A Second Chance
By Jayne Hundt
jayne_hundt@yahoo.com
(c) 2000
***
Qui-Gon stared at the cup of brown liquid, not wanting to drink it. But he could feel his fever growing despite his efforts to squash it with the Force. His skin prickled with cold despite the heat of the fire. Gathering his courage, he downed the drink in one gulp. He had to force back his gagging reflex at the bitter taste.
Obi-Wan chuckled, watching Qui-Gon. He handed him a cup of water.
Qui-Gon downed the water, attempting to wash the taste away. He then took a bite of his meat, replacing one foul taste for another. "Why can't you leave yet?"
"I have to help, to make a difference in this reality," Obi-Wan said. "I'll understand if you don't want to stay. This is my quest, not yours. If--"
"I'm not leaving without you." Qui-Gon was surprised at the fire in his voice. "I want to help. The Force brought me here. This is my quest too. Tell me, what happened to Coruscant?"
Obi-Wan smiled, but somehow didn't seemed relived. A weight seemed to press down on his soul.
"It started about a hundred years ago with invaders from the unknown regions. They call themselves the Yuuzhan Vong. Not much is known about them. Their technology and weaponry is biological based. They are a culture of warriors, and they have an odd sense of honor," Obi-Wan said before tearing a bite off a drumstick. He chewed slowly, giving Qui-Gon time to digest this information before continuing. "The Force is immune to them."
"What?"
"The Force doesn't seen to have anything to do with them. It's almost as if it shuns them. The few I've encountered didn't have a Force signature. You can't detect them through the Force, you can't read them through the Force, and you can't rely on the Force to help you when you deal with them."
"You mentioned scavengers," Qui-Gon said, suddenly not very interested in eating anymore. "I had assumed they were what's left of the populace."
Obi-Wan nodded. "There are groups of the populace left scattered throughout the city. They aren't the scavengers, the Vong are." Obi-Wan paused, to collect his thoughts. "They hunt out and kill, or enslave anyone who is not one of them. They scavenge from both the dead and living. They are trying to survive just as we are, but are still fighting the war."
Invaders from the unknown regions? Beings immune to the Force? How did a planet of billions get reduced to a few thousand? What of the rest of the galaxy? "What's left of the Republic?"
"I don't know. I do know that most of the core worlds fell to the Vong seventy or sixty years ago."
"What happened to the Jedi?"
"Eat, Master. You need your strength," Obi-Wan chided. He didn't need to mention that he didn't know where their next meal was coming from. "I don't know what happened to the Jedi. Information is scarce, especially information after twenty years or so into the war," Obi-Wan said. "About thirty years ago the Empire seemed to collapse in on itself. I don't know why or how. Now the Vong are in as bad of shape as the Republic is."
Qui-Gon forced himself to eat, despite his lack of appetite. "Where do the destroyers fit into this?"
"A group of humans south of the temple say that before the war ended rebels refitted several of Kuat's automated shipyards to manufacture the destroyers. As you know those manufacturing ships are operated by droids and are fitted with hyperdrives. They can be moved to different sources of ore. There were several hundred of those units, producing the destroyers. They are still out there, still manufacturing droids. As far as I can tell, the Vong are having a hard time tracking them down. Few have been destroyed."
Obi-Wan continued. "The Vong's technology is biologically based, so they weren't well equipped to deal with the droids. The droids may have had a big part in the Vong's collapse.
"Then something went wrong," Qui-Gon said.
"The destroyers no longer target only the Vong. They target every living thing, animals, Humans, Wookies, Gands, everything that comes within range of their sensors."
Qui-Gon took another guess. "You plan on destroying the droids?" He was getting sleepy, the medicine taking effect.
Obi-Wan shook his head. "I plan on fixing them."
"Think about this carefully, Obi-Wan. In fixing those droids you are instigating genocide. Whether or not they are the enemy, they are living beings." Qui-Gon's eyebrows lowered into a scowl. "It is of the Darkside."
"Genocide? I'm not the one who instigated genocide. You have never encountered a Yuuzhan Vong warrior, seen the hate in their eyes, or seen what they do to their captives." Anger and hatred colored Obi-Wan's voice. He handed a data-pad full of old news articles to Qui-Gon. Post war information was scarce, but the early years of the war were well documented.
