28

surprise! since this fic has officially reached 10,000 reads, i'm posting an early chapter! enjoy batchers 💫 

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At the sound of the heavy door opening hours later, Saedii tossed her necklace into the far corner and waited.

In her own cell, Cere nodded at her encouragingly. "You can do this. Resist."

Endure. Do not yield, Plo's voice agreed.

It was the Second Sister again who paused outside of her cell. Smiling eagerly like they were sharing some kind of private joke.

"Are you ready, Sister?" she asked, voice mocking.

Saedii stared her down. Not giving an inch. "Yes."

The Second Sister's lips twitched higher. Her hand raised in Saedii's direction, fingers curling.

Everything went dark.

When Saedii woke, she was in the long dark room once again.

The binders of light held her too tightly to the stone. It irritated the wound at her back, breaking through the thin scabs and drawing fresh blood. She gritted her teeth at the pain it caused.

"Finally awake?" Krell's voice asked from somewhere behind her.

Saedii didn't move as he strolled into her sight. His stance was casual. Relaxed. In his hand, a silver syringe glistened.

Something about the syringe made Saedii uneasy. She forced her breathing to remain even. To stay calm even as he leaned over her.

"You did well yesterday. At this rate, you may be ready for active duty within a few weeks," Krell said silkily.

Her jaw tightened. Cere's advice from yesterday was at the forefront of her mind as Krell pressed the needle into her neck and hit the plunger. Immediately, warmth danced down her neck. Tingling up the back of her head and across the bridge of her nose.

Saedii took a deep breath as the room around her disappeared.

There was a disorienting rush of color. Neon flashes of light and dark grey metal swirled past her, and the faint sounds of gambling and gaming drew steadily closer. Saedii let her eyes drift closed, knowing what she'd find when they opened.

A moment later, she was standing in the Black Hole.

She looked around her, taking in the grungy tables in the corner, where a patron was passed out near a puddle of vomit. The sticky floors that crunched beneath her boots. The smell of spilled spirits and drathroot.

Her hands were very thin when she held them up. A dark travel cloak hid her body, but Saedii knew that beneath, she was starved and dirty. Fifteen once again and struggling on her own.

Do you remember, a dark voice whispered close by, how you starved on your own? How you sought help and received nothing?

"Hey, Short Stack! You going to buy something or what?" a dry voice demanded.

Saedii's throat went dry.

Cid stood before her, peeved and impatient as always. One scaly hand rested on her hip while a drathroot joint was wedged between her thin lips. Her yellow eyes narrowed in annoyance.

At the sight of Cid before her, a sharp stab of guilt wrenched beneath her ribs.

"I'm not running a charity house here," Cid said, as if Saedii hadn't heard her. "Either buy something or leave."

"I don't have any money," Saedii muttered. Her stomach ached sharply – empty. Beneath her travel cloak, her ribs poked against her robes.

"Then get out of my bar."

Remember how you begged? A child of fifteen – starved and alone. And no one wanted to help you?

Saedii was supposed to be doing something. There was a dim reminder curling at the edge of her psyche. But what was it?

"I can run jobs for you. Get you money," Saedii began.

But froze as there was a click of a blaster at the back of her head.

"That job's already covered," a raspy voice said.

Slowly, Saedii turned. Moving at glacial speed until the barrel of the blaster was pressed against her forehead. Until she could see the person glaring down at her with little pity. A red bandana held his long hair from his face.

"Hunter," she whispered. A spark of recognition filled her with excitement.

It was quickly crushed.

They are not your friends. They never were, the shadow voice hissed as the rest of the Batch materialized before her. Each of them stared at her with loathing, blasters raised.

Instinctually, Saedii's hand went to her throat. Reaching for something that wasn't there.

My necklace, Saedii's voice echoed. It was loud – far louder than the smoke and shadow voice that hid among the edges. The sound of it flipped something inside of her and she suddenly remembered.

This wasn't real.

It was a false memory.

