Obi-Wan grimaced slightly to herself as she lowered the hood of her outer-robe. She wasn't vain, but no girl liked to have her hair messed up. Well, no girl that actually had hair, anyway. It didn't seem to bother the Twi'leks or the Togrutans any, except as something to giggle at when they saw it happening to others.

Honestly, how Master Qui-Gon kept his long hair looking that good without any effort was a mystery to the Padawan Jedi. She'd gotten no answer when she'd asked, and spying on him hadn't done her any good either. Rather, it had sent her racing back to her own quarters with a mortified blush on her face.

There was a reason why most Jedi Masters took for a Padawan someone of the same gender. Why didn't she listen to Siri and Bant when they were advising her against hoping for Master Jinn? Oh, that's right – because he was the most well-rounded Jedi, skills wise, that actually left the Temple more often than once a year and to places further away than the offices of Senators or the planet they were the specific designated guardians of.

Obi-Wan froze suddenly in the middle of smoothing her hair back into place.

"What is it, Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon asked, having noticed the sudden inaction of his student.

"A bad feeling, Master," she answered honestly, even as she forced herself to finish tidying her hair despite the disturbance.

"I don't feel anything," Qui-Gon replied.

Obi-Wan rolled her eyes playfully and a smirk danced across her lips. "Not about the mission, Master," she said, making it clear that it was the Unifying Force that had sparked this feeling in her. "Well, not directly," she corrected, a thoughtful frown crossing her face as she tried to decipher the feeling. "It's something... just beyond my reach," she complained with a frustrated sigh. "But imminent. I'm sure of that."

Qui-Gon grimaced slightly. "Please don't tell me your menstruation is coming up again," he requested.

Obi-Wan levelled a deeply unimpressed look at her Master. "I should hit you for that on principle, Master," she said flatly. "And no," she added. "That's not it either." She wasn't due for another two-and-a-half weeks.

Qui-Gon gave a small sigh of relief. He hadn't initially wanted to take on another Padawan when Yoda had insisted on him coming to the Apprentice Tournament, not after the mess he'd made with his last Padawan. But the Living Force had practically hit him over the head with the demand he train Obi-Wan Kenobi the second he'd laid eyes on her – and that was when she was just waiting her turn, quietly laughing and smiling with a few of her friends – and he knew better than to defy the Force when it was being so damnably insistent.

He hadn't been happy about it, and he'd dragged his feet and had taken a lot of convincing in other ways as well, but in the time it had taken to get used to sharing his living space with another person again – and a female at that – she'd managed to get him past his reservations and wormed her way under his skin. However much the Order advocated against forming attachments (and thanks to the Initiate Trials that happened before even the Apprentice Tournament, they both knew exactly how much that was), in private they were as much father and daughter to each other as they were Master and Padawan.

"Don't focus on your anxieties Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon advised, now that his own anxieties had been laid to rest. "Your concentration should be on the here and now, where it belongs."

"Yes Dad," she answered teasingly, a smile on her lips. "Master Yoda has praised me for how I am mindful of the future though," she added.

"Just so long as it's not at the expense of the moment," Qui-Gon replied, a smile of his own forcing its way across his features, though he tried to be stern. Any time she teased him with that title, it got a smile from him. "Be mindful of the Living Force, young Padawan."

"Yes Master," Obi-Wan agreed, and changed the subject. "How do you think the Viceroy will deal with the Chancellors demands?" she asked. They had been ambassadors and mediators before, but this was a first for her – dealing with Neimoidians.

"These Federation types are cowards," Qui-Gon asserted. "Negotiations will be short."

Obi-Wan hummed neutrally and withdrew a personal recording device that she'd built with her friend Reeft back when they'd been Initiates. Having recorded proof of innocence when Bruck or Aalto started trouble had always useful when she and her friends were Younglings. Now, Obi-Wan checked the chronometer and spoke into the piece, giving time, place, and essential events before she clicked it off again.

