A.N. I'm not going into graphic details, it's not my style, but as some of you probably guessed, Anakin is not going to have a nice chat with Dalan's thugs. At all. So, beware, if you don't like violence, explicit or implicit it doesn't matter, even psychological violence, be aware that this chapter is not your cup of tea, definitely. I just wanted to warn you, just in case.
And, secondly, I must warn you I'm one of those who think Episode III cover a time frame of months, not days. Therefor, what Anakin says when he speaks to Dalan (sorry for the minor spoiler guys) and he talks about days, it's because I am one of those who sustain the "months" theory, if we want to call it that way. That's all.
Chapter 21 – Sledgehammer
It felt like being locked up all over again.
It didn't take me long to realize what they were going to do to me, as soon as I noticed the handcuffs hanging from the ceiling, bound to the roof with a thick durasteel chain. Two cuffs for the ankles were linked to the floor too, just underneath the others.
I knew what they were used for. I had seen countless of times.
As Dalan's thugs pushed me inside, I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. I wasn't expecting any kind of miracle, but that simple gesture helped me. I just needed to gather enough courage not to snap there and then and kill all of them, strangling or crushing them on the wall. Because that's what I wanted to do in that very moment. And that wouldn't have been the best thing to do, considering what kind of situation.
Fortunately, I was calm enough not to do anything stupid, even if I was going to be in a hell of a lot of pain after that. I was sure.
My prediction was sadly true.
I was up for another beat up, and there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. I couldn't say anything that would stop them. So I let them do what they had been ordered.
One of them tied my wrists with the cuffs hanging from the ceiling, then my ankles. Thank the Force I was wearing my combat boots and not shoes that day, or some nasty friction wounds would have added to those I was about to be inflicted. The chain hanging from the ceiling was long enough to let me hang a little in case I had problems standing by, but not long enough to make me stand on my knees. Bad news. If I had lost balance for some reason, all my weight would have been supported by my wrists, and that, for personal experience, is not a good thing. The chains that bound me to the floor were rather short, probably a foot long each. They were there to prevent me for kicking them.
Once I had been secured to the floor and ceiling, the man backed up against the wall at my left, ready to enjoy the show.
"So..." started one of them, slowly walking around me. "We heard a lot about you, Skywalker."
I said nothing, determined not to let them hear my voice, not even as they tortured me.
"Hey guys, he looks braver than we thought." he said at his friends, laughing. "Let's see if this Jedi is really up to the Legend! Let's see if he's really the Hero With No Fear!"
I didn't even notice him. One of the five men in the room had walked up behind me and hit me, hard at the level of my kidneys. One of the most painful points of the human body to hit with blunt force.
I winced a bit, most of all for the surprise, but managed to remain as silent as a tomb.
"Oh well, he knows how to take a punch, but let's see if..." and a bone-crushing jab hit me straight on my jaw. The punch made my neck bend to an incredibly painful degree. This wasn't going to end well for me.
But still, I emitted no sound, I just stared at the man in front of me, trying not to show if they were hurting me or not.
"Hey boss, that was a good punch!"
The man in front of me sneered and shook his hand, obviously hurting from the collision with my face. "Yeah, it was a good one. But this one is tough. Mackker, come here."
One that had been standing by the door since it had been closed stepped forward towards us. He was a mountain of muscles, one of those guys literally born to be a brawler. From the pan to the fire.
"Let's see if you can make him scream in pain Mack." stated the boss of the situation. "Do your best."
From that moment on, it was nothing but pain for me. That man was terribly skilled at inflicting pain to others.
I knew both Obi-Wan and Padmè could hear everything that was going on in that room, and I didn't want to scream most of all because of her. But I could hear her, through the in-ear transmitter. She was crying, I could hear it clearly and it was breaking my heart. Each time he hit me, I could hear her sobbing from the other side, until a powerful blow threw the small thing out of my ear and I was cut off from the rest of them. And it was better that way, because if I had heard what Padmè had in mind, well, I can't assure I would have kept such a good behavior from that moment on.
That man, Mack, he kept beating me like I was a punching sack.
In less than five minutes, I was bleeding from more cuts I could count. I had really a hard time trying not to scream in pain, most of all when a well placed punch at the solar plexus literally knocked the breath out of me. I was gasping for breath for at least a minute after that, and fortunately, he was kind enough to let me catch it.
"Hey, Jedi, why don't you show us one of your tricks? I'm sure you could set yourself free if you only wanted!"
