Chapter: Fifteen: The Mystery of Obi-Wan Kenobi
Ch. Summary: Ben thought he was the only one going to be revealing startling information. Apparently Yoda disagreed.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Yoda's gimer stick only brought the steadily rising din down enough to hear individual masters' complaints.
"Preposterous! How dare you claim to be a Jedi Master!" There was Master Rancisis again.
"It's a fake name," Master Tiin, "he's obviously lying again."
"We should hear him out," kind, gentle Master Shaak Ti. "There is more to this story."
"I felt no lie his words," said the boundlessly patient Master Plo Koon.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Room finally silent, Yoda huffed in exasperation and eyed the other masters scolding. "Truth, this is. Feel no lie in the Force, did I. Trust the Force, do I alone?"
Wow, Ben blinked at the small master, that was harsh. Apparently the other masters thought so too, because several of the more vocally denying ones slumped fractionally lower in their seats. But they didn't protest again.
Grunting, satisfied that he'd cowed the young whippersnappers on the Council, Yoda turned his expectant gaze back on the one laying claim to the same name as the padawan of his grandpadawan.
"Explain you will, what you mean by that," Yoda ordered. "Not in two hundred years, has another Obi-Wan Kenobi been a member of the Jedi. Until fourteen years ago, our young Obi-Wan came to us."
Right, Ben thought with trepidation. Now he had to actually convince a room full of ironically skeptical space wizards – as he'd heard the smugglers in Mos Eisley call the Jedi of old – that he was a time traveler.
"I'll tell you my story, Masters," Ben said, "if you will bear with me and listen until the end."
"Listen, we will," Yoda assured him while simultaneously ordering the other councilors to silence. "Interested to hear this, I am."
Ben almost snorted at that, suddenly remembering there was more than one reason the Grand Master of the Order was sometimes referred to as a troll.
Shaking the thought away, Ben straightened up and prepared to give his audience a very abridged, though completely truthful retelling of his life.
"I was brought to the temple as an infant," he began. "A Jedi Knight found me freezing to death in a field on Stewjon. I had been given the name Obi-Wan Kenobi and treated accordingly by my birth people." There was a flutter of confusion from several of the masters, but not from Yoda or Mace or Plo. It seems they knew enough of his planet of origin to understand the implication of his name.
"I grew up in the creche, I joined an initiate clan, and when I came of age I struggled to find a master that would take me." If Yoda didn't suspect before, he did now. Mace on the other hand was growing more skeptical of the validity of his story.
"Eventually, a master agreed to take me on. Despite more than a few rough patches in our partnership, I spent my padawanship learning all I could from him." Ben didn't want to bring up the details of his tumultuous relationship with his old master. That wasn't the point of this story and there would be time enough later to bring up his complaints about Qui-Gon's conduct with his padawan.
"I was in my twenties, still a padawan when I lost my master," Ben had to pause for a moment. No matter his mixed feelings, Qui-Gon had meant a lot to him and his death had pained him. "I killed the darksider that killed him and was Knighted for it."
That garnered a rumble of unease from the Councilors. What Ben had technically earned was a Battlefield Knighting. Something they hadn't put in common practice since the last Mandalorian-Jedi conflict over seven hundred years ago. During the Clone Wars more than a few padawans, his own included, had earned themselves Battlefield Knightings.
If his Knighting caused a stir, his next words would cause more of one. "Days prior to my Knighting a young boy was brought to the temple. He was very powerful, but most considered him too old to admit into the Order." Here's where Ben was going to be skirting close to lying by omission. He had no intention of revealing more of Anakin's history and circumstances than he had to. One of the failures of the Order had been letting his status as the presumed "Chosen One" become common knowledge not just among the Jedi, but in the Senate as well.
Some of Anakin's story, most of it dark and painful, Ben would have to tell, but he would protect his padawan as best he could. How could he do anything less when he'd done nothing, but almost since the moment he'd met the boy.
"This boy was, however," Ben continued, "too powerful to leave to the mercies of the galaxy. I took him as my padawan not a week after my Knighting."
There was a surge of disapproval from the more traditional masters, but Yoda's warning held and no one spoke.
"I trained him as best and as faithfully to the Code as I could," he fought not to frown as familiar feelings of self recrimination made themselves known again. "He was a good student, talented in the Force, amazing with a lightsaber, and so kind and compassionate. But he did not take the teachings of the Code well." The masters didn't like that, he could tell. "He felt the Code was limiting, stifling, oppressive."
