Authors Note: This is written by Derisa and I.Thanks for reading and the patience in between updates.

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"Your request has been logged, Knight Kaden," the tinny voice came across the commlink, "But we are swamped with calls at present, we will attend when and as we can."

"You are not *hearing* me," T'Lor told the voice, "I have a Knight down, no transport, and we are less than an hour's walk from the Temple: I insist you send a transport immediately." She had no difficulty controlling her voice tone, but for a fervent moment she wished the mind-trick she had mastered were effective over communication beams.

"Is Master Arieh alive?"

T'Lor adjusted her hold on Alex's wrist, monitoring his thready heartrate. "Yes, he is, but I have no idea what's been done to him beyond a full discharge from a neural weapon. I need some help and I need it soonest. This takes priority over whatever else you have going on. Send me a shuttle, and have the healers standing by the moment we arrive." There was no room for argument in her demands.

The person standing duty on the communication links for the Temple finally confirmed T'Lor's order, noting the location of the fallen Master and his companion, even as a ship was dispatched to pick them up. T'Lor clicked off her commlink with a sigh, tightening her grip on Alex's shoulder and cradling his lolling head in her lap.

"Hang on, Alex. Just hang on."

**

It was late when Vail slipped into the apartment she shared with Master Arieh and his padawan. Quietly she tip-toed through the doorway, the sound of it swishing closed behind her faintly reaching her ears as she crept forward.

An unsavory word popped into her mind as she tripped over an unseen piece of furniture in the main room. Biting her lower lip to keep from mumbling aloud, she wished for once that she had the Jedi's almost feline-like grace. She had no doubt that any of her Jedi companions could easily navigate a dark room without second thought. As it was she hoped the keen ears of the Jedi master or apprentice wouldn't hear her stumbling about. She didn't want to awaken either at this late hour.

No sooner had the thought passed through her mind than a hair-raising scream ripped through the silence. Vail froze at the entrance to the short hall that led to the two bedrooms and 'fresher. She had only time to wonder what was going on when the heavy stillness was torn by another scream of terror; this one broken off by panicked sobs.

Vail startled, then stumbled her way quickly down the hall to Meri's room, expecting at any moment for the tall Jedi Master to come racing out of his room as well.

Tripping through the doorway, Vail paused at the entrance and palmed the lightswitch as the sound of choked sobs reached her ears. The lights flashed on, momentarily blinding Vail with their brilliance. When her vision cleared, Vail turned violet eyes towards the sound of broken crying, finding a disturbing sight.

Meri sat huddled on her bed, back against the wall, with her knees pulled up to her chest. The apprentice was trembling violently and tears streamed down her shockingly white and terrified face. Even as Vail looked on, she noticed Meri was having trouble breathing. In fact, it looked like she was hyperventilating...

Rushing over, Vail placed a steadying hand on the older girl's shivering arm. "Meri? What's the matter? Are you okay?"

Her concerned questions elicited no response in the distraught apprentice. It was as though Vail weren't even there.

"Meri?" she questioned again louder, this time shaking the other girls arm slightly. Meri barely responded, her eyes only flickering towards Vail as the other girl tugged on the padawan's arm.

In her dark eyes Vail could see fear and she thought it was because Meri couldn't breathe. She needed to get her to the infirmary, but there was no way she would be able to carry her.

Pulling away, Vail ran down the hall to the master's room, only to find it empty when she palmed the switch. Where was the Jedi master at this time of night?

Racing back to Meri's room, Vail took one look at the deteriorating apprentice and knew something was very wrong.

"Can you walk, Meri? Please try?" she cajoled as she tugged again on the apprentices arm.

To her surprise the older girl stumbled to her feet, but within a few steps, crashed to the ground, holding her head in her hands, fighting to regain her breath.

Grasping for something to do, Vail thought instantly of An-Paj. Turning on her heel, she left Meri struggling for breath and hurried for the Com unit.

Her hands fumbled and Vail had to force herself to slow down in order to key in the right number. Impatiently she waited for the Com to connect; twisting her hands, she stared at the blank screen, willing it to come to life.

The screen finally flickered to life, with a rather sleepy looking An-Paj standing before the Com; one hand running through his white hair standing on end, and his other holding his robe closed. It suddenly dawned on her that it was the middle of the night and she had just called him at home, but remembering Meri, she suddenly didn't care.

An-Paj took one look at the young woman's face and instantly came fully awake. "What is it, Vail?" he asked in a calming, yet firm voice.

Vail didn't hesitate. "It's Meri, Master An-Paj," she said earnestly, her voice quivering with worry. "Something's wrong."

"Just keep calm," he soothed. "Tell me what the problem is."

Quickly Vail explained what had happened and how the apprentice was acting.

"Where is Alex?" An-Paj finally interrupted the girl; the whole situation sounded all too familiar to the healer.

