Edge of Insanity
When darkness rises, shadows fall first.
From the Harvester's Journal
Soralis stumbled, falling under Qui Gon, his weight pulling them both to the ground. The same guard that hurled him into the room trained a blaster on them as the other produced Qui Gon's clothing. Neither of the guards were taking chances. "I'd clean him up if I were you. I wouldn't want to live in his stench." One of the guards quipped as he tossed the clothing onto a cot.
The other, a burly Keadyth demon laughed. "Then again, we can't stand how Jedi smell anyway," then they were gone.
Soralis snorted. "They're a laugh riot, aren't they?" she asked Qui Gon; not really expecting an answer as she gently disentangled herself.
"Oh damn, Qui Gon, what did they do to you? Drop you in a cess pit?" She said as she examined him, searching for any signs of damage. He was filthy; covered in dirt, sweat and dried blood. Other than that, she could find no evidence of any injuries.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry," she said.
His eyes flickered open. "Not your fault," he whispered. "Knew what I was getting into when I stabilized the link."
"Maybe I should give in to them," she murmured. "Make an end of it for both of us,"
Qui Gon reached up with an effort and gripped her hand. "No. As long as we're alive, we win. We can't loose hope," he told her firmly.
"Alright," she replied as she helped him to his feet and half-supported, half-carried him to the small cubical that housed the cell's sanitary facilities.
***
As Xanatos walked into the corridor, another man joined him, appearing out of a side tunnel that led deep within the mountain complex. The man was tall, pale and dressed in strange, archaic armor. The man grinned at his younger associate. "Having fun with our guests?" he said.
Xanatos glanced at him. "You might say that. Qui Gon is much tougher than I remembered. We should kill him before he becomes a threat to our plans."
Quan Chi shook his head. "He has already formed a soul-link with Soralis. Killing him would prove fatal to her and we need her alive."
Xanatos smirked. "All this trouble over one alien female. Why?"
Quan Chi smiled. "She much more than that. She is the Isisethren, a creature that could lay waste to entire planets if she so chose. If we break her we can undo the spells that Osiris and his brood have wrapped around her over countless millennia. Once we do that, we will control that power."
"And we must also keep her away from earth. As long as we have her, she cannot help Rayden. He will be acting alone, for no other god will lift a finger to help him in what they consider a family quarrel. Soralis could change that." He looked at the young Sith Lord pointedly. "Break the bitch. Time is running out."
Xanatos bowed. "Yes, my lord. It will be done."
***
Obi-One didn't have time to react. A hand lashed out from the shadows behind him, snaking around his throat and covering his mouth and nose with a wet cloth. He struggled, breathing in the pungent fumes. He felt weak. As he collapsed, he could feel strong hands drag him somewhere, elsewhere. Then he lost consciousness.
The boy woke slowly. His head ached dreadfully and his muscles felt stiff. He cracked open his eyes, seeing nothing but darkness. He almost panicked, but calmed once he realized that his eyes were working; it was only the room that was dark. As he sat up, the light levels brightened, revealing a being dressed from head to foot in unrelieved black sitting in a chair in front of his bed. The being's face was obscured by black silk cloth that was wrapped around his head, leaving only his eyes uncovered. And those eyes were an eerie, bright yellow.
He eyed the being warily, knowing full well that he could not react quickly enough if the stranger decided to do something unpleasant. "Who are you?" he asked, wincing as pain shot through his head.
The being slowly got up and moved over to a small kitchen unit. He returned with a glass of water and handed it to Obi Wan. He also pressed two small capsules into the boy's hand. "Take these. The sedative I gave you has a bad habit of causing headaches and dehydration."
Obi Wan glared at him. "Why should I trust you?" he asked.
The being folded his arms. "The headache that sedative causes can last for several days. You just will have to trust that those pills aren't something dangerous. Your choice of course." He sounded amused. "And it's quite difficult to concentrate with your head pounding."
Obi Wan scowled. If the creature wanted to hurt him, he'd be pinned down on a torture-table right now instead of lying comfortably in a bed. And the headache was killing him. He shrugged and downed the tablets and water. "You kidnapped me. Who are you and who are you working for, Morgan Enterprises or Wolfram and Hart?" he asked.
