AN:
ATTENTION!
The following chapter includes graphic depictions of violence, i.e. torture. I upped the rating of the whole fanfic for this. To correctly understand the character development, you'll have to read this but if you're a bit squishy about Sith's having fun, you may skip this chapter. I wanted to put it all in one instead of spreading out the flashbacks over several chapters so you can skip ahead without loosing sight of the plot but it got a bit too long, so part II is coming up next week.
(Of course I am entirely aware that for most of you, this speech will just make you more eager to read ahead but seriously. If you're like, twelve or something or you really like Obi-Wan, this is not your place to be.)
PS: Thanks to MissiriKoharehn who remembered Obi-Wan already lost one arm in teh battle of geonosis, I corrected that here.
XxX
Flashback - several weeks ago
Obi-Wan Kenobi hung in his ropes, watching the Dark Lord circling him tiredly.
"Now, everyone thinks you're dead, that the clones killed you", the figure that was so mockingly resembling his late Padawan explained calmly. Obi-Wan had a bad feeling about this.
"I have you all for myself. I can do to you whatever I want with no consequences and no time limit. And guess what? Again, I decided against killing you."
The Jedi couldn't help but let out a small breath of relief. It wasn't that he thought Vader incapable of killing his enemies or even innocents but he was well aware that Anakin's influence was the only thing restraining the Sith.
His next words however quickly squashed his hopes.
"I've waited too long for that. I want to taste my victory, my revenge. I know, I'm a bit late. You could even argue that you might not deserve what I'm about to do to you as I'm punishing you for something that, technically, you haven't done. But you know what?" The Sith stopped circling him, getting into his face, ignoring the confused look the Jedi who had no idea what he was talking about gave him.
"I don't care about technicalities anymore", Vader hissed, the dark side rising powerfully around him and making the Jedi shiver. "Twenty years of pain and suffering do not care for technicalities. Now", he said, stepped back and switched on his red lightsaber, regarding the blade almost lovingly. "Shall we begin?"
"Wait a second", he tried, regarding the lightsaber nervously. "What are you planning to do with that?"
"Oh, I think you know that perfectly well", Vader smiled at him and Obi-Wan was eerily reminded of the way Anakin would smile at a caught informant, assuring him that he had nothing to fear right before he invaded his mind, ruthlessly searching for the information he needed.
Only that Vader wasn't after information.
The Sith grabbed Obi-Wan's left hand, still being held by the energy ropes. The Jedi started to struggle but his movements were too limited. He tried to call out for the force, to push the Sith away but the lightsaber was inching closer and there was this maniacal glint in Vader's yellow eyes.
At last, the Jedi braced himself for the pain and he managed to hold perfectly still, to not make a noise as the plasma blade cut straight through flesh and bones.
It was over soon. Painful, but bearable.
Then Vader stepped back and he held up the pinky he had cut off like a morbid trophy, grinning like a child who ripped off the wings of a butterfly.
That's when Obi-Wan really felt sick and that's also when the pain hit him.
He managed barely - barely! - not to scream but his breathing was going fast and labored, he wheezed from the effort of holding back the natural reaction of his body.
"It's really not easy, you know?", Vader said in a conversational tone. "To cut off a single finger with a lightsaber and leave the others undamaged."
"Yeah, right", the Jedi returned with a scowl. "If you want to torture me, you have to do better than that."
A lightsaber was a tool that the Jedi used to defend themselves. Even if it was used to kill, it did so fast and painlessly. A weapon that immediately cauterized the wounds was not much good for torturing.
"I'll take that advice to heart", Vader returned. "Let me try again."
You've got to be kidding me, Obi-Wan thought when Vader grabbed his hand again.
This time he bit his tongue hard enough to draw blood. Thoughts raced in his mind on how to get out of this hopeless situation. He was so used to channeling the force with his hands but he knew theoretically he should be able to push Vader away without them as well. And he tried, the moment his second finger came off he tried again but Vader just grinned at his efforts. The ropes shook a bit and the light flickered but beyond that, nothing happened. The pain and upcoming panic was distracting him, preventing him from fully immersing himself in the force.
"Two gone", Vader muttered, letting the finger drop to the ground unceremoniously where it rolled to bump against Obi-Wan's right shoe, leaving a thin red tail. Then his hand rushed forward, delivering a precise strike to the area connecting Obi-Wan's right hand prosthetic to his arm that he'd gotten after the battle of Geonosis, causing the damaged contraption to fail and fall away. For a Moment Vader stared at it almost disappointed before he sighed and took the Jedi's flesh hand instead. "Three more to go."
