This was odd. Tiv seemed to be in one of her images, but this time it was… different. Instead of being herself, but a ghost, she seemed to be inside another person. A split second of panic upon arrival had resulted in her struggling to get out of this stranger's mind, but she couldn't move. She didn't even seem to be a physical being, just a whisper, no, not even that, just a presence in this stranger's head.

But the panic had faded to be replaced by an almost repressive calm. Why bother struggling? she wondered. It wasn't as if there was any way of getting out. She'd have to see what was going on, and then she could decide what to do.

As in all of her times inside these images, Tiv felt as if her will was being driven by some outside force. It was what had made her look at Qui-Gon's face as he died, it was what had made her move forwards every time she entered a new realm, it was what showed her who she was to listen to and watch. And it was what was controlling her now.

But Tiv didn't have time to think any further than this, for that outside force was now driving her to look around.

She was aware of whoever's mind she was in, but beyond that, she was aware as if it were herself. She could feel the soreness in 'her' knees as she knelt on the hard floor. She could feel the trembling of 'her' hands as she clasped them behind her back. She could feel the terror in her mind.

And Tiv could see, exactly what whoever this was could see. She was kneeling on a hard, rocklike floor in a dark, unadorned room. Sitting in front of her was a cloaked figure on a chair that seemed to be made out of the same material as the floor. Rather uncomfortable looking, but she supposed it was this cloaked figure's own choice.

As the cloaked figure leaned forwards, she saw part of its face behind the hood. Obviously it, or rather, he, for the face was clearly male, wasn't trying to hide his face from her.

He was extremely pale, with a very wrinkled face. He looked to be extremely old, but one look at his piercing blue eyes, and no one would ever mistake him for a foolish old man.

"What news on the Jedi, my apprentice?" asked the man. So the mind Tiv was occupying belonged to his apprentice. Was it normal for them to be as afraid as Tiv sensed that they were?

"The cloner's been exterminated," responded the apprentice. Tiv flinched inwardly, hoping that they were referring to anyone but her… friend. Yes, Taun We was her friend, she decided, and she didn't want her to be dead.

"The Skywalker boys are still alive, but they won't last long. Fett lost an arm, and two other Jedi are down. We'll have them soon."

The man laughed. It was anything but a happy sound. "Yes indeed, my young apprentice. But do not be too eager. This will take time."

"Yes, Master," agreed his apprentice. "But we have done very well, these past few months…"

"We have, haven't we," responded the man. It wasn't a question. "You have done very well in your early days as a Sith. Better than many do… But you must be cautious. Do the Jedi suspect anything?"

The apprentice grinned. Tiv could feel 'her' face stretch as it did, but didn't feel any happiness from the gesture. "They still believe I'm leading a rebel movement, yet they have never seen any of my people, or where we live. The fools."

The man leaned back in his seat. "Yes. But we still must be careful. Find some minion who will be willing to play the part for an hour or two when you return."

"Yes, Master. May I ask when that will be?"

He shrugged. "When did you tell them that you would return?"

"A couple of years', I believe was my wording," 'Tiv' replied.

"Then return three years from now," 'her' Master ordered. Tiv was shocked. Were these two really planning that far ahead? How were they planning on remembering it three years from now?

He dismissed the stranger whose mind Tiv was occupying, and 'she' exited the room with a bow.

The hall was nearly as dark as the room, lit only by a false torch on the wall every few yards. Tiv was impressed. Obviously, everyone inhabiting this place was nocturnal.

Although there were no windows, Tiv assumed that it was nighttime from the tiredness her host felt. That immediately disproved her theory of nocturnal inhabitance, as nobody was in the halls.

The stranger obviously knew their way around, and took each turn automatically. Entering a door, the person ignored the silent companion, and glanced around the room with a habitual air.

It was made of the same dark rock as the other room and the halls, but more brightly lit, with four of the odd torches, all crudely made as if Tiv's host had built them themselves. There was a small bed, a desk, and a dresser, but no pictures or mementoes adorning the walls. The tiny room appeared to be a bedroom, with a door off to the side that might have led to a toilet room.

