"Unless..." I looked down at Silvren. No, I couldn't suggest that. I'm supposed to be taking care of her.... Finally, I turned to Ryan.

"What if Silvren and I created a distraction? We could, and still stay safe. We could give you all enough time to get in and get out. You would just have to let me know when you were done. Anyone who has telepathic abilities could communicate to me."

I hesitated. "But . . . she's just a kid," I said helplessly, forgetting for a moment that a lot of us were just "kids".

"What is she even doing here?" I asked suddenly, throwing my hands into the air. I felt a bit sick to my stomach at the thought of a little girl like Silvren getting caught in the cross-fire. Even if she was an elf, she was practically a toddler.

----

Harry looked at a loss for a moment. "Uh, um, uhhh. Just shut up and be a good prisoner, okay?!?! I've been having a very stressful day and I'd appreciate it a lot if you just sat in the corner there and left me alone to bemoan my pathetic existence!" His chin quivered and he looked about to cry, unused to such talkative and annoying prisoners.

----

Le Loup Noir glanced up with slight irritation as Sameka and Claric came into the room.

"Who is this?" he barked at them in French, glancing at the General still seated.

"Um, Mr. Loup Noir, sir? Like, this is a girl we caught like, coming out of the fountain. She's like, really annoying, sir. Can we, like, kill her?" Sameka asked hopefully.

Le Loup Noir studied the girl being held, his bright sea-green eyes narrowing beneath his mask.

"Non. Put her in the dungeon with the other one," he said dismissively, waving them off with a gloved hand and sitting down in his seat, slumping slightly as soon as Sameka and Claric dragged the girl off toward the dungeons.

"They're not finding her," he muttered softly in English, even his French accent slipping away. He sounded young, suddenly. Vulnerable. Then his eyes hardened. "Why can't they find her?!" he yelled harshly. He stood abruptly and swept a handful of various objects off the small table between them onto the floor. He clenched his fist then and they rattled and shook before lifting into the air and flying across the bridge and embedding themselves into the wall.

----

"I suppose the first place to look for a Sith artifact would be the weapons building? They'd probably want to keep it under lock and key and what more obvious place is there under lock and key?" Valentina asked as she strode down the gangplank of the ship toward the town with Jamison.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

"If you hadn't been in such a hurry to leave, this wouldn't have happened," I said, frowning.  

"I'm not just a kid," Silvren said suddenly, keeping me from continuing on. "The only reason I get carried is because it's easier to travel quickly. You look at me as a human would. I am not human."

My mouth dropped open. I hadn't written about when Silvren lost her shyness yet--that, if everything went as planned, was supposed to be at the end of Crisis. 

...And then the lightbulb clicked on in my head. 

"Ryan, do you remember that chart I once drew out for you? About the size/age difference between humans and elves?" I asked. Not waiting for a reply, I continued. 

"Elven children can dance before they are a year old--by our reckoning, only weeks old. A twelve-year old who does not think and act as an adult is unheard of. Yet, these same people do no reach physical adulthood until they are nearly a hundred years old."

"I am nearly seven years," Silvren said softly. "But that only makes me smaller than you. Think of me as a midget."

"Um, okay," I said before obediently plopping myself down onto the floor. I wasn't sure how else to respond. I had never made anyone come close to crying before.

Le Loup Noir hadn't been as frightening as I had guessed. But I could feel his piercing eyes upon, as they seem to wander all over my form. He observed me for only a minute, then spoke in French something I hardly understood. He must have refused the twi'lick's request to kill me, for he dismissed me and my captors and they drug me out. I struggled with the woman's grip, still not completely sure he had refused "What did he say!? Your not going to kill me are you!?"

"Ugh, do you, like, ever stop, like, talking?" Sameka complained, dragging the girl with her as she stalked down the corridor to the cell block.

"Harry!" she barked when she got there, trying her best to sound authoritative. "I've got, like, another prisoner for you. She's like, really annoying so, like, good luck." She shoved the girl at the guard.

Harry caught her awkwardly. "Um, okay," he said, staring down at the girl in his arms a moment before turning and opening the cell Susie was in. "Here, a brought you a friend. So don't talk to me, okay? Talk to her. She looks talkative." He gently pushed the new girl into the cell and quickly locked it.

Sameka sneered at him. "You're such, like, a big softie," she said, flipping her headtail over her shoulder. "We'll be, like, back if the Captain decides he wants, like, their heads." With that she turned and stalked away.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

I looked up in surprise when Harry opened the door and shoved a girl in. I waited for Harry to shut the door (I didn't want to upset him any more than I already had) before I turned to her and said "So....um.....do you know what's going on? 'Cause I sure don't."

A slight movement in the shadows revealed that there was someone else in the Captain's quarters. "Patience, Conall." A rich military voice said from the shadowy corner. "What good does that do to find her?"

The figure stood up. He had a posture as straight as a ramrod, making him look like a commander or a general. He walked over to Le Loup Noir and looked him in the eye. "Change tactics. Make new plans."

-----

Jamison inclined his head in agreement. "Yet-- wouldn't they have a jedi temple here? And what do you expect to do, go in and blast everyone?" He frowned, thinking of the possibilities. "Perhaps...perhaps a little reconnaissance would be good."

-----

Claric chuckled and mumbled to himself, though you could make out a word every once in a while. Usually it was "broccoli", or "space jam", but right now it was "heads" and "ha-ha". He stumbled along ,trying to keep up with Sameka. "So do we get to kill them dead now?"

-----

Hank was considering the very serious choice before him. Should he go out to the town to patrol again, or remain to guard the prison? It was a dilemma indeed.

