Anakin knew he was awake, but refused to open his eyes for a few seconds. He was still tired and might have let himself fall back asleep if not for the incessant clanging of the breakfast bell. How many times did they have to ring it? He groaned and sat up, for a moment forgetting he had fallen asleep in Eraan's room. He hadn't meant to.

Eraan himself was already up and in the process of slipping into a fresh shirt.

He looked over at Anakin and smiled. "Can't wait to get some real food. Are you coming?"

Anakin thought for a moment, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He hadn't even taken his boots off last night, and he felt stiff and grubby. The slightest musty whiff of dentherium still clung to his tunic. He was certainly hungry, but Obi-Wan was sure to be at breakfast. Thinking about that gave his stomach that twisted feeling again.

"I'm going to go back to my rooms," Anakin said, getting up. "I need a shower."

"You don't want to see your master right now, huh?" Eraan asked. "I guess I don't blame you."

Anakin walked to the door, declining to answer. "I'll see you later, okay?" if Obi-Wan doesn't kill me, he mentally added to himself.

Eraan nodded. "Yeah. Not like I'm going anywhere."

Anakin made his way back upstairs and entered the now-empty guest suite. Obi-Wan had, true to his conscientious nature, cleaned up the broken bowl and placed the fruit in a neat pile on the counter top. Anakin grabbed a knobby pinkish purple one and devoured it quickly before heading to the shower.

He was still tired and would have preferred to go back to bed, but it felt good to get clean and he took his time. At the Temple they were encouraged to take short showers. Water on Coruscant, while not exactly a scarce resource, was still at a premium compared to other worlds due to the enormous populace. Anakin figured it didn't matter so much here, so he savored the water for nearly a half hour, something that had never ceased feeling like a luxury to him after growing up on a desert planet.

By the time he got out of the shower he could sense that his master had returned to the apartment. Anakin changed into his clean set of clothes, taking his time. He studied himself in the mirror as he slowly redid his braid. When was the last time he'd redone, anyway? He knew he was supposed to rebraid it everyday, but he always found it an easy thing to forget unless it was coming undone, and when he did rebraid it, the task was usually performed in a hurry and something he considered a pain.

When he'd first become Obi-Wan's padawan, his short braid had tickled his neck unbearably for the first couple weeks or so and he did not see what the use of it was. It seemed to be one of those inscrutable things that the Jedi Order just required, that you weren't supposed to question.

He remembered now what Obi-Wan had told him when Anakin had asked what the braid was for:

One strand for the apprentice, one for the master, one for the Force. All of them entwined tightly together, inseparable.

He hadn't thought about that in a long time.

There was no denying the truth that he had not been a very good apprentice lately. He'd been rebellious and he'd been insolent. If Obi-Wan did feel stuck with Anakin, who could blame him with the way Anakin acted sometimes? And yet for all that, his master had always treated him with kindness and patience. Anakin knew that Obi-Wan, who could be critical and even strict when he wanted to be, still often let him get away with more than some masters would. He resolved to do better today and the first step was to take whatever he had coming to him for his behavior last night.

He came out of the refresher to see his master standing by the window.

"I'm surprised you weren't at breakfast," Obi-Wan said, turning toward him with a neutral expression. "Have you had anything at all to eat since yesterday?"

"Not much," Anakin said. "A little."

"Did you sleep well last night?"

"I slept okay," Anakin answered quietly.

Obi-Wan gave him a long look. "Come here, Anakin," he said at last.

Anakin shuffled over, wishing he could feel something of his master's mood or intentions through the Force, but things felt muddled and uncertain. Obi-Wan wasn't always easy to read at the best of times.

He didn't expect to be pulled into a hug, but that's what happened. He couldn't help but feel some comfort and reassurance in his master's arms, even though previous experience had taught him that getting a spontaneous hug from Obi-Wan did not always mean being off the hook. It could in fact mean quite the opposite. Anakin thought about the training mission on Dianoga a few months back, and Obi-Wan's reaction when he had attempted to climb a three hundred foot sea cliff without equipment during one of the worst storms of the decade.

"Are you mad at me?" Anakin mumbled into the folds of his master's tunic.

"No," Obi-Wan sighed, releasing him and looking down at him seriously. "I'm not. But I really wish you wouldn't run off like that when I'm trying to talk to you."

"I'm sorry," Anakin said. He meant it. "Promise I won't do it again."

Obi-Wan looked just a bit skeptical at this. "Even when the conversation gets difficult?"

Anakin nodded.

"I'll hold you to that." He squeezed Anakin's shoulder. "But, we'll consider this matter behind us."

Relieved, Anakin couldn't help but wrap his arms around Obi-Wan again.

"I have the day planned out for us," Obi-Wan said after a moment, releasing himself gently from his padawan's death grip . "An earlier start would have been better, but no matter."

"Where are we going?" Anakin asked.

"First we're going to the refectory to get you something real to eat," Obi-Wan answered.

"But where are we going after that?"

"One thing at a time." Obi-Wan's voice had taken on its familiar tone of fondness and exasperation. Anakin smiled, following his master out the door. Things were beginning to feel back to normal.

Things being back to normal made Anakin feel incredibly hungry. Fortunately there was more than enough leftover food from breakfast. They sat alone at one of the long tables in the dining hall while Anakin feasted on boiled eggs, porridge, fruit and a surprisingly varied assortment of baked goods.

"I was pleased to hear that you and Eraan at least worked out your differences," Obi-Wan remarked. "We Jedi have no reason to quarrel with one another."

"Yes, Master, I know. We're friends now," Anakin said earnestly. It seemed almost funny that only a couple days before, he and Eraan had been shoving one another to the ground. Strange how they had gone from there to friends so quickly. They were friends, weren't they? Anakin supposed they qualified.

"This is way better than Temple food, isn't it?" Anakin remarked, eating his second slice of bread with honey.

"Now, don't overdo it," Obi-Wan said, sipping his tea. "You don't want too full a stomach for what we're going to be doing."

Anakin grabbed a napkin and wiped his hands off. "Will you tell me what we're going to be doing, now?"

"I thought we'd do some meditation first," Obi-Wan said with a smile that might have been slightly teasing.

"Oh," Anakin said, trying not to sound too disappointed. He picked up his tray of dishes, but before he could reach the kitchen, Coral appeared in the doorway and took his tray from him, her eyes twinkling.

"I'll take this. Sounds like you're off to have a busy day. I heard your master is taking you to the vergence." Her voice was low and conspiratorial as if letting him in on a secret.

"He won't tell me anything," Anakin shrugged, wondering what the vergence was. He'd heard the term before at the Temple, but had never been quite clear on its meaning. Just that it was something to do with the Force. There was something about the way Coral said it that made it sound quite mysterious, intriguing. Something more interesting than regular morning meditation.

Obi-Wan led Anakin around the back of a garage at the far side of the compound.

"Now, don't get too excited." He pulled the cover off a couple of worn and well-used looking speeder bikes.

Upon seeing them, Anakin felt far from excited. The paint was chipped, the seats splitting and one of them had a large dent. "These look...old."

"Yes, they were here when I was your age, and they were old even then. But they'll serve our purpose for today. " Obi-Wan got on one of the bikes and handed Anakin a pair of goggles that had been hanging over the handlebars.

Anakin seated himself on the other bike and started it up. As old as it was, his philosophy was that an old speeder bike was better than no speeder bike, and felt grateful that he and Obi-Wan wouldn't have to share. Anyway, surely they'd let him work on these; he was sure he could bring them up to his standard in a week or two.

"It sits kind of low," he remarked. "Maybe I could take a look -"

But Obi-Wan had already taken off and was heading toward the road.

"Hey!" cried Anakin indignantly and sped off to catch up with his master.

The bikes were about as slow as Anakin had expected, but they ran smoothly, and Anakin enjoyed the ride. After a few minutes on the main road, Obi-Wan turned off and they headed down into a wooded area where the terrain grew steep and hilly. They slowed down next to the head of a trail and Obi-Wan motioned for Anakin to get off his bike.

"You gave me the slower one," Anakin sulked, taking off his goggles.

"Nonsense," Obi-Wan said. He started heading briskly up the trail, clearly expecting Anakin to follow.

"What's a vergence, Master?" Anakin asked, running after him.

"A vergence in the Force? It's a physical point where the activity of the Force is particularly strong or concentrated. Some say it's a point in space and time where the Living Force and the Cosmic Force are in perfect harmony."

"What causes it?"

"There've been many books written on the subject. But Qui-Gon would tell you the answer is the Will of the Force."

"How do you tell what the Will of the Force is?" Anakin asked.

"That's the eternal question, isn't it?" Obi-Wan said simply. "I'm afraid I can't answer that one for you this afternoon. Now, quiet your mind if you can. You will need to before you can enter."

They continued up the trail, which had become steep and rocky, hugged on either side by large trees. Once in a while, through the trees, they could get a view of the plains below them, a few small lakes shining in the distance. Anakin thought he saw a herd of dentherium moving in the distance, but there was no time for a closer look.

The trail seemed to halt abruptly. Instead of switching back again up the cliff side that loomed above them, it ended at the edge of a steep drop-off.

"This can't be it," Anakin said, looking around.

Obi-Wan didn't say anything.

Anakin took a deep breath, clearing his mind as Obi-Wan had told him to earlier. It made sense that this place they were going was secret. Jedi loved secrets.

After a few slow inhalations and exhalations, he reached out and felt the Force around him. Nothing felt particularly strange or different, but he did feel pulled toward the cliffside to his right. He put his hand to the rock, feeling it, running his fingers over the surface until he came to a spot where it was unusually smooth. His palm seemed to grow warmer as he rested it there.

Obi-Wan stepped forward and placed his hand on the rock near Anakin's. "Together works best. This place is not meant to be entered alone."

An image of an opening where the rock now was sprung into Anakin's mind as if someone else had placed it there. He focused on it, and through the Force could feel Obi-Wan doing the same. He kept his eyes closed, concentrating even harder as the stone under his hand started to vibrate slightly. He could feel it moving now, gently brushing past his hand as if something was pulling it away, back into the cliffside. Anakin was used to willing objects to move, but this was as if the stone itself wanted to move aside, and he was simply giving it permission. He'd never felt anything like it.

When he opened his eyes, there was darkness before him where stone had been before.

"After you," Obi-Wan said.