Chapter Fifty Seven

"Despite still being rather concerned about the duplicitous nature of how you and Master Fay went about distributing the new techniques and knowledge from Harry and Lily Potter into the Order, this was a magnificent gift," muttered Master Tiin to himself. Having just withdrawn his finger from the pensieve, Tiin found himself once more in his own body, standing beside the bodies of the rest of the High Council as they continued to use the pensieve Master Fay and Lily Potter had created. The only one who was missing was Master Piell, who had remained on Naboo.

Currently the High Council was watching Master Windu's confrontation with the Dark Side user. The memory had walked them through from the moment he sensed the Dark Side user's presence to the final confrontation, though having seen how it would go Tiin had exited the memory before the end of the battle.

The other Jedi joined Tiin a moment later, taking their fingers out of the glowing yellow water and moving back to their seats. "No hint there was of the Dark Sider's presence…" Master Yaddle mused, looking searchingly at Master Windu, who had not felt any hint himself during the memory, though he did not know if such a thing would have carried over to the watchers.

"Not one," Mace said, nodding his head as he both acknowledged and agreed with the importance of Master Yaddle's point. "It was a sign of a level of Force Stealth that I would say is even higher than Tholme's or the Dark Woman's. I didn't think that was possible, but then again," he chuckled rather ruefully, gesturing at the pensieve, "I have run into several things that I hadn't thought were possible of late."

For the next few moments the council talked about the lightsaber duel, dissecting the Dark Side user's form and style to see if they could figure out anything about his past. Some of them commented on what had obviously been an excellent showing by Obi-Wan against the Dark Sider using Soresu.

Yaddle pointed out that the weapon was similar to one that Exar Kun had created, which was later used by two of the Generals from the New Sith Wars. "Hard to master it was, but deadly offense and defense in one. A lack of Force techniques the user can use while wielding it, a weakness in the form."

Despite having been the first to exit the pensieve, Master Tiin discerned that there was a hint of Dathomiri footwork here and there that pointed to something of that heritage. But it was in the assassin's distant past, nearly trained out of him, so couldn't be used as a lead.

Master Yoda did not take part in this discussion, instead having closed his eyes, searching his memories. The image of the enemy's tattoos, the black and red mass covering his face, had sparked some recognition from him which Master Windu's description of them back on Naboo had not.

Eventually it was decided that Master Tholme and Master Giiett would be sent out to try and determine where this Dark Side user had come from. As a council member who had proven he could keep secrets, Giiett was a natural choice for his mission, as was Tholme, one of the few Jedi Shadows. They would further induct the other five Shadows into their mission as quietly as possible.

At the same time Master Yaddle and Master Pouf would work with Master Jocasta to go through the archives to see if there was any hint there about this Dark Side user. In particular any unexplained deaths would be followed up by the field team, as would the location of the Lost 19.

They were talking about perhaps getting the Dark Lady to help the field team despite her not being a Jedi Shadow, when Yoda spoke up and everyone turned to him automatically. "A Dark Brother he could have been."

The Dark Brothers were a Sith faction from the New Sith Wars who had survived the war's end. They had popped up around four hundred years afterward, and had done quite a lot of damage to several Core and Mid Rim star systems. Yoda had been involved in hunting them down, having just become a Jedi Master. That battle had been made worse by two Jedi falling to the Dark Side due to anger at their master's death against the Dark Brothers, and had badly damaged the Jedi Order's reputation in those worlds, a perception that continued to this day.

"Tattoos and other markings, match they do," Yoda finished his tale. "Style and control do not. Stealth, far better than the Dark Brothers had was this one's."

"Yet that would still fit," said Master Pouf thoughtfully. "After all, if one of them had survived surely he must have learned Force Stealth. Hiding would've been his best defense against us even after he or she began to rebuild the brotherhood."

"That could also be said about an actual Sith," said Master Tiin bluntly. "What if it was a Sith? A real one trained and empowered from birth in the Dark Side? From what I understand from the history texts about them the Dark Brothers were but imitations of the Sith. Would it not be better to assume that there are other Sith out there and prepare for the worst?"

