Chapter 11

It had been a few years since I arrived at The Prism. It was a self-sufficient prison that held the scum of the galaxy, mostly force users. Only the Jedi Council masters knew about the Prism, and because of that, no rescue attempts happened. There were just over a hundred security droids taking command from a single Jedi master, meaning the ability to mess with minds couldn't work.

My cell was alright. While the Jedi were shitheads for doing this to me, they at least kitted out their prisons with comfy beds and hologram sets for entertainment. If only the prisoners were more likeable, Each one of these dark side users had a massive chip on their shoulder, they hated the system that put them here, they hated the food that was delivered to them, and they hated each other for being weak enough to be captured.

I wondered if putting force users that became more powerful with hate in a situation where hate bred like rabbits was a stupid idea. It was.

The prison wasn't like how I expected it. Instead, it was smooth running, when you had droids planning and executing those plans everything ran efficiently like clockwork. The only thing that was the same as the brutal prisons I had come to know was the inmates. They were behind energy shields and something that diminished our force powers but they still tried their best to start fights and use their force abilities.

I witnessed one dark side user threatening someone only to be knocked out by that person when they used a powerful force to pull the dark side user into the energy shield. Force abilities can be used but they have to be powerful and skillfully used so that the droids don't see them. A force-lighting blast was eye-catching but a person jumping at an energy shield was something the droids didn't take notice of or didn't care about.

People might think that staying in prison would be boring and yet it was anything but boring. With so many powerful force users, there was an amazing amount to witness and perceive. Floating crosslegged meditating force users were common, a giant bug practising lightsaber forms with a table leg, a very angry brotherhood of darkness discharging blue lighting at the energy shield. That last one got a cell full of gas, he wasn't subtle enough for the droids.

I, on the other hand, didn't have flashy techniques but I was spotted by other force users. It was probably due to eating things that were considered contraband, I was standing watching others use the force while chowing down on deep-fried sea squid.

The Jedi had made a big mistake putting me in a prison filled with technology. At first, I had no access to it but with my un-noticeable telekinesis I was able to pull a screw here, steal a bolt there, turn a switch and hey presto, a droid would fall over right into my cells energy field or a security droid travelling along its tracks would fall off its rail and land crashing down. There were quite a lot of accidents happening around my cell for the first couple of months. This only stopped when I had enough materials to pull the metal walls apart and cannibalise the interior, how was this possible without getting a room full of gas? subtlety. As long as the prisoner was still there and all of the equipment still worked then according to the droids, nothing was wrong. If the Jedi master was paying any attention instead of meditating or whatever they were doing then they might have noticed something.

After that it was plain sailing, I made rudimental tools that I used to high jack the cleaning botts. With a cleaning bot under my control, I collected better tools and started to take over. Small insignificant droids that cleaned, and then light fixture control from the system. The biggest hack was the repair droids that fixed torn-apart cells. They went everywhere and that's when my sub-standard food evolved to pre-packed deep-fried nom noms.

Given enough time, I would run this prison and take over, but that was unlikely. What's the point of being free to roam in prison when you can't leave the grounds? There was no communication in or out and no way to leave the prism. I could free the population but having murder-hungry dark-side users running about destroying everything, wasn't the best choice for me.

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Instead, I traded with them. Food was my currency and the only thing they had to offer was training in the force. The Force was multifaceted, what worked for the dark side didn't necessarily work for the light side but there was a crossover.

I learnt many things, A powerful dark side illusionist who had been caught by the Jedi after his fellow brotherhood of darkness sold him out, taught me Dopplegänger. Strictly, Doppelganger wasn't a dark side power but a universal one but as I said before, there's a crossover for most force powers.

That was a hard ability to master, even with Force Enlightenment, or it might have been hard due to the interference this place had. Subtlety was the key, I didn't manifest animals or plants because having life forms apart from the prisoner in one cell was suspicious enough for the Jedi master to have a look. Small screws and pieces of uneaten food are what I created.

It didn't take long for me to get good. It was within my nature to learn a more deceitful way of the force and with the help of Force Enlightenment and my nature, I was able to create a full course meal with all the trimmings, and a replica of myself.

I learnt more about Force powers and how to alter them from this prisoner than I ever did with the Jedi. The Jedi were creatures of worry and panic.

"Will I turn to the dark side with this"

"What will happen if I lose control of this"

The dark side just did it, they had already fallen and had lost their panic when it came to learning new ways to manipulate the force.

I, on the other hand, hadn't quite gotten over the effects the dark side had on its users. I understood that objectively there was no dark side or light side, there was just the force and the ways to use it but I have seen what the so-called dark side and its madness can do.

And because of this I'm taking what helps me and repelling what hurts me. I have to find my way, not the dark side and their extreme anger issues to the point that their action hurt themselves and not the light side where you can't act like a living being and enjoy all the wonders that life have to offer and the hypocrisy the whole Jedi hold to their hearts. It's my way or no way.

As time goes by the dark side user get angrier, they use meditation to sharpen their negative emotions and plan for nasty, evil deeds to the other captives. They aren't going anywhere, they are stuck here until the war ends or they die. Their anger only fuels what they might do to themselves or even worse, what they might do to me.

I feel sorry for them. Their emotions lead them to do horrible things, and then the horrible things lead to greater negative emotions. They don't get the therapy they need and just delve deeper into the spiral of Madness.

I tried to reason with them but a few choice words from a stranger didn't help them, so instead, I just befriended them. Why not, it's not like they could kill me while they were in their cells.

Some dark side users weren't worth knowing. Some idiot with a particular powerful mind control power tried to force bind me to her will to get my goodies but the stupid git didn't know that for many years I was a force healer and that force healers can cleanse their minds from interference, it helps us to be more efficient healers. I held eye contact with her whilst continuing to shove food in my mouth. I answered her shocked look with a sad little shake of my head.

Others would do rude hand signals. One dark-side user raised his fist in a threatening way, blue lightning rolled off his fist and down his arm. It looked cool, that was until a droid caught notice and edged closer to the cell. The dark-side user quickly hides his arm behind his back looking sheepish. That was worth a small chuckle. The next day, when the dark side lighting fist woke up he found a bowl of creamy root mash and a cup of bitter coffee waiting for him. In prison, a small chuckle is worth rewarding.

I played games, studied the force, and ate anything worth eating. It was a very numbing experience, our needs were filled but our souls were hungry. At times I felt anxious, so much so that I started to copy an inmate's monk's fist arts just to starve off my negative feelings. I realised something, I don't like exercise without purpose, but I already knew that. What I hate is this creeping negative feeling and while exercise made my body tired it also drove those feelings away.

With time, I've gutted and rewired the mechanical components behind my cell to such a degree that I'm able to leave my cell. Of course, I leave a doppelganger in my place, just to make sure. How am I getting past the droids? I put myself on the white list. I'm seen by the droids but they don't have any programs to stop a white lister. Finding the white list was easy as there was only one Jedi master on it, but putting myself on the white list was hard. I had to disassemble my holotube, this was why I had been watching other force users a lot. I still avoid the cameras as much as I can, I don't want to be seen or recorded.

It's a shame that I can't trust the inmates to keep their mouths shut but I know that if I were to walk out in the open and be spotted by them they would use all kinds of methods to escape, including blackmailing me. Subtly is the key to this type of freedom.