Authors Note: Quite a long chappy... i was trying to sort of build up a picture of Temple life while not completely ignoring the plot -tell me what you think, kay? Good or bad!
Disclaimer: Read the first chappy legal peeps. Too lazy to repeat :)
Review Thank Yous...
Aida: Ominious... that's actually what I was going for! I didn't want it to be to... i dunno, so ominious is brilliant! One order of Obi/Qui angst? Coming right up, will chapter eight be acceptable? And a side-salad of Anakin? grins
Knight Kenobi of Eryn Lasgalen: Don't be afraid! Have no fear -especially when your review is near! :D I admit i may not have addressed it as much as that -but i will be sure to watch it now :) See... in this fic how Obi-Wan feels about Qui-Gon is very complicated -it's going to be shown, in aaah, Chapter Eight (ninth by ff's reckoning)... I really like your fic -i reviewed it :D Please carry it on!
Darienetta Stoke: I may be short but i'm the same height as you! Almost!
Janna Hawkins: blushthanks :D Glad I can help!
-----------------------------
Chapter Six: Of Tugging
Obi-Wan set the places at the dinner table and checked the time. Bant should be arriving at any minute, the sauce was done, the vegetables were steaming… calm down, Kenobi, he told himself.
A morning of sparring and mediation had cleared his head somewhat but not enough for his liking. The thought that Yoda was manipulating him wasn't a pleasant one and it seemed to be completely stuck into his head.
The door chime broke through his reverie,
"Evening Bant," he greeted,
Bant, hugging him fiercely, looked behind him and let out a stifled cry,
"Obi, I think you're over steaming the vegetables!"
"What? Force!" Sprinting the few steps to the kitchen he wafted away the clouds of steam, trying to block out the laughs from his best friend. Peering into the pan he was a little dismayed -they looked rather wrinkled, but still edible so he arranged them on the plate and called out to his (still giggling) friend on the couch,
"Bant, if you'll stop laughing and sit down… dinner is served."
Settling onto the small table Obi-Wan settled into the familiarity that conversing with Bant held. Soon they were covering all matters of Temple life -something that, as a Healer, she was particularly knowledgeable on. It wasn't long before she broached a topic he wished she would let rot on a backwater planet on the furthest planet in the Outer Rim.
"Have you spoken to Qui-Gon at all?"
"No." Hoping that his tone would settle the matter he returned to the slightly over-steamed vegetable part of their Souvant Kilop.
"Has he spoken to you?"
"No." Qui-Gon was so wrapped up in his new apprentice's training he'd forgotten all about his last apprentice.
"Doesn't that bother you?"
"Bant."
"Obi-Wan! You spent over a decade with each other, and now you haven't spoken since your Knighting?"
Obi-Wan pushed the last of his meal away and fixed her with a hard look, "Bant, I don't want to talk about it."
"Well I do."
"But it has nothing to do with you!" he cried, running a hand through his lengthening hair.
Reaching a hand across the table she grasped his, "As long as you are my friend it's my business."
He covered hers with his and tapped clutched it tightly.
"Why haven't you spoken?"
"He's busy with Anakin, training the Chosen One doesn't leave much time to reminisce with old Padawans." He said, keeping the bitterness from his voice by sheer force of will.
Eyes hardening she set her jaw, "Then he's as foolish as he is short-sighted!"
"Bant!"
"Obi-Wan you don't have to defend him anymore!"
"You shouldn't say that about any Master!"
"Sithspit, Obi." Taking a drink of Muju juice she changed the subject as abruptly as she'd brought it up, "Now, have you heard from Reeft lately? I hear he's been having an interesting time on Siegen."
Reeling from the suddenness Obi-Wan openly stared at her before conjugating a sentence, "Yes, he sent me a message… something about traditions and -"
"Dancing girls!"
The message, while brief, had been highly entertaining. On Siegen a Jedi had been formally requested through the Senate to oversee the handover of power from one King to the next, and apparently Reeft ended up being coerced into attending the traditional dinner afterwards… that involved dancing girls.
"He didn't have time to tell me what he did, did he tell you?" he asked eagerly,
Bant grin stretched almost from eye to eye, "He said he couldn't be present at such a display because it went against the Code!"
"You mean -"
"He saw a girl he liked!"
The following hours passed in a much lighter mood, evidently Bant had got her annoyance at Qui-Gon out of her system and Obi-Wan basked in the normalcy of it.
