I was floating in a bacta tank, a breathing mask strapped over my face, trying to get to sleep, and failing. It has always been difficult for me to sleep in those tanks. As prolonged and excruciating as my interrogation was, it had left me with no severe injuries, only a great many bruises and minor cuts. Insignificant as they were, Morwoh wanted those marks erased as quickly as possibly, and my stamina restored. It had been the same before--the use of bacta-sessions between torture-sessions to accelerate my healing and keep me looking my best. Building me back up to break me down again, a wicked cycle.
Then the top of the tank was opened and I was hauled from the fluid. I didn't recognize the person who pulled me out. They wore a similar outfit to his bodyguards, but they were much shorter. I knew all of Morwoh's soldiers; none by name, but I had been compelled to know them all intimately--this was someone else, someone new. Then they lifted the visor of their helmet to show me their face. Not new to me after all.
The face of a friend.
It was not a comfort, to see that particular face, not as it was meant. Her name was Meigin. She was a rebel pilot I had befriended during my freedom. Very young and often overenthusiastic.
"I've come to save you!" She'd brought something for me to wear, a hooded poncho to slip over my head. She had sandals for me, too, though they fit too loose and flapped too noisily against my heel, so I soon discarded them, stayed barefoot.
The rebel cells I had found and tried to help, as I have mentioned already, turned out to be extremists and I did not long stay associated with them. And their extremism had been a small consolation to me, having spilled my guts to Morwoh's interrogators about them. The information I had given up would almost certainly doom everyone in those groups to capture and death, once Morwoh sold it to the Empire. But I could tell myself they were not good people. They were as murderous as the Imperials. Except that wasn't true, it was an oversimplification. Their leaders were very bad; the majority of those people were not. People like Meigin. This was a heavy truth I did not wish to confront. I could not bear to face it.
Now, thanks to Meijin, I had to.
"Don't be afraid," she whispered, holding my hand, "we'll soon be out of here, I promise."
It was as bad as a lightsaber through my heart. No, a hundred times worse. I didn't say anything. I couldn't speak. I couldn't meet her eyes. I let her lead me along with my head slumped, hiding under the hood of the poncho from my rescuer's anxious looks of concern.
We were almost out of the palace when I thought of Suzir, the former Imperial spy. Back in the slave cages, because of me. Twice she had lost her freedom because of me. You might say she deserved it. Suzir was responsible for my original enslavement just as much as I was responsible for hers. She had intended to take me to the Inquisitors; only Morwoh's intervention had prevented her from doing that. Still I couldn't regain my freedom at the cost of leaving her behind in this place--not for a second time. It would have haunted me. Wicked as she was--and she was very wicked--we'd shared too much suffering. We'd danced together under the lash, eye to eye, and watched each other shatter and dissolve. We'd shared too much passion.
I told Meijin we had to go back for her. Meijin didn't like this, but she did it anyway, because I asked her to.
We would have got away, if we hadn't gone back. I could have warned the rest of those rebels. I might have saved them.
At least the Empire won't get Meigin, for whatever's that worth.
We did free Suzir and make it out of the palace without setting off any alarms. All three of us made it to Meigin's hidden ship. But that was where things went wrong.
As Meigin was powering up the ship, Suzir pretended to help. Then when Meigin's back was turned, Suzir snatched the gun from her holster and stunned her.
She planned to fly us to the Empire and turn in both me and Meigin. Use us to win back her position.
"But I helped you!" I whined, "I went back for you! How can do you this after everything we endured together?"
"It is my duty to the Empire," she said, "It's my chance for glory. I thank you for freeing me. I thank you for giving me this opportunity. Without you and the rebel, the Empire would never accept me back. They'd treat me as a deserter and a security risk. Perhaps even shoot me."
I knelt on the deck at her feet. "Please don't do this. At least let Meigin go. You don't need to turn her in, not when you have a Jedi. Please, I beg you. I beg you!"
"Take off that poncho. Pass it over." Suzir had still been nude, this whole time. Meigin had only brought clothes for me, and after we unlocked Suzir from her cage, we didn't waste any time trying to find something for her. We'd just got out of there, fast as we could.
I pulled off the poncho and handed it to her. She smirked at me, then flung it aside. I was bewildered; I thought she would put it on herself. Instead she took Meigin's clothes, while she was still too dazed to resist. As Suzir was pulling on the pants, I reached tentatively for the poncho on the floor. I knew what would happen but I tried anyway, just in the faint forlorn hope she'd rejected it when I gave it to her because it was ragged and smelly. But of course that wasn't why.
"Leave it," she snapped, "You stay naked. You both stay naked. It will take us a good while to reach Imperial territory. I wonder how many times you will beg me to finger you, during the trip. I wonder what the rebel will think, when she sees you do it. Should be ... interesting."
"Don't make me do it in front of her. Please. Don't let her see. You can lock here in the hold or something."
"I like that you don't bother pretending it won't happen."
