Chapter 31

Disclaimer: Although I have put a lot of time and effort into this story so far, it still doesn't belong to me. Sad, isn't it?

oOo

Green, blue and red. The lightsabers of Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and the Sith fizzled and sparked as the blades clashed. The air was filled with the low hum of energy and the smell of ozone. The hangar they were fighting in was now all but empty. Anakin was well hidden inside the flight simulator, the Queen was on her way to the throne room, the last of the droids had been neatly sliced in two.

Although the Jedi were attacking from two sides, the Sith blocked every single one of their blows with seeming ease, and although the two Jedi were working together in perfect harmony, the Sith only sneered at their attempts at defeating him.

With a cursory glance around the hangar, Obi-Wan spotted the body of a tiger showing the unmistakable marks of lightsaber wounds. So there really had been a tiger behind door number three, but it seemed the tiger had found a premature end at the blade of the Sith. The poor animal had probably attacked or maybe just annoyed the Darksider, and now its corpse was lying in a dark corner of the hangar.

The second of distraction as the Padawan glanced at the dead animal allowed the Sith to dodge Obi-Wan's next, rather clumsy blow and give Qui-Gon a kick that sent the Jedi Master flying to the floor. As Qui-Gon got back up again, the Sith backed away from Obi-Wan with an impressive jump over his double-bladed lightsaber. A dark tendril of the Force sent a hacked-off piece of droid towards the controls that opened the door.

After a short exchange of blows between Obi-Wan and Darth Maul, Qui-Gon was back up and ready to fight again.

Obi-Wan silently scolded himself for his short moment of distraction. Here was the final, epic battle and his thoughts were not focused on it. The Padawan looked over to Qui-Gon to check whether his Master was all right – and when he looked back, he saw the sole of a Sithly boot approach his face with something resembling terminal velocity. This time, it was Obi-Wan who was sent flying, and he painfully crashed into the wall.

Obi-Wan cleared his head with a shake. That was completely unacceptable. A senior Padawan – worse, one who was supposed to be ready for his trials - who couldn't keep his wits about him during a critical battle! Obi-Wan cursed himself for his inattention. Usually, he wasn't nearly as preoccupied, especially not during a fight – that was all because of the awful bad feeling that had been plaguing him since the beginning of this mission and had steadily grown worse over the last three minutes. It had worsened from a slight, uncomfortable twinge that could be ignored without much difficulty to an almost suffocating tightness around his chest. Still, he couldn't afford to be so troubled by a bad feeling when that might end in a real cause for a bad feeling. Obi-Wan took one more second to finally banish the disturbing bad feeling before he quickly rejoined the battle.

The pace of the battle increased, and for one short moment it seemed as if the renewed effort of Master and Padawan finally got to the Sith. The dark warrior backed off a few paces and the Jedi cornered him at the edge of a deep abyss. There were some narrow walkways spanning the deep chasm in the middle of the room. The walkways were located at different levels, and they granted access not only to several entrances and exits leading to and from the strange room but also to four wide pillars of pure light that rose from the depths of the room up the to the ceiling. Obi-Wan wondered for a second why anyone would need such a strange room with such strange pillars of light in it – they didn't serve any purpose he could imagine – before he stubbornly dragged his attention back to their opponent. No more distractions, he vowed.

oOo

The Sith snarled at Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. These stupid Jedi had actually managed to corner him. Maul was not impressed with their fighting abilities. The Master might actually turn out to be a worthy opponent where it came to swordplay, but he was much older than Maul and the Sith was confident he could tire him out. The apprentice, though, was a disappointment. He was certainly jumping around and haphazardly stabbing at Maul, and his movements were energetic enough, but his thoughts seemed to be somewhere else entirely, and Maul considered him more an inconvenient nuisance than a real threat.

With a contemptuous sneer, Darth Maul gave the pathetic Padawan a powerful shove with the Force just to demonstrate his superiority. Obi-Wan stumbled back a few paces, and the Sith took the opportunity to somersault onto the nearest catwalk where seconds later, the fight continued.

oOo

All the while, Obi-Wan could neither quite banish nor fully explain the feeling of familiarity that nagged at him since he had gotten his first clear glimpse of the Sith. Somehow, he felt like he had already met the Zabrak, but he couldn't quite place him. Where would a Jedi Padawan meet a Sith? Obi-Wan hadn't seen much of the short fight between the Sith and Qui-Gon on Tatooine except for the red and green flashes of the lightsabers in a big cloud of dust. Still, a frown started to crease Obi-Wan's forehead. He was sure he had seen the Sith before – if only he could remember where.

