Enjoy! :)
Soundtrack for this chapter:
Very Sick Girl (Main Title) - Thomas Newman
The next morning, Lev woke up early to go and check on the prisoner before beginning the countless number of meetings he had scheduled for the day.
He shuffled into the refresher, the warmth slowly waking his aching muscles up.
Throwing a towel around his waist, he walked over to his dresser to find something to wear for the day.
He threw on black robes with tints of gray and burgundy, with the same color pants to match.
As he was putting his boots on, ZT-967 trudged into the room making a variety of beeping noises.
This was the first time in a long while Lev had gotten up this early, and the little droid immediately took notice to it.
"Shut it ZT."
The little droid persisted, letting out several sqawks this time.
"I'm about to throw you into the trash compactor if you keep this up."
Instantly, the droid shut up and looked up at his master before turning around and rolling away.
ZT has quite the attitude problem sometimes, much like the girl, Lev thought to himself.
He walked over to his kitchen to grab a few pastries.
Lev started to eat his favorite, the one laced with berry jam.
Suddenly an idea popped into his mind while he swallowed the first bite.
Perhaps he could win the girl over through her stomach.
Yes, that's a great idea.
She hasn't eaten in what, a day and a half, two days?
Lev grabbed more of the pastries off of the counter, wrapped them carefully into a cloth, and then placed them in one of the sewn in pockets of his black robes.
Before leaving his suite, he placed the helmet over his head, then continued to place the hood overtop of it. Afterwards, he looked in the mirror next to the door to straighten up his clothes while hitching his saber onto his left hip, and proceeded to wave the door open.
As he walked, he was saluted by staff members on the ship. However, this time was different.
Once he had finally brought the girl onto the ship, he was praised highly by his master.
It seemed as though his master had informed the members of the ship as well, since each of them congratulated him as he paced by.
The Archduke had even insisted that Lev take a day off, since he had earned it after these last two years of non-stop searching. But Lev respectfully declined the offer. There was still so much which needed to be done when it came to the woman.
Laziness was not permitted in his mind.
He needed to win her over, one way or another.
After snaking through the numerous corridors on the Sovereignty, Lev reached the brigg.
He stalked up to one of the guards who was on-duty.
"I want a status report." Lev barked while looking down at the monitor.
"She's conscious but refusing to acknowledge us, Sir." The head guard told Lev.
He nodded in response and then began to walk down the narrow hallway towards her cell.
Once he arrived, he found her curled up in a ball on her cot, facing away from the door with her head leaning against the wall.
Laced around her small wrists were the hand cuffs.
From the angle, he wasn't able to tell whether or not she was sleeping as he opened the door to her cell.
She responded to the door opening with a jolt, turning around to see who it was.
Her face was filled with disgust as Lev closed the door behind him and sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the room.
Several minutes passed before either one of them spoke.
Lev wanted her to initiate the conversation this time around, even if it meant sitting in silence for the next few hours until she did so.
Fifteen minutes passed, and still nothing.
Annoyed, she turned around in the cot and draped her legs off the side while facing him.
"Are you just going to sit there being a creep or are you going to say something?" she hissed at him.
He sat there contemplating what to say in response.
She was most definitely going to be a tough cookie to deal with.
"I brought you something," Lev remarked as he reached into his pocket and withdrew the pastries.
She looked down at them and then up at him, hesitant to grab the sugary treats.
This had to be a trap.
There was absolutely no reason for him to give her food unless it meant he wanted something in return.
"You probably poisoned them," the young woman persisted, unwilling to move towards the sweet-smelling deserts.
Her stomach cramped up in response to the food, making her feel a little nauseated.
She pushed her hunger to the back of her mind for the moment.
Like she had thought previously, this had to be a trap.
Lev shrugged his rather large shoulders while pressing a button on his helmet. She could hear his deep muffled voice underneath the mask as he spilled out his orders to whoever he was conversing with.
Thirty seconds later, a Death Trooper opened the door to the cell and walked in.
