Ask Those Left in Bondage

[Vex]

This is the one, ma'am.

Vex was back on Belsavis, descended from Castle Gaol to tour the prisons she was now responsible for. She was flanked by four members of her Detention Force: men and women she trusted to assess and locate the most dangerous of criminals. And their first report was a rather interesting one. Through the helm she wore, she stared through a ray-shielded prison cell at a human man with wild, unkempt hair and faded scars on the side of his face. He was young—younger than her, perhaps, but not much so. And she saw immediately why her guards had summoned her.

This one had the Force.

"Can he hear me?" she asked the guard at her side.

We think so, ma'am.

"Then let us remove all doubt." She turned to face the prisoner. The ray shields would protect her from the Force. Not that she feared a man in his state while she was still so fresh. "You—what is your name prisoner? And where are you from?"

If worst came to worst, she could always bury him in the new prison she was having built. The one more explicitly designed for Force sensitives. @Taz

 

[Asher]

The shell of a man laid on cold steel. Curled into a ball, holding himself like a child as he tried in vain to keep himself from shivering. For the third time in as many days, he assumed, he heard the sounds of boots in lockstep as the walked down the stairs and cold durasteel.

He glanced over his shoulder through matted hair. Eyes barely focusing on the newest figure. He felt something pull at him, the force perhaps. It had been so long..

As the stranger drew near the ray shield to face him, his eyes fixed on the visor. Mustering what little strength he had left within him. The warbled sound of the voice scrambler demanded his name. Eyes squinted in confusion, and self reflection. The fuck was his name.

"Asher, I think." The half-sephi finally answered. "Who are you ?"

@Mockingjay

 

[Vex]

"Your captor," she replied, deliberately provocative. She would learn little coddling this man. "For now, you may simply refer to me as the Warden."

She flicked her fingers through the air as if she were playing a piano. A near perfect copy of herself materialized inside the cell. An illusion. One whose eyes she could see through. She was getting better at this sort of magic, and it helped her to get a better look at the man. Her illusion circled him, arms crossed. She it made it appear to float rather than walk.

"You've been down here for some time," she said now through her illusion. "Judging by the grime on you, I'd say at least a few years. Maybe more." Her illusion knelt so that she could take the prisoner in face-to-face. "Who put you in this place? Can you remember?"

Already, she was considering what she would do if he could not remember. She was still gaining confidence with Sith magic. Memory probing was a delicate matter she was uncertain of succeeding with. But this man was a prisoner, and she would have to try some time. @Taz

 

[Asher]

If she expected a reaction from him for her preferred title, the woman was left wanting. He might have rolled his eyes if he wasn't so damn tired. "Come to take stock then, Warden" He asked, putting his own provoking infuses on her title, slash name at the moment.

The armored woman's sudden appearance in the cell caught him off guard however, and the once proud Jedi visibly flinched. He'd witnessed such powers before but this woman was not that one, not the bitch in the old broken Mask. As sudden as the fear was it would be gone just as quickly. He shored up his resolve, facing the floor now as to not give this woman and inch.

He expected torture, or perhaps a beating. Instead she just continued to circle him. Like a Lothcat, toying with a field mouse. And Just as her sudden appearance in the cell had caused a visible reaction, so did her new questions. A twitch, a squint of the eyes. "How fucking long?" He mumbled to himself. "Your friends attacked a prison, just like this one." He scoffed. "However long that's been."

He tried to focus, to remember. "My Captors," he finally spat, "Seem to come and go, and every time a new and colorful uniform." This time directing his eyes to the guards standing vigilantly at the Warden's side. Ready to strike at the phantom that was his own ability. "Good little dogs." He muttered.

This new woman could press with her capable abilities within the dark arts. But there was little need. All she would find were ghosts of an order long before her time. Lords and Marauders likely lost to battles with Jedi, or from within.

