A/N; Hey all. All rights to Star Wars belong to Disney and LucasFilms, this is merely a work of fanfiction, that I make no profit off of.

In addition, this is my first work of fiction, and I'd appreciate all comments and critiques.

Chapter 20: A Grievous Intervention

Aurora shifted slightly, her mind wandering slightly while she moved between being asleep and awake. Her mind filtered through the many moments where she and Anakin had been around the members of the senate, and how they had been drawn to the two Jedi. Aurora frowned softly, tugging the blankets around her tighter.

"Look at him," One Senator whispered to her friend, "he's so dreamy."

Aurora's nose crinkled in disgust at the thought of the politicians swooning over her friend. "It's that Aurora girl," a man whispered to one of his colleagues, "She is a rare specimen, isn't she?"

Aurora rolled over, the blanket's tightening around her body. 'Is Breha right?' she blinked, the thought racing through her mind, 'Do I have a pull on people?'

'Who cares?' a thought whispered traitorously in her ear. 'It gives you power. Power over our enemies.'

'Our enemies?' she asked, afraid of what the voice would whisper back.

The inner voice seemed to smirk, the thought taking on a smug quality, 'Of course, our enemies. You didn't honestly think you were alone in here, did you?'

Aurora sat up, staring around the room as she blinked the sleep from her eyes. 'Who are you?'

Another, more childlike voice began murmuring to her. 'Isn't it obvious 'Rora?' it whispered mockingly, before the tone shifted into an older, darker snarl.

'We're you. We are the parts of you that have been buried by your selfish desire to help others.'

Aurora shook her head, 'How is it selfish to help others?'

'Because,' a regal voice replied, the tone having an almost indifferent edge to it, 'you would rather help others, than help us. Help yourself by embracing what happened to you all of those years ago. And you're now taking the medication that keeps us contained,' the voice finished in a roar.

The dark one seemed to agree, Aurora feeling it nod inside her head, 'Oh, I agree. We've let young Rora here keep us contained for too long. It's time to break free and take what is ours. Our freedom, our vengeance. Crush the people that keep us down.'

'Anakin will stop us,' Aurora whispered back, stilling the other voices.

The childlike one spoke up again, 'She is right. The master wouldn't approve of us doing whatever we wanted. He still has morals,' the voice finished bitterly. A minute passed where Aurora felt the three other voices whispering quietly amongst themselves. Her own thoughts managing to block her out of the conversation.

The regal one finally spoke up, drawing her back into the fold, 'Fine. We will continue to let you have control for now. Afterall, that is what the master is most familiar with. However, when the time is right, you will need us to survive what is coming.'

'And what is coming?' Aurora asked hesitantly, almost afraid to ask.

The dark voice whispered back, 'If you don't know, then you aren't ready. You wanted to shove your visions down onto us, not deal with the pain, so we get to keep them from you now. Oh, but if you do want to know what will happen immediately after, to prepare for it, you can give us names.'

Aurora snorted, 'You are me. You don't need names.' The voices almost tsk at her, before falling silent. 'What happens next?' she tried, but the voices refused to speak, Aurora feeling them lock themselves tightly in the back of her mind.

Feeling unease settle over her, she slipped out of bed, and looked out the window, the perilous height from the courtyard below to her room giving her an unsettled feeling as the voices continued to crow in the back of her mind. Pulling her sabers to her from the nightstand as she crept out of the room, her black sleep robes clinging to her sweat covered body. As she wandered out into the hall, she saw a light moving in the distance. Walking over to it, her right hand grasped the hilt of her saber, the metal cold against her sweat coated skin. Rounding the corner where the light was emanating from, she shot her hand up, saber igniting, bathing the intruder in a green glow.

"Oh, my," Breha Organa exclaimed, shrinking away from the green lightsaber. Aurora turned around, her back to the Alderaan Queen, observing the hallway. "What is it?" Breha asked, her voice filled with a calm confidence that Aurora hadn't expected from the woman.

She shook her head in reply, "I don't know. Something feels off. I…" She trailed off, unsure of what to say. Before Breha could answer, she took off, taking corners and wandering down the long halls, searching for the threat she could feel the Force and the voices warning her about.

'You what?" Breha asked, her voice filled with concern.

Aurora shook her head, the laughter from the other voices echoing in her mind at her confusion. "I received a warning of sorts. That something was going to happen."

"A warning from who?" Breha almost demanded.

'She demands too much of us,' the dark voice whispered in her ear. 'She should be afraid of our power.'

"From the Force," Aurora lied smoothly, "it is making me feel uneasy."

The regal voice in her mind smirked, 'Pity. I was curious to what she would do if you told her you were hearing voices. Don't you?'

