Chapter II:

Percy swallowed hard as Vader retracted the red blade and approached him. His movements were stiff and awkward, each step and breath seemingly causing immense pain and agony. Every inch of his tall figure was covered by a suit of black armor that absorbed the burning glow of the planet. A long cape fluttered behind him, just nipping the edge of his artificial heels.

"He is not yet my apprentice..." Vader's mechanical voice filtered roughly through his respirator, making Percy squirm in place. There was nothing remotely human about him, the gleaming red eyes of the mask were surely going to haunt his sleep.

"An inquisitor, then?" The Admiral asked with a disappointed tone, rubbing his chin with an index finger. "Surely we did not go through all this trouble for that. We tested his midichlorian count, and it came up blank. Who is this boy?"

Vader didn't move from his position, but Percy felt the sinister energy wash over him like a tidal wave. "That is none of your business, Admiral Tarkin. Need I remind you that there were plenty of others I could've entrusted to collect him."

So the Admiral had a name. Tarkin. It suited him, in a bad way. It felt natively evil rolling off the tongue. And what was an inquisitor? Or a midichlorian? Collecting him? The whole situation was turning Percy's brain inside out.

Tarkin frowned but bowed his head slightly. "Yes, my Lord."

"Continue your search for the Jedi. He is out there, somewhere."

And with that, the two parties separated. Tarkin turned back to the shuttle without a second glance, leaving him alone with Vader.

Percy faced Vader hesitantly, but he didn't say another word and strutted back towards the large entrance. Both of his gloves were balled up into visibly shaking fists, making Percy twitch.

Utterly scared for his life and unsure what to do, he stayed put where he was in the middle of the platform walkway. A nearby geyser erupted, spraying even more lung-stinging gas into the air. The scene was utterly surreal.

"It would do you good to follow him." Tarkin shouted as the ship's stairs began to retract and it's thrusters started.

Percy looked back and the iron doors were already beginning to close. There was no telling how long he would survive in this hellish environment if he was to be locked out. He didn't exactly have a whole lot of options at his disposal.

He could've sworn he heard Tarkin laugh behind him as he made a mad dash towards the narrowing opening, his younger body combined with the heavy gravity made him stumble multiple times. The closer he got, the faster the doors seemed to move. They almost clipped the ends off Percy's ankles as he lunged himself last second into the black fortress.

The slick metallic floor burned the skin off his face on impact, making a loud screech and leaving his cheeks red and tender to the touch.

Vader was nowhere to be seen, which was alright with Percy. He groaned as he got back up to his feet, and took stock of his new surroundings.

The chamber he stood in could have fit multiple shuttles with more than enough room to spare. In fact, if he hadn't just seen the structure from the outside, he might've figured that he was in another star destroyer. There was not a single window to be seen on this level, the only things present were the long metal fixtures running up and down the walls.

And then all of a sudden, the lights went off.

Percy was relegated to shuffling slowly, with his arms extended, until the coolness of metal made contact with the sweaty palms of his hands. He rested his back against the wall, and waited for his eyes to adjust to the area around him. The sound of a running engine could be heard a couple levels below him.

An abrupt lurch knocked him off-balance, and he sensed the floor begin to move downwards. Irritating scraping noises joined the low hum of the engine, vibrating the floor violently. The smell of leaking fuel made Percy dry heave, leaving him gasping for air and severely disoriented. He looked down at his hands, double vision blurred the barely visible outlines.

When he closed his eyes the screams of people he didn't know attacked him mercilessly, calling his name and begging for help. He couldn't escape the brief but vivid moving images of crimson and cerulean blades clashing against each other in the darkness.

The floor finally stopped, tossing his frail body against the wall. The sound of the engine died out, and was replaced by an eerie dead silence. The only noise came from his own labored breaths.

He wasn't sure if he was hallucinating the expanding strip of light that appeared at the other end, or the hushed footsteps that grew close.

"Hey little buddy, you ok?" Percy felt an unknown object tap him on the back.

