(Specific dialogues appear in color-coded text:  Anakin Skywalker's comments appear in yellow and  Obi-Wan Kenobi's comments appear in blue, while other character's comments appear in white.)

(An examination of the interactions between Anakin Skywalker and other individuals can be found here.)

29 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 12 years of age)

____________________

    Obi-Wan, against all his personal inclinations, had made it his duty to know the ins and outs of anything having to do with illegal racing, anywhere within a hundred kilometers of the Jedi Temple.  Anakin Skywalker, his charge, his responsibility, was one of the best Padawans in the Temple - easily fulfilling the promise sensed by Qui-Gon Jinn - but as if to compensate for this promise, to bring a kind of balance to the boy's lopsided brace of abilities, Anakin had an equal brace of faults.

    His quest for speed and victory was easily the most aggravating and dangerous.  Qui-Gon Jinn had perhaps encouraged this in the boy by allowing him to race for his own freedom, three years before, on Tatooine.

    But Qui-Gon could not justify his actions now.

____________________

    How often it had struck him that this topsy-turvy relationship with Qui-Gon had once more been neatly reversed - with Anakin!

    There were always two, Master and Padawan.  And it was sometimes said in the Temple that the best pairs were those who complemented each other.

    He had once vowed, after a particularly trying moment, that he would reward himself with a year of isolation on a desert planet, far from Coruscant and any Padawans he might be assigned, once he was free of Anakin.  But this did not stop him from carrying out his duties to the boy with an exacting passion.

____________________

    "Keep your wings up, keep them high!"

    "Why?  I cannot vault the two of us out of this mess."

    "I still have fuel!"

    "And I have almost none.  These are terrible devices, very difficult to control."

    "We can combine our fuel!"

    ...

    "I'll never be this stupid again."

    "Tell it to the Council.  I have no doubt that's where we'll both be, if we manage to accomplish six impossible things in the next two minutes."

____________________

    The boy's eyes widened in realization.  He stared at Obi-Wan.  "Master, I realize my error!"

    Thracia pressed her lips together and turned to Obi-Wan.  Obi-Wan folded his arms.  He and Anakin might have been brothers, separated by only a double handful of years, yet Obi-Wan was the closest thing the boy could ever have to a father.  "Yes?"

    "I sought out personal peace and satisfaction in the pit race, rather than thinking of the greater goals of the Jedi."

    "And?" Obi-Wan encouraged.

    "I mean, I know it was wrong to sneak out of the Temple, to mislead my Master, to engage in illegal activity that could have brought disrepute on the Order -"

    "A long list," Mace Windu said.

    "But... I pursued personal goals even after it should have been obvious to me that the Temple was being threatened."

    "Very serious, indeed," Thracia murmured.  She took Anakin by the shoulders, then glanced at Obi-Wan to see if she could intervene.  He assented, though with some misgivings.  Thracia was renowned for training female Jedi, not for preparing young males.

    "Anakin, your powers, someday, could surpass those of anyone in this room.  But what happens when you push something harder?"

    "It moves faster," Anakin said.

    She nodded.  "You are propelled by an inheritance few can understand."  Thracia dropped her hands from his shoulders.  "Obi-Wan?"

    "Moving faster gives you little time to think," Obi-Wan continued where she had left off.  "You must temper your passions, but be less concerned, for now, with being free from your pain.  Youth is a time of uncertainty and unrest."

    "Couldn't have put it better myself," Thracia said.  "Anakin, be a child.  Revel in it.  Test your limits.  Irritate and provoke.  It is your way.  Time enough for wisdom when you've worn more holes in your shoes.  Run your master ragged!  It'll be good for him.  It'll remind him of when he was a boy.  And... tell us what you need, now, to go where you must finally go in your training."

____________________

    Perhaps what bothered Obi-Wan was that he would be entirely in charge of Anakin.  In the Temple, Anakin had been surrounded by many Jedi and Jedi auxiliaries, including the staff, who had taken some of the burden off Obi-Wan.  They had played the role of family, and Anakin had eaten up their attention.

    The truth was, Obi-Wan was not sure he was up to the task.  Obi-Wan tended to arrange his thoughts and his life in orderly rows.  Anakin Skywalker kicked those orderly rows asunder whenever he could.

____________________

    With Anakin, the boundaries between Master and apprentice were often erased.  It was all too common for him to realize he could learn from the boy.  In his weaker moments he felt that was not the proper way of things.

    But there it was.

    The danger - and it was a real danger - was that Anakin could not and did not exercise a proper control over his talents, his brilliance, his power.  He was, most of the time, just a boy on the edge of manhood, and liable to all the mistakes one would normally expect.

    It had not happened yet, but Obi-Wan was certain that someday soon the danger would come not from the boyish energy and adventurous hijinks, but from a misapplication of the Force.

    Perhaps that was what caused him the unease.

    Perhaps not.

____________________

    "You look thoughtful."

    "I'm allowed to, aren't I?" Anakin asked.

    "As long as you don't brood," Obi-Wan said.  The look on his Master's face was both irritated and concerned.  Anakin suddenly jumped out of his chair and hugged his Master with a fierceness that took Obi-Wan by surprise.

    Obi-Wan held the boy gently and let the moment flow into its own shape.  Some Padawans were like quiet pools, their minds like simple texts.  Only in training did they acquire depth and complexity that showed maturity.  Anakin had been a deep and complex mystery from the first day they met, and yet Obi-Wan had never felt such a strength of connection with any other being - not even Qui-Gon Jinn.

____________________

    "Peculiar customs.  They seem to prefer their clients be misinformed and kept off-balance."

    "At least they haven't checked us for weapons," Anakin said.

    "Oh, but they think they have," Obi-Wan said.

    "You did that... without my knowing?" Anakin asked.

    Obi-Wan smiled.

    "You surprise me all the time, Master," Anakin said with a touch of awe.  "But that's what an apprentice should expect from his teacher."

    Obi-Wan lifted one brow.

    "We make a great team, don't we?" the boy said with a sudden grin.  His face colored with the expectation of adventure.

    "We do," Obi-Wan agreed.

    "I'm glad you're here.  I'm glad you're my Master, Obi-Wan," Anakin said.  He gave a small shiver, then he, also, rubbed his palms on his tunic, held them out, and looked around.  Obi-Wan had learned years ago that Anakin could become both expressive and imitative whenever he felt excited or ill at ease.

____________________

    "It's out there now.  It's closing in."

    "Do you see its shape more clearly?"

    "It's a time of trial.  For me."

    "Do you fear it?" Obi-Wan asked.

    Anakin shook his head but kept staring up at the red and orange sky.  "I fear my reaction.  What if I'm not good enough?"

    "I have trust in you."

____________________

    A memory of a time before he was apprenticed to Qui-Gon.  Youth: painful, awkward, brighter than a thousand suns.  A youth filled with dreams of travel and fast ships and endless glory, an infinite futurity of challenge and mastery and, all in good time, knowledge, wisdom.

    No different from Anakin Skywalker.

    Not in anything that truly mattered.

    If only I could believe that! Obi-Wan thought.

____________________

    "He's very pretty," [Jabitha] said.  "Should we just let him sleep?  There's time."

    Anakin slept like a baby in the girl's presence.  That was significant.  Obi-Wan was well aware of the boy's frequent nightmares.  He seemed much younger, asleep.  Obi-Wan could easily bring back in memory the nine-year-old who had become his apprentice, now grown two hand spans taller - the same pleasant broad features, the nose a little larger.

    He misses the female.  Thracia Cho Leem knew that.

    Obi-Wan reached out, then hesitated.  He felt a strong urge not to wake the boy, to let him sleep like this forever, to forever anticipate a great adventure, forever dream of personal triumph and joy.  This feeling held too much sentiment and weakness to be allowed, but he allowed it nevertheless.  This must be how a father feels, looking down on his son, worried about an uncertain future, Obi-Wan thought.  I would hate to see him fail.  But I would hate far more to lose this boy.  I would almost rather freeze time here, and freeze myself with it, than face that.

____________________

    "I dreamed I was with Qui-Gon," Anakin said.  "He was teaching me something... I forgot what."  The boy smiled and stretched his arms.  "He said to tell you hello.  He said you're so hard to talk to."  Anakin ran for the ramp and stepped up onto the ledge of stone.

    Obi-Wan stood as if stunned by a blow, then set his jaw and followed his Padawan.

____________________

    Obi-Wan nodded, still flexing his fingers.  He knew that Anakin was alive, but he also knew that something significant had happened, a minor unknotting in the boy's pathway.  He could not tell if the outcome was positive or negative.

    To bring back a spiritually damaged boy of Anakin's abilities might be worse than finding him dead.  It seemed cruel, but Obi-Wan knew it was a simple truth.  Qui-Gon would have agreed.

____________________

    Obi-Wan folded his arms.  He was still chilled by the memory of the Blood Carver, the manner in which he had died.  Anakin had made his first kill in direct combat.  I know it was in self-defense.  He did it without a lightsaber, against a much stronger foe.  Why then do I feel that something went badly wrong?

____________________

    There would be many more battles for his apprentice, many more disappointments.  And many more joys.  More joys than sadnesses, Obi-Wan fervently hoped.

    This was how it was, how it felt, to have the heart of a Master.

____________________

    Obi-Wan Kenobi has his work cut out for him.  The young man, his Padawan, is growing stronger, overcoming disappointment, acquiring discipline.  But the knot in Anakin's future has not completely loosened.  The trial is not over; it may not be over for decades.

    No balance.

    No balance yet.

29 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 12 years of age)

____________________

    "Go ahead," Obi-Wan told him.  "Take some time off."

    Anakin had looked at him uncertainly, but Obi-Wan shooed him off.  It puzzled and worried Obi-Wan how much time his Padawan spent alone.  Anakin had told him that he'd had good friends on Tatooine, especially a human boy named Kitster.  He'd been at the Temple for three years now, but he hadn't made one close friend, although he was well liked and certainly got along with the other kids.

    Obi-Wan had tried to talk to him about it, but the boy would just shut down.  His eyes would turn opaque and the corners of his mouth would straighten into a thin line.  He would seem very far away.  Obi-Wan did now know how to reach him at such times, but they were infrequent and passed as quickly as a rain shower.  When they'd met, Anakin had been a warm-hearted nine-year-old boy with an open nature.  He was twelve and a half now, and the years had changed him.  He had grown to be a boy who hid is heart.

____________________

    "I thought you wanted to swim," Obi-Wan said.

    That shuttered look came over Anakin's face.  "I had work to do," he muttered.

    Obi-Wan crouched by him.  "This isn't work, Anakin.  It's a hobby.  And if you are using it to keep distance between you and your fellow students, it's not a helpful one."

    Anakin looked up, his bright eyes keen again.

    "But I'm making things, Master!  Look, I've almost got this astromech ready for service."

    "Mechanical ability is a valuable skill," Obi-Wan said.  "That is not what I meant, and you know it."

    "They don't want me," Anakin said flatly.  He walked over and slung the legs of a protocol droid under one arm.  "I'm not like them."

    Obi-Wan couldn't argue.  Anakin was unique.  There was no question about that.  He was an exceptional student, much more in tune with the Force than others his age.  He had come late to the Temple.  It wasn't that the other students disliked him, they just didn't know what to make of him.

    When did it happen? Obi-Wan wondered again.  Why did it happen?  Was it the loss of his mother, followed so closely by the death of Qui-Gon?  Obi-Wan could not replace those people in Anakin's heart, nor did he wish to.  He had hoped that with Jedi training and their own relationship, Anakin would come to find peace.  He had not.

____________________

    Obi-Wan's gaze cleared, and he looked at Anakin with his usual keenness.  "You see why the Jedi Masters at the Temple often speak to you of anger and fear, Anakin.  They have seen what it can do.  So have I."

    "I have, too," Anakin volunteered.  "I was a slave, remember, and the son of a slave?  I was not brought up in the Temple surrounded by fountains and peace and gentleness.  I think I know better than anyone what fear and anger can do."

    Anakin's voice was suddenly harsh.  Obi-Wan paused, letting the tone remain in the air between them.  "I have not forgotten that, Anakin," he said quietly.  "Nor should you.  It is part of what shapes you.  But if that memory always brings you back to your anger, you must find a way to think of it differently."

____________________

    "I don't care what Yoda says," Anakin remarked.  "I think discovering sabotage, helping an evacuation, and guiding a crippled ship to safety counts as a mission."

    Obi-Wan smiled.  "It was a mission, Anakin."

    "Good," Anakin said with satisfaction.  "There are some things I don't understand about it, though."

    "That is usually the case after a mission."

    "How could Kad forgive his father at the end?" Anakin burst out.  "He had betrayed him.  He could have been responsible for countless deaths."

    "Yes, he did many bad things," Obi-Wan agreed.  "But he asked his son for forgiveness when he was dying.  There must have been good in him.  I think it is a mark of Kad's character that he was able to forgive his father."

    Anakin shook his head.  "I still don't understand it."

    "Would you forgive Yoda if he did something terrible?" Obi-Wan asked.

    "Yoda would never do something terrible," Anakin said firmly.

    "No, I don't think he would," Obi-Wan said.  "But you must remember always, Anakin, the strength of the Dark side."

____________________

    "It is a good ending for your first mission, Anakin.  Sometimes evil beings escape.  We do what we can."

    "But I always want to win," Anakin said.

    Obi-Wan frowned.  "Missions are not about winning and losing.  They are about leaving good behind.

____________________

    Frustration bit inside him.  Obi-Wan tried to understand him.  He loved his Master for that.  But no one could understand.  Not his fellow students at the Temple, not his teachers, not even Yoda, who seemed to understand so much.  Would he always feel apart from the others because of this backgrounf?  And would that feeling of separation mean that he would never become as great a Knight as Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan?  It was his greatest fear.

    Anakin turned back towards the shelter of the spaceport, toward friends, warmth, light, and his Master.  The future would come, he told himself.  At that moment, all he felt was grateful that he had Obi-Wan to show him the way.

29 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 12 years of age)

____________________

    The boy needed guidance, Obi-Wan knew.  A decade earlier, his own Master had skillfully led him in the right direction - away from anger and frustration.  It had kept Obi-Wan firmly on the Jedi path.  When Qui-Gon died, Obi-Wan had promised to give that guidance to Anakin.

    Obi-Wan remembered Anakin's angry outburst at Dr. Lundi when they were first on the ship.  Anger was dangerous.  Perhaps he should be warning his apprentice about the Dark side - that it was an easy path to power, but also to self-destruction.

    The problem was, he did not know how to put the words together.  He did not know what exactly to say.  And whenever he offered Anakin this kind of guidance, the boy brushed it aside.  It was almost as if Anakin thought that the things Obi-Wan was trying to warn him about did not apply to him.

    With a sigh, Obi-Wan wished that Qui-Gon were still alive.  He would know just what to say, what to do.  He would be able to get through to Anakin.

____________________

    Obi-Wan rushed onto the bridge, eager to see his Padawan.  But what he saw from the doorway was so surprising it stopped him in his tracks.

    The professor's cage was empty and its door was hung open.  Anakin sat on the floor.  He was cradling Lundi in his lap.

    "I understand now," Lundi said in a hoarse whisper.  "Some things are better left at the bottom of the sea."

    Lundi gasped for air, and Obi-Wan suddenly realized that the Quermian was dying.  He stepped forward and looked briefly into his eye.  He finally saw what he'd always hoped he's see - remorse and fear.

    "I just... just hope it's not too late," Lundi finished.  His fragile body shuddered and went limp, and Anakin laid him gently on the floor.  Dr. Murk Lundi was dead.

    Several emotions clashed inside Obi-Wan.  Confusion, frustration, relief...

    Anakin turned to face him.  "I knew he was going to die," he explained.  "And I didn't think he should end his life in a cage.  So I let him out.  I thought it was the right thing to do."  His face was full of worry, and Obi-Wan realized that he had probably upset the boy with his outburst on Kodai.

    "It's all right, Padawan," Obi-Wan said, placing a hand on Anakin's shoulder.  He had much to learn as a Jedi Master, he realized.  And it had taken him and Qui-Gon years of working together to develop their strong ties of trust.  Those ties would develop for him and Anakin as well, in time.  As for Lundi, it didn't matter now.  The Quermian and his evil were gone.

    Obi-Wan saw relief wash over Anakin's young face.  "I'm sorry about the hologram message," he said.  "I didn't mean to keep it from you, I just -"

    Obi-Wan nodded.  "I know," he said.  "I should not have reacted so strongly.  Next time, we will do better."

28 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 13 years of age)

____________________

    In his short time at the Temple, Anakin's progress had been astonishing.  By everything that was measurable, he exceeded expectations.  He was at the top of his class in lightsaber training, piloting, memory skills, and the most important goal of all - connection to the Force.

    Yet it was exactly his quick progress that gave Obi-Wan pause.  Things came too easily to him.  There was a danger of recklessness and arrogance inherent in his power.  Anakin had a tendency to take matters into his own hands.  He could be impetuous and make his own way, disregarding advice.

    Just as Obi-Wan once did.  Just as Qui-Gon once did.  That was what Obi-Wan always came back to.  He had made grave mistakes at Anakin's age.  He wanted to allow Anakin the freedom to do the same.

____________________

    Obi-Wan nodded.  There was something about this boy that wound around his heart.  During the course of their missions together he had seen firsthand Anakin's impulsive generosity, his loyalty, his thirst to learn.

    Remember, Padawan, that most beings are essentially unknowable.  There are mysteries at the heart that can surprise even those who think they know themselves.

____________________

    Obi-Wan put a hand on his sleeve.  "Remember your training, Anakin," he said.  "Let your fear enter you.  Do not battle it.  There is no shame in it.  Your feelings are your strength.  Experience them and let them go as you proceed toward your goal.  There are lessons to be learned from fear and anger.  Face those lessons and move on with calm and justice."

    "I know all these things," Anakin said, a trace of impatience in his voice.

    "No," Obi-Wan said softly, "you do not.  But you will."

____________________

    "With all respect to the Council and the Senate," Obi-Wan said, "I am not certain that we are the correct team for this assignment."

    Anakin could not resist an incredulous look at his Master.  What was Obi-Wan doing?  They were the perfect team for this assignment!

    "The Council might recall that Anakin was once a slave himself," Obi-Wan continued.  "He is sensitive to this issue.  And as a young Padawan -"

    "I am not too young!" Anakin broke in.  "And I'm not too sensitive!"

____________________

    At the end of the corridor, Obi-Wan sensed that Anakin was not behind him.  He turned.  "What is it?"

    "I can't leave."  Anakin shook his head firmly.  "We aren't finished.  We have to destroy Krayn."

    "That is not our mission, Anakin -"

    Grimly, Anakin turned away.  "It's mine."

    He turned in the opposite direction from Obi-Wan and began to run.

    Shocked, Obi-Wan couldn't move for a moment.  Anakin had caught him completely off balance.  He hadn't seen this coming.

    He should have.

____________________

    "Anakin, I have no time to argue with you.  We must go."

    "There are patrols everywhere.  I can't find Krayn."

    "Our best chance to destroy this operation is to leave this ship at once."

    "But he's here, now!  We can destroy him."

    "Marking a being for death is not the Jedi way."

    "Even when that being enslaves others, kills them as if they were nothing, imprisons them against their will?  I heard the slaves beg you to help them.  I saw you turn your back on them.  How can you abandon them to such misery?  Every day for a slave is another chance to die.  Killing Krayn will free them.  How can you do this?"

    "Anakin, you must be logical.  How can I help them?  If we want to bring down Krayn's empire, we must have a plan.  We can't just sneak aboard his ship and hope to run into him."

    "It seems as good a plan as any."

    "It's not.  And it could result in our deaths of many.  If one miscalculation or mistake on our part occurs, Krayn will take his revenge on those he controls - the slaves.  Our best plan is to leave now and get the Council to pledge their resources to bring down Krayn.  There will be no more arguments here.  Time is running out.  Guards are most likely searching for us now, and I don't think the Colicoids will wait for our return much longer.  Now come.  You must understand that this is the best way."

    "You're the one who doesn't understand!"

    Obi-Wan was startled at Anakin's vehemence, but he kept his gaze on him, willing him to obey.

    Anakin hesitated.  He cast his eyes down sullenly.  He would not disobey a direct order.  Reluctantly, he nodded.  Obi-Wan could tell that fury and frustration boiled within him.

    They would need time to sort this out.

____________________

    Obi-Wan studied his face.  It was so boyish and open.  The glimpse he had seen of something dark, something feral, in the fight with Krayn was fading.  The boy he knew had taken its place.  Anakin had explained that Krayn still held a blaster.  His life had been in danger.  He had not violated the Jedi code by killing him.

    Yet Obi-Wan still felt doubts.  Doubts he could not share.

____________________

    What was making him so uneasy?

    Was it the memory of what he's seen on Anakin's face in the battle with Krayn?  His Padawan had been in the heart of battle and afraid for his life.  He felt that Krayn was about to shoot.  He had every reason to kill him.  He had not killed him out of anger and revenge.

    Yet when Anakin had turned to face him fully, his expression had been so empty.  His gaze held neither triumph nor distress.  Only blankness.

____________________

    I will not abandon him, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan privately vowed.  I see what you see.  I see how he struggles.  I see his immense capacity for good.

27 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 14 years of age)

____________________

    C'baoth shifted his attention to the young teen standing at Kenobi's side, and a slight smile finally touched the corners of his lips.  "Master Skywalker, isn't it?" he said in a friendlier tone.

    "Yes, Master C'baoth," Anakin said, and Lorana couldn't help but smile herself at the earnest gravity in the boy's voice.  "It's an honor to see you again."

    "As it is likewise an honor for me to meet once more with such a promising Padawan," C'baoth replied.  "Tell me, how goes your training?"

    Anakin glared at Kenobi.  "There's always more to learn, of course," he said.  "I can only hope my progress is satisfactory."

    "His progress is more than satisfactory," Kenobi put in.  "At this rate, he'll be a full Jedi before he's twenty."

    Lorana winced.  She herself was already twenty-two, and C'baoth had made no mention of recommending her for Jedi Knighthood anytime soon.  Was Anakin that much stronger in the Force that she was?

    "And yet he began his training so much later than usual," C'baoth pointed out, smiling almost fondly at the boy.  "That makes his development even more impressive."

    "Indeed," Kenobi said.  "In hindsight, I think it's clear that the Council made the right decision in permitting me to train him."

____________________

    With a sigh, Obi-Wan shut off his comlink and slipped it back into his belt.  "Still nothing?" Anakin asked.

    "No," Obi-Wan said, throwing a look at the darkening sky.  The stars were starting to appear, and all around them house lights were coming on as families settled in for the evening.

    Anakin muttered something under his breath.  "We should have tried calling her earlier."

    "We did try calling her earlier," Obi-Wan told him.  "You were just too busy playing with Duefgrin's swoop to notice."

    "Excuse me, Master, but I was working, not playing," Anakin said stiffly.  "The Brolf we're looking for is named Jhompfi, he lives in the Covered Brush house ring, and he's supposedly using the burst thrusters on a speeder bike he uses to smuggle rissle sticks out to the Karfs."

    Obi-Wan stared at his Padawan.  "When did you get all that?"

    "When you were wandering around the neighborhood looking for clues," Anakin said.  It was hard to sound hurt and smug at the same time, but the boy managed to pull it off.  "Those were the only times he'd talk to me."  He wrinkled his nose.  "I don't think he trusts grown-ups very much."

    "You should have said something the minute you had that information," Obi-Wan said tartly, slipping the guide card into his datapad and keying for a house ring search.  "Or hadn't it occurred to you that Lorana might be in trouble?"

    "No, but it occurred to me that if we left too suddenly, Duefgrin might have called Jhompfi and warned him," Anakin retorted.

    "Mind your place, Padawan," Obi-Wan warned the boy.  It was a warning he seemed to be delivering more and more often these days.

    Anakin gave a theatrical sigh.  "My apologies, Master."

27 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 14 years of age)

____________________

    Obi-Wan watched Anakin's progress with an eye that was both loving and careful.  In one hand he held Qui-Gon's faith; in the other he held Yoda's caution.  There were times it was hard to balance these two powerful influences.

    On the morning of Anakin's thirteenth birthday, Obi-Wan had presented him with his Padawan gift.  It was the gift that Qui-Gon had given Obi-Wan on his own thirteenth birthday, a Force-sensitive river stone.  Obi-Wan was ashamed to remember how he'd been disappointed by the gift.  He had been so young.  He had wanted something significant, something like the gifts other Padawans had received - special hilts for their lightsabers or cloaks made from the lightweight, warm wool from the planet Pasmin.  Instead, Qui-Gon had given him a rock.

    Yet that present had turned into his most valued possession.  The smooth black stone glowed with heat against his heart.  It had warmed his cold hands on many planets.  It had nestled inside a tiny pocket his friend Bant had swen in his tunic, close to his heart.

