the ship looked much as it had nine years ago.

curving bulkheads draped with

tapestries gave way to meandering corridors and snug quarters. golden caamasi strolled
by, nodding to the two men as they passed. occasionally, one would raise a hand in
greeting, recognizing the warrior from his stay on their ship. he smiled; there were fond
memories here, with this gentle folk.
to his side, his employer forced a smile - the ship full of pacifists made him
uneasy. as the leader of one side of an intergalactic conflict, he was aware of the fact that
they disapproved of his presence. none would mention it and violate the manners with
which they held themselves, but those who mastered the force didn’t need words or
actions to know. despite the nonthreatening demeanor, lord vader was still on edge.
the bodyguard-turned-special-agent smirked.
the grim had nothing against the man, of course. vader still had much of anakin
about him. even after his failure to protect padme, he had remained a friend - possibly, he
thought with a wry twist, because yoda himself couldn’t defeat sidious, so what could he
expect from me? given vader’s rather emotion-charged existence, he was grateful for the
logic - but nothing would remove the grim’s amusement when the sith’s reactions were
wildly off-target, or when he was not in control of the situation and showed it, like now.
vader shot a look at him, quite obviously having sensed his amusement, and, just
as obviously, failing to share in it. the look clearly communicated that sirius was to cease
his enjoyment of his lord’s discomfort on pain of - well, pain, so of course the grim’s
smirk turned into a low chuckle. in response, the look turned into the scowl.
“are you quite certain that you are not lost?” vader’s tone was mild. the grim was
not deceived.
“wellll... it has been a long time since i was here...”
“sirius...”
“i might not remember the exact way...”
“you,” the sith pronounced in a flat tone, “are a liar.”
“me? never.”
“do not try to fool me,” he warned.
“oh, i wouldn’t dream of it.”
vader chose not to respond to that one - wisely, in the grim’s opinion. instead, he
glared before facing forward once more. opportunity for teasing gone, he returned his
attention to locating the correct set of quarters. small as it was, there had been a grain of
truth in his prevaricating. he wasn’t entirely certain that he’d ever visited that particular
area, and this, while not as large as an ssd or even an sd, was by no means a small ship.
still, he had no doubt he’d find it. eventually. and if he cheated along the way...
placing his wand on his palm, he murmured, “point me.” it spun. the next
intersection he came to, he turned left, then left again. vader watched with mild interest;
he’d seen this before.
stopping in front of a nondescript door, he shot a glance at the sith. lord vader
currently appeared to be either daydreaming or focusing on something in the distance.
the grim didn’t need words to know that this visit promised to be interesting - but then, he
grinned, the more interesting, the better. with that thought in mind, he rapped gently.
a few moments later, the door opened, and a slender caamasi female smiled at
him.
“sirius. it’s good to see you again.” she nodded to the man standing next to him.
“lord vader.”
“you as well, releqy. i understand that you have another pupil?”
“perhaps, if you have no claim to her.”
“mm. we’ll see.”
“indeed,” she nodded. “come in.”
stepping in, the grim wondered who it would be. a woman - perhaps tonks had
tripped herself through, or hermione out of curiosity. he couldn’t think of any others that
might; though, he reminded himself, it has been nine years. and then, peeking around the
low couch, he saw the girl. she couldn’t have been more than three years old, and she
wasn’t like any human he’d ever seen.
white-blond wisps trailed past her shoulder blades, and green eyes peered out in
curiosity. her tanned skin contrasted oddly against her fairer hair. and she was tiny - if
she weighed any more than two stone he’d be surprised. part veela, perhaps?
he exhaled. well. he supposed she could still be the child of a friend - many
things could happen in almost a decade - but he didn’t recognise any distinctive features
that belonged to someone he’d known. still -
crouching to be on an equal level with her, he smiled. the child smiled back -
good. “hi,” he greeted in english.
for a minute, she seemed to be debating whether or not to talk to him. then,
“hello.”
score! “my name is sirius,” he told her, still smiling and trying to appear non-
threatening. “what’s yours?
“poldë.” she edged a foot around the couch.
“poldë, huh? that’s a very pretty name for a very pretty little girl. does your
mama ever tell you that?”
“yes.” she drifted a bit further out so she could see him better. the sleeveless
dress and cloak she was wearing looked almost wizard-made, but the materials had to be
of high-quality, and the tailoring was flawless. the cloak faded in and out, shimmering
silver, sepia, and green. if she belonged to a wizarding family, it was obviously one on
the high end of the spectrum; but most of those wouldn’t touch dirty blood, let alone
different species, and he still had the feeling that she wasn’t quite human.
“good, she should. hey, can i introduce you to my friend right here?”
he gave her a second to think that over, and was rewarded with a hesitant, “yess..”
“great! poldë, this is lord vader.” checking with exaggerated caution to both
sides, he motioned her forwards. when she slowly came, he leaned forward and
whispered, “but you can call him v for short.”
that coaxed a smile out of her. “father says i should always call people i don’t
know by right names.”
“really? well, what’s your mama say?”
she toed the carpet. “she says father’s strict and needs to relax.”
he laughed. “sounds like some people i might know. do you know your mama
and papa’s names, poldë?”
when she nodded, he grinned. “really? that’s good! can you tell me?” he gave
her the puppy-dog face. “pretty please?”
this time, she nodded without hesitating, though from the way vader shifted he
guessed it was because there were no strictures around the act instead of the grim’s skills
with children.
“mother’s name is carnildë and father’s name is cirisson.”
well. that tore it, well enough. he’d never heard names even remotely similar in
the wizarding world. at a loss, he remarked, “well, i don’t think i’ve heard those names
before. can you tell me what they do?”
“mother sews and cooks and teases father and father hunts and feeds me and tells
me stories.”
an opening! “what kind of stories does he tell you?”
she blinked, apparently unsure as to whether this was on the do-not-tell list or not.
“aaa...”
something about her vocalisations was needling him. they were off, just the
slightest bit, as if her reflexive vocal hesitation was picked up elsewhere than two
english-speaking parents. he eyed her critically - she was young, but if she’d been raised
around two languages, that could explain it, as well as the uncharacteristic ‘mother’ and
‘father.’ and it might give a clue as to her origin, as well. a few strands of hair fell into
her face, and she pushed them back, revealing a decidedly pointed ear - not veela, then.
she was still pondering his earlier question, so he asked a different one. “do you
speak any languages beside english, poldë?”
a nod.
“that’s cool! which ones?”
“quenya and sindarin, and a little bit of latin.” she looked at him through her
eyelashes. “the latin’s ugly, though.” pausing for just a moment, she asked innocently,
“why’s it cold?”
the grim grinned. “not cold, cool. it means neat, or good, or interesting.”
“a.” the child folded herself into a cross-legged position and looked up. “when
can i go back? i’m hungry. i want father.”
sindarin? quenya? he’d never heard of those before. where his first guess
might’ve been veela, it had changed. veela weren’t that delicate or tiny - and what on
earth was she talking about? caamasi would never starve a child. they certainly hadn’t
starved him. and their food was strange, yes, but not bad.
“don’t the caamasi give you food?”
“yes...”
“then why are you hungry?”
“because they don’t feed me.”
he blinked. what kind of logic...?
“does the food taste bad?”
“no, it’s good.”
“do you eat it?”
“yes.”
“then why are you hungry?” he repeated himself. the grim had a feeling that he
was missing something important.
“because father’s not here,” she said, and he dropped the topic. he was getting
nowhere with that - and vader was getting amused, he could tell. the little girl stared at
him, seeming to consider something. after a few moments, she asked, “what’s your
name?
raising an eyebrow, he glanced at the sith. “i told you, remember? sirius, my
name is sirius.”
“but what’s your father-name?” she persisted. “father said that people who speak
english have father-names.”
father-name...? oh! surname, of course. “black,” he answered. “i am sirius
black.”
her face twisted into a scowl almost faster than he could blink, and the sith next to
him shifted, obviously picking up on something. <she knows you, or to be more accurate
your name,> the grim heard in his mind. <what the kreth have you done that she hates
you so much?> the problem was, sirius had not a clue. he’d never seen her before, and
never heard of her parents.
tentatively, he queried, “is something wrong?”
“i don’t like you!” poldë stood and backed away. “i don’t like you!”
