A/N: Hello everyone! A lot of people reviewed, thank you!

WARNING!

This chapter more than earns its M rating. Surgery related gore, Mentions of SA, You have been warned! It's a bit of a downer, but I've included it for legitimate reasons! It's not just edge for edge's sake. It is story significant. I promise!

Reviews:

apo21

I'm sorry it's a bit of a slow burn, but I promise I'm not writing random crap for no reason. The stuff that happens now WILL come into play in the future.

frankieu

Thanks for the review!

cameron1812

Again, I'm glad you enjoy the Tatooine slave culture as much as I do! It's been confusing some people, so I'm glad there are people that like it too. Thanks!

kossboss

Thanks! We'll still be on Tatooine for a little bit more, I want to set up some butterflies.

Blaze1992

Nice AC/DC reference lol

TrumpasaurusRex

Ekkreth is a mythical figure in the stories that the Tatooine slaves tell, sorta like how Greek myth has demigods, Shinto myth has the different Kami/spirits, that kind of thing. In the Slave stories, Ekkreth has the power to shapeshift and often takes the form of a red bird, a rich and beautiful outworlder woman, a decrepit old man, ect. The stories about Ekkreth are always about them freeing slaves and tricking slave masters. Because they can transform into a bird, one of Ekkreth's titles is the Sky-Walker, which was given to Shmi as a last name by one of the slave grannies owned by Gardulla. Ekkreth is basically a fairy tale character, and has great cultural significance to the Tatooine slave people, but isn't a real person. The stories may have once been based on the actions of a real person of some kind, but oral tradition is often warped and exaggerated over time. Essentially, don't worry about it.

NastySquire

Thanks for the review! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!

I don't own Star Wars.

We quickly and quietly made our way to the meeting spot, keeping our stealth fields up the entire way. When we arrived, it seemed everybody was here so we relaxed our presences in the force. I immediately felt kinda bad, because as soon as we did, an old twilek man who had been looking at something in our general direction jumped in fright.

From what I could figure, our stealth technique wasn't true invisibility, but more along the lines of tricking people's brains to 'filter out' our presence, kinda like how you can technically always see your nose, but hardly ever visually register that it's there. To him, Amu and I must have looked like we had suddenly popped into existence out of nowhere.

He muttered a curse in Ryl, and his gnarled hand darted to a wooden totem he was wearing on a leather chord as a necklace in order to ward off evil. Amu pulled back her hood enough that he could see her face, and I briefly took off my Jawa mask for the same reason, and he relaxed, recognizing our faces. He whispered intensely in a thick Ryl accent, "Stars and stones Skywalker, 'ow did you do zat? Did you pop out of zhe ground? And le child as well! 'E should not be 'ere!"

Despite him speaking like a Frenchman and having sandy orange skin and lekku instead of hair, his voice and face reminded me of Leonard Nimoy, around the age he looked in the Star Trek reboot that had the black hole jelly. I blinked in shock and considered the implications of him looking like an actor. Was he important? I mean, of course he was important, he was a sentient being, but like… more important than usual? Or was this just random multiverse crap?

The others in the group turned toward us, but weren't quite as spooked, since they hadn't directly seen us appear. They probably just assumed we were exceptionally stealthy.

The only explanation Amu offered was, "Ar-Amu protects us, but I need my son's help to hide all of us from sight." Before the old Twilek could respond, another member of the group, a young Cathar man spoke up in a fierce whisper, "It is true! She practiced her gift at my house, and she could completely disappear!" Several other member of the group nodded their heads in confirmation as they had been part of the practice, and a look of awe came on the rest of the group's faces.

"Alright everyone, get into a line and hold each others hands in a chain," Amu directed, her voice gentle. As they heeded her directions, she took the lead of the group, and I went to the back of the line. The cathar man was behind Amu and had his hand on her shoulder, and I was behind the old Leonard Nimoy twilek, my hand clasping the back of his belt. Everyone else was in between us in a chain. "Ready?" Amu asked me, and when I nodded, I could feel her shielding extend along the line, reaching out to me. Concentrating, I reached out back toward her with my own shields, the energy flowing along the physical links between us. All together we were a group of 16, and Amu's record was 7 including herself, so it would be tight.

