Before - Legends Arrival

Title: Arrival
Author(s): CaraJinn
Timeframe: Before- Legends
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ali-Alann, OC
Genre: Drama
Summary: In the early morning hours a nearly newborn child was found outside the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The arrival caused a certain amount of confusion, but the Jedi soon learned to know little Obi-Wan. Oneshot.

Author's note: As I was writing another story about young Obi-Wan I wanted to add some details of how he came to the Temple. However, there was no way I managed to make it fit in with the original story so I decided to make a separate one shot instead. I was uncertain if I should place this as Before Saga or Before Legends, but as it is slightly AU I chose the latter.

....

Arrival

The morning sun was spreading it's first warm rays over the plateau in front of the Jedi Temple's entrance. The rays hit a small bundle wrapped in green cloth and were greeted by a very tiny and waving fist that fought it's way out of the cloth. A low whimper came from within the bundle. The inhabitant really wasn't too happy with the conditions, but the sunlight felt warm and soothing and bright, and bright was definitely much better than the darkness of the night.

"What was that sound?"Jedi Knight Almera Ca'ann wondered. He had spent the last four hours before sunrise guarding the Temple's entrance together with his fellow jedi Thak Ilder. The guard was more symbolic than really a necessity and mostly totally, utterly boring.

"What?" Thak, answered confused, "Which sound?"

"The…what in all the stars' and suns' names is that???"

Almera's eyes fell on the green bundle and in five long strides he reached it, and knelt down beside it. Two admittedly narrow, but surprisingly clear, blue eyes gazed expectantly up towards him, and a small mouth opened in a huge yawn.

"A child? How did it, I mean he…or she….end up there? Did you see anything Thak?"

"No? A child? How can that be? We've been here for almost four hours now and we haven't seen anyone, or anything for that matter. Let's bring it to the Healers' Wing, Force alone knows how long it's been here."

"I'll take it indoors," Almera decided, "and you stay here until morning guard turns up. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Thak nodded in agreement. The human baby in the green blanket didn't seem to be more than a few day's old, and it was probably both cold and hungry by now.

…

Healer Khalder Shan had just finished his check of the reports from the night shift when Almera Ca'ann entered the Healers' Wing. The young Knight was usually a calm and sedate being but this morning his strides were unusually energetic.

"Knight Ca'ann, how can I help you?" Shan asked politely.

"We found this baby in front of the Temple," Almera explained, "please give him a check. We have no idea of how long he's been laying there."

"What?" Shan asked incredulously, "aren't you supposed to guard the entrance, not sleep on duty?"

"We didn't. Neither Ilder nor myself noticed it before the sun rose."

"Give him…her…whatever to me," Shan ordered, "and don't call it 'it'."

"But I don't know if it's a boy or a girl. We didn't want to open the blanket outside. It's still a bit chilly."

"Makes sense. Now, off you go. I will notice Master Yoda about the child. He will probably know what we're going to do next."

With careful hands Healer Shan lifted up the baby and brought it into one of the separate examination rooms in the Healers' Wing, and laid it down on an examination bench. Carefully he unwrapped the baby from the blanket. The child was totally naked with the exception of a pair of rather wet diapers. Yep, definitely a boy. A modest one, by the sound of it. The low whimper that had come from the child as he was brought to the healers intensified gradually. He didn't break out into utter wailing, but he was definitely not comfortable. A thorough examination of the little body did not have a soothing effect, nor did a cleaning and dry diapers. The whimper persisted.

"You're probably hungry?" Shan mused, and called for a padawan to make a bottle of milk substitute ready for the little one, while he once more wrapped the child into the soft green blanket. A small flimsi note fell to the floor and Shan picked it up. Just one word was written on it: "Obi-Wan".

"This is getting more weird by the minute," he concluded and with the child safely tucked in the crook of his arm he went to find a comm and inform Master Yoda about the newcomer.

"A child, you say? On our doorstep?" Master Yoda's voice crackled through the comm.

"Yes," Master Shan confirmed calmly, "as you probably can hear the little one is here with me now, and with your permission I will leave him with Master Ali-Alann until we can sort out who he is and where his parents are."

"See his parents nobody did? To lose a child so close to the Temple, unusual it is."

"Yes Master, but Knight Ca'ann clearly said that neither he nor Knight Ilder had seen anyone placing the child there. I cannot explain it."

"Ask Master Ali-Alann to be his caretaker, until investigations have been made. Throw him out, we cannot."

"Yes, Master Yoda."

The next call was made to the creche where Master Ali-Alann resided.

"Master, I have one more child for you here, " Shan informed his friend and colleague.

"What? I haven't heard of anyone going to check on potential force sensitive children for at least a month. Who brought this child in?"

