Chapter 2

Once both apprentices had exited the dueling arena their respective masters met them at the door and then entered which was a surprise to both since neither had mentioned that they would be dueling one another but Thann also knew that his master was not one to take chances especially when the possibility of death was on the table and so this duel would have been one of his ways to ensure that both men would walk away with their lives if not fully whole. Qui-Gon stood at one end of the arena as T'onn stood at the other end both knew that they had little time to fully gauge the others skill but they would not be as rushed as their apprentices were and so they sent out their feelers in the force checking on how deep the others connection went and what they both felt about the other was unexpected since both men could sense that they were close in power and so they drew their lightsabers and saluted one another and then began approaching one another. Once they had reached striking range they began their flurry neither man could seem to overpower the other until T'onn noticed that the older Jedi seemed close to fatiguing and that his strikes were much to broad which with some quick thinking T'onn used that to create an opening which led to his saber to being pointed right at the man's gut just as he was about to perform an overhead strike and the duel ended from there both men saluted and then powered off their lightsabers.

Both men were in deep discussion as their apprentices approached them and heard them talking and what they seemed to be discussing was the outcome of their duel " Master qui-Gon it would be better for you if you make your strikes more tighter and less obvious and I think that if we go now we will have more than we can handle, but I know that time is of the essence and so both me and my apprentice will be joining you and that was the reason for my requesting this duel." Qui-Gon looked at the younger man and knew that he was right in his assessment and that he and his Padawan needed all the help they could get so he nodded in agreement at the young mans insistence on joining him.

Once everyone had their things ready to go they all met up at the Queen of Naboo's ship and saw that everyone was almost about to board the ship what surprised Master T'onn and his apprentice was the appearance of the young boy Anakin Skywalker who was the Chosen One according to what Master Qui-Gon had said but both men knew that without enough evidence or knowledge they could not verify it for themselves but what they could do was be friendly to the young boy and since Thann was only 9 years older than the young Skywalker he took it upon himself to be the youngers older sibling model and began to conversate with the lad telling him the many missions that he and his master had which kept the boy entertained and also when both jedi masters weren't looking and Obi-Wan was busy somewhere on the ship Thann took it upon himself to help give Anakin some insight as to how his abilities worked which was helpful in the youths understanding of what he was capable of.

The journey to Naboo was shorter than the journey back to Coruscant had been for Thann and his master but the ominous feeling that something bad was about to happen was something that they could all feel including young Anakin but he didn't know what was causing the feeling so he asked the older Jedi and Thann told him that it was most likely due to what was about to occur and that young Skywalker didn't need to worry about it. Soon the ship was breaking through the planets atmosphere and then was landing on the soft grass that was on the distant outskirts of any form of supposed civilization but Master Qui-Gon knew that wasn't the case and asked his tall Gungun friend to see he could locate his fellow gunguns to which he went and disappeared into the forest.

A few days later had gone by and Jarjar had yet to return from his location mission and while the Jedi were waiting they fine tuned their skills and since T'onn's practice of Niman incorporated the five forms he insisted that both Master Qui-Gon and his apprentice practice the form three section along with their form four which would add a stronger defense to their already formidable combative skills and with the time on their hands that's what the Jedi did practice also while they waited Thann made it his priority to spend as much time as he could with the young Skywalker since he personally knew that the young boy's background was not an easy one like himself his master had found him when he was four years old with no mother or father from a war torn planet that had a major civil war that had been ongoing till the Jedi had arrived and settled the situation which brought Republic intervention which was out of the ordinary but Master T'onn had been most persistent and so the Republic sent aid and someone who could help restore the planets mainline government and during the Jedi's stay he found young Thann who was about the age of four and had shown great force potential which led Master T'onn to run a midichlorian count on the young boy which then led to him seeking out any of the boys living relatives and once he determined that the child had no other living relatives he then decided that the youth should be sent to the temple and made preparations and thus he was inducted into the temple.

Thann recounted his past to the young Skywalker and ended it on a positive note that his destiny was in his hands and that he'd help him with whatever he could which brought a smile to the young boys face. Another few days passed and then Jarjar came back with news that the Gungans where not in GunGun city and were most likely at the secret meeting spot that they would go to if there was danger to their people, a few hours later and many miles that had to be traveled the large party arrived at the destination that Jarjar had led them to and were soon surrounded by gunguns on mounts and then led to their leader the honorable Boss Nass who quickly showed his distaste for the humans that had showed up on his doorstep and had possibly led the droids that had been looking for them but those thoughts were soon dispelled by the Queen who revealed herself and explained that everyone on the planet lived in a symbiosis and that one civilization could not exist without the other which led to Boss Nass understanding that his unwelcomed guest had no ill intention or thoughts towards him or his people.

Soon after the meet and greet between the different leaders Boss Nass and Queen Amidala and their respective personnel they began to talk about the best way to remove the Trade Federation and their droid presence from the planet which then lead to a discussion of the possibilty of open warfare which led to the Queens head of security to openly speak out against such a plan if it put the queen at risk to which the gungun leadership jumped at since they were upset with how things had gone and wanted some payback for being driven from their underwater home and so a plan began to formulate, the last thing that was recommended by the elder Jedi Master was that befor anything was done they should send a small scouting party to see what the situation was in the capital city to which everyone also agreed.

Later that night the Jedi intensively trained their saber skills pushing one another to go past their limits and reach new heights all while a young Skywalker and a few other onlookers watched in utter amazement as the Jedi moved seamlessly and unhindered in what they were doing as if guided by an unseen hand.

After the first break in their practice Both Master T'onn and his Thann both saw improvements in their respective counter parts game which they knew would up the odds of survival in the upcoming confrontation and also created a comradery that only existed between those that went into battle with one another as the banter between them grew during their respective practice duels and would probably grow more so as they practiced, but still they all had a feeling that someone was out there watching them and that left them on high alert but they did their best to conceal it from the others but knew that soon all things would be settled.