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| - The sun had vanished now and the artificial light of the city, from buildings, air traffic, holobanners and even above from the floating skyhooks attempted to fill the void. It’s not the same, Padmé though as she looked at the bright lights, a sight she was relatively used to but liked no better for that fact. The only time I get to go to nice planets is on missions, she lamented, and there’s no time to enjoy the scenery. She turned to glance at the doors of the Council chamber. As if on cue the doors opened and Anakin walked out. He looked a bit pale and very tired. Qui-Gon went straight to him. “Well?” Qui-Gon knew he would get no answers, but perhaps the best response could come from Anakin himself. “They wouldn’t tell him, Master,” Obi-Wan pointed out blandly, “it would be too overwhelming.” “Yeah,” Anakin agreed with a shiver, “it was.” Obi-Wan shot Anakin such a black look that the boy retreated next to Padmé. “Padawan,” Qui-Gon cautioned, it wasn’t often he had to chastise Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan scowled and turned his back on his Master. Padmé smiled encouragingly to Anakin, she had seen worse things, after all. The circle of twelve Jedi Masters sat in silence for a few moments, a pause in what had been a lengthy debate. “The question is,” Kuan Yin asserted, breaking the silence, “is that if we are willing to overlook the boy’s age for once for the fact of his strong presence and potential in the Force.” “Potential?” Mace queried. “Perhaps I used the wrong word,” Kuan Yin conceded, “but my question remains.” “Overlook the boy’s age, you suggest?” Yoda mused, his brow furrowing in thought. “Difficult choice either way, that is. Hard to unlearn such emotions he had.” “Hard, yes,” Adi Gallia said, “but not impossible.” Kuan Yin and Yaddle agreed. “But you are forgetting the primary reason why Jedi are raised so young,” Renust Nju interjected. “The boy has a strong attachment to his mother—we all sensed it—such attachments come so easily to him and can prove dangerous. And not only to himself.” “But what if Qui-Gon is right?” Kuan Yin asked. “Could the boy be, in fact, the Chosen One?” “What do we have to say he is or is not?” Ki-Adi-Mundi pointed out. “I concede the high midi-chlorian count, but other than that all we have is Qui-Gon’s word.” “And you are questioning it?” Mace asked. “I didn’t say that,” the Cerean admitted, “but we all agree that the boy’s age is a large obstacle.” “One that can be overcome,” Kuan Yin added. “Perhaps,” the Cerean admitted, “but an obstacle all the same.” Kuan Yin adjusted her position on her seat, despite her own beliefs she had a feeling where this was going. Nalanda’s wardrobe was being packed up, this was a delicate operation as many of the garments were as each and every piece had to be accounted for and stored in the proper place before being taken out to be loaded. The handmaidens Rhadé and Seneché were doing this in somewhat oppressive silence. In another room Nalanda was changing for the journey home, as was custom they were complementary garments in shades of mauve. Seneché stopped for a moment, pausing while placing the gold collar in its box. Rhadé looked at her, the girl was holding back tears. “Here, I’ll finish,” Rhadé handed the girl a handkerchief and placed the box inside the case. “Tell me what’s wrong.” “It’s nothing,” Seneché said, fighting back sobs. “I only wish I knew what was going to happen.” “What do you mean?” Rhadé asked. “Is there nothing that can be done?” Seneché pleaded. “I was hoping that coming here would end all this, but…I’m afraid.” “Aren’t we all?” Rhadé put a supportive hand on the girl’s arm. “Our families are back there in those camps, of course we are afraid, there’s nothing wrong with that. But we can’t bury our hopes now.” “Is there any hope?” Seneché asked. “Not from this quarter,” Rhadé said bitterly, “to speak candidly, I think Senator Palpatine was more interested in furthering his own purposes than in providing any assistance.” “Can he be that corrupt?” Seneché couldn’t believe this, their own senator… Rhadé smiled at the girl’s naïveté, she herself had some knowledge of politics having grown up in Theed. Seneché, on the other hand, was from the isolated pastoral parts of Naboo and had no knowledge of what means were taken to justify ends. “Ask yourself this,” Rhadé said, “does Palpatine serve Naboo, the Republic or does he serve himself?” Seneché as thoughtful, but said nothing. When the debate was over Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Anakin were called back before the Council. “Finished, we are with the examination of the boy,” Yoda said. “Correct you were, Qui-Gon.” “His cells contain an exceptionally high concentration of midi-chlorians,” Mace agreed. “The Force is strong in him,” Ki-Adi-Mundi added. Qui-Gon could feel his elation rising, he let a smile dawn upon his lips. “So he is to be trained then,” he said, imagining Obi-Wan’s distaste. There was a long, embarrassed silence. Qui-Gon stiffened, their hesitation could mean only one thing… “No,” Windu said, “he will not be trained.” Qui-Gon’s elation subsided, replaced by frustration. He could hear a strangled sob emerge from Anakin. “No?” Qui-Gon scanned the faces of the Council, ignoring Obi-Wan’s barely perceptible triumph. “He is too old,” Renust Nju said as if the fact was blatantly obvious. “There is already too much anger in him,” Mace interjected. This couldn’t be happening, while he had considered this course of action he felt he was right and refused to believe otherwise. It was so simple…and they were so blind! “He is the Chosen One,” Qui-Gon insisted. “You must see it.” “Clouded, this boy’s