Still panting, I ignored him and kept staring at him, even if, at that point, I could barely hold my head up. Actually, I could barely see from my left eye. A powerful blow had split my eyebrow and blood was oozing down the wound straight into my eye, partially blinding me.
"What happened Jedi?" continued the boss. "You lost your tongue? Mack here made you swallow it? What happened to the Hero of the Republic?"
Still nothing. His words were just empty to me. I didn't care what they said about me, they were nothing but minor inconvenience to me. The fact that, for the sake of both Obi-Wan and Padmè I had to remain calm and say or do nothing, didn't change the fact that they were useless pawn in a game bigger than anyone in the Galaxy.
"He's just Jedi scum, what to you expect from him?" asked one of the others behind me.
"Oh well, considering his fame, I thought he would at least try to defend himself!" and with that, he delivered a crushing knee strike straight to my chest, cracking some ribs and possibly breaking one or two of them.
This time, I let out a muffled groan, while spitting up some blood. "Is this the best you can do?" I taunted them. "When I was in prison, your colleagues were far more skilled in hurting me!"
"Oh finally we hear your voice! Now...what did you say?"
"I said..." I spit some more blood to the ground. "I said that I've been hurt worse when I was in prison. Is this the best you can do?"
"You're challenging us?" he asked. "I mean, you're definitely in no position to do such a thing, and you're challenging us to hurt you? Are you crazy?"
"Possibly...but, you know, I'm a Jedi, I must be crazy, in a way or another."
Mercilessly, he punched me again, hard, splitting my upper lip. "You're crossing a dangerous line here!"
"As if I'm not used to a little pain!"
He lifted his fist to hit me again, but the door opened with a low hiss and one of Dalan's men, one of those who had followed him when he had left. "Bors, stop that. The Inquisitor wants him alive, he's useless if you kill or maim him!"
The boss let his fist drop and gave me a tiny pat on my bloody cheek and smiled. "You're lucky my boss wants you, or I would have taken the pleasure to collect the bounty on your head myself." then he stood up and gestured to the others. "Release him!"
The guy that had tied me obeyed and released the handcuffs so quickly I fell on the ground, hard, on my left shoulder. The sudden impact of the joint with the hard cement floor didn't end well. I heard, before I felt, the humerus snap out of its socket, the bones grinding against one another caused a jolt of sharp pain shoot through my whole body.
Dislocated shoulder.
For the third time. Apparently, the precedent damage of the two other dislocations had left my shoulder prone to further and painful damages.
I couldn't help but scream in pain. That was too much. I could bear a beat up, it wasn't the first time after all I had been beaten like that, or worse, but that, it was just as bad as I remembered it. It felt like a thousand blaster shots exploded right in my shoulder. The pain cut my breath off, as sharp as it was.
"Oh well, finally we managed to make you scream!" laughed Bors, pulling my at the hem of my shirt so I was standing up. "Now go, Dalan wants to see you."
Grimacing for the pain and the anger, I followed the man that had unlocked the bindings and that now was pulling my right arm so I would follow him. No need to say I wasn't in the condition to try anything foolish against them or Dalan.
They conducted me to another room. It looked more like an interrogation room, there were a table and two chairs in the middle of the room. The man roughly pushed me down on one of the chairs and was about to tie again my hands to the metallic structure, but as he noticed the conditions of my left arm, decided to leave that free. He had a bit of common sense, at least that.
After he had bound my legs to the chair, he left and closed the door behind him
I was left alone there for I don't know how long. I used that time to check the damages. Other than the dislocated shoulder and the cracked ribs, the most important injuries, my right eye was swollen and it hurt like hell. The punch that had split the skin over the eyebrow had also caused a large bruise. I had cuts and bruises all over my face, most of all the right eyebrow, which was still bleeding, upper lip and the bridge of my nose. I moved my neck to check for further injuries, but it seemed fine. Except for the headache, everything seemed in its place.
The skin of my wrists was bruised and broken by the cuffs, as I breathed I could feel the damaged ribs grate against one another, causing me a sharp but bearable pain. The real problem at the moment was my shoulder. With my right arm blocked, I couldn't place it back in its socket as I had been taught to by the merciful doctor of the prison. That man had taken care of me for seven years, he was more a friend than a medic. Anyway...
It hurt like hell. Somehow, it hurt worse than when Dooku had cut my arm. Lightsaber cuts are immediately cauterized by the heat of the blade itself. It burns nerve endings so they don't work anymore and you don't feel much pain, but that...
