It's definitely getting easier and easier to write these chapters. Here begins part of the torture/interrogation that I warned you earlier about. Definitely rated T. Oh, and I decided to give you a little insight on what exactly happened to Obi-wan while the team was being taken. There will be a little note to let you know that we're going back in time (again).
It didn't take Kiki long to realize that neither Anakin nor Obi-wan were with them in the same interrogation room.
"Well, hello there…" a slithery Lizard's voice said as the metal door creaked open. Dim yellow light flooded from the hallway, illuminating the dirty, bloody, rock ground. "Welcome to Twelve Days of Torture."
An electro whip cracked against the rusty metal bracings holding Kiki's shackles, similar ones attached to the rest of Crusade Squad, Nirisa, and Rex. Yellow electricity raced along the metal fixtures and ran into the bodies of the prisoners being held. Pain ripped through Kiki's body as she was electrocuted, the metal chains on her hands only making it feel worse. She couldn't help the scream that came out of her as multiple lights flashed in front of her eyes. The others were screaming as well, and the pain they were feeling was only magnified in the Force for Kiki.
The Lizard pulled back the electro whip. "Hmm…seems it's going to take more than just this to break you," he said to himself. Kiki detected a hint of an accent, much like Obi-wan's. "Well, that's why I have special…devices…for certain people." The whip hit Kiki's back, tearing the cloth and the flesh underneath. She could feel the blood run down her back, soaking the little clothing that was left, as she tried to control her ragged breathing.
Kiki looked up to the lock that held the chains to her shackles in place. Occasionally, the double sided locks were turned, twisting the chains and forcing the person to turn around as well, or risk torn wrists and an electro whip to the chest. So they were turned around to face the wall, and it was times like these that were the worst. She tried to let all of the pain flow out in the Force, but that only rewarded her with another whip to the back.
"I thought I said no Force using?" The Lizard hissed again in slight annoyance.
That was proving to be another problem; the Jedi couldn't use the force to try to break the bonds. The Lizards seemed to have a sense of when either of the Jedi would slip into a quasi-meditative state, or when either of them would even try to call upon the Force.
"I thought you would have learned your lesson by now," he said, his snake-like tongue flicking out between his teeth. He lashed the whip out again, this time aiming for Jax's back, the only thing protecting him his torn and bloodied undersuit.
"Aaarrgh!" Jax yelled as pain ripped through his back and burned the skin. He pressed his face into the cold stone, hoping to just drown out the agony. Blood tickled the open wounds, soaking down into the rest of his body suit. Jax struggled to control his breathing and his heart rate, beginning to feel dizzy form the immense pain and blood loss.
He could tell without looking that the Lizard was enjoying his pain.
"And this is only day one. Such a shame…" the Lizard said with mock sympathy.
Kiki heard the click of a radio button, and the Lizard mumbling something indistinct into the mouth piece. Another form entered through the open doorway, blocking part of the light and casting the humid room in spots of dark and light.
"Which one do you want me to take?" the second Lizard asked.
"Choose any of 'em, I don't care, but take your time. Let's see if we can't make them beg for mercy," the first answered, flicking his tongue over his lips.
Kiki heard feet thud against the stone floor, but she couldn't see who it was or what they were doing. Eventually, they stopped in front of Edger.
"I'll take this one," it hissed.
Edger woke up, having fallen unconscious after the last electrocution. He looked groggily at the towering Lizard before him, his eyes snapping open in wild fear and desperation. "No…no! Don't touch me! Help! HELP!"
The Lizard roughly yanked Edger's chains out of the lock on the wall, and grabbed his raw red wrists. The chains jangled against the ground and dragged behind Edger. Edger kicked as hard as he could, trying to release himself from the Lizard's grasp on his wrists. "Help!"
Kiki flinched, but knew she wouldn't be able to help Edger.
The last thing she heard was Edger's screams as he disappeared down the hallway.
Kiki pressed herself against the cold stone wall, willing the stinging in her eyes to go away.
The first Lizard walked back through the opening and closed the door, drowning his prisoners in darkness. It was a few minutes before anybody made a move to do anything.
"Kiki…" Nirisa said, sensing her sister's pain. "Kiki…we're going to make it out of this—"
"Says who?" Kiki demanded. "The chances of us actually making it out are getting smaller and smaller every day."
"General…" Jax said from Kiki's left. Kiki jumped, having forgotten that their orders were regularly switching around. "You have to have faith that we'll come out of this alive. We've been in tough situations before, and we've pulled through."
Kiki sighed, not easily consoled by Jax's words, but she accepted them anyway. A faint shadow of a smile crossed Kiki's lips, but her eyes remained closed.
If they weren't chained to the wall, and there weren't so many others around, Jax would have tried to offer more—other—words of comfort, but he had to opt for physical contact instead. Jax pressed his leg against Kiki's, something that was supposed to like be a hand on a shoulder. He was sure that that kind of contact was against regulations, but he knew that Kiki was in pain, and he wanted to do everything he could to help her.
Kiki reopened her eyes, and gave Jax a faint smile that barely reached her eyes. "Thanks," she whispered, then flinched as the cut on her face pulled. Kiki rested her head against the cool stone again, probably the only good thing in the sweltering heat of the underground interrogation room.
