Title: Sunrise
Author: Blackheart Dracon
Fandom: Star Wars
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, Master Yoda
Genre: Missing scene
Disclaimer: No one is mine.
Summary: Set after "The Revenge of the Sith". Obi-Wan tries a mental link with his Master Qui-Gon for the first time.
"An old friend has learnt the path to immortality," Master Yoda bowed his head as if to confirm his own words.
Obi-Wan looked at him suspiciously. Since Anakin's betrayal… No. Since Anakin's death… he had no friends left, except for Master Yoda, though, he was too wise for Obi-Wan. Master Yoda could ease mental pain, could give every advice Obi-Wan could have ever needed in his whole life, but… Kenobi needed a friend to whom he would not only listen and think over his words. He needed a friend to talk to. And there were no such friends for him.
Obi-Wan shook his head, concentrating on Master Yoda's words again. The old Jedi looked at him, seeming to wait for him to switch his attention on once more.
"One who has returned from the netherworld of the Force," Yoda said.
Obi-Wan frowned.
"Your old Master." the words dropped.
Several moments passed until the meaning of the words came into Obi-Wan's brain.
"Qui-Gon?" he exclaimed, feeling like a stupid little child.
"How to commune with him I will teach you."
"Why not now?" Obi-Wan asked.
"That not now I didn't say," Yoda smiled. "Now – is the only time left."
Obi-Wan nervously clutched at his garments. He thought of what would he say when he saw Master Qui-Gon again. Neither of the words variants in his head suited.
"You listen to me, Master Obi-Wan?" Yoda's suspicious voice sounded.
Kenobi stopped himself from a near blush of shame.
"I'm sorry, Master Yoda."
"See I can," Yoda gave him an understanding glance, "In unease you are of what to say."
Obi-Wan nodded grimly.
"Do not think," Yoda encouraged him. "What to say you will feel."
"Yes, Master Yoda."
"Ready are you, hm?"
"Yes, Master Yoda."
"Then feel the Force around yourself you must," Yoda looked into Obi-Wan's grey eyes again. "Feel the Force flowing through you. See It flow freely…"
Obi-Wan closed his eyes. He felt the Force's presence in the room. He felt It's concentration around himself and, a greater and a thicker one, around Yoda. He felt the Force inside of himself; he felt It run through his veins like a second blood mixing with the first, real blood.
"To see the Force you also need, not only to feel," Master Yoda's voice sounded. "Concentrate, Obi-Wan, concentrate!"
"To see?" Obi-Wan opened his eyes. And looked straightly at Yoda. The last one shook his head and sighed.
"A lot you must be taught of still, Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"Then I ask you to teach me," said Obi-Wan quietly.
"Teach you I will," Yoda chuckled. "But to see the Force you can only yourself."
Obi-Wan shut his eyes again and returned to feeling the Force. But darkness still wavered in front of his closed eyelids.
"Concentrate on the feeling of the Force, Obi-Wan!" Master Yoda's voice commanded. "See It!"
Obi-Wan gave himself into the fluids of the Force. He relaxed and let It carry him with Itself.
Then, to his own shock, he realized it was dark no longer.
The Force had colour. Its silver-grey glittering waves surrounded him from all sides, from above and from below. He seemed to be standing in a middle of a storm. Only that the storm brought no destruction or rage, it brought only peace.
"Master Yoda?" Obi-Wan called.
"The one you need to call now not me is." Yoda's voice rang in his head.
"Qui-Gon?" whispered Obi-Wan. "Master, are you here?"
"I never lost faith in you, Obi-Wan," heard Kenobi a voice familiar nearly to pain. "You have done what unique in the world can do. You reached the place where no mortal is supposed to be."
"Am I dead then?" couldn't restrain himself Obi-Wan and so immediately added, "No, I'm not."
Kenobi heard the almost forgotten quiet laugh.
"You are not dead, Obi-wan, but neither are you alive now."
"How can this be possible?" Kenobi frowned.
