Hello, All! Sorry for the delay in getting this posted! I've been working a lot of overtime, and my muse has been playing hookey! I think that a weekly posting was a pipe-dream, but I will try to post as frequently as possible (as long as my muse and creative juices cooperate). Thanks so much for your faithful R&Rs! They are much appreciated!

OOOOO

Obi-Wan mentally recoiled in horror. Sidious had been inside his mind? That meant he would have had access to his thoughts, his memories, his insecurities – everything that was at the core of who he was as a person, as a Jedi. Anything he had gone through physically during his time of captivity had to have paled in comparison to this!

Sensing the wavering in his shields, Obi-Wan worked to release his feelings into the Force. But it was as though they were bouncing off a buffer and being reflected back at him. The oppressive gloom around him seemed to strengthen and batter at his shields. I must stay calm, I must...A distant beeping sound slowly penetrated his dreamscape. The beeping became louder and more intense.

Obi-Wan came awake suddenly, the beeping sound and R2's insistent trills hitting him full-force. He instantly recognized the beeping sound. Proximity alert! He ran into the cockpit, R2 at his heels.

Throwing himself into the pilot's chair, Obi-Wan looked at the readouts from R2's extended scan. His heart sunk. "It's an Imperial Cruiser, R2." He studied the projected course of the cruiser. Damn. "They appear to be heading to Tatooine." He ran his fingers through his hair and turned to his droid companion. "Let's hope their scans are not nearly as extended nor as precise as yours."

R2 beeped at him, and Obi-Wan read his words on the screen. "Maybe it is just a supply run for this one ship."

"Let's hope, R2. These resupply trips of ours are going to be a whole lot more complicated if there's a permanent Imperial presence on Tatooine now." Obi-Wan sat back in the chair, thoughtfully drumming his fingers on the armrest. "We may have to ask Bail to bring someone along next time who can buy our supplies for us. Though, I do hate having to ask him to take even more risks for us."

"He would do it gladly, Master."

Obi-Wan smiled over at R2. "I know. But he's risked so much for us already. However, that isn't going to help us THIS time. We're going to have to be extremely cautious. I have no doubt that my features are well known to all Imperials. The emperor would have seen to that." A small shudder ran through him at the thought of Sidious. He pushed it aside. He would deal with the dream and its ramifications later.

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The captain of the Imperial Palace Guard walked quickly to his office, keeping alert for any sign of the emperor. He was avoiding the man like the plague. Something had happened to send the man into a foul, foul mood – even by the emperor's usual standards. The emperor had killed the two guards on duty in the throne room early this morning, simply for being there at the wrong time.

Anyone in the palace who could avoid the emperor was doing so. Everyone knew what had caused this latest rage, what caused every rage the emperor went into. General Obi-Wan Kenobi. That name was becoming a curse for everyone at the palace. The emperor's obsession with the man was now legendary. The sooner Kenobi was caught, the better it would be for everyone.

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Settling himself in a comfortable chair, Obi-Wan gratefully accepted the cup of tea from Yoda. The trip to Tatooine had turned out to be uneventful. It appeared that R2's guess had been correct. It was just the one ship, and they had not stayed long on planet before moving on again. From the information he was able to gather from the Mos Espa shopkeepers, the Empire was a long ways away from having a permanent presence anywhere in the Outer Rim. Most of their precious resources were still being used to subdue the planets of the Inner Core and the Mid Rim.

Obi-Wan had never been happier in his life to be back out of known space. He'd had a joyful, tearful reunion with his family. He smiled softly, remembering the exuberance of Luke and Leia's welcome. But no matter had glad he was to be home again and with his family, Sidious' recent words to him were ever intruding in his thoughts.

"Unsettled you have been since your return, Obi-Wan." The wise, ancient eyes studied his companion.

"Master, I would like you to unlock the memories of my capture by Sidious."

Yoda sat back, pointed ears rising in surprise. "Expect this request, I did not." His eyes narrowed. "Another encounter with the emperor did you have?"

"Yes." Obi-Wan explained to Yoda his dream. "I've had time to meditate on this, and I no longer think it was a dream. I think Sidious actually found a way to contact me while I was sleeping, and wanted me to think it was only a dream."

"Hmm." Yoda nodded his head. "Maintained at full power shields cannot be while sleeping. Troubling this is, the power he has to find you despite long distances." It was greatly troubling, indeed, for the elderly Jedi Master. Even he could not have predicted the strength of Sidious' obsession with Obi-Wan, or the lengths to which the man would go in order to obtain him.

Obi-Wan snorted. "Troubling, to put it mildly! Master, this lack of knowledge about my capture is a weakness he can exploit. He knows me, intimately, and I have no point of reference – no idea just how deeply he was able to delve into my mind."

Ears now drooping, Yoda heaved a great sigh. "Time it is not for your memories to be released."

"Master, I..." Obi-Wan paused as Yoda lifted up his clawed hand.

