Of Love and War Book 4: When Darkness Falls

Chapter 16: Shell Shock

Getting into the Temple was the easy part of Yoda and Obi-Wan's return to Coruscant. Between Master Yoda and Obi-Wan himself, the few clones that were left guarding the Temple entrance in case any surviving Jedi arrived were easy to dispatch.

Entering the Temple, however...

A sorrow that Obi-Wan could not use any of his past experiences to adequately compare to or match overwhelmed him as he entered the halls of the Temple that had housed him his entire life. He'd grown up here, trained her, found a family here...and now bodies lay strewn across the floors, the number of Jedi that had been slaughtered far outweighing the number of clones from what he could see from the south wing of the Temple. The once grand halls were now cavernous and empty, scorched and even crumbling in some places where an intense fight had taken place. Up ahead, he spotted a Padawan and a group of younglings lying abandoned on the floor, spread about in such a way that made it appear they had been fleeing towards the back entrance of the Temple when they had been shot down from behind.

Obi-Wan's heart clenched painfully as he took in the tiny broken bodies at his feet.

"Not even the younglings survived..." he whispered, his voice carrying through the hall. Not for the first time since hearing about the attack on the Temple, Obi-Wan's mind immediately brought up images of Anakin and Zelina before he left for Utapau. Were they both all right? Had they managed to survive this nightmare and just hadn't been able to make contact? Or were they lying somewhere in these halls, abandoned, murdered, and unable to be retrieved even for a proper burial because of how little time Obi-Wan and Yoda had to carry out their mission. He could not scour the entire Temple for the two Tatooine natives he saw as siblings, as much as a part of him cried out for him to search, to find them, or to at least confirm that they weren't here, that they might have survived, that there was hope.

"Killed not by clones, this...Padawan," Yoda said painfully, nodding towards one of the younglings before them and drawing Obi-Wan away from his thoughts and back to the moment at hand. "By a lightsaber, he was."

A deep disturbance rippled through Obi-Wan at Yoda's words, as well as foreboding. Another Sith? The one they'd been looking for, perhaps? Maul was on Mandalore with Ahsoka—he hoped the youngling was all right—and Asajj and Dooku had both been killed. Had there even been time to replace Dooku after the Count's death?

Yes, yes there had, and Obi-Wan knew that there was a very real chance that there could be another Sith behind this attack. Still, the question remained...

"Who? Who could have done this?" Obi-Wan questioned aloud. Yoda had no answer for him, at least not one the old Jedi Master was willing to share. Not that it mattered—Obi-Wan didn't expect an answer, at least not from Yoda, and they didn't have much time to try and find an answer here in the Temple.

Perhaps if he checked the security feeds, after they sent out their warning to the Jedi to stay away, if they had the time to do so.

With more effort than Obi-Wan cared to admit, he pushed himself to his feet once more, walking in pace with Master Yoda as they made their way to a turbolift that would take them up to the floor that housed the training dojos and the communications control room. The ride up was as silent as the rest of the temple save for the hum of the lift, both Jedi Masters doing their best to ignore the scorch marks on the wall of the lift. They had a job to do, and they needed to do it quickly and get out before someone realized what had happened and more 501st came.

When they reached their floor, the two masters stepped out into the hall cautiously in case there were any clones patrolling the halls inside, Yoda's gimmer stick making sharp clicks against the floor as they made their way to the door of the Communications room.