AN: There's a reference to a well-known vine in this chapter. Anyone familiar with vines will probably spot it right away.

You forfeit all rights to my heart!

You forfeit the place in our bed!

– "Burn", Hamilton on Broadway

Lorn and Darsha watched the holovid in silence, not quite able to believe what they were seeing. Perhaps if the child was being tortured or at least raised incorrectly… While it would be terrible to watch, it would at least make sense given what was known about the Sith.

But the child looked… happy. She was raising building blocks with the Force to create a tower, and laughing with joy.

The little girl was dressed in the usual attire of a Jedi Youngling, only without a headdress typically worn around the top of a Twi'lek's lekku. She was a Rutian Twi'lek like Darsha's master, but what stood out were the three horns atop of her forehead. They were small, had probably only just grown out of being nothing more than stumps. But it was clear what they were.

Darsha's eyes widened in realisation. "The Sith is her father."

Lorn looked to Darsha and then back to the holovid. It was hard to picture that monster as a father, and yet, the horns were in the same position as the Zabrak's three front horns. Added to that, they had a Holocron that contained holovids of a half-Zabrak child, while being pursued by a Zabrak who potentially owned the Holocron. It would be too much of coincidence for it not to be true.

And then Lorn remembered the anger he had seen in the Zabrak's eyes, back in Monchar's office. That was why it looked familiar, he realised; it was a father's anger when his child was threatened, and the same anger Lorn himself had felt when the Jedi had refused to return his son to him.

"That's why he wants the Holocron back," he said aloud. "If it falls into the wrong hands, then the safety of his child is compromised."

The Padawan frowned at him. "Are you actually sympathising with a Sith?"

"If you looked into his eyes, you would see the same thing. Sith he may be, but right now, he's a father willing to do anything to protect his daughter," said Lorn. "And we're standing between them."

"You're saying that he loves this child?"

Before Lorn could answer, the holovid changed. It showed the Sith Lord, standing with a dark hood concealing half of his face.

"Master, the child's progress is extraordinary," he said. His voice was low and deadly, but he also sounded young. Lorn estimated that the Zabrak couldn't be any older than Darsha. "She is strong in the Force, and-"

He was cut off by the child in question walking into frame and tugging on the Sith's cloak. "Da! Da!"

Lorn expected the Sith to fly off the handle for being interrupting, but there was no such reaction. Instead the Zabrak removed his hood and every ounce of intimidation in his posture left him in the space of a second. "Kassandra? I'm working right now, little pup. Where's your mother?"

The little girl, Kassandra, held out what appeared to be a piece of paper. "Drew you and Mama! And me!"

"Did you draw this?" The Sith took the paper, and Lorn couldn't deny the pride in his expression. "It's impressive work. Have you shown your mother?"

The holovid ended, and Lorn could see Darsha's conflicted thoughts on the matter play out across her face. From what little Lorn had heard about the Sith, they were supposed to be irredeemably evil; monsters of the dark side who cared for nothing but themselves. Trying to correlate that with what she'd just seen was clearly giving Darsha a headache.

In the end, she shut off the Holocron and let it land back into Lorn's hand. "It doesn't matter that he loves his child. The Sith once tried to conquer this galaxy, and they will try to do so again. He killed my master, and no doubt he will try and kill more Jedi. He needs to be stopped, and the child rescued."

Lorn narrowed his eyes at her. "So you can train her as a Jedi?"

"She is strong with the Force," was all Darsha said, as if that answered his question.

He wanted to argue – wanted to tell her that while this Zabrak might be a Sith, he had the right to keep his daughter – but stopped short when another thought occurred to him. This child was clearly important, being the offspring of perhaps the first Sith to be seen in a thousand years. And if that was the case, then the Jedi would want to take her into their ranks at all costs, if only to keep her away from the Sith.

But what if he found the girl first? He could take the child – and the child's mother, if she needed rescuing – to the Jedi, and offer to hand her over in exchange for his son. Surely the daughter of a Sith Lord would be far more valuable to them than a regular Force-sensitive? Maybe they'd even be impressed by him, and give Jax back to him not as part of a bargain but as a show of gratitude…

"We need to get out of here and get back to the Temple." Darsha's voice pulled Lorn out of his thoughts. She had stopped walking and was surveying their surroundings. "The Council can then mount a rescue mission to free the child."

