Witch's thoughts: READ CHAPTER 24 FIRST! I've subsituted the important note with the proper chapter and I daresay it's worth reading, as it's the longest one so far^^ now, have fun~!

Quella sat down heavily at the kitchen table.

"From what I managed to get from Adi Gallia, it seems that they were attacked by hunters specifically informed of their mission" she said tiredly. It had been only a couple of hours since they had reached Coruscant and majority of that time she had spent in the Healer's Wing, trying to make some sense from what she was hearing. It didn't help much even if there was a witness.

"How is she?" Qui-Gon asked, handing the woman a mug with hot tea.

"Still unconscious, but I managed to read some of her memories, though, but nothing that could help me work out, what the hell happened" Quella growled, frustrated. She took the mug with a nod of her fair head and started to sip slowly, the pleasant warmness spreading through her chilled body. Qui-Gon sat across from her.

"Does she... know?"

Quella looked at him questioningly, her eyes narrowed when she stopped drinking.

"If you speak of her Padawan being killed then no, she doesn't. Yet. Though her mind suspects something, and I guess it will not affect her as much as they fear. But, still, it will be quite a shock." She stated calmly, turning her attention to the mug again. She didn't have to look at him to know that Qui-Gon was slouching.

"So, it was an attack?"

"An ambush, Key. They knew when and where Adi would be and that's what worries me." Quella said her eyes strangely empty and focused on the wall before her. Her hand stopped in the mid-air, before reaching her lips.

"You think it's something significant?" he asked, but his mind seemed to be occupied by something else.

"I don't know yet" she sighed and then, hid her hands in her hair in helpless gesture. "I just wonder, what the hell is going on..."

/

"Are you kidding me?"

Garen was sitting on an armrest of the chair that Obi-Wan had chosen to sit on. He was now listening to his friend's story about his visit to Shairaan like a grandchild with their grandfather. And Bant couldn't help but point that out.

They were given a larger, separate room, where they were assigned to stay until their healers said otherwise: Garen, Bant, Reeft and Obi-Wan, all of them friends with Siri Tachi.

Whose funeral was to be held in two days time.

They grieved, of course they did. But, at first, Obi-Wan wasn't sure if he'd understood correctly. It seemed so unreal that he wouldn't be able to see her anymore. That blonde, pretty, nice, kind young girl he'd known for so long...

He felt his eyes sting, even if they remained dry. He listened to the story Bant managed to tell him between two attacks of sorrow. Siri, along with her Master Adi Gallia were drawn into an ambush, kidnapped, tortured and when they tried to break free, the girl died. She was shot dead, when tired and injured; she'd tried to go after her Master. The army troops found two women: one dead and one unconscious.

And instead of usual Jedi calmness when faced with how human life is short, he felt blind, hot fury, pumping through his veins.

But nobody noticed it.

"Man, you sure are lucky to live through a hell like that" Garen babbled absentmindedly when heard about what happened during that one week on Shakti's planet. He looked pale, as if he hadn't eaten for a week. In truth he probably hadn't.

"I didn't think it was that bad. Remember that Knight Alberona was with him? There couldn't be someone worse than her!" said Reeft, but it sounded as if he did only to say something.

Such a conversation, a conversation where everyone tried to talk so that the silence could not take over, was what really was pissing him off, and to be honest, Obi-Wan was amazed about that.

He didn't recognize himself. That emotion, burning inside his chest where he had a heart, the pain he felt every time he thought about Siri and her innocent, carefree smile, was so foreign to him yet deadly familiar. Obi-Wan was quite sure that, at first, it hadn't been his emotion to feel. As a Padawan, he was taught to let go, to stop, to feel and focus on the action and objectivity. However, after he started the training, he more often felt like this: enraged and as if he had needles under his skin. Why so?... well, that's a stupid question. He knew why. But that wasn't satisfying his screaming instincts.

"Are you alright, Obi-Wan? You're sweating" he heard Bant's quite voice. Since she had finished telling him about Siri, she had been silent, sitting across him with blank look, observing the cracks in the wood of the table.

