~|Day 2, 9:40 - 11:53 GST|~
~|Kaggath, Prison Complex |~
Zanna, Andri, Jayda, Khan, & Denso
Zanna, after asking Jayda all she knew about the reason the alarms went off and why Lord Sish was being carted out unconscious by Imperial Troopers and asking those troopers where Lord Sish was going, was waiting with Jayda, the two jedi prisoners, and their original guards. It had taken a couple of hours for the Troopers to fix everything and find Lord Sish's lightsaber, which he had apparently lost. Zanna was looking at Jayda, her attempt to understand what the Zabrak was going to do next (if Darth Nyiss killed Lord Sish), masked by a facade of bored indifference. Now that she was more fully awake and away from the terrifying darkside presence, she was able to make use of the information she had learned and match her body language up with what her face displayed. Lets see if you're clever enough to recognize that, impure whore. Zanna thought, letting none of her worry or frustration show. If the damned lizard died, Jayda would likely leave and then all of Zanna's plans would be ruined. Don't die. Don't die you bastard. Beg for your life...
It was with visible relief that she saw they were beginning to end their preparations and repairs. They evidently found the Trandoshan's lightsaber, as one man left carrying a lightsaber carefully in his hand. The Red Sith's eyes shifted to genuine interest as she noted another Jedi coming down the hall, a woman this time, escorted by two Imperial Troopers. As soon as the trio was within sight, Zanna spoke. "They're almost done cleaning up the Trandoshan's mess. Wait here a little while and then you can drop your charge off in the cells." She turned her gaze to the female Jedi. "Would you happen to know why Lord Sish was in the Cells in the first place, and how he came to be unconscious?"
Andri blinked in surprise as the red-skinned young woman spoke to her, taking a moment to process the question as she was jolted from her thoughts. "He was...attempting to take one of my fellow Jedi and a few of the others protested the idea. One of the other Sith, Miasa, told me that the gas system knocked them all unconscious a while ago though; I would have thought your troopers would be more efficient in resolving the problem than this."
Jayda was edgy, her body weakened and leaned against the wall to stop her from crumbling face first into the floor. She was one of the first to notice the buzzing of the Imperial, her teeth gritted in silence upon seeing Sish being carted out. There was clear unease in her body language at the sight while she noted him breathing, a relief in her mind. On the outside, he was merely passed out as he was pushed toward Nyiss’ quarters. She spotted his lightsaber in another trooper’s hand, following in their wake. She didn’t like the fact her ‘master’ had already likely upset the Darth onboard. That dangerous, a fact even she had common enough sense to know. yet he still managed to do it.
The zabrak stared off into the hallway distance in quiet, her breathing steadier than. She could only wait to learn of the result and hope he wasn’t killed, her mind unsure what her next move would’ve been if he was executed.
Her head tilted toward the new Jedi’s arrival while Zanna took charge, ordering the troopers to leave her and followed up with a question. The Epicanthix seemed to acknowledge the presence when she was addressed, her expression surprised, then answered. At her last bit, Jayda’s mind pondered over the fact that the troopers hadn’t really tried to stop the fighting in the cell until the gas was released and Nyiss had given the order. On first glance it seemed to be nothing more than the staff was incompetent and useless but then… would they be really assigned to a ship destined to be filled with Jedi? The Zabrak had naturally assumed the prisoner Jedi were preplanned through it made little sense to allow a staff ill trained, skilled and able bodied to man the prison ship. There was also the matter about several Sith onboard at once. If they were even a quarter like Sish, they would’ve been at each other’s throats and corpses would’ve been piling up.
Jayda spoke her guesses out loud, her hand rubbing her neck back and pushing away her hair from her neck. “Maybe it’s not the troopers’ responsibly to keep the Jedi in line. Besides, anyone foolish enough to get in between Sish and prey is risking an early grave. He doesn’t take no for an answer at all.”
Khan mainly kept silent throughout the chaos and exchanges that went on around him as the fallout from what was apparently a very serious slip-up on his captors' part unfolded. This was an educational experience in-of-itself really. Importantly, Khan now knew about the riot suppression system. He would have to work around that if he wanted to attempt any real resistance in the future. Although maybe he was getting ahead of himself there. Also while it had been fairly obvious already, there seemed to be divisions and uncertainties in their jailers' ranks. That said most of them were attempting to project very neutral body language, but the very fact that things had escalated to the point they apparently had was telling in terms of how smoothly or not things were actually running.
