Chapter Eight: In Which They Get a Bad Feeling, and Two Characters-- literally-- Face Themselves.

As in the previous chapter, the characters were left at the banquet hall 101 in order to eat. For once, the chapter did not start with them being in some form of danger, but instead they were sitting down to eat. However, the peacefulness was shattered by the fact that Tiana had a very bad feeling about what was happening, and Jandalf was contemplating the odds of Audreidi ending up on Coruscant at the same time as them.

Obi-Wan and Anakin weren't bothering with weird feelings, however-- both of the mentioned males were eagerly eating Canadian beef, pizza, and other food that the Empire was providing.

"Pass the salt," Obi-Wan requested, happily eating whilst Tiana and Jandalf were in their own little worlds. Anakin passed the salt over, and Obi-Wan sprinkled it over his beef. "Mmm... Canadian beef..."

The wall looks very white, Tiana thought dryly, stirring her soup thoughtlessly, while staring beyond the walls. Her mind was wandering, getting pulled in by Shadow again... It can't be escaped... just let it happen and you won't remember the fear or pain that could be caused... Her eyes were glazed over as she stared beyond the wall. Se was suddenly jerked out of the trance by a worried voice cutting through her mind.

"Milady?"

"Huh?" Tiana jumped ever so slightly, and shook her head sharply, trying to remember why her master was calling her 'milady'. Then she remembered what was going on-- remembered that they were on the Imperial captured Coruscant, remembered who they were impersonating... "Oh. What, Apprentice Anathema?" ((A/N: Both Jandalf and I got a kick out of having to be each other's style of character for a while. It was... weird...))

"Is something wrong?" The concern in her voice wasn't faked-- though the tone was that of a worried apprentice, Tiana sensed her worry as her master, and not just because they were on Coruscant at that time.

Tiana shook her head, and blinked hard. "Oh, no." /I feel something... very odd./ In her mind, she knew what was happening, but it was too within for her to voice yet.

"What is it, milady?" /That weird, elusive, dark feeling of doom?/ Her eyes were sharp, as if she had almost forgotten that they were in Imperial territory.

Tiana smiled darkly, in an attempt to appear more at-ease than she really was. "It's nothing, apprentice. Mayhaps nothing more than something I ate." /Yeah, that describes it about perfectly, Master. I don't know... it's... an understanding of sorts. I think./

"Very well, milady." /An understanding, Padawan... I'm starting to get worried./

"Yes. Eat and enjoy yourself for the time, Anathema." Tiana's gaze was still distant, and she stared at the window without really seeing it. /Yeah, you aren't alone in that feeling, Master, I think you should be worried./

On the outside, Jandalf began eating, seemingly her concerns buried for the time, although her eyes had a strange darkness to them. /Padawan, you must try to fill me in on this,/ she continued. /Something is happening and I don't wish it to happen without me./ She had a clue of what was happening-- Tiana's strangely dark manners had been clueing her in-- but still wasn't sure.

/I don't know what's happening, Master! It worries me... but it's beyond my grasp./ Tiana had a faint feel of panic to her thoughts, though outside she was merely distant, as if fighting sleep.

/Hopefully it'll stay away.../

She shook her head. /No... I have a really bad feeling about all this./ Tiana had to fight to keep tears from welling up in her eyes-- they threatened to. Everything that was happening to her over the last few days, the realizations, and understanding she suddenly had... it hurt to keep it inside.

/I do too./

It was Anakin, who had had a bit too much to drink who broke the troubled silence over the thoughts of three Jedi by speaking, foolishly, "Jandalf? Sure I know a Jandalf. She's over there..."

/ANAKIN!/ Tiana sent at him in a panic, her fury washing away the distant sadness.

"Wha...?" The girl Jandalf was acting took over, and rushed to grab Anakin as he continued babbling. She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him down.

"AKK! LET GO OF ME, JAN... errr... ummmm..."

"You mistake me for another," she hissed, a darkness seeping into her tone.

/Anakin, realize what you are doing!/ Tiana shot frantically. /You want to reveal us?/

"Oh... sorry, milady."

Her eyes were dark as she released him from her tight grasp. "My name is Lady Anathema of Corulag. Remember that, Senator."

