Apprentice

“Master… I’m not reading anything on that planet… are you sure it’s the right one?” Quetzal asked, fingers dancing lightly on the controls of the small private ship.

“Positive,” her Master said, nodding. “Forget the controls, for once, and use your instincts. Can’t you feel him?”

Quetzal sighed, sitting back and letting her senses relax. Sure enough, there was a faint, but definite tug from the planet. It felt like any other tug from a Jedi, but… different. Oily, sticky, tainted somehow. The touch of a Sith, the influence of the Dark Side.

The Council had dispatched the two of them to take care of a small-scale Sith, operating a privately funded smuggling cartel. There were dozens of similar smugglers around the galaxy, but since this one was run by a Force Sensitive, it was too dangerous. Anything could be smuggled past any check stop by someone trained to turn minds away from the task at hand.

Since there was only the one, they’d just sent the pair of them, Master Cha-Rei, an exceptionally well-learned Jedi, three previous Padawans, and a powerful, trim body that didn’t reflect his considerable age very accurately. Quetzal was his fourth apprentice, the other three already Knights and Masters in their own rights.

She was also the oddest of the lot. The other three had been raised from toddler age in the temple, as most Jedi were. Quetzal had been picked up at age 7, out of the cesspools that were lower Coruscant. She’d actually been found breaking into one of the richer black market dealers’ homes, which happened to be the same one a Jedi Master was raiding at request of the Council and Senate. He wouldn’t have thought anything of it… except that she’d gotten right past three pairs of guards, two of which had nasty guard dogs. And the laser security perimeter. And the camera sensors.

Untrained, at 7 years old, she already had the raw talent to be the most valuable thief in the most dangerous underground ring in the northern continent. Naturally, the Master had kidnapped her and taken her to the temple. At first, they’d been worried they would have to keep her restrained until they could figure out a way to reform her, but once she discovered she didn’t have to go hungry, risk her neck daily, or entertain the older men in the ring nightly, she was quite content to learn to be a Jedi.

This was her first real mission off of Coruscant with Cha-Rei. So she was nervous, and excited, neither of which were really Jedi things to be. So she was also frustrated with herself, which wasn’t very Jedi-ish either. It all kept feeding off of each other, until Cha-Rei cut into her thoughts again. “Relax, Quetzal. We’ll be fine.”
She sighed, turning to him with a smile. “Yeah, Master, I know…”

“Good. Now, let’s find a place to land on that rock, and we’ll go hunting.”


-


It turned out that there were tunnels all over the surface of the planet. Whether from old buildings mostly collapsed, or mines that had weathered almost to being open to the air, it was impossible to tell. “He’s somewhere down there, Master,” Quetzal said, tugging absently on her braid. She tended to do that when she was nervous, or thinking too hard. “There’s a lot of tunnel… and something about this place is making the communicators and scanners fritz out.”

“We should split up though,” Cha-Rei said, glancing around at the rough terrain, pocketed with holes. “He’s somewhere in the vicinity, and I’d like to get him before he leaves. Our link should allow us to stay in contact.”

Quetzal nodded, then turned to look at the maze of tunnels facing them. “Surface or underground, Master?” she asked.

“He’s more likely to be above ground, to get to his ship before we do. You check the lower tunnels, I’ll try to head him off up here.” He was trying to keep her safe again, he always did. Even after all her time spent as a Jedi apprentice, it was a novel sensation to her, so she just let him do it. It felt nice to be cared for.

“Yes, Master,” she said, smiling, and turned towards a dark, downward sloping tunnel. Being raised as a thief meant she had exceptional night vision for a human, and wasn’t at all bothered by dark, narrow spaces.

Her nose picked up nothing except for dust and stone, her ears soon couldn’t hear anything except her own breathing and heart. Cha-Rei’s footsteps faded away almost instantly, although their Force-bond was reassuringly present in the back of her mind. There was a little light coming in through broken walls, or small tunnels to the surface probably designed for that purpose. It was more distracting than helpful, of course, so she relied more on her other senses.

