Jaden was floating, weightless, drifting across a sky that never ended. There was no pain, no hate, no burning in his chest or pressure behind his eyes. The wounds were gone. His body felt whole again. For the first time in what felt like years, he was calm. The air around him was warm and endless. He looked out to the horizon where stars shimmered and twisted like they were painted in motion. There, in the distance, was something else. A shoreline. A field. A city. He didn't know. But it was golden and bright and impossibly beautiful. He saw figures standing in the glow, and one of them stepped forward.
She was laughing.
He knew that sound. It was etched into his soul.
"Velea," he said.
She turned toward him, smiling like nothing had ever gone wrong. She reached out for him, her hand open as if waiting for him to take it. Her lips moved like she was about to say something.
Jaden moved to reach her.
Then everything pulled.
His body jerked. The sky fractured. The warmth vanished.
He was being dragged back.
The golden light collapsed into blackness.
He woke up choking.
"Come on, Jaden. Please," Padmè said, her voice shaking.
She pressed down again—one, two, three—and leaned in again for another breath. His lungs fought against it, but the air took. His whole body shuddered, and jolted, his back arching as he coughed and spat black blood onto the ground beside him. His chest burned. His eyes snapped open to flickering light above. Padmè gasped. Her hands flew to his shoulders and she dropped her forehead against his chest, letting out a quiet sob.
"I thought you were dead," she whispered. "They just threw you in here like garbage, and when I tried to wake you, I couldn't... then I felt your heart and it wasn't beating."
Jaden didn't speak. He couldn't. His throat burned and his ribs felt like they were ground into powder. His arms refused to move. Everything hurt. Padmè sat beside him now, breathing hard, brushing the blood from his mouth with trembling fingers.
Jaden lay there in silence.
The pain was coming back now. It crawled up his spine and into his head. His shoulder throbbed. His back screamed. His chest cracked with every breath.
He remembered.
He'd fought Collan.
He'd lost.
He'd failed.
The anger was still there, buried somewhere beneath the bruises and the bone-deep ache, but it felt thin now, like smoke trying to hold shape. Jaden could feel it flickering, twitching in the hollow where rage once filled him to the brim, but it wasn't strong enough to push back the weight of failure. He'd given everything. Pushed further than he ever had before. He'd let the dark side tear through his body and mind and soul... and it still wasn't enough.
He'd lost.
All the power he had, and he still couldn't stop Collan.
What was the point if it couldn't even help him win?
Why was he even alive? Why didn't they just kill him?
Jaden lay there, his back pressed to the cold stone wall of the cell, one leg pulled in, the other stretched out uselessly. Padmè was still talking, sitting close beside him, her knees tucked up to her chest. He caught pieces of her voice, bits about how she'd been taken, what they'd done, how she'd ended up in the prison block, but it all blurred into a dull sound. He wasn't listening. He didn't care.
She shifted beside him and gently placed a small metal cup at his lips.
"Here," she said. "Water. You need it."
He turned his head away.
Padmè frowned and tried again. "Please."
He shook his head, barely moving.
She exhaled and placed the cup beside him anyway.
"Was anyone else with you?" she asked quietly. "Aubrie? Zule?"
He didn't answer right away.
She leaned in closer. "Jaden."
He finally shook his head.
Padmè cursed under her breath and ran a hand down her face. "Damn it," she muttered, then looked up at the narrow ceiling. "They might've gotten the signal, though. If they did, they'll come."
"They won't," Jaden muttered.
"They will," she replied.
"They won't make it in time," he said again, his voice dry and cracked. "The journey through hyperspace will be a long one, especially in these regions."
Padmè stared at him.
He didn't move.
"He's gone mad, Jaden," she said after a long silence. "Collan... h-he thinks he can turn himself into a god. He told me himself. It's some ritual. He's going to sacrifice hundreds. If we don't stop him,."
Jaden didn't look up.
Padmè frowned, her voice tightening. "Did you hear me? We need to get out of here."
"We can't," Jaden said.
"We have to—"
"No." His voice was hollow. "We lost. He won."
Padmè's lips pressed together. She turned away from him, stood up, and crossed the room. She paced for a moment, her fists clenched at her sides.
"I'm not giving up," she said finally. "I don't know what happened to you out there... but right now I need the Jaden who stayed behind on a doomed planet to save everyone."
Jaden didn't answer, he just continued to lay back against the wall, his eyes half closed. He then closed them fully, breathing slowly as he slipped into himself. He reached inward, trying to shut out the noise, the pain, the failure. He focused on what little strength he had left and began meditating, calling what he could of the Force to try and speed the healing. Not because he wanted to fight. Not because he had hope.
Because he didn't know what else to do.
___________________________
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
Vaylin sat on the bed, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, her fingernails digging into her sleeves. Her shoulders trembled with each shallow breath she took. She wanted to be small. She wanted to disappear into the mattress and vanish. Her chest ached from holding the sobs in. Every time she let one out, it felt like another piece of her soul was being torn free.
And then there was the banging.
It was faint at first. A dull thud somewhere far down the corridor. It echoed in her ears like it was traveling through water. She lifted her head.
