Kenna was awakened rather abruptly when the Hawk shuddered and bucked under the assault of a much larger ship's guns. She tumbled out of bed and rolled into the opposite wall. She shook off the dizziness and bolted for the cockpit. "What's going on?"
"Sith Interdictor ship," Carth replied, eyes not leaving the readout screens, hands flying over the controls. "We're caught in their tractor beam. They must've been waiting for us in the hyperspace route." His hands dropped off the controls, options apparently exhausted.
"Do you recognize the ship?" Bastila asked, looking over.
"It's the Leviathan. Saul Karath's vessel. My old mentor." Carth crossed his arms and stared out into space with a look halfway between sorrow and rage in his eyes. They gathered the crew in the main hold, and Carth detailed who Karath was and what he had done. Bastila pointed out that, while she, Carth, and Kenna would be closely guarded, it was doubtful the Admiral knew how many people were on the Hawk. One of the others could free them.
"You're right." Kenna turned. "Mission, think you can handle this?"
The Twi'lek grinned. "If I can goad one of the guards into to gettin' really mad, maybe they'll put me in solitary and I can escape from there."
"Sounds good to me. Let's do it." Kenna knew Juhani's stealth abilities, or Canderous' cybernetic implant, would be at least as capable. But this was something she wanted Mission to do.
"Hold on, they're pulling us in," Carth cautioned as the Hawk rocked under their feet. Kenna winked at Mission.
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Sure enough, Carth, Kenna, and Bastila were separated from the rest of the crew almost before their feet hit the hanger floor. Stripped of their armor and weapons, the three were imprisoned in torture cages to wait for Admiral Karath.
When the Admiral arrived, Kenna felt Carth bristle just being in the same room as the man. Please, please don't do anything stupid, handsome. Please. Karath attempted to dismiss the bombardment of Telos as an unavoidable act of war. Even across a room and through the energy fields that formed their cages, Kenna could see the disbelief and anger on Carth's face.
"It was a cowardly act of betrayal," Carth countered angrily, "Your fleet bombed a civilian target into oblivion without warning or provocation. And the blood of those innocent people is on your hands!"
Karath shrugged cavalierly. "In war even the innocent must die. The Sith would not accept me until I proved I had truly turned my back on the Republic by bombing the planet." He said it as if that excused his actions. Kenna felt disgust rising in her chest. A whole planet…
"My wife died in that attack, Saul," Carth growled, voice low and dangerous, "And for that, I swear I'll kill you."
Karath snorted. "You used to be a man of action, not empty words," he chuckled derisively. "Cling to your lust for revenge if you must, but spare me your tired threats. I've heard them all before. You're an insignificant part of theses events, anyway. Lord Malak is far more interested in your Jedi companions. He has great plans for them."
"We will never serve Malak or the dark side!" Bastila retorted forcefully. "The Sith will be destroyed, Admiral Karath…as will you if you don't turn away from this path."
Karath chuckled. "Your words are brave, Bastila, but the lure of the dark side is hard to resist--or so I've been told. I wonder if your companion is as devoted to the light as you are?" He looked over at Kenna, eyebrows raised.
"You're wasting your time, Saul. I'll never betray the Jedi!" Kenna insisted.
The Admiral chuckled again. "You're defiant. I'm certain Malak will find your loyalty to the Jedi amusing. The Dark Lord would probably reward me if I just killed you once and for all. But he may want to question you given the trouble you've caused him… and the history between you."
"History? What are you talking about?" Kenna demanded, bewildered.
"You mean…oh, this can't be true, can it?" Karath laughed. "You really don't know what's going on here, do you?" He smirked. "Well, I won't be the one to deprive Malak of the pleasure of telling you himself. The Dark Lord will no doubt torture you for information and his own twisted pleasure."
"No doubt," Kenna muttered.
"Eventually you will tell him everything. The Sith can be very persuasive. However, Lord Malak is in another sector. It may be some time before he arrives, so I suppose I'll have to fill in for until then." He motioned to the technician standing by the control panel on the wall. "Activate the torture fields."
