The troopers shook the young Xid awake, followed by loud barks to rise. Slowly the youth had started to stir with a soft moan. His mind still hazy and hurt, pain riddled his aroused subconscious into faint awareness. His hand reached for the source of his pain, a lump where the Transhadon’s fist connected upon the back of his head as he hissed, ache shot from where his fingers brushed and caused them to withdraw. The touch had done little to help ease his suffering. His booted feet curled underneath before strong, impatient hands shoved him to stand then towards the Cell door at blaster point.

His vision caught the decapitated body of Taia for a moment. She was gone…the realization seemed to stab him in the chest that soon faded, his mind slightly glad her suffering was over and now she was with the Force once again. She was somewhere better. He stared a bit longer then needed at the discarded body before the trooper next to him grew irked at his slowness. Again, another rough shove send the Padawan moving, his eyes dart quickly towards the sick Jedi’s Cell only to noted Allanar’s absence, a slight worry budded from it had followed him in his exit.
 
Of course the trip felt like it went from one end of the ship then to the other, ending back where he originally started: the Cell Blocks. When the doors to his left hissed open, Xid was then shoved in and placed into the nearest cell to the door. He fought to be careful enough not to stumble over his own feet when his ears caught the energy doors instantly rise, his body turned to watch the troopers exit once more. It seemed he was the last Jedi to be escorted here for now which made the Padawan relax a bit. His eyes looked towards the other cells, mentally scanned each of his new cellmate but had a problem seeing who was in the cell across him. Once he was sure the troopers weren’t coming back, Xid’s hand slammed the button that released the energy doors then stepped into the large main section. He was still slightly weak from Sish’s encounter so his hand steadied himself against the wall along the way. The boy had a faint plead it was who he wanted to be and that gave him some strength.
 
When Xid finally managed to arrive, his eyes brightened to see Allanar despite the fact he was slight ill. At least he wasn’t alone and suffering, The Padawan thought gratefully. His feet shuffled towards the identical sink within the cell once more. Xid mentally groaned to realize he had left his last sleeve within the first cell and now needed to another, his head turned to the shivering Allanar from corner of his eye. Leaned against the hard sink edge, his fingers reached upwards his second sleeve from his tunic then ripped it free. It made a loud sound in his effort and he started to attend to Allanar again, a distinct feeling he didn’t help at all. There weren’t any changes to indicate he had done any good after all. Xid placed the makeshift damp rag over Allanar’s forehead, his lips pressed into a weak, smile. Too bad his mind didn’t seem to feel the same way, he thought bitterly.

Xid left the damp rag on Allanar’s head then slipped one foot, followed by another out from under him to sit cross legged upon the cold cell floor. His back leaned against the hard bed edge and silently curse himself for his failed usefulness. It seemed to common here, a fact that seemed more and more nerve racking to his mind than anything else. Right now, he morbidly mused, the Sith’s torture seemed better than watching the Jedi suffer and feeling helpless. Sadly a part of him disagreed. For a moment, Xid’s head darted up after feeling eyes upon him. His bright blue ones met green ones of another Padawan. He knew by the robes she wore and gave a faint smirk. 

“Well, I guess I look like a mess, uh?” Xid said with a light tone in his voice. 

“We’re prisoners. Its expected.” Lea answered succinctly. She did not feel saying more was necessary. Instead, she rose up and walked to the entrance of her cell, turning the energy barrier off and walking two cells over to where the other two were. She did not rush, nor did she delay, merely keeping a normal pace. She knelt down, placing two fingers against one of Allanar’s pulse points. As she had expected, his pulse was rapid, and his skin was slick with sweat. She was certain this was a result of Darth Nyiss’ work. “There is no healing this. The Sith has done something to him.” Neither of us have the means of affecting any change to him. Other than killing him, that is. I don’t think that would be of any benefit.” 

“I was afraid of that.” Xid said, his stomach seemed to sink down his feet. “The worse part, other than healing, I can’t do any medical stuff. And the only Jedi I knew who could is likely…” 

It hard to say the word, at least at first, until he fought to say. “Dead. He wasn’t human after all but he would’ve known what to do or at least had an idea what was the cause.” 

Xid’s fingers picked at his robes a bit before he then added. “My name’s Xid Terrik. Yours?” 