Qui-Gon chuckled at that. He'd teased his Padawan in the past about being nearly religious in her use of the little device, but having her recordings certainly made reporting to the Council much easier when a mission was complete.

~oOo~

"Droid Tee-Cee-Fourteen has returned with refreshment, but no sign of our hosts," Obi-Wan reported into her recorder as she accepted one of the vessels off the tray the droid offered. "Master, is it in their nature to make us wait this long?" she asked, not turning off the device just yet, but rather, simply setting it on the table.

"No," Qui-Gon replied. "I sense an unusual amount of fear for something as trivial as this trade dispute," he answered, before he accepted a cup as well.

The sound of an explosion reached them then, along with the intense feelings of shock and the sudden cut-off that was the deaths of the crew of the ship they had come on. Both Jedi sprung up from their chairs, lightsabers in hand and ignited, ready for an attack.

The droid dropped its tray, mumbling apologies.

"The vents," Obi-Wan noted, seeing the white clouds billowing out.

"Dioxis," Qui-Gon stated as he shut off his lightsaber.

Obi-Wan grabbed up her recording device with one hand while she also turned off her lightsaber with the other, and both of them held their breaths. She didn't turn off her recording device though. If there was an attack, of any kind, then having evidence of it would be useful later, no matter the outcome.

The door that had shut them in with the gas finally opened, and TC-14 left first, carrying the tray and excusing itself to who- or whatever was beyond the sight-obscuring cloud. A mechanised voice said "check it out corporal, we'll cover you" from beyond the visible threshold, then "roger roger" and the soft clanking sound of a non-organic life form slowly walking forward.

The hiss of her master's lightsaber, and the sight of its glow signalled for her to do the same, and this was answered by an "uh-oh" and then "blast 'em." All those hours as an Initiate, learning from Master Yoda how to block simulated blaster-fire from a hovering little droid while effectively blind-folded were suddenly much more relevant than Obi-Wan had ever credited they would be. To say nothing of useful. Not to say she hadn't been in a fire-fight before, but generally she could see the shots coming with her eyes as well.

When they finished cutting down the droids that had actively been firing upon them, Obi-Wan used the Force to send the remaining droids flying back... and they ran.

"Where are we going, Master?" Obi-Wan asked as they ran.

"The bridge," Qui-Gon answered, his voice a deep growl. "We were sent to talk to the Viceroy of the Trade Federation. At this point, that is still what I intend to do."

A wonderful plan, really, and Obi-Wan only didn't roll her eyes at her Master because he wouldn't see, or notice, and there were more droids with blasters advancing on them. Obi-Wan deflected their fire and cut them down while Qui-Gon attempted to cut through the doors that were keeping them from the bridge. Behind the doors was a great metallic sound – the blast doors had been closed. Still, Qui-Gon was determined to get through, and Obi-Wan took her place guarding her Master's back while he got on with the matter of getting through.

Obi-Wan groaned when she saw the circles of metal come rolling around the corner.

"Two destroyers," she called out, letting her Master know of their presence, as well as getting on her recording device just what exactly they were now facing. It was an audio record only, not a holo-device as was more common these days. The advantage though was that she didn't have to stay in one place, a specific distance from the device, to make the recording.

Qui-Gon left the door be to defend alongside Obi-Wan, deflecting the blaster-fire of the much more efficiently violent droids.

"They have shield generators!" Obi-Wan complained when one blast she had deflected back at the droid had simply bounced off the shield and into the ceiling.

"This isn't working," Qui-Gon noted. "Run," he ordered frankly.

As soon as they were out of direct fire from the droids, Qui-Gon climbed into a ventilation shaft – which had Obi-Wan groaning. She hated ventilation shafts. She always got dust through her hair and it took serious work to get out – especially out of her braids. For some reason, her Padawan braid was even more attractive to the dust in ventilation shafts than the others, and because of the beads through it, it was always the longest to re-braid after washing.

