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Obi-Wan saw him burn in the heat of Mustafar. The melting skin and burning flesh.
The man, his former student, former Jedi, former brother.
The monster, his former adversary, former enemy, and, debatable, former Sith.
What agonizingly remained of Darth Vader or Anakin Skywalker.
Defeated by his own hubris and Obi-Wan’s lightsaber.
"I HATE YOU!" he still screamed.
Even in his excruciating pain and imminent death, he was consumed by anger. The radioactive hate burned in his toxic, yellowed eyes.
"I HATE YOU!"
Obi-Wan could swear it was impossible to break a broken heart. Yet, his was cracking once again hearing that.
He sighed, swallowing his tears. The weight of the last days was heavy on his soul.
He should…
He should go to Padmé…
She was fine last he checked. She would live, but still needed medical assistance.
Yeah…
He should take her…
Take her and go…
He should.
Yet, he couldn't tear his eyes away from his fallen brother.
Anakin let an anguish cry as his body slid down the burning soil, getting dangerously close to the lava and to a hasty death. His severed limbs had already melted in the fire river, and his remaining arm, the mechanical arm, was unable to hold him on its own (not to speak of how the heated metal might be burning the stump).
He looked at Obi-Wan.
His eyes were still yellow, but the desperation…
The desperation was something Obi-Wan hadn't seen in a while. It was the same helplessness and fear he had seen in Anakin's blue eyes when he was just a child, still learning how to be a Jedi. It was a hard life, especially for someone who had just been freed.
Obi-Wan acted without hesitation once again.
He raised his hand and, with the Force, stopped his Fallen brother's body from dipping into the lava.
He felt exhausted. Although he hadn't ended up in flames as Anakin did, he was also singed and scorched. It was almost funny how both of them had lost everything at the same time. Jedi or Sith, it didn't matter.
Everything had turned to ashes.
His eyes burned with the effort, but he pulled Anakin from the scalding soil, pulling him up to the high ground where they wouldn't be blazed again. He laid him on the ground gently, staring at him, lost in what to do next.
The monster, the shadow of the man Obi-Wan had once known, glared at him in fury.
"You weak… pathetic, stu-" he coughed violently, his lungs being just as burned as his skin, with the addition of the fumes from that flaming planet. "You stupid Jedi!"
The right thing for Obi-Wan to do would be to finish off the beast. After all, one less Sith in the Galaxy would always be a great boon. He could even justify that to himself by saying that it was also a favor to Vader. The Sith would die anyway. Better a fast death than suffering from the burns.
He should run his lightsaber over Darth Vader's heart (if he still had one) and be done with that.
But he just…
He couldn't.
Obi-Wan kneeled beside his Fallen brother. He put one hand behind Anakin's neck for some form of support and another over his heart.
His throat was scratchy and rough, but Obi-Wan found himself singing at that moment.
An old song, and an old action he would take when his padawan was just a scared child. He had tried to bond with him that way and, for a couple of years, it had worked. Obi-Wan didn't know when that changed, when the kind and boisterous boy he knew and that he hoped would turn into a caring and lively young man, had morphed into an arrogant and surly monster.
He caught himself singing to that boy again.
A sad song that, strangely enough, had been Anakin's favorite.
"High in the halls of the kings who are gone, Jenny would dance with her ghosts. The ones she had lost and the ones she had found, And the ones who had loved her the most…"
The Sith laughed, an ugly, cruel thing that ended in another cough.
"You lost…" a cough "lost your fucking mind, don't you?"
Obi-Wan paid him no mind.
He had nothing to say to the monster. His words were for the boy lost to time.
"The ones who'd been gone for so very long, She couldn't remember their names. They spun her around on the damp old stone, Spun away all her sorrow and pain."
Force healing had never been his forte. Any ability involving the Living Force, really.
But he knew at least how to alleviate pain. He had a lot of practice on that, with all the wars he had been involved in against his will.
At that moment, however, that was a good thing.
Even if that man was now a Sith, even if he was the one who personally burned Obi-Wan's world down, he deserved to go with some dignity.
"And she never wanted to leave, never wanted to leave. Never wanted to leave, never wanted to leave."
Anakin let out a cruel laugh again. He breathed a little better now as he wasn't in as much pain, but it was still long and heavy sighs, as his lungs didn't have the capacity anymore.
"You're… gonna pay… for this…" he threatened.
Even if his soul was slipping away to the Force, he just couldn't let go of his hatred.
It was so painfully sad.
"They danced through the day and into the night, Through the snow that swept through the hall. From winter to summer and winter again, 'Til the walls did crumble and fall."
"I don't want… I don't want your damn…. your damn pity…"
One of the many things Anakin seemed to refuse to understand was the difference between pity and compassion.
Both of them had their lives burned down in flames.
If they were both only the ashes of the men they once were, who was Obi-Wan to feel superior enough to pity Anakin?
No. Obi-Wan didn't pity the Sith. If he was being honest, he despised him.
But Anakin still was worthy of not dying in agony for the simple fact of being human.
Still worthy of compassion in death.
"And she never wanted to leave, never wanted to leave. Never wanted to leave, never wanted to leave."
"You're… a dumb… fool…"
It wouldn't take long now.
He was breathing slowly, with his lungs barely being able to move.
"And she never wanted to leave! Never wanted to leave! Never wanted to leave! Never wanted to leave…"
Obi-Wan only noticed that Anakin wasn't moving anymore when one of his tears fell on the burned skin, and the other didn’t react.
The Sith's dead face stared at him, yellow eyes empty and glassy.
"High in the halls of the kings who are gone… Jenny would dance with her ghosts…"
Obi-Wan moved his hand to the monster's brow.
"The ones she had lost and the ones she had found… And the ones who had loved her the most."
He gently closed his brother's eyes.