“why not?” he was out of his league here.
“you were mean to my father. you’re a git and a prat and yrchion.” was it just
him, or was the low table in the corner rattling?
“...i don’t know your father, but i’m very sorry if i was ever mean to him,” he
tried. stealing a glance at vader was not reassuring; the man had a decidedly evil smirk
on his face. the grim glared at him.
the child stomped a very tiny foot. “no you’re not! otherwise you would have
been nicer!” he opened his mouth to say something... and the girl ran up, kicked him as
hard as she could in the shins, and then darted back behind the couch. her voice was
muffled behind it. “go away, sirius black! i want tata!” abruptly, the table toppled.
releqy appeared rather suddenly. “she sounds agitated, sirius, what did you say to
her?”
bewildered, he switched back to basic. “i don’t know. she blew up as soon as she
heard my full name.
the caamasi girl merely looked at him. “she is not old enough to know you
personally. do you know her parents?”
“no - i don’t even think she’s human.” he sighed - he hated enigmas.
vader broke in. “i believe it would be wise for you to leave, now. i doubt she will
speak with you again in the near future.”
“and will you remain with her, lord vader?” releqy did not appear terribly pleased
with the proposal.
“you have my word that i will not harm the child, lady,” he replied courteously. “i
am merely curious as to her origins.”
“you do not speak her tongue,” she challenged, and vader raised an eyebrow.
“i wield the force, caamasi.” the implication was impossible to miss, and she
conceded.
“very well.” she left the room slowly, almost unwillingly, while the grim glared at
his employer.
“i don’t like this,” he stated simply.
“i know.”
turning, sirius left the room. a smirk blossomed on his face - vader would now
have to find his own way to his quarters, unless he could coax releqy away from her
duties. and, judging by how dear caamasi held children, that was not likely to happen.
 the sith waited as sirius’ mind traveled further away, checking absently on the
caamasi girl as well. she was not listening, though shouting or more screaming would
probably bring her running. just as well; only three people, including himself, were
aware that he spoke english, and he preferred to keep it that way for the time being.
the child was adorable, though the grim was right when he said she was not quite
human. truth be known, there was no human blood in her veins at all. he didn’t know
her species - but she was intelligent and, he suspected, very other than what the grim
thought. and quite capable of holding a grudge in stead of her missing parents, it seemed.
still, the child hadn’t immediately linked him in her mind with her hatred for sirius, so he
was hopeful. this youngling needed training, according to what he had heard, and he
wouldn’t mind a child following the grim about his fleet. true, she was young; but then,
had padme lived, his children would not have been far from this age as well.
“poldë,” he called now in english, wrapping a hint of force about her mind to
soothe her. “poldë, you have won: sirius is gone.” slowly he moved nearer her refuge.
“come out now, little one; i would like to speak to you.” he sensed her response to the
term - little one, telellë, tata! - and spoke again. “come, telellë? he is truly gone.”
“promise?”
“i promise,” and he wove a tendril of trustworthiness in his words. he could feel
her wavering; he could afford to be patient. sure enough, her face poked out a few
seconds later, scanning the room as only a small child could, passing over his standing
figure.
“are you sure?”
“very sure. you scared him away with your fierceness.”
a smile crossed her face. “father taught me how to fight. mother helped a little.”
“they did a very fine job,” he assured with a straight face. “do you mind if i sit
down, little one?”
predictably, she swelled with pride at being addressed as an adult and waved a
falsely nonchalant hand at the sofa. “of course not... a...” her face puckered with
concentration. “what’s your name again?”
“vader.”
“a! of course not, vader.” she pronounced the name carefully, as if afraid of
tripping over it.
conspicuously not looking at her, he seated himself on the couch and studied the
hangings on the opposite wall. a minute later, a very small weight dipped the other end
of the couch, and he looked down, feigning surprise at finding her there. she blinked up
at him. “you have funny hair.”
“do i?”
“yes. it’s all curled-up. i’ve never seen someone with curled-up hair before.”
“well, i’ve never seen such an intelligent little girl before, or one with pointed
ears.”
“really? are you a human? i’ve never met a human before.”
the sith nodded. “yes, i am. never? are you sure? what about your parents?”
this time she giggled at him. “they’re not humans, silly!”
“no?” he asked, with exaggerated surprise.
“no!”
“well, then, what are they, little one?”
 “mother’s noldo, and father’s yarsukhoth.”
“...yarsukhoth?” that... was not a word he’d ever heard sirius use.
“yes. you know, a...” her struggle to remember the word was quite clear on her
face. “a vampire,” she pronounced at last.
he’d not heard that word, either. after he finished here, he would need to find the
grim and ask for an explanation. “that's nice.”
“i think so. mother does, too, because then when i fall down it heals faster, that’s
what she says. i think it heals as fast as the other children, but she says it’s faster. i can
see in the dark better than she can, too.”
fascinating. “that’s always good. do you fall down much?”
“no, except for that time i fell out of the talan -“ upon seeing his raised eyebrows
she amended, “- our house - it’s in a tree. anyways, i fell out and something in my arm
cracked funny and i had to wear a strap around it for four days. that was when i was
little. i’m a big girl now, so i don’t fall any more.”
his eyebrows climbed higher. “you don’t look very big to me.”
“well, older then.” she pouted. “besides, mother says i’m just waiting for the
right time to grow.”
“if you’re sure...” he mused with a straight face.
“i am!” she rebuked his doubt indignantly.
“mm.” making a show of looking her over, the sith wove a bit more force into his
voice. he didn’t want her to be reminded of the erstwhile sirius. “you look rather hungry.
has releqy been feeding you?”
surprisingly, the little girl shook her head, wispy hair whipping in an energetic
halo. “no.”
that answer did not match up with his knowledge of caamasi or the conversation
with sirius he’d listened to. “have they been bringing you food?”
she nodded her head this time. “it’s odd. it tastes good, but it’s odd.”
what kind of riddle is this? as he asked his next question, he probed at the edge of
her mind. “why hasn’t she been feeding you?”
puzzlement flitted across her thoughts and face. “because she’s not mother or
father or grandfather or grandmother or aunt mélë.”
“is that all?”
“father says never to feed from anyone who’s not him or mother unless it’s an
emer...”
“emergency?” he supplied, and she nodded.
“if it’s an emergency, then i’m allowed to feed from grandmother and grandfather
and aunt mélë. otherwise i’m not supposed to.” worrying at her bottom lip, she added,
“but i’m really hungry. is it an emergency yet?”
feed from? the child is not anzati. aloud, he answered, “i do not know, but i
believe so. what do your parents say?”
tiny shoulders shrugged. “i don’t know, they’re not here.”
she might not sound it for her words, but the simplicity of the answer reminded
him how very young she was, and, rather than ask circular questions, he delved into the
memories at the front of her mind. a dark man with greasy hair and a forbidding face
smiled at a woman who could only be poldë’s mother and looked down. hinya, he
crooned, my daughter, my little one. releqy appeared briefly with a flashing smile as a
horde of some hideous alien flew past. the dark man cradled a child to his chest, and
warmth seeped down a parched throat; a bead of crimson lingered on pale skin.
somewhat unsettled, he drew back. her mind was more fragmented than any he’d
delved, and he could not guess why. children were not known for ordered thoughts, but
to this extent... still, vader had found what he’d been searching for.
“how often does your father usually feed you?”
brow wrinkled in thought, she responded. “a... every next day? i think?”
he nodded. “how long has it been since you came here?
she frowned at him. “i don’t know. there’s no sun here. only stars and pretty
clouds.”
a sigh came from him; he would need to check with releqy. “did you feed before
you came here?”
“i don’t think so...”
wonderful. what else can... ah - that could work. “poldë,” the sith told her, “i am
going to find out how long you’ve been here. if it’s been longer than three days, then i
believe it counts as an emergency.”
“but -“ the girl was becoming rather upset.
”i know. your grandparents and uncle are not here.” pausing, he continued, “your
father would want you to feed, little one, if he knew that you were this hungry. believe
me.”
“but who?” she wailed. “father told me -“
triumph glittering inside, vader interrupted. “you may feed from me, hinya, it will
be all right.” his tone was gentle, contrasting her wide eyes and almost panicked
breathing. stretching a hand out, he stroked her hair. the child froze for one brief
moment before relaxing, and he gathered the limp form against his side. excellent.
“everything will be all right.”

