Chapter Thirteen
"You should have obeyed me when you had the chance, Miss Grace," Ezar said. The two guards next to him had blaster rifles aimed directly at them.
"I'll never help you, you murderous monster," Heidi growled.
Ezar frowned. "I see these criminals have been telling you their lies."
"And what about what happened to my mother?" Heidi snarled. "Is that a lie, too?"
Ezar regarded her with a sinister scowl. "Your mother killed herself."
"I know that," Heidi replied. "So then I was told the truth."
Ezar's scowl turned up slightly into a smile but didn't lose any of its evilness. Dexter was searching the room frantically for a means of escape. He was cursing himself for tossing the blaster aside.
Don't try anything heroic, he heard suddenly and felt her hand on his neck. Don't do anything to get yourself killed. He looked over at her and frowned.
"I should have known the rebellion would come up with some fool-hardy method to try to get you back," Ezar continued. "But we were prepared and now neither of you will survive."
He thinks the attack was for me, Heidi conveyed. That's good. It means the others will be successful.
I don't really care about that if you get tortured and killed.
"Welcome back, Mr. Hathaway," Ezar said and waved the two guards forward. In a moment they were across the room. They wrenched Heidi and Dexter apart and shoved Heidi towards Ezar. Ezar grabbed her by the shoulders and held her tight. It took both guards to subdue Dexter and he continued fighting and growling "Let her go!" long after they had control over him.
"It's always nice to have you back with us," Ezar continued.
"Yeah? Well, the pleasure's all yours," Dexter snarled. He locked eyes with Heidi, wishing desperately that she didn't have to touch him in order to speak telepathically. If these were to be their last moments, there was so much he wanted to say to her.
"Indeed," Ezar said, nodding. "It's very interesting because the last time you and I met we were having trouble persuading you to speak with us and now we're having trouble persuading Miss Grace. It's remarkable, really, considering that you have most likely had training in endurance and resisting our attempts to obtain your cooperation and she has not and yet she still resists." He clucked his tongue and shook his head as if he were talking to naughty schoolchildren. "And here the rebellion sends a battalion to infiltrate my palace and free my prisoners and you come alone after this one little girl, which leads me to believe that she is either very valuable to the rebellion or very valuable... to you..." He shrugged. "Or possibly both, but it's the second one that I'd like to converse about further." He nodded to the two guards and they began wrestling Dexter towards the dreaded machine.
"No!" Heidi screamed as they shoved him in it and strapped him down. Ezar held her tight and she struggled against him futilely.
Dexter stared at her, willing her with his eyes to cooperate, don't do anything to try to save me, just keep yourself safe. Her eyes were intense back, begging him to fight, pleading with anyone and everyone for this not to be happening.
"If, as I suspect," Ezar went on. "That she is, in fact, valuable to you that begs the question of whether you are valuable to her and I recall that last time we were having trouble persuading you to speak to us and that you were willing to suffer to keep your criminal secrets from us but you were unwilling to allow another to suffer on your behalf. I wonder..." he mused with an evil smirk "…if a similar tactic will work on the lovely Miss Grace."
Heidi's eyes were screaming. She placed her hands on either side of Ezar's face and he started. He turned to her and for a moment he stared at her intently. She shook her head furiously, begging with her eyes as much as with her mind.
Suddenly he laughed delightedly. "Amazing..." he breathed. "Perhaps I will keep you alive, then." He pulled her hands from his face and turned her back towards Dexter. "I am curious," he continued. "As to just how valuable she is to you, and vice versa, for certainly that affects how we go about this. So tell me, lad... are you in love with Miss Grace?"
Heidi looked at Dexter and he at her. He swallowed and felt that his answer was obvious. Wasn't it clear from his eyes, from his attentions? How had he never said it out loud before? How had she never read it from his mind? He knew he tried to keep it concealed but he marveled that he’d actually been successful. He was simply shocked that he'd managed to keep it to himself all this time.
"Yes..." he responded, his answer intended for her and her alone.
"Fascinating!" Ezar exclaimed. "Love is a many splendid thing... if it's requited, of course. It's rather painful if it's not. But then, that brings us to our next question... for Miss Grace..." He placed Heidi in front of him, but facing away, and wrapped his arms around her, smiling gleefully at Dexter. He held her arms down by her side and forced her to face Dexter. Her eyes were filling with tears again. She mouthed the words "I'm sorry."
