020 - Week 3 Day 4: Forged in Darkness

Groaning Jaslyn came awake pushing up on the...cot? Where am I? What is going on? Looking around Jaslyn noted the stark lack of decor. The stone walls indicated she wasn't on a ship. Where has that Sith taken me? 


Getting to her knees Jaslyn put a hand on the wall. Not an illusion. She tapped on the wall and it gave a solid knock. She began to look around feeling the wall and tapping to see if there were any weak points. She discovered a latrine that was blocked off for privacy, or the illusion of it. With no luck on the walls she went to the door, which did not open. What I wouldn’t do to have Xid’s power right now. She rubbed her chest at the memory. Sometimes she thought he was still alive but that couldn't be he'd been at the temple the day it was raided.


Jaslyn started going through the motions of her forms. The fluid grace of the motions helped calm her rising anxiety and anger. Anger that she needed to diffuse. Anger she felt burning inside waiting. 


Shae appeared leaning against the wall. <What are you doing?>


Not even glancing Jaslyn answered the woman in her head like she’d been practicing for months it became so easy it was second nature. <What does it look like Mom?>


<Since you asked… It looks like you're struggling to contain your anger.> Shae rolled her neck and stretched her arms over her head.


-


Caxal grunted as he finished up his forms. He scowled as he thought back on his master’s latest message; filled with the usual threatening tone and a staunch dismissal of Caxal’s questioning and suggestions. Enpice listened to none but a select few. As he had been focused on war, Caxal’s master had raised the strongest Warriors. Of course he had others under him but few could deny the strange diligence the man focused on Caxal with.

”I don’t care how long it takes, boy. Break her. Then bring her to me.” The elder Sith growled. “Do as I say, for you know the consequences of doing otherwise. I will not hesitate to turn them on you. Wipe out the other Jedi on Ryloth, then bring this Jaslyn to me.”


Sighing, Caxal recalled his blades to him, cracking his neck as he headed to the cell holding his prisoner. The sooner he completed his objectives the better. His master was even more brutal than most to those who failed him. He opened the door and leaned against it. “So, you’re the one he had that Bond with. Can’t say I’m impressed, given the lack of skill between you two.”


Dropping her Form exercises Jaslyn squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. "I don't need to impress you. And if you want to believe he was my Master then you can. What do you want with me?" She pushed down her anger attempting to bury it.


Moving to sit on the cot Jaslyn noticed that Shae had left. Pulling her feet up on the cot she sat with her legs folded in front of her. "What is your obsession with this 'bond' you're talking about? Am I supposed to know what you're talking about? Honestly you sound pretty confident about something I don’t think is even there." She had to protect Takryn. If he were to find out what happened to her she'd have to protect him from himself. 


Caxal’s grin was feral as he opened his connection to the Force and spoke two words. ”Hello there.”


Scrambling off the cot Jaslyn backed to the far wall shaking her head. "No. I don't even know you."

“I gained a lot of information from that fight, Little Padawan.” Caxal chuckled. “Doesn’t matter if you know me or not, which you will once I bring you to my Master. Now, I highly suggest that you cooperate. I’ve got a handle on what’s going on but I’ll need to do some hunting before I can leave. So behave.”


Heart pounding with as much fear as with anger. "Behave?! Are you serious?! I'm not some pet you overgrown Hutt-spawn!! Let me tell you I'm not going to cooperate in the slightest."


Leaning forward Jaslyn made a back and forth gesture between the two of them. "I guarantee I know more about what is going on here than you do." Smirking at the Sith she felt a tiny bit better. 


“Oh do you now.” He raised an eyebrow. “What could I possibly not know, seeing as I orchestrated the downfall of your ship by ripping it clean out of the sky?” Caxal seemed almost bored by her, as if she wasn’t important.


Pointing at the Sith, Jaslyn answered in a smarmy tone. "There was no crew manifest that had mine or my… fellow Jedi listed. So happy accident, for you, at least. I find it hard to believe that I'm so important as to seek me out. I am a Padawan. Not a famous one either. I have done nothing extraordinary. I fail to see why you took the trouble to collect me. If you think to convert me then you're in for a fight. I will not go gently." She had a feeling that this was only the beginning. 


He let out a laugh. “You’ve got it partially right.” He gave her a feral grin. “I can sense many things around me. One of them is the ability to sense how connected someone is to the Force. Take for example that other Jedi. He held a strong connection to Light but I could see how easy it would be to turn him to the Dark Side. But you, you’re a bit different. I find it intriguing, how someone could express both sides, as you already have seen and touched the Dark, yet you don’t use it… My master is looking for Jedi, to bring them into his fold. I wonder how you will fare.”


Immediately Jaslyn responded. "No." Her voice was firm and clear. "I refuse." Shaking her head stiffly, her hands clenched in the blanket that covered the cot betraying her emotions.

