Hey, people… sorry I kinda… you know… dropped off the face of the Earth a little bit. School started where I live, I'm taking all Honors classes, I'm trying to keep up with karate lessons, I'm on a DI team and managing two more, and I joined marching band (which is amazing, by the way), which means I officially have no time! Yay for over-commitment! The next chapter may be a while in coming, too. Sorry. To make up for it, I'll put Obi through some pain and angst soon, okay?

Anywho, enough with my problems. You want to read about the Jedi's problems, don't you? Yep. Thought so.

Obi-Wan awoke slowly, faintly aware of a dull, throbbing pain in the back of his head that grew stronger and stronger as he was dragged back to the conscious world. Opening his eyes slowly, he pushed himself up into a semi-sitting position and surveyed his situation carefully.

The familiar weight of his lightsaber was gone from his belt, but of course, that was to be expected given the circumstances. Also missing were his comlink and – Obi-Wan sat up suddenly. He could still touch the Force!

Using the wall to brace himself, Obi-Wan stood up in excitement, only to sink to his knees again, overpowered by a sudden wave of nausea. Reaching out with his mind, Obi-Wan quickly discovered that he was only partially correct. His normal telekinetic abilities were missing, blocked by a mental wall, but he could still seem to speak through his bond. Cautiously, Obi-Wan called out. /Master?/

/Master, where are you?/

Silence.

Obi-Wan sighed. Qui-Gon's end of the bond was closed for some reason, and there was nothing he could do about it.

A faint moan brought the young man out of his meditation and back to reality. Fumbling in the darkened room, Obi-Wan called out, "Litri?" Slowly, the young man made his way across the cell, until he found his fellow Padawan slumped against the wall, beginning to regain consciousness.

"Obi-Wan?" Litri mumbled, opening her eyes. "Obi-Wan?"

"Yeah, Litri, I'm here," he answered. After a moment, Litri's eyes seemed to adjust to the dim lights, and she sat up straighter, looking around her.

"Where are we?" the girl asked, her voice betraying fear that she was obviously struggling to keep off her face.

"Some kind of prison cell, I think," Obi-Wan answered absentmindedly, focusing on examining the walls, floor, and ceiling, hoping for some way to escape. Unfortunately, what little optimism he had had quickly evaporated as he realized that what they were trapped in was a perfect cube, with no cracks or dents at all in the strange metal it was made of. Still, he made it a point to run his hands over every square inch of the place, since he could not trust his eyes.

"That's not going to work, Obi-Wan." Litri said exasperatedly, standing. "They wouldn't have locked us up in a cell that wasn't secure."

Unfortunately for Obi-Wan, Litri was obviously getting better, as her personality was coming back in full force.

"Well, did it hurt us for me to try?" Obi-Wan snapped irritably. Couldn't Litri tell he wasn't in the mood right now? "I don't know about you, but personally, I don't really want to find out why we've been brought here."

That shut Litri up for a moment, as she seemed unable to come up with a witty comeback to make Obi-Wan eat his words. "Well, I suppose it only makes sense that you should find a way to get us out of here."

Her words stopped Obi-Wan in his tracks. "What do you mean, exactly?" the teenager asked, his voice low.

"Well, just that it's you fault we're in this whole mess, anyway," Litri shot back.

Obi-Wan took deep breaths to calm himself and slowly responded. "Why do you think I did anything to cause this?"

When Litri didn't answer, Obi-Wan sighed and sat down on the floor, having already checked the walls, floors, and ceiling of the cell to no avail. It was a while before either teenager spoke again, and it was Obi-Wan who finally broke the unfriendly silence.

"I can't work out what this room is made of. It seems to be some type of metal alloy, but it's weird. It feels cold to the touch, and it doesn't warm with body heat, the way other metals do." The boy didn't even know if Litri was listening, but he couldn't take the sensory deprivation of sitting in a dark room without hearing or saying anything, so he continued. "And it's not a natural cold. I don't know how to describe it, though…" he allowed his voice to trail off as he heard a noise that seemed to come from outside the cell. Standing suddenly, he asked, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Litri asked, scared, rising to her feet as well. Suddenly, a glowing white line appeared in the outline of a door. The light flooding the once dark cell caused Obi-Wan and Litri to shield their eyes, which were still accustomed to the metal inside the lines grew transparent, and Obi-Wan reached out to touch it – still solid metal. Apparently, though, this was not the case for the man who easily stepped through the clear metal.

"Hello, my little Jedi friends," the man said, his voice smooth, but smooth like a snake coiled, about to strike. "How are you doing this fine day?"

Litri seemed to gain courage then. "Who are you? Why are you keeping us here?"

Obi-Wan tugged at her arm to get her to sit down. "Litri!" he hissed. He didn't need the younger girl to try something reckless and get herself killed.

Chuckling slightly, the man stepped into the light so that the Jedi could see him. He was dressed in all black, save a white lab coat that came down to about his knees. His face was deathly pale, and his shoulder-length hair so blonde it was almost white. The man was smiling, but even without the Force, one could tell that his smile was fake, plastered on to a sadistic, crazed face.

"It's quite all right," the man dismissed Obi-Wan's concerns. "I am Cainam Eraweb, scientist. And you Jedi will make very useful lab rats for my latest invention."

Obi-Wan and Litri shared a glance. "What do you mean?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Oh, nothing much," Eraweb grinned again, showing pointed teeth. "You'll find out soon enough, now, won't you… Yes, yes…" With that, the man backed out of the room.

Turning, as though he had forgotten something, Eraweb called out to the teens. "Oh, and I wouldn't try any funny business. You might be in for a bit of a… shock…" Laughing, he pressed two more buttons on his remote, and the door faded away into nothing again.

"What did he mean, Obi-Wa-" Litri stopped suddenly as their cell itself zapped them with electricity. "Aaah!"

Cainam Eraweb heard the cries of his prisoners as he walked carelessly down the halls of his laboratory. He had built the prisoner holding area near the building's power generator, which allowed him to send excruciating pain through his through the cells. He needed to watch how much he played with his Jedi pets, though. He needed them in reasonable condition for his experiment. Still, he thought. The all-powerful Jedi could use a little lesson in humility… Qui-Gon couldn't take it. He just couldn't. If he had to sit through one more talk about "the pros and cons of different natural resources," he might… well, he would do something, that was for sure. Obi-Wan and Litri had been missing for a day now, but were he and A'ka out searching for their missing charges? No, they were stuck in hotel conference rooms with angry politicians.

Rubbing his temples, Qui-Gon recalled when they had discovered the disappearance of the Padawans, their desperate search, their emergency meeting with Sage, Zalzabar, and Elisha. The men had refused to allow the Jedi to leave, saying that if they left now, civil war would break out. Although this struck both Qui-Gon and A'ka as odd, neither wanted to risk a war that would surely leave many Adarloni dead, widowed, and orphaned, so they really had no choice but to stay and sit, grating their teeth, through hours upon endless hours of meetings and political arguments.

The strangest thing was, Qui-Gon reflected, that he had felt no warning from the Force. In fact, he had felt almost nothing from the mystical energy field since arriving on Adarlon. It was almost as though the planet itself repelled Force energy.

As meditation proved useless and the Force remained elusive, Qui-Gon gave up and resigned himself for a long, sleepless night.

Where are you, Padawan?

By the way, November 10th's my birthday. A review would make a nice gift! Thanks, you people make my day!