I'd Rather Kiss a Wookie Chapter 3: Lost in the night.
Anastasia was getting rather annoyed with how much shoving the storm troopers did when they thought you were walking slowly. Indeed it was not as if she was moving at an eager pace, she was on her way to see Darth Vader. They did not have to jab her in the back with the point of their guns though. Regardless of her destination she tried to pick up the pace some as she walked cradling her broken hand and wrist against her chest. The faster pace meant that there was more movement and less stability for her injured arm and she felt a jolt of pain with each step.
Upon reaching a door that did not simply slide open as they approached it the storm troopers stopped Anastasia and one typed a code into the door controls on the wall next to it. The room beyond was not well lit as the halls and rooms they had passed through were, and yet even as the door stood open the troopers did not move. One jabbed Anastasia in the back and said.
"Go in." She gave him a questioning look but she did not need to vocalize her questions. She could hear the deep rasping of Vader within the room somewhere. He was waiting inside and he wasn't going to let her have any sense of safety with the storm troopers. She swallowed and walked into the room entering only a few feet in hopes that she might be able to retreat if she was uncomfortable with what awaited. That turned out to not be an option for as soon as she entered the room the door slid shut with a resonating clang as it came down on the floor.
Now that the door was closed the room was even darker, Anastasia could hardly see. She was sure that this was the intent as she edged along the wall seeking a corner so Vader could not sneak up behind her.
"I sense your fear, fear of dreams trapped in darkness." Vader said his voice echoing throughout the room making it impossible for Anastasia to pinpoint where he was. That fact only made her wanting to find a corner all the faster. He could have been standing right next to her and in the darkness of the room she would have not been able to tell. Quick as lightening the force at Vader's command wrapped itself around Anastasia and pulled her away from the wall throwing her wildly into the room. She stumbled and fell to the ground giving a cry as she jostled her broken limb in the process of trying to not land on it.
"You cannot hide from me." Vader's voice echoed as Anastasia was struck in rapid succession, whether they were material objects or manifestations of the force at Vader's command she could not tell. She only knew that around her swirled objects of some kind and they struck hard. She was sure that she would be covered in bruises at the very least. She did not fear significant injure until she was struck in the ribs with such a force that the wind was knocked from her and a splitting pain shot through her chest. Anastasia tried to scramble away from what she imagined had to be the center of the room and towards the relative safety a wall offered. When she began to move though the same force that had pulled her to the center of the room dragged her back and to the ground by her neck. Anastasia gasped as the force holding her tightened around her neck momentarily before easing up and allowing her to breath.
She was shaking, she noted to herself as she curled into as small a ball as she could manage. She ignored the pain it caused to her broken bones. She could not leave where she had been dragged to but she could at least provide less of a target to be hit. She used her good arm to cover as much of her head as possible as the blows kept falling. She was scared; scared that she did not know where Vader was in the room. Scared that she could not move or see. Scared that she might die at Vader's hand.
Then she recalled what the voice had said in her dream. That she could not see when her judgment was clouded by fear. Though she could not control her shaking she tried to calm herself, she tried to reach out to the light side of the force and see.
"Your thoughts betray you and this Jedi who is training you. So he was the one to block your thoughts from me. Who is this jedi?" Vader asked when Anastasia did not answer she was struck by a series of blows that were all harder than what she had previously experienced.
"Tell me who the jedi is!" Vader said his tone one of anger and ill contained frustration.
"I don't know." Anastasia spoke her voice shaking with the pain her body suffered. She could tell her resolve was wavering. She was not sure it was worth fighting Vader tooth and nail anymore. He would win regardless, either he would get his wish and she would agree to be his apprentice or he would kill her in the pursuit of that goal. She had once been sure that death was the better option, now faced with that possibility she was unsure and indecisive. Most of all she hated herself for being so; she hated how weak she was. The entirety of Earth had died and yet she selfishly clung to life.
"Perhaps you require more time to understand, you are mine." With those final words a heavy blow hit the back of Anastasia's head knocking her out.
When Anastasia woke the fact that her body hurt was the first thing she registered, the second being that she was not alone in her cell.
"Do you think she will die?" A man said in a hushed voice. It occurred to Anastasia that they were talking about her, so instead of trying to move or open her eyes she remained still and listened.
"If she doesn't get some medical attention soon I would think she would."
"What's wrong with her arm?"
"It was broken when she arrived, and then Lord Vader broke her wrist. That was before he summoned her the other day then she came back looking like this and has been out since."
"What did she do to invoke his wrath? It must have been something terrible if he is dragging out killing her like this."
