Jedi Keliam Kenobi- hope the computer of yours is acting better. I also hope you are enjoying this story!

AA - HI! thanks for letting me know you are there. You continue reading and I will write!

Padawan Sydney Bristow- you sound like me I love Q/O interaction especially if it is filled with H/C

Mistx2- Thanks for not being bored. I will be addressing Anakin somewhat. You should have figured out by now Sidious thinks he chosen one is Obi-Wan. Of course I always believed that anyway! LOL.

Hakkai - Gojyo - Goku - Sanzo- From now on look for you abbr. Name "HGGS." Easier to write and remember!

Jkay- Thanks for sticking with me. Check your mailbox!

Geri K- My loyal reader from the other site. Thanks for following me!

amber75- It will be awhile before Sidious and Obi-Wan connect. I still have more fun for Q/O.

Jo - everyone should have a name so short. Easier when I have to respond! Keep reading and Thanks for doing so.

Shadows Run- HI! You wrote "I'm wondering where the story is gonna go, poor Obi. After all this, can they really be friends again!

If you mean will Bruck and Obi ever be friends I doubt it, but with O/Q remember they are both being mind manipulated by the evil clone Tahl. Neither is truly to blame now.

Wishitwould- Glad to see you returned and hope to see your name here more often.

If I have forgotten someone forgive me. Answering is taking as long as writing but don't get me wrong I am not complaining I LOVE IT! Now the new chapter- ewen

XOXOXO

Master Starworth's rendition of a starving Bantha was more powerfully enthusiastic than the two Jedi at the front door. She rushed the back entrance screaming high, high pitched phrases using any words that popped into her head; some obscene, some were the code of the Jedi learned and ingrained permanently in her mind. Once inside, the only things that illuminated any light were the open doors with the strung string beams of the moon and the Jedi sabers glowing pink, green, and blue.

Bruck was still blindfolded but easily recognized the owner the of the shrill screams. Thank the force. My master has finally come to rescue me. He was relieved but still concerned for his own safety. He didn't know if one of his captors had noticed where he chose to hide.

Obi-Wan was startled by Dorrie's wild maniacal screeching that sounded worse than a dying Bantha, let alone a hungry one.

His eyes quickly adjusted to thedark showed encompassingsurroundings. He didn't' see Bruck. What caught his attention first was a droid headed for him. His saber, activated, and in hand seemed to pose no threat to the unthinking soulless being. "It" continued to stomp toward the apprentice until it reached the pointed front tip of the Jedi saber. Obi's intent was to ram the saber with the aid of the force straight through the metal and wiring soldier and rip it/him in half. He'd watch Master Jinn use the same technique in downing one of the droids on Geonosis when they battled their way out of the clone factory and it had worked very successfully for him. Why not for me?

It DID NOT however do the same damage to the droid in front of Obi-wan as Jinn had managed to inflict on his in the previous battle.

Kenobi pulled his saber from the gnarled metal casing of what was the droid's upper torso. With the aid of the force and all the power he could physically muster himself, Obi-Wan lunged again at the man made soldier. The droid's face had a lifeless luster to it but to Obi-Wan it still managed to emanate a taunting aura around it.

With one gigantic step forward Obi-Wan attempted a second time to mimic the actions of his new master. His saber jammed squarely and completely through the droid but when Obi-Wan tried to turn it as Qui-Gon had done to split the robot wide open, his power proved less than his new master's. His saber was hopelessly stuck in the droid. He jerked, pulled, and twisted; nothing would cause the saber to break free. Obi-Wan cursed himself for not realizing what would happen if he could not get his saber out of the galvanized steel that doubled as the droid's body.

The saber definitely went in easier than it was coming out. It wasn't coming out. It just simply wouldn't budge...No matter what the apprentice did to dislodge it.

Dorrie was backed into a corner with her attacker and Jinn had climbed several crates in order to corral his droid up and into an impossible situation to get out of. Kenobi was so preoccupied with his effort to get his weapon back; he failed to see a second droid not two feet from him. The battle droid intended to help his counterpart take out the resisting apprentice but something grabbed his attention. Just as its attention was pulled down to the floor up under a long working table so was Obi-Wan's.

