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This chapter was really hard to write for me, as I had to fix the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin again, but I hope you like it!

"She… She is dead?" And everything made sense in this moment for Anakin. Why Obi-Wan had borrowed the Twilight, a non-republic ship, the pain he had suddenly felt, why Obi-Wan looked so messed up, even why he had let Ahsoka down…

Satine was dead.

Anakin had made fun out of Obi-Wan when he found out about his 'girlfriend'. Yes, he had practically teased him the whole mission from Mandalore to Coruscant, and watched with amusement their discussions about the war and peace. But the way they had spoken to each other, especially when they had parted… it had been more than friendship, hadn't Anakin always known in his heart? That it had even been deeper than a crush? That it had been… love?

How deep had his feelings for Satine reached? Had he loved her, how Anakin loved Padmé?

Indeed, he must have had loved her more than Anakin always thought. He had thought it was a slight attachment, not that much more… Obi-Wan was normally always so stuck to the order… but in this point, he had left every rule he once had praised down.

How had Satine died? Had Obi-Wan found out about watching the Holonews? Had he seen her before she died? Had he… watched her dying?

How could he himself, Anakin, have missed Satine's death? Had he been so troubled by his own problems? Anakin had never been closed to Satine, and he had no doubt they would have never been friends in any universe, but somehow he was shocked. Shocked for his master.

How could he have been so mean to his old master? Well, he hadn't insulted him in a while, but maybe this complete ignoring of him had been worse than any insulting could have been.

"Ani, are you alright?" Padmé's hand lied on his cheek.

"How…" he stumbled. It was somehow the best word for describing all of the questions running through his head.

"I… don't know. Nobody knows for sure. They only say, that there was a revolution on Mandalore. The Death Watch had claimed the reign, but then they had splitted up… It was chaos, Ani. And somewhere in between, Satine… died." She took his hand again. "Is… everything okay?"

He swallowed. "It's just… how could I miss? Why…?" Why did Obi-Wan never tell him? Had he forgotten it? Had he not trusted him?

Like Anakin had never trusted him with his and Padmé's relationship… How could he feel betrayed by his master, when he was technically doing the same.

It was the code, making them doing this. Lying to each other.

Softly, she pulled him out of the room. "Come on, we have to get a move on." Then she added. "You should probably talk to him." She gave him a kiss on the cheek, then disappeared in direction of the conference room.

"Yeah, sure." Still confused, Anakin followed Padmé.

-/-/-

The 'welcome party' and conference was as boring as Anakin had already feared, so instead of listening to Senator Chuchi's speech about how important this day could and would be, and how they had to talk about the health problems in planets in the warzone particulary, he focused instead on his old master.

Padmé had been right; Obi-Wan looked awful, in any way. At least he seemed to get his hair in a normal manner again, but he was still awfully thin, as if he hadn't eaten… Well, for exactly two months. Since the Duchess had died.

How could he, Anakin, completely ignore this at the last times he had seen his old master? He looked like he was ill. His clothes were muddy, his skin fallen and his eyes… they had an expression of… well, if nothing would ever matter any longer. As if death would almost be welcome to him. The eyes of a desperate… animal.

"Anakin, are you listening to me?" He was ripped rudely away from his thoughts. Obi-Wan looked quite annoyed at him. Oh, he must have said something…

"What? Oh, sorry, Master, what did you just say?"

Obi-Wan only shook his head and got back to the map of the peace conference room. "Ahsoka and me are going to escort the senators and stay in the room, securing the doors. Anakin, it would be best if you do not sleep on duty and look out for any threats outside the throne room." Throne room? Oh yes, the peace conference would be held in there. He really should have paid more attention to the mission details he had received, but wasn't it so often the same? In the end he always had to improvise to save somebody's skin anyway…

"Yes, Master." Normally, Anakin would have now made some kind of joke now, maybe about his master's ability for negotiation, but he was not quite sure yet how to handle this heartbroken Obi-Wan. So he decided for the best choice at the moment: Staying silent. And trying to not fall asleep, as this seemed to be something that pissed Obi-Wan off. (Didn't it always?)

