~| Day 2, 14:13 - 14:38 GST |~
~| Aboard the Kaggath, Prison Complex |~
“I don’t like this.” Denso said to Kara as he approached the robes.
“Well, it’s not like we can do a whole lot about it now can we?” Kara said as she observed the room. There was nothing special about it, it seemed like your typical dressing room. She looked at the robes which the Sith had prepared for Denso. “Nothing for me?” She said in an obviously faked disappointed tone.
Kara then walked over to Denso and stood next to him in front of the robes, quickly snagging it before he could grab it. “Kind of funny that they’re able to supply you with a Jedi robe, yet I’m stuck in this Sith tunic… What, are they going to have us compete or something? You’re representing the Jedi and I’m supposed to be team Sith?” She scoffs at the thought as she inspects the tunic.
“I’m not sure, if this is a Jedi robe then I’m sure they took it off a dead Jedi.” Denso said as he glanced at it, then placed his own hand on it. Well, there wasn’t any blood stains, it looked clean. He then proceeded to pull it out of her hand.
“Why didn’t they give you one, I do wonder.” Denso said.
“Maybe she thinks I won't survive whatever she has in store for us and doesn't want to bother with finding me some new clothing?” Kara said while shrugging. “Or maybe she thinks I’ll fall to the Dark Side and she wants me to feel at home in this tunic.” She said in a mocking tone. Kara then took a few steps back and sat down on a chair, looking at Denso as he held the robes. “I can look away if you want, or are you not planning on changing your attire for the Sith?”
“I will, perhaps it will anger her if I do not change for her. I’ll be quick.” Denso said as he quickly changed into the robes. His old Sith clothing tossed to the side, he did not glance at Kara while he was in various states of disrobe. Privacy was not a huge thing for him anyone, years of serving on cramped ships alongside soldiers who did not care for privacy.
“Well, they fit.” He said with a half smile, then they both heard a door open opposite of the closed one they had entered from. A large circular area was in front of them, thick walls all around. In the middle of the room stood six guards, each of them clenching metal staffs. Were they going to fight them? Denso wondered as he stepped towards the open door.
“I am assuming that we are going to have to fight those armed soldiers. I hope you are quick with your hands.” Denso said with a smile as he waited for her to follow him out of the room. In the center of the arena the soldiers awaited them, silent and still, weapons displayed.
Kara didn't really pay too much attention to Denso as he was changing. Just like Denso, she too had gotten used to a lack of privacy and thus it wasn't really a shocker for her. Instead, she was thinking about what the Sith would have been preparing for them. Mentally preparing herself for whatever challenge would lay ahead of them, clearing her mind of anything that might hinder her.
When the doors opened up and Denso brought up the notion of a fight, a grin started to form on Kara’s face. Ooh she was ready for a fight alright. That little time she had to prepare herself was hopefully enough. So she looked at Denso, still with the grin on her face. “Don’t worry about me Denso, I think I’ll be just fine.” She said as she walked through the opening.
With her mind already gauging the possible threat of the guards, Kara stared them down as she addressed the Sith who she was sure would be watching. “So, is this supposed to be our big challenge for the day?”
“No, it is just the warmup. If you Jedi can beat these guards, which you should if you’re half as tough as you like, then you’ll see the real treat I have for you.” Vivithe said, her voice coming into the arena though she could not be seen by the Jedi. She was watching from above, curious eyes upon both the prisoners as the guards moved forward, staffs readied. All six of them taking aim at the captives.
One of them leaped forward, swinging at Denso’s legs, he just shuffled out of the way and countered with his own attack. An open palm to the chest of the soldier, he put the Force behind and sent the man flying backwards. Two more charged him, while the other three surrounded Kara, one driving the pike at from behind. Denso rose a hand, and stunned one of the guard’s through the Force, causing him to drop his staff. As the other two swung at him he dove downwards, hands on the dropped weapon.
With a roll he pushed the weapon up, blocking one of the blows as he moved back and two his feet. Denso swung one end of the staff at the stunned guard’s head, knocking him out of the battle. Another leaped at him, moving through the air as he lunged at the Jedi. Denso blocked the blow and backpaced, then used the Force to his advantage as he leaped over him and slammed the staff into the man’s head.
With one left to face him he took the offense, swinging hard at the soldier who blocked it. They locked in combat for a moment as Denso searched for an advantage.
