Culf:Nah, i'm not getting tired of you saying that. I love it!! Keep reading!!
Anna: Thanks! I need all the support I can get!
Lighted Eagle: Hell yeah, there is more Obi-torture. This is where it starts getting pretty harsh for everyones favourite Padawan. As I say below, he cops it in virtually every chapter. And i'm not lying. Caleb's a bastard all right.
I just want to make one thing clear. I do not like Caleb. Although i wrote his character, everytime I wrote a line for him, i felt physically sick. Especially in the chapters coming up. (You'll understand.) He is the type of person that would call you 'friend' and drape a loving arm around your shoulder while lightly contemplating a slow and painful death for his new 'friend'. And enjoy it. He does make me sick.
Just a little bit of useless infomation, Caleb means 'dog' in Hebrew. Ezra means 'Hope' in Hebrew. I don't speak any Hebrew except the stuff found in the bible. I am NOT a bible-basher.
Also, buckle your seat belts, I'm afraid that Obi-Wan cops it in virtually every chapter from now on, until Qui-Gon finds him. All you Obi-torture fans out there, especially Lighted Eagle - tune in from now on.
I take no responsibility for any hate generated towards Caleb. Hey, I'd join the demonstrations against him!
****Round like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever spinning wheel
- The Windmills Of Your Mind
****Billy opened her eyes once more to the drabness around her. (And I thought that conveyer belt duty was boring. I thought that I would've jumped at the chance of being able to sit doing nothing. I'd have thought I'd jump at the chance of getting away from that hell-hole) Billy sighed and dropped her head back down to rest on her chest, (I would. But I never thought that I'd have to pay such a dear price for freedom. If I had've known it would've been this high; I never would've aimed for it in the first place.)
She put her hand in her pocket and took out the rest of the remaining rations. There was only enough for one day, Obi-Wan had half of the rations and she had given him most of hers during the escape attempt. She put the food in her mouth and chewed mechanically not even tasting the food, her eyes were glazed and she smiled as she remembered her joking words to Obi-Wan regarding the food.
"We have so much mould growing on the food that we're probably carrying enough bacta or penicillin to heal the world!"
Billy stopped chewing and her face grew sad, "Please let 456 be alright. Oh god, I hope you're alright 456. I'm going to come get you. I'm going to get you even if I have to buy you. That's a promise. YOU HEAR ME??" Billy started shouting, regardless of the consequences, "YOU HEAR ME YOU BASTARDS?? I'm going to come back and take that boy back. That's a promise. A promise! I promise on the grave of my murdered family that I will return and get 456. I swear it, I SWEAR it!!" Billy started pounding on the metal hull beside her, tears streaming down her face. "Just you wait. Just wait for me 456. You have to wait for me, you have to. Please wait for me, you mustn't go away. Please……….." Billy's rant trailed off as she collapsed to the ground sobbing.
"Goddammit 456. Why did you have to go and leave me? Why? I can't do this without you. This was your idea. It's your idea and you're not even here. 456 why? I hate life's little ironies. I hate life, I hate fate. Why do we always get the shitty end of the stick? What makes you the whipping boy of the universe? 456, why don't I have any answers to these questions? Please, wait for me. If you leave, I do not know what I will do. I've made a promise and you are not going to make me BREAK IT!?!" Billy's eyes flashed and she managed to get her self-pity under control, the latter emotion quickly being replaced with anger and hate.
"I am going to get you." The girl clenched her fist and vowed solemnly, casting her declaration to the stars.
****Obi-Wan gingerly touched his face, (It's still there, but I wish it wasn't.) His hand came away sticky with blood. (Great, more blood. Just what I need to lose….) His thoughts were scattered to the wind when a fist snapped his head back, creating new star systems behind the boy's lidded eyes.
"How did you enter the mainframe?" The guard snarled while cracking his knuckles.
Obi-Wan tried to draw in a breath through his broken nose, to no avail, "I told you I don't know."
The guard opted to backhand the boy, slitting open his skin along his cheekbone, "Lying scum! Insolent slave! Tell ME!!" The guard screamed in the boy's face, forcing him to close his already swollen eyes.
"I don't know!" Obi-Wan spat the words out, making the guard narrow his eyes. (Oh, good one 456. Make the guard think you're defying him.)
