Twisted and Strangled

[Nikolas Faselli]

Hapes
Near a sea
--------------

Hapans didn't know of night. They lived on a planet which never saw true darkness. They were safe from the terrors of it. Emma wasn't. Nor was anybody else who lived on any other planet. The galaxy was full of darkness while this one world managed to keep itself illuminated. It was magical. But all the girl saw in that was the safety it brought. Light meant good, she had come to understand.

And the sand the girl now sat on was the lightest she had ever seen. It was yellow, but pale. It was full of tiny rocks, yet it weighted practically nothing. Life on the planet seemed to consist of miracles.

The beautiful nature was something Emma had never seen. Coruscant, being an ecumenopolis and all of that, didn't provide the exile with the healthy dose of green she needed. Everywhere she looked on the city planet, she saw shades of grey. Over here, all she saw were shades of colour.

They were amazing. And for a while, they managed to occupy the mind of the girl, setting her ugly memories aside.

She sighed. It was so warm, yet she was still wearing a jacket. She didn't want to take it off. She was scared that if she took it off, somebody would abduct her again. It made her shake a little bit.

She wouldn't let anybody put her in a cage anymore.

[member="Krius Syonis"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Hapes was turning out to be more eventful than he could expect. It was time to slow down and take stock of things. Krius headed across the sands of where Ta'a Chume'Dan fell into the crystal blue sea.

As one who embodied the Force as natural as breathing, Krius felt alive once more with not just the opportunities presenting themselves before him, but from the life around him here at the edge of the city populated with nothing but decaying revolutionaries and pathetic whelps. He pulled up the cloth of his shirt, the makeshift armor covering part of his body like an ancient warrior.

Looking out to the sea and glancing at the dockyards up above and cruisers passing overhead, Krius felt the girl ahead before he saw her. Another pathetic creature no doubt. Hapes WAS spoiling him today with rooting out the weaker of his race.

As he walked on leisurely, the yellow sand softly moulding around his boots, Krius came up on a young girl sat much like he was earlier, reflecting on what life was presenting her and where she stood in the galaxy. She looked afraid, she looked broken. Perfect.

"Nothing clears your head more than reflecting on where you've gone wrong in life, am I right?"

He was in control here, and if this girl was worth anything, he would at least make sure he left Hapes with a reminder of their superiority in the galaxy.

[member="Emma Grace Norewood"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"Did you come to mock me?" Emma asked from the man who had seemingly appeared next to her. Her tone was cold, just as cold as her face could have been. There was no sign of warmth in her face, no twinkle in her eyes, no spark in her talk or shine in her movements. Just pure ice

"You should leave if you really want to laugh at my desperate past." Her voice had started to tremble just a little bit, but it did give away a hint of anxiety. It was difficult to stay strong on the outside if you were incredibly fragile in the inside. It was like a practically coreless planet tried to keep together a powerful mas of land.

She pulled her jacket closer together and leaned closer to her legs with her body so that she would be completely safe. One little move closer from the man and she was ready to roll away from him.

Seriously, she would have rolled away.

[member="Krius Syonis"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Krius stood a few steps away and sighed at her predictable response, and he looked out at the sea, and the rolling horizon of the planet before them.

"Why is it people like you always...give up at the first sign of trouble? I mean, you're sitting here wallowing in self pity. Why don't you do something about the ones who have hurt you and broken you? Because they're loving what you've become."

He smiled and turned to her, cocking his head.

"Well, actually, they've probably forgotten who you are!"

Kris flipped his wrist and send a shimmer of stones skimming out into the water as if he was doing nothing but blining.

"So are you from Hapes or just passing through?"

[member="Emma Grace Norewood"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

The girl gazed at the man. He didn't seem to move a centimeter closer to her. That was good. For the whole speech, she stood silent, trying to come up with something to tell the man not to appear as weak as she was. But her mind was empty like a barren landscape, only wind running through it. Nothing else.

And then the man seemed to kind of forget the whole scene and asked Emma about where she came.

"I'm not from here," she managed to squeak through her wall of fear. The man looked like he was wanting to do something to her and that made her worry. She liked staying alone because that way, she was the most protected she could be. Now her peace had been interrupted. But like her psychologist had suggested, she should use every possibility to interact with other people.

So she didn't run away.

[member="Krius Syonis"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

With a small roll of the lips and a nod, Krius took her blunt answer and looked away again. He spoke to her through the Force.

What happened to you - you're broken. You could have been so much more.

