We are on a non-stop train of pain and I am simultaneously so very sorry, and not sorry at continue to suffer with me.

As always, thanks so much for the faves and follows and comments! They really brighten my day!

-Becks

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Chapter 25

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Obi-Wan never thought he would be grateful that the Separatists had hyperspace capability on their small starfighters. Throughout the war it had been nothing but a thorn in his side as generals and key leaders could escape a battlefield without relying on the larger cruisers. They could sacrifice their droids and ships and escape unseen. Now, it was the only thing that had saved his life. He never would have escaped Utapau without Grievous' ship.

Kenobi piloted the small fighter into the Tantive IV's docking bay. Organa was waiting for him. Obi-Wan didn't know what had drawn the Alderaanian senator so far from Coruscant, but it could hardly be good news.

"Master Kenobi, I am relieved to see you are alright." Bail offered as a greeting. He flashed a wan smile, but Obi-Wan could sense that the senator was deeply unnerved and saddened. Organa didn't waste any time, and lead Obi-Wan deeper into the ship at a brisk pace.

"What's going on, Senator Organa?"

"I don't know. Not entirely. It seems the clones have turned against the Jedi."

"Everywhere?" Obi-Wan didn't need the clarification. He could feel the thousands of lives that had been ripped away from the Force tearing an aching hole deep into his soul.

They approached a door and Bail spoke gravely. "Master Yoda's clones turned against him, as did yours, I presume."

"Yoda's here?"

"Yes, he'll join us in a moment." Bail stepped into the room. "I was just telling him when we received your transmission what I saw at the Temple."

Obi-Wan's hand shot out and caught the senator by his shoulder. "You went to the Temple?"

"Yes, before I left Coruscant to catch any Jedi before they walked into a trap. I saw... the clones..." he trailed off, horror deep in his eyes.

"Did you see Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked earnestly, gripping the senator's arms.

Organa shook his head slowly. "No, I didn't see any Knights, just the padawan..." he swallowed whatever he was going to say next and took a deep breath. "I haven't heard from Padme either."

It took a second for Bail's words to register. His hands tightened spasmodically before he released Bail and sighed. "She's alright. They're all fine," he said; more trying to convince himself than reassure the senator. "Padme's far too sensible to do anything rash. He wouldn't put their children in danger."

"It's not the children you're worried about," Bail said quietly, gripping Obi-Wan bracingly by his upper arm.

"Anakin would have run headlong into the fire if it meant protecting the Or—the younglings," Obi-Wan whispered. A trembling overtook his hands as he allowed himself to think of his former padawan. The shaking threatened to consume him as he thought about all the lost Jedi. The Masters and Knights who had raised him and grown up with him. The younglings he had taught. His friends. His family. "…They're all gone…"

Anakin… he tried reaching out for her over their bond, but there was no response. It had grown progressively weaker over the past few months as Anakin distanced herself from him. No… Obi-Wan only just realized. It had been growing weaker for more than a few months. It had been weakening for well over a year now. Before her pregnancy… before Ahsoka leaving… How had ne not noticed the deterioration? When he had said goodbye before Utapau he had felt how brittle their bond had become, but even then there should have been an echo at the very least resonating back as he called out.

There was nothing. She was gone.

"Master Kenobi?"

Obi-Wan was vaguely aware of Bail pushing him towards a chair before his legs gave out beneath him. He collapsed into the chair and stared at his shaking hands. They weren't supposed to be shaking. Jedi Masters didn't have breakdowns. He clasped them together tightly and stared at a fresh scab on his knuckle trying to fend off the encroaching anguish.

Small, shuffling footsteps accompanied by a sharp click of a walking stick broke Obi-Wan out of his despairing vortex. A Force presence that had been with him his entire life entered the room. Master Yoda. His wizened old face and the unfathomable, yet comforting presence had been some of his first memories.

"A time for despair, this is not, young one." His statement was punctuated with a sharp poke to Obi-Wan's shin.

A streak of amused ire flashed through Obi-Wan was he looked up to meet Yoda's eyes. Only the ancient Master would call another Council member "young one." But of course, Yoda was right. Despair was an attachment to pain and guilt. It had to be released.

Obi-Wan scrubbed his hands across his face and drew in a long, deep breath. As he exhaled, he released the pain and guilt, all the suffering that echoed in ghostly wails through the Force. "We may not be the only Jedi who escaped with their lives," he said slowly, once his head cleared. "If they listen to the beacon they'll fall right into a trap."

"Then reset the trap, we must. Away from Coruscant, warn the Jedi."

"But Masters, surely they'll expect someone to attempt to reroute the signal," Organa interjected. "You would be walking straight into a trap."

Obi-Wan's jaw clenched reflexively as his thoughts turned back to Anakin. One of the strongest and bravest people he knew, so much ahead of her, all gone.

"We- I have a policy about traps." Somehow, the words felt sour coming out. It was wrong to speak of something he and Anakin did as a team singularly.

