CALIGINOUS
Summary: AU Qui-Gon does not die on Naboo. Jealousy has taken hold of Obi-Wan who is later killed, evil has stirred in the heart of the Republic, and any who oppose Chancellor Palpatine are mysteriously murdered. A new Dark Lord of the Sith has come into being.
Rated PG-13 for dark themes.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I am making no profit from this.
The following day the Jedi Council received a message from Byss. An explosion had occurred at a start-up factory building of Byss Industries that made speeders and leather products to match. The local law enforcement explored the ruins in search of a cause and found the remains of two bodies. The first was identified by means of DNA testing on the scene as Vlog Incestor. The second was identified by dental records as Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi who had been hunting him. The investigators concluded that Incestor had set a trap for the Jedi, but he too was caught in it when it when his bomb exploded.
The security of Byss informed the Council that there was so little left of Obi-Wan's body that they saw it futile to send it to them. They did, however send them the one thing that did survive the blast and the burning, the blue Adegan crystal from his lightsaber.
That evening, many eyes were not completely dry in remembrance of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
His steps, heavy with grief, sounded hallow as Qui-Gon made his way to the Halls of the Remembered to witness a few Councilmen put Obi-Wan's name plaque up beside all the other deceased Jedi's name plaques. He straightened the old kinks out his back and raised his head to watch the ceremony. In a small metal support that protruded from the plaque, the crystal was placed. The grime had been cleaned off and its azure beauty shone through to all who would see, boring its radiant perfection into Qui-Gon's heart.
How that stone reflected Obi-Wan's nature! So pure and virtuous, yet he had left Qui-Gon angry and hurt. If only he could have removed the grime that encrusted Obi-Wan that were caused by his last words to him, then perhaps he could have been at peace with his Master when he died.
But Qui-Gon hadn't.
And he could never forgive himself for it.
For the first two months, Obi-Wan was more prisoner than student.
His new Master did not trust him and rarely even saw him. Automated droids were his caretakers, were it called that. The machines purposefully malnourished him, refused him sunlight, refused him space to move around in. All the while he was trapped in a set of rooms the size of a small house, he ached to be free and regretted his hasty decision to be a Sith. But steadily, with clockwork automatism, the droids weakened him until he was deemed safe to travel, which made very little sense to Obi-Wan, who was finding it didn't take much to make him feel dizzy.
When they finally did transport him, he was surprised to find they took him off planet, to Coruscant, of all places. Wondering who his Master truly was, and when he was going to eat next, he was delivered to the very personal, very security tight room of Chancellor Palpatine.
He would never forget that day. The shock of finding out that the man the Jedi Council searched for as the source of evil in the galaxy was in charge of the very thing they were trying to protect was enough to render the generally well-spoken Obi-Wan speechless. He remembered his knees weakening, threatening to buckle under him, when his Master revealed himself. The frustration of it all, the sickening irony, the outrage that struck the mind with sharp precision was enough to make him purposefully go down on one knee and pledge his undying loyalty to his Master, Darth Sidious.
He knew that if he were to save the galaxy, he would have to join the Dark Side.
His naïve belief was abandoned soon after his training began.
Only in his nightmares that needed close examination because of their horror did training like this exist. Firstly, there were two ways of going about training: correct and incorrect. The correct path only lead him on to harder training. The incorrect path lead to physical retribution that could easily be the death of him if it went too far.
With the fear of failure to drive him, Obi-Wan found himself drawing strength from the very places he had been taught not to draw them from. The way he was being taught to embrace all his emotions and tap the vast unstable power that lay nestled deep within him was so unsettling that several times during the first few days he nearly broke down. Emotions were not meant to be used as a tool of destruction. Emotions were a part of the Human psyche and were necessary to mental health. Emotions were not to control your actions.
Everything Obi-Wan had learned as a Jedi was conflicting with his learning as a Sith and it aroused such fragility in him he found he was often wrestling with his beliefs.
He was afraid that Darth Sidious would see this weakness and punish him for it. He might even be deemed too weak to be a Sith and killed. Obi-Wan could not afford to be killed when the fate of the Republic rested mightily on his shoulders.
