Author's Note: All Star Wars characters are property of George Lucas (except Tal Gantor) and all Matrix characters belong to someone who's not me (except for Juno). Enjoy, but don't sue!
In the year Juno had been back, she'd buried herself in her work. When she wasn't plugged in trying to free people (there had been some real setbacks in her absence) she was working on engine and weapons modifications using the knowledge she'd gained on the Noobian ship. And when she wasn't playing engineer she was cleaning anything she could reach. She found if she worked herself stupid everyday she didn't have energy to feel anything. Juno was the first up in the morning and the last in at night, not that time designations had any meaning for her anymore. Only Morpheus knew what had happened with Obi-wan. Slowly she cam back to life but she wasn't quite the same.
As usual, Juno got to work first. She choked down her slop and went to the engine room. The technology between her ship and Queen Amidala's ship was vastly different but Juno was trying to blend some of the elements together. So far it seemed to be working, or at least she hadn't destroyed anything yet. When she was finished they'd have to fastest and most powerful ship in the fleet. She'd been working for about three hours when she heard the rumble of the docking bay door. She though that was odd since Morpheus hadn't said anything about visitors. It was probably just Niobe, so she went back to work. She wasn't really in the mood for socializing.
About twenty minutes later, Morpheus appeared above the ladder into the room.
"Juno, can you join me up on the main deck, please?" She raised her welding mask to reveal her dirty sweating face.
"Uh yeah, just give me a second would you?" He nodded and his face disappeared. She sat up and set her tools aside and ran her hand through her short, blunt brown hair. What was so damn important she had to meet Niobe personally? She removed her mask and climbed the ladder out of the room.
Her heart dropped about fifty feet when she reached the bridge. It wasn't Niobe. There beside Morpheus was none other than Obi-wan Kenobi. He hadn't changed much except his hair was longer and his padawan braid was gone. He must have passed the trials. Juno stared at him slack-jawed for what seemed like eternity and the launched herself at him.
"Oh my god! What on Earth are you doing here? I didn't think I'd ever see you again. God, I'm so sorry that I left like I did, but I didn't have a choice. I wanted to tell you everything but I just couldn't. And then Morpheus came and I had to leave. What are you doing here?" Obi-wan gently pried her arms from around his neck and smiled.
"The council would like to have a few words with you. Qui-gon told them what he could but it seems they would rather hear it from you."
"Am I under arrest?"
"No, I was simply asked to escort you to Coruscant. With your captain's permission, of course." Morpheus, who felt Juno needed a vacation anyway said, "I think we can live without her for a while, as long as you return her at some point. And that is if she wants to go." Things seemed to be moving very fast for Juno. Just a minute ago she'd been recalibrating the power couplings and now they were talking about sending her to Coruscant. She'd spent the past year trying to put Obi-wan behind her, with little success, only to have him pop up to whisk her away.
The desperate, selfish part of her just wanted to be near him again, with the vain hope that somehow they could be together. Her rational side knew better though. He was a jedi and she had her own obligations. Ultimately, despite knowing that it would probably hurt her in the long run, the selfish side won out.
"Ok, I'll go, as long as you're not going to handcuff me or anything," she said.
"Of course not," Obi-wan smiled again. "Now are you going to introduce me to everyone or am I just supposed to guess?" he said, gesturing to the rest of the crew. Juno smacked her forehead.
"What's the matter with me? Everyone, this is Obi-wan Kenobi. Obi-wan, this is Trinity, her husband Neo, Switch, Mouse, Dozer and his brother Tank and Apoc. Welcome to the Nebuchadnezzar." Morpheus stepped in.
"I assume you don't have to leave right away. I'd be more than happy to give you a tour and you're welcome to stay for dinner, although I'll tell you right now you're not going to like it. And if it's not too much to ask, I'd like to get a closer look at your ship. Juno's been making modifications based on your technology but I'd like to see the real thing if I could."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
As they prepared to take off, Juno's butterflies came back with a vengeance and she was sure she was making a mistake. This time Obi-wan could sense her confusion.
"It will be alright Juno, you're not in any trouble."
"I know, it's just the real me is so much less impressive," she said with tears in her eyes and Obi-wan embraced her.
