In this chapter, one of my favourite characters makes a surprise appearance. Woot! I hope you guys like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, or Kombis, or Tupperware.

When Anakin finally arrived back at Cliegg's farm, he was at wit's end. Shmi had strummed her guitar and sang hippie songs throughout the entire journey, and the dreamcatchers hanging from the roof of the Kombi kept hitting him in the forehead. As he pulled over in front of the house, Padmé ran out to meet him, looking slightly disappointed that he had returned unharmed.

'Is she alright?' Cliegg asked urgently from where he was still sprawled on the ground.

Anakin hesitated. 'Well… it depends what you mean by "alright".'

'But she's not dead?' Padmé said impatiently.

In answer to this, Shmi's voice floated towards them from the back seat of the Kombi. 'No, I'm just like, so stoned, man.'

Anakin and Padmé elected to stay a few days longer to make sure Shmi was not going to be too much of a problem. They owed Cliegg this at least; Anakin had accidentally left his hoverchair at the hippies' campsite.

After a long sleep, Anakin woke up the next day in a much better mood. However, his good mood was abruptly destroyed when he went into the kitchen, and discovered Shmi and Padmé sitting at the table, smoking.

While the Jedi stood with his jaw more or less touching the ground, Padmé began to speak, waving her hands about dreamily.

'What if, like, this universe is just a tiny part of a bigger universe on top of, like, a cheese grater, which is just a tiny part of an even bigger universe?'

Shmi took a long drag from her pipe, her remaining brain cells pushed to breaking point in order to comprehend this sensational statement.

'Woah. That's deep, man.'

'All right, we're leaving!' Anakin snapped. He pulled the giggling Padmé to her feet and marched out the door.

'Bye, son!' Shmi called, waving her pipe in the air. 'Remember to recycle!'

Meanwhile on Vegas, Obi-Wan was preparing himself to enter the Busty Ladies Nightclub. Judging by the sheer volume of men traipsing in and out of the building, it was a favourite haunt of most of the planet's male population. It had taken Obi-Wan a while to find it, as he kept getting distracted by all the neon signs. Also, he was fairly sure he had accidentally married a crossdresser, but there was no time to dwell on that. Instead, Obi-Wan focused on tearing his eyes away from the neon sign above the door of the nightclub, which depicted a scantily-clad woman. Then, steeling himself, he opened the door and began to fight his way through the throngs of excitable men inside the nightclub. For ten minutes, Obi-Wan found nothing that resembled a meeting of the Separatist leaders. Eventually, the noise and colour became overwhelming; panting, he slipped into a small, empty room. When his breathing had slowed, he became aware of the sound of voices emanating from another room beyond.

'So, we meet at nine,' one voice declared. These words were followed by mutters of agreement from several other people.

'Then we'll split up,' the voice continued, 'and take a street each. They won't know what hit them!'

There was a burst of appreciative laughter and applause.

Good Force! thought Obi-Wan. Was that evil laughter I heard? Time to take drastic action!

Throwing the door open, he leaped into the centre of a circle of people. 'HA!' he yelled accusingly. 'I have discovered your evil scheme!'

'What was that, dear?' Obi-Wan turned round and found himself face to face with… a kindly middle-aged woman. In fact, come to think of it, everyone in the meeting appeared to be female and middle-aged. How odd. He didn't remember the Jedi Council informing him that the Separatists were disgruntled housewives.

'Evil plan?' The woman laughed uncertainly, patting her greying hair. 'Maybe it is a bit of a cunning way to sell muffin trays, but-'

'Muffin trays?' Obi-Wan echoed, now completely bewildered. 'Is that some new kind of explosive?'

The women laughed merrily. Obi-Wan began to suspect that he might have made a slight mistake.

'This is a Tupperware party, dear!' said one of the women, holding up a mint-green plastic salad bowl.

Obi-Wan looked wildly round the room. 'What? But- but I heard you laughing evilly!'

'Evilly? I don't know, that seems a bit of an exaggeration. I'd say we were laughing more mischievously than evilly. Don't you agree, ladies?'

One of her fellows shook her head, frowning thoughtfully. 'No, I think we were laughing conspiratorially.'