@Mockingjay

 

[Vex]

Ah, so there was a bit of fire in him after all. And hatred too. Good. Then she would not need to use her magic yet. Not to pry his mind open and empty it out. But an angry former Jedi—judging by the sound of his predicament—could be more useful for more than just information.

"And what of your friends?" Vex said through her illusion, resuming its pacing around the man. "What of the Jedi who left you in a cell to rot?" She chuckled darkly. "Yes, regail me with the sins of my Sith fellows while Alexandra Voran struts about the galaxy as Grand Master ruining just about everything her fingers touch." She stopped in front of him. "And your brethren follow her, like 'good little dogs.'"

Vex beckoned to her guards through her true body. "Take the lift upstairs to the mess hall and bring down a hot meal and something to wet our captive's throat," she instructed. "I'd rather him not keel over on me while we talk."

She turned back, now viewing him through the eyes of her illusion again, and regarded him pitifully. "How would you like to be outside this cell?" she asked. "I can't say it is much of sunny day, but any fresh air would be better than down here, no?" @Taz

 

[Asher]

At the question of friends, the long lost Jedi's mind drifted to thoughts of friends he lost. Names like Nashyr, Nier, and Ky. Fellow Jedi lost or killed in a pointless effort to shield the galaxy from it's sins. "Gone" He answered plainly.

He rolled on his shoulder and put his back to the stone wall so he could face the real Inquisitor asking the questions, and not the dancing illusion. She did managed to hit a nerve with the mention of leaving him here to rot. That so far as he was aware of, no one had even tried to find him, let alone save him.

"I would, but as you can clearly see your predecessor was good at his job." He said as he pointed his index finger and lassoed it around. Clearly pointing out the lack of view screens or speakers in his cell or even on this level for that matter. "I did hear something about the botched attack on Yavin some time back though, how'd that go ?" He said with a half grin through his matted hair but quickly lost it as she twisted his words.

As she pulled away he thought he'd heard her mention food and drink to one of her well dressed minions. The words causing his stomach to betray him. It had easily been days since his last meal.

He was even more surprised by her next offer. She wouldn't really let him out world she? He thought. "I think you're fucking with me. I just can't figure out why."

@Mockingjay

 

[Vex]

"Because it's fun," Vex said plainly, recalling her illusion.

A moment later, one of her guards returned with a tray of food and a mug of water. It wasn't the slop they usually served the prisoners. This was from the mess hall used by her employees. With a flick of her finger, she lowered the ray shield and let the guard sit the tray and mug on the ground before the prisoner.

She didn't turn it back on. "And do you know what else I find fun? History," she continued. "So let's have a lesson, shall we? Yavin IV still stands. But do you know what has happened out there in the meantime?" She didn't need holograms. With her illusionary spells, she could tell a story by simply showing him, conjuring the images from wisps of red smoke. "Kashyyk is nothing more than charcoal, now. The Free Worlds Alliance has splintered and is a fraction of its former size. The Republic has outlawed the Jedi religion. And your glorious leader—the one who has sent no one to rescue you—has become a bitter recluse with dreams of a Jedi empire of her own."

She waved in the direction of the tray of food. "Eat. Unlike you Jedi, I am not wasteful."

Regardless of what he did with the food she offered him, she took the moment to ponder his fate. A Jedi was a useful test subject. But converts made the most powerful Sith. And this man already resented his Jedi friends. She sensed it, even if he wouldn't outright admit it... yet. "Perhaps our meeting is a new opportunity for you," Vex said. "Your Jedi friends left you to languish. I bet you would like an opportunity to let them know how that felt." She shrugged. "Maybe I would be willing to give you that opportunity."

Vex took two steps backwards and rested a hand on the door trigger. "Or you could stay here. It makes no difference to me." @Taz

 

[Asher]

He had nothing to say at her cold blunt retort. Even if he did, her attention would shift to the guard who had returned. Asher could smell the meat and fresh bread. This bitch didn't pull punches. As the scent slowly made it's way to filling his nostrils, his stomach once again gave his hunger a voice. rumbling like grinding gears on a broken droid.

