Summary:: AU-About 2 years after PTM. Obi-wan is having to deal without his Master, who is still alive, and training Anakin. Now Obi-wan is caught up in the repercussions of his actions when he saved his Master during that fateful day on Naboo.

Disclaimer:: I don't own StarWars, I'm not getting money off of this.

Special Thanks to and Author Notes:: Thank you to everyone that has waited on this chapter, wow it's been 14 years! I haven't forgotten, I'm just slow and super busy. One Chapter after this. I hope it won't take me too long to finish it up the last chapter.

" text " = normal/verbal talking
italics = flashbacks
'text' = talking through a bond/force communication.

Visions and dreams not be formatted differently. They will blend to provide a better flow to the plot.

ALSO IF THERE ARE TYPOS (and I'm sure there are), I apologize in advance. I do not have any beta readers, or proof-readers.

Dead Ringer

"Guileless son,
each day you grow older,
each moment I'm watching
my vengeance unfold.
The child of my body,
the flesh of my soul,
will die in returning
the birthright he stole." Mordred's Lullaby by Heather Dale

Chapter Twenty :: The Fall

The smell of charred meat saturated the air. The salty trail of tears on Obi-Wan's face had long since dried along with the blood and scrapes of flesh from the chains that bound his wrist tightly together. The Knight hung from the ceiling, his toes barely scraping the ground. His eyes fluttered opened, awakened by the sound of the hatch opening to this room of torment he had been exiled to.

The guards entered, two of them grabbed the dangling knight and pulled him downward from the ceiling. The taunt chain unwound from its coil until the knight rested upon the floor. As the guards kept pulling the chain downward a flat metal cage began to rise up from a large hole in the floor on the other side of the room. Its metal glowed a hot red and trapped within the slender space were the charred remains of a person. With long metal hooks the other guards pulled it from its guiding rails and with a loud clang the cage crashed to the floor, the blacken burned body crumbling to ash with the vibrations.

Obi-wan stared vacantly at yet another hostage he had failed to save, despite his promises, despite all his strength and effort. No matter how much he had called upon the Force to aid him it floated just beyond his desires, just beyond his pleas.

"Our Master wishes to see you." Ishtar stood before him in her flowing white robes, expression absent from her face and golden eyes as hard as the cooling cage bars. Obi-wan made no attempt to fight the guards that dragged him to his feet and out the door with the Sith woman following closely behind. He was tired, he was worn. Time had not existed since they had been captured, all he knew was he couldn't take much more of this.

They left him on his knees in front of the Sith Lord who, as always was cloaked in ebony robes. Sidious cooed and crackled with the desolation of the Knight he saw before him.

"How many does that make now? Fifteen feeble attempts to deny me?" Sidious taunted with a venomous smile as Ishtar took a place near the Sith Lord.

"Eighteen." Obi-wan's parched lips cracked when he spoke.

"So you are still keeping count. Good...good." Sidious crackled with sick delight. Torturing the Jedi had been more entertaining then he cared to admit, especially this one. Obi-wan Kenobi had been a thorn in his side for years and now just look at the once proud knight. Nothing more then a defeated depressing hero. He had found the Knight's weak spot, the need to protect others. A needless weakness that the Sith Lord enjoyed preying upon, a weakness that was eating away at the Jedi.

Another long draw out crackle. "You will bow to me."

"No." It was a mere whisper, but no sooner had it left the Jedi's lips then a shock of lighting ripped through his body.

"You WILL. And you will grovel, and you will weep. And you will BREAK. " Yellow eyes glared from under the dark hood that always kept the Sith's face in Shadows, his tone acidic and bitter.

Obi-wan laid on his side on the floor, recovering from the writhing pain. Hope had long since faded, there was no one coming to rescue him. Gasping for air as another shock rippled through him, golden eyes held his attention from a distance.

After all the torment and torture that those eyes had witnessed and inflicted, there was a kind of apathetic kindness that was eluded in them. Wind chimes caught on a gentle breeze seem to drown out his own screams of pain. The peace of soft green blades of grass just beyond the tips of his fingers, the blue sky vividly clear yet so very distant.

He rolled over breaking eye contact from Ishtar and reality ripped back through the veil he tried to comfort himself with. Another demand to yield to his new Master. Another defiant whisper. Another burst of punishment.

Before he knew it, he could feel himself being pulled across the metal floor and the guards forced him upright to a guardrail, it was only then when he saw where they were keeping the main group of hostages. A spark of hope ignited through him and he surveyed the tired and worn faces for Qui-gon's. But as the faces ran out, so did his hope. The Jedi Master wasn't there.

Sidious drew close to Obi-wan, the darkness permeating the air around the Sith Lord like the stench off a rotting corpse and it made the knight sick to his stomach. The Knight was leaning heavily on the rails, his legs wobbly, muscles sore from the abuse.

