"You know Quinlan; I have had enough of your mouth. Got anything to back up your words?"
Quin watched at the younger knight downed another double. Clearly Crion had lost all of his Jedi inhibitions with the last drink, Knight Vos thought. Maybe it was time to back off.
//I don't particularly care if he gets in trouble but it would not look very good with one of my diplomatic senators from the outer rim to see me in a common day bar brawl. Nope, I guess I should help Jinn's former apprentice, my brother of sorts, back to the temple.//
Quin stepped toward the knight. Xanatos took it as a threat or a challenge. He hopped off the bar stool, swung his right fist as hard as he good and was a little shocked when that swing missed. He did a 360 degree turn and had to grab the stool to keep from falling.
"Knight Crion, if you have finished making a donkey of yourself. Let's go back to the temple so you can sleep it off."
"I am not inebriated Quin. You think anyone who stands their own with you is drunk or crazy."
The green hued being sipped his drink once more, before he responded to the question for Quinlan from Xanatos.
"They have to be drunk or crazy to mess with this Jedi. You would think being a Jedi knight yourself you would know that. Put it this way Knight *Whatever-Your-Name Is*, if you aren't drunk, maybe you should get that way."
He took another drink but didn't feel the need to waste his time to look at Xanatos.
The drunken knight was now livid. However he was not drunk or livid enough to start a fight with a dignitary even if that diplomat was from one of the more barbaric planets on the outer rim. The Jedi council and Chancellor Valorum would be on his back if he did.
Xanatos Crion would soon learn his problem was not with the green diplomat or Quinlan Vos for that matter. Up from behind him without warning a heavy hand landed a judo-like chop across the back of his neck. The stunned Jedi could not reel around to see who the bearer of that stunning blow was. He was too dizzy from the drink and blow itself to do anything but weave back and forth. Quinlan however had not had that much to drink and no one had yet to give him a cheap shot like Xani had just received. His faculties or most of them were intact. He wasn't sure who this massive rotund man who attacked Xanatos and it really didn't matter at least to him. He instantly went on the defensive prepared to do the same to the man as he had done to the other Jedi, Crion. One thing Quinlan Vos would never do is stand by and let a fellow Jedi be accosted even, if it was Jinn's former apprentice.
Vos walked over to the man very quietly. He didn't even know Vos was there. A tap on his massive shoulder, Crion's attacker turned around and when he did he met the fist of Quinlan Vos that sent him reeling across the room and over a pool table………..
There was only problem with that as Quinlan Vos slapped his hands together as if the wipe the man's order from them, he felt the old two familiar tap to his shoulder. The rogue Jedi, always so meticulous in his diplomacy and the battles he chose, hadn't taken time to assess the situation around him. If he had, he would have realized the rotund attacker of Crion's was not alone in that bar. Vos was just about to find that out in a very violent, painful way; similar to how Crion found out the man was not happy with him.
###At the temple the council in a meeting###
Mace made a quick sweep of the room. He eyed very carefully each face of the four who had been in fights.
//Looks like Vos came out on top in the battle he was in.// The bald master shook his head in agreement with his own words. //Yes definitely, Crion took the most bodily damage at the pub.// And while Obi's nose is two sizes bigger than it normally is, those two shiners on Anakin aren't as likely to fade away too quickly. They seem about even. He didn't take the time to look at Jinn, who he knew just through the air around him was angered beyond belief.
After his quick survey of the battered group, Mace dropped his eyes and covered them and his face with his broad hand. He didn't know if he should be angry or upset. He was a council master after all. But Qui-Gon was his friend, his former crèche mate, his comrade during his entire life at the temple.
Now Jinn was being brought up before the seated council masters in a not so good light for the big Jedi. All his prodigies were with him. His first apprentice Quinlan Vos, second one, Xanatos Crion, his present or so should be present apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi and lastly his surrogate apprentice through Xani, Anakin Skywalker.
Qui-Gon was the only one that did not have a bruised and blood streaked face. There was a good reason for that. Qui-Gon hadn't been in any brawl. Mace Windu shook his head with his hand still over his face as he thought that was the only redeeming factor in all this; Jinn's ability to stay out of a fight, either one of them.
There was another reason Mace kept his head down. He had no wish to let his eyes wonder over to Yoda or his to him. They had just gone through a very heated disagreement in Yoda private office before they met with the other council masters. This meeting now with the guilty parties, the four was the result of a previous council meeting to hash through the details and come up with a solution. However, the meeting he had in private with Yoda was not council privileged and Mace was astounded at what was discussed with him then.
Before either of the meetings, the one with just the council and now with the guilty parties in front of them, the council Master, Yoda delivered a scathing reprimand of the dark Jedi. Mace thought Yoda's wise solution to the problem was too far fetched, off the wall, and just plain dangerous and he did not hesitate to say so.
