Disclaimer: This goes for the three previous sections as well… I do not own Star Wars, which belongs to Lucas and Lucas Arts. The characters (except for a few which I imagined) do not belong to me.

Italics- dreams

/Force communication/

Chapter Two- Trials

Qui-Gon reluctantly approached the apartment that he shared with his apprentice Anakin Skywalker, the very rooms he had once shared with Obi-wan. 'Times have changed,' he wordlessly told himself. 'Anakin's my padawan now.' His thoughts turned toward the council meeting. The council had refused to discuss Anakin's trials. Anakin would be disappointed. Qui-Gon felt as if he had failed his padawan. He opened the door and found Anakin waiting. His legs stretched before him as he sat on the couch located in the main portion of the room. Anakin's braid hung down the front of his shoulder. His eyes filled with hope.

"I found Obi-wan as you asked, Master." Anakin started the conversation.

Qui-Gon nodded his head. "Something is wrong with him. It hurts to not be able to talk with him as we once were able to do."

Anakin nodded his head, trying not to betray a hint of jealousy that arose at the mention Obi-wan. "I'm sure it is nothing to worry about, Master."

Qui-Gon changed the subject to the one his padawan was dieing to hear. "Your trials did not come up."

Anger rose in Anakin. "What do I have to do to prove myself to them? Who defeated the dark Jedi Asajj Ventress? Who has saved countless Jedi from their deaths!"

"Your thoughts betray you, Anakin! You must let go of this anger."

"Sorry, Master." Anakin said as he pushed the anger down, burying it completely. "What are the Council's concerns?"

Qui-Gon came to sit by his padawan. "The same as always. You have too much fear and anger. They feel you are not ready to be on your own. After Count Dooku, they believe you need guidance still."

Anakin blushed. "I didn't kill him!"

"But if I hadn't come to, then you just might have. The Chancellor was not in his right mind when he was telling you to kill Dooku. His captivity had affected him. He is after all not Jedi, but you are, Anakin! You almost killed an unarmed prisoner. That is what the council sees."

"Is that, also, what you see, Master?"

"No," Qui-Gon stated confidently. "I see a young man whose heart is always in the right place, though he tends to be more then a little headstrong at times… and does not always listen to his master."

Anakin smiled. "I do try, Master."

Qui-Gon laughed. "I believe you do."

"Why do you think this involves Qui-Gon, Master Yoda?" Obi-wan said taken aback.

Yoda frowned. His wrinkled brow furrowed deeper. "Avoid at all cost you do." Yoda shook his head sadly. "Time to talk it is. Forgive Qui-Gon you must. Dark thoughts to cling to the past it is."

Obi-wan bowed his head. "I have tried so many times to forget… to forgive. No matter how long I meditate, these feelings remain. I'm also afraid these feelings I have for Master Qui-Gon have been unfairly passed on to Anakin." Obi-wan's rich Coruscanti voice stopped.

Yoda closed his eyes briefly before continuing. "Speak with Qui-Gon you must."

Obi-wan hesitated. "I trust in your greater wisdom, Master." Obi-wan began to rise, but Yoda stopped him.

"Sit now you will, and talk of tardiness we will." An amused glint filled Yoda's gentle brown eyes. "Rest you have not received."

Obi-wan closed his eyes pushing down his emotions. "I've been having very troubled dreams lately… since my return to the temple."

"Seek to escape them you do. Another mission you want. Think flee the problem you can… emm?"

"I need to be kept busy. Anything, I could care less, just as long as they stop."

"Fear I sense in you." Yoda stated, concern filling his features. "Tell me of these dreams you will, young one."

Obi-wan smiled briefly at the use of 'young one'. "They are usually unclear. I see merely glimpses of events, but the dreams always end the same way. I feel trapped. My life force is being severed and then nothing. Complete silence."

"Feel they are vision do you?"

Irritated Obi-wan shook his head. "I don't know. I have had visions before-."

"But never seriously taken they were." Yoda sighed. "Never them did Qui-Gon understand. Never trust in yourself you have. Show me these visions you will. Better understand them I will."

Obi-wan's eyes flew open in horror. "Is this necessary, Master?"

"Open your mind."

Obi-wan closed his eyes and desperately wished to escape. Slowly he lowered the walls around his mind allowing the green master entrée. Yoda's presence in his mind brought a soothing power. /Where lay these dreams/ he heard Yoda's voice ask through his mind. Subconsciously, Obi-wan led him to their hidden location and waited for them to surface. He checked the emotions that began to surface with the memory, and simply waited. As soon Yoda touched the visions, he recoiled and departed from Obi-wan's mind.

"Master," Obi-wan, whispered aloud, concern etching his face.

Yoda sat hunched over in his miniature chair. Obi-wan quickly moved toward him and gently touched his small shoulder. Yoda's head flicked upwards. Relief filled Obi-wan.

