‘While I was desperately eling the for an attempt to mend some of my injuries, I was roughly shaken by somebody in a simirly desperate attempt to wake me from my healiation.’

  “-der!… -mander!… ander! Do you hear me?”

  ‘As, only after I fiopping my life-threatening internal bleeding. Could I slowly allow myself the luxury to slip back to the level of general sciousness.’

  ‘I felt as a rge hand grabbed me and carefully freed me from the pile of wreckage that I was buried under.’

  ‘I was still extremely fused and couldn’t even attempt to stand up on my own.’

  ‘This is why you are supposed to wear damn armor. Without it, I would have been impaled by the hundreds of brokeal fragments released by that explosion.’

  ‘This didn’t ge the fact that my small body was easily swept away by the sheer force of the bst wave. But at least I am not dead, not yet anyway. I was shaken by my shoulders forcefully. No doubt, in an attempt to gain my wandering attention.’

  ‘I finally looked around with my suddenly drowsy eyes, too much force elling again, I guess.’

  ‘When I looked up, I realized that Watcher was the one who tried to wake me up, stantly shaking my shoulders.’

  ‘His armor was bed and parts of it were pletely missing or in the middle of crumbling away. I must say, the e ando suits are fug overpowered. It must be because of the internal life support devices that are built into it.’

  ‘With a siderable amount of effort and stant eling of the force, I quite literally forced myself to stand with the assistance of Watcher. My knees were bug here and there, but I somehow mao stand, mostly on my own. I looked around quickly, analysing the situation. There were fmes, dead and injured es left and right... I stated a few dry words, as my breathing started to stabilize.’

  “Cough, cough... report trooper...”

  “Yes, ahe LAAT-was heavily damaged, and it nded in front of us to provide some measure of cover for the retreat. Brain, Stinger and Handy are mostly fihey are currently f back the ando droids, which have started a surprise attack after that damn droid blowed up our tral lines of defence.”

  “How is it that you guys weren’t blown away like me?” — ‘I asked, as the question was stantly reappearing in my fused mind.’

  “Our armors are designed with eleagic boots, sir. If we activate it, we even fight while standing on the ceiling turned upside down.”

  “That’s, wow, that is just frig cool.” — ‘I will get my hands on one if we survive this. I promised to myself, then tinued with the questions.’

  “Are we retreating now or what, and where is Ahsoka? Is she alright?”

  “Yes, aano is c the retreat. She seo look for you. Luckily, she was not present at the moment of the explosion. General Kenobi sent his e ander, Cody, and a bunch of boys from the 212th Attack Battalion. She was meeting with them at the time.”

  ‘Well, thank the forall mercies... If she were there in her current “armor”... Well, let’s not think about that for now.’

  ‘I looked at Watcher, seeing the level of damage on his armor, and asked, while stantly moving away from the closing droids.’

  “What are our losses?”

  “I few minutes, we verified the loss of seven troopers from the 501st, and nine from the 212th. In the meantime, further droid reinforts have arrived. Targetman suit was not funing properly, aood closest to the epitre of the explosion… The bastard always wao go out with a big bang. We lost Ice too. He got blown away by the explosion and broke his ned spine. Dozer is missing. We don’t know if he is dead or just unscious. Crusher saw him trying to reload his grenade uncher after he gave him some of his. He didn’t react to your warning in time, and got blown away by the bst waves.”

  ‘I o him, aowledging what he had said.’

  ‘Yep, now the situation starts to resemble a real war.’

  ‘A sudden warning fred up in the force. I instinctively pushed Watcher away from me with a weak force push. There were a few red sers hitting the pce where he stood half a sed ago. I tried to run away in the opposite dire, only to stumble and fall ft on the ground as the nausea and weakness overwhelmed me.’

  ‘I shouldn’t have used the force like that, not in my current state, but then Watcher would be dead, and I would most likely follow him soon...’

  ‘I always fot that this body is not capable of stantly elling such levels of force powers, especially with my high precision...’

  ‘I struggled to move, but my body was exhausted and shocked from internal aernal injuries. I heard Watcher shout at me to run, but I couldn’t.’

  ‘There were two ando droids right behind me. One was fighting with Watcher, while the other stood over me, aiming its gun towards my head.’

  ‘I gulped instinctively. Am I really going to die in such a stupid and pathetic way?’

  ‘I was looking into the droid’s lifeless, meical eyes. They didn’t know pity or mercy, if not ordered to do so. I felt as a few drops of sweat were sliding down my face. It was kind of bad to admit this, but for all of my knowledge, at that moment, I felt like the real age of my body.’

  ‘I was simply genuinely and utterly scared of death.’

  ‘I know that I will die, oime, somewhere iure. I know of this, of course, but it was always somewhere iure. Which means not now.’

