Padmé Evenstar: Well, I finally updated. (grins sheepishly) And you've already read this chapter anyway, but who cares? Yes, it's all coming together... but, unfortunately for you, you know stuff that happens SO much later it isn't even funny. (coughJETHERcough) The plot thickens... cackle. I can't believe how much of this I forgot, whatwith the duel, and the twins, and all that...

Chapter Nine: In Which We lose any Hope of Following the LotR plotline, and the Charaters Begin To See the Truth

Both Jandalf and Obi-Wan were left falling downa chute into the Balcony Cage on Coruscant. Not a nice place to leave two Jedi Masters, thus, we shall wander on over there, and let them finish falling. All things considering, they should've hit the ground a long time ago, but since narrators tend to be dreadfully annoying when it comes to near-death experiences and important characters...

Well, why are you glaring at me like THAT for!

Oh, well, FINE. See if I care that all you care about is the characters.

And the characters conveniently finished falling, and made a loud thud, as illustrated below.

THUD!

Jandalf landed on top of Obi-Wan, and Obi-Wan landed on top of the two of them. The cage swung wildly from its suspended location under the Grand Balcony, making the people within hold on for dear life. Well, the ones that were conscious, anyhow, that being one 'Sith' called Shadow.

Obi-Wan choose that moment to wake up. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! I'M FALLING!"

Jandalf woke up as well, but, instead of noticing their odd location, she screamed, "FIND THE DIARY! FIND THE...what..." She observed their new location interestedly. It was a rather interesting location, if nothing else, being as they were in a wire mesh cage millions of kilometers above the Coruscanti groundscape, with the possiblilty of death if one was to fall.

"AI!" Shadow jumped back as far as she could. "IT'S A... you TWO?" She turned white, green, red, and yet looked grim and foreboding at the same time. Which is rather challenging without fainting, or using paint.

"PADAWAN!" Jandalf screeched, mistaking her for another, and hugging her.

Shadow rolled her eyes, and hid the diary which she had been writing in a moment ago. "I am NOT your Padawan," she said dryly. Get used to it!

"Oh. Then... OH! Shadow." Jandalf gave her an exasperated look.

Shadow hugged her anyway, then looked her over. "Okay, I'm actually glad to see you. What are you doing in here?"

"What are you doing in here?" asked Obi-Wan, staring at the known Sith. "For that matter... what are WE doing in here?" He looked down at the drop nervously.

"Evil clones," answered Jandalf, to both Obi-Wan and Shadow. "And you?"

"Uhhh..." she turned rather red. "Lord Vader put me in here as a traitor." She winced and made a face. "I warned you about the clones!"

"Right. A traitor?" Obi-Wan was confused.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Jandalf noted. And obviously not, because Shadow was a well known Sith, not an Imperial traitor. To their knowledge.

"Yes, a traitor." Shadow obviously didn't want to talk about it, and made that obvious by her tone. She sat down heavily, having pulled out blankets from the whole window thing to sit on.

Jandalf sat down beside her, thinking about the whole deal, and trying to figure out what Shadow was evading. Obviously Shadow was dodging the point of the whole issue. "But why would he cast you in here?" She motioned at the whole nearly see-through cage that surrounded them, and the thin wire mesh that prevented them from falling the many kilometers down into Coruscant's depths, leading up to a painful and excrutiatingly painful death, possibly.

Looking down, Shadow was silent for a while. "He didn't want to kill me, I think," she said quietly. Her fingers traced a seemingly random pattern on the wire mesh, and she didn't offer any more.

Obi-Wan looked down carefully, tired of standing up, and ended up clinging to Jandalf. "Eek." He held onto Jandalf, and stared down.

The mentioned Jedi Master sighed. "He's afraid of heights."

"Nooo... just really high heights," Obi-Wan replied to that, slightly jumpy. Hey, who wouldn't be, there's a really long fall to a certainly painful death if that cage breaks...

Shadow shrugged. "After a few days you get used to it." She looked around, her eyes lit with a grim light. "Not like it'll be anything worse than a painful, albeit quick death if the cage breaks."

"A FEW DAYS?" Jandalf echoed, in certain shock.

Obi-Wan continued clinging to her. "Agh..."

