Hey

Hey. Thanx for the reviews to everyone who gave me one. I'm glad you find it interesting cuz that's what I was going for. Also, if anyone has any info on the Ilum caves, just the planet in general, or how Jedi choose lightsaber crystals I would appreciate it. All I have to go by is Wookiepedia. Oh, and this takes place about three months before TPM. Well I won't bore you with another long AN.

Key:

The Force speaking

'Speaking to the Force/Mother/Crystal'

Mother/Crystal speaking

"Galactic Basic speaking"

/Other language speaking/

'Telepathy'

Thought

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot and the minor OC characters.

Enjoy!

Child of Ilum

Chapter 1: The Others, The Jedi

Jedi Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi was no stranger to the ways of the Force. In his relatively short life, he had been subject to many of the Force's aspects, sometimes enjoying a new revelation, but usually wishing it had come to him in a less life threatening way. It was times such as these, when he was trudging through many feet of snow, that he wished he could escape the Force's way of Punishment and ignore anything It said. Unfortunately, this was not to be.

It had been a recent mission, a simple wedding guard on Achillea, or it was supposed to be at least. Obi-Wan's friend/rival had managed to insult the Lord's fiancée by accidentally stating her opinion on the Lady's gown aloud. Needless to say, the Lady told her fiancé, who told the guards, who began firing. It wouldn't have been so hard if the blaster shots hadn't conveniently hit the padawans' lightsaber hilts, effectively ruining them beyond any repair (not to mention almost searing off their hands in the process).

Bant Eerin and Garen Muln, the two other padawans assigned to the mission, were even more displeased than their masters for the unfortunate event, having both just created new lightsabers the previous month. So, here they were, four padawans and their masters, trudging through the snow of Ilum in order to reach the Crystal Caves. Obi-Wan was not happy.

But it wasn't just the snow or the frigid temperatures that had Obi-Wan on edge. No, there was something here, elusive though it was. The padawan couldn't remember if he had felt it before when he had first come to the planet, but he knew that it wasn't just a gorgodon. In fact, now that he noticed it, the presence of another was almost impossible to ignore.

"Master, do you feel that?" If there was one person here who Obi-Wan could trust, it was his master, Qui-Gon Jinn. He always seemed to know when something was wrong, and the padawan respected him immensely.

"Feel what, padawan?"

"That presence. I've never felt anything like it." Obi-Wan turned to look at his master's face, confusion written in his eyes.

"Presence?" Qui-Gon asked. Looking at his apprentice's face, the older Jedi closed his eyes and reached out into the Force. He searched for a few minutes, during which time the other Jedi stopped and waited, before opening his eyes again.

"I couldn't feel anything beyond the normal gorgodon, padawan. Perhaps that's what you sense." But Obi-Wan shook his head and his master sent him a puzzled look.

"No master. I know what those creatures feel like, but this feeling is…different. It's almost playful actually." He gave his master another confused glance. "Does that make sense master?"

Qui-Gon pondered this and shared a glance with Adi Gallia, another Jedi on the mission and Siri Tachi's master. The female Jedi nodded her head and began to search for the feeling, the others soon following her example. Another moment passed and Obi-Wan began losing his newly acquired patience.

Siri was the first to open her eyes and shook her head 'no' as she did so. The other Jedi didn't feel anything either.

"But I know I felt something. I can still feel it even stronger than before."

"You're probably just imagining things Obi-Wan. We all know how much you hate flying, maybe this is just a result of the long flight." Garen was probably right, but Obi-Wan couldn't set aside his anxiety. He knew that as a Jedi he should set all his emotions aside, but this was just so overpowering, it was almost impossible.

"Yeah…" But he sounded uncertain, eyes darting back and forth for a moment.

Qui-Gon, feeling that if they didn't move soon they would all freeze, began to move forward towards the icy fortress of the caves. The other Jedi followed him, Obi-Wan lagging behind looking apprehensive.

As the eight people entered the caves, they immediately searched their surroundings for any sign of gorgodons. Finding none within range, they set out for their destination at the cave's center.

The crystal caverns were a marvel all on their own, but they did not compare to the splendor of the cave's main room. Columns of icy rock imbued with crystals of magnificent colors surrounded the room. At the center was a raised dais of rock and spiraling above it was a winding ramp that led to a loft above. It truly was a magnificent spectacle.

Normally Obi-Wan would have spent his time absorbing the beauty of the room, but the presence he had felt would not leave him alone. It reminded him of an annoying child who kept repeating the same question over and over again to the same person just to be an annoyance. The twenty-five year old padawan didn't understand how none of his comrades could feel it.

"You're brooding again Obi." Siri Tachi snapped him out of his thoughts. "How many times have we told you that brooding is not good for your health. You're gonna be gray by the time you're thirty."

Obi-Wan glared, "Yes, and we'll all know who to blame, won't we Siri?"

"Yep! Master Jinn of course. He never does seem to follow the rules; must grate on your nerves quite a bit doesn't it?" She sent him a smug smirk, the other Jedi, sans Obi-Wan, chuckling in front of them.

