Alrighty, I believe the next chapter should be the last flashback part. Then we'll open up with some fluff, because we all love fluff once in a while. Another strong T rated chapter (for violence and brief language), with little insights on separate interrogations. Tell me if I need to tone down the graphicness of this, in case you don't like it. Enjoy…


Each day, the Kirzmin Lizards took someone new for "special interrogations", and each day, they would come back bloodied, beaten, and scarred beyond physical appearance.

When Edger came back, he could barely speak and had small dots of blood on his black undersuit. Needles.

Marik came back shaking uncontrollably, bruises lining his face and neck. Dried blood made his undersuit stick to his wounds.

Each person not only went through physical tortures, but psychological pain as well.

The fact that their armor and helmets were so close—in the same room, gathered in a corner—but they had no way of reaching it, made the team's hope of survival shrink smaller and smaller to almost non-existence.

Ratchet was tortured so horribly he was almost pushed to a point of mental vacancy. He was completely unable to speak, only muttering to himself and recoiling whenever someone came too close.

Even when they escaped, they were always dragged back to the same cell, with the bloody floor and rusty metal bracings.

They'd tried twice.

They'd failed twice.

And they suffered the consequences.

Slowly, the Lizards made their way down the line as they chose their new victim, sometimes taking them in groups of three.

On Day Seven, the Lizard stopped in front of Nirisa. "I think I'll take her…she's definitely going to be a lot of…fun…" the Lizard hissed, reaching for Nirisa's lock.

"No! Leave her alone! Don't touch her!" Kiki yelled, trying in vain to help her twin.

Nirisa struggled against the Lizard's iron grip, even going so far as to try and use the Force on him. In response, the Lizard kicked a heavy, clawed foot into Nirisa's side, effectively stilling her movements. "Sit still, and I might not make this too painful," he hissed, dragging her through the doorway.

"Give her back you son of a—" Kiki had every intention to break the shackles and rip out the Kirzmins' throats. She barely managed to leap into a low crouching position, her arms pulling painfully behind her, before a sharp metal pole was jabbed into her stomach, sending a frenzy of electricity through her nervous system. "AAARGH!" Kiki slumped dejectedly against the cold bloody stone behind her, her racing heart sending too much blood to her head. The last image she remembered of Nirisa before she was taken was the look of raw terror in her once bright green eyes, her bloody hand outstretched toward Kiki for help.

That image would never be erased from Kiki's mind.

"Shut up you!" the Lizard yelled, jabbing Kiki's shackles with the electro staff again, and subsequently electrifying everyone else.

Cord struggled to control his breathing, multiple ribs having been cracked and broken during his "special interrogation". The humidity in the sweltering room wasn't helping with his struggle.

"Aw, too hot for ya?" the Lizard hissed, feigning sympathy for Cord.

Cord leveled a steady glare at the Lizard, managing to mask his pain. He didn't say anything.

"Shi'lim," the Lizard said, bringing a comm. up to his mouth, "bring in the hose, it seems our prisoners are getting a little…uncomfortable."

The rusty metal door creaked open, spreading the now familiar dim yellow light over the prisoners.

"Brought it," the Lizard said, sounding surprisingly young compared to the others.

Of course, Kiki thought, watching the two work warily. They train their monsters at a young age.

The first Lizard aimed the hose at the dirty rock floor, letting water drip and pool just before his feet. "Let me show you what happens when you don't do as you're told," he said, his accent drawing out some of the words. The hose began gushing out more water, spraying the prisoners in cold, salty wetness.

Kiki didn't care. It was the cleanest water they'd had to drink in the dungeon.

The salt in the cold liquid began stinging the wounds on Kiki's chest and abdomen, and he clothing was now thoroughly soaked. She looked to her left, where Jax remained, and saw that he was going through the same thing, along with everyone else.

"And now for the real punishment." Taking the electro staff in hand, he activated the end, purple electricity crackling dangerously in the air.

In that same second, Kiki realized what it was meant for.

The staff stabbed into the ground, and the electricity raced along the path of salt water from the floor to the prisoners.

The pain that Rex was feeling was even worse than he could have imagined, the salty water having magnified the intensity of the shock. He could feel his body begin to shake uncontrollably as bright lights swam in front of his eyes. Rex couldn't tell if he was screaming, or whether the blood curdling noise was only in his head.

The only thing he wanted was for the pain to stop.

Without warning, the flash of electricity stopped, and all Rex was left with was a throbbing headache.

The Lizard exited through the door and closed it, leaving his prisoners in complete dark once again.

All Kiki could hear was the ragged breathing of not only herself, but the rest of the clones by her side. She laid her head back against the cold wet stone, willing her heart rate to stop thudding so furiously.

The metal door creaked open again, and the limp body of Nirisa was thrown on the ground before them. She was still alive, although her breaths came in uneven puffs, as if she were about to begin hyperventilating.

"Nirisa…Nirisa!" Kiki said, straining against the chains keeping her to the walls.