Some indignation floated into the Force, but Ben ignored it. There was a quiet hum from Yoda and when he flicked his gaze over to his grandmaster, Ben knew his unspoken agreement with the sentiments had not gone unnoticed.
"Despite the tension this brought to our partnership and the friction our differing philosophies made between us, I was so very proud when I was granted the honor of cutting his braid as he was Knighted." Unconsciously, Ben wrapped his left hand around his right wrist and the braid still hidden under his cuff. This too did not go unnoticed, but he didn't realize it as he spoke again.
"He was a wonderful Jedi Knight, the best star pilot in the galaxy, and a good friend." The echo of the words he'd said to Luke rang in his ears and Ben had to pause again to fight the tightening in his throat. He knew his words made his attachment to his padawan glaringly obvious, but Ben didn't particularly care. He brushed the masters renewed disapproval aside like it was nothing, no repentance would they find in the feelings of love and grief that he was leaking into the Force.
What he didn't do though, was bring up a whisper of the Clone Wars. Master Sifo-Dyas, the supposed architect behind the creation of the clones, was sitting in the circle of dour Jedi Masters and until Ben could do some investigation and consult with the Force, the clones, the Separatists, and the war would be kept in his memories alone.
Now, Ben was at the point in his story where he had a choice, he could go into detail about Anakin's attachments, his wife and his unborn children, as an explanation for his Fall, or he could keep Padme, Luke, and Leia safely tucked away from the scrutiny and disparagement of the High Council.
"Unfortunately," Ben said, not bothering to smother the anger starting to seep into his presence, "what I did not realize until much later was that his strength and power in the Force made him a target. An enormously powerful and cunning darksider, a self proclaimed Sith, had insinuated himself into my padawan's life from a very young age and had spent years subtly grooming him."
Most of the masters let their outright denial and disbelief into the Force purposefully. Yoda had practically forbidden them from speaking while he told his story, but they didn't need words to make their doubt heard. Master Shaak Ti on the other hand let out a gasp and a spike of disgust and horror hit the Force. Ben darted his eyes toward her and didn't know if his next words would be a comfort to her or not.
"Grooming him to become the Sith's apprentice to the Dark side." The disgust melted away, but it was replaced by sorrow. "I didn't realize what was happening until it was much too late." Ben made no effort to hide his guilt. "The Sith had been sowing seeds of doubt and suspicion and anger in my padawan. Seeds I helped grow by my strict seemingly blind adherence both to the Code and the Council's edicts. My frequent admonishments of my padawan's questioning the wisdom of the Code, the Order's dogma, and the Council's sometimes questionable wisdom gave credence to his doubts in both myself and the Jedi. My padawan had no idea of the true depth of my care and loyalty to him."
Several of the masters frowned at such a blatant admission of attachment, but Ben thought they were rather missing the point.
"He did not believe that I would have done everything in my power to help him regardless of the restrictions of the Code. And so when he found himself in dire need, the only avenue he saw for himself was to turn to his manipulator and the empty promises of the Dark side."
Here he paused for a long moment, wondering how he was going to phrase what came next. "You must understand, Masters, why this is so integral to the question of who I am and how I came to be here." Because he could tell that the longer this went on the more doubtful of it's relevance some on the Council were becoming. "The Sith and his scheming is important because my padawan's power and connection to the Force was such that when he Fell, his dark master was able to use him to bring the entire Republic and the Jedi Order down with him."
That didn't garner him the reaction he felt the destruction of the Republic and the purge of the Jedi really warranted. Then again this was just a story to them, and not a particularly believable one. This was so far from what they conceived to be possible that their disbelief and indignation at his perceived lies were not really surprising. However, to Ben it was his history.
"When I learned what had happened, what he had done, I confronted my former padawan," Ben said, taking a moment to glance down at the floor and gather himself. "We dueled and I left him injured, but alive." Maimed and burned and screaming vitriolic hatred, but alive. "I knew that if I was to survive I would have to go into hiding, so for the next twenty years I became a recluse living in the desert, biding my time and waiting."
Waiting for what he did not say. He'd already decided to keep Luke and Leia tucked safely away in his memories.
"I was an old, broken man when I next saw my padawan." Ben released a heavy breath and met Yoda's calm accepting expression. It was easier to tell him the next part than to meet the skeptical scorn of the rest of the Council. "He was unrecognizable from the bright, happy little boy I had raised. When we dueled for the second time, he did not hesitate to strike me down."
There where reactions from the masters that surely he should be lying since he was very much alive and standing before them, but the Force rang like a bell with the honesty and truth in his words. The sheer volume of it shocked most of the masters into withdrawing their doubt from the Force.
