Chapter One: Fond Memories

A/N: My first attempt at Star Wars fanfiction! Treat it kindly. J Sorry for any discrepancies; I took the liberty of making up planets, alien races, and odd objects here and there… Extra comments? Email to: jidai_rinoa@hotmail.com. Please review!

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"Yes, master," was what all Obi-wan could mutter before Qui-gon Jinn disappeared through the metal doors. Every past 'mission' had been like this one: Qui-gon taking full initiative of the task at hand while impassively mentoring his young Padawan. But, it seemed that he had not noticed his student's eagerness to prove himself.

Obi-wan yearned for a battle; he wanted excitement to come of these tasks they were sent on every so often. Usually the Council dealt with matters without having to send out the Jedi as "negotiators," and

Obi-wan saw little action. Since he had been taken from his home at the age of three, sixteen years ago, he had spent the majority of his time on Coruscant, honing his Jedi reflexes and training his mind to be patient and wary. He knew why his master would not let him take charge on his own or handle situations. He was too headstrong, too eager for battle, and Qui-gon Jinn knew it too well.

After several minutes had passed, the to-be Jedi grew restless. Obi-wan paced the cramped room and then took to studying the holographic displays. He flicked a few of the switches on the electric panel with his mind and watched as the displays abruptly changed, showing a map of the facility's hallways and rooms. Obi-wan's brow furrowed as he stared at the map.

Apparently, the Karitoans were just as advanced as the rest of the galaxy, for when Obi-wan looked harder, he could discern small figures moving on the map. They appeared to be mere dots at first, but then, he noticed, they were the actual live images, transferred to the holographic map from the concealed cameras within the building. Obi-wan smiled at this; he was one who appreciated the intricacies of technology.

His clear eyes followed a mass of figures that appeared, it seemed, from a wall. No, not a wall, he realized, but a room not charted on the map. Intrigued, he continued to watch as the figures made their way through a small hallway. There was one figure in front, which he guessed to be the leader, with an entourage of about five men. Obi-wan's senses suddenly alerted when he noticed the group moving in the direction of the room he was in. He flicked a switch to zoom in and was able to discern the men in the back readying blasters. The man in front had thrown back his hood, and as the camera focused on his face, Obi-wan immediately recognized who it was.

"Oh, bloody hell," he said under his breath as he quickly set the display to its original settings and pulled the hood of his cloak over his head. He palmed the blast doors open and stepped outside, casting a hasty glance about the corridor. Finding that he had come out before the group had approached within sight, he walked casually but hurriedly in the other direction.

Having studied the display, Obi-wan knew there was no exit in the direction he was headed. There was only one long corridor that ended abruptly. There were, however, many small rooms that were connected to the corridor. Obi-wan slipped into a room on his right, which was unoccupied and dark. He only hoped the men had not thought to check the display in the room he had left. Not one to trust his fate to luck or the wits of other men, he cast about immediately in search of the concealed camera.

"Smart, you moron, it's concealed. You can't see it," Obi-wan cursed himself, as he reached out with his senses. The camera was hidden behind a panel of liquimetal—a metal substance that appeared opaque but was transparent from the other side.

Obi-wan ignited his lightsaber and slashed the panel. The camera fell out, a mass of smoking wires. The corner of his mouth tilted up in a sly grin of confidence. He hooked his lightsaber onto his belt and took a deep breath to relax himself with the Force. But suddenly the door slid open to reveal two guards with blasters set to stun, trained on him.

Obi-wan cursed at himself again for not locking the door, but then a thought occurred to him. It's so dark in here…they didn't even look around for me. They just came in, and their blasters were already aimed at me. One of the men was cautiously approaching the Jedi, his blaster still pointed at Obi-wan's head. The other was keying something in on an electronic device strapped to his wrist.

Of course, Obi-wan realized, it's so obvious. The guards are equipped with the locator maps. He set his jaw grimly and looked to the uniformed man that was now standing before him.