I was trying to get my forearm to rest on my lap without causing anymore injuries when the door behind me opened. I turned around enough to see Dalan enter, holding a datapad in his hands. He carelessly threw it on the table and sat down in front of me.
For a moment, no one said anything, we just remained there, staring at one another. He was smiling. Damn it, I hated when my enemies smiled. Really, I hated it. It reminded me of Sidious' treachery.
"So...look who's here. Prisoner 100389 himself, escaped from Blenjeel Imperial Prison two years, two months and seventeen days ago! Alive and well! We though you had been killed in the Daltarra accident!"
And they called it an accident? "Seems like you were wrong!"
"Oh, sometimes it happens." he remained silent for a moment. "It's such a pleasure to meet you Master Skywalker. You cannot imagine."
Not that I really wanted to. "Why am I here?"
"Oh, don't worry. I have no intention to kill you Master Skywalker. You can relax. I just want to talk to you for a while, ask you some questions, before I send you and Master Kenobi to Coruscant."
I said nothing, I just kept staring at him with my sane eye.
"You know, I've always looked at you like a sort of special man. I followed your deeds on the holonet everyday and it was a true wonder seeing how you commanded those troops with such a ease. That's why I'm keeping you here for a while. To satisfy my curiosity." his voice was calm, his Coruscanti accent was rather prominent, it made him sound almost a nice guy. His clean face showed nothing of the evil he was known for. And it terrified me.
"What if I don't want to answer you?"
He raised his hands. "No problem. This is not official. This is just you and me getting acquainted. That's all. You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
"Thank you." I mumbled.
"My pleasure. Now, is there something you want to know before we start?" he asked.
"May I ask you a favor?"
"If it doesn't imply letting you go, you may."
"Your men, back in the cell, they were rather rough on me and my left shoulder is dislocated. It hurts like hell. Can you put it back in?"
He shook his head. "Of course I can!" he stood and walked over. "I'm so sorry for this inconvenience, they shouldn't have hurt you like that."
He took my arm and twisted it a couple of times with expert hands, as if he reduced dislocated joints for a living, and the bones snapped back in their place. After a moment of sharp pain that made me groan a couple of times, it subsided to a bearable level.
"Better?" he asked, extremely polite.
I nodded. "Yes, thank you." thanking my enemy...damn, I had never been that low in my own life.
"Do you think an icepack would make you feel a little better?"
"It would, but don't disturb your men for something like that. I'm fine now."
"Oh, you're not disturbing at all. I'll call them at once." he opened the door and talked to one of the men outside, then he waited there for no more than a minute, while the man returned with an icepack. "Here. It should alleviate the pain." he handed the pack and sat down again.
"Thank you." well, it was right. The pack instantly numbed the pain.
"You're welcome. Now, can I start?"
"Go ahead, but I can't assure you I'll answer all of your questions." I told him.
"You have all the rights to remain silent. I don't like the Imperial interrogation system, it's uncivilized to say the least. Now, now...Let's see. How old are you now?"
What kind of question was that? "I'll be thirty two in a couple of months."
He was slightly surprised by my answer. "Oh, I though you were a lot older! By the fame you had gained, I though you were at least my age!"
"And that would be?"
"Forty five." he chuckled. "I know, I'm old. But what can I do? No one can stop time from flowing. Alright, now, tell me, what were you doing in Pavan's apartment roughly ten days ago?"
"It wasn't me." I lied.
"Yes it was." he said, quite matter-of-factly. "We have the security cameras footage that confirmed your identity, as well as Master Kenobi's and former Senator Amidala's. Unfortunately for you, you didn't have the time to delete the disks."
Crap. That was everything that came up in my mind.
"So, would you please explain why you were there?" he asked again, this time there was a slight convincing note in his voice.
I took a deep breath and winced. "We were looking for him."
He nodded and took note on his datapad. "Good. That's what I was thinking myself." he flipped through the pages absentmindedly for a minute, then returned his attention to me. "And why would you be looking for him?"
"That's something I don't really want to tell you."
He nodded. "And I respect your decision. Could you at least give me a hint? Is he your friend or something?"
I think my stare betrayed me. Or probably he noticed something changing on my face beneath all the blood. I don't know. Still, even if I didn't reply, he nodded and scribbled other stuff on the pad.
"How long have you been friends?" he asked then.
