Saga - OT Daybreak (Obi-Wan, Luke, Leia, during ANH, vignette)

Title: Daybreak
Author: ViariSkywalker
Timeframe: during ANH (0 BBY)
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa
Genre: introspection, vignette, compatible with new and old canons

Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has endured the long, dark night, waiting for twin suns to rise.

Notes: I started writing this the day after the final episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi aired. No spoilers, though I definitely took inspiration from the show. It's pretty short, but I'm guessing you guys won't mind.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, and no profit is being made. Unless you consider my readers' tears a form of payment...


~~

Daybreak


You didn’t know until today that this is how it would end.

If truth be told, you have never given much thought to the circumstances of your eventual demise. To do so is antithetical to your nature and upbringing. All things eventually end, and you are no different – that is simply the way of the universe, the way of the Force itself. You might have died in battle or as an old man safe in your bed; as long as your purpose is fulfilled, it matters not how you leave this mortal plane.

Your purpose… it’s simple, really. Nineteen years ago, you watched two children come into this galaxy, and ever since then, your task has been to protect them. These twin children – raised worlds apart in nearly every way but united in their unshakeable goodness and their fearless determination – carry the dream and promise of a better future with them. In your darkest hour, they were your light.

There were times, in those early years, when you wondered if it would truly be worth it to fight, if the galaxy wasn’t better off without your interference, if your failures had become a mountain too impossibly vast to ever climb over. There were times when all you could really handle was one more hour, becoming one more day, becoming one more month; and if you didn’t break under the weight, you could keep going long enough to see it done, to finish what you started that terrible day, the one that began with you fighting an unwinnable war and ended with you carrying a tiny, sleeping infant across the Dune Sea of Tatooine. There were times when hope was just a lie you told yourself so you wouldn’t have to face your own withered faith and the fact that you were hiding away from the galaxy, waiting for a day that might never come.

But now you’re here, and you see them together, the way perhaps they always should have been. And there’s still heartache in that thought – how could there ever not be? – but there’s hope, too. Because in those few fleeting seconds, you see everyone who fought and toiled and endured and loved, to make this moment possible. You see Owen and Beru and Bail and Breha in the exceptional children they raised. You see their goodness and their strength and their faith and resolve and light… because while the Jedi may have been beacons of light in the galaxy, once upon a time, they weren’t the only ones standing against the darkness; and if the future sees them returned and the Empire defeated, it will be because of all those people who stepped in to fill that void, who carried on when the night was at its darkest, who held fast to the hope of a brighter future despite everything stacked against them.

You see them together, the children you watched over from afar, the babies you once held in your arms, brought into this world by two of the people you loved most. You look at them, and you see Padmé, and you remember her compassion and her wisdom and her stubborn refusal to back down from the fights that needed fighting. You remember how she clung to hope even at the end, and you see that hope fulfilled in the twin suns shining brightly before you.

In the end, you find the choice is easy. With their safety, their future, in the balance, how could it be otherwise? It’s freeing, in a way, because even though you didn’t know until today that this is how it would end, you can hear the gentle whisper that has guided you all these years, urging you to trust and to surrender, and you smile because it’s going to be all right. It’s all going to be all right.

Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa are here, and the galaxy will never be the same.

Their paths won’t be easy. They will struggle and they will bleed, and they will stumble and scream and pick themselves back up again. They will whisper their doubts to the darkness and listen as it whispers back. They will live, and they will love, and they will keep going.

You tear your gaze from them – reluctantly, regretfully, wishing you could have a few more seconds to take in the sight of them, these children you have loved from afar for so many years – and you turn to face the man you once called apprentice, brother, friend. You face the person you love most in all the worlds, and you close your eyes and raise your weapon, thinking not of the broken soul trapped in a hell of his own making, but of the fearless and passionate and undaunted Jedi Knight you once knew. And you think that if he could have known them, Anakin would have been so very proud of his children.

You surrender to the infinitely vast and all-encompassing energy of the universe, and through it you glimpse them one last time, still standing together.

No, their paths won’t be easy, but very few are – and you know that whatever happens next, the Force will be with them, always.


Fin

~~

 

Miiiiiine


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I just watched this scene last night with the child, because I made the executive decision that ANH was the best way to celebrate Independence Day.

Do you know how much I love second lesson, present tense POV fics?! A lot, that's the answer. I love it so.

This speaks so clearly to the Obi-Wan we see at the beginning of the series, hiding and despairing and barely holding on.

And this speaks so well to his moments with Leia in the cart and at the end of the series when he tells her about her mother.

I've been watching the Clone Wars with child, and Anakin's relationship with Obi-Wan is so magical, which makes this ultimate and predestined outcome all the more tragic.

Thank you, Vi, for a lovely fic to wake up to. And then cry into my coffee about.

 

That was exquisite. The second person point of view made it especially poignant. His insights and affection run all the way through in a deep and lyrical fashion.

 

A touching POV. His insights, his love for them in all the words

 

That's our Obi-Wan, all right

You know how much I appreciate Owen and Beru and Bail and Breha getting any love Yes, of course Luke and Leia inherited a bunch of great qualities (and possibly some not so great ones, considering that both of them have Anakin's impulsive temper to some extent), but an awful lot of who they are came from their adoptive parents. That was really one of the best parts of the show, that we got to see those four. Honestly, I'd be 100% down for another show that just jumped between the two households showing us ordinary domestic stuff. Beru teaching Luke how to make ahrisa and Breha having target practice in the forest with Leia and Owen showing Luke the finer points of vaporator repair and Bail teaching Leia how to wiggle your way between the rules of the Senate. Give it to me, Disney

And this! Yes, ordinary people always took a stand too, and all the more so when there were no Jedi any longer standing between them and the worst of the darkness.

