"Obi-Wan, are you ready for lunch?" Master Heri called out of the kitchen into the common room of her apartment. Slade was with her and although he'd had been able to hear them talking for the last couple minutes, he hadn't felt much like joining them.

He looked up from the multicolored, three-dimensional holographic puzzle he was assembling and shook his head. "I'm not hungry." Sliding another piece into place, he turned his attention to the remaining shapes. He could hear the sound of her footsteps echoing on the soft carpeting and within moments she was kneeling at his side, a hand brushing along his back.

"You should eat something, Obi-Wan. You'll get sick if you don't and you don't want your Master to come back to a sick padawan do you?"

Shaking his head, Obi-Wan slid another piece into the puzzle, still not looking at her. "No."

"Come on, Obi-Wan, we can make whatever you want. Even--" The chime to the apartment sounded and Master Heri let out a small sigh before standing and moving to the door.

The puzzle flashed into a deep blue color, changing from its previous orange to let him know that he'd reached the next level. He still had lots of pieces left to place into the shape before it was done, but he was getting closer. It was a fun puzzle; Bant had given it to him for his birthday, the wrapping said it would take hours and hours to figure out, but Obi-Wan was sure it wouldn't be much longer before he had the completed picture.

A hiss from the door told Obi-Wan that Master Heri had pressed the button to open it and he looked up curiously to see who was visiting. Master Heri hadn't said anything about visitors today.

"Hi, Heri, I just got back on planet and wanted to see if you wanted to go out for the afternoon. Keleran is with friends and I have some free time on my hands for once." Knight Alla stood in the doorway, partially blocked by Master Heri, but Obi-Wan recognized her voice easily.

"That'd be fine as long as it was someplace kid-friendly. I'm watching Obi-Wan and Slade while Qui-Gon is away on a mission." Master Heri stepped back and motioned Knight Alla into the room. His master's first padawan looked at him in surprise before crossing the room to drop down on the couch.

She brushed a hand over Obi-Wan's head softly. "Qui-Gon's on a mission?" Master Heri nodded and Knight Alla turned her attention to Obi-Wan. "He couldn't take you with him?"

Shaking his head, Obi-Wan slid another piece into the puzzle. "He had to go help Teacher Bel-San and said it was too dangerous. I think I would have been able to help, but he said I had to stay here."

Knight Alla reached out and ran over his head a lot like the way his master did. "I know how that goes. Sometimes when I was his padawan, he had to leave me behind too. It's hard, huh?"

Obi-Wan bit his lip and nodded trying not to think about how far away his master was and how long it might be before he saw him again.

"Heri, you mind if I postpone our outing a little bit and take Obi-Wan instead?"

"That's fine, I'm sure Slade and I can amuse ourselves for a while. He hasn't eaten yet though, so--"

Knight Alla stood. "That's fine, I can take care of that. What do you say, Obi-Wan? Care to spend the afternoon with me? I promise to try not to be too boring."

Finally looking up from the puzzle, Obi-Wan gave her a tentative smile. "I guess that'd be all right." He hadn't spent much time with Knight Alla, though he knew she was special to his master since she had been his first padawan. He liked her, but wondered if she might be jealous of him since he got to spend so much time with their master now that she was a knight.

Holding out a hand, Knight Alla waited until he'd taken her grip. "I'll have him back before dinner time."

"That's fine. If you want to bring Keleran, or just yourself, we'd love to have you stay for dinner."

"Thanks, I think we might take you up on that offer. Ready, Obi-Wan?"

Together they headed out from Master Heri's apartment. As they walked through the halls of the Temple, many other knights and masters nodded or spoke in greeting to Knight Alla, and Obi-Wan was surprised at how many people seemed to know the knight.

"So, do you have any ideas about what you might like to do?"

Obi-Wan twisted his mouth in thought. A lot of people--especially Master Heri--had asked him that since his master had gone away and he still couldn't think of anything he really wanted to do. "Not really." He shrugged and looked up at the knight.