It wasn’t for several minutes that she realized one of her senses wasn’t operating at all. She felt nothing from the Force. Absolutely nothing. In a panic, she reached for her bond, found it disturbingly numb. It was still there, but she could feel nothing from her Master, could send nothing to him. Stopping dead, she turned around and headed back out of the tunnels as quickly as she could. There was only one thing that could block a Jedi’s Force sensitivity, and that was a Sith. A powerful one. Which meant someone had messed up badly gathering intelligence.

Suddenly, she stopped again, whirling around. Quetzal had absolutely no idea where she was. And Jedi didn’t get lost, not even apprentices. She had the presence of mind not to actually call out for her Master, but she screamed along their link, hoping some tremor would reach him, cause him to come seek her out. Clamping down on her panic with determination, she took a deep breath, and turned to go back out of the cavern she’d just entered.
And walked right into someone. For a brief, ecstatic moment, she though it was Cha-Rei, and she looked up into his face. Amused fiery red eyes glinted out of the darkness. Quetzal shrank away, horrified, her body remembering what to do, even if her mind was paralyzed. Her saber was in her hand, the familiar, reassuring hum of the blue blade thawing her surge of fear.

“Well, well. A little Jedi apprentice, all on her own,” His voice was deep, oddly melodic, a voice Quetzal would probably have enjoyed listening to, if it wasn’t so mocking. “Shouldn’t you be up there with your Master?”

“I can take care of myself, Sith,” Quetzal said calmly. She kept her apprehension firmly buried under years of training, holding her saber steady before her. Her Force sense was still disturbingly quiet, her link equally so.

“Oh, look at you, all ready to fight,” he said, that maddening mocking tone still there. “You can’t honestly think you could defeat me?”

“What? You scared?” Quetzal said, her voice sounding remarkably clear and brave.

“Scared? Of a little thing like you?” he snorted derisively, the blood-red blade of a Sith flashing into existence. “Not likely.” It illuminated his face, more or less human, sharp cheekbones and jaw, a straight nose and dark hair. He’d probably be handsome, if he weren’t trying to kill her, if the Dark Side hadn’t hollowed his cheeks, sunken his eyes into the deep dark holes they gleamed out of.
Quetzal kept her mouth shut, knowing that he was just taunting her, trying to get her into a rage, to undermine her training. She worked her way slowly around the perimeter of the cave, hoping to draw him away from the entrance, so she could take off. Regardless of her proud words, she knew perfectly well it would take both her and her Master together to defeat him.

He obviously knew exactly what she was trying. And just as obviously, didn’t care as he rushed forward, his black robes a blur in the darkness, his saber flashing forward towards her at incredible speed. She brought her own up to catch it, knocking his thrust up to the side, her saber flashing down at his side.

With an irritatingly relaxed air, he parried her, flicking her saber up, his own flashing forward. Quetzal caught it, somehow, backing up and to the side, not wanting to get caught up against a wall. He was blindingly fast, and Quetzal was flatly astonished she was able to keep up with him.
There was suddenly an emptiness behind her, and Quetzal skipped backwards, hoping it was the entrance she’d come through. She didn’t realize until too late that there was rock on either side of her, and then she was stuck, pinned into a shallow crevasse.

She managed to keep him off for three more blows, and then his saber slid down the length of hers, burning into the housing, shorting the blade out. Hurriedly, she dropped it, yanking her hand back before he sliced it off.

Quetzal reached for the Force, and discovered to her despair that he was still blocking her. She looked up at him, his thin, darkly handsome face looking down at her, gloating. “What do you want?” she whispered. “Why won’t you just leave me alone?”

“Well, that’s hardly a fair question,” he said, smirking slightly. “Considering that you came here to find me, then kill me.”

“I...” Quetzal started to say, not knowing what she could actually say to that.

He lunged forward then, cutting her off anyway. His hands snatched her uselessly raised arms, wrenching them up above her head. “Well… now you’ve found me,” he whispered, his voice somehow hoarser this close to her. “You’ll have to deal with me.”

