Renegades
Author: Quin
Disclaimer: None of the Phantom Menace characters belong to me, they belong to George Lucas, and I'm just borrowing them. I've never read the Jedi Apprentice series, so I don't know some specifics, suspend your disbelief.
Archiving: Yes please, but tell me first, and don't change anything!
Summary: A few years before TPM, Qui-Gon runs into his first apprentice, who is no longer a Jedi, and adventure and angst ensue. Mary Sue-ish. Recently re-done and re-posted
Rating: PG
***
Kat glanced through the ramp view port before opening the door. The two passengers for this trip were somewhat mysterious, she didn't usually allow somebody on her ship before at least a quick interview. But this was a favor for an old friend, who was doing a favor for an old friend, and who knew how long that chain went on. So here she was, picking up people she'd never met.
The passengers were facing away from her, watching the crowds. Both men, it looked like one was very tall, and the other one looked a bit shorter than herself. Both were well-built, as well as she could tell, and had the relaxed manner that only very experienced travelers could handle in the middle of a bustling spaceport.
It was then that she spotted the braid that the shorter one was wearing, and apparently trying to hide by way of an odd looking hat. Great, Jedi. Of all people in the galaxies, it had to be Jedi. The Padawan turned around to face the ramp, and noticed her at the port. He said something to the taller man, presumably the Master, who turned to face the ramp door.
Oh, crap. "Ben! Ben, get yourself to the ramp right now!"
Her life partner came around the bend in the corridor at a full run, and stopped just barely before running into her. "Kat, how many times have I asked that you use the bond instead of shouting? I-"
"Ben, take a look at who our passengers are and tell me if you really care about your headache."
He glanced out the view port. His eyes widened slightly, and he turned back to look at Kat with a stunned look on his face. "This has got to be a joke."
"If it is, the pranksters can consider themselves fair game for a good old- fashioned-"
"Kat! We're going to have to watch ourselves with him, might as well start now."
"Oh, please, like Jinn has never done it himself. Who do you think taught me?"
"In that case, consider yourself a future victim if you two duel and I'm not there."
"Aye, sir, Captain, sir."
"Don't be sarcastic. Kat, relax, you're anxious, it's perfectly normal."
"This is not normal in any way, shape or form, by the Force!"
"Your reaction is normal, not the situation. But let's let them in before they start wondering what's going on. Thank the Fates mental shields are your specialty, we'll need them."
"Fine, I'll let them onboard. But Dan-Go had better have a really, really good reason why it had to be these two."
Kat opened the door and extended the ramp. She went down to greet Jinn and his Padawan and Ben remained at the top of the ramp, as usual. Jinn, of course, recognized her immediately, but didn't allow himself to show it. His Padawan had no reason to recognize her as they had never met.
"Jinn. I take it you and your Padawan here are my passengers?"
"Yes, little one, allow me to introduce my Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Padawan, this is Kat-Li Jedibi."
"Pleased to meet you, Kenobi. You may both call me Captain. Ready to go?"
Jinn nodded, and they walked up the ramp. Ben waited for them to enter the ship, and then retracted the ramp and closed the doors. "Jinn, you remember Ben, my life partner. Ben, this is Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jinn's Padawan. Kenobi, Ben-San Veridi."
"Happy to have you aboard, Kenobi. Kat, ready when you are."
"Jinn, Kenobi, this is a Standard Design ship, I trust you both know your way around? You have your pick of staterooms, you're the only passengers this trip. Get ready for lift-off, we'll be leaving shortly." Kat and Ben headed for the bridge, and the Jedi headed for the passenger section of the ship.
***
Obi-Wan observed as much as possible about the meeting, as was his standing order from his Master. The Captain, this Jedibi, was a confident woman, confident in herself, her ship, and from what he could tell in her life partner, Veridi. They were odd star-pilots in that they wore both light sabers and blasters. Veridi was just slightly taller than her, his heavier build just short of lumbering, her lighter form just this side of solid. His hair was short, shorn in a peculiar pattern that not many people other than Jedis would recognize as a sign of advanced Force training for those not in the Order. That showed a certain amount of pride and belief in fair play, at least with those who recognized the hair style. Jedibi had her black hair in a tight bun at the nape of her neck, a practical style signifying nothing. So she must be more interested in being inconspicuous, which made since considering….
He sighed. There was something unsettling about meeting one's Master's former Padawan, especially when she was no longer a Jedi and one was stuck on a small ship with her for a Standard Week. And then there were those rumors around the Temple. Not that he believed them. Well, not all of them.
***
Lift off was done, the ship was in hyper space, and now there was nothing left but the week's wait. Kat was in the Common Room, watching a holo, and Ben was in their cabin catching a nap. They made a practice of one of them always being awake, their Jedi training being of great use.
Obi-Wan came into the room quietly, and was so close to speaking Kat nearly interrupted him. "It isn't bright to sneak up on former Jedi, Kenobi."
"I was certainly not sneaking up on you, Captain. A Jedi-"
"Is not deceptive. Right. It's a crock, and you know it. Don't tell me Jinn never told you what he roped Windu into helping him do to Yoda in retaliation for the extra meditation sessions."
Kenobi decided to skip that subject. "How did you know that I knew that you were-"
"Jinn's first Padawan? Or were you going to take is slow and ask how I knew you know that I was a Jedi? Simple, Padawans always want to know about the Padawans their Masters had before them, and since no Jedi would ever ask Jinn about Xanatos, you've probably heard all kinds of stories about me. Including why I left the Order."
"Yes. But those who told them to me did not necessarily tell the true story."
Kat turned around to look at him. "Never thought I see the day when I'd see the day when another Padawan accused members of the Order of lying."
Obi-Wan's face turned red. "I was not accusing them of anything but fallible memories and personal feelings that might obscure the tales, Captain."
