Chapter 5: The Fortress's Mercy
The cold air of the fortress hit my bare skin the moment Shin dragged me through the stone archway. My feet scraped against rough-cut flagstones, my ankles raw from the vines she'd used to drag me through the forest, my entire body slick with the oil she'd poured over me. I was naked. Completely, utterly naked, and she'd made sure to walk me through every corridor of this gods-forsaken place with her hand wrapped tight around that collar at my throat, leading me like a pet.
"You know," she said, her voice light, almost casual, as if we were taking a pleasant stroll, "I thought about leaving you out there. Letting the forest have you. But you're too interesting for that."
I said nothing. I'd learned that giving her words only made her hungrier. My jaw stayed clamped shut, my eyes fixed straight ahead, watching the darkened halls of Baylan Skoll's fortress slide past.
She pulled me through a heavy iron door and into a chamber warmed by a crackling fire. Candles flickered along the walls. The space was uncomfortably domestic. A large bed stood against one wall, dressed in dark red linens. A wardrobe. A washbasin. It was a room meant for an honored guest, not a prisoner.
Shin released the collar and shoved me forward. I caught myself on the edge of the bed, my knees shaking. I was still trembling from what she'd done to me in the forest. The plug inside me had been removed, but my body still remembered the feel of the vibrator, the slow burn of the oil on my skin, the way she'd made me come again and again until my legs wouldn't hold me.
I hated that I could still feel it. Hated that my cunt was still slick from her mouth.
"Baylan wants to see you," she said, walking to the wardrobe and pulling it open. "He wants to welcome you properly."
"Welcome me," I spat, finally finding my voice. "To what? Your little dungeon? Your torture chamber?"
She laughed. It was a cold, thin sound. "To your future, Togruta."
She tossed a bundle of cloth at me. I caught it instinctively. Red. Soft. I held it up and stared at it. A nightshirt, made of some silky material that slid through my fingers, and a pair of matching panties. Thin, but actual clothing.
"Put them on," she said. "He's waiting in the medical bay. You'll go alone. He wants to speak with you privately."
"If you think I'm going to walk into some trap—"
"You're already in the trap, Ahsoka." She stepped closer, and her fingers caught my chin, tilting my face up to meet her gaze. "The only question is whether you cooperate and make this easier on yourself, or resist and make it harder."
I pulled away from her touch. My hands were shaking as I pulled the nightshirt over my head, letting the soft fabric fall down over my still-oiled skin. It clung to my breasts, the material sheer enough that I could see the dark shape of my nipples through the cloth. The panties were next, sliding up over my hips, the fabric thin and barely there.
Shin watched me dress with those predatory eyes of hers, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "Good girl."
"Don't call me that."
"Go," she said, gesturing toward the door. "He's not patient."
I stood there for a long moment, weighing my options. Run? I didn't know the layout of the fortress. Fight? I was exhausted, my body still recovering from hours of forced orgasms and Force suppression. I had no weapons. No lightsaber. No way to contact Anakin.
But I refused to show her my fear.
I walked out the door, feeling her eyes on my ass the whole way.
The medical bay was at the end of a long, dim corridor. The door slid open automatically as I approached, hissing on hydraulics, revealing a cold, white-lit chamber that was a stark contrast to the rest of the fortress. Machinery hummed along the walls, monitors blinking with soft blue lights. In the center of the room stood a single examination table, surrounded by articulated arms bearing surgical tools and scanners.
And there, standing at the far end of the room, was Baylan Skoll.
He was taller than I'd imagined. Imposing, broad-shouldered, with those strange amber eyes that seemed to see right through you. He wore dark robes, practical and unadorned, and his presence in the Force was a heavy, oppressive weight that pressed down on me like a physical thing.
"Ahsoka Tano," he said, and his voice was deep, measured. "Welcome to my home."
"You call this a welcome?"
He smiled. It was almost gentle. "I understand your frustration. Shin can be... enthusiastic. But I assure you, my intentions are more peaceful than hers."
