The Enemy in the Mirror

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

Vel Aath stood, her eyes showing no real reaction to the pain she could see and even feel coursing through the Jedi's body.

"I see," she said, disappointment colouring her tone. "You still refuse to be forthright? Do you believe that misleading us will keep your friends alive?"

She shook her head lightly, and turned away from the Jedi. In tandem with the Inquisitor's movement, the scangrid stopped it's painful work and retracted back into the ground. A few moments were given to the woman to allow for her to gain whatever semblance of focus she could given the drug's affects, and then Vel Aath continued her interrogation.

"Lying to us won't keep them alive, Master Laran," the Inquisitor said quietly. "We've already captured one. Since you refuse to tell us out of some conception that doing so will protect your friends, we'll show you what it truly does instead."

On the far wall, an hologram emitter flared to life, and the image of the woman known to Laran as James, strapped into a similar device as the Jedi was now in. An Inquisitor stood beside her, and turned to face Vel Aath. James was shaking in her seat, and looked like she'd been crying.

"Ah, Inquisitor Vel Aath. Am I to commence?"

"Yes."

The holographic Inquisitor turned to his prisoner and Laran watched as an eerily similar scangrid rose from the ground in front of her. James gasped and twitched, trying to move, but couldn't due to the straps. The hum of the scangrid's activation soon was drowned out by the screams of the prisoner.

Vel Aath watched Laran as the hologram continued. The Inquisitoriate had done its job well, it seemed, as the body, expressions, even the screams had been painstakingly modulated based on what few recordings of the woman they'd managed to acquire. With the drug still coursing through her system strongly, the woman wouldn't be able to tell if this were truly the girl she was trying to protect, or not.

[Serena Laran]

Serena felt her guts twisting at the sight of James screaming on the grid. There was something wrong about the girl's voice, but who knew what they had done to her already. "No... no! Stop!" The Jedi was crying, but she didn't close her eyes against the sight of James' pain. "Dhomanda A'lainn, I was there... they have no technology, they are innocent... she is innocent! Please, just stop... take it out on me instead!"

Serena sagged against the straps holding her in place, tears running down her face.

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

“We need more than that,” Vel Aath replied, waving her hand. The scangrid stopped its analyzation, but did not power down. The image of James broke down into coughing sobs. “Did you know that the first inhabitants of Alderaan were insects? We can never know for sure now, but studies had been made showing that the creators of the famous and beautiful mounds on Alderaan were not human but insectoid.”

The Inquisitor gave her prisoner a nonplussed look. “What I am saying is that the insects of the Mounds undoubtedly called Alderaan something different than we do – or did.”

“A name such as what you have given me, alone, will not be adequate. We need coordinates, or directions, which must be processed and proven to be trustworthy. And since you are no longer hiding on that planet, you must have left. To leave, you need a ship and a stable space route. And if those exist, coordinates will also.”

Vel Aath looked back at the wall containing the holoprojector. James’s image was taking deep breaths and her eyes were closed.

“You should not have left your planet, Jedi,” Inquisitor Vel Aath sighed. “We have so much more to get the truth from you yet. Sith masks, poisons of all kinds, torture devices, and even people who can make you believe you are not truly imprisoned, who can make you feel safe, and there get you to spill every last secret that you have in your head.

“Concentrate,” she continued. “Concentrate on your planet. Remember it. The drug is still strong in your system, but you can still remember. It has only been a few minutes, but it feels like hours, doesn’t it? Remember, and tell us where that planet is.”

[Serena Laran]

"I have no secrets," Serena said raggedly. "I do not know anything of value. I lived ...in the Outer Rim near Hutt space. The Perlemian Trade Route."

The Inquisitor looked bored, and her eyes kept flicking towards the screen that showed James hanging limply on her own scangrid, brown hair hanging down in her eyes during the respite from the pain. Serena's skin tightened around her eyes, and she added, "It was called RX-271 on the old star charts." Her eyes filled with tears again at what might befall those who had allowed her to live among them for so many years because of her betrayal.