"She didn't do anything as far as I know. This is the girl that was taken from the planet Lord Vader tested the Death Star's main cannon on."
"Whatever she did to anger Lord Vader I hope for her sake she dies soon."
"At this point death would be an act of mercy."
"Yeah right, like I would do that and get on Vader's bad side. He wouldn't even take the time to use the force to choke me."
"Anyway you might as well leave the tray, she might wake up today." There was a slight shuffle and Anastasia heard them set the so spoken for tray down and the door gave a hiss as it shut. She opened her eyes now and saw that just inside the door was a tray with food and a cup of water. However she did not move towards it. The guards had been right she was going to die at the rate she was going. She was going to have to find a way to survive. She knew the easy way to survive, and she resisted it because it was what Vader wanted. She had been at a stalemate with Vader before the voice that Vader insisted belonged to a Jedi spoke to her in her dreams. She was not sure what the Jedi was or who, and she had suffered for that particular lack of information.
Pushing herself up into a sitting position, ignoring the pain in her ribs and arm that ached more acutely than the rest of her bruises, she took a painful breath and tried to be as calm as possible.
"Jedi, whoever you are, speak to me. Your interference put Vader in a particularly piss ass mood that I got to deal with." As she spoke anger shattered the calm she had developed, it was only increased as she got no response in the minutes that passed. She sighed to herself, as she let her anger go, it wouldn't do her any good to be upset.
"I don't know why I thought anyone would hear me. That dream was probably just wishful thinking. I doubt that if there was a Jedi out there that they even care."
'Clear your mind and close it to Darth Vader.' The same voice from Anastasia's dream spoke through the room in so soft a way that she nearly missed it.
"Who are you? What is going on, why is Vader trying to get me to be his apprentice?" She asked out to the prison cell but received no answer. She didn't understand what it meant by closing her mind to Vader. True it seemed that Vader had been able to guess what she was thinking but surely he didn't have access to her mind.
"By the gods! You talk to me you don't talk to me. Make up your mind." She said in frustration but it occurred to her that perhaps he would not speak to her until he thought she was able to keep her thoughts from Vader. True or not she was not getting anywhere by doing nothing. She didn't know who this voice that spoke to her was or what they were after but for the moment if she had to choose it she would have gone with the disembodied voice.
So she did as the voice had instructed and cleared her mind and tried to keep herself closed off from Vader . She was not entirely sure how to do this but she decided that meditation was the best option.
So she meditated. And continued to meditate. As she did so she became aware of crew moving about the ship and had a vague inclination as to what was going on further out of her range of clear view. The longer she spent meditating the better this inner sight became for her. The moment she was able to sense Darth Vader where he was across the Death Star she shuttered his presence was more clear to her that it had been before. It was darker than those of the crew, it filled the area he was in and moved around him like the movements of silk in a gentle breeze. It was tauntingly powerful and menacing while all at the same time it held a strange factor of appeal. There was a power there that greatly exceeded anything that she had sensed on the Death Star.
Though in that moment that she came in contact with Vader's presence he also became aware that she could 'see' him. She was not aware of this, not until he spoke in her mind his voice echoing through her.
'You cannot resist the inevitable. This is your destiny.' Anastasia drew back away from his presence and shuddered for the moment he spoke in her mind that darkness that surrounded him invaded her mind with his words. The darkness which whispered of power and freedom left her feeling shaken.
Once free of Vader's presence she focused on closing her mind off from him, she was thankful as Vader did not pursue her and try to speak in her mind again. Indeed he had just said that as a reminder that no matter how far she reached out of her prison cell in this way she was still trapped and at his mercy.
Anastasia meditated on the force for countless hours, she would not allow herself to rest. She had to improve if she was to get any further aid from the Jedi that had spoken to her. The longer she meditated the less she was aware of where she sat in her cell. She realized that the force could show her images of events. She did not know if they had happened, were happening, or were going to happen but she watched them regardless.
Often she would see the destruction of Earth, the impact it had echoed through the force. She could see other things a temple burning in a city, an icy planet where four legged machines walked, people sitting in a circle dressed humbly in brown robes, machines marching against storm troopers, a beast that she came to understand to be a wompa. All images that confused her and expanded her understanding of what kind of world she now lived.
It was not until countless hours that she sensed the presence of the Jedi who had spoken to her. In the time since he last spoke to her she had developed what she liked to think of as a decent barrier to her mind. She lowered it and made contact with the presence of the Jedi.
'You have sensed Darth Vader's presence? You understand the darkness that surrounds him. This is the dark side of the force.'
