-Sadie-

I woke up to find myself in a large circular room with a large crackling fireplace on one side, a few armchairs facing the fire, and large windows that reached from floor to ceiling on the other side. It was a cozy place that probably belonged to an important Order official who lived here. But there was no sign of them now. Instead, that beautiful lady was sitting there and calmly reading a book.

I was against a wall, my hands clasped together by a pair of cold metal cuffs and then connected to the wall. I felt the same kind of cuffs connecting my feet to the ground. I found that I could wriggle a bit, but I couldn't actually go anywhere. To my left I noticed the unconscious form of Fral, in the same predicament I was in.

"Oh, goodie. You're up," said the woman. "Sorry, I was a little distracted. Have you tried this book?" She held up Across the Stars, by Ghrik Aadedai. I have. It was one of my favorites. "I do love romance novels. They're so… perfect. Everything always ends up working out in the end, you know? I love that sort of fantasy. It's a wonderful escape from the reality we live in."

"Who hurt you?"

She smiled at me and closed her book. "A friend. Someone I once trusted." she stood. "A woman. Someone who once cared for me." She stepped to me. "A stranger without morals. A man, who I gave my heart to."

"Why did they stop hurting you?"

She grabbed me by the throat and hissed "Because they died. I loved them, all in their own ways, and they all betrayed me. I learned that love is a lie, a fantasy, something that can only exist in stories. It will always break you, always destroy you. And now, it will bring your friends to their knees."

I spit at her.

I heard Fral groan. The lady let go of me and exclaimed "Finally! Now we can begin!" Excitedly, she walked over so that she was standing between us and about two meters in front of us. She bowed, then said "My name is Sylvia, and I'm super excited that you two are here!"

She reached her left hand out, and a coin flew into her hand. When she caught it, I barely caught a glimpse of a tattoo, right under her wrist, that made my blood run cold. There, stenciled in thin black characters, was E-1579.

She held up the coin and said "You guys are bait. I only need one of you. So, we'll flip a coin to see who gets to be the bait." She pointed at Fral and said "You are heads." She then pointed at me and giggled "And you are the tail."

"Wow. You're so clever," I said with so much sarcasm it surprised me.

She ignored me and flipped the coin. I watched as it spun through the air, the light flashing on it's rotating sides, before falling to the ground, bouncing around, and finally settling on a face that I couldn't make out. She leaned down and picked up the coin, then a glowing red blade appeared in her hand. In the blink of an eye, she dashed at Fral Joren, the blade slicing vertically through his body and cutting him in two. She stepped back and closed her eyes, a sadistic smile appearing on her face as she shuddered in a moment of ecstasy.

I stared horrified at the gutted body of Fral Joren, and then at the euphoric monster who just ended his life.

She sauntered over to me, sheathing the saber, and caressed my cheek gently. I recoiled at her touch and tried to get away from it. Not to be stopped, she took my face in her hands. In a seductive tone, she whispered "I'm glad I get to play with you" before pressing her lips against mine. My eyes widened in shock, and I tried to twist my head away, but she held it still. I leaned my head back slightly and slammed it forward as hard as I could against hers. Stars flew before my eyes. I definitely did NOT shoot from that side.

She let go and stumbled backwards, stunned, before smiling and reaching her hand out. I gasped for air as she squeezed my windpipe shut.

"You're feisty. I'm gonna have so much fun with you."

I tried to respond, but all that came out was a choking sound.

After two eternally long minutes, she released me, and I drew in large gulps of air, terrified that she would take this simple pleasure away from me. My vision was swimming as she walked towards me and took my chin, lifting my head so I was eye level with her.

"Let's see what makes you tick."

She hit my mental Force shield with a more powerful attack than any I've ever felt, and I screamed in pain. As I tried to rebuild it, she laughed and broke it down again. She then dove into my mind, and my surroundings disappeared.

Suddenly, I was on Mandalore. I was standing inside of my old home. In front of me was my mom, dad, my grandpa, and a little girl I knew to be me. I reached out to touch them, but my hand just shimmered through them.

