It happened one cold night weeks later.
At this point in time, Aayla and Ben's relationship with Luke had become more strained than it had ever been. A trust had been broken and it was felt by everyone in the Jedi temple. Padmé and her mother tried their best to fix things, but nothing couldn't be mended if Aayla, Ben, and Luke didn't attempt to do so themselves.
Things felt like they'd gone back to normal except for the tension.
Padmé and Aayla's father had started new lessons as he avoided the subject that was clearly on everyone's mind. Padmé didn't mind because she just wanted move on, but Aayla clearly never did. If Padmé was older she would've been more concerned at the distance her sister and cousin created between themselves and everyone else.
Including her.
Padmé had gone to sleep that night after writing in her datapad. Her mother said that it was a habit she made during her own youth with the long, lonely nights she spent on Tatooine. It helped pass time and proved useful when reflecting back on the past. Padmé didn't think her life was terribly interesting, but she hoped someday she would reflect back on her time at the temple with fondness.
The fifteen-year-old imagined the older version of herself. More than likely a wise Jedi Master like her grandfather Obi-Wan and with padawan students of her own like her father. Maybe she would even be married or maybe she would be fine with being on her own. Padmé did know that she hoped to have a relationship like her parents who, even after a couple decades together, were still in love. It was more than what she could say for her aunt and uncle who were always at each other's throats...although her mother said Aunt Leia and Uncle Han were always like that.
Padmé had drifted off to sleep that night with the imagined thought of life as a Jedi Master. Her dreams consisted of these thoughts but during the midst of it, she was awoken to pain as well as the scent of smoke which invaded her nose.
The teenager woke up with a gasp and opened her eyes.
Straw.
Debris.
Smoke.
Red.
Her vision was overwhelmed by a different picture than what she had fallen asleep to. When she fell asleep that night she had been staring at Ben's back. His dark hair thick and wavy. It was the sight she'd fallen asleep to ever since she could remember.
Padmé didn't know anything else.
Except now she found herself on her stomach on the ground with the weight of what must've been debris from the straw roof of the hut on her back. Padmé groaned in pain as she immediately started to crawl from underneath it. The night sky filled her vision which told her that the hut must've somehow collapsed.
However, that didn't explain the smoke and fire in the distance.
Padmé was so confused she didn't question it.
"Aayla?" Padmé called fearfully as she tried to search for her sister in the dark. "Ben?"
No one answered so she called them again.
"Aayla?! Ben?!" Padmé called in a panic, her blue eyes wildly searching for them, but she couldn't see them. Just debris and rubble. "Where are you?"
Still no one answered so Padmé began to fear for the worst.
She immediately freed herself from a shelf that must've fallen down on her during the collapse of the hut. There was a sharp pain in her back, but Padmé ignored it as she began to search for her sister and cousin, thinking that they've must been trapped underneath the rubble. Padmé furiously started moving straw and debris, trying to find them but she saw no sign.
Where were they?
Did they get hurt?
"Padmé," A strange voice whispered. At first, Padmé thought it might've been Ben or her father, but the voice was different. It was different yet somehow familiar. "You must leave this place at once. It is no longer safe."
"Who is that?" Padmé questioned, wildly looking around herself but she couldn't spot anyone through the thick fog of smoke.
The voice didn't answer her and Padmé, getting an unpleasant feeling, got up from the ground. She didn't understand what was going on, but she sensed something was wrong. There was a disturbance in the Force. Padmé had never felt such a disturbance before, and it gave her an unsettling feeling.
Something wasn't right.
Padmé took a few steps through the thick cloud of smoke, and she gasped in shock at the very sight before her eyes.
The Jedi Temple in flames.
A part of Padmé felt like she must've been dreaming but something in the Force told her that wasn't the case. The Jedi Temple which had been her home for her entire life was on fire. It looked like a nightmare that was beyond the worst of any nightmare Padmé ever had.
What if Aayla and Ben had been in the temple?
What if her father was in the temple?
Padmé needed to go and check for herself even though something in the Force told her not to go looking.
