It was cold. So so cold. She was lying on something hard, with something soft underneath her head. But whatever hard ground she was lying on still pressed through the softness and into her skull and something hard and cool pressed into her neck. Her head… it was still aching behind her forehead. Her blood was rushing in her ears still and it made her wince instinctively. She tried wiggling a finger. The tendons in her wrist strained against something metallic wrapped tightly around them, digging uncomfortably into the bone. Cuffs? Why?

Then it all came crashing down on her, squeezing the air out of her lungs. She had been caught by Boba Fett and was somewhere dry. A small mercy? Her ears finally cleared and she could hear the humming of a machine and… was that the pitter-patter of rain? It sounded removed, like drumming onto stone. Where was she? Where was Boba?

A groan escaped her involuntarily and she could hear shuffling to her right now. It sounded like armor scraping against stone approaching her. She braced herself for sensing the same electrical charges in the air accumulating around her that preceded his presence. Squeezing her eyes shut more tightly, she waited for it. And waited.

Nothing. What was going on? Why wasn't she sensing him? Digging deep within herself she tried to feel what she really cannot ever pin down when it happened. A void was all she felt. Was she without the Force? Her mind started spiraling down and her lungs crushed underneath an invisible weight as she struggled to breathe. Where was her connection?! Where was it?! Feverishly she tried to connect with the energy around her, the missing sense making itself more known than before. Her limbs were still too weak to move, otherwise she was sure they'd be flailing around and she'd be tearing at herself now. All she wanted was her connection back!

Ugh, her head! The pain was sharper and more pronounced now, digging deeper into her brain. Wincing she refused to open her eyes still. If she did it meant admitting she was without something so integral to her being that she'd rather die right now. It was as if a hole was opening in her chest waiting to consume her fully. Right now she was willing to die, anything was better than … this!

A cold hand clamped down on her shoulder, grounding her to something. She could feel the armor through her clothes, pressing down into her bones. Her eyes flew open in surprise and she stared into a human face. Boba Fett's face. Frowning she took him in. Where was his signature helmet? This did not look like the monster that melted another person! Now her body was trembling uncontrollably, as everything froze inside of her. She could not discern his expression. There was barely any emotion displayed in it and without the Force she could not even have that tiny advantage.

"Calm down," it was deep and vibrated through her and she could feel herself relax instinctively. Was this why people were in awe of him? Of his sheer presence? No, she could not let her guard down in front of him. Not ever! The trembling progressed into shaking now, her poor teeth chattering against each other again.

He sighed when he noticed it was not working.

"I will sedate you the entire way if I have to." Why wasn't he already doing that? She wanted to scream at him, claw at him.

"What…" she had to lick her lips, feeling how cracked it was from dehydration, "did…" she had to draw a labored breath "did you do to me?" Her voice cracked towards the end and she hated how weak she sounded. In front of the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. It was embarrassing.

"I see you never heard of the force restraint collars," he sounded amused now, his lips curling into a smirk. But for her the wall could have crashed around them. She would not have cared. He took the Force from her. Temporarily, but he still did it. How tempting it was to rip into him, claws and teeth. No, she must not think that. Then again, how long ago has she ever lived by the principles drilled into her mind as a child? The burnt body of Erana appeared in her mind, the charcoal skin still blistering in her ears. He was ruthless. All she could hope was for small mercies and that might be too much to hope for.

"I am no Jedi," she rasped out in desperation. He was after a jedi? Tough luck, she hadn't been one ever. Not trained enough in the Force to be of any threat. His eyebrows shot up and he looked like he was biting down laughter at that point.

"What you did with Erana was something completely different, eh?" he mocked her now. He had seen! Somehow she was not really surprised. Of course he did. Why in the galaxy would he not? Then… wait… he knew the bounty hunter's name. Confused she frowned up to him. Was she being idiotic and not realizing that most bounty hunters knew the others' names? Or was she overthinking everything again? If she could just… She cringed when her mind drifted to the lack of the Force again.

"I…" she was at a loss for words now. Normally she had no problems firing back at rowdy patients, but this? No chance.

"Don't bother lying. It will not win you any favours."

"I do not know," it was the truth. He could chew on it for all she cared. If his eyebrows could have gone any higher, she was sure his would have disappeared into the hairline now.

"You sure seemed to know what you were doing. The collar stays on," he dismissed her casually. Hand withdrawing from her shoulder, but the feeling of being grounded remained. Small mercies, she had to remind herself.

Something suddenly dangled in front of her nose. A chain with a small crystal attached to it, a lightsaber crystal. From the Jedi who had rescued her all those years ago. Her only reminder of happier times now a screaming taunt in her face.

"Peculiar how someone who claims to be not a Jedi has one of these. Especially if it is not on the black market," his grin that bared teeth made her shiver in fear. She had doomed herself by keeping onto sentimentalities.

"It was stupid of you to keep it," he continued making the chain disappear into his armour. The last piece of her childhood. Gone and she felt it as keenly as the void the Force had left inside of her. He was on his knees now, hands around her chest as he shifted her onto her side. Her head rolled over and she came to view with darkened walls.