The next morning arrived with an order from the Council to run a requested errand for the Supreme Chancellor.
The Nubian man fixed him with his trademark smile that ever failed to put him at ease, "Greetings, Knight Kenobi."
He bowed, "Supreme Chancellor, how can I be of service?"
"Ah yes, straight to business I see?" Robes swirling around him, the greying man went to his desk and picked up a data pad, still smiling, "I'm afraid that the contents of this data pad mustn't be read by anyone to anyone, hence why I called for a Jedi."
"I understand, Chancellor. Whom am I taking it to?" Obi-Wan kept his voice carefully neutral; it wouldn't do to have the man know how much he detested politicians.
"The Rhodian Embassy, if you will."
"Of course, Supreme Chancellor. I will deliver is as quickly as possible."
With a final bow, Obi-Wan turned on his heel and left. It was a poor state of affairs indeed when the Jedi were such at the disposal of the Senate that they were messengers. He was curious as to what the data pad held if the Chancellor wouldn't even trust the communication system.
Predictably, he was only too pleased to return to the Temple after the greasy talks of politics he'd been caught up in at the Rhodian Embassy with their Senator. He was also rather surprised to feel the Force pushing him to the Mess Hall, along with his stomach.
Loud, lively and full of food, the mess Hall was probably one of the finest parts of Temple Life that visiting Senators, which came rarely anyway, never got to see.
"Obi-Wan!"
Cad-I-Lin Miens, a blue-skinned Peersi, whose race all had black irises and were by definition at least six feet tall, was a Knight a few years older than he, called him over from his position in the wide doorway.
"Afternoon Cadi," he replied after fetching a tray of food, "How have you been?"
"Last -" Her reply was cut off by a ripple of darkness through the Force, followed by a loud crash from a group of Initiates in a corner, "What in Force!"
Five strides and they were at the cause -one Initiate was on top of another. Fighting.
Cad-I-Lin lifted one off whilst another Knight, a five-foot tall Yehiti with almost pure white skin, grabbed the other. Obi-Wan knelt down to the nearest onlooker,
"Can you tell me what happened here?"
The girl turned around, and Obi-Wan did a re-take. This was the girl that he'd found hiding a few nights before,
"Well hello Ashden of Jardeni."
She gave him a pleading look and explained as thoroughly as she dared, "Zar said something to Sa-Bay and then they started to fight, but Sa-Bay didn't mean it! Zar is always being mean to him!"
"Who started the fight?"
She looked at her feet and tugged the green tunic, not answering.
"Who started the fight?" he repeated, lifting her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"Sa-Bay. But it was Zar's fault!"
"I'll remember that, why don't you go and finish your lunch? We'll take care of Zar and Sa-Bay."
Reluctantly, she turned and gave Sa-Bay, a remorseful look and re-joined the table of Initiates that was now missing two.
"I'll take these two to their Care Master," said the other Knight, "I'm sure they won't cause any more trouble."
Cad-I-Lin nodded and returned to her table, Obi-Wan halted, and said in a low voice only the other Knight could hear,
"Though young Sa-Bay started the fight, I hear he was provoked."
The shorter man nodded and led them off, and Obi-Wan returned to his meal.
"That was, odd." She observed, tapping her fork on the side of her tray, "It didn't feel like an Initiate's anger."
Obi-Wan shook his head in the affirmative, the ripple felt much stronger than it should have been over a simple fight it felt, "Older than they. Do you think we should inform the Council, Cad?"
"Yes, if they didn't feel it themselves." Finishing the last of her own food she pulled a slight chagrined look, "I have the honour of a meeting with them in an ten minutes, I'll tell them then." Bidding him farewell she left him alone to consider the ripple.
While taught from a young age the mantra 'Peace over anger' many Initiates found it hard to achieve at all times, himself included, so while fighting itself was unusual, the loss of temper wasn't… but still. The darkness felt familiar, making the hairs on the nape of his neck raise.
A number of extended errands later, thankfully all having nothing to do with the Senate, Obi-Wan fell onto his sleep couch gratefully. Doing nothing was awfully tiring in his opinion, and it wasn't long before he fell into a comfortable slumber.
Haunting laughter reverberated around the metallic room, not a happy haunting laugh, a manic, laughter. The kind that sent chills down spines. Robed in black, a figure loomed menacingly above him, face shadowed by the overhanging hood.