The being sat down on the chair again. "As to the first question, you can call me Prophet. And I am not working for either Morgan or Wolfram and Hart. If I was, you'd be very uncomfortable right now." He replied mildly.
Obi Wan considered this. "True enough. So, why did you kidnap me?" he asked coolly, sensing that the creature meant no harm to him, at least, not yet. He could feel the headache receding, even as he spoke. So the pills really were painkillers.
"I needed to talk to you."
"Why should I cooperate with you?" Obi-One asked.
"Because I can help you rescue your master." Prophet told him baldly.
"What's the catch?" he asked warily.
"In return, I would like you to help me rescue a former student of mine. I believe she is being held captive by the same individual who kidnapped your master."
"Why didn't you go to the Brotherhood directly?" he asked.
"I doubt very seriously that the Brotherhood would listen to me," Prophet said simply.
"I'd like to help you, but I don't know where Morgan is holding my master, let alone your student." Obi-one replied truthfully. His instincts told him that this Prophet was not lying, nor was he evil. He frowned thoughtfully. Obi-one couldn't honestly say the being was good either.
"I know where my student is being held. Chances are, Qui-Gon Jinn is being held with her. I need backup, in case something goes wrong. You can provide me with that."
"How do you know where she is being held?" Obi-One demanded.
Prophet sounded amused. "You'll just have to trust me. After all, you have no choice, not if you want to see your master alive. Morgan will never release him voluntarily. The only chance for his and my apprentice's survival lies in rescue. And you will help me, won't you?"
Obi Wan glared at the creature. "You're right. I don't have a choice." He said. "I'll help you,"
Prophet smiled to himself. He knew the boy would decide to help him. "Very well, this is what we shall do,"
***
Quan Chi scowled.
Others had fallen under far less stress, for less reason. But these two…
These two did not. It could not be tolerated. He looked at the shaft of light that held Morgan and smiled grimly to himself. The scientist was useful, annoying, but useful. He looked at her more closely. Too bad she wasn't his type.
"What do you have for me?" he demanded, his voice echoing around her.
Morgan peered through the bright light that nearly blinded her. "Their vital signs match almost exactly, which is strange considering that they are of opposite genders, come from different sides of the galaxy and have wildly different physiologies. Strangely enough, they appear to share some of the same genes," she paused as she held up a palm-device that showed a hologram depicting both Qui-Gon's and Soralis' genetic structure. Two points lit up, revealing a pair of strange genes that should not have been active, yet were.
Quan Chi's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "They are both mutants." He laughed lightly, amused. "This explains much."
"It appears as if Qui-Gon's gene has activated just recently." Morgan added.
Qui Gon smirked. "Indeed. There has been a change in plans,"
"What?" Morgan asked confused.
***
Soralis wiped the sweat off of Qui Gon's brow, careful not to wake him. He was sleeping fitfully, trying to recover from the tortures Xanatos had inflicted on him. How long had they been prisoners? Days? Weeks? She had lost all track of time and it was an effort to simply survive on a day-by- day basis. She had almost given in to their captors a half dozen times, just to stop Qui Gon's torment. He had held her back each time. It was so easy to give in to anger, to despair and hate. But they did not; somehow they managed to keep their sanity intact.
Qui Gon stirred as the energy field around their cell door flickered off. He woke as it opened, revealing Xanatos with two guards flanking him. "Go outside, I won't be needing you," he ordered the guards, who obeyed.
"Xanatos," Qui Gon said.
"Qui Gon," he acknowledged the prone Jedi and calmly and turned his attention to Soralis. "You should have turned Soralis. Now it's too late."
"What do you mean?" she asked getting up from where she had been kneeling next to Qui Gon's bed.
Xanatos smiled lightly. "Shao Kahn has completed your permanent residence in the Well of Souls. You will never be able to escape from there and he will complete what we have started."
He looked at Qui Gon. "He has also expressed an interest in you, Master," he said sarcastically. "Since both of you are something of a package deal, we have agreed to sell you to Shao Kahn as well."
Soralis could feel the blood drain from her face. "No," she said and leapt towards him.
"Soralis, don't!" Qui Gon shouted as she caught the Sith Lord off-guard, knocking him to the floor.
