A few days later, the weather promised to be wonderfully warm; possibly one of the last few pleasant days before winter made its appearance. The skies were clear and there was a slight breeze. A few lazy clouds drifted past the sun.

Oshan was happy he had been able to talk Lady Flora into coming with him to one of the many open-air markets that were allowed to gather on the plazas on certain days of the week. Even though she was seemingly unaware of her baby's influence upon her, Cress could just barely sense the child's calming effect on her.

'Twas mid-morning now. After choosing breakfast from one of the vendors, Flora began taking more of an interest in her surroundings. Still, she was a bit uncomfortable with some of the non-humans she saw, but they were becoming an accepted sight to her eyes.

Cress noticed how well she blended in with the exotic nature of the market's visitors. She seemed not to notice the many admiring glances she received from several males, both human and not.

With her hand tucked comfortably within his elbow, Flora felt safe in this strange world. A world she remembered only as a hushed whisper in the foggy dreams of her lonely nights. She sensed she somehow knew this place; or rather, she corrected herself, she knew *of* it. 'Twas like a long forgotten fairy's tale told by the warmth of a fire late in the night and into the early morning. The memory of the tale was lost to her, yet she knew of its presence.

"Well, Lady Flora? What do you think of our street market? This is but one of many. There are many others scattered through out the city on different days of the week."

Flora mentally shook herself be rid of a dark feeling that had been with her for a good while now. Again, she felt like she was being watched -- no, she corrected herself. 'Twas like being hunted. She looked around into the myriad of bodies coming and going.

Looking up to her escort, she pasted a smile upon her face. "I vow, Sir Cress, it looks much like the fair we have each summer. There are *so* many booths and *so* much variety, 'tis astounding!" she shook her head, this time in amazement at the offerings. "And thou sayst there are more markets like this?"

"Yes, there are." Oshan looked at her and smiled. "I'm glad you agreed to join me today, my Lady. The fresh air and exercise has put the color back in your cheeks. And...you're smiling. That more than anything is the greatest improvement I've seen yet."

Flora blushed. "I thank thee for being my escort. I do not think I would have had the courage to do this alone. In truth, your Temple is larger than some demesnes I know."

Oshan felt a chill run through her fingers as they lay over his sleeve. "I imagine this is all a bit much to take in at one time. Perhaps we should return on another day."

The cold knowledge of being hunted, stalked, coalesced into the pit of her stomach as the feeling grew. Something was suggesting strongly, nay, *telling* her to flee, yet the crowd of people had grown without her noticing. The crowd was starting to press against her. The clamor began ringing in her ears.

Oshan noticed the shift in the Force around her. Her unique signature told him she was becoming uncomfortable in the crowd. Her quick breath and rapid heart rate told him it was time to leave. With one arm across her back, he guided her away from the market.

Finally out of the market's designated area, the crowd lessened somewhat. Being away from the crush helped Flora a lot. Her anxiety eased. She told herself she was just being silly, jumping at shadows that were not really there.

Unwilling to return to the confines of the Temple just yet, Flora was determined to make the most of the beautiful day. They walked back at a leisurely pace and tried to enjoy the weather as much as possible.

Along the way, they approached the fabric shop where Flora got the material for her clothing. "Cress, I have to pick up some new material I requested, wouldst thou mind if we make one last stop here?"

"Of course I don't mind." An idea Flora might enjoy came to mind. "I tell you what, why don't I pick up your package for you? You can wait for me over there in that small park," he nodded across the street. "You can wander around if you like. I'll find you when I'm done here. Like everyone else, you may as well enjoy the sun while you can. It's supposed to get rainy and cold later today."

She nodded. He escorted her to a sitting area near a small grove of trees and flowering bushes. He quickly Force-scanned the area for any unseen threat. Sensing none, he bowed to her. "I shall return shortly, my Lady." Nearby, a large fountain splashed. Benches were scattered to afford visitors some measure of privacy, while ensuring the best view of the surroundings.

As she waited for Cress to return she tilted her face to the sky. Giving thanks for a splendid day, she walked around a little. In the tall bushes, a soft mewing caught her attention. Curious, she followed the sound into the grove.

Without warning, a large hand covered her mouth and thrust her head backwards against a broad chest. A band of iron snaked about her waist. A frightening memory flashed through her mind. She began to struggle as the figure behind her dragged her farther away from the main path. She tried digging her feet into the ground, but her assailant merely lifted her higher with his arm.

