Cerasi5, you better not fall out of a speeder on high speed ;-) :D Thank you for reviewing.
 
Maygin, crazier you say? Ahem, I guess you're right. I can't imagine what you'll think about this chapter. 
Don't let the end of the previous chapter make you hopeless, it's not the end of the fic. 
Do you really think an obstacle like that will stop Qui-Gon where Obi-Wan is concerned? Thank you for the review.
 

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Alone. He was still alone. The only living being in the unknown – and frightening in its hollowness – place. He lingered there for he had nowhere to go. How much time had passed? He didn't know.

He didn't know anything. Not his name, not where he was from. Nothing. His memory was as blank as the abyss around him. Surely, he must have some memory, something from his past, something to hold onto. But no matter how hard he tried he could get nothing out of his mind. He wracked his memory in an impatient and brash attempt to get something out of it. But his mind was just numb and cold.

Strange. One would think that he wouldn't have any feelings since he had no body, but still he could feel the cold. The penetrating, seizing cold that grabbed him in its clutches seemed to be almost alive in its cruelty. It twisted around him, breathing at his face, licking him with icy fire.

 I hate this place!  he thought with sudden animosity.

 Hate is of the Dark Side.

Had he heard that? Or had he imagined the voice, whispering in his mind? The voice that might belong to someone old and wise.

 Dark Side? Dark Side of what?  He didn't care if he was talking to himself or not, he felt he might remember something this way. And he would have been grateful for even a tiny speck of his past, even a glimpse of his memory.

 The Force,  came the reply.

"The Force?" The word sounded achingly familiar. It slipped from his tongue so naturally, like he was used to saying it often. "The Force." He rolled the word on his tongue, feeling the taste of it. Warm, the word was warm and welcoming.

But he needed more – he craved more. He wanted everything. He wanted his memory, his life back!

"If hate is of the Dark Side does it mean the Dark Side is bad?" This time he got no answer but something… something blinked in his mind like a flickering light of the candle in the dark – faint but distinct. And something like an amused chuckle echoed in the back of his mind.

"What is opposite the Dark Side then?"

 The Light Side.

Right. Yes! He jumped up in excitement. He thought – no, he knew now – he belonged to the Light Side of the Force.

An image rose in his mind, unfocussed and dimmed at first. The image of five tall towers: four on the sides, one at the center. Pristine white, beautiful, exquisite, topped with graceful spires. He thought that it was the most wonderful sight he had ever seen.

Tears welled up in his eyes from sudden emotion. One tear fell from the nonexistent eyes. It rolled down and dropped into the void, disappearing forever.

Home.

It was his home.

"Who am I?" he shouted into the abyss, encouraged by the sudden bright memory. "Do I have parents? Do I have friends? Where is that…" he stumbled for a moment, not knowing the name of the magnificent vision. "… that building? Where is my home?"

A chuckle echoed again, this time around him, wrapping him in the blanket of the soft sound. "My, my, how many questions and all at once." A face strikingly familiar weaved from nothingness. A face of a middle-aged man with trimmed beard and long, slightly graying hair. The midnight-blue eyes shone, looking at him with amusement.

He stared at the vision, feeling the conviction rise inside him – the conviction that he knew this man, had to know him. Then the image disappeared, thawed into the emptiness.

"Choose one question," the voice offered.

"Uh… well… what is my name?" Now he knew that he wasn't talking to himself. Whoever or whatever he was talking to wasn't his own imagination.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi," the voice replied, but it suddenly sounded hollow.

"Um, thanks," he didn't know what to say. What does one say in gratitude to an incorporeal voice anyway?

 Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan Kenobi.  he repeated in his mind.  Sounds… right.

"Where am I from?" he ventured.

No answer, not even a sound reached him this time.

"Hello!"

Nothing.

"But…" He stumbled, suddenly lost. "But I need to know more. Please, come back!" he cried into the void, but not even an echo replied. Everything was hollow again, devoid of sounds.

At least now he knew his name. Though that gave little to him, when he wanted, yearned for, longed for so much more. But whoever – or whatever – had been talking to him was gone now, had dissipated into the void, leaving no trace.

A blanket of emptiness wrapped itself around him again. Only now, after he had tasted a bit of his memory, the loneliness was so much worse to stand. Unbearable. He almost wished he hadn't ever heard that voice.

A sinking feeling settled in his stomach – a feeling that he would have to spend the rest of his life, if not the whole eternity, here.

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Feeling empty, Obi-Wan sat there - if what he was doing could be called sitting - fighting his own wishes, trying not to give into the despair. The void was pressing down on him, making his heart feel hard like a stone. Hopelessness ruled the ball.

He had some memories now: home, that man (though he was still unsure who the man was). The procession of memories started to unwind in his mind, caused by the memories he had already gotten. But it was still too little. It was not nearly enough.

And then the void winked at him. Again, almost playfully.

