Side By Side

[Anakin T Skywalker]

Okay, this started out as one story, intended for the "Canning the Canon" thread. But as I finished writing one, I got the idea for the next one. So I took the one and revised it a little (not much, though!), wrote the other one, and am posting them now as a pair.

 

Please be patient with any out-of-character-ness, I have almost no experience with three of the characters and not a ton with the other one. So, please, any helpful suggestions would be... uhh, helpful. Oh! And appreciated!

 

 

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SIDE BY SIDE

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He'd thought for sure his heart was broken when he felt their deaths, the deaths of Jedi Knights across the galaxy. Jedi he had seen brought in as infants, Jedi whose Trials he had watched, Jedi who had grown into great Masters before his aged eyes.

 

He'd thought his heart was broken when he learned of the deceit and the betrayal. When he'd seen his beloved Temple burning, stormtroopers desecrating its sanctity with death and destroying the light of the knowledge it held. When he'd seen the precious younglings, the future of the Jedi order, strewn carelessly through the great hallowed halls, brutally slain by one of their own.

 

He'd thought his heart was broken then.

 

Until now.

 

Now, as he fought the man who had masqueraded as the wise and good leader of the galaxy, in the great chamber where the fate of worlds was decided.

 

Now, as the full measure of his own ignorance dawned upon him.

 

Not only because he had been unable to see that the Supreme Chancellor was really the Lord of the Sith himself, leading them all down the path of destruction, securely trapping them under the thrall of the Dark Side.

 

Because all that the Jedi had been ”“

 

Just simply wasn't enough.

 

All the years invested in learning, all the knowledge and training and preparation ”“ all had come to nothing.

 

All those Jedi who had died, were dead in vain.

 

The sickening, burning knowledge that the Jedi, blinded by their own arrogance, comforted by the power and status they enjoyed, had allowed the Sith to grow so far beyond themselves ”“ this is what sapped Yoda's strength, what weakened him before Sidious's onslaught.

 

This is what spread his concentration thin enough that he misjudged Sidious's stroke.

 

At the same moment that Sidious, already gloating in his complete triumph over the Jedi, misjudged Yoda's stroke.

 

Each completely missed the other in the exact same manner, the follow-throughs drawing their lightsabers back into the exact same positions.

 

Each had the exact same thought.

And thus, by the will of the Force, Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith, stabbed forward as Yoda, Master of the Jedi, leapt to stab forward.

 

And so the great Jedi Master and the great Sith Lord fell, each pierced through the heart.

 

Side by side.

 

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He'd thought for sure his heart was broken when he saw that security hologram. Seeing his former student and friend, the great hope of all the Jedi, killing their younglings, was the worst moment of all his life.

 

Until now.

 

Now, as he fought for his life against his best friend, each blow ripped a huge chunk from his heart and flung it bleeding on the hard durasteel floor, where the man who had once been Anakin Skywalker ground it beneath his heel and kicked it into the river of lava below. Obi-Wan blocked every attack, and dodged most of the kicks and punches, but each was a death-blow just the same. When the monster in possession of Anakin's body stood over him, reaching out with Anakin's hand, gripping his throat with Anakin's fingers, it was not his throat that was crushed; it was his spirit.

 

Obi-Wan barely even understood why he was fighting any more; perhaps it was simply some primal instinct of survival, ingrained so deeply into him that it remained when all else was torn away. If so, better to overcome that animal instinct, toss away his weapon, and die.

 

But maybe, just maybe, he was fighting for something more.

 

Maybe he was fighting for the Jedi. For the lost promise of the younglings, so mercilessly murdered. For the hope that one day, the Jedi might rise once more and cast this evil of the Sith into the darkness they so loved forever.

 

Maybe he was fighting for what Anakin Skywalker had once been, what he had represented.

 

Maybe he was fighting for the Light.

 

Because there was just that chance, he fought on.

 

Slash, parry, whirl, kick, dodge.

 

He slipped out of the way just in time, and the slash that had been intended to slice down through his head cut deep into a control panel instead.

 

The shields around the complex went down, and lava began to fountain and rain around them.

 

Attack, block, twist, jab, parry, slash, jump.

 

A large pipe ran out over the lava behind him; he let the man who should have been his brother drive him back onto it. Both struggled to maintain their balance as they fought, further and further out on the pipe, until they reached a place where it widened.

 

There it was that Anakin charged at Obi-Wan. Their arms met, and they gripped each other's wrists, locked in a contest not of lightsabers but of strength.

 

There it was that, somehow, in the struggle, their foreheads slammed together.

 

Hard enough that their skulls bounced off each other.

 

Hard enough to knock both men into unconsciousness.

 

Hard enough that neither one felt any pain or terror as they fell, side by side, into the river of fire.

 

So the last of the Jedi and the last of the Sith met their end.

 

Side by side.

[Tiana Calthye]

Mmmhmmm. Someone's threatening my position as Jedi.net's brutal AUer. They were good. Brutal. Evil. Everything I could've come up with, similar to ideas I've contemplated... makes for some good times. I liked them. Good as one shots. Nice binding theme. There wasn't enough with the characters to have any characterization problems, I think...

