Before - Legends Jedi Dreaming -- Yoda, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, OCs -- COMPLETE (really) -- 18-June-2007

Title: Jedi Dreaming
Author: ardavenport
Timeframe: pre-Episode I, pre-TPM
Genre: drama, Obi-angst
Characters: Obi-Wan, Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn, OC Jedi
Keywords Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn, dreams, Jedi
Summary: Obi-Wan learns of the deceptive nature of dreams and that even Jedi cannot discern imagination from possibility.
Notes: This story is a long, wandering extrapolation about why Obi-Wan might have been so uninterested in following up Anakin's dire dreams about his mother in ATOC. Forgive the location since I'm posting this right after doing another long Temple drama, but this story wanted to be written. All my other outlines have Q and O going to other planets and getting into different kinds of trouble.
And: typo is my middle name, with missing words and errors that spell checkers don?t catch being my speciality ? if you see any, just post a reply or send a PM with the what and where and I will kill them with no mercy.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to George and Lucasfilm; I?m just playing in their sandbox




Obi-Wan Kenobi walked in darkness. Without light, the gloom weighted down the interior of the vast Jedi Temple. Not even the huge open hall around him could contain so much darkness. Unlike space, which was crisp and black, this sooty emptiness smothered light and sound. His boots hardly made a sound on the patterned floor.

Obi-Wan had no idea where the light had gone. Perhaps the power was down. Perhaps the lights had been buried. He did not feel any darkness in the Force. No anger, no fear, no rage. They might have been buried, too. But the Force was there, thick as the air.

He kept walking through the darkness and through the Force.

Ahead of him, his Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, sat cross-legged on a meditation platform. Somewhere around them in the murky shadows was a great, columned hall, but they were alone amidst all that darkness.

Eyes closed, Qui-Gon serenely meditated, his long brown hair falling down on the shoulders of his dark robe. Obi-Wan noted the small flecks of gray in his hair and beard. The Force was strong around Qui-Gon like a halo of invisible light that instead of pushing back the darkness, melded into it.

Obi-Wan wondered if he should sit, under his Master's feet at the base of the pedestal, and join him. He timidly stepped forward and found it more and more difficult to move, as if the air were becoming more and more solid.

Was Qui-Gon so still and quiet because he couldn't move?

Suddenly alarmed, Obi-Wan pushed his hand forward.

Qui-Gon's eyes opened. They were dead.

The deep blue eyes that stared at nothing had sunken back, whatever spark of life should have been there had fled. The pale skin had gone bloodless and grayish. A slight breeze stirred the corpse's dry hair.

Obi-Wan started awake.

His heart pounding, he looked around at the dim shapes in his darkened room. The usual tiny lights on the wall com on the far wall shone steadily. Only starlight over Coruscant from his holo-window illuminated the room's sparse furnishings.

Obi-Wan sat up and activated the lights from the panel by the stand at the head of his sleep couch. Calming his breathing and his rapidly beating heart, he closed his eyes. He had felt it, the Force in the dream, which meant that this night terror had not been just a dream at all.

His initial shock melted into dread. In the Force, all visions had meaning. The trick was in discerning what that was. Even the wisest Jedi Master would not say what. Obi-Wan had always been taught that visions were to be accepted with contemplation and meditation only. Every Master, including Qui-Gon, always warned against the temptation of acting on them. This was not considered dark, but foolish and possibly dangerous, since the meaning of any vision, large or small, shifted with any action inspired by it. At most one waited for the moment of the vision to come before doing anything. If it ever came.

Up until

 

Whoa. that has certainly got to be a frightening visions - especially what Obi-Wan saw last. Imagine seeing Qui-Gon like that... But now I'm worried about Qui-Gon. What mission is he on? Poor Obi. Loved his concern for his Master.

More soon please!

 

Great beginning and you can put me on the PM list

 

So spooky. I love it.
I have no idea what it all means. very good story.
Please add me to a PM list if you would be so kind.

 

Oh how awful for Obi-Wan. The second vision was especially horrific. I loved how you described the dreams, weird but realistic enough to scare the daylights out of Obi-Wan.

 

That was scary - poor Obi-Wan!
Can't wait for more!

 

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWooooooooooooo!!!!!!

that was soooo weird!! In a Good kinda creepy way!

That last bit acctually made me feel sick! In a good kinda gross way!

I cant wait for more I need to know whats gonna happen!
Please dont let Quiggy die I love him!!

I cant wait for more please update soon Can I be added to your pm list?

 

Oh how...disturbing. What an ending, too. PM me please.

 

Wow, poor Obi-Wan ! That's so very chilling, now you have me very worried -- wondering what's going on...



His Master's eyes snapped open.

