It was a dance between rivals in the dark. Two beams of red, two beams of green: in the shadows of a hollow hall, those colors weaved and darted in poetic violence, each pair wielded expertly and daring the other with every maneuver. The sabers hissed when they clashed, a sharp noise that spoke on behalf of the duelists, whose destinies were once again at a knot. Between Ahsoka Tano and Asaji Ventress was a dramatic history – the gravity that had drawn them together and alone, a story with a resolution that they fought to decide.

Ahsoka pressed forward into her opponent, alternating her dual sabers in aggressive chops. “You were given a rare chance to clean up your act,” she asserted mid-combat, spoken unwaveringly despite the thrust behind each attack. “You’ve disappointed me, Ventress. I had hoped you could change, but here you are – doing business on Moraband?”

Ventress dodged with the slimness of her body, only blocking the two sabers with her own when her enemy was overstepped. “Your interest in me is flattering, Ashoka,” she teased with a sour twinge of humor, “but you should have kept our paths separate. Interrupting me on an honest job will cost you your life!”

The two sprung from the stalemate and into a dangerous pattern of attacks, spiraling and leaping in a spectacle of acrobatics. Their battle moved to be under a ruined ceiling, where a ring of red sky cast a glow onto their bout; it was within an ancient Sith temple, crumbling to abandonment, that Ahsoka had tracked Ventress down at. The dark ancestral homeworld was immediately a suspicious location for the allegedly-reformed criminal to visit, but Ahsoka knew the exact nefariousness of her reasons for traveling so far. The intel she acquired specified Ventress’s agreement with an anonymous party to uncover and retrieve an incomplete Sith superweapon, rumored to have been locked away beneath the religious site. The information struck a personal chord in Ahsoka, that her trust had been broken – she had helped Ventress clear her name, only for the bounty hunter to return to doing dirty work for the Sith. Her Jedi teachings had warned her against revenge, but she acted on her own philosophies, believing it was morally upon her to thwart the criminal she had let loose.

Ventress defended herself from a steeply different point of view. She jumped from column to column in flight-like steps, prompting Ahsoka to follow after overzealously. The Sith atmosphere was in tune with Ventress’s dark-side, a benefit behind the job she chose to take. Indeed in search of a superweapon, the bounty hunter cared little about what an anonymous party would do with a relic that was distinctly incomplete, especially when there was a rich reward being offered for its quiet retrieval. It was an under-the-table operation, but nothing was strictly illegal regarding her involvement – hence her instant anger upon Ahsoka’s intrusion, the insulting assumption that she was doing wrong.

Dust fogged the two where they landed, saber against saber, in the center of a wide-spanning chamber of Sith design. They were visually lost from one another in the murky cloud, but by sensing each other, they kept enthralled in the fight. The air was as suffocating as their emotions, too choked to risk a breath trying to explain themselves. As long as they saw the slash of their opponent’s lightsaber, they reacted with an attack of their own – opposite sides of a scheme they had not yet realized.

Before the air was cleared by their sweeping attacks, Ahsoka became keenly aware of an opportunity. Ventress staggered, a slight enough imbalance that when their sabers met next, a red beam went blank as it fell from its wielder. Ahsoka pushed the advantage, manipulating the Force to knock the handle far out of reach, deep into the temple hall. Ventress growled and made distance from her foe, needing the moment to recompose – something vital felt lost from herself, beyond simply losing one of her lightsabers.

Ahsoka’s stare narrowed on the situation. “... Out of practice?” she remarked, figuring that to be unlikely. “Or is the guilt getting to you?”

Ventress scoffed as both hands tightened on her remaining weapon. Her grip felt unaligned, as if she were unused to holding it – she turned that anger towards Ahsoka. “Don’t act coy…!” she hissed before launching into a sprint, charging directly for an overhead chop. The swiftness of her beam was blocked by Ahsoka’s x-shaped defense, rendering them both to a standstill. Ventress leaned close and seethed, “What are you doing to me?! Explain!”

Ahsoka blinked under the pressure. “Wh-What do you mean…?” she wondered, but without losing focus. With an agile pivot, she guided Ventress’s saber aside and utilized her weight against her, tripping her into a stumble and then spinning completely to kick her in the back, falling her to the floor. It was within that motion, however, that Ahsoka was near enough to Ventress to realize what had felt changed. The fact was obtuse, but made clearer as Ahsoka watched her downed opponent dwindling in the reach of her shadow; “Ventress… a-are you shrinking…?”

It had dawned on Ventress only moments before it had on Ahsoka, that she was somehow shorter. Her tall, lithe build was an attribute used well by her in duels and shootouts alike, but as she rose to her knees in recovery, she guessed herself to be half Ahsoka’s height – a lower, more humbling perspective of the togruta. Infuriated, Ventress thought to bolt back into an attack, but the handle of her saber had grown heavier, and still was, suggesting she had more to shrink. Panic set in subtly, but when she feared Ahsoka might exploit her weakness, she saw her instead to be lowering her guard, stung by sympathy.

