With all the lights off, the journey through the house did not reveal much. Blocky shapes of furniture were scattered here and there in rooms off of the main hallway. Directly at the hallway's end was a door and the woman led them straight to it.
Obi-Wan kept his senses open and aware as he felt Qui-Gon's presence get nearer to him as they approached the door. He was sure that this woman was leading them into a trap; what wouldn't be better than having three Jedi instead of one?
"I sense nothing from her," Luke muttered so low that only Obi-Wan could hear him.
Obi-Wan started. The only person who had been able to know exactly what he was thinking since he'd learned how to screen his thoughts was Qui-Gon. How did Luke seem to know what was in his mind? On the other hand, how did he himself seem to be able to guess Luke's background when no one else could?
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts and focus on their mission to rescue Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan saw that they were now in front of the door. The young woman, around his—and now Luke's—age was hesitating.
Luke put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "If you're frightened, then tell us how to find him once we get beyond this door and then go to the medical center. We'll be heading there after we get through here. Wait for us there. Please?"
She bit her lips as she thought, glancing around them. Finally, she nodded but said, "I'll lead you there then meet you at the medcenter."
Luke nodded and smiled. For a moment, Obi-Wan thought he saw someone else in that look, but the moment passed and they were going down narrow stairs. At the bottom, the woman motioned them to halt. Moving on without them, they heard other footsteps approach her.
"What are you doing down here?" A gruff voice barked.
"Checking on the Jedi's water," the woman's voice floated back to them.
A pause. Then, "He doesn't need any. Go back upstairs until you're called for."
Luke straightened and narrowed his eyes, suddenly seeming to Obi-Wan the image of every Jedi Master that he had met before who had gone into battle. Hardly giving Obi-Wan time in the Force to prepare to follow, Luke jumped out of the stairway.
As Obi-Wan landed in the narrow hall beside and slightly behind the black-clad Jedi, he noticed a bearded man shove the young woman into the only other door off the hall. She hit the door so hard that it pushed inward a few centimeters to reveal the edge of a booted foot.
"So, more Jedi coming to spy, huh?" The bearded man growled. He cracked his knuckles. "I'll show you a thing or two. C'mon!"
Luke gave neither the man nor Obi-Wan warning as he flipped upward toward the ceiling, lighting his lightsaber as he went. Stomping down on his urge to roll his eyes, Obi-Wan reminded himself that Luke probably wasn't used to fighting with another Jedi on his side. Flooding himself with the Force, he purposefully nudged Luke to show him what he wanted him to do.
To his relief, Luke responded by opening the walls into his mind so Obi-Wan could move in better defense and offense positions set up by the battle-hardened Jedi. No stranger to dueling was Luke, Obi-Wan could tell.
Working well as a team, Obi-Wan feinted at the bearded man time and again, giving Luke time to duck furious fists and daring kicks made by the saberless man. Luke fought back with a strange intensity that was akin to fury, but lacked the anger behind it. Obi-Wan had never seen a Jedi successfully be able to fight that way before without accessing the dark side of the Force. Keeping one part of his mind open to learn from Luke, he used most of his attention to distract the vastly outnumbered man.
Very soon, the man was finally knocked unconscious by a swinging sidekick that Luke had been able to sneak in while Obi-Wan had been teasing the man with fake lightsaber thrusts. Standing over the man, Obi-Wan found himself very impressed with Luke's fighting skills.
"Wow," he commented shortly.
Luke shrugged and powered down his green saber. "It's nothing." Turning away, he bent down to help the fallen woman to her feet. She was slowly regaining her wits after her hard smack into the door. "Why don't you go ahead and meet us at the medcenter?" Luke suggested.
She nodded and staggered toward the stairs. Luke watched her go, a frown on his face.
"Something the matter?" Obi-Wan asked, wondering if he should go after the woman.
Luke visibly shook himself. "No…I just felt…Never mind. I imagine we will find Qui-Gon in here." He gestured to the darkened chamber and leaned against the wall.
All thoughts of Luke and the woman were pushed from Obi-Wan's mind as he rushed inside to find his Master, bleeding and groggy, on the other side in the room beyond the door. Qui-Gon's knee was a bloody mess and the side of his head didn't look much better but the Jedi Master quickly came to when Obi-Wan gently touched him on the shoulder.
"You finally made it, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon remarked. "I was beginning to wonder if I should worry."
Obi-Wan grinned and bent down to prop Qui-Gon up. "Oh, you know me, Master—always out chasing the pathetic lifeforms away. How do you feel? Can you stand?"
