A/N — I meant to publish this a few hours ago but it's still roughly on time.
Not sure if I should bump the rating up to M just for this chapter, but this is the raciest stuff in the fic and Revenge of a Sith is rated T so I think we should be fine.
We're still setting things up so still no real action. I hope the time-skips aren't too confusing but I did do my best to mark them without actually just dating each time-skip.
Chapter II: Lovers
•
The ruins of the slavers' headquarters filled Consilus with a grim sort of satisfaction as he walked through the rubble. The organization had been caught abducting children from Bandomeer and when the Sith Lord had heard a group of Mandalorians had been hired under the table to deal with the slavers he had discreetly pulled some strings to see to it he would be shortly behind them — for a fee. Still, the Force pulled Consilus to the slavers for a reason beyond the kidnapped Bandomeerans, and though he was making sure they were safe he was sure there was something else.
"Sir," one of the Mandalorians said, coming up to the man she knew as Obi-Wan Kenobi. "We've found someone in the lower levels. A Jedi, we think."
That got Consilus' attention. "A Jedi? Are you sure?"
"She had a lightsaber and the slavers we interrogated were convinced she was a Jedi plant. They've been torturing her."
"Show me," Consilus ordered and the Mandalorian wasted no time in doing so. They had great respect for Obi-Wan as he had trained and fought among them and worked frequently with them as a… concerned Bandomeeran representative. In the Outer Rim the law of the Republic could seldom be relied on and so Consilus and his predecessors were no strangers to dealing with bounty hunters and mercenaries. After Renova and Consilus had been done with them, there were few better mercenaries than Kryze and her group.
Kryze led him quickly down deep into the fortress the slavers had used for their base. She was a few years younger than he was, but even in her early twenties Bo-Katan was a force to be reckoned with. Consilus appreciated that she didn't flinch at all seeing what she did inside the cell, though he wouldn't have blamed her for doing so. Still, Mandalorians were a tough bunch.
The cell was large, no doubt to accommodate instruments of torture, and in the center of it was a device that surprised Consilus. Force-suppressors were rare and expensive technology, but somehow the slavers had managed to acquire one. Its use was prudent, however: there were few other ways to properly restrain a Jedi. And a Jedi she was. Stripped to the waist with breasts bare, she was caked in blood and covered with deep welts and lacerations. The slavers were clearly crude but imaginative in their tortures, and the suspended woman was quite unrecognizable with her red hair and green eyes.
Nevertheless, something about her tickled Consilus' memory, and he allowed the Force to flow through him. Bo-Katan quickly let the girl down, disabling the Force-suppressor, and Consilus concentrated on the woman. As he attuned himself to the Living Force, he stretched his senses towards her and was surprised to feel she was somewhat familiar. Her presence had changed much over the years, but Consilus strained his memory and eventually emerged with a name. Siri Tachi, a girl he had known as a Jedi Initiate. Evidently she had been chosen after he had not, though what she was doing in the dungeon of slavers was beyond him.
His touch in the Force seemed to awaken her, and she blinked slowly to stare at him. To his surprise, she recognized him instantly. "Obi-Wan?" she asked. Then she began coughing and spluttering, throat no doubt injured from screaming. Bo-Katan quickly gave her some water, and after a time Tachi was able to talk again. "You're really here," she murmured, tears welling up in her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"A better question is what you're doing here," Obi-Wan replied. "This is no place for a Jedi Padawan."
Tachi blinked the tears away and grimaced. "I was infiltrating the slaver ring. They… tricked me. They realized I was a Jedi. I guess my act wasn't convincing enough."
Obi-Wan made a show of looking around at the destroyed compound, the bodies of slavers still strewn about. "I'd say that mission is over," he told her.
"She'll need extensive treatment," Bo-Katan finally pronounced, turning to look up at Obi-Wan from where she was leaning over Tachi.
Obi-Wan's brow furrowed. "Very well. Sedate her." He turned slightly to stare at Tachi again. "I'm sorry about this, my dear."
Tachi tried to make a sound but couldn't get it out before the sedatives Bo-Katan had injected in her neck did their work. The would-be Jedi collapsed, allowing the Mandalorian watching over her to cover her naked chest with a blanket. Two more Mandalorians followed shortly afterwards, and Tachi was taken out on a stretcher, Obi-Wan following sedately behind.
Having a Jedi, a former friend, was an unexpected gift for Darth Consilus.