But on the ninth day, after an intense session of practicing with a staff against several specially built attack droids, his Master approached him.
"I sense weakness," he said simply.
Obi-Wan's breath, already hard to catch after the exercise, became stiff in his lungs. The last thing he wanted was a confrontation about this haunting matter.
"What do you have to say, apprentice?" Sidious asked.
"I-" he said. "I am unaccustomed to this."
"Of course you are," Sidious said. "The Jedi have taught you to suppress your power. To keep it locked away in a place they think is safe, along with all your true emotions. You must learn to free your mind of such silly ideals."
"Yes, Master," Obi-Wan said quietly, amazed that he had avoided a punishment. His Master had shown before that he didn't mind striking him with lightning, or locking him away in a small room, or starving him until he was perfectly obedient once again.
"Practice again, my apprentice," Sidious said. "Imagine you are fighting your former Master. Let the hate flow into the battle. Let it give you the strength he will never have so you may defeat him."
Obi-Wan still found it hard to imagine killing the man he'd considered a father for over ten years of his life, but he knew he had to abandon that mental training if he was going to survive his training and defeat the Sith.
His anger vented into his battle techniques and he found himself making more and more violent moves. By the time his exercise was over, he'd destroyed two droids and his Master was pleased.
"You would have killed Qui-Gon Jinn," he congratulated. "And his Padawan."
Obi-Wan jerked out of his Dark Side in sickness and he was horrified at himself. Darth Sidious sensed this rejection and knew he would have to press his student harder if he were to be the perfect student he continually sought after.
"Yet, you are still puny," the Master said on a disappointed sigh. Obi-Wan tensed slightly, expecting punishment. "You still think like a Jedi. And those who think like a Jedi, suffer like a Jedi."
Under the lightning of his Master, Obi-Wan suffered.
It took four years to change a pure, virtuous, well-meaning young man into the dark, cruel and malicious man he was when he slaughtered Challiner and his family during the dark. The first few weeks of training had been hard, but after he adopted the name of a Sith Lord and convinced himself that Obi-Wan Kenobi was dead, it had been so much easier to fall to the Dark Side.
He had finally decided on Darth Caliginous. To be so dark that light itself was swallowed by his presence was his goal and he reached it with the help of his Master.
Caliginous killed whoever stood in the way of his Master's political life. He did so quietly and secretively with his red-bladed lightsaber and always during the night. He killed single politicians, or just their spouses, or even their entire families; whatever his Master commanded of him, he did so.
He spent four years plotting to kill Qui-Gon Jinn and Anakin Skywalker. Over and over, he replayed how he'd do it in his mind and relished every bloody moment of it with sadistic ecstasy. Sidious was well aware of what was on his student's mind and as he stood at a balcony one night, overlooking the sparkling city of Coruscant. There was no one to kill or threaten that night; plans were made on such nights, and Sidious had approached him to address the subject of Caliginous' desires.
"I know of what your heart desires, my young apprentice," he said quietly.
Caliginous said nothing, for he had nothing to say.
"I know you want to kill the Jedi who abandoned you," he continued. "And perhaps I can arrange it."
Caliginous turned to his Master and knelt before him.
"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, Master."
Sidious smiled. "You have come so far, yet a final test is in order. There is a politician named Challiner who is too snoopy for his own good. I would appreciate it if he cured of this fatal curiosity."
"Yes, my Master," Caliginous answered immediately, waiting for his Master to give him permission to kill Qui-Gon Jinn.
"I would like you leave behind evidence this time," Sidious said and for a moment Caliginous was surprised. He had never left behind evidence before. He had never even been told to not leave behind evidence, he was so good at his job.
"I will insist that Master Jinn take the case, since the evidence will take him to Byss, the planet Obi-Wan Kenobi was killed on."
The old part inside him twitched at the sound of its name, but he smothered it with his inner darkness before his Master could notice.
"And there, you will kill him. The boy too."
"Master," Caliginous said cautiously. "The boy is exceedingly powerful. Suppose if he were to be turned, he would make a most powerful ally."