As the rest of the High Council fell silent at what could possibly be called the Order's worst nightmare given voice, Mace opened his mouth, only to close it once more, saying nothing. He had been about to say he was certain that the Sith could not return with the without the Jedi knowing, but there had been too many times of late where his certainty had been proven false for him to still cling to it. It was time to perhaps embrace that uncertainty, at least in some small fashion.

"It…isn't an impossibility. But then, if so, what is their plan? How many of them are there? Where could they have been hiding?" Master Koth asked.

This caused several moments of debate from the council, which ended as Master Yoda spoke, his voice cutting through the debate like a lightsaber through butter. "Why, reveal themselves to us now, should the Sith? Assume it was chance, dangerous it would be to."

"True, it would be incredibly arrogant for any Sith to believe they could have defeated all three of you then retreated with no one having caught a glimpse of them," Koth mused, looking over at Mace. "It is not like we made any great secret that you would be joining the mission to Naboo, my friend."

"They could've been after influence with the Trade Federation," interjected Master Gallia, speaking up for the first time. "The Neimoidians are prone to arrogance and corruption. They would be a prime target for such."

Master Yoda had noticed that both Master Gallia and Master Bilaba had been noticeably silent for most of this discussion. They were still badly shaken from the revelation Aayla's memories had forced them to face, which, Yoda reflected, was understandable. But if it hampered their ability to do their jobs on the High Council, something would have to be done to aid them in finding their equilibrium once more.

"Regardless," Mace said, stepping to his chair and sitting down for the first time in this meeting, popping up a small holographic screen and inputting a few commands. "As Master of the Order, I will inform the Council of First Knowledge that they need to add more lightsaber training into the curriculum. Not enough to alarm most of our members, I think secrecy can now serve us best in this, but enough to make a difference."

The others murmured at that, some agreeing, some disagreeing. Masters Tiin, Koth, and Pouf were of the opinion that spreading the news that the Sith might still be around would either force them out into the open before whatever plans they had were ripe or cause them to be more circumspect in the future, which could be all to the good.

Master Ranicisis and Yoda, however, agreed with Mace and Master Giiett. It was obvious that whoever was out there, Dark Brothers or Sith, would know that the Jedi Order knew about them now. Hiding their preparations to face this new threat as much as possible would serve the Order best until they had an idea of the size of the threat.

Once agreement was reached, Master Windu entered a command sending out the orders to the Council of First Knowledge. That was the council who organized and controlled the teaching regimen of the younglings. They also looked after the Jedi Archives.

"I also wish to make an announcement," Mace said, standing up once again and looking around at the others, his face shifting into even more formal lines than normal. "I hereby state that I am stepping down as Master of the Order."

Silence met this as some of the other masters simply nodded, while others, like Eeth Koth, Tiin, and Bilaba, looked shocked at the very idea.

"I feel I must do this so that I can concentrate on teaching my new padawan."

"Anakin," said Giiett noncommittally. "You have decided to follow Master Qui-Gon's footsteps, then."

"Qui-Gon was correct. Anakin is touched by the Force. It was his piloting that destroyed the Lucrehulk command ship. Without him the battle might well been lost, and he needs personalized instruction. I also have no doubt that Obi-Wan would try to take him as a padawan, but he is too young to take on a padawan yet, and it might well ruin them both."

"The boy also needs some of that arrogance of his whacked out of him. And who better for that then you or one of the other swordmasters?" said Depa Bilaba, nodding. As Mace's former padawan she knew he was a demanding teacher. It was also true that as Master of the Order, Mace had far too much on his plate on a day-to-day basis to see to teaching a padawan. Depa had been his padawan before his ascension to the position, and he had not taken another one since.

Yoda grumbled a little, shaking his head. "Hrhrhrm. My opinion, changed it has not. Guilt and self-doubt, letting them influence your choices you are. Yet say you are wrong to do so, I cannot. But Master of the Order there must be."

Master Pouf interjected, "Surely you could take up the position, Master Yoda."

