Lady Raven of the Stars- thanks! You'll find out who the emperor is in this chapter!

Chapter 3

"A candle loses by lighting another candle." -unknown

Nikka slid through the kitchen window, careful not to make a sound.

She leaned her head out the window and whispered into the night air, "thank you."

A man cloaked in black stepped deeper into the shadows and went at a run back down the street through which they had come, back to his friends.

~*~

The door to the old café swooshed open and a cowled figure in black strolled in.

"What did I miss?" he asked as he flipped his hood back to reveal a dark hair and a handsome face.

"Hello to you too Ferus," said a young girl in her early twenties. Brown curls fell her face that usually wore a mischievous grin.

Siri smiled slightly. Una Halo had only been a child when the Jedi were disbanded, but even though she didn't have that secure environment she never strayed from her path, and never lost her good humor. She was quite remarkable.

Ferus grinned at Una before lowering himself into a lotus position on the ground.

"You didn't miss much," said Mace in reply to the earlier question. "Some information about the guards security plans, some sarcastic remarks-"he glanced bemusedly at Una, "and............."

His sentence was cut short when the doors opened for the second time in so many minutes.

"Hi Qui-Gon," said Una, waving. She and Qui-Gon had always gotten along. Mace said it was because they both shared a blatant disregard for the rules.

Her smile faltered slightly when she caught sight of the figure behind him.

"Who's he?" Adi asked cautiously.

"A runaway slave of the emperor," replied Qui-Gon, ushering the teenage boy inside. "His name is Zackery."

Zackery smiled at them weakly, obviously uncomfortable. Of course, you would be too if a group of people made out to be extinct were suddenly right in front of you.

"Where did you work?" Asked Mace , his features never changing. "How did you escape the guards?"

"I was............. A worker for the emperor.............. I helped him with government decisions," said Zackery cautiously. "I climbed out a window and........ had a little fall. Qui-Gon helped with the guards."

"I see," said Mace. "Well make yourself comfortable, I need a word with Qui-Gon." He stood and laid a hand on Qui-Gon's shoulder, steering him outside.

Once they were outside Mace started to speak. "You trust too easily. How can you be sure this child is true? The emperor has many spies."

"The boy is good, I can sense it," Qui-Gon looked at Mace, "And there's something else........."

"He's force sensitive," Mace finished, his eyes darkening. "I sensed it too, which is why I don't trust him. The emperor some how knew how to break into the temple, I'm sure that he would know a force sensitive child when one was right under his nose."

"But you must have sensed the good within him as well?" Said Qui-Gon. "The boy was in trouble what was I to do?"

Mace sighed. "I understand Qui-Gon, and it's too late to change things now anyway, but I'm worried nonetheless."

"Have a little faith," said Qui-Gon, turning to the door.

"I try, but everyday it seems like my faith and hope are running more and more thin."

~*~

"So let me get this straight," said Conleth coolly. "Zackery was standing right in front of you, with no blaster or any other form of weapon, but yet, you didn't bring him back?"

Zheara and Ecra, Zackery's chasers, kneeled before their ruler with shaking hands. They were done for now, they could feel it in every bone of their body.

"Yes, your majesty," said Zheara, not looking up. If it had been anyone else she would have lied, and made Zackery out to be heavily armed with friends. Preferably very large friends. However, she didn't stand before just anyone, she stood before the Emperor of the galaxy, the man who could cut through anyone's mind like scissors through paper. He would have discovered her lie before she had time to take a breath.

"But I can explain," she added on quickly.

"Really? Then by all means explain," his face never changed, not that she could see it very well. He always wore a hood that sent shadows across his features, threatening anyone who thought to challenge him. The shadows cloaked his face like the shadows that cloaked his heart.

"We were intercepted be a man," she said. "He helped the boy-"

"So this man was a warrior?" The emperor asked.

"No," answered Zheara. "He might have been, but we never saw a weapon."

"So how did he get past you, two of my best guards?"

Zheara knew that she had to choose her words wisely; they could very well be her last.

"He used a mind trick, I believe," she said slowly, terrified at what the outcome of this may be. "It was as if he could control our every thought."

To Zheara and Ecra's shock the emperor waved his hand and said, "very well, you are free to go."

They were surprised, but stupidity did not catch them in it's tentacles. They were out of there before you could blink.

"You don't think............?" said a voice of a man behind the emperor. It was Kikere, Conleth's most trusted guard.

"I don't know," said the emperor, flipping back his hood. "I thought that I took care of the Jedi, but I guess that I was mistaken. No problem though, I'll simply track Zackery, and when I find him I'm positive that I'll find the Jedi."

Conleth and Kikere both smiled, and the pale scar on Conleth's cheek glistened.