As our shield cloaks reached the middle of the group, there was some strain, and Amu's stopped just short of 8. Breathing deeply, I focused on reaching out, willing the force to flow through me more, to increase my technique's power. My shielding rushed forward and intertwined with Amu's, and now that they were connected in a stable bubble, it was easier to maintain. We took a few seconds to ensure the cloak's stability, and then Amu spoke up.

"We are shielded from sight. Remain calm and silent. This requires intense focus and your emotions can disrupt our senses." At this, the old twilek seemed to put something together, as there was a bloom of understanding and even a little reverence in his force signature. In a whisper I only heard because I was right behind him, he breathed out, "Jedi!"

I responded, also in a whisper, "Not quite, we are just slaves. But this is the force. You can trust in it." Looking back in surprise at being heard, he then nodded, and the last of his skepticism drained away, replaced by hope.

"Anakin…" Warned mother in a strained voice, and I realized I was focusing too much on the old alien in front of me. I concentrated on the task at hand, and she let a sigh of relief. "Let's go. Step as quietly as you can," She then set off toward the meeting place, the line following behind.

Along the way we walked past several people, but they went about their late night business without a care in the world, carrying on as though we weren't even there. The first time it happened, it was a Weequay enforcer for the huts, and the fear and nervousness of the group nearly broke our concentration. After we managed to make it past him unnoticed, only passing centimeters by his elbow, the group grew more confident and trusting in our invisibility, and our job became significantly easier. I didn't blame them for the difficulty. Faith and trust can be powerful, but sometimes seeing is believing.

It took about 30 minutes for us to walk a distance that would usually take 20, but we were taking care to make as little noise as possible, so the slow pace was inevitable. The less Amu and I had to prevent from being noticed, the easier it was to maintain the shielding. Gathering in an alley behind the mod shop Beru told me about, we checked if the coast was clear, and dropped our shielding. The back wall of the mod shop on our right was smooth and solid, and the only door in the alley was to the building across from it on our left. I grimaced. When I heard we were meeting behind a mod shop, I had hoped the owners were part of the path, and would let us use their sterile surgery tools and painkillers they used to mount their prosthetics. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The mod shop wasn't a part of the path, just a convenient landmark. We would be doing this the old fashioned way.

Seeing the shape of a Tatooine red bird scratched roughly beside the door frame, Amu knocked softly on the back door, and it soon swished open. A woman I vaguely remember from the cheese stand was revealed, and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the size of our group. She stood a few seconds in shock, and then quickly began ushering us in. "Were you followed?! Were you seen?!" she whisper yelled. Amu shook her head in denial. "We used a hidden way. No one saw us" the woman paused, before regaining her senses.

"Err… right! I'm Uana Whitesun, my husband and I are operatives of The Path. There are a lot of you, but if we squeeze together we should be able to fit on the transport. All…" she paused, counting, "Sixteen of you?"

"No," Amu responded, putting her hand on my shoulder, and I took off my mask, "My son and I were slaveborn to the Hutts. We cannot go. But these fourteen are ready." Mrs. Whitesun nodded, and immediately began bustling around, preparing extra tables. She called her husband for help, and another couple came down the stairs from the second story, who ended up being Mr. Whitesun's brother and and sister in law.

"Alright we'll do this 4 at a time, so if there's no complications we should get through everyone in about 2 or so hours. These walls are thick, and we have the building to ourselves, so don't worry about being totally silent. As long as we don't scream at the top of our lungs, no one will hear. I'm sorry it must be done this way, but proper medical supplies are watched like a corellian bat-hawk by the hutts, so the best we can do is hard moonshine for cleaning and tough leather to bite on. We can give you a bit to drink, but we'll have to get moving to the spaceport in three hours, so we can't have anyone too wasted. Are all of you prepared?" She looked into each of the fourteens eyes, and was met with a series of nods, some more nervous and fearful than others, but all with a steely resolve.

Slowly, the group decided amongst themselves which four would go first. When they were selected, they each got on one of the four tables, where the four members of the Whitesun family ran scanners over their bodies. While the first two of the four, a pair of women, had their chips in their shoulders, which was common, the third had his in the skin of his chest, and the last poor bastard had his chip in his left ass cheek. I suppose his captors had thought it funny to place it there, the scumbags.

