Chapter 35 - Snips

Anakin slid past Obi-Wan in their kitchenette. "Good Morning, Master."

The man was brewing tea, one of the only "dishes" he made, if you could call it that. Anakin still wasn't sure.

Anyway, they had been back on Coruscant for about a week. Enough time for everyone to get out of their travel confusion and back to their routines and schedules. Anakin was going to start a new class today, too. And to top it all off, his new friends would all be taking the same class with him. Alex, Kent, and Ramu all regarded it as the hum-drum of usual life, but to Anakin, this news was the very best. Apparently, in Jedi schooling, initiates always took classes with their clan-mates, up until they passed the Initiate Trials and became Padawans. After that a student could choose from a number of "electives" instead of a core curriculum. Anakin saw a list of said electives once, and he was sure he would take nothing but mechanical and piloting courses, along with a few lightsaber dueling ones to stay rounded, of course.

But that was in the future, at least two years, if everything continued on schedule. Today he had that new class to prepare for.

"Anakin, are you all ready for your classes?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yup. I've got my books here, and my datapad. Oh, have you seen my calculator?" Anakin began to dash around looking for it.

"Try under the mouse droid." Obi-Wan specified. And sure enough when Anakin looked it was there. "Come around here and listen for a sec," his master ordered.

Anakin slid the calculator into his bag, then slid up onto the barstool to listen.

Obi-Wan took a sip of the tea he was preparing first. "Today I will be a bit busy. After your class today, Master Plo will be there to pick you up. Is that okay with you?"

"Um-hmm," Anakin hummed. He found the Kel-dor Master a nicer Jedi, and he'd definitely be a runner up for Anakin's favorite Jedi list. If he were to have one, of course. Because favoring anybody above anyone else was "unbalanced," or so he was taught. So the list was unwritten, and he didn't treat anyone different because of their place on it. First there was his own Master, and Master Qui-Gon. Then Master Windu. The man knew all these cool moves with the lightsaber, and Anakin would sneak in just to watch him practice sometimes. Then there was Master Koon. Plo was always nice and had a warm energy, even when he was having a bad day, so Anakin liked him.

Obi-Wan sighed with relief when Anakin easily accepted the change of plans. He didn't really want to explain what he had to do today. Not that he expected Anakin to fuss over it. It's just that it… It was personal.

Months ago, when he discovered he had a daughter, he hadn't reacted well, at all. In addition to taking the child away from the creche and needing the council to agree to give him an exception before he'd bring her back, in the process he severely damaged the bond with his old Master.

Immediately after, they were told that there was enough of a connection left for a mind healer to go in and bind what was left with the Force. However no mind healer was willing to do so at the time. You see, it didn't matter if they were both willing to have it restored, because their trust was broken, and without trust, such bonds become unbalanced twisted things quite easily.

So they were released to work on rebuilding the bond, as much as was possible, with the standard means.

Obi-Wan didn't know why his Master even agreed to do this. They could have just cut out what remained and their minds would heal without it. Since their bond broke his side of it had been sore, and he doubted Qui-Gon's had been any different. But the man was enthusiastic about keeping it. Every once in a while, Obi-Wan could even feel a touch or a hint of affection being sent through. It meant his Master was touching his side, despite the pain, and tending it to make it grow.

If he were still a Padawan, he might understand it. But at this stage neither needed the bond for any practical reasons. Other knights might continue to tend theirs, when the situation is less painful. But for a Master to go to this extent for a former Padawan…

Anyway, since that fateful day, Obi-Wan had watched Qui-Gon, and the man had been honorable in every way. From how he interacted with Anakin, to him tending to Abigail on their recent trip. Obi-Wan was starting to believe the man's actions had been well intended, if guided by fear. as had been claimed. And he thought he might just be starting to trust him again. Obi-Wan wanted to see if the mental healers thought the same thing. That's what he was going to do today.

He didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, but a full restoration of the bond would be a good present for the man on Lineage Day. The Jedi's first sanctioned holiday was scheduled for the following week.

"Anakin, how did your class go?" Plo bent over to ask.

