A/N: Yay, I managed to get another one out before school started! By the way, for everyone who answered my question about the time difference between 2 and 3, SWTKD was right, 3 years or so. (I spent all day yesterday home alone, so I found out a lot of random trivia on random stuff) Thanks to SWTKD, Alley Parker, Mikey15, and Data Kenobi for reviewing. Yay, you rock. Now that it's officially into Episode 2, a lot of things are going to be familiar, which is why I justify the end as officially not a cliffhanger.
"Obi! Qui! Mesa so smilin' to seein' yousa!" cried Jar Jar, throwing himself on them.
"Air," rasped Qui-Gon, trying to free himself from the Gungun's death grip.
Jar Jar released him. "Oh, mesa berry, berry sworry, Master Qui!" he exclaimed, but was distracted for the moment as Anakin entered the room behind them.
"Little Ani?" he asked incredulously, then gave a cry of delight, shouting incomprehensionable words and suffocating him.
"Gaah, Jar Jar!" exclaimed Anakin, throwing him off. "I can't protect the senator if you suffocate me," he said very slowly and clearly.
"Mesa berry, berry sworry, Master Ani!" he exclaimed.
"I think we've heard that one before," muttered Qui-Gon.
Padmé entered the room from the other side, talking with a handmaiden and a guard, but broke off when she saw the three Jedi.
"Senator, looky looky!" called Jar Jar. "Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Little Ani Skywalker are here to protect yousa!"
"Master Jinn," said Padmé smoothly. "I'm glad to see you." Her eyes turned to Anakin. "Ani? Is it really you? Oh, you've grown so much!" she half-started to hug him, but then stopped herself, and turned quickly to Obi-Wan.
"Senator Amidala," introduced Qui-Gon. "You've met, Obi-Wan Kenobi?"
"Yes, I have," she said, smiling. "I though there was only going to be two Jedi assigned to us…"
"I have… another mission that I am working on. It closely concerns you and you people, so I am assisting my friends on this, while trying to… complete my own mission."
He winced internally as he said that. They had watched the site of the explosion for any sign of the assassin, but she must have spotted them, because it never took place. That had been their first lead, and before she hadn't hesitated to attack Padmé while there had been two Jedi in the building before. Three shouldn't make much difference, as long as they were in another room.
He sincerely hoped not, because if she didn't attack tonight, they would have no predictable hope for catching her, and eventually, the bounty hunter.
Padmé smiled. "Alright." She, Anakin, and Qui-Gon sat down to discuss tactics for watching out for the people inside. Obi-Wan watched them carefully. Padmé was certainly smart, but she didn't have any idea what was going on. She and her people believed that Obi-Wan had gone to the Outer Rim on Jedi business, and had received a tip-off of the attack, but it hadn't occurred because of the extra security measures the Jedi had placed on the landing pad. She thought he knew that there would be another attack, but not when, and that because of the information he had received on the Outer Rim, his original mission was now closely connected to that of Qui-Gon and Anakin.
Qui-Gon, he noticed was watching the other two carefully, with his usual amount of subtlety. He was getting older, Obi-Wan thought sadly, but smiled at the realization that Anakin had given him a chance to do so, even if Obi-Wan couldn't have helped. The grey in his old master's hair was like a parasite, set loose by the years, gobbling up the brown, taking over little bits at a time. One entire braid had been commandeered, and his lion-like face was lined with creases. Either way, he seemed just as alert as ever, watching the younger two carefully for any sign of things gone wrong.
Despite his concern, Anakin seemed to be behaving himself perfectly well. He seemed a little… frightened of Padmé, as if thinking of how much terror he had caused, for her sake at first, and then simply because causing terror was what he did. As reckless as the boy could be, Obi-Wan thought proudly, his heart was in the right place… for now. But today, at least, he knew how much suffering he would cause, and would do anything to stop it. These past five years had been hard on him, always knowing that he was destined to do something that horrible, but being around so many people who didn't know, so many people he would one day kill if they failed.
"Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon looked up as Padmé and the others went to bed, and Anakin left to check the premises. "Are you having one of your visions again?
Obi-Wan smiled at his friend. "No. I'm just thinking."
"About what?"
He paused, and then said quietly. "So much depends on this. When we did it before, it was only the senator's wellbeing, but now…"
"Now if Anakin falls in love with her like he's supposed to, then he will become Darth Vader."
"Again, like he's supposed to. Are you certain we should change this?"
"Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon sighed, as if wondering how to put this. "We know that, ten years ago, I was supposed to die. That's changed enough that, I think, we should try to make this version, this… alternate course of events as good as possible. Because, as we know, this is only one reality. How do we know there aren't more out there, more realities where one small thing is changed, and the entire universe is transformed?"
"We don't," said Obi-Wan, surprised. He had never thought of his master as one for philosophical thinking.
"So, if this reality changed my death, than perhaps another changed something else bad that had happened. Perhaps in the version you are seeing, someone is wondering if there is a version like our where something was changed to stop what happened."
"But how can we know if it's bad? It isn't bad or good, Master, it's real!"
"So are we! And if we change something, then that is real. It doesn't make the other version any less real, it just makes it not this one. They're different courses of events, not meant to mix."
"Then why am I seeing what's happening in that one?"
"Perhaps it's to make sure they stay different."
Obi-Wan realized that there was no arguing with his master on this point. Perhaps he was right, and if they knew of the terror about to happen, they should change it, or at least try. There was no certainty it would succeed, but it was better than nothing. Certainly better than being helpless against whatever was about to happen.
"I admit, I was… surprised when Anakin saved you," he said suddenly. "And a little guilty."
"Why?" asked Qui-Gon, looking at his friend in confusion.
"Well, Anakin stopped Maul before he could do anymore damage than he already had. I suppose I felt a little… silly that I couldn't have thought to do that. And once I started seeing the other version of events…" he let it hang, but Qui-Gon finished the sentence.
"In that version, you blamed yourself for my death?" Obi-Wan nodded, and his master gave him a look. "Obi-Wan, how could it have been your fault! There was nothing you could have done. You were trapped behind a force field. For all purposes, you weren't even there."
"But I should have been!"
There was a short pause as Qui-Gon considered the conversation in general, and then his eyes widened. "Was this why you were so self-isolated for five years?"
"I wasn't self-isolated, I was solitary."
"Obi-Wan…"
"Yes. It was."
Qui-Gon sighed deeply, giving the impression of a very exasperated person talking to a very silly person. "Let me get this straight. You spent five years avoiding everyone because you blamed yourself for being trapped and unable to prevent my death which didn't even happen!"
Obi-Wan grinned ruefully. "Well, when you put it that way…"
Qui-Gon rolled his eyes and hugged the smaller man tightly. "You idiot," he muttered into his friend's hair. "You absolute idiot."
Obi-Wan wiggled out of the embrace, but he was smiling a bit more realistically now.
The door banged open before either of them could say anything. "Nothing," Anakin announced. "The lower levels are so heavily guarded it'll be a wonder if she doesn't turn tail and run."
"I hope we find her before that," commented Obi-Wan. "She needs to lead us to the bounty hunter."
Qui-Gon glanced nervously at the closed door. "When did you say it was going to occur?" he asked Obi-Wan.
"We have a few minutes," remembered the younger Jedi, relaxing on the couch. "I think we should sense it…"
"I'm sensing it now!" exclaimed Anakin, jumping up and banging into the room. The other pair followed.
Two small, writhing creatures were climbing up the bed. Obi-Wan flicked on the light, knowing the extra second it would take Anakin to find them might kill Padmé, although he had done alright before, he reminded himself.
Anakin leapt onto the bed, slicing both neatly in half without even grazing the sheets.
"What?" began Padmé waking up.
Qui-Gon spotted the device that had deposited them, and jumped through the window, grabbing onto it.
"Anakin, come on!" shouted Obi-Wan, racing through the door and down the hall. This was all seeming a bit too familiar.