"That's okay, I have some thoughts about that. Do you know where it is that Master went?" They neared the lift and stood waiting for a few seconds before the doors to one of the cars opened and they could get in.

"Um, to get Teacher Bel-San?" He thought he'd said that already.

"Right, but where did he go? What planet?"

"Oh." Obi-Wan thought for a moment, trying to remember what his Master had told him. "I think he said Was-4."

Knight Alla nodded. "That sounds about right."

"Where are we going?" Obi-Wan asked, looking up at her. The tall knight was taking small steps with her hand resting on his shoulder. He could see the row of lifts in the distance, at the end of the hall, and knew that was their first stop.

Squeezing his shoulder gently, Knight Alla nodded in approval. "Very good question. It's always good to know as much as you can about a situation before you get there. I'm sure Master will impress that upon you over the next couple years, but it's never too early to start learning."

Obi-Wan nodded, a little confused about what the knight was saying, but he knew that she would probably answer his question if he waited long enough. His master was like that too, sometimes.

"I thought you might like to see where Master is at the moment. We're going to the place where Bel-San took me the first time Qui-Gon had to leave me behind after I became his padawan. I was a little bit older than you, but not too much and I thought my whole world was going to end, I was so lonely."

"Teacher Bel-San?" It was weird to think of his master before he'd been around. Obi-Wan knew his master had had a life before him, and Knight Alla had been a part of that life, but he didn't think about it very much.

"Of course, those two have been friends practically forever. I stayed with him while Master was on missions several times." She gave him a secret grin. "It wasn't too bad, but I'll tell you this, that man has far too many cats. He had more then than he does now."

Obi-Wan shrugged. "I like Teacher Bel-San's cats." They had been lots of fun before he'd found Jes, but they were still nice. There was one that he liked especially, the old fat one that only liked to sit around in people's laps and be petted. He was nice.

"You would. But I'll tell you what, it's not nearly as fun when they make you sneeze every ten minutes. I spent several very stuffy days during my padawan years."

Obi-Wan laughed a little as they came to a stop in front of the lifts, thinking of Knight Alla with puffy eyes and a runny nose, Teacher Bel-San's cats piled on top of her.

Knight Alla let Obi-Wan go first into the lift, her hands on both his shoulders. "You laugh now, my boy, just wait. It's a big universe and there is bound to be at least one thing you're allergic to and as a Jedi you're practically guaranteed to find it."

"Not me. I won't be allergic to anything."

"I doubt that, though you might be one of the lucky ones who doesn't have it too bad. Master, on the other hand, has to see the Healers every time he leaves for certain planets because he doesn't breathe very well when he's there." Knight Alla reached over his head and pressed the touch panel to program in the floor they wanted.

Tilting his head back to look up at the Knight, Obi-Wan wrinkled his nose. "But where are we going?" He didn't think she'd answered his question. He couldn't be sure, but it didn't seem like he knew all that much more than when they'd left Master Heri's apartment.

"Persistent, aren't we? Below the Council Chambers, there is a map room that is for general use and can show any planet from here to the outer rim. I thought it might be fun to go look up where Qui-Gon is so you can see how far away he is now, and maybe some of the other places you've been." The door to the lift opened smoothly and Obi-Wan stepped out to wait for Knight Alla. "Then I thought we might make a stop at Ssbob'ss for some hot chocolate. Sound like a plan?"

Wondering how much time they could possibly spend looking at a map, Obi-Wan nodded happily, already thinking that he would order extra whipped cream on his hot chocolate when they got to Ssbob'ss. His master let him have it that was sometimes, but Heri didn't know he liked it that way, so it had been a while. "Okay."

"I really think you'll like this room, Obi-Wan." Knight Alla said, with her voice sounding almost like she knew what he was thinking. Sometimes it was hard being around people who could do that all the time.

"Okay."

