Thanks, for the reviews, been very busy getting ready to go on holidays, but here is a post to keep you happy.
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Obi-Wan's muddled thoughts splintered, he knew the words spilling from his mouth were not words he would say, but he was having trouble controlling anything. Searing pain added to his mental delirium and his arms were shaking uncontrollably.
Something dark compressed his capabilities to have logical thought or speech, but he knew that to succumb to panic would render him lost so he latched onto the only glow that made sense to him, the Force. His mind cleared enough to hear the words coming out of his mouth.
A horrible rancorous pitched voice hurled a barrage of vile words forth. He had to protect his sanity and he pulled the force around his mind as he vaguely felt familiar hands push down on his arms and legs holding him in place. Exhaustion took over and he shrunk back away from the dark sooty shadow that prodded at his internal shields.
"Please stop," he tried to say, but no one seemed to hear his voice over the other.
He felt a slight tingling sensation in his arm and instinct told him that he'd been sedated. He couldn't fight it, because he had to reinforce the wall around his mind to keep the interloper out.
000
Healer Ba'han waited until they had Obi-Wan pinned down and injected a strong sedative into his neck. Soon the young man stilled, his arms went limp and his body relaxed. His eyes were still open as though he was concentrating on something. However, soon his eyelids closed.
"What was that? It didn't sound anything like Obi-Wan. Something is dreadfully wrong here." Ba'han said turning worried eyes to Yoda.
"Master Yoda, I'm hesitant to keep Obi-Wan here in the ward, if he reacts like this again it may be dangerous for him or other patients if he gets loose. I recommend that until we know what happened we place him in the isolation ward sedated; until we understand what is going on."
"Agree with you I do Healer Ba'han. Felt the power of the dark side in him I did."
They wheeled the sedated padawan into an isolation room and posted guards outside the Force locked door. Thick Plexi glass allowed them to monitor their patient without entering the room. The sedative Ba'han administered would keep him unconscious for several hours. Enough time they hoped to find out what went wrong.
ooo
Sidious lost control of his emotions when they assumed he was that pitiable Kenobi. How dare they insinuate a man of his breeding looked or sounded like that whelp. He used the dark force to retaliate against them before consciously realising that somehow his essence was attached to Kenobi's mind.
A wild urge to laugh at his predicament rushed through him, because it meant that his body was dead, but his essence remained imbedded within Kenobi, the sensation was surreal and when they injected the sedative, he fought hard to break through Kenobi's shields while he still had clear thought.
Spirit transference, a mental image flooded his senses. He studied spirit transference from his own master Plagueis, but he'd never actually performed it on another physical body before.
His mind skipped back to the last moments before his untimely death and everything flooded back into his consciousness. He'd been arrogant then too, and distracted by vivid memories of the battle and didn't sense the last minute strike by Kenobi… That was his last thought as the sedative took him too.
ooo
Master's Gallia and Plo Koon headed to the morgue to begin their examination. A gruesome sight lay before them once they removed the sheet. The guards gasped in shock to see a headless Chancellor, with his head wrapped in a cloth lying on his stomach.
Firstly, they removed the head placing it on another trolley, and then the task of removing Palpatine's outer robes began. Using the force, they lifted his body up and removed the very heavy crimson robes. Underneath, another crimson jacket secured with gold buttons covered his arms and chest.
Master Plo Koon reverently folded the velvet robe, however, a lump in the pocket had him examine it pulling out a small item.
"This is a remote, probably for the instrument panel in his office. It appears that he did turn off the recordings." He said placing the robe on the table.
"A strange thing for him to do, but to be honest with you, he is a bit of a mystery to me and I have no idea why he was even made Chancellor!" Adi commented glancing at Plo.
"Did you know Palpatine, Plo?"
"No I didn't, but apparently, he was a good friend to the house of Naberrie and he was instrumental in Naboo's rise to become the political power it is today."
Adi nodded. "I met him once at a benefit concert, he was very charming and pleasant, but I never felt comfortable around him. I always thought there was something about him that was off."
"Well he had the vote to make him Chancellor, and as Jedi we don't have any say in the election process to discover whether he was off or not."
They lowered him back down onto the table and Adi gazed at the fine embroidered jacket. "He certainly enjoyed wearing expensive clothes; look at this jacket it's made of the finest silk."
She lifted one of his hands and quickly dropped it. "Master Koon there is a lingering aura surrounding Palpatine's hand, tell me if you sense it?"
Plo touched the exposed hand that had blood on the fingertips. He too pulled his hand away feeling the lingering aura of the force. "Is it Obi-Wan's blood; it must be remnants of his aura?"
"No, I know Obi-Wan's aura and it's distinctly different. I think we should send a sample of Palpatines blood to the lab and have it tested for midi-chlorians before his blood cools."
"Midi-chlorians? Adi! Surely you don't think the Chancellor is force sensitive do you?"
"I certainly hope not, I would not want a force sensitive person being the head of the republic. Imagine the power he would control."
Master Koon drew some blood from the dead man's arm, calling a young knight over and gave him the blood-filled vial.
Master Gallia contacted the temple laboratory. "We are sending knight Kamarah with a blood sample, please test it immediately and send the results back with him as soon as possible."
ooo
Senator Organa and Master Windu interviewed all previous visitors that met with the chancellor that day, however, no one saw or heard anything out of the ordinary and the Chancellor seemed in good spirits.
Then they called the aide in and Organa asked him why he was not at his post.
