A/N: Yes, I have finally begun the promised Snuff fic! It's unbelievable how much easier it was to write this in third person than it was in first person. Thank you PurpleWillowTrees for your encouragement! It definitely would have taken longer to get this started had you not commented on the video so enthusiastically. Enjoy!

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"Master, please. Please wake up." That voice had been pleading, pleading and weak. "No! Don't! They're innocent! Please!" As shots were fired, Obi-Wan's eyes snapped open. He was a mess of perspiration and tangled bed sheets. That voice had haunted him longer than he wanted it to. He and Anakin were put into a situation that neither thought they'd be in.

Things had changed since returning from the Outer Rim several weeks ago. Rather, Anakin had changed. Obi-Wan noticed it. The Council noticed it. The only one who appeared not to have noticed was Anakin himself. The experience a few weeks back had been traumatic for the Kenobi-Skywalker team, but more so for the Skywalker half of it. Obi-Wan had been captured, but he'd been unconscious for the majority of his captivity – or so their captors believed. What had really transpired was a private matter. Obi-Wan, for Anakin's sake, left out the details of the mission that acknowledged Anakin's dance with the dark side. It had gone very wrong…so very wrong.

Just being in the same room as Anakin brought on overwhelming feelings of death and darkness. Obi-Wan was the only one who sucked it up for Anakin. He was the only one to stand by Anakin's side as everyone else drifted from it.

The loss of his arm had been one of the many horrors he'd faced. Prior to that, he lost his mother, who spent her final moments in his arms. Anakin now had a scar running above and below his right eye and Obi-Wan felt like it had been his fault. He shouldn't have let Anakin go off alone. The younger man had been knighted almost seven months ago and he'd already gotten himself injured further within the first month after his Knighting. Obi-Wan was at a loss for what to do now, however. He couldn't tell Anakin he was sorry enough. He couldn't put bacta patches on his skin or add a cybernetic limb. What happened had tormented Anakin's mind. There was no easy way to heal that.

He'd tried to pry the door open to Anakin's individual living area of their shared apartment, but the younger of the two wouldn't budge. Obi-Wan hadn't really spoken to Anakin since their return. He knew Anakin was still in the room and he knew that he heard him. He felt anger and remorse as well as several other un-Jedi-like emotions filtering through Anakin's tightly knit shields on occasion. Today, he was going to try to bring him out.

The truth was that Obi-Wan loved Anakin. Not as a brother, not as a son. He loved him as a Jedi should not. Their bond was so much more than it once was and Obi-Wan made no move on his former apprentice to acknowledge the way he felt. He believed Anakin had something more going on with the senator of Naboo. He knew how his Padawan felt about her and he knew how deeply Anakin's emotions ran when he loved someone. He was always attached to those who came closer. The only attachment Obi-Wan ever had was that of one to his own Master, Qui-Gon Jinn. He loved the elder man as a father and was reciprocated with his Master's love for him as his son. That had been Obi-Wan's only attachment – prior to Anakin coming into his life.

Obi-Wan had tried to love Anakin as a son or even as a brother, but his feelings for the young man were far too strong for him to allow himself to love the least bit possible. Obi-Wan knew what he felt was wrong. He was part of the Jedi Order and the Order forbade attachments, such as love. He fought his love for a majority of Anakin's apprenticeship because Anakin had been so young. Obi-Wan felt like a perverse human being because he'd loved a fifteen year old at the age of thirty-one. Had he told Anakin or anyone else this, he surely would have been removed from the Order and possibly put into prison. Now that Anakin was twenty-two, the idea of a romantic relationship with him seemed slightly more appealing as well as less criminalizing.

He sucked in a deep breath and stepped out of his living area to cross their lounging area which led to Anakin's sealed, durasteel door. As his hand rose to press the ringer on the panel, the door slid open. Obi-Wan jumped back at the sight before him. Anakin was very pale, very malnourished, and it was apparent that he hadn't been sleeping well. "Anakin," Obi-Wan gasped, hardly believing the man in front of him was his former apprentice. They stared at each other for several, long moments and Obi-Wan was frightened by how nonchalant Anakin looked.

