Greetings.

My muse still won't leave me alone so here's another chapter. I'm now off to try and write my GOT chapter. Here's hoping that the word lightsabre doesn't make it in without me knowing lol

Chapter 2

Obi-Wan was struggling to keep his towering anger under control while he waited for his Master to acknowledge his presence.

He had managed to get some food into Anakin but only because he was eating as well. The behaviours that were ingrained into him from birth thanks to his being a slave would be difficult to overcome in the short term but Obi-Wan was sure that it wouldn't take Anakin long to adjust to the new freedoms he had and then everyone would be in trouble when he started pushing at the new boundaries that will be set for him as a Jedi.

Obi-Wan wasn't stupid, he knew that as soon as Anakin felt confident enough to test those new boundaries, it will be a question of:

"I'm a free person so why can't I do that?"

He pitied Master Qui-Gon, but was looking forward to all the trouble Anakin was going to give him as his Padawan.

Oh yes, he also knew that his master will get his way in this.

The child in question however was currently safely sleeping in his temporary bunk in the droid storage bay, with the blue and white astromech droid known as R2D2, watching over him as he slept. He had been exhausted to begin with and adding food to the mix had taken him all the way over into a deep sleep. Obi-Wan had gently carried Anakin back to his bed, tucked him in and with a smile and an affectionate caress of the child's face left him to sleep.

Now, he was waiting on his Master's attention so he could deliver a blistering reprimand and lecture on the Care and Feeding of one Anakin Skywalker.

"Padawan, what is it?" Qui-Gon finally raised his head from the datapad he had been reading.

Obi-Wan took a deep breath and let it out slowly while attempting to allowing his anger at his master to be released into the force at the same time and in a calm voice he was very proud of producing he asked him,

"When were you going to tell me, tell anyone really that Anakin was a recently freed former slave?"

He couldn't help the snarl that came by the end.

"I don't think it's anyone business but Anakin's. It's up to him to tell people his history. It's not my place to speak of it." Qui-Gon replied, his attention returning to the datapad in front of him.

Obi-Wan spluttered in disbelief at his master's answer.

"Not anyone's business? With all due respect Master, have you gone completely senile? If the Council needed to know anything about him, it's that! You know how much trouble former slaves have trying to adjust to suddenly being free and usually left adrift to try and build a life for themselves, which doesn't always work with the slave mentality they've been forced to adapt too previously. Did you even take him to the Halls of Healing for a check-up? Did you even get his slave chip removed? The Hutt's are fond of using explosive devices to control their slaves, did you remember that much from my experience with the Hutt's and slavery Master? Did you even remember to get him a shower and a change of clothes? No you didn't. He's still wearing the same clothes he arrived in! For the sake of the Force Qui-Gon, have you done anything for him other than put him in an uncomfortable position he didn't ask for?"

Qui-Gon opened his mouth to respond, but Obi-Wan wasn't finished yet.

"He hadn't eaten for two days Master!"

Now he felt his Master's surprise and concern for Anakin come bleeding through their training bond.

"Oh so now you're worried about him."

Qui-Gon frowned in disapproval at the level of venom in his Padawan's words. Of course he hadn't spent as much time as he'd like with the boy, with either of the boys actually but that could wait until after the mission had been completed.

This mission was dangerous and the young Queen's plan was a highly risky one that depended on a number of factors in order to win, but if she could pull it off, the Trade Federation would receive a very unpleasant shock and if all went well, a bloody nose to boot.

To the rest of the galaxy, Naboo was a peaceful planet who chose not to have a standing army, but the rest of the galaxy was also about to find out that peaceful didn't mean defenceless or an unwillingness to fight for their home.

"Kriff, I'm sorry Obi-Wan. I've neglected both you and the boy. It's this mission. Queen Amidala's plan is an audacious one but if she can successfully pull it off, then the Trade Federation will have no choice but to withdraw from the planet and negotiate a new treaty with Naboo. Once the mission is finished, we'll have more time to talk and settle things properly." He tried to reassure his Padawan.

