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"I'm not telling you anything, scum," Leia spit out. "Do whatever you want. You can't make me talk."

"Incorrect." The Pau'an pulled a thick black handle out of his cloak. A thin strand of wire dangled from one end; he brushed it across her face. "Have you ever seen a neuronic whip, Princess? With the press of a switch, a high voltage charge of electricity will shoot through this wire—and into anything it touches."

He glided the whip across her cheekbone…down her jawline…his finger straying toward the activation switch. Leia tried not to flinch. "One lash is enough to cause debilitating pain, neurological overload. Repeated lashings usually result in permanent brain damage. Very useful on my planet for keeping the slaves in line."

"I thought you said they were willing servants," Leia said through gritted teeth.

"At a certain point, one is willing to do anything to make the pain stop," he said coldly. "Do you know much about pain, Princess?"

More than you can imagine, you Imperial slime.

He bared his teeth, and moved the whip beyond her field of vision. A moment later, she felt the cold wire brush her neck. "So many kinds of pain." He traced invisible designs in her skin. "Infinite variations." She forced herself not to shiver as the wire ran across her forehead, her temple, over her lips, along her chin. If he activated the charge…

"How much pain can you handle?" he asked. "How much before you break?"

"I'll never break," she snapped. No fear, she told herself again. It should have helped, the knowledge that she'd been tortured before and knew what was coming. She'd carved out a dark, quiet space for herself in the corner of her mind, and curled up until the pain disappeared. But even when the pain had gone, it hadn't been easy to find her way out again. If she had to retreat into the shadows once again, would she ever find her way back?

Still: "Do what you want," she said coldly. "You'll get nothing from me."

"I know," he said abruptly, dropping the whip. It clattered to the floor. "You'll break,"

he said. "Everyone breaks. Even the strongest have their limits. It's only a matter of how much. Pain will destroy you—either your body, or your mind. I could hurt you, Princess."

He leaned over her face, his breath misting her forehead. "I could hurt you quite efficiently."

He let out a hissing sigh of irritation. "But I've seen your file. You'd die before you talked—or the pain would drive you to madness, trapping you inside your head forever.

You'd be of no use to us then. Fortunately, I've been provided with a third option."

Once again, he held something over her face for her to see. An injector. "One dose of this, and you'll tell me anything I want to know," he boasted. "It bores holes in your brain, burrowing straight through all those troublesome little walls you've erected around the truth. No more secrets, Princess. Not from me, and not from the Empire."

Now Leia knew that she hadn't been afraid before, really.

Because this was fear. Ice pulsing through her veins. Not for herself, not for her own life—but for the Alliance. If the Empire could get inside her brain, they could learn anything.

Names. Bases. Access codes.

All her friends would be in danger, their hopes destroyed.

All because of her. Again.

"Look on the bright side," he said, smirking down at her. "The serum is in the experimental stage—we're still refining the formula."

So maybe it won't work, Leia thought desperately.

"Oh, it gets the job done," the Pau'an said pleasantly. "But only one of our test subjects has survived. She's doing a lot better these days—at least according to the poor sap we pay to mop up her drool. I'm told soon she might even be allowed to feed herself again, if they can teach her to stop stabbing herself in the face with the fork." He shrugged. "Either way, once we're done here, I doubt you'll be in any position to feel guilty about the secrets you've revealed."

Leia felt herself beginning to crumble. She'd always believed she could fight anything.

But what if she couldn't fight