“It is not often someone refuses my Master and his wishes. They almost always end up dead. The only ones who survive are other Darths.” He shrugged. “He would kill you and you would suffer a very painful death.”


Jaslyn looked away. "I would die anyway. I wouldn't be the same person. And that would be before the Jedi tracked me down. Not that-" Her voice lashed with contempt. She stopped abruptly.

“Not that what?” He chuckled. “I wonder. What would happen if I made your lover fall first then, hmm? If I shoved him so far into the Darkness that he would never see Light again?”


Jaslyn’s eyes snapped back to the Sith. She leapt off the cot to stand before him and glared up at her jailer. "You will not touch him. If you do you will regret the day your parents laid eyes on one another. I would be your worst nightmare come true Sith." The Force practically burned with the heat of her anger. Her once gray eyes shot through with strands of gold that glowed as if molten. She was tense as if she wished to strike but held back.


And he had won this battle. “I have no recollection of my parents. I was left as all Sith children are at the academy. But you, girly, aren’t near as strong as I am. Your power is uncontrollable to you, harming you as it does everything around you with no real distinction.” He bent down to get in her face, his own eyes glowing crimson. “You are a worm. And I am the hawk that soars overhead. Do not forget your place. Do not test me because I will not hold back. You are only alive because I was commanded to do so. I’d rather kill the lot of you Jedi, and let the Force sort it all out.”


Something pushed at Jaslyn and as he got in her face she didn't flinch away. "Then do it. Because I am more than ready to die. Unless of course you're afraid of a worm? And hawks don't eat worms. Sparrows do. Tiny little sparrows." She knew this was going to get her in trouble. Her mouth usually did and her attitude when provoked was never quite this bad but it could come close.

Caxal pushed with his hand, slamming her against the wall. In moments the world around Jaslyn closed in and she felt a sudden pain, like every inch of her body was on fire, each neuron firing off pain signals as Caxal slipped through her defenses and into her head. “You aren’t as strong as you believe, Padawan. Remember there is always someone above you. Remember this pain. For it is what I had to endure at your age. And I have lived a very long time.” He threw her into the bed and just crossed his arms as he shook his head. It was obvious to him how easy she was to manipulate and if she could not endure this small pain, which he had convinced her body of being there, she would not be fit to survive what was to come.


Slammed against the wall the breath left Jaslyn’s body with a grunt. Suddenly it felt like her body was on fire. She wanted to scream at the sensation. She knew that it was a punishment that came from a Bond.


The crushing realization that he had taken what was not his stilled her breath. She had not believed it before now. He had Takryn's Bond, or at least part of it. Her nerve endings screaming at her seemed a fitting way to find out what depths she could sink to. Or would she float? Only one way to tell. 


Gritting her teeth Jaslyn held her breath. She rolled her head in agony but her stubbornness kept her silent. As the pain receded Jaslyn sucked in a breath only to have it rush out again as he tossed her to the cot. "Pain? I'll have more than enough of that after you. Not something I experienced much of till the last few months. Still that was agony. But it feels the same whether it is Sith or Jedi delivering it. I will hand it to you that was by far the worst physical pain I've ever felt." She flinched with an aftershock as she slowly got up.


Tilting her chin up and standing straight Jaslyn raised an eyebrow in question. "Now what? More pain? Pain that I'm sure some of the Jedi would happily give me? You know I'm not sure if they stoop to your level, or you to theirs. Exactly the same." 


Caxal smiled. “You’re resilient, Good. Have a nice dream, little one.” He proceeded to shut off her senses one by one, starting with her sight, taste, hearing, olfactory and then intensified her touch, drastically increasing the pain she felt while consumed by the darkness. Should she find herself free from the torment she would see that Caxal had left her there, for he was already plotting his next moves as he was to hunt the Jedi on the planet.


As her senses shut off Jaslyn attempted not to panic. That fell through as soon as the Sith turned up the pain. Being blind and deaf while in agony gave way to panic. Her breathing became rapid as well as her heart rate. If she had the air to scream she would have, however she did not.


Falling to her hands and knees Jaslyn attempted to breathe easier. Unable to control her breathing she passed out. Her brain went through a reset to process the extra stimuli the added sensation of pain pulled her back to reality. She would not find solace in unconsciousness. 


Waking with a groan, which Jaslyn couldn't hear could only feel vibrate through her. The pain was about to push her over the tipping point. She breathed shakily through the pain and she felt the tiniest bit drift away. She pushed at that feeling and it retreated giving her the full measure again.


Gritting her teeth and breathing through it again she felt the pain lift again. This time she concentrated on breathing and it was as if tiny bit by tiny bit the pain started to peel away. It became tolerable and stopped. She didn't push it, just tried to focus on gathering her other senses.