"Chancellor Palpatine specifically ordered me to accompany his previous guests out and take the rest of the day off as he had no need for me and in his words 'he was quite capable of taking care of one Jedi.' He said that he had cancelled all meetings for the rest of the day and that he wanted to spend as much time as he needed with Padawan Kenobi, without any interruptions."
"This is highly irregular for a Chancellor to conduct himself this way did you object?"
The aide nodded. "I did, but he insisted and for some reason I felt compelled to obey him."
"I see, that will be all for now, but remain in the building I may want to speak with you again." Bail said sending the aide out.
"What do you make of that Master Windu?"
"I agree with you senator; it isn't the way one would expect the Chancellor of the Republic to act."
They were contemplating what course to take next when Finis Valorum arrived.
"Bail! Master Windu, is it true that Palpatine is dead! It's all over the building that a Jedi did it, I'm shocked?"
"Finis, I'm glad you could come, we haven't finished the investigation yet, but it does appear that Padawan Kenobi killed the Chancellor."
"Qui-Gon's padawan! No, surely not." Finis voice showed his disbelief.
"That's what we're investigating Finis, and we've asked you here because as the former Chancellor you would have first hand knowledge of this office and the security system encompassing this room. There is a new high tech surveillance system installed; do you know anything about it?"
"I do! Palpatine hadn't been in office five minutes before he organised an upgrade to the system and I asked him why he felt the need to do that when the old one was working perfectly well. He said he wanted to keep up to date with new technology and he thought the old system was antiquated."
"That seems odd." Mace said expressing his confusion.
"Yes he had technicians in here ripping out the old one the day I handed over the seal of office to him. It is quite sophisticated and I'm confident it would record everything you need, you do have recordings don't you?"
"Unfortunately, Finis; for some reason the Chancellor turned off the recording of his meeting with Obi-Wan and we are at a loss to understand what transpired. Padawan Kenobi actually left the office with the Chancellor showing him out and closing the door. However, for some reason he turned of the recording as soon as the door closed." Mace explained.
"If young Obi-Wan left, why did he come back, what did the aide say?"
"The aide wasn't at his post. Palpatine dismissed him and the guards for the day." Bail explained.
"That's ridiculous, what would posses Palpatine to dismiss them. Why would he switch off the cameras? What is going on here?"
"That is the problem we have Finis, without the recordings we have no way to know what happened."
ooo
Healer Ba'han and Master Yoda stood outside the thick plexiglass window watching the rise and fall of Obi-Wan's chest as he breathed and it wasn't long before his hands began to twitch.
Soon his hands shakily moved to his head as he struggled to purge the sedative. He slumped forward resting his head on his knees. Weakly his head rose and his eyes seemed to be pleading for help as they darted from side to side.
"Obi-Wan can you hear me?" Ba'han said through the com speaker and he noticed the strained expression on the young Jedi's face.
"Yes, I can hear you; but my head is pounding. Where am I and what happened to me?"
"You're in an isolation ward because you had a bad reaction the last time you woke up; do you remember what happened to you?"
A sense of apprehension began filling Obi-Wan when he heard a familiar whisper in his head.
"I don't – know; there's something wrong and it's causing so much pain and I'm finding it hard to concentrate."
His voice was rising in agitation and his hands were shaking. "Help me Master! Help me; he's trying to kill me!"
He lurched off the bed and slammed his body into the wall trying to dislodge the black ooze trying to overpower him.
"No! Go away; get out of my head!" He screamed as healer Ba'han and the guards rushed in the room and tackled him.
"No! No! Please it's not me! I can feel something; Master! Help me get it out!" Cowering in the corner.
Almost instantly the usually soft-spoken Obi-Wan transformed into a devil right before their eyes. His face contorted into a mask of hate as venomous words spilled out defiling the good name of the Jedi and swearing vengeance on those that got in his way. Ba'han felt disturbed by the intensity of Obi-Wan's anger and he gave him another dose of sedative.
Obi-Wan struggled against the drug coursing through his veins pulling the Force around him to block the evil spirit from controlling his thoughts. Confusion filled him with fear and his mind was in a state of disorder. His survival instincts were waning and he stretched out with the Force to find his anchor.
Qui-Gon would know what to do. His Master would help him. It frightened him to hear the vile words that spilled out of his mouth and he arched up on the bed, as he drew on the Force with his last remaining strength and called again in his own terrified voice. "Help – me - Master!" and then he went limp.
Ba'han turned to Master Yoda, "What do you make of this its like he's two entirely different people.
"Not seen this before in one of our Jedi, explain it I cannot. Call for his master he does, but there is nothing Qui-Gon can do for him either."
"Is it possible that Obi-Wan has gone insane and he killed the Chancellor while he was in one of these fits Master Yoda?"
"Keep him sedated we should until Master Windu finishes his investigation and perhaps then it will shed some light on the problem."
Ooo
Sidious heard the whelp calling for his master and once again he lost control and spat out his anger at the Jedi; he couldn't focus on his plans to dominate the galaxy while he didn't have control of the padawan's body.
He'd let his anger control him and he struggled when they strapped him to the bed and injected another sedative into Kenobi's body. Sidious regretted his impatience, but it was too late to do anything about it now. The drug was affecting his consciousness as well.
He pulled his shields around his thoughts, eternal life, the ultimate goal of the Sith. Plagueis insisted that it was feasible for the spirit of a sith to be bound to the living through an object or a person, simply due to the intensity of their hatred for that person. Palpatine's spirit had taken up residence in the mind of this worthless Jedi and he revelled in the fact that he'd achieved the first stage of immortality; he just needed patience and cunning to complete the transition.
tbc...