Obi-Wan Kenobi was no stranger to nightmares.
They had plagued him since the night his village was attacked, and had only worsened when he lost his master, and the war began. So he was used to waking up in a cold sweat, his heart pounding in the soft darkness of the Temple. Used to whole nights spent awake in the fragrance of the gardens below his chambers, meditating, knowing he would find no relief in rest.
Now it was different. Now they came every night, and he dragged himself out of darkness to find no relief in waking. Now the musty scent of a cave greeted him as he lunged from sleep, and a suffocating blackness far from moon or stars. The pain no longer retreated with the opening of eyes. Sometimes nightmares were almost preferable.
Tonight, he dreamed of fire. The familiar sight, ugly flames engulfing his brother and the screams he echoed in his soul, hate-filled, throat-rending. His fault.
From my point of view the Jedi are evil.
What had he done? How had he failed so miserably as to have Anakin think like that? How could he possibly have stumbled so far?
Even his mercy had been an excuse. It would have been more merciful to kill him. To end it for him.
I hate you!
Those were the words that stalked his steps, every hour. They made him want to tear out every particle of himself that made him feel, so that he might escape their agony.
And in his dreams, fire came for him too. He deserved it, revelled in it, welcomed its keen sting. Flames swallowed him. He embraced them.
There's good in him. I know — I know there's still...
Padmê 's face, a ghost through the flames. He wanted to believe her, but Anakin was dead, and so was she, and he had failed them. He clawed his way upwards, the flames crawling with him, clawed his way towards the cave that he knew he slept in, the empty planet on which his body wandered.
He could not burn, that was not permitted to him. He must keep going, his duty was to protect the boy who was his last and only hope.
Promise me you will train the boy.
Obi-Wan pitied Luke Skywalker, that he had been given such a man for his mentor. He dragged himself upwards to comfortless waking.
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The Jedi And The Warrior
FanfictionFlyra Botkin and Obi-Wan Kenobi have carved out a living for their families on the snow-bound planet of Stewjon since they were six-years-old. Now, at sixteen, the padding trail of deer tracks through their hunting grounds ropes them firmly into the...
