Navigation Issue

So I’ve searched through all the documentation. I have a rudimentory understanding on php but not a strong enough comprehension to do what I want to do.

Basically I’m trying to make a navigation to go at the top of category-# & single templates. Here’s what I’m trying to do.

Below is a linear path of the navigation. Staring from the Index and following a single line from one end to the other.

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Home:
>[Index.PHP]
sidebar has a list of links to password protected posts. “ID-11 (Protected: Statik Gate) [Single.PHP]” & “ID-12 (Protected: Mission Gate) [Single.PHP]”

Password Protected Posts:
>ID-11 (Protected: Statik Gate) [Single.PHP]
>ID-12 (Protected: Mission Gate) [Single.PHP]
once the password is accepted it opens to the post content with a welcoming message and a link to the corresponding category.

Parent Category:
>(Statik) [Category-2.PHP]
>(Mission) [Category-3.PHP]
has a description of the section written outside the loop and then lists links to the children categories “(IMG) [Category-5.PHP]” & “(TXT) [Category-6.PHP]”.

Children Categories of Category-2:
>(IMG) [Category-5.PHP]
>(TXT) [Category-6.PHP]
sub categories. each contains a link back to the parent “(Statik) [Category-2.PHP]”, a displayed title of the current category being viewed and then lists links to the various posts governed by itself.

Posts governed by Category-5:
ID-7 (man) [Single.PHP]
ID-8 (vig) [Single.PHP]
ID-9 (ser) [Single.PHP]
ID-10 (boy) [Single.PHP]
various posts governed by the “(IMG) [Category-5.PHP]” sub category. each contains a link back to the parent “(Statik) [Category-2]”, a link back to the category it is governed by “(IMG) [Category-5]”, then displays the title of its own post and a link list of the other posts within it’s category.
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Hopefully that’s understandable. I don’t even know if anything like this can be done.
So far I’ve been able to determine how to list the children of a specific category number (using the “child_of=#” parameter) but not a way to list the children of the current category without specifying the number (as in a “child_of=this_category” style parameter) nor do I know how to make it link to it’s parent (such as something like “parent_of=this_category” or what have you) without specifying the name or number.

Also I obviously know how to list the posts within a certain category when viewing within that category by altering the loop to not display the content and only display the title and then altering the code to make the titles into links to the “single.php” controlled displays of those posts but I don’t know how to, within a single post, make a list of the sibling posts that are governed by the same category or how to create a link to the category that governs the post or how to make a link to that governing category’s parent category.

If anyone understands what I’m talking about and can take some time to help me out on this it would be most appretiated.