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.

"Master Yoda? Master Kenobi?"

The small voice echoed timidly towards the pair of Jedi Masters, and Obi-Wan spun sharply around at the sound. Yoda's turn, while also quick, was not so sudden and bordering on violent, considering Obi-Wan was tense and braced for an ambush of some sort.

Near the far end of the hall, a scrawny boy was barely stepping out of one of the training rooms, the youngling growing in bravery and headed their way when their identities became clear.

A...a youngling? Still alive, in the midst of all this?

The boy broke into a jog towards the two older Jedi when they didn't start to attack him or draw lightsabers, the two instinctively making their way towards the child to meet him halfway.

"Little one, how did you—" Obi-Wan started to ask when the boy reached them and he could clearly see that the youngling was entirely unharmed. However, he only latched onto Obi-Wan's sleeve and started to pull.

"I think we need help," the boy said, caught between a plea and unsureness.

"We?" Obi-Wan asked in further surprise.

Yoda was already overtaking the two, gimmer stick tapping along the floor as he started down the hall. "Show us, will you, Young One?"

The boy nodded, letting go of Obi-Wan's sleeve. "Yes, Master Yoda," he said quietly, already hurrying ahead back the way he'd come. The two Jedi followed the boy, Obi-Wan hastier in his movements than the Grandmaster, whether because of his youth or his longer stride, that much was debatable.

The boy stopped outside the dojo that was second to last in the hall, opening the door for the three of them before momentarily darting out of their view and back into the room he's possibly been hiding in this entire time.

"It's Master Yoda and Master Kenobi," he heard the boy exclaim, and to Obi-Wan's shock, he felt four new presences register in the Force inside of the room.

Muffled voices of relief floated towards Obi-Wan as he finally stepped into the room, unsure what he would find.

It was like the boy had personally led Obi-Wan into one of his nightmares.

Yes, it was good news to see five Padawans within the dojo, four of them crawling down from the saber alcove that the youngest was lowering the blind of. Any survivors, especially ones so young, were a welcome sight.

Any joy that came from seeing the surviving children was cut brutally short by the figure who lay in a crumpled heap on the floor, one that he had not been able to detect until he saw them with his own eyes.

"Zelina!" he exclaimed, horror filling him as his mind immediately reached for the first and most likely scenario.

Dead. Cut down in a last act of defense protecting these five children.

Obi-Wan found himself kneeling beside the twenty-year-old young woman, instinctively lifting her up into his arms. Her head lolled back, unresponsive as the children and Yoda gathered around.

"I-I've been trying to wake her. Masters, is she...?" the boy asked in a shaking tone.

Obi-Wan's hands and eyes were seeking out her injuries, noting the dust and small cuts that covered her, one of them deep enough to count as a gash running across her forehead. It was the lightsaber marks that drew his attention, however, fingers brushing against the slash on her cheek, the torn fabric of her arm, also sliced into by a lightsaber...

His hands dropped to her abdomen, noting that the slash, while running from hip to her lower chest...was shallow, more of a burn than a cut, though it looked deceivingly like a finishing strike. There was another burn from a blade on her leg, but he was distracted by the one on her abdomen, and what it implied.

"Dead, she is not. With us, she still is. Only in a deep trance, put under by someone powerful in the Force," Yoda explained, gimmer stick rapping against the floor as he came around to stand across from Obi-Wan on the other side of Yoda. "Hidden, she was, from detection of other Force Users, in the process."

Obi-Wan hadn't even sensed her right down the hall, something Obi-Wan should have found as easy as breathing...But who had put her under? She hadn't done this to herself...Had it been Anakin? Had they perhaps been cornered, and he'd put her under to save her life, to make her appear dead to anyone else?

He could see Anakin doing such a thing, after trying to get them both out in vain. The lightsaber burns he wasn't so sure—though perhaps with some persuasion from Zelina and reassurance, plus the dire situation, he would have done it to make it look convincing.

And yet...for some reason, as much sense as that explanation made to him...there was no sign of Anakin, and the theory did not settle easily into his mind. Furthermore, it would have made sense to either hide her lightsabers, or maybe place them so it looked like they'd fallen with her. Instead, the lightsabers were placed neatly just in front of her unmoving form, like they had been offered to someone.

What happened here?

"Can you wake her, Master Yoda?" a togruta girl asked, looking at the woman in Obi-Wan's arms with concern.

