[center]~| Lea Rahn and Darth Nyiss |~
~| 14:30 GST - 16:12 GST |~[/center]

The thoughts about what had been done to Nazca occupied Lea’s mind for a good half-hour, without any signs of clarity. She hated not knowing such. In some ways, she viewed Nazca as her patient. Not knowing anything about her patient’s condition was frustrating. She finally abandoned all thought of meditation, choosing instead to find something to eat.

She didn’t know who provided the food, but she didn’t really care. If Darth Nyiss wanted them dead, nothing could change that fact. If the other Sith tried to kill her or any of the others in the prison, they’d answer to Darth Nyiss. Thus the food ought to be safe. For now, at least.

It wasn’t particularly delicious, but it was nourishing. Certainly better than what her uncle had told her years ago was commonly served in Hutt dungeons. She didn’t know how he knew that, but had her theories. From her understanding, dungeons in the Republic or the Empire weren’t much better.

She did not have any particular plans yet for what to do next. She knew there was a planet down below, but not which planet or whether it would be safe to escape to. Nor, for that matter, had she discovered any reliable means of escape. Though there were flaws aplenty, none seemed serious enough to serve in an escape. There had to be something more. She still recalled her master's final words… “find a way to escape.”

Musing about the past could no doubt have gone on for hours, but of course the turbolift door hissed open once again. As the men marching out were troopers, all wearing their helmets, Lea had no way of determining who they were, whether she had encountered them before. Chances were that she had sometime, as one of them looked directly at her. “You. Prisoner Rahn. You will follow me now.”

It would have been easy enough to ignore the man, but there wasn’t much point. She had her theories about just who had sent them to fetch her, and that one brooked no delays. She jumped down from the bed she sat upon, then moved to follow the five troopers. “Fine. I’ll come. It’s not as if I really have any choice in the matter. . . Better to walk than to be dragged unconscious.”

~| Five minutes and two turbolift rides later |~

The troopers led Lea into the Crimson-walled chambers of Darth Nyiss. The corridor from the turbolift was more than twice her height and wide enough for two troopers to march abreast comfortably. The floor was covered in a lush, crimson carpet. In the first chamber, a vast hexagonal room, the carpet covered virtually all of the floor, and the carpet had the sigil for the Sith Empire upon it. Just that sigil was easily 20m across. She couldn’t help but be impressed by the sight of it. 

Of course, before she could look about more, she saw the Darth emerging from one of the other chambers.

“Hello Lea.”

Nyiss’ rich soprano voice echoed slightly in the empty entrance hall. There was a slightly familiar tone to her speech. A quick flick of her hand had the soldiers salute and leave the room quickly and smartly. “How have the other Sith been treating you? I hope you haven’t had to suffer the lizards presence.”

“Darth Nyiss.” Lea answered, her voice pitched lower than the Darth’s, perhaps a contralto. “It could have been better. It could have been worse. Why did you have me fetched?”

“I want to know what you have learned, and what you have observed, now that you have seen your fellow prisoners and some of the Sith.” Nyiss stated. Though still familiar in tone, it was clearly also a command.

“I am sure you do, Darth.”

Nyiss’ hand shot out, striking the upstart girls cheek in a stinging backhanded slap. “You should know better than to speak to me like that.”

Her cheek stinging, Lea nodded once. “I am sorry. But a mere command is not sufficient to make me betray the Jedi.”

“Ha!” A half incredulous, half disgusted sound escaped Nyiss. She reached and grabbed Leas wrist, holding it in a vise-like grip, considerably stronger than her slender fingers would suggest she was capable of. She then turned and walked swiftly towards the lab.

Lea didn’t have much choice when the Darth grabbed her wrist. In fact, she had no choice at all. The earlier slap had been a kindness compared to some of what the Darth had done to her earlier in her captivity. The second door on the left hissed open, revealing a short corridor, maybe three meters long, before a second door just like the first. Both the doors had some vicious-looking ‘teeth’ on one half, with sockets on the other. There was no doubt in Lea’s mind that the motors powering said doors were more than sufficient for chewing through a person’s limbs if they were to close on someone.

