Thank you, Jedi Padawan.

Glad you enjoy, Athena.

Darth Farore? *shudders* Sorry, can't reveal the secret just yet.

*********** **********

Forest. He was in a dense forest – so familiar and yet so alien. But this time he wasn't running. This time he was standing still. Obi-Wan looked around, studying the environment. Everything was just the same, yet… There was no sense of urgency now. There was no need to run. Anakin was fine – so far.

Close humid air, filled with exotic aromas of the tropical forest, assailed his senses, and he breathed it in, let it fill his chest until it was almost burning. Then he exhaled slowly. Everything was peaceful, safe and calm.

Too calm. The stillness was tight and rigid, waiting. Waiting for what?

As though in search for an answer he looked up and stood motionless in awe. Clear azure sky was a crystal pool of serenity shining down at him in a cascade of magical light. Tranquility poured onto him, and he felt his breathing slow, his muscles relax… until a little detail caught his attention: there was no sun.

Where was it? He shifted his eyes in search of the run-away luminary and saw what the woods were waiting for… thick raven-black storm clouds bubbling on the skyline like slush. The tempest was approaching. It was still far away, but it had already consumed the sun and covered the forest on the horizon with deep inauspicious shadow.

Disturbed by the troubling sight Obi-Wan lowered his gaze and looked at the jungle around him. Large palmed leaves of tropical trees rustled quietly on the wind. The wind? There wasn't any wind just moments ago! Balmy current of air hit him in the face, flooded his nostrils with almost liquid warmth, then left, caressing his cheek in gentle good-bye.

The wind was picking up. Leaves swayed in alarm. He could feel their anxiety, their fright of what was to come. Their fear of darkness on the horizon.

On an impulse he lowered his eyes to the ground and saw a tiny, rank with grass but still distinguishable path lying at his feet. Fine multicolored gravel marked its course. The path snaked away into the thick underbrush, welcoming.

But he did not want to follow it. With an almost impish resolve Obi-Wan stepped away from the path and… he breathed sharply when the path followed him, curving to lay under his feet. Why couldn't he leave this path? A tendril of foreboding shifted in his heart, and he fought the sudden desire to simply run away.

Memory rose. I will do what I must. Hurt. Betrayal. Forgiveness – but was it true? Love. Death. Alone. Pain. Duty. Anakin.

The path was chosen for him, he could only accept it. Leaving all doubts Obi-Wan made a step forward…

…and the path dissolved into darkness.

Warily the knight opened his eyes, checking if he wasn't at the bottom of a pond yet again. His mind, still clouded from the dream, was ready to accept the possibility however ridiculous it might be. The inspection revealed a scarcely lit starship's room with only one glow rod shining in a corner. Nestled on a cot in a far corner of the room was sleeping Anakin who clutched two warm blankets to him so desperately as though he was freezing. Obi-Wan shook his head. The Padawan still tended to get cold on the starships – not that they had traveled all that much in the few months of his apprenticeship. With a gentle smile Obi-Wan crossed the room and draped another blanket over the boy, who stirred and mumbled something incoherent.

Returning to his own cot Obi-Wan settled to think as sleep eluded him. His dream was disturbing but what did it mean? Again and again the knight tried in vain to comprehend the meaning of the troubling dream, but all he got was a massive headache.

Imperceptibly his thoughts shifted to Anakin, to their relationship – tangled and unbalanced as it was. From his own experience with Qui-Gon Obi-Wan knew how much a padawan needed to be told and shown that he is loved. But could he do it for this boy – his padawan – a boy that was meant to become his replacement? The question still remained open, tormenting him with its insolubility.

*********** ***********

"I have news," Brimar said casually as he entered a room and plopped down onto a chair.

"Good news or bad news?" Dooku asked looking at the far wall.

"You decide." Brimar sustained an effective pause then leaned forward, brushing a stray lock of dirty-blond hair he didn't care to comb, and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "Tabil Organa is found dead. The Alderaanians' state is buzzing like an agitated hive."

"So what?" The count was definitely not in the mood.

"You can strike him off the list."

The older man shrugged and stared at the wall yet again. Brimar huffed in irritation at his boss, companion and friend's lack of interest.

"You know what our democracy is?" Dooku suddenly asked without rhyme or reason.

Brimar raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Our so called democracy is a power of money, elected for money for the sake of money. And nothing more." Bitter notes laced his voice, still… there was something more to it. "If I…" he broke off. "Never mind," he added after a short pause.

Brimar squinted and looked at the man he knew and trusted. Something was different about him, and the younger man wasn't sure he liked the difference.

*********** ***********

Soft, silky fur was so tender to the touch. Sitting cozily on the floor in her – Palpatine's – apartments, in a special enclosure, Nais stroked a rabbit's white fur with long slender fingers. The small animal rubbed against her hand softly. Red shining beads of its eyes looked up at her with naïve trust of an unsophisticated nature's creation. The woman cuddled the small rabbit and smiled down gently in a well of warmth that rose in her heart – something she thought forgotten from time to time but something that was, in truth, lurking deep in her soul, away from coarsening and depraving harshness of reality's light that sometimes was closer to darkness. The rabbit stuck its nose into the heavy dark-blond mass of her hair and sneezed when delicate hair tickled the tip of its snout. She laughed softly, happily and pulled the unruly strands away from the pet.

«You, little naughty boy," Nais cooed affectionately. This wasn't something she did often and definitely not something she would do in public or for him . She frowned, but a light tapping of the white ball of fur on her knees brought smile back to her lips and coloured her dark eyes with sun flashes of laughter.

She was stroking the long soft ear when something pushed her to look up, and her eyes met two glowing with hunger yellow orbs. She froze as an icy whisper of fear settled at the back of her neck. A huge dog – more resembling a wolf than a tamed hound – was standing before her, studying her with unblinking cinder eyes, burning eyes of a greedy hunter. Muscles ripped under the terrible creature's russet skin, tight like a stretched spring, ready to jump into action. No sound escaped the slightly parted brown lips that were just barely covering long yellow razor-sharp fangs. The strained aggressive silence was worse than any barking or roar.

The rabbit in the woman's hands shrunk into a tight ball of quivering nerves, trying to back away from the visage of death.

Cold chuckling startled Nais, and she looked around in near panic.

"Get out of there," Palpatine's voice ordered calmly, indifferently.

Warily Nais stood up from her chair still holding the shivering white bundle wrapped in her arms.

"Leave the rabbit." Wipe them out. All of them. She remembered how he had said that, and now his command sounded just the same. Obediently she put the innocent creature down as tears sprang to her eyes. "Now get out of there."

Feeling suddenly empty, mortified, Nais made her way out on unbending legs. Once the door closed behind her she clung to the observation glass, immediately finding the rabbit on the floor – so small, helpless, miserable. She gave out a startled cry as the dog attacked. Unable to watch she closed her eyes, covered her ears with both hands, but still the sounds leaked through, creeping straight into her heart.

It was over in a moment. Nais dared to peer through the glass, her breath caught in her throat and her heart contracted into a freezing ball when she saw the dog devouring what was left of a little gentle creature. Limbs were scattered all over the floor, covered in blood. Nais shifted her eyes to the pleased and slightly amused face of Palpatine.

"It was just a rabbit," she whispered. "It didn't do anything."

"My dog needs to eat… and to train." His eyes sparkled for a moment with something so deeply dark that she shivered. "And you better know your place, hussy ."

With those words he left. Nais stood there for some time more, trembling, leaning against the glass wall, behind which the dog finished its bloody meal.

*********** **********