"Don't touch him, leave him be." A female voice hissed. "You're not going to make things any better." She was right about that.

They sounded friendly—well, at least friendlier than Tarkin. Perhaps they were good.

He carefully unfolded himself, allowing a pair of hands to grab his flimsy shirt and help him up to his feet. But it was a bit too much too fast, he buckled over and dry heaved again. His eyes squinted open after he was finished and the sudden rush of alien colors and faces overloaded his system.

A blue-skinned female with two long appendages protruding from her skull slung his arm over her shoulder. "Deep breaths."

Percy couldn't find the energy to respond, his throat was too parched and raw. Behind the blue girl was another one of her kind, except he was green. The third and last person in the room looked like a crossbreed between a human and a grizzly bear. He was absolutely gigantic, a good three-hundred pounds of pure muscle at the very least. All of them were weathered and beat up, clearly they weren't here by choice.

"You good?" The green boy asked with some genuine concern.

A sound that was exactly like one of a dying wolf came out of the grizzly boy's mouth, causing random particles of dust to fall from the ceiling.

"You're right Chewbacca, he's definitely not ok." The girl looked around the group gravely. "None of us are."

Percy got a grasp of room for the first time. They were in some sort of pentagon-shaped common area, with one door on each side and a tiny grated air vent above.

"Parts of the ceiling can retract and lower, that's how you got here." The green boy explained while pointing to a specific panel and then the door in front of them. "Otherwise, that door is the only way in or out. Don't bother knocking, nobody will answer."

"What is this place?" Percy embarrassingly squeaked, he still was not used to his lighter voice. How far beneath the surface were they? The elevator ride felt like it had lasted forever, but in reality it might've only been a couple seconds.

"Definitely not a good one." The girl sighed. "This is a holding cell, we are prisoners. Just like you."

Percy bit down on the side of his cheek when he almost blurted out that he wasn't a prisoner. Given, he wasn't exactly sure what he was, but based off Tarkin and Vader's conversation, he knew that he held some sort of importance. Maybe Vader was testing him, and if these people found that out, they might hold him for ransom or something. So, he played along. "My name's Percy."

"Nabrina, but call me Rina." She shook his hand and stepped aside for the green boy, who did the same. "Anoon, and that's Chewbacca, he's a Wookie. They can't speak any Basic." Chewbacca gave him an appreciative wave from his corner of the room and went back to picking his nails. "And we're Twi'lek." Anoon said, referring to him and Rina with his pointed thumb.

Rina was around his height, and Anoon just below Rina. The way Chewbacca carried himself made him seem like the elder statesmen or protector of the group. Percy assumed that by Basic he meant English. "Nice to meet you."

In all honesty, the prison didn't look that bad, even if it was still sterile and windowless. He guessed that the four other doors were a room reserved for each of them. There was a digital clock on the wall that told the time of day, and a seating area with chairs that were fused into the flooring to prevent them from moving around.

Percy got a small glimpse to the outside when a silver plated animatronic that they called a protocol droid delivered them meals and fresh toiletries. The door was really in fact two doors, connected by a hallway. Which meant that at least one of them was always locked.

The food was foreign, but not terrible. It was a bit on the soggy side for his taste, and the weird yellow color didn't do it any favors. His stomach was only slightly queasy afterwards.

Anoon helped Percy get situated in his room, which wasn't hard because he had brought nothing but himself. "Lights out by eight o'clock. Doors lock and don't open again till eight in the morning. Stay outside and nobody eats for three days."

Percy sat his butt down on the hard mattress and bounced up and down. It could've been better, it could've been worse. "Are there any guards?"

"Not inside here, but this is one of Vader's strongholds, there's stormtroopers everywhere on the upper levels."

"Stormtroopers?"

"The soldiers dressed in white armor."

Percy rotated his head around the small dimensions, and didn't see anything particularly out of the norm, nothing to signify that they were being surveilled. "Are they watching us?"