"Do you want to know what they did to Naboo? They poisoned the atmosphere, killing billions. Killing not just people, but the whole planet--plants and animals. In the Corellia system they released a genetically engineered virus. On Ettiru they somehow disrupted the gravitational pull of one of its moons. It crashed into the planet. Do you want to know what happened to Alderaan? They altered its ecosystem and turned it into a breeding ground for more of their weapons. The Vong are of the Darkside."
Qui-Gon sighed. Obi-Wan was stubborn and he knew there would be no changing his mind--for now. He was tired and aching, and in no mood to argue. Reluctantly he turned the pad on. After a few moments of skimming through articles, the color drained from his face.
"Open yourself to the Force, Master. Feel the death and emptiness around us. I know this is right," Obi-Wan said. "I understand the consequences of my actions. But you taught me that sometimes the means justify the ends. Once again Master, I'll understand if you chose not to stay," Obi-Wan said. Now that Qui-Gon knew the full ramifications of that choice, the tension and worry in Obi-Wan redoubled.
"I'll stay."
***
This time when Qui-Gon woke, there were no aches and pains. Pulling his tunic and bandages open, he discovered that his wounds had disappeared into pink scars. The healing trance left him feeling refreshed. The only thing left to contend with was his hunger.
"Good morning, master," Obi-Wan said from next to him on the mattress. Bleary-eyed and sleepy looking, the Padawan looked as if he could use more sleep. "How do you feel?"
"G'morning. I'm Fine, healed. How long was I in the trance?"
"About two days," Obi-Wan answered. Wearily, he sat up and scratched his head then passed a hand over the stubble on his cheeks. "Thirsty?"
Qui-Gon nodded and then Obi-Wan started to climb out of bed. "Stay put. I'll get it. It looks as if you hadn't gotten much sleep."
Gratefully, he sunk back into the bed. "I don't think I've gotten a good night's sleep since you died. Bad dreams. Besides, I have to stay alert incase the alarms go off."
Qui-Gon took the two steps to the cooking area where a bucket of water sat. He ladled himself up a cupful. He was about to take a drink when Obi-Wan stopped him.
"Don't drink that water. Use the smaller bucket. That water hasn't been boiled. Only use it for washing."
"You have to boil the water?"
"You have to be careful 'bout the water you use." He answered sleepily. "You never know if the Vong have done anything to it. The wash water only has chlorine in it. Drinking water is filtered, chlorinated, and boiled. I use rain water when ever I can."
"They poisoned the water?"
Obi-Wan shut his eyes and rolled over onto his side. "Most of the larger reservoirs are poisoned. The water's safe for the Vong, but not for us. 'member the rooftop lake on the Cenra-mall building? Dead animals surround it. Birds and fish mostly, but some have adapted to the poison. Those little tree-rodents can drink the stuff, but they poison the jo'jenie-hawks and whatever else eats them."
"Sleep Obi-Wan. I'll stand watch." Qui-Gon's words were accompanied by a Force suggestion. He drank his cup of water and then moved back to Obi-Wan's side. "Sleep."
Obi-Wan's last words before he slid under was "I've missed you, master. Love You."
"I love you too, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said. But Obi-Wan didn't hear it, as he was asleep.
Cross-legged, Qui-Gon sat next to the bed and watched Obi-Wan. He stared at the face for a long time. It looked so much like the student he knew from his own reality. Looking at the soft lips, cleft chin and perfect nose lessened the pain in his heart. When his Obi-Wan died, a piece was ripped from his soul. Now that hole seemed to have been be patched. But the patch wasn't perfect; pain still leaked through. He would never forget, nor did he want to forget the Obi-Wan of his reality.
Qui-Gon laid a kiss upon Obi-Wan's brow, then moved off to rekindle the fire.
***
After several hours, Obi-Wan woke. He looked bleary, still needing more sleep.
"Good morning." Qui-Gon had no idea if it was morning or night, as he didn't have a chronometer. This part of the temple was cut off from outside light sources, so he couldn't tell that way either. But it sounded like a good thing to say anyway.
"G'morning." Obi-Wan yawned. "What smells so good?"
"Nerf 'n noodles soup."
"Soup? I haven't had soup in a long time."
"Don't get too excited. It's those dehydrated field ration packets you always hated." Qui-Gon momentarily forgot that this was not *his* Obi-Wan. But it didn't seem to matter.