And again, Qui-Gon, damn him, never seemed to have that problem! Maybe it was because his hair was the same shade of grey at the dust, so it couldn't be seen, but still! What was his secret? Did he have some sort of Force barrier around his hair?

Still, she kept her grumblings to herself – aware that she still hadn't turned off her recording device – and was only grateful that there was less dust in the ventilation shafts of this ship because the Neimoidians didn't have the same issues with skin and hair that humans did (they had their own skin-care issues), and their droids didn't shed too much metal dust from their grinding gears. There was some clothing fluff, but it wasn't the worst ventilation shaft she'd been dragged into by her Master.

Still, she was thankful when Qui-Gon picked an exit and she was able to drop out of the shaft and into the body of the ship once more.

"Battle droids," Qui-Gon pointed out.

"It's an invasion army," Obi-Wan breathed in shock as she looked around the hangar. "Which goes hand in hand with the explosion we heard earlier... The ship we came on," she added tightly, "being attacked and destroyed, killing the crew."

"It's an odd play for the Trade Federation," Qui-Gon said, but he didn't disagree. "We've got to warn the Naboo, and contact Chancellor Valorum. Let's split up," he instructed. "Stow aboard separate ships and meet down on the planet."

"You were right about one thing Master," Obi-Wan said, and continued when he gave her a questioning look. "The negotiations were short," she explained with a teasing smile. A smile which quickly dropped as she looked back out over the invasion army of battle droids. "You remember when I said I had a bad feeling Master?" Obi-Wan asked more softly. "Something imminent but out of reach? It's not quite so distant now. Still not immediate or clear, but a lot closer."

"Here and now, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon instructed grimly.

They split up, and Obi-Wan made note of the time for her recording device, then shut it off with the final comment that she was going to do as she had been instructed by her Master and hide on one of the ships.

~oOo~

Obi-Wan Kenobi was a Jedi. A Padawan, but a Jedi all the same. She had been raised as a Jedi, taught as a Jedi, very nearly sent off to join the AgriCorps when she wasn't chosen to be apprentice to a Jedi by the time she turned thirteen.

Jedi did not train their Initiates in the use of blasters. They trained to be able to reflect blaster-fire back at whoever was shooting at them, should the need arise. Jedi, on the whole, barely knew how to aim a blaster. Generally this was because they either tried too hard, or didn't try at all and instead relied on the Force to guide the shot – in the unlikely event that a Jedi even picked up a blaster for the purpose of using it.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was a Jedi. She just maybe wasn't exactly the most shining example of a Jedi to have ever walked the streets of Coruscant. She blamed Siri, in that friendly way one friend 'blames' another for having a skill. She also blamed Aalto, in a distinctly less friendly way, as being the reason she'd decided to acquire this particular skill in the first place.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was a Jedi who knew how to use a blaster. In fact, she knew how to use five different types of blasters. She knew how to take them apart, and put them back together. She also knew how to ride a speeder, a swoop bike, and had the basics down for most space craft that, as a Jedi, she would have no reason to be anywhere near the controls of – because that was what pilots were for (and while, yes, there were some Jedi pilots, there weren't a lot, and Obi-Wan wasn't officially among their number like her friend Garen was).

Obi-Wan Kenobi was a woman, and she was twenty-five. She was sensitive to the Unifying Force, and a student to a Master who was more aware of the Living Force. She was practical and pragmatic, and she was not going to let this ship full of battle droids land on Naboo without interfering. It would be a complete waste of an opportunity.

Besides, for all that a lot of Jedi barely knew more than which end of a blaster to hold, Obi-Wan had learned to be quite a shot. All those times sneaking out with Siri and Quinlan to the lower sectors of Coruscant, releasing all their stress into the Force by acting as un-Jedi-like as they responsibly could. Of course, Quinlan had taken it further than either of the girls, and Siri had taken it further than Obi-Wan had, but even when they were not being Jedi, Obi-Wan was sensitive to the guidance of the Force. Her 'misspent youth' wasn't quite as misspent as some.