"But moments before I became one with the Force," Ben continued softly knowing that at the Force's insistence, the entirety of the Council's attention was now wholly on him, "I stretched out my presence to his one last time and found a last sliver of hope. Buried deep in the hatred and rage and darkness filling up my padawan's being, there was a single spark of Light remaining."
Ben knew that his eyes probably showed the relief and sorrowful joy he'd felt in that split second before he'd disappeared into the Force. Yoda simply held his gaze with patient understanding. "I went into the Force wishing and praying that my padawan would one day return to the Light."
There was dead silence in the chamber while the Force continued to echo with the truth of his words. Not just that he believed them, but that they were a truth of the Force as well.
When he didn't say anything for a long moment, but the Force still waited, Yoda said to him, "Not finished, your story is. More to it, the Force says. Another revelation, I believe, you have for us."
He couldn't help the wry smile that curved at his lips as he held his grandmaster's knowing gaze. "As you say, Master Yoda," Ben nodded his head to the small master then continued on.
"I came back to awareness still one with the Force," Ben said to the skepticism of several of the old masters. "And when I was able to form my own thoughts, I realized that the Force was offering me a second chance to atone for my failures and fix my mistakes. The Force told me I would be returned to the form I had when I experienced my first death at the age of thirty-five."
"First death?" Padawan Depa blushed when her outburst got her the attention of the whole Council as well as the mysterious Jedi Master before them. She slouched in her seat next to her scowling master, Mace Windu, and whispered an embarrassed apology.
Ben just caught her eye and gave her a kind smile. "There is an ancient Force philosophy that refers to the death of present selves," he explained, earning a shy interested look from the senior padawan, who'd relaxed when she wasn't scolded by Yoda the way the masters had been. "The theory is that when you are confronted with an event or situation that changes your path in life so completely as to render it almost unrecognizable from your previous one, it is considered a death of your current self. My first death, according to the Force, was when I dueled my padawan after his Fall."
The implications of that were not lost on the adults in the room. Ben was physically young to be a master much less to have already raised a padawan to knighthood. The only person in the room that didn't raise their eyebrows at the revelation of his age was Depa, since to teenagers everyone older than them seemed ancient anyways.
"Know of this philosophy, I do," Yoda said and consequently silenced a few grumbles of disbelief from the Council. "Continue, you will."
Nodding again to the Grand Master, Ben said, "When I understood that the Force meant to return me to my younger body, it then became apparent what it wanted me to do with that. The Force was surprisingly clear in its intent when it told me I was to take a padawan again."
Teach the Padawan to Teach the Padawan.
The words echoed through the chamber distinctly and inarguable in their meaning. Ben was sure most of these masters had never experienced the Force making it's Will known so clearly before.
"You must understand, Master," Ben said into the tense silence, "I spent the last twenty years examining my mistakes and my regrets. In that time I realized there were a great many things I did wrong in teaching my padawan and a great many more things I would change given the chance. Not just for my padawan, but for the rest of the Order as well."
Yoda raised an eyebrow at that. "Think the Order must change, you do," he said with no doubt in his tone. "To the past, you believe the Force sent you, to begin these changes before your padawan comes."
He doesn't know why he is surprised that Yoda pretty much hit the nail on the head, but Ben couldn't help that his reaction leaked into the Force. "I know it will not be easily accepted, or believed, but yes, Master Yoda. I believe I was sent to take my younger self, Obi-Wan Kenobi, as a padawan so that he will learn from my experiences and when he takes his padawan he will not repeat my mistakes."
He hesitated, but forged on with his next words, "I also believe that it will not be enough just to teach Obi-Wan. If the Order is going to survive, as it did not in my past, it needs to change as well."
Yoda's hold on interruptions didn't last with that inflammatory statement. Almost the entire Council burst out in a myriad of reactions. Anger, skepticism, fear, consideration, confusion, concern, indifference. For a group of masters that were supposed to embody the serenity and wisdom all Jedi strove for, this loud disorganized outpouring of indignation was actually pretty on point with how even normal Council meetings went. Ben remembered being practically scandalized the first time he'd witnessed two venerable masters getting into a shouting match his first year sitting on the Council.
Eventually after close to a minute of indecipherable noise, one voice rose above the rest grabbing Ben's attention.
"Disregarding your heretical assertion for right now," Mace Windu said, gaining most of the room's attention, "You're telling us that you've traveled back in time. That you are actually an old man in a young body, and that Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, who is recovering in the Halls of Healing right now, is your teenage self."
Ben met the man's challenging glare head on. "Yes, Master Windu, that is exactly what I said."
"Preposterous!"
