"Very strange," Doctor Monta hissed between his teeth several hours later after various tests were done on the now unconscious Luke.
"What is strange, Doctor?" Qui-Gon demanded. He hated waiting and he and Obi-Wan had been forced to wait for three hours. Obi-Wan's pain had passed quickly but Luke had been semi-conscious by the time they had arrived at the medical facility. Doctor Monta and his assistants had tested Obi-Wan briefly but dedicated the last three and a half hours to examining Luke down to the last detail.
The small, squat doctor wiped a cloth on his balding head and sat down heavily on a chair beside the two Jedi. Through an observation window that had been darkened for the past few hours and was now lightening to let them see through it, Qui-Gon could see Luke laying prone on a table with different kinds of testing equipment surrounding him.
"Well," the doctor sighed. "This is going to sound terribly strange and with the equipment I have here, I can't be entirely sure…"
"Just say it, Doctor, please," Obi-Wan pleaded, quivering in nervous anticipation. Qui-Gon frowned at him and sent him a mental prod to be patient.
Doctor Monta sighed again. "Well, in my professional opinion…Jedi Skywalker is regressing in age, starting with his body. His emotions will start to regress as well, if they haven't already. I've never…never seen anything like it. His pain will increase as the process speeds up. Where did you find him?"
Qui-Gon pursed his lips. "In the middle of space. We have cause to believe that he's from the future. Other than that, we don't know much else than you."
Instead of being disbelieving, the doctor nodded sadly. "That makes sense with his condition. If you don't find a way to return him, since he is in the past that he does not exist in, he will eventually cease to exist. In both times. Do you understand, Master Jinn?"
Qui-Gon, numb with shock, nodded. But he wasn't so numb that he didn't forget to ask, "And what of Obi-Wan?"
"I evidently know him in the future," Obi-Wan explained briefly.
Thinking for a moment, the doctor snapped his fingers. "He's beginning to regress here, but in the future he's beginning not to exist at all so it is affecting you since you knew him in the future. Although I doubt you know of it, I would stake my career that your headache was a memory of him being erased." Here he paused. "He's not…important for the future, is he? Him being here and disappearing might change the entire future."
Qui-Gon found himself glancing at Obi-Wan.
In response, his Padawan threw up his hands. "Don't look at me! I don't know." Then he stopped and frowned. "Although…something tells me that I know him for years but he doesn't know me that long. Strange, isn't it? Why would I know him longer than he knows me, besides the obvious fact that I'm older than him? Do I become his guardian as he grows up? Does it have something to do with the disappearance of the Jedi by the Sith Lord? This is all so confusing." He rested his head in his hands as the doctor just stared at him.
Qui-Gon sent his apprentice soothing, calming thoughts through their bond as he tried to think this piece of information. Before he got very far, his comlink beeped at him.
"Jinn here," he reported.
The voice was brisk. "Master Jinn, I urgently request you come to my abode as soon as possible at 52 West Grid Avenue. You are needed to settle a dispute."
"Be right there," he assured the man. Switching off his comlink, he faced Obi-Wan and the doctor, who were both looking at him. "When do you think Luke will waken again, Doctor Monta?"
The doctor sighed. "Probably a few hours. I gave him a pain suppressant to help him deal with his body's reversal. Someone who is familiar with the Jedi and their abilities needs to be here when he does wake to be with him."
Qui-Gon glanced to Obi-Wan. He had tried to protect his Padawan from the effects of being near Luke but it seemed that no matter where Obi-Wan was, as long as Luke was in their time the apprentice would suffer. Luke was a grown man, though younger than Qui-Gon himself, and seemed to have a level head on his shoulders. He supposed Obi-Wan would be alright with Luke now; or at least as alright as he could possibly be.
"Stay here, Obi-Wan," he instructed. "I don't know how long I'll be and I agree with the doctor that someone should be here when Luke wakens."
Obi-Wan nodded and managed to look calm about the possibility of nagging the future for answers to questions he had. Giving his apprentice one extremely stern look and a nonverbal warning through the Force, Qui-Gon left to try to solve a dispute.
Slowly, Luke opened his eyes. Once again, he found himself in the recovery room of the medical center. Sighing, he slowly sat up, feeling his right side tingle with the movement.
"Good, you're awake," Obi-Wan's younger voice stated from his left.
