Chapter 33 – To Break a Spirit
Claustrophobia had fortunately never been one of his problems. The cell they had thrown him into might have been just big enough for him to stretch out in, if the chains connecting his wrists and ankles by a metal belt around his waist had allowed it. Obi-Wan doubted that this part of the prison was legal. There was no light down here, it was cold, and somewhere he heard drops of water running down the walls.
He carefully pulled his legs up to his chest, the electric bands of his shackles humming as he moved them. Their shallow blue glow was the only source of light in his prison.
A tremor shook his body; the cold and wet had penetrated his thin overall in no time. His knee had also started to hurt at some point and the Jedi had loosened the brace a little to be able to massage the swollen joint a little. At least they hadn't taken away his walking support, that would make an escape increasingly difficult.
'If I can get out of here again,' he thought.
They had taken the bracers from his hands. Obi-Wan watched how his fingers twitched, even though he couldn't tell if it really was because of the nerve damage or just the blasted cold. With a sigh, he clenched his fingers into a fist, suppressing the tremble effectively.
He let his head fall against the wall behind him, trying to ease the headache that had been pounding in his head for what felt like an eternity. The Force suppression collar pressed uncomfortably in his throat, Obi-Wan had no idea how much time had already passed, but judging from his headache and the hunger that was slowly spreading in his stomach, surely at least a day must have passed since the clones had locked him in here.
His thoughts drifted off. Maul had taken Ahsoka probably to Force knows where. If he wanted to have a chance to catch up with them, Obi-Wan knew he had to get out of here as soon as possible. He would never forgive himself if he let Maul lay a hand on the teenager. Neither would Anakin, that he was sure off.
It worried him that Anakin hadn't shown up yet. Normally his friend was always in the front line when it came to saving his master. But also only, so that he could tease him with it later. Obi-Wan wouldn't even care now if this meant they would free Ahsoka from the clutches of this madman. But the mere absence of his former Padawan was a sign that something was very wrong. More than the Jedi Master just knew about.
He hoped that at least Satine was all right and that she would forgive him. After all, it wasn't everyday that one shot his future wife. Still, he mentally prepared himself for Satine to reject him. Obi-Wan could arise her decision and would have to live with it. His mistakes had always haunted him, so this would be nothing new for him. However, it would be no less painful.
With a sigh, the jedi banished these thoughts from his mind. This dark hole began to make him depressed. He should deal with more acute problems. Like his escape. He carefully moved his splint back into position and looked at the shackles around his wrists. They were robust and tight, Obi-Wan would not be able to get rid of them by dislocating his thumbs. An old trick that had often saved him from uncomfortable situations. The shackles were also too tight to squeeze his feet out. He gave the electric cord an experimental tug but was only rewarded with a short jolt of electricity.
"Shit," Obi-Wan cursed, dropping his hands back into his lap. If he had the Force, he'd just pick the locks. But like this? He would need tools. Or just the keys. Somehow, he doubted the guards would hand them over if he asked really nice.
He was stuck for the time being.
Just as he was about to try to get some rest, the plate locking his cell depressurized and swooshed aside, blinding the jedi effectively as three torchlights shone directly in his face. Lifting his hands in front of his eyes, Obi-Wan tried to avoid the light source.
"Get up, traitor", a clone's voice demanded coldly.
"Traitor?", he moved his hands down again and squinted at the clones, "don't you think that that is a little rude?"
The barrel of a blaster was shoved unceremoniously underneath his chin and Obi-Wan could practically see the glare in the soldier's eyes behind the black visor. "I'll show you what's rude if you don't get moving in a second."
Obi-Wan carefully nudged the blaster aside, his eyes never leaving the soldier in front of him. "Okay, okay, calm down, trooper. I was just joking." He didn't need the Force to see that the Clones were acting strange. They were holding themselves more stiffly than usual, the otherwise levelheaded demeanor exchanged against aggressiveness.
The jedi pushed himself up slowly, mindful not to trip over his chains. Limping out of his cell, closely followed by the clone guard, Obi-Wan stepped beside the two other clones.
"Your brother here may have gotten up on the wrong side of the bunk today", he muttered.
As a reward for his comment, one of the two clones hit him on the back of the head with the pommel of the gun.
"Shut your mouth and move your shebs, traitor."
Obi-Wan grunted and screwed up his face. The whole thing was getting weirder and the Jedi didn't quite know if he liked it.
Before he could think about it further, he was thrust forward, forcing him to stumble to avoid falling. His leg almost gave way under his weight, but thanks to Anakin's stable construction, he stayed on his feet. Still, that didn't help him escape the pain that was once again spreading through the joint.
He hobbled forward; his path barely illuminated by the clones' helmet lights. The metal tiles squeaked slightly underneath his feet, some of them almost covered completely with rust.