Kat grinned. "Oh, but you are smooth! Have a seat, kid. You've earned the right to hear the stories from the source, if you've a wish."
Obi-Wan nodded, and sat across from her. She continued, "But I'm not telling you any you haven't heard before, so you'll have to ask for them specifically."
He knew better than to ask for the big story first, so he led up with a softer one. "Some people say that you beat Master Windu in a saber duel when you were seventeen."
"Actually, I was three days from my eighteenth birthday when that happened. Yes, I trounced him quite thoroughly. Jinn's a fair swordsman after all, and he taught me well."
"But they say that you did it by beating the Xircaran Defense in a way that no one had ever seen before, nor has been able to emulate."
"Well, the first part's true, he was using the Xicaran Defense when I beat him, but though the move I used was very obscure, I did not create it. Jinn did not teach it to me, there was an ambassador visiting the Temple who was a student of particularly unknown saber moves. I learned that move approximately five days before the match with Windu. It's called the Girac Maneuver, look it up yourself."
"What about the story that you levitated Yoda while he was sleeping and held him on top of the highest spire of the Temple until he woke up?"
Kat laughed. "It wasn't the highest spire, if I had done that he might not have been able to breathe. I did that in the Meditation Garden, he was maybe 50 meters in the air. And I wouldn't suggest trying it, I was scrubbing walls and weeding gardens for half a Standard Year."
Obi-Wan winced. "And what about your name? It's obviously related to 'Jedi,' but nobody's figured it out, and Yoda seems to know about it but nobody dares to ask him about it."
"Simple. I was a foundling. I was placed on the steps of the Temple, and Master Windu found me the next morning. So the Jedi is the only family I have. Jedibi means "of the Jedi" in the Old Language. If I hadn't been Force sensitive, they would have trained me as something else, I suppose."
Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows at this new piece of information. Foundlings that were Force-strong were pretty rare. "Um, then, what about, uh, the time-"
"Running out of questions?"
"No! Of course not. Uh, there was the time-"
"That I got kicked out of the Order?"
"Well, yes."
"I accused Ben's Master of lying about a diplomatic mission to the Council. Kiari had better contacts than I did, and was a highly respected Master that had been handling delicate missions for decades. She was about as old as Jinn is now, and Ben was her third Padawan. Whereas I was just a Padawan, one with a good reputation yes, but still just a first Padawan of a talented but occasionally troublesome Master. She won, I lost. They gave me the Trials, I passed, and my current status is a Successfully Tried Padawan who has not been promoted to Knight. The same goes for Ben, who quit the Order when they threw me out. Kiari died a few years ago, I believe."
Obi-Wan sat there for a few moments without replying. "It was that simple?"
Kat grinned again. "Yes. I didn't chew out the Council, I didn't try to kill Yoda, and I didn't threaten to or try to destroy the Temple."
"Actually, the current rumor was that you razed the Meditation Gardens to the ground." They smiled at each other.
"Not that I didn't spend a moment thinking about it. But now I run around the galaxy as a star pilot, and use my talents with the Force for communicating with Ben and judging people's characters. With a bit of telekinesis thrown in when necessary."
"Aren't you afraid of turning to the Dark Side without the discipline of the Order?"
"If anything I'm overly paranoid about it, so I suppose the answer is yes, but I don't think I'll be turning to the Dark Side anytime soon. And in certain areas, believe me, the discipline of the Order is over rated."
"So you're glad you left the Order?"
"Sort of. I'm glad they didn't make me stay. What I really wish is that Kiari never lied to the Council, or that the Council would have believed me, and then I would still be a Jedi."
"But you said the discipline of the Order is over rated?"
"Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying the Order or its discipline is a bad thing, I'm not trying to corrupt you or anything, but I'm saying that while it is very useful and practical, it isn't perfect."
Qui-Gon walked into the room, and the discussion turned to stories about her Padawan-ship. Eventually, there was a small disagreement in the order of how often did she beat him at saber duels, and it ended in her challenging him to a practice match.
"If my recollection is correct, however, there is not a place on this ship that is large enough to accommodate such a duel."
"Jinn, you always told me all the duels that ever counted would happen where I didn't want them to, when I didn't want them to, and with someone I didn't want to duel. Afraid of a little cramped quarters?"
"There is no fear, there is the Force. I will be happy to have a practice duel with you."
Kat concentrated a moment, and then spoke. "We'll have to wait a moment, I just woke Ben up. We made a deal, he'd be a spectator for any practice duels between us."
Obi-Wan spoke, "And what do you gain out of this deal?"
"Then I don't have to watch out for Ben to do to me what Jinn here roped Windu into doing to Yoda with him in retaliation for extra meditation sessions. I'm sure you've heard that story."
Obi-Wan chuckled, and Ben entered the room. "All right, I'm here, you may begin." He sat next to Obi-Wan in a corner.
"Gee, thanks for your permission, Ben. Jinn, sabers on practice strength?"
"Yes. Ready?"
"Begin." They drew their sabers, and the duel began.
They ranged all over the room, sometimes graceful, sometimes almost brutally quick. Advantage switched back and forth quickly, Qui-Gon would be on the attack until Kat flipped her wrist in an unorthodox fashion and she would press forward. Qui-Gon just barely had height and weight advantage over Kat, who was a few inches shorter, but he had fought Kat last while her style was still developing, so while she almost always could figure out what he was going to do next, she surprised him more regularly. Qui-Gon's greater experience was balanced by Kat's fascination with obscure and sometimes almost irrational-looking moves that would throw the methodical Master off his stride.
But eventually Qui-Gon seemed to be gaining the advantage more and more often, and Kat was spending more and more of her energy on defense and less on attack. Finally, Qui-Gon seemed about to win, Kat was backing herself into a corner. Finally she only had a ninety degree range of motion in front of her, and Qui-Gon was using that to his advantage.
