Star Wars work in progress You Became to Me

[polgarawolf]

Sixteenth part of a work in progress
Title: You Became to Me (as suggested by avari_maethor)
*Pairing: Mainly Anakin/Obi-Wan with mention of Padmé
Rating: Uhm, pretty PG-13ish now but inevitably at least an R (?)
Disclaimer: I do not own the lovely boys from Star Wars, more's the pity! I just have an extremely contrary muse that refuses to shut up . . .
Summary: This is the one thing that Darth Sidious never saw coming: a minor incident of collateral damage with repercussions potentially able to utterly unmake all his schemes
*Author’s Note: 1) Please see most of the previous author's notes/warnings.
2) Lengthy pieces in italics denote memories being shared between Obi-Wan and Anakin. Some memories will, necessarily, be a bit repetitive, so bear with me, okay?
3) Obi-Wan and Anakin's sparring session and hybridized kata are more informed by my reading of other fanfic descriptions of Jedi sparring and practice katas than by any special knowledge of actual Jedi fighting forms, so if anyone out there happens to know a lot about Jedi fighting and thinks that what I have the boys doing here sounds off, please let know so I can fix it!


There is a moment when Anakin’s shame and confusion so discomfort and disorient him that he begins to withdraw, automatically trying to hide himself from Obi-Wan, which he cannot do while the bond is open without retreating, without hiding something of himself. It is because of the several references to Padmé, of course. The thought that Obi-Wan was actually concerned enough to worry about Anakin’s intentions towards Senator Amidala and yet nevertheless still remained loyal enough to defend him before Bail Organa, coupled with the knowledge that Obi-Wan’s rather vague anxieties were more than upheld by reality, makes Anakin want to writhe with humiliation and regret, so much so that his hands tremble and his grip on Obi-Wan begins to slacken. If Anakin were to let go of Obi-Wan’s hands entirely, the sharing would not only be disrupted, it would come to an abrupt end. This, Obi-Wan cannot and will not allow. So he reaches out along the bond, flooding Anakin with love and trust and reassurance, soothing him and smoothing away his shame and resistance to continuing with the sharing until the young man resettles himself and the bond grows steady between them again. The outpouring of uninhibited, unaffected emotion shakes Anakin almost as much as the knowledge of his former Master’s uncertain concern about Anakin’s relationship with Padmé, but it is undeniably genuine and something that he has so deeply wanted for so very long that he cannot turn away from it, he cannot bring himself to risk losing the unrestrained connection to it by turning away from Obi-Wan just because he, Anakin Skywalker, is ashamed of something that he has done that he has been growing more and more certain was not only reckless and selfish and against the rules of the Jedi Order but actively and actually wrong.

Restabilizing, the bond continues to allow Obi-Wan to pass on certain specific memories to his former Padawan, openly sharing his experiences and his knowledge with Anakin.

*********

The shuttle whose landing lights have so recently caught Obi-Wan’s attention from Cato Neimoidia turns out to be carrying more than just Intelligence analysts and technicians. Master Yoda is aboard, it seems, eager to see for himself what Obi-Wan and Anakin have discovered.

After the technicians have succeeded in inducing the mechno-chair’s slightly unusually made holoprojector to replay the image of Lord Sidious - this time, thankfully, without Obi-Wan having to rescue anyone from being dosed with poison gas (as he had originally been forced to save Anakin) or anyone getting shocked badly enough to be knocked onto their backsides (as Anakin had originally been) - and the Republic cryptographers working with the Jedi have all confidently agreed that data cells of the unique device will yield even greater secrets once it has been relocated to Coruscant and examined more thoroughly, Anakin refuses to let the mechno-chair out of his sight and stubbornly demands to oversee its transfer to the waiting shuttle. It is, perhaps, not an entirely inappropriate response, considering the fact that the mechno-chair had powered up automatically and essentially walked off, the first time they’d taken their eyes off of it. However, given the fact that the various safety features, like the self-destructs and the poison (which Obi-Wan rather suspects is yet another byproduct of the unfortunately quite deranged mind of brilliant bio-scientist Jenna Zan Arbor), have all either been bypassed or removed, it is most likely an unnecessary precaution. Feeling entirely unnecessary for the process with Anakin on hand to oversee the transfer, Obi-Wan and Yoda decide to take a stroll down the corridor of Viceroy Gunray’s now appropriated palace. The venerable little Jedi Master is pensive as they walk, the silence broken only by the sounds of distant blasterfire and the tick, tick of Yoda’s gimer stick as it strikes the polished floor in time with his steps.

Yoda is unreadable.

Obi-Wan isn’t sure if Yoda is pondering the image of Sidious - the Sith Lord’s identity carefully hidden beneath the drape of a full length, deeply hooded black robe - or the fact that two Jedi were killed during the fighting on Cato Neimoidia. Every day sees more Jedi die. Many are as shot up as the clone troopers. Wounded, blinded, scarred, deprived of arms or legs . . . patched up by bota and bacta. More than a thousand Padawans have lost their Masters; more than a thousand Masters, their Padawans. When Jedi gather now they talk not about the Force, but instead their military campaigns. New lightsabers are constructed not as meditative exercises, but rather simply to handle the rigors of continuous close combat.

Reaching the end of the long corridor, Obi-Wan and Yoda turn and start back. Without taking his eyes from the floor, Yoda quietly says, "Found something important, you have, Obi-Wan. That Count Dooku is in league with someone, proof this is. That in this war a greater part the Sith play than we realize."

The name Sidious has come up only once since the war first began - on Geonosis, when Dooku had told an imprisoned Obi-Wan that a Sith Lord by that name had hundreds of Republic Senators under his influence. At the time, Obi-Wan had been essentially cut off from the Force, physically bound and constrained from using the Force both by artificial dampeners imbedded in his restraints and the dampening field generated by the force-field binding him. Unable to use the Force to try to read the truth of any of the words Dooku had spoken to him, he had assumed that Dooku was simply lying in an attempt to persuade Obi-Wan that he was still aligned with the Jedi, although attempting to thwart the powers of the Dark Side with his own methods. And yet, even after Dooku had revealed himself to be Sith-trained, Yoda and others on the Council had continued to believe that he had been lying about Sidious. Two Council members were even convinced that Dooku was the Dark Lord, having somehow tutored himself - by Sith Holocron and the secret pursuit of certain questionable Force techniques banned by the Temple, perhaps - in the use of Dark Side powers. Now that Sidious appears to be quite real, Obi-Wan finds that he doesn’t know what to think. The hunt for Dooku’s Sith allies has been on-going almost since the start of the war, when it first became obvious that Dooku had truly turned. Dooku is known to have trained several Jedi and other such Force-adepts in the Dark arts - Jedi Knights and Masters who have lost faith in the ideals of the Republic, Padawans fascinated by the power of the Dark Side, younglings banished from the Temple because they have been deemed unfit for the oftentimes hard reality of life as a Jedi, tragically misinformed Force-sensitive novices such as Asajj Ventress, who had for a time been mentored by a Jedi but had never had a chance to learn the finer techniques of Jedi emotional control and so had fallen inevitably to the Dark Side - but the question regarding who, if anyone, had originally been Dooku’s teacher in those Dark arts had remained unanswered.