The ray shield quickly lowered. His mind told him to bolt, take a chance, find freedom. But the hunger, it glued his eyes to the tray. He froze, like a deer in speeder lights. He sat there. As soon as the tray was set before him he lunged for it. Snatching the meat first, devouring as much as she could, knowing this woman might take it away at any moment to toy with him a little more.

He watched as the wisps of smoke turned to the planet of Kashyyk, and then slowly burned. Not for the first time, if he remembered his history correctly. He would have thought her little story to be just that. But even in his current state, he had felt the ripples cascade across the force. The more she continued the lesson, he deeper his sense of betrayal.

She had to remind him to eat, he could hardly chew. A bitterness grew within him. But the hunger forced him to take a few more bites of meat, and swallow the roll or bread nearly whole. Before drinking every drop of water in the mug.

He stood slowly then. Rising to meet the guard, before slowly meeting this Warden step for step. As the smoke cleared he was left wordless. But gave her a simple nod.

@Mockingjay

 

[Vex]

Vex could respect a man who knew when he was beaten... and when to take an offered opportunity. "Follow me," she said, more softly now, and, flanked by her guards, they left the prison.

A turbolift took them to a wing of the castle where she hosted her guards. They all had living quarters here with plenty of room for expansion. She expected to get more men before long. "I don't imagine you want to live on a planet where you've been captive for so long," she mentioned. "But you're welcome to these quarters for now. There is a shower at the end of the hall, and fresh clothes in the empty quarters I'm offering you." They were the black smocks and loose trousers used by her Detention Force whenever they were on leisure time; but she supposed he would find anything better than the grime he had been wasting away in. "Freshen up, shave if you like, and then come meet me downstairs. I think there are some ways we might be able to help each other."

She left him with that. Vex knew the temptation to run would overwhelm his senses. But her actions were deliberate. The good-cop, bad-cop routine had its merits. A starved, grime-covered prisoner was likely to be defiant at first. She had whittled down his defenses, made him feel small... and now, she would give him what he wanted. A soft bed, clean clothes, food to soothe the ache in his belly, water to wash himself with. If he controlled his baser urges, and came to her instead of futilely trying to escape, he would be rewarded.

Simple prison psychology. Though, she hoped, with time, she could come to see him as more than a simple experiment. If he truly converted, became Sith, he could one day become a valuable ally—a commodity he was sorely in need of right about now. @Taz

 

[Asher]

Countless time in a cage had done what no amount of torture had. It had worn him down. The thought flickered to resist, to fight now that he had a measure of freedom. But he also knew he didn't have the strength to fight off even the guards in his current state. Instead the broken Jedi simply gave another nod, and followed the Warden.

Asher remained silent through the lift ride to the new area of the fortress. In a matter of hours this woman had shown him more decency then any other had shown him in years. As they left the turbolift she would show him a living area, dormitory rooms not unlike those he was used to at the Jedi temple. Perhaps a little better than those he remembered.

The half-sephi would listen to her offer, but say nothing. When Vex finished speaking, he only gave another small nod. She retreated, her dogs in lock step with her.

He was dumbfounded for a moment. So sure she was he would not run, she didn't even bother to leave a guard. Part of him wanted to sure. But to where, to who. His fellow Jedi ? No Master came for him, the way the Sith had come to their assassin. They had all moved on careless to his suffering. But this woman, offered him a shower.

Asher pealed off the rags that were once his robes and let them fall to the floor at his feet as he walked. He wasted no time, stepping into the shower, letting the water wash away the literal years of his life as it got hotter. Then he stayed in until it got cold all over again. Then he trimmed the beard to something a little more respectable, and his hair to his mid neck before pulling it back. Next would come the clothes.

When he was finally semi-human once more. He wondered a bit. Taking in the scenery of what had been his home for the past several years.