They began to argue over which word was more appropriate, and Obi-Wan used this distraction to quietly slip away. He was standing discreetly in a corner of the room, trying to hide his embarrassment, when there was a loud 'Tch!' from beside him.

Obi-Wan spun around to see who had made this derisive noise, and to his astonishment, he was confronted with the familiar sight of his old Master glaring accusingly at him.

Spluttering, Obi-Wan began to gabble nonsensical strings of words. After about thirty seconds of this, he managed to collect his thoughts enough to gasp, 'Qui-Gon! What! How did you get here? I thought you were dead!'

'I am dead, you idiot!' Qui-Gon fixed him with a hostile stare. 'I'm a Force-Ghost! This is the kind of behaviour that gets you into situations like the one you just escaped! Get your facts right, dammit!'

Obi-Wan blinked. As if it wasn't enough to have his dead Master appear beside him, now he was being chastised!

'Oh, whatever!' Obi-Wan snapped childishly. 'What are you here for anyway? Aren't you supposed to say things about fate, not just reprimand me?'

'I'm here to stop you from doing anything else stupid,' Qui-Gon said rudely.

Obi-Wan glared at him. 'Oh, really? Then where were you when I decided it would be a great idea to let Anakin fix my lightsaber? You could have appeared then, but no-'

'Why, what happened?' Qui-Gon asked curiously.

'He put it back together the wrong way, so that when I ignited it, the blade shot out the wrong end.'

While his Master sniggered, Obi-Wan folded his arms angrily. 'It wasn't funny! I spent a week in the Healing ward.'

Qui-Gon chuckled, 'Are you kidding? That's hilarious! But this isn't funny at all; you were just harassing innocent women!'

His remark was spoiled slightly when the two arguing women began to thump each other with the muffin trays.

The two Jedi were silent for a few minutes as they watched the ladies' fierce battle. When one of the women had claimed victory by knocking her opponent out with a cooking pot, Obi-Wan decided he might as well start a conversation.

'So, you're a Force-Ghost, huh? How's that going for you?'

'Oh, it has its ups and downs,' Qui-Gon replied gravely. He began to recount a story in which he tried to have a lie down, and fell straight through the floor, but his tale was interrupted when the door behind them opened, and Count Dooku entered the room.

Qui-Gon's mouth fell open. 'Well, look at that! It's my old Master!'

'He's the leader of the Separatists these days,' Obi-Wan muttered. What a stroke of luck! He had managed to walk right into the mastermind of the Separatist army!

'Ah, good evening!' Dooku said cordially as he approached. The Separatist leader was a tall, straight-backed man dressed in black robes, with grey hair and wide, dark eyes. He was unable to see Qui-Gon's Force Ghost, which was fortunate, as Qui-Gon was giving him a series of very rude gestures.

'A Jedi, I see,' Dooku said, his eyes flicking over Obi-Wan's robes. 'What is your name?'

'Obi-Wan Kenobi.'

'Kenobi?' Dooku's eyes widened, and his lips curled into a pleased smile. 'Just the man I was hoping to see! Say, would you like to sit down and have a drink with me?'

'Sure!' Obi-Wan said enthusiastically, ignoring Qui-Gon's furious protests.

'Great!' Dooku smiled. 'But could you wait here for a few minutes? I really have to go to the bathroom.'

When Obi-Wan agreed to wait, Dooku hurried out of the room, laughing under his breath.

'What are you still standing here for?' Qui-Gon demanded. 'Run away!'

Obi-Wan looked at him incredulously. 'But this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship!' And I get a free drink, he thought eagerly.

'Oh, screw this!' Qui-Gon muttered, and he vanished in a cloud of fairy dust. Or at least, Obi-Wan thought it was fairy dust. It may have been pixie dust. He has been known to get them mixed up from time to time.

So much for the Master-Padawan bond! Obi-Wan thought. Dooku seemed like a really nice guy, and Qui-Gon was horrible to him!

Unsurprisingly, he thought differently later on when he was hanging by his ankles in a prison cell.

:) I love Qui-Gon! I couldn't resist sticking him in here, even though he's technically supposed to be dead. So, what did you think? Please review!