"The Force can do many things," only by the tone with which the words were pronounced, Obi-Wan could imagine his Master smiling.
"Is there a way…" Kenobi started.
"To see me?" Qui-Gon's voice ended. "Yes, I suppose there is."
The silver-grey waves in front of Obi-Wan suddenly began to move in their own way, circling, spiraling up, dancing. And from those waves formed a figure.
Qui-Gon looked exactly as Obi-Wan remembered him in his younger years of being his Padawan. The same long hair, the same kind blue-grey eyes. No sign of weariness or anxiety could be seen on his face. Obi-Wan shivered and shook away the last memories of his Master – wounded, tired of struggling for life. Dying.
"It still seems strange for me," said Qui-Gon examining his hands, "For Master Yoda never needed to see me in our talks, and so I have this only for myself and only once before. It feels strange to have a body again."
"What's it like, Master… being there?" Obi-Wan asked in quiet tones.
Qui-Gon sighed.
"You wouldn't have understood even if I could explain," he said. "But there is nothing to fear of, my Pada…" he cut himself off, and smiled with only his eyes, "I can't grow used to the idea of you being my Padawan no more."
"But you still have the right to call me so, Master," Obi-Wan insisted. "For you are still and always will be Master for me."
"But you're not a Padawan, Obi-Wan. You have grown – I mean not the age, but the soul. You grew wiser. And you had taught your own Padawan."
Obi-Wan winced. Qui-Gon's words brought him almost physical pain.
"No, Obi-Wan," Jinn reassured him, "I said this not to blame you. I said this for you to understand – the ways of the Force can't be predicted. Anakin may still restore the Balance. The prophecy is still to be brought into live."
"But he is a Sith now, Qui-Gon!" Obi-Wan cried helplessly. "And this is my fault he is."
"Firstly, it's the fault of the Council," Jinn stated firmly. The Jedi Master then raised his head:
"Yes, Master Yoda, it's the fault of the Council in the first place!"
The answer was silence. Qui-Gon murmured to himself:
"Master Yoda has left us to ourselves. I felt right, then."
"It was the Council which wanted Anakin to spy on Councilor Palpatine, and what it had no right to do," Qui-Gon continued, "And Padme was the main reason why Anakin betrayed the Jedi. Darth Sidious played on his feelings – he is another reason why."
"But I should have felt," Obi-Wan shook his head sadly. "What Jedi Master am I, if I can't understand the feelings of another?"
"Not to make you harm," Qui-Gon started cautiously. "But why do you think you could have read the feelings of the one, who's feeling of the Force is greater than your own? Nor Mace Windu, nor even Yoda could sense anything wrong."
"But I could have guessed," Obi-Wan sighed, "I saw that Padme and Anakin loved each other, I knew it!"
"You knew nothing of Anakin's dreams," was the answer.
"Anakin's dreams?"
"The dreams in which Padme died giving birth to her children."
Obi-Wan closed his eyes.
"I'm so sorry…"
"There is still Anakin's child you should take care of." Qui-Gon stepped closer and put his hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder.
Obi-Wan opened his eyes. Qui-Gon's hand felt like one of a living man, not like one of a man who's body was only a reconstruction made of mere Force.
"Yes," replied Obi-Wan, "And that warms my heart. Perhaps, I will still be able to correct the mistakes I made."
Qui-Gon nodded.
"There is much to learn, Master Obi-Wan," he said, and his blue-grey eyes smiled, "You will learn, I know."
"I'll do my best, Master."
"Go to Tatooine as you wished. There, in your exile, we will meet again. And we will remember the days of you being my Padawan and me being your Master once more."
Obi-Wan took Qui-Gon's hand in his own.
"Thank you, Master. For even after your physical death you are still here to guide me."
"I'll do my best," echoed Qui-Gon. "Go now."
Obi-Wan closed his eyes. He felt the fluids of the Force roll away like the downcoming tide. Moments later light hit his eyelids. Kenobi blinked and found himself looking into Yoda's deep green eyes.
The Jedi Master smiled.