A/N: Shift of focus from Tsena now...hope you like. and review! Review review review. Can't tell you how happy it makes me to see that little "review alert" subject in my inbox. Also, a lot of the following chapters will closely follow the AotC storyline (if you hadn't realised that already), but it's necessary. Review me!
Chapter Nine: Hidden Reasons
Obi-Wan walked briskly to the Archives, deep in thought. He was meeting Jovarii there to begin their investigation.
He slowed his pace slightly. Jovarii…
She had been avoiding him since their confessions. True, she had been occupied with her Padawan, but when she had arranged this meeting with him, she had seemed distant. Her voice was subdued, her dry comments and sarcastic smirk gone. He had tried to speak and act as normal, falling back onto the Force to help him, and it had worked – but the Force could not stop him from feeling.
When she had kissed him, he had felt an inexplicable joy, yet at the same time he had experienced a strange sense of grief. Grief because, even as they admitted their feelings, he knew that they could not be together, knew that telling her would hurt both of them, knew that moment would never come again.
Obi-Wan understood that he would grieve a little every day for the life he would never be able to share with Jovarii, just as he grieved each day for his Master. Yet just as love, if pure and noble, could be like a warm embrace, so too could grief.
He entered the Archives and spotted Jovarii's familiar frame immediately. She was standing by an analysis cubicle. He made his way to her, taking the poison dart from his pocket.
When he reached her, he was glad to see that her usual, slightly sarcastic, expression had returned, one of her eyebrows raised slightly.
"You're late, Kenobi," she stated with her familiar smirk. She gestured to the analysis cubicle. "It's all yours."
Obi-Wan looked at her for a second, then sat down and placed the dart on the Analysis Droid's sensor tray. He was relieved that she was once again treating him normally, yet he also felt somewhat…disappointed. As if he were disappointed she had moved on so quickly, so effortlessly, when his own efforts to conceal his still-reeling mind and heart were costing him dearly.
"I need to know where this came from and who made it," he told the droid.
"One moment, please," the droid replied, then retracted the try and began its work.
The two Jedi waited patiently, watching the screen as various diagrams, symbols and information scrolled past. Suddenly, the screen went blank.
"Markings cannot be identified," the Analysis Droid announced. "As you can see on your screen, subject weapon does not exist in any known culture. Probably self-made by a warrior not associated with any known society. Stand away from the tray, please." The tray slid out again.
Jovarii made an impatient sound.
"Excuse me," Obi-Wan said. "Could you try again, please?"
"Master Jedi, our records are very thorough. If I can't tell you where it came from, nobody can," the droid informed him.
Jovarii sighed. "If I can't tell you, nobody can," she mimicked in a singsong voice, rolling her eyes. She caught the cautioning look on her companion's face. "What? It's just a droid."
She reached out and took the dart, and examined it closely.
"It hasn't got any markings or symbols. That's why the analysis was incomplete," she told Obi-Wan. She passed him the dart for inspection. "Look, it has some strange cuts down the sides," she pointed them out to him. "Maybe they are what will identify the dart."
"I think I know who could tell us where it came from," Obi-Wan murmured. He looked at Jovarii.
"Dex," they both said in unison.
"You go ahead," Jovarii said to Obi-Wan, waving him away. "I want to talk to Tsena."
He nodded, pocketed the dart and left the Archives.
Jovarii watched him go and let out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding. She sank into the chair in the cubicle.
Pretending to be her usual, cynical self had used up a lot of her energy. How could he have been so effortlessly, infuriatingly normal after all that happened last night? So irritatingly calm?
She sighed. How ironic that the qualities that irritate me about him are yet more reasons why I love him.
Padmé looked around the freighter hold at the other passengers, most of them refugees. There were many different species, a few of which she couldn't even identify. She had never travelled in this manner before, and was curious about the environment. The hold was small, dark and crowded, and it was obvious that the passengers were poverty-stricken – the way she now looked, though her peasant garb was for her safety.
"No!"
She heard a cry beside her and turned to look at Anakin. He was obviously having a nightmare. She touched his arm lightly, briefly enjoying the feeling of being close to him.
He woke up immediately and stared at her.
"What?" he said, blinking. He looked a little confused.
"You seemed to be having a nightmare," she told him. He continued to stare at her, and she looked away to where R2-D2 was making his way towards them. Anakin's gaze was a little disconcerting – as if he could see what she were thinking.
"Are you hungry?" she asked, gesturing to the food that R2 had just unloaded into their bowls.
Anakin looked at the greyish mush. "No, thanks," he replied, his eyes twinkling with laughter.
Padmé smiled and took a spoonful. Then she wrinkled her nose and put the spoon down, pushing the bowl aside.
"We went to lightspeed a while ago," she informed him, realizing that he did not wish to talk about his nightmare.