"He's lying again!"
"That's not how the Force works!"
"I've never heard of such a thing!"
"Absolutely ridiculous!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Yoda hit his gimer stick on the floor so hard Ben was surprised it didn't crack the tile. The room paused for breath, and the small master spoke into it with utter confidence.
"Believe you, I do, Master Kenobi," Yoda said, his gravely voice lilting with conviction. "Told of another traveler, I was, by my master."
Ben wasn't the only one shocked by this revelation.
"A two decades before I came to the temple, it was. Jedi Knight Obila Kenobi, she called herself. Her holocron, there is, in the temple vault."
Stunned didn't cover what Ben was feeling. Truthfully he didn't know how to react to this information. That he was not the first or the only one to be sent through time by the Force.
Apparently Yoda wasn't done dropping bombs on them either. "Another before her, there was," he said into the stark silence and unwavering attention of the entire room. "Five hundred years before, Jedi Master Healer Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared. His records, on flimsi they are, in the Council restricted section of the Archive."
Twice is a coincidence, three times a pattern, so Ben always believed. He frowned. "Master Yoda, how many other time travelers have there been?"
"Know, I do not," Yoda answered with a shrug, his fingers flexing on the top of his gimer stick. "Only two others, we have record of. All named Kenobi, they are."
So he wasn't the only one to notice that.
"What is the significance of that?" Shaak Ti spoke up for the first time since his story began. She'd refrained from adding her voice to the prior verbal melee of doubt, preferring to keep her contemplations to herself for now. "That all these supposed time travelers should be from the same biological line."
"A family name, Kenobi is not," Yoda said, some of his earlier solemnity returned with the subject.
"The Stewjoni do not welcome Force sensitives," Plo Koon spoke up for the first time in a while, having previously kept his thoughts to himself as well. "When a child is discovered to be Force sensitive they are disowned from their family and either killed outright or abandoned to the elements. Their family names are stripped away and they are given the moniker Obi-Wan Kenobi. Which means, No-One Child-of-Nobody."
"That's horrible!" Ben turned his head to see Depa blush and quickly look back down at her datapad where she'd been diligently taking notes the whole time.
"Yes, Padawan, it is horrible," he agreed, drawing her hesitant gaze back up to him. "Though I think given this new information, in terms of the Force it might mean something completely different."
A throaty hum from Yoda interrupted any response to Ben's supposition. "Research more on this, you will," he said like he was giving any other Jedi an assignment, his tone brooking no argument. "Unique opportunity, this is, to discover more how the Force works."
A slightly hysterical giggle almost made it past Ben's iron control. As it is he's pretty sure Yoda could read something of his incredulity in his eyes, because the old master raised an eyebrow at him. Clearing his throat, Ben nodded in acceptance. "Of course, Master. As time permits, I will research my situation as thoroughly as possible."
"As time permits?" repeated Master Sifo-Dyas, speaking up for the first time since Ben entered the room.
That the mysterious master, known for his foresight, chose now to speak made the hairs on the back of Ben's neck stand up. He didn't let any of his unease show though, as he clarified.
"Yes, Master. With Obi-Wan as my padawan, I will not have all the free time in the world."
There was an uprising of protests from several of the masters at his presumption. Sifo-Dyas, just eyed him curiously. "Obi-Wan already has a master," the seer said, "And while the Force was clear that Obi-Wan must be taught, there was no definite indication that it had to be by you."
Ben wasn't sure what the master was getting at, but he didn't like the way this conversation was turning. "Qui-Gon Jinn repudiated his padawan, left him in a war zone, and lied to this Council about it. Obi-Wan will not go back to him."
"Master Jinn was your master, though, was he not?" Sifo-Dyas inquired neutrally. "Changing the course of time is tricky. Seeing as you are a supposedly fully qualified Jedi Master, and did not suffer overly much from his tutelage, would it not be wiser to stay the course."
There was something off about how the master was speaking. Like he was trying to lead the conversation to a specific conclusion. Ben didn't know what that conclusion would be, and the Force was unhelpfully silent. It almost felt like it was just as puzzled about where this was leading as Ben.
"Master Jinn was my master, yes," Ben conceded, but everyone in the room could hear the terseness in his voice. "And if it was up to me he would not take another padawan again."
There was a wave of shock and unease at his words. Yoda however had his inner thoughts and feelings locked down.
"For Obi-Wan's abandonment and lying to the Council, investigated and chastised, my grandpadawan will be." Ben didn't know if the old master referred to Qui-Gon that way as a reminder to everyone of their connection or if it was unconscious. "Unfit to continue as a teacher, have doubts, I do."
