Summary: No good can come.
Pairings
: None
Author's Note
: Apart from the Wilfred Owen reference made by the title, there's a reference to Julius Caesar made in the very first sentence.
Disclaimer
: I don't own Star Wars.


Some die a thousand deaths long before their hearts stop beating, but it's not from cowardice. At least not in Anakin's sake. The boy has many faults, but cowardice does not by any means loom large among them.

If anything, he's too reckless, without caution.

Obi-Wan will always say that he's too reckless.

A year and a half in, and Anakin's not the boy Obi-Wan remembers from before the war. It was inevitable, yet it still feels strange.

Anakin from before the war was brash and sullen, but he could be reached. Some joke with a biting wit out of his Master's mouth was occasionally met with a reluctant, half-hidden smile. Even when Anakin was disobeying with orders he still did it in such a way that had no sharp edge to it, even if the resentment at being ordered around was there. Obi-Wan couldn't help that resentment, couldn't figure out how to get rid of it and thus didn't even try. That may have been a mistake, he's starting to think.

Anakin from now, during the war, is a different story.

Outwardly, to the observer who only takes stock of superficial qualities, he has changed not at all. But Obi-Wan has cared for Anakin since he was nine years old, and he knows better.

Grimmer.

Colder.

Darker.

And he can't quite make the connection, but he knows no good can come of Anakin growing to love bloodshed more and more by the day, sating his pain on a lightsaber.

The tall boy, his broad shoulders hunched and strangely shrunken in appearance, is hunched on a rock when Obi-Wan finds him. A few of the rebels are beyond, blood-drenched and unrecognizable.

Obi-Wan puts a hand on Anakin's shoulder and tries not to notice when he winces. "Anakin… Are you alright?" His voice is gentler than usual.

Anakin's smirk is utterly hollow. "I'm fine."

No good can come.