He was dead.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was actually dead.

Anakin watched, as a trickle of blood slipped from his Mast- brother's lips.

He was too late.

Always too late.

First his mother, then Qui-Gon Jinn and now… now Obi-Wan.

His Master, his friend, his… his brother.

A desperate inhuman cry fell from Anakin's lips, as he pulled Obi-Wan's corpse tight into his arms. Void of life, his brother's head simply fell limp on his shoulder, while sightless, glazed eyes seemed to stare off at something he could not see.

Off into oblivion. An oblivion that he couldn't stop.

Every emotion known to the universe seemed to explode within Anakin at that moment, in conflicting waves of fire and ice.

Anger that such a cruel fate had befallen his brother. Hatred for himself that he hadn't been there in time to stop it. Guilt that Obi-Wan was in what should've been his own grave. Grief that he would never again be able to engage in banter with Obi-Wan. Relief that at least Obi-Wan no longer had to suffer through such great pain. Afraid that this could happen again, but next time with Ahsoka. Confusion, as to why this had even happened in the first place. Disturbed that Obi-Wan had had such a horribly painful death. Frustrated that he wasn't able to save him. Love for his brother. Regret that he'd lied to Obi-Wan for so many years about so many things, not even offering him a chance to see if he'd understand. Resentful that life could be so cruel as to always seem to take away everyone he loved in the form of premature deaths. Shame that he wasn't strong enough to prevent Obi-Wan from dying. Worried that now Obi-Wan may never know how he saw him as a father-figure and brother too. Sad that he never got to tell Obi-Wan that he loved him.

"Don't leave…" he cried, "please, don't leave me too. I can't do this without you, Obi-Wan," Anakin's voice cracked under the weight of all of the emotional turmoil, "please."

At this point, Anakin didn't much care that his reaction- his pain, was unbecoming of a Jedi. He only cared about Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Obi-Wan Kenobi who was now dead.

A small hand on his shoulder, managed to momentarily bring him out of his trance and he turned his watery gaze to meet Ahsoka's own, who too had tears cascading like waterfalls from her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Master. I'm so… so s-sorry," she whispered painfully, "I should've done something, but I panicked and… and I… I-" Anakin stopped her with a soft shake of his head.

"It's not your fault, Ahsoka. Please... don't blame yourself," Anakin let out a watery laugh, "if anything, it's my fault. That bolt was headed straight for me. I should be the one laying in a pool of my own blood right now, but you know Obi-Wan… stubborn as ever," his voice drifted off, as he turned his gaze back to Obi-Wan sightless eyes.

There was so much unsaid between them.

If only they had more time.

Suddenly, a light went off in Anakin's brain as he suddenly realized something.

Rey's teachings.

Perhaps he could make more time.

Closing his eyes, Anakin settled Obi-Wan back on his lap, before placing his hand over Obi-Wan's gaping wound and slipping into a meditative state.

"Master?" He barely registered his Padawan calling out to him, "Master! Anakin , what are you doing?"

Anakin gave no response, as he worked to clear his mind and focus on the here and now. He needed to save Obi-Wan. He needed to.

He wouldn't leave him here to rot, not here and not now, and when Obi-Wan woke up, he was finally going to tell him everything that he'd been too hesitant to tell him before, if he managed to survive this, because if Obi-Wan cared about him enough to take the bolt for him, then he deserved to know.

He deserved to know who Anakin Skywalker truly was.

Sinking further into the meditation, Anakin begged the force to listen to his call.

And it did.

Slowly, as Anakin's face grew paler and paler, the skin beneath his hand mended and then… a spark of life.

A sharp breath sounded from Obi-Wan Kenobi's lips.

Rey dearly hoped that everything was alright. Already, an hour had passed and Anakin and Ahsoka were still nowhere to be seen.

She really hoped that they were just held up in traffic or something. Yet, she had a bad feeling about this, so that was probably just wishful thinking.

"I expected you to be back by now," a voice suddenly sounded to her right and Rey jumped, her hand flying to her heart.

"Force! Ben, you scared me," Rey yelped, now turning to face Ben, the perpetrator, who now sat smirking besides her on the bench.

A laugh fell from his lips and his eyes twinkled.

Quite honestly, seeing him appear so seamlessly happy made it very hard to stay mad at him and so soon enough, Rey found herself laughing too.

