Siri walked through the deserted halls of the Temple, the sound of her boots echoing off the high stone ceilings. The single noise made her feel the emptiness of the halls more keenly.

When there wasn't a war going on, Padawans and Knights would mill about the hallways, even at this late hour, catching up with friends between missions or debating the merits of Vapaad over Soresu. Others spent time in the training rooms refining their techniques, learning new forms or just working up a sweat. For Knights who worked in the field, time at home was for rest, reflection and renewing acquaintances.

It was with the first of the three Siri had in mind as she walked toward the meditation gardens. After her bizarre encounter with Obi-Wan and his clone, she tried to fill the rest of her day with activity so she wouldn't have to think about the situation. She had met with the Council to give her mission report, then spent the rest of the day in a studio, working out with a training droid. With all her extra energy and tension, she had been the one to give it a workout. She grinned, remembering the satisfaction of knocking the thing to bits. She would bring the bundle of parts to Anakin tomorrow. It was the sort of thing he would understand, even as his former master would have just grimaced and made some remark about controlling her aggressions.

Somehow, smashing a droid didn't give her the tranquility she was looking for. Even worn out from her mission and the workout, she tossed and turned on her sleep couch. After weeks of sleeping outdoors, her quarters were stifling. So she sought a breath of fresh air ... or the closest thing you could get to it on Coruscant.

As she walked in the garden, she was enveloped by the blue glow of the night lighting. She followed the path lined with flowers and shrubs for a time, then cut through a tangle of shrubbery to find her favorite spot under the two Arboray trees. The lean trunks were spaced a few meters apart, but they slanted together, their branches joining to form an umbrella over a patch of wild grass. It was an ideal place for solitude - usually.

Siri was surprised to discover that her spot was taken. Stretched out on a cloak that was spread over the ground was a sleeping Jedi Master. The lack of lights made it hard to see his features, but Siri didn't need her eyes to see who it was. She reached out and sensed no noise, no shock to interfere with her judgment, and she knew for sure that this was her Obi-Wan. In the Force, she felt no blinding glare, only a soft, soothing warmth. There were no wrong notes, only tones that harmonized well with her own.

As her eyes adjusted to the shade under trees, more of his features became clear under the moon's blue glow. In the years since she and Obi-Wan had decided to set aside their feelings for each other, Siri had spent most of their time together trying to not look at him. "But here we are," she thought and was unable to resist drinking in the sight of him. He lay on his side, his head resting on his left arm. He was dressed in his usual choice of attire, the sand-colored tunic and slightly darker trousers. "Even in his sleep not a hair is out of place," Siri mused, smirking. She mirrored his position on the ground beside him, using her hand to prop up her head.

"He's so changed," Siri thought, "More mature." Memories of their teenage years surfaced, especially of those few precious hours she and Obi-Wan had opened their hearts to one another. Her eyes went to his hand, resting on the ground, and she remembered the feeling of those fingers entwined with hers. A current of energy had spread through her body, warming her core. At the time, both of their hands had been soft, with only a few calluses from lightsaber practice. She knew that her own had changed, grown more rough with age and battle.

Her gaze moved up to his face. It was this face that appeared before her in her weaker moments. The beard he had grown in the intervening years only added to its appeal. The first time she saw it, she'd had to mentally quell a desire to brush her hands across his face. She continued her study, taking in the new lines under his eyes, a scar on the side of his neck that disappeared behind his ear, the brush of hair that ended just above his ear.

Suddenly, she remembered her encounter with Obi-Wan and his clone. The main difference in appearance had been their hair. More specifically, the length.

In that moment, Siri realized that she'd been had. Before thinking, she stood up and gave him a swift kick in the ribs.

Obi-Wan, jarred awake, groaned, "Siri! Do you have to be so brutal?"

"You stupid gundark! You lied to me."

As the initial sharp pain dissipated, Obi-Wan opened his eyes and looked up to meet Siri's accusing glare. He sat up and sighed, rubbing his right side.

"I never lied to you. Think back, you know it's true."

"But you let HIM lie to me. And he's your clone, so essentially you're the same."

"Please. I would like to believe that we are NOT the same – at least in essentials."

This made Siri pause. Coming face to face with yourself is never easy; it must be a hundred times harder when it's actually someone else who looks exactly like you. She shuddered, imagining having to cope with a copy of herself.

"Fine. I'll cut you some slack," she said, "but you have to tell me what's going on. Why is there a Kenobi copy running around the Temple?"

"What else could we do with him? Send him to Agri-Corps?" Siri caught the tone of irony in his voice. Perhaps he was thinking of another path his life could have taken. "Siri, he is the same as me, right down to the midi-chlorians. However, he has neither my training nor my loyalty to the Order. It would be too dangerous to let him roam around the galaxy. He could fall under dark influences."