There was no need to lie anymore at that point. That man could read me like an open book. I was now understanding why he had me beaten up like that. To lower my defenses, both physical and psychological.
"Since I was nine and he was ten. We grew up together."
"Oh yes, long lasting friendship then...and, why did you decide to go looking for him right now?"
"It's none of your damn business..." I spat out, slightly angry.
He didn't say anything, he just kept staring at me with his exceptionally empty eyes. A strange smile appeared on his face then, and he leaned back on his chair, while he wrote down something on his pad. He was taking notes about my reactions, I knew it.
"Master Skywalker, there's no need to be rude. We're just talking, I don't want to hurt you!"
"You had me beaten by your men..." I replied, as cold as I could be.
"Oh, that's just the procedure. If I hadn't done it, my boss would have been incredibly displeased. And, to be completely sincere, it's not that I like having someone commanding me too much. He's a fool, to say the least. I don't want him chasing me for breaking the protocol."
"Oh, great, you're worried about the protocol now! A Sith worried about the protocol." I sneered and sighed. "This doesn't make sense at all!"
For the first time since the beginning of our "talk", he diverted his eyes from mine.
"I'm not a Sith, Master Skywalker." he said. "And I'm sorry you think I am one of them. It seems you don't know much about me."
"You hunt down and kill Jedi. You use the Dark Side of the Force as a weapon, you're part of the Inquisitorius, the special police dedicated to destroy what remains of the Jedi Order and prevent Force Sensitive beings from use their gift by scaring or killing them! You are the best of your kind, they even nicknamed you The Jedi Hunter for that!" I listed everything I knew about him and his kind, and I was almost growling. I didn't want to shout, because I feared I would hurt myself, but I wanted to. I wanted to shout it as loud as I could.
It was his time to sneer and be angry. "That name doesn't mean anything to me. I despise it. I don't hunt down anyone, I look for them. I'm a detective Master Skywalker, and a very good one, if you allow me. I've always been a detective, for all my life. Before the Empire discovered I was Force Sensitive, I worked in the Coruscant Office for Crimes against the person. I looked for criminals, and I was the best, because I could use the Force, even if only on an subconscious level. If your Order would have found me when I was a kid I would have been one of your kind." he said, cold as a stone, but deep down I could feel the turmoil in him. "When Malorum came to my door and asked me to become one of his agents, well, I couldn't refuse. Double pay, the occasion to use my gift, as you called it, and to get away from low life and stupid crimes without consequences. All I do is a job. I do nothing else than my job, as much as you did yours. With very scarce effects if I may add."
"You're trained to the use of the Dark Side. From my point of view, that makes you a Sith."
He shook his head. "That's part of the job. And please, don't confuse a Dark Side user for a Sith. There's a huge difference there." the turmoil had stopped, as if he had pushed his emotions away from that room.
"Care to explain me what it should be?"
"Of course, Master Skywalker. You see, a Sith is a Force Sensitive person who follows a certain code of conduct. I guess you know the story of the Tribe from Korriban, the fratricide wars and then Darth Bane and the Rule Of Two, am I right?"
I nodded. "Yes, of course I know it."
"Good. Those are the Siths. They follow a certain code, as much as you Jedi followed yours. And some points coincides, even if it might sound strange. Anyway, A Sith is very easy to define, they are the anti-Jedi, they do as they please, they are twisted and...well, they're not very nice to deal with. Sidious is a Sith. Vader is a Sith. Dooku was a Sith, even if I have some doubts about him. But, for example, Asajj Ventress wasn't."
"Why?"
"Because she didn't follow any kind of conduct code. She did as she wanted. She used the Dark Side of the Force as a weapon, and she was very good at that, but that didn't make her a Sith. Dooku never trained her to their ways. She didn't blindly obey to him. She actually questioned his authority quite often, most of all after what happened after your meeting on Yavin." and I didn't even want to know how he actually knew about our battle there. "She was a sort of...how did you call them...Dark Jedi! That's the term!"
I was slowly coming to understand what he meant. Those were very narrow differences, but substantial nonetheless.
He sat up straight, as if to mark his point.
"Now, I use the Dark Side of the Force, but not always. Actually, I found out that I rarely lean on the training I was given at the very beginning of my career as an Inquisitor. I follow my instinct, which is the same as following the Force. This is what brought me here, while looking for Pavan. Unfortunately I was two days late. But today, when I was about to pack my things and return to Coruscant, then I was warned someone had entered in the restricted part of the Citadel and was trying to hack into the main computer. Then I found you, and, well, I really couldn't let the chance to collect an astronomical amount of money from the Imperial bounty on your heads."
