I'd like to say thanks real quick to all the readers who have waited awhile for this chapter. I apologize not getting it up more quickly - I've been dealing with some issues in my personal life, and when personal things go awry for me it gives me a serious case of writers' block. Hopefully this chapter is still up to par with what y'all expect from me - thank you for your patience! I will try not to have so long a delay between this and Ch. 14, but no guarantees =(
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Chapter 13 β Fallen
The next day unfolded surprisingly normally for Jacen. For the first time in what seemed like a long time, he went through the day like a model Jedi student; he focused on the material in his classes, he trained hard, and for once he did not go through the day with a hard-on raging in his pants. Just when it seemed that the day would be without incident, however, a public announcement came on informing the students that there would be a mandatory gathering in the main audience hall. As the students of the Academy, some dressed for class and others looking like they had just gotten out of bed, made their way to the meeting, whispers flew left and right about the reason for addressing the student body as a whole. Some speculated that something had gone horribly wrong with the latest group of off-world training missions, and that teams were being assembled to search for missing students and instructors. Others thought that perhaps they were being called together to meet an important figure in the Republic's history β a veteran of the Jedi Civil War, perhaps. Maybe Revan himself had returned from the Unknown Regions?
By the time Jacen reached the main audience hall, he had heard a wide array of conspiracy theories and speculations, but was not inclined to believe any one over the others. The murmur of the crowd gather to a low rumble as more and more students arrived, all but a few looking completely lost and befuddled. As the students awaited a member of the teaching staff or the Council itself to appear and make a statement, Jacen felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned and found himself facing a distressed-looking Star.
"Star!" he exclaimed, surprised that she was not off-world. "Is everything okay? Do you have any idea what's happening?"
"I need to talk to you, alone," she said, forcing a path through the crowd of students and dragging him along.
The two slowly cut a path through the gathered students, eventually making their way to the end of the room and quickly ducking into a small supply closet.
"First of all, I'm glad to see you're okay," Star said to him once she had closed the door. "The Council hasn't figured out yet just how many people have gotten involved in this."
"Involved in what?" he asked. "Star, what's going on? I've heard people talking about missing students, off-world disasters, basically anything you can think of."
"The ones who talked about missing students weren't far off," she sighed. "Liana's gone missing."
"What?" Jacen exclaimed. "How? When?"
Star shook her head.
"We don't really know. Her class attendance had been spotty the last few weeks. Some of her instructors had been mulling bringing her in for disciplinary action when this news broke."
"How did they find out?" Jacen asked, his voice quavering with concern and dread.
"Her suitemates first reported it. They said she'd been gone for several nights straight."
"Is that unusual for her?" he asked.
"Apparently it's been her habit lately to bring home a guy or two every night," Star said, lowering her voice a bit. "Her roommate said she's had an unusually active sex life ever since we came back from training. And by unusual, I mean new men every night. Some of them were students, but it sounded like she'd been getting men from outside the academy as well β smugglers, travelers, and the like."
"I've seen her around from time to time since we got back," Jacen said. "Her clothes have been more and more β¦ provocative. Do you think this has something to do with her disappearance?"
"It seems like it might, especially if she's been mingling with Coruscant's seedier elements. There's more to it, though. I don't think this is a simple case of kidnapping or a runaway student."
"What makes you say that?"
"I managed to track down and talk to some of the male students here she's been with. Off the record, of course."
"What did they have to say?" Jacen asked eagerly.
"Mostly that she's an animal and almost always fucked them senseless," Star replied. "And I think that's the problem."
"What do you mean?"
"Every single student she had sex with described feeling weakened, physically drained after their orgasm. At first I thought they were just inexperienced and not used to it, but the more I listened⦠the more it sounded like some kind of Force drain."
"A Force drain?" Jacen asked, not understanding.
"It's something they'll teach you about in your later years," Star explained. "It's a power mainly attributed to the Dark Side that allows the user to feed off the Force energy of another being. It can also be used to directly attack the health of an enemy while replenishing your own strength."
"You think Liana is using this kind of power?"
Star shook her head.
"Not voluntarily, no. But the Force does have a will of its own in many ways. I'm afraid that the lust and sexual hunger we exposed her to on Yavin might have affected her somehow. Some of these guys looked like total bookworms, but a lot of them seemed physically fit enough to stand up to a sex marathon. There's just no way a quickie with Liana could knock them out like they described."
"Iβ¦ uh, I think I know what you're talking about," Jacen said sheepishly. "Liana and I had sex in the locker room after one of my training classes. I didn't even want to have sex with her at first, but it was like she completely forced her will onto me. She even managed to make me come when I wasn't ready to. I totally blacked out for awhile after I came. At first I thought I'd just overworked myself, but it seems to be fitting the pattern. When I woke up, Liana still wanted more β she even tried to convince me to have sex with her again, but I couldn't even get it up again with her lying there naked in front of me."
"Like her lust had somehow fed off of yours," Star said, putting together the pieces. "And some of the other students described what you experienced, about her imposing her will on them. Some of the ones I spoke to were the most upstanding, traditional Jedi students I'd ever seen. I could've stripped naked and started masturbating right in front of them and they wouldn't have batted an eyelash."
"Did you?" Jacen asked, jokingly.
"No, and that's beside the point. I think Liana has somehow lost herself to her sex drive, and I'm afraid that we're responsible for it."