Back at it with Chapter Four, time to see what happens next! :)
Got a little bit of inspiration from someone, and decided that I might continue to hack away at this story.
Enjoy!
Soundtrack for this chapter:
Season 3 Recap - Trevor Morris
It was mid-afternoon by the time the young woman started to regain consciousness.
Instantly, she could feel her head throbbing before she even opened her eyes to the new world around her.
Finally, after some time, she decided to open her eyelids.
Bright lights hit her pupils right away, causing her to close them quickly in response.
It took her a few more moments to reopen her lavender eyes again, and around a minute later her eyes fully adjusted to her new environment.
The room was made of black steel features, with several lights fixated onto her which hung from the ceiling above.
Red orbs filled the walls which flashed every so often, making the room seem even more menacing than it already was.
Likewise, the room was painfully quiet.
The only thing the young woman could hear was her own heartbeat as it pounded against her chest.
The girl found herself sitting down in some kind of chair and right away, something struck her.
The usual pleasant hum which surrounded her body had ceased to exist, which she found extremely unsettling.
It was a hum she had felt every single day for as long as she could remember.
A hum that weaved itself around her entire being in a protective coating.
Now, that warm-blanket was gone, leaving her completely vulnerable and cold to the environment around her.
A wave of panic started to set in before she realized something else was out of the ordinary.
She felt around with her fingers, and noticed she had what she suspected to be force-suppression cuffs around her wrists.
"No wonder why I can't feel anything... " she mumbled under her breath.
She continued to look around the room, taking in the new sights.
The young woman looked around the room for ways to escape, but knew it would be impossible without using her innate powers.
Once again, she felt slightly defeated like she had been while in her apartment.
Why did she let this happen?
Why was he hunting her?
Sure, she's killed a few people, but that's nothing to make a fuss about.
Right?
Okay, maybe it wasn't a few people, but still, it seem's like everyone and their mother has at least killed someone in their life.
Her migraine started to worsen the longer she had thoughts running around her head of why she could let herself get into this type of predicament in the first place.
As a result, in hopes to ease her throbbing head, she rested her nogin on the headrest of the chair and closed her eyes again to shield them from the intense light which was in the chamber.
If she could not escape the room physically, she could escape it mentally, right?
She thought about old memories to help her find comfort in the situation.
And it helped for the time being.
She thought about her life before everything had become a complete and utter mess.
She thought about home.
Her grandparents farm where she grew up.
She thought about Skye, her favorite little Nerf which she had come to love as a child.
A slight smile came across the young woman's face upon the memory of putting a funky looking hat on the celestial bovine, and how the Nerf just licked her face in response without a care in the world.
And when Skye gave birth to her first calf when she was eight years old, it was one of the happiest day's of her life. Now there was a second Skye to dote upon! However, her first calf was a bull, who became increasingly aggressive as he got older, so she decided to leave him alone with his mother until he was weaned and could have Skye all back to herself.
Then her thoughts moved to another area of her mind, and a memory of when she was around three years old popped into her head.
There she was, a chunky little toddler with leg's the size of Bantha horns, sitting on the floor of her grandparent's farm house playing with some old blocks her grandpa had fashioned for her in his workshop.
But the little girl was done playing with blocks for the day, and wanted to play with her favorite princess doll instead.
Instead of getting up to grab it like any other toddler, the small girl reached out for it with her pudgy little hand, and almost instantly, the doll got up from its place on the living room couch and levitated over to the toddler who was giggling with pure glee.
Upon hearing her granddaughter's sudden burst of laughter from the kitchen, her grandpa made his way into the living room to see the toy levitating over towards his granddaughter. Absolute shock ripped across his bearded face.
Right away, her grandfather scolded her, taking the doll out of the air and waving it around in front of her, all the while telling her never to do it again.
Another smirk filled the young woman's face upon the memory of doing the same thing in her room later that night, when she wasn't under the watchful eye of her grandfather and grandmother.
Both of them meaned well, they really did.
But deep inside, they were scared of the little girls powers, and tried their best to protect her from them while she was growing up under their roof.
Soon once she felt completely free and comfortable within her thoughts, she drifted into a light sleep, trying her best to cope with the extreme headache she had awoken with a few minutes prior.
Fifteen minutes passed.
Her slumber was interrupted when the door to the room opened with a loud rush.
The same creature from her apartment appeared in front of her, and her eyes opened quickly, then drifted to his helmet before looking down at the floor, refusing to look at the beast.
He peered down at her, contemplating what to say next before speaking into his apparatus, which made his voice sound even more intimidating.
"Do you know why you're here?"
She continued to ignore him.
Ignoring people was one of her best skills, and she was most certainly going to use this skill against him, at least for the time being.
Lev chocked his head to the side, fixating his gaze upon the small figure in front of him, before he straightened himself up to his full height and cupped his hands behind his back. Finally he spoke.
"You're here because of an instance that occurred last night in which you killed four Special Operation Swamp Troopers of the Third Dynasty who were away on leave for the weekend."
Her purple eyes glanced up at him and he continued, "We have evidence which helps to support two hundred and seventy-one other cases in which individuals of the Third Dynasty have died under suspicious circumstances. Each of these individuals have been killed in the same exact manner as the four Special Operation Swamp Troopers. Through this evidence, we believe you are the person who conducted each of these murders. However, you being the mastermind behind each death could be up to interpretation. Our intelligence officers have begun to look through your personal belongings and history, and believe you were hired by outside parties to participate in these assassinations in exchange for considerable sums of money. There is no other way you could have afforded such comfortable living situations on Coruscant. Do you want to say anything to rebuke these claims or to defend yourself?"
