Chapter 12 - Blue
Padawan Quinlan Vos was very much aware that he was a pain in the sheb, but that didn't mean his Master was less so.
"What are you looking for?" Quin asked as they made another circle.
Master Tholme paused, then said without feeling, "I can't tell if she is dead or gone. Or if she was transported to or away from that compound. Her pain… it lingers in the Force."
"Good thing we brought all that medical supplies with us," Quin said sarcastically. They had brought medical supplies, but it had gone up in flames when they 'landed.'
Tholme didn't waste breath correcting his cheek. Among his peers, Quin was something of an exception, not because he was so much better or so special, but because he was different.
He had come to the Temple later than most younglings, trained in part by other non-Jedi Force sensitives. Force sensitivity was as common on Kiffu as it was On Dathomir.
Quin had been a tracker by the time he could crawl. Master Tholme met him on a mission, took note of his truthfully horrid shielding, and he had stayed to help train Quin. Not as a Jedi initiate but as a potential Guardian of Kiffu like his great-grandmother had been. Tholme had even taken him to the Temple on Coruscant at age five just for a visit, but not before the Council.
Master Tholme was about as unorthodox as they came.
But after Quin's aunt had slaughtered his parents and forced him to relive their last moments, his Master had decided that Kiffu didn't deserve him. As Quin never wanted to go back to his homeworld that had suited him just fine.
Even if his grasp of Basic had been almost as bad as his accent.
Even if he couldn't stand the loose fabric of Jedi robes most days.
Even if Coruscant set of his touch-clevionce like a spice addict perched on a concert speaker.
Even if he didn't at all fit in with the other Jedi, it was better than staying on Kiffu. Master Tholme hadn't tried to make him into someone he wasn't, instead, he had embraced all of his oddities and encouraged him to be outwardly Kiffar, who, to put it kindly, were considered bounty hunters and animal trackers.
So it was rare for his Master to correct his speech when they weren't in the company of others.
That didn't mean his Master liked him back talking, but there were a number of things Quin didn't like about his Master either.
Like stranding them on a hostile planet with a local civil war going on as well as the glorious addition of Mandalorians involved.
Tholme suddenly came to halt, closing his eyes and breathing in, looking with senses of decades of honed —Force assisted— instincts.
"We need to separate," he said, suddenly in a definitive voice. "I'll go to the compound. If Tahl isn't there, I will steal a ship and circle back to you. I need you to use your own gifts and try tracking her through the arid-lands."
Quin nodded, tracking on nothing, especially if she hadn't been transported by foot would be difficult.
But if she had been or was being tortured, he wasn't ashamed to say he would prefer his Master be the first on the scene. Despite his Master's assertions that it was just his age, Quin still lacked confidence that he could handle things like torture since their last mission had gone so far south after he had been overwhelmed in violent vision while they had been fighting. Death was easy, well no, not easy, but easier than prolonged suffering.
"Be careful, Padawan mine," Tholme warned.
Quin sighed, "I will be."
"The Force will be with you."
"It always is," Quin retorted a tad bitterly.
Sometimes the Force's presence was part of the problem, though he knew he wouldn't be the same person without it.
They parted ways and Quin had the joy of chasing shadows across a lifeless land in the dead of night with nothing but moonlight to define shape to anything. Okay, maybe lifeless was uncharitable, but there was nothing to write home about when it came to the sproutings of shrubs and little scorpions fleeing from shrews.
However, the path the Force was having him follow grew more and more interesting the longer he walked.
A strange broken anger stained the Force, like a shade of cream over a shade of white in its subtlety. He couldn't define it completely, righteous in some ways, lost in others. The only reason he noticed at all was because it seemed entwined with the Master Jedi's Force signature. Her pain was apparent to him as was her relief.
Traces like this were hard to distinguish unless they were recent, a rainfall could disrupt it like pollen from stone, but there couldn't have been more than an hour or two between them.
Quin dropped to his knee for the dozenth time, his braids slipping over his shoulder as he tried to feel anything from the ship that had disrupted the ground here, changing the impression of the breeze.
The Force was in everything, even things seemingly without life, the Force permeated. Closing his eyes, he finally got his first glimpse rather than just emotions. Master Tahl, blindfolded, her injuries covered in bacta patches. Her wrists caught in gloved hands of a Mandalorian warrior.
She offered him comfort, but he was the one who had saved her.
It changed everything Quin thought he knew about the Mandalorians. A Mando helping a Jedi, what?
He was so preoccupied with the notion that he almost didn't sense him.
