From Darkness, I Rise

by Kurenaino

The Jedi are thrust into a war that threatens to tear the galaxy apart, and prospects are bleak when the fearsome Sith Negotiator begins to win key victories against the Republic. Sequel to From Grace, I Fall. Also, more Sith!Obi keeps the sadness away. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.

12. Breaking Point

Chapter 12: Breaking Point

Master Eeth Koth clutched the lightsaber tightly, his body damp with sweat and his breathing hard and ragged. He brought his green blade up before him defensively, tip pointed at Ixian, the knight slowly advancing on him, a blue saber clutched in his own hand, the blade dragging along the floor and leaving long burns in the compact dirt of the training arena. Escape was futile. He had tried it several times in the months he had been imprisoned, but he never got very far. The Zabrak had seen his first real chance to get away when he was brought here to the training grounds for the first time, a lightsaber put into his hand, and he had thought the Sith was gravely underestimating him.

The Master had managed to destroy the droids that brought him, but the Sith was simply amused, and when Koth engaged the Negotiator, he realized there was no way he could possibly win. He still tried every single time, but in the end, he was forced to play the Sith's game to keep his suffering friend alive.

Ixian was strong, but not nearly strong enough. He was easily broken, each time his resistance falling faster, each time accommodating the Sith into his mind with greater ease. Kenobi hadn't tried to break Koth yet, but the Master knew that time was not far off. Ixian wouldn't last much longer. Even when he was himself, even when the Sith was nowhere to be found, the Jedi Knight occasionally called Kenobi Master. It was completely unconscious, and he never knew he was doing it, and Eeth had to watch as his fellow Jedi slowly and unknowingly become a slave to the Sith Lord.

Shortly after they were captured, the Sith Lord had come to them, and Master Koth could feel something different about him. He looked the same, but his presence in the Force was brighter, an all-consuming flame that threatened to burn those that came too close to ashes. Kenobi was stronger, frighteningly so, and Koth knew the surge of power came from the red and gold pyramid in the Sith's hand.

"Stop running, Jedi," the Sith purred, lounging carelessly by the door in an overly large chair, the holocron floating open before him, a smirk on his lips as he drank in its secrets. "He's going to kill you."

"He won't."

"He will because I want him to. He'll do anything because I want him to, you know that. We have this conversation every single time we do this." He whistled, and the Jedi Knight stood tall, his hazy, distant eyes gazing blankly at the Sith. "Sweetheart, kill this Jedi, won't you?"

"Yes, Master..."

Eeth gripped his saber tighter. The words came so easily to Ixian now. The Knight rose his weapon and rushed the Master with his full speed and fury, and Koth did everything he could to keep the Jedi unharmed. Imprisonment had made them both weary, their stamina depleted from their efforts to resist the Sith, their bodies weak from the lack of proper nourishment, and Koth had always been a superior swordsman. That was true now as well. The Knight didn't actually stand a chance against him, but the Master didn't want to hurt him. This wasn't his fault.

The Knight's strikes became wild and random, and as Master Koth went to block a strike, the other Jedi pulled back suddenly, and the Zabrak's green blade severed the Knight's hand at the wrist, the blue blade falling to the ground. The Master gasped, watching the Knight as he slowly looked at the burning flesh of his arm, his empty eyes drifting to the weapon on the ground. He showed no pain, no shock, no fear or anything as he dragged his feet to the saber on the ground and knelt beside it, picking it up in his non-dominant hand.

"Ixian, please!"

Kenobi reached his hand out, calling through the Force to the Jedi, and the man slowly turned, dropping the saber and dutifully coming to his Master's side, falling to his knees beside the Sith's feet. "Poor thing...you're barely worth keeping alive anymore."

"Don't kill him, Kenobi, don't!"

Obi-Wan laughed. "I'm not going to kill him, you're going to kill him."

Koth snarled, the discarded saber flying to his hand and igniting with a hiss. "Enough! If you're going to kill us, get to it! Or are you afraid, Lord of the Sith?"

"Don't be an idiot, Eeth, you're no threat to me anymore."

"Months! We have been here for months and all you have done is repeatedly break a broken man! Why?!"

Kenobi smiled, grabbing the Jedi's hair, and the Knight groaned. "I haven't been ready to break you, Koth." He laughed, smooth and slow, and the Jedi Master felt a chill run through him. "But I am now. Even you can feel I'm stronger than before."

