Okay so we have some followers! Good deal. Enjoy the new chapter everyone.

It took time, but after a month of having Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon at her side, she realized that the two Jedi were very different people. At first, she saw no difference in them, except age. They both were always calm. They both spoke with an air of deliberateness. They both got funny feelings that mostly turned out to be correct. They both were quiet. However, she began to see that Obi-Wan was more uptight than Qui-Gon was and he required more time spent alone than his master. It was very easy to overlook Obi-Wan. He never smiled a genuine smile and he seemed comfortable being the lesser of the two. She wanted to know his age and guessed he was between sixteen and eighteen, though she was not sure.

She found herself alone with Obi-Wan one night. They were around a campfire. Qui-Gon was guarding the perimeter. Satine had never had a conversation with Obi-Wan alone. Qui-Gon had always been between them. She looked at Obi-Wan's face. He was staring ahead at the flames, apparently lost in thought.

"Obi-Wan, what is the Force exactly?"

He blinked and turned his gaze toward her. "I'm sorry, Duchess, what did you say?"

"What is the Force that you and Qui-Gon are always talking about?"

He blinked again. An emotion crossed his face. Perplexity. "It's... well... it's the Force. It's what binds us and gives us life. Makes things grow and change."

"And what is the will of the Force? What does this refer to?"

"The will of the Force... dictates what will happen. Everything that happens is the will of the Force. What does not happen was not meant to happen. For instance, it was the will of the Force that you became the leader of the New Mandalorians, but it was also the will of the Force that you did not die that first day we came to you. The Force always wins."

She considered this in silence. She thought about telling him that she had "prayed" to the Force the night before Qui-Gon and he arrived, but she decided against it. "So the will of the Force is like fate or destiny."

"I guess you could put it that way."

"If the will of the Force always wins," she said, "why do anything at all? Why help me? If I'm meant to rule over Mandalore, it will happen on its own, correct?"

Obi-Wan shook his head. "The Force acts through Qui-Gon and I. It acts through you. You, Qui-Gon, and I were meant to come together."

She felt herself blushing and she was not sure quite why the thought of her and Obi-Wan being written in fate was making herself feel this way. She knew he could not see her blushing in the dim light of the campfire, and she was grateful for this. "So it was destiny that you and I are sitting around this campfire now?"

"Yes, if that is what you want to call it."

"What about just chance?"

"There is no such thing as chance," Obi-Wan explained as he unconsciously grabbed a leaf off the ground and started tearing it, "and what seems to us as merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny."

She admired his eloquence. "You have a good head on your shoulders, Obi-Wan. I don't personally believe in destiny, or the will of the Force, but you obviously hold strong convictions."

Obi-Wan felt blush creeping up his face. He said, "So do you."

When the conversation stopped, Obi-Wan stopped tearing leaves for a few minutes. She wondered if he realized he was doing it. Then he grabbed some more from behind him and said, "When did you decide you wanted to help lead the New Mandalorians?"

"When I was eight. I wrote all these speeches and I begged my father to say them for me. I was quite insane."

"And... don't take this personally, but how old are you now? Because you look really young," he added hurriedly, as if he was afraid asking would offend her.

She considered lying to make herself older, but she admitted, "I'm sixteen... almost seventeen. And yourself?"

"Seventeen." He said this as if he was not happy about it.

"So... what does 'padawan' mean? I never really understood that."

"It means I'm a learner. I'm not really a Jedi Knight yet, officially."

She felt taken about. "Really?" she said quietly. "When do you become a Jedi Knight?"

"When the Council thinks I am ready."

"You seem ready to me."

For the first time, Satine saw Obi-Wan genuinely smile and it made her smile as well. He uncrossed his legs and recrossed them again differently. "The Council... they are very wise. They wouldn't agree with you. Let's just say they don't have much faith in my abilities. I almost never became a padawan. Qui-Gon took me at the last minute. Long story. I'm fortunate enough to be a padawan and I do not mind it."

Her mysterious protector just became even more interesting. There was something about him that made Satine burn with the desire to know more about him.

"What's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you?" she asked out of thin air.

"Jedi don't feel fear."