•
It was several weeks later that Tachi was well enough to be awake and talk extensively, and though she was still bound to a wheelchair for the time being she accepted Obi-Wan's offer to talk. Obi-Wan sensed there was some trepidation on her part and suspected why, but when Tachi instead asked about his own life and how he had fared after being sent to the AgriCorps Obi-Wan happily indulged her until they had gone quite far on his humble estate.
Bandomeer had once been a world of modest natural beauty, and, though the mining had spoiled that, with the corporations leaving and the various reclamation efforts some of that beauty was returning. The rugged highlands of the estate Obi-Wan had taken for himself were not the most beautiful even he had seen as a Jedi Initiate, but the majesty of nature was still present. In the crisp winter afternoon with her natural blonde hair starting to grow back out, Tachi was quite a fetching sight, Obi-Wan thought.
Finally, Obi-Wan grew tired of telling stories and sat on a bench on the stone balcony they had stopped at, Tachi beside him. "So, I take it this mission was to count for your Trials for Knighthood," he said conversationally.
Tachi's blue eyes didn't meet his. "Yes. I think I failed."
"Because you Fell?"
Tachi's head snapped around to stare at him, wide-eyed. "How did–––?"
"I sense the dark side in you," Obi-Wan told her sincerely, and Tachi blanched. "You can tell me." He stared at her. "What you've been through is awful and refusing that power would have been a terrible burden. There are few Jedi Knights who can resist the dark side under extreme torture." The Fallen Jedi sat silently. "It's nothing to be ashamed of…" Obi-Wan told her. "When you felt the dark side in that dungeon I can't imagine most Jedi would be able to dispel it — after being tortured and tortured, the Jedi never coming… They were going to leave you there until you died, until–––"
"Stop!" Tachi cried. "Stop!" There were tears in her eyes, and Obi-Wan was mildly surprised to see they had turned a bright, glowing gold. Such a color indicated far more than a simple turn to the dark side — Tachi lived on it, thrived on it. Obi-Wan himself hadn't had eyes of Sith gold for years after beginning his dark side training, but then he had been a young teenager. Tachi blinked and it disappeared, her normal bright blues returning. "I know," she said brokenly. "I know." Then she looked at him. "Kenobi… Obi-Wan…" she started. "Please don't tell anyone. Please. I can't… If they… The Jedi are my home…"
Obi-Wan looked at her with pity. "Tachi… Siri, I won't tell anyone." She almost sobbed with relief. "But Siri… You know they won't let you back."
"They will!" she cried. "I've never betrayed the Jedi! It… It was just a slip! They'll see that!"
"You know they won't," Obi-Wan said as gently as he could. "A slip in a moment of passion subsequently rejected is one thing… but you've never let it go. The dark side is strong in you, Siri."
"Obi-Wan, please," she begged. "They'll know. They can't reject me like–––"
"Like they rejected me?" Obi-Wan asked, and Siri reeled as though struck.
"Obi-Wan, no! I didn't mean–––"
"You're right," Obi-Wan told her. "They would reject you just like they rejected me. You don't matter to them, Siri. One mistake is all it takes and that's it for you. You've Fallen, Siri."
"I can come back!" Siri exclaimed fiercely. "I can reject the dark side! They'll never have to know!"
"Can you?" Obi-Wan asked, rubbing his clean-shaven chin. "You've tasted it, now. 'Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.' You know what will happen to you."
Siri's lip trembled. "I have nowhere else, Obi-Wan."
Consilus finally made up his mind. "Stay with me."
"What?"
"Stay with me," he repeated. "I can teach you more than the Jedi ever could. Be my apprentice." He held out his hand to her.
Siri looked at him in bewilderment for a moment then her eyes lit in realization. "You're a Sith…" she murmured, shaking her head. With trembling hands, she wheeled herself backwards, trying to get away from him as a look of horror dawned on her face. "You're a Sith…"
"I am," Obi-Wan told her, not bothering to deny her shrewd deduction. "Are you going to turn me in to the Jedi?"
"I will!" Siri hissed fiercely. "Then they–––"
"What?" Obi-Wan asked. "They'll do to me what they'll do to you. We're both tainted by the dark side and both Fallen Jedi. What do you think they'll do? Throw me in a prison and pat you on the back for bringing me in? And for what? What have I done, Siri?"
