Title: Hidden Shadows Seeking Light
Rating: I wish I knew. I am putting it at PG-13 just because I don't know any better and would rather err on the safe side.
Genre: Drama/Mild Angst
Feedback: I would love to get feedback on this story. I would appreciate it if everyone would put down their flame throwers though because this is only my second time out and I know I made mistakes on the first story and have no doubt I will make many on this one. I need constructive criticism so that I will get better not mean comments that will only serve to make me cry. I thank each and every one of the readers who take the time to review this story. I love fan fiction and hope to write stories that can entertain others as much as their stories have entertained me.
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story. They are, were and will always belong to Mr. George Lucas creator of an amazing universe. Not only does this story contain elements of the universe that Mr. Lucas created but also the Alternate Universe (AU) found in a wonderful story called An Untimely Frost by CYNICAL21.
Just to a little guide as to what things mean:
/-/ Bond thought //-// Private thought "-" Speaking aloud
************************************************************
Plo felt a wave of disillusionment as he scanned the number of bodies littering the floor of the hanger. The battle had been hard fought with many casualties. They had succeeded though with only a few of the Sith escaping into the sub-levels of the city. Even though several knights had given pursuit, Plo knew that these few sith would escape. He wondered how dangerous they would be. They were after all only students and yet seeing the number of masters and knights lying injured before him, he knew better than to underestimate the ability of the students as evidently so many others had.
Hitting his comlink he connected directly to the planetary aerospace control. He handed the device to Ki as he arrived by his side.
"No ship leaves the planet without both Senate and Council security clearance." Ki Adi Mundi ordered sharply.
"Under whose authority." Came the monotone response from the space traffic controller.
"Under the authority of Master Windu, Master Yoda and Chancellor Palpatine." He offered wishing that he had a sentient being on the end of the transmission. He could use a little Force suggestion to get his point across.
"Enter authority code." The monotone droid replied.
"Sith." Ki spat as he ended the transmission and placed another to Master Yoda. Time was getting away as were no doubt the few escaping sith. He knew that their numbers were greatly diminished but now understood the weight of their threat to the galaxy.
He had to get the ports closed. He had to get all space traffic stopped. They needed time. The Jedi needed time to unravel this web of deceit. He knew it would unpopular with the citizens. The Council would receive numerous threats and complaints if they closed the down the space ports but Ki felt with all his heart that it was imperative that such action be taken. The citizens would never know or understand what they had been spared focusing instead only upon their own inconvenience. But that was the way of things with most life forms. The planet, system, and universe revolving completely around their individual existence, //what an odd and selfish existence// Ki thought.
He hoped that Yoda would have the necessary codes. He hoped that the order would be given in time. As he turned back to the task of assessing injuries he noticed the arrival of a team of healers. He made his way over to the Master heading up that team
Far above the struggling Master and the dead and dying which filled the hanger of the sith complex, Darth Sador entered the final calculations into his nav-computer jumping into hyperspace only moments before all ships were recalled to port.
************************************************************************
The dust from their efforts to dig down into what was left of the structure was both blinding and choking the Jedi. They had all reverted back to using their portable respirators as they pushed on. The task was daunting and a sense of futility hung heavy in the air. Despite the enormity of the task though none was willing to be the first to give up their hope that Adi and Obi-Wan were still alive.
They had been searching for over an hour when Qui-Gon first felt a tickle along his bond with the Knight. Qui-Gon didn't say anything at first. He didn't want to get anyone's hopes up only to dash them moments later, but he felt certain that he was sensing his Padawan buried beneath him in the rubble. It was a fixed but faint signature. He set aside his growing alarm over the lack of strength of the presence, focusing instead on finding the Knight while refusing to consider what physical state the young man would be in when he was uncovered. He would cross that bridge once he got to it. First he had to find the Knight before he had any hope of securing proper treatment for his wounds.
A few more feet down he was certain that he was on to something. It had to be Obi-Wan. It as the same deep rich forest he had always felt radiating from the boy. It was always a mixture of shadows and light. It had been those shadows which had concerned the Master once long ago but now he understood what the Knight had known all along. The shadows are powerless when confronted by the light. He took a deep breath and sent out a message across their bond.
/I'm coming Obi-Wan. Hang on. I'm coming./
Casting a glance over to where the others were scattered about working, he pushed aside the panic that was rising inside of him. There was so much rubble and every second the Knight was beneath it lessened his chances of survival.