She jerked her head to the side, evading the rough kiss he tried to force on her, and let out a yelp when his teeth sank into her ear instead. His tongue slid up along the delicate curve, making her shudder. He released her ear, moving down to her neck, biting cruelly at her skin, leaving angry red patches in his wake.

“Master!” Quetzal shrieked, panic and revulsion overriding her training. The basic instinct to call for help was overwhelming, until he muffled her cries with a rough kiss.

His mouth was hard against hers, his tongue shoved into her mouth, almost making her gag. She tried to bite, and was infuriated to see he’d simply locked her jaw open with a touch of the Force, and without any access to it herself, she was helpless to fight even that much.

“Now, now,” he said, pulling back. “It’ll do you no good to call out, he’s chasing a decoy I set, he’s several kilometers off by now.”

With a sinking sensation, she knew he was telling the truth. “Were you planning for this from the beginning?” she asked, unable to keep the tremor out of her voice. “Or just lucky?”

“I knew the Council would send someone after me,” he said, one hand still clasping her wrists tightly above her head, his other starting to roam slowly over her body. “And I knew they’d send two. Although… I only expected to separate and kill you, not this lovely little bonus.”

“Get off of me,” she growled, shaking her body violently, trying to shed his hand. It left her side, only to be brought back in a harsh slap across her face.

Quetzal gasped, her head snapping to the side. Her eye felt like it might explode from the blow, her cheekbone stinging furiously. His hand was abruptly moving over her body again, making her skin prickle unpleasantly, even through her robes. She held her peace until he yanked her belt open, and then kicked out at him as hard as she could.

The angle was wrong for any real damage, or even a hit on what she most wanted to injure, but it made him grunt slightly, and stumble back as her foot connected solidly just below his knee. She immediately came at him, swinging both hands at his head, clubbing him to the ground, and took off.
She got about ten steps before she felt herself lifted and yanked roughly back with the Force, colliding with the far wall in a hit that knocked the breath from her lungs. “That was very stupid,” his silky, confident voice came from across the room, coming closer. “Because that hurt just enough to really piss me off, Jedi.”

His hand fisted in her shortish hair, pulling her upright off of the ground where she’d slumped at the foot of the wall. Quetzal determinedly bit back a yelp, and glared up at him, anger warring with fear in her eyes. He smiled nastily, and shoved her back against a fallen boulder a foot shorter than she was. Grabbing each limb in turn, he pulled it back to the stone, a touch of the Force locking her down as securely as manacles.

Quetzal, unlike most Jedi Padawans, knew exactly what he was planning. And she privately decided it was worse knowing what was coming than being confused and ignorant. His hands, long, thin, so strong, pulled at her robes, tearing the fabric, baring her to him. She flinched slightly as the tearing pulled the seams into her skin, then shivered as the cool air blew softly over her bare body.

He ran a hand over her chest, cruelly pinching a dark nipple that had gone erect from the cold. Quetzal gasped, trying to pull away, and stopped moving when he just squeezed harder. He chuckled lowly at her reactions to him, doing the same to her other side. She bit back a whimper, teeth clenched on her lower lip, trembling.

The Sith pulled up, stretching her small breasts to a painful point, then letting the tender skin slide through his fingers. Quetzal gasped, shivering, her nipples burning, slightly reddened under their dusky coloring. Just as she thought she was recovering, he bent down swiftly, his teeth seizing on one of them. She let out a pained yelp, pulling at her bonds, but they remained as strong as ever.

Without a bit of warning, his hand was down between her legs, rubbing harshly, sensitive skin making her scream in protest. “Stop that!”

“No!” he growled, biting down on her breast, hard enough to puncture her skin a little. She cried out, jerking her body, trying to pull away and stopped short by her bonds. His finger, rough from fighting and working and whatever else a Sith does, ground on her clit, making her back arch, a mix of pain and pleasure she hated herself for feeling running up her body.