She looked up at Xid, wondering how someone his age had not yet been promoted to a Jedi knight. In a war like this, neither side was slow in expanding its ranks. “Lea Rahn.” She answered him. “Yes, I’m part of House Rahn. I don’t just have the same last name as them.” Her family was renowned for having many Jedi of fairly respectable power, so she had quickly gotten used to people treating her differently because of it. Sometimes, it had been beneficial, other times it had been a hindrance for her.

Now that she was sure about what was affecting the sick Jedi Knight, she saw no reason to stay in contact with him. It wasn’t infectious, but feverish, clammy skin wasn’t nice to touch. She dried her hand on her robes, then sat back on the hard floor. “So, how do you like it here? You been tortured much?” she asked, a funny expression on her face. It wasn’t exactly a typical question for a prisoner to ask another prisoner, but what did she care?

Xid nodded when he heard her name, remembering the Temple archives had data on the house but now rather upset he hadn’t spent more time there. Fours gone made it difficult to read and moving from planet to planet didn’t help. His eyes watched her hand withdraw and wipe away the sweat, a symptom likely from whatever happened to Allanar, onto her robes. Finally she settled onto the floor then started a conversation. His eyebrow raised in question at first. Then his lifted one leg and pulled it close to his body, his arms wrapped about it to keep them still. 

“There’s a lot of things going through my head to be honest. Some sad, others regret, worry and mostly pain which after some mediation should make it better. As for torture… well, at least twice. I won’t count the last event as torture though I can’t forget it.” One of Xid’s hands ruffled his short blond hair in a nervous gesture then pulled back to place. “At least I got the last one to show her true colors. The only bad thing, I’m the only one that saw it and ended up in a Kolto tank for it.” 

“What happened?” Lea asked. It was clear that Xid was more than a little put out of sorts by it. She had, over the time she’d been imprisoned, learned that there were many forms of torture available to the Sith. The physical torture was but a small part of it. She had not enjoyed any of the torture she’d been exposed to. “True colors? What do you mean? Don’t the Sith all show the same colors?”

She paused for a few moments, thinking back. “What sort of Sith have tortured you so far? Are you holding up well against their attempts?”

“Full of questions, uh?” Xid asked, inwardly slightly taken back by her sudden interest, but continued against his better judgement.

He took a breath and moved onto the more difficult question. “You would think it would be that simple. It’s not, I learned that the hard way from a prisoner. People like that tend to look like they are in complete control of themselves, to show you something they aren’t. However if you managed to peel back the layers then you end up facing what they truly are like inside. Their true colors if you will. It breaks the illusion they’ve created and they lose the power to manipulate you, but doesn’t stop them from hurting you. Just stop them from making you believe what they want you to.” 

Xid could almost feel the blade enter his gut again when he thought back to Namore’s methods. He should’ve seen it from the beginning but he refused to remember where he seen it. After all, he didn’t want to reflect on the past two years. The older Padawan returned his focus back to the last questions. “A Sith Lord, Sish who was a Trandoshan, and his apprentice. She was a Zabrak. They were the first and it was mostly physical torture, which I didn’t fair too well on it. My healing abilities aren’t exactly the best or the most powerful of my skills. The second was more a mix of combat and manipulation. We were force to fight some droids to protect some Civilians that were brought in. I was with another Jedi Padawan around my age, a Twi’lek, and I disarmed one. I don’t know for sure what happened but one of them ended up getting hurt. She was a Senator. It turned out Namore was attempting to show mercy yet I know it wasn’t real, I just noticed it too late. She said somethings that rattled me and then when I refused to fight her, she gutted me. I really wished that was the end of it, at least being one with the Force I would’ve been of more use.” 

He shifted the focus from him to her now. “How about you?” 

“Various Sith.” Lea answered. “The last was one pureblood that forced me to drink some concoction of hers. Not really sure why. I think she had hoped for some other result.” Lea answered. “There have also been several others. At one time, I was left in utter darkness, isolated from any sound, for a long time. Three days at least, I think. It could’ve been more. Or less. There was no way to tell the time.” Lea did not enjoy thinking back on that one. Being deprived of sight, hearing and time was not a comfortable thing. 

“Another time, they forced me to watch them slowly push a prisoner into an incinerator field. The prisoner screamed the entire time, but would not die. I think it took two hours before he died.” Lea shuddered slightly at the memory. She did not enjoy thinking back on her torture, so she secretly hoped that the Padawan would be satisfied with those three examples. After she stopped talking, she sat for a while in silence, shuddering faintly from the memories she had not spoken of.

