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Anakin stared out at the vast plains of Ansion. He was on duty, watching for any approaching dangers, but his mind was drifting. His head and heart were filled with thoughts of his mother and his life as a slave.

He still had a little more than an hour left on duty, and he settled back when he heard a noise behind him. A breeze had pushed through the grass behind him, and he stood up, alert. He felt something poke him in the back. He whirled around, igniting his lightsaber, and he was prepared to strike, but when he saw who it was, he deactivated his lightsaber immediately. "Sarah!"

Sarah smiled and sat down in the grass, and Anakin followed, sitting next to her.

"Don't do that ever again!" Anakin exclaimed. "Kriff, Sarah, I almost took a swipe at you."

Sarah simply looked at him, staring intently at him with her blue eyes. Finally, he spoke again. "What are you doing out here anyway? You don't have duty for awhile."

"I know, but I couldn't sleep." She continued to gaze at him, her eyes probing, and Anakin got that feeling that he sometimes had that she was deciphering the depths of his heart in only an instant. They sat in silence for a few minutes, staring out at the stars. She spoke again. "I'm worried about you."

He avoided her eyes. How did she know that he had been thinking of his mother? Frustration rose up inside of him. He gave her a sharp look. "Well, you shouldn't be!" He looked away again.

Sarah sighed. "Anakin, I'm your best friend, you can tell me anything, you know that. You always have."

Anakin twirled his lightsaber hilt between his hands, still determinedly not looking at her. It was true, that they had always openly talked with each other, but the dreams that he had been having of his mother felt as though they were eating away something inside of him.

"Anakin, talk to me, please." She said this earnestly, she could sense that he was in pain.

"I- I can't. It hurts too much." He put his head into his hands.

Sarah immediately moved closer and put her arm around his shoulders. He rested his head on her shoulder.

He trusted Sarah with his life, but something was holding him back. They had become inseparable over the years. They had gone on mission after mission, saved each others (and Obi-Wan's) lives, and forged a closer bond than it seemed possible for a Jedi to have.

In short, they had become the best of friends. They had grown up together, and now, Anakin was nineteen, and Sarah, eighteen. They were well on their way to knighthood. They knew everything about each other, every fault and attribute. When it came to fighting, it often seemed pointless for them to spar, for each knew the other so well, it was impossible for one to win.

But then, there was something, that dragon deep in Anakin's heart. The dragon that they never spoke of. Anakin knew that Sarah was well aware of his fear, but for his sake she never mentioned it. Yet there were times when he would glance at her, and he saw etched on her face something inexplicable, yet palpable.

"Anakin..."

The sharp pain in his heart seared once again when he thought of his mother. "Something isn't right. What if she needs me? I abandoned her..."

Sarah drew in a deep breath...of course she had known. He had not needed to speak the words for her to hear them. She had seen them on his face for the entire mission, and long before that.

He spoke again. "Everything is dark, Sarah. I can't see anything in front of us. Nothing is clear anymore. I can feel...darkness."

She shuddered slightly. "I feel it too. Something isn't right."

Anakin pulled himself away from her arm, and tried to regain his composure. "I don't know what's happening." He glanced at her, and he saw how tired she looked. He felt the same way. "I suppose we should just concentrate on the mission then."

She nodded slowly, "I suppose we should," she said quietly.

They again sat in silence, once more staring out into the stars, feeling the Force flow between and around them. Anakin spoke again, "I can't believe that we've know each other for almost ten years."

Sarah laughed, "You mean, only ten years. It feels like forever."

He returned the smile. "And to think that we started out not really liking each other."

She propped herself up on her elbows and looked at him. "Actually, I always liked you, you just had to go and act like a nerf all of the time."

"Oh, excuse me! Who's the nerf? You're the one who always has her nose in a book, saying big words and always taking the safe route. If it weren't for me, you would have been dead a long time ago."

She gave him a playful punch on the arm. "Oh, that's funny Anakin. You must have meant that if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have almost died on so many missions. You're the one who always has to take the dangerous way."

He gave her a sly grin. "Well, what fun would life be if it weren't dangerous?"

"It would be the life of a Jedi." She said, giving him a pointed stare.

He sighed. "Oh, you and your Jedi. I know you live for danger. What about that mission on Sempra? I don't recall being the one to suggest that trip into the cave full of rishaas. By the way, I never got to thank you for my month at the healers after that."

Sarah gave him a livid glare, "Oh, right. And what about that time on Misonani? Don't worry, I still haven't forgotten that brilliant idea that you had about seeing if the smuggler's camp was at the bottom of the canyon. That was one dazzling flash of genius, let me tell you."

"You're just bitter because I saved your neck."

"Hmm, that's odd, because something tells me that if you hadn't had that son of a Sith idea in the first place, my neck wouldn't have needed saving!"

Anakin just shook his head, but his face revealed a wide grin. Sarah rolled her eyes. There was once again silence, but it was very comfortable this time around. Sarah lay back down, and Anakin did as well. He certainly felt a little bit better. Sarah always seemed to know just how to help him get his mind off of the bad, and focus on the good. The warm breeze was all around them, and Anakin decided that for the time being, he simply needed to concentrate on the mission.

They talked late into the night, remembering old missions, fun times at the Temple, and they tried to forget about the dark feelings that loomed ahead in the future. Though the two Padawans did not speak of it again, it remained, and it cast a shadow over their lighthearted conversation.

The Force was changing, and rather than feeling clear and comforting, it was shaken and uneasy. In the distance, in the plains of Ansion, the rest of the Jedi's mission lay ahead of them. And in the grass, there lay two young Jedi Padawans, best friends, talking until the faint ray of dawn began to shine upon the grasslands.

And when the morning came, the Jedi mounted their suubatars into the light of the rising sun, but just beyond, the darkness of the quickly approaching future.

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A/N: I know that Ansion was actually pre-AOTC, but I loved The Approaching Storm (if you haven't read it, definitely do...it's great), so I threw it in here, but don't worry, I'm getting there! Thanks for reading!