Anakin...Anakin...Anakin Skywalker

Again, the quiet, almost imperceptible voice echoed almost as if it were carried by the slight breezes so common to the waterfall region of Naboo. Anakin was walking alone in the moonlight by the edge of the very river where he had his first picnic with Padme. He had been here many times, but always he was with his wife. Even as this thought came to mind, he wondered why she was not here with him now. This was one of their favorite resorts, as it was always an escape from their busy lives, and other than the indigenous animal life, they were always alone. Now, this voice floating as if on a zephyr had broken that feeling of isolation that had so long been associated with this area.

As Anakin reflected on these things, he was suddenly taken in a vision where he traveled rapidly down the river to the base of a medium sized waterfall. At this point, the vision carried him underwater, and right through a massive rock wall into an enormous cavern with a ghostly specter standing in the center. It seemed to be covered by a robe of a Jedi Master. The covered figure then raised its head and whispered, "Your destiny is at hand." Anakin started to respond, but the vision rapidly fled from his sight, and he found himself lying in his bed, sweat covering his face and taking rapid, shallow breaths.

"Anakin, are you alright?"

Anakin looked over to see his beautiful, yet concerned wife rubbing the sleep from her eyes. As she came nearer to move his damp hair from his face, the moonlight shone through the window and seemed to envelope her in an almost heavenly glow. To Anakin, this beam of light seemed to even enhance her unsurpassable beauty. She caught him admiring her, and a knowing smile came to her lips. He embraced his wife, and kissed her deeply.

"Do you know how much I love you, Padme?" he queried.

"Yes," she replied, "but I will never tire of hearing it."

"Go back to sleep," he said. "I need to think some things over"

"Please just stay with me until I fall asleep again," she said. As he kissed her again, he replied, "You know I would never dream of anything else."

----------------------------

Anakin felt the cool night air race across his face, and it seemed to invigorate him. He quickly arrived at the Jedi temple, and made his way down to the archives.

"Don't you ever sleep, Anakin?" asked the librarian. "Your studiousness surpasses any Jedi I have ever heard of, including Master Yoda."

"Well," he replied, "he's had hundreds of years to gain his knowledge. I've got to try to catch up somehow."

She just laughed as he made his way to the ancient archives section, where he would be alone even if he came here in the middle of the day. It always seemed strange to Anakin that only the occasional Jedi would ever bother to come and try to gain knowledge through the study of the ancients and their ways, because this very thing consumed him.

Anakin had been completely absorbed by three things in his life over the past few years. First and foremost was his wife, Padme. She would always occupy his thoughts, as she was the very center of his life, the main reason he continued his struggle for self improvement. He couldn't imagine a life without her, and wondered how he had even managed his time apart from her from their first meeting on Tatooine to that joyous occasion when he was called to watch over and protect her by the Jedi Council. He knew that even though the Clone Wars often called him away, no force in the universe would separate them for long.

The second area of Anakin's obsession was born from his desire to improve his skill with the lightsaber. Ever since his defeat on Geonosis by Count Dooku, he had been obsessed with becoming the best lightsaber fighter ever. This is one of the reasons he would pour over the ancient texts, looking for any method or combination of methods that would improve and hone his skills. He had already found quite a bit of success, as he uncovered sword fighting styles that had remained hidden for millennia, many of which even Yoda didn't know. It helped having a partner to train with in Obi Wan Kenobi, as he could practice his new found knowledge, and both had vastly benefited from Anakin's obsession. It had paid off, too, in his most recent fight with Count Dooku.

Anakin realized early on that Dooku wasn't even a match for him, especially after he had mastered Dooku's form of combat. He was a little discouraged, however, that after all of their practices together Obi Wan went down so quickly. To be fair, however, Obi Wan hadn't studied Dooku's fighting style, and Anakin had mastered that form, along with many others, solely in self practice and the programming of fighter droids. Not many people used the fighter droids anymore, as they had been known to have killed a number of Jedi in unfortunate accidents in the past. In order to get the full benefit from using them, you had to allow them deadly force. Anakin, however, wasn't worried at all by such a thing. He was too good. In fact, there wasn't a Jedi alive that was a true challenge for him. He was even the greatest swordsman that most of the current Jedi had ever heard of.

The third facet of his life that had completely occupied his every free moment, while tied closely to the second reason, differed in the fact that he would also study the ancient records specifically searching for different and lost ways of manipulating the force itself. He had already discovered things that had been forgotten for generations that had truly made him a force to be reckoned with. In fact, Yoda was so pleased with his dedication to studying, that he had allowed him access to special records that weren't kept in the general archives. These were records that the Jedi council had kept hidden from the rest of the universe, as they contained special and secret Jedi information. There was still enough knowledge contained in these records to keep a group of Jedi occupied for millennia, so there was much to be learned no matter who had the access. The only stipulation for this access was that Anakin would share with Yoda any new lightsaber techniques, and they would practice them together.

