AN: Alright, this chapter is way, WAY different from what I intended, but I really like it. As a result, I'll be getting another chapter of this out before I drift on back to Blood of Mandalore. For those of you familiar with Star Wars Rebels, I'll be mentioning episodes that happen concurrent with what's going on, but a lot of Season 2 is going to be passed over in favor of following other shit. For those of you unfamiliar, don't worry! You won't be missing anything. I have a plan.
Alright, that's it! Enjoy, lovelies, and let me know what you think!
Chapter 41: History
"Relax, Ezra..." Kanan said softly, standing behind his student as the boy sat cross-legged on the ground, his eyes closed in focus and his hand held out before him toward Hera's droid. He was tense, and it wasn't helping his training. "Use the Force, lift Chopper. You can do it, you've done more difficult things than this before."
"Yeah, I don't think so..." Ezra grunted through clenched teeth, his voice strained with the effort of lifting something he couldn't touch. "Deflecting shots and waiting to feel for the right moment to shoot are very different from lifting that heap of scraps..." Short, sharp bursts of angry whirs from Chopper showed exactly what the droid thought of this exercise, and Ezra's hand closed into a tight fist when he heard Sabine laughing, his ears burning with embarrassment at looking like a fool in front of the Mandalorian. If that wasn't bad enough, he could feel Zeb and Rex looking at him as well, the clone and the Lasat putting aside their work on the weapons they had been inspecting in order to observe the two Jedi. Kanan hadn't been too keen about letting Rex watch them train, but he had promised to give working together a shot and pushed aside his own tension in order to teach. The practice with focus was good for him as well as for his student.
"It isn't any different at all, Ezra, it's all the Force," Kanan sighed, laying his hand on the boy's shoulder when he saw him tense. "Obi-Wan told you the same thing, nothing is impossible if you put your faith in the Force. Feel it, focus, and move the droid."
"How am I supposed to focus with all these distractions!?" Ezra snapped, glaring up at his Master and gesturing to the laughing Sabine.
"There will always be distractions, Ezra. It's part of your training to clear your mind of everything around you and focus on what you must do," Kanan calmly explained. "Now, clear your mind, calm yourself, focus, and nothing can stop you."
"Kenobi says to grab hold of anger or frustration or fear, any strong emotion and turn it into power," Ezra drawled as he closed his eyes and settled down to focus again. "He says that's the quickest way to grow powerful."
"W-well, he's not wrong..." Kanan stammered, groaning in frustration as he ran his hand through his hair. "But power that comes quick and easy always comes at a cost. There's a right way to do things, Ezra, and the way of the Sith isn't it. Now focus," he said, moving behind Ezra to watch him work. "Move Chopper."
With a swift, curt nod, Ezra extended his hand before him once again, exhaling as he sunk into his concentration and focused on the droid, felt him through the Force, and slowly imagined himself grabbing hold and lifting the grumpy mechanical high into the air. He felt his arm strain once again, his hand shaking as he tried to life the droid, and even without touching Chopper, he felt as thought he were using his arms, not the Force, to hoist him up, which made it impossibly difficult. The longer he tried, the more frustrated he got, his complete inability to lift the droid shaking both his focus and his confidence, and when a final burst of effort, Ezra let go, his hand falling to his side with a frustrated grown.
"I can't, it's impossible!" the boy sighed, exasperated by his failure, and with a soft chuckle, Rex rose from his seat, and Kanan felt himself tense as he eyed the man suspiciously. A few days of being together on the Ghost had gone by without incident, but both the Jedi and the clone were cautious around each other, always watching the other like they were a rabid animal that could strike at any moment. They worked together on a few tasks without incident, but there was no trust between them. Not yet, in any case.
"Hey, kid!" Rex said casually as he leaned against the wall. "While you're looking through the Force, don't forget to look at your surroundings with your eyes as well." With a slight smirk, he pointed toward the droid and the Mandalorian. "The droid's magnetized itself to the ground." Ezra's gaze shot to Chopper, his jaw slack in disbelief, and Sabine erupted in laughter, her hand affectionately patting the droid's flat domed head as it waved its utility arms around in triumph.
"T-that's not fair!" Ezra cried, trying to swallow the flush he felt spreading across his face as humiliation heat his blood.
"Battles usually aren't," Kanan sighed, calmly patting the boy's shoulder. "If you're going to use the Force to fight, you're going to need to be able to focus and use it under pressure. Don't forget, our enemies won't care that they aren't fighting fair, they're going to do everything they can to win, but you can even the odds by learning to trust in the Force."
"The Force isn't enough," Rex said, and Kanan felt himself bristle, his chest tightening with the first signs of anger as he glared at the clone. "The Jedi General I served combined the Force with his wits and it made him a great warrior."
"Sorry, would that General of yours happen to be Anakin Skywalker?" Kanan asked sweetly. "Because from what I hear, he didn't end up so great." It was exactly the reaction he had hoped for, the clone's jaw tightening and his broad chest expanding as he stood up to his full heigh. "I don't know if you know what happened to your General, Rex, but I do," Kanan said, his voice low and firm as he made his point. "All that skill as a warrior and he still found his way down the path of evil"
"What he became doesn't diminish what he was," Rex said, evenly meeting Kanan's gaze. "He was the best that the Jedi had to offer for a reason, and if your student's going to be good, he could learn a thing or two from the way General Skywalker applied himself."