"Do not look for answers you do not wish to find," The voice told her and Padmé tried to ignore the voice. She needed to make sure everyone was okay. "You will only find pain there."
Padmé didn't make it up more than a few feet up the front steps of the temple when she saw a lump in the midst of the smoke. She coughed, swatting the air as she tried to see through all the smoke. It was only when she reached down to touch it that she realized what it was.
Who it was.
Padmé lurched backwards in horror, unable to scream or even form words as she stared at the dead body at her feet. She had never seen a dead body before and certainly not the dead body of someone she knew. The teenaged girl knew him.
He was a youngling.
No more than seven or eight-years-old.
Kit.
His parents had dropped him off at the temple just a year before in hopes of Padmé's father being able to show him the ways of the force. Padmé didn't know the boy well, but she'd seen him running around the temple, laughing just the day before. Now he laid there in a pool of his own blood. A huge gash across from chest.
She blinked away her tears and reluctantly looked back down at him. Padmé observed the wound as the bile rose in her throat. She didn't want to, but something told her that this was all wrong. The hut collapsed, the temple was on fire, and now there was a dead youngling.
What struck her as odd was that wound didn't appear to be from a blaster.
It almost looked like…it was from a lightsaber.
But how could that be? Only people at the temple were trained to use lightsabers.
"Search your feelings, Padmé," The voice told her as she stared in disbelief at Kit's body. "You know exactly what this is."
"But I don't," Padmé answered, her voice breaking. "Who would kill a youngling?"
Padmé chose the wrong moment to look up as the smoke cleared up the steps to the temple. The steps which were littered with more bodies of both younglings and older padawan learners. Padmé stumbled back, falling down the last couple steps of the temple.
Kit wasn't the only one.
She brought her hand to her mouth, trying to contain her shock and horror at the sight before her. It looked like a massacre. Something she read in old archival articles from the fall of the Old Republic.
"No," Padmé cried, tears streaming down her face as she crawled back away from the temple which was covered in the blood of the young Jedi students. "No, it can't be true. This can't be real."
"I'm afraid it is," The voice said in a regrettable tone.
"Who would do this?" Padmé questioned, trying to make sense of what happened. "Enemies of mom and dad? The First Order? Snoke?"
The First Order had only just risen but Padmé knew they stood for everything her parents fought against during the rebellion long ago. It was filled with people who sympathized with the Empire. The First Order was really just the Galactic Empire reborn or so her parents thought.
"You know who did this, Padmé. You know," The voice told her and Padmé furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
"Only someone trained to use a lightsaber could do this. This was not the First Order."
"I don't know," Padmé cried as she denied what the voice told her.
"Only very few know about the Jedi Temple. This couldn't be an outsider," The voice warned her and Padmé felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest because the voice was right. She did know who did this. Her feelings confirmed it even though Padmé didn't want to believe it. "It had to be someone at the temple."
"No, you're wrong!" She denied as she broke down in tears while reaching the bottom of the temple. She couldn't stand up there in the middle of all the carnage. It was too much to bear all at once.
"I too didn't want to accept the truth of what someone I loved had done," The voice said sadly. "Search your feelings and you'll know the truth."
"It wasn't them," Padmé said, trying to ignore the voice. "They wouldn't do this. They couldn't. Not this."
The voice didn't reply but Padmé already had her answer.
"Padmé," Aayla Skywalker said in surprise. Padmé immediately turned around and looked behind her. Sure enough, both her sister and cousin were standing in the midst of all the destruction. "You're okay."
Aayla Skywalker and Ben Solo looked surreal with the flames glistening in the background as well as all the death and destruction around them. It truly looked like something out of a nightmare that Padmé could've never have invented all on her own.
Seeing the two of them standing there seemed to confirm Padmé's worst fear.
"What have you done?" Padmé cried as she looked over at them. A part of her wanted them to deny what they'd done. To be angry at her for accusing them of such a thing.
They did no such thing.
They didn't even look remorseful.
