Hello, everyone! Sorry for the delay in this next posting. My graduation was last Sunday, and I had family in from out of state, so I was still pretty busy. Now things have calmed down here a bit, so I should be more frequent in my posts. I am going to aim for a new chapter every week. Thank you all so much for your reviews and well wishes! I really appreciate them!

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After having said goodbye to Bail, Obi-Wan decided to go ahead and get some sleep. He was exhausted for some reason. It was nighttime on Tatooine, so there was no point in going there until the stores and vendors opened up in the morning. He stretched out on the sofa in the common area of the ship, planning on just a few hours sleep to take the edge off his fatigue. An affectionate smile appeared as he watched R2 take up his self-appointed position as sentinel. Obi-Wan closed his eyes and double-checked his shields before allowing himself to fall into slumber.

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Sidious moved swiftly through the swirls and eddies of the Force, all the while searching for that one signature he now knew as well as his own. Day after day this had been his task, and nothing yet had come of it. He knew, though, that his patience and persistence would pay off eventually. Obi-Wan could not hide forever.

A tingle to his senses made the emperor pause. He stilled his mind completely, opening his senses fully to the Living Force. There! Muted almost to the point of invisibility – the Force signature, the imprint of his prize. Sidious knew those shields, knew their resonance within the Force, knew the presence held within them. He put out tentative feelers. The shields were extremely strong – a veritable fortress. The question was how to penetrate the shields enough to get a bearing on Obi-Wan's location.

Pulling back, Sidious pondered his options. He preferred not to alert Obi-Wan to his presence before having a way to pinpoint his location. However, getting a lock on him would not be easy if something didn't happen to cause Obi-Wan's shields to weaken. The emperor moved back towards the outer edges of Obi-Wan's shields, searching all around for a weakness, a softening of defenses.

Hmm. This particular area is a bit weaker than the rest. Feelers moved out, delicately testing the outer layer. It seemed to Sidious that Obi-Wan was asleep. Shields could never be completely maintained at full strength while sleeping. It would not be enough to discover where Obi-Wan was hiding, but it might be enough for Obi-Wan to hear him in his mind. Maybe he could convince Obi-Wan it was just a dream – possibly provoke him into weakening his shields further.

"Obi-Wan." The emperor could sense nothing. His prize was probably in a deep sleep. "Obi-Wan!" He heard a little groan – the sound of someone who did not want to be disturbed. "Hear me, Obi-Wan."

"Hmmm?" Obi-Wan thought he heard a voice in his dreamscape. He decided to dismiss it. "I'm just dreaming."

"Yes, Obi-Wan, you are dreaming. So, why not converse with me?"

"No point. I won't remember it when I wake up, anyway."

Endlessly logical, my Obi-Wan, Sidious thought. "But what if it is not just a dream? What if it is a vision of things to come?" He was excited beyond belief to just be talking with his prize again. He had to play this just right, though.

"No." Recognition of the voice penetrated his groggy mind. "I will never be your apprentice, Sidious! Why don't you just give up on me? I'm sure there are other Force sensitives out there who would be only too happy to have that powerful position."

"None with your qualities."

"My qualities? You didn't seem too impressed with my qualities when Anakin was still alive."

"That's because I was a blind fool." The emperor paused. He had never thought to admit that to ANYONE, and here he was blithely telling his future apprentice!

Obi-Wan snorted. "That isn't something I ever thought would come out of your mouth!"

"Yes, well, there it is. But I wasn't completely blind to your abilities, Obi-Wan. In all of my meetings with you during the Clone Wars, there was always a part of me who wanted to turn you, to have you at my side. But I was rather busy, and I knew it would be a major undertaking to try and turn you to the Dark Side – if not impossible. Anakin was a much easier target."

Obi-Wan winced at that. "Then why bother trying to turn me now? Trust me, I wouldn't make it easy for you. I would think you would go seek another easy target."

"I have finally learned that easier isn't always better. And I find I have more time now to dedicate to you."

"I still don't understand why you're now fixated on me. I'm very average when compared to an Anakin or a Yoda."

Sidious could hear the genuine confusion in Obi-Wan's voice. He made a sound of disapproval. "That is your former master and former apprentice talking. You are anything BUT average, Obi-Wan."

How could Sidious know about those relationships and all the insecurities connected with them? Well, Anakin he could understand, but Qui-Gon? But then, Obi-Wan thought, the man had access to information of which most people could only dream. "You're only focused on me because I'm the only remaining Jedi." He fervently hoped Sidious would take that statement at face value.

"Not so, my Obi-Wan. There was a time, though you may not remember it, when you were very much the focus of my attention – despite the fact that you were only one Jedi among many."