I crossed my arms over my chest, aware of how thin the nightshirt was, how the cold air of the medical bay made my nipples tighten visibly against the silk. "Forgive me if I don't believe you."
"Shin told me about your ordeal in the forest," he said, stepping closer. "I wanted to make sure you were properly cared for. You have wounds that need tending. Bruises. Laceration on your wrists from the vines. Not to mention the internal trauma from... your encounters."
My face burned red. I didn't want to think about what he knew. What Shin had told him about what she'd done to me. About Anakin. About everything.
"I'm fine," I said flatly.
"No, you're not." He gestured to the examination table. "Please. Lie down. The machines will heal you. I give you my word that no harm will come to you."
I stared at him, trying to read his intentions. But his face was a mask, calm and unreadable. In the Force, I felt something from him, a strange calm, a sense of control that bordered on paternal.
And behind him, I caught a glimpse of Shin entering the room, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, watching.
They were both watching me.
I walked to the table and climbed onto it, feeling the cold metal against my back through the thin nightshirt. The table was tilted slightly, so I was lying almost flat, my legs hanging also on the table my arms resting at my sides.
A mechanical voice spoke from above, synthesized and cold. "Patient position secured. Please extend limbs for full diagnostic and treatment."
I looked up at Baylan. "You're not serious."
"The machine requires a certain degree of restraint to perform effectively," he said. "You'll see small restraints at your wrists and ankles. Please place them within."
I hesitated. Every instinct screamed at me to refuse. But what choice did I have? I was naked underneath this thin slip of fabric. Unarmed. Surrounded by enemies. And if they wanted to hurt me, they didn't need a medical table to do it.
Slowly, reluctantly, I extended my arms and legs. The metal restraints closed around my wrists and ankles with a soft click. Not tight enough to hurt, not painful, but I couldn't move them more than an inch in any direction.
I was bound.
The moment the restraints sealed, the machine's humming changed. The lights dimmed slightly. And the mechanical voice fell silent.
"What's happening?" I asked, my voice tight. "Why did it stop?"
Shin stepped away from the wall, walking toward the table. There was a hungry look in her eyes, a predatory gleam that made my stomach clench.
"Baylan," she said, drawing his name out like a caress. "She's all yours."
I looked between them. "What are you doing?"
Baylan stepped closer, his hands coming to rest on the edge of the table beside my hips. He was close enough that I could smell him. Something earthy. Something old. "I told you," he said, "I wanted to welcome you properly."
Shin walked to the foot of the table, between my spread legs. She looked down at me, and I could see the amusement in her expression, the sheer enjoyment she got from seeing me like this.
"You've been very disobedient, Ahsoka," she said. "You fought me in the forest. You let your master claim you. You came for me twice, but you never begged."
My face burned. "I'll never beg."
"We'll see."
Her hand came down on my calf, sliding up over my shin, my knee, my thigh. I jerked, trying to pull away, but the restraints held me fast. The thin silk of my panties did nothing to stop the heat of her touch as her fingers found the junction of my thighs.
"What are you doing?" I asked again, my voice cracked. "I thought he wanted to heal me."
"He does," Shin said. "But first, he wants to play."
Baylan's hands came up and settled on my chest. Through the thin silk of the nightshirt, I felt the heat of his palms pressing into the curve of my breasts. His touch was broad, confident, nothing like Shin's teasing fingers.
I looked down, and I could see his hands on me, the way his fingers spread across the silk, pressing my breasts, squeezing them through the fabric. The sight was humiliating. The feeling was worse. My nipples tightened beneath his palms, and I cursed my body for betraying me.
"Beautiful," he murmured. "Shin said you were, but I didn't fully appreciate it until now."
"Get your hands off me," I snarled.
He ignored me. His fingers found the hem of my nightshirt, hooking under the silk and bunching it up, baring my stomach to the cold air. I felt his hands on my skin now, rough and warm, sliding up my torso.
And all the while, I couldn't see where Shin's hand had gone.
I felt it, though. Her fingers tracing the seam of my panties, pressing against the wetness that had already started to gather there. My body's response to their touch disgusted me, but I couldn't stop it. The sensation-enhancing oil from the forest had worn off, but my body was still primed, still eager for stimulation.