Biting the pieces of leather they were given, and with some of us holding them down where instructed, the Whitesuns began the surgeries. There were muffled screams and grunts of suffering and sobbing as the incisions were made in their flesh, blood oozing out where the razor sharp scalpels were slicing them open. As quickly and gently as possible, the Whitesuns cut only deep enough into them to retrieve the transmitters, grabbed on to the vile explosives with forceps, retrieving them, and neatly sutured up the wounds with professional levels of skill.

As the painful surgeries were going on, Mrs. Whitesun looked up from her work briefly at us and asked, "Will one of you sing?" Amu Nodded.

These surgeries were painful, potentially traumatic experiences only undergone out of necessity, and it had become tradition for a member of the party to sing as a distraction for those in pain. Something pleasant for their minds to latch on to.

Amu stood in the center of the room and began a haunting Amatakkan Lullaby that I recognized as one she often sang late at night to put me to bed. The words were in the Amatakkan language, but the translation was this:

"Unfettered dragon Leiyah,

Mighty Sandstorm Lukka,

We march towards freedom,

We will receive.

The living escape,

The dead are remade,

We march towards freedom,

All will be one.

Judgement or mercy,

Compassion or wrath,

All will be balanced.

Leiyah may make free,

Or Lukka will renew,

Freedom or death."

Despite the fatalistic nature of the words, the song was comforting to me. Amu sang it to me all of old Anakin's life, but he only learned the meaning of the words later on. The last line was especially meaningful. 'Freedom or death' in Amatakkan was 'Dukkra ba dukkra' as the language used the same word for both freedom and death.

As she sang, I could feel her reaching out in the force, strengthening the minds of the patients, giving them courage and distracting them from their pain.

While the first three surgeries were completed relatively quickly, the guy with the chip in his ass took a bit longer as it was in deep, and required several attempts to dig it out before they finally managed to remove it. After he was properly stitched up and bandaged, he couldn't sit without pain and elected to lay belly down on the floor.

One by one the surgeries were performed. When Amu needed a break from singing, I took over for her. Other than earth songs, I only really knew that same lullaby, so I sang it as well, and succeeded in using the force to strengthen their wills the same way Amu did.

After a while, she took back over, and I went over to where the last patient was being worked on. While some had handled the pain better than others (a woman who had given birth before being especially in control of herself), the last one wasn't even making any noise. It was the orange twilek who looked like Leonard Nimoy, and other than a furrowed brow and a few beads of sweat on his forehead, it was difficult to tell he was in pain at all. His breathing was even and regular, and when I came up to watch him, he spoke to me in a even tone.

"Thank you little one. I had all but given up on ever escaping zis world. I almost didn't come, as I wanted to let someone younger take my limited place. Your Mozher was especially stubborn that I come, and I'm glad she was. To hide a large group from sight… I never would 'ave thought."

I nodded, "you owe us no debt. No one deserves slavery. It was the least we could do."

After a few moments of silence, I spoke up again, hoping to distract him from the pain. "What is your name elder?"

He chuckled in response, "Alask. In Ryl, it means desert."

I snorted bitterly "Ironic. I guess that's pretty fitting all things considered."

He chuckled darkly in response, and returned to silence, his breathing deliberate and controlled. I spoke up again, "Do you have any family Alask?"

At this, his hand returned to the wood bead on his necklace, which I now noticed wasn't a ward or totem at all, but a family bead for a kalikori. "Yes… I do. A son." His eyes grew misty, though I couldn't tell if it was from the pain or the memories. He continued, "'e was around your age when I was taken. 'e'd be a young man now, all grown up. Ohhh…Cham… 'ow much I 'ave missed…"

"I'm sure he'll understand if you talk to him! It's not your fault you were taken!" I argued.

Alask's gaze grew distant and his eyes narrowed. A burst of bitter hatred flared from him, so intense that it almost overcame my shields, and for a second, I saw an image from his memories.

-There was a large rotund Twilek with blue skin and four lekku surrounded by riches and finery and being attended to by attractive slave women, his chins jiggling as as he laughed like a demented french Santa, "Ohohohohohohon… you will soon be no concern of mine, Alask Syndulla! Ohohon! Guards! Take 'im away!"-

I slammed my shields closed as tightly as I could, and returned to the present just in time to hear Alask's response, a dark look on his face, "Zhat it wasn't child… zhat it wasn't…"

Holy shit! That was that senator guy! Was Alask sold into slavery by a republic senator?! How deep into republic space did the slave trade go?!

