Chapter 7: Prison and Torture

Naboo was lost. Its populace forced to serve under the Sith. Many cities on the planet lay in ruins. The Queen of Naboo assassinated, it was complete chaos now with a Sith Governor being appointed as the new ruler of the planet to oversee the Sith's interests on the planet and manage whatever resources they could seize, mainly metal to create new starships and add to their fleet. Naboo was a peaceful world, with museums being its most common form of tourism along with the beautiful vacation spots of lakes in various areas. The swamps were left alone as that was close to where Gungans occasionally came up from their underwater dwelling, and the Naboo people and the Gungans didn't like each other. Some on Naboo said that they even ate people.

Samal Dicar opened his eyes. He winced in pain as he tried to move. His skin was blistered from where the masked Sith Sadastra had hit him with lightning. Groaning, he sat up and looked around. He was in a prison cell somewhere. Damn, this had to mean the Sith had taken over the planet! Samal's mind instantly went to his family, his parents and sister, as well as his friends like Yusano and Allia. Master Brano was dead!

Remembering that caused Samal's eyes to water. He'd known his Echani Master since the age of ten. Brano had been perhaps the person he'd admired most in the galaxy after the Jedi. He'd taught Samal in hand-to-hand combat, to use weapons like blasters, stun batons, quarterstaffs and even swords in the last year, which had always been a weapon he'd wanted to learn to use. He'd worked to discipline the young boy who had at one point been prone to anger. Once, a couple years ago Samal had struck back against a sparring partner that hit him a bit hard after the sparring partner asked if Samal was okay. That had not been right. Even now, Samal wasn't perfect, he still had one weakness. Vengefulness.

He'd lived with it every day for the past few years. The desire to destroy a certain something. Alcohol. He'd heard that his biological mother had suffered because of it, or had an addiction. Either way, Samal had blamed the substance, and often wished for it to be wiped from the galaxy. It was the cause of much suffering, thugs often got drunk and performed heinous deeds, drunk drivers lost their lives because they consumed it.

Samal felt a burning rage. But that was not related to what happened to his mother or even the substance he loathed with a passion. His anger burned from the thought of his late master and the cyborg Sith that had killed him. Malor.

He growled and looked at the door to his cell, then let out a ferocious roar. He charged at the door and began banging on it with all his might. His knuckles hit the durasteel with no effect except for hurting him. He hit them at least six or seven times before he realized it was useless.

"Hey!" a voice called from outside. "Be quiet in there! Unless you wanna be fried!"

Samal let out several deep breaths. "That a Sith out there? When I get out, you're gonna pay for what you've done!"

"Sounds like someone needs a lesson in respecting the Sith!"

The cell door opened, revealing a pair of Imperial Sith troopers in dark armor stationed outside. They both entered the cell and began to pummel Samal before he could react. Though trained in the Echani arts, these soldiers likely had even more experience in hand-to-hand combat, and Samal was still in pain from his wound. Soon he felt blood and bruises on his face and body. He was helpless, the feeling growing in him as he was driven to the floor of the cell.

"You're a force sensitive? Ha! You seem like a complete weakling!" one of the Sith soldiers said.

"Yeah! You'd be better off dead! That's the fate of the weak! To be crushed by the strong… unless they agree to serve," his partner said.

They stopped kicking him, leaving him lying there. He forced himself to roll over on his back as and look up at them as they laughed. His now bruised and bloody face twisted into a grimace of rage and in a moment of pure instinct… he raised his hands at them. Before they could react, their skulls and ribs were crushed inside their armored bodies. The sounds of the bones breaking filled the cell, and the pair toppled over, dead. Samal grunted, still in pain, but also filled with a feeling of satisfaction. It faded quickly though. The cell door was now open, and he didn't have the strength to escape. His vision was blurry, only one eye was open now. The other black from the beating. He could feel it swelling. He might be able to crawl, but he knew even through the red cloud of anger storming inside him that he wouldn't be able to last through another fight with more soldiers.