"No. Grandmaster I am. Desire to be Master of the Order once more, I do not have," Yoda replied firmly.

The Grandmaster was the titular head of the Order, the one who decided on policy for the most part, who could speak for the Order as a whole to the Senate and was generally seen as a source of wisdom and guidance for the Order.

This wasn't a full time job, really. More of a figurehead position called in on decisions or topics that would affect the Order as a whole, where political minefields lay or when a tie-breaking vote was needed. But Yoda also had a padawan: young Wulo of Clan Saa.

The Master of the Order was the manager, the individual who ran the day to day business of the Order and oversaw the running and interaction of the three other councils. The individual who had this position could impact policy to a high degree, but it was a position for an analytical and organized mind.

After some discussion, Master Ranicisis agreed to take on the position. He was a master of Battle Meditation, a Jedi technique which used the Force to discern the flow and patterns of war. If violence began to break out against the Order his skills might well be a necessity, though he had never shown the ability to use it on a galactic scale. He was also not tainted by the decision involving Aayla. Conversely he was not involved with Clan Saa and the techniques they were sharing with the rest of the Order.

This was an important distinction. By the time Mace and Yoda had returned from Naboo many of the High Council had recovered from their response to Harry and Aayla's numerous body blows to their views of the universe and had become even more leery of the changes of the Order, somewhat reactionary almost.

Ironically Master Piell had not shown any sign of that. But he had remained behind on Naboo to help bolster the Queen's position and bear witness to the new treaty between the human and Gungan populations.

Of course Mace would still hold a position on the council, but only when he was in the temple, and he would not become involved further in all of the day-to-day decisions. This and his staying in the temple for the next half a year to help Ranicisis get up to speed would allow for a smooth transition.

Master Ranicisis bowed his head, a fluid motion from a Thisspiasian which began at the neck area and then flowed down into a bow from his snakelike middle. "Very well. I will go through the paperwork starting later today to see what I think needs to be changed in the day to day running of the Order. However, Master Windu has already made a significant start in what I believe needs to occur and has pointed out an area which needs to become more emphasized into the future: more lightsaber training.

"I also wish us to look into the idea of no longer sending out single Master and padawan pairs on any mission that might include violence. Master Qui-Gon was a well-regarded duelist within the Order, not the best, but certainly not the worst. And this Dark Side user apparently took him down with ease. This shows that a Force user who is trained entirely for combat will have an advantage over Jedi who are more diverse in their training."

"We don't have enough Guardians to send on every dangerous mission that we are assigned to by the Senate or asked to look into by the various sector and system governments, let alone those that the Order chooses based on our information network or the Force," protested Master Tiin, while across from him Master Plo Koon nodded somberly. As the only two Guardians on the High Council, they knew how few Guardians there were in the Order. Indeed, the two of them and the leader of the Temple's guard who served on the Council of First Knowledge were the only Guardians in the four councils the Jedi used to organize themselves.

Master Giiett, the only Sentinel on the High Council, nodded as well from where he sat next to Plo Koon. His sect was in much the same position. Though somewhat more numerous, the Sentinels were also far busier thanks to their skills, and even less well known or represented at the administrative level. Indeed, there was only one other Sentinel currently serving on any of the councils.

"Then that will need to change for both Guardian and Sentinel sects. We will assign an observer to watch the younglings' classes and slowly change out those teachers who are subtly pushing the students into choosing the Consular path over the other two sects. We need Sentinels as well as Guardians. The past few years have shown us this even discounting the Dark Side user and the mystery of his existence."

Ranicisis paused then looked over at Yoda, who nodded his ancient head slowly in agreement. Seeing this, Ranicisis went on. "Furthermore, we will look into whether there is a correlation between Jedi deaths on missions and their lightsaber styles. If there is, we will need to correct it."

"You're talking about retraining Jedi Masters who might very well be too set in their ways to accept such," cautioned Master Gallia, a practitioner of Niiman, which was known as the Jack-of-all-trades style. "Many of the Consulars will protest, seeing it as pointless and unnecessary for their duties, possibly even dangerously provocative for those who deal with the Senate and other high-ranking officials or leaders that already look at us with suspicion."

