Don't Leave

Chapter Twelve

Looking at him, you knew there was no putting the pieces back together this time. This wasn't like learning his grandfather was Darth Vader, this was a complete betrayal.

You could feel yourself losing consciousness; the darkness was making a void in your mind, blocking out any thoughts or rational decisions you had left. The last thing you saw was a tremendous amount of smoke encasing the temple and then your vision went completely black.

Opening your eyes, you notice yourself on the ground, and Ben only an arm's reach away. When you start to look around moments start to come back to you. The temple was engulfed in flames and there wasn't a hut left untouched. You started to push yourself up off the ground when you noticed that Ben had yet to move, but looking around you noticed that most of the students weren't moving.

Breathing became harder with each passing second; the smoke was thick, and the panic from the realization of the chaos that you had created made it nearly impossible to think straight.

"Ben!" You bent down beside him, shaking his shoulders, "Please, please wake up."

The tears were falling down your face and hitting the ground below you as you continued to shake Ben. You couldn't pull your gaze from him regardless of the countless screams of agony happening all around you.

His face was battered with various cuts and bruises from the past day; but how many of those were from you?

"Ben, please I need you to wake up." You leaned down, placing a soft kiss just above the cut on his brow bone.

You felt him take in a sharp inhale and watched as his eyes darted open.

"Ben!" You screamed as you placed your lips fervently on his head. He grimaced as he pushed you off of him and looked around.

"What happened?" His voice was quiet but stern. You watched as his eyes moved around the temple taking in all the ruins. A scream for 'help' coming from the distance made him grimace.

As you watched his face, you couldn't bring yourself to tell him that you had done it – but you knew you couldn't keep it from him, not forever.

"(y/n), what happened?" his voice was intense this time, making you flinch in fear of him hitting you.

"Ben, I— "

"What happened?" he gripped your shirt, abruptly pulling you towards him.

"I, Ben, it just, it took over me. I don't know what happened. But," you found yourself coughing from all the smoke.

"But what (y/n)?" his grip on your shirt got tighter, his glare more intense.

"I think it was me."

Ben immediately let go of you, pushing you off of him, almost causing you to fall over.

Ben's eyes landed on a young student laid atop the remnants of their hut. It was obvious that they were no longer breathing – you weren't sure if any of the students were still breathing.

"I didn't want this." Ben walked over to the young girl, a tear began to fall down the right side of his face as he pushed the hair away from the girl's face.

"You did this." Ben turned to look at you, his face was red and tears were falling freely.

"Ben, I didn't – "

"Why?" he was reaching out his hand, and you could feel the force pulling you to him. "Look at her? Did she deserve death just because you were upset?" Ben was yelling at you, and you didn't blame him; you looked around and wondered just how many people you had killed – and for what?