As the door slid shut, Tiv's host turned around absently, and came face-to-face with the mirror that was standing besides the wall. She (now that Tiv could see the reflection, it was definitely a woman) paused and glanced into it sadly.

She was small, Tiv noticed, about in her mid-twenties, she would guess, with wild, dark hair, a Gungan-like face, and green eyes. Wearing a blue dress with a small pouch at the hip, there was only two odd things about her appearance. A small scar adorning her right cheek, and the fact that she was the older self that Tiv had seen in her earlier bout with these living images.

Before Tiv had a chance to react to that, the woman… herself… she shook her head disgustedly, and turned away from the mirror. Tiv sensed that she was planning to meditate, but something made her hesitate. Instead, she crossed the room, and pulled something out of her pouch.

It was the small stone that Luke had given her. Now Tiv had no choice but to admit that this time was just a few hours after she had heard the news of Taun We's death. So that was why she hadn't cared. She was a Sith now; it wasn't callousness that drove her to the uncaring response she had given, it was evil.

Sith-Tiv held the stone in her hand for a moment, closing her eyes, lost in memory. Then, abruptly, she snapped out of her reverie, and opened a small box that was sitting on her desk.

Inside the box were three things. On top was a was a picture. In it, Tiv, perhaps only a year or so older than she really was now, was laughing, her arms flung around Colac's neck. Qui-Gon was standing behind her, with his arm around her shoulders, smiling calmly. Next to him, on one side, was Obi-Wan, who had a firm grip on Ani by the collar, while Boba seemed to be laughing at something his friend had done, and Taun We was holding him up by the shoulders. Tiv supposed whatever Ani had done must have been hilarious, because Boba looked as if he would have fallen over had Taun We let go.

On Qui-Gon's other side, Luke had one hand on Tiv's arm, and was saying something to her, while Anakin was leaning on younger Obi-Wan's shoulder. Padmé was holding a giggling Leia up, while Jar Jar seemed to be steadying the little girl.

Sith-Tiv moved the picture aside to reveal the other two objects in the box. There was a small shard of what appeared to be a lightsaber hilt, and a pouch that was tied off with a string. Instead of looking at either of those, Sith-Tiv simply put the stone into the box, closed it, and sat down on the hard rock floor to meditate.

As soon as Sith-Tiv entered her meditative state, all of her thoughts and memories seemed to be pushed back into the same part of her mind that Tiv was occupying at the time. And, of course, Tiv was immediately hit with all of them, and she didn't like what she saw about Sith-Tiv's past, possibly Tiv's future, one bit.

It took Tiv a while to piece together all of the random thoughts into a linear timeline. But when she did, she liked it even less.

A year passed after the time she was used to. Tiv remained in training with Qui-Gon, but never really managed to sort out her loyalties, never really felt as if she belonged as a Jedi. No matter what happened, she never admitted the slightest bit of friendship with the people who had so long taken care of her.

But then, Tiv and Qui-Gon were sent on a diplomatic mission to Tatooine. They were trying to negotiate an end to the war between the Tuskan Raiders, and the Hutts, but it didn't work out that way.

The war had ended before they had even arrived. The warring factions had finally found common ground: their hatred for the Jedi. As a beginning of their lives together as allies, they decided to lure two Jedi there, and kill them.

That would have been the end for Tiv and Qui-Gon, if a strange man hadn't suddenly appeared, and warned them of the trap. Although they hadn't entirely believed him, he had certainly slowed them down enough for the trap to be sprung on an unsuspecting fighter pilot.

The man had led them away to a place where he assured them that they would be safe. But, before arriving there, they had been attacked by Tuskan Raiders. To make a long story short, Qui-Gon died defending Tiv.

But that had been only the beginning of a terrible period in their history. After Qui-Gon's death, new attacks had began against the Jedi Order. It wasn't only from the Tuskan Raiders and the Hutts, but also the Federation, the Separatists, and a sudden barrage of enemies from all over the universe.