Then he was gone from her field of vision and she finally saw the ceiling above her. Wherever they were it had high ceilings and from the darkness she could only tell it was a brownish colour? How late was it?

Lightning briefly illuminated the ceiling and the intricate pattern of a window panel was plastered on the ceiling in shades of green, blue and purple. She had seen them before. They were still on Teth. In one of its temples. Thunder crashed through the silence and she squeezed her eyes shut as her ears rang. So the thunderstorm was still raging and they hadn't left the planet yet. Hadn't there been the first raindrops when she got caught? He probably would have taken her to the nearest one. The one she had to several times with some childhood friends from town. They all had left. None remained. Now she was forced to leave. Not fair!

Really… crying like a child was going to help her sooo much right now….

But she couldn't help it, tears were in her eyes and she could not lift her hands to wipe them away. The sedative must still be in her system. And she really did not know where Boba was. Everything was silent except the rain hitting the window panels outside.

Hang on…. She knew this temple. The crack in the ceiling she had seen briefly! Eyes wide now, tears completely forgotten now, her mind started racing. If she could crawl away, there was a niche somewhere she could hide in long enough to… To do what? Wait until he finds her again? She was bound. Her hands, no Force and… she tried to wiggle her toes, her feet as well. There was no way she could climb the steep path down to the valley and get to the town unscathed. It was a public path. Too obvious and she'd be crawling through mud and puddles. Easy to suffocate with the thunderstorms. It was hopeless.

The sound of armoured boots approaching echoed around her again. This time she was prepared for the hands when they touched her. Though, she was not prepared for them to go underneath her arm pits and lifting her upper body up. Her neck couldn't support her head still and it rolled back, making her stare right into Boba's chest plate. She could feel herself being moved, her legs scraping along the floor and a clinking of chains. Chains? She was lowered again, her head resting against the hard floor. There was a small wooden box to her left and some greyish light trickled in from above her. Was she below the window panel? Probably.

He shifted to her side and she felt her arms being lifted and the chains rattled again. Metal clinked on metal and something heavy and cold settled on her stomach and legs. So he had bound her something. What was going on? He didn't even spare her a glance when he was done and was as swiftly gone as he had re-entered her field of vision. The sound of boots hitting the floor retreated swiftly, leaving the echo as her only companion for a minute. With a deep breath, she rolled her head to the side, facing away from the window side. There was a survival heater not far away from her. At least they wouldn't freeze… A backpack leaned against a stone bench with a cloak hanging across it. It looked like green fabric.

She had to frown. What else was in the room? It was so dark outside of the light of the heater that she could not see. If she remembered correctly then the sleeping rooms were not too far away from here. Why had he not gone there? Where had he gone?

Slowly she rolled herself onto her side, her wrists suddenly straining against the metal around them. Had he seriously bound her so tightly? She tried to move her feet and… she couldn't. The chain was too short probably. Why? Why couldn't he just slip up for once?! Just this one time so she could flee and return to her life?

Stupid, stupid, stupid! As if that ever worked! As if he wasn't the most notorious bounty hunter in the galaxy for nothing. She really should stop thinking of false hopes. Right now she could not escape. No Force, no food, no shelter. Nothing! She was as dead with him as she was alone out there.

With a sob she turned herself on her back again to stare at the ceiling. Why couldn't she have been born without the Force?

She could hear hurried boots on the ground. From the sound it was probably Boba. But she really couldn't be too sure. It wasn't as if it changed anything…

He was back over her. Though this time his helmet was back on. Her gut sank. There was trouble. Maybe? Probably if he saw the need to put his helmet on. She could feel the weight disappearing from her stomach, metal clinking as the chains were moved. Were they moving?

"What is going on?" She blurted out before she could bite her tongue.

No response. Frowning, she bit her tongue this time. No reaction. The tension on her feet vanished and almost immediately he had arms underneath her armpits again, yanking her up. Her head jerked up making her wince when the pain that had dulled flared up again. Arms were around her waist and she could feel herself being hoisted up without much effort. Her face was thrown over his shoulder and she could see the window panel now. The rain was still dense and she could see the occasional flashes in the distance. From what she heard in the cantina when she bothered going, the storms made it impossible to leave the planet's atmosphere. Something about the upper layer being too charged for any system to function properly. Where could they go?

An arm secure below her behind, she could feel them moving now. Tentatively she laid her cheek against the hard shell of his jetpack. The rocket that stuck out painfully close to her nose. Something clinked and three beeps made her shiver. A bomb? He was expecting trouble. Hopefully he won't blow off her face….

They were in a narrow corridor now. The light from the heating unit gone and she could not see anything in front of her. Silence weighed heavily on her ears, except the steady rhythm of his boots' echoes. If she remembered it correctly, they were going deeper into the temple now. The echoes grew deeper suddenly. Were they in the throne room now? It sounded like they were. Where were they going? To his ship?