Obi had heard a grunt through the fighting and clanging of sabers that ripped and shredded the metal men's various parts. He couldn't understand how he heard it and possibly he didn't. It was really something through the force that alerted him. Just as the droid, not engaged in a conflict bent down to pick up Bruck Chun, Obi saw the other apprentice's feet stuck out from under the heavy wooden platform.Heglanced from the droid who had his saber snugly in his chest back to the droid about to grab Bruck. Should hemkeone last attempt at freeing his saber or grab Bruck before he landed in the clutches of a droid?

He made his choice.

He raced to where the helpless Jedi apprentice lay, swooped him up with again a call to the force as an aid, and peddled backward away from the droid that threatened Bruck.

The droid who now walked around with a Jedi's saber steadfastly implanted in his chest advanced toward the two apprentices. Obi-Wan kept up his back pedaling as he was being cornered, now by not one but two droids.

He pulled the blindfold off, ripped the tape painfully off Bruck's mouth and the force itself released the bond on Chun's hands and feet.

"Oh great the nerd has rescued me. Look what you have gotten ME into? Pull your saber, fool."

Bruck yelled at Obi to use his saber right before he noticed the droid with Obi's saber stuck in it.

Can it get any worse?

"You idiot, you let him take your only weapon."

Obi-Wan virtually threw Bruck back to the floor. Only with the grace of the force was he able to land on his feet.

"I should have left you there. Best thing that could happen to me; if I let that droid have a whack at you."

Such cruel words from Kenobi were not the norm. Had he had time to think about them he would have realized that? Of course had he been thinking straight he would have realized a lot of things that he was doing and thinking were not like him?

Jinn's droid lay in a heap of scrap metal with its inner workings of wiring still sputtering sparks, but by no means a viable deadly adversary now.

He looked over at the two Jedi apprentices pitted together, defenseless, and in what seemed to be some kind of verbal clash. He couldn't believe what he saw. They were hemmed in a corner by two droids; one parading around with Obi's saber stuck in its mechanical guts and Bruck shouting obscenities. What appalled him most was that his apprentice had basically allowed himself to be disarmed. He was also not pleased to hear, when the noise of battle allowed it, Kenobi retaliate with a few of his own colored words to Bruck.

Obi-Wan had single handily managed to turn a moderately simple confrontation into a near deadly one with he and Buck Chun being the ones in mortal danger.

Master Starworth completed her relatively easy task of taking down the one droid after her. She hurriedly ran to her apprentice and picked him up off the floor.

Jinn pushed Kenobi back out of the way to confront one of the last two droids standing and made quickly his demise. He then walked right up to the second droid, the one that wore Obi's saber in his chest like a prize, leveled his saber at its neckline, just above the lit buttons that were the droid's very life line of existence. With one clean powerful swipe its head flew across the storeroom's floor.

Master Jinn stuck out his large right booted foot on the downed droid's chest, and quite easily pulled the charred remains of his apprentice's "fried" light saber from its embedded steel trap. The totally worthless saber was thrust deactivated on its side in the boy's midsection with so much force it knocked the wind out of him.

"We will discuss this and many other mistakes later Padawan. Now though we need to get out of here. I suspect we will have no more problems but in case let us go."

As usual Qui-Gon took the lead. He'd already decided that they could not return to where they had intended to stay. Different sleep arrangement would have to be made. Dorrie walked behind Jinn with her arm protectively wrapped around Bruck's shoulder. He leaned into the comfort and security of that arm while all the time he deviously plotted what lies to tell his master and Jinn about the coward Kenobi.

Obi-Wan had opted not to take his place of reverence to the left and three steps back from his master. Instead he chose to lag behind. His thoughts were of wanting to kick himself because he had allowed the droid to disarm him so easily and how so not like his attempt to remove it earlier, Jinn made it look easy. After a two mile distance had been put between the storeroom and the Jedi Jinn decided let his little worn-out troupe take a well deserved rest.

"Here let's stop a moment and rest."

Dorrie flopped down on a step of a now closed business establishment and dragged Bruck down with her. She was unwilling to lose physical contact with her beloved apprentice. Obi-Wan brought up the rear but chose to set on steps a couple of doors down, in front of small eatery dive shut down for the night. Jinn walked to Dorrie, propped one foot on a step and leaned his body forward to rest on it. He looked down at the two, master and apprentice. When Dorrie raised her head up and returned his gaze he nodded toward Bruck and spoke.