Thirteen years earlier, in the Battle of Naboo, when Obi-Wan had fought and killed a Sith - by all evidence a Sith Marauder, according to the Temple’s records regarding the Dark order’s prestige classes, though since this system functions separately from the apprentice-Master-Dark Lord hierarchy, much like the Jedi sub-categories of Guardian, Consular, and Sentinel function separately from the youngling-Padawan-Knight-Master-Council Master hierarchy, knowledge of that particular title isn’t actually all that useful - had he killed the actual Master or only an apprentice? The question is rooted in the belief that the Sith, having essentially defeated themselves with their in-fighting a millennium earlier, had learned that an army of Sith could never stand, and that there could and should be only two actual Sith at any given time, lest a pair of apprentices conspire to combine their strengths to eliminate a Master. It is more a doctrine than a rule, but it is a doctrine that has evidently managed to keep the Sith order alive, if well concealed, for nigh on a thousand years. At the time, most had assumed that the Sith slain by Obi-Wan had been the Master, since no other Dark Adept claiming to be a Sith Master had emerged, in the aftermath of the crisis, to attempt to claim revenge for the loss of his or her or its apprentice. And yet . . . the horned and tattooed Sith warrior who had murdered Qui-Gon Jinn and whom Obi-Wan had defeated could not have trained Dooku even if he had been a Sith Master, for Dooku had still been an active member of the Jedi Order at that time. It was only after Qui-Gon’s death that Dooku had permanently withdrawn from both the Temple and formally broken ties with the Order. As clouded as the Dark Side can make some things, there is simply no way that Dooku could have been living a double life within the walls of the Temple itself. Blind though the Jedi had been to his turning, they could not have coexisted with the man if he had already been using the Dark Side of the Force.

Troubled by the conclusions that his thoughts seem to be inexorably heading towards, Obi-Wan at length breaks his silence by asking, "Master Yoda, is it possible that Dooku wasn’t lying about the Senate being under the control of Sidious?"

Yoda, however, immediately gives his head a quick shake while they continue walking. "Looked hard at the Senate, we did. And risked much we did by doing so - questioning in secret those whom we serve. But no evidence we found." He glances thoughtfully up at Obi-Wan, pale eyes narrowing in consideration, trying to gauge the intent behind Obi-Wan’s question. "If in control of the Senate Sidious was, would not defeated the Republic already be? Would not to the Confederacy of Independent Systems the Core and Inner Rim now belong?" Yoda pauses for a moment then, as if to invite an actual answer to what amounts to a rhetorical question, before adding, "Perhaps at Geonosis, an accident it was that Dooku revealed himself, caught off guard by the appearance of so many Jedi. Had he not, searched we would have for Sidious, leaving Dooku to escalate his war. Perhaps an inadvertent advantage Dooku gave us in this conflict. What think you, Obi-Wan? Hhmmm?"

Obi-Wan thoughtfully folds his arms before him. "I’ve thought long and hard about that day, Master, and I believe that Dooku couldn’t help revealing himself - even though he may have regretted it afterwards. When he was fleeing for his ship, it was almost as if he allowed himself to be seen; almost as if he was attempting to draw us into an engagement. My first thought was that he was trying to ensure the safe escape of Gunray and the other Separatist leaders. But my instincts tell me that he desperately wanted to demonstrate how powerful he had become. And I no longer believe he has ever had any great respect or concern for the lives of his allies among the Separatist leadership. I also think he was genuinely surprised to see you turn up when you did, Master. Yet, instead of killing Anakin or me out of hand, he deliberately left us alive, to send a message to the Jedi."

"Right you are, Obi-Wan. Pride undid him. Forced him, it did, to show us his true face."

"Could he have been trained by this . . . Sidious?"

"Stands to reason, it does," Yoda nods. "Accepted by Sidious he was, following the death of the one you killed."

Obi-Wan considers this scenario for several quiet moments. "I’ve heard rumors about Dooku’s early fascination with the Dark Side. Was there not an incident in the Temple involving a stolen Sith Holocron?"

Yoda squeezes his eyes shut and nods. "Truth, that rumor contains, though the matter of Dooku and Lorian Nod was . . . complex. Chosen by Master Thame Cerulian to be his Padawan learner, Dooku was. Envious Lorian Nod became. Jealous of his former friend’s advancement while unchosen he remained. To anger those emotions led and then hatred. To the Dark Side such feelings lead. To the Dark Side the youngling fell. Stole the Sith Holocron from Dooku’s new Master he did. And blamed Dooku for it, when questioned. Uncovered the truth was only with Dooku’s help. Banished from the Jedi Order Lorian Nod therefore was, but vengeance against Dooku he swore. When sixteen Qui-Gon was and Dooku’s own Padawan, an attempt Lorian Nod made to win his revenge. Sorely tempted Dooku was, but anchored in the Light by his Padawan learner he remained. Save Dooku, Qui-Gon did. Close, they were. A good match. Much like you and Qui-Gon. Balance each other well, in the Living and Unifying Force, they did. Closer than many other Master-Padawan pairs they grew. And close they remained, until fall Xanatos did. Damaged by Qui-Gon’s self blame, their relationship was. Almost to blows they came, when refuse you Qui-Gon did. All but broken, their tie was. Angry with Qui-Gon, Dooku was. And frustrated by many wrongs that could not be righted. Becoming disillusioned with the Order, with evidence of increasing corruption in the Senate and abuses of power by Republic officials. But understand, Obi-Wan: a Jedi Dooku was. For many, many years. Difficult the decision to leave the Order is. Influenced he was by many things. The death of your former Master, for one - even though avenged Qui-Gon was." He glances up at Obi-Wan again, briefly. "Complicated, this is. Not merely by what we know, but by what we do not know, by what we have to assume." Yoda stops here, then gestures to a nearby carved bench. "Sit for a while, we will. Enlighten you, I can."

Obi-Wan sits silently, obediently, his heart wanting to race within his chest. He is both stunned and sickened by what Master Yoda has already revealed to him about Dooku and his life within the Temple, his relationship with Qui-Gon. It is almost enough to make Obi-Wan afraid to hear what else Master Yoda might have to say to him, about Dooku.

Almost.

