{{ urbania's void - chapter 30
...tortured from the start (day thirty-two / +32)
Night had given way to the dawn, which was just as dark and star-spotted as always. The space above obviously never changed, but the chrono stated it was morning.
Jacen Solo was wide awake. He was clinging to Tenel Ka as they stood by the window where Raynar had shoved her to the ground. He could feel her chest rising and falling against his but besides that, she was still.
Everything was still.
Screens had silently lowered from the ceiling. Holo-screens. Two of them. They faced the bed and Jacen could only see the thin sides. They began to fade into life, and the faint buzz of them starting up caused Jacen to slide away from Tenel Ka and grab her hand, pulling her towards the bed. She had heard the screens too and her sparkling grays were locked on them as Jacen gently tugged her towards the middle of the room.
A man appeared on one and a woman appeared on the other.
"Tenk and Nexus." Jacen murmured.
"Hey there everyone." Tenk's voice seemed to fill the room as a sick grin crossed his face. "And by everyone, I mean everyone."
"I'm glad you could all join us. I see some very familiar faces --- as well as some new ones." Nexus snickered and the screens switched to show a row of cells from above, four different beings of four different species each in a different cell. They were all watching screens that showed the same thing that Jacen and Tenel Ka were seeing. They watched as Lowbacca roared, tearing his eyes away from the image of himself and his three companions, locked up like caged rancors.
The image changed and showed Gadell Vessau and Tahiri Veila, who were staring at themselves, staring at the console of screens. They exchanged a worried glance and then the image flipped...
Kyp and Zekk helping Jag off of the ground, skillfully minding his fractured wrist, while Jaina kept her eyes on the screens around them, studying the image that was now from a camera somewhere in that same hallway. Jaina's gaze trailed up towards the ceiling, trying to spot this hidden device, but her eyes were torn from their search as the image on the screens changed again...
It fizzled out and that's when Jacen and Tenel Ka saw themselves on the screens in their room. As did everyone else. They were loosely clinging to each other, both sets of eyes wide and alert, looks of muted shock on their faces.
"We have you all surrounded," Nexus and Tenk faded back into view on the screens. "There's no escape now." A smile crossed the woman's face.
Tenk nodded in agreement, "Not like there was any escape anyways..."
They both laughed, an ear-splitting cackle that made Jacen wince.
Nexus was pushed a bit off-screen as someone barreled into her. They all heard more laughing and Raynar joined in the frame with Nexus, his blonde hair matted to his forehead with sweat.
Jacen could feel Tenel Ka tense up against him at the mere sight of Raynar.
Did she act like this whenever she saw me after that night?
"We'll be moving you all into rooms. Lavish rooms. You'll enjoy them, I promise." Tenk still had that smarmy grin on his face.
"Why are we giving them nice rooms, Tenk?" Raynar was practically whining his question.
"Because we'll be kriffing with their minds enough, they deserve something nice." Nexus crossed her arms over her chest, strands of purple hair falling over her shoulders. "They did save our lives after all."
There was a chorus of "huhs" - "whats" - and some blank stares as the three on the screens laughed again.
"You mean you don't know?" Raynar snickered.
Silence drifted aimlessly between everyone.
"If it wasn't for you, darlings..." Tenk and Nexus put their hands up to their noses.
"And that precious ship of yours." They pressed.
Mindmaps fell and gasps were heard. It was what they all feared, yet they had known all along.
"I knew it..." Tahiri murmured, as she pulled her chin away from its spot over Gadell's shoulder.
"Who are they?" He whispered back.
"They were at Myrkr..." She responded, breathlessly.
That was all Gadell needed to hear. He turned his azure gaze back to the screens.
Jacen's breath shuddered. Seeing their faces again brought back memories he never wanted to remember. The plummet of his hope after the Tachyon Flier was stolen, the comatose Raynar aboard. The snags and tears being pulled into his heart as his brother was brutally killed, but the acidic feeling of ecstasy as he knew Anakin took countless Vong with him when he went. The shattering of everything he and his sister shared as she was seduced by the dark side. The sparks dancing in those inches that were closing between their lips before he and Tenel Ka kissed... then the feeling of those sparks dying as he was ripped away from her before they could touch one last time. Talons at his back as he was handed to the Yuuzhan Vong... feelings.
Myrkr.
They all died at Myrkr.
"Is that..." Kyp glanced to Jaina as his question trailed off. He knew Jag was wondering the same thing.
"Yes." She nodded, her tired eyes still locked on the three giggling faces on the holos. "Lomi Plo and Welk."
Zekk was leaning back against the wall of the hallway, his back covering some of the screens. He was rubbing his temples and shaking his head, slowly, back and forth.
