They used to love, having so much to lose.
Blink your eyes just once, and see everything in ruins.
Ventress had given up.
There was no more hope in her pale blue eyes; tears still streamed down her face. Her pale lips were slightly parted as she drew in shaky, painful breath after shaky, painful breath; her entire body shivered with the cold air of the temple and the cold nature of her tormentors. In, and out. In, and out. Breathing was a chore, at this point. Every ragged inhale tore her lungs apart; every exhale sent them spiraling into some sick fire. Ventress still wanted to believe, though: she wanted to believe that he had felt her pain, and was coming to save her. She wanted to believe that he had even heard her plea. She wanted to believe that he would simply wake her up, and this was all a terrible nightmare, and she could wake up again, safe in his arms, away from all harm-
But it was not so. Another dark lord entered, this one not as malevolent as the first, but still toxic to the very air. Ventress found herself cowering as his booted feet drummed ever closer, tapping out an eerie staccato beat. Ventress couldn't take it anymore; she was tortured every second by the knowledge of who had done this to her, and he at least owed her an explanation. But could she reach him?
"Why?"
Dooku stopped abruptly, crouching down by Ventress and frowning. "What?" he asked. Ventress swallowed the blood in her mouth and tried again. She had to reach that part of him that still saw her as his equal-or, as close to an equal as she could hope for. Yes, she took orders from him, but he treated her well. He had always held at least some base measure of respect for her-where was that Dooku now?
"Why?" she whispered again. "Why did you do it?"
Dooku paused, glancing at Ventress, and then back over his shoulder, and then back at Ventress. All the while, her tired blue eyes followed him, still waiting for an answer. She wanted to know so badly: and yet, she knew whatever the reason was, it would crush her all the same.
"I was told to."
And then, he was gone.
Ventress let her head fall back until the cold permacrete of the wall met her scalp. She couldn't stand it anymore. She just couldn't stand it! She had nothing left to live for, did she? She felt nothing but pain anymore. She couldn't even reach the one she loved to say good-bye. But, hey, maybe it was better this way. A clean break, no? That way, he wouldn't have to mourn over her last words for too long. But, deep in her mind, Ventress knew that Obi-Wan would dwell on whatever she had said, however she had said it, every instance they had together-anything to keep her memory alive. Ventress shuddered, sighing softly at the same time. As if on cue with the strike of fear that lanced her heart, the metallic beats of Grievous's approach signaled Ventress's fear to kick in. Adrenaline ran high in her system; fear coursed through her veins like her second blood.
And so, it began again.
Jacob's ghost for the girl in white-
Blindfold for the blind-
Dead siblings walking the dying earth.
Noose around a choking heart;
Eternity torn apart;
Slow toll now: the funeral bells...
OOOOOOOOOO
Obi-Wan could feel her within the Force: battered, beaten, broken, scarred. His Asajj, alone and without any hope, without anyone there to cling to, not even someone willing to spare her the time of day. She had always been alone: to thrust her back into that feeling of being completely abandoned was to torture her even more than any Force-illusion or lightsaber burn ever could. Obi-Wan had sworn to himself that he would never, ever love again: but here he was, loving this woman he really ought to be hating. It might just kill him. But still, he wanted to be there, right beside her, or even in her place, taking all the pain away-
But it was impossible.
Obi-Wan sighed as he switched off the engine, slumping forward over the control board. He wasn't thinking when he had grabbed the nearest fighter: it was only enough for one person. Well, he knew Anakin, at least, would come, and the chances were, he would bring an actual transport. He, at least, would have the advantage of clear thinking. And if worst came to worst, she could just sit in his lap. This wasn't as personal for Anakin, or for anyone else, for that matter. It was just Obi-Wan, and his raging emotions. He could sense her pain more acutely now than ever, now that he had landed: her pain, her fear, her sense of being betrayed simply emanated from the temple he had landed in front of. Without thinking, his hands went to the release for the cockpit's canopy. The glass slid back onto the hood of the star fighter, and Obi-Wan hoisted himself up and out of the cockpit. He left his astromech droid with strict instructions to send out a homing beacon to any and all Jedi frequencies. The little droid bleeped out an affirmative, and then Obi-Wan walked away. He pulled his cloak tighter around himself; this world simply reeked of the dark side.
