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 Katrina stood silent back where she’d begun, in the center of the room, directly before her father, Emperor Palpatine. Alvis Kerr, Darth Trion, lay slumped at Palpatine’s side, in pieces. No one seemed to even notice him there. James Chalmers enjoyed a similar feeling of invisibility as he sat some distance away from Palpatine’s other side, left out of the intense battle of wills raging between the two. Katrina had admitted to knowing where Palpatine’s Most Wanted was, or so she claimed, but she said no more. “You will tell me where he is,” Palpatine insisted, his voice hard and demanding. Katrina said nothing. “You have no reason to try and protect him,” the Emperor want on, his voice turning smooth, “he holds no loyalty to you. He entertains himself with TyraFem as you languish here, and has for years. Girlish crushes and fantasies of old are no reason to throw what I offer away.” James had been startled more than once since taking his seat, but he fought to keep what was going through his mind private. With someone as powerful and observant so close, retaining privacy and anonymity was not only difficult, but also vital. “You are infatuated with him still,” Palpatine observed, leaning forward. “After all these years of being forgotten by him, you still want him. How very…dedicated you are. A shame he does not share your feeling of loyalty. He used you, girl. He got what he wanted and left you to rot, here,” he ended with venom. “Give him to me!” Katrina looked down, as though debating something within herself. Slowly, she took a step forward, then another, and another. “I am curious… you accept that I know this, where this man is, but you do not ask how. How can one locked away from any contact with the galaxy know what one in control of it all does not?” “The Force is strong with you. You have foreseen much.” “The Force is strong with me, but I have foreseen nothing. The Force is strong with me, that is why I live still, because you want to harness my power, to control it and add it to your own, even if you have to keep me to have it. “For that bit of greed, I will thank you. I am almost sorry for the stupidity of it, though.” Katrina stopped two steps before him and looked up. Her face was in its usual emotionless pose, giving nothing away, but a crack-hiss lit it brightly on one side with a blood-red light. 
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