"Oh yes, quite." The young man managed to growl out.

"Now, now, Obi-Wan it's for your own good. Force knows how dull you'd be without Master Jinn." She said, smirk still present on her face.

"I'm not dull, Siri, I'm level-headed. Unlike you, for whom we have to thank for coming here." A dark cloud seemed to have permanently settled over Obi-Wan's head.

"Oh come on. It's not my fault that dress was ugly!" She pouted, turning her head and crossing her arms.

"It wasn't ugly, Siri, and even if you thought so, you didn't have to go shouting it out for the whole galaxy to hear."

"Actually, Obi, the dress was rather ugly." Bant added her two credits to the conversation, a sheepish expression crossing her face.

Siri nodded her head vigorously. "See, Bant agrees with me. Thank you Bant."

"I'm still mad at you."

Wagging her finger in a scolding manner, Siri replied, "Now, now Bant, anger leads to the Dark Side."

"Acting on my anger does, but feeling it before releasing it into the Force is another thing entirely." The Mon Calamari replied.

"Well, you're certainly taking your sweet time releasing it, aren't you?" The question was rhetorical, but Bant felt the need to reply anyway.

"This is the second saber I've had to make in the past three months. I'd say I'm entitled to be a bit perturbed." She turned to Garen. "Right?"

The other padawan nodded his head vigorously. No matter how sweet Bant usually was, she had a rather dangerous temper that any self-respecting person would want to avoid. Plus, he did have to agree with her; lightsaber parts were not cheep and building one was annoyingly time consuming.

Siri rolled her eyes and smiled at Obi-Wan, their former banter forgotten as they reached the stone dais. Each padawan separated and went with their respective masters, stretching out with the Force to find a crystal.

While normally an easy task for Jedi whom have made a lightsaber before, Obi-Wan was having an increasingly difficult time of locating a crystal that suited his purposes. As this was the second lightsaber he was making, the other having lasted many years, the padawan felt that he should have been having an easy time of it. Unfortunately, the annoying presence he kept feeling wasn't giving him any room to think. It was like a constant itch in the back of his mind now, but while he could usually ignore something like this, the feeling was persistent.

What really bothered Obi-Wan wasn't just the presence itself, but that fact that only he seemed to be able to feel it. His master almost never failed in feeling anything unusual, so the fact that this time it was only Obi-Wan who could sense something was troubling. It was almost enough to make the padawan feel insane. But, he didn't want to bother his master again with phantom feelings, so, even though his instincts screamed at him not to do it, he started to ignore the strange feeling. Unfortunately for him, this would prove to be a bad idea.

The boy was a very good at heart, always kind to the rare life forms he met on the desolate planet, but that was not to say that he was without the spark of a child. He was after all, a nine-year-old boy, and little boys generally tend to get into more mischief than little girls (although this is not to say that girls are not mischievous, they just generally happen to be more secretive about it). This particular tow-headed boy was no exception.

Now, the child was extremely good at hiding, so much so that even experienced Jedi Masters couldn't sense him. So, imagine his surprise when the seemingly insignificant padawan was able to feel him in the Force when he hadn't even entered the caves yet. It was quite a shock indeed.

He had spend all of his life watching the Jedi, watching as they focused on his Sisters and Brothers, making Them into the perfect protectors. He dared not use the word weapon, for it felt to impure, tainted almost. But, he was getting off track. The point was that no Jedi, no matter their level, had ever managed to sense him. This young Jedi was different.

The blue-eyed child had felt it when the padawan had sensed him and it scared the boy at first. It was almost like Father had hit him on the back and forced him to turn his head in the direction he wanted. But once he found the source it was almost impossible to ignore the need to keep an eye on. He could feel the padawan searching for him, sensing him unlike his master and companions. So, the boy felt he might give the young Jedi an extra nudge.

It seemed to work, as he could feel the padawan's interest in this sudden anomaly begin to grow. The boy watched as the Jedi began to search for crystals, and he felt more than saw the strange padawan begin to get agitated by his presence. It was rather fun to be able to annoy someone new; his Siblings were too used to him to fall prey to any of his mischief. Then, he felt the beginning of being ignored.

Now, if there was anything in the galaxy that grated on the boy's nerves it was being ignored. Not being sensed was one thing as that felt more like a game than anything else, but when he was purposefully ignored he just couldn't stand it. It was fun to fool a Jedi, but it was not fun to made the fool.

So, in order to be acknowledged again, the boy felt it was his duty to help the Jedi out. If he helped the Jedi, then he would have to stop ignoring him. The boy knew what the Jedi was looking for, a Crystal. Now, it was common knowledge among his Family that when a Crystal was destroyed It's presence was sent back to Mother and reborn. Crystals grew rapidly, so all the child had to do was find the padawan's "old" crystal and…return it to him.

Most Jedi don't realize that what attracts them to a Crystal is a bond so deep in the Force that it is actually unable to be felt, and when they have to rebuilt a lightsaber, they have to find that bond again, even though they don't realize it. The boy, however, knew exactly which of his Brothers had been with that particular padawan as it was written in his Force signature.