“Don’t think I want to know much more. From the sounds of it, either you’ve been here longer than me or they must get some kick out of torturing you. With any luck, this nightmare will be over one day.” Xid said, leaving off in what was the likeliest manner it would end. His eyes drifted over to Allanar and added. “Right now, best I can do is focus on trying to help everyone I can through this. It’s not much but it’s something. Though, if I could get my hands on something which could provide a bio scan then it would slightly easier for Allanar. Not to mention I hope Strago is alright. I don’t even know if I managed to save his leg or not…” 

“I’ve been here a long time now. Not really sure how long. The Sith won’t release us anytime soon, and considering how the ship keeps jumping about, I do not think rescue is likely anytime soon. I doubt the SIS even has any idea this ship is different from other troop transports.” Lea had figured out long ago that while this was a also prison ship, it was first and foremost a heavily armored and armed troop transport. “I don’t understand much of it, but I think several of the Sith here practice Sith Alchemy. That art mixes the Dark Side of the Force into genetic sciences. Or so I’ve heard. I have no idea if that would affect bio-scanners, not that we have much of anything available to work with anyways.”

Xid almost chuckled but stopped himself. Instead he asked a simple question, his curiosity stirred up. “What do we have to work with? I might be helpful in that though I can’t tell you how or what we’ll need sadly, it’s at least a start. I can’t stand not doing nothing and plain sitting here.” 

“There is a little here and there. Some arrays in the walls. Surveillance equipment. Junk in one of the smaller rooms far out in the outer complex. That sort of things.” Lea thought she had covered the majority with that. She had very little technical knowledge, so she had no way to judge what was valuable. All she’d figured out was how to manipulate door controls.

“Bad part about the arrays in the walls, there’s metal that is rather hard to get by. At least without drawing attention and it will take time that will allow the cameras to spot it. So we need to deal with those first and the surveillance system is a bit more tricky. Namely there’s a cell emptied but I don’t know if there’s another Jedi that’s coming. We all came at different times and not to mention I have to disconnect the current image to make that area invisible. They’ll notice and after what the last Sith said, I rather not risk it. I don’t think it will end well...” His body shuddered at the idea then continued, his hand pressed upon his chin. An idea started to form in his head. “Unless...can you keep the cameras on you? That would lower the risk and anyone watching would likely be more actively focused on you. It’s still risky but less so than just doing it. Then we can then open one of the access points within that cell, couldn’t we?” 

His head turned to Lea in hopes she might agree or otherwise talk him out of this. It was bad enough one Sith knew his knack with machines, did he really want to risk more finding out? Namore’s words sank in his head once more yet his mind was on Allanar. He had to risk it and hoped it worked out in the end. Best outcome was that he would die, the worse he didn’t even want to consider. 

“That isn’t hard.” Lea answered, reaching out with the force and shifting the camera away from them both. It would’ve been even easier had one of them been capable of creating illusions, but Lea had not even heard of any skill capable of fooling machines in that way. It was one thing to fool a person, it was quite another to mess with machines. Lea had no idea how to go about that.

“Keep it there while I work on the empty cell then.” Xid requested, his body already moved upright and to his feet surprisingly quickly. 

His head however didn’t caught up with his speed, his stand a little wobbly at first before the blood rush cleared. He made a note to himself not to do that again when he reached the empty cell. It had the same format as the others, basic and simple, and his head tilted to where the camera was. Slowly, he boosted himself upward and under it. His hand reached up to the thin metal access panel and pried it off. It wasn’t easy, his mouth let out a hiss when his finger snagged on the edge, the flesh sliced in his efforts. Luckily Lea was doing a great job distracting the cameras during his work. The camera flicked off, the image nothing but a static snow screen that was then looped to the previous image. It took a little longer to set where the image continuously repeated itself but he managed it with some ease.

“Got it.” He whispered to Lea, his bleeding finger placed into his mouth. His body hit the ground hard on his descendant and impact nearly knocked him on his rear, the task completed while he quickly returned to his spot. They won’t known he had moved since the camera was facing away. Though the bad part was it won’t be hard to guess who had done it.

Lea released her hold on the camera, breathing again. She had not even noticed that she held her breath. “What now? Did you take care of all the cameras, or do you need to deal with the others as well?” She truly wasn’t sure whether the other cameras covered some of the same area. 

“Right now, there’s one cell invisible. Each camera has it’s own feed line and I have feeling the central one, where all the cameras feed into, would be farther behind the wall. At least, if I was designing it then it would be. That would keep the prisoners from tampering with it. We could try for more but we might draw their attention, unless there’s a enough loop footage to make it seem natural. Currently, Allanar’s cell would be the only one safe enough to attempt it with since he’s stationary. Less chance they would note something unsettling or repeats.” He stated then looked at Allanar’s camera, his eyes then in turn shifted from one to another. 

