Enhanced Interrogation Methods

Chapter 1: Induction

Commander Faro was hiding something from Thrawn. That much was obvious. Less obvious to the grand admiral were issues of motive, both Faro's and his own. He didn't know why her secrecy weighed on him so much, only that it did.

It was odd that she should pull away from Thrawn now. Relations between the pair had been good as of late, especially when placed in the context of how things started. It had taken a long time for Faro to see past her initial disdain for him, but Thrawn had been patient. Once he'd settled into command on the Chimaera and led them through several missions, Faro had been forced to accept his talents as genuine.

Equally important was Faro's simultaneous formation of friendship with Commander Hammerly, who had served under Thrawn on a previous assignment in addition to their current one. Thrawn was appreciative of Hammerly as both an ally and an officer, and she reciprocated the sentiment. It was thanks to her that Faro had abandoned her cold regard of Thrawn in time for his promotion to admiral.

Faro cleared her throat. "It was you who planned this entire operation from the beginning, Admiral sir. The credit for this operation belongs disproportionately on your shoulders."

Thrawn couldn't decide which brought him more joy: his recent victory over the pirates or Faro's final concession to him. He accepted both with grace.

Now that she no longer resisted his efforts, Thrawn took a more direct approach to guiding her as an officer. Faro had been a competent commander before him. It was Thrawn's intent that she be an excellent one after him. He found her potential too much to ignore and appreciated the ability to help another warrior come into her own. Thrawn had added his time with her onto an already demanding schedule, but it rarely felt like work to him. Faro understood his perspectives better than anyone else on the ship nowadays. When he was alone with her, Thrawn could see just how much time he wasted explaining himself in other situations. The constant clarifications were an exhausting process that he was happy to forego whenever possible.

Even better, Faro could appreciate art as he did. Vanto had been an exceptional aide in other respects, but it disappointed Thrawn that he hadn't been able to pass along a love of art to him. Now for over a month, Thrawn had been taking Faro through his private art collection piece by piece after their shifts. Thrawn would introduce the art and invite Faro to form insights about the people who'd created it. She'd required guidance at first, but Faro proved herself to be a fast learner.

"Now this piece. A depiction of the Battle of Lessu. What can you tell me about this painting?"

Faro squinted, eyes drawing all the relevant details in as she leaned forward. Her fingers shifted to the texture in the painting's corners, as if she could actually touch the hologram. "It's not from Ryloth, even though the Battle of Lessu took place there. The painter… this person was-"

"-is," Thrawn corrected. "He is still alive."

"Is… um, Coruscanti?"

"You are close. It is true he studied at the Martus Institute on Coruscant and painted this piece while a student there, but the painter himself hails from Alderaan."

She blinked. "Sorry, sir."

"Don't be. You are making significant progress."

Intruding on their art lessons was the Battle of Batonn. With Thrawn's promotion to grand admiral (and subsequent loss of Commander Vanto), he'd been forced to postpone his time alone with Faro so that he could orient himself to his new reality. Counterintuitively, it was during times when Thrawn and Faro were both busiest that he longed for their leisure time the most. Thrawn could not stop himself from noticing Vanto's absence, but he would not allow himself to behave similarly regarding Faro. Faro was still on his ship. Longing after her was unreasonable.

In a fit of emotional imbalance, Thrawn had asked her to resume art lessons with him prematurely last week. He had later commed her to cancel, but Faro had missed his message and sought him out that evening regardless. At the time she arrived, he was in the middle of venting frustration via exercise. She had entered the room without him noticing. Thrawn caught sight of her in the corner of his eye and turned to see her flushed. Thrawn had cause to be sweaty by that point, but what reason did Faro have for overheating?

Thrawn would have asked if Faro had not stumbled out after a stammered apology. Since then, the commander had been overly formal with him and refused to discuss what occurred that evening. His attempts to resume their art lessons for a time when he was prepared were declined, this time on Faro's end.

It was inscrutable. Thrawn couldn't think of a single thing he might have done to offend Faro, and she wasn't receptive to any of his requests to speak plainly. If anything, the latter only made her hold onto regulation more tightly. The whole affair was miserable, it took up more of Thrawn's time than he cared to admit, and he was no closer to a solution now than he'd been on the night of the incident.

Faro was a soldier. The idea that she would be offended by the sight of physical training was absurd. Yes, Thrawn had done so in his quarters instead of a formal facility, but that alone wasn't strange.