“Wh-Why is this happening to you…?” Ahsoka asked sincerely, depowering one of her sabers. When she stepped forward with concern, Ventress skittered just as far away. Ahsoka concentrated on the Force around them in search of an explanation, and found an interference – an unusual sensation that grabbed Ventress and was tethered to an unseen source. She looked in that direction, feeling the ping of another presence from the ramparts above them; “Someone is doing this to you. Who goes ther– aah!”

“Hrugh!” grunted a waist-high Ventress, her lightsaber awkwardly wielded like a club rather than a sword as she charged into battle. The brutish style was her only means to make an attack at her stature, rushing Ahsoka while she was distracted. It was a low and heavy horizontal swing, but the beam buzzed beneath the padawan when she hopped to dodge over it. The weight of Ventress’s miss left her staggered, but she insisted on a second try, madly whipping the relatively oversized saber for an overhead strike.

Ahsoka met her fury with tactical precision: rather than block the beam with her own, her empty hand lunged and stopped Ventress’s attack by the wrists. By grabbing her arms mid-motion, Ventress was instantly disarmed; she tugged back furiously, but having lost so much strength alongside her size, she was unable to break free. At nearly knee-height to Ahsoka, the little zabrak was light enough to be lifted into the air, allowing her struggles to only be dangling kicks and limited twists, bound by a single fist.

“R-Release me! Let… go…!” Ventress demanded, quickly exhausting herself with attempts to break free. Both her arms looped around a single finger that clutched her, but the most it would budge was too little to loosen her; it was a casual effort for Ahsoka to fix her grip and reset Ventress’s restraints, choosing to keep her shrunken opponent pinned down. “Th-This is absurd…! Hnk– Wh-what has been done to me?!”

She was the victor in their fight, but Ahsoka felt no pride in overpowering Ventress when she was debilitated so bizarrely, and continuously becoming smaller in her grip. At least with her foe subdued, she could track the source of her infliction to whoever was responsible, that unknown figure lurking from the higher level. “How are you doing this to her?” she called out to the darkness, accidentally rattling Ventress in her grasp. “Reveal yourself!”

A figure was unveiled from the shadows, revealing the bottom of her black robes as she stepped into a frame of crimson light. She descended a staircase from the ramparts, only to as far as the flight ran before it ended midway in collapse; from the ledge of that broken bridge, a face was found to be familiar to Ahsoka. The expression was steady and resolved, lacking in emotion as she studied the situation. A hood shrouded her image, but it only affirmed that which Ahsoka had doubted, completing the image of a sheepish friend she once treasured. That relationship had since been transformed into bitter opposition, and Ahsoka remembered immediately that it was not a beloved companion, but the Jedi betrayer, Barriss Offee.

“I’m sorry, Ahsoka,” Barriss apologized, speaking with a voice that was gentle and airy, as if unchanged by time – time that she should have spent imprisoned, where she was supposed to be. Her delicate tone lured Ahsoka into a false sense of security; “I hoped you would realize there was more to this encounter than coincidence. I underestimated how this feud would blind you…”

“Barriss! Y-You’re the one doing this?” Ahsoka gasped, raising Ventress higher as emphasis – Ventress’s complaints of being mishandled went ignored. “I’ve never seen a Force ability like this… Wh-Why? What are you doing here at Moraband?”

Ventress sighed, “Isn’t it obvious, you fool?” She kicked up at Barriss as an annoyed way of pointing to her. “She’s the mastermind behind all of this – it was a setup! You and I both were played like puppets!”

Barriss giggled, earning back Ahsoka’s attention. “Ventress’s criminal intuition is correct,” she said. “There is no Sith superweapon, and no one to buy it. Likewise, Ahsoka, the information brokered to you was–”

“--from you…” Ahsoka completed the thread, wincing when she understood her mistake. “So, you wanted both of us out here to get your revenge?”

“Truthfully, what I wanted most… was you, Ahsoka,” Barriss admitted with a hand drawn over her heart. “Ventress was a trick to lure you into my web, but I will happily put her in her place as well, for the part she played in foiling my plans.” She smiled as she lifted her other hand forward, a soft gesture that had a sudden effect on Ventress. The miniaturized zabrak groaned as she shrunk faster in Ahsoka’s possession, dwindling to a toy-like size; Ahsoka had to readjust her grasp on the tinier shape, holding her around her abdomen while her arms and legs hung free. Barriss was confident in sharing her secret; “Force Displacement,” she explained, “the power to manipulate matter by scale. It is an ability I unlocked while in prison, after delving deep in meditation and becoming lost in obsession. In that state of mind, I could only think of the wants that the way of the Jedi denied me… I was denied inner-strength, I was denied independent thought, I was denied… to have you, Ahsoka. I wanted you terribly – I wanted you back, that ally I could trust… On that day of the trial, I was not the only betrayer. You broke my spirit, Ahsoka, but I have made myself whole– more whole than I ever was. I have discovered within me the power to have everything I want.

“Please surrender, Ahsoka,” Barriss urged. “I cannot be stopped. I shrunk the guards of my cell, and everyone else that tried to stop me – reduced to dust beneath my feet. The same could become of you, Ahsoka, if you insist on making this difficult.”

“You’ve been corrupted by obsession, Barriss,” Ahsoka determined, unnerved by the explanation and its focus on herself. “If nothing else, this is personal, between you and me. Return Ventress to normal! She has no– huh?”

