"You need to get your shab together, Obi-Wan."

What Obi-Wan needed was a drink. "What do you suggest?"

Quinlan snorted. "Stop ignoring your problems and just deal with them."

"I'm too far in, now. I don't even know where to start." His entire life felt like a wasteland of problems he'd blocked out for too long. "I don't even know what way is up anymore."

Sighing, his friend decided to take a bit of pity on him. "First things first. What are you going to do with Siri?"

"I don't know." Despite his best efforts, the misery he felt crept into his voice. "We've been friends since we were younglings. It isn't her fault that I don't care for her…"

"She doesn't love you," Quinlan said shortly. "She loves the idea of loving you, but that's where it ends. She doesn't want you, but doesn't want anyone else to have you even more."

It was probably true, but what did that help? "I don't need a definition, I need a solution. The council refuses to take her off the case unless I can provide reasonable evidence that she makes Satine uncomfortable-something Satine would never admit to, bloody martyr that she is. I could resign from the case, but then no one would be there to act as a buffer between the two of them. Satine is attached to her nephew, and Korkie to the girl, so bringing her here and avoiding the whole business is well nigh impossible unless we're able to separate one of them from the other. Or, we could just go on as we are now, living in a perfect hell."

"Or you could tell Siri in no uncertain terms that there is nothing between the two of you and she needs to stop," Quinlan suggested. "Deal with the root of the problem instead of just lopping off the branches whenever they hit you."

Obi-Wan snorted. "If you must liken Siri to a plant, then let it be one of those that no matter how you chop at it, it never dies. She's stubborn, and doesn't change until one gives her space. Even if I was to confront her-perish the thought-she's not one to be daunted by such measures. Not to mention she has an entire army behind her. Do you know how many toes I'd be stepping on if I tried to talk to her?"

Quinlan raised an eyebrow. "I've never known you to be one who cared about appearances."

"I don't, it's just that…" He stood, pacing the confining space of the living quarters. "Satine never asked for this. All she wanted was a night, and now she's being pulled into a drama that she didn't want. And what's worse-I did nothing to start this, and thus can't do anything to end it. How can I regain control of a situation I never had control of in the first place?"

His friend shrugged, popping a bite of leftover nuna in his mouth. "Well, if you're not going to confront Siri, then I suppose you'd better get your ass over to your Duchess and beg her forgiveness. You're not going to help the situation by pretending it's not happening. If I've learned anything about women, it's that they can take most things that are thrown at them as long as they know it's coming."

Obi-Wan frowned. "Do you even remember what happened last time I went to 'apologize' to her?"

"So she gets a bit amorous when you do something nice. If you don't want to get a good lay-which you desperately need, by the looks of it-then don't hop in bed with her."

"What would you have me do?" It made him feel very much like a padawan again, to be asking Quinlan Vos for advice. On sex, nonetheless. "I told her no."

"And yet you staid."

He huffed. "I may be many things, but unaffected when an amative woman approaches me in nothing but a silk robe is not one of them." Particularly if that woman was Satine. "And I was feeling particularly guilty that evening."

"So you shouldn't have any problem now. And I highly doubt she's going to be walking around in lingerie with her nephew underfoot." Quinlan shrugged. "That's all I got. If you still manage to fall in bed with her, don't come crying to me."

Obi-Wan rose, refilling his cup. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"Good. And now that that is all cleared up…" the Kiffar crossed his arms over his chest. "What the hell is this nonsense with the kid?"

"Korkie?"

"Ben."

He'd tried to forget about it. "How am I supposed to know? I wasn't the one who named him."

"Don't you wonder…"

"No, I don't." He did. "Satine would never have done that. For my sake, perhaps, but not for his. She's too selfless to do that."

"But doesn't it all seem a bit too…"

"Coincidental?" he finished. "There are no coincidences, Quin, only the will of the Force."