“sirius,” the sith enquired, “what exactly is an elf?”

“a house elf?”
“i do not know.”
“house elves are tiny, ugly, and live to serve wizards.”
“i see. are there any other species?”
“...not to my knowledge.”
“what is a vampire?”
the grim looked at him with some surprise, and lord vader paused in his pacing.
“what is it, grim?”
“where did you hear about elves and vampires?”
a smirk grew on his face as he continued. “why, from dear little poldë, of course.
where else?”
“oh.” sirius tilted his head. “did she have contact with house elves and
vampires?”
“not house elves, but to my understanding her mother is a rather different sort of
elf and her father a vampire. if i knew what the terms meant, i would be most
appreciative.”
“...oh. that explains the hunger.” he pondered for a minute or so on the
implications of such a parentage and coming through the veil, ignoring his increasingly
irate employer. however, patience was not one of the sith’s chief virtues.
“grim. explain. now.”
for a moment, the grim was strongly tempted to refuse - but only for a moment.
vader was a powerful man even without the force. “i don’t know about any other sort of
elf, but i do know some things about vampires. they typically look human, but they don’t
particularly love sunlight. they don’t have fangs like most myths say, just sharp incisors,
and their need for blood depends on their age. a child needs blood far more often than an
adult, and can hit bloodlust if more than four days pass, depending on how young it is.
for an adult, it can take up to two weeks. i’ve heard of some particularly strong-willed
ones making it fifteen or sixteen days.
“if that little girl’s a vampire, she probably gets blood every day, just because
she’s so young. she got here three days ago, right?” he checked. vader inclined his head,
and he continued. “right. so, she’s going to be fairly emotionally-unbalanced and off-
kilter until she either hits bloodlust or gets some blood.” he paused, considering. “i’m
not even sure that alien blood would work for her, because vampire blood is fairly close
to human and i’m not sure whether caamasi blood is even iron-based...”
“it is not. what is bloodlust, exactly?” his eyes were intent as he stopped pacing.
“eh... essentially she’ll go insane until she gets blood, and she’ll try to attack the
first living being she sees. she’s too little to actually kill someone, but she could kill
herself if she gets poisonous blood. of course, she’ll die if she starves, too, which would
be about a day, maybe two, after she hit.”
the sith resumed his pacing again, black cloak fluttering behind him. sirius’ eyes
followed him back and forth.
“so, did you see her parents?” he asked a few minutes later. if the sith hadn’t been
in her mind at some point, he would be surprised.
“yes,” came the slightly distracted answer. “one was an elf, as she knows it, a
taller and older version of poldë, very tall for a human female. her father i would have
called human if i did not know he was not; he had pale skin, rather greasy black hair,
black eyes, and a hooked nose.” a spike of recognition and shock broke through his
steps, and he turned, one eyebrow raised, to look at the grim. “so,” he observed, “you do
know her father.”
the man looked absolutely flabbergasted. “yeah, you could say that.”
seating himself in an armchair, he pierced his employee with blue eyes. “do
enlighten me, grim.”
“ah - basically we attended school together, the greasy git. he’s an evil bastard
who hovers over his potions nonstop and can’t leave well enough alone. i knew he had to
be a vampire.”
“mm. i presume you bullied him?”
“he gave as good as he got!” he protested.
“then how is it that his young daughter knows of you and hates you, though she
must believe you are nine years dead?”
“...maybe just a little,” was the grudging admission. vader smirked.
“of course.”
“what does it matter to you, anyway, if she hates me or not?”
calmly, the sith said, “she is magical -“
”no kidding, sherlock, if she’s got a vampire father-“
 ”-not to mention that she is quite intelligent for her years, and i am going to take
her with us when we leave.”
*****chapter**break*****

tilting his head back and forth, the man gazed abstractly at the wall. “excuse me,”
he remarked, “but i believe i just heard you say you were going to take the kid along. i
think i’m dreaming. what were you meaning to say?”
“you heard correctly.”
still staring at the wall, the grim asked, “are you quite sure?”
“yes.”
now his head swiveled to face vader. there was no question about it; the sith was
quite obviously amused. “and why,” the grim continued doggedly, “would you do
something like that?”
the dark lord gave the simplest answer first. “she is magical, enough for sidious
to kill or use her. she must be trained and kept away from him.”
“great. forgive me for my faulty memory, v, but aren’t yoda and kenobi still alive
on that dungheap planet?”
“they are,” came the assent.”
“aren’t they still training padawans?”
“yes.” vader was still smirking, darn him.
“aren’t they the ones with actual experience in that sort of thing? raising a child,
that is?”
“yoda, at least, yes.”
“great.” sirius passed a hand over his face. “don’t you live on the run?”
an eyebrow raised. “sometimes.”
“isn’t there a price on your head?”
“quite a large one, if i recall correctly.”
“have you ever had any experience raising children?”
“no. get to the point, grim.”
the man glared. “the point? fine! the bloody point is that the girl can go to yoda
with the rest of the kids. that’s not a bloody reason for keeping her!”
the sith regarded him impassively. “and then,” he said deliberately, “there is the
fact that she is the child of your boyhood nemesis. you are not capable of objectivity in
this area.”
sirius’ eyes widened for a split second before narrowing. “not capable of
objectivity, huh? well, objectivity or no, i still haven’t heard a good - not even a passable
- reason. yoda and kenobi live with this sort of thing nowadays. you’ve sent other kids
to ‘em. why not this brat?”
“among other things, she can be passionate. jedi disdain such a thing, as you
should know. i would rather she use it as a strength than call the emotion a weakness.
jedi do not usually take children older than toddlers, and she is clearly past that stage, so
yoda and kenobi would have difficulties training her properly.” unspoken, but heard,
were the words, as they did me.
the grim folded his arms over his chest and continued glaring. “all well and good,
but you were older, and you still are in no position to be caring for a child - unless you
want to launch straight into training?” he sneered at the thought.
“that is what the jedi would do.”
“they’re not liable to be attacked - though,” he muttered under his breath, “i’m not
sure i’d care too much if his get died.”
for his efforts, he received a mocking glance. “you are a liar, sirius black, who
speaks far before thinking. how often have i told you not to lie to me? it is not safe.”
blue eyes darkened, drilling through sirius’ own. “do not forget again.” tempted to
swallow, the once-intrepid grim was forcibly reminded of the man’s identity. this was not
anakin skywalker. this was a sith lord who would be trifled with only to a point.
still, he’d not been a lion for nothing. “who said i was lying?” he challenged.
vader laughed, disdainful. “you may be force-resistant to a point, but your mind
is not. enough pressure and your magic does not protect you. is this not so?” he looked
pointedly at his employee’s right arm, and the man rubbed the scar there without
thinking. normally, lightsabers didn’t - couldn’t - affect him, as they were constructed
and wielded with the force; and, as he’d learned on corellia, the force and magic didn’t
mix. but experimenting with halcyon, he’d also found that once his magical reserves
were exhausted or overloaded, all bets were off. then, any force-wielder with a saber
could get to the wizard.
it worked both ways, of course. he couldn’t touch any jedi or sith or even
untrained sensitive with a spell, because he was inherently magical while they were
reservoirs of force. there were the rare exceptions, when his wizardry was strong enough
to overpower the other, yet while strong, he had never been strongest, just trickiest, and
those times were rare - rarer, now that sidious has killed most of them anyway-
stunned, he made the connection. “that’s the reason you want her.”
“it is one of them, certainly. if she is magical, she would be wasted with the jedi.
and there is the possibility that, as a vampire...” he paused deliberately, allowing the
other to draw his own conclusions.
“...i see. but, ‘one?’”
“i find myself fond of the girl. she is... much like my own daughter could have
been, if she had lived.”
and that, the grim knew, was far more of a reason than vader would ever let on.
his child was dead. with this one, he could regain that and wreak havoc on the man who
had stolen it in the first place. though the girl might be the git’s, he doubted that he could
ever refuse vader a chance for a family. all of his was gone; and so he sighed.
“it’s convenient, i suppose. the only other two people who speak english would
be around to teach and interpret, and i’m the only one who could teach her wizardry.”
even if he’d never considered teaching in his life, let alone to one of his, of all people...
“indeed. though i do not believe she will accept training from you until you
convince her of your error.”
“oh, kreth. one of his - she’s going to be as stubborn as he is!”
“i would suggest that you be very convincing. in fact, you may even need to
convince yourself.”
“yeah.” sirius sighed, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. “why me?”
without even looking, he could hear the smirk in that voice. “do you really want
an answer to that question?”
he didn’t move, attempting to ignore the sith lord - right, like that’ll ever happen -
and heaved another sigh... and sat up as the thought wrapped insidious tendrils around his
brain. “wait a minute. who’s going to feed her? she’s too young - she has to develop a
parent-bond or her mind will go haywire.”
the grim was surprised to see the sith nod his head in a smug way. “i imagined
that might be the reason - her mind is already fragmenting, grim.”
“already?” sitting up, he caught his employer’s eyes. “she hasn’t even hit
bloodlust - her mind should be fine still...”
“tell me: how would a severe psychological trauma impact that?”
“she’s a child! anything hugely disturbing is going to mess with a kid’s mind if
they don’t get help for it. but i still don’t think the mere separation -“
”it is not only the separation. a different sort of violence is present, perhaps the
one that made her cross. but there are blood and pain and fear near the surface of her
thoughts. her parents may already be dead, sirius.”
“oh - oh, no... poor kid, parents dead, starving, lost in a different dimension -“
”the child of your enemy -“
he glared at his vastly too smug employer. “yeah, yeah, laugh it up. like that
really matters!”
“it did a few moments ago. have you changed your mind on the matter of the
child since then?”
turning away, he muttered under his breath about mind-reading force-wielders.
“so you expect me to bond her, then?” already he was certain of the answer - but his head
whipped around at the response.
“no.”
“no?” he repeated, stunned.
“absolutely not.”
“but i thought - i don’t understand, milord.”
“obviously.” vader paused, waiting for sirius to regain a bit of his composure.
“she is magical - but she is also what you call a vampire that feeds off of blood. there
have been experiments done in the past, of which you are not aware, wherein blood
transfusion was attempted as a means of inducing force-sensitivity.”
the grim had indeed never heard of these. “what happened?” he breathed,
spellbound.
“nothing,” vader replied, simply. “the midichlorians were rejected as being
foreign to the body.”
“then what...?”
“if blood is truly what she feeds on, then it stands to reason that the midichlorians
would be accepted and metabolized.”
“but isn’t that impossible? the force and magic can’t mix -“
”or such has been the conclusion to this point. you are not a vampire.”
sirius had to admit that his employer had a point. if it was the vampirism that
would make the coexistence of magic and the force possible, then he would not be an
acceptable test subject; and there was no equivalent in this dimension save the anzati, and
he was not about to test that hypothesis. the anzati might not be dementors, but their kiss
was just as fatal. “so you’re going to bond her yourself.”
nodding, the sith answered, “yoda and kenobi would not be suitable for such,
assuming they considered it ethical at all. i would not entrust a magical child with such
needs to them.”
“yet you think you’re any better? i think i have to ask this, vader - are you just
using her as a weapon?” that, he wouldn’t allow. she might be his child, but she was still
a child. no person should ever be used as a chess-piece instead of a sentient being,
especially one that young.
in return for his insolence, he felt a swift hold clench around his thoughts. <and if
i am, do you think that there is anything you can do to stop me?> a frigid voice
demanded inside his mind. <i am stronger than you, sirius black, do not forget.> sirius’
magic began rising about him in a half-visible cloud, but was overpowered by the sith’s
more powerful grasp of the force.
“i don’t forget,” he gritted out. “but she’s a child, not a tool!” faster than he
could blink, the hold on him was loosed.
“i happen to share your opinion,” his employer told him in conversational tones.
“i would not bond her if i did not, as tying myself to an unknown equation would not be
strategically sound. i do not know yet what it will require from me, but i will not leave
that child to die or bond an unsuitable being. as i said, i appreciate her intelligence and
behavior.”
“fine. i can understand that. but if you really are going to, you might want to be
fast.” the grim gave a sardonic smile. “i think she might go mad, otherwise - and then
what?”
“i am aware of that fact; but will it work before gaining her trust? though she
does not distrust me as she does you, she certainly doesn’t see me as a parental figure.”
“good point.” he mulled the problem over. “and i think you might have to do it
when she hits bloodlust, anyway, since you’re not her natural-born father. you have a day
- maybe. if she was fed right before she arrived. otherwise, you’re in trouble.”
“what about synthesized blood as a delaying mechanism?”
“it never worked at home,” the grim responded, and vader gave a curt nod of his
head. “besides, the sooner the better. if she’s unbalanced-“ his ethics screamed at him
for this discussion of blatant manipulation -“it’ll be easier to get her to trust you, and the
next time she’ll be a bit too settled.” he paused, remembering releqy. caamasi could be
very protective. “you might want to tell them that i’ll be taking her, though. i don’t think
they like you very much.”
the response was droll. “no, i had not been aware of that.”
“sure, v, sure you weren’t. seriously, i’ll get releqy to let the kid stay here for the
next day or two,” gesturing at the quarters, “so ‘i can watch her.’”
“i would prefer to leave as soon as possible.” ice-blue eyes met grey, and sirius
ran a hand through his hair.
“well...”
“i do not want the caamasi influencing her. nor do i desire to attempt to bond a
mad vampire youngling on their ship, where disturbance is not only possible but
probable.”
“what’s wrong with caamasi?” he retorted, but conceded the point. “i’ll tell them
we have to leave, then, immediately, and take her with us. a dose of sirius charm never
hurt anything.”
“except for your tentative talk with poldë.”
“well... yeah, but that was her father’s fault.”
 “of course it was. stars forbid it should be yours,” the sith commented in dry
tones. “go, grim. i want to be back with my fleet.”
“yes, your highness, getting right on it, your highness. anything else you want
while i’m at it?” he demanded insouciantly. catching a glimpse of the building irritation
on vader’s face, he wheeled and apparated to the other side of the door. no need for any
more force-tricks today - there were caamasi to be sweet-talked, and no better wizard for
the job.