The older man's lips parted when a single tear slid down the right side of Anakin's face. That was the first emotion he'd actually seen on Anakin's face since it happened. For the last few weeks, Anakin seemed uncaring and when he'd come out, he looked like he felt nothing. Anakin surprised his Master further by throwing himself at the older man's chest to sob uncontrollably. Obi-Wan, caught off-guard by the sudden overflow of Anakin's tormented emotions, could only wrap his arms around the young man. "I-I..." Anakin croaked, still sobbing and shaking. "I'm-I'm s-sorry," he whispered.

Obi-Wan's heart broke. What was Anakin sorry for? "Anakin, it wasn't your fault." He put as much sincerity as he could into that. "You did what you thought was right and I'm so sorry that you were put into that position." He stroked Anakin's hair gently, hoping he was soothing him.

"I killed them," he gasped. "They were innocents and I killed them."

"No, you did not, Anakin." Obi-Wan carefully led Anakin to the couch and sat them both down on it, still holding Anakin against him. "You were not the one to pull the trigger, Anakin."

"I shouldn't have given them the chance to blast!" he growled. "Those children... They..."

Anakin trailed off and Obi-Wan felt the tremors coursing through Anakin. "We didn't know it was a trap. We couldn't have stopped it from happening if we'd tried."

"The Council sent us there!" he yelled, bolting into an upright position to stare at Obi-Wan. Tears were trailing down his face, leaving tear stains in their wake. "They knew!" Obi-Wan, as part of the Council, didn't want to believe that, but he also hadn't been included when they discussed sending the two of them to Saleria V. If they'd known children were being executed, they would have been able to prevent the loss of so many young people.

Anakin knew he was right. Obi-Wan knew Anakin was right. The Council had known. Slavers had captured Anakin and Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan at the time was rendered unconscious as a result of a gas that had been released into the building they were in. Anakin wasn't sure how he'd stayed conscious, but he'd tried to wake his Master. Obi-Wan missed a majority of the conversation Anakin had with their captors, but it hadn't been good. That was for sure. The first thing Obi-Wan heard upon waking up had been Anakin's quiet and desperate pleas for them to let the children go.

Obi-Wan closed his eyes, not wanting to see the anger in his former apprentice's own. "I failed you, Anakin." He believed that wholeheartedly. He should have questioned the Council further. Anakin, as he stood before the Council, had demanded that more information be given out to them and Obi-Wan stood by idly, waiting to lecture Anakin about his petulant ways of speaking with the High Council. "I should have listened to you. You knew something was wrong and I ignored you. For that, I failed you."

A reflection of Anakin's venture into darkness was shown in the younger man's eyes. Obi-Wan could see it as clearly as if it were happening right this very moment. He could see Anakin screaming in rage, the bulk of the durasteel hold suffocating under his trembling Force grip. Obi-Wan could feel Anakin's hatred. They'd been bound by Force-restraints, but Anakin in his fiery rage had destroyed his restraints. Obi-Wan watched Anakin stride purposely towards the slavers. Both Jedi could feel the suffering of the innocent victims and it added to Anakin's fire.

What made it even more horrifying was that Anakin's eyes had even shifted to a Sithly golden pigment. He brutally murdered their captors, but Obi-Wan hadn't been able to declare it as done in cold blood. He understood Anakin's frustration, his pain, his anger. Obi-Wan felt it all. The training bond they still had allowed Obi-Wan to see into Anakin's inner turmoil and he knew that Anakin, had he not been a Jedi, would have been a very protective father or a very deadly unaligned Force user. He was tormented by the screams of the children and that torment furthered as they were killed right in front of him. Obi-Wan had moved to watch the man he'd trained for a little over a decade and had been met with the cold, dead stare of a small girl.

