Note: If anyone notices, I didn't do much with Izthark. I was originally thinking he might make a decent side character, but now he is looking to be more of a side-side character. Varus will encounter him again, but it will be when I can find a decent place for him.

Also I am kind of in a writing block right now. That doesn't affect any of you since I have this story finished all the way to chapter 35, but if the block keeps up by the time you guys hit chapter 35, then we are in trouble. In the meantime I got started writing the sequel. I won't begin publishing the sequel until this story is finished, and I have the sequel half-done at least.

Also, I find it a little odd I had no reviews in the previous chapter. I usually get 1-2, but nothing. Which tells me either 1. The chapter wasn't worth reviewing, which is not a good sign to me. I want the chapters to be good. Not just for the reviews, reviews are just a way of telling me if its good or bad and just how good or bad it is, but because I want my story to BE good. I want it to be intense, filled with plots, and making everyone sit on the edge of their seat for the next chapter! 2. The people who usualy review didn't read it this time, which is fair. I dont require reviews, but when I hear "this right here could use some work" I LOVE THAT! "this sucks. Where is the intensity? Where is Varus's attitude?" EVEN BETTER! "I love it!" fine, ill take that. :P

Please do review people, I want to know if anything I write isn't up to your standards. Whether that is grammar, the plot, or how the plot is layed out. If anything isn't up to your standard, I want to know.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even the clothes on my back.

Episode 7 - There is a Time for Peace Part 1/2

Previously: Starkiller, apprentice to the deceased Darth Nihilus, was tricked by Darth Sidius into becoming a puppet of the Jedi through a force mind-wipe. He was renamed Varus Wynn and assigned to Anakin Skywalker as his second Padawan alongside Ahsoka Tano.

Following a lead from the former Sith, Starkiller, they found hostile droids unlike anything Skywalker recalled the Confederacy producing and skeletal remains. As well as a Sith Holocron linked to Revan that was implanted into Varus's mind. All with technology that was linked with the Force on a fundamental level.

The following investigation shed light on the fact that the Star Forge was still alive, and the Dantooine Council had left the information classified, hoping no one would investigate too deeply. Anakin Skywalker was assigned to follow the trail of Revan left in Varus's mind to find the Star Forge for the Republic.

Thus far they have landed on Dantooine and have aided Mandalore the Preserver in preventing a war between the Republic and Mandalorian clans.

Meanwhile, despite the Jedi's hopes, sins of Starkiller's past are catching up to Varus. Maris remembers him after Starkiller murdered her Master, and sees him in the Temple. She has been told it is classified, and to leave it alone.

And an unknown power is having the Jedi be legally stopped and contained in their travels for a very short time. Obi-Wan has investigated the matter and found that a large number of Jedi who are stalled eventually come to find difficulty in the Force for some reason.

Anakin relaxed and waited as time went by. Varus went about with his punishment, walking around seeing people he had almost killed by mistake. To be honest, the Knight wasn't sure about the punishment he gave his Padawan. He didn't want to do a physical punishment, lest it incur buried instincts that was undoubtedly made by the very physical abuse of the Sith's previous master, but it also wouldn't be an example to set. Physical punishments were exceedingly rare amongst Jedi. Happened, but unheard of. No, this punishment was about teaching and seeing and thinking.

Varus had a tendency to react instinctively. What better way to cause him to stop and think then to provide a very real example? Now, hopefully, every time Varus was going to do something exceedingly stupid he would see the faces of people he was going to put at risk.

It was a hard lesson. Even Masters had to continsally remind themselves of it, especially now in war. It was so easy to just consider the clones expendable. They all looked the same so losing one didn't really matter as you would get an exact replica. The lack of individuality also created a lack of individual loss in the minds of the Generals.

It was a mistake even Anakin had to kick himself about more than a few times. Ahsoka had a hand in kicking him herself. Like when his gung-ho attitude almost got her killed along with his entire squadron in more than a few bombing runs. (Not that the girl was perfect herself. They both had the same flaws. He had just more experience with them.)

As for whether or not the punishment was too much though, would be hard to tell. He didn't want Varus to stop using his gifts entirely, but nor to use them flippantly. It was a hard balance only made harder by how Sith tended to go to one extreme or the other at the drop of a hat.