The voice, cold and unfeeling made him sick with fear but he didn't know why.
"You are mine."
Obi-Wan bolted awake as he hit the floor, entangled in sheets sticky with cold sweat.
Hands shaking, he pulled the sheets off and stood on wobbly legs and went to the kitchen for a glass of water, mind reeling.
The nightmares, they came sometimes, not regularly or often just occasionally, each time the same laughter, the same mysterious figure. Meditation never revealed answers, regardless of the hours spent contemplating and exploring… there was only one thing to do.
It was ten past the fourth hour, a little early but the Temple would be starting its gear up to the day, first members of the Council like Yoda and Yaddle, then Healers, then the youngest Initiates of two and three.
A good session of Kata's would ease his taught muscles as well as giving him a good work out.
Two-thirds of the way through the thirty-third form an eddy shook him to a stop. Mystified he looked around the room for the disturbance and found… nothing. Just a class of Initiates and the Master of their lesson at the opposite end.
"Knight Kenobi!" Master Windu hailed him with a wave of a hand, motioning for him to come forth.
Still puzzling over the eddy, Obi-Wan jogged over to the dark-skinned Master, "Yes Master Windu?"
"I was hoping to demonstrate the ninth Kata to these young ones, would you care to assist?"
"Of course."
Setting himself into the ready position, the Master called out each position at a steady pace, explaining each as he demonstrated it, allowing Obi-Wan to give the group a cursory glance. Dressed in the customary green tunics and trousers, two showed themselves to be Padawans by the braids that fell from behind their ears and their tan tunics.
One, a Tanceren whose dexterous tail was currently completely still, hanging by her shoulder and the other a red-furred Oaefien knelt, eagerly soaking in as much as he could.
And then he found that he really needed to speak with a Master.
Any Master… Windu, Yoda, Gallia…
Once again he found Ashden sitting in the class, listening intently.
Feeling his eyes on her she smiled shyly at him and he couldn't help but think the Force didn't work in quite as mysterious ways as it would have them believe.
---------------------------------
Post A/N: Quite long.... sighslooking at my plan the fic is gonna get steadily darker from chapter eight onwards. i liked the lighter bit lol. anyway gets out a long stick and pokes any lurkers c'mon... out and review... you know you want to! I'll offer bribes and Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon or even Anakin Plushies
Disclaimer: Read the first chappy legal peeps. Too lazy to repeat :)
Review Thank Yous...
Aida: Ominious... that's actually what I was going for! I didn't want it to be to... i dunno, so ominious is brilliant! One order of Obi/Qui angst? Coming right up, will chapter eight be acceptable? And a side-salad of Anakin? grins
Knight Kenobi of Eryn Lasgalen: Don't be afraid! Have no fear -especially when your review is near! :D I admit i may not have addressed it as much as that -but i will be sure to watch it now :) See... in this fic how Obi-Wan feels about Qui-Gon is very complicated -it's going to be shown, in aaah, Chapter Eight (ninth by ff's reckoning)... I really like your fic -i reviewed it :D Please carry it on!
Darienetta Stoke: I may be short but i'm the same height as you! Almost!
Janna Hawkins: blushthanks :D Glad I can help!
-----------------------------
Chapter Six: Of Tugging
Obi-Wan set the places at the dinner table and checked the time. Bant should be arriving at any minute, the sauce was done, the vegetables were steaming… calm down, Kenobi, he told himself.
A morning of sparring and mediation had cleared his head somewhat but not enough for his liking. The thought that Yoda was manipulating him wasn't a pleasant one and it seemed to be completely stuck into his head.
The door chime broke through his reverie,
"Evening Bant," he greeted,
Bant, hugging him fiercely, looked behind him and let out a stifled cry,
"Obi, I think you're over steaming the vegetables!"
"What? Force!" Sprinting the few steps to the kitchen he wafted away the clouds of steam, trying to block out the laughs from his best friend. Peering into the pan he was a little dismayed -they looked rather wrinkled, but still edible so he arranged them on the plate and called out to his (still giggling) friend on the couch,
"Bant, if you'll stop laughing and sit down… dinner is served."
Settling onto the small table Obi-Wan settled into the familiarity that conversing with Bant held. Soon they were covering all matters of Temple life -something that, as a Healer, she was particularly knowledgeable on. It wasn't long before she broached a topic he wished she would let rot on a backwater planet on the furthest planet in the Outer Rim.