They walked into a large, circular room, filled with a vast star field suspended in the center and surrounded by a railed walkway. Obi-Wan gasped at the size of it, not that he hadn't seen some very big things in the Temple--all he had to do was look out the window on the far side of his master's bedroom and he could see the four of the five spires that topped the temple--but it was still an impressive sight. "Is this it?" He couldn't help wondering why his master hadn't ever brought him here. The room was empty, for as big as it was, it didn't seem like lots of people used it; they probably could have come here whenever they wanted.

"I knew you would like this. We can see all the planets in the galaxy here. Pick any one and we can look at it up close." Knight Alla reached out to Obi-Wan's hand and led him to the railing that overlooked the massive map and the deep chasm it hung over.

"Can we see the one where my master is?" He stepped up to the railing, holding tightly to Knight Alla's hand. He wouldn't want to fall over the edge.

"Sure. All we have to do is call it up on this panel here." She touched the screen lightly and the huge starfield began to rotate. "What color should we highlight Was-4 as?"

Immediately he knew the perfect color. "Green."

Knight Alla nodded. "Good choice. Look, you can see it coming towards us now." Obi-Wan followed her finger to see a small patch of space, highlighted in green, moving their way.

"I see it!"

"Now, what color should we be? Here on Coruscant?" Her fingers hovered over the panel as she waited for his response.

Obi-Wan thought for a moment, trying to decide what color would be best. "Blue."

"I can see that. Okay. There we are." She pointed again, this time in a different section of the map, a little further away. "See, it's not that far, at least on the map. And you can tell the planet isn't a great source of concern for the Council or the Senate, because other than the color we've given it, it's the same shape and size of all the other planets around it. That's how you can tell which systems are very important to the Jedi at the moment. See that one over there, how big it is compared to the others around it? That means the Council thinks there is something worth watching over there. But Was-4, that's not so bad." She paused and squeezed his hand. "Still too much for little boys, even little padawan boys, but not so much for Qui-Gon. He'll be just fine."

Obi-Wan leaned close to the map as Knight Alla spoke, his eyes intent on the images he saw. She was right, it didn't look so very far away, though he knew from some of his classes that distances on maps could look a lot less than they were in actual distance.

"Maybe you'd like to see some of the other place you've been?"

***

Resting his head against Knight Alla's shoulder, Obi-Wan yawned, too tired to care about being almost too old to be carried. It had been a long day, as they'd spent several hours in the map room looking up all different kinds of planets and he hadn't been sleeping so well since his master left. Usually when he had trouble, he could go and sleep in his master's bed with him, but now, he wasn't even in the same apartment and that made it hard. Still, it had been good to listen to Knight Alla's stories about her time as padawan, and hear some of the adventures she'd been able to go on with their master. He definitely liked seeing some of the planets the two of them had visited when they were together. It had been just as much fun as Knight Alla had promised him and they'd only left when a small group of knights had come in to use the room and needed some privacy. It looked like they were talking about something very important.

Afterwards, they'd spent some time in the cool, dark interior of Ssbob'ss drinking hot chocolate while Knight Alla continued to share stories of the times she'd been a padawan. She was a very good storyteller and he loved listening to her describe the places they'd been and the people they had a chance to meet. He'd especially liked the one about the time his master had accidentally fallen into a big smelly pit while hiking through a forest and Knight Alla had to save him. He could almost see his master all covered in mud and squirming bugs.

After another yawn, he turned his head just a little. "So you miss being Master's padawan?" It seemed like Knight Alla really liked the time she spent as a padawan. She certainly smiled a lot when she talked about it.

She sighed a little and shifted him against her shoulder. "I don't know that I miss being a padawan, exactly. I like being a knight and now a master very much, even more than I thought I would when I was your age and it seemed so far off. But, yes, sometimes I do miss Qui-Gon and how much time we used to spend together. We saw and worked with each other almost every day for over ten years, and it's hard to walk away from that once you become a knight. Some padawans aren't as close to their masters as I was with Qui-Gon and as I suspect you will be, and they can move on pretty easily, but I do miss him. We're lucky if we get to physically see each other more than a couple times a year."