Then, in an instant, she threw herself to the left, trying to get around Qui-Gon to the freedom of movement that lay beyond him. He brought his saber down over her, and it sliced through the air and-
Missed her head, as she lunged to the right at the last second, slashing her saber across his chest, even as his saber came down on her knees. The left movement had only been a feint, and though she was technically missing her lower legs, Jinn was technically dead, and she had won. A rough and unprofessional move, it had won her the duel.
Jinn was sitting on the deck plate, having thrown himself backwards when she lunged right, and staring at her. "That was a most un-Jedi sort of maneuver."
She was sprawled on her back at his feet, just starting to sit up. "I, you might have noticed, am not a Jedi. And it was perfectly fair, and it won me the duel."
"But it lost you your legs."
"Only the bottom halves of them, and that can be fixed by any decent medic team. And it lost you your life, and was the only way for me to win the duel."
"True enough." They were both standing by now, and they bowed to each other as was customary. Then they put away their sabers, and walked back to Ben and Obi-Wan.
"Pay up." Ben dug a few credits out of his pocket and handed them to Kat, who quickly stashed them on her person.
Obi-Wan held his hand out in the direction of his Master, and Qui-Gon sheepishly handed him a significantly larger number of credits. Obi-Wan was grinning widely and smugly as he pocketed the cash.
Kat and Ben watched the exchange silently, and when Obi-Wan turned to them with a "What, who, me?" look on his face, they burst out laughing.
"Do you two always make bets on your duels, Kenobi?" asked Kat.
"No, not usually."
"Perhaps it would do my Padawan some good to learn from someone as talented as you, Captain."
Kat laughed. "No, no thanks, I'm exhausted. He could try Ben though, we're evenly matched. I have more of a knack with the Force but Ben studies more than I do."
Obi-Wan's eyes were wide. "I don't believe I'd enjoy such a match, Captain."
Ben grinned, a little nastily. "No, I doubt you would." He left, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would have been staring after him in confusion if not for their inborn politeness and training. Kat shrugged and went to catch a nap. Ben had mood swings fairly often, she had gotten used to them a long time ago.
***
It was about three hours before they would come out of hyper space, and Kat and Ben were catching one last good meal before they'd be stuck on the bridge for an extended amount of time. The Jedi were packing their things.
"So I was thinking that we'd spend a day or two here, but then grab a shipment of those fish these folks are so famous for and run them over to Tantooine for a nice profit," Kat said, dreaming of a couple days at the famous Tantooine races.
"Tantooine! That's a border planet! You've got to be kidding, they still have slavery there, we could be captured and enslaved!"
"Ben, that's very unlikely, they're really very careful about not letting that kind of thing happen, they-"
"That's just the rumors they spread to get fresh meat like us over there!" He muttered something to himself, like he sometimes did after one of their stupid arguments when he wasn't getting his way, only this time Kat heard part of it.
"What was that? What assignment? What are you talking about?"
Ben looked up at her exasperated. "Nothing, nothing. I was just talking to myself."
"No, you weren't. You said something about an assignment you wish you'd never accepted, what are you talking about?"
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan entered the room behind Kat, but neither Kat nor Ben noticed them. Ben's frustration was rising every moment. "You mean you've really never guessed, Kat? What, you think I really want to be here? On this stinking, worthless ship, doing trivial cargo runs, just trying to make a buck? When I could have been a Jedi?"
Kat was stunned. "Ben, you never said you regretted coming with me. You didn't have you. You could have stayed in the Order, I wouldn't have blamed-"
"No, Kat, I couldn't have! They wouldn't let me! This is my assignment, you blind idiot, keeping an eye on you for the Order! I've been stuck on this stupid ship with you for over a decade just because the Council ordered me to, since I was the only one who would 'want' to follow you! When I'm the last person that ever wanted to! But I'd rather be weeding the Meditation Gardens at the smallest Temple on the most desolate planet that stay one more minute with you, you mercenary untalented conniving worthless space pirate!"
Kat just sat there, in shock, as he got up and left the room, saying something about packing up.
Qui-Gon moved forward and stood in front of her. He spoke softly, in a gentle tone. "It isn't true, what he said, you know. Lots of people wanted to follow you. But you would only have accepted Ben, so he had to go with you."
She looked up at him, a defiant look in her eye, brought on by her anger at another. "How would you know? Nobody asked me."
"The Jedi have ways, but I didn't need them. I would have left the Order with you, if you had allowed me to do so."
"You would have, eh? Then why didn't you defend me in the hearings? You didn't believe in me from the start of the whole mess."
Qui-Gon glanced down for a moment, then looked into her eyes. "Since Ben has decided to leave you, I am technically allowed to tell you this. You were right, Kiari was lying at those hearings. But not about how she caused the mission to be a failure, she performed her duties well and with courage. She was protecting Ben. He was the one who caused the mission to fail."
Kat just stared at him, uncomprehendingly. "But Ben came with me, he never received any chastisement for that mission."
"The Council did not know this at the time, it was discovered approximately two years after you left. Ben came with you because the Council ordered him to, they did not want you, a powerful fully trained former Jedi, running around the galaxy without them knowing anything about your activities."
"But Ben still never received any chastisement for causing the mission to fail."
"He has, he just doesn't know it. A few days after the truth was discovered, it was decided that if he left the mission he was on, he would be instantly thrown out of the Order. He was not informed of this."
Kat sat up straighter. "That's awfully harsh for just making a mistake-"
"It was not a mistake. He meant the mission to fail from the beginning. Of course Kiari didn't know this or she never would have defended him. The opposition promised him a paradise for the rest of his life if he sabotaged the mission. He was unable to take them up on it because he had to follow you around, and act like he never did anything wrong."
