Bow didn't understand why he hadn't been tortured as soon as he had entered the cell. Instead, he waited, suspended in an energy field, while in the cell next to his, Sari was going through an unbearable amount of pain . . . he could tell by the screams. He could only hope that his padawan had the strength to resist the dark side.

Finally the door opened and four figures came in like shadows. They circled him as the lights went out one by one, ultimately making the room pitch-black. Now it was his turn to suffer . . .

"That's ironic. The student can take more pain than the teacher." Diz said as he looked at an armor-less and unconscious Bow. It was only a short hour from when the session had begun.

"Speaking of which, we should . . . check on her, don't you think?" Ansem, another Sith Lord, asked.

"I was about to say the same thing." Diz said as they exited Bow's cell. "We didn't get an answer from her the first time."

The pain seemed to have doubled since the last session, and again Sari was almost unconscious.

"So about that invitation, what do you think? All this pain will end if you just join us."

"I . . . . . . I . . . ." Sari fell unconscious before she could finish her sentence.

"I knew you shouldn't have done that last bolt. Now we'll have to wait again." Eyre said angrily.

"Don't worry." Baize said. "At least we have something to do in the meantime. Her master still hasn't decided yet."

Bow had managed to stay conscious throughout the torture session. At the end, they tried, as always, to tempt him to the dark side. But after punishing the acolytes who "Failed to give a good tempt", Diz, a master Sith Lord, showed them "an example of a true tempt."

"I'm sorry that the apprentices failed to give an adequate tempt to an experienced Jedi such as you, so I'll just come right out and say it. Join us or die. And I can assure you that your death won't be swift. We'll draw it out as much as we can, until you beg for death, but not even then will you find it."

There was a silence, but then Bow spoke firmly and surely. "No . . . I won't join you."

"Well that's too bad, but if you won't, maybe your padawan will." Diz walked out of the cell along with the acolytes and the other Sith Lord, Ansem.

Outside, the hunters had been waiting. Diz had promised them that if one of the Jedi openly refused, they could torture that one as they pleased . . . The Sith weren't the only ones who liked to see the Jedi suffer.

Diz told them "He's all yours." And they smiled. Some even laughed as they imagined the torture they'd put this Jedi through. The only thing they had to promise was not to kill him . . . yet.

Bow had never experienced so much pain before. The hunters had used nearly every known torture technique . . . and even some that were probably of their own creation that were unknown. His cries didn't help Sari, who was being tempted in the adjacent cell.

"Listen to his screams. He will die because of his refusal to join us. Don't make the same mistake. It'll be the last one you ever make."

Sari mumbled something, but Diz couldn't understand what she had said. Bow screamed again and Sari winced, imagining the pain her master was going through.

[If my master did everything to resist it, and it makes people this merciless and causes them to want to cause pain to others, I don't want it. I don't want to fall to the dark side . . . no matter what it takes.]

"No, I won't fall to the dark side."

There was a long silence, then the Dark Lord spoke. "We'll see about that." He left leaving Sari wondering if she'd made the right decision.

"You know, you're lucky." Diz said to Bow, who had been tortured nearly to death. "I've decided against giving you a long, slow death. Instead, I'll make your padawan watch as you die. If that's not enough to turn her, then she will meet the same fate." The Dark Lord then left, nodding to the torture overseer.

The overseer knew what the nod meant. Bow braced himself, but then relaxed as Medi, the common Lonüian healing agent, began to heal his wounds. He knew they were just healing him to cause him more pain . . . as Sari watched, but there was nothing he could do about it . . .

The Sith Lord who Sari was sure used to be her childhood friend Diz had not come back and it had been a long time since he had come to tell her that Bow was going to die because of his refusal.

Was Bow already dead? She hadn't heard him in a long time as well . . . No that was impossible, she would have felt it. But what if she was somehow disconnected with the Force? After all, she was in a cell, pain racking her body, and the dark side all around her . . . Something she didn't sense was the knock out gas that filled the room.