With those four words, Kenna was tumbled into a pit of all-consuming agony. Her muscles convulsed, threatening to snap bones, her head felt like it was splitting open, she screamed with all the breath in her lungs. After a few hour long minutes, as if through a fog, she heard Karath order the technician to stop.
"…I don't want them to pass out before I question them," the Admiral was saying, "Malak will appreciate any information I can give him when he arrives."
"Save your breath, Saul!" Carth snapped, residual pain causing him to bite the words off shorter than necessary, "We won't answer any of your questions."
"I'm sure you won't," Karath sneered, "However, we both know your friend's loyalties have proven in the past to be somewhat…flexible."
What the blazes is he talking about? "My loyalty is as true as Carth's!" Kenna protested. Which is really saying something…
Karath gave a short laugh. "It is time to put your loyalty to the test. I doubt torturing you would gain me your true cooperation. Your will is too strong to be broken that way. However, even the strongest of heroes has trouble watching those they care about suffering."
Oh, no. Please, please, no!! Kenna thought she knew where this was going, and it already hurt.
"The interrogation will begin now." Karath nodded to the technician, who stood ready by the cursed button. "Each time you refuse to answer a question, or give me a false answer, Carth will suffer."
Oh, Force, NO!!! "Don't hurt him, I beg you!" Kenna pleaded, tears already starting in her eyes.
Carth winced. Kenna sounded ready to just tell Karath everything, without the Admiral having to ask a single question. Sith's blood, woman, if I known I'd be such a soft spot for you, I'd have told you there was nothing there. He had no desire to endure the torture field again, but it could be the death of the galaxy if Kenna told Saul anything. "My pain is meaningless!" He hoped he said it forcefully enough to convince her. "Tell him nothing!" You hear me, Kenna Tasman? Nothing!!!
"I tire of these games," Karath muttered, savage gleam in his eyes, "--now I want answers! On which planet is the Jedi Academy at which you were trained?"
I can't tell him! But if I don't tell him, he'll torture Carth! Carth told you not to tell that monster anything! He probably already knows. This is probably just a test. Just give him the answer to this one question, spare Carth this one little bit of agony; there'll be enough with later questions. NO! I can't tell him anything! "Jedi Academy?" Kenna faltered, wishing she was anywhere but here and now. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
The sadistic grin on Karath's face told her she'd played right into his hands. "Very well. This is the price of your resistance." He motioned to the technician, who activated Carth's torture field.
His scream of pain shredded Kenna's heart.
He tried to stay silent. He knew Saul would use any sign of pain to weaken Kenna. He tried not to scream… The pain was unbearable, and he couldn't do it. "AHHHH!!!"
"Enough!" Karath commanded after only a few seconds that were more than long enough. "You see what happens when you try to defy me?" he snarled at Kenna, who was staring at a dazed and in pain Carth with an apology bright in her teary eyes. "This first question was a test."
I knew it!!! Kenna resisted the urge to slam the man into the back wall of the room with the Force.
"Obviously Malak knew the Academy was on Dantooine, and it has since been destroyed by our fleet! Dantooine is an empty graveyard now," he gloated, taking sadistic pleasure in the fresh horror in Kenna's and Bastila's eyes. "Nothing remains but a smoking ruin and the charred remains of your former Masters!"
"No, you're lying!" Kenna screamed, "It isn't true!" It can't be!!!
"It doesn't matter whether you believe me or not," Karath told her dismissively, "The fact remains that the Jedi on Dantooine have been eradicated, along with any hope of someone coming to rescue you! Now, tell me your mission. How were the Jedi planning on using you to stop our Sith armada?"
Kenna shot a pained glance at Carth and winced, knowing what she was about to do. "I…I won't betray the Jedi."
"Perhaps you need a reminder of the consequences of refusing to cooperate." Karath motioned the technician, who activated the torture field--again.
