I told you it would be posted within the hour! I only own that which is mine and I hope that you enjoy the story! If you haven't done so already, please read the CONTEST I've issued at the end of Chapter Three. Now, Enjoy the story!

P.S. Things are going to start to pick up in the next chapter, so those of you that are aching for adventure, it's going to come soon, I promise!

Khan knew she would have gone to her home; it was the only place she could go. But she had only taken him there once and that was with a blindfold, he knew not how to go there because he had not been able to study the path.

He was beginning to wonder if sparing the world of her life was really worth all the trouble.

He closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair, pondering what was to be done next when he came to the solution to his predicament.

Without opening his eyes, he took a step forward, then another. He found that he did remember the path, but it was not a visual memory. It was the memory of an Unsighted.

To his silent amazement, he remembered everything. Where he had tripped when he had tried to walk alone, where Verloren had saved him from stepping off a cliff, where she had taken his hand so she did not lose him through a narrow passage, until he had came to the point where he had remembered her gentle fingertips brushing the top of his ear when she had removed the blindfold and shown him the world he would never forget.

"You see?" He was not startled when she spoke up, for by now, he was used to it. She was sitting on a log beside the stream, her hand absentmindedly turning in a circle in the running water. "You have not forgotten after all."

Hesitantly, he took a seat beside her and watched her hand in the water. Her other hand was upon her shoulder, her arm across her chest like a sling without the materials. "I can heal you." He stated plainly, the darkness that took his voice when they had last spoken had long since melted into oblivion.

He was surprised when she laughed. "Forgive me," She said, sensing his confusion. "I do not believe in the help of anyone but God when it comes to wounds and illness."

"You will do nothing to help it heal?" He found such an idea hard to believe. "What if you were attacked by a Klingon, would you just leave your wounds as they are?"

"I would use pain-killing herbs, but other than that, no. If I am meant to die, then I do not try to laugh in the face of God. If it is His will for me to die, then no amount of medicine or technology can save me."

They were silent. Her hand ceased to move in the water, and her lips were pressed into a thin line as if she were debating something. He did not give her the time to ponder it further. "Who are you, Verloren?" He asked. She looked away, as if she were ashamed. "How would you know more of family than a man who is trying everything to save his?"

A faint smile crept on to her face, "You wish to hear my story, Stranger? Very well, but after it is over, you must do what I ask of you as an exchange."

He accepted her terms, recalling the promise he made to himself to kill her after he had satisfied his curiosity.

"When I was a child, I saw colors and shapes and people. I recognized everyone and everything had a name based on its appearance. I had a brother, as well, though I do not have the heart to tell you his name. We were different from the other children of our home, and for that, we were treated differently. We were called names and pushed around and tested by everyone and everything. We grew up that way.

"Our father was an ambassador who had friends from many places across the universe. When I was old enough, he found a husband for me on a little known planet. I left my family and the hatred of the others for a better life. My brother was heart-broken, but we maintained contact through writing and every now and then he would visit. There, I began my own family. I had two daughters and a son and all of my world was complete with them."

She sighed, recalling the peaceful life she had lived not that long ago, "I knew not what happiness was until I left my home world. In my new home, I was happy. But I was also cursed. A plague struck the place I held so dear." He saw that she was struggling to push the words past her lips now. Uncertain of what he should do, Khan placed a hand on her shoulder as if to support her, and felt his heart fracture ever so slightly when she flinched from his touch.

"My little boy was the one to fall first. He was so strong, he fought through it all and was brave for the sake of his sisters, but my son went to join God upon the fifth night of his sickness. It took so many people in our home, we became desperate. I went in search of a cure, in hopes that some other people from a distant planet would have helped us. Despite my belief that death is the will of our Maker, I would not cease to try.

"I returned empty handed to find that the plague had taken my husband and my daughters as well. My brother feared what had happened to us since I had not written to him in the time the plague ravaged our people. So he came to us.

"I had pleaded with him to leave, I did not want him to fall ill, but he was stubborn and he remained upon the claim that I had not fallen sick. It took less than a day for the symptoms to appear. I was desperate not to lose him. I would not allow it to happen. So I prayed.

"The next day, my prayer was answered. A medicine man had come upon hearing of the plague. He was a strange man, but not unkind. When he saw my brother, he told me that if he was not given the cure soon, he would die before the sun set. I begged of him to save him and he agreed, but he said that he did not want me to see how he saved him.

"He gave me an herb of some sorts that he claimed would remove my vision for a while and would secure his secrecy. When I questioned him, he simply said that if I did not comply, my brother would surely be dead before the moon rose. So I did. An hour later, he came to me and told me that my brother would live. I asked how long until my vision would come back, but he had left.

"Through a series of circumstances that I, myself, do not understand, I came to Kronos and found this sanctuary. I've never left this place, since."

"You gave up your sight for the sake of your brother," He murmured. "And you have never seen him since?"

She smiled, a devilish, sly smile, "Of course I've never seen him, Stranger, but that doesn't mean that he hasn't seen me." She pointed across the stream where a wall of rock blocked any view of the rest of the hideous planet.

Carved into it were words in the same language that Verloren had taken her name from. He knew not why the language was so important to her, but it didn't matter at the moment.

Sie brauchen nicht die augen zu sehen

You don't need eyes to see.

"Verloren, what-"

"Shh."

He was slightly taken aback by her sudden change of character. He attempted once more, "Verloren-"

"Shut it." She whispered, standing and turning to look back at the trees.

"You dare try to-"

"Be quiet, please!" She whispered hoarsely, walking along the line of trees as if to get closer to whatever she had heard. "I need to hear."

The next sound that stopped the angered cry in Khan's throat was the cry of Verloren as a piece of metal from a ship struck her and knocked her to the ground. "Verloren!" He kneeled beside her and drew her head into his lap, finding that blood had begun to trickle from her temple where she had been struck.

He looked at the sky, his keen eyes burning with hatred following the line of smoke from a ship as it tried to flee the unforgiving grasp of a Klingon patrol ship. Gently, he picked her and rested her head against his chest, beginning the long trek to where the first ship would have surely crashed. The crash sight would be close to the cave where his stockpile of weapons lay waiting to be used. His eyes narrowed, unsure as to where his emotions now lie, but quite certain that the people on both of the ships were not going to live much longer.