[center][h3] Sish, Xid and Jayda 

~| Nyiss' Complex: Torture Chamber, 13[sup]th[/sup] hour |~[/h3][/center]

[hr]

Sish grinned, gesturing for Xid to walk ahead of him. A bleeding heart. He wondered how long it would take to manipulate that trait to the breaking point. Not very, if how the boy was acting now was any indication. “You shouldn’t worry about her. I didn’t throw her hard enough to break anything. If I were you, I’d be far more concerned about my own predicament.  It promises to be painful.” His robotic hand closed around Xid’s shoulder, painfully guiding him to the torture cell.

Inside the cell, Sish pushed the Jedi prisoner towards the middle of the room, where a rack was waiting. The Trandoshan looked over at Jayda. “Restrain him on the rack.”

Xid swallowed the collective spit at the back of his throat. He cautiously stepped in front of the Sith. As his shoulder shagged at the weight of the machine hand placed upon it, he fought the impulse to jerk away. 

“Well, you aren’t,” Xid answered, his tone resisted being polite.   

His flesh burned at the Trandoshan’s fingertips digging into his skin and threatened to make his shoulder bleed. Xid’s tongue pressed into his cheek to quell his scream as they continued. They exited out of the cells into the walkway overlooking the complex grounds. Xid couldn’t help but study it for the future.  

Upon entering the torture cells, his eyes widened at the sight of a crude rack. When Sish pushed him forward, Xid caught himself before he tumbled to the floor again. 

Jayda, who had been ignoring the metallic scent of blood, glared at Sish’s orders. Unable to defy him without unwanted consequences, she moved to face Xid. 

The younger padawan braced for the assault. 

Jayda snapped out her palm and slammed into his chest. Xid’s feet lost balance as he fell backward. He smacked into the platform. She jerked forward and snatched his wrist in an iron grip. The apprentice slammed his hand into the nearest manacle causing it to snap shut. She wasted little time as she wrenched his other arm into the opposite manacle. Securing his arms first, she worked to kick his legs into the bottom two until it was completed. 

Xid jerked at his restraints. They didn’t give as his head snapped to Sish, expecting to see a predatory smirk on the Sith’s face.  

“Efficient. Good.” Sish grinned, walking towards Xid as he laid on the rack. “I’ll make this simple, Jedi. You tell me where secret republic bases are, secret Jedi temples, new defense systems on planets, and all of the codes necessary to access them, and I won’t leave your skin looking like the rubble that we left Coruscant. Did you hear about that, by the way? Of course, you wouldn’t have, you were in stasis. We glassed the entire planet, killing the entire population.” Sish hummed to himself, walking around Xid, leaning close to him. “Now, tell me what I want to know.” 

“And what makes you so sure I know what you are asked?” Xid asked while keeping his voice steady. 

He struggled to believe the Sith or not, purely because he was taught they rarely ever told the truth. 

Meanwhile, Jayda stepped to the side and moved to the closest wall. Her figure leaned back against it while she watched the scene play out. She wasn’t going to be apart of this if she could help it. And it was obvious. 

Her arms crossed over her chest as a bored and neutral expression crossed her face. She knew Sish’s lie was a play on the Jedi’s compassionate nature. It was something Sith did often, most to draw out the toil in others. Then twist their rage into a weapon against them.

Something Sish had done to her.

 “Because you are a Jedi. You know something, you all do.” Sish cut Xid’s clothing away from his right arm, leaving only the skin exposed. “And I’m going to pry that out of you, one. Broken. Bone. At a time.” Sish reached out with his robotic hand and squeezed Xid’s right arm, snapping the forearm bones like twigs and lacerating the skin above and beneath them. “Can’t have you bleeding out, either,” Sish commented casually, briefly bathing the broken limb in flames.

“Now. Tell me. Secret Bases. New defenses. Codes.”

“I’m just a padawan-” Xid began, feeling his sleeve sliced open and the skin revealed. 

Goosebumps raced across the surface thanks to the chill, both dread and cold produced. His breath stilled in his chest when the robotic hand squeezed his arm. The tightness in his arm creased causing pain to flood his senses. 

It stopped his words in mid-sentence. Xid let out a blood-curling holler as his ear caught the sound crack. Bones split apart under muscle and flesh. The ends sliced through thanks to the pressure. Blood gushed over the white skin, staining it red, while Xid jerked in his restraints. His back arched clear off the table’s surface. 

As the fire touched his flesh, a fresh agony washed over him anew. Once more, he arched in place as he screamed. The smell of his own cooking flesh filled his nostrils. Edges of his torn robes became charred by the blast, the fire crackling and eating at the fabric. Left untouched, it would continue to eat away at the skin. 