Obi-Wan was chilled at that statement. This was a time in his life he could not recollect – a time so bad that Yoda and Mace had sequestered the memory.

The emperor relished the hesitation. He had come to find out later that Obi-Wan had no recollection of the time he had spent in Sidious' hands. He had been angry with the meddling of the Head Councilors at the time, but now he saw this hidden memory as a wonderful weapon which could be used for his purposes. "That's right," he said silkily, "you can't remember it, can you? I wanted no one to replace my apprentice, Darth Maul, but the one who had managed to kill him. You, my Obi-Wan."

"Stop calling me that!" Obi-Wan quickly released his irritation as he felt his shields waver a bit. He couldn't afford to allow his shields to weaken, despite the fact that this was just a dream.

The emperor had sensed the wavering of the shields, miniscule and fleeting thought it had been. Good! "Why should I, my Obi-Wan, when it is true. It has always been true, and always will be true. The actual, physical fulfillment of that will only be a matter of time. I had you in my grasp once, I can have you there again."

Obi-Wan hated not being able to know what Sidious was talking about. It was a great vulnerability – a weak point the emperor could use to his advantage. Maybe he should ask Yoda to remove the block on those memories, so he could be armed against Sidious in the future. "No, Sidious, you won't. You may have had me once before, but you will not have me again."

"You seem so sure, my Obi-Wan. You seem very confident in the hiding place you managed to find since the Republic was destroyed."

Obi-Wan did NOT want to go down that road. He decided he should give as good as he got. "The Republic is not destroyed, Emperor," he said with emphasis. "It is merely...dormant."

Sidious cackled at that. "Dormant, you say? It is being obliterated as we speak! Every planet, every government, every sentient in the galaxy will fall to the inevitability of the Empire. You could be a part of that. You would have power, control, and riches beyond what you could ever imagine."

"I desire none of those things, Sidious."

"I would deny you nothing, my Obi-Wan."

"Except my freedom."

"Freedom is so overated," Sidious said dismissively.

"Only by those who have the power to take it away from others. The Republic will rise again, Sidious. I don't know if it will happen in my lifetime or not. But it will return. Eventually, sentients the galaxy over will tire of having no say in how they live their lives and in how they govern their own worlds. Eventually, they'll tire of exchanging their freedoms for expediency and the illusion of security."

The emperor did not like the direction this conversation was going. Blast, but it could be frustrating dealing with someone who had unwavering convictions, keen intelligence, and courage to spare! Easier is not necessarily better, easier is not necessarily better...He kept the mantra going in his head as he released his frustrations. He knew that it would never be as easy to manipulate Obi-Wan as it had been Anakin, by any stretch of the imagination. It would be a challenge. And the master of the Sith was always up for a challenge!

"Believe what you want to believe, my apprentice." The emperor smile inwardly at the pique he sensed in his prize at those words. "I have lived many years more than you, and I have found that most sentients are sheep. They want someone to lead them. They want to take the easy road. They want to go with the crowd. It is the way of things. Very few have true courage. Very few are willing to buck the system and act on their convictions."

This was topic on which Sidious was a connoisseur. He had been in politics all his adult life, and a keen observer of sentient behavior. "Most sentients are too intellectually lazy to do real research into issues and make up their own minds. It is much easier to simply let the media make up their minds for them. Popular media culture is a powerful instrument. How do you think it was so easy to manipulate public opinion against the Jedi Order? The tenor of an entire story can be fixed a certain direction by the simple use of certain descriptive words here, or the omission of little details there. As the saying goes, most people don't want to be confused with the facts. If popular opinion leads one direction, then that will be the direction most sentients will take."

Obi-Wan had to admit, grudgingly, to himself that Sidious was right. It had been entirely too easy for public opinion to be manipulated against the Jedi. And many had been all too willing to hand over their individual rights and freedoms, simply because it was deemed too much an effort and too risky to resist. But then he thought of people like Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, and everyday people across the galaxy who would resist being vassals of the Empire. Those sentients throughout the galaxy might be in the minority, but eventually they would organize, stand up together, and offer the courage for others to join them. "A tipping point will be reached, Sidious. A point where people will dig in their heels and refuse to manipulated and controlled any longer."

"I think you will find, my Obi-Wan, that most people do not have your moral courage. Your faith in them will not be justified." Surprisingly, Sidious found himself enjoying the conversation. It had been so long since anyone had stimulated his intelligence or his interest in such a way – probably not since his last conversation with the then General Kenobi. Something had to give, though. Stimulating conversation would not bring Obi-Wan into his hands. A new tactic would have to be employed...