 

And it bodes one question:

 

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

 

Every one of us here has gone AU. Someone dies. THINGS CHANGE. That might be what irks me about the other thread...

 

Because things don't just change once. The effect changes the entire future of the world!

 

 

 

 

...And then...

 

There was balance.

 

 

Look, you just destroyed the entire Jedi and Sith Orders in TWO PAGES IN WORD.

 

You can't leave it there.

[Anakin T Skywalker]

Oh, can't I?

 

Well, actually, I hadn't thought at all about that! But I suppose you may be right. (grudging sigh) Only trouble is, I've never written anything with no Jedi in it before! I shall have to think very hard about that.

 

OW! BRAIN HURTS!

 

Well, we'll see.

[Skywalker_Heir]

Not /all/ the Jedi are dead.

 

Remember, Vader spent about 20 years hunting down Jedi.

 

This story kicked ass. A lot of good emotional play between both sides.

 

Excellent. Simply superb.

[Anakin T Skywalker]

I know not all the Jedi are dead. I mean with no Jedi order! No Jedi with any organization! Plus, I don't know the Jedi who survived very well; I don't own any post-ROTS books.

 

Yet.

 

 

Yeah, my original intent was just to leave it as is. But now, I'l have to think about doing some research and adding more.

 

 

Oh, and thanks!

[Tiana Calthye]

Aye, not ALL the Jedi are dead. But Order 66 still took place, as well as Anakin's massacure at the Temple. And the clones are still out there with orders to kill off all the Jedi.

 

Basically, when it comes down to it... all the interesting Jedi are dead. And if you want any others, you can make up OCs. No one will bite you. The post-RotS books don't list a lot of survivors, there's a thread in either the EU, Holocron, or Miscellanous board that has a list of all the survivors called 'The Jedi Purge' if you want to risk stepping outside the Library board.

 

I think this stuff all the time, is that a problem? XD

[Anakin T Skywalker]

Ummm... no. I don't think so. Should it be?

[Zero]

Liked the story, but as Tiana said, it needs more. You could write on Jorus C'baoth. He's the only Jedi I know of from post-ROTS. I'm not sure how his fate changes with Palpatine dying though.

[Tiana Calthye]

Liked the story, but as Tiana said, it needs more. You could write on Jorus C'baoth. He's the only Jedi I know of from post-ROTS. I'm not sure how his fate changes with Palpatine dying though.

Yesss. We all like huge, epic AUs here.

 

There's also Vergere. And the Katarns, I think one of them survived for quite a while... would have to search and see who Vader killed because now they'll survive.

[Zero]

There's a ton of possibilities. What happens to Padme, Luke and Leia? Bale Organa? Boba Fett? Jar-Jar?!!

[Skywalker_Heir]

I'm wondering more about the non-jedi aspect of it.

 

How's the Republic going to respond to having the Supreme Chancellor killed by a Jedi? Who was declared a defector at the time.

 

Might find that all the Jedi jumped from being in exile to being hated extremely.

 

Palpatine Statues, anyone?

[Anakin T Skywalker]

Yeah, Skywalker_Heir (what's your nickname?)

 

That was pretty much the first thing I thought of when Tiana (cough) heavily suggested I continue this. I could put in a bit of both, though... we'll see. I have to warn you, it might be a bit of time in coming because I have lots of ideas for other stories right now, and I tend to write what I am inspired for at the moment.

 

Don't despise me, it's just that if I write what I'm not inspired for, I write like XP (Why don't they have a tongue sticking out emoticon?) And I don't like writing or posting XP.

 

Also, do not fear. I always finish stories I have begun posting.

[Dartha Athanth]

Whee everybody dies!

 

Yup agree that this has more possibilities but I think they can be standalones too-they certainly have enough emotional impact on their own. Muahahahahahaha!

 

- ex-Most Brutal Author

[Skywalker_Heir]

I think most people shorten it to S_H, SH, or some derivative thereof. =p

 

In other places around the web, I go by Damadar, for which the shortened version is "Dar". (Dama sounds too feminine for my tastes. )

 

James also works.

 

I don't mine waiting for good writing.

[Amidala Skywalker]

*missed this completely with all the thread bumping* Sorry 'bout that! I'd have been really sad if I had never seen this!

 

I think it was well written. At first I though the first part was Obi-Wan, but by the third sentence or so I figured it out. Of course, that gives me an idea for another one of these...

 

I liked the lines about how Obi-Wan was feeling while battling Vader; both the part about chunks of his heart being ripped out, and when he realizes what he's fighting for. A good contrast with Yoda's despair.

 

Nice work, and I agree that I'd love to see this as a big long fic.

[Anakin T Skywalker]

It probably will be...

 

someday...

 

I have to decide what I would have to happen first! Believe it or not, I actually didn't think about any of that stuff, just that I was going to write something tragic that majorly messed up the following movies. I was totally livin' in the moment. So, once I develop what happens afterwards...

[Tiana Calthye]

*missed this completely with all the thread bumping* Sorry 'bout that! I'd have been really sad if I had never seen this!

Aye, that would've been sad! But all the thread bumping is NICE, too... it just kinda reminds me it might be nice to have some sort of mass index of all the stories ever posted in one big thread that gets updated every month or so.