A shadow drifted over Tiana's eyes again, and a name came unbidden again. "Jethine..."

"I will, I'm sorry... had too much to drink..." Anakin babbled, waving his hands about, confused. He suddenly collapsed, and Jandalf looked at him oddly, a strange expression over her eyes.

/I feel dizzy. And not because of the drink.../

/Master?/ It was Tiana's turn to be suddenly very concerned. /Sit down./

Jandalf made her way back to her chair dully, as if in a captured trance.

/Are you all right?/ asked Obi-Wan, concerned. Someone in the corner noticed all of this, and went off to carry a message, whether about Shadow supposedly escaping, or Anakin's accidental revealing of Jandalf, no one knew. Several servants rushed to help Anakin back up.

Anakin sat up, dizzily. "Oh, my head," he groaned. "I had the strangest dream about Tatooine joining the Empire, and Jandalf turning dark, and... oh, stang... it's not a dream."

Jandalf clenched her teeth, and fought with herself to not strangle Anakin. "What is this foolishness," she hissed.

"My head hurts," Anakin complained. /Heh... oops./

Obi-Wan glared at him. /Padawan! You will be the death of us!/

Anakin visibly cringed, and rubbed his head. /I'm sorry, Master! It's just... ugggg.../ Groaning through the Force is an interesting, and challenging acomplishment, and yet somehow Anakin pulled it off without making a sound in reality as he checked out the goose egg that was forming on his head. "Where's the washroom?" he finally groaned.

A random servant pointed it out, and Anakin ran off. "THANK YOU!"

Obi-Wan succeeded in looking rather pale without ruining the evil Sith appearance. It was picked up by a nearby Tiana, though, the mentioned girl who was looking rather pale herself. Jandalf just looked like her head was buzzing.

"Are you all right, Lord Xiian?" asked Tiana, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"I'm fine, milady," he replied. He still looked rather pale.

Tiana looked him over. "You look a tad pale, I should think."

"It's nothing."

Outside, she shrugged, and went back to eating, seemingly unconscerned. /What is it?/ she shot through the Force.

/My head's buzzing,/ Jandalf complained.

/I can sense that,/ Tiana sent, ruefully. I believe that it's been commented before that they weren't any ordinary Master/Padawan set, and, if it hadn't, then it has now. Tiana was close enough connected to sense Jandalf's annoyance, and Jandalf was close enough to sense something odd happening to Tiana. However, Tiana was being really nice, and shielding her thoughts off so that no one could tell why, exactly, she was acting strange. Nice girl, eh?

/Mine as well,/ Obi-Wan commented, his real life self taking a bite of his meal. They'd been there for a while, but enough things had happened that none of them had finished eating yet. /What do you suppose it is?/

/I have the oddest feeling..../ Tiana sent, darkly.

/I have no idea,/ Jandalf sent at the same time, /but I have a very, very bad feeling about this./

Tiana coughed. /I wish you'd stop echoing my thoughts all the time,/ she sent, reality, grinning slightly.

/We have been too brash. Someone has taken notice, I'm sure of it./ Obi-Wan stood up. "If you will excuse me. Come, my apprentice."

There was almost the slightest hesitation before Jandalf stood up, and Tiana jerked slightly, used to being labled that herself.

"We should be back shortly." Obi-Wan walked out, the picture perfect Sith, while Jandalf followed, less then perfect for a Sith, but still succeeding in looking relatively evil.

/I still have a bad feeling about this,/ Tiana found reason to comment one.

/I know. We're going to have to check it out./

Tiana was quiet in the Force for a moment, her presense almost flickering out for a bare hint of a second. Then she was back again. /Should I stay here?/ As if nothing had happened the moment before.

/Be cautious, Padawan, and yes, stay there,/ Jandalf sent at her, a strange hesitation edging into her thought's tone. /Keep an eye on that servant girl in the corner./

/All right, Master.../ Almost a hesitation, and a shadow rimmed Tiana's tone this time. As if she had been using a sarcastic tone, it would've seemed in reality.

"What do you think it is?" Jandalf whispered to Obi-Wan.