"Any chance you will tell me where you are taking me?", Obi-Wan tried again.
"You'll find out soon enough; now keep silent or I have to think of cutting your tongue out. You're just lucky we're not allowed to kill you like the rest of your kind."
The jedi stopped dead in his tracks and whirled around, shock written all over his face. "What did you just say?" Obi-Wan had understood them very clearly, yet the information just wouldn't sink in. That had to be some kind of cruel joke.
Instantly three blasters where pressed to his head, the light increasingly burning into his eyes, it began to hurt.
"Move", one of the clones growled, "we're tasked with delivering you alive", he leaned in closer then, "but no one said in which condition that is."
Anger bristling underneath his skin, Obi-Wan bit the insides of his cheeks and clenched his fists. He could take on these three soldiers hand-to-hand. The men in front of him clearly weren't as fighting-approved as his own unit. The jedi had sparred with Cody and the others a million times, armed and unarmed. He knew how to move against someone with a blaster, in fact it would probably take him only a matter of seconds with these three, even with his restraints.
It wouldn't exactly help him though. He needed more information. Who was this Emperor? Where was Anakin? Where had Maul taken Ahsoka? Why did the clones turn against the jedi? Also, he couldn't kill these men; they were being controlled. Like him, they were trapped, only that their own body was their prison. He felt sorry for them, and Obi-Wan couldn't help but hate the person who had done this to them. If the clones were telling the truth and the Jedi were really dying, even the stoic Negotiator was losing his faith.
There was too much at stake to try escaping now. His ice-cold gaze pierced the three soldiers in front of him before he wordlessly turned back around and shuffled forward.
No, these men were not at fault, he tried telling himself as the urge to lash out threatened to overcome him.
They herded him into an elevator at the end of their hallway of darkness. Its interior was lined with what were probably the brightest lights around. At least, that's how Obi-Wan felt as the bright white light further irritated his already aching eyes.
He closed his eyelids as the elevator slowly began to move. Judging by the travel time, they were quite far down. After a while, a shrill beeping alerted them to the arrival on their destination floor. The corridor which opened up in front of them was plain but nothing like the hole they had kept him in. The walls and floor were tiled with steel-grey metal plates but these parts had been well kept. No rust, no dirt. The lights were slightly bluish, a nice change to the stark white ones in the elevator.
They paraded him through the hallway and Obi-Wan noticed the metal doors with numbers imprinted on the sides. His first thought was that these had to be other cells but those usually had at least a slot in the door to let the guard look into the room.
Suddenly they had stopped moving in front of one of the doors and one of the clones began to operate the panel next to it. With a klick, the door slit aside and they shoved him into it.
No, this wasn't a cell. This was an interrogation room, Obi-Wan noticed with dismay as he recognized the chair and table.
"Not this again", he groaned silently. They should know by now that they wouldn't get him to talk. Wasting no time, the clones pushed him down on the chair which had its back towards the door. Again, his hands and feet were secured to the table and floor.
To his surprise, he was left alone. His fingers tapped lightly on the surface of the metal table, breaking the oppressive silence. This time Obi-Wan could not blame the cold, and somewhere it began to bother him. He wasn't broken, at least that was what he kept telling himself. Anakin had once called him a stubborn son of a gundark, a reference to his sheer inability to give up.
The click of the door behind him made him sit up and take notice. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a darkly dressed person enter the room, his face hidden behind a hood.
Obi-Wan craned his neck as the person walked past him to occupy the chair across from him.
His eyes never leaving the newcomer, the Jedi put on an expressionless face.
"Let me guess, the Emperor himself. Should I be honored that your highness would degrade himself to visit me?", he stated calmly. Ever the Negotiator.
A low chuckle emanated from his opponent's throat. He could see the toothy grin underneath the obscuring hood. "Bright as always, Master Kenobi. I see why you were so important for the jedi."
"You're speaking in the past." Obi-Wan knew the man's voice from somewhere, he just couldn't lay a finger on it yet.
"Did I?", the man hummed, folding his hands in front of him. The way the man moved was controlled and coordinated. Only a politician paid such attention to his gestures; Obi-Wan had spent enough hours in the Senate to recognize this. And then there was the folding of his hands. The fingers barely touched. A signature move. One he had seen a million times as a member of the Republic.
Chancellor Palpatine.
The jedi straightened himself again, not letting on that he had recognized his counterpart.
"How about we skip these games and you tell me why I am here", Obi-Wan retorted.
"Always on point, very well then. You got me", he lifted his hands up in surrender, yet that smile didn't leave Palpatine's face, "I guess there's no need to beat around the bush."
He put his hands down and crossed them on the table again.
"The Republic has fallen and my new Empire has risen. The Jedi are no more. They are all dead, slaughtered by your own soldiers."
No. No. NO.
