What from heaven

Obi-Wan emerged from his meditation to find his master packing their heavier, cold-weather cloaks into a small travel bag. Qui-Gon's movements were oddly jerky and his eyebrows were knit as if he were upset.

Obi-Wan stood, and set his meditation pillow atop his master's own. "Another mission?" he asked cautiously, worried by the older Jedi's disconcerting behavior.

Qui-Gon's expression was thin-lipped and pained as he doubled Obi-Wan's light brown robe into smaller and smaller halves. "A Jedi was killed on Kaladine, his apprentice is being held captive there by a rebel group."

"What?" Obi-Wan demanded, aghast, "who!"

Qui-Gon paused in his distressed motion, "Anbacco, the Wookiee Master who served on the council for two years."

"And the apprentice?"

Qui-Gon put Obi-Wan's folded robe into a coarse drawstring bag, and looked gravely at his apprentice. "Haleh Liss."

Obi-Wan's face fell, "The dueling tutor?"

"Yes." Qui-Gon pulled the cord tight on the bag, and shouldered it. "We leave in five minutes, and I'm sure your friends will want to know you're going."

"I'll meet you at the launch bay," Obi-Wan said quietly.

Qui-Gon sighed, and squeezed the younger Jedi's shoulder, "We'll find her, and bring her home."

-

The Republic Cruiser reached Kaladine after a short day in hyperspace, and Master Jedi and apprentice soon found themselves walking towards the frozen gate that marked the entrance to the great underground capitol, buried beneath the planet's icy surface.

"Can you sense her?" Obi-Wan asked, his breath making white puffs of moisture in the wintry air as they walked down the lengthy ramp towards the city.

Qui-Gon's face was smooth as he searched for Haleh Liss's particular force signature, and found her, faint and unconscious in the northwestern quadrant of the city. "Yes, can you?"

Obi-Wan nodded, "She was my tutor, for a while, you know."

"I know."

The Jedi entered the city with ease, barley even having to persuade the gate guards to allow them access. The air got warmer as they grew closer to the core, and finally all trace of the bitter exterior was lost in the heat of a living city and a planet's fiery center. The only light in the vast cavers were a few star-like pinpoints of light that glowed from the homes of foreign residents. The city itself was built out of beautifully crafted stone and was divided into castes. The northwest quadrant, where they were headed, was home to the lower classes. There, a rebellion against the governmental system had brewed, and two Jedi negotiators had been assigned to maintain the peace.

Obi-Wan wondered in the back of his head how even a heavily-armed group of the hairless, weak-limbed locals had managed to take down a Wookiee Jedi and trap a highly skilled apprentice. His footsteps, soft though they were, echoed in the streets and the silent natives glared up at him with smoldering eyes. The poverty in the northwestern quadrant was rampant, beggars and homeless populated the street corners and it was clear squalor was the area's only ruler. The uprising had taken many of the section's leaders and now it was a part of the city without guidance or hope. Obi-Wan couldn't blame them for wanting a better life.

"Look around you, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said softly, "This is the end result of corruption in the highest levels – suffering in the lowest ones."

"It seems like Master Anbacco and Haleh could have been fighting for the wrong side," Obi-Wan admitted.

Qui-Gon smiled ruefully, "That happens all too often, Padawan: oftentimes we forget that some rebellions happen for necessary reasons. On Malistare, for example-" He paused in mid-sentence as Obi-Wan turned abruptly in front of a ramshackle housing structure. Qui-Gon could sense him reaching out with the force to search the building, and quickly began doing the same. "She's in there."

Obi-Wan nodded, and Qui-Gon smiled, "Good catch, my apprentice."

"Thank you, Master. How do you plan to infiltrate the house?"

Qui-Gon flipped out his lightsaber, igniting the glowing green blade, "No need to be discreet, if there's only a few of the locals inside."

Obi-Wan switched on his own humming weapon, and together they burst through the door.

-

They found Haleh in a heavily guarded room, but the slim natives posed very little resistance. Qui-Gon clipped his lightsaber back onto his belt, and picked up the human girl. She was starving, kept alive by her connection with the force alone, and her body flopped limply in Qui-Gon's arms as he carried her out of the building. They were half way down the street when a blur of motion whizzed past them, followed by several more, almost knocking them over. The Jedi paused, and watched, baffled, as the four speeding locals skidded to a halt and turned to face them. Qui-Gon was about to continue, when one of the racers opened it mouth, exposing a double layer of glistening fangs, and roared furiously at him.

"Obi-Wan," He said slowly, shifting Haleh so he could run with her on his shoulder "What did the mission file say about the Kaladine natives?"

Obi-Wan, with his eyes fixated on the rows of dagger teeth, recited, "Although weak in appearance, beware the Kaladinian's impressive speed and deadly venomous teeth." He slowly turned to look at his master, and snapped out his glowing blue lightsaber just as the leading native rushed them.

Although they were easily cut down, the Kaladinians were lightening quick, and Obi-Wan rushed about his master as they jogged down the streets back towards the gate, fending off blazing attacks, at times barley dodging fangs glittering with poison.

Leaving the city was much more difficult than entering, as the guards assumed the Jedi had committed some offense against their raging attackers, and joined in the fray. Obi-Wan managed to somehow keep all of the Kaladinians away from Qui-Gon and his precious cargo, and was lucky to escape with only one fang wound in his side.

"I'll look at that in a moment," Qui-Gon panted as they rushed aboard the Republic Cruiser.

"Shall we take off immediately, Sir?" The captain called, and Qui-God shouted an affirmative.

Obi-Wan followed Qui-Gon into their cramped sleeping quarters, and stripped off his shirt to inspect the puncture wound as his Master laid Haleh on his bed. He dug a roll of bandages out from the drawstring bed that Qui-Gon had placed between their cots. The skin around the hole in his side had already grown puffy and was turning blue-ish.