poldë huddled in the corner of her couch. it was soft and comforting, but the tree
of her talan sang to her, and the fountains in nargothrond were softer. the laurelië, the
caamasi were nice, and releqy was gentle, but amil’s voice was sweeter. tata’s arms were
stronger than this metal beast that carried her, and safer. she wanted to go home.
she hurt. first her tummy had hurt, like it did when she played and played and
didn’t stop when amil said to come and eat, then when it didn’t stop her head had hurt,
too. now she hurt everywhere, and she was shaking, and she didn’t know why. tiny
bumps on her skin stood up, and she stared at them. poldë had never seen those on
herself before. but she didn’t really care, because she was too hungry to care. all that she
wanted was tata and amil.
the little girl shivered again without understanding why. the urqui had come, the
twisted ones, and eldar had screamed at her and swung swords at the urqui. and
sometimes the urqui fell down, and that was scary, too, but good. sometimes, though, the
eldar had fallen down with blood on them, and they didn’t get back up, and she didn’t
know why because they didn’t look any different from when they were sleeping, but they
felt different, and she was scared. then there were more urqui than eldar, and the urqui
fell down but they just kept coming, and coming, and amil told her to leave and go hide
somewhere. so she ran to where tata’s curtain was, because that was where he was right
now, and she ran through to find him, even though she knew she wasn’t supposed to.
but tata wasn’t here, only the bad man sirius black and the laurelië and the tall one
called vader who was nice to her. they all felt funny, too, like they had eaten some bad
berries or leaves and were sick. almost they felt like the eldar who didn’t get up, but
none of them felt like tata, or like amil, even if they spoke tata’s language.
tata. wrapping her arms around her legs, she whimpered. she missed him, and
she was so hungry, but he wasn’t here. no-one was here.
except vader, her thoughts reminded her. he said if it’s emergency i can feed. but
when is it emergency? after he talks to the laurelië? the tall man all in black almost
reminded her of tata, but he felt sad. lonely. she didn’t know why, though, with all of
these other people. maybe he got lost, too? anyway, he was her friend now, so he
shouldn’t be lonely. only she was...
“tata,” she whimpered aloud, softly. “tata.”

“so, how long’s she been here again?”