Obi-Wan had not truly known Dooku, the former Master of his own Master, before his capture on Geonosis. Their first meeting and conversation of meaningful length had been on Geonosis, when Dooku had attempted to convince Obi-Wan to join him, both in support of the Separatist cause and in the battle against the Sith Lord Sidious, who Dooku had claimed was in control of the Republic - and therefore, by extension, the Jedi, since the Council and therefore the Order is loyal to the Senate - because of the power he exercised over hundreds of influential members of the Senate. He has always vaguely regretted not knowing the man, before his fall to the Dark Side, and wondered just why it was that Qui-Gon Jinn had never seen fit to introduce him to his former Master while Dooku was still a member of the Order. Qui-Gon had never even bothered to tell him that Dooku had been Qui-Gon’s Master in the Order. While still a youngling in the Temple, Obi-Wan had intended to perform a simple data search on the then mysterious Master Jinn - research that surely would have revealed the fact that Qui-Gon had been the first Padawan learner of one Jedi Knight Dooku - but Bruck Chun’s treacherous ambush, in that hallway, and the fallout from their struggle had kept him from actually fulfilling this task. Qui-Gon had refused him, afterwards, and at that point - resigned to his failure and a life of what he could only imagine would be miserable drudgery in the Agri-Corps - the data search had seemed rather beside the point. When Qui-Gon finally accepted him and carefully explained about the bond that the Force had already formed between them, Obi-Wan had been so shocked - and so grateful - that the thought of trying to research his new Master had simply not occurred to him. He had been convinced that the bond would tell him everything that he might ever want or need to know about Qui-Gon Jinn.

If Qui-Gon had not, at that point, still been a relative hermit - self-isolated and bitter, because of his perceived part in the fall of his first apprentice, Xanatos, to the Dark Side - this assumption might have held true. But Qui-Gon had been very slow to trust and even slower and more reticent about opening up and speaking of himself, of his past. Largely as a result of this and the miscommunication and misunderstanding that it fostered - which Obi-Wan naturally had blamed himself for, at first because he had not known that the problem was caused by the festering wound of Qui-Gon’s lingering pain and anger over Xanatos’ fall and later because he simply could not entirely believe that the fault still did not somehow lie with him, rather than with Qui-Gon - their first year together as a bonded Master-Padawan pair had been rocky, to say the least, while their first handful of years together had been . . . well, challenging, often to the point of being downright difficult, to be quite honest. They had made up for it, mostly, later, and eventually became quite close, but for some reason Qui-Gon simply never spoke with him about this one thing. Though Obi-Wan should have been told about Dooku at some point early on in his apprenticeship - Qui-Gon honestly should have revealed his earlier connection with Lorian Nod to Obi-Wan at some point during their mission on Junction 5, by explaining about his earlier run-in with the man, while he was still Dooku’s Padawan - somehow the subject had never come up. Obi-Wan had actually been Qui-Gon’s Padawan for over half a decade before he had finally found out that Dooku, and not Yoda, had been Qui-Gon’s own Master. And by then it had been too late to really try to ask his still very private Master much of anything about Dooku. A pattern had already been established, and the habit of silence on the subject had been so deeply ingrained that Obi-Wan had not been able to bring himself to break it.

Obi-Wan might have found out about Dooku earlier, in his attempts to learn more about his new Master by speaking to Master Yoda, but for some reason his timing had always been off. Something else - usually either something engineered by Xanatos or some other brewing crisis in the Republic, most often in the Outer Rim Territories (and more often than not involving the Trade Federation or some other faction of what would eventually become the Separatist CIS) - had always come up that kept him from pursing any kind of real discussion with Yoda about Qui-Gon. In the aftermath of the murder of Knight Tahl, a long-standing friend of Qui-Gon’s, Master Yoda had actually attempted to bring up Qui-Gon several time in their discussions, but Obi-Wan’s instinct to protect his then deeply wounded Master had kept him from taking part in any such conversations. Thus, Obi-Wan had not discovered the truth for himself until after a chance remark made by Master Kit Fisto during the Jedi’s investigation of the known Sith Sect leader Mark Lundi (a history professor, of all things, who, even though he had no discernable Force-talent himself - a fact that had, thankfully, seemed to hold true for his students and the other members of the Sect as well - was obsessed with the Sith and the Dark Side) and his attempts to uncover several dangerous Sith artifacts, including at least one Sith Holocron, had at last led Obi-Wan to research just why a sixteen-year-old Qui-Gon Jinn might have been out of the Temple with one Jedi Knight Dooku. Obi-Wan had been nineteen, at the time. Almost twenty. He had been Qui-Gon’s Padawan for nearly seven years. It had been mortifying to discover that he had been erroneously assuming that his own Master had been trained within the Jedi Order by Master Yoda when in fact Qui-Gon had been the Padawan of an entirely different Jedi Knight, someone who Obi-Wan didn’t even really know.

Qui-Gon must have realized that Obi-Wan had figured the truth out for himself. He had been right there, when Master Fisto mentioned Lorian Nod’s temporary capture of Dooku and Qui-Gon, prompted by Nod’s need for revenge for being turned out of the Temple for the theft of a Sith Holocron. And Obi-Wan had certainly made no attempts to hide the fact that this remark had prompted him to research the particular mission that led to that capture - and the Master-Padawan bonded pair that this data search had revealed. Yet, Qui-Gon had never said anything about Dooku or his failure to speak of his apprenticeship to Dooku, afterwards. The one time Obi-Wan had attempted to broach the subject directly with Yoda, the ancient Master had looked at him with down-turned ears and sadly declared, "Qui-Gon and Dooku’s story that is to tell, young one. Not mine. First to one of them you should speak."

Obi-Wan had never gotten to ask his Master about it, though. Their missions had been nonstop - and increasingly dangerous, often resulting in injury to one or the other or both of them - at that point, and they had continued to be so, right up until the mission to Naboo. He hadn’t wanted to broach what was obviously a sensitive subject while either one of them was in recovery and it certainly wasn’t an appropriate conversation topic while on mission. They were supposed to have been given their long overdue and much needed extended leave after the Black Heth assignment, which had followed so rapidly on the heels of the rather involved investigation of the disappearance of Council Master Adi Gallia (who had been investigating rumors about Trinkatta Starships and certain experimental hyperdrive-bearing droid starfighters, which had later been stolen by Bartokks - hence, the rather involved element of the investigation, which had carried on for quite some time after the retrieval of both Master Gallia and Boll Trinkatta himself), on Esseles, that the downtime they had already been promised had been pushed back. The sudden and entirely unexpected assignment that first sent Obi-Wan out alone to investigate the disappearance of Jedi Master Anoon Bondara and his Padawan, Darsha Assant, and then immediately afterwards sent him on to meet up with Qui-Gon, to pursue Chancellor Valorum’s secret request for a mission to Naboo, to negotiate an end to its blockade, had marked the third time in a row that the Council had revoked their leave in order to issue them an “emergency” operation. Master Yoda had specifically promised that they would be getting their leave - via a full standard month’s retreat to Alderaan - just as soon as the Naboo crisis was at an end.