"Jedi," he sneered. But Obi-wan saw the fear in the man's eyes anyway. "You scum."

"Sir, reinforcements are on their way," the man in the doorway said. The officer's attention diverting to the other guard at the word, 'Sir,' was the chance Obi-wan needed.

Before the other man finished his sentence, Obi-wan had knocked the blaster out of the officer's hand with his lightsaber. The man in the door attempted to fire his blaster, only to find that it was no longer in his hands. Obi-wan was holding it, having summoned it with the Force in those short moments, and was grinning. "Looking for this?"

"Holy shit," the man muttered. Obi-wan fought down the urge to laugh at the awestruck expression on the men's faces. But his glee was short-lived; he sensed a larger group of guards approaching the room rapidly. The reinforcements were coming.

Obi-wan pushed past the helpless men and emerged in the corridor amidst a flurry of blaster shots. He stood his ground for a moment, deflecting the shots deftly and downing a few guards before turning and calling upon the Force to increase his speed as he fled down the hall.

He knew he was heading straight for a dead-end. But nonetheless, he ran as quickly as he could, stretching out with the Force to detect the troops that he had left behind. There was no one in his direct path, and he continued until he reached the end of the hallway.

"Come on…" he said, frantically searching the blank wall with his eyes for a control panel. "This has got to be a door!" Obi-wan felt the troops coming closer with every passing second. Then, in frustration, he kicked the door.

Except his boot didn't make contact with the hard metal like he expected it to. It passed through the wall. Obi-wan was caught off balance for a moment in which his jaw dropped as he stared at the nonexistent wall. But there was no time to investigate it; he only hesitated a moment before throwing himself through.

There was a blast door and a panel next to it that required an access code. Which, of course, Obi-wan did not know. He gritted his teeth and ignited his lightsaber before thrusting it into the thick layers of metal with all his strength. It burned a hole through it, and pieces of reddened metal fell away from the area in molten heaps. Meanwhile he could hear the footsteps ringing out in the corridor grow louder.

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Qui-gon stood with the Prime Minister of Karitoa, watching the display. The tiny dots on the map were all moving to one focal point—the minister's headquarters, where he stood now.

"So you see, Master Jedi, he plots an assassination against me. Humans are never to be trusted, we Karitoans always say. It was a mistake to allow their trade route to connect with our planet. No doubt he planned it from the beginning, to take advantage of our peaceful demeanor and then lead his men to kill me when our trust was strong in him." The tall alien explained calmly.

The Prime Minister towered several heads above the Jedi, but he was considered small for Karitoans. The alien had slightly grey-blue hued skin, four arms, and was peering at Qui-gon through a pair of heavily ringed black eyes. For their heavy-set build, Karitoans were surprisingly agile, which Qui-gon witnessed as he had watched the Karitoan soldiers waylay each division of the smuggler's men.

All of the men were held now, except for one division, which was being pursued by a team at the very moment. Qui-gon watched the display as the men headed down the hall towards them.

"This facility is nonexistent on the map…how do they know it exists?" he asked the Prime Minister.

"One of my people blundered by leaving an incoming package of our handheld map devices in the hold of his ship…which was intercepted by Arshan's forces."

Qui-gon's attention was suddenly diverted from the troops by a sudden ripple in the Force. He suddenly saw another moving dot on the screen appear from a room, where no one had been in earlier. Obi-wan? He thought with a heavy sigh of disappointment. His apprentice had, again, failed to obey him and was now charging recklessly through the holographic wall. At least he is clever enough to know about the wall and the camera system… Qui-gon nevertheless thought to himself. He may, in time, learn patience. But it has already been so long…

"Who is that?" the Prime Minister asked, bringing the Jedi out of his reverie.

"My apprentice," Qui-gon admitted. There was a sudden uproar in the headquarters when something penetrated through the blast doors. Qui-gon looked to them and saw Obi-wan's blue lightsaber slowly carving a hole through the metal as melted chunks of the doors fell away. He sighed again. He does not know what we are here for…he has not been heeding warnings in the Force.