"A year of eating hawk-bats and granite slugs tend to change a person's tastes." Obi-Wan stretched. "Too bad you don't have any of those ration bars with the crunchy green things in them."
Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow. "I seem to remember a certain Padawan who used to call those 'poodoo-bars.'"
Obi-Wan scrambled over from across the bed to sit next to his master. "At the time I thought 'poodoo-bars' was a very fitting name for them."
"That reminds me. I have a surprise for you." Qui-Gon said as he dished out two portions of the soup. Obi-Wan didn't have bowls, so he used cups. "Look in my knapsack. Two glass bottles."
Obi-Wan smiled sheepishly. "I already looked. Root beer. I was hopping you would share."
"You know what that stuff is?" Qui-Gon was once again reminded that this Obi-Wan was different than his own. "Mace and Yoda insisted that I bring some for you as a surprise."
Obi-Wan couldn't answer immediately, for his mouth was wrapped around the spout of a bottle, drinking. "Mmm. Now all I need is a lump of ice cream."
"Ice cream?"
"Your home reality is deprived. No ice cream or root beer? Ouch."
"Is ice cream anything like quella frost?" Qui-Gon asked after taking a drink of the soup.
Obi-Wan shrugged. "Never heard of the stuff."
"Now who's home reality is deprived?"
They talked for a long while, comparing realities. There were little differences, such as the root beer, but the major events and facts seemed the same--exactly the same. Soon Qui-Gon steered the conversation form the past to the present.
"The droids are controlled by the factory ships, and the ships are all slaved together as a collective. So if one ship is destroyed, the droids will continue to function.
"What keeps the Vong from tracing the hyper-com signals?" Qui-Gon asked.
"I'm not sure. It could be one of many factors or a combination. The factory ships are mobile. Relay satellites may be used to bounce the transmissions. Or hyper-com signal tracing may be beyond Vong technology. Maybe they just don't have the resources anymore to find the ships."
"Just how are you going to fix these droids?" Qui-Gon let his disapproval carry over into the tone of his voice.
"I analyzed one of the transmissions. It wasn't very hard to decrypt. The factory ships are Kuat standard, Trevian models. Since they are Kuat standard, slave and override codes should work," Obi-Wan said. "The codes were embedded in the transmission. It's possible to upload a modified program to override the old."
Qui-Gon thought about it for a moment. "It sounds too easy."
"I thought so at first," Obi-Wan said. "You have to remember something about the Yuuzhan Vong. Their culture, their values, their way of thinking is different from ours. And they have a deep-rooted hatred of our technology. I don't think this plan would have occurred to them. Even if it did, I don't know if they'd have the knowledge to initiate it."
At that moment, Qui-Gon realized that Obi-Wan was holding something back. Just how did he come to have such a thorough knowledge of Vong values?
Obi-Wan sighed. "This system was designed to be simple to override incase of a situation such as this. There's only one problem with my plan."
Qui-Gon didn't have to ask. "You don't know much about computer programming." Obi-Wan never had the chance to develop the skill. He simply never had time.
"But you do. You had to learn it for that mission to Bellvus Three."
"That was over twenty years ago. I don't know if I remember any of it." Qui-Gon hesitated. Even if he did, he couldn't allow Obi-Wan's plan. "Show me what you've accomplished so far."
***
Qui-Gon squeezed through a hole in the wall and emerged into the armory. Qui-Gon couldn't tell what it looked like, for it was pitch-black. They navigated through the dark temple halls and vents with only the Force to guide them. Obi-Wan knew the rout well and moved through the dark with a kind of grace that came with familiarity.
"Here we are. Home away from home," Obi-Wan said following him through the opening.
Qui-Gon noted that Obi-Wan's aura had imprinted itself into the room. Unlike the living area that they had just come from, this place practically glowed with his Force signature. Obviously, Obi-Wan spent more time here than there.
For a moment, Qui-Gon stood with his eyes closed, soaking in the feeling. He took a deep breath. The dry and musty air somehow smelt wonderful.
"Are you alright?" Obi-Wan asked, noticing Qui-Gon's sudden change in mood.
Qui-Gon smiled. "Never been better." He reached out into the dark for Obi-Wan. Finding him, he pulled the man closer and hugged him. The hug ended with a deep kiss.
"We have work to do," Obi-Wan said after a long moment. Reluctance was evident in his voice. "The sooner I get this done, the sooner we can leave this place." The words held an unspoken promise.