Shadow smiled darkly. "Yeah." She dug around in deep pockets, looking for something she had stashed there not so long ago, and pulled it out. A crimson book, but well used over the while, with a key lock on it. She tossed it, and the key to Jandalf. "You were looking for this?"

"What do they do for food around here..." Jandalf caught the book on reflex, turned it over, and looked at it, a shadow crossing her face for a sudden moment. "A diary?"

"Yes. The one you're looking for," Shadow offered, but added nothing more to how she knew. "You have to destroy it, you know that." She grimaced faintly at those words, and held onto the side of the cage.

Jandalf peered at her curiously. "Why? Forbidden information?"

Distantly, Shadow replied, "Yeah. Something like that..." She gazed out, and beyond. Something strange was taking hold again... coming... closer... it was ever there... She found herself falling into the same shadows as before...

"Uh-huh." Jandalf's skeptisim brought her out of the near shadow she had fallen into. Shadow shook her head hard, trying to get the strange feeling out. Shadow-touched... Frost?

...a girl falling through water? No, a mirror...

But it hadn't happened back when she had turned... it was more recent...

And there it is again, she thought, groaning mentally. Agh. "Anyhow, you hungry?" she asked, changing the topic obviously.

"Dang right, I'm hungry," Obi-Wan shot back. Food took his mind off of nearly everything, from heights to being unconscious.

"Foooooooood..." Jandalf answered nearly the same way as Tiana tended to, and that caused Shadow to smile distantly, and tears to come to her face for a moment. That's why Tiana didn't fall into the same shadow as me, she realized, rubbing her eyes to get the tears out. She had a connection to her master that I didn't- not Master/Padawan, but they were actually friends. She looked down at Coruscant beneath them, and sighed softly.

"Moment." She closed her eyes, and pulled hamburgers out of midair, seemingly making them appear. "Here." The Sith handed them over, and sat back. "Ah..."

Obi-Wan's eyes grew big. "Whoa. Tell me your secret." He took a burger cheerfully.

"One big window," Shadow answered with a grin. She had mastered the art that Tiana used once in the while, and could use it for more than just pulling things from windows- she could pull anything through the Shadow Realm- that was how it worked, and there were a few other things she could do as well.

"Nuts. Oh, well. I take what I can get."

Shadow smiled, her eyes growing distant again with foresight. "Our talents are echoed... but I'm not sure if we aren't mirrored." That final phrase was whispered, and Jandalf hardly caught it.

"Facinating." The Jedi Master took a burger, and looked at it carefully, as if she wasn't sure whether Shadow was going to poison them or not.

Distantly, Shadow continued on the same track. "You remember that Tiana and I echo talents, if not more."

"Oh course. So..." Jandalf gave her a searching glance.

Shadow grimaced, as if it almost pained her to admit what she had to. "I have to admit it, I'm more like her than I thought."

"Ah-hah." Jandalf grinned. "I thought you'd come around, eventually."

Shadow made no comment, merely flinched in memory of a conversation with Vader. That had hurt her almost too much- to become Tiana meant...

No. I won't think about it.

Obi-Wan, in the middle of eating his hamburger, gave her a look. "Whaff wong?" he asked, talking with his mouth full of burger.

"Don't eat with your mouth full," Jandalf ordered.

"Ah... nothing..." Shadow shook her thoughts away from the inevitable. "Nothing at all. Don't... EAT!" She stared at Jandalf.

Ennariel...

Stay out! It hasn't happened yet. The future is always in motion.

And you think it won't happen?

It won't.

No answer, but an amused silence in her mind.

Obi-Wan swallowed. "Really?"

"Don't eat with your mouth full?" Shadow repeated, an amused shock on her voice. "You mean TALK." The Sith rolled her eyes.

Jandalf rolled her eyes, and smacked herself. "Ah...heh. Never mind that..."

Shadow sighed. "Don't do that, Jandalf."

Dazed, Jandalf attempted to reply straight. "Why not?"

"It'll take away your focus," Shadow answered, and took a bite.

The Jedi snorted. "What focus?"

Shadow finished her bite, and faced Jandalf, her eyes dark. "Look, at least when you were my master, you were able to focus."

"Of course. I'm just kidding around... and everything's fuzzy."