There was one notable exception in the smooth, bored body-language surrounding Khan, too. The Zabrak. She was staggered, weakened with the fight and control gone out of her, concerned enough that to the Echani's eyes she might as well have pacing frantically or maybe even weeping with frustration to the Echani's mind. Her expression and stance when a reptilian involved in the incident was carted out was telling in the extreme to Khan. There was unease, fear...concern(?) and a palpable sense of relief when her eyes seemed to flicker over his vital signs. From there fear and worry seemed to predominate her stance again, though she seemed to control herself better and steady her breathing after a while.
Maybe there was an opening there? Khan had never really bought into it, but his Master was fond of saying that compassion and conversation were weapons as strong as any lightsaber wasn't he? Besides, Khan was getting bored even if he was a prisoner on some terrifying torture ship in the middle of a crisis. Apart from that older Jedi's joke nobody had spoken to him in what felt like ages and the ship was mostly uniform metallic hallways. So when he talked words came out as a torrent.
"The...Trandoshan? The one they brought out of there, he's important to you, right? Is he your Master? His wounds look minor and I'm almost certain the other Jedi will be blamed before he is...which admittedly, is probably not positive for me huh? But is he the one who trained you, because your stance is quite good, so he should be proud. I don't recognize it, though, your stance. Also um...what's going to happen to us next, now that the riot's over? Is this the part where we get tortured?"
Khan was really, really hoping it wasn't, but you never knew. Besides, he was trying to follow his Master's teachings and make a friend out of an enemy but even his Master would probably agree that torture would put a damper on his attempts.
Jayda's eyes shifted and pinned on the boy's figure, her other hand pressed against the wall to keep her upright. For a moment her eyes softened in regret, her body stepping from the side she had been settled against. Her muscles screamed at her determination while she ignored all of it.
Denso had stayed silent and just simply listened to the others as they spoke, the two Sith women, another captive Jedi and the prisoner he had been escorted alongside. He did not understand the name that had been spoken, 'Sish', a boring name, a Sith from the sounds of it. But he also learned about the riot suppression, a solid piece of information while he was a POW on a ship. Apparently the head honcho Sith had thought ahead and actually put something to kill riots before they got out of hand.
Jayda had been about to lower herself to the Echani's eye level when the older Jedi spoke, her head jerked up and body stopped all intentions to lower to one knee.
"I don't think trying to get friendly with the enemy will lessen the torture. It certainly didn't help me on my previous visit to a Sith stronghold. Tried making friends with one of my captors and he broke my nose." Denso spoke to the boy, then glared at one of the Sith, Jayda. "Why don't you just gang up on this Sish bastard? You speak of him like he is some demon haunting the halls of the ship, enough lightsabers in the back will take him down."
"That is if your lightsabers are pointed at his back, I wouldn't put it past you Sith to instead go after each other. You as a faction don't seem to understand teamwork." He said, shifting between Zanna and Jayda as he spoke, a smile on his face.
Zanna listened with interest as the latest captive replied, only giving some of her attention to the Echani as he questioned Jayda, after the Zabrak replied. Smart, for an impure. Zanna noted, before focusing back on the Jedi. "Can you tell me who he was going for? Or at the very least who fought against him?" Her face scrunched in distaste as the Echani asked about torture. "Torture? Not from me. Lord Sish, will most definitely torture you. He is a brute, born for the battlefield and with a strong blood lust. He has no purpose here, and seems to think that falling back on what he knows best is how to survive this ship."
She gestured to her new scar, the blue goo still in it. "This was given to me simply because I was too close to his door for his liking." She left out what he had been doing and exactly how close she had been, and hoped Jayda would be smart enough to do the same. Her gaze flicked to the Zabrak, a slight smile playing on the Red Sith's lips. "She can tell you more about her 'master'."
Jayda's teeth gritted and inwardly cursed Zanna. She was positioned in front of the Jedi as her eyes barely moved from the youth, debating on her options. Her voice was calm while she spoke to Zanna. "He's doing something right as he's survived this long."