Mace, in the privacy of Yoda's office hinted to the old master that he favored Jinn too much, was willing to go as far as was necessary to show him the way. Mace didn't think Obi-wan should be put up like a lamb going to slaughter just to prove a point to Qui. He really was concern for Qui-Gon but equally concerned for the thirteen-year-old Yoda insisted would be temporarily teamed up with Quinlan Vos.
It wasn't the specificity of the mission because there was no special one. Just the idea of taking a young Jedi, back to the den of inequity, back to the outer rim to an as of yet unnamed and most certainly untamed planet.
Mace could be assured just by its location, it's backward barbarianism could be possibly deadly to the a mere child padawan that to date had never been sent to the outer rim with his master just to see what it was like.. To make matters worse, they would go 'covert" undercover.
Easy enough for Quin, Mace had thought, but a first year padawan not trained under the rough edged knight but under the precise and to the letter of the Jedi mantra, Qui-Gon Jinn, the task of spending time on one of the outer worlds would be nearly impossible.
What ever Qui-Gon had done to step on the toes of the council during a mission had never been exposed or encouraged by Jinn to his apprentice. Any planet in the outer rim was normally not a place a master took a first year apprentice and in this case Vos was not Obi's master with no mental connection should they become separated.
Now before him and the rest of the council masters stood the four guilty parties and their master of all of them at one time or of sorts, Qui-Gon Jinn. He waited for the arguing to begin. Mace Windu knew Qui-Gon would have violent objections to his apprentice going with his former one and on such a deadly mission.
Mace unshielded his eyes with his hand and looked up at all of them He wanted to see Jinn's reaction for he certainly knew he would have no trouble hearing the irate master and possibly knight Quin when Yoda handed down his instructions,
//Punishment really, torture maybe in Quinlan's case when he finds out he has a temporary padawan on a mission, a potentially dangerous one at that,// thought Mace. It was handily approved by all council members but one, himself…
It was the first time in his life Quinlan was stunned out of words. He wished there had been some place to sit and that he was allowed to do so. . He was up in front of the council in a battle with himself to regain his composure, composure very seldom lost even when he faced the enemy was very nearly visible to those around him now.
People like Jinn who had held a bond with him, if they felt a light juggle through the force would realize it was Quin's hard exterior. It was cracking, had cracked with the punishment leveled against him. //That is what it is unprecedented and unwarranted punishment for a little brawl and I was protecting one of their own. Qui-Gon is the reason for all of this but oh no not one word will be said to the great Master Jinn.// If he couldn't find a place to get over the shock of his *sentence*, he thought the least he could do was object to it.
He swallowed the lump in his throat that had very nearly cut off oxygen and his ability to speak. His mouth had suddenly become like cotton. He licked his lips in an attempt to create more salvia. A drink… Yes a drink would be nice but it was hardly likely he could be excused from the council masters presence to get water, no matter how bad he needed it.
"Wait.. Masters. I am not ready to take on an apprentice. I don't' wish to impede on my former master's progress with his apprentice."
"Impede his progress bother you it seemed not to when you arrived. Bother you now it should not. Healers say the boy should have time away from his master and away he will be … with you, under your care, and in your hands he will be until return from the Outer Quadrant five you both do.
//Return to the temple. What is that little troll doing? I never return. I just go from one planet to another one mission to where ever I am needed. It is unusual that I am here now. //
Jinn stepped up. While he and Obi's bond was not there as it should be, he couldn't allow the boy to come to harm. Unless or until the force or the council masters deemed it so Obi, was still his apprentice .
"Masters if Obi-Wan should spend more time away from each other without the chance of seeing one another, I will not question the wisdom of the healers. However I wish to ask that is I who is sent on a mission. Xanatos is more than capable of training his own apprentice and Obi-Wan can remain here with Master Windu if Quinlan has no desire to be bothered with him any longer. And if it is as you say he is needed back where he belongs."
Quin glanced over at Obi-Wan just in time to see a twinge, a slight shrugging of his shoulder.
//There Jinn did it again, made the boy feel unwanted by everyone. //
Quinlan wanted to in someone salvage Obi's feelings that he knew right now must be crushed by everyone's speedy shuffling of him back and forth.
"Excuse me, I didn't say Obi was a bother, he isn't, but the outer rim is a dangerous place."
Quinlan truly wanted to find a way out of this without making Obi-Wan feel a bother to anyone.
Obi-Wan already felt that way. The thought of staying under the scrutiny of his master's best friend Mace Windu was unbearable."
Obi-Wan unabashedly stepped forward and interrupted all the adults. Plo Koon started to object to his interruption but one tap with the gimer stick caused him to hold his silence.
"Masters, I am sorry. If I have become a burden to Quin, I mean Knight Vos I never meant too. If I have become an embarrassment to my own master, I certainly didn't intend that, as for Master Mace well. I know he sides in everything my master says or does. I don't know the fairness of sending me to him. If I am that much trouble I request that I be allowed to go to the Agricorps and work until this can be resolved by the council along with my master."