He walked right up the front steps of the temple, boots tapping out a soft, steady rhythm on the permacrete that the steps were molded from. Obi-Wan could see the tiers of the temple rise into full view as he ascended the many stairs: it looked like an ancient ruin, almost like it wasn't real. It looked like something right out of a history textbook, like the ancient Mayan and Aztec ruins of some southern-hemisphere continent on a planet called Earth. Obi-Wan felt the forboding of the building slip in and around him, caressing every negative emotion he had ever felt and dragging it forth. Obi-Wan just poured it all out into the light side of the Force, not wanting to carry the emotions within him. As soon as he reached the massive, stone doors blocking the entrance to the temple, he simply waved them aside, slipping in through the front door and stealing down the main hallway, careful to mask his presence in the Force. He only sensed three other life-forms, besides Ventress: a half-sentient, half-droid being he knew could only be Grievous, and two other presences which were simply freezing in the currents of the Force. If the Force was a river, these two presences were turning it all to ice at the merest touch. Ventress's presence was a bare, erratic heartbeat: nothing more than fluttering, struggling heart. Grievous stood over her in his mind's eye, observing with gross satisfaction his handiwork. And then, he left her.
Obi-Wan was startled to see the cyborg general exit a room barely ten feet in front of him, and ducked behind one of the many pillars lining the walls. The entire main hallway of the Sith Temple was lined with pillars, each inscribed with relief art of a different battle-all of which the Sith had emerged victorious. Obi-Wan had to fight the urge to cry as he caught sight of the next one: Darth Maul versus Qui-Gon. They had, of course, conveniently left out his own battle with the Sith lord who had killed his mentor so many years ago. Obi-Wan sighed, realizing exactly what was happening.
The temple itself drew out every negative emotion, and amplified it.
The temple had been built as a Sith refuge, and thus helped them draw on their fear, their anger, and their sorrows, and then helped them use it against their enemies in a blind fury of rage and red. Obi-Wan would have to fight it if he wanted to be successful in this impromptu mission. This one wasn't going down in the records; that was a given statement. Chances were, Obi-Wan was going to be expelled from the Order for this one.
Obi-Wan flattened himself to the pillar as Grievous clanked by, the horrible wheezing in the general's lungs continuing as he moved. Well, his task had just been made impossibly easy by the fact that he knew where Ventress was imprisoned. The Force was dangerously poisoned here, and simply seethed in its own filth and darkness. Obi-Wan had to make this quick, he knew.
He stole up to the door Grievous had come out of, searching around for more Force-presences near him before leaving the sheltered security of the pillars he was currently using as a hiding place. There was no one, and so, Obi-Wan proceeded. The door was simply code-locked; it had a key pad off to the left, and Obi-Wan was aware that there was one on the inside as well. But, how to crack the code? As far as he knew, the only keys ever touched were those that held the code, so if he had some way to see the fingerprints-
Ah, screw it. There was no ne around anyway.
Obi-Wan whipped out his lightsaber, igniting it straight through the keypad and destroying the locking mechanism. The door slid open and, as Obi-Wan checked, refused to shut. Perfect. He then glanced around for a light switch. He found it on the left wall, just inside the door. At the touch of a finger, the entire room was bathed in light.
Ventress lay on her side in a ball at the far end of the cell, blood still streaming from various wounds, both old and new. Bruises speckled her pale skin, so much that Obi-Wan, had he now known better, would have been hard-pressed to figure out if her skin was white and bruised purple, or was purple and bruised white. From what he could see, she was dangerously thin, and almost all of her bones were broken. As the lights flickered on, she flinched, and curled up tighter. Her shoulders shook with what Obi-Wan knew to be silent sobs, and she hid her face behind her bruised and blood-stained hands.