"Perhaps, but perhaps not. If relearning lightsaber skills can save their lives later on, can they truly object?" Master Ranicisis asked, one wrinkled, hairy eyebrow rising interrogatively.

"A new broom sweeps clean," murmured Master Giiett, smiling faintly at the oldThisspiasian master.

"That, and fear," Master Ranicisis said bluntly, his eyes flashing for a moment behind his beard and massive eyebrows. Despite being reptilian in many ways and though few could see past their seemingly tranquil natures, Thisspiasians were a warrior people at heart with a long history and deep rivers of rage which only constant meditation could quench. This was true even for Jedi, of course, and Oppo Ranicisis was no stranger to combat both external and internal.

"We have buried far too many Jedi of late: six Jedi in the last year alone, four before that," Oppo went on. "With the knowledge that some Dark Side sect might exist out there it behooves us to realize this and start to take action against it."

"Will this retraining regimen warn our enemies that we are planning against them?" Master Pouf asked, frowning. He knew he would be one of the first Jedi forced to submit to retraining in lightsaber combat and didn't like the thought.

"No," Master Ranicisis replied quickly, and several of the other Masters nodded. "As was said earlier, the Dark Side users must know that we suspect their existence at this point. If we take no action, that will be seen as suspicious. This action can, in fact, be a screen to cover the research into the archives and the Jedi Shadows' searches."

Master Ranicisis fell silent, looking at Master Giiett for a moment. Like Master Yoda, Master Giiett was deeply involved in new techniques and abilities that had come from Lily and Harry Potter, the young human padawan of Master Fay and his biological mother, now a Force Ghost of surprising power.

Odd concept to think about, he thought, hiding an internal chuckle. His race, after all, did not actually have pair bondings and biologically speaking did not actually have sex as most races understood the term, and the idea of a single parent raising a child was very strange. The idea was frankly a little perverted to him. His people also raised offspring in crèches organized on a clan level with multiple caregivers of both genders looking after the children.

Putting his inner amusement aside, Ranicisis asked "Micah, have you decided on a padawan as yet?"

It had been a few years since Master Giiett had taken a padawan. Despite that he was known as one of the better teachers among the Order, routinely called in to help teach the younglings.

"No, I have not. I was actually thinking of waiting for young Alecto to return to the Temple and take him on as a padawan. The boy's intelligent, eager, and a crack shot who has wanted to be a Sentinel since he was quite young. It seems a good match to me." Giiett had initially wanted to take Zule as his padawan, but the Council of Knowledge had decided to assign her to the heavy-handed Master Glaive. They thought he would wear Zule's tempestuous anger away better than his gentle approach would.

"Excellent." Ranicisis looked over at Master Tiin, who snorted, shaking his head, but that was fine as well. "I believe that his abilities will help you on your mission, and your prior connection with Alecto will allow you to help him get past his grief at Master Thun's demise more quickly than would otherwise be the case. Tomorrow I expect the two of you to have some plan in place to start your own search. Master Yaddle, as you will be in charge of the team searching the archives, would a weekly progress report be too much to ask for? Or would you prefer a monthly one?"

"Monthly reports, best it would be," Yaddle replied quickly. "If information found, update progress more frequently we may."

Later, after the meeting broke up, Mace made his way down towards one of the meditation rooms. He stayed there for several hours meditating on his path forward, coming away with a vague sense of being on the right path, but no clear reason as to whether or not his decision with Anakin was part of why it was the right path or not. The only thing that came to mind was an argument he'd had with Qui-Gon on the nature of the Force several years ago:

"Living in the now," Qui-Gon had said, "opens you up to more possibilities. This allows you to roll with surprises, to take advantage of impressions the Force sends you in ways that settling on one rigid vision of the future cannot."

Mace had replied, "Yes, but you lack the certainty of purpose. You're too open, Qui-Gon. You can be diverted from your path through not just vague impressions of the Force but emotions and thoughts that you perceive as such. The Unifying Force does not allow for that. It gives us the certainty of our purpose. And that, my friend, is more important to me than being open to changes in the wind which may lead you astray."