XxX
Obi-Wan managed to keep his composure through the whole ordeal. He remained silent and unmoving, his mouth full of blood from biting his own tongue even as a droid came in to collect his fingers with a freaking dustpan. His hands got new bandages but he refused the food they brought him.
Then, he was left alone.
He tried to mediate. He tried to connect to the force, maybe to reach out for Anakin. But there was something blocking him. He could still feel the force but it was as if there was a solid wall between him and the universe that he just couldn't break through.
Two days passed. At least he thought it was two days as the droids came back with food two times. He refused it again, though he did take the water.
Slowly the realization began to sink in that he would never hold a lightsaber again. At least not with his own hands. He had the force, he didn't need his hands to move stuff he tried to tell himself. He'd lived with a prosthetic for the last four years. But he'd just lost all five of his fingers of his remaining organic hand and the bloody psychopath didn't seem to be finished with him.
He wondered what he'd done to deserve this. Vader had been so cryptic as if he was punishing Obi-Wan for something that he would do in the future. Maybe he'd had a vision? But what would make him hate him so much he would bother to waste so much time instead of just killing him?
Obi-Wan didn't know but he couldn't help the small part of him that hoped it was something that would hurt Vader very much. He berated himself for that thought almost immediately. What Vader had done to him was wrong but no person was born evil. There had to be something that made him the man he was now and Obi-Wan, as a Jedi, would never do something of the magnitude to drive a man to such madness.
When Vader came back the next time he had with him a small holo projector.
"Greetings, my old friend", he started cheerfully. "Since you're just hanging around here, I thought I would give you something to pass the time." He placed the projector in front of him and turned it on.
There was a news report. Obi-Wan listened, first confused then with growing horror as the woman in the vid explained how Anakin Skywalker had betrayed the Republic, how he'd joined with his father Darth Vader and together they formed a vicious plan to eradicate the Jedi. How they had invented a virus that temporally made the clones obey them and how Anakin had then given them the order to kill all Jedi.
It got even worse as the news report switched to a show of pictures and small vids, probably made from the field cams of the clones, showing the deaths of various Jedi. Many of them Obi-Wan had known personally.
When his own men, the clones who he'd called friends, had suddenly turned on him Obi-Wan had suspected the phenomenon might be greater then just Palpatine wanting to get rid of him. But this, this was worse then anything he could've ever imagined.
"You know what's funny?", Vader asked just as the vid showed the Jedi temple aflame, dozens of bodies too small for grown man being carried out of it. "They blame Order 66 on my son, they say he's joined me and betrayed the Jedi... But it's exactly the other way around. The Jedi are the one's that have abandoned him. Now that both the Republic and the CIS are out for his blood, I am the only one he can turn to. My little boy has finally come home." He chuckled, watching the slaughter on the projector and Obi-Wan felt a sudden urge to strangle that... that... monster!
The horrendous implication of his words made his skin crawl. Palpatine might have been the one to come up with Order 66 but the Jedi was certainly not convinced that Vader had nothing to do with it. For all he knew the Sith could've used his knowledge of Palpatine's plan and brought it to its conclusion on his own grounds. But Anakin would never join Vader. He had left the order, sure, he might even resent the Jedi a bit but he would never work with Vader to make sure Palpatine's order was enacted.
"No reason to look at me like that", Vader scolded him. "I really had no hand in this. I know what Sidious was planning of course. But I warned you, didn't I? Qui-Gon all but told you the Republic was being lead by a Sith Lord years ago. I also know that Anakin knew of the clones beforehand, I guess he told you about that too. So really, you can't blame it on me. If anyone is at fault then it is you."
Obi-Wan gaped at him. "But I... I couldn't... What should I have done?"
"Does it really matter? You did nothing and now they're dead. You failed to negotiate the peace, you failed to protect your order... and you failed in keeping Anakin away from me. Now he is mine and he will do everything in his power to make sure the sacrifice of the Jedi, your sacrifice is no for naught. He is so eager to help me kill Sidious. Isn't the world funny?"
Something in Obi-Wan snapped. The realization of all his friends and comrades dying, the betrayal, his worry about Anakin and the aching in his limbs, it all came down on him and he let out a shout of denial and anger.
