Before - Legends Origin (Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon)

Loved the intriguing history lesson but attacking Obi-Wan was totally unfortunate and unnecessary and will probably arouse more of his curiosity than if, as the lady said, he'd've been allowed to leave. Makes you think there's more politically going on under the surface

 

Chapter 8: Amnesia

Obi-Wan felt like his head was swimming. Well, frankly, it was not only swimming but the medium it was splashing in resembled the thick green pea soup the refectory's cook sometimes served in his less than inspired moments. Carefully he opened his eyes just a little bit.

"Ow, it hurts," he concluded and hastily closed his eyes again. At least he wasn't swimming in the aforementioned pea soup. The environment had been far too…white.

Wait? What? White? A very bad feeling struck his dizzy senses and his eyes shot wide open. Way too often that white color meant that he was in the healer's wing home in the Temple. One of his least favorable places to stay on the entire planet, well actually in the whole galaxy if he were to be precise. Maybe the pea soup would have been better after all.

The light still hurt his senses so he closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again, more carefully this time. Yes, it definitely was the healer's wing. No doubt about that.

He sat up abruptly and immediately it felt like a sledge hammer hit his head with full force. Not good. With a groan he sank back into the pillow.

"I wouldn't even try that if I were you," a well known voice said calmly from the chair next to him.

"Master?" he croaked, "What am I doing here? What are you doing here, and more important - where is 'here'?"

"'Here' is, as you undoubtedly have noticed by now, the healer's wing at home, you are here because of a concussion and a gash to your head, and I'm here waiting for you to wake up as you've been out cold for about a day now," Qui-Gon explained.

"Oh," Obi-Wan commented meekly. The prospects didn't look too good for an immediate release if he'd been unconscious for a whole day. Carefully he touched his head and felt the huge bandage that was covering the bacta patch.

"What happened to me?" he wanted to know.

Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow: "That is the big question. I was hoping you could tell me? You were too late for our appointment in the guesthouse we had been staying in so I went to look for you. I found you surrounded by a crowd of people in an alley. They had found you there bleeding and unconscious and nobody could really tell what had happened before they found you. You were taken to the Central Healer's Ward and checked, but since they didn't find any fracture they allowed me to take you with me back home as long as I promised you wouldn't leave bed until your concussion had healed."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes. Suddenly his head began to spin again and he felt extremely tired. "I…don't remember, Master." Then he fell asleep.

The next time he woke up his head felt clearer. It was still hurting, but at least he wasn't so dizzy anymore. And he was able to open his eyes without immediately regretting it. That had to be some kind of progress? By the strict look of the healer who stood by his bed, he was not convinced.

"How do you feel, Obi-Wan?" The healer's voice was low and pleasant.

"Like I've been run over by a herd of banthas," Obi-Wan sighed. "Can I go home now?"

"I'm sorry, but we do not let anyone who have been run over by banthas leave right away," the healer explained, "at least you have to wait until you feel like being run over by a herd of kitlings instead of banthas."

Obi-Wan immediately realized his tactic mistake.

"But I feel fine Master Shan, really. I'm just a bit sore," he tried hopefully.

"We all know about your love for this place, Obi-Wan, but no. You will stay in this bed until your concussion have faded away. Do you remember what happened?"

Obi-Wan shook his head. Surely another mistake.

"No, Master Shan, the last thing I remember is that I sat on a bench in a park and ate a bread roll," he explained. "After that it's like my memory is…just a void. I don't remember anything until I woke up here this morning and saw my Master."

In that very moment the door opened and Qui-Gon entered the room.

"Obi-Wan, you're awake!"

"Yes, Master."

"Has he told you what happened to him?" the Jedi Master turned towards the healer.

"No, Master Jinn, I asked him and he tells me he cannot remember."

"Cannot remember?" Qui-Gon asked incredulously, "what do you mean? Has he lost his memories?"

"Obviously, " Healer Shan retorted, "that's not uncommon when it comes to head trauma. He has lost whatever happened to him and likely some of the events leading up to it."

"Will he regain his memory?" Qui-Gon asked, while Obi-Wan listened to the conversation.

"We don't know yet. Sometimes the injured person will gradually regain the memories of what happened, but it may also happen that some minutes of his life will be wiped out forever. He has told me that the last thing he remembered was eating a bread roll in a park. If that is not something you can remember him doing, I assume that is something he's been doing after he left you in the guesthouse but before the accident happened."

"It was," Obi-Wan confirmed,"I walked up the main street and looked at the people and buildings there. Then I went down some of the alleys before I found this vendor selling bread rolls. I was hungry so I bought one and sat down in a park. After that I cannot remember anything."

"Will this affect him in any other ways?" Qui-Gon asked.

"Likely not," the healer said. "His amnesia covers a relatively short timespan and even if that memory is lost forever, it will not impact him in any way in the future, except fully normal musings over what really happened through the lost minutes. If his memory doesn't return he will just have to accept that he will never know what hit him."

"Can you do that?" Qui-Gon asked his apprentice.

"I think so, Master. It's just annoying not knowing. But whatever happened, I'm sure we will not go back to Stewjon again soon, so most likely we will never find out what happened.

"How do you feel? Are you tired, or can you handle another visitor?" Qui-Gon asked.

"A visitor? Who is that?"