    It was hard to give up.  But somehow he knew Qui-Gon would want him to.

    Unlike Obi-Wan's first reaction, Anakin's face showed deep appreciation.  Then his expression clouded.  "Are you sure?" he asked.  "This was given to you by Qui-Gon."

    "He would want you to have it, as I do.  It is my most treasured possession."  Obi-Wan reached out and closed Anakin's fingers over the stone.  "I hope it will be with you always to remind you of Qui-Gon and me, of our deep regard for you."

    Anakin's smile lit his face.  "I'll treasure it.  Thank you, Master."

    In many ways, Anakin was more openhearted, more generous than he had once been, Obi-Wan thought.  Though there was a great weight on Anakin due to the prophecy, he was sure that Anakin would do well.

    Now Anakin was fourteen.  He was an able Padawan who had already proven himself on several important missions.  Yet there was one thing that nagged Obi-Wan.  Anakin was liked by other students, but he had no close friends.  He was not loved.

    Obi-Wan told himself that Anakin's gifts naturally set him apart.  But in his heart, he grieved for Anakin's loneliness.  He was happy for Anakin's skill and growing command of the Force.  But he wished a simple thing for Anakin.  It was something he could not give his Padawan.  It was not a gift he could hand over, like a well-loved river stone.  He wished for a friend.

____________________

    Obi-Wan drew Anakin aside.  "You fought well, my young Padawan," he told him.

    "Thank you, Master."

    "But you fought for yourself," Obi-Wan continued.  "First of all, you did not obey Siri's order at once.  And when Ferus stepped forward to engage the droids, he did so in the expectation that the two of you would work together.  Instead, you fought as though you were fighting alone.  You will never be a great Jedi warrior if you do not practice teamwork and dedicate yourself to the greater Jedi goal."

    It was his Master's most disapproving tone.  Anakin knew better than to try to defend himself.  Hadn't Ferus fought for himself, too?  Hadn't he stepped forward without consulting Anakin, without a word as to his intentions?  Why was Ferus right, and he wrong?

    "Yes, Master," he said.

    Obi-Wan stepped back.  He never said more than he needed to.  He never added reassurance after a correction.

____________________

    He knew what Obi-Wan would say.  It didn't matter who suggested it.  The outcome was the goal.  Resentment was ego.  He knew all this, but it did not chase the resentment away.

    You can feel the emotion, Obi-Wan would say.  Just let it go.

    Anakin gritted his teeth.  I'm trying, Master.

____________________

    So yes, I'm worried, Obi-Wan thought.  But I will only admit that to myself.  I don't worry that Anakin will fail.  Or that he will let down the Order.  But that he will try too hard.  That he will go too far.  That he will assume he can do what he cannot.

____________________

    "I am proud of you," he told him.  "Not only did you act bravely, you worked well with the other Padawans.  I heard how you collaborated on the final plan to rescue us.  You have learned a valuable Jedi lesson.  You submitted your own will to listen to others.  As a result, you gained strength."

    "I was ready to rush after you to fight the droids," Anakin admitted.  "It was Ferus who stopped me.  He was right."  He was also lucky, Anakin thought.  The plan had almost gone awry.  If Anakin had not managed to blast through the rock slide, four Jedi Masters and two Padawans would be dead.

    But no one was bringing that up.  Was Anakin the only one thinking it?

    Obi-Wan would say it did not matter.  What had happened, had happened.  Jedi did not waste their time on ifs.  

    But Anakin couldn't look at it that way.  The ifs were what intrigued him.  The spaces between the rules.

    If Ferus had been more lucky than right, had submitting his will been the right thing after all?  He knew the question was not a Jedi question.  He would not ask it of Obi-Wan.

    It was his question.  Only he could find the answer.

27 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 14 years of age)

____________________

    By midday, Anakin and Obi-Wan had to admit they were lost.  Wren's clues had grown increasingly difficult, and Anakin's cocky confidence had hardened into dogged revolution.

    Frustrated, Anakin suddenly stopped.  With one smooth motion, he swiped a rock and tossed it into the woods.  It hit a tree with a satisfying thud.

    "Feel better?" Obi-Wan asked.

    "No."

    "I didn't think so.  Frustration is part of this exercise, young Padawan."

    "I know, I know," Anakin muttered.  "Breathe in my impatience.  Then let it go."

    "Correct," Obi-Wan said serenely.  He waited a moment.  "Well?"

    "Well, what?"

    "I didn't see you breathe."  Obi-Wan knew he was straining the patience of his Padawan.  Yet these small tests were good lessons.

    Obediently, Anakin shut his eyes.  He took a breath and released it.  He opened one eye.  "Can I stop now?"

    "I suppose."  Obi-Wan grinned.  "If Wren could see you now, he'd be very happy."

    A gleam of humor lit Anakin's eyes.  "The day isn't over yet."

____________________

    "This way!" he called triumphantly.  "We'll catch him yet."

    Smiling, Obi-Wan followed Anakin through the forest.  This was what he'd hoped for.  Anakin had forgotten his impatience with the exercise and what he'd thought was his secret feeling that it was a waste of time.  He was now filled with the excitement of the chase.

    ...

    "It's a dead end," Anakin said, disappointed.  "But I was so sure Wren came this way!"

    "Hold on," Obi-Wan said.  "Look around you.  You might be missing something.  Remember your Temple exercise to explore the present moment.  Close your eyes."

    Anakin closed his eyes.  Obi-Wan waited until he was sure his Padawan had focused.  "What did you see?"

    "Bark and leaves under my feet.  Sheer wall ten meters ahead with insufficient handholds for climbing.  Small plant growing in one crevice thirty meters up.  Snow dusting at top of cliff.  Bird circling twenty degrees to my right.  At the base of the rock wall, what appears to be a small opening - a den of a small animal, or -"  Anakin's eyes popped open.  "A cave."

    Obi-Wan smiled.  He had seen the entrance to the cave minutes before.  "Let's see what it is."

    ...

    "It's not as small as it looks," Obi-Wan said.  "It could be the nest of den of an animal."

    "It looks like it opens up," Anakin said, peering inside.  "Let me go in."

    Obi-Wan hesitated.  He would rather be first.  But part of this exercise was also for the Master.  He had to learn to let go, to allow his Padawan to test his skills.  He knew Anakin was well trained and could handle what lay beyond.

    "All right, Padawan."

____________________

    "The malia den, and now this," Anakin said when he could speak.  He shook his head, sending water droplets flying.  "Did I misinterpret the clues, Master?  They seemed so clear."

    "No, I think we went the right way off the trail," Obi-Wan said.  "But we shouldn't have gone through the cavern.  Jedi clues are designed to be difficult, not life-threatening."

    Anakin flushed.  It was his fault.  In his impatience to impress his Master, he had rushed into the malia den and into the cavern.

    But Obi-Wan wouldn't say anything.  That was the trouble.  It was worse for Anakin to have to wonder what his Master was thinking.

____________________

    He could sense that his Master was uneasy.  Something was bothering him.  But Obi-Wan did not confide.

    He never does, Anakin thought.  How can we get closer if he keeps all his thoughts to himself?

    He had to speak or he would burst.  Anakin stopped and turned around.  "You never tell me what you're thinking," he said.

    Obi-Wan stopped.  "You should be careful when you use words like 'never' and 'always,' Padawan," he said.  "Things are rarely so absolute.  You should be more precise.  Clarity of mind is important for a Jedi."

    Another lesson.  Must there be so many?  "Yes, Master."  Anakin turned and continued up the mountain.  He had only gone a few meters when he realized that Obi-Wan had never addressed what he's said.

    That's because he knows it's true.  He had perfect communication with Qui-Gon, and he knows he can never achieve that with me.

    He had been right all along.  This exercise was a waste of time.

____________________

    You never tell me what you're thinking.

    Why hadn't he answered his Padawan?  Instead, he had corrected him.  Obi-Wan's mind churned, and his heart felt heavy.  He did not know why he had deflected Anakin's feelings, but he knew that he had been deeply unfair to his Padawan.

    Anakin could speak so easily of his feelings.  He often spoke without thinking, often spilled out exactly what was in his heart.  It was behavior that was not like a Jedi.

    And I correct him.  Is that right?

    Obi-Wan knew why Anakin was this way.  It was because of Shmi.  Anakin's mother had given him a great gift.  She had given him an open heart.  His feelings were deep and spontaneous.  That was a good thing.  But they sometimes led him to act too fast, to make quick judgments.

    He is the opposite of me, Obi-Wan thought.  It has always been difficult for me to speak what is in my heart.

    Anakin had been wrong to say he never told him anything.  Obi-Wan only held back what he thought Anakin did not need to know, just as Qui-Gon had done with him.  Obi-Wan had begun to suspect that Wren's clues were not right, but he felt it was better for Anakin to discover this on his own.  He could see that Anakin's eagerness to find Wren was clouding his judgment.  Perhaps Anakin was being less careful because he was not on a mission, but an exercise.

    There were things it was not proper for a Master to share with his Padawan.  Yet Anakin wanted Obi-Wan to share everything.

____________________

    Obi-Wan eyed the Tursha.  "I wish I could ask him some questions.  I'd like to know if he's operating alone."

    "We're running out of time," Anakin said.  "Floria's group is supposed to rendezvous with the space cruiser in less than an hour."

    "You are too focused on Floria's problem," Obi-Wan rebuked him.  "There is a larger issue here, and possibly more important things at stake.  What is happening on this planet?  We won't find out if we leave."

    "We have to leave," Anakin said.  "We promised Floria.'

    "We promised to help her," Obi-Wan said.  "I'm not sure what that will entail.  Not yet.  Have you given no thought to your fellow Jedi?  What if something happened to Wren?"

    "We don't know that," Anakin argued.  "And we do know that something happened to Floria's friends.  So I say we go with what we know.  Aren't I supposed to tune into my feelings?"

    An odd look passed over his Master's face.  "Your feelings are important, Padawan," he said kindly.  "And they are important to me.  But you are being swayed by emotion.  That is different from following your feelings.  You should know the difference by now.  Gather the Force around you.  See what it tells you."

    Annoyed at Obi-Wan's rebuke, Anakin turned away.

    He gazed at the trees, letting the tones of green invade him, letting the noise of the rustling leaves calm him.  He gathered in the Force.

____________________

    "It is confusing.  There seem to be several sources of darkness, and at the same time, only one."

    Obi-Wan nodded.  "That is what I sense, too."

    "But I don't get any feeling about Wren.  Perhaps he is in danger," Anakin said reluctantly.  He didn't want Obi-Wan to be right.

    "Let's go to the ship," Obi-Wan suggested.  "We'll try to raise Wren on his comlink.  Then we will make the decision about Floria."  He put his hand on Anakin's shoulder.  "Together."

    Anakin nodded.  He realized that Obi-Wan had just given him a kind of apology.  It was just like Obi-Wan to veil it in lessons.

____________________

    "You knew Floria wasn't telling the truth from the beginning, didn't you?"

    "I suspected as much," Obi-Wan admitted.  "But I had no way of knowing what she was concealing."

    "I believed her story," Anakin said, frowning.  "Why didn't the Force warn me?"

    Obi-Wan smiled.  "The Force is not a truth serum, Padawan.  The ability to read a being's true motives comes with experience and patience.  I was once bad at it.  Qui-Gon taught me how to look and listen.  Floria betrayed herself by playing on our sympathies just a bit too much."

    "And you knew they would find Teleq's ship and try to disable it."

    "Experience," Obi-Wan said.  "It tells me that beings follow their best interests.  Floria and Dane have had to fight their way through the galaxy.  They are used to looking out for themselves.  Naturally they would still try to foil another bounty hunter winning the prize."

    Obi-Wan put a hand on Anakin's shoulder.  "Do not trouble yourself, Padawan.  You have an open heart.  This is a good thing.  With time you will learn the balance you need in a galaxy where all beings do not tell the truth.  Your impulsiveness is a source of energy and power for you.  But it can lead to trouble.  You will learn to be more careful.  Sometimes, it is better to walk than run."

    "I got us into trouble with the malia, and then in the cavern,"  Anakin admitted.  "I am sorry, Master."

    "Danger finds us on every mission," Obi-Wan said.  "Let us look forward."

____________________

    Through the smoke and steam, he could see the sadness on his Master's face.  The Force was strong here.  His Master was reaching out to it and gathering it around, as though warming himself.  Obi-Wan's gaze was far away.

    "Master?  Are you alright?"

    "I am saying good-bye to a being I did not know," Obi-Wan said softly.

    The reverence in his tone surprised Anakin.  "He could have killed you."

    "Yet he did not.  There is always a need for grief when a being dies, Padawan.  Qui-Gon taught me that."

    Obi-Wan looked down into the steaming pool.  "I saw someone take his own life in a pool like this one.  It was Xanatos, Qui-Gon's greatest enemy.  A being who hated Qui-Gon and who would stop at nothing to destroy him.  Still, when he took his own life, Qui-Gon stopped to mourn his passing.  I will never forget it."

    Anakin nodded, though he did not understand.  His greatest enemy so far in his life had been a slave trafficker named Krayn.  When he had died, Anakin had not paused to mourn.  Far from it.  He had rejoiced in his death.  It could only be good for the galaxy that such a terrible being had ceased to exist.

    Something to meditate on in my next session, he thought.  I'll add it to the list.  The difference between Anakin's thoughts and Obi-Wan's lessons was sometimes more than he wanted to examine.  It was a struggle to reconcile them.

____________________

    "Young Padawan, if I can teach you one thing, it is this:  Never underestimate an enemy.  Or a friend."

____________________

    "There are beings that Jedi call voids.  At first sight they seem to give off no real energy, rather like a hologram.  But only beings with great power can project a simple blank to a Jedi.  Sometimes a void can be much more dangerous than a being who pulses with the Dark side of the Force.  They are clever and focused enough to hide their Dark side, and hide it so well they can even hide it from Jedi for a time."

    "I didn't think Jedi could be tricked that way," Anakin said.

    "Jedi can be tricked, my young Padawan," Obi-Wan said.  "They can be wrong.  They can make mistakes.  Do not forget that.  We try to minimize those things by following our feelings and connecting to the Force.  Yet we are not infalliable."

____________________

    Unspeakable scenes flashed out at him, so quickly he could not absorb them.  Murder.  Suffering.  Destruction.

    Obi-Wan shut the case.  He wiped the sweat on his brow.  No, his Padawan must not see this.

    "Master?"

    Anakin had left the ship.  He stood uncertainly a few meters away.  "Did you find something?"

    "It's nothing," Obi-Wan tucked the case inside his cloak.  "We can take it back to the Temple for examination.  Come, Padawan."

    But Anakin did not move.  "I need to know what you found.  Don't you think I can feel it, too?"

    He saw sweat on Anakin's forehead, saw the slight tremor in his knees.

    He could discuss him.  He could say, You do not need to know.

    Would Qui-Gon have told him?  Perhaps not.  His Master revealed things in their own time.

    Anakin met his gaze boldly.  He would not back down.  Obi-Wan saw that clearly.  He would not allow the moment to pass.  He would grab on to it, extend it, bend it to his will.  He would do anything to obtain what he wanted.

    He is so different from me, Obi-Wan thought again, bemused.

    If he is so different from you, why do you treat him as though he is a younger version of you?  Why do you act as you think Qui-Gon would have acted with you as his Padawan?

    The question startled him.  What was especially surprising was that he did not hear Qui-Gon's voice asking it.  He heard his own.

    Maybe it was time he stopped trying to be the Master Qui-Gon was.  It was time to claim the role for himself.

    "It is a Sith artifact," he told Anakin.

    His Padawan swallowed.  "I thought so."

____________________

    "I owe you an apology, Padawan."

    "For what, Master?"

    "You said I never share my thoughts.  Instead of answering, I corrected you."  Obi-Wan stared down into his juice.  "It is not easy for me to share my thoughts, or my feelings.  And sometimes it is necessary that I do not.  When I was your age, I felt the same as you do.  I thought Master and Padawan had to share everything.'

    "Don't they?"

    "No," Obi-Wan said.  "Their are times when you do not need to know what I am thinking.  You must trust that I know best."

    Anakin shook his head.  "That's hard for me.  I want to know everything."

    "That is a quality I treasure in you," Obi-Wan said.  "But it is also a quality you must learn to control."  He gave Anakin a significant look.  "There are things you keep from me, too."

    "Not so!" Anakin protested.

    "Midnight raids on junk heaps below the surface of Coruscant... a plan to build your own power converter..."

    Anakin grinned.  "Caught."  He was starting to feel better.

    He had worried that Obi-Wan did not have room for him in his heart.  But Shmi's smile rose in Anakin's mind.  Hearts have infinite room, my son.

____________________

    "I think I know what you're thinking," Obi-Wan said, noting Anakin's sigh.  "It was not the training mission I thought it would be, either.  I thought I had things to teach you.  Instead, you taught me."

    "I taught you?"  Anakin was surprised.  "What?"

    "That I am not Qui-Gon," Obi-Wan said.  "And you are not me.  Simple as that."

    "Simple is sometimes best," Anakin said, repeating Obi-Wan's words.

    "We are on a journey together, Padawan."  Obi-Wan clicked his glass against Anakin's.  "We will forge our own path.  Let us drink to that."

27 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 14 years of age)

____________________

    Fourteen-year-old Anakin Skywalker swerved the Galan starfighter to avoid a cruiser trying to cut in the line waiting to land.  "Watch it, you gravel-maggot!" he yelled, even though he knew the pilot couldn't hear him.

    Beside him, his Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, cleared his throat.

    "I know, I know," Anakin said.  "Feel my anger, and let it go.  But do I have to be a Jedi all the time, even in space traffic?"  He flashed a grin at his Master.  He knew the answer.

    "You are a Jedi every moment," Obi-Wan said.  "Even when another cruiser is sneaking in to your right."

    "What?"  Anakin wrenched his attention back to his piloting.  A silver star cruiser was attempting to nose in - Anakin swerved to the left and then slid neatly into the empty slot ahead.

    Obi-Wan leaned back in his seat.  "If you allowed someone to cut in line, we would lose five minutes' time.  Would that be so bad?"

    His Master could always find an opportunity for a lesson, even while waiting to land in a crowded spacelane.  "I guess not," Anakin said.  "We're not in a hurry.  But it's not right for them to try to sneak ahead of others."

    "No," Obi-Wan said.  "But that is the other pilot's choice.  By trying to prevent him, you are feeding your own anger and impatience.  Perhaps that is worse."

    Anakin saw his Master's point.  That was the trouble.  Obi-Wan always made sense.

____________________

    "It's got to be calibrated exactly right," Anakin was saying to two young Aleena mechanics standing nearby.  "We might have to do it fifty times to get it right.  Or we might get lucky and get it right in two."

    "I hope it's the latter," Obi-Wan said.  "Because there is a mission you should be attending to."

    Anakin stood up so abruptly that he banged his head on the turbine.  "Master, I didn't see you."

    Obi-Wan examined the podracer.  "I see that you're busy."

    "I thought I'd lend a hand to Doby and Deland.  They're from Tatooine."  Anakin looked uncomfortable.  "If they win, they free their sister.  She's a slave."

    "I see."  Obi-Wan nodded at the two brothers.  "I wish you good luck.  Anakin, may I speak with you a moment?"

    He drew Anakin aside.  "You know this is wrong," he told his Padawan with a frown.  "I'm sure you are helping for the right reasons.  But this is not our mission.  We have more important things to do.  And may I remind you that Podracing is illegal?"

    "But the Ruling Power is looking the other way -"

    "But the Games Council is concerned.  As should you be.  Once word gets out, spectators will arrive.  This could turn into a dangerous situation.  Do you know what the course will be?"

    "Through the caves," Anakin said excitedly.  "Can you imagine the difficulties?  And they've already thought about the spectators.  They're going to set up a viewing stand near the finish line."

    "That doesn't mean that they will be safe."

____________________

    Although he was irritated with Anakin for heading straight for the Podraces, he was always glad to see how Anakin's generosity endeared him to others.  Strangers became friends quickly for his Padawan.

    Anakin connected to the Living Force as Qui-Gon had.  He had that gift.  What he needed to develop was Qui-Gon's wisdom.  That would only take time and missions.

    And mistakes.  He could hear Qui-Gon's dry tone in his head.

____________________

    He drew Anakin aside.  "I think we should pursue this," he said.  "If some of the events are fixed, it could cause major trouble.  It could be a serious disruption of the peace."

    We're wasting our time on this.  I could be with the Podracers.  I could be helping Doby and Deland.  They are trying to free their sister.  Didi is trying to win a bet.  Which is more important?

    Anakin hid his disappointment with a frown.  "Who is Fligh?  Do you trust him?"

    "Trust him?" Obi-Wan grimaced.  "Not at all.  But if he's heard something, we could have problems even if the information is false.  Fligh hangs around the Senate.  He knows everyone and passes along information for credits.  If he's heard an event is fixed, he isn't the only one who thinks this."  He sighed.  "As much as I'd love to walk away from this, I'm afraid we'll have to investigate."  Obi-Wan gave Anakin a careful look.  "What is wrong, Padawan?"

    "It seems... a waste of time to me," Anakin said, reluctant to contradict his Master.  "We are here as peacekeepers.  There is a better use of Jedi time."  He did not mention Doby and Deland, but he knew his Master would know what he was not saying.

    Obi-Wan nodded as if considering Anakin's opinion.  "What do you think would be a better use of our time?"

    Anakin looked down and said nothing.

    "Tell me," Obi-Wan continued, "what do you think would happen if it was discovered that some of the events are fixed?"

    Anakin shrugged.  "Some will be upset.  Especially those who have placed illegal bets."

    "What about the planets involved?  If it appears that some have cheated, or conspired to defraud the Games, how will other worlds react?  Each world sends the very best of its athletes to compete in the Games.  These beings are often great heroes on their homeworlds.  What if they are denied their victories because an event is fixed?"

    "I guess it could create some unrest," Anakin said, after a pause.

    "Yes, young Padawan," Obi-Wan said.  "Hundreds of thousands of beings are crammed into one city.  All have come to cheer their heroes of their future heroes.  It may not seem an important lead for us to follow, but missions don't always start out with a battle.  Some times they begin with something insignificant.  Something unimportant.  Part of being a Jedi is to recognize the small thing that can change everything."

    "If it is so small, how can we recognize it?"

    "We take ourselves out of what we are looking at," Obi-Wan answered.

    Anakin scowled.  "I don't understand."

    Obi-Wan put his hand on Anakin's shoulder.  "I know.  That is why you are still a Padawan.  Someday you will."

____________________

    He made his way back to the quarters.  Anakin knelt by Aarno Dering, his hand on the man's shoulder.  Obi-Wan knew immediately that he was dead.

    He walked to Anakin and put his hand on the boy's shoulder.  They stood for a moment, a linked chain of commemoration.  A Jedi always paused to reflect on a life lost, even if they did not know the spirit who had left.

    "There was nothing I could do."  Anakin's face was pale.  He had seen death before, but he was still affected by it.  Obi-Wan was glad to see this.  He hoped Anakin would never lose that particular vulnerability.  There had been a time when he had wondered if Anakin failed to connect, a time when he had seen a curious blankness on the boy's face after he had killed in battle.  Since that time, Obi-Wan had watched Anakin carefully.  When he saw his Padawan feel the enormity of a life lost, he was reassured.

____________________

    "I have more things to learn about patience," he said.  "I don't know how you keep your temper sometimes, Master."

    "Indulging momentary irritation is nothing more than a distraction," Obi-Wan answered.

____________________

    The problem of Anakin entering the Podrace had never left Obi-Wan's mind.  Why had his Padawan done such a thing without telling him?  It was not the first time Anakin's impulsiveness had worried and alarmed Obi-Wan.

    His comlink signaled.  Anakin was calling.  Obi-Wan answered.

    "Master, things have developed here," Anakin said.  "Sebulba has recognized me.  Because of that, Deland stepped in to avoid a fight and was injured.  He cannot race.  I... I offered to race in his place.  Doby and Deland are trying to free their sister -"

    "And is that your mission on Euceron, to free Djulla?" Obi-Wan asked sternly.

    "No," Anakin said.  "But was it Qui-Gon's mission to free me?  Must we follow a mission so exactly that we turn our backs on beings who need help?  Every mission has a detour.  You've told me that."

    "I've also told you that it is the mark of a Jedi to recognize whether or not to follow the detour," Obi-Wan reminded him.

    "Then I ask you to let me make this choice," Anakin replied.

    His Padawan's voice was firm.  There was no pleading, no uncertainty.  He wanted what he wanted.  Was that the right thing in this circumstance?

    Obi-Wan pondered the problem.  "Have you learned anything else?" he asked.

