Disclaimer: They all belong to George Lucas. I just didn't like the way it turned out. :) So I decided to have a bit of fun. Enjoy. This is set right into the end of The Phantom Menace, which, on some levels, did not have a happy ending.

Written In the Stars

Prologue

"No!"

Obi-Wan Kenobi's scream echoed off the walls and down the massive melting pit. He watched Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn collapse to the ground. Anger and grief rose up inside him as the laser barriers began to lower.

He rushed forward to the Sith Lord, and everything afterward became a blur of anger and pain.

The next thing he could clearly remember was kneeling at his Master's side. Holding the elder man's head against his chest, tears streaking his cheeks. This could not happen. He could not allow this man to die.

"Master, please hold on," Obi-Wan said.

"Promise me…" Qui-Gon began.

"No!" Obi-Wan shouted. "Don't you dare die."

The Jedi Padawan held his master against him, as though by sheer will he could keep the older man alive. He felt the Force gathering around him. Could he actually use the force to prevent his master from dying? He would try.

"Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said. "You must get help…"

Yes, and leave Qui-Gon to die while he searched for someone that could help. No, thank you. Obi-Wan could do this on his own.

He had read once that some Jedi were great healers. He was not as strong in the Force as some, and he had no extraordinary skills that he knew of. He pressed one hand against the wound on his master's stomach and leaned his forehead against the elder man's. If he could have willed his own life into the older man, he would have.

He certainly tried.

"Obi-Wan," the Jedi Master said softly.

Obi-Wan lifted his head and looked at his master. "Yes?" he asked, his voice wavering.

"Help me stand," the other man said. "If I am to heal properly, we must go somewhere with the proper facilities.

Obi-Wan's face broke into a smile, and he laughed.

~`~

"Approve of this decision, I do not," Jedi Master Yoda said, beating his cane upon the floor to emphasize his point.

"Yet that does not change my belief that he is the chosen one," Qui-Gon said quietly, staring down the diminutive Jedi Master from the seat the medic had asked him to take 'and stay there.'

"The Council has decided that you will be allowed to train the boy," Mace Windu, the leader of the Jedi Council, told him.

"Agree with the council's decision, I do not," Master Yoda put in. The tiny Jedi's voice carried a tone of extreme disapproval. Rarely the Council members were at odds with Yoda's opinions.

"You will be allowed to train him on the condition that his fear and anger dissipate as he trains," Mace explained.

"And confer upon your Padawan the rank of Knight, the council does." Yoda said. The elderly Master turned and began to hobble from the room, his stick clacking against the floor loudly in the silent room. Obi-Wan came in as the Master was leaving. He bowed deeply.

Mace Windu handed a golden knife in his hand, and handed it to Qui-Gon as Obi-Wan stepped up to them.

"The Naboo Queen wishes to know what will happen to the Skywalker boy," Obi-Wan said. "They sent me to ask."

"I will be allowed to train the boy," Qui-Gon said. Obi-Wan looked stricken, then took a deep breath, composing himself.

"I will tell them," he said, turning to leave.

"Obi-Wan," Mace Windu said. Obi-Wan turned to look at the dark-skinned Council member.

"Yes, Master Windu?" he said.

"The Council has decided that, with your defeat of a Sith Lord, you should be raised to the rank of Jedi Knight," Mace said. "We consider that battle to be one of the most difficult trials a Padawan can face. Congratulations, Knight Kenobi."

Obi-Wan stared. Qui-Gon beckoned to his Padawan, and the younger man moved to kneel beside his master's chair. Qui-Gon lifted the knife.

"I am proud of you," he said. "And after this, you are no longer my apprentice, Obi-Wan, but a Jedi Knight."

Obi-Wan stared at his master, his brain trying to process what his master and Mace Windu were saying.

Qui-Gon reached out, and, using the knife, cut away Obi-Wan's braid, the symbol of his apprenticeship, and brought him to his knighthood.

~`~

Queen Amidala of the Naboo watched her reflection in the mirror as her closest handmaiden adjusted her hair for the friendship ceremony between her people and the Gungans. Sabe could have been her identical twin. The handmaiden smiled.

"And what about that handsome Jedi?" she asked, her lips turning up in a smile.

Amidala blushed. "He is far too old for me, and a Jedi besides." She replied. Sabe was the only one of her handmaidens that she trusted to talk of anything like this to.

"And a Jedi Knight," Sabe said. "Remember that they had cut his braid when he returned to tell us that Anakin would be trained."

"That poor kid. He misses his mother greatly, and the Jedi Council holds it against him."

"You're changing the subject," Sabe said with a small giggle. The Queen blushed more. People tended to forget that the girls were only fourteen and fifteen.

"So?" Amidala shot back.

"So. The handsome Jedi Knight."

"Very handsome indeed."

Amidala stopped smiling. "Jedi aren't allowed to love. That's one of those rules that always seems too get in the way. He'd think me too young, anyway."

Sabe smiled, still. "Maybe. Maybe not. You don't know what's meant to be."

"Of course not," Amidala said. "What is fated cannot be changed."

"No," Sabe said, shaking her head. She helped the young queen from her chair and to her feet. Amidala sighed.

"Everything perfect?" she asked the handmaiden.

"Of course," Sabe replied.

"Then we will go. And let the stars sparkle as they will."

The two teenagers walked from the room.