JUST ANOTHER DAY

    The sunset on Coruscant was a sight to behold. A true spectacle. Never ceasing to amaze the countless species that had flocked to the planet to witness such unique beauty. The orange-yellow sun created streaks of clouds that emanated the same colors. The light blue of day morphed into purple as the planet inched closer to nightfall. The sun began to set behind hundreds of darkened skyscrapers, illuminating them along with the many ships and speeders that constantly flooded the airways. The war had been over for years but the wonderful view appeared as if the Republic claimed the victory only yesterday.

Standing beside each other, like the old days, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker watched the sun disappear under the horizon. There was a stillness that filled the air despite the distant hums of engines speeding across the recently dark planet skies. Those constant, yet somehow calming sounds were then drowned out by sirens as Coruscanti police began to envelop some of the lanes. 

“You would think the Underworld would take a day off once in a while,” Anakin said, shaking his head full of hair.

“Yes, you would think. Unfortunately, without war profiteering, the syndicates have turned to other means of making a dishonest living,” Obi-Wan answered. The grey on his sideburns were now more visible than ever.

“The Jedi should be handling them,” Anakin said.

“Anakin, you know as well as anyone that provoking the syndicates would only escalate situations. The risk is unnecessary but we do what we can.”

“I know, Master. Sometimes, I just think I could make things better. I want to.”

“I know you do, Anakin. We all do. That’s why you have a good heart.” He rested a hand on Anakin’s shoulder. “The Sith are gone, thanks to you my friend, but even the Chosen One cannot snuff out all of the darkness hidden within the depths of the galaxy. It is a part of life after all.”

Anakin chuckled at Obi-Wan’s “Chosen One” comment. He knew his master was right. Even though he wanted to help people, there would always be darkness in the galaxy. Just a different kind of darkness. And fortunately, significantly less powerful than what had come before.

“And it’s been over five years, Anakin. You don’t have to call me “Master” all the time.”

“Are you still a Jedi Master, or am I missing something?” Anakin sarcastically responded.

“Point taken.”

“You practically raised me, Obi-Wan….You’re like the father I never had. Least I can do is show you some respect and make up for all those times I got under your skin.”

Obi-Wan looked back over the balcony and grinned from ear to ear. 

“Hmm, never thought of it that way. I guess I always saw you as my little brother.”

Anakin stared at the black sky encompassed with stars. He joined Obi-Wan in a quick laugh and turned to look at him.

“Call it what you want, Master.” He rested his left hand on his old mentor’s shoulder. “But you’ve always been my family.”

Obi-Wan rarely showed any emotions, it was unlike Jedi Masters to do so. However, his eyes started to swell with liquid so he pulled away from Anakin’s gaze.

The two stood alone on the balcony in temporary silence, until Obi-Wan spoke again.

“You know, Anakin, you’re always welcome back in the Order. Master Yoda and I agree that your achievements as a Jedi Knight have been very much unappreciated. You’ve been gone long enough. And...we would give you special accommodations, of course.”

Obi-Wan looked back to the entrance of the apartment as he finished his sentence. After a brief moment to take it in, Anakin answered.

“Sidious had been watching me from the very beginning. He knew of the darkness within me. I could’ve lost everything in that war.”

“He’s gone now. You fought back the darkness. The weak embrace the dark side, Anakin. Only the strong resist it.”

Anakin caught Obi-Wan’s stare and then turned back to the skyline. Obi-Wan continued.

“I just wanted to let you know the offer is there. The Jedi have learned from our mistakes. We were playing his game for far too long without realizing it. It was you who saved us all.”

“Tell Master Yoda I’m honored. I truly am.” Sensing the presence of two young children running up behind him, Anakin finished, “But I have everything I need.”

“Well, it was worth a try,” Obi-Wan muttered.

The two five year olds attacked their father’s ankles. They clawed at Anakin’s boots, looking up at him.

The blonde haired boy let go of his father’s ankle to turn around to Obi-Wan.

“Uncle Obi!” he screamed, charging for his leg.

“Oh, hello. Okay…….okay. Anakin can you...ummm?”

“Daddy, dinner’s ready,” Leia said, signaling for her father to pick her up. 

“Thank you sweetie, just one moment,” Anakin said. The response didn’t stop Leia from grasping air with her fists.

“Hey, Luke,” Anakin called out, immediately receiving his son’s attention. “Remember what we practiced?”

The little boy nodded and Obi-Wan’s interest peaked.