"You call it being led astray, Mace, but if the Force is directing you, can you truly say that is actually the case?"

Sighing, Master Windu came out of his meditation, shaking his head slightly. "Farewell, my friend. You will be missed, even if you sometimes drove me up the wall." Chuckling a bit as he remembered the times that had occurred, Mace left his personal meditation area, a small severe cell set next to his equally bare room. From there he made his way down to the more public meditation rooms, which substituted in many cases for both training and meeting areas.

Eventually he found Anakin in one of the larger meditation areas, a hydroponic garden with many numerous paths through it which doubled as a food source and a small exercise area. But the youth from Tatooine was not alone. Wulo was with him along with Yoda, who was sitting on Wulo's back with Anakin as the Chironian ran to and fro through the meditation area.

Wulo's race was one that needed a lot of exercise on a day to day basis to keep in physical shape. He spent several hours here exercising above and beyond the normal exercises Yoda had him doing.

As Mace came towards them, Yoda was saying something. "The Jedi Path, learn it you will. Meditation too you will learn, a necessity of all training it is. Not only emotions it will teach you to control. Imagination and organization, begin to consciously develop both you will. Imagination, help you form the Force externally it can. Organization, knowing when and what techniques to use, aid you it shall."

That right there was the secret to why Master Yoda had taken on a padawan at this point and one of the youngsters from clan Saa in particular. Wulo was actually not very strong in the Force. Indeed, he was quite a bit weaker than the normal cutoff point used by the Council of Reassignment to decide if someone would be sent to the agricultural core. But he had a lot of dedication and imagination and could use the techniques of clan Saa quite well. Yoda taught him control, which allowed Wulo to use all the strength in the Force he had. In turn Yoda learned imagination from Wulo, which helped him in mastering the techniques of the clan, giving the techniques a lot more legitimacy throughout the Order. Through this the two of them had formed a close bond, though both went to pains to hide it from most people.

As Mace strode toward them, Yoda smacked Wulo on the rump with his stick. "Halt you will now. Leaving us Anakin will be."

Anakin slid off the Chironian youth's back with a smile which faded slightly as he saw Mace waiting for him. "Master Yoda, Padawan Wulo," Mace said calmly, nodding his head. "Thank you for looking out for Anakin."

"It was no trouble, Master Windu," said Wulo, who had watched Anakin during the earlier meeting and after. "He's intelligent enough, if a little opinionated," he teased the younger boy. "Still, running him into the ground was fun."

It was only then that Mace noted that Anakin looked a little tired, his clothing drooping off him, and there were numerous sweat stains here and there. He smiled faintly to himself. That might make him more susceptible to a few hours of meditation and discussion later, and Mace sent an appreciative nod Wulo's way.

"How was I supposed to know you'd be so fast on those four feet of yours? You're the first centauriform I've ever met," Anakin protested. "Put me in a racing pod let's see who's faster then!"

"But that would not have anything to do with who among us is faster, but who has the best reflexes," Wulo said with a smile. "I would certainly lose there. And what would you gain from such a contest?"

"Why do I think you're making fun of me?" Anakin muttered, looking away.

"He is trying to teach you a lesson, youngling," Mace said, resting a hand gently if inescapably on Anakin's shoulder. "A contest between the two of you in your specialty of piloting would avail neither of you anything. On the one hand, you would learn nothing and gain nothing by beating Wulo, and on the other, neither would he learn anything from losing. Why would you seek such an uneven contest?"

Anakin flushed still looking away, and Mace smiled thinly. "Come child, we must talk."

With a final bow towards Master Yoda, who had been silent since Windu arrived watching them all, Mace led the boy away. Within a few moments he heard Wulo racing around once more as Master Yoda began further lessons, lightsaber instruction from the sound of it. Yoda had not, however, made any move to actually get off his padawan's back, which amused Mace. I certainly hope that doesn't start to develop into an actual habit…

Mace led Anakin through the temple higher up from the meditation halls into the levels where masters and knights had rooms before the start of the library levels. Since it was a little past lunchtime this area was empty of other people, which was good. Now how to go about this? Circumspectly or bluntly? Really, that wasn't even a question. Mace did not do circumspect very well.