"Don't be ridiculous. Everyone feels fear. Even animals feel it under the right conditions."

"Why are you asking me this?"

"We're around a campfire."

He looked at her with a blank expression.

"It's the will of the Force to tell scary stories around a campfire. Everybody knows this."

"It sounds funny when you say 'the will of the Force,'" he said bemusedly. "What's the scariest thing that ever happened to you then?"

She racked her brain. "Well, my older sister used to read this book to me at night when her friends were sleeping over. The stories gave me nightmares. There was this one story where a girl was lying in bed and she heard this voice calling to her. It told her it was coming up the stairs. It talked to her on its way up the stairs. Then she heard it say it was right outside her bedroom. And then it was in her room. And then it screamed, 'I've got you!' and the girl screamed. Her parents came in, but found nothing. I used to think I was hearing a voice telling me it was coming for me at night."

Obi-Wan said nothing for a moment and then burst out laughing. She had never heard him laugh before. It sounded nice.

"So non-Jedi children are afraid of things that don't exist?" he finally managed to say.

"All children are afraid of things that don't exist. Haven't you ever heard about the monster under your bed?"

"A monster under my bed?"

"Yes, all children cry out for their parents at night saying there's a monster under their bed."

Obi-Wan became silent as he considered this. Then he said, "What do the parents do?"

"Well, they look under the bed of course," Satine explained. "And they say there's nothing there."

"That's not what I would do," Obi-Wan announced after another moment of silence.

"And what would you do?"

Grinning to himself, he said, "I would tell them that there was a monster under their bed, and if they ever misbehaved again, I would let it kill them."

It was Satine's turn to laugh. Her laugh gave him a funny feeling that he could not identify. "That is the most demented, evilest thing I've ever heard in my life!"

"What is?"

Both Satine and Obi-Wan stopped laughing and looked over in the direction of Qui-Gon's voice. He was walking out of the woods into the clearing.

"Nothing, Master," Obi-Wan said swiftly. "What is wrong?"

"We need to move," Qui-Gon said without preamble. "Now. On your feet. Put the fire out."

Obi-Wan lifted the bucket of water using the Force. He tipped it over with the Force as well, almost like he was trying to show off. But the bucket was jerking and he was having trouble tipped it over gracefully.

"Obi-Wan, stop messing around!" Qui-Gon snapped. "Just because you can use the Force does not mean you have to utilize it for every minute task -"

"Sorry, Master." The bucket tipped upside down quickly and the flames were extinguished.

"Take the Duchess back to our cabin," Qui-Gon ordered. "I will stay here. Someone is coming our way, but I think they are alone. Keep your eyes open."

"Wait, shouldn't -" Satine began.

Obi-Wan gently put a hand on her shoulder. She felt a jolt of electricity. "Master Qui-Gon can handle himself. Let's go."

As she walked back to their miniscule cabin, Satine continued to feel Obi-Wan's hand on her shoulder even though it was no longer there. She did not want to come to terms with what this feeling she was having meant. Obi-Wan was a Jedi - padawan or not. She was the Duchess of Mandalore. His path was very different from hers and nothing good could come from any... feelings.

Obi-Wan ignited his lightsaber for light. She had gotten used to the humming and it almost soothed her now. They found the cabin that was shrouded in darkness. They both went inside. There was no power going into the cabin and there were no lights anywhere inside. They stood in silence, hardly breathing, listening for some sound other than the chirping from crickets. She did like the idea of Qui-Gon facing danger alone. It was very late at night. Dawn was approaching, but for now, they were stuck in the darkest part of the night.

When the sun started to rise, Satine and Obi-Wan began to argue.

"It's been almost an hour," she hissed. "We have to go see -"

"No, we don't," Obi-Wan argued. "Qui-Gon gave us an order -"

"Well, I'm the Duchess of Mandalore!" she said in that lofty, ringing tone he knew all too well. "So my order overrules his, and my order is that we go and investigate."

"I will literally hold you hostage if it comes to that," he threatened.

She laughed. "Oh really? What're you going to do, suspend me in the air the whole time?"

"If I have to."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Don't try me."

