

But facing Vader?

It was going to be hard. It was an eventuality he had been preparing himself to face for years. It was his destiny to face Darth Vader again. He'd known that the instant he'd learned of Vader's survival.

He also knew it was the last thing he would do.

That was another eventuality he had similarly known of for a very long time. He'd known the day he left Neva at Padmé's apartment that he would die at Vader's hand. It had been a firm, inarguable feeling. No one had been more surprised than Obi-wan when he'd been the one to emerge from the fiery waste of Mustafar the victor. It had shaken him to think that the Force had been wrong. He'd known that his death would come at Vader's hand. Yet he'd survived.

But then he'd heard that Vader had survived as well.

It was then that he'd known the Force hadn't misled him; he'd just misunderstood.

Now he was about to face his former apprentice again, and this time he knew undoubtedly that it would be the last time. He'd known the time was approaching the instant he'd felt Vader's dark presence aboard the battlestation. He knew this impending confrontation would be the last thing he did in this life. Part of him deflated at the thought, but another part knew only relief. Obi-wan was tired. But he also regretted that he hadn't had more time with Luke, more time to train and prepare the boy as he should.

Obi-wan paused, waiting for the patrolling Stormtroopers to pass the hall where he stood shrouded in shadow, nearly invisible as he pulled on the Force to brush absent gazes aside. Once they had marched past him, he was on the move again. He was nearly back to the ship. Even though the Force told him he'd never set foot on the old freighter again, his pulse beat a little faster in the instinctive recognition that safety was close at hand. His mind knew better.

He unhooked his lightsaber from his belt, the old weapon familiar against his palm. As he turned another corner, he flicked his hood over his head. It was then that he frowned; something was happening. It took him a moment to realize from the alarms and comm announcements the battlestation had been put on alert. As another handful of Stormtroopers rushed past the nook Obi-wan had ducked into, the old Jedi realized why. The Imperials knew there were intruders in their battlestation. He nearly sighed with exasperation...like father, like son, apparently. He should have anticipated that Luke and the smuggler wouldn't stay in the control room. The troopers passed by and disappeared down another hallway and Obi-wan was on the move again.

Luke would be all right, though. Of that, Obi-wan was confident. The boy was so strong in the Force that there was little doubt his destiny would find him. And Obi-wan was tentatively certain he would still be able to help his apprentice's son from the next plane of the Force.

At the very least, Obi-wan had been long prepared for the possibility that he would die before completing Luke's training. So long as Luke ultimately made it back to Obi-wan's hovel, which the Force assured Obi-wan of, he would find everything he needed to continue training, including the way to Yoda. Obi-wan knew Master Yoda was still out there, hidden away on Dagobah. He would have known if Yoda had become one with the Force. No, he was still alive. The Force would guide Luke to the old Master even if Obi-wan were unable to do it himself.