Destinies
Your fate is the only thing that can be changed…
From the Harvester's Journal
They were roughly tossed back into their cell and fell in a tangled heap. Qui Gon was the first to regain his senses and somehow managed to drag Soralis to her cot before he collapsed beside it. His mind was a confusing swirl of emotions, alien senses and images he had trouble comprehending. He could literally hear his friend's thoughts as loudly as if she had spoken them aloud.
Memories, thousands of memories collided with his own, assailed him, he could only ride the wave, hoping he didn't drown in them. He knew they belonged to Soralis and what he saw, shocked and horrified him. He could sense her fighting something dark and twisted, something that sought entry into her own mind, even as it assaulted his own. Somehow, he leapt inward and instinctively sidestepped into a mental landscape that was both horrifying and captivating.
He saw his friend, changed past all recognition into a huge, white bipedal feline, surrounded by a boiling black mist. Soralis turned to him, her gold eyes wide. "Qui Gon! Get out of here! You can't fight this!" she shouted.
The black mist took the opportunity to attack, striking with red-edged black filaments that tried to enter her ears, mouth and nose. A bright flash of light blinded him and the mist seemed to recoil from the light, it's filaments burning away into harmless ash. It screamed, a high keening noise that brought him to his knees as it turned to him. He scrambled back, his mind blank with fear. Soralis shouted something in a language that was both alien and familiar. It shrieked again as an energy shield sprang up between him and the mist.
As the black mist shattered the shield, Soralis launched herself at Qui Gon, tumbling both of them into a raging torrent of light and energy that he knew wasn't there before. They tumbled down the column of radiance into a chamber, a seat of calm in a barely controlled tornado. Qui Gon rubbed his head and looked around for Soralis. She was curled in a fetal position, moaning softly. She had somehow returned to her humanoid form during that wild tumble through chaos. He scrambled towards her and held her close to him.
"Soralis? Come on, wake up. Wake up please. I don't know how to get us out of here. You have to wake up." He murmured.
"Qui Gon?" she said, voice faltering. "What's happening to us?" she asked plaintively. She felt battered, inside and out, mental walls crumbling, shields that she spent years building falling down about her. Everything that she was, was now being shaken apart and she didn't know how to hold on.
He rocked her slowly, holding her tight. "I don't know, I don't know." He told her frankly. He couldn't separate his mind and soul from hers and it frightened him as much as it frightened her. Qui Gon calmed himself, using an ancient technique dating back to before the Sith wars in order to do so. As he ordered his mind, he felt Soralis calming down as well. He frowned. There was only one possible way to keep them from both falling into insanity and evil and that meant using a technique so dangerous it was almost banned by the Council. But he had no choice.
***
Elsewhere in the complex, Morgan looked at the complex computer read-outs that monitored her two prized prisoners. She was incredibly lucky to get a hold of two such excellent subjects for her experiments, all for the price of breaking one stubborn alien female. She laughed to herself. It was all to her advantage and there was that additional promise of more subjects if she succeeded.
They were powerful, confused and weakened. They had to use their abilities to survive and that would mean more data for her to analyze. As it was, the female alien's biology was such that it was a challenge to find the right drugs to sedate her properly without damaging her. She studied the monitors and watched as their heart-rate, blood-pressure and brainwaves slowed almost simultaneously.
Morgan glanced at the view-screen. It showed Qui Gon sprawled on the floor beside the female's cot; both of them appeared unconscious. But Morgan knew better. They were doing something that involved the force.
***
Qui Gon closed his eyes, holding the Shadowlord as close to him as possible. He knew that they were in a mental safe-haven Soralis had created long ago, the colors that shielded them represented the auras she dealt with. Surprisingly, he found only a little of the colors which represented dark-side influence. He smiled. They would deal with that later.
"Soralis, please listen to me. What I'm going to do will change us both forever. And I can't guarantee that we will survive it." he told her softly. "But it's the only hope we have of remaining sane."
She gulped and nodded. "Do it. It's not as if we had a choice in the matter anyway."
He brought his hand to her cheek, invoking the force at the same time. Around them, light and energy surged.
***
Obi-Wan staggered, almost falling against the wall as the force surged around him, unbidden, uncalled. Something familiar flavored the surge of power, something he knew well.
//Master?\\ he queried, his eyes wide and blank as he searched for the source of that surge with his mind. It felt defuse, confused, as if his master was hurt or very, very far away.