But then Varus wasn't a Sith anymore… Hopefully he would find a balance.

Ahsoka herself was mingling with the crowd. Right now she was cheering up a family with little girls. The girls had spent most of the time silently crying in terror and confusion, but his Padawan was managing to make it all better. Everywhere she went people were calming down.

No way it was an 'Ahsoka' trait! She was way too gung-ho, like himself, to do it. It was probably something about girls. They have a natural warmth and compassion about them.

The Mandaloriens found the bunker was secure and set themselves down to duty without hesitating. They 'recruited' what refugees were able to help around and they started setting up small heating grills for food to be cooked, making inventory, setting up sleeping mats, getting the private generator running, trying to raise morale, trying to get a radio working, and generally preparing for the long haul.

With any luck they wouldn't be in a very long haul. The earthquakes had stopped.

Varus returned to Anakin in a subdued manner and sat down. It was clear his Padawan had a lot on his mind. The punishment had an effect on him, but Anakin decided he needed to do damage control, just in case.

"Varus."

Varus turned his head toward him in response.

"I am not mad." Anakin said. Instantly it looked like a weight was off the young man's shoulders, but he only became more thoughtful and intensely quiet. "But I must ask: What did you see out there?"

"I saw… fear. Hope. A big mess of emotions."

Anakin nodded. "That is a lot of responsibility on you. Every decision we make has an emotion response from others. Riots on one side and monuments of glory on the other."

Varus smirked. "I'll have one of me in an epic pose, thank you very much."

"You tripping over your feet?" Anakin joked.

"Hey!" Varus snapped. They looked at each other and laughed a bit. The atmosphere settled down and they relaxed.

"How do you feel about the responsibility you see now that you have?" Anakin pressed.

"Scared… Master, I'm not a responsible person. I'm a loner. I can't even comprehend having to think about a thousand people on my back! It's just…" Varus sighed. "You said before that you had faith in me… How can you? I don't. Your right, I don't think, I don't listen, and I don't think I will for a long time even with…" He gestures out to the crowd. "All that crap. I am a failure waiting to happen."

Anakin walked over to him sat down on a box slightly higher than him and put a hand on the apprentice's shoulder. "Varus, you don't make mistakes. You make whoppers!"

"Gee, thanks." His voice dripping sarcasm.

"But I still have faith in you."

"That makes absolutely NO sense."

"What do you think the purpose of punishment is?" Anakin changed the subject on its head to try to explain.

A number of emotions played out on the Padawan's face. It ranged from pain and hurt to fear to anger to… nothing. He shook his head and said, "Uh- To hurt."

"No." Anakin corrected, earning mild shock from his apprentice. "To teach. Varus, you, me, Ahsoka, all the Masters. We are mortal. We make mistakes. But at the end of the day we live and the galaxy continues to spin and yet most of all, we learn. We learn from our mistakes more than our successes. Success gives you an ego, trust me I know, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan and Padme have to team up to deflate me and I still have enough ego to burn."

Varus chuckled.

"But still, I've made mistakes." Anakin continued. His voice hardened. "I never told you who it was that died when I killed the sand walkers… It was my mother."

Varus stills.

"My mother died in my arms, and I was angry. Angry at the sand walkers, but most of all I was angry at myself."

"Why? You weren't there. You couldn't have done anything." Varus whispers.

"Exactly. I was angry at myself because I left home to begin with. If I had stayed, if I had arrived sooner after my vision, if I had not slept one or two nights and just kept pressing forward to find her… Just one hour might have made a difference." Anakin said heavily. "But at the end of it all, I learned something."

"What?"

"That mistakes happen. Mother died. The sand walkers died. But you know what? The galaxy just continued to spin. It didn't stop. The galaxy didn't turn its lights off for even a second to acknowledge the loss of life that night. Time just continued on as if it didn't notice or care. Mistakes do happen Varus, and the impact of them is on everyone around you. But it also isn't the end of everything. I have faith in you Varus, because while you may be loud, mouthy, obnoxious, gung-ho, a brat, stupid,-"

"You really don't view me highly do you?" Varus asked incredulously.