Ahsoka intended to raise the shrunken woman again, but found Ventress to have leaped from her fist to her belt. She had continued to shrink until she was small enough to slip free from Ahsoka’s fist, daring to escape the circumstance on her own. With masterful acrobatics, she evaded Ahsoka’s attempt to reclaim her by jumping further around her hip, then dropping down to the crossed pattern of her pants, utilizing the fashion like a ladder down the padawan’s thigh. When Ahsoka flusteredly turned to grab her again, she spun Ventress with the momentum needed to spring out of reach and onto the dusty floor.

Ventress began with a head start of distance, but realized quickly how minimal it was when she broke out into a run. Only a few inches tall, her tiny strides could only stretch so far; when she thought she had sprinted a far length, she looked behind her to realize how short it truly was. She used the Force to boost her mobility – longer leaps, lighter footfalls – but those inhuman feats only marginally made distance. Embarrassingly, Ahsoka was quickly catching up, and no faster than at the pace of a cautious walk. Nevertheless did Ventress keep running across the temple floor, skipping across the cracks between bricks while larger footsteps rumbled behind her.

Suddenly, she was completely stopped. Caught by something unseen, Ventress desperately reached forward before being tugged hard onto her rear, from where she was then reeled on a direct line backwards. She was pulled by the Force and dragged mercilessly along the floor like an object; she assumed Ahsoka was responsible, but when she sped between the togruta’s arch-like legs, she realized who had actually taken claim of her.

Ahsoka pivoted clumsily after Ventress darted under her, reacting too slowly to intercept. Barriss had made a graceful leap from the ruined staircase down to the chamber floor, her robe spiraling out from where she landed perfectly on her feet, just as Ventress was dragged in front of them. She released the tiny woman from her telekinetic hold, no longer needing it now that she had her in reach; Ventress still stumbled to get away, but she trembled at the base of a towering mirialan, that which loomed oppressively and could effortlessly abduct her. Barriss’s gaze froze Ventress in place as that exactly happened, plucked from the floor like an item folded into a fist.

Barriss stood up calmly and grinning, despite hearing Ahsoka’s rush towards her, both lightsabers at the ready. That poise persisted as she lifted her free hand, quietly casting her Force ability. Ahsoka hurried in hopes she could overpower Barriss, but not knowing the nature of the ability, she was vulnerable to its effects. She was instantly collapsed by an intense all-body pain, an unexpected aspect that downed her to the floor mid-run. Unlike Ventress, Ahsoka could not function at all as a fighter when the shrinking effect began; she coiled and grimaced where she lay, subdued before she was even made especially small.

“If you had been patient, I could have warned you earlier,” Barriss said with an edge of arrogance. “Those of the light-side suffer from a sickening response to the effects of Force Displacement. A consequence of being so unused to change, I suppose.” Her fist was then opened, exposing the captive that was within; Ventress heaved with worry and dizziness in the pit of Barriss’s palm. “That should keep you from getting distracted. I want you to observe, Ahsoka. Let this insect be an example of what power you, a Jedi weakling, dare to oppose.”

“I… am not… a Jedi…!” Ahsoka asserted, her fingers curling tight around her lightsaber on the palace floor. She managed to stagger up to her feet with her weapon wielded, a feat that surprised Barriss, who had witnessed light-siders before fall and writhe incessantly as a response. Yet it hardly phased Barriss either, confident as long as the effect had worked; Ahsoka had risen to full height, but she found her scale cut in half, her lightsaber too heavy to hold with an enfeebled body. She examined herself and her altered perspective, nearly falling back to her knees, “This ability… I-I can’t let you get away with this…! I-It’s too dangerous…”

Barriss smirked as she watched her old friend dwindle slowly in front of her. It appeared that all of Ahsoka’s spirit had been drained, but there was more to the padawan than Barriss estimated. Ahsoka first wavered closer with a few unsteady steps, then made a fast and direct leap at Barriss, dropping her lightsaber behind her. It was sudden enough to catch Barriss off guard as Ahsoka was able to close the distance and make a scramble to take her down; a noble effort that only pushed Barriss back a step. With her size reduced and her senses swirling, Ahsoka lacked the strength to overpower Barriss, successfully held down by a single palm pressed down on her head. With her other hand, Barriss kept Ventress raised high out of reach, countering Ahsoka’s attempts of jumping up and snatching her free. Though Ahsoka trusted herself to be the better fighter, the simple difference in size was a decisive factor.

The scuffle ended when Barriss flung Ahsoka onto her back, dismissing her with a scoff. “A weakling all the same,” she insulted haughtily, but that attitude soured when she learned her hand was empty – the shrunken Ventress had slipped away during the struggle. Those fingers clenched into a fist tight enough to have broken the tiny assassin, but Barriss’s scan across the floor was leveled and unemotional. Thus did she soon locate Ventress between her and Ahsoka, having plummeted that distance to the floor into a painful landing. Weak and desperate, Ventress was found crawling in Ahsoka’s direction, a scene that amused Barriss. “And yet something far weaker is drawn to you,” she teased, “wrongly believing you might protect it…”

Ahsoka strained to keep her vision clear and focused as she saw Ventress inching closer to her. While enduring the crippling effect of Force Displacement, she reached a quaking hand forward, wanting to take Ventress away from Barriss, but was too late, and too far. In a blink, the togruta watched Ventress’s image be replaced with Barriss’s boot, seemingly stomped out of existence. Ahsoka gasped, but Barriss inclined her foot, revealing the squirming woman underneath, twisting and flailing against the unforgiving leather, fighting for the life she still had.

