Twisted inside chapter 31
"Come on Obi-wan we're almost there!" Anakin said half carrying half dragging his friend over a long and wide bridge that lead to what seemed to be their salvation from the beast that had been chasing them since they crashed. The beast were still right behind them, still hungry, ready to leap on the both of them the moment they slowed down. "Obi-wan help me with the door" Anakin said breathlessly as he lifted up his free hand toward the door. Obi-wan in a similar fashion lifted his hand and together they reached out with the force toward the massive doors and pushed. As the two drew closer to the double doors that were beginning to part with a loud creaking sound Anakin picked up his pace pushing his already tired body further. When the doors were opened just enough Anakin twisted his body quickly squeezing through the gap. Dropping Obi-wan he quickly turned and reached out with both hands he pushed the doors closed right as the beast reached the massive doors.
One of the beast threw itself against the door trying to push its way in and even though the doors shook slightly they held sealing the beasts outside. Exhausted Anakin turned around and sunk to the floor. The young Jedi Knight took a moment to catch his breath and take in his surrounded, just because they were inside didn't mean that they were out of danger. Closing his eyes Anakin reached out with the force and probed the area around them to see if there was any danger in the immediate area, aside from the beasts just outside. After a moment he sighed in relief "We're safe, for the moment" he said to Obi-wan who had managed to sit up by himself.
"I don't sense anything either but we still need to be careful, the darkside is much stronger here" Obi-wan replied a moment to relax himself.
"I can feel it" Anakin replied with a nod, the darkside was much stronger here so strong in fact that it made him a bit dizzy. "Still let's take a moment to rest then I'll go check this place out just to make sure" he added.
Nodding Obi-wan found a crumbled pillar that he could rest his back against and take some pressure off of his wound.
"I sense Ahsoka's presence its faint, why would she have come to a place like this?" Anakin asked aloud.
"Well I don't think it was for the scenery or the company of the locals" Obi-wan replied.
Looking at his friend Anakin couldn't help but crack a small smile, even in a shitty situation like this Obi-wan could still crack a joke. Turning his head Anakin continued to look around "This place almost looks like some kind of training area or temple of some sort" he said.
"That would explain why the darkside is so strong in the area but still this place has to be several thousands of years old at least, to think even after all that time it could leave such a deep impression" Obi-wan replied looking around the room for himself.
The older Jedi master turned and looked at Anakin as he old apprentice rose to his feet "where are you going?" he asked.
"I'm going to have a look around and make sure non of those creatures are in here" Anakin said.
Obi-wan tried to push himself to his feet but Anakin put his hand on his shoulder "you should stay here and rest Obi-wan. I won't go to far, just yell if you get into any trouble."
Obi-wan wanted to argue but he was too exhausted "just be careful" he said to his old padawan.
Anakin nodded and headed off deeper into the temple with lightsaber in hand.
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Obi-wan wasn't sure exactly when he had fallen asleep but when he came too he suddenly found himself standing in front of the Jedi temple. He was stuck with horror at the site before him, the once great Jedi temple was in ruins, there were countless bodies of Jedi, clone trooper and civilian alike scattered everywhere. His ears rang with the sounds of distance screaming and calls for help. Obi-wan couldn't stop the shiver from running down his back as his eyes fell upon some kind of beast who he could only assume was the cause of all this destruction.
Not far from where the Jedi master was standing a Jedi padawan no more than fifteen years of age was trying to crawl away. His robes were torn, her leg was twisted in such a way that left Obi-wan with the assumption that the leg was broken. The padawan was crying clutching her lightsaber in one hand and using her shoulders to pull herself forward. Suddenly the padawan screamed as long sharp black claws pierced her back. Obi-wan winched as the sound of bones breaking and the padawans blood curdling scream. His eyes widened in horror as the beast tore the girl's spin right out of her back killing the girl instantly.
Obi-wan reached down to where his lightsaber was clipped to his belt but found his weapon missing. He looked down and immediately had to cover his ears as a roar, animalist in nature pounded against his ears. He looked back up as everything suddenly froze around him and a bright light appeared next to him in the shape of an orb.
"What...what's going on, where am I, Who are you?" Obi-wan asked.
The bright orb spun almost as if it had a face to look at him and with a voice that seemed to echo all around him it said "I am Ashla and what you see before you is but a fraction of the destruction that Bogan will bring upon the galaxy."
"Ashla...Bogan?" the Jedi master asked.
"You would call us the light and darkside of the force" the orb replied.
Obi-wan's face scrunched up in confusion as he turned in looked at the strange floating orb next to him "that's not possible… I mean the force manifesting itself in such a way, it's never been heard of" he said.
