Fire in the Crucible

“Get up.”

She lay there.

“Ora stand up.”

The broken Jedi lay on the floor…refusing to follow Revan…determined not to yield. …determined not to die. She now found herself in the greatest crucible in the galaxy.

“You need the powers of the dark side to live. Ohhh…” The Dark lord said stooping over the body of her prisoner. “…look at these wounds. They will never heal. Will they?”

Ora trembled as she raised her head to examine her torso. For three days she had been in constant torment, the streams of force lightning being momentarily paused only by Revan’s attempts to both re-establish the current of the force working through her fingertips and to assess the condition of her prisoner. From time to time she would question Ora, as she was doing now.

“What you have seen here, Ora, is only glimpse of the powers you can have if you join me. The torture, compared to my full power, is like a drop of lava from the great flows on Mustafar.”

Ora gasped for breath, and tried to rise to face Revan. She tried to speak but could not; her vocal muscles had been scourged by her constant wailing. Revan had used to force to boil Ora alive, starting at the bloodstream

Revan clenched Ora by her shoulders and pulled her up from the floor of the temple. Ora winced within the crushing weight of Revan’s Grasp, and a heavy breath escaped from her charred lungs as she was slammed against the wall. Two Sith apprentices wholly unlike anything Ora had ever seen before at once captivated her thoughts in such a way that she seemed not to even notice as the crushing weight of hundreds of chains was draped over and around her, binding her to the boulders of the Sith temple.

Revan slowly crept up to the wall where Ora had been secured. Somewhere behind her she heard a sickeningly familiar voice chuckle. Ora had realized days before she had not been the only Jedi captured, but never had she ever imagined others would be seduced to the Dark side. Not Malak. Not Revan. And certainly not her own brother.

She peered out into the darkness behind Revan, to either confirm or relive her fear of the origin of the Sound, but was bashed back into the moment by another stream of force lightning. “Letting your mind wander? You never had a very long attention span.” Ora couldn’t bring herself to look at Revan. Desperation filled her with more pain than any of the damage Revan could inflict. Her mind was racing to find out if it was indeed little Crete standing behind Revan.

A ghastly smile stretched its way across Revan’s pale face. “Ahhh…that is cause for concern, isn’t it?”

It was only then Ora realized Revan had crawled into her mind…and if she didn’t already have Crete he was in great danger now that Revan did know about him. Revan chuckled as she donned the mask that witnessed the destruction of entire planets. “Put your mind to rest, my dear. I can assure you that your brother is safe…with us.”

Ora sounded a muted screech. Revan laughed again. “Malak?” She called.

A metallic voice seethed back, “Yes, Milord?”

“Bring me Crete.”

Ora’s eyes grew wide and shimmered with tears. Her breath now came in quick shallow gasps and left in long shuddering sighs that made her entire body tremble and caused the massive chains to clink against each other. Two sets of feet clad in steel-reinforced combat boots struck against the stone floor in unison, producing a sharp clap the resounded up to the height of the dark room, pounded of the peak of the ceiling and thundered down again, assaulting the ears of all who heard.

Then, as suddenly as it began, the footsteps came to a clamorous, united halt. Two figures, one roughly half the size of the other, were in view. They were blurred by tears that filled Ora’s eyes. A single tear slipped and caused a highly pronounced searing pain on the open slashes on her cheek.

“Ahhh…My little Crete. I remember when you first entered the Jedi academy. You have certainly grown.” Revan said as she placed a gloved hand on the boys shoulder. Ora lurched forward against the immense weight of the chains. Revan turned and looked at her old friend. “Ora, do you not see how great my power is? Certainly if you can’t see it in me, you can recognize the wondrous change it has made in your own brother.”

At that moment, Ora discovered it was possible to have your sanity lost, your world crushed, your soul overshadowed by dread, your heart ripped out, and the force forsake you…twice in one week.

“Crete…” Revan bellowed, “…show your sister what Darth Malak has taught you this week.”

The same dark smirk that had played across Revan’s face earlier now danced its way across Crete’s. “Yes, at once my Lady.”

He trotted up to the spot on the wall where Ora was secured, assumed an alien stance, glanced back at Malak, who nodded in approval, and slowly turned back to his sister with hate no normal thirteen year old human child should possess steaming in his eyes.

Ora’s sorrow was multiplied ten fold when she felt the malicious feeling rolling off of her brother. She wept bitterly as Crete raised a single hand and began to force choke his older sister. Her breath was hindered, not by the power of her brother’s choke, but by the deep sobs that mourned his folly, and his life.

For once in her life, Ora knew exactly what she had to do…and it shook her to her very core.

She looked in her brother’s hate-filled eyes, and began to meditate. She traced what little strands of the force she remained connected to after Malacor and concentrated on them. She found a bond to her brother that she had closed off when she was captured. She shed a final tear and opened it for a split second.