Suddenly, I felt the force swirling around me, and as I calmed myself, words came to me as if I no longer had control of my mouth. I felt no danger, so I let them through, and found myself saying, "Alask Syndulla. If you had stayed on this world you would have surely died in the next few months. I promise you however, if after you are freed you seek a proper medical bay for treatment and eat a healthy diet for the rest of your days, you will live more than a decade longer, perhaps two. You will reunite with your son, and should you survive, the future of Ryloth will be brightened by your return."

Alask's eyes widened at my use of his last name, which he hadn't told me, and as I spoke, I could feel astonishment fill him as I delivered the promises. He bowed his head, and spoke with a reverent tone, "I will, I promise! I thank you deeply for zhis blessing."

Nodding, I responded, still feeling like my words were being slightly guided. "I haven't used any grand power, I have simply stated the truth. Tatooine is harsh, and proper medical care can be the difference between life and death. When you get to Ryloth, seek out the Jedi there. They will help in bringing this conspiracy to light, and protecting you and your family in the meantime."

He nodded again. "I will!" He said with determination.

After Alask's surgery was completed, Mrs. Whitesun declared we would all rest for an hour, and then we would head out. It wasn't even 30 minutes later however, when Beru came sprinting down the stairs.

"There are Hutt enforcers gathering around, they're heading this way! There must be at least 20 of them!"

Mrs. Whitesun's face pailed in shock. She turned to us, a hint of accusation in her tone. "Your group must have been seen. We'll need to scatter, those who can make it to the spaceport, meet us at Docking bay 38!"

In response to this accusation, Amu stood up in quiet anger, and promptly disappeared. Mrs. Whitesun stepped back in shock. Amu reappeared, and snapped, "We can avoid being seen if we wish, we were NOT discovered, or we would have been stopped on our way here. Something else must be at work." She looked at the group of 14. "Somehow, the information was passed to the Hutts after we arrived. Did anyone spread the details of our escape? You were all told to inform no one." Amu's voice was calm but deadly serious, and there was a flash of guilt from one of the 14, but they were all grouped together, so I couldn't make out exactly who it came from before it was calmed.

From Amu's reaction, she sensed it too, but seemed to dismiss it, calming herself. "It doesn't matter. Line up everyone." She turned to Mrs. Whitesun. "Will you be safe without us with you?"

She nodded, "So long as we have no slaves with us, we should be able to bribe our way through. Docking bay 38, and be quick! We'll meet you there, but we will take off if they start closing up the bay roofs. Arrive before then."

Amu nodded, once again taking the lead of the line, and I went to the rear. Concentrating, we extended our shielding over the group, and we disappeared into the night.

There were several close calls, but we managed to slip by most of the enforcers on our way to the space port. We were only a few blocks away, when we reached the final obstacle. Standing on either side of the entryway to the space port were two guards. One of them was a grizzled looking weequay with a scar over his eye, but it wasn't him I was worried about. Across from the weequay, standing guard on the other side of the archway, was a man decked out in painted metal armor with at least three weapons on him and a distinctive T shaped visor on his helmet.

A Mandalorian.

Our invisibility was mind trick based, and the mandalorian people were known to have iron wills, and this resistance was only strengthened by their training. There was no guarantee we would remain hidden.

Whether Amu knew this or not, she seemed to sense the danger, and stopped the group. Sending her a 'nudge' through the force, she looked back at me, and I waved my Thor gun. She looked conflicted, but nodded. Making sure we were hidden in an alley, I disengaged from the group. Creeping up as close as I could, I took shelter behind a crate about 10 meters away from them. Just as I was about to make my move, the mandalorian spoke up, his voice sounding from an unseen speaker on his helmet.

"Did you hear that? A bit too heavy to be a rodent." He pulled out his pistol.

His weequay companion spoke up, "Watchu onnabout? I din' 'ear noffin. Is been silen' as deff ou' 'ere aw nigh'.

I blinked, trying to decipher the weequay's words. A flash of irritation came from the mandalorian. "Are you deaf? I definitely heard something just now. Didn't you?"

The weequay shook his head, his eyes rolling to heaven. "Noffin a' aw. Yous barkin' innit!"

The mandalorian's anger grew, and he turned away from where I was hiding to look directly at the weequay. "I'm telling you, I heard something!"

This was probably a good time to strike, while they were distracted. I drew on the force, using it to guide my shots. Instinctively, I knew to fire three times. Once at the weequay, and twice at the mandalorian, once directly at him, and once to his left.