Quinlan swore soundly. "He looks…"

"Red hair is fairly common on Mandalore, and especially in her family. Satine's sister has it, her mother had it, even her cousins had it." He scrubbed a hand over his face, feeling far too old for a man of his years. "You can't go around assuming that every child she brings under her wing is mine. Don't you think there would have been some breath of a rumor if he was my son? Even if not from her loyalists, her enemies would surely have said something."

"But…"

"Drop it, Quinlan. You'll only hurt the boy and Satine by continuing this nonsense." Not to mention perpetuating the odd pain that seemed to have appeared in the vicinity of his heart. "I've already got enough worries, as it is. No need to add a baseless suspicion to it as well."

His friend scowled. "The Council will have questions."

"The Council won't know." He chose to ignore the fact that the Council technically did know, as he was one of them. "They will know that the Duchess has a nephew called Korkie, and even if they hear the name Ben, few in the temple would pin the name to me. You and Siri knew only because I told you, in a lapse of judgement due to an excess of alcohol. For Force sakes, it isn't even my name."

"What isn't your name?" The door opened and Anakin stepped into the room, tossing his robe onto the couch.

Out of habit, Obi-Wan picked up the excessively large piece of fabric and hooked it properly onto the coat rack. "It's nothing, Anakin. Why are you coming back so late? I thought it was just supposed to be lunch."

"We popped on over to the space museum with the Duchess and her nephew." His former apprentice sank down onto the sofa, calling a bottle of water to him with the Force. "That kid needs a lesson in fun. No offense, but the Duchess has sucked all the happiness out of the boy with her expectations. Padmé was right when she said he reminded her of you, though. You know he wanted to be a pilot?"

Obi-Wan ignored the pointed look that Quinlan gave him as he left, shaking his head. "I hadn't, but I'm not entirely surprised. Most people do, before life knocks them over the head with a dose of reality."

Anakin snorted. "I told the kid he sounded like you. Whatever is wrong with becoming a pilot?"

"Becoming a pilot isn't a profession, Anakin, unless you're a smuggler. You can't just cart across the galaxy for the fun of it, especially not for free."

"He's filthy rich. He wouldn't even need to work."

"He's crown prince of Mandalore, of course he has money. But only as long as he remains crown prince." He knew that Anakin's defense was deeply rooted in his own previous desire to be a pilot, among a half dozen other impractical careers. "You can't be upset that the boy understands how the world works, Anakin. One isn't always able to chase their dreams."

"I did, and you see where it got me." There was a hint of smugness in the young man's tone that rankled. "I'm not a slave, I won a podrace, and I'm a Jedi Knight and a pilot."

Obi-Wan was almost surprised he didn't add his affair with the Senator Amidala to his list of accomplishments. "You speak as if you're satisfied with what you have."

Anakin laughed. "Satisfied? Come on Master, I'm just beginning. I've still got a lot of things to do yet."

Even though he didn't say it, that was what he worried about the most.

"You and Master Skywalker seemed to have gotten along pretty well."

Korkie looked up from his dinner. "He was… interesting."

"Radical, from what I've heard." She raised an eyebrow. "Did you not like him?"

"I didn't dislike him," Korkie said, choosing his words carefully. "But… our views are widely different. He didn't seem like a Jedi."

"In what way?"

"He's very… passionate." It wasn't the word he was looking for, but it would have to do. "And transparent. From what I've seen, the Jedi try to keep what little emotion they have to themselves. Even Master Vos always seems calm and collected, if somewhat loud. Master Skywalker… it's almost as if he's unbalanced."

His mother froze, something changing in her eyes. "Unbalanced?"

He hesitated, not wanting to make too much of a simple feeling. "Maybe that's not the right word. Frustrated. He doesn't like the way the war is turning out."

"No one does." Her eyes searched his face, still seeming somewhat unconvinced. "Did you sense something, Korkie?"

Were his thoughts so apparent? For a moment, he considered telling her about the fleeting chill he had felt from the Jedi, but decided against it. If there was any resemblance between Skywalker and the Zabrak on Naboo, the Jedi would have surely sensed it. As it was, he'd only seen the Zabrak through a holo image; to sense anything would have been physically impossible.

Nothing is impossible with the Force.