As the laughter eventually subsided and then, came to a complete halt, moments later, Ben once more settled his gaze upon her.

"Truly though Rey, why aren't you back yet? It's hours past the time that you usually get back. Was there a hold up or something? Are you in trouble? Did they just not-" Rey cut him off.

"Anakin and Ahsoka just haven't come, yet. That's all, I'm sure they'll be here soon enough though," Rey sighed, "plus, it's only been an hour, anyways. I'm sure they'll have a long, detailed explanation about bad traffic or something upon their arrival."

Rey expected her response to reassure Ben, but instead his deep brown eyes just swam with confusion, "an hour?" He murmured, "Rey… it's been way over an hour." Concern lit his gaze, now shining in sync with the confusion. "Are you sure that you're alright?"

A flicker of confusion ran through Rey, just as well, at the statement, because she was certain that they were only an hour overdue, from their scheduled meet-up time.

Absolutely certain.

So, then what did Ben mean by hours? Of course, on a normal day that would be true, but not today, since she'd gone out with Palpatine.

Right… she'd forgotten to tell him that.

"Oh well… um Ben, well um actually," Rey stumbled over her words, "it turns out that the Chancellor wanted to take me to a show at the Galaxies Opera House," her pace of talking gained more and more speed as she went on and her eyes casted downward to sheepishly avoid his gaze, "and well um, I said yes for obvious reasons. So, we went to dinner at this really fancy place called Zothique and then saw a show called 'Fallen From Grace.' It was pretty good, but also super sad. I'll tell you more about it later, if you want to know more about it. The restaurant was good; I ordered some Sushi and the Chancellor paid. So um, yeah, that's why I have yet to get back."

As she finished her rambling, Ben just stared at her with a bewildered expression on his face.

"What?"

Rey tensed, "Ben, I'm sorry, I know I should've told you sooner. It was cruel of me not too. I was just so wrapped up in everything and Anakin wanted me to help him and Obi-Wan with something and it just didn't seem important and-"

"It didn't seem important?" Ben growled, before harshly whispering, "Rey, he's the Dark Lord of the Sith. Of course it's important!" Reaching out Ben grabbed her wrist, "you can't just hide things like that from me, Rey. Sometimes I feel like you don't even trust me, you know? Like you still think, I'm a monster," his grip increasingly tightened.

"Ben, that's nonsense. Of course, I don't think you're a monster and obviously, I trust you" she pleaded back urgently, "it was an accident, a stupid mistake, I'm sorr-"

"Stop lying to me!" Ben yelled, though thankfully no one was close enough to hear it, "you're just saying that," his grip continued to tighten, "you're just afraid… you're afraid that one day I'll leave you behind, just like your parents did back on Jakku," Rey flinched at the reminder, but Ben paid it no heed, as he was much too wrapped up in his own thoughts. "You're afraid that one day Kylo Ren will come back and you'll be left with nothing." Ben finally managed to cut off the blood circulation around her wrist, not stopping in increasingly tightening his grip, "but you can't keep hiding things from me, Rey. You have to trust me. I'm not him. I am not KYLO REN!" Ben's voice echoed throughout the corridor.

"Ben, I know. I'm sorry… Ben, I'm sorry. I should've told you," as pressure continued to increasingly build from Ben's death-like grip around her wrist, Rey finally glanced at it, "B-Ben please stop, you're hurting me."

All the pain, hurt and anger seemed to almost instantly vanish from Ben's face, as he glanced down at Rey's wrist and realized what he was doing.

Instantly, he let go of his vice like grip and turned to Rey with regret written all over his face, "Rey, I'm so sorry… I don't know, I- I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry… I'm..." he breathed. "I- I should go."

Rey shook her head, gently enclosing the hand that had just been encircling her wrist in her own. "No, Ben. Stay," she sighed, but with a calm, steady light shining in her eyes. "We've both made mistakes in our lives, but we're still always there for each other when it really matters, right?" She asked him, searching his gaze for any kind of response, "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you that I was going out with the Chancellor tonight. That was both cruel and callous of me. So, I'm sorry."

