F A L L E N F U T U R E 2

[Probation]

Darth Keyara - Yeah, sorry about the delay, that chapter was nasty to complete and I went long stretches of time without being able to contribute anything meaningful.

MobiObi - I'm glad you like it, hopefully I don't let down your expectations.

... Only two reviews? ... heh, I suppose that's only to be expected given how long it was since the update before last... Anyway, now things come to a head.

-Probation-

C H A P T E R - E L E V E N

Into the Heart of Darkness

'I wonder how Obi-Wan is getting along... I do hope he isn't getting himself into too much trouble...'— Qui-Gon Jinn

⁂

Obi-Wan looked carefully around Section F9, the area was covered in the hundreds of Mining Droid footprints scattered and scuffed in powdery red dust, and the straps that had been holding the droids in place during their flight where piled against one of the walls, but there was no sign of a living thing apart from him.

Kneeling for a closer look at the ground, he examined the area directly around the entrance to the cage—the steel reinforced mining basket that was access for the lowest levels of the mine, the droids seemed to have entered the lift first. Obi-Wan allowed his mind to cast back imagining what might have happened.

There were too many droids to have all gotten down in one trip, it probably would have taken four or five even, but they had done it; no droid tracks led away from the cage.

But then, inexplicably, on top of the droid's prints, boot prints—the kind that were standard issue in mines—led into the cage as well. For some reason, the men that had been with Omega, and Omega himself, had also descended to the lower levels.

Obi-Wan sighed. But there was no way of deducing whose prints where whose, or if Darra's were among them.

His commlink chirped, and he answered it mindlessly, expecting the call. 'Marice?' he asked leadingly.

'No sign of her I'm afraid, Obi-Wan.' replied Marice. 'And noöne else has seen her either.'

Obi-Wan sighed again; he had been expecting that. 'I'll be right up.' He said, flicking the channel closed and replacing the Commlink on his belt. He cast a last look over the tracks around the entrance to the cage, wondering whether the beings had been forced down the shaft, or had descended at their own volition.

Deciding that it mattered little at this point, he turned and walked back to the far more high tech turbolift that would take him back up to administration.

⁂

'So they really are all gone.' Sighed Te Har. 'This is exactly what has happened with all the others.'

'I'm not sure whether they were forced to go, or whether they left off their own bat.' Said Obi-Wan, 'And we have no way of finding out, unless Omega left a datapad with a link to the droids up here?'

'No, he had the only one.' Te Har responded sullenly.

'Why on earth would they leave by themselves though?' Asked Marice, 'Everyone knew the dangers.'

Obi-Wan rubbed his temples, 'Granta Omega hopes to use the Dark Force Nexus to give himself the power of the Force—that is my belief.' He said, 'He is not a Force sensitive like his father was, and my guess is that to get the revenge he undoubtedly craves on his father's behalf, he wants to have the Force; so he can stand toe to toe with the Jedi.

'I reckon that he naïvely thought he could handle it, or the dark side called to him and he couldn't resist, or both.'

'What do we do now then?' Asked Marice.

'I have a difficult decision to make.' Said Obi-Wan, leaving the room without elaborating further. Marice and Te Har shrugged at each other.

⁂

Obi-Wan sank onto his cot with a sigh, the truth was that there wasn't any decision to make—he knew what he had to do. They no longer had any options; he no longer had any options.

But it was a hard thing to get his mind around, he would have to descend into the heart of darkness, into an area that more than twenty people had gone missing, and he would have to do it without falling victim to—or being seduced by the Dark Side.

It was a task that he would have felt nervous enough about when he was a Padawan with his master, but now, on his own, with his history taken into account, it seemed insurmountable.

And then there was the unknown variable of Darra. Obi-Wan wasn't even entirely sure what she had been doing down there, although Glie had given him a fairly good idea. "...Warn Mister Omega that Master Kenobi was after him...". Obi-Wan didn't understand how she could have come to that conclusion, particularly if they had been listening in as Glie had said, but it was all academic at the moment; she was down there with the other miners, and was likely just as lost as they were.