"I have no idea, actually. But we need to take care of him until we find out more. Will you come down to get him, or shall I bring him to you?"

A sigh found it's way through the comm.

"If you could bring him here it would be good. We're in the middle of first meal and I don't want to clean the entire area afterwards, which may very well be the result if I leave the initiates now. They tend to end in food fights if they're not…hm…under some supervision."

A low chuckle came from Master Shan. Being a healer certainly had some advantages. At least his patients weren't prone to starting food fights.

"Padawan, please take care of the reception area and call Healer Saithel if something urgent comes up. I'll be away for a couple of minutes since I'll take the little one to the creche," and with that he left for the exit of the Healers' Wing.

As soon as they had left the area the intense whimpers from the baby calmed down and were replaced by a somewhat more content gurgling.

Shan raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"By the Force, it seems like you can compete with Master Jinn when it comes to dislike of the Healers' Wing. He's usually complaining just as much when he's in here. A good thing he's in the outer rim now. Two of you would really strain my self confidence."

He was rewarded by a sparkling toothless grin. Maybe the boy had a minor bellyache after the milk substitute?

Ali-Alan met him by the entrance to the creche, his attention split between the newcomer and the first meal table, hoping fervently that the milk this time would ether stay in the cups or end up in the initates' stomachs, and not on the floor.

"Here's little Obi-Wan," Shan explained,"he was found by the entrance this morning. None of the guards had seen anyone laying him there, so we may have a hard time finding his parents. I have informed Master Yoda, so I expect you to have one more visitor soon."

As Master Ali-Alann took the little bundle in his arms, the assumption proved to be true as they heard the unmistaken sound of Master Yoda's gimer stick clicking towards the floor tiles.

"Thanks, Master Shan, I'll take care of him. Obi-Wan that is, not Master Yoda," he added with a mischievous grin. "By the way, why 'Obi-Wan'? It's an unusual name."

"It surely is. I found a note inside the blanket. I assume his parents wanted to inform us about his name."

And with that he returned to the Healers' Wing.

Ali-Alann looked down at the child in his arms. It was a small human boy, with fair skin and blue-green eyes. He could spot a hint of red in the dark baby hair and assumed that in some years the boy would be fairly red-headed. It seemed to be a calm baby and his eyes met Ali-Alann's with a focus and interest that was unusual for such a small child. Carefully he stretched out with the Force to get an impression of the baby's personality and was once again astonished. The force presence of the child was very clear, calm and…bright. It was like an internal lantern shone calmly inside the small body.

"Meeting our new charge you have," Master Yoda's voice came from near the floor. The old Master had patiently awaited Ali-Alann's tentative probing of the child's mental condition.

"Yes, Master,"Ali Alann managed to bow while still holding on to Obi-Wan. "He seems to be a calm little boy, and it would surprise me if he's not force sensitive enough to be granted to stay in the Temple if we cannot find his parents."

"Let me see the little one."

Ali-Alann knelt down so that the baby came into Yoda's vision. The old master stretched out a clawed hand and held it over the child, who peeked curiously up at this strange green creature.

Slowly five tiny, human fingers curled around one of the ancient Master's clawlike fingers. Again something that seemed suspiciously like a smile appeared in the small face.

Yoda closed his eyes, and let his 839 years old force presence gather around the little human: "Hmmmm, quite strong he seems to be in the Force, this one, but more interesting is the clarity of his force presence. Such brightness I have never felt before in any being, most interesting it is.Usually a mixture of dark and light they are at such young age."

Ali-Alann just nodded, he had noticed the same brightness himself. This child was remarkable. It did not seem to be incredible strong in the Force per se, but there was this calmness and gentleness radiating from the little person, mixed with a streak of…stubbornness. This child would never turn to the dark side, but any darksider who wanted to confront this child would be in for a tough fight.

He chuckled silently, obviously his imagination was running away with him for a moment.

"Keep him in your care, you may, Master Ali-Alann," Master Yoda interrupted, "discuss this in the council we must and send out knights to search for the parents we will do immediately."

"Yes, of course, Master Yoda, he will be safe here with us," Ali-Alann confirmed.

…

The High Council of the Jedi Order was just as puzzled as everybody else when the news about the child appearing practically on their doorstep was broken. They quickly agreed upon sending knights out to search in Coruscant's mid-levels. The blanket the boy had been wrapped in indicated that he came from a fairly well situated family, so they decided to stay away from the lower levels, at least in beginning of their search.

They found nothing, or rather nobody.

Meanwhile the rumors were running freely in the Temple.

"Have you heard about the child?"

"Who are his parents?"