“Get off!! G-Get your boot off of me…!” Ventress squawked, punching at both the toes over her head as well as the dusty ground she was driven into. She was willing to drag her nails across those old bricks to try and pry herself loose, but she was firmly caught by the hip and below, her legs trapped in between the ridges of the boot’s sole. If she ever did snake forward any distance, Barriss needed simply to shift her foot like she would her posture, punishing her captive with a crushing amount of force – yet ever considerate of how much the tiny woman could bear, delicately feeling out the edge of her limits. Ventress’s tone sharply changed: “Pl-Please, a-anything…! It– It hurts!! I’ll do anythi– iieee!!”

Barriss twisted her heel, earning that delightful chirp of agony. “Bargaining,” she remarked, idly crossing her arms under her chest while she felt the thumps of Ventress’s resistance. “How unbecoming of such a talented Force-user, but to be expected. I understand, Ventress, and truly, I sympathize; life is too precious to be ended so miserably, isn’t it? Hmhm~” She giggled, an unusual chime of personality from someone as reserved as her. Her smile widened as her foot fought on with Ventress, feeling that insistence to survive – fighting as any Sith would, clinging to life and whatever was necessary to extend it. Barriss reveled in that wisdom as she dragged her foot back, grinding her victim rough across the floor.

“That being the case…” Barriss hummed, relieving her weight from Ventress and stepping aside. Ventress coughed for valuable air as she turned onto her side, facing upwards at the giant standing tall over her. Barriss stared down at her, but also glanced at Ahsoka, assuring she was paying attention in her slumped position. She continued, “If you wish to live, then I suggest keeping me entertained for as long as possible. You might just find an opportunity to escape – and I’m well aware of how crafty you can be, Ventress…”

The dark tone from above compelled Ventress in a way she never before felt. She flinched when she remembered her part in foiling Barriss’s scheme, a meager but vital role that allowed Ahsoka to track down the Jedi traitor – all due to a simple comms call. Whether Barriss intentionally implied that history or not, Ventress worried what it would mean for her, and so she crawled on her knees, pleading to the mirialan, “I do not deserve this…! I-I did what I had to for my own life! Be reasonable! Your vendetta with Ahsoka, i-it has nothing to do with me!”

Barriss was still, holding the suspense. Ventress breathed and trembled, her anger on the rise – until Barriss’s boot suddenly approached, flipping that emotion into fear. She shielded herself and tensed tightly, expecting to be kicked, but there was no strike. She hesitantly opened her eyes and saw the point of the boot angled at her, level with her chin like a weapon taken aim. The long dress led her gaze up to Barriss’s chilling stare beaming at her from high above, as silent as a mountain peak, but an expression that explained everything.

“Pl-Please… Reconsider…” Ventress bowed, bending her knees and neck until she was planting a small kiss atop the boot’s toe. Both hands gripped the sole to keep it steady, but it eventually became a support for Ventress to lean on, holding herself up while she kissed the dust-scuffed footwear again. All the while, she kept a keen eye open for approval, routinely looking back up at Barriss with the itchiness to flee if it came to it. The offering of affection did well to buy Ventress time, but with each passing second, she succumbed to lowlier gestures, stroking the sides of the boot and caressing her chest against its tip – anything that might convince her captor to stay patient.

Ahsoka watched Ventress’s submission in disgust, between the pangs of Force Displacement that left her clenched on the floor. Ventress may have been a criminal, but she was a worthy warrior that deserved better than humiliation. However, even Ahsoka could admit that it was harder to see Ventress in that proud light, made difficult by her belittled figure; she could be swept up by a street cleaning drone, no longer the threat she was at her normal size. It left Ahsoka with a twisted fear, not only that she too faced a similar future of submission and weakness, but that Barriss was captivated by her superior perspective – she turned people into playthings as she saw fit, degrading them not just of their strength and stature, but also of their ego.

But she was powerless to intervene, a fact Barriss cherished as much as having Ventress kissing her foot. Eventually, Ahsoka would be as small as her, and Barriss was eager to have that moment – when it was time. Until then, Ventress served as her appetizer, and she honed her focus onto her, dwelling on her involvement in ruining her plans. Unlike Ahsoka, who she had a personal attachment to, Ventress was a mere interloper – expendable.

Without warning, Ventress was struck by the boot and kicked aside. She rolled over and crawled away, but was stunned into motionlessness when a shockwave of a stomp rattled her to her core. Ventress coiled away from the boot that had slammed down beside her, intimidated by the statement it made. Her throat swelled to beg for her life, but she was speechless, afraid she would misspeak and bring about her death. Any hopefulness sank when Barriss raised a boot above Ventress, its width and length encompassing anywhere the shrunken woman could possibly dash to.