He missed it at first, but the winking continued. A small light of pure hope was blinking in the vague distance. Confusion captured his mind. Was the void playing with him or was this a way to freedom? He wished it was the way home - home he had so bizarrely retained the memory of. But he would be grateful even if it were simply the way out of this place. He would give anything to get out of here - that is if he had anything to give.

With all the strength of rising hope and desperate soul, Obi-Wan reached for the little light.  This time I won't let it fade.  he vowed to himself.

And to his great joy the light didn't flicker out of existence as another one did the last time. If anything, the light was only growing, teasing him with a promise of possible escape.

He almost reached it he when he suddenly stopped, unsure. The light, all of a sudden, seemed frightening. What was there, behind that light? Perhaps there was escape, but what if the death waited there for him? Or even worse. He looked back at the void and it looked so familiar and comforting to him now.

 Maybe I shouldn't go anywhere?  the boy questioned himself, standing on the very threshold of unknown.  What if it's a trap?

Uncontrolled fear bordering on panic gripped him, steeling his breath. He almost took a step back.

Almost, but not quite.

 I can't stay in the void,  he tried to persuade himself.  I must take this chance. I must learn what is there. It's easy to stay here.  He looked around at the place, devoid of everything. The place wasn't particularly hospitable, but it was all that he knew now. Well, except for his home.  No, I WILL NOT stay here.

Forcing all the fearful thoughts out of his mind, he made a step forward. And another. And another. Time stretched into the infinite corridor, space twisted and turned around him like a crazed wind, playing with a speck of dust. He walked and walked forward, forgetting where he was going to or why he was doing it. Abruptly he felt the weight press down on him. It came so suddenly that he fell… and only then he realized that he had a body. He had his body back!

 Well, maybe it's not exactly MY body.  He beseeched the hope in fear that it would be crushed if the promise of freedom turned out to be false. But the hope refused to be stifled, spreading her sparkling white wings wide - ready to soar.

Getting up, he looked around. However, now there was only darkness around him. The void was gone, but so was the guiding light. Shaking his head in amazement and confusion, he made a step forward. At least, he hoped that it was forward because he could see absolutely nothing in the pitch dark of this place. Another step forward, and dry grass quietly rustled under his feet.

He blinked his eyes in wonder. The sudden light blinded him immediately, but he quickly regained his vision, as blurry as it was at first. Obi-Wan looked around through tears that had welled in his eyes from the assault of the harsh light. All around him, as far as the eye could see, stretched a hilly valley, covered with parched grass. The air was as hot and dry as on Tatooine, though the blinding-white sky not only didn't have two suns as Tatooine did - there was no trace of any sun at all. Right in front of Obi-Wan towered a sloping hill, covered with still golden-brown grass - there was no wind to make the grass waver. Something told him that he needed to go up the hill. He did just that.

Now that he was climbing up the hill it didn't seem to be as sloping, the opposite, in fact. When he finally reached the top of the hill, a glistening sheen of perspiration was covering his forehead, and he was slightly winded. From the top of the hill the same view presented itself before his eyes. Everywhere around him the same valley lay, stretching to the horizon. It was barren, save for the brownish-gold grass and gently framed hills - no water pools, no woods and no settlements - the desert of ghostly grass.

Then he noticed a strange thing that unnerved him: the grass was wavering, moving on its own accord as there was still not the slightest wind. The sight of moving grass hypnotized Obi-Wan.

He was standing in the middle of this barren land completely at a loss as to where he was and what to do. Was this the escape he craved so much or was it just another place, filled with loneliness and desolation?

"Oh, what a surprise! I have a visitor!" a voice exclaimed behind him.

Reluctantly tearing his gaze from captivating sight, Obi-Wan spun to see who was speaking. He saw a man seemingly not much older than himself, or maybe he was much older. It was really hard to tell his age. There was no way the man could have gotten here without Obi-Wan knowing it. Yet the man was here. He was sitting on a large partly transparent yellow smoky stone - it reminded amber, but Obi-Wan wasn't sure.

Strangely, the man looked very familiar. Obi-Wan looked him over carefully, trying to remember where he could have seen him before. The stranger wore spacious white pants and shirt. His feet were encased in boots made of soft brown leather. The man had ginger hair that hang loosely over his shoulders, framing the young achingly familiar face. Blue-green eyes looked at Obi-Wan expectantly and with a slight mockery.

With a pang Obi-Wan realized why the face was so familiar - it was his own face. Looking a bit older, without childishness that Obi-Wan's features still held, but the face was just the same.

"Who are you?" Obi-Wan asked, trying not to sound scared or challenging.

"My name is Loiso Pondohva*," the man replied, looking satisfied like a cat that has just eaten a bowl of sour cream.

"Why… why do you look like me?" Obi-Wan asked him warily. Loiso merely shrugged.