"He doing alright?"

"Yes, just shaken up and possibly still a bit groggy from the force inhibitor drug, but yes, I suspect Bruck will back to normal by tomorrow morning."

Dorrie hurriedly changed the subject back to their battle. She wanted to know how Jinn had been so positive it would not be a rough fight to get Bruck from the clutches of his captors.

"Well that went well?"

It was more of a statement than a question for Jinn to answer.

"I thought it might."

"Yes you said that before. Just why did you think we would not have much trouble in taking Bruck back from his captors Qui-Gon?

"Because I didn't think they really wanted him."

"What?"

"I think it was a setup. We were meant to get Bruck from them and believe it was because of Jedi prowess and not their scheme of things that made it so easy."

"Well yes I agree I have fought tougher fights but they would just give Bruck back, for what reason?"

"I don't know the reason for handing him back to us. Then again we don't know the reason they took him in the first place."

"And… so?"

"So what Dorrie?"

"So Mr. Smart Jedi Master Jinn what do we do now?"

"Find some place to sleep and tomorrow I will contact Yoda. I have a feeling something more than meets the eye is going on around here. Sidious has his hand in it, of that I am sure. I just don't think it has anything to do with Gunray's financial stability and holdings. I think that is part of the ruse we are being handed."

"What do you mean?"

"Sidious wants something and it is not financial security. He is not that ambitious monetarily or materially. Gunray is a pawn in his plan."

"You mean just as we are?"

"No, no I don't think so. I mean I think he needs us here for some reason. Gunray is a decoy, maybe to throw us off of what he really wants."

"What does he want? If you have figured all this out surely you know that."

"If I had, this mission of ours would be half way completed and far easier to accomplish. You and your padawan catch your breath. I want to have a word with Kenobi. After that we will seek shelter, shelter other than where we have been sleeping."

"Go easy with him Jinn. Mistakes happen to the best of us."

"Yes I suppose they do. Just seems with Tahl's former apprentice they happen far too many times. It won't be difficult to convince the council masters of his unworthiness when we return."

Dorrie hopped up from the steps and pulled Jinn to the side. She was reluctant to go only a couple of steps from her apprentice. It was the first time she willingly let go of their physical and mental contact.

"Come on Jinn give it a rest. Why are you being so hard on the boy? Yes it was a stupid mistake to lose his saber back there, but haven't we all done stupid things in the heat of the moment?"

"Yes it was a stupid mistake and one that could possibly have had deadly consequences for any one of us, more so for your apprentice though. And yes it is true that we all have made our fair share of stupid mistakes. However, I am going to make sure he pays for his."

"Qui-Gon don't do this. For Tahl's sake give Obi-Wan a chance."

"It was at Tahl's request I took him as my apprentice and in my opinion it will be for her benefit though dead I see to it he never becomes a Jedi."

"You do little justice for her love for you if you drum her former apprentice out of the Jedi."

"No you are wrong. I think that is exactly what she wants me to do. I don't think it, I am sure of it."

"You can't honestly believe that? Tahl would never…"

"Don't presume to tell me what Tahl would or would not do or want. I know what she would want, and the last thing is for that boy over there to make it to knighthood. Call it intuition, call it prophesy,call it whatever, I know better than any one what she wanted, still wants."

"Then you didn't know her as well as you thought. You speak as if her goals for Obi-Wan have profoundly changed since her death. You sound as if you have spoken to her from the mighty force beyond."

"Do I now? NO, it is possible that is you who knew nothing of her and her Jedi honor, Master Starworth."

Jinn's voice had taken on a macabre sort of evil tone to it. It matched perfectly the reflective darkness in his eyes as he stared not at but through Master Dorrie Starworth. He refused to give up his scared secret that he had spoken to Tahl from the beyond only she wasn't there now she was fixed safely in his mind and that revelation he would share with no one.

"Humph… you righteous son-of a "sith". Tahl never had a cruel or revengeful bone in her body and until now I didn't think you did either."

"Then you know or knew neither of us as well as you think……"

T.B.C.

ewen