My deepest apologies, Athena and Cerasi! Sorry for disappearing again there, but I just got back from vacation pretty recently and I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. Not to mention I have two HUGE projects due for AP Literature as soon as school starts AND volleyball season starts next Monday. *Pants* But anyway, here's chapter 18 and I'll see about having 19 up by Friday.


Athena—Impish padawans indeed! It seems Obi-Wan is rubing off on his friend and cousin! ^_~ Sorry for scaring you, but that's just mean 'ol Antiyo's way of doing things. Grrr to him!


Cerasi—Don't worry about the whole vacation thing. TRUST me, I understand. ^_^'' Thanks for all the wonderful praise! You KNOW I have to torture Obi throughout the entire story. What kind of devout fanfic writer would I be if I didn't?? And the idea of a sequel has occurred to me, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. :-( Sorry!


Enjoy!


See Chapter One for disclaimer

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Chapter 18

"Master Jinn! Where are you?"

Marie's keen eyes swept the air around her, trying to see over the tall stacks of wild corn that obscured her vision. The speeder bike she and Garen had been using ran out of fuel about an hour ago. After abandoning it, the two were forced to walk the remaining distance to the mountains, which turned out to be much harder than they'd previously expected—walking through the stalks that would have dwarfed even Qui-Gon's massive size was a long, arduous task. Finally, Garen's restlessness had taken over and he had given up trying to be respectful to the land around him and pulled out his weapon.

The two Padawans made quick progress after that.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had long since passed them and disappeared from view. Now that Garen and Marie had finally arrived in the mountains, however, with no sign of their companions, worry began to set it.

"Qui-Gon!" Garen yelled into the cool air of rapidly approaching night. He turned to the young girl beside him, who was stuffing ears of corn into her tunic. "Can you feel Obi-Wan?" he asked.

She shook her head and turned to search the skies again, pushing through the last few feet of stalks as she did so.

"He secured his shields rather firmly about half an hour ago, but not before I detected a little pain. It's probably just his ankle again," she said quietly, finally emerging from the cornfield. Garen pushed past her and began to scale a steep hill beside one of the mountains, lightsaber still in hand to thwart any danger from getting to his companion.

"Probably," was his response to her assumption; he tried to sound convinced for both of them, but failed miserably. Finally, after realizing he did not have the patience to simply sit on the ground and pluck weeds, he stood and began to pace. Where were they?

Suddenly, from around the corner of one of the craggy mountains, Qui-Gon emerged, striding towards them with a concerned yet relieved smile.

Both Padawans hurried over.

"We thought something happened to you," the Jedi Master said, leading them back in the direction he had come from.

"Same here," Garen replied solemnly.

The three Jedi climbed one steep path after another through thick vegetation, most of which had some sort of spiny thorns or leaves on them and only their tall boots kept them from repeatedly being stuck. When Qui-Gon pointed to a well-trodden path, most likely used by some type of animal, Marie sighed a breath of relief, glad that all of their hard trekking seemed to finally have come to an end.

At the top of this trail, a beautiful valley lay spread out before them. It was surrounded by three other large mountains, effectively boxing it in, keeping it hidden and well protected from the strong winds that were so common this high up. Thick, knee-high meadow grass, slightly yellowed from an apparent lack of rain in the mountains, blanketed the valley in a beautiful soft carpet. Small purple, pink and blue flowers dotted the landscape where they managed to grow tall enough to reach above the grass, and waved gently back and forth in the appearance of a light, whispering wind. Trees with sloping branches formed canopies and provided shade to wandering creatures—such as the small family of Rin, a medium-sized hooved animal, that rested nearby in the grass. The trees sat in a cluster at the south side of the valley, forming a miniature forest.

Towards the west side of the valley, resting beside a natural spring, Obi-Wan sat sideways on the remaining speeder bike. He breathed a sigh of relief to see Qui-Gon had not returned alone, but one thing still bothered him.

Waiting until his master and Garen were a short distance away, attempting to build a temporary shelter beneath the protection of the trees, Obi-Wan turned serious eyes to his cousin, whom was preoccupied with rummaging through the contents of her bag that still sat by the bike. Half a dozen ears of corn rested by her feet. "Don't," Obi-Wan said simply.

"What?" she asked absent-mindedly, turning her ear towards him.

"Just don't."

Marie looked up this time, an amused yet confused grin on her face. "How can I not say or do what you don't want me to if I have no Sithly idea what you're talking about?"

"Choet isn't a part of the Republic," he began softly, gradually getting louder as he seemed to become more sure that what he was about to say was right. "Even if it was, the invasion by the Mountain Women is none of your concern. It's a fight that you as a person—especially as a Jedi—have no place in. If they wanted Jedi assistance, they would have requested it. I know what you're going through, and I know it's all really a bad idea to get involved…"

Marie's eyes widened, her jaw falling slightly ajar as her face took on an unbelieving look. "You were intruding on my thoughts?" she hissed, her voice not much more than a whisper. She suddenly felt very exposed and betrayed.

Obi-Wan's eyes showed only concern. "I just don't want you to make the same mistake I did—and I wasn't technically spying on you. Your thoughts just sort of—bled into my own."

"How dare you!" she spat, wondering what else he had picked up on. She knew for a fact that Obi-Wan could easily penetrate her shields if she did not reinforce them from time to time, but for her thoughts to just simply bleed into his—well, it was preposterous!

"Well if you'd learn to stop daydreaming, you wouldn't broadcast your thoughts!" she vaguely heard him exclaim.

Denial crept onto her face. "I do not daydream, Obi-Wan Kenobi!"