    "The Podrace is scheduled to take place this afternoon at three.  A viewing area has been set up for spectators in the underground caves.  Sebulba has placed enormous bets on his son to win.  The official timekeeper is suposed to send the Podrace route directly to onboard computers.  But I don't know who will take over the job now that Dering is dead.  I think the best way I can find out how the race is fixed and who is behind it is to enter it myself."

    "All right," Obi-Wan said reluctantly.  He did not like the sound of pleasure in Anakin's voice.  He would ask Siri and Ry-Gaul to send Ferus and Tru to observe while Anakin piloted the podracer.  He could not be there with his Padawan, but he did not want Anakin to be alone.

____________________

    Suddenly, he felt very tired.  He saw the faces as a blur.  Liviani Sarno, looking strangely pale.  His Master, looking grave but relieved.  And Sebulba, snarling at him, waving his arms and crying "Foul!"

    Hot anger spilled through Anakin.  He threw off his goggles and vaulted out of the podracer.

    "You!" he thundered at Hekula and Sebulba.  "You're the cheats!"

    Because of them, countless innocent beings might have been killed.  Anakin had no doubt that Sebulba had been the one behind the sabotage of Deland's podracer.  They could not completely rely on getting the track information first.  They had to destroy their closest rival.  It was just like Sebulba to go that one, cruel step further.

    The red mist he had come to recognize as rage filled his vision, driving out the memory of the clarity of the Force.  He could see nothing but his rage against Sebulba, at anyone who would risk so many lives just to win.

    "Slave boy!  You have to cheat to win!  There's no mother watching this time to disapprove!"

    The taunting words filled his head and the red mist grew dense and hot.

    He reached down for his lightsaber, but a strong hand closed over his.

    "No, Padawan."

    Obi-Wan's voice reached him as if from a long distance.

    "He did it."  Anakin struggled to keep the rage away.  He pictured the red mist leaving him, floating over a distant hill.  "He deserves to be punished."

    "No."  Obi-Wan's voice was stronger still.  He drew Anakin away.  "Listen to me, Padawan.  Sebulba did not cheat.  It was Doby and Deland."

    Anakin blinked.  He could not absorb the words.  "It was..."

    "They made a deal with Maxo Vista.  They would have advance knowledge of the Podrace track.  What they didn't know was that Vista was going to sabotage the Podracer.  He wanted a fireball, a tremendous accident to occur."

    "That means that... I was getting advance track information, not Hekula," Anakin said slowly.  "It wasn't just the Force."  That explained Hekula's sometimes puzzling failure to get ahead.  He looked around.  "Where are they?"

    "They've disappeared with Djulla," Obi-Wan said.  "I am sure they did it to save their sister.  She has been freed, and they are gone.  They most likely hid a transport nearby."

    Sebulba was still watching him.  Hekula sat slumped in his podracer, too stunned to emerge.  "You'll pay for this, slave boy!" Sebulba snarled.

    Anakin took a step toward him but again his Master stopped him.

    "He is my enemy," Anakin said.

    "You are a Jedi," Obi-Wan told him.  His voice was low and pitched only for Anakin.  "You are a Jedi," he repeated.

    The mist in Anakin's head cleared.  He took a breath and looked around.  Ferus Olin was watching him, as he always was, his dark eyes gleaming with secret knowledge, as if he had glimpsed the red mist that was Anakin's rage.  Tru nodded at him, his expression showing only loyalty and affection.  Ry-Gaul appeared to be guarding Liviani Sarno.

    Nothing was as he thought it would be.  He felt his legs trembling.  He had almost lost control in front of his fellow Padawans and two Jedi Masters.  He had come so close.

    Obi-Wan's voice was gentle.  "Come, Padawan.  There is a mission to complete."

____________________

    Anakin was waiting.  When he told him what had occurred, his Padawan was furious.  "How can they do this?  Maxo Vista and Liviani Sarno are guilty!  And they are going to walk free!  This is an injustice!"  Anakin's words echoed off the hard plastoid walls of the Grand Court.

    "It is a hard thing to see happen," Obi-Wan agreed.  "But sometimes even when the mission is successful, justice is not done.  It happens.  At least the Commerce Guild did not get what they wanted.  No spectators were killed and their legislation may be defeated by those they wished to disgrace."

    "And Aarno Dering?  Maxo Vista will get away with murder!"

    "That is the hardest of all," Obi-Wan said.

____________________

    "Nothing has turned out as I thought," Anakin said.  "I was here to work on my Jedi lesson of connection to the Living Force.  If that is true, I've failed.  I judged everyone wrong.  I did not see Doby and Deland were using me.  I trusted my instincts, and they betrayed me."

    "Dot judge yourself so harshly, Padawan," Obi-Wan said.  "Your mistake was one of the heart.  You allowed your emotion to cloud your instincts.  You allowed what your heart wanted to be true to make it true.  Connections to other beings, good and bad, must be pure and free of one's own desires.  You wanted Sebulba to be a culprit, so you made him one."

    "I thought my connection to the Living Force was clear, and it's not at all," Anakin said moodily.  "I have such a long way to go."

    "If it makes you feel better, I made the same mistake with Maxo Vista," Obi-Wan said.  "Jedi lessons are learned by Masters as well as Padawans."

    "Wisdom comes with time and missions," Anakin said, repeating Obi-Wan's own words.

    Obi-Wan smiled gently.  "And mistakes," he said.

26 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 15 years of age)

____________________

    Obi-Wan saw his Padawan swallow.  Anakin's eyes looked dark in his pale face.  Obi-Wan knew that his Padawan felt responisble.  Anakin had leaped impulsively, not trusting Darra to evade the fire.  As usual, his Padawan had thought that he was faster, stronger, than anyone else.

    The problem was that it was often true.  But not always.

____________________

    Obi-Wan nodded.  He was glad Soara didn't hold Anakin's rash actions during the battle against him.

    But when he told his Padawan their plan, Anakin seemed crestfallen at not being included in the attack.

    Obi-Wan felt exasperated.  Anakin's reaction seemed that of a boy, anxious to be in on the action.  It wasn't worthy of his Padawan.  "This is important," he told him.  "You need to protect the scientists and Darra.  Soara and I won't be long."

    "But you might need me," Anakin said.  "It's a large patrol."

    "We have surprise on our side.  No Padawan.  You must remain here."

    "I would not fail you this time," Anakin promised.

    Obi-Wan saw it then, the hunger on Anakin's face.  It was not a hunger for action.  It was the need to redeem himself.

    Obi-Wan spoke gently.  "The best thing you can do for Darra is to remain here to protect her."

    Anakin looked down, struggling to accept the order.  "As you wish, Master."

    "You must keep your focus, Padawan," Obi-Wan murmured, so that the others wouldn't overhear.  "This is not a judgment on you.  This is the best way to proceed."

    Anakin nodded, keeping his eyes down.  "All right," he muttered.

    Obi-Wan hesitated.  Now he could feel the shame behind Anakin's questions.  His Padawan's feelings ran deep.  His shame was filling him now, and he thought that only action could relieve it.  He was wrong, but Obi-Wan would need time to explain why this was so.

    He knew that his Padawan needed him.  Yet he had to go.  He struggled for words to leave behind, but he had none.  The only thing left to do was walk away.

____________________

    Obi-Wan sat down beside him and waited for him to turn.

    "A mission?" Anakin asked hopefully.

    "No, we are at the Temple for a while," Obi-Wan said.  "I haven't told you something I discovered on Haariden, something I told the Council about.  That patrol was paid to attack us by Granta Omega."

    Anakin felt the nerves inside his body tighten.  He realized he had been waiting for this.  He had wanted to pursue Omega after their experience on Ragoon-6.

    "Why didn't you tell me before?"

    "You had enough to think about."

    Anakin knew that his Master meant his concern for Darra.  He had haunted the med clinic until he knew she would fully recover.

    "Are we going after him?" Anakin asked.

    "Jocasta Nu is helping me do some research," Obi-Wan said.  Anakin realized this wasn't quite an answer.  "In the meantime," Obi-Wan continued, "I have something for you to do."

    "I am ready, Master."

    "I have arranged a private lightsaber tutorial for you with Soara Antana."

    Anakin felt his heart fall.  Shame filled him.  "Because of that happened on Haariden."

    "Yes," Obi-Wan said.  "There is no blame, Padawan.  Yet, there are things you need to learn.  Things I have not been able to teach you."

    "There is nothing you can't teach me, Master," Anakin argued.  But the real reason for Anakin's disquiet was a secret fear that Obi-Wan planned to leave him behind like a schoolboy, taking lessons.

    "This is not your decision, Padawan."  Obi-Wan's tone was sharp.  "This is a great honor for you.  Soara rarely takes individual students.  She would not agree if she didn't think you had great potential."

    Anakin fought with his feelings.  He did not want to confess to his Master that he was afraid Obi-Wan would leave him.  "Yes, Master."

    The stern lines of Obi-Wan's face relaxed into a smile at Anakin's obedient tone.  "You might have fun."

    Anakin looked at him with such disbelief that Obi-Wan's smile turned into a laugh.

____________________

    Obi-Wan had been in the small ship's library, checking the geological reports on Haariden.  He came to sit by Anakin.  "Not much longer.  Is there something you want to discuss with me, Padawan?"

    He wasn't ready to talk about it.  "No," Anakin said.

    Obi-Wan hesitated.  "Before I arrived, did you talk much to the others?"

    Anakin nodded.  "They fed me false information about Granta Omega.  They were making things up to tease me even as he sat right in front of me.  I see that now.  I feel foolish."

    "It is not something to feel foolish about.  Those who set out to deceive are the true fools."  Obi-Wan paused.  "And Omega himself?  What did you think of him?"

    The gentleness in his Master's tone undid Anakin's reserve.  "I liked him," he burst out.  "How could I like such a being?"

    "I would guess that is because he is likable," Obi-Wan said dryly.

    His Master's calmness made Anakin feel better.  "Shouldn't the Force have alerted me to the Dark side in him?"

    "Not necessarily," Obi-Wan said.  "The Force is not a truth-detector.  We can rely on it, but we can't expect it to save us.  We must save ourselves.  We must use our own intuition, our own intelligence.  Your feelings about Granta Omega don't have anything to do with the Force.  They have everything to do with experience."

    "Meaning I don't have enough?"

    "Maybe," Obi-Wan said.  "Perhaps I wouldn't have picked up on Omega's true character, either.  But I have seen enough to know that evil can wear a charming face, my young Padawan.  Charsima is not a virtue.  It's a trait.  It is not good or bad.  Evil people can possess it.  They often do and it is what makes them dangerous."

    "He says he is a seeker, just as the Jedi are," Anakin said.  "He says the Jedi fear the Sith, but they know nothing of them."

    "He is wrong," Obi-Wan said.  "The Jedi have deep knowledge of the Sith.  Have you forgotten that one of them killed Qui-Gon?"

    "That knowledge is with me every day," Anakin said quietly.  "But it is also part of the problem.  When I think of evil, I see that Sith Lord's face.  I do not see Granta Omega's."

    "Evil has many faces," Obi-Wan responded.  "It can be masquerade as vision.  One must look beneath the words, beneath the mask."

25 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 16 years of age)

____________________

    "Do what you can, my friend," Obi-Wan said.  "Yet I believe that you will not succeed.  My guess is that Sauro got to someone on that committee.  I think that was what Mas Ameeda was insinuating."  Obi-Wan put his hand on Tyro's shoulder.  "Thank you for all your help.  My Padawan and I will find another way."

    Tyro looked crestfallen.  "If ever you need my again, Master Kenobi, I am here for you."  He raised a furred hand, fingers spread, in the Svivreni gesture of good-bye.  Then he hurried from the room.

    "Master, Tyro is right," Anakin said forcefully.  "This is outrageous.  Can't we break into Sauro's files?"

    Obi-Wan folded his arms in the way that let Anakin know that he had gone too far.

    "If we were discovered, it would be undermine the Senators' trust in the Jedi," Obi-Wan said.  

    "There's got to be something we can do!" Anakin exploded.  "We can't let him win.  He's probably laughing at us right now."

    Obi-Wan gave him a severe look.  "You should not be concerned with Senator Sauro's reaction.  What does it matter if a corrupt man laughs at us?  It should be less than the whisper of a gnatfly's wings to us."

    Anakin stared at him.  "He has made fools of us."

    "No, Padawan," Obi-Wan said firmly.  "If your path is the right one, no one has that power.  Those who seek to make fools of others are fools themselves."

    "I don't understand you," Anakin said, shaking his head.  "You are just as upset as I am.  I can feel it, Master.  I know how much you want to find Granta Omega."

    "Cultivate outward calm and inward calm will come," Obi-Wan said.  "This is the time when the Jedi lesson of inner balance can help you.  Accept the setback, and move on."

____________________

    "I'm sorry to leave you, Master, but I know how much you're looking forward to returning to the Senate," Anakin said.  The muscles around his mouth twitched as he tried not to smile.

    "Very amusing," Obi-Wan said dryly.  "I admit I would rather not have this particular assignment, but I recognize that it is necessary that it be done."

    Anakin sighed.  "Always an opportunity to teach."

    "Yes," Obi-Wan said, smiling now.  "That is the role of a Master, my young apprentice."  He put his hand on Anakin's shoulder.  "Remember, you are not on a solo mission.  You are with a fellow Jedi.  Do your best with Ferus.  Try to get to know him.  That might ease your irritation with him."

    "I would rather not have this particular assignment, but I recognize that it must be done," Anakin said with a straight face.

    Obi-Wan laughed.  He would miss Anakin's humor.  Sometimes, he knew, he could be too serious.  He remembered how Qui-Gon would sometimes surprise him on a tough mission with a sly joke.

    I must remember to do those things for Anakin, he thought.  His gifts are so great that I work too hard to teach.  He must learn to enjoy, as well.

____________________

    "I'm not sure what to think," Anakin confessed.  "I can't imagine the group kidnapping Gilliam.  They're all pretty dedicated.  Marit has an incredible grasp of galactic politics.  She knows what's being debated in the Senate right down to the subcommittee hearings.  And she always comes in on the right side."

    "And how do you know it's the right side?" Obi-Wan asked, his voice dry.  "Because you agree with it?"

    "Because they are against violence and oppression," Anakin said.  "They're like Jedi."

    "Yet they are operating against school rules," Obi-Wan pointed out.  "If you are willing to violate trust, you cannot claim virtue."

    "The school doesn't deserve their trust.  It let them down."

    "Nonetheless, they are attending the school and agreed to abide by its rules," Obi-Wan said.  "I can understand the attraction they have for you, Anakin, but I fear you are getting too involved.  You must be a Jedi at all times.  You must constantly strive for inner balance.  This includes being swayed by the ideas of others.  They often mask a different purpose."

    "What purpose could they mask?"

    "That is your job to find out.  Do not forget that you are trying to find a missing boy.  Anakin, the fact that you are a Jedi is what will keep you steady always.  That is something to hold on to.  If you know your first loyalty, the rest falls into place.  Do you understand?"

    "I do, Master."

____________________

    Never had Obi-Wan seen such a display of the Force from a Padawan.  From the great Jedi Masters, yes.  From Qui-Gon, near the end of his life.  But from someone so young?  Anakin's power astonished him.  He had glimpsed it before, but now he had seen it unfurl, and it staggered him.

    He had not a chance to move, to help.  Anakin had been a blur.  He had seemed to be everywhere at once.  He had destroyed ten attack droids, disarmed his aggressors, and disabled two laser cannons without hesitation, with even a slight smile on his face.

    He could see that Siri and Ferus had been just as astonished at Anakin's deep connection to the Force, the way he had seemed to know what was going to happen before it happened, the way he was able to dodge fire before it occurred.  Astonished, yes - and disturbed.

    Unease settled into Obi-Wan's bones, joining his disappointment and the anger he had tried to eliminate from his heart.  To have a Padawan so gifted who was capable of being so wrong - it was his gift to be able to teach him.  It was his burden as well.

____________________

    Obi-Wan was left alone with Anakin.  At last it was time for him to speak to his Padawan.  Yet he could not find the right words.  He knew, glancing at his Padawan's eager face, that Anakin meant well from the bottom of his heart.  If Obi-Wan saw a shadow on that heart, he knew it would pain his Padawan to know it.  In many ways, Anakin was still a boy.  A wounded, loving, anxious boy with great gifts he did not fully understand.

    Yet he was also a young man, close to maturity, who could do great harm.  To others, yes.  To himself, the most of all.

    "They were going to conduct a raid on Andara," Anakin said, tired of Obi-Wan's silence.  "But first they were going to kill me -"

    "I know," Obi-Wan said.  "Everything was on Gilliam's datapad.  Which you would have known if you had searched for Ferus."

    Anakin flushed.  "I didn't know where he was."

    "You did not look."

    "I thought perhaps he was on Ieria or Andara.  I thought the secret squad knew where he was -"

    "You did not even look!" Obi-Wan shouted.  "Your fellow Jedi was missing, and you did not even look!"

    "I thought it best to continue under cover," Anakin said.  His face showed his surprise at Obi-Wan's harshness.  Obi-Wan never raised his voice.  "I had infiltrated the squad.  I thought my best chance of finding both Gilliam and Ferus was to continue."

    "You were willing to participate in a raid that would have started a war," Obi-Wan continued.  He had to struggle to keep his voice level.  He needed to keep as calm as possible.

    "I didn't know about the raid!" Anakin protested.  "I mean, I knew they were going to do something, but it was a dry run, designed to show the Andarans that they had the capability of invading their airspace.  I didn't know they had plans to destroy their fleet.  As soon as I did, I sabotaged the laser cannons."

    "Anakin, you left your fellow Jedi imprisoned and went off on a mission with a group of beings who you had no reason to trust," Obi-Wan said.  "You were wrong at every point.  Can't you see that?"

    Anakin said nothing.

    "You did not contact me to tell me Ferus was missing -"

    "I would have compromised our cover -"

    "You had a responsibility!"  Obi-Wan's voice cut like a laser whip.  "Just as I had one to Siri.  You betrayed me and the Order by your actions.  And your inability to see that troubles me the worst of all."

    "I am sorry, Master."

    Obi-Wan shook his head.  Grief rose in him.  "Those are words you speak so easily, Padawan."

    Anakin's mouth closed in a line.  "I don't know what you want from me."

    Honesty.  Loyalty.  Patience.  Obedience.  Obi-Wan thought these things but did not say them.  Because, after all, they were only words, too.

    "I can only show you the path," Obi-Wan said.  "You must choose to walk on it."

    "I just..."  Anakin stopped.  He took a ragged breath.  "I thought you would be proud of me."

    I am proud of you.  Obi-Wan wanted to say the words.  They were true.  He was proud of so much in Anakin.  But now was not the time to tell him that.

    Or was it?

    Help me, Qui-Gon.

    But no matter how hard Obi-Wan listened, he could not hear the quiet wisdom of his Master.  And now it was too late.  Siri returned and signaled to him.  It was time to go.

    "I will take this matter up with the Council," he said.

    "Of course," Anakin said.  "The Council.  We can't take a step without it."

    "That's enough!" Obi-Wan snapped.  "Come.  The others are waiting."

    Anakin hesitated.  The set of his mouth was stubborn.

    "Come, Padawan."  Obi-Wan's tone rang with authority.  Anakin's hesitation cast a chill on his heart.

    Anakin followed him.  Obi-Wan did not glance back again.

    He felt shaken.  Did Anakin understand that he had violated an essential part of the Jedi Code?  Did he know he had broken something between them?  He had not fully trusted Obi-Wan.  And so Obi-Wan had lost his trust in him.

    Not for good, he tried to reassure himself.  And maybe not for long.

    Still, his step was heavy as he climbed up the loading ramp of the transport.  His anger faded.  Left behind was a feeling he was not used to experiencing.  It was fear.

25 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 16 years of age)

____________________

    He and his Master were not communicating well.  Ever since his mission to Andara, there had been distance between them.  Obi-Wan had said he was deeply disappointed in him.  Although it was not in the character of a Jedi to dwell on the past, Anakin remembered that comment like a knife in his heart.  It haunted every moment of their time together.

    In the past, he had sometimes felt irritated at Obi-Wan's corrections, his need to always show Anakin how he could have done something better, or more patiently, or more thoroughly.  Now he missed them.  He saw them now for what they were - a dedication to him, a need to help him be the best Jedi he could be.

____________________

    Usually at the start of a new mission, Anakin's eyes were alive with curiosity.  Obi-Wan had always appreciated how his Padawan threw himself into a new situation, using all of his senses to gather information.  But Anakin's expression looked shuttered.

    He walked beside him as they exited the craft.  "Any impressions?"  He was always interested to hear what Anakin had picked up.  The Force spoke to Anakin in a different way than Obi-Wan had ever known.

    Anakin shook his head.  "Nothing to speak of.  I feel the Dark side of the Force, of course.  That's clear."

    "And to be expected," Obi-Wan said.  "What about your vision?  Any connections?"

    Anakin shook his head.  "Nothing."

    There were shadows between them now.  He could see them in the way Anakin held his shoulders, the way his eyes spoke.  It wasn't as though Anakin didn't meet his gaze directly.  But his gaze was like glass.  Obi-Wan found himself sliding off it into uncertainty.

    He knew he was partly responsible.  Ever since Andara, he had held himself back from his Padawan.  His anger had gone, but it had been replaced with caution.  He had wanted to give Anakin room, time to reflect without the pressure of his own opinions and interpretations.  He knew he could be heavy-handed at times.  He remembered Qui-Gon, how his own Master had sometimes withdrawn his focus on him and gone to a place Obi-Wan could not reach.  It had sometimes left Obi-Wan feeling stranded, but it had forced him to come to terms with his own feelings.  He wanted to do the same for Anakin.  His Padawan was sixteen now.  It was time for him to achieve a deeper connection to his core.

    Anakin had been wrong on Andara.  The fact that he had concealed the disappearance of a Jedi still astonished Obi-Wan.  His actions did not take away from the fact that Anakin was special.  When he made mistakes, they were big ones.  His need to be perfect, to be powerful, was a flaw.  Try as he might, Obi-Wan could not show Anakin that if he held himself back, everything would come to him.  Anakin just kept pushing.

____________________

    Obi-Wan was feeling on the edges of his patience.  He should have stayed with Anakin when they were under attack.  Now he did not know if Anakin was badly wounded or worse.

    He remembered feeling so angry on Andara.  I thought you'd be proud of me, Anakin had said.  And he had wanted to reply that he was proud, that Anakin's progress astonished him, that there was so much about Anakin that he admired.  Instead, he had held his tongue, thinking there would be a better time.  He did not want to praise Anakin when his apprentice had made such an error.

    But maybe he should have.  That better time had not arrived.

____________________

    A pair of dusty, muddy boots appeared.  Obi-Wan crouched down.

    "Something terrible has happened," he said.  "I felt the Force surge, and then retreat, like a vacuum.  Tell me."

    "Master Yaddle is dead," Anakin said, his voice muffled.

    Obi-Wan breathed in, absorbing his shock.  "How?"

    Anakin told him the story in a neutral tone.  If he added his feelings to the telling, he would not be able to finish.

    Obi-Wan was silent for long moments.  He sat back on his heels and looked up at the sky.

    "She went below for me," Anakin said.  "She saved me first.  If I hadn't been captured..."

    "Stop."  It was Obi-Wan's sternest tone.  "Jedi do not go down the path of 'ifs.'  You know that, Anakin.  You choose in each moment what your next step will be.  You do not look back in judgment."

    Obi-Wan stood.  "Yaddle made the only choice she could, and she made it freely."

    Obi-Wan reached down.  Anakin's lightsaber was in his hand.

    "We will mourn her, but not now.  Now it is time to be a Jedi."

    Anakin took the lightsaber.  He rose and tucked it into his belt.  His Master's words should have made Anakin feel better, but they hadn't.  They had almost seemed automatic, as though Obi-Wan didn't really mean them.

    Even Obi-Wan thought Anakin was responsible for Yaddle's death.

    Sorrow and guilt filled him up so far he felt like he was drowning.

____________________

    Anakin picked one up.  "Stale," he said, disappointed.  "Why do the bad guys get all the good food?"

    Obi-Wan held up his tea.  "That's what dunking is for.  Another Jedi lesson for you."

    Anakin tried to smile.  It was the first light moment they had exchanged since Yaddle's death.  But a moment later, Anakin's face darkened again.

    Something is very wrong, Obi-Wan thought.  It wasn't just the aftermath of Yaddle's death.  Why was it that whenever he needed to talk to his Padawan, circumstance got in the way?  There was always a mission to complete, and then, these days, as soon as they were done, there was somewhere else important to go, another crucial battle to fight.

____________________

    "So your vision was true," Obi-Wan said.  "Yaddle met her death here.  We just did not know how to interpret it."

    Anakin nodded.  A lump rose in his throat.  Why did having the vision made him feel so responsible?