"Have you spoken to Qui-Gon at all?"
"No." Hoping that his tone would settle the matter he returned to the slightly over-steamed vegetable part of their Souvant Kilop.
"Has he spoken to you?"
"No." Qui-Gon was so wrapped up in his new apprentice's training he'd forgotten all about his last apprentice.
"Doesn't that bother you?"
"Bant."
"Obi-Wan! You spent over a decade with each other, and now you haven't spoken since your Knighting?"
Obi-Wan pushed the last of his meal away and fixed her with a hard look, "Bant, I don't want to talk about it."
"Well I do."
"But it has nothing to do with you!" he cried, running a hand through his lengthening hair.
Reaching a hand across the table she grasped his, "As long as you are my friend it's my business."
He covered hers with his and tapped clutched it tightly.
"Why haven't you spoken?"
"He's busy with Anakin, training the Chosen One doesn't leave much time to reminisce with old Padawans." He said, keeping the bitterness from his voice by sheer force of will.
Eyes hardening she set her jaw, "Then he's as foolish as he is short-sighted!"
"Bant!"
"Obi-Wan you don't have to defend him anymore!"
"You shouldn't say that about any Master!"
"Sithspit, Obi." Taking a drink of Muju juice she changed the subject as abruptly as she'd brought it up, "Now, have you heard from Reeft lately? I hear he's been having an interesting time on Siegen."
Reeling from the suddenness Obi-Wan openly stared at her before conjugating a sentence, "Yes, he sent me a message… something about traditions and -"
"Dancing girls!"
The message, while brief, had been highly entertaining. On Siegen a Jedi had been formally requested through the Senate to oversee the handover of power from one King to the next, and apparently Reeft ended up being coerced into attending the traditional dinner afterwards… that involved dancing girls.
"He didn't have time to tell me what he did, did he tell you?" he asked eagerly,
Bant grin stretched almost from eye to eye, "He said he couldn't be present at such a display because it went against the Code!"
"You mean -"
"He saw a girl he liked!"
The following hours passed in a much lighter mood, evidently Bant had got her annoyance at Qui-Gon out of her system and Obi-Wan basked in the normalcy of it.
The next morning arrived with an order from the Council to run a requested errand for the Supreme Chancellor.
The Nubian man fixed him with his trademark smile that ever failed to put him at ease, "Greetings, Knight Kenobi."
He bowed, "Supreme Chancellor, how can I be of service?"
"Ah yes, straight to business I see?" Robes swirling around him, the greying man went to his desk and picked up a data pad, still smiling, "I'm afraid that the contents of this data pad mustn't be read by anyone to anyone, hence why I called for a Jedi."
"I understand, Chancellor. Whom am I taking it to?" Obi-Wan kept his voice carefully neutral; it wouldn't do to have the man know how much he detested politicians.
"The Rhodian Embassy, if you will."
"Of course, Supreme Chancellor. I will deliver is as quickly as possible."
With a final bow, Obi-Wan turned on his heel and left. It was a poor state of affairs indeed when the Jedi were such at the disposal of the Senate that they were messengers. He was curious as to what the data pad held if the Chancellor wouldn't even trust the communication system.
Predictably, he was only too pleased to return to the Temple after the greasy talks of politics he'd been caught up in at the Rhodian Embassy with their Senator. He was also rather surprised to feel the Force pushing him to the Mess Hall, along with his stomach.
Loud, lively and full of food, the mess Hall was probably one of the finest parts of Temple Life that visiting Senators, which came rarely anyway, never got to see.
"Obi-Wan!"
Cad-I-Lin Miens, a blue-skinned Peersi, whose race all had black irises and were by definition at least six feet tall, was a Knight a few years older than he, called him over from his position in the wide doorway.
"Afternoon Cadi," he replied after fetching a tray of food, "How have you been?"
"Last -" Her reply was cut off by a ripple of darkness through the Force, followed by a loud crash from a group of Initiates in a corner, "What in Force!"
Five strides and they were at the cause -one Initiate was on top of another. Fighting.
Cad-I-Lin lifted one off whilst another Knight, a five-foot tall Yehiti with almost pure white skin, grabbed the other. Obi-Wan knelt down to the nearest onlooker,
"Can you tell me what happened here?"
The girl turned around, and Obi-Wan did a re-take. This was the girl that he'd found hiding a few nights before,
"Well hello Ashden of Jardeni."