Baylan's hands closed around my bare breasts, his rough thumbs finding my nipples. He rolled them between his fingers, tugging gently, and a gasp escaped my lips before I could stop it.
"Ah," he said, a note of satisfaction in his voice. "There it is."
"What? There's what—"
"The moment your body forgets to be angry with us and remembers how much it wants this."
I pulled against the restraints. Metal clanked. I couldn't move. My breasts were bare now, exposed, the silk nightshirt pushed up beneath them, leaving them fully bared to his gaze. The medical light above me was bright, unforgiving, and I could see everything that was being done to my body even as I lay helpless.
Shin's fingers found the edge of my panties and slid beneath them.
I felt them, light and teasing, tracing the wet, bare flesh of my cunt. No hair there, smooth and slick from the previous hours of abuse. Her fingers parted me, found my clit, and began to circle it slowly.
My hips bucked against the table. "Stop. Stop it, I'm not—"
"She's already wet," Shin said, and I could hear the grin in her voice. "Look at her, Baylan. Look at how ready she is."
Baylan leaned closer, his face above mine, his amber eyes studying me with an unnerving intensity. "You understand what's happening, don't you, Ahsoka?"
"No," I gasped. "I don't understand, and I don't care."
"You see my hands on your breasts," he said, squeezing them to emphasize his point. "You see Shin's hand moving beneath your clothes. But you can't see what she's doing, can you? You can only feel it."
He was right. I couldn't see past my own stomach, couldn't see the place where her fingers were working my pussy. The thin fabric of my panties hid everything from view, and all I had was sensation.
And sensation was drowning my mind.
Shin's fingers slid lower, and I felt the tip of her middle finger pressing at my entrance. She pushed it inside me, just the first knuckle, and I shuddered.
"Tight," she said. "Even after everything Anakin did to you."
"Don't talk about him," I snarled.
"Why not? You let him fuck you. You let him fill both your holes and claim you like a bitch in heat. Why is that fine to talk about?"
"Because I chose him," I bit out. "I chose him."
Baylan made a low sound in his throat. "Such defiance. Tell me, does she always resist this much?"
"Every time," Shin said. "And every time, she ends up coming anyway."
Her finger slid deeper. A second finger followed. I gasped, arching into her touch, hating myself for it but unable to stop. Baylan's hands continued to work my breasts, teasing my nipples, rolling them between his thumb and forefinger, sending jolts of pleasure through my already overstimulated body.
I was helpless. Completely, utterly helpless.
"Do you feel her?" Baylan asked, his voice a low murmur beside my ear. "Feel Shin's fingers inside you?"
I didn't answer. I couldn't. Her fingers were stroking that spot inside me, the one I'd learned about only recently but would never forget. The one that made my vision blur and my thighs tremble.
"Answer me," he said, squeezing my nipple hard enough to make me gasp.
"Yes," I hissed. "I feel her."
"Good." He pulled back, looking down at my body. "And what about this? Feel what I'm doing to your tits?"
"Fuck you," I spat.
He chuckled. "So much fire. So much spirit. I can see why Shin is so fond of you."
"She doesn't want me," I said, my voice shaking as her fingers curved inside me. "She wants to break me. To own me. She wants what she can't have."
"And what do you want, Ahsoka?"
I wanted to tell them both to go to hell. I wanted to scream. I wanted to fight. But Shin's fingers were filling me perfectly, stroking that spot again and again, and my hips were moving in rhythm with her hand, and Baylan's thumbs were playing with my nipples, and my whole body was burning.
"I want you both to die," I managed to gasp out.
Baylan laughed. It was a calm, deep laugh, full of genuine amusement. "Perhaps. But first, you'll come for us. Won't you?"
"No," I gritted.
Shin's thumb found my clit and pressed down.
My hips bucked off the table. A low moan escaped my throat, and I bit my tongue hard, trying to force it back. I could taste blood, but I didn't care. My body was trembling, building toward something I didn't want, something I couldn't control.
