Obi-Wan hurried after his master, barely noticing Anakin next to him, or Taun We behind them. He didn't even see when Anakin stopped to ask Taun We where she was going, or the torn look on his face when she told him she was looking for Padmé and Boba. He didn't notice when Taun We split off from the Jedi to continue her own search, or when Anakin, with the air of someone making a difficult decision, followed Obi-Wan.

"Master!" called, Obi-Wan, catching up with Qui-Gon. The tall Jedi turned, but never slowed down. Obi-Wan caught up to him, but also kept the same pace.

"Master, it was the visions, wasn't it," asked Obi-Wan, barely making it a question.

Qui-Gon nodded, his face focused ahead. The younger Jedi recognized this as a sign that his master was trying not to let Obi-Wan see what he was thinking. Usually, that meant something bad.

"What was it?" asked Obi-Wan quietly.

"Dooku," muttered Qui-Gon, still refusing to look at his friend.

"Your master?"

Qui-Gon nodded, glaring at the air a few feet in front of him. "He joined the Dark Side. He's now the apprentice to the Sith Lord." He paused, and then continued, his voice breaking. "My master is the Sith. And we have to get rid of him."

Obi-Wan was silent, thinking. He recalled, although it had never happened, what he had felt after Anakin had joined the Dark Side. He tried, and failed, to imagine what it would be like to lose Qui-Gon in the same way, but couldn't. He could only assume it would be the same pain, followed by numbness, he had felt when he had lost Anakin.

But Anakin had never really been lost. He had been saved by the knowledge of what he would become. Perhaps that was all anyone needed, Obi-Wan reflected. A chance to reverse what had happened, knowing how it will turn out if you make the wrong choice.

Obi-Wan had completely forgotten Qui-Gon, running alongside him. He didn't know it, but his friend was also thinking about dark Jedi, and not only his master. Dooku, Xanatos, and Anakin. Qui-Gon's master and two of his apprentices had joined the Dark Side.

In a different timeline, Obi-Wan had turned away from killing his apprentice after he had turned. Qui-Gon knew this, slightly more than Obi-Wan knew he did, for Qui-Gon could also 'remember' this other future, remember seeing it in a vision. And now he was wondering if he would turn away from killing his master. Could he have the strength to save a Sith? Did he want to, or would it simply be better to end it all?

The pair, both deep in thought, entered a lift, and, seeing that Anakin would be slowing them down, closed the door. Qui-Gon pressed the 'up' button, and the tapped 'roof'.

"Is that where he is?" questioned Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon nodded silently.

There was a long pause, and then Qui-Gon said suddenly, "We take him together."

"What?" asked Obi-Wan.

"Together. I 'remember' what happened when Anakin tried to fight him alone. He's more powerful than we know. I don't want to risk losing…" you he had meant to finish, but left it there. Obi-Wan got the message, however, and nodded. One thing was still bothering him, though.

"Master?" he asked. Qui-Gon turned to him. "How much did you see of that other future?"

"Too much," answered Qui-Gon in a strangled voice. Both were silent until they reached the top.

The door to the lift opened, and two men stepped out. A third man was standing on the roof, staring over the edge. He started when he heard the soft noise of the lift doors opening, and turned around.

Dooku's eyes widened as he saw who the Jedi coming to kill him was. "Qui-Gon," he whispered.

"Don't talk to me," growled his former apprentice. "This is hard enough as it is."

"Are you really going to kill me, Qui-Gon?" asked Dooku with a mocking smile. Despite that, Obi-Wan thought he noticed a flicker of fear in the other man's eyes. Dooku knew the answer to his question.

"I have no choice," said Qui-Gon in a strained voice.

"There is always a choice," answered Dooku quietly. "The Senate is corrupt. The Republic is failing. The Jedi have lost their glory days. The world you are protecting, Padawan, no longer exists."

Qui-Gon glanced at Obi-Wan, 'remembering' hearing his old master saying similar things to his apprentice. Obi-Wan hadn't believed it, but would Qui-Gon?

"I am not your Padawan," snapped Qui-Gon tensely.

A flicker of sadness showed in Dooku's eyes as he whispered, "No, you aren't."

Both Jedi drew their lightsabers, determined to defeat Dooku- before they ended up feeling sorry for him.

"Wait!" cried the Sith, and they stopped for a moment. "I know this won't change anything. You most likely won't believe me, and I understand that you'll kill me anyway, but let me say this before you do," Dooku said hurriedly, knowing he had limited time before they stopped listening to him. "I am a Sith, true, but I am only the apprentice. The master, the true Sith Lord, is among you. Chancellor Palpatine is the Sith Lord. We call him Darth Sidious."

"You lie," snarled Obi-Wan, stepping forward to kill him.

