So sorry this has taken so long

Hey guys, sorry the wait was so late. You know me, it takes me forever (usually) to update. I want to reassure everyone that I have not given up on this fic, nor will I ever unless I tell you I am in an author's note. It just takes me an ungodly amount of time to update.

I have planned out the story to its completion and have decided that this story will contain twenty to twenty five chapters (give or take few for plot bunnies.) I don't know if that's any comfort but there ya go, a promise of an end. A valuable and sometimes rare thing on this site.

As always I took a chapter title from a line in the chapter, but this one happens to correspond the music I wrote it to. In case you wondering, it was A Far Cry on the Escaflowne soundtrack. I found it on youtube.

Unexpected Awakening

Chapter 14

A Far Cry

Garen stood mutely in the small, rectangular tree hut that one of his dearest friends had apparently spent the majority of the last few years. It was stripped of anything that could be useful to information seekers like himself, but Garen could recognize the remains of his friend's Force signature anywhere.

It was clear that the hut hadn't been in habited for a while, yet Obi-Wan's presence was everywhere in the small room. There was a lump in his throat that weighed heavily as he breathed and Garen ran his hands over the sleeping mat made of woven reeds stuffed with leaves. He could almost imagine his friend laying himself down on the frugal bed, night after night. Settling onto his side – the only way he'd ever seen Obi-Wan sleep – before drifting off. At seventeen, Garen stood several feet taller then he had the last time he'd met his friend and he couldn't help but wonder what it was Obi-Wan looked like now. Did his feet hang over this improvised bed, the way Garen's so often did?

Whenever they got a hit on Obi-Wan's presence, his hopes were raised and then dashed – inevitably by the time they got there the trail was cold. If it wasn't for the success of the missions that Council gave them to complete in between information hits – Garen would have begun to question their skill in earnest.

That the desolate, jungle planet of Geomund IV would be his wayward friend's hiding place made a bitter taste come to Garen's mouth. It was more then just that they had skipped over the planet several times, sure that the signs were pointing to other worlds. It was that Obi-Wan had chosen such a lonely, lonely place. The hut was small, filled with abandoned knickknacks that hinted at what Obi-Wan was doing here. By his side, his Master stood from his kneeling position with a sigh before placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Well, looks like the video lead is our most current hope." Iian Terlius had largely remained unchanged through out the years, though there were a few lines here and there that hadn't once been. Garen loved his Master dearly, never once had Iian questioned their quest for Obi-Wan, even as Bant and the others began to give up hope. Even when people told his Master he was mad to keep looking for one renegade Padawan.

Garen knew that it was more then just that his Master hadn't ever lost a mark before, though that played a large part of it. Iian's confidence in their ability to find Obi-Wan was sometimes the only thing that kept him going.

"What was he doing here?" Garen wondered grimly, staring out of the small window, a torn hole really, in the fabric tent. His Master sent him a brilliant smile before patting him on the shoulder.

"Training."

Confusion was something he was more then used to dealing with over the past few years and Garen simply sighed as he felt it wash across him again.

"For what?"

Iian placed his hands on his hips and stared around the dim little hut. "I have no idea."

The ceiling of the cave was painted in an eerie respite with the soft light from the lanterns. Obi-Wan stifled a groan and allowed his eyes to drift shut again. With some effort he brought his hand up to rest against his eyes, blocking out the light from his pounding migraine. In the background the boy, Xi, was talking endlessly to himself, but he blocked the sound out and allowed himself to drift back to the events of the last three years.

The battle with Xanatos had been a difficult one. It was only Obi-Wan's age and experience that allowed him to defeat the excellent swordsman, and once the Force had fled his body along with the adrenalin, Obi-Wan was left in hobbling in pain. Muscles his young body had obviously never used before ached something terrible, and showed him just how far behind he actually was. It had taken just shy of a full year of training on Geomund IV to get his body back into the shape it needed to be. Another year of non-stop hunting and battles to to build up enough confidence in Obi-Wan's reconfigured body to even begin planning how to take down the big players. It had taken another six months for him to pick up on the trail of the blonde Sith woman and her apprentice. Another month to plan the perfect encounter, two days of waiting for the ideal moment.

