A/N: My friends! Thank you so much for coming along on this ride with me. I hope you have enjoyed it.

Epilogue: "Bound by the Life You Left Behind" - Evanescence, My Immortal

Obi-Wan slumped in the pilot's seat on Padmè's ship. R2 had set the navigation to take them… to wherever Senator's Organa's ship was going - oh right, Polis Massa - and he'd made Padmè as comfortable as he could.

He felt battered by the events of the last few days. The attack on the Temple, the slaughter of the younglings, and then the battle with Anakin on Mustafar, had all left him numb. He sank into a light meditative trance to try to regain his lost equilibrium. Instead, he felt arms around him, the rough cloth of a Temple-issued sleep tunic against his cheek, comfort through his brutally severed bond with Qui-Gon Jinn. With it came an easing, a feeling that a great deal of his mourning had already happened.

The feeling faded far sooner than he'd wished, and he felt less numb. Then he straightened, eyes wide. "Anakin," he whispered in surprise, and speaking the name punctured through the the rest of his deadened emotions. "It was Anakin." That name had woken him up after a dream that had filled him with grief, and he'd had the odd experience of having the feeling that his master should not be there, years before the battle with Maul.

Obi-Wan rubbed his face. It still felt tight from the heat of the lava. Better to meditate on that later, once he'd found a place to stay. The Jedi had been destroyed….

"You will destroy the Jedi." The voice of a long-dead Foilani Knight rang through his mind. He hadn't thought of Di'ona in years. Only a year after her death had come Naboo….

She'd been right, he thought later as he met up with Yoda and reported on his failure. Somehow, he'd missed something important while training Anakin, and he'd lost someone he loved directly to the Dark Side. Because of that, he'd lost everyone else he cared about.

"Blame yourself, you must not," Yoda said.

Obi-Wan automatically knelt, shaking himself three of his thoughts. They waited alone in a small conference room on Polis Massa for information on Padmè and her children. "I didn't do enough," he said. "Master, I failed."

"Blame yourself you should not. Your best you did," Yoda replied.

"It wasn't enough. I missed something. I failed Anakin and the Jedi."

"Too old he was," Yoda insisted, banging his gimer stick on the floor for emphasis - if not so firmly as before the events of the last few days.

"He hated me," Obi-Wan said, and knew he'd have to release that pain into the Force soon, or it would begin to fester. "I thought we were friends."

"Nothing but hate feels he now," Yoda agreed, and then looked penetratingly at him. "Think on Di'ona, do you?"

Obi-Wan flinched. "Yes."

"Wrong she was," Yoda insisted.

"But…."

Yoda leaned forward, looking earnestly into Obi-Wan's eyes. "You she did not see."

That surprised Obi-Wan completely. "But… she tried…." So many protests overwhelmed him that he could not voice any of them.

"See you, she did not," Yoda repeated.

"How do you know?" Obi-Wan gasped.

"Glimpses only, saw I," Yoda said sadly. "Dim Distant. Understand too late, I did." He pounded the floor again. "Think on her you should not."

"Yes, Master." As well ask the sun on Coruscant not to rise.

"Hmph," Yoda grunted. "Hear me you do not. Much like your Master you are." His eyes softened, and he turned away. "Done well you have, Obi-Wan. Rest you should. Much to do you will have."

A droid appeared in the doorway, summoning them to Padmè's side. Obi-Wan set the conversation aside to meditate on later, and followed to sit with Padmè. That, at least, he could do for his friend.


The green lightsaber flowed faintly in the malevolent dark, a familiar dark, because he'd had this dream before. A red lightsaber located approximately at the feet of the bearer of the green lightsaber faded to nothingness, flaring slightly as it became green again before winking out. The lightsaber stood alone against the dark for an instant, until more lightsabers began to appear, distant, dim, but growing in strength and numbers, filling the darkness with light. A peace washed over him, that all would be well.

Obi-Wan started awake at the beeping of the navcomputer, alerting him that the ship had arrived at Tatooine. He entered the coordinates for Mos Eisley, and went to check on his precious cargo. Luke looked up at him, quiet, aware as many of the children in the creche had acted before…. He shook his head. A small hand wrapped itself around one of his fingers. Blue eyes met his, and Obi-Wan found hope in the midst of his despair.