After a long period of little inspiration, I finally got inspired to write this story again. I'm sorry that it's been a while, but don't lose hope! More on the way :D!

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Chapter 9

He knew when she ran off that she wouldn't be back on her own.

The Jedi Master watched her back disappear around the corner with his blue eye, feeling no inclination to follow after.

He had felt a sudden charge in the force as she sprang passed him, sending him flying backwards into a wall. He had watched as the droid AI ran after her. He figured that she would grab the nearest starfighter and escape to General Grievous.

Yet for some reason he didn't move. For some strange reason, he was unable to decide at a crucial moment what he needed to do.

Katsuo scowled slightly, his rough eyebrows knitting together as more Jedi surrounded him in worrying glances and offered hands.

"She is already long gone, Master Windu," Katsuo said quietly to the pacing man somewhat later. "Most likely aboard Grievous's ship. There is little else we can do now."

Most of the other Jedi masters were there, with exception of Kenobi, who was in attendance via the Holo-net. All wore similar, grave expressions.

"She has a lot of secrets of us that she can pass on to the separatists, Katsuo. Do you not see the dire situation you have put us all in?" Mace Windu turned towards him, his black, cold eyes even colder. "And not just us, but the padawans, the younglings, and any Jedi who resides in this temple?"

"You are forgetting a crucial detail about miss Ella Nox," Katsuo replied coolly. "She had opened her mind to the force, to the Jedi, and our way of life."

"Your place to show her our way of life, it was not," Grand Master Yoda cut in, looking the most aged he had ever been. "Know better than that, a Jedi master should."

Kenobi scratched his bearded chin.

"Why is everyone being so negative? There are some details you are clearly missing," Kenobi said after a moment of dragged silence. Shaak-Ti and Plo-Koon both nodded in agreement.

"Explain," Master Windu demanded rather shortly, clearly disbelieving.

"While miss Ella Nox had ran from the building, everyone jumped to conclusions that she had left the planet. Meanwhile, has there been one single report about a missing starfighter?"

There was some murmuring amongst the council.

"Why else would she run out of the Temple?" Windu gestured to the window, his tone still demanding and edgy. "Certainly out of anger, but I doubt she would escape to a nearby pub."

"Disagree, I do." Yoda glanced to Kenobi. "Logical, it would seem, to disappear by stowing away, or paying another to help her escape. Time we have, therefor, to look for her."

Katsuo looked at Kenobi who was nodding.

"That was Anakin's idea, by the way," Kenobi added, looking off in a direction unrelated to the temple.

"Windu and Plo-Koon will go look for the girl," Yoda ordered. "Easy to spot, she will be. Mistakes easily made while upset."

"I agree, Master Yoda," Windu nodded towards him as Plo-Koon stood up.

"Let's hurry."

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Katsuo sat on the edge of her bed as she cried into the pillow, his arms crossed.

They had moved her to a smaller, more confined room, had taken Demon, and worse yet had guards standing by her door daily. It had been days since they found her at the Masked Tria trying to pay off someone to help her escape.

Jedi Master Katsuo visited every now and again, bringing food and some form of small comfort he could offer.

This time, he brought her the worst of news. The fleet of Separatists had moved farther away, seemingly to conquer more planets.

The separatists have completely forgotten about her, or at least felt she wasn't necessary enough to kidnap back.

Katsuo watched her from the corner of his eye, unsure of how to deal with the emotional girl. Jedi were taught discipline, which Ella clearly lacked to the point that he even suspected was intentional. When finally her sobs quieted to sniffling, he looked at her form hidden under the covers.

Just him being there helped her a little. He was kinder to her than any other Jedi had ever been. He never asked any questions, he just sat there and listened.

Ella started suddenly from drifting off to sleep, looking around for Katsuo. When she couldn't find him around her thoughts became of General Grievous. Nervously she thought about how what little natural body he still had would be fighting the memory suppressors she developed. Suddenly she was sure that she would much rather be where she was when he found out.

Then she thought back to Katsuo. She couldn't figure out why she kept thinking of him. Perhaps it was that out of all the Jedi here she could relate to him? Whatever the reason was, she was sure was a good reason.

Ella shook her head to herself. Even in her own mind she sounded silly.

"Did you hear? Skywalker has a padawan." The muffled voice of the door guard broke through her thoughts.

"Yea, I heard he was careless and she ran into Grievous."

"I heard that he told her to handle Grievous on her own."

"Really? Wow that's weird… I heard they were trying to keep him away from Coruscant "

By the sound of the gossiping, they were both female humans in their young teen years. Ella heard no more, though she had been listening very hard after hearing about Grievous.

So Grievous and Dooku had no intention of saving her at all. The thought sounded worse now than before, now that it was confirmed. Ella turned to the window, her cybornetic eye clicking through different adjustments to the brightness outside. There was no escape, nowhere to escape to even if she managed it. She was stuck. Numbness.

Desperation hit her later, around when she was sitting on her bed, dwelling on everything. Right around the time that dinner was supposed to come.

Katsuo came later than before, looking at her warily.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"It's nothing… I just want to get out of here…"

"By now it should have occurred to you that you are a prisoner of war," his tone was matter-of-fact, but his expression was flat. Ella frowned at his words.

"A-a what?"

"A prisoner of war. Someone who is captured and held for the duration of the war or until-"

"I know what a Prisoner of War -IS-," Ella snapped, irritated. "I want to know why I'm one."

Katsuo looked at her in the eye for a moment, then to the ground as he shut the door behind him, setting the tray of food down at the bedside table. He was silent for a minute or so before answering.

"Two reasons. The first being that you know what we want to know. About General Grievous… Who he is, what he is, and furthermore what are his strengths, and weaknesses tactical-wise. Secondly, " he looked back at her through the corner of his good eye. "You know too much about us for us to allow you to just walk right on back to the separatists."

Then is when it occurred to her what they were doing with Demon. Being a AI, he would have to have a memory processing unit. Something they could use to gain such knowledge and tap into communications.

Anger filled her up, and for the second time the force flared up around her.

But this time Katsuo was prepared, his lightsaber out and ready, a hand moving the force to direct the powerful surge elsewhere, shattering the bedside lamp and sending the tray of food everywhere.

She had to get out and find Demon.

She was no longer amongst friends or allies, or whatever she had once begun to think the Jedi where.

She had to get out. But it would take very careful planning, as currently there was a Jedi Master in her way. Even if she could control her force abilities, Katsuo had several years of experience behind him, leaving Ella with very poor odds.

She calmed down, taking a few deep breaths.

"So I have little choice but to join you," she was still angry, and knew she would have to bite a lot of what she wanted to say to make it believable. "How about we make a deal, since I have little choice else."

Katsuo was quiet, and wary, but listening.

"I will tell you what I know about the separatists and General Grievous," she calmly looked at Katsuo, blue eye to blue eye. "IF you teach me how to be a Jedi."