The Twaran ship was small to say the least; it most definitely was not an easy place to have a private conversation when the only two main rooms were filled with either guards or refugees. There was always the bathroom, but it could barely fit a normal-sized person by themselves, causing the triplets to become creative with their surroundings.

It was basic, a simple spell similar to that of the shield incantation they'd used during the previous fight, but quite effective as they sat in the corner of the passenger bay. Wrapping around the three in a way that reflected the dome-like build of their telekinetic shield, the barrier was enough to keep their voices mute to the people around them. In order to keep their conversation as private as possible, Jordae and Cyndea also kept their backs to the individuals as well in case anyone knew how to read lips.

"You've got to be kidding me, are they insane?"

"We don't really have any other choice in the matter," Cyndea explained. "We're enemies to our own home now; there's nowhere else we can go where the Separatists can't touch us. Seeking amnesty from the Republic-"

"Have you forgotten the terrible things the Republic has done?" Jordae interrupted and folded her arms stubbornly over her chest. "They're vicious monsters filled with nothing but hatred and lies."

"You're just quoting Mother," Cyndea didn't hesitate to point out, though bringing up their mother so soon after their betrayal brought a stabbing pain to her heart. Jordae's cheeks began to turn a deep and a single tear strayed down her cheek before Cyndea could do anything about it.

"Why would she lie to us about something like that? She wanted to protect us from them, to make sure we never end up as horrible as them!"

"Everything we know about the Republic is from what we've heard Mother and Auntie Agnacia yell about during meals. We've never been able to actually check if the things they said were true," Cyndea spoke in a low, calm voice, knowing that raising her anger and frustration to match that of her sister's would only make the situation worse. "All we've heard our entire lives was one side of the story, and that exact side has deemed us traitors to our own crown."

"But-"

"You know our ways, Jordae," Her sister sighed. "Twar is a planet with one line of thinking - no mercy to our enemies. Our culture is brutish in the very least and our home, our family, has placed a target on our heads that will not disappear until our skulls are mounted on the palace walls for all to see." Though it was a a terrifying truth, it was a truth nonetheless. And Jordae knew her sister was right. Their home and everything that came with it was no longer safe. If they were caught, they'd be taken to the same arena they'd escaped from and be executed by the queen's own hand. Their mother, who'd finally felt the joy of her eldest daughter returning from the Republic's grasp, would be forced by tradition to slay her three triplets as the entire kingdom watched.

"But what about everything they did to Aveline?" Jordae snapped back. "They held her prisoner-"

"You and I both know that isn't our sister," Cyndea took her hand and gave her a small, sad smile. They'd suspected it the moment they laid eyes on the woman stepping out of her ship with her guards. Though the three had tried to convince themselves that the kind, beautiful, caring lady who'd greeted them with a big group-hug was indeed their flesh and blood, there was always a nagging in the back of their minds telling them otherwise. Yes, she'd acted just as Aveline had when they were growing up, but the storm behind her eyes was new to them, experiences and heartbreak that being a prisoner of war was nowhere near capable of providing.

The Aveline that was willing to sacrifice her own safety instead losing a few of her men was not the Aveline that would've cared more about being safe from harm's way after being held captive by the enemy for months.

A moment of silence passed between the two sisters.

"If the Aveline that had taken on a Sith to keep us out of harm's way wasn't our true Aveline, then she must be a Republic spy."

"And her guards are clone troopers," Cyndea agreed. The clones would've been a dead give-away had the triplets not been so desperate to believe the spy's lies. "But they saved us when they could've just left us for dead. They left behind the leader of their mission in order to protect us. Because they knew what would've happened to us had they not. That has to count for something, right?"

Cyndea had her point and did a beautiful job of making it to her fellow-triplet. Now outcasts to the only home they'd ever known and witnesses to an act of kindness they'd never seen from an enemy before, Cyndea and Jordae knew what they'd do next. With a wave of their fingers, the barrier disappeared and the two children made their way to the bridge, hand in hand.

***

She felt her mind, dazed and sore from the physical trauma three ginormous monsters could bring, drift in and out of consciousness throughout the duration of the walk to the Chitauri village. Every minute or so, her eyes were greeted with rays of light and the world around her came into focus, but was then chased away by waves of darkness that pulled her into the unknown. The only other time in her life Molindi had been caught in such a state of limbo was years ago, back when she was still with her first squadron. But despite the similarities, there was one big difference between the experiences that caught her off guard:

the fist wrapped tightly around her heart.

Five long, slender, black-as-night fingers encased the pumping organ in her chest like a cage, squeezing tighter and tighter with each beat. It trailed its nails over her pulsing arteries, digging deeper and deeper into the thick veins but never puncturing them, just hard enough to play with her pain.

"Traaaaaaaaitooooorrr..."

The word whispered in her ear with a voice as thick and dark as oil, worming its way over her brain and down her spine, through her throat and across her tongue. It swam over her eyes and beneath her eyelids, into her bones and under her skin.

