There was no emotion.
There was no fear.
Then what, he wondered, was that horrible cold feeling racing through his nerves? Terror. At what he saw.
Obi-Wan tried to flatten himself into the darkness that tinged the edges of the room he strayed into, praying that he would remain unseen. For the sight before him was… terrible.
A putrid yellow force field had caged his master. His master… oh, his master. Had it been so long? Obi-Wan, despite the circumstances, felt like he was seeing his master for the first time again – awed by the tall figure, the intelligence behind those eyes. Though, at the moment, his master looked… completely fatigued. In pain. Not at all pleased. Well, that made sense, being locked up…
And force suppressed! Obi-Wan realized with shock. The void in the force… was right there. A dozen of the most powerful Jedi in the universe, captured by a single man… something was not right with this. Something was not in balance. He frowned a dozen thoughts going through his head at once. He crept forward, low to the ground, his short padawan braid's padding against his shoulder the only sound of his approach.
Surely, the masters would have sensed him, had they not been under suppression. He approached from behind, eyes skittering in the darkness, seeing the one who had imprisoned them. He didn't have long to wait.
"Padawan Kenobi, at last."
That deep baritone of a voice spurred a chill up the boy's spine. He spun, seeking the owner, but all he could see was darkness. The masters all turned, their eyes on the boy. Obi-Wan so urged to ignite his saber, but Spire told him to hold off… he clung to it anyway, trying for the moment to avoid eye contact with his master, if only to avoid distraction.
The creature who called is name reeked of the dark side, the same chilling cold that he had first sensed within Spire when she battled his attacked on Ghan. It was a terrifying thing, a smoke of frozen force, curling off of the dark man. He appeared to Obi-Wan from the otherside of the force field, a sheen of yellow making him appear like some sick ghoul.
"I've been waiting for you, boy," the man announced, his deep voice like silk, pacing before him through the force field. The man was tall, broad shouldered, his black hair pulled back. His stance told of confidence.
"I won't let you hurt them," Obi-Wan said softly, but defiantly, his words sounding a heck of a lot more confident that he felt.
A deep, disconcerting laugh bore from the man's throat, a beam of red light piercing the darkness, it's light appearing orange through the field. His face twisted into a sick grin.
"You and what army?"
"I should suffice."
Obi-Wan felt a surge of relief from the sound of that mechanical voice. The sith spun, turning to face Spire as she advanced on him from the opposite side. The man's step faltered for a moment. In that time, Obi-Wan swore he heard the woman's voice through the force –
/Dismantle the force suppressors, Obi-Wan/
"Why!" The man shouted, seeming to be genuinely shocked. He spun his lightsaber, the blur of red spurring Obi-Wan to action. Drawing the force around him like a blanket, he examined the first force-suppressing droid, trying to figure out its mechanics before going at it. In the background, he heard –
"What. A truly. Mag/nificent/ surprise!"
Spire did not seem enthused as she drew closer, head down, the eyes of the Lion piercing in their unnatural glow. Fenris grinned wider.
"Dear, dear old girl, it does warm my ancient heart to see you. Look! Jedi masters, look who we have a' visiting! None other than my dear old apprentice!"
Obi-Wan almost dropped his lightsaber. Apprentice!
Spire ignited one, then both sides of her lightsaber, holding it off to the side in a deceptive show of non-defense. She moved a wide angle, soon standing in-between the Sith lord and the forcefield. She said nothing, stalking Fenris.
"Oh, tut tut my dear. Four years, and you have nothing to say to your old master?"
The jedi masters watched in silence, though Obi-Wan was sure he felt one particular master's eyes on him as he began to fiddle with the first droid.
The dark lord, now facing all, lowered his voice to a growl, bringing his saber to light his face.
"I've longed for this moment, child. I've never had an apprentice tell me… I was not… good enough for them."
Spire shrugged as if it meant nothing.
"You never were. It just took me a while to see through your lies."
Fenris hissed, advancing upon Spire, backing her closer to the field.
"Your over confidence will be your undoing, fool," he hissed, baring his teeth and moving into an aggressive stance.
Spire raised her head defiantly, the muzzle of her mask hissing air.
"No. Your lack of skill and technique will be yours."
Obi-Wan was too involved with the separating of main drives and memory core to watch the beginning of the duel, but the sound of two lightsabers meeting in a sizzle of force was enough to tell him to hurry it up.