The Senators stood up to leave the room. Anakin spotted Ahsoka quite near to Bonteri, following the senators to dinner. She turned around, apparently searching for Anakin. He approached to her, at least she should know what he was up to.

"Hey, Snips, would you mind going to the Med-Bay so that they can check up on your arm one more time? Like, er… alone? Join the senators at dinner afterwards."

She frowned in suspicion. "What are you doing?"

"I'd like to check up on Obi-Wan for a second."

He did not have to say anything else, Ahsoka had already understood. It was quite obvious that Obi-Wan was not okay. She would have helped him for sure, if it hadn't been better if Anakin went alone to speak to him first. "Yes, Master."

As Ahsoka had left the room as the last person, Anakin closed the door behind her, locking it secretly with the force. When he was going to talk to Obi-Wan, he had to make sure that he would actually listen to him.

Obi-Wan looked up, slightly surprised to find Anakin still staying in the room at the door, watching him.

"What are you still doing here? Shouldn't you escort the senators or something like that?"

Anakin hesitated for a moment, staying with the back at the door. "The Senators will do perfectly fine without me. But I'm not sure if you'll do so fine as well."

Obi-Wan got up, trying to regain his old laughter. He failed completely. "What do you mean? I'm fine, really… fine."

Anakin sat down on one of the chairs and observed his old master closely, searching for words. How should he do this, how should he restart their relationship? Force, this was more difficult than any battle he had fought in. Finally he made a start, just hoping he had found the right words: "I'm so sorry, Obi-Wan. About everything. I guess… I never realized how much she was worth for you."

Obi-Wan stopped on his way towards the door. He remained silent for a few seconds. "Why do you bother now?"

Anakin stood up. Truth, he told himself, tell him the truth. Isn't the truth always the best way? "To be honest, I hadn't received the news of her… of her death till today." He approached to his friend. "She… was a remarkable woman, Obi-Wan."

His old master sighed, and this time there was no doubt about his pain, Anakin could hear it in every breath now. "Yes, she was indeed." With every word Anakin could taste the pain he felt about Satine's death even more. In this moment, he was glad now he couldn't see Obi-Wan's face, because if his old master had cried, he would have not known what to do. Close the gap and comfort him?

Er… no.

Dammit, what did he have to do? Comforting others was not exactly a specialty of him… Should he make his old master talk about what happened, or just stay silent? Should give him the idea of that he was there for him or make him move on with his live? Should he… Argh, this was way too complicated for Anakin.

Okay, staying silent would be the worst idea, as he had done this for the last two months, and it didn't seem to have helped his master, it had made it far worse. So he would make Obi-Wan talk about the events leading to Satine's death. Isn't this what they say in all the counselor books to do? "How… did it happen?"

Of course, there was no response, but Anakin knew in his heart that he did not have to give up. "Obi-Wan? Talk to me. I can imagine it's painful…" Anakin could indeed: What if Padmé would die? "… but this is not what Satine would have wanted…"

"How can you know what she would have wanted?" For the first time in his life, Anakin heard real anger in Obi-Wan's voice and something like… despair.

Argh, comforting others was a nasty business, they kept screaming at you when you tried to help them. "Of course, I didn't know her like you, Obi-Wan. But I saw the way she looked at you. She cared for you, and whatever she wanted you to do, it is not what you're doing now."

Obi-Wan remained silent, but Anakin knew he had nearly done, he just needed to push a little more. "So please, Obi-Wan… Talk to me." Because (and Anakin would have never said it out loud) seeing his old master in so much pain caused Anakin to feel this pain himself. Obi-Wan was… his brother. The closest thing to a father, Anakin had ever had. He couldn't break on this.

Obi-Wan swallowed, but then seemed to begin his story. "Master Yoda called me into the Mission-Center. He and Master Winduu had received a message from Satine, calling me for help." Obi-Wan could still feel the shock he had got when Satine's picture showed up onto the holoprojector, telling him about Death Watch and asking him for helping her. If she'd only known that he would be her downfall. "Master Yoda made clear to me that neither the Republic nor the Jedi order could help me as Mandalore was still neutral. So I borrowed your ship and went their alone…"

"Why haven't you asked me for help?" Anakin knew Ahsoka and he himself would have helped Obi-Wan rescuing Satine. If they only had known, he had suited up in no time.