Obi-Wan didn't dare look at Yoda, Qui-Gon or Vos. He felt somehow betrayed by Quinlan's words. Not that he should have believed there was any connection between he and the long haired Jedi, he only hoped….!?!
//What is the boy thinking. He won't survive there. He can't be allowed to go. //
Jinn had thoughts and concerns for Obi-Wan as well and they mirrored Vos'. No one said a word. Instead they waited for Yoda's reply.
Yoda nodded his head as if to agree with the boy. Quin and Qui both stepped up to object but they didn't have to..
"One specific mission this is not to be. Need the Jedi in outer rim Chancellor Valorum has stated. Too long gone Vos has been. His presence stops intimidation by more powerful planets to lesser ones. Needed he is and return he will. With Obi-Wan or without him return you must. Made-up mission contrary to Master Windu's speculations, this is not. Came directly from the senate floor and the Chancellor's mouth it did. Go to Bandomeer, allow the young padawan I will, if Quinlan Vos refuses to take him as his responsibility he does."
"Master Yoda please. I hate to admit it but I agree with Qui… Master Jinn. Going with me is far too dangerous for him without his master. Also, I would be leery of taking him on such a mission, any mission on any planet in the outer rim. Surely the council can see their lack of wisdom in all this. I am sorry but I just can't allow the boy to go with me. I do not want that burden of an apprentice yet, ever how temporary it is."
" Jedi council's wisdom this is not. Wisdom of head master, me, it is. So now, say you Quin what it should be; alone on Bandomeer with no one or under your care is young Obi-Wan to be? Decision yours it solely is."
Quinlan frantically tried to avoid the sad blue puppy eyes of Jinn's apprentice. However, it was in vain. He chanced one darting look over at the pathetic little waif of a Jedi and knew he was hooked by the gravity of the meaning behind that forlorn distant stare right at him by Jinn's apprentice. In that instance he knew.….
//If Yoda is too stubborn to change his decision to send Obi to Bandomeer, I will have no choice but to change mine…//
Obi sat on the transport ship. Quinlan Vos had relented on his adamant refusal to take Obi-Wan went him when he returned to the treacherous outer rim. He finally agreed to take the boy with him. It was not done as Obi-Wan would have wished, but he did get his wish, a reprieve from being sent to the Agricorps. As for Master Jinn, he still wasn't sure what to think of their bond, the bond Obi-Wan kept tightly locked up. The healers had begun to suspect it was Jinn and not something magical that kept their bond broken. They never once even suspected it could be a first year apprentice who put a wedge in the bond between he and his master.
//If they knew the truth, I might just be on the transport ship to Bandomeer rather than with Knight Vos. I suppose I should be glad any Jedi master or knight agreed to take me as confused as I have become lately. //
One lone tear dripped down the boy's hot cheek as they lifted off with Qui-Gon there to watch and Anakin along side of him. It was if the other apprentice came only as a reminder to Obi-Wan that now Qui-Gon would be spending his time that should be used with Obi-Wan on him. Qui-Gon's apprentice wasn't sure that is what Anakin was there for, but that was his jealous forged assumption. .
Padawan Kenobi hoped he wiped away the tear before anyone especially his guardian; Knight Vos had time to see it. He had already elicited enough sympathy with his actions in the council chambers. Because of that pathetic display he put on in front of the council, the knight had changed his mind and now Obi-Wan regretted applying that woe be gone act on Vos to get him take him. Although Obi was sure Vos knew as well as he did, it wasn't an act.
//I had too though. I couldn't really go to the Agricorps I might be forgotten. Face it Kenobi that is not the only reason. Afraid, yes I was afraid of being sent and left on Bandomeer, but I was fearful of being alone. Alone, though I am still alone I guess, though I know as a Jedi, Quin will be obligated to take care of me. I just wish he didn't see it that way. I wish *I* wasn't an obligation. //
Quinlan was too busy grumbling about too many outer rim passengers on the ship. When a ship was overcrowded with such collage of seedy characters, one could never be sure what would happen. Leave your seat for a minute it gets taken by the standing room only crowd. A fight usually broke out more than once over some trivial thing. Maybe a passenger brought food and the one that didn't is hungry. Things like that really irked the young knight.
Quin wanted to say something that would soothe the boy's insecurities, but what? Being out on the many worlds around the many who would just as soon kill him as look at him the young knight had become almost less than human in some aspect, compassion was one of those human feelings not made room for by Quin. He fought to stay alive most of the time. Little else, compassion, friendship, anything a knight should be allowed in their life wasn't in his life.
Vos opened his knapsack and pulled out two sandwiches. Obi smelled the food, remembered he hadn't eaten, and there were those who say food can soothe whatever ails you. He looked over and the first thing the thought about was the fact that nothing between the two slices of bread was moving.
//Always a good sign with Quin. With him you never know.// Obi relaxed a little. Obi took the gesture of the shared food as a way to show his concern and for Vos it was.