"Good, I think." He sighed. "It was just an introduction, but I think I am confused anyway," Anakin knew the man was hoping for the first answer, but then he did ask for the whole truth. He didn't have to lie to these Masters.

"Astral Charts and Navigation. You wouldn't be the first." He tapped Anakin on the nose. "But it is an essential skill for piloting amongst the stars. I would be happy to help with your homework later today. First we are going to stop in the Initiate dorms to pick up another youngling, and then I've got a project the two of you can help me with."

Anakin nodded and shouldered his bag, as he followed Plo. He wasn't expecting to meet another youngling today, but then why not. 'If this kid is a friend of Master Koon, surely we'll be friends too.' He smiled a little bit at the thought.

Plo led them into a room and Anakin recognized the layout from his visits to the Bergruutfa Clan's quarters. The standard clan's dorm, it was an elongated room with four smaller bedrooms on the sides, and a larger room at the end for the Clan's Creche Master. In the center were several desks, and there were toys and Younglings' drawings scattered around the place, too. None of the sophisticated toys that the Beregruutfa clan had though. No, this clan seemed to like stuffies and large-piece puzzles. On the side of the room there was a holo-screen which displayed a very colorful animal that appeared to be singing, though there was no sound. Plo walked towards a couch that was facing this holo-screen.

When they walked around it, a little Togruta girl pulled off earphones and ran to them from where she was sitting. "Master Koon!" She greeted him with a warm hug.

"Aaaah, little 'Soka. How are you today?" Plo asked. Though his expression couldn't be seen under his mask, Anakin thought he sensed joy.

"'M fine," she said. "Who's this?"

"This is Anakin Skywalker. Anakin, this is Ahsoka Tano. She has just joined the Clawmouse Clan. Anakin has just joined the Beregruutfa Clan. You're both rather new here." As Plo said this the little girl gave Anakin an appraising stare. Anakin squinted back at her.

Plo continued, "He's going to spend the day with me and I thought he would like some company closer to his own age."

Anakin nearly laughed. This was a FOUR year old!

"And I have a craft project idea that I'm going to need your help to build. The more hands the better."

'Well, that makes some sense. Little hands can be very useful for certain projects,' Anakin thought, relieved that he wasn't being asked to babysit the girl.

"Come with me. I've already worked it out with your clan master." Plo excitedly ushered little Ahsoka up. Anakin didn't know what her appraisal of him was, her face was not that revealing, but she did get up and go with them without complaint.

"Let me check the atmo-generators to be sure I have the correct setting," said Plo, when they reached the door to his quarters.

The little girl, Ahsoka, seemed to regard this as usual business, but Anakin watched Plo type at the pad by his door. It was a larger keypad than most doors had. It even had a small screen, which Plo leaned over to read. The door itself was a lot thicker than the rest and looked more like the ones you'd see on a spaceship, than an interior room.

"Ahhh yes. Visitors settings are activated." Plo pressed a button and the doors slid apart with a woosh. "Hurry up. Inside."

As soon as his back was in the room, Plo touched another panel to close the doors.

"Master Wha-?" Anakin started to ask what the business with the door was, only to leave his question hanging when he heard his own voice. It was shrill and high pitched. The way it did if he got his head too close to a helium based engine.

Beside him Plo reached up to his face and detached the breathing part of his mask. "Don't be alarmed," he said in a perfectly normal voice. "The atmo generator is pumping out enough Oxygen for your species to survive, mixed with enough Helium so it's not poisonous to me either. The visitor's settings."

Anakin blinked. He knew Kel Dor's were from a planet with a much different atmosphere, and he knew that's why Plo wore the fancy mask, but… He never imagined this.

"Come into the kitchen and I'll explain what I want you to do." Plo walked through an archway.

"Weeeee," Ahsoka lifted her hands and called out. She was smiling very big and probably found the helium voice fun. She then giggled and turned to follow Plo.

"Next week is Lineage day, and I'm having a very big party here with all of my former Padawans and their Padawans. Now, I've read about this." Plo opened up a book on his Kitchen Island and pointed to an illustration. "They call it a Place Setting. And if we make enough of them, my guests can all take one home. This is how we do it…" The jedi reached for some gourds on the island to start.

