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Qui-Gon leaned his large frame against the wall. His arms were crossed over his chest and his hands were tucked inside his robe sleeves as if he was cold, but he was not. It was the way he often stood when deep in a diplomatic negotiation with some ruling faction of another planet… Of course he wasn't engaged in that either.
Yes, a part of him watched the activities on the floor. There was another part of Jinn's inner self, the deepest part, which continued to wrestle with memories, which after a month should have been released into the force. Life should have gone on as it always does after a catastrophic event in one's life.
The Jedi master, Jinn was a stubborn man, unwilling to give in to anything. Letting go was no different than anything he else he did. He did it with such veracious tenacity. He had very easily given into grief though, but not to the reality of what caused that grief, Obi-Wan's spirit released into the force.
Tahl stood beside him. They had both come to the practice arena to watch padawans. Tahl studied every little minute detail of her apprentice's movements as Padawan Bant managed to outmaneuver her opponent, another first year padawan, unnamed to Jinn.
There wasn't much that went on around the temple in the last month that had piqued concern from him.
Tahl felt renewed hope for Qui-Gon when she studied her old friend's face and saw just a wisp of interest in the battle on the floor between Anakin Skywalker and Garen, one of Obi-Wan's best friends. //Well he was until…..//
Qui-Gon never broke his gaze from Ani, but pointed him out to Master Tahl, on the left side of the floor, in battle.
"Such improvement in him Tahl. Have you noticed?"
Tahl wanted to reply to the other master's query, but he didn't give her enough time to form her thoughts into words.
" Ahhh… probably not, Bant consumes most of your time and thoughts. She does make a formable opponent against the other apprentice down there."
Tahl beamed a large smile with the compliment of her apprentice. She knew Jinn might have just said that to be polite. He hadn't really had time to know the girl or her abilities. He was being courteous and courteous alone. Tahl knew of her talents and beamed with her knowledge of them and not Qui-Gon's fake assessment of Bant, no matter how well meaning they had been.
"Well yes Qui, she is a fairly new padawan. I do focus on her needs. Nevertheless, I have seen Anakin do battle in here. If he ever learns to reign in his anger, he can only become better at what he seems to have been expertly poised too already."
A dark frown popped on Jinn's face as he broke his stare from the battle Ani and Garen were locked in.
"Don't be ridiculous. There is no anger in the boy. I have had more than enough time to watch him since… Well since I now *have* more free time."
"Since Obi-Wan died Qui. Isn't it about time you say it, if you can't admit it? For force sake, you haven't even allowed the council masters to rule him dead and burn a pyre in honor of his memory.."
"I know where he is Tahl. I suppose I do. Even when I was taken out off the Bulenese planet that suppressed all of our force abilities and connections, I didn't feel Obi-Wan dead. After the force began to flow back through me I should have felt the remnants of pain from his death, should have been given some knowledge of it anyway. It wasn't there. Yes, I have emptiness only in that Obi is not with me at the moment and that makes me immensely sad and miserable. However, I never felt through the force that warning most masters receive when their padawans pass from here to the force itself. It *J.U.S.T.* wasn't there."
"Then where is he Qui? He wasn't on the ship. What was left of that ship you were on was confiscated by the authorities of the Courscant council. It was gone over in fine detail. DNA was done on every spot of blood or body tissue in it, nothing. None one of those DNA samples came back as being even close to Obi-Wan's match and certainly none were found to have midichlorians in the DNA swatches. We both know what *happened* to Obi-Wan. He died Qui-Gon!! Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead, one with the force. If you can't say it, I will for you. And maybe you can grasp it in your mind, if nothing else. We have to go on."
Jinn blinked twice then turned his attention back to Anakin's practice session. Tahl stood there with her arms crossed let out a long sigh and assumed their discussion was over, that Qui was tired of discussing his gone padawan. Suddenly in barely a whisper she heard Qui-Gon speak up again.
"I"
Master Tahl thought she heard the one word statement from her old friend, she just quite wasn't sure.
"Excuse? What did you say?"
"Simply, "I""
"Qui-Gon what…?"
She was very rudely interrupted by a now distraught Qui-Gon Jinn.
He pushed himself off from the wall.
"*WE* don't have to go on, *I* do. *I* have to go through the rest of my life without Obi-Wan. *I* have no apprentice, you do. *I* failed Obi, failed to keep him safe, not you. *I* have to live knowing all this, not you or anyone else in this damn temple. I suppose that is why it is so easy for the rest of you to assume it should be easy for me. I have to deal with all this. The only thing that has brought me any solace is that boy down there. Now it seems that Anakin is in hot water with every master at the temple. Jealousy that is what it is."
Tahl had not said much about the boy except that he needed to control his anger. She could have gone into a long list of things that Anakin Skywalker did that irked nearly everyone at the temple in one way or another. Things he did which was not corrected by his true master. Things Master Jinn knew Xani allowed Ani to engage in but had no reprimand for either. Jinn spoiled Ani and allowed Xanatos to do the same.
"Come off it Qui. I try to be fair. I haven't mentioned the fight last week in the commissary have I?"
She could match Jinn anger and then some. Not really anger just a release of negative thoughts and feeling that needed brought out in the open.
#####
Anakin bowed to his defeated opponent. He wanted to sneer and make some unkind comment about the boy's inability to handle a saber, even though he was four years older than Anakin. He held his tongue though. He knew just above him in the gallery stood Master Jinn. He didn't want to get his master, Xanatos Crion in trouble for what Qui-Gon might assess as errors in Xani's training of him.
"Master, Master Qui-Gon sir is here *again*."
Xani got the definite feeling Ani did not like Qui-Gon being over his shoulder to watch his every move.
"It is all right. Give him some time. He only comes here because he is lonely."
Xanatos had to admit there were times he was sorry for his former master. Though the feelings of compassion for Jinn came only once in awhile and for short spurts, he did have them, whereas Anakin felt no compassion for anyone. He himself could and did live quite comfortably without the brat Kenobi around.
"Maybe we will ask him to last meal, so he won't be so lonely."
Anakin wiped the sweat for his face that had gathered there from the fierce practice battle then tossed the towel back to his master. In some ways Ani acted like the master. The soiled towel tossed in his master's face was on just one example of his arrogant attitude.
"Well you better ask him or he will just presume he has a right to barge in and interrupt our last meal. What has it been, a week running since we shared a meal together alone without the grieving Master Jinn by our side?"
Ani had quickly grown to dislike Qui-Gon more and more. He thought the man should be excited enough to over see his former apprentice's training of the Chosen One and he shouldn't feel like he needed the now dead Kenobi anyway. Jealousy of one dead was not very becoming.
Ani tried to hide his jealousy of Obi-wan from his own master. Xanatos however, saw right through him. He affectionately slapped his apprentice's arm.
The 'Chosen One' saw Master Jinn's grief as an insufferable weakness that was tolerated but not accepted. Or in Anakin Skywalker's opinion it shouldn't be acceptable.
"Well I have some news that just might perk you up. There could be a reason for why Master Jinn wants to dine with us tonight."
"I know there is. He wants to instruct you on how to be the perfect master for the perfect padawan."
With that Anakin cast a large smile to his young master, over his own humor."
Xani lowered his head until his chin hit his chest and looked *Up* disappointedly at his apprentice.
"That's enough Ani. Even I have a little compassion for the old man. Maybe if you would lighten up on him, he wouldn't feel all that aura of hostility you emit every time he comes around. And no, he is not coming to our quarters to critique my mastering of you. I think…. now don't get too excited, but I think we are headed out on a mission in the next few days."
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Master Jinn crunched up along side of the temple hall as he left the training salles. Other padawans and initiates along with their masters were bustling past him to take their turn at a practice session with their sabers. Not one padawan or initiate missed the slouched dejected looking Master Jinn.