"Don't try, hun. They can't see us."

I turned to see that witch standing behind me, smiling gleefully.

I turned back to the scene in front of me, and before I realized it, tears welled up in my eyes. Mom and dad's voices, the smell of home, everything. Just thinking about them brought a painful wave of emotions. Actually seeing them… it was more like a tsunami.

I heard a knocking at the door, and I saw mom and dad exchange fearful glances.

"Take Sadie. Go," my dad ordered.

"I'm not leaving you," mom said.

"She needs a mother."

"And a father," she countered, refusing to give even a little.

They both tried to stare each other down, then seemed to reach an agreement and looked at grandpa.

"Take her. Keep her safe."

Grandpa wanted to argue, but then a lightsaber started cutting down the door, and he nodded.

"Come on Sadie. Let's go get some ice cream."

"What about mommy and daddy?"

"They'll be right along. Come now."

"But I haven't finished dinner yet."

The door fell with a thud and he said "Now!"

I stood, and the memory dissipated.

As I wiped tears away, I heard laughing behind me.

I lunged at her, but went right through her like she wasn't even there, and she laughed harder.

"Another, another!"

Suddenly, we were in the crowded halls of my old school, and Sylvia began laughing even harder.

"What are you WEARING?"

My face reddened as I watched 13 year old me walk through the halls with acne and used mens clothes that were much too big for me. I was being jostled as I walked towards my locker, and when I opened it, I was drenched by a bucket of water that someone had placed inside it. Everyone was laughing at me. Sylvia found this utterly hilarious. I watched the younger me struggle to hold the tears back and run to the girls bathroom, where I sat against the wall and cried.

"You're pathetic."

I tried to ignore her, and another memory appeared. This time, I was 16, and walking through school again. The clothes were still big, the hair was longer, and I looked dirtier. At least the acne had cleared up. I was sitting alone at a lunch table and messing with some scrap when my then-crush, the captain of the school grav-ball team, came over and sat next to me.

"Hey."

I looked up, gave a small smile, and said "hey."

"Can I see that?" he asked before snatching the scrap out of my hands.

"What the hell!?"

He started tossing it with some friends while I grabbed for it, always just shy of catching it.

One of his friends grabbed my bookbag and dumped everything out of it, smiling goofily, and saying "oops".

"Stop it!" I cried, as I felt my face burning red at the attention from everybody.

His friend said "Where are your parents, freak? Did they abandon you?"

My then-crush said "Of course they did. Nobody wants a child like that."

This got everyone around us laughing. I felt my blood begin to boil. Angry, I yelled "Cut it out!"

"Or what? What are you gonna do? Huh?" He stepped up to me so that we were really close, trying to intimidate me. "You're a dirty refugee. You belong in the hole you crawled out of, not Coruscant. Nobody ever cared about you, and nobody ever will."

In a snap, I punched him in the face harder than I'd ever punched anyone before. A perfect uppercut to the chin that snapped his head backwards and dropped him to the ground.

The memory snapped forwards to when I was sitting in the Dean's office.

"You gave him a massive concussion. You know he's our star grav-ball player, right? And he's out for the next few games. You realize your actions hurt the whole school, right?"

"HE WAS MAKING FUN OF ME! MOCKING ME IN FRONT OF THE SCHOOL!"

The dean sighed and said "You keep claiming that. But when I ask other witnesses, they say that he wasn't. They say you just think he's insulting you."

"Because he is!"

"Either way, you can't lash out at other students."

"I'm defending myself!"

"I'm not going to argue with you. If this happens again, I'm expelling you."

The memory changed again, this time to when I was 18 and in my last year at the school. Same old clothes, except this time I was even grungier than before, and I was clearly exhausted. I was in class when someone threw a book at me and hit me in the back of the head. I turned back and saw a group of girls snickering. I grabbed my textbook and threw it as hard as I could at them, hitting the tall blonde square in the face.

The memory changed and I was in the Dean's office, getting chewed out again before being officially expelled.