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XXXXXXXXXX

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The smoldering Temple could be seen for miles. The entirety of Coruscant seemed frozen in anticipation. Even if the people didn't know exactly what had happened, they knew it had been big and it had been bad. Of course, it was only a matter of time before the People knew. Organa had been called back to the Senate; Palpatine was making a statement now. With just a few words, Sidious would turn the Jedi into the villains of the galaxy.

Obi-Wan picked his way through the Temple carefully. He had expected there to be bodies. Bail's report and the fact that a battalion of troopers had stormed the Temple made that fact all too clear. Yet as he saw them, crumpled on the floor, shock and terror still clear on their faces, despair tried its best to claw its way back into his soul. Seeing the reality was a lot harder than hearing about it. Obi-Wan was constantly pushing back his nausea as he walked past another young face. There were clone bodies, yes, but they were easily outnumbered twenty-to-one.

Yoda walked beside him. His silence spoke volumes.

They Obi-Wan's eye caught the shape of a small body – a too small body. He gasped involuntarily and hurried over. He knew it was too late, but he knelt down and checked the little girl for signs of life. Her body was cold and stiff, and there was a long charred wound across her belly and chest. She couldn't have been more than five years old.

"Not even the younglings survived." Obi-Wan tried to push the despair away again, but his voice was so hollow and tears threatened in the corners of his eyes.

"Killed by a blaster, this youngling was not." Yoda stated solemnly, looking down at the little girl's body.

Obi-Wan sat back on his heels, he clenched his fists and squeezed his eyes shut. "Who would do this?" he asked.

Yoda heaved a long, exhausted sigh. "Matters not, it does. Change things, it would not." He turned and resumed his trek through the Temple. "Now come, much work to do, we still have."

Obi-Wan gave the youngling one last look before he stood up again and followed Master Yoda through the Temple. They killed the clones they ran into; most of the patrols didn't know what had hit them before they were dead. The few that managed to see them never got a chance to raise the alarm. A lot of familiar, blue-painted helmets rolled.

Obi-Wan tried not to think about how this was the 501st. Clones that had saved his life on numerous occasions; Anakin clones! Had they turned on her first? How many of her men did she have to kill in her own defense? Did she even survive? Or was her body just lying somewhere, waiting to be found and identified?

Finally, they made it to the comm hub. A few minutes of searching led Obi-Wan and Yoda to the source of the signal. Immediately, Obi-Wan accessed the code and began working. He had to be creative, and dig deep to make a change that the Clones wouldn't notice.

"There," Obi-Wan announced after nearly half an hour of work, exhaustion evident in his voice. "It should be a long time before anyone discovers the signal."

He turned back to Yoda and in silence they began the trek back through the Temple. Past all the bodies. Obi-Wan wanted – needed to do something for them, but there was no time. There were too many of them. The whole Temple would have to burn to make a pyre for all of them.

His eyes fell on an opened door as they passed; the security archives. A small viewing station seemed to stand out, calling to him. Obi-Wan found his steps faltering and he stopped. Many of the fallen had been killed with a lightsaber, not a clone's blaster. Many more than would be considered an accident by a panicked, untrained youngling desperate to save their friends and family.

"If into the security records you go, only pain will you find," Yoda warned, sensing Obi-Wan's hesitation.

"I must know, Master." Obi-Wan said faintly, mostly trying to convince himself. He had this sick, terrible feeling in his heart. A gaping, agonizing pain that throbbed with every heartbeat. It was, in some part, the pain of all the Jedi lost with Order 66. But there was something more, something deeper, something to do with Anakin.

Somehow he knew she had been involved. There wasn't time to search the entire Temple and identify every dead body. He wasn't sure if his friend had been here last night, and if she had died valiantly trying to protect the younglings. But if her could see her in her final, heroic moments… It might help.

Their bond was tainted and broken; it only became more obvious to him the closer they had come to Coruscant. It almost felt to him as if she had died… but not. Was she injured? Or was she somehow… no! Obi-Wan wouldn't let his mind think such traitorous thoughts. Anakin never would have caused this, regardless of her current feelings towards the Order.

He started up the holoviewer and quickly reversed the feed to the previous evening. It was painful to watch the clones – the 501st, men he had known for years. Men he would have laid down his life for, as they would have done the same for him – marching through the Temple, firing indiscriminately at whoever was in their path. Younglings, elders, acolytes, it didn't make a difference to them. Obi-Wan quickly flipped through several feeds, looking for the leader of the attack. He found them after a moment, and followed them carefully from view to view. He could only catch glimpses of them. They kept their face hooded, and they were moving almost too quickly to catch. From what he could see, their movements looked familiar. Painfully familiar, but Obi-Wan pushed away that dark thought. Form V was a popular saber technique, Anakin was far from the only Jedi to specialize in it over the course of the war.

