Before - Legends Hollow Bells (Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, etc. / Mystery, Action, AU) UPDATE 10/19: Chapter 1.0

Hollow Bells

Title: Hollow Bells
Author: CherryLightsaber
Timeframe: 7 years pre-TPM
Characters: Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, etc.
Genre: Mystery/Action
Keywords: death, sects
Summary: Qui-Gon faces a trial of the soul as he tries to unravel the mysterious intentions of a shadowy organization.

Star Wars belongs to the one with hair and a beard... and no, I do not have a beard.

Welcome! This little fic was semi-inspired by a plot bunny from LadyMacBeth. I laid out a plot based on it, then I tweaked it so it would make more sense. By the time I was done, only the characters and settings remained the same.

Enjoy!

---

Prologue

Thereneia DeGamarde. She was only seven years old, but she knew of her future and what would come for her. She would become crowned as Queen of Maduris. She would rule. She would be married. She would have one child. She would die. The child would succeed her.

All of this time, she knew that her parents would be there for her, to love her, support her, and guide her through thick and thin. The King and Queen and their little Princess. She thought it would be like that forever.

Until yesterday morning.

Thereneia woke up to find her personal aide, Gainus Holkaan, at her beside. She sat up, pushing away her white and gold bedsheets. He seemed grim.

"Princess... I-I'm so sorry to tell you this... but... your parents.... they have been murdered."

She learned of it so suddenly. She was like those characters in those cliché holodramas where the main character is an orphan who had to cope with living alone and without parents. Thereneia hated those holodramas.

"What?"

"Your parents, King and Queen DeGamarde, are dead. In an event like that, once you become 18 years of age, you will assume the throne. In the meantime, Minister Hillgris will act as ruler."

Alone. Alone in the world, without anyone to care for her with the love of a parent. She wanted to cry. But the tears wouldn't come.

They just wouldn't.

---

11 years later...

"Queen DeGamarde, your Jedi protectors have arrived."

"Thank you, Jeirden." Thereneia pressed a button on the armrest of her elaborate golden throne. The automated ivory door slid open. "Master Jinn."

---

Well, how was it?

 

Oooh an interesting beginning You've got my attention I look forward to reading more on this one

 

Very Intriguing.

I look forward to more

 

Awesome work! Intriguing start and I can't wait for more!

 

Thanks, everyone, for being gentle in my first Qui-Gon fic.

---

Chapter One

Thereneia walked down the hallway with a single Jedi. The apprentice. The master, Qui-Gon Jinn, had left the palace to begin the investigation that had been delayed for eleven years.

"So, Obi-Wan, is it?" she asked. "It sounds... cute."

Obi-Wan shifted his gaze to the floor with a faint smile. "You should see the numerous names some of my fellow apprentices called me when I was younger. Oafy-Wan..."

The Queen giggled as she opened the door to the dining room. "Want some breakfast? A Jedi needs his ener-" She stopped in midsentence as Obi-Wan almost tripped on the threshold. "Oafy-Wan indeed," she chuckled.

They sat at the middle of the table, and a caterer served a platter of breakfast pastries and two glasses of juice.

"So, what's it like? Being a Jedi apprentice and all."

The two conversed over breakfast, exchanging small stories and remarking about each other's lives.

---

It must be done.

The future must be changed.

We must do this, for the sake of our goals.

Proceed with the first operation.

Whom shall we send?

I have a suggestion...

Excellent. We will dispatch him.

Now.

---

"These are the bodies of King and Queen DeGamarde. It appears that they were killed in their sleep," the guard captain said. "There are nothing but a few burn marks on their chests and heads."

Qui-Gon studied the bodies that lay on durasteel tables, examining each burn mark. "Those burn marks must have been left by a blaster. There's almost no other weapon that can create those. Whoever murdered the King and Queen did not want to be found."

"Quite correct, Master Jinn. But there is one thing the assassin might have overlooked as he left their room." The captain gestured to a piece of marble with a faint footprint on it. "This was from their Majesties' chambers. Either a deliberately set false clue or a genuine lead. We matched the footprint a JockrasII elitist boot, the type only sold to high-ranking officials and to the Jedi."

"That narrows our search." But it still wasn't enough. There were thousands of officials in businesses and government, spanning over most of the galaxy.

---

"I've just realized," Thereneia said as she took the last bite of her pastry. "We're more alike than people think. We have expectations, higher than we like, we have more responsibilities than even some older, more experienced people, and... we live without parents."

"Master Jinn is enough of a father figure," Obi-Wan replied.

"As is Jeirden to me. But it's not the same. They have this unconditional love, that an assistant and a Jedi Master could never have. Now, time to get ready for the meeting with the King of Naboo." At the corner of her eye, she saw a silhouette moving behind the great windows, but paid no mind to it.

---

Who were those voices speaking? How do they know about the events of the future? What do they want to change?

 

A good and interesting start! I'll be looking forward to more posts on this one!