Private Into the Unknooown

[Acaadi]

Acaadi tried to slow his breathing. For all the lessons on meditation he could see now way to even start the process of detaching himself for the pain. It occupied everything.

"It's okay Kyra...don't..." he wheezed. He looked up at her with a single tear having streaked each cheek. His eyes were watering profusely. A hooded figure moved to each side of him. More acolytes, he could sense the dark side.

"Let us start," said Kryze, "with when you are next expected to report in."

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra's mouth opened to protest.

The acolytes on both sides drew back their legs and unleashed a cachonic bursts of hits all over Acaadi. It was crude. It was simple. It was merely kicks. Each one landed with force-aided impact, breaking ribs and skin alike.

It was crude, but it was effective.

Kyra crumbled to it immediately, the padawan screaming out and thrashing pointlessly to reach him. "Stop! Stop! Stop!" Her voice was so shrill it hurt her ears, the high pitch ringing through her.

With a simple gesture from the sith, the acolytes fell still again. Kyra sobbed, struggling to make herself sit straighter. She couldn't process the sheer cruelty of the moment, she could only make it stop. "R-Report in how," came the hitching response.

 

[Acaadi]

Acaadi managed to lift his head. His brow was split, blood running down around his eye. All he managed was a slight shake of the head before slumping with a rattle of chains.

"When would people start to be concerned about you?" he asked calmly. "Do you have a master expecting a report? A local agent on the ground?"

He dropped onto his haunches in front of Kyra. His smile was downright friendly.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra quaked on the ground before the man, a sheen of sweat glistening over her skin as Acaadi's pain echoed hauntingly through her body. There was a touch of something abnormal in the way she unraveled before the sith. She had crumbled far too easily, her body responding as if the punishment had been delivered onto her itself.


She swallowed hard, struggling to regain control of herself. It would do Acaadi no good to show the sith just how much they could exploit Acaadi against her. She met the boy's eye contact, her lip quivering as she mouthed an 'forgive me'.

"N-no. No master. No agent. Just-just Silver Beacon station. When they notice. Pl-please. Let us go. We're just padawan, we can't do anything for you."

 

[Acaadi]

For the first time the sith let some anger slip onto his expression. His eyes narrowed in impatience and he slowly drew a black sith knife. The runes on it faintly glowed in an angry crimson that matched the colour of his hand.

He knelt down before Acaadi and placed the tip at the base of his throat. It was drawn upwards in an almost sensual touch to his chin, leaving a line of blood. Acaadi hissed in pain.

"When do you think they will notice?"

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra squealed in horror, uttering out immediately. "Tomorrow! T-tomorrow! Or the next day! I dunno! They could be busy, but we're just kids! It wasn't suppose to be this way! We were just collecting information!"


And then they had both gotten cocky and went after a lead without waiting for backup. It had just been so fresh-- so vital. They had feared waiting would mean time that the kids didn't have. Now she felt out of time, Acaadi's life flashing before her eyes. A sob caught in her throat, one she swallowed and tried to bite back.

"No one knows. No one knows we're here, please." Her head shook, pleading for the blade to be removed from her friend's throat.

 

[Acaadi]

"I need you to be very, very clear with me now girl," said Kryze. The tip of the blade came away from Acaadi's chin but was placed against his chest, below his sternum.

"They know you are in this city but not that you have been captured, but tomorrow they will notice you are missing? Is that what you mean?"

His voice was almost soothing, a stark contrast to the blade that hovered threatening over her friend's heart.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra tried not to look at Acaadi's features-- tried to not connect-- to pretend she didn't care. It was poorly done, her watery gaze flickering anxiously to his face every few seconds to check on his well being.

"Y-yes. Likely. They know we're here-- they know we were following up on a report of a missing child. But that's it, that's it, I swear. We found a lead and we went after it-- we didn't wait, we didn't report back-- they don't know," she rattled, her voice high pitched and tight. Saying it out loud brought a sheen of heat to her cheeks, the girl recognizing far too late how reckless they had been.

They had just been too busy being grumpy with each other. Or at least she had. She hadn't paused to consider her lack of foresight. Now all she could see was both their deaths, and it cut her to her core.

Another sob hitched inside of her, caught before it could fall out.

"Please. Don't do this. I'm telling the truth."

 

[Acaadi]

"Then we will need to be ready to leave by the end of the week," Kryze said. The knife slipped out of sight. He stood up and brushed himself down. He looked disappointed at having to get his hands dirty.

He stood before Kyra, looking down at her. He canted his head to one side.

"Leave her..." Acaadi muttered.

"You don't understand what it is like to be hunted by your kind," said Kryze, shaking his head.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Well geeze maybe then don't go stealing children???

She bit her tongue, looking anxiously to Acaadi. Stop, dont say anything, she seemed to plea.

The moment felt fragile. Dangerous. She knew he was considering what to do with them now that he had gotten what he wanted from her. The answer seemed obvious, and it frightened her greatly. She whimpered, shaking for a moment before collecting herself again. "It doesn't have to be this way. You could let us go. They wouldn't come then, we wouldn't tell them."

 

[Acaadi]

"Oh you have been far too throughly indoctrinated for that," he replied. One of the hooded figures stepped closer to Acaadi but stayed looming over him.

"Good little child soldiers for the cause."

Kryze dropped to his haunches so that he was at eye level with Kyra. He waved his hands and his shackles came undone, dropping her blood-drained hands.