Kat's face went through a myriad of emotions, hurt, despair, anger, regret, and finally accusation. "You still never believed in me. You didn't defend me to the Council. You didn't try to make them let me stay in the Order."
"I tried to, in private. It was the only time I have begged Master Yoda for anything. They would not allow me to defend you in public, they could not allow you to think that anyone condoned your actions."
The betrayal of her life partner, the sudden unexpected approval from her former Master, and the revelation of events she had not known about was too much for her. She stood and pushed past Obi-Wan, and locked herself in her cabin.
***
An hour later, she heard a knock at her door. She finished splashing water on her face, and called, "Who is it?" irritably.
"Just me. Do you want to talk?" It was Obi-Wan. The one man on this ship she could deal with at the moment, and it probably would be a good idea to let at least one of the Jedi know she was okay. She unlocked the door and let him in.
"Are you alright?"
"Other than the man I've loved for the past decade telling me he never loved me in the first place, finding out I was right all along about what got me kicked out of the Order sort of, and discovering that Qui-Gon did defend me when all these years he didn't care-" she half-sobbed the last part, then regrouped, "I'm fine. How are you?"
"I'm in much better shape than you are."
She snorted. "Yeah, be grateful for it."
"I am. I am curious about one thing though. Your reaction to all of this has been textbook, from what I understand of your character, except for one part."
Kat raised her eyebrows at him. "Ask me about it, I might answer."
"Ben's betrayal hurts you a lot less than when you believed Qui-Gon betrayed you."
She stared at him for a moment, then turned away. "That, Kenobi, is precisely the question I won't answer. If you absolutely can't stand not knowing, ask Qui-Gon about the time we protected the Yssirian diplomatic couple on a lower level Coruscant bar crawl."
He tried to talk to her again, but she didn't answer, just stared at the wall. So he left.
***
He went straight to Qui-Gon, of course. He wasn't sure that he should ask, but what choice did he have? "Master?"
"Yes, Obi-Wan?" He was tired, and wasn't all that patient, and though his training helped him hide it, Obi-Wan could tell.
"I asked Kat why her thinking that you betrayed her all those years ago hurt more than Ben's betraying her today."
Qui-Gon sat up straighter and listened closely, he hadn't noticed that. "Not the most tactful of questions, Padawan, but you've already asked it, so why are you telling me about it?"
"She said that she wouldn't answer, but if I wanted to know, to ask you about the time you protected a Yssirian diplomatic couple on a bar crawl through the lower levels."
His mind flew back through the years. The bar.
It was just a few years before the mess with Kiari and Ben, Kat was a young woman and he was still young enough to be an upstart trouble-making sort of Master. They had been assigned to a pair of diplomats that were legendary for their partying. Qui-Gon and Kat were the only male/female pair that were available, worked together often, and looked the part, so they got the job.
When it happened, they had been in an upscale place, compared to some of the places in the lower levels. It had an actual dance floor that was built for that purpose and played a lot of slow songs. Not to mention the drinks weren't watered nearly as much as usual, and though they could control their metabolism, they did not expect the drinks to be that potent, and so for awhile they were lightly intoxicated. Not enough for losing serious motor control or anything, just a warm, relaxing glow. The diplomats had gotten up to dance, and so of course they had to also, to be able to stay within eyesight.
They were careful not to watch the diplomats in an obvious way, they took turns watching the couple and watching the room, then they would circle around the couple and switch. Eventually, they were each switching from one to the other, and their eyes met in the middle.
The music was soft and slow, they were each a little more relaxed than they should have thanks to the potent drinks, and the attraction, while unspoken, had been growing between them for years. They leaned in, they stopped, just a breath away from each other.
And their lips met. Neither could say who had kissed who, but they weren't worrying about that.
It wasn't a legendary sort of thing, it was just a kiss, not spectacular. But there was something there that had been missing from all of the previous kisses they had experienced with other people.
They pulled back, and looked into each others' eyes. They held it there, just for a moment, and endless moment of peace, of fearful questions, of trust, of anxiety.
And suddenly realized they were on a mission, they were protecting a highly important, and highly mischievous couple. They went back to the job. They never spoke of it again.
But it had given to each of them, unknown to the other, a small, but bright, ray of hope.
Qui-Gon stood, and went to Kat's cabin.
***
"Kat, let me in!" he roared.
She opened the door and stared at him, furious. "I told you to call me Captain, Jinn. That is a name that you have no reason to use."
"Then why did you tell my Padawan to ask me about the Yssirian diplomatic mission?"
The color drained out of her face. "You don't mean that he actually… why that little-"
"And there's only one reason I can think of why you would have used that moment as an explanation."
"And what's that?"
He let his frustration show. "Kat, don't play games with me. I need to hear you say it."
Kat stared into his eyes and heard herself speak. "Because I thought I was betrayed by the man I loved, by the man I hoped might, someday, love me."
And suddenly she was in his arms, and suddenly they were sharing a most spectacular kiss.
***
***
***
Epilogue:
Ben tried going back to the planet that the original mission with Kiari occurred on, and he arrived there only to find that the faction the Jedi had been sent there to assist was finally in power. He was discovered and is now four years into his sentence of a lifetime of hard labor.
Obi-Wan is now training Anakin. He is a well-respected Master of the Order.
Qui-Gon is dead two years now, and one with the Force.
Kat has been reinstated as a Jedi, and after re-taking the Trials, achieved the rank of Knight. She has since achieved the level of Master, and is training a Padawan while also helping to raise hers and Qui-Gon's children, the twins, Hope and Will, named for the two things that kept them going all those years apart, and that keep her going now.
And Yoda, as always, is short, green, and terrorizing Padawans. But no one has tried levitating him over the Meditation Gardens lately.