She was shifted, her head slid off his jetpack and her nose dug into his cape. The rough cloth scratching at her skin. Her weight shifted, her legs being shifted making her upper body slide down. Now her face was against his shoulder, one of his arms underneath hers and another underneath her knees. He bent at the knees and she could feel the small tremours coming from the jetpack. They were propelled upwards. Instinctively she squeezed her eyes shut. He was going up to the roof and its sprawling system of beams connecting the pillars. The beams in her memory were big enough to accommodate two people standing shoulder to shoulder. Her stomach flew into her throat when Boba lowered them onto something which sounded like stone. Yep, definitely the beams. She was unceremoniously dropped, her shoulder bone digging painfully into the stone. A hiss stopped in her throat when she heard the echoes of boots. From down below and it sounded like more than one person coming.

Something clicked. A rifle? She could not see!

Then silence fell over them again, even she did not dare to make a noise. Why couldn't she have a quiet and calm life? Was this some joke that the Force was playing on her? If she could just roll off the edge, she'd finally be… Her stomach churned as she thought of the plunge. It would be her death. Though, it was a mercy now to die. Why couldn't she bring herself to roll off the edge? Something was stopping her. As if she deep down really didn't want to die. All she had to do was roll around and it would all be over. Her heart seized at the thought again. She couldn't do it. Coward…

The echoes of the approaching boots got louder and she closed her eyes again. Not that it changed much in her perception. Maybe this was just a bad dream… She'd wake up in the morning on her first day off in weeks realizing she had fallen asleep on her couch with the holo-projector playing some early morning drama series. There'd the happy yells of children down on the street and just the general hustle of her town in the mornings.

Boba shifted near her and she got ripped from her wishful thinking. Her heart dropped into her gut and her nose suddenly felt stuffy. It was no dream. So stupid of her to even entertain such an idea. She was never that lucky.

Something heavy settled on her shoulders as she focused on Boba again. Tension in the air, thick enough to cut through it. The echo of the boots had slowed down slightly, but were still drawing closer. Blood could be heard rushing in her ears. He was going to shoot them. And they would never see it coming.

A flash of red flared up suddenly. Shooting sharply down, she almost thought it was her imagination playing tricks on her. A metallic thud, the echoes stopped. Everything was so dark and silent again. Her heart wanted to jump out of her ribcage, so hard it was beating she had to bite her lip. Hopefully no one heard her heart… Oh stop it, no one can hear that! Someone just died and all she could think of was her heartbeat? It wasn't as if she hadn't seen people dying on the surgery table… This was different!

Then the yells came, the cocking of blaster rifles and … she felt like she should feel something else. That damn collar. What she'd give to have her connection back.

Air whooshed past her suddenly, the sound of boots near her leaving the stone. Had he just left her? Trusting that she'd not throw herself off the beam? That was her chance!

And she still couldn't. She felt so sick even thinking off rolling over the edge. Come on, coward!

A burst of flames ripped her from her thoughts and she saw Boba hovering in the air near her, blasters aimed and after a moment's breath the fighting began. Blaster bolts flying everywhere, shouting increased and Boba flew down, disappearing from her view. The tiny illumination from his jetpack disappearing dousing her into darkness again. She tried to move her arms underneath her, the fingertips numb from the cool air. The cuffs around her wrist dug painfully into her flesh and she had to stop tugging. Had he secured her there? Without her noticing? To think she thought he didn't take any precaution after she had flung herself off a house to escape him. Stupid…

Tears were running down her face now. Why her? Why in the Force her? Another yell and suddenly her ears split in pain from an explosion rocking the chamber and her teeth chattered from how the beam shook. More than one group? How high was her bounty? Though… given how many had died already, she'd rather not know.

A cold hand suddenly clamped over her mouth, her scream effectively cut off before it the breath had reached her throat. She yanked her arms harder trying to pull her body away from whoever was over her, silencing her.

"Altharya, calm down. It's Soren. Remember me?" She shivered involuntarily when a deep voice whispered into her ear, another hand appearing on her right shoulder. Soren? Her mind froze and the shivering stopped. Soren?! The one who had made her a doll when she had just arrived on Teth all those years ago? That Soren?

"Stay still, I will get you out of here," he continued hastily and she felt herself relax almost instantaneously. Freedom? Thank the Force!

The blaster shot made her flinch away violently but she finally… finally could move her arms. Arms were around her shoulders, the hand gone from her mouth. She could feel herself being lifted up, her legs feeling weak when she finally put her weight back onto them.

"How are we getting out of here?" she dared ask, as Soren shot the cuffs around her legs and arms.

"I have learnt some tricks," she could hear the smirk in his voice even though beneath them the sounds of battle only intensified with small explosions. His arm slid down to her waist, gripping her securely.

"Just hold on and we will be out before they notice," her arms slung around his torso holding onto her own hands. She felt how he lifted the other arm and something shot forward followed by a distant thunk and they were yanked off the beam. Her feet swung freely as they were in free fall in darkness. She squeezed her eyes shut, but her body fell in an arc now. A grappling gun. Huh…. They hit the ground soon after, her knees wobbling after the initial impact and she had to hold onto Soren before she let go.

The battle was behind them, blaster fire being readily exchanged between… she could not even tell who was against whom. Only Boba was really who she was able to focus on before she was tugged away. Into the winding corridors of the temple.

AN: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review. Follow and favourite if you liked it enough :P