“three days. sirius, you know what she will say if she walks in to say hello...”
ylenic it’kla’s voice held a distinctly amused tone.
“yeah, yeah,” the grim responded - but did not remove his feet from the low table.
“it’s priceless, it’s rude, what happened to me on corellia - i get the picture.”
“and yet you don’t worry.” the caamasi shook his head. “perhaps she has a point
about corellia.”
“what, you think nejaa was gonna teach me bad habits?” he asked, raising an
eyebrow.
“not... necessarily, but those corellian jedi are known for a certain - disregard - of
regulations. besides, knowing you, i somehow doubt you stayed with him long. who
took you off his hands, horn?”
“got it in one. great guy.”
“that’s exactly what i was afraid of. i suppose i can blame him for your current
occupation?”
“well... mostly. kind of. almost.”
a small smile was creeping onto ylenic’s face. “now, tell me, how did i know you
would say that?”
“dunno. it sure wasn’t the force.”
“true enough. are you going to tell me what happened?”
“officially, or unofficially?”
it was the caamasi’s turn to convey a certain sardonic amusement. “let’s try the
unofficial one. we may have heard the official, already.”
“probably.” the grim sat up. “well, horn got me thinking about what it is i do
best, and we figured that i like new places and i’m fairly good in a fight, and that i have
an advantage over most folks because of my magic. so on corellia, that means corsec or
smuggling. i tried corsec for a few months, but -“
”-got tired of it and went into smuggling?”
the wizard laughed. “nope. you think either of ‘em would’ve let me go free? but
anyway, he got me thinking about, well, being a bodyguard. i could pick my
assignments, and travel, and it was something i was good at.”
ylenic nodded slowly. “yes, that would be a fairly accurate description of you, my
friend. so how did this lead to your current position?”
“eh... let’s just say i took the wrong contract.” he put his feet down and sat up,
then, catching his friend’s eyes. “look, i don’t know how much you know about the
whole situation with vader and the council and the emperor back there, but this absolutely
cannot go further than this room. got me?” he waited for the nod to come, then
continued. “remember anakin skywalker?”
“the naboo incident with the sith - and the beginning of the war. i remember
him.”
“right. well, he kinda took a file out of corellia’s book and got himself married to
naboo’s senator, padme amidala.” while the caamasi jedi was quite obviously surprised,
he said nothing. “she got pregnant with twins, and he started having nightmares of the
prophetic kind. what with the war, he didn’t want to take any chances, and he’d heard
about me from some assignment with nejaa, so that’s where he came.” now the grim
shook his head. “maybe if i’d turned him down, things would be different - i don’t
know.”
ylenic leaned forward across the table with focused eyes - he looked almost like
some kind of hawk, sirius reflected. “what happened?”
“bantha fodder happened. senator palpatine, anakin’s friend and mentor, the guy
with so much power over the senate? turns out he’s the sith lord that’s been sending his
apprentices at us for so long, and he figured out how to turn anakin by playing off of his
fears for his wife. then he sent his new apprentice off to kill the heads of the separatists
while he took care of the jedi. anywhere there were troops, they killed them - the jedi, i
mean. he’d sent vader - that would be anakin - to the jedi temple, but he wasn’t about to
kill kids that weren’t even padawans yet, so he’d hid all of them somewhere before going
to mustafa.”
“where were you in all of this?”
“watching padme. she didn’t know i was there, but i wasn’t about to let her get
killed or hurt in the confusion. anakin would’ve had my head, and i didn’t know he was
vader yet, so i still thought palpatine was a good guy - good enough, anyway. he came in
and did some trick with the force i’ve never seen before, something with lightning, and i
couldn’t do anything.” the grim shook his head and sighed. “he was too powerful - even
stronger than yoda, as strong as vader and maybe more, and he had all of these years of
experience. i couldn’t do anything to even try to stop him. the sithspawn killed padme,
marked her up with a ‘saber to make it look like it had been a jedi, and took off, and i
couldn’t do anything but watch.”
his head dropped into his hands as he remembered that day, the charred flesh
permeating the air with its stench and the horror of that broken body, and the distinct
feeling of powerlessness. a bodyguard who could do nothing to protect his charge,
helpless... he supposed he was broadcasting the image despite his magic, because ylenic
reached across the table to touch him with a golden hand.
“it wasn’t your fault - but you know that, don’t you, sirius black?”
“yeah,” he answered, “but that doesn’t mean i don’t feel it from time to time.”
heaving a sigh, he picked his head back up with an air of determination to go on. “when
vader came back, i told him. he nearly went nuts. the younglings at the temple had
almost been enough to get him to leave sidious, if not the dark he was using right then.
padme - well, let’s just say he leveled the senate and quite a few nearby buildings before
he took off.”
he received a dubious look. “and he didn’t direct any of that at you?”
the bodyguard shrugged. “no. there was no logical reason - and besides, people
like me. most of the time.”
“of course.” the jedi paused. “i almost dread to ask what happened next.”
“palpatine declared himself emperor, and he controlled all the armies, and all of
the jedi - or most, anyway - were dead. so vader gave the kids to yoda and kenobi to go
hide somewhere, then declared himself the leader of the rebellion, which, of course, he
had to more or less build from the ground up. he kept me around for a while as his
second - but that got boring. so now i’m an ‘independent agent’ reporting only to him.”
he gave out a smug grin. “i’m also the only one that gets to tease him about anakin, or
sidious, or any of the other fun stuff.”
sitting back in his chair, he watched the other man process the information. it
only took a few moments before ylenic sat back himself and commented, “you got your
wish, i suppose. i would not imagine you get bored often, now.”
the grim gave out an edged smile. “back home we have a saying, a curse really,”
he told the caamasi. “‘may you live in interesting times.’”
“i suppose it fell on you after you angered someone?”
“how could you think such a thing? ylenic, my friend, i’m hurt!” he protested, but
the grin ruined the effect.
 “i’m sure.”
“really! ...well, a little. not much.”
a few moments of comfortable silence passed between them, both relaxing in the
presence of friends even as ylenic considered events from the new light of information
and sirius pondered the poldë situation. eventually, it was the former that broke it.
“do you realise that you are broadcasting again?”
the grim scowled at himself. “bloody mind-reading jedi,” he grumbled. “i need
to figure out how to stop doing that. magic only goes so far.”
“so it would seem,” replied ylenic with a tolerant smile before sobering. “i hear
that the youngling recognises you?”
“unfortunately. apparently her father’s one of my boyhood rivals.”
“there is no light, then, that you can shed on the situation?”
“actually...” he hesitated, but only for a moment. “i’d like to take her with us. i
dare say it might even be necessary.”
“how so? keep in mind that you are proposing to take a child into the center of a
war.”
“yeah, i know.” running a hand through his hair, he sighed. “look, the thing is,
she’s not really human, even my type of human. she’s what my world calls a vampire,
and she has to have blood to survive, so right now she’s actually starving because you
caamasi don’t know and don’t have iron-based blood. as the only one who knows
anything about vampires - and the only one who can speak her language - i feel
something of an obligation.” carefully, he told only the truth that the jedi needed to
know.
“we are more than capable of acquiring an animal with iron-based blood - i
assume stored will not work?”
“not at all. but the problem with an animal is that she’s so young she actually has
to have a parent bond and drink from only one person, two at the most. otherwise she’ll
go crazy. she already is, a little bit, according to vader.” inside, he winced. mentioning
vader might not have been the most politic thing to do, but how else was he supposed to
convince them that poldë couldn’t stay? but the caamasi gave an unwilling nod.
“i’d seen that her mind was unusually fragmented. i assumed that it was the
trauma of transport, as was the case with you,” he stated, making a tacit reference to
sirius’ certainty of fever and hallucinations when he’d come through the veil.
“she’s magical, too. if she doesn’t get trained bad things happen - and there is no
way you can find another person to train her.”
“true enough. so why do you not leave the war and stay here? you aren’t in a
position of command, or so you say.”
the caamasi had a point, the grim had to admit. a very strong point. but there was
something he’d not considered yet. “ylenic, listen. if sidious finds out about magic, what
do you think he’ll do to that girl? you aren’t strong enough to protect her, and you can’t
give her what she needs even though i know you would, and you’d probably be better at
it than me - but if she goes with us, there is no way that palpatine is going to get to her.”
ylenic it’kla looked back at him. “nothing is certain, sirius, neither life nor death.
yet if she goes, then she will be exposed to a sith regardless, and war, and death, and
cruel decisions, at a far younger age than she has the right to be. can you tell me, in all
honesty, baring your thoughts for me to see, that this would not happen?”
 “...no. all i can tell you is that she can’t stay here.”
“will she die if she doesn’t receive training? you could just as easily send her to
yoda and kenobi.”
“and let kenobi bond her?” the grim released a cynical bark of laughter. “no
thanks. he did poor enough with anakin.”
“better than giving her to a sith and a war, perhaps.”
sighing, sirius closed his eyes, then opened them again. “i can’t promise you she
won’t get hurt, ylenic. all i can promise is that i’ll try to protect her. and frankly - you
don’t have much time to make a decision. if something doesn’t happen soon, she’s going
to completely around the bend. you’re going to have to choose between the lesser of
your two evils, and fast.”

*****chapter**break*****

“poldë...”
bright, so very bright that amil said ‘twas like laurelin had never died. leaves
were emeralds - or were emeralds leaves? she couldn’t tell, but the leaves were prettier
than the old rocks anyway, even if king felagund liked them as amil said he did. king
felagund, after all, was a grown-up, and who could tell why they did things? maybe he
really liked the leaves better after all, and that was why he was always going away to the
forest instead of staying in nargothrond with the rest of the important people. she liked
the forest better too, like tata did, even though amil had taken her twice to nargothrond to
see the things there, and she’d seen the emeralds like snake-eyes with flowers, and the
king, and she’d clapped because his hair was bright gold leaf gold sun gold just like
hers. and there were fountains there, and they were pretty, but not so pretty or loud-
singing as the waterfall that she saw when tata took her to hunt, and the people were so
very many that almost she wanted to go away to where the birds sang and the waterfall
sang and everything was gold and green, but she didn’t because amil was happy to see
friends because it’s been a yen since last seen and pass her to this nís and that nér and
talk about tata and her even if poldë didn’t really like this place. home was better, with
tata and amil and waterfalls singing and leaves whispering stories at her and ammeseler
and atarotorno smiling. (but ammeseler wasn’t smiling, now, she was still still still like
the butterfly that fell by her house that fall and red that was supposed to be inside and
unseen spilled all over the gold leaves while atarotorno fought-)
“poldë-”
-and the urqui came and there was red everywhere and swordblades were red
over dirty ugly iron and she stared because she didn’t know what to do and atarotorno
shouted at her to run poldë run telellë run far away, and so she ran because she was
scared and everything was bad -
“wake up, child, you’re here -
but she wasn’t here, she was there, with the urqui and the red covering the gold
until nothing was beautiful, nothing sang, only screamed and cried and bellowed, and the
nothing stole the urqui and the eldar when the red spilled and there was the curtain,
there, and she knew she wasn’t supposed to go through it but she had to find tata so he
could make the screaming and the red stop and there was an urco behind her reaching
for her smiling a smile that made her scream because she was so so scared, and she ran -
 “i don’t understand, v, she won’t wake - it’s like she’s in a coma, almost, but the
way she’s screaming -“
-and then there was someone else bigger than tata and atarotorno all black like
night and caves and the space between the stars, and he was in between her and the urco
and he had a sword, too, only it was star-blue and narrow and it shone and he swung it
and it hissed and crackled and the urco fell down but there was no red, and he looked at
her and she knew him but she didn’t remember his name. he looked at the curtain, and
then she did too, and there were things on the other side of it now, bright silver things like
isil hanging in the sky but not isil because the archer was smooth and these were lumpy
and looked like the rocks at nargothrond where they were still building things and she
stared, because she was still afraid but it was a different kind of afraid. then he reached
down and picked her up and he wasn’t tata but he was strong, and she curled up and hid
her face underneath his chin and she felt his arms hug her tighter, and he walked outside
where the red was, and he looked and looked, but she closed her eyes and tried to be
even smaller. and he was walking again back inside, and she opened her eyes to warn
him about the curtain, but he walked right through like tata did and then the bright things
disappeared and the stars disappeared and everything disappeared and she couldn’t see
at all, but he was still there holding her, and then she heard him say poldë telellë wake up
now, this is a dream (but she knew it was memory) but he told her to wake up, so she
closed her eyes -
-and she felt him holding her, and a gentle hand caressed her cheek, and she
turned her head to press her face against it and cried, because she was still scared and lost
and hungry and because ammeseler wouldn’t get up.
“poor kid,” she heard a voice say, and she knew she should be mad at the bad man
still but she couldn’t when he stroked her hair, over and over, and anyway he wasn’t as
bad as the urqui with their iron swords and red. but he wasn’t the one holding her,
because both of vader’s arms were wrapped tight and she didn’t think that he was going
to let go soon at all. that made her feel safer, even if she was still crying, because he was
good and her friend and he had made her stop remembering and he was so strong. “what
did you see?” she heard sirius ask him, but she couldn’t care about it.
“monsters and blood. grim - if her parents were not taken it is a miracle. she is
truly an orphan by death and not mere separation.” did he mean that tata and amil were
dead? she clung to him tighter, clutching her hands at his robes, and sobbed the harder.
so much red on the ground, and nothing was right any more.