"Here you need to eat. You have barely touched food today, throughout our wait for the transport. Boy it was a wait wasn't it?"
//There,// thought Vos. //That wasn't so bad.// He actually liked talking to this one but when he wanted the conversation stopped, he thought it should stop immediately. NO, Vos hadn't learned to actually live around another in close proximity. //And it definitely will take some getting use too. //
Obi-Wan accepted the sandwich Vos gently pressed toward him, but without letting his gaze meet Quin's. Vos very much wanted to see the look on his little companion's face to gage the level of misery he felt. Quinn already knew through the force that Obi-Wan Kenobi suffered a great deal of anguish but too be sure he wanted to see Obi's overly expressive eyes.……….
The kind gesture of shared sandwiches and juice quelled Obi's fears a little. It was enough for now because it had to be…………………………….
##### On the planet Ramis.######
"Store your gear in that little bedroom. I will set up a cot in there later."
Obi-Wan brushed past a stack of dirty clothing, then sidestepped a pile of data pads only to find himself at the opened doorway of the most disheveled room imaginable. A lumpy bed on the floor, in the corner with its covers probably never out of its rumpled condition. There was one rickety old dresser with a piece of a mirror. Obi expected to find the rest of it in a corner,// maybe under that other bunch of dirty clothes. //
'Yes, I know it isn't much, sure not what you are accustomed too back at the temple, but while I am here this is home. Credits don't' grow on trees you know. Besides it provides a roof over my head, a place to sleep and eat and of course to work away my hours on those data pads. That is something I need to do right away so if you will just put your things away and make yourself busy. I know you, having lived with Jinn are probably a neat freak so have at it. I doubt you will run out of things to do before I do. "
Obi-Wan swallowed hard, let out a long low groan, and hoped Vos didn't notice the misery in that groan.
//He was an apprentice to Master Jinn and he isn't a neat freak. What makes him think I am? I don't' like to clean but boy I don't know if I can live here in this mess. //
Vos seemed to know Obi's line of thought.
"Don't worry kid you will get use to it. Or clean it one. Now you get busy on the "house work". I have things to do."
All day dreams of a wild mission, or investigations of some dynamic proportions out on the outer rim was stifled by the reality that he had just become a maid……
Three hours later Obi-Wan had to admit if only to himself that he had made a difference in their tiny little quarters.
He tackled preparing last-meal with all the enthusiasm a thirteen-year old could have about such a task. He could make cereal really well, popped frozen food in the micro, and could spread peanut butter over a big dollop of jelly but the entire preparation of last-meal was something different.
Quinlan sat down, tucked his napkin under his chin, and dug into what was suppose to be food. Two bites into the burnt meat, undercook tubers, and the knight just put his fork down. Not a word was spoken as he got went and drew out several choice selections of fruit from the cooler.
//Well, he shouldn't be so rude. I ate his pathetic food. The least he could do was pertained he could stomach mine. //
"I suppose Master Jinn hadn't gotten around to training you how to cook."
There was nothing angry about the knight but nothing nice either, direct and to the point thought Obi.
"He must have surely overlooked your training in that department as well. Of course I was polite enough to attempt to eat what you cooked of in your case, didn't cook."
Vos had just pulled out the juice container and had taken a big swig out of it. Obi made a mental note not to drink from that container. A wisp of a smile formed on the knight's face but it disappeared before he swirled around to face his little charge. Obi was afraid maybe he had made the knight angry. But hey two could play that game……
"I see you haven't learn that subservient attitude all little Jedi have."
"I beg to differ I have learned to it but I see no reason to use it if you are not going to do the same."
"Listen child, I do what I want and when. You, on the other hand are in training to be a Jedi knight one day. I suggest you do as you are instructed if you expect to become a knight."
Obi was tired. He had worked like a horse for three hours and was in no mood to be reprimanded by this knight who his master didn't think worthy to wipe his boots on.
"Why, you didn't buckle under the Jedi mantra and you have made it haven't you? Except in your master's eyes."
Ouch that hurt, Obi didn't realize under his cold exterior, Quin was only a person, a Jedi knight who wanted to be respected most by his master but in Qui-Gon's eyes had never gotten it.
Point made and taken Kenobi. Now finish eating and clean up the mess you made in the kitchen. Make sure you throw that junk out you fixed for food when you are finished. The stray cats around here might enjoy it more than I did."
Vos hadn't meant to sound so angry .He wasn't angry really. Obi triggered thoughts of him and Jinn that Vos had buried and hoped to keep that way.
//Leave it to the boy to bold face hit my problems right on the head. I must be letting my true self show. Something I don't like to do and will make sure I don't' continue to do. //
Quin walked outside with the orange juice carton in hand. He was thinking about the boy he left inside to do all Vos' chores. He could hear mumblings under Obi's breath; he just couldn't make out what the boy was saying.
//He's more like me than Jinn would like him to be. I knew there was something I liked about this feisty little Kenobi. //
###########################
Thank You for your comments!!!!
