A/n: hi again. I would like to thank everyone who is reading this and hope that you are enjoying it. Please let me know what you think, and definitely what can be improved on. And please know that none of these characters are mine and I am only borrowing them. I am making no money from this story whatsoever.

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In the Jedi Council Chamber, Master Yoda blinked with interest as Obi-Wan and Anakin finished reporting on the strange individual they had encountered. "Vanished, the being did, you say?" he asked, folding clawed hands over the walking stick in his lap.

"Are you certain that this was an actual living being, Obi-Wan?" Mace Windu asked, voice incredulous. "You said that you couldn't sense his thoughts or feelings. You're certain it wasn't an illusion set up to make you believe he had these powers?"

"I'm certain, Masters." Obi-Wan confirmed, addressing all the Council members. "I couldn't sense his intentions or motivation for approaching us but I could sense his presence there, and his power--this living energy surrounding him. It was almost as if he let me in... Allowed me to experience his connection to it. This Q is capable of everything he claimed, I'm certain of it."

Yoda closed his eyes to focus on the Force. "Hmmm, powerful this being is, but nothing I sense of him." Yoda sounded disturbed by the revelation. He looked around at the other Jedi in the room. "More we must learn of Q, if to become our benefactor, he is," the Jedi Master said quizzically, focusing once again on Obi-Wan and Anakin.

"You do not believe he is of the Sith?" Ki-Adi-Mundi inquired, his tall forehead inclined in Obi-Wan's direction.

Obi-Wan shook his head. "These powers were like nothing I've ever felt before, possibly beyond both Jedi and Sith. He didn't even seem to be bound by the ways of the Force. To be able to transform matter at will..." Obi-Wan trailed off and fell silent, lost in the troubling thought.

"Obi-Wan, are you saying this being is not connected to the Force?" Windu asked in disbelief, dragging the Jedi Knight out of his reverie.

"I don't know," the younger Jedi admitted. "But he seems to command powers that not even the most skilled Jedi Master could hope to achieve."

"And offered them freely to you, he did," Master Yoda added thoughtfully, voice not betraying how he felt about the situation.

"And to Anakin," Obi-Wan replied slowly, remembering. He seemed to show a great deal of interest in Anakin." Obi-Wan still felt uneasy, unable to shake the sense that this was just the beginning of Q's dealings with the Jedi.

"Ah, saw something special in young Skywalker, this Q has?" Yoda turned his penetrating gaze to the Jedi Padawan and it seemed to Anakin that the Jedi Master looked straight through to his core being. Yoda continued, "Perhaps the key to this situation, young Skywalker is!"

Q watched the Jedi discuss the delightful intrusion he had made on their orderly little lives with something approaching glee. At least they recognize my power and are wise enough to fear it, he thought to himself. Q was still shocked by the audacity Obi-Wan had shown in rejecting his offer. Of course Jean-Luc and company showed much the same contempt usually, but at least he had gotten Riker to taste of the Q power, and the human commander had nearly been unable to resist it. If Picard hadn't interfered, he and the rest of his paltry little crew...

But Obi-Wan Kenobi had not even given Q the chance to properly entice him. He had just stood there with his infuriating calm and given Q a flat-out "no". Q knew there was more going on beneath that serene facade than the Jedi believed Q was able to see, but nothing the super-being was really in the mood to use.

Oh, he could tempt young Anakin Skywalker to get to Obi-Wan, but he wasn't sure that he felt like trying. Granted, the wrathful little Padawan interested Q, but the end result would essentially be the same as trying to get to Jean-Luc Picard through Wesley Crusher.

Q allowed himself a brief smile of amusement at the thought of young Wesley with the Q powers. That boy, who viewed practically everything as a grand new opportunity to experiment, would probably run straight to his mother with every new discovery of what the powers hold. Q could almost hear Wesley saying enthusiastically:

"Look, mom, I can zap people out of existence!"

Then a thought occurred to Q and he smiled cruelly.