"-and exceedingly difficult to keep up with… Not to mention you test my patience at every turn… and force me to give you ten times the attention I give Ahsoka just to keep up with your antics… You have one trait that makes up for all of it." Anakin paused slightly. " You learn."

Varus's eyes flinched slightly, and somehow Anakin knew he hit him deep down. It looked like a few things were clicking in Varus's mind. He could practically smell the gears turning and burning away.

Not wanting the moment to be too subdued, he said, "In time, you may be just as awesome as me!" Anakin ruffled his hair playfully earning aggravation. Varus threw his hands off and put his fingers through his own hair to fix it, but only made it more ruffled and messed up.

"Gah, buzz off!"

Anakin laughed. "Alright, alright. Let's go help around."

It took a whole three hours before we got the radio transmitting on the open port within the interference and Mr. Captain got the lowdown and what's going on.

Seems the battle was finished two hours ago with ninety-seven percent casualties among the Klasin. Of course the city is also torn down to rubble and dust. We climbed out of the bunker and… guess what? No way out.

Mandalore lifted the interference cloud and Tree-Hugger called up for a rescue effort from our own ship. The Mandaloriens assisted as well and by the end of the day they managed to dig down far enough to get into the top of the elevator. At first they wanted to use ropes and ladders for us to climb out, but that would take a calculated four hours just for us to climb up. That much effort was considered a 'risk factor' or something because most of the refugees would fall from exhaustion halfway up.

So they, very carefully, sent these huge crates down tied to rope on one end and attached to aircraft on the other. Once a hundred or so people entered, the aircraft very carefully lifted and moved to the side to keep us from hitting the ceiling. It took ten trips but everyone was lifted to the surface.

The improvising was nice, but did it have to take the entire day and halfway into the night?

A guy gets bored… I had to count ridges on my fingernails for crying out loud!

The assembly before us is an interesting one to say the least. On a hill outside the city is an encampment of Mandaloriens and on the other side is Republic. The two groups look edgy and ready to fight at the drop of a hat. The refugees enter the Republic side without being hindered and enter the transports to be taken to the space cruiser. From there, I have no idea what they are going to do. Probably will get a vacation or something and then dropped off in their chosen location.

The Mandalorian tent nearest to us houses Mandalore. Impressive that he is willing to be the first one shot in all of this if it goes south. We see him walk out of his tent and head down the hill toward us. Tree-Hugger does the same and motions for Ahsoka and I to stay.

Whatever talk they have is short and to the point. Mandalore takes off his boots and hands them to Tree-Hugger before turning around and marching off. Within the minute the Ordo clan disassembles their entire camp and heads off. Within the hour we receive word that The Harbinger entered hyperspace and left Dantooine space.

"Sometimes you have to love Mandaloriens." Tree-Hugger tosses the dirty shoes to us and Azhoka catches them. "They may be crude and insulting at times, but when they say something, you never have to doubt it."

"Where now?" Girly asks.

"We originally came here seeking Revan's trail." Tree-Hugger responds. "Wherever it is, it should be somewhere near the ruins of the Dantooine Jedi Temple. We can start from there."

"That's…" Girly thinks a moment. "East, right?" Tree-Hugger nods. "Shouldn't be hard to find. The holonet pictures depict it as a giant black spot." She snorts in amusement.

"Please tell me we aren't flying again…" I groan.

Tree-Hugger just smiles mischievously.

"I really hate you…"

"We love you too." Girly swats me in the back of the head. With a Mandalorian boot I might add.

True to her word, the ruins were easy to find. We landed inside a cracked landing pad and look around.

"Does anything here ring a bell, Varus?" Tree-Hugger asks.

I look around. The hills and forests around look vaguely familiar, but I can't say… I look to the temple and the landing pad, and… "The place used to be brown right?" I ask.

"I think so." Tree-Hugger says.

"Do you remember?" Girly asks.

I shake my head. "Bits and pieces, but nothing concrete."

"Let's have a closer look then. Varus, walk around and see if you can find anything truly memorable to start with. Snips, make sure he doesn't hurt himself, the place is infested in wildlife."