The orb tilted his head clockwise as if cocking its head to one side puzzled by his statement and after a moment the orb began to lose it shape as it morphed into the shape of a sentient being. Obi-wans's eyes widened as he watched the orb seemingly take shape of someone who he thought had died long ago, the Daughter.
"Wait...you're alive? I thought... I thought the Son killed you back on Mortis?" Obi-wan stated in bewilderment.
"What you see before you is simply a projection of the last vessel that I dwelled within" Ashla replied. Seeing the human's confusion Ashla began to explain "for sentient beings such as yourself to be able to use the force both light and dark, both Bogan and I must take vessels; we must live within beings such as those who you met on Mortis. The Son was Bogan's vessel and the Daughter was my vessel, the Father was the balance we shared during our time there."
Still perplexed Obi-wan turned again to looked at the carnage all around him. The temple stairs stained with blood and the insides of both Jedi and clone trooper covered the ground. The statues of once great Jedi now lay in pieces and Obi-wan was just able to make out the shapes of hands and legs sticking out from the broken pieces of statue. They were Jedi who were crushed by the destruction. There were men, women and children of all ages and races mixed in with the dead, some were little more than ash piles on the ground while others...there weren't words to describe the carnage he saw before him.
"H-how did this happen?" Obi-wan asked forcing his eyes away from a body of a dead child no more than six or seven years of age who seemed to be reaching out to his mother in his final moments.
"What you see has not yet come to pass. However, if Bogan is not stopped and the bond between Bogan and it's vessel is completed what you is nothing compared to what Bogan will unleash on the rest of the galaxy" Ashla replied with a saddened soft voice.
"Bogan's vessel? You mean it already has one? Who is it and how do we stop them?" Obi-wan asked his normally calm voice began to panic slightly.
Ashla shook her head "By yourself you will fail, the galaxy will be destroyed and everything will die. Bogan is simply too strong for you to face alone."
"Then what can we do, there has to be something" Obi-wan replied.
Ashla turned and pointed at the beast "As I have said, Bogan already possess a vessel"
"What are you saying? Are you saying that we're already to late!? That the galaxy is doomed to be destroyed?" Obi-wan asked.
Again Ashla shook her head "No, there is a way we can stop it and if time permitted I would have liked to have found a suitable vessel but time is almost up." she replied turning back to face Obi-wan. "I need a vessel to to stop Bogan and so Obi-wan I am asking you, will you be my vessel so that together we can stop the destruction of everything"
If his eyes could have opened in wider, they would have been the size of the planet of Coruscant itself as Obi-wan was shocks speechless at what Ashla had just asked him. The first thought that came to him that somehow he had become delusional in his sleep or that somehow be had been drugged. Ashla, the lightside of the force itself was asking him to be its vessel; it was unthinkable. Everything he had learned about the force ever since he was a youngling told him this was impossible, that what Ashla had told him about them needed vessels to give sentient beings the ability to use the force was a lie. And yet, for some strange unknown reason he believed every word Ashla said but he didn't know why.
His throat suddenly felt dry, dry as the sand dunes of Tatooine. It was impossible...wasn't it? Where the Jedi wrong about how force sensitives came to be, that it wasn't their midichlorian count but by the force itself inhabiting a mortal vessels. As millions of questions flew threw his mind he found that he could only ask this one "Why me?" he said.
"To be honest if I had the time I would have found a more open vessel, one that wasn't raise on the false presumption that love was bad and emotions where to be pushed away" Ashla replied. "Time is short however and I must know your answer Obi-wan, if not then I must hurry to find another vessel before it is to late" she continued.
Obi-wan shook his head in confusion "but I don't understand…" he said.
Ashla reached up and touched Obi-wan's forehead and suddenly they were in space floating above the planet of Coruscant. The massive city planet was usually light up so brightly that you could see the lights from space but what Obi-wan saw instead sent another cold shiver down his spine. The planet itself was rotting cracking and coming apart piece by piece.
"Everything will die if Bogan succeedes; Bogan won't stop until everything is gone. It will destroy everything including me" Ashla said.
Obi-wan gaze immediately turned to Ashla, his mouth agape "destroy you?" he asked.
Ashla nodded "If Bogan's power goes unchecked and enough negative emotions are present it is possible for Bogan to destroy me."
Obi-wan was silent as he tried to wrap his mind around this information.
"You can feel it can't you, as Bogan grows stronger I grow weaker and if I do not find a vessel then all hope for the galaxy and everything good will vanish" Ashla said looking at the human before it "So I ask you again Obi-wan will you be my vessel?"
Surely there was someone else better suited for this task them he, he could think of several other Jedi who were better canadated. "How...how would this even work?" he found himself asking.