"Will we?" Obi-Wan's face was as devoid of all emotion as his voice was.

"Will we what Padawan?"

"Will we have time to talk more? You'll have a new Padawan, or will do as soon as you can talk the Council into it and organise my Trials, but until then, the boy will be in your care. So when will we have time to talk Master?" He may have been able to keep the hurt out of his voice but the bond between them bled with hurt, sorrow and rejection.

"What are you talking about? Of course well have time to talk, even after you're Knighted. I meant what I said Obi-Wan, you are ready for the Trials. You have been for a while now, I just wasn't ready to let you go just yet and yes, that makes you an attachment for me but right now I don't really care. The Council can kriff off when it comes to the attachment rules. They're wrong, in this case at least." Qui-Gon explained, suddenly starting to realise the grave hurt and disservice he had done to his Obi-Wan while in front of the High Council.

Obi-Wan frowned as he thought about what his Master had just said.

"Then why did you do it? Why did you basically repudiate me in front of the Council for a child you had just barely met? Do you have any idea just how much that hurt me Master? That you made me doubt myself and my place, not only in the Order but also in your life? I do understand the importance for Anakin to be trained to control his power, he will be dangerous if he doesn't get some sort of training and control but I don't blame Anakin for any of this."

"I blame you."

Qui-Gon reared back as if the young man in front of him had struck him across the face.

"Sithspit Qui-Gon, what were you thinking? Risking the entire mission on a pod race? Risking everything on a child, highly Force sensitive or not was WRONG on a level I've never seen or encountered before with you. It's like Anakin is all you can think about. What is it about him that makes you want him without a fight? Is it just because you think he's the Chosen One? Would you have fought for him to be trained if he wasn't? Personally, I think you wouldn't have. I had to fight not only you but also myself every step of the way to become your Padawan and Anakin turns up and you just roll over and take him on as if he were your son?!"

Now Qui-Gon was getting angry.

"You are my Padawan, not my master. I don't answer to you…Padawan."

Obi-Wan snorted in derision,

"No, you don't but you owe me an explanation at the very least. Actually, now I come to think about it, you don't answer to anyone do you? Not even the High Council, because you're "Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn", The Maverick, who follows the will of the Living Force and believes that he is never in the wrong for doing so even when he is! You don't listen to anyone Master! You don't listen to the High Council, you don't listen to your friends and you certainly don't listen to me because the Force forbids that there are actually other points of view that are just as valid as your own!"

"Are you that desperate to be known as the Chosen One's Master that you would forsake everything, for him? To forsake me? Like you did Feemor? Like you did Xanatos? Oh yes, I know about Feemor, despite you doing your level best to hide him from me. Did you think that I wouldn't have done my research when I decided to try and get you as my Master? I'm beginning to think that I wasted my time with you...Master, because you never really gave me a chance did you? Xanatos will always be your favourite, despite him turning Dark and it shows in how you treated both Feemor and me, even now he's gone. Poor Feemor you pushed away like he suddenly wasn't good enough for you and you constantly watched me for signs of Xanatos's behaviour, like you expected me to turn Dark regardless...just like him! You never gave me a chance to be my own person, you refused to see me for who I am and not what you though I was!" Obi-Wan raged, having completely lost his patience and temper with the stubborn Jedi Master by this point.

"Xanatos Fell due to his own ego and arrogance. He couldn't be helped once that happened and I pushed Feemor away so he wouldn't be tainted by association with him. It was for his own good."

"You didn't even try to help Xanatos. How do you know that he was truly lost? That he was fully dark? Yes, he felt Dark the last time we encountered him but it wasn't all consuming like we've been told it should be. There was a little light left there, I felt it but you obviously didn't because you weren't looking for it were you? So how do you know he couldn't return to the light if you had tried to help him? What's the saying? Not all who wander are lost?"

Obi-Wan sneered at him.

"And that's a karking sithspit of an excuse for what you did to Feemor!"

Qui-Gon was now seething in furious anger at the audacity of the young man in front of him.