@Mockingjay

 

[Vex]

Vex found him reflecting quietly. He looked different. Not whole, but human, at least. She could work with human. In her hand, she held an object he would be intimately familiar with. But she didn't offer it to him yet. "You must have questions," she said after a moment of silence passed between them. "The outside world has changed since you've been in that cell. You may ask any you like. But first, I have one last thing to say to you."

She handed him a black handle. It was a lightsaber. But not the one he had used as a Jedi. This one contained a bled crystal and would react to his inner darkness. It was insane to hand a prisoner such a weapon, but Vex never did anything without purpose. She was going to offer him something the Jedi never had. And he was going to take it—because she could already sense his weary mind wrapping fully around the implications of his imprisonment.

His lack of rescue.

"Take this," she said, "and you are free. I can't stop you from using that freedom to return to your Jedi friends. I can't stop you from purifying the crystal inside and turning the blade against the Empire." She looked up at him, and she wondered if he could imagine her molten eyes meeting his beneath her helmet. "And I won't stop you. Freedom is your choice. Its a choice we all have. And if the Jedi is where you feel the most free, you should return to them." But he wouldn't. She knew that much already. "Or... you can stay with us. Stay here. Let me show you the way to open your mind to greater possibilities."

Beneath her helmet, her eyes lit up violet. This spell was more subtle. He would feel no probing on his mind, for it was simply meant to help certain memories resurface. And she let him feel the moments before his capture again. The hope he had felt that someone would come. Someone had to come. But they didn't. "All I ask in return is that you take revenge on all those who left you to rot," she finished. "They should be made to pay for every year of your life that was stolen by this place and their inaction." @Taz

 

[Asher]

He was standing at a floor to ceiling window watching the snow fall be turned to vapor by the lava flows around the fortress. There was something symbolic to him about that. The light will try to consume the darkness, but sooner or later. The darkness will flow, and the rivers will run red.

He felt her approach before he even heard her, already he was getting stronger. He turned to meet her, his eyes meeting hers. Even as they hid behind the visor. He was not so surprised by her willingness to answer any question he might have, and he did have one or two. However, what she would gift to him was something truly unexpected.

He took hold of the weapon as he continued to meet Vex's gaze. He could feel the bled crystal inside, it's pain, it's suffering and betrayal. It matched his own. Suddenly he felt the rush of fear, as his old ship plunged to the planet below. Felt the stun bolts. The mask of the Eternal, ever looming.

Asher ignited the red blade and slowly rotated it between himself and Vex. He felt the heat of it, warming him. The power it offered him, the freedom that had been returned to him. Then, he returned the blade to the hilt, and held it at his side.

He remembered what she had said before, "Why?" He said with a slight pause before continuing, "Your council and that creature you call the Eternal would sooner gut you and your men then see me free. What are you getting out of this.?"

@Mockingjay

 

[Vex]

"Then it's a good thing the Council and the Eternal are dead," Vex said, and she let the words fall like the hammer they were. She was silent for a moment after, allowing them to truly sink in, before she continued. "The Empress herself charged me with this prison. Raised me up, made me a Sith Master. She trusts me to oversee this small part of her vast Empire, and I would not make a move that I considered to be a danger to her or anything that she's built." Vex was circling him now, like a shark below the silhouette of a seal. "I let you out because I can sense your thoughts easier than if you had written them in ink on your skin."

Her eyes glowed again beneath her helmet, a spell that brought with it a surge of new memories. She wanted him to see everyone who had abandoned him. She wanted him to think about all the times he sat in the cell and wondered at what his friends had done. And once he remembered those thoughts, she flicked her wrist out in front of him and cast a second spell that would answer that question.

A swirl of violet smoke surged forward and took shape. "I know you want to interrogate them," she said as images of Jedi broke free of the mist and showed to him the Knights who were responsible for killing innocent Wookiees during the incident on Kashyyyk. "I know you want to ask them why they failed you—why they failed the galaxy." The image shifted, imploding on itself and reforming into Alexandra Voran using the Force to enter the mind of Supreme Chancellor Emil Ro during a meeting of the Senate. The very event that had gotten the Jedi removed form the Galactic Senate. "And I know you want to make them pay. You're resisting it because some small part of you is still programed by the Jedi."

