He followed her inside the Temple, down the twisting corridors and around sharp corners, seeing by her rapid gait and clenched fists that she was doing all she could not to punch a wall or two in frustration. She took another corner and delved even deeper into the labyrinth of the Temple, hurrying down into a sparsely lit hallway with precious few windows and a slightly disused feeling. There was another eerie feeling of déjà vu pricking at the back of Qui-Gon's mind, and he with a slight jolt he realized where she was going. It was a path he had trodden many times during his intensive training at the Jedi Temple, and it led to the expansively dusty library. He couldn't quite recall the exact interior of the vaulted room, but he remembered the hours he had spent frantically searching for the answer to a particularly tricky question his master asked him. If he wasn't trying to impress his former Master - which had been Count Dooku (Sith, I feel old) - it would be spent curled in a corner pursuing a dry scroll which went into infinite detail on the complexities of trading systems in outer rim planets.
Fortunately, he was in time to see her yank open the massive stone doors to the library and storm inside, leaving behind a virtual trail of anger and grief in the Force, the emotional ripple swelling to a tidal wave whence she was fully inside the doors. He sped up slightly and caught the edge of the door before it slammed shut and slipped inside with scarcely a sound. He needn't have bothered with being so quiet - he could have led a fully-grown male Bantha in the prime of mating season inside the library, and he doubted that either the furious Padawan nor the ancient librarian would had noticed. The librarian was a hawk-nosed Jedi with a pair of rimless spectacles perched on his beaky nose. His eyes were pasted to a scroll which was apparently extremely interesting, because he neither glanced nor acknowledged Qui-Gon or La'Ana's arrival. He merely licked a finger and unrolled a bit more of the scroll.
He found her on a window seat, her knees locked tightly to her chest as she stared out the window. The window panes were so dusty it was hard to believe they had ever been anything other that opaque, but Ana must have owned a preciously vivid imagination, because the lack of viewing didn't seem to bother her. Also, he strongly suspected that she could have been staring at a brick wall and she would have seen the same thing. Her green eyes were suddenly very bright and hard as she glared at the glass; her fingers curled into tight fists as she considered smashing a window. The cheeky Knight - waltzing up to her and asking her to spar! She knew she was being angry over the most ridiculous thing in her life, but she had to be angry at something. And Master I'm-so-important-I'll-ask-you-to-spar Jinn was a perfect target, seeing as she knew practically nothing about him.
Master I'm-so-important-I'll-ask-you-to-spar Jinn was watching her with something of a pitying look in his dark blue eyes. Her eyes were suddenly very dark and wet; he wagered she would burst into tears, but she exhibited a remarkably unhealthy self-restraint and suppressed them with a few deep breaths that sounded like dry sobs. She buried her face in her locked arms and knees and gritted her teeth. She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't, she wouldn't! The urge to bawl her eyes out vanished all of a sudden as she bit down on her arm slightly. The wave of an almost insurmountable self-pity dissolved, and she was left with a foolishly angry feeling. She was so deep into her savage thoughts that she almost didn't hear the deep voice posing a sincerely sympathetic question to her.
Almost, but no quite. "Are you all right, La'Ana?" he asked in a gentle growl. Her head jerked up, and he saw her eyes were fiercely dry. She pertained more stubbornness than he had originally thought. For an instant, the pettish and childish desire to throw a temper tantrum greatly appealed to her for a moment, and then it passed. She expelled a whoosh of air from her lungs, wishing she could dispel the grief in her heart that easily.
"Perfectly fine, Master Jinn." she said brusquely. "I didn't think Master's knew about the library. I admit I am one of the only students who uses it."
"All Masters were once Padawans, La'Ana," he reminded her. "And you might be surprised to learn that I was one of the few students who frequented this library when I was an apprentice." For a moment, a dull sort of interest piqued her eyes and stayed there, then it flickered down to a tempered look of slight attention.
"Fascinating." she said shortly. The sarcasm that icily spiked each word did not go amiss by Qui-Gon. Suddenly she got up and went over to him. Once again he noted how very small and slim she was. If it wasn't for her regally mature face, her diminutive height suggested a fifteen year old. "May I ask why you are suddenly so interested in my affairs, Master Jinn?" she asked coldly. The tone she was using would have been promptly squashed upon by her former master, Wathearu, but she was confident that this Knight - despite his senior years and obviously large stronghold of accumulated wisdom - would never be her master. In the next sentence he blew her factual thought to smithereens.
