"Big hurry we should not be in. Walk at such speed I can not."

Jinn stopped dead in his tracks.

He could not believe the so easily flowing statements from his former master.

He lingered in the twilight of night right in the middle of the street as if to think over what Master Yoda just barely murmured audibly, yet sounded thunderous to Qui-Gon.

With only a moment's thought on Yoda's words, Qui-Gon flung his flowing gray peppered hair back over his shoulders, hunched dejectedly, and hurled his entire enormous body around to where the voice had come from, behind him. With squinted eyes he peered through the nearly dark surroundings directly toward Master Yoda, who continued to walk languidly behind his faster paced former apprentice.

Master Jinn had battled Darth Sidious' Red Guard and droids to make their way to Telos. Telos, the planet that Yoda said held the key to his apprentice's where-abouts and why he was taken. It also might give up the secrets as to who killed Tahl and why or so Master Jinn hoped. All there for them, within grasp. All the knowledge he had put his life on the line for and Yoda wanted them to slow their pace!

"Master Yoda, what is wrong with you? You can't be serious. We have nearly been killed more than once to make our way to Kenobi and possibly the murderers of Tahl. Now that we have almost made it, you want us to ease up in our haste to both."

Qui-Gon shivered, a chill had suddenly overtaken him. However, the late evening's breezeless air was still heavy laden with the day's heat and humidity. The chill came from Jinn's still shaken state he'd been left in from finding the clone, a perfectly detailed and mastered likeness of his beloved Tahl.

The remembrance of Yoda destroying that likeness before they left Darth Sidious' ship clung to his mind; maybe so much it clouded his thinking. The Jedi master Jinn of before would have caught on to Yoda's concerns or at least that he had them. Had Jinn's mind been clearer and he been in more control of it, he might have even begun to suspect that Yoda's worries were somehow connected to the head statesman of this planet, his former apprentice, Xanatos Crion. A Jedi thinking Jinn might have further surmised that Yoda's desire to slow their pace had something to do with Qui-Gon being forced to confront his former apprentice, now dark hearted Xanatos. Had he paid better attention to the direction they were going, the stately Jedi master would have known where they were going.

The Jedi, Mace included were headed to the only main house in that area, Xani's mansion; the fallen apprentice's home inherited from the father that Master Jinn had been forced to kill in self defense…. of course..

The Qui-Gon of before might have put two and two together and suspected Crion as being part of all that Sidious had been doing, Kenobi's kidnapping and Tahl's death included.

However, his former apprentice had been all but forgotten.

Qui-Gon a shaken and confused Qui-Gon didn't even have a clue as to why they were on Telos other than that they followed Sidious, they trekked the murder of his beloved, the one who made a clone of her to trick him.

His tolerance had long since been stretched and broken when he realized what Sidious had done to him and to his beloved. Least of on his mind was the boy, his padawan, his unruly apprentice Obi-Wan who managed to be captured and now must be rescued.

Hell, Master Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn was not even sure he would be on this mission had it not been for the immense desire forefront on his mind, to capture contain and punish those responsible for Tahl's death. Now with the discovery of her clone Jinn was more hell bent on finding Sidious for that reason but not necessarily for the return of the boy.

An angry Qui-Gon Jinn with all his inner emotions stood in the hot night air and waited for Yoda to catch up with him. He wanted answers, and be damn Yoda would give them to him.

Yoda knew that if forced to answer all Jinn's queries their trek to Xanatos' mansion would be at a much faster pace with a much angered and destructive Qui-Gon leading them.

Yoda kept thinking as he made his way to Jinn of a way to ease all this on his beloved Qui-Gon without pushing him over the edge of tolerance.

XOXOX AT XANI"S HOME XOXO

Xanatos stared curiously at Padawan Kenobi as he descended Crion's long and spiral stairway. The former Jedi willed his awful foreboding that had over taken every inch of his inner self but to no avail. When Obi-Wan reached Xan and they stood toe to toe, eerie blue orbs penetrating directly into the rich brown eyes of Jinn's first apprentice, Xanatos' strong will persona that he really hadn't managed to grasp since meeting the boy wavered to its weakest existence.

"Well Crion thanks a lot. Is this the way it is to end then? I am to be forced into slavery under the force of the dark side?"

Xanatos bit his lip as he let his already labored and rapid breathing get further out of his control.

"What exactly does that mean?"

