Hey all~
Sorry for the lateness of this post...my computer was playing "lets see how many times I can kick her off the 'net before she cracks my moniter" and I had some exams which took priority (as much as I wished they didn't lol=) I also finished thinking how I'm gonna end this fic...it isn't far off=( but the good part is that I making this into a series. I'm not very happy with the way that my chapters flow and so, what I think I'm gonna do is write it first, get it betaed, then post one every night...you'll have to wait a little bit in between fics, but you won't have to wait for chapters...sound good? Anyway, I'm guessing 3-5 more chapters after this one so I'm gonna just start my expression of gratitude now=) Everyone has been SO supportive! I mean, 101 reviews, all with the sweetest comments=) I luv you all! lol You have made my writing so much fun, Thank you!!! (expect somehthing to this nature in the rest of the chapters lol) now onto the individual chapter 7 thanks...
Thanx to: siri, BlazerAkila, BlueElli, skittles, Enigma Jade, ravensweed, KenobisGirl, shan, Freakizimi, Ginger Ninja, shen panda, Duma, ~Becky~
And sorry to anyone who came her expecting a chapter earlier today, I just wasn't very happy with it...I'm still not as happy with it as I'd like to be, but I figure that this is as good as I'm gonna get for now, so if I have time later, then I'll revise it again...And, I'm sorry it took so long, I've been gone from 6:30 this morning to 10:00 tonight...long day=) But, as it is now 11:49, I'm gonna post, then, hopefully, be off to dreamland, Ta!
Not betaed...didn't think you would want to wait another week lol=)
* * *
"Oh look, we've passed that asteroid three times now."
The glare Mace Windu received did nothing to stifle his pointed remarks.
"I'm sure that with the number of times we've circled this planet, we could be deemed one of Cascalar's official orbiting satellites."
"Mace..."
"You know, I don't know why I ever agreed to you piloting. My ship, my mission, my career as a Jedi on the line...you would think that would entitle me to some privileges."
"My apprentice, my responsibility, my course of action," Qui-Gon eyes iced over as he turned his attention from the various scanner consuls to the irritated Jedi occupying the copilot's seat.
"I no more wanted you to prevaricate to the Council than you wanted documentation of a failure to complete such a simple assignment as retrieving an injured Jedi on your mission record. What you did you did neither out of concern for my well being nor out of fear for my apprentice's safety, but out of your own selfish desire to preserve your pristine Jedi image," Qui-Gon was nearly shaking with rage. His worry had manifested itself in his anger and, due to lack of sentient beings, Mace was about to be the sole recipient of Qui-Gon's wrath.
Unable to physically contain his frustrations any longer, Qui-Gon hastily rose and began pacing fiercely in what little space the cockpit had, which was not taken up by machinery or the crew's seats, "Returning to the Temple alone, well that's just not something the Great Mace Windu does. Especially not when he was supposed to haul an incapacitated rogue along with him. Explaining to the Council how an injured man was able to slip away from the watchful eye of one whose greatest aspiration is to sit among the Council's ranks...not the kind of thing you want to have to muddle your way through is it?"
Qui-Gon maintained his brisk pace as he continued, never once glancing at the his companion who sat silently absorbing what was said, "But, wait! To return without the injured maverick would be looked upon as failure, however, to follow the Jedi, to protect him, would be looked upon as courage, devotion, nobility! And if on the odd chance the apprentice was indeed rescued, Mace Windu would be glorified as a hero. And if the boy wasn't, well, not that much hope could have ever been held for a situation as desperate as this, but he did try."
Qui-Gon could have gone on much longer if it weren't for the hand which firmly caught his arm as the Jedi made another sharp turn in his pacing. Forcibly turning Qui-Gon towards him, Mace held eye contact with his comrade, silently both commanding and pleading to be listened to.
"Qui-Gon, do you honestly believe my intentions to be tainted? Have we grown that far apart that you think me to be so different a man than the boy you knew as a padawan?" Mace's gaze wavered as his emotional shields faulted, momentarily allowing the detriment Qui-Gon had inflicted cloud his eyes, "Old friend, you know as well as I do that if I had sincerely wished you to remain on this ship and accompany me back to Coruscant, I would now be standing through another impossibly long debriefing session and you would be floating in a tank of bacta worrying about Obi-Wan."
"You mean as opposed to worrying here?" Qui-Gon spat back, but his eyes belied the harshness of his words. An immeasurable depth of grief, painfully replacing what little hope that had been held, made his eyes look dull and flat. Made them look dead.