The room they entered next was only a little smaller than the first, but with a very different shape, like that of six hexagons placed in a circle around a seventh. There were numerous machines of all shapes and sizes spread throughout the chamber, as well as several medical tables. In other places, tables and shelves were filled with various bottles of fluids with a wide array of colors. Though Lea had never seen the place before, she knew it had to be the Darth’s personal lab.

“Since you don’t want to make this easy on yourself.” Nyiss began, picking up a syringe from a shelf on the wall. “I will have to give you a truth serum. I don't have time for torture.” She quickly prepared Leas arm and carried out the injection. “Now, what have you learned?”

Whatever was in the syringe, it stung. Lea had long ago given up on struggling whenever the Darth chose to inject her with anything. The internal bleeding that resulted was inevitably much more painful than it was worth. She could already feel it being absorbed by her body, quickly making her light-headed.

Ever so slowly, her will to resist the Darth’s questions started to erode. Suddenly answering her didn’t seem like such a bad idea. In fact, she couldn’t figure out why it had been a bad idea to begin with. She thought for a few moments on what the Darth might want to know. She probably didn’t want to know about her burgeoning and fumbling romance with the Jedi Knight, Xid Terrik. Lea had her doubts that would put her in a bad light. Or would it? Yes it would.

On the other hand, Xid’s unusual skill with machines would be of interest. So she spoke of that. Then she spoke of the methods of Lords Jewel and Vivithe. Of how the latter had had suspicions about Lea’s actions, yet had done nothing about them. But of course she saved the best for last, as instinct told her this would be of particular interest to Darth Nyiss. The foul-mouthed Nazca. Of how her condition had been after her session with Darth Nyiss. Though she had years of medical experience at her back, Lea had not been able to determine anything about what was happening to the woman. Which obviously meant it was no disease or accident.

At the end, she asked, “Just out of curiosity… What is it you are doing to her?”

“An experiment.” The Darth answered, before adding cryptically “It will make her… better. Superior.” She casually strolled to the edge of the room and picked up a holocron from a shelf, looking at it as if it were a mere trinket, not a priceless and irreplaceable archive of knowledge. “Or, it will kill her, and she will be added to the pile of useless failures behind her.” Nyiss’ tone was callous, showing not even a hint of concern for the young girl's life.

“It is too early to say which result it will be.”

Lea looked about at the screens near her. She didn’t need to keep an eye on the Darth. Nothing she could do would be sufficient to keep her alive if Nyiss wanted her dead. As there was no active subject then and there, the readouts were limited in scope. But even as limited as they were, Lea could easily see the medical nature of some parts. Of course, more than half the text was in some language she did not understand. She guessed it was the language of the Sith. No doubt some of that again was encrypted using some sort of cipher known only to the Darth.

In her captivity, she had caught hints of Nyiss having layers upon layers upon layers. She had no doubts the same was true for her lab. “From what I’ve seen, she is weak, untrained. Is she worth your effort? Are none of your Sith more deserving of such?”

“Have you been practicing the skills your master taught you Lea? I would very much like to see your progress. Perhaps you will learn that these skills are meaningless by mastering them.” She held up a series of small, fist sized objects with the Force, in the space between her and Lea. In some ways they resembled Jedi teaching drones, but it was clear they were designed to absorb attacks rather than buzz around shooting low powered lasers for deflection practice.

“You’ve left me alone quite a bit, as have the Sith you brought on board. Of course I have had time to practice my skills.” With that, she reached out with the Force towards one of the hovering spheres. The moment she caught hold of it, it jerked sideways, slipping out of her ‘grasp’. “Slippery thing…”

She focused again, making her ‘grasp’ larger, then quickly shrinking it so that the sphere could not slip away. Once more, it jerked, only to stop short. It kept jerking in various directions, but her grasp was firm. It held. The sphere continued jerking, harder and harder. Ever so carefully, Lea tightened her grasp. The jerking halted. Or rather, each time it tried to jerk, it got dented instead. As she tightened her grasp even further, the sphere slowly jerked less and less, then stopped completely.

Its sides were dented in numerous spots, making it anything but spherical. She released her hold, and it clattered to the floor.

“As I said. I have practiced what my master taught me.”