Now, she focused on him, her usual protectiveness forcing her mind to occupy itself with something else than mourning. He felt himself tensing because of that.

The entrance of a healer saved him from answering. However, the man didn't even look at them, calling for someone else instead.

And that person was another reason why Obi-Wan felt really pissed off.

"Padawan Bruck Chun is requested to join his Master in the departure room."

The called young man stood up. He had been sat with them for more than few hours now, but had said nothing. Obi-Wan didn't sense anything from him as clearly as he did from Garen or Bant, but some faint hint of sorrow could be detected. However, it didn't mean that he tolerated Chun.

"Sit here and cry, babies." He heard Bruck say, as he turned to face them with a grin on his handsome face. "The real men have work to do, nothing for kids like you."

Garen nearly killed himself by falling off the chair and Reef stumbled when they both dashed to restrain Obi-Wan, but that didn't stop him from struggling to get to that bastard and strangle him, make him silent...

... And everything stopped.

Obi-Wan straightened his back and calmly went back to the chair he had jumped from, completely ignoring the confused silence that accompanied his actions. He just had to restrain himself from smiling, as it would only shock the people looking at him even more. Sitting down, he closed his eyes, again contemplating the inside of his own mind. Bruck was saying something, but even though that hatred and sorrow were fighting to come out of him, at the same time they were so easy to suppress, so light to get them into places... he grinned mentally. Thanks to his teacher were in order, he thought.

Until his Master came for him, his friends couldn't make him say, what was this all about.

/

They walked through the corridor, but neither of them wanted to speak. Without eating, sleeping and proper rest, after such exhausting mission like the one on Shairaan, normally sad events from Coruscant became even more depressing. Qui-Gon was pale and his movements had lost their usual swiftness, when he placed his big hand on his apprentice's shoulder.

"Obi-Wan, I know that no words will bring your soul peace, but I must ask you to stay strong." The Master saw that with him speaking, various emotions came through young man's face, only to stop at calm and indifferent. That was strange. "Padawan Tachi's death was a result of an ambush and the Council suspects that there is someone who ordered the Jedi to be killed."

"Will we have a mission connected with that ambush?" Obi-Wan's voice was cool. Unwavering. Qui-Gon found it disturbing.

"If so, I will have. You are not allowed to leave the Temple right now." And before his apprentice could protest against such treatment, he added "and no Padawan is. Only Knights or those with higher ranks are allowed to go on missions right now. We don't want a situation like this to happen again, so all of you are going to have special training in case such an incident should occur again."

Even as he was saying this, he could feel that something wasn't right. Despite their training bond being open and running, he couldn't determine what Obi-Wan was thinking. Looking at his face was meaningless, for he had adapted an expression that at any other time would have made his Master proud, but now was only frustrating. A mask of an ideal, serene Jedi. What's more, before, Qui-Gon could say whenever his apprentice was sad or happy, scared or just stubborn, and he loved the lively emotions that used to fill Obi-Wan's Force signature. Now, there was something unfamiliar and cold in manner Obi-Wan held himself. What was that...?

"Ah! Baby!" Qui-Gon turned around to see that his Padawan had noticed the little girl, who was just crossing the corridor on their left. "What are you doing here?"

Shakti had a bottle with some green liquid in it in her arms and beside that, she looked rather tired. Even so, at the sight of Obi-Wan, her face lit up with the innocent, bright smile only a child can have.

"Master asked me to bring her medicine." She stated shortly, adjusting the bottle which was slipping from her grasp. Sighing quietly, the girl sniffed.

"Quella is sick?" Qui-Gon asked, instinctively reaching to the bond with the woman. It was blocked.

"She hasn't been able to eat anything since we came back" Shakti seemed worried. She looked up to look the Master in the eye "and whatever she eats, she can't hold in her stomach."