The Council still wouldn't have approved, but Obi-Wan had never done anything that was actually forbidden by the Code. Not like Quinlan and Siri, who had both lost their virginity quite happily in the back of some nightclub in the lower levels of Coruscant. (Technically, even that wasn't strictly against the letter of the Code, but it was against the traditions of the Jedi Temple they had been raised in.)

It wasn't a long trip down to the surface of Naboo from the Trade Federation command ship. Still, Obi-Wan had time enough to drag her lightsaber through a few rows of not-yet-activated droids, collect some blasters, and hang them off a speeder which she would use once the ship finally landed. Which it did in short order.

"Ship has touched down on Naboo," Obi-Wan reported into her recorder once she'd checked her chronometer and given the time. "I am now going to commandeer a speeder, and some of the weaponry just in case, and move out to meet up with Master Qui-Gon."

There comes a slight problem, when making a getaway, if one has failed to completely remove any chance of being chased. Obi-Wan had only destroyed about half the battle droids on the ship before it touched down on Naboo, and making that little report into her recorder had alerted the first droid to activate.

She honestly hadn't thought they'd spring up quite that fast. But she'd been prepared all the same, and hopped onto the speeder she'd picked out for herself and raced off, away from the droid that was now chasing after her on another speeder, in search of her Master.

~oOo~

There was a leaf in her Master's hair, and a humanoid variant she'd never seen before following him. She nearly wanted to crow in triumph that finally – finally – Qui-Gon Jinn's frustratingly perfect hair had been mussed! But it hadn't. The leaf that was caught in his otherwise perfect hair looked very much like it had been placed there on purpose, like an extra connection to the Living Force.

Damn him and his perfect hair.

"That won't be necessary," she heard her Master state firmly to the creature.

"Oh but it is!" it countered. "Demanded by the gods it is!"

A shot of blaster-fire screamed over her shoulder. Dammit! She thought she'd lost the droid that had been tailing her!

Qui-Gon caught the blaster-fire on his lightsaber like he'd been waiting for it, and sent it straight back at the droid while Obi-Wan manoeuvred her stolen speeder to a halt by her Master.

"You saved my again!" exclaimed the orange-skinned creature as it regained its feet.

"Um... what...?" Obi-Wan tried to ask without smiling in amusement at her Master's discomfort. It was far too serious a situation in general to be laughing at minor misadventures.

"A local," Qui-Gon answered shortly as he eyed the craft Obi-Wan had claimed. "Can that thing carry both of us?"

Obi-Wan shook her head apologetically. "It really isn't designed for two, but I really want to get out of here before more droids show up," she said, unwilling to hop down even if going with Qui-Gon (which she would) would require leaving the machine behind.

"More?" the creature parroted. "More did you speak?!"

"That's right," Obi-Wan agreed. "A whole army of droids. They're invading the planet, and if they catch us, they will crush us, grind us into tiny pieces, and blast us into oblivion!" she declared with false cheer.

"My Padawan, as much as we are taught that there is no death, only the Force, you still don't have to sound so pleased about the prospect," Qui-Gon lectured with a stern frown.

"This way!" the creature bid suddenly, moving off and gesturing for them to follow. "I take you to Gunga City, tis a hidden city," he added. "Mostest safest place."

"A city?" Qui-Gon repeated, and did indeed follow after the humanoid. "You'll take us there?"

"The Bosses will do terrible things to me if me goin' back, but you-sa point is well seen. My-a been banished, but you-sa have me life-play, and you-sa say all the terrible things comin' our way, so..." he said as he led the way.

Obi-Wan turned the speeder to follow the humanoid that she still hadn't been introduced to.

"Gungans no likin' outsiders," the creature warned, and Obi-Wan supposed she now had a name for the type of creature he was. A Gungan. "So don't spect a warm welcome."

