alright--last chapter (yay!). thanks to everyone who has stuck with this through and through! and sorry for the long gaps between the last update and this one...but its the last chapter, so it won't be happening again.

anywho, hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!

same warnings & discalimer apply.

Chapter 15: That next place

Words were fruitless to Obi-Wan by this point. Yet still they came to him.

"Padawan Kenobi—no doubt you are aware of the death of Katarin Atrides?" Obi-Wan nodded mutely from where he stood in the middle of the Jedi Council, doing his level best to hide all emotions and thoughts, and focus only on the conversation at hand.

"Your light saber was found in the young woman's hand, as well as the cause of the fatal wound." Windu said, a questioning air to his words.

"Yes Master Windu, it was." Obi-Wan said quietly, never having felt his heart so empty and so broken. The room felt like it was spinning.

"Know you also of her loyalty to the dark side," Yoda suddenly, wisely said, causing Obi-Wan to raise his head.

"Well I knew of it." Obi-Wan openly admitted, fighting back all memories he'd fiercely been trying to bury.

"Kill her did you to exact revenge only to frame her?" Yoda asked, more as a test than trying to ascertain the truth.

"Never." Obi-Wan said, his tone deep, resolute. Yoda closed his eyes satisfactorily and let himself run through Obi-Wan's mind, sifting through most forbidden, deep-rooted feelings. While Yoda could find no understanding for a motivation, he understood the events.

"Troubled your mind is," Yoda suddenly said, meeting Obi-Wan's eyes, "though the weapon was yours, death was not from your hand delivered."

"Yes Master. She found the weapon closest to her and took her own life…for reasons I do not fully understand." Obi-Wan knew Yoda knew everything about the past. But Obi-Wan said nothing more; he would leave Yoda to determine how much more needed to be said. Slowly Yoda turned his head and nodded to Master Windu.

"It is as you say Padawan Kenobi, and your light saber will be returned before the day is out. And this incident, while remembered in the records, will make no mention of your name."

"Thank you Masters." Obi-Wan bowed his head respectfully.

"You are dismissed." Master Windu said gently as Obi-Wan bowed once more and turned to leave.

Once outside the council chamber doors, he heaved a heavy sigh.

This was the end of it. No more, and never again. Obi-Wan chided himself for being so foolish as to think that rules didn't have a purpose. That was a mistake he would never make again. And as for Katarin—she could only exist in his dreams, if even there. All she was was a distraction—but a wonderful, fun, loving distraction. A distraction which Obi-Wan vowed to ignore and forget completely.

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Setti had stopped honing in on the Jedi Council for some time. He already knew everything he needed to know. Anger filled him, as did other emotions long since buried. He walked smoothly to his quarters, knowing deep meditation was in order. The door slid shut behind him and his eyes ran around the room, still feeling her lingering presence amongst her familiar items. Setti sunk to his knees, burying his face in the crooks of his elbows, resting his hands atop his bowed head.

Katarin was dead—by her own hand…his little girl, his only child. What possibly had she gotten into where there was no other way out? And she'd been well on her way to becoming so powerful…more powerful than him even. Now it was no more…she was no more.

It all had to be let go. Setti's one daughter—the one thing that was supposed to save him from falling to the dark side, but the one who ultimately fell with him—was now powerless and nothing. Setti raised his head and closed his eyes tight. It was over.

"Everything is becoming, nothing is." He rose, resuming his usual cold demeanor and set off to find another apprentice just as willing, just as determined.

Epilogue: Moorittioo mahdurah swehpna

Obi-Wan stood in a daze, forcing himself to remain distant. It was not Katarin that lay before him. Merely the body she had inhabited, her shell. He glanced around quickly and saw that few had come to the cremation.

Originally, Katarin was to be honored with nothing in her death, save a quick disposal. But at Ki-Adi-Mundi's bidding, the body would at least be burned and allowed to return to the force. But a long black cloth was draped over her, only outlining the slim form of her face and body.

Obi-Wan, through and through, knew he should not have come. He needed to put everything about her behind him…but then again, that was why he had told himself he was there. To put closure on the one part of this life that had threatened to destroy it, threatened to undue all that his life had been working towards. Yet, if she were still alive and asked it of him, he found he would gladly have remained with her. And that was precisely the reason he had come…to put an end to all such thoughts, feelings, memories…to bring what had been a most wonderful beginning to an end, for the rest of time.

the end.


c'est la fin. merci beaucoup to all who read and those who review! i hope to have another story up sometime in early-mid October (a "Batman Begins" fic hopefully). Thanks again for sticking with "Forever Stoic"!