The menacing creature had been disposed of for the moment, and the million credit question seemed to have become, what the frell was going on here?

Everyone save the armored person who thus far been mostly overlooked turned to Silus for the answer, and a woman Leia recognized as the ship's Captain stepped forward and delivered a vicious slap to Silus' face.... twice. The hold fell silent for a moment, as nobody seemed to really know where to start. In her peripheral vision Leia saw Tyscio had taken a back seat to the scene and had resumed eating his salad.

It was Leia who spoke next, as she walked over to Silus and the Captain.

"What in blazes is going on here...." she asked quietly, looking straight at Silus in assumption that he knew the answer.

To everyone's surprise, it was not Silus who answered the question.

Shalis stepped into the middle of the hold, attracting everyone's attention.

Perhaps the people with the light swords could help her.... if the woman was anything like what the man was, perhaps together they could bring the creature down!

It wasn't until she opened her mouth to speak that Shalis realized she had not spoken in a considerably long time. She had spent months tracking the creature alone, and had not spoken to... well, anyone. When she spoke her voice was hoarse, and was also the only thing that identified her as female.

"That creature is a folly of my people... it is called a Sha'ta'lusk, and was genetically engineered by my people to be a more challenging prey.... hunting signifies many things for my people; rites of passage, fame.... survival. A few years ago, some of my people decided we needed a new, more challenging prey, and they created Sha'ta'lusk. But a few months ago when Sha'ta'lusk was officially unleashed.... my people quickly learned that they had created a much more powerful monster than anyone could have imagined. Sha'ta'lusk was cunning, and managed to escape our homeworld. I was tasked with tracking down the creature and either recovering it, or if recovery was not possible.... putting it down. This mess is my fault.

I quickly learned that the Sha'ta'lusk was too strong for me, and I have been unable to stop it. I have failed my mission..."

Sha'ta'lusk...

That voice in his began again so suddenly that Silus took a step back in surprise. The Sith could only blink in surprise when his vision began to cloud. He felt himself grab control of the Force and push something away from him. There was a yell, but it was muffled by the steadily increasing shouts of that voice inside his head.

A sudden loss of control over his body was all the warning he had before Silus heard the familier snap-hiss of his lightsaber and felt himself swing. Something fell to the ground while the Sith struggled to regain control over himself. Meanwhile, the voice kept yelling inside his head, drowning out everything else. Silus reached out with whatever will he had left...

There.

Silus' vision began to clear as the voice died down. It left just as quickly as it came, leaving the Sith to only stand and stare at the scene in front of him in wonder. One of the guards had been thrown back into the side of the ship, stunning him. His lightsaber had cut the others' blasters in two before they could react. And now the red blade hung only inches in front of the armored female's face.

With a start, Silus switched it off and reclipped it to his belt. The voice had ended and started just as violently before, but he had never lost control of himself like that. If that voice could do that once, he wondered if...

PUNISH! Silus screamed at the fierce pain in his head that sent him to the knees. PUNSIH! The world turned white as his brain felt like it would explode from the pain. Silus' senses faded away as the voice screamed one more time. Then the world turned black and Silus fell unconscious.

Even as the Sith fell, the port security guards quickly moved to roughly pin him to the ground.

"That won't be necessary" Leia interjected quietly, and the guards moved back; a few of them showing their disapproval. Leia stepped forward to nudge the unconscious Sith with the toe of her boot, while also subtly reaching out with the Force to determine if the man was indeed unconscious. When he did not stir and she had adequate assurance that he was not faking, she reached down and unclipped the Sith's lightsaber from his belt, then attached it to her own.

"Check him for any other weapons, then bind him up... gently."

The guards moved to obey and Leia turned to say something to Tyscio, but she was immediately interrupted by a rather furious looking captain.

"What about my ship!!??" Jaida demanded, gesturing to the state of disarray that the cargo hold was in. Leia met her angry stare evenly.

"You will be adequately compensated later. Right now, everyone in this hold is going to the Palace so we can figure out what the hell just happened here... no exceptions. And somebody go find Threepio, will you?"

The Sith was hoisted over the shoulders of two burly guards, and the entire group departed from the cargo bay, their path taking them right onto a waiting transport.