Almost.
Quin stood, drawing his lightsaber, the green light cutting the night.
A visor of a Mandalorian's armour gleamed and the owner of it already had his blaster up and aimed.
Quin froze, reaching out with his feelings, recognizing this warrior as the one who had saved Tahl, half of the pair he had been tracking through the night.
But no…
There was something else familiar about this one, something…
Quin didn't push with the Force, he searched just the outside aura and the presence of the warrior flinched, like raising a hand toward a tooka kitten.
That presence was painted with darkness, with red and greys, anger, sorrow, and suffering.
But not evil, not power.
It was an odd thing, something he had never encountered before. This was definitely a Force sensitive who definitely had power but he wasn't… wasn't corrupted.
Who would turn to the Dark Side without reaching for the power? Quin wasn't even sure that's what it was but he couldn't think up another reason why someone would feel so dark and yet so… good.
And familiar.
The Force twirled between them as if laughing and Quin sucked in breath, finally recognizing him.
His arms dropped and managed to rasp out around his tight throat, "Obi-Wan?"
The Mando- Obi-Wan lowered his blaster.
Quin cleared his throat, "Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan Kenobi, I know it's you." He extinguished his lightsaber.
Obi-Wan holstered his weapon and took off his helmet, "Quin?"
In the light of the moon, Quin could see him. His face was a bit thinner and his hair was still short but longer than it had been. Quin had been the one to cut his hair including the tuft that would have been his Padawan braid so he could travel more safely to Stewjon.
Quin charged him, crushing him into a hug, "You kriffing idiot! I thought you were dead! I thought you-" He choked off his words and hugged him harder. "You idiot. You kriffing karking idiot!"
Obi-Wan, who had dropped his helmet, hugged him back just as fiercely in wordless answer.
"I missed you so much," Quin said into his friend's ear.
Obi-Wan pulled back a bit to say, "I missed you too."
Quin wasn't about to let the brat go but he pulled away enough to glare down at him, "Why didn't you come back?"
Obi-Wan swallowed but didn't move away, "I found my aliit, my family."
And what did that make him?
Quin grit his teeth, "You promised."
"I promised to stay safe, not to come back," Obi-Wan said with a half smile.
Quin stepped back then, "You think this is funny? We thought you died. We had a funeral for you-"
"I wanted to tell you," Obi-Wan cut him off. "But I've been fighting in a civil war against Death Watch for the last two years. There were no guarantees, there are no guarantees that I will survive."
"Kark that, you should have told-"
"I was eleven!" Obi-Wan interrupted. "Do you really think the Order would have let me go?"
"The Order isn't a cult, Obi-Wan. They would have and they do release care to younglings."
"My aliit are not biological. You know how Mando and Jetii relations are, I was a minor. The Order wouldn't have given up custody until I came of age and the Mandalorians wouldn't have wanted a Jedi youngling."
The last one cleared his head of all other protests. "Wait, you mean they don't know? They don't know you were raised in the Temple?"
How would he even have kept that a secret?
"They don't know I'm a Force sensitive. My buir isn't likely to turn on me because of it but it's not worth bringing up."
"The hell it isn't," Quin snapped. "Your aura is messed up. You were so good at shielding, now? Now spotting you isn't difficult but you read like a dark sider."
"War isn't conducive to having a light and happy spirit," Obi-Wan said with palpable bitterness.
"Then come home," Quin said.
"No."
"Why? Why? Why would you choose them over us?"
"The Force brought me here," Obi-Wan said. "Mandalore needs me. But I'm no longer doing this because the Force told me to. I'm done wanting to be Jedi, in serving some greater power that doesn't give a damn about our suffering. I'm here because they are my family, because Mandalore deserves better. They deserve to find their way without the Republic or the Stih trying to ruin that."
"The Sith? Do you even hear yourself?" Quin asked. "This is arrogance, Obi-Wan, pure arrogance."
"I know myself, Quin. This is my choice, they are my family and my choice."
"And what am I? Or Master Feemor and the rest of the Order? We mourned you. We love you and we are your family."
"Master Feemor died because of me," Obi-Wan retorted.
Quin shook his head, "No, Obi-Wan, he didn't. He made it back to the ship with the youngling. He returned to the Temple without you. Master Feemor couldn't sense you afterward, and he did look. He was devastated, we all were. Where were you? How did you survive the bombing?"
That seemed to bring Obi-Wan to a halt, and his voice was weak when asked, "Master Feemor survived?"
