Saga NEW POST 12/4 ENCOURAGED TO LOVE--A Post-TPM AU

Since I'm about to wrap up Then Comes the Night and this idea struck me really hard today, I had to put it up.

Summary: What happens when you're forced to find yourself in forgiveness. An Alternate Universe two years after the events of The Phantom Menace. Principle characters are Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, with Anakin Skywalker in a supporting role.

Warning: This is my first qui-obi fic, but I think you'll like it.

 

The Council had asked him here alone, in the heat of the midday when Anakin was at classes and his patience had not yet worn thin. Normally, he would not be apprehensive regarding the mandates of the Council, but to say that the fact that he was asked to leave his Padawan behind caused some degree of distress was the understatement of the eon.

Life as the Master of the Chosen One was rarely simple and often maddening. It was difficult enough to enter each day not knowing the boy's powers, only his rumored potential to flippantly save the universe. Anakin harbored immense potential, but he chose too often to ignore that. The bond of apprenticeship had been forged too lightly at first and the discipline of the Order had been instilled far later than it should have been.

Balancing these factors would have been difficult in any situation, but the fact that he had taken Anakin under protest did not help matters at all.

Twelve years had been spent at the side of Master Qui-Gon Jinn, learning and teaching, fighting and struggling against weak instincts, and trying to discern the difference between following the will of the Force and following the promptings of a thick head. Yet he had loved his Master beyond the bonds of what a family should have been and in a generator room on the now-famous world of Naboo, that love had been put to the test.

Twelve years had been spent at his Master's side and yet, as his Master lay dying, his only words were of the boy. He ignored their bond and instead staked his last request on a boy they hardly knew and that the Council had rejected. In the impulse of frantic love and heartbroken devotion, Obi-Wan had sworn to train the boy.

But Qui-Gon had not become one with the Force that day. While he languished in bacta, Obi-Wan was privately Knighted and given charge over young Skywalker at his own request and with the Council's reticent blessings. By the time Qui-Gon was released from the medical center at Naboo, they had been assigned on their first mission.

The first week had been nightmarish, a mixture of haphazard bonding sessions through meditation, arguments over the smallest details of everyday life, and the wearying task of managing the delicate negotiations on Ord Trasi. There had been times when Obi-Wan had lay awake at night, hearing the boy's quiet sobs against the pillow and despairing of lasting another day.

But in the next week, they had found their balance and begun to forge the strands of a relationship more appropriate to the Master/Padawan link.

They had returned to Coruscant ready to tackle anything while Qui-Gon had been away on a mission with his new partner. And the tradition of silence had begun.

Many tales had been told of that day on Naboo, of their heroic struggle against the first Sith to emerge in a millenium and Obi-Wan's daring maneuvers that had saved his Master's life. Both Padawan and Master quickly tired of the exaggerated and glorified sagas that were whispered as they passed, even if Anakin's childlike pride in his Master lingered on.

But despite the pride and the strengthening of the relationship, Anakin was still impetuous, headstrong, and independent. The Council had expected a prodigy and had found something of an anomaly instead.

They expected anything less of one of Qui-Gon's acquisitions?

"Master Kenobi?"

His head came up and his unfocused eyes came to rest on the slight figure of the Council aide, standing to the side of the entrance.

"They're ready for you."

He sucked in a calming breath as his hands smoothed a stubborn wrinkle from his outer robe and he pushed to his feet, following her into the silent chamber.

A Jedi rarely stood alone before the Council, always held accountable by those who surrounded him, but this was a matter that they had clearly deemed to be his responsibility alone.

Master Windu, surprisingly enough, was the first to speak, no reprimand in his tone.

"You are wondering why we have asked you here," he observed.

Obi-Wan nodded slightly. "I presumed that i

 

Wow

I think you nailed how Obiwan would have felt had the movie been different.

Excellent post. I hope to see more of this.

 

yay! Thanks for reading this, crystal!

 

Ish,

This looks marvelous. A great twist on an old premise. I'm already looking forward to more.

Cheers,

Shaindl

 

Looking forward to see how this story develops.

 

MORE!!!!!!!!