"I just want you to know that despite our different circumstances that I love you too," he told her. Through her dirty clothes he felt hard circular objects. He saw them in her arms as well.
"Is that where…?" he asked.
"Yeah, that's how they used our bodies. The main port is here at the base of my skull." She pushed her dirty hair out of the way to show him. "This is what we use when we hack into the Matrix. We're almost like bionic people."
"No, you haven't lost your humanity and that's what counts. There should be an extra set of clothing if you'd like to change," he said eyeing her smudged tank top and torn pants.
"I don't think so. If the council wants to meet the real me, I might as well do it all the way. If you're going to get wet you might as well go swimming, right? How long will it take us to get there?"
"A full day in hyperdrive."
"Only a day? Wow!"
"That's a day in hyperdrive. You can cross whole quadrants of the galaxy in seconds in hyperdrive, so that should give you an idea of the distance. Before we do that though I want to scan your blood to check for any germs or infections." Obi-wan used a small lancet to take a sample and fed it into the computer. He let out a whistle.
"What is it? I don't feel sick."
"No, there's no sign of infection, but your midichlorian count is quite high. Over 14,000. We tested your blood while you were in the medical bay on Naboo but nothing registered. I know why now, of course but I was very confused at the time." There was a long pause.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth, that you had to hear it from Qui-gon. How are he and Anakin doing?"
"They're well. After some debate, the council gave him permission to train Anakin."
"You know I have the utmost respect for Qui-gon, but I hope he's careful with Anakin. I'm no jedi but there seemed to be a lot of uncertainty in him."
As Obi-wan prepared to go into hyperdrive, they cease to talk. Too many things went unsaid or didn't need to be said. When they reached Coruscant, Juno looked around with tears in her eyes.
"God, it's even more wonderful than I remembered. How is it fair that such luxury should be found on one planet when others have nothing?"
"Never nothing. Hope is a valuable thing." Obi-wan showed her to her room so she could rest before their meeting with the council. When the time finally came, Obi-wan was there to escort her to the temple. There they met up with Qui-gon and Anakin, who would be joining the meeting as well. Juno squeezed them both warmly.
"It's so good to see you both again. Do you have any idea why the council dragged me from my own galaxy? Obi-wan won't tell me anything, although to be fair I'm not sure he actually knows," she said with a wink.
"I believe it has to do with the nature of your departure," Qui-gon said. "But we should be on our way. We don't want to be late."
They all entered the council room but center stage was reserved for Juno. She found herself surrounded by a very intimidating group of people.
"Summoned you were to discuss your role in the battle for Naboo," Yoda said
"Qui-gon has told us what he could but even he doesn't understand everything that happened," Mace Windu added.
"Ok. Where would you like me to start?"
"Why don't you just start from the beginning?"
"Well I guess to do that you'll need a small history lesson," Juno said. "I come from the planet Earth, which used to be a beautiful thriving place. Our cities had nothing on a place like this, but they were fairly large. Earth is the only planet in our solar system that supported life and we'd never made contact with other life forms. As our society advanced, so did our technology. We created artificial intelligence, which gave birth to a whole race of machines. Historical reports from this time are very sketchy so we're not really sure what happened.
"There was some kind of battle but we're not sure who struck first. We burned the skies at some point, since without solar energy we thought the machines would be powerless. We never even considered the possibility that we could be a viable energy source, but the machines did. After that human beings were grown with ports installed through which they controlled us." Juno turned around to show the council the metal disks that ran down her spine.
"They created a virtual world and plugged in human minds to keep them trapped and unaware of the real world. So while the real world is an ugly ravaged place, people were programmed, hardwired to believe in and rely on their virtual reality. People were grown, lived and died without knowing that they were simply living batteries.
"The machines had succeeded in separating the body from the mind but since one can't live without the other, death in the Matrix meant death in the real world as well. Eventually a man escaped from the Matrix and he unplugged the first of us, who formed the resistance. The goal was to free as many minds as possible, but like the jedi order, there are qualifications. Some people are more gifted in terms of mental talent, which I'll get to in a minute. We also have age restrictions. The older someone is, the more dangerous it is to unplug them because they're so dependent on the system that they'll fight to protect it. Technically speaking, I should not have been freed because I was too old. But my captain, Morpheus, believed that I would fulfill a prophecy that foretold of one who would have the power to end the war."