"I look forward to seeing Naboo again. It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen," he said conversationally.
"But now that you're a Jedi, you must have been to so many other places, wonderful planets so different to Naboo."
"My memories of Naboo are the most pleasant I have, besides those of my mother and some times at the Temple. Even though I was there during the war, I thought that everything was beautiful. And I doubt it's changed."
Padmé shifted. "It hasn't," she confirmed. Somehow, she felt a deeper meaning in his words – as if he had meant to say he had pleasant memories of not only her planet, but herself as well. She shivered slightly in pleasure at the thought.
In fact, Anakin's thoughts had turned to Tsena. Yes, everything on Naboo had been beautiful, and probably still was – but it was nothing compared to Tsena's quiet grace. He was worried about her – he knew she had experienced something in the Council chambers – something she wasn't telling him. He knew also that Tsena would not stop worrying about him until he arrived back safely – he had to make sure he did not give her any cause for concern.
Padmé brought him back from his reverie. "It must be difficult to have sworn your life to the Jedi," she said. "Not being able to visit the places you like, or do the things you like…"
He nodded. "Or be with the people I love," he continued, thinking wistfully of his mother and Tsena.
"Are you allowed to love? I thought it was forbidden for a Jedi."
He gave her a similar answer to the reason he had given Tsena. "Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. But compassion – which I would define as unconditional love – is central to a Jedi's life. So you might say we're encouraged to love." Putting it that way, Tsena and I are not doing anything wrong, he thought. And anyway, how could something so pure and right be dangerous?
Meanwhile, Padmé's heart was racing. Encouraged to love? Maybe she had a chance after all…
They fell into silence, lost in their reasoning.
Jovarii walked briskly down the hall, a hologlobe in one hand. Obi-Wan had returned form Dex's diner with the information that the dart was from a planet from Kamino. Dex had told him that the Kaminoans were cloners, and that the planet was situated around twelve parsecs south of the Rishi Maze – but when Jovarii and Obi-Wan had tried to locate it in the Archives, they found nothing.
She entered a room and smiled at the sight of Yoda leading a group of young children through lightsaber exercises. She remembered training when she was a child – the excitement, the nervousness, the concentration.
Master Yoda turned, blinked at her, then called, "Younglings, enough. A visitor we have. Welcome her."
Jovarii walked forward as the children removed their helmets and powered down their lightsabers.
"Master Jovarii Amara, meet the mighty Bear Clan," Yoda said.
"Welcome, Master Jovarii!" the children chorused.
Jovarii smiled and nodded in greeting.
"I'm sorry to disturb you, Master," she said to Yoda.
"What help to you can I be?"
"An old friend of Obi-Wan's described a planet to him, and his information is trustworthy – but the system doesn't show up on the archive maps."
Jovarii had been extremely frustrated when this had happened, and it had taken all her self-control not to snap at Jocasta Nu, the archivist who had assisted them.
"Lost a planet, Master Jovarii has. How embarrassing," Yoda remarked. The children giggled, and Jovarii smirked. "An interesting puzzle. Gather, younglings, around the map-reader. Clear your minds, and find Jovarii's wayward planet, we will try."
Jovarii placed the hologlobe into the top of the map-reader shaft, the lights dimming and the shades closing as she did so. A hologram of the star map appeared, and the children tried to touch the twinkling stars. Jovarii watched them in amusement for a second, then walked to a spot in the hologram.
"This is where it ought to be – but it isn't," she said, pointing out a space in the map. "The stars in the area are all being pulled by gravity to this spot. There should be a star here."
"Most interesting," Yoda said. "Gravity's silhouette remains, but the star and all of its planets have disappeared. How can this be?" He turned to his class. "Now, younglings, in your mind, what is the first thing you see? An answer? A thought? Anyone?"
Jovarii looked at the class, slightly dubious. She knew the children were extremely bright – but this problem had stumped not only her, but Obi-Wan and Jocasta Nu as well.
One boy raised his hand. "Master? Because someone erased it from the archive memory," he said.
"Yes!" the other children agreed. "That's what happened. Someone erased it."
Jovarii stared at the children in surprise.
A girl added, "If the planet blew up, the gravity would go away."
Yoda chuckled at the look on Jovarii's face. "Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is. The Padawan is right. Go to the centre of gravity's pull, and find your planet you will."
Jovarii used the Force to retrieve her map. She frowned.
"Master Yoda, who could have erased information from the Archives? Only a Jedi could…" she trailed off.
"Dangerous and disturbing this puzzle is," Yoda admitted. "Who, and why, harder to answer are. Meditate on this, I will. May the Force be with you."
Jovarii repeated the wish, then left the room to find Obi-Wan. They should start off for Kamino straight away to get some more answers.
So someone has tampered with the Archive files, she thought. What is happening on Kamino, I wonder? There must be a reason why somebody doesn't want it to be found.