“So I see. But your lack of emotion continues to harm your execution.” Nyiss stated coldly. “You continue to hold back. Why? Have I not given you ample reason to hate me?”

Lea looked once more at Darth Nyiss, having given up on deciphering whatever it was she was doing in this lab. “If you truly wish to quell me, you will have to do more than you have done so far. I am stronger than anything you’ve done to me yet. You have not broken me yet, and I will stand firm against whatever you do next. I have no doubts about that. I trust the Force will be with me.”

“The force will set you free.” Nyiss quoted the final line of the Sith code sternly, as if to correct Lea. “One way or another...” She added with an almost playful note, looking, for just a moment, like a predator playing with prey it knows can never escape it.

With a swift motion, Nyiss grasped Lea with the Force, lifting her bodily from the ground to place her on the harsh metal operating table. The moment her body was in place, the restraints clamped shut over her limbs. Nyiss looked Lea over, appraising her as if she were a thing in a market, not a person. In a moment, she had decided that this girl would indeed make a good candidate for the tests.

“Curiosity can be quite a dangerous thing Lea. The art of it is making sure that danger applies to others, and not yourself. Now you shall sate my curiosity, and you shall bear all the danger that comes with it.”

Though she had on some level been prepared, it was all Lea could do to raise her telekinetic barriers sufficiently to avoid being crushed, such was the raw strength of the Darth. Lea had no doubts that Nyiss could have squashed her like a bug had she wanted to, but it was equally clear to her that that was, fortunately, not the intent. Lea had no deathwish. Nothing the Sith had done to her these past two months had ever made her hate her life on such a level. In fact, it had made her wish more to live than ever before. Not that she would have believed that possible three months ago.

She knew deep down that she would never sink to a level where she merely wanted to die. No good would ever come of such. When the cold metal of the restraints snapped shut over her limbs, she shivered momentarily. Though she was curious about what the Darth was up to, she truly had no idea.

Cold logic told her that the Darth did not intend to make it kill her, as she could have done that a thousand other ways before. Thus she resolved even before it truly started to embrace whatever Darth Nyiss was about to do. If something did not kill her, it would make her stronger. Her master had taught her that.

“Two months ago, I had hatred for you. It was wild, uncontrolled. You had after all killed Jedi Master Shodon right before my eyes. Now it has evolved. It has become something else.” Lea did not say what it was, but if the Darth knew what to look for, she might know what it was. Under the influence of what Nyiss had done to her, it was not far beneath the surface.

“You will need to use every drop of hatred and fear to survive what comes next.” Nyiss stated, force pulling a nearby needle to her hand. Like those she had used before, it was heavy and thick, this one filled with a dark red liquid that almost seemed to absorb light around it. 

“We shall see…” was what Lea had to say in response. The determination was clear upon her face. She looked at the vial, curious about what it contained. She did not ask, though. 

As irritating as Lea was, her determination would serve her well in the future Nyiss mused as she prepared to stab the needle into Lea’s heart. She was without remorse as she did so, plunging the needle into the girl's chest without so much as a warning, compressing the syringe quickly. The liquid would be pumped to her every extremity in moments.

Words could not fully describe the feeling of someone stabbing a stout needle at an angle between your ribs. It is beyond agony. When the point of the needle punched through into Lea’s heart, she screamed. It was instinctive. No matter how prepared she was to accept whatever Darth Nyiss was doing, she had not truly been prepared. 

When the Darth compressed the syringe, it felt to Lea like ice was being pumped directly into her heart. She involuntarily arched her back. She had no idea what it was, but she could feel it spreading with each beat of her heart. She did not feel it when the needle was pulled back out.

Whether it was luck or something else she did not know, but hole left behind barely bled at all. Lea was far too busy with uncontrolled squirming to notice the hole mending itself unusually fast, though. Any control she had over her mind seemed to be ripped apart as the dark fluid spread throughout her body. Her scream of pain turned into one of rage. Unbridled, raw rage. She summoned forth the full power of the Force, instinctively pouring it out through her hands.