    "And yet it was not true, as well," Obi-Wan said.  "The vision was not about Shmi.  It was about you.  It was about the temptations in your life."  He hesitated.  "What did Omega tell you?"

    Anakin hesitated and the said, "that the Jedi were holding me back.  That I could free the slaves on Tatooine, free my mother.  He said he would help me do it."

    "That must have tempted you," Obi-Wan said.

    Anakin said nothing.  He could not admit it, but he could not lie.

    "It's all right, Anakin.  It is understandable that you would want to ease your mother's life.  But being a Jedi means that your ties are to all beings.  You are the only Jedi with such a strong, deep tie, and it makes it harder for you.  But remember, a life of service is not only about giving up.  It is about giving."

    "I don't believe you're holding me back," Anakin said.  "I hate him for saying it."

    "Hate is not an answer," Obi-Wan said.  "Understanding is."  He sighed.  "Xanatos could twist feelings in just that way.  He was a dangerous being.  Just as Omega is.  We'll meet him again, I'm sure of it."

    Anakin was sure of it too.

____________________

    "When you look back, lose your place on the path, you do," Yoda's voice gentled.  "Learn you will, Anakin, that stars move and stars fall, and nothing at all do they have to do with you."

    Yoda walked off with his Master.  Anakin was grateful for his words.

    Why hadn't his Master said them?  When he'd said that Yaddle's death was his fault, Obi-Wan had remained silent.

    He knew in his bones that he had caused a chain of events that led to a Jedi Master's murder.  Even if that didn't make him responsible, he knew it would make it hard for him to sleep at night.

    The vision hadn't been wrong.  The essential truth it had left him with was part of him now.  He felt it inside him like a wound.  It was loss.  The gulf between him and Obi-Wan was wider than ever.

25 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 16 years of age)

____________________

    The galaxy was a rougher, harder place.  Lawlessness was growing.  Obi-Wan knew now that the Jedi were far from invincible.  That knowledge had made him more careful, perhaps a bit less willing to risk too much.  Which could be good, and bad, depending.  As he settled into his life as a Jedi Master, Obi-Wan was very aware that his need to control situations, to look at all sides of an issue, would conflict with the desires of his head-strong apprentice.  He saw conflict ahead but he also say himself unable to stop his movement toward it.

    Anakin was powerful.  Anakin was young.  These two facts could collide with the power and heat of a fusion furnace.

____________________

    Obi-Wan didn't know how much Anakin blamed himself, but he knew that his apprentice was brooding over what had gone wrong.  It was appropriate that he do so, but not appropriate for him to blame himself.

    Yet how can I stop him from doing so, if I blame him myself?

    Blame was not something a Jedi was supposed to feel.  Obi-Wan knew he was wrong.  He tried to look at what had happened in a measured way, but he kept circling back to the fact that in his heart, he believed that Anakin could have somehow prevented Yaddle's death.

    He told himself that if Anakin had made mistakes, they came from a place that was pure.  It was not in the Jedi code to second-guess another Jedi's decisions.  But Obi-Wan knew his words of comfort had a hollow core, and he suspected that Anakin knew it, too.

    The distance between them continued to grow.  Yaddle's death had changed them both.

    No, Obi-Wan corrected himself.  The distance had been growing before that.  Perhaps it has always been there.  Perhaps I didn't want to see it.

    Anakin's pure connection to the Force meant that in some ways Obi-Wan had little to teach him.  At least it seemed that Anakin was beginning to think that.  Yet Obi-Wan knew he still had much to give him.  Being a Jedi involved more than commanding the Force - it involved the inner serenity needed to access that Force in the best way.  Yaddle's death had shaken Obi-Wan to the core.  Was it possible that Anakin had too much power?

    Obi-Wan would not give up on Anakin.  It was his duty as a Master to teach his apprentice, to help him become a Jedi Knight.  All he knew was that he never seemed to have time to address the problem of the tension between them.  Every day was packed with things to do, with travel, with missions or Council meetings.  The galaxy teemed with trouble.  The Senate was sometimes mired in procedures.  The problems of an apprentice and his Master got lost in the chaos that surrounded them.

    Obi-Wan was all too aware that guilt and shame could percolate and turn into anger, and he was alert for the signs of it.  So far, Anakin just seemed remote.  This, he had to remind himself, was normal for a young man of sixteen.

    That is what you keep telling yourself.  But is it true?

____________________

    "In other words, we'll have a slow ride, and we'll be exposed if the Vanqors track us on radar.  And then there's the fuel problem."

    "Which is?"

    "We don't have much.  I ran our options through the computer.  The only way to get to Typha-Dor is by the shortest route.  That's going to bring us right into Vanqor airspace."

    Obi-Wan grimaced.  "This just keeps getting better."  He looked back at the shelter, where the four crew members waited.  "We'll have to risk it.  Our only chance is to slip through their surveillance.  Space is big."

    "Space is big?"  A flash of humor made Anakin's eyes sparkle.  "That's your strategy?  I guess I can stop worrying."

    The mischief in Anakin's eyes suddenly lightened Obi-Wan's heart.  He saw the flash of a boy he'd once known, a boy who liked to fix things, a boy who had yet to understand the great gifts he had been given.  A boy untroubled by those gifts who believed the galaxy would unfold for him, show him the promise of his dreams.

    I can't let him lose that spirit.  I can't let him lose the boy he was.

    He grinned back.  "Thanks," he said.  "I just thought of it."

    As they exchanged smiles, something changed.  Something lightened, and the tension between them eased, just a bit.

    But then, just as the moment passed, Obi-Wan saw sadness in Anakin's eyes.  He caught the same feeling.  It was no longer possible to fix things between them with a joke, a light moment.  Things ran too deep for that now.

____________________

    He was running fast, moving and weaving, but Obi-Wan picked up no communion with him, no Force connection.  It was as though he were running with a stranger.

    Anakin had lied to him.  He knew that.  Something had happened to him in that medical building.  Did whatever it was somehow prevent Anakin from telling Obi-Wan about it?  Or was it Anakin's decision to hide something from him?

    I don't know the answer to that.  And that means I don't trust him.  Not completely.  Not anymore.

____________________

    When Obi-Wan had been blasted into the crater, Anakin hadn't had more than a second to react.  He assumed that his Master could handle whatever was down there.  Obi-Wan could get out by himself.

    Somewhere inside, Anakin knew this was a curious decision for him to make, one that he wouldn't have made normally.  But it seemed logical, too.  Obi-Wan was a Jedi, used to getting out of tight spots.

    Besides, Obi-Wan had always told him not to jump into things, to take his time.  So why shouldn't he?  His first priority was to take care of the droids and get the disk to Typha-Dor.

    Anakin felt the veil slip again.  It was happening more frequently now.  He missed his calm.  He wanted to be back in the garden.  He didn't want to feel fear, or apprehension, or pain.  He wanted to feel serene, as though nothing could touch him.  He wanted it so badly.

    Gundarks in the crater suddenly roared.  Anakin fended off blaster rifle fire and drew closer to the crater.  He thought he heard Obi-Wan calling him.  The call came from within him, as though he heard it in his heart.

    Something tugged at him.  The hook that was buried so deep that he could barely feel it.  He did not want to reach for it.  He wanted it to lay buried.

    Obi-Wan needed him.

    But I needed him.  And when he came, he asked for the disk.  He did not come for me.

    The pain of this thought caused him to grab the remains of the veil.  He wanted to wrap himself into its brand of unconsciousness.

    I don't want to feel anymore!

    Anakin leaped up and severed a droid in two that had the misfortune to pilot his STAP too close to the ground.  Hunks of smoking metal clattered to the rocks below.

    He realized what was wrong, what the essential conflict within him was.  To be a Jedi was to follow his feelings.  But if his feelings tortured him, what was he to do with them?

    Grief.

    Guilt.

    Resentment.

    Shame.

    He had felt all of these things.  Because of leaving his mother, because of Yaddle, because of Obi-Wan.

    I don't want to feel.

    He struck out savagely at a STAP that had come in low, its lone droid pilot firing dual blaster rifles.  He cut the droid's head off.

    "Anakin!"  He could hear Obi-Wan clearly now, his voice strained and desperate.

    I don't want to feel.

    The hook in his heart seared him, and he knew its name.  It was love.

    The love he felt for his Master was lodged firmly within him.  It was a connection that had grown from the first moment Obi-Wan had told him that he would take him and train him.

    He had learned one thing about love: it was besides the point.  It didn't make anything smoother, or better.  Most of the time, it just complicated things.

    Why would he want to feel again, when feelings hurt so much?

    Why would he want to remember Shmi with guilt as well as pleasure?

    Why would he want to revisit his torment over the death of Yaddle?

    Why would he want to take up the burden of caring what Obi-Wan thought or felt about him?

    Because it's right.

    Anakin groaned aloud.  The thing he couldn't get away from, the certainty within him, the essential truth he had learned through all his training at the Temple, that was what he could see now.  He knew what was right.

____________________

    Suddenly he felt the Force fill the cavernous space.  A flash of light appeared overhead, and Obi-Wan heard a whistling noise.  It was Anakin, leaping straight into the circle of gundarks, his lightsaber held in attack position.

    When Obi-Wan had wondered if Anakin had abandoned him, he hadn't blamed him.  He knew their mission demanded that Anakin get to Typha-Dor.  But it had hurt him to think his Padawan could leave him.

    How could he have held such a thought?  Anakin would never have abandoned him.  Anakin would never betray him.

____________________

    "Thanks for coming!" Obi-Wan shouted over the noise.

    "Any time."

    There was a flash to Anakin's gaze that he knew well.  His eyes were bright.

    Something has changed, Obi-Wan thought.  Anakin is back.

    "They haven't given up," Obi-Wan said.  "They're waiting."  He indicated his leg.  "I can't climb very well."

    Anakin activated his cable launcher.  "Then let's go the easy way."

    "There are gundarks nesting in the cave walls."

    "I saw them on my way down."  Anakin wasn't troubled by the knowledge, that was clear.  He grabbed Obi-Wan as is he weighed nothing and activated the cable.

    They landed on a ledge that was free of a nest.  Anakin activated the cable again.

    "You planned the journey back as you came down," Obi-Wan said.

    They landed again, and Anakin activated the other cable line.  "Yes."

    Obi-Wan marveled at that.  It was what made Anakin a great Jedi.  His battle mind was total and went everywhere.  He saw every possibility, planned every move, and even planned his escape.

____________________

    "You said torment," Obi-Wan remarked, still looking at the sky.

    "Excuse me?"  Anakin pretended confusion, but he knew exactly what Obi-Wan was referring to.

    "You said 'the things that normally torment you don't bother you at all.'  Not the things that trouble you, but torment you."  Obi-Wan turned to face him.  "It was a strong word.  What torments you, Anakin?"

    He looked at the ground.  "Perhaps I spoke more strongly than I meant to."

    "That is not an answer."

    "Sometimes I don't want to be the Chosen One," Anakin said.  The words broke free.  They felt like stones in his mouth.

    "That's not surprising," Obi-Wan said.  "Many gifts can be burdens."

    "The Force is so strong.  I can feel it so much.  I feel so much.  I don't want to feel so much!"  Anakin hardly recognized his voice, choked and aching.  Obi-Wan looked startled at his vehemence.  "Why am I chosen?  Why is it me?  Can't I refuse it?  Can't you let me refuse it?  Can't you take it away?"

    "Anakin -"

    "Take it from me.  Please, Master."  Anakin wanted to fall to his knees.  A deep tide of feeling, of dread, had risen up within him and choked him.  He felt tears in the back of his throat.  Even his friend Tru was afraid for him.  Just as Ferus was.  Just as his own Master was, the person who knew him the best.

    What do they see that I cannot?

    The sudden panic shocked him.  It had sprung up so abruptly.  He hadn't meant to say what he had said.  He hadn't even known he had been feeling it.  Now it felt like the truest thing he had ever said.  The dread was always there.  He lived with it, but he didn't understand it.  He just wanted it to go away.

    The depth of Obi-Wan's shock and compassion showed in his eyes, in the way he gently placed his hands on Anakin's shoulders.  "My Padawan.  I would do anything for you.  I would bear your burdens for you if I could.  But I cannot."

    Anakin bowed his head.  The panic and fear whirled inside him, and he was ashamed.

    Obi-Wan bent closer to speak softly.  He did not release his grip on Anakin's shoulders.  "But I will help you.  I will always help you.  I will not leave you."

    The words reverberated like a bell.  Obi-Wan's touch brought Anakin back to himself.  He raised his head.

    "Things between us have not run smoothly lately," Obi-Wan said.  "But you must never doubt my commitment to you."

    "And mine to you," Anakin said.

24 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 17 years of age)

____________________

    Anakin looked over at his Master.  They had grown even closer over the past months.  Anakin had broken down after the mission on Vanqor and confessed his fears to Obi-Wan.  He had been afraid to tell his Master how there were times he no longer wanted to be the Chosen One.  He realized that he had been walking around with a nameless dread in his heart.  He didn't know what he feared, but he knew that he lived with the fear every waking moment.  Saying this out loud had shocked his Master, but it had freed Anakin in a way he still didn't understand.

    Perhaps it had been his experiences in the prisoner-of-war camp on Vanqor that had caused him to unburden his heart to Obi-Wan.  Whatever the reason had been, it had changed something between them.  They had grown closer.  They were truly Master and Padawan now.

    He knew what had happened was a classic step in the Master-Padawan relationship.  The apprentice invites the Master, and it begins.  As learners, they had all wondered what the expression meant.  The Master was the one to invite a Jedi student to be his or her apprentice.  That was how it started.  So what was the meaning of The apprentice invites the Master?

    Now he understood.  He had been Obi-Wan's apprentice for years before he had truly trusted him with the inner workings of his heart and mind.  Once he had invited Obi-Wan to share his deepest fears, his worst nightmares, their relationship had shifted and deepened.  It was as though they were starting again.  It begins.  Obi-Wan had told him that the same thing happened with him and Qui-Gon.  "In the middle of our journey together, we began again.," he'd told Anakin.

    It was mysterious and wonderful.  They knew what each other would do before it was done.  They knew what as in each other's thoughts.  Whereas before Anakin would worry about what was on Obi-Wan's mind, now he accepted that some things he knew, and some things he didn't, and that many things on Obi-Wan's mind had nothing to do with him.

____________________

    Much good had come out of his experience on Vanqor.  The Zone of Self-Containment had broken him down in a way that had been helpful.  He had felt vulnerable and afraid, and he had leaned on his Master.  He had come to see that Obi-Wan cared for him a great deal.  His Master would be there for him always.

____________________

    "Still, we can't take a risk for all of us," Obi-Wan said.  "This party suddenly got very small.  The three of you should head back to the villa and prepare for a quick departure with Zan Arbor.  I'll steal the codes, meet up with Joylin, and join you at the villa."

    Anakin shook his head.  "I'm not leaving you here, Master."

    "Yes, you are, because I'm ordering you to," Obi-Wan said.  "Remember, my young apprentice.  This mission is first."

    Obi-Wan put a hand on Anakin's shoulder briefly.  The gesture told Anakin that he appreciated his support, but his decision was firm.

    But Anakin still didn't want to go.

____________________

    "A long night," Anakin said.

    "Yes."

    "Even after this night, I still think we weren't wrong."

    Obi-Wan sighed.  He tried to smooth the trampled grass underneath his hand.  "Wrong or right - I'm not ready to make that call.  We made the decision using the facts we had."

    "But we were right," Anakin insisted.

    Obi-Wan saw the will Ferus had been talking about, the need to bend the situation to Anakin's own vision of it.  The need to be right.

    "Anakin, sometimes sureness is not what you should strive for.  A little confusion in your mind can be a good thing.  Will we be proved right ultimately?  I hope so.  Did we do the best we could?  Yes.  That I firmly believe.  That's enough for now."

____________________

    "I do not know that you're correct," Mace said.  "A position I find myself in all too often these days.  If you feel strongly, Obi-Wan, I support your decision.  But everything depends on getting that tracking device on the ship without being seen."

    Obi-Wan turned to Anakin with such confidence, such assurance, that Anakin felt he would never forget this moment.  Trust lay between them, unbreakable.

    "Anakin?"

    "I will do it, Master."

24 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 18 years of age)

____________________

    "You're restless, Anakin."

    "It's the waiting, Master.  I hate... I do not enjoy waiting."

    "Take it as a gift - an opportunity to learn patience.  You still have much to learn."

    "Yes, Master."

____________________

    "Anakin!  Where is the Senator?"

    "He asked to step out onto the balcony with Princess Tsian, and I thought there would be no harm if I stood close by-"

    "The Senate Guards just warned me that she may be our assassin!"

____________________

    "These are what attacked us.  Drone controlled - evidentially by Princess Tsian.  How did you know that knocking her out would deactivate the droids?"

    "Didn't.  Just wasn't going to let her get away.  What were you thinking - letting Greyshade out on a balcony?!"

    "I'm afraid that's my fault," Greyshade intervened.  "I convinced young Skywalker here that it would be all right..."

    "Senator, with all due respect, you're not the one in charge of security.  The boy should never have allowed it."

    "With due respect, we weren't the ones who cleared an assassin to attend the party in the first place!  Isn't that the Senate Guard's place?"

    "That's enough, Anakin!  Accept your responsibility for your own mistakes without seeking to find them in others."

____________________

    "I'm sorry, Master, to have disappointed you.  I shouldn't have let the Senator out on the balcony."

    "An error in judgment, my Padawan.  It is to be expected at your age.  Your response to the Senate Guard, however, was from wounded pride, and that has no place with a Jedi.  That's something you need to focus on, Anakin."

23 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 19 years of age)

____________________

    Obi-Wan glanced at his apprentice.  He knew Anakin had no such doubts.  Anakin did not consider the possibility of failure.  He was not haunted by his defeats.

    Other things haunted his Padawan.  Things too deep for Anakin to share at one time.

    Yet they had worked so perfectly together now.  Thoughts and feelings were shared, sometimes without speaking.  There were times when Obi-Wan thought that the shadow he sensed within Anakin was gone.  That the struggle to accept his role as the Chosen One had been conquered.  That Anakin was at ease with where he was, and the gifts that had been given him.  Obi-Wan hoped that was the case.  Anakin had shared his feelings with his Master - and the release had changed him.

____________________

    As he rounded the last corner, he saw his apprentice streaking down through the air.  Lookin up, Obi-Wan could see that Anakin had made the jump from a platform twenty stories up.

    "I'm sure there was a lift tube," Obi-Wan said as Anakin ran up.  "Or even stairs."

    Anakin grinned.  "Too slow."

____________________

    Obi-Wan stared after her.  Even the way she moved was different.  He remembered Astri striding down the streets, her curls flying, her face uplifted, her eyes alright, taking everything in.  Now she walked with her head down, her hands thrust into the deep pockets of her tunic.

    "She's afraid," he said out loud.

    "Yes," Anakin said.  "But not for herself.  For her son."

    Obi-Wan wrenched his gaze from the departing Astri and looked at his Padawan.  More and more, he was recognizing that Anakin's sensitivity to others was growing and surpassing his in some cases.  Anakin often seemed to know what secrets were inside others, what drove them to do the puzzling things they did.  It had something to do with his command of the Force, but it was more than that.

    He remembered the words of Ferus, when he had confessed his doubts about Anakin to Obi-Wan on Romin.  He had said that Anakin wanted to control everything.  Anakin's gift of seeing inside beings could turn dangerous if he tried to control the feelings he found instead of just observing them.

    But that was a Jedi lesson ingrained in every Padawan.  Anakin knew that.

____________________

    Anakin expected his Master to explode into movement.  Obi-Wan never wasted time.  Instead, Obi-Wan just looked at him.

    "So?"

    "So?" Anakin asked cautiously.

    "What next?"

    "You want me to decide?"

    Obi-Wan nodded.  "When you become a Jedi Knight, you'll have to strategize as well as act."

    There were a number of things to be done, and at first, the crowded Anakin's brain so that he wasn't sure which to do first.  But then a moment later everything was clear and he knew what to do.

    "First, we should contact Siri and Ferus and tell them what we know, so that they can concentrate their study of the water system on the area around the plaza," Anakin said.  "Then, we should contact Master Windu.  The Jedi Council needs to come up with its own plans to protect the vertex during the ceremony."

    "Good."

    "And we should request a meeting with Chancellor Palpatine," Anakin went on.  "It's the only way we can get across the seriousness of what we think is going to happen.  After all, it's just guesswork, and it could be easily dismissed.  But we should be able to convince him to increase security and put monitors on the water systems.  Though..."  Anakin tapped his fingers on the dashboard...  "If we do nothing and simply allow them to sabotage the system with the Zone, we have an advantage."

    Obi-Wan frowned.  "We do?"

    "The Jedi will not be affected, but our enemy won't know that.  Omega and the Slams will be lulled into the belief that they have succeeded.  In other words, we give them what they want in the beginning.  But we control the outcome."

    "But Anakinm that means exposing thousands of beings to the Zone."

    "It's not toxic.  The beings will have an extraordinary pleasant morning, that's all."

    Obi-Wan's frown grew deeper.  "We don't know that.  You experienced it early on.  We don't know what Zan Arbor has done to it since then.  Are you forgetting the four workers who died?"

    "But we have every reason to believe the system has been perfected."  Anakin hesitated.  He could see that he had displeased his Master.  "But of course we don't know that for sure.  So we must guard the entry points to the system so the Zone cannot be deployed."

    Obi-Wan nodded.  "Anything else?"

    Anakin thought briefly.  "No.  Not at the moment."

    "I agree.  Let's go."

____________________

    They headed for the Senate.  While Obi-Wan called ahead to request a meeting with Chancellor Palpatine, Anakin brooded on his mistake.  He had seen the uneasiness in his Master's eyes, though it had passed quickly.  Sometimes he made mistakes and wasn't sure why they were wrong.  He knew that his Master's deepest desire was to capture Omega.  Anakin wondered how much it was permissible to risk in order to accomplish that.  How much risk was too much?  Who was the best to judge?  He wished he could ask Obi-Wan those questions, but he didn't want to displease him further.

____________________

    A red light began to glow on Palpatine's comlink.

    "The most serious alert," he murmured, and accessed it.  He listened for a moment, then shut it down.  "It could be nothing.  A valve in a water tunnel won't function.  They wouldn't have noticed it, but when they shut down the water system, the valve came up as non-functioning."

    "Where?"

    Palpatine gave him the coordinates, and Obi-Wan turned to Anakin.  "Stay with the Chancellor."

    "But Master-"

    "Anakin, stay!  Don't leave him!"  Obi-Wan's order floated back to Anakin as his Master ran off.

____________________

    He felt the Force move, a boiling mass that caused him and Siri to jump to their feet on top of the cruiser.  Anakin was up, hanging in midair for the second it took him to slash through the windscreen directly in front of a shocked Omega.  He jumped directly on top of the melted material, material that must have been too hot to stand on.  Zan Arbor screamed as the melted windscreen fell into her lap.

    Obi-Wan had never seen such speed.  Even he could not fully track his apprentice's movement.  Balancing on the lip of the cruiser, faster than sight, Anakin reached in and grabbed the transmitter from Omega's clutches.

____________________

    "You left the Supreme Chancellor."

    "Ferus was there."

    "You could have contacted me."

    "There wasn't time."

    "And now there are hundreds of seeker droids heading to the Senate and only one Jedi available to protect Chancellor Palpatine and the Senators."

    Obi-Wan saw Anakin's mouth tighten.  He grew less and less open to correction from his Master.  It had been the opposite for Obi-Wan.  The longer they were together, the more he welcomed Qui-Gon's remarks, even when they were critical.

23 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 19 years of age)

____________________

    "Don't say anything," Obi-Wan said in a low tone.  "Follow me."

    Anakin's face was hot.  He followed his Master through the hallway and onto the turbolift.  He watched the levels count off as he slowed his breaths, fighting for control.

    Obi-Wan led the way out of the turbolift and into the Room of the Thousand Fountains.  Anakin knew his Master had chosen this site deliberately.  The soft splash of the fountains were a calming aid to all Jedi.  The room smelled of green growth, and the refracted light of the water gave the air a soft radiance.

    None of this worked to calm him.  He wanted to fight against it.

    "How did it happen?" Anakin asked, as soon as he was sure they were alone.  "How could it happen?  I don't understand!"

    "Anakin, of course you're disappointed," Obi-Wan said.  "It is natural to want to be first."

    "I am first!" Anakin exploded.  "I was always first in my class.  First in lightsaber training.  First in the Force."

    Obi-Wan frowned.  "There is no such thing.  We don't rank students at the Temple."

    "That is was is said," Anakin answered.  "But it's not the reality, and you know it."

    Obi-Wan took a breath.  "How good you are is not the point."

    "What makes Ferus better?"

    "That is not the point either.  The fact is he is ready!"  Obi-Wan's voice was raised, and that didn't happen very often.  Anakin could see that he was pushing his Master to the limit.

