Obi-Wan had awoken before me, and was sitting in quiet reflection when I padded out the next morning. I raised an eyebrow, for he had never been the first to rise in the mornings, and many were the times I had hauled him out of bed feet first. I had Force-yelled "mornin'" through the bond once, but that had less than desirable results. He had jumped so high, he had banged his head and spent the day in bed with a headache.

"You're up early," I said as I sat down across from him. "You must have slept well."

He looked at me, and I sensed his unspoken thought.

He was as perceptive as ever, and I sighed. Yes, I had lain awake for quite some time when I had first awoken in the middle of the night. I had so many emotions warring in me – joy and relief at having Obi-Wan back at my side, concern over Anakin's future, some anxiety and apprehension over the Queen's decision to try to free her planet – and I had shed some tears over the lost years.

Now it was time to admit perhaps my greatest fear.

"I think I battled a Sith when we left Naboo that first time, when, ah, when –" Obi-Wan leaned forward and put a hand on my knee and said firmly, "don't."

"Uh, don't what?" he confused me.

"Don't dwell on it. You had to take Anakin away; you needed to get to Coruscant. I understand, Master. It was the right thing to do. Say it – when you took Anakin away."

I couldn't look at him. "When I had to leave you - ."

"No, Master. When you took Anakin away." He suddenly grinned, that teasing grin I had missed, that could chivvy me out of a dark mood. "Your focus determines your reality," he intoned in a deep voice, sounding like Mace Windu in his grimmest mood. I couldn't help it – I laughed.

I threw my head back and laughed until the tears streamed down my face, and I leaned forward and hugged my padawan.

"You win," I said. "You're right. Brat."

"You were saying something about a Sith," he prompted me, grounding me. He grew tense, only half-believing me, yet trusting my judgment.

"A Sith. I'm sure, Obi-Wan. He surprised me, when Anakin and I were almost back to the ship. I fought him, and it was not easy. He is skilled in the Force and we were well matched. I don't know how it might have ended but Anakin ran ahead and warned the Naboo, and they flew to my rescue. I'm getting older, Obi-Wan."

I held up a hand to forestall his words of protest. "We may meet him again, and I will need you. We have only a few days - we really have to focus on brushing up your skills – both with the lightsaber and with your connection to the Force. I'm going to push you, hard, but I have a feeling I have to push you more than I ever had to before. Are you up to it, Obi-Wan?"

I knew his answer before he even replied. I could see it in his set jaw and nod.

"I am ready, Qui-Gon."

That use of my name, rather than title, brought home to me just how prepared he was. He was meeting me, Jedi to Jedi, not padawan to master. I knew, once again, what a Jedi he was becoming and I was never more proud of him.

"Breakfast first," I insisted.

After breakfast I saw Obi-Wan try valiantly to get acquainted with Jar Jar, and I had to watch from a distance with a small grin on my face. Jar Jar was - rather excitable a creature - and I remembered Obi-Wan's easy dismissal of such beings as "pathetic life forms."

That was more a joke than a reality, for he treated all with innate kindness and courtesy, but my padawan was not drawn to all living creatures as I was. His strength had never been his connection to the Living Force, and he was slow to see the potential in those appearing to have none.

When he excused himself and returned to my side, he threw me a look that amused me. "I saw you were trying to make friends with our resident 'pathetic life form,'" I teased him, and Obi-Wan only rolled his eyes.

"I tried, Master, I tried," he said, shaking his head. "Where ever did you pick him up, and why?"

"His purpose will reveal itself in time, padawan," I said serenely, though I, too, was curious why the Force had called him to my attention.

We secluded ourselves all day, working tirelessly. I was pleased, for Obi-Wan had kept up his physical training and needed only to regain his rhythm and focus. His touch with the Force was less certain, for he had not been aware of his connection to it unless some need pulled it to him. The return of his memory had brought back a lot, though, and he remembered his lessons, as well as his strengths and weaknesses in connecting to it.

I also knew that meeting me on Tatooine had unlocked the remainder of his missing memories, and he had spent the time since then in tireless pursuit, when possible, of regaining all that he had lost.

