Title: Break

Summary: When all attempts to interrogate the Princess of Alderaan, the Emperor's Hand, Mara Jade, is ordered to go to the Death Star and attempt to break her. Will she succeed? A New Hope, Slight AU, Challenge Prompt.

Paring: None

Warnings:Violence

Disclaimer: I do not own the Star Wars Franchise, I do not own any of the characters, and I do not in any way write this for profit. All characters, references and names are property of their respective owners.

Note: I am a tad rusty at writing on this scale, used to do it a lot but life got in the way, but I'm back at it! Yay! However, I tried to do this a few weeks ago, and bombed miserably at it. So forgive me if there are some things in here that are glaring, such as OOC-ness, or Mary Sues. I will try my very best to keep both of those things out of it, but it might slip in. I was challenged to do this by the way! This story is not to meant to have any substantive plot, it is not meant to be other than a response the challenge, if you're looking for a fully-fledged novel, turn away now because it's not one, and please if you plan on critiquing this, be gentle. I hope you enjoy it.

Darth Vader's Point of View

I was convinced that all I needed was time and I would be able to extract all the information we needed from the child.

But with this matter, my master wasn't a patient man and neither was Governor Tarkin and that's how I found myself in a meeting with just myself, Tarkin and our mutual master. The Emperor, joining us on live a holofeed from the Capital, had been carefully listening to our reports and he had been giving the outward impression that he was only listening. But I knew him better than that and I saw the calculating glint in his eyes, I knew he was formulating something on his own and whatever it was would probably have a fatal edge to it. Sitting there in the conference room, imagining all of the possibilities that my master could come up with, I almost pitied the Princess, almost. She had brought it upon herself by violating the highest of Imperial Law and threatening all of the careful work that it had taken to stabilize and fortify the galaxy. By being resistant to everything we had used to extract the information from her mind, she had brought the unspeakable pain that I was sure the Emperor would inflict on her, "Lord Vader, from your reports, I gather that you are of the opinion that Princess Leia will not respond to conventional tactics?"

"She will never consciously betray the Rebellion," I responded and I knew in the instant that I said those words that my master agreed with me, "There is nothing that I or the Governor could do that will force her to tell us anything."

"Perhaps a masquerade then?" The Emperor responded with a slight smirk on his lips and I instantly knew that whatever he had come up with was going to be implemented, like it or not, "The Hand will be useful in this case."

I narrowed my eyes, but I was smart enough to keep my mouth closed and my temper in check. If there was one thing in this entire galaxy that I hated with the burning intensity of the Force itself when I didn't consider the Rebellion, it was the Emperor's Hand, Mara Jade. She was simply an insect to be squashed and I knew from personal experience that she thought the same way of me. But that insect had talents that I obviously couldn't have with my physical limitations, she had the ability to blend in and get into places were force and violence couldn't be used. She also had a talent with a lightsaber and the force and somewhere in the back of my mind, I swore that was the only reason that my master kept her around. As much as it pained me to admit it, I was beginning to see what he was suggesting and I found that it was a brilliant idea. If we made it look convincing enough, we might be able to get the information and the Princess wouldn't even have to know about it. I should have thought about this earlier because this was where Jade operated, in the world of espionage and heavily disguised personas, who better than her?

I then turned to Tarkin and smirked from under the protection of my mask, it filled me sadistic pleasure to see the look of utter confusion on Tarkin's face at the mention of Jade's official designation. Only I, the circle of Grand Admirals, the Director of Imperial Intelligence Armand Isard and the Emperor himself were personally aware of her existence her official duties. However, everyone outside of the very, very top of the Military and Intelligence Chain of Command didn't have the first idea of what that meant. Unfortunately for Tarkin, that included him and I knew for a fact that the Emperor would want to keep it that way. Jade was the alternative weapon to myself and he preferred to keep that a secret, no matter how much the Emperor thought that he could "trust" Tarkin. Ever since I had failed to get retrieve the stolen plans from the Rebellion, I had been punished by being this fools whipping boy.

It was only a small consolation, but it provided me great consolation to have something over the "brilliant" Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, something he would never have a chance of ever finding out, and if he did, he wouldn't live long.

"Your Majesty," Tarkin began with a hesitant expression, "If I may ask – whom are you referring too?"