"Perhaps," Yoda said simply, placing one of his hands on her forehead. "Assist will you, Obi-Wan? Your connection with her—help it will."

Obi-Wan nodded, gently placing a hand atop Zelina's head, smoothing down her hair on a whim before he closed his eyes with Yoda and they reached out for the young woman's latent presence. Considering how well-concealed her presence had been, Obi-Wan didn't hesitate to use their bond to get a good grip on her before Yoda and he pulled her back towards consciousness.

Zelina's presence blossomed before them, as strong as ever and even peaceful in her current unconscious state. However, as the young woman became more aware, that peace was quickly replaced with a storm of tumultuous feelings as recollection rushed to the front of her awakening mind.

Yoda withdrew his hand, and Obi-Wan braced himself for Zelina's rude awakening as her emotions reached a fever pitch.

Zelina's eyelids fluttered and opened, squinting against the sudden light as disorientation briefly overcame her.

"Easy..." Obi-Wan murmured.

It took a moment for Zelina to fully come to, and when she did, her presence flared to life with alarm. Her eyes flew open as she tried to sit up with a sudden spurt of adrenaline, a gasp breaking past her control. Her attempt to get up failed miserably as her burned skin stretched, and a pained cry burst from her as she collapsed back into Obi-Wan's grasp.

"Don't strain yourself, young one," Obi-Wan chided. "You're among friends, now."

"Obi-Wan..." Zelina murmured as her gaze focused on the man before her. Her gaze finally cleared as she finally registered her surroundings, and that she really was safe. Yet, as any confusion finally left her, something in Obi-Wan's words pained her enough to tears, her head turning away and eyes squeezing shut before she could cry.

Her cheek brushed against the fabric of her shoulder, causing her to hiss as her attention shifted to her injuries, a hand reaching instinctively towards first the one on her cheek. Under her touch, a soft, nigh-transparent blue glow washed over the wound before it began to slowly heal itself.

Her recent healing lessons had been going well, then. And now they were paying off.

A thin scar was left behind on Zelina's cheek when she finished healing the injury, and there was no hesitation before she moved onto the next without a word.

"Zelina, what happened here?" Obi-Wan asked.

A wave of raw pain washed over him from their bond, and Obi-Wan had to promptly withdraw from the intensity of the emotion. It was too much off of the pain he already felt over this...disaster.

"The 501st came in the night. With our best spread across the galaxy...we didn't stand a chance. We mounted the best defense we could, got out as many of the younglings as possible..."

She didn't say anything more, so Obi-Wan pressed for more. "We? Was Anakin here, too?"

Zelina wasn't looking at him, her face shielded from Obi-Wan as her head was turned and hair formed a thin veil across her face. "There—he..." she stumbled over her words, voice hardly decipherable. Obi-Wan's heart clenched. Had Anakin been killed in the fighting?

"I wasn't at the Temple at first, I came cause I was uneasy, and I could sense something had upset him. But when I arrived he'd already left. I-I don't know what happened to him—"

She cut off there, voice choked and pained as she fell into silence.

Then perhaps Anakin hadn't been at the Temple...perhaps he'd lived.

But what of the darksider? The one who had killed the younglings?

As much as Obi-Wan wanted to press her for more answers, he could sense the storm inside of the young woman and did not wish to push her too far. Her trauma ran deep, and considering the state of the halls, if she had been in the middle of it...then it made sense why her emotional wounds would be so severe.

"Still make it to the beacon room, we must. Warn the survivors away, and make our escape, before discovered, we are," Yoda gently reminded them.

Obi-Wan nodded, watching as Zelina skipped the wound on her abdomen long enough to focus on her leg. "Will you be able to stand?"

"Yes—I'll be able to walk after this, of course," Zelina murmured.

They waited long enough to heal the wound on her leg before Obi-Wan helped her to her feet, draping one of her arms over his shoulders. The younglings crowded around the young woman as her free hand drifted over her abdomen, the togruta girl placing her hands on the woman's free arm as if to help support her. The child was small enough it was an ultimately fruitless gesture, but still touching to witness. Meanwhile, the tiny twi'lek child had retrieved Zelina's lightsabers, hooking them onto Zelina's belt for her as they collectively started to move.