"You're a Sith!" she screamed at him. "The Sith murder, and lie, and cheat, and torture! That's what the dark side does!"
"Have you done that?" Obi-Wan asked.
Siri trembled again. "I… I can stop it…"
"If you can, why can't I? Siri, I'm still your friend from all those years ago."
Tears were flowing down her cheeks. "You're a Sith, Obi-Wan," she cried desperately, as if trying to will him to understand. "I… I don't want to… but it's my duty. You… Fell. You betrayed us…"
For the first time Consilus felt angry. "The Jedi betrayed me," he spat and Siri looked taken aback at his sudden change in attitude. Consilus calmed himself. "I'm sorry. It's still a somewhat sore subject," he said quietly, smiling at her ruefully. "But Siri, I haven't done anything you haven't. The Jedi abandoned you to torture and death; are you going to believe everything they say still? You knew me. Do you really think I could change so much?"
Siri's face crumpled miserably. "The Sith lie, Obi-Wan," she cried. "That's what they do. You could be lying to me right now. What if I accept and then change my mind? Would you kill me?"
"Siri," Obi-Wan said quietly and earnestly, "even if I wanted you dead you're in no shape to stop it. Training with me would only make you more able to survive. Why would I wait until training you?" They stared at each other, Siri looking desperately like she wanted to find some way to refuse, and Obi-Wan broke away first. "I won't force your choice. Until you recover and are able to leave, the option is available to you." He paused. "Choose wisely, Siri. I don't want to see you trapped in a Jedi cell for the rest of your life."
Siri nodded silently, but didn't reply.
•
Panting filled the opulent room of the residential wing of Sundari Palace, the brilliant moonlight of Concordia high in the sky filtering through the exquisite blinds to gently fall upon the two naked bodies tangled on the bed. Gently, an Obi-Wan Kenobi just a few years older, short beard gracing his face, extricated himself from the Grand Duchess' beautiful form to lie back upon the bed, sated, and the Grand Duchess herself rolled onto her other side to curl herself into her lover, stroking the Sith's chest.
"I love you so dearly, Obi," she murmured against his flushed torso, placing gentle kisses just above his still-pounding heart.
"I love you too, Satine, darling," Obi-Wan whispered, responding to her ministrations by kissing the top of her blonde head. Satine Kryze was the elder of the two Kryze sisters and the second Obi-Wan had met, during the resurgence of the Mandalorian Civil War after her father had been killed and Satine, as the new Grand Duchess, had been forced on the run. Ben Cortess had offered the teenage Duchess sanctuary and means to secure her position in Mandalore, and after more brutal fighting the Duchess had accepted.
Unlike with Bo-Katan, she and Obi-Wan had hated each other at first, disagreeing about nearly everything. As they had gotten older, however, Satine had grown out of her childish notions and come to accept how the world worked — what the peace she so desperately wanted required — while Obi-Wan had grown to admire her dedication and vision that went so far beyond his own. With his intimate associations with the Mandalorians as a warrior and political force, Obi-Wan and Satine had grown to see more and more of each other. After some years, neither could deny a mutual attraction and when Satine's advisors had finally started pressuring her to marry and secure her throne she had only had one choice in mind. Obi-Wan, naturally, had accepted.
"And how goes the training of your Jedi friend?" Satine asked after some while.
"She's as good as I remember her," Obi-Wan replied, thinking about his new apprentice. Darth Rheva, as he had named Siri Tachi, had progressed as fast as he had dreamed in the years since she had joined him as his first Sith Apprentice. Her strength in the Force and especially the dark side was immense, for she drew on a deep well of passion that sometimes astonished Obi-Wan in its abundance. That was not even mentioning her lightsaber skills, which Obi-Wan felt that, with time, would be among the best in history.
Their start had been rocky, with Siri having more lingering loyalty to the Jedi than Obi-Wan had had after being cast out. Nevertheless, the deeper into the dark side she delved and the more she learned from Consilus, the more Consilus knew Rheva wanted to stay. The Jedi could never teach her so much, as he had told her, and Rheva had proved it time and again. And as with his own master Consilus had been sure to instill in her a deep sense of loyalty between them, nurturing their bond as master and apprentice whenever he could.
"She's quite spectacular," he murmured again. "The best apprentice I could've hoped for."
Satine chuckled against him. "Just an apprentice?" she asked, turning her head up to stare into her husband's eyes.