My smirked widened into a full on sadistic smile as the Emperor fixed him with an annoyed glare, which quieted him at once and then responded to him in a dangerously cryptic voice. I was bubbling with so much amusement, Tarkin wasn't used to this situation, "That is none of your concern Governor, I want to make myself perfectly clear, you will not do anything to interfere with this and so long as the Hand is on the station, you will do nothing to insert yourself into the situation. The interrogation of the Princess is for the Hand and Lord Vader to control and if I find that you attempt to interfere, and make no mistake about it, I will find out, you will be punished, severely, is that clear?"

Tarkin, trying to hold his pride up, nodded shallowly and looked down at the table, "Yes, your majesty."

Savoring Tarkin's ego being taken down, I watched the holo-emitter with a smirk as the Emperor turned to me with his own smirk. He clearly had enjoyed it as well, "You will work with the Hand, and cooperate, is that clear?"

I nodded, "Yes Master."

"Good," He smiled at me and turned back to Tarkin, "I expect results gentleman, do not fail me."

Mara Jade's Point of View

If Tarkin and Vader couldn't break the girl, what made them think that I could exactly?

Sure, I was more skilled at interrogation then Tarkin and I had more finesse then Vader, but combine them and that makes for one gruesome interrogation. However, at the same time, that presented a glaring fact to me, and it was that to resist interrogations like those, it pointed to a stubborn and strong mind in the Princess of Alderaan. If I didn't know any better, I would venture as far as to say that the girl's mind was simply impenetrable, but I couldn't allow myself to think that for two reasons: failure, under any circumstances, was not an option and the Emperor had placed this interrogation at the top of his list of priorities. This girl knew the location of the Rebel Base and as I stepped into the darkly lit room and looked at the shackled Princess in the center of it, I smiled. I smiled because she would tell me what I wanted to know or she would wish that she was in the room with Vader and Tarkin, at the same time.

Looking into her eyes, I saw the slightest flicker of fear and with that my smile grew to an ear to ear grin. From my preliminary readings on her, I had expected the Princess to be unreadable and if that had been the case, I would have had to wear her down until that stoic mask slid off of her face, but I was very much wrong. She had shown me her fear and I was going to exploit it to the best of my ability and unfortunately for her, I was very good at what I did. Perhaps two solid weeks of interrogations by the insufferable Tarkin and the nauseating Vader had finally did it, I really didn't care, all I cared about was the fact that she was vulnerable and I had a weak spot to exploit. Purposely making sure to take my time walking over to the large workbench on the other side of the room, I set the black case I was carrying down on it and turned around and stared her down with a predatory smile. I would never admit this out loud or to anyone else for that matter, but I had a begrudging respect for the girl. She managed to live two lives in perfect cohesion, the role as an Imperial Senator and the leader of a galaxy wide Rebellion, and she still had time to dress so wonderfully. What I wouldn't give to live only one day in her undoubtedly fascinating life. I could only dream of the day when Mara Jade and the woman known as the Emperor's Hand were two separate things entirely.

But today was not that day.

Today I was the Emperor's Hand and I had a job to do.

"Do you know why you're here Princess Leia?" I spoke softly as I began to walk in a circle around her chair, my eyes never leaving her head.

"Vader has a personal vendetta against me?" Her snappy reply actually made me emit a small laugh, "He and I have never exactly gotten along."

Folding my arms over my chest, I moved my eyes off of her and looked at the ground in front of me as I continued my circular walk, "While I won't deny that Vader is an impulsive fool, he is not what I'm supposed to talk about, I'm supposed to talk about the location of the Rebel Base and I'm supposed to find out what you know about it. So far you have demonstrated a respectable resistance to Moff Tarkin and Vader, but I feel obligated to warn you that whatever they did to you is nothing compared to what I will do to you. My master had ordered me to conduct your interrogation personally – and I'm going to do exactly that. Luckily for you though, I'm in a good mood today, so I'm going to offer you a chance that few people get from me and that is my mercy. Tell me what I want to know, tell me the location of the base and I give you my word that you will not be harmed, I will personally release you."