That, of course, had never happened.

The Sith had seen to that.

And the Sith Lord Sidious also seems to have been responsible for the fact that Obi-Wan was never given a chance to try to question Dooku about it, since Dooku had made his decision to leave the Jedi Order - as it now seems in a failed attempt to seek out Sidious and kill him, to avenge the death of his former Padawan learner at the hands of Sidious’ apprentice, on Naboo - by the time Obi-Wan arrived back on Coruscant, with Anakin in tow.

There had been a surprisingly large package left for him when he returned to Coruscant, including several items which had been neatly labeled as gifts from Qui-Gon or keepsakes from Qui-Gon and Dooku’s time together, as Master and Padawan, bearing the heraldic seal of the Count of Serenno. But there had been no attempt any real written correspondence, and no recorded message, either. Obi-Wan and Anakin had sorted through the package, together, while they were going through Master Qui-Gon’s things. At the time, it had seemed like a thoughtful but bittersweet gesture from a man who was cutting ties with his past but reluctant to simply let the artifacts of that past fall by the wayside. After Geonosis, there had been some concern raised over the contents of that package and the possibility that Dooku might have tampered with those contents. Some of the Council Masters had wanted the items to be destroyed, just to be on the safe side. But Masters Yoda and Mace Windu had firmly refused to allow such an order to be issued, declaring that the package had specifically been left by a Jedi Master for a Jedi Knight, and that it would have been impossible for there to be any danger or harm hidden away in it without the Jedi being aware of it. Not in their own Temple. They had left the issue of what to do with the items entirely at Obi-Wan’s discretion.

Together, Obi-Wan and Anakin had made the decision to keep it all. Neither one had been able to bear the thought of losing anything more of Qui-Gon’s - even if some of those things had once been in the possession of a man who had, at that point, clearly been a Dark Jedi, perhaps even a Sith.

After all, that man had once been Qui-Gon’s own Master.

It is only right that he should hear this. If for no other reason than that it will allow him to tell Anakin more about the man who was once Qui-Gon Jinn’s Master, should he ever ask. So he keeps his silence and merely sits, waiting patiently for Master Yoda to begin speaking again.

"A challenging and exacting but fair Master Dooku was, to Qui-Gon and to others," Yoda begins, after they are both settled to the ancient Master’s satisfaction. "Powerful he was; skilled and disdainful of others who were less powerful, less accomplished, than he. Stern to the point of seeming unfeeling, to some, but scrupulously just he was and able to devote the entirety of his being to a rightful cause. Care too deeply for others, for those treated unjustly, he could. Deeply offended by such things, he was. Convinced that intolerable such situations were and attended to by the Jedi they must be. And frustrated by the Order’s inability to right all such wrongs. More important, convinced that lowering the shroud of the Dark Side was. Signs there were, all about us, long before to the Temple you came - long before Qui-Gon came, before even Dooku came to the Temple. Many years of signs, far too many years and far more signs. Gross injustices, favoritism, corruption . . . More and more, called the Jedi were to enforce the peace. More and more deaths there were. Out of control events were becoming."

"Master, I know that the Force often prolongs the lives of Jedi long past the natural span of their species, especially the lives of those Jedi - those Masters - who grow more highly attuned to living and working harmoniously within the Force’s constant embrace. Did none upon the High Council ever sense that the Sith had returned?" Obi-Wan’s heart is in his throat as he asks this question.

"Never absent they were, Obi-Wan," is Yoda’s surprisingly gentle response. "But stronger, suddenly. Closer to the surface. Spoke much of prophecy, Dooku did."

"The prophecy of the Chosen One?"

"The larger prophecy: that unfold the dark times would. Born into their midst the Chosen One would be, to return balance to the Force."

"Anakin," Obi-Wan says, nodding, clearly making a statement, not asking a question.

Master Yoda frowns thoughtfully and regards him silently for a long moment. "Difficult to say," he finally snaps, clearly unhappy not only with the pronouncement itself but also with the need to make it. "Maybe, yes; maybe, no. More important the shroud of the Dark Side is. Many, many discussions Dooku had. With me, with other members of the Council. And with Qui-Gon, though as close as they had once been they never quite grew again. Most of all with Master Sifo-Dyas Dooku spoke."

Obi-Wan merely waits. It is apparently the correct response, for after a few moments of silence Yoda more calmly continues.

"Close friends they were. Agemates very similar in nature and outlook. Bound together by the Unifying Force. But worried about Master Dooku, Sifo-Dyas was. Worried about Dooku’s disenchantment with the Republic; about self-absorption, arrogance, among the Jedi. Saw in Dooku the effect of Qui-Gon’s death, Sifo-Dyas did. The effect that resurfaced the Sith had." Yoda shakes his head mournfully at this. "Knew of Dooku’s imminent departure from the Order, Master Sifo-Dyas did. Sensed, he may have, the birth of the Separatist movement."

"And yet the Council, and therefore the rest of the Order, merely dismissed Dooku as an idealist," Obi-Wan states quietly.

Yoda gazes at the floor, his ears turned down, though Obi-Wan has not precisely phrased his words as an accusation. "Saw with my own eyes what he had become, and refused to believe it, I did," the wizened Master sorrowfully admits, for a moment appearing so utterly defeated, so weary, that his green hue fades to an almost waxy grey.

"But how could Dooku have searched out Sidious? Or was it the other way around?" Obi-Wan is frowning as he asks this, already considering what this seemingly small and yet potentially crucial difference might possibly mean, especially considering the fact that Dooku essentially left the Jedi Order after the death of his former Padawan, Qui-Gon Jinn.

"Impossible to know. But accept Sidious as a mentor Dooku did."

"Could Sifo-Dyas have foreseen that, as well?" Obi-Wan frowns even more deeply.

"Also impossible to know. Believed, he might have, that Sidious Dooku would hunt down. To destroy," Yoda stresses.

"Could that have truly motivated Dooku to leave the Order?" Obi-Wan is so shocked at this possibility that he almost gasps. His heart suddenly aches within him for the Jedi who was once Qui-Gon Jinn’s Master, the man who was most responsible for the Jedi Qui-Gon had been. "He hinted at such, on Geonosis, but so much of what he said to me seemed deliberately meant to make me question the legitimacy of the High Council, the mandate of the Order itself . . . I thought he was only trying to win me to his side."

"Perhaps once his motivation it was. But by the power of the Dark Side, even the most steadfast heart can be seduced," Yoda quietly answers, for the moment overlooking Obi-Wan’s own consistently proven ability to successfully resist the lure of the Dark.