"It's the head buzzing," Obi-Wan pointed out. "Makes it hard to focus." Of course, being up in a cage way above Coruscant, your head would be buzzing. The fumes, and all that, you know.

Shadow snrked, and looked around. They were quiet for a while, as they ate, and Shadow thought over what she was about to attempt to do. She'd never done anything this big before, beyond once, into the Shadow Realm. But that had been different...

And I'm a different person now too, she admitted wryly. "You don't have a license on you, do you, Jandalf?" she asked hopefully. "For a speeder?"

"Of course I do." Jandalf was confused, but produced the requested addenification. "Why?" She caught the obvious grin on Shadow's face, and a menacing grin crept up on her face. "Heh heh... oh, yeah. Bring it on."

Shadow allowed a grin to creep up across her face, and banish the shadows for a moment. "Think you can keep your head clear enough to drive, Master?" she asked, letting Tiana back into her tone for a while.

Jandalf grinned back. "Of course." The smile faded. "Besides, they farther away we go, the better it is."

Shadow pulled wire cutters out of the whole window set up... all invisible, but it worked. Summoning objects from elsewhere through a Shadow Realm came in handy. "All right then. Hold on, and don't come near the hole..." She began cutting a hole in the cage with the cutters carefully.

"And, if you don't want me to start calling you Padawan again, you'd better stop calling me Master," Jandalf added.

"Eek." Obi-Wan clung to Jandalf again.

Shadow grimaced. "Yeah. Right. Not that it matters." A great part of her wanted to be Tiana- wanted to have someone to trust, but another half was tearing her apart, in an attempt to save Tiana from inevitablilty...

What is inevitable?

...falling...

"No, not really." Jandalf patted Obi-Wan on the back. "It's all right, Obi..."

Shadow rolled her eyes. "Besides, your Padawan is imitating me."

"Oh yeah..." Jandalf narrowed her eyes for a moment. "That."

Shadow finished up her work cutting the hole, and popped out the speeder shaped hole. Luckly, the hole was from her wire cutters, not because a speeder had hit them. "She could be in danger. Can you contact her?"

"S-s-speeder..." Obi-Wan turned pale. "B-big hole..."

"I'll try." Jandalf closed her eyes and concentrated. Sending messages in words wasn't as easy as sending pictures, and, over the distance, Tiana was fuzzy. Not to mention that she actually was disappearing almost- as if she was shielding herself from Jandalf.

But Tiana caught something in Jandalf's Force-message, and was able to catch it...

/Padawan, Shadow is a traitor to the Darkside. You're in danger though/ Jandalf sent, or, attempted to.

/What/ Obvious panic on Tiana's Force-voice. /You don't know Shadow like I do. I trust we'll be all right, though.../

/Actually, we're with her now./

Shadow pulled out a speeder, listening on the Force messages easily. Jandalf wasn't attempting to be quiet, and neither was Tiana.

/No.../ Tiana's voice was almost amused. /She'll never return. She may turn to the light, but she'll always be a shadow./

Jandalf slipped into the speeder through the hole, and dragged a whimpering Obi-Wan behind her. /We'll see about that. But for now... you've got to get yourself, Anakin, and Auddie out of there./

Shadow closed her eyes, still in the cage. /You will keep what you know to yourself, Tiana Elass, if you want to survive./ Shadow looked beyond Jandalf, and sent the message to Tiana.

To Shadow, Tiana shot/I will. Trust me here. I'm not a traitor like you./ And then, to Jandalf/I'll try, Master./ She disappeared from the link again, and back into the almost nonexistant form she was at before.

Shadow flinched at the insult. "A traitor... that's all you think of me," she muttered under her breath, and hopped in the speeder. "Keys?"

Jandalf had already hotwired the speeder, and revved the engine. "Heh heh."

Shadow raised her eyebrows. "Whoa. You couldn't do that when you were training me." She offered no further comment, remaining rather quiet. But she wore a reminiscent smile.

"I know." Jandalf merged with the present traffic flow easy enough. "Facinating what one learns when one is bored, eh?"

"Well... yourself on this realm couldn't do that, anyway," Shadow corrected, sitting back. Obi-Wan was, at present, attempting to relax.

Jandalf shrugged. "I've devoted myself to a few things," she said simply, driving them through the traffic. There wasn't much- for Coruscant.