***

The ride from the spaceport to the Royal Palace of Theed had been crowded, hot, and almost unbearably long. In favor of security, all of the people in the cargo bay had been forced to make the trip to the palace in the one transport. Leia figured she didn't have much to complain about however.... first off, it had been her decision, and secondly, she had spent the entire trip squeezed up against Tyscio, which most definitely wasn't bad at all. She considered herself quite fortunate in comparison to... Jaida for instance, who had spent the entire trip squeezed in next to the rather pointy armor of Shalis and was tending to several bleeding wounds when they finally piled out of the transport. From the captain's expression, the experience had definitely done nothing to ease her temper...

Nope, she really didn't have it that bad at all....

From the transport, the entire group was escorted to a large, secure underground conference room in the Palace. The Queen had been notified of the trouble at the Spaceport, and as usual had simply handed the responsibility of bringing the issue under control to Leia.

In the conference room, the Sith was laid to rest on a couch against a wall, and the rest of the group seated themselves at the large table dominating the center of the room. Leia sighed and gazed around the room, taking in the mixed emotions of the various individuals seated around the table.

"I have the feeling that when the Sith wakes up, it will be a lot easier to answer the questions that most of us have right now. But in the meantime, we need to figure out where this.... Sha'ta'...leehhhh creature has gone to, and how we can prevent it from wreaking havoc in Theed."

Shalis raised a hand indicating she had something to say, and Leia nodded for her to speak up. The hunter rose from her seat to speak.

"Sha'ta'lusk most likely has run away from the city for now, to seek a quiet haven to gather itself in. For some reason it seems particularly aggrivated by you people with your lightswords, and I'd bet anything that it will return soon.... to hunt you. Sha'ta'lusk is a very formidable foe when it has it's full strength, and from what I've seen so far, not a single one of us in this room could stand against it for long alone."

Shalis took her seat again, and Leia turned to thoughtfully reguard the Sith laying onconscious on the couch.

Well, that was encouraging..

Tyscio turned to the hunter named Shalis and asked, "Out of curiosity, how was the creature caught before?"

His gaze fell on the unconscious Sith and wondered what would happen when he woke. Leia was powerful but her concern would be for life while the Sith only cared for his personal safety and damn every one else.


At least, that was the common viewpoint where Sith were concerned.


Other than Recon Klain, he had never met any other Sith.


He remained wary waiting for Shalis to answer the question.

Everything here was dry, and had been for years. The ground cracked beneath his feet. Silus spun around, looking across the horizon for anything living besides himself. But aside from a few cracked stumps, there was only desert. And somehow, he knew he was looking at himself.

Or at least a part of himself. Silus wasn't sure which part. Perhaps it was a sign of his violent use of the Force rotting him away. Or perhaps it was something else entirely. All thoughts on the matter stopped when he thought he saw something on the horizon.

It was too far away to make out who or what it was, except that it was something. In moments he was moving towards it. But every step only seemed to move it farther away still, until Silus was sprinting across the desert, the ground shattering beneath his feet.

He felt that he could almost recognize it, if he squinted enough. So he ran harder, trying to catch up to whoever it was. Silus could almost make out a face when the land rushed up in front of him, launching him into the air.

In only moments the ground split around him and something... dark... was grabbing hold of his body. It filled his lungs and covered his vision.

Silus' last thought was of someone laughing. It sounded like himself.

***

The Sith woke with a start, his hands grasping for any weapons he had, and not because of the people in front of him. When he realized the situation around him, he gave as much of a start as when he woke.

"Where am-" Memory of the events only an hour or more before came crashing down on him, and he grimaced. At least they hadn't bound and thrown him into a cell. Yet.

"What do you want?"

Leia watched as the Hunter turned to reguard Tyscio, her expression hidden behind her helmet. Leia was curious to know the answer to Tyscio's question as well...

"Since it's escape, all who have tried to capture the creature have died during their efforts. Sha'ta'lusk has yet to be successfully..."

"Where am..."

Shalis was interrupted by the rousing Sith and the entire room turned to look at Silus, who in turn stared back at them.

"What do you want?"

Leia quickly noted that despite the fact that the Sith was fully at their mercy, he was still just as arrogant as when he had been running free around the spaceport with a lightsaber in his hands.

