Tiv was going through an extremely difficult trial that her Jedi training wouldn't be able to help her with. Washing a kitten.

"Berry! Hold still!" she cried, trying to keep the kitten in the sink without drowning it. Actually, since it spent so little time actually in the water, there wasn't much danger of that.

Outside, the voices stopped for a moment and Qui-Gon called, "Tiv? You need help?"

"No, I'm fine," she answered, grabbing Berry and shoving him back in the sink "Come on," she muttered. "I don't want him to think I can't bathe a kitten without his help. I believe I'm a little more self-sufficient than that!"

Although, as she said that, she wondered why she exactly cared what Qui-Gon thought. After all, he was a Jedi. Tiv blinked as she thought that. Well, that wasn't much of an excuse to hate him. She was a Jedi, too, now.

For now, she reminded herself. She had done everything in her power to get them to refuse to allow her to train with him. The mistakes she had pretended to make during the test the Council had given her should have been enough, especially coupled with her age.

But they had 'let' her train as a Jedi. That wasn't good. Tiv didn't want to be a Jedi, but what could she do? Act like an uncontrollable moron until Qui-Gon gives up on you she told herself. He seemed to be a patient man, but even his patience had to run out eventually.

The shields were good. She was glad her mother had taught them to her, along with meditation. She had been planning to teach her to use a lightsaber, too, but then her mother had died. And now she was stuck training as a Jedi, which she knew her mother would have never wanted.

But she wasn't stuck for long, oh no! Not with her refusal to explain to her master why she had mental shields, or how she knew how to meditate. And if the conversation she had overheard before bringing in Berry and Tassel was any indication…

Then what? What did that mean? She could tell herself that it meant that Qui-Gon didn't trust her because of her shields and meditation, but that wasn't true. He had said that he didn't think she was a Sith, and had spoken almost like he actually saw her as something more than a nuisance.

And he had been completely right about Kolar, and what she had been worried about when Windu had sent Colac away. Or… tried to. But Padmé had stuck up for them, even if it meant that she had to take care of an eight-year-old. Why?

For that matter, why hadn't Qui-Gon argued against keeping her? As well as he hid it, it was plain that he hadn't expected to be told to take her as his Padawan. Or if Obi-Wan believed that she was a Sith, why hadn't he argued more forcefully against her new master? It was almost as if he wasn't trying to prove his point, merely… debating.

A sudden notion occurred to her as she thought about Obi-Wan. The day she had met Boba and gotten knocked out by Anakin and the door, she had seen that image of the two Jedi. The older one, whose Padawan had called him 'the closest thing I have to a father' was Obi-Wan! Then the younger one? An older version of Ani? But Obi-Wan had looked younger? Maybe it was a previous Padawan… no, Ani had told her that he was Obi-Wan's first. The fact that Obi-Wan had looked younger must have just been her imagination.

Tiv couldn't help but laugh at that idea. Her imagination was exactly what it was. Her imagination was exactly what this whole thing was. She simply could not be seeing images of Ani and Obi-Wan before she had even met them.

As if on cue, another one of those images occurred to her.

Something was burning on a table-like thing nearby. A nearly silent group of people was gathered around it, watching sadly. As Tiv looked closely, she thought she saw tears in the eyes of a young woman who looked as if she could have been Padmé's younger sister.

A young boy of about eight or nine was standing near a Jedi who looked about the same age as the one from last time. He was wearing a hood, so she couldn't see if he was a Padawan or not, but he looked young enough to be.

As the thing on the table burned, the boy turned around and asked the Jedi, "What will happen to me now?"

"I'll take you back to Coruscant with me," he said. So they weren't on Coruscant, Tiv thought. She made a mental note to find out where they were. "I promise you, Anakin, you will train as a Jedi."

Anakin! Was this boy a younger version of the Jedi she knew? But the man definitely wasn't Qui-Gon…

A loud 'pop' from the burning thing attracted her attention. Tiv turned around, and, knowing somehow that nobody could see her, decided that she should get closer. She didn't know why, but suddenly, it was of utmost importance that she see what was burning on that table.

As the ghostlike girl moved closer, the fire seemed to shift slightly so that she could see what was on it. It was a man, and he was dead.

The fire shifted again so that she could see his face. It was Qui-Gon.

"Tiv? Tiv! Coruscant to Tiv, we've lost communications!" Tiv blinked and shoved away the hand that was waving in front of her face.

"Sorry, Master," she muttered. Glancing around the room, she almost thought that alternate reality would be better. Then she shook that off. She didn't want to train as a Jedi, but that didn't mean she wanted Qui-Gon dead!

But it was impossible. The Jedi had called the boy 'Anakin', but the Anakin she knew was much older. And yet… Anakin wasn't a common enough name for Qui-Gon to know two of them, right?

So it was obvious that it was the past. But if Qui-Gon was dead, then it must be the future, because the Qui-Gon she knew definitely wasn't dead.

Unless you took the most reasonable explanation, which was that none of this was real at all. But how was she daydreaming without knowing it? And why didn't she have any control over it….

"Where were you?" Qui-Gon was asking. Tiv dismissed the images as fantasy, and returned to reality.

"Sorry, Master. I was just… daydreaming."

Qui-Gon chuckled. "I haven't seen anyone that lost in a daydream since…" He paused, and seemed to thing about something. "Never," he finished, a little too quickly.

"Sorry," repeated Tiv. She glanced around and found Berry hidden in the shower, while the entire bathroom was soaking wet.

"Cats can bathe themselves, right?" she asked. Qui-Gon smiled.

"Close enough."

Well, that was short, but my Mom's chasing me off the computer now. Thank you to all my kind and wonderful reviewers. And, yes, I know that wasn't what Obi-Wan said to Anakin in Episode I, but, as Qui-Gon said, "Close enough." So, what do you think? I'm guessing that this one will be a bit shorter than the last, because I've finally figured out where I'm going with this. Although this might turn out to be a trilogy- eventually. Might and eventually are the keywords there. Have a happy today!