Obi-Wan just shook his head sadly. "You seemed busy."

Yes, Anakin remembered being quite rude to Obi-Wan as they were under attack in this moment. How could he have not sensed what was going on?

"When I got to Mandalore, everything seemed to work out fine first. I stole one of the uniforms from the guards. Nobody noticed I didn't belong to them as I disguised myself as Death Watch Soldier. I… found Satine." His Satine. She had thrown herself in his arms, not knowing about her destiny, not knowing he would bring her death alongside with him.

"What went wrong?"

"Well, what had to go wrong. You can't get a high-class-prisoner out of a jail without anybody bothering. Not that I didn't try. When we had reached the Twilight, they were already behind us, and as we entered the ship and tried to take off, I was too slow. They shot us down. The Twilight had already been in kind of disrepair, and I had had no time to fix her. The three missiles were too much for her…"

So this had happened to the Twilight. She was no lost forever on Mandalore. If Anakin had only repaired her after his last mission… But he had been busy, hadn't he? But what if he had repaired her? Would Obi-Wan's mission have turned out differently?

Anakin had decided to visit Padmé on the last evening he should have repaired the Twilight. If he had made the decision to repair her… How would the situation be now? How can this slight decision make such a big difference?

"So… Satine died in the ship?" She couldn't be dead because he had failed to give Obi-Wan a full operation-able ship, could she? Please, she couldn't be dead because of him…

"No… if it only had been that easy…" Obi-Wan's face darkened. "I could bring her safely to the ground before the ship exploded, but we were injured. And then he came…"

Anakin bit his lip in impatience. "Who?"

Obi-Wan hesitated, apparently having trouble saying the name. Then he mumbled it, his voice trembling. "… Maul."

"Maul?" Anakin had already 'missed' him, at least not seen him in quite a while. How had Maul known of Satine's relationship with Obi-Wan?

Obi-Wan had to swallow hard before continuing. "We were brought back to Satine's old throne room, where Maul already awaited us. He had taken control over the Death Watch without anybody noticing, as he was using Prime Minister Almec as his puppet ruler. He began to choke Satine and then…" Obi Wan breathed heavily, he just couldn't say it. As if he would kill her another time with his words, disemboweled her again. This was too much.

But Anakin was still there. "Master, it's hard, but you have to finish the story…"

"He… he impaled her, Anakin. She… she died in my arms…" Remember, my dear Obi-Wan. I've loved you always… I always will. Her life escaping him like a petal. And all because of him. "It's my fault. She would not have to die. Maul did not care about her, he only wanted me. She would not have to die if I had just let her go. Or if I had killed him back on Naboo."

Suddenly he felt the warm hand of Anakin (so it had to be his left hand) on his shoulder. Surprised he noticed that his Padawan seemed to tremble slightly. "It was not your fault, master. Even if you hadn't come, she would have died eventually. The Death Watch wanted her dead. Think about it like this: You have at least given her some hope. This was more then she would have otherwise."

"What hope, Anakin? One I had to fail?"

"No. One that gave her a few happy moments before her death."

Maybe Anakin was right. When he had entered her cell, for example. She had been delighted in this moment, hadn't she?

His Padawan had grown, indeed.

"She would have not wanted to live any longer with her world falling apart, Obi-Wan. You know that. She needed you, even if you could not save her in the end. Not on your own. I am sorry, Master." And this time, it was more than just his compassion for Obi-Wan. It was regret.

Obi-Wan turned around, trying to smile at his hold apprentice. "You couldn't have done anything as well, Anakin. Don't blame yourself."

"But I could have surely done something at least…"

"No…"

"Or at least…"

"Anakin, you had your own problems at this time. And… Thank you."

They remained silent, thinking about each other's words.

Anakin couldn't stop to wonder: He had blamed Obi-Wan for letting Ahsoka down… But hadn't he left Obi-Wan down when it was his turn?

Did you like it? Review!

Anyway, this won't be the last things said about Satine's death, but it's a huge step forward.

Would you like to see more of some characters?

Still, who would you like as Obi-Wan's new padawan?

See you on Saturday!