He saw the attacker run their blade directly through a padawan and youngling, showing no sign of remorse. Then they stiffened, and turned towards something else that the recorder didn't capture. They were suddenly thrown out of view by a strong Force push, Obi-Wan hurried to find a view that showed them again. The attacker was boxed in, dueling with Shaak Ti while simultaneously fending off several Temple Guards. Unfavorable odds for anyone, Jedi or Sith, and yet they seemed to maintain the upper hand in combat. Master Ti was in top form after recovering from her injuries, and the Sentinels were ruthless when it came to threats against the Order. Still, one guard fell to the attacker's blade and another followed soon after. There were very few Jedi Obi-Wan knew who could fight like that.

The attacker was nearly cornered when they took a flying leap and flipped over Ti and the remaining two guards. Their cloak was dislodged in the jump and fell to the ground. Obi-Wan hardly needed to look at the braid that fell down the attacker's back, or the cut of her bangs. He knew the exact shade of the hair that was a light blue in the holo's projection. He knew the curve of the jaw and the set of her face, the defiant rigidity of her shoulders, the effortless movements of her fighting. He knew everything about Anakin, except that feral, vicious look in her eyes as she snarled at the guards and Shaak Ti.

The battle didn't last much longer after that. The two remaining guards fell to Anakin's blade. She and Master Ti duel for another minute more before the togruta was eventually impaled through the heart. Anakin hardly paused after she murdered the Master. She simply kicked the body to make sure Ti was truly dead and turned away to continue her spree.

Obi-Wan felt his legs weaken and he threw his hands down to brace himself. He accidentally hit a button that advanced the holo rapidly. By the time he stopped it, it was several hours later. There was no more battle, no more blaster shots. Anakin was walking with a stooped figure – the Sith Lord!

"The Temple has been cleared, Master," she reported in a cold, empty voice. "The holocron vaults have been secured and all Jedi have been eliminated."

"You did well my apprentice," the Sith Lord purred, he surveyed the carnage around him. "With the threat of the Jedi exterminated and the Senate under my control, we shall finally bring peace and security back to the galaxy." They came to a stop and the Sith Lord turned to face the security recording. Despite the fact that his face was horridly disfigured and scarred Obi-Wan recognized him in an instant. Palpatine! The Sith Lord looked directly up into the recorder, as if he knew he would be observed, a purely venomous and terrible expression split his face. "Excellent work, Lord Vader, now go and complete your mission."

Anakin bowed low to Palpatine. "Yes, Master."

Obi-Wan watched the security recording, numb and cold. What he was seeing should have rocked him to his core, but it was almost as if he had expected this to happen. Perhaps he had. He hadn't been blind to Anakin's struggles over the last seven months. He had witnessed her sheer desperation to protect her children and husband. Instead of recognizing the touch of the Dark Side growing in her, he had left her to Palpatine's whims.

He had failed her.

But why? Why would she do this? How could she possibly?

Shock finally crashed into him. Obi-Wan felt his knees hit the floor, shooting sharp pain up his legs. A soft, despairing cry struggled out of his throat. "This is my fault," he moaned, burying his head in his hands. "This is all my fault. I should have died on Geonosis, then this never would have happened."

No! Even that was too late. He should have been killed alongside Qui-Gon on Naboo. Before he brought Anakin back to the Temple and insisted on training her. Or perhaps he should have died years before that on Mandalore. If he had died then, Qui-Gon would have taken a younger apprentice. They wouldn't have ever been sent on that mission to negotiate with the Trade Federation. They never would have found Anakin!

"A time for despair, this is not!" Yoda admonished sharply with a jab of his stick into Obi-Wan's thigh. "Your responsibility, Skywalker's actions are not! A Knight she was. Choose this path she did!"

Obi-Wan focused on Yoda's words. Now was not the time for despair. There was too much to be done. Darth Sidious had to be stopped. Anakin had to be stopped. Slowly, he pulled himself back to his feet.

"Much to do, there still is, and little time, we have."

Obi-wan knew what Master Yoda was instructing him to do, but he just couldn't do it. "Send me after Palpatine, Master. I can't… I can't face Anakin."

Yoda shook his head solemnly. "Strong enough to face Sidious, you are not. Difficult that battle will be for me. After Skywalker you must go."

"I can't kill her, Master. What about her children?"

"Precisely why stop her, you must! Harm them, she might."

Obi-Wan shook his head emphatically. "No, she wouldn't. She couldn't. Not Anakin."

"And slay younglings, would she?" Yoda snapped back.

Obi-Wan had no response. The Anakin he saw in the security recording wasn't the woman he knew. It wasn't the devoted and protective mother. It wasn't the Hero General who always seemed to make time to speak with the younglings and teach saber techniques. It wasn't his best friend and sister. He couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't harm her children – inadvertently or not.

"We should take them on together," he suggested after a moment, swallowing his despair. "If Palpatine is as powerful as we fear you may need my help."

"Yes, agree with you, I do." Yoda nodded and began walking again. "But the luxury of time, we do not have. Destroyed the Sith must be, before further chaos takes root."