"What are you going to do?" She asks.

"I'll see if I can find the archives and see what is still retrievable. Call me if anything happens." With that said, he departs down another path to where the archive should be located.

We enter the temple and Girly pulls up a map. I look around and see if anything hits me. The place is black and broken from the destruction Darth Malak wrought on the place. He intended to kill Revan and Bastilla, and to that end he bombarded this place from orbit. Most of the ground and walls and ceilings are reduced to holes and cracks infested with overpowering plant life. Colors and shapes are recognizable amidst the ashes in the floor, and I can get a vague idea of what the design plan was.

There is a large herd of some kind of large cat in the temple, just as Tree-Hugger speculated, but after Girly cuts down the first four to come after us: they get the idea to leave us alone.

She sticks behind me and says nothing as I look around. In my mind I can see bits and pieces. Jedi , nothing more than ghosts and apparitions in my memory, walking around minding their own business. We enter a clearing branching to the left, right, and a set of stairs going up a short ways ahead.

"Left is living quarters and a medical ward, right is a gate leading out of the temple, and straight ahead is the Council Chambers." I guess. I point in each direction without looking.

Girly checks the map. "That's right. How'd you-?"

"It's becoming a little more clear." I say.

Truly, things are becoming more and more easy to see as they used to be. The rubble and ashe is growing distant and being replaced with a living breathing temple in my mind. The temple is not as the Coruscant temple in being grand and large and impressive. The Dantooine temple is more of a small community of Jedi who have authority over this distant world and the surrounding region. Trees and grass make up much of the carpeting instead of polished stone and rugs. The place is… comfortable in its modesty.

I can see Revan talking with his companions. He stays here for two months and has his friends take up living quarters during that time. He breaks his wrist on a training exercise and enters the medical ward to have it checked. I see him walking up the stairs to the Council chambers with Carthi and Bastilla.

I can see him taking up Canderous Ordo and Carthi out to the right through the distant gate to head out on a journey into the plains.

I can't say if that particular journey is the one we should follow, since I can see him doing it many times. He has Bastilla with him, other times he has a Wookie with him, once a Twi'lek, and eventually he is accompanied by a cat-woman. I know their names but I can't be bothered to recall them right now.

Another time he is wearing a mask and dark robes and is accompanied by a well-built man I know yet don't know. Malak. Malak not as a Dark Lord, but as an apprentice.

Something spurns me on and I chase after the two ghosts in my mind. Girly speaks up and starts talking hastily into her comm while trying to keep up with me, but right now that doesn't matter. All that matters is not losing sight of Revan.

We ascend up the broken paths to the outside. I do not see the ruins or smoking ruins of Dantooine around me, nor how the landscape is, but I see how it used to be. I briefly lose Revan and Malak to other Revans and other companions. Revan left the temple many times out this way to go out and learn and practice. Revan wasn't one to sit in a room for days and days and practice on chairs. He went out and found practical uses for his power.

Revan and Malak leave the flong of collected memories and walk toward a remote path leading away from the hills into the forest. They enter into the darkest deepest thickness of the trees and pass an ancient assortment of pillars and obelisks. Whatever writing was written on the stones has long since passed to age and ruin, but the building that lies just beyond is the most ancient of all. It is nothing more than a hill overrun in dirt and plants, indistinguishable except for the door. Revan descends down a set of steps into the dirt and uses Force Push into a symbol on the door. The door, rather than be blown inward from the Push, holds firm and lights up with power. It opens and a wave of dust and decayed air explodes outward encompassing Revan and Malak and I lose sight of them.

"Crap." I mutter. I descend down into the steps and walk straight into the door.

Right… the door is closed. It's just open in my memory.

"Varus!" Girly yells from behind me. She catches up and stops to catch her breathe a moment. "Wait for Master Anakin!"

I look to the door. The door itself is simple and plain except for an indented bowl in the middle. Revan used Force Push into it, and the door somehow recognized him as a Force sensitive because of it and opened. I can open it.

I can open it!

'You do not think, Varus.' Tree-Hugger had said.