Both had agreed to keep their attention on the moment--the here and now--until they were in a safer place. They had only proximity alarms to warn them of approaching danger. Putting all of their faith in old and unreliable technology was suicide. This meant that physical intimacy had to wait until it was safe for their attention to wonder.
Once through the hole, Obi-Wan covered it. From a pocket, he produced candle. He lit it with a command through the Force. The sphere of light reached only a meter, so Qui-Gon still couldn't see the armory.
Moving to the far side of the room, Obi-Wan kneeled down and fiddled with a piece of equipment. There was a soft metallic 'clank,' a small shower of sparks, then the room lit. It was still dim, for only a few glow-rods were hooked to the battery-generator.
The door leading into the armory couldn't be seen, for a pile of debris blocked the entrance. Computers that once lined one wall, were now smashed into bits. Another wall had a large walk-in safe that once held weapons and ammunition, but its door was nowhere to be seen. The room beyond was empty. Most of the other equipment--devises used for making lightsabers--had been destroyed as well.
The only pieces of working equipment he could see lay on the central workbench. Two repaired computers, a hyper-com transmitter and several dozen com-pads. Half-melted candles encircled the work area, to add light to the work spot.
Obi-Wan hooked up another battery-generator and the computers flickered to life. One made an odd, soft ticking sound. As they booted, he lit the candles. Now that there was more light, he realized that one of the 'computers' really wasn't a computer. It was a droid servo-brain encased in a computer case.
"What kind of droid was that?"
"An R-1B astromech," Obi-Wan answered. "R-2's haven't been produced yet. It helps me sift through the computer language."
"And you can't have the droid write the program? An old protocol droid could easily accomplish the task."
"If I can't write this program, I will have to. But I need to make sure the program is sound, has no errors in it and that the fail-safes work. I can't--won't--trust a droid to do this. Not after spending the last year here. I need to prevent this from happening again."
Qui-Gon decided that now was the time to press to subject. "Can you make sure this never happens again, Obi-Wan? Even with a sound program? Can you guarantee against all eventualities? You speak of not allowing a droid to write that program, but yet you are willing to entrust droids to fight a war for you."
"All I could find on Kuat systems are in those com-pads. There is other information about the droids and on programming here as well," Obi-Wan said, ignoring Qui-Gon's comment. "Do I have your help, Master?"
Qui-Gon had hopped that it wouldn't come down to this. "To destroy the droids? Yes. To reprogram them? No. I'm sorry. I can't do that."
***
Obi-Wan was Quiet as Qui-Gon followed him through the temple. It wasn't an angry silence, but it wasn't exactly comfortable either. Upon leaving the armory, Obi-Wan said he had some things that needed to be done and asked if he wanted to go with him. Qui-Gon said yes, and they hadn't spoken another word to each other since.
Was Obi-Wan mad because of his refusal to help? Was he hurt, did he feel betrayed? He didn't know. Usually he could read Obi-Wan's emotions, but at times when a disagreement hung in the air, his Padawan became closed.
At first the temple halls were dark, but soon light filtered in from ahead. Qui-Gon saw that it came from a door-less turbolift shaft. Emergency maintenance lights lit the sides of the tunnel. Some flickered, having almost depleted their energy source.
They climbed down the emergency ladder a few stories and then moved to a vertical tunnel. In the dim light he could occasionally see Obi-Wan's handwriting sprawled on the walls as directions or notes to specific areas of the temple. After a while, he realized they were heading towards one of the open-aired gardens.
The garden of fifty fountains wasn't the same as the garden of a thousand fountains, nor did it have fifty fountains. Qui-Gon didn't know why it was called that, and always thought the name was ridicules. It was larger, older and located lower. Because it was located halfway down the side of the temple, it received less light. The garden's foliage reflected this. Ferns, phosphorescent mosses, tree-fungi dwelled there. It resembled the under-canopy of a jungle.
When they reached the garden, Qui-Gon saw that it was night. For the first time in his life, he saw the stars in the Coruscant sky. The dark was eerie, and that eeriness was punctuated by the sound of the wind.
"I have some animal snares set," Obi-Wan said, breaking the silence. "This is where I get my water too."
They walked down one of the many stone paths. After a few meters they came to the first snare--an old pest trap. It was empty. The next two were empty and the last one had sprung, the bate gone. Without a complaint, Obi-Wan reset the trap and used a bit of dried meat for bate.