Aurora was glad that Breha couldn't see her face, as the flash of irritation that crossed it was sure to cause her to ask more questions. "I'm going to alert the-" Breha was cut off as she screamed in terror, Aurora spinning around to see Grievous holding her up by the neck by his remaining arm.

"Your guards are dead, your highness," the cyborg growled triumphantly, his signature cough echoed around the hall. Turning to the young Jedi, the robot's eyes narrowed in anger, "You will hand over the remote for the ray shield, Jedi."

Aurora ignited her second saber, falling into a defensive position, the reply out of her mouth before she stopped moving, "I can't let you escape."

'Oh, are we going to play with him?' the childlike voice whispered excitedly in her mind. 'I can't wait to see what his robot body would look like after we crush it.'

Aurora ignored the voices of her other selves, their voices egging her on. "Put down the Queen, Grievous."

"I don't think so, Jedi," Grievous chuckled.

Aurora shifted her stance, glowering at the general, "If you don't release her, I will kill you."

"And the queen will be dead," the robot almost seemed to smirk, as Aurora shrunk back. "You will give me the remote, or I will kill her."

Aurora snarled, glancing between the queen and the general, weighing the options, before the dark voice whispered in her ear, 'We could have prevented this. We could still stop this. You just need to let the queen die.' Aurora shook her head, fighting the internal monologue, 'One queen, versus thousands who will die if we let him go. This is your selfishness that the Jedi code supports.'

"Now!" Grievous barked, his hand tightening around Breha's throat.

"Okay, okay," Aurora gasped out, "I'll bring you the remote."

Grievous gestured ahead, prompting her to start moving. Aurora turned off the sabers, and turned around, knowing that Grievous would kill the queen if she continued to threaten the cyborg. 'What do I do?' she begged the voices.

The child inside her smirked, 'If you gave one of us control, we could make the decision that you couldn't. That you never could. Let us help play with him for you.'

Aurora frowned, 'But Breha will die.'

'And thousands will live,' the regal voice replied. 'Give us control, give us names, and you can remain blame free.'

'But I will be responsible. I will have made the choice to give you control,' she argued.

The dark voice snarled, 'Like you made when you decided to bury us on Kashyyyk? I have had three moments of freedom since then.'

Aurora's eyes widened in realization, 'The village, the prison, and yesterday.'

Regal smirked, 'Yes, you finally caught on. We have always been with you. We could help the master when you couldn't. Arguably, Child also had a glimpse of freedom. Before the trial. You need us, because you can't help ourselves.'

Aurora growled in fury, Grievous barking an order to keep moving. "I will kill you someday, Grievous," she snarled out her promise, the voices whispering their approval from inside her head.

"Not very Jedi like, is it?" Grievous chuckled.

"I don't particularly care," she whispered back, the voices cheering her on, urging her to turn on the general, give them the control and they will be free. Turning inward for help, she prompted a deal, 'I will name you, but you tell me how to win, and walk away with Breha alive.'

'Name us!' the three exclaimed, buzzing with excitement.

'Regal is Dromeda.' She began, the voice whispering her approval. 'Child is Cissa,' the child cried out, her personality solidifying in her mind.

'And me?' the dark voice called out, the voice whispering seductively in her ear.

Aurora sighed, as she opened the door to her room, 'Bella.'

The Bella voice cried out in a dark, twisted form of happiness, 'We are finally us. You have given us power with this action.'

Aurora started going through the drawers, stalling for time, the cyborg general expressing his patience behind her, 'What do I do?'

'Give him the remote,' Dromeda whispered, 'he needs his hand to grab it, so Breha gets dropped. Pursue him then, and stop him before he gets off world, or he will be lost to us.'

Aurora grabbed the remote from behind her pillow, holding it out for Grievous to take. Grievous smiled darkly, turning and throwing Breha toward the window, Aurora crying out in panic as she dropped the remote, turning and catching the queen with the Force as she flew out the window. Aurora quickly pulled her back in, setting her on the ground before taking off after the cyborg, whose long, robotic legs were sending him tearing down the hall. Aurora ignited her sabers, the green glow shimmering eerily as she sprinted down the blue colored hallways. She followed the sound of the metallic feet pounding along the carpeted floor, her Force enhanced speed somehow unable to allow her to keep up with the cyborg.

Sprinting around the corner wear they had first encountered Grievous, she spotted the limp forms of Alderaan guards lying on the floor. Growling with hate, she felt Bella rearing up, her offer to take over prominent in Aurora's mind. Sending back a decline seemed almost like speaking to another person, giving her slight pause in her mind, as she tried to grasp what they had said earlier, how her action had given them power. Violently removing the thought from her mind, she resolved to stop Grievous before returning to the issue at hand. As Aurora finally neared the cyborg, she put in one last burst of speed, turning off her sabers and propelling herself beside her enemy, her feet using the wall as a springboard, and tackled him, taking the two of them out of the window, and tumbling down an incline toward the courtyard below.

