[Short Fic] Silence and Darkness

[Torthane]

Dear reader,

 

This short fic started as an exercise in writing combat scenes and turned into something more. The writing style is a little unorthidox so don't worry if you are a little confused at the begining, the back story will fall in place (mostly). Please note that this is a pretty mature peice and has a good deal of violence and one curse word it also deals with very mature themes. Consider yourself warned and moderators please tell me if it is too strong. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and I would love to hear any comments, questions, or criticism please post them. Thanks!

 

Silence and Darkness

 

Miana's slender fingers closed more tightly around the cold handle of the disruptor pistol as she leveled the weapon with the approaching man's silver eyes, “Don't come nearer. There is no feeling between us; I'll kill you right where you stand,” she uttered trying to keep her voice from cracking with fear.

 

Rin continued to slowly walk across the dimly lit warehouse, his black fighting boots drifting across the floor without disturbing any of the thousands upon thousands of scattered holo-disks that were strewn over the permacrete floor and heaped in large containers that lined the walls and were seen hanging by cords from the lofty ceiling. There was a grace in his every movement, Miana had been drawn to it when she had first seen him so many months ago.

 

She took another step back, nearly falling as her bare foot came down on a pile of holo-disks. Rin continued towards her and she closed her eyes. Lightsaber.... Her eyelids parted slowly and she saw that Rin had dropped his cloak and was still advancing with that alluring, lethal grace that frightened her more than the murder in his eyes. Don't pull the trigger. Her finger curved around the disruptor's trigger and slowly tightened as the distance between her and Rin shrank. Lightsaber.... She released the pressure and her green eyes drifted shut again.

 

She saw the room in her mind; long, dark, with high ceiling that was somehow wider than the floor below it. Doors? Exits? Only one, behind Rin, and one large window, in the wall behind her and covered with a force field. Weapons? The pistol she clutched in her sweating hand, the force, and the countless holo-disks.

 

“You could have come with me.” Miana did not open her eyes, but she could see that Rin had stopped twenty paces away from her. He continued to speak and the calmness of his voice soothed her like it always had, “You could have left this rotting moon and seen the beauty of the stars, gazed upon the tranquility of the Dantooine seas, felt the warm winds of the Andora moons kissing our faces, we could have walked the winding streets of Theed, hand in hand. Everywhere we would go we would ease suffering and avenge the wronged. You were the only one who could have been my companion, my love. You were compassionate without being zealous, self confident without being proud, a gentle heart with a wise mind. You were snow with no coldness, a rose with no thorns. I loved you and together we were to be, Saja-Ithran, the white jedi.”

 

A tear tried to leave to make its mournful journey down her face, but she stopped it and held back all of it's brethren. Rin wouldn't see her weep; they could still be the white jedi, but it was he not she who would not have it.

 

Try as she might she could not hide the anguish in her voice and her words came out in a sob, “I was raped.”

 

“You were willing,” came back the reply that cut deeper than any saber thrust could reach.

 

There was a moment where she thought that her soul would die. Rin would see her body still, but Miana would no longer be there. She fell to her knees and the pistol in her hand fell to the floor with a clatter of harsh noise from the disks it landed on. Her opened eyes swam in a flood of salty tears that burned her and begged to go free. No, Rin will not see me cry.

 

“How can a jedi be raped? You would have seen him coming, and even if you hadn't, no common man could have overcome you. But if excuses could be found for all of these, I know that you were wiling, because I saw your mind.”

 

Her mind had been willing, but her heart had screamed with every foul touch. It was then that she knew that Rin was going to kill her for her impurity and with the deathblow two souls would pass away but only one body would go with them. The dream of the white jedi would be lost forever. She reached out for the disruptor.

 

Rin stood like a statue with only his lips moving, carefully forming each word as if it were a bullet to be sped on it's way to Miana's heart, “Strange also that he would leave you such a powerful weapon if he had ravaged you only moments before. And most curious how you fled from me, rather than running to my arms with tears of pain streaming form your beautiful face, the face of a virgin no more. So now you find yourself here, afraid, guilty, hardly clothed, disgraced in every possible way, and all alone but for me. Who will you turn the weapon against?”

