The bounty hunter replied in swift and respectable Hutt, then turned to leave. Ahsoka caught her arm."Wait. Stay. I have so many questions." She whispered. Sota looked at the girl, a Togruta. God was a funny being, she nodded. Looking at her two injured parties she said."I guess one more night won't kill us. Cook get Tri and the cargo seen to. I'll try to patch up the little misunderstanding with our new friends." The women nodded and took their leave. Obi-wan rubbing his bruised shoulder replied.
"You presume we are staying." The woman laught and shook her head. "Its no presumption. Haven't you been informed? Not even sand people venture out of their huts after dark this week." Anakin swore."She's right. No one does during the Seven Nights of the Shrieking Winds. We're stuck." As Anakin and Obi-wan were shown to their room. Obi-wan inquired.
"What's the Seven Night's of the Shrieking Winds have to do with us leaving?" Anakin grit his back teeth, in leaving Tatooine behind he'd forgotten all the stories and superstitions of the miserable planet. "Its nothing really. If your suicidal, it works out just great. But you're not." Obi-wan shook his head.
"But surely it is just some fancy. That has been told 1,000's of times to keep children from wondering out at night." Anakin sighed. Obi-wan wasn't getting it. He hadn't seen bones stripped perfectly clean over the yrs. as he had. Collecting the grizzly things had been one of Watto's disgusting hobbies.No one in these parts were confident enough in their disbelief to spit in the eye of the legends.
Legends had a funny way of coming to life.
"The Hellgates open for 7 nights allowing the screams of the damned to escape. A reprieve for those beyond from their own eternally echoing tormented bellowing." Obi-wan paused Anakin.
"And you believe this? And your willing to stay here? A place you have more cause to loath then anywhere else." Anakin went to the boarded up window. Yes he hated the whole damned planet, but if Sota Slayer wasn't chancing it. There was no way they should. "They say the winds can transport you into Hell itself. That if you survive, what sanity you possessed is corrupted. If not, bodies have been found next to their homes in the morning light stripped of flesh.So clean it is as if they'd been washed in acid." Obi-wan held up a hand. "Surely you don't believe this." Anakin shrugged."I know to most it seems like childish stories.The Slayer though is the most re-known hunter.Trust me if she isn't willing to chance it we shouldn't.." Obi-wan sighed. " Alright. But if she's so re-known. How is it I have never heard of her?" Anakin snorted." Because she only comes out every 5 years to hunt. The rest of the time she's training others. Trains only women, and one must be invited. Otherwise you can't find her academy."
"That still hasn't answered my question."
"Good ones don't have to flash a neon sign, boy. I like my privacy and my peace of mind." Came the woman's voice over the wrist com on Anakin's wrist. "Don't bother tracking the signal, it'll only eat the program. Really the Republic needs to keep up with the tech. I've been listening far too long." Then she clicked off. Anakin paled he hadn't even realized his com had been hacked.
"Come young one." Sota said to her newly acquired family member. "Come where?" Ahsoka's eye's narrowed in suspicion. Sota laughed."To see the crew. Now weather you come with us is your decision not mine. Though now would not be a good time." Which put the girl at ease. "Where is Morgan?" Ahsoka asked. Sota sighed deflated. "I was hoping that you would know, but we can talk about such things later. " She said opening the door into the now roofed port. Men, women and children all in varying degrees of clean were milling about.
"Slaves." Ahsoka spat. Sota gripped the girl's arm tightly. "No. Freed. Its the only commodity I deal in with Jabba. He hate's when he has to hire me, but I'm the best. If I hadn't had to wait for you, I could have been home by now not stuck here." A young woman interrupted them by falling to her knees in front of them.
"Please lady let me serve you." Sota's anger fell flat and softened. "Hush child you owe me nothing. It is my duty and honor to serve you. Now go and have something to eat, you need it far much more then I ." The woman paused.
