SCARY-SUE
by ardavenport
- - - Part 7 - - -
Obi-Wan.
Qui-Gon's voice startled him out of a gray stupor. Had he slept again? Had he been dreaming?
On his left, the portal back into his world hung open again, blackness filling the doorway in the wall. Susan stood staring at a sparkling 'window' into it, her hands on her hips.
"What are you doing? Don't go in there you stupid, stupid elf," she hissed. "We don't need any more water. I can't see you. Just get the rest of their things before he comes back!" She bounced impatiently in place.
Obi-Wan brought his arms up under the covering, his fingers curving around the edge of it under his chin.
"Oh, finally!" Susan huffed. "Yes, get it all." She stepped back.
Flekky stepped through, tottering and all but hidden under the weight of the packs and gear from the cabin.
"Put them over there," She turned to point where she wanted him to go.
Behind her a green lightsaber snapped on, held high by Qui-Gon Jinn, stepping through the blackness. Susan gasped and, backing away, fumbled in a side pocket of her long dark blue tunic.
Obi-Wan threw the coverings off and pushed himself up from the sleep platform, clumsily, but his body did what he told it to.
"Qui-Gon!" he shouted.
Qui-Gon's eyes flicked toward him and then widened with shock, distress and distraction.
"Impedimenta!" Susan shouted. Qui-Gon went down, his legs whipped out from under him, his saber going out. But he rolled to the side, not back out through the portal. Obi-Wan steadied himself against one heavy carved canopy post to keep her from tripping him as well. Beyond Susan, he saw his clothes, neatly laid out and lined up on a table. And his lightsaber.
"Accio Lightsaber!" he called. It came swiftly to his outstretched hand, the blue blade coming to life. Obi-Wan saw his arm nearly covered with every color of bruise there could be.
Flekkly shrieked and, clutching his long ears, fled to the opposite side of the room.
"Get her wand!" he shouted.
"Confundo!" Susan yelled in panic, but his saber blade caught and absorbed the stream of purple light that came at him as Qui-Gon leaped up, his saber swinging.
"Prote - - !"
Qui-Gon's blade came hissing down on the small stick. A loud bang and a blinding white flash threw Susan and Qui-Gon back away from each other. Flekky screamed.
Still blinking from the after-image of the flash, Obi-Wan felt the floor rumble under his feet. He deactivated his lightsaber.
"Oh. Oh, no!" Susan cried from the floor, half her wand, with a charred end, still clutched in her hand. The room rumbled, ominous and low. "Oh no!" she wailed, sitting up from the floor.
"Obi-Wan!"
Extinguishing his saber, Qui-Gon rushed to him, putting his arm around him for support. Strong enough to stand on his own, Obi-Wan still felt grateful for the contact with Qui-Gon, fresh from their world, alive with the Force.
Then he saw the section of wall that led into Susan's world swinging open.
Flekkly screamed, hopping back and Susan, still on the floor, scrambled backwards from it, too.
Two Human males came through, both wearing black, open robes over tunics and pants. And they both held wands.
"Whoa! What is this?" The taller, reddish-haired one stared dumbfounded around him while Susan cowered further back into a corner. But the shorter dark-haired one stared at them through transparent black frames like a spindly pair of goggles. Qui-Gon's green saber came on again, the blade poised to strike the dark-haired man's wand, pointing at them.
"Whoa!" the red-haired one said again, astonished. "What is that?" The dark-haired one stared back as well. With recognition. Obi-Wan was sure of it. He knew what a lightsaber was.
The room rumbled around them, the things in it tinkling and rattling. The fire in the alcove sputtered wildly, throwing out sparks.
"He destroyed my wand!" Susan wailed, clutching the burned stump in her fist. She unsteadily stood, pushing back her long hair, tears running down her face. The two newcomers looked at her. The room rumbled. Louder.
"Uh, oh," the red-haired man said. "That's not good."
His face now frantic, the dark-haired one turned to them.
"We've got to get out of here! The charms around this place must have been tied to her wand. The magic is breaking down in here!" He extended his other arm toward Susan's gray world, but his wand arm remained pointed toward them..
Obi-Wan pulled back, his arm firmly around Qui-Gon whose lightsaber did not waver.