Nyiss looked on with glee as the girl screamed, eager to see the effects of the injection. This was her latest version, and she expected it to have much accelerated effects compared to the previous one. When Lea began to summon lightning in her hands, Nyiss reacted quickly. Rather than let all that energy go to waste, or worse, damage equipment in the lab, she focused her own energies to redirect the lightning - straight back into Lea’s own body. It would catalyse the liquid nicely.

The lightning that Lea’s unbridled rage unleashed should have gone out in two roughly conal direction, jumping between various machines, damaging several of them. But it did not. Instead, the lightning turned around in the air, curving over and instead impacting her in the torso. Because it was essentially just electricity, albeit summoned from the dark side of the Force, it had to obey most of the same rules as regular electricity.

At first, the lightning seemed to cause Lea’s skin to blacken and smoke wherever it hit, but soon it was apparent that whatever Nyiss had injected Lea with absorbed the lightning. The damage was absorbed, but not the raw agony. She felt all of that. Which of course only caused her to instinctively unleash more.

For several minutes, this pain loop continued. Pain causing lightning causing pain that created more lightning. Lea was helpless against it, for although the lightning sprang from her connection to the Force, control over it was no longer in her hands. The energy of the lightning appeared to be absorbed by the dark fluid the Darth had injected Lea with, for after the first moments of damage, no more damage appeared to form, not even to fade moments later. 

It seemed that nothing would end this loop, but as suddenly as it began, it stopped with Lea falling into unconsciousness. How or why was impossible to say, but the lightning simply stopped flowing from Lea’s hands. Somewhere deep within, she felt relief when it happened.

“Fascinating!” Nyiss stated, the enthusiasm clearly evident in her voice. Redirecting so much lightning had been tiring, but that weariness was immediately forgotten as she pulled a variety of biometric scanners over to analyse Lea. She also prepared to take a blood sample to be analysed. If her suspicions were correct, what had just occurred would be the fastest, and possibly most effective, treatment yet.

The analysis of Lea’s condition went on for a few minutes. When it was complete, a smile covered Nyiss’ face. “You might just make it after all…” She said quietly, injecting Lea again, this time with a much more normal looking syringe. The contents of this were fairly benign, designed only to wake her up quickly. She would wake to Nyiss standing over her, looking down expectantly.

Being unconscious, Lea felt nothing as Nyiss injected her with the drug that would wake her back up. When she woke, she was more than a little confused, her head quite fuzzy. “Master?” she muttered upon opening her eyes. “I don’t feel too good…”

Whatever rage had fueled Lea’s recent use of the force was now utterly spent. Emotionally, she was effectively the perfect Jedi - She felt nothing at all. She tried to shift a little, but the restraints still held her firmly in place. She had managed to clear some of the fuzz by then, so she realized there was no point trying to break free.

“That does not surprise me.” Nyiss stated matter of factly. As she looked down at the girl, she felt a faint sense of disappointment that there were no immediate observable external changes. It was an unfounded disappointment, the chances that things could still be going well with an immediate change were near zero… but the feeling was present all the same.

“Can you be more specific about how you feel?” Nyiss asked, activating an audio recorder. “It will be useful in the future to know, and you are the first to remain coherent enough to describe it.” A keen observer, had there been one, might have noticed that, in stark contrast to the other subjects, the Darth was treating Lea less like an object and more like a person, albeit only a little.

Due to the current setting, Lea had stopped thinking of herself as a prisoner in the presence of her captor. Instead, it had become a classic patient/healer setting. She was the patient, Darth Nyiss the healer. “I ache all over, as if I’ve been practicing with a lightsaber all day yesterday.”

Unable to free her wrists, she nonetheless strained one arm, pressing it against the restraint so that she could measure her own pulse. It wasn’t precise, but it gave an idea. “My pulse and breathing appears accelerated and I feel somewhat nauseous. I think I have a fever, but that is quite difficult to measure without instruments.”

“While it would be nice to have an idea of your end goal, I assume you have no intention of telling me?” She asked, basing her words on past experiences with the Darth. There had been more than a few such incidents in the past.

Nyiss ignored the comment about her goals. It wasn’t even subtle fishing for information, it was blatant. Not even worthy of the thought to ignore it.