"Then allow me to serve as you and your students do. Please my lady." Sota saw the will and determination. "Do you have children or a spouse?" The youth feared to answer. "I ask only to know how many rooms to prepare and how many plates and chairs to add at my table. Nothing more." Before the woman answered Ahsoka put in. "How does he feel about you doing so dangerous a work?" Having already seen a young man eyeing her from the crowd.
"My lady a debt is a debt. If it had not been for my beauty we would not have been taken. It is mine to pay and I will pay it." Sota smiled at the conversation. It showed much to each partaker.
"If there is a dispute, we could always use a hand in our foundry or in the many fields. Not all payments need to be in blood. But if there is none, yes you have my blessings." The young woman hugged her. The Slayer returned it just as fiercely. "Now go he waits with a growling stomach." Ahsoka shook her head in bewilderment. "You said for them to ready the cargo for shipment, but where's the ship?" Sota chuckled as she went to the middle of the port that had remained empty."You spacer's only think of up or on the surface. Sometimes its much more prudent to travel below." Stepping down on mound of sand, a two part hinged hatch split apart to show a ladder leading down and down and down." We call her the Sand Demon. She can carry supplies, weapons and men. Tunnel blasters in the front, but we haven't used them in years for tunneling." It was then that they overheard the jedi conversation, as they started down into the ship. When Sota clicked off her com. Ahsoka eyed her." Are the Night's real?" Sota nodded." I wish they weren't but the truth is the truth. The first recorded Morgan made a pact with the Sand's of Death. Back then it was actually an area of Tatooine. Anyone who crossed into that area was stripped clean of life, their bones left corroding away. "
"But you can't make deals with land spirits."
"Very true. But you can with demons. Our imprints mark us as special. Untouchable by them. So it was for quite some time, till one of the marks chosen were captured by them. They wanted more as demons always do. But they would only deal with the Pathbourne and she hadn't been seen in years. Yet she came when in need. She entered the gate's of Hell to barter for the wife and child of her brother. Thus you have the legend. So every year for 7 nights the gates open and the condemned souls wonder. Taking who they can for the allotted time. Those fools that are stupid enough and try to see if the legend is true are found the next morning stripped clean of all life. When you are ready to come to us. You may read her journal and those since her coming." As they neared the control deck they heard arguing. " Girls!" Which brought the two heads to turn in their direction. "Hey she started it. Gee's boss. Where'd you pick up this one?" The older taller girl pulled the other girl's pony tail."Some force user you are. Thought you could sense one another." Pony tail snorted.
" I can. She's not normal, its weak. At least my father isn't Dooku. It's amazing he even let you live."
"C.C!" Sota shouted, but it was too late. Ahsoka's back tensed. The young woman turned fully to the togrutan. Sota put herself in between them.
"Who we come from can not be changed. But we can change who we become." Pony tail then pulled her own saber, saying.
"You aren't going to take her anywhere. Not without a fight." Ahsoka eased away. "I'm not going to fight you and I'm not going to tell. I don't judge people on who their related to or who their masters were. My name's Ahsoka Tano. Padawan learner to General Skyg..walker." The hunter's face paled and she stepped away as the two other girl's came up to meet her. Dooku's daughter said. "My name's Stringer. Thank-you. I know you could have taken offense. Many have. Wouldn't be the first time." The light was poor but showed enough. She'd seen sketches of the count when he had been a respected master. The girl carried herself with an amount of earned dignity and decorum. Yet there was a darkness that shrouded her, the hurt of abandonment. It held the girl's powers from coming forward.
"He abandoned me when I failed the tests. I was on my own for a year till the mistress found me. So we going or staying another wonderful night?" Sota nodded. C.C. had held off as she'd seen Sota's reaction at Skywalker's name.
"Stringer? C.C? Meet Ahsoka Tano, she's our newest family member.The Red Hand. No mind or door is beyond her opening."
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Morgan poured the remembered pain into her dark arts. Lightning crackled and burnt holes through a series of droids. Others she levitated and crushed only to unfold them. He wanted progress, he would have it. In fact he would get all he desired, in her training. But no further. Morgan watched as the black bubbles zoomed around the room. Sending out their minute by minute reports. Narrowing her eyes she sizzled one with a quick bolt.
