A few minutes later, in the storage room of the ship, that was more like that of a holding room or a prison cell. I walked between the mostly empty cages until I reached one in a dark corner. I stopped beside the cage and looked towards the fearful presence that was desperately trying to hide on the opposite side of the cage. I was looking at it, but it still stubbornly pretended not to be there. As I grew tired of the waiting games, I decided to act.

-I can sense your presence. There is no reason to hide anymore.

I waited for a little more, then a small form began to move forward; it slowly, hesitantly stepped out of the shadows into the mechanical white light that was reaching only half of the cage. As she finally stood in the light, I was able to see, that she was a human girl, about the same age as me. She was looking at me fearfully. I saw that more than a few shivers ran over her already injured and weak body. Yet in her eyes I saw something I didn't expect... Recognition, and a stubborn will to fight?
Why would she want to fight with me?

-You... those eyes.. that strange skin... you are a sith! You will have to kill me, because I won't turn to the dark side, no matter what!

I blinked at the girl. Oh, yeah, since I used so much dark side energies, and had to use a mass life steal spell, to heal my older injuries and also replace my force energies with new ones since I wasn't willing to sleep for the next three days because of exhaustion, I will probably look like this for a few days... The worst thing of all, was the fact that I somehow managed to run into a jedi youngling... she is not even a padawan... great.

-Sigh...

-Wha-what are you doing? I won't yield!

I waved with my left hand, and the door opened on the cage... While I began to walk away uninterested...

The girl behind me seemed to be confused... She slowly walked to the door, and hesitatingly stepped out of it. Seeing that nothing bad had happened to her, she slowly began to follow me from a safe distance...

-Why did you let me out? I am a jedi... Sith and jedi are ancient enemies...

-Tell me, how many sith did you see, or speak with in your life?

She seemed stumped for a second. Then she answered predictably.

-None, I mean one... you!

I stopped in my tracks for a second, then continued my walk towards the ships cantina after I released another sigh.

-If I am the only sith you ever met, then how do you know, that I am indeed a sith?

-Well... your glowing yellow eyes are tell-tale signs... and your sick skin... both of them are signs of heavy dark side exposure...

-Now, that is at least partially true. Yet I have another question for you. What if, there are dark side users who are not Sith?

-I would think, that you are trying to deceive me... except... I didn't really know what you could gain from doing so...

-Oh, bless the force... someone actually using their brain...

-If you are not a sith, then what are you?

-I am a member of the Order of the Grey... It is a secretive sect of a sort... We excel in using both the light side and the dark side while searching for balance between the two.

-If you have indeed spoken the truth, I must apologize for my rude behavior, please accept my thanks for freeing me from the confinement of that cage.

I stopped and turned around in the corridor, quite surprised. I saw her face flinch for a moment seeing my most likely glowing yellow eyes...

-You are welcome. ~I thought about what to say next.~ By the way, my name is Nizzal, if you want, you can call me Nizzy... most of the people do it anyway... Oh, my full name is Nizzal Grey... What is yours?

-Hi.. My name is Kalifa.. I used to be a jedi youngling... but I don't know what I am anymore... They probably think that I died... I was kidnapped from a training exercise, but that was weeks if not months ago... I heard them talking, that I will be released on an island where they will hunt me down for sport... They were currently searching for other preys for their sick game...

-Hmmm... Yeah, that sounds much like what I heard... they were trying to add me into their collection... Wasn't one of their brightest moments... at least they wont trouble anyone anymore...

What do you mean by that? ~Asked Kalifa clearly confused.

-Well, they wanted to hunt me down to...

-No, what do you mean by they won't trouble anyone? Did you kill them?

-Ah, no, not all of them.

Hearing that, Kalifa, seemed to consider just walking back to her cage, but she quickly changed her depressed expression as she heard my next words.

-Some were killed by pirates, but I would say most of them were indeed killed by me.

-You... you must be joking... you are around my age... How would you manage to...

-Look, I have no inclination to prove you anything... but the facts are given you are freed by me; and since I have chased away the pirates, too, and killed most of the trandoshans; therefore this is my ship. So if you want to come along, you are free to do so. Since I am not a sith, I don't feel any need to kill you or to turn you to the dark side... I kind of had enough for this day, you know? I simply want to eat something... and I am already dreading to find out what kind if sick shit these type of trandoshan psychopaths placed on ice in their kitchen... So I don't need anymore questions or troubles for the day... Sigh... Just come along quietly and eat whatever edible we find... Or if you are stubborn, you can take one of the fighter planes and leave wherever you want... I don't care, but I think you shouldn't do that since they don't seem to have personal hyperdrive systems... You would be in a long travel without that...

