Title: The Search for a Path More Certain
Author: Padawan Daroa
Category: Missing scene
Spoilers: JA #5 and 6
Sequel/Season Info: right before Yoda speaks with Qui-Gon in the Room of a Thousand Fountains
Rating: G
Content Warning: None
Summary: Yoda and Tahl have a talk about what happened on Melina/Daan.
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Lucasfilms owns Star Wars and all there in and Jude Watson some of the others . I'm just borrowing them for a bit, and I promise to give them right back when I'm done. Well, most of them, I might just keep Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon for a bit longer. *eg*
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The Search for a Path More Certain
by
Padawan Daroa
Yoda stared out into the Room of a Thousand Fountains with heavy lidded eyes, his thoughts on the man before him. Qui-Gon Jinn stood in the center of the room, his broad shoulders slumped in defeat.
The diminutive Jedi sighed. Distracted, Qui-Gon had been in the match with Bruck Chung. He had sensed this. Never far from his thoughts, the padawan he had lost. He could feel the anger and sorrow radiating off the larger man.
"Master Yoda?"
He looked up to see Tahl making her way slowly toward him, using her hands and the Force to make up for her loss of sight. A pale white scar running from the corner of one eye down along her jaw marred the gentle beauty of her face. Her green-gold eyes stared at him sightlessly. Yoda's heart grieved that his old pupil had been injured so badly on her last mission. But he was pleased to see how well she was coping. She had dealt with her blindness in the Jedi fashion. She had accepted her blindness not as a limitation but as a challenge to be met and over come.
"Master Tahl," he greeted her. "Much better you are looking. Good it is to see that so well you are doing."
She stopped a few feet from him and smiled warmly. "Master, you of all should know that one is not truly blind when they are in the light of the Force."
Yoda smiled and grunted in approval. Then his smile faltered as his gaze was drawn back to the room and the silent figure standing there.
"Qui-Gon," Tahl said, sadly, her sightless eyes turned to follow his gaze.
"Cares for you he does."
She huffed a breath puffing out her cheeks. "I know, but he's about to drive me stark raving mad. Every time I turn around I trip over him. I appreciate his concern, but enough is enough."
Yoda chuckled.
"Master, I'm worried about him." Tahl eased herself down on the floor beside the Jedi Master. "Things happened on Melina/Daan that should not have."
"A decision his Padawan made," Yoda started.
Tahl snorted. "One he should not to have had to make."
The older Jedi looked back at her quizzically, his large green eyes narrowing in question. "Hmm?
She sighed. "Qui-Gon forced the issue with the boy. Obi-Wan had gotten caught up in the needless suffering around us. He wanted so badly to help them. He had made a connection with the Young of Malida/Daan. A connection that Qui-Gon had denied him."
"Their bond." Yoda murmured. "Had it they did, but strong it was not. Trust is its foundation."
"And Qui-Gon didn't trust the boy," Tahl finished. "I could sense that from the moment they arrived. Obi-Wan was trying so hard to please him, but it was as if......" she sighed.
"As if Qui-Gon was waiting for the boy to betray him."
She nodded sadly. "Like Xanatos."
Yoda sighed and let his large head rest down against his chest. "But Xanatos he is not."
"Somebody needs to tell Qui-Gon that," she said bitterly.
They stood there a long while, the silence between them stretching out for an eternity. Finally, Tahl asked. "Do you think he will take another padawan? I've heard that the boy, Bruck, will turn thirteen in a few days."
"No," Yoda said. "Qui-Gon will not. A padawan he already has."
The younger woman turned to face him. "Obi-Wan? But he has left the order. How can that be?"
"Their future is intertwined," Yoda said, watching Qui-Gon lean heavily against a tree over looking the falls. "Clouded it is, uncertain, but intermeshed it is."
"Has there been any word of the boy?"
Yoda patted her hand. "Achieved the goal he set for himself he did. Peace there is for one in many generations. Tenuous, but present just the same."
"Good," Tahl smiled. "But it has come at such a high price."
The Jedi Master nodded, glancing over at her scared face. "Too high perhaps." Then he harrumphed. "Speak to him, I must. Forever on this, he cannot be allowed to brood. Face what has happened, he must. The decisions he has made and the consequences of them."
Tahl got gracefully to her feet. "May the Force go with you, Master, and with him."
"And with you, Master Tahl," Yoda gave her hand a tight squeeze and she smiled.
"Thank you, Master," she said turning to make her way back down the hall.
Yoda watched her as she felt her way through the familiar corridors. She would heal, both her body and soul. Time was all that was required. Strong she was with the Force and help her it would. His gaze moved back out into the room, but here he was not so sure. The hurt here was much deeper and more complicated.
He sighed and tightened his grip on his gimmer stick. Delaying would do no good. This must be faced and the sooner the better. Uncertain was the path and unpleasant it would be, but at its end there was hope.
*fin*