"Master, I wish to meditate for a while," he suddenly spoke up, wiping the sweat from his face. As his hand came up to brush his face, he shot me a look to send my attention over to the doorway. Anakin stood there hesitantly, and I suddenly realized he had been standing there watching us for some time. Obi-Wan's eyes were telling me to spend some time with the boy, and he had just given me an excuse.

I hesitated, for I had this feeling I could not waste any of the time I had: I had to get Obi-Wan into the best shape I could in the time I had. We would encounter that Sith again, and Obi-Wan needed every edge and every skill he had ever possessed.

As would I.

That also meant I could not drive both of us into total exhaustion. Obi-Wan was right. Again. I powered my lightsaber down and told Anakin to come in. Obi-Wan hung around a while to exchange a few words with the boy, enough to make it seem he wasn't leaving on Anakin's account, before leaving for a quiet room. He nodded at me as he left, as if to say, I really am going to meditate.

Anakin was full of questions, and I could see he was impressed with our lightsaber training. Up to then, I didn't think he was too impressed with Obi-Wan, though I know my personality tended to overpower his quieter one. In addition, Obi-Wan was far closer in age to Anakin than I, and a rival to boot, though I hoped to stamp that out as quickly as possible.

Having seen Obi-Wan hold his own against me seemed to have improved Anakin's opinion of Obi-Wan though. That was good.

Anakin and I talked, and it became more and more clear he had unusual abilities. I wanted to try some work with him, but I was constrained by the Council's directives. What I could do was to let Anakin remain in the room while I worked with Obi-Wan. He could learn much from observation.

I took a break myself, and when I returned Obi-Wan was squatting on the floor by Anakin, showing him the items in his equipment belt and explaining their uses. I leaned in the doorway, arms crossed, and a grin on my face.

Obi-Wan was spinning some fanciful versions of some real-life incidents to explain how some of them worked, and I shook my head. Anakin was entranced, both by the stories and the tools. I had never known Obi-Wan to so stretch the truth before. I was amused.

Obi-Wan was in the middle of some long-winded and totally absurd story of using the cable launcher, when I decided to intervene.

"And he forgot to test it was anchored firmly, and he plummeted right past me. I had to use a grappling hook to catch him," I said.

Obi-Wan looked up, startled, and merely grinned. "You never had a grappling hook, Master," he said firmly.

"Then how did I catch you?" I challenged him. He shrugged, and I gave him a smug smile. "That's the story from a certain point of view."

We both laughed, though Anakin didn't catch the reference. As Jedi, we didn't lie, but sometimes on a mission we tried desperately hard not to reveal some information. We were experts on finding a "certain point of view" that would allow us to say what we needed to, even if, strictly speaking, it wasn't the truth.

"Master, that truly happened," he whispered to me. I looked at him, startled, for I didn't remember it and he laughed lightly. "To Garen, the first time he tried using it. I never said it happened to me."

"Well, you forgot to anchor it once, and I once had to use a grappling hook to catch a man, too," I whispered back. "Just different occurrences."

Anakin was catching on to our whispers, so I made the "change the subject" gesture to Obi-Wan. I saw he hadn't forgotten the signals we Jedi sometimes used, and that pleased me inordinately. He could have lost so much – had really, but seemed to have regained it all.

I could feel my gut twist at the thought of him having to start over, or never regaining his memory – and I pushed the thought firmly out of mind. Obi-Wan was back, healthy, and with memory intact. That was my focus.

We spent the rest of the day working on Obi-Wan's connection to the Force and all the associated skills. As much of that work was internal and hard to observe, Anakin got bored and wandered off, probably to talk to Padme. He seemed to have gotten rather fond of her, and I was pleased he had a friend.

Obi-Wan had learnt patience and calm during the last five years, but I needed to know he could call on it in actual battle, especially as I feared we might be battling a Sith. I made sure we were safely secured within the emptiest space I could find before I began testing him, and then I did my best to trick him into rage, fear, whatever strong negative emotion I could dredge up and fling at him. I had to put him into a light trance for this, for he had to believe in whatever scene I created, and he had to be aware enough to physically react.