"Excuse me, but Ezra has wits," Kanan said, leaning in toward Rex, and behind him, Ezra rolled his eyes. Two days together and this had to have been just one of fifty spats the two regularly had as they attempted to navigate cohabitation with each other. Even the attempts to find common ground ended in bickering, and the young Padawan was quickly growing tired of it, as was nearly everyone else on the ship. Ezra had tried before to take refuge on the Umbra since the two ships were currently docked together, but with Kenobi lost in the tides of the Force, Cody was having none of it and would throw Ezra back on the Ghost the moment he found him, and somehow, he always quickly found him.
"What he needs," Kanan continued, "is discipline." The Jedi's eyes narrowed when Rex scoffed softly and leaned in, thrusting his thumb at his chest.
"Then you better have a soldier handle that," Rex drawled, a smirk on his lips as he watched anger flash in the Jedi's teal eyes.
"Excuse me?! A soldier's discipline can't compare to a Jedi's!"
"Is that so?" Rex asked calmly, his eyebrow arched as he looked the Jedi over. "In my experience, an undisciplined student is the direct result of an undisciplined Master."
"Are you saying that I lack discipline?!" Kanan gawked, and Rex crossed his arms over his chest.
"That is exactly what I am saying."
"Here we go again..." Ezra mumbled with a roll of his eyes as he quietly slipped away to join Sabine at her workstation where she was quietly painting new designs on her helmet. The quickly escalating argument between Rex and Kanan came to an abrupt halt when the door slid open and Hera stepped through, a datapad in her hands and shooting a swift, warning look at her lover when she saw how tense the Jedi was.
"Got a mission, if you two boys are done comparing the size of your penises," Hera said flatly as she swiped her fingers across the datapad and ignored Rex's quietly muttered apology and the prideful swell of Kanan's chest. "Thanks to the information that Rex provided us, we were able to isolate a warehouse where we might be able to get hold of medical supplies that we badly need, and, as an added bonus, there's a possibility that it can be used as a base."
"Good thing, Captain Wits here is going to be in need of those supplies very soon," Kanan said sweetly through a sarcastic smile, which Rex returned with a soft chuckle and an arch of his eyebrow.
"Sabine," Hera said, rolling her eyes and thrusting the datapad hard against Kanan's chest, the Jedi grunting in pain as he caught the device. "I'm giving this mission to you. Scout the facility, report back what you find, and retrieve anything you think may be of use to us."
"You got it," Sabine said as she got to her feet, blowing on the paint on her helmet to make it dry. "At this rate, we'll have everything we need by the time the Shadow King gets up from his nap.
"We should only be so lucky..." Hera said with a slight smile as the Mandalorian took the datapad out of Kanan's hands and quickly looked it over. "Zeb." The Lasat sat up straight in his seat, his ears perked up and his attention on the Twi'lek. "You go with her."
"Right..." Zeb grunted as he stood, picking up his bo-rifle from the table and slinging it over his back and following the Mandalorian up the ladder to enter the Phantom.
"So..." Rex said, a clever smirk on his face as he eyed the Jedi. "Think the Captain didn't send you because you're more childish than the children?"
"Right, that's it!" Kanan snapped, stepping close to the clone and looking down on him from his considerable height, and with a roll of his eyes, Ezra followed Zeb up the ladder, inviting himself along on Sabine's mission. "You and me, right now, are going to fight this out!"
"If there is any violence at all on my ship, Kanan Jarrus, so help me, you will never, ever set foot in my room again!" Hera said in a sharp, commanding voice, her finger pointed at the Jedi's chest.
"...over a game of dejarik!" Kanan announced, pointing dramatically at the game board in the corner, laughing nervously and rubbing the back of his neck when Hera looked skeptically at him. "Come on, Hera, Rex is an ally!" Kanan scoffed. "I'd never hurt an ally, even if I don't necessarily...agree with his existence. We've allied ourselves with a Lord of the Sith, for Force's sake, I can certainly handle a clone. Even if he is an arrogant asshole..."
"I accept your challenge," Rex said evenly, a slight smile on his lips as he sat back down on the couch and began working once again on the disassembled blasters. "Are you sure you're up for it? Dejarik is a game that requires a sharp mind and a keen sense of strategy. It takes discipline to win."
"Then I shouldn't have any trouble at all!" Kanan said proudly, and with a roll of her eyes, Hera left the room, muttering under her breath about the stupidity of the men on her ship as she disappeared. Kanan started to follow her until the door closed in his face, and with a sigh, he rubbed his temples, staving off the headache that was quickly beginning to pound at the base of his skull.
"Doesn't do you any good to make the missus mad..." Rex softly chided, ignoring the glare that Kanan sent his way. "Listen, I don't want to come between...whatever it is that you and the Captain have, so-"
"It's not you..." Kanan muttered, sighing as he turned and slowly crossed the room toward the docking port, the Umbra laying just beyond. "I know you never betrayed the Jedi, but when my clones did...w-when they executed my Master and hunted me like some animal for months." Kanan growled softly and pulled on the hair he had pulled back at the base of his neck. "I just don't know how to trust you."