The guards rushed in, hearing Xanatos cry out in sudden fear. They converged on Soralis who had pinned Xanatos to the ground, preparing to rip his throat out with her bare hands. The guards, wielding force pikes, managed to wrestle Soralis away from Xanatos and barely managed to keep her at bay as he got up.
He glared at the Shadowlord. "Some anger at last, how nice." He smirked. "Since we can't have you two escaping mid-route, we're going to put you on ice. I understand being frozen to death isn't particularly pleasant."
The guards grinned as they clamped stun-cuffs on both Soralis and Qui Gon and hustled them out of the cell. They were taken deep within the complex and into a chamber. The chamber's walls were lined with computer banks and exposed pipes that led the center of the room. In the center of the room was a pair of human-sized, transparent tanks. Qui Gon swallowed as he saw Morgan finish inspecting the strange apparatus.
"Is it ready?" Xanatos asked calmly.
"Almost," she said as the guards shoved both Soralis and Qui Gon onto waiting chairs. Morgan strode casually over to Qui Gon, a large hypodermic needle in one hand, filled with a bluish fluid. Qui Gon fought the urge to shrink back and failed. "You're afraid of this my friend?" she asked as she stroked the side of his face with it.
"Leave him alone!" Soralis shouted. Her shout was cut off by a surge of electricity from the stun cuffs that left her breathless and shaking with reaction.
She glanced at the Shadowlord and smiled. "You really are stubborn, aren't you? As stubborn as your big friend here," she said, nodding to Qui Gon. "Not to mention cold. Any other female would have given almost anything to stop us from harming him, but not you."
Qui Gon glared at Morgan. "It wasn't her decision to make." He said softly, striving for calm. "I would never ask her to give herself to you and your master, so you could use her as weapon against innocent people. We will never give in to you."
Morgan whipped around, her face whitening with anger. "I am not a slave, I serve no one but myself." She said, backhanding him brutally across the face.
Xanatos stood back, watching them in amusement. He knew what the two of them were trying to do. They were misleading their opponent, stalling for time. It was an old Jedi trick, one that worked almost every time.
Soralis gulped for air, taking back control of the conversation. "You are a slave Morgan, a slave to Shao Kahn. He does not recognize mortals as equals. He only recognizes them as servants or enemies." She smiled humorlessly. "And you do not strike me as his enemy."
She jerked her head to the security guards, two of which she easily recognized as demons. "He will destroy you in the end. A hell god can never be trusted. Neither can demons." The guard with the control to the stun- cuffs pressed a stud on it and she nearly choked as an intense surge of electricity raced through her body.
Morgan smirked. "I can take care of myself. Save your concern for your friend and your own soul." She said as she viciously jabbed Qui Gon's exposed arm with the hypodermic needle.
He cried out involuntarily as it was rammed into his arm. Morgan's eyes glittered as she watched the fluid drain out of the needle. She withdrew the needle, not bothering to stop the blood welling up from the puncture wound.
"What did you do to him?" Soralis demanded, trying to get up from the chair. One of the guards hit her with his blaster, forcing her back into her seat.
Morgan grinned as one of her aids handed her another similar looking hypodermic needle filled with the same bluish fluid. "I merely gave him some heavy duty sedatives to keep him quiet, some drugs that would affect his perception of time and a bit of hallucinogenic drugs as a farewell gift."
Soralis glared at her. "You bitch," she hissed as Morgan injected her with the cocktail of drugs.
"Yes, yes I am." She looked at the guards. "Put them in the tanks."
Morgan watched as her two prisoners were tossed into their waiting tanks. "Even at the lowest temperatures, their regenerative powers will slow down the effects of hypothermia. It could take a few days for them to succumb to the cold."
"No hurry," Xanatos laughed. "Shao Kahn has waited three hundred years for this. He can wait a bit longer." He moved over to the tank holding Qui Gon.
"No more games Master." Xanatos said, smiling. "Your final destiny awaits,"
Qui Gon looked at Xanatos. "Don't do this," he whispered. "There is still hope for you,"
"You're right." Xanatos agreed. "But there isn't any hope for you." He walked away.
Qui Gon closed his eyes in despair as the hallucinations began. Again. And this time, he would not wake up from them.
