Of all the things Qui-Gon had considered that he might find when the cargo bay door opened again, he hadn't expected to see Obi-Wan holding one of Jango's blasters in one hand, his training lightsaber in the other, and Jango's other blaster tucked into his belt, forcefully shoving Jango along. No, he was fairly certain that he'd never imagined such a thing could occur.

He was also fairly certain that he'd never thought he'd feel quite so relieved to see that little initiate.

"Unbind him," Obi-Wan ordered sternly as he removed the packs of supplies from his shoulders. Had he really been carrying both packs the entire distance?

For the briefest of seconds, Qui-Gon could see the boy as a grown man, so near knighthood, that same fiercely protective fire in his eyes. The scene was different and he was almost certain he could see the faint glow of a red 'saber blade reflected in the boy's eyes, but it was clear that the two of them had been together long enough for him to be trained into a fantastically capable swordsman and obviously very strong young Jedi. There was a strange sense of pride that swelled within his chest at the vision. When he blinked and the boy was but a boy again, that pride remained.

Qui-Gon Jinn never expected Obi-Wan to be able to overpower a bounty hunter, much less navigate a dense jungle on his own. Perhaps he should reconsider his stance on training the boy.

Jango stepped forward, knelt down, and undid the binders that held Qui-Gon's wrists and ankles. "See?" he said, turning back to look at Obi-Wan. "He's unharmed. As I said."

"You shot him. You call that unharmed?" the young initiate asked coldly. He kept the blaster leveled at the bounty hunter as he moved past him to kneel beside the knight. "Master, I-"

All of a sudden, Obi-Wan found himself unable to form words. Out in the jungle it had been all he could think about, what he would say to Knight Jinn if he did manage to save him. Now, however, he was at a complete loss. Every part of him wanted to drop the blaster and throw his arms around the man. Above all else, he needed comforting.

But he knew that was not something he could afford now. "I'm… I'm sorry, I- I couldn't find your 'saber and I— A- Are you able to stand?" he asked after a few moments, his voice barely above a whisper.

Qui-Gon nodded slightly, fighting to keep his expression neutral or at least vaguely thankful. He didn't want to broadcast just how shocked he was at the child's apparent tracking abilities and piloting skills, though he reserved the right to be at least a little shocked that he'd managed to disarm the bounty hunter. "My legs are a bit stiff, but I'm no worse for wear," he replied.

He couldn't disguise his shock as the boy tucked the Mandalorian's blaster into his belt and offered to help him stand. It was then that he found himself wondering what had happened to Jango's other blaster.

In fact, he found himself wondering many things. Not the least of which being whether or not Jango had actually fired at the boy. Sure, he'd expressed his distaste at any violence or unfairness levied at the child, but what if that had all been for show?

As Qui-Gon allowed the boy to help pull him to his feet, he found himself not-so-discreetly looking the boy over in search of any sign that Jango had been, perhaps, too rough with him. It was that moment that he realized that there was no way he could possibly continue down the path to cutting the boy loose and letting another Master train him. He could not release the claim which the Force had made on his behalf.

And he couldn't possibly let the boy know that yet.

Once he was on his feet, he held his hand out expectantly. Obi-Wan obediently gave him the blaster, which he immediately leveled at Jango. "We'll be leaving now, bounty hunter."

He could feel Obi-Wan's question before he even managed to wrap his mouth around the words to ask.

"Shouldn't we detain him? Bring him back to Coruscant?" the boy asked as Qui-Gon made his way to the door, keeping the blaster leveled at his friend for show. "Master Jinn?"

"As I said before, young Kenobi, many of my values do not line up with the values of the Order as a whole." With that, Qui-Gon hurried out of the cargo hold, followed quickly by the young boy that had just "rescued" him. Obi-Wan's eyes hardly left the bounty hunter as he followed the man that he hoped to be his Master. Once again, he was projecting rather wildly, more so than he'd been in the time since he'd managed to disarm Jango.