“W-W-Wait! Why?!” Ventress squealed, arms over her head in pitiful defense. For speaking up, her chest flared with pain. “I-I can do more! Th-This doesn’t have to end like this, Barriss…! Please, forgive what I did… I regret interfering, so please, l-let me live…!”

“Regret,” Barriss chuckled; “a philosophy I’ve long meditated over. Do you truly regret your errors? Or is this the talk of desperation…?” Her foot was lowered peacefully elsewhere, but it was no relief for Ventress, as Barriss then knelt low, bringing her hugeness close onto her. From that crouched position, Barriss effortlessly grabbed her into her fist, delighted by the immediate buzz of life that was Ventress pushing against her fingers. She then stood back to full height and adjusted her grasp so that her captive was held by a leg – the rest of her dangled and twisted, squeaking over the pain of her injured limb being used to hang her carelessly in the air. Ventress struggled, but soon fell limp with heavy breaths; Barriss’s face neared her for emphasis as she whispered, “Regret alone does not correct mistakes. Something must be paid.”

Ventress flashed into a rage over the cold dismissal. She jerked and punched at the upside-down image of Barriss, spitting foul of her; “You are insane! Unreasonable! Imprisonment was too generous for a monster like you…!” She seethed, but Barriss was without reaction, not even a flicker in her huge eyes. “I’ve paid enough…! I’ve done what you’ve made me do…! Wh-What more do you require…?!”

Barriss was stoic for a moment, as if thinking the question over, but her resolve was truly unshaken. There was no consideration behind her gaze, only the intent to harm; with a flick of a finger, she struck Ventress swift in the torso, hard enough to rock her around and leave her stunned. Ventress’s senses slowly returned after the shock of that unblockable attack, and her first response was to whimper, blindly shielding herself against an assumed second attack. She heard a smug laugh from Barriss before that exactly happened, a subsequent finger flick that was just as punishing as the first, regardless of how she prepared for it. She blindly smacked at the hand like it were an enemy, but dangling as she was, there was no chance of connecting with the finger, even as it readied again to pummel her a third time. Ventress drooled up her face in disgrace, but Barriss most appreciated the hit itself, the infliction of pain that she commanded with her whims. It was not just that Ventress had to suffer, but that Barriss was the agony itself, her justice enforced by her literal hands.

“Insignificant,” Barriss hissed. “You ruined everything for me. The balance between galaxies was at a critical junction. I would have redefined the fate of the universe… but now, it’s your fate that I control. A fitting conclusion to the story of a loathsome insect. Regret all that you can, but do not regret for my sake – regret because that is all you are able to do; regret because it is what you have been reduced to.”

Each word impaled Ventress until she melted into humiliation, weeping unlike the warrior she once was. Horror spiraled within her as she realized that death was inevitable. Throughout her criminal past, she had evaded death with her wit and reflexes, but neither skill could save her from her situation. Barriss’s grudge was unyielding, only allowing Ventress to live as long as she could suffer. Her fingers explored the woman’s body, shifting around her like snakes that pinched and spread her limbs apart, doing so no matter how Ventress retaliated; fingertips groped her chest and sides as if she were an object without dignity, any amount of which was washed away by each touch. The experience was invasive and crude, different from how Ventress was ever searched or stripped by any person her own size, each finger stronger than any bouncer or prison guard, guided by a perversion that was wickedly personal.

Once Barriss had traced over the writhing shape of her enemy enough times, she had even less reason to keep her. Having memorized that slender build, she silently proceeded to the steps of disposing Ventress entirely; with a breath of concentration, she used Force Displacement to shrink Ventress further than she had been. The tiny zabrak panicked once she realized her oppressor was growing bigger, the pinch of fingers that much more inescapable; when she was small enough, she nearly slipped free, but Barriss’s hand warped all around her, enveloping her so that she was rolled into the pit of her palm.

When the fingers unfurled, Ventress was revealed to a landscape of a hand, the bumps and ridges expanded into a terrain of fleshy foothills and slopes. If she were to hide anywhere, it would be within the wrinkles of Barriss’s grasp, but she had no will to try. She fell backwards in shock, pinned in place by the stare of eyes like suns on the horizon. Her world was Barriss’s possession, and she felt the rhythm of life flowing in the skin beneath her and up to the towering fingers, energy more relevant to sense than the Force itself. It would take only one of those tips to crush Ventress like dust, but Barriss was restrained, breathing over the speck-sized woman – exhales from lips that gradually peeled apart wide and displayed the cavernous throat within.

Ventress’s fate dawned not only onto her, but as well as Ahsoka, witnessing the scene from her lowly position on the temple floor – Barriss had sentenced her to be devoured. Between curls of pain, the padawan gazed up at Barriss and comprehended the helplessness of the situation, yet she cringed and scrambled forward, enduring the full-body hurt in order to stop that simple action. “W-Wait! Ghh, no…!” Ahsoka squeaked, wanting to leap up and fight, but found only the strength to grovel close to Barriss’s boots. “Don’t… do this… Barriss…!”