At the knowledge, the anxiety that had gripped her at the sight of the Batch quickly fled. She looked at each of them, observing the way they moved. The way they watched her. It wasn't like them at all. They moved too stiffly – too in sync. Not at all like the Clones she knew.

They tried to kill you, the dark voice reminded her.

Hunter glared at her. "What's a Jedi doing out here? You should've been killed under Order 66."

"This isn't real," Saedii stated – whether to the image of Hunter before her or the dark voice that waited just out of her reach.

The barrel of Hunter's blaster pressed harder into her forehead. "Are you willing to bet your life on that?"

"Just kill her be done with it," Crosshair sneered.

"Actually, I suggest we turn her in to the Empire. Her bounty would be enough to sustain us for years to come," Tech objected.

Saedii met Hunter's whiskey-colored eyes. "You didn't try to kill me."

Wrong, the dark voice snarled.

There was a flash of metal as the blaster whipped across her cheek. Pain lanced down the side of her neck, so sharp that it brought tears to her eyes. It hurt.

Panic ballooned in her throat, but quickly ebbed as she reached for her neck and found it empty once again. No matter how real it seemed, this was only a false memory. Krell was trying to force her to despise the Batch.

She wouldn't.

"Hunter never would have hit me," Saedii said, defiant. She turned around the room, searching for the shadow voice that hid somewhere close. "Even from the first day. He protected me. They all did."

All of them? The voice purred.

The scene shifted. The dark, smelly interior of the Black Hole gave way to the stale interior of an abandoned cruiser. A massive hangar bay stretched around her, darkened by the night. A flash of lightning illuminated a shadow before her.

Wrecker's blank face was pulled back in a snarl as he lifted her off the ground with one massive fist. It curled around her neck, cutting off the air in her lungs. Saedii gasped.

"All Jedi are to be terminated in accordance with Order 66," he said tonelessly.

"No," Saedii gasped, fighting back. Her hands were puny against his. Her strength nothing compared to his. "He never hurt me."

Her voice broke off as Wrecker's hand tightened on her throat.

No one helped you. They were willing to let you die.

In the shadows behind Wrecker, the faces of the Batch were slowly coming into focus. Crosshair, who watched with an eager delight, whispered something to Echo, who nodded. Rex was there, too. Arms crossed as he waited.

The hangar blurred as the oxygen disappeared. She couldn't breathe. He was going to kill her.

No, her voice shouted in her head. Defiant. That's not what happened.

Her hand brushed against the edge of Wrecker's fingers, searching. But there was no necklace.

Not real.

She stilled. Even though her body begged her to fight, even as the pain of having no air began to burn in her chest, she let her body go limp. Let Krell see that she was not afraid of Wrecker or this memory.

Wrecker released her. She crashed onto the ground, gasping in breaths. Beneath her hands, the floor of the hangar began to shift.

Soon, a different sort of metal was beneath her. Dirty and dark grey. Ill-kempt. The hands that held her off the ground were wrapped tightly in binders.

Above her, the dark voice said, They kept you prisoner for years.

The inside of the Marauder unfolded around her. She was in the cockpit, cowering on the floor behind the pilot's chair. In the seat across from her, Echo and Hunter watched her with emotionless eyes.

Her dry throat begged for water. Her stomach rumbled. They hadn't fed her or allowed her water or –

"No." Saedii's voice was weak – parched. She swallowed against the dry expanse of her throat. "The Batch is my family. I was never their prisoner."

They took away your lightsabers. They chained you and starved you –

"The Batch fed me and clothed me and gave me a safe place to sleep," Saedii shouted back. "I owe them my life."

You owe them nothing.

"I owe them everything."

The scene shifted again. No longer was she in the Marauder, but in the training room on Tipoca City. The bodies of stormtroopers lay around her in puddles of blood beside the smoking remains of tactical droids.

Two sets of hands held her. Wrecker, who kept her fully immobilized in his iron arms, and Echo, who had yanked her left arm out. Her lightsabers sat on the ground before her, just out of reach.

In horror, Saedii watched as Hunter reached down and picked one up.

