Heritage - a young Qui-Gon story (tie in to JA 3)

Title: Heritage part 1
Author: Marnie
Rating: G
Summary: Qui-Gon, age 13, tries to find a place to belong. Follows my
"Broken" and ties in with JA 3 (in a small way)
Disclaimer: All the Star Wars stuff belongs to George Lucas. I'm not
doing this to raise money, only to raise the dead.
Feedback; PLEASE, to hrafn@btinternet.com
Archive, where-ever you like, but please tell me, so I can link to you.


Heritage part 1 of 4

Sunset stained the high windows. Light striped the dusty air of the
training room; shafts of deep gold, strobed with the deadly, graceful
patterns of the blue blade.

<I>Hmn,</i> Master Yoda cautioned himself as he paused in the doorway,
<i>Enchanted you will not be. Disobedient he is; disrespectful.</i>
Yet still he stopped, just for a moment, to watch.

A rapid flurry of delicate moves, retreating in backstance, posture
perfect, the Force rooting him, rising through him, pouring out into the
blossom of cutting light. <i>Always like sap, a tree, a storm; Like a
star, never...</i> It came through even here - the boy's strangeness.

A flip over the imaginary enemy - Moebus defence as he twisted in the
air - and he came down in immovable stance, hands invisible and
effortless as he built a globe of fire out of his own accurate speed. A
perfect end to a Master's kata.

Not that the whole performance had been flawless, Yoda reminded himself
carefully. The boy's <i>kime</i> was a little over enthusiastic, and he
had a tendency to ...flow, compromising the purity of each move for the
sake of the whole. <i>"Asteroid Storm" he should not even know yet.
Spying on the Masters he has been again.</i>

The boy knew he was being watched. He bowed to his imaginary enemy, put
the training saber back in its rack and padded over, his rough features
softened with a smile. "Master?"

Yoda sighed. <i>Impudence!</i> "That innocent face you will not pull
with me, Qui-Gon Jinn."

How was it that this youth could go through his life breaking every rule
and still raise such a hurt and puzzled look at a simple rebuke?

Long habit brought the boy to his knees at that tone, making it easier
for Yoda to study his face. <i>Worried he looks. Guilty he feels
not.</i> A very common combination. "Qui-Gon Jinn, your birthday it
is."

"Yes I know, Master."

Still puzzled. One of the over-large hands lifted to pull on his
chocolate brown braid.

"Thirteen you are."

A nod, acknowledging, waiting for the sting. The old master began to
wish he had allowed his apprentice to keep the smile. He didn't like
the haunted look which took its place. <i>Always like this it is with
him.</i> He was certain now that young Jinn didn't know what he'd done
wrong. <i>Stupid he is not. Why then can he understand not?</i>

"A solemn date it is. Asked, you were, to review your past and the past
of your Order. Your heritage. Spend the day in study and meditation
you should, accepting, coming to terms with the past, letting go.
Important this is."

"Yes Master."

In a seven-hundred year run of Master Yoda's apprentices, every one had
spent their thirteenth birthday in quiet contemplation. Every one had
emerged from their austere self examination revitalised, committed,
mature. Why should this one be different?

"This morning several hours you spent in the creche, <i>playing</i> and
drinking tea with Supervisor Gafiest."

The boy's mouth twitched slightly. Unrepentant, but unable to commit to
a larger smile for fear of censure. He inclined his head in agreement
and waited for the point to become clear. <i>Making this easy he is
not.</i> "And then?"

Qui-Gon wrapped his arms around himself. The light tunic he wore was
damp
and clung across his shoulders. Skin stood up in bumps along his arms.
Unable to suit his actions to his feelings, Yoda stumped away and
returned with the cloak that had lain crumpled in the doorway. He
draped it over the boy and watched as the warmth eased a tension in the
distant eyes. A shadow in his aura withdrew, sli

 

Don't be discouraged, Marnie, sometimes it takes a while to get a few readers. It's still an excellent story, though.