If they thought anything about him and his loss of his apprentice they certainly wouldn't voice it. Master Jinn had suddenly become even more masterly than he had ever been, except with Anakin Skywalker. Criticism flew from his mouth if a padawan spoke to loud, walked to fast, or just in general aggravated him when rightly he should not have been concerned with their actions.
The padawan page to Master Yoda looked in front of him and saw the master he had to deliver the message too but hesitated a moment. No young one liked to speak to Master Jinn, let alone give him a message he might not want to get.
Gossip traveled fast in the temple and everyone knew Qui-Gon and his former master had had a ongoing disagreement since Jinn returned from the mission without his apprentice. He had insisted Jinn snap out of his melancholy and go on. Even went so far as to say Obi would have wanted it that way.
The page to Yoda spoke up timidly and barely audible to Master Jinn. He had to literally block Jinn's walkway with his own little person to get the master to even pay attention t him.
"Master, I…. Please…. I don't' wish to interrupt you however…."
The apprentice in front of Jinn startled him and the boy was nearly run over by the hulk of a master before he stopped and looked down.
"If you don't wish to interrupt me then why are you doing it, child?"
Jinn should have recognized the young man as Yoda's personal page, once or twice a week but his thoughts were not on the here and now but the blast, he and Obi's past, together.
Master Jinn started to walk around the boy which would have been difficult in the small hall, his big body, plus another smaller body in the way. However, he couldn't get around the boy because the padawan stepped right into his path again.
The page was fearful of the stressed out master but his fear of his own overseer of the day, Master Yoda made him press on with his mission to deliver the message to Qui-Gon.
"I am sorry Master Jinn, but Master Yoda insists this is very important. He wants you in his office right away."
"Oh, now I recognize you. You're a page for Master Yoda twice a week or something like that."
Jinn flung his hand in the air as if to acknowledge the boy and instruct him to move all at the same time.
The boy looked sheepishly at the master.
"Yes sir, he sent me to find you and bring you back to his office."
Master Jinn reached out with the hand he had just motioned the boy aside with. The boy flinched at first with expectations that the master just might do him bodily harm.
The only thing Jinn did in the line of being physical was to pick the boy up and set to him to the side of the hall, out of his path and started to walk away.
The padawan page was losing the battle to get the message to Master Jinn and he knew it.
"Master Jinn!!!!!!!"
The boy had never yelled at anyone in his entire life, let alone a master, especially not the most majestic and powerful master in the order, Qui-Gon Jinn.
The apprentice seemed to slink as far back into the hood of his robe as far as he could. He hoped he wouldn't be as visible, maybe be less of a target if the master did decide to strike him for the disrespectful screech of his name.
"Listen child, you take this message, *my* message back to Yoda. I will see him after I have gone to my quarters, had a good stiff drink, and freshened up, not a minute before."
//Whew…. Master Yoda will not like that at all. //The little padawan page shook his head no in agreement with his own mental statement to himself.
It was his last chance and the page knew it. He really wasn't supposed to know what the meeting was about and he wouldn't if he hadn't eavesdropped. He couldn't help himself. There had been so much bustling around when Yoda's other guest arrived and with him a boy just about his age. The page didn't know who the boy was. However, he knew something big must be going on because the knight was the infamous Quinlan Vos.
"Master Jinn, it is Quinlan Vos."
Yoda's page knew that would get a rise out of Master Jinn. Vos was his first a padawan. After he was knighted there was a terrible disagreement between the two and Jinn rarely if ever spoke to or of him.
Knight Vos in turn chose a life on the outer rim worlds. He rotated from planet to planet wherever a Jedi, very unconventional Jedi was needed. His diplomatic prowess, though uncharacteristic and sometimes even unethical for a Jedi, was successful on planets less civilized than Coruscant.
The council, because of his success tended to overlook his roguish and sometimes unorthodox handling of certain missions. His looks alone were out of character for a typical Jedi. Long black dreadlocks framed his dark skinned face, darker even than Jinn's second padawan, Xanatos Crion. Tattoos adorned his entire body, with some, luckily hidden that might be considered X-rated!!
His state of dress which bordered on almost primal native wear accented his rippled abs and large muscle-massed biceps. Yes, you could say that he was vain, arrogant, and certainly a rogue. However, no one could ever say Quinlan Vos was not the most gorgeous creature to come out of the temple in a long time. He knew it and enjoyed being 'that' creature..
All those errors in his Jedi persona still did not prevent the council from using him to negotiate with some of the vilest beings in the universe, the Hutts included. As always Vos was just too 'dang' successful not to keep him in the order. Anything he did within the Jedi mantra, adorned his body with, or how he wore his hair was Quinlan Vos and in turn was accepted by the head masters because of his astonishing accomplishments.
Jinn however, did not see it that way. He saw Vos as a Jedi failure and in doing so accepted some of the blame for that failure. He thought the council bent over backwards too often for his former apprentice.
"Quinlan Vos. He is here?"
"Yes Master Jinn and he has a young one with him."
"Who? Did you see him? The boy I mean, did you see who the child was?"
"NO, but.. Well… I really shouldn't tell you this because I…."
It was like a light went off in Qui-Gon's head. After all, he was once an apprentice and had even been a message courier for council members occasionally throughout his apprenticeship.
"Oh, I understand. You shouldn't tell me because by rights it was not told to you. You… shall we say…. *overheard* it?"
Jinn gave the boy a knowing smirk of a smile, just enough to give the page a slight sense of relief. He knew to change the word for what the apprentice really did, 'eavesdrop' to the less accusatory 'overheard'. Eavesdrop might have denoted something wrong and thus closed the boy's mouth with fear of being reprimanded by Master Yoda's for his *nosey* ears.
The boy's eyes lit up. Master Jinn understood clearly what he meant. To the page that was surprising but he thought it was his way off the hook if he got caught passing news which was not his to pass..
"Well like I said it is not knowledge that I should know but the boy he brought and mind you I couldn't get a look at his face."
It was as if the page had temporarily lost his train of thought and did not finish what he planned to say instead he offered up an excuse as to why he didn't see the boy's face….
"He must have had on a cut-down version of Knight Vos' robe."
"Well get on with it. What… the boy what…?"
"Knight Quinlan Vos said the boy once belonged to you but he planned to see to it the "child" remained permanently HIS……"
Qui-Gon, breathless from his rushed trek to Master Yoda's office, stopped short of just barging through the office door.
He certainly didn't want his cool collected former apprentice, Quinlan Vos to see how un-Jedi like his overall condition was. Master Jinn was a stickler when it came to holding his Jedi outer shell for everyone around him to see. Right now he felt nothing like a Jedi with his weak knees, rapid heartbeat, and butterflies in his stomach which made keeping the urge down to just vomit all over the hall floor, extremely difficult.
//I am not that anxious to see that pup of a Jedi. If my suspicions are right, I know exactly who that boy is. I told Tahl I didn't feel Obi's death. Now Vos has arrived and mysteriously in his possession he has the reason why I didn't feel the death of Obi-Wan. //
Jinn had run through several corridors and taken three flights of steps, two at a time in a hard run just because he was too impatient to wait for the temple elevators to deposit him practically in front of Master Yoda's door. He had to know if Obi-Wan was with Quinlan or not. He still thought it odd that he could not touch the boy's force signature or reach him through their training bond and mental link.
All that didn't matter now. The 'whys' of Jinn's inability to connect with Obi-Wan would be answered soon enough if he was right in his suspicions.
The door opened before he completely regained his composure. The hand that opened the door belonged to his first, former, and in his mindset, failed apprentice, Quinlan Vos. He stood there with a devious almost knowing smile on his face.
"Ah… Master Jinn, Yoda's little assistant must have mentioned my name."
