Saga Snapped Thread (AU, Qui and Obi switch roles in TPM, etc.)

Title: Snapped Thread
Disclaimer: I do not own SW, sadly
Timeframe: it begins in and around TPM, but the prologue is several years before
Summary: Obi is Qui's master, and there's some... different reasoning with the Sith. However, who dies at the pit... I'm not saying




Prologue:


Amarig Zan Arbor fled for his life, for the open doors. Away from his creation. His science experiment gone terribly askew. To the point of potential mass destruction.

He was running towards his assistant, Deki. But what was the use? He was old. There would be no reason to have him around if...

Deki is my last chance.

Thank goodness he'd told Deki all there was to know about this menace. All except one thing.

The creature could enter you and replace your conscience with itself. It was deadly, and though Deki knew of that ability, she didn't know the other thing about it. The key.

Once it takes hold of a body, it can't let go. It chains itself to what it lives off of. After that, it is left without immunity to the bridge between life and death. It is a parasite. When its host dies, it will disintegrate from within, leaving no ashes.

There is no other way.

He made a split-second realisation. And split-second decision.

He had to let Deki escape to kill him. He had to get rid of himself to get rid of his creation.

He forced himself to stop, and stepped back through the door. Deki's eyes were wide.

He felt the menace's fear as it passed through him, aiming to conquer Deki. She sprang away, but she needn't have.

He was lucky. Fate had chosen this time for the thing's power and luck to run out. It had to become a parasite to survive.

With the last breath that was his own, he told Deki to kill him, that it will work.

The breath after that was Darth Sidious's.

~~~~~~

sorry, no qui and obi yet, but I promise they'll be there if this is worth continuing. (if I didn't put up this prologue, trust me, it'll be very confusing, even though this prologue is pretty confusing anyway, in my opinion)

 

sadness... but oh well

~~~~~~

almost 3.5 years later...

"Master?"

Obi-Wan turned to face his Padawan, somewhere behind him.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

"This mission?"

Qui-Gon nodded.

Obi-Wan shrugged. "I don't know," he said, smiling. "But maybe my age is dulling my senses."

Qui-Gon grinned.

"Speaking of age," he replied. "Isn't it Deki's lifeday somewhere around right now?"

Obi-Wan looked up at the ceiling of the Republic cruiser for a second before muttering an unenthusiastic, "Oh, right."

"Seriously, Master. Why do you keep on having a grudge against her?"

"Padawan, you know it's nothing personal. It's just that--"

"It wasn't even her fault that the guy messed up."

"I know... I just a bad feeling about her."

Qui-Gon gave him a sidelong look before rolling his eyes.

~~~~~~

Laughter. Under two very big but faraway and currently setting suns.

Anakin Skywalker was in the back of Watto's storage pile, trying to extract a small ciruit board from a random cluster of entangled wires that used to be inside something that no longer works properly. And laughing his head off at a friend of his who had just fallen over a wall to land a few metres away.

"It's not funny!" the female said, sticking out her tongue, rubbing the knee she landed on.

"Yes it was," Anaki insisted

"Whatever."

Anakin kept laughing. The female sighed and shook her head in mock exasperation.

"Anyways, ready to go home?"

Anakin's laughter hiccuped away.

"No. Watto'll kill me if I sneak off without finishing this stupid thing."

"Here, let me try."

Anakin handed over the tangle of circuits that had lasted him well over half-an-hour. The female examined it for a moment, analysing every angle, before she rolled up her sleeves and straightened the mass in a matter of seconds.

"Show-off."

"You're just jealous."

"Well, you're older."

"Which means my brain is supposed to be even more out-of-date than yours."

"Shut up, Deki!"

The comment slipped past her. "Now can we go home?"

Anakin shrugged. "I'll go ask Watto." He put out his hand for the totured and finally freed circuit.

Deki tossed it into his hand and sat back against the wall, as if she were ready to wait for a century before he came back.

Anakin ran off.

~~~~~~

Deki watched Anakin turn a corner around a stack of scrap metal.

She looked up. At the stars and other things she can't see.

Somewhere out there, a makeshift Sith is planning a reappearance, to drug the galaxy with his personal virus. To infect to pure.

Somewhere nearby was tool that Sith will want to steal. An innocent child he could blindfold and tie to the galaxy's fate and push down a cliff.

Somewhere that Sith would plan and strike. Somewhere, this being will remember her face and look for it.

Here was she. The only witness who didn't end up a victim, a tool. The only bystander watching the impossible science experiment fail. She was Sith's sour memory. A slave's buddy and guardian. An insane musician. A smiling-machine.