THE END
Author: Quin
Disclaimer: None of the Phantom Menace characters belong to me, they belong to George Lucas, and I'm just borrowing them. I've never read the Jedi Apprentice series, so I don't know some specifics, suspend your disbelief.
Archiving: Yes please, but tell me first, and don't change anything!
Summary: A few years before TPM, Qui-Gon runs into his first apprentice, who is no longer a Jedi, and adventure and angst ensue. Mary Sue-ish. Recently re-done and re-posted
Rating: PG
***
Kat glanced through the ramp view port before opening the door. The two passengers for this trip were somewhat mysterious, she didn't usually allow somebody on her ship before at least a quick interview. But this was a favor for an old friend, who was doing a favor for an old friend, and who knew how long that chain went on. So here she was, picking up people she'd never met.
The passengers were facing away from her, watching the crowds. Both men, it looked like one was very tall, and the other one looked a bit shorter than herself. Both were well-built, as well as she could tell, and had the relaxed manner that only very experienced travelers could handle in the middle of a bustling spaceport.
It was then that she spotted the braid that the shorter one was wearing, and apparently trying to hide by way of an odd looking hat. Great, Jedi. Of all people in the galaxies, it had to be Jedi. The Padawan turned around to face the ramp, and noticed her at the port. He said something to the taller man, presumably the Master, who turned to face the ramp door.
Oh, crap. "Ben! Ben, get yourself to the ramp right now!"
Her life partner came around the bend in the corridor at a full run, and stopped just barely before running into her. "Kat, how many times have I asked that you use the bond instead of shouting? I-"
"Ben, take a look at who our passengers are and tell me if you really care about your headache."
He glanced out the view port. His eyes widened slightly, and he turned back to look at Kat with a stunned look on his face. "This has got to be a joke."
"If it is, the pranksters can consider themselves fair game for a good old- fashioned-"
"Kat! We're going to have to watch ourselves with him, might as well start now."
"Oh, please, like Jinn has never done it himself. Who do you think taught me?"
"In that case, consider yourself a future victim if you two duel and I'm not there."
"Aye, sir, Captain, sir."
"Don't be sarcastic. Kat, relax, you're anxious, it's perfectly normal."
"This is not normal in any way, shape or form, by the Force!"
"Your reaction is normal, not the situation. But let's let them in before they start wondering what's going on. Thank the Fates mental shields are your specialty, we'll need them."
"Fine, I'll let them onboard. But Dan-Go had better have a really, really good reason why it had to be these two."
Kat opened the door and extended the ramp. She went down to greet Jinn and his Padawan and Ben remained at the top of the ramp, as usual. Jinn, of course, recognized her immediately, but didn't allow himself to show it. His Padawan had no reason to recognize her as they had never met.
"Jinn. I take it you and your Padawan here are my passengers?"
"Yes, little one, allow me to introduce my Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Padawan, this is Kat-Li Jedibi."
"Pleased to meet you, Kenobi. You may both call me Captain. Ready to go?"
Jinn nodded, and they walked up the ramp. Ben waited for them to enter the ship, and then retracted the ramp and closed the doors. "Jinn, you remember Ben, my life partner. Ben, this is Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jinn's Padawan. Kenobi, Ben-San Veridi."
"Happy to have you aboard, Kenobi. Kat, ready when you are."
"Jinn, Kenobi, this is a Standard Design ship, I trust you both know your way around? You have your pick of staterooms, you're the only passengers this trip. Get ready for lift-off, we'll be leaving shortly." Kat and Ben headed for the bridge, and the Jedi headed for the passenger section of the ship.
***
Obi-Wan observed as much as possible about the meeting, as was his standing order from his Master. The Captain, this Jedibi, was a confident woman, confident in herself, her ship, and from what he could tell in her life partner, Veridi. They were odd star-pilots in that they wore both light sabers and blasters. Veridi was just slightly taller than her, his heavier build just short of lumbering, her lighter form just this side of solid. His hair was short, shorn in a peculiar pattern that not many people other than Jedis would recognize as a sign of advanced Force training for those not in the Order. That showed a certain amount of pride and belief in fair play, at least with those who recognized the hair style. Jedibi had her black hair in a tight bun at the nape of her neck, a practical style signifying nothing. So she must be more interested in being inconspicuous, which made since considering….
He sighed. There was something unsettling about meeting one's Master's former Padawan, especially when she was no longer a Jedi and one was stuck on a small ship with her for a Standard Week. And then there were those rumors around the Temple. Not that he believed them. Well, not all of them.
***
Lift off was done, the ship was in hyper space, and now there was nothing left but the week's wait. Kat was in the Common Room, watching a holo, and Ben was in their cabin catching a nap. They made a practice of one of them always being awake, their Jedi training being of great use.
Obi-Wan came into the room quietly, and was so close to speaking Kat nearly interrupted him. "It isn't bright to sneak up on former Jedi, Kenobi."
"I was certainly not sneaking up on you, Captain. A Jedi-"
"Is not deceptive. Right. It's a crock, and you know it. Don't tell me Jinn never told you what he roped Windu into helping him do to Yoda in retaliation for the extra meditation sessions."
Kenobi decided to skip that subject. "How did you know that I knew that you were-"
"Jinn's first Padawan? Or were you going to take is slow and ask how I knew you know that I was a Jedi? Simple, Padawans always want to know about the Padawans their Masters had before them, and since no Jedi would ever ask Jinn about Xanatos, you've probably heard all kinds of stories about me. Including why I left the Order."
"Yes. But those who told them to me did not necessarily tell the true story."
Kat turned around to look at him. "Never thought I see the day when I'd see the day when another Padawan accused members of the Order of lying."
Obi-Wan's face turned red. "I was not accusing them of anything but fallible memories and personal feelings that might obscure the tales, Captain."
