Woman without a Country

"Why is that everywhere I go with you, I end up in a force cage?" Atton looked around in despair. "What is this place, anyway? And why did they lock us up this time?"
"It is a training ground," Kreia mused. "For Jedi, but where are all the students?"
"You're joking, right? What the hell would a Jedi Academy be doing out here?"
"The Jedi prefer hidden places for their academies, to continue the mystique of their training and their Order," said Kreia distastefully. "Places hidden from the galaxy, and yet easily reached by those who know what to seek." She smiled beneath her hood. "Clever girl, Atris. You have chosen wisely in this place."
"Are they going to keep us here long? The sooner we're outta here, the better. Two crazy Jedi are more than enough for me. I didn’t sign on to be dumped in a nest of Jedi."
Kreia turned her face to him, her eyes hidden beneath her hood as always. "Your fear, boy… what is it that you fear so? Is it this place? Or the people within?"
"I've told you before," he snapped. "I don't like Jedi. I don't want to be surrounded by them. I can barely tolerate you two."
"Yes, because neither of us are real Jedi. The kind you seem to know all too well." Kreia's voice changed subtly. Some of her age seemed to slip away, replaced by power. "Tell me, fool, how do you know so much of the Jedi? What is it that disturbs you about them?"
Atton would have looked away, but found himself unable to move. "What… what are you doing to me? Stop it! Get out! Get out of my head!"
"How is it that you know what a telepathic contact feels like, boy? You are no natural telepath, and you are most certainly not a Jedi." Kreia continued her relentless assault on his mind. "Are you a danger to my plans, boy? Are you a danger to the child I dragged back to the light from the darkest regions of the galaxy?"
"No, I would never hurt her! Stop! Stop it!" Atton pleaded, trying to drive her presence from his mind, trying to hide his secrets from her implacable searching.
"If the struggle pains you, submit. I will not stop, I will follow this current to the depths of your mind," said Kreia, her voice ringing with power. "I will find the source of your fear."
Atton screamed in agony, and fell to his knees.
Kreia gasped. "It is not the fear that you wish to conceal. It is the guilt. And why are you – " she hissed, half in admiration and half in anger. "You hid this well, boy. Your feelings are a powerful shield, indeed."
"No," moaned Atton, miserable and sick at heart.
"Do not worry, 'Atton,' I will hold your secret safe and dark, just as you have. If she is truly what you think of her, then she will forgive you for all your crimes. But," Kreia smiled wickedly, "perhaps you should not confess them all at once."
"No," he whispered, "she'll never understand. She'll never forgive me for what I've done."
"Fool. You fear that she would think differently of you if she knew that you were not perfect? I think she would adore you even more, if such a thing was possible. Men," snapped Kreia in disgust. "Blind fools, all of you."
"You don't understand," he said in agony. "Don't tell her, please, I'll do anything you say, just don’t tell her. Don’t change how she sees me."
"Very well," Kreia agreed, "but of course, there is a price for such things. You will not find the burden too heavy to bear, I think. She goes to wage a war, and you will follow her. You are crude and unskilled, murderer, but you have value to me. Whatever you feel for her, you will follow her and serve her as she wishes, until I release you. Even if another supplants your place, you will stay. Do you understand?"
A long time ago, Atton had realized that there is no bottom to the depths to which a man can fall. He held his hands to his head, still throbbing with agony from Kreia's attack. "I understand," he said sullenly.
"The same blind obedience that served you so well in the past will serve equally well here. I feel that the Force has brought us together for some reason, and I sense that your purpose has not yet been served."
Even through the pain and misery, he couldn't keep his anger from flaring out at her. "I do not serve the Force, you old hag! You've got the wrong man."
"Perhaps," she said idly. "At the very least, you can fly a ship. I did not mean to be so brutal with you, boy, but it was unavoidable. Sleep," she waved her hand, and Atton dropped to the floor of his cell. "Sleep and be silent, murderer," she hissed. "I cannot be distracted now."