Once again he was struck by what a waste it was that she had been sent off to the Exploration Corp., he could remember Soara Antara as a young master, but one who's duelling was unquestionably one of the best in the order, perhaps only Cin Drallig, Qui-Gon and a few of the council members like Master Windu and Yoda were better... it was probably just as well for him that he had attacked the temple in the middle of the night, and surprised her, he was certain she would have made mincemeat of him in a fair fight.

But if she had indeed been interested in Darra, then Darra was obviously extremely talented, it was just a shame that she had allowed her anger to get the better of her... it was a horrible thing, anger.

It took several moments before Obi-Wan realised that he had actually repeated one of the oft-repeated statements of his friends back home at the temple. And even more amazing that he had actually said it and believed it. It was... oddly freeïng, he settled on at last.

Dismissing the happy feeling for the moment, he returned to the task at hand—the almost impossible seeming mission of locating and destroying the source of the Dark powers, or at least rescue some of the workers. Obi-Wan reached out and touched the darkness below through the Force, feeling the incredible sense of despair seem to flow through him like a wave from the darkness...

'The great Jedi, fallen in defeat...' the voice once again rolled through Obi-Wan, sending him bolt upright. It had been accompanied by the same feeling he had felt earlier! 'Join me.' The voice continued. 'And you'll never have the power to overcome anyobstacle; nothing will ever stand in your way.'

'Never.' Spat Obi-Wan in disgust feeling the wave of darkness roll away again. To his surprise he felt himself shaking and clammy, as if the Dark Side wave had attacked him on more than just one level. But it had also polarised his mind, he was now resolute.

'Marice,' He said, activating his commlink, 'If I'm not back within five hours, contact the Jedi Council. I'm going after Darra and the others.' Before she could respond, he clicked the object off and clipped it back onto his belt.

Emptying the small bag that he had brought with him of his changes of clothes and a few other large things that he could do without, he tipped the rest of his equipment into the largest of his belt pouches, hoping that it would cover most of the situations that he might encounter at the bottom.

He left his quarters and walked briskly along the corridor to the turbolift, passing some of the faces that had become rather familiar over the last few days. He wondered briefly how many of them knew that he was walking to what could very likely be his doom, but the he slapped himself mentally—he couldn't allow any doubts if he was to be able to get through the next few hours; let alone complete his mission.

He stepped into the turbolift and spoke his request for the bottom floor, at once the turbolift sped into its decent, the inertia compensators the only thing that prevented him from being flattened against the ceiling, as it was he felt no more than a mild twitch in his stomach... and that, he mused, could just as easily be his nerves as any feeling that the lift created.

The charts of the bottom levels were folded up and tucked into one of the inner pockets in his tunic, and he pulled them out now, once again scanning them for any landmarks that might help him navigate, before once again tucking them away.

The turbolift came to an abrupt halt, and the doorways shot open with a blast of air, the thicker settled air of the lower mine, rushing into the lower pressure air of the turbolift. Used to the phenomenon from the skyscrapers on Coruscant, Obi-Wan thought nothing of it and walked across the droid footprint littered sand that made up the floor.

He grabbed a glow-rod off the wall next to the cage before pulling the crude lever system that would call the cage-lift to his level, with a rushing sound and the squeaky protest of steel guides rubbing the guide-rail, the elevator rose into view, and Obi-Wan, feeling rather like he was walking to his own funeral, pressed the button that would take him to the very bottom of the shaft, the tunnel that had been made by the Sith.

As the old fashion lift descended, there was a very definite feeling in his stomach, but this one he didn't think he could attribute entirely to the lift either, as darkness swallowed the space around him.

⁂

It took several seconds for Obi-Wan to realize that he was at the bottom after the lift had stopped, for a terrifying second, he thought that the lift might have stopped halfway down the shaft so complete was the feeling of claustrophobia.