Even while that was going on, Tiv hadn't only had that to worry about. After Qui-Gon's death, she had returned to the Jedi Temple, and the Council had ruled that she would join the initiates until another Jedi decided to take her on as a Padawan. She had stayed there for a while, but nobody seemed willing to train her. Watching all of the other initiates join their new masters, she was struck by a sudden realization that she had never belonged here. She had never truly been a Jedi, and never would.

So when the same man who had saved her life on Tatooine had showed up, it hadn't taken much convincing before Tiv had joined him. She had told her master's friends that she was organizing a resistance movement against the growing power of the Jedi's enemies, who were calling themselves the Purgers. The name came from the idea that they were purging the world of the oppression of the Jedi.

But that hadn't been her destination. Instead, she had joined her friend, named Sidious, on his own side. He was the leader of the Purgers, better known as the Sith Lord. After taking Tiv as his apprentice, he instructed her not to tell the Jedi where she really was until, as he put it, the time was ripe.

Tiv had a suspicion of when exactly that would be. Someday, they were planning on attacking the Jedi Temple. The reason for that wasn't only to destroy their enemies. Far from it. It was to create a new order, separate from the Sith, and definitely separate from the Jedi. Sidious himself would lead it, leaving Tiv in charge of the Sith.

This new order, called Sidi, in a shortened honor of Sidious, would be the balance between the two. With the Sidis, populated by Padawans kidnapped from the Jedi Temple, a terrible and wonderful army would be built.

Indeed, the Sidis would be perfect for the new leaders of the galaxy. After all, they alone would have a leader who was soon to be in contact with the leader of many other universes.

After that, Tiv would be handed leadership of the Sidis, while Sidious left to make sure that this same thing happened in all the other universes. Although Tiv and the Sidis would be left waiting, perhaps for many years, eventually Sidious would come for them. And he would lead all the bands of Sidis against the Jedi in his old universe. From there, once they had control, they would have each universe under their constant watch, and would be in their full power.

Suddenly, Tiv felt as if a hand had clasped onto her wrist, which was especially odd, since, being outside of physical form, she didn't have a wrist.

But, defying logic, whatever it was that had her dragged her into the room, where she found herself floating, in a ghost-like form visible only to her other self, in physical reality.

"Who are you?" demanded Sith-Tiv.

"Tiv… I'm you…" Tiv fumbled, confused.

"My name is Tivania," retorted Sith-Tiv, misunderstanding her other self's fumbling. "Tiv was a childhood nickname, nothing more."

"But… I'm Tiv," said Tiv. "I mean…"

"Tivania is your real name," snapped Sith-Tiv, or Tivania, she supposed.

"No. Well, yes, but I mean… nobody calls me that. Except the Council, but well, they're kind of…"

"Fools," finished Tivania.

"At least we agree on something," Tiv muttered.

"That still doesn't tell me who you are," Tivania pointed out.

"I… well… I'm you. From the past, I guess. See, I was seeing these images, and then I just got… sucked in here…"

"Without the pauses, please."

"That's it. I'm here, but I'm supposed to be in the past."

"When, exactly, in the past are you?" demanded Tivania.

"Well, I've been Qui-Gon's Padawan for a little while… Leia and the younger Obi-Wan have been with us for about a week."

"We ended up calling him Obi, like we called the younger Anakin Ani."

"But we already have an Ani!"

"No. Ani is the younger Anakin, he's from an alternate universe. So is Luke, and Obi and Leia, too."

Tiv blinked. "Huh?"