"You're an empath so let me think...they tell you: 'keep your emotions down. Don't feel things. Make sure you can protect everyone from your feelings. Be a good little child soldier and..." he raised a hand and made his final two points with two prods to her forehead.

"...follow...orders."

"Dont...touch..." went Acaadi before he was silenced by a boot.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra's hands fell numbly into her lap, any thoughts of using her freedom dashed when the boot fell swiftly against Acaadi, silencing him. She winced, her eyes squeezing closed as she tried to shy back from them all. Her friends pain, the sith's hands. His words that were far too accurate and confusing to process. He knew, which meant she had failed at keeping the emotions contained.

Acaadi had specifically asked her if she would be capable of it. She had failed him.

Her empathy had been such a hot topic lately, the sith's use of it had her instinctively locking down, preparing for him to find issue with her weakness too. Her legs went to her chest, as if that could be a physical barrier to the incoming storm.

"I didn't use it on you. I swear," she whispered, her voice tight. "I can control it. I won't be a threat."

 

[Acaadi]

"Why would I ask you to stop using it?"

Kryze clearly saw one reason not to, for he waved for his acolyte to step away from Acaadi.

"It is a gift, a powerful one. Your emotions are your core, your strength."

Kryze eyed her curiously as if he were figuring something out. He was not. He was talented at finding the pressure points to manipulate people. It was how he had built a following from almost nothing.

"Do they try and control your feelings? Shield you form your power? Does he do that?" Kryze asked, waving a hand at Acaadi.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra slowly grew stiff, the only sign his words had reached her. Her eyes remained pinched closed. In her mind she understood what he was trying to do here. Sith corrupted. Sith lied. Manipulated. Destroyed.

That was what he sought from her now. That was why they hadn’t been killed yet. She had always thought that the day she came across a sith trying to corrupt her, well- it would be laughable! What could they say that didn’t sound Ridiculous? They don’t care for you?

No. His words startled her, not because they were unreasonable, but because they made a bit of sense. Not much. But enough.

She shook her head, eyes opening as she looked up to him. “Acaadi just wants to protect me. My emotions are dangerous. YOU are dangerous. Let him go. Please. Whatever you want from me, I’ll do it. He’s a innocent, let him be.”

 

[Acaadi]

"He can't. He can do nothing at all to protect you now."

Acaadi managed just a brief flash of defiance before he slumped at the end of his chains.

"There is nothing more I need from you so there is no need to do any more harm to either of you. I cannot let you go because I will end up with a group of Jedi masters on my door before the day is over. I will let you free as long as you stay by my side. He will remain in chains and if you run then...well there is no need to be more explicit is there?

"Perhaps you will see that your emotions are not something to be locked away. You might learn something before I am ready to let you go?"

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra nearly laughed in his face. Leave Acaadi? Join them? No. Were they crazy? She was staying put. Such words nearly slid from her mouth, full of indignation and spite, she was sure it'd get Acaadi hit again. So instead she caught herself, her lips pressing into a thin line as she glanced once at Acaadi’s crumpled form.

If she stayed down here they were screwed. There was no chance she could help him if left chained up in this prison. But if she went up there with the man, having some ounce of freedom?

Perhaps the sith wasn’t stupid. He would see how the animosity dispersed into cloud of hope, the light in her eyes spilling her inner thoughts like a book. Kyra was incredibly easy to read, but likewise she expected his doubt over her change of heart. Converting someone was never that easy, but what did it matter for him? As long as he had Acaadi in chains, he had control of her too. She was sure he'd let her play her 'harmless games, confident that he'd win in the end. Just as she was sure she'd find a way out with them.

She swallowed hard, a bit of steel entering her spine as she glanced at Acaadi one last time. “Alright. I’ll go with you. If you give him medical aid... I’ll come see what you have to offer."

 

[Acaadi]

"Fix him up," Kryze said, waving vaguely towards Acaadi. The acolytes shuffled away. Her shackles had released Kyra's wrists and the sith offered his hand to her.

"Kyra...don't..." Acaadi hissed. Blood trickled down his arms from his struggles. The line on his chin almost seemed to form part of his symmetric tattoos.

His world span and darkness crept into the edge of his vision. He knew that Kyra was strong. Years of Jedi masters hadn't bent her to their will and neither would the sith. This was his fault. His comment that had set them down this path. Now they used him to get to her and he felt wretched for it.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra took the man's hand, her legs wobbling as she stood. She tried not to glance back at Acaadi, not wanting to give the sith any more reason to use the boy against her. It was pointless though. His plea cut through to her, her watery gaze falling down with to her friend's broken form.

"Don't fight them," she pleaded, pain in her voice. Regret, it was all she could feel seeing him like that. It burned through her like an igniting inferno, acid reflex catching in her chest.

She swallowed hard, then turned and walked away.

She walked out.

 

[Acaadi]

"Don't fight them..." he echoed to the silence. He could barely even move, let alone fight. Acaadi knew what she meant but he was angry, frightened and in more agony than he had known. Consciousness slipped away long before he could make any sense of where they had found themselves.

Kyra was led up the stairs. The walls were plain concrete, almost like a bomb shelter. They emerged into a wide warehouse. They had found the children, eventually. A cluster of them sat on small stools taking instruction from another sith.

"There are rooms in the upper level, take one that isn't occupied. Get some rest."