While one half of the guards were busy with Denso, Kara had her own trio to work with. She focussed on nothing but the three individuals in front of her. It even seemed for her as if time was going slower and she could read her opponent’s attack a few moments before he made it. She dodged an overhead attack with little effort as the guard slammed his staff on the ground. As he recoiled Kara used the narrow time window to counterattack with a spinning heel kick against the guard’s jaw piece of his helmet. This made the guard stumble backwards in the path of one of his comrades.
With those two distracted for a tiny fraction of time, Kara quickly shifted her focus on the lone guardsman. He attempted to hit her with a horizontal swing which only narrowly avoided Kara. The moment it passed Kara took her chance as she stepped forward and delivered a low kick to the man’s knee joint, which wasn't protected by armour. Due to the force of the kick the man turned his back slightly towards Kara, and this was the only opening she needed. She got a hold of the man’s head and in one quick movement combined with a sickening noise snapped his neck.
The other two guards, who had just recomposed themselves, hesitated for an instant. They had probably not expect Kara to go for the kill so quickly. In her mind however, there was no other way to fight this war then to destroy the enemies of the Republic.
As the body dropped down Kara quickly swooped the staff up before it hit the ground. While it wasn't her preferred weapon of choice, it did not mean that she couldn't use it. Both of the guards charged at her and after blocking several swings she found an opening and hit on of the guards right at his codpiece. While it was of course protected, the man reacted in a reflex and dropped his guard, on which Kara capitalised with a hard underhand swing which hit him on his lower, unprotected, chin. The man fell as a sack on the group as he was knocked out by this hard swing.
Now there was only one guard left and Kara looked a smirk on her face.
Denso swung downwards with his staff, the guard reacting at seemingly the last moment to block the blow. Then the Jedi made another maneuver, he rose one leg up and kicked the his opponent in the side of the head. The blow had enough Force to send the guard down, his weapon bouncing off the floor with a loud bang. With no more enemies coming for him he turned to Kara, who was battling the one standing soldier.
He noticed the smile on her face, she enjoyed combat like he did himself. He momentarily considered letting her finish the soldier herself, but he wanted to get this over with. With a free hand raised he used the Force to push the man away from them both, as he bounded through the air his body hit the metal floor hard, knocking him out of the fight.
Kara was preparing her next strike, possibly one on the throat which would render this man incapable of anything for a certain duration of time. But just as she was about to attack the man flew to the side. As she looked over she saw Denso standing there, lowering his hand as he had just used a Force push.
“Sorry if that disappointed you, I want to see what this woman has planned for us next.” Denso said to his fellow Jedi, the words quietly said with enough volume for Kara to hear them.
Kara didn't say anything about it, though her facial expression was less than stellar. She was actually fuming but tried her best as to hide her anger at Denso interfering in her fight. Without saying a word she scanned her surroundings, looking for possible ways of escape or avenues of attacks which the Sith might try to exploit. There weren't a lot of different escape options, as this was obviously a Sith inspired arena: Fights to the Death would be more common place here then merciful ones. There was ofcourse the possibility of just jumping out of the arena using the Force, but the chances of escaping would be minimal. So, Kara just waited it out and only nodded at Denso.
As soon as Denso was about to say something, he noticed the men they had just fought rise to their feet, five of them, minus the one that Kara had executed. Those that could pick up staffs did, one was unarmed and charged right at Denso, who rose his weapon up to block the assault. Four others circled around Kara, as one moved to jab into her with their staff. The Jedi knight was surprised that the soldiers had risen up, he thought Kara and him had knocked them out for the foreseeable future, as he wrestled with one of them, Lady Lansha’s voice echoed through the arena.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to kill them all, Jedi. The girl seemed to have no issue with that, but let’s just say they each will keep getting up and attacking you until you do knock them out of the fight, permanently.” Vivithe said, a smile on her face. Shock collars were embedded around each of the men’s necks, whenever their vitals indicated they had blacked out a painful shock would bring them back up. That and they had other reasons to fight, though the Jedi would see those eventually, if all went to plan.
Kara watched as the men surrounded her, her own weapon at the ready, she felt one of the staffs connect with her back, sending a twinge of pain through her but nothing worse than that. With a look of more concentration she swung her own staff at one of the guards, striking right into his neck, she pushed it down as the sound of something cracking could be heard as the man gasped, suffocating. She then used the Force to launch herself upwards, leaping out of the way of the three left encircling her.