"Yes," Quin said. "How did you?"
Obi-Wan was quiet for a long moment, "The Mandalorians… I was pushed into the river when the bomb went off and I was carried downstream where my aliit found me."
"If you have kept away blaming yourself for Feemor's death then come home," Quin pleaded. "We miss you, I miss you."
Obi-Wan shook his head, "No, I'm sorry, Quin, but I can't do that. This is my home."
"Meldaan?"
"What?" Obi-Wan asked, frowning before he got it and waved it away. "No, not here with the True Mandalorians. I belong with them."
Quin couldn't help but gape, "You joined the terrorist fraction?"
"What?" Obi-Wan asked again. "We aren't terrorists. Quin, the True Mandalorian Codex is like a less spiritual version of the Jedi code, we aren't terrorists."
"Actions speak louder than words," Quin retorted and pointed up at the sky. "They shot us out of the sky."
Obi-Wan frowned at him, "Our ships have been grounded for weeks. The di'kuts in the atmosphere are Death Watch. You know, the actual terrorists. Honestly, Quin, it's in their name, Death Watch."
Quin blinked, "Oh… I guess we had-"
"Faulty information?" Obi-Wan finished. "Yeah, just one more tick on historical failures of the Jedi Order with Mandalore."
Quin frowned, "That's not fair-"
"The hell it isn't. Anytime Mandalore stabilizes, either the Jedi or Sith kark things up for them."
Quin was pretty sure that was a gross misinterpretation of Mandalore's dark history but he stuck with what he knew, "Mandalorians hunt Jedi."
"Yeah, well, Jedi aren't always the peacemakers they proclaim to be."
Quin flinched, "Have you really come to hate us so much?"
Since things had begun to change and Mace Windu joined the Senate, the mistakes of their past had been brought up with more frequency.
Obi-Wan ran his hands over his face, "No, Quin… I just… I can't do it anymore. I no longer have faith that the Force is leading us down the right path and I can't… I can't go backwards anymore."
Quin stepped toward him, "You're a Force sensitive, Obi-Wan. Jedi or no, the Force will always be a part of you."
Even by moonlight, he could see Obi-Wan's eyes darken. "I don't want it."
"That's not a choice you have."
"I'm of age now, my life is my own. I don't have to do anything."
It dawned on Quin then, the aggression in his Force shielding finally making sense.
In the absence of light, there was darkness.
He couldn't keep the horror out of his voice, "You've been cutting yourself off from the Force."
"I don't need it."
"Obi-Wan!"
"You aren't going to change my mind on this."
"You've always been stubborn, but I never thought you were stupid. That's like willfully plucking out your own eyes."
"I don't need it," he insisted.
"What if something happens? What if you lose control?"
Obi-Wan shrugged, "I'll cross that bridge when I get there."
Quin narrowed his gaze, thinking over their discussion thus far, and asked a question he didn't want the answer to. "Are you afraid your new family will hurt you if you reveal the fact that you're a Force sensitive to them?"
"No, I think that's unlikely."
"But you aren't certain."
"It's not your-"
"The hell it isn't!" Quin exclaimed again, bridging the gap between them, putting his hands on his shoulders, and tried not to shake him. "I love you! You're my best friend in the entire galaxy! Your safety and happiness will always be my business."
Obi-Wan laid his hand over Quin's heart, "I'm sorry for the pain I've caused you, but this is my path."
Quin's com chimed and he answered it.
Obi-Wan put his hand on Quin's wrist, a warning.
A request.
-Padawan?
"Master, how goes it?" Quin said, flippant but lacking his normal tone of snark.
-I'm going to be delayed until morning, but I believe I found a transport. I also found where Tahl was being held. Everyone there was dead, I think she had help getting out.
Obi-Wan's hand tightened over his wrist.
Quin swallowed before answering, "I had a peek through my visions. My guess is that she, with the help of a Mando, flew out of range of the blockade over the city. She got away, and she was at least alive and bandaged when she took off."
Obi-Wan nodded.
-Hopeful. Anything else to report?
Obi-Wan seemed to be holding his breath.
"No," Quin lied.
-Very well. I'll com before I leave the hanger. Find somewhere to hide from any possible scouts. I'll com you again for a location.
"Yes, Master. May the Force be with you."
-And with you.
Quin pocketed the comlink and just stared down at his lost friend.
So lost, he didn't even know he needed finding.
Obi-Wan bit his lip and asked, "We have time… Do you… I mean, would you like to meet my family?"