"Don't flatter yourself. The mention of your name is not the reason I rushed here. Yoda's young assistant mentioned quite harmlessly that a boy was brought here, *my property*? Only you would presume a person belonged to another person. Well, where is my property as you so immorally called him? I want to see Obi-Wan."
Jinn shoved the door open wider to walk in. In doing so, he shoved his former apprentice all the way back against the wall with a loud thud when he hit. Vos' massive muscled body made violent contact with the wall behind the door; the obvious intent of Jinn's planned push, powered enhanced by the force itself..
Qui-Gon looked around the room then back to the surprisingly normally dressed Jedi knight. Except for the soft moccasin leather boots laced all the way the side to his mid calf; Quinlan Vos wore the standard issue light beige long tunic and leggings.
//He could almost visually pull off the fact that he is a Jedi knight, save those yellow streaked tattoos under each eye and those dreadful long strands of unkempt weaved hair. //
"So sorry Master Jinn, if you have taken an unkindly exception to what I called your and Obi's relationship. However, that is what I thought you considered your apprentices, an object or trinket. You know something akin to a material possession that can be tossed aside if it isn't to you liking. Just as one might tire of the sleep sofa in their common room was how I thought you acted toward apprentices' under you. To you, children are not the precious commodity the Jedi mantra teaches. They are just something to toss out in the next day's trash if it doesn't suit *you*."
Now Yoda didn't hesitate to step up between the two Jedi. He could tell things had taken a turn for the worse and he didn't want his new office furniture destroyed.
"Sit you will Master Jinn. Much we have to say before the child brought in he is. And yes Qui-Gon suspense keep you in, I will not. Obi-Wan is here and in well health he appears to be.. How this happened, needs worked out it does."
"I am certainly glad you observed concern in your former apprentice, Master Yoda. However if you saw suspense or concern over his apprentice in Master Jinn, you saw him differently than I did. No…. when Master Jinn walked through that door he planned to attack me and that was it."
"Shut up Vos. Don't misconstrue my feelings or meanings to match yours. The only concern I have had or do have now is Obi-Wan and his well being. I assumed if Obi was here he was well."
It still confused Master Jinn why he didn't feel his apprentice presence yet
Vos' humorous look turned to one with deep dark intones scattered through out the frown on his face.
"Well I certainly am glad you finally mentioned the boy. His presence brought you here, I presume. Surely you didn't get out of breathe to see me did you? Even though you anxiousness to know of Obi-Wan's well being, you couldn't really bring yourself to act concerned once you got here. Shame, Shame, Master Jinn."
The gimer stick slammed on the floor.
"Enough it is. See the boy now you shall. Care to mediate this argument between the two of you I do not."
"There is no argument. I want to see my apprentice, know how he is, and how *he* got himself in this situation."
"You are incredulous Jinn. Still unwilling to take any blame for your apprentices or what happened to them. I have heard what you did to Xanatos forced him to train the mighty chosen one. I hope for your and his sake he is indeed the 'Chosen One'. That will be the only way he ever receives any true praise, and you any true culpability for yourself as a master. I would hate for you to get your hands on or near another to screw up as you have managed to do with all three of your true apprentices."
"I don't have to stand here and be insulted by the lies that just tumble so easily from your mouth."
Vos walked over to Master Yoda's desk and flopped down on the outer edge of it. One foot balanced him while the other, almost tucked under his body swung aimlessly back and forth. He hadn't bothered to look at Master Jinn after his last words and the master grew boiling hot red with anger. Knight Quinlan Vos was the only Jedi with enough gall to sit on Master Yoda's desk. //His new one at that. //
"No Master Jinn, you don't have to stand here and do anything. In fact you can turn you bony 'behind' around and leave. I just wanted to touch base with the council, let them know I had taken an apprentice….."
Jinn shook with inside anger for his former apprentice that had quickly began to spew out and over his normally calm exterior.. He had no doubt Quinlan meant Obi-Wan was his apprentice.
"Absurd and you know it. You can't just snatch another master's apprentice from him. Even if you could you have to consider the bond that would need to be broken between them."
There was a nervousness in Jinn when he mentioned a bond, because still as of yet he had not felt his apprentice through their shared training bond.
"You know Qui-Gon instead of bickering about who *OWNS* the boy you would think your concerns would lie first in his well being?"
Now Jinn was livid. Did Quinlan insinuate he didn't care for Obi-Wan or the condition he was in?
"If Obi is here and I know he is, and he is not at the healers' ward which you have already indicated he isn't, I should have no concerns should I Vos? You haven't done anything to harm the child have you?"
"No, but then again as his new master I won't leave him, abandon him as it were and high tale it off planet just because of a few problems. If my apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi is captured I will remain behind and fight for him, unlike his old master who left him without lifting a finger to search for him."
Jinn started to speak up, stepped closer to Vos to do it right in his face when he felt a hard smack to his knee from Yoda's gimer stick.
"Settle you both will or discuss this later, before gathered council masters we will. More official setting it will be, less objections have, you can."
"No, don't' interrupt him Master Yoda. I want to hear the explanation on why the all-powerful force connected Jinn did not feel his apprentice still alive. He insists even now he knew Obi was not dead but left him. Maybe the council would like to hear it as well."
Quinlan Vos are you insinuating I have committed some kind of in improprieties where my apprentice is concerned. The council will know differently. I have been nothing but a diligently loyal master to Obi-Wan. To all of my ingrate apprentices and this is what I get.//
Vos swung his leg back and forth harder. The other leg still held his weight half off the desk.
"Well the only way we can tell what the council thinks is to convene before them and ask. I contend you abandoned your apprentice and he is mine now. Not only doesn't he want to be your apprentice he wishes to have no further contact with you Master Jinn. You may of course see him a few moments to insure his health, although you haven't even acted as though that was a major concern. Always an item impossible to attain, your affection wasn't it Master Jinn? You couldn't even bring yourself to say you had been a loving master just a *diligently loyal* one. But not with this one. I plan to see you can't extinguish the light in this one's face that I see. He is destined to important things in this galaxy, more important that even your chosen one. That is what I see in him. You saw someone that could be cast aside for your chosen one. You will see Obi-Wan Kenobi bows to no one any longer"
"This is ridiculous. I am here to retrieve my apprentice. I intend to take him to the healers to be checked out and from their home. Vos do you really think the council will allow you a Jedi who prefers isolation to companionship, who prefers violence to a peaceful means of a dispute, and considers on one else well being other than yours, would be allowed to take an apprentice, let alone snake mine from me? Now I would like to reunite with my apprentice please."
Vos stood up and walked over to the door of Yoda's smaller sitting room just off his office. He opened it and already standing in the doorway was Obi-Wan Kenobi, a very shy meek boy possibly a bit thinner, but well.
Jinn immediately noticed Obi-Wan's gaunt appearance and his faraway gaze when Vos roughly pushed his hood off. The page had been right. The child was squirrelly looking, clothed in a ratty old robe tattered and torn throughout. Along the sleeves and the hem of that robe it was clear that it had been cut very haphazardly to accommodate its present smaller owner now.
Qui-Gon made the couple of wide strides necessary to reach his apprentice, had even gotten close enough to touch him before Vos slid between them. Not only did he insert himself between obi-Wan and Jinn, Knight Quinlan took his right hand and pushed Obi further behind him. It was an act that resembled one to protect the child. Qui-Gon noticed with a touch of jealously the extra ministration of a calming touch he gave the boy with his hand still on Obi's forearm. A light squeeze, something Qui-Gon might do to reassure the boy in a time of crisis on a mission. Something a master does as a reassuring gesture when they think their apprentice might be in harm's way.