"Well, I guess we should go on and--" I stopped when I glanced around the corner of the alley and saw a man and a woman approaching the armory. The woman was tall and had brown hair and tattoos on her face and arms. Her black leather unisuit was fitted to her curves and a royal blue thin and shimmery overcoat. On her feet were black thigh-high boots with stiletto heels.

The man was also tall, with a trenchcoat covering most of him. Although I didn't quite recognize them, I knew they were the bad guys.

"Snap," I muttered, backing up. "Two people are headed for the armory. They don't look like good guys either." I bit my lip and glanced nervously at the others.

----

"Looks like our great Captain has already set up a guard around the armory," the Countess said idly, her eyes roving the place in a bored once-over. "I didn't see a Jedi temple on our way in," she said, glancing at Jamison. "Perhaps it is hidden?"

----

Sameka rolled her eyes. "No. The Captain, like, wants us to like, leave her in, like, the dungeons, I guess."

----

Le Loup Noir couldn't meet the general's gaze. Instead his sea-green eyes skittered away to the floor. He gritted his teeth slightly behind his mask. "I've already got all my men out searching," he said in a tight voice. "What more can I do?" He flexed his clenched hand, trying to work out the tension in his body before something inexplicably exploded.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

VACs crawled on the roof of the ship, he looked just like all the other light fixtures around him. In fact, he was one of the light fixtures. The one thing that differentiated him from the light fixtures was that he was on a mission. He had to find the two prisioners and some how help them out.

Why do I always get the fun missions? he asked himself with a sigh, by this time he had reached the cell, Harry was standing outside the door. Guarding the two girls. Well he was supposed to be guarding them anyways... VACs couldn't figure out just what he was doing.

Either way it only made it easier for VACs to get in, he simply slipped through an airvent in the wall and there he was, looking down at the two girls in the form of a light fixture... This reminded him of a the time a few hundred thousand years ago when he infiltrated that other ship... Good times, good times.

---

I quickly did the math in my head that would put the Toddler at about, fourteen years of age... Mentally anyways... I looked up for the ground and saw the two villans aproching "I could ah, take them out" I said, tapping my sniper blaster.

"Or I could just go kill them. I don't mean to brag, but I am nigh unto invulnerable. Well, actually I do, but that's okay. I'm allowed to."

"I can't imagine any way you could kill them that wouldn't involve you creating a big, dramatic scene solely so people will come running and watch you show off."

"It's like you don't know me at all."

"Oh, no. I'm sure they're good." I said before I could bite back the sarcasm. "They're just wearing leather and have tattoos." Then I blushed. "Sorry. I couldn't help saying it. It had to be said." I became more serious, considering the situation. "What do we do now?"

I cautiously extended my mind out to the two and felt a vague buzzing, as though a conversation was happening and I couldn't hear it. This could be because I stunk at using my powers. Then and again, mind tricks and mind reading only worked on the weak minded, and maybe these two were strong minded. So maybe I wasn't that bad at being a force adept.

----

Jamison frowned as he looked over the armory. "I heard something about it." He said, regarding the temple. "So, do you suppose the guards will be nice and let us in?" He touched his gun to feel its comforting presence.
----

Claric blinked in incomprehension. "But I thought you said..." And then he trailed off. He'd lost his train of thought. It happened sometimes; left the station without him. He was used to it. He jumped on a new train of thought and continued, "Do you like cheese?"
----

The General looked at Le Loup Noir steadily. "Think like your enemy. What is her greatest weakness?"

"Let's not be hasty," I said to Joe and glanced somewhat nervously at Sylvia. "I don't want any unnecessary casualties on our end. I mean, it's not just them, it's the guards too. If we take them out, the guards will find us and we'll probably be surrounded. I know we all have some sort of ability or weapon and such, but are we really ready to take on an entire army? I mean, we've got no experience!"

I realized this wasn't exactly a rousing speech made by a leader before the battle to get his (or her) soldiers pumped up. But I was trying to be realistic here. I felt this whole thing was my fault and I didn't want to risk anyone getting killed or even injured because of it."

"We're under the Captain's orders. They'll have to," Valentina said. She hesitated then and her eyes flickered briefly to an alleyway behind him.

"Don't turn around," she said casually in a soft voice. "But I believe we're being watched by civilians in that alley behind you."

-----

"Aiiiiieeee!!! Why do you, like, have to be so, like, dumbheaded?!" Sameka exclaimed, fed up with Claric's stupidity. "We have to, like, find this girl the Captain is, like, looking for! Otherwise we'll be, like, dead.

-----

Le Loup Noir was silent for a moment, thinking over the question. "Her compassion," he said finally, looking up at the General. He smirked faintly. "Her heart is soft. Easily manipulated."

"Why should that stop us? It didn't stop Luke, Frodo or Bruce Wayne from taking on the bad guys. Oh wait..... Bruce did have some training. And Frodo never actually fought any Orcs...." As I realized my argument was quickly losing ground, I decided to shut-up for the present.

At this moment Derran stepped forward, standing slightly to the side of Ryan with his back to the others and whispered: "I'm afraid you need to decide something quick. We have been overheard." the elf said with a slight nod towards the two unfriendly looking individuals.

"Excellent! Now we won't be able to avoid fighting!" Sylvia exclaimed, beaming at all of us.

I frowned back at her, mentally scrambling to come up with some spell to use in the fight we might be having shortly. So far I had only cast a spell to make it snow inside, which meant I had basically anything imaginable left to use. That was the problem though. When I could do almost anything with the Staff of One, but only do it once, I was starting to second guess myself. If I used a lightning strike to knock them all out, what if we needed one later on and it was no longer available?