"It isn't you, it's that thing," the Master snarled, pointing his green saber at the floating, glowing holocron, the soft whispers of Ancient Sith emitting from the opened pyramid.

"A holocron holds no power other than knowledge. My Master has...quite a collection that he inherited from the previous Sith Lord. Have you heard of the Sith Emperor?" The Zabrak's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. "Of course you haven't, the Jedi don't know anything about the Sith."

"When I get out-"

"You won't. By the end of today, you're going to be mine, so you may as well listen. It's going to be the last thing you ever learn before I empty that head of yours, and your Code does demand knowledge."

"What's the point if you're just going to take it all away?"

Kenobi smiled, the red light of the holocron casting his handsome face in a sinister light. "I want you to know how hopeless your struggle is. But, if not that..." He pet the Knight's hair, the Jedi purring in satisfaction. "Do you want to hear about the Sith Emperor Valkorion?"

"Yes, Master..."

"See? He wants to know. He's such a good Jedi." The Knight moaned loudly as the Sith sent waves of pleasure through him, his Jedi training leaving him fully unprepared for the rush and intensity of physical pleasure, and he slowly rolled his hips, his body aching for contact. The Zabrak looked away, biting his lip. He couldn't watch his fellow Jedi be forced to degrade himself.

"Valkorian was Emperor of the Sith for thousands of years." He smirked, watching the Jedi Master stare at him defiantly. "He extended his life, of course, using the Dark Side to preserve his original body while he jumped from body to body, his consciousness resting in various host bodies until he learned how to achieve true immortality, at which point, he would return to his original form."

"And that's what you want?"

Kenobi scoffed. "Don't be an idiot, immortality is a fallacy. That isn't my aim."

"Then what is?!"

"Shh, your Master's talking, Eeth." He chuckled softly when the Jedi did, in fact, stop talking. "Valkorion was obsessed with immortality, and he stored the wealth of his knowledge on the subject in several holocrons, such as this one." He flicked his wrist, and the opened pyramid spun in the air. "All aspects of it. True immortality, essence transfer, extending one's natural life, and so on. This is one of the Sith Emperor's holocrons."

"If you don't care for endless life, what do you want?"

"Power." Kenobi snarled, his yellow eyes glowing wickedly, the holocron making them seem blood red. "This holocron isn't about the extension of life, my Master would never allow me to touch those. This one is filled with his knowledge of Qâzoi Kyantuska. Mental domination. I've been using my own variety of this for years, but now..." Kenobi laughed harshly, his rich voice melodic in its malice. "Now, Eeth, I've learned from Valkorion himself, and you're going to be the first one to see it. And when I am done breaking you, you will thank me for it."

Master Koth brought the sabers up, pointing the twin blades at the Sith Lord. "We'll see if I can't kill you first."

Kenobi grabbed the Knights' hair, leaned over and whispered in his ear, and the Jedi stood, facing the Jedi Master for a moment before he rushed the Zabrak. Koth backed away, Force pushing the other Jedi out of the way, but it only deterred him for a moment before he was back on his feet and coming after him again. Ixian was relentless, unconcerned for his safety as he threw himself unarmed against the Jedi Master, and Koth did all he could to avoid harming the man more than he already had. The Knight instinctively reached out for one of Koth's sabers with the stub of his right arm, and for just a moment, Koth's eyes drifted to the blackened flesh, his focus breaking for just a moment, but it was long enough for Ixian to grab the saber with his left. The Zabrak tensed, thrust his other arm forward to keep the enthralled Knight from the weapon, and his eyes widened as the tip of the lightsaber pressed into the Jedi Knight's chest, his vacant eyes wide as his lungs burned.

Koth dropped his sabers, the weapons deactivating as they hit the ground, and he gathered the other Jedi in his arms, kneeling with him on the ground as the Jedi shuddered and gasped for breath, the Master doing all he could to sooth him with the Force. He knew there was nothing he could do to save him. He knew that a long time ago, though he continued to hold onto the hope that one day, they'd come away from this nightmare. Ixian slowly stopped breathing and the shaking ceased, and the Master laid the man on the ground.

"I told you," Kenobi purred, the holocron floating to his hand and the pyramid closed, the bright red glow fading as the whispers of the ancient Sith were silenced. "You killed him, not me." The Sith grinned wickedly. "I don't kill Jedi. Not yet."

"You are responsible!"

"Me?" Obi-Wan laid his hand on his chest, mock hurt on his face. "I'm not the one that was holding the lightsaber. I haven't killed any Jedi. Except one, but that doesn't count."