She gave Lea a withering look then - “I did not ask you for a clinical evaluation. I have machines to measure these things… I asked how you [i]felt[/i].”

“I do believe I had no control over my rage there.” she answered, still somewhat clinically. “Is that what you wanted to know? I dislike losing control over myself like that.” Lea had not really thought the Darth would tell her exactly what her goal was.

“Is there anything else you wish for me to observe?”

“Yes.” Nyiss stated, slightly harshly. “I want you to look beyond the loss of control, and see the power that your rage brought. That is the dark side of the Force. A well you can tap without losing control. A well any Sith should be able to tap at will.” Nyiss began to pace a little then, taking on a scholarly tone. “For many, it is rage. Rage comes easily to the sentient mind, with little regard for species. Many view the Sith as fueled by rage, but they see only part of the truth. Fear is just as common as rage, and just as powerful. The things an individual can do out of fear are no less potent than rage. Some have more refined feelings from which they draw their power. Jealousy, passion, lust. Not always as powerful, but often insidious. Or my own favorite… Ambition. These are the things a Sith can draw their power from.”

“I dislike not having control. As a healer, control is everything. If I want to mend someone, it would not do to make mistakes. A lack of control will lead to mistakes.” Lea didn’t know exactly how to respond to many of the other things the Darth had spoken of. She had never had much training in her social skills, and many of those emotions seemed to rely on such. “Power without control feels wasted.”

“I think Lord Jewel tried to inspire jealousy in me. What do I respond with in such circumstances? How do I remain in control?” she asked, more than a bit uncertain.

Nyiss looked down at Lea with a slight sense of regret, flickering off her face as quickly as it had arrived. If this girl died to the experiment, all this potential would be wasted.

“You are correct to state that control is important. without it, we are mindless, raging animals. Lord Sish often allows his control to fail, and that is why he will never advance beyond his existing position. Control separates a strong Sith from a great Sith. But you must not confuse control with suppressing your emotions, as the Jedi do.”

She turned and examined a gently hovering stone pyramid on one of the shelves then, for just a moment, as though checking its readiness.

Turning back, she continued. “You respond with your emotions… To put it simply. But that is not what you want to hear, so I will show you how. Step back from your emotions. Acknowledge they exist. You cannot help but feel them, they are natural to every living being in the galaxy. Observe what they are, and what they make you want to do, but do not do it.”

“Respond to the jealousy with my emotions?” Lea said, speaking quizzically. “The one Lord Jewel wanted me to be jealous at is weak. Not worth such feelings.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “I did learn something from that attempt, though. I think I have feelings for another prisoner. The one with unusual skill with machines. I think I like him.”

“What you felt with Jewel was scorn. Her pathetic attempts to force feelings upon you and make you her pawn failed because of this. A useful emotion, but fleeting and providing little power.”

The next comment was an unfortunate one, disrupting Nyiss’ lesson somewhat, but one that had to be addressed. “Observe carefully this feeling you have for this man. Passion and lust are useful, but love… Love does not serve a Sith. Love straddles the line between dark and light. The Jedi do not approve of it as it can lead to all manner of other emotions… But the Sith dislike it for another reason. It involves investing your feelings in one beyond yourself. It can generate many useful feelings, but it also clouds judgement, erodes control and proves unpredictable. It is also a clear and present weakness. Striking at a targets loved one will hurt them no matter what, though again the further effects can be unreliable. Many a Dark Jedi has been created from love, but rarely a true Sith.”

“I still think I like him…” Lea muttered, not entirely willing to accept Darth Nyiss’ words as plain truth. The desire she had learned from Lord Jewel that she had for Xid would not be stifled by mere words of caution. It was much too deeply entrenched for that. But how to proceed?

“Oh by all means. Exploit him for all the joy you can. Good company is rare in this Galaxy, and I will not stop you from enjoying it. This is not a Jedi ship. But do not let him become your world. No one is more important to you than yourself. Put another’s interests before your own, and you expose weakness to the galaxy. Be assured that if you expose such a weakness, I will strike at it. The lesson you will learn from that will speak for itself.”

Lea listened carefully, knowing that the Darth had no reason to lie here. “But how? How do I begin?” She had, after all, no experience in this field. Nyiss, being older, most likely had such experience.