'What should I do now?' Anastasia spoke to the Jedi through the force, all the while wondering where this Jedi was that he could reach her yet she could not find him.
Darth Vader had known that Anastasia was strong with the force when he first encountered her presence drifting blindly through it. Indeed he would have not found her when he did if he had not been hunting Jedi in the outer rim. She was an odd case as she was not quick with her reactions or terribly stable on her feet. She didn't seem to have any understanding of the technology of the Death Star and certainly was not gifted with fighting. No she had something he would have never expected to find in someone who was not trained in the ways of the force. She could commune with the force with easy. Such and easy that when Vader had taken her off of that pathetic excuse for a planet he was certain that there had to have been a Jedi training her.
Though that was only part of the reason he destroyed that planet. When she had answered his questions about the Jedi he sensed her to be telling the truth. At the time he was uncertain how great her skills with the force had been, so for good measure the planet had to be destroyed. If there was a Jedi there he certainly killed them. The other part of destroying the planet was to make her hate him; hate was a powerful tool for any Sith or would be Sith.
That goal had worked wonderfully for she did hate him, she feared him as well. Yet above all of these things that would have made a lesser person easy to manipulate she was resistant. She would not take the power he offered her. The time he tried to start her training, with the thought that if given a taste of power she would seek it, she had attacked him blindly. She had not tried to hide her thoughts or trick him. She attacked with her anger and in that blind move she failed herself. The frustration it gave Vader had driven him to crush her wrist. He had been under no illusions he knew that her hand was broken, he was well aware that he had caused more pain than necessary.
What had caused him the most frustration was not anything that she had done. It was when she slept and her mind suddenly became blocked to him. He knew her to be unable to do such a thing and when she woke her thoughts on the matter betrayed her. A Jedi had made contact with her, he did not find anything in her mind on whom this Jedi was though and that frustrated him the most. This Jedi knew better than to give her any information as to whom he was or where he was. At the time Vader had to check himself as he nearly killed his would be apprentice. Still he prevented the detention block staff from giving her any medical attention. The goal was to let her suffer until she gave in and became his apprentice. He had sensed doubt in her in regards to her refusing Vader. It would not be long now until he could begin training her.
Darth Vader had been listening to a mindless report on recent rebel uprisings against the Empire when he felt her mind connect with his for the briefest of moments. It surprised him really, for he had not thought she could reach out with her mind like that or over such a distance as he was on the other side of the Death Star. He realized as he reached out towards her that the connection was not an intended event and happened more of mistake than anything else. Regardless he spoke to her through the force.
'You cannot resist the inevitable. This is your destiny.' It was a simple statement, one that intended to make her think more on her situation. Hopefully it would make her realize that she only had one path to follow. As he expected she drew away from his presence after he spoke and she tried to close her mind to him. It was a pitiful effort as he could have seen her thoughts if he wished. Though, every time he did so it was a chaotic storm of thoughts questions and emotions. She had no control over her mind and even for a Sith it would prove problematic. He made a mental note that when she finally gave up trying to resist him that it would be the first thing that he taught her.
"Lord Vader. The Detention Block has requested you to go down at your earliest convenience." A man in the standard uniform said as he stood at attention.
"For what reason?" Vader asked looking down at the man.
"I am not sure Lord Vader; it has to do with the prisoner." At this Vader turned and walked towards the detention block. He reached out with his mind and found her partly blocked from him. She had improved experientially in the week since he last saw her. Though this barrier she had constructed could not stop him from seeing her mind, she was calm and blank. It was this that alerted him that she was up to something. When he last saw her mind it was a chaotic storm for her to be so calm was enough of a warning that something had changed. He silently cursed himself for not keeping a closer eye on her. Somehow she had received instruction with the force.
When he arrived at the detention block the staff was nervous.
"What is the problem?" Vader asked turning towards the commander in charge.
"Lord Vader the prisoner, she has not eaten or moved from what we can tell in the past week. Each time we deliver her food we find the previous tray untouched. She looks as if she is going to die."
Vader walked past the staff and down the hallway hitting the button to Anastasia's prison cell. It slid open and he saw an emaciated version of the girl that was brought aboard the Death Star. She sat in the center of her cell legs crossed with her broken arm resting on them the room reeked from her unwashed and untreated injuries. She looked up at him with a fire in her eyes that showed she had no intentions of starving to death.
"I understand now Master, and I pledge myself to your teachings." She said her voice faint yet strong and unyielding.
( there y'all go chapter three. Please leave a review, let me know how you think I am doing with the story so far. If you have any ideas or things you want to see in future chapters don't be afraid to let me know)