When darkness rises, shadows fall first.
From the Harvester's Journal
Soralis stumbled, falling under Qui Gon, his weight pulling them both to the ground. The same guard that hurled him into the room trained a blaster on them as the other produced Qui Gon's clothing. Neither of the guards were taking chances. "I'd clean him up if I were you. I wouldn't want to live in his stench." One of the guards quipped as he tossed the clothing onto a cot.
The other, a burly Keadyth demon laughed. "Then again, we can't stand how Jedi smell anyway," then they were gone.
Soralis snorted. "They're a laugh riot, aren't they?" she asked Qui Gon; not really expecting an answer as she gently disentangled herself.
"Oh damn, Qui Gon, what did they do to you? Drop you in a cess pit?" She said as she examined him, searching for any signs of damage. He was filthy; covered in dirt, sweat and dried blood. Other than that, she could find no evidence of any injuries.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry," she said.
His eyes flickered open. "Not your fault," he whispered. "Knew what I was getting into when I stabilized the link."
"Maybe I should give in to them," she murmured. "Make an end of it for both of us,"
Qui Gon reached up with an effort and gripped her hand. "No. As long as we're alive, we win. We can't loose hope," he told her firmly.
"Alright," she replied as she helped him to his feet and half-supported, half-carried him to the small cubical that housed the cell's sanitary facilities.
***
As Xanatos walked into the corridor, another man joined him, appearing out of a side tunnel that led deep within the mountain complex. The man was tall, pale and dressed in strange, archaic armor. The man grinned at his younger associate. "Having fun with our guests?" he said.
Xanatos glanced at him. "You might say that. Qui Gon is much tougher than I remembered. We should kill him before he becomes a threat to our plans."
Quan Chi shook his head. "He has already formed a soul-link with Soralis. Killing him would prove fatal to her and we need her alive."
Xanatos smirked. "All this trouble over one alien female. Why?"
Quan Chi smiled. "She much more than that. She is the Isisethren, a creature that could lay waste to entire planets if she so chose. If we break her we can undo the spells that Osiris and his brood have wrapped around her over countless millennia. Once we do that, we will control that power."
"And we must also keep her away from earth. As long as we have her, she cannot help Rayden. He will be acting alone, for no other god will lift a finger to help him in what they consider a family quarrel. Soralis could change that." He looked at the young Sith Lord pointedly. "Break the bitch. Time is running out."
Xanatos bowed. "Yes, my lord. It will be done."
***
Obi-One didn't have time to react. A hand lashed out from the shadows behind him, snaking around his throat and covering his mouth and nose with a wet cloth. He struggled, breathing in the pungent fumes. He felt weak. As he collapsed, he could feel strong hands drag him somewhere, elsewhere. Then he lost consciousness.
The boy woke slowly. His head ached dreadfully and his muscles felt stiff. He cracked open his eyes, seeing nothing but darkness. He almost panicked, but calmed once he realized that his eyes were working; it was only the room that was dark. As he sat up, the light levels brightened, revealing a being dressed from head to foot in unrelieved black sitting in a chair in front of his bed. The being's face was obscured by black silk cloth that was wrapped around his head, leaving only his eyes uncovered. And those eyes were an eerie, bright yellow.
He eyed the being warily, knowing full well that he could not react quickly enough if the stranger decided to do something unpleasant. "Who are you?" he asked, wincing as pain shot through his head.
The being slowly got up and moved over to a small kitchen unit. He returned with a glass of water and handed it to Obi Wan. He also pressed two small capsules into the boy's hand. "Take these. The sedative I gave you has a bad habit of causing headaches and dehydration."
Obi Wan glared at him. "Why should I trust you?" he asked.
The being folded his arms. "The headache that sedative causes can last for several days. You just will have to trust that those pills aren't something dangerous. Your choice of course." He sounded amused. "And it's quite difficult to concentrate with your head pounding."
Obi Wan scowled. If the creature wanted to hurt him, he'd be pinned down on a torture-table right now instead of lying comfortably in a bed. And the headache was killing him. He shrugged and downed the tablets and water. "You kidnapped me. Who are you and who are you working for, Morgan Enterprises or Wolfram and Hart?" he asked.