Unfortunately, the Sith seemed to sense even the tiniest moment of distraction like a cat could sense an earthquake. Once again, the sole of a Sithly boot connected painfully with his chest. Obi-Wan fell backwards and off the catwalk. His fall was stopped some ten meters below on another narrow walkway and Obi-Wan managed to hold on to its edge as he caught his fall. For a short moment, Obi-Wan just held on to the catwalk, catching his breath. He stifled a groan as his chest stung. There would soon be a big bruise the shape and size of a Sithly boot's sole right across his chest. Obi-Wan gathered the Force around him and jumped back onto the catwalk Qui-Gon and the Sith were fighting on. He picked up his lightsaber, berating himself for losing his weapon.

This weapon is your life, he sternly reminded himself. That was one of the first things Master Yoda had taught him when he was still very young. Obi-Wan could clearly remember his first lesson in lightsaber combat with the ancient green Master. Yoda had given Obi-Wan his first training saber with the words: "Always take good care, you must. A lightsaber, very dangerous it can be, yet at the same time it can be your only protection aside from the Force, which of course is always with you. This weapon is your life, young Obi-Wan."

Yoda never failed to put the word "young" in front of his name. And although Obi-Wan undoubtedly had been young at that time (and probably still was, depending on one's point of view) and Yoda called everything under the age of 600 standard years young, the Padawan had gradually gotten the feeling that Yoda did not refer to his age when he called him "young Obi-Wan" but rather that the diminutive Master did it to distinguish him from another, presumably "old" Obi-Wan.

In his thirst for knowledge and his firm belief in Master Yoda's infinite wisdom, he had dared ask Master Yoda about that when he was about five years old. What the ancient Jedi had answered had completely confused him, though. Yoda had told the bewildered child that there had indeed been an old Obi-Wan Kenobi, occasionally also known as Ben Kenobi, but that he had died a few years ago. The young Obi-Wan had asked perplexedly if he was somehow related to that Ben Kenobi. The Master had informed him that somehow, the future of this galaxy had happened before its past.

"Complicated space timey-wimey stuff, it is," Yoda had explained. "Not think about it too much, I will, because a headache, it will give me."

Master Yoda had not elaborated further, and Obi-Wan had never dared ask again, but his belief in Yoda's infinite wisdom and even the green Master's sanity had been irrevocably shattered. Maybe that was why Master Yoda was always talking backwards – because he experienced his life backwards, too? But Obi-Wan quickly discarded that idea, it was just too weird. How could the future happen before the past?

Obi-Wan thought about that for many a sleepless night before he came to the conclusion that it was much more probable that Yoda had finally become senile and that one could not expect more than a rudimentary idea of logic from a mutated pea, anyway.

oOo

As the Sith kicked Obi-Wan off the catwalk, Qui-Gon glared at him.

How rude, he thought, unconsciously echoing Jar Jar's favourite phrase. Qui-Gon thought that his Padawan was one of the most polite people he knew (even during a fight, always adhering to his own very strict code of honour) and didn't deserve to be kicked like that. He was the only one who had the right to rebuke his apprentice, and no one had the right to ignore the rules of a reasonably fair fight and simply kick Obi-Wan – and not just once – and Qui-Gon, too! That was decidedly the height of discourtesy.

His mouth a tight, thin line of disapproval, Qui-Gon viciously backhanded the dark warrior who toppled backwards and fell down to another walkway on a lower level. That would teach him to keep his manners in check, Qui-Gon thought. The Jedi Master took the chance to check on his Padawan, who was just climbing back onto solid ground. Obi-Wan didn't seem to be hurt – except maybe for his pride as the accomplished swordsman he usually was.

Having made sure that Obi-Wan was all right and picking himself up again, Qui-Gon followed his stripy opponent by jumping down to the lower level the Sith had landed on – and immediately Darth Maul's boot hit him again. It seemed the Sith was impervious to Qui-Gon's lesson.