"What we had to," Aayla answered her calmly. Padmé thought she and Ben seemed a little too calm. Especially considering what they'd done. It tore her heart up into a million pieces.
"What?" She questioned in disbelief. Her face was still wet from her tears.
"Uncle Luke tried to kill us," Ben said angrily, breaking out of his calm façade. "Aayla and I woke up to him standing over us with a lightsaber. He was going to kill the both of us."
"Dad wouldn't do that," Padmé denied. "He loves all of us."
"He's afraid of us," Aayla snapped, clenching her fist. Padmé took a step back with caution. She had seen her sister angry before, but it was nothing like this. Her sister seemed enraged. Her emerald green eyes seemed like two green flames as she looked back at her. "He's afraid of our power. He always has been."
"He was trying to make us Jedi…to make us conform to the old ways," Ben said, staring back at the younger girl. "But it was wrong all along. He was trying to mold the Jedi into his own picture-perfect dream but he was being arrogant."
"The Jedi are hypocrites," Aayla informed her sister and Padmé watched them both in disbelief. She didn't know them. She didn't know who these two people were. "You've heard the stories, Padmé. Our grandfather turned to the dark side because of some silly little rule. They always thought they knew better than anyone else and that they could control everyone, but we won't let that happen again. We won't let dad do that."
"You sound crazy. The both of you," Padmé said slowly but Ben scoffed.
"Uncle Luke always taught us that the dark side was bad," Ben told her before shaking his head. "But it's not. Not the way he thinks. Aunt Vesper always said there needed to be a balance of light and dark. That's what this is."
"Dad just steered us away from the dark side because he was afraid of the power we'd find there," Aayla said, looking almost delirious as she looked at her younger sister. It was like she'd been brainwashed. "He was afraid that we could be more powerful than him."
"Well, we can," Ben added. "We've had someone show us the power of the Force. The true potential of what we could all be. Things that Uncle Luke couldn't imagine in his wildest dreams."
"Who showed you?" Padmé questioned and Aayla gave her a hopeful look. "Who showed you two this so-called power?"
"Snoke," She answered and Padmé reeled back in horror. She recognized that name from eavesdropping on conversations between her parents.
"He's the leader of the First Order," Padmé told them as if they didn't already know. "He's a tyrant and a murderer. He steals children from families and makes them into killers. He's no better than Palpatine was."
"Snoke knows more about the Force than Uncle Luke ever will," Ben said bitterly and Padmé couldn't believe what she was hearing. All the times she shrugged off her sister and cousin's odd behavior had been in vain. This is what it had all come down to.
"I don't understand why you're doing this," Padmé said, her eyes flooding with tears again. "You've killed our friends…and children. How could you?"
"They were better off," Aayla said darkly. "The Jedi need to be destroyed. Mom and dad made a grave mistake in trying to help them rise again."
"You murdered them all!" Padmé snapped before shaking her head in disbelief. "They were innocent. They haven't done anything wrong."
"But they would…as Jedi," Ben told her and Padmé sniffled, trying to stifle her sobs. It was all so terrible…all so dark and twisted. Padmé couldn't stomach anything she was hearing. "Snoke has plans for the First Order, Padmé. He wants Aayla and I to be right there with him. You as well if you want. He can show you what he's shown us."
"The three of us together can be an unstoppable force," Aayla insisted as she looked at her sister almost gleefully. "No one telling us to control our powers or to resist all temptation. We can live freely which is more than what our parents could give us."
"We could even overthrow Snoke one day if we wanted," Ben added and Padmé felt fear wash over her. She knew something really bad was about to happen. Something worse than anything else that happened that night. "We could take the galaxy for ourselves and rule the way we want."
"I can't follow you down this path of darkness," Padmé told them, shaking her head. She couldn't believe this was happening. Everything seemed fine just a few hours ago. How could so much change? "You're asking me to do something that I just cannot do."
"Don't let our parents lies guide your actions, Padmé," Aayla hissed and Padmé scoffed.