Ding-dong chimed the buzzer by the door.

Plo set down the hot glue gun and ran to answer it.

Anakin typed the next guest's name into the label maker, and placed the printed metallic tab onto the stack of gourds Ahsoka had put together.

The next step involved gluing them together. Plo had rather insisted on taking that role earlier, and though Anakin still felt he'd manage, he didn't want to upset the Master on his first time over to his quarters. Anakin took a breath and he looked at Ahsoka. "So, you're starting classes too, huh."

"Yeah. I started last week, when everyone got back from T… Tat…"

"Tatooine, yeah. So, how have your classes been?" Anakin wanted to try being supportive, and a lot of people had been asking him the same question since he started.

"They've been fun. In Jedi History we've been working with the other classes to make a Jedi Lineage Tree." Ahsoka stood up so she could motion very widely with her arms. "It's gigantic, and has every Jedi that's ever been on it. My class is doing Yoda's branch, which is pretty big, but at least we don't have Master Yaddle's branch. I think, like, five other clans are doing that one."

"Oh, well do you know that my own Master is descended from Yoda's lineage. I bet we're on your tree," Anakin proudly told her.

Ahsoka smiled, "Really! That's cool. So, who is your Master?"

"Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"Oh." Ahsoka's face fell. "His disaster branch. I'm sorry."

Anakin's face twisted into an affronted confusion when she said this. "What do you mean?"

"Well, first there was Dooku, the Lost one." she whispered the last part.

"Lost. How do you lose a Padawan?" Anakin got the image of the man hiding under a chair in the old man's quarters.

"That means he left the order," She explained. He was a Master, and even on the Council."

"So why did he leave?" Anakin asked.

Ahsoka shrugged. "Don't know. But it made Master Nu very sad when I asked. Then there's your grandmaster." Ahsoka looked at him with wide eyes, as if she expected that to be evidence enough.

"What's wrong with Master Jinn?" Anakin was sympathetically affronted.

"What's not wrong with him?" Ahsoka sighed. "I hear the adults talk about him a lot. He can't follow orders. He goes off on his own tan- tan-gent missions all the time. I once heard Master windu call him a Mad Mav- Ricky something, which I don't know what that means, but the way he said it, it didn't sound good. Anyways, all I'm saying is, you won't see me joining a Disaster Lineage."

Anakin's mouth opened wide. He wasn't sure what to say to her.

There was a giggle across the room as Master Yoda walked in. "Ah. Snips, the young one does. But learn she will, that in unexpected places, treasure can be found."

Plo appeared in the doorway. "Master Yoda, I've got the flimsy-work right here for you. How's that project going, kids? I'll be right back with you."

Yoda followed him out of the room and left Anakin and Ahsoka alone again.

Anakin laughed, "Snips, the young one does." Ahsoka saw he was teasing and laughed along with him. "So you like history, huh?"

Ahsoka shrugged, "So far."

"My favorite classes are anything mechanical. Droid building, Binary, even basic mechanics. But I can't wait until I can take piloting."

Ahsoka smiled at him. "You'll have to teach me. Then we can race."

Anakin laughed. "You're on!"

Obi-Wan felt the impending approach of doom in the Force as he waited.

"Is everything alright, Knight Kenobi?" Master Allie asked as she walked into the room.

"Oh, I suppose I am just nervous. I came for a check-up on the bond with my Master."

"I see. And should I be expecting Master Jinn to pop out from somewhere?" she half-heartedly asked.

"No. I wanted to keep this between us. There's no point in disappointing everyone if it's all for naught."

"Aah," Stass nodded and made a note in his file. "Well, in that case, I can only evaluate your own side of that bond."

"Yes, I'm aware of that. If this goes well, I'll arrange to bring him next time. I just wanted to know the chances first."

"That's understandable. Shall we begin?" she asked, holding her hands between them, palms up on offer.