And Vader laughed. He just laughed at him and the dark side swirled around him happily, reveling in the Jedi's agony.
XxX
The next day Vader was in a bad mod. There was no slow enjoyment in his treatment of Obi-Wan and no precisely aimed emotional torture. He just stormed into the cell madly furious and beat the Jedi till he was barely conscious. He barely talked, just cursed Obi-Wan and when he tried to talk back he choked him with the force.
After an hour or two he calmed down a bit. Many of the wounds the Jedi had gotten during his flight had reopened, leaving him bloody and his bandages in rags. Vader took a step back, regarded his pathetic form - and then he drew his lightsaber again.
Obi-Wan flinched at the sight of it. The beating he could endure, he'd had worse before. Vader's fury meant something had gone badly for him and as far as Obi-Wan was concerned, that was a good thing. But why did he draw his lightsaber all of sudden? It wasn't like he had any more fingers to loose.
Vader quickly answered that question though. With a quick slash he severed the rope holding Obi-Wan's right arm. The gesture was so unexpected the Jedi just slumped to the side like a rag doll. He'd had been hanging in an eagle spread position for four days now. Even if he tried he couldn't use his limbs properly anymore, his blood circulation was shot to hell.
Another few slashes and the Jedi tumbled to the ground entirely. He was weakened and injured but still he saw his chance and utilizing what little strength remained he feinted an attack at Vader, only to change course at the last moment and try to sprint for the exit. He didn't think. He didn't remember that he was on board Vader's ship, that he had a small army of droids and a labyrinth of corridors before him. He just wanted to leave.
Of course he didn't get very far. Vader caught him in a force hold and unceremoniously bashed him against the wall. For a second everything went black.
Obi-Wan awoke from a burning pain in his leftt hand. Darth Vader stood over him, one boot on his chest. He used the force to hold him down which was more effective then any chains. His lightsaber was cutting through his hand. The boot on his chest was pressing on his lungs. Still the Jedi howled in pain as Vader cut a slice of meat from his hand. Then another and another. He only stopped when he reached the upper arm and by that time Obi-Wan was thankfully so out of it he barely felt anything anymore.
When the Dark Lord left, the Jedi was left sobbing and clutching his arm stump, now just as short as the scarred one of his right arm. Still his presence lingered and Obi-Wan found it hard to breathe, the darkness around was that suffocating.
That day he was transferred to another cell. Droids cleaned him up and patched up his wounds. Once Obi-Wan tried to free himself. He turned the droids into scrap metal with the force but he couldn't get through the doors. They were magnetic, heavy things and he was too weak in mind to get through them. From somewhere above him a hidden trap or drone hit him with a poisoned dart and he was out like a light within seconds.
His new cell was dark and like the old had been but less dirty. He wasn't chained anymore, that was a plus and there was a toilet fused to the ground which was definitely better then pissing in a bucket held by a droid. No bed and nothing else that could be of use to him. Occasionally a droid would shove a tray with food through a window at the bottom of the door. There was no light anywhere so Obi-Wan had to find the tray blindly. He then took it and flushed the food down the toilet.
The Jedi knew where this was going. Vader was keeping him alive - removing sources of infection, sending him medical droids and food. He wanted to keep him, torture him some more before he finally killed him. There was no reason for Obi-Wan to prolong this. He would never get out of here. Even if he did - what would he do? The Jedi order was no more. Anakin was a fugitive, the Separatists had won. He could no longer hold a lightsaber.
There was no reason for him to eat his bloody breakfast.
Time passed. Obi-Wan recognized the various long-term torture methods applied to him. The food kept coming irregularly. Sometimes he would get two meals a day, sometimes he would get none and always at random hours until he lost his feeling for time. Every few hours flashlights at the ceiling would flare up, turning the room a blinding light. It would stay on for some time, then go out again. It was impossible to get a decent night of sleep for him this way.
One time, when he did eat the food or drink the water simply because he was thirsty, he would feel strange and high headed afterward only to start sweating and throwing up later when the drugs wore off. He stopped eating completely after that. It was easier then he would have thought as he felt too weak to lie down on his stomach and crouch down to eat his food from the tray, unable to lift it anymore.
Then there were Vader's visits. He never freaked out as much as that one night but Obi-Wan learned to fear his calm stare even more. He continued to slice through Obi-Wan's left lower and right upper arm. The Jedi tried again to talk to him but when he wasn't screaming, Vader choked him.
He wished the Sith would just die.