She inhaled and paused when Zanna addressed the one trying to mock her. If he expected a reaction then he would fail in seeing in one. It was not the way Jayda was taught as she exhaled, then added mode before Zanna spoke. "No, little one, he didn't teach me how to fight and I'm sure he'll live. Someone else taught me. As for being proud, if he knew what I have done then I'm sure it wouldn't be pride he would feel."
Zanna turned her attention to the beaten Jedi, and raised an eyebrow. He seemed to find himself amusing. How long will that last, I wonder. "You don't think that hasn't been tried before? Or that Sish hasn't been in that situation before? His kind were the ones on the front lines of this wars. I somehow doubt he survived this long because none of your Jedi Knights and/or Masters attacked him in groups. Besides, it is forbidden for Sith to kill Sith. If we were to mob and kill him, the Darth would be very displeased and would likely display her displeasure by giving us an agonizing death. Perhaps you enjoy the idea of martyrdom, it has no appeal to me. As for teamwork, we understand it well enough. After all, it took teamwork to conquer Coruscant and capture the Jedi prisoners. You can ask them all about it when they wake up."
"I couldn't tell for certain," Andri erred in response, not exactly wanting to give the Sith an actual reason to target one of her fellows. "I think he was just going for whoever was closest. As for who fought against him - well, I tried to help but I'm not sure how much good I actually did, and there was too much going on for me to really pay attention to who was actually fighting him at the time, and then I was taken away by Miasa, the Sluissi, before the fight ended."
She eyed the Zabrak as she spoke; something about her was very familiar, though the Epicanthix couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"It sounds like him, but now that you've shown resistance... It's like blood in the sand. He'll target the one that drew the most reaction and keep torturing them. Each time leaving them more broken than the last." Jayda stated simply then returned her focus on the youth. She dreaded what Sish would do and deep inside, knew he would tear the child apart. It didn’t stop him the last time. She then asked all three Jedi a question she knew she would later regret. “What is your names? Unless you prefer to be known as just Jedi. Either way doesn’t matter much to me.”
"Andri." The Epicanthix replied. She slowly tilted her head as she looked over the tattoos covering the Zabrak's face, and pool of suspicion mixed with dread welling up in her stomach. Those tattoos were very familiar, since she was taking the chance to study them, digging up memories of receiving holo images in the mail and conversations via letter. "And yours?"
"Khan Sainen" was Khan's obvious answer. It probably couldn't hurt to be honest with the enemy on that small a detail as long as he was taking the less than violent option for dealing with them. Besides, personalizing himself to his captors might not help him avoid torture, but maybe his master's weird philosophy was right and he'd be rewarded somehow for his more kindly and peaceful approach in the long run. Either way Khan thought that just being referred to as 'Jedi' for the duration of his capture would be weird. It would definitely be really confusing at least! the whole ship was full of Jedi prisoners after all, so how would he know if they were talking to him or not? Really, it was a strange idea to him. They could always get his attention the proper way by attempting to punch him, but non-Echani simply didn't seem to know how to go about things at all, in his opinion!
Denso's eyes followed the Sith as they spoke, it appeared to him that the Red Sith of the two did not know about the incident that the other's master was involved in. A curious thing to the Jedi captive, he did not know either but it made him wonder just how connected the Sith were about information on the ship. He glanced at the scar that Zanna showed, both of them spoke of Sish more as if he were a monster than man. Fear was such a powerful thing within the Sith Order, it was sickening.
He listened silently as Jayda answered Denso's words, since when did rules or taboos stop the Sith? It was forbidden to kill the reptile lord but he almost snickered at the thought that any of the other Sith onboard honestly agreeing to such a rule. If he knew one thing about the Sith it's that the ones that actually took their twisted order as seriously as they took themselves didn't really care about rules. Perhaps Denso needed to learn more about the other Sith, it was always a wise idea to scout out the enemy before trying anything.
"Denso." He replied, though he seriously considering giving them a fake name, maybe a really over the top one, Dak Starblaster or something. But he was unsure of how wise it would be to potentially anger either of the Sith who so far had acted courteously to him and his fellow captives. He hated to admit it but he actually would to try not to mess with all of the Sith, if he managed to piss all of them off then that would only lower his chances of escaping the ship with all of his extremities intact. He did take notice of his fellow captive's names, not recognizing either one.