She snapped her fingers and the images evaporated. "Don't believe me?" Vex asked. "Go and ask them. Ask Voran herself, if you must. She's sickeningly honest about the Jedi Order's crimes. About their failures. She'll tell you. And when she does, you'll have all the proof you need to join us." Now, she strategically lowered her voice, softened it. "When my friends are in danger—" She thought now of Altair "I go to their rescue, as do a dozen other Sith."

She rested a hand on his shoulder and met his gaze. "When you accept that truth, you will see that there is only one right decision to make. And then you will help me to kill my enemies. That's what I get out of this."

And if he failed, she would hunt him down herself. She left that part out of the pitch. @Taz

 

[Asher]

"Dead?" He questioned. Perhaps more sternly then he intended. But he could scarcely believe the idea. The Eternal was his tormentor the first year or more he was locked way. Just as he was getting used to that news, Vex mentioned an Empress, an Empire. He head was spinning with the realization that everything he fought for, was for nothing.

The longer he thought about it, the more it haunted him. He held out, suffered. All for nothing. His friends, fellow Jedi, people he grew up with, trained beside. They had abandoned him here, they had abandon the code. For what ? Visions of Jedi past circled his mind like a spinning clock. Before he knew it he was seething with a sense of anger and betrayal. It was palpable.

His focus shifted to the illusions before him as Vex continued to speak. He was blind to her spell, to the spider's web she was carefully weaving in his mind. The images shifted from the Knight's slaughtering hundreds, to the Grand Master herself dominating the mind of an innocent.

Vex snapped her fingers, and Asher met her gaze with tears in his now yellow/red hazel-ing eyes. "I believe you." He said behind gritted teeth. And he did, he believed in her words, and in her loyalty. Because, why wouldn't he. She had freed him, fed him, ARMED him. Both with weapons and knowledge. He believed she would have come for him then, just as she had now.

"You want me to hunt them, because I was one of them." He began, more a statement then a question. "Seek them out and question them, perhaps by force." He started to piece it together now, as he continued, "and then kill them. Along with your enemies?" He paused a moment, just as she did when she told him of the Eternal. Then, "You want be to be your Inquisitor?"

@Mockingjay

 

[Vex]

Vex let a moment pass in silence. Her old Master had often told her that the best ideas were usually supplied by your mark, and he had been spectacularly right in this case. Her own Inquisitor. That was... an interesting proposition. And one she was very quickly coming to like. "What I want does not matter," Vex lied. She could not openly want this. He had to come to her. "What matters is what you want. If you pledge yourself to me, I will make you my Inquisitor. And in exchange for your services, I will help to undo the Jedi programming that has rotted your mind. I will teach you the dark arts, so that you may better use your powers."

That was the other thing her Master had taught her—her Master and her father both, actually. When issuing a deal, you had to make your position look more inviting than the alternative. What did he stand to gain if he returned to the Jedi? Vex didn't think he knew. Or he might not even want to consider that, given what his friends had done to him. So, what did he stand to gain if he joined her and became a citizen of the Empire? Power, revenge, maybe even respect. Yes, she was satisfied with this offer. It was tempting enough.

"The choice is yours," she said simply, and left the rest to him. @Taz

 

[Asher]

The moment of silence passed slowly, and the former Jedi felt a pit build within him. Had that not been what this was all for? Was she truly just toying with him? His mind was suddenly spinning, confusion slowly twisting into frustration. Then building into something darker.

Finally, she spoke. Vex would not outright admit it, but he knew the truth. She danced around it, just as his Jedi Masters before her. Do or do not, the choice is yours. But it was all bullshit. Join or suffer. Jedi or Sith, light or dark. The method was the same. Well he had joined the Jedi, and he did suffer. For years. So there was really only one choice.