"Master," he said worriedly, "can we use the force to neutralize this poison?"

Qui-Gon turned from injecting Haleh with life-giving nutrients to his apprentice, took one look at the wound and slipped into the flowing consciousness of the force, following Obi-Wan's blood into the infected veins, finding the poison in the tissue, twisting it so the poison was no longer deadly, and felt Obi-Wan following his lead.

"Well," Qui-Gon said coolly, "it won't kill you now."

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and began bandaging the hole, stretching the gauze around his torso to secure the absorbent patch in place. By the time he was done, the poison had begun to take effect. Although not deadly, it was making him sleepy and his limbs weak. He sat down heavily on the bed, drawing a concerned look from Qui-Gon.

"I just need to sleep it of," he explained, and the older Jedi nodded.

"I'll be in the cockpit of you need me."

Obi-Wan rolled onto his back, managed a slurred, 'yes, master' and then faded into sleep.

-

Haleh Liss awoke slowly, first remembering why she felt like part of her soul had been ripped away, and then trying to guess where she was- certainly not the dank cell on Kaladine. She shuddered underneath the blankets. Her master's bellows and roars still echoed in her ears. Haleh had heard him die three floors down, trying to find her so they could escape - poison will kill even the strongest Wookiee. She had felt him fight and grow silent in the force.

The gentle mechanical drone in the background told Haleh that she was aboard a transport, and from further observation of the airtight doors and the tiny proportions of her bed and the room she drew that she was onboard a spacecraft. She felt no warning from the force, the opposite, in fact: soothing ripples in the constant flow that told her she was in the presence of fellow Jedi, and had been rescued.

Haleh sat up slowly, propping the pillow behind her and adjusting her eyes to the lights that, although they were dimmed, after a week in a sunless underground city, seemed bright. Her movement disturbed the boy sleeping on the cot opposite her and as his blue eyes opened, she recognized him: Obi-Wan Kenobi, a fellow student a year or so her junior.

"Haleh?" He asked, and although his voice was deeper than she remembered, it was familiar and soothing. But try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to smile. Instead she drew a shaky breath and responded.

"Obi-Wan."

Unlike her, a smile came readily to his face. "Are you alright?"

She took another quivering breath, and realized she was fighting back tears. 'Alright?' she asked herself. She let a soft sob tear out of her throat. "Alright?" she said aloud, "He's dead, Obi-Wan!"

He rushed unsteadily to her cot, putting an arm about her and she leaned into her former pupil's shoulder and cried.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, "I can't imagine what you're going through."

"I listened to him die!" she moaned, and he stroked her hair

He could feel the force around her quivering with misery. "He's one with the force now, he'll always be here."

Her only response was another burst of heart-wrenching sobs.

-

Haleh fell asleep again after she stopped crying. Obi-Wan lead her gently back on her pillows, smoothed her light braided hair and slipped out of the room to find Qui-Gon.

The older Jedi stood when he saw the look on his student's face, when he felt the concern bubbling in Obi-Wan's head. To his surprise, the 17 year old boy threw his arms about his dignified master, and hugged him for a short second. Qui-Gon hesitantly hugged him back, and then held his apprentice at arm's length.

"Is she inconsolable?" he asked.

Obi-Wan's face was traumatized, "I've never seen anyone so hurt before. I don't know if she'll ever recover."

Qui-Gon nodded slowly, "She's a brave girl, and the force is strong with her. She'll recuperate, but nothing will ever be the same for her."

"Will someone take her as an apprentice?" Obi-Wan asked worriedly.

The older Jedi nodded again, "Mace Windu already said he'd gladly take her as an apprentice – she'll be ready for her trials in a few years."

"Will she always carry that hole in her where her master was?"

Qui-Gon sighed, "It will always be there, Padawan. But she'll carry on – her destiny doesn't change just because her life did. He will always be with her, she'll be able to feel him, as I'm sure she'll tell you." The powerful jedi smiled, "We masters never really leave our apprentices, whether we're alive or not."

Obi-Wan's face grew pensive. "I'll remember that, Master."

-

Weeks later, Obi-Wan spotted Haleh in the library, quite by accident. He and Qui-Gon were headed to a planet neither of them knew anything at all about: Dathomir. They had made a deal, Obi-Wan would research, if Qui-Gon would get around to emptying the dirty laundry basket.

Haleh was sitting at a computer consul, leaning back in the chair and staring at the screen. Obi-Wan stretched out with the force and sensed that she wasn't reading, but that her mind was far away. He tried to follow her thoughts, and heard an echo of a Wookiee roar in his ears before he felt her shields fly up and he realized she was glaring at him.

"Didn't Qui-Gon ever teach you any manners?"

Obi-Wan sighed, and moved to stand beside her. "I'm sorry, Haleh, I was just worried for you."

She stared at him a moment, considering, and then nodded, "Thank you, for caring-" she smiled ruefully, "-for everything. You were like angels."

"You're welcome. Are you satisfied with Master Windu?" Obi-Wan asked, blushing slightly at her praise.

She shrugged, "He's been very understanding – we leave for our first mission in two days. I'm sure I'll learn a lot from him before my trials."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Are you going to begin tutoring again?"

Haleh smirked, "Why, need a lesson?"

The male Jedi smiled, "Hardly. I was just wondering if you're going to be able to do it after Master Anbacco…?"

Haleh's expression became wistful. "You know, its funny, I almost feel like he's still with me. I can sense him everywhere. It hurts, of course, but…" She smiled. "He gave me so much, it would be a pity to waste it."

Obi-Wan put an arm around her shoulders, "Perhaps you still do have some things to teach me. I might take you up on that duel."