So the clones had been telling the truth. Obi-Wan swallowed the lump in his throat but didn't let his face slip. The shock sat deep but the jedi master couldn't afford to lose his composure now.
Lifting an eyebrow, he leaned back in his chair, the electric cords of his bindings sizzling lightly at the movement. "And you expect me to believe this? Sorry, but you need to be much more convincing than that. As far as I am concerned, I neither know your name nor see your face."
Calm and serenity, the weapons people loved or hated about him.
"Ah, Master Kenobi, you didn't think I would come empty-handed, didn't you?"
That grin began to drive him insane.
He watched how Palpatine pulled something out of his robe and slit it over to him on the table. It was a small electrical device. A chip.
Obi-Wan took hold of it and studied it closer. It didn't look like a normal chip one would insert in a datapad. No, this one was foreign with its small wires sticking out of it. They were probably intended to be manually connected with something.
Turning it over in his hand, he let his eyes set on the Emperor again. "I know they say that actions speak louder than words but I think you still need to enlighten me here."
"It's a control chip." He laughed again. "The one I let every clone be fitted with. It sits right inside their brains, letting them become mindless on demand."
The jedi stared holes into his opponent, teeth grinding against each other.
He watched how Palpatine stood up then, moving to somewhere behind him. His dark voice resonated from the corner where he couldn't see him anymore.
"I let your dear apprentice be fitted with a special one."
A chill ran down his spine, but Obi-Wan chose to keep his silence. No panic. Not now.
That monster had Anakin.
Palpatine went on. "You know, Master Kenobi, you've been a vital part in my plan. That boy surely loves you like a father. I thought about fitting you with a chip as well then."
He heard how the man stepped behind him and icy hands settled on his shoulders. He couldn't shrug them off, the Chancellor had an iron grip despite being so old.
"It would have sat right there", a cold finger tapped him on the side of his head, making him jerk to the side; at least he tried to with the hand still clutching his shoulder. "The surgery would have killed you though. I was surprised when I heard that you somehow survived the encounter with Count Dooku. You should have seen your poor apprentice; he was so upset about losing you."
Anger. Fear. Panic. Hatred. Obi-Wan's control was slipping.
The hand on his shoulder was removed again and the jedi shuddered involuntarily. Palpatine moved around him again, taking his seat. The smile was even brighter now, his yellowish teeth on display. Obi-Wan wanted to be sick.
His storm-grey eyes bore into the man, mouth drawn into a thin line. "What do you want, Emperor Palpatine?", he snarled.
The smile faded satisfyingly slow.
"You never fail to surprise me, Kenobi." His voice sounded calm, nevertheless Obi-Wan was sure he heard a slight hint of annoyance. "What gave me away?"
"It's far more satisfying to let you ponder about that. Now tell me what do you want."
Palpatine hummed, his lips curling into a small smile again. "I start to like you, Kenobi. A pity I don't need you any longer."
His hands slipped underneath the hood hiding his face, letting it fall back against his back.
Red-rimmed, yellow eyes stared back at him, accompanied by that smile. "I see that you're surprised", he clicked his tongue, "You don't know everything, Kenobi. I've been right under your nose for years and yet you did nothing. You lost your apprentice to me."
Palpatine was the Sith lord. He should have trusted his feelings about that man more.
'You turned a blind eye, for Anakin's sake', a voice inside his head mumbled. It was true, after Anakin had begun to see the chancellor regularly, Obi-Wan had tried to ignore his uneasiness concerning Palpatine. He didn't want another argument with Anakin.
He should have been more persistent. And now his brother was paying the price.
"Anakin will never be like you", Obi-Wan bit out. He feared for his friend. He had seen what the chips did to the clones. Palpatine could turn his brother into a mindless killing machine. A slave.
"Let's see about that. You know, I'm not a monster. I'll let you and your apprentice see each other again. I ordered him here as soon as he is finished with cleaning up at the temple."
Cleaning up the temple. His stomach twisted painfully at the thought. That monster was using Anakin to kill the jedi. Probably even the younglings.
"So this is how you want to rule your new Empire?", Obi-Wan's blood was boiling underneath his skin, "With terror? Fear? Genocide?"
He shook his head as his anger subdued again. "I don't understand how you can sleep peacefully at night."
It was impossible to see the human side inside of the man in front of him.
The jedi barely registered how the door behind him opened and someone entered the room.
Palpatine smiled again. "Ah, Lord Vader. I see you finally made it."
"Yes, master. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. The mission had taken longer than expected."
Obi-Wan's heart shattered as he heard Anakin call this monster master. Not his best friend. His brother. He didn't dare to turn his head fully knowing that he wouldn't be able to stand what he was seeing.
'You're a coward', he told himself. Maybe he was. He had reached his end of the line.
"Not to worry my boy", Palpatine said, motioning towards him, "as you see I had… interesting company."