"I've never felt it before, and yet it's familiar," Obi-Wan whispered back. They walked down the hall, senses alert to something strange that called to them. A dark presense that burnt at the back of their minds, and called to them, whispering... and yet not completely strange.

There was a complete familiarity to what was happening at the moment, especially for Jandalf-- as if she had been there before. A deja vu of sorts. And yet was not consciously remembered, but there, as present as whatever it was causing their heads to spin, and Obi-Wan at her side. Something kept flitting at the back of her mind.

Halting suddenly, Obi-Wan looked around. "What? It's... gone."

Jandalf grabbed his arm. "So is the Force." For a moment, everything seemed to disappear into a blankness, not dark, nor light, without the Force, without feeling. It disappeared a second later, and they were back to reality. The reality was that two people had stepped out of the darkness, one quick enough to grab Jandalf and hold a piece of monofilament to her throat, the other slow enough to do a cool shadowy materialization trick.

"One move and you die," the one holding Jandalf said. She happened to look remarkably like Jandalf, but she wasn't wearing very orange robes.

"Oh, crap." For some strange reason, Jandalf didn't fancy dying right then, as it wouldn't've done wonders for the plotline, and the present narrator wouldn't've been too pleased.

Obi-Wan backed away. "Clones?"

The other person presesnt looked very much like Obi-Wan.

"Hey... you look like me. Hi, Obi-Wan!" Obi-Two, as he was called, grinned. "The Jedi one." The girl holding Jandalf, if you had forgotten Shadow's words back on the Garlicky Star was Jantwo the Not-so-Orange, and the male one was Obi-Two. Sadly, since this narrator was writing Obi-Two's character, he is very out of character, and for which I much say sorry to all Obi-Wan fans.

Obi-Wan lit his lightsaber.

"Drat," Obi-Two, the strangely immature said. "Can't you surrender without a fight?"

"Absolutely not." What Obi-Wan didn't know was that Obi-Two was very pathetic when it came to fighting, thinking, or anything else of the like. The clone of Obi-Wan happened to be, more exactly, the diversion, whilst Jantwo was the only reason he wasn't dead one hundred times over.

Obi-Two muttered something about Jedi fools who were pathetic and couldn't ever surrender, and lit his lightsaber. He attacked Obi-Wan very patheticly. "You're pathetic."

Obi-Wan blocked, yawning. "Then what does that make you?"

"Good point."

"I thought so. En gaurde!"

Obi-Two crossed lightsabers with Obi-Wan while two Jandalf's looked on, both rather amused-- or the first one would've been, however, having something held to your throat that could slice you in half quite neatly tends to take the amusment out of things. "And wait, you aren't pathetic..." Obi-Two went and did another attack, "...you're dead meat!"

Obi-Wan snrked. "If that's all you've got for lines, I'm ashamed to call you my clone."

"WHAT!!!!!!!!?????!?!?!?!?!?!" Obi-Two attacked evilly, being rather insulted.

Obi-Wan defended himself rather well. "Truly they have twisted you. For none have lines like I."

Obi-Two continued to attack. "I am Obi-Two and none can defeat me!"

"They probably took a cell sample from my armpit or something," Obi-Wan shot back. The battle at present happened to be more words than lightsaber at present.

"Grrrrrrrrrrr..." Obi-Two proceeded to shoot Force-lightning at Obi-Wan, and prove that he wasn't useless.

Jandalf snorted.

"Careful," reminded Jantwo. "I'm still here."

"Oh. Right."

Obi-Wan blocked the lightning. "That won't work."

"You think I'm incompetent." Obi-Two muttered something incoherent.

"No, I KNOW you're incompetent. There's a difference there."

Obi-Two hissed, and continued his pathetic attack. Obi-Wan continued defending himself, and then blend in a few offensive moves as well.

"This could go on forever," Obi-Two sighed, defending himself nearly as well as Obi-Wan. "Jantwo?"

Jantwo gave Jandalf an evil glance, and started to back away. "Easy now. If your cosort agrees to stop fighting, you keep your fingers."

"ACK." Jandalf made a face.

Obi-Two snickered, and was nearly cut in half. "Ack."