And in the end, the battle with her apprentice had nearly killed him.

Still, he thought as let out a soft sigh, I couldn't let that boy die.

Obi-Wan shook his head at the frustration he felt. Months of preparation and stalking down the drain. Who knew now where the woman and her ghoulish apprentice had fled to? They could be anywhere. The tired Jedi sighed and opened his eyes, gathering the Force around him, evaluating the various bruises and tares before releasing it with a sigh of disappointment. He had not healed competently yet, though he was out of death's path at least. Obi-Wan moved slowly into a sitting position, gritting his teeth slightly as body protested his efforts.

"You're awake." The boy, Xi, said slowly, his tone laced with disbelief. "Well, that's a relief."

A second later and Obi-Wan had a bowl of steaming soup in his hand and Xi was pulling the bandages on his back off with an amazing lack of gentleness that left Obi-Wan hissing. The Geaugan cleaned the wound with an equal amount of deftness and had reapplied the suave and bandages before Obi-Wan could open his mouth to speak. The boy moved like a nat – fluttering around the cave with such hyperness that it made his already pounding migraine double.

For a moment silence filled the cave as he ate, something remarkable given how much the teenager enjoyed narrating his life. Xi watched him eat his soup, chewing on his bottom lip in an almost mechanical way, staring at the Jedi with an intenseness that Obi-Wan already knew was unlike him.

After a few minutes of being so closely analyzed Obi-Wan sighed, resting his spoon in the soup before looking at the Geaugan. Xi squirmed slightly under his stare.

"Well," The Jedi said after a moment, "Go ahead and ask."

Xi played with his boot laces nervously, before asking his question directly to the ground. "Did you really kill all those kids?"

The waiting room of the Geaugan Government Sanctioned News Broadcaster was a study in masculinity. Dark wood panels with gaudy, red velvet drapes covering tinted windows that showed amazingly scenic views of the Setting. Qui-Gon set in one of the leather backed chairs, listening to some random smooth jazz song that never seemed to have end.

The Jedi Master's stare was fixed on the sweating receptionist. She was attractive and young, with a desk high enough to show off a pair of lengthy and well kept legs. She was gorgeous and quite a bit of work had been done to ensure so. But the looks of attempt seduction she was sending him had no effect.

Perhaps it was because of the fact that the looks were clearly shaken, lacking most of their force due to the fact that Qui-Gon hadn't taken his eyes from her form since he had entered. Most likely it was because the Jedi was stewing in his seat. It had taken him over two hours of paperwork, lies and eventually a mind trick to get him a permit that would allow him to walk the city streets without being accosted. It had had taken him even longer to arrive at the news station. He was stopped every few minutes to demands to see his registration papers.

And now, after a total of four hours, Qui-Gon was still being stonewalled by backwater, outer rim hicks. He had originally planned on getting the security vids he wanted through official routes, but Qui-Gon felt he was rapidly running out of time. Obi-Wan could flee the planet any moment, he would expect no less out of the boy who had kept one of the best trackers befuddled for so long.

He was unwilling to lose him again. Besides, the vid had shown blood. His wayward Padawan was somewhere on this frozen rock, hurt. Qui-Gon shook his head and stood. He glanced at the security camera momentarily before deciding to ignore it completely. So the Geaugans would have a recording of him use a Jedi mind trick. Somehow Qui-Gon doubted it would be the first or the last time he broke the rules on this planet.

A gentle push sent him on his way through the decorative stone doors and into and lift. Moments later he was slowly progressing his way to the top floors. To the archives where the answer to this whole mess would be found.

Yet as much as Qui-Gon wanted answers, he found himself hesitant to find them. He had barely been on the planet for a few minutes before they had shown the vids of Obi-Wan. Not only of his fight, which they had labeled a fight between to Jedi insurgents – why, Qui-Gon thought dryly, would two Jedi insurgents be fighting each other? – but also of something much sinister. Something that had not been released to the Temple.