They took your arm, the dark voice thundered.

Saedii struggled, fighting against the hands that held her. But it was like fighting against steel. She didn't budge.

Behind Hunter, Crosshair held Omega, who was watching with righteous eyes. Unflinching as Hunter activated Saedii's lightsaber in his hand.

"The Empire will pay us handsomely for your death," Hunter said in a listless voice as he drew back her lightsaber.

"No!" Saedii cried, but it was too late.

Burning, searching pain lit up her arm as plasma cut straight through bone and muscle. It was terrible, excruciating – just as it had been that day when he took it. Like her arm had been shoved straight into the core of the hottest sun.

Her screams echoed off the training room. Above her, Hunter and the rest watched impassively.

They left you to die!

Wrecker released her and she flopped onto her side, reaching for the bloody stump of her arm. White hot pain met her finger tips as she brushed across the fresh wound. As she lit it on fire with her probing touch.

Hunter and the rest turned and left her. Alone and bleeding.

Somewhere close by, the faint rumble of a Venator's engines reached her ears.

Saedii's blood-slick fingers swept past her shoulder, up towards her neck. Grasping for something. Anything. But there was nothing. Nothing.

The necklace, her voice sighed.

Not real. This wasn't real.

Saedii stopped screaming. The pain in her shoulder still blinded her as she struggled up to her feet. As she swayed above the limp shadow of her severed arm and turned her face up towards the ceiling. Towards the hum of the Venator's canons as they clicked into position.

"This isn't real," Saedii said as the first shots came from above.

The training room exploded around her. The floor buckled, sending her off her feet, falling down – straight down into the dark abyss of the lower tunnels. Metal and fire rained down on her from above, singeing her skin.

"Hunter didn't take my arm. You did!" Saedii shouted as she fell, good arm grasping for purchase.

The scene flickered around her. Ghostly outlines of the Batch were falling with her. Omega's pale and terrified face flashed as she fell past her, clutching tightly to AZI.

They left you! The voice howled.

Saedii landed in the closed compartment, all alone. Water was flooding up to her waist, lapping at the bottom curve of her ribs. It smelled like gasoline and burned wires and smoke.

"They saved me!" She turned to her right, where the faint outline of Omega and AZI banging on the door flickered in and out of existence.

The shadow voice raged, They are your enemies! You hate them!

"I love them," Saedii insisted as the water flooded up past her neck.

It crept across her face, over her head. Pressing her down into the darkness of the closed compartment. Down, down – thousands of miles beneath the surface. So far down that her body would never be found.

Water pressed against her lips, wrenched her mouth open to pour down her throat. It filled her lungs – so icy and salty. She choked, struggling. Begging for air.

No. It wasn't real.

The panic that had clawed at her receded. Even as she felt her body slowly dying, drowning, she didn't fight.

Because it wasn't real. She hadn't drowned on Kamino.

She'd survived.

Darkness fell over her, so absolute that it felt like it had no end. The water vanished, though Saedii couldn't find her lungs to see if she was still drowning. Her body vanished and she was left adrift. Floating in the dark with nothing to hold onto.

And then...

Saedii gasped as she bolted straight up. Pain hummed in her head and echoed sharply down her back, where warm fresh blood was beginning to well. She sucked great mouthfuls of air into her lungs, which drank up the oxygen like they'd been starved. Cold stone scraped beneath her hands.

Around her, the dark outline of her cell slowly came into view. Saedii lunged for the corner, searching.

A rush of relief flooded her stomach as her hands closed around a necklace.

Real.

This was real.

She pulled it to her, crushing the rock within her palm. It was so sturdy and smooth, cool from the air. Against her skin, it felt as soft as the downy leaves from the Temple gardens.

"Saedii?" a voice asked in alarm.

She turned, out towards the hall. Across from her, peering out through the glowing orange door, a worried face watched her. Waiting.

Cere Junda.

A faint smiled pulled at Saedii's lips. She clutched the necklace closer to her heart, and whispered, in a raspy croak, "It worked."