"What do these catch?"
"Cat-squirrels."
Qui-Gon remembered that the garden once held many of the squirrels.
The path ended not far from the last trap. A stone bench faced an iron fence, that faced towards the east. They weren't very high in altitude, but had it been light out, they would have been able to see over the roofs of many buildings.
Qui-Gon sat on the bench and Obi-Wan followed suit. "No I'm not mad at you." Obi-Wan answered Qui-Gon's unspoken question from inside the tunnel. "I'm not hurt. I don't feel betrayed. I knew you would never agree to help fix the droids before I even asked. You may not be the Qui-Gon who died in my arms, but you still are Qui-Gon, and I know you. Just as you probably know me."
Obi-Wan was wrong. He didn't know this Obi-wan very well. "The Obi-Wan I knew would stop the droids, not fix them."
"I guess you're right. You probably don't know me. I'm not the same person as I was when I first came here. " Obi-Wan was silent for a long moment, thinking. He seemed almost scared to speak. "I told you of how I came to be here, but haven't told you everything."
Qui-Gon put an arm around his shoulder. "Please tell me."
There was another moment of silence. "An hour after I arrived, I encountered two destroyers. They hadn't targeted me yet, they were after two Vong. They had them cornered in one of the gardens."
"I destroyed the droids much the same way you did, by bombarding their shields with return fire. I was injured when the second droid exploded. And couldn't fight the Vong. They repaid me by taking me prisoner and destroying the switch saber, and yours as well. I managed to escape after their camp was hit by droids."
Qui-Gon sensed that there was much Obi-Wan still hadn't told him. "What did they do to you?" Qui-Gon asked, afraid of the answer. "How long were you there?"
"About two weeks. They interrogated me."
Flashes of memories found their way to Qui-Gon. Pain that was previously hidden now surfaced. He winced at the strength of that pain, and wondered how Obi-Wan had managed to hide it from him for so long.
Suddenly, Qui-Gon realized that there was a training bond between them. It felt as if the bond between him and his Obi-Wan had never been severed, the broken ends reconnecting so smoothly that he didn't noticed it until now.
As he had often did when Obi-Wan was a child, he reached across that bond and gave comfort. //Show me.// He hugged Obi-Wan closer, both physically and mentally.
A wordless refusal was the answer.
//Padawan, Obi-Wan, please.//
Reluctantly, the memories burst free and what Qui-Gon saw made him sick. Most of the memories were of a drugged haze of torture and questions about the Jedi, the droids and the locations of other Coruscant refugees. He had access to the Force, but it had been rendered useless against his captors and their tools of torment.
Within the haze, between torments, Obi-Wan witnessed other crimes. Crimes not against him, but to other prisoners. One of which was against a child about Anakin's age. They executed him before his eyes, using him to 'motivate' Obi-Wan. The child's death was not painless or quick. This single memory was more painful than all of the torture combined.
The fog surrounding the memories lifted a day or so before his escape, when they stopped drugging him. Apparently, they had deemed him useless. They were going to execute him, but the droids had infiltrated their camp before they had the chance. The Vong abandoned Obi-Wan to his fate as they fled, believing the droids would finish the execution. He escaped the destroyers and found his way back to the temple.
For a long while Qui-Gon held the younger man as he wept. //Release your pain, your hatred of the Vong to the Force, Obi-Wan.//
//I can't.//
//You can't or you don't want to?// Qui-Gon's tone was gentle but admonishing. He pulled away from the embrace slightly so he could look into Obi-Wan's eyes. He traced a still-pinkish scar on Obi-Wan's neck, realizing now where it came from. //You know where hatred leads.//
As Qui-Gon spoke those words he found himself battling his own hatred. He wanted to hate those who had caused so much pain to Obi-Wan, but couldn't. //We are Jedi, vowed to serve the light of the Force. That service holds no room for hatred.//
Obi-Wan didn't answer. Instead, he held onto Qui-Gon, struggling with his emotions. Qui-Gon could do nothing but hold Obi-Wan. Soon Obi-Wan tired, and Qui-Gon let him slip into sleep. They sat on the bench all night, Qui-Gon watching over Obi-Wan.
***
Qui-Gon held a sleeping Obi-Wan as the sun rose. His cloak wrapped around them both, keeping the chilled air away. Obi-Wan slept peacefully, but Qui-Gon hadn't. He stayed awake, keeping watch and thinking.
