Disclaimer: I do not own Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin or Yoda or the Star Wars concept; Lucasfilm does. I am very respectfully borrowing them with no intent to profit. No credits have changed hands. No copyright infringement is intended.
Anakin is dead.
Those grief-filled words seemed to echo in Obi-Wan's chest, pounding, pounding.
Anakin is dead.
Anakin is dead.
How had it come to this? How had it... Obi-Wan stood there, swaying with exhaustion. Blinking back watery light, one hand absently wiping a cheek that should be wet with tears but was only numb with despair, he looked at the desecration around him.
Smoke filled the soiled beauty of the Jedi Temple. Black oily clouds floated above the litter of corpses; the haze of death gathered into corners where art once flourished, where now only blood and gore resided. The filth of battle was everywhere.
Anakin is dead.
Obi-Wan stared out into the quiet hallways, gazing through the arches, around columns, looking for any signs of life. But there was none. Instead, here and there were scattered the fallen Jedi and their murderers. The bodies seemed almost unreal - graceful arms flung wide in surprise, powerful legs distorted in a twisted parody of dance. If he could focus for just a moment, he knew that he would recognize the opening stance of the Falling Water Kata, see the rising of the fifth movement, watch the...
A soft murmur, Yoda urging him on, but he could not move.
He knew why he was here, of course. Duty, always duty. They had needed to change the Temple beacon; they needed to warn the others to stay away, to flee the trap before it was too late. They needed to save the remaining few, if there were any left.
Or had they done that already? He wasn't sure.
He blinked again, his mind's eye seeing the bodies of children scattered like broken toys in the Council Chamber and on the floor of the Great Hall. It was clear that even the smallest of them had fought bravely but every one had died in the agony of blaster fire or been cut down with a lightsaber. The young ones had never had a chance.
Monsters, monsters in the dark, monsters preying on children because... because they were Jedi. What kind of twisted form of revenge it was to use the Jedi's own lightsabers to murder innocents? Who could do such a thing and live with themselves afterwards?
Anakin is dead.
He ignored the voice inside his head.
It would do no good to linger here. There was much to do and not much time but he looked again out into the corridor. Almost without thought, unable to do anything else but strain to see if one golden-haired former apprentice, a Chosen one, was still here, dead among the corpses of the Jedi.
Obi-Wan almost laughed at the thought, hysteria rising silently in his throat. Where else would his brother in all but blood be, except at the Temple, defending the helpless, giving his life for his Jedi family?
The Chosen one. He should have taken Anakin with him to battle Grievous. He should have listened to his heart and told the Council to go to hell and taken his brother with him. And then he would have been safe. He would have been on Utapau; he would not have been here to be mowed down by ravening clone troopers bent on destruction.
He would not be dead.
Obi-Wan tried to stamp out the anguish. He knew that he needed to be strong for Yoda and the few others that remained but instead all he could do was to beg the Force, almost desperate in his plea, Please, please, I would give anything to know that he is alive and well and not dead. We need him. I need him.
Yoda was more insistent now. Beacon set and finally they could move on, out of the Temple and fleeing into the mists of darkness. But still, in Obi-Wan's mind, the plea for Anakin to be alive, somewhere, somewhere safe, was almost overwhelming.
Nodding finally to the old Master, Obi-Wan realized that there was one more thing to do. The security vidfeeds would have the answers they needed. Who had gotten the troopers into the Temple? They would have needed the access codes; the Temple could be a fortress when necessary. Surely, when the gatekeepers had seen the troops marching up to the Temple, they would have closed the doors. Surely...
But Master Yoda was trying to pull him away, telling him that there was nothing but pain in those vids. Was Anakin's death captured there? What could be worse than seeing the brother you loved die before your eyes? What could be...
No, it can't be. It's not possible.
And then in the recorded obscenity that followed, he found that his desperate wish had been granted after all. He watched as Anakin, his brother, the Chosen one, slaughtered those he had sworn to protect. Killing innocents, children. Jedi.
Anakin was alive and he was... he was...
Obi-Wan had gotten his wish after all.
The end.