The weequay went down in one, body shaking like he'd been tazed. The mandalorian must have heard the Thor gun spool up, because he dodged left, avoiding the second shot and unknowingly putting himself directly in the path of the third. It impacted the space between his helmet and armor, sending him crumbling to the ground, his muscles spasming. I could sense he wasn't unconscious yet, so I fired at him again as I rushed toward the unconscious weequay, the force guiding my hand to hit the space between his chest and back plates just as the first shot was wearing off. I ripped the blaster pistol from the knocked out weequay's hip and pointed it at the mandalorian, pulling the trigger. A stun ring shot out, sending him to unconsciousness.

I looked at the blaster. Why the hell was it set to stun? I clicked the safety switch to lethal, and pointed it at the mandalorian. I hesitated. He was unconscious. He wasn't a threat right now, but he would be in the future. I, in theory, had no problem with killing him. He was dangerous, and leaving him alive would only complicate things. He could see through our concealment. There was no logical reason to leave him alive.

Still, I hesitated. I hadn't ever killed someone before. My hands shook. Suddenly, Amu appeared beside me, and placed her hand on the blaster, gently pushing it down. "It is done Ani." She whispered, "To kill in battle is one thing, but to shoot him while unconscious would be nothing less than murder. You are not Depur."

I let out a breath, and handed the blaster to Amu. She nodded, tucking it under the belt of her tunic.

We removed the mandalorian's weapons from him, and gave them to members of the group that could shoot. He even had a vibrio knife in his boot, which I kept.

We hurried through the halls of the spaceport, making our way to Docking bay 38. As we slipped through the doors, we saw the Whitesun's ship, but they weren't here yet. Only the owner of the ship had the codes to lower the onramp, so we were stuck waiting for them to arrive.

After a few tense minutes of waiting, they arrived. "Sorry we're late" said Mrs. Whitesun, "We were held up by some enforcers and had to bribe our way through. Let's be off!" She retrieved a code transmitter from her pocket and clicked a button, which began lowering the ramp.

Suddenly, another voice sounded from the docking bay entrance. "So you're really leaving."

We froze, turning towards the speaker. What the hell? It was Kitsters mom!

"Adra!" The Cathar member of our group hissed, "what are you doing here!?"

She responded angrily. "I followed you. Or more accurately, I followed the Whitesuns! Why are you leaving me Ostar!? Why are you leaving Kitster?!"

The Cathar man, Ostar, responded incredulously, "what are you talking about? We aren't in a relationship, we've barely talked in months!"

Adra ran towards Ostar and threw herself at him, and he caught her, confused. After she seemingly hugged him, she skipped back away from us, and pointed a blaster at Ostar, the same one he had gotten from the mandalorian and tucked into his belt. He felt at his side, realizing it's a absence.

We all froze where we were, and Ostar put his hands up.

Ostar spoke up, trying to keep his voice calm but unable to fully hide his desperate tone. "Adra. It was one night, years ago!"

"It only takes one!" Adra snapped, "Kitster is your son! We slept together before I got pregnant with him!"

"Adra!" Ostar responded, "Cathar genetics are incompatible with humans, there is no way I could be—"

"Shut up! Shut! Up!" Tears streamed down her face, and her hands grew shaky. "You are his father! I know you you are! You have to be! You must!"

I grimaced. We had all seen Adra's master, a foul tempered man who ran a bar across from Watto's droid shop, and anyone could see Kitster looked exactly like him.

The strange thing about it was, she didn't feel like she was lying. Her force signature radiated pain, fear, desperation, self hatred, and a deep wanting, and all those twisted up feelings made me leery about seeking a deeper connection to find out the truth. But on the surface, she actually seemed like she believed what she was saying. The only problem is, like Ostar said, it wasn't scientifically possible.

"Adra. My chip is removed. I am going."

"No you're not!" Adra screamed, "You're staying here! With me! You can't leave!"

Suddenly, Something clicked into place in my mind. It was probably pretty dumb of me to speak, but the words left my mouth before I could think twice, "It was you! You tipped the enforcers off!"

There were a few gasps, and Ostar got visibly angry. "Adra! Is this true?! Did you put us all at risk for this… Delusion?!"

She was spitting now, and I tightened my mental shields as her mind seemed to implode, fracturing into something more primal, a desperate escape from her suffering, all of her internal fear and pain morphing into unrestrained hatred.