//Obi-Wan?\\ his master replied. //Thank god, it worked! Morgan Leigh has captured me. She's been imprisoning and torturing Jedi and other force- sensitives to death.\\
//Where are you?\\ Obi-Wan asked desperately.
//I don't know. Follow the invoices. Follow Morgan Leigh.\\ Qui Gon replied, sounding more distant.
//Master!\\ Obi-Wan shouted as he heard Qui-Gon scream in pain. The connection was abruptly terminated. Obi-Wan slid down the wall of the temple, spent, confused and worried.
***
Soft laughter made Morgan turn. She smiled at the young, aristocratic man behind her. "So, did you stop them?" she asked indicating the view screen containing the images of her two prisoners.
"Not before he managed to contact his apprentice." The man said bitterly. "He's much tougher than Zanar Dun or Sitari." He snorted. "But then, he would be with that thing to back him." He said pointing to Soralis.
Morgan smiled tightly. "I think it's time for Phase Two." She said.
He nodded in agreement. "Very well,"
***
Qui Gon was shaken, blasted into awareness by a harsh, grating wail that echoed and bounced off the walls of a huge natural cavern. He was between two stone pillars. Running from each of them were a pair of chains, ending in wrist and leg cuffs, binding him firmly in place. He shivered, realizing someone had removed his clothes. He gritted his teeth as the dissonant wail continued and wished he could cover his ears or do something to block out the sound. Abruptly, the sound ceased and he was left in blessed silence.
"Poor Jedi. You have no idea what is going on do you?" a soft, eerily familiar voice whispered behind him.
Qui Gon said nothing, still confused, unsure of his own senses. He was still recovering from the latest round of torture sessions Morgan had initiated, each one being more brutal and painful than the last. "More fun and games?" Qui Gon laughed dryly. "Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?" he asked.
"Don't be so naïve Master Qui Gon Jinn. You know quite well we can't simply kill you. Not now," the man said as he stepped into view.
The man was tall, almost as tall as Qui Gon, with an acrobat's whipcord lean build. He had sharp, angular features, short dark hair and dark green eyes. He was clad entirely in black. Qui Gon's eyes narrowed. Dangling from the man's utility belt was a lightsaber. In one hand was another cylindrical object similar to a lightsaber, but the design was entirely different from what he was used to. That face was familiar. It…
"Xanatos," Qui Gon murmured, hiding his surprise behind a mask of indifference.
"You know, the others didn't last as long as you have. Sitari was a disappointment. She died only after a few days. Master Zanar Dun, he lasted a bit longer. Maybe a week before he managed to kill himself." Xanatos lips twisted into a sick smile. "I suppose you've lasted longer because of that alien. She'll make a lovely Sith witch when she does break down, I think."
Qui Gon smiled softly. "You overestimate your abilities Padawan," he said mockingly. "We've both survived worse. We'll survive this,"
"I am no longer your apprentice Qui Gon, I ceased being your apprentice the moment you killed my father!" he said venomously.
"I had no choice." Qui Gon replied quietly. "He would have destroyed billions in his bid for power. I could not allow it."
Xanatos shook his head. "He was still my father. You betrayed me, destroyed everything I held dear." He said walking closer.
"Curious about this?" he said suddenly, changing the subject; holding the cylindrical object in front of Qui Gon's face. "I noticed you were looking at it."
Xanatos ignited it, and a long, narrow, writhing beam of energy cascaded from the terminus. "It's called an energy whip," he said, smiling that sick twisted smile.
Qui Gon swallowed dryly, knowing what kind of damage an ordinary whip could inflict on a person; thanks to the memories Soralis had unwittingly shared with him when their mind-link first formed, no more than a few days ago. He didn't even want to think about the injuries that thing could cause. Qui Gon laughed inwardly. He would find out soon enough if his former Padawan had anything to do about it. And there was little he could do to stop him.
Xanatos stepped back a pace. "I believe it is time to discuss the past don't you?" he laughed lightly. "You always did say we shouldn't let ourselves forget the past,"
Qui Gon gazed at Xanatos steadily. "And I also said you shouldn't drown in it,"
Xanatos glared back at him and abruptly moved behind him. Qui Gon's breath exploded from his lungs as Xanatos lashed him with the whip, the pain was sharp and intense. He could smell the scent of burning flesh and he realized it was his flesh burning. Qui Gon choked back a scream as the whip struck him again and again, sending waves of agony coursing through him.