With renewed determination, the Jedi Master attacked the Darksider. He would get some manners into that Sith's horned and obviously thick head yet. For never again wanting to teach another Padawan, he was quite the passionate teacher, ever lecturing and instructing everyone who was willing to listen, and even some who weren't willing, like, for example, a Sith who considered it perfectly acceptable to use any foul tricks he could think of in a fight, and who was clearly puzzled by the fact that the Jedi didn't answer in kind.

Maul backed away from the surprisingly fierce strikes of the old Jedi. He wondered where the sudden vigour came from. It seemed that, in spite of their rule of no attachment, the old man was fond of the brat Maul had so skilfully removed. Despite what he would call a "tactical retreat" should his Master ever find out about it, he sneered derisively at the Jedi even as he was backing off.

oOo

Obi-Wan took a deep breath to calm his racing heart and to get his focus back on the here and now, where it belongs, as Qui-Gon would tell him ever so often. He reached out to the Force, his constant companion that had been there for his whole life, and wrapped himself in its bright, warm light. The Force carried him up to the walkway – one that would have been unreachable otherwise – in a light-footed leap. Qui-Gon and the Sith were far ahead and quickly approaching another curiosity of Theed's underbelly.

A puzzled frown creased Obi-Wan's face. He stared at the strange contraption that was installed in the hallway leading towards what looked like a huge melting pit. Whatever it was, his Master was swiftly battling his way towards it, and Obi-Wan took off at a run to catch up with him as soon as his boots touched the ground.

Just as Qui-Gon and the Sith approached the eerily humming walls of red laser light, the translucent gates opened with an electronic sizzle to admit the fighters. Slowly but steadily, the Jedi Master pushed Darth Maul towards the seemingly bottomless pit at the end of the hallway. But just as Obi-Wan was racing towards them, the doors cycled shut again, shutting the Padawan out before he got even past the first one and also separating the two combatants.

The Sith seemed irritated and glowered fiercely at this obstacle that kept him from slaughtering his prey. He even touched one blade of his blood-red lightsaber to the laser barrier, but it seemed they were lightsaber-proof. Darth Maul snarled and started pacing, impatiently waiting for the barriers to open again.

Qui-Gon shut down his weapon and looked around. During their flight to Naboo, he had had quite a few conversations with Anakin, and the boy had advised him that it was simply vital to collect as many coins as possible to get the much-needed bonus lives for the final fight. Qui-Gon couldn't spot any coins, and neither could he see any hidden extra lives. He shrugged and decided that he could at least save his game, another thing Anakin had urged him to do.

"Always save your game before the final fight," the boy had said, "because the epic battle at the end of a level is usually constructed to be quite difficult to master, and you will probably need more than just one try to defeat your enemy."

Qui-Gon shrugged and wondered just how exactly one saved his game. He really had no idea how to do that, so he simply kneeled down, closed his eyes and asked the Force to save his game for him.

oOo

Obi-Wan was deeply worried. Qui-Gon seemed to be tiring, and his Padawan was not there when he was needed. And all that kept him from his place at his Master's side were these stupid laser walls. Obi-Wan glared at these offending contraptions, once again wondering what their use might be.

If the Padawan weren't so preoccupied with the battle and so worried about his Master, he might have noticed the plaque right next to the first laser door. It was one of those signs usually found next to an exhibit in a museum, and it read:

This feature is the latest acquisition of the Naboo Museum of Oddities. Unlike most other exhibits, like for example the bottomless pit in the next room, this work of art was originally constructed for an actual purpose as opposed to exclusively for the sake of art. It had been designed as an experiment to reduce the excessive running in the spacious corridors of Theed Palace. Special sensors measure the velocity of a person walking along the hallway. If the walking speed is at an acceptably measured level, the doors stay open, while they cycle shut if the person approaching is running. The doors are of course completely harmless, functioning like walls rather than like laser shields. The laser beams originate inside the walls and are refracted by narrow mirrors to form the sheets of light.

Unfortunately, the laser gates had quite an unexpected and undesired effect. Instead of reducing the running, they encouraged people to race along the hallways and stage competitions to find out how many gates they could pass before the shields closed. The most gates passed in one go were five out of a complete ten.

Since the experiment failed spectacularly and caused numerous injuries (mostly bruises and a few concussions because people ran head-on into the solid walls of light), the laser doors were removed from the public hallways of Her Majesty's palace and reinstalled here in the halls of the Naboo Museum of Oddities in the lower floors of Theed Palace, with the hall of extremely narrow catwalks without protective railing and of the massive pillars of light on its one end and the bottomless abyss that spans the whole diameter of Naboo on its other end.