Something I was beginning to want anyway.
"I can feel you," Shin murmured. "You're so close. I can feel the way you're clenching around my fingers. You want to come. You want to soak my hand."
"No," I said again, but my voice was weaker now, a croak.
"Yes," she countered. "You do. You've been wanting it since the forest. Since I put my mouth on you. Since I made you scream my name."
"You didn't make me scream—"
She crooked her fingers sharply, and my words dissolved into a keening cry.
Baylan was watching me now with something close to fascination. His hands had stilled on my breasts, resting there, feeling my heart pound beneath his palms. "Did you know," he said conversationally, "that your species is naturally more sensitive in certain areas?"
"What?"
"Togruta. The montrals, the lekku. But those aren't the only places." He ran a thumb across my nipple, and I gasped. "This, for example. And here." His hand slid down my stomach, following the trail of my abdominal muscles, until it reached the waistband of my panties. "And here."
He pushed his hand beneath the silk, joining Shin's, and I felt him rest his palm flat against my mound, feeling the heat of my cunt through Shin's fingers.
"Baylan," Shin said, sounding pleasantly surprised. "I didn't think you'd want to join."
"One taste," he said. "Then you can have her."
He pushed his fingers lower, and Shin withdrew to give him room. For a moment, I felt his hand alone on my pussy, dry and demanding, stroking along the slick wetness of my folds.
Then his fingers slid inside me.
He was thick, broader than Shin, and I gasped as he filled me, stretching me in a way I hadn't been stretched since Anakin. He worked himself into me slowly, one finger at a time, until his whole hand was buried at the wrist, cupping my mound, his fingers curled deep inside me.
"There," he said softly. "Now you feel my hand inside you."
I couldn't answer. I couldn't breathe. His hand was huge, filling me completely, and he was pressing against that spot inside me without even trying.
Shin's fingers returned to my clit, stroking me through the silk of my panties, and together they set a rhythm that consumed me.
"You see," Baylan said, "how this works. You can resist. You can fight. But your body knows what it wants. It always knows."
"Please," I heard myself say, and I didn't know if I was begging them to stop or begging for more.
"Please what?" Shin whispered.
I couldn't form the words. My mind was white noise, static, drowning under the pressure building between my legs.
"Please what, Ahsoka?" she repeated.
"Please," I gasped again, and then the pressure broke.
I came hard, screaming, my body arching off the table, my hands clawing at nothing as the restraints held me in place. I came against Baylan's hand, against Shin's fingers, flooding the silk of my panties with the evidence of my surrender. Their touch drove me through wave after wave of pleasure, my mind going blank, my hips bucking wildly, until finally they withdrew and left me lying there, trembling, gasping.
Baylan's hand emerged from beneath my panties, slick and glistening. He looked at it for a moment, then brought it to his lips, tasting me.
"Mmm," he murmured. "As I thought. Sweet."
Shin removed her hand from my cunt as well, wiping her fingers on the hem of my nightshirt. She looked down at me, grinning.
"See?" she said. "I told you. You always come."
I said nothing. I couldn't. I could only lie there, breathing hard, feeling the wetness soaking into the silk of my panties, feeling the shame burning in my cheeks.
Baylan stepped back, reaching to one of the machine's articulated arms. He pulled off something small and metallic, then walked to the head of the table and held it up.
A key.
"Do you understand the choice before you now?" he asked, his voice calm. "I could release you. Give you the room I prepared. Clothes. Food. A bed. All I ask in return is your cooperation. Or I could keep you here, on this table, and let Shin play with you until she grows bored. That might take several days."
I stared at him. At Shin. At the room around me.
Fury burned in my chest, hot and bright. But so did something else. Something small and terrified and ashamed.
"What do you want from me?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
"Your compliance. Your body. Your submission to the natural order of things." He smiled that gentle, paternal smile again. "And in return, I'll make sure you survive this war. All of it. All you have to do is be a good pet."
I closed my eyes. I could still feel the echo of his hand inside me. Still feel Shin's fingers on my clit.
I hated them. I hated them so much.
But I couldn't say no.