Though a pitiful attempt at interruption, Barriss did indeed stop short of bringing her tongue down into her palm. She left it revealed from her mouth, allowing another humid breath to wash over her captive and spur that speck into paranoia. Her glance downward mocked Ahsoka and her inability to intervene. “Begging for the life of a criminal?” Barriss chuckled quietly, feeling the toe of her boot be grabbed by Ahsoka’s little hands. She slid her foot back, denying even that touch of opposition; “I’m sure you would exchange your own life for hers, hmm, if you could. That self-sacrificing Jedi way has indoctrinated you – an eagerness to die.

“But I’ve decided on this,” Barriss hissed, crooking her attention back onto Ventress, a being so tiny she was nearly lost within a valley of wrinkles, “as far back as when I unlocked Force Displacement. This was always her destiny, to become completely swallowed by my fury, my passion…!”

“N-No, Barriss, th-this isn’t–!”

“Enough.” With her other hand, Barriss dismissed the argument with a spell of Force Displacement. Ahsoka was strained to even gasp, her body sent into shivers as she gradually continued to shrink. Barriss’s eyes then focused on the small mote of life in her hand, her breathing held calm as she immersed in the vastness of their disparity in scale. As she released her tongue again, she enjoyed the tingle of her superiority, scaring Ventress one last time before dropping the tip into her palm. It brushed up her skin in a thin stroke of moisture, a delicate touch that was, in fact, a source of swirling chaos.

Ventress endured a wave of saliva in the moment before the tongue bulldozed into her, her world of skin cast in a terrible storm that instantly swept her away. The thickness of spit kept her tightly pressed to the tongue as it lashed off Barriss’s hand, quietly returning to her mouth – a cavern of clicking noises and breezy breaths, a living prison of exhausting heat and endless saliva. Darkness and humidity made every detail disorienting as she was ruthlessly spun into swampy depths, washing ashore onto beach-length gums only to be flooded away again. Back and forth, she traveled around the monstrous mouth, hopelessly hunting for an opportunity to escape, but like any crumb, she was ever at the mercy of a massive hunger. Her vicious nature provoked her into the occasional attack, kicking or punching at the serpentine tongue as if it could be beaten; when given the chance, she sprinted towards the lips and their teasing glimpses of light, but no amount of dexterity or cunning could save Ventress like it would have before. The criminal fought against that which she could not comprehend, too tiny to even determine when it was that she was swallowed into a void of a stomach – a sentence of imprisonment, restrained by the sheer viscosity of spit and dropped into inescapable bowels.

“... ah…” Barriss exhaled, her eyes opening after having been sealed in her own world of amazement. She was returned to the eerie tranquility of Moraband, brought back to the flow of the universe – where Ventress no longer existed, banished to a realm within her. Barriss swallowed again, reliving the flavor of struggling and suffering that had been rolling over her tongue before so quickly being dissolved. “... Gone,” she said, the ends of her lips twitching into a curve. “You feel it too, yes, Ahsoka? Her presence – gone. Or, perhaps… a part of me.”

Ahsoka struggled to raise her head and look back at Barriss, but she was compelled to, desperate to detect the ping of life that represented Ventress. No matter how small a life might be, her sensitivity with the Force should have found the bounty hunter – but there was only emptiness to be found, a vacancy of life where it once fought to stay living. A sharp tremble fell Ahsoka flat on her face, her will having been severed; the goodness of her heart had wanted to save everyone, but in the shadows of a Sith temple, she had failed.

She would have laid there in despair, had the chill of a threat not been cast over her: Ahsoka glanced up from the floor to realize that Barriss had raised the toes of her boots above her. Past the black footwear, she also saw a grim, resolved expression that was confident in the step she was about to take, no differently than crushing an insect. Ahsoka gasped and bounced into motion, bypassing her body’s aching so she could fling herself out of the range of toes. Just after she did, the sole of the boot closed onto the ground and twisted, emphasizing the raw pressure that would have flattened the two inch-tall togruta. Ahsoka clutched at her chest as she caught her breath, terrified to look up again and learn what Barris had planned next.

“Afraid…? Hm~ I’m not sure I had ever before seen you act this way, Ahsoka,” Barriss teased, dragging her foot back in a slow performance of strength, grinding a sound that kept Ahsoka shaking where she sat. “To kill you could take as little effort as it did Ventress – even less, truthfully. In an instant, your life could end, and that completely depends on my decision. Should I bring you to an end quickly? Or do you deserve a fate like her’s…?”

Ahsoka did not answer, but she feared Barriss had made up her mind when she bent low, reaching down to sweep her up off the floor. The padawan made an attempt to lunge away, but she was too quickly wrapped by Barriss’s fingers, only able to resist in a squirming tantrum. The fingers easily maneuvered around her body so that she was held by her legs, lifted upside-down in the air so that she would be too disoriented to struggle for much longer. Indeed, after a few blind swings in search of something to grab, Ahsoka froze without options. She was aimed into Barriss’s eyes, a dense stare connecting them as though a conversation was being held, but only their expressions spoke to one another – Ahsoka’s fluster and uncertainty, overwhelmed by Barriss’s hunger and desires.

