I have a request: in future, if any of you find a chapter "boring" like one reader did, or slow, or confusing, or really "anything" along those lines, or have some other criticism, please do me the favor of elaborating on WHY you find it so. The explanation turns criticism into critiquing. The first is not helpful (if you can't say something nice, don't say it); the second is extremely helpful and might improve what I post in future.

Chapter 15. Caught Between a Rock and a Qui-Gon

Mace Windu was a most unhappy man.

"Qui-Gon, you're a fool." Mace growled to no one as he heard the rumble of soft laughter not long after Anakin disappeared into said Jedi master's presence. Fool – for abandoning his padawan so close to his trials, fool for doing so without adequate explanation, and fool for being so blasted unconcerned about the repercussions.

Not to mention being a fool for ignoring the Council's concerns with his single-minded focus on young Skywalker and his unwillingness to even admit that the Council had legitimate concerns. Concerns he could have chosen to address and refute. After all the – admittedly noisy – debates the two had engaged in, sometimes one and sometimes the other forced to concede some point, Mace had thought his old friend might have finally realized it was better to try to persuade the Council to his viewpoint rather than ram his personal view down their collective throats.

But there had never been a debate, only an ultimatum.

You couldn't debate an obstinate, bull-headed Jedi master who had lost all sense of perspective, if not his mind, his focus so narrow it couldn't even contemplate a look at the wider picture.

The Council saw well the potential dangers ahead.

Breaking tradition born of hard-won experience would be fraught with unknown perils and complications. Many Jedi would have misgivings, and rightfully so, for abandoning a rule never yet questioned. The boy himself would not find it easy fitting into the Jedi life. How could he: not raised in their traditions, not trained nearly from birth and yet thrust amongst a community closely knitted by those traditions and training?

Yet such a raw powerful child could not be ignored, left in slavery and amongst those who cared little for him as a person. The Jedi's own duty to the galaxy demanded he be bound to the Force's Will. They would be poor servants of the Force themselves if they abandoned the boy, to complacently watch his talent twisted to some self-serving or greedy use, perhaps exploited to another's ends.

So it was after much deliberation the Council had agreed to let Anakin Skywalker be trained by Qui-Gon Jinn, but not without grave misgivings. The master would not be deterred and it was deemed a larger risk to leave the boy behind, or even away from their watchful eyes.

Qui-Gon had made it clear he would leave the Temple if the Council denied him the opportunity to train the boy.

Blackmail, pure and simple, yet effective.

So baffling was the Jedi master's behavior, so puzzling and unyielding his stance, that it seemed best to keep both close. Not just the Jedi Order, but the Force had need of Qui-Gon Jinn – and perhaps, Anakin Skywalker as well. For now the solution was one few were happy with –except Qui-Gon Jinn and Anakin Skywalker. The two were all but inseparable.

They were the only happy two beings on the ship.

Obi-Wan was kept under sedation per the Jedi healer's recommendation. Qui-Gon fared better; he was doing so well he was merely confined to rest and advised to take it easy.

That had made it fair game to question the Jedi about his actions and motivations, but Qui-Gon had merely crossed his arms and stared at Mace with his "I've-already-explained-this-to-you-once and will-not-go-through-this-again" expression. If he felt any remorse for the consequences of his behavior, if not the behavior itself, he wasn't letting Mace know it.

It frustrated Mace no end. Yoda only grunted and counseled patience: he had temporarily accepted Qui-Gon's silence.

So disgusted with his good friend and his unwillingness or inability to explain his actions toward his former padawan, Mace had happily handed over the task to Ki-Adi-Mundi and Yaddle. If nothing else, they had not been witnesses to any of the past events, their viewpoints unlikely to be tainted by bias.

Instead he spent some of the slow, quiet hours on the journey back to the Temple sitting at Obi-Wan's side, compelled not by the Force, but by his conscience. He would have done the same for any injured colleague on a long, boring trip, he persuaded himself. He had done so before and might well do so again.

He wasn't the only one: sometimes Yoda joined him, sometimes replaced him.

If anyone noticed that the injured padawan was never left alone, not one of the other council members thought it worthy of mention.

At the moment, the main cabin was rather quiet, the occasional low voice not intruding upon Mace's musings. A datapad tapped unheeded against one knee, unread and forgotten. A soft "hmmph" and tremble in the Force intruded upon his thoughts. Mixed glee and exasperation trailed in the wake of a small Jedi who positioned herself in front of Mace and pointed a stubby claw at him. Mace swallowed a grin, for the exterior was as placid as ever, regardless of the inner state.

"Kicked out or merely seeking saner company, Yaddle?" Her discomfiture amused him. It should not, of course, but Force knew he had little enough to feel happy about.

"A stubborn man Qui-Gon is," Yaddle grumped, wrinkling her nose and sinking to a seat beside him. She grinned and nudged the other Jedi with her elbow, ignoring Mace's return glare. "Said it mattered not why; in the past all was. Bah! Irritated him I did, so much so that his tongue was loosened and eventually a bit of why spilled from him. Strange, though, the feeling I get that even he does not fully understand why, only that he had his reasons." She scoffed. "Hard to believe I find that. Such a thing is not easy to forget, yet, Mace - the truth he tells."

