Time seemed to slow, as the bolt grew closer and closer, making Anakin realize that no matter what move he chose to make, the bolt was still going to hit its mark without outside interference.
It was most simply too late.
Still, Anakin found it funny, because out of all the ways he'd imagined his death, this was not how he expected it to go. Then again, he never really had thought much of his eventual death.
He was Anakin Skywalker. The Chosen One. So, in his mind, some part of him had always believed himself to be indestructible.
Yet now, as he stared into the face of death, he realized that that was most definitely not so.
Anakin wished it wasn't like this. For to go down by a single blaster bolt seemed so… so ordinary. He wished his death could've been more grand, like sacrificing himself for Obi-Wan or Ahsoka or even the entire galaxy itself… or maybe even falling from battle wounds after defeating the mysterious Darth Sidious.
It wasn't his time, Anakin could feel it in those milliseconds leading up to what seemed like the inevitability of his death.
He didn't want to die, but life was hardly fair.
Anakin knew this intimately
Suddenly, time seemed to resume and everything that happened next was a blur.
Anakin flew off the ground.
Impact.
A cry of pain.
Silence.
Instinctively, Anakin instantly reached for his chest, breathing heavily, as he expected to find his hands to come away coated in his own blood. Yet oddly, when he brought his hands to his face, they came away clean.
It was then that Anakin truly took the time to take in his surroundings. No longer was he in the street, but now in an alleyway that had been about 7 meters away from him only moments prior.
His position managed to just obscur him from the view of the would-be assassin.
Still, Anakin was certain he'd heard a cry of pain. Originally, he'd thought it'd been himself, but now he wasn't so sure.
So, pushing himself to his feet, he stood, searching desperately for Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, and as soon as his eyes laid on the scene before him, everything clicked.
Obi-Wan, who had been standing right behind him when the shot went off, must've force pushed him out of the way, leaving his former Master to take the bullet for him.
The evidence was all there, as he stared at his Padawan, who was now desperately pressing her hands against Obi-Wan chest, in an attempt to stop a raging outpour of blood that was currently flooding in rivers from his former Master's body.
While Obi-Wan was normally, so calm and collected, careful of not ever showing too much emotion, even from a distance Anakin could now see the pain radiating off of him in waves.
For a moment, Anakin flashed back to his mother, when she'd died in his arms. He couldn't do that again, he couldn't keep losing the ones he loved. Still, he couldn't help Obi-Wan yet, the assassin needed to be taken care of first.
Quickly, Anakin unclipped his lightsaber from his belt and raced back into the square. At the sight of his reappearance, blaster bolts began to rain rapid-fire down upon him, once more. He didn't even stop to wonder why this assassin seemed to only be targeting him, when he could've easily both ended Ahsoka and finished off Obi-Wan already. Instead all Anakin could think about was the image of Obi-Wan in torturous pain, while he laid in a pool of his own blood.
Rage, anger, guilt and grief, all warred through Anakin's entire being, as a flicker of yellow curled at the bottom of his shining blue irises.
Anakin Skywalker was going to kill whoever did this.
Once they'd finished their meals and Palpatine had paid the check, Rey followed him back to their ride.
Within minutes they'd arrived at the Galaxies Opera House and while Rey had thought the restaurant was fancy, Zothique had been like a hole in the wall compared to the grand power and sheer exquisiteness that the Opera House seemed to emit.
"It is quite beautiful, now isn't it," Palpatine remarked with a sigh, as they made their way through the grand building and toward their seats.
"Yes… I must say it's quite honestly one of the most beautiful things, I've ever laid my eyes upon," Rey murmured back. Again, a twinge of sadness seemed to stab her right through the heart, as she found herself wishing that she could've been here with Ben instead of Palpatine. Having Palpatine here with her, just seemed to lessen and taint her experience, making her doubt she'd ever willingly want to come back here, due to the darkness of which this place would now always represent for her.
As they found their seats, the lights flashed overhead, as a warning to any stragglers, before finally they gave a final flicker and the crowd was engulfed in darkness.
Slowly, a sole light, faded at first, but then slowly becoming more and more powerful, flickered on and a beautiful woman, named Sattia, appeared, as she began to sing about how dark times were coming. Slowly, more and more people joined her on stage, as they worked to harmonize with her.
Throughout the first act Sattia fell in love with another named Jess. Together the two lived peaceful, happy lives, until one day the peace was disrupted when a mysterious man appeared and slaughtered almost all of the peaceful society, including the Sattia's love interest, Jess.