"Where are you taking us? I doubt we, the Jedi, were brought on this ship to wander the halls making tedious small talk with our sworn enemies." Denso asked both of the Sith.
Andri's stares were beginning to make Jayda uncomfortable as the Epicanthix tilted her head and seemed to study the Zabrak's Jato. It was if the Jedi was hoping to identify her in some fashion. She tried to cast aside the building caution ringing in her head while she answered the Knight’s question, her arms crossed on her chest and leaning back slightly. Her own eyes met with Andri’s as she held it, her eyes questioning what the Epicanthix was looking for. “Jayda..”
She turned her head to face Danso, then began to answer his question. “Likely, after they are done cleaning up the mess, it will be back to the prison cell with the rest of the Jedi. It would make sense.”
Already it seemed the individuals were wrapping up their clean up, forcing the small group to remain in place until the crowd had thinned out enough to travel to the lifts. Jayda was getting twitcher by the moment during her wait. Her mind shifted between Sish’s condition and her future, neither she wanted to consider, causing her to dig her fingers into her robe slightly. Another hour or so seemed to have passed before the clean up crew was finally gone and the all clear was given to the Sith to bring the prisoners back to the cell. It took about ten or more minutes to reach the lifts which had been repaired once then escort the prisoners into the cells within the one of the bunk rooms across from where the other Jedi were mediating and training, right as the one called Koren vanished into the lift with the troopers. Jayda had remained in the lifts while the troopers nudged the prisoners in then waited to see what Zanna would do as the Jedi were marched into the bunk room.
~| Day 2, 11:50-11:52 GST |~
~| Aboard the Kaggath, Prison Complex |~
Xid
Xid had continued to struggle, trying to ignore Tolun Fi’s eyes upon him as he flinched at his ribs still stinging. Deep inside something told him there was disappointment in the Knight’s gaze and his teeth bit down on his tongue at the thought, the pain an easy distraction with his tolerance to pain. His wrists were already starting to hurt more before becoming numbed a bit with each struggle. He stopped the moment the Kaminoan approached, his head pulled away while he felt his wrist ring untied. The cold, serious movements were done with purpose and with little effort wasted. It finished up quickly when Koran and Nazca exited the bunk area.
Relieved to have the blood flowing through his hands again as he gently lifted upright to sit and averted his eyes to the floor. Xid idly started to rub some feeling back into his wrists while he allowed Tolun Fi to examine him. He paused long enough to remove his top, revealing his bare torso so the Knight’s examination would be hindered. Each touch around his fractured ribs made him involuntarily flinch at the pain and swallowed down the yelp. He managed to focus on his breathing, calming himself down.
The teenager's head jerked about to spot the Imperial Troopers come in and become pale. His eyes began to watch them collect Koren then depart. On meeting Tolun Fi's eye contact, Xid felt like a small youngling again. His figure once alert and tense, immediately went into submission when Tolun started to scold him.
“Yes, I would’ve gotten involved.” Xid stated honestly, knowing he couldn’t bring himself to lie. A trait Sela had managed to keep from Tolun Fi’s influence through it was clear some had been dangerously severed and replaced with radically different behavior. “A lot has changed Tolun Fi since I became Sela’s padawan. It’s only logical since her methods were much different than yours. For starters, she didn’t fully liked the fact I sounded less like a person and too much like the droids I worked on, ‘You sound too cold Xid,’ were her exact words. I needed to learn empathy because she said it would make me a better Jedi.”
He paused to let Tolun Fi absorb his words, not sure what the Kamino would think of them. The boy knew it was a terrible excuse but it was the truth: he was no longer the boy he had been. “In some ways, I am the same but others… I don’t know. If it had been any other Sith, I would’ve let it happen Tolun Fi. However I fought the Trandoshan. I know how he functions, Tolun Fi, and any Jedi caught in his grip, might not return alive. Or barely.”
Xid couldn’t keep the worry out of his tone though he tried, his arm wrapped around his wound. “I know I should stay out of the way and try to avoid attracting the Sith’s attention. Andri’s already agreed to take my place and I’m sure others will as well, but at some point they will notice this… then it won’t matter.”
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