And Qui-Gon would be forever grateful for that. For had it, the nature of his mission here would be completely different. If he had even been allowed to go.

It was a short security vid, slowed down by the news agency as they gave a play by play of the situation, which showed a reality that he was hard pressed to accept. So he had stood, still as stone as the icy winds whipped his face dry and chapped, as they showed the bloody footage over and over again. Watching as a jerky, slowed down Obi-Wan cut through two teenager girl's with his lightsaber. They had cut the image there, only to show the cut up corpses of five girls – all between the ages of fourteen and eighteen – littered across the State Academy for Girl's courtyard.

But Qui-Gon couldn't believe that Obi-Wan had killed those girls unprompted. He could hardly believe that act was done at all. It was to short a vid for him to establish anything beyond the fact that Obi-Wan killed those two girls.

He needed to see the unedited vid. To see what happened moments before Obi-Wan had killed and the moments after. And then, then when Qui-Gon had seen it to its completion, he would decide what he would do.

The lift doors slid open and Qui-Gon exited from the elevator, extending his will as he did so. It enveloped the room like a blanket and the few employees present became overwhelming interested in their work. Still, he could not keep so many minds distracted for long. He needed to move quickly. Qui-Gon stopped at the nearest computer unit and slid into the uncomforted un-backed chair. A quick question to the archive manager rendered him the proper passwords and identification and in moments he had found the file he was looking for.

True to his nature, he didn't hesitate to load it. Despite the grim nature of the video, Qui-Gon felt his breath catch only once – the first time Obi-Wan's image appeared on screen. The security cam had focused on the back of his form before switching to one directly in front of the boy.

Obi-Wan still dressed like a Jedi, though Qui-Gon already knew this. They had tracked down a tailor who had made the Jedi garbs for a now much taller and lanker teenager. He thin, malnourished almost with slightly gaunt cheeks. He looked exhausted and even with the odd angle of the camera Qui-Gon could see the dark circles under his eyes. His hair was still the same short, spiky cut he remembered. The absence of the padawan braid seemed glaringly obvious to him and it would be one of the first things Qui-Gon righted when he finally met up with the boy. But he was alive and overall healthy. Obi-Wan stood tall and imposing and though he looked every bit of a lanky sixteen year old, it was clear that the past three years had aged the boy far more.

Not a boy, Qui-Gon realized with a jolt, a man. His Padawan had become a man. Anguish erupted inside him. Obi-Wan had entered adulthood before Qui-Gon had even had a chance to be a part of his youth. How could he have allowed this to happen? For Obi-Wan to have reached this point alone, without guidance? Why, why had he resisted what the Force had been screaming at him? Why had he ever resisted the bond?

He had little time to drift back into the same accusations his mind had been throwing at him for the past three years before movement on the screen forced him back to the present.

Obi-Wan walked across the enclosed court yard with the confidence of some one who walked it daily, but the Jedi in Qui-Gon could see the unease of each step. And then, in a split second Obi-Wan tensed and twirled, his lightsaber a blur of blue light as he swung. The two, short dark clad figures that had dropped down on him from above, red lightsabers angled for a kill, collapsed against the ground seconds later.

The cloaks and lightsabers had been edited out of the vid shown to the public and Qui-Gon doubted highly that that was the last change. The vid had ended here, with Obi-Wan standing over the dead children, hood down and blue lightsaber casting his face in an ethereal light.

This vid showed the slow spread of surprise as the boy knelt down before the severed girls. A hand rose to cover his mouth as the emotion shifted to horror before disappearing completely behind the same neutral façade that had haunted Qui-Gon 's memories for so long. There was a shout of rage from off screen and Obi-Wan was on his feet again, easily pushing off another pair of attackers.

The dark clad teenagers stood staring Obi-Wan down from across the courtyard as an older, taller girl stood behind them. Qui-Gon's fingers moved quickly to enable the audio as the eldest spoke. He missed her first words in their entirety, but he was unwilling to rewind it as Obi-Wan spoke.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Shouldn't you know?" The eldest spat. "You were cast off, just like the rest of us."