Tenel Ka turned her head to stare upwards at Jacen, her inquiring eyes seeking out his always comforting brandy-browns. She could see fear in them, she could see determination.
She could see anger.
"Jacen..." Her tone had an underlying sense of urgency that he had never really heard from her before. And he knew his logic must be unraveled to her.
"It's a trap." He whispered softly.
"What?"
"Raynar sent that message to get the bulk of us to him. He knew you were busy running Hapes --- so they must've used some other Mindmap or something, said they were me... and sent a message off. They made it reach you. They knew you would come."
"But Master Skywalker and Danni gave us the Khee and Rez Mindmaps -- would they have not said something?"
"Did you see them in person?"
Silence.
Her lips formed a hard line. She had no way of knowing if it was really them. And she had worried about that then, but she had passed it off.
The screens were showing each group getting pulled away by Quadripdici, off to wherever they were being held after that.
Jacen finally tore his eyes from the screens and looked down to the Queen Mother of Hapes.
"They all came to the Tower to save us..."
"They should not have..." She replied, her voice trailing off as the Quadripdici entered and took both of them away.
Because that's exactly what Raynar, Welk and Lomi Plo wanted...
They were all thrown in their respective rooms, on a different floor from where they all had been. From the inside, the rooms were beautiful, each with it's own style.
From the outside, in the hallway they all were situated in, it looked like a prison. Dark, uniform, each door with a keypad lock.
Ryled Mirdele meandered past the doors, his beady eyes roaming over each one. Raynar was on his tail, checking all the lock panels, making affirmative mumbles as he saw the lock engaged for each one.
Lomi Plo and Welk were up in one of the main control rooms, their eyes roaming over screens of different images. A screen for each room.
"Who'd you put with who, Lo?"
Lomi Plo pointed to the first screen in the top row, where two men were lying knocked out on the ground. They would awaken in a few minutes.
"Jagged Fel and Kyp Durron." She released a long breath, "They obviously weren't on the vacation that the gang took to Myrkr. And Fel seems to be the only one out of them all without the Force. He shouldn't be too hard to break."
Her finger moved to the next screen, to where a barabel and a chadra-fan were seated on the floor, both cross-legged, animatedly talking to each other --- probably trying to figure out what was going on and how to get out of it. "Tesar Sebatyne and Tekli."
Welk nodded, recognizing both of them.
The third screen in the top row showed a man standing over a blue skinned twi'lek, who was seated at the table in their room, the man with his hands on her shoulders, attempting to comfort and calm her.
"Alema Rar and Zekk Arkenna."
The second row was where she made her way to next, her right hand pointing to the large screen. There was a young, blonde woman staring out the picture window, to the sea of neon below. The man in the room with her was in the middle of the room, his cerulean eyes darting up and down the walls, across the ceiling, into corners, over furniture...
"Tahiri Veila. And the Hapan Admiral, Gadell Vessau."
Welk crossed his arms over his chest and let his dark eyes follow Lomi Plo's finger to the middle screen of the second row.
He saw a wookiee, carrying an unconscious chestnut haired woman. Everyone was knocked out before being put in their respective rooms, and some seemed to be waking up faster than others. He put the woman down on the bed and rumbled an inquiry.
"Jaina Solo and Lowbacca."
The third screen in the second row was the last, and Welk could feel a sneer crossing his face. Lomi Plo drew in a deep breath and took a step back from the monitors, snaking her arms around Welk. She set her chin on his shoulder and breathed into his ear.
"Tenel Ka and Jacen Solo."
Jacen Solo was curled up, knocked out on the sheets of their bed, in the middle of their room, which was made up of what appeared to be stone. Tenel Ka was awake, pacing back and forth across the lush deep gray carpet. Her eyes kept trailing nervously to Jacen's form, hoping to see it stir. Finally she padded over and sat down on the edge of the bed, beside him. She brushed a few strands of hair from his peaceful face and let her hand rest at the crook of his neck. Her gaze moved upwards, where it blazed a malicious trail around the room, shooting a particularly evil gaze to anyone that might be watching them.
Raynar Thul slipped into the control room and sat down in front of the screens, feet away from Lomi Plo and Welk who looked over at him, expecting a report.
"Rooms are locked, I see the cameras are on -- we're good."
Moments of silence drifted in and out of the devices in the room, between the people, through the heavy air.
An energy filled the room. Intangible. But so powerful it made the three of them smile.
Anger. Revenge. Lust. Hatred. Greed.
The dark side.
Lomi Plo's voice purred from her lips, the hiss carrying to Raynar and Welk.
"So who should we start with?"
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