Light was seeping into the cabin.

Obi-Wan's comlink beeped. He let out a breath. "Master?"

"There is a man here," Qui-Gon's voice said. "Calls himself Strike. He has no weapons and -"

"Strike!" Satine exclaimed, drowning out the rest of whatever Qui-Gon said. "Where is he?"

"She knows who he is?" Qui-Gon asked.

"Yes, I know who he is! He's a spy for us."

"She says he's a spy on our side," Obi-Wan said into the comlink.

"Very well. Come back to the clearing."

Strike was a man in his mid-forties with gray-brown hair and an untamed beard. He was a bit mad and had an odd sense of humor. But he did his job well. At the beginning of the war, Satine used to doubt whether he was telling the truth or if he was just making stories up. However, her father had trusted him and she had to as well.

He was sitting on a log around the fire, smoking a death stick like he did not have a care in the world. Satine went up to him and they shook hands.

"You know those shorten your lifespan," Obi-Wan told Strike without introduction. "They make you hallucinate."

"If you wanted one, all you have to do is ask," Strike said as he fished around in the pockets of his jacket.

"No thanks," Obi-Wan said in a voice that conveyed disgust.

"Right then," Strike said as he straightened himself up. "Jedi and New Mandalorians. Very interesting duo. I've never met a real Jedi before. One member of the rebels has a black-bladed lightsaber though. I guessed it'd be called a darksaber. I've seen it. Makes a funny sound when it's swung. He says it was stolen from the Jedi Temple like a thousand years ago or something like that. Unfortunately, the rebel who owns it is shrouded in mystery - I don't know his name, though I'd be very interested to know."

Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon exchanged quick glances that clearly communicated they did not believe a word that was coming out of Strike's mouth.

"You've received more death threats from our handwriting friend," Strike said. "I am quite fond of reading them. I think it was an excellent idea to forward them to me. I have the little pieces of paper, in case you want to read them. They're quite funny."

She smiled faintly. "No idea who is sending them?" she asked as she sat down on another log near the campfire.

"Unfortunately not. The folder I have is not big enough - I have to find a new one. That's not why I'm here though. Nobody else knows I'm here. I have information saying that someone very close to you has switched sides." He glared at Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan suggestively.

She sighed. "That really is not news."

"It is, actually," Strike insisted as he puffed away on his death stick. "Death Watch knows you have two Jedi protectors. They even know the names. Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Weird names you both have."

Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes. "I'm afraid I can't take you seriously if you smoke a drug that is known to make people have hallucinations."

"So you think I just correctly hallucinated your names? Are you Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan? Because your friend here did not tell me his name. I asked him not to."

Obi-Wan looked over at Qui-Gon, who nodded at Obi-Wan.

"Not very many people know the names of our Jedi protectors," Satine said, looking deep in thought. "Unless somebody close to me has a big mouth."

"Maybe the traitor is Casimir," Obi-Wan suggested.

She shook her head vehemently. "No, he wouldn't. We've known each other since I was nine years old. He would never."

Strike stretched out a leg. "Well anyway - the enemy is sending the Jedi Council messages saying that they're going to go to war with the Jedi. 'You've stuck your noses where they don't belong' - that kind of thing. According to them, they are prepared to burn the whole Temple down and kill every man, woman, and youngling inside it."

Obi-Wan felt horrified. "Are they -"

Strike waved him off. "They're not serious. They can't be. They don't have the military power. They're already spending all their resources and men in making sure Satine bites the dust."

Obi-Wan felt a surge of protection for her. "They are wasting their time," he said with more emotion than he intended.

"Of course they are," Strike agreed as he checked his watch. "Those bastards killed her father and I won't let them get her too. All I'm saying is trend carefully. Obi-Wan seems like he has your well-being in great interest, Duchess. Don't trust more people with more information than you have to, because someone in your inner circle is two-faced."

Strike is based slightly after the main character in JK Rowling's new book called The Cuckoo's Calling. She wrote it under a pseudonym and it was out for 3 months without anyone knowing the author of Harry Potter had published another book. She's awesome like that.

Let me know your thoughts, reader. Thanks.