She seemed to consider my statement, then she nodded towards me, and said...

-I will stay; I think, I am pretty hungry...

-Good, then come, it is time for lunch...

Kalifa, nodded silently, and began to follow me in a somewhat closer distance. We walked for a whole thirty seconds, when she suddenly asked...

-Are, are you sure that you killed everyone of them?

Force... help me not to put her back into that damn cage.... Be understanding... She must be happy to see someone who didn't want to kill her at first sight... I should be patient... Yet, I am kind of emotional right now... I mean seeing how those fucking pirates treated me after I saved their fat assess kind of fucked me up... then I sucked in an unusual level of dark side energies... and they are still in my body... and I couldn't release it until my normal force energies naturally replenish and that means about two days... because if I do, I will simply topple over... and that is a big no. Oh, and that meant I had to constantly suppress this burning anger inside me... and that didn't help my general mood...

-By the way, can you bring me back to the jedi temple on Coruscant?

I froze mid step, and turned around just to look at the girl in the eyes.

-Look at me, do you remember what you called me the first time you saw me?

-Oh...

-Yes, what do you think will the jedi think if I appear like this before them?

-....

-Exactly, and that means. I would rather jump head-first into a sarlacc's open mouth, then go any closer to Coruscant ever again... Especially after what I just endured from those idiotic elders... They think, I didn't realize what they did... fuckers used me as a cheap bait, while acting so magnanimously... Thousands of years passed by and nothing really changed... Heh, not that I ever expected otherwise... Yet, I don't feel the slightest happiness from getting exactly what I expected...

I turned away from the human girl... and continued my walk, meanwhile, sinking deeper and deeper into my own thoughts.

It's a shame, really... Some think that knowing human nature, is a blessing, and sometimes it is... Yet if you had enough knowledge, it would become a curse as well, a curse of inaction. As you continuously expand the magnitude of the scope, of that which you look at the world as a whole. You will continuously see the bigger and greater connection over a bigger and bigger time period... You will find yourself planning and thinking not in days, weeks or years anymore... But in hundreds of years or even thousands of it. If you have so much time, you have so many things to lose. You will inevitably slow down, to an overly relaxed lifestyle. You will laze around days and nights doing nothing but thinking about useless stuff, or meditating, reliving old memories hundreds of times. Or simply imagining possible adventures, using your visions to see through time and space. It is easy to get lost, in your own memories... especially if there are so many...

Whatever... the jedi council betrayed me without blinking an eye. I wasn't going to follow their bidding for five years in the first place, especially not because of their mistake. It would be interesting to see, what the galactic senate has to say about threatening a helpless child to join the civil war, or she would be sent into a mining facility for twenty years... I guess I will write a nameless story, about my overly cruel fate and send it to the media...

-Hehehe.... I can already see it, "Outrage in the Jedi temple! The wise council of the high and mighty Jedi has decided to start forcing children into war, even outside of their order." Heehhehe....

-.... Are you sure, that you are not a sith?

-Cough... cough, cough... don't ruin my fantasising! Can't a girl even hold a rightful grudge?

-.... That is exactly what a sith would say...

-And how would you know that, since I recall that you never even met one!

-I read about them in the archives...

-Your archives! Spare me your childish impulses, please... What level of information would you possible able to reach, if you are not even a padawan learner? I just searched your archives a few days ago, and even on the padawan level of authorisation, there was about eighty percent of general historical information, which you can access from anywhere... The other twenty percent was mostly a bunch of half truths and propaganda... Ouch!! Hey, let go of my leks.... What are you doing? That hurts stop!

-Shut it, or I will tie a knot with your leks! You must indeed be a Sith, to curse my order so much in that short time we met.

-What!? You can't be serious. You can't possibly tie a knot- owowowowowo... stooop! I-I give up okay? Nonono.... don't pull it! Sowwyyy... just let me go... please! Torture is not the Jedi way... AH!

-Who are you to lecture me on what is or what isn't the jedi way! You sith scum!

-... please, don't hold them so tight... I am going to suffer permanent brain damage! ~I already begun to see some black spots on my vision...

-I said shut it! ~ She pulled the knot tighter... the feeling was... enlightening, in some way... I never felt anything like that before... the archive automatically recorded the new sensation... I could only describe it as being tightly packed into a jar and then pressing down the lid on my head with a well-aimed hammer strike...