Instantaneously, he was dead. His skin drained of color, freezing into lifelessness. His eyes paled, the pupils disappeared. Obi-Wan reached forward. Perhaps he could still be saved.

The body began to expand.

The skin of face and neck split; fingers detached; the body under tunic and robe pushed outward as the clothes began to shred. Obi-Wan drew back.

As the outer parts moved away, the insides became visible, internal organs, eyes, brain, bones. And each piece broke up into more pieces and pieces of pieces in some weird slow motion explosion. The hair drifted upward, each strand breaking into smaller and smaller lengths until it became a huge expanding cloud of brown. Droplets of flesh, blood and bone divided over and over until there was nothing left but an uneven haze, patches of red, brown, pink, white getting larger and larger.

Obi-Wan gasped and threw himself backward. He hit the floor with a solid thump and scrabbled away from the grisly remains drifting toward him.

The night view of his holo-window glowed, un-obscured by flesh or Force. Obi-Wan wrapped his arms around his knees and rested his head on them.

He had done as Master Yoda had asked. He had meditated on his dream. But now, what was he to do to understand the meditation?




*shudders* I got goosebumps reading that...well done!

 

Wow! I can't imagine how disturbing these visions must be to Obi-Wan. Please add me to your PM list, if you would.

 

wooooooooooo... bardo vision

reminds me of buddhist meditations on the impermanence / illusory nature of the body

very interested to see where you will go with this.

 

I REALLY thought I had replied to this! Gorgeous. No surprise there.

Please PM when you update.

 

Thanks to all for your lovely replies and to you lurkers for reading.

Current PM List:
earlybird-obi-wan
Gkilkenny
obi-gonjinn
Valairy_Scot
DarthBerryStraw
VaderLVR64


Princess_Arulmozhi: Poor Obi-Wan indeed. He's worried about Qui-Gon, too. . Thanks for the reply!

earlybird-obi-wan: Thanks for the reply!

Gkilkenny: Glad you're enjoying it! More will be revealed.

LuvEwan: Yes, the Force would have to be especially disturbing to freak out Obi-Wan. . Thanks for reading!

Fifilla: Thanks for reading!

obi-gonjinn: It did turn out weird and creepy, but it really didn't start out that way when I started writing the scene. It just sort of happened.

Please dont let Quiggy die I love him!!

Aaaawwww, you wouldn't want me to give anything away, would you?

Valairy_Scot: Thank-you!

Layren: Thanks! Yes, poor Obi-Wan; the Force is not always friendly.

DarthBerryStraw: Very distrubing visions indeed. Thanks for reading!

ratna: Hmmmm, I suppose in Jedi philosophy that the body is impermanent, especially given what Yoda says about missing people who have died in ROTS. That's definitely taking a larger view of things, but it's a little tough for young Obi-Wan to adjust to. Thanks for the reply!

VaderLVR64: Thanks much!

 

o-o /O-O-O\ o-o \-O-O-/ o-o /O-O-O\ o-o \-O-O-/ o-o /O-O-O\ o-o - - - part 2


Obi-Wan wanted to speak to Master Yoda that morning, but when he commed his request he only received a recorded message that the elder Council member was unavailable.

After first meal, Obi-Wan went to the training arenas to practice. His participation with the embassy visits only came every third day. The rest of his time was split between a seminar on survival techniques, lightsaber practice and his studies.

Obi-Wan scanned the large room of Jedi exercising, sparring and practicing lightsaber forms. Seeing a welcome and familiar form, he hurried to one training arena and took a seat on the bench next to it.

Master Clee Rhara directed her Padawan, Garen Muln, through a series of spins and jumps, a simple exercise that tested a Jedi's response to spoken orders.

"Jump back! . . . . Left! . . . . Down . . . . Stay down! . . . . Back!"

Garen responded swiftly, gracefully diving and dodging with her shouted orders, his motions anticipating each one. Clee paced the perimeter of their training area, watching Garen, but her eyes flicked back toward Obi-Wan.

Finally she called 'stop' and Garen spun back to her and, breathing heavily, bowed.

"You have improved, but you still must learn to channel your strength through the Force better, my Padawan. And you have an admirer," the red-headed woman said with a smirk of amusement, her eyes glancing back toward Obi-Wan's bench.

Garen grinned and Obi-Wan returned his friendly slap on the arm.

"You can join us," Garen suggested, but his Master, still smiling, shook her head.

"I have enough to do with training one of you." Clee told him. "Where is Qui-Gon?"

"He has been sent on a mission by the Council," Obi-Wan answered.

"And left you here to find your own sparring partners, I see." She nodded to them both. "I will leave you to each other's company. Padawan, I will be at the Archives." She bowed and left them.

"She needs to finish reporting on our last mission," Garen explained. "We just got back."

"Did it go well?"