Quin had to bite his tongue before he said something hurtful.
Hurt and guilt would not bring Obi-Wan home, and because he was still touching him. Quin was getting flashes of the combat his friend had been through, could feel the strain building as he shielded himself unwisely from the Force.
Most would say it would be impossible to shield yourself from the Force itself.
But Quin had done it after watching his parents die.
After living through the perspective of both dying and being their killer, he had fought the Force, tried turning his back on it.
He hadn't been successful, instead, he had almost fallen to the Dark Side. It didn't surprise him at all that someone like Obi-Wan who had a natural gift for shielding could walk that razor's edge of using power to negate power, to use feeling to negate feeling.
But Quin knew that no one could hold that line forever.
Eventually, Obi-Wan would be broken down, and Quin had to ensure that when he did, he would come back to the Order for help.
"Alright, I'm eager to learn who 'your' people are."
Obi-Wan frowned, "Break down your lightsaber. Encase the crystal in metal so no one can catch its glow."
"Excuse you."
"Come on, Quin," Obi-Wan almost whined. "You can put it back together in seconds."
"You want me to hide myself." More pressingly, walk into a Mando camp with no weapon.
"You're a Shadow in training, isn't that literally your profession? I can't introduce you as my friend if you're a Jedi."
"Why?"
"Because this war has everyone pissed off, throwing a Jedi into the mix isn't going to help."
"You know, you're not really selling me on these people being good for you, right?"
"Come on, Quin. Neither Mandalorians nor the Jedi have unfounded reasons for not trusting each other. But I'm telling you, that these warriors are good people. Jango Fett adopted me even though he thought I was from an enemy clan."
"So who are the child-nappers now?"
Obi-Wan shoved him a bit, "Not like that. He needed my permission to do so and I could divorce him whenever I liked if it came to that."
"So, just like the Jedi then?"
Obi-Wan smirked, "Pretty much, just don't try to tell them that. They are more proud than Ki-Adi Mundi."
Quin sighed, "Fine, I'll meet your new bounty hunter family."
"Said the space wizard," Obi-Wan quipped.
Quin dropped his forehead to Obi-Wan's which seemed to relax him more even than the hug had, "I've missed you so much."
Obi-Wan let out a long breath and said, "I love you too."
They stayed like that for a minute beneath the moonlight before Obi-Wan took his hand and led him across the barren land.
"How was Master Tahl?" Quin asked. "Did she recognize you? I know you don't know her well or anything but you've seen each other around."
"No, she didn't. The Melida injured her eyes. I'm honestly not sure if she will ever regain her sight."
Quin's gut twisted, "But she will live?"
Obi-Wan nodded, thankfully not putting back on the helmet he had picked up as they walked. "Yeah, she should. She had enough fuel and was able to make the jump to hyperspace."
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
Quin sighed and pulled out his saber, using the Force to break it down, looping the pieces together so though the pieces didn't look like a lightsaber, nothing was likely to fall out of his pocket. He even wrapped a thin piece of metal around the kyber to keep it safe from view.
"How did you know where she would be if you have been shielding yourself from the Force?"
He shrugged, "I had a vision, I guess."
"So you haven't been completely successful in keeping the Force out."
"Quin, if I was completely successful, I would be dead. It's in everything. I just don't actively use it."
"Bet that makes life hard."
He shrugged, "Mandalorians train to be the best, they are the equal to Jedi without the Force."
"Right. And that's why the most famous Mandalorian in history was a Temple drop out."
"Quin."
"Obi-Wan."
Obi-Wan sighed, "Promise not to reveal me or yourself."
"I wouldn't endanger you, but you need to know how disappointed I am in you for endangering yourself and playing these games."
"I can accept that, but you aren't going to change my mind."
Quin sighed, "Of course not, because admitting you're wrong would be the simple thing to do."
Obi-Wan flashed him a grin, "You think any of this is simple?"
Quin frowned at him.
Obi-Wan bumped his shoulder back, "So… Mace is the Senator of Coruscant and Kashyyyk?"
Quin smiled, "Things change, and Obi-Wan, they are so much better. The Corps recentred at the Knight's Temple."
"The Corps-members and their families?"
"Yep, the creches are giant now."
"Bet that helps with new Padawans being less afraid about failing out."
Quin nodded, "A lot of initiates are choosing a Corp over pursuing being a Knight. Especially the Explorecorps. With more people it feels bigger, more colourful, just more, but the peace is there. Also, Wookies are great."
Obi-Wan grinned, "Yeah, they are. 'The Gate to the Underworld' Academy sounds cool."