With little Leia still wrapped around her father’s ankle, Anakin’s gloved hand rose into the air.

As did Luke. Obi-Wan’s eyes widened.

Gently turning his son mid-air to face Obi-Wan at eye-level, Anakin began to laugh.

Luke reached out with his own tiny hand and cupped his uncle’s red beard. The child couldn’t stop laughing.

Obi-Wan stood there, straight-faced, begrudgingly allowing it to persist.

“Is this….really….necessary, Anakin?”

“What? It was his idea,” Anakin said, still choking on laughter.

Obi-Wan grabbed Luke’s hand away from his beard and cradled the child in his left arm. Anakin let go of the Force, once Luke was in safe hands, and picked up his daughter.

“I hope they at least washed their hands,” Obi-Wan said.

Luke had yet to stop chuckling as he kept trying to reach for his uncle’s beard. 

With children in their arms, Jedi Master and former Jedi Knight left the nighttime lit-up balcony and trotted back inside Padmé Amidala-Skywalker’s apartment.

Once inside, Anakin let Leia down. She sprinted past Obi-Wan screaming, “Hi Uncle Obi,” and then hopped up onto her seat at the dinner table. 

Obi-Wan gently put Luke back onto his feet. “Thanks, Uncle Obi,” the boy smiled, hurrying to his seat next to his twin sister. The two sat there quietly, eagerly awaiting their dinner.

“Being called Master by you may be getting a bit tiresome.  However, I do, in fact, like being called ‘Uncle.’ Now that will never get old,” Obi-Wan told Anakin.

As Obi-Wan walked past Anakin he added, “Also, don’t ever let him do that again.” 

Anakin smiled and followed Obi-Wan’s eyes, which had focused on someone entering the room.

“Thank you again for having me Padmé,” Obi-Wan said.

“Of course, Obi-Wan. You know you’re always welcome here.” Padmé gave him a sincere grin and held out her arms for a friendly hug. The two embraced and when they let go Padmé added, “Plus, we have a lot of food.”

“Yes, well, I could use a night off from the food at the Jedi Temple.”

“Don’t have to say that again,” Anakin cut in, “One of the reasons why I left.”

“Anakin,” Padmé snapped. 

“Kidding,” he said as he pecked a kiss on his wife’s cheek.

“Your husband’s lucky I share his peculiar sense of humor,” Obi-Wan said.

“That’s why we always got along,” Anakin added.

To that comment, they both chuckled. 

They all turned their attention toward C-3PO, who had just rounded a corner and stopped in his tracks.

“Uhh, pardon me, Mistress Padmé, Ahsoka Tano is here.” 

Anakin’s eyes widened in disbelief. He turned to Obi-Wan, who seemed as if he was the one who had invited her. 

“Let her in, 3PO,” Padmé responded. The droid nodded and disappeared around the corner.

“I didn’t know you invited Ahsoka,” Anakin told Obi-Wan.

“I believe Padmé does all the ‘inviting’ surrounding her own apartment.”
Anakin, still dumbfounded, turned to look at Padmé.

“I contacted her before she returned to Coruscant. We wanted to surprise you, Ani,” Padmé explained.

All Anakin could do was smile and attack his wife’s lips with his own, to which Obi-Wan responded with an awkward head turn away from the couple.

Anakin hadn’t seen Ahsoka in nearly two years. They’d contact each other once in a while but he had no idea when she’d be back in the Core Worlds. After returning to the Jedi Order shortly after the end of the war, Ahsoka Tano was assigned as the chief Jedi Knight to spearhead the expedition of exploring the worlds in the Unknown Regions. It was no easy task, the dangers of the Unknowns were oblivious to the Jedi, which led to the conceivement of the mission. Curiosity was a dangerous game, but with Ahsoka Tano leading a few other Jedi and a small battalion of clones who had chosen to stay with the Republic military, the task was in good hands. Anakin suddenly remembered that newly anointed Commander Rex had joined Ahsoka on her mission as well. So if she was back….

Rex was the first one to round the corner behind C-3PO. It even caught Obi-Wan off guard too, who was the first to approach the commander.

“Good to see you, Rex,” Obi-Wan said, shaking his hand.

“You too, Sir. General Skywalker, how are the kids?”

“Hungry as ever,” Anakin said, shaking his old Captain’s hand.

“And how many times have I told you to call me Anakin.”

“Sorry, General.”

Rex headed off to go greet the twins before Anakin could respond. Obi-Wan shot him a “now you know how it feels” look.

