Should as Strangers we Meet--continuing JA story

Umm...hi guys. First let me say how sorry I am for neglecting this thread and all of you. Saying I had writer's block would be the understatement of the year.

Anyways I have a post, though can't guarantee its quality or freshness.

Above all, thanks for sticking with me.

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By morning, after hours spent in deep, contemplative meditation, Xanatos felt refreshed and confident. The Dark Force prickled tightly against his pale skin, a portent of some great defining moment on the horizon, looming ever closer. All he need do was stand fast, ready to make the most of the opportunity when it presented itself.

The ship was only hours away fromm Dolari Tunz, the planet on which young Kenobi had told him the Jedi Master needed his help with repairs of a transport.

Xanatos knew it was here that he would find the device that enabled the alternate Qui-Gon Jinn to travel to this dimension.

Repairs indeed!

As of yet he was unsure what role Obi-Wan played in the Jedi's plans but as he made his way to the med lab, he was certain that all his questions were about to be answered.

"Wake him." Xanatos commanded, as he passed through the doorway, his cape fluttering soundlessly to his side.

Instantly the med tech set about removing the electrodes attached to the Jedi, unceremoniously ripping the adhesive patches from bare skin.

Bizarre images and distortions still plagued Qui-Gon.

The misson to Aurora Li, mediation of a land dispute between two of the planet's ruling families.

The destruction of the Great Domed Hall were the conferences took place. The rescue efforts. Sifting through rubble for survivors or those less fortunate. The final blast that brought the transparisteel lattice work of the dome itself crashing down on he and his apprentice.

Being trapped, pinned down under a jumble of girders as fire raged around him. The flames lapping at his boots, unfelt as it consumed his clothes, chared his flesh, burning legs deadened by a broken back.

Struggling in vain, all the while being incinerated alive... then darkness... and nothing.

A voice calling... calling a name... his name.

Difficult to concentrate, his thoughts breaking up even as they formed. His mind overwrought, his body abused.

"Qui-Gon..."

The voice. His name.

Listen...focus, he told himself, fighting through the dense haze that pervailed.

"Qui-Gon." This time more sharply, demanding attention.

Dragging his consciousness out of the fog, he anchored his mind to the sound of the voice.

"Answer me Qui-Gon!"

"Padawan." he heard himself answer.

Xanatos called the large man's name repeatedly, endeavoring to arouse him from the drug-induced stupor. Finally after a number attempts, the Jedi seemed to react to the verbal stimuli, responding with a slurred, thich-tongued 'pa da wa'.

Turning toward the sound of the voice, Qui-Gon's world swam behind closed lids, waves of nausea and dizziness threatening to undermind his already tenuous grip on consciousness.

Observing the man's gradual return, Xanatos pulled the chair to the end of the cart, taking position directly behind the large man's head.

"Master?" the dark lord whispered, bending close to the Jedi'a ear.

Upon hearing that word Qui-Gon instinctively reached out with his mind to connect to the one person he automatically assumed it to be.

"Ob-Wan.." he muttered, floundering at his attempt to center himself, lost to the Force and too weak and disoriented to comprehend his circumstances.

Xanatos startled at the degree of affection and conviction Qui-Gon had projected on the utterance of that one name.

Confident that his information on Kenobi was accurate, he was intrigued by the possiblities this air of extreme familiarity intimated at. It was obvious the former initiate's presence was more than circumstantial.

Closing his eyes, gathering the strength of the Dark Force, Xanatos leaned heavily on the Jedi Master's mind.

Qui-Gon Jinn's reaction was immediate, though entirely ineffect

 

Got a small post. I'm on vacation this week with not much going on. Unfortunately I do most of my writing at work, (wouldn't they be pleased?), so it's not much.
One happy note is I'm taking my daughter, YSA, to Chicago for a comic book convention this weekend. She'll get to fulfill a dream (hopefully) and meet Ray Park. I only hope his fiancee isn't there, I'd hate to say the terrible things my daughter has voiced wanting to do to the poor woman. You think Obi-torture is bad. The girl is obsessed.

Don't know where that came from. (heh,heh)

Ok, enough of that, on with the story,

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"What so you think he'll do with us?" Danni asked, skeptically partaking of the morning meal provided by their 'host'.

Pausing between mouthfuls, Obi-Wan looked up from the plate he had piled high, an expression of irritability creasing his brow.

"You make it sound like we're his prisoners." Obi-Wan observed with annoyance.

"I don't recall being locked in a room an excepted practice of common courtesy." she answered, matching his derisive tone.

"Danni" Obi-Wan gestured, fork in hand, "Lord Talhn explained his need of security. What did you want to do...go snooping around the ship in the middle of the night?"

"Of course not!" She replied, emphatically, looking down guiltily.

That was exactly what she wanted to do. Obi-Wan may have taken this Xanatos at his word but she didn't trust the man or his explanations. She knew if given half a chance she could find something that would prove to her mate that her distrust was justified.

"Just what is it that you have against the man?" Obi-Wan quirked a smile, attempting to lighten the serious tone of the discussion.

Danni bristled at his change of tactic. Whenever he was of the mind that his reasoning was more accurate, he began to question to her as if instructing a child. Using his superior training and experience he managed to make her feel as if her senses were not as valid as his own.

Sure, he may have been a Jedi at one time but that didn't make him always right.

"I could ask the same of you and the Jedi." she snapped acerbically, hitting his sore spot.

The wounded look on his face was more then enough to make her regret her affront to his pride. The last thing they needed was to get into that old arguement.

Though he denied any resentment to the Jedi order, at times it was painfully obvious thta Obi-Wan still harbored some lingering bitterness at being overlooked for apprenticeship. She had seen the rather caustic way he dealt with Master Jinn, nor was the way he all too readily believe the incredible accustions of the Telosian lord lost on her.

It was as if he was receiving some sort of satisfaction from the Jedi's dishonor.

"What is that supposeto mean?" he leveled at her, setting the untensil down with an audible *clank*.

Damn, she thought, forgetting that the bond they shared left little privacy, even to one's own thoughts.

"Obi" she began, choosing her words arefully. "It's just that we don't know anything about this Lord Talhn..."

"And we know so much about Jinn? Danni, I was there when word of Qui-Gon reached the Temple. Everything Lord Talhn said makes perfect sense. How else would you explain the sudden appearance of a man officially declared dead by the Jedi Council?"

Not wanting the discussion to escalate into a full-blown arguement, Danni carefully shielded her mind.

"Things may not always be as they appear." she recited a well-used phrase of his. "Who is it that's always spouting that particualr adage?"

Obi-Wan sat back, peerinf at her thoughtfully. A soft brush against her mind reveal the reinforced walls and his eyes creased disapprovingly.

"Obi, I don't understand why you can't see that that man means us no good? We should find the Jedi and find a way out of here." Danni entreated.

Obi-Wan's face pinched at the suggestion. "Did it ever occur to you that your insistant defense of Jinn is the result of a Jedi mind trick, something that I can attest t