"He's here." Qui-Gon shouted and suddenly he found himself surrounded by the others each desperately diving in without any further instruction needed, working to speed up his progress.
After a few moments Garin still could not sense his friend's presence.
"Where?" Garin asked failing to keep the hope from his voice as he confronted the Master.
"Here." Qui-Gon pointed to the spot in front of him. "I can sense his signature. It's faint but steady." He reached out once more.
"How faint?' Mira asked her voice filled with concern as quickly stopped her escuvation and hurried back to the medical pack which was tossed near the entrance of the room.
"It's odd. It doesn't feel as though his life is in the balance. He seems split." Qui-Gon stated his voice sounding distant as he tried to discern what it was that he was getting from the Knight's signature. He had never felt anything like it. The realization hit them all at the same moment.
"Adi." Bant put voice to their thoughts. Adi was alive but obviously Obi- Wan was using what strength he had left to keep her that way. With an unspoken command each Knight and Master continued on with a new found urgency spurring on their actions.
*****************************************
/I'm coming Obi-Wan. Hang on. I'm coming./ Obi-Wan felt his heart swell with relief as he felt his Master's steady strong voice light up along their bond. What the message lacked in strength it made up for in comfort.
"Did you hear that Adi?" Obi-Wan whispered. "They're coming for us. You're going to be okay." He kissed the top of her head. She moaned deep in her throat. He attempted to take on more of her pain but knew that he was near his breaking point. He chided himself for not having a better grasp on his new skills. He was certain that with enough practice he would have been able to juggle the Force bubble, signally for help as well as shielding Adi from the immense pain, but for now he felt overwhelmed and stretched beyond his limit. His greatest fear was that any moment he was going to lose his grip on any one of the tasks and then be forced to watch the others fall to the ground before his very eyes.
"Adi. Hang on." He pulled her closer checking to insure that the healing which he had initiated earlier was continuing on. He wondered how long they had been buried. It felt like weeks and yet he realized it could be no more than mere hours.
He sent a response back to Qui-Gon indicating that he had received his message and once again was overwhelmed by the relief and joy he felt radiating from his ex-Master. So much had happened in such a short span of time. Had it only been a few weeks ago that he and this man had been estranged? He remembered briefly their first encounter. It had been upsetting to say the least. He wasn't sure what it was about this man that always seemed to make him feel like a clumsy initiate, but forever he had felt himself trying to prove his worth.
Now it seemed for the first time in their relationship Obi-Wan no longer felt that overriding need for Qui-Gon approval. He no longer felt like the man's inferior student but his equal. He could remember a time when knowing that his Master was having to yet again come to his rescue would have filled him with feelings of shame and failure, but now he felt elated and hopeful. He felt as though he had a friend, no more than a friend, perhaps it was more like a father coming to save his son.
Obi-Wan had never known his own father. He had no sense of what a father- son relationship was like. Were they as tumultuous as he and Qui-Gon's had been? He wondered if sons struggle, as he had, to prove themselves in their Father's eyes. He wondered if fathers were as hard and demanding as Qui-Gon had been? Even through the reject and the pain, Obi-Wan knew that he loved the man. No one could make him more infuriated or more exuberant as his ex-Master. Never before had he known someone who he could want to kill one moment and embrace the next. It was a mystery to the Knight. Maybe there was no name for their connection to one another. Perhaps it lacked too little to be considered a father-son bond but too much to be considered mere friends.
He could feel the man's signature growing stronger and clung to it like a rope dangling before a drowning man. He felt a new wave of pain coming through him from Adi's body. It seared along his weary nerves as he attempted to release it without losing his hold on the Force bubble around them. He could feel himself weakening by the moment. Adi moaned again bringing her weakening condition to the forefront of his thoughts.
He knew he was losing her. He tried not to think about it. He had done all that he could for the moment. He tried to lend her what comfort he could. He found himself considering the grief that Qui-Gon had lived through when Tahl had died all those years ago. He remembered how lost and angry the man had been. He refused to dwell on the blame that the Master had cast upon him in those days focusing instead on just Qui-Gon.
