Disclaimer: They're not ours, don't sue us. Qui, Xani, Jabba, and other familiar characters all belong to Georgie, but Kai and Ele are ours... hehe. And, sadly, I don't own the QGJ tone poem, which definitely keeps me up at night in bouts of unhappiness...

A/N: sorry about the big delay, here, we've both had final exams this week, and then Anij decided to FINALLY tell me that I'M the one who's supposed to be in control here... and then told me to write the next few chapters. (Big hug for that) Hopefully when school is out, we'll be able to write more... yay. Ok, well, now I'm just stalling writing notes, on to the actual story...

Chapter IV: Awakened at a Jedi's Touch

When Qui-Gon awoke, the first thing that he noticed was an odd warmth by his torso. /Xani/ His Padawan hadn't curled up to him like this in years, this was most unusual. And then, looking down, he remembered the events of the previous day.

They had landed their Starfighters near the outskirts of town, wishing to remain inconspicuous. After hiking into Mos Eisley, they had quickly found Jabba's gargantuan palace, it was the largest structure in the entire city. Still fairly early in the morning, they had completed their negotiations, although they didn't go nearly as well as the Jedi had hoped. Then they had decided to accept the Hutt's hospitality and stay the night in his palace before returning to Coruscant. They had been standing around in his huge throne room getting extremely tired of his perverse entertainments when the two twin human slave girls had been brought in to be inspected. Seemingly in an attempt to impress the Jedi, with their known disapproval of slave trade, the Hutt had been merciful, and sent the two to wait on the Jedi. Qui-Gon had noticed the two stumbling from exhaustion on the journey up to their rooms, that one seemed to have been harshly beaten recently, and that though her bruises and wounds were healing, she seemed feverish and most likely quite ill. Upon introductions to the two, the sick one, Kai, had collapsed, and Ele had rushed over.

This was when both Qui-Gon and Xanatos has truly been surprised. She had started pouring her own life-energy to her sister, channeling the Force into in incredible amounts. Kai's healing progress was almost visible in its rapidity, but at the cost of her sister's energy. They formed a balance, one falling to raise the other. That was when the Jedi had jumped in, pulling at the Force and casting its healing energy throughout the room. At their touch, it seemed like the Force exploded within the two girls, blinding what must have been all sensitives in the area with the sheer power that had been contained within the two.

It was- astonishing, amazing, incredible, to say the least. He had never seen such high Force potential in his life, contained within one being. Well, two beings, but even individually, they shone with incredible Force potential. He should try to test their midichlorians sometime... the healing one, Ele, had even said she had heard them, and at such a young age, it was almost unheard of- The two are amazing, they must be taken to the Jedi Temple to be trained, not just that it would be a shame to let that much potential go to waste, but to think of what it could do, unchecked, unguided, that was a frightening thought. But they would have time to check their midis today, they had all been to tired yesterday.

Which brought him back to the warm lump under the blankets curled up against his chest. /They're so adorable, both of them. I wonder how they became slaves like this, at such a young age, they deserve a family./

Even though he tried to get out of the bed quietly and without moving too much, the girl awoke and immediately sprung out of bed, kneeling on the ground.

"I'm so sorry, sir, I was cold during the night, i had been asleep, and wasn't thinking clearly, I just wanted to go somewhere warm-"

"No, that's fine. And you don't need to call me sir, Qui-Gon will do. Or, if you insist on something seemingly more respectful, Master Jinn will do fine." Now let's wake up your sister and my lazy Padawan."

Nodding, she bowed again. "Yes, Master Jinn, and thank you." With that, she silently walked over to where her sister lay. Climbing silently on top of the back of the couch, after perching right above her sister, she pounced down on her.

With lightning-fast reflexes, Kai rolled over onto her back, catching her falling sister, but instead of holding onto her as the Jedi had expected, she rolled over on her side again, flipping Ele out off of the couch and onto the floor. Responding quickly, Ele grabbed Kai's shoulders, pulling her down to crash onto the floor with a loud thump. Neither of them seemed fazed by the impact, and continued to wrestle, until Kai knelt atop of her elder twin, hands on her throat.

"Yield, sister."

Unexpectedly, Ele smiled broadly. "Great job, Kaikai. You were dead out there a minute ago, good fast reflexes. You're far better at this than I am"

Kai nodded in acknowledgment. "Thank you, but-" she pressed down a bit harder on her sister's neck- "You didn't yield. Unless You wanted to continue, of course."

Laughing slightly, and deciding that the situation was indeed getting uncomfortable, Ele nodded.

"Alright then, I yield. Accepted?"

Kai released her sister and smiled happily. "Great. Now, where are we?"

After making sure that Xanatos was well on his way to a state of reasonable awareness, Qui-Gon went over and knelt down by the girls so that he was approximately their height.

"You're in the company of two Jedi who would dearly like to help you. You showed that you both have exceptional reflexes just now, and yesterday it appeared that you knew of the Force. These are traits necessary in Jedi."

Both girls looked up at him suddenly. "Traits of-" "Jedi?" Kai finished Ele's sentence and thought. They continued, switching speakers of the same line of thoughts.