"Or perhaps not," Sidious said, offending his student's pride. "The Jedi may be blind, but they are not stupid. They will notice the disappearance of their Chosen One, and they will not accept the fact that he has been killed as easily as they accepted the fact that Kenobi had been killed. Their investigations could expose us."
Caliginous felt an angry sting snap through him, almost issuing a rumbling growl. He clamped down hard on his mind, pressing his brain down hard to keep angry memories from flooding back to him. Memories of the mere child who was more important than he. Memories of the betrayal he had felt. Memories of the sheer audacity of his own silly Master. He pressed down harder, wished he could squeeze his brain and erase those memories that pained him when he wasn't careful with himself.
But then, in the manner he had been taught, he tapped into his livid emotions and drew a dark power from them. His gain of might from the hot emotions gave him the strength he needed to think clearly, and he did. A comforting thought came to him. He was more powerful than he had been before. He was more powerful than Qui-Gon and his precious Anakin. He was more powerful than any Jedi, and he could take on any one his Master wished. To think, turning Skywalker, the epitome pride and joy of Qui-Gon Jinn, against the Jedi... The evil the boy would do would be Caliginous' ultimate insult to his former Master.
"If Skywalker made the decision to turn, perhaps the Council would be more accepting of the lie we will feed them," Caliginous suggested. "If he does not struggle, it will go unnoticed through the Force."
"Yes," Sidious said in thought. "Yes. If it weren't against his will, it could be done. Otherwise, he must be killed."
"Of course my Master," the student said obediently.
Qui-Gon surveyed the murder scene with a keen eye and a troubled spirit. Challiner had been a close personal friend of Palpatine's and the Chancellor himself asked Qui-Gon to look into the case.
He had left Anakin at the Jedi Temple. He didn't want his student of thirteen exposed the death and horror of the scene.
Challiner and his wife had been beheaded by a lightsaber blade. Even their six-year-old daughter had been killed similarly. Neither of the two females were violated and it seemed that whoever killed them was interested in only doing that. This assassin didn't care for his own gruesome pleasures, signifying his professional conduct. When the weapon, the nature of the murders and the lack of amateurism were all tallied together it all added up to a very dangerous person.
One of the chief policemen approached Qui-Gon. He was uneasy because he had just taken several photographs of the girl's room where her body was in bed and her head was not.
"Do you think it was Aurra Sing?" he asked. "I've heard of her before, and how she kills Jedi and keeps their lightsabers as keepsakes."
"Aurra Sing does not wear men's shoes," Qui-Gon said, his blue eyes cast downward on the footprints that were imprinted in the carpet. "These are too large and wide to be a woman's."
"Maybe they're Challiner's," the policeman suggested.
"These footprints come from the balcony," Qui-Gon said, tracking the print with his sharp eyes. "They go to the bed, then to the girl's bedroom, and then out the balcony again. These are the murderer's footprints."
"Sir!" another official called from the girl's room. "I think I've found something!"
"What is it?" Qui-Gon asked, then to the official, "Tread carefully." He entered the room. The body had been covered with a cadaver sheet, but it was still unsettling to think there was a dead child in the room.
"I heard what you were saying about the footprints, sir," he said. "And I think I found a word in the footprints."
They knelt down and the man indicated a small smudge of letters that spread from heal to toe in the print. He examined the prints in the room and then the others, not wanting to believe what he was reading. He did not want to continue the case if the letters spelled what he thought they did. Old wounds long since healed would open again and he knew Palpatine would want to see this case out through to the end. After all, it was Challiner who had helped Palpatine settle the planet he would have to go to.
But finally, he had to agree with the security officials.
"Yes," he said heavily. "It does say BYSS INDUSTRIES."
Why Byss of all places?
No matter how Qui-Gon had argued with the Council and Palpatine, he was still cinched into going to the planet where Obi-Wan had lost his life in defense of the Republic.
Qui-Gon knew that as a Jedi and a civilized man he should not curse anyone, but he truly hated Vlog Incestor for blowing himself up along with his former student. The magnitude of Obi-Wan's death was what hurt him the most. The most of his old Padawan the authorities had extracted from the blast site was among other bones, a shattered maxilla and chunks of a mandible. The carbon scoring was so thorough DNA testing was out of the question and they needed his dental records in order to determine whether or not it had belonged to him.