"Long story short, Qui-Gon died when Darth Maul showed up, Obi-Wan trained Anakin, blah blah blah, Anakin grew up to betray them all and become a Sith, Luke got born, he ended up fighting the Sith, figured out that his father was one, turned Anakin back, Anakin killed Sidious, who was his new master, Sidious created approximately a billion universes, he contacted different ones to try to control each universe, each of which had one tiny variable to see if what that would change, the one I assume was yours was an asteroid, which ended up saving Qui-Gon's life, but Obi-Wan accidentally kept seeing visions of different universes while the true Sidious was trying to contact other ones, so he, Qui-Gon, and Anakin managed to stop Sidious in this universe, but not before Ani and Luke got stuck here, so now he's trying to come back and rule all the other ones and using this universe as a place to keep all the people that he wants out of his way, and we were accidentally seeing the other universes, but he decided to take us as his apprentice, so now I'm training with him so I can lead the Sidis while he's away, and the Sith while he's leading the Sidis."

"Was that all one sentence?" asked Tiv, ignoring how long that story must have been if that was the short version.

Tivania frowned. "Yes, I think it was. Did you understand it?"

Tiv nodded. "I did, but I didn't quite get one thing. Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Why are you so caught up in gaining control over everything?"

Tivania didn't even pause to consider the weight behind this question. "Because the universe is a chaotic place, and someone needs to bring order to it. Everything needs to be controlled. Do you remember Berry and Tassel?"

"Of course!" exclaimed Tiv. "I was with them just two minutes ago."

"They always try to race outside every time anyone opens the door, right?"

"Yes…" Tiv wasn't sure where this was going.

"Well, why did we never let them?"

"Because if they got outside, someone would step on them, or they'd get lost."

"And you don't want to lose them, correct?"

"Of course not!"

"Well, that's exactly what it is with people. If left to their own devices, they'd manage to destroy themselves. That's what the Sith are doing. Saving them from themselves. Protecting them, just as you protect you kittens, or Qui-Gon used to protect you."

"Us, don't you mean," Tiv shot back. "He protected us, and he died doing it. Why can't you see that, see what really happened?"

"And what really happened?" asked Tivania patronizingly.

"Your… our master died, and we were scared, and lost. Nobody would accept us, so we were lonely, too. Then an evil man came and told us good things about how he was trying to protect people from themselves, and how we could help, and how valuable we would be to his cause, and we drank it all up, because we were scared and lost and lonely. We followed his orders, even when it meant lying to our friends, or going years without seeing the people we cared about, until we finally found that we didn't even care about them anymore.

"But we didn't resist, because we didn't want to be alone again, and we just got deeper and deeper into it until we could pull out. And finally, when our usefulness was over with, and it came time for him to share some of the rewards that he got from all our hard work, he discarded us, like a sweater that was too small. And this time, we really were alone, because all our friends who we hadn't killed hated us now for what we had done. And they were right."

Tivania swallowed, but only said sarcastically, "That hasn't happened."

"It will. Believe me, it will. But," Tiv leaned forwards. "It's not too late yet. You can still go back, join the other side. You can still do all the things you said you did. You can still be who you promised your master you would be."

Tivania stiffened. "You know nothing of that."

"Remember, I was in your mind. I saw what you said to him as he died. I also saw what Sidious said."

"What does it matter what he said? It means nothing now!"

"It shows who he really is," Tiv protested. "And who you really are, if you don't care about that."

"I thought you said we were the same person," Tivania said, at loss for anything else to say.

"Perhaps we are," Tiv said softly. "I, for one, hope that I turn out very differently than you."

Tivania glanced away. "So do I," she whispered.

So, what'd you think? By the way, with what Tivania said to explain her trying to control the universe, the thing about the kittens, I have nothing against indoor cats, I have two of them myself. Also, I'm leaving today to go on vacation, so I'll try to post when I get back. Originally, this was just going to be a short one so that I wouldn't leave you with a cliffy, but it turned out to be eight pages long. Hope you don't mind. Anyway, hope you liked their diabolical plan. Normally, I'm not very good at writing the evil stuff, especially around the holidays, so I'm not sure if that actually made any sense, what they're planning to do. I'd tell you more, but I don't want to spoil the ending, especially one I haven't thought up yet! Yes, I have no idea how Tiv's going to get out of this one. If you have any ideas, please tell me. Anyway, I'll update when I get back. See you later!