A generous donation by His Honour F. Palpatine, the Senator of Naboo, enabled the purchase and relocation of this exceptional work of art. The Naboo Museum of Oddities would like to declare its gratitude for this noble gift and has thus named this corridor the Senator Palpatine Hallway in his honour.

But Obi-Wan's eyes were fixed on his Master, and so his questions, which were short-lived anyway given his current preoccupation and concern, remained unanswered. He also switched his lightsaber off, but unlike Qui-Gon, he was not in the right state of mind for meditation, and he didn't believe in saving one's game. The bad feeling had become almost overwhelming, the Force was practically screaming at him to act and his heart was urging him to go and help Qui-Gon. If only he could do something!

Thankfully, the laser barriers didn't stay closed for long. Obi-Wan sensed the circuits that controlled the doors turning on, and he activated his lightsaber in nervous suspense. The doors started opening on Qui-Gon's end of the corridor, and as soon as the barrier was gone, the Jedi Master jumped to his feet and the fierce battle between Good and Evil resumed.

The gates opened one after another, and Obi-Wan sprinted down the corridor the second the last one had opened enough to let him through. He raced towards the circular room the battle had moved to. The Padawan could already hear the sizzle and crackle that announced the closing of the laser shields when he had yet to clear two of them. He pushed his legs to run a bit faster and begged the Force to let him reach his Master, but his prayers remained unheard. The last barrier closed right in front of his nose and Obi-Wan barely managed to stop without crashing into the sheet of light, which did look like it might fry him to a crisp should he so much as touch it, after all.

Obi-Wan could only watch in mounting frustration and worry as Qui-Gon battled the Sith. He could clearly see the tiny signs of fatigue in his Master's familiar movements, while his opponent seemed just as nimble as when the fight had started. Anxiousness and concern for his Master gnawed at Obi-Wan as he stood there, separated from Qui-Gon by nothing more than a sheet of something as essentially insubstantial as light.

Once the Padawan was trapped behind the last barrier and the Sith could focus completely on the Master without the apprentice stumbling in his way and interfering with his fighting, he stopped backing off and instead started a fierce attack. Now Qui-Gon suddenly found himself on the defence, and this time, it was the Jedi Master who had to retreat.

The icy hands of terror tightly gripped Obi-Wan as his Master disengaged and fell back. The Sith also noticed Qui-Gon's movements becoming marginally slower and bared his blackened teeth threateningly. Darth Maul didn't grant the Jedi Master any reprieve and doubled the speed of his attack.

Suddenly, the Sith smashed the hilt of his lightsaber in Qui-Gon's face. The Jedi stumbled back a few steps, but before he could recover, the Sith attacked again.

As Qui-Gon's chest was pierced by the blood-red blade, Obi-Wan's heart was stabbed by the sharp knife called pain.

"Nooooooooo!"

An anguished cry tore from his throat as he watched Qui-Gon fall to the ground, an expression of shock and disbelief on his Master's familiar features.

"Yeeeeeees!" Obi-Wan sensed more than heard the echo of an overjoyed answer which sounded distant somehow, as if it came from far away. The far-off shout made him start. Where had that come from? Why was anyone shouting joyously in his mind when Obi-Wan was experiencing the worst moments of is life so far?

oOo

Anakin was running around wildly, jubilation and elation clearly written all over his face. He didn't quite know why, but the pilots were celebrating his victory over the computer game. Not that Anakin minded at all – in fact, he was busy joining the celebration at the top of his voice.

"Yippie!" he shouted. "That was just awesome! No, that was better than awesome. How I managed to blast them all into oblivion! That was – that was – that was just – the words to describe the feeling don't even exist yet. I will have to invent new words to fit my more-than-awesomeness."

Anakin pondered the overwhelming feelings of power and triumph that was spreading in his chest and tried to find the right words to describe them.

"It was terrific – no, fantastic – no, awesome – no, that still doesn't describe it. That was funnerific!" he shouted gleefully; glad to have finally found the right words to express his feelings. "It was blobtastic!"

Suddenly, his cheers were interrupted by a miserable cry full of pain and grief.

"Nooooooooo!"