PEACE ewen
Quin watched at the younger knight downed another double. Clearly Crion had lost all of his Jedi inhibitions with the last drink, Knight Vos thought. Maybe it was time to back off.
//I don't particularly care if he gets in trouble but it would not look very good with one of my diplomatic senators from the outer rim to see me in a common day bar brawl. Nope, I guess I should help Jinn's former apprentice, my brother of sorts, back to the temple.//
Quin stepped toward the knight. Xanatos took it as a threat or a challenge. He hopped off the bar stool, swung his right fist as hard as he good and was a little shocked when that swing missed. He did a 360 degree turn and had to grab the stool to keep from falling.
"Knight Crion, if you have finished making a donkey of yourself. Let's go back to the temple so you can sleep it off."
"I am not inebriated Quin. You think anyone who stands their own with you is drunk or crazy."
The green hued being sipped his drink once more, before he responded to the question for Quinlan from Xanatos.
"They have to be drunk or crazy to mess with this Jedi. You would think being a Jedi knight yourself you would know that. Put it this way Knight *Whatever-Your-Name Is*, if you aren't drunk, maybe you should get that way."
He took another drink but didn't feel the need to waste his time to look at Xanatos.
The drunken knight was now livid. However he was not drunk or livid enough to start a fight with a dignitary even if that diplomat was from one of the more barbaric planets on the outer rim. The Jedi council and Chancellor Valorum would be on his back if he did.
Xanatos Crion would soon learn his problem was not with the green diplomat or Quinlan Vos for that matter. Up from behind him without warning a heavy hand landed a judo-like chop across the back of his neck. The stunned Jedi could not reel around to see who the bearer of that stunning blow was. He was too dizzy from the drink and blow itself to do anything but weave back and forth. Quinlan however had not had that much to drink and no one had yet to give him a cheap shot like Xani had just received. His faculties or most of them were intact. He wasn't sure who this massive rotund man who attacked Xanatos and it really didn't matter at least to him. He instantly went on the defensive prepared to do the same to the man as he had done to the other Jedi, Crion. One thing Quinlan Vos would never do is stand by and let a fellow Jedi be accosted even, if it was Jinn's former apprentice.
Vos walked over to the man very quietly. He didn't even know Vos was there. A tap on his massive shoulder, Crion's attacker turned around and when he did he met the fist of Quinlan Vos that sent him reeling across the room and over a pool table………..
There was only problem with that as Quinlan Vos slapped his hands together as if the wipe the man's order from them, he felt the old two familiar tap to his shoulder. The rogue Jedi, always so meticulous in his diplomacy and the battles he chose, hadn't taken time to assess the situation around him. If he had, he would have realized the rotund attacker of Crion's was not alone in that bar. Vos was just about to find that out in a very violent, painful way; similar to how Crion found out the man was not happy with him.
###At the temple the council in a meeting###
Mace made a quick sweep of the room. He eyed very carefully each face of the four who had been in fights.
//Looks like Vos came out on top in the battle he was in.// The bald master shook his head in agreement with his own words. //Yes definitely, Crion took the most bodily damage at the pub.// And while Obi's nose is two sizes bigger than it normally is, those two shiners on Anakin aren't as likely to fade away too quickly. They seem about even. He didn't take the time to look at Jinn, who he knew just through the air around him was angered beyond belief.
After his quick survey of the battered group, Mace dropped his eyes and covered them and his face with his broad hand. He didn't know if he should be angry or upset. He was a council master after all. But Qui-Gon was his friend, his former crèche mate, his comrade during his entire life at the temple.
Now Jinn was being brought up before the seated council masters in a not so good light for the big Jedi. All his prodigies were with him. His first apprentice Quinlan Vos, second one, Xanatos Crion, his present or so should be present apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi and lastly his surrogate apprentice through Xani, Anakin Skywalker.
Qui-Gon was the only one that did not have a bruised and blood streaked face. There was a good reason for that. Qui-Gon hadn't been in any brawl. Mace Windu shook his head with his hand still over his face as he thought that was the only redeeming factor in all this; Jinn's ability to stay out of a fight, either one of them.
There was another reason Mace kept his head down. He had no wish to let his eyes wonder over to Yoda or his to him. They had just gone through a very heated disagreement in Yoda private office before they met with the other council masters. This meeting now with the guilty parties, the four was the result of a previous council meeting to hash through the details and come up with a solution. However, the meeting he had in private with Yoda was not council privileged and Mace was astounded at what was discussed with him then.
Before either of the meetings, the one with just the council and now with the guilty parties in front of them, the council Master, Yoda delivered a scathing reprimand of the dark Jedi. Mace thought Yoda's wise solution to the problem was too far fetched, off the wall, and just plain dangerous and he did not hesitate to say so.
