Author's Thanks: to Luke SkyWolf's dad, Kahara, Master Solo, and Shinigami!

L SW's d - Thanks for that input. Easier to understand is better. :) Sorry about your fingers… carpal tunnel?

K - Well, by the time you get to this chapter, you should see the connection.

M S - Oh, yes. Don't worry—she'll be found. :)

S - We'll see. :)

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Author's Note:

I know, I've been gone a long time… chronic illness and writer's block don't mix too well.

Yay, I've gotten an idea to restart this story yet again! My new idea will involve ministories and, Lord willing, be easier to follow. I'm gonna try to finish this, first, though.

No blaspheming or cursing, but please do flame, critique & put little smilies after jokes. That last one sounds weird, I know, but I need it.

Enjoy:)

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Thirty

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…Eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three steps to the far wall, and one, two three—

"Would you quit pacing?" the dead Knight Rhara complained. "You're making me dizzy."

"No," Wiala simply replied, counting twenty-three steps back. She began the cycle again.

"Anyone know who that Dooku is?"

"A Sith," responded Wiala, not letting herself process what that meant.

Jedi Knight Jacen Solo started.

"A very dead Sith," she absently corrected herself.

"Huh?"

"Has anyone seen Yadmi?" Sokor piped up.

Wiala shuddered in midstep. She knew where Master Chayunda was.

Queen Ramallia finally looked up from staring at the floor of the room they were being held in. "Tortured?"

"Interrogated," she specified. "Dark Side probe, at the moment."

"You can tell?" asked Jacen, surprised.

The eight-year-old Fallanassi heiress merely glanced his way. "No duh." Her pacing didn't miss a step.

"This is my fault," whispered Her Majesty.

Wiala whirled on her. "It is not. You've done your best to defend your world. If I was you, I wouldn't be too keen to reveal my parentage, either. You've saved Rhara with Solo's presence. Dooku won't dare reveal himself to the new Order, yet."

She turned and resumed her counted steps. "We can do nothing."

Clee Rhara shot to her feet. "If you think I'm going to sit back and let some kid tell me what I can and can't do, you're gravely mistaken," she growled.

"I was merely stating a fact," responded Wiala without batting an eyelid. "Accepting that fact is up to you."

"Why are my friends so weird?" muttered Sokor.

The eight-year-old winced.

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"I hate him."

She gulped back tears. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get rid of the bitter malice that formed her inner core.

Kiacha loathed her father.

She wanted to kill him.

She stared at the far wall of the stone tunnel, listening to the waterfalls' calm music. It couldn't soothe her.

"I'm crazy," she admitted to the secret passage. "I'm emotionally unstable. I like killing."

She hesitated. "Well, a part of me does." Kiacha snorted. "Now my friends are captured, and I'm stuck in this cavern.

"Because I damaged myself. I couldn't handle my anger and took it out on me."

She looked at her hands, remembering times when she'd nearly joined the Dark Side, spared only from those friends who refused to leave her side even when she became dangerous enough to kill them…

Her breath caught, recalling when she nearly had killed Ben. His ragged breaths filled her ears; his face shone from sweat and blood. She'd attacked him with her bare hands, but he'd refused to retaliate against her. All the bones and internal injuries had taken months to heal. That hadn't been all that long ago, either.

She covered her ears, vainly trying to block out the sound of his strained, pained voice. Closing her eyes didn't do any good, either.

She'd attacked Pooja more than Ben, but it was Ben's state that haunted her. Pooja's did, of course… Benji's did, more.

In that moment, with her warily prying the Force to heal her wounds and fighting her memories, the thought occured to her.

Could I… love him?

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'A very dead Sith…'

What in the galaxy had Wiala meant by that?

Jacen watched the petite girl pace back and forth across the room. She seemed so calm, so accepting…

Sith? The Sith had been gone for years; could she have meant Dark Jedi? There were many of those.

For some reason he didn't think so. Wiala was obviously intelligent. She knew what she was talking about.

Unfortunately, no one else did.

"You know who my parents are," Queen Ramallia said suddenly.

Wiala stiffened slightly but didn't miss a step. "Yes."

"What of Tira's?"

The girl replied as if reciting. "Tiara De Billaba Taa' Dooku. Original name: Kiacha Dooku. Spent her first few years raised by Sith father before being rescued Jedi Master mother.

"Father: Darth Tyranus, better known as former Jedi Master, Count Dooku.

"Mother: Jedi Master Depa Billaba, former junior member of the Jedi Council.

"Mental condition: fluxuating.

"Emotional condition: unstable.

"Fighting capability: lethal.

"Loyalties: difficult to procure, but intense once gained.

"Preferred weapon: varies according mental and emotional state. Not the best shot, though.

"Overall assessment: lethal, but much more likely to be such to other side; particularly if you stay calm at all times."

She turned to them and offered a tight false smile. "That's the summarized version. I have her entire profile."

Everyone was frowning at the girl.

She sighed. "I have a Force-assisted memory, all right?" She glanced aside. "I got a lot from Mother."

"You have your mother's memories?" The Queen spoke as if intrigued by something she'd previously heard of, but never before seen.

Wiala's face scrunched. "In a sense. I got much of her knowledge, but she kept most of the memories from whence they came to herself.

She returned to her pacing. "It gets confusing."

Jacen struggled to make sense of this. "...I'll say."

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Pain. Unending pain.

You can stop it! Let them in!

"No!" she screeched. "I won't—I refuse! I know nothing!"

Liar.

She shook, her muscles spasming. Her old body couldn't take much more of Darth Tyranus' tender care.

Sense of humor intact… Good… sign.

But so it often was with those who wittingly accepted death when it was coming. Barring some change of heart on the Sith's part, she was going to die.

If such is the will of the Force…

Yadmi, Eirtae, Chayunda—she had been them all.

Yadmi.

The eccentric handmaiden to Palpatine's granddaughter. The one who struggled to remember who she was; who knew something important was missing from her memory from her past, but couldn't figure out what.

Eirtae.

Handmaiden to Queen Amidala; participant in the Battle of Naboo. She was the one Tyranus searched, the one who knew too much about her former queen and the queen's family. Too much.

Chayunda.

Kept her sane, right now. This wasn't the first Dark Side interrogation she'd ever encountered, though she couldn't remember the previous ones; and she knew it was not likely to be her last.

Even if this one killed her.