He'd been rather worried at that point, if he was being truthful with himself. He'd felt the fear coursing through Obi-Wan, heard the way he'd begged, at least in his thoughts. And then suddenly there was nothing. Jango said he'd make it "real" but Qui-Gon hadn't thought he would shoot the child…

Thankfully, it didn't seem that Obi-Wan had been injured. In fact, it seemed more like the attack had made the boy even more unwilling to fail in his quest to please him.

"Let me take your pack, Obi-Wan. You've carried both of these quite a distance," he said as they exited the ship and hurried into the trees for cover. The Initiate shook his head, opting instead to keep moving.

"I'm fine," he replied. "It's not that heavy."

Qui-Gon laughed then, causing Obi-Wan to jump nearly a meter in shock. It was the first genuine laugh he'd heard from the man, so he had every right to his shock. "Obi-Wan, if you'd prefer to keep carrying your pack, you may, but you needn't lie to me. I was the one who packed your supplies and I am well aware that they are not light by any means."

Normally, to be called out that way would have turned Obi-Wan's ears—and the rest of his head, for that matter—bright red and left him a stammering mess. With the exhaustion and confusion that were swimming through him now, all he could manage was a tired, "I'm sorry, Master Jinn." He shifted so that the strap to his bag was more secure on his shoulder as he tried to find the path that he'd cut through the jungle.

Qui-Gon fell silent again, opting instead to watch how Obi-Wan would react now that he'd "saved" the Knight. The relief that had flooded their bond upon their initial exit from Slave I had faded and now had become confusion and frustration. Obi-Wan's thoughts were still flying across their bond too fast for Qui-Gon to make heads or tails of what he was being presented with, but he could tell that the boy was fast becoming frustrated with the silence. With his silence. It was becoming more and more apparent as they moved through the trees that Obi-Wan wanted to say something. To say many things. But he was biting his tongue and staying silent.

And the harder he fought to stay silent, the greater his frustration grew, until it was nearly as oppressive across their bond as the hot, humid air they basically swam through.

The greater his frustration grew, the more he tripped over his own feet, over large roots and downed branches, over rocks, over air…

"Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said after nearly an hour of keeping to himself and observing the boy. "Perhaps we ought to stop and rest."

"It would be smarter to put as much distance as we can between ourselves and the bounty hunter," Obi-Wan replied, neither slowing his pace nor turning his head to acknowledge that the Knight had addressed him. That was when Qui-Gon reached out with the Force and stopped him.

"You've had a hard couple of days, Obi-Wan. You deserve to rest."

"We really must get you back to the Temple. I'll rest when we're back on Coruscant."

"Obi-Wan." There was an authority to Qui-Gon's voice that he didn't like to use with other Jedi, unless those other Jedi were Masters Windu and Yoda. The boy stopped and turned to look at the Knight expectantly. "You want me to train you, do you not?" He nodded. Qui-Gon smirked and patted his shoulder. "Then does it not follow that you should listen when I suggest such radical things as 'taking a break'?"

Obi-Wan sighed another frustrated sigh, but he nodded, looking down at his boots. The Knight could feel the child's disappointment with himself growing within him. That immediate lapse into not good enough was going to have to be one of the first things Qui-Gon worked on with the boy. He was really starting to understand the depth of Windu's words about the boy only having had one friend.

They found a small clearing in the shade and quickly set down their packs. As Qui-Gon lowered himself to the ground, Obi-Wan continued to move. It took Qui-Gon a few minutes to realize that the boy was trying to make him more comfortable.

It took him a few minutes longer to realize that it was more because the boy was filled with nervous energy than because he felt it his duty.

"Obi-Wan, did I say you needed to do any of that?" he asked as they neared half an hour in the clearing and the boy had yet to sit down for longer than two minutes. "You're going to give yourself heat sickness. Come and eat. Take a drink. Take a breather. We're safe here. You're safe here."

"But we're not," Obi-Wan said as he did as he was told. "If that bounty hunter comes—ˮ

"The bounty hunter would be foolish to pursue us. You took his weapons."

"How do you know he didn't have more blasters on his ship?" Obi-Wan's question was legitimate, and Qui-Gon was quite certain that his friend had at least one blaster hidden somewhere aboard his ship.