Shrieking like a krayt dragon, she aimed at me, the left most member of our group, and it was clear she intended to gun us all down. A warning in the force blared, she was going to shoot!

ZWAP!

The sound of a blaster bolt being fired made me flinch, but it wasn't me that had been shot. Smoking, Adra's body fell to the ground. Standing next to me was Amu, her arm extended, smoke curling from the barrel of her blaster. A shocked silence lasted a few seconds, but was broken by Amu. She spoke, her voice shaky. "We have to go. Quickly!"

At her shout, we were galvanized into action. Those that hadn't already entered the ship hurried up the ramp, and it began to close. Amu and I reactivated our stealth auras, and we quickly hurried out of the docking bay. As we passed Adra Jetster's body, on instinct, I summoned the mandalorian pistol to my hand. Engines roaring, the Whitesuns ship took off, rising up into the air.

As we jogged through the streets toward home, a few enforcers rushed passed us towards the spaceport, never knowing we were there. When we finally reached home and locked the door, Amu collapsed into a kitchen chair, tears streaming down her face. Adra and her had been neighbors, friends! What had been happening in her life to push her mind to the breaking point like that?!

"Adra…" Amu murmured, "how could you?"

She squeezed me to her body, as if reassuring herself I was there.

"I'm sorry Amu." I said, "I shouldn't have turned the blaster to lethal, I shouldn't have spoken up! If it was still on stun, than maybe—"

She interrupted, "No Ani! It's not your fault! It's… it's not your fault…" I got the feeling she was speaking as much to herself as she was to me. She rocked back and forth with me, and I tried not to think about Kitster next door, sleeping away happily, now motherless.

I felt sick to my stomach. I had felt her mind, felt how broken and fractured it had become, and I felt a black flame of bitter hatred spark into life in my heart at the thought of Nero, Adra's master. I know it was a colossally bad idea to hate as a force sensitive, but I couldn't bring myself to care at this moment in time. I hated him and all those like him.

"Should we kill him?" I asked, and I didn't need to tell Amu who I was referring to.

She opened her mouth, and I could tell she wanted to tell me no on principle, but struggled to get the words out, because she didn't agree with them. Eventually she settled on, "We… can't. It's too dangerous. We shouldn't."

I nodded. I guess that was fair. Not now didn't necessarily mean not ever, and we could only do what we could, and nothing more.

Still, it's shit like this that makes me want to command an armada, raze this planet to glass, and move on to Nal Hutta for seconds. Catching myself, I took a breath. Freeing the slaves: good. Mass planetary bombardment: bad. Mostly. No! Definitely!

I sat in Amu's arms, and stewed in our powerlessness. One day… I would return. For good or for ill, this I swear.

A/N : And that a wrap.

If you're curious about how the lullaby that Shmi sings sounds, look up Alapu Upala, A sanskrit lullaby written for Godzilla: Singular Point. While the words are different, the tune and vocals for it is what I had in mind.

Like I said in the warning, some heavy stuff. I promise I'm not writing awful shit happening for no reason. The story beats written now, WILL inform events later.

As an apology, and so we aren't leaving on such a downer, here is something extra.

POV: Qui Gon Jinn

Master Qui Gon Jinn of the Jedi Order dismounted from the transport, and waved a farewell to Master Gallia. They were currently on Genassa, having just finished mediating an official negotiation between senators that took place in the Hewett system. Master Gallia would continue on towards Coruscant, but Qui Gon had dismounted here on Genassa to pick up his apprentice, who had just finished a solo mission in the system.

Qui Gon smiled as he felt Obi Wan through the training bond, feeling proud of his padawan's success. Every time he felt his apprentices pure lightness it brought a smile to his face. Having pinpointed his location, Qui Gon set off in his direction.

Obi Wan had just recently begun going on solo missions, and he had already took to it like a duck to water. It was a surreal feeling that in a few short years, he would likely be knighted. While Feemor had achieved knighthood, Qui Gon had only taken over the last few years of his training when his previous master had died. Feemor had already had the basic principles of the Jedi imparted to him, Qui Gon had just smoothed out some of the edges really. And the less said about Xanatos du Creon, the better.

No, Obi Wan would be a knight, and a good one at that. The first knight he had fully trained. It was a surreal feeling, but one he quite enjoyed. The future looked bright indeed!