"Traaaaaaaaitoooooorrrr..."

"What are you?" She thought to the creature writhing around her body, the monster she couldn't see but could feel in ever fiber of her being. "What do you want from me?" Molindi shouted into the darkness with a mixture of rage and terror. There was no response, just a low, malicious chuckle as the black mass burrowed beneath her nails and between the hairs on her scalp.

No matter how loud she screamed in the abyss, how hard she thrashed and tore at her flesh to dig the liquified specimen from within her body, there was no release of pain. No warmth or light, just pitch-black and a cold she couldn't even imagine before this deep-dive into hell. She was dying, it was the only explanation. The only thing this madness could've been was the heartless pull of death itself into the beyond.

It could've been minutes, hours, even days and Molindi would not have known- just the pure, frozen feeling of death running rampant in her mind and body.

After what felt like an eternity, it was then that the fist suddenly squeezed around her heart so hard she thought it would burst and her body coiled in on itself. Her legs pushed into her chest, her arms folded and pressed against her sternum as the air was expelled from her body. She gasped over and over, wheezing in desperation for oxygen in this pit of nothingness, but there was no use.

Using the last bit of strength she had left, Molindi threw her head back and screamed.

***

Almost as soon as Molindi's desperate shriek of pain echoed throughout the village, a wave of darkness washed over General Skywalker, a sensation he recognized as the same feeling he'd gotten upon entering Twar's atmosphere. It was black, frozen, and paralyzed the jedi for a split second before pulling himself out from it's gravitational pull.

Despite Anakin being the only Force-sensitive individual in the village, the other Chitauri seemed to have felt the darkness as well; each elephantine person quickly stepped away from Molindi's writhing body as she thrashed in the arms of the Chitauri woman. The looks in their eyes said they knew what was happening, and it wasn't anything good.

Before Rex or Axel could jump into action, they were being held back by the thick, strong hands of the Chitauri guards and forced to their knees. As much as Anakin wanted to help them, he knew interfering would only make things worse for his men.

"Stay calm," He shouted to the clones as two more Chitauri guards turned to him and began to slowly stalk towards the jedi in case he decided to act up as well. "Guys, they just want to help. Don't freak out; Molindi is going to be okay." Although every instinct was telling the two to fight, the two exchanged glances, took the general's words into account and did their best to remain calm.

The woman who had taken hold of Molindi let out a string of trumpet sounds and unknown words, to which a number of the other villagers reacted to by running into the surrounding buildings and bringing out a selection of supplies as if she were a surgeon and they were her assistants. One Chitauri man held Molindi's wrists against the ground, while another gripped her ankles and pinned them to the dirt.

"What are they doing?" Axel spat under his breath as the three watched the scene unfold. The elephantine woman took a bowl she'd been offered as well as a handful of red berries from a bystander, then a vial of a bright pink liquid offered by another before crushing the berries in the bowl and dumping the vial into the red jam. She closed her eyes and began to chant something under her breath, starting out with soft, low words before she began to escalate in volume. The surrounding Chitauri began to chant as well; some of the children stepped forward and placed their hands on the shoulders of the woman as she continued her spell.

As the volume grew louder and louder, the Chitauri woman took the pasty mixture of berries and potion into her hand and slammed it against Molindi's chest. The force of the hit made Molindi scream out one last time in pain; it was only when Anakin risked a look over the woman's shoulder that he saw her hand hadn't just slammed against the commander's rib-cage, it had entered her rib-cage through a hazy grey mist that had formed above her torso. His eyes widened, but the same hands that had grabbed his men found their grip around his wrists as well and yanked him away from the spell taking place.

Doubt began to flood Anakin's heart and he began to wonder if they really had been trustworthy, but his questioning was put at ease when the Chitauri woman ripped her hand from Molindi's chest cavity to revealing a withering black mass in her palm, the creature screaming in anger and agony as it was exposed to the open air and the people around them. The woman threw the mass onto the ground a few yards away and the remaining villagers jumped into action; the massive Chitauri individuals stomped the monster into the dirt as it shrieked and squealed in horror and pain. The ground shook with every stomp and almost overtook the squelching squishing noise from the dark creature beneath their feet, sometimes even popping like a small balloon in some areas of its body.

Once the monster's screaming came to a halt and the Chitauri finished turning it into nothing but a brown and black stain, a loud gasp escaped Molindi's lips and she sat straight-up, coughing and spluttering in absolute fear.

"Molindi!" Axel wrestled free from his captors when their hold began to fade and he sprinted over to his commander, with Rex and General Skywalker not far behind. The Chitauri woman stepped to the side, giving him enough room to pull the exhausted soldier into his embrace. As he held her in his arms, his worry subsided and was replaced with nothing but pure joy. "You okay? Can you hear me?" He questioned her. Though still a bit flustered, the commander recognized her friend and smiled with a nod.

"Yeah, I'm okay," She promised, the familiar twinkle in her eyes confirming her words, and that was all he needed to hear.