Even so early after being allowed the access, Anakin had uncovered much information, and Yoda and he had already gone through and mastered several new force techniques and lightsaber forms. Even though some of these were only minor variations of the better known styles, these subtle differences often made the difference between victory and defeat.

Something that had facilitated Anakin's learning was the fact that he had uncovered a method of meditation, whereby he would only need to sleep a normal night's rest once a month, and this meditation would only require 15 minutes of strict isolation each evening. Any chance he had he would still be with his wife, but often while she slept he would be at the Jedi temple searching the records. He also had uncovered a Jedi method of rapidly assimilating information that had allowed him to thoroughly cover hundreds of years of information in only a few months. He truly was surpassing anything that the current Jedi had ever known or heard of.

His studies tonight resumed with where he had ended the previous night. He read of a group of Jedi Masters that had each dedicated their lives to the lightsaber forms. There were twelve of these Jedi, and they were some of the best fighters in the history of the order. As Anakin read further, he found that one of the Jedi was swayed by the dark side of the force, and broke off from the others. The information became sketchy, but it seemed from what he could ascertain that the fallen Jedi had created a form of saber fighting in which the wielder could not be defeated. Could this be possible? thought Anakin. One last piece of information presented itself. It was a holocron preserving the image of the leader of the 11 who remained true. Anakin stared in amazement at the figure as it was the very personage that he had seen in vision scarcely an hour ago. He resolved to visit the waterfall area the next day, as soon as his Jedi duties permitted.

On his way back from the secret Jedi archives, Anakin ran into Yoda.

"Studying again, are you? Very driven, you are!"

"Yes Master Yoda. It looks like you can't sleep yourself."

"Early riser am I," Yoda said. "Uncovered new information, have you? Looking forward to dueling with you in long forgotten forms, I am."

"Master Yoda, may we talk in private a moment."

"Yes, Yes. Come to my quarters, you must."

Yoda sat in silence after hearing of Anakin's vision and the information he had uncovered. "Disturbing this information is. Relieved of your duties for a time you are. Go to the area in your vision you must."

"Master Yoda, is it possible a Sith created a lightsaber form that can't be defeated?"

"Heard I have of such a thing. Padawan learner was I, but doubted this I did. To the waterfalls of Naboo you must go. Many answers there I see. Report again when back you come."

As Anakin left Yoda's quarters, he realized it was still much too early to go to Naboo. After all, he couldn't leave for Naboo without seeing Padme first, and she wouldn't be awake for a few hours. He needed to find something to occupy his time, and he knew of just the thing.

"Come on, Obi Wan. Time to get up. You've been dying to spar with me, and this will be our only chance for a little bit."

"Okay I'm up, I'm up. Meet me in the training room in half an hour."

Anakin hadn't been the only one struggling to improve himself after the first fight with Dooku. Obi Wan had realized that as good as he was, he still had a ways to go, and had been dedicating much of his time to practice. He didn't have the free time Anakin had, however, as he was one of the chief diplomats that the Jedi council would send to solve various problems throughout the galaxy. Although he was frequently able to solve difficult situations peacefully, he was a skillful warrior, and one of the best swordsmen currently in the Jedi order. After his quick defeat by Dooku the second time, however, he had decided it wouldn't happen again.

He also started going through ancient holocrons, and had uncovered something he knew Anakin hadn't come across yet which occupied most of Obi Wan's free time for the past few months in perfecting this new style. Although he didn't like to let his feelings get the best of him, he couldn't wait to see Anakin's face when he introduced this new form in their sparring. Anakin sensed he had something good to show, though, and was also a little disappointed they hadn't gotten a chance to practice together since Obi Wan had been back from his latest assignment. But now, at long last, that wait was about to end.

Anakin jumped back in slight amazement as Obi Wan swung through a graceful combination in a style he wasn't familiar with. "You've been practicing, Master," Anakin said as he parried a blow, and threw a quick strike of his own.

"Well, I can't let you get all the glory," Obi wan replied.

Their lightsabers flashed and seemed to move in a harmonious web of light and sound. After an hour of non stop fighting, Obi Wan spat in anger at the tip of a lightsaber held at his throat, his own thrown to the other side of the room.

"How is this possible? I spend the last three months perfecting this style, and you're able to learn it better than I know it solely by fighting with me for the past hour."

"Life's not fair sometimes, Master. You did fight incredibly well, though."

"Oh, thanks a lot." Obi Wan shot back. Still, he smiled to himself at how gifted Anakin was. It truly was amazing, and he couldn't help but feel a small sense of pride at having been the Master of so gifted an apprentice. After all, he thought, doesn't the ability of a pupil correlate at least partly with the ability of the Master?