Anoon shrugged his shoulders and started to make his move towards his own room. "Maybe, we have no way of telling. Trust me, don't waste your time thinking about it."

Rina peeked her head in through his doorway with a soft smile on her face as soon as Anoon left. They only had thirty minutes before night time. "Hey, can I come in?"

Percy nodded his head silently and shifted to the right side of his bed. There wasn't any other furniture besides the industrial toilet and sink.

"So, what did you do to end up down here?" Rina drawled as she sat down next to him, leaving a foot between them. "Please tell me it was something badass like blowing up a ship."

Percy blanked at the question, he had to come up with a crime that was easily believable for her and memorable for his sake. He spouted the first thing that came to mind. "I stole."

Rina tilted her head and leaned in. There was a certain fragrance to her that scratched at the margins of his nonexistent memory. "Steal? What did you steal?"

"I was caught stealing parts from a nearby shipyard, and they brought me here." Percy mentally crossed his fingers and prayed that there actually was a shipyard.

"What were you doing there? This entire planet is occupied by the Empire." The tone of Rina's voice didn't change which was good. If anything, she had gotten closer to him. There were only a couple inches separating them now. "Hell, this entire system is."

"We were on a layover, and I thought I could get away with a crate of munitions." Percy was surprising himself with how quick and naturally he was able to lie. "Got caught and my crew had to leave me behind."

Rina scrunched her nose and adjusted the straps of her tank top. "Must've taken guts to do that. Would've sold for a pretty penny on the free market too."

There was somewhat of a comfortable pause in their conversation after that, just the two of them staring emptily at the blank wall on the other side, lost in thought.

"My older sister, Aayla Secura, was a Jedi Knight."

That word again. Jedi. Percy remembered hearing Vader tell Tarkin to find a Jedi. "What's a Jedi?"

Rina raised her eyebrows. "You haven't heard of Jedi? You must be from the Outer Rim."

"Yeah, I've lived on ships for basically my entire life." Percy was technically telling the truth, he literally came to life onboard a star destroyer.

A hint of excitement let itself be known in Rina's dark pupils. "Do you know what the Force is?"

Percy shook his head. It was hard to concentrate with Rina being so close. There was an exotic beauty and elegance about her that he found very attractive.

"The Force is what gives the Jedi their power. It's an energy field created by all living things, binding the Galaxy together." Rina found a stray piece of metal on the floor and kicked it against the wall. "The Jedi were the guardians of peace and justice for the Republic, before the Empire took over."

Percy frowned his brow, the Force sounded a lot like magic. "Does the Empire have Jedi too?"

"They also have Force users, they're called Sith. They represent the dark side." The word Sith dropped the temperature inside the room by a couple degrees, sending shivers running down his spine. "The Jedi are the light side."

"So what happened to all the Jedi?" Percy asked innocently. "Where did they go?"

The excitement was now gone, replaced by a wistful look in Rina's eyes, recalling a tragedy that happened long ago. "Darth Vader used to be a Jedi, but he betrayed them and joined the Sith. Every Jedi was slaughtered by their soldiers who joined his uprising. Including my sister."

Percy wasn't sure if she wanted one, but he apologized anyways. "I'm sorry."

"I was a youngling back then, gosh it's been almost ten years now." She reminisced out loud. "My tails had barely sprouted."

"Hey lovebirds." Anoon called from his room, eliciting a bright red blush on both of their faces. "Two minute warning."

"Don't mind Anoon, he's like an annoying younger brother." Rina touched the top of his hand lightly as she got up to leave. "Keeps me on my toes though, goodnight."

Percy held back his adolescent hormones, which were currently going haywire with various ideas, and gave her a loose squeeze back. "Goodnight."

As promised, the doors sealed themselves shut as soon as the first digit hit eight. There was a square window at eye-level that allowed Percy to view the main area from his cell. He saw Rina looking at him through hers, and she waved at him before disappearing.

He laid back down on the stiff bedding and settled in. The rough blanket was barely long enough to reach the ends of his feet. Had he gotten shorter too? He couldn't really tell.

