"This is insane," complained Obi-Wan, turning a little in his chair.
"So I've heard," muttered Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan had been saying that every few minutes for the past hour while the two sat in the cockpit on their way back to Coruscant.
"Well you can't deny that it's a little strange," retorted his friend, turning back to his normal position and staring out the window. "I mean, Anakin appeared as he was ten years ago, so now we've got two different Anakins here at one, plus his son, for Force's sake. How can you say that this is normal?"
"I'm not saying that this is normal," his old master retorted, still not looking at him. "I'm just saying that you've said that five times in the past hour!"
Obi-Wan sighed. "You're right. Sorry. I'm just a little…" He paused, not quite sure what to say.
"I think 'overwhelmed' would be a good choice of words here," Qui-Gon commented dryly.
"You're right," laughed the younger Jedi. "It is all a little overwhelming."
"A little? My dear Obi-Wan, I've never known you to use so many understatements. I must be rubbing off on you!"
"Took you long enough. I don't think I was the most… receptive Padawan."
"Oh, I've had worse," Qui-Gon answered, still staring out the window. Obi-Wan turned to look at him, but the old Jedi's face was expressionless.
"Yes, I suppose you have," his friend commented quietly, but there was no response, and whether Qui-Gon had heard him or not, he didn't know.
The two sat in silence for a while, each thinking his own thoughts. Qui-Gon broke the silence after a few moments, saying suddenly, "They have to be trained, you know."
Obi-Wan turned to him, confused. "What?"
"Ani and Luke. I don't know how they got here, and I don't know what the Council intends to do about it, but if they are going to stay, they need to be trained."
"Yes, I suppose they will," Obi-Wan muttered. Qui-Gon sighed and turned to face his friend.
"Do you think they'll ask you to do it?" he asked. Obi-Wan turned around as well.
"I don't know," he admitted.
"Yes you do. They will, you know it."
"And of course, you have an opinion on that."
Qui-Gon grinned. "I wouldn't be a very good master if I didn't, even after all these years."
"Well, what is it?" asked Obi-Wan, smiling too.
"I think you should. It'll be good for you, to finally get a Padawan."
"Not to mention that in the other version of events I did." Obi-Wan carefully kept his face expressionless, but Qui-Gon just gave him a look that said 'nice try' and answered, "You did, but that's not why I think you should now."
Obi-Wan gave him a look, and he continued. "I don't think that we should try to live our lives around what 'really' happened. We shouldn't try not to be like we were, and we shouldn't try to be like we were. What happens, happens, and we'll have to live with it whether we did it in another universe or not."
Obi-Wan was silent for a moment, and then said quietly, "Maybe that's where they're from."
"What?"
"Luke and Ani. Maybe they're from the 'real' version of things."
"Or a totally different one!" Qui-Gon was getting excited now. "Maybe they each came from a different timeline where one thing was changed, so everything turned out different."
"So maybe…" muttered Obi-Wan thoughtfully. "Every time we do something, there's another version of events where we did something different. And they're each from one of those!"
"That's a comforting thought," answered Qui-Gon.
"What?"
"Well think about it. If every wrong choice we made had another universe so that we had made it right…"
"But every right choice we made would be opposite in another one too."
Qui-Gon gave his friend a surprised look. "I guess you're right."
"Not to mention some people would just make random choices not caring about what happens, and they'd end up totally ruining their lives in the version we do have."
"Now you're definitely right," answered Qui-Gon. "But it's still comforting to know."
"I suppose it is."
"Would you stop saying you suppose things? There must be a thousand different ways of saying that without sounding so repetitive."
"I presume, assume, understand, believe, deduce, reason, expect, infer…"
"What?"
"I'm reading this out of a thesaurus, okay? I brought it up on the monitor. And you're sounding pretty repetitive yourself."
"What?"
"Oh, there you go again."
"What?"
"Yeah!"
Taun We popped her long neck up from where she had fallen asleep in the corner. "Okay, now you both need to shut up."
"Yeah!"
Short one, but think of it this way: I got two out in one day. And by the way, I am extremely happy because I have exactly 100 reviews, thanks to Child-of-the-Dawn and Seylin. From now on, every time you review, imagine the thing you want most and pretend I gave it to you as a reward.
By the way, I can't quite decide on something. Should Obi-Wan
take Luke as a Padawan
take Anakin as a Padawan or
take neither as a Padawan?
And why does my stupid computer want me to say take care every time I type the word take at the beginning of a line?