Qui-Gon sighed wearily and pulled away, turning his attention to one of the various monitors, "I know that we've been going around in circles, but there is nothing more that I can think to do, " he said softly, but the degree of desperation was all to evident in his words. "I can only hope that they have not made the jump into hyperspace, hope that they believe themselves to have outwitted the Jedi," the words were accompanied by a failed attempt at a smile, if it could be called that for the emotions which came with it were completely contrary to those which customarily companion a grin.
At a loss of how to comfort his friend, Mace gratefully turned his attention to the nearest monitor and glanced at the results of the most recent scan. "Qui!" he breathed, never taking his eyes from the screen for fear the data would disappear if he did, "The scanners have picked up a ship."
* * *
Demar did not believe his torture methods to be overly cruel. No, quite the contrary for, as he saw it, he healed as much as he hurt. Every injury he inflicted was remedied in one way or another and, in some of the most delectable situations, the healing process produced as much pain as the torture it was curing.
Demar, growing bored with Obi-Wan due to the boy's lack of response to the few needles the pirate had torn from their place in the youth's skin, the man left the remainder to be removed by the guard on duty. Obi-Wan welcomed the change of torturers for, in comparison to Demar, the guard was mercifully quick about his extraction of the pins.
The needles, though an agonizing form of torture did not cause extensive damage, nor did they prove to be life threatening. Most had only latched themselves under a few layers of skin, not deep enough to tear any major blood vessels. The amount of blood was not, all things considered, very great and the youth's clotting factor was quick to kick in, even further reducing the blood loss.
However, despite the quickly ebbing blood flow, Demar returned, much to his pleasure, to a padawan dotted with painful sores and sticky with his own gore.
The pirate had brought with him a small marble basin filled with random scraps of organic material, a thin metal rod, and a small device resembling a miniature blaster, used to light fires. He handed the objects to the guard with the words, "Start with the back."
As the guard took his place behind Obi-Wan, methodically arranging the items bestowed upon him, Demar turned his attention to the boy still chained in the center of the chamber. "Of all the beings I have tortured, and the number is quite high, I must say that I get the most pleasure out of breaking a Jedi. You really are a strong-willed bunch. Stupid, but strong-willed. There are times when I wonder what I would have become had I been kidnaped and hauled off to the prison you call a Temple." He moved closer to Obi-Wan, gently cupping the boy's cheek as a wistful look clouded his eyes, "I was discovered, you know. They approached my mother with promises of a better life for me. She refused, for she was not a stupid woman. She knew the type of hell they were trying to drag me into and, not wanting to subject her only son to such a life, she refused but they didn't listen," his eyes flashed angrily as he pulled the youth's chin upwards, forcing their gazes to meet, "They took me against her wishes. And when she protested, they killed her. Your kind is responsible for my mother's death." The last words, laced with hatred, were barely voiced above a whisper, but the feeling projected was deafening.
A cruel laugh escaped his lips as Demar roughly released Obi-Wan, "But the Force did not allow those atrocities to go unpunished. Oh no, the Jedi bastards who destroyed my original family were ironically destroyed by my present one," A disturbing look of glee settled upon his face as insane laughter swallowed his words, making Obi-Wan strain to decipher them, "Their ship was hijacked by a group of marauders and they were beaten, tortured and slowly killed. In the end, they begged for death. My saviors took me in as one of their own, protected me and warned me of the lies of the galaxy...I fell asleep listening to the tale of my kidnappers' demise."
Obi-Wan pitied the man standing before him, not understanding how someone could base his entire hatred on the words of untrustworthy beings. As a Jedi, he had always been taught to listen to others, but seek his own reasons and solutions and so he could not fully grasp the reasoning behind following something so blindly. The words he spoke to his captor were not said in defiance, but rather with genuine curiosity, "If you only know the version of your abduction as told by a band of creatures who cheat and steal for their livelihood, how can you feel so certain that what you believe is fact?"
Demar did not voice a reply, but instead he yanked boy's arms down, the shackles tearing at the raw skin of the wrist. As the action was unexpected, Obi-Wan did not have time to steel himself completely against the pain and loosed a small whimper. Satisfied with the reaction, Demar released the youth's arms and nodded to the guard.
During Demar's rant, Obi-Wan could feel the efforts of the man sitting behind him. The soft warmth of a small fire would have been a welcome comfort from the damp chill which seemed to permeate all his bones if not for worry of what purpose the flame would serve.
Unconsciously tensing in anticipation, Obi-Wan was only somewhat prepared for the white-hot pain which radiated from his right shoulder moments after Demar's silent communication with his sentry. The pain relented suddenly, only to intensify on another point on his skin.
"Let it never be said that Lord Demar neglects his guest's ailments. We must cauterize those wounds. We wouldn't want them to get infected, now would we?"
Good? Bad? Just plain weird? Be a good lil Jedi and review! Tell me what you think=) I crave imput!