But no, no… I have no idea what is on the other side of this door…

"Alright." I say. I turn and return to her. She looks at my worriedly and it occurs to me that I went off after the images of Revan without second thought. I have no idea how far we ran, but she had to drop everything and chase after me in order not to lose me. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine. Master Anakin is on the way. I kept him apprised… What did you see?"

"I saw Revan and Malak head off and… I don't know. I just knew that was the memory to chase after."

Even as I say that, I see Revan and Carthi and Bastilla come down the path and pass right by me. Revan also appears to be chasing after his own memories as I chase after him.

Oh, the irony.

A long while later Tree-Hugger comes running down the path to us. I'm by the door trying to guess what's on the other side. A computer? A really old computer? One that works on binary instead of the modern systems? How about a gorilla? OH! A gorilla with a laser on its head! Or a shark with a laser on its head! No… A shark with a laser is stupid.

"What'd I miss?" He asks.

"A whole zoo of crap just waiting to be discovered!" I answer.

How about a robotic chipmunk? That'd be cool.

Tree-Hugger looks at me like I've grown a second head and turns to Ahsoka, "What did I miss?"

"Varus being bored, mostly." She shrugs. "He saw something from Revan's memories and chased after it."

"I know that much." He replies.

"And, we stopped here. I told him to wait for you."

I wonder to myself. "What's the difference between a squirrel on steroids and espresso and a seventy foot chipmunk?"

If it's on the other side of the door I am going to tame it and name it Skittles. Then have it hunt down things and set villages on fire! Then I'll set Skittles on fire and make the world's biggest bonfire!

"What have you been eating?" He asks me with a hint of fear.

"Nothing." I answer. Why? Between losing my mind, gaining someone else's, and spending most of the last twenty four hours bored out of my mind while on a quest to, quite literally, chase a ghost: AM I SUPPOSED TO BE SANE?! "Do I look crazy?"

"Let's not have you sitting around too much." He tells me with the gentle air of a psychiatrist talking to an insane person. "Boredom is having an effect on you."

Nah, I think I just think too much. Who knows where my mind goes when I have the time to just sit here and think. Or stand and think. Maybe I can wonder and think while doing acrobatics-and I should probably focus.

If he pulls out a psychiatrist question like 'how do you feel about that', I'm going to get mad.

"Right." I think my insanity started from the thought of what was on the other side of the door besides ghosts, dust, darkness, and spiders. Hmm…

"Did you find anything, Master?" Ahsoka asks.

"Nothing of importance survived. A few scientific journals and a more recent recording of farmers trespassing the grounds to scavenge anything of value is about all I could recover."

Tree-Hugger passes me and looks at the door. "Odd." He says.

"What?" Girly asks.

"I don't feel the Dark Side. I don't feel the Light either for that matter. It just feels like the other side just… 'is'."

Which tells us… what? I'm new to this crap. All I know how to distinguish is Light versus Dark, and not even that much. Don't get into states of being yet! "What that mean?" I ask.

"Uh… Nothing important. Just be careful."

Right, like I wasn't already.

Oh, right. I have a history with doors. And first encounters. And things in general.

"Varus, you chased a memory to this door, correct?" He continues. Minus five points. Why else would we be here?! While I'm at it, minus another fifteen for taking so long to get here! Wait, he has tens of thousands of points… Why am I bothering to keep track?

"Yeah."

"Do they show you how to open the door?"

"Yeah."

He steps back and motions to the door. A clear signal for me to proceed. I walk up to the door, generate a Force Push in my hands, and aim it at the same place Revan did. "Open Says me!" I say.

The door opens and right then I feel epic until Ahsoka smacks me upside the back of the head. "Don't you dare do stupid one-liners!" She says. Tree-Hugger just rolls his eyes and walks in first.

The door opens to a dark hall deeper into the ground. The place reminds me of the factory we entered at Sector 7207, but its dark. The place looks even older… Like its dead and rotted. Revan stands before me talking with Malak. I stop short in front of the ghosts and my friends stop when they realize I did.

Malak says, "Master, you do realize, whatever we have come to find cannot be unseen? This place reeks of the Dark Side."

"No matter. When 'He' returns, the Republic will not be ready. No matter what we say or do… They will reject everything we have already seen. My apprentice, we have no choice but to take the future into our hands." Revan replies. The two ghosts continue walking down the path.