“You already have ample opportunity to spend time with him and enjoy any intellectual company he may provide…” Nyiss began. “If it is more intimate company you desire… You are attractive enough I suppose, even pale skinned as you are. Use your looks. And hope he is not one of those Jedi who ignores their desire. If he is too shy, I’m sure I can arrange for the two of you to spend some time in one of the guest rooms.” She turned away with that, and busied herself with the stone object from before.

To this Lea had no response. She would have to think more before deciding on how to proceed. Some part of her had decided that privacy would be preferable for such exploration, but she would not ask for Nyiss to provide it. requesting that Darth Nyiss provide such privacy before even trying would not be a sign of strength. She nodded, but did not speak.

Nyiss had already moved on. With noticeable effort, she telekinetically grasped the stone pyramid and began moving it slowly towards Lea. It was rough looking, like it had sat in the elements for a thousand years, yet it still seemed uniform in shape. On the very edge of sight, a hungry darkness could be seen around its edges - yet the object itself seemed not to want to be looked at. Without a concerted effort, one would naturally look away from the device. As it approached her, Lea would note that the sound seemed to be sucked from the room, replaced not with silence, but with a static roar that seemed almost ravenous.

Nyiss began to slide it into the air mere centimeters above Lea’s face. As it came into position, still hovering, an emptiness would strike her, the hunger of the object the only thing remaining.

Once it was in position, Nyiss stepped back, though the expression of focus still remained. One hand stretched out to the object, a particularly sensitive Force user may have noted that she was manipulating tiny mechanisms inside the device using telekinesis.

Lea had no idea of what to expect when the Nyiss placed the device above her. She had not seen anything like it before. It was shaped like a perfect tetrahedron, its surface engraved with runes in a language Lea did not recognize. It was only because it was straight above her face that she could even see it. Her eyes had not wanted to focus on it before, but now it was virtually all she could even look at. There was an… emptiness to the air that she could not quite place. She focused her eyes upon the dark gray surface. When the Darth touched it, the carven runes flared bright crimson.

There was an audible click, then the device seemed to activate. A trio of thick, dark tendrils of energy, appearing more as an absence than a presence, snaked down from the base of the thing. Two of them attached to Lea’s temples, the third going straight to her heart.

When the device activated, Lea shuddered involuntarily. The dark tendrils she could see out of the corner of her eyes were beyond cold. She dared not move, not knowing what it was doing. She could feel it drawing something out of her. Something that she knew to be dear to her, but could not quite understand what was. It left behind a feeling of loss. Had she not known that Darth Nyiss had nothing to gain from her death, she might have thought the device was meant to kill her. But she knew that, so she had no fear of dying at this time.

She did her best to relax, to let it do whatever it intended to do. With the unnatural chill and the constant draining, that was no easy feat. After a while, she sensed that something new, something somewhat unfamiliar, was replacing whatever the artifact was drawing out of her. She had no idea what it was, but it felt… right.

There was no telling how long this process went on. Lea had no thought for time as it progressed. One moment it was still ongoing, drawing and filling. The next it was simply gone, the tendrils receding back into the tetrahedron. Though the source of the cold feeling in her chest was gone, the chill did not immediately fade. Lea also knew that she was exhausted. Whatever the Darth wanted, she had some subconscious sense that it would not require further effort on the part of the Darth at this time. She was about to ask whether it was done when her exhaustion caught up with her and she fell into a deep sleep, not unlike unconsciousness. 

Nyiss moved the device aside once it had completed its work, taking just as long and with just as much effort as when she first put it in place. It was a terrifying machine. It inspired fear and hatred even in her… She knew what it could do to her if she controlled it incorrectly. It was used sparingly, but every time it was used, its effects were significant and worth the risk.

Once that had been done, she turned to Lea. The girl was doing well, and hope welled up within Nyiss. She might finally have got it right. She retracted the restraints on Lea and lifted her from the table using the force, carrying her out into the entry hall. She left the girl on one of the soft recliners to rest while guards approached to carry her back to the cells. Nyiss herself retired to her quarters to rest and recuperate the energy expended operating the device.