They had caged me again, with real bars and locks. At least they hadn't ripped my arm off to be able to contain me with shields. I was grateful for that. But I was imprisoned, and helpless. I can't abide small places.
I rattled the bars of the cage, testing their strength. Solidly built, the durasteel was thicker than usual. Smart of them; I could rip out the regular kind with time. I scanned the two meter by two meter cell for any sign of weakness. None. I kept myself from roaring with frustration by chanting the Jedi Code under my breath. It didn't help much but it kept me from slamming my fists uselessly against the bars.
I tried to think of how I had gotten here. For that matter, where was here? The last thing I knew for certain was preparing to crash on Malachor V. Then I woke up in a cage.
The room was bare stone walls, lit only by a few dim lights hanging from the ceiling. A table and a couple of stools were across from me. Nothing else.
Where were the others?
I heard a door open, and a Sith officer strode in, propelling a bound and bleeding woman before him. Visas. I roared with frustration, yanking on the bars. They didn't budge. Visas was turned away from me, her veil hiding what little I could see of her face. The Sith chained her to some manacles I hadn't noticed before that were attached to the wall.
"Now," the officer said with a sneer, "Maybe we'll get some answers. Where is the Exile?" he demanded of me, and I shook my head.
"I don't know," I shouted. "Leave her alone!"
"I'll give you the count of three, then this woman pays for your stubbornness." The man was tall, about Atton's height, and handsome if it weren't for the sneer. It's only in children's tales that the bad guys are always ugly.
I think I'm going insane, I thought calmly. To think something like that now.
"One."
"I don't know!" I shouted. That it was true didn't matter.
"Two."
"Let her go," I pleaded. "Take me, let her go."
"Three." As if he were doing something as mundane as brushing crumbs off his uniform, he shot Visas between the eyes with his blaster. I roared with pain and anger, slamming against the cage with all my strength. The bars didn't budge.
Without speaking, the officer unchained Visas, tossed her body aside as if it were garbage, and left. I tried desperately to pull the bars apart enough to wiggle free, but they wouldn't move. Abandoning that effort, I tried to touch the hand of my dead shipmate. She was just out of reach. I had scanned for her aura and knew she was dead; no healing from me would bring her back.
The door opened, and I drew back into my cage. Two Sith now, dragging an unconscious Disciple between them. They chained him, and tossed a bucket of water over him so he would be awake for his death.
"One."
I begged them to let him go, screaming I knew nothing.
"Two."
I bargained, groveled, pleaded.
"Three."
Disciple's body joined Visa's.
Jennet and Mira were brought in together, dragged in with two guards each. Canderous followed. Then they brought in Atton.
His dark eyes glittered at me above a broken bloody mouth. "You let all of them die," he spat, and I hung my head in shame.
"But I don't know," I tried to say, but stopped. Even if I did, I wouldn't have told them.
"Tell them," he said grimly. "They'll find her anyway."
"No," I whispered.
They tortured Atton to death in front of me, laughing and taunting me as they did. I crawled to the furthest corner of my cage and hid my face from it as best I could. I felt him die, and cried for the first time since the war. They prodded me with stun sticks until I looked at Atton's dead face. I did, but not because they had tortured me. Because I wanted to remember my failure.
They left me for a time, my dead friends for company. I stared at all the faces of these people I cared for, some I loved, and howled my grief. I vowed revenge, and didn't care that Jedi were supposed to be above it.
A nameless time later, the door opened again, and numbly, I saw them drag Ladria into the room. They had drugged her, it was obvious, but I knew that it wouldn't last long. I had suspected her healing ability before Jennet joined us, and hoped she flushed out the drug soon enough to escape. But my hope died as they bound her not to the wall like the others, but spread eagle on the steel table, sturdy restraints even I could not have broken easily.
"Iridonian scum," the officer in charge said conversationally. "You dare think yourself equal to humans? Even this Jedi trash is above you."
He removed a dagger from his belt and slowly sliced through most of Ladria's clothing. Now I wished that she didn't come out of her drug-induced haze; what was going to happen I didn't want her to feel. But her beautiful green eyes opened, aware and sane, and she locked eyes with me as the Sith defiled her. He turned her over to his guards when he was done, and her eyes never left mine. By the time they were through, I was praying they would kill her.
"Bao'uhr Dur'hcsk," she whispered, just before the dagger fell. "I am ready now."
I closed my eyes and felt my soul rip to pieces. The savagery of my people rose up in me, and I rose up, ripping the door of the cage off like it was paper. As I felt myself give in to the mindless violence of my race that had earned the fear of even the Mandalorians, I heard her voice again.
No, my most faithful and truest friend, I heard in my mind. This is not you. This is not real. You are needed, there is work to be done. This is only a nightmare.
What is real? I answered, feeling the power of rage, and wanting to grasp it.
Love is real. Trust is real. The Force is real. You are real. These are but shadows. Come back. I need you to come back, and find me.
With a painful wrench, I remembered Kriea, and the threat of Dark Jedi mind trick. I felt my rage ebb, and Truth come flooding in. Sanity returned, and I breathed deeply.
But before I left the nightmare, I looked at my General's face, to remember.
