In those last few moments, he knew. He had foreseen it.
Qui-Gon Jinn was not prone to prescience, but every once in a great while, a dream came to him that foretold a great event. In his life, mostly, which had always seemed strange to him. Never of a galactic catastrophe - but of his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, himself, and one other, one whose name he had not mentioned in . . .
He could no longer remember. It didn't matter now. Yet it was the most important thing he could think of, past the boy, past the double-sided lightsaber that crackled ominously across the curtain of pink-tinged light. Past the knowledge that he would never live to see the boy . . . Anakin . . . come into his own.
Years, he thought as he slipped ripplelessly into a battle meditation. Too many years. If I hold up my hand, I can almost feel her cheek . . .
The force field sprang open, and Qui-Gon leaped into action, fighting a losing battle against a darkness not his to conquer. His mind was on other things. The boy, Anakin, loomed in his thoughts. Two paths lay before him . . . he must chose the Light. As for Qui-Gons path, he knew what waited for him.
There was a moment of dizziness as the hilt rammed his chin, then searing pain as the Sith impaled him. Obi-Wans scream of denial faded into the background. The pain brought another to mind; compared to that long-ago loss, this was nothing. He watched through hazed, foggy vision as Obi-Wan, his Padawan, fought and defeated the Sith, as he had been unable to. He always was more flexible than I was, Qui-Gon mused.
*Qui-Gon?*
*I'm coming, love. I have to tell Obi-Wan . . .*
*I know. We have waited this long,* her laugh was silent, and he cherished it. *We can wait a minute more.*
"The boy," Qui-Gon croaked, "promise me you'll train the boy!"
"I promise, Master," Obi-Wan vowed through tear-filled eyes. Qui-Gon knew how important it was for his Padawan - this new Knight - to understand, to make certain Anakin understood, the way of the Light. If he didn't . . .
*Qui-Gon,* her gentle voice beckoned him. A blue mist filled his view, his heart and his very soul. A hand reached from the mist, to grasp his. *It is time to go.*
Obi-Wan mourned over the body of his friend, his mentor, his father.
Enveloped in the cooling blue mist, Qui-Gon held the hand that drew him onward. Before he even saw her she embraced him and his soul, so long without her, rejoiced. Drawing back, he looked at her. She had not changed. She was still as lovely, and as likely to put him in his place, as she had always been. *I have so missed you.*
*You're here, now. We're together,* she smiled, and had he breath, he'd have held it.
*Yes, my Tahl. Forever.*
*I promise myself to you, Qui-Gon Jinn,* she whispered, repeating the words they had said so long ago. So short a time before her death. His heart filled, overflowing with a love that had waited through years and death to reunite them.
*I promise myself to you, Tahl.*
*I love you.*