"We can't go there; we'll be killed! We came through this way!" he shouted back over the rising sound of the now constant shaking. Things fell out of cabinets, shattering on the ground. Pictures came off the walls.
The dark-haired man hesitated for only a moment. He pulled his wand back.
"We didn't come for you," he said. "We only want her!" He pointed to Susan. Then he looked at his comrade. "Ron!"
"Oh!" The other one seemed to remember that he was supposed to do something. He grabbed Susan, twisting one arm behind her back. "Come on, Missy," he said, pushing her toward the door, Flekky clinging to her skirts. "You're under arrest, for. . . . for a load of weird magic!"
The dark-haired man backed up toward the door after them, his eyes still fixed on Qui-Gon's lightsaber. Obi-Wan pulled Qui-Gon toward the shrouded portal. A crack split down the center of the floor as it disintegrated into crumbling gray ash. Chunks of ceiling fell.
Qui-Gon's saber went out, he whirled and pushed them both into the darkness.
For a second, Obi-Wan felt as if he were in free-fall, in the middle of total darkness. No stars. No air.
Then the floor of the cabin rushed at him, hitting him hard. He felt something in his chest crack. More than one something.
"Obi-Wan!"
Qui-Gon pulled him up, dragging him away, supporting him from behind. Obi-Wan saw the blackness filling the doorway before it contracted, folding in on itself and vanished with a final flash. Nothing remained of it in the now bare and very ordinary compartment. Footsteps sounded on the steps and floor of the cabin. Two other Jedi Knights, their expressions surprised as they looked toward the compartment, but Obi-Wan hardly noticed them. He sighed back into Qui-Gon and breathed deeply the fresh, sweet air around him. Even with the new pain in his chest it felt intoxicatingly good.
"Obi-Wan!" Qui-Gon said with concern, clutching his shoulders, but Obi-Wan just smiled up at him in happy relief, before everything went black.
~~~(O)~~~(O)~~~(O)~~~(O)~~~(O)~~~
Obi-Wan stirred back to consciousness. The first thing he saw was Qui-Gon's robe, pressed next to his cheek. He felt every one of his Master's steps on the uneven ground on the hill. His weight repeatedly lightened, then jolted in Qui-Gon's grasp with every downward step. One of the other Jedi walked with him. She (or he) wore a light brown robe and had prominent fleshy yellow head protrusions with tips that pointed in all directions. Very distinctive, but Obi-Wan could not recall this Jedi's name.
Motors whirred and a shadow fell on them. Their ship.
"N'Tak and I will take care of the Segoreth for you. They're still arguing on their home world," the other Jedi, a she, reassured them. "But I don't know how to put in words what we saw for the Council. I've never seen such blackness and do not know where such a disturbance in the Force could come from. Or where it went."
"It is gone for now and I am grateful for that. I will meditate later on the experience, but I think it best not to speculate on an explanation. There likely is none. I thank you for your assistance," Qui-Gon told their escort.
"The Force be with you," the other responded, stepping back from the ship. Qui-Gon went up the ramp. It lifted up behind them.
Their ship was simple. Pilot and co-pilot seats in front, storage areas in back where Qui-Gon had to stoop to keep from hitting his head on the overhead conduits, along with minimal facilities and a single fold out bunk. Qui-Gon laid him down on the thinly padded surface and then reached up to retrieve a flat, worn cushion for his head before going up to the pilot's seat and starting the engines. He normally left the piloting to Obi-Wan, but Qui-Gon was capable.
The ship lifted off and soon the forward ports showed star filled space. The displays on the navicomp shifted, thin lines and circles sliding into place, a course set for Coruscant and the Jedi Temple. Qui-Gon smoothly pulled down the hyperdrive lever and the stars streaked, the ship leaping into their journey through the nether-dimensions that allowed them to traverse vast distances across the galaxy. After clicking on the automated course tracking and confirming it with the ship's R3 unit, Qui-Gon stood, tossed off his robe and returned to the bunk, his expression grave with concern.
Obi-Wan saw what his Master saw. His bare chest and arms, a mass of bruises. As bad as it looked there was very little swelling, even in his face, since the damage was cellular.
Qui-Gon gently laid a hand on his chest, warmth spreading from it like new blood in Obi-Wan's veins.
"Do you need anything?"