She sprang up and stretched. It was way more than she'd ever bother to ponder in one breath. Why question your future when it's almost here anyway?

~~~~~~

Shmi Skywalker was just wondering what else she could possibly do to tidy their living quarters up even further when Anakin and Deki trekked in, shedding little puddles of sand.

"Mom! We're home."

"What he said."

Shmi looked up and smiled at the duo.

"Dinner's ready."

Anakin cheered and bound towards the table, and Deki grinned back to Shmi over his head before following suit.

Shmi turned to wipe her hands off once again on a small towel, her mind on Deki.

Deki had arrived three years ago, when Anakin was six. She had saved him from being run over by an eopie's load and escorted him home. After that, Deki vanished. But only to return, dragged back by Anakin as if they were old friends.

She was colourful one, mature but immature. She had seemed ageless to Shmi, like the sky--something of wh

 

This might be interesting. It is thus far. Add me to your update list

 

Hi:

The title grabbed me first off Then the whole idea of switched roles It works--the banter is perfect between Obi and Qui

I'd like PMs if you're keeping a list?

 

Hey! It's been awhile since I've read one your stories! This is really good but one question? Is Zan Arbor Jenna's brother? And how old is Qui-gon?

Ok two questions.

Add me as well!

 

Darth Drachonus: thank you! you're on the PM list!

Jade eyes: I'm glad you like it! you're on the PM list too!

Raphire: Amarig is Jenna's uncle so he's in Palpatine's generation. And Qui is the same age as Obi in TPM. thanks for the response!

NOTE: in case I forgot to mention it in the last update, Qui and Obi are on the ship to Naboo right now.


Update coming soon!

Okay...

 

About 3.5 years ago...

"Master, are you psychic enough to know why I have a bad feeling about this mission?" asked Deki.

Shaak Ti put her hand on Deki's shoulder. "No, but it'll pass."

"Sure hope so. Before I go bonkers with it."

Her Master chuckled, but then sighed.

"Bye, Deki. Be careful."

"You bet."

The fourteen-year-old saluted her Master, grinning a "see-you-later-in-a-few-seconds!" grin and bounding onto the ship as if she were trying to catch a freighter to heaven.

a mission later...

Deki stared wide-eyed at the thing vanishing right into Amarig. For a minute, she thought the coast was clear and that (somehow) it was all over. Then, what used to Amarig looked up at her with the eyes of a starved gundark that had just broken out of a cage, so Deki turned tail and pelted off as if she were trying to outrun a blaster bolt. But better to run freakishly fast then to get pinned down by someone--or more like something--that obviously wants to get rid of all witnesses who stand in their way to absolute power.

Yup. That was she was now. Numero uno on the list of "People to Kill" for that replica of a Sith.

So pleasant, is it not?

Deki glanced back, then muttered a swear and veered onto a another street. And another. And then she Force-jumped onto the roof of a randomly low house and vaulted over. Much to her luck, she was face-to-face with a forest.

Without asking herself any questions on the matter, she bolted into the forest and mused on the unhappy possibility of getting so lost she'll forget her own name.

a day later...

Deki was perched in a tree, trying a Jedi mind trick on a bird near her while she prayed that her comlink will work and--

"Deki? Is that you?"

"Master Windu! Yay, you finally answered." The bird seemed to think she was crazy, talking to a black lump, but that didn't matter to Deki in the least.

"Uh-huh. So why are you trying to contact me? Did something happen with the scientist's thing? Do you need any help? What exactly was he doing?"

"Hold up. I'll tell you right now."

And without even a fraction of a drmatic pause, she went on.

"You see, he was doing something with the Force, and I told you already about those black pyramids he was using against my advice. Well, at the last minute, he accidently added some adenosine triphosphate or whatever into the whole shenanigan, which triggered something I don't even understand and now apparently the Sith have returned."

"What?!"

"Oh yeah, and Zan Arbor is available no longer."

She heard a sigh at the other end.

"So... what do I do, Master Windu?"

"Deki, listen carefully. I need you to track down this new Sith. And I know you'll need help, so I try to send some more Jedi over there, alright?"

"That's fine. Thanks."

"May the Force be with you."

And he cut the connection. Deki glanced at the bird, who cocked its head and looked back, as if asking her "Why are you looking at me?"

~~~~~~

Qui-Gon had been half-asleep when he suddenly heard something from the cockpit. He opened his eyes and nearly got a heart attack when he saw a booger-shaped mud sculpture floating above everyone's head. And it took him a moment to realise that it was just the Neimoidian Viceroy on the viewscreen.