sirius cursed, briefly, in his thoughts. as if this sithspawned dimension-switching

mess weren’t bad enough, a child that young had to watch her family getting killed? it
was beyond all reason - no wonder vader’d told him her mind was a mess. his would be,
too - and he’d seen war and death and violence before, as an auror, a bodyguard, and even
as a teen on full moons. and we'll be taking her to a place where she's only going to see
more of that - maybe ylenic's right. maybe i should just leave it and stay here.
the sith looked up at him, face unreadable, and he realized that the thought had,
once again, been heard. it's true, though, he told his employer silently, confident that he'd
hear. she's just a child - just a toddler. i didn't even see what happened, and i pity her.
turning his head back down to poldë, he sent the response. as you say. but what
else is there? do you think kenobi would suffice for a broken child? regardless of your
affectations, you know your place in the war - and there are and will be many more
younglings, do not doubt it, if you leave.
i know. i just wish i didn't. gently, as if it were something far more fragile and
precious than mere glass, he stroked the pale strands away from the girl's face.
i did not wish for this, either - but it is what we have. sirius thought that, if vader
had not been holding poldë, he would have sighed heavily. and yes, grim, i saw. i saw. i
saw tusken raiders and i saw her monsters overlaid and interchanged, and i saw the
victims. she sees differently than we, did you know? she watched and knew when the life
went out of each alike, even if she did not recognize it. and now she is so fragile, so
delicate that i almost do not know what to do. he paused, there, and the bodyguard
wondered if vader himself was tempted to leave the war - but that was a thought that he
suppressed as swiftly as it came. if the sith took note of it, he did not comment, only
murmured reassurances to the tiny being in his arms.
when are you going to tell her? instead of words in answer, he received a sense of
resignation.
“poldë, telellë - there is something that you need to know, about your parents and
about this place.” the little girl sniffed and kept her head down, but listened. “you cannot
go back - and your tata and amil cannot come here.” sirius cocked an ear at the
unfamiliar words, but kept his mouth shut.
“why?”
“because they do not know where you are.”
“why can’t i go back?”
“telellë - it only is one way. you came through, but it will not let you go back.
besides, if you went back the urqui would still be there, and i do not want them to get
you.”
she was quiet, for a few moments, at that, and then - “you told the bad man that
tata and amil are dead.”
“i believe that they are.”
there was silence for a few minutes after that, stretching out in muffled tears.
sirius continued stroking her hair, though he didn’t know what comfort it gave when the
child was clinging to the other man as if she were drowning. he watched, anyway, and
cast a perimeter warding beneath his breath. this was enough without any added
distractions. it was not every day he and a sith lord kidnapped children from caamasi
ships - hopefully, with the child’s consent. the nightmare was difficult to take into
account as the plan stood, but he was confident of their ability to play this off.
sure enough, vader spoke before another minute had passed. “telellë.”
she looked up at him through filmed eyes.
“if this is not an emergency, then i do not know what is, but the caamasi cannot
feed you, and i cannot stay here.”
“but you promised...” poldë protested, eyes wide in renewed fear.
“child, i must fight a war against an evil man, one who would kill even more than
the urqui did.”
“but -“ she began, but was interrupted.
”that is why i must ask you if you want to come with me.” he paused. “it would
be a new home, for you, if you could want one. and i would promise to stay with you.”
“tata and amil say -“ the reflexive start trailed off. “i want tata!”
 “he is not here,” reminded vader softly. “but i am. do you want to come with me,
telellë?”
she stared at him. “you’re lonely,” announced the child suddenly. “you’re all
alone, too. do you really promise?”
as she demanded the promise from the dark lord, the grim watched. to the best of
his remembrance, she looked nearly like a legilimens and nothing like a human. fey was
the best word he could find, and he shivered a bit. yet vader did not hesitate.
“i promise.”
“but what if you are killed?” the child worried at her lip.
“i will try very hard not to be, poldë,” came the answer in all seriousness, though
the other man fought valiantly to suppress a snicker.
“i will go with you, then.” she ducked her head against his shoulder without, it
seemed, any intentions of every coming up. sirius did chuckle, then, and the sith actually
smiled before speaking.
“we must go fast, if we go. the caamasi do not want you to leave them, child.
they would try to take you away from me.”
this was enough to snap her head up with eyes blazing defiance. “no!” the grim
winced as a surge of uncontrolled magic rocked the room, lifting the couch and slamming
it back down. the place setting at the low table rattled and rolled off the edge, clattering
along the floor as it went. with another grimace he recalled that this was a vampire close
to bloodlust, and a child at that - the magic would only get worse until it hit.
“vader!” he called to draw his attention from the near-frantic girl in his arms. “if
you want to be off this ship beforehand, you’ve got all of about ten, fifteen minutes!”
that was enough to move the sith to action. shifting his burden so as to use one
arm only, he strode to the doorway. the grim moved in front of him, wand drawn,
disillusioning himself before advancing to point. proximity alarms preceded general
disinterest charms as he stalked down the corridors to the bay, his employer following,
attempting to calm poldë but failing. for a moment, the incongruity struck him: this was
a caamasi ship. what danger was there in a ship of pacifists? but habits die hard, and he
continued - it would be all to their advantage to get away unnoticed.
his attempts to convince ylenic of his cause had proved, as he’d half-expected,
futile. had it been merely him, merely the grim that the jedi knew and respected, things
might have been different - but there was no denying the interest vader had taken in the
child. the caamasi had remained steadfast. there were ships he knew, and people, he
said, where she would be safe. lack of control over her magic was an acceptable price for
peace, for a youngling already traumatized so. given the time, he might have been able to
sway his mind even then; his employer was not willing to spare that time, regarding the
girl’s care. stealing her away was, for now, the best option.
or at least it would be, he reflected, if she’d stop sending magic everywhere! no
use asking v to calm her down, either. he doubted that anything could at this point, short
of shutting down her entire system, and that was something... that actually doesn’t sound
like such a bad idea - how much energy does it take to do that, anyway? stealing a glance
behind, he rejected the idea. he’s already got his hands full. we need to make this fast.
a door was open in the hallway ahead. darting forward, he paused before he
reached it to take full advantage of the disillusionment. around the edge he saw an older
caamasi male reading a datapad. “stupefy,” he murmured, with a small amount of force,
and the caamasi went limp in his chair, to awake twenty minutes later with no
recollection of the passersby.
there was really only one aboard this ship that he needed to worry about. ylenic
it’kla, as a jedi, no longer followed the strict laws of pacifism, and was quite capable of
drawing saber to ensure another’s safety. true, ylenic was his friend - but he’d also left
him unconvinced, and in order to protect poldë from the sith he’d be fierce as an enraged
hippogriff. and as a jedi, it was quite possible that he would detect any major disturbance
aboard the ship and come to investigate; the grim wasn’t entirely sure how much of the
energy vader was expending was to calm the girl and how much was to fuzz the
caamasi’s perceptions, but he willing to bet that it was a lot. still and all, if something
alerted him... their best bet was for stealth and speed.
now if only she’d stop rocking the ship with her fear - his wards were nowhere
near sufficient for dealing with that much magic. it would take him several days to erect
ones that were up to the challenge of the overloaded emotions of a vampiric and magical
child, especially one terrified out of her wits. technically angry, too, and starving, but all
of it’s being driven by that fear - what was it ylenic quoted at me, that once? anakin, too
- and he reflexively looked back, again, to make sure that vader was following. the black
cloak snarled about the sith like a menacing thestral, and against it the tiny child seemed
to glow like the legends of the fey folk muggle-born students held in awe. it was an
almost imperceptible thing, not quite there at all, sensed more than seen - but it was there,
and at that moment convinced him that, whatever her other half was, it was not human.
more open doors, four this time, and so near it was hard for him to check them.
one was empty, but the others held occupants. six or so younglings laughed in one, not
noticing when their door was slipped shut; one sketched, back to the door, in the next,
before slipping down with a sigh. but the last held adults, awake and aware, more than a
few, and the grim was forced to resort to more unusual methods. he heard a muffled
exclamation of shock as the door pulled shut and promptly turned into a very large
boulder blocking the entrance - if only the old tabby could see me now - and gave it a
dirty look. undoubtedly they’d call for help, but they were near enough the hangar now
that it shouldn’t matter. unless, of course, ylenic was, by some spectacularly unlucky
coincidence, even closer than themselves...
but a quick scan ahead showed no caamasi and no open doors, and he slipped
along the corridor as fast as he dared, looming darker shadow always behind. this stealth
was familiar, or had become so over the past years as first bodyguard and then spy, his
late acknowledgment of his familial legacy. the presence of his employer was not as
common, but hardly unwelcome as such an efficient comrade - or was it lord to his liege?
he never was entirely certain now; he hadn’t been for nearly seven years.
the hangar bay was open.
the grim growled under his breath. it was not entirely unforeseeable, but it would
have been much more pleasant had the bay been empty. now he’d have to deal with at
least one person and very likely several under more difficult conditions. i bet it’s ylenic,
that would be just too rich. unfortunately, there was no way to tell save by checking -
and magic wouldn’t help him against a jedi, only protect.
warily he edged through, motioning vader to wait, ghosting slowly along the wall.
if it was it’kla, the disillusionment charm would be of no use - if not, there was no point
in moving too quickly and spoiling it anyway. could he afford to ask the sith to check
and run the risk of disturbing his concentration on keeping the child under some
modicum of control? what the heck - if it’s ylenic, it won’t matter anyway once we know
where he is, and if it’s not, we’re out of here all the faster. he clicked his fingers once,
wishing that he had a more effective way of telling the other to listen up, then waited.
yes? came the voice, more tense than not.
how many in the hangar bay, and who.
i don’t have much attention to spare -
i know. this is it.
there were a few moments of silence that could not have been cut with a
lightsaber. four. no jedi - far left, occupied.
got it. letting his wand slide easily through his fingers, he stalked the caamasi
mechanics as the grim he was named for, silent and invisible as death - until the first thin
red beam toppled someone, and the others reacted. not fast enough, though - a second
fell before any had moved, and a third didn’t dodge as fast as he needed. the last one
managed to get on the other side of a small shuttle before being stunned; however, sirius
had known the answer to that dilemma for a long time. a shield, airtight and soundproof,
shimmered into existence over the shuttle and four caamasi. their own small craft was
waiting.
as always, he paused a moment to admire the phantom prototype. his femme
fatale was at the top of her league, equally suited as a fighter and a spy. the cloaking
device might still be finicky at times, but enough cajoling and some reparo’s usually did
the trick - and the assorted paper-pushers over at r&d assured him that the lingering bugs
were being eliminated as fast as they were found. rank hath its privileges, he smirked.
ah, but she’s a beaut. and then, a touch more possessively, v better not have bollixed
anything up with his tinkering. he was even more protective of his ship than he had been
of his motorcycle - the bike never made it into space, and had never been equipped with
multiple laser cannons. this, on the other hand, could - and did - save his rear upon
occasion, and he was highly reluctant to let anyone else touch her. vader was the only
person with regular access and the ability to modify certain aspects of his girl, and only
then because the modifications worked as he said they would and didn’t backfire.
usually. least he’s better at it than those krething piles of bantha fodder who call
themselves mechanics.
the crane wasn’t in position, nor was the elevator hatch, but a small button on the
remote opened another entrance in the side. swish and flick - “wingardium leviosa!” -
and the fighter rose to hover six meters from the deck. with the split concentration born
only of very long practice, he turned his wand again on himself, chanting a feather-light
spell. crouching, he leapt upwards, catching the edge of the hatch and swinging himself
in, then cancelled the charm, focus once more on maintaining the ship’s height.
across the bay, a menacing shade strode in, child still subtly incongruous against
the black robes. he did not glance about, confident in his employee’s skills, but
continued, swift as a prowling direwolf, to the femme fatale. the sith did look up, then,
blue eyes narrowed to judge the distance. in a coiled spring, force-assisted, he reached
the hatch, and the grim caught at his arm to steady him until he regained his balance and
the entryway closed.
normally, now, vader would take the cockpit out of courtesy, but his attention was
currently even more divided than that of his employee’s. the magical turbulence had
neither stopped nor decreased, but at least it had not grown, though poldë was visibly
trembling when he glanced to the copilot’s seat. sirius really didn’t care to consider the
alternative, if the sith lord took his attention off of calming her, but that left him with
piloting the fighter while supporting it magically until they were out of the caamasi ship -
not to mention the task of opening the bay.
still, he’d had years of experience now with situations such as this, and his fingers
sped with practiced ease over the consoles, connecting to the shipboard computers and
opening the hangar bay. atmosphere drained with a hiss, but the doors had closed and the
shield would protect the four caamasi until they were long gone. a distinct pressure
began to build behind his eyes at his split concentration and extended use of magic.
resolutely he ignored it.
exit clear, that fragment of his attention turned to the fatale herself, keying her
tripled ion engines to life and turning her to face the deep well of space. the craft purred
contentedly, and the grim smiled, guiding her out of the bay, letting her rest just inside the
shields as he switched focus yet again to close the bay. it was only a short distance, then,
to exit the shields, and he let the levitation charm drop with an explosive sigh. the
pressure had increased to pain, but he wasn’t yet done, and as such couldn’t allow it to
distract him as he programmed the coordinates and activated the cloaking - it worked,
this time, probably because of the sith’s tinkering. not that i have to tell him that... he
threw a switch and the colorful panorama of hyperspace opened around him. leaning
back and daring to set his feet on the console, he massaged the knotted flesh at the base
of his skull, and then turned to look at the man and child in the copilot’s chair.

