Author's Note: Triumph! I finally found an official Star Wars calendar on the Internet. This comes in very handy for me, and I'm assuming that it might do as much for the Star Wars fanfiction public in general, so if you want the link to it, email or PM me. I just thought I'd let you all know that.

Anakin's training took an immediate and abrupt turn; Force-training and lightsaber practice were divided equally, rather than the heavily tilted balance that he had once favored. Master Windu, sensing this change in his Padawan's attitude, began to give him more difficult challenges, and with every task Anakin was anxious to perform, desperate to excel, and eager for more when it ended.

His days blurred together, hardly varying as every hour adhered to the schedule of yesterday's predecessor. The only way to keep from becoming bored out of his mind was to throw himself into the process of training harder than he had ever before, and this Anakin did whole-heartedly.

On one such unremarkable day, Anakin could be found in the south-western spire of the Temple, sitting against the wall with his eyes closed. He appeared to be sleeping, but every once in a while his eyes would flicker, his breathing quicken, as he focused all of his will on a paperweight a story below him. Already he had successfully navigated seven stories; the corners of Anakin's mouth turned up as he imagined the looks on people's faces when they saw a small glass rock floating through the halls. His concentration slipped, and the paperweight dropped a foot before he hastened to catch it.

It was one of the most difficult exercises Anakin had attempted yet; to levitate an object that he could not see, while steering it past eight levels of obstacles that were also invisible to him. Nor was this Anakin's first try; shoved haphazardly under his bed downstairs was a cracked droid eye, a datapad that no longer turned on, and a boot of Ferus's that Anakin had "borrowed", among other failed objects.

Gently he nudged the paperweight up the stairs, then hastily turned it to the right before it ran into the wall. A closed door—oh, great. Taking care to keep the object of his attention suspended in midair, Anakin sent a thread of the Force to open the door, then scooted the paperweight through before it closed. Now there was nothing but a long, revolving staircase between him and his goal. A few delicate pushes and a couple of minutes were all it took to bring the paperweight to the other side of the door. Opening his eyes, Anakin stood and opened the door.

Hovering before him was the little glass paperweight, and standing behind it was Ferus Olin.

A triumphant grin on his face, Anakin held out a hand and let the glass sphere fall into his hand. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "You keep popping up out of nowhere."

Ferus shrugged. "I was trying to find you, so I followed the floating ball," he replied. "Somehow I knew you were involved."

"Ha, ha," Anakin remarked humorlessly. He set off down the stairs, and Ferus followed behind him.

"Hey, do you know what day it is?" Ferus asked out of nowhere.

"Um…" Anakin thought for a moment. "It's Datunda."

"I knew it," said Ferus. Anakin couldn't see his face, but he could hear the satisfied tone. "You forgot, didn't you?"

"Forgot what?" Anakin asked, turning around on the stairs. "I didn't forget anything." His mind was running over possibilities; he was certain Master Windu hadn't mentioned anything special about today. Perhaps there was a group exercise he was supposed to attend, but he was almost sure that there was nothing…

Ferus was watching him with a mirthful, all-knowing smile on his face. He looked as though he was really enjoying this. "Anakin, it's your birthday."

Anakin snorted derisively, probably not the reaction his friend had been expecting. "No, it's not," he said dismissively.

"I'm pretty sure it is."

"Oh, come on," Anakin said, beginning to walk again. "Don't you think I would know if it was my birthday?"

"Yes, I would," Ferus agreed, "and yet somehow you've completely missed it."

"I did not!"

"Yelona twenty-third, right?"

His pace slowed. "Yes…"

"When was the last time you looked at a calendar?" Ferus asked, pressing his advantage.

"I don't know," Anakin answered irritably, his face growing hot. He was feeling very stupid; how many people forgot their own birthdays? He walked quickly until they reached his room, at which point he dug around for a while on the messy pile of random papers on his desk, until he found a calendar. He blinked owlishly at it. "Oh," was his witty riposte.

Ferus, who was on the other side of the room, reached under Anakin's bed and fished his boot out from under it. He walked to Anakin's side. "Happy twentieth birthday," he wished his friend. "Why couldn't you use one of your own shoes?"

Still staring at the calendar, Anakin shook his head, as though to toss off some lingering unwelcome thought, and turned to face Ferus. "Because I thought I might lose it," he answered. His tone was lighthearted, but his eyes were subdued as something unnamable flickered behind them. Fortunately, just then Master Windu poked his head through the door.

"Anakin, I need your help with something," he said urgently. "Are you busy?"

"Um—" Anakin looked at Ferus, who shrugged. "No, not really. What is it?"

"Come with me," Windu said. Anakin obeyed, and they began walking side by side down the hall in the direction of the classrooms.