 

Miana grasped the handle of the pistol once more and rose to her feet. As she put the tip of the barrel against her temple she brushed back a strand of her long brown hair and thought of her little sister trying to braid it with her chubby little hands. She saw her family standing around her grave with their faces turned down. Her brothers striving to be like men and keeping their sorrow inside so that it only came out in the depths of their eyes and the way they let their shoulders, normally held high with the vigor of youth, to droop. She saw her mother, dressed all in black staring at the ground that covered what was left of her daughter's mutilated body; not knowing how she had died besides that her body had been found in a lonely warehouse somewhere on Nar Shaddaa with most of her head gone and her stiff fingers still closed around the handle of an illegal disruptor pistol. She saw her baby sister again, clinging to her mothers leg sucking her little thumb and not knowing why everyone was acting so strange. Miana saw her father lying in the ground next to her, once a general, now a corpse, he would no longer be proud of his daughter if he knew why she had died.

 

“BASTARD!” Miana screamed pointing the pistol at Rin and pulling the trigger in one rapid movement. The disruptor kicked violently in her hand and a white hot bolt of energy jumped from the muzzle with a roar that echoed off the walls of the warehouse.

 

All in the same instant the bolt shot back off Rin's drawn lightsaber and Miana dropped to the floor to avoid the lethal energy as it ripped overhead tearing into a container behind her and unleashing a cascade of holo-disks that poured out of the steaming hole.

 

She was back on her bare feet in a fraction of a second and in a rush of speed Miana shot for the cover of a cargo crate as a cloud of disks hurtled through the air propelled by Rin's mastery of the force. For all her speed the holo-disks would rip into her before she could reach the safety of the container. Without thinking she slid down on her side and used the force to push against a nearby pillar. The push rocketed her along the ground and she reached the safety of the crate just as the hail of data storage devices hurtled past, driving into the wall beyond with stunning force.

 

A quick kick off the side of the cargo container and Miana was soaring through the air headed for one of the containers hanging from the ceiling. If she could continue towards the exit like this, no one would have to die. She could run away, hide, until Rin had calmed himself, or if he would not forgive her she could run further. She could see her family again. As these thoughts were going through her head she had fired three more shots from her pistol and the thick chains holding up one of the hanging containers disintegrated into drops of molten metal. The container plummeted to the ground and as Rin swiftly stepped out from under its shadow the multi-ton bin of disks hit.

 

Miana landed on her own hanging container and watched as the fallen crate broke into pieces from the impact and the holo-disks it held flew every which way in a razor sharp maelstrom of noise and light. When it was over, she expected, hoped to see Rin dead on the floor, but he was standing there eyes closed tight with his left hand raised above his head it's fingers still spread wide; He had made a barrier of the force and it had saved him. A trickle of blood flowed from his right nostril; it had weakened him too.

 

Lightsaber! Miana narrowly dodged the twirling white blade as it hummed past her. She reached out and drew the spinning weapon towards her, but Rin was the stronger of the two and he ripped it from her control. The saber returned to its owner and suddenly he was gone.

 

This was no jedi mind deception, no such trickery would have worked on her. Rather Rin had moved so quickly that Miana had lost track of the blur of motion that was his body. She closed her eyes and called on the force to strip away the curtain of weak human perception. Behind! Behind!

 

Her container lurched and she whipped around to see Rin's saber halfway to her neck. Another narrow miss that knocked the pistol from her hand and she was hanging from one of the thick support cables. With a quick twist of her body she struck her opponent in the back of the head with her heel, nearly knocking him to a twenty-foot drop off the wildly pitching crate. But Rin didn't fall, he tried to rise but the holo-disks slipped under his feet and Miana's slammed down on top of him before he could rise.

 

Before he could attack her with it Miana pinned his lightsaber and the hand holding it against his chest. Her knee was digging into his gut and his left arm was pinned under his own six-foot-two body. Miana's left hand was free though, and it had closed around his throat, the fingers clenched so hard that her whole arm shook and her fingernails drew blood. Her face was beautiful no more, so twisted with rage that it could not be recognized as her own.

 

Rin's eyelids were drifting shut when suddenly his pinned left arm came free and shot up between Miana's parted legs. Before she could react she was pitched over the edge of the container headfirst. The fall ended with her thigh striking against the metal rim of a container squatting on the floor. The blow shattered her bone but slowed her fall enough that her head smashed against the ground without breaking.