“So very, very tempting~” Barriss giggled, nearing her lips closer to Ahsoka’s shivering form, close enough that the exhales of her words made her captive flinch. “I’m confident you would taste delicious – more appetizing than that speck was.” Her lips puckered forward slightly, forming a swollen plushness that nuzzled into Ahsoka’s torso – a blank kiss that confused affection and intimidation, both warm and chilling at the same time. Ahsoka touched against the lips, pushing herself away, but also giving Barriss the contact she yearned for. “You could join her,” Barriss hummed, “and you would never be far from me again… You would belong inside of me…~”

The snake-like tip of her tongue revealed itself, stretching out between the lips so that it could stroke Ahsoka for a sample of her emotions. The wet touch made Ahsoka squeal in fright, spun into another bout of resistance – the tongue retracted, but only because the reaction made Barriss laugh, and more importantly, it made her reconsider. When she watched Ahsoka spasm, she discovered something far more satisfying than concluding the padawan's story. She had originally imagined swallowing Ahsoka whole, since the day she unlocked Force Displacement, but she had since developed a new taste, a dark interest that went beyond sealing away that which she had been obsessed with.

It seemed to hurt Barriss to speak next, scoffed like a burdensome admission; “I can’t do that to you… From you, I need something more…” She gripped Ahsoka into a fist, which was then curled into her chest for denser protection. Ahsoka squeaked, but was otherwise paralyzed in how she was handled, her heart racing with fear that she would eventually be devoured, regardless of what Barriss alleged. From that binding of fingers, she tried again to escape, only able to pry aside two digits that were willing to bend, enough to expose her defenseless upper-body; the effort won a pet on the head, a belittling few touches from Barriss’s other hand. “Ventress was expendable – a regret that deserved to be silenced. You, however… have always been something far more special in my life. I thought my rage would inevitably surpass my affection for you, that I could overcome my emotions and end you…” Her fingers tightened on Ahsoka, targeting her neck, pinpointing her jaw; “What a ridiculous thought, to want to throw away something so precious to me. Burning inside my heart all this time was not anger nor vengeance… It was love. It has been my need to have you in my reach again – in my possession.”

Those chilling words sprung Ahsoka into another struggle to escape, her body bouncing with attempts that never succeeded. Though her trained mind subdued outright panic, she was nonetheless stressed to realize that she was not merely caught in Barriss’s clutches, but imprisoned by her, locked in a cage of fingers. When the grip on her did loosen, it was because Barriss allowed it, playfully allowing Ahsoka to climb free on her hand before clenching her body, pulling her back down into her palm to feel her fighting again. It was a slow, tiresome lesson that Barris taught while walking through the temple: there was no escape, no freedom that she did not specifically permit.

Yet Ahsoka stubbornly tried, both hands grappling a thumb, her legs crossed and pushed down on top of a knuckle. Posed in that awkward resistance, she eventually lost her footing on a finger and fell off to one side, caught by the foot that was still pinched in Barriss’s grip. She was dangled and twisted in mid-air, dizzied by the swirling surroundings while her captor peered close; Barriss’s enthusiasm was the first sight Ahsoka next made sense of, held directly in front of her sincere smile and puffed cheeks, the expression of one admiring something fragile and precious.

Hence why Barriss ceased her teasing and modeled her grasp into a more comfortable shape, a seat made of both hands joined side to side. Ahsoka was situated in the very middle, sprawled into the dip of palms with her arms stretched out, itching to latch onto anything for safety until she learned she was not in danger – at least, not by any harm. Though more solidly settled in Barriss’s hands than before, it troubled Ahsoka all the same that she was at her mercy, more keenly aware that she was literally in her hands. With such awareness came embarrassment; Ahsoka fidgeted over the fact that she was inevitably being touched, and where she sat or lay meant giving that part of her into Barriss’s claim. Yet it was more awkward to stand stilted on her hands and knees, eventually losing that balance and falling flatly on a span of skin; she heard Barriss’s amusement as much as she felt it, a giggle vibrating from her core and through her arms.

For several moments, there was nothing said between the two, the desolate silence of Moraband filled only by the clacking of Barriss’s footsteps out of the temple. Barriss looked to the openness of outside as limitless freedom to do as she desired, while Ahsoka saw the same reddened sky, thinking of dread and defeat for her future – their future, bound as she was to Barriss. “Wh-What are you going to do…?” Ahsoka asked, jostled by her captor’s movements. “Not just with me, b-but for yourself– Barriss, you must realize you’re making a mistake!”

Barriss angled her smile onto Ahsoka before turning that optimism forward. “You will soon be grateful, I imagine, for the destiny I will write for us,” Barriss said, and added, “together.” She continued ahead, descending a fractured flight of stairs, beneath a ruined archway, and alongside an abandoned footpath – the farther she had to travel, the more Ahsoka could dwell on their destiny. “I see us escaping the turmoils of this universe, relieved of factions and beliefs. No side to choose other than our own – the peace we want. When we were students, was peace not what we hoped to have?”

“There will be no peace for us, Barriss…!” Ahsoka argued, softening her tongue to sound less assertive towards a towering mirialan. “Y-You’re a runaway criminal, and the Jedi will detect I’m missing. They will come for us…!”

