Disclaimer: I don't own it; otherwise I'd be very, very, very rich. Like G. Lucas. Or J.K. Rowling.
Section 3
Mara woke in a small duracrete cell. At least she thought it was duracrete; on a planet this backward, they could still be using primitive concrete. Her attention wandered and she realized that her hands were bound behind her back and her feet were bound together. She had scarcely started to tug at her bounds before her attention wandered again. There was something on her face. There was something covering her entire head! Some kind of hood she supposed. In a moment of clarity she realized that these Dark Jedi must have found a rare Sith mask on Korriban. Certain types of Sith masks couldcause peoples' attentions to wander, keeping them from focusing either their energy or force power. She must be wearing one. Futilely she tried to concentrate, but she knew it was worthless. Her attention wandered again.
She wondered how long she had been unconscious; she wondered what these men wanted; she wondered what they were going to do to her. About twenty minutes later the door to her cell burst open and a woman swept in. "My name is not important to you at this time, so just listen to me and do as I tell you. Cooperate and things will go better. Come with me." She untied Mara's feet and yanked her upright. She pulled out a collar and snapped it around Mara's neck. If she had been in control of her body, Mara would have died before suffering such a humiliation. As it was however, she barely struggled. The mysterious woman snapped a chain on to the collar and dragged Mara out of the cell. After what seemed an eternity of walking they came to a thick door. There were two men guarding it. The man on the left spoke.
"Evenin', Bellatrix. Still tormenting helpless people, I see. What do you want?"
The woman Bellatrix snarled. "Shut up, Rodger. If there hadn't been so many of you noble-hearted Death Eaters last time, we wouldn't have lost!"
"Yeah, well, if your precious 'Dark Lord' would let us quit, we wouldn't be in your way!" snarled Roger. The instant the words left his mouth he knew it was a big mistake.
"That's treason, Roger, and you know it," hissed Bellatrix as she started forward, her wand raised.
Roger stepped back. "I take it back! I'm sorry, Bellatrix! Please don't mention this to the Dark Lord! I'll do anything!"
Bellatrix sniffed and returned her wand to some hidden pocket in her cloak. "I'll forget it this time, Roger. But remember, I will not let this pass unnoticed. I will collect this favor sometime in the future."
Roger let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you! I will pay you back."
Mara was so shocked that she was able to throw off the effects of the Sith Mask for a short time. "You're going to let him go? He is a dissenter and should be removed! By all rights you should kill him right now. He spoke out against your leader! Kill him."
Bellatrix adopted a thoughtful look on her face. "Maybe I should kill him," she said. "That would grant me certain favor with the Dark Lord."
Roger turned pale and stepped back again. "No, Bellatrix, please…" He bumped into the wall behind himself.
Bellatrix laughed. "Then again, it is always good to have contingency plans."
Mara was stunned. "What? If you don't trust your master, that makes you just as much a rebel as the last man." The Mask cut in again and she lost her train of thought. However, she was now mentally strong enough to hold onto part of the thought.
"Traitor!" she screamed. "TRAITOR! YOU ARE A KRIFFING TRAITOR!"
Bellatrix sighed. "I see I have to take care of your memories first." She pointed her wand at Mara and initiated a Memory Charm. The charm hit, and then it was blocked by a mental wall so powerful that the spell was simply deflected. Bellatrix tried again, and again, and again. Finally she gave up and looked at Mara. Mara was grinning foolishly and was clearly disoriented by the amount of strength necessary to stop such a spell.
"Hee, hee," she giggled. "Not so easy to wipe my mind, is it Bellatrix? I've been trained to fight that stuff. I remember everything."
Bellatrix was stunned. No one in the history of magic had ever resisted the Memory Charm. She realized that there was only one way to stop Mara from babbling to Voldemort. Actually, there was two ways; but Voldemort wanted to talk to a live Mara. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at Roger. Mara giggled.
"That's the way, that's the way," she tittered.
Roger started begging for his life, but Bellatrix couldn't risk it.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" she yelled.