Spire called the force to her, all of it, light, dark, pink and purple for all she cared. It became a tool, a skill, a memory, something to be tamed. The heat of a saber battle had always been her element, though she was sorely out of practice from those days. Her old master was as skilled as any sith, using the ninth style of ancient saber training. It was particularly daunting because it used the dark as a current, a flow, smooth attacks of offence with little defense. Highly irritating, and difficult to get around. Ataro form was best for this – to flip to the advisory's backside threw the sith off. Narguto was not enough in this case, thus, Spire combined the two styles with flawless seams. Fenris growled in increasing concern that his offence wasn't connecting…
Obi-Wan moaned in disappointment when he was unable to get the droid offline –
"Worry not about the device, Padawan, cut it down, you must!" Yoda encouraged from the field, while the other masters stared in awe and the epic duel before them. The rouge Sith and the Sith lord battled at speeds that made the great Mace Windu's jaw drop and tremble. Qui-Gon tried desperately to split his attention between the battle and the beautiful, beautiful face of his padawan, so close to him…
Agreeing, Obi-Wan activated his saber, and started to cut the droids down. As he expected, several of them retaliated, and began to fire small plasma bursts at him. He deflected, though it slowed his progress.
Mere feet before the encirclement of Jedi masters, red and gold saber locked, the two combatants faces inches away.
"I can fulfil my promise to you, my raven," Fenris cooed, heaving breaths taking the edge off his words.
Spire shoved him away, striking again.
"None of you bloody – " /Swipe/ "arrogant-" /swish/ "stupid people will just understand!" She spun like some divine god, a perfect arc above the sith, landing behind him. He turned, blade up to take the battering blow she delivered.
"I will NOT be a sith," She spat, driving him backwards, towards the force field, "I will NOT be a Jedi," harder, faster, "you will NOT bind me again!"
And then, just as Obi-Wan defeated the last driod, all Jedi felt it – a great surge of the darkside. Like tides, great black tides, it came, but not from the Sith. No… from the rouge. Fenris sputtered, the dark energy flowing from Spire like a cannon. Then, the light joined it. The masters gasped, for through the force it was a great gray wind, a hurricane of the force, it ripped from the rouge's mind and body, perhaps spirit, and blasted the Sith into the forcefield.
Fenris screamed in pain, the electrical current of the force field tearing through his body. His lightsaber deactivated and dropped to the floor with a clang, forgotten.
Obi-Wan watched in horror at the sheer malice of the act, and he looked to Spire, pleading with his eyes, please-
The sith howled, unable to move his quaking limbs from the field. He screamed-"Only I can give you it, Spire! AaaahhhhhOnly I can make you forget himmmmereearrgggg!"
She shook her head, the movement almost imperceptible, and with a flash of light – she cut him apart. His body hit the ground in a sickening splat of charred flesh and smoke. The luminous eyes of the lion regarded Obi-Wan with stoic indifference. He felt… frozen.
"All this… for me?" he choked quietly.
She nodded, damp hair falling before the robotic eyes.
"They like nothing more than taking a child of light and distorting it to the dark."
She knelt, pulling a device from the corpse's waist.
"But you have nothing to fear, Obi-Wan Kenobi."
She pressed a button, and the field deactivated. For the first time since the fight, the boy allowed himself to look into that circle, to see his family of Jedi, to look at their drawn faces to see… those eyes, those cerulean eyes, so deep, so moist -
And a word –
"Padawan…"
That word, said by that man, meant the world to him. Obi-Wan felt himself swallow, felt his feet move without his accord. He stopped a few feet before the Master.
Qui-Gon Jinn, a towering man, fell to his knees, hands outward.
"My… my padawan… please… forgive me…"
The master looked at his hands.
"How could I ever have forgotten you, ever misplaced you… I am... unworthy of you," he gasped, shaking his head in disbelief, "You are my greatest pride, the one who showed me that there is light left in this world, that I can trust again…" Qui-Gon lifted his head, bearing his tears to the boy and the Jedi.
"You, are my life Obi-Wan. Not Tahl, or any other will distract me from you again. I swear it. No one else is worthy, for your light, your… your spirit…"
He wiped his face shakily, the venerable master a mess before his padawan. Yoda smiled softly beside him, eyes narrowing in apparent approval.
Obi-Wan drew breath, and closed his eyes. And… opened himself, his mind, to his master. Qui-Gon gasped, blinking furiously as the feel of him, the untainted light of the boy, filling his mind for the first time, truly, in months. Force… how had he lived without this?
Obi-Wan waited tensely, eyes still closed not because he had to, but because he couldn't bear to see the rejection that might still cross his master's face.
He honestly hadn't been expecting the flood of emotion that bombarded him through the newly-reopened training bond.