The girl with the lavender eyes glared at the trooper from her cot.
"Ah, Sergeant, there you are. Here, have a snack." Lev insisted while handing over one of the pastries to the person in the dark armour.
Right away, the trooper followed the orders given to him by his superior.
The Death Trooper took off his helmet, revealing a man in his mid-to-late thirties, with almond shaped eyes and olive skin. Then, he placed the pastry in his mouth, took a bite, chewed, and then swallowed it.
A slight smile came across the Sergeant's face before facing his commander, "Delicious, my lord."
Lev brought his attention back to the girl, who was sitting there narrowing her eyes at the two men in front of her.
Still, she refused to move a muscle.
The three of them waited a whole five minutes, in complete silence.
Lev wanted to prove a point.
The first of many points he wanted to prove to the young woman.
Finally when he was satisfied, Lev nodded, "You may leave Sergeant."
"Yessir," The trooper replied quickly, putting on his helmet and leaving the two of them alone in the room once more.
Lev let out a minuscule chuckle, "See? No harm done. Now eat."
With a slight grunt, he got up from his chair, and put the pastries next to her on the blanket, before turning around and sitting back down in the chair.
The young woman eyed the pastries and then back at the masked man.
He nodded and waved his hand to her, signaling to dig in.
She began to eat them slowly, trying her best to savor the flavors.
Lev studied her mannerisms, which were completely different from his own.
This intrigued him even more about the mysterious force sensitive girl.
"So… Rose is it?" Lev's deep voice echoed in the room.
Her mouth nearly fell open, "Excuse me?"
Lev inclined his head, studying her even more, "Your name is Roseree, correct?"
She shrugged.
Kriffing hell… Rose quickly mumbled in her subconscious.
"Just because you know my name doesn't mean anything," Rose asserted while she shot a death glance at the man across from her.
He straightened himself up, "I'm pretty sure it means a lot actually, finally knowing the name behind the girl who has wreaked havoc the last two years."
Rose gritted her teeth, "You know nothing."
"Your name is something, Rosie," the masked man said while putting emphasis on the last word.
Rosie.
The last person who called her that name ended up betraying her.
For years she had suppressed the thoughts and emotions belonging to that individual, and now it was brought back to the forefront of her mind.
She made a fist underneath the cuffs behind her back, her knuckles turning white.
Lev smiled underneath his helmet, noticing the rage beginning to form in her.
Good, now we're getting somewhere.
"That's not my name."
"Yes it is, Rosie."
"THAT'S NOT MY NAME!"
"You sure about that Rosie?"
Her knuckles became even more white as her soul reacted to being called that nickname.
"Fine, Rosie. I'll stop. Maybe…" Lev smirked, his deep voice laced with deviance.
His words shut her up real quick.
She was full of hidden rage.
Lev would need to teach her how to channel those feelings of resentment into something more… magnificent.
It fell into silence once more, the two of them looking at each other from the across the room.
Lev sat there, with his legs open and his arms crossed in front of him, looking as relaxed as possible. He even shuffled back into his seat, trying to find the sweet spot to get the most comfortable.
Once completely comfortable, Lev began tapping his left foot on the ground.
The metal floor vibrated with each movement he made with the front of his boot.
Lev was hoping to annoy her even more. It worked.
She was ticked.
Absolutely and utterly ticked, he could see it in her eyes as she scrunched her eyebrows together and her mouth turned into a thin line.
Finally, once he was tired of the silence, he spoke.
"You know Rosie... I can get any information I want out of you if I truly wanted to. But, hopefully with time, you will hand over the information I desire without having to torture you."
Rose couldn't help but let out a small scoff while releasing the strain on her eyebrows, "Yeah right. Have fun with that. I'm not giving you anything."
"Is that a challenge?" Lev said without hesitation while leaning forward in his seat.
Rose shrugged in response while crossing her arms in front of her small figure, "You honestly believe I'm scared of you? That's a joke within itself. The mask. The dark robes. The reputation you have. Each of those things might have someone else cower into the corner pissing themselves, but not me."
