Epilogue

It took several months for him to work his way to the obscure outer rim planet that Yoda was hiding on. Given that he was hiding from both Rebel and Imperial forces, the former of which apparently rather wanted to kill him and the latter of which kept trying to help him, something which, in a way, was worse. He was only glad it didn't take longer. He had had to shake the Imperials off of his tail every time they had noticed him, and the "help" they provided in equipment, food and clothing – left where he would find it when they suspected he was in the area – tended to come with tracking devices.

As had the lightsaber, which removed any question about how constructed his escape had been.

He had wondered long and hard over that, as he spent hours removing the device from the lightsaber's innards. It had not been as difficult as it could have been, just time consuming, and he had taken a distinct pleasure in destroying the device with the blade once it was done. He had thought about just what Vader thought of the whole affair, about Greg and Ammo and just what their part in all of this had been, and about Sidious's confidence that he would come, of his own free will, to the Dark side. That had to be why he had been essentially let go; the Dark Lord's confidence that Obi-Wan would have nowhere to go other than back into his grasp.

Sidious had certainly made the most of the footage that had been produced. It had been done slyly, from what Obi-Wan had gathered, making the information getting into Rebel hands look like a catastrophic information leak that had taken effect even as Obi-Wan took his first steps outside the Imperial Palace in weeks.

It had been effective. The most widespread of the Rebel networks, that constructed by Bail Organa and Mon Mothma in the final days of the Republic, had been the ones to find it, and they had spread it across the Galaxy in warning even as their leaders had caught their first sight of it. Given that hostility, Obi-Wan had been unable to contact Bail through those channels to tell him the truth, and any other means of communication would be monitored by the Empire, and as good as pointing a finger at Bail and shouting "Here is one of the Rebel Leaders!" at the top of his lungs, in front of Sidious. As such, he had no idea what his friend thought.

Though he suspected – and hoped – that Bail had enough sense to figure it out. Obi-Wan did have a lot of information that could damage the Rebels substantially, and that information not getting into the Empire's hands was a fair indication that all was not as it seemed. Not that most of the Galaxy appeared to care.

Sighing, he pulled his attention back to the present. The lightsaber bumped against his thigh as he walked, hidden under a long jacket that was currently protecting him from the spots of rain that were falling and threatening to turn into a full on downpour that he would deal with when it happened, should he still be outside at that time.

He was a long way from anywhere remotely settled, out in the middle of nowhere and left a bit – the perfect hiding place for a Jedi Master and his two young charges.

He felt Yoda detect him first, the old master's mind brushing gently against his own, pausing, and then retreating.

Leaping across a gulf in the rocky hillside, he looked down at the valley. Any sentient life was, at first glance, completely absent, but the wind carried the faint but unmistakeable sounds of young laughter to his ears. It brought an unconscious smile to his face, that he only noticed when his cheeks began aching from the unfamiliar gesture. It had been a long time since he had had a reason to smile.

Thick heather, still damp with dew from the morning, grabbed at his legs as he pushed on into the valley and the rain began to fall in a steady, soft patter, quieting the sounds of the world around him as he reached the grasses and moved decisively through them on a direct path to the entrance to the cave that he could see from here, though from this distance it appeared to be just another hollow in a slab of bare rock.

He ducked through the dripping entrance, now soaked to the bone, with his hair plastered to his skull, the water darkening it and disguising the grey that now dominated the areas near his temples and peppered the rest. The hollow in the rock extended back, only to turn sharply with only a small space, invisible from the entrance, granting access to the hideaway behind. It had, perhaps, once been a place for the natives of this planet's least lawful members to hide less than legal items, but they had been all but wiped out by a solar flare that had drastically changed the conditions of the planet for several hundred years. There were settlements, where some descendants of those few who had escaped alive had moved back, but they were far away from here, where light filtered down through twisting mirrored shafts in the rock to illuminate what would have otherwise been a dark and gloomy place with daylight.

Yoda was waiting for him, sitting on a large flat rock that was rather painfully reminiscent of the circular stools in the meditation rooms back in the temple.

The old Jedi looked far better than he had been last time they had met, when the bandages covering where Yoda's right arm had connected to his body were still on and he had still been leaning heavily on his cane to compensate for the severed muscle in the leg on the same side, a leg that had looked like it was about to give out at any moment. It had been deemed too dangerous for them to both be in the same place, so Bail had transported the two younglings from one rendezvous point to the other, once Yoda had recovered enough to look after them. There were no bandages, at the very least, and the colour was back in his face.

"Expecting you, I have been."

