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Bant is sitting beside her Master, desperately hoping that Tahl will wake up.
Because the bright woman who she has learned to love so much is lying so still and so pale on the bed, and she is so scared.
On Tahl's other side is Master Jinn, his face haggard and his shoulders bent as he stares at Tahl, as worried for the woman as she.
Everything is silent, and Bant shifts a little just to hear something.
A sudden ringing in her ears, and she feels pain, her body being blown apart, shouts and screams, children's shouts and screams, and it is all fading but he saved Cerasi and it hurts and...and..and...
Bant falls from her chair screaming, clutching at her head, clawing at it. There's something horrible in her head, something dark that stinks of ends and pain and fear and she feels sick. It's covering where her bond to Obi is, and she prods at it to try and reach Obi, and she can't. She can't find Obi-Wan. As long as she can remember, she has been able to find him. So where is he?
The pain in her head redoubles suddenly, as she opens her other bonds. From Garen, Reeft, Quin, Lumi and the others, all she can feel is the same agonising question, and the same horrible ooze in place of Obi.
**************
Yan is in a council meeting when it happens.
He has had bonds snap before, has felt someone he cared for snatched into the Force, but no one he was as close with as little Obi-Wan. Which isn't surprising. He has never cared as deeply for anyone as his little grandpadawan.
It snaps, and his hands fly up to his head as he is plunged into a frightened boy's last thoughts. Unable to do anything, he can only watch as his grandpadawan is blown apart, and he comes back to himself.
The proud Master slides to his knees, staring at the floor.
A groan from the other side of the room, and he knows that his old Master has felt it too, but he does not look up.
The worried voices of other Councillors overlap, asking questions, soothing, anything, but he can only ignore them as silent tears slip from his traitorous eyes.
Why was Obi-Wan even in a place to be...to be...he cannot say it. Over half a century as a Shadow, and he cannot admit that one boy has been...he shies away from articulating it even in his head.
"One with the Force, young Obi-Wan is." Yoda's rasping voice cracks and halts as he speaks, but the words pierce the proud man to the heart.
Obi-Wan is gone...he will never see his little grandpadawan again. He is gone.
A choked sob wrenches itself from his throat.
******************
Quinlan wakes up in the Halls of Healing, with Master Tholme leaning over him.
"What's happening Master?"
His Master's face is grim, but his voice is soft. "Quinlan, I am sorry."
Uh oh. For a moment, Quinlan is tempted to cover his ears, but he resists.
"Your bond with Obi-Wan snapped, and...you were...plunged into his final moments"
Now Quin remembers. He remembers his best friend dying. He remembers reaching for Bant, Lumi, Garen, anyone, and them reaching for him, but only recieving pain, and where is Obi, why is Obi gone in return.
He curls up with a long cry, and Master Tholme pulls him onto his lap. Being held as he cries is comforting, even as he screams and rages because Obi-Wan is gone gone
And how can Obi-Wan be gone.
*****************
At the funeral, Master Dooku grips Obi-Wan's lightsaber tightly, his knuckles white with strain as he stared at the pyre. He refuses to give it to Master Jinn, looking coldly at the man without answer.
Everyone there is weeping, mourning for a bright little boy who loved freely and asked nothing in return. Yoda looks every minute of his nine hundred years, withered and aged, with his ears drooping. Obi-Wan's crechemates cling together, weeping softly as they look at the tiny body on the pyre.
Obi-Wan was brought back, his body shredded by a bomb from his sternum down. He died a hero, saving Cerasi, a leader of the Young from an assasination attempt. But he died, and he was alone and scared.
As the body crumples into ash, Quinlan suddenly tears himself away from the huddle of crechemates, making for Master Jinn.
You killed him, he screams, his voice ragged and cracking, echoing again and again in the huge chamber, until it is as though the very shadows are accusing him.
You killed Obi.
And Qui-Gon just stands there and looks at the boy, his expression blank.
He was supposed to come home, he says, he was going to come home.
Quinlan screams, and no one knows quite what he says except that it is distorted and unintelligible, and full of pain. Then Master Tholme has grabbed him, and is gently guiding the weeping, raging boy away, even as Quinlan kicks and screams and bites, sobs racking his body.
The other members of Obi-Wan's clan make their way out, clinging to their Master's with tears pouring down their faces as the ash that was once a boy they loved more than anything smoulders on the pyre.
Now Bant is leaving, all alone, without Master Tahl who is lying as if she is dead in the Halls of Healing. She pauses beside the man stood at the foot of the pyre.
You left him, she says quietly, you left him in a war, and he died thinking no one cared about him. You meant everything to him, and you left him to die.
Bant cannot say anymore as sobs choke her, rising through her throat to tumble from her lips as she stumbles away.
Kit Fisto comes to her as she leaves, his grin gone and silent tears running down his face. He holds out an arm, and Bant crumbles into his embrace, clinging to him as her crechemates did their own Masters.
Slowly, slowly, everyone else follows.
Mace Windu, his arm around his Padawan Depa, both with eyes gleaming wetly, and a heavy tread.
Master Yoda, shrunken and shrivelled in a single night as though his age had come crashing down on him like a hammer.
Plo Koon, his expressionless face staring at the floor and his shoulders trembling.
More and more and more, everyone who Obi-Wan loved, and who loved him in return.
They all leave.
Alone, Qui-Gon Jinn clutches a little river stone in his hand, still stained with Obi-Wan's blood. His Padawan is ash, ash and dust, and he died scared and alone. Believing that no one cared for him. Nothing that anyone says to him could make him feel worse. He bows his head and weeps, as the last ashes of what was once Obi-Wan Kenobi blow away.