Obi-Wan sighed, and extinguished his lightsaber. "Well, I know a standoff when I see one."

"Soooo... you surrender to my might..." Obi-Two did the evil conspiring thing with his fingers. If you don't know what I'm talking about THEN WHY ARE YOU READING THIS FANFIC?!

Heh... never mind.

"No. Not at all." Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, and held his tongue when he would've insulted Obi-Two yet more. "I very nearly cut you in half, if you'll remember."

"I really don't want to remember," Obi-Two said, truthfully.

"Tough cheese, there."

"Uh... hello?" Jandalf made a face. She really didn't appreciate being used as a tool to get her husband to surrender, especially when it involved possible loss of fingers.

Obi-Two complained about his now burnt beard/

"That's what you get for growing one in the first place," muttered Obi-Wan.

"I thought I told him to shave..." muttered Jantwo.

"Darn! You don't have a beard!" Obi-Two noted of Obi-Wan. "I'll have to cut it..." He pouted, and looked very alike to Anakin caught in Obi-Wan's body. "I'm your biggest fan, Obi-Wan!"

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. "Riiiiiiiiiiiiight."

"Sigh," sighed Obi-Two.

"You're also the galaxy's biggest moron. Tell your sweetheart there to let mine go." He glared at Obi-Two, finally noticing Jandalf's frantic gestures for help.

Obi-Two crossed his arms, insulted. "Well, I was the first clone attempt. They got Jandalf right, but they accidently crossed me with Anakin... oh... right... Jantwo, let Jandalf go." He crossed his eyes.

"With... Anakin?" Obi-Wan looked particularly pale.

Jantwo released Jandalf, still muttering about the beard. The narrator muttered something about Gimli while waiting for the characters to sort out this insanity.

"Yeah..." Obi-Two rolled his eyes. "I have your Padawan's brain."

"Anakin? Wha..." Jandalf looked confused.

Obi-Wan snickered nastily. "That explains."

Obi-Two growled, and threatened him with his lightsaber.

Obi-Wan groaned. "I thought we were finished with that."

"Oh. Right." He dropped the saber.

"So what are your plans?" asked Obi-Wan, folding his arms. "Torture? Capture? What?"

"Ask her." Obi-Two pointed at Jantwo, and attempted to disappear. Sadly, Jantwo grabbed him, and wouldn't let him leave.

"But..."

"You can't kill them," Obi-Two said. "Orders from above."

"I KNOW that." Jantwo rolled her eyes, exasperated. "You're just better at telling plans."

Obi-Two pouted. "Fine! We're going to lock you up, never again to see the light of day."

Jandalf shrugged. "Doesn't sound so bad."

Obi-Wan thought over this for a moment. "Strange. I read a fanfiction about that."

Obi-Two made a face, and hid behind Jantwo. "Well, the bad part is we'll be taking your place."

"You what?" Jandalf grabbed Obi-Wan and glared at him threateningly.

"Well...uh..."

"Not the one with Padmé. Right, Obi-Wan?" Jandalf was referring to a fanfiction by obana, called The Cell. I was not meaning to refer to it at all, and it was merely an accident.

"Uhhh....heh....right..."

"Rrrrrrr..." Jandalf growled, seemingly unnoticing to the two Sithly clones hanging around nearby.

"Crap."

"BREATHE!" Obi-Two shouted, not wanting to see the two come to blows before they could be locked up.

Jantwo took a deep breath.

"NOT YOU!" He glared at her.

Jandalf snickered. "Lemme guess. She got the brain power of a rancor." Both her and Obi-Wan snickered nastily, the previous argument over fanfiction tastes forgotten. (The mentioned one being an Obi/Padmé... heehee.)

"HEYYYYYY!!!"

Obi-Two shrugged, and decided not to say that she got Tiana's mental skills because, if nothing else, Tiana can't be compaired to a rancor. Iif anyone dared to, I'd prove my heritage as a Jedi Shieldmaiden, anyhow... snicker. "I have no clue," he said, truthfully. "She fights well, though, just can't do math."

"Dang right, I fight well." Jantwo smirked.

"Yes, we know that, dear."

