A Bringing Of Forces

Epilogue. . . pt2

Sixteen Years Later

~

The galaxy had changed. It was a subtle thing, like the boiling of water. You couldn't tell the difference until it started bubbling and overflowing the pot. But it was.

Beru and Owen Lars were dead. Killed by stormtroopers. That had been the start.

Really, what the beginning had been, was the purchasing of R2-D2 and C-3PO. What a joy had gone through him when discovering the blue and silver astromech waiting to replay a message from Princess Leia; Luke's very own twin sister. How he wished to tell the boy then, to unleash the building of words that had formulated over the years in seclusion.

Made up conversations with nobody but the wind to hear.

He had had conversations with Yoda and the council; with Ahsoka and Aedion regarding the well being of the younglings. No longer would they be younglings now. Most likely full fledged Jedi with all the training needed. Such a thought that was.

Nearly sixteen long years had passed since he departed Xeer I. Then, in his old age, he had doubted his ability to ever find the small planet again. The mental map long since eroded away by the constant whistling of wind and whipping of sand.

No such doubt lingered any longer.

His mind was as fresh as it had been at the start of the Clone Wars. Fresher even. As though an entirely new sense had been opened up. He had become one with the Force.

It was nothing he could have imagined. It was like being reborn.

Layer upon layer of generations rested around him. Trillions upon trillions of lives reconnected with the natural being of the universe. The building blocks of eternity. Of time itself.

It was all Yoda had hinted at and more.

Yoda had joined them now. After a long life spent caring for others, he had finally embraced the final slumber. Luke had been there.

Obi-Wan had taken it upon himself to be the boy's protector; the knowledge filled voice inside his head. He had saved his life several times over now. Indirect or not.

Facing Vader hadn't been for Luke alone. Facing Vader had been Obi-Wan's own selfish impulse. Obi-Wan wanted to see if Anakin would really do it.

Really kill him.

He had.

Obviously.

The man who had stood before him didn't have the slightest trace of the high flying Jedi he had once been. None of the smirking young man he had loved like a brother for so long of his life. He still did despite the outcome.

He had been ready for it. Eager even. If it made him less of a coward, he had bought time for Luke and his friends to escape with the princess. He could have fought off Vader, his form with the lightsaber hadn't completely rusted, but it had been time.

It had been time to see Satine again.

And he had.

It had been like repairing a long forgotten bridge. It had been out of commission for so long you forgot the ease of travel it brought. The beautiful scene below you. Seeing her again had been like breaking a dam; unstoppable and forever. Ever flowing and torental. A deluge of emotion.

She had been as beautiful as the first time he saw her. As graceful as he remembered. Her blue eyes filled with undiluted life once more. Her blonde hair falling in waves across her shoulders and neck. Such happiness had filled him. Being with her at last. Being able to tell her he loved her. Hearing the same words repeated back. He had eternity with her. Longer.

Until the Force faded away.

Never would he leave her again. He was no longer bound by the code of the Jedi Order, but by the Force.

And the Force grew. It changed and shifted, built and destroyed, bent and convulsed, loved and hated, lived and died as one and the same. The Force had no boundaries other than itself. And Obi-Wan was planning on reveling in it for every second they had together.

Every second he had to experience what the Order had forbidden.

The Jedi were not perfect. They were not god-like beings. They had faults if such a thing could be called one.

Qui-Gon had embraced him upon his arrival, his long brown hair tied back so familiarly it nearly brought tears to his own face. Qui-Gon's own eyes had been lined with silver. It was like he was a padawan all over again. Fighting on Naboo, not aware how altered his life was about to become. The many missions, the countless lessons all flooding back.

So many faces he had seen. Young and old alike. Familiar and foreign.

Yoda, Mace Windu, Plo Koon, Aayla Secura, Luminaria Unduli, and so many more. So many, another wave of despair had settled over him at the realization that the Jedi Order really had been massacred. Some still lived. They still continued to fight. But many would be old now, many still hiding from the clutches of the Empire, unaware of Xeer I and the hope it offered.

Obi-Wan knew Yoda had told Luke that he would be the last Jedi. It would make him arrogant, he knew, but there was no easy way to explain it. Not with the limited time they had together. And Luke was needed now. He was needed to end the Empire's reign, to unify this galaxy into one. Later, when the Empire was no more than a myth, that was when the others would be called upon. When the new order of Jedi rose.

But it would take one step at a time. One life stacked upon another. And who knew, perhaps more Jedi -Jedi, he himself, had known- had found that planet and made it their home. Their saviour. Their new cause to fight for. To defend.

If they ever would come to bring peace to the universe, one, an empire had destroyed a galaxy with nothing more than three words -"Execute Order Sixty-Six"- he didn't know. But something told him that they would. One day, perhaps hundreds of years in the future, they would come. And when they did, they would spread an everlasting peace like the cosmos had never experienced before.