"So you want to play it the hard way huh?" The guard roughly grabbed the boy by his ginger-brown hair and savagely shook Obi-Wan, making him gasp as his broken collarbone grated against bone and tendons. The guard gave an evil smile as he noticed the boy's distress and placed his hand gently upon the boy's shoulder.
"Does that hurt?" He said sweetly and watched gleefully as the boy's face paled rapidly.
"N-no." Obi-Wan whispered (It's ok. It's all going to be ok. It can't be any worse then the beatings you've had. It can't be any----)
The guard ruthlessly smashed his fist into the boy's collarbone, "DOES IT HURT NOW??? TELL ME!!"
Obi-Wan screamed and tried to bite back the bile rising in his throat. His vision blurred and turned yellow but he wasn't offered the grey havens of unconsciousness.
"How did you get into the mainframe?" The guards voice was oily and lethal as he continued to increase the pressure on the offending collarbone.
Obi-Wan was hyperventilating rapidly as he tried to deal with the onslaught of pain. "I don't know! I don't know! I DON'T KNOW!!" Without thinking, Obi-Wan grabbed the guard's arm and rolled himself out of the way, to come standing about three metres away from his torturer.
The guard narrowed his eyes, "Still trying this the hard way are you? Fine. Let's do it the hard way then." He snapped his fingers and the guards standing in various positions around the room sprang into action.
They leapt onto the boy, bringing him to the ground and straddling him so he couldn't get up. Obi-Wan looked up as the head-guard loomed over him.
"Let's see if a beating will loosen your worthless tongue." He gestured to the guards and they dragged Obi-Wan to the side of the room, where they tied his hands around a pillar, with his face resting on the cool concrete and leaving his back open and vulnerable.
Obi-Wan's heart quickened and he tried to swallow his fear. (Fear leads to the Dark side, fear leads to the Dark side) He had no idea where the saying had come from, but it was as good a saying as any for the current situation.
The guard cracked the whip just above the boy's head, making Obi-Wan flinch. "Still don't know anything slave?"
Obi-Wan didn't trust his voice to speak and just shook his head. The guard nodded curtly and started on his beating. He didn't hold anything back, and brutally laid into the boy. With each stroke it felt as if someone had laid a burning rope across his back and Obi-Wan couldn't help but gasp every time the whip landed. Time passed and the beating got nastier and more painful. Obi-Wan couldn't stop himself from crying out and despite his broken bones, he would jerk and try to avoid the snaking whip. Each time to no avail. Soon enough, the pillar that he was tied to was slippery and red with his blood. The guard decided that the boy couldn't feel the whip anymore and gave him one last powerful blow before letting the bloodstained whip fall to his side.
He stood there panting after his exertions and after a while said neutrally, "So, do you remember now? If you tell me now then we won't have to continue….."
Obi-Wan tried to speak, his throat raw after his cries, "N-no sir. I don't know h-how I did it."
Once again, the guard nodded. "Fine then." He knew that the boy was close to fainting and that any more 'strenuous' activity would send him over the edge, making any other methods quite useless. "We'll escort you to your cell and there you shall remain to think over your little mainframe-incident. We will come for you later." The guards who had been watching the beating with curious, amused expressions untied the young boy and Obi-Wan fell to the floor, his legs unable to support him. The guards gave a quiet chuckle at his weakness, then one of them roughly grabbed the boy and slung him over his back.
The guard carried him to a cell, where all the 'death-wish' slaves were kept. This row of cellblocks was equivalent to death row. All occupants of the cells didn't have much time to live and hardly any of them got out of the block alive and in one piece. It was where the unfortunate 'Juank slaves' were kept.
He opened the door and virtually threw the boy into his cell. Obi-Wan unfortunately landed on his side, the shock jarring his collarbone and making his fractured ribs scream. The slave just lay there long after the guard had gone, too exhausted to do anything.
(This does not look good). It was Obi-Wan's last thought before he drifted off into the grey oblivion of unconsciousness.
****The guard nervously bowed in front of the master. Not many people were summoned to see the head of the facility and those that did were usually not seen again.
"You wished to see me sir?" The guard was sweating heavily and gulped as the master turned his eyes onto the guards face. They seemed to be searching for something. It was as if the master could see straight through him, into his mortal soul and beyond.
