At last... The last chapter!

I would like to thank all the beautiful people that have read and reviewed this fic, especially Phantom'sJediBandieGirl (your guess is partially right!), Kenobifan (your guess is also partially right :D), and Jedi X-man Serena Kenobi, who have reviewed the previous chapter. Thanks so much, Guys! I really appreciate it! I hope you'll keep liking this chapter. I personally like the end part very much.

I want to aplogise for all the bad grammar and spelling... And, maybe, some cheesy sentences... He He!

Please enjoy!

6

When Obi Wan woke up that morning, it was with beaming from ear to ear. He turned his head and saw Pooja still slumbering beside him. He had never seen her sleeping. It's true she had stayed for more than once in his hut while visiting Tatooine, but he never was beside her. Obi Wan set his eyes on her and smiled a caressing smile as the result. He had never been so in love before.

He got up and got dressed carefully so as to not wake her. Pooja still didn't open her eyes even when Obi Wan, accidentally, trying so hard to not make a sound, nudged the dresser beside the bed. When he checked on it, to see if he had moved or broken anything, he spotted a tiny round object he wasn't unfamiliar with. It was the object used by the Stormtroopers as a mean of communication. He was so certain he had seen one of them using it yesterday. Now, the question was, what was it doing in this room?

Obi Wan picked it up and learned that it was broken. Maybe Marius was the one who dig it up in one of the battles he had had with the Empire troops. It reminded him that he was yet to tell Pooja that he had lost Marius yesterday. One minute he was on his side, the next minute he was already gone. Fortunately, the rebels had already won and there was no Stormtrooper left when Obi Wan came home to Pooja. Still, Marius was nowhere to be found.

A feeling of uneasiness caused by his Force had grown suddenly, and he couldn't stop it from unfolding itself. He knew how to fix the object; he had to fix it, then. It was the only way to know. He tangled the extra thin cables, untangled the others, and then, it was fixed.

A sound coming all of a sudden from it was indistinct at first. He walked away from the bedroom, not wanting to wake Pooja up. At least, not now. The signal was getting clearer as he stepped in to the living room. Clearer, clearer, and then… "Hello?"

No reply at first, but…

"Sir Marius, Sir Marius. We're heading back now. Good luck with your predicaments with the Emperor."

"Oh my goodness!"

"Ben?"

The sound of Pooja calling his name shocked him even more. He turned around and met her walking towards him.

"Ben, are you all right? You seem pale…"

As she trotted closer and closer, his minds were blurred abruptly. The object he held in his hand wheeled his memory back to some day, 10 years ago. The day he returned Padme's warm welcome with news so worst, it consumed her will to live. And the place he was now in was no longer the suite he yesterday went into, the place was also an apartment in Coruscant; Padme's apartment. The woman he loved stroking his sweating forehead; she wasn't just Pooja now, she was also Padme. And the bad memory swirled around in him and forced him to begin,

Padme…

"Pooja…"

When was the last time you saw Anakin?

"Do you know where Marius is now?"

"I know he has a place he usually uses for hiding. Why?"

Padme, I think he's turned to the dark side.

"Pooja, I think he has worked together with the Empire."

The reaction was the same. Pooja, too stunned to say anything, shook his head in disbelief. "No," she finally said, "no! You must be wrong!"

I have seen the hologram of him killing younglings.

"I found this in the bedroom. One of the Stormtroopers answered my call and mistook me as 'Sir Marius.'"

"I don't believe you! He's my best friend! I've known him since forever!"

"You believe in him more than you believe in me?"

"Don't say that… It's just that… I can't believe it…"

Padme, I need to know where he is.

"Pooja, I need you to tell me where is this place you mentioned."

"I can't. Until I know the truth, I can't."

Obi Wan walked away from her. Never he imagined for being the one who said it, but he did tell this to himself, "Maybe a Jedi shouldn't fall in love." He exited the room, but before he did, the recollection of the same event that took place 10 years ago still lingered.

I'm so sorry.

"I'm so sorry."

---

After Obi Wan left, Pooja got dressed properly and ran to the man whose presence was all over her mind that morning; Marius. She knew where he and his friends always gathered for the meetings. The place was difficult to reach for someone who had only been there once, but Pooja was able to trudge along the rough roads with eyes closed if she wanted to.

The cave, that's what they called it, was uncommonly empty. A battle just occurred last night, maybe the rebels are in their houses, remedying their wounds, she thought. She turned right, and there he was. She called, "Marius?"

"Pooja?" his face showed astonishment, "what are you doing here?"

"I come to see if you're all right. Are you all right?"

"Yes, I am. Pooja, you shouldn't be here. Why don't you…"

"What did they want? The Stormtroopers?"

"What else but taking our resources again?"

"But you said something about sabotaging."

"Did I? You must have misheard me. Look, just go home, okay? I will catch up…"

"The thing the Stormtroopers use for communicating was in your suite. What was it doing there?"

"I… I found it at the last battle."

"Then why did they call you 'Sir'?"

Marius didn't react. He turned around and Pooja could only see his back. Yet, when he pivoted back, Pooja could've sworn his eyeballs had changed their colours to red.

"That's because they and I are serving the Emperor together."

She gasped, "I don't believe it! Ben was right. You're evil!"

"Oh, when you realise how powerful the Emperor is, you will change your mind. Seeking power is not evil, Pooja."

"I can't believe it. You're my best friend! My grandfather used to treat you like his only grandson."