"Master Yoda is waiting outside," Qui-Gon explained."You have involuntarily caused some worries, my Padawan."

"Oh…I didn't mean to…yes, of course Master Yoda can visit."

Less than one minute later the old Grand Master hobbled in.

"Awake you are, Obi-Wan. Good to see it is," Master Yoda greeted him, and with astonishing speed he managed to drape himself upon the chair Qui-Gon had been sitting in earlier in the morning.

Obi-Wan cast him a glance. He'd never really managed to see how the master managed to get up so quickly.

The old one chuckled: "Surprised you are, not? When 800 years you reach, maybe some help from the Force would be good for you too? Besides, see you when we speak I will. From floor level only your bed I can see."

"Thank you for visiting," Obi-Wan said politely, not really knowing what would be a good opening remark.

"Worried we were, when news came of what happened to you," Yoda explained, "know do you what happened?"

"No, Master Yoda," Obi-Wan said sincerely, "I cannot remember anything from the moment I was eating a bread roll in the park until I woke up here. Master Qui-Gon has filled in the lacking details of our trip back here, and told me I was taken to a healer's ward at Stewjon, but I cannot remember any of it myself."

For a very small moment the old master seemed almost content with the news, then his face turned back to it's ordinary inscrutable expression again.

"Good it is to see that you are recovering, Obi-Wan. Let you rest now I will. A good night's sleep I hope you will have."

Just as easily as he had approached the chair, the old master jumped down from it. With an amused expression on his face Obi-Wan watched the green Grand Master hobble back the same way he had come some minutes before.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"I have no idea. He probably just wanted to see with his own eyes how you were doing," Qui-Gon said, "sometimes it's just hard to understand his way of speaking."

"And, speaking of which, you should rest now, young one. You've been awake for quite a while now, and you will need to rest much for the first days," he admonished.

"Yes, Master," Obi-Wan said obediently and followed up his statement with a huge yawn. "Sorry about that. Good night, Master."

…

Epilogue

In the council chamber high up in the central spire of the Jedi Temple two men had their own private meeting.

"How is he?" Mace Windu asked. "Does he remember what happened?"

"No memory he has of what happened to him," Master Yoda answered. "Know we will in time if he remembers."

"Does he - or Qui-Gon- suspect anything?"

"Nothing they suspect, but found the boy was near the Museum of Stewjon, so he may or may not have visited the museum. Nothing he remembers from that visit if so."

Mace Windu steepled his fingers in his well known posture: "Let's hope he hasn't been there, or that he won't remember going in there. If he did, he must have seen the statue of King Ker-Wan and he must have seen the resemblance between himself and the King."

"Knowing about the resemblance I do not fear. Long gone is the Royal bloodline of Stewjon. Knowing about the prophecy I fear much more," Yoda said gravely. "First I heard about that prophecy when I visited King Ker-Wan's grandfather as a young Master. Very similar to the jedi prophecy about the chosen one it is. Knew when first I saw the baby on our doorstep that this child was strongly connected with the Force, and the colors of the Kh'enbis he had. If the Kh'enbi prophecy and the jedi prophecy are the same, great burdens will be laid upon Obi-Wan's shoulders in the future. Until then, know about it he must not. Too heavy they may be if he must carry them even before they occur. If young Obi-Wan is the last of the Kh'enbi line he may also be the chosen one, if those prophecies in reality are the same. Wait and learn he shall, if carry this burden he must."

"So, we will continue as before then?" Mace said, "And do our best to ensure that neither Qui-Gon nor Obi-Wan take an interest in the 'chosen one' prophecy?"

The old Master nodded gravely.

"Know about this, they should not."

Spoiler: Comments about the story

OK, what happened here? You've just read a one-shot which began to have a life of it's own. The intention was to give Obi a background but as I wrote the story developed. I have always scratched my head over the original 'Chosen One' story, and never really managed to see Anakin as the chosen one. Well, he's picked up on Tatooine by a stubborn jedi master, but further along the line he doesn't really behave very 'chosenly'. From being a furtive teenager he falls head over heels in love and eventually turn dark. After 19 years he kills his mentor and 2 years down the line he throw the Emperor/Sith into a shaft. Prophecy fulfilled.

That's not the stuff a prophecy should be made of. I've always found that Obi-Wan's destiny seems more like one that would be found in a prophecy. He is raised by an untraditional Master and during the events leading to his Master's death he kills the first Sith observed in a millennium. Already there one can spot something out of the extraordinary. Years later he unintentionally causes a full galactic war by being captured at Geonosis. Now, that is surely keeping the Force out of balance, isn't it? Then again, he has to fight his own apprentice who has turned dark and flee into hiding. Still with a purpose though, namely wathcing over the one who will be able to restore the balance if he gets the proper training - which Obi-Wan is the only one left to give. In every step of this way, Obi-Wan is a major catalyst, and that is what makes him a more credible chosen one to me.

Still, I didn't want to break totally with canon concept, so on purpose I leave the question hanging in mid air. At this point neither Yoda nor Mace knows, they only suspect. For those who followed the story to the very end, I hope you enjoyed the journey, even though the final answer evaporated.

 

Very intriguing theory about prophecies And air of mystery about what really happened and the details of what might have been learned/surmised on Stewjon.

 

Great ending of your very entertaining story

 

Me likey.