I said nothing. There was nothing to say, at least not from me.
He studied my reaction to his words carefully, before leaning back again and sigh. "You know, I really, really admire you. A man with such a strong connection with the Dark Side that keeps such a control over himself, I really must bow at you, Master Skywalker."
"I made mistakes in my life. Everyone does. That doesn't make me closer to the Dark Side than anyone in this galaxy." It was a huge lie, but what did I have to say? I needed to defend myself, someways.
"Oh I'm not talking about mistakes. I'm talking about you. As a man, as a being. Your life depended on the Dark Side, you have a strong connection with it."
I didn't really understand what he was talking about. "What do you mean?"
He changed expression, from calm and at ease to stupefied. "What? You don't know your origins?"
"I was born somewhere in the Outer Rim. My mother raised me on Tatooine, under ownership of Gardulla the Hutt until I turned four and then under the ownership of Watto, until Master Jinn came and took me to Coruscant. That's all I need to know about my origins."
"And you never asked who your father was?"
"Of course I did, but I never received an answer! And now I don't even think it matters anymore!"
"Oh, it matters! It matters quite a lot, because it defines who you are! But...I thought Sidious had this conversation with you before! He told me so!"
"I had many conversations with him in my life but none concerned my father!" I snapped.
"But..." he drummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair. "I was sure..."
"Oh, come on! Tell me what you know and we'll be even!"
"Hey, calm down Skywalker! I'm trying to be nice here, you're not making it easy!"
I was getting really angry with him. He had touched quite a hard subject, and I didn't like his tone. I said nothing though. I didn't want to see him angry. I feared how he could act if angry.
"Oh, that's better. Now where was I...ah yes, your origins! I assume he told you about his Master."
I shook my head. "Not that I recall. He once told me about a Sith Master, Darth...Plagueis the Wise he called him."
"That's him. What do you remember about that day?"
"Not much, I had other things in mind that day...it was roughly a week after I had been nominated Jedi Master. He called me at the Opera House, he wanted to speak to me. I think that was the last attempt to lure me to the Dark Side, because he spoke about this Sith Lord who could prevent people from dying. The only problem was that my nightmares had already stopped by that time and I was a lot more stable and calm. That's all. I didn't ask how he knew about this story, he didn't say anything."
Dalan looked at me for a moment. "Oh, well in that case, I understand. You see, ten days ago, when our face identification software recognized your faces in the CC cameras, I realized I needed to know more about you. The official records were full of deleted and incomplete files and fake stuff, pretty much useless. Even with my access level to Imperial databases, which is pretty high, I could only access to your file in Blenjeel prison. Therefor, I asked an audition of the Emperor, which was granted me right away, considering the subject of my request and we had the chance to talk quite a lot."
"Yes, he's a very eloquent man."
He nodded. "And a hideous one. I mean, not only his face but his presence too. I felt sick for all the time of my stay in his office. I could have thrown up right there, if it hadn't been an official meeting with the Emperor."
I must say that, even after so many years, I'm still quite stupefied by that remark. It just seemed out of the character I thought he was.
"What did he tell you?"
"Well, we talked for hours. Most of all, I asked questions, and he politely answered, even though his voice gave me the creeps. When I asked about you, he started a lengthy speech about your incredible abilities, how much time he spent trying to have you on his side, how much he's displeased with Vader and what kind of plans he had in mind for you. And he said something strange about your father."
"I don't know who my father is, how could he?"
"Well, he actually talked about a how, not a who." ha stated, always as calm as a stone.
"What do you mean how? Except for some particular species, it takes a female and a male to conceive another being, and humans don't make an exception."
"I know perfectly well what you mean, I have two teenage children myself, I definitely know how humans reproduce, but here we're talking about a more...metaphysical happening. His Master, Darth Plagueis, was able to dominate midichlorians to control life and death and, he manipulated them so well, he actually managed to force them to create a new life form. And, to be more specific, you."
That didn't make sense. Or did it?
"What do you mean? It's nonsense, how could he?"
"I guess he had such a knowledge of the Force that he could have done it, or you wouldn't be here. Have you ever thought about the incredibly high your midichlorian count is? Oh, by the way, do you know the exact number?"
"Twenty seven thousands and seven hundred, more or less. They had to upgrade the machine they used to test me when I was at the Temple because the scale went up to twenty three thounsands."