"...how did you come to trust the Negotiator?" Rex asked quietly, his fingers absently and expertly reassembling the blaster in his hands, his eyes focused on the Jedi as his brow drew together in thought. "He's the most dangerous enemy the Republic has ever seen. The Jedi said he committed atrocities using the Force like they had never seen before, he killed countless Jedi in his time, he enslaved entire battalions of my clone brothers, he stole ships, he taunted the Jedi Order because no matter how hard we tried, we could never catch him." Rex shook his head slowly, his attention focused on the array of emotions that flitted quickly over the Jedi's face. "But he's your ally now. How. How did you come to trust the Negotiator enough to allow him so close to your family?"
"I...learned some things about him," Kanan said quietly, his hands fidgeting as he tried to decide what to do with them. "Very early on, the first time I met him. He saved me from Inquisitors when I thought we could save..." He stopped and cleared his throat for a moment, shaking his head to clear away the ghastly corpse that haunted his sleep from time to time. "He loved a Jedi," he explained quietly. "Don't get me wrong, he does awful things that can't be excused. He's a monster, but he's...not just that, I suppose. Someone I respect thinks there's good in him, and I've seen it. That's worth something, I guess. We all deserve a shot at redemption..."
"Even me?" Rex asked, and the Jedi chuckled softly and shook his head.
"Don't be absurd, you haven't done anything wrong," Kanan said lightly, a wicked smirk on his face. "And who the hell can trust someone without a past, hmm?"
"Got me there..." Rex said with a smirk, laying the blaster to the side and picking up another. "I need to finish this weapon inspection, but I'll be ready for that game of dejarik as soon as I'm done. Give me an hour?"
"Prepare yourself for an ass kicking, old man," Kanan drawled, laying his hand on the console on the wall and the door hissed as the airlock disengaged, opening to reveal the docking hall between the two ships, the lights flickering red and ominous in the corridor. "I wouldn't miss this game for anything." Kanan stepped into the hallway, followed by the echo of Rex's easy laughter as the door slid closed behind him, and with a deep breath, he slowly walked toward the Umbra. He wasn't sure why he had a sudden need to see Obi-Wan, but he did, his chest tightening with each step he took toward the ship. It was reluctance, warning, maybe, his instincts silently urging him away, though he pressed forward. His talk with Rex had dragged a great deal of the past to the forefront of his mind and only served to highlight the horrors, both past and present, that Darth Lumis had inflicted.
It was an easy thing to overlook in the heat of conflict. A great deal about Obi-Wan was rotten and corrupted, forever blackened by the Dark Side he held so dear, and getting a chance to actually talk with the Chiss woman he had so throughly enslaved stood as a grim reminder of what Kenobi was. But still, even with all the evil he helped to perpetuate, Kanan couldn't help but feel sympathy for the man. Not all the suffering inflicted upon him had been his own doing. Even for a Lord of the Sith, there were things that lay outside his control, and the Force had dealt him a hard hand. In a galaxy filled with monsters, there was something to be said for having a terrifying creature of their own to fight beside them, and Kenobi had never shied away from being the bad man that other bad men feared.
He stood outside the door, his eyes closed and his fingers lightly brushing the cold, black steel as he reached through the Force, calm and serene in the inky darkness. The Dark Side wasn't like the Jedi said it was, turbulent and disturbed and filled with pain. It was that also, was always cold, sometimes bitingly so, and made Kanan feel like he was alone, isolated from everything else that lived, disconnected to the life that the Jedi once revered. But it wasn't always like that. For as often as it made Kanan blind and made him feel anxious and unsettled, it could also be peaceful, quiet and serene in a way that he hadn't known the Force could be.
Now, it was like night, starless and peaceful in its silence,, the darker tides slow and sluggish as it swirled disinterested around him. It was a stark contrast to the peace of the light, the warm, easy breeze and the gentle flow of its temperate river, but it was peace none the less. The cold chill of the starless sky reflected in the mirror-still lakes of black water, and while Kanan knew that a storm was always brewing here, that lightning charged the very molecules in the air around him, that gruesome, horrifying things lay shrouded in the dark, that predatory beasts lurked just beneath the surface of the water,, there was still a strange serenity to it all. It was like being in the eye of a storm, like the anticipatory silence of the forest when a predator prowled nearby, like the darkest moment just before the dawn broke, and it was beautiful.
Kenobi often spoke of exacting the will of the Force, of granting it the peace and the balance that it always sought. Kanan hadn't understood it before, but now, standing in the center of the Dark Side and accepting its presence, it was easy to see how balance could be attained in the Dark Side, how peace could be attained in the dead of night, how light or dark, it was all the Force. With the Dark Side serene like that, it was easy to imagine a future where the Light and the Dark could strike a balance, where the successors of the Jedi and the Sith could maintain a tenuous harmony. He wasn't sure if this was the future that Kenobi coveted, and he was certain this wasn't what the leaders of the rebellion desired, but it was a nice idea. The repression of one aspect of the Force had eventually led to the destruction of the Jedi. Balance was simply safer.
With a deep breath, Kanan opened the door and shivered when a blast of cold air hit him, and gripping his arms, he stepped inside the Umbra, the door quickly sliding closed behind him, and Kanan slowly meandered through the ship, the dark of the halls making it seem unfamiliar though he had walked through these corridors many times. It wasn't long before he stepped into the spacious living area, and almost as soon as he did, he could hear the swift pounding of feet upon the floor and the low grown of curses in Mando'a, and the Jedi couldn't help but grin.
