driftfleet | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Obi-Wan Kenobi
Broadcast: Text
Action: Iskaulit
When: Jan 30th

A: TEXT

I think it's time I retire from teaching for a while.

I don't suppose anyone knows a decent way to pass the time?

B: ACTION

[ When Stefan announced the prayer room, a quiet place for meditation, Obi-Wan had been thrilled. While he enjoyed and cared for the Huntress, quiet is not something they are known for. After talking to Anakin, he knew he was in dire need of quiet and inner peace

He does not regret ( he can not regret )

And yet.

In a way he had envisioned as a child, it had always been Master and Padawan, together. Even when separate, they fought together, learned together, believed in each other. But Qui-Gon died all too soon, and for so long, Obi-Wan threw his hands up against tradition. When Yoda told him to be Anakin's master, he chose to be Anakin's friend. He did not caution against attachment, only warned where it might lead.

He breathes heavily, his legs folded on the mat. It's not working. The Force is still too quiet, too alien at this moment. It doesn't understand his sorrow.

Obi-Wan chuckles, opening his eyes and pushing his hair back. It should be used to that by now.

Looking down at his hands, he's quiet when he speaks. ]

Please help me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No.

[ Which reminds him. He owes her some information. ]

Yoda believes we will not win the war. He said as much to me. Han Solo and the others have . . . confirmed it for me.

[ Kanan's identity, however, he'll continue to protect. ]

[... Oh. Oh. Is this what she's been sensing that's been weighing on him so much? Well, she DID want Obi-Wan to share more. She should have been more careful what she wished for.

For a moment, Ahsoka just stares at him, eyes wide in surprise and confusion. Stunned. Unlike Obi-Wan, such a fate had never even occurred to her. Ahsoka has matured so much, but she is still young and naive in so many other respects. She wants the war to end, without question. And she has her misgivings about the Order now, too. But that doesn't mean she wants the Republic to lose. She isn't sure how to take this news at all. ... Finally:]

... What?

Then-- what happens to the Separatists? [She isn't sure she should even be asking. Is this knowledge for her ears? ... But Obi-Wan has started down the path. She has to know.]

Do they... successfully form a new state? Under Dooku? [Ugh!]

No. You could say the Separatists and the Republic end up being defeated.

[ As a forethought. ]

As well as the Jedi. That's why I encouraged Anakin's decision and told him the truth.

[ He pauses, quiet. Even now, just speaking about it hurts. It's not simply the knowledge of it.

It was the way Caleb spoke about it. That made so real. For Leia and Han, it was history. Terrible history, but history nonetheless.

Caleb lived it. ]

[Ahsoka's eyebrows furrow in confusion.]

... What do you mean? How can both sides be defeated? That doesn't make any sense.

[ He steeples his fingers together. ]

The whole thing was orchestrated by the Sith Lord. To drain resources from both sides and then claim it all for himself. We all sensed it, in a way. How wrong the war was, how the reasons it was built on were flimsy.

It was simply too late.

What...?

[Watch the slowly dawning horror on Ahsoka's face as the gears turn in her head and she processes the words Obi-Wan is saying. As the full ramifications of those few sentences begin to play out in her mind.

That the Clone Wars aren't even real. That everything they fought for was a sham. That she was never fighting for peace-- she was fighting for a Sith. That all those people, all those clones, all those Jedi died for nothing.]

... No ...

[Her head shakes from side to side just once as she says it. An unconscious reflex, a desperate effort to reject what Obi-Wan is saying, even though she knows he's telling the truth.]

[ The Force hums softly. He hasn't compromised Kanan's identity and he's told what he can. It's not up to him now, not entirely. To carry it all would not work.

But Ahsoka and Anakin have left. Which means the seeds of a different Jedi have been planted.

Maybe if he's lucky, he won't survive it.

( but he doesn't believe in luck. )

He waits. There's no point saying more. ]

[Obi-Wan's silence is worse than anything. Say it's not true, she wants to yell. But Obi-Wan wouldn't lie. Not about this.

Ahsoka jumps to her feet suddenly, as if burned by the floor. She can't sit down anymore. But she doesn't know what to do now that she's standing, either. She needs to move. She needs to throw up. She needs to punch something. She needs to yell, or cry, or something.

She starts pacing instead. She opens her mouth to talk several times, but she isn't able to form full sentences. Every thought she has seems to die before it's fully out of her mouth.]

But that's--

... How did we not--

I can't-- how did you--

There's no way--

[Then another fresh thought seems to occur to her, and she stops dead in her tracks, looking at Obi-Wan despairingly.]

... Barriss was right.

[ That stirs him into action. His expressions tightens and his eyes flash. ]

Barriss had a point. A rather common one, actually, which is shared among many Jedi. The difference between them and Barriss is that they didn't kill people to prove it.

It would have been one thing to attack the Council. It's another to attack people who did not have a choice in the matter whatsoever.

[Ahsoka shakes her head dramatically, frustrated that he'd even think for a second that's what she meant.]