  ‘I didn’t even think about the possibility of dying a few weeks ter after I left Hoth. My whole force’s elongated lifespan was measured in hundreds of years... But, only if I am able to stay alive.’

  ‘As the adrenalin kicked in, I watched in slow motion as the droid began to pull the trigger oer. Everything seemed to slow down, almost stoppiirely.’

  ‘I khat this was my only ce. I stopped thinking ahe years of experiences, feelings, and instincts speak for themselves. At that moment, I felt all of my masters’ knowledge became, for the first time, truly mihe gates that separated them from my personality disappeared, if only for a few seds.’

  ‘My perception of the world has hasteo its normal speed. I felt an incredibly ce seep into my body. I was subsciously elling the feelings of suffering, pain, ah that were slowly engulfing the surrounding hangar. All of this was elled into a dark-side empowered force scream aimed at the droid in front of me.’

  ‘The chilling sound-wave that was resembling the death cry of a dying animal collided with the ando droid immediately beginning to corrode its metal frame.’

  ‘Then it shattered into hundreds of small pieces that were blown across the hall like small high-speed projectiles hitting a few more droids, also corroding and shattering them on the way.’

  ‘Effectively breaking them into small particles of red rust that fell on the floor in small piles.’

  ‘I tio siphon up the ive energies, creating an invisible whirlwind arouhat was stantly feeding oions and pain. It was a source of energy that could keep me going for a while, at least until I leave the battlefield, when there won’t be this much suffering to feed on, the teique will have to be stopped by then, si will use up more power than what I gained by using it.’

  ‘I stood up shakily, but the shaking quickly subsided. I was feelier with every passing sed, thanks to the teique.’

  ‘Watcher mao destroy the other droid with the help of two other es, who I didn’t know. They were not andos, and not from my squad. They had some e-colored signs on their otherwise white armor, like most of the es serving on the ship.’

  ‘Watcher shouted to the other es to ese bato the inside of the ship, since I was heavily ihey nodded, one of them even lending me a shoulder to lean on. While the other was following us closely, ready for an enemy attack. Watcher had most likely gone back to report ahe others ireating process.’

  ‘We successfully left the hangar not long after I stopped my dark side siphon, as there was not enough emotion or paio feed on anymore.’

  ‘As the stable supply of dark side energy stopped, I felt my body grow heavier with every step.’

  ‘My weakened and injured body began to forcefully tremble. My mind wandering off, lost in old memories.’

  ‘Memories from old lectures began to seep into my present flow of thoughts. I didn’t even know who I was in the memory anymore. My sense of self felt distorted. It was not my memory, yet it also was in a twisted way.’

  ‘Through the fog, I heard the silky voice of an old womaing a lecture. Her voice sounded crystal clear, ringing through the chaos of my fused mind.’

  “The dark side is not capable of true healing... It is only a perversion of it. When you stop feeding its endless hunger, you will find yourself emptier than ever before...”

  ‘I was close to lose sciousness as even the normal adrenalin was now slowly leaving my bloodstream as the immediate and visible danger was gone.’

  ‘That was the moment I heard a familiar sound, a very familiar sound, that usually filled me with a sense of fidend fort. Unfortunately, it was different now… This time it reminded me of the threat of a hissing-poisonous snake and I was run over with goose bumps.’

  ‘Yes, a lightsaber was ignited behind us. And before that thought could properly solidify in my mind, a heavy body crumbled behind us.’

  ‘A cold shiver run over my back.’

  ‘Oh no... please no, no, not now... please... I plead in my mind as the e trooper beside me turned around partially. Only to be raised off the ground with an invisible force threatening to break his neck.’

  ‘Realizing this, he had the preseo pull out a side arm and shot at the attacker, but the ser was deflected bato his face.’

  ‘From this short distahe normal, much thinner, e armor was basically useless. His arms and legs fell limp, then his body was dropped to the ground beside me.’

  ‘The moment the trooper was raised off the ground, I simultaneously lost my sole support and colpsed on the floor.’

  ‘I stared up stupidly at the venomous looking female with two activated red lightsabres carelessly walking towards me in the empty corridor.’

  ‘I tried to feed on the dark side for one more time, but there were not enough lingering dark side energies in this corridor. The battle didn’t reach this poi except for the two dead soldiers, but they didn’t really have time to suffer and leave behind powerful emotions or pain.’

  ‘It’s not that I would like them to suffer, but the dark side simply works this way... Except, that it won’t wht now. I couldn’t use the light side anymore in my current state. So should I fight with my lightsaber? One of my shoulders was dislocated, and I ’t even stand on my own. So lightsaber bat is out of the question, but maybe she didn’t know that?’

  ‘I reached towards my lightsabre’s hilt. As expected, the womahe force to pull my bde towards herself, while she was forced to deactivate one of her bdes to catch mine. Without hesitation, I tihe movement with my right arm, and with a sharp gesture, I pulled out my bster pistol that was just like my saber hilt hanging from my waist and shot precisely at her smirking face.’