Still breathing heavily, Samal sat up. He assumed a crossed leg position and began to meditate. Trying to clear his mind, which was no filled with the faces of those two soldiers and Malor. He pushed them away, imagining them fading into the darkness of his mind. He took slow deep breathes through his nose. Out and in. Out and in. If he could get into an altered state of consciousness, he might be able to ward off the pain at least somewhat.

He continued the breathing. Out and in. Out and in. Then he felt it, the pain of his wounds was lessening. He continued it longer, and… he didn't hurt anymore! Samal frowned. Was meditation really that powerful? Had he gone so deep within his mind he could no longer feel his body? He opened his eyes… but his eyes. The one that had been turned black no longer hurt or even swelled. He felt his face, no bruises there anymore, though he did feel the still fresh blood there.

Had he just used the force to heal instinctively? It would seem so. Samal grinned. Now he had a chance to escape! He got to his feet, even the pain from the force lightning attack was gone now. He grabbed the blaster from the blaster rifle from one of the crushed troopers from off the ground. He looked over it, noticing it was turned to safety. No doubt they'd been ordered to keep him alive because of his force sensitivity. He adjusted it to kill then slowly poked his head out of the cell. He was in a long hallway filled with other cells and a door at the end to the right. That was likely locked by a key card or something. Looking back at the corpse (and now feeling a sense of remorse at the gruesome thing he'd unknowingly done) Samal searched the pockets of one of them and pulled out a white key card.

He pocketed the card then walked out into the hallway with the rifle pointed forward. No other guards here. There must have been ten cells on each side. Samal wondered if there was anyone else in here. He couldn't leave them behind if that was the case! Taking out the key card, he swiped it in front of the reader before the doors. One, two, three, four, all of which were empty. Samal decided he would do one more cell, and if that was empty then he'd leave.

He swiped the card on a fifth door which opened and revealed… the Sith pureblood who'd lead the other two in attacking Kaadara!

"Did you enjoy destroying those two soldiers?" Linassa asked.

Samal's only response was to point the rifle at her.

"You think that will work on me?" she asked.

Samal hesitated, then shook his head. "No."

"Yes. No."

She raised her hand, Samal felt as though an invisible hand was now gripping his throat. The blaster and keycard fell out of his grasp and he was forced back against the cell door on the other side as Linassa advanced on him.

"Mmm… such a handsome boy," she said as she brought her hand up to his head, stroking his brown hair. "You humans are quite attractive you know. I sometimes wish I were one of you. While we Sith are privileged to be a race of mostly force wielders and like royalty, we are not considered as attractive as you. Such light skin, you aren't as intimidating."

Samal breathed through his teeth as she touched his shoulder. A Sith… flirting with him. It disgusted him.

"Oh am I displeasing for you to look at my dear?" Linassa asked. "Well… perhaps we could start our fun with… gouging out your eyes?"

"You vile… thing!" Samal spat.

Her amusement vanished, and she slapped him across the face.

"You will learn respect for us boy! Or you will die!" Linassa promised him.

Samal only glared at her in response. Her threats to his life meant little. He was not a coward who valued it above all else, but he wasn't going to throw his life away needlessly.

"But first… I will learn about you!"

She raised her hand again and Samal screamed as he felt as though razor-sharp claws were cutting into his brain, digging through his mind, exploring his memories and feelings.

"Ah, you have wished for the power to crush that which made your mother suffer do you?" Linassa asked. "You think of her every day, even with the wonderful family you have in your adoptive one. Well, I can grant you the power to crush even the hardest glass bottle and much more. You wish to destroy Malor as well for killing your teacher… like you destroyed the guards just now. Well… you may get your chance at my apprentice. Brutes like him tend to be the easiest to replace. I see you have a girl you like as well. Perhaps I should bring her and your family in for a visit."

Dread filled Samal at the thought of what that meant for the Sith.

A/N: And the Sith begin their attempts to turn me to the dark side. All of this background of my hatred for alcohol was real as I heard it caused my biological mother to suffer or she was addicted to it. Back when I was 18 (ten years ago) I wanted to wipe it out. But that desire has been gone since I turned around 20. I'm much calmer now and not as prone to anger as I was back then. Still, I have my own demons even now as I'm sure we all do. The lure of the dark side is difficult to resist.

Anyway, please review and hope you are still liking this.