My brother is not dead, despite the wounds Obi-Wan delivered to him. But, his pain through the Force is astounding. It makes my chest squeeze tight.

I crumble to my knees as I watch my brother with his robotic arm try and pull himself up on the embankment. His efforts don't help him.

Though I'm stunned to silence, Obi-Wan isn't.

"You were the Chosen One!" he screams at my brother. "It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! You were supposed to bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness." Obi-Wan retrieves Anakin's dropped saber.

I still remain numb on the embankment. Obi-Wan trudges up to me, I can't even look him in the eye right now.

"I hate you!" Anakin screams at both of us.

"You were my brother, Anakin," Obi-Wan says. "I loved you."

I should have saved you. I should have done something. There are a lot of things that I can say to my brother. I want to shout at him, express my disappointment. Nothing can reach my mouth and come out.

A strangled cry reaches my lips as Anakin is set alight from one of his chopped legs. I cover my mouth in horror, watching as the flames lick up my brother's body. He grunts and cries out in pain. He never cries Obi-Wan's name, or mine, for help.

I rise to shaky feet, and I find myself going towards him. But Obi-Wan stops me.

"No!" I shout at him, trying to elbow him off me. "No! No!"

"Thea, there's nothing we can do," he says in a pained tone. "There's nothing we can do."

"A-Annie!" I sob. My brother continues to be eaten by flames. His skin is almost as black as the sand we stand in. His hair is long gone.

Through the flames, his eyes are no longer blue. They are the color of fire, the trademark of a Sith. Anakin Skywalker is officially no more; Darth Vader is who I'm crying over now.

I hang my head, tears streaming down my face, mixing in with my drying blood from my nose.

"Thea," Obi-Wan says soothingly. "We have to go."

I don't go willingly; Obi-Wan has to pull me up the embankment, towards Padmé's ship. I want to worry about Padmé, but the scarring image of my brother being burnt alive is at the forefront of my mind. Ben at some point hands me Anakin's saber. I grip onto it tight.

It's the only thing I have of my brother now. He's as good as a memory.

Numb and in a tunnel, I don't remember the way back to Padmé's ship. We just left Anakin to die from fire, and now we're back at Padmé's silver ship.

The gold protocol droid from before rushes down the ramp.

"Master Kenobi!" the droid greets him. "We have Miss Padmé on board. Please, please hurry. We should leave this dreadful place."

I don't hear what Ben tells the droid; my mind is focused on Padmé at the moment. Instead of directing me to her, Ben sets me on a cot in another room.

"W-what are you doing?" I ask.

"Stay here."

"B-but Padmé—"

"I'll check on her. Stay here. I'll come back."

"You swear?" I whisper.

Obi-Wan looks at me mournfully. "I swear."

I look down at Anakin's saber in my hands. I feel like I should break it, or bury it so someone may never find it again. This weapon has killed Jedi, children. It's not a weapon of peace, it's a weapon of destruction.

Dry sobs come out of my mouth. When Obi-Wan returns, he drapes a blanket over my shoulders.

"We're going to Polis Massa. There's a medical center where we can get Padmé checked out."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't know." Obi-Wan kneels before me, drying some shed tears.

"That was not my brother," I say hollowly. "I don't care what anyone tells me. That was not the brother I left on Tatooine."

"I know, Thea."

"Y-you showed him mercy. It's perhaps the one time where it probably shouldn't have been given." I hang my head. "Ben, what he became...That could have been me."

"But it wasn't. And it's not."

I think about if I had switched places with Anakin: if I was the one leading clones into the Temple to slaughter every last Jedi. If I had been consumed by the anger that my brother had felt.

The Dark Side is a very lonely side to be on. You hold no loved ones there. You only seek power. You don't seek love. For Anakin, he's turned against people who once cared about him.

"Don't dwell on the 'what could have been'," Ben tells me softly. "Focus on what has to be done now."

"Which is?"

"We get Padmé examined and we figure out our next steps."

I sniffle. "I can't think right now, Ben."

"I know. It's...it's a lot to process."

"If Padmé pulls through, she has to know," I say quietly. "She may hate us forever, but she has to know."

"I agree."

"This isn't over, is it?"

Ben chuckles apathetically. "It would be easy if it were, wouldn't it?"

"Indeed it would." I pull the blanket tight around my shoulders. "You...you took me away. You left him there to die, Ben. You left my brother to burn alive and suffer. And here I thought you were above such...such cruelty. I take back what I said about you giving him mercy; mercy would have been ending him instead of letting him burn to ash."

"Thea, you said it yourself. That was not Anakin we fought."

"But he was in pain. We abandoned him. If he lives...he'll never forgive us."

"You're worried about forgiveness from him? He probably feels we abandoned him first. Betrayed him. The time for forgiveness is long past. Your brother died the night the Temple was attacked, Thea."

And Obi-Wan is absolutely right. "The prophecy must be wrong. How can there be balance if one falls to the Dark Side?"

"Perhaps it meant both of you."

"The Chosen One, Ben. Not Chosen Ones. You know this as well as I do. Even if it were altered for us..."

"Let's...let's stop talking about this for now," Obi-Wan says carefully. He stands upright to sit by me on the cot.

"I'm glad you're here, Ben," I say softly. "I...I need someone with me right now."

We both sit in silence, his arm wraps around me. I bury my head into his neck, unable to stop the fresh tears flowing from my eyes.