"My head...is splitting. Why..." Winter's eyes fluttered open.

The bacta fluid flooded her vision as soon as she regained a measure of sight. Coherency had not yet returned to the young Padawan. She knew, at least, that she was within the confines of a bacta tank. Her mouth was covered with a breathing device while her vitals seemed to be monitored by attached tubes and wires, all leading out of the top of the tank and to a nearby console. Every so often Winter could hear the faint BEEPS! and BOOPS! from the monitor as it took a new set of vitals. Had she been that severely injured? What exactly happened...

"I...remember...," Winter muttered aloud to herself.

The flashback flew across her mind's eye and struck fear within her fragile heart; Grievous. She now recalled facing him in combat, despite her Master's wishes. Winter saw the scene as it replayed for her. Lightsaber against lightsaber...he never once let up in his attacks. He outranked her in every way and yet, despite the futility of it all, she persisted. Winter felt the anxiety and stress all at once, just as in the original moments, and found herself panting. The monitor erupted into perpetual beeping as her blood pressure rose but she didn't notice; she had become numb and deaf to everything around her.

"Where am I," she demanded shrilly as she tore the breathing mask from her face.

As quickly as she had removed the device, Winter ripped off the other tubes and wires and anything else that inhibited her movement, despite any life-saving effects they could have. She only knew one thing; she wasn't where she should be. Frantically Winter swam to the open top of the tank and flung herself over the edge and into the open air, where she promptly landed onto a slippery laboratory floor. Her balance had not returned just yet and so her landing was far from graceful; she stumbled to her knees, just barely keeping her trembling body upright. A puddle of bacta surrounded her and caused her to slip a couple times as she tried to get her bearings. One of the times sent her collapsing into the vitals monitoring system. Winter cursed under her breath, realizing that she had, unwittingly, created quite a commotion in just a few short minutes. Soon, very soon, she imagined, she would have company. Though not at all prepared for a fight, Winter rummaged through the lab equipment for anything she could use to defend herself. She wanted to be ready.

It hadn't taken long for the signal to reach his chamber; General Grievous had thought she would attempt an escape, knowing what little he did of her stubbornness. And so when the beeping had awoken him from his rest, he was prepared. The hulking droid general, cloak wrapped about his large, armored form, stood menacingly in the entrance of the laboratory as the doors opened to him. Behind him a couple of his magnaguards had gathered, along with the medical droids assigned to Winter's recovery. General Grievous eyed the EV series with his sharp, reptilian glare as they trembled before him, knowing they would face severe repercussions later for having not been at their post. The two magnaguards started into the room but were thwarted by their generals outstretched arm. Grievous was determined to proceed alone. Far too much time and energy had gone into this experiment for anyone or anything to mess it up. It was the last order given him by Count Dooku and he was determined to bring it to fruition.

The situation needed to be handled diplomatically. General Grievous was no politician, but he did understand the basics of emotion enough to put out an unnecessary fire before it was set ablaze. Besides, he thought to himself, her situation was futile. There was nowhere for her to run and there was no one, certainly not her former Master, to rescue her. Her fate was sealed.

The sight of the droid before her sent shivers down her spine; so it wasn't a dream. This wasn't the Boogeyman of her nightmares. This was her REALITY. Winter had managed to find a metal rod out of all her searching and gripped it close to her heaving chest. The immense STOMPS! that echoed into the room as Grievous etched closer struck such fear into her that she found herself literally frozen, unable to even use her makeshift weapon. She felt her innards burn, just as they had when he had run her through with Shaak-ti's lightsaber, a ghostly memory of what he was capable of.

Why hadn't he finished her off? What sick, manipulative reason could this monster have for keeping her alive? The numbness and fear turned to anger and rage. In that moment, Winter saw the true face of the perpetrator behind her suffering; Grievous. All she wanted to do now was run the metal rod through his black heart and watch him writhe in the same pain he had so mercilessly put her through.

General Grievous sensed the anger from her, even within his armored core. He was not at all Force sensitive, but, as a battle-hardened warrior, he could still sense the overwhelming emotions from his prey, especially as it came to despair. This Padawan was indeed in the thralls of desperation. But how could one blame her? Already bested once and only alive because of him who triumphed over her, this muling Zeltron female couldn't help but feel hopeless.

Grievous stopped just a handful of feet before her and folded his arms across his chestplate. The droid towered over Winter, though she was already not very tall in stature, standing at a mere five-feet, six-inches. Winter gulped down her fear and let it settle into her stomach. She peered back into his eyes, those dark, reptilian eyes that forever cast doom upon her, and felt her eyes water with emotion. Was she going to cry? Winter just couldn't hold back anymore. She was angry, frightened, desperate, and quite literally alone, especially now, that she instantly reverted to an orphaned child starving on the streets of Coruscant. But she refused to give way to her oncoming tears, not in his presence.

"What do you want from me," Winter shrieked.

Taken aback by the suddenness of her question, General Grievous was quiet. She was defiant, wasn't she?

"Do not flatter yourself, Padawan," he chuckled.

"Your presence here is not wanted. The necessity of your existence is, however..." Grievous paused in thoughtful contemplation.

"Well, what? Why am I still alive? ANSWER ME," Winter was not satisfied with his vague, unfeeling response and demanded more.

The general was not accustomed to being spoken to in such a way; it was odd at first. He gave the commands around here, not some pathetic, naive child who was still wet behind the ears. He found himself snarl behind his mask and for a brief moment thought of the most agreeable reason to explain to Darth Sidious why his late Master's experiment "didn't work out".

"I would be very careful if I were you. I find no pleasure in your existence. You are disposable. But it is-was...my Master's wish that you are made useful," he choked for a moment, recalling the events of the Invisible Hand.

Useful? For what purpose? What did he mean? So many questions flooded Winter's already throbbing head and she found herself grow dizzy. Her fragile body had undergone far too much excitement and could no longer pump the adrenaline into her that was needed to stay conscious. She fell.

General Grievous watched as she began to lose consciousness mid-speach. He knew this was too much for her; she needed to recover longer. And he certainly couldn't allow her to sustain anymore damage, lest he would have Dooku to contend with. Grievous needed but to move forward a couple steps, due to his long range of movement, to catch the Zeltron's limp body before she collided with the stone floor. By then she had already passed out. Her eyelids twitched and, he noted, were now wet from the tears that had formed. He wondered how such an emotionally unstable creature could have ever hoped to pass as a Jedi. He knew enough of their kind to know that they were not permitted to feel emotions, whether negative or positive. They were to remain balanced, or so he had assumed. She was quite different.

Grievous took a moment to admire the handiwork that had been done. She was quite heavier now from before, but that was simply due to her latest enhancements; a durasteel plate had been installed over her right temporal lobe, concealing the inhibitor chip within, and this same material encompassed the right half of her face, as well as surrounding her "eye". This eye that had been created certainly didn't look like her original green pupil. Now she was enhanced with a cybernetic eye and socket which would aid her better in the long run. It's "pupil" was a golden hue.

Grievous carefully lifted a couple strands of red that had fallen over her still face. He straightened his immense body, Winter still within his grasp, and exited the confines of the laboratory. He turned to the EV series as he left...

"Clean this mess up," he ordered before stomping down the darkened hallway.