Digging around in the speeder's back compartment, Shadow produced three lightsabers with little difficulty. The speeder she had pulled out happened to have been hers, as the windows couldn't be used to get personal objects that were bonded to a person, such as lightsabers, and speeders. Things like food, and blasters were a different story. She tossed them over, and sat back down, her face impassive. "You might want these," she said, handing one to Obi-Wan and the other to Jandalf. She clipped the final one to her belt, a bit more at ease now that she was armed. Her smile was distant, but she didn't look the same shadow as she had been a moment before. She wasn't Tiana either, but not evil.

hr -

So, at the same time, but earlier, Obi-Wan and Jandalf's evil clones collectivly entered the banquet hall. Theme music proceeded to drum away in the background.

"Ooh, I like the theme music!" Jantwo said, looking around for where it came from.

"Yeah, me too. This lack of beard is odd," Obi-Two complained.

"Get used to it. Shh... here we are."

Obi-Two rolled his eyes. "I know that."

Audreidi watched suspiciously from the corner where she sat, done with her servant duties for the time. The Jedi Master narrowed her eyes, and glanced at Tiana for a moment, and tucked her cloak around her. Tiana was eating, her face impassive, and her eyes shadowed over- as if nothing was wrong- and yet everything was.

"That person over there.." Obi-Two pointed discrietly. "She's watching us." He peered at her, and Jantwo joined him in looking.

She shuddered. "She looks like me, sorta." Jantwo coughed slightly, and straightened up, looking at Audreidi- Jandalf's twin. As Jandalf's clone, Jantwo should've had all of- or most of Jandalf's memories, and yet she was clueless to the addenity of Audreidi. Obi-Two knew that Audreidi was a Jedi Master, but neither of them knew of their being twins.

A strange thing, really- Audreidi Ytho didn't exist in this realm. Born into the other realm, but yet, with the mirror she did not exist. A reflection gone wrong. Like Tiana.

"I'm confused," Jantwo voiced.

Obi-Two echoed that sentemint. "Where's our 'Padawans'?" He looked around for Anakin, who hadn't yet returned.

Tiana narrowed her eyes, and gave Audreidi a look. /HI MASTER/ "So, you're back." The same dull Sith tone, and tone of shadows, but she used the Force to nudge Jantwo easy enough, though she had the strangest feeling...

"Dark apprentices," Jantwo said quietly. /Hello, Padawan/

A suspisious look crossed Tiana's face for a half a second. She should've recognized... /Yeah, Hi Master/

/I already said hi, Padawan./ Annoyance crept up into Jantwo's Force-voice.

/Just checking/ Tiana shot back, obviously quoting Jandalf in order to check something.

Something isn't right here... Audreidi reached out with the Force, and listened. Jandalf isn't... Jandalf. And yet, she wasn't in disguse, Audreidi could tell. She felt like Jandalf, but something was missing from her...

Something's wrong here. Tiana's thoughts echoed Audreidi's. Jandalf should've reacted to the quote from her, plus she'd never italicize my name like that. Her tone... Tiana shuddered. /So, you going to say hi to your sister yet? She finally made it./

Jantwo's confusion reflected on her face. Stang, I hope I'm not screwing this up too badly... sister? /Uh... right. Heh... I forgot. Confused. Hi, Auddy/

Tiana snickered in reality slightly. She's still not right...

Audreidi barely managed to keep from cringing. /Hey, Jan./

She wouldn't've known... meh, Force, that's her twin. Agh... she's fake, all right. But how... Tiana allowed a moment of confusion, then shot at Audreidi. /Auddie, be careful. And... pretend that you're my master. Do something/

Audreidi picked up on what Tiana had missed. /A clone. And evil, to boot./

/I KNOW that. Sheesh./

Audreidi jumped up, and threw her hood back. "Imposter!"

Jantwo was taken aback. "What?"

"NO!" Tiana dashed across the room, and grabbed Audreidi. "Shh!"

The clone of Jandalf was so confused that she didn't say anything at all. Anakin choose that moment to wander out, and look around, very confused.

/What's wrong/ asked Audreidi.

/Look, you'll draw attention to Jandalf, if you aren't careful. Let them fool us./ Tiana glared at her. /Just... play along./

Jantwo grabbed Obi-Two's sleeve, the latter of the mentioned being so lost that he had no clue what was going on. "Time to call in backup, I think," she hissed.