Across her cheek she felt her assailant's breath. As she heard his voice rasp in her ear, she went still with shock as she recognized it.



_____"You are an obsession. _____

_____I can not sleep. _____

_____I am your possession_____

_____Unopened at your feet. _____

_____There is no balance, _____

_____No equality. _____

_____Be still, I will not accept defeat. _____

_____"I will have you. _____

_____Yes, I will have you. _____

_____I will find away and I will have you." _____

Sir Paul of Shelton started dragging her farther into the grove as she began struggling for her freedom from a mad-man.

_____"Like a butterfly, _____

_____A wild butterfly. _____

_____I will collect you and capture you. _____

_____"You are an obsession. _____

_____You're my obsession. _____

_____Who do you want me to be_____

_____To make you sleep with me?" _____

_____"You are an obsession. _____

_____You're my obsession. _____

_____Who do you want me to be_____

_____To make you sleep with me?" _____

The cruel fingers clasping her chin jerked her head sideways. He glared malevolently into her frightened eyes. She shivered at the coldness there.

_____"I feed you, I drink you, _____

_____My day and my night." _____

He rubbed his rough cheek against hers very slowly. She felt the stubble of his unkempt face scratch her skin.

_____"I need you, I need you, _____

_____By sun or candlelight." _____

His breath ruffled the tendrils of hair at her temples causing her stomach to lurch. He ran his tongue slowly up her cheek. She screamed, but no sound escaped past his hand as he tightened his grip. He laughed at her futile efforts to escape.

_____"You protest, _____

_____You want to leave. _____

_____Stay! _____

_____Oh, there's no alternative!" _____

She saw the madness within the depths of his eyes, its root buried deep within his soul.

_____"Your face appears again. _____

_____I see the beauty there." _____

She stiffened as a hand ran across her breast and squeezed. She started crying and squirmed away desperately trying to evade his foul touch.

_____"But I see danger. _____

_____Stranger beware. _____

_____A circumstance_____

_____In your naked dreams, _____

_____Your affection is not what is seems." _____

His grey eyes grew colder yet as his anger flared.

_____"You are an obsession. _____

_____You're my obsession. _____

_____Who do you want me to be_____

_____To make you sleep with me? _____

_____"You are an obsession. _____

_____You're my obsession. _____

_____Who do you want me to be_____

_____To make you sleep with me? _____

She gasped as his vile touch moved across her stomach and continued slowly downward. Try as she might, she could not evade his vulgar caress.

_____"My fantasy has turned to madness, _____

_____And all my goodness_____

_____Has turned to badness. _____

_____My need to possess you_____

_____Has consumed my soul. _____

_____My life is trembling, _____

_____I have no control." _____

He violently spun her around to face him and pinned her wrists behind her in one hand. Before her vision cleared his mouth descended to crush her soft lips.

_____"I will have you. _____

_____Yes, I will have you. _____

_____I will find away and I will have you. _____

_____Like a butterfly. _____

_____A wild butterfly. _____

_____I will collect you and capture you. _____

_____"You are an obsession. _____

_____You're my obsession. _____

_____Who do you want me to be_____

_____To make you sleep with me?" _____



Flora realized he unwittingly maneuvered himself into a position to help her escape. Sir Paul howled as she brought her knee up with all her strength.

Half remembering some long ago lessons after a similar attack, Flora descended upon her assailant in a flurry of kicks and chops. "CRESS!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Feeling a disturbance in the Force, Healer Oshan urgently pushed his way through the small crowd that gathered at the entrance to the small grove. These were locals with nothing better to do than to gawk at a woman's distress rather than try to help. Some of the men held thoughts laced with lust at the sight of a beautiful woman with a tunic torn revealing one shoulder and the upper curve of a breast.

At the sight of a Jedi making his way through, the crowd decided it was time to leave.

Cress caught a glimpse of a man roughly shoving his way through the crowd. He scanned in that direction for any clue to the assailant's identity, but could get nothing. Even though he could see the man escaping there was simply no one there in the Force. It was as though the man didn't exist. He set this puzzle aside for the moment.

"Flora! What happened?" Turning her away from the crowd and shielding her from view with his own body, Cress wrapped a gentle arm around his patient and friend. "Flora? Are you hurt? Can you tell me who did this to you?"