"But why do you have to baby-sit him? Wouldn't it be better for him to have a full-time guard?"

Obi-Wan remained silent and didn't quite meet her gaze. He plucked a blade of grass from the ground and twirled it between his thumb and forefinger.

"There's something else, isn't there?" Siri ducked her head to move into Obi-Wan's field of vision. "You can't hide it from me forever, so you might as well tell me. Is it that weird off-kilter feeling I get around him?"

"The Council suspects Jak was created and sent here on orders from someone, that he wasn't just a prototype, as the Kaminoans said."

Siri gasped. "You mean there could be a whole fleet of them?" Her vision clouded with the thought of facing a room full of Obi-Wan look-alikes.

A low chuckle escaped from Obi-Wan's lips and he said, "No. We're pretty sure that isn't the case. Our hope is that we're not so blind as to miss something that big." He shook his head. "My, that would be quite the sight, wouldn't it? It would give Anakin nightmares for years to come. Picture them all saying 'Your lightsaber is your life, Anakin,' all at once. It might actually drive the message into his skull."

As Siri guffawed, he continued, "No, the Council believes it was someone with malicious intent … perhaps a Sith lord."

The smile vanished from Siri's face. "Dooku? Darth Sidious?"

"Possibly. We don't know who. We don't know why. I've been instructed to lead him around and train him as if we suspected nothing…"

"… while sniffing out his real reason for being here," Siri concluded.

"That and figuring out just how well he has already been trained. I have been home for only a few days and have had no time to influence him in any way." Obi-Wan lifted his eyes to search out Siri's. "That's why I had to let the deception happen. I had to see how well he could pass for me. The result was more than a little disturbing, of course." The last statement was said in a teasing tone.

"Hey, I was confused! I was planning to seek you out anyway, but when I checked to see if you were around, I was completely overwhelmed. Your presence in the Force was blinding me, and I didn't know why."

"You mean you don't normally feel my presence so strongly?" Obi-Wan felt the need to lighten the mood, but he didn't know why. Maybe it would keep him from going in a forbidden direction. "I should be hurt. I know I don't have the brilliance of Anakin Skywalker, but …"

"Oh, you know what I mean," Siri said impatiently. She couldn't help smiling, though. "You're just not the in-your-face type. Even in the Force."

"Thinking back, I should have known that other guy wasn't you. He was way too happy, for one thing. Too obviously happy. Even on your best days, you are a closed book." Siri lay back on the grass, clasping her fingers behind her head. "And the little cheek kiss? What a sap! You're too pompous for that."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes and let out a small sigh as he leaned back against the tree trunk. "I'm not pompous, just … civilized."

"I say 'muja' You say 'moo-zhah.'"

Now it was Obi-Wan's turn to snort. "Just because you didn't pay attention in language class …"

"You were the only one awake for those lectures, my friend."

Their banter trailed into silence, and the two Jedi lay still, basking in the peace of the garden and one another's presence.

"Obi-Wan?"

"Yes?"

"Why were you in this specific spot? I used to come here all the time when I was a youngling, and no one else ever seemed to know about it. It's not exactly on the path."

"I was at the Temple for a time after my Master was killed. I was restless at night, and walked through the garden a lot. Being closer to nature – and the living Force – made Qui-Gon seem less … gone. One day I had just walked right off the path and ended up here." He brushed off some invisible flecks of soil off his shoulder. "I think I felt your presence here and was comforted. Now I know why. I've often come back. Tonight I just felt the need to be away from…"

"Yourself?" Siri said, smiling.

He lifted his head and turned his eyes to his companion. "Now you must answer a question for me. You mentioned earlier that you had planned to seek me out after arriving. I'm here. What can I do for you?"

Oh, if he only knew, Siri thought sardonically. To Obi-Wan, she simply said, "I needed to borrow some of your tranquility."

"The war."

Siri tilted her head up, looking at the moonlight filtering through the branches. More than a full minute passed in silence before she turned and spoke:

"You know, it's not the fighting and deaths that are really getting to me. Yeah, I'm affected by them. I've cried after watching the slaughter of children. Heck, I even got misty eyed when some troopers I knew were hit. They may be clones, but they are people. I even got to be … not quite friends, but closer acquaintances with some of them.

"Through all this, what really bothers me is that I don't feel like a Jedi. I mean, I've given up a lot to follow this path – knowing my family, making my own decisions about where to go and what to do, sharing what could have been a most amazing love …"

She felt her face turn hot and avoided Obi-Wan's eyes, but forced herself to continue.

