Here's another chapter. This story seems to be going pretty well, I think I know where I'm going with it now. Which is always a good thing, prevents major writer's block. Anyway, hope you like it.

Part 2

Anakin Skywalker jumped out of the cockpit of his starfighter in the hanger of the Republic base on the planet Zerion. Several clone troopers ran over to refuel and take care of the ship; they acknowledged him with a chorus of "Welcome back Commander Skywalker." The young Jedi Padawan nodded to them simply before walking to look around the hanger for his master.

Strange, he thought – he could not see Obi-Wan around at the command centre where he would normally be, not to mention told Anakin he'd meet him at the end of the day's battle, but he could not feel the older Jedi's presence nearby.

"Trooper," Anakin called, moving over to the familiar clone commander that his master always used.

"Commander Skywalker," Cody replied with a quick salute.

"Where is General Kenobi?"

The commander shook his head. "He hasn't come back from the field yet, sir."

Anakin sighed; it was very unlike Obi-Wan to be late to anything, not to mention a meeting he had called for several hours ago himself. "Where was he last?" he asked, glancing over at the sensor station, "Have you tracked any other ships taking off?"

Cody also followed the Padawan's gaze for a moment, "Near the edge of the battle." Walking over to the holographic map, he pointed, "Here. I'll check on the ship logs for you, sir."

The Padawan narrowed his eyes for a moment at the point on the holographic map and nodded before turning away to find a speeder. "Contact me on my comlink if you find anything," he called back over his shoulder to Cody.

"Yes sir," the clone commander replied before obediently getting to work.

The scorched grasslands, physically marked with the scars of battle, were nothing Anakin had never seen before. The droids had long retreated and a few clone troops remained at the edge of the field, but most of them had pushed ahead to pursue the Separatist army. Anakin didn't pay much attention to them, nor what was left of the battle, but he did take note of it in his mind as he flew by on the military speeder.

There was an outcropping of rocks a mile from the battlefield, where Obi-Wan had last been seen. As Anakin drew closer, he stretched out with the Force. Nothing, no familiar presence of his Master. He stopped the speeder and jumped off, walking into the rocky maze on foot.

It had remained untouched by the droids or clones during the battle, and it almost seemed as if Obi-Wan hadn't been here either. But soon he saw traces of footprints, two sets of them. They led to a cave. Anakin stepped inside and his mechanical hand twitched at the familiar presence that had been here. Count Dooku.

The Padawan swallowed hard in slight fear as he looked around the cave. There were burn marks in the walls, and towards the back he could just barely see a rock that had been cut in two by a lightsabre. The cave wall near by carried the marks made by Sith lightning, not to mention the burnt electrical smell that still lingered. But Obi-Wan was not here, and Anakin still couldn't sense him.

He walked to the back of the cave and bent down to pick up his Master's lightsabre. Obi-Wan would never leave his weapon like this after so many times of getting after Anakin about things like this. With a sigh, he picked up his comlink. "Commander, anything yet?"

Nothing yet, sir.

"All right… While you're looking, check for Count Dooku's ship, if you find it, find the co-ordinance and contact me."

Understood, sir.

Putting the comlink back on his belt, Anakin knelt down on the ground and reached toward something dark on the ground. It was damp; he rubbed his fingers together. Blood. He looked over to the side – there were more footprints leading away. He stood up and started to follow the trail. Something was defiantly wrong and in his heart the feeling of dread rose even more as Anakin feared that his Master had been captured if not killed by Count Dooku. But he would get him back and Dooku would pay for this.

Count Dooku stood quietly in the doorway of the dark room, listening to the soft whirl and beeping of the medical machines. His expression was no different than normal; stately…almost indifferent. But his face did not betray his thoughts as he watched Obi-Wan sleep.

By all rights the Jedi should be dead. It had been his orders and he nearly completed his task. If he had left Obi-Wan in the cave as he almost did, he surely would have been gone by the time that anyone had found him. Dooku's sabre blade that had impaled through Obi-Wan's back and up through his lower shoulder had damaged the man's lung. By the time they had landed on the planet, he was beginning to cough up blood.

Dooku sighed with regret. A feeling he should not have regarding this. A Sith does not feel regret. But he is not a Sith, he is a Count of Serenno.

Slowly he stepped forward from the doorway to stand beside the Jedi who was oblivious to his presence in the room. Bitterly, he looked at the tubes and wires that monitored Obi-Wan's life signs, and the younger man's pale face. He had saved his life, but Dooku knew that while for the moment Obi-Wan is rather confused about his action, there would be a great deal of mistrust when the confusion cleared. After all it had been his army that Obi-Wan had been fighting, his..henchmen for lack of a better term…that had added to the scars that he had collected over the years, not to mention the wounds that Dooku himself had inflicted. The ones that caused Obi-Wan to be in the condition that he was in.

Why did he save him? Surely he could not complete his mission now and kill him. Dooku even told Sidious that the task had been complete. Though, he mused with a slight smile, it hadn't been the first time he had lied to the dark lord, nor would it be the last. He could not undo the past, but he could shape the future.

What thoughts were these, he left the Jedi Order. No, Joran Dooku was no longer a Jedi Master. Nor would he be again. His path was already chosen, he could not unlearn or undo. So why did he save Obi-Wan?

Part of it, he knew, was Qui-Gon.

"I knew that you could never fully turn against all that you used to be," a familiar voice whispered in the wind before the form of Qui-Gon Jinn appeared in the same doorway where Dooku had previously stood.

Dooku raised a slightly amused eyebrow, despite the serious and solemn air that had settled about the room, "Strange coming from you, Qui-Gon. It was you who cried out for me to spare him, I did hear you."

The blue silhouetted figure, who almost seemed like a holograph instead of a Force image of a man who had already left life, smiled a little. "You didn't need my input on the matter, Master, in your heart you could not kill him. How many Jedi have you sent back to the Temple alive?" Qui-Gon paused a moment, walking over to stand on the opposite side of Obi-Wan, looking down at the face of his former Padawan. "Is that what you will do with him?"

"He will do as he wishes once he is healed," Dooku replied almost indifferently, but Qui-Gon knew better.

"You do not have to follow this path any further, Master Dooku," Qui-Gon said, looking up again, "It is not where your heart leads you."

The Count sighed softly, "Following the heart is what you have done, Qui-Gon, it is not for me."

"Then why didn't you kill Obi-Wan? My intervention was irrelevant, you would have done what you wanted either way."

"It is too late for me to turn back now."

"No," Qui-Gon said with a kind, concerned look, and shook his head slightly, "It is not too late. I know you are sorry for what you have done. I know you are too proud to admit it, perhaps even to me." He looked down at Obi-Wan again, gently brushing his fingers across the man's check, "He is blind by your hand, but we have all been blind. If you come back into the light, Master, your eyes will be opened. Together, both of you will help each other to see."

In a moment, Qui-Gon vanished, leaving them alone again. Dooku sighed. Perhaps he could turn back, but certainly the Jedi Council would no longer trust him. Even if they did, Obi-Wan wouldn't. Time would tell. For the moment, he would make no action, and let both sides believe what they wanted.

Dooku placed a hand on Obi-Wan's forehead. "Rest, child," he said softly, as he had said many times to Qui-Gon in the healer's ward at the Jedi Temple. With only the sound of his cloak fluttering behind him, he left again.