"So your count is ten thousands units per cell higher than Master Yoda, you know that?"
"Of course I do."
"And did you know that when he was found by the Jedi Order, roughly nine hundred years ago, they thought he could have been the Chosen One mentioned in the Prophecy, but lately discovered he couldn't have?"
"Why?" I asked. I didn't know about that story, but I was more worried about what he was about to say. There was a dreadful thought that was making its way from the back of my mind, which I tried to smother in any way but it was impossible.
"Because he had both a mother, and a father, and they were both known and confirmed. The Prophecy clearly states that the Chosen One must be born from virgin birth. And, if I am not mistaken, you are the specific, probably the unique case, of such a thing in the whole Galaxy."
It felt like every word he spoke was a slab of durasteel placed on my chest. It was getting harder and harder to breathe, almost impossible. What he had just said was hideous. I couldn't believe it, but it was logical and easy to explain. It made sense. My mother incapability to reveal the true identity of my father, my exceptionally high midichlorian count, my astounding ability and...my strong link to the Dark Side.
It was such a logical explanation no one had ever thought about it.
I was born right out of the Dark Side.
A Sith was my deputy father, somehow. My nemesis' Master nonetheless.
"I'm not the Chosen One, Dalan. Master Jinn was wrong. I have nothing in common with the figure described by the Prophecy."
"Master Skywalker, how low is your self esteem!" he said, rather amused, by the tone of his voice.
"It's not a matter of self esteem. I simply know I'm not the Chosen One. I can't be! I'm not even half of the Jedi my Master is, how could I be the Chosen One?" in that moment I felt nothing but a freak of nature.
"And in the time of greatest despair there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns" He quoted from the Journal of the Whills itself. "Master Skywalker, please, you were raised on Tatooine, a planet with two suns, and you were born out of the Dark Side but trained as a Jedi. That's pretty much the story of your life."
"It can't be true." I said. I was clenching my fists so tight my knuckles were all white, and both my arms, even the healthy one, hurt like hell.
"You're free not to believe me, but, I let me tell you, you are bound to turn to the Dark Side. It's in your very nature. Probably you've been using it all your life without knowing it."
"I am not bound to turn. Those days are over! I've changed, you Imperials did change me"
He chuckled again, but it sounded more like that kind of smothered laughter used to mock your adversay. Dooku was a master at that kind of thing. "Anakin, please, don't be fooled. You're still the same man as ten years ago. You're only a bit better at controlling your emotions, still I can feel the anger rising in you. Even now. Your anger is deeply rooted in you, in your essence, you cannot live without it. You were born a Sith, it's just a matter of accepting it!"
"I am not a Sith..." I growled. He was right, I was getting angry, but only because of him. I wasn't angry at life itself anymore. "I am not one of your kind."
"Your voice betrays you, Master Skywalker. Your face, too. You are one of us, since you believe every Dark Side user is a Sith, you just need to realize it. It is you destiny, Anakin, you will turn to the Dark Side, either you want it, or not!"
I couldn't take it anymore. His words were like blaster shots straight into my soul. I couldn't stand them. With strength and power I thought were not possible considering my current conditions, I broke the restraints and threw the table out of my way. Using the Force, I grabbed the hem of his jacket and lifted him from his seat.
"I am not turning to the Dark Side!" I shouted. "I will never, never join the Empire, I'm not becoming a Sith. I sworn to myself I would either die than turn to the Dark Side."
Even though my ribs hurt like hell, I was screaming as I pushed him back against the wall behind him. And was I finished, I was completely out of breath.
Dalan burst out in laughs. "That's what I wanted to see! That's the spirit! Unleash your wrath! Hurt me, maim me, kill me! Give into your hate! Can't you see? This is the only solution!"
I was about to choke him to death, I really would have loved to do it, but...
I couldn't.
I just couldn't. It would have gone against anything I had just said.
No, I wouldn't kill him. It wasn't my way anymore. I had learned the lesson from the Tusken Camp, I didn't want another life taken on my account. And most of all, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction to see me give into my anger and kill him.
Carelessly, I dropped him down and stepped back.
He stood up straight and dusted his pants off. "Ah, Master Skywalker...You disappoint me!" he laughed. "The Emperor would have been pleased to know you had tried to kill me, before I turned you in!"
"I told you..." I panted, painfully. "I am not like you."
"You will become one of us. I can assure you."
