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I am strong. Immune. Invincible.

Anja gave a bitter laugh. Delirious was more like it. Somewhere in the back of Ania's mind, a memory stirred, a childhood memory of her mother shaking her head and saying, "So like your father. Taking the easy way even though it's dangerous, and not thinking for a moment that you could be hurt." Anja could not have been older than three or four when her mother had said those words. Her mother had died while Anja was still young. Yet somehow part of Anja's feverish brain had remembered. She didn't even try to control her shuddering.

So-she and her father had something in common: both took foolish risks, both believed themselves indestructible. Anja drew a ragged breath.

She had to admit now that Han Solo was probably telling the truth. In the end, it had most likely been her father's foolishness that had killed him-just as her own foolishness would kill her now.

She gripped the arms of her seat as streamers of fire unfurled in her muscles and joints. Short of dying, there was only one way to stop the pain.

"Spice!" she rasped.

The frenetic activity around her quieted and, as if from a distance, she heard Jacen's voice say, "Anja? Are you all right?"

"Spice," she repeated. "Andris."

"It's fine. We managed to destroy almost everything."

Something-a hand? - touched her arm, and where it touched, her suffering was more bearable. She blinked hard, trying to focus her vision.

Jacen's face, complete with lopsided grin, swam into view. "Hey, you look terrible."

"That's because... I'm dying," she managed in a hoarse whisper.

Anger flashed in his brandy-brown eyes. "No you're not!"

Tenel Ka's serious face suddenly appeared beside Jacen's. The warrior girl stretched out her single hand and made a brief, thorough check of Anja's pulse, skin temperature, pupil dilation, and muscular tremors.

At each place the warrior girl's fingers touched, the pain eased-just for a moment-before she moved on.

"You will not die, Anja Gallandro," she said. "We will not allow it."

Anja suddenly felt the relief of another Jedi touch on her left hand.

A pair of emerald-green eyes stared into hers. "It's bad, isn't it?"

Zekk asked. "Spice withdrawal, right?"

Anja felt too weak to reply, but Zekk seemed to see the answer in her eyes. "I went through something similar. Well, not with drugs. I was addicted to using the dark side of the Force. I knew it was wrong, but I told myself I had good reasons for what I was doing. Anyway, when I wanted to stop, the dark side didn't want to let me go. I almost didn't make it." He glanced up briefly at Jacen and Tenel Ka. "If it hadn't been for my friends, I don't think I would have."

Anja shivered. Her teeth rattled together. Tenel Ka reached out and pushed a few sweaty strands of hair out of Anja's eyes. Cool, tingling relief followed her friend's touch.

Her friends, Anja thought with distant surprise: Tenel Ka, Jacen, Zekk.

Yes, even Jaina and Lowie. Master Skywalker, too. Why hadn't she seen it before? Maybe she'd just been too busy believing the lies Czethros told her; she'd lied to herself too much to notice it. Yes, these were her friends. They would help her.

"I need andris. Just one more dose," she pleaded with them. "Then I'll find a way to quit. I promise." The effort of her long speech left her trembling and slumped over in her seat. She didn't see the irony in the fact that she had told herself the same thing last time.

A soft, melodious voice broke through Anja's pain. "There is another way.

" Ambassador Cilghal stroked a webbed hand against Anja's cheek.

"It is more difficult, requires more strength, but it can be done."

Anja shook her head. "Too much pain. I'll die."

"We won't let that happen," Jacen said, more confidence in his words than in his voice.

"How-?" Ania began.

"I am not simply an ambassador," Cilghal answered, "I am a Jedi healer.

If you will let me, I can draw the toxins from your blood."

"Will that end the addiction?" Zekk asked.

Cilghal shook her fishy head.