Whispers in the Dark

[Squee]

“Fall back! Get outta here!” the roar came from a crouched creature in black. A hilt protruded off over one shoulder, tribally decorated with a string of beads hanging off the end. She paused, balancing on bent legs and looked up behind her. “Damn! We didn’t sign up for this crap. Triggs! The hell are you!?”

“Sergeant! We need to go! It’s too heavy!”

“We shouldn’t be running,” the creature snarled to herself. She turned back forward and sprang, launching her full body length over the ground. All fours and at full retreat down the hall, within seconds she caught sight was what was left of alpha team. Two people, both up-runners, and not as fast as her. “We shouldn’t have to run.”

“There’s a lot of things that shouldn’t have here, Sergeant,” panted the green twi’lek.

“Liu, Brayner, stop!” the sergeant suddenly cried, urgently, abruptly stopping. Her eyes widened as a door flew from its place and smacked into the twi’lek, crushing him into the wall. The human, Brayner, stopped just beyond the crushed Liu and turned, raising a rifle to his shoulder. Dark shadows filtered out of the doorway, “No! Brayner, run!”

“Sergeant, I can’t –“

“Run dammit!” the Sergeant stood and reached behind her for her sword. A soft hiss punctured the air as red light consumed the hall. Blaster bolts were shot from Brayner’s rifle and they were deflected away. The sergeant’s lip curled and ears slicked back close to her head, and she growled something ferocious that the smaller of the two shadows took a step back. She swung forward with the sword and it contacted the red blade, and the cathar leaned closer to the light and its heat to stare her enemy in the eye. “And you and I can play, ol’ balls-o’-yarn.”

Her cauterized gashes hurt. Cersa moved her cheek, feeling a solid grating against her cheekbone. She was laying on one of them. On her arm. With a small groan Cersa rolled onto her stomach. She splayed her fingers on the solid surface beneath her. It was better than floating. It was why she hated space so much, and the training she had to go through about zero gravity. There wasn’t good control. The slightest movement could send one spinning out of control.

She moved her palms across the surface… and heard the sound of metal scraping softly close to her ear. Eyelids shot open and Cersa lifted her cheek from the solid… ground. She raised her head higher and studied her hand. A cusp was clamped around her wrists and to those cusps were… rectangular squares interlinked with one another!

“What is this?” she whispered to no one. She sat up onto her knees, lifted her hands, studied the chains. “What is this?” These weren’t here the last time she was conscious. Why was she even here? Alive? Why was she even alive? She figured the dark siders would kill her by now. What was she still doing ALIVE? For the matter, what was she doing ALIVE and CHAINED?

Cersa pushed her arm slowly before her, and realized she still had slack on her chains. What were her parameters? She moved to get up, but her thigh twitched and couldn’t lift her weight and she ended back down on her knee. Looking down, Cersa saw the long vertical gash on her thigh, blackened. Cauterized. Hmph. The cathar woman switched legs and got up. She took only three half steps before the slack was gone, but Cersa could lean forward and get further still.

Where was she now?

“Who’s there?” she called out. “Someone’s gotta be cuz I didn’t end up here all by myself. And I sure as hell didn’t chain myself neither. Whoever you are, you show your worthless face.” Cersa backed up, giving herself slack with the chains, peering around her half-lit surroundings. She could see better than most in the dim lighting, and she hoped that no one would come bearing a great, big shining light.

Whoever was going to come out, Cersa guaranteed that it would not be a friendly.

[Jace]

The door opened slowly, deliberately, with a loud groan. Light flooded into the room from the opening but still the lighting in the room could only be considered dim. She walked through the opening slowly, deliberately, it was all for effect. Years of experience had taught her the various subtleties of the art. There were misconceptions and truths in the populace's limited knowledge of the art. She had dedicated her life to the perfection of her skill. That being said, it was still a hobby, once that gave her great pleasure.

She walked towards the wall and switched on the light rather matter of factly. The light revealed the Echani's features and it would be interesting to see her captive's reaction. They didn't expect a petite woman like herself to be their kidnapper. Of course she wasn't a normal woman, but still, the look of sheer disbelief on her captives made her ever so happy. After all, wasn't that what this was all about, happiness and joy?

There were other schools of thought though, those that didn't find causing others pain, enjoyable. Gabriella didn't give a sith about them, she had never cared about other's opinions. How could they possibly tell her that what she was doing was wrong or bad? If it was so bad then how could she be so happy from it. Then again, if that made her a bad person then she didn't really care. At the end of the day she was the one happy and the other was dead. So society could take their views and shove it up their collective ass.

"I was expecting a better reaction from you, but I have learned not to expect much from life, so my disappointment is at a minimum" spoke Gabriella suddenly

"You are a soldier are you not? aren't you trained for these situations? You are panicking already...it annoys me. Considering your position, I don't think you should be annoying me"

She studied her prize with a rather loving face yet clearly sinister face. This captive could quite possibly be one of her most interesting yet, and that was saying something. Eventually when you got the same reaction from people, it became boring...she could only gain a small amount of pleasure. Gabriella needed something new, something that would entertain her.

"A Cathar, you are my first. Rumor has it that your species has impressive regenerative abilities. That should make this all manners of exciting. I know you soldiers don't get vacations often, so I would like you to think of this as one....it surely will be for me" finished the Echani with a cold grin.