Sari's unconscious form was thrown into the same cell that Bow was in. Bow looked at her and quietly said that he was sorry in advance for causing her so much pain, even though she wouldn't hear it and he probably wouldn't live to tell her. . .

When Sari regained consciousness she realized that she wasn't in the same cell she had been in when she blacked out. A look to her left confirmed that, when she saw her master in an energy field, and a pile of his white armor in the far corner.

"So you're finally awake. Good. Now the show can start." Diz nodded to the overseer, a Jedi hunter named Redém, who nodded back as he pulled a lever to the level 13 mark, the middle mark in the fatal red zone . . .

The level 13 shock ran through Bow causing him excruciating pain. Sari tried to close her eyes, but some unknown force kept her from doing that. She was forced to watch as Bow was shocked over and over again until he was on the brink of death.

When it looked as if one more shock would kill Bow, Diz told Redém to stop. He then ignited his lightsaber . . . "Goodbye Jedi." He said as he ran Bow through.

"Noooo!" Sari felt as if half of her had been torn away, and it left her not knowing what to feel. She felt angry, sad, hurt and lonely all at the same time. It made her even angrier to watch as Diz threw Bow's body with disgust against the far wall without a second glance at the life he'd just taken.

"Yes, I feel your anger, your hate, and your pain. Use them, break your restraints, use your Jedi powers against me and avenge your master's death!" Sari tried to block it out, to hold back her rising anger, but couldn't.

In a state of fury and rage she broke the force restraints. "Now you fall, as all Jedi must." "No . . ." She again fought with her anger, but found herself Force choking Diz. When she had almost choked the life out of him, she stopped, finally able to calm herself.

Diz thought she was going to kill him the way he had killed her master, but when he saw that she wasn't reaching for his lightsaber to finish him, he said.

"Fool, you are afraid of the dark side, and that will be your downfall." Sari just stood there as Diz left, not even glancing at him.

When Sari thought that he was well enough away, she brought herself to kneel beside her master's body. Sari wept quietly as she swept her hand over the perfect hole where the lightsaber had gone through him.

But she couldn't hold in her emotions any longer. She wrapped her arms around her master's body, feeling traces of the calmness that was released through his fur. This was the person who was her mentor almost since birth, and the only family she had ever known. She felt her emotions escape in one huge burst, but she didn't care if Diz came back. She'd kill herself before she'd join him, because of all the pain he'd caused others.

Sari started to get up, so she'd be ready when Diz came, but when she felt her master stir she knelt back down, surprised. She looked and saw that the hole was gone.

"What? How is that – " Sari whispered as Bow sat up.

"How is what?" Bow asked.

"I thought you had –"

"Died?"

"Yeah."

"No, I just don't know why I'm over here. The last thing I remember was when the shocks stopped."

[Did I do something? Did I gain a new ability? Not only did I feel that he wasn't faking his death, he doesn't remember any of it . . . Should I tell him, or . . . No, he can't know. He can't know how close I was to falling to the dark side.]

Sari decided to keep her new super-ability to herself, but she had forgotten that the overseer had watched the whole thing through the one-way glass of the control station.

"Diz, there's something that you might want to see." Redém said into the comm panel. "It's urgent."

It wasn't long before Diz walked into the cell. Sari turned quickly and saw him, but she wasn't fast enough to hide Bow.

"So, he's alive again."

"What's he talking about, Sari?" Bow asked, a confused look on his face.

[Well, so much for keeping it a secret.]

"You died, but I somehow revived you." Sari reluctantly said.

"The ability to bring those that have died back to life. You're the first with this ability and you'll make an excellent addition to the Sith ranks. Too bad you won't let go of that Jedi you call master."

Sari knew she couldn't let her emotions control her. She couldn't let Bow see her in the same state of rage as before.

"He is my master, and you are not. You do not control me." She said calmly.

"Yet. I don't control you yet, but in time . . . I will." Sari barely had time to see him smile wickedly before a rush of the Force lifted her up and slammed her hard against the wall, rendering her unconscious yet again.