 

I liked that. The meditation explanation was perfectly in keeping with the character we know and love, the reaction and sentiments of Yoda equally flawless. Very well-done. When can we expect more?

<--knows she is greedy and selfish about stories, but likes some writing too much to be without it for very long.

 

Thanks, Jane! I'm sticking at it! Ps, are you in on 'The Lion sleeps tonight'? I just read 'Lions, tigers, Padawans.." etc. Hilarious!

Heritage part 2


"I don't know how you knew I was going to ask. Master, I'd like
permission to meet my parents."

***

Empathic as he was, the apprentice would not miss Yoda's reaction,
however he chose to mask it, so he allowed himself the luxury of
honesty. Feeling his shoulders slump, ears lower and eyes narrow, he
tracked the boy's answering emotions through the bond. Disappointment
and something darker, unexpected...anguish?

"Unwise this request is." A boy whose emotions were tugged by every
crying child he passed would certainly be unable to maintain Jedi
control when confronted by his family. Suppose they asked him to stay
with them? Almost certainly he would. And if they did not ask, then he
would feel devastated, unwanted. <i>Harm to the Jedi either way it
would cause.</i> Either by losing a boy of outstanding potential, or by
having him returned with yet more emotional scars.

<i>Barely recovered from the last crisis he is,</i> Yoda thought,
ruefully. Only last night he'd woken to find the boy - half asleep - in
the bathroom, trying to scrub away long healed scratches, stains deeper
than his skin. Without careful handling, those unseen marks might still
fester, might still turn him to the Dark. And now he made himself open
to be hurt again. "Why? Why want you this?"

He heard his concern come out sounding like accusation, watched the boy
push away his food, face utterly still, but the haunted look deepening
in his eyes.

"You wanted me to review my heritage." The voice managed to combine
sullen with something deeper - a note of despair. "Aren't they part of
it?"

Despite his quietness, he could be eloquent when he wished. Even when,
as now, his words and hands trembled. "I have a heritage twenty five
thousand years old through the Jedi. But I have another, equally old,
through my blood, and I know nothing about it. Maybe there I can find
the answers I need. Why I don't... Why I can't... Why I don't
<i>belong</i>.

"Foolishness, you talk." So he had noticed it too. Of course, he
would. He was not stupid. "Belong here you do. Nothing you will learn
there but pain."

Protectiveness earthed itself through Yoda, with a strength he had not
felt in decades. He limped forward and prodded the boy's knee with his
stick. "Judged better it was, a long time ago, for the break to be
complete. Jedi wisdom it is. Accept it you should."

Qui-Gon had begun to breathe hard - uncontrolled anger or distress. Now
he threw himself to his feet, movements full of violent energy. Already
he was too tall to fit comfortably into Yoda's chambers. Forced to bend
awkwardly, he slapped the ceiling with a long arm. "I feel like
<i>this</i>, Master. Crushed, bent, constrained! I don't fit. Doesn't
today prove that? I tried my hardest. I really thought about it. I
did what had meaning for me, and <i>I got it wrong</i>!"

The blue eyes were fierce and clear and far seeing - too alert to accept
a half truth even for comfort. "I know you wanted to punish me,
Master. Even when you said I'd done right, you felt I was wrong. I
don't fit. I just want to see if maybe that's because I belong
somewhere else."

So already he was thinking of leaving. Perhaps it would be best just to
let him go. It would be an easy solution to a Force-strong child who
was already tainted.

A pain closed around Yoda's throat. <i>Want it, I do not. Tame him I
still can.</i> And the love made his voice harsh. "Forbid this, I
should. Set a precedent, it would. Dangerous, leading other initiates
into peril; introducing bad influences, harming the Order."

Silence, for a long time, as the boy processed what he'd just heard.
Utterly opaque, behind shields of which a knight could have been proud,
his face had smoothed into emptiness. His master had to guess at what
was going on behind the blank eyes. What was

 

Wow, this is getting better and better!

 

HOW did I miss this? [face_shocked] It's wonderful, Marnie Keep it up!