I created scenarios in his mind, scenes of betrayal, his first killing, whatever I could find in his mind or mine to create some scene. I was able to stir all those emotions in him and even get them to surface, but he always managed to hold onto enough control to stop himself from some action he was contemplating.

When I had run through the gamut of experiences I was able to come up with, I was exhausted. I brought him out of the trance and smiled at him as he stood swaying unsteadily.

"Sit, you're going to need some time to recover from all that," I said gently. I studied his face; it was drenched in sweat and his heart was still beating fast. "How do you feel?"

"Like you look," he said frankly, and I chuckled. He put his head in his hands and sat quietly.

"I still react in anger," he said sadly. He sounded a bit ashamed of this.

"You do, sometimes," I acknowledged, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You always had this rage in you against injustice and evil. But you were learning to overcome it and act from a position of strength. You haven't lost ground, Obi-Wan, not at all. Even when your anger overtakes you and you start to react to its goading, you find a way to pull back. That's what we need to work on the most, and find what triggers it so that we can disarm it."

He nodded quietly, and took a deep breath. I felt he was searching within, trying to find what specifically threatened his control over his anger – was it a sense of things spiraling out of his control, a specific threat to himself or others, or just uncertainty?

It could even be something physical, such as the adrenaline coursing through him during a tense situation. Once we identified it, we could work on a way to disarm that response.

I felt this was truly the last thing he needed to master – his final trial, so to speak. Everything else he needed to work on – well, life itself had taught him. A hard lesson, to be sure, but Obi-Wan had taken all the hurt and pain and turned it into something good.

We took a long break, and then we resumed sparring. We went late into the night, and we both were exhausted when we finished. We would not sit up this night talking; we were too tired for words, even. We crawled into our bunks and slept like the dead.

Before I fell asleep, I sent a mental picture of a sunset to Obi-Wan. I felt his gratitude come through the bond, and then he was asleep. So was I, just a minute later, with a smile on my face.

This time, Anakin was up before either of us, and thoughtful enough to bring us both a hot cup of kaffa. I groaned as I swung my legs over the bunk, for I hadn't worked that hard in ages. Obi-Wan opened one eye, and pulled the covers over his head, giving every impression that he was going right back to sleep. He hadn't changed. There was only one thing to do as I stood stretching and working the kinks out of my muscles.

I poked him in the ribs. Unfortunately, I poked him right in the middle of that rainbow bruise, and he sat up with a howl of protest.

"I'm sorry," I apologized hastily. "Let me look at that." I yanked his top off over his head for a closer look. The bruise was fading, even as it spread. "You never told me what caused that anyway," I scolded him.

"Let's just say my ribs and a boot ended up occupying the same spot at the same time," he said composedly as he slid to his feet and reached for his clothing. Before he could pull on his tunic, I turned him around and studied his back. Anakin was staring at Obi-Wan with new respect in his eyes.

"You were whipped, weren't you?" I choked out. When I had seen the marks before, my eyes had been damp with tears. Now, I saw more clearly. "A whip with some kind of spikes on the end?"

His back was etched with long vertical lines of red welts and white scars, many long healed but some; I was afraid, all too recent. I lifted a hand, trembling I noted absently, to touch them as if my touch could make them better - but I was afraid to touch them, afraid he would flinch under my hand. I didn't want to cause him pain.

Beside me, I heard Anakin suck in his breath and heard a soft, "wizard." That startled me, and I looked down to shake my head disapprovingly, but then I saw his eyes were wide with shock. That told me one thing for which I was glad – clearly, Anakin had not been so mistreated.

"Master, don't," Obi-Wan said, turning around and holding me by the shoulders, shaking me, softly commanding. "Don't make me remember, okay? I want to forget all that."

How could I say no? When I looked into his eyes, I saw only compassion, and I knew he wasn't asking me to forget for him. He had come to terms with it long ago. He wanted me to forget, for myself. I was still beating myself up, and Obi-Wan didn't want me to. He didn't blame me, and he didn't want me to blame myself, either.

