I awoke like I always did, bound in chains and hunched over, my breath visible to the naked eye. They kept the room at just above a freezing temperature, thought it would break my concentration and keep me from meditating.
It did. For the first few weeks.
The trip back to the Core Worlds was long and arduous. We kept making stops and jumps like the crew didn't know which routes to take, or more likely, which ones were safe. It was apparently almost the end of the Clone War, General Grievous had been found and Master Obi-Wan Kenobi was dispatched to take him down and finally end the war.
But I digress, I only found this out afterwards. After the boarding party, after the slaughter, after the New Empire rose to power.
Ah, again, I'm rambling. Silly me.
You'll find, in these words you're either reading, or listening to, my accounts of instances that happened behind the scenes. Behind the knowing eyes of the newly crowned Emperor and his right hand Darth Vader(not really those were pretty in your face), without the approval of the few Jedi that were met on our travels, the reason for that will be known enough soon.
So, to start again; I awoke like I always did. Except this time, there was a wailing in my ears. Hazard lights periodically lit up my room—if you want to call it that—and bathed everything in orange for a few seconds. I dared not move incase it was some sort of, new interrogation tactic my captors had thought up. I waited, in my own silence, just waited for anything to give me a sign as to what too expect.
My sign finally came in the form of the door sliding open. But it was the last person I expected to see that entered the room.
The starships Captain approaches me quickly and I heard keys jingle on her.
"Can't believe this is happening. Can't believe I'm doing this. Can't believe—" she kept rambling in Huttese and I lost what was said. Her feet came into view and she kneeled down in front of me, putting a blaster on the floor. Simple model but efficient for the close quarters of the ship, not to flashy, not to beat up. She made to grab for my hands and I skirted away from her. She growled in anger and cursed again in Huttese.
"Listen, I don't have time to play along with this little act you got going on with the others because we're about to die. If I thought I could handle it I wouldn't be here letting you loose but here I am. So are you going to lay there like a helpless bantha calf or are you going to act like the Sith Spit you are!"
There was a silence that rang out after her words were declared. Neither of us spoke for a time which let me clearly hear the pounding of footsteps all throughout the ship. Her statement was true and her fear was real.
And I relished the feel of it.
I breathed in deeply, calling upon the Force to almost physically swallow her mounting terror and strengthen myself with it. "Then are you going to release me or what?" I asked her, my previous act of being meek and broken, gone. This was the time of action, and the Dark Side was all but singing to me once more.
She finally pulled out a key and inserted it to unlock the chains when the room was filled with the intruders. My first good look at them told me all I needed to, pirates. Didn't matter which faction they were with or group they belonged to because attacking ships and stealing all they had was their only plan. Blasters were leveled at us from one direction as I slightly peaked up from my view of the floor.
The lead one called out in a language I didn't recognize at first, only listening to Basic has dulled my proficiency in the rest of the known forms of communication. The Captain understood though and started to raise her hand when I pointed with my chin towards the key. She hesitated for a fraction of a second and then turned it before getting up. The pirates were so focused on her that they never noticed I had been freed.
That would be their last mistake.
Apparently they told her to step away from whatever she stood in front of because the next moment she was across the room against the bulkhead and the group got a good look at me.
"Who knew Jedi had slaves! Maybe we could sell him then," one of the other pirates thought out loud, thankfully at least one spoke Basic.
"You think he's still worth that much? Look at him, it's already got a broken spirit," another growled out.
They spoke in a mix of Basic and whatever language their group used the most so I only heard a quarter of what they planned to do with me. Well, that and I had already filled myself up with the Force again.
Let me tell you now so that there's no need for explanations or long winded speeches later. If you've never see someone or fought someone who can use the Force—it doesn't matter how long it's been since they used it—and you underestimate them, you're going to lose. And depending on that Force Wielder, you're going to lose badly.
The group of pirates closed in on me as they talked amongst themselves on what to do with me when I finally sprang into action. I grabbed the blaster on the ground, quicker than they anticipated and lashed out with the Dark Side that I'd been building up all these months. Unfortunately it couldn't be used against my Jedi captors like I wanted but, sacrifices had to be made.
The two closest to me were squished in an instant and the three behind them had been thrown backwards so hard that blasters cracked when they hit the walls. Before the remaining four could take action I shot them in the legs and stomach. One died instantly, forgot what his race was but his bodily fluids couldn't hold his body alive any longer after the gut shot. The other three were screaming their heads off at the pain and curses were being thrown at me and I reveled in it. Again, I drank in their pain, their fear, their anger and let it fuel me.