“And let them come,” Barriss scoffed, grinning more brilliantly than Ahsoka had ever seen her before. “They can try to disturb us, and they will suffer the consequences. To keep you as my own, I will shrink entire fleets into dust. Jedi or Sith, they will all come to realize that the power of my love is insurmountable…~”

… Is that… actually possible? Ahsoka wondered frantically, seemingly having underestimated the potential of Force Displacement. The thought petrified her shivering skin as she sank into that nightmare, where swarms of starships were shrunken into specks – the strength of an army, overpowered by a blown breath from Barriss. Up until then, the parameters of her unlocked ability appeared limited to just other people, but it was about to be proven that there was plenty more she could manipulate. Barriss stopped in an area as deserted as any other place around the temple, approaching an inconspicuous pile of debris. With a wave of one hand, she mentally pushed the bricks and rubble aside, revealing a machine that had been hidden – a starship for transporting prisoners, but miniaturized to knee-height. That would only last for a moment longer as Barriss then willed the starcraft to grow, exhaling as she had it slowly return to its normal scale. As it inflated and demanded space, Barriss backed away, effortlessly maintaining Force Displacement, while Ahsoka was awestruck to see the power in effect, fearful of what was implied that Barriss could both shrink and grow the targets of her choosing.

After restoring the starcraft to its proper scale, Barriss boarded the transport ship with callous familiarity, recalling the rush of hijacking it for her escape – a poor place aesthetically for her purposes then, but the only corner of privacy available to her. She navigated through narrow corridors to the singular prison cell, where she had once been contained after being sentenced, but standing in the center of that small space, she then never felt more free. Passively, Barriss was even grateful for the verdict, knowing now that it would put her on a route towards power and control. Indeed, she had Ahsoka especially to be thankful for, having contributed in weaving that destiny for themselves – that corrupted gratitude was a long, trance-like gaze that pierced through her grasped obsession. Ahsoka frightfully stared back into her eyes, but then flinched when Barriss spoke warmly; “Now begins our era.”

Fingertips hooked under and around Ahsoka’s limbs – the seat that had once treated her royally was then a tangle of tendrils, each with perverted intent. The pads of these fingers sought out the most reactive points from the togruta, regardless of how she resisted; they tickled her arms and legs until they spasmed away, then drilled into her hips and chest, which could only be defended in forced fits of laughter. Ahsoka pleaded even after it was clear that Barriss had no reason to cease, her incessant protests making a melody that her captor listened well to, but never said anything back. She worked wordlessly, deciding to pull on Ahsoka’s clothes to try and slip them off; Ahsoka squeaked louder, but could only fight off the fingers for so long, eventually having her belts snapped apart and her dress pulled over her head. Naked and vulnerable, Ahsoka despairingly watched her own clothes disappear into the air, tossed aside onto the vast cell floor. She coiled timidly into herself to hide, but Barriss’s gaze lasted briefly; Ahsoka was then rolled out of the hand and onto the cell mattress, dropped to a level that was lower than her captor’s waist, as she dizzily realized upon flipping herself up-right. She expected that towering figure to collapse over onto her, but Barriss still had her own preparations, unfastening her robes until they loosened enough to be lightly shed from her body. Ahsoka stiffened as she witnessed the huge nudity presented to her, scanning the shape and details of Barriss’s figure that were always before hidden beneath heavy attire, as though she were surveying the landscape of a new world.

Only then, when stripped naked, did Barriss’s confidence finally shiver, and thus did her shyness return – fleetingly. Though Barriss shifted nervously, instinctively closing her thighs and curling her torso away, the high of her power dynamic soon returned to her, and so her arms draped to her side, her legs parting in a pose of boldness. Ahsoka trembled backwards on her rear, inching away from Barriss’s looming stance as though she were a bright sun that could not be looked at directly – but Barriss demanded she did, approaching only one step closer yet imposing so much more onto her beloved.

More emotion was shaken from Ahsoka when a giant foot was lifted onto the bed, placed on the edge with enough weight to force her nearer to it. The toes danced in a stretch intended to entice her, but Ahsoka remained frozen, only motivated to move when she heard Barriss hum overhead. Worried that slight sound could hint at impatience, Ahsoka took the indication seriously and crawled forward, miserably on her hands and knees, until she was seated in front of Barriss’s big toe – it hopped into her arms like an animal with its own sense of life, bouncing into Ahsoka and tackling her backwards. Ahsoka gagged on the humidity, that which had been produced thickly in the confines of a boot, but without better air to breathe, she inevitably had to inhale the aroma that belonged distinctly to Barriss. That would not be enough, however, as the toe pressed on her bare chest; the threat alone compelled Ahsoka into obedience, so without an order, she endured the displeasure of licking the pudgy digit – a kiss of tribute, precisely what Barriss had wanted.

“I was always fond of how quickly you learned,” Barriss chuckled, nostalgically adding, “even jealous, at times, of how naturally the Jedi lessons came to you.” The rest of her toes unfurled, washing onto Ahsoka like a wave on a shore, keenly maneuvered so that her frazzled expression was always visible. “I trust you will learn well how to belong to me, Ahsoka. If it does take time, however, then rest assured that I will take as long as necessary to teach you. Do not dwindle into fear, my love – I will keep you safe as mine forever.”