"Why do you think I want to marry you, Pooja! So I can stay close to you! The last of the Naberries. The Emperor sent me to watch closely on you, Senator Padme Amidala's little niece. To see if she and your grandparents had given you any notion about 'Old Republic' before they died. By the look of it, I think they had,

"I don't think it's the only reason the Emperor wanted you, but I'll find it out, sooner or later,

"Or maybe it's your book. I know what you have been doing, brainwashing the people with that damn book of yours!

"It was quite a long way luring you to my trap. The Emperor almost lost his faith in me. He sent troops to our wedding. But when I ran from the battle and assured him the wedding was only an act to trick you, he knew he could still trust me. It's a good thing you fell in love quickly."

You're wrong, she thought. She wanted to tell him he was wrong. She wanted to shout it out, "You're wrong." But another voice was echoing from behind her, speaking her mind all aloud,

"You're wrong!"

She turned around and saw Obi Wan walking towards them. She stared disbelievingly at him, part of her wanted to sigh a relief, while the other part asked him in silence, "You're using me as a bait?"

The same question asked by Padme's eyes when she saw him at Mustafar.

Obi Wan avoided the eyes and, drawing his lightsaber he hadn't used for more than 10 years, he deeply spoke, "Surrender now, Marius. You know you have nowhere to go. Look around you! You will only find dead ends!"

He wasn't lying. The cave's only way in was also its only way out. It wasn't exactly spacious, either. It was barely fit for the three of them.

"What is this?" sneered Marius, mockingly, "A Jedi? Still alive? The Emperor will grant me everything I wish if I can capture you!"

Pooja would've laughed if the situation hadn't been so serious. Marius was hallucinating! Obi Wan was far beyond him; he could never capture a Jedi like him. But then, she realised that she was merely inches away from her husband. And for the first time since she entered the cave, she noticed the knife in his belt. Before she could even blink, Marius had pulled her to him and the only thing she was conscious of was the cold knife readied to cut off her neck.

"Surrender now! Or she dies!" Marius's voice hurt her ears, but what happened before her hurt her eyes even more. Obi Wan, his face turned numb, lowered his lightsaber, and with a tone that almost sounded like begging, he said, "Please, don't…"

Oh, she didn't have the heart to see him taken to and tortured by the Emperor. She had seen the Emperor murdered her family, and now he wasn't going to get the man he loved. Her hatred to her husband, holding the knife trying to end her life, entwined with her desire to see Obi Wan walking out of the cave alive. She understood what had to be done.

To the man behind her back, she moved her lips so close to his ears that Obi Wan could never hear her words.

She whispered, "You're wrong. You're wrong about everything. You think you can capture Ben and send him to the Emperor, you're wrong. You're a weak man, who can't even protect himself and seek it from a tyrant,

"And you're wrong. I never love you. I've always loved Ben. I only want to marry you, because I pity a weak man like you,

"I love Ben."

His response was what she wished for. Furious, Marius shouted to the entire cave, dusts falling all over. She gasped as she sensed the cold blade pierced her inside and red blood coming out of her. She heard someone shrieked, "NO!" and knew that it was her lover's voice. The knife dropped with a cling as she herself fell down to the surface. The response was always what she wanted: Obi Wan, with anger and loath in his eyes, stepped forward and stabbed his lightsaber into Marius. The lightsaber was much more powerful than the knife, of course, and Marius died in a second.

She felt –it was so hard for her to see now- Obi Wan's arm behind her neck. She leaned to it and tilted her head up; she needed to tell him some things before she died. He spoke of nothing. Only sobs were heard.

"At last," she softly said, "at last, the history is not repeating itself,

"I die happy for it is in my lover's arms I breathed for the last time."

"Pooja, I love you."

"Joy…"

And then, she died.

---

His tears blurred his way out. His sobs woke the rebels sleeping in houses nearby, who after seeing Obi Wan's lightsaber and the communicator lying beside Marius's body, finally recognised the truth. His feet hurt from the weight he had to bear; Pooja's lifeless body in his arms.

But nothing could compare to his heartache. Nothing could remedy the pain he had to take. Nothing could heal him from the broken heart he had to feel.

For the only woman he ever loved, had died.

---

Obi Wan sat on the hill overlooking the hut below. Not his, but the boy's and his uncle and aunt's. Return, finally. Return to Tatooine, return to his own hut, return to his loneliness.

The funeral for Pooja was just held yesterday. No friend of her knew what exactly happened between both of them. The worst thing of it was that he couldn't give Pooja a kiss goodbye before the coffin was closed for eternity.

Luke came out of his house, running around and playing with his uncle's droid. He couldn't believe it had been 10 years since her mother passed away, and he was born. 10 years… When he turns 20, Obi Wan thought, yes, when he turns 20, it will be the best time for them to end the Empire, and for him to end… Life.

Her book; Pooja's book was in his hand. He remembered the message behind it: If you held on to the memory of your love, you'd never let them who destroyed your love, win and triumph. Then, for the first time, he decided to keep the heartache he still felt, he knew he would always feel, forever.

He sat there, tired. Tired of feeling the planet move under his feet, without him being able to stop it. Tired of seeing all the people he loved lost one by one: Qui Gon, Anakin, Padme, Yoda, and … he couldn't even spell her name. He was tired of life. Tired of seeing history repeating itself.

He sat there. Thousands and thousands meters below, the boy ran around here and there with no certain point to after. The time would come when he wouldn't have to be tired anymore. Forever.

Ah, he thought, thank god it's only 10 years to go.

The End