Qui Gon had met up with Obi Wan, and they were currently in the ship that Obi Wan had been allowed to check out from the Jedi hangars for his solo mission, hurtling through hyperspace.

"So, you say your life was in danger? How did that happen at a banquet between senators?" Obi Wan asked, puzzled.

"Oh it was nothing serious, an honest mistake, quickly rectified."

Obi wan rolled his eyes, which made Qui Gon quirk his brow in challenge. While Obi Wan once would have shrunk under that look, nowadays he was much more vocal. "I swear master, getting a good story out of you is like pulling teeth."

Qui Gon shrugged in response, not elaborating. Obi Wan sighed and shook his head in exasperation.

"Where is the next stop along our current hyper lane?" Qui Gon asked, deciding to test his padawan. Obi wan reached for the navi-computer to turn on the display, but Qui Gon stopped him. "Without consulting the navi-computer if you please."

The red headed padawan gave a long-suffering sigh, "Master, I already passed my Astronavigation exams last month, must I still be tested on this?"

Qui Gon responded calmly, "And because you passed a written test, the knowledge is no longer needed?"

With an irritated huff, Obi Wan sunk into a shallow meditation to improve his memory, releasing his emotions to the force. "We are currently traveling along the Celanon spur hyperlane," he muttered, "And we will pass by Ord Mantel in a day or so without needing to stop to change directions or replenish supplies, so that means…" he paused, drawing a blank. "Is it… Vicondor? No. Glee Anselm? No, that's not right, oh, navigation is for droids!"

Qui Gon remained serene, having faith his Padawan would get the right answer eventually. Their next stop would in fact be at the Dorin system to switch hyper lanes toward Coruscant, but he made sure to shield his knowledge from giving it away to Obi Wan. After all, this was a test of knowledge, not telepathy.

As his Padawan continued his mutterings, Qui Gon surmised that 'eventually' may be a bit farther off than he initially anticipated. He slipped into meditation, sinking into the force. While it was important to keep oneself rooted in the present, especially when out in the field, it was also important to be able to decipher the more distant guidances of the living force.

Many fluctuations and eddies resonated through the force, their specific meanings largely confused by the veil of the dark side. A usual Jedi might filter these out as distractions, giving up interpreting these as an exercise in futility. Qui Gon Jinn, however, was not a usual Jedi. Keeping his patience, he diligently kept unraveling each micro disturbance, his powerful will and deep immersion in the living force preventing him from drifting into the future or past. Suddenly, there was a jolt in the force, like something extremely important had just happened. Something that would effect things on a planetary scale.

Seizing on this thread, he allowed himself to pear shallowly into the future, and was able to divine were this disturbance would occur.

"Ryloth." he found himself saying.

Obi Wan jerked out of his concentration, his face incredulous. "Ryloth?! No master, I'm certain it isn't that. Ryloth is in the outer rim, on the other side of the galaxy!"

Qui Gon continued, as if uninterrupted. "I sense a disturbance in the force, we are needed on Ryloth."

Obi Wan's eyes widened, "Truly? But Master, it's on the Other side of the galaxy from here! We'd be passing by Coruscant just to get there. Surely there is someone better positioned to investigate? And don't you need to make your report to the council?"

Qui Gon stared blankly, maintaining his thread of guidance he had found with some difficulty. "Master Gallia was present, she can inform them of any necessary developments. As for another Jedi, perhaps, but I am not confident in drawing another's attention toward this thread in a timely matter. It could effect things on a planetary scale, and we must arrive as soon as possible."

Obi wan nodded, and went to program an extended rout in the the navi-computer. When the display activated, he saw the next stop his master had been testing him on. "Ah! Dorin! That's what it was!"

Qui Gon sighed, "Very good Padawan." He congratulated sarcastically.

"I am quite brilliant, aren't I? Sometimes I impress even myself." Obi wan responded cheekily.

Qui Gon snorted with laughter, but quickly sobered. The council wouldn't be happy about this little detour, but Ryloth was home to nearly 1.5 billion sentients. If it's future was in question, the Jedi must act, and as quickly as possible. The Council could hem, haw, and deliberate all they wanted, but to Qui Gon at least, the 'will of the force' was clear in this matter.

With their new course set, they speeded along the hyperlane towards Ryloth.

A/N: Hope y'all liked it! 'Till next time! :)