Leia glanced over her shoulder at Tyscio, who had just put his comm away after ordering helo support into their area. For some reason Leia found herself suppressing an urge to glance back at him as they fell into a steady running pace; not gaining any ground on the creature but not really losing any either.
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I didn't know he had any command authority on Naboo...?
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Tyscio always continued to surprise her. Yet despite all of the tricks that Leia knew the Caprician had up his sleeve, after seeing the ease with which the Sha'ta'lusk had taken them both down and kidnapped a Sith... she was having serious doubts about whether or not either of them would come out of the mess in one piece.

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She sure seemed to have those same doubts a lot whenever she was with him… he was right. They did need a nice, peaceful vacation.
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From what she had overheard of Tyscio’s conversation on his comm, she knew that despite the crew's best effort it would be some time before their newly assigned helo would be able to join them. In the meantime... they were completely on their own.


Much to Leia’s dismay the Sha’ta’lusk had chosen to head deeper into the city, rather than away from it. It’s current bearing was taking it straight for the Academy and the Royal Palace<st1 =""></st1>, and the longer they tracked it along that course; the more Leia’s stomach began to churn in severe worry and dread. It seemed as though the creature had taken a sudden interest in the Force rich academy…
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Or not.
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Sha’ta’lusk astounded everyone by bounding right past the Academy, instead choosing to head straight for the edge of the cliff on which Theed was perched (and at the bottom of which were nestled it’s major ports). The creature broke through the safety barrier with little trouble, and disappeared over the edge of the cliff with it’s Sith prize still in tow.
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The labor of running had kept Leia and Tyscio from speaking to each other, but a combination of great relief and a rather intense curiosity caused Leia to break their silence.
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“I wonder what’s so special about the Dark Side, that it would so specifically choose Silus over a whole Academy full of Force users, or us?” She panted.
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When Leia and Tyscio finally reached the busted safety barrier, they stopped and peered breathlessly over the edge. Below them about halfway down, the Sha’ta’lusk was steadily picking it’s way down the cliff, somehow using it’s claws to gain purchase on the vertical rock face.
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Leia was pretty sure Tyscio said something, but she hadn’t really been paying attention, and missed whatever remark he had just made. She audibly sucked in a deep breath of air and blew it out slowly, as if in preparation for something…
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“Stay here, you can’t go where I’m going” she said, the tone of her voice eerily soft. Before Tyscio could react she had vaulted herself over the side of the cliff, with nothing but a bit of free fall separating her from the ground so far below.
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The last glimpse Tyscio would catch of Leia was as she landed on top of the Sha’ta’lusk… sending all three bodies involved tumbling down the cliff.
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***

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The impact had been just a little harder than she had expected… well, perhaps more than just a little. Leia had intended to collide rather roughly with the Sha’ta’lusk, but not so much as to cause both of them to lose control and go for a tumble together down the rocky cliff face.
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Leia never even had time to panic before she, Silus, and the Sha’ta’lusk landed harshly on a random sizeable rock outcropping jutting out of the side of the cliff. The creature landed on the bottom, taking the brunt of the force of the fall. Stunned, Leia did possess enough presence of mind to reach out and smack Silus hard on the back as the creature began to stir beneath them.
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“Wake up!”

Silus ran with every effort and force of will he had, because he knew that if he stopped, he wouldn't be getting back up again. He didn't need to look behind him to know that whatever, whoever that voice was was following right behind him. He could feel the black tide rushing behind him, destroying everything in its path recklessly.

When does this place end? Silus wondered. Would he reach it and be drowned in the thing behind him, or would he be doomed to run from it for eternity?

Yet, in the distance, he could feel the presence of another mind. From it he could feel fear, horror and awe at something it had never seen or felt before.

Something snatched at his foot, sending Silus stumbling. His eyes shot open as he fell to his knees. He could feel the mind of the voice righ behind him, only inches away...

.... and then there was pain, a pain shared by two minds. Silus clung to it like a drowning man clinging to a log as the black tide washed over him. The world darkened, and he could feel it pull at it, try to wear him away. Silus clung to that pain tighter, even as it faded.

“Wake up!”

Leia's voice echoed across the darkness like thunder.

Why do you resist?, whispered something by his ear. I will destroy you, it is only a matter of time.