 

Her scream blocked out all other sound and her jaws opened wider than they ever had to make more room for her agony to escape. Most would have submitted to the pain and begged for death, but something drove her now that would not die. Three more ear shattering cries of undefinable torment and she had rolled onto her back. Out of the corner of her vision she saw Rin pulling himself up on the swaying cargo bin, but her eyes were fixed on the only light fixture in the building.

 

As she stared at it the light flickered and then went out in a shower of sparks. Force sight was a rare gift and one that Rin had never received; the utter darkness would hide her from him. She could see him by the glow of his lightsaber as he gently dropped from the hanging container. A few more short seconds and he would be standing where she lay.

 

Rin did not move towards her though, he turned and walked back to the exit where he sat down and closed his eyes. He was going to heal his wounds and recover his strength. Miana pulled herself across the floor deeper into the room. Every inch was a mile of suffering and she could not hold back another scream. She stopped moving and stretched her body out on the cold holo-disks; she could not do this, there had to be another way.

 

Her arm reached out in the blackness and she was pulled up to the furthest hanging bin from the door. As she lay quiet on the crate she ran her hand down her broken thigh. Her fingers seemed to caress each jagged fragment of shattered bone and she gave them names and begged them to go back to their homes.

 

Perhaps an hour passed, perhaps it was only a few minutes but Miana could stand again and her sapped strength had returned. She knew that Rin had his as well. She knew because she could see him through the dark, his relaxed body, his tense eyes, and the deactivated lightsaber held loosely in his hand. She could see him but he could not see her.

 

“You won't find me Rin,” she called out.

 

“You are wrong.” Miana watched in horror as he turned and lifted up one of the huge bins of disks and dropped it in front of the exit. She could never move such a heavy object with the force as he had, and she realized that there was only one way out of this room now. She would kill him, or he would kill her. That was all that remained, and this realization brought her a strength and determination that she had not know before.

 

She let herself down from her perch and crept slowly towards Rin noting the disruptor lying on the ground several paces away. She drew the weapon into her hand once again and lined the sights up with Rin's chest. There was a flash of white that lit the entire room and the familiar roar of the disruptor's discharge. Once again the lightsaber flashed out and once more the bolt sped back, but this time the shot did not even come near it's firer.

 

Miana broke into a sprint across the room as she fired three more rounds, two at his head and one at his feet. The blasts were deflected as before but the shot at Rin's feet almost reached him before his saber flicked it back. She smiled and fired another burst, but Rin understood that he could not win this fight by passive defense. He charged forward blindly with a stream of white electricity shooting from his hand. The current licked out at the holo-disks carpeting the floor and they started to melt, glowing white hot as they burned. Rin saw Miana in the glow form the burning disks and pounced.

 

Rin's saber carved into the wall as Miana leapt to the side. Rin pulled it out and directed another slash at Miana's legs. One step ahead of him she kicked off of the wall, the saber cut nothing but air again, and Miana was out of the ring of light. Rin put his back to the wall and held his humming weapon out in front of himself. There was a terrible rush of air and he was pinned flat against the wall.

 

Miana was walking towards him both hands stretched out, holding him against the rough permacrete. She was so close that she could see her reflection in his pupils and he still could not break free from her hold. She reached for the trigger, and it was this small break of concentration that allowed Rin to break free.

 

The lightsaber lashed out and clove the disruptor pistol in two, taking three of Miana's fingers with it. Instead of a cry of pain she shrieked with rage and she kicked at Rin's saber hand before he could follow through with another swing. His hand was crushed between the wall and the force of Miana's attack, and the lightsaber slipped from his useless, mangled fingers.

 

Miana tried to step back but Rin's good hand clutched her torn undertunic and snatched her back to him. She was held in an embrace by his powerful arms with only one purpose, to crush her small body. She hit her fists against his back to no avail as he held her tighter and tighter. First her collar bone broke and then one by one her ribs began to snap. A warm liquid was flowing out of her mouth and she could only assume that it was her blood.

