Chapter Seven

Icy heart, clever hand

Time has passed from now to then

Find thy peace, skeletal man

Madness shrouded, dreams relived

Devour, tear, consume

Wicked eyes, bleeding torch

Devour, tear, consume

Knock them down, pull them fast

Devour, tear, consume

Snowflakes melted away the blood on her claws. Dark droplets leaving tiny blotches in the snow. Was this beauty? She never felt this alive. Not for a long while. To be this close to death, it was fascinating. It was something she never fully understood and perhaps never would. Unlike her midnight snack, a small beast whose ears over-proportioned the rest of its corpse. How appropriate.

Nostalgia set in but this time she didn't struggle, weariness forbade it. Long ago she bathed herself in bitterness. The recognition of her betrayal and vile deeds being the price her penance demanded. Crimes committed in the name of freedom at the expense of the innocent. Destiny had not been kind to her, she was the other side of the equation.

For thousands of years she wasted away on this forsaken planet in a form that did nothing to expose her true nature. Would she ever get a second chance, a chance to make things right? She didn't think it possible. But that was before she witnessed a truly bizarre event. The sudden unexpected appearance of the young man from nothing. Some might say a boy.

Before long, she came to know him by the name of Obi-Wan Kenobi and that he was a Jedi. The first human she could actually talk to, the first human that could actually see her. Even when she first arrived on this planet it soon became clear that no one could see her. It was so damn frustrating. Then, thousands of years laters, the unspeakable happens. Closing her eyes she went back to that otherworldly serendipitous day.

All around, she sensed time and space colliding and spinning. Clearly, some external force was manipulating these two intangible things. She gulped. Time itself was being... rewound? The ground beneath her trembled and up ahead a sphere of immense darkness and the brightest light spun faster than the eye could see. It stuck out of the ground and rose ever so slightly. At its core was a similar sphere with a purple hue. Lightning struck it and the ground broke open spewing more of the bright purple stuff upwards. The purple sphere became elongated and grew, taking on human form. Its work done, the sphere faded into nothing.

Words she did not recognize echoed throughout the valley, words full of meaning and power. Words incomprehensible among the living enveloped the glowing body and it became flesh. It became clothed, aware, filled with life.

Hesitant, she stood her ground, unable to make sense of what transpired. She couldn't believe it but there it was, right in front of her. For a moment she wondered if this was how she likewise came to be in this strange place but quickly dismissed the idea. Though she had been exiled from her world to Melida/Dann after her untimely death, her spirit flying across the stars, this was not the same. It was a rebirth of one who had already been born.

She was wary of him at first. She growled and bared her teeth trying to look menacing. Mostly because he scared the living daylights out of her appearing out of nowhere like that. But being alone for so long she didn't think he could really see or hear her growling at him. Turns out she was wrong about that.

Advancing cautiously, she wasn't sure if he posed a threat. When he mirrored her actions and spoke into her mind the first time she was astonished by the amount of pain and wisdom she felt behind his words. She knelt before him in apology communicating her submission. Soon he was 'Obi' and she 'Moko'.

She longed more than anything to go back to her world, to her own time. She asked him again and again if he knew how he did it. Turns out that he had about as much say in his afterlife journey as she did. He was chosen by what he called 'the force' to travel back in time. Whether a blessing or a curse remained to be seen. Mortals ready to serve at fate's pleasure, ready to give destiny a hand. Death was only the beginning. In a way it made perfect sense, mirroring the amount of choice to be had in the initial birth. Absolutely zero. Whether he knows it or not, he is the key to her return. He doesn't know it yet. His destiny stands in the way.

Lifting her gaze to the stars, she stared mystified as their number doubles, then triples. Without so much as a farewell, they fall.

Heavy explosions rocked the planet. Everything was ablaze. Far as the eye could see, smoke rose to the cloud in thick columns. Curtains of red laser beams reflected from Moko's eyes. The city was under siege.

A droid transport ship touched down on the forest floor sending her scrambling out of the way. With a groan its door opened and thuds to the ground. Battalions of droids roll down in tight formation wreaking havoc as they trample mindlessly toward the objective. Following their programming.

Prey abandoned, the fearsome hunter became the hunted. On all fours she ran and ran, navigating branch after tree branch. Darting through the night this way and that like a cat out of hell. The invasion had begun.

-break-

Strolling through the room of a thousand fountains Master Tahl Novan breathed a sigh of contentment. She was thankful to have a place of quiet reflection on Coruscant, the entire planet being one giant sprawling city. Following the dawn of the republic, its glittering capital spread like a virus in the wake of its expansion. In this day and age, it was a luxury few could be afforded other than the Jedi. This multi-level room located within the heart of the Jedi Temple teemed with life. Its name a misnomer. In reality, saying the room hosted a thousand fountains was an understatement. Perhaps, when Yoda was a padawan this was the case but, over time, it expanded to a space the size of a small village.