"So Miss Grace," Ezar whispered into her ear seductively, causing Heidi to shiver with revulsion. "Is Mr. Hathaway's love requited? Do you love him back?"
Heidi blinked and the tears spilled over finally. She could feel the salt in her mouth from the intense grief she'd experienced today. How could she answer? How could she say the right thing? She wanted to look away but somehow she couldn't. Somehow her eyes stayed locked with Dexter's.
"No," she responded finally.
In that moment, Heidi saw the devastation in his face. She hated herself for her response and Dexter felt as if the torture machine would be a welcome distraction.
Ezar was laughing gleefully. He shoved Heidi to the two guards, who each held onto one of her arms and pulled her away from the machine, but still allowed her a front row seat. Ezar crossed the room to the machine and stood next to Dexter.
"Too bad for you my lad," he said. "But... no matter..." He reached over and flipped the switch.
Heidi screamed "NO!" before any noise came out of Dexter's mouth. But an instant later, his head reared back and his body contorted as much as it could with his arms and legs strapped down and a horrifying cry emerged from deep in his chest.
Heidi writhed and pulled desperately against the guards, but she couldn't get free. "NOOOOOOO!!!" she screamed, her body wracked with sobs and guilt as she watched Dexter suffer. His screams of agony pierced her soul and she felt that she hurt even worse now than when she'd been in the machine herself.
After a few moments, Ezar flipped the switch off. Dexter's body slumped down and he whimpered. His eyes opened and he stared agonizingly at her.
Ezar strode across the room to Heidi and stared intently and directly into her face, his face inches from hers. "Now I can do this all day, Miss Grace," he said, sneering at her. "But you will cooperate with me. You will tell me everything you know about the rebellion or I will flip that switch back on and your adoring little puppy will stay locked in that hell until there is nothing left of him. So start talking."
Heidi stared deep into Ezar's vacant eyes. Was he even human? How could anyone be so bereft of feeling of any kind? She felt something new, something terrible, welling up inside her.
My mother... Dexter's family... Sgt. Trist's wife... Justin Heger’s family… Lt. Hugo... How much death and destruction has this one man caused?
Something snapped.
"Let… him… go…" Heidi growled through clenched teeth in a voice that stirred the guards holding her. "Or I will end you now."
Ezar stared at her for another moment and then sneered. "Wrong answer, Miss Grace..." He turned to walk back to the machine.
A hollow, bellowing roar emerged from where she knew not, but it emanated from her mouth. Her two hands moved from where they were to the tops of the guards' heads. Dexter watched in awe as their faces became grey and lifeless and blood spilled from their ears and the corners of their eyes. They dropped to the ground and Heidi, her lip curled back like an anim
al, sprung forward and clenched Ezar's head between her two hands, as if to crush his skull. His eyes went wide with terror just before she screamed again and he joined her with an agonizing scream of his own. His face turned grey and blood poured from his ears and eyes. Dexter could see the veins pop out on his face and neck. He dropped to his knees but Heidi didn't let go. Dexter watched as it seemed every drop of blood in Ezar's body spilled from his eyes and ears onto the floor next to Heidi, and then finally, he fell over dead at her feet.
The sound of the alarm in the hall repeatedly pierced the air, but in between its shrieks, Dexter was deafened by the silence. Heidi stood trembling, staring at the blood covering her hands. Dexter couldn't see her eyes as her hair hung down the sides of her face.
"Heidi," he called. "Heidi, let me out of here." He yanked on the binding at his arm.
Heidi looked up. Her teeth were still clenched and bared and her eyes still wide, but she at least managed to unstrap the binding on one of his hands. He used the hand to free his other hand and then his head, followed by both of his feet. He climbed down and took hold of Heidi's shoulders, staring into her vacant and confused face.
"Are you still in there?" he asked.
She looked up at him and finally her lips closed over her teeth. She blinked twice and then breathed out sharply.
"Dex..." she moaned. She opened her mouth to say something else but then her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed into his arms.