/despair at his loss, love, humble, idiot for loosing, anger at Kinah, anger at self, want to fix, want to hold-/
Obi-Wan gasped, nose suddenly pressed deep into the most sacred of places, tears he hadn't realized were falling soaking into the umber brown of the robes, that smell, the smell of safety and protected, the arms so long and strong around him-
"My Obi, my Obi-," Qui-Gon rumbled, the deep voice reverberating through his chest, and it was bliss. Pure bliss… Obi-Wan settled, no, clung to the warmth of his master, a warmth so missed, so revered.
It was his anchor to the light, his defense, his hope, his… everything. His teachings from this man, his life with his man-
It was everything that mattered.
Thousands of light years, months of pain, days of solitude, it took all this, all this time for a master and a padawan to realize that this bond – it was what mattered.
Through the din of twitching broken machinery and hissing smoke, Obi-Wan vaguely felt the pressure of other Master's hands on his back, soothing touches through the force, heard their murmurs of joy for his return.
He was home.
The steady heart beat of the Qui-Gon was the most… soothing sound he'd ever heard, the cocoon so perfect, so safe -
Wait –
He lifted his head blearily from his masters embrace, eyes surely red and swollen from tears. He met his masters eyes, and it was so, so hard to tear away-
"Wait!"
Obi-Wan stood feebly, wobbling from the spent emotion. He really didn't care what he looked like, but tumbled out of the entanglement of masters, running, braid flying-
Until he had his arms wrapped securely around a stunned Spire. She was frozen under his touch, surely unwelcome but force damn it, he didn't care. Even now, he could hear the hammering of her heart through the breastplate of her armor, and he could feel the sweat and heat emanating from her body. Obi-Wan gripped her arms tightly, looking up at her with huge eyes, shaking his head.
"You saved me."
The mask regarded him coolly, save for a slight tilt of her head.
"You brought me home."
A raspy chuckle.
"Yes. I suppose so."
The boy frowned, prodding her through the force. Apparently, her attention was riveted on the masters, though you couldn't tell from the expressionless mask.
"Yes," he breathed. "Let them see you, Spire."
If physically possible, she stiffened even more.
That smooth accent, those incredible eyes… the beauty of Obi-Wan Kenobi was his simple purity of intention. And thus, he reached and lay a small palm on the reverberating metal of the Scehault mask.
"They deserve to see who saved them. You deserve to show them who you are."
Her gloved hand gripped his wrist tightly.
"You don't understand-"
"Please, let me. Let me show them who brought me home."
Without further conversation, Obi-Wan brought his hands to the back of her ears, disarming and unlatching her prized possession. She didn't move, as if frozen. It clung to her for a moment before a woosh of air raced to her face. Her eyes, her real, grey green eyes did not move from his face, her expression frozen between horror and shock.
The gasp of the Jedi was enough for her to close her eyes.
/DAMN it, boy…/
Obi-Wan spun, cradling the mask to his chest…
"This is Karin Enspire," he announced as if he were showing his greatest achievement. "Regardless of what you think about her, she had saved my life more than once, risked everything to take me here, and has killed more than one sith in her time."
Those eyes of hers were scathing, piercing him, but he continued, starting into their depths.
"You should give her your honor. She is more of a Jedi than anyone I have /ever/ met."
Her eyes softened, and became perhaps, just a tad bit moist.
Obi-Wan turned back to his audience, the crackling of broken light fixtures, the din of destruction surrounding them. His master… his master had a look unlike anything he'd ever seen. Actually… most of the Jedi looked about stunned as if staring a herd of oncoming Bantha. Even Yoda looked as if in deep shock.
He turned back to Spire, confused. Her eyes had not moved to the masters, but were locked on Obi-Wan. She shook her head slowly from side to side, a small smile gracing her features.
And softly, so only he could hear –
"Thank you, Obi-Wan."
And she took a step back.
"No!"
He tightened his grip eyes pleading.
"Please, please PLEASE don't go back, please stay…"
Still staring at him, her smile widened and eyes softened. She knelt before him, taking one of his hands in her own.
"Obi-Wan…" She shook her head, sparks from the damaged building falling behind her, "my people… we will soon go to war. A world is in need of rescue from oppression – they are innocents. They must be saved. And I will lead the Knights and armies to save them. I cannot stay."
Tears, endless they seemed, welled again in the young padawan's eyes. He clung to her again, arms enwrapping her shoulders.
"I'll miss you, even if you're stubborn and don't like me."