At this, Obi-Wan turns to fully face Yoda. "Master, did Sifo-Dyas order the clone army?"

Yoda only nods. "Contacted the Kaminoans, he did."

"Without your knowledge?" Obi-Wan presses, an edge to his voice.

"Without it, yes. But exists, a record of his initial contact."

"I knew I should have questioned Lama Su more extensively!" Obi-Wan snaps, giving in to some of his frustration.

"Questioned, the Kaminoans were. Furnished much they did," Yoda offers soothingly.

"Did they?" Obi-Wan starts, surprised. "When?"

"Reticent they were when first to Kamino I went. Only what already they had told you, I heard. That Sifo-Dyas the order placed; that Tyranus the donor clone furnished. That for the Republic the clones were. Seen by the Kaminoans, neither Sifo-Dyas nor Tyranus was. But later, after attacked Kamino was, more I learned from Taun We and Ko Sai. About the payment," Yoda clarifies, a sort of grim triumph evident in both his carriage and tone.

"From Sifo-Dyas?" Obi-Wan asks, eyes narrowing.

"From Tyranus."

"Could Tyranus have been an alias for Sifo-Dyas? Could he have adopted the name to provide deniability for the Jedi in case the clone army was discovered?" Obi-Wan asks, half afraid of the answer that he is almost sure he will receive.

"Wished for that I did," Yoda sighs, confirming his worry. "But killed Sifo-Dyas was, before on Kamino Jango Fett arrived."

"But not before Qui-Gon’s death."

"Not before, no."

"Murdered?" Obi-Wan requests.

Yoda compresses his thin lips, but eventually clarifies. "Unsolved the crime remains, but, yes: murdered."

"Someone knew," Obi-Wan muses, more for his own benefit than for that of Master Yoda. "Dooku?" he asks, turning his attention back to the ancient Master.

"A theory I have - nothing more. Murder, Dooku committed. Then, from the Jedi Archives erased Kamino, he did. Of that tampering, proof Master Jocasta Nu found - proof of Dooku’s action, though well concealed it was."

Obi-Wan recalls his visit to the Archives to search out the location of Kamino, only to be told in no uncertain terms by a scornful Jocasta Nu that the planetary system could not possibly exist, since it was not within the Archives. What had caused him to stare so intently at the library’s bronzium bust of Count Dooku on that day, three years earlier? At last, unable to find a satisfactory answer for this question, Obi-Wan moves on to another. "Nevertheless, the clone army obviously continued to be financed and built. Could Sifo-Dyas and Tyranus have been partners?" he offers.

"Of our ignorance, another example this is. But playing both sides Jango Fett clearly was. By someone on the side of the Republic, chosen he was on Bogg Four, a moon of Bogden, to be the clone template. But serving Dooku he was also, as a hired killer. With the changeling who targeted Senator Amidala, an intermediary he was."

Obi-Wan pictures Fett in the execution arena on Geonosis, standing behind Dooku in a box reserved for dignitaries, and nods in agreement. "He had knowledge of both armies. Could he have killed Sifo-Dyas?"

"Perhaps."

Sighing at this noncommital response, Obi-Wan muses, "Then perhaps it was a task that Sidious set to Dooku to test his loyalty. Have you considered the possibility that Dooku may be this Tyranus?" he asks, resisting the urge to frown. "If Dooku’s original intentions were lost as he became corrupted by the Dark Side of the Force, then Sidious might have accepted him as an apprentice only after he had proven his loyalty, with the murder of Sifo-Dyas. Were you able to trace the source of the payments - beyond Tyranus, I mean?"

"From Bogg Four into a maze of deception, they led."

"Did the Kaminoans say whether anyone had tried to persuade them not to build the army?" Obi-Wan shrewdly asks.

Yoda almost smiles at the insightfulness of his question "Intercede, none did. Reveal themselves too soon, our enemies would have."

"So Dooku had no choice but to create an army before the clones were trained and ready," Obi-Wan nods thoughtfully.

"Appears that way, it does."

Obi-Wans falls silent for a moment, examining this new knowledge. Eventually, he carefully begins to speak. "When I was being held captive on Geonosis, Dooku told me that the Trade Federation had been allied with Sidious during the blockade of Naboo, but that they had later been betrayed by him. Dooku also said that Gunray had gone to him for help afterwards, and that Dooku had tried to appeal to the High Council. He claimed that, even after several warnings, the Council refused to believe him. Is any of that true, Master?"

"More lies," Yoda says flatly. "Building a case to enlist you in his cause, Dooku was."

You must join me, Obi-Wan, Dooku had said, and together we will destroy the Sith!

"If Gunray hadn’t been so keen on assassinating Padmé Amidala," Obi-Wan muses, "if I’d failed to trace the saberdart that killed the changeling . . . "

Yoda nods. "Ignorant about the clone army, we might have remained."

Obi-Wan blinks, startled enough to lose his train of thought, and frowns. "But surely the Kaminoans would have contacted us, Master!"

Yoda merely tilts his head to one side in a gesture reminiscent of a shrug. "Eventually. But grown greater in numbers the Separatist army would have. Invincible, perhaps."

Obi-Wan’s eyes narrow at that. "Mine wasn’t a case of blind luck," he snaps irritably.

Yoda only shakes his head. "Meant to learn of the clone army, we were. Destined to fight this war, we were."

"You sound like Dooku," is Obi-Wan’s flat challenge.

Yoda merely blinks once, slowly, his gaze flat, utterly convinced. "Change the truth of the matter or of our intended discovery that does not."

Obi-Wan manages not to snort - barely. "A discovery that apparently was made only in the nick of time. The Council couldn’t even conceive of Dooku as anything but an idealist! Perhaps he never believed that the Jedi could become generals."

"Nonsense!" Yoda snaps. "Warriors always have we been."

"But are we helping to return balance to the Force," Obi-Wan challenges, "or are our actions contributing to the growth of the Dark Side?"

Yoda grimaces at that, clearly unhappy with the question. "Impatient with such talk I grow! Cryptic this conflict is - the way it began, the way it unfolds - mysterious, unpredictable, steeped in the Dark Side of the Force. But for the ideals of the Republic we fight. To prevail and restore peace our priorities must remain. Then to the heart of this matter will we burrow. Find and reveal the truth, we shall. But the war first we must end."