Trist was trying not to count his casualties. Already he was afraid he’d lost too many men to pull this off. He was trying to stay focused and not think about how many of the men were his friends—how many of them had wives and children that he was going to have to tell about their deaths.
He rounded another corner, calling on the knowledge Heidi had placed in his head of the inner workings of the palace. He knew that the main post where the captain of the guard should be was just around the next bend. However, he doubted that unless Dugan could get there in time that he’d be able to overtake it himself.
He stood outside the door and waved his men in. He thought of Jane and silently prayed that if this was to be his last hour, that at least he would be reunited with her.
The blaster fire was nearly deafening. He dashed in himself with the remainder of his men. They were evenly matched, but he knew more guardsmen would be coming. And the captain of the guard was nowhere in sight.
He cursed under his breath and fired at more guardsmen.
The door slid open again and a large group of imperial guardsmen—led by the captain of the imperial guard—entered the room.
They were outnumbered. They were doomed.
Trist stared at the captain and bared his teeth. The man sneered back at him. There was no mistaking that he was the captain since he wore his medals with pride. Moreover, he had that deep gash of a scar across his cheek that everyone who encountered him and survived always mentioned.
“Jane…” Trist mumbled to himself.
The guard began taking out his men one by one. He and the captain were locked in a staring match. Neither one raised their weapon, despite the direness of the situation.
Finally the captain of the guard pulled his weapon from his holster and aimed it at Trist.
Suddenly the door slid open again and the captain wailed as blaster fire hit his hand and he dropped his weapon.
Dugan and his men rushed in.
The guardsmen were so surprised that the rebels were able to get the upper hand quickly and soon they surrounded the guard.
Dugan had his blaster aimed directly at the captain’s head. The captain, still sneering at Trist, held up his hands in surrender and his men followed his lead.
The rebels aimed and corralled the group of remaining guardsmen into a group in the center of the room.
“Not such a good day to be an imperial bastard, is it, Chuck?” Dugan asked the captain and then grinned happily at Trist.
Trist smirked back at him.
Dexter went back into soldier mode. He checked her pulse to be sure she was still alive. He set her down on the floor for a moment and retrieved one of the dead guardsmen’s keycards. He then pulled Heidi back up from the ground and threw one of his arms underneath her neck and the other under her knees and lifted her up. He used the keycard to get out of the room and then walked out into the hall. There weren't any guards in sight and he knew it would be a problem if he ran into one of the rebellion soldiers because he was still wearing the imperial uniform. But he rushed as quickly as he could down the hall and around the corner and down another hall into the main palace area. There were many bodies lying on the ground, both imperial guards and rebellion soldiers.
Dexter continued down another hall looking for an exit. Finally he found the throne room. There was a large stained glass window in the back with a picture of Ezar created by the stained glass.
Dexter grinned. He set Heidi gently down on the carpet and picked up Ezar's throne. It was rather heavy considering it was made of pure gold, but adrenaline helped him along.
"How's this for irony?" he mumbled to himself and hurled the throne through the window. It shattered quickly into a million pieces.
Dexter retrieved Heidi from the floor and kicked away some of the lingering shards of glass at the edge of the window. He stepped through and ran quickly. The night sky offered little light, but many rebel transport vehicles had arrived. He was taking a chance approaching them wearing what he was, but he didn't have a choice. He picked one out and ran to it.
"Halt!" a voice called from the interior of the vehicle.
Dexter sighed with relief. "Hendricks, it's me, Lt. Hathaway," he called. "I found Heidi. I had to put on an imperial uniform to get to her."
Hendricks hopped down and walked towards him aiming both a rifle blaster and a flashlight at him. "Lieutenant?" he said once he got close enough to see. He looked down at Heidi. "What happened?"
"It's a long story," Dexter answered. "One I should probably tell to Commander Trevana first, but she needs medical attention."
"I have a comconsole in the vehicle," Hendricks said as he lowered his weapon and led the way back.
Dexter climbed in and laid Heidi down on the back seat. Hendricks called over the comconsole for reinforcements to help them transport Heidi back to the base infirmary. Dexter pulled off his shirt and tossed it to the floor. He cared little about how cold he was without it. That was enough wearing enemy colors for a woman who didn't even love him back.