[member="Emma Grace Norewood"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"Get out of my head!" she yelled at the man. People sneaking into her mind was one thing Emma hated with passion and was able to do anything to stop it, no matter how far she had to go.

"My past is not yours to judge, you monster!" Her face turned pinkish at first, then it started to take the colour of blood. It was embarrassing, it was scary. The combination did not go well with the girl's frequent panic attacks.

She couldn't contain herself for long any more.

[member="Krius Syonis"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Krius casually turned with a mock look of surprise on his face.

"Hey, I'm sorry - I just figured your gift would be something you'd be happy to know I understand, because you're strong in emotion and spirit, that much is clear to me."

He narrowed his eyes at her figure, turning into a pent up girl full of rage. He beckoned to himself with his hands, as if calling to her.

"Come on, freak. That IS a name you've been called before no doubt. Let me see what you have - show me that spirit that's your only salvation right now. Come on, don't be afraid, little brat."

He smiled, coaxing her and feeling her annoyance building. Like a wonderfully pressured bottle of fine champagne ready to POP with glorious results.

[member="Emma Grace Norewood"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"What the kark do you want from me?" Emma cried while trying to avoid bursting into tears. She already swung in the sand with her body, just like people with psychological problems stereotypically do, and her heart beat so fast and strong she actually feared the man was able to hear it.

She only hoped the man would leave soon. It would have been better for both of them, because Emma was not sure of what she would do if she got really angry. Though much more likely she would have just acted like a little girl because her nerves just wouldn't have let her do anything else, not even speaking of attacking the 'bully'.

"Why do you have to do that to me?"

[member="Krius Syonis"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Krius knelt down in the sand and started to play in it with his hands.

"This is my home, y'know. I grew up here and this is the first time I've been here in about 9 years..."

Sand came together, manually packed tight to form a small sphere, gradually getting bigger as he worked.

"I have travelled the galaxy and found people just like you who have no direction and have been hurt, and I've helped them become great things. BUT they have all one thing in common."

He patted the large fist-sized sphere of sand in front of him and smiled.

"They all thought there were better than me and betrayed me. So you know what I did?"

Krius pointed to the sphere. It suddenly exploded in a violent spray of sand.

"I broke them so they would never be the same again, and wherever they are now and whatever they are doing, the things I did them will NEVER leave them. Ever."

He wiped his hands down on his thighs and looked at the girl.

"SO whappened to you. I'm a good listener, and I may just be willing to help you if you let me. I can show things you've only DREAMT about."

For the first time he offered a genuine smile. It was only small, but it was there.

[member="Emma Grace Norewood"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"What makes you think I will trust you?" Emma asked after gathering all of her courage. She had to stand against the man, she had to act strong. She was on the edge of falling to another seemingly endless moment of panic, so she had to do what she could to prevent that from happening. Trying to step up against the bully seemed like a good idea at that moment.

"Your every sentence speaks of your ill meanings and desperate wants to manipulate with others. I know people like you. The person I met was just like you -- trying to get a hold of every innocent young girl, then do whatever he wants with them."

She stopped swinging, looked into the distance, at the deep blue sea, and stood up.

"I want to know of every single detail of what you would do to me if I accepted your proposal and only then I will start thinking of coming with you."

The sudden courage surprised her. Her psychologist had told her she was a strong woman, but all of that was buried deep below the dirt of fears and anxiety that it needed a serious blast to get even the smallest of look at it.

[member="Krius Syonis"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Bored of all the games, he stood up and looked down at the girl.

"I don't care if you trust me or not, I'm not after your body. If I wanted it, trust me I could take it and you'd wake up tomorrow without knowledge anything had happened. Is that all you think men want you for? I doubt you'd get much attention other than being on your back with that attitude."

He folded his arms and tapped his chin, looking out in the distance and feeling the slight chance in attitude of the girl who was now listening to him.

"I'm not wasting my time convincing you of what I am, you can see that yourself when you let me in. But put it this way, I've made Sith Lords out of little girls like you and given broken spirits the fire to take vengeance on those who have done the wrong - all with the gift inside them. The Force. Not twisted to serve an Order or a Lord or Master - you serve yourself, and you stand beside ME. That's it. If you don't, I'll give you a fate worse than death."

Slowly turning to her, again, a casual and warm look to his face, he smiled.

"Soooo are you going to tell me why you're psychologically bent in the head or not?"


[member="Emma Norewood"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

The situation was getting out of Emma's hands. If it ever was in her hands, that is. She felt like her lungs needed to breath in more oxygen, like her body needed more blood, and like she was going to throw up.

You have to be strong.