Then, the image, as if it were being electrocuted, warped away and was replaced by blank raster.

Obi-Wan turned and shrugged.

"If all goes well, Padawan, this should settled soon and we'll be on our way back."

"I still have a bad feeling about this," said Qui-Gon, his voice still shaky from a few minutes ago.

"Why don't you instead focus on the mission, Qui. The more concentrated you are, the better it usually turns out. Then there would have been no point in having a bad feeling about anything and I can tease you about it."

"The last few words sound very pleasant."

 

Fun update. Deki and the bird Obi-Wan teasing Qui-Gon works just as well as the other way

Got tickled by Deki's explanation to Mace as to how the Sith returned.

 

Jade_eyes: thank you! I'm glad you liked the update!


Update coming soon...

 

NOTICE!

For reasons unknown, I've decided to shift the story's timeline a little bit. Instead of the incident in the prologue happening SIX years before TPM, or in this case, current time, the incident has been moved up to THREE AND A HALF years before TPM.

Well, OK, just wanted to clear that up. Previous posts have been edited, so... well, hi?

Which means that Deki is turning 18 instead of 20.

 

By the way, a drixfar is a type of instrument.


UPDATE:

Deki was up before the sun even thought of rising.

Three seconds later she and her drixfar was nowhere near the small hovel of the Skywalkers.

Two seconds after that she was in Jabba the Hutt's court.

She took her place with the band, took her the drixfar out of its makeshift case, and awaited the signal to begin playing.

The signal came, and she obeyed.

After twenty-some minutes, she gathered her instrument and her pay, and vanished.

As she returned to the hovel, and sprang onto the balcony from the faraway ground, she turned and glanced slowly at the Padracer Anakin and she had been assembling for a long time.

Jumping down again, she examined it more carefully.


Deki landed silently beside the craft, and scrutinised each square centimetre of it.

Looks like this thing needs some better motivators, for one, and a battery too, at some point. And that circuitry doesn't look right over there.

She looked closer.

I was right. Well, sure don't want Anakin's right engine pulling in the wrong direction and leaving him to split and reprogram the controls in midair.

She reached over and rewired the mistake, with stars lighting her handiwork.

The sun suddenly remembered to flickered into sight, and a not-so-subtle, bright line slashed a horizon line between sky and desert.

Deki looked up, looked down, then whipped around, grabbed her drixfar, and leapt into the street as cuttingly abrupt as the sunrise.

She sprang up to the roof of a small cantina and, as she did every morning, blew hard into the drixfar.

Deki had aways thought this job was amusing. Especially when she had to talk about it. What was she supposed to say? "I wake you up in the morning, and therefore am your rooster?"

Well, I've tried that before.

~~~~~~

Qui-Gon was standing near the unlowered ramp as he waited for the ship to land somewhere. Meanwhile, he mused to himself.

The Trade Federation was made of Neimoidians for what he knew, but that fact in itself didn't add up to what was happening. He had thought Neimoidians weren't exactly a courageous species, much less a forceful one, excet maybe in business. And only then, the bravado doesn't go much further than words, numbers, and more words.

Which, to Qui-Gon, was plenty reason for a bad feeling.

The ship landed, and he followed his Master down the ramp and into a droid-infested swamp of chrome and metal.

~~~~~~

As Nute Gunray watched the Jedi exit the ship over another Neimoidian's shoulder, his thick lips pressed into a mangled line and his eyes narrowed with worry.

"What do we do now?" exclaimed Dofine, an associate, somewhere behind him. "They're Jedi! We're doomed! Mother!"

Nute turned and glared at Dofine briefly before sighing very irritably.

"Send a droid," he muttered to him. "I'll talk to Sidious."

"Are you kidding? We're done for!" Dofine's normally bland face was comical with restless incredulity.

"Send a droid, for star's sake," snapped Nute, turning to walk away as quickly as possible so he won't have to listen Dofine's annoying prayers when the probem is probably a solvable one.

However, even as he walked away, he had to admit that Dofine did have a point. This was indeed a tremendous problem, a dangerous one too.

He sighed to himself. This was why he preferred simple business over force. Who was there to guarantee that when you fight with fire, no one else will? No one. Too much risk.

But it was too late to pull out.

Nute sighed again, audibly, and straightened his robes before sending the Sith Lord a request for contact.

~~~~~~

 

The jump ahead works fine.

It will be more interesting as time goes on to see how differently TPM events play out given the differing personalities of Qui and Obi.