Vail shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, Master! He's not here! She is so unresponsive and I couldn't even get her to her feet…"

"I'll be right there," he said curtly with a grim expression, cutting off any further words from the alarmed girl. The transmission was ended so quickly Vail was left staring at a blank screen.

**

When An-Paj arrived, he had to give the near hysterical padawan a light sedative in order to calm her. Vail hovered in the background and watched as the healer briefly attempted to get Meri to answer him, without any success.

"I'm taking her to the infirmary," he told Vail finally as he gently picked up the unresponsive apprentice.

As the healer traveled through the halls, the young woman in his arms struggled to surface to reality. She became aware of the Temple lights flashing past in a surreal way, the taste of salty tears on her lips and the unfamiliar arms holding her. Again she reached for the reassurance and warmth of her bond with Alex and was thrown back by the raw, overwhelming pain of its absence.

She whimpered and with a soft, hiccuping sob, retreated to the shadowed paths she had trod once before in her past.

The bright glare of lights foretold their arrival at the infirmary, along with the distant, concerned voice of Healer Leona. The last thing Meri heard before everything faded into gray, was the worried tone of An-Paj, the Temple's senior healer, "Where is Alex?"

**

T'Lor followed the gurney that carried the unconscious form of her friend, Master Alex Arieh. Finally, here in the safety of the Temple, she felt her tension draining out of her, released at last into the Force, and leaving in its wake sheer and utter exhaustion.

"T'Lor, I can't tell you how happy we are to see you," Healer Leona spoke quietly but heartfelt. They brought Alex's padawan down a half hour ago."

"What's wrong with Meri?" T'Lor asked the Healer, as the others rolled Alex into an isolation suite to begin his diagnosis and treatment.

"She suffered some kind of a breakdown a short while ago. Master An Paj guessed something happened to her bond with Alex... what happened to you two? Last I heard you were looking for that missing Padawan, and that's just what Kaline told me when she came down to talk to one of the girls who was hurt in the ship crash earlier."

"Obviously it's been a busy night," T'Lor replied curtly. "I have to get some sleep, Leona. Take care of Alex, I'll be down first thing in the morning. I need him up and about before I talk to the Council about what happened."

"The Council?" healer Leona's brow rose in surprise. "Yes, well, we'll do what we can. You have no idea what was done to him?"

"Some kind of mind attack," T'Lor replied, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. "I don't honestly know, and the one person who could tell you is dead."

Leona startled at this news and T'Lor felt badly that she had shocked the gentle Jedi Healer. "I need to rest. Leona, I'm sorry." She made her way along to her quarters and stepped in, very happy she had resisted getting her own quarters so soon after her Knighting. She would not have wanted to be alone after all that had happened.

She ran herself a hot shower, as hot as she could stand. Anything to wash the slimy stain of evil from herself, even if only symbolically. She knew she would need to meditate intensively to settle all the aspects of the momentous happenings of the night.

At last, clean and warmed, T'Lor threw herself into her welcoming bed and collapsed into a dream-haunted sleep.

***

"Meri, wake up, it's all right." The sandy-haired Padawan looked up to check with the Master Healer that he was doing alright. Meri and he had once been very close, but much time had passed since then, and they had become so involved in their own lives. "Come on, Meri, come back to us. It's all right, Alex is here, he's alive." Obi-Wan's voice was soothing and quiet, and there was a flicker of response from the prone Jedi on the bed before him.

"Keep it up, Obi-Wan," An Paj murmured, "It's just what I thought: somehow her bond to her Master has been broken."

Obi-Wan controlled the shudder this thought brought out in him. The training bonds between a master and apprentice were a link of more than learning, and he recalled how shattered Meri had been by the breaking of the bond from her first Master. He did not even want to consider the same thing happening again, but this was different. Master Arieh was only a few cubicles away from his catatonic Padawan, not dead.

"Meri, it's Obi-Wan. Master Alex is here, he's been hurt but he's alive, he's here-"

The slender young woman sucked in a huge breath of air, as though she'd been drowning. "Why can't I feel him?" she cried hoarsely, her eyes still locked shut, as though she were fighting coming back to consciousness.

Obi-Wan started in surprise, but pulled her hand more tightly into his own and grinned up at An Paj. "I don't know, Mer', but he is here and he's going to be just fine, right Master An Paj?"

"That's right, Meri, he's going to be fine," An Paj said reassuringly, keeping his uncertainty unspoken. As soon as we figure out what happened to put him in this state, we'll know what to do about it.

Meri's eyes fluttered open. "I want to see him. I want to see Alex."

Obi-Wan met An Paj's eyes, and the Healer gave a slow nod. The two Jedi helped Meri sit up, but she shook them off determinedly. "I can walk. Take me to him."