"That didn't make me abandon the Light in its entirety! What of your training? What of your ideals?" The words were harsh and Qui-Gon saw the younger girl flinch, guilt spreading across her youthful face.

"Our ideals abandoned us. Don't be so righteous." The eldest ignited her lightsaber, the effect of a trio of red sabers throwing the courtyard into a scarlet hue.

"Put that away." Obi-Wan moved into a relaxed position before them, his lightsaber ignited but pointed down at his side. "If you fight me, I will kill you. I do not wish to kill my own. Come back with me, come back to the Temple. They must miss you."

"Why would they care?" The little ones asked bitterly, "They cast us out. Did they come looking for us when I disappeared? Did anyone care?"

Obi-Wan's voice was incredulous when he spoke next. "They may not have found you, but that does not mean they did not look. Do you think that they didn't mourn your loss when you vanished?" Obi-Wan took a step forward, "There is more to the Order then Knighthood. Our family is small, but it is our own. Do you think they would turn their backs on you if you called?"

Our family is small, but it is our own. It was a mantra they were taught as children, to enforce the bond of the Order. Its reaction on the younger girls was immediate.

"I-" The girls exchanged a confused look.

"Why are you listening to his nonsense? They didn't want us. The Mistress does. Are you stupid?" The eldest shook her head, pointing a gloved finger at Obi-Wan. "We must kill him!"

Obi-Wan shook his head. "There is enough blood on my hands as it is; I will not add your foolishness as well. I will return you by force if I must."

"We will never go back to that place." The eldest screamed, launching herself at Obi-Wan. After a moment of hesitation the other girls charged in as well. They never stood a chance against him, and after a few minutes, the eldest girl realized it as well. Qui-Gon watched the realization spread across her face and then twist into something else. In a split second she had turned her attack and struck down the girls at her side. A flick of the wrist and she had impaled herself on her own blade, ripping it from her chest as if she did not feel the pain and in a last ditch effort of defiance, tossed it fiercely forward.

Obi-Wan caught the lightsaber easily and deactivated it, his hand slowly lowering to his side. The girl collapsed to her knees among the butchered bodies, staring at her opponent with a cruel, spiteful sneer.

"You think I would ever let you take them back?" And then she slumped over and with a low keen, died. Obi-Wan stood without moving, staring at the dismembered bodies before him, his face unreadable. Five minutes passed, then ten and Obi-Wan still did not move. Then slowly he knelt before them.

"Pointless. Completely pointless." His voice was level, but the slight shake of his hands as he reached out and collected the remaining two lightsabers betrayed his emotions. The recording ended with a beep, the window shutting itself automatically.

Qui-Gon stared at the screen for a moment before slipping a copy disc into the drive.

Xi stormed his way down the city streets, trying to keep his face from showing his horror and frustration.

"Yes."

How that one word had sent his entire world spinning. He didn't know what he had been expecting, but Xi hadn't been expecting that. His savior had slaughtered those kids? They news casters were right? It hadn't been a lie from the government at all?

Xi just couldn't believe it. He just couldn't. He had thought, for sure he had thought, that there was no way his Hèsè - no, Obi-Wan, as Xi had learned, was the same guy in that security vid. That he could have done that.

Yet he had. Xi shoved his hands in his pockets roughly, recalling the offworlder's face as Xi had questioned him. He could still feel those calm, blue-gray eyes staring through him.

"You…what?" The silence in the small cave was thick with tension. Xi's lips pressed themselves into a thin line, then; "Are you an assassin or something?

Obi-Wan had sighed and then stared down into his soup. "Or something."

He laid the half eaten bowl of soup gently to the floor next to his sleep pallet. His hands laid on his covered legs before turning to look at Xi again. When he spoke, his voice was soft and laden with regret.

"I didn't want to. I offered them a chance to turn themselves in, to leave the path they had chosen to walk. They refused."