He pushed the thought aside as he sensed a presence he'd rapidly become accustomed to approaching. Thank the Force for small favors. "Da-Master Kenobi's here."

His mother paused in pushing her food around and looked out the doorway. "So early?"

If she'd heard his slip up, she didn't comment on it, something that he was grateful for. "We have a long night ahead of us. Best to get a head start." He tossed his napkin onto the table as he rose. Shrugging into his jacket, he dropped a quick kiss on her cheek. "I'll see you when I get back. Don't wait up for me."

"But… you haven't even finished your dinner." He could tell that the Duchess was stalling-she hadn't liked the idea of him going with the Jedi from the beginning, and he could tell that she hadn't warmed to the idea over the past twelve hours. "I'm sure the investigation can wait for you to finish your…"

Dutifully, he stopped long enough to scoop up the last of his vegetables and drain his glass of tea before sprinting out the door. "'Bye, Aunt Satine."

Kenobi was waiting in the speeder, talking with a slightly familiar looking Twi'Lek on his wrist comm. He didn't even bother to look up when Korkie climbed in, ending the conversation as he sped off into the sky.

"Anakin told me you like ships," Kenobi said eventually, breaking the tense silence.

"I do." What was he supposed to say? Korkie realized belatedly that he had no idea how one was supposed to speak to a man who he hadn't known was his father until a few days ago and who didn't even know he was his father. "I used to collect models, when I was younger. My father-" he paused, swallowing when he realized that the man beside him was his father. "My father was a pilot."

Was it just his imagination, or did Kenobi tense? "Do you fly often?"

"Never, actually," he replied ruefully. "I fly the sims at the Academy, but I've only taken a ship out twice in my life. Most cadets get practice flying their family's crafts or such, but as I've only my aunt, and she stays primarily in Sundari, I've never gotten the opportunity to take more than a couple experimental hops when my friends let me."

"They don't let you fly a real ship at the Academy?"

"Not without a license." Something that Korkie coveted dearly. "And you only get that after you've logged four hundred hours on the sims, a semester of mechanics and a semester of computer apps."

Kenobi's eyebrows shot up. "All that on top of your academics?" When Korkie nodded, he made a sound of disbelief. "And the padawans complain that they have it bad."

"What is a padawan, exactly?" Korkie asked, curious. He'd heard the word used as a title, like Master, but never as a noun.

"It's a stage all Jedi go through before becoming Knights. An apprenticeship, of sorts." He must have sensed Korkie's interest in the subject, for he continued. "When an initiate-that is, a Jedi youngling-is about nine or ten, a Master may express a wish to train them. The padawan will then spend the next fifteen or so years with their master, learning everything first hand. Then, they take a test of sorts-the trials-and those that pass go on to become Jedi Knights."

"What about the younglings that don't get chosen?" If masters got to choose their own padawans, there was surely to be some who was left on the sidelines.

"Initiates age out when they turn thirteen, and those that aren't chosen to become padawans are sent to one of the four Service Corps-Agricultural, Medical, Explorational, or Educational-depending on their affinities and abilities." He smiled. "I was chosen to join Agricorps, where we grew crops for those whose systems were unable to."

"You…" Korkie shook his head, not understanding. "How?"

"I had a volatile temper as an Initiate. Still do, if I'm honest. I was hardly the idea of an ideal Jedi, and no master wanted to take a chance on me." His father ran a hand through his hair, just a shade darker than Korkie's. "It wasn't until after I assisted Master Jinn on a mission that he took me as his padawan, a position I took for granted. But that's a story for another time."

Korkie hadn't realized until then that they were nearing the sector of Coruscant where the bar Amadi had been in was located. In the pit of his stomach, a thread of excitement unfurled. The Jedi had explained what they were looking to gain out of this 'experiment', and what he was supposed to do. Though his mother had been very much against it-especially when the Jedi had admitted that there was a threat of injury or even death-there hadn't been a doubt in his mind that this was what he wanted to do.

And it definitely wasn't because this was the closest he would ever get to being a Jedi, unless some sort of miracle occured.