"You're responsible for all of them! You created the situation that led to his death! You're responsible for the deaths on Kabal! What about the four that died on Serenno, are you at fault for those as well?!"

The Sith scoffed, standing from his chair, and Koth called the sabers back into his hands. "I don't control Grievous, he killed your friends. I did ask for them alive, but..." He shrugged. "You win some, you lose some, I suppose. And on Serenno...well, I only killed Sar Labooda. Dooku killed the others. Really, he did the work with the Master as well. She was already dead when I was asked to kill her, I just...ended her suffering. Really, you should be thanking me."

Eeth's sharp eyes watched as the Sith tossed his holocron onto the chair, his hand drawing his lightsaber and the red blade ignited with a hiss, the plasma thrumming in the air as he deftly twirled the blade, stepping into the training arena. Master Koth watched the Sith Lord stalked around him with renewed focus. His fellow Jedi was dead, and without the concern for his well-being, the Master felt his focus return, sharper than ever. This was a Sith, and not just any Sith, but a traitor to the Jedi Order, a creature that had killed Obi-Wan Kenobi and replaced him with the Negotiator. He would kill this Sith or die trying.

"I appreciate your resolve, Eeth, truly, I do." Kenobi smirked as the Zabrak glared, his mental walls being thrown up and strengthened when he felt the Sith read him. "Don't let your defenses break. Stay focused and centered, don't let the Dark Side in. I need you at your best."

Koth said nothing. He just observed the smirking Sith as he paced, his movements smooth and graceful and predatory. He was through being patient. Koth was going to kill this man. With a snarl, the Zabrak lunged at Kenobi, the twin sabers dancing through the air with furious grace and speed. The Jedi mercilessly attacked Kenobi's solid defense, the Sith smirking all the while, his red blade tilting and angling effortlessly to block the rain of stabs and slashes, using the absolute minimum energy required to keep himself safe. Obi-Wan's focus was elsewhere, his entire being immersed in the Dark Side as his eyes bore into the Jedi Master, channeling the Force and feeling his opponent, delighting in the rush of emotions, sizing up the Master's formidable defense. Any being could be broken. Even a Jedi Master.

Eeth Koth was one with the Force, his focus intense and unshaken as his furious assault continued, but while the Master was giving everything to destroying the Sith, Kenobi was using the Jedi's anger and frustration to ease gently into his mind. Obi-Wan leaned back, the blue saber cutting dangerously close to his head for an instant, and the Sith frowned. This second saber was a problem. Blocking a quick succession of slashes, the Sith calmly commanded, "Drop your secondary weapon."

The Master froze, his forward momentum causing him to skid forward to a halt before he jumped back, just barely avoiding the arching red blade. His eyes narrowed, and he raised his sabers before him, his heart seeming to freeze in his chest when he found his left hand empty, his own green weapon blazing in the air before him alone. Wide eyes drifted to the smirking Sith as he teasingly held up Koth's discarded second saber. He had obeyed, and the Jedi didn't even know he had done it.

"Oh dear, what happened?" Kenobi drawled softly, his crisp accent dripping with mock concern. "Did you lose your weapon?" The Jedi rose his green blade, this time defensively, and he quietly touched the Force, trying to recenter himself and strengthen his walls. Something must have been weakened if the Sith could get through, but the Jedi could find nothing.

"Your defenses are fine, Eeth, but by all means, strengthen yourself." The Sith Lord chuckled deeply as he felt the Jedi's resolve waiver, jaw clenching in frustration. The Master knew Kenobi was in his mind, and there was no way to force him out. He couldn't help his eyes from drifting to the dead Jedi on the floor, remembered how he had been in the final months of his life, and he shivered.

Koth felt sudden pressure on him, not on his body, but on his mind, and he struggled to keep the intruder out, and blinding pain began to burn behind his eyes. It was taking all the focus he had to resist, and he dropped his other saber, bringing his hands to his head as if that would somehow help ease the pain. As soon as it began, it had ended, and Koth quickly picked his saber up, holding it out toward the frowning Sith.

"No, no, you can't quit that easily, I'm not done yet. Windu isn't going to succumb to the pain like that, come on." Kenobi scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You're a Jedi of the High Council, have some respect."

"Y-you are no match for Mace."

"In terms of sheer brute strength, you may be right. But my weapon of choice isn't a lightsaber." Obi-Wan slowly grinned, a sinister thing that made Master Koth take a step back. "How do you suppose the great Master Windu would look under my thrall?"