Sorry for the lateness of this post...my computer was playing "lets see how many times I can kick her off the 'net before she cracks my moniter" and I had some exams which took priority (as much as I wished they didn't lol=) I also finished thinking how I'm gonna end this fic...it isn't far off=( but the good part is that I making this into a series. I'm not very happy with the way that my chapters flow and so, what I think I'm gonna do is write it first, get it betaed, then post one every night...you'll have to wait a little bit in between fics, but you won't have to wait for chapters...sound good? Anyway, I'm guessing 3-5 more chapters after this one so I'm gonna just start my expression of gratitude now=) Everyone has been SO supportive! I mean, 101 reviews, all with the sweetest comments=) I luv you all! lol You have made my writing so much fun, Thank you!!! (expect somehthing to this nature in the rest of the chapters lol) now onto the individual chapter 7 thanks...
Thanx to: siri, BlazerAkila, BlueElli, skittles, Enigma Jade, ravensweed, KenobisGirl, shan, Freakizimi, Ginger Ninja, shen panda, Duma, ~Becky~
And sorry to anyone who came her expecting a chapter earlier today, I just wasn't very happy with it...I'm still not as happy with it as I'd like to be, but I figure that this is as good as I'm gonna get for now, so if I have time later, then I'll revise it again...And, I'm sorry it took so long, I've been gone from 6:30 this morning to 10:00 tonight...long day=) But, as it is now 11:49, I'm gonna post, then, hopefully, be off to dreamland, Ta!
Not betaed...didn't think you would want to wait another week lol=)
* * *
"Oh look, we've passed that asteroid three times now."
The glare Mace Windu received did nothing to stifle his pointed remarks.
"I'm sure that with the number of times we've circled this planet, we could be deemed one of Cascalar's official orbiting satellites."
"Mace..."
"You know, I don't know why I ever agreed to you piloting. My ship, my mission, my career as a Jedi on the line...you would think that would entitle me to some privileges."
"My apprentice, my responsibility, my course of action," Qui-Gon eyes iced over as he turned his attention from the various scanner consuls to the irritated Jedi occupying the copilot's seat.
"I no more wanted you to prevaricate to the Council than you wanted documentation of a failure to complete such a simple assignment as retrieving an injured Jedi on your mission record. What you did you did neither out of concern for my well being nor out of fear for my apprentice's safety, but out of your own selfish desire to preserve your pristine Jedi image," Qui-Gon was nearly shaking with rage. His worry had manifested itself in his anger and, due to lack of sentient beings, Mace was about to be the sole recipient of Qui-Gon's wrath.
Unable to physically contain his frustrations any longer, Qui-Gon hastily rose and began pacing fiercely in what little space the cockpit had, which was not taken up by machinery or the crew's seats, "Returning to the Temple alone, well that's just not something the Great Mace Windu does. Especially not when he was supposed to haul an incapacitated rogue along with him. Explaining to the Council how an injured man was able to slip away from the watchful eye of one whose greatest aspiration is to sit among the Council's ranks...not the kind of thing you want to have to muddle your way through is it?"
Qui-Gon maintained his brisk pace as he continued, never once glancing at the his companion who sat silently absorbing what was said, "But, wait! To return without the injured maverick would be looked upon as failure, however, to follow the Jedi, to protect him, would be looked upon as courage, devotion, nobility! And if on the odd chance the apprentice was indeed rescued, Mace Windu would be glorified as a hero. And if the boy wasn't, well, not that much hope could have ever been held for a situation as desperate as this, but he did try."
Qui-Gon could have gone on much longer if it weren't for the hand which firmly caught his arm as the Jedi made another sharp turn in his pacing. Forcibly turning Qui-Gon towards him, Mace held eye contact with his comrade, silently both commanding and pleading to be listened to.
"Qui-Gon, do you honestly believe my intentions to be tainted? Have we grown that far apart that you think me to be so different a man than the boy you knew as a padawan?" Mace's gaze wavered as his emotional shields faulted, momentarily allowing the detriment Qui-Gon had inflicted cloud his eyes, "Old friend, you know as well as I do that if I had sincerely wished you to remain on this ship and accompany me back to Coruscant, I would now be standing through another impossibly long debriefing session and you would be floating in a tank of bacta worrying about Obi-Wan."
"You mean as opposed to worrying here?" Qui-Gon spat back, but his eyes belied the harshness of his words. An immeasurable depth of grief, painfully replacing what little hope that had been held, made his eyes look dull and flat. Made them look dead.