There almost nose to nose Qui-Gon Jinn had grown angrily tired of Quinlan and his innuendoes of his inabilities as a master to train a padawan. He squared his shoulders and prepared himself to face off physically if he had too with Quinlan Vos, //and in Yoda's office of all places!!! //
Master Yoda's first instinct was to use his gimer stick on both their chins. That was his first desire but the fire and ice in both Jedi's faces halted his forward motion toward them. The wiseness of stepping between the two was questioned by Yoda to himself. He decided to stay where he was, just to the right of them.
Clenched jaws made the streaked tattoos stretched across Quinlan's face resemble taut yellow rubber bands on the verge of snapping under the intense pressure.. The tattoos on his face were to distinguish his position within his ancestral clan from his home world, but they only heightened the sinister foreboding of his appearance.
Jinn's brow furrowed in a deeper frown made deeper with age lines around his eyes and on his forehead. two sets of hands locked into fists. Neither gave an inch to the other, still as statues. Rock iron muscled frame of Quinlan Vos against older but still just as rock hard lean body of Master Jinn waited. Something had to give, had to break under the stone silence but which one would speak or act first. Yoda decided he would finally break up the disgraceful display of anger of the supposedly two grown Jedi.
"Before the council with this issue Knight Vos has been. Compelling argument he has for requesting your apprentice to removed from your mastering."
"Compelling!! What could he have said that would make the council believe for a second that I have never put Obi-Wan's best interest before anyone's?"
"Never before have you padawan of mine listened to the council if you think the force elicits another path for you. In this you were different. Said you have repeatedly that Obi-Wan did not *feel dead*. Refused you have to have memorial pyre service for you, yet search for him you do not. Reason for that, hope you can give me? Included in the council decision, I am not. Ask to be set aside as head master on this dispute, I have. No… trust you explicitly I do and hope you prove me and yourself righteous in this. However, several on the council see a dark cloud over this they do. Question actions concerning your true apprentice they do. Even some, unnamed they will stay, suspect desire more to assist in training of the 'Chosen One' than desire there was to train a child you already had questions about? No, not me for believe you in all things I do. Reason for you lack of desire to search for the boy concerns the council it does, know the reason for it I also would like. Until satisfied they are, bequeath the boy to Knight Vos they also have. Temporary this can be."
Yoda shot a dark look to Knight Vos and violently twitched his ears, as close as you could get to make Yoda show anger.
"Remember you should Knight Vos, temporary for now it is. No bond is to be formed. It is up to you to prove them wrong Qui-Gon, if desire it is in your heart to do so."
Qui-Gon was too angry, dumbfounded all around confused to speak. He had nothing to say to Vos for he believed this act was some kind of vendetta.
//Quinlan blames me for the way he has turned out. Maybe he would really like to be like the rest of *US*, *normal* // totally a wishful thought on Jinn's part.
"I am not going to stand here and justify my actions, any of them."
The smoldering web of questions to himself in the back of Jinn's mind, started to worm its way forward..
//Why didn't I initiate a search party or refuse to leave the planet if I believed Obi alive? The council thinks it was because of my hidden desire to be more in the training of the "Chosen One". They are wrong, aren't they? //
"I refuse to stand here and let a low-life knight, not worthy enough to wipe another Jedi's boot, presume to know the reason behind my actions. Obi-Wan can stay with him until this is settled and believe me Vos, you will not win in this."
"Win? We are not in a contest Master Jinn. Obi-Wan is a human being, not a prize to be won in some game."
"What does Obi-Wan want?"
There….. As soo as he asked the question about Obi-Wan's wishes, Qui-Gon noticed the look on his former apprentice's face. It was very nearly a start raving crazed look. One that if the council masters, saw might not be as willing to let the boy remain with him. However, Jinn knew how controlled Quinlan was and the council would never see that look.
Qui-Gon thought he also knew what caused this wild look on his former apprentice's face. He waited for Vos to confirm his suspicions and they were very handily and viciously confirmed.
"What Obi-Wan thinks? He is a child, dear master, a mere child. Isn't that what you told the council about me when I couldn't have been more than a half year older, when I requested a new master? I asked to be transferred from your training, because of your disrespect for my people's traditions. I was a mere child as well when I came back from my home world tattooed in ways of my clansmen's that did not meet your approval. Jedi have always recognized our markings as a heritage not to be slighted, but as you said you couldn't in good conscience condone such vain display of art work?!?! All the high masters down through the ages approved but the mighty Qui-Gon Jinn couldn't. They were to identify me and my kind, not something in away showy or vain on my part but you truly never saw it that way. The same as my choice of hair styles. So many little complaints put a wedge between us Master. A wedge had has only been buried deeper since I became a knight. Yes I was a child just as Obi-Wan is. I remained with you and in doing so was reminded every day of the week how much disdain you had for my markings, how embarrassed you were I carried them so casually."
"So *that* is what all this is about. You think I ridiculed you and your clansmen's traditions to paint bodily, ornate little symbols. Then there you have it Master Yoda. His motive. Surely the council can see through it. He has carried some imaginary grudge all this time. I think there are other things that he does not care for about me either. But this is enough to convince the council of his less than honorable reasons for wanting my apprentice to be his."
"Possibly may have vendetta he does, Qui-Gon. However base their decision solely on Quinlan Vos' desires the council did not. Ask another and confirmed Vos' feelings as his own, your apprentice Obi-Wan did…"
Jinn watched as Obi-Wan buried his face against Vos' outer tunic as if the truth could get him in serious trouble with his master, his real master Qui-Gon. Around the broad mass that was Quinlan poked two hands, more childlike than Qui-Gon remembered them being. They bunched up the knight's tunic as he twisted his fists on either side of Vos. Master Yoda could see that things had gotten out of hand. The two grown Jedi acted more like the child that literally hid, cowered in fear behind Vos' back. Obi-Wan only grew more upset as the older Jedi bantered back and forth on who was right or wrong in all this.
Yoda knew he had to do something to break up this potentially violent impasse. Qui-Gon went through a series of emotional feelings in that moment. He stepped back in shock when he felt the unexplained fear emanate from Obi-Wan. There was no doubt the fear was because of only one person in the room, him. While he had not desire to inflict more terror in the child, his instincts to satisfy his own whirling emotions was to go to Obi-Wan and let him know he was glad to see him and that the apprentice need not fear him. //Fear of his own master. What has Vos said to turn Obi-Wan against me?//
Jinn of course did not know the full truth, did not know that Vos had absolutely nothing to do with the feelings Obi now harbored for him, the master.
//The entire truth in this, Qui-Gon needs to hear. Hear it he will, but away from small ears that could hear it also.//
"Enough of this barroom brawl tactics, Jedi you are and show me anything less you will not. Qui-Gon step into my outer office you will. Too much has been said in front of the distraught little one already. No more will be discussed in Padawan Kenobi's presence. Tell you another important fact not told yet, main reason it is for Obi's hesitation to connect with you again."
Vos of course knew what that important *fact* was. It was something Jinn should have really been told first off, before all this got out of hand.
What Yoda had to tell Master Jinn would have cleared up some of the hard feelings and confrontational attitude? Quinlan Vos loved confrontations of any kind. He also enjoyed getting under the great Master Jinn's skin any way, shape, or form. Now he knew Yoda would let it all out and things would settle down once Jinn knew the entire truth of why his little padawan had turned to Quinlan Vos instead of taking harbor in Jinn's waiting arms.
Shortly, Jinn would know exactly why there was no connection with his apprentice, why Obi-Wan had chosen, at least temporarily to stay with Vos not him, and maybe most importantly, why Obi-Wan Kenobi feared his master so much.
PEACE ewen
I must give credit to Padawan_Kat for her brilliant idea to use the rogue Quinlan in one of her stories at another site.. I told her that I would like to *use* him in my story and got her blessing. So thank you, for the idea!!!