"Easy to deal with these memories it will not be. Hard to deal with them it would have been when you were 25. Stronger those memories will now be because of how long they have been repressed. The time needed, the energy needed to deal with these memories you do not have." Sympathy shone from Yoda's eyes as he gently continued. "A father you are now, Obi-Wan. Emotionally strong and healthy they need you to be. A new child you are soon to welcome into your life. Be there for them and Padme as you should, you could not while dealing with those repressed memories."

"That bad, huh?" Obi-Wan gave Yoda a wry smile, trying to lighten the gloomy atmosphere.

"Bad they were sixteen years ago. Even worse they would be now."

"Master...." Obi-Wan took a deep breath before continuing. "Sidious said that he had been inside my mind, and that he knew me better than even Qui-Gon or Anakin. Did he...How far into my mind did he get?" The look on Yoda's face did not comfort him at all.

"Quite far, Young One. Withdrew into yourself you did, protected your core being. But access to everything else he had."

Obi-Wan shivered, not able to stop the reaction. That's why Chancellor Palpatine had looked at him through the years the way he did – like he could see through to his very soul. And now looking back on it, he could see the banked but very present look of ownership in the then Chancellor's eyes. He had always been uncomfortable in the man's presence, and now he knew fully why.

"I have an idea now of what he did. I'm more prepared. So, would I really be that disabled by experiencing of those memories?"

"Having an idea about and actually experiencing the memories – two different things those are, Young One." Yoda himself couldn't keep from shuddering at the recollection of Obi-Wan's condition when Mace had brought him back to the Temple. "And an idea of everything that happened, you do not have."

The gravity of Yoda's tone alone was enough to cause the hairs on the back of Obi-Wan's neck to stand up. As bad as he had suspected the memories to be, he now knew they were much worse.

"My reasoning in this I ask you to accept."

"Master, I've always trusted you and your counsel to me." Obi-Wan looked down at his half-full tea cup. "You're right. I can't deal with those memories and be the husband, father, and teacher I need to be right now."

Yoda's heart clenched to see the resigned acceptance in the young man before him. Always it was so with Obi-Wan. Never was he able to focus on himself and his own needs. Always they had to be subjugated to other concerns. The life of Jedi was never easy. The needs of others always had to come before the individual needs of any Jedi. But every Jedi also had to take some time for themselves, some time to take care of their own needs before they could be of any use in seeing to the needs of others. That time never seemed to have been accorded to Obi-Wan.

As a padawan, Obi-Wan had been the hardest working, most conscientious one at the Temple. Due to circumstances, his own insecurities, and Qui-Gon's inner demons, Obi-Wan had forever felt he had to earn his place at Qui-Gon's side. He had pushed himself to be the perfect padawan – one who might be worthy of the great Qui-Gon Jinn. What little time he had at Temple (the Jinn/Kenobi team had been in high demand in the field) had usually been spent catching up with classes and training. He had afforded himself little time for fun and socializing. There were times when his dearest friends, Bant, Garen, and Reeft, had practically had to drag him away for some downtime.

Obi-Wan hadn't been given the opportunity to experience life as an individual Jedi Knight, thanks to Qui-Gon's last request. Thanks to that same request, he had not been afforded the opportunity every other Jedi had received – to be the one choose his own apprentice. He had been given no time to truly grieve his dead master. He had been too busy seeing to the needs of his new padawan. And that padawan, of course, had been no ordinary padawan. On top of the burden of being the one responsible for training the mythical Chosen One was the burden of having to train an emotionally turbulent boy with no foundation in Jedi teachings. It would have been a daunting task for any Jedi, including Yoda himself, much less one newly-knighted and reeling from the losses and changes in his life.

Obi-Wan had had no time to recover from training Anakin through the turbulent teen years before he found himself in the very center of a galaxy-wide conflict. He had then been thrust into a military leadership position he had never wanted, and quickly became the most relied upon of the Jedi Generals for his strategy abilities, skills, and wisdom. Being the busy General he was, he'd had no chance to enjoy the knighting of his padawan. He had again been given no opportunity to experience being an individual Jedi Knight before being promoted to the rank of Jedi Master and asked to sit on the Council.

And throughout that had been Obi-Wan's constant (though locked-down and deeply buried) worries about Anakin's lack of emotional control – his anger, his arrogance, his possessiveness. Those worries, of course, had turned out to be quite justified. The sheer burden of it all... Yoda had always trusted in the Force, always sought It's guidance. But even Yoda sometimes felt that the Force asked too much of Obi-Wan – placed way too much on one man's shoulders. But then he always reminded himself that the Force had It's reasons. There was a reason this one man had been chosen to bear such unimaginable burdens.

Yoda vowed to help Obi-Wan in any way he could for as long as he could. From the first moment he had held Obi-Wan as an infant, Yoda had felt a connection to him. He had always known that their destinies would somehow be intertwined. He placed a clawed hand of comfort on Obi-Wan's knee. As those gentle blue eyes looked up to meet his, he felt a reaffirmation...Yes, the Force knows what It is doing.