The whirlwind of events and emotions that he had just gone through, all in one day, left him physically and mentally drained. There was no valid, logical reasoning to any of it.

The rickety sound of dry air flowing through his air vent lulled him into a restless sleep.

-Ω-

He didn't dream, or at least, he didn't remember dreaming. And then he heard a piercing scream that echoed off the solid walls.

"Get off me!" Rina yelled desperately from her room. "Let me go!"

He startled awake, tangling himself up in the thin covers as he rushed to the window to see what was going on.

There was nothing he could do but watch as two stormtroopers dragged her out by the arms into the middle of the room. One of them produced a wicked looking electrical whip, and Percy flinched when he activated it and let it crackle in the air.

"Hey!" He yelled back, uselessly pounding against his door. Anoon was doing the same, and massive thuds could be heard from Chewbacca as the big man attempted to batter ram his way out. "What did she do wrong!? Let her go!"

"Shut up!" One of the stormtroopers ordered through his helmet. "Go back to sleep!"

They picked Rina up again and dropped her on her knees directly facing his door. Her face and eyes were frozen in fear.

"Percy…" She whispered anxiously.

Percy's jaw dropped in horror as the other stormtrooper cocked his fist back, and let it fly. His armored knuckles connected viciously with the side of her mouth, slicing her lips open against her teeth. The impact of the collision knocked her backwards and bright purple droplets splattered the floor.

Chewbacca spoke for all of them, emitting a bone-rattling yell. "Arrrghhh!"

"Rina!" Percy cried out, he couldn't help but feel like this was all his fault. His heart was soaring to astronomical heights. Instinctively he reached for something in his right pocket, but came out empty-handed.

Rina cradled her arms around her head in a pitiful attempt at protection as she was hit again in the side. Then, the first stormtrooper grabbed her like a ragdoll and threw her into the chair. Rina's skull slammed against the metal headrest, and her body went limp.

The whip braised her already bruised skin, temporarily turning her body translucent as she was shocked with thousands of volts.

One lash. Two lashes. Three lashes.

Percy felt something ugly tug at the pit of his stomach, and the pipes below him began to shudder and rumble. Water shot out of the toilet and sink, making an arc straight over his head and blasting the door open with immense pressure.

The next thing he knew, he was sprawled on the common area floor with the stormtroopers, who were just as shocked as he was.

Percy barely had time to gather himself when water blasted out of the three remaining rooms, instantly connecting with the stormtroopers and drowning them in a violent blast of sewage.

He felt good. He felt alive.

But it didn't last long. His gut loosened a couple seconds before he blacked out, the last thing he saw was the disbelief on the faces of Anoon and Chewbacca as he fell to the flooded floor.

-Ω-

Percy regained consciousness an unknown amount of time later, but didn't open his eyes. An electronic pulse methodically chirped nearby to the beat of his heart.

"Unbelievable." A shocked voice in the room exclaimed. "His genome…it's perfect! I've never seen anything like this before."

"What are you talking about?" A younger sounding voice asked. "Let me see."

He heard footsteps start and stop to his left. "Look at this, no human could possibly have this combination of genes. It shouldn't be possible! There's something going on here."

"Could he be a descendant of the Ones? A demigod of sorts?"

Demigod. A spark went off inside his head. He knew he was a demigod. The same way he knew his name was Percy. But what did that mean?

"I'm not sure. It's best that we put him back to sleep, and wipe the memories of everybody involved. Stormtroopers included. We have plenty of time to run more tests."

"Are you sure? The boy as well?"

"You're right, everybody but the boy. We might accidentally get rid of his abilities. I doubt he will even remember anything either, he suffered a major concussion."

"Be sure to inform Lord Vader of this development."

"Yes, Dr. Pershing."

The voices went silent, and footsteps drew close to where he was laying. They sounded off beat, like the person walking was carrying a slight limp.

Percy felt a small needle prick the side of his neck, and he slipped back into the dark.