"Well, now." Mace blew out a disbelieving breath. Had Qui-Gon actually managed to delude himself or was this a convenient delusion, a way to deflect any wish for an explanation – a simple explanation? "Siths be damned." If she accepted that, well, so would he, however unwillingly. Yaddle would not be easily deceived.

At least she had gotten far more out of the Jedi master than anyone yet.

"Fully justified in his actions Qui-Gon believes himself to be." Yaddle held up a hand as Mace opened his mouth to protest. "Deceit within him there is none. Urged by the Force in all that he has done, he truly believes."

"Then he's deluded!"

Yaddle peered at Mace. "Is he? Unorthodox, Master Jinn has always been, but never deluded."

"What we've been able to independently corroborate of Obi-Wan's story does not contradict what I saw in his mind when I had him recount those events."

After a moment's silence, Yaddle tilted her head to one side. "Nor contradict Qui-Gon's, either."

Reluctantly, Mace had to agree once they again reviewed all that was known and each participant's recollections of said events. While Qui-Gon's version of events did match Obi-Wan's rather closely, the interpretation was so different that the truth was all but obscured.

The Jedi master was adamant he had felt the Force's hand guiding them to Tatooine; the same bright explosion of pure light seeking light. He had seen the shock of recognition tingle through Obi-Wan and his padawan's steadfast denial that he had felt it emanate from the small, compassionate boy who had saved them all – denial based on jealousy, obviously, for "there was no other explanation."

None at all.

In the boy's blinding presence, Obi-Wan had faded to inconsequence, even his petty rivalry and unfounded suspicions initially and all too easily dismissed until the Jedi master had finally seen Obi-Wan's insecurities as shadows of the dark, thrown into illumination by Anakin's light.

Shadows of the dark, only as yet, not true darkness, but Obi-Wan did not release them, but harbored them, and took them out upon a boy who had earned none of the enmity directed at him.

The shadows had only darkened with time, shadows that would in time dim the Chosen's One's own light were they not tamed and released – and they had not been, thus proving Obi-Wan no true Jedi. He had put his hurt preeminent above the hurt of others, not just once, but repeatedly.

It would be a shocking observation, if true. If anything, Kenobi was known to put others before himself, regardless of inner conflict.

In this case, the Jedi had the observations of neutral parties as well.

No one had disputed the strained relations between the two Jedi, but the Queen was certain that at no time had either Jedi actually behaved other than quite civilly towards others or each other, regardless of what dispute lay between them. That Padawan Kenobi had been quiet and sad-eyed, or Master Jinn quietly irritated had in no way disrupted the trip.

Despite her obvious fondness for the boy, the Queen had reluctantly agreed that the non-verbal communication had indicated some degree of animosity, though more on the boy Anakin's part towards the padawan than seemed warranted.

She had noticed Anakin's sneers and his superior smiles more than once, his ability to milk sympathy from the Jedi master if the padawan so much as looked at him.

She had noted Padawan Kenobi's attempts to mend fences and then gradual withdrawal from any interaction with either his master or the boy and had surmised that he had noticed that his presence was, not to put too fine a point on it, not welcomed.

Yoda and Mace had observed the boy's shocking rudeness for themselves when he had first burst in on Obi-Wan, sitting vigil by his master's side. Even with allowances for the circumstances, they found his behavior troubling for it had not improved with time.

Every interaction with the padawan had been discourteous at best.

Apparently, Qui-Gon had seen none of this. He had seen only a lonely boy who had had his feelings hurt time and again by Obi-Wan.

And that was that, as far as Qui-Gon was concerned.

Not one Council member would dispute the padawan's anger and dismay before the Council, yet unlike Qui-Gon, each had seen temper flare within the master as well. Each had also sensed the boy's turbulent emotions: bitterness and anger. Yet within all, other than a certain incivility they had chosen to overlook, behavior had been controlled when the emotions had not.

They could not fault the padawan, or the boy, when the older Jedi had been no less upset.

Qui-Gon, though, either refused to or could not see this. He had only seen confirmation of his own erroneous conclusions sufficient to sever all ties with his padawan, ample justification within his mind to sever even the master-padawan bond without due care.

Even when reminded that the dissolution of the bond could yet have permanent and disastrous results beyond that already incurred, the Jedi had calmly pointed out he had managed to survive it without lasting harm.

The female Jedi was so indignant – sputtering her words, even - that Mace could only snort and be glad it was she, not he, who had spoken to Qui-Gon.

"Wished the Living Force had up and smacked him then, I did," Yaddle admitted. "As if his actions only himself affected. So point out the obvious I did: two parties there were to the bond. And Mace – when I pointed out how the effects had already proven far more severe on Obi-Wan who had already channeled the Force almost to his own destruction while saving Qui-Gon from almost certain death – it seemed he did not even care."

Did not care…. Yaddle slowly nodded; Mace had heard correctly. Qui-Gon not caring was, well, Mace cast about for an expression, and slowly settled on one, however preposterous.

It was beyond imagining.