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There was still time. There had to be. The Force wouldn’t have pulled so strongly if there wasn’t time, right?
His thumbs ached from being dislocated and just as quickly reset, but it was the fastest way out of those Force suppression cuffs and he couldn’t waste a second. They hadn’t listened the first time, but maybe- maybe they just needed more convincing. Obi-Wan hadn’t even been given time to explain, he just needed to make them listen-
The forest was silent, but the Force was screaming.
-
“No.”
Dooku froze and turned. “Padawan Kenobi? What are you doing here?” How had he gotten out of the ship?
Kenobi didn’t respond. He stumbled forward, past Dooku, eyes wide and presence soaked in anguish as he stared at the blood-stained snow. “No, no, no, no, what have you done?”
“Padawan-”
“What have you DONE?!”
“Ken-”
“SHUT UP! They’re dead, they’re dead, you killed them, I told you, I told you, they’re dead-”
“Someone get him out of here,” Dooku ordered. They’d sort him out later; they needed to finish here first.
“Don’t touch me! ” Kenobi spat, ripping himself out of the grasp of the Jedi who’d grabbed him. His eyes had gone from anguished to furious and wild.
Dooku scowled. “Padawan Kenobi, you will return-”
“No,” Kenobi snarled, backing away from them, closer to the scattered Jedi and Mandalorian corpses. “No, get away from me, all of you!”
Dooku moved to grab him, patience thinning. “Padawan Kenobi, cease this-”
“GET AWAY FROM ME!”
A wave of force flung Dooku and the surviving Jedi back, tumbling through the snow and slamming into trees. He struggled to his feet, trying to understand Kenobi’s frantic rambling through the ringing in his ears.
“I told you, I told you, I told you and you didn’t listen, nobody ever listens, you killed them, you killed them all-”
“Padawan, calm yourself-”
“Calm?!” Kenobi laughed hysterically, shoulders hunched, an arm sweeping out to gesture at the bodies behind him. “You just slaughtered dozens of people and you’re telling me to be calm?!” For a moment, Darkness swelled in the Force. Dooku sucked in a soft gasp.
Kenobi fixed Dooku with a feral grin. “Is that fear I sense, Master? Are you afraid? Really? Of a Padawan?” He took an unsteady step forward.
“Imagine how afraid I was during those visions.” His voice had gone from heated and frantic to a cold calm that sent shivers up Dooku’s spine. “Seeing this.” He motioned widely with both hands. “Seeing slaughter. And you dismissed that fear. Told me to breathe, to focus on the Living Force. The future is always in motion, after all.” Kenobi’s eyes flickered, blue to yellow, just the barest hint of Dark. Dooku took a step back.
“You are treading a dangerous line,” Dooku warned. Kenobi laughed.
“Am I? What about you? Brutally murdering people isn’t very Jedi-like, Master. I can taste the Darkness in the air. On you. Then again, I can’t say anything, can I? I’ve killed people, too. And I’ll do it again. I’ve seen it, Master.” His eyes grew feverish. “I’ve seen myself slicing someone in half with my 'saber. Leaving a man to burn. I’ve seen so many things,” he chuckled. “But you don’t want to hear about them. No one does. No one wants to listen .”
“Oh, shut up,” Komari snapped. “You’re insane. I can’t believe someone actually took you on as a Padawan. They should’ve kept you in the Corps.”
“Padawan,” Dooku snapped. Komari scowled and went silent.
Kenobi had backed even further into the massacre, visibly shaking now. His breathing was erratic, eyes flicking around wildly, hands twitching at his sides. Dooku took a slow step forward.
“Stop,” Kenobi snapped, wild eyes fixing on him. “Don’t come any closer.”
“Padawan Kenobi,” Dooku said, quiet and firm. “Return with us to the ship. You need a mind healer.”
Kenobi barked a laugh, his teeth bared in an animalistic grin. “Really? What gave that away? The visions or the numerous traumatic experiences?”
Dooku took another step forward, undeterred. Kenobi stepped back, eyes hardening, grin falling into a snarl. “I said don’t come any closer.”
“We can help you, Padawan.”
“I don’t want your help,” Kenobi hissed. He took another step back, but tripped over a dead Mandalorian and fell into bloodstained snow. Dooku continued to speak placatingly.
“You’re scared. I understand. No one as young as you should have to see something like this-”
Kenobi snorted bitterly. “Don’t you know? I’ve seen worse . So much worse. In my dreams, in my visions, in reality, I see so. Much. Worse.”
“You don’t have to anymore.” Dooku took two more steps closer and Kenobi froze. “Let us take you back to the Temple.”
“No,” Kenobi growled and suddenly there was a blaster in his hand, pointed directly at Dooku’s chest. Kenobi must have snatched it from the dead Mandalorian. “Don’t move.”
Dooku slowly kneeled down. The blaster lowered with him. “I said don’t move.”
“Padawan.” Dooku reached out a hand. “Let-”
The sound registered before the pain did. A blaster firing, and then a smoking hole in his chest. Dooku’s hand fell to his side, and then there was another shot, and another hole.
He didn’t hear the third shot. He collapsed into the white powder beneath him, one more body growing cold in the snow.
-
Komari Vosa screamed and launched herself at Obi-Wan. He scrambled away from her first strike, used the Force to snatch one of the fallen Jedi’s lightsabers, and just barely managed to light it in time to block her next attack.
“Padawan Vosa!” One of the surviving Jedi finally seemed to get over their shock and ran forward to drag Vosa off of him. Obi-Wan didn’t hesitate to bolt, ignoring the shouts of the other Jedi behind him.
He didn’t hear or sense anyone following him, but didn’t stop running. His breath fogged in front of him, the cold air was sharp in his lungs, and his body was screaming in protest, but he ran and ran and ran and ran and tripped and fell into the freezing snow.
Limbs heavy and trembling, Obi-Wan couldn’t do more than sit up and scoot himself over to a tree. He curled against the tough bark, trembling as the numbness in his fingers and toes finally made itself known.
He couldn’t go back after this. Not that he wanted to, but, well, it wasn’t like he had anywhere else to go.
A slightly manic giggle bubbled out of his chest, then another. It turned into a laugh, then a cackle, and then he was holding his stomach as his shoulders shook and lungs ached with every hysterical howl and gasp of frozen air. He was crying, he noted absently, salty tears slipping down his cheeks and leaving cold trails that felt like they were freezing on his face.
All of them were dead. The Jedi, the Mandalorians, everyone he’d seen in his visions of blood and snow were deaddeaddead just like he’d told them. But they hadn’t listened. No one ever listened, and then his visions came true and people died.
Obi-Wan could feel that same Darkness as before pressing in, poisoning the air, soaking into him with every breath he took. He didn’t care. Let the Darkness take him, it wouldn’t make a difference.
The Darkness tugged him along and he followed it, let it pull him off of that precipice of Light and Fell, Fell, Fell into welcoming black.
His eyes burned and he was sure that if he had a reflective surface, he’d see sickly yellow instead of his natural blue.
Obi-Wan didn’t care. It didn’t matter. He was cold and tired and lost and Fallen and none of it mattered.
His eyes slipped shut as a different kind of darkness came to sweep him away. Obi-Wan gladly let it.