Qui-Gon had been present when Anakin had burst into the Jedi Temple claiming Chancellor Palpatine was the Dark Lord they had been searching for, and he had heard Mace Windu order the young man to wait in the Council Chamber as he and three other masters went to arrest the Chancellor.

He had watched as his former Padawan, dressed in his usual black that made him look too much like a Dark Lord, had walked toward the Council Tower, and he had felt a shiver run along his spine.

Something was wrong, but he had not realized what it was. The Dark Side of the Force had fallen on the galaxy, clouding his sight, clouding the Jedi's sight…but not Obi-Wan's.

Qui-Gon thought of his son and remembered the many times he had insisted Palpatine was dangerous, and that Anakin should not be allowed to be close to him. If only he was there, he would certainly know how to help Anakin, for he knew the man he called "brother" better than anybody.

But General Kenobi was away, on Utapau, as his battalion of clones destroyed the late General Grievous' army.

Qui-Gon went to the Council Chamber, wishing to be near Anakin, but when he arrived, he discovered the young man was not there.

The aura of desperation and fear, a fear so strong to cloud any judgement, he sensed in the room made him cry out with his mind, hoping to reach the young man through what remained of their training bond.

/No Anakin! Come back/

Receiving no answer, Qui-Gon rushed toward the lift, but a mental voice stopped him in mid-stride.

/What is it Father? I feel your distress./

/Obi-Wan! How can you hear me? Where are you/

/I am breaking into the atmosphere just now. I left Commander Cody on Utapau to deal with the remaining droids. The Force indicated to me that I had to return as soon as possible./

/It did so indeed. Obi-Wan, Anakin has discovered Palpatine is the Dark Lord we have been searching for. Mace Windu, Kit Fisto and two other masters have gone to arrest him. They told Anakin to stay behind, but he followed them. He is not himself, Obi-Wan. You know of his dreams about Padmé…What if Palpatine manages to convince Anakin he can help him "save" his wife? It could be a too great a temptation for him./ Qui-Gon shook his head. /We should have never allowed him to marry her…/

/I don't remember he ever asked for our consent…he told us when everything was done and there was nothing we could do, since reporting him to the Council was out of question/Obi-Wan's voice had carried a hint of his usual sarcasm. /Now stay calm, Father, I am going straight to the Senate Building. I will be there in a minute or two./

/Be careful, my son./

/As usual./

The mental contact was broken, and Qui-Gon stepped slowly into the lift, his mind musing about the Chosen One's prophecy, Anakin and Obi-Wan.

Leaving the lift, he was directed toward the gardens to attempt some meditation when a sudden, unbearable pain brought him to his knees.

/Obi-Wan/ He cried out with his mind, as his breath came in uneven gasps and his heart pounded in his ears. When the pain subsided, Qui-Gon rose staggering to his feet and went to the hangar, climbing the first speeder he found.

He sped into the heavy Coruscant traffic in the direction of the Senate Building, all the while trying, in vain, to contact his son.

Once he arrived, Qui-Gon avoided the guards and, lightsabre in hand, he ran to Palpatine's office, only to skid to a halt when he saw the corpses of Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin lying across the corridor.

His heart pounding, Qui-Gon advanced more slowly toward the office, needing to know what had happened there, but also dreading what he might find, because the Force, for the first time in his life, was mute.

He entered the room and there, among the smoking furniture and pieces of transparisteel coming from a shattered window, were Anakin and Obi-Wan.

Anakin was kneeling on the floor and embracing Obi-Wan's still form, rocking back and forth as he whispered again and again, "Please don't die Obi-Wan, don't die my brother…"

Qui-Gon lost no time kneeling down at their side. "What happened?" he asked, his finger searching blindly for Obi-Wan's pulse.

"Palpatine attacked him with his blue lightning…he had interposed between the Dark Lord and Master Windu after I…" Anakin's voice died and he lowered his tears-streaked face.

"After you what, Anakin?" Qui-Gon pressed him, as his fingers composed the emergency code that would alert the Healer's Hall at the Temple that medical rescue was immediately needed.

"After he cut my arm," a third voice answered, and both Qui-Gon and Anakin raised their heads to see him tower over them, a grimace of pain marring his face.

"Master…I-" Anakin started, Windu stopped him.