"How many lives is your Jedi Pride worth?" Darth Sidious was rather venomous with his tone as he motioned to the hostages, their tired faces turning to look at their captor as they heard him speak to Obi-wan. They had been held there for weeks now in ignorance, disappearing one by one. "How many more must die for you to submit? I am your Master now."

Obi-wan could feel them all cursing him with their eyes. It was solely because of him that they were in this predicament. One by one he stared into their faces, counting them; men and women. Several adolescents and one child was among them. And one was his biological brother.

"You WILL bow." Again Darth Sidious commanded him to yield. This time Obi-wan was silent gazing over their faces, he had no idea how he was going to save them all, he could barely stand. His eyes flickered to the lightsaber on Ishtar's belt. If he could just use the Force he might have a chance of saving them. Sidious was no fool, he could see the desperation and anticipation rippling through out the Jedi Knight. And the Sith Lord knew he was starting to crack him.

'hate him.'

The words poured over him like a warm comforting blanket. It was Ishtar's voice in his head, her golden light radiant like a supernova through the Force.

Hate Him? He could hate him, he DID hate him. This Sith Lord deserved his hate, his anger. Darkness bubbled through the Jedi Knight, his inner thoughts like a whirlwind, fanning the violent flames. He could feel the Force swelling around him like a brewing maelstrom. It was there, all he needed to do was reach out.

"No." His words came as a surprise to Obi-wan, even though he was the one that spoke them. Obi-wan's face twisted, teeth gashing together as he started to douse the fire, the Force fading from him. Shaming his face to the floor, Obi-wan's heart was ripping itself to shreds. He had condemn more of them to suffer all because of his selfishness.

The Jedi's defiance angered the Sith Lord even more. His hunched over form straightened, baring the white of his teeth in his infuriated wrath and began to inflict punishment to his stubborn pupil.

It would be four days later when Obi-wan returned to the holding cell to four less hostages. This time Obi-wan stood on his own two feet, looking worn and tired, trying to mask the grief that was threatening to take hold of his crippled heart. The hostages looked up to him with anticipated hope. That is until Darth Sidious and Ishtar appeared on either side of Obi-wan. The hostages began to huddle together and a foreboding mood filled the air.

"Do it." Sidious commanded with a twisted smile. Without looking away from the hostages Obi-wan held his hand out to Ishtar. The familiar weight she placed in his hand caused him to look down. It was his lightsaber. And why shouldn't it be? He looked to Ishtar, but she offered him no council in her metallic gaze.

He turned back to the faces that he had counted. Sixteen. Sixteen people where down there looking up at him to save them from that horrible death. But saving them meant...

A knot caught in his throat. At least this way….this way…would be quick. The Knight kept telling himself as the grip on his light saber became tighter. He slipped over the guardrail and into the pit, Ishtar dropping into the pit behind him. The hostages hesitant to approach him because of his odd behavior. The group began to back away, the look of betrayal alight in their eyes.

"…hate me, if you want…" He whispered, the Knight numbing himself to the violence that would follow, ignited his lightsaber and extended the mercy of a quick death to the sixteen remaining hostages, one of them Obi-wan's brother; whom he slain indiscriminately along with the rest.

When it was done Darth Sidious joyous laughter echoed within the cold metal walls. The bodies laid at Obi-wans feet, their mouths agape in screams that never escaped. His heart ached, mangled and deformed by his dark deed. But his sadness was slowly being replaced by rage. His hands began to shake, the sob that had been stuck in his throat left as a roar. The Fallen Knight swung his gaze upward toward the Sith Lords heavily robed form and in a blink of an eye, Obi-wan had lunged the distance between them, lightsaber in a downward swing. Had Ishtar's white blades not gotten in his way, he could of ended the Sith Lord. He could of ended it all right there. Instead he was sent crashing back into the pit from which he came. Again and again he tried, he tried to strike the Sith Lord for every hostage that was made to suffer, for every moment he begged and pleaded to stop the madness. And each time he was denied by Ishtar's defense and counter attack.

With each attack he could feel himself getting stronger and yet he could feel himself slipping away. With each attack his focus turned more and more to Ishtar until he had forgotten about the Sith Lord completely. Now as a spectator, Darth Sidious stood in near awe at the spectacle of whirling lightsabers. His new apprentice certainly earned his respect for his saber skills, but it was more than that. It was that the two of them danced with such force and dedication to form, it was dangerously beautiful. And it was a danger that Sidious didn't want to take. The Dark Lord slipped from the scene, going about his sinister duties sure that Ishtar would handle the rest.