"As the War does not seem to be ending anytime soon," Windu said, "Chancellor Palpatine has requested more powers from the Senate, with the excuse that he will be able to finish this business once and for all if he has ultimate control over the army."

Anakin looked at his Master. "You sound skeptical," he noted. Windu made a disapproving noise.

"One man should never have too much power," he said. "That's why the Senate was created in the first place. It's what I believe, and the Council agrees with me. I've been appointed the representative of the Jedi in the Senate meeting today, to express our opinions on this matter." He stopped and turned to face Anakin. "The bottom line, Anakin, is that I have a class scheduled for today that I'm going to have to miss because of this. I want you to teach it."

Anakin's eyebrows shot up. "Teach?" he repeated. "Me?" The obvious incredulousness in his voice made Windu smile broadly. "Master, I'm not even a Knight yet!"

"It's not that difficult," Windu said, shrugging a shoulder. "And you would be teaching children—certainly not Padawans your own age. It's just standard class material you learned years ago."

Grimacing, Anakin shifted his weight. "Couldn't you get someone else?" he asked uncomfortably.

"Of course I could," replied Windu complacently. "But I think this will be good practice for you. I left some notes on the desk, room 214. Have fun; I've got to go."

And then he was gone, leaving Anakin standing in the middle of the hall with his mouth open. After blinking several times and wondering whether he had heard correctly, Anakin decided not to fight fate and headed for classroom 214.

No sooner had he opened the door than fourteen pairs of eyes turned to him as one. Sitting randomly on the floor, the children looked him expectantly, waiting for him to move. Anakin gulped and walked toward the front of the plainly decorated room, where sat the aforementioned desk with a chair behind it and a datapad on it. The children watched him, eerily silent. Giving a little awkward cough, Anakin picked up the datapad. He groaned to himself as he saw the notes Windu had left; they had obviously been meant as a reminder, not a syllabus.

Demonstrate physical usage, use training remotes & lightsabers, let practice, then blindfold and repeat until end.

And that was all there was.

Right, thanks for being so specific, Anakin thought to Windu, irritated. Well, there was no help for it, he supposed. Straightening, Anakin took a deep breath.

"Hi," he began lamely. No one moved. "So, do you guys know what you're supposed to be learning about today?"

Silence. Then, after thirty seconds or so, a girl in the front with blond hair and several freckles tentatively raised her hand. "Master Windu said that we would be learning about the—" She hesitated for a moment, trying to remember, then spoke slowly. "The basic…uses of the Force."

Three or four children around her murmured in agreement. Anakin's spirits lifted slightly; that, at least, was something he knew all about. He sat down in the chair, then discovered that he couldn't see the kids in the front and opted to stand in front of the desk.

"The Force," Anakin began, "is a very difficult thing to understand—but bear with me here. You guys haven't had much opportunity to use it yet, have you?" They shook their heads.

"Well, today Master Windu wants you to learn how to use the Force," said Anakin. "One of the most important things you can learn is to see without your eyes."

This statement earned a lot of blank, confused stares from his audience. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Anakin turned around and dug through the desk drawers until he found a box full of small, cheap crystal balls, presumably to be used for training. He placed them on the floor in front of the children.

"Here," Anakin ordered. "Try and hit me with these." With that, he turned around and waited, his eyes closed. After a few seconds, one of the kids worked up the nerve to throw one of the balls at his teacher. Without opening his eyes, Anakin twitched a finger; the sphere stopped in midair, then gently floated to the ground.

From behind him, Anakin heard a chorus of awed gasps. He grinned to himself. "Come on, you guys can do better than that," he challenged. A second later, he almost regretted those words, as suddenly the air was filled with the sound of fourteen missiles hurtling toward him. It took only a bit more concentration than before to catch each one in flight, then they sank to the floor one by one and collected themselves into the box as though they had never been touched. Only then did Anakin turned around.

"That's what we're going to be working on today," he told them, "or something like it, anyway."

It wasn't difficult to tell that he had their undivided attention.

Once Anakin had equipped the children with training helmets and lightsabers, there wasn't much to do but watch, and occasionally prevent a fight when a youngster would swing his lightsaber too liberally and smack someone in the back of the head with it. He leaned, standing, against the desk, idly tapping the fingers of his right hand against the wood. The prosthetic needed recalibration, Anakin had noticed a few days ago. He had been meaning to get that fixed, but never really gotten around to it.

Busy taking a closer look at his mechanical hand, Anakin didn't notice that one of the kids had left the group until he was standing right beside the desk. The boy pulled the helmet off, revealing dark, tousled hair. It was Kahli.