Shock flooded his mind, his eyes widened before his head slacked. A heavy breath passed through his lungs while adrenaline filled his system. However, his mind seemed void of any ability to focus. 

“Keep in mind the Darth’s orders. How are you going to get information out of him now? He's barely conscious.” Jayda quietly hissed, her eyes glaring at the Sith Lord.  

“He can still use the Force, to his full potential I might add, and has access to the best medical facilities on the planet. And I must say, I’m surprised you can’t see the bigger picture. You’re smarter than that.” Sish replied, waving a hand. It was never about the information. Jayda should know that, or she was merely playing dumb. “He doesn’t appear to have a lot of pain resistance. Not like you Zabraks. Disappointing.” 

Sish left Xid where he was, and walked over to the bench near the rack, looking at the tools there. “None of these work quite as well as my own natural and naturally mimicked tools. You might think differently. We do need to get him back to focus, however, so that’s a discussion for another time.” He looked over at Jayda, his robotic eye flashing. “Ideas for doing that, apprentice?”

“I could’ve told you that from the start. Your method is pointless if you force him into unconsciousness. All it usually does is stop the pain.” Jayda’s expression fell into annoyance. 

She knew exactly what Sish wanted to do from the very start, but chose to play ignorant. Her foot took a step back as she crossed her arms over her chest once more. Grey purple eyes watched him carefully, noting the Trandoshan walk over to the bench. 

 Jayda snorted under her breath at the Sith Lord’s words and question. Cautiously she stepped toward the display of vicious tools designed. 

“I don’t trust any of the chemicals here,” she said when she took the position on the bench’s far end. It was the greatest distance from him.

Her eyes scanned the delicate implements. Each one was made for various wounds, from cutting to burning. Nearby were small tags that listed what they did. There was little way to tell if they had been tampered with, but Jayda doubted it. 

It was too early. 

“Only one comes to mind. A little force healing might revive him, but apply too much pain and he’ll just pass out again. Unless you want to risk this,” she tapped a syringe with a thick, black liquid with a finger. 

From what little she had glanced at, it produced something like adrenaline. It could keep the subject awake even though the most brutal experience. Jayda was sure there would be side effects, but she said nothing. 

“Consider this your next assignment. Do whatever you think would be best for refocusing our guest and keeping him awake through our questioning.” He grinned, gesturing towards Xid’s form as he stepped back. It would be interesting to see what the Zabrak would do, faced with something similar to her own experiences. 

Jayda’s eyes flared in suspicion, then fell into anger. If looks could kill, Sish might’ve been buried six foot under. She exhaled her frustration and turned back to the table. The apprentice cautiously selected several items. A few thin needles, adrenaline, and tools to set the bones in place. Arranging them apart from the rest, she turned back to Xid’s unconscious figure. 

Her hands reached up to observe and analyze the damage. She noted where the flesh severed to the bones’ position. After several minutes, her hand reached for the black liquid. Carefully she pointed it at Xid’s neck then injected it into his neck. 

It would take moments for the effects to begin to take root. Enough time for her to wake him up. 

Jayda touched his right arm and gradually began to set them right once more.  The bones cracked, shuddered then gradually snapped back into place. With that done, she poured her force into it. 

“Ummm…ahh,” Xid began to wake. 

His eyes fluttered open and looked at the apprentice, grogginess in his expression. Jayda retracted her hand from him. Her eyes were hardened in the moment toward any empathy she might’ve felt in prior years. He was nothing more than a thing to her. 

She reached for an acupuncture needle. Toying with it in her fingers, her attention resumed upon the bound Jedi. Lingering there for a second longer, she turned to Sish. 

Sish’s grin didn’t even twitch, he merely watched and waited. She would do it. They both knew that. He watched in approval as she woke him up and reset his bone and healed it. At least she was learning from all these experiences. 

He walked over to the padawan, lightly slapping Xid’s face with his organic claw. “Wake up. You seemed to have passed out there for a minute. Now, I’ll ask again. Secret Bases. New defenses. Codes. We can’t just leave it at glassing Coruscant. We’ve got other planets to destroy, and you’re going to help us.”

Jayda stepped back when she caught Sish’s approach. Her head tilted then her gaze narrowed. Casually, she turned away. She averted her eyes as she found memories stir. Mostly the images were of her being broken and bloodied thanks to Sish’s teachings. 

Xid groaned. 

The sting jolted his awareness into the present, waking it further. His arms still throbbed in pain. He could tell they weren’t fully healed from the way muscles still pulsed in waves. Instinctively, Xid’s eyes found the floor when Sish spoke again. 