He grinned, his teeth flashing in the semi-darkness, noticing the difference. “You liked that, didn’t you?” Her eyes went wide and she shook her head, making him chuckle. “Not that it matters to me… I just like making you break your precious Code.”

“I’m better than you, you won’t break me that easily!” Quetzal protested, trying to pull away from him, unable to move more than a few centimeters.

“I have all the time in the world,” he said, a terrible smile crossing his face. “And many, many ideas to try on you.”

Quetzal tried to fight down a shudder. “Then why bother telling me? Why not just do it?”

“Because this scares you,” he whispered in her ear, his hand sliding over her breast. “It scares you, and fear is one of those pesky things you aren’t supposed to feel.”

She turned her head sharply to the side, snapping at him, her teeth sinking into his cheek. He gave an infuriated howl, tearing away from her teeth. Quetzal glared up at him, the fury in her eyes matching his. Despite the blood tricking from her bite, he laughed lowly. “I can feel your anger, Jedi… what a powerful Sith you’d make…”

“Never,” Quetzal hissed, the taste of blood strong in her mouth, making her feel slightly sick. He was back on her in an instant, his tongue forcing its way into her mouth, seeming to seek out every drop of blood on her teeth. She shuddered, disgusted that he actually liked the taste, disgusted at his hands roaming freely over her body, disgusted at being unable to do a thing to fight him off.

She reached out for her Master again, knowing he was too far to do a thing to stop him, even if he could sense her. Encountering nothing but silence, she let out a light whimper, a tiny part of her giving up, losing hope. Only a tiny part of her had been hoping for rescue in the first place, of course.

The Sith could feel her body go slightly limp, and smiled to himself, undoing his robes smoothly, his already hard cock pushing out of the folds. Quetzal realized what the sudden absence of his hand meant, and gasped, renewing her struggle against him. “Oh, is the little Jedi scared?” he said, running a long finger along the bottom of his length, grinning as it sent faint shivers of pleasure through him. Oh, he was going to enjoy this.

Quetzal glared up at him, knowing the fear that was in her eyes, but not wanting to hide her gaze like a frightened child. She knew it would be pointless to say she wasn’t scared, so she held her tongue, just wishing inside her that he’d drop dead suddenly of natural causes and leave her in peace.

He chuckled, reading her transparent thoughts in her eyes, hearing them on the tips of the Force. “Now, that’s hardly nice of you,” he admonished. “Hasn’t anyone taught you it’s rude to think thoughts of death at people? And here, I was going to see that you enjoyed this a little…”

“Like you care how I feel,” Quetzal growled.

He actually seemed to ponder that statement for a second. “You know something? You’re right, I don’t.” He pressed his leaking tip to her entrance and shoved inside her, groaning softly with pleasure at her tight entrance, and her scream of pain. He raised an eyebrow in surprise, looking down at her pained face. “Well, well. Not a virgin after all?” he mocked.

“None of your business…” Quetzal gasped, ignoring the invalidity of that statement.

“Now… where would a good little apprentice like you find the chance to fool around?” he mused, starting to move back and forth, her tight pussy pulling deliciously at him. “That Master of yours maybe taking full advantage of having you obey his every whim?”

Quetzal actually found the strength of will to spit on him, glaring. “Master Cha-Rei would never do such a thing!”

He rubbed his wet cheek with disgust, slapping her casually. “I wouldn’t advise doing that again,” he said calmly as her head jerked to the side, wincing from his blow. “And anyway, how do you know?”

“Be… because he’s a Jedi!” Quetzal gasped, her eye tearing up slightly from the slap. “It’s against the code!”

“Hasn’t stopped you,” he said, thrusting particularly hard into her to punctuate the remark. She squeaked slightly, unable to completely muffle her protests. He closed his eyes as he pounded into her, his hips hitting the inside of her thighs solidly. She’d be bruised by the time he was done, and he was glad. Since he was deprived of breaking her barrier, he was going to leave every mark on her he could.

