As tempting as it is to take Varice up on her offer and let the Togruta show him what she's managed to make of Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee over these past several months… Vader can't quite dispel the disquiet within him regarding his old master.
Something is going on with Obi-Wan Kenobi and while the easy answer might be 'he's Fallen just like the rest', it's still difficult for Vader to wrap his head around that idea. Obi-Wan Kenobi had always been the quintessential Jedi. To a fault even, because Vader had long wondered if someone like say, Mace Windu, might have been better off training a young Anakin Skywalker.
Still, this universe was not like his old universe. That much was obvious. So yes, Vader needed to get to the bottom of this mystery regarding Kenobi before he did anything else. Not only was it critical to his future plans, but he also needed to know exactly what was going on to settle his own uncertainty. A Sith Lord could not be feeling so… uneasy about anything. Letting such a thing fester was a path to ruin that Vader refused to walk on.
"We will discover what has happened with Obi-Wan first. Then we can visit the Tranquility."
Darth Varice doesn't hesitate to bow her head at that.
"Of course, Master."
Her obedience is expected but nevertheless appreciated. He can feel her anticipation in the Force after all. She's definitely excited to show off for him, seeing her corruption of Luminara and Barriss as a crowning achievement on top of being a gift she prepared for him. However… threats come first. And Obi-Wan Kenobi very well could be a threat.
Leaving the conference room behind, Vader leads the way through the Negotiator with Varice at his side. They walk in silence while approaching Kenobi's quarters… only, before they can reach them, they find themselves waylaid by a certain clone trooper.
"General Skywalker. Commander Tano."
Vader pauses and narrows his eyes as Cody makes himself a nuisance again. The clone seems insistent on interrupting their present course.
"Commander Cody… is there an issue?"
He's also tense… too tense by Vader's estimation. What was this?
"General Kenobi has left strict orders saying that he's not to be disturbed. If you two are heading towards his quarters I have to ask that you wait elsewhere for when he's ready for you."
What? Vader can't help but be a little incredulous… and utterly baffled. Was Cody serious? Did he really think this sort of thing was going to work? Vader could sense the deceit in the Clone Commander's voice. Somewhere in his words… there was a lie.
"Even if Obi-Wan asked for that sort of thing, I'm confident he didn't intend for it to extend to his former or current Padawans. Stand aside, Commander."
Cody tenses even further… and Vader blinks as he feels a growing tension down the hall and around the corner as well. Seriously? There were more clones lying in wait to ambush them?! He should have noticed them before, but honestly he just wasn't expecting it so he wasn't looking for it.
Was this Obi-Wan's doing? Vader finally reaches out for his old master. He hadn't before because he didn't want to let Obi-Wan know he was coming… and maybe because part of him didn't want complete confirmation that his former Master had Fallen. However, this was getting ridiculous.
But… no. As he brushes his senses against Kenobi, he finds that the man is nowhere near this corridor. He's in his quarters as Cody had said… but he's not meditating. He's asleep… deeply asleep. The sort of asleep that's undeniably medicated.
"I'm afraid I can't do that, General. Please cease."
Why the fuck was Obi-Wan sedated?! Vader can't help but feel a little outraged and a whole lot incredulous. With a wave of his hand, he grabs Cody in the Force and slams the Clone Commander into the nearest wall. As a result, Varice immediately draws her saber… and the clones lying in wait just down the hall all come rushing out, blasters raised and set to stun.
To their credit, seeing their Clone Commander in quite the pressing situation, they all don't hesitate to fire on him and Ahsoka. Numerous bright blue blazing stun bolts come flying in their direction, with Ahsoka snarling and lifting her lightsaber to begin blocking.
She needn't bother, however. The pulsing blue energy comes to a stop in midair, held in place by Vader's power as he blocks every single stun bolt from reaching them. Then, he pushes back… and the stun bolts instead fly towards those who fired them, hitting every clone trooper before they can even react.
As the squad of ambushers fall to their own ambush, Vader catches Cody scrambling for his own blaster out of the corner of his eye. With contemptuous ease, he bats the blaster out of Cody's hand with the Force and then steps right up to the pinned Clone, his Force Grip going from Cody's body to his throat as he begins to squeeze with his mind.
"What is this treachery?"
"… Not… treachery… just… protecting… the General…"
Cody's words, spoken through gasps of air as Vader starts to choke the life out of him, only serve to further confuse Vader. At first he'd thought for a second that something had gone wrong with the inhibitor chips despite his actions on Kamino. If Cody and the other clones had gone on the fritz, then he could perhaps see them sedating Obi-Wan and taking control of the vessel without anyone being any the wiser… maybe.
But Cody's words… this time Vader senses no deceit. This time, the Clone Commander isn't lying. And that's all the more baffling.
In the end, he relaxes his grasp on Cody's throat, once again gripping down on the Clone Commander's body and holding him firmly against the wall.
"Explain. Now."
Cody falls silent, leaving Vader to snarl.
"I'm done asking questions, Commander Cody. I am now officially demanding answers. You do not want me to stop demanding answers, because at that point, heads will roll."
Cody's helmeted head turns as much as it can to the unconscious clones down the hall and Vader can almost seem the man running calculations in his mind. Just how many of his brothers is Cody willing to sacrifice to protect his General? The answer becomes clear when the Clone Commander slumps in Vader's grip a moment later.
"The General… he's a Sith now."
For a second, Vader's incredulity only grows. After all, he can tell that Cody is once again telling the truth… at least as he knows it. It takes a moment but he realizes what Cody really means. Your average non-Jedi won't really have any concept of what a 'Fallen Jedi' is. And the clones in particular only really know as much as their Jedi superiors tell them. They know, for instance, that Dooku is a Sith because he leans on the Dark Side of the Force.
