Sorry about the wait (again). Family crisis, schoolwork, you get the drill. Anyway, there should be one more chapter after this, and then I'm thinking of making a sequel. Anyone have any opinions on that? Also, I'd like to know if this chapter makes any sense. In case it wasn't obvious, normal font is the universe we're used to, italics are Tivania's universe. Count Dooku and a younger version of somebody also make guest appearances. Any guesses who? Reviews welcome.

Obi hurried down the corridor, making sure not to trip over the three boys running in front of him. They reached the door to Qui-Gon's rooms, and the boy called Ani opened them impatiently. Healer Myra slipped past them with a calmness that belied the expression Obi recalled when the boys had told her, tripping over each other in their rush to get the words out, what was happening.

The scene that met their eyes was not an optimistic one. Yoda and Windu were bent over what Obi assumed to be Tiv, while Boba and Padmé were talking comfortingly to Leia, who seemed to have had a breakdown as soon as she hadn't had to worry about Colac.

Taun We had Qui-Gon's arm in a death grip, while Jar Jar was holding one of the two kittens and looking dejected. Obi would later learn that the Council members had just recently sent him away from their discussion.

Obi-Wan and Anakin, deep in a discussion, were the only ones to look up as the newcomers entered. They barely glanced at one another before Anakin hurried over to his master, and Obi-Wan to the five of them.

Myra excused herself to go examine Tiv, while Obi-Wan attempted to extract some kind of information out of his friends.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Obi figured out what that one healer meant when she was told Qui-Gon that there had been no noticeable Force surges in the area after Tiv became Force-sensitive except (insert long pause here)" Luke explained.

"What?" demanded Qui-Gon, coming over with Taun We and Anakin. Luke glanced at Obi, inviting him to do the talking.

"Since the Force surge that brought Ani and Luke here and gave him," he jerked his head at Obi-Wan, still slightly confused about using names, "his visions."

Qui-Gon fell silent for a moment, and then nodded. "It makes sense," he whispered. "Perfect sense."

Tiv cursed in every language she knew as she darted down the halls. There was no way that this would ever work. She should have seen it from the beginning.

It was odd, really. The entire time that Tiv had been with the Jedi as Qui-Gon's apprentice, she had never once wanted to be there. Had an opportunity come by to rid herself of them, she would have taken it immediately. But now, looking at what she became without the Jedi, she resolved never to leave them.

They say the grass is always greener, but this is ridiculous, thought Tiv. How is this ever going to work?

Tivania had said that the universe was unstable because it was holding the other worlds together, or trying to. But Tiv was able to read between the lines, and as stupid as she had been with the Jedi, she wasn't about to make the same mistake with her own self.

The universe was unstable because it was the portal between all the worlds. There were so many people from different universes who didn't belong there, that it was working about as well as Tiv's relationship with her friends had.

If Tivania's universe was about to fall apart because of the trafficking, then how long would Tiv's, the dumpyard for Sidious, last?

By now, Tiv was wishing that her fooling around in her older self's mind had been restrained to memories. But she knew what would happen to her universe, and she knew what she was.

The normal Tiv was odd enough. Between hating both the Sith, and the Jedi, she was somewhat of a freak on both sides. Her mother being a Sith made her even freakier. The fact that her father was a Jedi didn't help matters. A Dark Jedi, yes, but not a Sith, and therefore a freak. And a freak-maker.

But the fact that Sidious had created a creature that could hold together all of the universes upon 'creating' them was too much. Especially when that creature had killed the real Tiv and taken her place.

So Tiv was Sidious' minion, created only to serve him. Yeah, like that was ever going to happen. She may not be the most loyal of the Jedi, she may not even ever manage to complete her training, she may not be a Jedi, but she was not a Sith!

And she never would be. If her sole function was to create instability in a universe, then she would journey to Sidious'. If she was a weapon, she would turn on her creators. But she would not kill her friends, even unwittingly.

And that was something Sidious hadn't counted on.

Qui-Gon had told the Council members everything. And now they had called in their resident expert on the Sith: Count Dooku.

"Yes, I think I remember something of the sort," the ex-Sith mused. "A creature, created by Darth Sidious after he put all his alternate universes in place. It was a shape-changer, designed to send universes into chaos. Sidious would target a universe, and then send this creature to it.

"The creature would kill someone, and take its form. As it would also take its memories, it would have no clue as to what it was until its master contacted it."

Qui-Gon found it a small comfort that his apprentice hadn't known what she was doing when helping the Sith destroy their universe.

"But just before I… left… Sidious realized something. The seemingly harmless girl that his creature had impersonated had recently acquired Force-sensitivity."