Obi-Wan hated the Vong, and had manage to keep this dark emotion hidden, but not for long. That same emotion fueled Obi-Wan's decision to fix the droids rather than destroy them.
Obi-Wan's decision was wrong. This wasn't their war to fight. Fixing those droids was genocide. Jedi only killed in defense.
But what if they were sent here to give humanity--and the other peoples of the Republic--a second chance at survival? By killing the Vong, were they defending what was left of the Republic. Yesterday, before Obi-Wan shared his memories, Qui-Gon had been so sure of his decision to destroy the droids. Now he wasn't.
Was he letting his own emotions guide him, or was he following the will of the Force?
For the first time since he arrived to this reality he saw the city. The beauty of the sunrise contrasted with the ruins that lay before them. Blasted and empty hulks of buildings stretched as far as he could see. Some of the buildings were completely gone, crumbled down to their foundations. Glass and metallic surfaced that once reflected the light were gone, replaced by scotch-marks.
He felt Obi-Wan stir. "Good morning, Padawan." His words startled him. The doubt had vanished. When did he start thinking of this Obi-Wan as his Padawan rather than a stranger who happened to look like *his* Obi-Wan?
"Hard to believe that Coruscant has been reduced to this," Obi-Wan said, interrupting Qui-Gon's thoughts. His head still rested on Qui-Gon's shoulder. "Even after all this time, I still find it hard to believe."
Obi-Wan's hand snaked out from under the shared cloak to pull down Qui-Gon's head. They kissed, slowly and deeply. "Good morning Master."
They sat together, watching the sunrise. This time however, the silence was companionable, enjoyable. Qui-Gon was about to suggest that they find breakfast when Obi-Wan stiffened.
He sat still, his head cocked towards the garden, listening. Reaching out with the Force, Qui-Gon tried to detect the danger. He felt nothing. //What's wrong?//
//Listen.// Obi-Wan's hand drifted to the lighsaber he'd found somewhere within the temple to replace the one the Vong destroyed. //Don't move.//
For a long while he could hear nothing. Then he heard it: a rustling of dry leaves not too far off to the left. Then he heard it again.
//It's a Vong. You can tell by the way you can't sense anything through the Force. To the left, about ten meters.// In front of them was the iron fence. To their right about two meters was the outside wall of the temple. To their left the garden extended for about twenty meters before it ended, bordered by that iron fence and empty air.
The noise had stopped and there was nothing but silence. Obi-Wan shed the cloak. It fell silently to the ground. Qui-Gon freed his own saber.
At an unspoken signal, the two Jedi sprang towards the noise. Working as a single unit as if they had done this on hundreds of missions in the past, they split up and surrounded their would-be attacker.
The Vong had been concealed in the ferns, but had fled to a small clearing to fight. Using some kind of living staff to block Obi-Wan's blows, the being fought well. But the Vong was no match for two Jedi. Obi-Wan batted aside the staff and was about to deliver the killing blow when Qui-Gon blocked it with his own saber. Their sabers locked, a few inches from the Vong's throat.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Obi-Wan's voice was a mix of confusion and anger.
//Look Obi-Wan. Release your anger and look.//
For the first time Obi-Wan saw that this Vong was nothing more than a child. He was sprawled on the ground, a cat-squirrel stolen from one of the traps lay next to him where he had dropped it. Obi-Wan pushed aside his surprise and guilt and lowered his saber, but kept it lit and pointed at his throat. "Are you the one who's been steeling from my snares?"
He didn't answer. He just looked at them coldly, no fear showing in his features.
"You steal my water too?"
"Ka'Torant ure dall tv'Katar," he said, his voice commanding. "Kill me now and be done with it."
Qui-Gon gave Obi-Wan a meaningful look. "We only kill in defense." He turn his saber off and took a few steps back.
"Take your cat-squirrel and leave." Obi-Wan's saber remained lit and pointed towards the Vong-child's throat.
"You Humans are weak. Foolish."
"That may be," Qui-Gon said. His voice was mild, like it usually was when he spoke to children. "But we're not the ones on the ground with a saber pointed at our throats."
For the first time an emotion crossed his eyes. Neither Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon could interpret it. He got up and slowly backed up towards one of the garden's exits. At a meter from the door he turned and ran.