"There is anger in you," Mace said bluntly. "Hate and arrogance too. This is why many of the Order are leery of allowing you to join our ranks. Have you felt that during your interaction with the other Jedi you have met?"

"Yes, Master Windu," said Anakin hesitantly. "But I don't understand it at all. I thought that Master Jinn said that listening to the Force was supposed to be a good thing, and can't emotions make you powerful?"

"Why do you think that?" Mace asked

"I have… I've known there's something different about me for a while, but I couldn't always control it. The few times I did, it was in the pod races or when I was working on a hard job. And I thought I was better, that is, I was better when I called for the Force through my emotions," Anakin replied, his voice becoming more certain as he went on.

"I see. And what emotions did you use?" Mace asked gravely.

Somehow knowing that answering outright would be very bad, Anakin looked away, but Mace pulled him to a stop, his hand once more resting gently but inexorably on Anakin's shoulder. "Tell me," he said calmly.

"Fear, a time or two, Master Windu. Not for myself but for my mom," Anakin added hurriedly, firmly believing that Jedi were above such things as personal fear. "I was worried a few times that if I messed up on the job our owner would do something to her or sell her off to someone else. And one time against another pod racer I used anger or hate. It's not really clear. It, it didn't help me win the race, but it helped me to get out of the pod before it exploded at least when the dug cheated."

Normally Anakin would not have been so hesitant, but all of his usual self-confidence disappeared when he was alone like this with the intimidating, bald-headed Jedi Master. He had heard about what happened on Naboo, had seen Master Qui-Gon's body and the body of his killer, and knew that Master Windu had sliced said killer into several pieces. Further, there was something daunting about the man, sort of like his first impression of Master Dooku, only not hidden under the older man's sangfroid.

"I see," Mace said gravely. "Come with me Anakin. I wish to show you something before we continue."

They retraced their steps, then carried on traveling several floors further down from the meditation center where Windu had found Anakin earlier. They were on the third floor of the Jedi Temple when they stopped going down, entering a series of hallways that led into classrooms.

Eventually they entered one with several dozen easels and other things scattered around. "Many Jedi take up painting in order to help hone their senses and attune themselves to the Force or make sense of the visions they see at first," Mace said in response to Anakin's quizzical look. "I never did, but my padawan did, as did Master Gallia and a few others I know of. It worked for them for a time, and also taught them to not value the works of their hands too highly, which is another valuable lesson. But that is not what we are here for."

Moving towards another, smaller door set in the classroom's far wall, Mace motioned Anakin towards the front desk and gestured for the boy to pull out a large white clay bowl about the size of his two hands cupped together. Anakin did so, and Mace soon came back holding several small containers of paint. "Many people need visual aids to help them understand a concept or technique, and I believe you are one of those. Would that be the case? You learn from looking and doing better than listening?"

"Oh yes, Master Windu," Anakin said eagerly. "I've learned almost all of the stuff I know about mechanics and engineering from doing and watching other people."

"Excellent," Mace said with a smile, the first one he had bestowed upon the young man, which caused Anakin to beam at him. "I will see to having you talk to a few of the Order's engineers, Jedi Knights and Masters who specialize in that craft. It will be interesting to see how far along in that area you are."

The Tatooine native nodded eagerly, already looking forward to those tests.

He fell silent, though, as Mace went on. "However, right now I wish to give you a demonstration of something." He held up the small paint containers, setting them on the table one after another. "Black, anger and hate. Red, fear. Blue inquisitive. Yellow, joy. Pink, love."

Anakin giggled at that, a typical young boy's response to that kind of statement, and Mace allowed him to do so for a few seconds before going on. "Green, serenity, and finally purple, self-control."

Holding up each color in turn save the first he had labeled, Mace poured a small teaspoon of each color into the white bowl. "A normal mind is something like this, at times serene, at times controlled, at others happy or inquisitive. The colors all swirl together into an odd mix. But each color is still there, still part of the whole."

