Inheritance

Required Assistance

Some limited spoilers from Jedi Apprentice.
No betas, therefore the mistakes are all mine.
See chapter one for disclaimers.

Some hours later...

"It is far worse than we feared."

"Yes. Much darkness he bears. Consume him it will."

"You mean it will kill him."

"To destroy from within and without it does."

"Then there is only one alternative. He will not like it. I do not like it."

"Demand much of its servants the Force does."

"This may be too much..."

"Meditate later on this we will."

"Ugghhh..."

"He's waking."

"More rest he needs. Stressful was the experience. Sleep, young one. Much strength you will need in the trials to come."

* * * * *

Many hours later... perhaps even days...

Obi-Wan's head hurts, in fact, the very word "hurt" seems a woefully inadequate descriptor. The throbbing between his temples is nothing less than torturous; ever increasing by incalculable degrees with his every attempt at thought. Obi-Wan is in a particularly foul mood, his present pain only adding to his general malcontent. The tremors and nausea are not much help either; all gifts of the rather invasive and down right vicious mind probe from earlier. These new miseries only serve to compound his abject state under the weight of the damnable collar.

He had been allowed to touch the Force again, to feel the warmth and comfort of its embrace, to once again lose himself in the ephemeral plenum only to have that peace torn from him, stolen with a chilling and thunderous "click."

Bile once again rises in his throat, but it isn't his nausea stirring, it is something deeper—a personal revulsion to his pitiful state of being. He crosses the small distance to his 'fresher. He hovers for a moment, but the nausea passes. He stands there staring at the stranger that shares his features; his features, but not his eyes. The stranger's eyes are dull, empty, joyless, eyes that barely reflect light and no longer reflect a soul. Obi-Wan shakes his head. Those can't be his eyes. Can they?

Inside he knows the truth. Obi-Wan knows that his is a half-life; eclipsed from the Light, but not quite in darkness—merely shadowed. His whole existence now a darkened formless mockery of another life. A brighter life. A life lost to him for now and perhaps, he knows, forever.

* * * * *

Some few days later...

"Master Kenobi, I had not expected to find you here. Tell me, have you discovered yet another way to injure yourself?" a stern Twi'lek asks brusquely as she stands before the younger master. Obi-Wan raises his hands pacifically.

"No, new wounds I assure you, Master. Only a few questions, please," he answers. Vokara Che's eyebrows lift slightly in... amusement? Obi-Wan is only truly acquainted with the master healer's scowl (a match for Master Windu's any day) so this new expression is mildly puzzling.

"Ask," she orders. Obi-Wan does not hedge or hesitate.

"The collar, what would happen if it is removed... permanently?"