Anakin looked around; his eyes searching for the source of the cry, although Anakin thought it sounded more like the shout had come from a great distance. Anakin shrugged off the apprehensiveness that had suddenly taken hold of him. He battled the forlorn, hollow cry with a shout of his own.

"Yeeeeeees!" he countered with all the euphoria and happiness he felt in this, his moment of success and glory. This was definitely the best moment in his life so far, the pilots were celebrating him, he was about to become a Jedi and maybe Padmé would thank him personally for saving the planet, and no sad little creep who shouted in his head was about to spoil that.

oOo

Obi-Wan stared in horror at his Master's usually tall and proud form lying crumpled on the cold floor right next to the round hole. Although the wound looked grave, Qui-Gon was still alive, and Obi-Wan refused to give up hope yet. They were living in a highly technical world with extremely advanced medical therapies. Scientists had only recently published their latest research results, according to which it was possible to keep alive even mortally wounded people who had lost both legs, one arm (and their mind) and what remained of them was covered in third-degree burns caused by, say, an unhealthily close proximity to lava. If he received medical help soon, Qui-Gon would be fine. Obi-Wan refused to believe otherwise.

Unfortunately, there was still the Sith who was pacing provocatively in front of the red laser barrier and who surely wouldn't wait patiently until Obi-Wan rushed his Master to a medical facility. The Sith glared at the Padawan, who returned the glare with just as much intensity. The dark Zabrak posed the greatest obstacle to Qui-Gon's rescue at the moment, and so Obi-Wan was determined to remove that obstacle as quickly as possible.

Obi-Wan breathed heavily, both to calm his fraying nerves and to suppress the worry and concern that welled up and threatened to constrict his throat. For once, his patience completely failed him and he was shaking and fidgeting in anticipation. Almost before the laser walls opened again, Obi-Wan ran forward to attack the Sith.

The pace of the battle suddenly increased compared to the earlier, rather sedate exchange of blows. Obi-Wan abandoned his usually favoured tactic of defence and fiercely attacked the red and black Sith. He didn't have any time to lose, Qui-Gon needed help as soon as possible. Surprised at the sudden intensity of the attack, Darth Maul backed off. All of a sudden, the Padawan didn't seem nearly as pathetic any more. Maul's yellow-tainted eyes widened in shock when the Jedi cleaved the hilt of his double-bladed saber in two. The Darksider found himself on the receiving end of a strong kick (Obi-Wan considered this an acceptable exception of his usual reluctance to hit or kick people because Qui-Gon's life was at stake) and landed on the floor with a painful thud. He barely managed to block Obi-Wan's next attack before he jumped to his feet again and backed off from his suddenly dangerous opponent. He tried kicking the Padawan again, but this time Obi-Wan was prepared. He somersaulted backwards and managed to avoid most of the impact.

The fight continued with unbridled fierceness.

And as it is with things you desperately try to remember one moment and don't exactly care to know about them a few minutes later, they suddenly hit you in the most inopportune moment possible. As it was, when Obi-Wan stared into the dark, yellow-framed abysses that were the Sith's eyes, he suddenly remembered where he had seen Darth Maul before. Just when the two opponents were in a saberlock, recognition hit Obi-Wan. Recognition was instantly followed by a powerful wave of the Dark Side which hit him barely a second later.

Once again, Obi-Wan found himself hanging on to a tiny handhold with nothing more than a huge expanse of air underneath him. True, he had been pretty surprised as he realized that this enemy was the same person who had offered him a ride back on Tattoine and whom he had bought a drink by way of saying thanks. Still, Obi-Wan was once again harshly reprimanding himself for his lack of concentration, especially now that every second that went by might be Qui-Gon's last.

The silent internal tirade only intensified when Obi-Wan's lightsaber fell past him and clattered down the bottomless pit.

The Sith paced at the edge of the pit like a lion along the bars of his cage, showering sparks down on Obi-Wan. He sneered derisively at the Jedi, who in the Sith's opinion was almost as dead as his Master would soon be. But Obi-Wan hadn't quite run out of tricks yet. Qui-Gon's lightsaber was still lying next to his Master, who, to Obi-Wan's dismay, was fading rapidly.

Obi-Wan looked up at the Sith, determination shining in his eyes instead of the hopelessness Darth Maul had expected. The Padawan was determined to end this fight as quickly as possible, for Qui-Gon's sake.