Her brother immediately released his grip on his sister and crashed to the floor in torment. In that moment, she also poured her heart into her brother. Ora then quickly cut the bond. She watched as Crete grew deathly silent. Time seemed to stop. Crete lay unmoving on the floor. Malak stood in the background, seething with anger that his student fell so easily. Revan removed her mask and stood breathless at what had just happened. Ora waited.

After a few minutes, Crete rolled over and stared with detest into his sister’s eyes.

Revan paced away from the scene for a moment. She raked a hand through her hair and wiped the perspiration from her forehead, she hadn’t slept in three days, and as it appeared, she wouldn’t be getting any anytime soon. In all, she had restored Ora to health around thirty times, and nearly destroyed her again every time. But if she could win Ora over, it would be well worth it. Her newfound condition was well worth a lifetime of sleepless nights.

She turned and marched over to Crete. “Crete, where does your allegiance lie?”

Slowly, Crete rose. He turned, took a step toward Ora and looked at her for a long second, then turned and bowed at the feet of Revan, and in a mighty voice that filled every part of the room “To you, my lord!” Ora saw and heard him through all of her pain, but was no longer sorrowed, the corpse on the floor was not her brother, but an entirely different individual.

Revan then slowly walked up to Ora. “You see…even your own brother feels the power of the Sith. Can you not see what power, what wonder, what…glory it gives. Since I joined the Sith…I am the Force. Can you not see that with it…you can bend the Force to your will…You can be the Force, Ora.” She finished with glee.

Ora worked up every last bit of strength she could muster, leaned forward, and focused on Crete, who was still prostrate on the floor. “A-All I see…is…th-the blackness …of your…he-hea…”

Revan was angered. She rushed over to Ora and climbed up the chains and positioned herself in a way that brought her nose to nose with Ora. “The blackness of my heart? Do you really put me in a category below you? I left the order…you followed. I lead an army to fight against the wishes of the council…you fought right by my side. I joined the Sith…there is a darkness there, I don’t deny that. But look you…Ora. You have gone three week without yielding to me, but you followed my orders when I told you to use the Mass Shadow Generator…”

Ora struggled and turned her head away. Revan Grasped her chin and turned her face toward her, and held it there while she spoke. “You knew it was wrong. You knew what it would do even before it was built. Malacor was no accident! You always knew thousands would die. You didn’t care.” Ora tried to plead her case, but couldn’t speak. “Save your effort, I know your heart and your thoughts already! You always knew there was a chance something would have gone terribly wrong. And it did...didn’t it? But you didn’t care. If it weren’t for the screams of those thousands echoing inside the pitiful shell of what you once were you wouldn’t care now…You were willing to sacrifice yourself…not because you wanted to end the war…but because you couldn’t live with the decision you made there! So tell me, if you heart isn’t black, if you are better than me…why did you let me capture you! Why aren’t you at the council chambers answering for your crimes? Why would you sacrifice all those men because…because you were tired of fighting…” Ora thought she saw a tear in Revan’s eye as she continued speaking in a harsh whisper, “So you think I have a black heart? I think you need to look deep inside yourself before you answer that; because as far as I’m concerned, today Ora is the blackest name in the galaxy.”

Ora couldn’t take the accusation; tears flowed freely down her cheeks. For the first time that week, she realized what had happened. In the Three days she had been there, this was the only truth Revan had spoken, and it was a cold, black truth. Ora relaxed in the chains and wept for all the soldiers she had betrayed.

Revan gazed in disgust at Ora. “You want to die, don’t you? Well I swear by the force I won’t let you die!” She screamed as she grabbed Ora’s forehead and began to channel the force. Immediately Ora felt relief from her physical pain, but her psyche remained deeply wounded.

The more Revan fed Ora the Force, the more she would absorb. Revan had been at work for little more than a minute when Ora began to resist. Revan jumped down and away. Ora began struggling against the chains. Some of the smaller shackles broke off. Ora began to take in larger and larger breaths until it seemed her body would hold no more. Malak moved forward and ignited his lightsaber, but Revan put a hand on his shoulder as if to hold him back.

All of Ora’s pain and sorrow and guilt mounted upon the force inside of her. The pressure began to physically affect her, pressing against her heat and ribs. Everything She felt within the past week was emptied into a Force scream that sent everyone flying to the ground and ripped the chains from the wall. She sustained the screamed until every last tie to the Force had been broken. When the last tie was broken, and her body was empty of the Force, she collapsed to the floor as a dead woman.

After a few moments Revan looked at Ora, she was there, but for the first time in fifteen years, she could not feel her through the force. The rest of the inhabitants of the temple were either unconscious or dead. Revan could barely keep her head off the ground. To her complete surprise, Ora stood up, she seemed very small, very week, and was in every respect like a dead woman. But if she was dead, she was certainly managing to walk around the temple very well.

She walked slowly up to Revan. Looked at her and said, “You were right.” And with tears in her eyes, she left the Sith temple. Ora then set out for Telos to meet her fate with the Jedi council.