    But he couldn't stop.  Not on something that was this important to him.  "I'm ready!" he insisted.  "I am just as ready as he is."

    "That is something you cannot know," Obi-Wan said, shaking his head.  "It is not for the Padawan to know.  It is for the Master and the Council."

    Obi-Wan's words stopped Anakin in his tracks.  A sudden knowledge seared his brain.

    "You agreed with them," he said.  "You voted for Ferus!"

    "It was not a vote."

    "You agreed-"

    "It was a discussion," Obi-Wan interrupted.  "To which all Masters were invited."

    "You're not answering me."

    Obi-Wan paused.  "Yes, I agreed with the Council's choice."

    Anakin felt as though he had received a sharp prod from an electrojabber.

    "Anakin."  Obi-Wan made a move to put his hands on Anakin's shoulders, but did not actually touch him, knowing somehow that Anakin would push him off.  "This is not about your skills, your commitment, or your abilities.  This is about whether you are ready.  There is a difference."

    "You don't think I'm ready."  Anakin could hear how wooden his voice sounded.

    "I think Ferus is.  That does not mean I think he will make a better Jedi.  It only means that I think he is ready now."

    ...

    "I can feel your anger," Obi-Wan said.  "Take care."

    He did not want to take care.  He wanted to punch something.

    "Your focus on who gets to be Master first is only reinforcing the rightness of the Council's decision," Obi-Wan went on.  "You're treating this like a contest.  You are not emotionally ready to be a Jedi.  Decisions like this must be accepted."

    "You do not need to quote Jedi teachings," Anakin said through his teeth.  "I know them well.  Better even than Ferus, though that doesn't seem to make a difference."

    Obi-Wan's face was tight.  "You need a little time to compose yourself.  We can discuss this further if you like.  I'll leave you now."

    Obi-Wan turned away.  His shoulders were tense.  He took a few steps, then relented.  He turned back.

    "I believe in you, Anakin," he said.

____________________

    Anakin felt a touch on his shoulder and turned.  No one was behind him.  Perhaps it had been a leaf brushing his shoulder - but he knew, of course, that there were no trees on Korriban.

    Another touch - Anakin whipped around.  He looked at Ferus, wondering if he was trying to play a trick on him, but Ferus was several meters back, talking to Soara.

    He began to pick up a whisper.  Then another.  He couldn't make out the words, only the intent.  Someone was baiting him, cajoling him, laughing at him... or was it his imagination?  Was it just the wind whispering through the stones?

    They crossed the street and he thought he saw a flash of something - blood coursing down on a stone wall.  When he blinked, it was gone."

    "Master..."

    "It is the Dark side of the Force, Anakin," Obi-Wan said.  "I'm picking it up, too.  Ignore it."

    But Anakin couldn't ignore it.  There was something insistent about the voices.  Something that urged him to answer.  Although the feeling made him anxious, he also wanted to face it.  He wanted to get to the root of this dark power... to match himself against it... to prove, once and for all, that he was as strong as it was.

____________________

    He saw movement ahead and realized he had found Anakin.  Relief flooded him, rendering him weak for a moment.  He had been so afraid, and now he wondered momentarily at his fear.  It seemed out of proportion to what he knew of Anakin's skills.  All he knew was that he had an overwhelming need to protect his Padawan from the Sith, to stand between Anakin and the Dark side.  Natural, he supposed.

    Anakin was moving quickly, hugging the wall of the hangar.  His focus was so intent that he did not sense Obi-Wan behind him.  Obi-Wan noted this with alarm.  How many times had he warned Anakin to never focus only on the goal ahead, but to cast his attention like a net, as far around him as he could?  He should have sensed his Master.

____________________

    Obi-Wan glanced at Anakin.  "You're hurt," he said, concerned.

    "It's nothing."

    "This is only the beginning of the battle, Anakin," Obi-Wan warned sternly.  "Let me treat it."

    Anakin bared his arm.  Quickly, Obi-Wan administered bacta.  The burning sensation lessened somewhat.  Anakin felt the coolness of the medicine on his skin.  Gratefully, he shrugged his arm back into his tunic.  He thanked his Master with his gaze.

____________________

    Obi-Wan held up his lightsaber.  From its glow they could see pictographs on the walls, images scrawled in red that had faded.  Images of deeds done by the Sith.  Wars.  Massacres.  Anakin turned his face away.

    Join us darkness conquer dominace glory...

    Anakin saw one of the shrouds rise.  The layers of gray, shredding rages fell away.  He gasped in shock.  It was his mother, Shmi.

    "Annie," she called.  "Annie."

    "Mother."  The word was wrenched out of his belly.  How much had he longed to say that word again, to see her again?  It was the Jedi who kept him from her, the Jedi who had taken him away...

    "Anakin!"  Obi-Wan's voice was sharp.  "It's a vision.  Nothing more."

    Anakin swallowed.  The shroud was back in the crypt.  He gazed at the others, embarrassed.  Ferus looked at him with pity.  Pity!  His hatred for Ferus flooded him again.  He had embarrassed himself in front of Ferus!

____________________

    Then the darkness came alive with visions.  The Sith Lords, mighty in their armor, terrifying in their decaying, bloodied faces.  They rushed at the Jedi, only to disappear in a shower of splintered shadow.  Anakin tried not to flinch, to keep his eyes on the blaster fire, but the confusion was everywhere.

    The Dark side of the Force was like a presence, interfering with concentration and sapping energy.  The Jedi reached out to one another, calling on the Force to battle the Dark side, the undead who kept on coming.

    Anakin saw Shmi rise and fall, rise and fall.  He felt the familiar need, the familiar guilt.  The feelings overwhelmed him and Obi-Wan had to leap in front of him to protect him from a detonator heading his way.  Obi-Wan swiped it out of the air.

    They didn't choose me, and yet I fight for them, Anakin thought in anger.  They chose Ferus, and yet I must fight to protect him, protect them.  My Master didn't protect me, why am I doing this?

    A phantom Sith Lord smiled at him.  Reached out a hand.

    "Anakin," Obi-Wan's voice was close.  "Keep your focus."

    His focus.  Yes.  Of course the Dark side would go after him, not just with phantom Sith, but phantoms in his brain.  Thoughts that weren't his.  Anakin reached out to the Force to help him battle the voices.  He felt his head clear.

____________________

    "Anakin, I've been looking for you."

    He turned automatically.  "Do you need me?"

    "No, I...  Anakin?  Is something wrong?"

    "Ferus has resigned from the Jedi Order."

    Obi-Wan let out a breath.  "I was afraid he would do something... like that.  He feels Darra's death so strongly."  There was a lost look in Obi-Wan's eyes as he gazed down the empty hallway.  "The legacy of this mission is pain."

    Anakin wanted to take away the remote look on his Master's face.  He didn't want Obi-Wan to care so much about what happened to Ferus.  "The legacy of this mission is that a great enemy has been defeated.  I saw you strike him down."

    "That is not an act that should bring you satisfaction, my young Padawan," Obi-Wan said sternly.  "I took a life."

    "It was done as a last resort.  And it rid the galaxy of a great evil.  There is was necessary and right."

    "Necessary - yes.  But right?"  Obi-Wan shook his head.  "That is not a word to throw around lightly.  We cannot say what is right.  We can only do our best."  Obi-Wan's gaze warmed.  "As you do, Padawan.  You never give less than your best.  I'm proud of the Jedi you have become."

    Anakin was moved.  His Master so rarely spoke this way.  "Thank you, Master."

    Obi-Wan gave him a long look.  "And... I wanted to tell you.  The Jedi Council has decided that they won't speed up the trials for Padawans.  Your Knighthood will have to wait a bit longer."

    Anakin absorbed this news.  So there was no chance, then.  He would have to wait.  It didn't matter what he did, how well he performed.

    "When the time is right, you'll take the trials, and I have no doubt that you will astonish us all.  Until then, we will work together.  There is so much left to do, and I'm grateful to have you by my side for a little longer."  Obi-Wan paused.  "Anakin?  Are you all right?"

    He was all right, Anakin suddenly realized.  The weakness in his knees he'd felt when he saw Tru walk away was gone.  In a strange way, the mission had strengthened him.  He had a stronger conviction now, a harder edge to fight with.  Everything had fallen away from him - his childhood, his friends, his wish to impress the Jedi Council.

    He would never be helpless again.

    He would only grow stronger.

    He had fought with a Sith and seen true power.  One day he would be able to match it.  He would be able to fight it.  Not yet.  But someday.  Soon.

    As a boy, he hadn't wanted things to change.  He wanted to keep those he loved close to him forever.  Yet everything did change.  He was far from his mother.  He had lost Darra.  Tru.  And Qui-Gon.  He couldn't fight against those kinds of losses.  So be it.  He would have to push them down until they didn't matter anymore.

    One day, he would face his worst loss, the loss of his Master.  By surpassing him, he would lose him.  He pictured Obi-Wan turning to him in slow surprise, grasping for the first time the true extent of his power.  Seeing that the student had outstripped the teacher.

    On that day, Anakin's heart would break for the last time.  He would feel the weight of impossible sorrow.

    He would not be able to bear that sorrow.  Unless he no longer had a heart.

____________________

23 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 19 years of age)

____________________

    "We could ask the city authorities for assistance," Anakin proposed hopefully.

    Obi-Wan set the suggestion aside.  "That's all we need now, at this delicate stage of negotiations.  To confess to our hosts that one of our own has gone missing, and that we were helpless to prevent it.  How much confidence in our perceived omnipotence do you think that admission would inspire?"

    Anakin nodded understandingly.  "I see what you mean, Master.  Sometimes I am too direct."

    "A common affliction of the inexperienced, for which you are not responsible."

____________________

    At first, Obi-Wan thought his Padawan might be having some trouble with the other guard.  When he saw that Anakin was only toying with him, the Jedi frowned and started toward the battling pair.  As soon as he saw his Master approaching, Anakin finished off his opponent with a quick cut to the neck.  The Qulun collapsed into the muddy, short grass.

    Deactivating his lightsaber, Obi-Wan looked down at the dead Ansionian, then up at this Padawan.  Though a burst of lightning threw their faces and bodies into a sharp relief, it could not illuminate the tension between them.

    "What was that about, Padawan?"  The Jedi's voice was perfectly uninflected.

    "Nothing, Master."  His face a mask of innocence, Anakin belted his lightsaber.  "He was faster than I thought."

    Kenobi considered his pupil in silence.  Then he nodded once.  "Have a care, Anakin, lest next time your opponent is even faster than that."  Stepping past his Padawan, he gestured curtly.  "Come on.  We've lost too much time here already."

____________________

    Unbeknownst to him, Anakin continued to observe his mentor from a distance.  Most of the time, he reflected, it was impossible to tell what his Master was thinking.  Was that the fate of all Jedi - to gradually grow solitary, withdrawn, and distant?  Looking at the young woman riding along beside him, it was difficult to envision such a melancholic transformation overtaking the spirited and energetic Barriss.  His fellow Padawan was full of life.  And to be fair, he told himself, Luminara Unduli was for more animated than Obi-Wan.  Was it only male Jedi, then, who were destined to live lives of endless solemn introspection?

    That would not happen to him, he vowed silently.  Whatever the future brought, he resolved it would not include the life of dour reserve that seemed to afflict Master Obi-Wan.  He recalled the marvelous, spirited storytelling performance his teacher had put on for the enthralled Yiwa.  Was he judging Obi-Wan too harshly?  Was it the Jedi's fault that he had never felt the kind of stirrings that moved his Padawan to stare for hours on end at the night sky and call out in silence to a certain distant star?  His teachings told him to be compassionate when faced with the deprivation of others.  Even a student could spare sympathy for a teacher, he decided.  Then and there he resolved to always keep that in mind when arguing with Obi-Wan.

    If I should ever forget this vow, he concluded firmly, it will be because I am no longer the person I have chosen to be.

22 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 20 years of age)

____________________

    "You reset the coordinates!"

    "Just to lengthen our time in hyperspace a bit.  We'll come out closer to the planet."

    "We cannot exit hyperspace too close to Coruscant's approach lanes.  There's too much congestion for a safe flight.  I've already explained this to you."

    "But -"

    "Anakin."

    "Yes, Master."

    "I know you're anxious to get there.  We have been too long away from home.  Never do this again."

    He was indeed anxious to get there, though not for the reason Obi-Wan had stated.  It wasn't the Jedi Temple that beckoned to the Padawan, but rather a rumor he had heard over the comm-chatter that a certain Senator, formerly the Queen of Naboo, was on her way to address the Senate.

    Padme Amidala.

    The name resonated in young Anakin's heart and soul.  He hadn't seen her in a decade, not since he, along with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, had helped her in her struggle against the Trade Federation on Naboo.  He had only been nine years old at that time, but from the moment he had first laid eyes on Padme, young Anakin had known that she was the woman he would marry.

____________________

    "I don't need more security," Padme said, addressing Typho initially, but turning to regard Obi-Wan as she continued.  "I need answers.  I want to know who is trying to kill me.  I believe that there might lie an issue of the utmost importance to the Senate.  There is something more here..."  She stopped as a frown crossed Obi-Wan Kenobi's face.

    "We're here to protect you, Senator, not to start an investigation," he said in calm and deliberate tones, but even as he finished, Anakin contradicted him.

    "We will find out who's trying to kill you Padme," the Padawan insisted.  "I promise you."

    As soon as he finished, Anakin recognized his error, one that clearly showed on the scowl that Obi-Wan flashed his way.  He had been fashioning a response to Padme in his thoughts, and had hardly even registered his Master's explanation before he had blurted out the obviously errant words.  Now he could only bite his lip and lower his gaze.

    "We will not exceed our mandate, my young Padawan learner!" Obi-Wan said sharply, and Anakin was stung to be so dressed down publicly - especially in front of this particular audience.

    "I meant, in the interest of protecting her, Master, of course."

    His justification sounded inane even to Anakin.

    "We will not go through this exercise again, Anakin," Obi-Wan continued.  "You will pay attention to my lead."

    Anakin could hardly believe that Obi-Wan was continuing to do this in front of Padme.  "Why?" he asked, turning the question and debate, trying desperately to regain some footing and credibility.

    "What?" Obi-Wan exclaimed, as taken aback as Anakin had ever seen him, and the young Padawan knew that he was pushing too far and too fast.

    "Why else do you think we were assigned to her, if not to find the killer?" he asked, trying to bring a measure of calm back to the situation.  "Protection is a job for local security, not for Jedi.  It's overkill, Master.  Investigation is implied in our mandate."

    "We will do exactly as the Council has instructed," Obi-Wan countered.  "And you will learn your place, young one."

____________________

    "You look tired," Obi-Wan said to Anakin in the adjoining room.

    The Padawan, still standing, opened his eyes and came out of his meditative trance.  He took a moment to register the words, and then gave a little shrug, not disagreeing.  "I don't sleep well anymore."

    That was hardly news to Obi-Wan.  "Because of your mother?" he asked.

    "I don't know why I keep dreaming about her now," Anakin answered, frustration coming through in his voice.  "I haven't seen her since I was little."

    "Your love for her was, and remains, deep," Obi-Wan said.  "That is hardly reason for despair."

    "But these are more than..." Anakin started to say, but he stopped and sighed and shook his head.  "Are they dreams, or are they visions?  Are they images of what has been, or do they tell of something that is yet to be?"

    "Or are they just dreams?" Obi-Wan said, his gentle smile showing through his scraggly beard.  "Not every dream is a premonition, some vision or some mystical connection.  Some dreams are just... dreams, and even Jedi have dreams, young Padawan."

    Anakin didn't seem very satisfied with that.  He just shook his head again.

    "Dreams pass in time," Obi-Wan told him.

    "I'd rather dream of Padme," Anakin replied with a sly smile.  "Just being around her again is... intoxicating."

    Obi-Wan's sudden frown erased both his and Anakin's smiles.  "Mind your thoughts, Anakin," he scolded in no uncertain tone.  "They betray you.  You've made a commitment to the Jedi Order, a commitment not easily broken, and the Jedi stand on such relationships is uncompromising.  Attachment is forbidden."

____________________

    Just another five hundred stories to the ground!  He tried to find his sense of calm, tried to fall into the Force and accept this unwelcome end.

    And then a speeder swooped beside him and he saw that cocky smile of his unruly Padawan, and never in his life had Obi-Wan Kenobi been happier to see anything.

    "Hitchhikers usually stand on the platforms," Anakin informed him, and he swooped the speeder near enough for Obi-Wan to grab on.  "A novel approach, though.  Gets the attention of passing traffic."

    Obi-Wan was too busy clawing his way into the passenger seat to offer a retort.  He finally settled in next to Anakin.

    "I almost lost you there," the Padawan remarked.

    "No kidding.  What took you so long?"

    Anakin eased back in his seat, putting his left arm up on the door of the open speeder and assuming a casual posture.  "Oh, you know, Master," he said flippantly.  "I couldn't find a speeder I really liked.  One with an open cockpit, of course, and with the right speed capabilities to catch your droid scooter.  And then, you know, I had to hold out for just the right color -"

    "There!" Obi-Wan shouted, pointing up to a closed-in speeder, recognizing it as the one behind the assassin who had been shooting at him.  It soared above them, and Anakin cut hard on the wheel and the stick, angling in fast pursuit.

    Almost immediately, an arm came out of the lead speeder's open window, holding a blaster piston, and the bounty hunter squeezed off a series of shots.

    "If you'd spend as much time working on your lightsaber skills as you do on your wit, young Padawan, you would rival Master Yoda!" Obi-Wan said, and he ducked, getting jostled about, as Anakin cut a series of evasive turns.

    "I thought I already did."

    "Only in your mind, my very young Padawan," Obi-Wan retorted.  He gave a little cry and ducked reflexively as Anakin dived in and out of traffic, narrowly missing several vehicles.  "Careful!  Hey, easy!  You know I don't like it when you do that!"

    "Sorry, I forgot you don't like flying, Master!" Anakin said, his voice rising at the end as he took the speeder down suddenly to avoid another blaster bolt from the stubborn bounty hunter.

    "I don't mind flying," Obi-Wan insisted.  "But what you're doing is suicide!"  His words nearly caught in his throat, along with his stomach, as Anakin cut hard to the right, then dropped suddenly, punched the throttle, pulled back to the left, and lifted the nose, zipping the speeder up through the traffic lane and back in sight of the bounty hunter - only to see another line of blaster bolts coming at them.

    The the bounty hunter dived to the side suddenly, and both Jedi opened their eyes and their mouths wide, their screams drowned out by a commuter train crossing right in front of them.

    Obi-Wan tasted bile again, but somehow, Anakin managed to avoid the train, coming out the other side.  Obi-Wan looked over to his Padawan, to see him assuming a casual, in-control posture.

    "Master, you know I've been flying since before I could walk," Anakin said with a sly grin.  "I'm very good at this."

    "Just slow down," Obi-Wan instructed, in a voice that suggested the dignified Jedi Knight was about to throw up.

    Anakin ignored him, taking the speeder in fast pursuit of the assassin, right into a line of giant trucks.  Around and around they went, cutting fast corners through the traffic, over the traffic, under the traffic, and around the buildings, always keeping the assassin's speeder in sight.  Anakin took his craft right up on edge, skimming the side of one building.

    "He can't lose me," the Padawan boasted.  "He's getting desperate."

    "Great," Obi-Wan answered dryly.

    "Oh, wait," Obi-Wan added when the speeder in front dived into a tram tunnel.  "Don't go in there!"

    But Anakin zoomed right in, and then zoomed right back out, a huge rushing train chasing him, Obi-Wan screaming about as loudly as the train was blowing its horn.  "You know I don't like it when you do that!"

    "Sorry, Master," Anakin answered unconvincingly.  "Don't worry.  This guy's going tokill himself any minute now."

    "Well, let him do that alone!" Obi-Wan insisted.

    They watched as the assassin zoomed right into traffic, soaring the wrong way down a congested lane.

    Anakin went in right behind.

    Both speeders zigged and zagged wildly, frantically, the occasional blaster bolt shooting back from the lead one.  And then, suddenly, the assassin cut fast, straight up, a tight loop that brought Zam behind the two Jedi.

    "Great move," Anakin congratulated.  "I got one, too."  He slammed on the brakes, reversing thrust, and the assassin's speeder flashed up right beside them.

    And there was the assassin, firing point blank at Obi-Wan.

    "What are you doing?" Obi-Wan demanded.  "He's going to blast me!"

    "Right," Anakin agreed, working frantically to maneuver away.  "This isn't working."

    "Nice of you to notice."  Obi-Wan dodged, then lurched as the speeder dropped suddenly, Anakin taking it right under the assassin's.

    "He can't shoot us down here," the Padawan congratulated himself, but his smile lasted only the split second it took for their opponent's new tactic to register.  The assassin swerved out of the traffic lane and shot straight for a building, coming in at an angle to just skim the rooftop.

    Obi-wan started to shout Anakin's name, but the word came out as "Ananananana."  The Padawan was in control, though, and he slowed and lifted his speeder's nose just up over the edge of the rooftop.

    Another obstacle showed itself almost immediately, a large craft coming in low and slow.

    "It's landing!" Obi-Wan shouted, and when Anakin didn't immediately respond, he added desperately, "On us!"

    It came out, "On uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!" as Anakin brought the speeder up on edge and zipped around a corner, clipping a flagpole and taking its cloth contents free.

    "Clear that," the seemingly unshakable Padawan said, nodding down to the torn flag, which had caught itself on one of the speeder's front air scoops.

    "What?"

    "Clear the flag!  We're losing power!  Hurry!"

    Complaining under his breath with every movement, Obi-Wan crawled out of the cockpit and gingerly onto the front engine.  He bent low and tugged the flag free, and the speeder lurched forward, nearly dislodging him.

    "Don't do that!" he screamed.  "I don't like it when you do that!"

    "So sorry, Master."

    "He's heading for the power refinery," Obi-Wan said.  "But take it easy.  It's dangerous near those power couplings."

    Anakin zoomed right past one of the couplings, and a huge electrical bolt had the air crackling all about them.

    "Slow down!" Obi-Wan ordered.  "Slow down!  Don't go through there!"

    But Anakin did just that, banking left, right, left.

    "What are you doing?"

    "Sorry, Master!"

    More bolts crackled all about them.  Right, left, right again, up and over, down and around, and somehow, incredibly, out the other side.

    "Oh, that was good," Obi-Wan admitted.

    "That was crazy," the rattled Anakin corrected.  The older Jedi snapped a glare at him, recognized the greenish color that had suddenly come to the Padawan's face, and then just put his head in his hands and groaned.

    "Got him now!" Anakin announced.  The assassin was sliding his speeder sidelong around a corner between two buildings p ahead.

    Anakin went right around behind, only to find the leader speeder stopped and blocking the alleyway, the assassin leaning out the door, blaster pistol leveled.

    "Ah, blast," the Padawan remarked.

    "Stop!" Obi-Wan told him, and both ducked as a line of bolts came at them.

    "No, we can make it!" Anakin insisted, punching the throttle.

    He dived his speeder under the assassin's, barely missing it, then went up on edge, slipping through a small gap in the building.  But there were pipes there, and no level of flying could put the speeder safely through them.  They bounced sidelong, then slipped end over end, narrowly missing a giant crane and clipping some struts.  The damage brought forth a giant fiery gas ball, nearly immolating them, and in the uncontrolled spin that followed, they bounced off yet another building and the speeder stalled out.

    Anakin winced, expected a line of curses to come at him, but when he finally looked at Obi-Wan, he saw the Jedi staring straight ahead, eyes wide and unblinking, and saying "I'm crazy, I'm crazy, I'm crazy..." over and over again.

    "But it worked," Anakin dared to say.  "We made it."

    "It didn't work!" Obi-Wan yelled at him.  "We've stalled!  And you almost got us killed!"

    Anakin looked down at his hands and body, and waggled his fingers.  "I think we're still alive!"  He grinned, trying to disarm his fuming Master, but Obi-Wan seemed as if he was about to explode.

    "It was stupid!" Obi-Wan roared.

    Anakin worked wildly, trying to restart the speeder.  "I could have made it," he protested sheepishly.  His confident expression strengthened as the speeder roared back to life.

    "But you didn't!  And now we've lost him!"

    Even as Obi-Wan finished, a barrage of laser bolts rained down around them, setting off explosions that rocked them back and forth.  The pair looked up, to see the assassin zooming away.

    "No, we didn't," a smiling Anakin said.  He took the speeder up, the sudden thrust violently throwing them both back in their seats.  They came through the area of smoke and carnage with several small fires burning on their speeder.  Obi-Wan slapped at flames on the control panel.

    Again they chased the assassin into the main travel lanes, dodging and turning fast about incoming traffic.  Up ahead, the assassin cut fast to the left, between two buildings, and Anakin responded, going right and up.