Obi-Wan saw his childhood friend turn in their direction, a look of confusion gracing his sweaty features. The oldest apprentice smirked when he turned back to his cousin. "Oh yeah? So what would you call it all those times I've seen you staring at Garen while he's not looking?"

He said it loud. So loud in fact, that their rescuers in space could have very well heard them.

[|||||||||||||o]::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"We're coming out of hyperspace in three, two, one!"

The battered Corellian ship dropped back into normal space just beyond the reaches of the Togorian warship's sensors.

"There it is," Siri breathed, noting the blurry lines of the ship. Although the ship they rode in had obviously seen better days, its sleek lines were still much more attractive than the other ship's. Then again, anything could be considered prettier looking than the Togorian warship.

Clee Rhara leaned over the pilot's shoulder and pointed to the ship. "We need to disable it long enough to get down to the planet and back up," she told him, brushing a strand of bright orange hair behind one ear.

The pilot nodded. "I've located all of their mines on this side of the planet," he murmured. "If I can just lure them into their own trap…"

He trailed off and reached above his head to adjust a few controls. "Hold on ladies, we'll be planet bound before you can rip off a Hutt crime lord."

Clee and Siri traded glances with eyebrows clearly raised before the pilot added amused, "Figuratively speaking, of course."

[|||||||||||||o]::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no emotion; there is peace—Oh Sith, who cares?

Marie's face flushed bright red as she stood up, pulling away from the bag by her feet and staring into the blank face of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The face that held the eyes that—surely—were laughing at her. Where a bystander would have seen nothing but a mouth set in a firm, straight line, she saw the smugness that came from knowing one had just backed their opponent into a corner they had no chance of getting out of.

Marie, however, would not play her cousin's childish game.

Obi-Wan saw her straighten her shoulders in an attempt to make herself bigger, although with her standing and the young man still sitting on the speeder bike she was already considerably taller. To prove she had better things to do than argue, Marie bent down to retrieve her gray cloak, exclaiming a "humph!" as she did, and turned to walk away and settle someplace far away from her incorrigible cousin. Before leaving, she turned to him and with a fierce scowl declared, "Consider yourself fortunate that we are bound by more than the Code."

Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows slowly. "Oh yeah?" he retorted. "What if I told you I was repulsed by the fact that we share the same family name and blood? Then what would you say?"

Hurt flitted across Marie's face before being replaced by steely determination. "I would say," she started slowly, letting each word sink in, "that I will hold you to your words—and I will leave you be."

Two pairs of blue-green eyes locked and Obi-Wan saw more than hurt dim the intense eyes of the person he was—usually—proud to have a blood bond with. Surprisingly, Marie broke the contact first and looked away to her hands where they fidgeted with the hood of her dirty cape.

Obi-Wan sighed.

"I just don't want you to make the same mistake I did when I was young and still easily impressionable," he repeated carefully.

Not carefully enough, however, as that set the fireworks off again.

"Young? Easily impressionable?"

It was at this particular moment that Garen, still standing a few meters away with Qui-Gon, groaned and rolled his eyes.

Here we go again, he thought, stepping towards them. A large hand on his shoulder made him pause.

Not even bothering to hide it, Garen winced. Qui-Gon moved swiftly past him and towards the two bickering teenagers.

If they didn't kill themselves now, Qui-Gon would make them regret that they hadn't done so before the venerable Jedi Master had gotten a hold of them.

[|||||||||||||o]::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Antiyo Ganfor, a.k.a. the Prince of Corruption, banged one pale, unblemished hand against the tabletop.

The Jedi had escaped. Again…

How was he supposed to wreak revenge if they kept outsmarting him? And that was one thing Antiyo did not like—to be outsmarted.

He had to think of something else, something to beat them at their own game. He had to prey upon their ultimate weakness. But did Jedi have weaknesses? It was a question he did not have an answer to at the moment and that in itself made him very annoyed.

A sudden knock at the door of his private quarters drew his attention. "Enter!" he rasped out loudly.

One tall, lanky guard—Tunny, whom had formerly worked for Ceal Verune—entered the room with all the hesitancy one should have for being alone in the same room with the deranged medic.

"Boss—er, Sir, the troops scouting the fifth sector of the mountain range just reported in. They said they found an abandoned speeder bike, one previously reported stolen, hidden at the beginning of a large cornfield. They're currently working on following a path created by—supposedly—two humans on foot."

Antiyo smiled devilishly, revealing straight, bright white teeth. He turned to the young guard and asked almost casually, "Tell me, Officer Tunny, what does the word Jedi mean to you?"

Tunny scrunched his brow and remembered at the very last moment not to shrug. "Jedi are the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, although they have no control on planets that are not part of the Republic. They protect the weak and innocent, which makes them weak as well."

The hatred towards Jedi bred into all Choetians began to bubble towards the surface as Tunny's young face took on a more aggressive look.

"There would be no weaklings or innocents if they would mind their own business, which would be better for the entire galaxy. They make people soft and that is why we must destroy them."

A delighted grin covered Antiyo's face as he dismissed Tunny with a false "Thank you" and a wave of his hand.

Tunny, despite his young age, had seen what Antiyo—whose great scheming mind was one of the best—had not. Such a talent could not be allowed to flourish out of fear that one day he may turn against his current boss. Antiyo would squash the young man's gift soon enough—but first he needed to complete his original mission, and Tunny's hate for the Jedi, especially the girl, would come in handy.

With a smile the medic settled into his large plush chair and smiled. He now knew the Jedi's ultimate weakness.