Thank you for the reviews!!!! All I'm going to say
is…be ready for this chapter….*Grins menacingly*
Yes, I know this chapter is like all to the side but it's
still readable!! Lol. I'll try and fix the spacing, I don't
know what's wrong with it.. Any way, on to chapter 4!
Ch. 4 The Shadow's Forgiveness
Shattering
He could do this. No, no he couldn't do this. Sure he
could, he said he would, so he could.
No…Yes!…No..Crap..
Obi-Wan continued to pace Carlie's office. She was
currently watching him go from one side to the other
while she was supposed to be reading a file she was
just given not three minutes ago.
"Does that help?" She asked dully turning the page.
"Yes." He replied turning.
"Oh…Must depend on the person because you're driving
me INSANE!"
Obi-Wan grimaced. "Sorry…I'm nervous." He said
quietly.
"Have a stress ball bro." TiFin threw him a small ball
that he had been wrenching on all morning…Obi-wan
figured he stole it from Carlie's desk because she
continuely glared at him once and a while.
Obi-Wan caught it with both hands and clenched down.
Rrrrrriiiiipppppp.
Carlie scratched the top of her head looking at him,
TiFin quickly looked away as if interested with the
things around the office.
"…It was cheap." Obi-wan said trying to push the two
pieces together.
"That was my last one." Carlie said.
"I'll buy you a new one?" He offered.
"Fair enough." She replied closing the file she knew
she couldn't read. She should have been on floor
nearly 10 minutes ago with Obi-Wan, but they obviously
weren't there.
"Carlie, our visitor is here." It was Aden's voice
over the com.
The two pieces of the stress ball flew out of
Obi-wan's hands and he was at Carlie's com on her desk
in a moment.
"Send him in."
Carlie and TiFin glanced at eachother. Events like
these often didn't turn out well. All but one had gone
sour with any youth at Shadow's Own…Including them. If
a Shadow ever met their family again, it usually
didn't go well at all.
"Alright." Aden replied.
"You ok?" TiFin asked as Obi-Wan began to pace behind
Carlie's desk this time.
"I'm fine. Course I am. What made you think otherwise?
I'm ok. Yeah, fine."
"Ben." Carlie said kindly.
"I'm lost…I don't know what to do." He said miserably
plopping next to TiFin in the other chair.
"Just remember, he asked to talk to you. You don't
have to say anything first if you don't want to…or you
could say everything first. Let him know what you
feel. Or maybe-"
"Fin." Carlie said telling him to be quiet, that he
was just confusing the younger man more.
The door buzzed and Carlie opened it from her desk.
The three inside stood looking at Master Jinn as he
entered. Aden didn't go in farther than the door.
"Good morning Master Jinn." Carlie greeted, quickly
placing herself between he and Obi-wan.
"Dr. Grandai." Jinn replied shaking her hand.
Silence set and Aden cleared his throat from the door.
"We should leave the two of you be." TiFin said
setting a firm grip on Carlie's elbow.
"Thank you." Qui-Gon replied, very aware of the
warning glare Carlie Grandai bore into him as she was
forced to pass.
"I don't like him." Carlie grumbled as she was still
led by TiFin and Aden away from the closing office
door.
"You don't like any of them." Aden replied. Them being
parents or family that abandoned any of their children
that ended up as Shadows.
"True." She replied finally being released.
Silence settled again when the door closed. Obi-Wan
didn't move, and Qui-Gon didn't move. They just stood
there, not really looking at eachother, but kind of
averted their eyes closely to the other.
It was Qui-Gon who broke the silence. "I'm glad you
choose to come."
Obi-Wan just looked at him then moved to Carlie's
chair behind the desk…it happened to be the seat
farthest away from Jinn as possible.
"I happened to see where you live yesterday. You've
done well."
"It's a home for runaways and adandons." Obi-Wan
supplied calmly.
Qui-Gon didn't say anything for a moment. He tried to
keep Tahl's advice in mind, to remain calm and not to
show any emothion except desperation and pleading whatsoever
no matter what the boy said. It would only make him more wary.
"Your friends are very protective of you."
Obi-Wan grunted. "They're very opnionated…especially
when it comes to their own."
Qui-Gon's eyes held question in the phrasing and
Obi-Wan didn't ignore it.
"Their own being people like them. People with no
where else to go. Shadows of society."
"They are top residants at this hospital and security
chiefs, how would they be Shadows?" Qui-Gon questioned
softly.
"They didn't give up. And they've taught others
likewise. No matter how badly you're kicked while
you're down."
The Jedi Master tried to ignore the accusing look in
the young man's eyes--tried to ignore the guilt the
flamed up inside him.
"I know what you think I felt back then, but it's not
that. You were never a burden Obi-Wan."
"I wasn't? Not even for an instant, not for an hour,
or a day, or a week, or a month, almost a year? Not in
any of that time was I a burden?" Obi-Wan asked, his
voice edgy.
"I can't answer that-"
"Why? Because it would take away from the 'new you'?
Because you know it's true?!" Obi-Wan burst. "You had
no right to do what you did! No right to block me out,
keep me out away from you, ignore everything everyone
else could see! And you have no right Qui-Gon Jinn, to
drop back into my life and think I'd just run back to
being ignored, insulted, and everything else that you
could possibly do to make me just KNOW all the more
that I'm useless." He said angerly.