Qui-Gon sighed wearily and pulled away, turning his attention to one of the various monitors, "I know that we've been going around in circles, but there is nothing more that I can think to do, " he said softly, but the degree of desperation was all to evident in his words. "I can only hope that they have not made the jump into hyperspace, hope that they believe themselves to have outwitted the Jedi," the words were accompanied by a failed attempt at a smile, if it could be called that for the emotions which came with it were completely contrary to those which customarily companion a grin.
At a loss of how to comfort his friend, Mace gratefully turned his attention to the nearest monitor and glanced at the results of the most recent scan. "Qui!" he breathed, never taking his eyes from the screen for fear the data would disappear if he did, "The scanners have picked up a ship."
* * *
Demar did not believe his torture methods to be overly cruel. No, quite the contrary for, as he saw it, he healed as much as he hurt. Every injury he inflicted was remedied in one way or another and, in some of the most delectable situations, the healing process produced as much pain as the torture it was curing.
Demar, growing bored with Obi-Wan due to the boy's lack of response to the few needles the pirate had torn from their place in the youth's skin, the man left the remainder to be removed by the guard on duty. Obi-Wan welcomed the change of torturers for, in comparison to Demar, the guard was mercifully quick about his extraction of the pins.
The needles, though an agonizing form of torture did not cause extensive damage, nor did they prove to be life threatening. Most had only latched themselves under a few layers of skin, not deep enough to tear any major blood vessels. The amount of blood was not, all things considered, very great and the youth's clotting factor was quick to kick in, even further reducing the blood loss.
However, despite the quickly ebbing blood flow, Demar returned, much to his pleasure, to a padawan dotted with painful sores and sticky with his own gore.
The pirate had brought with him a small marble basin filled with random scraps of organic material, a thin metal rod, and a small device resembling a miniature blaster, used to light fires. He handed the objects to the guard with the words, "Start with the back."
As the guard took his place behind Obi-Wan, methodically arranging the items bestowed upon him, Demar turned his attention to the boy still chained in the center of the chamber. "Of all the beings I have tortured, and the number is quite high, I must say that I get the most pleasure out of breaking a Jedi. You really are a strong-willed bunch. Stupid, but strong-willed. There are times when I wonder what I would have become had I been kidnaped and hauled off to the prison you call a Temple." He moved closer to Obi-Wan, gently cupping the boy's cheek as a wistful look clouded his eyes, "I was discovered, you know. They approached my mother with promises of a better life for me. She refused, for she was not a stupid woman. She knew the type of hell they were trying to drag me into and, not wanting to subject her only son to such a life, she refused but they didn't listen," his eyes flashed angrily as he pulled the youth's chin upwards, forcing their gazes to meet, "They took me against her wishes. And when she protested, they killed her. Your kind is responsible for my mother's death." The last words, laced with hatred, were barely voiced above a whisper, but the feeling projected was deafening.
A cruel laugh escaped his lips as Demar roughly released Obi-Wan, "But the Force did not allow those atrocities to go unpunished. Oh no, the Jedi bastards who destroyed my original family were ironically destroyed by my present one," A disturbing look of glee settled upon his face as insane laughter swallowed his words, making Obi-Wan strain to decipher them, "Their ship was hijacked by a group of marauders and they were beaten, tortured and slowly killed. In the end, they begged for death. My saviors took me in as one of their own, protected me and warned me of the lies of the galaxy...I fell asleep listening to the tale of my kidnappers' demise."
Obi-Wan pitied the man standing before him, not understanding how someone could base his entire hatred on the words of untrustworthy beings. As a Jedi, he had always been taught to listen to others, but seek his own reasons and solutions and so he could not fully grasp the reasoning behind following something so blindly. The words he spoke to his captor were not said in defiance, but rather with genuine curiosity, "If you only know the version of your abduction as told by a band of creatures who cheat and steal for their livelihood, how can you feel so certain that what you believe is fact?"
Demar did not voice a reply, but instead he yanked boy's arms down, the shackles tearing at the raw skin of the wrist. As the action was unexpected, Obi-Wan did not have time to steel himself completely against the pain and loosed a small whimper. Satisfied with the reaction, Demar released the youth's arms and nodded to the guard.
During Demar's rant, Obi-Wan could feel the efforts of the man sitting behind him. The soft warmth of a small fire would have been a welcome comfort from the damp chill which seemed to permeate all his bones if not for worry of what purpose the flame would serve.
Unconsciously tensing in anticipation, Obi-Wan was only somewhat prepared for the white-hot pain which radiated from his right shoulder moments after Demar's silent communication with his sentry. The pain relented suddenly, only to intensify on another point on his skin.
"Let it never be said that Lord Demar neglects his guest's ailments. We must cauterize those wounds. We wouldn't want them to get infected, now would we?"
Good? Bad? Just plain weird? Be a good lil Jedi and review! Tell me what you think=) I crave imput!