Elsewhere in the complex, Soralis stood in the cell; her pupils dilating 'till they all but obscured her irises. She could feel the waves of pain and guilt echoing down the mind-link she shared with Qui Gon. "Qui Gon, fight the son of a bitch!" she shouted. "Don't give in to him!"
Qui Gon heard her shout. "Soralis?" he asked softly, raising his head, reaching out mentally to his friend.
"Now, now, now," Xanatos said softly. "That's cheating," he remarked, lashing out psychically as he cracked the whip against Qui Gon's back as hard as he could.
Qui Gon screamed, as a boiling red-laced black mist seemed to obscure his senses, locking him in a cage of pain and despair. He could feel the whip biting into his back, leaving a charred ruin in its wake every time it struck him. He fought as hard as he could against the mist and the pain, but slowly, ever so slowly; he wilted under the agony and despair.
Soralis fell to her knees in shock as she felt her friend crumple under the pain, dying by degrees. She cried out in denial as she felt the final rush of energy that heralded his death. She could feel herself falling into the Harano or the dark sleep, a stupor of grief she knew she would never rise out of. Something kept her from that final, hopeless darkness. Something…
Xanatos' eyes widened in shock as he saw the bluish light swirl around his dead former master, soaking into every pore, every orifice. As it soaked into Qui Gon's body, the charred red ruin that was his back healed from the inside out, until there was no sign of the injuries that killed him.
Qui Gon gasped for air, his eyes blank with confusion. Xanatos flicked off the energy whip's beam and walked around till he faced the man. "Nice. Now I can kill you again and again. You can't escape, not even in death. You are mine now, totally and completely." He said, hiding his shock and sudden fear behind a mask of bravado.
Qui Gon's eyes cleared and he glared at Xanatos. "Don't count on it," he spat.
"Oh, but I am." Xanatos motioned for the guards to take Qui Gon down. They dragged the man to a stone table and shackled him to it with the stun-cuffs that were embedded conveniently in each corner. "We still have some issues between us to explore,"
Qui Gon laughed dryly. He could sense his former Padawan's fear. The man was afraid of him. Perhaps he could use that to his advantage, if he could keep his wits about him.
Your fate is the only thing that can be changed…
From the Harvester's Journal
They were roughly tossed back into their cell and fell in a tangled heap. Qui Gon was the first to regain his senses and somehow managed to drag Soralis to her cot before he collapsed beside it. His mind was a confusing swirl of emotions, alien senses and images he had trouble comprehending. He could literally hear his friend's thoughts as loudly as if she had spoken them aloud.
Memories, thousands of memories collided with his own, assailed him, he could only ride the wave, hoping he didn't drown in them. He knew they belonged to Soralis and what he saw, shocked and horrified him. He could sense her fighting something dark and twisted, something that sought entry into her own mind, even as it assaulted his own. Somehow, he leapt inward and instinctively sidestepped into a mental landscape that was both horrifying and captivating.
He saw his friend, changed past all recognition into a huge, white bipedal feline, surrounded by a boiling black mist. Soralis turned to him, her gold eyes wide. "Qui Gon! Get out of here! You can't fight this!" she shouted.
The black mist took the opportunity to attack, striking with red-edged black filaments that tried to enter her ears, mouth and nose. A bright flash of light blinded him and the mist seemed to recoil from the light, it's filaments burning away into harmless ash. It screamed, a high keening noise that brought him to his knees as it turned to him. He scrambled back, his mind blank with fear. Soralis shouted something in a language that was both alien and familiar. It shrieked again as an energy shield sprang up between him and the mist.
As the black mist shattered the shield, Soralis launched herself at Qui Gon, tumbling both of them into a raging torrent of light and energy that he knew wasn't there before. They tumbled down the column of radiance into a chamber, a seat of calm in a barely controlled tornado. Qui Gon rubbed his head and looked around for Soralis. She was curled in a fetal position, moaning softly. She had somehow returned to her humanoid form during that wild tumble through chaos. He scrambled towards her and held her close to him.
"Soralis? Come on, wake up. Wake up please. I don't know how to get us out of here. You have to wake up." He murmured.
"Qui Gon?" she said, voice faltering. "What's happening to us?" she asked plaintively. She felt battered, inside and out, mental walls crumbling, shields that she spent years building falling down about her. Everything that she was, was now being shaken apart and she didn't know how to hold on.