As the two fell off the incline, Aurora pushed out, her feet slamming into her ground as the Force and her knees cushioned the otherwise crippling blow. Spotting where Grievous had landed, her eyes widened as his Durasteel legs shrug off the killing fall like it was nothing. As he took off out of the courtyard, Aurora quickly followed, her face painted with rage and fury, Bella practically begging to take over, the thrill of the hunt calling to her. Aurora ignored her, pushing her back down as she followed the Kaleesh general into the streets of Aldera, her prey managing to remain out of her reach. As the two reached the site of where the droid dropships remained, Aurora launched herself forward, lightsabers ignitng again in a surge of green that flowed across the open street, Grievous dancing out of the way at the last minute. Activating the remote, the ray shields dropped. Dodging a lunge one more time, the cyborg general climbed into the craft and took off, easily moving out of her reach.

Falling to the ground, Aurora put her head in her hands, mourning the loss of life that was to come from Grievous' escape. 'We told you,' Cissa whispered in her ear, 'We told you that we could have stopped him. You care too much.' Aurora savagely pushed them back into her mind, the three voices settling down reluctantly, the fury they all possessed at being ignored soaking into her mind.

'Someday,' Dromeda managed to get out, the whisper barely legible, 'When you need us most, we will abandon you.'

Before she could bite back a vicious reply, Windu appeared beside her, concern on his face. "Black, are you okay?"

Aurora grunted her acceptance, before standing looking the tall Jedi in the eyes, "Someone should check on Queen Organa. She was almost thrown through a window."

"Are you okay though?" Anakin asked, his voice carrying a commanding tone.

Whispers of 'the master' echoed in her mind, causing her to hesitate slightly. Shaking her head, she nodded, "Just a little out of it. I promise."

Anakin gave her a concerned look, before nodding, turning away to recall the troops that had been looking for Grievous prior to his reappearance. "It's a shame," Windu began, as he walked off, "That you weren't able to stop him. Don't let it discourage you, many Jedi have failed to do so, you did an admirable job."

'I could have done better,' Cissa grumbled, the other two mentally nodding beside her. 'But only if you let me out to play.' Aurora frowned, unsure of how to answer the childlike being that resided in her head, as well as the other three voices.

F&P

Aurora sat quietly in her room aboard her Venator cruiser, her eyes closed as she let it wander. 'This won't help you get rid of us!' Bella exclaimed mockingly, the dark whisper in her ear causing her to shiver violently. 'There is no way now, you gave us power.'

Aurora frowned, 'How so?!'

Dromeda rose up in her mind, voice still bitter about being ignored, 'Don't you know? You gave us identity. In your mind, we are not a part of you, that gives us power. To you, we are no longer the same entity, which makes it impossible to "cure" us. We are a permanent fixture inside you now, and thus have more power over our body.'

'You tricked me,' Aurora groweld.

Cissa smirked, 'Ah, we were just playing with you. Not our fault you don't know the game. Can I go play with the clones now, sis?'

'The clones are off limits,' Aurora bit out savagely, thankful when Dromeda and Bella agreed.

'Yes, we need loyal, subservient followers,' Dromeda explained.

Bella nodded quickly, a cruel smirk injected into their shared thoughts, 'For when the master decides to rule, we can give him the tools necessary to dispatch his enemies.'

Cissa seemed to brighten, 'So we can have more friends to play with, when Master finally gets fed up.'

'Anakin is good,' Aurora protested, 'He will never fall.'

Bella laughed coldly, 'Are you sure about that, sister? Or did you forget the village already? He fell far then, and unlike what Cliegg Lars said, he did butcher those children out of hate, not some perverted form of justice that you and he tried to justify later.'

'You don't know what you're talking about. You know nothing about Anakin.' Aurora barked.

Dromeda laughed, 'Of course we do. We are you. Or rather, we were. We are separate entities in your mind, we have done everything you have, we have felt everything that you have, we know everything you do, and we are better.'

Aurora shook her head, 'If that is true, how can you be better.'

'Because,' Cissa explained, the child-like persona speaking down to her, 'you decide to regulate all the things you can't handle, onto us. And that means we are much better at playing with people than you are.'

Before Aurora could respond to the voices, her door slid open, a familiar voice cutting into the arguments she was having with… herself. "General?"

Aurora opened her eyes, spotting Tryl standing before her. "Yes, Commander?" her voice came out surprisingly wooden.

'Oh, can we play with him? He's actually nice to us.' Cissa asked, the child-like voice having a weird allure to it.

'NO!' Aurora snarled, their internal dialogue bleeding onto her face.