Flora took a few deep, cleansing breaths to clear her mind. She heard the rustle of packages and fabric. Feeling the weight of her friend's robe settle about her, she opened her eyes and nodded. "I am fine now. Thank thee for thy robe and thine assistance." She tugged the robe closer to cocoon herself in safety.

"Come, my Lady. Let's get those bruises and scrapes tended to." Gathering their purchases in one arm, Cress likewise gathered the young woman under his other arm and turned to the few stragglers remaining. "This woman is under the protection of the Jedi. Can anyone tell me who that man was?" As he expected, no one volunteered any information. Either they couldn't or wouldn't. "Let's go."

@}--- @}--- @}---

Scraping off the remnants of his beard with a jeweled dagger, Taren inspected himself in the mirror. For days he would go without shaving simply because he had not the energy, nor the inclination to do so. Finally, he would scrape it off only because he no longer could tolerate its scratchy feel upon his face.

He was nearing exhaustion again. This morning he had pushed himself to his limit and beyond in the training room. Setting the training remotes on their highest setting, he entered the room only the best and most experienced Jedi would attempt.

Set in a series of multilevel platforms that raised and lowered to different elevations at random, there were also catwalks less than the width of a hand, and tightropes to navigate. Rings suspended from ropes and fixed bars were also used to trek from one end of the course to the other. All this while a clock ticked away, keeping track of how long it took the challenger to complete the grueling course. Many times someone would attempt the treacherous course, only to wind up sheepishly going to the Healers. His body ached from the several close calls today. He was not fully connected to the Force and he certainly felt it.

Settling down to meditate, he gazed awhile out into the sunshine. With winter coming up fast, this promised to be one of the last pleasant days.

Winter, he thought. I hope the Nest will weather the season well. I hope Flora will be all right. Once more the pain of his loss welled up into his heart.

Without warning, an overpowering sense of anxiety overwhelmed him. He recognized that it came not from him. It came from without; from somewhere else, a place he could not sense, could not name.

Without mercy, a small voice haunted him. 'Twas the same echo that haunted his nights. Now, it cried out to him with great urgency -- in fear. It continued to reverberate within his mind. 'Twould not leave him be.

As before, Taren rushed out to exorcise the demon in his mind. Again, he Force-ran through the streets of Coruscant to escape the tiny voice that drove him mad. 'Twas the only way the voice will leave him -- he must push himself beyond his physical limit. 'Twas only there in the oblivion of his final exhaustion that he would find respite from the echo.

@}--- @}--- @}---

Master Yoda sat quietly in the chair between the Senior Mind Healer and her Senior Assistant as Healer Oshan related the day's events.

Thwack Master Yoda's gimer stick landed soundly across his shins.

"More careful, you should have been, Cress. Come to this rare flower, harm must not."

Oshan, much to his credit, didn't wince as his superior chastised him. "It was an error in judgment, Master. I take full responsibility for this."

"I don't understand what you are trying to say about her attacker, Cress. It doesn't make sense."

"I agree, Dorga," Cress nodded. "It makes no sense to me either, but that's what happened. As I reached into the Force to stop him, it was as though I was trying to capture -- nothing. His presence simply *did not* register. It was like trying to see a piece of clear glass sitting in a crystal clear stream. I could sense everything around me, except him."

"Like a void in the Force?"

"No, not even that," he shook his head. "He just simply *did not* exist within the Force."

"Do not have the Force, very few worlds there are. Outside the Force, they live. Midi-chlorians, they do not possess," Yoda reminded them. "On the Outer Rim, mostly are these worlds. Some midi-chlorians Lady Flora has, but not many."

The small Master closed his eyes for a moment. A puzzled look crossed his face, "From one of these worlds, he is not. Nor is she.

"Fight like a Jedi, you said she did."

"Yes, Master. As the crowd parted to let me through, I recognized her fighting style. There is no doubt -- it was a form of Jedi hand-to-hand, unarmed combat. And she was quite proficient. It's obvious she's had some training."

"Did you ask her about it?" Meador asked.

"Yes, I did." Oshan sat on the edge of his seat and leaned forward. "She replied, 'My lord-husband taught me after I was attacked in the forest.' She went further on to say that her husband was, in fact, a Jedi!"

Healer Meador drew back, stunned. "A Jedi? Lady Flora never mentioned that before, has she?"

"No. This is the first reference she's made. I even commented on that; she said there were some things she had forgotten when she came here. I believe her. This sounds like a typical case of amnesia brought about by some sort of trauma. Some memories will be temporarily misplaced until something happens to trigger the recall of that memory," he explained for Master Yoda.