future is,” Yoda murmured, “masked by his youth.” Qui-Gon again turned to see the faces of the Council, he found no help. Forgive me, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon pleaded silently to his Padawan before he spoke again. “Very well, I will train him,” he said. “I take Anakin Skywalker as my Padawan learner.” There were two gasps, of shock from Obi-Wan and surprise from Anakin. Both looked at him, Obi-Wan with barely veiled betrayal and bewilderment, Anakin with awe and incredulity. Yoda was quick to cap this. “An apprentice, you already have, Qui-Gon,” the little Master pointed out. “Impossible it is, to take on another.” “We forbid it,” Mace Windu told him. “Obi-Wan is ready,” Qui-Gon continued, hoping that his Padawan would take the hint. “I am,” Obi-Wan said, stepping forward beside his Master and putting all his conviction in his next words. “I am ready to face the trials.” “Ready are you, so soon?” Yoda questioned, his ears twitching. “What know you of ready?” In Yoda’s words Qui-Gon heard his chances slipping. He pressed harder. “Obi-Wan is headstrong and he has much to learn about the living Force,” Qui-Gon said, then added for Obi-Wan’s benefit. “But he is capable and there is little more that I can teach him.” “Our own counsel we will keep on who is ready, Qui-Gon,” Yoda asserted, his eyes smarting. “Much to learn, he still has.” And that, Qui-Gon thought sadly, is the end of that. “Now is not the time for this,” Mace brought up a hand to signal an end to the argument. “Tomorrow the Senate will vote for a new Supreme Chancellor and Queen Nalanda returns to Naboo. This will put pressure on the Federation and could widen the confrontation. Those responsible,” he added darkly, “will no doubt act quickly on this sudden change of events.” “Drawn out of hiding, her attackers will be,” Yoda murmured. “Proceedings are moving too quickly for distractions such as this,” Renust Nju asserted. Ah, now I know where Anakin stands, Qui-Gon thought rather bitterly. Like Obi-Wan, the Council sees him as an unnecessary distraction. “Go with the Queen to Naboo and the discover the identity of Shakya Devi’s killer,” Mace instructed. “She may be Sith, or may not. That is the clue needed to unravel this mystery.” “Then only will Skywalker’s fate be decided,” Yoda added. Despite the combined consensus of the Council, Qui-Gon had one more objection. “I brought Anakin here, he is in my charge,” he said, “he has nowhere else to go.” “He is your ward, Qui-Gon we do not dispute that,” Mace conceded, “of course he must remain in your care.” “But train him not!” Yoda admonished, raising an accusatory finger. “Take him with you, by all means, but train him not!” “Protect the Queen,” Mace said, “but do not interfere if it comes to war until we have Senate approval.” As if that is going to happen, Qui-Gon thought dryly. With the election of a new chancellor they were likely to take three hours to boil an egg with another two to find the water. “May the Force be with you,” Yoda said, indicating the audience was over. Padmé walked from the doors of the Council chamber to the balcony and then back again. She hadn't been permitted to enter, she was supposed to be at dinner or meditating or anything but waiting. But it was the last Council session for the day, and when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan left, the Council members would follow. She could then ask Master Nevu if the decision for her to remain at the Temple had been changed. There was also the other question; would they accept Anakin for training? Padmé remembered the anticipation on the boy’s face when she had brought him from Palpatine’s apartment, the innocent joy and wonder he expressed when she had taken him through the Temple to see the Council. Would he become a Jedi? To Padmé it seemed almost a crime to deny it to him. The boy clearly had potential, but whether he would be accepted by the Council for training was another matter entirely. For Padmé, the life of a Jedi was all she knew. She had only vague memories of her birthparents. Soft hands, warm smiles and whispered words, delicate flowers and a loud, booming laugh. She had since given up trying to connect these disassociated memories, cherishing that she had them as some Jedi didn’t have them. She heard the door open and footsteps, Padmé turned to see Qui-Gon Obi-Wan and Anakin emerge. One look at Anakin’s ashen face was all she needed to know how they had gone. “The decided not to accept me for training,” the boy said with a quivering lip. “Don’t worry, Anakin,” she reassured, “they can change their minds.” At this Obi-Wan walked off by himself, Qui-Gon merely shrugged. His apprentice’s distaste was expected and he would have to live with that. “We’re being sent back to Naboo,” Qui-Gon told Padmé. “Queen Nalanda’s decision, apparently.” “Is that wise?” Padmé asked. “It is immaterial,” Qui-Gon said with another shrug, “we protect we serve. But I understand why we’re being sent along.” “Are you coming?” Anakin asked hopefully. Padmé knew she had to tell him the truth, but before she could the doors of the Council chamber opened again and the Jedi Masters filed out. Mace Windu with Yoda and Renust Nju, Plo Koon with Oppo Rancisis, Yaddle and Yarel Poof… “Master Nevu,” Padmé called, the Jedi Master broke of her conversation with Depa Billaba and waved her on. “I put your request forward,” Kuan Yin said slowly, “you are allowed to return to Naboo to continue to protect the Queen.” She nodded to Qui-Gon. “With what has happened it looks like you’ll need all the help you can get.” And with that, she walked off. “Looks like I’m coming, after all,” Padmé said with a smile.
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