But as soon as he opened himself up to the Force he knew.

The Dark Side rolled through him like a physical wave, and he staggered slightly before he activated the glow-rod in his hand and began to creep carefully forward through the gloom of the Section F13.

He walked on for several minutes, staggered at the power of the Dark Side of the Force; it seemed to exist almost as an actual mist through the tunnel, pressing in at him from all sides, and drowning both the light from both his glow-rod, and the Force.

Suddenly, Obi-Wan heard a quiet rustle, and he turned sharply to the sound. Out of one of the side tunnels came one of the handful of men that had been helping to unpack the droids with Omega before he'd disappeared.

'Argh, you scared the life out of me!' Scolded Obi-Wan, 'What's going on here? We haven't had any contact from you guys for hours…' He trailed off as the miner raised his vibro-drill over his head, looking into the light of the glow-rod with glassy eyes. 'Are you okay —' he cut off in horror as the man suddenly let out a bloodcurdling yell of fear and defiance and swung the drill at him.

Obi-Wan ducked under the blow and stumbled back in surprise. 'It's me!' he shouted as the man once again ran at him, this time holding the rotating drill out in front of him and trying to stab him with it, 'The Jedi!'

But it didn't seem to get through to him, the Force continued to twist in fear around him as the man came at him again. Obi-Wan decided he'd had enough; he raised his glow-stick to provide better light and kicked out at the drill, catching the miners fingers and knocking the pseudoweapon out of his hands. It fell with a clatter on the floor and continued to run, its vibrations causing it to walk down the hallway. 'NO!' shouted the man desperately, falling to his knees as if grovelling, 'You can't have me monster! I-I…' Obi-Wan looked on in confusion as the miner broke down, 'What's the matter? What do you see?' He asked, placing a hand on the man's shoulder, he trying to send calming waves of the Force to the miner as he forced him to look him in the eye.

For a second, the man seemed come out of his daze, he relaxed slightly, and the wildness drained from his eyes, but then with a chocking cry he blindly pushed Obi-Wan away and dived after the drill, but rather than pick it up again as a weapon, as Obi-Wan expected, he drove his head into the rotating and red hot metal of the tip, splattering blood in all directions.

Obi-Wan stumbled away in horror, unable to tear his eyes away as the miner's life faded out of him.

What horrible thing had the man been seeing when he had decided to take his own life in such a gruesome way, rather than be captured? At last the drill rattled free of the man's remains and began to resume its vibrational walk down the tunnel.

Obi-Wan stepped over the miner's body and gingerly turned the drill off with his foot. He felt a cold bead of sweat run down his back as he walked away from the awful scene; something even more powerful than Obi-Wan had first thought was at work here, and whatever it was, he wanted to make doubly sure that he didn't get caught up in it.

He shivered again as he recalled the man's agonised cry as he'd thrown himself on the drill.

Even more wary now, he crept on through the darkness, his senses stretched out as far as he could in every direction—not that it did him much good; the Dark Side here blanketed everything; at the moment he could see better with his eyes than he could with his Force senses. But it was habit, and it made him feel marginally safer and more comfortable.

The Dark Side of course continuously offered him its services, promising him power and riches. Obi-Wan ignored it as much as he could, but it was still there, wearing away at his resolve and weaving through his thoughts—the sickening thing was that it all felt so familiar.

Not for the first time, Obi-Wan wondered why the council hadn't removed his memories of the time he had spent as Ibonek; he knew the reason of course, in case he remembered anything about Sidious or any of his other contacts (and according to the more cynical side of his mind, as a warning to prevent him making the same mistakes again), but he hadn't been able to recall anything in particular about Sidious, other than that he sounded like a humanoid man, but with the robes he had worn, it was impossible to tell more than that, and he had refused to sell out Jango. So instead he was left with the aching weight of the memories of the people he had murdered, and none of the information that could have benefited anyone.