He hadn't been naked. Thrawn knew how taboo the subject of nudity was for humans, and he'd come to accept exercising in his athletic wear as custom over the years. At least he didn't have to take care of the additional laundry it generated himself. The Empire used droids for such work.

Was the problem that he'd cancelled his plans? Thrawn understood that to be only a minor faux paus in human social situations. He had rescheduled with Faro before and never gotten this reaction from her.

Could it be personal? Something from Faro's home life unrelated to Thrawn that preoccupied her mind? If so, her odd reaction to him that night was a timely non issue. Thrawn wished he could accept that explanation as true, but it seemed too easy. He would only allow it if Faro herself admitted that was the case.

Not that she would. Faro would no longer discuss anything besides duty with Thrawn. If he hadn't noticed the absence of time spent with her before, he certainly did now.

This was ridiculous. Thrawn should be able to talk to her by this point. She and him had served on the same ship together for how long now? He wasn't a new CO she had to dance around and grow accustomed to. The thought that Faro would treat him that way offended Thrawn.

There had to be a method he could use to coax the truth out of Faro. Thrawn refused to include a third party in his plan. Doing so would only escalate the mystery issue. Instead, he had to approach his objective as an intelligence gathering conversation between only the two of them. An interrogation.

But not an interrogation in the typical sense. Thrawn had no intention of taking his first officer to one of those filthy rooms on the lower level of the Chimaera. He had neither basis nor desire to torture her. No, he required other tools for this interrogation.

Alcohol? The option was always available, but Thrawn doubted Faro would agree to drink with him off shift. Her reluctance to do anything with him off shift was part of the problem. Even if he were able to convince her, he predicted Faro would attempt to restrain herself from overindulgence. Normally he found temperance to be an admirable quality, but it did him no favors in this case. Any attempts to pressure her would require Thrawn to ingest, at minimum, an equal amount of alcohol himself. He did not look forward to the hangover that would include, nor did he want his first officer incapacitated the following day.

Thrawn needed something else. Something with fewer aftereffects that wouldn't harm Faro in any way. At the same time, it needed to be powerful enough to overcome whatever new resistance Faro had developed towards him.

It needed to be ilia.

Thrawn drew back, lip curling at the thought. The first time Thrawn had encountered ilia had predated his service to the Empire. Back then, the drug was in use by enemies of the Ascendancy to enslave people. Conquered people ingested such a large quantity of ilia that the scent of citrus lingered in their blood long after they perished from being worked to death. When Thrawn first witnessed the aftermath, he'd vowed he would never stoop to the methods used by such insidious foes.

That was ilia when ingested. It rendered the victim suggestible and unable to form their own will for days on end because of how long it remained in the blood. Since joining the Empire, Thrawn had heard news of ilia being inhaled ritualistically in a cult no longer active. Inhalation rendered the individual suggestible to a lesser extent for a maximum time of three hours, at which point the toxin could be purged from their system by the body's own devices. The less ilia smoke one inhaled, the less time they would suffer the effects. Furthermore, humans required a lower dose than species with thicker blood-air barriers, such as Chiss. If Thrawn burned only the amount necessary, he could convince Faro to tell him the truth without compromising himself.

Assuming he could get his hands on ilia at all. The Empire had taken one look at the cult they busted and declared the drug a tightly controlled substance. Anyone caught possessing, growing, or dealing in ilia faced significant legal penalties. How would Thrawn smuggle it onto his ship without detection?

Not to mention, he still hadn't answered why it was so important he do so in the first place. Surely Thrawn's subordinates were allowed to keep secrets. He had enough of his own. So long as no one's secrets became relevant to how they performed their duty, they weren't any of Thrawn's business to know.

But Faro's secret… it involved him, somehow. Thrawn knew it. Maybe she was aware of a plot to strip him of his new position and wanted to distance herself from the fallout. Maybe Faro thought that by letting Thrawn's enemies remove him, she would be the prime candidate to take control of the ship.

Thrawn sighed. And here he'd thought Faro and him were past these ridiculous games. All the more reason for him to interrogate her soon.

Sneaking banned items through supply was going to be a lot more difficult without Vanto to help him.

Three days later, Thrawn had everything he needed for the upcoming interrogation. An unassuming candle with a citrus scent sat in his office drawer next to a lighter. The smoke detector settings in the room had been raised for the night. The lights were dimmed to a setting preferable for Thrawn's eyes. Most importantly, Faro had a one on one meeting scheduled for the end of her shift in this very room, a meeting Thrawn had made certain she couldn't duck out of.