"I know, Anakin, I know." Then the korum master knelt and observed Obi-Wan's still form. "How is he?"

"I don't know. The pulse is strong, but I cannot sense any activity in his mind…I believe he has slipped into a coma." Qui-Gon murmured, his fingers caressing his son's bearded cheek, as he mentally urged the healers to be quick.

"Palpatine went after Obi-Wan with a vengeance, when he interposed himself between me and him," Mace's voice softened as he looked down at the unconscious man. "He deflected the blue bolts using his hands or his body…It is because of him if I am still alive."

Qui-Gon swallowed hard and asked, "What happened next?"

"Darth Sidious continued his attack; he was especially violent because he wanted Obi-Wan to stop talking..."

"Talking?"

"Yes…to me." Anakin answered, "Obi-Wan kept on telling me to remember who I was…who I am…that I am a Jedi…and that he loves me…that I am his brother… I-I told Palpatine to stop, to let him go, but he did not listen to me. So I killed him. I severed his head…it's over there."

Qui-Gon nodded, as he briefly looked in the indicated direction. Everything was clear—well, almost.

"Anakin, why did you cut Mace's arm?"

"Because he was going to kill Palpatine… before he could tell me how I could save Padmé from death."

"But you killed him yourself-- why did you?" Mace Windu prodded him.

"I told you. He was killing Obi-Wan."

"So you chose your brother over your wife?" Pressed Qui-Gon, knowing that the answer was very important.

Anakin closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again they were clear and sure. "No. I chose to be a Jedi, as Obi-Wan told me to. I chose to do my duty."

Qui-Gon and Mace exchanged a look before lowering their eyes on Obi-Wan's unconscious form.

He too had done his duty. The Chosen One had been tempted by Darkness, but his guardian, the Grey Warrior, had brought him back to the right path—a path he would never again forsake.

The will of the Force had been accomplished, but Qui-Gon hoped the salvation of the galaxy had not come at the expense of his son's life.

Force be blessed, it had not been the case. Obi-Wan had been in a coma for two weeks as his system recovered from the electrical overload it had received. The shock had damaged some of his nerves which had caused problems with his legs, problems Obi-Wan had worked hard to overcome, as today the lack of a walking stick demonstrated.

"Father?"

"What? Oh sorry, I was distracted," Qui-Gon looked at his son, embarrassed.

"We had already guessed that, Master," Anakin interjected. "Now let's go; I don't think you want to be late just today."

"Oh no, Padawan-mine, I could never be late. It is this day that is thirty-nine years later."

"No more bitterness, Father," Obi-Wan said, giving him a meaningful glance, before the three men moved to the door and left the room.

They walked slowly along the seemingly deserted Temple, adapting their pace to Obi-Wan's measured steps.

"Where is everybody?" asked Obi-Wan, looking around the empty hallways.

Anakin smiled. "I think we will meet more people as we get closer to the Council Tower."

Obi-Wan's face flushed crimson, "Don't tell me they are all there!"

Qui-Gon nodded, "Of course they are there. Today is a very special day, for all of us."

"I know, I know. It's just I can barely accept it is really going to happen."

Qui-Gon and Anakin did not answer, but the younger man squeezed his brother's shoulder in silent understanding.

The small party turned a corner, entered another hallway and, just as Anakin had predicted, they found it crowded.

Masters, knights, padawans, initiates: they were all there, and it made Qui-Gon remember the long-past day he, Obi-Wan and Anakin had returned from Naboo.

Qui-Gon exchanged polite nods with those he was more familiar with, and his heart constricted when he thought of all the Jedi he had known in his life that were not there today.

The Clone Wars had caused the deaths of too many Jedi, but at least the Order still existed. It had not been wiped away by Palpatine's machinations as the Sith Order.

Darth Sidious had always known the Sith would not be blinded by the Dark Side as had the Jedi because they were more familiar with it.

So, the Dark Lord had started a systematic campaign to eliminate the Sith, one by one if necessary, and the Grey Order, victim of its suspicious and mistrusting nature, had refused to ask for help from the Jedi. Their ranks had become thinner and thinner, even before the Clone Wars started to claim the life of Sith and Jedi alike, until the moment there were no longer enough masters to take care of the trainees in the Sith Temple. The children had been sent back to their families or had been transferred to the Jedi Temple, as the Grey Order agonized and then died.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Grey Warrior, was the last of the Sith—and it was him all the Jedi had come to honour today.