"How many times do I have to tell you, Bridger?!" Cody snapped as he stormed into the room. "Get your sorry ass off my ship! Obi-Wan isn't...oh." He stopped when he saw the smirking Jedi standing relaxed and easy in the room, and Cody's tense shoulders straightened, quickly looking over the man before his eyes narrowed in anger once again, his momentary peace gone in a flash. "You need to get your shit together, Jarrus!" Cody snapped, thrusting his finger against Kanan's chest. "All your conflict with Skywalker's kriffing clone slave is sending your scoundrel student over here! Do you have any idea how many times I've had to chase him off the ship in the past few days?!"
"Sheesh, what is it with you clones today?" Kanan muttered with a roll of his eyes. "You know, if you're going to ride my ass this hard, you better have cooked me a five course gourmet meal."
"What do you want, Jarrus..." Cody groaned, his irritation dropping away into mild annoyance as he walked tiredly past the Jedi, Kanan following close on his heels with long, slow strides. "As I've told your brat student many times, Obi-Wan isn't available."
"Maybe I just came to see you, princess..." Kanan drawled, lazily running a finger down the clone's cheek, and with a low, dangerous growl, Cody quickly slapped his hand away. "...seriously though, where's Kenobi?"
"As of this morning, he was taking a break from his meditations and was in bed with the female..." Cody grumbled. "They say they aren't breaking the most sacred rule of the Umbra, but I can't see how he isn't sinking inside her every chance he gets because she's beautiful." Cody crossed his arms over his chest indignantly when they entered the kitchen, and he leaned against the counter, shooting the Jedi a pleading look. "I mean, do you know how much easier it is to pick up women when I can flaunt a sexy ship?!"
"Actually, I do," Kanan said, pointing back toward the Ghost. "The Ghost stole my heart before I even saw Hera. When I found out Hera was the pilot, I was finished."
"Yes, well, you just spread your legs for anyone with a nice ship, you stupid slut..." Cody muttered, reaching under the counter and producing two small glasses and a bottle of what looked to be very expensive liquor. Kanan threw his hands in the air and grinned wickedly when Cody poured the deep red liquid into the glasses and slid one across the counter to him.
"Guilty as charged," he drawled, his voice lowered seductively as he brought the glass to his lips, quickly drained it, and immediately regretted it as his body objected to the burning, stinging feel of the thick liquid draining down his throat, coughing haplessly as the smug Cody casually swirled the liquor in his own glass. "Ancient Gods of the Sith, what is that?!" Kanan choked as the clone softly laughed and sipped from his own glass with no trouble at all.
"Tihaar. Mandalorian, of course." Kanan sputtered and coughed, laying his head on the table and groaning, and Cody reached over and took the bottle to fill both glasses. "Honestly, it would be good for Kenobi if he was pounding that girl into the mattress," Cody muttered when the Jedi sat up and rubbed his watering eyes. "Satine haunts him...the only reason he doesn't is because he can still feel her presence clinging to everything in the ship."
"Is that possible?" Kanan choked, picking up the glass and examining the liquid suspiciously. "I don't know if she was Force sensitive, but her child was, right? Could their spirits still be hanging on to him?"
"I don't know!" Cody scoffed, taking a sip from his glass and grimacing as it went down. "You're the one with a connection to the Force, you tell me."
"I wouldn't ask if I knew, Cody!" Kanan retorted, picking up his glass, his nose wrinkling as he smelled the contents. "Really though, I need to see him."
"Be my guest, idiot..." Cody muttered, draining the remainder of his glass and filling it up once again. "But be warned, the last time interrupted his nap, he threw me against the wall. He wasn't even asleep, he was just cuddling with the female!"
"Never interrupt a man's cuddle time, Cody, you should know that," Kanan gently chided, taking a small sip from his glass and grimacing at the burning sting. Kanan tried to stop Cody from filling up his glass again, but failed when his attention was diverted briefly by the sound of the door opening, and Kanan nearly fell off the stool when the Chiss walked in completely nude, followed by a flustered K-2SO as the droid tried unsuccessfully to get the woman to understand modesty and put some clothing on. Kanan quickly averted his eyes, his face burning fiercely when he heard her bare feet pattering close behind him as she opened the fridge and began sifting through it. Cody hardly seemed to notice.
"Oh, look," K2 said drolly when he spotted the two men drinking at the counter. "We have guests. Your lack of decorum is making Jedi Jarrus uncomfortable. Please," the droid begged, thrusting a towel toward the woman which she pointedly ignored. "For the sake of my sensibilities, cover yourself up!"
"Hah carcir ch'eo en'catavci csei ch'af'in'ev vez k'ir nah var ran'cah ch'ubarcasi," the woman said in a soft, melodic voice, and Kanan couldn't help but shiver despite how hot it was beginning to feel.
"That is hardly the point!" K2 said, his mechanical drawl affected with irritation. "This is not about my modestly, it is about yours, or your lack thereof!"
"You do what you like, you sexy thing," Cody said with a roll of his eyes. "Obi-Wan said you can do as you wish."
"I thank you for your understanding," the Chiss said, sending a sultry, triumphant look at the droid as she sidled up to the clone, her hand running over his shoulder, and she delicately perched herself counter, setting a box of cereal down and kissing Cody's cheek when he reached under the counter and produced a bowl. Kanan did what he could to avert his eyes, but the proximity of the bare, exotic non-human forced his eyes to wander, the royal blue skin smooth and hairless and in the low lighting of the room made her look like the starlit sky. She was beautiful, that could not be denied, but Kanan's chest tightened with almost painful sympathy for the woman, and he couldn't help but wonder what she had been like before she crossed paths with Darth Lumis.