Mace, in the privacy of Yoda's office hinted to the old master that he favored Jinn too much, was willing to go as far as was necessary to show him the way. Mace didn't think Obi-wan should be put up like a lamb going to slaughter just to prove a point to Qui. He really was concern for Qui-Gon but equally concerned for the thirteen-year-old Yoda insisted would be temporarily teamed up with Quinlan Vos.
It wasn't the specificity of the mission because there was no special one. Just the idea of taking a young Jedi, back to the den of inequity, back to the outer rim to an as of yet unnamed and most certainly untamed planet.
Mace could be assured just by its location, it's backward barbarianism could be possibly deadly to the a mere child padawan that to date had never been sent to the outer rim with his master just to see what it was like.. To make matters worse, they would go 'covert" undercover.
Easy enough for Quin, Mace had thought, but a first year padawan not trained under the rough edged knight but under the precise and to the letter of the Jedi mantra, Qui-Gon Jinn, the task of spending time on one of the outer worlds would be nearly impossible.
What ever Qui-Gon had done to step on the toes of the council during a mission had never been exposed or encouraged by Jinn to his apprentice. Any planet in the outer rim was normally not a place a master took a first year apprentice and in this case Vos was not Obi's master with no mental connection should they become separated.
Now before him and the rest of the council masters stood the four guilty parties and their master of all of them at one time or of sorts, Qui-Gon Jinn. He waited for the arguing to begin. Mace Windu knew Qui-Gon would have violent objections to his apprentice going with his former one and on such a deadly mission.
Mace unshielded his eyes with his hand and looked up at all of them He wanted to see Jinn's reaction for he certainly knew he would have no trouble hearing the irate master and possibly knight Quin when Yoda handed down his instructions,
//Punishment really, torture maybe in Quinlan's case when he finds out he has a temporary padawan on a mission, a potentially dangerous one at that,// thought Mace. It was handily approved by all council members but one, himself…
It was the first time in his life Quinlan was stunned out of words. He wished there had been some place to sit and that he was allowed to do so. . He was up in front of the council in a battle with himself to regain his composure, composure very seldom lost even when he faced the enemy was very nearly visible to those around him now.
People like Jinn who had held a bond with him, if they felt a light juggle through the force would realize it was Quin's hard exterior. It was cracking, had cracked with the punishment leveled against him. //That is what it is unprecedented and unwarranted punishment for a little brawl and I was protecting one of their own. Qui-Gon is the reason for all of this but oh no not one word will be said to the great Master Jinn.// If he couldn't find a place to get over the shock of his *sentence*, he thought the least he could do was object to it.
He swallowed the lump in his throat that had very nearly cut off oxygen and his ability to speak. His mouth had suddenly become like cotton. He licked his lips in an attempt to create more salvia. A drink… Yes a drink would be nice but it was hardly likely he could be excused from the council masters presence to get water, no matter how bad he needed it.
"Wait.. Masters. I am not ready to take on an apprentice. I don't' wish to impede on my former master's progress with his apprentice."
"Impede his progress bother you it seemed not to when you arrived. Bother you now it should not. Healers say the boy should have time away from his master and away he will be … with you, under your care, and in your hands he will be until return from the Outer Quadrant five you both do.
//Return to the temple. What is that little troll doing? I never return. I just go from one planet to another one mission to where ever I am needed. It is unusual that I am here now. //
Jinn stepped up. While he and Obi's bond was not there as it should be, he couldn't allow the boy to come to harm. Unless or until the force or the council masters deemed it so Obi, was still his apprentice .
"Masters if Obi-Wan should spend more time away from each other without the chance of seeing one another, I will not question the wisdom of the healers. However I wish to ask that is I who is sent on a mission. Xanatos is more than capable of training his own apprentice and Obi-Wan can remain here with Master Windu if Quinlan has no desire to be bothered with him any longer. And if it is as you say he is needed back where he belongs."
Quin glanced over at Obi-Wan just in time to see a twinge, a slight shrugging of his shoulder.
//There Jinn did it again, made the boy feel unwanted by everyone. //
Quinlan wanted to in someone salvage Obi's feelings that he knew right now must be crushed by everyone's speedy shuffling of him back and forth.
"Excuse me, I didn't say Obi was a bother, he isn't, but the outer rim is a dangerous place."
Quinlan truly wanted to find a way out of this without making Obi-Wan feel a bother to anyone.
Obi-Wan already felt that way. The thought of staying under the scrutiny of his master's best friend Mace Windu was unbearable."
Obi-Wan unabashedly stepped forward and interrupted all the adults. Plo Koon started to object to his interruption but one tap with the gimer stick caused him to hold his silence.
"Masters, I am sorry. If I have become a burden to Quin, I mean Knight Vos I never meant too. If I have become an embarrassment to my own master, I certainly didn't intend that, as for Master Mace well. I know he sides in everything my master says or does. I don't know the fairness of sending me to him. If I am that much trouble I request that I be allowed to go to the Agricorps and work until this can be resolved by the council along with my master."
