Playtime of the Mind

[GABA]

Coruscant was always a noisy place for Ebberla, from before the fall of the Alliance, to now, the silent screams of the dead that were still trapped on the planet rang in Ebberla's ears. It was unsettling, there was no peace, only suffering.

The old Jedi temple had been re-fabricated to the preference of the Sith, it didn't really bother the Inquisitor too much, she viewed it as more of a ego, a power struggle to reclaim who was king of the mountain. She never felt 'at home' on Coruscant even during the time of height of the Alliance, but still strolled down the halls with an aura of confidence, forcing the acolytes and crusaders to avert their eyes from their superior.

The former Grand Master did admit the power she held over them was fairly enjoyable.

The padawan that was capture on Velmor was in a cell specially made for force-sensitives. Isolated in the lower levels of the temple, Ebberla made sure she had no contact from anyone else. It had been almost a week since anyone would have spoken to the padawan and Ebb was curious to see how much she had broken.

The cell door opened to reveal the padawan's cell behind the ray shield. She entered with the shield falling behind her and greeted the girl.

"Good morning, Anara."

 

[Tristyn]

For the past week Anara had been contemplating the reason why she was in the place she was in. She had no idea how she got here, or why she was here. All she had to think about was the vague memory of appearing in a cell, but certainly not this one. This place was much worse. For a week she had to get used to the unusually disturbing feeling through the Force. It didn't scare her, I just kept her wondering where she was. On occasion she would approach the ray shield in front of her and try to shout for help, but no one came. It was eerily quiet. It felt like silent hell.

"Good morning, Anara."

She ignored the sound at first, thinking it was another one of her voices in her head that she would sometimes hear, but it never got to her though. She just brushed her eyes and continued to stare at the cold floor she was sitting on. She heard the ray shields shutting down and then on again and in wonder she looked up. Now here was another woman standing in front of her, but she was sure it wasn't a vision. Anara could feel her presence in the Force, unlike before. Expressionless, she slowly stood up to look at the woman.

"Hello?"

 

[GABA]

Ebberla studied the padawan before acknowledging her reply. She was young, tangible, a perfect pawn for either the Sith or the Jedi. Though the woman did have to give it her, she was fairly strong, most prisoners couldn't stand the lack of interaction.

"First thing I would like to tell you, Anara, is that your Master is alive. In my care of course." The dark woman spoke, her words fell heavy, almost laced with venom, "Just as you are in my own care, with anyone else, you would have surely been tortured until you broke and depending on their mood, either executed or turned to the dark side."

The woman crossed her arms, pausing, letting her words sink for a moment before continuing, "Anara, do you believe yourself to be a Jedi?" Ebberla asked; she was sure it would catch the girl's attention, as most sith didn't bother with getting to know the enemy.

 

[Tristyn]

"First thing I would like to tell you, Anara, is that your Master is alive. In my care of course"

Anara held her hands to together and sighed. This had confirmed one of her theories for being here. This was indeed real and she really is being held captive. All she had to think about during was those vague memories of her engagement on Velmor and her master's apparent abandonment of her. She had enough time to think about it and get over it to the point when it no longer affected her. She had moved on. Without a change in her dull tone, she answered,"Oh. That's great" She looked down at the floor again, refusing to look the woman in the eyes.

"Just as you are in my own care, with anyone else, you would have surely been tortured until you broke and depending on their mood, either executed or turned to the dark side."

"Either one would've been fine for me, but I guess execution is less painful"

"Anara, do you believe yourself to be a Jedi?", she looked up to looked up to see her. This thought was rather conflicting as she hadn't had much time to get to learn about the Jedi or meet that many. For sure she was though a bit by her parents, but she was way too young back then to even care that much. Her master hadn't helped much either, aside from the occasional lecture on some of the choices she makes, like going to Velmor, which was her idea. The only thing she had learned from him was actual fighting skills, but other than that, she knew nothing of the Jedi.

She had taken several minutes just thinking about this and finally answered,"I-I....I don't know. Probably not"

 

[GABA]

The padawan took a while to respond, Ebb had expected a quicker response, but there were thoughts turning in her mind that she ached to read, but kept some self control to see if she could get the girl to speak first. Though when she did respond, Ebb was surprised, for as feisty as the two of them had been on Velmor, she was certain she would agree she was a Jedi.

Regardless, Ebb saw many possibilities on where this conversation could go and go fairly quickly. The Corellian frowned internally about a possibility that she would start sobbing again.

"Probably not? Feeling self-doubt? Why don't you think you're a Jedi? You're certainly hanging with them, so that tells me you are or you're a really good at lying to yourself and everyone else." Ebb spoke.

 

[Tristyn]

It was a bit difficult to think about, but Anara still managed to answer fairly quickly, even if she stuttered a bit.

"No, no....it's not that...or maybe it is....but...I...my master doesn't make me feel like a Jedi.....he just teaches me some moves....calls me his padawan every now and then....but otherwise.....I don't know. I certainly don't feel like a Jedi...but I wouldn't really know....he hasn't done much to teach me what it is to be a Jedi anyway..."

She couldn't care less if she was denouncing her master, but it was true. Her master had two other padawans already. She couldn't even remember how she came to be his padawan. It literally just happened. Perhaps because she was just as reckless as her sister? and just as hopeless? She didn't know.

 

[GABA]

"Do you expect your master to hold your hand the entire time?" Ebb asked quirking an eyebrow to the girl, "I would imagine you were a little stronger than that in order to be picked as a padawan, or the Order has really fallen since I've been in it." The Inquisitor added, looking to pull the girl's self-doubts to the surface. It was working, Ebb could feel it. Ebb was silent for a moment, watching the girl's face, looking for hints of changes to her thoughts.

"Does it make you annoyed that your Master doesn't devote as much time as you would like to your training? I mean that could be quite frustrating, hand holding or not, I mean, I would be jealous if my Master gave more attention to the other students than I or even allowed me to go to a Sith controlled world when my Master knew better..." Ebb gave a shrug.

"Sounds like you could have had it better..."

 

[Tristyn]

Now that this woman had mentioned it, why had the Jedi invited her in? Sure she pushed a bunch of guys through a window by accident with the Force, but somehow they kinda liked it. She had remembered how enthusiastic the Jedi masters and rebels were to bring her aboard the Jedi cruiser and show her around, and they were even more excited to hear that she accepted their offer to join. They really did sound desperate to train more Jedi. She had noticed immediately the lack of Jedi knights and masters, and instead there were 30 padawans for each master. No wonder they went straight to learning combat techniques

It was pretty sad to think about it, and she definitely showed how she felt as she frowned. If she hadn't gotten captured she might've ended up as cannon fodder.. Oh and that thought hurt even more. The Jedi sounded kind of low at this point. They were done in her mind. Wait, what am I thinking? She snapped back to reality minutes later.

"Um..oh yes...I guess so"