"What did you do to her—AAAH!" Kiki was instantly silenced, the first Lizard having gotten tired of her constant yelling.

The Lizard initially ignored her, roughly dragging Nirisa by the wrists to her chains on the wall. Nirisa didn't answer, but she flinched whenever the Lizard came near. "I must say, that was fun," he hissed, chuckling at Nirisa's reaction.

Cold dread clamped on Kiki's gut, only fueling her rage further. She lunged for the Lizard in front of Nirisa, standing to her full height—albeit slightly bent. "You bastards! You'll pay for what you—AARGH!" Another shot of electricity cut Kiki off mid-sentence. She fell back against the wall of the dungeon.

"Keep talking, and we'll do the same thing that we did to her, understand?" the Lizard hissed, coming dangerously close to Kiki.

Kiki couldn't hide the fear on her face as she saw the evil intent in the Lizard's eyes.

He spun and walked back through the door, almost whipping Kiki in the face with his tail. Kiki flinched and pressed back against the wall, watching Nirisa for any signs of movement other than the curled up position she had taken.

Nirisa's tunic and pants were torn, and covered in more blood than before she had been taken. Despite her completely still position was only compromised by the slight shaking, and her usually bright green eyes were dull, hollow, and filled with terror.

"Nirisa…" Kiki said dejectedly, her name coming out barely above a whisper.

Nirisa flinched, but didn't otherwise acknowledge her, as even hearing anything hurt.

Even though Kiki knew it was completely un-Jedi like, she could help the desolation she was feeling.

That day, Kiki would never be the same again.

She lost hope.

Day 8

"Up, you slugs have a visitor!" the Lizard hissed, kicking them awake.

When Kiki awoke, she thought that she must have been dreaming.

Old Man knelt before them, bruised with an eye almost completely swollen shut, but smiling nonetheless. "Hello, Kiki. Rex," he said, nodding to them in turn. "Where's Anakin?"

"Old Man! You're alive!" Kiki exclaimed, hardly paying attention to what he had said earlier. "We don't know where Anakin is…" She cast a dirty look in the direction of the Kirzmin guard behind Old Man. He growled in return, but otherwise didn't move.

"Oh, that's a shame…" Old Man said, sounding genuinely upset. "But, don't worry, help will be here—"

"Shut it, you old man!" the guard said, poking him in the back with him electro staff. Old Man crumpled to the dirty ground, temporarily overtaken by the spasms of electrocution.

"No! Stop!" Kiki instantly yelled, lurching forward on her chains again.

Old Man lay still for a moment, then steadily got back on his knees. "That feels worse than I remember…" he muttered under his breath.

"Why haven't they killed you yet?" Cord said, speaking for the first time since their arrival at the underground torture room. His voice cracked in the middle of his sentence.

"That's exactly what I'm wondering…" the guard muttered under his breath.

"I know too much for them to kill me," Old Man said, smirking while he tapped his temple.

"Okay time's up!" the guard immediately said, yanking Old Man backwards.

"I'll see you kids later!" he called, before the door slammed shut.

Despite the fact that they had no chances of making it out alive, Kiki couldn't help but smile at Old Man's almost ridiculous enthusiasm.

Day 9

Rex felt the cold stone help with his slight headache, but other than that, his entire body was screaming in agony. He tried to breathe around the aching in his chest, but that was almost impossible.

The metal door creaked open, and almost instinctively, Rex flinched back, waiting for the pain that he knew was inevitable.

"Wake up, the lot of you!" The Lizard said, shocking them all to consciousness.

Rex was suddenly alert, albeit scared, as he watched the Lizard make his way towards them.

"Get up, we're taking you to the Smoke House," the Lizards said, seemingly pleased with the idea.

Rex doubted the Smoke House was somewhere they held roasted nerf steaks. He knew better than to try and fight back, they were bigger and stronger, and had all of the torture devices, while Rex was severely underweight and barely able to stand on his own. Rex was harshly dragged upward, the sudden movement pulling the cuts he had in his sides and shifting the bones that were broken. Rex groaned in protest, gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut. His dirty boots dragged against the dirt floor of the dim hallway. Rex had only ever seen it twice, when they'd tried to escape and find Anakin. He heard another door open, and then close—it was wooden. They entered a small room, with what looked to be glass facing another area. Chairs were already set up in a curved pattern, all facing the window.

Rex could feel a sort of stone drop into the bottom of his stomach. He was getting the feeling this form of torture would be worse than the others. He was forced into the wooden chair directly facing the window, Bliz on his left and Kiki on his right. It was odd, sitting in a chair after so many days of kneeling. The feeling in Rex's hands was coming back painfully, and he tried to rub them together before a Kirzmin guard yanked his hands back behind him, keeping Rec rooted and tied to the chair. To his right, Rex heard Kiki grunt in the effort to find a more comfortable position.

"You don't seem to like talking. Funny, I heard somewhere that humans could get…chatty," A Kirzmin Lizard said, walking slowly in front of the group of prisoners.

