This chapter is pretty gruesome for Obi. I'm just warning you beforehand. I'm wincing for our poor Kenobi. People that are faint-hearted, look away now.
****Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of it's own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
The Windmills Of Your Mind
****Caleb paced backwards and forwards in front of the beaten boy. Obi-Wan looked up at him with rebellion fierce in his eyes. He wiped away the blood that flowed freely from his nose and panted as he tried to get his breath back from the guard's 'roughing up'.
"So you don't like my domain huh?"
"No! I don't!" Obi-Wan spat back and was rewarded with a vicious kick in the ribs that sent him sprawling.
"Careful boy. Or else I'll take your tongue."
Obi-Wan wisely decided to be quiet and just watched Caleb pace back and forth, back and forth. He was starting to drift off when Caleb's question came out of nowhere.
"Why do you even bother resisting?"
"Huh?" Obi-Wan couldn't follow this line of questioning.
"All you are is a slave. Slave 456.
"You think I don't know that?!?" Obi-Wan shouted angrily and tried to get up but was held in place by the various guards around him.
"What did I say about your tongue boy? Why do you even bother resisting? You're going to stay here for the rest of your life – you might as well get used to it."
"I will not stay here for the rest of my life." Obi-Wan snarled.
"Oh, such resolve for one so young. What makes you think not?"
"I will escape."
"And how may I ask?" Caleb was enjoying this. The boy was playing right into his hands.
"By using my feet. I will escape from here, on feet, by air, by sea just by any means necessary."
Caleb made a pretence of scratching his chin, "We-ell, yes. But how can you wish to escape if you can't move?" He looked down at the boy, an evil smile gracing his lips.
Obi-Wan felt a chill roll down his spine and his stomach churned uneasily, "You would not paralyse me because you need me to work. A slave that cannot work is a useless slave and isn't worth buying or selling. You cannot make a profit on a paralysed slave."
"Oh, true. Very true my young slave, but you are wrong about one thing," Caleb purred and traced his finger around the bruised and bloody boy's face, "You can disable a person without paralysing them." He licked the blood off his finger with a thoughtful look on his face and a misty look in his eyes.
(Oh no. What is he going to do?) Obi-Wan started panicking.
"So you value your chance of escaping boy? Is that what sustains you through this 'hell-hole'? That is your hope? So what would happen if I placed precaution devices in you?"
Obi-Wan smiled maliciously (So, that's what he's thinking of doing – I can handle that) "I would find a way to disable them, after all, they are only pieces of metal. I almost did it before." Obi-Wan allowed himself a triumphant smile at the thought of his handiwork with Billy's devices.
Caleb regarded the boy and saw the expression of triumph flash over his face, "So. Precaution devices would just be a waste of time and money then?"
Obi-Wan nodded.
"Well, then. I had better cross that off my list. Now, how to hold you my young slave?" Caleb played with the boy.
"You won't hold me." Obi-Wan stated.
"Really?" Caleb raised his eyebrow, "I do beg to differ. After all, I have managed to hold over 4000 slaves just like you."
Obi-Wan winced, "Well, you're wrong."
"Well, let's have a little wager. If I manage to keep you, you'll stay my slave and if you manage to get away, I'll hunt you down wherever you may go, make you die a most painful death and you'll still be my slave. I'd say it's a win-win situation for me, any way you look at it. If you escape, it will just make it more interesting." Caleb ticked the conditions off on his fingers while gleefully watching the boy.
"That's not fair!"
"Life's not fair my dear boy. But let's get back onto the main subject. How to keep you?"
"You won't keep me!"
"So stubborn, aren't we? Anyway, back to what I asked you. So, it's hope that keeps you going? The hope of one day escaping, of finding your family and finding your identity?" Caleb drawled the words sarcastically.
Obi-Wan flushed, "Yes. Is that what you wanted to hear? Yes, it is the hope of one day escaping and being away from you that keeps me going."
"You want to keep your tongue boy? Well, well, well. Most interesting. So therefore, to keep you I must destroy that hope."
Obi-Wan opened and closed his mouth but no sound would come out. (What is he thinking?)
"No argument? No debate? Well, it's settled then. I must remove your hope for leaving. And since the only to stop you from leaving is to immobilise you, that is what I must do." Caleb clicked his fingers and a guard stepped forward with a serrated knife.
"B-but you can't! I'd be useless to you!" Obi-Wan shouted and tried to quell his ever-rising fear.
"As I said before my dear slave, there are ways to immobilise people without crippling them – if you know the ways." Caleb winked and nodded his head at the guard. The guard stepped forward brandishing his knife but Caleb stopped him with a click of his tongue.
Caleb appeared to be thinking. He looked at the boy then at the guard with his head cocked on the side and opened his hand, "Give me the knife. I will do it myself. That way I know that there will be no mistake."
The guard gave a curt nod and quickly handed over the knife. He gave a bow and stepped back. Caleb bent down to the boy's ear and whispered, so only he could hear him, "Give me your word that you will not attempt escape again and I will not have to go through with this."
Obi-Wan visibly flinched as the man's warm breath floated past his ear and his hair brushed across his bruised face, "No." He also replied quietly just so Caleb could hear.
Caleb rocked back on his heels and grabbed the boy none too gently by the chin, "Too bad. But then, with you 456, I didn't expect you to back down. Your pride may be your folly." He traced the knife gently across the boy's features, "I'm giving you one more chance. Give me your word and you can be my personal slave." As he spoke he brought his other hand up and brushed his hand through the boy's hair.