Quin laughed, "They have to keep the ages young right now, but Alderaan and a few other Senators and rich people are following the Jedi's example."
Obi-Wan reached over and tugged on his Padawan braid, distinct from the others by the cords that wrapped around it, markers of his missions.
"I like your braids."
Quin shrugged, "Sian Jeisel, we ended up on a mission together for three month with not much to do."
"Suits you, easier to change for missions if you needed to."
Quin snorted, "Of course you would see a fashion choice as something practical."
"Tell me it wasn't why you kept them?"
Quin might have kept them in reality because they were neater and because of that they reminded him of Obi-Wan, but he nodded all the same and said, "Yeah, more styles to annoy my Master with."
"Tholme doesn't honestly care."
"On his good days," he quipped.
Obi-Wan looked dramatically astonished, "Wait, he has though?"
Quin smiled but his heart hurt knowing that so I-Wan depart with him.
As they walked, he tried not to pick too hard at Obi-Wan's shield that radiated pain. Obi-Wan was so gifted with the Force, more powerful than Quin, certainly, but more than that…
Obi-Wan always had such a beautiful relationship with the Force. Everyone who knew Obi-Wan envied him for it. Maybe he didn't always hear it or actively acknowledge it, but it was so clear to those who wanted to see it was Obi-Wan's deep roots with the Light Side of the Force.
And how the Force seemed to love him in turn.
To see Obi-Wan not wanting that, was like seeing a true love partner in the middle of a messy divorce.
Of course, Obi-Wan's aura was quickly overshadowed by the …well, the personalities of the Mandos camped around fire hidden in a cliff side cave.
A Mando in blue and polished beskar stood up and, if Quin had to guess, swearing at Obi-Wan.
Although, Quin felt more worry than anger from the man with tightly curled dark hair and russet skin. He had left his helmet by his seat and was gesturing wildly.
It wasn't until Obi-Wan responded in turn, also with hand gestures, that he realized that it was a form of sign language. He caught the words Kiffar and his own name before Obi-Wan switched to Basic.
"Quin, this is my father, Jango Fett. Sitting is my grandfather, Jaster Mereel, then Agni, Maas, and Micah."
The others followed suit on switching to Basic.
Maas, a young man with broad shoulders, sniggered. He too spoke while signing, "Nice accent there, Alor'ika."
Obi-Wan flipped him off.
Micah, the pale boy with black hair signed without speaking.
Maas grinned a wolf's smile as he signed and spoke, "He sounds like a Core politician."
"Enough," Jango Fett, the Jango Fett who was on a wanted list along with the Jaster Mereel. "Obi'ika where did you go? And how did a boy from Kiffar get here?"
"My father and I crashed," Quin supplied, Obi-Wan signing in translation.
"Did he survive?" Jango asked with startling intensity.
Most people didn't want to ask that or began with false sympathy when it came to facing a stranger's grief. To this man's credit, he seemed to actually care.
"Yes," Quin said, "He's off stealing a ship, it was just fate I ran into Obi'ika."
Obi-Wan glared at him and signed something that clearly was not a translation.
Micah smiled widely and asked something.
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and asked Quin, "He asked if you are broken too? By which he means flexible."
Quin shrugged, "Not as broken."
Obi-Wan's flexibility was scary even for a Jedi.
Obi-Wan translated as he spoke, again adding something at the end.
Micah laughed, a somewhat coughing sound that indicated that he was deaf, not mute. He patted the seat on a raised rock and Quin sat, Obi-Wan on his other side. Micah handed him a ration that Quin accepted.
He wouldn't be getting any food likely until they got back into space.
What followed was Obi-Wan translating between him and Micah swapping stories about the trouble they had gotten into in their respective pasts with Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan took all the teasing gracefully and he laughed right along with them.
Quin would have enjoyed it more if he didn't have to alter so much of his speech and leave out so many names to keep the Jedi and the Temple out of the stories.
Which was mildly difficult considering that had been their home. Though referencing sneaking out into the city was easily vague enough. The adults for the most part just listened.
Two of the warriors, Agni and Maas, opted to get some sleep before dawn came while Micah insisted on staying up with Obi-Wan, knowing that Quin would be off soon.
It was bittersweet, but somehow, the Force seemed pleased, as if —despite Obi-Wan's shielding against it— this is what the Force intended to happen.
All is as the Force wills it.
Quin just prayed he was doing the right thing in letting Obi-Wan hold onto his secrets and that one day he would return to them.