Robbed of her eyesight on Melida/Daan, this place became her home within a home. After much anger and resentment, two very un-jedi like things, she came to realize ironically enough what she gained in return. She entered a whole new world totally dependent on seeing everything through the force. Whereas before she considered the force to be a part of her like her eyesight was, she no longer made the distinction. Now she felt complete, adventurous even.

The highlight on the road to recovery was her fritzy astromech Too-Jay or TJ for short. In theory it would make the transition easier but being made of non-living matter, the thing was pretty darn difficult to sense. She swore that most of the time it bumped into more things than she did. Lost in this paradise of a room she breathed a sigh of relief knowing TJ was otherwise occupied. Most likely it was busy cleaning her already pristine quarters. The droid was obsessed. Today before leaving she skipped doing dishes and purposefully dumped her clean clothes in with the dirty laundry. She suspected it would take TJ hours at the minimum to put everything back to his satisfaction.

Reaching out with her force sense she spotted Qui-Gon sitting on a bench overlooking a waterfall. His touch what she secretly craved, a connexion to the physical world. Were his feelings for her why Obi-Wan got left behind? She couldn't know, couldn't believe that to be the reason yet the doubt remained.

Tahl joined him and leaned against his tall frame. When he didn't speak she knew he was lost in thought. He had been insufferable ever since they returned sans padawan. When he didn't react she took some breadcrumbs from her pouch and tossed them in the grass. Within seconds she had an audience of birds long accustomed to this habit. She heard him mumble something to the effect of "Just give me some clue, anything..."

She poked, hard. "Qui-Gon Jin, if you don't stop with the mumbling this instant, I'm giving healer Reya a call."

Startled, he had the presence of mind to look a bit panicked but decided to ignore her attempt to scare him and chose a different tactic. "Is that what I think it is?" He asked, mischief lacing his voice.

Now it was her turn to be confused. "What what is? Do my robes not match?"

He chuckled and said "It's not that, it's well, that hairdo could give Jocasta Nu a run for her money. Here let me." With eased practice he gently unwound her tightly packed hair.

"Thanks Qui, you know how TJ can be..." she trailed off. Qui-Gon smirked loudly in the force, his mirth apparent by a twinkle she guessed was there.

"Not. Funny. Qui." She protested. "That sithspawn is about to get recycled." Neither said anything for a moment. Abruptly she let her hands fall to the dip in her robes placing one on top of the other. Wasting no time she went right to the heart of the matter. "Qui-Gon, you seem...distracted, to put it mildly."

He sighed, feeling some weight lift from his chest. "It's Obi-Wan, I can't get it out of my head how much of a fool I've been, how he's been." Slowly he gathered his thoughts. "You know, I can't believe he walked away from the Jedi."

"From the Jedi or you?" She prompted.

He looked incredulous. "I'm telling you, I don't get it. He begged me to take him on as his Master. On Bandomeer, he was willing to give his own life to make that happen, and now? You know what he did? He goes and throws it away like it all meant nothing to him. I gave him the choice!"

"You gave him an ultimatum Qui, what was he supposed to do?" She said quietly.

He shook his head. "Tahl, all I know is he didn't choose the Jedi and he sure as hell didn't choose me. Instead of being a Jedi, instead of doing his duty to negotiate peace and follow his Master, he picks a side he just happens agree with in a damn civil war. Jedi don't take sides, and that's what he did."

Her eyebrow arched. "Admit it, you're worried."

"Fine yes, force help me I'm losing my mind over this boy. And don't even think about saying that he needs more time to come to his senses. It's been a cycle already and not a single message. Not one bloody message!"

"Well what did you expect to happen after you put him in that position? Qui-Gon, you practically abandoned him! Left him to fend for himself on a hostile planet. While you rescued me from that nightmare and I'm forever grateful that you did, can't you see you made a mistake? Once the shock of everything wore off and you brought me back to the Temple did you not then realize the consequences of your actions?

"What do you mean that I made a mistake?"

"I meant that you should not have given Obi-Wan the choice to begin with. He's still practically a child! He was your charge, your responsibility, your padawan."

"What would you have me do Tahl? Welcome him back with open arms? After what he did? He betrayed me Tahl, he walked away from the Jedi, from everything. How can I begin to trust him. How?"

"It will not be easy. It's not supposed to be." She took his hands. "But you know this my friend. You know you will find it in your heart to forgive him and he you."

"That's what I want, but..."

"Don't listen to what your heart tells you alone. Bask in the power of the force, in all its intricacies and reveal to you in time it will.

Changing the topic he said, "You're starting to sound like the damn troll..."

"Don't even start you Damnjinn," she teased.

"What's a Damnjinn?" He asked looking clueless.

"Ask the council." She returned with a straight face.

His eyes widened like saucers when realization hit him. "Oh, Oh!"

They burst out laughing unable to contain themselves.

Qui-Gon caught his breath first "Good one Tahl."

In the corner to the far right her enhanced hearing picked out a series of distinctive self-important beeps and whistles, or tweedles as she calls them. She froze and clamped a hand on Qui-Gon's mouth, but it was too late. TJ had found them.