Kat grinned. "Oh, but you are smooth! Have a seat, kid. You've earned the right to hear the stories from the source, if you've a wish."
Obi-Wan nodded, and sat across from her. She continued, "But I'm not telling you any you haven't heard before, so you'll have to ask for them specifically."
He knew better than to ask for the big story first, so he led up with a softer one. "Some people say that you beat Master Windu in a saber duel when you were seventeen."
"Actually, I was three days from my eighteenth birthday when that happened. Yes, I trounced him quite thoroughly. Jinn's a fair swordsman after all, and he taught me well."
"But they say that you did it by beating the Xircaran Defense in a way that no one had ever seen before, nor has been able to emulate."
"Well, the first part's true, he was using the Xicaran Defense when I beat him, but though the move I used was very obscure, I did not create it. Jinn did not teach it to me, there was an ambassador visiting the Temple who was a student of particularly unknown saber moves. I learned that move approximately five days before the match with Windu. It's called the Girac Maneuver, look it up yourself."
"What about the story that you levitated Yoda while he was sleeping and held him on top of the highest spire of the Temple until he woke up?"
Kat laughed. "It wasn't the highest spire, if I had done that he might not have been able to breathe. I did that in the Meditation Garden, he was maybe 50 meters in the air. And I wouldn't suggest trying it, I was scrubbing walls and weeding gardens for half a Standard Year."
Obi-Wan winced. "And what about your name? It's obviously related to 'Jedi,' but nobody's figured it out, and Yoda seems to know about it but nobody dares to ask him about it."
"Simple. I was a foundling. I was placed on the steps of the Temple, and Master Windu found me the next morning. So the Jedi is the only family I have. Jedibi means "of the Jedi" in the Old Language. If I hadn't been Force sensitive, they would have trained me as something else, I suppose."
Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows at this new piece of information. Foundlings that were Force-strong were pretty rare. "Um, then, what about, uh, the time-"
"Running out of questions?"
"No! Of course not. Uh, there was the time-"
"That I got kicked out of the Order?"
"Well, yes."
"I accused Ben's Master of lying about a diplomatic mission to the Council. Kiari had better contacts than I did, and was a highly respected Master that had been handling delicate missions for decades. She was about as old as Jinn is now, and Ben was her third Padawan. Whereas I was just a Padawan, one with a good reputation yes, but still just a first Padawan of a talented but occasionally troublesome Master. She won, I lost. They gave me the Trials, I passed, and my current status is a Successfully Tried Padawan who has not been promoted to Knight. The same goes for Ben, who quit the Order when they threw me out. Kiari died a few years ago, I believe."
Obi-Wan sat there for a few moments without replying. "It was that simple?"
Kat grinned again. "Yes. I didn't chew out the Council, I didn't try to kill Yoda, and I didn't threaten to or try to destroy the Temple."
"Actually, the current rumor was that you razed the Meditation Gardens to the ground." They smiled at each other.
"Not that I didn't spend a moment thinking about it. But now I run around the galaxy as a star pilot, and use my talents with the Force for communicating with Ben and judging people's characters. With a bit of telekinesis thrown in when necessary."
"Aren't you afraid of turning to the Dark Side without the discipline of the Order?"
"If anything I'm overly paranoid about it, so I suppose the answer is yes, but I don't think I'll be turning to the Dark Side anytime soon. And in certain areas, believe me, the discipline of the Order is over rated."
"So you're glad you left the Order?"
"Sort of. I'm glad they didn't make me stay. What I really wish is that Kiari never lied to the Council, or that the Council would have believed me, and then I would still be a Jedi."
"But you said the discipline of the Order is over rated?"
"Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying the Order or its discipline is a bad thing, I'm not trying to corrupt you or anything, but I'm saying that while it is very useful and practical, it isn't perfect."
Qui-Gon walked into the room, and the discussion turned to stories about her Padawan-ship. Eventually, there was a small disagreement in the order of how often did she beat him at saber duels, and it ended in her challenging him to a practice match.
"If my recollection is correct, however, there is not a place on this ship that is large enough to accommodate such a duel."
"Jinn, you always told me all the duels that ever counted would happen where I didn't want them to, when I didn't want them to, and with someone I didn't want to duel. Afraid of a little cramped quarters?"
"There is no fear, there is the Force. I will be happy to have a practice duel with you."
Kat concentrated a moment, and then spoke. "We'll have to wait a moment, I just woke Ben up. We made a deal, he'd be a spectator for any practice duels between us."
Obi-Wan spoke, "And what do you gain out of this deal?"
"Then I don't have to watch out for Ben to do to me what Jinn here roped Windu into doing to Yoda with him in retaliation for extra meditation sessions. I'm sure you've heard that story."
Obi-Wan chuckled, and Ben entered the room. "All right, I'm here, you may begin." He sat next to Obi-Wan in a corner.
"Gee, thanks for your permission, Ben. Jinn, sabers on practice strength?"
"Yes. Ready?"
"Begin." They drew their sabers, and the duel began.
They ranged all over the room, sometimes graceful, sometimes almost brutally quick. Advantage switched back and forth quickly, Qui-Gon would be on the attack until Kat flipped her wrist in an unorthodox fashion and she would press forward. Qui-Gon just barely had height and weight advantage over Kat, who was a few inches shorter, but he had fought Kat last while her style was still developing, so while she almost always could figure out what he was going to do next, she surprised him more regularly. Qui-Gon's greater experience was balanced by Kat's fascination with obscure and sometimes almost irrational-looking moves that would throw the methodical Master off his stride.
But eventually Qui-Gon seemed to be gaining the advantage more and more often, and Kat was spending more and more of her energy on defense and less on attack. Finally, Qui-Gon seemed about to win, Kat was backing herself into a corner. Finally she only had a ninety degree range of motion in front of her, and Qui-Gon was using that to his advantage.