Then Ahsoka rounded the corner, followed by R2-D2. R2 had probably conversed with Ahsoka when 3PO let her in, which is why Rex was the one to round the corner first.

Ahsoka’s lekku were longer than ever, the same saber hilts she used during the war still attached to her belt. She embraced Padmé first in a lengthy hug. 

“Sorry I’m late, Padmé. I had to report my recent findings to the Council before they’d let me go.”

“You’re just in time, Ahsoka. Thank you for coming.”

“It’s good to have you back, Ahsoka. How did the briefing go? Did I miss anything?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Nothing important, Master Kenobi. I’m surprised they gave you the night off too,” she said.

“Yes, well, is a Jedi really ever off-duty?”

Ahsoka only took the question to be hypothetical, unaware of Obi-Wan’s chat with Anakin on the balcony. 

“Am I chopped nuuna to you or what?” Anakin said, gesturing with his arms out and palms up.

Obi-Wan backed away from Ahsoka and Ahsoka took in the sight of her old master. His hair was nearly the same as when she last saw him before she left Coruscant. He was even more happy now then he was then. She rushed toward him and fell into his arms, squeezing him tight. 

“Now don’t get too sentimental over me, Snips.”

“I bet you cry before I do,” she said, after she pulled herself out of his arms.

Anakin smiled and knew she was right. It took everything in him to hold back tears. The exploration of the Unknown Regions was an uncalculated risk. He was lucky she had returned in one piece.

“Mom, I’m hungry,” the boy said. Rex had taken a seat next to Luke and chuckled at the comment. Leia was focusing her attention on the fork that she was levitating in front of her.

Before Padmé could respond to her son, Ahsoka chimed in, “They’ve gotten so big!”

She approached the children and got down on one knee to become eye level with them. Leia let the fork drop on the table and turned around to greet Ahsoka. “Ahsoka,” Leia said, pointing at the Togruta’s face. Luke looked at the Jedi in amazement and bewilderment. He had no idea who this person was. It had been almost two years since Ahsoka had last seen the twins. She was glad at least one of them remembered her.

“Do you remember me, Luke?” Ahsoka asked, picking up Leia in her arms, who began gently stroking her lekku.

The boy shook his head.

“He remembered me,” Rex said.

“I’ll take what I can get, I guess,” Ahsoka said laughing. 

“Okay, dinner is ready,” Padmé finally said. Luke turned his attention from the stranger and faced his empty plate.  

C-3PO helped serve the food as R2 strolled in late as always--he disappeared shortly after Ahsoka embraced Padmé--probably hoping to avoid having to serve them.

Anakin eyed the roasted shaak and said, “I hope this is the one that nearly killed me on Naboo.”

Padmé was the only one laughing; she was the only one who could possibly understand his reference.

“I don’t want to know,” Obi-Wan said. 

That’s when the laughter became contagious.

The five friends sat, ate, and conversed about their lives as the two children finished their meals within seconds. Through the apartment window, Coruscant’s cityscape glittered in the night.

Then abruptly, everything faded into a blur and then to black.

Suddenly, two pairs of eyes shot open. And became wet…

Tears dripped one by one from his eyes. He opened them, taking in the two bright, beating, brutal, and burning suns that rested high in the sky through his window. It was a dream.

The sting of the bacta was painful. But not nearly as painful as what he had awoken from. It was a nightmare.

And not the first time he had it, but probably the hundredth. A dream of perfection, of regret, and of happiness. A false reality.

The foreign temptations of love, friendship, and happiness had constantly haunted the dark lord during the bacta tank submersions. The sting of the bacta on his eyes was worth every ounce of pain. He had been through worse.

Padmé was dead. Ahsoka was most likely dead. And Anakin…Anakin was gone too. The dream was a lie that haunted and upset the old man throughout his sleep most nights. Ones were happy, like this one, and ones were painful that detailed images of screaming, fire, and death.

He embraced the darkness again, reaching out with the Force to connect with the fiery world of the planet that had claimed his soul. His body. The dark side felt like lava flowing through his veins. It gave him power now, instead of taking it away like it once had long ago.

Obi-Wan Kenobi wiped the tears away with his robes and stood up from his hard bed. It was another day in this cruel galaxy. Another day for old Ben. Just another day on Tatooine.

Darth Vader shut the bacta machine off with the Force. His brief meditation was corrupted by the nightmare. He needed to find something to kill. For it was another day in the darkness. Just another day on Mustafar.

It wouldn’t be too long until their paths would cross again.