As she landed, one lunged towards her, Kara ducked out of the way just in time, watching as the weapon whizzed by her face. With a motion of her free hand she then pushed her attacker with the Force, sending him bounding backwards off his feet and into the other two. The collision sent them all of their feet, though they all rising back to their feet.
Denso threw a sharp kick into the guard’s gut, then another, he could see through the man’s helmet, but he could tell both of the blows impacted hard. A third kick in the same area dropped the man to the floor, he then lifted his attacker up before he could get himself up, and launched him into a wall through the Force.
He hit it with a hard smack, if not ending his life then paralyzing him at least. He didn’t enjoy having to kill, but it seemed there was not an alternative, and the men were Sith soldiers, they had chosen their sides, had probably killed Republic men before.
Kara glanced briefly over at Denso after hearing the noise, it was hard to miss, she smiled before she spoke.
“Care to join in, Denso? There’s only two left anyway.” She said with a grin then leaped up into the air, launching herself down towards them through the Force. As she landed she impacted with one, hitting the armored guard right on the head and sending him to the floor. She then engaged another in combat, swinging her staff at him, she pushed him backwards, forcing him away from the others as Denso entered the fray.
Denso briefly watched Kara move, she took one of the guards out quickly, then launched herself at another. It was an impressive sight, but he wasn’t to be upstaged. Kara would have some words for him if he let her fight off all of their opponents by herself, even more if they managed to injure her because he didn’t fight hard enough. He dashed towards the one standing guard and practically tackled him.
The two shot backwards in a struggle as Denso crouched above his enemy and pushed the staff down, into the man’s neck. There was nothing he could do as the Jedi suffocated him. He wish he had a quicker and less brutal way to do it, but he did not have his lightsaber. He waited until the soldier under him stopped struggling then rose back to his feet.
Kara fought the man, she outclassed him, even a trained Sith soldier, her reflexes were just too fast. She swung at him hard, knocking the staff out of his hands, then swung again at his neck, breaking something inside. As the guard fell, he suffocated like one before him. She blinked, then turned to look at Denso right as he finished choking out his own enemy. He had moved towards the last surviving soldier, the one Kara had concussed, the man struggled to get to his feet.
Denso glanced at the man for a moment before Kara approached from behind and quickly snapped the soldier’s neck. The Kiffar watched as the now dead man fell to the ground, then locked eyes with Kara, giving her a nod. Death in combat was not something knew to him, but the conflict the two of them had just endured was especially brutal. Then he heard footsteps against steel floor and glanced towards the source. It was the Sith lord that had forced them into the arena.
“Very well done, almost like one of the Empire’s own Sith warriors. Not even the slightest bit of hesitation at ending lives. Many of your fellow Jedi would have outright refused, but you two, you did it without an argument,” Vivithe said with a smile. “It’s too bad they weren’t even loyal soldiers of the Empire.”
Denso had a look of confusion for a moment, they had to be soldiers, that would be the most logical thing. Soldiers on a Sith ship, the Force users that commanded them had no qualms with throwing them away as cannon fodder. The doors opened behind the Sith, and more people emerged, they were not guards, instead they were dressed like civilians. Robes, rags, no armor on any of them. Amongst them children and women as they each went over the dead men and mourned them.
“What is the meaning of this? Is this some kind of trick?” Denso asked the Sith.
“I wish that it was, but it was not. Each of those men were taken from a nearby planet, forced to fight for their freedom. Their families were brought onboard as added incentive. Innocent civilians, now dead. Something your Order damns my own for doing, slaying innocents. Sometimes there is a reason behind such a thing.” Vivithe said, some of the families looked at the Jedi with glances of confusion, anger and sadness.
The words the Sith spoke did far more damage than any weapon could have done to Kara’s psyche. She had fallen for the Sith’s ploy, she had walked right into it with open eyes. At first she refused to believe it. This must have been a trick. But as Kara looked at the faces of the mourning people she saw that they were sincere and not acting. Seeing them all like this, it stunned her. This was the first time she directly encountered people grieving over something she did. And she did it with glee at the time. That was the most revolting about all of this.
Soon the grief turned to anger. A woman walked up to Kara and looked up at her, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Why?” she asked, “Why did you have to kill him?” To be honest, Kara didn't have an answer. There must have been a way to get out of here without causing fatalities. But she didn't care at the time. She had chosen the path of the least resistance and now it showed itself to be a mistake and a trap.