The being sat down on the chair again. "As to the first question, you can call me Prophet. And I am not working for either Morgan or Wolfram and Hart. If I was, you'd be very uncomfortable right now." He replied mildly.
Obi Wan considered this. "True enough. So, why did you kidnap me?" he asked coolly, sensing that the creature meant no harm to him, at least, not yet. He could feel the headache receding, even as he spoke. So the pills really were painkillers.
"I needed to talk to you."
"Why should I cooperate with you?" Obi-One asked.
"Because I can help you rescue your master." Prophet told him baldly.
"What's the catch?" he asked warily.
"In return, I would like you to help me rescue a former student of mine. I believe she is being held captive by the same individual who kidnapped your master."
"Why didn't you go to the Brotherhood directly?" he asked.
"I doubt very seriously that the Brotherhood would listen to me," Prophet said simply.
"I'd like to help you, but I don't know where Morgan is holding my master, let alone your student." Obi-one replied truthfully. His instincts told him that this Prophet was not lying, nor was he evil. He frowned thoughtfully. Obi-one couldn't honestly say the being was good either.
"I know where my student is being held. Chances are, Qui-Gon Jinn is being held with her. I need backup, in case something goes wrong. You can provide me with that."
"How do you know where she is being held?" Obi-One demanded.
Prophet sounded amused. "You'll just have to trust me. After all, you have no choice, not if you want to see your master alive. Morgan will never release him voluntarily. The only chance for his and my apprentice's survival lies in rescue. And you will help me, won't you?"
Obi Wan glared at the creature. "You're right. I don't have a choice." He said. "I'll help you,"
Prophet smiled to himself. He knew the boy would decide to help him. "Very well, this is what we shall do,"
***
Quan Chi scowled.
Others had fallen under far less stress, for less reason. But these two…
These two did not. It could not be tolerated. He looked at the shaft of light that held Morgan and smiled grimly to himself. The scientist was useful, annoying, but useful. He looked at her more closely. Too bad she wasn't his type.
"What do you have for me?" he demanded, his voice echoing around her.
Morgan peered through the bright light that nearly blinded her. "Their vital signs match almost exactly, which is strange considering that they are of opposite genders, come from different sides of the galaxy and have wildly different physiologies. Strangely enough, they appear to share some of the same genes," she paused as she held up a palm-device that showed a hologram depicting both Qui-Gon's and Soralis' genetic structure. Two points lit up, revealing a pair of strange genes that should not have been active, yet were.
Quan Chi's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "They are both mutants." He laughed lightly, amused. "This explains much."
"It appears as if Qui-Gon's gene has activated just recently." Morgan added.
Qui Gon smirked. "Indeed. There has been a change in plans,"
"What?" Morgan asked confused.
***
Soralis wiped the sweat off of Qui Gon's brow, careful not to wake him. He was sleeping fitfully, trying to recover from the tortures Xanatos had inflicted on him. How long had they been prisoners? Days? Weeks? She had lost all track of time and it was an effort to simply survive on a day-by- day basis. She had almost given in to their captors a half dozen times, just to stop Qui Gon's torment. He had held her back each time. It was so easy to give in to anger, to despair and hate. But they did not; somehow they managed to keep their sanity intact.
Qui Gon stirred as the energy field around their cell door flickered off. He woke as it opened, revealing Xanatos with two guards flanking him. "Go outside, I won't be needing you," he ordered the guards, who obeyed.
"Xanatos," Qui Gon said.
"Qui Gon," he acknowledged the prone Jedi and calmly and turned his attention to Soralis. "You should have turned Soralis. Now it's too late."
"What do you mean?" she asked getting up from where she had been kneeling next to Qui Gon's bed.
Xanatos smiled lightly. "Shao Kahn has completed your permanent residence in the Well of Souls. You will never be able to escape from there and he will complete what we have started."
He looked at Qui Gon. "He has also expressed an interest in you, Master," he said sarcastically. "Since both of you are something of a package deal, we have agreed to sell you to Shao Kahn as well."
Soralis could feel the blood drain from her face. "No," she said and leapt towards him.
"Soralis, don't!" Qui Gon shouted as she caught the Sith Lord off-guard, knocking him to the floor.