Anakin nodded, watching is Mace mixed the colors altogether with a paintbrush. The new mash didn't look like any of the original colors, but you could still see flashes of those colors in the new pattern.

"But some emotions block out your ability to feel others. Some emotions color all your thoughts if you feel them too often without controlling them." Mace then splattered a teaspoon of black into the bowl. His brush swirled for only a few seconds mixing the black into the other colors. As Anakin watched, the black began to dominate, the other colors slowly disappearing into a morass of only slightly lighter black.

Watching this Anakin gulped, feeling that he was seeing something very important.

When Mace spoke, his voice somehow echoed in the youngster's head. "Anger, hate, fear. These we call the Dark Side emotions. We do not call them that just because they are emotions that are painful or hard to control. We call them that because eventually we Jedi, those of us connected to the Force, if we feel these emotions and allow them out of control, allow ourselves to feel them without a buffer, they will start to control us. Right and wrong will slowly start to not matter. Only hate, anger, or fear, and taking out those emotions on those around you."

"I, I understand, Master Windu," Anakin said, looking quite shaken.

"Good," Mace said, again laying a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder and turning Anakin around to look him in the eyes. "Did you know that Master Jinn had wanted to take you on as a padawan?"

Anakin nodded hesitantly. "He, he told me he would. He told me that Obi-Wan was almost ready to become a knight anyway, and that that I had a great destiny to fulfill."

Wincing internally at both portions of that statement, Mace allowed himself to nod gravely. "You are powerful in the Force, Anakin. That is what Master Jinn meant. You and young Harry are both incredibly powerful, and you saw what Harry could do, or perhaps heard about it, at least?"

Anakin nodded excitedly, his eyes coming to life again as he moved past the confusing and rather scary presentation Mace had just given him on the downsides of feeling fear, anger, and hate. Not that he had really understood it. After all, didn't everyone feel those emotions? Why couldn't the Jedi control them? Wasn't that the most important thing?

"However, you cannot allow such thoughts of the future to cloud your present. Arrogance leads to pride and pride to anger when challenged, and thus serves no one, understood?"

Anakin nodded thoughtfully. That, he understood, at least. "Like Sebulba, the pod racer. He was so arrogant, so sure of his position he hated anyone even coming close to his skill, and he started to cheat and lash out, even sometimes against people who weren't a real threat."

"A good analogy, if somewhat limited in scope," Mace replied, gesturing Anakin towards the door, but stopping to pick up the bowl and hand it to the boy. "You will put this in your room as a memory of what we discussed today. Eventually you will even meditate on the topic, but that will come later."

"Erm, Master Windu… I…does that mean…?"

"My friend Qui-Gon saw potential in you. With his death, it falls to me to see if that potential can be made into reality. I will warn you, I am a harsh teacher and a very demanding one. I will work you hard, but if you persevere and turn your latent talent into something real, you can become a great Jedi Knight," Mace said sternly, challengingly.

And as Mace knew Anakin would, he rose to that challenge. "I won't let you down, Master!".

"I'm certain you will, but that too is part of the learning process," Mace said blithely, chuckling. "But we will see together. I will assign you a room next to mine, and then you will start on a few control exercises tonight. We will wait to start training you physically until tomorrow. There are a few youngling exercises of both sorts that you need to pass before we can get to anything truly strenuous."

Anakin scoffed. "But Master, I'm not a youngling, and I've already consciously used the Force a few times, haven't I? Like in the Battle of Naboo! Surely that means I should start an advanced education."

"Is that arrogance I hear?" Mace asked slowly, turning to gaze at Anakin sternly, his good humor gone in an instant.

Anakin flushed then nodded contritely. "I understand, Master. Sorry."

"Good. In that case I will say that yes, you are an advanced student, but that is no reason to neglect the fundamentals. The fundamentals can trip you up just as easily as an advanced technique, and it's important to have a good grounding in everything. But there is another reason for why you need to start on the portions you can teach yourself tonight. I have a final duty I need to perform before I can devote myself to teaching you…"