So if Obi-Wan were to Fall… then he would appear as a Sith to Cody and his clone troops.
"So he Fell during the last battle and you've been sedating him to hide what happened ever since?"
That would explain things neatly… except Cody shakes his head at that.
"No sir… the General turned Sith months ago. We've been doing our best to hide it."
What? Months ago? And Varice hadn't even noticed? No, more than that, why the sedating? Vader's confusion only mounts until Cody opens his mouth and says something that both answers his questions and leaves him with more than he had previously.
"… The General doesn't know he turned Sith, sir. We've been doing our best to hide it from him too. That's why we sedate him after every battle and say he's meditating… to give his eyes a chance to turn back from yellow before he sees them."
… What.
-x-X-x-
Despite his ignorance of the fact, Obi-Wan Kenobi's Fall started much earlier than most of the Jedi Order. One might think, if they knew his history, that it would have begun back when he'd been rejected by the Order and sent to join the AgriCorps on Bandomeer, only to end up momentarily wearing a slave collar enroute.
But no, Obi-Wan managed to escape that situation relatively unscathed in spite of it being a trap set by his eventual Master Qui-Gon's previous failed Padawan, Xanatos. Things had ultimately worked out in Obi-Wan's favor because despite Xanatos' machinations, he'd still ended up as Qui-Gon Jinn's Padawan Learner when everything was said and done.
No, the moment that this Obi-Wan Kenobi's Fall truly began was on Melida/Daan, a planet that had been caught in civil war for so long that it had become their entire culture and purpose for being. He wound up abandoned by his Master on said planet, joining the Young in trying to stop the fighting so that the new generation could grow up in peace.
It was on the precipice of their victory, when Obi-Wan had held a dying Cerasi in his arms after her own father shot and mortally wounded her, that the Darkness had first started to creep in.
Afterwards, when Qui-Gon had returned for him and Obi-Wan had rejoined the Jedi Order… he'd made every attempt at recommitting himself to the Light. He'd meditated in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, he'd held counsel with Master Yoda, and he'd recentered himself in the Light Side of the Force.
… Or so he'd believed. In the end though, no amount of meditation could completely dispel the kernel of righteous anger and darkness at his heart. No amount of meditation could fully remove the rage Obi-Wan felt whenever he thought of Cerasi's senseless death and all the others who had perished on Melida/Daan.
The mission to Mandalore years later, meeting Satine Kryze and falling in love with her, had only escalated the problem. Satine would never ask Obi-Wan to choose between her and the Order… but if she had, he might have finally realized the truth right then and there. The truth that he was not the perfect Jedi that he'd fooled himself into believing he was.
Fighting Darth Maul and avenging Qui-Gon's death was the first time that Obi-Wan Kenobi unknowingly drew upon the Dark Side of the Force in battle. As his Master lay dying on the floor of the reactor, Obi-Wan's eyes had turned yellow and his strength had increased tenfold.
Maul is the only one to see this happen and given he's then cut in half moments later and sent into the reactor's depths, the surprised Sith Apprentice never gets the chance to mock the Jedi Padawan for his Fall. And now he never will.
By the time Obi-Wan had reached Qui-Gon's side, his eyes were blue once more and so the dying Jedi Master had no qualms about pushing for his too-young Padawan to ensure Anakin Skywalker received the training he needed to fulfill his destiny as the Chosen One.
In the end though, despite his journey starting much earlier and having many more twists and turns… the Clone Wars are where Obi-Wan completes his Fall just like so many of his fellow Jedi. The Battle of Geonosis, all those Jedi deaths in the Force… it finishes what had already started so long ago on the war-torn world of Melida/Daan.
Obi-Wan Falls like all the rest but unlike the others, he doesn't realize it. He simply… fails to notice. All his life he's been put on a pedestal. All his life, he's been told he has to be perfect, to be Light and nothing else. Obi-Wan has internalized that, embodying it with all his might. And in recent years, whispers of him being the best of them, of him being the consummate Jedi, have even started to reach his ears.
Obviously, Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn't actually believe he's the perfect Jedi or anything like that. But he strives to be each and every day all the same. And in doing so, he's cloaked himself in as much Light as he can… and blinded even himself to the truth in the process.
-x-X-x-
Vader stares at the battle recording as Varice watches alongside him and Cody stands with his hands on his hips. Obi-Wan throws his lightsaber, the blue blade cutting through a score of advancing battle droids… and then the Jedi Master lets out a roar and throws out his hands, unleashing a veritably tidal wave of Force Lightning on dozens more.
His saber snaps back into his hand the moment he ceases releasing the lightning storm and he turns back to his troops, waving them forward.
"COME ON!"
In that moment… Obi-Wan's eyes are a bright Sith Yellow. The Jedi Master is drawing heavily from the Dark Side of the Force in this battle… and doesn't even know it. He truly has no clue. Another dozen recordings that Cody has shown them all reveal the exact same thing.
Varice had thought Obi-Wan was keeping her away… but in reality, it was Cody keeping her away. Obi-Wan's clones, led by their Clone Commander, had been doing everything they could to protect their General these past several months… both from himself and from those around him.
And Varice hadn't realized it because she was too busy with her little pet project to notice. It would honestly be funny if it wasn't so disturbing.
"… What are you going to do now, General?"
Cody's words cut through Vader's thoughts, bringing him back to the present. It was a good question… what WAS he going to do here?