"Of course, Master." Malak replies. "I only cannot help but wonder where this future will lead."

"Into darkness. It is the only way left to us."

They stop before a door on the other side and just as before they open it the same way as the outer door. I mimic Revan and we enter a room that forks in three directions. The door ahead of us is closed in both my memories and reality, and the doors leading left and right are open.

"Varus, what's going on?" Tree-Hugger asks me.

"Sssh." I hiss.

Revan and Malak gaze upon the writing on the door before us, and then disappear into fog.

That's just great…

"They stopped at the door and read it." I point to the door.

My friends peer at it and Tree-Hugger reads it out loud, "There is a time for peace. There is a time for war. There is a time for mercy. There is a time for examples. There is a time for love. There is a time for hate. There is a time to look back. There is a time to look forward."

"Ohhh, philosophical builders weren't they?" Ahsoka remarks.

"Poetic." I comment darkly. "Open it." I dislike poetry. It's like riddles. All a bunch of nonsense. I prefer things straight and simple that I can deal with by my own two hands. I don't need a verbal recipe that works its way to the cake. Just give it to me and I'll eat it with my own hands, forget the utensils.

That sounds a lot better in my head than if I were to say it out loud.

"How?" He asks.

I blink and look back over the door. It doesn't have the imbedded bowl pad to Push, nor does it have handles or anything. Instead it only has that poetry going down from top to bottom.

"It has to be related to the poetry." Tree-Hugger says.

"Or the doors."

I motion to the open doors and Ahsoka smirks at our Master. "Right…" He says. "Or that. Did Revan and Malak go that way?"

"The images stopped with them at this door reading it just as we did."

Tree-Hugger pinched his face in thought. "Alright… Varus, take left. Snips, take right. I will stay. Say if you find anything of importance. I will see what I can make out of the writing."

Snips gives confirmation and trots to the right door. She peers inside. I glance behind her. The room is dark and dismal. On the other side is another door.

My room to the left is the same.

"Worried?" She asks me over her shoulder.

"Nah. I'm sure I'm old enough to go into the dark without you holding my hand, mommy."

She rolls her eyes, turns and enters her room. She flips up her lightsaber and glances around. "Nothing!" She calls.

I shrug and enter my room. The hallway is dark. There are two sets of pillars on either side and darkness surrounds everything. I flip on my lightsaber as well. The darkness illuminates and I see… nothing?

What a load of-

A loud scratching noise erupts in the room. Anakin flinches in surprise and watches as the words on the door before him light up. Before he has time to wonder what this means, the hair on the back of his neck rises and the Force tells him something is happening. The Force energy around both of his Padawans shift violently and then… snaps. In the instant he can no longer perceive his student's energies.

"Padawans!" Anakin yells and turns around. To his horror, both doors close behind his students.

Obi-Wan was getting tired of being sent in circles.

Asking to talk to the manager had sent him to a secretary. The secretary sent him to someone who should know where the manager is. Supposedly the manager had been seen talking with security, making that the next place. Security had no idea and suggested asking a desk clerk who had access to the man's schedule. The files came up empty. So he went back to the secretary to see why the manager's files were empty. She didn't know. Security were all drooling lazy ignorant people, and after 3 hours he still didn't know where anything was or what he was doing anymore.

He was there to speak with the manager and get him to tell him, straight up, why he was holding Jedi for twenty-four hours constantly for security checkups. It was random on the surface, but with over ninety percent of them being Jedi, it was far from.

The manager of the star port had no schedule yet wasn't showing up anywhere.

So how was he going to get him?

Obi-Wan considered that perhaps he was going about things the wrong way when he saw another Jedi be pulled to the side. Entering the group and pretending to be one of them being pulled aside was easy as pie. When they were shoved into a room by the security guard he turned around, used Force Influence, and asked, "Who's authority do you act under?"

"The Manager, Mr. Tahl." The man said dumbly.

"What were his exact orders pertaining to Jedi?"

"Pull them into here, record them, sending the recordings to Mr. Tahl, let them leave."