"I could tell you my story, but if you're giving me a fate worse than death, what is the point?"

She sat down again and looked at the sea. It was calm. At least calmer than her. She could stare at it for hours, just like she had done before the man arrived. She didn't even know his name yet -- all they did was mocking each other, throwing in insults, trying to compete. Why? And for what?

There was no point in that, either. It only brought drama which the girl couldn't handle.

"It was when I started my own independent life when I was abducted for a series of torturous tests..."

[member="Krius Syonis"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

He nodded slowly as she started to speak, and he walked up to where she was and at down gently a few meters from her. Krius turned his head.

"I know you aren't going to betray my trust if you give it to me. So surprise yourself and give it to me, and I'll build you up again."

When she mentioned tests, Krius shook his head and felt a pang of hatred for those out there who did just what he was trying to stop. Tests on those with gifts.

"Did they hurt you because you were different? Different, like me? You can do things you can't figure out where, or hear things you can't understand where from?"

He just watched her, and needed to know more.

"Go on."

[member="Emma Norewood"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"I don't know what the tests were for."

Emma sighed and tried to remember, search her mind, find a single string of hint. But she couldn't find anything. She had barely heard the man talking while he performed these tests -- her pains were too powerful to let her focus on listening.

"He held me in a cage which was only a few metres in diameter. I barely managed to fit myself there."

Her voice still trembled while she talked. That was something she couldn't get rid of that easily.

"Can you imagine a little round surface only maximum three metres in diameter where there are a sink, a toilet and a bed? Well, that's where I lived."

The thoughts of the room were painful, but she had to continue. Not that she would have trusted the man, but more because talking these things out had a therapeutic effect on her.

"Every few hours, the man brought me out of the room and put be on a table, my hands and feet bound so that I couldn't do anything. He cut me, attached strange machines I had yet to see to the various parts of my body..."

She dared to look into the eyes of the man.

"He once told me that during every session, I had to feel the maximal amount of pain a human could resist."

[member="Krius Syonis"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

He looked at her as she spoke and saw the scars and small scabs in various places on her skin that were heighted by her story. A frown formed on his brow as he looked at her, giving all his attention.

"How many were there? What sort of place was this?"

A slow burning venom was rising inside him – it was evident that the parasites were still trying to rule over those who had the Force inside them but still unaware.

Slowly he scratched the back of his head, fingers running of the jagged scars on his scalp.

[member="Emma Norewood"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"I think I was the only one. Or..."

She thought for a moment.

"No, there were two other girls. But they weren't tested as often as I was. I think they had been there longer because they were full of scars and bruises."

Emma's eyes moved to the sand. All memories she had of the place were all manipulated, didn't look normal at all. And of course, her own thoughts about it were exaggerated because of the emotions she had had while being tested.

"I think it was... A huge laboratory, with no windows. It was all grey in colour, I think they had a huge map of Coruscant over there."

[member="Krius Syonis"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

"Coruscant?"

Sith territory. Well wasn’t that a surprise.

"I spoke to you through the Force just then – tell me did you experience anything like that held captive? Did they make you do things you felt un-natural, almost alien to you? Control things as you experience pain with your mind?"

Krius shuffled, hiding his perverse excitement, not at what butchers had done to the girl, but at the subject before him if she had some immense power inside her. They must have wanted to test for something.

"You can trust me, I’ll understand you. I understand more than you know."

[member="Emma Norewood"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"They didn't make me do much. I had to stay on the table. He just took samples of me, but sometimes used machines to make my whole body ache. Then he took some notes on his holopad."

She looked at the man again.

"Do you think you know why they did that to me?"

It was painful to think of the two years she had spent being captured, tested, practically tortured. Even the smallest of thought of these things made her feel ache inside her head, just like she would have experienced the same tests again. And no, it was not good to feel that way at all as most of her thoughts she had every day were about these couple of years.

"Or do you know what they did to me?"

[member="Krius Syonis"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Arching his fingers, he leant his mouth on the tips and looked at her, desperate to ravage her head and probe her thoughts.

"I can’t say I do know why they wanted to test you or what they did."

He continued to look at her, and thought nothing of the consequences. You didn’t become a leader by hesitating about what MAY happen.

"This may hurt a little bit."

His fingers pulled apart and he held his hands out as if holding her head between his palms and burnt his gaze into the brow of her bruised head. Krius hoped she would fight, and she was cry, because he wanted to feed of her pain and raw emotion to find what he was looking for.

A smile started to form as he broke into her mind with the Force slowly; like a burning knife penetrating flesh.

[member="Emma Norewood"]