Even without turning, Obi-Wan felt Anakin's eyes settle on him. For the first time in his life, he felt uncomfortable in the presence of his friend.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi", Anakin- no, Vader- said, his voice laced with coldness.
"Yes, he's the man I freed you from. He, who has made you a slave."
Obi-Wan jerked his head around so fast that his neck hurt from the sudden movement.
He didn't know what to feel when he set his eyes on Anakin. His friend's gaze was devoid of the kindness which had always sparkled in the man's iris, ultimately infecting the people around him. Gone was the joy and mischief Obi-Wan had grown so close to. There was only hatred.
"Anakin, you know I would never-",he tried but was cut off instantly as a prosthetic hand clamped around his throat. His hands jerked uselessly on his restraints.
Anakin pulled him up to his face and growled: "Anakin's a slave name. I'm a free man now. Free from you."
The hand closed even further around his throat and Obi-Wan gasped for a breath. "Your mother gave you this name, Anakin!", he croaked, "Shmi Skywalker."
Maybe there was some kind of recognition in his friend's eyes, but it could have been Obi-Wan's imagination as the oxygen was slowly drained from his lungs.
Strangled by his best friend. What a death, indeed.
As his vision began to black out, the hand on his throat suddenly let loose, leaving him heaving and gasping for air.
Palpatine spoke again. "Remember why you're here, Vader. You wanted to cut loose ends."
"Anakin, whatever he told you, he's lying. You're being controlled", Obi-Wan pleaded, "I know you can fight this."
"Shut up, old man." Vader barked and delivered a sharp kick to his knee, making him bit his tongue in an effort to suppress a scream.
"I can't do it like this. I can barely sense him with that collar on. Besides", Vader smiled smugly, "where's the fun when only one gets to feel it."
Obi-Wan had a bad feeling, as Palpatine handed Anakin something that looked like a key. He certainly had an idea of where Vader was heading.
"Anakin, please don't do this", he tried for a last time, but his plead fell on deaf ears.
As the collar fell from his throat, he felt the Force came crushing down on him. It wasn't comforting though. It was screaming, wailing from the sudden losses. Obi-Wan grunted in pain and tried to clear his vision, but the dots just wouldn't disappear.
Anakin laid a hand on his face, right above the scar on the side of his head and made him look up.
"Anakin, please."
"You'll never control me again", was all Vader said before Obi-Wan began to feel it. He was pulling on their training bond, stretching it to its outmost capacity.
It would rip in just a few seconds. A bond built up by decades of tutelage and friendship, snapped in merely more than a blink of an eye.
Obi-Wan tried to hold on to the tethers that were threatening to snap. He wouldn't let Anakin go. Not like this. Officially, they should have severed the bond after Anakin's knighting, but neither of them had the heart to do it. That bond was what had made them so strong. Obi-Wan had never been good with not becoming attached and he had failed as a teacher on that point as well.
There was not a single regret though.
A scream ripped from his throat as his strength finally left him and with that – his last connection to Anakin. Obi-Wan had thought that a bond snapping due to someone's death was painful but it was nothing in comparison to someone ripping a bond out voluntarily.
His senses were too numb for him to realize the tears that began to trail down his cheeks. Obi-Wan didn't notice how Vader and Palpatine left the room at some point, letting him drown in his misery.
He watched how his tears formed a small puddle on the table, catching a glimpse of his face in the reflection.
Obi-Wan was just an empty shell now. A body who still hadn't understood when it was time to stop working.
As an armored hand took hold of his wrist, the jedi didn't even flinch. He hadn't sensed the clones approaching, despite the collar still laying discarded next to him.
"Should we do it here?", one of them asked.
"No, let's take him outside", another clone grunted, "I don't want to have to clean up the mess inside."
His chains were detached from the floor and table and the clones pulled him out of his seat with arms under his shoulders.
Obi-Wan didn't have the strength to walk anymore, so he let himself dragged forward. Before they left the room, the third clone spoke up again.
"Wait, one can never be too sure with those traitors."
With a snap, the force suppression collar was back around his neck. Not that Obi-Wan cared about it anymore.
The walk through the prison vanished in a blur, until a soft breeze hit his face.
He lifted up his head and saw that they had entered the prison's outside yard. The sun was up, but its warmth did nothing to warm him up.
The clones took him through some gates until they reached their destination.
The junk yard. No mess to clean up.
He knees were kicked from behind, making him crash to the floor.
Obi-Wan looked up onto the three soldiers, who had walked a few paces away, taking aim at him.
Closing his eyes, the jedi waited for the end.
The shots came, but never hit him. Instantly hands were on him, cutting away his chains and collar.
"Come on, Obi-Wan. You've got a padawan to save", a familiar voice urged.
Does the Coruscant prison even have an outside yard? Well, now it does.
I promise, we'll see Ahsoka in the next chapter :D