"How's Kenobi?" Cody asked, his hand resting on the woman's thigh and gently petting as she poured the cereal in the bowl. Her nose wrinkled in thought as she took a bite, slowly chewing, and her eyes followed K2 as the droid lumbered over and held the towel out to her, which she slowly took and promptly dropped it on the floor with a superior, defiant smile.
"He is restless," she finally decided, tapping the clone on the nose. "You have a unique talent for bad timing. You always seem to come to him when I manage to convince him to rest."
"Sex isn't rest, Grotthu," Cody said as he patted the woman's thing and reached over to take a handful of food from her bowl, and she swiftly slapped his hand away.
"Such activities are forbidden aboard the ship," she chided, picking through the food in her bowl. "And even if Master were to permit it, he has been far too busy. He meditates. He prepares the corpses for their final destination. He breaks the Inquisitor to his will. He..." She stopped, her red eyes drifting to the ceiling and her hands placed behind her as she leaned back, her back arching as she thoughtlessly exposed the small breasts on her lithe, lean body, and Kanan, silent until now, squirmed in his seat, trying to maintain his silence. "I try to get him to rest or to lay with me, but he watches the recordings of his queen and there is nothing else. He is..." She stopped, pursed her lips, and looked up at K-2SO. "Bah in'a rt'eseci."
"Obsessed," the droid quietly translated, and the Chiss nodded.
"Thank you. Obsessed."
"You don't have to do this..." Kanan said between clenched teeth, finally unable to help himself, his eyes meeting the Chiss' eerie, glowing red, the look on her face quizzical and confused. "This!" he said, gesturing to the woman's naked body. "Kenobi doesn't own you, you don't need to...w-whatever he's done to you, it can end now. I can help you, just tell me where you want to go, and I'll take you there."
"What is it that he's done to me exactly?" she asked softly, her eyes clever and clear as she leaned in toward him, and Kanan laughed in nervous disbelief.
"You're his slave, he enslaved you," Kanan said, feeling like a fool for having to explain it. "You call him Master, certainly you know it, you must remember what you were before he came to you."
"Rvtiz..." she said under her breath. "Slave. I am not this thing you say. I can leave any time I want. Master released me long ago. I stay because I wish it." She smiled softly and leaned in toward the horrified Jedi and dragged a light, seductive touch down his cheek, a slight smile tugging at her lips when Kanan recoiled. "I give him my body because I wish it, and I am without clothes because I just finished bathing, this ship is my home, and modesty has never been my affliction."
"B-but you call him Master," Kanan weakly insisted, and the woman drew back, her hand running through her wet black hair.
"Your student calls you Master," she said quickly. "Is he your slave?"
"What?! No!" Kanan said defensively. "That is totally different. I'm his teacher!"
"And Obi-Wan is my Emperor," she said softly, and Kanan took a sharp breath in and held it. "He took me to bring Mitth'raw'nuruodo closer to him, so he could deprive our enemies of a genius tactician, so he could help save my people from the dangers in the Navun'ici'et Csaheun'i." The expression in the Chiss' strange red eyes was difficult for Kanan to interpret, but he finally recognized it as sympathy. For him. Like he were a child that couldn't understand. "His Empire will be powerful allies of my people. The current Empire will not be. I wish to serve him in this. It's only right I call him Master."
"But it wasn't always this way!" Kanan persisted, growing ever more desperate as he continued to try and champion a woman who didn't seem to want a champion. "You said it yourself, he spent time bending the Inquisitor to his will. He did the same with you, you must see that!" For a long moment, the Chiss was silent, her mouth in a thin line as she stared at the counter, her hand covering Cody's on her thigh. Slowly, she nodded to herself and looked up, her red eyes locking with Kanan and smiling softly.
"Yes..." she whispered slowly, almost thoughtful in the way the word dripped off her tongue. "I once lived in the comfort of ignorance. We are children stumbling blind through the dark. The Sith Emperor has taken my hand and guided me to the light, and by his grace, I now see."
Kanan stared at her, his jaw slack, his eyes wide and disbelieving. Was this it? She was a slave, there was no question about it, but if she believed this was her will, if she felt compelled to serve a man that had enslaved her, what right did he have to tell her different? It may be more cruel to force her to understand what Kenobi had taken from her, especially if she was safe and treated well. She was free to leave, that much was true, and the woman's skin was flawless, her body healthy and free of signs of mistreatment. Kanan wasn't sure if she was under Kenobi's thrall or if she was free from it and permanently altered, but willing servitude may have been kinder than unwilling freedom.
"I need to see him..." Kanan muttered, grabbing the bottle off the counter to Cody's protests as he pushed away from the counter and quickly strode out of the kitchen and into the dark halls beyond toward Kenobi's room. He had wanted to see Kenobi before, but now he needed to see him. His head was swimming, and while he knew that the cruel Sith would delight in his moral conflict, the part of him that was his friend would do what he could to clarify the muddled confusion he felt himself wallowing in.
Kenobi's door predictably wouldn't open, and closing his eyes, Kanan reached through the thick veil of cold in the Force and willed the door to open and quietly slipped inside, the Jedi's grip on the door slipping the moment he stepped in the room when the Dark Side closed around him, and helpless to stop it, the door slammed closed behind him. With a strained gasp, Kanan fell to his knees, his eyes shut tight and gripping his chest as he struggled to breathe. He quickly covered his ears when he heard soft, breathless chanting flitting through the very air around him, the language foreign and unknown to him, though he somehow understood the feeling. It was seductive, laden with the promise of pleasure and power in exchange for surrender, and Kanan pressed his hands against his ears tighter to drown it out, only to find that the voices remained clear, heard in his mind, not with his ears.