Quetzal shuddered, her mind trying desperately to withdraw into itself, horrified by what was happening. Sensations she’d almost forgotten, hoped to never feel again, were overwhelming her, breaking down years of careful training and walls built. She was remembering things she’d forced herself to forget, things that she and her Masters had wiped from her memory…

He actually paused for a moment, feeling the most intriguing things from deep in her mind. Grinning, and deciding to save it for later, he gripped her mind with his own, numbing her thoughts, so the process of remembering slowed almost to a stop. The increased contact with her mind, feeling her pain and horror, sent him over the edge, and he shot off inside her, pulling out and finishing his load all over her chest.

Quetzal shivered as she felt the hot, stickiness coat her skin, spattering onto her face. Bad enough to be raped by a Sith, but this was just so… humiliating. She gasped, the sound suspiciously akin to a sob, and bit her lip hard to hold in any more similar noises.

Looking down at her, he felt a desire to keep going, to completely destroy her from the inside out, but felt a disturbance on the fringes of his awareness. The Master, Cha-Rei, as she’d so nicely told him, was returning, and returning fast. Apparently, he’d let his instincts override what his training told him, and abandoned the hunt in favor of coming back for his Padawan.

He dropped his outer robe to the ground, after glancing to see that the tatters of her robes would be no use to her. Whether she swallowed her pride and wore it, or lived with the shame of appearing so battered and naked before her Master was her choice. He melted into the shadows, his very effective force-shielding making him completely invisible in the dark.

Quetzal slid limply to the ground when the bonds abruptly released her. She shivered, his semen drying and chilling her skin. She looked around, her mind feeling oddly hazy, which she figured was probably a blessing. Her own robes were sitting in a pile, but when she reached out to them, they were too shredded and burnt to resemble anything more than a pile of rags.

Just beyond them was a dark pile of cloth, and she reached out to it. The surprising softness under her fingers overrode her reservations, and she drew it on, the still-warm fabric settling comfortably over her shoulders and back, barely rubbing the harsh scrapes on her back from the rock. Quetzal got to her knees, then pushed unsteadily to her feet, pulling the robe around herself, tying it with her own belt.

Just as she finished, Cha-Rei tore into the room, saber in hand. “Quetzal! What happened?” he asked, barely glancing at her, too busy scanning the room for the enemies he knew must be there.

“Master…” Quetzal said in a broken, quavering voice that sounded nothing like herself. She coughed slightly, trying again. “Master, we have to go…”

“Why?” he asked, backing towards the door as she followed. “What’s going on?”

“The Sith’s in here,” she said, hating the note of vulnerability in her voice. She sounded so weak… “He’s strong, Master, he’s so strong…”

“Quetzal, what did he do to you?” Their link was slowly unblocking, and her distress was becoming more and more apparent to her. “Quetzal?”
“Not here,” she whispered, stumbling slightly as she backed up. “Please, let’s just leave, please, Master…”
He looked down at her, really seeing her face, the fear and numbness, and his heart sank. “Alright, let’s go,” he said, turning off his saber, and pushing her ahead of him, picking up his pace.

Quetzal didn’t question why he suddenly agreed, just gratefully sped towards their ship, as quickly as her aching body would let her.

Cha-Rei followed behind her, worried. The only reason the Council had let him have this assignment was because there was no risk of her being exposed to a full Sith. It had taken the Masters years to fully train her mind to the Light side. It was why they never took older children. The Dark powers came naturally, especially to an abused child living in a violent world. If that Sith had destroyed even one of the barriers the Jedi had erected over her memories of the Dark side, then all would be lost.

Quetzal was oblivious, the Sith’s lessening hold on her mind still numbing her senses, slowing her thoughts. Relief flooded her as they came up out of the tunnels, the ship just a few hundred yards from the entrance.

Cha-Rei breathed his own sigh of relief as they entered the ship and he closed the airlock behind him. They were almost off of the planet now, and if she hadn’t snapped now, she wouldn’t, once they were away from that Sith. He looked down at her, his hands on her shoulders. “Quetzal, I need you to look at me.”