“Ours might be more difficult due to the fact we move more, understand what I’m getting at? If the loops aren’t long enough, it seems unnatural and easier to spot.” Xid’s body still felt sore from his fight with Sish, the Sith had done a number and effects still fresh. He was lucky there wasn’t a concussion or he wouldn’t be able to do this without getting dizzy. “So, the choice is yours if you want to risk doing Allanar’s camera or not?” 

“While I enjoy my privacy, I think it would be best not to tempt fate. The cameras do not cover each cell perfectly anyways. There’s a small section on each side at the rear that are outside their view.” Lea looked down at Allanar. “He’s not conscious now, but there’s no telling when he might wake. Or when Darth Nyiss comes for him again. Better not do too much.” 

“That’s the bad part about me… I have a hard time waiting and watching him suffer.” Xid commented bluntly. “Besides, I can’t let it happen again. I couldn’t save Taia and she became one with the Force. To make it worse...I almost kill the Sith trying to stop him.” 

“What’s so bad about that? Do not all Sith need to die if they cannot be redeemed?” Lea thought back to the words of her first master, and was pretty sure that was the idea behind them. At least what she could recall of them. 

Xid shook his head. “I have two reasons to never allow that to happen again. First is this: Who are we to judge who’s worthy to live? Times are bad and yes, I’ve heard and seen some horrible things during this time but to me, that’s one of the key differences between being a Sith and Jedi. We have no right to decide who is more deserving to live, criminals or civilians, but our only task is to keep peace. Maybe I’m just being naive. To be honest, I really don’t mind it or know...”

“I remember my master speaking of how inaction is worse than doing the wrong things for the right reasons. If we never kill anyone, how can we win the war? There is no way we can convince our enemy to surrender.” Lea thought back on her master’s words.

“I can’t see the world the same way as most, even as a youngling growing up in the Temple, but I do understand what you’re saying. I don’t think killing is the best or only way to win a war. To me, it’s like a problem even if it’s more bloody, violent, and the costs heavy. There’s many ways to solve it, just not all of them have been thought of yet… and we tend go with the most familiar one when the most obvious solution fails.” The Padawan spoke, his mind wandered over Tolun Fi’s memory and the fact the Jedi had made movement to another possible solution. One that might’ve prevented the corpses from piling up within this war and saved lives. Now, that solution would never be brought to life. “Right now...we’re suffering great losses because of it.” 

“Also, I have a second, more personal reason that makes me want to avoid ever doing that again…” Xid’s jawline tensed at the mention yet he didn’t dwell any longer upon it. His last action was far too close and what made it worse was it proved something that he didn’t want to believe, a reminder of the prisoner’s last words. For him it was as if someone had poured ice water over him which made him want to repeat it even less.

“My experience tells me that if everyone thinks like that, then nothing will ever be achieved. In the end, most people will always think of themselves first. It is their survivor’s instinct.” Lea only half-understood some of the things taught by her master, but that one she’d clearly understood, even if some of the terms were different from her own language. “My master taught me that while there might be a short gain in sacrificing self for others, the gain to all is greater if the sacrifice never happens. In the end, those who sacrifice themselves are usually dead, and alive is infinitely better than dead.” Growing up in the war had given Lea a very unusual perspective. She had never truly understood peace. She could not imagine anyone strong enough to enforce a galaxy-wide peace.

“If victory means that some have to die, then I think that may be worth it. Prolonged war will only result in many others dying.” Even as young as she was, Lea was quite familiar with the concept of death, including its finality, the way only someone growing up in wartime could be. “There might be other ways to end wars, but how many more would die while they are being developed? How many will die while the means are distributed?” In her weeks of captivity, Lea had seen death firsthand a number of times. Some of her captors had thought it a good idea for her to experience others’ deaths. Hardest had been the time when one of them decided she should spend four days in the company of one of those corpses. And of course that person had decided to stick the corpse under a heater. It had taken less than two days before the rot set in. She shuddered slightly at that memory. It had taken her days to get the smell out of her nose.