 

His dreams were no longer premonitions of the future, only very focused specters of the past. Most often, they were memories of Obi-Wan. He would remember, not the acrimonious heat of battle or the disastrous results of some missions, but the small joys in everyday moments.

He would see the overconfident grin of a victor the day Obi-Wan had finally bested him in a saber duel, then the fleeting horror that came just before the Master's leg swept through his knees, sending his young Padawan onto his back next to his Master in a fit of rueful laughter.

He saw the relieved embrace they had shared after a bloody night when ambush had separated them and the Force had yielded few answers, when they had lived from moment to moment, hoping the other would appear out of the shadows to assure them that they were both going to survive this fiasco.

He saw a dozen birthdays, as many yearly evaluations, even more half-friendly, half-vindictive challenges between the two of them.

He mostly saw the reluctant bond that deepened into an playfully affectionate collaboration of two strong wills.

And then he saw it come crashing down in a moment of compassion that Obi-Wan thought was always misplaced.

Obi-Wan's solemn subservience dissolved into something like bemused disgust at the merest mention of 'unfinished business.' "Why do I have the feeling we've picked up another pathetic lifeform?"

That image dissolved into the familiar surroundings of the Council chamber, an even more familiar memory.

"The Force," Ki-Adi-Mundi admitted, "is strong with him."

It was too little to inform, too much to ignore, especially coming from such a reserved master, but he did not dare to hope, only sought to understand.

"He's to be trained, then."

It was a statement, not a question, an implied understanding. Surely the Council had seen the boy's unparalleled potential, the undeniable balance of the Force's strengths that life in the Temple seemed to dampen and even prohibit.

Surely, they knew what he could only express in the inadequate words "The Chosen One."

But the looks they were exchanging were making him nervous.

Mace, always the pragmatic one, was the only one who dared to speak. "No," he denied calmly, as though swatting a tsu-fly, rather than destroying a life. "He will not be trained."

He could see the glimmer in Anakin's eyes at the angle they were standing and was tempted with his own emotions, but the overriding sentiment was incredulity.

"NO??!!"

He did not miss the patient weariness of the Council, nor the triumphant, maddening smirk of the Padawan who invariably knew too well what the Council was thinking.

He hated it when both of them thought alike, since Obi-Wan, for all his strengths, understood little of the Force's guidance beyond what it could tell him in concise sentences. He did not respect the nuances that drove his master to follow his heart's feelings rather than the Council's mandates.

"He is too old," came the age-old excuse.

//You do not understand, have never understood.//

"He is the chosen one," he said with unnecessary emphasis, as though losing patience with a stubborn initiate. "You must see it."

"Clouded, this boy's future is," Yoda interjected. "Masked by his youth."

Finally, a straight answer, not the traditional comments and brief dismissals. The beginning of reasons for the Council's decision.

And it spawned an abrupt realization of what had to happen here, no matter what the Council would think. Striding forward, he placed his hands on Anakin's shoulders, gaze fixed on Master Yoda. There would be no mistaking his intentions or his reasons.

"I will train him, then," he stated. "I take Anakin as my Padawan learner."

He had passed beyond the point where he could see Obi-Wan's face, but what the Force told him was not good. It was the sense of betrayed trust, of losing all hope that he had instilled once and hoped never to sense again because it had nearly destroyed them both.

But there was no other choice.
*****
Qui-

 

Wow

The you did an excellent job in describing QG's feelings. The interaction between QG and Obi-wan was well done. You tell that there was still some tension between the two even after all this time. But it looks like maybe Obi-wan wants to try to make things better.

 

Excellent flashback in the beginning.

But I hope Qui-Gon gets better?will he wield his lightsaber in the story?

"Like his master and spiritual grandfather," Qui-Gon said triumphantly. "There is hope for him yet."?ah..interesting?.do you mean The Force?

 

Sorry, should have clarified that. When I was a missionary, we would have trainers for the firt 6-12 weeks who would help us learn the ropes, the language, etc. We called them our Moms and had a whole family tree worked out based on this. So, if we were referring to the trainer's trainer, we said "Our spiritual grandmother". I meant that in the sense that Qui-Gon is Anakin's Master's Master. And the Force is his father, not his grandfather.

 

Understood