Taking a deep breath and steeling himself against it, he slowly opened his eyes to find Obi-Wan sitting on the ground deep in meditation, twelve triangular holocrons open and floating around him and bathing the room in a dim, eerie red light. He could hear the voices clearer now, the ancient words of the Sith Masters of old hissing their secrets to those hungry enough to listen, and while Kanan did all he could to tune them out, he could see how such a thing could lead someone into darkness. The voices alone felt good, the seductive purr of the women, the smooth, inviting drawl of the men made his very being lean toward them and crave what they offered even without understanding what it was, and Kanan quickly found himself fighting to resist the pull to the dark.
"You are troubled," Obi-Wan said, the soft accent of his voice cutting through the ethereal ancient Sith, and Kanan felt himself sigh in relief when the grip upon him lifted, his body feeling instantly lighter, as if the Sith Lord had reeled in the forces that worked to corrupt all those it touched.
"The more time I spend with you, the more my life becomes one big, muddled gray area," Kanan grumbled. "The Jedi always said that you Sith only deal in absolutes! What ever happened to that?!"
"A misnomer, I can assure you..." Obi-Wan whispered, his impassive voice cracking with a slight smile as his golden eyes opened, fiercely blazing with the power of the Dark Side. "And that is a bit of an absolutist statement, is it not?" When Kanan balked, stumbling over himself to try and form some kind of a defense, Obi-Wan chuckled softly and raised his hand to silence the man. "Let us not forget, my friend, that it was the Jedi's narrow, dogmatic viewpoint that ultimately aided in their destruction. Absolute good and evil, their rigid declarations on the matter of the Jedi Code, their frankly ridiculous assertion the Jedi are forbidden from emotions and attachments...tell me, are you not stronger for the love you feel for Hera?"
"W-well, yes, but..." Kanan growled, his teeth grinding together as the slight smirk on the Sith's face shifted from amusement to superiority. "Look, the Jedi were wrong about a lot of things, but that doesn't make the Sith right! There is good and evil in this galaxy, unquestionable, absolute good and evil! Some things are just wrong!"
"I disagree..." Obi-Wan said softly, his accented voice amused and intrigued, not defensive or aggressive like Kanan anticipated. This was, to the Sith Lord, an intellectual debate, not a justification of his beliefs. "As you said earlier, the gray area in your black and white view of life is expanding. You and your rebels murder Imperial soldiers with impunity, all in the name of freedom from an Empire you know to be oppressive and evil, but these men and women in the service of the Navy are simply fighting for the security of a government that provides for and protects their families. Are your actions not evil then, even when done in the name of a greater good?"
"...see, this is what I'm talking about..." Kanan muttered, and Obi-Wan laughed softly, reaching out and plucking a holocron out of the air and holding it lightly in his hand as the others slowly closed and floated to the ground.
"Nothing is ever simple, Kanan. You would do well to remember that." He turned the holocron over in his hand, the little pyramid different from the others surrounding him, the glowing center on this one an eerie black instead of the blood red of the rest of them. "What is troubling you?"
"Oh, I don't know..." Kanan drawled sarcastically, watching the pyramid in Kenobi's hand float into the air before the Sith Lord. "How about the fact that you keep a sex slave!?"
"Don't be absurd, I don't keep sex slaves anymore."
"I beg to differ," the Jedi said firmly. "That Chiss woman of yours-"
"May leave any time she wants," Obi-Wan interrupted, his fingers steepling together as he watched the Jedi grow more and more frustrated. "She chose to stay and serve me, and I treat her well for it. She never does anything she doesn't want to do, as I am certain she told you."
"Y-you must have changed her," Kanan growled through grit teeth. "You used your mind powers and made her think and believe exactly what you want her too! She doesn't have a will of her own, it's all your will! That's even worse than slavery!"
"I released my hold on her long ago," Obi-Wan calmly explained, sitting back on his heels and closing his eyes as he slipped one foot back into the waters of the Force. "The sort of slave you are describing is one that I can and have created, but it is at the cost of their mental faculties. Their intelligence degenerates the longer I keep them slaved to my will, and in the case of Seg'rotth'uruodo, that would be a tragic waste of a brilliant mind. She is far too intelligent for mind tricks to work for long, and whatever influence I once exerted upon her has long since vanished." Kenobi scoffed slightly as he reached out and gently spun the holocron. "That, or my mere presence indoctrinates people to y whims, in which case I am far stronger than I previously believed."
"...t-that's not actually-"
"No," Kenobi snorted, a faint smile tugging on his lips at the feel of the sudden surge of worry from the Jedi. "I'm no Darth Vitiate, despite my continuous efforts. My Chiss may have come into my possession as a slave, but she has since chosen the chains she wears." Kenobi smirked wickedly, delighting in the conflict on Kanan's face. "There's that pesky gray area you spoke of, yes?"
"But what happened was still wrong," Kanan growled. "It might be complicated now, but once, it came down to a matter of you taking everything from a free woman so you could make her yours." When the Sith Lord simply shrugged, Kanan leaned in and pointed a menacing finger at his chest. "No more slaves, Kenobi. I mean it. That is part of the reason we are fighting against the Empire now, and if we topple this regime only to instill more of the same, what's the point?!"