Avoiding eye contact Kara replied in a soft tone. “I… I’m sorr-” Before she could finish she was hit by a slap in her face. “I do not need your pity!” the woman yelled. “You murdered him without any doubt in your mind!” Kara knew that the woman was speaking the truth and that is why the words cut as much as they did. She wanted to throw up, she wanted to sink into the ground and disappear. But she couldn't.
The woman continued on hitting her, it didn't hurt Kara, at least, not physically. But then the woman uttered a phrase. “You’re a monster, no better than the Sith!” Something inside Kara snapped and before she knew, she had hit the woman in front of her with a backhand strike. When Kara realised what she had done it was already too late. While the woman was not mortally injured, Kara had just struck at an innocent woman, knowingly. Kara staggered back softly uttering “I’m sorry.” She kept repeating the phrase with tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Denso went silent at the scene, he could feel the eyes upon him. Strong emotions of agony, grief and self loathing once he realized what he had done. This couldn’t have been some Sith trick, it was too real. All of lives he had taken in combat had caused no mourners, the soldiers he struck down had been fervent supporters of the hateful Empire. Every death there was to help the right side win. He had offered mercy to many of them, and they spit it back at him.
He glanced at Kara, she was taking it worse than he was from the expressions on her face. She must have felt worse, she had killed more of them than he did, yet they both had done it each time without hesitation. It was a sick, twisted game the Sith had played them into, and they lost it on their first move.
The Kiffar noticed a woman approach Kara, then strike her, he was about to move to stop the woman when Kara did it for him, throwing her own strike. He rose a hand to cover his mouth, stunned that she had done that. As tears formed in his fellow Jedi’s eyes he glared at the Sith, who was trying her best to hide a victorious smirk. His words came out slowly, the grief evident with every letter.
“Why? Why did you make us do this?”
“I did not make you do it. There was always the option to resist, to say no. Then I would have just had the men beat you a bit, I’d give some talk about disobeying a Sith lord on a ship of the Sith Empire. But this, this was unexpected. Most of the other Jedi would have resisted. Sat down, covered their eyes and taken the beating. Not you two, no, you gave in, followed my orders like my very own apprentices.” Vivithe said, practically lecturing them while the families mourned around her. Before Denso could reply, she spoke again.
“There’s no need for tears, Kara. These men are not that different from the Sith soldiers you slayed in war, the armor is the same, they assaulted you, you fought back like anyone else would. All the soldiers you killed in the past had families too, they all enlisted out of patriotism and honor, like many of your Republic soldiers did. Those families mourned the dead you created,” She added. “You know why you both followed my order? Because you’re warriors, your places are in the heat of battle, not in some ancient temple hiding away your emotions while the galaxy burns. When attacked you fight back. Emotions are what give you strength in combat. What will you do when the war ends? You won’t be satisfied tucked away behind a veil of inaction.”
“That’s not true, any of it. I’m in full control of my emotions, the Light gives me strength in battle.” Denso stammered out, his words causing Lady Lansha to roll her eyes. The Sith’s words held some truth behind them, but he was not like her. He was not a Sith. Then his eyes locked with one of men’s children, a look of fear on the boy’s face at the man who just killed his father. The Jedi tensed his fist and breathed deeply, trying to keep himself composed.
Kara wanted to lash out at the Sith. Kill her right where she stood. But what would that achieve? Probably with Kara dead and the Sith still having the last laugh as she couldn't think clearly anymore. What had just transpired had paralyzed the young knight. She had difficulty to keep standing as she fought back the tears. The woman who she had just struck had been helped by another civilian and was taken away. A lot of them were glaring at Kara, their eyes filled with understandable anger.
After a short while she softly spoke out to the Sith. “Are you done now?” Kara glared at the Sith and balled her fists, her eyes filled with both sadness and anger. “Or did you not have enough fun yet?”
“I think I did, but did you? You looked like you enjoyed cutting down those men.” Vivithe replied with a not so subtle grin. It was all to her credit that she had seen what she did see, as it often did with her, the plan went off without a hitch. She could feel glares from both Kara and Denso, unusual sights on Jedi. Part of her wanted to egg them into attacking her, if they were as emotional as she guessed then it would only push them further to embracing the Dark. But, that could easily spiral out of control.
“You’re a monster.” Denso stated.
“Yet you listened to the monster.” She replied with another grin.
Then the Sith Lord summoned actual guards down into the arena, each armed with blaster rifles. They roughly pushed the Jedi towards the exit, Lady Lansha following behind. The duo was escorted back to their cells, the trip near silent as neither one wished to speak after recent events.
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