"You sure you're ready for this?"

He flashed what he hoped was a confident smile, for despite the excitement, there was also a hint of trepidation stubbornly remaining in his gut. "Of course I am."

Kenobi's chuckle was one that made it clear he wasn't fooled. "Siri will be there if you need her. She may be a bit prickly, but she never fails to come through in a pinch."

He snorted. A bit prickly? Did the Jedi even see the same person he did?

His father raised an eyebrow. "You may laugh now, but I've known her most of my life. Siri was the same way towards me during our early years as padawans, but she came around eventually." He shook his head. "She doesn't like change, and meeting new people almost always guarantee that."

Was that all it was? "I don't think she likes me."

"Well, the feeling seems to be mutual." Slowly lowering the nondescript and slightly beat up speeder into an empty spot, the Jedi made a soft humming noise. "If it changes anything, she's under the impression that you don't like her either."

He didn't, but he could hardly say that. Instead, he hopped out of the speeder and stretched. The bar was still a couple blocks away, but they could hardly arrive at the same time without appearing suspicious. Even though Kenobi would be in the security room, beside the bar, they didn't want to take any chances.

Adjusting his jacket-the same one he'd worn before-he nodded to the other Jedi as they approached. It was a bit odd, to see them in anything other than their typical Jedi robes, especially his father, but they'd wanted to appear as inconspicuous as possible. That meant very visible blasters and holsters, and tight fitting leather and neoprene. Siri had even added some dark makeup that further enhanced to the sexy-spacer vibe created by the skintight leather jumpsuit she'd donned.

She raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest. "Nice pants, Oafy."

Kenobi wrinkled his nose, looking down at the leather leggings in distaste. "Talk to Quin. He's the one who found these abominations."

The twi'lek-Aayla?-smirked, looping an arm through his. "I thought we're not supposed to be drawing attention to us? You're going to have everyone in the bar after you."

"Hopefully, I won't have to go in there. We should be inconspicuous enough in the surveillance room." He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it up further. "Siri and Korkie are going to be the ones dealing with advances."

Siri smirked, sashaying over to Korkie and slinging an arm over his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll take care of him."

Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes. "If you think that inspires confidence, you're sadly mistaken."

She laughed, a pleasant, warm sound that surprised Korkie. Somehow, he hadn't thought she would know how to do anything but sneer. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you the one who was always put on creche duty because you didn't want to work with the team?"

"And you weren't?"

"I volunteered. Basically. I couldn't let you have all the fun, could I?"

"Looking after crechelings is hardly what I would think of as fun."

"It had its good times. Remember Reá? The Nautolan?"

"The one who puked all over me and made me sick for weeks. A true highlight in my life."

"Kor says that she's already studying to take her trials. Remember when we did that?"

"Studied, or took the trials? You didn't do one, and I never did the other, so you'll have to find something else to reminisce about."

Aayla flicked a lekku over her shoulder with an impatient toss of her head at the same time that Korkie sensed Master Vos passing them. "Well, you can do that later. Master's here, so we'd better get moving if we want to get any sleep tonight."

Siri sighed, finally taking her arm from over his shoulders. "Spoilsport." Leaning against the speeder, she checked her wrist chrono. "Do we have everything? Lightsabers?" They each nodded, though where they were keeping such conspicuous weapons in their skintight clothing boggled his mind. "Obes, did you give Korkie a comm?"

His father looked suitably chagrined as he produced a small earpiece and tossed it to him. "Siri will show you how it works. If it turns out that you need it, don't be afraid to ask what's going on."

"Obi-Wan tends to go radio silent when he's concentrating, so we generally use the force to see what's going on," Siri explained. "Because you're here, we'll all be wearing one, but don't be surprised if its a bit quiet when things get intense."

Korkie nodded, remembering belatedly that he didn't have the Force, and thus couldn't join the conversation.

"Now that that's taken care of, lets get moving." Aayla gave them all a no nonsense look. "Stay focused, and may the Force be with you."