Later, it turned out that mysterious man had been one of the original rulers of the society, a tyrant who had been extinguished centuries ago, and only reappeared, after another woman named Sabine, who the Sattia later discovered had also been in love with Jess, had used dark magic to bring life back to the murderous tyrant's body. She'd thought that she could control him, so that she could use him to kill Sattia and then have Jess return to her once more. Still, the tyrant had managed to break his bonds and blind her, before the great massacre, which he'd enacted to break the society's spirits, so that they'd fall in line. Not killing her, solely because she had been the one to bring him back.
Slowly, the tyrant began to rise all of the cruelest leaders from history to create an ultimate syndicate that essentially forced the society into slavery.
All the while, Sattia and Sabine slowly overcame their differences until one day they set out in an attempt to assassinate the cruel leaders and fix Sabine's grave mistake.
Yet, their plans were foiled almost the instant they set foot in the grand castle, where the great rulers were staying and the pair were brought to the dungeons to await execution. Still, not all was lost, as when the execution day came, the rulers all bickered about who would be the one to kill the pair who'd been on their way to assassinate them.
Due to their overly large egos, prides and lack of patience, the leaders could not decide who should be the one to do it and so while Sattia and Sabine watched, the rulers brandished their swords and fought in an epic battle to the death.
None of them survived. All fallen from selfish blades.
Staring down at the bodies Sabine was suddenly overcome with a great sadness for all the death and destruction that she'd caused and her sadness suddenly became so great that it killed her and she fell to the floor dead, to Sattia's dismay.
The lights had then all but darkened, until the stage performer who played Sattia was the only one left to be seen. This time when she sang it was a slow and mournful song and yet, one also filled with hope for what could be in the future.
Then, just like the start, the entire cast joined her on the stage, harmonizing with her melody until a final note flew from Sattia's lips and the crowd was thrown, once more, into darkness.
Applause erupted through the theater, as the lights flew back on and the cast took a bow. Rey wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eye, before joining in.
Suddenly, she felt a pair of eyes on her back and swiveled her head to meet Palpatine's sharp gaze.
"Quite the interesting story, now isn't it, dear Rey," he murmured, "to watch how quickly the world can perish, if the proper reinforcements are not put in place." Then, the Dark Lord of the Sith flicked his gaze back over to the performers and he clapped once more for their amazing performance.
A shiver made its way up Rey's spine and her hands stilled for a moment, before resuming clapping.
Anakin slashed his lightsaber out in quick defense moves, as the onslaught of bolts only seemed to gain more and more intensity with time. Still, that did not deter him. He needed to help get Obi-Wan to safety and the only way to do that would be to stab a hole straight through this coward's heart.
While the rapid-fire bolts were most definitely not helping him in making quick work of taking out this assassin, it did luckily help provide him with a location, as he dashed into the tall building, where he now knew the assassin resided, before racing up the stairs and letting the force guide him as to the assassin's direct location.
The blaster bolts had stopped almost as soon as he entered down the building and now, as he walked down an unpopulated hallway, Anakin could tell that he was getting close, bathed in an eerie silence.
The force guided him to a room, and he opened it up to find himself face to face with a Duro.
"Skywalker," the unknown man greeted him in a mocking tone, as he held out an LL-30 blaster pistol, posed straight at his chest. The man's stance was cocky and arrogant, which signaled only one thing in Anakin's mind.
This man was a bounty hunter.
For a brief moment, he wondered why a bounty hunter would so foolishly come for a Jedi's head on Coruscant. Yet, as once again, the image of Obi-Wan in a pool of his own blood out on the street filled his mind, Anakin shoved those thoughts aside.
It didn't matter why the bounty hunter was here.
All that mattered was his need to kill him.
Anakin held up his lightsaber, ready to fend off any more blaster bolts that came his way, but it seemed that this bounty hunter was full of surprises, as he suddenly lifted his other hand and spewed fire out of a gadget on his wrist in a great inferno.
It headed straight towards Anakin.
Anakin dove out of the way, taking cover behind a couple of steel boxes. Then, as soon as the heat had disappeared Anakin sprang out of his hiding place and instantly deflected ten rapid-fire shots that came his way.
All of them, otherwise fatal.
Power surged through his veins in his anger for everything that had happened in just the past few minutes and suddenly, the next thing he knew, he was face to face with that bounty hunter scum and had sliced his lightsaber straight through his hands, leaving them to flop to the floor.
The man let out a cry of pain, as he stared at Anakin in shock and would've fallen to his knees, had Anakin not caught his left shoulder in a death grip.
"You will die, for what you've done today," Anakin hissed, his voice low and his eyes swirling in an unnatural greenish shade, different from his usual blue.
