Korriban- later Saturday

[notconflicted]

After the stunt with the lightsaber, Darth Havok had gotten smart about Sia. He'd had her suspended from her shackles in a crucifixion pose, where she couldn't get at anything, and even if she did, her hands were too far from anything to do any damage. He'd even had the fire pits removed, and had sent Sith guards to keep watch in the chamber when he left, so she really wasn't able to try anything.

All she could really do was not let the dark energy all around her intrude on her thoughts too much, and try to figure a way out of this before things really got bad.


[NFB, etc. Taken from Legacy #50 and preplayed with the completely amazing craftyladyparts and suitably_heroic!]

Comments

[thegoddamnworst]

Antares' plan was actually very simple. He dressed himself up as a Sith, slapped false binders on Atton, Jessica, and Ganner, and was going to march into the Sith temple with them posing as prisoners arriving late from Agamar.

Technically, Roan's orders were that if Sia could not be rescued, then she would have to be killed. She knew everything, and if they could extract any information out of her it would be a disaster. In practice, though, there was zero chance of this happening. They were getting her back, and that was that.

There was a guard at the entrance they'd have to get past, but he wasn't worried. He'd been in a dark place since Agamar, he could use it to his advantage.

[suitably_heroic]

Dark place, and that make-up? There was something about Antares lately that had Atton wondering. Not that he knew the guy.

He did his best to look downtrodden and beaten, binders and all.

Which mostly meant he was chattering Antares' ears off as soon as they were in earshot. "--Look, are you sure we can't make a deal or something? I'm telling you, you've got the wrong guy--"

[craftyladyparts]

Jessica did know the guy. He was sucking more than usual lately. Shock of shocks.

"Don't bother. It's useless. We're not getting out of here alive," Jessica whined, making sure her misery was clear all the way down to her walk.

[therearenonebetter]

As someone the Sith might know, Ganner was in his red armor, looking straight ahead, serious and solemn.

He thought Antares was kind of sucking lately, too, and weirdly today was the first day he'd thought his warnings about it had sunk in at all.

[thegoddamnworst]

Antares didn't really care how he was coming off, especially when he was supposed to be using it.

And his "Shut up!" to the rest of them wasn't really acting.

[suitably_heroic]

"Not with an attitude like that, we will," Atton shot back. "You got more than two words in your vocabulary?"

Hey, he had to enjoy this somehow.

[craftyladyparts]

"Please don't taunt him more. Look at what he's already done," Jessica complained miserably. With a flex of her fingers, the stun gloves in her uniform were primed. There was danger all around so her spider-sense wasn't particularly helpful at the moment, but it seemed likely that something would go down soon.

[thegoddamnworst]

Antares hated them both right now. He was almost glad to reach the guard if only so he didn’t have to focus on them.

The guard looked like he might stop them, but Antares cut him off, breezing past him like he belonged there. "You, take my prisoners to the main interrogation chamber."

"The chamber is already in use," the guard replied.

Antares was halfway inside, and turned around to look at him. "By whom?"

"Darth Havok interrogates the Imperial princess there, my lord."

The anger Antares felt at that was very real, and he grabbed the guard by the neck. "Then secure another chamber! These prisoners have vital information, and I will have answers out of them, now!"

"Yes, my lord. As you command, my lord."

Now, past the guard and into the facility, like everything was normal.

[suitably_heroic]

"It's nice to know the Sith are the same in every time period," Atton said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Externally, he'd flinched. Internally, not so much. He'd seen it before.

And felt it, too. Antares.

"Great people to pal around with."

[craftyladyparts]

“I do have to say, I’m not much of a fan,” Jessica sighed for the guard’s sake. “If you need to run off and take care of that throat burn, feel free. Don’t mind us, we’ll probably be fine.”

[thegoddamnworst]

Antares could see that two more Sith were coming to escort them, which he really didn't need. He could already find Sia's pained Force sense in all of this and would be able to follow her from there, but he wasn't going to chance starting a fight now.

"If I can't get you two to shut up, perhaps they will," Antares growled as one Sith took the lead, and one followed them. It was less of a threat, more of a warning that they wouldn't be as nice as he was if they weren't careful.

[suitably_heroic]

It made Atton roll his eyes, is what it did.