Surprise, surprise! What better way to go out of Obitine week that with a new chapter? For those of you who may not have known, I've been posting one shots all week, so be sure to go check those out!

One more announcement for all of you who have been waiting patiently for Amadi's POV. I'm holding a Q&A on my Tumblr for her! You can submit questions in the comments or on my Tumblr, and I'll be compiling them and the answers together in a couple weeks!

Thank you for all the darlings who have followed, favorited, subscribed, or left kudos on these works, you guys mean the world to me! I also want to give personal thanks to all of you who left support on my post about Siri, as it really encouraged me to finish this chapter.

ii Digestive Reader ii (FF): Honestly, Anakin and Korkie's scene was one that I debated putting in because my sister (and impromptu beta-reader) hated it. That being said, it made it in there, and I'm happy with all of the feedback that I've been getting from my readers. Aayla was a bit of a surprise to me as well, but she fit so well, especially with her position in all of their lives. And it was about time that someone tried to make him see the light, because Satine's not.

Rachaelizame (Ao3): Thank you so much for your unconditional support! Some of my readers haven't been as happy with my writing, I'm afraid. But if you ever see something in any of my stories that you like, you're free to use it! After all, I'm borrowing from Lucasfilm for nearly everything in them.

nightsisterkaris (Ao3): You're comments are worth just as much as a kudo to me! We'll just have to see, won't we?

AlexHiwatari98 (Ao3): I love your outlook on things, how you can be angry at a character and yet understand that its their faults that make them human. It's one of the things that I strive for when I write; my characters don't always do what is right-and sometimes they even know it-but they're not perfect. Its what makes me like them so much.

Jedi Master Misty Sman-Esay (FF): Thank you so much for your opinion! My informal beta really didn't like the scene with Anakin, but I wanted to give it a more accurate portrayal, especially considering that this does occur when he's at one of his most vulnerable states. Aayla does give a good point, though, and one that is going to be important to the plot.

Critetus (Ao3): There really was some truth in Satine's description, wasn't there? Anakin definitely wasn't just-turning-dark in Revenge of the Sith, and I really wanted to bring a hint of that in here. Don't worry, though, for where there is the Dark Side, Palpatine can never be far behind!

CATEFanfGril (Ao3): This comment was far from stupid! It made me smile in the middle of a sad day, and that made it more valuable than anything else. If you didn't know, this past week has been Obitine week, and I've been posting a oneshot about our favorite couple every day. Be sure to go check it out, and also look out for some of my fellow authors story's, as they had some really good pieces as well!

ry1765 (Ao3): Thank you so much! I was a bit wary of putting that scene in there, but I ended up really liking it. It has always been my opinion that the reason the Jedi didn't really see the change in Anakin was because it didn't happen all at once, but over a time period. And just so you know, I always look forward to your comments as well! Thank you for being so faithful!

barelypassing4sane (FF): Thank you!

QkDrO (FF): ;D

Sadguest (FF): I'm really sorry you felt like that. I'm not sure if you're the same person who I spoke to on Tumblr, but I just wanted to say that Siri's part in the story is not what you may think. It may not look like it, but I've given up trying to force my readers to think what they don't want to. Having told you that she does have a motive, however, what do you think it is? :)

sc4589 (FF): Thank you so much! I'm so glad that you're enjoying it, and hope you continue to stick around.

Guest (This is Awkward): Shhhh! You're going to give away spoilers!

Anonymous (FF): Thank you for the criticism! I always love it when my readers tell me when I did somehting wrong, especially since I know that my writing is far from perfect. I'm glad you enjoyed it, though!

NekoChan16 (Ao3): I actually looked it up after reading your comment, but couldn't find it either. DuchessKenobi's fanfiction the Duchess Diaries, she speculated that it was because of his hair (Go check it out on Fanfiction, it's really good). Also, most of them new Obi before the beard.

waffenss14897 (FF): That's a really good idea! I actually have one that I'm getting ready that follows a similar thread, so maybe we'll see that in a couple months!

Wow, that was a lot! Keep it coming guys, I love you all and see you all in a bit!