Obi-Wan didn't dare look at Yoda, Qui-Gon or Vos. He felt somehow betrayed by Quinlan's words. Not that he should have believed there was any connection between he and the long haired Jedi, he only hoped….!?!
//What is the boy thinking. He won't survive there. He can't be allowed to go. //
Jinn had thoughts and concerns for Obi-Wan as well and they mirrored Vos'. No one said a word. Instead they waited for Yoda's reply.
Yoda nodded his head as if to agree with the boy. Quin and Qui both stepped up to object but they didn't have to..
"One specific mission this is not to be. Need the Jedi in outer rim Chancellor Valorum has stated. Too long gone Vos has been. His presence stops intimidation by more powerful planets to lesser ones. Needed he is and return he will. With Obi-Wan or without him return you must. Made-up mission contrary to Master Windu's speculations, this is not. Came directly from the senate floor and the Chancellor's mouth it did. Go to Bandomeer, allow the young padawan I will, if Quinlan Vos refuses to take him as his responsibility he does."
"Master Yoda please. I hate to admit it but I agree with Qui… Master Jinn. Going with me is far too dangerous for him without his master. Also, I would be leery of taking him on such a mission, any mission on any planet in the outer rim. Surely the council can see their lack of wisdom in all this. I am sorry but I just can't allow the boy to go with me. I do not want that burden of an apprentice yet, ever how temporary it is."
" Jedi council's wisdom this is not. Wisdom of head master, me, it is. So now, say you Quin what it should be; alone on Bandomeer with no one or under your care is young Obi-Wan to be? Decision yours it solely is."
Quinlan frantically tried to avoid the sad blue puppy eyes of Jinn's apprentice. However, it was in vain. He chanced one darting look over at the pathetic little waif of a Jedi and knew he was hooked by the gravity of the meaning behind that forlorn distant stare right at him by Jinn's apprentice. In that instance he knew.….
//If Yoda is too stubborn to change his decision to send Obi to Bandomeer, I will have no choice but to change mine…//
Obi sat on the transport ship. Quinlan Vos had relented on his adamant refusal to take Obi-Wan went him when he returned to the treacherous outer rim. He finally agreed to take the boy with him. It was not done as Obi-Wan would have wished, but he did get his wish, a reprieve from being sent to the Agricorps. As for Master Jinn, he still wasn't sure what to think of their bond, the bond Obi-Wan kept tightly locked up. The healers had begun to suspect it was Jinn and not something magical that kept their bond broken. They never once even suspected it could be a first year apprentice who put a wedge in the bond between he and his master.
//If they knew the truth, I might just be on the transport ship to Bandomeer rather than with Knight Vos. I suppose I should be glad any Jedi master or knight agreed to take me as confused as I have become lately. //
One lone tear dripped down the boy's hot cheek as they lifted off with Qui-Gon there to watch and Anakin along side of him. It was if the other apprentice came only as a reminder to Obi-Wan that now Qui-Gon would be spending his time that should be used with Obi-Wan on him. Qui-Gon's apprentice wasn't sure that is what Anakin was there for, but that was his jealous forged assumption. .
Padawan Kenobi hoped he wiped away the tear before anyone especially his guardian; Knight Vos had time to see it. He had already elicited enough sympathy with his actions in the council chambers. Because of that pathetic display he put on in front of the council, the knight had changed his mind and now Obi-Wan regretted applying that woe be gone act on Vos to get him take him. Although Obi was sure Vos knew as well as he did, it wasn't an act.
//I had too though. I couldn't really go to the Agricorps I might be forgotten. Face it Kenobi that is not the only reason. Afraid, yes I was afraid of being sent and left on Bandomeer, but I was fearful of being alone. Alone, though I am still alone I guess, though I know as a Jedi, Quin will be obligated to take care of me. I just wish he didn't see it that way. I wish *I* wasn't an obligation. //
Quinlan was too busy grumbling about too many outer rim passengers on the ship. When a ship was overcrowded with such collage of seedy characters, one could never be sure what would happen. Leave your seat for a minute it gets taken by the standing room only crowd. A fight usually broke out more than once over some trivial thing. Maybe a passenger brought food and the one that didn't is hungry. Things like that really irked the young knight.
Quin wanted to say something that would soothe the boy's insecurities, but what? Being out on the many worlds around the many who would just as soon kill him as look at him the young knight had become almost less than human in some aspect, compassion was one of those human feelings not made room for by Quin. He fought to stay alive most of the time. Little else, compassion, friendship, anything a knight should be allowed in their life wasn't in his life.
Vos opened his knapsack and pulled out two sandwiches. Obi smelled the food, remembered he hadn't eaten, and there were those who say food can soothe whatever ails you. He looked over and the first thing the thought about was the fact that nothing between the two slices of bread was moving.
//Always a good sign with Quin. With him you never know.// Obi relaxed a little. Obi took the gesture of the shared food as a way to show his concern and for Vos it was.