Obi-Wan took a deep breath, looking for courage. "Why not." He placed his hands on top of Stass's palms, and he lowered his shields to reveal the bulk of his mind to the mental healer.

Obi-Wan leaned his head forward and closed his eyes. He could feel memories being stimulated as the healer did her work. Images from his earlier Padawan years came to his mind, along with the emotions they recalled.

He remembered trying and failing to get the old man to notice him. Trying and failing to get him to smile and laugh. Or to embrace him with warmth. Then he remembered finding his master in tears one day. They had just gone on a mission to… somewhere. It wasn't important to recall. Obi-Wan remembered his own nervousness as he reached out and hugged Qui-Gon, then the relief to be hugged back. It was there that his Master confessed to having failed a prior Padawan. Their bond was a lot stronger after that. Obi-Wan guessed that just talking about it was helpful to his mentor, and he could feel the man healing in response to his own empathy. He learned something then that he continues to use in difficult negotiations. People in pain just want to know someone understands. That someone is listening.

Other memories were pulled after this. He saw his Master fail a few times to be the shining example of Jedi rectitude. Times he went hungry simply because the idea to feed a growing teenager didn't occur to the man. Times where he had to scream at Qui-Gon to get him to see a point. "No. We can't leave these people to war amongst themselves… I don't care what the Living Force is guiding you towards… No, I will not take care of another of your pathetic life forms… I don't care what the council says, I'm not taking the rep for this."

And then he saw another memory. He and Qui-Gon were at another name-not-important world, doing basic negotiations between two warring parties. There was an incident where one of the delegates pointed the finger at Obi-Wan and blamed him for something going wrong. It was a situation of definite hearsay, where the delegate was trying to divert the blame for his own failures. Anyways, when the accusation was leveled, Qui-Gon stood up and glared with fire behind his eyes. "You dirty rotten scum! My padawan will not be treated like this. If you want further republic aid, you can take that up with the Senate. As for the Jedi, we are done here!" And that they were. The foreign leaders tried to offer them a number of things to get them to come back, but to Qui-Gon, none of them amounted to a full apology to his Padawan who had been insulted. It was a pity that they never could convince the offending party to do so. The council hadn't been happy about it either, but try telling that to Qui-Gon. According to his Master he acted in the only reasonable way.

Obi-Wan opened his eyes as the memories subsided. He noticed Stass writing down even more notes. He wanted to ask her about her findings, but was nervous to interrupt. Instead he merely shuffled and raised an eyebrow, when she did look up.

Stass smiled. "I think there is still work. The two of you should have been forced in here ages ago, but…" She paused. Obi-Wan took a deep breath. "You've gone as far as you can singularly. The next stage involves the two of you together."

"Hhhhh," Obi-Wan sighed. "Thank you. I look forward to sharing the news with him."

"Yes, and with your own Padawan. I imagine he'll be thrilled to have his two favorite Jedi back as a team again."

Obi-Wan smiled. "That he will. Thank you very much." He bowed to her before leaving.

Hello everyone,

So… Most of this chapter came out of my desire to have a certain conversation between young Ahsoka and Anakin. And to have Yoda give one line in response. I do hope you enjoyed it.

And as to Obi-Wan's past and the memories discussed here. I am deciding to go against Tradition and throw both Canon and Legends out the window. I don't really like either of those backgrounds, and decided to only take a slight hint of some of them. So if you go looking in the books or wikis for the memories I wrote in here, you're going to come up short.

And as to Plo Koon's quarters. According to the Wikis his species breathes Helium and finds Oxygen poisonous. I guess that would make my idea of him having a "Visitor's setting" to his quarters impossible, but I really wanted him to be able to have guests over for a family meal. I thought it would be cruel to deny him that. I imagine the oxygen isn't comfortable for him to breathe, but he's willing to put up with it for his friends. And if Plo's mask is always pumping Helium, his voice must not be affected by it in the same way a human's is.

Next chapter I have an idea for solving something I previously overlooked. Qui-Gon's going to be back on missions. He'll be getting the council frustrated again, and pointing out, "Look, I didn't bring back any orphaned youngling's this time." I'll see you all then.