Even, as the thoughts were crossing his mind, he could feel the Dark Side roll around him, embracing him like a seductress at work, whispering of what he could do if he gave it his allegiance, how he would be able to track down Sidious, be able to protect Jango, be able to save the miners, and Darra...

'All lies!' He hissed at himself.

The Dark Side wouldn't 'save' anything, it would make a slave out of him—turn him back into Ibonek, and he'd had enough of him ruining his life. Forcing the thoughts from his mind with all his strength, Obi-Wan shook his head and walked on…

And almost ran straight into another miner.

Obi-Wan, deprived of his Force senses, recovered too slowly from his surprise and was too late to block the miner's terrified kick to his stomach, which folded him over and left him wheezing. The next kick smacked the glow-rod out of his hands, as the torch clunked to the ground, Obi-Wan dived after it, only to smack his head on a protruding bit of rock from the tunnel wall. Obi-Wan fell back, clutching his head with a groan. As he cursed and wondered why these sorts of thing always seemed to happen to him; he heard a crunch that sent the tunnel into darkness. A moment later a second sound made his blood run cold.

The man had a mining laser.

He looked up to see the miner raise the glowing weapon above his head with a cry, ready to bring it down at Obi-Wan's head. Obi-Wan flung out his hand and drew the Force into his palm before smashing into the man's leg. The technique, achieving the same effect as a stun blast caused the miner to spasm as a blast of electricity ran through him before dropping to the ground, knocked cold. 'See?' he told himself, 'I didn't have to kill him—there were some pros to the whole Ibonek thing.' much as he hated to admit it.

Standing up and wiping sweat off his brow, Obi-Wan felt around for his glow rod, finally laying his hand on the cold metal of the handle. But there was no response to his attempts to turn in on. A few seconds of feeling around and a cut thumb later, he discovered why; the miner must have stood on the fragile plastic of the light casing, and had completely crushed it and the filament below—there would be no more light from the device.

He was momentarily at a loss as to what he was going to do before he remembered his lightsaber, he had tipped the contents of his bag into his pouch, including the primary focusing crystal—he could reässemble it and use that for light.

His left hand grabbed his lightsaber, but even before he could open the pouch, his eyes which were quickly becoming accustomed to the darkness caught sight of a glimmer of light somewhere ahead, and struggling to his feet, he resolved to try and reach the source; if only so that he would be able to see what he was doing before he started fiddling around the delicate insides of his lightsaber. As he drew closer, he sensed a thickening of the Dark Side ahead, and taking a few more steps he came to something that utterly awed him.

A huge chamber had been cut out of the living rock of the mine; the cavern was palace like in its monstrosity, columns and long stalactites hung down from the cavernous ceiling, and they seemed to emit the soft, diffuse light that gently bathed the entire chamber.

The ground formed a vast amphitheatre, with the slope on three sides, and a large pool of water at the opposite end, Obi-Wan found himself at the base of the horseshoe shaped bowl, looking down a flight of roughly cut steps than ran from the mouth of the tunnel to the centre of the room. At the focal point of the cavern was a large flat area with four rock pillars around the back edge, and in the centre, rocks had been built up to form a large dais, and in the middle of that, a cloaked figure lay.

Cautiously, Obi-Wan edged down the steps toward the figure, clutching his inöperative lightsaber in his hand. The Dark Side clouded everything, making it impossible to even ascertain whether or not the figure was living.

Expecting at any moment to set off a trap, Obi-Wan climbed onto the dais and walked toward the lump of fabric. He knelt down beside it, and slowly reached out a trembling hand to grip the being's shoulder.

Instantly the man sat bolt upright. His ice blue eyes wide as he stared at Obi-Wan. 'Kenobi!' whispered Omega, a wild look in his eyes, 'Welcome to your destiny!'

