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| - The next afternoon, after the final details of what was now being called the Battle of Naboo were known, Obi-Wan walked into the Theed temple where Qui-Gon’s body now lied in state. Next to him was the body of Shakya Devi, and Obi-Wan was not surprised to see Padmé there. But he was surprised to see Anakin with her, he had not even known Master Devi. But when Obi-Wan noticed the boys eyes flickering over to where Qui-Gon lay he understood. Qui-Gon had vouched everything for the boy, and now the Jedi Master lay dead Anakin knew his future was still uncertain. Yet Obi-Wan did not agree. He had overheard Anakin talking with Padmé about how the space battle. Of how Anakin somehow knew what to do, was instructed a by a voice which buttons to press so to fire the starfighter’s torpedoes to trigger a chain reaction to destroy the droid control ship. Obi-Wan planned to question the boy further, even though Anakin still hadn’t gotten over Obi-Wan’s initial distrust in him. Qui-Gon’s words came back to him: Anakin has been tested once, no doubt he will prove himself again. He had no choice now but to see that his Master had been right, Anakin was the Chosen One and it was Obi-Wan’s duty now to see that he would be trained. At a slight flutter in the Force, Obi-Wan and Padmé turned. In the doorway to the temple was one of Nalanda’s handmaidens. “Her Highness wishes me to inform you that the delegation from Coruscant will be arriving soon,” the girl said, then walking off without another word. The three of them walked towards the door, but as they left Obi-Wan touched Anakin’s shoulder. The boy turned and stared at him, surprised at the contact. Obi-Wan offered the boy a smile, he wanted to say more, he wanted to tell Anakin of the promise he had made. But he offered nothing more than the smile until he knew more himself. In the forecourt of the palace, Nalanda met Palpatine along with the members of the Jedi Council who had come for the funeral. Rather than elaborate regalia she had opted for the simple black costume with gold embroidery. Victory had been theirs, yet not without grievous cost. Yet before Palpatine approached her, Nute Gunray and his entourage were escorted by the blue Senate guards to an armoured speeder. ”You will have to explain your actions to the Senate, Viceroy,” Nalanda said with a straight face, though she could not keep the irony out of her voice. Gunray did not answer her, snorting as he boarded the speeder as if he didn’t have to explain himself to anyone. That done, Nalanda turned to greet the approaching Palpatine. “Congratulations on your election, Chancellor,” she said keenly to Palpatine, yet it did not surprise her in the least. “It is you who should be congratulated, Your Majesty,” Palpatine replied magnanimously. “Your boldness has saved our people.” “Yet it has not been without sacrifice,” Nalanda reminded him. Padmé stood with Obi-Wan and Anakin as the Queen addressed Palpatine for a moment longer before formally greeting the Jedi Council. Now this was over she would return to the Temple. But to what? And what would become of Anakin? If the Council couldn’t see it now, would they ever? Yet as the Jedi Masters went to the rooms that had been assigned to them, she could not help but noticed Master Kuan Yin catch her eye. In another chamber of the Theed temple, the Jedi Council sat in session in a circle of twelve chairs. While it was unusual for it to take place outside the Jedi Temple, it certainly didn’t mean it couldn’t happen. They had discussed the death of Qui-Gon Jinn and Shakya Devi, confirming that they had been slain by a Sith. Yet there also was the question of Anakin Skywalker. Should he be trained? Obi-Wan had taken up his Master’s wishes for the boy, an admirable act in itself. Kuan Yin looked around at all the Council members, quite a few had changed their mind about Anakin after they spoke to him for the second time. Yet two opinions had not changed, Renust Nju and most importantly Yoda’s while Mace Windu had adopted an attitude of optimistic scepticism. “I have been considering this for a while,” she said slowly, “but would we know the Chosen One when such a one comes?” “And if the boy is the Chosen One,” Adi Gallia continued, “we should not deny ourselves to see it of all the signs are there.” “Yet the signs are there,” Mace Windu mused, “the midi-chlorian count, what we all heard when he described the battle. I am willing to say it is a beginning, but…” “Uncertain you are?” Yoda asked, moving his ears back and forward. “Uncertain I am as