Beyond that survive, because a growing part of him did worry that Obi-Wan was right not to tell the Order he had lived.
In war, chances of surviving were always up in the air, especially if your grandfather was Jaster Mereel and Jango Fett.
Sure, they might be two of the most deadly warriors of their day when you discounted the Jedi, but if the True Mandalorians were the good guys —as Obi-Wan insisted— then that meant Death Watch had a lot of pull around the galaxy to muddle the matter that deeply.
If that were true, things on Mandalore were far more complicated and far more deadly than Quin wanted to imagine.
Jango kept exchanging glances with Jaster as story after story from Quinlan Vos, a Kiffar from the planet of Kiffu, painted a rather intimate friendship with Obi-Wan.
There was nothing from Quinlan's stories, save for training and sparring that made Jango think he was in any way associated with Mandalore or Death Watch.
Which begged the question, where had Quinlan and Obi-Wan grown up?
They made it sound as if they had known each other for years.
It was confusing, more so because of the language aspect.
Quin seemed to speak absolutely no Mando'a.
Conversely, up until today, Jango had never heard Obi'ika speaking anything but Mando'a since finding him on Stewjon.
Except Obi'ika's Basic was flawless, and as Maas had noted, deeply Core influenced. It was peculiar and confusing and made Jango doubt everything he thought he knew about his ad'ika.
Jaster seemed to think the same as frown deepened, probably doing the same mental gymnastics Jango was, looking for the connection between a Kiffar to a Death Watch youngling.
Even Quinlan's self-censor, indicated by his slight hesitation and rephrasing, indicated that Obi-Wan and his mysterious friend were keeping secrets. The Kiffar teen was a good liar but he couldn't be older than seventeen years old and still had some growing to do in the art of deception.
At least, Jango was relatively sure that the Kiffar wasn't a Watch agent and that Obi'ika hadn't betrayed their location to the enemy —even inadvertently. Of course, Jango still didn't know where Obi'ika had disappeared to the previous afternoon.
Perhaps because he saw Quinlan's ship crash? Or perhaps intercepted a help signal? Maybe they had even kept in touch over the years, though that seemed unlikely.
No, the only thing that was truly clear was that Quinlan seemed to adore Obi-Wan and Obi'ika in turn seemed overjoyed to have someone from his past beside him.
It wouldn't have been so unsettling if the only name he had from Obi-Wan's past was Cody not Quinlan who appeared to be a closer and dearer friend than Micah was to Obi-Wan now.
But what really got Jango, what halted the questions in his mind was when he and Jaster escorted the two boys further from camp so Quinlan's buir could collect his ad. Micah stayed on watch with Agni who had woken to prepare his morning tea.
In the light of morning, Obi'ika's eyes were a flawless blue, ocean deep and brightly hued.
Blue.
Not grey.
Blue.
Jango couldn't take his gaze away from his ad'ika who was smiling up at Quin like he was the brightest star in the sky. Not until Obi-Wan decided to put his helmet back on as they waited for Quinlan's unnamed father.
Why had Obi-WAN's eyes turn blue, because he was happy or sad? Only Jango had seen both emotions from his ad'ika and never seen them go blue before, only lighter or darker grey.
When the stolen ship did arrive, landing a few yards away, the two boys said their final goodbyes.
They hugged each other, like brothers, like friends who never thought they would meet again and who never thought to once more in this life.
Quinlan whispered something near Obi'ika's ear.
Jango didn't quite hear what Obi-Wan said but Quinlan raised his voice to be heard over the ship's engine that did not turn off even as the hatch lowered.
"What does that mean?" the Kiffar asked.
"Maybe we will meet again."
Quin flashed Obi'ika a large smile, "No maybes." And he went to the hatch, climbing up the later and looking back with profound sadness that was at odd with the boy's youth.
Obi'ika signed goodbye, leaving Jango wondering —again at a loss— about the Stewjoni's background and the quiet burdens he carried and never shared.
Jaster signed while Obi'ika watched Quinlan's ship disappear from view, "Not the Watch. Not just a Stewjoni."
Which begged the question, Where was he from then? What was his history?
Jango knew better than to think he could simply ask those questions head on. Obi'ika was too sly for his own good, but now that he knew there was more history that went beyond the Watch, he would listen for it.
Not that it mattered overly much, whatever Obi'ika's past was, that didn't change who was today, nor who he was to Jango and their clan.
If only Obi-Wan understood that.
AN: Thoughts, puppies, and feedback?