Unknown location: Ship. Part 2.

The atmosphere in the hotel was radically different from what they had seen in the slums. Not only was this place located in the city center, but the representatives of various races here looked quite respectable. There was none of the poverty of the lower district, only wealth and expensive suits worn by the local patrons, often guarded by mercenaries, just like themselves.

Bounty hunters eyed them with curiosity but quickly lost interest upon realizing that they were newcomers. These working-class locals had not made a mistake. After all, both he and she were newcomers to this profession. Nevertheless, Raphael hoped for a bright future where he and his apprentice would become great and respected mercenaries!

However, Sev'rance didn't share his aspirations too eagerly. She had retreated into herself again after the performance her teacher had put on for her. He seemed to constantly keep her on edge, not allowing her soul and heart to recover from those painful memories in every sense. Even the Force Lightning didn't cause her as much pain. The sight of protruding bones from her body, which was already mentally fragile, was much more damaging to the psyche of the follower of the Dark Side.

They approached the check-in counter, where Raphael leaned casually. The girl behind the counter, who had been absorbed in the computer panel, wearily looked up at the pair, giving them a skeptical glance. She met such customers almost every day.

"Please, a room for two," Sev'rance said, casting a suspicious sideways glance at her master.

In general, she wasn't opposed to sharing a room with him. Even if she didn't want it, there was no point in resisting her master's will. Even if he wanted to take her there, she would not resist at all, but that didn't mean she would willingly submit to this madman.

"Your documents, please," the receptionist requested.

"Can we get rooms for top-notch anonymous mercenaries?" Raphael said, sounding somewhat childish. In the past, this would have annoyed Sev'rance, but now she had no strength left to be upset.

"Of course," the not-so-clean-haired administrator replied, "but then the room rate will double."

"No problem, I'll cover it all," he casually waved his hand, "you see, we're top-class mercenaries," the young man boasted without a hint of shame. "So, money finds us."

"I'm very happy for you," she replied with complete indifference. "How will you be paying?"

Raphael extended his hand from under his cloak, then opened it, spilling credits onto the table. They looked completely ordinary, so Sev'rance paid them no particular attention. After all, who hadn't seen credits in their life? Then, suddenly, the teacher extended the same hand towards the visor of her helmet and touched it with his finger. Sev'rance didn't even think to resist, and when he made contact with her, the credits in her vision turned into mere scrap metal, which surprised her greatly.

At first, she didn't understand anything, but then it finally dawned on her what her teacher had just done. He had just used one of the most complex Force techniques. She had read about Force Illusion in the archives of Dooku, and this was the first time she had witnessed it in person. Even Dooku couldn't boast of having such a sophisticated technique in his arsenal. Sith preferred destructive abilities granted by the Force, which is why he had primarily taught her how to kill rather than manipulate someone's mind.

The administrator accepted the payment without any issues, discreetly stashing the ordinary scrap away, out of her curious eyesight. She handed them a key card to their room, which Raphael quickly took. He waved goodbye, as if nothing had happened, and confidently headed towards the elevator. Tann followed him obediently. He pressed the call button, and when the doors slid open, Sev'rance took the first step into the cold, metallic corridor.

She walked ahead, flipping through a tablet displaying some information. The image on it distorted in strange glitches, but she kept staring at the screen, even recognizing something from it. However, she couldn't quite grasp what it was. The information seemed to be flowing into her subconscious mind on its own, so she understood it on an intuitive level.

Her helmet no longer concealed her unique beauty, but the black cloak still hid her figure, and her high-heeled footwear echoed like a military march. From her homeworld, Tann was used to walking like a soldier. She shifted her gaze to the second dark figure, who was berating strangers nearby. As she passed by, the beauty tried to peer beneath his hood, but all she saw was the darkest darkness, which didn't surprise her for some reason.

She approached the door, which immediately slid open in front of her. With a routine motion, she entered her private quarters, approached the table, and then headed to the bathroom, where she washed her face. The water didn't seem to refresh her at all, and she didn't even feel the touch of the rejuvenating moisture. It was as if she had washed her face with plain air.

However, in the mirror, a blue-skinned girl with a wet face stared back at her. Water droplets ran down the pretty feminine face to her chin, where they dripped back into the sink. A sense of déjà vu scratched at the edges of her consciousness. There was an obsessive idea to break the mirror because that's how it had been the last time... The last time?

The girl shook her head, dispelling unwanted thoughts. She had work to do right now. She wiped her face with a towel and then returned to the table, where the white helmet with violet lenses, a blurry holographic photograph, and a lightsaber lay. However, the tablet was nowhere to be seen.