Jandalf grinned faintly. "Trouble with trigonometry?"

"At least........."

"Uh...yeah...I think." Jantwo made a face.

"You must realise that they'll know, sooner or later," Obi-Wan pointed out well enough, not mentioning that Tiana and Audreidi would probably know at once, being as they were really close to Jandalf, being one was her twin and the other her Padawan. Obvious that they'd know. And then Anakin, being Obi-Wan's Padawan evened out the score.

"Okay, straight out," still thinking about Jantwo, Obi-Two went on. "She doesn't think. She acts."

Jandalf snickered. "Probably sooner. These clones are idiots, to be frank."

"We know we'll be discovered. If we can get your companions to Sullust though, it's fine."

"Sullust?" A moment of almost panic showed up on Jandalf's face, and a deep worry. She couldn't sense Tiana's thoughts at the moment, which was probably a good thing-- the girl was deeply wound into something beyond her, and something that shouldn't've happened then.

"How do you know about Sullust?" asked Obi-Wan, getting the words that Jandalf was too worried to comment on.

A darkness echoed between all four of them, until Obi-Two broke it, with simple words, a shadowy feel to them. "Through Tiana."

Jandalf clenched her teeth. "And how, exactly?" she asked, threateningly.

"She is connected to the Dark Side. You must realise that," Obi-Two answered, simply.

"My Padawan is of the light." The flame crossed with the shadows in her eyes gave Jandalf a strange appearance, as if she was a shadow of an old fire.

Obi-Two shrugged. "So you say. But we are able to easily access her thoughts, and through that, yours."

"Well, that explains a lot of bad feelings," Jandalf muttered, an idea popping up in her head, but she kept it to herself.

Obi-Wan was more persistant. "You mean you accessed Tiana, and through the training bond to Jandalf?" Both the two Jedi found this highly unlikely, as Tiana was quite skilled at keeping people out of her mind. She was very protective of who she was, even more so over the last couple of years, as she was falling into a strange shadow at times.

Jandalf probed around to locate no path, and took that as good enough proof that Obi-Two was lying. "Then you must know about the backup party," she said, innocently, and causually.

It wasn't a complete lie-- they had been able to access Jandalf through Tiana, but not in the sense they were speaking. It had been another Sith, nameingly Shadow, that had gotten that information to the clones.

"Uhh... backup... you mean Audreidi, don't you?" asked Obi-Two, hesitating.

Jandalf shook her head, the faintest twinkle reappearing in her eyes. "Noooo.... not Auddie. The Jedi backup."

Obi-Two cursed, and tried to get around this new blockade by informing them of the lack of Jedi.

"Oh, they're not here, not now... but once they realise we're in trouble...oh, boy, are you in for it."

Obi-Wan was eager to back her up. "It's even got a few council members on it."

"Oh... dear." Obi-Two looked rather pale, making him look like someone had dumped white paint on his head.

Jandalf nodded. "Yes, oh, dear. So if you release us, they might just pass you two over."

Jantwo gave him a look. "Sounds like a plan, luv."

"We can't do that." Obi-Two hit Jandalf over the head, hard enough to knock her out. She hit the ground with a loud thud, but not an orange flash, because as was noted earlier, Jandalf was wearing gray and black, rather then her signature color.

Obi-Wan set his hand over his lightsaber. "And why not?"

"Because... oh, you'll understand." Obi-Two whacked him too. Obi-Wan hit the ground next to Jandalf with a simular thud, proving that objects of a different weight do indeed fall at the same speeds.

"What was it, exactly?" asked Jantwo, obviously confused.

"What? We're taking their place until Sullust, when the Dark Jedi will catch up and then the plan switchs to their stealth."

She shook her head. "No, I mean why can't we just leave the entire plan and save our hides?"

"Because we are merely clones. Replaceable." Obi-Two picked up his lightsaber and Obi-Wan's.

Jantwo looked remotely pale. "Oh. Oh dear." She shook it off, and went back to the Sithish and rather stupid self she was a moment ago. "So, where do we stash these two? I'll hide them, you take care of that beard."

Obi-Two shrugged, and looked about for a nearby refresher. "Put them in a closet, I guess. Or the balcony cage."