Great. That was the only thing, they lacked - even more causalities and Knights not able to got into field. Qui-Gon felt his own weariness increasing, even without the death of one, female Padawan. Now, his own alive, female Knight was more of a problem for him. With her inborn stubbornness and tendency to underestimate things, as well as her own problems, she was a perfect example of someone who could coldheartedly kill an enemy and be terribly bedridden by a simple flu. Not that she was susceptible to illnesses, but with her cold blood...

An idea hit him, but before he managed to grasp it in full, his attention was snapped back to the reality, to the two Padawans standing before him and visibly falling asleep while standing. With a gesture allowing them to go and take rest, he took the bottle from Shakti and directed his steps to Quella's apartment, the idea long forgotten in the back of his mind, occupied with problems closer to earth.

/

"She is vomiting all the time?"

"Yes Ben, she suddenly felt bad and since then it remained like that."

"If it was anyone else, I'd say she is pregnant, but with Quella..."

"Of course she isn't."

"Of course...?"

"Because my Master, as an albino, is infertile."

/

Some hours later, when Qui-Gon finally decided that his bond-mate felt well enough for him to leave her sleeping and alone, he managed to come to his own apartment, only to find two Padawans stretched on the carpet in the common room. Judging from their calm breathing, they had been asleep a long while, at an angle in strange mix of limbs, robes and blankets and most likely - not going to wake up in near future.

Taking advantage of the situation when he didn't have to keep the cool façade of a Master, Qui-Gon kneeled on the floor. He looked at their sleeping faces: relaxed, unmoving, but resting. Right now, neither of them had their forehead furrowed in thought or worry and they looked so young... what hit him, was that Obi-Wan was only twenty-one now. While interacting with him, he seemed older, much older.

Qui-Gon started to wonder. Was it the things he didn't like that made him think when he had first noticed this difference in Obi-Wan? Rather not. What was it, then? That he suddenly lost his youthful cheerfulness? That he had started to cope with his problems without his Master? That even if their bond was all right, Qui-Gon felt that the young man was hiding his emotions? Yes, that was it. Even though he could feel clearly what Obi-Wan felt, it was somehow incomplete, as if it had a second meaning. Or second, inner shield...

Qui-Gon snarled from the bottom of his throat. Now, it did make sense. And he was quite sure, who was to blame for that.

Quella. He growled, causing the woman, who just seconds ago was deep asleep, to fall from her bed in her apartment. We have to talk.

/

A shouted argument and the sound of shooting woke up Obi-Wan, making him jump straight into sitting position. He unconsciously curled up, bringing his knees to his chest and holding his throbbing head with hands. Pained cry escaped his lips.

"You alright, Ben?"

He looked up a little, seeing Shakti kneeling near him. She had woken up as well, as she was sleeping on the top of his chest and was thrown off when he sat. With an unfamiliar, unpleasant sureness he saw in her eyes all that terrified him so much now, a picture of Quella and Qui-Gon arguing, shouting, and blaming themselves along with vision of some people trying to shoot someone. And who, he was quite sure who it was...

"I'm good Baby" he mumbled through his palms. "I've just remembered where I remember Kodachi and Endavi from."

Shakti hugged him, nodding.

/

"Quella Alberona is better. I see no reason not to let her go on this one." Mace said, hitting the armrest of his chair with his clenched fist. The other Councillors looked at him doubtfully.

"But they've just come back." Depa Bilaba decided to voice what she was thinking. Windu just shot her annoyed look.

"They came back from her home planet. Let's treat it as a holiday." He snarled.

"Holiday? You know her family!" exclaimed Yadle.

"This is not what concerns us at the moment! We need her connections with slavers!" barked Ki-Adi Mundi.

"Silence!" Mace Windu stood up, preventing the quiet arguing in their seats from growing into loud and fierce quarrel. "It's decided then; Master Jinn, Master Kouri, Master Rym along with Knight Alberona, Knight Raksion and Knight Uruger will take the mission of finding the reason for Padawan Tachi's death!"

"Let the Force be with them..." in the silence that followed, Master Yoda's whisper sounded dreadfully sinister.