"Someone laid him on our doorstep? Could it be that his father is Jedi?"

"I bet Jinn is the father. It has to be a human, and he is rogue enough to have had an escapade."

"Yeah, but it could also be Dooku or maybe Sifo-Dyas. At least we know it cannot be Master Yoda's, - the baby is not green." The latter comment lead to a small chuckle between the two discussing the incident.

Two weeks passed by and the rumors slowly died, and soon the child on the doorstep was hardly ever mentioned in the Temple's halls.

In the creche said child was not forgotten. He had been given a suitable crib and equipped with the standard jedi clothing for babies, and the green blanket he had been wrapped in was cleaned and put to rest in Master Ali-Alann's private quarters. Somehow he felt that it could come to use someday and that the child might want to have it.

The tests run by Master Shan's people on the laboratory confirmed his and Ali-Alann's suspicions. The boy was force sensitive indeed. His midichlorian count came out with just above 14 000, a fairly high count which definitely qualified him for jedi training, in case his parents were not found or in case they chose to let him grow up in the custody of the Order.

The search for his parents continued. In addition to the search the Jedi Knights performed, the Coruscant Police Department helped out searching. Nobody were able to identify the child's parents.

Despite the police's efforts nobody linked the child's appearance to the discovery of the body of a dead man found in a staircase in the lower levels of Coruscant, far away from the Temple. Three month's after his first appearance at the Temple Obi-Wan officially became a Jedi initiate. Masters Yoda and Jocasta Nu were representing the Jedi Council in court when the Jedi Order was granted custody of the child. The thorough questioning of both jedi and police representatives made the court certain that there had been carried out satisfactory attempts on finding the parents and finally the Court concluded that as being force sensitive seemingly without any blood relatives the child could be left in the Jedi Order's care.

….

"A name the child need to have," Master Yoda sighed, after reporting the court's decision to the Council.

"He has one, he's called Obi-Wan," Master Rancisis objected, "why don't we let him keep the name? We're getting used to it and clearly that was something his parents wanted him to be named."

"Know that I do, but a family name he must have too," Yoda stated.

A silence fell over the Council. Master Yoda was right. The child would need a family name too, and preferably not one that would lead anyone's thoughts to some particular jedi knight or -master. Master Jocasta Nu was the one to solve the question.

"Masters," she intoned, "what about giving him the name Kenobi? It is a very common name among humans on Coruscant and also quite often used among other humans in the galaxy. It may come in handy some day. Besides, I checked the archives and there is no living jedi in this Temple as per today who is the bearer of that name, and regarding the rumors that have been circulating for a while I think we should avoid linking him to any jedi present in the Temple even if it only were by surname."

And with that the matter was solved. Obi-Wan Kenobi was enrolled in the Jedi Order's archive system and Master Ali-Alann was given the task of being his primary caretaker. Obi-Wan settled in nicely, apparently he was as calm and collected as one could expect from an infant. Every now and then he could wake from his sleep wailing hysterically and only Ali-Alann's calm voice ensuring him that it was only a bad dream seemed to soothe him on these rare occasions, but apart from these incidents he slept the whole night through.

His entire little being seemed to be inclined to the light. Whenever a sun ray was near or hit him the little face cracked in amused giggles and his small hands seemed to try to catch the light, and if he was left in his cradle or on a sleeping mat when such things happened he would be almost hypnotized by the movement of the sunlight as the time passed by.


The only dark clouds through his first months in the creche was the regular visits to the Healers' Wing. Healer Shan's predictions appeared to be true. The little one seemed to despise the place endlessly and as soon he came through the door happy giggling or quiet contemplation was replaced by an insisting whimper or even high wails when he was presented to the Jedi's quite comprehensive vaccination program. However, as soon as they left the healers the wailing stopped and Obi-Wan returned to be his usual calm an happy self.

 

Great prequel/prelude to "Origin"

 

A great back story for Obi-Wan.

 

The green blanket and the blue eyes confirmed it for me...

Beautifully done!

 

"No? A child? How can that be? We've been here for almost four hours now

Sleeping on the job, are they? It helps if you're not snoring.


"Give him…her…whatever to me," Shan ordered, "and don't call it 'it'."

Oh, but you can call it 'whatever'? That's not very nice.


"Yes Master, but Knight Ca'ann clearly said that neither he nor Knight Ilder had seen anyone placing the child there.

Sleep, they did. Good, it is not. For punishment, my favorite stew, I will feed them, yes?


"I bet Jinn is the father.

Qui-Gon has an... interesting reputation, lol.

Good origin story for Obi-Wan.

 

@Vek Talis - you're toppers with Yoda-speak.

 

Good snoring would have been. Awake they'd have stayed if so.