Obi-Wan restrains both a frown and sigh and bows his head silently, trying to tell himself that Yoda is correct, but something about this entire chain of events just doesn’t feel quite right to him. If the Jedi hadn’t learned of the clone army, Dooku’s Separatists would have suddenly appeared on the scene with tens of millions of battle droids and fleets of warships. They would have been allowed to secede from the Republic without contest due to the simple fact that the Republic would not have been in any kind of a position to protest their departure. Although perhaps . . . no, surely there would have been no chance of peacefully coexisting with the Confederacy. Ultimately, it would have bled the Republic dry, one way or another, and war would have been inevitable, with the Jedi caught squarely in the middle of things, much as they were now. Yet, why hadn’t Master Yoda told Obi-Wan about Sifo-Dyas sooner? Or did he only intend this discussion to act as yet another lesson, as the search for Kamino had been? Could this be another roundabout way for Yoda to tell him to search for a thing that doesn’t seem to be there by analyzing its effects on the world around it? The difference between knowledge and wisdom, Obi-Wan’s friend Dex might have said, as he had on identifying the source of the saberdart that had so effectively killed Zam Wessel, after the Temple analysis droids couldn’t and had insisted - with an arrogance matched only by the Temple Archivist - that if they did not have access to enough information to identify the object, with all of the data of the Temple Archives at their disposal, then no one else would either.

Obi-Wan’s frown deepens, his eyebrows furrowing. Qui-Gon had always criticized the High Council for being too authoritative, as well as for cultivating inflexible methods of teaching. He had warned against a time when the Temple would become little more than a place in which suitable candidates were programmed to become Jedi, rather than a place where individual beings strong in the Force were allowed to grow into their talents, into themselves, and into a strong communion with the Force. Qui-Gon had been no stranger to what the Jedi often tactfully refer to as "aggressive negotiations," which typically involve the quick use of lightsabers instead of the careful dance of diplomacy. Nevertheless, though, Obi-Wan wonders what his old Master would have had to say about this war. He vividly recalls Dooku’s assertion on Geonosis, that Qui-Gon would have joined Dooku in championing the Separatist cause, and is immensely troubled by the fact that not only can he no longer disregard the claim out of hand, as nothing more than a taunt meant to discomfort and discombobulate him, but that he also finds that he himself is no longer certain that the actual stated aim of the Separatist cause - independence from an absolute authoritative and arbitrary rule - is unworthy of such support. Unfortunately, the Separatists have never truly seemed to have wanted to accomplish their actual stated claim for existence. And in any case, such a thing never truly had a chance of succeeding, once violence entered into the picture. If Dooku and others only could have remaining willing to stick the course and work things out patiently, methodically, peacefully, through negotiation and diplomacy, rather than seeking for the quick but essentially hollow gratification of violence . . . Obi-Wan sighs wearily. No matter how he tries to come at this problem, from what angle or direction, it always seems to turn back in on itself again instead of opening out onto any kind of workable solution. If only he had known about certain things sooner, then perhaps he could have possibly done something to prevent a part of this inextricably snarled morass from happening in the first place!

Yoda is regarding him calmly, steadily, when Obi-Wan lifts his head again. "Reveal you, your thoughts do, Obi-Wan. Believe I should have told you sooner, you do."

"Yours is the wisdom of centuries, Master," Obi-Wan says quietly, noncommittally, with the instinctively infinite grace of one long used to the enormous amount of care required to deal with dicey diplomatic situations.

"Years matter not. Busy fighting a war, you have been. Mentoring your headstrong Padawan. In pursuit of Dooku and his minions . . . Darker, events became. Attempting to turn this war to their own uses, Dooku and Sidious are."

"We’ll have Dooku soon enough."

"Lifted the veil of the Dark Side wasn’t after your success on Naboo. Grown beyond Dooku this war has. Now to justice both must be brought. And to justice all those Sidious to the Dark Side has turned. Plain it is that the Rule of Two is no longer being followed. Other Dark Adepts there may well be, trained by Dooku or Sidious himself. More knowledge we require, to be sure." Yoda looks hard at Obi-Wan, eyes narrowing to slits, as he raises and points his gimer stick at him, all but touching Obi-Wan’s chest with its end. "Uncover Sidious’ tracks, you must. A chance this war to conclude, you and Anakin have been given."

"And you fear we will not take it?" The words are out before Obi-Wan has a chance to realize he even means to say anything, much less to notice that his mouth is opening. He blinks, startled by the vehemence of his own words, the incredulity of his tone. His diplomacy so rarely fails him, anymore, that it is disconcerting in the extreme when it does happens. Such instances have been occurring more often, though, of late, and almost always in response to some slight that quite often is not being directed towards him so much as it is towards his former Padawan learner. Obi-Wan is far past the point of beginning to become impatient with the way that so very many within the Order regard Anakin, either with obvious mistrust and more than a hint of fear or else with contempt that borders on outright hostility - a hostility that, in the case of a few, seems to grow more and more patently irrational with the passage of time.Obi-Wan is tired of this, Force take it! From Mace Windu - who, more and more, is a grimly disapproving stranger he no longer recognizes as the man who was once a good friend of Qui-Gon Jinn’s, a man with such a slyly sharp sense of humor that he could make Qui-Gon roar with unrestrained laughter - he would almost expect such a remark, but from Master Yoda, of all Jedi? Obi-Wan is so shocked that he almost forgets to be offended, even for Anakin’s sake.

Almost.

Force take it, Anakin had been his Padawan and he is and has always been a good man, a good Jedi, with a heart so enormous, so giving, that he continually seeks to embrace all of the galaxy within its scope, even though he is constantly rebuffed in his efforts! When will the rest of the Order open its collective eyes and see this, truly see the actuality of the brightly burning, Light-loving soul who is Anakin Skywalker? Has the increasing taint of the palling shroud of the Dark Side over the Force finally become so great, so overwhelmingly strong, that it is infecting even Master Yoda with this ridiculous paranoia? Yes, Force take it, Anakin is a passionately emotional being, by his very nature, and he still struggles with the reality of his often far too present emotions, but then, he did not enjoy the privilege of growing up within the sheltering and neutralizing influence of the Temple, now did he? And he does try, he strives mightily, every day learning and relearning to let go of his emotions, in compliance with the Code and Jedi way of life, fighting and - despite what his detractors would claim - far more often than not winning a struggle that most Jedi with their protected Temple upbringing would have never proven strong enough or dedicated enough to even attempt to engage in, given similar circumstances, the same background. Yes, sometimes Anakin’s emotions do momentarily get the better of him - chiefly due to his confusion and pain over the way others prejudge him and his frustration at the shortsightedness of those who refuse to even allow him a chance to prove his actual worth - but given the fearfulness and mistrust with which so many within the Order treat Anakin, Obi-Wan frankly has an increasingly hard time accepting the right of such Jedi to rebuke Anakin for his emotional failings. Somehow, the fact that Master Yoda is gazing at Obi-Wan with the same look of half horrified, half queasily shocked air of almost fear that so many of his fellow Jedi seem to reserve solely for Anakin wounds Obi-Wan far worse than anything else that he has had to weather in the name of his loyalty for his former Padawan learner. The betrayal of it burns, surprisingly painful.

