To the Reader,

I can assure you that I never start thinking about this story! I am constantly working on it and have some fun plans for the darker Extended Edition. I have also started doing audio readings, which you can check out on my YouTube account, Tess Naberrie. I am almost at the end of the first book with them, so if its been a while since you've read this story, now would be a great time to go back and listen to the audio readings! There has been some minimal editing as well. I will be finishing this second book, Spawn of the Emperor (which begun with chapter 46), and then moving on to the Extended Edition, which will have 3 books. It will probably be years in the making but I am still excited because this story has always been so close to my heart.

This chapter is rated M for mature, for violence and sexual situations. It's the darkest chapter in the series.

The crack of the stun baton crushing bone on Han's shoulder turned Leia to ice. Frozen stiff. His scream and Tess' pleas of mercy. She didn't realize she was crying until Luke clapped a hand over her mouth, wrapping his other arm around her as her knees buckled.

"We're going to save them," he whispered. "I promise. They'll be okay." She couldn't see his face in the backstage darkness but she let his words pull her back out of her shock.

They could only see the show through the cracked-open light closet door, but being so close to the microphones, the sounds illustrated the scene.

Zkab's voice, counting off the blows each time the stun baton collided with Han's body.

"Nine!"

Crack.

"Ten!"

Crack.

"Eleven!"

Crack.

"How many are there?" Leia whispered to her brother.

"At least thirty…" Luke muttered through clenched teeth.

"And they're just making Tess watch?"

"Whoa—wait!" came Zkab's voice from the stage. The twins strained to see through the crack in the door.

Zkab was standing behind Han, watching the man collapse to his knees.

"You can't pass out," Zkab warned him. The to the audience: "He can't pass out—giving up like that, we'll assume the same as if he were to call us off. And you know what that means." He shot a look at Tess, whose head hung forward. "Make her look."

One of Zkab's men grabbed Tess by the hair and forced her to turn her head in Han's direction. Zkab did the same to the Corellian.

"Is she really worth it? You can't hog her all for yourself. My men just want to play with her a little."

"Oh my god…" Leia gasped. She saw Luke raise his hand and a light fixture on the stage began to quiver. "Luke, stop! They'll think that she did it and you'll just make it worse for both of them!"

Luke grabbed his lightsaber out of its holster.

"I'm going out there."

Matching Luke's stubborn resolve almost mockingly, Leia, too, pulled out her weapon. Luke watched her unsurely.

"Every single one of them has a blaster. And who knows what the audience's reaction will be to an attack on the show. Leia, you'll die out there."

"So will you," Leia shot back. "So will Han. And so will Tess. But I'm not going to let you go out there alone."

Luke's blue eyes glared challengingly down at his sister's, but both of them knew that two of them against Turos Noth would not end well. He finally dropped his weapon and turned away from the stage.

Leia, however, did not take her eyes off her friends.

She watched every bone-crushing blow collide with Han's spine. Every tear falling down Tess' cheek. Every sadistic grin on Zkab's face. Every large hand that grabbed her sister under the chin and forced the girl to watch Han's torture. She would memorize it and never forget.

To forget would be to let them get away with it.

The metallic smell of his own blood filled Han's nostrils and mouth. He coughed, choking on it and sending splatters of the dark red fluids into the air. The grip on each of his arms felt as if the slightest amount of added pressure would crush bone, sending a ripple effect throughout his entire body until he was shattered inside.

"Thirty-one…" he choked out. "I took thirty-one…now let her go…" He didn't even know if the words had formed into sound.

That had happened, right? He did not just imagine it? No, he was sure he made it through each and every strike. All thirty-one. Even the last six, where Zkab's men broke the rules and hit him in the head. The neck. The mouth. There may have been fists, too. And crushing kicks to his legs and stomach. His face was so swollen that he could not open his eyes. Every move twisted bone and muscle so painfully that he feared he would lose consciousness. Zkab of course did nothing to stop his men. He hadn't counted on Han pulling through the trial, leaving his prized 'Spawn of the Emperor' unharmed.

And then the grip on his arms disappeared, and he felt himself fall face-first onto a cold, hard floor.

"Where's…the girl…" Han grunted, heaving open-mouthed through the pain. A voice several paces away laughed at him.

"Zkab is dealing with her personally."

With everything inside of him, Han planted his hands under him and attempted to push himself up. But he was stopped by a swift kick to the face, knocking him unconscious.

