Until We Have Faces
Krell had to pin him with the Force to get him on the altar, and not gently. The back of his head might be bleeding, but it's hard to tell: the antechamber already smells of iron. The whole station is a bristling-black hulk of ancient ore, nickel and iron and ice and stone. The lack of anything resembling alloys or right angles makes it feel horribly unreliable, not a machine guaranteed to keep the air in, but an ancient brooding piece of debris untouched by the steadiness of engineers. It did have an airlock, that Krell and a few shame-faced clone guards shuffled him through, and iced-over doors somewhere in the dimness of their crisscrossed headlamps that must lead back into the warren of Ninefox Point.
The benighted promontory did not orbit so much as a brown dwarf or black hole: it was a rogue planetoid, drifting through the ragged stretches of starless, lifeless space. Here, old Strife, the Dark Side of War, had been confined ever since the ascendancy of the Jedi, noble Combat, and the rest of the Light pantheon. But even reviled and relegated Gods were due certain honors, and retained certain powers - and certain appetites. And Krell - who had his own suspicions about the future of that ascendancy - had come to give Strife his due and be rid of his most vexing problem in one blow.
It's pitch-black with him and the others gone. The heavy magnetic manacles embedded in the alter are utterly immovable; the stone beneath him is pitted and rough and cold, almost untouched since the creation of the universe - except, of course, for all the sacrifices that have come before.
The benighted promontory did not orbit so much as a brown dwarf or black hole: it was a rogue planetoid, drifting through the ragged stretches of starless, lifeless space. Here, old Strife, the Dark Side of War, had been confined ever since the ascendancy of the Jedi, noble Combat, and the rest of the Light pantheon. But even reviled and relegated Gods were due certain honors, and retained certain powers - and certain appetites. And Krell - who had his own suspicions about the future of that ascendancy - had come to give Strife his due and be rid of his most vexing problem in one blow.
It's pitch-black with him and the others gone. The heavy magnetic manacles embedded in the alter are utterly immovable; the stone beneath him is pitted and rough and cold, almost untouched since the creation of the universe - except, of course, for all the sacrifices that have come before.
no subject
The light's no comfort, not when it's the creature's eyes staring balefully down at him, and neither is the fierce promise of care. The care of a monster, a creature made of claws, of mouths full of tongues and sharp teeth, of some shapeless, consuming maw and the belly attached to it.
He's screamed himself hoarse, his voice nothing but a rasping, wordless croak, and so he has to content himself with struggling for enough coherence to think, as clearly as he can manage it, I'm not yours. I'll never be yours.
no subject
"Fine, don't be mine. But let me make you feel better than this, dear wildling. I can do that. I am not only the things they've told you."
no subject
His breath is steady and slow, his heart no longer a trip-hammer; panic can only be sustained so long, and the darkness has winnowed it away. He's not sure if the creature can actually read his mind, it said it doesn't use the Force but that it's of the Force, but in case it can he lets the next thought rise through the exhaustion to the surface of his mind. I can't stop you.
no subject
"No, but you can certainly choose to be more miserable about it. The body exists to feel, you know. To grow and change and scar and survive and ache and year and delight and die and rot. You aren't meant to be all pure, none of you. It's cruel of her to ask it."
no subject
He won't hear Her called cruel, not in Her treatment of them, not without finding some last iota of strength in himself to counter the insult. It's the last strength he can muster, though, and he wishes for nothing so much than that he had the energy to curl in on himself, draw into a ball against the cold and the eyes and that voice, insidious and coaxing.
no subject
The hands stroke Fives everywhere, slow and firm, gently massaging out aches and nots and weary soreness.
no subject
Not his anymore, though, not when they've both cast him out and turned his back on him, and he curses Krell again, if only in the aching, fractured recesses of his mind. He wonders how many of his brothers Krell will waste on his next campaign. Wonders if Rex will continue to follow him with the blind obedience expected of them and expects he will. He's been made a very effective object lesson.
"Why?" he manages to rasp, but it'll take catching the tattered edges of the thought that goes with it to catch that he means why is he doing this? Why is he pretending he cares?
no subject
no subject
"What-" He breaks off, his throat too torn and his breath too short, and finishes silently, expecting to be understood by now- Do you want of me?
no subject
I could eat the whole world and still want more," he admits. "But right now, I want you to let me make you feel something new, and...try not to hate yourself about it?"
no subject
no subject
"My stubborn darling," Jedao murmurs as he kisses him, another hand arranging Fives' legs, stroking up his thighs to cradle his balls.
no subject
And now he's been throw away like so much garbage and this... this is what he's sacrificed to. A hand, gentle on his skin, touching him in places no one else has ever touched him, making what little breath he has catch as his skin pebbles, not with cold, but with the novelty of the sensation. His legs twitch, trying to spread farther, and whines quietly in the back of his mangled throat, in mingled shame and arousal.
no subject
no subject
He's naked. On a table. In the cold and dark at the end of the galaxy. Sacrificed to an ancient evil that's been used to terrorize him into obedience his entire life. And in this moment all he can think is please and more and yes.
no subject
no subject
And then the tongue is pushing into him, and it still feels... good? But also strange, alien. Forbidden. His breath hitches on a startled protest that's no more than an incoherent noise, and he tries to brace himself to pull away.
no subject
no subject
What he doesn't tell himself is that this is the first gentle touch he's felt in weeks, the only touch he's felt in his life meant to give pleasure; that directly on the heels of a brutal battle he's been beaten and threatened and terrorized, cast out from everyone and everything he's ever known; that he's fought as hard as he could and now, in his exhaustion and despair, he's being offered gentleness and pleasure. All he sees is weakness, betrayal of the ideals he was made and trained and sworn to uphold. And if he's damned already he sees no point, right now, in fighting any more.
He takes a deep, sobbing breath and goes limp for the creature's touch, not pushing into it but not pulling away.
no subject
no subject
And, Force, then it's inside him again, pushing and stretching and stroking, and he never knew this was even a thing that could be done to a man, but it's lighting up his nerves and forcing his breath out on weak, almost mewling whines of pleasure. Even the faint burn of the stretch as the thing's tongue pushes into him is more pleasure than pain, and he tips his head back and gives himself over to it.
no subject
no subject
With the thing taking his mouth he can't do more than groan or gasp, he doesn't need to waste energy he doesn't have to find words that would probable elude him. Doesn't have to demand it stop or continue, he can just lie here and let it happen to him, let it overwhelm him. Lose himself in heat and sensation, pain and pleasure both, until he's vibrating with all of what little energy he has left, every nerve alight, every muscle straining as he feels himself crashing towards pleasure he never could have conceived of.
no subject
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)