"Perhaps spent too much time with your former Padawan you have, Master Obi-Wan. Lost some of your better judgment and adopted some of his headstrong nature, you appear to have." The frankly disapproving words and judgmental tone in which Yoda utters the sentiment instantly causes several possible retorts - of increasing causticity and accusatory hostility - to spring to mind, and Obi-Wan almost has to bite his own tongue, to keep himself from speaking any of them.

Sith hells, yes, he and Anakin are close and they’ve always been close - though perhaps not always so openly close as they have been since the start of the war - out of necessity, given the unforgiving and undeserved attitudes of the majority of the population of the Jedi Temple towards Anakin and, increasingly, Obi-Wan as well! They are so close that there are several within the Order who have long taken note of their behavior, as though trying to discover some impropriety that they can formally accusing them of. Obi-Wan can no longer keep track of how many times he has been presented with the sordid suppositions such Jedi have arrived at, after tracking their movements within the Temple, even as early on as Anakin’s fifth year among the Order, when he was still Obi-Wan’s Padawan and little more than a child: the way Anakin has always been so free with touch, with Obi-Wan, and the shameful way Obi-Wan has apparently allowed it; the way they’ve always been constantly missed at mealtimes in the communal dining facilities while in residence at the Temple, even while Anakin was still Obi-Wan’s Padawan; the way Obi-Wan and Anakin remained partnered, after Anakin’s Knighting; the way they continue to spend so much of their time together while they’re in residence in the Temple in Obi-Wan’s chambers, as if Anakin were still his Padawan, to the point that they are only rarely seen together outside of the immediate vicinity of those rooms, unless they’re either performing some highly public lightsaber practice or hand-to-hand combat or else they’re coming or going from some meeting or briefing with the Council; and the way that Obi-Wan is so increasingly defensive of Anakin, how Obi-Wan is always so eager to speak out against the Council - even now that he ranks among the Council Masters - whenever Anakin is being reprimanded or even just questioned about one imagined failing or emotional outburst or another.

Master Windu had once even had the unremitting gall to openly challenge Obi-Wan about the supposedly overly close and suggestive nature of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, only a few months after the Clone Wars had begun. Apparently, although at the time he and Anakin had been in residence at the Temple for less than a day, following the successful completion of a series of relatively short reconnaissance missions, they had managed to shock both the Temple residents and two visiting Senators with the seemingly "inappropriate" nature of their relationship. Force take it, all they had done was to dare to use one of the Temple’s larger, open training salles for some ’saber practice on the evening of their return!

Obi-Wan remembers the sparring session well. He and Anakin had been early enough to the training salle to find both it and its viewing stands empty, and so they had thought nothing of monopolizing the entire area of the sizeable arena, beginning with a session of open sparring rather than falling back on the set forms of a training kata. They had begun slowly, lightsabers powered down to settings so low that they could not inflict any real harm, outer layer of robes shed for greater lightness and ease of mobility, circling each other carefully, smiling, feinting, watching and waiting for opportunity or inspiration to strike. Even while warming up, they had moved together effortlessly, entirely unselfconsciously. As usual, preferring a more aggressive ’saber style, Anakin had gone on the offensive first, leaping towards Obi-Wan with a spinning thrust designed to distract the target with upper body action while the real threat came from a delayed sweep of the leg. But Obi-Wan had not been fooled. The two had sparred many, many times over their years together, and neither one was going to allow such an easy victory. Of the two, Anakin was the taller, with a longer reach and slightly greater bulk and brute strength, but Obi-Wan was marginally faster and more athletic, possessing a greater facility in aerials and an almost uncanny ability to redirect the power and sweep of even the most powerful of offensive strikes.

A few more testing feints, a bit of back and forth with some appropriate banter, and then the match had begun in earnest as Obi-Wan flipped forward over Anakin’s left shoulder, landing in a crouch and sweeping his Padawan’s feet out from under him. Had anyone been there yet to watch, it would have been immediately obvious that this was to be no politely controlled, kata-inspired exercise. Instead, this was a freeform fight, a no-holds-barred battle that would end only after one or the other was actively forced to yield. Anakin had gone down hard, so that the two tumbled over each other, automatically extinguishing their ’sabers in such close quarters. Obi-Wan had regained his footing first and reignited his lightsaber with a flourish, leaping for the first level of the balance beams that criss-crossed one section of the huge chamber, but he’d had no opportunity to exult over gaining the first hit, as Anakin was right behind him, ’saber swinging at knee level as he settled upon the surface of a slightly lower beam. After that, they had launched into full sparring mode, with rapid-fire thrust and parry and riposte, their lightsabers flashing in an endless wheel of point and counterpoint as they’d leapt from one crossbar to another, each seeking an advantage, but neither one finding much opportunity for even the most minute of gains.

When Anakin had at last succeeded in penetrating his Master’s defenses with a sudden upthrust of linked forearms, Obi-Wan wheeled backwards and tumbled towards the floor almost twenty meters below. For one who wasn’t a Jedi, such a fall would have risked serious injury. Yet, Obi-Wan had merely allowed himself to enjoy a few fleeting moments of free fall before angling his body up towards an upright support that was part of the framework of this area of the salle’s network of training platforms, swinging up around it and allowing his momentum to propel him out across open space, where he could eventually land, catfooted, on the lowest of a series of catwalks angling upwards towards the western wall. "Catch me if you can, Padawan!" Obi-Wan had laughed, his lightsaber swinging in to score another hit on his sparring partner’s outstretched hand as he’d whizzed past a disgruntled Anakin, who had just begun his descent and could not quite recover quickly enough to avoid the light blow. They had both known, though, that the battle was only just then truly beginning.

They had both begun to perspire with the exertion of their efforts, by that point, and so they paused to doff their outer tunics before taking off again at a run, each determined to gain altitude. When they had progressed to the highest crosswalk, they met at the midpoint and resumed the intricate footwork and bladework of a complex pattern of thrust and parry, the advantage, like a pendulum, swinging endlessly back and forth between them. When Obi-Wan lost his footing, falling back against a flexible handrail, Anakin had swooped in for a deciding blow, only to find his target flipping back over the railing and finding footing on a parallel support girder, allowing him to dance away from the bite of Anakin’s slightly paler colored blue blade. "Why don’t you just give up now, Master? I have the higher ground!" Anakin had shouted, laughing teasingly and vaulting over the railing, only to find a bright azure blade completing a brisk upper cut that would have - at the very least - left him with only a stump for a left arm, if Obi-Wan’s lightsaber had been fully powered. To avoid the blow, Anakin threw himself face down on the narrow permacrete surface they were balanced upon, allowing himself to slide forward and upending Obi-Wan in the process. The two had gone down, then, in a tangle of arms and legs and breathless laughter, until Obi-Wan finally simply rolled to his right, clearing the edge of the beam and twisting in midair to land lightly upon his feet. Anakin had followed hard on his heels, the maneuver taking both of them down to the lowest level of the graduated platforms. There, they had simultaneously elected to forego the upper levels for a time, leaping down to the sand-strewn floor of the arena proper and initiating yet another series of Force-enhanced parries, their blades flashing in intricate patterns at incredible speeds, bodies moving with perfect grace, complimenting each other with dazzling complexity.

