A/N: Sorry for the wait, everyone. Here's a new chapter to hopefully make up for it!

Disney owns Star Wars, and has recently bought most of Fox's stuff as well. The next logical step for them would probably involve buying the moon.

"...reports of CIS Bombing runs on planets such as Dathomir and Lotho Minor have increased fears of potential weapons testing in preparation for incursions into Republic Space; Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has stated that security is of the highest concern, and a vote on increased security measures is expected to occur in the Senate soon. In other news-"

The holonet news feed switched off mid-sentence as Padme Amidala sighed. This is the last thing we need right now. More fear, more paranoia... and more lost liberties. Standing up, she walked towards the window and looked over the vast cityscape of Coruscant. If she were completely honest with herself, she didn't precisely DISLIKE Chancellor Palpatine. She understood his concerns all too well. But his growing authority and the emphasis on military victory and security over peace and liberty worried her more and more. A small voice in her mind told her that she wasn't worrying nearly enough about Palpatine; for the first time, she wondered whether or not she ought to listen to it more carefully.

Almost without conscious thought, she placed her hand on her stomach; she found herself doing that more frequently of late, and she didn't quite know why. Before she could muse upon it, however, a welcome distraction occurred in the form of a familiar voice.

"Hello, Angel."

A playful smile crossed her face; she didn't need to turn around to know who it was. "Honestly, that's such a corny name. Don't you find it a bit much?"

Anakin wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his head on her shoulder. "Better than the whole 'sand' thing I tried back on Naboo," he said with a chuckle. "Force, I was so stupid back then..."

"I wouldn't say stupid."

"Well, what would you say?"

"Awkward, silly, ineloquent, unsophisticated..."

She twisted in his embrace, looking into his eyes. "...and sweet."

A few moments passed in silence; finally, they worked up the will to end the embrace. It took everything they had not to fall back into it.

"Ah! Master Anakin! How wonderful to see you again!"

C-3P0 entered, blissfully unaware of the precious moment he had just brutally trampled to death beneath his golden feet. Anakin responded with his usual half-exasperated smirk.

"Always nice to see you intact, Threepio."

"Would you care for me to bring you a refreshment, Master Anakin?"

"No," replied the Chosen One. "I think we'll both be fine. If you don't mind, Padme and I would like some privacy..."

"My apologies, Master. I will endeavor to—"

A raised hand cut Threepio off; getting the hint, the golden protocol droid walked out of the room, leaving the couple alone once more. Before Anakin could move to flirt again, he felt a brief pang of worry from Padme.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, Ani. Just politics as usual... I hate politics as usual."

They sat down next to each other, Anakin's arm around Padme's shoulder as she continued. "The surrender on Balith and the addition of more worlds into the League of Neutral Systems have given us more of a chance for peace, but no one seems to want to even consider it. It's all about winning the war... regardless of what we may end up losing in the process."

He tilted his head a bit. "Well, sometimes we need to make hard choices to end things faster."

"That's what Palpatine keeps saying—"

"And I agree with him. But Padme..."

He caressed her cheek. "I may not agree with you on the whole peace thing, and I honestly don't think there was ever a chance for it in the first place, not with Dooku. But that idealism... it's one of the things I love the most about you." A frown went across his face. "Sometimes, I think you're right. Sometimes I feel like this war is tapping into something inside me... a part of me that feels darker. But you... you take the dark away."

Another pause. Padme broke the silence this time, looking at Anakin with one of her "serious business" expressions. "Ani... I don't know how much longer we can keep this a secret. It feels like something is bound to slip soon..."

"You worry too much."

"Didn't you see Obi-Wan's expression when we got back from Alderaan? I think he suspects something."

Anakin flinched. "No, if he suspected something, he would have told the council and it would be over by now."

"But isn't he your friend?"

"Well, yes—I mean, no—I mean..." he stood up in a huff. "I don't know. I trust him, I really do, but you know how much he believes in the code. He drove that into me from day one."

"Something tells me he would understand more than you think, Ani."

He looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"I was speaking to Duchess Satine of Mandalore in a recent talk, and his name came up. Something about the way she spoke of him... it made me think of us."

"What? Obi-Wan 'attachments lead to suffering' Kenobi? You're kidding." Anakin gave an almost disbelieving chuckle.

"Call it 'woman's intuition', Ani. I'm not saying there's anything going on between them, and I'm DEFINITELY not saying that we should just up and tell him. But there's a chance he might be more sympathetic than you think, and if something does come up that we can't hide... I feel like we could trust him more than anyone else in the galaxy."

He sat down again, a look of genuine concern on his face. "What do you mean, 'if something does come up'? Is something wrong now?"

She sighed, leaning against him as her hand once again moved to her stomach. "No, it's probably nothing... just nerves, I guess..."

The man quietly entered the room, eyes darting from side to side. "Hey, boss? You here?"

"Keep your voice a bit lower, Halern. Coruscant's got eyes and ears everywhere."

He turned around to see his employer, emerging from the shadows like some phantom. Intimidating, to say the least.

"Yeah, yeah. I got what you asked for, by the way. Wasn't easy, though..."

"Something go wrong?"

The man nodded. "Yeah. I already got handed the datachip from our contact, but then I overheard someone about to say your name to some Jedi and his padawan and had to shut him up. They gave me a kriff of a chase, but I managed to slip away."

"This Jedi," his employer replied, "Was it a human male, 'bout yay high, facial hair and a High Coruscanti accent?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Idiot. He bugged you."

"What do you me—AAAUGH!"

A blaster shot rang out. "You don't just 'slip away' from Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's too persistent."

The dead man's employer turned toward another shadowy corner of the room. "Isn't that right, Kenobi?"

Two lightsabers activated in response.

Thanks to the tracking bug Master Obi-Wan planted on the assassin, we managed to track the guy down to an abandoned sublevel of the Senate building. As we circled the area in our speeder looking for a discreet landing point, Master Obi-Wan spoke to me.

"Listen carefully, Kevin. If the man behind our assassin is the man whose name I suspect Va'Gota was going to speak, then we will have to approach this with the utmost caution. He's known for ambush tactics and laying traps, so simply sneaking up on him, while wise, is not an easy task. We don't have time for a formal lesson, so for now just watch me closely, observe what I do with the Force, and try to replicate it as best as you possibly can."

I nodded, centering myself a bit as we finally landed. Disembarking, I followed Master Obi-Wan's advice and observed him carefully, focusing on him through the Force so as to avoid missing any details on whatever he was about to do. I watched as he guided the Force around him, shifting air currents and slowing his breathing to almost a halt; once he did so, he gestured for me to watch as he demonstrated what he had just done, then took his hand and smacked the ground with an open palm as hard as he could... but no sound emerged.

A method for silencing one's movements and actions through the Force? That seemed rather advanced. But Master Obi-Wan wouldn't have shown me if he didn't think I could pull it off, I thought. I managed to get it right on the first try, but it wasn't nearly as clean as his own application, and I had to focus to keep it up.

The two of us silently moved through the darkened area until we heard voices; I was pretty certain that I recognized one of them. As we entered the room, a blaster shot startled me enough that a small, barely audible gasp escaped my lips... which was evidently enough to be heard. The man who fired the shot turned right to our location and taunted us, revealing himself as one of the deadliest non-Force wielders in the Galaxy: Cad Bane.

Our cover blown, Master Obi-Wan and I activated our lightsabers in response. "I suspected we would meet again, Bane. What might your game be this time?"

"You honestly think I'll explain, Kenobi?"

"Not really. Hope springs eternal, though."

Cad Bane chuckled. "If you're looking for hope... you're in the wrong Galaxy."

Suddenly, he threw a grenade in our direction, forcing us to leap for cover as he followed up with a hail of blaster fire. "Your new padawan needs to work on being quiet. Not that he'll get the chance."

I felt the Force screaming a warning in my head as another grenade rolled next to me; I barely had enough time to leap away yet again, moving straight into the line of fire and only just managing to block the blaster bolts sent in my direction. I knew from the show that Bane was skilled, but facing him in person gave me a whole new appreciation for just HOW skilled he was.

I felt Master Obi-Wan speak in my head telepathically as he tried advancing on Bane, only to be forced to deflect a barrage of blaster bolts. Are you alright, Kevin?

Yeah, I replied, trying to attack from behind only for Bane to coolly level one of his blasters in my direction without even looking.

"You got guts, kid. But you might wanna leave this stuff to the professionals. It's dangerous." he taunted, firing. His aim was flawless; it was all I could do to block the bolts and move to cover again.

"Surely you don't think you can win this, Bane," Master Obi-Wan said. "my padawan may be unseasoned, but you're hardly in an advantageous position yourself."

"True. Just one problem, Kenobi..." Bane said, tossing a smoke bomb and backing off. "I'm not trying to win. I'm trying to stall."

Searching for him through the Force, I found nothing. "I'm guessing you're wondering why you can't feel me through the Force," Bane said. "Well, you ever heard of a little thing called a Ysalamiri? 'Course you have, one of your lightsaber forms is named for it. I won't bore you with too many details, but the critter has the ability to make a sort of 'Force cloak' to hide itself; even the most powerful Jedi can't sense it when it's hiding. I got one hidden in my jacket for just such an occasion... but don't worry, I know how to share. In fact, I'm gonna let you have eight of them... packaged along with the bombs I hid in the Senate chambers. Good luck finding all of them before they go off—shouldn't take more than an hour or so."

"Blast! Looks like we'll have to let him go this time," Master Obi-Wan shouted. "Hurry back to the speeder, Kevin—we have to stop those bombs somehow!"

As we lifted off, Master Obi-Wan took out his commlink and sent out a warning to the relevant officials to evacuate the senate. I spent the ride wondering how in the Force we were going to find those bombs in time, empty house or no. We managed to make it to the chambers quickly enough, a number of Senate Guards with bomb squad equipment in tow.

"Master, if these bombs have Ysalamiri with them, how are we going to find them?"

Master Obi-Wan looked at me with utter calm. "I'm not going to find them, Kevin. You are." He cut short my reply with the same calm tone. "Your sensory abilities are greater than most of the Order, padawan. You may not be able to see them, but you can sense ambient Force energies better than even I can, and at a greater range. And that means you can sense where that ambient energy isn't as well."

"But I've never tried stretching out that far—"

"Remember Master Yoda's favorite words. Do, or do not..."

There is no try, I remembered. He was right; I may not have near the power or skill of a full knight, but my senses had a use all their own. Taking a few breaths to calm my nerves as best as possible, I reached out with my feelings as far as they could go.

The effect was dramatic; suddenly, I could see EVERYTHING in the entire chamber at once—hundreds of meters in every direction. It took every ounce of focus I had to not let the sheer amount of information overwhelm me, but with Master Obi-Wan's presence steadying me, I was able to maintain control. I quickly started honing in on the ambient energy in the massive chamber, seeing the flow of residual life energy moving through every inch of the place... every inch but eight points, scattered throughout the chambers. I calmly began pointing out the locations to the Senate Guards and was almost done before something unexpected happened.

I received a vision of a red glow; to my shock, it was the same image as the one I saw on Alderaan! This time, however, the image was clearer than a simple red glow; I was able to make out a lightsaber as well, a single-bladed curved hilt. As the image cleared even more, I noticed something else that surprised me: I couldn't make out whose lightsaber it was, but I somehow knew that it didn't belong to Ventress. Not Ventress. Not Sidious. Not Maul or Savage. And not Dooku. This was someone entirely new.

Suddenly, I found myself back in the chamber. "Master—"

"Don't worry, they've found the last of them, Kevin. You did well."

I was about to tell Master Obi-Wan what I had just seen when I suddenly felt an objection from the Force. What was it about this new player that I couldn't say anything? And more importantly, who was it?

"I understand completely, Master. Your will shall be done." As Darth Sidious ended the holocall, Dooku managed to hide a smirk. Ordering me to disown Ventress... precisely the response I expected.

Before Dooku could internally gloat further, the holocomm beeped again; answering the call, an image of Cad Bane appeared.

"Plan went off without a hitch. Gotta say, you're about as crafty as they come, Dooku."

"I assume that means you acquired the data on Krennic's hyperdrive experiments?"

"Sending it to you right now. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you honestly wouldn't have minded much if the Jedi got their hands on it either, huh?"

"You are quite perceptive, bounty hunter, but I would advise you not to pry further into my plans. I will likely have need of you further, but that depends on the level of trust I can afford to give you."

"Only an idiot trusts a guy like me, and you're no idiot, Dooku. But don't worry, whatever your plans are, I don't care so long as you keep the credits coming. Nice doing business with you."

The call shut off once again, Dooku looking at the newly received information on his datapad. He smiled again; it was almost too good to be true. Sidious was behind the level of his own people's experiments, which meant that his master was relatively unaware of his scientists' attempts to make their own version of Sidious' planned superweapon, among other things. That said, the intended application the data clearly pointed to worried him; if Sidious could develop a way to point the device at someone, then Sidious wasn't far behind, and what such a device could reveal to his master would almost certainly ruin his own plans. He would have to accelerate his plan considerably once Kamino had been dealt with.

Dooku steeled his resolve. This is only the beginning. The true game starts here...

Anakin Skywalker stood on a balcony in the Temple, looking out across the city at the sunset. A familiar presence made itself known; turning to meet it, he gave a casual smirk.

"Well, Kenobi, looks like you didn't need my help this time."

"We need to talk, Anakin."

Anakin frowned, looking at his former master's expression. His frown deepened when Obi-Wan spoke the words he dreaded more than any other:

"Anakin, I know. I know about you and Padme."

Even though he had braced himself, hearing that sentence awoke a small panic in Anakin. "Obi-Wan, I know I broke the code, but you can't tell the council—"

"I have no intention of telling them, Anakin. Your secret is safe with me."

That wasn't what he expected to hear. "What?"

"You may not believe this, but... I have had my own doubts about that part of the code lately. I did some reading on the Jedi of old, and saw examples that only confirmed those doubts—examples such as Bastille Shan. Jedi who, far from being destroyed by love, were saved by it. I know how much Padme means to you, and I see now that she is the anchor for you that I could never be. But I also know that you fear for her, and that the burden of your secret weighs heavily on you."

Overwhelmed by the words, Anakin found himself unable to respond for a while. Finally, he mustered up the courage to speak. "What... what do you intend to do, then? Why tell me that you know?"

Obi-Wan sighed. "Anakin, you are more than my former padawan; you are my brother. So if you believe nothing else, believe this: I will never let any harm come to Padme, not while I am present. You don't have to carry your burden alone. You will never have to carry it alone ever again. I swear it."

The plot thickens! Next time, we finally get to Kamino... and after that, all bets are off!