Thinking fast, he said, "Would it not make more sense to go after the child ourselves? For all we know, the Sith could be moving her as we speak."

"Good point," said Darsha. "But we don't even know the first place to look. She might not even be on Coruscant." She paused, struck by a thought. "Then again, she could be. Zek Peiro only operates on Coruscant, and if the Holocron was kept in the same place as the child…"

"I have a droid," said Lorn. "I-Five. I'm sure he'll be able to work out where the child is."

"OK." After a pause, she said, "I'm Darsha, by the way. Darsha Assant."

"Lorn Pavan." He wondered if she would recognise his name from his time working in the Temple, but she showed no sign that she had.

They barely walked a few more steps before Darsha suddenly stopped dead, eyes closed. Lorn had been around enough Jedi to know that she'd sensed something in the Force, so remained quiet and watched her work. Only a few seconds later, Darsha's eyes snapped open and she turned, igniting her lightsaber.

Through the darkness a figure jumped towards them, and the double red blades igniting in mid-air answered the unspoken question as to who it was. The Sith.

Their blades clashed, and Darsha called over her shoulder, "Go! I'll hold him off!"

He knew he should listen to her and run, but Lorn found himself hesitating. Darsha reminded him of a time when he hadn't hated the Jedi; when he'd seen them as heroes who defended the galaxy and stood up for those who couldn't help themselves. She was what a Jedi should be, and he found that he didn't hate her.

Lorn didn't have time to contemplate what might have happened, if they'd had more time. Could they have been friends? Could she have helped him get Jax back? Or would she have proven herself to be like the Jedi who had taken him? He would never know.

In the end, the possibility of getting his son back was more important than helping her, so he ran.

Darsha fought with everything she had. But she knew deep down that if her master – Anoon Bondara, Battlemaster of the Jedi Order and one of its greatest duellists – couldn't defeat this Sith, then what hope did she have?

He'd wanted to follow Lorn when the man ran, but she was able to stop him. His actions confirmed that he was more concerned about the Holocron and what it contained, rather than killing Jedi. It was still hard to stomach, that this brutal creature with a monstrous face could love anything, but she couldn't deny what was right in front of her.

The anger in his eyes was born from a parent's desperation to protect his child. Darsha could see it now, thanks to Lorn pointing it out. And he was using that unchained emotion to fuel his every move, drawing power from not just his anger, but his love.

This had to be why love was forbidden for the Jedi, Darsha realised.

"You are not the first Padawan I have faced," said the Sith. "I thought there would be more to you. Your master was a worthy opponent; a warrior. He has clearly not taught you well."

Darsha felt her anger grow, but she quickly pushed it down again. The Sith was trying to bait her into giving into her emotions; trying to make her slip, or make her fall into the dark, it didn't matter. Instead she focussed on what he'd said and the Force urged her on, as if it was trying to tell her something.

She was not the first Padawan he'd faced, he'd said. There were thousands of Jedi, but in these times of peace the death of a Jedi was rarer, and each passing was known by everyone in the Temple. So, whoever this Padawan was had to be dead, or else he or she would have immediately informed the Council that the Sith had returned.

As she continued fighting, she ran through a list of names in her head, remembering all of the Padawans who had been killed or gone missing since she had been at the Temple. She evaluated each circumstance of death, debating whether or not the death was suspicious…

Until she reached one name. Eldra Kaitis.

The Force screamed at her, and everything clicked.

Her eyes widened. She had thought, upon seeing the child in the holovid, that she looked familiar. And now she knew why.

She and Eldra had grown up together in the Purrgil Clan. They hadn't been especially close, having different friendship groups, but they'd taken the same classes and eaten the same meals, and Darsha remembered the day when Eldra had been declared missing and then when she'd been presumed dead by the Council…

But she was alive. Captured by the Sith.

And she'd had a child with one.

Anger rose up again. "You… You took Eldra! What did you do to her?!"

The Sith moved faster than she thought anyone was capable of, and the next thing she knew there was a metal pipe sticking out of her chest.

Darsha dropped her lightsaber and collapsed to the floor, the pain unbearable. She felt the blood staining her robes, and her vision started blurring. But the Sith standing above her was still clear as day, and the fierce protectiveness in his gaze startled her.

