That voice.

That tone, commanding, forcefull yet firm and regal. A voice he had heard a thousand times before but couldn't seem to pinpoint.

It couldn't be. It's impossible.

Turning, Ren gazed across the melee of wounded that lay across the landing field at his feet.

The woman's voice he had heard came from the far side.

Ren peered trying to locate the source of the voice. He could see a small female figure arguing with one of the medical staff.
Ren called out, attempting to get thier attention.

<font color=lime>"Hey!"

<font color=white>She turned, her hood slipping back as she did so, letting through a glimpse of her dark countenance.

<font color=lime>"Dear God."

<font color=white>Either his eyes were playing some cruel trick on him or he had seen a ghost.

He could feel an immensely overwhelming panic grow in the woman giving speed to her feet. She was headed for one of the alleyways.

<font color=lime>"Wait, come back!" <font color=white>Ren yelled desperately, but couldn't be heard over the rabble of patients and unrelenting rain.

He jumped over injured and sick, dodging patient and doctor. He reached the other side of triage just as the woman slipped into the alley. What she didn't know was that it was a dead end. Whatever she was trying to get away from was about to catch up.

She attempted to scratch her way up the iron railings but to little success.

<font color=lime>"Please, won't you please stop!"

<font color=white>She turned, her face still shrouded under her hood.

She was now on the ground, looking up at Ren , pushing herself back into a dark corner, hiding.

Ren reached down speaking calmly <font color=lime>"What are you running from?" <font color=white> he said, gently pulling back her viel of black leather.




<font color=red>"You."

<font color=CC3333>She found herself trembling at his feet as his hand pushed back her hood. She had tried for so long and so deserately to keep herself hidden from those she once knew, to spare them from the pain she could now see on Ren's face.

Vess took those few moments of his stunned silence to rise from the ground and to her feet, brushing herself off and recomposing herself. She could see his shock wearing off and his jaw drop, and in his eyes she could see what he wanted to do next.

She reached out for him, grabbing him by both arms, her eyes pleading. " No, Ren! You can't tell him, you can't tell anyone you've seen me! Please, I'm beggin you!"

This was impossible, how could she be alive.

A lump formed in his throat and his lower lip trembled in a gasp of disbelief.

<font color=lime>"This cannot be. We . . . we searched, for months we searched and found nothing. I . . . we had lost you."


<font color=white>His arm began to raise, pushing back her hood, revealing her long dark locks of hair. His hand brushed some strands back unvieling her face. Tensed his fingers ran across her cheek, tentatively, uneasy.


<font color=lime>"It is you."

<font color=CC3333>Her hand reached up and took his tightly in hers. It felt good to touch someone real again, and to have them touch her back. She closed her eyes, sighing as she realized what had to come.

" I'll tell you everything Ren, I promise. But not here. Is there somewhere we can go, away from prying eyes. I don't want to risk anyone else recognizing me."

<font color=lime>"Yes . . .yes." <font color=white>ren muttered, awakening from his dazed state.

<font color=lime>"I have personal quarters here at the settlement, we can go there.


You're hurt." <font color=white>Ren said , staring at the blood crusted gash adorning Vessana's forhead.

<font color=red>"It's alright."<font color=white> Spoke vessana softly.

<font color=lime>"I can take care of that when we get there, the storm will hit soon, we should get inside."

<font color=white>Ren's feet began to move with purpose, his mind however froze.


How could this be? He thought. She had been gone for over two years, and in that time not a word, not one sighting.

Where?

How?

Questions that would soon have to be answered.

<font color=CC3333>The hood of her jacket was once again slipped up and over her head as she followed him out of the alleyway and into the settlement. There was a moment of relief at the thought of them looking for her, trying to find her and not just accepting the general belief that she had died on Ut.

But that moment passed with every step she took. She was going to have to tell him, she wanted to tell him to get it off her chest, but she knew with every word she told him he would want to tell Dakkon that she was alive. She could not - would not- put Dakkon through that, not when he was happy again.

<font color=lime>" In here,"</font> Ren led her into his quarters. They were small, but more than enough to protect them from the incoming storm.