"NO!" The scream tore from his lips the instant the torture field activated. "AHHH!!" Maybe she should--NO! Do not ask her to betray them for you! He would rather die than have Kenna betray the Republic. But still, "The pain--THE PAIN!!!" He couldn't take much more of this… "AHHHH!!!"
Kenna sobbed as Carth screamed again. She couldn't do this! She couldn't make him endure such torture! I can't take this!! Torture me instead, please! Even after the technician shut off the torture field, she could hear the echoes in her head as she looked over at Carth, who was now nearly unconscious from pain.
"Can you not hear him suffering?" Karath pressed, knowing she could, and it was breaking her heart, evil glee in his eyes. "You can spare him further pain by simply answering my questions," he wheedled threateningly.
Kenna choked back the tears, took one more look at Carth, and growled out her reply, "You are a sick and evil man, Saul Karath."
"Perhaps another lesson is in order?" Karath asked calmly, tone almost bored. NO!!!!!! Kenna's brain screamed. No more, you son of a schutta !! Leave him alone!!!! But there was nothing she could do to stop the technician from pressing the button.
"No! AHHH!!! AUGH! NO!!!" Carth felt his already strained grip on reality slipping, it hurt so bad…Just tell him, Kenna! No! Force, don't let her have heard that! He instantly retracted the thought, but he couldn't take anymore of this. "I beg you…mercy!!! NO!!!" The world went black.
Kenna breathed a ragged sigh of relief when Carth finally passed out. She'd come to the very edge of caving to Karath's demands. Once more through the hellish cycle…
"I am surprised he did not pass out sooner," the Admiral commented offhandedly, as if remarking on the weather, or the outcome of a speedrace, "Rarely have I seen someone withstand such punishment and remain conscious. I see I am wasting my time here."
Kenna felt a sliver of grim satisfaction knowing Carth held on longer than most. War hero, what did you expect?
"When Malak arrives, you will learn my interrogation techniques are considered merciful among the Sith. I will leave you here in your cell with a small taste of the horrors you will suffer when Lord Malak arrives." Karath turned and left, motioning to the technician one last time.
Oh, Force, no! Carth can't take anymore! Kenna barely had time to form the thought before she was tumbling that familiar slope into the abyss of indescribable agony and was too worried about herself to even remember someone else's name. The sounds of Bastila's screams--and her own--faded as the world went mercifully silent, black shrouding her mind.
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Kenna slowly become aware of herself again. The throbbing pain that threatened to split her skull was among the first things she noticed. Second was Bastila's voice.
"Don't try to move too quickly," she was cautioning, "you might not be fully recovered yet. Admiral Karath had his guards continue to torture you even after you passed out."
"They tortured all of us," Carth added, voice rougher than usual, "though you got the worst of it by far."
Good. I deserve it…for what I let him do to you, Kenna thought.
"Saul wanted them to make us suffer." Carth shook his head. "He's become some sort of sadistic monster." I hope she's alright. They really let her have it. Carth could see the pain in Kenna's eyes, and it gave him one more reason to kill Saul.
"The dark side has perverted him, Carth," Bastila explained, "Once you start down the tainted path it leads you ever further into the depths of evil. I fear he is forever lost."
Kenna had trouble believing the words even as she spoke them. "No one is without hope of redemption, Bastila." Except maybe Saul Karath.
"Yes, I suppose you are correct," Bastila conceded, "Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of that hope in the face of such unbridled cruelty, but you speak the truth. I suppose I'm taking the news of Dantooine's destruction quite hard. First Taris, now the Academy…is there no end to the killing?"
Kenna felt for her. Bastila had known all those Jedi for years. Kenna had only known them a matter of weeks, and the pain was hardly bearable. "I know. It's hard to believe they're all gone."