The small group of Jedi made their way to the communications center, slowly at first, for Zelina's sake, though they were able to speed up to a normal pace at her urging, when she was partially done with healing her remaining wound. When they reached the beacon room, Zelina sent the children into one of the smaller debriefing rooms to wait, sitting down on the small wall ledge by the security feed station. Still she said nothing more than was absolutely necessary, staring down at the floor with a haunted look that made Obi-Wan shudder before he turned his attention to the task at hand.

He needed to know what happened here, specifically to Zelina.

It took some work, but eventually Obi-Wan was able to turn his attention back to Master Yoda and Zelina, though the later wasn't paying much attention to what was going on around her. She remained trapped in her silent waking nightmare. "I have recalibrated the code warning all surviving Jedi to stay away."

Yoda glanced at the youngest among them in what seemed more like pity than concern. Did Master Yoda already know what had happened to her, or at least suspect something? "For the clones, to discover the recalibration, a long time, it will take."

As Obi-Wan activated the warning and made his way back to the other two, Yoda started for the exit, Zelina not yet making a move to leave.

Good—Obi-Wan wasn't quite ready to leave yet.

"Wait, Master," Obi-Wan told Yoda, who stopped with a quiet sigh Obi-Wan almost didn't catch. "There is something I must know..."

As Obi-Wan passed Zelina and headed for the security station, he felt the woman's pain intensify. She wasn't entirely detached from the world around her, and It seemed she could already guess what it was Obi-Wan was about to look for. She rested her head in her hand, eyes tightly closed as she turned away from the video feed, before Obi-Wan even had the chance to activate it.

"If into the security recordings you go, only pain will you find," Yoda warned him.

"Then it is pain that I have earned. I won't hide from it. I must know the truth, Master," Obi-Wan countered, pulling up the small holo display and sifting through the recordings. He paused just short of discovering the attack, momentarily hesitating. What did he want to see first? Did he want to see the 501st marching on the Temple as Zelina claimed? No, he didn't need to see that—he already knew about that. There was no reason to see more death and tragedy than necessary.

He could track Zelina—find out what happened to her rather than subject her to a nigh interrogation that only served to force foul memories. She said they'd mounted a defense, so that was where he would start.

It took some searching, but he managed to catch the sight of a Jedi line of defense. There was even a glimpse of Zelina bursting out of the lines to send soldiers flying in a powerful Force wave. She was quick to fall back behind the lines, and even disappeared from the lines altogether after a grenade momentarily shattered their defenses and a brief exchange with Master Drallig. Obi-Wan didn't follow her progress, however—it seemed she'd moved between the front lines and the escape attempts. If this was the front lines, then he should get a good view of the darksider who'd led the charge...

After a shift of view when the lines fell back, and a skip forward in time, the Force Sensitive spearhead appeared in the feed. They was caped and there was no clear view to get a look at their face, but Obi-Wan watched as they cut down Cin Drallig, and the rest of the at that point sparse defenses crumpled, mercilessly carved up like livestock by the darksider. The remaining Jedi tried to scatter, but they were quickly destroyed.

Another Force wave burst from Zelina to send more men flying through the air as she bolted into the Temple instead of out of the hole in the back to freedom—going to protect the younglings that were alive and waiting in the other room, perhaps?

Blaster fire started to follow her retreat, but the darksider had whipped around at the display of power, throwing out an arm to stop the clones, to call them off Zelina...

The darksider's hood fell back to reveal a face in the process.

And instantly—instantly—he understood Zelina's agony, wishing he could rip his offending eyes from himself in an effort to distance himself from the truth before him, wished he could return to the innocence of believing Anakin dead while protecting Zelina or escaped somewhere on Coruscant. But no, this was not something he could forget, and a scream reverberated through his entire being, trapped inside and unable to escape.

Part of him wanted to turn on the young woman sitting paces from him, to yell at her in denial, to demand answers, to ask why she had withheld such a vital piece, why she'd let him cling to hope—no, why she'd built up his hopes only to have them smashed so brutally before his eyes. He wanted to know how she could keep such a thing from him—she had to know it had been Anakin who stormed the temple.

And yet...he understood. He understood that not only would she be unable to answer him, but that she could not have brought herself to put Obi-Wan through the same pain that she had experienced. She would rather let him have his hope as long as possible before being robbed of it.

Obi-Wan remained frozen in his silent horror long enough for Anakin to exit the room, the clones to do a sweep of the room for any survivors, and Anakin to return, greeted by the robed figure of a severely disfigured Palpatine.