"Could I have some water?" Obi-Wan asked, his voice rough and weak. Immediately, Qui-Gon went to the rear compartments and came back with a clear water packet. He held it while Obi-Wan sucked all the liquid from it through the drinking tube. Tepid from storage, it tasted sweeter than the air.
By the time he finished, Qui-Gon's concern had changed to bemusement. He took away the emptied packet and asked if he needed anything else.
"Is there anything to eat?" Obi-Wan asked. Qui-Gon's eyebrows rose. He turned back to the storage compartment, but all their supplies had been taken to the cabin and were now lost to Susan's Fantasy Chamber. Qui-Gon's hand went to one of the capsules on his belt.
"That would be fine," Obi-Wan told him.
Qui-Gon's dark blue eyes widened with more surprise, but he said nothing as he retrieved another water packet, container dish and utensil. He did not need to ask about preferences as he mixed a simple paste and flash warmed it in the tiny heating unit. They had shared many survival meals together. He retrieved lumpy pads from a high compartment that Obi-Wan could sit up against and he took out a large covering. He shook it out and spread it over Obi-Wan up to his stomach. Obi-Wan wiggled his bare and un-bruised toes under the fabric. His missed his boots.
Giving him the food paste, utensil and water packet, Qui-Gon sat on the deck next to the bunk. The med-kit was gone with the rest of their supplies.
"You have been sorely abused, my Padawan," Qui-Gon said, looking up, his arm resting on the bunk. Obi-Wan swallowed a bite with a sip of water.
"My injuries were not intentional," he said.
"Really?" Qui-Gon said, briefly touching his discolored and bruised arm.
"The woman you saw was from another world. Not from another place, from another. . . . reality. Not a healthy one for us to be in. I went too closely into her world and. . . . suffered the price."
"Did she not think to return you here?"
Obi-Wan lowered his eyes. "She did not understand her power. At least not well enough to see when others suffered from it." He took another bite. And another. The plain, simple nourishment tasted full of flavor to his starved appetite. Qui-Gon remained silently by him as he ate and drank.
"It is just as well that she has been apprehended by whatever authorities we saw take her away," Qui-Gon commented as he took the used packet and utensils and put them away in a disposal slot. "And her means of entering our world have been destroyed."
Obi-Wan looked up at Qui-Gon and remembered what Susan had said about there being an infinite number of worlds to choose from.
And wondered if that meant that there were an equally infinite number of Susans to come after him?
"You are disturbed," Qui-Gon said, correctly sensing his thoughts.
"Yes," he admitted. Then he explained what he knew about Susan's Fantasy Chamber and how the Force worked in her world, transmuting matter and energy through words, but somehow with little thought or even instinct.
Qui-Gon sat down on the edge of the bunk when Obi-Wan told him about what Susan had said about there being an infinite number of worlds to which portals could be opened. Obi-Wan frowned when his Master appeared unconcerned.
"Then a portal could open here, right now. Or in the Temple after we return. If Susan wished to capture Jedi then that would be an optimal place," he said with a smile. Obi-Wan glanced around the small interior of their ship. "Do you think it could happen?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Yes," he answered seriously. "It could happen."
"Do you think it is likely?" Qui-Gon persisted.
Obi-Wan faltered. "No," he admitted. The disturbance of Susan's world had completely vanished, more thoroughly than any leaving or even death. It felt as if it had never existed. "But it did happen, Master."
"It did," he agreed and laid his hand over Obi-Wan's. Then he lifted it in both of his.
The bruising on Obi-Wan's hands and wrists was less severe than on his chest and shoulders, but some patches of bluish-black still marred them, even on his palms. Qui-Gon's undamaged hands held his gently. "And if it happens again, then we will face it again, as we do any other hazard in our service. Was this woman so much worse than anything else we have faced?"
Pressing his lips together, Obi-Wan thought about the corrupt profiteers, the warlords, slavers, pirates, rulers, torturers, bounty hunters and hired thugs that he and Qui-Gon had dealt with over the years. One of them would have killed Susan without a thought, before she could raise her wand to defend herself.
"No." He nodded. "But none of them were as strange." He sadly looked downward. "Or as personal."
Qui-Gon hands closed over his, warming it but without pressuring the bruises.
"What happened?"
Obi-Wan breathed in, feeling the Force strong between them, and started at the beginning, when he first felt the disturbance outside the cabin.
- - - to be continued - - -