He looked at Anakin, and while I stood helplessly clenching and unclenching my hands, he squatted down and thanked Anakin for the kaffa and gently sent him away to eat his morning meal.

"Let me put some bacta patches over the worst of the scars, then," I said, drawing a deep breath, fumbling for my calm center and finding it. "We'll make you all pretty for the ladies." I actually managed a smile at that.

He snorted at that as he stood up. "I well know the rule about attachments," he said darkly. "No ladies for me."

I snorted at that. I made sure Anakin was out of earshot, before I leaned close and whispered, "There is no celibacy requirement, you know. Just no attachments."

I actually embarrassed him. He turned bright red and mumbled something. I just grinned, and tried to remember if we had had this conversation before. He had been old enough, so we probably had.

Teasing him was fun, and helped keep my mind off the all too visible evidence of his ill-treatment.

"Maybe my girlfriend can get you a girl," I offered as I gently covered the worst of the marks with the bacta patches, and Obi-Wan twisted around to look at me, shocked, before he closed his eyes and chuckled weakly. He really thought for a minute I had a girlfriend. I felt smug, for it was not often I could shock him.

I had had my share of – encounters, shall we say – but none, of course, had reached girlfriend status. I thought Obi-Wan had been aware of this, but perhaps not. He was a bit of a prude and still young when I had last known him.

"How about one of the Queen's handmaidens?" I suggested. "Eirtae, perhaps Padme? They are wise and beautiful young women, and you're a healthy young male. Surely one of them must have stirred your blood?"

"It's not that I don't appreciate them, Master," he said slowly, blushing furiously. "But, well, it's not wise."

I then understood. Obi-Wan, when he loved, loved deeply. He would not have just a casual encounter with anyone, and any one he would be willing to get intimate with would be by then already too close to his heart, and therefore too close to a forbidden attachment. He would not risk it; being a Jedi was too important to him.

I nodded my head slowly to show I understood and would not continue to tease him on this subject, and laid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it.

We didn't have much time to train this day, so I just ran through a few short exercises with Obi-Wan, with Anakin present to observe. We would land soon and the Queen would reveal her plan. It would be busy for a while; I didn't know how long until Obi-Wan and I would have another quiet period to just talk.

I had this strange need to just converse with him, and I sensed he felt a certain disquiet himself. He admitted as much to me, saying there was this "elusive feeling" tingling at him. He was far more attuned to the Unifying Force than I, and I trusted his instincts, for they had always been good.

I talked of Temple life, how his friends were doing and missions they had been on, who was knighted and who were yet padawans. I talked of the Council and Yoda in particular. I saw Obi-Wan's eyes smile at his mention, and I assured him that Yoda was anxious to see him, too.

I could almost picture their meeting: Yoda leaning on his stick, eyes soft, but voice stern: "Glad I am to see you, young Obi-Wan," all the while terribly pleased and happy and showing no outward sign of it except with his ears, and Obi-Wan trying to speak through a sudden lump in his throat.

Yes, I looked forward to seeing their reunion. They had a bond almost as strong as the one I shared with Obi-Wan.

I did hesitate before I spoke of the Council's refusal to accept Anakin for training, for I was still upset over that and not sure how I felt about speaking to Obi-Wan about it. He was affected by their decision, too, and none of us knew just what would happen if the Council changed its mind.

If the Council didn't knight Obi-Wan or allow him to take the trials shortly after our return, I was going to hurt Obi-Wan or Anakin, or both.

He listened quietly, showing no sign of distress, though he had to be troubled. I probed, just a light touch, and he was indeed concerned, though just as much for Anakin and I as for himself.

"You'll have to leave it to the Force," he said abruptly, getting to his feet and walking over to look out a port at the stars outside the ship. I got up and came over to stand by him, putting a hand on his shoulder. He wasn't upset, which surprised me. He had this sense of approaching events, and he was uneasy, he admitted.

"Don't give in to your fears, Obi-Wan," I admonished gently. He shivered, suddenly, but he nodded.