Roger collapsed on the ground in a flash of green light. In her near hysterical state Mara promptly forgot about the incident.
She descended into her thoughts and struggled along behind Bellatrix. The duo headed down the passageway after going through the door. Soon enough they came to another door. This door seemed to be made of some sort of stone, but in her hysterically induced state Mara was in no shape to change a light bulb, much less ascertain the elemental nature of a strange door. However, it made no difference. Mara was dragged through into the room beyond. Bellatrix stopped and yanked the hood off of Mara's head. Mara's concentration returned in a rush. Her hysteria disappeared as well.
She lunged at Bellatrix. Bellatrix clicked her tongue and pointed her piece of wood at Mara. A light leapt out of it and Mara was frozen to the spot. She snarled and twisted to no avail. Bellatrix laughed and waved her wand again. Against her will, Mara was dragged to a low table in the center of the room. A quick glance around the room told Mara that she was in a pretty typical interrogation room, made popular throughout the galaxy during the Emperor's reign.
Bellatrix slammed Mara down on the table and clipped her collar onto a waiting loop of steel. She then proceeded to secure Mara on the table by her hands and feet using chains. After Bellatrix was finished she simply left through the door, leaving Mara behind.
Mara tried to struggle but the chains were too strong and her force power not yet fully returned. Finally she slumped back in defeat. There was nothing left to do but wait.
A very long time later the door opened. Mara had lost track of how long she was in the room. She was completely disoriented. She quickly organized her thoughts. First she had landed. When she had debarked, she had been ambushed. The ambushers had been using some sort of strange weapons; the lights resembled blaster bolts, but they were fired from pieces of wood. Obviously she would have to figure that mystery later. After she had incapacitated or killed the other men, the Dark Jedi had grabbed her. He claimed that he was a true Sith, ready to take on the galaxy. Apparently he wanted to assist the 'Dark Lord' of this planet. He would probably want to take over and use these people to conquer neighboring systems.
Then she had been bound and secured and now she was strapped to a table awaiting interrogation.
The door opened fully; in walked one of the strangest men Mara had ever seen. In a way, he reminded her of Palpatine; he was definitely different from other humans, his skin was a pale gray color, and his eyes were strange. However, this man had red eyes, whereas the Emperor had yellow. She instantly knew that this was a man of great power and almost infinite cruelty.
The man spoke.
"My dear; you are awake. Good; I have proposal to make to you: join me. That is all. Join me and you will be well rewarded. You will be given the position of…uh…what would you call it…in nautical terms; second mate, if you will."
Mara sneered. "Second Mate? What do you think I am, some sort of person who can be bought? I serve the Emperor and nothing you can do to me will change my mind. Do your worst!"
The spooky man sighed. "Oh, well. They said you wouldn't give in right away, but I had to try. It's so much quicker if you would just give in now. Since you won't join, we will have to do this the hard way. Remember: what I am about to do to you is not to gain information. You have nothing in your mind that I wish to hear. All I want is your loyalty. The instant you pledge fealty to me, I release you. I even know certain spells that will instantly heal your wounds. However, we don't have much time; I must get to work."
He walked much closer to the table and leaned down next to Mara's ear.
"My dear, what I am about to show you is only an example of what I can do. But, before I show you, I want to do this."
He then gagged her. "That is to keep the screaming down to a minimum. It gives me such a headache. By the way, my name is Voldemort; shall we begin, Mara Jade, Hand of the Emperor?"
He pointed his stick at Mara. "CRUCIO!" he yelled.
Mara was consumed in a world of agony. Everything was white. Pain was all there was; a universe of suffering; unending torment. At the apex of her torment, the ultimate point, just before her mind was destroyed and she descended into the dark oblivion of insanity, Voldemort stopped torturing her, almost as if he knew when she would snap. She fell back onto the table gasping; she wanted to pass out, but her training prevented her from doing so. Voldemort leaned in.
"That, my precocious little girl, is a small example of what I can do."
