Qui-Gon descended the cruiser's ramp, with his heart in his throat. His friend Mace Windu was waiting for him on the platform. The force energies swirling around the usually cool and collected Jedi Master were all wrong. Now Qui-Gon was frightened and he quickened his strides to meet his comrade.

"Tell me!" he almost shouted.

"Qui, I'm so..."

"Obi-Wan?" His hands were shaking now.

"He's dying." Mace reached out to touch his friends arms, but was roughly shaken off. "We don't have long. Come with me."

Qui-Gon pushed his face into the other Jedi's. "You're lying. That just can't be I spoke to him. He..."

"It just happened. There isn't much time." Mace answered already leading his friend into the temple.

Mace decided there was no point in arguing. Unfortunately, his friend would know the terrible truth soon enough. As they ran through the hallways of the Jedi Temple, he tried to explain what had happened, but knew that Qui-Gon wasn't listening.

'Lying, he's lying, he has to be lying. This can't be true, but it is isn't it? No, no, no, NO!' The words spun through his head, making him feel ill. Mace was speaking to him. The words Seltaris Syndrome, congenital defect, two percent of Denarians hung in the air over his head, but he would not accept them into his heart. Finally after what felt like an eternity they arrived at Master Healer Leeto Plujlor's door. Now real fear gripped him. He would open that door and his life would be forever changed. He did his best to release his fear to the force, but it clung to him. He shook enough of it to open the door, open the door and accept the will of the force. However nothing prepared him for what he was to find.

Obi-Wan was lying on a bed, still as stone and as pale as the white walls surrounding him. Ringing the bed, were Leeto, Master Yoda, Knight Ki-Adi-Mundi, and another healer Qui-Gon didn't know. They were each touching the boy, eyes closed, deep in meditation. He ran to his Padawan's side, scooping up the boy's hand and gasped. Obi-Wan's skin was cold.

*The time grows short, my Padawan.* Master Yoda spoke his mind, drawing him into their meditation.

*Say goodbye you must.*

Qui-Gon was now aware that his Padawan's spirit had already fled his body and it was only the Jedi Masters control of the force that held on to the boy. They had done this for him, so that he would have the comfort of last words with his...his son. There was no point denying it now, now that it was too late.

*I can't Master. Please hold on to him, please keep him here.*

*Keep him I cannot. The call of the force is strong for this one. Goodbye you must say, or regret it you will. Release our hold on him we will.* Yoda's gentle voice receded, leaving Qui-Gon alone in his darkest nightmare. He felt the Masters pull away.

*No! No!* Then a distant voice came to him, unbearably weak and tired. *I'm so tired Master, so tired.*

*Rest, my son, rest and know that I love you and will carry you with me always.* And then the light, the spirit that was Obi-Wan was gone and Qui-Gon's heart shattered into a million pieces. Through the fog of his now lonely meditation he heard a desperate wailing. The sobs were more animal than human and they tore at his soul. 'Stop it! Stop it!' he wanted to scream, until he realized that the sobs were coming from his own throat and he surrendered to them. He was thrown out of his trance into the arms of his friends, supporting him as he fell to the ground, aching from the sobs being ripped from him.

His son was dead.

Unable to accept the comfort or bear the pain it was meant to assuage, Qui-Gon had thrown off the compassionate touches of his friends and peers. He put up the strongest mental shields he'd ever managed and felt as if he had been cut off from the part of himself that was wounded, dying. It had felt so good to disconnect from the pain, to not have to feel the minds of others brushing against his trying to heal him. It wasn't easy to maintain, but it was easier than facing the loss. He knew it was impossible. Even now the living force called to him to accept and experience all that the moment held, even the pain.

He pushed his turbulent emotions aside as he prepared for Obi-Wan's funeral. He insisted upon doing this alone. He carried his padawan's lifeless body to the pyre and laid him down upon it. He arranged the boy's robe around him and crossed Obi-Wan's arms across his chest, he noticed his large hands shaking as they moved his padawan's. He willed the shaking to cease. He was determined to keep his Jedi compsure. He arranged the padawan braid and stepped back. He looked at the boy's face, taking in every nuance. The ginger hair, once again in need of a trim; the cheeks, still vaguely chubby and childlike; and the mouth, where Obi-Wan displayed his emotions. At barely fifteen, the apprentice had already mastered the Jedi skill of keeping his eyes impassive and emotionless betraying nothing. Obi-Wans mouth, though, had betrayed everything by the simple twitch of his lips. The corners curled up ever so slightly when he was laughing at some inner joke. They drew to one side when he had achieved a hard-earned goal. Qui-Gon knew the way he would remember that mouth was pulled down and pursed together. He would remember it because he couldn't really place the emotion. Was it the just the studious seriousness, he had always assumed it was? Now he would be left to wonder if it was something else, something deeper.

An unwanted streak of sunlight swept through the room. The funeral would begin shortly. Certainly pride was not a worthy emotion for a Jedi Master to share with his padawan, but he could at least have shown Obi-Wan just how thankful he was. Thankful for sharing his life with him and becoming his son.

"Still with you he is." Yoda had completely surprised him. The wizened Master had his mental shields firmly in place as well. "And with you always will he be."

"Do you believe that is consolation to me now?" Qui-Gon responded coldly.

"Consolation it is not, truth it is. Time a Master needs. Time a father needs. Recover from this death you will."

"There is no death, only the Force" scoffed the younger master.

"Correct you are, unless in the heart the death is." Yoda's words were gentle.

Qui-Gon shut his eyes. Shut out the setting sun, the mouth that would no longer show mirth, or care, or even sadness, and Yoda's gentle eyes. He locked it all out, forever.

"Time it is."

"Yes Master." he responded.