Kaleidoscope

[Ihsan]

Saka blinked groggily.

This wasn’t where she’d been when she was cornered like a beat dog. It took a moment for her to be able to see anything due to a harsh overhead light angled directly into her face; she winced and turned aside, squinting at her surroundings.

Her attempt to shield her eyes failed. Her arms wouldn’t respond; there was a cold hard pressure when she tried to move them, biting into her forearms. Wide, bracer-style restraints, she thought vaguely. Much more effective than simple cuffs. The odd angle of the room was confusing to her tired mind; she tried to lift her head to compensate and found another wide anti force metal band around her neck. So, that there was no chance of using the force to escape. And of course her ankles were strapped down as well when she tested them.

Knowing the situation and what awaited her didn’t help her nerves, unfortunately.

The last she remembered she had been disarmed by a Zabrak Sith and knocked unconscious. And now she woke up here, in...she blinked again to clear her swimming vision. A cell of some description? Sterile durasteel surfaces, gleaming cabinets, a few racks nearby containing vials, surgical objects and other equipment. She couldn’t hear the telltale hum of a bacta tank, which made her heave at the thought of being in a torture cell.

The grogginess of sleep was fading unusually slowly considering the circumstances, suggesting she’d been sedated somehow, but…

A blurry figure came into her line of vision.

“What’s…” Her mouth was too dry to speak. She cleared her throat and tried again. “What’s happening? Where am I?”

 

[Vaylin]

"Rise and shine, little Jedi." Vaylin's voice would pierce through the grogginess if Saka remembered it, with that mocking tone. She paused for a moment, watching as the prisoner instinctively tested her movement only to find it was almost entirely restrained.

Saka was strapped down to a metal table, shifted up so it was in a diagonal angle. Enough so that the position was just about uncomfortable for the prisoner in question. Her wrists and ankles were completely immobile, thick metal bracers sealing them down against metal. The only thing she could move was her head, and it wasn't much either.

Not to mention the general heaviness felt after waking up. Vaylin had the Jedi further sedated during their trip back to Mygeeto. But that would soon pass, and reality would come crashing back down.

What was strapped around Saka's neck was a specialized collar the Valkyries utilized. Besides its ability to suppress the user's Force connection, it also contained a small injection system that allowed for use of various serums, whether it be to simply render one unconscious or make their situation much more painful.

That, and it also could deliver an electrical shock if the traditional Force Lightning wasn't effective.

"Come now Jedi, don't tell me you have amnesia." Again, more of that mocking, slightly condescending tone. "Because that would be unnecessarily annoying...and very painful for you."

Once Saka's vision had fully returned, she'd finally see that they were in a completely sealed off room. There was only a single door, no windows and barely enough lighting to illuminate the room.

​

[member="Saka Amara"]​

 

[Ihsan]

She took a deep, slow breath, and let it out carefully. She was a Jedi. She needed to act like one. But she couldn’t stop a sort of nervous laugh escaping—more a short exhalation of breath, really.

“What?”

Saka couldn’t suppress a dry swallow. She had never thought she would be frightened by another person's presence, a Siths presence.

"Why didn't you kill me like the rest of your ill minded kin would've." She asked almost pleadingly, jerking desperately against the bindings because she couldn’t stand not trying to escape, it couldn't end like this for her, not in some nameless facility in Sith occupied space. She should've died back then by their hand.


"You might as well finish me now, i'm no use to you Sithspits, i won't tell you anything while i draw breath."

It was not innate for Saka to swear at all given her temperament as being quiet and studious, but any means of enticing the Zabrak to kill her seemed darkly attractive at this point.

[member="Vaylin"]

 

[Vaylin]

Vaylin chuckled at her prisoner's attempt to goad her into lashing out. She'd have to do much better than that.

"Oh, I don't expect you to tell me much - not yet anyway." The Zabrak stood directly in front of Saka, her eyes never leaving the Jedi's. "But I'm not going to kill, oh no...that wouldn't do at all." She stepped forwards and reached out with a hand, grasping Saka's chin with her fingers. "If you prove a disappointment, I might enlist you into the Academy, see how long you can survive." Vaylin leaned in closer, enough so she could whisper into the Mirialan's ear. "You won't."

And then just like that the suffocating presence was gone, Vaylin stepped away and wandered over to the tools that had been laid out. "No, killing you would be a waste. You have potential girl, still young and not completely indoctrinated by the Jedi and their Code." The Zabrak had seen it far too many times, Jedi who would've done so well as Sith...if only they hadn't been enraptured by the wrong cause. "Do you want to know why I think that?" She idly picked up a couple of the tools, making a show of examining them but ultimately nothing more. They were quickly placed back down, and Vaylin strode back over to stand before Saka.

"Because you killed...no you murdered others."