Padmé was indeed a fighter Though to some extent, Luke and Leia came by their stubbornness honestly from each and every parent, didn't they Probably for the best, considering everything those two wound up facing in their lives

This is the perfect line I kind of want to embroider it on a sampler

He would have

Such a good job, babe

 

@vader_incarnate

Well, it's been a few months, but I still smile when I read over this. What perfect timing.

Lolol, you know, I think you might have been the first person I ever really saw writing in second person, way back when? Possibly even before the RotS novelization was released? I hadn't done it myself in probably a good fifteen years (how am I so old omigosh), but when I started writing this, it just came out that way, so I went with it.

And you know, I wouldn't have thought I'd want to see a desperate and barely holding on version of Obi-Wan, but good lord did Ewan McGregor sell it, and I bought into it completely 100%.

I LOVE THOSE MOMENTS SO MUCH, ELLI. (and also Leia asking if Obi-Wan is her father because of course she's curious about her father, too, thank you Show for acknowledging this)

They're so amazing together and would have been even more incredible as time went on, my gosh.

(I'm so glad you liked it! )




@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

Thank you! It's been a few months, so I can't remember now why I ended up going with second person. I've done it a few times in the past, but it's been a long time. It just kind of came out that way when I started writing. That was one of the things I enjoyed most about the new Obi-Wan show, that it added even more depth to just how much Obi-Wan really loved his Skywalker family.




@earlybird-obi-wan

Thank you so much! I really loved how the Obi-Wan show showed the depth of his love for both of the twins.




@Gabri_Jade

lololll

He's the best, I love him.

They really need to get in on this, plus another show in an alternate timeline where Anakin doesn't fall because I have needs. (Mature light side Anakin Skywalker played by Hayden Christensen, yes please.) And then we can have domestic goodness and shenanigans with adopted parents in the canon timeline and biological parents in the AU, and why are so many people afraid of the multiverse, this is literally all fanfic at this point, let's embrace it and make all the things.

This was one of my favorite parts to write, and something that I appreciated in the show and in R1 and even the OT, that yes, the Jedi are amazing, but they are not - nor should they be - the only ones counted on to fight the darkness. And it's like... Luke and Leia are here now, they're ready, and it's in very large part because of the wonderful non-Jedi who raised them, and the non-Jedi who paved the way for them. Which isn't to brush off their Jedi heritage either, not at all, because there were many Jedi who paved the way for them as well, in their own way. I just love that Luke and Leia embody the merging of those two, old and new, Jedi and non-Jedi. And I'm rambling at this point, I will stop.

So much stubbornness all around, agreed. They definitely needed it.

Aww, thanks, I'm so glad you liked it!

 

Omg I didn’t mean to take so long getting back to respond to these comments!

@devilinthedetails

It’s been a while, but I remember that I was on a trip when I got the notification for this, and it was such a lovely surprise. I’m so glad you decided to check it out!

This is great to hear! It just sort of came out that way when I started writing it, so I decided not to fight it. Like I told Elli above, I think this fic might have been my first piece of second-person POV writing in about fifteen years, so it was fun to rediscover that style.

Yep, and a lot of this was gleaned in a way from how Stover portrayed Obi-Wan in his RotS novelization, which I think is just peak Obi-Wan characterization. So I’m happy that you thought I did Obi-Wan’s perspective justice.

It honestly felt like that aspect of the Obi-Wan show was directly addressing so many of the things that my teenage fanfic writing self wanted to see in stories about these characters. (I still tear up watching the scene where Obi-Wan says goodbye to Leia and tells her what qualities she shares with her birth parents.) After watching that show, I just really wanted to dig into (and pay tribute to) those bonds and emotions tying the PT and OT together.

I really do think Obi-Wan went to his death at peace, and even though we as the audience know that Anakin isn’t quite dead yet, that’s truly what Obi-Wan believes, that his dear friend is gone; and like we saw with his conversations with Luke in ANH, he seems to look back on his memories of Anakin with far more fondness than he does regret. So I wanted to find a way to reconcile all those things in this moment.

I’m so pleased that you liked this part and that you enjoyed the vig! Thank you for reading and for this lovely review!




@Findswoman

That was something that really struck me about the Obi-Wan show, that struggle he faces. Before, it always seemed right that Obi-Wan never wavered in his devotion to his duty, even in his solitude on Tatooine - but the struggle depicted in the show made so much sense to me, and I found myself buying into it completely, especially with Ewan’s performance. So I’m glad to know all those aspects resonated with you in this piece.

I was definitely inspired by several scenes in particular, but I won’t share which ones just in case you haven't seen the show yet. Some of it was just the overall vibe that I wanted to call back to, though, and I’m really glad everything reads true to all the canon depictions of Obi-Wan. Thank you so much for reading, as always, and for your kind words!

 

Legit had a had time reading the end of it through my tears. How dare.

 

A powerful story that gives due credit to an intense moment the entire saga turns on.
This really is the final handing of the torch between Old Ben and Luke, and the emotional weight is overwhelming as he contemplates from where is has come.
Obi may have joked about it, but never in a million years did he seriously consider Anakin would be his end, and the reflection you give to his tone is powerful.

 

@Cowgirl Jedi 1701

The best compliment you could give me. (And sorry for the emotional devastation! *passes a very belated tissue*)




@ConservativeJedi321

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I had previously seen a post somewhere that talked a little about what Obi-Wan must have felt when he finally saw Luke and Leia together again on the Death Star, and that sort of got the ball rolling for me to write this piece, especially after finishing the show. It ended up being a short vig, but very emotional and even cathartic to write, and I'm so happy it resonated with others.