Obi-Wan whirled back from Omega as he heard approaching footsteps. Out of the various side-passages and corridors that ran from the chamber, dozens of the miners walked. In each of their hands' was a weapon of some sort, from large rocks, to more drills, to sticks of old fashion dynamite. Behind them, the mining droids traipsed in as well; their mining tools activated and ready to go.

Obi-Wan had a brief half-second to take in the wild—possessed—look of Omega and the miners, before all of them came running at him to Omega's furious calls of 'Get him! Free yourselves from our tormentor!' For a brief second, he wondered whether Omega had been possessed as well, or whether he was merely playing on the miner's fear, but it wasn't really relevant he decided as the miners came flying at him; their improvised—but no less deadly for it—weapons at the ready.

⁂

Marice sat in her office, pouring over the maps of the lower mine levels, trying to work out how long it would take Obi-Wan to finish exploring. Unfortunately, the whole area had not been mapped before they had opened the tomb, and so they had little idea as to the full extent of the subterranean tunnel.

Five hours, Obi-Wan had reckoned. Marice frowned, he would easily get to the Sith's tomb within half an hour or so, so that would leave him plenty of time to finish with whatever he had to do.

Almost too much time...

What was he anticipating going wrong?

She looked up as the door opened, revealing the weary form of TeHar, who trotted over and slumped into the seat opposite hers. 'Long day.' He sighed.

'Obi-Wan's gone down into the mine.' Marice replied.

'He has? He didn't seem that enthusiastic about it before.' Said Te Har.

'Jedi face different challenges to nonjedi, TeHar.' Said Marice flatly, 'There is more risk than merely not coming back, he could fall.'

'Fall?'

'Fall to the Dark Side.' Marice clarified, 'A dark Jedi is a terrifying thing, they can do immeasurable damage. And down there with the Dark Side as strong as it seems to be, he had every right to be worried.'

'I see.' Said TeHar thoughtfully. 'Parliament is demanding an update, what should I tell them?' He asked.

'I suppose we should tell them the truth.' Said Marice, 'They know that there's a Jedi here, tell them that he's gone down to see what he can do.'

'Right.' Agreed TeHar, 'May I suggest that you let the Jedi Council know as well.'

'I will if there's no contact for five hours; that's what Obi-Wan requested.'

'They may as well know before that." Said TeHar. 'I see no reason for them not to know.'

⁂

Obi-Wan threw himself backwards, a stick of dynamite that one of the miners had thrown landed near him, a moment later, the blast from a mining laser struck it causing it to detonate in a huge ball of fire.

The miners rushed him with berserker cries, and Obi-Wan gathered the Force and backflipped up onto the top of a large bolder at the edge of the arena like area at the bottom of the chamber, the miners kept coming, rocks and more sticks of dynamite raining around him. The rocks where more an irritation than anything else, but the dynamite sticks were very dangerous, with the slightest charge being able to set them off.

Worse, Obi-Wan didn't know if it was the Dark Side or something else, but all of his movements seemed slower than usual, as he leapt up onto another bolder, in an effort to avoid fighting the miners; it was as if the air was pressing in on him.

At last it seemed like he had no choice, he had been hoping that he would be able to avoid hurting them, the miners were pressing around the base of the bolder, trying to hack or strike at his feet, but what worried Obi-Wan far more was the fact that the mining droids had made it to the bottom of the arena now too.

Even before the first one fired, Obi-Wan was already twisting into a leap away, gathering the Force into a crackling orb of energy between his hands before firing it at the droids as they marched in rank into the area.

The sphere smashed into the ground in front of them and detonated with as much force as any of the dynamite explosions had had. Sending flakes of rock and components of droid flying in all directions, as their number was reduced by two.

But then Obi-Wan's luck turned, as he landed, a rock thrown by one of the miners rolled under his foot, causing him to stumble his landing and crash heavily onto his back. The miners where onto him in a second, a rock hit him in the jaw, followed by a kick in the ribs as he reeled in pain.