The master inclined his head, "Yes. I believe that you have retrieved the slave that escaped last night. Am I correct?"
"Yes sir." The guard wondered where all this was going to lead.
"Is he alive?"
"Yes sir."
"Has he been questioned?"
"Yes sir."
"And…….?"
The guard's brow creased. The guards weren't exactly employed on their IQ in this facility. Just having a sadistic nature did the trick, "I do not understand what you mean sir."
The master smiled sweetly, showing all his teeth – just like a shark, "How did the boy access the mainframe? I was told that the mainframe was impentratable, impossible for anyone to enter, let along a 13-year-old boy with amnesia. I need to know if we are liable for someone else to do this. I need to know how he did this act. I need to know now. I need to know if he is a spy sent from the Republic or another company. I need to know how he managed to change files. I need to know how he got outside the perimeter. This building is meant to be a prison, a slave-prison. It is meant to be in-escapable. Do you understand me now?"
The guard swallowed, "Yes sir."
"Good. Now understand this. If the boy does not offer up the information then you and several of your men will be terminated, understand?"
"Y-yes sir." The guard blanched.
"Good. Don't let me detain you any longer." The master blinked and watched with a predatory smile on his face as the guard bowed, turned about and virtually ran out of the room. He then turned to a man that had been hidden in the shadows. "Now, wasn't that an impressive show?"
The man stepped out of the shadows, smiled and nodded, "Don't be too tough on your guards or anything."
The master sighed and placed his hands behind his head, "Fear is a wonderful tool, used in the right hands."
The man stepped forward and flopped down on the chair next to the master, "That it is. That it is. So tell me, what was all that intimidation about anyway? I gather a slave attempted escape, what's the big deal? As if one slave matters."
The master exhaled and regarded the man next to him with professional ease, "If only it was that easy. According to the computer, this particular slave is dead. Apparently, he went into the system the day before, or a couple of days before – I can't remember; anyway he went into the system. He managed to break the codes, bypass all precautions and enter the mainframe. While in the mainframe he corrupted his file to his own purpose, in other words, proclaimed himself dead but before he could finish our technicians located him and activated the system lockdown."
"Maybe he got lucky?" The man parried with his argument.
"I might have accepted that, unlikely as it might seem, but this next point blows that defence clear out of the water."
"And that is…..?" The man couldn't help himself. He was well and truly hooked onto the story now.
"Just before the system lockdown he managed to lay a false trail, making it look like an offworld company had entered and searched secret files. Actually, to be truthful I thought it was your company for a while." The master laughed and looked at the man beside him.
"Well, I wouldn't put it past myself to try. So he laid a false trail, that's easy enough to do. All you need is time. I, myself, have done that many times. I'm willing to bet that you also have done it many times."
The master rubbed his eyes and suddenly looked like an old man, "Yes, I have done that many times." His eyes twinkled, "Actually, I've done it in your system many times! But I understand about time and it takes at least fifteen minutes just to lay a bad trail."
"So how long did he have?"
"A minute."
The man sucked in his breath, "A minute!?!? That's impossible!! Totally and utterly impossible!!"
"Yes and this makes it even more impossible."
"Uh huh……?"
"The slave in question has amnesia."
"AMNESIA?!? I'm afraid, friend, that your story grows more outrageous by the minute. How can a mere boy with amnesia do such a thing?"
"I tell the truth! And I do not know. When the boy first arrived, we had a physician check him out to see the slave-lord was telling the truth. It is scientifically confirmed. The boy has amnesia and all he remembers is a brief point of freedom followed by slavery."
"Interesting. Very interesting. So what happens if the boy doesn't or can't provide you with the information you need?"
"What do you mean 'can't'?" The master propped himself up on his elbow and stared at the man seated beside him.
The man stared back just as evenly, "If the boy has amnesia it is possible that he suffered a memory lapse and did those things unconsciously. Like on automatic or something similar to that."
"Caleb, that is the most absurd thing I've ever heard!"
Caleb shook his head, "No it's not. It happens, it's a documented fact. Trust me on that!"
"What sort of person has the talents to do that on automatic??"
Caleb's eyes darkened, "I can think of many friend. You and I for instance are trained to be able to do that."