Xi chewed on the inside of his cheek, his mind replaying the security vid they had been broadcasting nonstop on the news channels. If he really was…one of them, couldn't he have found a way to not kill them? Why had he killed them? Xi had never believed the rumors about the Jedi, in fact when he had realized his savior was one of them he had begun to believe they were the keepers of peace, but now he was just confused.

Were the Jedi has untrustworthy as his government said they were?

"I don't understand. Couldn't you have taken them prisoner or something?" Xi asked edgily, still fiddling with his boots.

"They wouldn't have let me." Obi-Wan had answered simply. The offworlder had sighed before bringing a hand up to rub his chest. "I doubt you will understand this, Xi, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made. For the good of the whole."

"Sure." The Geaugan said in a tone that clearly stated he didn't understand a damn thing. He had stood, unable to look at his savior. "Look, I'm gonna go into the city for some supplies."

And now he was walking the city streets, freezing his ass off because he didn't have any money to buy himself into a bar. He was confused, why would Obi-Wan save him? Especially after he had killed those private academy kids? The only way it made any sense was if he was some sort of assassin. A Jedi assassin, did those even exist?

"Sometimes sacrifices have to be made."

What the hell had that meant? Xi let out a growl of frustration and kicked out violently at a block of ice that the road breakers had piled on the side of the sidewalks. He watched its progression – he could hit it far. Sending the mammoth, craggy piles of ice vaulting through the air was a childhood game on Geauga and it was how Xi had earned his very first betting money.

Xi's eyes widened as he watched the ice block sail majestically down the side walk – and smack directly into the chest of a startled, giant of a man. He knew instantly, in the way that all Geaugans knew, that this man was an offworlder. The man looked from where the ice block had fallen at his feet and then over at him.

Xi felt himself panic slightly at the glare that was sent his way, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand up at the intensity he found there. He watched, mutely, as the man's eyebrows rose in a silent rebuke. Xi swallowed; somehow he hadn't felt so properly cowed since his mother was alive.

He opened his mouth to apologize but froze as the corner of the offworlder's lips quirked in a rather intimidating fashion.

"Fuan Yi Xi." Xi couldn't help but notice it wasn't a question and felt his mouth go quite suddenly dry. "I've been looking for you."

Obi-Wan banished the faces of the girls from his mind as he forced himself to stretch his back muscles. He placed them with the faces of others he refused to think of, other moments he refused to ever revisit. But he could not still the sorrow in his heart.

It seems I am incapable of saving even children from the dark.

While only two children had died by his blade, his presence had amounted to a death sentence for all. Obi-Wan wished he had never investigated the Academy, that he had just ignored the clues pointing there. He had thought he would encounter the Sith woman and her apprentice, what had happened had been a far cry from his plans. He had thought when he had been attacked that it was that foul beast. But it had only been children, girls no older then fourteen. How could he have known? The act was done before he had even realized their identity.

Undoubtedly the five had been reported lost or dead to the Temple and Obi-Wan had no doubt they had been searched for, perhaps even were still being searched for. They were initiates who had been kidnapped and sold or left their assignments of their own free will, to join the blond haired Sith.

How many disappeared like those girls?

Obi-Wan shook his head. For so many, the assignments to areas outside of padawan-hood once they had reached their thirteenth birthday was the right choice. So many developed into healthy, happy adults who functioned well in the Order, fulfilling roles that were vital to its survival. But how many had been passed over by mistake? Obi-Wan himself had almost ended up a agriculture worker.

How many of our children broke themselves in their grief?

He would have to let the Temple know of their deaths somehow. He would have to find a copy of the security vid and send it to them. He had no other way to identify them. They had all been too young to have been in any of his classes as a child. And as far as he knew, they did not exist in his time. Obi-Wan stared at his clenched hands bitterly. He had never faced them in the time that he knew. Where they dead already? Chances were they had fallen to Sidious or some other force long before the war had even begun. He had uncovered nothing to show they were working together and he doubted highly that the Chancellor took kindly to competition. No chance for life, in one future or the other.