"Obi-Wan," Anakin whispered, touching the elder man's shoulder. Obi-Wan shook his head to clear it and stared at his former apprentice. Anakin frowned and Obi-Wan pulled him closer. He was surprised that Anakin was allowing him to hold him, but Obi-Wan knew Anakin was just as surprised by the fact that Obi-Wan was showing him affection.

"May I ask what brought you out of your room?" Obi-Wan asked softly. He held the boy's head against his chest, just beneath his chin and heard Anakin sigh. "If you'd prefer not to talk about it…"

Anakin shook his head, his cybernetic fingers pulling ever so slightly at the hem of Obi-Wan's tunic. "I'm…I'm haunted, Master," he said brokenly. "I needed someone to talk to." Obi-Wan couldn't help but smile weakly at that. If Anakin were to open up to anyone, Obi-Wan hoped it would be him. He was grateful that it was. He loved and cared about the young man. Obi-Wan's silence was enough of an indication for Anakin to continue speaking. The additional strokes to his former apprentice's hair were another. "I see their dead faces."

"Anakin, you tried. I know you did." He did know that Anakin tried. He'd been ruthless in his attempts to break his bindings. Had his binders not been attached to a chain on the durasteel wall, Anakin may have been able to save the children that were slaughtered before his eyes. "I'm so sorry that you had to experience that…"

"This is war," Anakin said bitterly, "but I did not know that children would be so directly involved." Of course children were involved in this damnable war. Everyone was involved. The entire galaxy was at war. "I hate them, Obi-Wan. I hate them."

"Who?" Obi-Wan's heart grew colder as he listened to the young man's deep voice. It was so broken, so pained. Anakin's hatred was tangible, especially at a proximity as close as the one they were in right now.

"The Senate," he hissed. "The Jedi. The Sith. The Separatists." Obi-Wan's eyes widened and his hand halted its strokes through Anakin's hair. "I hate them all." What he felt now did not feel anything like his former Padawan. He sensed so much darkness in the younger man and he almost believed that the latter was truly Sith. Almost. He knew Anakin far too well. Anakin would never turn to the dark side. "I wish they didn't exist."

"Anakin," he pled quietly. As he was about to continue, his former protégé spoke up.

"Don't you dare lecture me." The fire in his eyes scared Obi-Wan. The darkness had returned in them and Obi-Wan felt as though Anakin had the ability to kill him in an instant. It wouldn't have been the first time Anakin tried to harm his Master in blind rage. "The Senate and the Separatists are at fault for beginning this damned war. The Sith are at fault because they have mercilessly killed so many." And the Jedi? He'd mentioned that he hated the Jedi as well. Could he not find a legitimate reason to hate their Order? "The Jedi are at fault because they do not allow us to go as far as we must to save innocent lives."

"I sense that this isn't about any of those things," Obi-Wan said tentatively. It was true. The air had shifted considerably around them. Anakin's hatred did not feel like it was directed at any of the aforementioned groups of people. "You hate yourself," he whispered. It wasn't a question.

"I do." Obi-Wan was stunned by the honesty. He expected Anakin to deny it. He expected an argument or an explosive Anakin who threw as many nearby things as he could. "I feel slighted and I'm angry for not realizing the danger before it was too late to do anything about it." Anakin straightened up and turned to sit shoulder to shoulder with his former Master. The guilt washed out of him in waves and Obi-Wan soaked them up. "I have never been fast enough," he said so quietly that Obi-Wan almost hadn't heard him.

"Anakin, you cannot continue to blame–"

"I lost my mother," he began, immediately silencing Obi-Wan, "to sand people because I wasn't fast enough. I have nearly lost you on several accounts as well, Master." He lifted his head to give Obi-Wan an empty look. "Those children will never live their lives as they should have because I wasn't fast enough."