Garen grimaced. "Well, Clee said it went as well as could be expected, but I could have done better." Garen demonstrated with his lightsaber some aspects of deflecting blaster bolts that he had not heeded.

"What's Qui-Gon mission?" Garen asked, deactivating his saber.

Obi-Wan frowned. "I don't know. It's for the Council. But I wanted to talk to you about it." They left the training arenas and their echoing sounds of exertion. Strolling together through lower level halls of the Temple, Obi-Wan told his friend about his dreams, his inability to contact Qui-Gon, Yoda's advice and the result.

"I feel like I need to do something," Obi-Wan finally admitted. "More," he added hastily. The flush of panic from his dreams had left him, but the memory of it disturbed his concentration and repeatedly intruded on his thoughts. He had no place to go. He did not know where the Jedi Council had sent Qui-Gon and communication was barred. Obi-Wan wanted to speak with Qui-Gon. Perhaps his Master had sensed something similar to his dreams, or could explain them.

Qui-Gon might not have sensed anything at all. He might even be annoyed that Obi-Wan had contacted him about something so ephemeral and unreliable as a dream vision. But Obi-Wan would have welcomed Qui-Gon's disapproval over his present inaction. He was frozen in place, trapped in the Temple and his own inability to act.

Garen had no answers. Obi-Wan had not expected that he would, but he felt better after telling him about his dream.

"Maybe Master Clee can speak with Yoda about it?" Garen suggested. "I'm sure she'd be happy to speak for you. Or Yoda might let her talk to Qui-Gon for you?"

Obi-Wan frowned. "I don't think they'll allow it. I have more reason to talk to Qui-Gon than she would, and they won't let me." Jedi did not com other Jedi on mission just to chat.

Garen shrugged. "I don't think it can hurt to ask Clee about it. She won't do an

 

Oops! I thought I had responded earlier, and after my whining for a new story too.

Ok, this is starting to put me on edge. Come on Obi-Wan don?t just stand there, we need to do something! (Yeah, like make the author post more).

Very effective, the emptiness is worse than the violence.

 

Obi-wan's love for his Master is so moving.
Especially in the context of everything else that you have written about this pair. (heart of the jedi blew me away) I'm afraid that your vision of them has just defined these two for me ever since....... and it's a very beautiful vision.

The agonizing conundrum:

I truly cannot conceive of a universe in which love like Obi-wan's is a bad thing. And yet, it is his Attachment for his Master that is now attaching him to his dream, calling it to him, to cycle and repeat in ever elaborating iterations -- the fractal of the soul.

Loved your images (as always)
your imagination -- DRL for the Jedi sounds so familiar ....

Loved how his most recent version of the dream vaguely echoed the holo image on his window -- very subtle bow to the psychology of dreams as it is understood in this galaxy.

Lastly, thank you so much for updating. If it's not too much trouble, could you also add me to the PM list? I'd be checking anyway, but, yeah.

 

Where is Qui-Gon? Poor Obi-Wan, dreaming like that and feeling lost.

Great update

 

Wonderful update, very intense!

If he was seeing images of Qui-Gon dead, was it possible that Teekoh was experiencing something similar with her Master? He got up and put the floor cushion away under the table in his room. It was too late to politely com Teekoh for a meeting. Obi-Wan began to prepare for sleep. He would contact her in the morning.
Good idea - I wonder, if Teekoh has perhaps the same dreams?!
I hope, Qui-Gon is ok!!!

 

Dreams pass in time... But will Qui-Gon pass with them.

 

The images that Obi-Wan is experiencing are profoundly disturbing. If nothing else, he needs to talk to Yoda about them. It sounds almost as if Qui-Gon is in trouble and someone is giving him drugs to make him hallucinate and he's passing them on to Obi-Wan.

Love that Obi is getting more and more frustrated with these visions and yet no one is paying any attention, really. It may push him to act.

 

Entering a large hall, he went to its center and looked up at the darkened ceiling high above. He closed his eyes. An impression of the vastness of the Force around him returned, like he was touching space itself far beyond the Temple. He realized that he had felt the same thing in his earlier visions as well.

An involuntary chill of panic clutched his insides. Would Qui-Gon die in space?

He automatically pushed past this thought to defuse the fear. A death in space was sudden and violent. He felt none of that. He felt as if Qui-Gon was not alive, but not gone either. Feeling lost, one dot in an immense galaxy, Obi-Wan looked up again.

Where was Qui-Gon?

Love it!

 

very cool idea!!

.

 

Wow! I just read all the posts on my lunch break! I love Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan stories and you are doing a wonderful job with this one. (There's nothing like Obi-angst except maybe Obi-torture.)
Somebody really needs to listen to Obi! Can't wait for more!

 

Okay, up the curiousity factor...what is going on and why is Obi-Wan having these dreams?

Lovely language.