"You have done well, my new apprentice," the no longer hidden Sith Lord croaked to a kneeling Anakin. "Now, Lord Vader, go and bring peace to the Empire."

Blindly, Obi-Wan fumbled for the controls to shut off the recording, managing to do so before he moved to lean on the console. He discovered the hard way that he had not the strength to even hold himself up, as his arms buckled and sent him to the floor, huddled against the console. Now he knew a shadow of Zelina's pain, for while Obi-Wan loved Anakin as a brother, he knew the girl loved him in layers—as a friend, as a second half, as the man she loved...

Yoda remained unsympathetic, gazing stoically at the two distraught Jedi—Obi-Wan could not see Zelina, but he could still feel a shadow of her pain through the bond he was trying to distance himself from in an effort to spare himself more pain. "Warned, you were."

Obi-Wan said, "I should have let them shoot me..."

"What?"

Obi-Wan didn't even hear Yoda's sharp exclamation—he continued to ramble, feeling similar sentiments resonate through Zelina at his words. "No. That was already too late—it was already too late at Geonosis. The Zabrak, on Naboo—I should have died there...before I ever brought him here—"

"Stop this, you will!" Yoda snapped, his gimmer stick snapping against the floor as he made his way towards Obi-Wan and jabbed him sharply in the ribs with the cane to force him to sit up. "Make a Jedi fall, one cannot; beyond even Lord Sidious, this is. Chose this, Skywalker did."

Obi-Wan lowered his head. "And I'm afraid I might know why," he whispered softly.

The conversations with Zelina flashed through his mind, her concern about what the Jedi had been doing to Anakin recently, his stress, his fears, her mentions of studying healing vigorously, which he just knew had not been by some faint prompting in the Force warning her of this horrid event. No, it boiled down to the many errors and fumbles made by the Council regarding Anakin, the betrayal he felt time and time again...and Padme Amidala.

"Why? Why matters not. There is no why. There is only a Lord of the Sith, and his apprentice. Two Sith." Yoda leaned close. "And two Jedi."

Two Jedi? But Zelina...

No...no, Zelina had changed long ago. Zelina was not a Jedi in the sense the Order considered, but she wasn't a Sith or an agent of darkness. She'd morphed into something else when Ahsoka was banished from the Order, Obi-Wan had felt it that day, felt the break, the snap and shift as she became...balanced. Not in the sense of inner peace, but of being between light and dark. She did have aspects that could be considered of the dark side, or at least as extremely un-Jedi like, but she had never been an agent of evil—she was light, Obi-Wan had always seen that in her. She was good and true and loyal, flaws and all.

It seemed Yoda was aware that Zelina did not fit in this realm of description anymore as well.

Obi-Wan nodded slowly, the numbness still keeping it's unwavering grip firmly upon him. He could not even meet the gaze of the ancient Master standing directly in front of him. "I'll take Palpatine."

"Strong enough to face Lord Sidious, you will never be. Die you will, and painfully," Yoda stated rather bluntly.

"Don't make me kill Anakin," Obi-Wan returned, sharper than he'd meant to. "He's like my brother, Master."

"The boy you trained, gone he is—twisted by the dark side. Consumed by Darth Vader. Out of this misery, you must put him. To visit our new Emperor, my job will be."

"No."

Both Jedi turned at the return of the feminine voice of their group, especially considering the sudden vehement strength with which the woman spoke. Both Jedi Masters had to move in order to see her around the console, surprised to see her rising to her feet.

She didn't let the brief silence created by her abrupt opinion linger long. "All due respect, Master Yoda, but you're wrong. No, he's not gone."

Yoda sighed—a pitiful sound, one that dismissed Zelina's strongly voiced statement that Obi-Wan frankly wanted to hear more of. "Know that attached you are, Du'ahn, to Skywalker, but—"

"He didn't kill me," Zelina interrupted bluntly. "He had the chance to, and frankly, if he was Sith, he should have, considering the threat I pose. But he didn't. He protected me, he hid me from the-the—from that wrinkled husk. Anakin's still in there, and he can be reached."

"Return from the dark side, one does not—especially not one so deeply immersed in the dark side," Yoda returned stoically.

"Ventress did—not entirely but she turned from the Sith. Quinlan Vos did. And I've been studying Satele Shan, who was a descendent of Revan, who was a powerful Sith Lord who turned from the darkness and became a champion of the light. It does happen, Master Yoda, the Order simply doesn't talk about it," Zelina argued, her words becoming impassioned, her emotions reaching a fever pitch that made Obi-Wan dizzy.