Qui-Gon leaned his large frame against the wall. His arms were crossed over his chest and his hands were tucked inside his robe sleeves as if he was cold, but he was not. It was the way he often stood when deep in a diplomatic negotiation with some ruling faction of another planet… Of course he wasn't engaged in that either.
Yes, a part of him watched the activities on the floor. There was another part of Jinn's inner self, the deepest part, which continued to wrestle with memories, which after a month should have been released into the force. Life should have gone on as it always does after a catastrophic event in one's life.
The Jedi master, Jinn was a stubborn man, unwilling to give in to anything. Letting go was no different than anything he else he did. He did it with such veracious tenacity. He had very easily given into grief though, but not to the reality of what caused that grief, Obi-Wan's spirit released into the force.
Tahl stood beside him. They had both come to the practice arena to watch padawans. Tahl studied every little minute detail of her apprentice's movements as Padawan Bant managed to outmaneuver her opponent, another first year padawan, unnamed to Jinn.
There wasn't much that went on around the temple in the last month that had piqued concern from him.
Tahl felt renewed hope for Qui-Gon when she studied her old friend's face and saw just a wisp of interest in the battle on the floor between Anakin Skywalker and Garen, one of Obi-Wan's best friends. //Well he was until…..//
Qui-Gon never broke his gaze from Ani, but pointed him out to Master Tahl, on the left side of the floor, in battle.
"Such improvement in him Tahl. Have you noticed?"
Tahl wanted to reply to the other master's query, but he didn't give her enough time to form her thoughts into words.
" Ahhh… probably not, Bant consumes most of your time and thoughts. She does make a formable opponent against the other apprentice down there."
Tahl beamed a large smile with the compliment of her apprentice. She knew Jinn might have just said that to be polite. He hadn't really had time to know the girl or her abilities. He was being courteous and courteous alone. Tahl knew of her talents and beamed with her knowledge of them and not Qui-Gon's fake assessment of Bant, no matter how well meaning they had been.
"Well yes Qui, she is a fairly new padawan. I do focus on her needs. Nevertheless, I have seen Anakin do battle in here. If he ever learns to reign in his anger, he can only become better at what he seems to have been expertly poised too already."
A dark frown popped on Jinn's face as he broke his stare from the battle Ani and Garen were locked in.
"Don't be ridiculous. There is no anger in the boy. I have had more than enough time to watch him since… Well since I now *have* more free time."
"Since Obi-Wan died Qui. Isn't it about time you say it, if you can't admit it? For force sake, you haven't even allowed the council masters to rule him dead and burn a pyre in honor of his memory.."
"I know where he is Tahl. I suppose I do. Even when I was taken out off the Bulenese planet that suppressed all of our force abilities and connections, I didn't feel Obi-Wan dead. After the force began to flow back through me I should have felt the remnants of pain from his death, should have been given some knowledge of it anyway. It wasn't there. Yes, I have emptiness only in that Obi is not with me at the moment and that makes me immensely sad and miserable. However, I never felt through the force that warning most masters receive when their padawans pass from here to the force itself. It *J.U.S.T.* wasn't there."
"Then where is he Qui? He wasn't on the ship. What was left of that ship you were on was confiscated by the authorities of the Courscant council. It was gone over in fine detail. DNA was done on every spot of blood or body tissue in it, nothing. None one of those DNA samples came back as being even close to Obi-Wan's match and certainly none were found to have midichlorians in the DNA swatches. We both know what *happened* to Obi-Wan. He died Qui-Gon!! Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead, one with the force. If you can't say it, I will for you. And maybe you can grasp it in your mind, if nothing else. We have to go on."
Jinn blinked twice then turned his attention back to Anakin's practice session. Tahl stood there with her arms crossed let out a long sigh and assumed their discussion was over, that Qui was tired of discussing his gone padawan. Suddenly in barely a whisper she heard Qui-Gon speak up again.
"I"
Master Tahl thought she heard the one word statement from her old friend, she just quite wasn't sure.
"Excuse? What did you say?"
"Simply, "I""
"Qui-Gon what…?"
She was very rudely interrupted by a now distraught Qui-Gon Jinn.
He pushed himself off from the wall.
"*WE* don't have to go on, *I* do. *I* have to go through the rest of my life without Obi-Wan. *I* have no apprentice, you do. *I* failed Obi, failed to keep him safe, not you. *I* have to live knowing all this, not you or anyone else in this damn temple. I suppose that is why it is so easy for the rest of you to assume it should be easy for me. I have to deal with all this. The only thing that has brought me any solace is that boy down there. Now it seems that Anakin is in hot water with every master at the temple. Jealousy that is what it is."
Tahl had not said much about the boy except that he needed to control his anger. She could have gone into a long list of things that Anakin Skywalker did that irked nearly everyone at the temple in one way or another. Things he did which was not corrected by his true master. Things Master Jinn knew Xani allowed Ani to engage in but had no reprimand for either. Jinn spoiled Ani and allowed Xanatos to do the same.
"Come off it Qui. I try to be fair. I haven't mentioned the fight last week in the commissary have I?"
She could match Jinn anger and then some. Not really anger just a release of negative thoughts and feeling that needed brought out in the open.
#####
Anakin bowed to his defeated opponent. He wanted to sneer and make some unkind comment about the boy's inability to handle a saber, even though he was four years older than Anakin. He held his tongue though. He knew just above him in the gallery stood Master Jinn. He didn't want to get his master, Xanatos Crion in trouble for what Qui-Gon might assess as errors in Xani's training of him.
"Master, Master Qui-Gon sir is here *again*."
Xani got the definite feeling Ani did not like Qui-Gon being over his shoulder to watch his every move.
"It is all right. Give him some time. He only comes here because he is lonely."
Xanatos had to admit there were times he was sorry for his former master. Though the feelings of compassion for Jinn came only once in awhile and for short spurts, he did have them, whereas Anakin felt no compassion for anyone. He himself could and did live quite comfortably without the brat Kenobi around.
"Maybe we will ask him to last meal, so he won't be so lonely."
Anakin wiped the sweat for his face that had gathered there from the fierce practice battle then tossed the towel back to his master. In some ways Ani acted like the master. The soiled towel tossed in his master's face was on just one example of his arrogant attitude.
"Well you better ask him or he will just presume he has a right to barge in and interrupt our last meal. What has it been, a week running since we shared a meal together alone without the grieving Master Jinn by our side?"
Ani had quickly grown to dislike Qui-Gon more and more. He thought the man should be excited enough to over see his former apprentice's training of the Chosen One and he shouldn't feel like he needed the now dead Kenobi anyway. Jealousy of one dead was not very becoming.
Ani tried to hide his jealousy of Obi-wan from his own master. Xanatos however, saw right through him. He affectionately slapped his apprentice's arm.
The 'Chosen One' saw Master Jinn's grief as an insufferable weakness that was tolerated but not accepted. Or in Anakin Skywalker's opinion it shouldn't be acceptable.
"Well I have some news that just might perk you up. There could be a reason for why Master Jinn wants to dine with us tonight."
"I know there is. He wants to instruct you on how to be the perfect master for the perfect padawan."
With that Anakin cast a large smile to his young master, over his own humor."
Xani lowered his head until his chin hit his chest and looked *Up* disappointedly at his apprentice.
"That's enough Ani. Even I have a little compassion for the old man. Maybe if you would lighten up on him, he wouldn't feel all that aura of hostility you emit every time he comes around. And no, he is not coming to our quarters to critique my mastering of you. I think…. now don't get too excited, but I think we are headed out on a mission in the next few days."
#############
Master Jinn crunched up along side of the temple hall as he left the training salles. Other padawans and initiates along with their masters were bustling past him to take their turn at a practice session with their sabers. Not one padawan or initiate missed the slouched dejected looking Master Jinn.