Qui-Gon and Tahl had been together for so many years. What was that like for the Master to lose someone so intricate to his existence? Obi-Wan kissed Adi's temple tenderly. He wondered if they would have time to become intricate to one another's life. Using his imagination he distanced himself from the pain of both of their injuries allowing his mind to wander.
He could see them together. It was years down the road. They were living at the Temple and there with them on the lounge was a small boy dark haired and piercing blue eyes. His mother's eyes no doubt Obi-Wan realized. He was cuddled between them as they all talked about the adventures of their day. He lingered on the image realizing that somehow it filled a void in him that he hadn't realized existed until that very moment.
As he watched the vision he noticed that the child was changing. He was now a she still with dark hair but now with shining green eyes much like his own. He sensed then Adi's faint signature mingling in his thoughts. She was reaching out to him, escaping what remained of her pain, by indulging in his momentary fantasy.
Obi-Wan felt embarrassed for a moment as if caught and exposed somehow, but he then felt a tender caress from his lover soothing away his doubts as he realized that this was not an unfamiliar fantasy to her. She too had wondered what their future might be. This thought warmed him and renewed his failing hope.
Holding tightly to her limp body he wrapped what he could of his signature around her trying to shore up her defenses and build back what the attack had taken from her. He felt her gratitude and her love through the bond that he had created in order to heal her. Biting back the desperation he was beginning to feel as the minutes lengthened into hours, he knew he was losing her. He could now glimpse the utter devastation Qui-Gon must have felt in those years following Tahl's death and found it impossible to harbor any ill feelings towards the Master left over from those dark days.
Taking a deep breath and releasing it, Obi-Wan was well aware that his own strength was failing him. Time was running out. He watched as the vision began to fade from his mind's eyes. He could no longer see the little girl who was to be his daughter as even now Adi's image was slipping away. Refusing to give in to his despair the Knight instead sent an encouraging message to Adi reminding her of their wager. Then using what little energy he could spare he sent out one last plea to his ex-Master.
/Hurry Qui-Gon. Please Hurry.//
***********************************************************************
Okay missed a week but so have several of you. The reader number is really way down. I guess it is vacations or just the story isn't going the way some had hoped. Either way I too am going to be out of pocket off and on for the next month, so I will try to update regularly but once again might be off a few days.
Hope everyone has a good 4th. Jesse
Rating: I wish I knew. I am putting it at PG-13 just because I don't know any better and would rather err on the safe side.
Genre: Drama/Mild Angst
Feedback: I would love to get feedback on this story. I would appreciate it if everyone would put down their flame throwers though because this is only my second time out and I know I made mistakes on the first story and have no doubt I will make many on this one. I need constructive criticism so that I will get better not mean comments that will only serve to make me cry. I thank each and every one of the readers who take the time to review this story. I love fan fiction and hope to write stories that can entertain others as much as their stories have entertained me.
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story. They are, were and will always belong to Mr. George Lucas creator of an amazing universe. Not only does this story contain elements of the universe that Mr. Lucas created but also the Alternate Universe (AU) found in a wonderful story called An Untimely Frost by CYNICAL21.
Just to a little guide as to what things mean:
/-/ Bond thought //-// Private thought "-" Speaking aloud
************************************************************
Plo felt a wave of disillusionment as he scanned the number of bodies littering the floor of the hanger. The battle had been hard fought with many casualties. They had succeeded though with only a few of the Sith escaping into the sub-levels of the city. Even though several knights had given pursuit, Plo knew that these few sith would escape. He wondered how dangerous they would be. They were after all only students and yet seeing the number of masters and knights lying injured before him, he knew better than to underestimate the ability of the students as evidently so many others had.
Hitting his comlink he connected directly to the planetary aerospace control. He handed the device to Ki as he arrived by his side.
"No ship leaves the planet without both Senate and Council security clearance." Ki Adi Mundi ordered sharply.
"Under whose authority." Came the monotone response from the space traffic controller.
"Under the authority of Master Windu, Master Yoda and Chancellor Palpatine." He offered wishing that he had a sentient being on the end of the transmission. He could use a little Force suggestion to get his point across.
"Enter authority code." The monotone droid replied.
"Sith." Ki spat as he ended the transmission and placed another to Master Yoda. Time was getting away as were no doubt the few escaping sith. He knew that their numbers were greatly diminished but now understood the weight of their threat to the galaxy.