"Here you need to eat. You have barely touched food today, throughout our wait for the transport. Boy it was a wait wasn't it?"
//There,// thought Vos. //That wasn't so bad.// He actually liked talking to this one but when he wanted the conversation stopped, he thought it should stop immediately. NO, Vos hadn't learned to actually live around another in close proximity. //And it definitely will take some getting use too. //
Obi-Wan accepted the sandwich Vos gently pressed toward him, but without letting his gaze meet Quin's. Vos very much wanted to see the look on his little companion's face to gage the level of misery he felt. Quinn already knew through the force that Obi-Wan Kenobi suffered a great deal of anguish but too be sure he wanted to see Obi's overly expressive eyes.……….
The kind gesture of shared sandwiches and juice quelled Obi's fears a little. It was enough for now because it had to be…………………………….
##### On the planet Ramis.######
"Store your gear in that little bedroom. I will set up a cot in there later."
Obi-Wan brushed past a stack of dirty clothing, then sidestepped a pile of data pads only to find himself at the opened doorway of the most disheveled room imaginable. A lumpy bed on the floor, in the corner with its covers probably never out of its rumpled condition. There was one rickety old dresser with a piece of a mirror. Obi expected to find the rest of it in a corner,// maybe under that other bunch of dirty clothes. //
'Yes, I know it isn't much, sure not what you are accustomed too back at the temple, but while I am here this is home. Credits don't' grow on trees you know. Besides it provides a roof over my head, a place to sleep and eat and of course to work away my hours on those data pads. That is something I need to do right away so if you will just put your things away and make yourself busy. I know you, having lived with Jinn are probably a neat freak so have at it. I doubt you will run out of things to do before I do. "
Obi-Wan swallowed hard, let out a long low groan, and hoped Vos didn't notice the misery in that groan.
//He was an apprentice to Master Jinn and he isn't a neat freak. What makes him think I am? I don't' like to clean but boy I don't know if I can live here in this mess. //
Vos seemed to know Obi's line of thought.
"Don't worry kid you will get use to it. Or clean it one. Now you get busy on the "house work". I have things to do."
All day dreams of a wild mission, or investigations of some dynamic proportions out on the outer rim was stifled by the reality that he had just become a maid……
Three hours later Obi-Wan had to admit if only to himself that he had made a difference in their tiny little quarters.
He tackled preparing last-meal with all the enthusiasm a thirteen-year old could have about such a task. He could make cereal really well, popped frozen food in the micro, and could spread peanut butter over a big dollop of jelly but the entire preparation of last-meal was something different.
Quinlan sat down, tucked his napkin under his chin, and dug into what was suppose to be food. Two bites into the burnt meat, undercook tubers, and the knight just put his fork down. Not a word was spoken as he got went and drew out several choice selections of fruit from the cooler.
//Well, he shouldn't be so rude. I ate his pathetic food. The least he could do was pertained he could stomach mine. //
"I suppose Master Jinn hadn't gotten around to training you how to cook."
There was nothing angry about the knight but nothing nice either, direct and to the point thought Obi.
"He must have surely overlooked your training in that department as well. Of course I was polite enough to attempt to eat what you cooked of in your case, didn't cook."
Vos had just pulled out the juice container and had taken a big swig out of it. Obi made a mental note not to drink from that container. A wisp of a smile formed on the knight's face but it disappeared before he swirled around to face his little charge. Obi was afraid maybe he had made the knight angry. But hey two could play that game……
"I see you haven't learn that subservient attitude all little Jedi have."
"I beg to differ I have learned to it but I see no reason to use it if you are not going to do the same."
"Listen child, I do what I want and when. You, on the other hand are in training to be a Jedi knight one day. I suggest you do as you are instructed if you expect to become a knight."
Obi was tired. He had worked like a horse for three hours and was in no mood to be reprimanded by this knight who his master didn't think worthy to wipe his boots on.
"Why, you didn't buckle under the Jedi mantra and you have made it haven't you? Except in your master's eyes."
Ouch that hurt, Obi didn't realize under his cold exterior, Quin was only a person, a Jedi knight who wanted to be respected most by his master but in Qui-Gon's eyes had never gotten it.
Point made and taken Kenobi. Now finish eating and clean up the mess you made in the kitchen. Make sure you throw that junk out you fixed for food when you are finished. The stray cats around here might enjoy it more than I did."
Vos hadn't meant to sound so angry .He wasn't angry really. Obi triggered thoughts of him and Jinn that Vos had buried and hoped to keep that way.
//Leave it to the boy to bold face hit my problems right on the head. I must be letting my true self show. Something I don't like to do and will make sure I don't' continue to do. //
Quin walked outside with the orange juice carton in hand. He was thinking about the boy he left inside to do all Vos' chores. He could hear mumblings under Obi's breath; he just couldn't make out what the boy was saying.
//He's more like me than Jinn would like him to be. I knew there was something I liked about this feisty little Kenobi. //
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