"I want answers" she replied sharply to the Sith, before anyone else could get a word in edge-wise. "There is some monstrosity of a creature parading around this city causing trouble, not to mention that it tried to kill all of us... I want it dealt with as quickly as possible.

After what happened in the spaceport, I assume this creature is a common enemy for both you and I, so you are not being held responsible for it's presence here... presently, at least. Seeing as how the creature is trying to kill you too, I suggest that it is in your best interest to cooperate with us. So... what do you know of this creature?"

"So... what do you know of this creature?"

"You mean besides it's big, ugly, and likes to rip people's arms off?" Silus shrugged. Silus opened his mouth as if he was about to speak, when something dawned on him.

The voice was gone.

Normally even hearing the word "creature" brought the voice back roaring just as strong as it ever did. But this time it was silent. Silus felt a growing relief followed by a growing fear that that voice might come back. Or maybe it had not left.

The Sith blinked in surprise at all the people in front of him. Where had they come from?

A long silence followed while Silus tried to figure out why they were staring at him and where they had come from. He couldn't remember seeing them enter. In fact, he couldn't remember when he had entered. Silus didn't recognize this room at all. But he had to have arrived here somehow. Dammit, why couldn't he remember!

"It can sense Force users," he said so suddenly that it took a moment to realize he had said it. "Actually, it more smells a force user. And for some reason, that smell drives it mad. So mad, in fact, that it hunts you. It doesn't give up until you're dead. At least, I think it gives up then," Silus shrugged for the second time, "I haven't exactly found that out for certain, yet."

The crunching sound of Tyscio chewing his salad stopped as he swallowed taking in the newly awakened Sith's words.

"Then why the bloody hell wasn't the creature just left on it's native world?" he complained in a voice that showed irritation.

The force drives this thing mad? And just how many force users are on Naboo, the home planet of the Jedi Order?

A Sith that hates Jedi. A creature that hates all Jedi...


This problem just got a little bit more complicated.

From his visual observation, for a force user who usually are aware of their surroundings, the Sith seemed a tad too... disoriented.

"The creature was born into existence on our world, and it left our world of its’ own accord despite our best efforts to contain it!" Shalis snapped at Tyscio, and Leia thought she heard an offended tone in the hunter's voice.

There were several different conversations going on in the room at once, resulting in a clamor of voices that made it hard for Leia to focus on any one of them.

Nothing was going to get done this way...

She pounded her fist on the heavy conference table a few times to get everyone's attention.

"Quiet, I...." Leia started irritably, but she was quickly interrupted when Silus suddenly spoke up.

"It can sense Force users... Actually, it more smells a force user. And for some reason, that smell drives it mad. So mad, in fact, that it hunts you. It doesn't give up until you're dead. At least, I think it gives up then"

The Sith's words made the hair on the back of Leia's neck prickle, and she reached up to rub the unpleasant sensation away.

A creature that hunts Force users by 'smelling' the Force?

Leia briefly entertained the suspicion that the Sith was lying, but the more she thought about it the more his words made sense. At the spaceport, the creature had seemed primarily interested in her and Silus, to the extent of ignoring everyone else. They were the two strongest Force users there...

But it could have been a coincidence. Maybe.

The Sith seemed extremely disoriented, judging by the way he was looking at his surroundings. Leia decided to fill in the gaps in his memory, from when he was unconscious.

“You have, in essence, been captured by us. We are in a secure conference room in the Royal Palace of Theed.”

The Sith still appeared to be at some sort of a loss, and he continued to stare blankly at the group of people scattered around the room before him. Most could offer him only equally blank stares in return.

It was the hunter who spoke next.

“If Force users are indeed its’ prey, Sha’ta’lusk will no doubt come after you very soon. For some reason you people invoke a strange lust in it that I had not previously seen until I saw it hunt this man you call Sith. You will soon die, if my people’s best warriors were no match for Sha’ta’lusk then how could you be?”

Leia’s expression had turned grim.

“If the Sith is right… the presence of every Force user in the city could be endangering the lives of the entire population. And if this creature thinks more potent Force users make for a more tasty lunch, then the Sith and I need to get out of this city. Now.

Leia looked over sharply at the Sith.

“Whether we like it or not, I think we’re on the same side here. If this is really as bad as it looks, we’ll both soon be running for our lives…. What is your name?”