Gabriella walked closer to the Cathar, removing her lightsaber from her belt as she did so. She ignited the saber and knelt before the Cathar, making sure the silver blade was right in front of her captive's face. Gabriella's left hand quickly flashed forward, leaving a shallow cut across the Cathar's face. She brought the blade, dripping with blood up to her face to show to her captive. Gabriella then stepped back, extinguishing her lightsaber as she did so.

"So Cathar, what is your name? I do like to keep a record of my...experience"

[Squee]

The appearance of the small woman made Cersa tilt her head. Her ears twitched rapidly as the door moaned upon opening. She automatically began to silently sniff the air, nostrils flaring just a little. There was nothing noteworthy to be sampled from the air, so she stood still, watching with her ears stilled and facing forward. As soon as Cersa saw the petite thing come toward her, she blinked three times rapidly and smirked. This was what she was faced with? The cather straightened her back, still smirking… until the woman began to talk.

“Just because I’m a soldier doesn’t mean I’m forbidden to fear. How about I put you in a dark place chained to a wall and wake you up? It’s quite disorienting.” Stupid dark siders. Think they have everything figured out and never satisfied with anything. The soldiers and the blood swords. “And if you’re annoyed, well that’s yer own fault then, ain’t it?”

Cersa found it rather amusing that she had to look down at her captor. A good four, five inches if she had to take a guess. Possibly six. She studied the small woman with expert eyes, as if assessing her exact issue and contemplating the best course of action. Standing tall with a straight back, a solid wall for eyes, and the steel expression made it difficult to conclude that Cersa was having the donkey of all doubts just by appearance. On the outside, she was every bit stoic and coolly collected, seemingly unconcerned about her current position.

This was what her squad saw every waking moment with her. They never saw the stomach twisting or a scent of fear so strong Cersa thought she’d drown with it in her nose. The nervousness that electrocuted her veins or the heart’s hammer hitting the anvil every few, slow seconds. Part of being a leader required her to keep her nerve, though there were moments Cersa wished she could burst apart at the seams.

Like when the dark forces scared her wits white when they ambushed her squad. Like when they’d sucked Terano toward them and ran him through with their lightsaber. When she’d ordered the fastest retreat in her history. Triggs was left behind. Liu crunched by a flying door. Brayner… did he even get out? She knew in some of those last moments, she’d near panicked when the larger shadow started after him. In all her thinking then, she had been willing the idea of at least one person surviving.

Well, she’d survived, just not in the most idealistic fashion.

Cersa blinked out of her thoughts at the sound of a soft hiss, a sound that reminded her of rain kissing raw energy. The blade waved closely in her face and Cersa turned her head slightly away, wrinkling her nose at the smell of ozone. She was sure it would burn her fur off. Would she catch fire? She didn’t know. With a flashed of her captor’s wrist and a too late recoil of Cersa’s head, the cathar was feeling the sting from the fresh cut on her cheek.

“Whoa. Hey now…” she started but was quickly interrupted by the woman, who asked her name. Cersa let out two bursts of air through her nose, resembling a light and airy form of a short chuckle. “You know it’s more appropriate to give your name first before asking mine, but, whatever. Name’s Cersa. Now, what about you?”

[Jace]

The first slash was merely a small test to see how her toy would react. Gabriella was happy to admit that she was not disappointed in the being before her. More often than not, others would begin screaming or pleading for their life, it was pathetic. This Cathar would eventually be brought to that state, but the longer it took, the better. Indeed from that one slash, the Echani had learned a few things about her captive. One was that she was fast, as a trained soldier should be, almost dodging Gabriella's blade. Another was that she did well to hide her fear, a valiant but pointless attempt.

Gabriella almost considered using the Force to break the Cathar but rejected the idea. She would get the satisfaction of doing so but in good time, there was no point rushing things. Patient isn't usually a term associated with Gabriella but when it came to torture, she tried her best.

"Cersa...thats a pretty name for an animal like you" replied Gabriella

Indeed, because that's what her captive was, an animal. Cersa stood a good deal above Gabriella and was covered in fur. The Echani wasn't what one would call xenophobic but she had enough problems with her own race, let alone big talking feline species. Well depending on how things turn out, she may have gained respect for the Cathar, but that remained to be seen.

"I am Gabriella" stated the Echani in a sweet tone "and we are going to have so much fun together"

It had been ever so long since Gabriella had had some real fun. Lately it had been all Sith this and Sith that, and missions missions missions. There hadn't been any room for what she wanted to do in Mistress Renata's plans. Honestly she couldn't even understand why she had agreed to join the Sith in the first place. She had been skeptical about it in the first place. All she had gotten in reward was to be paired up with that annoying cybernetic freak.

She was so frustrated that she could almost lash out...

Wait a minute...

She could lash out, and she did. Her right hand swung outward, blade in her grip. Gabriella's slashed at the Cathar's midsection, creating a thin red line across the middle of her chest. The wound itself wasn't too deep so it wasn't like her organs were falling out or anything. It was satisfying though, ever so satisfying. She could take all her frustrations of late out on this Cathar. Gabriella was getting a little too excited and she didn't want things to be over too soon.

So instead she decided to put her blade away, take out one of her lightsabers, and slam the hilt into the wound that she had just created.

"Enjoy it for now"

The Echani left the Cathar with only those words and headed for the door. She would come back in the next hour or so and liven things up a bit. It was a very delicate and complicated process, indeed, Gabriella thought it was much underrated.