The guards rushed in, hearing Xanatos cry out in sudden fear. They converged on Soralis who had pinned Xanatos to the ground, preparing to rip his throat out with her bare hands. The guards, wielding force pikes, managed to wrestle Soralis away from Xanatos and barely managed to keep her at bay as he got up.
He glared at the Shadowlord. "Some anger at last, how nice." He smirked. "Since we can't have you two escaping mid-route, we're going to put you on ice. I understand being frozen to death isn't particularly pleasant."
The guards grinned as they clamped stun-cuffs on both Soralis and Qui Gon and hustled them out of the cell. They were taken deep within the complex and into a chamber. The chamber's walls were lined with computer banks and exposed pipes that led the center of the room. In the center of the room was a pair of human-sized, transparent tanks. Qui Gon swallowed as he saw Morgan finish inspecting the strange apparatus.
"Is it ready?" Xanatos asked calmly.
"Almost," she said as the guards shoved both Soralis and Qui Gon onto waiting chairs. Morgan strode casually over to Qui Gon, a large hypodermic needle in one hand, filled with a bluish fluid. Qui Gon fought the urge to shrink back and failed. "You're afraid of this my friend?" she asked as she stroked the side of his face with it.
"Leave him alone!" Soralis shouted. Her shout was cut off by a surge of electricity from the stun cuffs that left her breathless and shaking with reaction.
She glanced at the Shadowlord and smiled. "You really are stubborn, aren't you? As stubborn as your big friend here," she said, nodding to Qui Gon. "Not to mention cold. Any other female would have given almost anything to stop us from harming him, but not you."
Qui Gon glared at Morgan. "It wasn't her decision to make." He said softly, striving for calm. "I would never ask her to give herself to you and your master, so you could use her as weapon against innocent people. We will never give in to you."
Morgan whipped around, her face whitening with anger. "I am not a slave, I serve no one but myself." She said, backhanding him brutally across the face.
Xanatos stood back, watching them in amusement. He knew what the two of them were trying to do. They were misleading their opponent, stalling for time. It was an old Jedi trick, one that worked almost every time.
Soralis gulped for air, taking back control of the conversation. "You are a slave Morgan, a slave to Shao Kahn. He does not recognize mortals as equals. He only recognizes them as servants or enemies." She smiled humorlessly. "And you do not strike me as his enemy."
She jerked her head to the security guards, two of which she easily recognized as demons. "He will destroy you in the end. A hell god can never be trusted. Neither can demons." The guard with the control to the stun- cuffs pressed a stud on it and she nearly choked as an intense surge of electricity raced through her body.
Morgan smirked. "I can take care of myself. Save your concern for your friend and your own soul." She said as she viciously jabbed Qui Gon's exposed arm with the hypodermic needle.
He cried out involuntarily as it was rammed into his arm. Morgan's eyes glittered as she watched the fluid drain out of the needle. She withdrew the needle, not bothering to stop the blood welling up from the puncture wound.
"What did you do to him?" Soralis demanded, trying to get up from the chair. One of the guards hit her with his blaster, forcing her back into her seat.
Morgan grinned as one of her aids handed her another similar looking hypodermic needle filled with the same bluish fluid. "I merely gave him some heavy duty sedatives to keep him quiet, some drugs that would affect his perception of time and a bit of hallucinogenic drugs as a farewell gift."
Soralis glared at her. "You bitch," she hissed as Morgan injected her with the cocktail of drugs.
"Yes, yes I am." She looked at the guards. "Put them in the tanks."
Morgan watched as her two prisoners were tossed into their waiting tanks. "Even at the lowest temperatures, their regenerative powers will slow down the effects of hypothermia. It could take a few days for them to succumb to the cold."
"No hurry," Xanatos laughed. "Shao Kahn has waited three hundred years for this. He can wait a bit longer." He moved over to the tank holding Qui Gon.
"No more games Master." Xanatos said, smiling. "Your final destiny awaits,"
Qui Gon looked at Xanatos. "Don't do this," he whispered. "There is still hope for you,"
"You're right." Xanatos agreed. "But there isn't any hope for you." He walked away.
Qui Gon closed his eyes in despair as the hallucinations began. Again. And this time, he would not wake up from them.