"You mean-"

"You want-"

"As Jedi-"

"US?" Both of them exclaimed at once.

Qui-Gon smiled. /No, there's no hiding anything from either of them. They catch on extremely quickly."

"Perhaps. The Council might consider you both to be too old, and we have to check your strength in the Force, test you, although the Council will do that, as well... but then, of course, there is the question: Do the two of you even WANT to become Jedi? You would have to leave your home here, and everything that you know."

Kai tilted her head thoughtfully. "Why wouldn't we want to be Jedi? We could be heroes!"

The Master sighed. "It is a hard life. You will train for many years before reaching the rank of a Knight, and even then, you will be sent on missions almost continuously. It is one without reward, the work of a Jedi is to better the galaxy and others, with no thought to themselves. Without remorse, without regret, there is no looking back, Jedi are entirely devoted to their purpose."

Meeting his eyes, Ele nodded. "But it is something that you chose, that you have decided to give yourself to. Do you think we should do the same?"

"A path will be placed before you, as now, you can decide, but the choice is yours alone, I cannot help either of you make that decision. You must do what you think you cannot, a Jedi often pushes themselves to their physical and mental limit on a regular basis. It is a hard life, but you will find out who you are, the Force can show you your true potential, your true self. Are you still as excited?"

Both the girls stared at him for a moment, then nodded.

"Excellent. Xani? I really should go see if I can salvage anything from our negotiations with the Hutt. Would you be willing to do some of the preliminary Force-sensitivity tests on the girls until i get back?"

The young man bowed slightly.

"Yes, Master. Good luck on your negotiations, I have a feeling that you'll need it, the Hutts as they are."

"Thank you, Padawan." With that, he strode briskly out of the room. As the door closed behind him, Xanatos turned to the girls.

"As my Master said, I'm to test your Force abilities. Don't be nervous, you don't need to know much about the Force for the simpler tests. Now, Kai, let's start out with you. Come sit here in front of me, and we'll start your testing."

Nervously, she came forward and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of him, while Ele waited by the window for her turn. When both girls had finished, the talked to Xanatos about his life as a Jedi Padawan, until Master Qui-Gon returned.

"How did the negotiations go, Master?"

Qui-Gon sighed. "Same as yesterday, absolutely pointless. And then I tried to ask about the girls, which went over, if this is possible, even less well."

"What did you ask him?"

"If we could take them with us, for undisclosed reasons, to free them, or if we could buy them and free them, with the small amount of money we have. Jabba thinks they're valuable to him, and won't free them, of course, and won't accept the small sum of money that we have. How did the tests go?"

"Quite well, Master. They show high potential, I do agree that we should take them to the Temple for training. But if the Hutt won't let us have him-"

"We'll just have to figure something out, won't we? And before we start making an more detailed plans, are you two sure that you wish to leave and come with us? It might be dangerous just leaving the planet itself."

Kai stepped forward. "Yes, Master Jinn. We don't want to be slaves, anything is better than this, if it has freedom. We want to come with you." Ele nodded emphatically.

"Alright then. We should leave tonight, Xanatos and I need to return to the Temple and report on our negotiations with the Hutts. You're technically not allowed to come with us, so we have several issues to consider. First off, we need to get you out of the palace here, then through Mos Eisley without being seen. Of course, there are also the implants that you have, which should be dealt with before we leave the planet. Do you have any ideas as to how to get them out?"

Smirking slightly, Kai looked up at him. "Of course we do. We almost got them out once, but then one of Hajja's people caught us at it, and beat us for almost getting them out. But with some time with no chance of anyone breaking in on us, and a sharp knife, we can get them out easily. Best not to do it here, though, someone would definitely notice."

Qui-Gon smiled broadly at that. "Well, that gets rid of one of our problems. We could help you get them out back on the ship once we get there. But as for escaping itself, I'm afraid that that's a bit harder. Any ideas?"

There was silence for a moment, until it was broken by Xanatos.

"Sneaking around usually works fairly well. I noticed several back entrances on the way up here, and once the palace is asleep, it shouldn't be all that hard to get out without notice. Out in the city, there'll be more life, but I suppose that we could stick to back alleys and shadows."

"That could work, but it also has more potential to go wrong. Although I don't see many other feasible options, it is quite risky."

"Well, Master, if we can think of nothing else, I guess we'll have to take the risks."

"Alright, then, you have a definite point there, Padawan. We can leave later at night, then, no sense in starting out now. I just hope nothing will go wrong..."

Bib Fortuna bowed before the huge Hutt.

"How may I serve you, O Great Jabba?"

"Hmmmmm... The Jedi. Watch them tonight. I do not trust them, they seemed too interested in those two girls. We wouldn't want them getting away from us, now would we? They're far too valuable."

"Yes, O Jabba. I shall keep an eye on them, and have the guards alert. We will not allow them to escape with our property."

So sorry that this took so long, this chappy didn't like me. No clue why, but it took forever. I'll try and get the next chapter written soon, but I'm leaving to go to a computerless family gathering on Monday, so I don't know if I can finish and post and time. prays to plot bunny shrine PLEASE review, it helps me write faster. Make the nice authors happy...

-Yaviƫ Jinn