About an hour passed before I got insanely bored. Gazing through the window will only keep you occupied for so long until you start getting ideas as to what might happen if you threw something small out of said window.

Besides kill someone, of course.

And since I didn't want to end up in a depressive phase of home-sickness, I tried my luck and slapped my palm against the door mechanism and wonder behold – it slid open. Imagine my surprise.

Even more surprising was the fact that there was no one outside. I looked up and down the deserted hallway, all was quiet. Just a lonesome chair next to the door with one of those brown robes draped over it.

I picked it up with a frown, wondering if my guard had skipped from his or her duty and forgotten their bathrobe. I was just about to place it back over the chair when an idea hit.

Not a bright idea but at least an idea, right?

This was my chance for escape plan number two.

Again, I glanced up and down the hallway and made sure that no one was anywhere in my vicinity. I slipped into the robe – way too big for me; no doubt, I looked like a smurf – and caught a whiff of something very very very tasty.

Whoever had previously worn the robe smelled fantastic. It was definitely a male cologne, something I'd never smelled before. I pictured a Prince Charming sort of guy from the old Disney movies as I breathed in this amazing scent.

Smiling like an idiot, I pulled the robe closer and hurried down the hall towards the turbolifts I'd used with Valin and Master Durron earlier.

I stepped onto the platform, turned around to face the controls and that's where it got complicated. I couldn't read a word. There was a pad with three by four rows of numbers (I supposed) and above that, a small plate with writing. But – and this is kinda cool – they have arrow buttons too. So it was either up or down.

On first thought going down seemed like the best choice but remembering what Valin and Master Durron had told me about air travel on Coruscant, down didn't seem such a great idea after all. There might just be a big old dusty basement instead of a way out.

Even though the idea of rummaging through a basement was very tempting, going up meant a parking lot for speeders or some such, since the people here relied on their flying vehicles.

Presumably.

So I touched the arrow button to go up and pressed myself against the wall. It took only seconds before the doors opened again and I heard a jumble of voices from all over the place. I peeked around the corner and I seemed to have ended up in a sort of meeting chamber for the students.

Hastily, I pressed the arrow button again, my heart beating frantically. I didn't want to get caught by some kid when I'd already made it this far. I mean, for all I knew someone was already looking for me so I had to hurry and get out of this godforsaken temple as fast as I could.

And go where?

No clue. I just wanted out. In hindsight, it was the stupidest, most moronic thing to do but at the time, all I wanted was a little air to breathe.

So the lift went up and up and up until a soft, female computer voice let me know that I had arrived at the main entrance. In at least five different languages, mind.

It was an enormously large hall. I looked up and I couldn't even see the ceiling. Again, there were pillars at each side flanking the walkway, glittering as a golden sun shone through tall windows. It was like marble, smooth and delicate and overall just simply beautiful.

There were muffled sounds coming from behind me. I threw up the hood of the robe and lowered my head as I walked down the isle of red carpet. I made sure not to run, trying to seem nonchalant and hoping that no one noticed I didn't belong. The only thing that could give me away was my apprehension and nervousness.

Or so I thought.

I was such an idiot at the time.

Oh well.

And when I saw light spill through an open arch way, I realized that they had yet another set of guards posted right outside. No doubt the entire temple was being watched from afar with surveillance equipment being kept out of sight. Should have thought of that sooner, stupid me.

But I didn't want to go back. If they caught me – tough. They'd lock me up again and be done with it. Simply put, I really didn't have anything to lose, right?

I hid behind one of the pillars as I heard the guards speaking in low tones. They were imposing figures, I have to admit. Tall, broad shouldered and throwing off an aura of If-You-Value-Your-Life-Stay-Away.

What surprised me was the lack of Jedi robes. They wore black overalls with their lightsabers hanging from their belts, along with other equipment I didn't recognize. I was instantly wary and wondered if I really should go back because I had no idea how to pass them without getting caught. I mean, if they were posted as guards, they had to be extraordinarily good Jedi, right?

But for the first time I could remember, luck was on my side.

I heard shouts. The two Jedi guards hurried forward with their hands on their weapons and that's when I stepped forward and slipped out into a wonderful, beautiful sunlit afternoon.

But it was an open area and there was nowhere for me to hide.

The walkway seemed to be a sort of bridge. I could look over the banister and I felt sick just by doing so. I couldn't even estimate how far down it went, only that if I fell, there wouldn't really be much of me left.

Taking a deep breath, as fear suddenly became a very real thing, I walked forward, pulling the robes as tightly around me as I could.

The two Jedi guards were right in front of me, arguing with a young almost human woman. Besides two long tails growing from her head and a pinkish skin color, she could have definitely passed as human. She was dressed in a business suit of sorts and she held a pad in her hand. Behind her head hovered a small round droid thing, I guess. It swiveled around on its axis and I heard clicking sounds.

Seemed to me this woman was a reporter and it seemed to me she had no business around the Jedi temple, going by how the guards were losing their patience with her.

And I had to pass them.