Asher took a knee before Vex and bowed his head. "What is your bidding, My Master."

@Mockingjay

 

[Vex]

Vex let him kneel, but only for a moment before motioning for him to rise again. "Rise," she said. "You are a free man and a Sith under my protection. You may stay here, if you desire. Or take one of the ships in this castle's hangar and go wherever within the Empire you please. I have only one mission for you: stamp out the Jedi wherever you find them."

She reached for a holo-communicator in her utility belt and held it out in front of her. When she triggered it, a pair of Jedi she had encountered on Ansion shimmered to life above it. One was a young human male, and the other was a green-skinned Mirialun female. She had had a hatred of them ever since the blunders of the Sith commander on Ansion had necessitated their retreat. But it was time to begin hunting them down an finishing the job.

"If you encounter these Jedi," Vex continued, "I want to know about it. You do not have to kill them for me — just tell me where they are. I will deal with them both myself." She deactivated the hologram, removed the fob containing them, and handed it to him. "Any other Jedi you encounter—bring them here. This castle will soon haunt the nightmares of every Jedi who dares cross our Empire. Who dares cross you."

Those instructions were simple enough, and would leave him free to take on any mission that would advance him within the Empire. She hoped that he would become a great Sith. Because from now, he was not her prisoner, and not an ex-Jedi, but one of her fellow Sith. The dark side would be stronger for his contribution. "One last thing," Vex said. "If we are going to be associates, we should know each other's names. You may refer to me as 'Vex.' And you are?" @Taz

 

[Asher]

The move was perhaps a bit over the top, but it felt appropriate to the moment. He was only on his kneel a moment and she would ask him to rise. Asher stood, and once more met her visor concealed eyes as he listened to her instruction.

"Thank you, Master. This place is all I have known for years, crazy as it sounds I see no reason to change that yet. The living quarters you offered before will suffice. As will a capable shuttle craft." Asher said warmly. Then he watched as she displayed the holo. The images of the two Jedi would appear and he would pay careful attention.

The two Jedi in question were not familiar to him, nor did they seem to be anything particularly special. But if his new Master wanted them hunted down, he would see it done. "I will make them a priority, and fill my empty cell with those who left me to perish in it."

Now, once again he had purpose, a mission. Something to live for and not just survive for lack of ability to end it all. But he will soon test if others might have that ability. In that moment, seemingly at the same time she herself realized it. He realized he pledged himself to the service of a woman who's name he didn't know.

"Vex? Fitting." He said sharply. Because she was very much still a question to him. "They used to call me, Asher. It is truly a pleasure, Vex."

@Mockingjay

 

[Vex]

A pleasure, indeed.

Vex's physical response was a sharp nod. "I look forward to seeing what you do with your new life, Asher," she said to him, "as much as I look forward to a productive partnership. Should I be of any assistance, you know where to find me. My advice?" Her voice softened. He was no longer a hostile enemy. And if she wanted to keep him in her service, she was going to have to show him some good will. "Rest today. Go for a walk, get your bearings. The war is not going anywhere and you'll need to be in top form to accomplish our goals."

She allowed her eyes then to roam over his form. Once he was properly adjusted to the dark side, he would make a formidable weapon. The Jedi Order would regret what they had done to him, and this pleased her greatly. With another nod, she said, "If there's nothing more, you're dismissed."

Time to let him do something with the life she had given back to him. @Taz

 

[Asher]

Vex's voice was almost a warm per, that seemed to warm the previous cold edges of her tone. The tone both chilled his spine and warmed his blood all at once. Asher took a deep slow breath in through his nose and gave her a sly smile. "I think I will take your advice, Master."

He could feel her eyes on him. It seemed the shower did him more than a few favors. He gave her another smile, "Perhaps when you have the time, you can teach me some of your dark talents." He answered, his tone was playfully coy. With that he would give her a slight bow of his head and shoulders before taking his leave.

//End

@Mockingjay