Obi-Wan frowned to himself. It wasn't uncommon for Port Stations to be recorded, but if everything was being sent to the manager personally, then not only would the man know the Jedi Master was using the Force on his guards (Force Influence doesn't work on cameras) but he would know Obi-Wan was looking for him specifically.

To the security guard he said through the Force, "You want to let me by. There was a mistake."

"I want to let you by. There was a mistake." The guard stepped aside.

Obi-Wan waved to the Jedi in the room, who were quite bewildered by now, and said, "Carry on."

He left and disappeared. The guard didn't take long to regain his senses and entered a side room where holographic projectors showed the Jedi in the room. Obi-Wan entered the room and perched himself in the corner to watch.

The guard flipped a recorder for twenty-four hours, called for food and water to be provided for the guests, and arranged for periodic security checks. The Jedi were under the assumption information on them needed to be cleared up, that there was a glitch on the system.

Interestingly enough, the guard didn't seem to be lying. He was, Obi-Wan did not doubt it, but he was able to fool Force Sensitive's. It was easy to feel when people were lying but this guard was able to do it well. Obi would not have known he was lying if it weren't for the fact that he knew otherwise. Just simply feeling it out with the Force wasn't enough. Which was a scary prospect.

The guard finished arranging things for the next while for the Jedi and went about other minor tasks. Eating, sleeping, belching, watching cameras. From what Obi could see, there were five Jedi teams being observed and watched closely.

But for what? The Jedi were not doing anything special. They were biding their time patiently. Most were talking or meditating or practicing small techniques to keep their mind occupied. The small techniques usually involved lifting the chair off the ground and having it float around the room or a number of beads.

The beads were interesting. Obi-Wan did not recall it being necessary to have a bunch of metal beads in a security room. However the guards said nothing about it and didn't make a big deal out of it, so the Jedi didn't either. The Jedi didn't see a need to use them as projectiles and break out. They just… practiced with them.

One of the Jedi dropped everything he was doing. Obi didn't take much notice to it at first, but then he saw the Jedi's face. The Jedi in the camera was bewildered. The Jedi tried again to lift the beads and resume his little exercise to bide his time for the next few hours; but the beads lifted off the ground with visible difficulty and fell to the ground in a matter of seconds. The beads rolled across the table onto the floor and the Jedi was… confused.

Obi didn't want to break the Force Technique keeping him camouflaged to the corner in order to look closer, but while he couldn't recognize the Jedi's face, he recognized the robes. They were the robes of Jedi Knights.

Lifting beads and chairs were simple matters. Why was the Knight dropping things?

Obi-Wan made a mental note to assign this Knight to some R&R. Mental stress sometimes made techniques difficult to hold, but then another Jedi Knight, and the Knight's entire team, started showing similar difficulty.

Obi watched as the team collectively couldn't do a single thing they were trying to do.

To them it was nothing that mattered. They were just biding their time, waiting to be released. They were waiting for the security snapfu to clear up and let them go. After all, they had done nothing wrong, and the security guards were being very nice about it. No interrogations, just information needed to be cleared. The only negative emotion Obi could find was agitation of flights that were needed, and in a few cases Obi watched as people were let go early in order to meet their rushed flight schedule, under the assumption that the information processed just in time. For the Jedi, having to have a little difficulty in using their techniques could be a result of stress or anxiety. Nothing sleep couldn't cure.

It may have been nothing to the Jedi's on the camera, but to Obi it was an eye opener. More and more of the 'TV subjects' exhibited the same signs. No one knew, because Jedi didn't think too much of it to say something.

The guard a set of recordings out, replaced new ones in to start up, and left the room. Obi snagged one and slinked through the shutting door. He had a lot to think on.

There was something going on and the Jedi were deliberately being sent in circles until they just gave up on the matter. After all, they had more important things to deal with than some "information snapfu". Who was going to care? Who was going to notice there was disturbing patterns?

Certainly not the Jedi. They didn't stop to think and wonder about how small things could be conspiracies and plots. It wasn't a part of them.

Sometimes Obi-Wan wondered if the price of innocence was too much ignorance at times.

REVIEW! I want to hear your thoughts! TELL ME HOW MUCH IT SUCKS!