The Slayer and the Jedi made their way through the darkness of the temple, Obi-Wan either walking besides Buffy or a few steps behind her, every so often scanning the darkness behind them for threats. In previous expeditions with his master he'd have used the Force to perceive into the darkness but here the force was so murky everything became indistinct and he found he was relying only on his five senses, the experience jarring to one normally so attuned to using the Force. Every so often he'd shoot a look at Buffy to see how she was reacting to the darkness and her surroundings but at the moment she seemed relaxed, and thoughtful.

"You know, there was something about those zombies that was off, " Buffy said, as they walked through a huge chamber and down another set of stone stairs.

"I agree with you completely. Those Zombies smelt like they had gone off a long time ago," deadpanned Obi-Wan, moving up to walk alongside her.

"Ha ha, very funny." She nudged him with her shoulder and smiled. "I didn't mean the smell. It was the way they were moving.."

" Yes, once again, I agree. The fact they were dead and moving around, never mind able to fight, I thought was highly unusual," smirked Obi-Wan, slanting her a glance.

Buffy grinned back at him. "You'd be surprised at how active animated corpses can get... No, there was something else strange about them. You'd think they'd have been more aggressive especially armed with lightsabers but they seemed slow and gave up easily."

Obi-Wan blinked in surprise. "You really thought they were slow and gave up easily? For something that had been dead for so long they'd almost rotted away they had a lot of life left in them." He thought about the short but intense battle they'd fought. "I suppose considering they were there to protect the Sith temple they could have been faster. Possibly over time whatever Dark Force magic that drove them has diminished in potency?"

Buffy looked thoughtful as if she was churning over something in her mind and coming to a conclusion. "I don't think the Dark Magic had diminished. I think they were more like part of a trap that had already been sprung. A bit like that fireball, dormant until something or someone sets it off..."

"Could it have been Andrew?" Obi-Wan's worry for the blonde watcher was growing the longer they were in the Temple without finding him. He hadn't mentioned his fears to Buffy but after dealing with the zombie warriors he didn't hold much hope of finding Andrew alive.

"Maybe, but I think whatever woke them did so a while ago. Not years but definitely in the last few weeks. They were milling about looking sort of lost when I first saw them, then when they spotted me they looked almost happy... Eww! What the freakin hell is that!" Buffy kicked the huge beetle thing that was the size of a small cat from off her foot.

"Spider roach." Obi-Wan curled his lip as several more of the creatures ran across their path."Coruscant's lower levels are full of them, these do bite but are neither poisonous nor pose a danger to us. Most likely they came in through cracks in the walls and are breeding in here."

"Yuck. Sith roaches, lovely. Think I'd rather deal with the zombies..." She stopped and looked sharply to her left. "That hellmouth buzz thing is coming from over there. I think we are nearly at the center, the core. C'mon."

Once more she was heading off, following a trail Obi-Wan could not discern, but whatever it was she was hunting, was taking him deeper, and deeper into the Temple, towards where the Force was at it's most potent.

The chamber she took him into was smaller compared to the others they'd traveled through, however, the moment he stepped into the room Obi-Wan knew that no longer did the Force feel murky. Here the Dark side of the Force was at its most lethal.

He stopped, swaying, as every negative emotion hit him with utmost intensity. Many of them emotions he'd never felt before in his life, emotions the Jedi shielded and hid themselves from, and he nearly lost his feet under the continuing onslaught, Rage, Hate, Fear, Jealousy, Greed, Violence, Passion... The sadistic need to harm, to create pain and watch suffering in others... all surged through him simultaneously.

"Obi-Wan... Obi-Wan..."

He focused on the voice and realized it was Buffy talking to him, her voice sounding as if it came from a distance away and she was using his given name instead of one of those strange ones she always called him. A moment later, he felt her hands, one on each side of his face and she tilted his head down to look at her. He looked down into her eyes, which were wide and dark, and then down to her lips as she gave him a soft smile.