"How dare you?!" He hissed in agitation and anger

Obi-Wan snorted again.

"I dare "Master" because I now have nothing left to loose. You already dismissed me as your Padawan so now I have nothing left that beholden myself to you. Actually, it feels quite…freeing. You have no idea how long I've wanted to say those things to you but never had the courage to do so. I should be thanking you from freeing me from my apparently false notion that I actually matter to you. So thank you Master." Obi-Wan's sarcastic tones ripped in into the older man.

Qui-Gon's anger drained from him like water down a pipe. He had no idea that he'd done so much damage to Obi-Wan's self-esteem and sense of self.

Oh Force, what had he done?

"Oh Obi-Wan, I am so very, very sorry for everything. I had no idea I was treating you like this. Why didn't you say anything?" He asked in despair.

"Would you have listened?"

Qui-Gon flinched.

No he would not have and he knew it.

"And that's why I didn't." Was the only reply he received.

Padmé sighed as she quietly moved away from the vent in the next room. The interior walls weren't exactly soundproof if one knew where to stand and she had accidently overheard the beginnings of the conversation between Master and Padawan. She knew she should have moved away and not listened in any further but she was a Queen whose planet was currently under invasion, she didn't need other people's personal problems interfering with the situation any more than it already did, Jedi or not.

She quietly moved through the ship in the guise of a handmaiden, checking on the status of the ship and its passengers. Most people were busy with duties that had been neglected while on Coruscant and the cooks were beginning to prepare the mid-day meal as they had switched to Naboo standard time the "night" before in order to acclimatise before they returned home.

She diverted quickly to the droid bay in order to check on little Ani and smiled when she saw him sleeping spread eagle over the small bunk, limb's flung wide in sleep, his blanket rucked down close to the end of the bunk. She silently moved over to him and re-covered him with the blanket and smiled once again as the young boy snuggled back down into its warmth.

She wasn't sure what to make of him.

He was completely adorable and smart as a whip, no doubt about it but he certainly wasn't like most children she had met but then again, most children she met weren't born into slavery either and that beaten down, world weariness that one only really sees in older people who have lived a hard life without respite was unnatural to see in one so young. His matter of fact attitude towards the fact that he was or rather had been a slave didn't sit well with her and she felt sorry for him for she knew he was missing his mother very much even though he wasn't letting it show.

She entered the Queen's quarters, it was thankfully empty which pleased her as she had a lot on her mind to think about. She hadn't had much time to herself since this whole situation had started and she desperately needed some time to herself to think. Padmé took a seat next to the window, absently playing with the carved japor snippet that was hanging around her neck, staring out at the swirling lines of hyperspace while she tried to compose her chaotic thoughts into something more manageable.

But her mind kept returning to the Senate…and the Jedi.

Padmé had expected some opposition against her cry for aid but complete inaction? That had been a hard, bitter pill to swallow. She couldn't believe how ineffective the Senate had become when it came to aiding its member worlds. Naboo, like Alderaan, were some of the Republic's oldest and most respected member worlds, the wealthy and political powerhouses that the two planets had become over the centuries were had been vital to the health of the Republic but these days, the Republic seemed to have forgotten that worlds existed outside the Core as their interest in the greater galaxy turned inward to those planets who's wealth and power were for sale to the highest bidder…providing they ended up with a healthy profit that was.

It hadn't skipped her notice that the Trade Federation's allies had rallied around them faster than usual. Ainlee Teem, the senator of Malastare, usually at least pretended to listen to opposing arguments before vehemently declaring that the person presenting the argument was wrong on all counts but not this time. She had scarcely begun to make her plea to the Senate when both the Trade Federation and the Senator for Malastare were all over her, calling for a committee in order to "investigate" her claims of illegal invasion.

Padmé had also been silently disappointed with her own Senator's response to what had gone down in the Senate. As it was also Palpatine's home planet that was under attack, she had expected to find him neck deep in political shenanigans in order to gain the aid their home world needed but instead had instead found him to be deeply disillusioned with the Senate and doing nothing to help their people.