She shrugged, even though she fully knew she was the one responsible for each of the deaths.
Of course, she didn't want him to know that.
She was doing her job.
Sure, she could have rejected those assignments, but the payoff was immense.
The higher the rank, the higher the sum of cash which would appear in her pocket.
How could she turn it down?
It was a dog eat dog world out there after all.
"You're extremely stubborn, I'll give you that. But I don't want to make this more painful than it has to be. If you tell me the truth, no harm will come to you." Lev remarked with the slightest bit of reassurance in his voice which he hoped she would pick up.
The young woman noticed but still didn't react to it.
She was determined not to buy into what he was trying to sell her.
Lev became increasingly more agitated, which she picked up through his body language.
His left fist turned into a ball.
He was getting irate.
She tried her best to hide a smile.
"Fine. If you want to play games, that's alright with me. We can play games."
Lev motioned for several Death Troopers to make their way into the chamber.
Her eyes immediately lit up with an ounce of horror at the sight of the black armour, knowing full well what was about to happen to her.
She heard stories of what happened to people in these interrogation rooms while working at the pub, and now here she was, about to be the next victim.
One of the troopers walked up to her, feet clanging on the floor which each step as he paused and waited for the signal from Lev.
Lev nodded ever so slightly, and the trooper proceed to punch the girl straight in the face with a powerful right hook.
Expecting her to wince underneath the pain, she did the exact opposite.
She started laughing as blood started to drip out of her busted lip and nose.
"Really? You're going to punch me? Are you on a low-budget when it comes to interrogating people?" The young woman taunted while looking straight into Lev's mask like a hawk with her lips curved into a elfish smile before spitting some blood onto the ground off to her side.
He was taken back by her comment at first not knowing how to respond.
Of all the things she could have said, it had to be that?
It just had to be that?
His blood started to boil even more.
"What's the matter, gundark got your tongue?" She continued to taunt while chuckling up at him.
He really thinks he's a big shock around here, doesn't he? The girl questioned in her mind.
Upon hearing the remark in her head, Lev positioned himself right next to her, with his mask six inches from her face. She gulped and looked into the visor, only to see her own reflection staring back at her.
"It seems as though our guest does not appreciate these methods. Perhaps a more drastic approach should be used?" Lev acknowledged while looking around the room at the troopers who were nodding in aggreeance.
One of the troopers reached into his ammo belt, and retrieved a small device.
She looked down at the small piece of equipment and let out a slight scoff at the sight of it.
Before she could stop chuckling at it, the guard pressed it to her side and ignited the device, shocking the girl with a high-voltage of energy.
She let out a small yell before closing her mouth and eyes, trying to deal with the immense pain.
Once it was over, Lev signaled for the Death Trooper to do it again, but at a higher-voltage and longer duration of time.
This time around, the girl started to breathe heavily, her chest heaving up and down while sweat poured down her face as she tried to contain her screams.
He let her calm back down before asking the age-old question.
Lev moved his face back down to her's, this time only being around four inches from her own.
"Now… Are you ready to speak?" Lev demanded.
"It's going to take... a lot more than that... to make me say anything to you..." she stammered in response while trying to regain her breath. Once she was able to compile herself to the best of her present ability, she used the last remaining amount of strength and spit straight into his visor. A slight sly smile made it's way across her face.
Right away, he wiped the spit off his mask with the side of his arm.
A second later, Lev made another fist with his left hand.
The girl braced herself for another impact.
However, this time, the fist slammed itself on the edge of the headrest next to her head.
She didn't even blink at his outburst.
Now he was over the edge.
How dare she.
How dare she humiliate him like that.
He thought wisely before speaking next, "Oh, you would be glad to know I can have that arranged. Sergeant?" Lev insisted while motioning to the trooper as another wave of electricity struck her side, at one of the highest voltages which would not cause any permanent damage, but still hurt nonetheless.
This time, it was too much for her fragile frame, and she fell into a deep unconscious state.
Lev looked at the same Death Trooper standing to her side, "Sergeant, I think it's time we bring her into a holding cell. Maybe she will talk if she feels less threatened."
The Death Trooper obeyed the commands while putting the device back on his belt and then releasing the restraints around the girls body. He proceeded to scoop the petite woman in his arms and brought her to the holding cell while Lev followed closely behind.
Gently, the sergeant placed her down on the cot in the small space and Lev motioned for him to leave.
Once alone, he looked down at the girl.
He was completely enamored by her.
She was so much different from what he had previously thought.
To be able to stand up for herself like that took a lot of courage, and he respected that.
And the power she possessed was remarkable.
Sure she was still wearing the force-suppression cuffs, but the energy still was able to billow out of her form.
Even though it looked as though she was not trained, he saw so much raw potential in the young woman.
He wanted to harness that energy, and form it into something extraditionary.
The fact she was able to take out more than two hundred and fifty members of the Third Dynasty without leaving a trail behind was down right astonishing.
That, he thought, took immense skill just in itself.
Intelligence officers within the Third Dynasty had been regarded as the best within the galaxy, and even they were beginning to run into roadblocks when it came to the young woman's past.
Soon, he snapped back to the reality.
By now, the hair which was carefully wrapped into the braid started to escape its hold in a frantic mess around her head. Lev knew that she had been through a lot over the past day, and with that, like he had done on the ship, he moved a piece of stray hair out of her face, and tucked it behind her ear.
In her unconscious state, a sliver of a smile appeared on her lips.
However, Lev left the cell without a smile on his own.
There was still much work that had to be done in order to get the young woman to trust him.
Did he have what it takes?
Chapter four is in the books! Let me know what y'all think :)