Obi-Wan dropped his saber and sunk to his knees, shaking. "I almost killed a child."
Once again, Qui-Gon fond himself holding Obi-Wan. He was crying, but this time his hatred of the Vong was shed with the tears.
***
Four weeks later:
Qui-Gon scanned the program for errors. Like the first and second final checks, he spotted none. The program would cause a feedback loop within the cooling units of the droid manufacturing ships. They would overheat and then explode. Without the ships to control the droids, they would cease to function. "It is finished."
Qui-Gon took the data crystal from the computer and handed it to Obi-Wan. Without hesitation, he slid the crystal into the hyper-com unit. However, he didn't press the send button.
Qui-Gon held his breath. This was the last chance for Obi-Wan to change his mind and not destroy the droids.
"If I don't press the button I will be following the dark path, the Dark Side. But at the same time, I will be giving the Republic a second chance--a chance to fight back the Vong, a chance at life," Obi-Wan said. He then pressed the button. "I don't know how the right decision could feel so wrong."
"There are circumstances--reasons--that we may not see. This was the right decision. I know it."
Qui-Gon hugged Obi-Wan. There was an Obi-Wan who died before he got the chance to tell him his feelings. He would never make that mistake again. "I love you, Obi-Wan. I will never forget the Obi-Wan from my reality. I loved him, and always will miss him. Yet you are he. And I love you."
"I love you too."
"On Bandomere, I promised that I would never turn to the Dark Side. But I almost did. I was so close, and yet I didn't know it. I thought I was doing the right thing."
"Darkness is often wrapped in good intentions. It's the hardest lesson a Jedi must learn." Qui-Gon tugged on Obi-Wan's Padawan braid. He then ran a hand through Obi-Wan's shoulder length hair. "You need a haircut."
Obi-Wan smiled. "Yes Master. I will cut it tonight."
Qui-Gon used the end of the braid to tickle Obi-Wan's ear. "Only A master may cut a Padawan braid, Obi-Wan."
Surprised, Obi-Wan turned to look at Qui-Gon, speechless.
"Lets hurry up and switch out of this reality, so I can submit my request to the council. The sooner we leave, the sooner we'll find a home."
***
Compressed air caused a boom to echo through the garden. Ka'Lan watched the two humans disappear. As a Vong, it was his duty to report the location of the two humans, but didn't. He was curious, and wanted to learn more. Didn't father always say that it was best to know one's enemy?
But were they his enemy? They didn't kill him that one time when he got caught in the garden stealing from their traps. His father would have said that they didn't kill him because they were weak.
But were they weak? He was easily defeated by them. And he had seen the younger human destroy droids with his Lightsaber.
The Grandfathers came to this part of the Galaxy to conquer it from the demonic humans. The Vong were the rightful rulers of the Galaxy. That's the way it had to be. The humans were weak, honor-less, filthy, demonic, and above all else, they were unworthy.
But those two humans didn't seem so bad. They didn't look so evil even if they were odd.
Were the Grandfathers wrong about the humans? He'd have to think about this. Maybe if they were wrong, he could do something about it. Then maybe the fighting would stop.
***
Epilogue, a month latter:
The usual bang had echoed throughout the garden at their appearance. But there was no one present to hear it, garden being empty at this time of the morning.
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon lifted themselves from the trance, but didn't separate from each other's embrace. They kneeled for a moment, enjoying the morning air. Ships flew overhead, and everything seemed as it should.
"Do you think this is the one?" Obi-Wan asked, finally letting go of Qui-Gon.
"I don't know." Qui-Gon said the words, but couldn't quite believe them. This reality felt right somehow. Could they be home? "Let's go find Master Yoda."
Hand in hand, the two men walked out of the garden and into the temple.
The End
Author: Jayne Hundt jayne_hundt@yahoo.com
Series: Riding the Wheel of If
Rating: PG-13
Category: AU
Archive: Yes, if the disclaimers remain intact
Disclaimer one: 'Star Wars' is the creation of George Lucas, and is the property of George Lucas, Lucasfilm Ltd, Lucasarts Inc and 20th Century Fox. No profit was, or will be made from this story. Infringements upon copyright and trademark laws are unintentional.
Disclaimer two: 'Riding the Wheel of If' is a story arc created by Terri Hamill. The complete story, and more of Terri's writing can be found at: http://homes.arealcity.com/HiddenRealm/mm/mm.html