The dueling pair parted for a moment, Obi-wan taking a pause to breathe and trying to restrain the surge of power that was seething within him. He was getting tired despite all the power wanting in. Obi-wan was about to rush in for another attack when he stopped in his tracks, Ishtar disappearing as an unwanted vision took ahold of him. The bodies that sprawled across the floor were slowly engulfed by the roots that crept from the walls of his mind, a tree growing into maturity with the aid of the freshly formed cracks in his dying heart. It's black and twisted branches reaching out, thirsty for more of the violence, a scream beginning to ooze from its armor-like-bark as a thick tar.

Kenobi covered his ears and sunk to his knees, his light saber clattering to the ground. The childish action did nothing to lessen the noise. He was held prisoner to the screaming tree budding in front of him. Everything he was had been stripped away the past months and the proof laid dead on the floor. He gathered the air in his lungs and roared back at the tree, it's scream only intensifying. He yelled until his lungs burned with abuse and throat was raw.

"Agree with you the Council does." Yoda spoke as the rest of the Jedi Council nodded in unison. Qui-gon bowed, spewing a form of gratitude to them although he wasn't quite sure what he said. Emotionally he was a wreck and physically he hadn't slept much since being given the assignment of choosing a suitable punishment for Obi-wan's transgressions. He wouldn't delay in telling Obi-wan the news. The Jedi Master turned down hallway after empty hallway, silence laying like a thick dust upon every surface.

He wasn't sure when he found himself walking through an endless waterscape surrounded by thick rolling clouds of fog. He was sure that he was dreaming, at least he felt that way, but when had he fallen asleep? He was on his way to tell Obi-wan of the Council's decision. With confusion weighing on him heavily, Qui-gon wandered in a singular direction, feeling as if that direction was somehow different than all the others. How long had he walked now? He wasn't sure. It was so vivid, the way the water spread across the horizon disappearing under the cerulean sky, cool water soaking his feet through his boots.

Over the eerie silence, he thought he could hear two people speaking. On the horizon were two figures, blurred by the distance, their whispering voices rolling with the fog. But no matter how far Qui-gon walked towards them, the space between them stayed the same. Only their whispers grew nearer the more he walked. One of the figures pointed upward to a far part of the sky. Red streaks slowly burned across the heavens, far and distant, terrifying in power. As they burned past the sky, another streak slowly grew closer until everything basked in its angry red glow.

"I have been here before." That was Obi-wan's voice that whispered into Qui-gon's ear. The Master Jedi turned to look over his shoulder only to find himself back in the empty hallway of the Jedi Temple. He continued on his way, until he heard Obi-wan's agitated voice just down the medical hall.

"You have no idea what they did to me, to the others." Obi-wan didn't mask the irritation from his tone as Qui-gon rounded the corner. "What they are planning, what they will do..."

"That's no excuse. Stasis won't stop you from standing trial for the murder of those people. We can't ignore evidence of murder, especially when it's one of our own. The galaxy already has a divided opinion of the Jedi."

There was a loud scoff on the other side of the door. "For the sixteen people I killed? I can barely remember their faces...now the other twenty two...how could I ever forget." Obi-wan was snide in his remarks as he paced the medical room. This ruffled both of the Jedi Masters composures, there had only been video of sixteen victims.

"You betrayed everything the Jedi Order stood for. The very people you swore to protect!" There was anger in Mace's voice. There was no denying the evidence of the halo-vids, but Qui-gon believed Obi-wan had been twisted into it, weakened by his afflicted condition.

"Obi-wan is ill, he-"

"And what do you know of it?" Qui-gon's defense was cut short when the Knight snapped at him. He couldn't help it. He felt helpless and it made him angry. Obi-wan stopped his pacing and turned a painfully hallow look to his former Master. "Do you know what it's like standing at the abyss? To stare into the darkness and have it stare back at you? To have it ~know~ you." He crept closer to the glass and the lights began to flicker on and off in the chamber and Master Windu took a step back out of genuine alarm. "They took me apart piece by piece and replaced me with this." The lights in the medical chamber shut off and the blue in Obi-wan's eyes glowed dimly in the dark. A deafening scream billowed through the Force. The air reverberated with the horrid screech and it made the atmosphere hard to breathe for all in the Temple.

Qui-gon instinctively brought his hand to his ears, falling to one knee as the air became dense and heavy. Mace was no better off then he. Qui-gon swung a glance at Obi-wan who didn't seem too badly affected by it. Was Obi-wan the cause? The aurora was too thick with the suffocating darkness that polluted the air and the Jedi Masters began to crumple to the ground. The banshee scream roared on like a raging surf and Qui-gon thought he would surely lose consciousness.

"Obi-" Explosions of color devastated his senses trying to speak Obi-wan's name, unsure if he was hallucinating the fluttering blue butterflies that were aloft all around them. Almost as suddenly as it had started, the turmoil scream that inundated the Force rolled to a silence. The air thinned but the memory of its weight remained. The Jedi Master breathed deep, blinking until the vision of butterflies faded away. Qui-gon began to regain his composure taking a moment before he stood back up. "What just happened?" Qui-gon asked looking at his former padawan for answers.