"That will never happen! He's too strong for you!"

"Yes, he isn't at all like you, is he? But you've already been weakened, haven't you? Watching your friend have his mind irrevocably broken didn't exactly help your resolve, did it? You Jedi have such weak constitutions, how have you all survived in a galaxy like this..."

The pressure began again, a dull, throbbing pain settling inside his mind, and Koth felt his defenses tremble. The Jedi clenched his jaw and reached into the Force to find it cold, oppressive, and instead of balancing him, it left him shaken. He tightened his grip on his saber, his eyes narrowing at Kenobi, and with all the strength he had in him, he came at the Sith again. Obi-Wan may have claimed that his weapon was not the lightsaber, but the young Lord moved as if he was born to it. Every move of his was graceful, dangerously precise, highly effective and efficient, and Koth silently conceded that Kenobi was a superior duelist. At the moment, he was superior in every aspect, the Zabrak's defenses and resistance drained by months of watching his fellow succumb to the Sith's will, and his body weakened from his lack of practice. Even now, he was feeling exhaustion settle upon him as his muscles and lungs burned. The Sith, at this moment in time, was his better.

The dull ache in his mind suddenly ceased, replaced by the steady, growing heat of pleasure as it slowly snaked through his consciousness. Legs shaking, he dropped to his knees, his weapon still tightly clenched in his hand.

"See? Doesn't it feel nice to just accept your betters?"

"You will never be better than a Jedi, Sith, you'll never be better than anyone!" Koth hissed as his mind was lanced with pain, and he tried to strengthen his defenses, but he couldn't. His mental walls were as strong as they could get. He had built them to keep the Sith out of his mind, but now they were only serving to keep him in.

"Mm, you know that's not true. You feel it, deep inside you. Put your weapon away, you don't need it anymore."

Koth's body moved against his will, his thumb slowly turning the lightsaber off, and he howled in frustration, his mind fighting against the actions of his body to no avail. Kenobi held his hand out.

"Come, hand it to me."

Koth fought less this time, and the pain eased. He reached out, carefully putting his lightsaber into the Sith's hand, and though he was glaring at Kenobi defiantly, he felt a warm rush replacing the pain in his body. The Sith was rewarding him for submission, and in that moment, he didn't care where it came from, as long as it took the pain away. Koth closed his eyes, his mental defenses slipping ever so slightly, and he could feel the Sith reach into his mind. The Zabrak's eyes narrowed, and he tried to reenforce his mental walls, but it was too late; Kenobi had his foot in the door, and Koth didn't have the strength to close it.

"Is this how the Sith took you?" the Master asked softly, his voice a tremulous whisper and cracking under the strain that Kenobi was exerting upon him, and the blond seemed taken aback by the question.

"No."

"H-how then?"

Kenobi bit his lip, mulling the question over, thinking how best to respond, if he should respond at all. Golden eyes fell on Eeth, and he shivered under the appraising gaze, felt his defenses slip even further, gently held open by the commanding Lord. "The Sith didn't take me," he finally said, softly, his clipped accent making the words run elegantly off his tongue. "I took them. I chose them. I was driven to them by the Jedi."

"We-"

"Did everything as you were supposed to, yes, I know." His eyes narrowed, glaring at the Council member as he raked through his mind, searching for the moment that Anakin was brought forth before the Masters for the first time, and he found it, replayed it over and over again, saw himself in the memory, scared and alone and in the grip of the Dark Side as his Master Qui-Gon betrayed him. He felt cold, raw fury flow through him and he gripped the Jedi's mind tightly, the Master pitching to the ground and screaming in pain under the harsh treatment, his mental defenses flaring to expel the intruder only hurting the Jedi more.

Kenobi kneeled, gripping the Master's face in his hands, golden eyes blazing as he forced the Zabrak to look at him. "You sat there and you agreed to allow my Master to train that slave. You were one of the few at the time, but they all came around eventually. How could you allow it when even Master Yoda said the boy was dangerous?!"

"T-this is about Anakin?"

"No, this is about me! You wanted to know if the Sith broke me, if that's why I turned, but I fell because of the Jedi. You all betrayed me, again and again, and it never stopped. If I was stronger, maybe you would have listened. Maybe my Master wouldn't have abandoned me." Kenobi smirked slowly, his grip on the Jedi tightening as he pushed further into the Master's mind, and Koth groaned at the intrusion. "So I studied the Dark Side, and I became stronger. So much stronger."