"I grow tired of droids, come face me. You coward." She snarled. Dooku maybe promised to Anakin by fate's hand, but she owed him at least a couple of pinches. If not a total re-write.
Dooku frowned. Indeed she had progressed nicely. Now he would bring her to the dark side with her own blood. "Prepare my solar sailor. There is need for me elsewhere."
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Obi-wan sighed there was nothing like getting back to normal sleeping hours. It had been nearly 3 months since the last nightmare. His eyes were now eager to see the sun's rays in the morning. Not wincing behind protective shades. No moody outbursts that had him apologizing far too much for any one man. Yet in the time free of such happenings he had still not been able to find the source. It bothered him, but not enough to keep him up.
Morgan eyed her toes. Dooku had come within days of her remark, bringing a new enemy she hadn't thought was possible. Her own blood.
She was no longer beaten, there wasn't any reason to waste good metal. The collars thick chain was tugged to get her attention. Morgan shut her eyes, tears slipped down her cheeks.
"I wish only to have you not be the only one of your kind. Perhaps this new batch will be much more agreeable to your gift." Dooku eyed his prize most disturbingly. The amount of desire he felt for her was most unsettling. He frowned at her. Who was she to capture his interest so completely? That his dark master now questioned his commitment to their ultimate goal of wiping out the jedi. Dooku nodded at the droid who handed his yet unnamed guest the goblet of blood. Her own.Collected on a whim. That now gave him a very powerful weapon. It had been quite the experiment. Riveting him to his throne. As her victims were drained not only of blood, bone, but every molecule of moisture. Leaving a husk that disintegrated with the smallest of movements. Yet nothing could have prepared him for the ending. Like a separate entity, the blood tracked it's original host down. No matter how long it took. It eventually overcame her and like some sponge the body reabsorbed the blood. It had chewed the girl's barriers down till he was sure this would be the killing blow. Morgan kept her eyes on the blood within the cup. She had tried to toss it on him, but that had only destroyed the droids around him. Beaten to replace what had been lost. Morgan knew she could not hold out much longer. He was going to win. Morgan snapped up her eyes as she heard frightened sniffles and whimpers. Her anger flashed giving her the added adrenaline. Morgan tossed the cup not caring as she screamed for the children to run. Flinging bolts of lightning at the droids to keep them from going after the children. When a blaster caught her in the neck, her last sight of consciousness was of an 8 yr old girl's neck being snapped by a droid.
Dooku knelt to the girl with a sigh. She was trying his patients. Yet now he knew her weakness.
"Put her on my solar sailor along with the bodies. After she has buried every last child, I shall start her training in earnest. She is too close to be left on her own. "
Obi-wan gasped in pain not only of the physical but the emotion of loss and guilt. He sat up reaching out to the entity in pain, but as before he was blocked. Failure after failure. Obi-wan covered his eyes with his hands and cried. When would it end.
Dirty, sore, tired and empty Morgan put the last touch on the last of the 12 small and silent graves. " You did well. Not long will it be till I send you on your first mission."
Morgan snorted. " And if I am captured ?"
"You would never do so. These 12 would find themselves added to if that were ever the case."
Morgan grit her back teeth. He had her over a barrel. Dooku smiled at the girl, yes the self hate would soon find an outlet.
" After your first assignment, I will proclaim you as my apprentice."
Morgan laughed. "As if that will matter, if I am drastically outnumbered and taken captive. If you can't sense me, how will they know to trust my word or not. Most likely they'll box me up for Kamino to have the cloners play with me." She straightened up and turned to face him.
" You don't strike me as the type of boss who would care enough to storm the citadel for the likes of me. Not that I wouldn't find a way out myself. " Dooku nodded to the special droid he'd had made.The girl's eyes rolled as she was hit from behind. "She will be a force to be reckoned with when she has completely given herself over to the dark side. With her at my side the republic will fall along with my master. Take her and clean her as best you can. I must deceive my master for awhile longer."
