Diora and Volacca dove their swoop bikes down into the forest and zipped between the trees. "Do you see them?!" Diora shouted over her communicator. "The monitor says we've passed them." She slowed down, making a U-turn around the thick trunk of a tree, with Volacca not far behind. She carefully followed the tracking monitor - backtracking. Diora stopped abruptly and leapt off of her bike. "SITH!" She picked up Obi-Wan's thin black force collar from the leaf litter. "He cut it off!" She cursed again. "SITH!"

Volacca looked around cautiously at the array of trees, bushes, and large rocks all around them. "You think he's still nearby?"

Diora fingered the severed part of the collar. "The cut's still warm." She took her blaster out and began to look evidence where her quarry had gone. "They can't be far."

"Check this out." Volacca pointed down at the ground. There two sets of humanoid footprints showed in what direction their quarry had fled.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nahlia held Obi-Wan's hand tightly as he led her through the forest and away from danger. "Your lightsaber is working..." She asked breathlessly as they ran. "C-can't you fight them now?"

"Not yet." He stopped to let her catch her breath while he looked around. "It was only charged enough to cut that collar off, it wouldn't last long in a fight..." They would be tracked easily by their footprints if he didn't figure out a way to disguise their trail. Obi-Wan detected the sound of rushing water not far away and took her hand again. "Come on, I have an idea."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Volacca stepped to the edge of a raging river. "The prints end here. They must have crossed... or gone down stream."

"Great." Diora sighed. She scanned the tree line on the other side of the water for evidence of movement but none could be found. Unknown to them, underwater and only about twenty-five feet away, Obi-Wan hung onto a rock with one hand as he held onto Nahlia with the other.

Obi-Wan held his breath and kept an eye on the water's surface. He could sense they were up there now, searching. Nahlia watched as well as she clung to him. Just a few minutes before, she had protested that she still didn't know how to swim. His response was that she didn't need to and he handed her the aquata breather from one of the pouches on his belt. This left Obi-Wan with no breather, but he didn't seem concerned. He simply took a deep breath and held it as they dove beneath the water.

'How can he hold his breath this long?' She turned her attention away from the light of the surface and back onto Obi-Wan's face. His eyes were closed now. He was completely still except for his robe and Padawan braid waving in the river's flow. Concerned, she touched his chin to check on him. Obi-Wan's meditation state immediately broke and his eyes quickly opened . He recognized the worried look on Nahlia's face. Unable to reassure her any other way, a small smile came across his lips and he gave her a confident wink.

Back on the surface, at the edge of the river, Diora Dega let out an annoyed huff. "The boss is going to have a conniption."

"And that's unusual?" Volacca snorted.

"We'll send out the surveyor droids to track them down." She stepped away from the water and began to walk towards their parked swoop bikes. "In the meantime, I'll have to come up with a strategy for capturing the Jedi again, he's far more dangerous now."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obi-Wan watched Nahlia tending to her bare feet as she sat on a rock. They had walked most of the day, stopping only for short breaks. Although Nahlia had lost her shoes in the water and she was clearly exhausted, she never complained. This impressed Obi-Wan greatly. He didn't expect someone not raised as a Jedi, a city girl from Coruscant especially, to have such fortitude or such faith in him. Even Qui-Gon, it seemed sometimes, had little faith in him. He noticed her cringe as she examined her left foot. "Is everything all right?"

"I have a cut." Nahlia pointed out a scratch in the side of her foot.

"Let me see," He knelt down in front of her and took her ankle in his hand. "It's not too bad." Obi-Wan reached into a small pouch towards the back of his utility belt where his medical supplies were and pulled out a tiny tube. "This stings a little at first."

Nahlia cringed again as he applied the spray but did not make a fuss. Nahlia would easily admit, that the situation could be far worse and her companion far less appealing. The bottoms of her feet were sore but she still enjoyed Obi-Wan's gentle attention there. He used another tube to spray a clear bandage over the wound and blew lightly on it to help it dry more quickly. She was pleasantly surprised to find the sensation of his warm breath across her toes somewhat erotic. She bit the corner of her lip softly. 'I've got to stop having these thoughts about him.'

"You look cold."

"I am, a little..." She admitted, then smiled. "I don't suppose you have blankets and a soft bed stuffed in a pouch on that belt of yours."

Obi-Wan laughed. "I'm afraid not." He stood up, removed his dark brown robe, and put it over her shoulders. "That should help."

"Thanks." Nahlia tucked her legs up against her chest and pulled the robe around her.

Obi-Wan busied himself making a fire. He kept glancing back at her as he worked, something clearly troubling him, until he finally spoke up. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"When you spoke to Master Yoda the other day... did he say anything about me?"

"No. Why?"

"I...I just get the feeling that he and Qui-Gon are hiding something from me."