"It's just a trait of my essence. My friend, Juffin, calls it 'the most overwhelming form of charm'. I can't control this ability, anyway." Something imperceptible moved in murky depth of the man's eyes, and for a moment he looked sad, but the next moment he flashed a blinding grin at sorely confused Obi-Wan.

"And where is that friend?" Obi-Wan asked, not knowing what else to ask.

"Oh, he's in another world. I don't think he would ever come here to talk to me, as you did." Loiso leaned forward as if conferring a secret. "He's busy," he said in a low voice. Then he leaned back again. "And, after all, he is the one who locked me here." Loiso's gaze seemed to become wistful, straying off into the deserted vastness of the hot world.

"But why did he do it?" Getting tired from standing, Obi-Wan lowered himself onto the low grass.  Why would someone want to lock another in this empty place?  

"Well, he thought he could kill me this way, but…" Loiso paused and looked at Obi-Wan appraisingly. "Anyway I don't think you need all this metaphysical mambo-jumbo. Let's just say that I survived."

"But why did he want to kill you? What have you done to him?"

"I tried to destroy his world," Catching Obi-Wan's startled look, he elaborated. "Not because I'm that evil or something. I wanted to see if I could do it. You know, like we sometimes do things simply because we can do them."

Obi-Wan didn't comment, fighting the urge to get as far from this man as possible and as soon as possible.

Loiso smiled sadly. "Don't think that Juffin is much better than me. If it weren't the world he likes he would have taken a ticket to the first row and watch the performance with interest."

Obi-Wan just shook his head.  Maybe this is a madhouse? Yeah, a personal madhouse I somehow has wandered into.  

Loiso watched him closely as though he could hear Obi-Wan's thoughts. "Well, I prefer to call it my personal hell," he finally said.

"I guess, the hell could look like this," Obi-Wan supplied politely, at the same time tightening his mental shields. Loiso smiled at him knowingly, making the boy blush.

"Is this real?" Obi-Wan asked, trying to escape the scrutiny. He swiped his hand in a wide arc, encompassing the whole valley.

"Real? You are so funny!" Loiso laughed loudly, making Obi-Wan even more confused. The Padawan felt insulted by the man's odd behaviour. "And just what do you define as real?" Loiso asked, still chortling.

"Umm… what I can feel," Obi-Wan provided hesitantly. He suddenly had a feeling that his answer would make Loiso laugh even harder. But, to the boy's surprise, he didn't.

"Yes, you think that what you feel is real. But how can you be sure that it's not some kind of a hallucination? How do you know that you're not an animal that had eaten some grass, producing hallucinations for you to think you're sitting here talking to me?"

"Err… but you're here, too," Obi-Wan tried to argue. His common sense declared a strong urge to submit to resignation and leave him right now, possibly to never return.

"And what if I'm just your imagination?" Loiso stared at him with penetrating gaze of two blue-green eyes that were so much like Obi-Wan's own.

Obi-Wan could just stare back at him, feeling his thoughts starting to tangle, making a mess in his head.

"I see I scared you." After a minute of silence Loiso suddenly laughed again. Obi-Wan listened attentively to the sound of his laughter. But there was no trace of insanity in it - just a common laughter of a man who had found something funny.

"It was a joke, then?" Obi-Wan asked, relieved.

"No, it's no joke," Loiso suddenly became serious. "And you better keep it in mind."

Silence fell as Obi-Wan tried to comprehend what he had just heard.

 "Tell me how you got here," Loiso suddenly asked. "It appears that you are not here by you own wish."

Having decided that it won't hurt to tell Obi-Wan related his story. By this time he has already recollected the mission on Allura, and that memory didn't bring him any pleasure. He expected that Loiso will sympathize him or probably will scold for rashness. But the man reacted in an absolutely another way. He looked at Obi-Wan with a somehow shrill sad and simultaneously slightly derisive look.

"Are you aware that you have got one of the biggest desires of any person coming true?" Loiso said.

Obi-Wan stared at him clueless as to what Loiso was speaking about.

"That girl, Anisa, you see, she fell in love with you."

Obi-Wan wanted to protest, but Loiso lifted a hand to forestall the not yet begun protests.

"Certainly, nobody will call it normal love," Loiso grinned. "To pull the soul out of a person - literally - is a rather strange display of love, but nevertheless…"

"So what?" Obi-Wan asked, not seeing where the man was going with this. "What does any desire have to do with this?"

"Pretty much, in fact. The biggest desire of any person is an irrepressible, a little bit childish desire that everybody loved him or her. You have got that love. How did you like it?"

"Frankly speaking, I didn't like it at all. I got here because of it."

"Exactly. I think now you would not like to be loved by everybody anymore, huh?" Loiso looked at him slyly.

"No, I don't think so," Obi-Wan mumbled. Trying to gather his runaway thoughts he stared into the distance with the unseeing eyes. One thought was bothering him more than anything else.  Will I have to stay here forever?

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* Loiso Pondohva belongs to Max Frei, as do his world and everyone he knows.