Nobody spoke.

"You're the Captain, am I right?" he said, flaunting the electro whip.

Rex stared the monster dead in the eye, but didn't open his mouth.

"Answer me," the Lizard hissed angrily, unleashing the whip across Ratchet, Jax, and Kiki, "Or your friends will pay the price."

"Yes, I am the Captain," Rex immediately answered, his voice sounding hoarser than he would have liked.

"Good," the Lizard said, apparently satisfied with this information. "Then these questions should be easy for you to answer."

"I don't speak to scum like you," Rex growled, adrenaline making his voice clearer. He could have easily said that Bliz was Commander, higher ranking than Rex, but Rex kept the thought to himself.

"Oh really?" the Lizard asked, suddenly interested.

Rex remained silent.

Suddenly, Rex found a scaly hand clamping down on his jaw, long fingernails digging into the skin. "Tell me where you currently have your troops stationed, and I might let you live. Or, you could tell us the passcodes to the Republic database. Your choice."

Rex still kept his silence, instead choosing to glare at the Lizard dead in the eye.

The Lizard growled in annoyance in the back of his throat, much like the way Old Man did when he was annoyed—which was rare.

"Rex, don't say anything—" Kiki began, but was silenced when a clawed hand clamped around her throat.

"Remember that little promise I made you," the Lizard that brought them to the room said. "And don't forget it."

"If that's how it's going to be then…" the Lizard said, his voice dangerously low. "Bring in the solids and that copy."

Kiki and Nirisa knew enough about their home planet to know that "solid" meant anyone of a single species, since Verocians were generally a mixed species that got a name.

They had civilians.

Kiki felt cold fear run through her as three figures entered the room walled off by the glass, bound, gagged, and blind-folded.

"This is what you get for not doing as I told you, clone," the Lizard hissed.

The blinds, gags, and binds were taken off of the prisoner in the separate room. A Twi'lek woman held a small boy in her arms, and a clone trooper sat next to them, protectively. His eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the clones and Jedi.

"Turn it on!" the Lizard yelled above the noise the clone was making.

Six circles on the back wall that Rex hadn't noticed before began to glow an unnerving orange-yellow.

A fraction too late, he realized what they were for.

"No don't! I'll tell you what you want to know! Just please don't—"

"It's too late for that now," the Lizard hissed, his voice unremorseful.

Rex could see heat waves begin forming in the air, making Rex's stomach curl in fear.

The small Twi'lek boy crawled into his mother's lap, tears streaming down his face. The clone moved closer to the two of them, trying to shield the pair with his body.

Rex tried to lunge out of his seat, but he was roughly shoved back down when he moved. For one frozen second, he made eye contact with the woman, the clone, and the small boy.

The clone nodded, sending Rex a final farewell message.

The woman gave Rex an unidentifiable look, but he could barely hear her say something through the glass, more focusing on reading her lips.

Ja-ana nokeil. Ejibala.

Rex didn't know what she was saying, he couldn't speak the language. Rex continued to struggle against his bonds, desperately wishing he could go in the small room and save them.

Finally, Rex met the eyes of the child. He gave Rex the barest of waves with his hand.

The six orange-yellow circles in the back of the room began heating faster, until white-hot flames shot out of their centers.

Rex instantly shut his eyes, but he couldn't drown out the terrible screams coming through the glass.

"Nope, you're going to watch this entire thing," the Lizard said, lashing the electro whip across Rex's torso. "Any of you close your eyes, and you get a shock, understood?" He said, whipping the electro whip across Kiki's shoulder.

Rex wished he didn't see the charred flesh, or see the blood that still managed to soak the ground as the prisoners burned. He wished he couldn't see how the clone was still trying to protect the mother and her child, and how the mother was cradling her son in her lap as they all screamed while they were being burned alive.

The laughter of the two Lizards wracked inside Rex's head as he was forced to watch three innocent people get burned to death. He was screaming, they were all screaming—everyone— but for two very different reasons.

A smoky haze began filling the small room, and the acrid scent of burning plastoid and flesh made Rex's eyes water and throat sting. The smell alone was making him nauseous, and the gruesome sight that was in the burning room was enough to make him actually want to throw up.

Eventually, after what seemed like hours, but was only minutes, the flames died down to glowing circles on the back wall. Rex sat, shaking, in his chair, the smoke burning the back of his throat. The image of the black lumps on the ground in the room burned holes in Rex's mind. Rex didn't remember the trek back to the cell, or getting chained to the wall. He felt completely hollow. Right then, Rex lost hope that they would make it out, and he wasn't the first.

Three people had died a horrible death.

And it was his fault.


So, this concludes this installment of the flashback segment. I probably have one or two chapters left, unless I make the next chapter bits and pieces instead of being based off of one thing. Tell me which you think would be a better idea. Until the next chapter! (which will definitely be soon)

~AAx

PS- I actually kind of forgot Anakin was a part of this flashback. ^^" So he will definitely be in the next chapter.