well, clouded his future is still.” “But Master Yoda,” Kuan Yin interjected, “haven’t you said that if the water is cloudy we must wait for it to clear?” “Said this I have,” conceded Yoda. “Perhaps with time his future will emerge,” Mace considered, then shook his head. “There is nothing for it but a vote.” Obi-Wan paced the room outside, his thoughts whirling with faster than lightspeed. He had done all he could, Anakin had been before the Council again and he had said all he could on the boy’s behalf. Padmé even had spoken a few words about Anakin when he was in the podrace, relating how Qui-Gon’s faith in the boy had begun. But the matter was out of his hands now, soon Anakin’s fate was to be decided. And if it came to what he feared, but knew couldn’t happen he would find some other way to follow his Master’s wishes. He would train the boy no matter what. This caused Obi-Wan to stop in his pacing. Listen to me, Obi-Wan thought with a wry grin, I sound just like him. The door opened and Yoda emerged from within, leaning on his gimer stick. Obi-Wan bowed and crossed to meet the little Jedi Master, getting down on one knee as was customary with speaking with Yoda. “Master Yoda,” he could not hide the anticipation in his voice. “Confer on you, the Council does, the honour of Jedi Knight,” Yoda said with a nod. It was something Obi-Wan had been waiting all his life to hear, yet to his surprise the words meant almost nothing. “Decided, about young Skywalker, the Council has,” Yoda continued. “He is to be trained?” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop. Yoda’s brow furrowed. “Impatient, you are,” he chastened. “So sure, you are of what had been decided.” “I’m sorry, Master, but I gave Qui-Gon my word,” Obi-Wan said, bowing his head. “I will train Anakin, with or without the Council’s approval.” “Like your Master, you are,” Yoda said, jabbing the Jedi in the shin with his stick, “stubborn and wilful.” Yoda paused, then finally said. “Trained, the boy shall be.” Obi-Wan felt the surge of elation flow over him, but Yoda noticed this. “Pleased you are?” Yoda jabbed him with his stick again. “So certain this is right?” Another jab. “Clouded, this boy’s future is, Obi-Wan. A mistake, to train him, it is.” “Yet the Council—” “Confident the Council is in its decision,” Yoda interrupted quickly, “but agree with that decision I do not.” Obi-Wan frowned, it was odd for Yoda to disagree with the Council’s ruling. Yet he did not dwell on that. “I will take Anakin as my Padawan, Master,” he said. “I will train him in the best way that I can, but I will bear in mind what you have told me here. I will go carefully, I will heed your warnings. I will keep close watch on his progress.” Yoda nodded. “Your promise, remember you must, young Jedi. Sufficient it is, if you do.” The little Jedi Master stepped into the dying light of the day, night was approaching and so was the time of Qui-Gon and Shakya Devi’s farewell. “A great warrior, was Qui-Gon Jinn,” Yoda said meditatively. “But so much more he could have been, if not so fast had he run,” he looked at Obi-Wan. “More slowly, must you proceed, Obi-Wan.” “He understood what the rest of us could not about the boy,” Obi-Wan replied. Yoda shook his head. “Be not so quick to judge, Obi-Wan,” he chastened. “Not everything is understanding. Not all at once is it revealed. Years it takes, to be come a Jedi Knight. Years more, to become one with the Force.” “I will remember,” Obi-Wan promised. Then together they walked out in a blaze of light. Many had gathered to pay their respects to Qui-Gon Jinn and Shakya Devi. Queen Nalanda, her handmaidens, Panaka, Sio Bibble and members of the Naboo guard all stood around the pyres of the fallen Jedi. Danta Pela stood with Boss Nass and Ric Olié. Also there was Chancellor Palpatine, the members of the Jedi Council as well as other Jedi who had known Qui-Gon and Shakya. In the centre of the circle, opposite Nalanda, was Obi-Wan and Padmé. Between them was Anakin who was crying softly. Beneath the hood of his Jedi robe, Obi-Wan considered their losses. Was his the more acute because he had known Qui-Gon all those years? Or perhaps Padmé for her fallen Master, their journey had barely started before it ended. And finally there was Anakin who had known Qui-Gon the briefest, for a few days at best, yet he had shown the Jedi Master more in that brief period than in a lifetime. He concluded that it wasn't necessary to compare losses any more than it was to dwell on them. The Force moved on regardless as it always had done, and they would too. Obi-Wan put a comforting hand