Vess removed her jacket, letting him take if from her as she wearily sat in an empty chair. She hadn't slept in weeks, not soundly or for more than a few hours at a time. Combined her already exhausted body with injuries from a crash and it was amazing that she was even able to stand. Every muscle ached and it took all her remaining strength to begin to explain.

She told him everything. For more than an hour she spoke uninterupted, even when the strom began to assault the ouside of the building. Ren listened on, at first tending to the gash on her forehead, then sitting back in his own chair direfctly across from her.

For the first time in weeks she allowed herself to cry, to think about her children and how scared they were. She leaned her head on Ren's lap and weeped.

Soo much pain.

Too much pain.

It was hard to believe she had carried this for almost two years.


Each tear echoed in his mind, as a constant reminder of what she'd lost. . . what he'd lost.

His hand reached around the back of her head, offering a comforting touch, but he recoiled, unsure and uneasy.

He could feel her crying out, into the vast reaches of the force. It tingled like chains of fire that burned him.

A tear swelled in his eye, running down his face and into his lap.

The hand he had offered, moved back, around her head, comforting her, for what it was worth.

<font color=CC3333>She cried for a long time, how long exactly she never knew, but the emotional release lifted a burden from her she knew was weighing her down. For the first time since the entire ordeal had stated years ago, Vess was finally thinking clearly.

Lifting her head she wiped at the tears on her face, feeling the puffiness of her eyes, and licked at her dry lips. Her crystal blue eyes locked with Ren's, the intensity behind them almost frightening.

" You have to help me, Ren. I'm not strong enough to face against both Lupercus and Tevarii. But I have to get my children back."

She saught to train, her thoughts revealed that much.

He couldn't train her like this, she was too full of anger, hate, revenge.

These were tools of evil, tools of the darkside.

But when he gazed into her eyes, he could see the helplessness, the sufferring. Noone should see thier children taken away, extracted beyond consent and will.

The future that lay ahead of them was clouded with mystery and danger.

What could he do.

<font color=lime>"I . . .I will train you, if it'll help to reunite you with your children."

<font color=white>Any other Master would have been insane to train a person in Vessana's state of mind, but he couldn't help it, her pain was his pain now, a burden shared is still a burden carried.

Dark times were ahead, that much, he could see.

<font color=lime>"We must be quick, quick and discrete.

My ship is not far, once onboard I will take us out towards the far regions, to the great canyons.

The force is strong there.

Come, we mustn't delay a minute longer.


<font color=yellow>......................................................

<font color=white>The greyhawk settled on the canyone base, it's doors hissing open in a cloud of coolent.

This place, the site of Ood Bnar's death, the great Jedi master who lay here for hundreds of years.

The force was strong and abundant in this place.

A more than adequate site to begin Vessana's training.

<font color=CC3333>Stones balance precariously on top of one another as another slowly lifted into the air above the stack. Vess' crystal blue eyes stared intently at the stones, trying to focus her thoughts on only the task of stacking the stones. Behind her she could sense Ren sitting, watching, as he had for the last few days.

The canyon had become her refuge, hidden from the rest of the world and the Jedi that Ren had responsibilities to. Each day he would steal away for a few hours to spend with her, bringing her supplies and training her. They had so far concentrated on little things, levitating a few light things, pushing and pulling light objects, the basics of a lightsaber that she had once known before...

Her mind faltered and the stones fell to the ground with a rumble and she heard Ren get to his feet.

<font color=Lime>" You're not concentrating! Think of nothing beside the stones!"</font>

" This is pointless!" She snapped, turning around to face him. " Unless you are teaching me this to lift Lupercus' severed head there is no point!"

He scowled. <font color=lime>" I think we've had enough for today."</font>

She sighed, realizing the wrongness of what she had just said. " No, wait. Please. I didn't mean... I'm just frustrated. " Vess moved to one of the large boulders they had moved near the fire pit to serve as chairs and sat, stolking the glowing embers with a large twig.

<font color=lime>" You mind is too cluttered. You have to clear your thoughts of everything but the task."</font> Ren sat across the fire from her, folding his hands in his lap.

" It's hard. I can't help thinking about them or..." She shook her head with another sigh. " What's she like?"

<font color=lime>" Who?"</font>

" The new Queen Mother. Dakkon's new wife."