"Are you Siri?" he asked.

That confirmed it. Siri was Eldra's best friend. "No. My name is Darsha."

"She never spoke of you."

"We weren't close." It was getting harder to speak and stay focussed, but Darsha kept going. "Doesn't mean I don't… care."

The Sith knelt beside her. "Eldra and our child are mine to protect. Rest assured that they are safe with me."

Darsha looked into his eyes one last time, and saw that his words weren't false assurances. He truly believed this.

"No one is safe in the dark," she told him, before giving her life to the Force.

"Hurry, I-Five. He could be here at any moment."

"It is impossible for me to process this information any faster than my current pace," said the droid. I-5YQ was a silver protocol droid Lorn had purchased to help him with his work, and after removing his restraining bolt, the droid had become one of the few friends he had.

And perhaps now, he was his only friend. Lorn suspected that Tyro had been killed by the Sith, and since Darsha hadn't caught up with him…

The droid was a terrific slicer. While accessing a Holocron's data was impossible without opening it (and that was something that could only be achieved by a Force-wielder), he had managed to connect to the Holocron on a more technical level in order to discover its point of origin.

After a few tense minutes of silence, there was a beep.

"Did you get it?" asked Lorn.

"I have downloaded the location to your datapad," said I-Five.

"I-Five, you're a lifesaver." Lorn grabbed his satchel before he stuffed his datapad and the Holocron inside. He checked that his blaster was still attached to his belt, and then on a whim, grabbed an electro-magnetic pulse grenade that had been given to him by Tyro after a particularly nasty incident with an assassin droid.

I-Five eyed him carefully. "Lorn, are you certain you will need that?"

"I have no idea what I'm walking into," he said. He knew why I-Five was being cautious; this particular droid popper was far stronger than a normal grenade, and could permanently damage a droid. Realising that he didn't want I-Five to get caught up in its radius accidentally, Lorn said, "You don't have to come along. There's something else you can do, if you want to."

"You are my friend, Lorn," said the droid. "I will do anything for you."

"Record a message for me, and take it to the Jedi Temple. If I don't survive this, you might be the galaxy's last hope."

With Kassandra distracted, Eldra had been intending to sit down at read the latest holojournal. But her datapad remained untouched on the table, and instead she watched her daughter waving her toys around in the air with the Force.

She was already two years old. Time was passing for Eldra so quickly, and she feared that all too soon, the Sith master would come for her daughter. Maul had promised to find a way to keep them both with him, but Eldra couldn't see how he could accomplish this while staying where they were. She found herself staring out the window at Coruscant's traffic, wondering how much the world outside had changed in the four years she'd been held prisoner.

"Mama?"

Eldra returned her gaze to her daughter. "Yes, Kassie?"

"When Da home?" she asked.

"Soon."

Kassandra turned her attention back to her toys for only a moment, before going still. The toys fell to the floor around her. She then looked towards the front door, but it wasn't with the usual excitement whenever Maul returned.

A few seconds later, Eldra sensed it, too. It wasn't the Sith master, thankfully, but it was an unfamiliar presence. She got to her feet and placed herself in front of her daughter, before calling her lightsaber to her hand. If the intruder was a threat, then she would be prepared to fight for her daughter's safety. But then if it was a rescue…

Venny walked into the room just as the door's controls began to spark. "We have been breached. Prepare to take all necessary precautions."

The door opened, and after a moment's pause, a grenade rolled into the room.

Eldra acted immediately, grabbing Kassandra off the floor and running towards their quarters. Half way down the hall, she heard the familiar sound of a droid popper instead of the explosion of a normal grenade, but she didn't stop running. She reached their shared room and placed Kassandra down on the bed. "Kassie, stay here for Mama, OK? Hide yourself like I taught you."

"Yes, Mama." Kassandra grabbed her stuffed wolf and held it close to her chest.

After placing a kiss on her daughter's forehead, Eldra ran back out of the room and locked the door behind her. She then hurried back into the main apartment area and saw a Human male standing by the front door with a blaster in his hand. He had black hair and brown eyes, but wasn't at all dressed like a common criminal. Wearing a nice suit, he looked more like a business clerk.