Glancing over, Luke saw that the younger Jedi was sitting on a chair and watching him closely. The older Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn, was nowhere to be seen. "Hello again," he said cautiously. To his surprise, his voice came out a little higher-pitched then he remembered it being. "Where's Qui-Gon?"
Obi-Wan shook his head. "He was called away to mediate a dispute a couple of hours ago. I was told to stay with you."
"Why?" Luke demanded, instantly suspicious, his temper flaring. His eyes widening at his own burst of emotion, he tried to suppress the feeling of anger.
Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed for a moment but he remained silent for a moment. "I think that's something for Doctor Monta to discuss with you." His eyes unfocused for a moment before once again fixating on Luke with their intensity. "He's coming." Standing to vacate the chair, the young Jedi learner moved to lean against the wall across from Luke's feet as the squat doctor entered.
"Good! I see you're awake again! My, but do Jedi recover fast!" Doctor Monta exclaimed, plopping his bulk down on the chair Obi-Wan had been sitting down on. Sobering quickly, the doctor tightened his lips. "We need to have a discussion, Jedi Skywalker."
Luke merely settled himself into a comfortable position. Fifteen minutes later, comfort was no longer an option after hearing the doctor's prognosis.
"What?" Luke asked in a whisper. His eyes were wide and he felt himself trembling. "So, I'm going to reverse in age until I'm nothing, is that what you're saying? And in my time it's like I never existed?"
Doctor Monta nodded. In an effort to cheer him up, he tried to joke, "What? It's not like you're an important person, right? Just one Jedi out of many, correct?"
Luke blurted out, forgetting Obi-Wan was in the room with them, "You have no idea, Doctor! I help rescue a woman who turns out to be my sister from death and she helps organize a rebellion to get rid of an evil leader over the galaxy. If I'm not there, she'll die and so will millions of others. Even if the other person who helps me rescue her somehow does it on his own, I destroy planet-destroying superweapons and find the lost descendants of the Jedi to rebuild the Jedi Order. If I'm not there, no one else cares enough to do it in my place and no one will want to!"
Obi-Wan reached out through the Force and sent calming waves to Luke. Luke bit his lip as he realized what all he said with Obi-Wan listening in. Now the younger Ben knew too much about the future. Had he altered things now?
Doctor Monta gazed at Luke for a moment, then looked over at Obi-Wan. "And how does Master Jinn's Padawan fit into your future?"
Now Luke definitely knew he had to be careful. "Doctor Monta, I can't say with him in the room."
"Why not?"
Luke felt Obi-Wan's curiosity as he responded, "I don't want to alter the future anymore than I already have."
Doctor Monta stood and towered over Luke. "Jedi Skywalker, the future is already altered and will become more so when you eventually cease to exist. Padawan Kenobi is deeply affected by whatever is happening to you; I need to know the influence he has in your life to determine how much I need to be concerned with him."
Luke still hesitated, but then sighed and gave in. "Obi-Wan Kenobi, whom I know as Ben Kenobi, lives on Tatooine and seems to watch over me as I grow up with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. When I turned eighteen…" and for the next hour Luke caught up the doctor and a wide-eyed Obi-Wan on the future.
When he had finished, both he and the doctor turned their attention to Obi-Wan. "Ben is my birth name," the teenager breathed. "Obi-Wan is the name I got when I became a student at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. I haven't gone by the name 'Ben' in a long time."
Like an eerie parody, Luke heard the older Ben's voice saying, "I haven't gone by the name 'Obi-Wan' in a long time…long time."
Shaking his head with the strange merging of the past and the future, Luke brought his attention back to the present. "Look, now that Obi-Wan knows what he's going to do in the future…"
Luke cut off as Obi-Wan suddenly gasped and jerked, his eyes unfocusing.
"Obi-Wan?" Luke asked cautiously. Dimly, he could feel a disturbance in the Force but could not pinpoint the location.
"It's Qui-Gon," Obi-Wan stated, his voice filled the utmost certainty. "He's in trouble somewhere on this planet."
The doctor stared at the two Jedi as they stood and both focused into the Force: Luke into the Force that he had been taught and found on his own; and Obi-Wan through the bond that he and Qui-Gon shared.
At the same time, they said, "Near the west."
As they both ran out the door, the doctor rapidly stood and shouted after them, "You need to stay here to rest!" but neither one heard nor cared.