I won't give in that easily. You know that.

There was silence for a moment, and then the voice said, You are only delaying the inevitable. I will defeat you.

Silus didn't anwser. In his mind, on the edge of thought he could feel just the slightest of a memory of a memory. There was a face, though he couldn't see it. It had always been clouded, hidden away by other things. He had struggled for it earlier, and only pushed it further away. Yet all he had to do now was reach out, gently...


And so, said the voice, you have won.


The world faded away to nothing, and Silus was alone.

Tyscio grinned to himself at the surprised look Leia had made, as if in thought to herself, as he relayed instructions to the Royal Guard he had made friends with. Being with Leia gave him bankability at least in this situation and any other guard would have triple checked Tyscio's credentials.


Go with who you know...


But as the creature again surprised them, even what he asked for would not arrive in time.

It was headed toward the Academy with Leia and Tyscio in tow, albeit a ways behind.


It was clear that the creature was better equipped in a running match and it took all Tyscio had to keep up with Leia's smooth use of the force.





“I wonder what’s so special about the Dark Side, that it would so specifically choose Silus over a whole Academy full of Force users, or us?”

Tyscio had to admit that the thought had not struck him and the more it dwelt upon his mind, the more he realized that she had a point.




They were standing at the cliff edge, the creatures relentless escape forming into a rather personal agenda for him.

It shouldn't be this hard to catch an animal. Even a large one such as this..

The thought bothered him even as the creature scaled downward.


And then, the hairs on the back of his neck picked up and his perception began to batter his senses as if something dangerous was about to happen. He did not always understand these warnings but he did note a certain pattern to their occurances and it usually wasn't before something encouraging happened.



This time a voice accompanied the feeling: “Stay here, you can’t go where I’m going”



"LEIA, NO!" he started to shout but she was already over the cliff, in free-fall.


Striking the creature at an odd angle, all three lost balance and tumbled toward an outcropping farther down.


He winced as they hit, mumbling under his breath, his anger (and fear) surprising him: "Damn, reckless woman!"


He never felt so impotent as he did at that moment.


To follow would only compound the foolish risk and he was nowhere near as adept as Leia.


If you can't do anything about what is happening at the moment, leave well enough alone.

Old battle instructions from his Teacher came to the fore.


It was time to think beyond the now and plan and so, reluctantly, he moved away from the cliffside and began to make his way back into the city, his perception suddenly carrying him in a particular direction.


And as he moved along, as if by some unseen persuasion, he found himself coming to a strange sight. One he couldn't quite explain but one that compelled his small neck hairs to stand once more..


What the frell?

Silus did not stir; Leia was most decidedly alone now. Clearly, arbitrarily diving over the edge of the cliff in pursuit of a far superior foe had not been the most prudent of decisions.


And I always thought Sith were some great evil Force to be reckoned with… this one can’t even wake up from his nap for five minutes to save his own ass!
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The Sha'ta'lusk began to stir, and Leia groped for the lightsaber clipped to her belt as she scrambled to her feet. She’d gotten a few new bumps and bruises on the way down, but nothing too major…
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I can do this… right?
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As Leia wearily watched the creature reorient itself, she realized that it was the first time she had actually gotten a chance to see the Sha'ta'lusk up close. And now that she was taking the time to notice, Leia realized that the Sha’ta’lusk wasn’t quite what she had been expecting. Somehow she had figured it would be much… bigger? Uglier? Well, definitely more something.
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Roughly the size of a Dewback, the creature was a powerfully built quadruped whose origins were most definitely not from any world Leia had ever heard of. The beast’s most noticeable trait was the fact that it was covered in some sort of jointed chitinous plated armor. Yet… it didn’t seem to be any sort of insectoid species. Rather, the creature’s paws and blunt snout, and the big pink tongue hanging out of one side of it’s mouth suggested that it was actually a mammal someone had grafted something quite closely resembling the Vonduun crab armor of the Yuzzhan Vong onto.
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Perhaps the Yuzzhan Vong were involved in some way? That Hunter... Shalis, was it? She probably knew the answer to that question. That was something to be dealt with later, however. Well… if there was a later.
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The creature’s gaze fixed squarely on Leia, and it rumbled softly in what might have been anger. Whether it truly was or not, Leia would never find out… there was this odd pressure on her mind, almost painful, like somebody (or something) was attempting to invade it. Then the headache came; a terrible throbbing right behind the temple. Leia’s vision blurred and she sank to her knees, helplessly confused.
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That was when she heard the voice.
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Hello?

