Title: Vision
Author: Jenn
Rating: K
Timeline: Obi-Wan is 14. This is after JA 13. Eleven years before TPM.
Category: Angst and POV. Also loving father/son relationship between Qui- Gon and Obi-Wan. So if that bothers you, don't read. Non-slash.
Spoilers: Minor ones for JA 1-13. Minor ones for Ep 3.
Summary: While on a on a survival training mission, Qui-Gon thinks about the past year he has spent with Obi-Wan and has a vision of the future while the boy sleeps.
Archive: Anywhere, but please ask me first.
Feedback: Sure
Disclaimers: George Lucas who made Star Wars owns everyone in it. Copyrights go to him and Lucasfilms and Lucasarts. I make no profit from this story, but the other characters are mine.
Thoughts and significant words in *in* and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan talking in their bond //in//
Dedicated to everyone who wrote a fic on Qui-Gon while he watched over Obi- Wan as he slept. Also I want to thank Jane for betaing this for me, and helping me touch up the story.
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As I watched the stars coming out, shining one by one as they came, they reminded me more of nature than all the other the living creatures of this planet. Tuning, I saw Obi-Wan trying to cover yet another yawn, without success.
Both of us had been up for more than 30 hours straight. I knew that Obi-Wan would not say that he was tired and ask for rest. On the contrary, he felt he needed to stay awake to focus on learning and training here.
"Obi-Wan, we will stop here and rest for the night."
Obi-Wan looked at me for a moment, not sure how to take the news. I knew that my Padawan had expected another long night of walking through these woods without rest. The boy nodded ever so slowly, not meaning to show how weary he was.
Even though it had been some time since we both had eaten, neither one of us were that hungry. I didn't think Obi-Wan would stay up long enough to eat. As soon as he laid out his blanket and shifted here and there a few times to get comfortable, he was asleep in an instant.
As I watched Obi-Wan sleep, my thoughts drifted back to when I first met him. I had been impressed with his use of a lightsaber. Altough he shouldn't have attacked and assume Bruck's move just to end the match quickly with him.
I knew at the time, that with the proper training Obi-Wan would learn to grow pass that and not be so hasty. But at the time, I was not the one to train him. I was not *ready* to train him.
Even when Master Yoda tried to put the boy and me together, I was too stubborn to see it. When I saw time and again that Obi-Wan would make a fine Padawan learner and even Knight one day, I only looked at his flaws. The Force definitely tried, but I was too blinded by the pain and memories Xanatos left behind. I had considered to wait and see if I should train Obi- Wan, but I was delaying it, and it took my Padawan risking his life for me before I could see the truth.
Melida/Daan. Neither Obi-Wan nor I talked about what happened there much anymore, but I think we both learned from it. We both made mistakes that changed us, but it was a growing experience for Obi-Wan as well as myself. Even with everything that had happened there, I had not been sure I would take Obi-Wan back again because of what he'd done. I didn't know if I could trust him again.
When I wanted to find Xanatos to bring him to justice, I wasn't sure of Obi- Wan's motives for accompanying me were. Even when we fought Xanatos, he wasn't as quick with his strikes as he had been when I had first seen him.
During much time at the Temple, we grow more into a Master/Padawan team, a process that should have started when Obi-Wan become my student. Even though he was still on probation, I still continued to think of him as my Padawan learner.
Now what had happened, not too long ago, left no doubts about my trust in Obi-Wan. I completely trust him, but what had happened with Jenna Zan Arbor; only confirmed my thoughts that he would be a fine Knight one day. His loyalty and perseverance in looking for me touched me more than I could say.
I could stay up longer if need be, but I, too, was slightly drained. A light trance should help that. I could still be aware of what was around us without going to sleep.
As my body relaxed, my mind drifted on it's own.
I was looking from a small distance, there were two men sparring near a volcanic lip.
Normally if we were at the Temple long enough, it was a treat for both Obi- Wan and me at the Temple to see a sparring tournament or just to watch another team practice.
As I watched the two blue lightsabers, I knew that this was no friendly spar. It was a fight to the death. Although I could not see their faces, I could see their emotions, expressed in their styles.
The one man's fighting style didn't look too different from Obi-Wan's style. The Jedi's was more refined then my Padawan, and even my own. He would attack from time to time, but he was on the defense more often. He was hesitant to hit where it would severely injure or kill the other man. Who was this other man that he was unwilling to strike at? For I knew that if he didn't do anything, the other man would kill him.
The other man was just as good a swordsman as well. He didn't have the maturity of the other man, but he had youthfulness and power in his strokes. He wasn't hesitating at all to attack, and he was using his lightsaber in an angry, hateful way. His techniques were not how Jedi used their skill, they were more of darkness.
As they fought, feelings of despair and melancholy come over me. I didn't understand why I felt the way I did, but I also felt like this fight I was witnessing was somehow my doing. I couldn't possibly know the two men fighting to the death. Somehow, as much as I wanted to stop them from dueling, I could not.
Then, as if the battle were too much for him, the man I had first noticed, stopped. He must have been about to say something, but the other man brought his saber down, intending to cut him in half. The blow was deflected, but barely.
The younger man continued to deliver blow after blow, his blue saber a blur in the wind. He wasn't able touch the older man, though. The older man remained on the defensive, not attacking back in anger, but in defense.
I was not sure why, but I could almost feel the older man's pain and sorrow. His emotions were not as apparent as the other's, but I sensed that he was angry as well, though at himself, and not at the younger man.
Finally he stopped and looked at his opponent. Was he going to let his enemy kill him?
The other stopped as well. He raised his lightsaber above his head. He yelled in a loud voice that even I could hear, "It is all your fault, *Master*!" The familiarity of the name sent a chill down my shine. The youth had said it with such anger and hatred.
He rushed at his mentor. The other, the man's master, moved out of the way. The apprentice couldn't stop in time. He fell into the lava pit, but managed to grab the lip of the rocky surface.
The master jumped to the edge to grab ahold of the youth. One of his hands caught the young man's lightsaber, and the other reached for the hand with which the younger man was clinging to the side to the pit. Just as his had brushed that of his pupil, however, the younger man let go and fell into the fiery lava below.
"No!"
The word came to my ears. I heard my own voice as well as the other man's.
Then I felt myself being shaken and a voice called from far away. //"Master! Wake up!"//
I was jumped, startled. I looked around me, and saw Obi-Wan's face inches from my own, looking at me in concern. "Master?" his voice inquiring.
Standing up, I looked around, trying to come to terms with what I had seen. I hadn't been able to see the mens' faces, but their robes were definitely Jedi robes. Who were they, this Master and his Padawan?
"Master, what happened?" asked Obi-Wan watching me closely. He had been watching me for the past month after my capture.
I made my decision then. "Nothing, Padawan." I would not worry him with something that was probably nothing.
Obi-Wan looked as if he wanted to protest. But all he said was, "Very well. But if you what to talk, I will listen."
I smiled. "I will keep that in mind."
Obi-Wan returned my smile.
Obi-Wan had grown a great deal throughout the time we had been together. He still had much to learn, but now was not the time to think of the future. It was time to live for the moment.
Obi-Wan's stomach growled then. A hint of embarrassment touched his cheeks.
Shaking my head, I knew some things didn't change. Smiling, I said, "Let's look for breakfast."
"Yes." Obi-Wan quickly cleaned up the camp.
As we started out, the sun broke though the sky, promising a new day.
The End