The droid cradled Morgan's body close to its armored plated chest. An extra charge of electricity flowed from her into the bot. It held her if one could say more gently. A mark of a spider too small to be noticed, appeared on the joint of its left elbow. Soon the time for escape would come.
"You presume we are staying." The woman laught and shook her head. "Its no presumption. Haven't you been informed? Not even sand people venture out of their huts after dark this week." Anakin swore."She's right. No one does during the Seven Nights of the Shrieking Winds. We're stuck." As Anakin and Obi-wan were shown to their room. Obi-wan inquired.
"What's the Seven Night's of the Shrieking Winds have to do with us leaving?" Anakin grit his back teeth, in leaving Tatooine behind he'd forgotten all the stories and superstitions of the miserable planet. "Its nothing really. If your suicidal, it works out just great. But you're not." Obi-wan shook his head.
"But surely it is just some fancy. That has been told 1,000's of times to keep children from wondering out at night." Anakin sighed. Obi-wan wasn't getting it. He hadn't seen bones stripped perfectly clean over the yrs. as he had. Collecting the grizzly things had been one of Watto's disgusting hobbies.No one in these parts were confident enough in their disbelief to spit in the eye of the legends.
Legends had a funny way of coming to life.
"The Hellgates open for 7 nights allowing the screams of the damned to escape. A reprieve for those beyond from their own eternally echoing tormented bellowing." Obi-wan paused Anakin.
"And you believe this? And your willing to stay here? A place you have more cause to loath then anywhere else." Anakin went to the boarded up window. Yes he hated the whole damned planet, but if Sota Slayer wasn't chancing it. There was no way they should. "They say the winds can transport you into Hell itself. That if you survive, what sanity you possessed is corrupted. If not, bodies have been found next to their homes in the morning light stripped of flesh.So clean it is as if they'd been washed in acid." Obi-wan held up a hand. "Surely you don't believe this." Anakin shrugged."I know to most it seems like childish stories.The Slayer though is the most re-known hunter.Trust me if she isn't willing to chance it we shouldn't.." Obi-wan sighed. " Alright. But if she's so re-known. How is it I have never heard of her?" Anakin snorted." Because she only comes out every 5 years to hunt. The rest of the time she's training others. Trains only women, and one must be invited. Otherwise you can't find her academy."
"That still hasn't answered my question."
"Good ones don't have to flash a neon sign, boy. I like my privacy and my peace of mind." Came the woman's voice over the wrist com on Anakin's wrist. "Don't bother tracking the signal, it'll only eat the program. Really the Republic needs to keep up with the tech. I've been listening far too long." Then she clicked off. Anakin paled he hadn't even realized his com had been hacked.
"Come young one." Sota said to her newly acquired family member. "Come where?" Ahsoka's eye's narrowed in suspicion. Sota laughed."To see the crew. Now weather you come with us is your decision not mine. Though now would not be a good time." Which put the girl at ease. "Where is Morgan?" Ahsoka asked. Sota sighed deflated. "I was hoping that you would know, but we can talk about such things later. " She said opening the door into the now roofed port. Men, women and children all in varying degrees of clean were milling about.
"Slaves." Ahsoka spat. Sota gripped the girl's arm tightly. "No. Freed. Its the only commodity I deal in with Jabba. He hate's when he has to hire me, but I'm the best. If I hadn't had to wait for you, I could have been home by now not stuck here." A young woman interrupted them by falling to her knees in front of them.
"Please lady let me serve you." Sota's anger fell flat and softened. "Hush child you owe me nothing. It is my duty and honor to serve you. Now go and have something to eat, you need it far much more then I ." The woman paused.
"Then allow me to serve as you and your students do. Please my lady." Sota saw the will and determination. "Do you have children or a spouse?" The youth feared to answer. "I ask only to know how many rooms to prepare and how many plates and chairs to add at my table. Nothing more." Before the woman answered Ahsoka put in. "How does he feel about you doing so dangerous a work?" Having already seen a young man eyeing her from the crowd.