Mara was in incredible pain, but she still managed to force a tiny laugh. "Small example? I'd hate to feel your best."
Voldemort smiled. "You will never feel that, my pretty, if you turn to me. However, if you take to much time to turn, I will be forced to show you the true extent. Trust me, I can make your end go much more slowly than you could think possible. Regardless, for now we will focus on more…traditional methods."
He clapped his hands and two burly men came into the room.
"Don't kill her," he snarled at them.
The two men cracked their knuckles in delight.
"No, sir," they chorused.
Voldemort sniffed. "Be sure that you don't, Crabbe, Goyle. I'd hate to do to you what I did to your fathers. I'll be back in an hour. You had better have her sobbing, and she better not be dead." He swept from the room to take care of more important things, even if they weren't as enjoyable.
Mara looked Crabbe and Goyle up and down; they resembled shaved apes with their massive torsos and arms. Their heads were small however and they didn't look like they did much thinking for themselves. On the other hand, their faces showed that they had a penchant for cruelty. All together it was a bad combination for the subject of interrogation.
"Let's begin, shall we?" chortled Goyle. He picked up a cat-o'-nine tail; Crabbe yanked it from his hands.
"You idiot! We can't kill her, the Dark Lord said so. How long do you think she would last if you start beating her with that?"
Goyle looked longingly at the nails and spikes braided into the cat-o'-nine, and then looked up. "You have a point Crabbe.
How 'bout torches? They don't leave no permanent damage, do they?"
Crabbe smiled wickedly. "Torches sound great. Get 'um."
Goyle chuckled again and plucked a couple from the wall.
"Here you go," he said tossing one to Crabbe.
Crabbe held the torch inches away from Mara's stomach. "Should we do it with her clothes on, or off?"
Goyle thought for a minute. "Let's do it with them on. Then they can burn off. That should be fun to see."
They applied the torches to different parts of her body. Crabbe held the torch to her stomach while Crabbe held it to her legs. After a few minutes they realized that it wasn't working.
'Stupid people,' thought Mara. Imperial space-rated jumpsuits were naturally complete protection against extreme heat and cold, and even to a small extent resistant to shrapnel. There was no way they were going to be able to burn through it with a few measly torches.
Crabbe and Goyle realized this a little later. They grunted in disgust and went to rip the jumpsuit off her. However, with their massive fingers they were unable to grasp the tiny zipper that secured the suit. Crabbe made a disappointed noise and went to find some scissors.
When he came back, he was holding two large pairs; one for him and one for Goyle. They immediately began cutting. The armor mesh holding the suit together managed to resist them for a while, but eventually it gave way, little by little. Within ten minutes the scraps of the jumpsuit were lying on the floor and Mara was left clad in her flight suit; which was by no means fireproof. It was a partial body suit, completely covering her upper body, her arms down to her elbows, and down her legs to the knees. The result was that all that was uncovered was her forearms and lower legs. The two also yanked off her boots and her socks, inadvertently finding the small hold-out blaster concealed there. By unspoken agreement, Goyle and Crabbe held the lit torches simultaneously to the soft, sensitive flesh on the bottom of her feet. The pain once again filled her to bursting.
Hours later she was tossed unceremoniously into her cell once more, to find that most of her gear had been tossed in as well.
Although she knew that it was probably what they wanted, she struggled over to her bag and pulled out a first aid kit. She began to administer to the bruises that she had sustained during the hours of the breaking; paying special attention the bottom of her feet. The Bacta spray and the synthi-flesh bandages took the pain down to tolerable level, but she knew that it would be a while before she put her boots back on.
She sat down on her cot, head in hands. What was she to do? She couldn't even use the Force; she had been administered a drug that apparently subdued the use of the force for at least three days with so extra side effects. The hypodermic needle from whence the drug was injected not only looked unsanitary, it looked like it had been taken from a couple thousand year old crypt; which it probably had, if it came from Korriban as she expected.
She ransacked her belongings again. There was no weapon anywhere; they had even taken the portable holo-vid player. It looked like it was going to be a long wait.
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