TITLE: Fragment
AUTHOR: Napra
FANDOM: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
PAIRING: Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon
RATING: PG-13
ARCHIVE: Please ask first.
DISCLAIMER: Everything Star Wars belongs to George Lucas. I'm not gaining any profit by publishing this, so why charge with copyright infringement?
SUMMARY: Qui-Gon is dead. Should not Obi-Wan die with him?
*
"Master!"
The young man's weakened scream trailed off down the abyss, was beaten about by the cascades of light. Round and round it went, deeper, in an eternal spiral to an unknown destination. Or was it temptation of undestined knowledge that lured the Jedi apprentice to follow his master's call?
"Our paths are intertwined. Where you lead I follow. If I fall, you lift me up with your spirit."
The trail of the other path wound itself around his ankles before he could even turn to his master's corporeal shell.
"Obi-Wan ... the Force leads our way. The light as well as the dark side. Not the ..."
"Master?!" The apprentice's eyes flew around, sought the man that had left him before he had the chance to complete him.
"Search within your eyes, Obi-Wan. You will find answers within."
The young Jedi glanced down the convoluted void once more, then shielded his eyes from the blinding light.
"You will not show yourself to me, Master?" His voice was giving up, just as his own self. Hoarse, broken, lacking the heroic quality that he had shown his master at so many a time. Then his blue eyes would sparkle in enthusiasm, defiance, admiration. Now they were filled with tears.
"Not before I close my inner eyes to the outside world?" he asked in hesitant obeisance towards his teacher.
Slowly his shivering leg lifted from the floor. It seemed to draw at his body like a magnet. The effort of holding it in the air became so strong that it seemed so easy to step over the edge. But the Jedi turned on his heel and set his foot on the ground. As he lifted his head all he could see was a man lying on the floor. He was dead, but he was a man. Obi-Wan dropped to the body's side and buried his face in the thick greying hair. "At last you're only a man. No longer my master. But where does that get me – get us? You're dead, grand hero."
Drained beyond consciousness he curled up and moved his head on the man's chest from the dampened hair. He sobbed and cried till every single breath became a hoarse sigh and replaced the missing rhythm of Qui-Gon's heartbeats.
*
THE END