These stupid pirates thought they could take me? Even in this weakened state I was more than a match for them and now they'd figured that out with their lives. When I had gotten what I wanted out of them I easily executed them without hesitation and offered a prayer to the Dark Side of the Force for staying by me and to continue its faith in me.
The Captain, who had moved to the bulkhead wall behind me, watched all of this unfold in the few moments it took me to dispatch the group. She still had said nothing even as I stood there doing nothing with the screaming men. She waited all the way until I had gotten up from my prayer before she spoke.
"Thank you for saving us."
"Don't mention it, but my Huttese is a little rusty, you know Basic?" I lazily drawled out to her as I started to ransack the bodies.
"It's not my favorite but yes I know," she replied as she too started to scavenge the dead.
"I won't hold it against you, I know it's a prejudiced language but it's all I've known for the past couple years. Give me time and I'll be right as rain with your language again."
She stayed silent, maybe she didn't know what that expression meant or she didn't care to respond to it. Either way we finished stripping(in my case literally since I needed different clothes) the bodies and walked out into the hallway of the ship. She started to talk but I cut her off.
"Have any food on hand? I'm starving."
Her face was one of confusion for a second before she simply pointed to the left and I took it as a sign that, yes, there was food ready to eat. I walked down the way she pointed and saw a simple table in the corner of a room with already made food waiting at it like people had gotten up and left in the middle of the meal, which was very likely the case.
I sat down and devoured the courses set up by the others like I had no care in the world and didn't bother explaining myself. The Captain stood in the doorway, watching me.
As I ate I finally took a good look at her, what with the flashing lights and the loud alarms it wasn't high up on my to-do list but now that I had some time I took her in. She was a Twi'lek, that's all I cared to see because I was so hungry and I wasn't going to let prejudice get the better of me. I've worked with aliens before and never had any problems.
"So, what's the situation like? You were muttering to yourself that it was really bad for you to have released me but I'd like to know more," I had to talk in between bites so it slowed down my eating. I made up for it by ravaging the bird leg on another plate like I'd never eaten a day in my life.
"The pirates came out of nowhere, two ships at once, and disabled the Royal Siren immediately—"
"You named your ship the 'Royal Siren'?" I asked actually stopping my intake of the five course meal to ask this.
She might have gotten embarrassed if the circumstances were different but she just kept a straight face.
"Yes."
I didn't let the awkwardness stretch on more than that.
"Alright please continue."
"Once the ship was disabled two different boarding parties came on splitting us up. The Jedi that captured you thought they could defend against both but they were pushed back and somehow corralled onto one of the ships. I don't know how they did it but the Jedi are together now on one of the ships and the other has already detached and waiting outside of firing range. They have my copilot and one of the Padawans the Jedi had."
Her summary was to the point with no extra words and she waited patiently for me to respond. I finished off bird I was eating and pushed a tray towards her.
"Eat, you'll need your strength."
She tried to protest and I cut her off again.
"I've just spent months locked in that room with barely anything to eat and just used a lot of energy to take down eight men. I've eaten and should be okay for another skirmish but you need strength too or else I'm going to worry that you'll slow down my efforts at a rescue. And if you slow me down I won't have a use for you."
I let the statement of "And if I don't have a use for you I don't need you" hang in the air. She debated for a second and then sat down to eat. I figured if all the food was left here she hadn't eaten either. Can't have us starving when we rescue people.
"Now I'll be right back. Hopefully by the time you're finished."
I pushed away from the table and made to walk out the door when she called out to me.
"Are you already going to take on that ship of pirates? By yourself?"
I laughed at her but it was more at how she thought of me.
"Absolutely not. We're doing that together. No, even with that amount of food, with my constant isolation and not being able to exercise I probably only have a few battles in me at the moment. I'm going to retrieve something from the Jedi so that we don't die right away. I've been feeling naked without it this whole time and I think it's time I get it back."
With that I walked off, letting the Dark Side roll through me again. It's embrace wrapped around me completely, like it had never left and I breathed it in. Strengthening me to new heights and pushing my limits like I knew it would. I wasn't guessing about how much strength I had but I also knew the Force can provide if one was faithful enough.
You don't get to become a Sith just because you say you are.