Abi:

"General, Jedi have arrived." Rylee stands at the center console in the security room, his tall stature takes up much of the room. Any other person would think he was a blaster wielding strongman, but he wouldn't hold one if his life depended on it. This was his life, a small 8x8 corner of Taris.

Jedi. My breath becomes shallow and then falls short. How many years has it been since I spoke to a Jedi? Why are they here? Rylee turns his head away from his left monitor looking from me to Kanzin, and back again. He's not used to me being so silent.

Kanzin points a large clawed finger at the center monitor and in Trandoshan grunts, "Is that Qui-Gon Jinn?" He turns his right eye to me, the other covered by a makeshift patch. I keep telling him we have the resources to at least get him a proper titanium cover, if not a completely new eye. His large frame shows impatience with my silence and he begins tapping his clawed foot, shaking the same finger at the center monitor. He knows just as well as I why Master Qui-Gon Jinn would take time away from Dantooine or Coruscant and make his way to the far reaches of the other side of the galaxy - to Taris.

"Yes that's him. Find out where they are staying Rylee, I should pay that young padawan of his a visit."

"Yes General." Rylee turns back to his console. Kanzin looks at me even more sternly than his resting face already looks.

Master Qui-Gon Jinn is here for me.

Obi-Wan:

This is the most excitement I have had in nearly a year. Master Jinn has made me spend most of my time mentoring in diplomacy on Coruscant. It's fine. I enjoy it. To the point where I have started seeing myself sitting on the Council someday. What would it be like to make all the decisions for matters of peace and matters of war for the entire galaxy? Anyone in their right mind though needs to get away. There is only so much time one can spend with the nobles and their henchmen, and their henchman's henchmen.

We step out of the airspeeder and make our way into the South Tower where we will be staying during our time here.

"So you never exactly told me why we are here? What has another noble been kidnapped and we need to negotiate their ransom?" Master Jinn throws me a stern look.

"I wish it was that simple." His arms cross and brows furrow. My steps grow larger and quicker to catch up to him. He turns quickly as if he has read my mind.

"Never wish for a time of war Obi-wan, you do not know what that is like. You do not understand the darkness that lies within it."

"Yes Master, my apologies." He's right. The Sith are gone and the Jedi are as strong as ever, I know nothing about war. I've been training to be a Jedi since I was 2, I don't remember what came before it, and I don't think there will ever be an after it.

"Get us two rooms Padawan Kenobi, I am going to look around." Master Jinn exits the tower and turns right. I have no idea how he is going to know what rooms I get for us, but somehow I am sure he will find it.

I walk down an aptly lit corridor and nod at the thin woman at the counter with several long black braids, one draping down either shoulder and the rest down her back. She smiles at me and extends a dark hand towards me.

"Welcome to Taris," she states warmly. Her eyes look iridescent in the light. "What can I do for you Master Jedi?" She has no idea I'm a padawan.

"Oh I am not a Master, yet, could I get two rooms mam?"

"Yes of course, and would you like to hear about any of the specials we have going on?" Her hand waves over a set of pamphlets that fill up the whole counter.

"I think I am alright with just the two rooms thank-you." She hands me two key cards and I find my way to my room. I lay down on the tiny bed scrunched into the far corner, it's enough for now.

Abi:

I hand Tati back her name tag and polo. "Thanks Tati, I will be sure to get your father those medications he needs by dinnertime okay?"

Her accent is thick as she replies. "Oh thank-you Abi, many kindnesses to you."

Taris a planet of gangs and sectors, but it is also one of refugees. I came here with Kanzin at 19, and I have no intention of leaving. I fought for the south sector, and now it is free. Qui-Gon is not going to take me away from here. His padawan did not even recognize me. What is a name like Obi Kenobi anyway?

Obi-wan:

I'm shaken awake at 3 in the morning by Master Jinn.

"Time to get going we have a job to do."

"At 3 in the morning?"

"We don't get to decide when the force calls us." This man and his quips are going to be the end of me.

"Okay so where are we going?"

"South Sector Headquarters." He answers sure of himself, like any Jedi is just allowed to walk into South Sector Headquarters. But I follow him like I always do, because despite all of his quips, I trust this man with my life.

Abi:

"They're passing through the Cantina mam," Rylee looks at me quizzically. He doesn't understand why I haven't stopped them yet.

I turn to Kanzin, "You know the drill K." He grunts an unintelligible response and motions for me to head back to our office. Well his office, but it's really my office. He pretends he is the General of the South Sector and I pretend I am absolutely nobody. It allows me to sneak through other sectors undetected. My soldiers say nothing. My strategists keep it quiet.

I make my way to the small meditation room hidden behind a bookshelf in the back of our office. I hear Rylee's voice overhead, "We are a Go General," and just like that cameras light up the room with Obi Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn. I can see from Jinn's mannerisms that he is going to let Kenobi take the lead.