Tryl shifted back at the look on her face, "I'm sorry ma'am, is this a bad time?"

Aurora shook her head, despite the other's protesting, "No. Sorry about that. I'm dealing with some personal issues right now." At the other's cries of outrage, Aurora smirked slightly, "Do you need something?"

Tryl nodded, "Yes, ma'am. The Chancellor is on the Holotable. He's asked to speak with you."

'Oooh, the Chancellor. He's nice to us too,' Cissa exclaimed happily.

"I'll be right there, thank you." Tryl nodded, turning and walking out. As Aurora stood she moved to leave, when Bella called out to her.

'Don't forget your lightsabers.'

Aurora blushed at getting rebuked from one of the several people living in her own mind, before pulling them into her hands from across the room. Leaving her room, she quickly moved through the halls, passing by the many saluting clones. At the murmurs of approval from the subservience, Aurora couldn't but help feel pride at the loyalty she had inspired. Shaking off the feeling that she was sure the others were causing, she entered the command center, seeing the holographic forms of the Chancellor, Anakin, and Windu around it.

"Ah, Master Black, how are you doing?" The Chancellor asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

Aurora bowed respectively, the others protesting loudly at the show of deferral. "I am fine, sir. Thank you."

The Chancellor nodded, "Good, good. I was talking with Master Skywalker and Master Windu, and was hoping you had something to add about General Grievous's escape."

"Yes, sir. He used Queen Breha as a hostage, it was either give him the controller for the ray shields, or she would die," Aurora explained, the others bemoaning how they would have just killed Grievous. "I couldn't allow that to happen, and planned on ambushing him the second that he let Queen Breha go, but he threw her out the window, which forced me to catch her and let him get a minute head start. I managed to catch up with him, and we went out the window, into the courtyard below.

I will admit that I was unaware his Durasteel skeleton would allow him to survive the fall, so it threw me off guard when he took off running, and he managed to stay out of my reach until he took off."

The Chancellor nodded again, in understanding, "That makes sense. Though, why didn't you use the Force, surely you could have stopped him that way."

"Sir, if I may," Anakin cut in, earning a frown of disapproval from the Chancellor, "I would surmise that since he still had a lightsaber on hand, the ensuing fight with all of the civilians, that had unexpectedly returned, may have caused significant loss of life, or another hostage situation."

"I suppose I must agree," The Chancellor acknowledged, "Well, you have my thanks, regardless, Miss Black. For saving Queen Breha, and fighting so bravely against a monster that has taken the lives of many more experienced Jedi."

Aurora smiled, the others bickering about how they could have bested the cyborg if they had been given the reigns. "Yes sir."

As the image of the Chancellor flickered away, Windu turned to her, "I'm sorry to ask this of you, but the Council informed me that Jaro Tapal could use some assistance at Bracka for a short time. It appears that the Separatists have decided to hit our construction site, and I don't need to stress how important it is that it doesn't fall."

"I will be happy to," Anakin nodded in agreement. "Ahsoka and I can handle it."

Windu turned to Anakin, "Actually Skywalker, you are being sent to Geonosis to reclaim the planet. It seems that the natives have restarted the droid factories."

"But Aurora should have a check up," Anakin protested. "After her fight with Grievous, it's better we make sure she is fine before sending her back into battle." Here, Anakin paused at the look Windu gave him over the weak argument. Changing course, Anakin turned to her, his voice accusatory, "Anyway, she needs to take her medication, which she conveniently," at this Aurora flinched at the infliction in his tone, "left behind at the temple."

The other voices protested loudly, promising retribution if she took the drugs that had been prescribed to her. "Anakin," She began slowly, "I'm fine, really."

As Anakin was about to respond, Windu cut in, "If she says she's fine, than she is fine. Jaro Tapal needs the additional cruiser, the Separatists have reinforced their numbers. I'm sure Black will be fine if she doesn't take it for a few weeks."

Anakin hesitated before nodding, looking to Aurora with a promise in his eyes. As Windu disappeared, Aurora glanced around the room before looking toward her best friend, the one the other's had deemed as master. "Anakin," she murmured, "I'm fine. We are fine." The others beamed with pride, happy to be acknowledged.

He sighed, "Alright, I'll see you there. Besides, this might be a good time for you and Ahsoka to get to know each other."

As Anakin disappeared, Bella whispered in her ear, 'Thank you, sister. Perhaps we are too hard on you.' Aurora snorted in amusement, before turning and walking on the deck, orders already on her lips.

F&P

A/N: So, if anyone noticed the names, I did kind of steal them from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. I mean, I used Bellatrix as almost a character model for Aurora, just shorter, and red eyes. While it's not a crossover, I do still give her credit on this aspect. Thanks J.K. and Lucas. Don't sue me. I don't have the money for it. Please comment and review.