"Not them, Vader is. Too tangled in the dark—lost he is. Accept this, you must, or destroyed, you too shall be. Cloud your thoughts even now, your emotions do, bring you dangerously close to the dark side, they do. Occur to you that perhaps wish for you to join him, he does? That spare you, he did, to make you think he could be redeemed, to lure you in, make you fall as well?" Yoda said sharply. "Renowned for your control, you have been, Du'ahn. Do not lose that now, when need it most you do."

Instantly, Zelina shut herself off, her eyes cold and distant as she stood completely straight, turning from Yoda in a stiff movement, silence wrapping around her once again. Obi-Wan's gaze lingered on her, wanting to get inside her head to see what was going on up there even as he gently tested her in the Force, finding her shields slammed as high and strong as possible, shrouding any more of her intents and opinions in mystery. Yoda slowly drew Obi-Wan's attention back to him.

"Find Vader, you must, and face him alone," Yoda stressed, gaze flickering pointedly at the suddenly silent woman in their presence. Yoda didn't want Zelina interfering by acting on her emotions rather than reason.

Obi-Wan seemed to answer without entirely believing the words he spoke. It was a last-ditch effort to wiggle free of the task Yoda was trying to place upon him, especially now that he had heard Zelina's adamant defense. "I do not know where the Emperor has sent him. I don't know where to look!"

Yoda gave him a knowing, chastising look. "Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will." Yoda turned away from them both, his gimmer stick tapping against the stone floor as he made his way to the exit, signaling the discussion as over. "Now, a duty we have to do. Leave this place, we must. Get the younglings to safety, we must. Stop the Sith, we must."

*************************************************

Before they left, Zelina stopped Padme and Obi-Wan briefly, exclaiming to them she felt there was something she needed to do before leaving the Temple behind. She'd departed for the other side of the Temple then, promising to meet them outside the Temple when she was done. Obi-Wan kept tabs on her presence anxiously the entire time, afraid that some remaining clones would discover her and take Obi-Wan's last remaining friend from him.

No...no, that's not true. Some yet live. But she is one of the closest, and a little sister to me, as Anakin is...was...as I consider Anakin Skywalker a brother.

Just when Obi-Wan and Yoda began to grow wary with the time Zelina was taking, she returned, a small pack slung over her shoulders. Yoda had moved to chastise the girl about materialism, but she had cut him off swiftly, revealing its contents to be the holocrons and other materials she had been studying, which meant in her sack was information on healing, a fragment of the history of the Old Republic, lightsaber forms, and complex Force Abilities.

The two Jedi could not argue the preservation of knowledge, however slight, especially when she had apparently been following a whim of the Force.

Since the session of congress had been called to a close, Yoda sent word to Bail for his assistance, and the small group of Jedi found themselves returning—temporarily—to the Tantive IV. When they arrived on the ship, the Senator was clearly surprised to see that their group had expanded not by one, but by six.

Zelina, however, was met with a different kind of surprise, and the relief that resonated from the girl was a welcome balm for Obi-Wan's soul.

"Satine!" Zelina breathed in relief, and the two blondes swiftly embraced, clinging to each other for mutual support.

"I was told you might still be alive, but we hadn't heard anything from you and were getting worried. It's a relief to see you with my own eyes," Satine told Zelina so softly Obi-Wan almost didn't here.

We...did she perhaps mean Senator Amidala? Had Padme said something to Satine about believing Zelina to be alive? Had Anakin told her that Zelina was spared from the attack?

Bail was ushering the younglings to a safe, temporary place as the two women momentarily pulled apart, hands still on each other's arms as a form of stability.

"Are you all right?" Satine asked sincerely. Zelina started to nod, but the effort quickly dissolved, and she rapidly shook her head, unable to voice what she felt in a remotely strong voice, and the two women embraced once again. Over her shoulder, Satine's gaze met Obi-Wan's.

While the Duchess—ex-Duchess, with the end of the war now officially declared—also calmed Obi-Wan's troubled soul in a way that was entirely unique to her, he was unsettled to see the knowing light in her eyes as she looked at Obi-Wan. Whatever the Duchess saw in Obi-Wan's face, coupled with her brief interaction with Zelina, seemed to be enough to tell Satine everything she needed to know about the situation they were currently faced with.