[member="Saka Amara"]​

 

[Ihsan]

“I never did like your kind,” she confessed, giving Vaylin the kind of indulgent smirk usually reserved for other Padawans who slighted the Mirialan.

"I killed only in self defence, do not twist my actions into something they were not." she said clearly, surprised when her voice didn't shake.


"You however are nothing but a toothless loth cat and a product of the Siths evil."

It wasn't as if she had anything to prove anymore. She'd fallen this far. There's blood on her hands already. What's a little more? But... well. She knew as well as anyone that there was only two ways she'd ever leave this room, escaping was not one of them however much she wished.

[member="Vaylin"]

 

[Vaylin]

She let out an amused snort, then a full blown laugh.

"A toothless loth cat..." Vaylin chuckled. "I don't know whether I should've been offended at the loth cat or at how pathetic that was." The Zabrak tsk'd at Saka, shaking her head slightly. "Should've went with something like a Nexu or Maalraas, then maybe I would've been slightly insulted."

It was clear Vaylin wasn't impressed with the captured Jedi, but not enough to snap at her.

"But I'm not going to disagree, yes you killed them in self-defence. Murder is still murder, yada yada...no what I'm talking about is the how you went about it."

The Zabrak begun to walk around again, but never too far from Saka's vision.

"The Jedi I remember were taught to never use their lightsaber; or violence in general, unless it was the absolute last option available. And while I'm sure their teachings have shifted as war has become more prominent, I don't think they instruct their Padawans to be violent."

And then within a blink, Vaylin was in front of the Mirialan, amber staring into blue.

"You killed someone...by stabbing a piece of wood into their eye." The Zabrak grinned, she was impressed. "How did that feel?"

[member="Saka Amara"]​

 

[Ihsan]

She flinched at that last barbed remark, brief guilt rolling off her before she closed her eyes again and the cool mask fell into place.

Softly, unhurried, Saka breathed out.

"I did what i had to do, it was me or him." She felt a detached sort of pity. It was hard to mourn one dead Sith knight when her own future looked bleak. It was easy to claim she would want to rather die than submit, but a nagging voice pulled at her from the darkest echelons of her soul.


She had to bite down on the thought: Saka couldn't turn. She had been the best of all of them; gentle, compassionate, devoted to duty. A Padawan who believed in peace. And, oh, Iakchi was proud of her, of what she was capable of with even the slightest and most light-handed guidance, of the woman—the Jedi—she was bound to become. She did not enjoy killing. It was automatic, an intrinsic truth. She'd never questioned it in her life.

Maybe she should have.

She barely glanced over at the Zabrak. There was a brief flash of hurt in her eyes, but she turned away immediately to return her attention to the featureless wall. The only change was the slight defiant lift of her chin.

[member="Vaylin"]

 

[Vaylin]

Vaylin paused for a moment, eyes closed as she took in the negative emotion in the room, the guilt that slipped beneath Saka's walls. It was a start, a small hook that had found its place within the Padawan.

Oh, how the Zabrak wished she had a half decent ability in Mentalism. She'd be able to dive into the young girl's mind and unravel it from within, untangle the knots the Jedi instilled and thread it into something more befitting.

But without some degree of additional assistance, it was a skill out of Vaylin's reach. Sure, maybe she could've enlisted another, someone who specialized in the art. But the Zabrak was far too proud to let someone else handle this. Saka was her pet project and no one else's. She wanted to be the one to break the Jedi's defenses, make her see the errors within their Code and enlighten her on what freedom there was with those broken chains.

Ideas were swirling within the Zabrak's mind, but for now, she'd start simple.

Vaylin opened her eyes just in time to see that look of hurt. She grinned, stepping towards Saka again.

"Exactly, it's a matter of simple survival." Something the Zabrak knew far too well. "Removing the weak from the strong, and that's what you are." Vaylin grabbed Saka's chin forcing her to look forward. "You're strong, but that potential is currently shackled and would remain so with the Jedi." She said nothing further for several seconds, just staring into the Mirialan's eyes. "You can't tell me that there isn't a part of you that desires that. To be your own individual and not just another sheep that they send to the slaughter. Take charge of fate, and do whatever you wanted."

The Zabrak let go of Saka, stepping back.

"Surely you've been on missions with your Master, yes? Perhaps tracked down a criminal or the like, someone who's done something so despicable you know death is the only fitting punishment. And yet it doesn't come, because it's not 'right' to take matters into your own hands."

[member="Saka Amara"]​

 

[Ihsan]

“We cannot stoop to other peoples levels of depravity if we want to keep the peace,” Saka rebutted, wincing at the words. “People die every day but...” She glared determinedly at a corner. “Sometimes you've gotta accept the situation for what it is, not everyone lives a long life in this galaxy.”