As Maul looked down at the Padawan, he suddenly got the feeling that he had seen the Jedi before. He wondered where that might have been, since he didn't usually socialize with their kind. He once again looked down, a puzzled frown on his striped face. Obi-Wan discreetly stretched out with a tiny tendril of the Force to retrieve Qui-Gon's lightsaber. Darth Maul was completely unaware of Obi-Wan's actions because he tried to remember where he had seen these blue eyes shining with determination before.

The realization that this was the poor guy he had met in the desert of Tatooine in the middle of the night surprised the Sith so much that he didn't so much as react when Obi-Wan, who suddenly shot out of the pit, somersaulted over Maul's head and bisected him in one swift strike. A disbelieving and stunned look crossed his face just before he fell backwards.

As Obi-Wan watched the two halves of the Sith tumble down the hole in the ground, he seemed even more surprised than his opponent that this method had actually worked. He had expected a much longer fight. Obi-Wan had hoped for a chance to disarm or maybe trap the Sith at some point – surely the Council would want to question the first Sith to emerge in the last one thousand years. Right now, though, he was a lot more concerned for his Master than for his rather unexpected and lethal victory over the Sith.

In the end, Darth Maul, the rising star of the Sith, had to die because of the single act of compassion he had ever committed in his life – offering a lone man in the middle of the desert a ride. Unfortunately, he was too dead to appreciate the irony of this, and Obi-Wan was too preoccupied with his Master's condition. So the irony of a Sith dying because of the only good deed in his life went by completely unappreciated and even unnoticed, which caused irony to be mortally offended. It vowed to take revenge in the most cruel fashion it could think of. Maybe it would turn the Jedi's greatest hope into their downfall, or make the Sith Master get elected as the Chancellor of the Republic. That would seem like an appropriate vengeance for this unspeakable slight. With one last offended huff, it stalked off to bother someone else, someone who was more appreciative of its presence.

As soon as the danger Darth Maul posed to the Jedi had disappeared, Obi-Wan rushed to his Master's side. He kneeled down next to his Master and gently raised Qui-Gon's head off the cold, hard floor.

"No, it's too late," Qui-Gon gasped weakly.

"No," Obi-Wan protested, his voice full of sadness and denial.

"Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon murmured, his voice devoid of its usual calm strength. "Promise-" Obi-Wan was ready to promise anything Qui-Gon might ask for - "Promise me you will train the boy." - except that.

Once again, Obi-Wan was pierced by a sharp pain, though this was completely unlike the one he had experienced when Qui-Gon had been stabbed. That had been as much the physical pain that had been filtering through their bond as it had been worry and anguish, but now the bond Obi-Wan had shared with his Master for the last thirteen years was slowly fading along with Qui-Gon's Force presence.

The Padawan was conflicted about his Master's dying wish. His brain told him to decline it politely but firmly and it decisively insisted he say something like: "I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request."

His instinct screamed at him to cry "Nooooo!" again at the top of his voice.

His Force-sense wholeheartedly agreed with that.

But his heart was faster than all of them. "Yes, Master," it answered in a quiet, miserable whisper. The loyalty and admiration and devotion he felt for Qui-Gon had won over the persistent bad feeling.

Qui-Gon raised one clammy, trembling hand to lightly touch his Padawan's cheek where one single tear was glistening.

"He is the Chosen One," Qui-Gon insisted, his voice trembling and barely above a whisper. "He will bring balance. Train him."

Qui-Gon's eyes closed and his head fell to the side. From one moment to the next, the only breathing that could be heard were Obi-Wan's strangled breaths, the only heartbeat that of a broken heart.

Qui-Gon Jinn died as he had lived and as he used to conduct his comm. calls: Talking about one of his projects and his faith in the Chosen One, all but ignoring his Padawan, and ending the talk without ever saying goodbye, leaving Obi-Wan with the feeling of an unfinished conversation and words left unsaid. Obi-Wan already longed to hear Qui-Gon's voice again, he wished that his Master had told him to mind the Living Force and to remember bigger fishes just one last time.

Obi-Wan caringly caught his Master's head. He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it. Qui-Gon was gone.

"You were my father, Qui-Gon," a broken-hearted whisper echoed through the room that suddenly seemed far too silent. "I loved you!"

oOo

Edited on 12th March, 2011