CHAPTER 3

Dead Roses

Obi-Wan Kenobi was totally unaware about what was going on in the Temple. In fact he was too busy talking to the new Jedi Mster Murak Indoly, about being a good Jedi Master, that he was totally clueless.

Murak was listening carefully to Obi-Wan advice. He should have been if he wasn't. Obi-Wan was like a war vet and knew everything about being a Jedi.

"Well almost everything," Obi-Wan laughed. "There's more stuff even I don't know. You'd have to talk to Yoda about those other things."

Murak wanted to talk farther but he had something else he had to do in a few minutes so he couldn't. Oni-Wan was understanding. He didn't delay the younger man.

He dismissed the Nabooian and let him go to whatever he had to do.

"So, you aprove of him, Ben?" a voice behind him asked.

Obi-Wan quickly turned around. Only a few people called him Ben. He knew who it was before he even face the younger Jedi. Luke Skywalker.

For some reason there was a dark look on the young man's face. His eyes didn't seem to be exactly looking at Master Kenobi either. They seemed far away. "Is something wrong?" Obi-Wan asked.

"You could say that," Skywalker said, his eyes cold. "I have been wondering: Why do you always let Master Yoda make all the decisions?"

"I don't and he doesn't," Obi-Wan said, feeling offended by the way Luke was talking about Yoda and him. "I made the decision about you remember? He didn't want to train you but I persuaded him to."
For some reason when Luke spoke the young man's voice was filled with a regretfull emotion. "And then he died," he said.

"He's not dead anymore you know," Obi-Wan pointed out. "And neither am I."

"He should be!"

"Luke!"

The younger Jedi glared at his mentor. "The universe would be better off without him! I'd be better off without him!"

Before Obi-Wan could say anything to that Luke turned around and stomped away.

"What was that about?" the older Jedi asked himself.

Dorian, Maya, Rie, Jay, and Esore were gathered around Master Yoda who stared at them all with kind yet stern eyes. The four Padawans who had never been in the Jedi Master's apartment were staring at each other nervously, afraid to meet the old Master's gaze.

Finally the small Jedi spoke. "Not consider being Jedi seriously do you?" he asked, looking at them all in turn. "Think it's pointless you do."

"With all due respect, Masyer," Maya spoke up. "We don't really see why we have to learn these things. Nobody needs our protection..."

"Protection?" he asked his voice full of adgitation. "Is that all you think we do? Protect?"

"Well, sorta," the girl answered, not looking at him.

Yoda looked away from her shaking his head. Youth these days... "Let me tell you what we do."

Esore closed her eyes. She'd heard this lecture before. She always enjoyed hearing it again, though. She always learned something new from it.

So the old Master spent the next half hour trying to explain to them that Jedi weren't just there for violence but other things too.

When he reached the part about actual training Dorian said. "But it's so boring!"

Tension hung in the air. They all expected Yoda to get angry at Dorian for being so disrespectful. All Yoda did was cock his head and ask. "Think it is boring do you?"

Dorian nodded.

"Boring why? Explain."

"We never do anything," the brown haired boy explained. "All we do is sit on plush coushins and breathe."

"Action you want?"

"Well yes," Dorina said, now feeling nerbous.

Yoda smiled a smile that showed his teeth and made him look a tad bit scary. Esore hated that smile. It made her Master look like a goblin. "Other worlds you long to see? Adventure you want?"

Maya, Rie, Dorian, and even Jay nodded.

There was a silence for a few minutes then Yoda hit his walking stick against the floor. "Okay," he said making a decision. "That you will have."

"Master?" Esore said not quite believing what she heard.

"Send you to a planet we will," he explained. "Adventures you will gave."

Esore was baffled. "Now?" she asked.

Her Master laughed. "No," he replied. "In a few days." He looked at all the Padawans now. "Agreed?"

They all nodded eagerly.

He waved his hand toward the door. "You may now go. Dismissed you are."

As Esore stepped out of the room her mind tried to figure out why her Master had made such a weird decision. Surely that wasn't part of the origanel Jedi training. "He must be trying to teach us a lesson," she finally concluded.

Awhile later Obi-Wan went to his room to meditate. He hadn't done that in awhile so he felt he should. Maybe if I do I'll find out why Luke has been acting so strange lately, he thought, sitting on the floor and folding his legs under him. There has to be a reason. He's not a sour puss for nothing.

As he sank into the Force his problem faded away for the time being.

Suddenly there was a presense in the room. He could sense it getting closer. It felt friendly. A familer voice broke the silence. "Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Obi-Wan opened his eyes. He was still in the Force, its dark yet brightness surounded a welcome site. "Master Qui-Gon?"

Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan's long dead Master smiled, his long grayish brown hair blowing gently. As if a wind rustled it. Obi-Wan noticed a far away angiushed look in his old Master's eyes.

"What's wrong, Master?" He asked.

'There is a dark force making its way to Master Yoda," Qui-Gon replied.

"A dark force?" Obi-Wan exclaimed. "Surely that can't be true. Yoda would never go to the darkside."

The dead Master gave him a correcting look. "I never said Yoda was going to the darkside," he said. "But something dangerous is making its way to him."

"Who? What?"

Qui-Gon shook his head. "I don't know," he replied.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (being ever the observant one) noticed something about his old Master. Qui-Gon Jinn's spirit seemed a bit faded.

"Is something wrong?"

Qui-Gon locked eyes with him. The dead Jedi Knight looked like he wanted to say something but vanished before he could.

Esore had returned to the rose garden.

She was just walking through the tunnle made of large rose bushes when she noticed Master Yoda ahead of her. The old Master wasn't aware of her watching him (or was he?). He seemed to interseted in what he was staring at. A dead rose buch.

What's he doing? Why is he staring at that dead rose bush?

Yoda seemed to sense her just then and turned around. Instead of him saying anything to her he just raised his hand and beckoned to her.

What does he want?

She walked up to him and stood next to him in front of the skeleton bush. "Dead it is," was the first thing he said.

She nodded. "I know. It looks like someone didn't water this one enough."

"Eventually everything dies," he said, still on that line of thought.

Why is he telling me this? Does he want me to learn something?

"Yes," she agreed. "Everything does die eventually."

"Death soon leads to life again. Live twice we all will."

What's going on? "Uh, Master?" she began.

He looked up at her. "Yes, Padawan?"

"Is there a reason you're telling me this?"
His face suddenly held a closed in expression. Did I say something wrong?

Without a word he turned away from her and started to walk away. "Master!" she called to him, before he got too far.

He stopped and looked back at her. "I am sorry if I offended you!" she said.

Yoda nodded, his hazel eyes looking sad. "Forgive you I do. Forget what I said. Important it is not."

But Esore could sense that statement wasn't true at all.