But he kept his hands neatly where they were, keeping any hint of Force sensitivity out of his presence with practiced ease. "Don't count on it."

He could sense Sia. Not far.

[craftyladyparts]

"Really doesn't seem likely," Jessica sighed as the guards started to lead them down the hallway. "Personally, it's a nervous tick for me, so the more you do to us, the more likely I am to talk."

As they started to pass by interrogation rooms, Jessica couldn't help herself. "Are we there yet?"

[notconflicted]

Actually, yes. There was a large, cavernous chamber, empty aside from Sia, suspended in midair.

And two more Sith guards. The inquisitor was curiously absent.

Sia was mostly unconscious after the last interrogation session, suspended in midair, though she sort of had an idea of when something happened around her. Most of her clothing that wasn't covering anything important had been cut away, revealing cuts all over her skin, which was at least a little bit to blame for the strong sense of pain she was putting out there.

She'd had better days.

[suitably_heroic]

Anger threatened to well up in Atton, but he squashed... most of it. Letting a little of it filter through would give these idiots the right impression.

He quietly read the room. Four guards. Boss probably around the corner, or off doing his own thing.

Between him, Jess and Antares, they could take three at once and probably get the fourth in a split second. If they were working together.

He snuck a quick glance at Antares, trying to suss out when he was about to move.

[craftyladyparts]

While everything was dangerous and setting off Jessica's spider-sense, she was being careful to feel for any spikes. It was clear that she'd be relying on her sense in just a moment.

But that would have to take a back seat to watching Sia to make sure she was still even alive.

[thegoddamnworst]

"Where is the inquisitor?" Antares asked, keeping his voice very even. It helped if he didn't look directly at her. He was fine as long as he didn't do that.

"In his wisdom, Lord Havok is allowing the prisoner to recover, lest there be nothing left from which to pry answers," replied one of the guards that had been stationed in the room. "He will return shortly."

"Lord Havok understands his art," Antares said wryly, igniting his lightsaber and quickly gutting that guard.

[craftyladyparts]

Jessica snared a guard with shock-webbing, then jerked him towards her as she flipped into a dropkick to the face. As she landed, she broke the binders and webbed the guard's face to the floor, too. He was already cutting out of the webbing with his lightsaber, but the strain from the shocks would give her the advantage she'd need to punch him into unconsciousness.

Eventually.

Stupid Sith did not like to just stay down.

[suitably_heroic]

"Oh please, Lord Havok barely gets the basics of torture," Atton said, igniting both of his lightsabers at once. Funny, the stuff you could hide up your sleeve.

"But I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to know that anymore these days, so--" A whirl of a lightsaber, and-- wasn't like the guard had needed that arm. "You're welcome."

[therearenonebetter]

As the only one in armor, Ganner hadn’t brought his lightsaber because they could have checked for it. So he called the last guard’s lightsaber to his hand and ignited it, plunging it into the guard’s solar plexus.

“I never want to know the details of anything you just said,” he decided, also snatching another fallen lightsaber from the ground.

[craftyladyparts]

With her guard up and only scraps of webbing still on him, Jessica charged forward and rolled under a lightsaber strike and through his legs, webbing his feet to the ground as she passed. He fell forward, his chin connecting with the ground, which made him lose grip on his lightsaber.

Serious webbing to the saber to keep it on the ground, a punt to the face, and then enough webbing that you could no longer see red or black markings, and he was finally done.

"Just pretend he has an active imagination," Jessica said, taking a quick deep breath and brushing her hair back. "It's better that way. Anyway, Sia!"

[thegoddamnworst]

Antares was already disabling the device keeping Sia suspended, and reached up to grab her, carefully laying her down and trying to be careful of any injuries he couldn't see. "Gently, my princess. It's all right. It's me, Antares."

And those other people.

[notconflicted]

Not very long ago, Sia had had a potentially resolve-ruining bombshell dropped on her, and now as she opened her eyes, it was to her boyfriend happening to be in Sith territory, while looking like a Sith. Even while weakened and only now fully coming awake, her reaction was still to shove him away with the Force, yelling, "Traitor!"

Welcome to the angriest you'd ever see Sia.

She pulled herself to her feet and continued, "You were sent to kill your former master for abandoning his vows as an Imperial Knight! You were supposed to destroy Eshkar Niin!"