"Asajj."
For once, he used her first name, instead of the name the world knew her by. Ventress's head shot up at the sound of her name; she then seemed to die inside, and simply burst into tears again. "Don't do this," she sobbed. "You've already ruined my every memory of him, don't give me new ones to regret! Haven't you done enough?"
Obi-Wan felt his heart simply explode into a million pieces.
"Asajj," he whispered, moving closer to her. She whimpered pathetically, and shrank back as far as she could into the corner. Obi-Wan felt his heart shatter even worse than before, and debated if he should wait or not. But then, he decided that it couldn't possibly get any worse. After all, she had no way of knowing if he was the real Obi-Wan or not, and the only way he could prove that to her was if he got her out of here alive and helped her clear the Force-suppressing drugs from her system so she could recognze him again. He walked over to her, and simply dropped to his knees in front of her. Her entire body seemed to shake with the fear; her wounds tore open again, both physical and mental, spilling her blood all over the floor. Obi-Wan suddenly didn't care: he reached over to her, gathering her into his arms and drawing her closer, ignoring her shaking and fear and denial.
"I'm so sorry."
With a single touch to the back of her head, he dispelled the drugs from her system, allowing her to touch the Force again. But, to his surprise, she didn't reach for it. Instead, she reached for him. She sat back on her heels for a moment, back away from him, simply looking into his eyes for a moment. Then, she leapt forward again, throwing her arms around him and ignoring the pain. For suddenly, all her pain had vanished, and it was simply replaced with the joy that seeing someone who loved her brought. Ventress buried her face in Obi-Wan's shoulder, just letting him hold her and clinging to him like there was no tomorrow.
"Hush," Obi-Wan whispered, wrapping one arm around her shoulders. "I'm not going anywhere." One hand rested on the back of her head, subtly seeking out the darkness that had been installed in her memories and dispelling it. He didn't dwell on what he saw; his numb mind could barely comprehend it anyway. He instead filed away the images to ponder over and combat later, focusing on the here and now. Right now, he had Asajj and her pain to deal with. He could feel her shaking slow as he sat with her, and eventually stop. He purged the darkness from her mind completely, making sure she was completely lucid before he asked:
"Want to get out of here?"
Ventress nodded through her tears, reaching up with one hand to wipe them away. She flinched as she did so; Obi-Wan could see the purple-ish bruise blossoming there. He reached out to her again, standing up and offering her a hand. Ventress shook her head, indicating to him that she was unable to stand. Obi-Wan's face clouded with concern, but he bent over and picked her up all the same. Even that was painful for Ventress; Obi-Wan could see her stifled whimpers as they rose and fell, and tried to be as gentle as possible with her. But still, the pain was there, and he could do nothing but offer calming energies through the Force. Ventress grasped at the energies, taking them in and using them to alleviate even the smallest bit of the pain. Once he was sure she would make it, Obi-Wan turned, and headed for the door.
He was met by a hooded figure barring his way.
"Not…so…fast…"
The voice was smooth, cold, calculated, and drove shivers down both of their spines. Ventress, however, was clearly affected: whoever this man was, he had done irreparable damage to his Asajj. Ventress shivered again, and crowded closer to Obi-Wan. The Jedi did his best to protect her, but he knew he would be fighting a losing battle. As if he didn't have the disadvantage of the turf already…
A red blade sprang from his hand; an open challenge.
"Come, then, Jedi," he sneered. "If you want her so badly, I suggest you make your decision."
Decisions, decisions…he would get them both killed, he was sure. Whichever decision he chose would put both of them in danger, he was sure. He looked at the Sith lord, waiting with his saber at the ready, and then looked down at Ventress, in his arms, gazing up at him, imploring him not to leave her, not for a second-
And Obi-Wan was hopelessly torn.
A/N: Oh, my, can you spell angst? Well, surprise next chapter, so review!!