Obi-Wan desperately tried to fend off the attacks as more of the miners arrived, the weak but painful shocks of the mining lasers singing at his cloak. He could feel the people's fear as they crowded around what they saw as a monster, he could feel his own fear rising as more and more attacks came at him. He knew he couldn't take much more of this—it was only a matter of time until a lucky blow caught him that killed or stunned him, and failing that, it was only a matter of time before his rising fear and anger got out of his control... and if it did, down here in this place saturated with the Dark Side, he knew that there would be no going back.

Obi-Wan threw one of his hands out, launching a violent Force Push that scattered half a dozen or so on one side of the ring, and though he caught a painful blow to the top of the head for the break in his defence, he followed through on the attack, breaking through the gap in the ring.

There was a deep pool of water on one side of the arena, and with a single leap, Obi-Wan leapt into it, diving deep as he shook his rebreather out of its pouch and stuffed it in his mouth.

After a few seconds of strong swimming, which Obi-Wan thought should have well and truly taken him to the opposite wall of the arena, he pulled himself to the surface. And looked around as he took a gasp of air.

It was completely dark—somehow it seemed he had managed to swim through some sort of tunnel into another chamber. Giving a sobbing sigh of relief, Obi-Wan stroked along the surface, hoping that the edge of the pool wasn't too far away.

And sure enough, he was rewarded a couple of strokes later with his wrist striking painfully against a rock. He pulled himself out of the water and lay dripping on the ground.

A quick check of his person revealed that his lightsaber was still with him, as were most of his other possessions, but the maps that he'd brought with him were waterlogged beyond repair.

'Good work, Kenobi.' He muttered to himself, 'You've managed to destroy your only maps in a cave filled with the Dark Side, you've got no idea where you are and there is a heard of crazies after you. Brilliant day.'

Deciding that if he was going to be lost, he should at least make sure that he could see, Obi-Wan pulled his lightsaber off his belt and opened his utility pouch. After a short moment of rummaging, his hand closed on a small, cool, sharp sided object, and a feeling flooded into him from the Force. The lightsaber's focusing crystal. For the first time since he had arrived here though, it wasn't a warning or a feeling of foreboding, it felt almost... right.

Like had done when he had first built his lightsaber in the caves of Ilum, Obi-Wan closed his eyes and let the Force guide him, he was dimly aware of himself reïnserting the crystal, but the fore of his thoughts was taken up by dark fragments of whispers and shapes.

Laughing, there was laughing all around him. Evil laughing, across his vision flashed the hooded visage of Sidious cackling manically, of several people he didn't recognise laughing, a young man with dark blond curly hair, a pale bald woman, Omega, Xanatos, a ivory droid, all laughing. And most shocking of all, the image of his own face, lit by a disturbing red light laughing, as if he had just been told the funniest joke he'd ever heard. But with none of the innocence a joke would have caused, a spin-shivering cackle was emanating from his mouth, as his head tipped back to laugh at the ceiling and—

Obi-Wan's eyes snapped open as the chamber he was in suddenly blazed with light. Glow-rods hanging from the wall, with thick power conduits running from one to the other glowed brightly, stinging Obi-Wan's eyes as his unaccustomed eyes were dazzled by their brightness.

Despite the unnerving development, he didn't feel in any immediate danger, and squinting, he looked over his reässembled lightsaber, before examining his surroundings more carefully. The pool that he had dragged himself out of was only a small one, about five metres wide and ten long, it took up almost half the chamber, which seemed to be a room cut from the wall of a tunnel that ran along one side. The tunnel ran both ways from the chamber, but Obi-Wan could feel that the one that ran away from the left side led to his goal, the Dark Side seemed to flow out of it like a river.

Returning his lightsaber to his belt and brushing his wet hair out of his eyes, Obi-Wan carefully stepped into the tunnel, noting that it was gently sloping down as it twisted this way and that. He could feel the Dark Side getting stronger, the air practically crackled with the Force Energy—he knew he must nearly be at the heart of it.