Obi-Wan was shocked then recovered himself. He spat in the man's face and whispered fiercely, "Never. You make me sick."
Caleb's face gave a little twitch and an expression of rage flitted across it. He then controlled himself and forcefully pasted a neutral expression on. He gave a small grin as he wiped the boy's saliva off his face, "So you have decided my slave. So be it."
Obi-Wan wasn't prepared for the onslaught. Caleb's small frame and docile words belied the vicious, vindictive and overall powerful nature. Obi-Wan had always thought that Caleb was a weakling. He was wrong. What he had witnessed was the velvet glove. He was not prepared for the iron hand.
Caleb spun around and kicked the boy in the face making Obi-Wan go sprawling onto his back. With a snarl, Caleb kicked the boy onto his front, grabbed him by the hair and straddled him on his back. Obi-Wan futilely tried to struggle, but Caleb was strong and wiry and the man's weight and thighs kept him firmly pinned to the ground. At the boy's struggles Caleb tightened his grip on the boy's hair and smashed the boy's head repeatedly into the ground until his struggles began to weaken.
"Anytime you want to give your word, I will listen." Caleb's eyes misted over and he shook his head, "Actually I take that back. I'm having too much fun to take your word. I'm going through with this, no matter how much you give me your word." He laughed maniacally and gestured to the guards.
Obi-Wan's head was spinning and he could feel blood flowing from a split temple (What is he doing?) He didn't even realise that Caleb was no longer holding him down and in his place were about 4 guards. Each of them had chosen either a wrist or leg to stand on and there was no way that the boy could move. He felt incredibly vulnerable as he was kept in the spreadeagled position. "L-let me go!" He managed to get his mouth to work but the overall effect was lost as the floor muffled his words.
"I think not, my dear boy." Obi-Wan tried to twist his head around to see Caleb who was crouching down near his feet. "Time to clip your wings little birdie." Obi-Wan felt the cold blade on his ankles and his heart started hammering madly.
(Oh god. No. He's not going to do what I think he's going to do. He can't! I'll be crippled for life!! No, no, no! He can't! He won't, he doesn't want to los----)
Caleb gave an evil crackle and shoved the blade deep into the boy's ankle, severing his Achilles tendon. Obi-Wan jerked and his face went white as he tried to get away from the blade. "NO!!! STOP!!! I give you my word! I give you MY WORD!!" Obi-Wan screamed the words as the pain blossomed and he could feel the blood running down his leg.
"Didn't you hear me dear boy? I'm not taking your word any longer. This is much, much, much more enjoyable." Caleb vindictively twisted the knife, making sure that the tendon would never heal properly. Obi-Wan gasped as he felt his ankle go slack. He tried to cry out but was stopped as a guard bashed his head into the ground.
Caleb snapped his head around to stare at the offending guard and hissed, "Don't do that again. I want him to be conscious to realise the decision that he has taken. I want him to feel the pain."
The guard paled and stepped back into the shadows with a stuttered, "Y-yes sir."
Caleb turned back to the slave sprawled beneath him, "So now the little birdie wants to change its mind huh? Well, it's too late for that, my fair slave." With that Caleb roughly jerked the knife out of Obi-Wan's left ankle and thrust it deeply into his right. Caleb was panting and his eyes were bright with excitement as he felt the blood well up and flow around and through him fingers. He twisted the knife, and smiled while hearing Obi-Wan's screams. Making sure he had fully severed the slave's Achilles tendon on his right foot, he mangled the boy's foot not stopping until the ankle was just a mass of blood and torn muscle. He returned to the left foot and did the same thing. Sometime during the 'operation' of the right foot the boy had passed out and the room was deathly silent, except for the panting of Caleb.
Finally, Caleb let the bloodstained knife fall from his hands and he stood up and surveyed his handiwork. There was no way that the boy would be able to walk properly, let alone run.
He was crippled for life.
(There are times when one throws profit out the window, in preference for pleasure) Caleb thought and absentmindedly rubbed his bloodstained hands down his trousers, trying to smear the red liquid off.
He took one last look at the boy lying unconscious on the floor with the blood pooling around his ankles and gave a wide smile. He turned to the nearest guard and said, "Take him to the dark cell, bring the doctor in and make sure that the tendons will never heal properly."
The guard inclined head, a little confused, "Yes sir."
Caleb walked out of the room, whistling softly and murmured to whoever was listening, "Sometimes, I really love my job."
Just to give the cleaning slaves grief he made sure he left bloody smears down the corridor walls as he walked past.
****River plotted their course on the computer and sighed deeply when he found out how long it was going to take them to reach their destination, Jabez.
3 weeks.
The planet was clear on the other side of the galaxy, virtually in a whole new galaxy of its own.
Billy watched River. She had joined the entourage telling Qui-Gon that she was not going to give up half way. Especially not after she had made a certain promise. Qui-Gon had no objections, especially when he saw how much River cared for the young girl. And the young girl, vice versa.
Qui-Gon entered the navigation room and sat down next to River. "How long?"
(The one good thing about Qui-Gon is that he doesn't beat around the bush at all.) River grimaced, "Three weeks."
Qui-Gon's face remained impassive, "Fine. Let's get on the way then."
River nodded and moved off to the control room. In minutes the sleek ship was entering the stratosphere and accelerating away from K'ejuk.
****Yeah, I'm feeling slightly sick due to what I've inflicted on Obi-Wan. I'm not going to beg for any more reviews. Review if you like!