I really had a bad feeling about all this but I kept going.

I needed to keep going.

I heard the reporter laugh suddenly, a high-pitched screech, very uncomfortable to the ears. The Jedi thought so too, it seemed. The looks on their faces almost made me laugh.

From in front of me, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, two more people emerged with pads in their hands and these little droid things hovering above them. I stopped in mid stride, absolutely confused as to where they'd suddenly come from. There was nothing in front of me and yet…

Both were human males and they hurried to meet up with their colleague. One of the Jedi cursed under his breath and while they were occupied with these reporters, I walked on.

I don't know if they noticed me or not. All I heard was my beating heart and the blood rushing through my veins as I passed them.

I was almost there, wasn't I?

Until I heard someone scream my name – or at least the name I had given. I groaned but didn't look back.

"Kat, stop!"

I threw the hood back and ran as fast as I could.

Just a few seconds into my escape on foot, I felt a tingling course through my body. It was the oddest thing I'd ever felt. The hair on my body stood on end and for a moment, I felt completely disoriented.

And then sounds assaulted my ears that hadn't been there before.

One moment I was on this bridge away from the temple, the next I'm standing in the middle of a mob of angry looking people.

I glanced over my shoulder with a deep frown marring my face.

There was a forcefield of some sort reaching up into the sky, completely enveloping the temple. And from outside, the temple looked marvelous. A glass pyramid gleaming in the sun, a status symbol of power and might. At least it seemed so to me.

And at this very moment, this symbol of power was being protected by a forcefield.

It seemed, I'd made a very big mistake in leaving the confines of the field because the angry crowd of mixed species glared at me as if I were the devil himself.

"Jedi!" Someone hissed, pointing at me with hatred in black eyes. "Jedi filth!"

What. The. Hell.

I thought the Jedi were loved by all? Guess I was mistaken because it seemed like quite the opposite.

I stood there debating what to do. But that decision was made for me when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me forward, growling at me between spiky teeth that would have made T-Rex cower in fear. All I understood was the word Jedi.

"I'm not a Jedi." I stammered, ripping my arm free.

But then someone pushed me from behind. I turned around and glared. A young human woman grinned at me and shrugged. "You look like a Jedi to me with that fancy robe of yours."

"I'm not." I arched a brow at her. "Next fashion statement and all." I said.

Next thing I knew, she slugged me. Hard. I fell to the ground, people around me scattered to make enough room for a fight I knew was going to come. My jaw felt like it had snapped in two.

I got up and was instantly grateful for the martial arts classes my Dad had forced me to take when I was growing up. Some of that was still embedded into my brain and I was very glad to use it on this [insert curse words here].

I shrugged out of the robe and let it drop to the ground. With everything I'd had to go through since hitting my head on that damned lamp pole, I was more than ready to let it out with a fight, to get everything out of my system and feel alive for the first time in days.

So I proceeded in kicking the living hell out of this woman.

I had to improvise a lot, though, because she used moves on me I'd never even heard of before. I kept landing flat on my ass but I got up just in time before her foot tried to crush my brain. The witch was fast and good but I was better.

My foot connected with her face and whirled her to the ground. She lay there glaring at me with the purest hatred. "Why not cheat and use the Force, Jedi?"

"I am not a Jedi!" I yelled at her, yelled at everyone standing there really. "What the hell is your problem anyway?"

"It's you!" The woman spat. "You and your better-than-thou attitude. You're no better than any of us and yet you sit up high on your pedestal, looking down on us as though you were gods!"

Huh?

I was amazed and confused at the same time.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said in a low voice, wiping blood from the side of my mouth. I was going to hurt for the next two weeks, honestly.

The woman got up and stood to face me. She was my height with long red hair and fiery dark eyes. If she had passed me on the street, I would have crossed to the other side she seemed so vile and evil.

"It's not wise to be coming out here alone." She said with a grin.

I felt a sudden pain in my side – it hurt like a beep. I looked down towards the stinging hurt and the first thing I noticed was a blood stain that grew larger with each passing second. The woman held a dagger in her hand, coated with my blood and she laughed at me. "Use your healing techniques and you might live."

"I'm not a Jedi." I breathed between clenched teeth, holding my hands to my bleeding side. I'd never felt this sort of pain before. Although it hurt, it felt numb as well. I could feel and yet I couldn't.

"Poison." The woman laughed at my quizzical look. "At least I got one of you filthy rotten Jedi scumbags."

Tears blurred my sight as I felt my legs buckle. "But I'm not a Jedi." I whispered for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Someone grabbed me from behind suddenly, warm arms encircling my shoulders as coldness crept through me.

"Back off." A dark voice growled and then I heard yet another chorus of shouts and yells, insults towards the Jedi and their kin. I had never witnessed a group bent on hatred like this before, a group that wanted death and revenge.

I didn't understand any of it.

I'd made one hell of a mistake trying to make a run for it.

I blacked out shortly after. Thankfully, the pain was gone but in its place there was cold fear.

My second escape plan failed.

There wouldn't be a third.