Pursing his lips, Ben thought that over. He knew that Yoda had a soft spot for his lineage. He knew that Yoda had pushed Qui-Gon toward Obi-Wan as master and padawan. Whether he wanted Obi-Wan for his lineage specifically or thought them a good match for another reason, Ben did not know. And he had always been reluctant to ask.
Now he was an adult and he knew better that no Jedi Master, definitely not Yoda, was infallible.
"Melida/Daan is not the only instance Qui-Gon Jinn has neglected his duty not just as a master but also as a Jedi," Ben finally stated, gaining him more shock and anger, but also some concern.
Yoda sat back in his seat then, eyeing Ben and pursing his own lips in thought. "Had reasons, I did, for pushing them together," he admitted. "A good partnership, I saw, between them. Wrong, was I?"
Ben studied the old master. There was more to this. With his foresight and his experience, Ben could read Yoda maybe better than most anyone in the room. There was more to Yoda's admittance of having matchmaked him and Qui-Gon, so to speak. However, Ben felt now was not the time to demand deeper answers from the Grand Master.
"We did not get off to a good start, Grand Master," Ben said. "After Melida/Daan it was at least a couple years before our partnership was able to solidify. Even then it was in practice a partnership. We never established a traditional Master-Padawan dynamic."
He could tell his words didn't please Yoda. The small master's ears drooped for a moment before he consciously straightened them out.
"Regret, do you, having Qui-Gon for a master?"
"No, Master," Ben admitted, but his tone was more serious than one would expect. "My experience as his padawan shaped the man I am today, I cannot regret that. But having been a master myself, I can acknowledge that I would never have put my own padawan through a great deal of what Qui-Gon put me through, inadvertently or not."
Turning back to the other Councilors, Ben continued. "Regardless of my wanting to take Obi-Wan as my padawan, I would not have allowed him to return to Master Jinn's care."
"You've spoken to Obi-Wan about this?" Sifo-Dyas spoke up again.
Ben kept a wary on him as he answered. "Yes, I offered to take Obi-Wan as my padawan. He accepted pending a formal dissolution of the bond between him and Master Jinn."
"Does young Obi-Wan know of your true origins?" Plo Koon inquired.
"No," Ben shook his head. "He knows I'm Stewjoni, that we share a name and what our name means. He knows I followed the Will of the Force to Melida/Daan and to him, and I've told him about my Fallen former padawan. Everything I told him was the truth."
"From a certain point of view," Master Plo added with a verging on humorous edge to his filtered voice.
Ben quirked a wry agreeing grin toward the kind master. "Just so, Master Plo."
"More, there is, to discuss in Council," Yoda spoke up again, pulling the attention back to him. "Speak with Obi-Wan, we will, about his time with Master Jinn. Speak with Qui-Gon, we will as well, before out final decision we discuss."
Ben nodded at this, having expected the delay.
"Events on Melida/Daan, you skipped over, when recounting the tale to us," Yoda said not accusing, but pointedly reminding. "Mention Mandalorians, you did not."
Suppressing a grimace, Ben tucked his hands behind his back to hide the bashful fidgeting. "I should mention that Mand'alor Jango Fett will seek an audience with the Council sometime in the next few days."
"We had request for aid against violent Mandalorians recently," Mace commented, slightly suspiciously.
"Ah, yes, well," Ben shrugged, "I expect that discussion will take a whole Council meeting in itself." Master Windu pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
Yoda on the other hand let out a throaty chuckle, a little more levity lightening his eyes. "Another story for another time, I think." He tapped his gimer stick on the floor with an air of dismissal. "Meditate on what you have told us, we will. This meeting, adjourned for now. In the temple, you will stay. Soon speak with me alone, you will."
"Thank you, Master Yoda," Ben bowed low to his grandmaster and released a silent relieved breath.
Not everything was resolved. Not everything went the way he would have preferred, but it hadn't gone badly either. It had gone almost exactly as Ben had expected, truthfully.
For all that Anakin used to complain about the Council dithering and refusing to make definitive decisions, Ben knew that this delaying and slow deliberation was actually in his favor. The longer it took the Council to form a solid opinion about him one way or the other, the longer he had to prepare contingencies.
As Ben straightened up he felt a wave of light-headedness. First things first, he decided. Find the refectory and eat something, then go to the quartermaster and get a room assignment. He'd held a stasis trance over another person or five days straight. That was five days of no eating or true rest. No matter what Anakin and Ahsoka used to tease him about, he could not in fact subsist entirely on meditation and sass.
TBC...