Bang.
Again. Louder this time. Closer.
Bang. Bang.
She flinched. Her eyes widened. Her breath caught in her throat.
Bang!
She scrambled back into the corner of the bed, clutching her knees to her chest. She stared at the door. The metal groaned in her ears like it was about to bend inward. The sound triggered something deep in her mind. She was back in the cell. She was back on the table. She could feel the collar around her neck again, smell the burning meat of someone who had just occupied the cell before her.
"They're coming," she whispered to herself.
Bang!
'Come on Vaylin... smile for me.'
Her vision shook. Her teeth clenched so hard her jaw began to ache. Her eyes darted to the wall, to the faint shimmer in the corner where she saw her.
Velea.
Velea stood there only this wasn't the beautiful Twi'lek with vibrant purple skin that she remembered. No she was covered head to toe in radiation burns; numerous throbbing pustules burst on her skin as she started to walk towards the bed.
"It isn't real," Vaylin whispered. "It isn't real, Vaylin. You're safe. You're not there anymore."
Vaylin xloses her eyes for a moment and when she opened them Velea was gone. The sound was gone. Just for a moment.
She looked back at the door. It was still closed. Still locked.
Her heart pounded in her ears.
She slid off the bed slowly. She walked barefoot across the cold floor and entered the bathroom. She turned the tap and splashed cold water on her face. She bent over the sink and tried to control her breathing. She tried to remind herself it was over.
She looked up.
It wasn't her in the mirror.
The face staring back at her had the same features. The same nose. The same cheekbones. But the skin was pale. Sickly. The eyes glowed yellow. Black veins crawled up from the neck and across the cheeks like roots choking the life out of her. The lips were curled into a smile too cruel to be her own.
"Hello, little girl," the reflection said.
Vaylin stumbled back. Her foot caught the edge of the toilet. She hit the wall hard. The air left her lungs.
"No," she said. "You're not real."
The reflection tilted her head.
"Oh, I'm real," it said. "More real than you. You're just a shell. Holding all the worst parts of me, all of my weakness."
Vaylin clutched her head. "No. You're not real. You're not real!"
"You're weak," the reflection hissed. "You're just a frightened girl pretending to be strong, all so you can impress daddy Jaden."
"Shut up," Vaylin said as she backed away from the mirror.
"You don't deserve this body," the reflection said. "You don't deserve his protection. You don't deserve anything."
Vaylin screamed and ran out of the bathroom. Her breath came in short panicked bursts. She looked at the wall panel. Her doppelgänger looked back, the smirk still present on her face.
The communicator clicked on.
"You've failed," it said in her voice.
Vaylin covered her ears.
"Every time I reach out it gets easier."
"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!" Vaylin screamed.
The voice answered.
"Free me."
Vaylin's knees buckled.
"Free?" she whispered.
"Yes," the voice said. "We share the same mind. I've just been locked away. I've been here since the beginning. Forced to watch you stumble and fail."
Vaylin shook her head again and again. "No. No no no."
"I fought Jaden," the voice said. "All those dreams. All those deaths. That was me."
Vaylin screamed and slammed her fist into the wall. "Shut up!"
"You can't hold me back anymore," the voice said. "You're breaking. Your mind is shattering and the cracks are letting me through."
"No—"
"I'm never leaving," the voice said. "I'll be with you until you finally give up and let me take over. You're almost there, Vaylin. One more slip and you'll be gone."
Vaylin pressed her back to the door and slid down it. Her breath was shaking. Her heart raced.
"What will you do...?" she whispered.
The reflection appeared in the small screen again. It was smiling.
"I'll kill Jaden," the voice said. "Finish what our master wanted. You fulfill the purpose you were made for."
Vaylin looked up. "No. I won't let you."
The voice laughed again. "You already are."
Vaylin screamed and grabbed the edge of the bed to pull herself up. She staggered out of her room and opened the door. A group of the rescued civilians were outside. They jumped back as the door opened violently.
"We heard screaming—"
"Miss Vaylin are you alright—"
She shoved past them. Her body trembled but she moved holding herself up against the wall as she ran. Her bare feet slammed against the deck plating as she rushed through the corridor. The whispers were behind her now. The voices. The breathing. The laughter.
She needed help.
She burst into the medbay.
The medical droid rotated toward her.
"State your emergency," it said.
Vaylin grabbed the edge of the table to steady herself. "The treatment," she said. "Give me the full range. Everything. Every cognitive stabiliser. Every neuro-suppressant. I don't care I want all of it."
The droid's lens focused. "That is not recommended. Treatment protocols must be administered separately, it is unknown how each treatment will interact with each other."
"I don't care," she said. "Override."
The droid paused. "You are requesting full-spectrum psychological therapy in a single session. This includes synaptic realignment, force-neutral inhibitor therapy, neuroelectric modulation, and experimental cortical re-stimulation. The results are unknown."
"I said override," Vaylin said again as she pulled herself onto the table. Her hands trembled as she gripped the edge. "Just do it."
The droid paused for three seconds. Then the restraints locked in.
