Ghost of a Smile

Chapter Eighteen

Nur – Fortress Inquisitorius

Ezra was just beginning to return to consciousness when they reached the prison room. He could vaguely feel the stiff fabric of the purge troopers against his arms. His eyes opened, they told his brain he was back in the prison room, being dragged up the ramp to his cell.

He did his best to look around right, left, behind him. All the other acolytes were at their ray shields wondering what had happened to him. He felt the sight of him in his wounded state fuel the anger in Sevrina and Shaden, though less so in the latter. Ezra mentally noted that he would have to talk to them about resisting that anger next time he could.

The troopers reached Ezra's cell. He expected them to throw him in, but was pleasantly surprised they only dropped him onto the floor. Ezra was now fully awake. He groaned and rolled over to the wall, sitting against it for support as the ray shield was turned on.

There had been no trip to the medbay, in fact, Ezra was starting to wonder if they even had a medbay. Instead, they had taken him straight to his cell. Ezra knew part of his punishment for his failure in the arena was dealing with the blaster wounds and electricity burns he had gotten on his own.

Ezra's breathing was heavy with the pain. He couldn't move from his reclining position against the metal wall more than to turn his head. He looked out the shield; he was so deep in his own cell he couldn't see any other occupied cell beyond the cell across from his: Sevrina's. She was standing, staring at him with a concerned look on her face.

Ezra's vision wasn't good enough at the moment to see her lips move so far away, but Sevrina did try saying something to him, "What did they do to you?" before his head rolled back and he collapsed with exhaustion. Day one: complete.

******

Ezra woke up the next morning calling, "Sabine! Can you bring me a pain-killer?" Then he realized where he was and remembered the previous day. Suddenly, he was glad the cell dampened noise somewhat. "Only the rest of the month to go before I see Vader again," he sarcastically uttered. He did a once-over on himself; his burns and wounds had healed to manageable levels overnight. They were still there, and still hurt, but he could move without injuring himself accidently.

He got up and looked out the ray shield. Just as the day before, none of the others had awoken before he had. Then, he saw the weirdest thing he had ever seen, so weird, he thought he was going crazy. The blast door didn't open and yet the Twelfth Brother walked through it like it wasn't there. Normally the sound of his boots slamming against the floor echoed throughout the chamber, but this time he was completely silent. He walked up the ramp towards Ezra's cell.

He stopped in front of the ray shield, "Morning, Ezra. How's your burns?" He said it so matter-of-factly that Ezra couldn't tell if he was asking pleasantly or sarcastically.

"Healed, mostly, I guess." Ezra replied, still some pain in his voice.

"Good. Do you remember what my Sister said yesterday? About if you failed?"

Ezra swallowed, "What's the 'core'?"

"So, you do." The helmet nodded. "The core is the deepest part of this facility (AN: reference FO again). Security like you wouldn't believe. When Jedi are captured, real Jedi, that is, they are brought to their, that is where they become one of us. Or just die. However, the galaxy has become a little short on its supply of Jedi in recent years so lately, Thirteenth just uses it as a special punishment."

He hesitated for a moment, the Dark Side seemed to leave him, replaced briefly by that tone of a concerned friend, "If you survive whatever she does to you, whatever I do for the rest of the month to you in this room? You won't feel it. The core has a special way of inuring people to pain."