Jax wanted so badly to wipe the blood off her face with the palm of his hand, to take her pain away, but how was he to do that? His hands were chained, and that kind of move would be against everything he was taught. Jax resignedly leaned forward against the cold stone, the wounds on his chest stinging, but he didn't care. He only wanted to be able to take away the pain that he knew Kiki was feeling, and the fact that he couldn't even do that ripped him open on the inside. Up above him, his hand twitched, partly because he was beginning to lose feeling from having his arms up for so long, and partly because he wanted to rub away the pain lines on Kiki's face. Jax sighed and tried to let sleep take over his pain, eventually drifting off into uneasy, pain-filled slumber, letting Kiki's leg rest against his own.
###
Obi-wan looked up to the darkening sky, just making out the arrowhead lining of a large projectile. He knew what it was before he'd even fully examined it.
"Torpedo!" he yelled, or thought he yelled. The sounds of explosions going off around him, and the screams of clones and civilians alike, made hearing his own thoughts difficult.
He barely had a minute to react before an explosion rocked the ground beneath him, sending him flying through the door of one of the homes.
Amazingly enough, he hit a couch.
It was still a few minutes, though, before he actually woke up, and when he did, he heard more than saw the complete chaos of the city battle. Obi-wan pressed a hand against a bleeding cut on his forehead. He tried reaching out with the Force to Anakin, but couldn't sense him anywhere. That's not good, Obi-wan thought. Slowly, painfully, Obi-wan sat up against the couch, trying to find a comfortable position on the rubble on the floor. Through the doorway, he could see the fire raging outside. "Not good," he muttered to himself.
Obi-wan pressed the button on his comm. unit, hoping to get some insight on what was happening in the space battle.
Static.
Obi-wan tried again.
This time, a faint signal came through.
"Can anyone hear me? This is General Kenobi. Do you read me?" Obi-wan said, hoping that the signal was strong enough.
"Gen…Keno…whe…you?" static bit off the most of the words, but it was enough for Obi-wan to understand what was being asked.
"I'm in the main capital of Verocia. A torpedo just hit and we need reinforcements. We're missing three Jedi, and at least one squad of men." Obi-wan carefully stood to his legs, keeping the comm. positioned in front of his mouth.
"General Ken…help is…way…stand by," the clone on the other end said, static still breaking up the transmission.
Obi-wan fully stood and activated his lightsaber, limping out to the still raging battle outside. A huge fire burned in the center of the capital, the surrounding building within a one hundred yard radius having been completely flattened to rubble.
Obi-wan sighed, not liking what he was seeing. "What a waste…"
A sparking, limping battle droid hobbled toward Obi-wan, raising a smoking blaster aimed at his chest. "You …are…nder 'rest for…" Its vocabulator was failing horribly, the droids words coming out low and slurred, some parts getting chopped off in the beginning.
Might want to fix that, Obi-wan thought, slicing down the battle droid with relative ease. Flinching, he bent over to rub his knee, then winced as something in his side pulled.
"General Kenobi!" a clone said, rushing over to him. "You're alive!"
"Yes, but I'm afraid I can't be certain about the rest of our team. Do you know what's happened to them?" Obi-wan rubbed his knee again, letting the soreness flow away in the Force.
"We don't know what's happened to them, sir." He looked down at Obi-wan's knee. "Do you need medical attention, sir?" The trooper stood at attention, the battle having taken a sudden, eerier lull.
The lack of attacks from battle droids and Kirzmin Lizards unnerved Obi-wan, but he decided to ignore it as he had more pressing matters on his hands. "Maybe a painkiller. We need to try and reestablish communications with our outside forces, see if we can't get some reinforcements down here," Obi-wan said as he limped behind the clone. The black markings on his shoulders and legs marked him as one of Kiki's men. "How many men do you have left?" Obi-wan asked, sitting back against a boulder.
The clone fished a painkiller shot out of his medpac. "We're not sure sir. But we do suspect that we have men trapped on the other side of the fire. Most of our forces and the enemy's were taken out when the torpedo hit." He injected Obi-wan in the side of his neck. "By the way, sir, I'm Tryz."
"Well, it's nice to meet you Tryz," Obi-wan said, nodding to him in thanks for the shot. "Well, I guess we'd better go find a way to rescue the rest of our men. Do round up the forces we have, and tell them to come here." Obi-wan doubted they had enough clones to even last them to the other side of the fire. Obi-wan decided then would be as good a time as ever to try and do a little meditation. Once he focused on the Force, he could feel the pain of someone not in the battle with them.
It was Anakin.
Obi-wan focused harder, sensing Kiki, Nirisa, and the rest of Crusade Squad, and they were all somewhere nearby. Obi-wan exited his meditative state, feeling both rejuvenated and determined. He was going to find the rest of the team, no matter what it took.
He only hoped they would be alive when he got there.
Trust Obi-wan to start meditating in the middle of a battle. I think more people were alive than should have been, but hey, they need them. I won't write the full Twelve days of Torture, because that would get too dark and a little monotonous. I probably have two chapters left before we get back to real time, opening up with a little Rex/Kanari fluff (I can't help myself), of course, the fluff will turn sour. Like last time, I will probably end up posting two fics instead of the winning one, because I can basically sense which will go on hiatus first, and which will last a little longer. Until the next chapter!
~AAx
PS- the part with Obi-wan wasn't necessarily what the gang was telling everybody, more of what they heard from him after the battle. Just so nobody suddenly thinks that the captured group was present with Obi-wan topside in order to tell the story so accurately.
PPS- I accidentally had a "reulte" moment (meaning, I couldn't get her fan fiction off my mind and ended up doing her writing style [sorta]) Yeah, really sorry if it came out harder to understand.