He rocked her slowly, holding her tight. "I don't know, I don't know." He told her frankly. He couldn't separate his mind and soul from hers and it frightened him as much as it frightened her. Qui Gon calmed himself, using an ancient technique dating back to before the Sith wars in order to do so. As he ordered his mind, he felt Soralis calming down as well. He frowned. There was only one possible way to keep them from both falling into insanity and evil and that meant using a technique so dangerous it was almost banned by the Council. But he had no choice.
***
Elsewhere in the complex, Morgan looked at the complex computer read-outs that monitored her two prized prisoners. She was incredibly lucky to get a hold of two such excellent subjects for her experiments, all for the price of breaking one stubborn alien female. She laughed to herself. It was all to her advantage and there was that additional promise of more subjects if she succeeded.
They were powerful, confused and weakened. They had to use their abilities to survive and that would mean more data for her to analyze. As it was, the female alien's biology was such that it was a challenge to find the right drugs to sedate her properly without damaging her. She studied the monitors and watched as their heart-rate, blood-pressure and brainwaves slowed almost simultaneously.
Morgan glanced at the view-screen. It showed Qui Gon sprawled on the floor beside the female's cot; both of them appeared unconscious. But Morgan knew better. They were doing something that involved the force.
***
Qui Gon closed his eyes, holding the Shadowlord as close to him as possible. He knew that they were in a mental safe-haven Soralis had created long ago, the colors that shielded them represented the auras she dealt with. Surprisingly, he found only a little of the colors which represented dark-side influence. He smiled. They would deal with that later.
"Soralis, please listen to me. What I'm going to do will change us both forever. And I can't guarantee that we will survive it." he told her softly. "But it's the only hope we have of remaining sane."
She gulped and nodded. "Do it. It's not as if we had a choice in the matter anyway."
He brought his hand to her cheek, invoking the force at the same time. Around them, light and energy surged.
***
Obi-Wan staggered, almost falling against the wall as the force surged around him, unbidden, uncalled. Something familiar flavored the surge of power, something he knew well.
//Master?\\ he queried, his eyes wide and blank as he searched for the source of that surge with his mind. It felt defuse, confused, as if his master was hurt or very, very far away.
//Obi-Wan?\\ his master replied. //Thank god, it worked! Morgan Leigh has captured me. She's been imprisoning and torturing Jedi and other force- sensitives to death.\\
//Where are you?\\ Obi-Wan asked desperately.
//I don't know. Follow the invoices. Follow Morgan Leigh.\\ Qui Gon replied, sounding more distant.
//Master!\\ Obi-Wan shouted as he heard Qui-Gon scream in pain. The connection was abruptly terminated. Obi-Wan slid down the wall of the temple, spent, confused and worried.
***
Soft laughter made Morgan turn. She smiled at the young, aristocratic man behind her. "So, did you stop them?" she asked indicating the view screen containing the images of her two prisoners.
"Not before he managed to contact his apprentice." The man said bitterly. "He's much tougher than Zanar Dun or Sitari." He snorted. "But then, he would be with that thing to back him." He said pointing to Soralis.
Morgan smiled tightly. "I think it's time for Phase Two." She said.
He nodded in agreement. "Very well,"
***
Qui Gon was shaken, blasted into awareness by a harsh, grating wail that echoed and bounced off the walls of a huge natural cavern. He was between two stone pillars. Running from each of them were a pair of chains, ending in wrist and leg cuffs, binding him firmly in place. He shivered, realizing someone had removed his clothes. He gritted his teeth as the dissonant wail continued and wished he could cover his ears or do something to block out the sound. Abruptly, the sound ceased and he was left in blessed silence.
"Poor Jedi. You have no idea what is going on do you?" a soft, eerily familiar voice whispered behind him.
Qui Gon said nothing, still confused, unsure of his own senses. He was still recovering from the latest round of torture sessions Morgan had initiated, each one being more brutal and painful than the last. "More fun and games?" Qui Gon laughed dryly. "Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?" he asked.
"Don't be so naïve Master Qui Gon Jinn. You know quite well we can't simply kill you. Not now," the man said as he stepped into view.
The man was tall, almost as tall as Qui Gon, with an acrobat's whipcord lean build. He had sharp, angular features, short dark hair and dark green eyes. He was clad entirely in black. Qui Gon's eyes narrowed. Dangling from the man's utility belt was a lightsaber. In one hand was another cylindrical object similar to a lightsaber, but the design was entirely different from what he was used to. That face was familiar. It…
"Xanatos," Qui Gon murmured, hiding his surprise behind a mask of indifference.