Obi-Wan took a seat on a rock near him silently. The movement revealed the lump where the saber was located, drawing Yoda's sharp eyes to it. "A lightsaber you have, hmm? Show it to me, you will."

Wincing, Obi-Wan unclipped the saber from his belt. The Force, guided by Yoda, lifted it up into the air slowly spinning it around. A bloody glow filled the air as it ignited. "A Sith lightsaber, this once was?"

"Yes, Master Yoda." Obi-Wan drew his legs up onto the stone, hugging his knees and wondering if he was being judged. The little green being was silent for a long time, studying the spinning object, before it was deactivated and deposited back into Obi-Wan's hand.

"No more, I think. Made it your own, you have."

Obi-Wan blinked. Then he frowned. While he had rebuilt the lightsaber after completely dismantling it to get the tracking device out, and modified it in the process to change the feel of it in his hand, he had not thought of it as making it his own. It had belonged to a Sith. It had a red blade, and while Obi-Wan would certainly not discard a weapon because of its colour, every time he activated it had reminded him of where it had come from, and how it had come into his possession. "I…suppose."

"Judge by what you see over what you feel, do you?"

Recognising the instruction in the gentle admonishment, Obi-Wan closed his eyes and reached out to the lightsaber – and to his surprise found a resonating echo of his own signature as the main impression held by the crystal. There were fading traces of pain, and suffering and anger and hate and all the emotions that Sith embraced and Jedi were not supposed to feel. Some, to his shame, were his own emotions that had been provoked by his utter helplessness in his captivity and had taken their time in fading, though most were left from Vader's use of the saber. Most of all though, was his own Force-signature, overriding the impression Vader had left.

Feeling rather foolish for having missed that, he blinked his eyes open again. "Oh."

"Harrumph." Yoda looked faintly exasperated. "A Jedi blade it is, now. Chose, it did not, how it would be used by Vader. Accept it you should, past included." The little green being shuffled over to the edge of the stone, and then slowly got up, leaning on his cane. "Hurt, you were. To forgive it, you need. To forgive yourself, you need." He hobbled further into the cave. "Come, come. Talk later, we will. For now, meet the little ones, would you like to?"

Nodding, slightly bemused, Obi-Wan followed. A few short twists later, the tunnel bloomed out into a large, equally well lit cave. A humble building was set near a small stream of rainwater that was swelling, overflowing a series of dams that would hold the liquid for use when it was not falling from the sky. Just outside it were two small children using the Force to push a ball back and forth through the air.

"They've grown." It was all he could think of to say. Even so young, they were spitting images of their parents. He had taken care of them for a short time as babies, while Yoda healed from his injuries, but that was nothing compared to seeing them now.

The comment earned him a soft thwack on the ankle, and he looked down to find Yoda smiling up at him. "Common occurrence that is with younglings," he said brightly, and it took Obi-Wan a moment to realise he was being teased as Yoda called out, "Young ones! A visitor, we have."

The children noticed him for the first time, dropping the ball and running over, stopping several meters away.

The brunette girl drew herself up even as her twin hung back. "Who're you?"

"Patience, Leia. About to introduce you, I was. " Leia ducked her head for a moment, before she went back to staring up at Obi-Wan. "Luke, Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi this is. Obi-Wan, Leia and Luke Skywalker."

Both studied him for a moment, then Luke hugged his leg, muttered "Hello," and ran back to where he had been playing before, having lost interest. Leia looked at him a bit longer, before blurting out, "Tall, you are."

After a moment of shock, Obi-Wan stifled a laugh. Why hadn't he predicted this, knowing the children were going to be raised by Yoda? "Only in comparison, I'm afraid."

She frowned up at him. "Not supposed to fear," she admonished, before looking at Yoda imploringly, her expression silently asking him to please enlighten this poor, unknowing intruder.

Yoda's eyes were sparkling. "Talk to him, I will," he promised her, before using his stick to nudge her back in the direction of her brother. "Go, practice you will, while I do so?"

She looked uncertain – probably wanting to watch him being told, just to make sure – but nodded, and followed her brother. Yoda chuckled.

"A good place for healing and growth this is." The old Jedi smiled suddenly up at him. "Stay, will you?"

Later, they would talk of fear, and Sith, and Rebels and holograms and all those things that needed said. Right now, Obi-Wan did not have to think long for the answer to come to him. Quite apart from his own feelings, the Force was singing the rightness of the decision to him. "I think so, yes."

Besides, someone had to teach the children proper grammar.

A.N. And so the end is here. Thank you to everyone who has read this, those who put it on alerts, and most especially my wonderful reviewers, for your support. And as it is the last post, I'm going to be blatant and say, please review. After all, how else will I know what you thought of my Yoda?