"Thank-you for meeting with us on such short notice General Kanzin. We know that your time is valuable and look forward to making a deal with you for the health of the Republic." He says it like he rehearsed it in front of his mirror a thousand times before he tucked himself into bed. Jinn couldn't have found himself a more straight necked protege if he tried. I am sure the Council is happy.

Kanzin grunts, but gives no real reply. The Kenobi kid looks flustered, and Jinn takes over.

"We would like to see the real General now Kanzin." Kanzin strikes a claw into his desk and snarls. His right hand has wrapped around his techblade that always sits across his back.

It's time to let the 9 years that now sits between me and the Jedi temple to rest. I give Rylee the overhead signal and the bookshelf opens up.

Obi-wan

The girl from the tower comes out from behind the Trandoshan. I bet Master Jinn is pissed that I didn't recognize her earlier. Him and his ridiculous tests, that's why he had me check us in.

"We meet again Obi Kenobi," she smiles the same smile she did when she was playing secretary. The Trandoshan still has not removed his claw from the desk, and she sets a delicate hand on his left shoulder. She speaks to him in Trandoshan, I don't understand it but whatever it is seems to calm the giant down. They switch places and he moves to the back right corner of the office.

"I prefer to do this alone Abi," Master Jinn says this with a tone lacking his strict diplomacy like I am used to. It's like he has known her his whole life. He has turned soft.

"Whatever you want to say in front of me, you can say in front of Kanzin," Abi's tone is not nearly as soft. It is thick and rough like you would think a General of an entire sector of Taris would be.

"As you wish," Master Jinn responds, once again not arguing like he usually would be.

"So Qui, you're going to have to tell me why Yoda would tell you not only that I am indeed alive, but where I am."

"We need your help."

"That I gathered. It's 4 in the morning Qui, let's make this quick and I will let your Padawan get back to sleep," she looks me up and down twice, "clearly he needs it."

What in all of the galaxy does Yoda have to do with any of this?

She continues, "Judging from how far his brows have furrowed into his head, I also gather that your Padawan here has absolutely no idea what is going on. So what is it Qui."

"We need to take down Val-Sharthra."

"Absolutely not." She states it briskly and turns to get up. In that half of a second I have looked from Abi to Master Jinn, absolutely bewildered. There is absolutely no way we can take down one of the biggest crime lords in the entire galaxy.

Master Jinn purses his lips. "Then I have been instructed to take your lightsaber Abi." Lightsaber? This is far too many revelations for 4 in the morning. What in a Twi'lek's stripe is going on here?

Abi's body tenses and she reangles herself to once again sit square to us. She sets her hands down on the table flat. "There is no way I am risking my men's lives for a suicide mission." Her eyes burn into Master Jinn's. "And there is no way you are taking my lightsaber Jinn." I would have thought her to resume a General's tone, but this is lighter, calmer.

"Then I will have to take it by force," Master Jinn replies just as calmly. It's like I am not even here anymore.

Abi smirks the corner of her left lip lifting slightly. "Oh Qui, I would like to see you try." She once again gets up to leave.

"We will post your face in every subsector. We would ruin what you have here." I turn abruptly to Master Jinn. We both know the South Sector is the only safe place on all of Taris. He couldn't risk that many people's lives, surely, just for this girl.

She had gotten two steps away at this point. I expected her to turn to Master Jinn, but instead she looks directly at me. "Tell me Obi Kenobi, has Qui here told you what happens to the Jedi who fail training."

"It's Obi-wan. And I am not sure what you are referring to mam."

"It's General, Obi Kenobi." She states with each note a short staccato. "The failed Jedi. All of the children they find in orphanages, or take from their homes. The ones strong in the force. The ones they snatch from their mothers and their fathers, expecting them to obey. Tell me Kenobi, what do they do with the children that don't pass all of the tests." She has turned to Master Jinn while saying this last sentence, and so have I. In all of my years with him, I have never seen him angry. He is exactly that right now.

"No." He says, short and to the point. But the one word is loud and mean enough to make the Trandoshan take a step from his corner. Abi holds her hand up to motion for him to stop.

"So it's clear then, you haven't." She has turned back to me, expecting me to answer the question she stated over a minute ago.

"Well… They…" my mind is reeling. I do not know why I have not thought about this before. "They… they wipe their memories, and send them back to their families with compensation." Yes that is what I was told by the Council several years ago.

"Then why do you think Obi Kenobi. That my once Master, a kind and benevolent being. Why do you think Master Yoda had to devise an incredible plan to get me off of Dantooine after I failed my training?" She is calm and states the words like they are simple, but I cannot recollect any idea that would give an answer. And I can tell she knows that, I am aware she is a powerful force user now.

I do not know why I could not see it before. She is reading my mind.

"They kill them Kenobi. They kill them all."

She turns and walks out of the office, and the Trandoshan follows her. Leaving Master Jinn and I to resolve something that I would have never fathomed. I look up at him not even realizing how long I had been staring into the desk, like it would tell me the answers.

Even his eyes are in pain.