"My lady a debt is a debt. If it had not been for my beauty we would not have been taken. It is mine to pay and I will pay it." Sota smiled at the conversation. It showed much to each partaker.
"If there is a dispute, we could always use a hand in our foundry or in the many fields. Not all payments need to be in blood. But if there is none, yes you have my blessings." The young woman hugged her. The Slayer returned it just as fiercely. "Now go he waits with a growling stomach." Ahsoka shook her head in bewilderment. "You said for them to ready the cargo for shipment, but where's the ship?" Sota chuckled as she went to the middle of the port that had remained empty."You spacer's only think of up or on the surface. Sometimes its much more prudent to travel below." Stepping down on mound of sand, a two part hinged hatch split apart to show a ladder leading down and down and down." We call her the Sand Demon. She can carry supplies, weapons and men. Tunnel blasters in the front, but we haven't used them in years for tunneling." It was then that they overheard the jedi conversation, as they started down into the ship. When Sota clicked off her com. Ahsoka eyed her." Are the Night's real?" Sota nodded." I wish they weren't but the truth is the truth. The first recorded Morgan made a pact with the Sand's of Death. Back then it was actually an area of Tatooine. Anyone who crossed into that area was stripped clean of life, their bones left corroding away. "
"But you can't make deals with land spirits."
"Very true. But you can with demons. Our imprints mark us as special. Untouchable by them. So it was for quite some time, till one of the marks chosen were captured by them. They wanted more as demons always do. But they would only deal with the Pathbourne and she hadn't been seen in years. Yet she came when in need. She entered the gate's of Hell to barter for the wife and child of her brother. Thus you have the legend. So every year for 7 nights the gates open and the condemned souls wonder. Taking who they can for the allotted time. Those fools that are stupid enough and try to see if the legend is true are found the next morning stripped clean of all life. When you are ready to come to us. You may read her journal and those since her coming." As they neared the control deck they heard arguing. " Girls!" Which brought the two heads to turn in their direction. "Hey she started it. Gee's boss. Where'd you pick up this one?" The older taller girl pulled the other girl's pony tail."Some force user you are. Thought you could sense one another." Pony tail snorted.
" I can. She's not normal, its weak. At least my father isn't Dooku. It's amazing he even let you live."
"C.C!" Sota shouted, but it was too late. Ahsoka's back tensed. The young woman turned fully to the togrutan. Sota put herself in between them.
"Who we come from can not be changed. But we can change who we become." Pony tail then pulled her own saber, saying.
"You aren't going to take her anywhere. Not without a fight." Ahsoka eased away. "I'm not going to fight you and I'm not going to tell. I don't judge people on who their related to or who their masters were. My name's Ahsoka Tano. Padawan learner to General Skyg..walker." The hunter's face paled and she stepped away as the two other girl's came up to meet her. Dooku's daughter said. "My name's Stringer. Thank-you. I know you could have taken offense. Many have. Wouldn't be the first time." The light was poor but showed enough. She'd seen sketches of the count when he had been a respected master. The girl carried herself with an amount of earned dignity and decorum. Yet there was a darkness that shrouded her, the hurt of abandonment. It held the girl's powers from coming forward.
"He abandoned me when I failed the tests. I was on my own for a year till the mistress found me. So we going or staying another wonderful night?" Sota nodded. C.C. had held off as she'd seen Sota's reaction at Skywalker's name.
"Stringer? C.C? Meet Ahsoka Tano, she's our newest family member.The Red Hand. No mind or door is beyond her opening."
-------------------------------------------------------------
Morgan poured the remembered pain into her dark arts. Lightning crackled and burnt holes through a series of droids. Others she levitated and crushed only to unfold them. He wanted progress, he would have it. In fact he would get all he desired, in her training. But no further. Morgan watched as the black bubbles zoomed around the room. Sending out their minute by minute reports. Narrowing her eyes she sizzled one with a quick bolt.
"I grow tired of droids, come face me. You coward." She snarled. Dooku maybe promised to Anakin by fate's hand, but she owed him at least a couple of pinches. If not a total re-write.