The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them and in an attempt to keep up appearances, I simply kept walking in circles. That, of course, was never going to happen even if she did somehow fall for it. Princess Leia was an enemy of the Empire and under the direct attention of the Emperor himself, even if I did somehow manage to sneak her off of his giant monstrosity of a space station, I wouldn't live long enough to formulate a lie to cover my actions up. When I was promptly met by silence and then more silence, I sighed and broke off my circular walk and headed towards the workbench. Before I opened the case on the table, I crossed my hands together and cracked my knuckles before turning my head slightly back to her, "Just remember something your highness, you forced me to do this and I also want you to remember that it's nothing personal, it's just my duty to protect the Empire."

"Just another mindless automaton," Leia scoffed at me, "That's hardly surprising, I've said this a lot during my stay in this charming place, but do your worst."

Feeling righteous indignation rising in the pit of my belly, I growled and turned around to look her right in the eyes, "No, I'll do my best, and unfortunately for you – that means a lot of pain."

I then turned around, opened the case and withdrew the syringe and then picked up the vial containing the method of interrogation that I'd be using today. It just so happened that before I came here, I was in the Imperial Palace, developing this exact synthetic pathogen for future use and who better to be the first test subject then Princess Leia? If all went according to how it should, then the every single pain sensor in her body would be aggressively stimulated on contact with the pathogen, while simultaneously lowering her inhibitions. A part of me knew that the chances of success were greatly reduced by the fact that this was the very first usage ever conducted on a sentient being and by the fact that the droids that Vader and Tarkin used something somewhat similar with their interrogation functions. But I had to try, that's all I could do, the information stored within her brain was the top priority of all.

"Well?" Darth Vader barked at me as the door to the interrogation chamber closed behind me.

What in the blazing hell did I tell him? That after six uninterrupted hours, and three renewed injections of my serum, she still wouldn't tell me the one thing I wanted to know? Yes, that's what I would tell him. This "man" before me made my skin crawl, but that feeling would be offset by the sadistic pleasure that I would get by knowing that he was no closer to the answers that our mutual master wanted from the exhausted, pathetic girl in the chamber. So I placed a cocky smirk on my lips and put my hands on my hips, "She told me everything about herself while screaming in agony, she told me about her birthday parties and what color her bedroom is in the Palace on Alderaan, not to mention what the name of her first pet was. But she did not, and I repeat, did not give me anything useful at all. She wouldn't even admit to me that she was a Rebel, even though we all know that she is. Her resistance to me is impressive. If you couldn't break her, if Tarkin couldn't break her and if I can't break her, then I suspect that she's not going to break at all. Might I suggest that you do something a little more drastic my mechanical friend?"

He was most definitively growling, and my smirk strengthened at the thought. It must have killed him to think that I was literally one of only two people in the entire galaxy that he couldn't lay a finger on, other than the Emperor himself. Vader and I used to be able to toy with each other until our master had finally had enough and, like an annoyed parent, told us to go to apologize to each other and swear under his direct command to never physically harm one another again. After a few moments of silence, Vader finally relented, "And what do you have in mind Hand?"

I thought about it for a moment and then smiled, "Alderaan – destroy it with the station and she'll break."

Vader was silent for a moment, "I doubt that – if she is anything like her father, she won't tell us anything, even if we destroy her home."

"I'm not so sure," I shrugged and folded my arms over my chest, "It'll weaken her resolve, and besides, what are losing?"

"That would make Alderaan and every single filthy rebel on that planet a martyr for them," Vader responded and that perked my curiosity, he was never one to show mercy, this was somewhat amusing, but he character as I knew he returned and that quelled my amusement very well, "But, it would be one more nest of sedition that I wouldn't have to step on, I'll inform Tarkin to set our course for Alderaan, and our master that you failed, failed terribly…"

And I knew he would take great amusement in that – and as he turned on his heels and walked away, I made sure to glare at him so hard that he probably felt the weight of my eyes on his back.

But then again, that would probably make him smug.

Schutta.

But then it occurred to me again that I had another play to make.

It was technically my idea to destroy Alderaan and I had a direct line to my master, a line that I could get on faster than he could.

Now who was smug?

Note: As I said at the beginning, this story isn't meant to have a steel plot - it was just a challenge, keep that in mind before you get all indignant with it. Otherwise, thank you for reading, and I do hope that you like it! :D