"And were you?" Mace Windu asked.
"It took me a little while, but I got there eventually." Juno smiled. "We haven't won yet though. Anyway, back to this talent I mentioned. Because peoples' minds are digitally mastered to operate in a digital world, laws like gravity do not bind them. Most people, however, are too far in to realize the nature of their world, so they're tied down. Those who are freed, myself in particular, grasp the nature of the Matrix and can use it to their advantage."
"What do you mean?"
"Actually, it's similar to the skills jedi learn. Superhuman speed and strength, almost anything the mind can comprehend. Belief is the most important thing. Jedi are taught to listen to the will of the Force through their midichlorians. Through the Force they can see the future and manipulate reality in ways most people can't.
"We do the same thing, except it's not reality we're manipulating but virtual reality, which is why we're capable of so much more. Right now, anyone in this room could squash me like a bug if you felt like it. But if you were on my turf, none of you would be able to touch me. That's an interesting thought, really. Obi-wan told me I had a high midichlorian count. I wonder if you tested the other people on my ship you'd find similar results. Maybe we've taken the same qualities the jedi have but honed those skills into something else. Interesting.
"Anyway, that's why I was so confused about ending up here. I have no idea how it happened. I was plugged into the Matrix at the time and there was some kind of explosion and I woke up on Naboo. There's no way I should have been able to exist in the physical world while I was plugged in. I still can't explain that part of it.
"I have no idea how long I was there before Obi-wan found me. He just assumed I was some helpless life form probably. He wouldn't have had any reason to suspect otherwise, would he? But he could tell I was alive and his jedi training insisted that he do something to help me. I think it was his initial perception that allowed me to interact in this world.
"Qui-gon has said that our focus determines our reality and Obi-wan's belief in me as a real person gave me purchase. I didn't have the same kind of control I do in the Matrix, but I did have control over myself, which is powerful enough. If everyone refused to acknowledge me as a being, I don't think I would have been as effective as I was.
"For the most part, I kept to myself or I was with Obi-wan. I read everything I could get my hands on so I could understand my environment. I wanted to help with the ship on Tatooine but Obi-wan wouldn't let me. However, I was on the bridge when Qui-gon was attacked. I thought it would be a good opportunity to see what I could do here, so I emitted a small localized magnetic pulse to short of the speeder bike he was riding and it worked. If I could do that, I probably wasn't in any real danger, it was just a matter of finding a way home. But nothing I read gave me any idea how to do that. How could I just from the real world back into a digital one?
"I had no contact with my ship so I had no idea what they knew or what they were doing. All I knew is that they hadn't pulled my plug yet, which is standard procedure if one of us gets captured. All that told me, though, was that they felt I wasn't in any immediate danger, but that didn't help me at all. It was becoming clear to me that I was going to have to do something desperate, because I couldn't stay here but I couldn't find a way home. And there were further complications."
"What further complications?" Juno was perfectly and painfully aware that he was standing behind her but she couldn't stop now.
"I fell in love with Obi-wan Kenobi, but I knew that it was a hopeless cause, because of his commitment to the jedi order. Not only that, but I had my own responsibilities, even if I had no clue how to get back to them. So I swore to myself that I would do whatever I could to help him, even if I couldn't be with him. When we returned to Naboo, they told me to stay out of the fight but there was no way that was going to happen. In the hangar I took out what droids I could, and I followed Qui-gon and Obi-wan as they fought with the sith. I didn't want to interfere unless it was necessary. But then I heard Obi-wan and I saw what had happened. I ran in and killed the sith with his own lightsaber.
"Qui-gon was still alive but just barely. I looked at Obi-wan and I knew right away what had to do. It was the best way, really. I'd remove myself and leave Qui-gon alive to train Anakin and mentor Obi-wan. I asked him if he'd be willing to pay the price to have his master back and he said yes. Even though I knew it wasn't him that would pay, I did it anyway.
"I'm not sure if I can explain how I did it. I was able to 'download' the wounded cells and stimulated new cell growth. But it was too late for me because now I was wounded and I was going to die. I had enough strength to hide the injury so no one would know and I could die in private. I couldn't go home, I couldn't stay here and I couldn't be with Obi-wan. So I removed myself and brought Qui-gon back in the process.