********chapter***break*********

the waves of magic stopped, all in an instant, and he blinked - and froze, staring at
the equally motionless child. years as a wizard screamed at him to move, to get out of the
way of the predator that was about to strike. he overrode the instincts. a fully-trained
auror and bodyguard of ten years, he was not going to cower from a child he could lift
with one hand. vader had a death-grip on her, it appeared, and even vampiric strength
wouldn’t allow one so tiny to wrest away from someone so much larger. but it would
allow her to surprise him...
poldë began to keen, a shrill, high-pitched sound that made him wince.
deliberately, he moved his hand in front of her face. bloodshot eyes snapped to track it,
and he heard her breathing speed up as it came nearer her face and then stopped, hovering
just out of reach. the little girl growled at him, contorting her face in a snarl too fierce for
one so small, and moved her head as if to try to bite. the grim raised his eyes to his
employer’s, and nodded.
loosing his grip in order to secure a better hold, vader twisted the child away from
sirius and pressed her head against his shoulder. her face turned into his neck in eager
search of sustenance. the other man watched a minute wince fleet across the sith’s face,
then he seemed to slump, muscles relaxing involuntarily. sighing, he closed his eyes -
there should be more than enough time to catch some rest, and the other two weren’t
going to be moving any time soon.

chaos - hunger and fear warred for precedence in a mind already splitting. vader
saw the cockpit of the small ship superimposed over a maelstrom of memories, darting
too quickly to catch more than flashes - green leaves gold and warm arms quick quick
silver in water - saw a moving hand, felt the quickened breath as hunger made a brief
victory over fear. the grim nodded, but he sensed more than saw the affirmation amid the
snarling. drawing from memories not his own, he turned her to the joining of shoulder
and throat. the sting of teeth carried no more pain than a scraped knee raw against hot
sand, and as her attention focused on the blood welling from the shallow slash, he turned
his will inwards.
this, now, was confusion and effort. chosen one indeed - strong in the force - but
magic didn’t care for that, baring its teeth against the sith’s maneuvering. he could
overwhelm it, as he had prior, and turn it to his will, but he could not control it
completely. it resented him, though it was weaker than sirius’ and more disordered, and
snapped when he moved amidst it. yet it was lonely, he saw, and incomplete, with a
gaping wound where something had once been - the parent-bond broken?
he withdrew, ever so slightly, and watched as poldë’s magic shifted from its
aggressive pose to begin repairing her body. yet - strangely, it was healing itself, and
faster than the magic could move, and the magic, where the odd healing was taking place,
was useless, gesture expended and wasted. slipping tendrils of thought and force beneath
its attention, he probed the wound to the mind.
within a few moments, he realized, and the knowledge was cold: i cannot remake
this bond by force, nor by force. poldë was magical and not force-sensitive, and too
young to control the magic even so much as the grim’s poor attempts. the magic itself
would not allow a force-bond, and a compelled one would merely damage the mind
further yet. there was nothing to allow a beneficial binding; there was no foundation of
similarity.
so, then. not now - but she is starving, and will take as much as i allow, and
assimilate it. her magic will not wage war with that perceived as nourishment. and then,
it was a simple matter of waiting for the next crisis. it couldn’t be long - this had taken
but four, perhaps five days - and then the bond would be easy to construct, especially as it
was his midichlorians spreading through her body and changing it. a week was not a
difficult price to pay - say years, instead; will it not take at least that time to bring her to
full strength and to train her?
the sith lord closed his eyes and set to monitoring the biological changes as the
child lapped, greedy, at his blood. without need of setting his concentration to building a
bond, he could learn more of this odd design that required blood to live. vampire
genetics aside, he did not believe the girl was human - there was no decay and rapid
replacing of the cells on the molecular level, and the stresses on certain cells appeared
older than the three years the grim had assumed - closer to ten, or perhaps twelve.
strange... why should this be?
if this was a side effect of being a vampire, he presumed it would have been
mentioned. no - it was from the elven genes; now he was curious, because neither he nor
his subordinate knew of the slow aging this implied.