It was him the Jedi Council was waiting for, as he proceeded between two wings of people, his numerous friends patting his shoulders and squeezing his arms, while his father and his brother followed him, their eyes wet with unshed tears.

When the doors of the lift opened, Mace Windu was there to meet them.

"Thank the Force you are here! We were beginning to worry."

"I am sorry Mace, but crossing the whole Temple took more time than predicted," Obi-Wan murmured to his friend.

The korum master nodded, then reached out with his new prosthetic arm, "Can I help you?"

Obi-Wan straightened his back, proud and defiant as usual. "No, thank you, Master Windu." He answered, very formal. "I am perfectly able to walk into that room and kneel by myself."

Mace smiled and nodded, "All right."

The Council Chamber doors slid open, and the four men entered, looking around at he changes made in the large, circular room. The chairs were empty and had all been pushed against a side of the room, while the others had been left free to host the selected group of persons who would attend the ceremony.

Obi-Wan walked to the middle of the room, where he stood, facing the twelve councillors standing in line in front of him, while Qui-Gon and Anakin moved toward the back of the room. Anakin went near his wife, Padmé Amidala Skywalker, and their newborn twins Luke and Leia, while Qui-Gon flanked Lianne Shinko Kenobi, who was holding two year old Ben Kenobi in her arms.

Qui-Gon bent to kiss his daughter-in-law's cheek and to caress his grandson's reddish hair, before he exchanged a bow with Bant Eerin, Garen Muhl and Siri Tachi, Obi-Wan's closest friends at the Temple.

Then he turned around to face the assembled masters, and noticed with surprise that the chairs in the room numbered thirteen, not twelve and he wondered briefly who would take that seat. But then all his questions were forgotten when Obi-Wan slowly knelt and Master Windu walked near him.

"Sith Knight Kenobi," his strong voice echoed in the room. "We are here today to ask you to join us as a full member of the Jedi Order. Since you have come to live with us, you have constantly proven your value and it is thanks to you that the Jedi Order still exists. Will you do us the great honour of accepting this offer?"

Qui-Gon watched his son raise his bowed head and nod. "Yes, I will."

Mace stepped aside as Yoda took his place and ignited his lightsabre, imitated by the other councillors. Then his voice echoed in the silent room, as he declared the millennia-old traditional formula.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi, by the right of the Council," the old master grazed Obi-Wan's left shoulder with the lightsabre. "By the will of the Force," Yoda moved the 'sabre to the kneeling man's right shoulder. "Dub thee I do Jedi Knight of the Republic," and with a quick sweep of his wrist he cut away the long braid Obi-Wan had grown since he had become a Sith Knight, eighteen years before.

His heart full of emotion for his son was now a Jedi as he had always dreamed, Qui-Gon moved forward. He wished to help Obi-Wan to stand up, but Mace Windu stopped him with a quick shake of his head, as Yoda switched off his lightsabre and spoke again.

"Knight Kenobi, such dedication seldom in my life I have seen. Unfair the Sith Council was. Recognize your talents they did not. Decided this Council has; remedy this injustice we will. Rise, Jedi Master and Sith Knight Kenobi. To take your place on the Council, welcome you are."

Qui-Gon's eyes widened in stupor as Obi-Wan's equally surprised thoughts reached him through the bond.

Yoda smiled and added, "The best of two worlds you are, Obi-Wan. Tragedy would be if the Sith wisdom with you dies. Many things to teach us you have. Ready to learn, we are."

Thus speaking, all the twelve councillors bowed their heads, welcoming and honouring their new member.

Almost without noticing, Qui-Gon crossed the room and walked toward his still kneeling son. He helped Obi-Wan to stand and pulled his smaller form into a strong embrace, as around them the room exploded into long, interminable applause, and a new era dawned for the Jedi Order.

THE END

And so it is done. I feel a bit sad for it was a great ride and I did not want to see it end. I wish to thank all of you for reading and reviewing the various parts. I am extremely grateful for your support. Please review this chapter if you wish to be alerted when I post another story set in this universe. I am currently working on a "my" version of AOTC and the early months of the Clone Wars.