When he had initially suggested the Vote of No Confidence in Chancellor Valorum, her first instinct was to reject the notion outright, for she couldn't see why she should turn on one of Naboo's oldest and most faithful supporters in the Senate and while he couldn't use the powers of his position as Chancellor in her favour, his personal favour and regard were worth its weight in kyber crystals within the Senate itself. But by the time she had he had confirmed that he the committee would be formed, she had had enough. Padmé hoped she'd done the right thing by calling for the Vote but it wouldn't do anything to help her people in time and she now had a vaguely nauseated feeling that she'd been used somehow.

She could understand that he had been bogged down in procedural laws and that his hands were tied up in red tape, even more then hers were but she was at a loss for how it managed to get to this point in the first place.

There seemed to have been quite a few conflicting laws that had been voted in over the last two to three decades that contributed to the mess that she had found in the Senate but she was still too new to galactic politics and too far removed from the Republic Senate as Queen of Naboo to understand the history behind everything but she didn't need a history lesson to know that if she had decided to do nothing then Naboo would cease to be a voice of power and reason among the Republic and become no more than a client world of the Trade Federation.

In short, Naboo as it was now would cease to exist.

She was so deep in thought that she hadn't heard her body double come in. Sabé was the one who switched places with her the most but she was currently adorned in handmaiden robes like herself. Apparently Cordé was taking her turn to masquerade as the Royal Presence. Padmé was actually glad to see her as she needed to talk with Sabé and sort out what their plans would be for approaching the Gungan's and asking for their help.

"Milady, I didn't know you were here." Sabé said a little surprised to see her friend and Queen sitting alone without any guards anywhere.

Padmé smiled at her.

"Sabé, I'm glad you're here. I could use your wisdom and advice on some topics."

"Of course milady, what would you like to talk about first?" Sabé replied as she crossed the room to sit next to Padmé.

After a couple of hours of talking, arguing and finally compromise, they had finally hammered out a plan in regards to the Gungan's and what would happen if they won. Padmé sighed deeply, happy that those plans were now arranged but she still felt unsettled.

"What's wrong Padmé? We've done good work here and those plans are fine and completely executable, so what's worrying you now?" Sabé asked.

Padmé, remembering her earlier indiscretion, blushed, a slightly embarrassed look her face.

Sabé smirked, she knew that look.

"What did you do this time?"

Padmé turned her eyes to the window.

"I…may…have overheard somethings I shouldn't have and it's causing me to question some long held beliefs that have been taken as universal truths." She hedged.

Sabé raised a curious eyebrow at her.

"And those truths apply to whom exactly?"

Padmé gave her a serious look.

"The Jedi. To be honest, I'm worried about little Ani. I'm beginning to wonder if the Jedi Order is the best place for a child such as him. I believe he's going to have a very difficult time adjusting to a completely new way of thinking and being."

Sabé narrowed her eyes at her. The question was obvious in her features.

Padmé sighed again. She wasn't getting out of this.

"Sabé, what do you think of our resident Jedi? Do you think they are up for this mission? They said it themselves, they're peacekeepers, not soldiers, but there comes a time when just keeping the peace is not enough. How can they even hope to help us fight in this war if they won't help us beyond keeping me safe? If you weigh my life against the life of my people, it's no contest. If we lose the planet, then so be it because Naboo isn't a place, it the people! They are the ones that need protecting…not me."

She raised her hand stopping Sabé's protests before they could start.

"Its true Sabé, you know it as well as I do. If I die, there are others who can replace me easily as Queen but the people themselves, they can't be replaced. The protection of the Jedi Order should be focused on my people, not me! If we manage to get Boss Nass and the Gungan army on our side, I'm going to have to order them into a battle where many of them will die. Their blood will be on my hands and I know that I can't avoid but I accept that as the price of war but why can't the Jedi provide some of their people to protect the Gungan's and our people from the droids? Apart from holding the office of Queen of Naboo, what makes me so special to be singled out for Jedi protection?"

Sabé who was about to answer with the obvious, closed her mouth and frowned in contemplation.