By that point, the freeform session had become a masterpiece of choreography without either one quite managing to notice the transition, their focus remaining solely upon each other, their concentration so absolute that they no longer even noticed the greater scope of the space surrounding them. Thus it was that the gradual gathering of a quietly appreciative audience - which became far less gradual as time wore on and word of their dazzling display had spread - could go unnoticed by them both. Instead, the contest had continued, covering every surface of the arena-sized salle, accentuated by a steady playful patter of banter, which they continuously managed to find breath for no matter how quickly or how strongly they pressed one another. By the time the fight finally ended - in the only way a contest between two such closely matched and friendly opponents could end, with the victor determined by an element of random chance - the crowd had grown so great that the stands were filled with onlookers, almost as many as would have been present for an official presentation. Despite the fact that many of those who lingered in the stands, watching, had originally come to this particular arena in order to spar some themselves, not one Jedi or one single Padawan intruded upon its testing grounds while Obi-Wan and Anakin’s freeform session continued, such was the skill and captivating presence of the two, who remained so intent on their sparring that they failed to notice the steady influx into the stands.

In the end, Obi-Wan had charged up a short section of stairs, pausing on a shallow landing to twist himself into a contortion that would have been impossible without his immense Jedi flexibility in order to meet an overhand sweep of Anakin’s weapon, his riposte locking the two blades together as each vied for position to overpower the other. By this point, they were both sweating and beginning to feel the familiar burn of well used muscles, but neither one had been willing to yield yet, even though the grinding hum of the friction between their brilliant blue lightsabers vibrated through their bodies and set their teeth almost painfully upon edge. At last, recognizing a deadlock that could not be overcome by brute strength or determination alone, Anakin had feinted right, to disengage, and then continued the ascent to higher ground that Obi-Wan had begun, leaping up to gain leverage by pushing off of the upper framework of the stair railing - an old framework that unfortunately would not prove to be as securely bolted to its moorings as it should have been, having withstood many years of the exact same sort of stress and strain. The railing had wobbled, once, before giving way completely, dumping Anakin in a sprawl down to the floor, the fall too short to allow him enough time to access the Force to cushion his landing. His recovery had still been quick, but it was not quite quick enough, as Obi-Wan took advantage of the moment to leap down over the tumbled form of his Padawan, his smaller body sprawling atop and across Anakin, pinning him, so that he could position his humming ’saber bare centimeters above Anakin’s vulnerably displayed throat.

"Yield!" The demand had been a breathy whisper, since neither one of them yet had much breath to spare.

Grinning, Anakin had retorted, "Only because it could’ve been you down here as easily as it was me, if I hadn’t been quicker than you, Master!"

They had laughed together then, blades extinguishing as they fell into each other’s arms, and had been completely unprepared for the sudden cresting wave of noise around them, as the hitherto mostly silent masses watching from the stands began eagerly commenting on the fight they had just witnessed. Obi-Wan had blinked, startled and a bit dismayed to note how many seemed to have entered into the training salle while they were otherwise engaged, but soon other sparring partners had begun to move down into the arena, and his discomfort passed.

"Perhaps another less energetic match?" he had offered his still smiling Padawan as they strolled over to the bench where their outer robes and tunics had been discarded.

"One of our new katas?" Anakin had asked eagerly, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Dragon’s Flight or Swirling Sea?"

"Sea, I think. Flight takes more space," Anakin had responded, already stripping off his inner tunic.

"Very well, Padawan-mine," Obi-Wan had nodded, smiling, and followed suit, adding his innermost upper layer to the mingled pile of their shed robes and tunics.

Swirling Sea was a kata that Obi-Wan and Anakin had developed together, a hybridized sequence of fluid organic moves designed to incorporate aspects of both their preferred fighting styles, one that paired the blinding velocity of Obi-Wan’s intricate, almost infinitesimally tiny defensive motions with Anakin’s unexpectedly sudden, powerful, enormously flowing offensive movements. As their dancing blue blades had twined together seamlessly in a complex pattern of flickering light that eerily mimicked the motion of a swirling sea, they had, apparently, caught the attention of two visiting Senators, who had been brought down into the seating area of the salle in search of Master Windu, who had been watching them closely since near the beginning of their freeform session. Or so Mace Windu had informed Obi-Wan, with shocking bluntness, the following afternoon, cornering Obi-Wan in his suite while Anakin was off performing some minor repair work to their starfighters. Mace had spoken at great length about the way that the Senators had stared all throughout the performance of their hybridized kata and at the wholly inappropriate level of closeness Obi-Wan and Anakin had so publicly displayed, not only during the performance of the kata but afterwards, with their shockingly conspicuous and suspiciously sustained and easy touching of one another. While Obi-Wan had stood in stunned silence, Mace had gone to great pains to explain how one of the two visiting Senators - and although Master Windu had very carefully not said which Senator, Obi-Wan knows Bail Organa well enough to know that it had not been Bail - had even remarked, "I thought for a moment they were going to kiss there, at the end!" when Obi-Wan had tugged the loop of Anakin’s Padawan braid free from its confinement and Anakin had playfully tousled Obi-Wan’s overlong hair, which he had been forced to pull back with one of Anakin’s ties, it had been in such dreadful need of a cut.

When Obi-Wan had finally gathered wits enough to coolly interrupt the entire ridiculous recounting and inform Mace Windu that he had never in his life indulged in sexual antics and that if anyone truly doubted the nature of his relationship with, of all people, Anakin Skywalker, his Padawan learner, then his memory and mind were as open books, for any and all to look within, the man had stuttered and actually visibly flushed. Remembering that, Obi-Wan finds the strength to restrain himself now. Coldly proper, he inclines his head once, briefly, as though in acknowledgment of some favorable expression, and simply informs Yoda, "I am greatly honored, Master, that you would pay me the compliment of comparing me to Anakin Skywalker. I know that he is the far more powerful Jedi, of we two. I am sure he will be pleased, to know that the High Council thinks so highly of us that it considers the two of us, alone, enough to end the war. Rest assured that we will do our duty, as Jedi."

Then, while Yoda is blinking at him, obviously caught off guard by the nature of his response, Obi-Wan rises swiftly and strides away from the still seated little Master, his much longer legs quickly and easily placing so much space between them that he effectively ends the audience between them.

*********