"Lies?" Padmé questioned in disbelief. "Aayla…Ben, you're vowing to join a cause that stands for everything both our parents fought against during the Rebellion. Can't you see? Snoke is using you. He knows you're powerful and he's manipulating you into turning to the dark side…which you've already done by destroying everything all of our parents built."
"Snoke has shown us the truth!" Ben snapped; his eyes filled with fury. For the first time in her whole life, Padmé felt scared of her sister and cousin. "We're not afraid of the dark side anymore. Not like your parents are."
"We can finally bring peace and justice to the galaxy, Padmé," Aayla told her and Padmé still couldn't believe this.
"We can put an end to the turmoil inflicted on the galaxy by the New Republic. We can do that with the First Order."
"Our parents helped rebuild the Republic!" Padmé said angrily, furious over how her sister and cousin turned to the dark side. How they so easily forgot everything they ever knew and fell under Snoke's spell. "Now you seek to destroy everything they fought for. You've become the very thing we were taught to defeat."
"We can see through the lies of the Jedi!" Ben argued, glaring at the younger girl. "We're not blinded by Uncle Luke's lies like you."
"You've ruined it all!" Padmé cried in anguish, feeling like she was being torn apart at the seams from the betrayal at the hands of her own family. "We were supposed to become Jedi Masters together. We were supposed to become protectors of the galaxy like how it used to be in the days of our grandparents. We were supposed to pass our knowledge on to newer generations of Jedi, but you killed them all. It's all gone."
"Think whatever you want, Padmé," Aayla said, her eyes growing cold as she realized her sister wasn't going to turn to the dark side as she and Ben had. Of course, not. They should've known. Padmé was their father's perfect little student. Never straying to the dark side and easily resisting the temptation like it was nothing. The thought never occurred to Padmé to seek out the dark side for answers like it occurred to herself and Ben.
It filled Aayla with rage.
"What did you do with dad?" Padmé asked, caution in her eyes as she glared at Aayla and Ben.
"I don't know. Maybe you should check underneath all that debris and you'll be able to find his corpse," Ben shot back and Padmé's eyes widened in horror. She hadn't wanted to believe it but maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise. They'd already killed their friends and all those children. What would stop them from killing her father?
"I don't know you anymore," Padmé said, looking between the both of them as if they were strangers. Her father was dead then? They killed him too. "We were supposed to be Jedi together. It wasn't supposed to be like this."
"You can join us. There's a couple other students who were receptive to our offer of going to Snoke," Aayla said quietly, ignoring her sister's words and tears. "Either that or we will have no other choice but to extinguish every last Jedi. No exceptions."
"You're either with us or against us," Ben told his younger cousin, his dark eyes narrowed nearly into slits. Padmé just shook her head in disgust.
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes," Padmé told them. It was something her grandfather would tell her mother and her mother passed down to her. Something that stuck with Padmé although she never understood the meaning behind the words until now. The arrogance behind the certainty of Ben's words proved that he and her sister had fallen too far to be persuaded to turn back to the light. It was too late for them now. Snoke's grip on them was too tight to be budged. Padme only had one option left and it gave her no pleasure whatsoever. "I don't want to fight you, but I will if it means trying to salvage what you two destroyed."
"You're no match for us, Padmé," Aayla told her, already taking out her lightsaber as Ben did the same with his.
"There's two of us and we have several years of experience on you."
"I don't care," Padmé said, withdrawing her own lightsaber and igniting the green blade. She had only made her own lightsaber a few months ago. Her mother took her to a cave on a distant planet to search for kyber crystals. It was the same planet where her mother and father found the kyber crystals to make their own lightsabers. Padmé had been excited to make her own saber instead of her using her grandmother's old one. She just never imagined she would have to use it this way.
Not against her own family.
Ben and Aayla ignited their own lightsabers, the purple glow of her sister's saber contrasting against the blue glow of her cousin's. It was said that a purple lightsaber was one of the rarest colors. Only said to belong to force-users that had a perfect balance of the light side and dark side within themselves. Padmé was starting to think maybe it was never a perfect balance. Maybe there was more dark side than light in her sister all along.