It was a damn good question.

"Well it could be because you're the first person in a thousand years to be targeted by a…what did they call it? Oh yes a Sith. If what they said was true, then this is the hereditary enemy of the Jedi who they though no longer existed. If they are that worried about this dark Sith creature's re-appearance, then perhaps there is cause for worry and the Jedi's exclusive protection. If my memory of galactic history is right, then these Sith have the same type of powers as the Jedi do, only darker and nastier." Sabé said, remembering the dark warrior that the Jedi had encountered on Tatooine.

Padmé though just waved her concern off.

"Please Sabé, they may have the same powers as Jedi but even I can't believe that they could fend off a hundred people all shooting blaster bolts at them in a continuous stream. It only takes one bolt slipping through their defences to kill them and even Jedi have their limits, so the Sith must as well. And from the gossip I heard while in the Senate, the Jedi High Council isn't taking this threat too seriously anyway. So that doesn't prove or answer anything to my satisfaction." She retorted.

"Besides, that all depends on the premise that this Sith is coming for me exclusively, which I highly doubt. It seems a lot more probable that he is here for the Jedi, if what you say about the Sith and Jedi being enemies is true. Using a Sith to get to me when any highly trained bounty hunter could do the same thing, seems like overkill for just one person, Queen or not. Besides, what would a Sith want with Naboo of all planets? Our plasma stocks? We already trade it with those who come asking. The spice mines on Rori moon? As long as Naboo gets it's its taxes from the organisation who runs it, we don't interfere and the Sith would have to deal with them directly. He could possibly be after our space craft, our fighters specifically, but again, we are willing to trade when it comes to spacecraft. So I ask again, what makes me so special?"

It was a question that may never be answered for Sabé honestly couldn't think of a single thing to counter any of her Queen's many good points about the situation.

"I think we may need to hedge out bets. Who is our best blade, our best shot and our best slicer? I think the Jedi may need a back-up team of their own, this would be our blade and shooter and we need information, hence the slicer. I may need to put a call out before we arrive home Milady, I think I know someone who could help with the slicing from the outside." Sabé mused as she started to think of some more back up plans in order to make things go smoother.

"What could a shooter and a blade do that a Jedi can't?" Padmé asked her, humour and confusion littering her tone.

"Take the bad guy by surprise of course. If he's busy watching the Jedi, do you think he'll see the knife at his back? Or even the blaster? Depending on who got in first that is." She laughed.

"I don't know Sabé, the Jedi are known for sensing things before they happen, who says this Sith can't do the same thing? We could be sending our people off to suffer a needless death. No I think we need to let the Jedi deal with this Sith if he shows up, while we deal with the Trade Federation and the Viceroy personally…Although, your slicer friend, how good are they?" She asked curiously.

"Very, very good Milady."

Padmé hummed in thought.

"Good enough to crack the Trade Federation codes?"

"Possibly, I don't really know. It would depend on what you're looking for I think. What are you looking for Padmé?" Sabé answered thoughtfully.

The young Queen sighed.

"I need evidence, independent of what we will collect on Naboo of the Trade Federation's invasion. I need to know if the Federation itself is completely behind this invasion or if Gunray is working independently outside Federation law. I believe Master Qui-Gon when he says the Federation means to kill me, so I need a back-up plan just in case I don't make it out. I will record a testament to the Senate stating that I did not and have not ever sign any contract or paperwork that would make the invasion of Naboo legal just in case they try to plead otherwise in the Senate but having an Idiot's Array in reserve just in case would be nice"

Padmé rubbed her temples. As much as she loved politics, in this situation, she felt way out of her league.

Sabé gave her a sympathetic smile.

"I'll see what I can do Milady. Now if we're finished, I do believe it's time for lunch. Shall we?"

"I could eat." Padmé replied with a smile on her face as she rose from the couch under the window.

"Let's go then and enjoy what could possibly be our last enjoyable meal with real food for some time." Sabé laughed as they left the room together and headed towards the mess where lunch was currently being served.