Aaahh! Just realized I never posted this! (Sorry, guys. I thought I did already.)
Thanks, Falcona. Not quite dying, and not quite that Anakin. :)
And thanks for your review, Namonaki Pharaoh. I'm sorry you're confused. My stories are complicated. I'm struggling to write simpler.
And Master Solo, when you get up to here in reading the story: In the prologue, Ani's already on the Dark Side. He just hasn't left her yet. With his obsession to keep those he loves safe, possession is pretty close to that.
Next chapter's still in the proofreading stage… I'm having some trouble with it. I think I'll keep the version I have of it, though.
Here's more on Tenel Ka…
Anyway, enjoy! :)
Sixteen
"Get moving!" barked a harsh voice.
A whip cracked.
In the dim light ahead of her, Tenel Ka saw the old woman stagger.
Movement flickered, and a teenage boy helped the woman up.
"You there! Back in line!"
"Tee!" the boy snapped, apparently not caring
that the armed guard was easily double his size. "Zami ayen yan—"
He stopped, calmly returning to his place in line.
The guard wouldn't let him go, yanking him to the side. "Your sister is who?" he demanded.
"Excuse me, sir," spoke up the teenage girl in front
of Tenel Ka. "Isn't obedience more important?"
The guard blinked, then scowled, shoving the boy back into the line of workers. "She's right," he growled. "You'd better start listening, boy."
Tenel Ka noticed the boy nudge the girl's shoulder when he was placed in front of her. The girl missed a step, falling between Tenel Ka and the guard.
Already yelling at the next straggler, he didn't notice.
Once they'd passed him, the girl stepped back in front of Tenel Ka. "Watch out for slugs," the teen murmured over her shoulder. "You'll be dead before you know you've been bit."
"Ah. Aha." She nodded slowly, her gray eyes scanning the cavern. She'd been here for at least a few days, but still wasn't quite certain how to handle the situation. Most of the time the guards spoke in some alien language. She fingered the tiny harmless hammer which hung from her belt.
Like she'd used on Ryloth.
"Thank you."
The boy turned to look at her, and Tenel Ka was struck by his knowledgeable blue gaze. "Just stick near us."
Danger!
Tenel Ka took a defensive poise, scanning for the—
The breath knocked out of her, she fell to her knees.
The girl's brown eyes glared down at her, a dark blonde curl hanging in her face.
The two teenagers took a shoulder on either side, quickly hauling her down the hall.
After several minutes, they dropped her by an unmarked wall, getting their own small hammers out.
"Get started!" hissed the girl, immediately coordinating efforts with her friend.
Watching them sternly, Tenel Ka rose to her feet.
"How do you tell the difference between a rancor?"
"I think she knows that one."
"Fact." The boy smiled grimly, his dark hair falling in his eyes. "Unless you want to be a Sith's plaything, pretend you can't feel them."
His friend yelped, dropping her hammer.
"Sis?"
His sister smiled wanly, her brown eyes pained. She
flicked her hand away, and Tenel Ka's keen gaze glimpsed something small
flying off it.
"Nothing."
The two teens resumed working, using their hammers to strike weak points simultaneously. Observing them, Tenel Ka noticed that the boy took his cue from his sister. The girl found stress points every time.
"Ah. Aha."
Taking her own hammer in her one hand, Queen Mother Tenel Ka joined them.
They finished the day's quota in what seemed like record time to Tenel Ka, and even did a little for the next day—'In case one of us gets beaten,' the boy had said grimly.
At first the Queen Mother thought he meant their fast work would result in punishment, but the guards ignored it, apparently used to these two.
That evening, while they received their 'meals'—her new friends got better fare than most, she noticed—the guards brought down two haggard prisoners. Not to join the miners, but to watch.
The man's scraggly brown hair and beard looked like they hadn't been tended for awhile, as did the woman's shoulder-length blonde hair. Both were filthy, their clothing tattered.
He'd faced more abuse than she had, but Tenel Ka had
a feeling that he'd accepted beatings on the woman's behalf. His blue eyes skimmed the room and fell closed.
The woman's keen green gaze perused the cavern, fatigue and pain evident in her brow. She inconspicuously kept her friend from falling.
The boy hissed. "This isn't right!" He sat in a crouch between Tenel Ka and his sister. Blue eyes hardening, he stood, taking his bowl.
"Benji!" his sister gasped. "What are you…" Her brown eyes went to the two beaten prisoners, being taunted with the fact that they couldn't do anything to help the miners. Her lips straightened into a tight line, and she wouldn't look at Benji.
"They aren't our responsibility."
Benji's eyes were cold. "If they 'aren't our responsibility'," he asked caustically, "what is?"
Tenel Ka suspected what he had planned and handed him her own bowl. He took it without looking at her and crept towards the twosome. She would've taken it herself, but there was no need for two of them to be
punished when one would suffice.
She frowned, checking her motives. Was she letting the fact that he was a male cloud her vision? No, she decided. He knew what he was dealing with. She did not. She resolved to watch the ensuing scene closely.
"They treat girls differently."
Tenel Ka looked at the girl, who rocked with her chin on her knees, arms about her legs, eyes closed.
"There's another way they hurt us."
Her eyes narrowed at the blonde teen. The girl's austere face told her all. The Queen Mother turned back to Benji and nodded. "Ah. Aha."
Benji managed to get surprisingly close to the prisoners before a guard noticed him and let out a yell. The boy darted forward, putting the two bowls in the blonde woman's hands and springing back in a reverse handspring, dodging a whiplash.
The brawny pale-haired guard glowered with cold dark
blue eyes as he closed in on his prey. Benji deftly avoided him, face set.
Tenel Ka frowned. If they didn't want food to be shared, why didn't they take the meals from the two prisoners? And why was only the
one guard after Benji?
Actually, the blonde prisoner looked confused, too; but she nudged her friend and gave him a bowl. They both ate swiftly, she watching him closely and he keeping a blue eye on the guard still chasing Benji.
Actually, the boy's gymnastics were helping him a surprising amount.
"The men here rely on strength," her teenage companion said softly. "Agility is the women's goal. Actually, Benji doesn't have anything compared to Tiara De."
"Tiara De?" A name befitting a Dathomirian warrior woman.
"A friend," she quietly explained. "One we cannot afford to have captured. The Dark Side has a very firm grip on her."
"Yet you call her friend?"
"She fights it." A scowl defended the girl's friend. "But she's emotionally unstable."
Tenel Ka nodded. "Ah. Ah—"
A crack and several hissing snaps interrupted her. She whipped towards the sound.
Her face twitched. So the guard had caught Benji. The boy took his punishment well, fighting the urge to cry out.
The blonde prisoner looked sympathetic and started looking for something. Her keen green gaze didn't stop searching the cavern until they met Tenel Ka's gray. For an instant, the Queen Mother sensed the woman's excessive Force-energy before it was muffled once more.
The teenage blonde beside her groaned, and Tenel Ka knew she hadn't been the only one to see it.
Gratefully, the prisoner had the ability and strength to hide it, but that could only work for so long. A Light Side Jedi, trained by some rogue, probably. But the Jedi skills weren't what concerned her.
That woman was pregnant in the middle of a Dark Side
stronghold.