If they thought anything about him and his loss of his apprentice they certainly wouldn't voice it. Master Jinn had suddenly become even more masterly than he had ever been, except with Anakin Skywalker. Criticism flew from his mouth if a padawan spoke to loud, walked to fast, or just in general aggravated him when rightly he should not have been concerned with their actions.
The padawan page to Master Yoda looked in front of him and saw the master he had to deliver the message too but hesitated a moment. No young one liked to speak to Master Jinn, let alone give him a message he might not want to get.
Gossip traveled fast in the temple and everyone knew Qui-Gon and his former master had had a ongoing disagreement since Jinn returned from the mission without his apprentice. He had insisted Jinn snap out of his melancholy and go on. Even went so far as to say Obi would have wanted it that way.
The page to Yoda spoke up timidly and barely audible to Master Jinn. He had to literally block Jinn's walkway with his own little person to get the master to even pay attention t him.
"Master, I…. Please…. I don't' wish to interrupt you however…."
The apprentice in front of Jinn startled him and the boy was nearly run over by the hulk of a master before he stopped and looked down.
"If you don't wish to interrupt me then why are you doing it, child?"
Jinn should have recognized the young man as Yoda's personal page, once or twice a week but his thoughts were not on the here and now but the blast, he and Obi's past, together.
Master Jinn started to walk around the boy which would have been difficult in the small hall, his big body, plus another smaller body in the way. However, he couldn't get around the boy because the padawan stepped right into his path again.
The page was fearful of the stressed out master but his fear of his own overseer of the day, Master Yoda made him press on with his mission to deliver the message to Qui-Gon.
"I am sorry Master Jinn, but Master Yoda insists this is very important. He wants you in his office right away."
"Oh, now I recognize you. You're a page for Master Yoda twice a week or something like that."
Jinn flung his hand in the air as if to acknowledge the boy and instruct him to move all at the same time.
The boy looked sheepishly at the master.
"Yes sir, he sent me to find you and bring you back to his office."
Master Jinn reached out with the hand he had just motioned the boy aside with. The boy flinched at first with expectations that the master just might do him bodily harm.
The only thing Jinn did in the line of being physical was to pick the boy up and set to him to the side of the hall, out of his path and started to walk away.
The padawan page was losing the battle to get the message to Master Jinn and he knew it.
"Master Jinn!!!!!!!"
The boy had never yelled at anyone in his entire life, let alone a master, especially not the most majestic and powerful master in the order, Qui-Gon Jinn.
The apprentice seemed to slink as far back into the hood of his robe as far as he could. He hoped he wouldn't be as visible, maybe be less of a target if the master did decide to strike him for the disrespectful screech of his name.
"Listen child, you take this message, *my* message back to Yoda. I will see him after I have gone to my quarters, had a good stiff drink, and freshened up, not a minute before."
//Whew…. Master Yoda will not like that at all. //The little padawan page shook his head no in agreement with his own mental statement to himself.
It was his last chance and the page knew it. He really wasn't supposed to know what the meeting was about and he wouldn't if he hadn't eavesdropped. He couldn't help himself. There had been so much bustling around when Yoda's other guest arrived and with him a boy just about his age. The page didn't know who the boy was. However, he knew something big must be going on because the knight was the infamous Quinlan Vos.
"Master Jinn, it is Quinlan Vos."
Yoda's page knew that would get a rise out of Master Jinn. Vos was his first a padawan. After he was knighted there was a terrible disagreement between the two and Jinn rarely if ever spoke to or of him.
Knight Vos in turn chose a life on the outer rim worlds. He rotated from planet to planet wherever a Jedi, very unconventional Jedi was needed. His diplomatic prowess, though uncharacteristic and sometimes even unethical for a Jedi, was successful on planets less civilized than Coruscant.
The council, because of his success tended to overlook his roguish and sometimes unorthodox handling of certain missions. His looks alone were out of character for a typical Jedi. Long black dreadlocks framed his dark skinned face, darker even than Jinn's second padawan, Xanatos Crion. Tattoos adorned his entire body, with some, luckily hidden that might be considered X-rated!!
His state of dress which bordered on almost primal native wear accented his rippled abs and large muscle-massed biceps. Yes, you could say that he was vain, arrogant, and certainly a rogue. However, no one could ever say Quinlan Vos was not the most gorgeous creature to come out of the temple in a long time. He knew it and enjoyed being 'that' creature..
All those errors in his Jedi persona still did not prevent the council from using him to negotiate with some of the vilest beings in the universe, the Hutts included. As always Vos was just too 'dang' successful not to keep him in the order. Anything he did within the Jedi mantra, adorned his body with, or how he wore his hair was Quinlan Vos and in turn was accepted by the head masters because of his astonishing accomplishments.
Jinn however, did not see it that way. He saw Vos as a Jedi failure and in doing so accepted some of the blame for that failure. He thought the council bent over backwards too often for his former apprentice.
"Quinlan Vos. He is here?"
"Yes Master Jinn and he has a young one with him."
"Who? Did you see him? The boy I mean, did you see who the child was?"
"NO, but.. Well… I really shouldn't tell you this because I…."
It was like a light went off in Qui-Gon's head. After all, he was once an apprentice and had even been a message courier for council members occasionally throughout his apprenticeship.
"Oh, I understand. You shouldn't tell me because by rights it was not told to you. You… shall we say…. *overheard* it?"
Jinn gave the boy a knowing smirk of a smile, just enough to give the page a slight sense of relief. He knew to change the word for what the apprentice really did, 'eavesdrop' to the less accusatory 'overheard'. Eavesdrop might have denoted something wrong and thus closed the boy's mouth with fear of being reprimanded by Master Yoda's for his *nosey* ears.
The boy's eyes lit up. Master Jinn understood clearly what he meant. To the page that was surprising but he thought it was his way off the hook if he got caught passing news which was not his to pass..
"Well like I said it is not knowledge that I should know but the boy he brought and mind you I couldn't get a look at his face."
It was as if the page had temporarily lost his train of thought and did not finish what he planned to say instead he offered up an excuse as to why he didn't see the boy's face….
"He must have had on a cut-down version of Knight Vos' robe."
"Well get on with it. What… the boy what…?"
"Knight Quinlan Vos said the boy once belonged to you but he planned to see to it the "child" remained permanently HIS……"
Qui-Gon, breathless from his rushed trek to Master Yoda's office, stopped short of just barging through the office door.
He certainly didn't want his cool collected former apprentice, Quinlan Vos to see how un-Jedi like his overall condition was. Master Jinn was a stickler when it came to holding his Jedi outer shell for everyone around him to see. Right now he felt nothing like a Jedi with his weak knees, rapid heartbeat, and butterflies in his stomach which made keeping the urge down to just vomit all over the hall floor, extremely difficult.
//I am not that anxious to see that pup of a Jedi. If my suspicions are right, I know exactly who that boy is. I told Tahl I didn't feel Obi's death. Now Vos has arrived and mysteriously in his possession he has the reason why I didn't feel the death of Obi-Wan. //
Jinn had run through several corridors and taken three flights of steps, two at a time in a hard run just because he was too impatient to wait for the temple elevators to deposit him practically in front of Master Yoda's door. He had to know if Obi-Wan was with Quinlan or not. He still thought it odd that he could not touch the boy's force signature or reach him through their training bond and mental link.
All that didn't matter now. The 'whys' of Jinn's inability to connect with Obi-Wan would be answered soon enough if he was right in his suspicions.
The door opened before he completely regained his composure. The hand that opened the door belonged to his first, former, and in his mindset, failed apprentice, Quinlan Vos. He stood there with a devious almost knowing smile on his face.
"Ah… Master Jinn, Yoda's little assistant must have mentioned my name."