Because exhausted minds were easier to overtake than alert ones, Thrawn added a series of long winded, mentally challenging, dead ended tasks to Faro's workload for the past three days. By the time she reached this afternoon, Faro audibly struggled to regulate her tone with him. Her gestures swung wider and with more aggression than before. Most telling, the rings beneath her eyes had deepened in both color and depth. Thrawn had noticed them growing ever since the night she'd intruded upon him, but his new demands certainly aggravated the issue.

Part of him regretted what he was doing to his first officer. More than affecting her work, Faro's health seemed to be declining as well. His pressing of her was sure to end after tonight, however. If she would open herself to Thrawn's advice once again, perhaps he could assist her in recovery.

Thrawn had done more research on ilia since forming his plan. Careful to approach the subject indirectly, Thrawn had gathered vital intel for his interrogation that included how long to burn the candle before he was affected, how long he would have to question Faro once she was, and how he had to phrase questions in order to receive a true answer, not the one Faro may suspect he wanted. She would be far more open to suggestion than usual, so Thrawn had to be careful not to order her to do anything once the interrogation started.

All he wanted was for her to speak honestly. For him to ask anything else from her would place him on the level of his enemies when they'd handled slaves. Ilia itself was not Thrawn's enemy, but a tool that could be used in several ways. So long as Thrawn did not use the ilia in a vile way, he would not violate any of his convictions.

Besides, he wouldn't have to do this if Faro would just be forthright with him. That had never been a problem with her before. Even when she'd disliked him, Faro had tended towards directness in their interactions. Why had that changed?

Just as Thrawn considered possibilities, he heard Faro's voice at his office door. "Grand Admiral, sir?"

"Come in, Commander." Thrawn watched as the door slid open. Faro entered with a datapad clutched to her chest, glancing behind as the door closed once more. Ever since that evening, Faro hesitated to be alone with Thrawn.

Time for Thrawn to learn the reasons behind that. He gestured for her to sit across the desk from him, eyes glowing as they locked onto Faro's. "Your report, Commander."

"Yessir." Faro launched into a litany of her best guesses as to why Thrawn had asked her to connect commercial spacecraft production on Corellia with smuggling operations on Lothal. Thrawn gave her credit for creativity, but he suspected even Vanto wouldn't have been able to find a correlation in that data collection. While Thrawn did care to know about the smuggling, the point of the exercise was to create an acceptable reason for them to meet alone and wear Faro down mentally. He hadn't expected her to find anything.

Once she was done offering her report, Thrawn decided to let her in on a few parts of his plan. "Thank you for your report, Commander. I'm sure you're wondering why I had you collect that information."

Faro's eyes avoided his as she turned off her datapad. "It… did strike me as an odd request. Even for you, sir."

"The truth is that the insight I am after is one I cannot acquire directly. I must approach the subject I'm working towards obliquely and from several angles to obtain the information I desire. Your work is providing me with the details I need to investigate each angle. Such a task may not feel particularly fruitful as you tackle it, but I promise it has paid off a great deal for me."

"I'm glad to hear that, sir. Does that mean your requests for this…" she gestured about, unsure how to phrase her thoughts, "this sort of information are over now?"

"They end tonight, Commander," Thrawn promised. "You can rest again soon."

Faro started, hand flying up to the circles beneath her eyes. "Uh- yes, yes sir. I'm resting fine."

Before whipping out the candle, Thrawn made one last appeal to Faro. "You don't have to deceive me, Commander. I can see the sort of condition you are in. It does me no good to have my first officer operate at half capacity. Your work is sufficient for the time being, but we both know it can be better."

"I'm sorry, sir. It's just… it's nothing. I can fix it on my own." Faro leaned back as she apologized, shoulders raised back and towards her neck. If she sat like that regularly these days, her shoulders must be full of knots.

Thrawn wished the tension gone. "If you tell me what is causing you difficulties as of late, I can help you eliminate it. It is in both our interests that you return to top performance."

Faro shook her head, keeping her eyes down as she did so. "That will not be necessary, sir. Thank you for your concern." She rose up as if to leave.

"I haven't dismissed you," Thrawn reminded her. Faro sat back down at those words, if hesitantly. "I don't have to lecture you about the importance of the work we do on this ship, Commander. You understand that perfectly well. What I need you to appreciate in addition is the importance of taking care of yourself. We both demand a lot from ourselves. The only way such demands can be fulfilled is if we acknowledge our own needs, be they to eat, sleep, relax… anything of that sort."

Faro nodded, eager to be dismissed. "I agree, sir."

