Empire Day ✓

Chapter 7 - Showdown

The appearance of Vader at the entrance sent dread into each heart. His immense, black form stood out against the starkness of the thick, white walls of the building. 

Kenobi challenged, "Vader."

A small figure ran around Vader, straight into the startled arms of Beru. "Aunt Beru! Aunt Beru!"

Beru held onto him, crying at his return. "Oh, Luke, you're alive." She kissed him on his cheeks and pulled him tight to her chest.

"I've missed you, Aunt Beru" was all Luke could say before the rumble of Darth Vader cut him off.

His aunt bent down, kissing the small boy on his cheek, stroking his tousled hair. She examined his arm and his head, finding no signs of his injuries.

"Obi-Wan, I should have expected to find you here." Vader rested his hands on his hips. "It's time for me to finish what I started eight years ago." The Sith Lord ignited his lightsaber, the red blade casting an eerie glow on the white stucco walls in the desert twilight.

Beru dragged Luke back against a wall. Owen moved in front of them both, protecting them and giving the two men space.

"I will not fight you, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, "and you will be forced to kill me."

Vader advanced on the Jedi. "If that is your destiny."

Beru and Owen gasped when they heard the name Kenobi had called Vader. Beru pulled Luke back even further away. 

The boy struggled to break free from his aunt's grasp to see past the hulking figure of his uncle. Beru grabbed him tighter, refusing to let him go. 

Luke watched the shadow of his father advance on the defenseless man, his friend Ben. "No!" He screamed as Vader raised his lightsaber above his head, slicing it at Obi-Wan's head.

The Jedi Master brought both his sabers from his belt, blocking the swipe just in time as he held the dual blue blades in an X above his head. The blades clashed against each other. The sound waves reverberated off the smooth walls of the courtyard, deafening the spectators. "It doesn't have to be this way, Anakin."

"That name no longer has any meaning for me." Vader stepped backward, withdrawing his blade, circling the other man.

Obi-Wan held both of his blades low at his sides, waiting for the Sith Lord to strike again.

"You are unwise to lower your defenses." Vader struck at his opponent again, down and then up, quickly to the left, and then behind his head. "If you will not fight, then you will be destroyed."

Luke's eyes were glued to the mesmerizing patterns—the speed, the control, and the power.

The two continued to swing their sabers, grunting and moaning, but neither made any viable progress for three long minutes. Then, as Obi-Wan brought his right saber up from behind his back in a downward vertical swipe, he slid his left saber parallel to the ground at Vader's legs. 

The Sith Lord met both blades in one motion, slicing them apart. He had hit Obi-Wan's left blade so powerfully that it went flying across the courtyard toward Luke and his aunt and uncle.

The boy ducked to the right as Owen pulled his family to the side a few meters to avoid the flying blade. It hit the stucco wall, leaving a scorch mark across it.

The hilt of the blade bounced off the wall, falling to the hard-packed sand of the courtyard with a thud.

Vader kicked Obi-Wan to the ground. The Sith towered above the prostrate Jedi, holding his red blade to Kenobi's throat. "I am the master now."