Sunset is upon us and Bazil is missing... or rather we fell behind and maybe we're missing. "I don't see him." A Jedi I don't recognize speaks out from the boulder he stands on surveying the clearing ahead. 

"What?" Yord replies annoyed. 

"Bazil." 

"Great, he's vanished again." Yord sighs and continues forward knowing what we all know. We can't go back empty handed. We either find Kelnacca or Osha's sister. Hopefully Osha's sister near a still alive and well Kelnacca. "I swear, we need a tracker just to track our tracker." Yord pauses, allowing those bringing up the rear to catch up. 

Looking around I spot Master Sol and Master Dawntuli walking away beneath a tree as does Yord. "Sol!" Yord jogs to catch up, as do the rest of us, not wanting to become separate from the group. "We've lost Baz-"

A woman's scream interrupts and I dart my head to the sound, but I can't see through the greenery I once admired. I look around the group and don't recall if anyone is missing besides Bazil. "Help!" The voice calls out in a loud plea. 

Springing into action we all begin running towards the voice. 

A secondary voice joins with a yelp and I stop in my track, getting knocked to the ground by Osha. We glance at each other as we lay on the ground for a split second then she quickly regains her footing. "Mae." She says just above a whisper then continues through the leafy terrain after the others. 

It can't be, it couldn't. I sit alone on the forest floor, shifting onto my knees. It sounded familiar, close even, but pitched. As if Qimir was mocking me when I screamed in fright once. 

"Qimir?" I whisper to myself. Should I yell to him? Is it even him? If I call to him and it's not him, my Master will surely know I haven't moved on and have been keeping my emotions bottled inside for years. I would be dismissed from the Order. Left to lose my powers and turn to a life of struggle. Who knows what Osha has done since the Order. She looks well, sure, but what has she had to endure. 

I shake my head and pull myself to my feet. I need to see who the voice belongs to, I need to know if it's somehow Qimir. I also need to figure out what I'm going to do if it is. But that's an issue for later, that doesn't matter now. What matters is getting to the voices not belonging to our current travel party. 

I run as fast as my feet carry me, quickly catching up to Jedi who pause at a clearing. 

"She couldn't have gotten far." Jecki speaks up and Sol steps forward to continue the search. "Where could she be?" She turns to Yord, who looks ahead at whatever Sol could be looking at. 

"I don't know." He replies and surveys the surrounding trees.

"Where is Bazil?" Jecki continues with her young minded questioning. 

"I don't know, Padawan." Yord sighs annoyed at her. Jecki narrows her eyes at him, but he ignores her. 

Jedi begin to search once more at a leisurely pace and I distance myself off to the side focused on my own selfish, yet related, mission. Who was the second voice?

Osha seemed sure the first voice was Mae, I'm guessing her sister. So who would be with her? Would Qimir be assisting the girl we are after for killing Jedi Masters? Maybe he doesn't know... but what if he does... 

That doesn't matter, I shake the uncertainty from my mind, taking a deep breath to steady myself.

Yord looks over at me with eyes narrowed, as if to question what's got me distracted. I mentally change the force aura around me to be as blank as possible. Years of having to put on a mask and become a stranger have taught me how to disguise myself into a blank, emotionless person. The harder I am to read, the better. My secrets are mine and mine alone. 

Bazil screeches out and I look away from Yord towards the sound. "He's found Mae!" Yord announces.

"Go, go, go." Jecki urges the Jedi forward together. 

"Osha, stay behind us." Yord points a finger of dominance at her. 

"I'll stay with her." I take my place at her side and the three of us nod in a silent agreement. 

We trail behind the line of Jedi, but I make sure to keep Osha ahead of me.

We finally find Master Kelnacca's residence as the orange sunset fades away, leaving little light from the rising moon as it climbs to break through the foresty jungle terrain. 

"Master Kelnacca!" Jecki calls out once outside the assumed home as the fencing lights flick on.  The Jedi forming a wall looking into the home for any signs of life.

"Osha." I warn with a hand on her shoulder to stay back. 

"In the name of the Galactic Republic, and the Order of the Jedi, anyone inside that domicile should come out with your hands where we can see them." One of the men announce. 

I sense something familiar, yet strange. I turn putting my right hand around Osha's left wrist, so that nothing can come between us as we stand back to back.

"That means you, Mae Aniseya!" Yord calls for her to come out and when I'm about to turn back I notice a dark shift, a smooth movement, as darkness descends before my eyes. 

A figure cloaked in black covered with a helmet floating down yards ahead of me. I release Osha's wrist and take a cautious step forward as they land. Letting my force aura show my true intention of no harm and curiosity, I show my empty hands. 

I would risk everything to know, being expelled from the Jedi Order is the least of my worries, nothing matters except knowing who is behind that mask.

I tilt my head with curiosity and hope. "Is it you?" I whisper as my heart clenches needing to know the truth. 

"Run, Y/N." The figure raises a hand, but my feet stand still in awe of how they know my name. "Run."

It can't be... I must know..."Qi-" With a twist of the stranger's wrist I hurl forward past them, tumbling about the blurry ground as it rushes past. 

My body does a final flop as I slide face down in the dirt, the ground slowly fading to black, while my head pounds. 

A/N: Hi... Hello. (Yes that's a Qimir reference) Thank you to those reading and keeping up with the updates as they come out, I appreciate you. Years ago when I would write during college I would update about every other day and my goal was to have 1,000 words per chapter. Now I feel like it's worth it to have longer chapters and be spread out a bit more. However the first handful of chapters will range between 1,000-2,000 words. Hang in there and I promise I'll try to have longer chapters that aren't just full of fluff.