  ‘I sensed her surprise, but it was short-lived, as she elegantly sidestepped right inside my read forced the gun out of my weakened grasp.’

  ‘She grabbed my left lekku at its root with a force that no lekku should ever be grasped with, and began to pull me up from the ground. My eyes bulged from the overwhelmingly painful sensation as I yelped and trashed against her grasp.’

  ‘I was forced to crawl off the ground, to lessen the pain. I tried to push her away simultaneously, to escape from her grasp. It was futile. I could see it, that she was drinking up my pain and suffering, as if it was the sweetest ar to be found iire universe. As I realized this, I forced myself to stop my useless struggle. I didn’t want to accept this, but in this state, I couldn’t run away ht with this witch. Without my force powers, which I have overused beyond their limits, I was little more than a thirteen-year-old girl.’

  ‘She frowned as she realized that I suddenly posed myself, well, as much as you possibly when you are in the hands of a clearly sadistic, child-abusing, serial killer.’

  ‘I was also feeling the pressure growing on my lekku, as my body was still partially hanged on it. She looked at me, taking in my form, with the uny elegance of a loth cat pying with its newly captured pray.’

  ‘Then she grabbed my heavily damaged helmet and, with one quick move, she ripped it off my face. It broke into a few different parts cttering across the floor.’

  ‘I winced from the pain as tears began to appear in the ers of my eyes. Ripping off the partially broken and deformed helmet like that has left long bloody scratches ay fad head. I could feel my blood leaking from those injuries...’

  ‘This fug bitch was deliberately t me this way, and she was enjoying it. A twi’leks pride was in his or her leks. It was beyond humiliating to be treated like this…’

  ‘I didn’t scream, though. Instead, I bit into my lips to swallow back that cry of pain.’

  ‘She seemed clearly disappointed by that.’

  ‘Oher hand, this pain and humiliation was very useful right now.’

  ‘I purposely let myself drown in my pain. I forced myself to relive the memain and again and again. Then I elled it into a powerful, vivid flow of hate as I suddenly reached out my injured left arm, deliberately causing even more pain to myself.’

  ‘With the desperate move, I mao hit this bit the stomach. Sihat was the closest important body part I could reach. With the hit, I simultaneously released a burst of lightning into her system, letting out all of my hatred and pain right into her very guts.’

  ‘It was not as powerful as I would like to think, but it still made her scream like an exorcised banshee, which she might as well be.’

  ‘I smiled wickedly, enjoying her shocked screams. While ing her pain, I also added a weak life siphon that was cealed by the lightning strike. She shouldn’t realize this not for a while and in the meantime I will heal from her stolen life essence, while she will grow weaker… That is… if she makes the stupid mistake of not killing me ht after this…’

  ‘My moment of satisfa was short-lived. And my smile torted into a twisted expression as I joined her in the screaming.’

  ‘Oh yes… I fot that she was holding me by my lekku, meaning, I got electrocuted by my own fug lightning…’

  ‘After a few seds of screaming, I was uncharacteristically let go, and like a marioe whose strings were cut I dropped on my back, hitting the bay head ial floor. My vision immediately doubled and aronger sense of nausea came over me.’

  ‘I id there, unmoving, watg the blurry sight of smoke billowing from both of our bodies. My muscles were stantly vulsing still uhe effect of the lightning.’

  ‘The woman also fell, if only on her knees. She was breathing heavily while staring at me with the promise of suffering. I gnced into her eyes, seeing the barely tained rage, a sense of fear crawled into my mind, but I couldn’t even lift a finger anymore… therefore… I simply id there accepting what was to e.’

  ‘She suddenly jumped on me, pinning down my arms with her knees, a pletely unnecessary move, but she wasn’t pying with me anymore. She sat on my chest, pushing the air out of my lungs with her weight. Then she grabbed onto my fad forced my eyes wide open with her fingers.’

  ‘She stared into my eyes, with the grin of a madwoman... Now I could see her fader that bck hood too...’

  ‘She was a Dathomirian.’

  ‘She leaned into my face as my sciousness was about to leave me from the pain, exhaustion, accumuted injuries, but the main reason was still this woman sitting on my chest and slowly suffog me... My body was about half the size of her body, e o me breathe!’

  ‘Instead, she licked the side of her lips, satisfied with the sight of my broken form and ck of struggle. Then hissed into my left ear protrusion...’

  “I like your eyes... they have a delicate yellow y master is ied in those eyes of yours. It’s a pity that I ’t py with you any lohose shadows that were tailing you seem to have caught onto my little distra. Now why don’t you be a good girl and take an early nap? Rest assured, I will take good care of you in the meantime.”

  ‘The st thing I saw was the sadistic smirk spreading across this unfamiliar woman’s face.’