He had to get the ports closed. He had to get all space traffic stopped. They needed time. The Jedi needed time to unravel this web of deceit. He knew it would unpopular with the citizens. The Council would receive numerous threats and complaints if they closed the down the space ports but Ki felt with all his heart that it was imperative that such action be taken. The citizens would never know or understand what they had been spared focusing instead only upon their own inconvenience. But that was the way of things with most life forms. The planet, system, and universe revolving completely around their individual existence, //what an odd and selfish existence// Ki thought.
He hoped that Yoda would have the necessary codes. He hoped that the order would be given in time. As he turned back to the task of assessing injuries he noticed the arrival of a team of healers. He made his way over to the Master heading up that team
Far above the struggling Master and the dead and dying which filled the hanger of the sith complex, Darth Sador entered the final calculations into his nav-computer jumping into hyperspace only moments before all ships were recalled to port.
************************************************************************
The dust from their efforts to dig down into what was left of the structure was both blinding and choking the Jedi. They had all reverted back to using their portable respirators as they pushed on. The task was daunting and a sense of futility hung heavy in the air. Despite the enormity of the task though none was willing to be the first to give up their hope that Adi and Obi-Wan were still alive.
They had been searching for over an hour when Qui-Gon first felt a tickle along his bond with the Knight. Qui-Gon didn't say anything at first. He didn't want to get anyone's hopes up only to dash them moments later, but he felt certain that he was sensing his Padawan buried beneath him in the rubble. It was a fixed but faint signature. He set aside his growing alarm over the lack of strength of the presence, focusing instead on finding the Knight while refusing to consider what physical state the young man would be in when he was uncovered. He would cross that bridge once he got to it. First he had to find the Knight before he had any hope of securing proper treatment for his wounds.
A few more feet down he was certain that he was on to something. It had to be Obi-Wan. It as the same deep rich forest he had always felt radiating from the boy. It was always a mixture of shadows and light. It had been those shadows which had concerned the Master once long ago but now he understood what the Knight had known all along. The shadows are powerless when confronted by the light. He took a deep breath and sent out a message across their bond.
/I'm coming Obi-Wan. Hang on. I'm coming./
Casting a glance over to where the others were scattered about working, he pushed aside the panic that was rising inside of him. There was so much rubble and every second the Knight was beneath it lessened his chances of survival.
"He's here." Qui-Gon shouted and suddenly he found himself surrounded by the others each desperately diving in without any further instruction needed, working to speed up his progress.
After a few moments Garin still could not sense his friend's presence.
"Where?" Garin asked failing to keep the hope from his voice as he confronted the Master.
"Here." Qui-Gon pointed to the spot in front of him. "I can sense his signature. It's faint but steady." He reached out once more.
"How faint?' Mira asked her voice filled with concern as quickly stopped her escuvation and hurried back to the medical pack which was tossed near the entrance of the room.
"It's odd. It doesn't feel as though his life is in the balance. He seems split." Qui-Gon stated his voice sounding distant as he tried to discern what it was that he was getting from the Knight's signature. He had never felt anything like it. The realization hit them all at the same moment.
"Adi." Bant put voice to their thoughts. Adi was alive but obviously Obi- Wan was using what strength he had left to keep her that way. With an unspoken command each Knight and Master continued on with a new found urgency spurring on their actions.
*****************************************
/I'm coming Obi-Wan. Hang on. I'm coming./ Obi-Wan felt his heart swell with relief as he felt his Master's steady strong voice light up along their bond. What the message lacked in strength it made up for in comfort.
"Did you hear that Adi?" Obi-Wan whispered. "They're coming for us. You're going to be okay." He kissed the top of her head. She moaned deep in her throat. He attempted to take on more of her pain but knew that he was near his breaking point. He chided himself for not having a better grasp on his new skills. He was certain that with enough practice he would have been able to juggle the Force bubble, signally for help as well as shielding Adi from the immense pain, but for now he felt overwhelmed and stretched beyond his limit. His greatest fear was that any moment he was going to lose his grip on any one of the tasks and then be forced to watch the others fall to the ground before his very eyes.
"Adi. Hang on." He pulled her closer checking to insure that the healing which he had initiated earlier was continuing on. He wondered how long they had been buried. It felt like weeks and yet he realized it could be no more than mere hours.
