Happy international Star Wars day, my friends, and may the fourth be with you! (Hurhurhur.) My dad stole the laptop, to my eternal outrage, and now I cannot play SW:TOR! *shakes fist angrily* So, instead, I am celebrating with a new chapter. Enjoy!

The first thing Rahs sees when she opens her eyes is darkness. Her hands are bound in front of her, and her head is spinning. She tries to twist her hands free, but her manacles rub painfully against her wrists, so she stops. She lets her eyes adjust before carefully sitting up and looking around.

She is in a small room with little in it but a few crates, an empty datapad, and her disoriented self. Other than the fact that there is a single door, the walls are bare, and the Zabrak still can't guess at where she is. The room is slightly stuffy, and all Rahs cares about is getting out somehow, but she finds that her feet are tied, and the door doesn't have a handle on it anyway.

Nee would know how to get out. Maybe they got her too?

Rahs looks around, but she is alone. Hope dies in her chest. She recalls Nyrrah running after her, screaming her name. Did they kill her? Or did they capture her, too? What if they're doing terrible things to her? What if-

The door opens, flooding the room with cold light and interrupting Rahs' thoughts. As she blinks in the sudden brightness, three Imperial soldiers enter the room and head straight for her. Rahs shrinks away from them, but two of them grab her upper arms and begin to drag her towards the door, and although she wriggles and yelps, their grip is too strong to break. Rahs is beginning to panic, and the resulting burst of emotion from her causes her manacles to explode and makes three nearby crates leap into the air of their own accord and brain her captors. Their grip loosens, allowing the girl to twist away and break for the door.

Rahs hears shouts of anger and alarm behind her, but still she runs down a hall, through a set of doors, past two more guards—and smacks into someone. The girl is knocked to the ground, but she pushes herself upright and scrambles backwards and away from the man before her. He is dressed in heavy robes and displays a lightsaber at his hip. He is a pureblood with small, tentacle-like growths adorned with many gold decorations on his face. He radiates power and darkness that makes Rahs cringe. Paralyzed with fear, she barely hears the guards catch up to her.

The men skid to a halt and bow respectfully before the tall man. "M-my lord," one of them stammers, but before he can go on, the Sith speaks.

"My Master would be very displeased if he knew she escaped," he says, his voice deadly calm, "how did you let this happen?"

The guard wets his lips nervously. "She—she lifted a box and threw it, my lord. With t-the Force."

The Sith gazes silently at the Imperial before finally replying. "If that was all it takes to escape from you then perhaps you are not fit for your post," he sneers.

With that, the pureblood carelessly extends a hand. The guard behind Rahs chokes and gasps, clawing at the invisible pressure around his throat. Rahs watches in silent horror as the unfortunate man's face turns blue, a blood vessel pops behind his eye, and he finally stops struggling and goes limp. Rahs has never seen the Force used in such a cruel way before. The Sith drops the man unceremoniously to the floor and turns to the shaking girl at his feet.

"You," he says to the remaining two, rather cowed, guards, "take her back and prepare her."

The men grab Rahs, who is still too traumatized to struggle, and drag her into a different room, where they bind her firmly to a chair. Then they leave. Rahs waits for a short eternity until the Sith enters. He paces intimidatingly before her for a few moments before he speaks.

"You are from the Temple." It is a simple statement of fact. "How long did you live there?"

Rahs, still trembling, does not reply. The Sith gazes at her for a moment before he speaks again. "I hope you did not grow too fond of the place," he smirks, putting his red face uncomfortably close to hers, "for it now lies in ruins, struck down by the might of the Empire! Every structure within and without lies shattered; every person inside has been destroyed! Save you, of course..." he smiles and leans even closer, so that Rahs can feel his hot breath on her face. "What do you think of that, hmm?"

Rahs has recovered enough to spit in his face.

The pureblood curses and reels back, wiping his face furiously. Enraged, he turns his now even redder face to the defiant Zabrak. "You will pay for that, bitch!" he snarls.

The Sith's sticks his arms out in front of him, his fingertips alight with purple lightning.

The next thing Rahs knows is agony.

Pain explodes behind her eyes and over every nerve, scraping her skin with hungry teeth and licking up over her chest and legs. Every hair on her body stands up straight as thousands of volts of electricity shoot through her body. She stiffens, her back arches, and an anguished scream claws its way up her throat and explodes on her lips. White-and-violet lighting ripples over her skin and through her very core. It only lasts a few moments, but the pain lasts far longer. Rahs slumps in the chair with a sob, twitching slightly.

The Sith walks slowly towards the shuddering Zabrak girl, red eyes glowing with hatred. "Normally," he hisses, "you would be long dead. But, unfortunately, my master believes that a Force-sensitive child would benefit the Empire somehow...even one as pathetic as yourself," he adds with a look of contempt.

Rahs lifts her head weakly to look into his crimson gaze and finds no mercy there. "Now," her assailant says quietly, "I was told to see exactly how powerful you are. While I do have several different options to test this, most of them involve untying you, and I must admit I'm rather disinclined to do that. So…" he stops to smirk menacingly down at her. "I suppose I'll have to use a more…drastic method."

With that, he extends his hands and shocks her again. Rahs clamps her teeth over her scream, and it comes out as a strangled yelp. She refuses to give him the satisfaction of hearing her pain. "I'll keep it up until you can fight back," her torturer sneers.

"Why?" Rahs gasps, "I can't!"

The pureblood shrugs. "Too bad," he replies.

~o~

After five endless hours, Rahs slumps, barely conscious, in her seat. After growing bored of using Force lighting on her, the Sith had choked, burned, and, in his frustration at her defenselessness and inability to return an attack, beaten her. The Sith lifts his hands a final time and points those deadly fingers at Rahs. The sight of her oncoming destruction registers in the child's pain-dulled mind, but the silent threat has little effect. Part of her is ready to simply give in and die.

But part of her is not so ready.

Rahs' head snaps up as adrenaline-fueled instinct takes over. Her right hand lights up and, grasping her chains, crushes them like dry leaves. Her eyes glow with an eerie light as she extends her hand, and a blast of electricity flies from her fingertips and attacks her assailant before he can draw his lightsaber. Part of Rahs is still absolutely terrified, but another side, the bit of her now in control, relishes the Sith's cry of pain. When the pale stream ends, Rahs gapes at her hand, then at the pureblood. The man staggers, shaking his head. Many emotions flash across his face—pain, shock, anger—but are quickly replaced with a broad grin. He opens the door and motions two Imperial soldiers, who have likely been standing outside the entire time, inside the room. They bow and stare at any point except the Sith's face, but he doesn't seem to care. "You two," he says excitedly, "I have done it!"

"Um, congratulations, my lord..." one of them murmurs, "what should we do with her now?"

The pureblood's grin widens. "Stabilize her, and then bring in Nocena. She can finish with the prisoner."

He keeps talking, but Rahs barely hears as she finally slips into warm, welcoming darkness.