Oh dear, I've put Foucault into a fan fiction. I can almost here my old theory professor weeping. Je vous en prie Dr. Gayet. Disclaimers as in the first chapter.

The pleasure that comes of exercising a power that questions, monitors, watches, spies, searches out, palpates, brings to light; and on the other hand the pleasure that kindles at having to evade this power, flee from it, fool it, or travesty it. The power that lets itself be invaded by the pleasure it is pursuing; and opposite it, power asserting itself in the pleasure of showing off, scandalizing, or resisting. Capture and seduction, confrontation and mutual reinforcement. . . . These attractions, these evasions, these circular incitements have traced around bodies and sexes, not boundaries not to be crossed, but perpetual spirals of power and pleasure.

−Michel Foucault

Kreia was, unsurprisingly, seated in the main hold. Feeling too agitated still to take one of the seats next to her the Exile instead leaned against the center consul. Neither woman spoke for some considerable time. It was the Exile who finally broke the silence, realizing at length that the old woman would not do so for her.

--How much did you see?

--Most.

She felt herself begin to go hot in the face under Kreia's blind eyes. The woman saw things that the Exile would have kept secret; would have preferred to lie about, pass her disquiet off as something else and deal with it on her own. Even as this line of reasoning finished itself a part of her realized that this was precisely the wrong thing to do. If she fought alone, resisted with only her own limited strength she would certainly fall. Kreia was a buttress that could help to hold her firm against the temptation of such dreams.

--Why? Why him?

And why in such a way, her mind finished but her lips did not form the words. Kreia would know.

--He is obsessed by the idea of destroying the Jedi. You, as the last, are the ultimate fulfillment of a quest he has pursued for decades.

--He did not seem to wish for my death.

--No. But then perhaps, as the last, you have become something different to him. To kill you would leave him without a purpose and that one is a creature of simple ambitions.

--But we know that I am not the last, and surely he must now too. I thought I sensed him very close by as we left Telos.

--And so he was. You are most likely correct about his knowing of the secret academy and Atris, as well as of our search for the remaining masters. But he may have know already: through other means more subtle than simple pursuit. You though, are still something of a fundamental goal for him it seems. Perhaps it is that you escaped him and continue to evade his pursuit even now, for far longer than any pervious Jedi he has sought. You are also different from any other. You made a choice that no other could; you failed to fall when Jedi seemingly stronger than you did. You were banished and returned. You should not be able to reach the Force and yet you can. As a trophy you are far more interesting than any of the others now living or dead.

--I can understand that but…what does such a dream mean…I have never had one like it.

--This dream of yours may mean nothing. You have already demonstrated an ability to reach out unconsciously and connect to force-senstives around you, especially in times of stress.

--You mean the bond that formed between you and I on Peragus?

--Partially.

--I do not have such a bond with him though.

--No, not such as we have but there may be some kind of connection; an awareness perhaps of each other. You have sensed no other wielders of the Force for example and yet you said only a moment ago that you felt his proximity on Telos.

--I don't understand. You mean to tell me that we, he and I, created a tie of some kind in the Force while he was trying to kill me? Why would he wish such a thing?

--Perhaps it is not just him. The Force may prey upon desires hidden within us all.

--You can not mean to imply that I want him to kill me?

Kreia did not respond for a long time. T3 was somewhere nearby; in the engine room most likely, humming and whirring to himself in a way that sounded almost like the droid equivalent of a snore. Atton was probably asleep in the cockpit, having refused to sleep in the starboard dormitory after picking a fight with Bao-Dur. Everyone was resting for as long as they could, it would be several hours yet before they reached Onderon and all were exhausted from the near constant combat and tension they had experienced on Telos. Sleep also provided some escape from the constant anticipation of the same or worse that lay ahead of them. Unless one was prone to dreams, which, judging from the silence of the ship the others, fortunately, were not.

Finally Kreia spoke.

--Not kill. No not kill. You yourself said that in your dream he did not seem interested in taking your life; more in punishing you perhaps?

--What? For what?

--You carry great guilt within you. Guilt over your decisions during the Madalorian Wars perhaps? Guilt over your time on the Outer Rim? Over the deaths your return has caused?

--I can't even remember most of my time as a General…

--But you can still feel the pain associated with what you can not recall. In addition to the rest. You radiate the pain of you guilt, of your loss. Perhaps when you sensed him part of you saw a way to atone for your past; to rid yourself of one p kind of pain by embracing another.

--But I did not let him kill me, or stop you from…

--I did not say it was a conscious part of you but the desire, I think, is there none the less. I sensed it when he first confronted us aboard the Harbinger. I sensed it and knew that I had to be sure that it remained unconscious or you would surely have tried to face him and been defeated.

--So you fought him instead.

--Yes.

--You said that the dream meant nothing. All of this does not sound unimportant.

--I said it may mean nothing and I continue to think so. That you have some tenuous connection to the Lord of Pain, that it is likely fed by your own desires for atonement, that it is manifesting in involuntary fantasies, is not unusual. It seems to me that it is simply your mind attempting to reconcile itself. I doubt if it will have any bearing upon reality.

--It could have been an echo of the future.

--Then be mindful but I do not think so. Darth Sion is not the creature you imagined him to be. He has no emotion but hatred and pain. He is dependent on both and there is no room for any other feeling. You have conjured your own nemesis and given him a recognizable face, that is all. You should go back to the dormitory and rest. You will need your strength.

She did not argue with Kreia. She did determine though to strengthen her mental shields, perhaps even ask Atton to help her; he had alluded to his ability with them she remembered. Something told her, a deep, quiet something that often stirred in Kreia's immediate presence, that the old woman was not telling all that she knew. That same niggling something told her also that this was not the last dream. She tried desperately to ignore the pleased shiver at the base of her spine at the thought.