It had.
He hoped that Obi-Wan had died quickly and without pain. Every Master hoped that of his Padawan, and every Padawan in turn hoped that of his Master. Perhaps, in this instance, he had hoped not in vain. If the explosion was that immense and intense, it might have incinerated him instantly.
To think like this twisted Qui-Gon's heart.
Another aspect of Obi-Wan's death that pained Qui-Gon was Obi-Wan's age. He had been so young at twenty-five, hardly starting his own life as an adult with no teacher to guide him, take charge of him, or influence his decisions. The injustice of his premature death was just as aggravating as the death of a baby, because both, in a sense, were just beginning their lives.
Anakin was acutely aware of his Master's sufferings. While they were traveling aboard a Republic ship on their way to Byss, Anakin had sat beside his brooding Master and touched his arm with all the gentleness his childlike manner could manage.
"I know," he said quietly.
"Do you, Padawan?" Qui-Gon asked.
"I know what it's like to lose a loved one," Anakin said. "I can feel you suffer for Obi-Wan. I suffer with you."
"It's just that," Qui-Gon said unsteadily. "Sometimes I'm haunted by my memory of him."
Anakin nodded. "Sometimes I get the feeling that he isn't really dead."
"I suffer from that also," Qui-Gon said, rubbing his forehead and eyebrows. "And I wonder, if he really is alive, why can I not sense him? Why didn't he come home? Is he unable to come home? Is he hurt some where that I can't reach him? It is a terrible feeling that taunts me, Padawan."
"So, it is better that he is dead," Anakin said. "And at the same time, it's worse."
Qui-Gon nodded and chuckled ruefully. "You do know, don't you Padawan?"
Anakin shrugged and smiled a little. "Sometimes."
The moment they stepped off the ship they were attacked by a group of uniformed thugs bearing all varieties of weapons the Republic had outlawed. Qui-Gon and Anakin dispatched of them quickly and Qui-Gon wasted no time to interrogate one that had survived and had not been so quick to flee.
"Are you working for Byss Industries?" he asked.
"N-no," the man said, surprised by the question. "Please don't kill me sir."
"Who do you work for?" Anakin asked.
The man didn't hesitate. "A smuggler named Doraan Tiillen. He got word somehow that Jedi were coming and he freaked."
"Does he have any connections with Byss Industries?" Qui-Gon asked.
"He does some work for them sometimes," the man said.
"Anything now?" Anakin asked.
"Nothing now," he said. "He bolted when he heard you guys were coming and told us to stay behind."
"Does he have any connections with senator Challiner?" Anakin asked.
"Yeah," the man said, sounding surprised again. "Challiner's the one who funds Byss Industries. Well, funded. He's dead now, right? Oh, please don't kill me."
"Which way to Byss Industries?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Down the avenue here," the man said. "Huge factory building. New-looking. The old one was destroyed a few years ago."
"You've been helpful," Qui-Gon said, letting him go. "Now why don't you go home and reconsider your line of work?"
"I thought you'd never ask," the man said nervously. Anakin gawked at his Master as the man walked away from the scene of the attack.
"Why'd you do that?" he asked. "He was a bad guy!"
"Was he, Anakin?" Qui-Gon said, turning playful. "He appeared to be a little on the naughty side, but his heart was in the right place. He was just following orders. You can't punish people for thinking someone else's thoughts."
"But he wanted to kill us!" Anakin said, following his Master as he walked down the avenue. "It's against the law of the Republic to attempt to kill a Jedi!"
"But it is often forgiven," Qui-Gon said. "In cases such as this."
"But-"
"Just think about what I've said, Anakin," Qui-Gon interrupted. "People can surprise you. Just wait to let their real selves shine through."
"Yes Master," Anakin said, although he did not completely understand what his Master was saying.
"In the meantime, I'll call for backup," Qui-Gon said, reaching for him comlink. "I get the feeling that Doraan Tiillen is going to be a very slippery character."
To Be Concluded...