“I’m just a padawan,” He repeated then added, “You’re just torturing me for the twisted fun of it. You are Sith, after all. You thrive on it.”


Sish shrugged. He wasn’t going to deny it. “You’re not wrong. I [i]do[/i] enjoy torturing Jedi. It’s a punishment for the hellish war they’ve forced upon the galaxy. But I also know that even padawans are taken to secret places. You Jedi are trusting like that, and its why you’re in this predicament now. If you were a Sith apprentice of a rival I would have merely killed you. My fellows jealously guard their secrets, after all. Tell me what I want to know, or I’ll break your fingers next.” Sish laid his metal claw on Xid’s hand, lightly gripping the boy’s fingers.

Xid chuckled softly, his head shook side to side. He didn’t agree because the temple teachings ensured he knew the truth. They had been lectured into his head since he wound up on their doorsteps long ago. His eyes snapped up to meet the Lizard. 

“I was told the same about Sith. How you spread corruption, pain, and suffering where you go. No care for other’s well-being. Just the lust for power and self-serving desires.”  

He took a breath to calm himself when he felt Sish’s claw tap his hand. Then came the threat. A flare of fear bubbled inside him, causing Xid to jerk at his bindings, but they didn’t give.

“For someone who punishes Jedi, you seem to know very little about how the system works. I can’t give you what you want…” 

Xid braced himself for upcoming pain. His figure tensed and fingers curled into a fist, trying to protect themselves. He knew it wouldn’t work. He hoped he would stay out cold longer this time. 

“Funny you should say that. The Sith not caring about others well-being bit. The implication obviously being that the Jedi do. ” Sish began casually, slowly prying the padawan’s index finger out. “You see, when we were sacking your temple I took a prisoner of one of the guards there. Barely force-sensitive. Good with a gun, but not good enough to beat me. We went over to the Kiffar and the Echani prisoners before I captured them. Told them they had a choice: stand down and I’d let him go or they could fight and I’d brutally murder my prisoner. You could feel the fear radiating off of the guard. He was [i]terrified[/i] and did not want to die. The Echani tried that trick all you Jedi try, you know, slamming something into the back of my head with the Force to make me let him go, and that didn’t work. I repeated my demand, one last time.” Sish had the index finger full out and looked down at Xid, for once a grin not on his face. “Do you know what the Kiffar did? He told me no. He said they weren’t going to stand down. He put his well-being over my prisoner’s. He didn’t even try to save the guard. He watched as I killed a man who had been willing to die in combat defending a temple not his own.”

[i]Snap![/i]

The Trandoshan bent the finger back and broke it with one twist of his claws, looking down at Xid. “Do you have a reason for that very Sith-like action of his?” He glanced over at Jayda, baring his teeth in a grin. “Apprentice, there are cameras in here. Others do watch them. I suggest you don’t show any weakness here.” 

Fear and tension coiled in Xid’s chest. His finger tried to curl back into place, but the Trandoshan’s strength was greater. While his eyes never left the Sith Lord’s, he noted the lack of a grin during the story. 

The story’s point became lost in the fresh agony. 

Xid’s body jerked and tugged at the restraints. A scream exploded from his throat into the air. His eyes shifted to his hand, sickened by the new way his finger bent. The sound died into a muffled whimper. 

Please…please just let me pass out, Xid plead. It seemed his body didn’t understand his demand. His teeth gritted as the padawan trembled in shock.  

“He probably…” Xid managed to say through pants, “knew you…were still… gonna… kill the prisoner.” 

Jayda had turned her back on the whole scene. At Sish’s statement, noting her weakness, she felt her fists tighten. She turned on heel to face him. With a subtle vibration, she made a low growl. 

“I think surviving you have proven I’m anything but weak. I’m just bored of watching you break things...” 

Sish nodded, considering the padawan’s reply. It made sense but still didn’t fall in line with the thinking Xid had put forth. “A plausible point, but the Echani surely assumed that as well. And he still tried to save the man from being murdered. So either the Kiffar is so cold and cynical that he has no hope to save anyone anymore, or he didn’t care enough about the guard to try anything. Which is it, do you think?” He paused, then addressed the main part of Xid’s statement. “I wouldn’t have killed the guard if they had stood down. I would have let him go, and what he did after was his own choice.”

Sish chuckled, looking over at Jayda. “I’m sure you are just bored, apprentice, but others might not be so sure and try to capitalize on your [i]boredom[/i]. Don’t give them a reason to.”

“Releasing the prisoner… doesn’t fit your… objective.” 