    "Where are you going?" a perplexed Obi-Wan asked.  "He went down there, the other way."

    "This is a shortcut.  I think."

    "What do you mean, you think?  What kind of shortcut?  He went completely the other way!  You've lost him!"

    "Master, if we keep this chase going, that creep's going to end up deep-fried," Anakin tried to explain.  "Personally, I'd very much like to find out who he is, and who he's working for."

    "Oh," Obi-Wan replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  "So that's why we're going in the wrong direction."

    Anakin took them up and around, finally settling into a hover some fifty stories up from the street.

    "Well, you lost him," Obi-Wan said.

    "I'm deeply sorry, Master," Anakin replied.  Again, he seemed hardly convincing, as if he wasy saying just what he had to say to keep Obi-Wan from scolding him further.  The Jedi Knight looked at him hard, ready to call him on it, when he noticed that Anakin, seemingly deep in concentration, was counting softly.  

    "Excuse me for a moment," the Padawan said.  He stood up and, to Obi-Wan's complete shock, stepped out of the speeder.

    Obi-Wan lurched over to the edge and stared down, watching Anakin drop - about five stories, before landing atop the roof of a familiar speeder that was zooming beneath them.

    "I hate it when he does that," Obi-Wan muttered incredulously, shaking his head.

____________________

    "Anakin!"  Obi-Wan walked toward the young Jedi, pointedly holding Anakin's dropped lightsaber in his hand.

    "She went into that club, Master!"

    Obi-Wan patted his hand in the air to calm the Padawan, not even registering Anakin's use of the feminine pronoun.  "Patience," he said.  "Use the Force, Anakin.  Think."

    "Sorry, Master."

    "He went in there to hide, not run," Obi-Wan reasoned.

    "Yes, Master."

    Obi-Wan held the lightsaber out toward his student.  "Next time, try not to lose it."

    "Sorry, Master."

    Obi-Wan pulled the precious weapon back as Anakin reached for it, and held the young Padawan's gaze with his own stern look.  "A Jedi's lightsaber is his most precious possession."

    "Yes, Master."  Again, Anakin reached for the lightsaber, and again, Obi-Wan pulled it back, never letting Anakin go from his scrutinizing stare.

    "He must keep it with him at all times."

    "I know, Master," Anakin replied, a bit of exasperation creeping into his tone.

    "This weapon is your life."

    "I've heard this lesson before."

    Obi-Wan held it out again, finally relinquishing that awful stare, and Anakin took the weapon and replaced it on his belt.

    "But you haven't learned anything, Anakin," the Jedi Knight said, turning away.

    "I try, Master."

    There was sincerity in his tone, Obi-Wan clearly recognized, and a bit of regret, perhaps, that reminded Obi-Wan of the difficult circumstances under which Anakin had entered the Order.  He had been far too old, nearly ten years of age, and Master Qui-Gon had taken him in without permission, without the blessing of the Jedi Council.  Master Yoda had seen potential danger in young Anakin Skywalker.  No one they had ever encountered had been stronger in the Force, in terms of sheer potential.  But the Jedi Order normally required training from the earliest possible age.  The Force was too powerful a tool - no, not a tool, and that was the problem.  An unwise Jedi might consider the Force a tool, a means to his own ends.  But a true Jedi understood that the Force was a partner on a concurrent course, a common pathway to true harmony and understanding.

    After Qui-Gon's death at the hands of a Sith Lord, the Jedi Council had rethought their discussion about young Anakin, and had allowed his training to go forward, with Obi-Wan fulfilling his promise to Qui-Gon that he would take the talented young boy under his tutelage.  The Council had been hesitant, though, and obviously not happy about it.  Yoda had seemed almost resigned, as if this path was one that they could not deny, rather than one they would willingly and eagerly walk.  For the whispers spoke of Anakin as the Chose One, the one who would bring balance to the Force.

    Obi-Wan wasn't sure what that meant, and he was more than a little fearful.  He looked up at Anakin, who was standing patiently, properly subdued after the tongue-lashing, and he took comfort in that image, in this incredibly likable, somewhat stubborn, and obviously brash young man.

    He hid his smile only because it would not do for Anakin to understand himself forgiven so easily for his rash actions and the loss of his weapon.

    Obi-Wan had to disguise a chuckle as a cough.  After all, hadn't he been the one who had leapt out through a window hundreds of stories above the streets of Coruscant?

____________________

    "Why do I think that you're going to be the death of me?" Obi-Wan commented above the clamor.

    "Don't say that, Master," Anakin replied seriously, and the intensity of his tone surprised Obi-Wan.  "You're the closest thing I have to a father.  I love you, and I don't want to cause you pain."

    "Then why don't you listen to me?"

    "I will," Anakin said eagerly.  "I'll do better.  I promise."

____________________

    Another image invaded Obi-Wan's meditations as he tried to sort through that puzzle, an image of Anakin and Padme together on Naboo.

    The Jedi Knight started, suddenly afraid that this was a premonition, and that some danger would visit his Padawan and the young Senator...

    But no, he realized, settling back.  No danger was about; the two were relaxed and at play.

    Obi-Wan's relief lasted only as long as it took him to realize that the continuing scene in his mind might be the most dangerous thing of all.  He dismissed it, though, unsure if this was a premonition, an image of reality, or just his own fears playing out before him.  Obi-Wan pointedly reminded himself that the sooner he solved the mystery of Kamino, the mystery of who so desperately wanted Amidala dead, the sooner he could return to Anakin and offer the proper guidance.

    The Jedi Knight focused again on the bust of Count Dooku, searching for insights, but for some reason, the image of Anakin kept becoming interposed with that of the renegade Count...

____________________

    Obi-Wan turned a smirk her way, or started to, but then he saw a Geonosian speeder soaring away, an unmistakable figure in the open cockpit.  Two fighters flanked the speeder, the trio heading fast away from the main fighting.  "Look!  Over there!"

    "It's Dooku!" Anakin cried.  "Shoot him down!"

    "We're out of ordnance, sir," the clone captain replied.

    "Follow him!" Anakin ordered.

    The pilot put the ship up on its side, banking fast to turn into a straight run for the fleeing Count.

    "We're going to need some help," Padme remarked.

    "No, there's no time," said Obi-Wan.  "Anakin and I can handle this."

    As the gunship began to close, the fighters flanking Dooku banked away suddenly, veering off left and right, turning to engage.  The clone pilot of the gunship was up to the task, weaving his way through their fire, but then another blast rocked the ship, and with the vehicle up on edge, Obi-Wan and Anakin had to hold on tight and scramble to stay in.

    Padme wasn't so fortunate.

    One moment, she was beside Anakin, and then she was gone, tumbling out the open dropdoor.

    "Padme!" Anakin screamed.  Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, and he couldn't catch her, couldn't reach out fast enough.

    She tumbled down and hit the ground hard, and lay very still.

    "Padme!" Anakin cried again, and then he yelled to the clone pilot, "Put the ship down!"

    Obi-Wan stood before him, his hands on Anakin's shoulders, holding him steady and firm.  "Don't let your personal feelings get in the way," he reminded his Padawan.  He turned to the pilot.  "Follow that speeder."

    Anakin pushed to the side, peering over his Master's shoulder, and growled, "Lower the ship!"

    Obi-Wan turned to face him again, and this time, his look was not so sympathetic.  "Anakin," he said flatly, showing that there was no room for debate.  "I can't take Dooku alone.  I need you.  If we catch him, we can end this war right now.  We have a job to do."

    "I don't care!" Anakin yelled at him.  He pushed out to the side again and yelled at the pilot, "Put the ship down!"

    "You will be expelled from the Jedi Order!" Obi-Wan said, his grim look showing no room for any argument.

    The blunt statement hit Anakin hard.  "I can't leave her," he said, his voice suddenly little more than a whisper.

    "Come to your senses," said the uncompromising Obi-Wan.  "What do you think Padme would do if she were in your position?"

    Anakin's shoulders slumped.  "... She would do her duty," he admitted.  He turned and looked back toward where Padme had fallen, but they were now too far off, and there was too much dust.

____________________

    "You're going to pay for all the Jedi that you killed today, Dooku!" Anakin yelled at him, moving in determinedly.  Again he felt the tug of a determined Obi-Wan, holding him back.

    "We'll take him together," Obi-Wan explained.  "You go in slowly on the left and -"

    "No, I'm taking him now!"  And Anakin pulled away and charged ahead.

    "No, Anakin!  No!  NO!"

    Like a charging reek, the young Jedi came on, his green lightsaber ready to cut Dooku in half.  The Count looked at him out of the corner of his eye, smiling as if truly amused.

    Anakin didn't catch the cue.  His rage moved him along, as it had with the Tusken Raiders.

    But this was no simple warrior enemy.  Dooku's hand shot out toward the charging Jedi, sending forth a Force push as solid as any stone wall, and a burst of blue Force lightning, unknown to Jedi, charged all about the trapped and lifted Jedi Padawan.

    Anakin managed to hold onto his lightsaber as he went up into the air, held there by the power of the Count.  With a wave of his hand, Dooku sent Anakin flying across the room, to crash into a distant wall, where he slumped down, dazed.

22 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 20 years of age)

____________________

    "Anakin?"

    "I'm sorry, Master.  I was... meditating."

    "Out in the rain with a broken droid in your hands?  Not a meditation practice I taught you, I think."

    "I... I think I had a vision, Master.  Of the coming battle.  It did not go well."

    "Do not trust visions of the future, my young Padawan.  Keep your mind here and now.  Master Yoda has noted that lately your mind always seems to be somewhere else."

____________________

    "Anakin, wait.  I want you to remain here."

    "WHY?!  This isn't right!  I'm your best pilot!"

    "In your own eyes, perhaps.  I sense turmoil within you, Anakin - not peace.  Is there anything you would like to share with me?"

    "... Nothing, Master."

____________________

    "Alarm.  The Separatist forces must have arrived."

    "They have.  Everyone to their fighters.  Let's go, Anakin."

    "Me?!  But... you said..."

    "I've reconsidered.  You were correct.  You're our best pilot, and we need you.  I need you, Anakin."

____________________

    "Sloppy flying, Anakin?"

    "Couldn't get an angle on him in time.  The only way to save you was to fly my ship down its throat."

    "Why is it, my Padawan, that every time you rescue me, you wind up needing rescuing yourself?"

    "I don't know, Master.  I'll try to do better."

    "I know you will, Anakin."

    "Yes, Master.  I think the creature has gone, but...  What are these, Master?"

    "They fly and have teeth.  Defend yourself.  Are you alright, Anakin?"

    "Yes, Master.  I feel... at peace..."

    "Well, assuming there aren't more of those things, and assuming the large beast doesn't return, I think we may be relatively safe for the moment."

    "Except that your starfighter is sinking.  I wonder how the battle is going?"

    "Win or lose, it goes without us, Anakin.  We have a moment, and I don't know if we'll have many while this war is on.  We haven't talked much lately.  You've been distant and I've been preoccupied.  You have my trust, Anakin, and if you need to talk..."

    "Forgive me, Master - but I sense something else near...  THERE!"

    "Wait, Anakin!"

    "Greetings, Master Jedi.  We saw your ships go down and wondered if we could offer you assistance?

    "Well, since you're here..."

    "Your fleet has arrived, but the battle is still in doubt.  The city itself is in danger."

    "We'll fix that.  Won't we, Master?"

    "As the Force wills, Anakin.  We'll face it side-by-side.  Come, let's get back to the fight."

22 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 20 years of age)

____________________

    "Anakin, you're brooding again?  I've already told you that Padme will be fine.  The disturbance is still confined to the moon."

    "I'm... I'm not worried about Padme.  I was just meditating before the mission."

    "After this much meditation, you should be prepared for anything."

    "I've been ready for this mission since we reached the system.  When do we launch?"

    "Very soon.  A messenger from Naboo just arrived for a briefing."

    "Great.  Another briefing when we should be fighting."

    "Patience, Padawan."

____________________

    "We should fall back, General.  We've lost the element of surprise, and we have no intel on this new weapon."

    "I agree, Master.  We should warn the Naboo, maybe evacuate Theed!"

    "Don't let your emotions rule your mind.  This 'Durge' mentioned hostages.  Take the clone and find them."

____________________

    "Thanks for coming back for us."

    "The death of a Jedi - your death - would be an unacceptable loss.  But we need to get you back to the ship and into a bacta tank before the chemical agent kills you."

    "What will happen to Zule?"

    "She'll join the other Padawans who have lost their Masters.  I hope she finds some kind of peace with them."

    "Master, I want to go to Naboo..."

    "No.  C-3PO can tell the queen everything she needs to know.  We must return to Coruscant and warn the Jedi of this new threat."

    "I still can't believe the Confederacy would do this."

    "Believe it, Anakin.  This is the new face of war..."

22 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 20 years of age)

____________________

    "I may not be able to see them... but I know they're all around us.  Let's see the Shadowmen outrun a rock storm."

    "That was reckless."

    "I'm just getting started, Master."

    I will teach him control...

____________________

    "I hit something over here, I'm sure of it..."

    "Not quite the target you wanted?"

    "At least I fought back."

    "No.  You lashed out.  There's a difference.  You must learn to be cautious and precise in your use of the Force."

____________________

    "Master!  Get away from him!  Hold on, Master!"

    ...

    "They have us surrounded.  And we're basically blind."

    "We only think we're at a disadvantage.  We need blindfolds."

    "Master, I think you took a blow to the head..."

    "Just cover your eyes."

    "Why, so we don't see the end coming?"

    "We've been relying on our eyes, and they have failed us.  Now we will rely only on the Force."

____________________

    "I can feel Shadowmen everywhere... crawling all over the planet..."

    "I sense them, too.  But focus on those you can reach.  Don't get overwhelmed."

    "Don't worry, Master.  I have the situation well in hand...  That's strange - I'm sensing something else now..."

    "Anakin, wait!"

    "Just try to keep up, Master!"

    "Where are we going?"

    "Can't you hear it?"

    "You're not making any sense.  Hear what?"

    "The hum of machines."

____________________

    "Amazing... I didn't hear anything."

    "I guess we're just wired differently, Master."

    "There's no question about that, Anakin..."

22 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 20 years of age)

____________________

    "Anakin!  Where are you?  You're supposed to have me covered!"

    "Don't worry, Master...  I'm on my way."

    ...

    "Oops.  Near miss..."

    "I'm having a hard enough time evading the droids!"

    "Relax, Master.  If these droid starfighters are all the Confederacy can muster... we'll have this planet liberated by nightfall."

    "I'm glad you're so confident... especially since this planet's atmosphere is wreaking havoc with my sensors.  I'm flying blind - Oh, excellent!"

    "Not a problem...  Unless you're part of the local militia."

    "Good point.  Cover me.  I'm going in."

    "You are?  Isn't that a little... reckless?"

    "I thought you wanted to be done with this planet by nightfall."

____________________

    "Excellent work.  The planet is free."

    "Not quite by nightfall, but it'll do."

    "You've become quite a good pilot, Anakin.  I think the learner had finally become the Master."

    "Only in the sky, Master Kenobi.  Only in the sky..."

22 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 20 years of age)

____________________

    Within seconds, his Master had drawn his own starfighter level with Anakin's.  Obi-Wan had given the asteroids a wide berth - exactly what he was supposed to do.

    The comm-unit crackled with his Master's dry tone.  "You could have gone around them."

    "It was faster to go through them."

    "Ah.  And what do you know about the Llon Nebulae, my young apprentice?" Obi-Wan prodded.

    "Smaller cruisers are advised to proceed at minimum velocity.  Atmospheric waves can appear without warning," Anakin said dutifully.

    "And yet you decided to play 'chase the asteroid,'" Obi-Wan said sternly.  "You're too old for these childish games."

    Anakin pressed his lips together.  He couldn't explain to his Master that for him, testing his skills wasn't a childish game.  It was a necessary release.

____________________

    There was a wall between them now.  He had done things he could not tell Obi-Wan.  He knew things he could not say.  The Clone Wars had ripped the galaxy apart.  Times were difficult for all the Jedi, but Anakin knew he felt the darkness more than most.  It was like a physical presence.  It was as though he carried the weight of it in his body.

    And so he pushed the darkness away with what had always helped him forget in the past.  Speed.  Physical training.  His Jedi path.

____________________

    "What is Cyphar, Master?" Anakin asked.

    "A small but strategically located planet in the Mid-Rim," Obi-Wan answered.  "A coalition of Separatists is there right now, negotiating to establish a base.  At least the Separatists are calling it negotiation.  Threats are more like it."

    "So the fleet will orbit Cyphar during the talks in order to intimidate them," Anakin said.  "Cyphar will fear an invasion if the don't comply."

    "I'm afraid that looks like the plan," Obi-Wan said.

    "We must follow the Storm Fleet," Anakin declared.

    Obi-Wan shook his head.  "And do what?"

    "We can't just let them go!"

    "We will notify the Temple of what we have learned," Obi-Wan said.  "They'll alert the Republic and try to send ships."

    "You know we are stretched thin," Anakin said.  "Most likely there won't be ships to send.  And we are here, now."

    "This is one small battle in a very large war, Anakin," Obi-Wan said.  "The Council needs us for other things."

    Anakin set his jaw stubbornly.  "And it's all right with you?"

    "No," Obi-Wan said.  "But I can't see another way at the moment."

    A roar filled the air.  "They're taking off!" Anakin cried, then raced to his starfighter's docking bay and leaped into the cockpit.  He saw Obi-Wan dashing to his own starfighter.  Anakin took off and was followed by Obi-Wan into the stratosphere.

    Obi-Wan's voice came over the comm-unit.  "I hope you have a plan."

    "Just contact the Temple," Anakin said.  "I'll do the rest."

____________________

    Obi-Wan was so good at so many things.  He could inspire loyalty.  Shift strategies in a heartbeat.  Fight harder than any Jedi Anakin had seen.

    Yet, did he trust the Force enough?  If they were truly able to use the Force at its maximum potential, opposition would be nothing.  They could destroy enemies.  The could claim the galaxy for peace.

    "You can't do everything, Anakin," Obi-Wan said suddenly, as if he was reading his apprentice's mind.  "You must choose battles to fight."

    Anakin wanted to fight them all.  He wanted to do everything.  And he knew he could.

22 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 20 years of age)

____________________

    The Clone Wars had begun... and something had changed within Anakin Skywalker.  Something that made Obi-Wan uneasy.  And now a worry had been pushed to the forefront of his mind - had his love for Qui-Gon blinded him to the faults in Anakin for too long?

    The uneasiness he felt about Anakin, the sense of dull dread that had the power to wake him up from a deep sleep, now had a partner: the conviction that it was too late to do anything about it.

    His Master could not have foreseen all that had taken place.  Yet he had placed a sure finger on the spot that was most vulnerable in Obi-Wan.  Obi-Wan had opened his heart to Anakin because of Qui-Gon's belief that Anakin was the Chosen One.  Had he tried too hard?  Had he overlooked what he should not have overlooked?

    Love had never blinded Qui-Gon.  But it has blinded me.

    There was too great a distance between him and Anakin now, at a time when he needed to keep his Padawan even closer than before.  Every instinct told him that Anakin had been profoundly changed while they were apart before the Battle of Geonosis.  He knew that Anakin had been to Tatooine and he knew Anakin's mother was dead.  He knew that a bond had grown between Anakin and the brilliant Senator Padme Amidala.

    He sensed that some of the change was for the better.  Some not.  It was as if Anakin had grown harder - and more secretive.  One thing Obi-Wan saw clearly: Anakin had lost his boyishness.  He was a man now.

    Whatever the changes were, they did not bring Anakin peace.  Obi-Wan sensed his Padawan's restlessness, his impatience.  He saw that Anakin no longer felt the same sense of peace from the Temple.  He always wanted to be moving.  He always wanted to be somewhere else.

____________________

    "Anakin"  ...Anakin stood and turned.  Obi-Wan could see that Anakin was still not used to his new artificial hand.  He hugged that arm a little closer to his body.  The sight tore at Obi-Wan's heart.

    "Master."

    "Master Yoda had requested our presence."

    "A mission?"

    "I do not know."

    Over the past weeks there had been much to do, too much to plan - too many battles.  The Jedi Council held constant strategy sessions.  It was necessary to carefully place the Jedi where they were most needed.  Systems and planets were now vulnerable, and many were highly strategic.  The Separatists were gaining new planets with a combination of coercion and force.  Supreme Chancellor Palpatine pledged to help planets loyal to the Republic.

    "You go to the Map Room when you are troubled by something," Obi-Wan said as they walked.  "Do you want to talk about it?"

    Anakin made a restless gesture.  "What is the good of talking?"

    "It can be very good," Obi-Wan said gently.  "Anakin, I see that the past months have marked you.  I am your Master.  I am here to help you in any way I can."

    He could see his Padawan only in profile, but Anakin's mouth tightened.  "I have seen things I wish I had not seen.  I did not think so many Jedi could die.  I did not think a once-great Jedi Master could fall so far."

____________________

    "Do you believe him?" Anakin asked as they walked outside the inn.

    "I think he talks well," Obi-Wan said.  "And I don't know what to believe.  Not yet."  Would Qui-Gon have known?  He had always seemed to know who to trust.

    "You are too hard on beings sometimes," Anakin said.  "Mistakes are made.  Things happen.  That means that change can happen, too."

    "The meaning of life is change," Obi-Wan said, startled at Anakin's characterization of him.  The charge stung.  He did not think he was hard on other beings.  Perhaps that had been true once, but he had learned from Qui-Gon.  "I didn't say I didn't believe Lorian.  But I can't discount the rest of his life just because he tells me I should.  If he is in league with Dooku, we should find out what they are planning.  And if he is not league with Dooku, we should still find out."

____________________

    Distracted, he had not realized Anakin was rising until his Padawan was almost to his feet.

    "Anakin!  What are you doing?  Get down!"

    "Let's get him now," Anakin said.

    "Get down!" Obi-Wan insisted.  To his relief, Anakin crouched down again.  He faced him, his eyes full of fire and purpose.

    "We have our chance to end it here," Anakin said.  "Let's kill him.  We can take him together.  We won't make the same mistakes this time."

    "Like being reckless and rushing him without a plan?" Obi-Wan asked pointedly.  "It is what cost you your hand last time, and you are doing it again, Padawan."

    "What are we waiting for?" Anakin asked.  "We missed him at Raxus Prime, but we won't here.  If we kill him, we kill the Separatist movement.  What is one life against thousands?  Maybe millions?"

    "Anakin -"

    "He killed our brothers and sisters on Geonosis," Anakin said bitterly.  "Have you forgotten how they died?"

    "I remember it every moment," Obi-Wan said.  "But this is not the time.  This is not the way."

    "You don't know I can do," Anakin said, and there was an ominous tone in his voice.  "My connection to the Force is stronger than yours.  I'm telling you I can do it!  No matter what you say."

    Obi-Wan was shocked.  "You are still my apprentice," he said sharply.  "I am your Master.  You must obey."

    The set of Anakin's mouth was sullen.

    "Anakin, you must trust me," Obi-Wan said forcefully.  "There will be another time to face Dooku.  This is not the time."

    Anakin looked at him.  The sullen look was gone.  His gaze was clear and cool.  Obi-Wan could almost read contempt in it.  But as the thought occurred to him, the look was gone.  Had he really seen it?

    "Look below," Obi-Wan said.  "What do you think is in that transport?  Super battle droids.  We would be dead before we took two steps on that platform.  They're being unloaded now."

    Anakin looked down at the platform.  Lines of droids clicked into formation as they rolled off the transport.  Obi-Wan could see the way Anakin's mind focused on the immediate problem.  He could almost feel Anakin's anger drain away.

    But why had it been there in the first place?  Obi-Wan had a feeling he had seen a flash of something much deeper than he'd ever known before.

____________________

    "There is more going on here than the Force can sense," Anakin said, repeating Lorian's words.  "Feelings, he said.  What did he mean?"

    "I don't know," Obi-Wan said.

    "That is why we must talk to Floria," Anakin said.  He rose to his feet in one quick movement and began to run.  Obi-Wan had to put on a burst of speed to catch up.

    "Do you remember," Anakin said, "how upset she was when the body of Samish Kash was found?"

    "She had failed in her mission to protect him," Obi-Wan said.

    "I think the loss was more personal," Anakin said.  "And later, she called him 'Samish.'  Dane always calls him 'Kash.'  T think she's in love with him."

    "How is that relevant to our mission?"

    Anakin shot him a sidelong look.  Amazing that they were running hard down a mountain, and Anakin could still have the energy for a healthy dose of scorn.

    "Love is always relevant, Master," he said.

____________________

    "Lorian went up against impossible odds," Obi-Wan said.  "He was never more a Jedi than at the last."

    "So redemption is possible," Anakin said.

    "Of course it is," Obi-Wan said.  "As long as there is breath, there is hope.  If not, what are we fighting for?"