Obi-Wan did not know if he could bring himself to kill children.

Yet they were children who had taken up the mantel of the Sith. Children who had fought him with hate and anger. Children who saw this as their last chance to become something great, to become what they had been trained to from birth. Children who were forever lost to the light. Children who refused his offers of a safe return to the Temple. It was a tragedy, one that he had not foreseen and could not have prevented.

If this was to ever happen again, could he really take the chance of returning them to the Temple? Could one who had started down the path of the Dark side ever be redeemed? Could he bring himself to believe that Anakin could not ever be saved? If this happened again, could he risk trying to save them? Should he kill them, eliminate any possible threat to his loved ones that he encountered? Up to this point all that he had faced had been clean cut. Siths, true by true, waiting to weave their craft and bring about the destruction of lives.

Obi-Wan hoped he would never be forced to make that decision.

He brought his hand up to rub the burning sensation that was so familiar. He stared grimly at his covered legs before crossing them and leaning his elbows on his knees, bringing his free hand up to cover his eyes. Obi-Wan was tired, even now after he had slept for so long.

The startled, pale face of Xi haunted him slightly. Obi-Wan had watched him silently as the Geaugan boy had fought to keep his revulsion hidden. The boy had seen him as his rescuer, had cared for him when he was at his weakest. He had seen the Jedi heal in a manner that to him must be miraculous. Xi had built him into something he was not – a mythical hero of some kind that Xi could privately enjoy. Faced with the bloody truth of Obi-Wan's actions – and without a proper understanding on why it must be done – he had quite effectively crushed the Geaugan's dream of him.

It's always hard for a child when he realizes his idols are not what they believe they are. And so he was silent when Xi had left without the normal cheerful backwards glance. Even if he wanted to, how could he even begin to explain this to a teenage boy? If at all possible, Obi-Wan never wanted Xi to understand.

He himself didn't know if what he was doing the right thing at times. He didn't even know if he would be able to accomplish everything he wanted to. But Obi-Wan would die trying to fix his mistakes and the mistakes of his Padawan. And he would kill any and all who had nurtured the plot that had destroyed the Order. Sidious would fall, as would Maul and Dooku and the damnable blond woman. They would fall or he would die.

The Temple would never burn again as long as he breathed. Obi-Wan would protect his family. There was no other option. So far, the only break he had gotten was the realization that Terlius was still on the planet. Xi had informed him that she actually held a government seat and had an office in town no less.

How Xi had known this and Obi-Wan hadn't after all of his reconnaissance work, was beyond him. He sighed, at least –

He froze, his entire body going stiff. His back screamed as he stretched his weak scabs wide. Obi-Wan pulled himself from his sleeping pallet with much effort, calling his lightsaber to his hand. A Force wielder was coming his way, trying to mute his presence. He could still sense it, though it was mutilated to the point that he couldn't tell its affliction.

Grimly he moved to face the entrance to the cave, grateful that Xi had left. He didn't know if he had the strength to protect the boy from attacks right now. He kept his lightsaber in his hand, ready to flick it on in an instant if he needed to. He was in rough shape, if this was the woman or her apprentice, it would be an interesting fight.

He could barely hear the soft crunch of snow over the wind as the presence drew nearer. Obi-Wan lips twisted into a frown. That presence...he lowered his lightsaber but kept it in his hand. There was the sound of a grunt as a heavily wrapped Xi popped through the entry way. And then a moment later so did the Force user.

Obi-Wan felt his breath catch as he stared at the tall figure, taking a step backwards as the muted signature gave away to one that he knew better then his own. Gloved hands reached up and pulled down the thick hood and a moment later the goggles and mask followed. Qui-Gon Jinn stared down at him, looking far grayer then he had the last time they met. The older man offered him a grim smile.

"You've been busy Padawan."

End of the chapter for now. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'm really interested in your guys input. The normal questions apply, which did you like best, which did you hate, did I have a massive misspelling somewhere.