"Can do." Obi-Two left, while Jantwo dragged Jandalf and Obi-Wan to a nearby closet, and attempted to stuff them in. Failing at that task, she shook her head. "Srap that," and opened a hole in the wall. She chucked them into the hole. "They're in the cage."

Obi-Two wandered back with a lack of beard.

Jantwo shook her head. "My, my, you DO look better without a beard. So, what are their dark names anyway? Their aliases?"

Obi-Two squinted. "Xiian and... uhhh..." After a few minutes, he shook his head. "I don't know."

"What am I SUPPOSE TO DO THEN?" asked Jantwo, annoyed.

Obi-Two concentrated a moment. "Lady Anathema of Corulag."

She sighed, relieved. "Oh. But how did you know that?"

"I read Tiana's mind."

"Right. So, let's get going before they miss us." Two Jedi impersonators walked down the hall, while, in the meantime, two real (and unconscious) Jedi were falling down a long chute to land in a balcony cage hanging from the Imperial Palace...


Probably, at the same time as Jandalf and Obi-Wan faced their clones, there was a girl sitting in the balcony cage. If you forgot already, she was known as Shadow, and happened to be put in the by Darth Vader a day past. She was staring at the diary she held, but not writing. Not yet. There was something wrote on the page she had it open to, but not much-- it was more her thoughts that troubled her, more than what was happening.

A closer look at the page she scribbled on revealed one thing-- she wasn't writing in Aurebesh-- it wasn't any langauge used in the Star Wars universe. Old Terran letters were wrote on the page, leading half up-- the girl holding the pencil wasn't writing them, but it was as if another person wrote.

Do you know what it's like to see something turn to the darkside? she wrote, half looking at what she scribbled down. Well, if anyone reads this, it's likely to be someone who has faced that darkness. That shadow that takes over your mind in a furious lack of hope. That feeling of hopelessness, and nothing is there that you can do. If you've felt that, maybe you know what it is that I feel right now, the darkness, the pain... watching someone turn dark is bad enough. This is worse. Have you seen someone turn dark? Well, you'll know that's one of the worst things you can feel-- it's pure hopelessness, seeing your Master, Padawan, maybe a close friend. Maybe a twin-- which hurts. It's a dark pain that's felt. She seemed to have her mind on the writing now, watching her pencil cross the paper-- an old fashioned manner, to be certain, but a tie to the past as well. Well, there's something far worse than that, a thing that can cause even worse hopelessness. It's watching yourself turn dark. Seeing yourself fall, and knowing there's nothing that can be done. That is hopelessness, darkness. It's what created this shadow.

The girl known as Shadow glanced around. She seemed nothing more than a small child there, small, and hopeless. There's rarely even room for a fool's hope then-- but maybe that's all we need. A fool's hope. But for that much even, you need someone to play the fool, so that such hope can survive.

I know pain, I know that darkness. I know the fool that it takes to survive through this. But the problem is that such a fool no longer lives in me. When I turned, all hope was lost-- when Tiana began to turn, what little hope there might've been was swiftly gone away.

A few days ago, I called someone a fool. Maybe that's all it will take, is a slight stir in events to bring this all right. But that's the fool speaking again-- the girl I'm becoming. Who am I? I don't know... but I am a person who'll hold on to hope. If someone's reading this, you'll know this is not a langauge of this universe. You are someone of another realm. Maybe you're a person who can help me... but unlikely. By the time someone finds this who can read it, I'll probably be dead. Because, even if this is held by the person meant to read it, she'll never read it unless she accepts another. Like I have.

I'm caught in the middle, but I'm not Lania. I'm not Lara'li, or any of the others. Who am I?

Well, for now all I can say it I'm a fool. A fool for even writing this down when it matters nothing at all.

She smiled, and looked it over, not signing a name to it, then turned the page over, and began to write something in Aurebesh. A diary entry to be certain.

She was nearly done the hasty entry when something falling from above caused her to jerk it off all of a sudden.

Falling Jedi Masters don't usually allow for ledgable handwriting when they land on you anyway.


PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU PADME EVENSTAR!!! (hugs)