He sent a response back to Qui-Gon indicating that he had received his message and once again was overwhelmed by the relief and joy he felt radiating from his ex-Master. So much had happened in such a short span of time. Had it only been a few weeks ago that he and this man had been estranged? He remembered briefly their first encounter. It had been upsetting to say the least. He wasn't sure what it was about this man that always seemed to make him feel like a clumsy initiate, but forever he had felt himself trying to prove his worth.
Now it seemed for the first time in their relationship Obi-Wan no longer felt that overriding need for Qui-Gon approval. He no longer felt like the man's inferior student but his equal. He could remember a time when knowing that his Master was having to yet again come to his rescue would have filled him with feelings of shame and failure, but now he felt elated and hopeful. He felt as though he had a friend, no more than a friend, perhaps it was more like a father coming to save his son.
Obi-Wan had never known his own father. He had no sense of what a father- son relationship was like. Were they as tumultuous as he and Qui-Gon's had been? He wondered if sons struggle, as he had, to prove themselves in their Father's eyes. He wondered if fathers were as hard and demanding as Qui-Gon had been? Even through the reject and the pain, Obi-Wan knew that he loved the man. No one could make him more infuriated or more exuberant as his ex-Master. Never before had he known someone who he could want to kill one moment and embrace the next. It was a mystery to the Knight. Maybe there was no name for their connection to one another. Perhaps it lacked too little to be considered a father-son bond but too much to be considered mere friends.
He could feel the man's signature growing stronger and clung to it like a rope dangling before a drowning man. He felt a new wave of pain coming through him from Adi's body. It seared along his weary nerves as he attempted to release it without losing his hold on the Force bubble around them. He could feel himself weakening by the moment. Adi moaned again bringing her weakening condition to the forefront of his thoughts.
He knew he was losing her. He tried not to think about it. He had done all that he could for the moment. He tried to lend her what comfort he could. He found himself considering the grief that Qui-Gon had lived through when Tahl had died all those years ago. He remembered how lost and angry the man had been. He refused to dwell on the blame that the Master had cast upon him in those days focusing instead on just Qui-Gon.
Qui-Gon and Tahl had been together for so many years. What was that like for the Master to lose someone so intricate to his existence? Obi-Wan kissed Adi's temple tenderly. He wondered if they would have time to become intricate to one another's life. Using his imagination he distanced himself from the pain of both of their injuries allowing his mind to wander.
He could see them together. It was years down the road. They were living at the Temple and there with them on the lounge was a small boy dark haired and piercing blue eyes. His mother's eyes no doubt Obi-Wan realized. He was cuddled between them as they all talked about the adventures of their day. He lingered on the image realizing that somehow it filled a void in him that he hadn't realized existed until that very moment.
As he watched the vision he noticed that the child was changing. He was now a she still with dark hair but now with shining green eyes much like his own. He sensed then Adi's faint signature mingling in his thoughts. She was reaching out to him, escaping what remained of her pain, by indulging in his momentary fantasy.
Obi-Wan felt embarrassed for a moment as if caught and exposed somehow, but he then felt a tender caress from his lover soothing away his doubts as he realized that this was not an unfamiliar fantasy to her. She too had wondered what their future might be. This thought warmed him and renewed his failing hope.
Holding tightly to her limp body he wrapped what he could of his signature around her trying to shore up her defenses and build back what the attack had taken from her. He felt her gratitude and her love through the bond that he had created in order to heal her. Biting back the desperation he was beginning to feel as the minutes lengthened into hours, he knew he was losing her. He could now glimpse the utter devastation Qui-Gon must have felt in those years following Tahl's death and found it impossible to harbor any ill feelings towards the Master left over from those dark days.
Taking a deep breath and releasing it, Obi-Wan was well aware that his own strength was failing him. Time was running out. He watched as the vision began to fade from his mind's eyes. He could no longer see the little girl who was to be his daughter as even now Adi's image was slipping away. Refusing to give in to his despair the Knight instead sent an encouraging message to Adi reminding her of their wager. Then using what little energy he could spare he sent out one last plea to his ex-Master.
/Hurry Qui-Gon. Please Hurry.//
***********************************************************************
Okay missed a week but so have several of you. The reader number is really way down. I guess it is vacations or just the story isn't going the way some had hoped. Either way I too am going to be out of pocket off and on for the next month, so I will try to update regularly but once again might be off a few days.
Hope everyone has a good 4th. Jesse