Bastila's expression was pained. "I'd like to believe Saul was lying to us, but even as he said the words, I knew they were true. The Academy is gone." She frowned. "We should have felt a disturbance in the Force when the attack came. The fact that we did not is a bad sign. I fear the dark side is growing stronger, casting shadows our vision cannot pierce. I can only hope some of the Jedi escaped. Vrook, Vandar, Zhar…I cannot imagine all of them being gone. In any case, we have lost our one place of refuge in the galaxy."
"None of this will matter if we don't get out of this prison before Saul gets back!" Carth pointed out.
"Where is he now?" Kenna asked, wondering if she could use the Force on someone at the opposite end of a ship so huge. Bastila frowned at her, and Kenna cleared the thought from her mind.
"Saul mentioned that Lord Malak was on his way. I think the Admiral left to prepare for his arrival…and to report the results--" Such as they were… "--of our interrogation." Kenna winced at the mere mention. It must have really hurt her to not answer. Carth wondered if she'd felt that nanosecond of surrender on his part, the fraction of a second when he wanted the pain to stop more than anything in the universe.
"It is fortunate you were able to resist the Admiral's questioning," Bastila said, relief heavy in her tone. "The fate of the galaxy could be changed by revealing the slightest piece of vital information."
He had to tell her, in the interest of honesty…Carth groaned. "I, uh…I have to confess something." He sighed. Why is this so hard? Because you don't want her to know about even a moment of weakness. You told her your pain was meaningless. "There was a…there was a moment--just a moment--when part of me was hoping that you would tell him what he wanted to know. Just to make the horrible pain stop."
Kenna felt her heart break all over again. "I'm sorry, Carth. Watching you suffer tore me apart." I can't begin to articulate how badly it hurt to watch you suffer. I don't think I could have held out much longer.
He could see the sincerity and agony in her eyes. She had probably suffered more watching him tortured and not stopping it than he had actually enduring it. I'm sorry, beautiful. "No, I know you wouldn't ever do anything to intentionally cause me pain," he tried to reassure her. I still want us to be something. "But you had no other choice. You couldn't betray our cause. I..I honestly don't know if I could have been as strong in your position," he confessed. "To watch you suffer like that…" I don't even want to think about it. "I...I might have cracked."
After what I put you through…is there anyone else like you in the galaxy, Carth Onasi? Kenna was about to thank him and insist that he ignore her pain as she'd tried to ignore his if their positions were ever switched when Bastila interrupted, "Did you feel that? A disturbance in the Force. The Admiral has sent his message, the Dark Lord knows we are here. Malak is coming."
"Well, we better hope Mission busts us out of here before he arrives," Carth muttered.
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She did. After sending Mission back for the others, with instructions to figure out some way to get their hands on the Ebon Hawk, Kenna, Carth, and Bastila found the lockers with their gear. Kenna shrugged back on the Qel-Droma robe and scooped up her lightsaber, spinning the deactivated hilt around before heading for the door. The lightsaber's familiar weight gave some comfort and security. She stood in the doorway as a guard of sorts while Carth and Bastila reclaimed their gear as well. She couldn't hold back a smile as Carth had trouble getting the shoulder guard to sit right--again. "What is it with you and that shoulder guard?"
He glared at her. "It doesn't want to lay right." He rolled his eyes when she laughed. "Just shut up and give me a hand, would you?"
"As you wish." Kenna leaned over and shoved the shoulder guard higher for him, giving him a cheeky grin he would have just loved to kiss off her face. But Bastila would never leave Kenna alone if he did that, so he restrained himself. Later, he promised himself, When Saul's dead and we're as far away from Bastila as we can get. He was not passing up a chance finally make good his promise to kill Saul, not when he was this close. They had to go to the Bridge anyway to open the hanger bay doors. He'd bet his last credit that Saul would be there, too.
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Yay! Chapter two! Let me know what you think…I'll try to have chapter 3 up soon, but no promises. School is taking up a pretty huge chuck of time, and I'm working on two other fanfics AND playing both KotOR 1 and 2 right now. This is my priority (right behind school) though.