    "I wish I didn't feel that I had failed," Anakin said.  "Dooku escaped.  The Station 88 Spaceport is saved for the Republic, but for how long?  What is to stop Dooku from trying to kill them again?"

    "We are," Obi-Wan said.

    "There is such darkness ahead," Anakin said.  He stopped outside the cruiser and looked up at the stars.  They were fading in the growing light.  "I can feel it.  It weighs on me."

    You worry too much.  Qui-Gon had told Obi-Wan this, more than once.  Was that his legacy to Anakin?  He had tried to give him so much more.

    "You didn't fail here, Anakin," Obi-Wan said.  "Our mission was to ensure that the spaceport didn't fall to the Separatists, and to gather information.  We succeeded.  Dooku's villa contains valuable data."

    "A small victory," Anakin said with a curl of his lip.  "Can we win a war that way?"

    He had not reached him.  Anakin had wanted to end the Clone Wars here.  He had wanted to destroy Count Dooku.  His ambition would always be greater than every mission.  Obi-Wan saw that clearly, and it pierced him.  He had taught Anakin everything, and Anakin had learned much - but had he missed the most important things?

    I have failed, Qui-Gon.  I have failed.

    They walked up the landing ramp.  Anakin slid behind the controls.  Obi-Wan sat at the computer to enter the coordinates for their journey back.  On the surface, everything was as it had always been.

    Soon they would be ending their journey together.  They both knew it.  He had never had to bid good-bye to Qui-Gon as his Master.  He was still Qui-Gon's Padawan when he died.  Maybe that was the reason he felt so close to him still.

    He did not know if Qui-Gon would have left him with words of wisdom, with a direction to follow.  Now he had no way of knowing what else he could give Anakin.  He had given him everything he could.  It wasn't enough.

    Sadness filled Obi-Wan as they blasted into the upper atmosphere.  He loved Anakin Skywalker, but he did not truly know him.  The most important things he had to teach he had not taught.  He would have to let him go, knowing that.  He would have to let him go.

21 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 21 years of age)

____________________

    The red-and-white disk of a two passenger Limulus-class transport sliced through Coruscant's cloud-mantle.  In the morning sun it glittered like a sliver of silvered ice.  Spiral-dancing to inaudible music, it had detached its hyperdrive ring in orbit, slipping through wispy clouds to land with a shush as gentle as a kiss.  Its smooth, glassy side rippled.  A rectangular outline appeared and then slid up.  A tall, bearded man wrapped in a brown robe stepped into the doorway and hopped down, followed by a second, clean-shaven passenger.

    The bearded man's name was Obi-Wan Kenobi.  For more years than he cared to count, Obi-Wan had been one of the most renowned Jedi Knights in the entire Republic.  The second, a startlingly intense younger man with fine brown hair, was named Anakin Skywalker.  Although not yet a full Jedi Knight, he was already famed as one of the galaxy's most powerful warriors.

    For thirty-six hours the two had juggled flying and navigational duties, using their Jedi skills to hold their needs for sleep and sustenance to a minimum.  Obi-Wan was tired, irritable, famished, and felt as if someone had poured sand into his joints.  Anakin, he noticed, seemed fresh and ready for action.

    The recuperative powers of youth, Obi-Wan thought ruefully.

    Only an emergency directive from Supreme Chancellor Palpatine himself could have summoned the two from their assignment on Forscan VI.

    "Well, Master," Anakin said.  "I suppose this is where we part company."

    "I'm not certain what this is about," the older man replied, "but your time will be well spent studying at the Temple."

    Obi-Wan and Anakin continued down the skywalk.  Far beneath them the city streets buzzed with traffic, the walkways and ground-level construction occasionally interrupted by wisps of cloud or stray thrantcills.  The web of streets and bridges behind and below them was dazzling, but Obi-Wan noticed the beauty little more than he had the height, the fatigue, or the hunger.  At the moment, his mind was occupied by other, more urgent concerns.

    As if his Padawan could read his thoughts, Anakin spoke.  "I hope you're not still annoyed with me, Master."

    There is was, another reference to Anakin's rash actions on Forscan VI.  Forscan VI was a colony planet at the edge of the Cron Drift, currently unaffiliated with either Republic or Confederacy.  Elite Separatist infiltration agents had set up a training camp on Forscan, their "exercises" playing havoc with the settlers.  The most delicate aspect of the counter-operation was repelling those agents without ever letting the colonists know that outsiders had assisted them.  Tricky.  Dangerous.

    "No," Obi-Wan said.  "We contained the situation.  My approach is more... measured.  But you displayed your usual initiative.  You weren't disobeying a direct order, so... we'll mark it down to creative problem solving, and leave it at that."

    Anakin breathed a sigh of relief.  Powerful bonds of love an mutual respect connected the two men, but in times past Anakin's impulsiveness had tested those bonds sorely.  Still, there was little doubt that the Padawan would receive Obi-Wan's highest recommendations.  Years of observation had forced Obi-Wan to grant that Anakin's seeming impetuosity was in fact a deep and profound understanding of superior skills.

    "You were right," Anakin said, as if Obi-Wan's mild answer gave him permission to admit his own errors.  "Those mountains were impassable.  Confederacy reinforcements would have bogged down in the ice storm, but I couldn't take the chance.  There were too many lives at stake."

    "It takes maturity to admit an error," Obi-Wan said.  "I think we can keep these thoughts between us.  My report will reflect admiration for your initiative."

    The two comrades faced, and gripped each other's forearms.  Obi-Wan had no children, and likely never would.  But the unity of Padawan and Master was as deep as any parent-child bond, and in some ways deeper still.  "Good luck," Anakin said.  "Give my regards to Chancellor Palpatine."

    A hovercar slid in next to the walkway, and Anakin hopped aboard, disappearing into the sky traffic without a backward glance.

    Obi-Wan shook his head.  The boy would be fine.  Had to be fine.  If a Jedi as gifted as Anakin could not rise above youthful hubris, what hope was there for the rest of them?

21 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 21 years of age)

____________________

    "Obi-Wan!  Master!"

    "Focus, Anakin.  Keep your mind on where we are..."

    ...

    "Anakin... please tell me this isn't another of your patented rescues where we'll require the whole Republic army to get safely away."

    "No, master..."

____________________

    "I knew you were alive, Master!  I knew it!"

    "I am indeed.  Thank you for believing."

    "You look terrible."

    "How kind of you to say so.  Truth is, I feel mildly terrible.  I've not had a pleasant time."

    "It is good to see you, Obi-Wan.  And I gladly return your Padawan to you.  Perhaps he will obey you."

    "What?  Anakin not obeying?  I can't believe it!"

____________________

    "Anakin.  Tell me what you have learned during my absence."

    "Never to let you out of my sight, Master.  You simply get into too much trouble on your own."

21 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 21 years of age)

____________________

    "The first wave is on the ground, General.  No sign of enemy activity.  We'll be ready to move in three hours."

    "Very good.  Carry on, Commander.  Anakin, get your field pack.  We'll scout the - Anakin?  Anakin?"

    "Uh... Oh, sorry, Master.  You were saying?"

    "This is an important mission.  Be mindful of your duties, Padawan."

    "I was, uh, I am, Master.  It's just that-"

    "You're developing another one of your crushes?"

    "Master, No!  It's just that Master Tohno... she..."

    "She's a beautiful girl, Anakin.  But a Jedi must-"

    "No, that's not it at all.  She's so young.  It's not right that she be sent on a mission this dangerous.  I know what happened to the other Masterless Padawans - my friends - on Jabiim..."

    "I'm sorry.  I misunderstood.  The war calls on all of us, Masters and Padawans, to take risks.  Master Tohno is not much younger than you - who has faced more challenges than many of the elder Masters.  It's easy to trust in one's own abilities, Anakin.  It's harder to trust in another's - a lesson that being your Master has taught me many times."

____________________

    "Whatever you do, you must not put your troops at risk to save me.  I will complete the mission, but escape appears doubtful."

    "No!  Master Tohno, I can get you out..."

    "Anakin!  Anakin, come in!  You are to hold your position!"

    "Get me that gunship... NOW!"

    "Yes, sir."

    "Anakin, what are you doing?  Do you hear me?  Hold your position!"

    "Master, I can save her!  I know I can.  I can't let her die, too."

    "Anakin, listen to me!  Master Tohno has her mission, you have yours.  Her success won't matter if you fail!  Anakin!"

    "But, Master, if there's a chance I can save her... I have to try."

____________________

    "I'm sorry, Anakin.  I know that was difficult for you - but I'm proud of the way you completed your mission."

    "Thank you, Master, but why does our success feel like a..."

    "I know, Anakin.  Master Tohno's sacrifice was a loss.  We've seen too many of them.  But we must trust that, if we stay true to our ideals, her sacrifice will not have been in vain.  And we will keep the memory of it in our hearts."

20 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 22 years of age)

____________________

    "What do you mean he went on ahead?" Anakin Skywalker demanded, glaring at Task Force Commander Fivvic as the tall Barabel stood beside the deck officer's desk.  The deck officer, for his part, hunched diligently over his datapad and pretended he wasn't there.  "Who told him he could do that?"

    "Two points, Padawan Skywalker," the tall Barabel replied stiffly, and Anakin could sense the reflexive anger of his species stirring beneath the surface.  Barabels were highly respectful of Jedi, pathologically so, in Anakin's opinion.  But that respect didn't always translate to Jedi-in-training, particularly not when the Jedi-in-training was criticizing a full-fledged Jedi Knight.  "One: As a command-rank officer, General Kenobi needs no one's permission to carry out his duties as he sees fit.  Two: With you and your wing of the survey team delayed, he thought his time would be best utilized by beginning the scouting."

    Unfortunately, both points made sense.  "Fine," Anakin conceded.  "How soon can we go after him?"

    Fivvic half turned to look at the scout ships scattered around the hangar deck, Anakin's Jedi starfighter off to one side looking like a strange cousin at a family picnic.  "You took a beating out there," the Barabal said.  "Some repairs can wait.  Others must be made before we can leave."

    Anakin took a deep breath, trying hard to cultivate the patience Obi-Wan was always on his case about.  "How soon?"

    "Three days.  Possibly four."

    Anakin felt his throat tighten as he watched the maintenance team moving purposefully among the damaged scouts.  Three days.  An eternity, particularly in the middle of a war.

    Still, Obi-Wan was a Jedi Knight, and there were only rumors that the Separatists had moved into Dagro in the first place.  There was a fair chance that the rumors were wrong and that Obi-Wan was wasting his time looking.

    So why was Anakin getting an uncomfortable tingle up his spine?

    "I presume," Fivvic went on with only a trace of sarcasm, "that four days will be acceptable."

    Gently, Anakin stroked his mechanical right hand.  "Make it three," he said, "and you've got a deal."

____________________

    Obi-Wan watched until they were out of sight.  Then, stretching out to the Force, he leaped over the river to where Anakin had just finished fastening his line around the tree.  "Trissa doesn't seem happy about this," the younger man commented.

    "She was pretty angry with her husband for bringing me to her home after I got shot down," Obi-Wan explained as he pulled out some cord from his cable dispenser.  "She was polite enough about it, but it was obvious.  I think she's working through some guilt over that."

    "Well, I sure wouldn't want to risk my family for a stranger," Anakin said darkly.  "I mean... if I had a family."

    Obi-Wan's throat tightened as he felt the ache in his Padawan's heart.  It was 2 years after his mother's death, yet her absence was still as fresh as the day Anakin had lost her.  Someday, he would have to get the young man to tell him the whole story of that incident.

____________________

    Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something large ease past him.  It was Anakin; but unlike Obi-Wan's more cautious feet-first approach, his Padawan had turned himself around and was heading face-first down the river, his cable dispenser held tightly against his chest, the line caught in a loose grip between his boots for stability.  He looked at Obi-Wan as he passed, his face crinkling with a brief grin behind his breather, and continued on.  Mentally shaking his head, hoping the other didn't brain himself against a rock, Obi-Wan followed.

____________________

    "Well, that was fun," Anakin said.  "You okay?"

    "I think so," Obi-Wan said, eyeing the last of the smoking electrical droids as it settled unsteadily to the floor and lay still.  Closing down his lightsaber, he wiggled his fingers experimentally.  The numbness was nearly gone, though the shrapnel injuries across his back would require a healing trance somewhere down the road.  "I'll be fine."

    "Good," Anakin said.  "Rule number one: Try not to be grounded when a high-voltage capacitor weapon zaps you."

    "I'll try to remember that one," Obi-Wan said dryly.

    "Rule number two," Anakin went on, his voice suddenly tight as he held up his right hand.  "Don't have an artificial hand when you do it."

    A hand, Obi-Wan saw, that was visibly trembling.  "Can you still fight with it?" he asked.

    Anakin shrugged.  "It's not too bad, but I may not be up to taking on a full garrison of battle droids."

____________________

    They'd gone perhaps another dozen meters when it suddenly penetrated his combat tunnel vision that Anakin wasn't using the standard Jedi technique of deflecting the droids' own weapons back against them.  In fact, as Obi-Wan paused for a quick breather, he saw that his Padawan's deflected shots were instead going harmlessly back toward the base itself.

    Was his artificial hand still malfunctioning?  If so, they were about to be in serious trouble.  A fresh cluster of STAPs had appeared over the base, far more than he could handle alone.  "Anakin!" he shouted over the water's roar.  "You're not hitting the droids!"

    "I'm not aiming for the droids!" the other shouted back.  "I'm aiming for that power generator at the edge of the base!"

    Obi-Wan smiled tightly.  He should have known.  Settling back into combat mode, he started aiming his own deflected shots toward the generator.

    The droid reinforcements were just clearing the edge of the base when the generator blew, throwing debris into the air and sending a concussion wave down the gorge that nearly knocked Obi-Wan out of the boat.  Through the smoke, he caught a glimpse of a dozen STAPs plummeting out of control, while beneath them a broken section of the base's permacrete platform collapsed ponderously into the river.

20 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 22 years of age)

____________________

    Obi-Wan spoke to Anakin.  "I suggest you get some rest on the journey.  And Padme looks exhausted.  If you could persuade her that she needs rest, it would do her good."

    Anakin's gaze was opaque.

    I so rarely know what he is thinking anymore, Obi-Wan thought.

    "Yes, Master," Anakin said.

    He is still obedient, but it is as though he makes and effort to be so.

    Obi-Wan watched as Anakin went over to speak quietly to Padme.  She nodded, and the two of them left the cockpit.

____________________

    Obi-Wan and Siri executed a driving turn to avoid the fleet.  Obi-Wan could hear the chatter of the pilots on the comm.  Anakin was flying brilliantly, taking chances that the pilots could not quite believe and inspiring them to try similar feats.

    By the end of the Clone Wars, he'll be a legend, Obi-Wan thought.

____________________

    Obi-Wan wished that Anakin were flying his ship.  He needed Anakin's nerves, his split-second timing, his instinctive knowledge of exactly how far to push a craft.

____________________

    If Anakin knew of his grief, he didn't mention it.  He, too, had risen early - Obi-Wan had seen him heading toward the exit.  Anakin had always been restless, had always needed to escape the Temple to think.  Something was between him and Padme.  Obi-Wan would not ask.  In some ways, he envied it.  Let Anakin make his own decisions.

20 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 22 years of age)

____________________

    "Obi-Wan!" Anakin Skywalker exclaimed when the hologrammic image of Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared before him.  Anakin had been pacing in his quarters, brooding over why he was consistently being passed for his Jedi Trials, the chance to prove he was a full Jedi Knight.  The welcome sight of his teacher lifted Anakin's mood.

    "Anakin," Obi-Wan said, greeting his Padawan with a smile.  "How are you settling in?"

    Anakin shrugged.  "All right, I guess."

    Obi-Wan's smile turned wan.  They had returned to Coruscant only two standard days earlier, but he was fully aware of how long two days without action could seem to Anakin.  He knew his Padawan would not be pleased by the news he was about to break.  "I just returned to my quarters from a meeting with the Jedi Council," he said.

    Anakin's eyes brightened: a meeting with the Jedi Council must mean a new mission.

    "I have an assignment-"

    "Already?" Anakin interrupted, excited.  "We haven't even been debriefed from the last one yet!  Must be important."  He turned away to begin reassembling his gear and clothing.

    "Anakin-"

    "I've barely begun to unpack - I can meet you at the spaceport in an hour."

    "Anakin!"  Obi-Wan tried again.  "Anakin!"

    Anakin didn't turn around.  "Where should I meet you?"

    "ANAKIN!"

    Obi-Wan's shout finally caught Anakin's attention and he spun about, taken aback by the unusually harsh tone.  "Master?"

    "Sorry I shouted, but you weren't hearing me."

    "Master?  I'm listening."  Anakin used all his self-control to stand still and wait.

    "I have a mission, Anakin.  Not us.  The Jedi Council is sending me alone.  It's an individual assignment, a quick in-and-out."

    Anakin was clearly trying not to frown.  "What am I supposed to do in the meantime?" he couldn't help but asking.

    "You'll be debriefed on our last mission, for one thing.  I'm trusting that to you."  Obi-Wan sighed.  "When I get back, I'll suggest to the Council that you're ready to begin your trials."

    "Don't you mean suggest again?"

    Obi-Wan shook his head.  "First there was no point, and then there was no time.  But as soon as I return, I'll make the time - and the Council will listen."

    "Why will they listen then, when up until now they haven't even wanted to hear?"

    "Because while I'm gone, you're going to be the model Jedi Knight.  You'll allow them to debrief you, and then, if I'm not back yet, you'll hit the archives, looking for any strategies that can be deployed in planning our upcoming battles.  You're going to show them that you are skilled in a Knight's most basic role, as well as in combat," Obi-Wan said confidently.

    "Study."  Anakin's voice was flat.  "All right, I'll study."

    "I've got confidence in you, Anakin - you know that."

    "Yes."  Anakin's expression softened.  "I know you do, Obi-Wan.  May the Force be with you."

20 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 22 years of age)

____________________

    "You've been sending private messages back to Coruscant."

    Anakin flushed.  "You've been tracing my outgoing-"  He stopped.  "You just guessed."

    "I am a wise and powerful Jedi Knight, you know," Obi-Wan said, allowing himself a small grin.

    The little R2 rolled into the nav-and-comm area and wheeped unhappily at their wet bootprints.

    An awkward pause.

    "Since part of my duty as your Master is to pass on my vast wisdom-" Obi-Wan began.

    "Here it comes," Anakin said.

    "-I suppose I should officially remind you that a Jedi has no room in his life for... some kinds of entanglement."

    "I'll keep that in mind."

    "Nonattachment is a fundamental precept of the Order, Padawan.  You knew that when you signed up."

    "I guess I didn't read the Toydarian print," Anakin growled.

    For the first time, Obi-Wan turned away from the holocomm transceiver.  "How serious are you about this girl, Anakin?"

    "That's not the point," Anakin said, still flushed and angry.  "The point is, we are out here asking people to support a Republic that barely knows they exist, and backing it up with a, a police force of Jedi sworn not to care about them!  And we wonder why it's a hard sell?"  He waved out through the front viewscreen.  "What if Serifa is right?  What if we are the ones who have lost our way?  I trust what I can feel, Master.  That's what you have always taught me, isn't it?  I trust the living Force.  I trust love.  The 'principle of nonattachment'...?  That's an awfully abstract thing to pledge loyalty to."

    "Do you trust hate?" Obi-Wan said.

    "Of course I don't-"

    "I'm serious, Padawan."  Obi-Wan held the younger man's eyes.  "To follow your heart, to either love or hate in the long run is the same mistake.  Your judgment becomes clouded.  Your motives, confused.  If you are not very careful, Padawan, love will take you to the Dark side.  Slower than hate, yes, but no less surely for that."

    The air between them crackled with tension, but finally Anakin lowered his eyes.  "I hear you, Master."

    "You can hardly help that," Obi-Wan said tartly.  "It's whether you believe me or not that matters."

____________________

    "At the moment, Master Yoda is traveling to Vjun on a very important mission," Mace continued.  "We wanted ti keep it quiet, but obviously the secret is out.  Equally obvious, your old friend Asajj Ventress is gunning for him.  She killed both the Jedi traveling with him; only two Padawans remain.  "I would like-"

    "Uh-oh," Obi-Wan said.  "Why do I get the feeling we aren't inbound to Coruscant after all?"

    "-the two of you to proceed to Vjun with all possible speed and give Master Yoda whatever help he requests and requires."

    "Isn't there someone else?" Anakin said unexpectedly.  "We were supposed to return to Coruscant three weeks ago.  I've already broken one promise to be back..."

    The words hung in the air, irrevocable.

    "Promise?" Mace said.  "To whom did you make this promise?"

    "The students in Master Iron Hand's class," Obi-Wan said smoothly.  "Anakin had been promising to teach them some tricks."

    "Your chance to show off will have to be delayed," Mace said.  His look of distaste was one with which Anakin had become wearingly familiar.  Mace's disapproval of Anakin seemed so general, so reflexive, it was hard not to resent even in a case like this, where the was actually far more to disapprove of than Windu knew.  "Get to Vjun, please.  Windu out."

    Anakin colored a little, and did not look at Obi-Wan.  "Thanks."

    Obi-Wan shrugged it off, nettled.  "I don't know why I bother sticking my neck out for you."  He busied himself checking out a course for Vjun.  "Especially since I feel, with every nerve in my body, that someday you won't thank me for it."

____________________

    "What was that?" Obi-Wan Kenobi said, unbuckling himself from the turret cannon gunner's chair.  "I thought you were going to get us shot.  Then I was sure you were going to get us incinerated.  Then I was positive you were going to crash."

    Anakin bounced out of the pilot's chair, grinning.

    "Just a little thing I like to call-"

    "Showing off?"

    "Showing off!  It's not just about winning, Master.  Federation attack droids coming in two files from the B-Seven landing sight: six, seven, eight of them," he added carelessly, glancing at the Chryya's tactical monitor.  "It's about winning with style."  He put his hand on the lightsaber at his side and prepared to launch himself out of the Chryya's forward hatch.  "Ready?"

    "No!"  Obi-Wan dropped back into the turret gunner's chair and used the Chryya's laser cannon to blow holes through three of the attack droids hurrying down the path toward them before the others scrambled madly for cover.  "All right.  Now I'm ready."

    Anakin drew two blasters from the gun locker by the forward hatch.  "I love this planet.  It's just steeped in the Force.  I could feel it the moment we touched the atmosphere.  I'm usually a good pilot-"

    "Great pilot," Obi-Wan admitted.

    "-But here it was like the ship's hull and my skin were the same thing.  I could feel exactly how much heat she could take, how much torque, how many rolls..."

    "Clearly, you weren't using the Force to commune with my stomach," Obi-Wan said, still looking a little green.

____________________

    "Great," Obi-Wan said.  "The caverns are collapsing on themselves."

    Whole sections of the hillside buckled and slumped, going soft and dark like bruised fruit under the thin skin of Vjun moss.  The rumbling sounds of crashing stone went on and on.  The ground buckled as whole patches of the hill tipped slowly in on themselves and folded into the dirt.

    The smile slowly drained from Anakin's face.

    "I'm not sure a grenade was the best idea," Obi-Wan remarked.

    "You don't suppose Yoda was in there, do you?" Anakin asked.  "And the Padawans?"

    "You better hope not."  Seeing the young man's stricken face, Obi-Wan relented.  "I'm sure we would have felt it in the Force if Yoda had been killed.  But next time, think a little bit longer before rearranging the landscape, would you?"

    "Yes, Master," Anakin said.  Technically, he was no longer Obi-Wan's Padawan, but he tended to slip back into sounding like one when he was acutely aware of having screwed up.

____________________

    Obi-Wan was thoughtfully toeing the remains of a prime combat droid that his partner had cut in half.  "Nice work, Anakin."  He looked around generally, surveying the carnage.  "If you were considering a career in interior decoration, though, you might want to take a few more classes."

    "Oh, no," Anakin remarked.  "This is the New Brutalism.  I think it will be all the rage if these Clone Wars don't end soon."

____________________

    "Anakin," Obi-Wan said.

    "Yes?"

    "You remember that first time I met Asajj Ventress, I stole her spaceship?"

    "On Queyta, right?"

    "And then we met again, and we took her ship again?"

    "Right.  Why do you mention it?" Anakin said, coming to stand in the doorway beside Obi-Wan.

    Together, the two of them watched their lovely Chryrra rise slowly into the weeping Vjun sky and head for space, accelerating hard.  "Oh, no reason," Obi-Wan said.

20 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 22 years of age)

____________________

    "Anakin, Senator.  Sorry to interrupt your breakfast."

    "Um, Master... How did you find me?"

    "Anakin, every Padawan on Coruscant knows where to find you.  But I don't care what you do on leave.  I'm only here because I need your help."

