Chapter Fourteen

Darkness, within and without. Nothing existed anymore except the hungry Darkness, waiting for the moment he finally surrendered the last of his faith in the Force and the Code, so it could completely consume him - mind and soul. After the last of the whippings, the guards had let him hang on the rack throughout the day, on display for his fellow prisoners. After the last of the clean up crew had left from evening meal, he had been dragged here to the Hole.

The Darkness without. Four feet wide, four feet long, and three feet high. In the center of the cold, stone floor was a small hole. The fetid smell that emerged from it indicated its function. The cell was too small to stand up, to sit up without hunching over, or to stretch out lying down. Being on his elbow and knees, forehead resting on the floor, put his damaged back in the least painful position, but after a while his arms and legs began to cramp and spasm.

Diagonal across the cell, he could stretch out his legs, reliving their pain somewhat, but it forced his raw, wounded back against the rough-hewn walls. The muscles of his neck and shoulders had tightened so badly from being hunched, Qui-Gon could barely turn his head. Regardless of how he positioned the rest of his body, his wrist always ached. He could close the fingers only part way. Was the damage permanent? If he was doomed to spend the rest of his days in Tuvlat, did it matter if it was permanent?

The tiny cell was sealed shut, lightless save for the infrequent times when food and water was shoved through a hinged slot in the bottom of the door. Even then, the light was feeble, lasting only a few brief seconds. The only sounds in the oppressive Darkness, was his own, rasping breath, echoing slightly in his ears as the cell grew smaller and smaller and . . .

"No!" he told himself. He must maintain control or he would collapse into a panicked screaming that would never end. How long had he been in here? There was no way to track the hours and days. His own sense of time had been lost in the Darkness. The Darkness within. It whispered to him. There was Power he could use. He only to allow it to flow though him and the door to the Hole would burst open. He could have his vengeance on those who had entombed him

Those who had torn his back to shreds would themselves be rend into pieces. Slowly. It would be so easy. Surely it was justified. No one would expect him to remain in this crushing darkness as the agony of his mind and body grew.

"No!" Qui-Gon forced his thoughts away from that path. The temptation to use the Dark Side was growing in him. More and more frequently he had to pull his thoughts away from contemplating taking his freedom by surrendering his will.

The Code, remember the Code. Many of his fellow Jedi criticized him for his apparent lack of respect for the Code. He had long ago stopped trying to explain to them how much he cherished the Code. But it was the spirit of it far more than the letter that was important to him. If only those fools could see that. If only they would recognize that the will of the Force was what mattered, not the silly proclamations of a tradition bound Council whose members were unable to understand the power . . .

With a defiant scream, Qui-Gon thrust backwards into the wall, jamming his torn back into the jagged stone wall. The pain was real, the promises of the Dark false. Focus. He needed to focus on what he knew was real. "There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity . . . " he whispered.

Qui-Gon repeated the words to himself, over and over as he sank into a deep meditation, his heartbeat and breathing slowing. Injured and weak, he risked never returning to awareness. It would be easy to lose himself to the Force, to be completely one with it, abandoning his physical form. But the possibility of death in this hellhole was better than the possibility of losing himself to the Dark.

******

Jerked awake from the restless semi-doze that he tried to spend most of his existence in, Qui-Gon puzzled over the strange scraping noise coming from the door to the tiny cell. Light exploded around him, searing eyes too long in the dark. Gasping in pain, Qui-Gon attempted to shield his face from the burning light as rough hands grabbed him, yanking him from the cell. Pulled into a standing position, Qui-Gon involuntarily screamed as cramped muscles in his back and legs were forced straight.

"Shut up," ordered one of the guards dragging him forward, reinforcing the command with a cuff to the head. Dumped on the ground, Qui-Gon dizzily tried to get his bearings, his eyes still tearing in the light.

Just as he felt somewhat steady again, a blast of water shoved him backwards. Sputtering, he instinctually twisted away from the stream of water battering at him. Mistake. The powerful blast hit his half healed back, forcing another scream from him. Twisting again to shield his back brought his face back into target range, hands useless to block the barrage. He slumped forward when the water was abruptly cut off.

"He's clean enough. Take him."

Yanked to his feet again, Qui-Gon was half dragged, half carried into a dimly lit room. Manacles were snapped around his wrists and ankles, heavy chain connecting them. Qui-Gon swayed unsteadily on his feet, the effort of remaining standing taking all his concentration.

"You've looked better, old friend," a cheerful voice said from the other side of the room.

Startled, it took a moment for Qui-Gon's sluggish brain to process the identity of the man in front of him. "We're not friends," growled Qui-Gon hoarsely.

His throat felt as if it had been coated with sandpaper, his voice had become unused to anything except silence for so long.

"We were, long ago. We could be again. Join me, Qui-Gon. Pledge your loyalty to me and we walk out of Tuvlat, together, right now." Gaikusan said.

"Alright. I'll join you. Now get me out of here."

Gaikusan laughed. "You used to be a much better liar than that." He grew serious, "Do you think I can't sense your true feelings? I felt how close you were to the Dark Side while in the Hole. You touched the edges of it, felt the power it offered. Accept that power, Qui-Gon. Why should you serve, when we could rule? Why should you suffer, when our every whim could be fulfilled?"

"Why should I do something that which will lead to my own destruction?"

"That's a lie you've been feed to keep you in unquestioning servitude. I haven't been destroyed. My power has grown in ways you can't imagine. Think about it, which of us walks in freedom and which wears chains"

"Its wrong. Power for personal gain can never lead to anything except oblivion."

"Then use the power for the greater good. You know as well as I how many injustices exist because the Jedi will only act with the approval of that group of fools in the Senate and the hide-bound Council. Imagine how many lives you could improve if you allowed yourself to be limited by nothing by your own conscious." Gaikusan said persuasively.

"Is that what you're doing? How does your conscious feel about allowing a hellhole like Tuvlat to exist? What sort of justice does torture give?"

"With a few notable exceptions, yourself included, the men in here are irredeemable scum guilty of the foulest crimes. It benefits society immensely that they are locked away. What they suffer is due them in return for the harm they have inflicted on countless, defenseless innocents…innocents that you could be helping even now. Think what changes for good you could make if you seized control of a corrupt planetary government…or if we seized control of a corrupt galactic government. Together we could do it, old friend. Just accept the power being offered to you."

Qui-Gon struggled to think clearly. Gaikusan's statements were so close to truths he had himself thought. It had torn at his soul the number of times he had to walk away from people who needed help, because he bound by mission directives. If only he could have the freedom to act as he wanted, how many who needed the Jedi's help never received it because they didn't have a powerful enough Senator to bring their cause to the attention of the Jedi. Would the power Gaikusan offered really be Dark if he used it for good?

"No," he whispered. "I would become corrupt with the Dark. I would become an agent for destruction. I will never join you."

"Unfortunate. Then I no longer have any need for you. You will stay in Tuvlat until you die. Guards. Return him to his cell."

******