And so, said the voice, you have won.

"Yes, but won what?" he asked the emptiness. The landscape of his mind and own imagination had faded away to nothing; not the white nothing but the actual lack of anything. The world was there... and then again, it wasn't. His head hurt just trying to think about it.

"A battle. A war," replied a voice behind him. But instead of the words that just appeared in his head, without all the trouble of actual sound, this one was clearly female. And obviously spoken.

"A war with what?"

"Yourself. You. Every part of you."

Silus stared. "And who are you?"

"I am..."

My mother. The thought said itself. A slow calm came over Silus. For once, the universe made sense. Simply because it didn't make any sense at all.

Silus could see the similarities, now that he looked at her. The hair, her eyes. He could see how Leia reminded him of her. But there were differences, too. The woman's, no, his mother's nose, her face. The way should held herself. And by now, she would be much older. If she was even alive at all...

"Yes. I am your mother. And then, I am not. I am only a memory. I chose one that would be most familier to you."

"Really?" Silus asked, and immediately regretted it. There had to have been hundreds of better things to say than just 'really'.

"I am you, Silus. A part of you. You would recognise me most as..."

"... The voice."

His mother smiled. "Yes."

"So why aren't you trying to destroy me?"

"I was never trying to destroy you. I was trying to save you."

"That seemed an odd way to go about it."

"Well, the only person you can blame is yourself," his mother giggled while he stared in confused silence.

"You never wanted to go down this path. Mind you, you never wanted to go down any other path than your own. But the day you became a Sith your mind splintered. You may have noticed it; perhaps you had a few odd dreams, or perhaps you forgot something that had only happened moments ago.

"Parts of you came together and rebuilt themselves. It was not enough. You were still too weak, and when the power and corruption of the force hit you, it hit you with the effect of an avalanche. You were too weak to resist and by the time your mind was strong enough it was too late. You were already too far gone. Your mind became corrupted and warped. Finally, in a last effort, you created what you came to know as the voice. And that led you to here."

"But," said Silus, "you wanted to harm them. The Sha'ta whatever it's called.."

"Sha'ta'lusk."

"Right, Shat'ta'lusk. You wanted to destroy it, the Jedi. Practically everyone, if I hadn't stopped you."

"That's because I had failed. I'd become as corrupted as yourself. And you were hardly one to want to share space with another equal. So you resisted, and I resisted. If none of these events had happened, or happened differently, you very well would have destroyed yourself."

Silus looked away from her. In some way, it made sense.

"So when I remembered you-"

"Your mother," the voice corrected.

"That fixed everything that was all it took?"

"That was only a trigger. There was a universe of work that needed to be done before you... fixed... yourself. But a universe can begin and end in an instant."

"Why, then," said Silus, "haven't I woken up?"

"There is a problem."

"Ah, good, something I recognise."

"You must run Silus. It's found you, and it is going to destroy you."

"What? What is?"

"Run, Silus!" His feet moved of their own accord. Silus ran in one direction, not caring where it led. If anywhere at all.

Slowly, the nothing faded until the universe came back with the full stopping power of a bull elephant on really bad acid.



Silus stood up and stared into the blinking and confused face of an orangutan. Who was sitting in a bath tub. And reading the local newspaper. Without any thought at all, Silus took the nearest door and entered into a hallway of doors.

And doors. And doors. And doors.

It went on forever and, if he stared in one direction long enough, he could almost imagine seeing the back of his head. Silus quickly looked away and opened another door. His eyes widened and he immediately shut it again. Some things were too wierd, even for him.

I'm not going to get anywhere doing this. Silus thought and, with a slow creeping smile, closed his eyes. So I might as well try it this way.

Silus spun around several times and, with the deadly precision of a chess master making the killing move, took ten steps forward. He turned to the right, and walked straight through the wall.