No, I-- I agree with you! Of course I agree with you. What she did was wrong. No question. I'll never forgive her for it. Nothing justifies the killing of innocent people.

I was referring to what she said. At my trial. Remember? She called us... an army, "fighting for the Dark Side."

[ Ah. That . . . would link up to Palpatine's involvement. A man Obi-Wan has never liked and not liked in turn. He rubs his beard. He wonders if he implies it carefully, Ahsoka will catch on. ]

I don't think that's completely true, but it has roots in the truth. The Jedi have been embroiled in the Senate and in the public's eye. All it would take is one small incident for the Jedi to be blamed and turned on.

No Jedi, the Republic and the Separatists on the verge of collapse . . . only a person in power already could seize it all.

Wait. Hold on. What do you mean no Jedi?

[He said the Jedi were defeated, not that there were none of them. Ahsoka simply can't even imagine a reality where that's the case. No matter how brutal the Clone Wars get, surely there isn't a force in the universe that's capable of erasing the entire Jedi Order.]

[ He smiles, barely there. ]

If the Sith win, you don't think they'd leave the Jedi alive, do you?

[ It's why he believes it's not Dooku. Dooku would not wipe out the entire Jedi order. Reinvent it, keep what he needs, rebuild it, but not exterminate it. ]

[An even more horrifying picture of the future begins to form in her mind. Worse, even, than the knowledge that everything she fought for was fake, is the knowledge that everything she knows and loves dies.

But Hera Syndulla says she knows her. Does that mean she escapes? By virtue of leaving? And Obi-Wan clearly survives too. But what of Anakin?

Oh. Anakin.]

... That's why Anakin's children don't know him. Isn't it. [She suddenly feels certain of it.] He doesn't die in the Clone Wars. It's-- it's the Sith.

But-- but that can't be right! He can't die. He's the chosen one. You saw it! I saw it! We were both there--! [At Mortis.]

Edited 2016-01-31 10:12 (UTC)

Chosen One or not, Anakin is still --

[ Anakin is just a person, someone he's trained for so long, he's not even sure where he began anymore. ]

-- someone who has weaknesses, like all of us. All Jedi can die, no matter how powerful they are.

[ It's something he's learned very quickly, very early on, in Naboo. ]

What we saw at Mortis . . . we're not even sure of. How Anakin brings balance, how it works . . . I don't know.

Remember how Mortis ended. We saw it. That is balance too.

[ A terrifying conclusion but still an end, a balance of all forces. Dead. ]

[Ahsoka shakes her head vehemently once more. She won't believe that. She can't.]

No. There's no way. That's not balance. What you're talking about is-- is death. Not just of us, but of everything. The Force is life! Without life, there can't be any Force.

There has to be something we're missing. I can't believe that the endgame of the Force is an end to the Jedi, or-- or total domination of the Sith. Otherwise... why bother with Luke? With Leia? With sparing you, or me? There's a reason. There has to be. We just don't understand it yet.

[Otherwise... what point even is there in continuing to believe in the Force anymore?]

[ He nods. The Force would not have spared him so clearly without reason. And that reason was mostly likely Luke and Leia. He was Luke's teacher and Leia clearly knows him very well. ]

If there is, I do not know it. Perhaps I was meant to survive to train Luke. I cannot speak for the Force. I only live in the here and now.

We don't have all the details. I doubt anyone does. Even the ones from the future won't know the whole story.

... Or perhaps ... we were meant to survive to ensure that the new generation doesn't repeat the mistakes of the old.

Even so ... it seems too cruel.

... No wonder you've been upset.

[ "So upset" might be putting it mildly, but he's not about to correct her. ]

Make no mistake. I would always prefer to know and do what I can. Whether I can change the future for myself or not is irrelevant. As long as I can change it for others.

[... Ahsoka narrows her eyes at him then, mouth forming into a familiar stubborn line. Suddenly a lot of things make sense. Obi-Wan's distance, his ultimatum to Anakin--]

Are you freaking kidding me right now?

You do not get to martyr yourself over this.

I'm not trying to martyr myself.

[ But he won't - can't leave the Jedi. Now, more than ever. ]

But I will not leave the Order.

And I'm not asking you to. I wouldn't ask that of anyone. Not even of Anakin. That's a personal decision, and I know you wouldn't.

What I'm saying is that you don't get to be all sad and... and decision-makey, all on your own! And keeping the rest of us out of the loop. We're in this together, for better or for worse. Your decisions affect all of us!

So if you're going to attempt to change the future, you have to share that with us, too.

It wasn't entirely my decision to share, Ahsoka. If it was only on me, I would. But it wasn't and in a way, it still isn't.

[ He leans back a bit, relaxing his posture, even though he still looks stiff and uncomfortable - ready for a fight. ]

I'm sharing it now because I believe it is the right thing to do. But it took me a while to sort it out. As you said, it affects a lot of people.

[ And his decision wasn't really made until Anakin made his. ]

[Ahsoka sighs and crosses her arms.]

... We need to have a talk about this. All of us. Together.

That's the only way we're ever going to all be on the same page. There's no point to any of this otherwise.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject