Sorry updates haven't exactly been frequent, however I'm part of a forum RPG for SW, plus I'm working on a Harry Potter fic on another account, here's the next chapter, don't forget to leave a review, who knows, they might inspire me to write more and update faster…. Oh and I could NOT upload this chapter!! I had to export on, delete, and then copy and paste!!!! Anyone else having that problem?

Chapter 9: Abyss

Anakin and Padmé, at head of the large group of those they were protecting treaded their way as quietly as possible up the mountain side. It the starry night sky had disappeared, the light of the moon no longer crept past tree branches to cast its eerie yet useful light across the forest floor. The two Jedi Padwans led the group relentlessly through the forest, all uphill, they were close to exhaustion, having to use the Force to not only see their way through the dense underbrush and trees, but also to hide their presences as well as everyone else's for the evil hunter that stalked them. It was so incredibly hard to do this on empty stomachs, Anakin was nearly beheaded by Padmé when his stomach gave a faint growl, it was so quiet that it was possible to hear it, and when the sound had erupted it was as though some dangerous predator had roared nearby.

It was then Anakin sensed a faint life source, he stopped immediately and drew his unlit lightsaber hilt, not daring to activate it in case the Dark Jedi was right on their tail. The source of life was growing ever closer, it was so faint, as though it was only a beast, with no high intelligence and only a minimal signature in the Force, perhaps the Dark Jedi was not adept at hiding his presence? But he had to be, otherwise how would he have ever ambushed them? Or perhaps this was some sort of trap or—

A twig snapped so loudly to Anakin's left he nearly activated his lightsaber, but stopped when he saw the faint outline of a several figures, he didn't dare breath. Standing before him and his group of those who needed to be protected was a small herd of deer, as petrified as everyone else had been a moment earlier. Anakin's attention briefly turned to his hunger pains… how nice it would be to have a meal.

"What do we do?" he asked Padmé through the Force before he could stop himself, knowing that the Dark Jedi could easily pick up on that communication.

"We're all hungry, do we need to kill them?"

"I think we have to, we can't keep going with no food."

"It almost feels wrong…"

"You've eaten meat before Padmé, this is no different, this is important, we're sacrificing the deer for the greater good."

"I suppose you're write. Don't move. I'll handle this."

"But I—"

Anakin had come so close to activating his lightsaber at the follow moment that he was bewildered that the deer were still standing there after his quite visible display of motion. But what was it that made—

There were dozens of loud whooshes and several more echoing cracks, tiny black objects were flying toward the each deer's head, they all struck at the same time, killing the animals instantly.

"What was that?!" Anakin shouted at Padmé through the Force.

"Bark and wood, I ripped some off the trees and used them like arrows with the Force." Padmé replied somewhat irritably. "It was the quietist way possible."

"You could've warned me!"

"Honestly Anakin, when have you ever warned me when you were going to pull one of you insane stunts that could get you killed?!"

"That's completely different. I don't have time to explain those kind of things to you before hand. They're split second decisions."

"So was this."

"No it wasn't!"

"Yes it was, the deer could've run at any moment."

"Alright, alright, you win. Lets get these things somewhere sheltered where we can hide a fire and cook what we can. How many are there?"

"I think… four perhaps."

"That's a good amount, maybe too many."

"Perhaps, we'll just have to have some people carry them."

And so they did, the group was easily able to carry the four deer up the mountain side. What was hard was finding shelter in which to hide. Anakin located a large rock outcropping where a cave lay, hidden behind a fallen boulder. They entered it, traveling as far as they possibly could into its dark recesses. There they lit a fire, gutted the animals and roasted their flesh before eating substantially. During that time Anakin thought he briefly sensed the Dark Jedi moving several hundred feet below their current altitude, still combing the forests for any sign of them. Obviously he would find no one, but eventually they would have to confront him again. That moment was approaching, but it had not yet come, the group ate luxuriously and fell into a sleep. Anakin had insisted Padmé do so as well, but she insisted on sitting with him at the edge of the cave, helping hide his presence while he took the look out. Of course there was nothing to see, the droids had not progressed as far in their search as the Dark Jedi, and even he was not too close for discomfort.

Anakin's eyes nevertheless swept across the outcropping, and to the forest below, in the distance, just a small speck of light, no longer than the tip of his finger was the enslaved city of Theed. Padmé, as she hid their presences looked only at that small speck of light. They sat there for a long time, what felt like hours. The night wind grew cold, and it was drawn in to the opening of the cave, Padmé moved closer to him, so that they might share the heat of their bodies combined. He could not lie to himself and say that he felt nothing as her form lay supported by his. Short bursts of images ran through his mind, images of him and her together… he tried desperately to block them out, but could not. He had to stop thinking like this; it was not the Jedi way!

But he couldn't, and he sensed Padmé growing tired, Force exhaustion creeping upon her for the hours she had spent cloaking their presence, Anakin took over wordlessly, and Padmé fell asleep, it was probably an accident, but Anakin didn't mind, probably because her head was resting on his shoulder. He had to stop thinking that way! It wasn't right, Jedi cannot love! He could not love Padmé, he could not allow himself to feel the way he felt! He… he wondered if she felt the same, what if she did? Would he feel so strongly about keeping his emotions in check then?

The Dark Jedi's presence grew clear again, interrupting Anakin's wild thought process. He was still far enough away for Anakin to be comfortable… still; he'd keep his guard up. It would keep him from thinking about other, less productive, but more inviting things….

XxX

The Trade Federation blockade was indifferent, or else had no knowledge of the two Jedi starfighters that dropped out of hyperspace near their midst. Both fighters dived down toward the dark side of a forest and aqua colored planet. The ships were through the atmosphere within minutes, they dropped down to one fifty thousand feet in altitude, a good height for scanning. Both Jedi fighters flew side by side, their scanners furiously searching for the signal of a beacon….

"Have you found anything Obi-Wan?" the voice of Qui-Gon questioned through the comm of Obi-Wan Kenobi's fighter. The fairly young Jedi Knight was about to reply a negative, that was, until a red square formed around the section of the displayed map on his scanning screen, the map was a spread of the nearest three hundred miles around the ships' positions, and something had been locked down, the map zoomed into the square, not showing a hundred square mile area, of which Theed was a part of.

"Yes! It seems my scanner is triangulating the signal of Anakin's beacon now."

"Excellent, we must find them quickly Obi-Wan…"

"I know… I know…"

XxX

A buzzing… how interesting, perhaps it was a lightsaber? Perhaps it was the Dark Jedi's lightsaber… perhaps it was at his neck. Anakin's eyes shot open and he leapt up so fast that Padmé nearly fell to the floor, instantly his lightsaber was ablaze and he took a full three hundred and sixty degree sweep of his surrounding, namely the mouth of the pitch black, well hidden cave. Nothing, no red glow in the shadows, no rough breathing from the tattooed Zabrak after a long night of hunting, but there was a distant buzz.

"What the…" Padmé mumbled, standing up next to Anakin who promptly deactivated his lightsaber so as not to give away his position, whatever the buzz was it wasn't emanating from something friendly, so he sensed. But sleep was still heavily clouding his mind, he hadn't meant to…

"You hear that?" Anakin asked quickly as he strained to listen for the buzzing, which was steadily growing louder.

"Hear what?!" Padmé snapped irritably.

"That noise."

"What noise?!"

"That noise!" Anakin hissed in a hushed whisper, the buzzing was so loud now he thought Padmé must be deaf not to hear it.

"What noise?"

The source then revealed itself as quickly as it had awoken Anakin. Two STAPs, each bearing a single battle droid rounded the corner of the large boulder obstructing the cave from view. They immediately halted and one hopped off its vehicle. Anakin, saber alight in his hand, lunged for the other which had pulled the smarter move and turned its STAP to face the cave entrance, it was now incoming full speed. The Jedi Padawan attempted to take a strike at the droid's head, but it was far too late.

The nose of the hard metal STAP crashed into his side, pain shot through his body and up his back, he lost grip of his weapon and hit the rocky ground hard, grunting as the air was forced from his lungs. Padmé leapt over him, having easily defeated her opponent, she went for the droid on the STAP which was flying away, however it halted quickly, turned, and charged. Anakin watched in horror as Padmé stood there; about to let the thing hit her. He tried to cry out but was still catching his breath, it was too close to her now for his comfort, and then, at the last possible moment she sidestepped and neatly slashed through the top of the STAP as well as the droid's body, there was a loud crash as the hunks metal fell to the ground. Padmé deactivated her lightsaber quickly and ran to Anakin's side.

"Are you alright?" she asked breathlessly.

Anakin nodded, though his side still stung like a poisonous scorpion where he was hit. Suddenly it his him. No, no, no, it could not be true, how would anyone know where to look now if they could not sense the two Jedi, they had to hide their presences, Anakin hoped it would not be true as he pulled back his shirt to reveal his belt, there, clipped on the side and neatly cracked down the center was his beacon device, now inactive and broken. They would not be found, except by the Dark Jedi, he'd have to kill the Zabrak and allow his presence to shine again, that was the only way now, if any Jedi came to Naboo in search for them they would be unable to locate the two Padawans now….

"No…" Padmé breathed. "How will…"

"I don't know." Anakin said breathlessly, still attempting to fill his lungs with normal amounts of air. "I don't know, but it doesn't matter now. We need to hide these droid parts…"

"Yes, or else that Dark Jedi might find us."

Suddenly a new buzz filled the air, there was a flash of red and Anakin knew that it was now unnecessary to hide the droid parts….

XxX

"Master, I've got a lock on Anakin's signal!" Obi-Wan cried into his comm as the map zoomed in further to neatly display a mountain near Theed, soon he would have exact coordinates. He would have had all this sooner if the droid control ship had not sent out a few signal waves that had temporarily disabled his and Qui-Gon's computers.

"I see them; it's on a mountain, a few more seconds…" Qui-Gon replied, trailing off.

The coordinates began to spell themselves out on the bottom of the screen, and as suddenly as the first crimson letter had appeared it vanished, an error message then displayed upon both Jedi's screens.

"What?!" Obi-Wan cried. "What happened?"

"We've lost the signal…" Qui-Gon replied, sounding as surprised as Obi-Wan.

"No… what happened, how could this be?"

"I do not know Obi-Wan…"

"I have a very bad feeling about this."

Once more, sorry for the tremendously long time for this update. But it's here now, so don't forget to REVIEW!!! Please?