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

RX-271. With a small touch of the Force, the Inquisitor reached out and searched the disabled Jedi's feelings; unfortunately, beneath the expected pain and suffering, sadness and shock, there was a will of durasteel. There'd be no forceful mind-search today, but Vel Aath could tell that the Jedi was being truthful about the planet. That was enough.

The Inquisitor smiled.

"Thank you, Master Laran," she said, warmth - whether feigned or real - entering her voice where it had not been before. She gestured to the holographic Inquisitor, who immediately began undoing the straps keeping James in the 'chair'. The holograph blinked out of existence.

The door to the interrogation chamber opened, and there once more stood the two stormtroopers.

"Take her back to her cell," Vel Aath ordered. The troopers saluted and began to free Serena Laran from the interrogation device. Vel Aath watched, and nodded to the Jedi. "Thank you again. We still need answers about the Jedi, but that can wait while we find and put a detachment of Imperial soldiers on RX-271."

[Serena Laran]

Serena said nothing, stumbling between the troopers who were supporting her, her head down. She hurt all over, the Force was gone, and James was still in danger. The Inquisitor would do her research, find that RX-271 was a pre-industrial planet in the Outer Rim that housed a small garrison with minimal orbital support. At least, that was how it had been when Serena had left.

She had no way of knowing if the Stormtroopers had reported sighting a Jedi, or their subsequent loss of her. She guessed that they had not - the garrison had seemed lax to her at the time, a long term assignment for those who had angered someone higher up in command in some fashion, there only to make sure the planet was not taken by the Rebellion as some sort of jumping off point for a blockade of the nearby trade route.

Serena was shoved into her cell, and she staggered to the bunk, lying down as carefully as she could manage. Breathing slowly and deeply she closed her eyes and tried to meditate. But instead of peace she saw a girl strapped to a scangrid and screaming. It wasn't James, however, it was Rhianna.

[Rossos Atrapes]

For two days, Jedi Laran had been tortured. She was given a dose of the drug – enough to dull her senses and focus but not enough to completely scatter her wits – and put through a number of different methods of pain and cruelty for an hour or two, and then released back into her cell to recuperate for three hours or so. After the three hours, the torture would recommence until she was given another two hours of rest until the cycle began again.

In all of this, Laran was allowed little sleep, and little food, and was asked no questions. And the entire program of sorts was merely to prepare her for the next round of questioning, which was regarded as being difficult, even with these preparations; she'd likely allow her friends to suffer and perish rather than give up the hiding place of the rest of the Jedi.

Inquisitor Atrapes considered her rather lucky; she could have been subjected to the Sith Mask they had within their vast halls of devices. It operated almost ingeniously: the Jedi would reach out to the Force, and meet instead with Darkness so impenetrable, it would cause her pain. It was also psychological, in that it would actively work to twist the Jedi's own sense of the Force into Darkness, allowing her to hear (it would not allow her to see), and feel what the Darkness filtered. Her weeping and cries would turn into laughter. Her horror and grief would be filtered back into her as dark pleasure and exultation in the pain of others. Images of peace would burn and the dark energy's satisfaction would be introduced to her as her own. Taking whatever repressed guilt and shame which must have followed her admittance of the planet, it would endlessly replay and amplify those emotions.

With enough time in that, the Jedi would surely break.

Just thinking about it made the Inquisitor want to study it; to find out its secrets and make them his own. He wanted to use it, and study its effects while the Jedi screamed.

He felt he needed to, after the dismal results of his illusions on Belargic. Thus, they had to make due with this preparation. A room with a scangrid and holoprojector was requisitioned, and an interrogation droid made ready; Atrapes waited with them in the interrogation room for the Inquisitorial Troopers to bring Laran in and begin the questioning about the Jedi: how many there were, and how to find them, or lure them into a trap where they could be destroyed or greatly diminished.