"Anakin?" he said hesitantly. Anakin turned to face him. "I just wanted to say thank you for catching me. I was going to thank you sooner, but I never saw you around the Temple, and my Master always kept me busy—so, um, thank you."

He looked anxiously up into Anakin's eyes, and the older boy smiled. "You really should be more careful," Anakin reprimanded him gently. Kahli only looked cross.

"Everybody's telling me that now," he complained. "It was only once!"

This reminded Anakin so much of himself when he was seven that he had to bite down on his tongue to keep from laughing out loud. There was silence for a moment; for some reason, Kahli seemed reluctant to leave. Then suddenly, as though he had been gathering his courage for this, he blurted out, "Why do you wear that crystal around your neck?"

Anakin considered the question in silence for a moment, running his thumb against the facets of the crystal. At last he spoke. "Do you remember Master Kenobi?"

Kahli nodded. "He died on a mission a while ago, didn't he?" the boy asked gravely.

"Yes. He was my Master, and this—" Anakin unfastened the chain from around his neck and let the crystal lay in his flat palm "—this was a crystal from his lightsaber. See, if I always have this with me, then no one can ever forget him."

Another might have been confused by this, but to Kahli it seemed to make perfect sense. He scrambled up onto the desk alongside Anakin. "Do you miss him?" he asked. Anakin shrugged.

"Of course," he replied, with perfect conviction. "He was the greatest Knight that ever lived." Anakin looked down at Kahli amusedly. "But I'll bet you think that about your Master, too, huh?"

Kahli squirmed on the desk. "Yeah, I guess so," he decided finally. Across the room, the door opened suddenly, and Master Windu stepped in.

"It seems you've got everything under control here," he said. "Maybe you've got a knack for teaching."

Anakin grinned. "I doubt it," he answered. Looking at the chronometer on the wall, his eyes widened. Two hours had passed since he had walked through that door. "Oh, hey, time's up." He waved a hand, and the training lightsabers lifted from the children's hands. They took their helmets off bewilderedly, to see what was going on, and Anakin waved them out. "Class is over, guys, see you later."

One by one the children left, to go to their next class or wherever it was seven-year-old Jedi went—Anakin certainly couldn't remember—and Windu turned to his Padawan.

"I've been meaning to speak to you about something," said Windu, taking the chair that Anakin had vacated. "You've progressed very well in your training—much faster than I would have expected."

Anakin ducked his head, embarrassed. "Not as well as I'd hoped," he murmured.

"You expect too much of yourself," Windu chided him. "I've warned you about that before."

"I know, Master."

"Anyway," Windu continued, "As I'm sure you know, the Trials are coming up in two months. Anakin, I think you should take them this year."

Anakin didn't speak for a long time, trying to digest this. "Master," he managed finally, "I'm glad that you think I'm ready to become a Knight—but honestly, I don't."

Windu looked at him askance. "Really?" he asked. "Why not?"

Anakin struggled for a moment to voice what he was thinking. "Well, Obi-Wan became a Knight when he was twenty-five," he said. "And then only because Master Jinn died. And I really haven't progressed as far as you think, Master—I know I still have a lot to learn."

He could have been mistaken, but Anakin could have sworn he saw Windu bite back a smile. "Anakin, do you know what they're saying about you?" Windu asked. Anakin shook his head no, but that wasn't entirely true. He had heard rumors—everyone had—but nothing very clear-cut. "After ten years, people began to take the fact that you are the Chosen One for granted, but now, when they find out you can predict the future—"

"Once!" Anakin broke in hotly.

"Nevertheless, it is an interesting development," Windu said calmly. "Anakin, think about it: how many Padawans do you know who can save someone from death under such circumstances as you did? You may not have lived up to your own expectations, but you have lived up to everyone else's—and, I would add most confidently, Obi-Wan's."

There was silence for a minute, then Windu spoke again. "You know that if I had told you the same thing a little over two months ago, you would have jumped at the chance. That, I believe, is another example of why you are prepared to take this step."

Silence again. Anakin's eyes were on his hands, watching them twist the material of his cloak anxiously. At last, he raised his head.

"If you think I'm ready," he murmured, "then I'll take the Trials this year."

Windu smiled. "I have faith in you," he told his apprentice, standing. "There is no doubt in my mind that you will pass. You have accomplished much, Anakin, and you will accomplish more."

He left then, and Anakin was alone in the room. When the door had shut, Anakin opened his fist and held up the pendant, watching the blue-green crystal swing gently back and forth. Light bounced off its facets and danced on the walls in indefinable patterns, illuminating the dull, grayish room in a way that the glo-lamp could not have possibly done, and a few of those gems of light flickered on Anakin's solemn face as he sat and thought of Windu's parting words—hoping, for everyone's sake, that his Master was right.