When Paths Diverge

Chapter 5: The Apprentice Falls And The Master Rages

Slowly, inch by inch, he managed to force Maul backwards. He can feel Maul weakening and he pressed harder. Maul slows down, and Obi-Wan uses this chance to grab Qui-Gon lightsaber and slice downwards, cutting the hilt of Maul's saber in half and moving through flesh. Maul crumpled. Obi-Wan deactivated his lightsaber, and dropped to his knees, catching Maul as he fell. Obi-Wan focuses on the figure in his arms.

Maul was breathing unevenly as he struggled to speak. "You... You won." The words were spoken disbelievingly, shocked, angry and.... lost.

"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan offers quietly, "I wish there had been another way."

Maul hisses at him angrily and Obi-Wan feels his anger spark one last burst of energy, and one clawed hand came up and scratched his cheek. Obi-Wan lets him. He deserved this, deserved to be hurt, deserved to have a mark of all his failures. It would scar, he knew, and it would forever serve to remind him of his failure.

———— ————

He sits there for awhile, still holding Maul's body.

I'm sorry, he thinks, I couldn't save you.

He remembers the first time, when Maul had succeeded in killing his Master. He remembered the awful ache of loss, swallowed immediately by the cold, calculating fury. He remembers the gaping emptiness in his heart when he thought he had 'killed' Maul. He thinks of that whole mess on Mandalore, where his heart had been broken and shattered by a single thrust of the darksaber. Most of all, he remembers that day on Tatooine, when Maul had hunted him down for a final time. In a way, it was a strange parody of time because, that day, he had held Maul in his arms and watched the life drain slowly out of him.

He remembers the last words Maul spoke, words spoken by a broken creature, pushed out with his dying breathe. Tell me, is he the Chosen One?, Maul had begged. Yes, Obi-Wan had replied quietly. He would never forget what the zabrak said next.

He will avenge us all.

Those words had sounded so lost, broken and.... yet, so hopeful.

———- ————

The council had finally called them back from Naboo almost three days later, after they had stayed for the celebrations and the parade. It had been a tiring three days for Obi-Wan, who spent most of his time keeping Anakin away from Palpatine, and coming up with a plan to take down the newly elected chancellor.

After they had arrived in Coruscant, the Council, after much arguments, had finally caved in and agreed to let Qui-Gon take Anakin Skywalker as his Padawan. Obi-Wan has been knighted, again with no trials, as the Council had, once again, deemed him a Knight after killing the Sith warrior.He desperately wished that he could just tell the council, but knowing them, their idea of a strategy was to rush off and kill the Sith immediately. Who knew whether they would even believe him?

Or, they would probably lock him up or send him to the Mind Healers. And Master Yoda might just claim that it was just a very powerful vision and that 'Set in stone, nothing is." A lot of good that did the last time.

He has decided on one thing, though. He would record down his 'vision' so that, in the case that something happens to him, the Jedi would still survive . Now, in his room in the Jedi temple, he stands in front of a holo-recorder and starts speaking.