But looks could be deceiving. Eldra ignited her lightsaber and held it ready. "If you've come for her, then know I'm prepared to strike you down to protect her."

The man's eyes flicked between her and the lightsaber with surprise. "You're a Jedi?"

"Really? What gave it away?" Eldra resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

His grip on the blaster tightened. "You're working with these monsters?!"

"What? No!" Suspicion grew in her. Did this man know about the Sith? "I was kidnapped! I'm not here by choice!"

The man lowered his blaster. "You're the girl's mother. Why… How do a Jedi and a Sith have a child together?"

This man not only knew about Kassandra, but he also knew that Maul was a Sith. There was a story here, and Eldra sensed that she needed to know it. Disengaging her lightsaber, she said, "Maybe you should start from the beginning. Who are you and why are you here?"

He watched her warily before sighing. "My name is Lorn Pavan. You may or may not have heard of me. I used to work as a clerk for the Jedi Order, until they accepted my son for training. They fired me because of this."

"It's the non-attachment rule," said Eldra.

Lorn rolled his eyes. "I know that! But the Jedi didn't tell me before I made the decision. They must have suspected that if I knew that, I would've never let them take Jax. He… he was only two years old, and he was ripped from my arms, and when they fired me and I asked for him back, they refused."

Eldra couldn't believe what she was hearing. This didn't sound like the Jedi Order she knew; these actions sounded more like political bureaucrats. "I'm sorry. I never knew this. When did this happen?"

"Four years ago," said Lorn. "I suppose you had already been kidnapped?"

She nodded. "You may have heard of me. Eldra Kaitis?"

The man's eyes widened. "Yes. They were still searching for you when I was fired. I'm sorry this has happened to you."

"Why are you here, Lorn?"

He hesitated briefly, before removing a familiar Holocron from his satchel. "I believe this was stolen from the Sith holding you captive. I found it in the exploded office of the Trade Federation's Deputy Viceroy, before the Sith hunted me down – well, me and my friend, Tyro Caladian. He must be dead now. I met up with two Jedi. One was a Padawan named Darsha Assant."

"Darsha!" Eldra brightened at the familiar name. "She was in my Clan when we were Younglings. Where is she?"

Lorn turned his head with shame. "The Sith killed her master first. Then he came after us. Darsha told me to run, so I wasn't there… but I waited for her, and she didn't follow. I don't think she made it."

Eldra felt all the air leave her, and she collapsed to her knees.

Maul had killed Darsha. She hadn't been a close friend, but she'd been a friend nonetheless. And Maul had killed her, because that was what he'd been trained to do. Kill Jedi. Kill her friends. She hadn't forgotten that, but in some ways she had. She'd let him get too close, had just spent a night with him where she'd been close to happy…

"I'll be honest," said Lorn. "I came here to take your daughter. I… I thought I could bargain with the Jedi Council; give her to them and in exchange, they'd give me my son back. I could get you out of here, and we could go together."

This was it. This was her chance.

Getting to her feet, Eldra took a deep breath and said, "I have a slave chip. If I leave this building, I'll explode."

The man nodded, understanding. "Then I can go to the Jedi and tell them where you are. If you want, I can take your child with me. Then she will be safe-"

Suddenly he was yanked violently off the floor, and Eldra stepped back quickly as she watched Lorn dangle in the air, gasping for breath. The man frantically clawed at the invisible hand around his throat, but he was helpless against the might of the Force. Before Eldra could make a move to help him, Lorn's neck was snapped at an awkward angle, and he fell in a heap on the floor.

Standing in the doorway was Maul. His presence filled the room with a fiery anger Eldra had never felt in all of her time with him, and that anger was aimed at the man now lying dead before him. Thanks to this fact, the anger decreased, and it virtually left Maul entirely when his gaze locked with Eldra's. He looked beyond relieved to see her safe.

The same couldn't be said for Eldra.

Lorn may have been her last hope of escape, and Maul had snatched it away from her. Not only that, he had killed two Jedi – one of which had been her friend – and who knew how many others. Tyro Caladian was a familiar name, and she suspected he was the lawyer that Qui-Gon sometimes worked with.

Maul had reminded her that he was a Sith Lord, and he wasn't going to give that up for anyone. Not even her. Not even for their daughter.

It was over between them.