You know what it means. You threw me to the "dogs", one in particular…. HIM."

Obi-Wan motioned his head violently toward Sidious who stood just to the side glaring at Master Jinn's two apprentices, former and present. The dark lord, with an amused smirk on his face seemed to glean a great deal of enjoyment watching the two's misery at their forced separation.

Obi's braid snapped and whipped stingily around over his face from the force he used to jerk his attention from Sidious back to Xanatos.

Xani focused on Kenobi's braid and let his mind drift back to a time he very seldom allowed himself to remember; a time when he was happy, pleased, even proud to be Jinn's apprentice and more thrilled at the idea of one day becoming a Jedi master.

All things around him were held in suspended animation as he let his thoughts drift to the past all the while focused on that long strand of braided flaxen hair. Braided as his once was but the color such a vast contrast to his own rich chocolate colored braid he had once so proudly displayed.

There before him stood a mirror image of himself some fifteen years ago. No not in appearance because in that aspect Obi-Wan Kenobi and Xanatos Crion were as different as night and day; Obi the pale frail, overly small for his age, Xani during that age was strong, dark hearty glowing complexion, and a body blessed with more muscle than most sixteen year olds ever dreamed of having. It was their shared dreams for the future that held such a mirrored likeness…"ONCE".

Xanatos let his mind wonder to a time in his past, with all thoughts of the problems before him cloaked by his thoughts.

Obi-Wan waited for some reaction from Xanatos but the man seemed frozen. He definitely was not looking at Obi-Wan though his eyes stared that way. His gaze went threw Jinn's present padawan to somewhere else. Somewhere no one could go but Crion himself.

Xani drifted deeper back to when he wanted more than life itself to be a Jedi master. Somehow though, that got lost. Greed, anger, love for his father, all of it got in the way of his path to his future; he thought his preferred destiny.

It actually brought pain to Xanatos to think of the past he at one time believed he so desperately wanted.

Crion jerked his stare from Obi to Sidious. He realized that the mirror image before him would not fulfill his destiny either but not by choice as his was. Sidious would prevent Obi-Wan from becoming a Jedi unless he, Xanatos Crion stopped the dark lord now. HE was the only thing to stand in Sidious' path, the only person who could help Obi-Wan c fulfill his dream, the dream that Xani once shared with the boy he now seemed so intimately connected with.

I have to allow Obi-Wan this… this one thing I could never have because my path was blocked and cluttered with so much emotional baggage from my father. I will not allow Sidious to do the same to Obi-Wan's future as my father did to mine..

Xanatos was just about to make his attempt, some kind of interference, with the dark lord anything to keep the boy with him to be returned to the Jedi, Yes the Jedi but not necessarily to Qui-Gon, when everyone was startled by a commotion at Crion's front locked double doors of his home.

Obi-Wan heard the noise at the doors and suspected some kind of rescue was about to begin more than likely by his master. However much he desired to be returned to the Jedi, his thoughts hung with Xanatos.

Xan had been dead wrong someone could bare witness to his hidden thoughts, Obi-Wan had. Their minds touched. No, more than that they fused together as if one. Obi-Wan understood more about Xanatos past than maybe he didcertainly more than Master Jinn ever had. In that briefest of time the two Obi and Xani had permanently sealed their bond. Somehow Obi-Wan knew they were connected never to be separated

Padawan Kenobi had been privy to Xanatos most private thoughts when they joined and felt an overwhelming swelling of admiration for Xani at that moment. Relief escaped like the long breathe he exhaled. But only for a split second did Obi-Wan think there was hope for his escape.

Along with the strong strumming bond he'd just formed with Xanatos was also in his mind the weaker yet sustaining one with Qui-Gon and through it he knew who had made that noise just on the other side of the door.

It was then without a word being spoken between Xanatos and Obi-Wan the double doors to Crion's mansion were literally ripped off their hinges. Before them stood three Jedi, each with their sabers already unsheathed and activated.

Master Jinn nearly knocked down Sidious who was closer and in his way and barreled his way to the one person his attention landed and stuck on, Xanatos Crion……………………….

ewen

Sorry it has been so long. To be honest I just lost interest in writing for awhile.

This post was just to reach the climax for this section of the story. The next will pull even more things together. I think Jinn, Obi and Xani have some real problems to wrestle with if the don't kill each other first.

Thanks for waiting and again SORRY-ewen