For a long moment, the Sith Lord was still, the edges of blood red slowly encroaching upon the burning gold eyes, but Kanan never looked away, remained unmoving in his resolve even when he felt the Dark Side clawing at the walls of his mind. "I am a Master of the Sith," Kenobi hissed, a dark undercurrent in his voice making a shiver run up Kanan's spine. "I will take anything I wish, so long as I have the power to grasp it. If my enemies stand before me, who are you to demand I not make them kneel in subservience to me? If my enemies are not made to serve me, they must be destroyed, and I have always loathed the waste of those that may yet be useful."
"Join you or die..." Kanan said softly, a clever smirk on his lips as he pointed an accusing finger at the menacing man. "The absolute of the Sith."
There was silence, the heavy sound of the moving Force suddenly stilling, the soft whisper of the holocron ceasing as the pyramid closed and floated back to Kenobi's hand. His eyes glowed dangerously, the bleeding red overtaking the gold for a moment before it swiftly receded, the menace in the predatory eyes fading into something almost soft and affectionate, and Kenobi's shoulders relaxed, the tension leaving him as he ran a hand through his hair.
"Your point it well made, Kanan," Obi-Wan said, the holocron flitting over his fingers. "When Sidious is dead, it will be up to me to remake the Sith, and we must change, lest we face extinction as the Jedi did."
"Change and adaption is the way of the Sith, right?" Kanan asked, finally allowing himself to relax, and he passed the bottle he brought from the kitchen to Kenobi.
"Change and adaption is the way of life, Kanan," Obi-Wan said as he drank from the bottle. "We progress, or we stagnate and die. It's what happened to the Jedi and the Republic when they became trapped in the mire of their own complacency."
"Maybe the new Jedi will be different," Kanan said, taking the bottle from Obi-Wan when he handed it back, and the Jedi wrinkled his nose as he took a small sip of the burning liquid, the Sith Lord chuckling in amusement as he watched Kanan struggle with the drunk that he was well accustomed to. "How goes your meditation?"
"...not well," Obi-Wan muttered, using the Force to bring the bottle back to him and he quickly drained the remaining half of the bottle. "All my visions lead to my defeat and enslavement to Sidious. It's becoming more frequent. Clearer. Soon it will be upon me, and the more I see it, the more inevitable it seems." Obi-Wan took a deep, shuddering breath and cast his eyes down to the holocron in his hands, the silence deafening as Kanan patiently waited for him to continue. "What's worse is I can't see past it," he whispered, grabbing the holocron and grasping it so tightly the edges dug into his palm. "I have always been far-sighted, but now, the Force will not allow me to see beyond it..."
"That can't be good..." Kanan said, his chest tightening as he looked at the Sith Lord, a man that looked far younger than his years. "Is there any way to interpret that beyond the obvious?"
"What, beyond the idea that the Force may very soon have no further use for me?" Obi-Wan laughed bitterly, levitating the holocron before him and watching as blood dripped off the edges and fell heavy to the floor. Kanan quickly slid over to his side and took his hand in his own, his fingers running over the bleeding gashes in the Sith's palm with the warm touch of the Force as he began to heal. He wasn't proficient in the skill, but Kanan understood the basics of it.
"Beyond that, yes..."
"...I don't know," Obi-Wan muttered. "Visions are often difficult to interpret. It could be that Sidious is somehow using it to cloud my ability to see further, but...I don't know, Yoda believes the vision to be genuine."
"So we'll take steps to avoid it," Kanan said, sounding more confident than he felt, and he frowned when he looked at Obi-Wan's bleeding hand, his attempts to heal not nearly so effective as he hoped. "It's clearer now, right? We can use this to avoid the entire situation."
"It's not so simple..." Obi-Wan said, flexing his hand when Kanan redoubled his healing efforts. "It may be more clear, but that doesn't mean it makes sense. It isn't the Emperor's throne room like I originally thought, it's..." He growled in frustration, his eyes closed as he plunged into the Force and glanced at the vision before him as it swiftly took shape around him. "It's...some large enclosed chamber, a shrine of some kind. It looks a bit like the ancient Sith Temples I have been to, but..." He slowly shook his head, taking in very detail of the room around him, from the smooth, black walls, the large, spear shaped alter in the center of the room as electricity arched around it, the deep, glowing red engravings on the floor and the walls. It was all so familiar, though entirely foreign to him. He had never been here before, but he somehow knew this place.
"So...we're looking for a Sith Temple?" Kanan asked, laughing easily when the Sith Lord opened his eyes. "No problem there, we'll just avoid Sith Temples. Done, we already avoid those."
"No, no, this one is different, this one is...active, and all the ones I know of are long drained of the power they once possessed." Obi-Wan casually gestured with his hand, the holocrons gently rising in the air, though they remained closed, a courtesy to the Jedi as he cautiously eyed them. "This one felt like...like a weapon."
"...could that be what the Empire is building?"
"That very well may be." Obi-Wan cleared his throat when Kanan's hand tensed around his and began to shake, and he could feel how out of his depth, how afraid the Jedi was of the gravity of the situation. "That is why I have a plan. We must assume that this vision will come to pass, so I have been studying in order to see if I can avert the fate the Force has shown me. I have so far been unsuccessful with the study of the holocrons I possess, so I must turn to knowledge I have yet to have obtained." Obi-Wan stopped and carefully observed the uneasy Jedi before him. "What do you know of the history of the Sith?"