"But Anakin and Obi-wan found me before I died and brought me to the medical bay where I stayed unconscious. And then what should happen but my own captain Morpheus showed up and took me home. That's where I've been for the past year."
"And what would you do now?" Mace Windu asked.
"Well, go home and continue the work I was doing. Nothing's changed. We've made a lot of progress but the machines aren't going to let us win without a fight."
"And what of your feelings for Obi-wan?" said Yoda.
"What about them? Like I said, nothing's changed. He's committed here and I'm committed at home. I love him very much and if the situation was different I'd do anything to be with him. But I don't have that option. It hurts like hell but I won't be responsible for him turning away from the jedi. Some things are more important that two people's feelings, so I'll leave him because I think it's the right thing to do," Juno said with more conviction than she felt.
"How feels Obi-wan?" Yoda said and the young jedi stepped forward.
"Despite what my heart says, I must agree with Juno. I have too much respect for the jedi order to turn away from my teachings and I have too much respect for Juno to distract her from her own duties." Yoda and the council considered this for a moment.
"Very well, you have council's thanks and respect. Invaluable was your help on Naboo and our guest tonight you will be. A good jedi you would have made, I believe," Yoda said at last.
"Thank you," she said. They all bowed and left the room.
Juno spent the rest of the day on a tour of Coruscant guided by Obi-wan. He showed her the rest of the jedi temple as well as the Galactic Senate and many other attractions. They even stopped at Tal Gantor's bar again. They rejoined those at the jedi temple for the evening meal. It was a quiet and dignified time, but for Juno it was a silent goodbye, like she was mentally closing the door to something she knew she could never come back to. When Morpheus had retrieved her, she'd harbored some false hope that someday they'd find a way to be together, but she was finally able to acknowledge that it would never happen. They'd never see each other again while they were alive. It was a hard realization for Juno but it was something she needed to learn. She'd never be able to concentrate if she kept waiting for him to swoop in and rescue her. So this was really the end.
The next morning Juno woke early but refused to give into the morning sunlight. She knew it was petty but she wanted to soak up as much of this place as she could. Only when Obi-wan came to her room did she drag herself out of bed. Breakfast was as quiet as dinner had been. As they readied the ship, he brought up several large containers.
"What's that for? Do you really think you're going to eat all that on the way back?" Juno ribbed. Obi-wan just smiled at her.
"No, I just thought it would be nice if you shipmates had some new supplies. There should be enough clothing in here for everyone so no one should freeze. There's also some boots and blankets and food rations. The food probably won't last you very long but I daresay you could use some variety," he said. Juno just stared at him for a moment before grabbing him in a fierce hug.
"Thank you so much. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it and I know they would too," she paused. "You know this is the last time we'll see each other for a very long time, right?"
"Yes, I do," he said and they hugged tightly again.
"I love you," she whispered in his ear.
"I love you too," he said as they boarded the ship that would take her home.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Fifteen years later…
Obi-wan Kenobi was asleep when somewhere in his mind he felt someone watching him. He rolled over and opened his eyes.
"How did you get here?" he asked the blue-haired girl lying next to him.
"You left the door open," she said and his eyes flicked to the door, which was firmly closed. "Not that door," she laughed gently.
"I've missed you."
"I've missed you too," she said. He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
"You haven't changed a bit," he told her.
"Yes I have, that's why I'm here. I've joined the Force now." Juno cradled his cheek in her hand. "My job is finished but I'm afraid you still have a long way to go and it won't be easy. But I will be with you always." For a few moments, they just looked at each other. "I have to go soon," she said eventually. Obi-wan wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.
"No, please stay a little longer," he pleaded.
"Ok, I'll stay until you fall asleep." She leaned in and kissed him. "Find peace, Obi-wan and may the Force be with you." And that was the last thing he remembered before his eyes closed.
When he opened them again, it was morning and she was gone. There was no physical evidence that she had been there but he felt her presence in the Force. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that, wherever she was, she had passed away.
"I've joined the Force now," he heard her say. Jedi weren't supposed to have dreams. But he felt a peace now that had escaped him since he first met Juno on Naboo. He knew that she had moved on the next cycle of life and now he was really free to do the same.