She sat there, simply examining these objects. Her heart started beating faster. A sense of unease gripped her shoulders. Some memories were lost in her mind. The events that had become memories were stored somewhere in her subconscious, just like the information on the tablet. But retrieving something from the subconscious was quite difficult. Fortunately, the girl was skilled in meditation, but... she shouldn't meditate right now. But what should she do? After all, why had she come here in the first place?

Suddenly, a loud knock echoed through the room, snapping Sev'rance out of her deep thoughts. She quickly approached the panel and pressed the appropriate button, opening the door for the visitor. In the corridor stood a foggy humanoid creature, as if gray mist concealed the one within. At that moment, her subconscious gave her a hint. It was as if she magically identified the guest - before her stood her teacher.

"Are you coming?" he asked, looking at her from behind. "Did you forget something?"

Right! She had forgotten something! With these thoughts, Tann hurried back to the table and took the lightsaber from there, which ignited in her hand with a bright yellow laser. Her beautiful face contorted into an animalistic roar, and then she swiftly attacked her teacher, dispelling the fog that enveloped him. Hassan, in his dark, enveloping cloak and menacing cracked mirror mask, stepped aside, allowing Sev'rance to pass by.

The apprentice landed effortlessly in the corridor and was about to attack him again, but her body was paralyzed by an invisible force that lifted her off the ground. Hassan extended his hands in front of him, then twisted one wrist forward and the other backward. The grip of the Force pressed on her thighs and chest, then twisted them in different directions. Her legs twisted to the left, while her torso turned to the right, accompanied by the horrifying sounds of breaking bones and ligaments.

He continued to twist both parts of her body in opposite directions, as if trying to unscrew them from each other. Sev'rance felt no pain, but she was literally numb with the horror of what Hassan was doing to her. She felt her body breaking under the strain of the Force, but there was no sense of agony—only a bone-chilling fear and helplessness. Tears streamed down her pitiful, terrified face.

Suddenly, the teacher began to slowly pull his hand back. Something stirred in the girl's stomach, and then her own innards began to protrude from her mouth with muffled, guttural sounds. Hassan was slowly extracting long intestines from her abdomen, which were many times longer than her height. It turned out that she hadn't felt horror before this, as seeing her own intestines literally made her understand the true nature of this all-consuming sensation.

Her eyes bulged out of their sockets as Hassan continued to remove unwanted things from the girl's body. Her thoughts didn't just get confused; they simply disappeared because at this moment, the girl's psyche was utterly shattered. She was no longer Sev'rance Tann, once a feared acolyte by all Jedi. Now, the Sith tormented a broken puppet who had forgotten her identity, her lips running with saliva and blood.

Memories and ambitions were erased with every movement of her insides from her wide open mouth. Her body twitched in the air under the spasms. From the side, she looked like a fish thrown ashore. Hassan swung his hand through the air in one fell swoop and pulled all the intestines and other guts out of the student's stomach. Then he clenched his fist, rolled the organs into a shapeless ball of slime, and threw it to the ground. A doll with a glassy, expressionless gaze went with it.

"You haven't learned anything," he said to her before turning around and walking back down the corridor.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Sev'rance jerked awake. Her open eyes saw the dark wall in front of her clearly as her body lay on a comfortable bed. She didn't move. She didn't breathe. She didn't even think. Only her heart was racing at a frantic pace from the overwhelming residual horror she had experienced. Another nightmare had sapped her mental strength and cut through her still-open wounds like a knife.

"Everything's fine," her eyes quickly shifted when she heard His voice.

She timidly looked up with wide eyes at the figure of Hassan in the guise of a mercenary looming over her, still lying on her side. Fear kept her frozen in place. Even if her life depended on it, she wouldn't be able to move right now—she was that afraid of Him.

"Hey there," he slowly sat on her bed, "Did you sleep badly?" Of course, she didn't respond. "I used to have nightmares when I was a kid, and my mom would take my hand and wait for me to fall asleep. You know, it really helped because I stopped having nightmares," he gently placed her sweaty palm in his. "Let's try that too. Close your eyes and try to sleep."

Sev'rance continued to timidly stare at him for a while, then shifted her gaze to the wall and closed her eyelids. Rafael sat by her side for a long time until she finally fell asleep. He scanned the dark hotel room with his gaze, and then his free hand covered his helmet. In the quiet room, he whispered softly:

"Is it necessary to do this? I feel so sorry for her..."

"It's necessary," he removed his hand from his face, which was now hidden by a closed respirator mask with large blue lenses. "Fear is not the best way to control someone like her. If it doesn't work out, then we'll have to..."

"Kill her," the lenses cracked, covered with thick fissures, very much resembling those on a glass mask.