It switched again, this time to me walking into my home. Grandpa was sitting in a chair reading a book. He didn't even acknowledge my existence. I smelled something burning, and rushed to the kitchen to find something burning on the stove. I took it off and threw it in the sink before walking into the den.

"Umm… Grandpa?"

He looked up at me.

"Why didn't you take that thing off the stove?"

"What thing?"

"I don't know. It was a blackened mess. Why didn't you take it off?"

"I never put anything on the stove."

"You did. It was burning."

He sniffed the air before saying "I don't smell anything. What are you talking about?"

The memory changed, and this time it was me talking to Bebo the Hutt about working for him because nobody else would hire me.

Then it switched again. I was in the shooting gallery of the arena with a Deathtrooper when some guy in what appeared to be Mandalorian armor walked in and awkwardly said "I was told that one of you was my partner."

I holstered my blasters and walked over, taking off my helmet and introducing myself.

Then it flashed to us fighting against the large fire slug, then the rathtars, then the wolf things, then the TAC.

Then it changed to him writhing on the ground in pain as electricity coursed through his veins. Then it switched to me chasing after the ship, running through the halls of the facility, finding Darin, doubled over, looking like he just crawled from a rather secluded corner of hell, then us escaping, then the Jedi attacking me when I dropped him off, where I lost my helmet. Sylvia, who had stayed silent, chuckled at this.

"You saved him, and he stabbed you in the back," Sylvia commented.

It flashed forwards to him arriving at my place, beard and all, and then it went through a really rapid montage of interaction between us, up until we were on Ilum. We were bundled up, fighting the cold, and then he stopped, got the blanket, folded it, and handed it to me. I tried putting it on, then he took it and put it on me. It froze at the moment when we were staring into each other's eyes.

"You crave love of any kind. I know because I was there. And this? Everything I just saw is playing out like my life did. The only difference is your desperate hold on this ridiculous lie. Look at your life. Look at yourself."

I struggled to respond, but she was right. She just showed me. I was a mess. My whole life has been a complete disaster.

"Dirty, poor, violent. No family, no home, no money, nothing. So why continue trying? Why keep desperately hoping for anything to change? It won't ever happen. Nobody loves you. You don't even love yourself."

I lowered my head, and she continued "Clearly, you hate yourself. All your life, you've been tossed around, abused, harassed, bullied. Your grandpa had no idea what he was doing. Your parents were yanked away from you. You had no friends. Nobody loved you. And you know why?" She started walking towards me, growing larger with every step until she was towering over me. She pointed at the still image of us gazing at each other.

"Because you don't deserve it. You never have, and you never will. They can see it, you know. They see how worthless you are. What a disappointment you've become. What a failure you turned out to be. You think he can't see it too? He's just too nice to point it out. You actually think his polite avoidance of the topic means he likes you? That you even have a shot? That's not how it works." She shrank to a normal size. "But don't worry. You get to die knowing that you led him into a trap. Your final act will be to lead the only person who was ever slightly nice to you to his death."

I felt like a bug, one that deserved to be stomped. She was right. I was nobody. I had nobody. Everything I've ever done has hurt others. And now I'm going to get Darin killed. Words couldn't describe how I felt. I well and truly felt like a pointless pile of carbon, one that deserved to be reassembled. That I was a waste of life.

Then, suddenly, I saw a glimmer of hope. "If I'm the bait, he has to care," I said.

She snorted. "You must be dumber than I thought. First of all, he's a JEDI. He's going to come no matter what. It's his job. And second, didn't you forget that his master was here too? His master, who was like a father to him. And who are you? You're a twenty year old high school dropout. An idiot. Nobody cares about people like-"

I felt a familiar presence, and suddenly the image was ripped out of my head and I was back in the room with the fireplace. Sylvia was stumbling backwards, gripping her head in pain. Angrily, she tried to force her way back into my head, but there was a new shield protecting it, one that I hadn't put up.

She huffed, more annoyed than upset, and said "Fun's over."