"Revenge is not the Jedi way," the bounty hunter whispered, in an attempt to plead for his life.
For a brief moment silence filled the room and Anakin's gaze clouded, as he seemed to drift off.
Thinking.
Then, Anakin drove his blade straight through the bounty hunter's heart, before racing for the exit before he could even see the bounty hunter's body collide with the floor.
As Rey arrived back at the Temple with Palpatine, she kindly thanked him for the night, before departing to go change into her usual wear and go find Anakin and Ahsoka.
As she now walked down the many hallways towards the designated spot, where they normally met up, she reflected back on the night and how it'd gone.
While the food and show had been amazing, Rey still found it incredibly odd that Palpatine only took her, when it had been a group effort between her, Ben and Anakin. Of course, Ben was currently out of commission, so she supposed that she saw clear as day why Palpatine wouldn't invite him, but Anakin wasn't. Plus, Palpatine wanted Anakin to become Darth Vader, for he supposedly was The Chosen One after all, according to the prophecy and the history of her time.
Palpatine should be pampering and working to gain Anakin's trust.
Not hers.
Next to that though, the topics of discussion for the night had also managed to confuse Rey quite a bit. It was almost like… almost like Palpatine was trying to shape her to become his apprentice.
Rey suddenly came to a halt upon the revelation.
Was that what was happening? Was Palpatine dropping Anakin for… for her?
It kind of made sense in a way, what with the great power coursing through her that he'd just happened to have been privileged to see.
For a moment, she struggled to breath, but not wanting to make a scene, in case anyone happened to cross her path, Rey forced herself to keep moving and forcibly swallowed her panic to deal with later. For while doing that would probably only make dealing with it so much worse, as pressure and stress continued to be constantly surmounting upon the revelation, Rey knew that she couldn't break down here.
Not so close to Palpatine.
As she finally came upon the exit, where she normally met Anakin and Ahsoka, her brows furrowed in confusion.
They always arrived early.
They were always here.
Yet, today it looked like things were different, as Rey found herself alone with Anakin and Ahsoka nowhere to be seen.
With a sigh, Rey settled down on a nearby bench, as she waited, all the while hoping that nothing too terrible had happened, but then again, they were Jedi and trouble seemed to follow the Jedi wherever they went.
Anakin raced out of the building and made a beeline for Obi-Wan, who lay still in Ahsoka's arms.
Too still.
Yet, as Anakin arrived, he was relieved to find that Obi-Wan was still just barely alive and clinging to consciousness.
Ahsoka shot Anakin a sad look of hopelessness, as Obi-Wan struggled to breath, his breaths coming out in short, painful, quick grasps.
"An… Ana… Anak-kin," his former Master breathed, as his eyes settled upon Anakin's face with their last bit of clarity.
"Master, I'm here. P-please just… just h-hold on. Help is coming. I swear it." Tears rolled down Anakin's face in great, pain-filled streams. He couldn't believe that this was happening. Not Obi-Wan, not now. He'd sworn, after his mother's death that he wouldn't let anyone else die, but now he could very well end up failing in that promise as he watched Obi-Wan struggle to breath, while way too much blood poured from his wound in grand amounts.
Anakin turned to Ahsoka, "have you contacted the Temple?" He urgently pleaded, "have you, Ahsoka? Have you?!"
She nodded, while her own tears slipped down her cheeks. "I did, but Master," a sob wracked her body, "I don't think… I… I-I don't th-think…" she couldn't finish, as grief seemed to flood her very being.
Anakin fell to his knees, as he gently took Obi-Wan's head off of Ahsoka's lap and onto his.
"A-always… l-like… a broth-... brother t-to… m-me…" Obi-Wan whispered, as he stared somberly into Anakin's eyes.
A cough wracked Obi-Wan's body and blood squirted out of his mouth, before it slowly started to fill his throat, leaving Obi-Wan to choke on his own blood.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" Anakin cried, as sobs wracked his body, "don't do this to me Obi-Wan… d-don't leave me. You can't, please. I forbid it!" Sheer panic and pain twisted Anakin's face. "Please, Obi-Wan. D-don't leave me too. That bolt was meant for me. It should be me there! Please Obi-Wan d-don't go… d-don't leave me here without you."
In his last moments, Obi-Wan just stared up at his former apprentice, a mix of the emotions that he'd always worked so hard to hide now plain and evident on his face, like there were a million things he wanted to say and yet, fell short of the ability to do it.
Then, he closed his eyes and exhaled his last breath.
Obi-Wan Kenobi was dead.