Xid just shook his head, his understand not intuned with the fellow Padawan before him or would it ever be. Even his own master, a Jedi and patient woman, couldn’t understand his line of thinking. Ironic that even among his peers he felt alone. “War’s result is sacrifice, sadly. and that’s the problem. However we can alter just what is sacrificed. I never said the other solutions were easy or without their price and that’s why few people bother with them. Jedi Tolun Fi was one of the few who went seeking another solution but likely he’ll never get that chance, something I wished was otherwise. All his work lost and no one will ever know if would’ve made a difference. His work aimed to do it without killing anyone, at least from what bits we talked about.” 

The conversation seemed to make him sick inside. His head leaned back, having a strange feeling anything he would’ve said won’t matter. Lea seemed firmly set in her thinking and seemed to defend them as hard as he did. All he could add was this. “Different people will always see the same thing in different ways.” 

“Jedi Tolun FI?” Lea asked, “Tall, long-necked, kaminoan? Not sure I’d trust him all that much. Last I saw him, troopers were escorting him away as he clung to a Holocron, looking like he’d lash out at anyone trying to take it from him.” Lea thought back to that event. “Of course, that also happened at the same time as one of the Sith had another Jedi executed. It was not a pretty sight. They kept firing their blasters at her for several minutes.” Even with the numbness of seeing a great number of deaths she had seen, that execution had been shocking to Lea. It had seemed like the Sith Troopers took great pleasure from the act. She had not understand why at the time, and she still did not do so.

Xid’s head flipped upright, his eyes stared at her in surprise. “Wait, he was here? Alive? Why didn’t they kill him back at the Temple? He had a Holocron...doesn’t he know what is inside of those things?” 

His heart seemed to have dropped from his body. He knew about them, at least from the prisoner’s stories and more about tech involve then the actual holocrons. Though he had little doubt the Sith’s were altered in different ways than those from the past, the twisting in his stomach only was made worse when thinking about the Kaminoan holding one as tightly as Lea described. The image broken when there was mention of an execution and the cruel manner it happened in. “She’s one with the Force now and her pain is over at least. We had one injured, Strago, after he tried to fight back before Taia was executed and my failed attempt to stop him.”

“I think the knowledge was too tempting to Tolun Fi. I never understood what he was planning on doing, but clearly he felt the need to use the holocron for it. I doubt there’s much knowledge in that holocron he does not know by now.” Lea saw no reason to mention that she’d been present when he acquired said holocron. She had, after all, warned him about the traps within, and nobody could expect a young padawan like herself to have any chance to control the acts of a full-fledged Jedi Consular like Tolun Fi.

“If you want to stop a Sith, you should use what force is necessary, not hold back. My master taught me that.” Lea saw Xid’s reaction. “You don’t [i]have[/i] to kill. A couple of shattered legs will usually stop a Sith nearly as well. Bones mend, so its not as if it is permanent.”

“I can only guess. I’ve never seen one but I’ve heard of them, even know a bit about their origins. Not much mind you.” Xid said in a soft voice, his expression clearly depressed by the knowledge he learned. It was still hard to believe Tolun Fi had fallen which seemed to hurt him more than he wanted it to. His eyes turned to Lea when she offered an alternative. He bitterly chuckled and replied in a subtle anger. “Then I wouldn’t be any different then [i]him[/i] if I did and that’s the last thing I want…” 

“Oh?” Lea answered. “You would have a reason for it. If I’ve heard right about him, he does it because he can, not because it is necessary to achieve the goal.”

“I don’t think we’re talking about the same him. Either way, that doesn’t make me feel any better about doing it.” Xid countered, his eyes seemed far off in a memory. “He had a reason too and it wasn’t even his fault that he turned in what he was. It was the Rakata that changed him… Little did they know what they created in the end.” 

Xid felt that familiar rush of ice along his body, his head shook away and hand raised his mouth. A sourness had crept to the back of his throat and threatened to spill over the cell floor before he swallowed it down. He turned to her, his eyes slightly dulled and laxed in emotion. “Some memories are best forgotten.” 

“Yes, there are memories I would like to forget as well.” Lea had spoken of several of them already. She did not really know much of anything about these ‘Rakata’. There was something vaguely familiar about the name, but nothing else. “Perhaps not. I have no idea who you’re speaking of.” Lea had, in fact, simply guessed. Incorrectly, it seemed.

Xid’s head bowed and looked at the floor a moment, his words commented in an attempt to ease the tension he believed was created. “I should’ve made myself clearer but that’s the past. Best it remains there.” 

Lea was about to speak further when she sensed that someone was approaching the cellblock. She did not know who. With quick gestures, she silenced Xid and they moved back to their separate cells, so as to not arouse suspicion.