HDEpilogue

Obi- Wan Kenobi stood in the doorway of his hut, and gazed out upon the setting suns of the Tatooine sky. The wind played with the sand at his feet; sand was swept into his house through the open doorway, around his cloak. After his first week here, he had stopped trying to keep it out. He raised his hand to his forehead to shield his vision, and peered studiously at the horizon. By now, it was a pactice devolved into ritual. He knew he wouldn't see anything. He had to look anyway.

Five years now the desert had shielded him. Had shielded Luke, the child whom he guarded, yet never saw. Had shielded Owen, the brother who refused to let him across his threshhold. Had wrapped itself, in its dry warmth, around his smothered spirit like a comfortable blanket. It distracted him, entranced him, at the same time it led him to conjure up visions of memories in the dancing wind, and search every sunset for a familiar face, coming to pass one of these cold nights with him. He had grown so old in these five years. Old, and weary with wondering guilt.

Where were the young ones, the children of the Temple, those bright flames who had not yet begun to shine? Did they dance, immortal, in the cold corridors and empty rooms? What of the Padawans, slain at the side of their Masters-- did they wander in eternal pairs now, chasing shadows of their enemies, or did they simply sit silent and watchful, awaiting their fall?

It was a death he had acknowledged and accepted that day, five years earlier, when Sabé had surrendered herself in Amidala's place to the Imperials. When later that week, he had taken Amidala to Bail Organa, and taken her son to Owen. When he had taken up residence in this shack on the edge of the Dune Sea, away from everything and everyone. He had not struggled against it. He had simply resigned himself to the existence of a ghost.

//I fear sometimes that we will be caught away into the stream of time, and all that we have fought for here will pass away.//

//They cannot pass away. We have not fought for a city, or a nation, or a system of government, but for justice, and freedom, and the people we love. Those things are immutable. They will remain even when Theed is dust, and the Republic is a memory.//

//Even if I am not able to speak them so that you will hear, I will always be near enough to whisper them to your heart. So you will never have an excuse to stop listening.//

He jumped to his feet. Emotions that had not plagued his heart in so long that they were almost unrecognizable flooded his being in an instant, betraying how close beneath the surface they actually lay.

She appeared then-- not gradually, like a ghost, but bursting from the twilight like an angel of ephemeral beauty, as though carved from blue ice. //It is I.//

She is dead, then, his mind said, but his heart was so wrapped up in the joy of having her here, spirit or no, that he could not waste time thinking on it.

//Sabé!// He wanted desperately to seize her, crush her against him, but he was afraid to break the spell. He contented himself with questions. //What became of you?//

She smiled then, and she was so completely her old self that he wanted to weep. Not like the Sabé of their last few weeks in hiding together, where she had been so thin he hardly dared to touch her for fear of breaking her in half, her humor drained into sarcasm and all her instincts geared on survival. This was the Sabé of their best ten years together, of Anakin and Amidala's courtship, of happiness and peace. //Do you think that matters now?//

//I wanted to be with you so badly that I could think of nothing else,// he cried out to her, but she lay one delicate, glass like hand on his forehead.

//Love, do you think I come to torture you with remembrances?// she chided softly. //Of all the things you ought to have learned by now, you should know regret is a waste.//

He could not look up at her, and she continued. //I have come to bring you a new hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Look into my eyes.//

Falteringly, he did as he was bid, and her eyes shone like opalescent jewels. //Your time is not over yet. Much remains for you to accomplish.// And one by one, scenes played in her eyes, crystal visions of the future, faces he recognized, but did not know. He watched until he felt he could bear no more, and shut his own eyes against it. She did not speak to reprove him, but shetook his face in her hands.

//It's all right, my love. You know now what you need to know. All that has transpired--all that you have suffered-- it is not punishment for any folly of yours, but the it is the will of the Force. Your day is not yet over. And I will never be far from you again.//

As resplendent in spirit as in flesh, Qui- Gon Jinn appeared then at his daughter's side. Obi- Wan's heart twisted within him violently, as his mind flashed back to the last time he had lain eyes on his master, lying atop a funeral pyre. His eyes were wide with compassion, and also with pride. His words echod the sentiment. //You have indeed become a great Jedi Knight, far beyond what even I foresaw. You will be remembered long after your time. I am very proud of you, my Padawan.//

Obi- Wan sat motionless for a long instant, straining into the darkness for signs that he had not dreamed the last fifteen minutes. He saw nothing.

He walked again to his doorway and gazed out into the sandy plains. The moon had ascended high into her banquet of night, and seemed to cast benevolent light on his house. He realized that he needed no sign to be assured of what he had just seen. The difference in the depths of his spirit was all the assurance he required. He was no longer smothered.