"How?" demanded Mace Windu with his usual charm.

Dooku just shrugged. "He didn't say, sorry. Anyways, because the girl (Tiv) was Force-sensitive, Sidious could only contact her the normal way, the way he had contacted Obi-Wan." He gave the Jedi a nod, and Obi-Wan nodded back. But that was difficult for him, because there wasn't enough Force-energy where she was."

"Enough… okay, I'm lost," Padmé admitted. Dooku smiled at her kindly.

"Don't worry," he told her. "It's natural. I just meant that since Tiv didn't have enough people who were Force-sensitive or had been around people who were Force-sensitive around her for Sidious to draw off their energy to contact her.

"So when she met Boba, some of the energy that had been rubbed off on him from being in the Temple so often must have rubbed off on Tiv, enough for Sidious to contact her by means of the visions she saw."

"Tiv didn't see any visions," Qui-Gon said. Dooku looked surprised.

"Didn't she? I could have sworn that she said she did…"

Tivania closed her eyes with exhaustion. Her master made this projecting thing seem so easy… But she couldn't do it.

No. She opened her eyes with an angry determination. She knew Tiv had read some of the story off of her, but if she couldn't project to Dooku, then the Jedi might never get the full story.

Was she a creature created by Sidious or not? Okay, that hadn't sounded so good… But she was, and some of his talent must have rubbed off on her. And right now, she would have to use it, whether he believed that she could or not.

Perhaps if she made it obvious to the others in the room that she was projecting, and she was not Sidious, they would accept Dooku's 'instinct' on the subject.

Because she had to project the full story to them. Tiv wouldn't have time when she got home to explain her part and hear the bits and pieces told by her friends and put it all together. She would have to leave immediately.

Tivania knew she could do something over distances. What about Obi? He had been such a close friend to her that, when he arrived in Tiv's universe so badly injured, she had managed to heal him across the worlds without disturbing anything.

And she had done it. Obi was fine, even if she hadn't managed to do it in a surreptitious way. Stealth didn't matter when lives were at stake.

So Tivania had managed that, and she would manage this. She had to. Perhaps Tiv would never fully understand who and what she was, but she would know at least a quick summery of the story.

Because Tivania herself hadn't learned her identity until a few years ago. And, no matter how many gaps it had filled, no matter how happy she thought she was with the Sith, Tivania knew that if she had been given a choice, she never would have let any of this happen.

And it wouldn't happen to Tiv. With a new determination, Tivania closed her eyes and began to project.

"She did," Obi-Wan said with a sudden surety. The others gave him an odd look, but then slowly, one by one, it dawned on them.

Even the non-Force users among them could feel it. Tiv, or someone who 'felt' extraordinarily like her, was projecting the story, and Dooku could sense it. Yoda nodded, giving his former Padawan silent permission to continue with the story in any way Tiv sent it to him.

"Tiv had her first vision just has Boba came into 'range' of her. The visions got stronger and more often as she spent more time in the Temple, until she was a physical presence in them. But Sidious could only project visions of the 'real' universe, not of what she was. If he had… Tiv would have been faced with a very difficult choice much too soon.

"But she wasn't, and that's that. Sidious could control her in the visions, making sure that she looked at what he wanted her too and thought of it exactly as he required. Soon, he could even influence a small bit of her mind into arguing with her common sense.

"She got catapulted to another universe, one where Tiv ended up joining the Sith. She was in the mind of her older self. I think the idea was that she would see how much happier she was with Sidious than with us, and follow the path he had dictated.

"But that wasn't how it worked out. Tiv instead convinced her older self that what she was doing was wrong, and turned her back to our side. And now, Tivania is projecting the story to me."

Tiv charged down halls and stopped quickly as she spotted something that she had recognized from Tivania's mind. The portal was there, yes, but it was blocked by a very deep trench.

The trench was small enough for Tiv to jump across, but it was what was curled up in front of it that caught her attention.

A little boy, brown haired, with a Padawan's braid sticking out at odd angles. He couldn't have been more than five. And, it was as obvious as the braid on his head, that he wasn't from this world.

"I can't jump across," he said pitifully as she came near. Tiv's heart went out to him, although her instincts cried out for her to leave him behind.

She didn't bother to wonder why he had trusted her so impeccably without even knowing her. He was just a child, after all.

"C'mon!" Tiv cried, grabbing his arm and lifting him up. Clutching the little child in her arms, she jumped across…

Luke glanced up as a little boy landed on the floor with a 'thump'. At the same exact moment, Tiv stirred sleepily.

"She's back."