For a long, painful minute she stared away from the Zabrak, too afraid to glance at her in case she further brought torment. Saka didn't think she could bring herself to bear this sadistic mental torment.

For a moment, the briefest possible moment, life flickered in her eyes again; then it was gone, buried in misery and guilt. She blinked rapidly; her whole body was trembling now, blue eyes meeting amber once more. There had been very few moments in the Mirialans short life in which she could so clearly see every failure, every mistake she had ever made, laid out neatly in front of her. What she wouldn’t have given to avoid her foolish act of running away.

"I'm weak and a failure to the order." she sobbed violently, the normally stoic facade she gave off crumbling beneath a tidal wave of emotion and despair.

[member="Vaylin"]

 

[Vaylin]

The admission brought a smile to Vaylin's face.

One of Saka's walls had broken down, or at least enough to let emotion through.

Acceptance and Despair.

"Good, now you finally understand. You are a failure to the Jedi, to your Master." The Zabrak paused, letting the words settle in Saka's mind. "But you aren't weak. If you were, you would've died in that forest."

If Saka looked up, she'd find Vaylin had stepped away and was interacting with something on her wrist.

"We'll make you stronger, something much more beyond a pathetic Jedi." Those were the last words Saka heard before she felt a slight prick of a needle and she slipped into slumber.

She'd awaken in a holding cell, large enough to sleep and walk in, but that was all. It would be the most common sight Saka would find, second being the interrogation room. Both would be her only sights for the next few months. Vaylin would spend time talking to Saka, chipping away at her mental and emotional walls. The Zabrak was not one for physical torment, at least not the one that had grown up from her days on Dxun. Over time the interrogation room was phased out. And Vaylin would talk to her prisoner from outside the cell, a shield humming quietly between them.

But one night, something different happened.

The shield keeping her imprisoned was shut off. It's soft humming turning into a whirl as it was disabled.

"Saka. Saka, wake up!"

A hooded stranger slipped into her cell, quickly moving to the Mirialan and attempting to rouse her from her sleep. From her lower view, Saka would have a clear sight line to the person's identity.

It wasn't her Master, but it still someone familiar, someone who knew her.

[member="Saka Amara"]​

 

[Ihsan]

After an eternity of complete darkness, the lights were on.

It took longer than it should have for her eyes to adjust to the sudden, searing brightness. It was as much agony as relief, but she was finally able to lift her head out of the restraints and look around at her surroundings.

The featureless, spotlessly pale room remained bland and featureless. The only difference was the uniform floodlights, broad and flush with the ceiling, that had lowered into place.

Odd.

She rubbed her eyes again and rose unsteadily to her feet while using the rescuer's arm to balance herself. It came as no small surprise that one of her people had somehow penetrated the bowels of this godforsaken place. Brave, even for a Jedi master of repute. Saka was surprised that the order had even sent anyone after her, though it must've been on the words of her master who was probably worried sick about his Mirialan padawans disappearance in Sith space. Maybe that was why the gregarious Wookie master she knew and loved was absent. Perhaps he was waiting for her on the rescue ship.

More probably, she thought glumly, Iakchi was probably long dead by now. Slain in some botched attempt at infiltrating Sith space. The thought made her queasy at the idea she could be indirectly responsible for it.

"What took you so long." Saka inquired wearily, lifting herself off the chair and onto the cold panelled floor.


[member="Vaylin"]

 

[Vaylin]

A few blue flashes of a lightsaber and the restraints keeping Saka down were severed. The hooded Jedi was immediately at her side, offering her aid to stand up.

"It was not easy, let me tell you young Saka." The Jedi smiled warmly beneath his hood. "But I'm glad to see you're still with us, relatively speaking anyway. How are you feeling?"

As he let Saka speak, and once she was ready to move, the pair were out of her cell and into the detention centre itself.

"When you never reported in, Master Iakchi went looking for you. Upon not finding a body he was convinced you were alive. He took it to the Silver Assembly..." The Jedi stopped, pausing for a moment to glance back at Saka. "But they were hesitant to greenlight a rescue operation."

"They were wary of potentially igniting a new conflict with the Sith Empire." And it wasn't said, but a little voice in Saka's head added what the Jedi wouldn't.

You are nothing to them. You're just an insignificant Padawan.

"Iakchi however, wasn't content with that answer. So he asked me to reach out to my more 'outside' contacts to find you." The Jedi paused as he peeked around a corner before carrying on. "There's only so many places the Sith take their prisoners, especially Jedi. From there it became a matter of infiltrating the location."

A hand was quickly raised, silently ordering Saka to stop where she was. They had reached a four-way intersection, and peering around the Jedi saw a pair of guards in their way.

"We're going to have to wait until they've stopped talking."

[member="Saka Amara"]​