 

Another rib snapped and she called on the force one last time. Another rib and she was gripping a holo-disk in her hand. Another agonizing crunch and she had broken it in half against the wall. Another rib cracked piercing her lung and Rin stiffened as she forced the disk up under his left shoulder blade. The broken holo-disk drove into the bone of her hand and still she pushed it in further until Rin's arms loosened and he fell against the wall before sliding down to a sitting position leaving a smear of crimson behind.

 

Miana teetered on her feet for a moment before collapsing face down in front of him. All was still for a moment but for the rasping breaths that groaned through Miana's bleeding and crushed chest. Then Rin reached out weakly for her white neck and gently plucked the embedded tip of a small dart from her soft skin. He held it up and looked it over in the light that came from the still activated lightsaber lying beside him.

 

He let out a little chuckle that held no mirth and muttered, “Shesora mind poison.” With a slow careful movement he turned Miana on her back and laid her head in his lap. His voice was barely even a whisper as he looked into her green eyes for the last time, “He did rape you. First your mind and then your body. The dream of a white jedi was real, and I just killed her.”

 

She opened her mouth but could give no reply. Their eyes spoke what their faces could not and as Rin's soul fled his body his hand felt for the pure white lightsaber next to him and switched it off. Then there was only silence and darkness.

 

The End

[The_Catto]

Different. Different, but great. I liked the whole fighting scene, and i overall liked it.

[Diego Varen]

Different. Different, but great. I liked the whole fighting scene, and i overall liked it.

 

Agreed. Very long for a Short Fic too.

[CSI]

It's a short fic? I think it's an intro for a longer fic...

 

But nicely written!

[Torthane]

Thank you all for the feedback! It is technically a short fic (I forgot to put a tag on the title) but I may end up uesing it as an intro if you all think it's good enough. Did it all make sense? I was worried that it might be a little confusing. Anyway I might end up doing something more with it, but I hope you enjoyed it.

[Ambrose]

This is the best FIC I've had the pleasure of reading on this site so far. The emotion is evident, the ending is artful. Word choice is strong and gives the story a clear and persistant tone. I was drawn in from the start, an amazing bit of Star Wars literature.

 

The only thing I could find that needed fixing before this finds rest in the archives is a small grammar oversight. I think you left out a word in the following sentence.

 

“You could have come with me.” Miana did not open her eyes, but she could see that Rin had stopped twenty paces away from <<him?>>.

 

Easily overlooked though, a true masterpiece

[Torthane]

This is the best FIC I've had the pleasure of reading on this site so far. The emotion is evident, the ending is artful. Word choice is strong and gives the story a clear and persistant tone. I was drawn in from the start, an amazing bit of Star Wars literature.

 

The only thing I could find that needed fixing before this finds rest in the archives is a small grammar oversight. I think you left out a word in the following sentence.

 

“You could have come with me.” Miana did not open her eyes, but she could see that Rin had stopped twenty paces away from <<him?>>.

 

Easily overlooked though, a true masterpiece

 

Thanks for pointing out that grammer error my freind, and thank you for your encoragement too! Your comments have breathed new determination into my writers soul and I have a strong desire to continue this story. Thank you!

 

PS: I was honored and overjoyed when I saw that you had nominated this as the best short fic of 2006. Once again I am in your debt.

[JediMaster12]

Very mysterious and yet you can sense betrayal, anger, angst, the emotions that come with love among other things. The battle scene was very descriptive. It had me cringing thinking of bone snapping and the agony it must bring. Well done.

[Torthane]

Very mysterious and yet you can sense betrayal, anger, angst, the emotions that come with love among other things. The battle scene was very descriptive. It had me cringing thinking of bone snapping and the agony it must bring. Well done.

 

Thank you for the comments! It was a sort of writing experiment and I wasn't sure if anyone but me was going to enjoy it, but I'm very happy to hear that you did! Perhaps when I have more free time I will add to this story or illustrate it.

[Bee Hoon]

The ending was so sad... It was a good read though:)

Oh, very minor spelling error.

*And most curious how you fled from me, rather than..."

[Torthane]

The ending was so sad... It was a good read though:)

Oh, very minor spelling error.

*And most curious how you fled from me, rather than..."

 

Thanks for reading it, and thanks also for commenting! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I will be sure to fix that spelling error.