As Andrew Chan's and Myuran Sukumaran's families trailed their loved ones' bodies to Jakarta in a bus, an unrepentant Indonesia stood by the executions as an essential warning.
Chan and Sukumaran were executed just after midnight on the prison island of Nusakambangan, leaving their families to contemplate a lifetime of grief.
A decade after being caught trying to smuggle 8.3kg heroin out of Indonesia, the Australians were tied to a post and, along with six other drug runners, shot dead by a firing squad of 13 policemen.
The crack of the shots could be heard across the still water back in the Javanese port town of Cilacap where the families spent a harrowing night in their hotel, talking, praying and vainly hoping for a last minute reprieve.
"I have just lost a courageous brother to a flawed Indonesian legal system. I miss you already RIP my Little Brother," Chan's brother Michael tweeted early on Wednesday.
But Indonesia's attorney general stood by that legal system.
"This is a warning for others, don't even try to commit these drug crimes, to think a thousand times, that Indonesia will be strict, will be harsh on drug crimes," HR Prasetyo told reporters in Cilacap.
Australia has recalled its ambassador from Jakarta and prime minister Tony Abbott said the families "have suffered an appalling tragedy".
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the deaths were "senseless".
But Mr Prasetyo wasn't perturbed by the tense turn in relations.
"This is a momentary ripple," he said. "It's the diplomatic domain. There will be solution."
About an hour after the bodies of the Bali Nine ringleaders left Cilacap in coffins in a grim convoy of ambulances bound for Jakarta, their families set off on the same 10-hour journey on a bus.
They say they are broken, and Indonesia's steadfast refusal to spare the men has sentenced them to endless pain and grief.
"Today we lost Myuran and Andrew. Our sons, our brothers," the families said in a joint statement.
"In the 10 years since they were arrested, they did all they could to make amends, helping many others.
"They asked for mercy, but there was none.
"They were immensely grateful for all the support they received. We too, will be forever grateful."
The futility of years of legal appeals and challenges was evident in the words of Chan and Sukumaran's Indonesian lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, who tweeted: "I am sorry. I failed. I lost."
But their Australian lawyer Julian McMahon supported Mr Lubis.
"Your courage, wisdom and integrity were the heart of the team. We lost the case but laws change," Mr McMahon tweeted.
Australian officials are with the Chan and Sukumaran families, and Ms Bishop said it would be their job to see the bodies returned to Australia later this week, with the respect and dignity they deserved.
Chan and Sukumaran's lawyer Peter Morrissey said the Australians had died with dignity.
"It's awful, I know, but the two boys died well. They made their preparations, they were dignified. They're strong against the death penalty, they were supportive of their families," he said.
A ninth prisoner who was scheduled to be executed, Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, was spared at the last moment after the person suspected of tricking her into carrying drugs turned herself in to authorities in the Philippines.
The others executed were Indonesian Zainal Abidin, Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, Nigerians Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Raheem Agbaje Salami and Okwudili Oyatanze, and Ghanaian Martin Anderson.
The executions have sparked a wave of international condemnation, and Australian politicians are vowing to use the deaths of Chan and Sukumaran to push all nations to abolish the death penalty.
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