Ben nodded slowly, "I'm sorry too, I just don't like you having to be alone with him, Rey. I want to be able to protect you and I can't do that while I'm here and you're there," he sighed, as a small flicker of light finally did manage to return to his eyes, "although, I suppose that you always were pretty good at protecting yourself." He paused, before taking a deep breath, "I'm sorry of all that I accused you of, that was… that was quite unfair of me. I can only hope that you'll forgive me."

Rey gave a nod, as a small smile tugged at the corner of her cheeks.

"Always."

In his final moments, as Obi-Wan starred up at Anakin, he'd felt so much regret flooding out of him in what felt like streams, sort of like the blood pouring out of his body, he darkly supposed. There was just so much he wanted to tell Anakin and now he would never have the chance nor the time.

Honestly, when he thought about it, there were a lot of things he wished he could've done.

While he was glad that at least he got to tell Anakin how he felt about him, he wished he could've reassured him about how proud he was, as to how far Anakin had come as a Jedi Knight.

Something that Master Qui-Gon Jinn had never really done for him.

He wished that he could've gotten to indulge in banter with Anakin one last time, he wished he'd worked harder to get Anakin to talk to him.

He wished that he could've told Anakin that he loved him.

Yet, fate was quick and unexpected and now he would be unable to do any of those things.

Anakin wasn't the only one his wishes surrounded though.

Obi-Wan wished he could've seen Satine, at least one more time. He wished that he'd told her of how he truly felt and most of all he wished that he could've heard her beautiful laugh, if only for one last time.

He wished that he'd gotten to have one more conversation with Ahsoka, about anything really.

He wished-

Suddenly, an intense flash of pain seemed to stab him straight through the heart. It was worse than anything he'd ever felt in his life and would've made him cry out in sheer agony, had his body not been so exhausted.

Then, Obi-Wan Kenobi's life flickered out like candlelight.

He was gone. Dead.

At first there was nothing, but darkness, and Obi-Wan felt like he was slowly rising. Yet, none of his senses seemed operational.

He didn't understand what was happening, it was almost like an out-of-body experience.

You're dead, something seemed to whisper to him, reminding him of what had just happened moments before… or was it hours, months or even years before? Obi-Wan wasn't quite sure, his grasp on time seemed to be lacking in this strange place.

"Obi-Wan," he heard a whisper that oddly sounded like Master Jinn and a flicker of colorless light started to appear, but then suddenly, he felt himself falling and opened his eyes with a gasp, as he jolted upward, grasping at his chest.

He was alive again… somehow, and the wound was oddly, just gone.

Rey's teachings, his mind supplied and with a sudden jolt of horror, he worked to take in the scene. Obi-Wan turned to see Anakin slumped over at his side, while Ahsoka just stared on in shock like she didn't know what to make of the situation.

To be honest, Obi-Wan wasn't quite sure he did either.

He should be dead, one with the force, and yet, he wasn't, because Anakin had saved him, by pulling him away from imminent death at the very last moment.

Anakin…

Obi-Wan quickly and carefully placed his fingertips against his former Padawan's throat, hoping that the deed that Anakin had just performed didn't kill him, like Rey had warned it could. Luckily though, Obi-Wan was just barely able to register Anakin's pulse, albeit it being much too slow and rather thready.

"How long until medics arrive?" Obi-Wan demanded to know, upon finally facing Ahsoka, who continued to just gap at him in shock.

"Any minute…" she murmured back. "Obi-Wan, how… how are you even alive? You were… you were d-dead. What… what did Anakin do?"

Obi-Wan sighed, "it doesn't matter now, Ahsoka. Anakin… Anakin can- will explain later, he'll definitely know much more than I."

With a defeated sigh, Obi-Wan turned his full attention back to Anakin, just hoping that he'd be able to hang on until the medics arrived.

Another hour lapsed and Rey forced Ben to cut the connection, ordering him to get some much needed rest.

With a sigh, Rey finally managed to assess that something had to have happened to Anakin and Ahsoka, because they still hadn't shown up. Already, she'd tried to comm Anakin, Ahsoka and even Obi-Wan multiple times.

They all had yet to pick up or even try to comm her back.

So, with a sigh, Rey resigned herself to having to find her own way back, as she slipped out of the exit and began the long walk back to The Temple, just hoping that she didn't run into too much trouble.

After all, from what she'd heard, the streets of Coruscant were no place to be alone after dark.