"Oh don't worry," Obi-Wan assured the creature. "This hasn't been our day for warm welcomes." It wouldn't matter much anyway, as she knew that Master Qui-Gon had a bad habit of using Force Suggestion to get what he wanted. One of these days, she was certain, he'd be faced with someone he needed something from, the Force Suggestion wouldn't work, and he'd be completely unable to talk his way out of it.

Obi-Wan made a quiet report into her recorder of having met the Gungan, and that it was taking them to his hidden city.

"We-sa goin' underwater, okie-day?" the Gungan asked when they'd travelled a good few miles, and gestured to the large expanse of water that was now spread out before them.

Obi-Wan winced slightly at the prospect. First dust in her braids, and now water that would probably not actually leave her feeling any cleaner – and would definitely cause her tunic to stick to her in uncomfortable ways when they left it behind. At least all the small gadgets she carried were water-proof.

And thank the Force that Qui-Gon, for all that he didn't care for visions of the future, advocated that they always be prepared for any eventuality whenever they left the Temple. There was certainly no other reason for them to have the slim underwater breathers tucked into their robes.

The Gungan's dive into the water was quite impressive, and the water itself as they waded out into it wasn't cold. It was very wet though, and now it was in her boots. Her boots that came up to her knees. And her robe was heavy once they were swimming after the Gungan. It was saturated and large. There was no way it could be considered light. It wasn't light even when it was dry.

She might have stopped to wonder why they didn't strip off before following the Gungan underwater, but she knew the reason: it would give a clue as to where they'd gone. It didn't matter how heavy the robes were, how uncomfortable having boots full of water was, or how much she suddenly was doubting the water-proofing on the various gizmos and gadgets she had stashed in the many folds and pockets about her person. None of that would be left behind when it could be useful to them and could lead the enemy to them if left behind.

Obi-Wan's eyes went wide as they crested an underwater ridge and what had to be Gunga City came into view. Hundreds of pods, all glowing an inviting, warm orange colour and anchored in place by... no, it wasn't anchored. Or if it was, she couldn't tell how. It all just floated in place, but not moving, and still it looked completely organic, as though the city had simply grown out from the sand and rocks that were so very far below.

It was beautiful.

And moving through the strange substance that was the shell of the pods, Obi-Wan was surprised to find herself suddenly completely dry. There wasn't even a hint of squelching in her knee-high leather boots. Incredible. She turned on her recording device subtly, knowing she wouldn't be able to make her usual, business-like little reports while they were in the hidden city without getting some unpleasant looks from its inhabitants.

"Amazing," she said softly. "I don't know what it is, but just walking through it and I'm completely dry," she muttered. Then a thought occurred to her. "I bet my hair's a mess though," she grumbled, and glared at her Master. His hair all just fell straight down, like it always did.

"So good bein' home!" their guide exclaimed happily, until another rode up to them on a... Obi-Wan blinked. Okay, she was going to have to either ask when they got to Theed, or look that creature up when they got back to Coruscant.

When. Not if. She felt assured in the Force that they would make it back to the city planet. It just... might not be soon. There were all sorts of reasons that could be, and she refused to dwell on her anxieties. It seemed that Qui-Gon scolded her enough about such behaviour that she'd started scolding herself, now wasn't that just great.

"Hey you-sa! Stoppa dere!"

"Hey-yo daddy, Captain Tarpals," their guide greeted the Gungan that had just ridden up to them, a nervous, but hopeful expression on his face. "Me-sa back!" he proclaimed, a little needlessly.

"Oh no again Jar-Jar," this Captain Tapos answered. "You-sa going to da Bosses. You-sa in big doo-doo dis time."

So, Jar-Jar was most likely the name of their guide. Nice to finally know. As they were escorted off to see 'the Bosses', Obi-Wan made soft, awed comments about the things she saw in Gunga City that she'd never seen before. Mostly for the sake of her recording device, but also because flattering your hosts is a good way to begin relations. Especially if you can flatter with honesty.