Zkab dragged Tess into a room by her hair and tossed her onto the floor, slamming the door behind him. She hit her head hard as a coffee table broke her fall. The room spinning, Tess pivoted frantically from one side to the other for an escape route. Zkab blocked the only door to what appeared to be a dressing room. It had nothing but the coffee table, a couch, and a countertop with a mirror above it.

"What did you do?!" he yelled. "Huh? Soften the blow with those powers of yours?!"

The drugs pulsed through Tess' system, putting butterflies in her stomach as if it was directing all her anxiety to that spot to prevent it from coming out of her hands. She felt like she was going to vomit.

When she didn't respond, Zkab stomped over to the girl kicked her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Then he grabbed her by the shoulders and drove her into the wall. He moved his hands to her neck and lifted her off her feet so that she was being strangled at his eye level.

"I said, what did you do?!"

"Nothing!" Tess promised, gasping for air. "I didn't do anythi—AH!" Zkab cut her off with a punch to the gut, hitting the tender place he kicked just moments earlier. With her neck released, Tess collapsed to the ground.

"One kick and one punch sends you to the ground, huh?" Zkab hissed. "Your friend took way more than that. And you know why?"

Tess was on her hands and knees and had just caught her breath when Zkab's foot connected with her face, the force of it flipping her onto her back.

"Because you did something!"

"I didn't! I swear!"

The ceiling spun. The girl brought her fist up to wipe warm, sticky blood from her nose and mouth. Before her vision could even straighten itself out, Zkab dragged her back up to her feet. He shoved her hard into the countertop across the room, pushing her head onto the granite with one hand.

"Were you that afraid to be touched?" he hissed, his hands bunching up the ends of the black dress they had her wear and lifting it. "You afraid of this?" Tess felt him grope her breasts, his nails breaking skin as tears fell from her eyes. His right hand released her head and joined the other in exploring under her dress, finding its place between her legs. Grabbing her down there. Vulgarly kneading the skin in his hands.

"No…" Tess sobbed, closing her legs tight and trying to push herself up with her hands against the counter. She tried to bring her right hand around to push him away, but he saw her and cracked her index finger backwards.

"Ah!"

Ignoring her cries, Zkab bent over her so that his torso pushed her back down.

"You knew I was gonna see that power inside you one way or another…" he sneered. Two of his fingers penetrated her now at their full length, and Tess cried out.

"Please, stop!"

Her hands flailed for something—anything to fight back. Finally they found a pair of tweezers and the fifteen-year-old quickly stabbed them into Zkab's side.

Zkab recoiled and yelled out in pain, falling backwards onto the coffee table. Tess bolted for the door, her entire body shaking. Just as her hand reached to pad it open, strong arms circled her waist and lifted her off her feet.

"Bitch!" Zkab fumed. He jerked Tess to the side, sending her head into the corner of the wall. Tess' vision blurred and swirled around her. Tears soaked her face as she uttered one last plea.

"Luke… Leia… help me…please…." The words barely formed on her lips, making little to no noise. Zkab didn't seem to hear them. She couldn't even feel the Force anymore, or her siblings, or anything—except for the weight of Zkab on top of her.

She was on the couch now, facedown. He used one hand to push her head into the couch cushion to the point that Tess was suffocating, and the other pulled up her dress to the small of her back. Ripped away everything that blocked his path. Tess felt the goose bumps rise on her skin from her shoulder blades down as everything was bare for him to see. His hands slid upwards from the back of her thighs, pulling her legs apart.

"NO! PLEASE—!" Her voice was muffled in the couch cushion. She struggled to turn her head and be able to breathe, but the lack of oxygen didn't even compare to the level of pain she then experienced as Zkab forced himself inside of her.

Her screams disappeared into the couch. His hands roamed free and touched her everywhere—her face, her breasts, between her legs—as he just kept thrusting his hips forward, ripping her apart. Pushing her dress up more, bringing his lips to the side of her neck, occasionally kneeing one of her legs to spread them apart more despite the painful muscle resistance in her thighs. Blood from Tess' nose pooled under her face. She closed her eyes, whimpering each time Zkab pushed himself deeper inside of her, but trying to let herself drift somewhere else. Anywhere else.

But the pain…

"Pain. Pain…and darkness."

Pain. Darkness.

"Your struggles are not over."

The jumble of Inny's last words to her swirled dizzily around her head and Tess couldn't help but wonder… Would they ever be?