"T-the Dark Side yields quick results, Obi-Wan, but it's poison."

"You're wrong. The Dark Side is the only way, the Sith are the only way. You Jedi have left this galaxy weak and corrupt. Just look at the state of your Republic!" Kenobi took a deep breath, calming himself as the Master's eyes slowly slid out of focus. "You asked why I fell. I fell for power, Eeth. I wanted power, all I could get. The Jedi would make me a slave to the Republic, and I wanted to be free."

The Master shook his head. "You're a slave to your desires, Kenobi, that isn't freedom."

"You know nothing about me. I was a Jedi, with a Jedi's control. I have mastered the Dark Side, it does not master me. That's what makes me a Lord of the Sith. I had to struggle for power, Eeth. I have endured unfathomable suffering that you could not possibly begin to understand, and it was all for power, all of it. And I would do it again."

Koth felt the cool grip in his mind, but he managed to keep his walls standing, fighting against Kenobi as he tried to tear them down. "The Sith Master is manipulating you, he must have turned you to him."

"...I did consider that." He pressed against the Jedi's walls, and he found them weakening, the Master clenching his jaw as he struggled to keep the Sith out. He inhaled deeply, and when he exhaled, Kenobi pushed through the Jedi's defenses, and the Sith grinned when he saw the shattering of his walls on Eeth Koth's face. "When my Master coaxed me to join him, I may have been...influenced into taking that final step. But I cannot blame my fall on him. I fell on my own. I wanted power. I wanted the freedom of the Dark Side. I turned long, long before I ever met my Master, I just didn't know it. He gave it all to me, and more. If he influenced me toward the Sith, than he didn't need to push very hard. I wanted it all on my own. He just showed me the way."

Koth shivered as he looked at the Sith Lord before him, and Kenobi frowned when he felt the Jedi's touch on his mind. Nothing invasive, nothing intrusive, just...warm. Comforting. Sympathetic. "I'm sorry..."

"Don't you dare pity me, Jedi," he snarled, letting go of the Jedi and standing, glaring down at him with furious golden eyes, and the Master didn't have the strength to rise. "You have no defenses left, Koth. Let's see what you're hiding in that head of yours."

The Jedi gasped as the Sith pulled his mind open, looking at everything he had within him, and Koth shivered, closed his eyes and quietly submitted. There was no pain, just the dull pulse of pleasure as he felt Kenobi's satisfaction through the Force. Every now and again, the Sith would chuckle deeply or purr with interest when he found something he liked or something he could use, and the euphoria would rush over Koth, groaning with the warmth of his submission.

"There are Sith holocrons in the Jedi Archives?" Kenobi flooded the Jedi with pleasure, watching the Master as he groaned, nodding swiftly. "Why would the Jedi keep Sith holocrons in the Holocron Vault?"

"F-for research..." He whimpered, grabbing hold of the Sith's robes. "In case the Sith returned, in case we needed to study them..."

"I was sent to find the Sith, I was never told about these."

"M-Master Yoda said they were too dangerous..."

"And you wouldn't be able to open them anyway." Kenobi grinned. "But I can. Look at me, Eeth." The Master obeyed instantly, his dark eyes out of focus. "You're a Master of the Council. You're going to get me those holocrons."

"...I-I can't, I'm-"

"You're going to get me those holocrons, Eeth." The full weight of the Dark Side was behind his words, and with no defenses left to resist, the Master quietly groaned.

"Y-yes..."

"You want to say it, Koth, come now. I can feel it in you. Just give in." Kenobi held his hand out to the Jedi, and the Master looked at it with hazy eyes filled with longing. "There are no Jedi here. Nobody will judge you for finding your place."

Koth whimpered softly as he took the Sith Lord's hand. "Master..."

Kenobi smirked as the Jedi shivered, a pleasured groan ripped from his throat as he submitted. "That's it...it will be easier tomorrow, dear, the first time is always the most difficult. You will submit to me easier tomorrow, won't you?"

"Yes, Master..."

The Sith laid a long-fingered hand on the Zabrak's head, the Jedi purring in satisfaction at Kenobi's pleasure. "There's so much I've learned from this holocron," he purred, the small pyramid called to his hand. "We're going to practice all of it together..."

"Whatever you wish, Master..."

Kenobi grinned, the Jedi looking up at him with vacant eyes, and the Dark Side twisted around him like a serpent, dangerous and hungry, and Obi-Wan was more than willing to feed the beast.