"You know, the others didn't last as long as you have. Sitari was a disappointment. She died only after a few days. Master Zanar Dun, he lasted a bit longer. Maybe a week before he managed to kill himself." Xanatos lips twisted into a sick smile. "I suppose you've lasted longer because of that alien. She'll make a lovely Sith witch when she does break down, I think."
Qui Gon smiled softly. "You overestimate your abilities Padawan," he said mockingly. "We've both survived worse. We'll survive this,"
"I am no longer your apprentice Qui Gon, I ceased being your apprentice the moment you killed my father!" he said venomously.
"I had no choice." Qui Gon replied quietly. "He would have destroyed billions in his bid for power. I could not allow it."
Xanatos shook his head. "He was still my father. You betrayed me, destroyed everything I held dear." He said walking closer.
"Curious about this?" he said suddenly, changing the subject; holding the cylindrical object in front of Qui Gon's face. "I noticed you were looking at it."
Xanatos ignited it, and a long, narrow, writhing beam of energy cascaded from the terminus. "It's called an energy whip," he said, smiling that sick twisted smile.
Qui Gon swallowed dryly, knowing what kind of damage an ordinary whip could inflict on a person; thanks to the memories Soralis had unwittingly shared with him when their mind-link first formed, no more than a few days ago. He didn't even want to think about the injuries that thing could cause. Qui Gon laughed inwardly. He would find out soon enough if his former Padawan had anything to do about it. And there was little he could do to stop him.
Xanatos stepped back a pace. "I believe it is time to discuss the past don't you?" he laughed lightly. "You always did say we shouldn't let ourselves forget the past,"
Qui Gon gazed at Xanatos steadily. "And I also said you shouldn't drown in it,"
Xanatos glared back at him and abruptly moved behind him. Qui Gon's breath exploded from his lungs as Xanatos lashed him with the whip, the pain was sharp and intense. He could smell the scent of burning flesh and he realized it was his flesh burning. Qui Gon choked back a scream as the whip struck him again and again, sending waves of agony coursing through him.
Elsewhere in the complex, Soralis stood in the cell; her pupils dilating 'till they all but obscured her irises. She could feel the waves of pain and guilt echoing down the mind-link she shared with Qui Gon. "Qui Gon, fight the son of a bitch!" she shouted. "Don't give in to him!"
Qui Gon heard her shout. "Soralis?" he asked softly, raising his head, reaching out mentally to his friend.
"Now, now, now," Xanatos said softly. "That's cheating," he remarked, lashing out psychically as he cracked the whip against Qui Gon's back as hard as he could.
Qui Gon screamed, as a boiling red-laced black mist seemed to obscure his senses, locking him in a cage of pain and despair. He could feel the whip biting into his back, leaving a charred ruin in its wake every time it struck him. He fought as hard as he could against the mist and the pain, but slowly, ever so slowly; he wilted under the agony and despair.
Soralis fell to her knees in shock as she felt her friend crumple under the pain, dying by degrees. She cried out in denial as she felt the final rush of energy that heralded his death. She could feel herself falling into the Harano or the dark sleep, a stupor of grief she knew she would never rise out of. Something kept her from that final, hopeless darkness. Something…
Xanatos' eyes widened in shock as he saw the bluish light swirl around his dead former master, soaking into every pore, every orifice. As it soaked into Qui Gon's body, the charred red ruin that was his back healed from the inside out, until there was no sign of the injuries that killed him.
Qui Gon gasped for air, his eyes blank with confusion. Xanatos flicked off the energy whip's beam and walked around till he faced the man. "Nice. Now I can kill you again and again. You can't escape, not even in death. You are mine now, totally and completely." He said, hiding his shock and sudden fear behind a mask of bravado.
Qui Gon's eyes cleared and he glared at Xanatos. "Don't count on it," he spat.
"Oh, but I am." Xanatos motioned for the guards to take Qui Gon down. They dragged the man to a stone table and shackled him to it with the stun-cuffs that were embedded conveniently in each corner. "We still have some issues between us to explore,"
Qui Gon laughed dryly. He could sense his former Padawan's fear. The man was afraid of him. Perhaps he could use that to his advantage, if he could keep his wits about him.