"Open yourself up to me, to the lightside of the force. A bond will grow between us allowing you to access power that not even the strongest of your kind could ever wield. Once that is done I will begin to train you in the ways of the light but the road before you is not easy, many trials will await you before you are ready to face Bogan's vessel and save the galaxy. Now you must decide" Ashla said.
Silently Obi-wan looked back at the planet of Coruscant and the destruction that the darkside would cause. He couldn't let innocent people die, he couldn't let everything be destroyed and it was then he realized that he only had one option. Turning his head back to Ashla and taking a deep breath he nodded "I accept."
As the Jedi master uttered those words the world around him fell into darkness and the only light was Ashla. He watched as Ashla in the form of the Daughter distort and morph back into the ball of light. The ball of light floated there for a moment before speaking "open yourself to me." Carefully and hesitantly Obi-wan opened himself up to the force and the lightside and a second later the ball of light slammed into his chest and he blacked out.
Obi-wan bolted upright gasping as if he had had the air knocked right out of his lungs and quickly looked around. He was no longer floating above Coruscant in space and he was no longer standing before the ruins of the Jedi temple. He was back, back on Malachor V, right in the same spot he had sat down. Taking a moment to catch his breath Obi-wan shook his head back and forth "that was one hell of a dream" he said and yet he had a strange feeling that what he had seen had been anything but that.
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After a rather long day of training Ahsoka found her left foot was starting to hurt. Thankfully Bogan had given her some free time and so Ahsoka had sat down on the ground and was rubbing her foot. She didn't remember stubbing her foot on anything so she didn't know why her foot was suddenly killing her. Using her other foot Ahsoka peeled the boot off of her foot and her eyes widened a bit when she noticed holes in her legges where her toes were at. Long black nails were poking out of the holes in her legging. "What the…" she said in confusion as she reached up and pulled the legging off of her leg.
The long tendril like tattoo that was on her leg was now covering most of her leg and what wasn't covered by the swirling and branching tendril exposed the deep black veins underneath her pale skin. What confused her wasn't the tendril like tattoo or even the almost sickening looking veins but was the black toenails that came to a sharp tip. Reaching down with her claw like left hand Ahsoka gently felt her toenails and could tell that they were indeed very sharp.
Her eyes slowly shifted from her toenails to the claw like nails of her black left hand. Could those be just as sharp, she asked herself. Ahsoka closed her hand into a fist and using only her index finger she gently dragged her nail against her right legs and immediately hissed in pain as the skin broke and deep red blood started to roll down the side of her leg. "Wow…" she whispered in surprise, she had barely used any force at all and had managed to cut herself as if she had been using a very sharp knife. It was then that Ahsoka realised that she had to be careful and remember which hand to scratch herself with when she had an itch.
Taking a moment Ahsoka focused and calling on the power of the darkside she watched as the cut began to heal before her eyes as if it had never been there before. It was a new technique Bogan had taught her in case she were to ever get injured. Her eyes moved back to her toenails then to the nails on her hands "one hell of a toothpick" she said aloud. Reaching over Ahsoka grabbed her boot and gently put it back while leaving her left legging off. After all it was pretty much useless now that it had holes in it so she saw no need to put it back on.
The young togruta rose to her feet and decided to return to training. Bogan had told her to take a break and vanished for a bit but Ahsoka wanted to keep going. Once again she reached out to the force and felt the darkside rush to her call and surround her. Focusing her mind black mist started to envelope her and she vanished reappearing all the way on the other side of the camp. She couldn't help but smile at her own accomplishment, the ability to teleport herself was coming a lot easier to her. It didn't require near as much concentration and she was able to move a lot further now than when she first learned this ability.
As she appeared Ahsoka lifted her left clawed hand toward another one of the broken down buildings. Black tendrils slithered down her arm like a serpent and formed a ball in her hand. The black ball of tendrils launched from her hand and right before it reached the building the ball exploded and tendrils wrapped themselves around the building devouring it and leaving nothing but ash for remains. She then followed it up with force lightning that crackled down her arm and fingers launching themselves a tree that was just behind the building. The crimson arks of energy struck the tree and blowing a good chunk right out of the tree.
The young togruta began to smile as she closed her clawed hand into a tight fist and the tree snapped into like it was nothing more than a twig. Everything was becoming so much easier, the more she used each ability the less focus it required it was like these abilities were becoming second nature to her. She was getting stronger, more powerful and she liked it. No, liked was to weak of a word for how this power made her feel. She loved it, Ahsoka had no doubt in her mind that with this power and Bogan at her side she could stop Anakin's fall to the darkside and Sidious rise to power. Her eyes seemingly began to glow with power, the red irises flared brightly and she spoke with a burning passion "I'm going to destroy Sidious and save the galaxy."