She gave him a pleading look and explained as thoroughly as she dared, "Zar said something to Sa-Bay and then they started to fight, but Sa-Bay didn't mean it! Zar is always being mean to him!"
"Who started the fight?"
She looked at her feet and tugged the green tunic, not answering.
"Who started the fight?" he repeated, lifting her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"Sa-Bay. But it was Zar's fault!"
"I'll remember that, why don't you go and finish your lunch? We'll take care of Zar and Sa-Bay."
Reluctantly, she turned and gave Sa-Bay, a remorseful look and re-joined the table of Initiates that was now missing two.
"I'll take these two to their Care Master," said the other Knight, "I'm sure they won't cause any more trouble."
Cad-I-Lin nodded and returned to her table, Obi-Wan halted, and said in a low voice only the other Knight could hear,
"Though young Sa-Bay started the fight, I hear he was provoked."
The shorter man nodded and led them off, and Obi-Wan returned to his meal.
"That was, odd." She observed, tapping her fork on the side of her tray, "It didn't feel like an Initiate's anger."
Obi-Wan shook his head in the affirmative, the ripple felt much stronger than it should have been over a simple fight it felt, "Older than they. Do you think we should inform the Council, Cad?"
"Yes, if they didn't feel it themselves." Finishing the last of her own food she pulled a slight chagrined look, "I have the honour of a meeting with them in an ten minutes, I'll tell them then." Bidding him farewell she left him alone to consider the ripple.
While taught from a young age the mantra 'Peace over anger' many Initiates found it hard to achieve at all times, himself included, so while fighting itself was unusual, the loss of temper wasn't… but still. The darkness felt familiar, making the hairs on the nape of his neck raise.
A number of extended errands later, thankfully all having nothing to do with the Senate, Obi-Wan fell onto his sleep couch gratefully. Doing nothing was awfully tiring in his opinion, and it wasn't long before he fell into a comfortable slumber.
Haunting laughter reverberated around the metallic room, not a happy haunting laugh, a manic, laughter. The kind that sent chills down spines. Robed in black, a figure loomed menacingly above him, face shadowed by the overhanging hood.
The voice, cold and unfeeling made him sick with fear but he didn't know why.
"You are mine."
Obi-Wan bolted awake as he hit the floor, entangled in sheets sticky with cold sweat.
Hands shaking, he pulled the sheets off and stood on wobbly legs and went to the kitchen for a glass of water, mind reeling.
The nightmares, they came sometimes, not regularly or often just occasionally, each time the same laughter, the same mysterious figure. Meditation never revealed answers, regardless of the hours spent contemplating and exploring… there was only one thing to do.
It was ten past the fourth hour, a little early but the Temple would be starting its gear up to the day, first members of the Council like Yoda and Yaddle, then Healers, then the youngest Initiates of two and three.
A good session of Kata's would ease his taught muscles as well as giving him a good work out.
Two-thirds of the way through the thirty-third form an eddy shook him to a stop. Mystified he looked around the room for the disturbance and found… nothing. Just a class of Initiates and the Master of their lesson at the opposite end.
"Knight Kenobi!" Master Windu hailed him with a wave of a hand, motioning for him to come forth.
Still puzzling over the eddy, Obi-Wan jogged over to the dark-skinned Master, "Yes Master Windu?"
"I was hoping to demonstrate the ninth Kata to these young ones, would you care to assist?"
"Of course."
Setting himself into the ready position, the Master called out each position at a steady pace, explaining each as he demonstrated it, allowing Obi-Wan to give the group a cursory glance. Dressed in the customary green tunics and trousers, two showed themselves to be Padawans by the braids that fell from behind their ears and their tan tunics.
One, a Tanceren whose dexterous tail was currently completely still, hanging by her shoulder and the other a red-furred Oaefien knelt, eagerly soaking in as much as he could.
And then he found that he really needed to speak with a Master.
Any Master… Windu, Yoda, Gallia…
Once again he found Ashden sitting in the class, listening intently.
Feeling his eyes on her she smiled shyly at him and he couldn't help but think the Force didn't work in quite as mysterious ways as it would have them believe.
---------------------------------
Post A/N: Quite long.... sighslooking at my plan the fic is gonna get steadily darker from chapter eight onwards. i liked the lighter bit lol. anyway gets out a long stick and pokes any lurkers c'mon... out and review... you know you want to! I'll offer bribes and Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon or even Anakin Plushies