"Sir!" one of the attendants shouted at the Prime Minister.

"Open the blast doors," came the answer. The attendant looked stupefied for a moment, but he carried out his orders. The doors slid open, half melted, to reveal a bewildered Jedi apprentice standing in the middle of the hallway, lightsaber in hand.

"What…?" Obi-wan said. But his eyes fell upon his Master, whose face wore a reprimanding expression. Obi-wan's heart sank and he sighed. Qui-gon would not be happy with his apprentice's actions, and, no doubt, as soon as they reached Coruscant, Obi-wan would be in for another round of vigorous training in the Jedi Temple.

The troops pursuing Obi-wan suddenly appeared behind him, and he whisked around to deflect blaster shots as the men filed in. There was a commotion, in which the Karitoan guards standing at the door downed every last man with their advanced blaster weaponry. Obi-wan was left standing, and he looked around, dumbfounded, at the headquarters.

"It seems your companion has led Arshan's men to their demise even quicker than they would have reached it with my soldiers pursuing them," the Prime Minister said, amused at the pleadingly innocent expression on Obi-wan's face and at the stern countenance on his Master's. "Thank you, Master Jedi, you have been of great help. Now we can hunt out Arshan's base and eliminate them from our peaceful planet."

Qui-gon resumed his formal composure and bowed to the Karitoan before setting off for the exit. He did not have to look back to know Obi-wan was following him, his head bowed low in chagrin.

As soon as they reached the hull of their ship, Qui-gon turned around to face his Padawan. "You did not obey me," he said, taking great pains to suppress his frustration.

"I did not know what was going on, Master! The men came and they would have seen me no doubt on their maps, hiding in that room--"

"You were not a target to them!" Qui-gon interrupted, "they would not have pursued you, had you not shown signs of knowing of their presence. They came only for one thing: to assassinate the Prime Minister. Arshan cares not about other men; he would have mistaken you for yet another trader on Karitoa."

Obi-wan was silenced; the urge to defend himself was subdued by the definite explanation.

"You were not wary of the Force around you, only that of the present, my young Padawan." Qui-gon guided the ship out of the port and into the vast expanse of darkness, lit by the occasional star. He keyed in the controls for lightspeed and sat back as the ship flew into hyperspace.

Obi-wan sat, looking rather dejected in the co-pilot's seat. Qui-gon felt a wave of involuntary pity for the young apprentice, not even out of adolescence. "Obi-wan, I was once like you…but if you are to become a Jedi, you must not succumb to your ambition."

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"Anakin, I was once like you…but if you are to become a Jedi, you must not succumb to your ambition," Obi-wan said quietly, echoing his Master's words long ago to the young man standing at his side. They were on Karitoa, sent by the Council to handle a haywire smuggler's attempts to take over the ministry. Anakin looked at his master questioningly.

"You seemed distant in the past few minutes, Master. What's wrong?"

Obi-wan looked down at Anakin and a smile touched his lips. "It's just like it was back then. I came here with Qui-gon for the exact same reason why we are here, long ago…when I was at your age and as headstrong and reckless as you are."

Anakin looked at the Jedi, annoyed. A thought stirred in his mind of their next destination after Karitoa: Coruscant. And their next mission, to protect the Senator of Naboo from risk of assassination.

…Senator Naberrie, Padmé… He felt an extreme longing for the beautiful girl that was by now a young woman. It had been ten years since he had seen her last.

His master sensed his angst and said mechanically, "You must not let your emotions cloud your senses."

"Yes, Master," Anakin intoned, but his thoughts said otherwise. What do you know about love? I dream about her every night…it torments me.

Obi-wan heard his Padawan's thought and suddenly smiled, much to the surprise of his pupil, although a hint of suppressed pain shone through his eyes. "Actually…"

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Disclaimer: All names, characters, and items affiliated with Star WarsÔ are the rightful property of George Lucas. Any other characters and inventive items are the rightful property of me. ^_^