[thegoddamnworst]

This... was not how this was supposed to go.

Antares was genuinely thrown by this. When he came to rescue her, he didn't expect her to bring up something he'd done a decade ago, and had to wonder what the Sith had done to her. "I did!" he protested, standing.

[notconflicted]

"Liar!" she snapped. "The person who murdered my mother lives among the Sith now as Darth Havok! He was the one who brought me here, the one who tortured me!"

[thegoddamnworst]

He stared at her, stunned. But… the Sith had mentioned Darth Havok… "That's not possible…"

[notconflicted]

"We're done," she hissed, and while she'd decided before that she was going to break up with him, she'd planned on doing it better. But nope, this was past the last straw. "No questions, no fixing it. Done."

[suitably_heroic]

On the sidelines, kicking aside an armless Sith... Atton looked up like he hadn't just been following that very closely on every level.

He whistled. "Rough," he said.

It sounded a lot like You suck.

[craftyladyparts]

Jessica coughed. If it that sounded a lot like You suck in a more literal sense, that's because she wasn't really trying to cover it up.

"We don't have much time," she told Sia. "Danger's incoming. I assume more SIth are on the way. Can you run?"

[notconflicted]

Sia was still shaky, and she didn't have shoes, but she could draw on the Force if the anger adrenaline rush faded by the time they got out.

"I can do whatever needs to be done," Sia said, taking the extra lightsaber Ganner was offering and not looking anywhere in Antares' direction. "Do you know the way out?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Well, we've got the way we came from, the way we'll go if they discover the way we came from, and if all else fails, which it probably will, we'll improvise," Atton said, slipping his lightsabers onto his belt and got moving for the cell's exit.

"The Sith architecture planning department hasn't changed much in the last few thousand years, let me tell you."

[craftyladyparts]

Jessica grabbed her mask from an inside jacket pocket and put it on. "Write your review for Space Architectural Record later," Jessica said. "We came from this way, my mask might have picked up enough on radar to get us an alternate route before we get swarmed. Let's go."

[therearenonebetter]

They actually got a decent distance without a problem, but when they got closer to the exit, that was when they had a group of Sith to contend with. Still, they could handle that. Ganner could see their ship not far away. They just had to clear a path, and quickly.

“There will be more coming!” Ganner warned while swinging his stolen lightsaber at a Sith.

[suitably_heroic]

"There's always more," Atton growled, lighting both of his 'sabers at once as he leaped at two Sith, taking them both out feet-first. "They're probably breeding them downstairs."

[craftyladyparts]

Jessica started sprinting and dodging on instinct. “I’m gonna flank them the cheap way. Meet you guys in the middle.” She hopped forward used a Sith’s head to launch herself above the crowd so she could web swing herself ahead. Before getting back to the ship, though, she snagged two more Sith with weblines and slingshotted herself into a droplick to the back of a third.

From here she would have to rely on pure instinct and agility to dodge attacks, but it would help pull some Sith away from the rest of the team.

[thegoddamnworst]

“That will help clear a path to the ship,” Antares called to the others. “Get the princess on board. I’ll hold them off here.”

He was still stinging from earlier, but... maybe this could help.

[suitably_heroic]

"Ah, heroic last stands. I missed those," Atton muttered, stabbing a remaining stray Sith through the chest. "Si! Let's get moving!"

And then he was, in fact, moving.

(He wouldn't admit it, but it felt oddly-- cathartic, to finally be there to save-- never mind.)

[notconflicted]

“Wait,” Sia said, stopping for the moment. “You don’t have to do this. I know you’re not in league with Darth Havok. You don’t have to die here!”

She was never ever going to date him again, but she also didn’t want this ending for him.

[thegoddamnworst]

“I’m making this right,” Antares said. There were more Sith arriving at the exit, and no time for a better goodbye. “Go. Or this is all for nothing.”

[craftyladyparts]

“I hate to say it, but he’s right,” Jessica said, shooting some shock webs at the oncoming Sith. “We have to go.”

[suitably_heroic]

"Please, I was gone yesterday," Atton said. He shook his head, turning to go. "C'mon, Si. We don't have time for this."

[notconflicted]

Sia didn’t feel even a little bit good about this, but hey, he was doing his job right. So without another word, she turned to run for the ship, leaving Antares to fight off the Sith on his own.