Xid’s vision blurred as his mind grew sluggish, the shock finally settled in. His body completely slacked against the bindings now. He hung like some limp, discard embodiment of meat. The padawan barely noted his speech pattern had altered. 

“Jedi will… always execute… the greater good. Even if it… dismantles one life for… the many.” 

Jayda took the pause as an opportunity to snarl back to Sish.  

“I get the impression no matter what I do, [i]someone[/i] is going to test it. [i]IF[/i] they do, they will regret it.” 

She crossed her arms over her chest and forced herself not to move. Her eyes fixed to Sish, still irked by his words, as she turned to Xid.  

“I would be more attentive to your prisoner than me. He’s not looking so good and it is hard to tell how much more he can take.” 

“You sound just like your brother when you talk like that. All heat, no fire to back it up. Most of those who would take interest in your ‘boredom’ would have no problem overpowering you with the Force and we both know it.” He grinned over at the Zabrak, his cybernetic eye flashing. 

 Sish lightly slapped Xid with is organic claws again, keeping him going. It wouldn’t do to have the boy become unable to talk or respond just yet. “Can you still hear me, Jedi? I think your argument is flawed. The greater good is really convenient when it's saving your life. You Jedi never do the great good if it means sacrificing yourselves. Its one of your greatest hypocrisies. You only ever use the greater good when it benefits you.”

Jayda’s throat let out a low growl at Sish insulting Mehinn. Even after all this time, it was a touchy subject for her. Her nails dug into her robes but she managed not to tear the cloth. 

“Tch.”  

Xid flinched at the slap in his face. The impact vibrated his jaw as his head weakly lifted. A fresh awareness tried to overpower the shock, barely successful. 

“Barely…” Xid huffed out, exhaustion laced his voice. 

“I don’t… know his reasons… but he had better…ones than you.” 

Breathing hard, Xid started to realize he wasn’t going to pass out. His turned to the Zabrak, studying her for a moment. It was difficult through blurry eyes as he spoke again. 

“What… did you do…to me?”  

“Ah, blind loyalty. Hard for you Jedi to admit that there are those amongst you who are just as bad as we are, isn’t it?” Sish shook his head slightly. They were going to get nowhere here. Not with the boy as he was. “This is useless.” He idly dug a metal claw down the side of Xid’s face, starting at his right temple and ending on the side of his chin. 

Xid yelled. 

Instinctively, he tried to twist away from Sish’s claw. Something warm trickled down his face side and dripped off his chin. The copperish scent confirmed it was his own blood. A fresh chill washed over his body, numbing it, as his heart raced in his chest.  

“Take him back to his friends. I’m going to go check on this ‘security force’ we have.” He glanced at the padawan, then grinned. “I sincerely hope they can fix him. Wouldn’t do to have to use our facilities on him.”

“I could’ve told you that… Your methods aren’t suitable for interrogating everyone.” Sish’s apprentice mumbled under her breath. 

Jayda’s arms relaxed as she stepped forward, her hands undoing the restraints. When the hands were released, the padawan tumbled onto her. The Zabrak quickly stepped away. Without the support, Xid landed onto the floor. 

The padawan’s body twitched and trembled causing Jayda to glare at Sish. It was obvious he wasn’t going to be walking back to his cell in his state. She would have to carry him.  

Inhaling to calm herself, Jayda kneeled down on one knee. Her arm pulled one of his still broken arms over her shoulder. She ignored his whimpering and weakness as she wrapped it around her neck. Her head turned head enough to hiss into his ear. 

“You try anything, Jedi, you’ll find more than your arms broken.”  

Letting the message sink in, she then hoisted the Jedi up. With a soft grunt, she began to haul him back to the holding prison on her own. Though she could’ve summoned troopers, Jayda preferred to do her own dirty work. She wanted to ensure she was seen taking the still breathing Jedi back to the cells. 

After that, if he lived or died wasn’t her concern anymore. 

[center]~| Prisoner Cells|~[/center]

Jayda was mildly concerned for his life only because he was present in her care. She strolled about a meter inside. With surprising gentleness, she lowered to one knee and rolled him off her shoulders. 

Xid painful grunt caused her to pause. Her eyes studied him for a moment before she pressed two fingers into his pulse. He shivered again, the sweat began to soak his robes. 

Satisfied he might survive, she rose up then strolled back to the turbolift. 

The sounds of her clicking boots caught Xid’s hazy attention. She could feel his sight follow her movements, drawing chills along her spine. Jayda ignored it. She turned about and pressed the button, the doors moved. As they began to block her from sight, a single phrase entered her mind.   

[i] Hurry Jedi and save your friend...[/i]