Dooku frowned. Indeed she had progressed nicely. Now he would bring her to the dark side with her own blood. "Prepare my solar sailor. There is need for me elsewhere."
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Obi-wan sighed there was nothing like getting back to normal sleeping hours. It had been nearly 3 months since the last nightmare. His eyes were now eager to see the sun's rays in the morning. Not wincing behind protective shades. No moody outbursts that had him apologizing far too much for any one man. Yet in the time free of such happenings he had still not been able to find the source. It bothered him, but not enough to keep him up.
Morgan eyed her toes. Dooku had come within days of her remark, bringing a new enemy she hadn't thought was possible. Her own blood.
She was no longer beaten, there wasn't any reason to waste good metal. The collars thick chain was tugged to get her attention. Morgan shut her eyes, tears slipped down her cheeks.
"I wish only to have you not be the only one of your kind. Perhaps this new batch will be much more agreeable to your gift." Dooku eyed his prize most disturbingly. The amount of desire he felt for her was most unsettling. He frowned at her. Who was she to capture his interest so completely? That his dark master now questioned his commitment to their ultimate goal of wiping out the jedi. Dooku nodded at the droid who handed his yet unnamed guest the goblet of blood. Her own.Collected on a whim. That now gave him a very powerful weapon. It had been quite the experiment. Riveting him to his throne. As her victims were drained not only of blood, bone, but every molecule of moisture. Leaving a husk that disintegrated with the smallest of movements. Yet nothing could have prepared him for the ending. Like a separate entity, the blood tracked it's original host down. No matter how long it took. It eventually overcame her and like some sponge the body reabsorbed the blood. It had chewed the girl's barriers down till he was sure this would be the killing blow. Morgan kept her eyes on the blood within the cup. She had tried to toss it on him, but that had only destroyed the droids around him. Beaten to replace what had been lost. Morgan knew she could not hold out much longer. He was going to win. Morgan snapped up her eyes as she heard frightened sniffles and whimpers. Her anger flashed giving her the added adrenaline. Morgan tossed the cup not caring as she screamed for the children to run. Flinging bolts of lightning at the droids to keep them from going after the children. When a blaster caught her in the neck, her last sight of consciousness was of an 8 yr old girl's neck being snapped by a droid.
Dooku knelt to the girl with a sigh. She was trying his patients. Yet now he knew her weakness.
"Put her on my solar sailor along with the bodies. After she has buried every last child, I shall start her training in earnest. She is too close to be left on her own. "
Obi-wan gasped in pain not only of the physical but the emotion of loss and guilt. He sat up reaching out to the entity in pain, but as before he was blocked. Failure after failure. Obi-wan covered his eyes with his hands and cried. When would it end.
Dirty, sore, tired and empty Morgan put the last touch on the last of the 12 small and silent graves. " You did well. Not long will it be till I send you on your first mission."
Morgan snorted. " And if I am captured ?"
"You would never do so. These 12 would find themselves added to if that were ever the case."
Morgan grit her back teeth. He had her over a barrel. Dooku smiled at the girl, yes the self hate would soon find an outlet.
" After your first assignment, I will proclaim you as my apprentice."
Morgan laughed. "As if that will matter, if I am drastically outnumbered and taken captive. If you can't sense me, how will they know to trust my word or not. Most likely they'll box me up for Kamino to have the cloners play with me." She straightened up and turned to face him.
" You don't strike me as the type of boss who would care enough to storm the citadel for the likes of me. Not that I wouldn't find a way out myself. " Dooku nodded to the special droid he'd had made.The girl's eyes rolled as she was hit from behind. "She will be a force to be reckoned with when she has completely given herself over to the dark side. With her at my side the republic will fall along with my master. Take her and clean her as best you can. I must deceive my master for awhile longer."
The droid cradled Morgan's body close to its armored plated chest. An extra charge of electricity flowed from her into the bot. It held her if one could say more gently. A mark of a spider too small to be noticed, appeared on the joint of its left elbow. Soon the time for escape would come.