I was about to push him back hard but he preceded me, literally throwing me against the wall behind me. I hit the stone hard, and the fall both knocked the wind out of me and left me stunned. I hit the floor with the right side of my head, and a terrible, radiating pain seemed to split my skull in two.
I don't know how I managed not to lose consciousness, but I really had a hell of a time.
"As I said..." Dalan walked over me and knelt beside me. "You disappoint me. I might not be a Sith, but I can recognize a great Inquisitor when I see one. You would be great as one of my kind."
He stood and opened the door. "Take him to the cell. We'll be leaving for Coruscant in four hours."
Two guards entered and were about to grab me from my arms but Dalan stopped them. "His left arm is injured. Drag him from his ankles, it will be better. I don't want to turn him to the Emperor with a permanent damage to his arm."
Nodding, they obeyed.
Blocked into a sort of haze of giddiness from the strong blow to my head, I let them drag me out of that room and straight to the cell where they had locked Obi-Wan only an hour earlier. At least I had enough strength and consciousness to grab my injured arm with my healthy hand and hold it tightly as the irregularities in the stony floor created bumps that made me bounce here and there. A strong, sharp headache was developing from my right temple, radiating to the rest of my head and part of my neck. I could hear a slight ringing in my right ear too, and I started fearing a concussion. Not to mention that the impact with the stone caused a rather large gash just above my ear, and blood was flowing freely, plastering my hair and leaving a trail on the floor.
I felt like I had been hit by a sledgehammer. But most of all, I was scared to death by what Dalan had told me. He had practically revealed all the secret of my life in one, single hour. Maybe less.
And what he had said, well, it terrified me. If I had been conceived through the careful manipulation of the Dark Side of the Force, probably Sidious knew about what his Master had done and all his actions regarding me were carefully orchestrated to drag me to the Dark Side from the very beginning, since he had met me on Naboo, twenty two years before.
But, most of all, if what he had said had been true, and in that moment I had no choices but to believe him, then I was truly bound to turn to the Dark Side, someway or another.
Which meant that anything I had fought for since the day I had been shut into my cell on Blenjeel had been vain and useless. That every punch, every kick, every cut or wound I had suffered in those years had only served to temper my body, not my mind.
It was something I didn't want to believe, but had not other alternative.
Fighting for consciousness, I heard the door of the cell slid open with a hiss, a hiss I knew all too well, then I was grabbed by my healthy arm and pushed inside without much regards. I rolled on the dusty floor, trying to prevent more injuries, but I failed miserably. I had completely lost sense of balance and I ruinously landed on my back, earning another bump on the back of my neck. The ringing in my ear got worse as the guards closed the door, sealing us inside.
Instantly, Obi-Wan rushed at my side. "Hey Anakin, are you OK?"
I squinted my eyes a couple of times, trying to focus the images in front of me but it didn't work, my sight was blurry and shady. "Nope..." I mumbled.
"What happened?" he asked, inspecting my wounds. "Your hidden microphone must have been broken, because once you've been brought out of the first cell I couldn't hear anything."
"I..." my head was spinning like a wheel, I felt the nausea rising. At that point, I was pretty sure it was a concussion. "I don't feel well."
"What's the matter? What did they do?" he took off his jacket and placed it under my neck, trying not to move my head too much.
"They..." I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "They beat me up, as if I had just returned on Blenjeel. It felt the same."
"What hurts?"
Mentally, I tried to recall all the injuries and wounds I had counted before Dalan had joined me in the other room. "Left shoulder dislocated. Possibly three cracked ribs on the right side, two on the left. Cuts and bruises everywhere. A while ago I fell on the floor and hit my head."
"Do you think you can stand up and lay down on that hammock?"
"Nope...I fear I have a concussion."
"What do you feel?" he asked, deeply concerned. "Headache? Nausea?"
"Both. And my right ear rings like a battlefield."
"Alright, you stay here. I'll try to find a way to fix your shoulder."
"Dalan did it. It's OK now, it's not the first time it gets dislocated." I told him.
"Then I have to find a way to block it so it wound be further injured. We must get out of here!"
"They are going to send us to Coruscant in four hours." I said. "I heard Dalan tell his guards to start preparing the ships."
I saw his figure looming over me as he ripped my shirt and made makeshift bandages with it. Thank the Force I had another t-shirt underneath that. "Good. We'll find a way out then."
"You get out of here. I can't go anywhere in these conditions!"