"Well, yes but a 13-year-old boy? Who trains boys that young to do those tasks?"
"Think, friend. Think deeply."
"Caleb, nothing is crossing my mind."
"Think of the Republic, think of the Senate, think of their 'representatives', think of their puppets." Caleb snarled the last word.
The master paled visibly, "No, you don't think so…..That is impossible! You must be mistaken!"
"I do not think so, my dear friend. You know of what I speak."
"Jedi." The master hissed the word, his face screwed up into a vehement expression of hate.
Yes, Jedi. They teach boys to do such work."
"But he is a slave! How would a Jedi become a slave?"
"Maybe he is a spy. How can you not be so sure? Maybe his amnesia is all just an act."
"No!" The master was firm with that, "It is not an act. We proved it with the doctors. He truly suffers from that disease."
"Good!" Caleb smiled, "A brain-less Jedi. So, I ask you once again friend. What will you do with the boy if won't or can't tell you the information you seek?"
"I will terminate him." The master stated simply. "Being a Jedi will give me even greater reason to terminate him."
Caleb appeared to be thinking. He looked up and said, "What is this boy like?"
"Huh?" The master was thrown off track, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, what is this boy's personality like?"
"I don't know!" The master snapped, his face still creased with worry lines about just finding out he had a Jedi in his midst.
"Friend, please answer my question. I think I might have an answer to your problem if you help me just a bit." Caleb gestured to the computer on the master's desk, silently asking him to search for the slave's profile on it.
"Alright. Fine." The master replied curtly if not a bit sulkily. He sat up and tapped on the computer for a while then printed out a page. He took it and read it, then read it out aloud to Caleb.
"Slave 456. When first arrived was quiet, reserved and did what he was told. As time went on and he became accustomed to his surroundings he became bolder and more rebellious. 456 is a rebel at heart and just manages to keep it under control. Has fought inmates before and has backchatted guards many times. Attempted escape once. Caught and reprimanded. During reprimanding, still showed signs of rebellion. Precautions installed." The master looked up at Caleb, "That's it."
"Enlighten me once again friend. Why exactly do you have these personality profiles on every slave?"
"Just to keep a record and check out trends on who sells the most rotten slaves and so on. Now, back to you. Why are you so interested in this slave's personality sheet?"
"Because I want him." The reply was so frank that it rocked the master.
"What? You want this slave?? He is a Jedi!"
"Well, yes but he is a Jedi with amnesia. He cannot do anything that a Jedi can do. Besides, according to that sheet it appears that it is time that he became a proper slave."
"A proper slave?"
"Yes. It is time someone broke him. And you know how much I enjoy doing that."
The master internally winced but outwardly his face remained calm, "Yes, I know you enjoy doing that activity. It is your little……….er………." The master groped for an appropriate word that wouldn't offend him.
"Hobby" Caleb smiled widely, "It's my little hobby, and something that I do enjoy. Will you let me have him?"
The master thought hard, (He is a Jedi and I do not want him in my factory. But if I give him to Caleb, the boy will be ripped to shreds by this seemingly innocent man.) The master wasn't fooled. Beneath his calm and decent shell, Caleb was a sadistic animal. (It would be better if I just killed the boy now. But Caleb is one of my clients. I cannot afford to lose him.) The ideals of ethnicity and profit battled in the master's mind with profit coming out on top.
"I will question him first and if he still lives afterwards I will give him to you. Deal?"
"Deal!" Caleb rubbed his hands with glee, "Just imagine! I'll be the first to have broken a Jedi!"
The master tried to hide his feeling of revulsion. Sure he killed, murdered and tortured slaves but he did it for business and did it in the most efficient manner possible. Caleb did it for pleasure. He liked hearing the screams and liked to watch the agony on his slave's faces. But all this the master hid and he replied neutrally:
"Yes, that will be a great happening." While hoping that the boy would die during the questioning. It would be better for him if he did.
****Remnants: You signed my 50th review, I was wondering, if you wanted I'd write you a story. Sort of like, '50th review wins!' sort of thing. If you want to take me up on it, send me an email, with what you what written. No smut and no homosexuality.
PS - the person that signs my 100th review, I'll contact you and write you a little story about anything you want!! No smut. Terms and Conditions apply!