How was she going to fight them?
Padmé knew she was fighting a losing battle.
She was only fifteen and far less experienced than the two of them. They hadn't gone through the trials yet because her father didn't think they were ready, but they were just as good as Jedi at this point. Padmé was only a padawan. Going against them was practically suicide but she couldn't let them go. Not knowing the darkness that brewed in their eyes as they glared back at her.
Aayla made the first move, diving towards her sister with her lightsaber drawn. Padmé blocked the attack with her own lightsaber, the sound of the sabers colliding pierced her ears. It shocked her because it was a lot different than when she practiced dueling her sister in past. That had been harmless dueling, but this was life and death.
"It doesn't have to be this way, Padmé," Aayla told her sister, violet glow of her saber causing her eyes to glint in a malicious fashion. "You can just surrender to us, and we can leave this place."
"I'm afraid that is does have to be this way," Padmé said before making an offensive strike towards her sister and knocking her down with the Force when she was distracted. It was a cheap dirty trick she watched her mother do on her father countless times.
Ben snarled as he came at her, his lightsaber drawn. Padmé stumbled slightly before making a last-minute move as she stopped his saber before it could hit her. Their lightsaber collided and Padmé was left shocked at the angry look on her cousin's face. He looked at her like she was the one who betrayed him. Not the other way around.
It broke Padmé's heart because Ben had never been angry with her before.
Maybe when she teased him about a crush, he had on a fellow student but nothing like this. Her older cousin coddled her like the little sister he never had. He was always protective and kind to her. Ben was a little sweeter than her sister who sometimes treated Padmé like she was a nuisance. Ben had been the middle ground between many of her and her sister's fights.
However, Ben was too strong for her. He towered over her 5'3 height at 6'2 and had a lot more upper arm strength than she did. Even as Padmé tried to hold him off with all her strength, he was still gaining the upper hand.
"You're still faster than him," The voice reminded her. "Use that to your advantage. Use the Force, Padmé. Trust your instincts."
Padmé listened to the voice and quickly lurched backwards, causing Ben to stumble forward in surprise. She quickly rolled beneath him and kicked his legs out from under him. The disgraced Solo fell to the ground, his head hitting a rock and his lightsaber flying in the opposite direction.
Padmé didn't have much time to prepare herself before her sister went in for another attack. The older Skywalker screamed in anger as she came at her sister. Their lightsabers collided once more but this time they were locked in a duel.
Aayla forced her way forward, causing Padmé to take a step back. She defended herself against every stroke her sister made against her. The sound lightsabers colliding filled the air as Padmé struggled for endurance during the battle. Her sister might not have been as tall as Ben, but she exceptionally gifted at dueling.
The redhead glared at her sister with angry green eyes as her movements became more erratic, fueled by anger and hatred. Padmé struggled to fend her off. The blade of the lightsaber coming closer and closer to Padmé's face and so much that she could feel the heat from the lightsaber against her skin.
"You're just like mother!" Aayla screamed in the midst of their battle. "She didn't understand either!"
"Mother?" Padmé questioned as Aayla smirked cruelly.
"She refused to join too so we did what we had to," Aayla said vaguely. Padmé could've questioned her further, but she knew exactly what Aayla meant. Something inside her told her something was missing the moment she woke up from the debris, but she dismissed it as the death of all the students at the temple. The voice in her head tried to tell her to search her feelings but Padmé hadn't listened because she didn't want to.
Now she knew.
Her mother was dead.
They killed her.
"No!" Padmé shouted at her as she held off her sister's lightsaber which was inches from her face.
"It's true," Aayla told her. "You know it is. Mom wouldn't even fight us. She refused to. She probably thought we wouldn't do it."
Padmé screamed in anger, finding strength she didn't have before as she gained the upper hand. Her sister stumbled back in surprise at Padmé's newfound strength. Aayla looked approvingly at her.
"Use your anger, Padmé!" Aayla encouraged her. "I know you have it in you. We killed mom. That should make you furious."