"Hence why I am going to guide you through one of the methods I know to relax. It's nothing you cannot do, Commander. I won't keep you long."

She drew the datapad back over her chest. "What is it, sir?"

"Put the datapad down, to start. You can lean back now. I acknowledge these chairs are not the most comfortable, but do try to relax," Thrawn led her though a list of instructions as he pulled the candle and lighter out of his drawer. "I bought this candle recently for its soothing properties. Perhaps you will like the scent as well."

"It's new," Faro observed. She blinked when she realized Thrawn had already said that. "What's the scent?"

"Citrus. Would you like to smell before I light it?" Thrawn handed the small candle to her. She didn't take it right away, so he set the candle down in front of her. She picked it up once his hand had retreated.

The candle's base was narrow enough for Faro's fingers to meet as they held it, and short enough that her hand covered the holder in its entirety. She held it up to her nose for a brief sniff. Faro handed the candle back to Thrawn. "I didn't know you liked citrus, sir. I've never heard of citrus being soothing. I think most humans use it to focus better."

"Perhaps that is the most common application. It certainly isn't the only one." Thrawn set Faro's datapad aside to give the candle a clear space to burn. A slight tremor coursed through his hands as he lit the candle. Thrawn looked up to see if Faro had noticed, but she was distracted by the dancing flame.

"I don't think candles are regulation, sir."

"Never mind that now." Thrawn waited for Faro to object further. She did not. She just watched the flame flicker in the dimmed lights of Thrawn's office. "All I want you to do right now is relax. Just lean back and focus on your breathing."

Thrawn led her through several cycles of deep breathing. Faro refused to comply at first, but exhaustion soon won her over. As he directed the flow of air through her lungs, Thrawn watched for signs that the ilia was taking effect. After a few minutes, Faro's lively brown eyes glazed over and the last bits of tension left her. Her arms, both of which had rested so firmly on the table, now fell off the side like toppling weights.

Her arms falling caused Faro to start. "Sir, I… I don't think I-"

"You don't need to fight it anymore. You're almost there."

"But I- I'll fail the test if I-"

"I'm not testing you," Thrawn reassured her.

"Then what is-"

"Don't worry about it." Thrawn offered her a small smile, one he hoped was closer to a comforting smile than a mysterious grin. "We've spent excellent time together in the past. I want to raise you back up to the way you felt then."

His use of 'excellent' was no coincidence. It was the word of praise Thrawn chose most often on the select occasions when he praised subordinates. Faro in particular was receptive to it.

Faro leaned back, a matching smile on her face. "You want to help me?"

"Yes. Lately, you've driven yourself like a speeder bike, one that runs on fumes. I need you to take your foot off the accelerator-"

"Off the accelerator…"

"And steer yourself towards landing. I'm going to direct you towards a safe landing platform. When you get there, all your stress will be gone. Your conscious mind will be fully asleep. The rest of you will take direction from me."

"You'll guide me?" Bits of curiosity appeared, then slid off Faro's face as she inhaled more tendrils of smoke.

"Of course. I need you to look me in the eye. I'm going to count you down from fifteen; with every number, your speeder gets lower in the air and closer to landing. When I reach one, I'll blow out the candle. When the flame disappears, it means you've landed. Your eyes will be open, but your mind will rest. Do you understand?"

Faro nodded. "I do."

"Excellent." Thrawn's grin widened as he counted down from ten. With each number, Faro's eyes grew more and more fixated on his. In that moment, Thrawn felt a force pulling himself towards her. It was as if her eyes drew in the light from Thrawn's to illuminate her emptying mind. Without thinking, he leaned forward in his chair until his waist caught the desk.

Perhaps he'd left the ilia burning too long. It was starting to affect Thrawn too. He drew back slowly, trying to sit back without Faro realizing he was getting further away. He didn't want to do anything that would cause her to struggle against the drug's effects. Her experience would be more enjoyable if she didn't fight, but it was hard to convince a soldier of that.

He didn't mean for his counting to speed up, but it did. No sooner had Thrawn tossed out the number one than the room descended into darkness.

A/N's: I acknowledge this is a strange one. I discovered the hypnosis kink a while back and have been searching for a way to use it in a fic. Thrawn may not be the best choice given his revulsion to how the Grysks handle their victims, but he's the one I have inspiration for and have committed to writing a short fic about. Also, this fic could never have happened if Eli Vanto stuck around post-Batonn. He would have been the voice of reason that talks Thrawn out of the whole thing.

Now that this half is posted, it's back to my more serious WIP. Later!