~*~

"Master," the boy asked. "These slave owners are fiends, and Crion's the worst one. We shouldn't split up, that could be our worst mistake."

"You're right my padawan," said Qui-Gon with a sigh. "But we cannot shirk our duties. We were called here to save this planet from the corrupt leaders, and save Telos we shall."

"Of course master."

"Do not look like this is the galaxies end," said Qui-Gon, placing a reassuring hand on the teenagers shoulder. "We will see each other again, I would never let you fall toll to the evil that sleeps in this world."

The boy smiled weakly back at him, though he felt the dread of darkness in his heart.

~*~

Qui-Gon awoke with a shiver, the claws of icy heartache tearing at him. His dream........... it was of the last mission that he had had with his padawan learner, the last mission with that once promising boy.

He shook his head. It was not a Jedi's way to dwell on things, but he couldn't help himself. Every time he saw a young man with blue eyes, someone with exceptional talent, he always that about the young boy that he had failed. The guilt ripped him apart.

Maybe that's what drew him to Zackery. The boy was in trouble, and it was true that Qui-Gon had always carried a soft spot for the troubled, but that wasn't all that was there. The boy was almost like a replacement for the one that Qui-Gon had lost.

He silently shook himself. It's been twenty years you old fool, he silently scolded. Twenty years, you've had enough time to grieve his loss. He's dead, that much has been made clear. Move on. You shouldn't need closure anymore.

Despite his thoughts, Qui-Gon knew that he was fooling himself. He had lost something very dear to him. People always prepare themselves to lose their parents, maybe even their spouses and siblings, but they're never prepared to lose a child, and that's what the boy was, his child. How does one get over the loss of everything that they themselves would have died for?

He stood up and walked over to Siri, who was awake and keeping watch for any storm troopers. She was also keeping an eye on their young guest, to look for any trickery.

He touched her shoulder. "You can go to sleep," he said softly, not wanting to wake the others. "I'll take it from here."

She nodded and walked off sleepily.

Qui-Gon sat down and looked casually out the window. Coruscant was beautiful once, with shining sunsets and glistening buildings that looked as soft to the touch as shimmer silk. Not now though. Now it was a deserted war zone, a world as bad as the crimson corridor. It was overrun with gangs and crime lords, who cared more about power and wealth then they did the beauty around them. Little Punks who spent more time "decorating" old buildings than studying. The galaxy had gone to hell, for lack of a better term.

And the part that bothered Qui-Gon the most? He couldn't do a thing about it.

~*~

He moved quieter and stealthier than a cat, but he could strike faster than a snake. He had spent years at that hippie temple, learning how to control his mind and his body. He was taught how to manipulate the laws of physics to suit his own needs and wants. The wisdom that they bottle fed him was pre-chewed and tasteless, but some things paid off. He was confident that his tracking skills, for one, were the most advanced in the galaxy.

Conleth usually didn't do his own dirty work, that's what the storm troopers were for, but with Zackery he made an exception. That boy was really trying his patience though.

Not that getting out again didn't make him feel alive again. It sent him straight back to his adolescent years, were he would go tracking a fellow Jedi with Qui-Gon as a game on some remote planning..................

And the good feelings were gone just as fast as they had come, and replaced with pure loathing. That man had taken everything form him, and he would pay dearly.

Suddenly Conleth's acute senses caught something. A whiff of old scent, a force sensitive presence, a faint voice. They were near, so near to his own palace that is made Conleth's hair prickle. They had been there, hiding in plain sight right in front of his temple the entire time and he hadn't noticed. Hatred seized his heart, the hatred that twenty years before he would have been ashamed of. But now he grasped it, and let it wrap tightly around him. Feeding him and helping him grow. He smiled darkly and pulled out a comlink.

"Kikere, we've got them."

~*~

The gentle strands of dawn glided through the holes in the board work and the few windows that weren't boarded up. The soft rays warmed the Jedi's sad souls and lightened their heavy loads.

Qui-Gon watched the boy as he stirred awake. He watched those shockingly familiar blue eyes open groggily. "Do you people always get up this early?"

Qui-Gon smiled. Maybe he did need the closure after all.

His warm thoughts were lost in an instant though as a loud blast filled and racked him ears, and dust flew around his eyes. Voices swam around his head as he tried to sort out what was going on.

"You're all under arrest," a voice form within the dust announced calmly, clearly and loudly. "Come with us alive or dead, the choice is yours."

As the smoke and dust cleared Qui-Gon's heart broke. They were surrounded, inside the old café and outside of it. There was a hundred guards at least, and one man cowled in black standing in the middle of it with a smile painted across his face.

Qui-Gon inhaled a sharp breath. It was Obi-Wan.

~*~

A/N: Confused? Don't worry I'll explain everything.