"Very little," Kanan said quietly. "That stuff wasn't for younglings and Padawans."
"Those stories aren't for anyone, not even the Sith to which it belongs," Kenobi scoffed. "Much of our history was lost to us when our Order was destroyed. The Jedi did what they could to erase their ancient enemies from history and destroy the records of their feats with the Force, and they were largely successful. What the Sith know now of what we once were is a mere shadow of our former greatness."
"But you do know some," Kana carefully ventured, and Obi-Wan leaned back with a pleasured, wistful sigh.
"Oh yes. You Jedi know nothing, but the Sith have passed down stories of those that came before us, even if their knowledge is lost. There are legends of the Sith Lords of old, beings so powerful that their names were enough to instill terror in the hearts of all that spoke of them. Sith like Nihilus and Vitiate, Sion and Bane, Exar Kun and Traya, Revan and Malak." He gestured to the holocrons that floated around them, the glowing red cores dim as they waited to be opened. "I have the holocrons of some of them and several others, but Sidious has more. He knows more, and if I'm going to avoid this fate, I need to learn things he does not know. Most of these holocrons came from him, and that isn't good enough. I need new information, holocrons that he hasn't recovered, power I can use against him that he hasn't seen before."
"This knowledge has been lost for thousands of years, hasn't it?" Kanan asked. "And you said that the Jedi destroyed most of it. What do you suppose are your chances of actually finding something?"
"Very high..." Obi-Wan whispered, excitement straining his voice as he tapped one of the holocrons, the little pyramid spinning rapidly in the air. "I...felt something the other day. A pulse in the Force that could be felt in the very heart of the Dark Side."
"Wait, I felt that..." Kanan said quietly, leaning in as if it was some great secret. "Ahsoka did too, we thought it was you waking up."
"No..." Obi-Wan muttered. "That wasn't me."
"Kenobi, this sounds like a trap," Kanan said cautiously. "We already know that the Emperor is out to get you, and with that vision of yours drawing closer, it could very well be that your search for the power to avoid your fate could very well lead you right to it."
"That may be..." Obi-Wan quietly agreed. "And if the Force leads me to Darth Sidious, then so be it, but if I sit and do nothing, I will certainly fall when the Emperor comes, but if I do this, I may have a chance. I'm not going down without a fight, Kanan," Obi-Wan said quietly, his hand tightening around the Jedi's. "I can promise you that."
"...alright," Kanan said after a moment as he patted the Sith Lord's shoulder and stood up. "I'm with you, Kenobi, in this and in your hunt for the Inquisitors."
"If I play my cards right, we may be able to lure the Inquisitors to these places and take care of both things at once."
"Ambitious idiot..." Kanan muttered with a roll of his eyes, and Obi-Wan chuckled softly, his hand waving in the air and a drawer on his desk opened.
"Thank you, Kanan," Obi-Wan said, three blue cubes floating from the desk drawer to his extended palm, a small smirk on his face when Kanan's eyes widened. "For a Jedi, you're not so bad." With a flick of his hand, the three cubes drifted up to float before Kanan, and with his breath held, Kanan hesitantly reached out and touched the nearest one, a soft gasp on his lips when he felt the warm trembling of the Force, a breath of fresh air in the oppression of the Dark Side. "Jedi holocrons," Kenobi quietly explained to the dumbfounded man. "I've no use for them anymore. I've learned all I could from them, and I can't open the stupid things anyway. They're yours, if you'd like them."
"I-I would..." Kanan said breathlessly, almost reverently taking them into his hands, and he laughed softly when he looked at the three gently glowing cubes. "I suppose the Jedi are quite a lot like the Sith now. I can't imagine the Emperor kept the holocrons we kept in the Vaults. Our...history is gone, it's..." He choked, his eyes quickly flicking to the ground as he bit back a sudden surge of emotion for the past he thought he had left behind him. "Thank you, Obi-Wan. For a Sith, you're not so bad yourself."
"Right, time for you to go, Kanan," Obi-Wan said, jumping to his feet, the Sith holocrons clattering to the ground with a sharp ring as he put his hand on Kanan's back and led him to the door. "If this gets any more sentimental, we're going to end up making sweet, sweet love on every surface of the ship, and Cody will never let me live that down."
"And we can't afford to upset that clone..." Kanan said with a roll of his eyes. "Unlike Rex, Cody has killed a Jedi."
"Yes, but he's out of practice," Obi-Wan said as he led him out into the hall and leaned in the doorway, willing to go no further from the confines of his room. "Empire Day's coming up soon, and by the time it's over, my preparations should be complete."
"I'll be ready," Kanan said, clutching the holocrons tightly. "Don't worry, Obi-Wan. Whatever this vision of yours is, we'll find a way to save you from it."
"That is the desired outcome, yes..." the Sith Lord said, his eyes sliding out of focus as he slipped back into the Force. "I'm not finished yet, I can't be, not yet...there is so much I have yet to do..." He didn't feel Kanan's hand slip from his shoulder, didn't hear the Jedi's gentle reassurance, didn't see the man leave down the hallway. All he could see before him was Darth Sidious, his pale yellow eyes alight with cruelty and hunger and triumph, his mocking laughter echoing in his ears.