Then, in an instant, she threw herself to the left, trying to get around Qui-Gon to the freedom of movement that lay beyond him. He brought his saber down over her, and it sliced through the air and-
Missed her head, as she lunged to the right at the last second, slashing her saber across his chest, even as his saber came down on her knees. The left movement had only been a feint, and though she was technically missing her lower legs, Jinn was technically dead, and she had won. A rough and unprofessional move, it had won her the duel.
Jinn was sitting on the deck plate, having thrown himself backwards when she lunged right, and staring at her. "That was a most un-Jedi sort of maneuver."
She was sprawled on her back at his feet, just starting to sit up. "I, you might have noticed, am not a Jedi. And it was perfectly fair, and it won me the duel."
"But it lost you your legs."
"Only the bottom halves of them, and that can be fixed by any decent medic team. And it lost you your life, and was the only way for me to win the duel."
"True enough." They were both standing by now, and they bowed to each other as was customary. Then they put away their sabers, and walked back to Ben and Obi-Wan.
"Pay up." Ben dug a few credits out of his pocket and handed them to Kat, who quickly stashed them on her person.
Obi-Wan held his hand out in the direction of his Master, and Qui-Gon sheepishly handed him a significantly larger number of credits. Obi-Wan was grinning widely and smugly as he pocketed the cash.
Kat and Ben watched the exchange silently, and when Obi-Wan turned to them with a "What, who, me?" look on his face, they burst out laughing.
"Do you two always make bets on your duels, Kenobi?" asked Kat.
"No, not usually."
"Perhaps it would do my Padawan some good to learn from someone as talented as you, Captain."
Kat laughed. "No, no thanks, I'm exhausted. He could try Ben though, we're evenly matched. I have more of a knack with the Force but Ben studies more than I do."
Obi-Wan's eyes were wide. "I don't believe I'd enjoy such a match, Captain."
Ben grinned, a little nastily. "No, I doubt you would." He left, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would have been staring after him in confusion if not for their inborn politeness and training. Kat shrugged and went to catch a nap. Ben had mood swings fairly often, she had gotten used to them a long time ago.
***
It was about three hours before they would come out of hyper space, and Kat and Ben were catching one last good meal before they'd be stuck on the bridge for an extended amount of time. The Jedi were packing their things.
"So I was thinking that we'd spend a day or two here, but then grab a shipment of those fish these folks are so famous for and run them over to Tantooine for a nice profit," Kat said, dreaming of a couple days at the famous Tantooine races.
"Tantooine! That's a border planet! You've got to be kidding, they still have slavery there, we could be captured and enslaved!"
"Ben, that's very unlikely, they're really very careful about not letting that kind of thing happen, they-"
"That's just the rumors they spread to get fresh meat like us over there!" He muttered something to himself, like he sometimes did after one of their stupid arguments when he wasn't getting his way, only this time Kat heard part of it.
"What was that? What assignment? What are you talking about?"
Ben looked up at her exasperated. "Nothing, nothing. I was just talking to myself."
"No, you weren't. You said something about an assignment you wish you'd never accepted, what are you talking about?"
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan entered the room behind Kat, but neither Kat nor Ben noticed them. Ben's frustration was rising every moment. "You mean you've really never guessed, Kat? What, you think I really want to be here? On this stinking, worthless ship, doing trivial cargo runs, just trying to make a buck? When I could have been a Jedi?"
Kat was stunned. "Ben, you never said you regretted coming with me. You didn't have you. You could have stayed in the Order, I wouldn't have blamed-"
"No, Kat, I couldn't have! They wouldn't let me! This is my assignment, you blind idiot, keeping an eye on you for the Order! I've been stuck on this stupid ship with you for over a decade just because the Council ordered me to, since I was the only one who would 'want' to follow you! When I'm the last person that ever wanted to! But I'd rather be weeding the Meditation Gardens at the smallest Temple on the most desolate planet that stay one more minute with you, you mercenary untalented conniving worthless space pirate!"
Kat just sat there, in shock, as he got up and left the room, saying something about packing up.
Qui-Gon moved forward and stood in front of her. He spoke softly, in a gentle tone. "It isn't true, what he said, you know. Lots of people wanted to follow you. But you would only have accepted Ben, so he had to go with you."
She looked up at him, a defiant look in her eye, brought on by her anger at another. "How would you know? Nobody asked me."
"The Jedi have ways, but I didn't need them. I would have left the Order with you, if you had allowed me to do so."
"You would have, eh? Then why didn't you defend me in the hearings? You didn't believe in me from the start of the whole mess."
Qui-Gon glanced down for a moment, then looked into her eyes. "Since Ben has decided to leave you, I am technically allowed to tell you this. You were right, Kiari was lying at those hearings. But not about how she caused the mission to be a failure, she performed her duties well and with courage. She was protecting Ben. He was the one who caused the mission to fail."
Kat just stared at him, uncomprehendingly. "But Ben came with me, he never received any chastisement for that mission."
"The Council did not know this at the time, it was discovered approximately two years after you left. Ben came with you because the Council ordered him to, they did not want you, a powerful fully trained former Jedi, running around the galaxy without them knowing anything about your activities."
"But Ben still never received any chastisement for causing the mission to fail."
"He has, he just doesn't know it. A few days after the truth was discovered, it was decided that if he left the mission he was on, he would be instantly thrown out of the Order. He was not informed of this."
Kat sat up straighter. "That's awfully harsh for just making a mistake-"
"It was not a mistake. He meant the mission to fail from the beginning. Of course Kiari didn't know this or she never would have defended him. The opposition promised him a paradise for the rest of his life if he sabotaged the mission. He was unable to take them up on it because he had to follow you around, and act like he never did anything wrong."