Qui-Gon stopped him. "No, he whispered. "He doesn't."

Obi-Wan turned around to face his master, and then saw what he saw.

"Always two, there are. A master and an apprentice."

"But which one was killed, the master or the apprentice?"

"Master Anakin, what's going on?"

"You are now… Darth Vader!"

"Palpatine," murmured Obi-Wan. "It was him all along."

"We should have known," added Qui-Gon, just as quietly.

"Qui-Gon," snapped Dooku in a business-like tone. "Where is your apprentice?"

"What?" asked Qui-Gon starting, and then looked to Obi-Wan for help.

"He was right behind us… We left him behind on the lift!"

"Didn't he get in the next one?"

"I'm not certain…"

"He should be coming," Qui-Gon muttered, looking around as if trying to see his apprentice showing up, right on cue. But Anakin didn't.

"His apprentices are disposable," said Dooku bitterly. "As soon as he meets someone more powerful, he makes sure the first was killed. Anakin is the most powerful of us all. If he was vulnerable, for even a moment…"

"Qui-Gon, the lift!" cried Obi-Wan suddenly. "The one Anakin took, it doesn't go all the way up to the roof!"

"He'd have to have gotten off and gone to the other lift," realized Qui-Gon.

"And if you were still on it while he was there…" continued Dooku.

All three stared at each other, suddenly grasping what that meant. Anakin would have been alone for quite a while. With Sidious loose in the building, it was impossible to tell what would have happened to him. Was Anakin still there, the all wondered. Or had he already become Darth Vader?

Quickly, the trio moved towards the lift, getting inside it at once. Qui-Gon hesitated a second before pushing the button, wondering which floor it was on, so Obi-Wan pushed it for him. The decent was silent and tense, each wondering what had happened to Anakin. Ordinarily, the Jedi and the Sith would be unsure if they could trust one another, but even that fear was erased by the constant worry that by the time they reached Anakin, there would be another Sith in the universe.

But there was one less Sith when they reached him. Anakin was standing over a body with his back to them. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan could see that he was shaking, but Dooku didn't appear to notice.

"Anakin!" shouted Qui-Gon, hurrying towards the younger man. His apprentice turned to him, lightsaber raised, but then flicked it off, seeing who it was. "Master," he whispered, still trembling.

Qui-Gon pulled his friend into an embrace, while Obi-Wan hung back a bit, prudently probing Anakin's mind. He felt a bit of wry amusement at that, and Anakin quickly opened his mind to Obi-Wan's searching, revealing what had happened.

A few stray phrases, whispers about destinies, and a flicker of a lightsaber was all that Obi-Wan saw before he pulled back, acknowledging his friend's innocence, and joining the hug.

But what he didn't realize was that a few stray thoughts and memories had accidentally escaped into Anakin's mind.

"I admit, I was… surprised when Anakin saved you," Obi-Wan 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."

Anakin considered that for a moment. He had vague impressions that Obi-Wan had managed to convince Qui-Gon that his master had made him feel better. He also had less-than-vague impressions that Qui-Gon really hadn't. Obi-Wan was still, for some reason, feeling guilty for not saving Qui-Gon in either version of events.

"You probably did in one of them," he whispered, dropping back to walk with his friend.

Obi-Wan gave him a confused look, and then his eyes widened as he realized what Anakin had seen. "Anakin…" he began.

"Look, in one of the versions of events, you probably did save Qui-Gon, just like in one I did, and in one neither of us did. So you can stop feeling guilty about it just because you happened to end up in one of the versions where you didn't. You're not helping anyone."

Obi-Wan stared at him in surprise for a moment, and then smiled. "Thanks," he whispered.

Anakin nodded and started to walk away, but was stopped by Obi-Wan saying his name softly. "If you ever read my mind again…" he began.

"I know, I know," grinned Anakin. "You'll rip my heart out and eat it raw." Obi-Wan nodded, trying to hide the grateful look that wanted to stay on his face.

"Wookie," muttered Anakin quietly, but Obi-Wan heard him.

Qui-Gon blinked in surprise. Now why, after defeating one Sith and turning the other good, where his two apprentices chasing each other down the hall screaming about Wookies, of all things?

Thank you, Ellenlome, Fell Dragon, Satra, Kekelina, and dmitchell, my happy and kind reviewers! Especially Fell Dragon, for pointing out that Mace Windu did indeed have a Padawan. I changed that. One chapter to go (sniffle). And by the way, I'm going to have to thank the writers of Star Trek: Voyager (which I don't own) for the bit about ripping hearts out and eating them raw. I also don't own that line, but I doubt they bothered to copyright it, so I can't get in trouble for using it. Ha Ha!