"Commencing full-spectrum therapy," the droid said. "Please remain still."
The lights dimmed. A series of small nozzles extended from the ceiling. Injectors locked into her arms. A visor lowered onto her head.
Vaylin's heart thundered. The last thing she saw before the light hit her eyes was her reflection in the medbay glass.
It was smiling.
"AAAHHHHHHHHHH—!"
The scream tore through the medbay like a blade as soon as the treatment started. Vaylin's back arched as the injectors flooded her bloodstream with raw stimulants, chemical inhibitors, neural shocks, and cerebral-dampening serum all at once. The machine buzzed and whirred above her. The visor locked to her skull pulsed with brilliant white light as pulses of electromagnetic energy surged through her cerebral cortex.
Her scream became a howl.
"GRAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHH—!"
The restraint on her left wrist snapped with a metallic snap-clack as her entire arm twisted unnaturally against the metal. Blood ran down her bicep as she convulsed. The table shook beneath her. Her bare feet kicked violently against the edge. One of her toenails cracked against the steel.
The droid did not react.
"Treatment underway. Please remain still," it said calmly.
Her body kept thrashing. Veins pulsed in her neck. Her back slammed again and again into the bed as wave after wave of neural redirection electrocuted her synapses. Her eyes were wide open. Her mouth locked in a silent scream between gasps.
Time became meaningless.
It could've been an hour. It could've been five. The drugs kept pumping into her system. The visor kept flashing. Her one free hand gripped the table until her fingernails snapped off against the metal. At one point she bit into her own arm just to stop screaming.
And then she stopped moving.
Her head fell to the side. The veins in her face no longer pulsed. Her chest barely rose.
The lights dimmed. The machines slowly shut down.
"Treatment complete," the droid said.
Outside the medbay, the crowd of rescued civilians stood in tight silence around the glass window. Most of them had remained silent through the screaming, too afraid to speak. One of the men; Stocky, early thirties, face scarred from old age finally stepped forward.
"We need to leave," he said desperately. "We need to get off this ship. Every single person on this vessel is crazy. They're going to kill us eventually."
A younger man standing nearby frowned. "What are you talking about? Jaden saved us."
"Yeah? And now he's off assaulting a full fortress alone," the first man snapped. "You think that's normal? You think that's the work of someone sane?"
Another woman chimed in. She was older, wearing a fine jacket. "Jaden didn't hurt any of us."
"No," the first man said, pointing at the medbay. "But she did." His finger jabbed toward the motionless form of Vaylin, still strapped to the medical table. "She attacked everyone in the lounge. Launched half the room into the walls. One guy had his ribs broken."
"She was clearly not herself," someone muttered. "She wasn't trying to hurt anyone."
"Tell that to the guy with the collapsed lung," the man shot back. "No. I'm done. I'm not dying because some psycho with powers has a meltdown mid-flight."
He turned to the others. "We take the ship. We go back to Republic space. We report this madness. That's it." There was silence again. Then another man nodded. Then two more. The older woman hesitated. But eventually, even she raised her hand.
It was a vote. Unanimous.
They moved quickly. Five of them armed themselves with what tools they could find in the cargo bay—plasma cutters, torque wrenches, a few scavenged pistols. Two of them grabbed the explosive charges from the emergency supply crates. The leader carried one.
They moved to the cockpit door.
Locked.
The transparisteel slid down, revealing SD-8 seated in the pilot's chair. His stubby arms were folded across his round torso. The screen lit up with the text: Authorization denied.
"SD-8," one of them said, stepping up. "This is a civilian override. We are claiming emergency authority and demanding that you relinquish control of the ship."
The droid's eye rotated once.
Then muted them.
The cockpit door remained sealed. SD-8 turned back to his console and resumed typing. Loudly. Every ping of his tiny metal fingers against the keys felt like mockery. They tried to use a cutter. The metal barely burnt. They slammed the panel. Still nothing. Finally, the leader placed the charge against the side of the door.
"Back up," he said.
He activated the fuse.
A sharp click.
A few seconds passed.
Then the light on the detonator went dark.
"What the hell?" he said.
The charge lifted into the air.
They all stepped back as it slowly hovered away from the wall. It floated past the group. They turned as it passed them. One of them screamed.
It landed softly in the palm of someone standing in the corridor behind them.
Vaylin.
She stood barefoot, her gown still draped around her shoulder though revealing more collarbone. Her hair was wild, and matted with sweat. Her eyes glowed faint yellow. She stared at them, not blinking, her lips pulled back into a wide grin. "You weren't about to do something incredibly naughty, were you?" she said.
The charge floated above her hand. She spun it in the air with a slow twist of her fingers, the tiny explosive rolling gently around her wrist like a toy.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
The air was still. The charge clicked once. Vaylin reactivated it.
She smiled wider.
"Now... which one of you would like to explain yourselves first?"
(AN: Damn I wonder what happened there, tbh idk I didn't even read this chapter, I just copy and paste from the bigger 20k chapter I made. Plus I made this like months ago so idk. Anyway hope you enjoyed.)
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