Kat's face went through a myriad of emotions, hurt, despair, anger, regret, and finally accusation. "You still never believed in me. You didn't defend me to the Council. You didn't try to make them let me stay in the Order."
"I tried to, in private. It was the only time I have begged Master Yoda for anything. They would not allow me to defend you in public, they could not allow you to think that anyone condoned your actions."
The betrayal of her life partner, the sudden unexpected approval from her former Master, and the revelation of events she had not known about was too much for her. She stood and pushed past Obi-Wan, and locked herself in her cabin.
***
An hour later, she heard a knock at her door. She finished splashing water on her face, and called, "Who is it?" irritably.
"Just me. Do you want to talk?" It was Obi-Wan. The one man on this ship she could deal with at the moment, and it probably would be a good idea to let at least one of the Jedi know she was okay. She unlocked the door and let him in.
"Are you alright?"
"Other than the man I've loved for the past decade telling me he never loved me in the first place, finding out I was right all along about what got me kicked out of the Order sort of, and discovering that Qui-Gon did defend me when all these years he didn't care-" she half-sobbed the last part, then regrouped, "I'm fine. How are you?"
"I'm in much better shape than you are."
She snorted. "Yeah, be grateful for it."
"I am. I am curious about one thing though. Your reaction to all of this has been textbook, from what I understand of your character, except for one part."
Kat raised her eyebrows at him. "Ask me about it, I might answer."
"Ben's betrayal hurts you a lot less than when you believed Qui-Gon betrayed you."
She stared at him for a moment, then turned away. "That, Kenobi, is precisely the question I won't answer. If you absolutely can't stand not knowing, ask Qui-Gon about the time we protected the Yssirian diplomatic couple on a lower level Coruscant bar crawl."
He tried to talk to her again, but she didn't answer, just stared at the wall. So he left.
***
He went straight to Qui-Gon, of course. He wasn't sure that he should ask, but what choice did he have? "Master?"
"Yes, Obi-Wan?" He was tired, and wasn't all that patient, and though his training helped him hide it, Obi-Wan could tell.
"I asked Kat why her thinking that you betrayed her all those years ago hurt more than Ben's betraying her today."
Qui-Gon sat up straighter and listened closely, he hadn't noticed that. "Not the most tactful of questions, Padawan, but you've already asked it, so why are you telling me about it?"
"She said that she wouldn't answer, but if I wanted to know, to ask you about the time you protected a Yssirian diplomatic couple on a bar crawl through the lower levels."
His mind flew back through the years. The bar.
It was just a few years before the mess with Kiari and Ben, Kat was a young woman and he was still young enough to be an upstart trouble-making sort of Master. They had been assigned to a pair of diplomats that were legendary for their partying. Qui-Gon and Kat were the only male/female pair that were available, worked together often, and looked the part, so they got the job.
When it happened, they had been in an upscale place, compared to some of the places in the lower levels. It had an actual dance floor that was built for that purpose and played a lot of slow songs. Not to mention the drinks weren't watered nearly as much as usual, and though they could control their metabolism, they did not expect the drinks to be that potent, and so for awhile they were lightly intoxicated. Not enough for losing serious motor control or anything, just a warm, relaxing glow. The diplomats had gotten up to dance, and so of course they had to also, to be able to stay within eyesight.
They were careful not to watch the diplomats in an obvious way, they took turns watching the couple and watching the room, then they would circle around the couple and switch. Eventually, they were each switching from one to the other, and their eyes met in the middle.
The music was soft and slow, they were each a little more relaxed than they should have thanks to the potent drinks, and the attraction, while unspoken, had been growing between them for years. They leaned in, they stopped, just a breath away from each other.
And their lips met. Neither could say who had kissed who, but they weren't worrying about that.
It wasn't a legendary sort of thing, it was just a kiss, not spectacular. But there was something there that had been missing from all of the previous kisses they had experienced with other people.
They pulled back, and looked into each others' eyes. They held it there, just for a moment, and endless moment of peace, of fearful questions, of trust, of anxiety.
And suddenly realized they were on a mission, they were protecting a highly important, and highly mischievous couple. They went back to the job. They never spoke of it again.
But it had given to each of them, unknown to the other, a small, but bright, ray of hope.
Qui-Gon stood, and went to Kat's cabin.
***
"Kat, let me in!" he roared.
She opened the door and stared at him, furious. "I told you to call me Captain, Jinn. That is a name that you have no reason to use."
"Then why did you tell my Padawan to ask me about the Yssirian diplomatic mission?"
The color drained out of her face. "You don't mean that he actually… why that little-"
"And there's only one reason I can think of why you would have used that moment as an explanation."
"And what's that?"
He let his frustration show. "Kat, don't play games with me. I need to hear you say it."
Kat stared into his eyes and heard herself speak. "Because I thought I was betrayed by the man I loved, by the man I hoped might, someday, love me."
And suddenly she was in his arms, and suddenly they were sharing a most spectacular kiss.
***
***
***
Epilogue:
Ben tried going back to the planet that the original mission with Kiari occurred on, and he arrived there only to find that the faction the Jedi had been sent there to assist was finally in power. He was discovered and is now four years into his sentence of a lifetime of hard labor.
Obi-Wan is now training Anakin. He is a well-respected Master of the Order.
Qui-Gon is dead two years now, and one with the Force.
Kat has been reinstated as a Jedi, and after re-taking the Trials, achieved the rank of Knight. She has since achieved the level of Master, and is training a Padawan while also helping to raise hers and Qui-Gon's children, the twins, Hope and Will, named for the two things that kept them going all those years apart, and that keep her going now.
And Yoda, as always, is short, green, and terrorizing Padawans. But no one has tried levitating him over the Meditation Gardens lately.
THE END