The Tragic Jedi | Anakin Skywalker

𝓢𝓬𝓮𝓷𝓮 𝟔𝟗

He looked exactly as Obi-Wan had last seen him; his dark brown hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and his grey eyes still held their steely mirth. Qui Gon still wore his usual white Jedi robes with his dark brown cloak that spilled down from his broad shoulders.

But there was one difference with Qui Gon's appearance, and it wasn't exactly minor.

His body was slightly transparent, and it was luminescent with a faint blue light.

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. How was this possible? Was he imagining things now? Had he gone that mad with grief?

Qui Gon must've noticed the shocked disbelief on Obi-Wan's face because he explained, "I have become one with the Force, which allows me to appear to you now."

"But how--"

"It is a skill I will teach you in time," Qui Gon interrupted Obi-Wan. "But that is not why I am here now." He beckoned a hand towards the gravestone in between the two of them. "I must show you something." His body began to disappear, and Obi-Wan shoved to his feet in alarm.

"Show me what?" he demanded, eyes wide.

"Follow the Force," Qui Gon instructed, his voice faint, before he disappeared entirely.

Obi-Wan stared at the spot where Qui Gon had just appeared-- and then disappeared-- in alarm and dismay before he whirled around, his eyes desperately searching his surroundings as if his former master would suddenly appear somewhere else.

Suddenly, he felt a nudge from the Force-- like an invisible hand prodding his shoulder-- that urged him west. Obi-Wan turned his head to the western horizon away from where the twin suns were beginning to rise higher and higher in the dawning sky. He felt another insistent nudge in the Force.

Obi-Wan glanced back at the grave, and he promised to himself that he would return to Shmi's grave every once in a while to pay her tribute since Anakin could no longer return to her, himself.

With no small amount of confusion, Obi-Wan swung himself back onto his speeder and took off towards the east. The wind whipped at his cinnamon hair as he sped across the wide expanse of desert. He had probably ridden for about an hour towards the unknown destination before he sensed through the Force the command to stop.

Dust plumed around him as the speeder skidded to a halt, and a nudge on his right side had him propelling up to a cliff's edge to the left. Obi-Wan stopped before the rocky cliff edge as he peered down below, and he caught side of the battered remains of an old Tusken camp that reeked of terrible despair, rage, and utter hate.

Obi-Wan immediately recoiled.

He sensed a presence to his left, and Obi-Wan turned to see Qui Gon standing there solemnly, his grave, grey eyes turned towards the remains of the camp below.

"Why have you brought me here?" Obi-Wan asked in a whisper full of horror. "What happened here to have wrecked such-- such--" He couldn't finish his sentence; he didn't know how.

Qui Gon's gaze was still turned below to the camp as he spoke sadly, "Anakin Skywalker found his dying mother here. When she died in his arms, he killed them all."

"The Tuskens?" Obi-Wan clarified, stricken, even though he already knew the answer.

Qui Gon nodded before he lifted his gaze towards Obi-Wan's face, which was now befallen with horror and shame and guilt. "Anakin was already lost long before now," his former master told him, eyes despondent. "Even then, he had a taste of and for the Dark Side."