on Anakin’s shoulder. “He is one with the Force, Anakin,” he said softly, “you must let him go.” “I miss him,” Anakin said through his tears. “So do I,” Obi-Wan admitted, “and I will remember him always, but he is gone now.” “What is to become of me?” With wide, red-rimmed eyes, Anakin looked up at him. “I will train you, just as Qui-Gon would have,” the Jedi said, tightening his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I am your new Master Anakin, and you will become a Jedi Knight, I promise.” Anakin looked up at Obi-Wan with awe. Somewhere, Obi-Wan knew, Qui-Gon was smiling. At their exchange Padmé smiled herself, she was standing beside her new Master Kuan Yin Nevu who had approached her on the way to the funeral. It is as if things begin as they end, she said to herself, remembering the time she and her old Master had had, but not letting what they had shared stand in her way. She would have wanted me to continue, Padmé concluded. Behind Queen Nalanda, Mace Windu stood with Yoda, his face contemplative in the firelight. “One life ends, and another begins in the Jedi Order,” Mace mused. “Not the only life, that is,” Yoda said, glancing at Padmé. “Yet not sure of young Skywalker as Qui-Gon was, I feel. Troubled, he is. Wrapped in shadows and difficult choices.” “Obi-Wan will do a good job with him,” Mace replied. “Qui-Gon was right, he is ready.” Yoda considered this for a moment. Obi-Wan had described at some length to the Council his battle with the Sith, as well as the control and strength he had drawn from the Force to defeat her. Only a Jedi Knight could accomplish such a feat, accomplish it and walk away unscathed in both body and spirit. “Ready this time, he was,” Yoda admitted. “Ready to train the boy, he may not be.” “Defeating a Sith in combat is a strong test for his readiness for anything,” Mace countered. “Yet there is no doubt, the one who tested him was a Sith.” “Troubling this is,” Yoda said with grave conviction. “Always two there are. No more, no less. A master and an apprentice.” “But which one was destroyed, do you think?” Mace asked, a question they were both considering. “The master, or the apprentice?” Yoda didn’t answer, his gaze flowing down those gathered and finally resting on Chancellor Palpatine. The next day the streets of Theed were crowded with revellers as they had not been before. Everyone had gathered to celebrate the peace between the Gungans and the Naboo. Gungan pipes and drums played along with the horns and stringed instruments of Naboo, Gungan banners hung alongside those of the Naboo and in the crowds Naboo stood alongside the Gungans without any qualms at all. To a chorus of happy children, the victorious Gungan army marched. Riding in state on the back of a fambaa was Boss Nass and in front rode Danta and General Ceel astride of a kaadus. Danta smiled as he rode, though he would rather much be on the back of his flyer, his injured hand bandaged with bright colours. At the steps to the palace stood Queen Nalanda, smiling as much as every one else. Rather than show any prominence, she wore a simple white gown under a pearl-coloured cloak that hung from her shoulders like the scallops of a shell. Her make-up was reduced to the white powder that covered her face along with the customary lipstick. To one side stood Sio Bibble, in his hand he carried a transparent glowing orb. This he held out to Nalanda and the approaching Boss Nass. The Globe of Peace, a Naboo symbol of the times they had had before the coming of the current era, now a symbol of the two peoples that had come together. Queen Nalanda of the Naboo and Boss Nass of the Gungans held the orb together much to the applause of the watching crowd. Anakin watched this, his feet itching to dance with the music, yet he stood silently with Obi-Wan, his Master. It was official now; he now wore the customary clothes of a Padawan learner as well as the short haircut and rat tail. The sadness was still there, the sadness of losing Qui-Gon and his mother, of not seeing his home again. But there were new things now, his life as Obi-Wan’s apprentice, a life that was just beginning. Next to him was Padmé, still marvelling at the speed of which everything was changed. Was only a few days ago that she had arrived on Naboo with her Master? That they had escaped the Federation’s ship, not knowing what they would find on the planet below? When change happens for good, it normally happens very quickly, Shakya Devi had once said. Padmé didn’t believe her then, but there was no mistaking it now.
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