"About me?" She asked curiously.

"Uh..." Obi-Wan hesitated - he didn't want to encourage her growing feelings for him by making her think they had a future together. "I think so, yes." He quickly redirected the subject. "I don't like it... I don't like him hiding things from me."

"Sometimes people have good reasons for hiding things." Nahlia got up off the rock to get closer to the fire. "Maybe they think you're not ready to know." She thought of her mother a moment, sadly, and certain things she had kept from Nahlia growing up. So many things, both painful and healing, were left unsaid between them until the very end. "Or maybe they're concerned about how you'll handle it... whatever it is..."

"I don't doubt their concern but I still would like to know why-" He cut himself short.

"Why what?" Nahlia sat down next to Obi-Wan and began to roll the sleeves up a bit on her borrowed robe. Noticing his hesitation to answer, she looked over at him again adding, "You said you thought it was about me."

"Y-yes." Obi-Wan admitted finally. He didn't want to hurt her feelings but he didn't want to lie to her either. "My Master Qui-Gon told me I shouldn't see you anymore."

"Oh."

"I think Master Yoda saw something when he read your future... something about me..."

Nahlia was stunned. "Why would you be in my future?"

"I'm not sure." He gazed into the fire a moment contemplating. "Master Yoda didn't say anything to you about me, at all?"

"No."

"What did he say- about you, exactly?" He watched her eyes slowly lower to the ash and hot coals at the base of the fire. "Nahlia, if I do have a connection to your future, perhaps this means there is some way I can help you, perhaps there is some way I can save your life."

She kept her eyes on the fire as she shook her head hopelessly. "Yoda said that wouldn't happen. He said that it all ends the same."

"He also says that the future is always in motion. What is seen in premonitions is not guaranteed to happen."

She finally looked at him again, saying with conviction. "This is. Trust me."

"How do you know? Why are you so sure?"

She rose to her feet again and took a few steps away. Obi-Wan stood up as well, and hearing him say her name again - quietly pleading - she answered in anguish. "I know because... no woman in my family has lived beyond forty years old..."

"W-what?"

There was a long silence between them. Nahlia fought back her tears with little success as she spoke. "There is a disease... a very rare disease, so rare it only effects the women in certain families... my family... it is usually dormant until...until the woman is in her mid thirties... she's lucky to live another three or four years beyond that... My mother lasted little more than two after it started... she had just missed her thirty-eighth birthday by a few days..."

Finally, Obi-Wan understood. "I saw you die from this disease."

"Yes."

His heart ached for her. The tears running down her cheeks felt like his own. "I'm sorry..." Was all he could think to say as he took her in his arms and let her cry softly against his chest. "I'm so sorry..."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunlight broke over the Bemhonian moon, Obi-Wan stood, his arms folded one under the other, as he meditated in hopes of contacting Qui-Gon. He had reached out with the Force like this before, but this time he wasn't sure it would do any good. Obi-Wan wasn't even sure where in the universe they were, he had no idea how Qui-Gon would figure it out. But at least Qui-Gon would know he was alive, and would look for his missing Padawan - if he wasn't already.

Obi-Wan's mind shifted to Nahlia. He opened his eyes to find her still sleeping, curled up in his robe on the ground. He couldn't believe he could be given the vision of her death for no reason, but there it was. He could defend her against many dangers, but cure diseases he could not. 'There has to be a reason...' He thought. 'There has to be some way I can save her...' He closed his eyes again and concentrated his Force powers on the future - Nahlia's future.

He looked down at her in her bed, the vision was clearer than before. Nahlia's hair had a bit of gray in it. Her face was pale and there were a few wrinkles but she was still beautiful to him. He felt like a different man in many ways, not only older but stronger. That strength did little to ease the pain of knowing he was losing her forever this time. She smiled at him weakly and reached up to caress his bearded cheek as a comforting gesture to him.

The sunlight on Nahlia's face awoke her. She sat up yawning. Obi-Wan was nearby, facing her with his arms folded and his eyes shut. 'Meditating again?' She thought curiously. Deciding not to disturb him, she turned her attention to the sunrise visible through the trees. 'I don't think I've ever seen a sunrise... it's so breathtaking... like nothing on Coruscant...' She loved her home world, if only because it was the only home she'd ever known. But this kind of pure, natural beauty was few and far between there.

Behind her, she heard a small but pained sigh come from Obi-Wan. His face was distraught and he appeared to be trembling. She stepped close to him and called his name softly. "Obi-Wan? Obi-Wan, what is it?"

His eyes opened just as a tear trickled down his face and he looked at her in near astonishment. "You're alive." Obi-Wan gasped out both relieved and shocked. He slid his hand behind her left ear and neck and pulled her into a kiss.

TO BE CONTINUED...