She barked laughter, eyes tightly shut. After a moment, he… let her go. Handed her mask back to her. She took it gratefully, prepared to put it back on-
"Padawan Karin," Yoda's voice rose about the clatter of the wreckage. Obi-Wan stiffened, feeling the sudden pull of darkness around her. For the first time, she brought her eyes to the Jedi masters, regarding them coldly.
Yoda stepped forward, hobbling over the rubble with his gimmer stick.
"Much to discuss, we have."
"No."
The word formed ice around Obi-Wan's heart.
Qui-Gon rose, eyes pleading and wide, an un-Jinnly desperation tinting his voice.
"We /have/ to talk, Karin-"
"No!"
She bared her teeth, anger touching her eyes.
"After what you did, hounding me, chasing me on Nar Shadda, like I was some run-away prize?" She hissed. "Do you realize? Ordering the guards to shoot me full of tranqs so you could "talk" to me, while you, in your never ending wisdom couldn't /fathom/ the idea that you weren't the only ones chasing, always chasing-"
Obi-Wan grabbed her hand, trying to break the flow of anger and dark that emanated from her being.
"The force-forsaken /Sith/ were there too. Almost found me, almost killed me, no thanks to you." She breathed deeply, squeezing Obi-Wan's hand before reopening her eyes to regard the Masters.
"I mean what I said. I will never be Jedi. I will never exist with Jedi. I am leaving. The Jedi. Forever."
A final hand squeeze, and she turned her back on them all.
"Karin!" Yoda bellowed, raising and hand to him. Obi-Wan felt the sharp sting of a force suggestion, the suggestion of sleep, fly past him towards her.
"Wait!" he shouted feebly, the strength of it nearly toppling him over.
She turned, and Qui-Gon gasped in sudden horror.
A wave, like the one she'd expelled on the Sith, crashed towards them, and incredible speed. Windu groaned, leaning heavily to his left, into Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon gripped him tightly, forcing his eyes shut at the intensity of the force storm that wracked against their re-sensitized midichlorians.
When they opened their eyes, Obi-Wan was on the ground and Karin Enspire had evaded them once again.
Qui-Gon groaned, but forced his shaking legs to their posts, and stumbled weakly to his padawan.
Obi-Wan was cheek down in the dirt, moaning softly. Qui-Gon tumbled beside him, scooping the boy up and into his arms. Obi-Wan, only half conscious, rested his head gratefully on the master's broad shoulder. His master curled around him, rocking gently, murmuring incoherently, thanking the force. Obi-Wan blinked slowly, letting his mouth fall open in exhaustion.
/Obi-Wan…/
He opened his eyes again, to find himself being carried out of the compound.
/Spire…/
The swaying of his legs, the movement of walking was soothing, so soothing to be cared for…
/You will be a great and wise Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan…/
He whimpered, and his master held him tighter.
/You hate the Jedi…./
/No… I hate what happened to me. But I do not hate them. And I do not hate you./
He felt the inertia of a ship taking off. His eyes slid closed again, the cadence of his master's heart so safe, so safe…
/You will save them, Obi-Wan. And… you were right. Maybe I like you… a small, tiny, minuscule…/
Obi-Wan fell into slumber with a small smile on his face.
0oooooooooooooooooooooooo0
When he woke, it was night time, and it was raining.
It was a slow thing, like rising to the top of the water after a dive, but the water was so warm, so soothing…
When Obi-Wan did open his eyes, he wondered – if it had been a dream, all a dream…
Not a dream. Not with that snoring.
His cheek was pressed into the plush of his tall master's throat, the entire length of his body warm against Qui-Gon's. He recognized his master's sleep chamber with difficulty – it had been a very long time since he'd been here.
And a very long time since he felt so… warm.
The pitter patter of rain on the window was soothing to him as well, for it had no rained when he was on Ghan.
"Padawan?" Qui-Gon mumbled, eyes opening a crack.
"Master," Obi-Wan responded reverently, eyes wide and exploring the form of the man he'd missed for so long… he paused and then whispered…
"Father…"
Qui-Gon swallowed thickly, going up on an elbow and looking deeply into his apprentice's eyes.
"What is it?"
Obi-Wan stared hard at him.
"I want to know why this happened."
0oooooooooooooooooooooooo0
Right so. Thanks to
Laura of Maychoria's
Ingenious recognition that URL's don't work, I tried to fix my ancient profile…. HA yeah right. So. If you'd like to see the concept art/illustrations to this fic, please check.. uh.. kenu dot deviantart dot com. YAY. Omg I love reviews on fanfic AND art. WOOT. And I swear to god im working on an Obi/Spire images and a Spire/Arkken image…
I tell you, this story's not done yet. More discoveries ahead :)