"I was a bit worried about you then. You went all weird. Well, more weird than normal, cos you are a weirdo anyway. And a Nerd. You went all Oh-Be-Lost-It when you came in here..." she was smiling at him as she talked and he'd a feeling her words were more to pull him from his thoughts rather than to chastise him.

Yet her words angered him. She didn't think he was good enough for her, she didn't like him, she would leave this dimension at the first opportunity and he hated her for all of it. He needed to hurt her first before she hurt him. All he needed to do was raise his hand, he could choke her without even touching her, and she needed punishing so badly, it was all her fault he felt like this, she constantly made him feel emotions a Jedi should not feel, she ...

"Obi-Wan... Obi-Wan... hey, come back to me! You are freezing to touch! Something in here is affecting you... it must be the Forcey thing..." She was talking again but the Dark Force was so much stronger than she was and even now it called and whispered to him...

The Dark Side of the Force was so very powerful... He wasn't able to fight it, he was too small and insignificant and had never been the best Force User; he'd been told that often enough by the masters in the temple. It would crush his mind beneath it's immense power...
And then there was Buffy... she was no Jedi, she had no idea what she was dealing with. The Darkness would engulf her, it would kill her and neither she nor he could stop it. Unless he changed. He could stop the Dark killing her if he changed. If he became a Sith and fully embraced the Dark Force he could protect her, and nothing would ever take her from him including death itself...

"The Dark will take you. I must stop it. Only by embracing the Darkness can we be saved," he whispered hoarsely. The Dark side called to him, seducing him with promises of power, riches and life everlasting for him and Buffy, all he had to do was...

"Whoa! Obi-Wan your eyes flashed yellow. Listen to me... I am The Slayer and for thousands of years the Slayers of each generation have been chosen to fight against the Darkness. Obi-Wan, I look at the Dark Side and the Dark Side looks back at me and it is the one who is afraid... I have faced bigger Bads than a few Sith's and I've faced worse things than a room charged with Dark energy so never worry about me."
He was listening to her, she was sure of it and she took a deep breath and continued. "Obi-Wan you are strong and brave, loyal and kind, and completely selfless. You are more than capable of defeating the Dark Side all by yourself without any help from me. But remember you are my Scooby-Jedi Knight and I will never allow you to join the Dark side because I will kick the ass of anything Dark if it tries to take you from my side..." she was standing on tiptoe, still holding his face with her hands, her face inches from his own and she held his gaze, refusing to let his eyes drift around the room to the where the darkness lingered.

Keeping his focus on her, yet still in contact to the Dark Force, Obi-Wan looked into her and for the first time really saw her. Saw, and realized the Dark Force was being drawn to the strange inner darkness that swirled deep inside her, contained and held in check by a shimmering wall of white light...
Chosen, she said she had been chosen on her own world to slay the darkness... and now he'd been chosen in this dimension to help her. He blinked and felt the rush of savage alien emotions leaving him... leaving him feeling exhausted, relieved and yet oddly, in some strange way, he felt stronger than before.

"Hey," Buffy said softly, her hand on his face, her thumb stroking his cheek and for a moment he leant into her touch without thinking. "Hey, are you all right now?"

He nodded, very slowly. "I think so. Too many dark emotions hit me as soon as I entered this room. The Dark Force in here is extremely concentrated, I have never felt anything like it before and never want to again. Thank you for helping me fight it, Buffy." He caught the hand that stroked his face in his, and squeezed it gently in thanks and reassurance.

"No problem, Jedi-boy." She smiled and then gestured towards the middle of the room. "See what's over there? That stone tomb with the odd light glow coming from it is the source of the problem, or was. The lid is hanging off... are you up to some investigation or do you need to go back outside the room and wait for me there?" Buffy was shining her light onto the carved stone edifice looming ominously at the center of the room, and he could see the lid was askew, either allowing whatever had been buried in there to escape, or to allow someone access to whatever was inside.

"I shall be fine. Let us proceed." Truthfully he wanted out the room and away from this cursed place but there was no way he was going to leave Buffy alone in here. If she was hit by the torrent of emotions he'd had to face he wanted to be there for her, like she'd been there for him.

…...