"Apparently, her husband had a tendency to wear tans and browns. He also wore a robe to keep the chill away, instead of the usual cloak her people were used to wearing."

"Still, tell us who her husband is, this does not."

"Again I asked if she could now recall his name. The name she gave me was 'Talon Savon.'

"I checked and rechecked the databanks and the archives myself -- there is *no* Talon Savon. He does *not* exist, and yet, she believes it. And I believe her... I don't know," Cress shook his head. "Maybe something got lost in the translation. We still don't know how she came to learn Basic. Healer Tap said when Flora first spoke she didn't use Galactic Basic. But after sleeping for a couple of days straight through, she started speaking Basic. Erua was not able to identify her native tongue."

"Knew her attacker, she did."

"Yes, Master. Here is where the mystery of Lady Flora, Countess of Falcon's Nest by the Sea, gets even more interesting. Apparently, she is not the only one from her world. She recognized her assailant as being a knight named Sir Paul of Shelton. She has never trusted him, nor felt comfortable around this 'greasy weasel' as she described him."

"Has she remembered anything of how she came to Coruscant?"

Cress rubbed his forehead and sighed, "No. She still remembers nothing. I've worked with her, teaching her to meditate. Still...those memories are locked away, out of her reach. Right now, the only way to learn anything more would be to reach into her mind and search for the answers myself. She hasn't given me permission to do so."

"And so we wait."

"Yes, Master. We wait."

@}--- @}--- @}---

As promised, the weather had turned. Rain came down in sheets washing away what the day had left in the streets.

Barely able to stay on his feet, Taren stumbled into the apartment he shared with his Master. Much to his relief, Master Ramer was not present. He waited for his exhaustion to catch up to him as he forced his feet to move one in front of the other. This time, his hours-long Force-run had not exorcised his demon. He still heard the small voice inside his head; fainter than before, but still there. Still it haunted him. He turned on the holo-vid and the radio to drown out what is left of the murmuring inside his head.



_____Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue_____

Slowly he peeled off his robe and let the sodden bundle drop to the floor.

_____Thought I heard you talking softly. _____

Putting the heel of his palms to his ears, Taren tried to block out the sound of a small voice calling to him. He did not recognize the voice, yet somehow felt he should.

_____I turned on the lights the TV and the radio. _____

_____Still I can't escape the ghost of you. _____

Try as he may, he could not escape the echo of the voice desperate to be heard. It grew stronger each night.

_____What has happened to it all? _____

_____Crazy some'd say, _____

_____Where is the life that I recognize? _____

_____Gone away. _____

In his anguish, he threw himself into a corner of the main room, against the floor length window. He pulled himself into the smallest bundle he could and tried to hide in the corner.

_____But I (still) cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world, _____

_____Somehow I have find. _____

Tears ran down his face. How many times did he cry himself to sleep? He lost count long ago.

_____And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world, _____

_____I will learn to survive. _____

_____Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say_____

_____'(Fate) will tear us both apart.'_____

_____Well now pride's gone out the window, cross the rooftops, run away, _____

_____Left me in the vacuum of my heart. _____

Wiping the tears away from his eyes he studied his hands; they were trembling. He ran both hands through his long hair and down across his chin.

_____What is happening to me? _____

_____Crazy some'd say. _____

_____Where is my (life) when I need you most? _____

_____Gone away. _____

_____But I (still) cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world, _____

_____Somehow I have find. _____

_____And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world, _____

_____I will learn to survive. _____

He felt there was something he must do. But what?

_____Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed. _____

____ (Fear) today, forgot tomorrow. _____

_____Ooh, here beside the news of holy war and holy need, _____

_____Ours is just a little sorrowed talk. _____

Leaning his head back onto the wall he closed his pain-filled eyes. Lightly he banged his head against the wall, then turned to watch the rain stream down the window. He made his decision. He now knew what he must do to save himself.

_____Just blown away. _____

_____And I (still) cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world, _____

_____Somehow I have find. _____

_____And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world, _____

_____I will learn to survive... _____



swish The door softly opened Feeling a disturbance along the bond they still shared, his Master quickly came to his aid. Striding into the main room his eyes quickly darted to a corner. A figure is curled up into a tight ball in a corner. Naftel leaned down and pulled his Padawan into his arms. Gently he rocked Taren back and forth as when he was a young padawan and hurting.

@}--- @}--- @}---

TBC...