She looked up at him, her gaze still slightly unfocused, like she was looking at something not quite there. “What is it, Master?” she asked, confused. So confused… why wouldn’t anything make sense?

“Quetzal, what did he say to you? What did he do?” he asked, his voice calm.

“He… he did…” Quetzal shuddered, rubbing at her face, trying to erase the remembered spatters of his cum. “Oh, Master…” she sobbed, falling against him, her fingers working into his robes. His familiar scent mingled with the one from the robe she was wearing, making her mind more mixed than ever.

“Shh, it’s alright now,” Cha-Rei said soothingly, his arms going around her, holding her close. Sorrow and fear were not usually emotions the Jedi sanctioned, but in this case, it was better than the alternative. “He won’t hurt you anymore, you’re with me now.”

“Master…” Quetzal said after a moment. “The Sith… he said… he said that you must have done it to me too.”

“What?” he asked, laying his cheek on the top of her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

It was so comforting just to stay there, so… familiar. Familiar… She went stiff in his arms. “Let go of me.”

“Quetzal?”

“Let go of me!” she said, her voice panicked. “Get off of me! Don’t touch me!”

Cha-Rei loosened his grip in bewilderment as she wormed loose from his embrace. “What’s wrong?”

Quetzal just looked at him, horror and hurt in her eyes. “He was right. You… you did this to me!” Her mind was screaming that something was wrong, horribly wrong with this. And another part of her said that yes, her own Master violating her was horribly wrong, and her head hurt so much, so much was so wrong…

“Quetzal,” he said, his voice going hard. “I’m sensing the Dark side in you, stop now, please…”

“Stop now? After all… after what’s… After what has been done to me?” Quetzal shrieked, the fog in her mind lifting as the rage swept over her. The mental shifts that the Sith had halted flew back into play, the barriers placed painstakingly in her mind crumbling. She reached out, with her hand, with the Force, and picked him up.

Cha-Rei almost yelped with surprise, the only thing halting him was the fact she’d picked him up by his neck. He tried to push back on her use of the Force, and was startled to discover he couldn’t make her waver an inch. It had been so long since she’d shown any inclination of using the Dark side, he’d forgotten how strong she was with it… Hating himself for having to do it, he reached for his saber instead, hurtling it at her, an arc of deadly green light.

To his utter horror, she deflected it with a flare of deepest blue light, the trademark of a Sith. All the barriers they’d erected so carefully in her mind were apparently falling apart, giving her access the powers they’d ensured she forgot. He barely remembered to catch his saber, and she dropped him to the ground.

“Defend yourself, Master,” Quetzal snarled, advancing on him. Normally, an apprentice, unarmed, going up against her Master would be suicide, but… Quetzal’s hands filled with crackling blue light, her dark eyes already lightening to a fiery gold. Knowing he had no choice left in the matter, and very little chance if he didn’t act quickly, he forced himself to forget it was his own Padawan, and charged the Sith in front of him.

She sent a bolt of energy into his shoulder, sending him careening off balance, his slash missing her by at least a foot. An enhanced kick at his side sent him flying into the bulkhead, and he nearly dropped his saber, scrambling away from her.

Quetzal followed him down the narrow hall, another bolt arcing from her hands, striking him squarely in the back. He fell forward, the saber clattering ahead. Without missing a beat, she called it back to her, the hilt fitting smoothly into her hand.
Cha-Rei turned over on his back, knowing he was dead. “I’m sorry I failed you, Quetzal,” he whispered, making himself look at her as the saber flashed down, unheeding of his words.

Outside the ship, the Sith smiled at a job well done. Two Jedi gone, one Sith gained, and she was all his. Because now, with a broken Force bond, her mind thinking itself betrayed by the one she trusted most, she would welcome him with open arms. Cycling the lock open, he stepped inside, to see her shivering, her Master’s body in front of her, his saber lying forgotten on the floor. She turned to face him, her deep gold eyes searching his, begging him for something, for anything.

He reached out a hand, smiling inwardly at the numb, helpless way she stumbled toward him, a little lost girl looking for comfort. All his.