Obi-Wan was certainly afraid now if he hadn't been moments earlier. He could hear the resentment in his companion's voice and it was directed inwardly. The older Jedi wished he could make Anakin see his reasoning. Anakin hadn't been able to do anything because of the restraints. Obi-Wan believed it to have taken a tremendous amount of effort for Anakin to break out of them as it was. His rage fueled him and that seemed to be one of the most unsettling parts of the entire thing. Yes, the children had been used against them, but Anakin nearly fell beyond the point of return. Obi-Wan didn't know what he would be able to do if Anakin turned on him.

'I love you,' Obi-Wan said inwardly, so inwardly that Anakin couldn't hear him behind mental barriers they both had around themselves. 'I love you so much, Anakin. Please, stop hurting yourself.' Obi-Wan sighed and Anakin's focus – a dead eyed focus – landed directly upon Obi-Wan. "Anakin, we cannot save everyone."

That had been the biggest mistake he'd made that day. Anakin leapt from the couch, pointing an accusing finger towards the stunned Master. "All my life I've been told I will save so many lives," he said bitterly. "Now you're telling me I can't save them all? Why am I the 'Chosen One' if I can't do something as simple as prevent death?"

"It is not that simple," Obi-Wan said softly, looking away from the fiery, young man. He hadn't intended on starting an argument, but at least Anakin's frustration was beginning to ease its way out. It would dissipate in no time at all. "Anakin, you are not a god. You are not all powerful." He looked back at his former apprentice and saw how devastated he looked. Anakin always believed he was just what Obi-Wan said he was not. If he was this prophecy meant to balance the galaxy, how was he not either of those things? "You are only one man," he whispered so quietly that both of them believed it hadn't been said at all.

Deep down, Anakin knew his Master was right. Anakin wasn't all powerful nor was he a god. He was nothing if not human, and he is human. He wanted to be stubborn and protest until his Master admitted that he was the one who was wrong, but Anakin remained silent. He would not protest nor would he admit that he was wrong. He was too prideful to do that, though he should have humbled himself just a little. "I'm sorry," was all he could bring himself to say.

Obi-Wan stood up, still looking up at the younger man who had surpassed his height approximately eight years earlier. He smiled weakly at Anakin, lifting a hand to caress the latter's cheek. He was slightly surprised by the way Anakin allowed this, but he shouldn't have been surprised at all. Anakin was always emotional, always seeking physical contact with someone he cares about, someone he loves.

Obi-Wan's heart skipped several beats as he realized that this was Anakin's silent way of showing that he loved and cared about him. He knew Anakin would never reciprocate his undying love. He would never force him to. If Anakin was destined to be with a certain Nubian senator, so be it. Obi-Wan loved him too much to demand anything but happiness from the younger man. He longed to tell his former apprentice how he truly felt about him, but he hadn't been able to muster up the courage to in many years. For the first time in a long time, he stared intently into Anakin's eyes. And Anakin stared back at him.

Both men shared a bond deeper than that of any other Jedi pair. Obi-Wan saw the pain and depth of Anakin's of emotions just by looking into his azure eyes. In return, Anakin's discovery wasn't as clear cut. The kaleidoscopic nature of Obi-Wan's eyes prevented Anakin from seeing something as simple as love, as hate, as sadness. Anakin knew from many years of being in this man's company that his eyes shifted colors depending on the way he felt. Obi-Wan's eyes were grey. Obi-Wan was sad. "Anakin?" Obi-Wan whispered, sensing something swirling within his apprentice. He was worried, and for good reason. He loved the young man beyond words, something he was very unaccustomed to. He had reason to believe that Anakin may fall to the dark side or even go so far as to commit suicide. He wasn't entirely sure which was worse. Living with the knowledge of Anakin as a Sith seemed far more bearable than living in a galaxy where Anakin Skywalker no longer existed.

If only he knew that Anakin refused to live in a galaxy where Obi-Wan Kenobi did not exist.