A frown passed onto Yoda's tired face. "Understand this I do not. Barred from the visions I was."

"But, Master, I didn't block you."

"Know this I do. Another presence I sensed in you… emm. Nothing more can I tell you. Meditate you must. Release your fears into the Force, you must."

Obi-wan bowed to the small master and left. 'That went well.' He sarcastically thought to himself.

Anakin left his master's presence as soon as was appropriate, he had research of a more personal sort to attend to, which would be consider unseemly for a Jedi. Troubled thoughts clouded his mind, thoughts of the visions concerning Padmè's death that plagued his sleep. His thoughts quickly turned to the Jedi archives and its wealth of information. 'Maybe it holds the information to save Padmè.' His single line of thought left him oblivious to his surroundings. He almost collided into Master Strass Allie, who frowned at him. Her brown eyes weighed him.

"Be aware of your surroundings, Padawan Skywalker." She said before walking passed him.

Anakin's face blazed red. 'How dare she!' He started but caught himself, 'These are not the thoughts of a Jedi.' He tried so hard, but all the masters' seemed capable of doing was pointing out his flaws. Anakin desperately wanted their approval. He could easily do with just a few compliments. His trouble thoughts turned back to his mission. The only objects in his life that matter, Padmè and their unborn child.

He wished the visions would go away but they had not. At the beginning, he had thought of going to Qui-Gon, but then he would most certainly be expelled from the Jedi Order, for his marriage was forbidden. He remembered Padmè's expressed wishes that he remain in the order, though deeply he felt he should just leave. The only problem was the prophesy of the 'Chosen One'. Until the prophesy was fulfilled he could not leave. Not only that but, Padmè had obligations in the Senate. Eventually though, she would have to give them to her aid Jar Jar Binks.

Anakin entered the archives and was greeted immediately by the strident voice of Master Jocasta Nu carrying through the archives. Silently, he smiled and remembered to be glad that he was not the one receiving the reprimand.

"Master Kenobi, that is simply all the information we hold in our Archive regarding Kora Fitzu, the Jedi exile."

Anakin heard Obi-wan's voice answer. "You practically said the same thing about Kamino."

Master Jocasta gave a noise that somewhat resembled a snort. "Someone deleted those files, which is disturbing enough!" The pair came into view. Obi-wan clutching a holopad looked amused as he tilted his head toward the smaller master. Master Nu looked as if she would explode. "The woman you are searching for simple disappeared, or so the records show. You can easily come to the conclusion yourself that she is dead!"

Obi-wan frowned. "Really? Are you sure?" Obi-wan obviously meant it jokingly.

"No one survives four thousand years!" Jocasta did not catch the jest, but then again she was annoyed at Obi-wan's contacts being correct about a certain planet called Kamino. "Good day, Master Kenobi."

Anakin saw Obi-wan hide a smirk as he bowed to Master Nu.

"And what do you want, Skywalker?" Anakin cursed his luck. 'Why do I have to catch Master Nu's attention,' he wondered to himself.

"I just thought I would to read up on some Force Techniques." He tried not to rouse the old master's suspicions.

She looked hard at him before sighing. "Will this day of pestilence ever end?"

"I will try not to be long."

"See to that." She retorted smugly.

Anakin quickly found a terminal and began to work. He smiled to himself and wondered if Jocasta Nu would ever forgive him for almost wiping a file in the archive. 'I doubt it.' In his mind, it had been an honest mistake. He searched deeper into the files, moving to the ancient texts, but nothing. The hours went by.

Hope began to fade… 'I will find a way to save Padmè.'

His com began to ring, disturbing his musing. "Yes"

"Anakin, the council wishes to speak with you," Qui-Gon's voice chimed triumphantly.

A master and apprentice surveyed the emerald planet before them in silence. The dark energy around them swirled constantly as they thought. The master clothed in flowing robes of the deepest black stood erect. Upon his face, he wore an ashen mask. Upon its pale surface, it displayed designs in deep shades of scarlet, relics of his ancestors. His apprentice differed little in his attire save for a bright red mask, an heirloom of his clan.

"What do we do now, Master?" Darth Detritus whisper was little more then a slight breeze.

"We wait," replied Darth Nebulous. "The fraction called the Separatists are already here, it will only take time for the Republic to come as well. We will make them remember the old days when this galaxy belonged to the true Sith. They shall forever remember what took place here. Then we shall take care of the Pretender, Darth Sidious I think he calls himself."

Detritus smiled behind his mask. Soon part of this galaxy would be his and the alliance between him and Nebulous would cease. The day they would return to the way things had been, they would be enemies and rivals again.

"Until then, Master." Detritus bowed and left the ship's command center, leaving Nebulous in deep thought.

"I am always watching, my apprentice." He whispered silently to himself. "Know that."