"Hey, don't get dramatic now!" he said, a faint smile lit his face as he spoke. "We've been in worse situations together. We can get out of this."
"Cato Nemoida?"
His smile brightened at the memory. "Exactly what I meant. Not to mention Geonosis, Coruscant...the list is endless!" he tied my upper arm to my chest, both to keep in place my shoulder and my damaged ribs, then tied another strip of cloth and created a sling for my arm. That way, I would at least support the damaged joint without further harm. "Let me take care of you for a moment, then we'll find a way out."
"Thank you..."
"For what?"
"Everything." I groaned as another sharp jolt of pain rushed through my head and neck.
"Don't even mention it. I should be the one thanking you, for sparing me this kind of treatment."
And, as he had said, he took care of me, even if only in a superficial way. He wasn't a graduated doctor, he couldn't do much except first aid stuff. Most of all, he took care of my arm, that was his main worry, since after a while my sight got a bit better and nausea subsided and stopped menacing to make me throw up the scarce breakfast I had that morning. It wasn't a heavy concussion, just a minor head trauma, there were no broken bones and about an hour later, I felt a bit better. Still, he told me to take it easy and don't rush things. I still had a very nasty headache, one of those that hinder your movements and your ability to think, but it was way, way better than the nausea. Even the ringing in my ear slowly dissipated.
But taking it easy was easier said than done. I was still in a lot pain, it made me cringe and burst on the spot. And we had little time before Dalan's men would come and pick us up for the trip to Coruscant, that would possibly mean that we were about to be killed in the next few hours.
As I laid there on the floor, I tried to concentrate on the Force around me. I could feel the slight disturbance around us, but I couldn't understand if it was caused by Dalan's presence or just by a temporary disruptions in its flow. Still, it kept my mind away from everything Dalan had said to me that had left me confused, terrified and hurt.
And while I was left there, staring that the ceiling since I was too afraid to move my neck in case the trauma to my head had been worse than what we had thought, I found myself thinking about the most various things in order to avoid what I had been told. But most of all, I was regretting the fact that after I had got out of prison I had lost the ability to heal myself through the Force, but it didn't stop me from trying. You never know what may happen in certain critical situations. And I had to try, or our escape attempt would have been a lot shorter than what we both hoped. I was concentrating on healing my injured ribs when a sudden thought made its way out of the confusion and the pain.
Master Yoda.
I had to meet him. I needed to talk to him, ask him questions that I knew no one else, even Obi-Wan, could answer.
And I must have thought him aloud.
"What?" asked Obi-Wan, stopping his frantic pacing up and down the small cell.
"Master Yoda!"
"What about him?"
"I need to see him!" I replied, somehow more forcefully than what I had intended.
He was about to answer when we heard a sudden, loud noise coming from outside, followed by screams and blasts. There was a shootout going on right outside our cell.
With incredible efforts, I managed to sit up straight without hurting that much. "What's going on out there?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't have the faintest idea!" he said taking a couple of steps back from the door. "But I don't..."
His voice was covered by a ear-shattering explosion that resonated through the thick walls, which trembled, like a small earthquake.
"That was a big one!"
He nodded. "I wonder what's going on out there!"
We didn't have to wait much longer to know.
A thin, blue lightsaber blade pierced the metallic door just above the lock and with an unsure and trembling movement cut it away from the rest of the slab.
Obi-Wan rushed at the door and pushed it on its hinges using the Force.
What I saw nearly made me fall back on the floor. With Leia's lightsaber in one hand and her trusted carbine in the other, Padmè stood just outside the door frame, looking as dangerous as any other trained soldier I had seen in my life. With a tad of grace more and a slightly better looks.
She threw us our lightsabers before she stepped inside. "Let's get out of here before they call the backups!"
Oooook, I really hope this works because I worked really hard on it and it took me quite a lot of efforts to make everything coincide and don't look crazy or foolish. I really hope that my efforts will be mirrored in this one because I really care a lot , it's practically the most crucial chapter of the story up to now and it will be very important even for the rest.
Anyway, I really hope you liked it. I've been planning this for so long that I have a thousand different mental drafts in my head, some work and some other don't. This is a mix of those that work. Beware there's going to be an outtake for this chapter, a different point of view, coming up in the next few days, I just need to complete it. It will show up in "The Missing Moments" go and check it out if you never did, it might get interesting.
And now, cheerfully singing "John William is the man" I think it's time to go to the gym and beat the crap out the punching sack! See ya!