In answer, Qui-Gon focused the Force to shunt away all feeling from his broken leg and let Obi-Wan help him to his feet. Sweat immediately popped out on his brow and he found that he had to lean heavily on Obi-Wan.
Needing to rest a moment from the effort of standing, Qui-Gon said, "I assume Luke is with you; he seems to have finally found a way to block me from sensing him when he doesn't want me to."
"Yes, Master," Obi-Wan replied. "I'm amazed at his fighting skills. I never would have thought by looking at him and spending time with him that he could fight so intensely without being aggressive. It's…amazing, Master."
Qui-Gon took a step forward, coming just one step away from the doorway and had to rest again. Puzzled, he glanced at his Padawan. "So, where is he?"
Now Obi-Wan seemed puzzled. "He was right outside the door and I came in to see about you. I guess he didn't follow me in." Like there is room for three in here, he added to himself. "Maybe he decided to keep an eye on the guy we had to get through to get to you."
But when Master and Padawan had finally made their way to the door, they stood in shock at what they saw beyond it. The bearded man was still out cold and snoring sounds came from where he lay, but beside him…Instead of an older teenage Luke that Obi-Wan had been with all day, there was now a sixteen-year-old Luke sitting down on the floor, panting from pain.
Obi-Wan's mouth hung open in shock. "Luke? Are you alright?"
Luke grimaced. "In a matter of speaking. How are you, Qui-Gon?" When he spoke, his voice was still the same deep and mature tone that he had had when they all first spoke in the medcenter but it was with a much younger man's face and frighteningly intense ice-blue eyes.
Qui-Gon met the now much younger man's cloudy gaze with his own. "Better if we can get out of here. Did you two happen to take care of the other man as well?"
"Other man, Master?" Obi-Wan inquired. "We saw only this one."
With a sudden burst of energy that startled both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, Luke shot to his feet (now a couple of inches shorter than Obi-Wan). His face pointed upward at the ceiling, his brow furrowed as he concentrated. After a moment, with absolute certainty, he pointed to a spot vaguely to the right of the stairway. "He's there."
"Then we better get moving," Qui-Gon forced out through gritted teeth. Ignoring the spasms of pain that shot through the frayed bone into his body with every step, the trio slowly made their way to the stairs with Luke acting as point.
Luke bounded up the stairs with youthful abandon and quickly disappeared above. Achingly one step at a time, Qui-Gon took triple the time Luke did, even with Obi-Wan lending him some of his own pain suppression skills.
By the time they made it to the door, they saw Luke standing with his back to them, feet planted shoulder-length apart, his lightsaber lit. It didn't take them long to figure out why: the brutish man stood, blocking their way from the front door.
"It's okay," Luke called over his shoulder, his eyes glinting. "I've got this covered."
Qui-Gon raised his eyebrows but did not comment as the brute waved at Luke, taunting him. At first, it didn't seem that Luke was going to move at all: not a single muscle flinched. But then, in a blink of an eye, Luke was running sideways at the brute. Catching him unaware, Luke leaped on the wall and ran up it a few steps before twisting in the air to land behind the brute. The growling man was just beginning to turn around when Luke's spinning kick caught him in the groin. Falling heavily to his knees, the man glared up at Luke with pure hatred in his eyes. Pretending to grab at himself, the brute brought out of his hand a concealed tiny blaster and aimed at where Luke had been just a split second ago. Now Luke was just a fraction over from his previous position—just enough for the man to miss. Sweeping his lightsaber down in an arc that would clearly sever the man's head, Luke thumbed off the blade at the last possible second so that the butt of his handle smacked hard into the brute's head and he slumped, unconscious, on the ground.
Luke glanced up at the two Jedi, breathing heavily. "I told you I had it covered."
Obi-Wan cast him a quizzical look. "Why didn't you just kill him? You were in your right; it was self-defense."
Looking extremely tired and drained, Luke put his lightsaber back on his belt. "I've never liked to kill when I didn't have to."
"Good philosophy. You seemed to learn more from the Jedi of old than you realize. Your teacher obviously taught you well," Qui-Gon remarked without looking at Obi-Wan. "You should be proud of what you know and what you have accomplished by yourself."
Luke met the Jedi Master's eyes and nodded, his blue eyes betraying his true age in the depth. "Thank you, Master Jinn." He bowed. When he had straightened, he grinned, seeming impish. "Shall we go? Our 'friend' here was nice enough to leave us a landspeeder."
Nodding, Qui-Gon let Obi-Wan assist him all the way outside to the sleek landspeeder.