"What are you implying?" he asked with a sly grin.
"Come now, husband, I'm sure you've noticed the looks she's been giving you."
Obi-Wan had indeed. As the years had passed and he and Siri had grown closer than they had even as children, Obi-Wan could feel the pressing desires of the master-apprentice bond to grow beyond merely those limits. With his own master, Renova, the man had come to be almost an adoptive father to him, but Obi-Wan knew the bond between him and Siri pushed for no such relationship.
"I have resisted," Obi-Wan said, breaking the kiss Satine had leaned up to give him. "But it is difficult." Satine grinned at him when she felt his heart begin to throb again and his body respond to her touches. She kissed him again, a deep and passionate one after the gentle, affectionate ones they had been sharing, and only broke it off with a laugh when Obi-Wan groaned under her.
"Why, Kenobi, two Mandalorian sisters not enough for you?"
"I was under the impression it was something of a Mandalorian tradition for a man to take many wives," Obi-Wan replied. "In fact, I seem to remember a certain Grand Duchess begging me to marry her sister…" He pushed Satine over from where she was straddling him so he could force her down in the bed, then leaned down to whisper in his wife's ear. "She told me she found it very… attractive that her husband had… conquered many women. I suppose it's just a Mandalorian thing."
"Mmmm," Satine moaned happily. "I love that you want to be loyal, Obi," she groaned. "But neither myself nor my sister have any problem with you and Siri."
"Well," Obi-Wan murmured into her shoulder as he reached a spot she particularly liked, "as long as my beautiful wives are happy…" He nipped at her. "But perhaps I should remind you just how much I love my wife to be sure."
Satine didn't give a verbal reply.
•
Some time later, in a different bed on a different planet, Obi-Wan and Siri lay curled up together and enjoying the quiet of one of Obi-Wan's many Coruscanti safe-houses, listening to the muffled noise of traffic go by.
"I've seen some reports that you're the new Senator for Bandomeer, Master," Siri murmured, playing idly with Obi-Wan's hair.
"Yes, darling, and please not master in bed."
Siri smirked at him. "What, having a hot Jedi-turned-Sith apprentice calling you master as you dominate her in bed doesn't get you going?"
Obi-Wan's embrace tightened around her as he fought down his arousal. "You know that's not true, but we don't have to always be master and apprentice, Siri."
Siri just rolled her eyes with a smirk on her face. Still caught up in their recent passions, they glowed gold in the dim of the apartment instead of the blue-green Obi-Wan found so attractive. "Anyway, I don't know how you could stand to wait this long."
Obi-Wan chuckled. "I thought Jedi Padawans were supposed to value patience."
"I'm not a Jedi anymore," Siri pointed out.
"Indeed," Obi-Wan murmured, running his fingers along Siri's skin. "But it was necessary. I needed a reputation and a story none would question. Now I'm Andes' obvious successor, and it was hardly like he ran things before. Still, the time has finally come. The war Sidious wants is coming. I can feel it. This secessionist movement that's brewing under Count Dooku can only be his doing. It won't be long before some systems attempt to secede from the Republic."
Siri frowned. "Will there really be war?"
"Yes," Obi-Wan replied simply. "The Republic's time is over. Even if the Sith had not worked to help it end it would only have put it off a few years. Decades, at best," he added as an afterthought. "Now all that is left is to transform it according to Sith design. To form the Empire. War is the best catalyst for that."
"Do you think the Jedi will prevent it?"
Obi-Wan snorted. "They'd be more likely to instate a youngling as Grandmaster than prevent the war. War is an inevitability." He chuckled to himself, then he peered down at Darth Rheva. "How are you coping, being again near the heart of the Jedi Order?"
Siri shivered and closed her eyes. "It's… a trial, Master." When she opened her eyes again the golden glow was even brighter in the dark. "But none of them have sensed anything. They don't react at all to my presence."
"The dark side clouds their vision. It's why I can walk freely amongst them — most even think I'm a staid and loyal supporter of the Jedi Order, even though they cast me out." There was no reply, and Obi-Wan looked over to see that Siri was raking her gaze over his form hungrily. Her reignited passion, something she had in such abundance, had put her back in the mood and Consilus knew his apprentice was getting… frisky.
"I don't want to dwell on depressing subjects tonight," Rheva said, sliding her form on top of Consilus'. "Fuck me instead."
Last edited: 2019/4