"He won't take us by surprise this time," Qui-Gon replied after a moment of thought. "With both of us scanning for him, it'll be nearly impossible for him to get the better of us."

He busied himself with taking stock of what he'd packed for himself, but he was keeping careful watch over Obi-Wan through their bond. At first, the boy's worry had only continued to grow, but as Qui-Gon continued to maintain his calm, quiet demeanor, he began to calm down a bit.

"What food do you have left?" he asked once Obi-Wan seemed calm enough to not jump up and try foraging for wild fruit at the mere thought of lacking food. His own pack was, of course, filled with necessities, but he was curious to see how the boy had rationed his supplies in the absence of an adult.

"I only ate what I knew I would need for a small breakfast," he said after a moment. "So… Pretty much everything that you'd packed for me."

Qui-Gon couldn't hide his amazement at that. Obi-Wan struck him as a nervous eater.

That also meant that the boy had only eaten breakfast for two days in a row. No wonder he seemed so irritable and frustrated. "Well, we'll be going back to Coruscant once we read the ship. I think I've seen all I need to see," he said, flashing a friendly smile at the boy. "You ought to eat something, if you can. I know the heat is oppressive, but you haven't eaten anywhere near enough. You're a growing boy."

"I'm not hungry," Obi-Wan replied. It was half true. He was a bit hungry, but he also felt sick. He knew that he'd come very close to death and that fact was terrifying. It was something that the Masters at the Temple taught the younglings at great length, but once faced with the possibility Obi-Wan found it was far harder to deal with than he ever could have imagined. He didn't want to eat. He didn't want to risk throwing up.

Qui-Gon couldn't tell if all of that was correct, as the boy was hardly projecting at all anymore and he didn't feel right peering into the boy's thoughts again without asking. He didn't know if his assumptions were true, but he tended to believe they were. He remembered what his first brush with death had felt like.

He felt bad that he'd managed to shake the poor child so badly.

"Eat. Drink some water. You'll feel better if you do, I promise you."

Obi-Wan looked at him as though he was sizing him up. "Jedi aren't supposed to make promises," he said after a moment. Qui-Gon couldn't help but laugh. Of all the things to protest, that was what the child chose? Was he serious? Obi-Wan sighed and looked down.

"Your virtues aren't like those of other Jedi. I get it. I read everything the library had about you, you know. I'm not looking at you like you're a prime example of someone who follows all the rules." The boy busied himself with deciding what to eat as he spoke, keeping his eyes on his bag as he fumbled with its contents. "You're one of the most highly-respected Knights in the Order. Of course you don't want some clumsy kid around, fouling things up. But that doesn't mean you have any right to laugh at me when I point something out that should be obvious to a Jedi."

There was far too much to unpack in the boy's passionate little outburst, so for a long while Qui-Gon was silent. As the silence grew longer, he could feel the boy's shame and embarrassment growing. I shouldn't have said anything. Of course now he won't pick you, Dopey-One.

"Little one, it may not be the Jedi way to go about making promises all fast and loose, but I daresay it's far less Jedi-like to talk down to oneself as much as you do," he said after a few minutes of contemplation. He could tell that the silence had been an agonizing eternity for the child, given the ever-growing dread emanating from him, but he didn't want to say the wrong thing.

"If it is truly the will of the Force, it will happen, Obi-Wan," he continued after a moment. "But a Force-bond is not the be-all, end-all of life. Of both of us, I think I have a bit more experience and firsthand knowledge of that."

"You weren't the runt of your year," Obi-Wan declared loudly, shoving his bag away without deciding on a snack. "Of course it wasn't the end for you. You had Masters tripping over themselves at the chance to train you. Until that morning in the training room, I've never had a Master even so much as cast a second glance my way." Please stop rubbing it in. I know you don't want to train me. I know you're just going to tell the Council that this isn't going to work. I get it.

Qui-Gon sighed and turned his attention back to his own supplies. Clearly he'd still managed to say the wrong thing.