"Because I have been asked by the Council to train you for a period of one year. I wish you to be my Padawan learner." Qui-Gon said simply. The black shock that was written on her face in permanent marker was bordering on priceless, but there was so much venom in the next glare she gave him that any thought of humor was sat upon.
"I have only one master in this world, Master Jinn," she hissed angrily. "And it is due to my severe disobedience and incompetence that he is now one with the Force. You will never be my Master, and neither will anyone else. I have no desire of completing my training; I will withdraw myself from the Order and -"
She got no further. Qui-Gon moved faster than she would have believed possible for a man of his considerable size and practically pinned her against the wall. Despite the swiftness and suddenness of this action, his dark blue eyes were serene yet firm. "You are not thinking clearly," he said in that growl of a voice that slapped her back to reality. "You are allowing your emotions to get the better of you and not releasing your energy into the Force. Think clearly, La'Ana! You are a talented Jedi, and eventually you will make a strong Knight. But you allow your feelings to control you. Think first, and then act! Your training must be completed. If you will not have me as a Master I am sure the Council will assign a less patient man to tame your temper." He paused, and for the first time she saw a scar in his serenity, a hairline crack in his peaceful exterior. "Know this, La'Ana. I have failed a Padawan, and I vowed on that day that I would never take another as long as I lived. If you accept me as a Master, I will risk breaking this vow in order for you to fulfill your destiny and complete your training."
She pushed herself out of his firm grasp and sat down hard on the window seat. Her breathing was very hard to catch for some reason, and her throat felt like she had swallowed a block of concrete. The urge to cry once again assaulted her system, but she forced this and the stone lump back down into her stomach. She remembered the crack in his composure when he mentioned his failed Padawan. Visible only by this sliver was the utter magnitude of his grief. For a moment, kinship flared in her chest as she recognized another grieving soul. They were both guilt-ridden and full of anger, both treading water with their emotions as they swam dangerously close to the Dark Side. She licked her lips, passing her parched tongue over her cracked lips as she considered. Now that her moment of hysteria had passed, she was able to contemplate for a brief second. Would Wathearu want her to complete her training? She drew back on one of the first memories she had of him, their first lesson…
The feel of his calloused hands around her small chubby ones. Hot sun blazing her back. Cool breeze ruffling her newly shorn hair, tied in back in a small braid of all Padawans. Pride nipped at her heart. She was the first in her dormitory to get a Padawan braid. She was daydreaming again, imagining the day she would be able to hold a lightsaber aloft with one hand and dazzle the Council with hitherto unsuspected skills. The dry rasp of her new Master's voice broke her elaborate daydream. "Ana! Pay attention. Look, sweep and slice." He slowly repeated the move with his hands still wrapped around hers. Then he released her. "You try by yourself now. Use both hands if you have to."
She struggled for a moment with the heavy lightsaber, then gripped it hard with both of her small hands. The grooved metal handle carved ridges into her soft palms, and she swung it clumsily in a repeated maneuver of the one he had shown her. The humming blade sliced neatly through the air, and pride bit down savagely on her heart as she completed the simplistic motion. She turned her chubby face towards Wathearu and saw a glimmer of pride in his unflinching black eyes. "Very good. Again." She repeated it over and over until it was perfect, and then he made her do it some more. "Always remember, Ana," he said, giving her the advice he would repeat almost every day to her. "The lightsaber is not your only weapon. The Force is always on your side. Never allow your emotions to show through; always use the Force, and the Force will use you."
A single tear ran a track down her face and dripped off her jaw line, but was hastily scuffed away. Ana stood up quickly and faced Qui-Gon, slightly surprised to see he was still standing there. The crack was gone in his eyes; there was only a gentle sympathy and serenity in his dark stormy eyes. He evaluated her calmly, noting her loosened fists and dropped chin. She didn't say anything for a full minute, dueling savagely with the demons that tore in her heart, then she met his eyes. Her dark green eyes were bordering on black, but they were oddly distant, as if she wasn't speaking to Qui-Gon at all.
"Master Jinn, I will be your Padawan."
A/N: Huge thanks to Solo for double reviewing and putting me on the list! You guys, follow the lead! I hope this story gets some more reviews. Free cookies to anyone who does!