"Don't flatter yourself. The mention of your name is not the reason I rushed here. Yoda's young assistant mentioned quite harmlessly that a boy was brought here, *my property*? Only you would presume a person belonged to another person. Well, where is my property as you so immorally called him? I want to see Obi-Wan."
Jinn shoved the door open wider to walk in. In doing so, he shoved his former apprentice all the way back against the wall with a loud thud when he hit. Vos' massive muscled body made violent contact with the wall behind the door; the obvious intent of Jinn's planned push, powered enhanced by the force itself..
Qui-Gon looked around the room then back to the surprisingly normally dressed Jedi knight. Except for the soft moccasin leather boots laced all the way the side to his mid calf; Quinlan Vos wore the standard issue light beige long tunic and leggings.
//He could almost visually pull off the fact that he is a Jedi knight, save those yellow streaked tattoos under each eye and those dreadful long strands of unkempt weaved hair. //
"So sorry Master Jinn, if you have taken an unkindly exception to what I called your and Obi's relationship. However, that is what I thought you considered your apprentices, an object or trinket. You know something akin to a material possession that can be tossed aside if it isn't to you liking. Just as one might tire of the sleep sofa in their common room was how I thought you acted toward apprentices' under you. To you, children are not the precious commodity the Jedi mantra teaches. They are just something to toss out in the next day's trash if it doesn't suit *you*."
Now Yoda didn't hesitate to step up between the two Jedi. He could tell things had taken a turn for the worse and he didn't want his new office furniture destroyed.
"Sit you will Master Jinn. Much we have to say before the child brought in he is. And yes Qui-Gon suspense keep you in, I will not. Obi-Wan is here and in well health he appears to be.. How this happened, needs worked out it does."
"I am certainly glad you observed concern in your former apprentice, Master Yoda. However if you saw suspense or concern over his apprentice in Master Jinn, you saw him differently than I did. No…. when Master Jinn walked through that door he planned to attack me and that was it."
"Shut up Vos. Don't misconstrue my feelings or meanings to match yours. The only concern I have had or do have now is Obi-Wan and his well being. I assumed if Obi was here he was well."
It still confused Master Jinn why he didn't feel his apprentice presence yet
Vos' humorous look turned to one with deep dark intones scattered through out the frown on his face.
"Well I certainly am glad you finally mentioned the boy. His presence brought you here, I presume. Surely you didn't get out of breathe to see me did you? Even though you anxiousness to know of Obi-Wan's well being, you couldn't really bring yourself to act concerned once you got here. Shame, Shame, Master Jinn."
The gimer stick slammed on the floor.
"Enough it is. See the boy now you shall. Care to mediate this argument between the two of you I do not."
"There is no argument. I want to see my apprentice, know how he is, and how *he* got himself in this situation."
"You are incredulous Jinn. Still unwilling to take any blame for your apprentices or what happened to them. I have heard what you did to Xanatos forced him to train the mighty chosen one. I hope for your and his sake he is indeed the 'Chosen One'. That will be the only way he ever receives any true praise, and you any true culpability for yourself as a master. I would hate for you to get your hands on or near another to screw up as you have managed to do with all three of your true apprentices."
"I don't have to stand here and be insulted by the lies that just tumble so easily from your mouth."
Vos walked over to Master Yoda's desk and flopped down on the outer edge of it. One foot balanced him while the other, almost tucked under his body swung aimlessly back and forth. He hadn't bothered to look at Master Jinn after his last words and the master grew boiling hot red with anger. Knight Quinlan Vos was the only Jedi with enough gall to sit on Master Yoda's desk. //His new one at that. //
"No Master Jinn, you don't have to stand here and do anything. In fact you can turn you bony 'behind' around and leave. I just wanted to touch base with the council, let them know I had taken an apprentice….."
Jinn shook with inside anger for his former apprentice that had quickly began to spew out and over his normally calm exterior.. He had no doubt Quinlan meant Obi-Wan was his apprentice.
"Absurd and you know it. You can't just snatch another master's apprentice from him. Even if you could you have to consider the bond that would need to be broken between them."
There was a nervousness in Jinn when he mentioned a bond, because still as of yet he had not felt his apprentice through their shared training bond.
"You know Qui-Gon instead of bickering about who *OWNS* the boy you would think your concerns would lie first in his well being?"
Now Jinn was livid. Did Quinlan insinuate he didn't care for Obi-Wan or the condition he was in?
"If Obi is here and I know he is, and he is not at the healers' ward which you have already indicated he isn't, I should have no concerns should I Vos? You haven't done anything to harm the child have you?"
"No, but then again as his new master I won't leave him, abandon him as it were and high tale it off planet just because of a few problems. If my apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi is captured I will remain behind and fight for him, unlike his old master who left him without lifting a finger to search for him."
Jinn started to speak up, stepped closer to Vos to do it right in his face when he felt a hard smack to his knee from Yoda's gimer stick.
"Settle you both will or discuss this later, before gathered council masters we will. More official setting it will be, less objections have, you can."
"No, don't' interrupt him Master Yoda. I want to hear the explanation on why the all-powerful force connected Jinn did not feel his apprentice still alive. He insists even now he knew Obi was not dead but left him. Maybe the council would like to hear it as well."
Quinlan Vos are you insinuating I have committed some kind of in improprieties where my apprentice is concerned. The council will know differently. I have been nothing but a diligently loyal master to Obi-Wan. To all of my ingrate apprentices and this is what I get.//
Vos swung his leg back and forth harder. The other leg still held his weight half off the desk.
"Well the only way we can tell what the council thinks is to convene before them and ask. I contend you abandoned your apprentice and he is mine now. Not only doesn't he want to be your apprentice he wishes to have no further contact with you Master Jinn. You may of course see him a few moments to insure his health, although you haven't even acted as though that was a major concern. Always an item impossible to attain, your affection wasn't it Master Jinn? You couldn't even bring yourself to say you had been a loving master just a *diligently loyal* one. But not with this one. I plan to see you can't extinguish the light in this one's face that I see. He is destined to important things in this galaxy, more important that even your chosen one. That is what I see in him. You saw someone that could be cast aside for your chosen one. You will see Obi-Wan Kenobi bows to no one any longer"
"This is ridiculous. I am here to retrieve my apprentice. I intend to take him to the healers to be checked out and from their home. Vos do you really think the council will allow you a Jedi who prefers isolation to companionship, who prefers violence to a peaceful means of a dispute, and considers on one else well being other than yours, would be allowed to take an apprentice, let alone snake mine from me? Now I would like to reunite with my apprentice please."
Vos stood up and walked over to the door of Yoda's smaller sitting room just off his office. He opened it and already standing in the doorway was Obi-Wan Kenobi, a very shy meek boy possibly a bit thinner, but well.
Jinn immediately noticed Obi-Wan's gaunt appearance and his faraway gaze when Vos roughly pushed his hood off. The page had been right. The child was squirrelly looking, clothed in a ratty old robe tattered and torn throughout. Along the sleeves and the hem of that robe it was clear that it had been cut very haphazardly to accommodate its present smaller owner now.
Qui-Gon made the couple of wide strides necessary to reach his apprentice, had even gotten close enough to touch him before Vos slid between them. Not only did he insert himself between obi-Wan and Jinn, Knight Quinlan took his right hand and pushed Obi further behind him. It was an act that resembled one to protect the child. Qui-Gon noticed with a touch of jealously the extra ministration of a calming touch he gave the boy with his hand still on Obi's forearm. A light squeeze, something Qui-Gon might do to reassure the boy in a time of crisis on a mission. Something a master does as a reassuring gesture when they think their apprentice might be in harm's way.