/Sorry, my bad/ Audreidi sent back. /I thought we had something else planned. My bad./

Tiana helped up Audreidi, not carring about losing her Sith image. "People. Drinking to much." She snorted. /Sorry about that, Master./ She motioned at a nearby aide. /That's Audreidi./ To Audreidi/They obviously don't know who you are, so play along./

Audreidi adapted a slur, and Jack Sparrow like tone. "Yesh... Padawansh all look sho much alike..."

Anakin was very confused.

/...I knew that/ Jantwo thought.

/I know that/. Tiana thought back, helping Audreidi to a nearby chair. /In fact, I'm not even your Padawan. I'm her's./ She smiled wryly. /You know us Padawans, always joking around./ Tiana looked down at the fake-drunken Audredi. /And the Masters insist on drinking too much./

"Sho," Audreidi continued on the drunk tone, "m'I jusht gonna sthand here, or can I crash at the Death Shtar?"

Jantwo continued to be confused. /What.../

Obi-Two finally noticed Anakin. /Hi Padawan./

/Heh.../ Tiana rolled her mental eyes. /You know Adrianna- your Padawan. We're always like this. But I'm really sorry about this, Master Jandalf. Adrianna went to the washroom though./ Audreidi, at the same time, was attempting to wander off, and swayed wildly, knocking over a sabacc table, and a mirror, the latter of which fell down and shattered into small pieces.

/Uhhhhhh.../ Jantwo was even more confused. She stared at the broken mirror for a moment.

/Hi master!... Master, did you cut yourself/ asked Anakin.

/No! Go... eat, Padawan./ Obi-Two muttered, rubbing at his lack of beard.

Tiana caught Audreidi, and sighed. /Yeah, as I said, sorry about this. I know you weren't expecting such... chaos. I think we should just head back to our rooms./

/Uhh... yeah... let's do that.../ Jantwo thought it was better to play along, rather then end up stuck.

/Follow me/ Tiana thought, catching Audreidi again, and pulling her off. /C'mon, Master./

"Jusht ash the party wash shtarting?" asked Audreidi, sniffing.

"You will come now," Tiana said, eyes lighting on fire with an inner flame.

/I'm confused/ Obi-Two thought.

/I'm more confused than you are/ Jantwo thought back, annoyed.

"Oh, all right." Audreidi sounded rather annoyed- Tiana noted that she was doing really good with her part, considering she didn't even know what they were doing. Tiana dragged her across the floor, and her head his the threshhold. "Owie."

"Oops. Sorry."

Tiana dragged Audreidi to her room, and left the clones behind at their room, and the "Senator" at his room. She heard the clones leave the room not to much later, trying to locate something, but she didn't really care. She locked the door behind her and Audreidi, and sat down crosslegged on the bed.

Audreidi sat down herself, rubbing her head, and grumbling. "By Varda, did you HAVE to do that?"

Tiana shrugged, and allowed an old whiny tone back into her voice. "It was an accident, all right? I'm sorry, Master Audreidi."

"That's all right. It made quite the exit anyway." She rolled her eyes.

Tiana snorted. "AND completed the drunk act. Have a headache in the morning."

"Ergh. Right. Except, instead of having a headache, I'll have jetlag if all goes as planned."

A distant smile crossed Tiana's face. "Yeah... maybe. Meh."

A hint of confusion crept across Audreidi's face, as well as a sudden worry, almost. The Jedi Master quenched that as soon as it crossed her face, though. "Meh? Maybe? What's that suppose to mean?" she asked, her tone perfectly innocent.

Tiana closed her eyes. "No clue," she admitted, her voice filled with distance. "I need you to play my Master, Audreidi- just in case. We can pretend that her Padawan got lost. A strange request, but... just play along if we have to."

"I suppose that's easily done," Audreidi commented.

"I hope so... it'll keep her off Jandalf's track." And break the mirror even more than it already is.

Don't you love having a twisted reflection?

Can't you just get out of my head. Ever!

The tone indicated a strug. I can't, Tiana. Not now, not ever. Maybe one day you'll appreciate this connection.

With you? A traitor? Yeah, right.