"Couldn't you go on missions together?" She sounded sad that they didn't get to see each other anymore. There had to be a way that they could be together at least sometimes. He didn't like the thought of becoming a knight then never seeing his master again; they'd had too much trouble becoming master and padawan in the first place.

"I suppose, but we don't necessarily go on the same type of missions. He's the type of diplomat who deals mostly in treaties and peace negotiations. You'll learn a lot more about that as the years go by, trust me. I focus mainly in fields regarding legal matter like what land belongs to who. It's a little more complicated than that, but you get the basic idea. Sometimes the two overlap, but not often. We also have a rather different approach to settling disputes, and it's been so long I don't know that we'd work as smoothly now as we did when I was younger." She rubbed a hand along his back. "But I don't think that's something you need to worry about just yet. You've got a lot more time before you need to think about those kinds of things."

He nodded as she stopped before Master Heri's door and pressed the chime. She stepped inside at the sound of Master Heri's call and they were both hit with the smell of the cheery apartment filled with the warm aromas of dinner.

"You can join us for dinner, right, Alla?" They heard Master Heri call from the kitchen.

"Of course." She set him down on the couch as he rubbed at his eyes to try to wake up a little. "Now there is something I don't miss about being a padawan. If you think Qui-Gon is a bad cook, you should have known him twenty years ago. We leaned a lot of cooking skills together during my first couple years. Unfortunately, I think the man willfully forgot most of them once I knew what I was doing." She dropped him a quick wink, as she walked towards the kitchen, brushing a hand along Slade's shoulder in greeting as she passed. "I imagine it will run much the same for you."

"Hey, Obi-Wan. What did you and Knight Alla do?" The other boy came over to sit by him on the couch.

As Obi-Wan told his friend about the exciting things he'd done that day, absently petting Jes who had come to settle in his lap, he could hear the sounds of Master Heri and Knight Alla taking in the kitchen along with the clatter of dishes.

"Sounds like fun. Master Heri and I got to do some cool stuff too. She knows the greatest games. You were so lucky to have her as a Creche Master." The happy glint slowly faded from Slade's eyes and he looked over his shoulder at the kitchen and leaned forward, dropping his voice. So, I have something I need to tell you, but I can't say anything where the adults might hear. I'll tell you later tonight, okay?" Slade slipped off the couch at Master Heri's call for dinner, though Obi-Wan didn't immediately follow.

He couldn't imagine what it would be that Slade had to tell him, especially something that had to be kept from the adults. He stared after the other boy for a moment, trying to think what it could be, and several different and ever increasingly dire scenarios played out in his mind.

"Obi-Wan, are you hungry?" Knight Alla knelt in front of him, her hand out to lead him to the kitchen.

"Um, yeah." He hopped off the couch, trying to act as though everything was normal. Dinner was much the same as he tried to eat like he usually did, though he knew if Knight Alla had not been at the table, Master Heri would have noticed something wrong. If nothing else, the looks Slade was shooting him would have made her think something was up. It was so hard to keep his questions to himself he was nearly bouncing by the time they had finished eating and he started to get ready for bed.

Still, it had been a long day, several days in fact, and his room was so dark and comfortable he didn't even realize he'd fallen asleep waiting for Slade until his friend's touch woke him.

"Are you awake?" Slade whispered next to his ear. Although they didn't share a room in Master Heri's apartment, it wasn't hard to get from one to the other without being seen.

He sat up, pulling the blanket up around his chin, making room for his friend. "What did you have to tell me?"

"You have to promise to keep it a secret until I say it's okay to tell, all right?" Slade's head was close to his and his voice barely a whisper.

Obi-Wan hesitated. His master told him it wasn't good to keep secrets from adults; sometimes people got hurt that way.

"It's not bad, we just need to keep it quiet until we know more, until we have all the information."

Finally, Obi-Wan nodded. "Okay."

In the faint light of the room, Obi-Wan could see Slade's eyes looking around cautiously. "So, okay. I think there's something going on here, in the Temple. Something bad, and I think it's involving the kids. I need your help to find out what it is before something bad happens to someone we know."

TBC