"Time has run out...she is coming." There was an desperation that seem to come over Obi-wan's demeanor, palms pressed against the glass as he looked to a third Jedi Master. The concern on Master Yoda's face was twisting it in uncomfortable looking ways. "You need to evacuate. Everyone is in grave danger." Obi-wan tilted his head to the side looking down at them

Yoda approached, his ears dropping low as he slowly began to nod. There was something profound stirring within the Temple, that was very clear now. The fog began to lift as the presence of eminent danger began to tingle through the Force. The little green Jedi Master was contemplating the gravity of the situation that was heading toward them like a tsunami.

"Let me out. I can help defend the Temple while everyone evacuates." Obi-wan pleaded with them in desperation. The vision that he had seen with Keki on Dathomir would come true.

"Why would we do that? We will repel the attackers and move those that are vulnerable to the inner temple-"

"No! You can't stay here!" Obi-wan couldn't understand why they were so stubborn, why they wouldn't listen to him. Mace gave him a threatening glare. There was such disappointment in Windu's eyes towards Obi-wan and Qui-gon felt a pain in his chest. The two Council Members started to walk away, leaving disbelief in the Knights eyes and Qui-gon feeling conflicted. Kenobi's lips pulled into a tight frown, there was that darkness that once again swirled around him much like it did when he wanted to strike down Master Sidious.

Master Sidious? The repugnant realization struck him hard that it squashed the anger and helplessness that was starting to overrun him. He had gone to such great lengths to serve the Jedi, to serve the Force; he wondered if he had instead betrayed them. No, he must see this through.

"I don't pretend to understand everything they did to you Obi-wan, but I believe you." Qui-gon for the first time really looked at Obi-wan and saw a man desperate to save something he loved.

"Will you let me out?" Obi-wan asked looking a bit hopeful. The appeal stabbed at the Masters bruised heart. Qui-gon shook his head. "I can't, but I will try my best to convince the Council to evacuate." Cowardly the Jedi Master left before Obi-wan was able to argue his side. The truth was that Master Jinn didn't trust himself entirely not to be persuaded by Obi-wan's plight. He might of just let him out if he had waited to heard to what his former Padawan had to say.

When Master Jinn disappeared down the hall Knight Kenobi felt a little bit of relief. He hadn't really expected anyone to let him out, even if his pleas were genuine. All he could do was prepare himself for the task that was laid out before him.

By the time that Jinn had caught up with Masters Yoda and Windu, Yoda was already quietly calling for an evacuation of the Temple. The drill went on silently as many confused Jedi began to usher themselves towards ships that were already waiting in the hanger bay. But soon their answer came rumbling from down below as the Temple trembled with a sudden violent force. Another rumble, louder this time evicted dusts from the cracks causing little tiny debris to rain down.

"We can't leave him here. I will take responsibility for him." Qui-gon turned to Yoda. The little Jedi Master nodded his agreement. "Meet you to escort him, Master Windu will." And without another word wasted, Qui-gon was rushing back toward the Medical Ward.

Obi-wan wanted to pace, but it would do nothing for his focus. He remembered the way Darth Maul paced while the three of them were separated by the energy barriers on Naboo. The action irritated him to no end, it made him anxious and unsettled. Suddenly the Temple shook and Obi-wan had had enough of waiting to be let out. He had already swept the area with his senses, knowing that the mechanism that unlock the doors was tamper proof so Force Users couldn't easily escape.

He stood at the door and began to focus. It was hard to concentrate with the darkness whispering to him, stirring up memories and emotions that thought he had confronted long ago. Time ticked away and all he could think about was how hurt he felt. In frustration he turned from the door and calmed his mind once again. Although he had practiced it many times, he had never been successfully in harnessing the skill, not anything that would be useful at least. Until now.

As Qui-gon neared the medical cell he watched in astonishment as Obi-wan disappeared from the cell and then reappeared in the hallway. The distance had only been four feet but the effort that it took Kenobi to pull it off, he might as well of crossed an ocean. When he reappeared there was a burst of energy that impacted his surroundings, cracking the reinforced glass of the medical cell. Obi-wan immediately threw out his hands to catch himself, using the wall as support until he recovered from the drain. He would recover soon enough, although he would have rather saved himself the trouble. Surviving the next several hours would be a Trial for all Jedi left in the Temple.

"Do you trust me?" Obi-wan spoke over his shoulder at Qui-gon who was still surprised to have witness what he did. Another startling rumble shook the Temple and Obi-wan was anxious to know the answer. Unsure of whether he would have to fight, the Knight squared his shoulders and turned to face his former Master. "I know you believe me, but do you trust me?"