Chapter 3

Startled, Frodo looked again, but the color was gone. "You silly hobbit, you've been staying up too late again" he chided himself. Once onboard the 'Starlight', Gandalf went into a small bedroom and locked the door behind him. He cut himself off from the others by not answering the comm. When he was notified that they were reaching Courscant, he came out, looking tired. "He must have been resting" Sam murmured to Luke, who nodded in agreement. As soon as the 'Starlight' landed, Anakin led the hobbits to thier rooms, while Luke took Gandalf to the nearest medic facility. Luke had told Anakin and the hobbits to meet him in Leia's staterooms in one-half hour.

A half hour later, they were all assembled in Leia's staterooms, waiting for Luke to tell them Gandalf's condition. "The medic said that he'll be just fine, he just needs to rest for a while" Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief "I'll be able to rest better now I know he's going to be alright" Pippin commented. A few hours later, Merry went to Gandalf's room to check up on him. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He opened the door and found Gandalf floating above his bed. Merry yelped in surprise, waking Gandalf. "What??!!" he exclaimed, landing hard on the bed. "Y-y-you were floating!" Merry stuttered. Gandalf gave Merry a strange look "I see... now GO AWAY!!" Startled at Gandalf's manner, Merry fled.

Early the next morning, the hobbits were awakened by a piercing alarm and ran out of thier rooms, meeting Luke who was running down the hall in thier direction. "What is going on?" Sam yelled over the alarm. "I don't know, come with me to the Command Centre and find out!" Luke replied. They ran into the war room and asked General Dodonna what was going on. "A docking bay on the northern side of the palace has just opened, and someone has killed a squadron of our guard" Leia came running into the Command Centre "Gandalf and the Book of Light are gone!" she exclaimed.

Meanwhile, in the outer orbit of Courscant, a sleek, high powered craft flew always just out of Rogue Squadrons blaster fire. Back on Courscant, Anakin, Luke and the hobbits boarded the 'Starlight' and contacted Rogue Squadron. " Let us go after it Wedge" Luke said. "You won't be able to disable that frieghter or stop it before it goes into hyper Luke" came Wedge's voice over the comm. Gandalf's voice came over the comm almost immediately. "Luke don't follow me, you'll be in danger if you do" With those words, the ship transferred into hyperspace. Luke felt the Force tell him the name of a planet. "Dantooine?" he murmured. Luke called the Comand Centre "He's going to Dantooine, we're going to follow him" "Alright Luke, just be careful" Luke nodded and plotted a course for Dantooine. Once in hyper, Pippin asked Luke a question. "Why would Gandalf take the Book of Light and leave?" Luke shook his head "I don't know" Luke then walked off and returned carrying 4 blasters. "Here, you can go into the cargo hold and practice for a while. You might need to use them sometime" They walked off to go practice this new skill.

Once they reached Dantooine, they scanned the planet and found Gandalf's ship in a clearing not far from a lake. Luke skillfully landed the ship not far from Gandalf's and they prepared to look for thier friend. Before they left, Frodo pulled his coat of mithril out of the storage container that it was in- along with his sword Sting- and pulled it on under his clothes. He then put Sting among the supplies on the repulsor sled, hiding it from view. They walked towards the location of Gandalf's ship and found it, sitting in a splendor all it's own. It was sleek, and high powered looking, as well as having an evil look to it that clearly told people to BACK OFF!!! They looked around and saw Gandalf looking at them. As the wizard looked at them, Frodo happened to glance at Sting, which was glowing softly. Gandalf pointed his staff at them and created a blinding flash of light. Once it cleared, he was gone.

"I think that he thought we were his enemies" Annie softly spoke to Luke as they walked along a path. "It's going to be quite a problem to find him through this forest" Frodo turned to them and decided to tell them about Sting. "There is an easier way to follow him" Both Jedi turned around "What do you mean?" Luke asked. "I have a sword that was given to me as a gift on my last travels. It has the ability to detect evil intent" They looked at each other. "I have never heard of such a thing" Luke replied. Frodo pulled the sword off the sled, and started to turn around slowly in a circle. When it was pointed in a Northwestern direction, it glowed blue faintly. "Why does it turn blue?" Luke inquired. "That is it's way of saying 'danger' to anyone around" Frodo explained.

They then set out along the path that Sting had indicated. As they walked along the path, Anakin noticed something and spoke of it to Luke. "Uncle, I think he may be becoming more Sith-like in his movements and actions" Luke turned to him "What makes you think of that?" "Well, he's beginning to leave fewer and fewer signs of his flight"

By nightfall, they had reached the shores of a small lake. Luke told them that he was going to scout out both sides of their camp, to see if he could pick up Gandalf's trail. By the time he came back, the tents had been set up, and they had a fire going. "Did you find any sign of him?" Pippin asked. "I believe that he may have gone furthur downriver, towards a waterfall" "I see, do these things always taste this awful?" Merry asked, holding up a blue servival ration. "They're to keep you alive, not to taste good" Luke replied, smiling. Sam, also amused decided to throw what was left of his water at Anakin. "Hey! What was that for?!" he exclaimed. Everyone except Anakin began laughing hysterically. They then began to settle down for the night. As they slept, Gandalf's form slipped into their camp. "Tommorrow your family will pay for what they did" spoke a slightly sinister voice into the darkness.

The next morning, Luke woke everyone at dawn. "Wake up everyone! We have to start early if we're going to find any trace of him" After a small breakfast of water and servival rations, they piled their belongings on the sled, and prepared to leave. Sam looked up and saw Gandalf standing in front of them. "Gandalf! Why did you leave us?"The old wizard never spoke a word, there was just a brief flicker of gold that could have been caused by the rising sun.He pointed his staff at Luke and lifted him up, then threw him into the lake. He then whirled around and threw Anakin to the ground. As soon as Luke re-oriented himself, he swam to the top of the water. He then felt a mental push, as well as a physical push against him. He reached out with the Force and felt the Dark Side pushing against him. He was stunned, and pushed harder on it. He managed to break it and swim to the serface. He looked to the shore and found Gandalf trying to get the hobbits to go with him. "I have found a place of immence power. Come with me and learn it's power." "No! You are hurt Gandalf, come back to Courscant with us" Pippin replied. Gandalf hissed and ran off into the forest.