There almost nose to nose Qui-Gon Jinn had grown angrily tired of Quinlan and his innuendoes of his inabilities as a master to train a padawan. He squared his shoulders and prepared himself to face off physically if he had too with Quinlan Vos, //and in Yoda's office of all places!!! //
Master Yoda's first instinct was to use his gimer stick on both their chins. That was his first desire but the fire and ice in both Jedi's faces halted his forward motion toward them. The wiseness of stepping between the two was questioned by Yoda to himself. He decided to stay where he was, just to the right of them.
Clenched jaws made the streaked tattoos stretched across Quinlan's face resemble taut yellow rubber bands on the verge of snapping under the intense pressure.. The tattoos on his face were to distinguish his position within his ancestral clan from his home world, but they only heightened the sinister foreboding of his appearance.
Jinn's brow furrowed in a deeper frown made deeper with age lines around his eyes and on his forehead. two sets of hands locked into fists. Neither gave an inch to the other, still as statues. Rock iron muscled frame of Quinlan Vos against older but still just as rock hard lean body of Master Jinn waited. Something had to give, had to break under the stone silence but which one would speak or act first. Yoda decided he would finally break up the disgraceful display of anger of the supposedly two grown Jedi.
"Before the council with this issue Knight Vos has been. Compelling argument he has for requesting your apprentice to removed from your mastering."
"Compelling!! What could he have said that would make the council believe for a second that I have never put Obi-Wan's best interest before anyone's?"
"Never before have you padawan of mine listened to the council if you think the force elicits another path for you. In this you were different. Said you have repeatedly that Obi-Wan did not *feel dead*. Refused you have to have memorial pyre service for you, yet search for him you do not. Reason for that, hope you can give me? Included in the council decision, I am not. Ask to be set aside as head master on this dispute, I have. No… trust you explicitly I do and hope you prove me and yourself righteous in this. However, several on the council see a dark cloud over this they do. Question actions concerning your true apprentice they do. Even some, unnamed they will stay, suspect desire more to assist in training of the 'Chosen One' than desire there was to train a child you already had questions about? No, not me for believe you in all things I do. Reason for you lack of desire to search for the boy concerns the council it does, know the reason for it I also would like. Until satisfied they are, bequeath the boy to Knight Vos they also have. Temporary this can be."
Yoda shot a dark look to Knight Vos and violently twitched his ears, as close as you could get to make Yoda show anger.
"Remember you should Knight Vos, temporary for now it is. No bond is to be formed. It is up to you to prove them wrong Qui-Gon, if desire it is in your heart to do so."
Qui-Gon was too angry, dumbfounded all around confused to speak. He had nothing to say to Vos for he believed this act was some kind of vendetta.
//Quinlan blames me for the way he has turned out. Maybe he would really like to be like the rest of *US*, *normal* // totally a wishful thought on Jinn's part.
"I am not going to stand here and justify my actions, any of them."
The smoldering web of questions to himself in the back of Jinn's mind, started to worm its way forward..
//Why didn't I initiate a search party or refuse to leave the planet if I believed Obi alive? The council thinks it was because of my hidden desire to be more in the training of the "Chosen One". They are wrong, aren't they? //
"I refuse to stand here and let a low-life knight, not worthy enough to wipe another Jedi's boot, presume to know the reason behind my actions. Obi-Wan can stay with him until this is settled and believe me Vos, you will not win in this."
"Win? We are not in a contest Master Jinn. Obi-Wan is a human being, not a prize to be won in some game."
"What does Obi-Wan want?"
There….. As soo as he asked the question about Obi-Wan's wishes, Qui-Gon noticed the look on his former apprentice's face. It was very nearly a start raving crazed look. One that if the council masters, saw might not be as willing to let the boy remain with him. However, Jinn knew how controlled Quinlan was and the council would never see that look.
Qui-Gon thought he also knew what caused this wild look on his former apprentice's face. He waited for Vos to confirm his suspicions and they were very handily and viciously confirmed.
"What Obi-Wan thinks? He is a child, dear master, a mere child. Isn't that what you told the council about me when I couldn't have been more than a half year older, when I requested a new master? I asked to be transferred from your training, because of your disrespect for my people's traditions. I was a mere child as well when I came back from my home world tattooed in ways of my clansmen's that did not meet your approval. Jedi have always recognized our markings as a heritage not to be slighted, but as you said you couldn't in good conscience condone such vain display of art work?!?! All the high masters down through the ages approved but the mighty Qui-Gon Jinn couldn't. They were to identify me and my kind, not something in away showy or vain on my part but you truly never saw it that way. The same as my choice of hair styles. So many little complaints put a wedge between us Master. A wedge had has only been buried deeper since I became a knight. Yes I was a child just as Obi-Wan is. I remained with you and in doing so was reminded every day of the week how much disdain you had for my markings, how embarrassed you were I carried them so casually."
"So *that* is what all this is about. You think I ridiculed you and your clansmen's traditions to paint bodily, ornate little symbols. Then there you have it Master Yoda. His motive. Surely the council can see through it. He has carried some imaginary grudge all this time. I think there are other things that he does not care for about me either. But this is enough to convince the council of his less than honorable reasons for wanting my apprentice to be his."
"Possibly may have vendetta he does, Qui-Gon. However base their decision solely on Quinlan Vos' desires the council did not. Ask another and confirmed Vos' feelings as his own, your apprentice Obi-Wan did…"
Jinn watched as Obi-Wan buried his face against Vos' outer tunic as if the truth could get him in serious trouble with his master, his real master Qui-Gon. Around the broad mass that was Quinlan poked two hands, more childlike than Qui-Gon remembered them being. They bunched up the knight's tunic as he twisted his fists on either side of Vos. Master Yoda could see that things had gotten out of hand. The two grown Jedi acted more like the child that literally hid, cowered in fear behind Vos' back. Obi-Wan only grew more upset as the older Jedi bantered back and forth on who was right or wrong in all this.
Yoda knew he had to do something to break up this potentially violent impasse. Qui-Gon went through a series of emotional feelings in that moment. He stepped back in shock when he felt the unexplained fear emanate from Obi-Wan. There was no doubt the fear was because of only one person in the room, him. While he had not desire to inflict more terror in the child, his instincts to satisfy his own whirling emotions was to go to Obi-Wan and let him know he was glad to see him and that the apprentice need not fear him. //Fear of his own master. What has Vos said to turn Obi-Wan against me?//
Jinn of course did not know the full truth, did not know that Vos had absolutely nothing to do with the feelings Obi now harbored for him, the master.
//The entire truth in this, Qui-Gon needs to hear. Hear it he will, but away from small ears that could hear it also.//
"Enough of this barroom brawl tactics, Jedi you are and show me anything less you will not. Qui-Gon step into my outer office you will. Too much has been said in front of the distraught little one already. No more will be discussed in Padawan Kenobi's presence. Tell you another important fact not told yet, main reason it is for Obi's hesitation to connect with you again."
Vos of course knew what that important *fact* was. It was something Jinn should have really been told first off, before all this got out of hand.
What Yoda had to tell Master Jinn would have cleared up some of the hard feelings and confrontational attitude? Quinlan Vos loved confrontations of any kind. He also enjoyed getting under the great Master Jinn's skin any way, shape, or form. Now he knew Yoda would let it all out and things would settle down once Jinn knew the entire truth of why his little padawan had turned to Quinlan Vos instead of taking harbor in Jinn's waiting arms.
Shortly, Jinn would know exactly why there was no connection with his apprentice, why Obi-Wan had chosen, at least temporarily to stay with Vos not him, and maybe most importantly, why Obi-Wan Kenobi feared his master so much.
PEACE ewen
I must give credit to Padawan_Kat for her brilliant idea to use the rogue Quinlan in one of her stories at another site.. I told her that I would like to *use* him in my story and got her blessing. So thank you, for the idea!!!