Rating: PG
Series: Set in the same universe as the _Interludes_ series.
Summary: Obi-Wan must deal with the death of a friend.
It was a risk, coming to Alderaan, but a risk I chose to take. Nothing could have kept me from coming.
Not when Amidala lay dead.
Her four-year-old daughter, Leia Organa, clutched Bail's hand like a lifeline, her huge eyes filled with tears. I stood by the body of my friend, the friend I last saw bowed with grief as I took her son from her, and knew she was finally at peace. The movement I thought I saw in her breast was only illusion, like the illusion of my Master's breath had been, when I held his cooling body close to me.
Like the illusions I had seen in so many of my dead comrades, since Vader passed through the galaxy like an ill wind. If you look just right, Obi-Wan, you can see the flesh move, hear the soft rush of air, in and out, in and out.
If you just look in the right light, if you just ignore the Force, whispering "Dead, dead, dead" to all your senses.
If you just stop the dull ache in your heart.
Oh, my friend, at peace at last, tell my people when you see them that I will come to them as soon as my task is finished. Oh, my friend, thin and pale and still before me, your son is strong and healthy. Oh, my friend, as beautiful as morning, would that I could have done more for you.
I traced her features, felt the stiffness and coldness of her body, even as I swear her breath warmed my fingers. I met Bail's eyes across the room, and he nodded. It was time to begin the service.
I went to him, took the girl-child's hand, and sat with her while Bail spoke. He was mercifully brief, his voice thick with the pain of losing her. He had loved her, desperately and deeply, and had watched her slide ever farther from him.
That was a pain that I, at least, had never had to bear. Qui-Gon was taken from me too suddenly; Amidala and I had not spoken since I took Luke to Tatooine.
Leia Organa wept against my sleeve, and I lifted her into my lap and held her close, her need for comfort easing my own grief.
As the mourners filed out, I handed her back to Bail and waited until the chamber was empty, and I was alone with Amidala, once Queen of the Naboo, now merely a body that had breathed its last. I bent down and kissed her, gently, on the forehead: my last farewell.
I felt the Force shiver, heard a rasping breath behind me, and turned--and saw only the trailing edge of a black cloak, following its wearer out of sight.