She wants to know, for certain, that he is here, and physically going to be alright. An Paj escorted the tottering Padawan to her Master's bedside. Healer Leona had just finished laying bacta-soaked strips of linen around the wound on the Jedi Master's shoulder, and she looked up in some surprise as An Paj brought Meri in. Obi-Wan waited outside the door.

Meri's eyes were locked on her master's face, his too pale-skin contrasted by the thick black hair lying in an unruly mass, the brows and lashes so stark against the whiteness of his face. Even his lips seemed bloodless.

She gestured to the bandage. "He is injured." There seemed to be a note of accusation in her voice as she turned to An Paj, and the Master Healer was reminded how fragile her mental state was.

"He took a shot from some kind of energy weapon: the nerves were shocked and he has a large but not too serious cut, Meri. Nothing life-threatening, that is certain."

Meri's eyes questioned the other Healer in the small room, but Leona merely nodded her agreement with the diagnosis. "Why is he unconscious?"

An Paj and Leona exchanged glances, and Leona replied slowly, "We don't really know, Meri. He shows no sign of head trauma, but the sleep he's in is unnatural. It's almost a trance, but not quite. We are sure he will come out of it on his own, when he's ready."

He simply has to, An Paj thought darkly, as he helped Meri settle into a chair at her Master's bedside. Too many of us have been lost of late.

The two Healers showed Meri where the call-button was, in case there was a sudden change in Alex's disposition, and left her there to attend him, much as Obi-Wan had attended her earlier. An Paj clapped a grateful hand to that young man's shoulder as he left the room, letting him know his help in calling Meri back to them was appreciated.

He watched the Padawan depart, returning to his Master's rooms, and allowed himself to relax, for however short a space, even as he sat to consider the state of the Jedi Master now in his care. The second odd trance-state in a week: first Rani, now Alex Arieh. He pondered this for a space, but no answers presented themselves, and in the end he wrote it off as an odd co-incidence.

But perhaps Rani can help, when she is better, he thought, before recalling the padawan's powerful resentment of the healers, most specifically of An Paj himself. If she will help. He censured himself for the uncharitable thought almost immediately: Rani Veko, however natural a healer she might have been, had made her decision, and made it plain. With her master due to return early in the morning, she would soon be back on track and ready to complete her Trials to become a knight.

That reminder of the expected events on the morrow brought An Paj's awareness back to his interrupted sleep. I need to get some rest, it's going to be a busy day tomorrow. "Leona, can you handle things from here?" he asked the other Master Healer.

Leona gave the blue-skinned Healer a quiet smile. "Of course. Go back to bed, and take care not to wake your wives, Master An Paj. You need to sleep."

His antennae waved an amused agreement at the human healer, and he took his leave of her, making his way back to his rooms. The night was more than half fled, but he'd make what use of it he could.

***

Meri sat numbly by Alex's bedside, an air of unbelief still permeating her entire being. Her fingers, which were curled tightly around his hand, began to cramp their protest after long unmoving hours.

He was really here, she was holding his hand and could see his chest rising and falling. But everything inside screamed at her that it was not true, that it had to be some kind of mirage.

For the first time in five years, Meri couldn't sense her master at all, though she sat not less than three feet away from him. Oh, she could sense him as one could sense another's life force, but to her that was nothing. To a Jedi it was ordinary, commonplace and one of the most basic abilities.

It was almost more shocking now for her to be cut off from Alex than it had been with Ariana. She'd never wanted to experience such a bond loss again. Yet here she was, going through it all again, the same feelings, the same emptiness and loneliness.

The bond she'd held with Alex had been on a deeper and more intimate level than she'd ever held with Ariana. She and Alex had been totally open with one another and at all times each could sense the other in their mind. Every nuance, every flicker of emotion by one could be sensed by the other. Thoughts could still be kept private, but emotions were almost impossible to hide.

Meri took in a long shuddering breath and rubbed her thumb lovingly over the hand she held. She knew her bond with Alex wasn't a normal connection. It had all changed the year she was 18. Up until that point, the bond with her Master had been relatively ordinary. Except maybe that what they were both coming to feel for each other wasn't a simple Master/Padawan relationship. At age 18 it had all come out in the open. He had kissed her.

Since then, the Master/Apprentice bond was strengthened a hundredfold and without either of them noticing, it began to turn into something else.

Stripped away now, Meri felt like her heart, her very soul had been turned inside out. And it hurt.

Hey eyesight suddenly became blurry as tears pooled in her eyes before spilling over, warm drops running down her pale face and dripping off her chin.

She cried silently for a long while, having given up on trying to reach the comatose knight. The reaching out was too painful and only reinforced the agony of the broken bond.

Huddled in the uncomfortable chair, Meri pulled her knees up to her chest, one hand still clutching Alex's motionless hand, the other wrapped around her legs.

Burying her head in her knees, Meri let the tears fall faster and thicker, wanting only to be held and comforted by the one person who couldn't respond.