The Left-Hand Path

Part 4: the Reckoning

Acaciah awoke the next morning to the smell of food cooking. “Good morning, Papa,” she said, giving him a peak on the cheek.

Kenobi smiled; Acaciah looked much better today. “Did you sleep well?” he asked.

“Better than lately.”

“Good,” he said. “Master Windu wants to talk to you later, to see if you feel…better than yesterday.” Obi-Wan paused. “If you know anything, now would be the time to tell us.” He passed her a cup of tea.

Acaciah took it and sipped. “I was kept in Vader’s quarters. I’m afraid what he taught me there would be of little use to the resistance.”

“Acaciah, please!”

“I have nothing, father!” she snapped. Her façade changed dramatically, from angry to plotting. “Or perhaps not, Papa. Perhaps Vader left me a parting gift. I wasn’t given any birth control, you see.”

Kenobi turned white under his beard.

“Or perhaps not,” Acaciah continued. “I suspect if Anakin and I had a child even the littlest Padawan would be able to sense it.”

“That is not amusing, Acaciah!” Obi-Wan snapped. “You want to be free, you will do as I say, or you will be in his thrall for good!”

Acaciah stopped, chastened. She wanted to be free from Vader’s control. She might choose to be with him, but he would have to accept her as his equal; she was no one’s pet. Acaciah could almost feel his fingertips slide across her cheek. *You are never free of me, my love* Vader whispered. She shivered in delighted anticipation. He was nearer than before, she could feel it.

Obi-Wan regarded Acaciah suspiciously. Undoing whatever Vader had done to her would be more difficult than he’d previously thought. “Finish you breakfast; we have much work to do,” Kenobi stated, rising from the table. “If you will excuse me, there are preparations to be made.” He handed Acaciah a holomap. “Meet me here in an hour.”

Acaciah nodded in understanding, and Obi-Wan headed for the Resistance’s headquarters.

Saramai cleared the table. “May I have permission to speak freely?” she asked. Acaciah assented, and she continued. “I do not understand why we left the Executor. You are no freer here than you were there, milady. There you followed Lord Vader’s commands; here you obey your father’s.”

“Lord Vader does not treat me as his equal,” Acaciah replied.

“Everyone has a superior, a Master,” Saramai replied. “I do not think our Lord treated us badly. I have had much worse Masters, I assure you.”

“Saramai, it is hard to explain the differences between the Jedi and the Sith—” Acaciah’s words were interrupted by a disturbance in the Force; one she knew quite well. Images clouded her vision; she saw Papa fighting Vader. She felt agonizing heat and pain. “No!” she cried aloud, leaping from the table. They sprinted from the quarters to a speeder.

***
Obi-Wan surveyed the uninhabited barracks, making certain the Resistance had left no damning evidence behind for Imperial forces to use against them. His inspection finished, he headed toward the exit. A hooded figure clad in black awaited him. “Master Kenobi,” Vader’s baritone rumbled. He drew his lightsaber, its red beam hissing softly.

“Lord Vader,” Kenobi acknowledged, igniting his lightsaber as he went into a ready stance.


***
“Where are we going?” Saramai asked as they sped through the city.

“Vader,” she replied. Acaciah brought the speeder to bear on an abandoned barracks located on a cliff. It looked as if it had been recently inhabited.

They entered the barracks. The air crackled with crashing of laserswords. Vader and Kenobi dueled fiercely.

“No!” Acaciah cried, dismayed.

“Get out of here!” Obi-Wan ordered. Vader slashed and took a piece of his robe. He smirked; Kenobi was tiring. All he had to do was outlast the old man. Acaciah drew closer.

“Acaciah, darling,” Anakin said. “Tell your Papa how much you’ve learned since you became my apprentice.” Kenobi thrust forward hard enough to push Vader back a step.

“Leave, Acaciah!” Kenobi reiterated.

“Yes, darling,” Vader mocked. “Go back to our ship; I’ll catch up with you shortly.”

“No,” Acaciah breathed. “Don’t do this. I love you both!”

She drew her lightsaber and stepped between the two men, who both saw her coming. Kenobi withdrew, but Vader did not. He slipped his lightsaber beneath Acaciah’s arms, impaling her father.

Acaciah gave an agonized wail, sinking to the ground with Obi-Wan. “No, Papa, don’t leave me,” she cried. “I love you!”

Obi-Wan was pallid, his breathing strained. “I love you, too, Acaciah.” His eyelids fluttered, and closed for the last time. He disappeared, leaving behind only his lightsaber and robes.

Acaciah’s trembling fingers picked up his belongings. “Papa,” she breathed, not wanting to believe he was gone.

“Why did you get between us? I couldn’t stop!” Vader lied. “We could have convinced him to come back with us.”

Acaciah shook her head, clutching his robes to her chest. “NOhe she said and ran from him as fast as she could, throwing herself into the speeder. She took off for their quarters. Saramai started to try to go with her.

Vader stopped her. “My lord?” Saramai asked.

“Let her go for now, she needs to be alone,” Vader said. “I will send you back to the ship to get my lady’s quarters ready for her.”

***

Acaciah sped to their homestead, her father’s robes beside her in the speeder. Tears streamed down her face as she flew. Acaciah arrived at their quarters. Master Windu stood at the door waiting for her. She carried her father’s robes and lightsaber reverently in her arms.

Acaciah found she could say nothing when she looked into his cold gaze. “Master Kenobi is gone,” he acknowledged. Fresh tears streamed down her cheeks at his statement.

“Tears, Acaciah? You should have thought of this before you decided to lie down in the Sith’s bed!”

The white hot anger tore through her at his words. She dropped Kenobi’s robes and drew her lightsaber, determined to wipe the sneering expression from Windu’s face. She descended on him in a frenzy. They clashed and parried, Acaciah determined to take the object of her hatred out of existence. Windu had ceased to be a living being in her mind; he was an object to shred into pieces. Acaciah drove him back, back until he could take no cover; she battered him with thrusts. His lightsaber slipped; Acaciah’s did not. She slashed one last time, taking Windu’s head clean from his shoulders. Acaciah stepped back, her eyes wild and breathing ragged.

Behind her, Vader uncloaked his presence and stepped beside Acaciah. “I killed him,” she murmured. “They are all dead now.” Acaciah shivered.

“Their time is over, darling,” Vader said as he put his cape around her. “It is our time now.” He gathered Obi-Wan’s belongings. “It’s time to go home now, Acaciah.”

“Home?” she repeated dully. “Where is that now?”

“With me, my love,” Vader replied. He looked her directly in the eyes. *Come, Acaciah. You want to rest; let me take care of you.*

Acaciah slumped, too exhausted to resist his suggestion.