He was rather surprised when after a sharp descent he stepped into a flattened out and slightly wider section of the tunnel, and a single figure stood in the middle of the tunnel, looking as if they were waiting for him. That didn't surprise him, it was the strength of the Dark Side emanating from the person. At once he knew it was the voice and the associated dark feeling that he had gotten so used to since he had arrived.

But that was impossible. Because as he observed the thick ochre coveralls with their distinctive logo on the breast, and the similar coloured eyes, he was faced with...

'Darra.'

'I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan.' Said the girl drolly, her yellow Sith eyes glowing in the darkness, 'I knew you'd get down here eventually.'

Obi-Wan said nothing, favouring her with a neutral expression.

Darra waited, when it was clear that no reply was forthcoming, she slowly began to advance. 'I must say I expected you three hours ago, but it seems you have a little more caution than I gave you credit for.'

'Yes, well, I try.' Responded Obi-Wan, narrowing his eyes, 'Something that you evidently don't have a problem with. Who are you? I would like to know who I'm facing before I defeat them.'

Darra's lips twitched, 'I'm impressed, I didn't expect you to figure it out so quickly. You seem to be an intelligent man, Kenobi, I'll pay you that.'

'Not really.' Responded Obi-Wan dryly, 'But Darra Thel-Tanis wasn't here when the events started.'

The girls eyes twitched slightly, 'And neither she was.' She conceded, 'Slight oversight, but irrelevant ultimately. Well I am Darth Marw, since you asked.'

'Charmed.' Said Obi-Wan, unïmpressed. 'What do you want?'

Darra/Marw grinned slightly as she drew a sword. Instantly the Dark Side intensified, and Obi-Wan realised at once that in fact it was the sword that was the source of the Dark Side in the mine. That one artefact could carry so much energy was astonishing—the hairs on the back of his neck raised; this was an extremely powerful entity that he was dealing with.

'I don't suppose you have any idea what it's like to be dead for a couple of centuries.' The Sith commented rhetorically, 'Well let me tell you; it's no picnic. So when a band of blithering idiots that call themselves Jedi Archaeologists opened my tomb here, I knew it was the time for me to escape. I knew that if I spread enough fear, eventually someone suitable would be foolish enough to come to me, the miners were a perfect Jedi Trap. And now that I have an actual body to inhabit instead of an inänimate sword, all that stands between me and my goal... is you.'

'What have you done with Darra?'

'Oh, worried are you? I doubt she would have expressed the same for you, you know; she seems to rather hate you.'

Obi-Wan said nothing.

'Hate. So delicious in a young mind, made her an absurdly easy target, almost too easy.' Sighed Darra/Marw smugly. 'It was simple to manipulate her into coming down here alone, all I had to promise her was that she'd be able to get the evidence and power enough to reveal you. Such an amusing child. Such a weak resolve.'

'What have you done with her?' Asked Obi-Wan harshly, unsatisfied with the answer.

'Oh, she's still in here.' Said Darra/Marw, tapping her temple with a nasty grin, 'But only until I've completely taken over her body. Then, I will obliterate her!

'Now then, I have to say that a teenage girl's body is woefully weak in the physical department, but I think that my mastery of the Force will more than make up for it, don't you? I can feel your fear... Are you ready to die, Obi-Wan Kenobi?' With a lazy flick of her wrist, Darra/Marw activated the Sith Sword, causing red energies to crackle up and down the blade.

Obi-Wan knew he had no choice; he reluctantly lowered his hand to his belt...

And his lightsaber sprang to life for the first time since his defeat at the hands of the Sith Lord on Naboo... and relief flowed through him as the bloodlust he feared didn't seize him.

If anything he felt... calmed; at peace with himself for the first time in as long as he could remember.

Opening the eyes that he hadn't realised he'd closed. Obi-Wan Kenobi steeled himself for his first dual since he had returned to the Jedi.

And then Marw sprang at him with a snarl of fury, eyes smouldering with rage.