"You're right…I didn't have the right to do what I
did. I didn't have the right to hurt you and ignore
what you wanted and felt." Qui-Gon took a breath. "I
had no right to become so angry with you…that without
knowing what I was doing, I made the biggest mistake
of my life. You must understand that Padawan-- I never
Meant to hurt you."
Obi-Wan blinked hard and looked away.
"You're late." Dr. Uinm mentioned as he handed Carlie
a data pad.
"I know, I know." She muttered.
"But you're here in time. We have 5 severly wounded
coming in. No one knows how they got that way, they
just did. All of them are deemed traumatized and won't
allow any of the paramedics to touch them. They
managed to get them in transports somehow."
"Medics droids?" Carlie asked as they joined at group
at the doors.
"Yes."
"Medic droids are the most disturbing and scary sight
ever to wake up to, I'd be suddenly traumatized too."
"Don't joke Carlie, this is serious." Uinm said
firmly, the group around them looked at him like he
was insane telling her not to joke.
"Absolutely serious Sir." Carlie said. She was
actually the same rank as him and didn't need to call
him sir, all the more of a joke to the others around
them.
"Docking." Someone called.
"Clearance out." Another shouted from the command
panel a few yards away.
The doors opened and everyone moved forward.
"..And this is when I'm supposed to forgive and forget
right? To forget my life as I now know it, and go back
to the one I left behind?"
"I'm not expecting you to forgive and forget. I'm
praying and hoping you'll forgive, but I would never
ask you to forget. And if you were to come back, it
wouldn't be like what it was. It won't be the same
thing that caused so much pain to you, I swear."
"Why should I trust you?" Obi-wan asked quietly, his
eyes fixed on his hands on the desk.
"Trust is what is built Padawan, we both know that. I
won't ask you to trust me but I'm asking you to trust
your feelings, your heart, even if it isn't to come
back to the Jedi." Qui-Gon wanted to shout for him to
come back, to tell him that he was asking him to
forget what he had and come back, no matter how
selfish that was. He was telling him to trust him.
Obi-Wan looked at him now. "Ribinal neiv kital?
El-cawi neiv kital.." (Trust my heart? Follow my
heart..) He said mostly to himself. Qui-Gon didn't
recognize the language. He was hoping he wasn't
telling him to go back, and leave him be. Frankly,
because Qui-Gon didn't know if he could even if
Obi-wan wanted him to. What was he going to do if
Obi-Wan said no? Would he be able to leave him?
"Sir? You're going to have to come out of there if
we're going to help you." Carlie coaxed holding her
hand out. "We're just here to help." She soothed as he
inched forward. Suddenly his bloody hand shot out and
latched onto her wrist.
"Where were you to help my sister?" He growled. The
man ripped some sort of detonation device from his
coat. Screams of nurses split through the air as the
man jumped out of the transport keeping Carlie infront
of him.
The 4 others all did similar. One didn't bother taking
a shield, just shot the closest person with a blaster
he had consealed, who happened to be a young intern
named Jerimai.
"I wouldn't go anywhere fast!" One yelled. "There's
explosives throughout the entire hospital! Too much
movement may just set them off." He said lightly.
The scattering people stopped moving or at least
slowed to look at them.
Obi-Wan even felt the disturbance that rocked through
the Force. Qui-Gon stood immediately, Obi-Wan more
gradually because of confusion. He felt something was
wrong. Something that wasn't close to them…but then
was.
"What was it?" He asked.
"I'm not sure. It wasn't far come quickly." Qui-Gon
said, forgetting their differences for a while, as he
knew Obi-Wan would do. One thing they had similar was
the feeling of the need to help anyone and everyone in
distress.
Obi-wan moved around the side of the desk to follow
the big Jedi going quickly out of the office.
"Say goodbye to one of your own!" The man behind
Carlie shouted. She grimaced, where in the hell were
TiFin and Aden?!
Screams set out when he let go of his detonator and a
crashing sound reached the area.
Carlie closed her eyes. She felt so badly for the
people in the area that that explosive had gone off.
"Carlain Grandai is now dead! Where the little bitch
belongs! She gave up on my sister, she let her die!"
Carlie's eyes snapped open. Should she say anything?
She'd never seen this man before, and obviously he'd
never seen her before either.
Wait, if he thought she was dead…He apparently knew
she'd be in wherever he'd blown something..Where would
that be? ……Oh Gods no…
Few moments Before
Qui-Gon had just gotten out the door when the Force
screamed at him. Time slowed down as he stopped and
began to turn back. A bright light suddenly ripped
through the office behind him and he shielded his eyes
and was aware of the heat that press him. The loud
noise was the most horrible thing he'd ever heard.
He'd heard explosions before, many. This was the worst
because he knew who had been in the path of that
noise.
When the heat died away and Jinn could look up without
burning his eyes, he didn't think, just did. He ran
back inside to come apon a body that he wished he
didn't recognize. A body that wasn't moving, and was
black and red with burns and blood. A body that had
been thrown across the room by the force of the blast.
A body that he couldn't see breathing.
TBC…
---Don't worry all, there will be no damsal in distress stuff here
…perhaps Obi in distress but I can't help it! Lol. Don't forget to
review! :) Sorry for any errors (and the MAJOR spacing…*grumble* I
couldn't fix it for some reason…) in this chapter, I didn't have much
time to over read.---