"I don't know you anymore!" Padmé cried both in anger and in despair. In the matter of a night, she lost everyone she ever loved. Her parents, sister, cousin, and friends. All gone. "You're a stranger!"
"This is what Ben, and I were born to be," Aayla said in a crazed voice as she defended herself from one of Padmé's strikes with a strike of her own. "Father knew it, Snoke knew it, we knew it, and even the force knew it."
Padmé lurched forward and struck her sister in the shoulder, causing her sister to yelp in pain. It was mostly a flesh wound. She barely scraped her with the lightsaber, but it still burned more intensely than Aayla had ever felt before.
"You've become warped by the dark side," Padmé told her, completely in tears. "You've become so twisted that you murdered our parents and all those children."
"I hate you!" Aayla cried as she clutched her shoulder in agony. She laid there on the ground in pain as she glared hatefully at her younger sister. There wasn't a part of her that Padmé recognized. It was like staring back at a stranger. "I hate you and I hated our parents! I wish you were never born! You were the bane of my existence."
"Is that so?" Padmé asked, staring back at her sister with tears in her blue eyes.
"You were always the good one and I was the problem child," Aayla told her bitterly, looking at Padmé with contempt in her eyes. "I was always Darth Vader's granddaughter in dad's eyes, but you were always Obi-Wan Kenobi's granddaughter to him. His master's granddaughter. He loved you best."
"That's not true and you know it," Padmé said, sniffling as she tried to tell herself this was all some sort of bad nightmare, but she knew it wasn't. She shook her head, too much pain in her heart to do anything else but look at all the destruction around them. The place her sister and herself grew up in was nothing but flames and ash now. There was nothing left. "You should just kill me. Kill me now because I can't take this. I'm done fighting you."
"Good," She heard Ben's voice say right before she felt a piercing pain in her side. Padmé stumbled slightly before looking down at her abdomen where she saw the blue of her cousin's lightsaber sticking out of her. In all her sadness and anger, she hadn't even heard him sneak up behind her.
The lightsaber made a distinct sound as he pulled it out, causing Padmé to fall backwards as she screamed in pain. Ben coldly stepped to the side as he watched Padmé fall to the ground in pain, clutching her wound. The heat seemed to cauterize the wound but somehow it felt even worse than what she imagined a normal stab wound would feel.
Padmé couldn't hear her own screams but somehow, she knew sound was coming out of her mouth. No blood because of the lightsaber but she could see the burn mark through her tunic. She must've screamed so loud that people on far distant planets could hear her. Only…there was more than likely no one around to hear her screams.
Ben must've helped her sister off the ground because the next thing she knew, her sister was glaring down at her. She wasn't sure if it was because she was in so much pain she was hallucinating or if was the flames being reflected in her sister and cousin's eyes, but the hatred was so present there that it scared her. They hated her.
That's the explanation.
Either that or they hated everything.
"You should've joined us, Padmé," Aayla told her coldly as her sister laid down at her feet in excruciating pain. "Now you'll die a death only fitting for a Jedi…it's what you always wanted, isn't it? To be a Jedi? Looks like you finally got your wish."
"Now you'll die like your mother," Ben hissed and Padmé found the strength within herself even through the pain to speak. It felt worse than dying but Padmé wasn't going to beg for her life. She refused to give them both the satisfaction.
"Good," Padmé told them, trying to keep her voice steady while ignoring the pain. "I'd rather die a Jedi than become what you two have."
"Always so noble. My perfect sister," Aayla said sarcastically and before Ben or Padmé could respond, the teenager fell unconscious from the pain. It became too much for her to manage. Aayla raised her lightsaber to end her sister's life for good, but Ben stopped her.
"She'll die from her injuries, anyways," Ben told her and Aayla lowered the saber. "Don't waste your strength. You're injured."
Aayla took one last long look at her unconscious sister. Her sister who looked so much like her…and their mother. The perfect Skywalker. The one their father had always been proud of. The one who was able to resist the dark side so much better than herself and Ben. A perfect Jedi in the making.
Well, Padmé would be no more.