"While I was happy to make these sacrifices – I wanted to be a great guardian of the peace – I'm feeling that I have been asked to step off that path too many times. Violence. Deception. I hear the voices in the Force screaming about the wrongness of it all. Yet I must obey the Council."

Now she lifted her head and met his steady blue gaze. "At the same time, they ask me – us to give up our feelings, our bond, which has always felt so right. When we're together, the Force sings to me. How can the wishes of the Council, those great and wise Masters, go so far against what the Force is telling me?"

Before Obi-Wan could reply, she said, "I know you don't have the answers. You can give me the party line, but I am not a fool. There is so much darkness, it's weighing all of us down, making the present and future murky. The line between right and wrong is less clear than it's ever been. I'm doubting everything I've ever known." Her eyes burned with tears unshed, but she refused to hide her face.

Obi-Wan watched her, taking in everything she said. After a moment's hesitation, he reached out and stroked her cheek. "Siri, I don't want to break our promise…"

"You aren't. I did." She leaned her face into his hand, reveling in the simple touch that was already melting some of the coldness she had been feeling inside. "And I can't be sorry for it. I'm confused about many things, but this feels right."

Obi-Wan sat up, gently taking his hand away. "Yes." He took a deep breath. "But it's still against the Code."

Even as the words from his lips, his eyes betrayed him. Some beings had accused Obi-Wan of having no heart, no emotions, and indeed he was often the picture of Jedi serenity. But as Siri locked her gaze with his, she felt she had never seen such depth of feeling in one expression before. She pressed her advantage.

"I'm not asking for marriage. I'm not asking for a grand romance. I just want to feel like a person again. I stopped feeling like a Jedi awhile ago, but I can bear that. Please, please let me be a human, just for this time we are both home. We know it can't be long."

Taking in her plea, Obi-Wan furrowed his brow. "Exactly what is it that you are asking for?"

"I want to feel close to you again, bring back those feelings we have tried to bury for years. Perhaps I haven't been as successful as you have-"

"Don't say that." He stood up and crossed his arms. "Don't make me out to be this paragon of Jedi restraint. My thoughts have often turned to you. More often than is good for me."

Siri rose to his level. "But you haven't tried to reconnect as I have. When I've encountered some difficult situations, more so in the past few months, I have found myself-"

"I know. Like when you were trapped in the cave on Malastare. Or when the blaster got your leg on Kashyyyk and you had to hide behind a tree until one of the Wookiees could sniff you out and bring you to help."

"How did you know? I thought you were too far to sense me consciously. I never felt a response. If you knew I needed help, why didn't you answer me?"

He turned to face her. "I did. Just not directly. In the cave, do you remember falling asleep?"

"Yes. It was just after I thought I'd reached the breaking point. It was completely dark, and the air was getting hotter. The walls were closing in on me. I was sure I would die there, so I stretched out into the Force to find you and say goodbye. Suddenly I felt very drowsy, and I figured I was just running out of air. But then I had the most wonderful dream about splashing around in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. Master Yoda walked in and started scolding me, hitting his stick on the floor. "Behaving as a Jedi should, you are not!" But I was too happy to care. The next thing I remember was waking up in the medical tent back at camp."

Siri came out of her memory. "Was it you who helped me sleep? Did you give me the dream?"

The corner of Obi-Wan's mouth turned up, and his eyes sparkled. "Not really me, the Force helped you sleep - with a little nudge. That dream came from your own addled mind."

"And on Kashyyyk, you made some of the pain go away."

"How is your leg? Have you seen the healers?"

Siri rubbed the back of her thigh where a scar remained. "No more pain. The medical droids did fine. It was just a blaster wound. I don't know when I turned into such a weakling. It's been harder and harder to release my pain and anxiety into the Force. Like in the caves ... I should have been able to calm myself -"

"You're not perfect, and you're not weak. Your focus can be hard to find when your mind and body are in a traumatic situation. The Force is there for you; you just have to remember that." Obi-Wan held out his hand to her. "And I am there, too."

Skin met skin as Siri placed her hand in his, and her heartbeat quickened. Both closed their eyes and allowed the Force to flow through them, strengthening the bond they had tried to forget about for years. Siri started to feel whole, as if a missing piece of her had returned. She was elated, yet tears trailed down her face. With this new release, all the anxiety and despair she had been taught to bury flooded her heart and overwhelmed her.

Silently, Obi-Wan pulled her into his arms, giving her the comfort she needed as she tried to cope with the flood of emotions. As she sobbed into his shoulder, he pushed back the hair from her ear and whispered, "I am here. I will always be here."