    "You're still chasing Ventress, aren't you?  You're searching for a woman that I killed."

    "I have evidence..."

    "No!  Just rumors and myths!  I killed her."

    "Okay, forget Ventress.  Dooku is sending an assassin - his best assassin - to kill a Corellian merchant.  I was to stop that murder.  Will you help me?"

    "No.  You can call it a rescue mission, but you're still chasing a ghost.  I'm going to focus on the living."

    "Anakin... He needs you."

    "Every other Jedi I trust is in the thick of this war...  You are my only option."

    "I'm your last choice?  Now I really want to help..."

    "I didn't want to take you away..."

    "Enough.  You are both Jedi Knights.  You have both sworn to protect the people of the Republic.  If there is a murder you can prevent, you must try."

    "Okay, fine.  You're right.  But I'll have to go to Theed and get my starship.  Some of us respect the planet's no-fly zone."

____________________

    "We've been out here for hours, Master..."

    "Ah, he finally speaks!  I thought you weren't talking to me."

    "I got bored.  I thought we were heading into a battle."

    "You sound disappointed."

    "No.  Just frustrated that I had to leave Naboo for someone else's mission.  I've been waiting for the Council to give me my own assignment, something important - but the Council still thinks of me as your Padawan."

    "Give them time.  You are a Jedi Knight now.  And you're about to get a chance to prove it..."

____________________

    "Blast!  They set us up... Dooku, Xist, Durge... We walked right into their trap."

    "What did you expect?  You've been shaking down every Confederacy thug from Coruscant to Kashyyyk.  Dooku knows you're looking for her!"

    "You've made your point.  Several times."

____________________

    "Master!  We don't have much time..."

    "Where is Durge?"

    "Dead."

    "You killed him?  We needed to interrogate him!  He could have told us where to find Ventress!  Or Dooku!"

    "I had no choice!  You left me to face him alone!"

    "So now it's my fault you can't stay your hand?"

    "That's not... can we talk about this later?  I'd like to focus on getting off this deathtrap."

____________________

    "Anakin, I can sense your... frustration."

    "Hah!  Look who's talking.  For two days, all you've done is pace the corridors.  I was hoping a sparring session would distract you."

    "You should take my focus as an example.  Your head is still on Naboo.  And you're still thinking about her."

    "Master, you think you know me so well."

    "And you forget that I'm no longer your Master..."

____________________

    "Ventress!"

    "Leave her!"

    "I won't abandon her."

    "We need to stop Dooku.  You've lost your mind!  But don't worry, I can take Dooku myself."

    "Anakin!  Imagine what you would have become if - instead of Qui-Gon, that other Sith had found you on Tatooine.  Who would you be now?  Her fate could have easily been yours, Anakin.  Why can't you see that?"

    "Blast..."

    "Help me save her."

    "She needs medical attention.  I'll try to locate a medic."

____________________

    "Anakin!  What have you done?"

    "I'm sorry... I saw the flash of metal... she was going to kill you..."

    "I... I didn't see - she really never stopped wanting to kill me, not for a moment.  You're the only one who saw things clearly."

    "No.  I was being selfish.  I struck her down out of fear.  As long as she lives, I'll always be afraid of losing you, Master."

    "I've already told you...  I'm not your Master any longer.  But no matter what happens - no matter what evil we face - we'll do so together, as brothers."

20 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 22 years of age)

____________________

    In a tuck, Obi-Wan pivoted on his right foot in time to see the droid's spindly body collapse.  The fact that Anakin had saved his life was nothing new, but Anakin's blade had passed a little too close for comfort.  Eyes somewhat wide with surprise, he came to his feet.

    "You nearly took my head off."

    Anakin held his blade to one side.  In the strobing light of battle his blue eyes shone wry with amusement.  "Sorry, Master, but your head was where my lightsaber needed to go."

    Master

    Anakin used the honorific not as learner to teach, but as Jedi Knight to Jedi Council member.  The braid that had defined his earlier status had been ritually severed after his audacious actions at Praesitlyn.  His tunic, knee-high boots, and tight-fitting trousers were as black as the night.  His face scarred from a contest with Dooku-trained Asajj Ventress.  His mechanical right hand sheathed in an elbow-length glove.  He had let his hair grow long the past few months, falling almost to his shoulders now.  His face he kept clean-shaven, unlike Obi-Wan, whose strong jaw was defined by a short beard.

    "I suppose I should be grateful your lightsaber needed to go there, rather than desired to."

    Anakin's grin blossomed into a full-fledged smile.  "Last time I checked we were on the same side, Master."

    "Still, if I'd been a moment slower..."

    Anakin booted the battle droid's blaster aside.  "Your fears are only in your mind."

    Obi-Wan scowled.  "Without a head I wouldn't have much mind left, now, would I?"  He swept his lightsaber in a flourishing pass, nodding up the alley of manax trees.  "After you."

____________________

    Obi-Wan glanced uncertainly at Anakin and motioned him off to one side.

    "It's just the two of us.  What do you think?"

    "I think you worry too much, Master."

    Obi-Wan folded his arms across his chest.  "And who'll worry about you if I don't?"

    Anakin canted his head and grinned.  "There are others."

    "You can only be referring to See-Threepio.  And you had to build him."

    "Think what you will."

    Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes with purpose.  "Oh, I see.  But I would have thought Senator Amidala of greater interest to you than Supreme Chancellor Palpatine."  Before Anakin could respond, he added: "Despite that she's a politician also."

    "Don't think I haven't tried to attract her interest, Master."

    Obi-Wan regarded Anakin for a moment.  "What's more, if Chancellor Palpatine had genuine concern for your welfare, he would have kept you closer to Coruscant."

    Anakin placed his artificial hand on Obi-Wan's left shoulder.  "Perhaps, Master.  But then, who would look after you?"

____________________

    Switching off his lightsaber, Anakin cast a complimentary glance over his shoulder.

    "Nicely done, Master."

    "The beauty of Form Three," Obi-Wan said with theatrical nonchalance.  "You should try it sometime."

    "You've always been better at evasion than I have," Anakin said.  "I prefer more straightforward tactics."

    Obi-Wan rolled his eyes.  "Master of understatement."

____________________

    The desire to dominate and control.

    For a time the same issues had stood at the center of Obi-Wan's conflicts with Anakin.  Clearly Anakin was strong in the Force as any Jedi who had ever sat on the Council.  But as Obi-Wan had told him time and again, the essence of being a Jedi didn't hinge on attaining mastery of the Force, but on attaining mastery over oneself.  Someday, Anakin would come to accept that, and then he would be truly unstoppable.  Qui-Gon had had the insight to recognize it more than a decade earlier, and Obi-Wan felt duty-bound to his former Master to help Anakin fulfill his destiny.

    His faith in Anakin had grown so strong that he had become Anakin's staunchest defender to those on the Council who had grown apprehensive about the young man's prowess, and uncomfortable with his confidential, almost familial relationship with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.  If Obi-Wan was, as Anakin sometimes said, the father he never had, then Palpatine was his wise uncle, adviser, mentor in the ways of life outside the Temple.

    Obi-Wan understood that Anakin envied him for having been appointed to the Council.  But how could he not, having been all but anointed "The Chosen One," continually bolstered by Palpatine's praise, driven to prove his former Master that he could be the perfect Jedi Knight.

    On countless occasions Anakin's bold actions had allowed them to prevail against seemingly impossible odds.  But just as often it had been Obi-Wan's circumspection that had pulled them back from the brink.  Whether foresight was something innate in Obi-Wan or the result of his continuing fascination with the unifying Force - the long view - Obi-Wan couldn't say.  What he could say was that he had learned to trust Anakin's instincts.

    On occasion.

____________________

    "Master, aren't we obligated to notify the Supreme Chancellor of our find?"

    "We are, Anakin, and we will."

    "When the Council sees fit, you mean."

    "No.  After the matter has been discussed."

    "But suppose one or two of you should disagree with the majority?"

    "Decisions are not always unanimous.  When we are truly divided, we defer to Yoda's counsel."

    "Then the Force can sometimes be felt more strongly by one than by eleven."

    Obi-Wan tried to discern Anakin's intent.  "Even Yoda is not infallible, if that's what you're getting at."

    "The Jedi should be."  Anakin glanced furtively at Obi-Wan.  "We could be."

    "I'm listening."

    "By going farther with the Force than we allow ourselves.  By riding its crest."

    "Master Sora Bulq and many others would agree, Anakin.  But few Jedi have the stomach for such a ride.  We're not all as self-composed as Yoda or Master Windu."

    "But maybe we're wrong to attach ourselves to the Force at the expense of life as most beings know it, which includes lust, love, and a lot of other emotions that are forbidden to us.  Devotion to a higher cause is fine and good, Master, but we shouldn't ignore what's going on in front of our own eyes.  You said yourself that we're not infallible.  Dooku understood that.  He looked things squarely in the eye, and decided to do something about it."

    "Dooku is a Sith, Anakin.  He may have had his good reasons for leaving the Order, but he is nothing now but a master of deceit.  He and Sidious prey on the weak-willed.  They deceive themselves into thinking they are infallible."

    "But I've seen instances where the Jedi lie to one another.  Master Kolar lies about Quinlan Vos going to the Dark side.  We're lying now, by not sharing out information about Sidious with Chancellor Palpatine.  What would Sidious or Dooku have to say about our lies?"

    "Don't compare us to them," Obi-Wan said, more harshly than he meant.  "The Jedi are not a cult, Anakin.  We don't worship a leadership of elites.  We're encouraged to find our paths; to validate through personal experience the value of what we have been taught.  We don't offer facile justifications for exterminating a perceived enemy.  We're guided by compassion, and the belief that the Force is greater than the sum of those who open themselves to it."

    Anakin grew quiet.  "I'm only asking, Master."

    Obi-Wan took a calming breath.  Too sure of themselves, the Jedi have become, Yoda had once told him.  Even the older, more experiences ones...

    How might Anakin have fared under Qui-Gon's guidance, he wondered.  He was merely Anakin's adoptive mentor, and a flawed mentor in many ways.  So eager to live up to the memory of Qui-Gon that he was continually overlooking Anakin's attempts to live up to him.

____________________

    There is no death; there is only the Force.

    Obi-Wan wondered if he had ever witnessed a more lucid demonstration of the Jedi axiom than Anakin's  Force-centered, death-defying harassment of Grievous's ship.  His speck of a starfighter all but nose-to-nose with the mammoth cruiser, leaving Obi-Wan to deal with the vengeful droid fighters Anakin was either ignorant of or deliberately disregarding.

    "He really is going to be the death of me," Obi-Wan mumbled.

    But he was indifferent to his own fate, wondering instead: What if Anakin should be killed?

    Could he even be killed?

    As the Chosen One, was he destined to fulfill both the title and the prophecy?  Was he immune to real harm, or - as someone born to restore balance to the Force - did he require defenders to guide him to that destiny?  Was it Obi-Wan's duty - more, the duty of all the Jedi - to see to it that he survived at all costs?

    Was that what Qui-Gon had intuited so many years earlier on Tatooine, and had motivated him to attack with such resolve the Sith who had revealed himself in that parched landscape?

____________________

    "The Council was able to convince Palpatine of the need to retake Tythe, and he has authorized a full battle group to divert there.  It seems he is finally willing to follow Master Yoda's advice about concentrating on dismantling the Confederacy leadership."

    "Grievous is on Tythe?"

    Obi-Wan grinned.  "Better: Dooku is there."

    Anakin turned his back to Obi-Wan.  His face was flushed when he finally swung around.  "Not good enough."

    Obi-Wan blinked.  "Not good enough?"

    "The search for Sidious began with us.  We discovered the first clues.  If he's thought to be on Coruscant, then we're the ones who should be their to capture him."

    "Anakin, Mace and Shaak Ti are more than capable of seeing to that - if Sidious is even there."

    Anakin was shaking his head.  "Not as easily as... we could.  Sidious is a Sith Lord!"

    Obi-Wan took a moment to respond.  "The way I remember it, we didn't fare all that well against Dooku."

    "All that's changed!" Anakin said, becoming angrier as he spoke.  "I'm stronger than I was.  You're stronger.  Together, we can defeat any Sith."

    "Anakin, is this really about capturing Sidious?"

    "Of course it is.  We deserve the honor."

    "Honor?  Since when did this war become a contest for first place?  If you're thinking that the capture of Sidious will earn you a place on the Council-"

    "I don't care about the Council!  I'm telling you we need to return to Coruscant.  People are counting on us."

    "What people?"

    "The... people of Coruscant."

    Obi-Wan inhaled slowly.  "Why don't I believe you?"

    "I don't know, Master?  Suppose you tell me?"

    Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes.  "Don't turn this into a game.  There's something else at work here.  Have you had a vision I should know about?"

    Anakin started to reply, but backed whatever it was he had in mind to say, and began again.  "The truth is... I want to be home.  We've been out here longer than anyone - trooper or Jedi."

    "That's what you get for being so good at what you do," Obi-Wan said, hoping to lighten the mood.

    ...

    Obi-Wan fell silent, as if struck by a sudden suspicion.  "Anakin, is it Padme?"

    Anakin rolled his eyes.  "Here you go again."

    "Well, is it?"

    Anakin compressed his lips, then said, "I won't lie to you and say that I don't miss her."

    Obi-Wan frowned sympathetically.  "You can't afford to miss her in that way."

    "And exactly why is that, Master?"

    "Because you cannot be married to both."

    "Who said anything about marriage?  She's a friend.  I miss her as a friend."

    "You would forgo your destiny for Padme?"

    Anakin's brows beetled in anger.  "I never claimed to be the Chosen One.  That was Qui-Gon.  Even the Council doesn't believe it anymore, so why would you?"

    "Because I think you believe it," Obi-Wan said calmly.  "I think you know in your heart that you're meant for something extraordinary."

    "Any you, Master?  What does your heart tell you you're meant for?"

    "Infinite sadness," Obi-Wan said, even while smiling.

____________________

    "Just once I wish we could repay Dooku and Grievous in kind," Anakin said over the tactical net, as Red Squadron dropped from the belly of the Integrity and rocketed toward Tythe.

    "The fact that we don't is what keeps us centered in the Force," Obi-Wan said.

    Anakin grunted.  "There'll come a time when they'll have to answer to us personally, and it will be the Force that guides our blades."

____________________

    "Dooku!" Anakin snarled through clenched teeth.  "I will kill you!"

    "Control your rage, Anakin," Obi-Wan managed to say between breaths.  "Don't give him the satisfaction."

    Anakin shot him a worrisome scowl.  "Can't have me becoming too powerful, now, can we, Master?"

    Before Obi-Wan could reply, twenty battle droids hurried into the room through the door behind him.  Whirling, he deflected their first barrage, then fought his way to cover behind a heap of dismembered droids, where Anakin joined him.

    In the hope that Dooku was listening from afar, he shouted: "Whatever happens here, Dooku, your Confederacy is finished!  The Republic has all of you on the run - even your master, Sidious."

    More droids appeared.

    To Dooku, this was nothing more than a game, Obi-Wan told himself.  But if it was a demonstration of Force ability Dooku wanted, then Anakin was still more than willing to provide it.

    "Dooku!" he howled.

    With such force and wrath that the ceiling of the vast hall began to collapse.

____________________

    Beside him, Obi-Wan stirred and coughed.

    "You're getting awfully good at destroying things," he said.  "On Vjun, you needed a grenade to do this much damage."

    Anakin shook the vision from his mind.  "I told you I was becoming more powerful."

    "Then do us both a favor by getting us out from under this."

    They used the Force, their hands and backs to extricate themselves.  Getting to their feet, they stood staring at each other, dusted white head-to-toe from the debris.

    "Go ahead," Anakin said.  "If you don't say it, I will."

    "If you insist." Obi-Wan snorted dust from his nose.  "Almost makes me nostalgic for Naos Three."

    "Once more, with feeling."

    "Some other time.  Dooku, first."

____________________

    Anakin shot Obi-Wan an embittered look and began to storm away.

    "Anakin," Obi-Wan said, following in his footsteps.

    Anakin whirled on him.  "We were wrong to come here, Master.  I was wrong to come here.  It was all a feint, and we fell for it.  We're being kept away from Coruscant.  I can feel it."

    Obi-Wan folded his arms across his chest.  "You wouldn't be saying that if we'd captured Dooku."

    "But we didn't, Master.  That's what counts.  And now no communication with Coruscant?  You don't even see it, do you?"

    Obi-Wan regarded him carefully.  "See what, Anakin?"

    Anakin started to speak, then cut himself off and began again.  "You should keep me fighting.  You shouldn't give me time to think."

    Obi-Wan rested his hands on Anakin's shoulder.  "Calm yourself."

    Anakin shrugged him off, a new fire in his eyes.  "You're my best friend.  Tell me what I should do.  Forget for a moment that you're wearing the robes of a Jedi and tell me what I should do!"

    Stung by the gravity in Anakin's voice, Obi-Wan fell silent for a moment, then said: "The Force is out ally, Anakin.  When we're mindful of the Force, our actions are in accord with the will of the Force.  Tythe wasn't a wrong choice.  It's simply that we're ignorant of its import in the greater scheme."

    Anakin lowered his head in sadness.  "You're right, Master.  My mind isn't as fast as my lightsaber."  He stared at his artificial limb.  "My heart isn't as impervious to pain as my right hand."

    Obi-Wan felt as if someone had knotted his insides.  He had failed his apprentice and closest friend.  Anakin was suffering, and the only balm he offered were Jedi platitudes.  His body weaved a stuttering breath.  He had his mouth open to speak when the crew chief interrupted.

____________________

    The two starfighters sat side by side in the launching bay, only a few meters separating them, engines warming, droids in their sockets, cockpit canopies raised.

    Neither pilot wore a helmet, so Anakin could hear Obi-Wan plainly when he shouted: "For all the jinks and jukes you've taken me through, there's no one else I'd rather fly with."

    Anakin canted his head and smiled.  "It's about time you admitted it.  Can I take that to mean you'll follow my lead without question?"

    "To the best of my ability," Obi-Wan said.  "I may not always be able to remain at your wing, but I won't be far off, and I'll always have your back."

    "When I call for help, you'll come speeding to the rescue."

    "The day you call for help, I'll know that we're both in over our heads."

    Anakin adopted a serious look.  "Obi-Wan, you don't know how many times you've already rescued me."

    Obi-Wan swallowed the lump that formed in his throat.  "Then whatever lies ahead for us shouldn't be a problem."

    Anakin laughed lightly.  "Who'll restore peace to the galaxy if we don't?"

    Obi-Wan returned a tight-lipped nod.  "At least you said we."

19 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 23 years of age)

____________________

    Months earlier, when he and Anakin had been in pursuit of clues they had hoped would lead them to Darth Sidious, Obi-Wan had told Anakin that he could think of far worse places to live than Tatooine, and he still felt that way.  He took in stride the ubiquitous sand that had so rankled Anakin.  Tatooine's double-sunset skies were always a marvel to behold.

    And the isolation suited him.

    All the more because Anakin had been subverted by Palpatine and, for a brief time, had served this new Emperor.

    Given everything that had happened since, the one image Obi-Wan knew he would never be able to erase from his memory was that of Anakin - Darth Vader, as Sidious had dubbed him - kneeling in allegiance to the Dark Lord, after having gone one a murderous spree in the Jedi Temple.  If there was a second image, it was of Anakin burning on the shore of one of Mustafar's lava flows, cursing him.

    Had he been wrong to let Anakin die there?  Could he have been redeemed, as Padme had believed to the last?  These were questions that plagued him, and pained him more deeply than he would ever have thought possible.

____________________

    As impossible as it seemed, Anakin had survived Mustafar and had resumed the Sith title of Darth Vader.  How could Obi-Wan have been so foolish as to bring Luke here, of all worlds?  Anakin's homeworld, the grave of his mother, the home of his only family members...

    Obi-Wan gripped the lightsaber he carried under his robe.

    Had he driven Anakin deeper into the Dark side by abandoning him on Mustafar?

    Could he face Anakin again?

    Could he kill him this time?

    From the far side of the street, he shadowed Owen and Beru as they moved from store to store, stocking up on staples.  Should he warn them about Vader?  Should he take Luke away from them and hide him on an even more remote world in the Outer Rim?

    His fear began to mount.  His and Yoda's hopes for the future, dashed, just as the Chosen One had dashed the Jedi's hopes of bringing balance to the Force-

    Obi-Wan

    He came to an abrupt halt.  It was a voice he hadn't heard in years, speaking to him no through his ears, but directly into his thoughts.

    "Qui-Gon!" he said.  "Master!"  Realizing that the locals were quickly going to brand him a madman if they heard him talking to himself, he ducked into the narrow alley between two stores.  "Master, is Darth Vader Anakin?" he asked after a moment.

    Yes.  Although the Anakin you and I knew is imprisoned by the Dark side.

    "I was wrong to leave him on Mustafar.  I should have made sure he was dead."

    The Force will determine Anakin's future.  Obi-Wan: Luke must not be told that Vader is his father until the time is right.

    "Should I take further steps to hide Luke?"

    The core of Anakin that resides in Vader grasps that Tatooine is the source of nearly everything that caused him pain.  Vader will never set foot on Tatooine, if only out of fear of reawakening Anakin.

    Obi-Wan exhaled in relief.  "Then my obligation is unchanged.  But from what Yoda told me, I know that I have much to learn, Master."

    You were always that way, Obi-Wan.

    Qui-Gon's voice faded, and Obi-Wan's fears began to dissipate, replaced by renewed expectations.

18 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 24 years of age)

____________________

    Was there anything inside him anymore?  He wondered this, lying on his sleep couch at night, staring at the rough stone ceiling.  How could a being be numb and full of pain at the same time?

    There had been so many that he cared about.  And now just about everyone he'd loved was dead.

    The names and faces would be in his mind.  Qui-Gon.  Siri.  Tyro Caladian.  Mace Windu.

    The apprentices - Darra Thel Tanis.  Tru Veld.  Their Masters.  Ry Gaul.  Soara Antana.

    And the Jedi slaughtered in the purge.  For it had been just that - a slaughter, shocking, devastating, quick... but not quick enough for the victims.

    His dearest friends, Bant and Garen.  The imperious Jocasta Nu.  The gentle Ali Alann and Barriss Offee.  The warriors - Shaak Ti, Kit Fisto, Luminara Unduli.  And the great Jedi Masters - Ki-Adi-Mundi, Adi Gallia, Plo Koon...

    Gone.  The word would toll in his head.

    Gone.

    Gone.

    Jedi he'd fought alongside, studied with, laughed with - a roll call of the dead that thumped out a drumbeat of pain with every heartbeat.

    And then, as dawn would bring a blush of light to his ceiling, he would turn, as he always did, to the last, worst thing.  The thing he could not avoid looking at, the thing that gave him the most awful pain.

    The boy he'd raised and loved like a son had become a traitor.  A killer.  A monster.  A convert to the Dark side, a testament to Obi-Wan's failure to guide, to protect.  The boy, Anakin Skywalker, had died at the hands of the Emperor, and the Sith Lord Darth Vader had been born in his place.

    At first, Obi-Wan had thought that Anakin had died in the flames of a volcano on Mustafar.  It was months later that he's realized what had happened, that the Emperor had kept him alive, or, at least, the part he wanted to remain - the hate and the power.  Obi-Wan had seen Darth Vader's image on a data recorder he'd found in an alley of Mos Eisley - it contained a HoloNet report - and he had known at once, with a sense of shock so profound it had made him ill, that Lord Darth Vader had once been Anakin Skywalker.

____________________

    There was the slightest trace of a snicker on the boy's face.  For some odd reason, Obi-Wan was reminded of Anakin as a boy.  Anakin had this same way of slyly teasing him while struggling to keep a neutral expression on his face.  It had both charmed and irritated him.  Every time a memory of Anakin as a boy came to him, a fresh pain startled him, like an electrical charge.

____________________

    Obi-Wan pushed the ship through more corkscrew turns and dives, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the Firespray scored a hit.

    If Anakin were here, he'd be piloting.  This was the kind of challenge he enjoyed.

    The thought had risen unbidden.  He could not seem to stop such thoughts.  He was still in the habit of thinking of his apprentice, his friend.  Anakin.  Not who he became.

    He didn't want to remember.  It brought too much pain.

18 years before the Battle of Yavin - (Anakin Skywalker is 24 years of age)

____________________

    Raina flew over the walls that circled the city.  She dove down into the canyon of standing stones.  She did it so fast that the torpedo crashed into a standing stone with a roar.

    Obi-Wan gripped the console as a giant stone came at them.  Raina flipped the ship sideways, then zoomed around another stone.

    It's almost like flying with Anakin, Obi-Wan thought.  For a second, this made him happy.  Then he remembered the rest of it, and it pierced him.  Anakin.

All information was compiled from a variety of sources, including the Official Star Wars Databank