The stupid girl should've just joined them instead of letting herself be brainwashed by their father and his crock of lies.
She deserved to die.
"Fine…let her suffer," Aayla said coldly as she finally glanced away from Padmé. "Come on, Snoke said he would have a TIE fighter waiting for us."
"They should be approaching soon. I sense it," Ben told his cousin and the redhead nodded as they turned away from the dying girl. Aayla placed her hand in her cousin's, looking at him with an expression mixed with apprehension and knowingness.
"Ready?" She asked him and he gave her a firm nod, squeezing her hand in comfort.
"Always."
And with that, the two cousins left the destruction they caused and headed for the edge of the forest where they knew the TIE fighters would be approaching. Without his cousin noticing, Ben Solo gave his younger cousin one last unreadable glance before putting the suffering girl out of his mind and readying himself for what awaited both himself and Aayla.
The flames from the temple gave the sky an almost orangish-pinkish hue.
In a weird way it looked beautiful.
Padmé was still left unconscious where Ben and Aayla left her with a single stab wound from her cousin's own lightsaber. The same lightsaber he used whenever they dueled during their training sessions.
What she didn't see in her unconscious state was the tinted blue hand of a translucent figure as its hand hovered over her own…almost as though it were trying to hold her hand in comfort.
"Poor child," Obi-Wan Kenobi murmured as he looked at his badly injured granddaughter. "I know it hurts."
It wasn't the physical pain he was referring to either.
It was the pain of being betrayed by someone you loved. Only in his granddaughter's case, it just wasn't one person.
It was two.
In a way, Obi-Wan was proud of his granddaughter. It was difficult to stand up to anyone. Let alone a sister and a cousin. She truly was a remarkable young woman. Much like her mother was when she was Padmé's age.
"It's going to hurt even more when you awaken," Obi-Wan told her softly, moving his hand over her forehead as if he were about to move her hair out of her face. Her hair that was the same exact shade of red his had been when he was younger. His hair color which Tellervu used to make fun of him for. "But you're strong…like your mother and her mother before her. You'll make it. Because you have to."
"You and your father are the last of the Jedi, I'm afraid," Obi-Wan told the unconscious teenager in a sad tone.
"You're the only hope we have left."
"You did the right thing tonight…even if it was difficult."
"I'm proud."
"Is she…" Luke Skywalker trailed off as he approached his daughter and father-in-law. The man was injured after having the hut collapse on top of him. There was a large gash on his forehead, blood streaming from the wound.
"She's alive," Obi-Wan told his former student. "But she's badly injured. She got into a fight with her sister and cousin. Ben stabbed her with his lightsaber. Padmé passed out from the pain, I believe. They're already long gone. The First Order picked them up, I suspect. Snoke's doing."
"Oh, Force," Luke cursed, kneeling down next to his youngest daughter.
"If she doesn't get medical attention soon, she'll die," Obi-Wan warned him and Luke nodded.
"Leia is on her way here. She sensed what happened," Luke then looked down in regret. "She wanted to know what happened, but I didn't have it in me to tell her."
"She's going to find out either way, Luke," Obi-Wan informed him. Luke shook his head.
"This is my fault," Luke whispered, staring painfully at his daughter. "I looked past the darkness I saw in the both of them. Now everyone's dead."
"They got Vesper too, didn't they?" Luke asked, too scared to hear the answer he'd been dreading ever since he woke up under all the debris. He sensed the absence of her presence through the Force. Deep down, Luke already knew she was gone.
"She confronted them before Padmé did. Aayla was the one who did it," Obi-Wan said sadly, clearly devastated that his daughter died an early death. He'd hoped that she would get the happy ending neither him nor her mother had gotten but she managed to suffer a fate worse than they ever had. "I haven't seen her yet, but I suppose it shouldn't be too long before she joins her mother and I."
Tears streamed down the Jedi Master's face and Obi-Wan understood his sadness. He felt it when he found his former lover dead at the hands of his former student. Obi-Wan had been filled with regret for not protecting her…for not telling her how much he loved her. There was no sense of deeper understanding than the one Obi-Wan had.