It was a hurt silence that followed that. I'm not a traitor, Tiana. And if you think it didn't hurt to betray Jandalf, you're wrong.

Tiana's tone indicated a smirk across her face, in a manner. Right. And I'm sure my Darkside self wasn't relieved to lose her master.

Tiana, you're wrong. More wrong then you'd ever know. Until you face the same shadow crossing you, and face watching yourself act without being able to do anything...

I'm sure that I can escape.

You're already falling into that Shadow! Can't you see it!

Of course I can. But unlike you, my reasons are not to harm others.

But it always happens! People always get hurt. Tiana, if I could go back, and redo everything, I swear by the Force I would redo it. Do it with a change for the better. If I could face Jandalf again- my Jandalf- to her face, and tell her I'm sorry, I would. You don't know what I've been through.

And you don't know what I'm going through.

On the contrary, I know what you're going through all too clearly. Shadow cut off the connection quickly, as if to escape tears. Tiana realized at that moment that Audreidi was asking a question.

"Real or clone?" Audreidi finished. Tiana jumped at assuming that the Jedi Master had been asking about who they were trying to keep off their track.

"Real. Real Jandalf is with Shadow," Tiana said, her tone dark, and eyes shadowed. Icy, now.

"Erk."

Tiana smiled faintly, and faced her. "Yeah. I get the feeling you understand better than my dear master does."

"Yes, as a matter of fact." Audreidi didn't smile, but she looked at Tiana with a strange expression in her eyes. "Now I'm beginning to get what I sensed through our twin bond." She sighed, and was quiet for more than a moment. "Although her hard-headedness might get through to Shadow better than anything I could concoct."

Grimacing, Tiana neglected to mention exactly what Shadow thought about that- what the "Sith" was going through at the time. "I'm not sure yet-" Though I think whatever Jandalf's doing, it's working- working well enough to push me over instead. She sighed. "This is really insane... really. Jandalf... twins... that IS what you meant, right?"

"Yes, why? Oh, THAT."

Tiana lowered her eyes, to stare at the floor for a moment. "I just thought... you might've been sensing me as well."

Confused, Audreidi looked at her closely. "Well, there seems to be a connection between us as well. From what, exactly, I'm not sure."

"And I don't know either," Tiiana admitted. "But if my suspicions are correct, you won't have long to figure it out."

There was a connection to the two of them, which existed for one reason- in this mirror world, there was exactly two things that were not mirrored: Tiana and Audreidi.

"What do you meant? We're going to take numerous hyperspace trips, aren't we? We've got time. Maybe not all the time in the galaxy, but we've got time enough..." Hanging at the end of that was one thing. Don't we?

Tiana shook her head, her eyes falling into a strange shadow. "No... not all the time in the galaxy. Seven months, maybe..."

Audreidi grabbed Tiana's arm. "Seven months? You have a lot of explaining to do."

"Seven months is the longest time it will take to unwravel this plot bunny, and fix this paradox we're caught up in- and creating," Tiana said, quietly. "If I'm correct... I'm... bound to this time's plot... in a manner... through..." Shadow "...something I don't know. I just have a really, really bad feeling about this."

"That makes two of us. Or more." Audreidi let go of Tiana to observe the girl's reactions.

"I'd think so, yes," Tiana said, still soft, and her tone not her own.

Audreidi narrowed her eyes. "Jandalf's been extremely concerned about you lately."

"I know. I've felt that much through the training bond," Tiana said, dryly, but yet with a deep desperation in her voice.

Audreidi smiled faintly. "That, and she's probably told you about it."

"Well, that too."

Audreidi's eyes were sharp. "I'd like to know what's going on, if it isn't too much trouble. About Shadow, I mean. And you."

Tiana smirked. "How can anyone explain Shadow? You'll never know her until you meet her- and even then, she'll confuse you. I don't know everything yet... later, I know I'll know... and later, you'll probably be even more confused. Shadow is me, you know... but different. She has her own motives." Again, she decided to leave things out- such as that the two of them could not co-exist without destroying the other, and by Jandalf turning Shadow back, Tiana would have to fall. Or something deeper...

"Motives, eh?"

Tiana smiled distantly, her face twisting into a wry parody of Shadow's then. "She has reason to want me dead."