sirius had been having a very nice dream in which palpatine had been turned into
a rat (not dissimilar to that traitor’s form) and been snapped up by a hungry cat, while
dear cousin bellatrix laughed like the loon she had been transfigured into. moony chased
the bird in circles and old horn took potshots at a scaly-faced monstrosity with red eyes.
and then a sound rudely interrupted his dream, and he opened his eyes.
the tableau wasn’t entirely unfamiliar, no. v was still more-or-less motionless
with that completely abstracted look he got when his mind wasn’t present, and poldë
hadn’t yet let go of his neck. but the little fey child was shivering – no, forget shivering,
that was a full-blown seizure if ever he’d seen one… and over the course of his career,
he’d seen more than a bit induced by various drugs, poisons, and strange illnesses. he
cast a charm to prevent her swallowing her tongue without even thinking about it, another
to cushion anything around her – save the sith – in case she started thrashing, and began
racking his memory for possible suspects.
cause? not bloodlust – wrong symptoms, plus currently feeding. magical
exhaustion? no – too much still emanating, and if he stretched he could feel the latent
energy quivering there, just out of sight. some problem with the attempted bond?
maybe. and then he realised, and cursed himself, vividly, for not thinking of it sooner.
magic and the force didn’t just peacefully coexist – if even the experiments vader had
related ended in failure, what would that kind of infusion do to an essentially magical
creature? kreth. and there was absolutely nothing he could do, not unless he wanted to
try separating the two, and he had a feeling that particular result would not be a good one.
wake up the sith? not likely, not like this… under normal circumstances, a complete
bonding could take close to a day, and only a few hours had yet passed.
the force was the problem. if it weren’t for the force, there might be a little bit of
a conflict, and the kid probably wouldn’t feel too well, but the bloodlust and broken
bonds should take care of anything major. he knew that if it had been him the
convulsions wouldn’t be there – he’d have gotten a ride because poldë still didn’t like
him, not at all, and her magic might not have bonded, regardless – but she’d have been
fine. why? because he wasn’t force-sensitive, and it was negated in his presence. if only
he was stronger, had as much magic and control over it as the headmaster! then he might
have enough to counter vader’s force, if he realised what he was trying and didn’t resist,
but as matters stood, even if the sith consciously relaxed, he still couldn’t touch him with
magic.
so. the grim had heard, years and years ago, of a planet called myrkr where the
force did not exist. once, out of curiosity, he’d visited the place and had been surprised at
what he’d sensed. the informant who had let slip the information had been right, or so he
believed; when he’d come out of hyperspace, he’d felt… loose. as if he’d been strung up
tight without ever noticing it and then relaxed, in the presence of so much force for so
long that it just felt natural to him, until the absence came as a pleasant shock. it was
before anakin had hired him, and the subject had not crossed his mind in ten years, at
least.
sirius dropped the ship out of hyperspace, entered the new coordinates. the stars
blurred again, and he stretched back. by some chance of luck – or fate, when he chose to
believe in it – their path had already passed near the planet. it would only be an hour’s
detour, perhaps two. the kid would be fine, vader would be fine. and hopefully his
employer wouldn’t be too furious about being stripped of the force without his prior
consent, and sirius would be fine, too. hope did spring eternal, after all.
letting out a small grunt, he wriggled in his chair to find a more comfortable
position. he didn’t dare go back to sleep before planetfall.
 hungry so hungry and blood strange not-right not tata/amil but so so hungry and
good hot sweet down her throat – pain! burning fire-hot in fingers feet arms chest face,
can’t fix make it stop make it stop make it stop –

the midichlorians were being actively rejected by her blood as she tried to
metabolise his. pain radiated outward; he could feel the child trembling against him,
though she didn’t stop drinking. her own blood had two components, he knew, one
magical, like the grim’s, and one strange that he had never seen before, and where one lay
inert, the other attacked viciously. it was not only poldë that received the burning
sensation, either – the sith was bombarded by waves of fire across his brain that he only
ignored by dint of forcing them away. the girl was shaking, he could sense quite easily
that, instead of growing stronger, she was weakening, and he had not the slightest clue of
how to remedy the problem. when he attempted to open his eyes or direct his attention
elsewhere – much less move – he found it impossible. rejection or no, the magic had a
hold on him that he was reluctant to shatter.
lord vader was strong in the force. but here, he was completely helpless, and it
infuriated him. even the light link to the grim’s mind, forged over years of familiarity,
failed him. all that he could turn his perception to was the vampire child. all that he
could do was wait.

five… four… three… two… one.

the femme fatale slid out of hyperspace without so much as a jolt. sirius ran his
hand along the curved bulkhead proudly. his lady was a fine one, no doubt. still, there
was the planet to get to, and he plotted a direct course. this was a ghost planet, one that
the jedi had avoided whole-heartedly and now relatively few knew. only one small city
existed on the surface, and traffic was slight and sparse.
he felt the moment the ship entered the force-deadened ring. his magic curled out
in stretching tendrils along his limbs, and, even though he’d expected it, his body
slumped without thought. this was real relaxation, not the imperceptibly tense vacations
he took when there was nothing that needed doing or the sleep after a long day. the grim
shook himself, luxuriating in the sheer freedom he felt. given the choice, he’d visit here
any day of the week – it was only second to hogwarts, in his opinion, for ease. not that i
can go there…
it was very low on his suddenly-revised list of things to do, but he turned to look
at the pair anyway. vader’s eyes were still closed – no surprise there, but poldë wasn’t
shaking so much anymore, and the tremors still there only quieted further as time passed.
one victory, at least. sirius cocked his head. he didn’t know what a jedi felt when the
force disappeared, but he was willing to bet that it wasn’t pleasant – possibly as
unpleasant as the magic-dampening drugs stuffed down the throats of azkaban-bound
prisoners.
a slightly wicked grin crossed his face. for the first time in quite a while, the sith
was at his mercy, and the former marauder rubbed his hands in anticipated glee.
still, that was for later. even he would do nothing to upset vader or, by extension,
the kid, at this point in time. they had enough to deal with right at the moment. any
serious pranking would have to be put off for now. but that didn’t mean he couldn’t plan
–
hmmm… when was the last time the sith wore something other than black?
really, it had been four years! and that stereotypical dark lord image did nothing for him
– maybe if he wore some kind of mask, but not with the curly hair – i wonder what he’d
look like dumbledore-style? pink and green with purple daisies – oh, now there’s a
thought…

the pain retreated, and her magic hesitated, furling along her hröa, not quite
knowing what to do. but the blood, that was still there, that burned so bad before (but it
wasn't burning now) and her fëa felt an emptiness that she knew was bad wrong sick, and
there was another one right there that was bright even if it was suddenly scared and she
thought it might have hurt her but it wasn't now and that hole - and her magic stretched
tendrils to curl around it, feeling it, weaving alongside a tie to fill the empty place -

helplessness was not a feeling that darth vader was accustomed to.
the girl’s magic had utterly rejected the midichlorians, and had been well on its
way to either starving her or literally tearing her body apart in the effort to rid itself of the
unnatural influence. it was a horrifying situation, but he, perhaps too careless in his
fascination, had then discovered himself bound and limited in his actions. then the pain
had washed over him, too, and he thought he knew what it was to be without a ruse, and
was angry.
and then – then, the force beating against him hesitated, settled, and he
experienced a moment of triumph. poldë would live, and the bond would form without
more difficulty. reach out to the grim’s mind to tell him…
…and the force failed. he was blind and deaf and dumb, and then, then, he
understood the terror that was helplessness.

time passed.

something nudged at his mind, nuzzling in a manner that reminded him of an

animal or a very young child. there was no sense of threat, but he might have welcomed
it even if it shown a clear and present danger - anything was better than nothingness. but
it was harmless, so far as he could tell, sidling up next to him affectionately, shying away
like a frightened avian, settling down again and butting back up against him. fortunate,
that it was gentle; without the force his mind was bare of anything like protection.
he could feel it tying something, tying itself, to his own thoughts, knotting them in
a crazed pattern to something else. slowly, very slowly, perception came back. this was
poldë, but not her that was doing this. her magic, settled now, was binding him to her in
stead of the parents she had lost. the little girl was sleeping now, not drinking, and not
dreaming. good - the one nightmare had been bad enough. but the force was still gone,
and it unsettled him.
how could the child's magic act and interact without her awareness? it had to be
on an instinctive level that he had not earlier grasped. perhaps he couldn't have
understood earlier, as his reaction to magic, as a force-wielder, was revulsion. its touch
brought an automatic recoil, and so he could not achieve any knowledge of it beyond the
grim's words. only now, when he could not feel the force -
 a terrible thought occurred. had it been the magic that stripped him of the force
and stole it away? was it to be forever? this was not what he had planned!