It wasn't that hard to figure out as the color of one's Crystal was reflected in the color of their signature. Just as no two hilts were the same, the color of the blade was never the same unless it belonged to the same Jedi. While the colors may look similar at a quick glance, each blade was actually a different shade upon closer inspection, making it easy to determine which Brother the young Jedi had had. All the child had to do was match the Force signature with that of a Crystal and that was that. Of course the fact that he could talk to his Siblings helped quite a bit.

His Brother wasn't hard to find, nor was he very far away from the spot the boy had been sitting in. Not many Jedi came up to the loft so the possibility of the padawan being able to find it were very slim, meaning that he would have had to pick a Substitute. It was a known fact that Substitutes didn't work as well as the Crystal meant for a Jedi.

At nine-years of age, the boy was very strong, but it did help that his Brother wanted to be found. After pulling the Crystal free from the icy rocks, the thin little boy had a very hard decision to make (at least it was hard for him).

He could walk down from the loft and place it conveniently in the young Jedi's way, but that would violate what his Father told him to do about being hidden. He could also just walk right up and give it him, but that would really go against Father as, unlike his former plan, there was no slim chance of him remaining undetected. Then of course, there was the fun plan.

He had always wanted to just drop a Crystal onto a Jedi's unsuspecting head, like the squeriks on trees that he seen when Father let him view the galaxy. It had always amused him, but he would have to ask his Brother's permission first. He didn't know if the Crystal would like being dropped several hundred feet only to land on the hard cranium of a Jedi apprentice. Somehow, that just didn't seem pleasant. But, it was worth a try.

'Brother, how would you like to learn to fly?'

It was times such as these that Obi-Wan Kenobi wished he had listened to his instincts. They had told him that ignoring the feeling in his mind was a bad idea, but did he listen to them? No, and now he was paying for it with a huge lump beginning to form on his head.

He didn't know how it had happened exactly, one moment he was searching for a crystal and the next thing he knew his master was holding a bacta pack to his throbbing skull. When he managed to finally ask what happened without feeling the need to throw up, his master just held out a large blue crystal, a perfect size for his lightsaber as well as the exact color he was looking for.

The other padawans had already been in a meditative state with their new crystals for several hours, so with nothing else to go on, Obi-Wan took the crystal from Qui-Gon and began to study it.

It was like meeting an old friend, although the padawan sort of wished that this friend had decided to drop in a different way. It was perfectly shaped, a good, clean cut and it would fit in perfectly with his lightsaber. And so, with a shrug, Obi-Wan began meditating on his new crystal. It didn't even bother him when he felt a strange sort of smug happiness faintly echo in his mind.

Human though he was, the boy had never had the need to eat, sleep, drink, or even use a fresher. Most of the time this didn't bother him, but now as he sat here waiting for the Jedi to finish, he wished that sleep would come to him if only just to waste time. He knew he could have spent the time with his Family, but he had said his good-byes already and he really didn't want to make leaving any harder.

It truly was a miracle the boy wasn't insane, but he had learned patience a long time ago even with his hyper tendencies. However, patience wasn't a strong point, making the wait seem that much longer. So, he passed the time making small talk with Eldest Brother and Father. They wanted him to practice with his protector, which he did of course, but even that couldn't hold his attention for too long.

Three days came and went before the boy began to toy with the idea of waking the Jedi up himself. He knew that that would ruin the whole ceremony, but no matter how un-human he appeared to be, he had the attention span of about a hungry five year old. Just went he was about to scream in frustration, he felt the young padawans begin to come out of there meditative states. Finally, he could reveal himself.

Chuckling softly to himself, the boy began his quite decent down the ramp.

I feel like an evil mastermind in a cheesy holofilm.

Never had Obi-Wan felt so at peace. He could feel his lightsaber become complete in his hands as the two metal sides connected around the crystal and fuse together. The galaxy and the Force seemed so much clearer in meditation that it truly was a challenge for the young Jedi apprentice to return to the real world, where peace was a rare find.

But there was something there, something pulling at the back of his mind again. It was the same presence he had been feeling the whole time, the meditation having only dulled it. Now, it was stronger, closer, and Obi-Wan wasn't sure he liked that.

He didn't want to open his eyes, and truthfully, he probably wouldn't have, had the presence not been so persistent. He debated on cracking just one eye open first before deciding that if he wanted this to stop, he would should get it over with as soon as possible. So, stealing his resolve, he breathed a great sigh and opened his eyes.

There, staring right at him not even three inches from his face, was a smirking, blond-hair, blue-eyed, little boy of about nine-years of age that Obi-Wan knew had not been there before. So, his brain not think so much as a Jedi, but more a normal person, the padawan did exactly what any normal person would do in such a situation.

He screamed.

Well, there you have it. Chapter one is done and I stayed up all night to do it. It is currently 4:24 AM and I am ready for bed. Oh and if I forgot to mention, this is NOT SLASH! I have nothing against it personally, but I just don't like writing it.

So, goodnight everyone, please review (BUT DON'T FLAME!) If you don't like it then don't read it.

See you all later!

--TimeMage0955