"And why is that?"
"I've heard about you before. Everyone under the sun has. Rumors mostly which I overheard while bartending in the pub. You're one of the most feared people in the galaxy at this present moment. You're a completely relentless and ruthless individual when it comes to getting what you want. You'll stop at nothing to achieve your goals and the goals of the Archduke. Yet here you are, sitting right in front of me, and you're not trying to probe for the information you seek within my mind. Now why is it, the characteristic Count Soumrak is moving away from his traditional methods of information extraction?"
Lev didn't even hesitate with his response, "Because you're a valuable asset which harnesses great potential that could be used to benefit the Third Dynasty."
Rose rolled her violet orbs while shifting back in her cot, "Wow, that might be the single most bantha shit statement I've heard in my entire life."
Lev brooded a bit upon hearing her comment then looked down at the floor for several seconds while twiddling with his thumbs before he could not hold it in any longer.
He needed more information.
The intelligence officers were coming up empty.
He needed more information to tell his master.
Although the Archduke was happy she was finally caught, he needed answers.
Where was she from?
Was she apart of the Galactic Partisans?
Where did she get all of her wealth?
How was she able to hide her steps for so long?
"Why were you killing members of the Third Dynasty? To what benefit did that bring you?" Lev voiced while looking at her from across the room.
Again, Rose did her characteristic shoulder shrug, "Because that's my job."
"Your job?" He questioned.
Rose's stomach tightened.
She said too much.
Stupid stupid stupid.
Hoping to cover up her tracks, she relentlessly continued the barrage of absolute sass and attitude.
"Ding ding ding, your time is up for the day. Rose is done answering your stupid questions."
"The questions are done when I say they are," Lev interjected while making his hands into fists.
She didn't say anything more, and proceeded to turn around on her cot and go back to the position she was previously in before he entered the room, curled into a ball with her head laying against the wall.
Before long her full lips parted as she spoke, "Oh, and thanks for the decadent pastries. Give my praises to the chef, would ya?"
Lev's body became more tense and his sky blue eyes narrowed on her before he reached out through the force, taking ahold of the petite woman. He slammed her against the wall on the opposite side of the chamber, and walked over to her, his body nearly touching the back of hers, while he brought his face right next to her right ear.
"And for each of those sarcastic remarks, from this moment on, your food and water is revoked. Maybe next time you will think before you open your foul mouth," Lev stated while throwing her to the other end of the room, while releasing the hold on her midair, causing her to fall onto the ground with a large thump. The momentum caused her to skirt across the metal floor, before she found a new home in the corner of the cell.
As he stepped out of the holding cell, the door flung back into place with a loud rush, causing Rose's stomach to sink before she got up from the cold ground, rubbing her torn up lower arm in the process with one of her cuffed hands.
Bastard... Rose mumbled under her breath.
As soon as Lev started to make his way back up the narrow corridor, anger started to creep into his pores.
How dare she speak to him in that kind of tone.
Who does she think she is?
Why is she not scared of him like the others?
She continued to raise more questions than answers.
Lev wanted to learn more about the girl.
He wanted to know everything about her past without pressing into her mind.
He wanted to know where she came from.
Why she was on Coruscant.
And most importantly, why she had bright purple eyes.
There was something behind those lavender eyes that he could not pinpoint, but hoped one day he could.
Lev didn't want to invade her personal space, because he knew it would break any ounce of trust that could form.
Lev let out a slight sigh under his helmet.
He needed to come up with a better strategy to get across to Rose.
When Lev entered the control room, he gave each of the guards strict instructions.
No food or water until he says otherwise.
The lights were to be set to the highest brightness within the room, to make it more difficult for her to sleep.
Music was to play constantly at an obnoxious level.
If she was going to mouth him off like that, she was going to pay for it.
Once these orders came across his mouth, he felt a slight backlash.
For once in his life he felt something new.
Remorse.
He tried to swallow it, but it kept coming back up into his throat.
Chapter five is in the books!
As always, let me know what y'all think! :)