Adumbration
by AlexPart 2
...Kenobi...
...
...Kenobi...
...what...
Explosive pain in his leg. Obi-Wan groaned, his eyes snapping open.
"I said, wake up."
His own voice...? No. He remembered now. The clone.
He struggled to a sitting position. It was difficult; his hands were still bound behind him. Slowly, he took in his surroundings.
He was sitting on a pallet on the floor. His clothes had been replaced with a dark tunic and leggings. His feet were bare, his ankles chained to the wall in front of him. He felt a humming sensation around his neck; without seeing it, he knew that it was a collar, doubtless a Force dampener. His leg throbbed where the clone had kicked him. Reluctantly, he looked up.
The clone stood above him, smiling beatifically. He was dressed in Obi-Wan's Jedi garb...down to the boots and lightsaber. His hair was cropped close to his head, save for a short tail at the back and a long braid falling over his right shoulder, touching his ribcage. Obi-Wan took a closer look and stifled a sensation of helpless rage. The clone had taken his braid adornments...his bead and hair tie. Obi-Wan glanced down. His own braid was unplaited.
No one could have told Obi-Wan from the clone.
He took a deep breath, silently recited the fourth Litany for serenity.
"...Panic has no place in the mind of a Jedi. All of life is a puzzle, which yields most easily to calm and reasoned thoughts. All danger passes...one need only be prepared..."
Slowly, he grew more calm. The clone crouched down next to him, still smiling.
"You're a paragon of Jedi apprenticeship, to be sure, Kenobi. How proud your master must be."
Obi-Wan turned cold, appraising eyes on the clone.
"You can't possibly hope to escape undetected. Whatever your plans are...they will fail, I assure you." His voice was firm.
The clone laughed. "Jedi...I'm going to make things very easy for you. "
"I don't know what you mean," Obi-Wan said steadily.
"First things first, Padawan. I've been terribly rude to you, and I apologize. I haven't even introduced myself."
"You're an affront to all that I believe in. No name is necessary."
The clone's eyes darkened in anger, and he stiffened, half-raising a hand as if to strike the young Jedi. Obi-Wan gazed at the clone, unflinching.
The clone lowered his hand.
"I advise you not to provoke me, Jedi. I do."
Obi-Wan was silent.
"As I was saying...I haven't introduced myself. Iam Darth Belial."
Obi-Wan looked at him askance. "Darth Belial? You take a lot on yourself."
The clone smiled gently. "Meaning what?"
"That title...an honorific among the Sith."
"You doubt me?" Amused, Belial reached out, cupped Obi-Wan's chin in his hand. Obi-Wan tried to squirm away, but the clone held painfully fast. Obi-Wan fought not to look away; the sight of this malignant being, the very image of himself, was almost too much to bear. And as his claim to be Sith...absurd. The Sith had been extinct for a thousand years.
"You feel that collar around your neck, Obi-Wan?" Belial said softly. "You guessed correctly. It is a Force inhibitor. Your powers are rendered useless. However, I've tweaked it somewhat...you'll be able to feel the Force, but you won't be able to command it. It will be a learning experience for you. Shall I demonstrate?"
It was barely perceptible at first. A nudge, a tickle, like the slight push of an incoming ocean tide. Then more insistently, coolness gradually becoming freezing cold, and the tide rising. Alarmed, he tried to slam his mental shields up, only to find them...not there at all.
NO!
Higher now, rising up and engulfing him, and the cold became searing heat, and cold again; he was drowning, suffocating in oily burning cold. His vision blurred, dimmed, and his universe was fire and frost and his own eyes boring into him...darkness like molten metal, and an image of another, more alien presence...fetid, corrupt, standing at the edge of a precipice, looking down at Obi-Wan, trapped at the bottom. Beckoning to him.
The clone's Master...A Sith Lord. Foul with hate for all that was Light; hate for the Jedi and their desire to serve. Thousands of years of virulence and malice and a lust for power and domination, and the Sith stretched out a hand to Obi-Wan, offering dark glory and power beyond all of his dreams, dreams long buried since before he became a Padawan apprentice.
...See what I can do for you, Jedi...
...no...no...nooo...
A desperate cry, and the clone released his hold upon Obi-Wan's mind. He stood, stepped back, as though to admire the effect he'd wrought on the young Jedi. Obi-Wan fell back on the pallet. His body shivered without end, as with extreme cold; his breath was ragged and harsh, and his body was soaked with sweat.
"Now you know, Jedi," Belial said. "You know who I am, and to whom I've sworn my allegiance. You cannot escape, and resistance will only result in suffering for you. Spare yourself unnecessary pain. Join us."
Obi-Wan, unable to speak, shook his head.
Belial smiled widely, well-pleased.
"Very good, Padawan Knight. Precisely the response I was hoping for." He clasped his hands together, bowed his head over them, as though meditating.
Obi-Wan stared up at him, trying to collect himself.
The clone folded his hands within the sleeves of his--Obi-Wan's--brown outerrobe and addressed the young Jedi.
"Within a few weeks, we shall instigate a wave of assasinations and other acts of terror upon Coruscant and other key worlds of the Republic. Our involvement shall be concealed, naturally, but it will be evident that some kind of conspiracy is behind these actions. Of course, the Senate and other governing bodies will declare a state of emergency, assume special powers, and deploy extraordinary security measures. The citizens of Coruscant and the other beleaguered systems will accept these measures gratefully, even clamor for them. They will accept these proposals, made by certain...key figures, and they will presume that the measures are temporary.
"But as you know, Obi-Wan Kenobi...history teaches us that power, once seized, is seldom relinquished. It is time to sweep the Republic away, and make way for a new regime."
"You can't do this," whispered Obi-Wan, dizzy with shock and horror.
"All the pieces are in place, Kenobi," Belial replied. "One of our first acts will be infiltration of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. A thermal detonator, concealed within the Council Chamber, will take the lives of those most esteemed among the Jedi. They will lose their center, lose their way. The darkness shall come from within...from a young Padawan apprentice."
"NO!" Obi-Wan surged up from the pallet despite his bonds, raging, wanting to kill the smirking bastard that stood so confidently before him, spouting obscenities. A wall of Force slammed him down, and he felt a tightness at his throat.
"I warned you, Jedi. Do not provoke me."
The constriction disappeared, and Belial swung, struck the Jedi a stunning blow. Reached down, freed Obi-Wan's ankles, and dragged him up. Forced him out of the small cell and into a dim, filthy hallway.
"Come, Jedi. I want to show you something."
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20