"It is not your fault, Luke. Snoke sensed weakness and doubt in Aayla and Ben. No one could've foreseen this but them," Obi-Wan told him and Luke just shook his head.
"Leia and Han trusted me with their child, and I failed them. I failed Ben too," Luke said, looking lost as he looked around at all the destruction around them. "I failed my own daughter. I even failed Vesper and Padmé."
"I felt the same after what happened with your father and Vesper's mother," Obi-Wan said quietly. "I failed them both and I had to live with that, but do you know what got me through it?"
Luke just stared blankly at the burning temple. Obi-Wan doubted his words would reach him. The Jedi Master was consumed by guilt and failure as well as grief for his now dead wife.
"Vesper got me through it. I had a child to raise, and I also had you to look out for," Obi-Wan attempted to tell him.
"Just as you now have Padmé."
"No," Luke said, shaking his head as he tried to will the tears away. He hadn't cried since the birth of his daughters but those had been happy tears. Not tears of grief and failure like they were now.
"Padmé is good," Obi-Wan told him. "And right now, she's one of the last of the Jedi. Other than you-"
"That's the last thing she needs to be right now," Luke interrupted him. "It almost got her killed tonight. Look at how injured she is. They very well could've killed her. Maybe that's what they intended."
"Luke-" Obi-Wan tried to say but Luke shook his head.
"Vesper and I thought we could bring the Jedi back…like before," Luke said in denial. "That things would be different this time but they're not. We got our children mixed up in this. I lost Aayla and Ben…and I almost lost Padmé too."
"I already lost one daughter, Obi-Wan," Luke told him seriously. "I'm not going to lose another."
"There's other ways-" Obi-Wan tried to tell him and Luke shook his head in anger.
"There's no other way to protect her. I can't protect her," Luke told him, looking down at his daughter in sadness. "I obviously can't protect her, and I only endangered her by teaching her sister and cousin the ways of the Force. I was mistaken."
"You're going to leave her," Obi-Wan said. It wasn't a question either. The Force ghost of Luke's former master grew cold as he looked at the now grown man. Even though Luke was nearly the age he was when they first met, Obi-Wan could still see traces of the young boy on Tattooine.
"There's no other way to protect her."
"She'll despise you," Obi-Wan told him, trying his best to convince the man otherwise. "She'll never forgive you for it. The girl's already lost everyone she ever knew. She was betrayed by the people she loved most. She needs you now more than ever."
"She doesn't need me. Tonight's proven how much I failed them all. I'm the last person that she needs," Luke argued. "She can hate me all she wants. At least, she'll be safe. Someday she'll understand."
"I'm not sure she will," Obi-Wan told him but Luke ignored him. The man paused as he looked lovingly down at his daughter. She looked so peaceful as she slept. Almost as if she wasn't badly wounded. With her eyes closed like that, she almost looked like her mother. They shared the same red hair, the same freckles, the same lips, and even the same nose. Luke gently pushed a strand of one of her red locks out of her face.
"I'm so sorry," Luke told her before pressing a gentle kiss against her forehead. He then stood up and spotted R2-D2 a short distance away. Obi-Wan looked at his son-in-law in disappointment.
"You're making a mistake, Luke," Obi-Wan told him but the Jedi Master just shrugged him off. He gave his daughter one last look of longing before making a few short strides over to his droid. It was time to make his final travel arrangements. Luke knew it wouldn't be long until Leia and Han got here. He needed to be gone before then.
Obi-Wan just shook his head before looking back down at his sleeping granddaughter who was oblivious to the additional pain she was going to receive when she woke up. She didn't deserve the hurt, but it was inevitable. He gave the girl a sad look, wishing she wouldn't have to discover that not only everything she had was gone forever but her father abandoned her because of his own fear.
"You do not deserve this, little one," Obi-Wan told her softly as he watched her father leave in his old X-Wing.
"Forgive him. Fathers can be foolish sometimes. It doesn't mean we love our children any less."
Obi-Wan knew that better than anyone.