The universe shattered. His mind shattered, into hundreds and hundreds of pieces. Then, in the sort of eternity only an instant could take, it all came back together. Silus ran in a darkened hallway straight toward the one point of light. He didn't wonder why, he just knew it was his only chance of escape.

It's focusing on something else. It can't keep a hold on me, he thought as he raced toward the light.

Wait. Silus skidded to a halt. Not something, someone.

"Leia," Slowly, Silus turned around, and with a deep breath, ran back into the darkness. He was going to hate himself for this.



The landscape changed, and the same dark desert came crashing back. This time, though, things were different.

For one, Silus was wearing his tattered robes. It wasn't much, but it was the first thing he could think of. Second, and he realised this only by looking around, someone was lying in the ground not far from him.

Dammit. Silus thought as he rushed over to the still form of Leia. Slowly, she began to move.

"Hello?" he asked and Leia opened her eyes and stared straight into Silus' face. Probably not the best thing for her to see, but there wasn't much he could do about that.

"Oh, bugger. Looks like you got dragged into this too, eh?"

When Leia came to she was laying on a rocky ground, dazed and hurting. She wasn't alone... a blurry figure was standing over her, talking. Though her vision was still fairly blurred, Leia could at least tell that she was no longer on the cliff face with the Sha'ta'lusk and the unconscious Sith. She rubbed absently at her face, as if the action would help her head clear more quickly.


Where am I...?


Leia jumped as she recognized the person standing over her to be Silus. She quickly settled however when she realized he wasn't trying to kill her. In fact, he seemed to be showing considerable concern for her. But why? And why was he awake? Had he woken up after she had fallen and had somehow brought her here?


Leia sat up, and looked around at their barren surroundings. Everything seemed so... surreal.


"Exactly what is... this? Where are we?"

"Exactly what is... this? Where are we?"

"Damned if I know," Silus replied. His foot tapped the ground, "There is land. And," Silus stared at the sky, "there is a sky. There is light, but no sun. We haven't died from asphyxiation, so I'd say there is at least the thought of enough oxygen to allow us to breathe."

Silus leaned forward and offered to help her up.

"Come on, if I wanted to kill you I'd have done it by now. You're safe. Or, rather, as safe as you can be."

Now that they were both on their feet again, Silus tried to explain things better.

"As far as I can tell, we're in a completely different universe. There are, of course, a thousand different from our own but this... this is different. This is the universe of a mind."

Silus let her think on that for only a moment before, as his lips curved upward into that of a grim smile, telling her the final truth.

"My dear lady, it seems we are in the mind of the Sha'ta'lusk. We are also trapped. And, which is the worse, I don't think it is very happy. You can almost feel it, if you listen hard enough."

They were weaponless, and Silus had no idea how an attempt at using the Force would work in a place like this. That would have to be the last resort; Silus had no love of the idea of exploding into millions of pieces. However...

If he was wearing his robes...

Slowly, a plan began to form.

Mass pandemonium!


Tyscio wanted to find something that he could use to reach Leia but the sight simply caused all his plans to drop to the floor.

There were padawans all over the place and Tyscio thought he recognized the little arrogant pup that he'd met in the temple in their midst. Some were rolling around on the ground as if in pain, others were forcing themselves into the living habitats of the people and the remaining simply attacked the citizens of Naboo.

Amid their screams was an almost inhuman wail that caused the small hairs on the back of Tyscio's neck to stand up further.

"What the hell is going on?" he shouted to himself running up to the padawan he recognized.

The padawan paid him no mind as he turned his attention to beating a nearby merchant before Tyscio grabbed his arm.

A bad idea as the padawan turned to him with a blank stare and let out a hollow wait that caused Tyscio to grit his teeth.

From the corner of his eyes he noticed several other padawans stopping their random destruction and turn towards them.

"I don't have time for this!" Tyscio muttered and punched the padawan in his open mouth.

He drew his hand back in pain as the padawan's teech had left their mark but the noise stopped as the pup staggered back in an almost drunk-like fashion.

He was shaking his hand in disgust.

And you want to be trained as one of these..?

Tyscio smirked at the thought and was about to answer the question when he perceived that the others bolted towards him their hands and arms outstretched.

His smirk vanished.

Grabbing the closest and largest object he could he swung his arm around bashing against the nearest padawan a potent tube of processed meat.