This chapter includes a flashback with Tales of the Jedi, Episode: Justice
Crescent and Anakin met a very serious Sapphire Beauty in the courtyard of the Jedi Temple. When Sapphire got serious... let's just say you don't even try to ignore her and live to tell the tale.
Sapphire stood in front of the two males, and she didn't come alone either. Apparently, she got Qui-Gon involved too. That had Anakin looking down shamefully like a teenager who'd been caught sneaking out at night by his parents. And at this point, it was very similar, given that one was his actual father, and the other basically acted like she was Anakin's mother.
"Alright, what happened?" Sapphire asked seriously.
"I was trying to learn how to fly." Anakin said. "Crescent was teaching me. Since he knows how to fly already, I thought he'd be helpful."
"It's true," said Crescent. "He can flap alright. But, for some reason he can't seem to steer correctly."
"I might have an idea of why that is." Sapphire said. "Let's do a little compare and contrast, shall we? Qui-Gon?"
Sapphire spread out her own wings, and Qui-Gon summoned his that resembeld the wings of a karner blue butterfly, but with the orange and blue colors reversed.
"Notice any differences between the two pairs of wings?" Qui-Gon asked rhetorically.
"Well... Sapphire's wingspan definitely is a lot wider." Anakin said.
"Yes. What else?"
"They also kinda look like they're at different angles when you spread them out."
"Good. And...?"
"Um... what else are we supposed to see?" Crescent asked, shrugging his wings.
Sapphire sighed.
"Crescent, what's the same about your wings and mine?"
"Um... they're both pegasus wings?"
"Yes, what else?"
"Um... I got nothing."
Sapphire was getting tired of the guys' incompetence at this point.
"What do our wings have that neither Qui-Gon nor Anakin's do?"
Suddenly, realization hit Crescent's head.
"Oh! Feathers." He said.
That was exactly it. Unlike the flying horses, Anakin and any other Solaran royal's wings didn't have feathers. They were also of a different size and shape than that of any age of pegasus or alicorn. Thus, Anakin needed help specifically from someone who had wings more like his.
"Feathers are very light, and large gatherings of them help lift the horse part of a pegasus' body off the ground," Sapphire explained. "Whereas fairy wings are more like those of a butterfly. More frail, yet strong enough to lift their owners off the ground."
"So, I guess you'll be teaching me, Father?" said Anakin.
"To the best of my ability." Qui-Gon said. "I had to learn in a more difficult manner in my day. Remember, my own mother never had the chance to fully teach me to how to fly."
"You know, Dad, you never did tell me how you got your wings." Anakin pointed out.
Carmine chortled as he overheard his twin say that. He remembered that story very well.
"He did tell it to me though. On my seventh birthday when Dad came over, he told me the whole story and when he tried to fly, it was hilarious!"
"It wasn't that funny, Carmine." Qui-Gon blushed.
"Okay, I have to hear this." Anakin smiled, ready to have some father-son story time long overdue.
"Well, it all began a very long time ago, long before either of you were born. Even before Obi-Wan was born. Back in my teenage years."
A long time ago, somewhere in the galaxy far, far away...
This was back even before Qui-Gon knew he was royalty. It'd been ten years since he discovered he could perform magical spells and that he had superhuman strength! Thankfully, in all that time, he managed to figure out how to keep it intact.
Back when Count Dooku was still part of the Jedi Order, he and his young Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn were on an important peace mission to rescue a senator's kidnapped child.
"We'll be arriving shortly, Master." said Qui-Gon.
"Set us down well clear of the village." Dooku instructed. "Tensions are high enough."
"Yes, Master"
Soon, Master and Apprentice came into the planet's atmosphere and landed in a clearing near a village, where the forest looked dead. They could hear the sounds of creatures warbling, but the trees looked to have no vegetation on them. It looked terrible around here... as though the place had been attacked by something with fire. Even a poor droid they saw nearby looked sad and worn out.
It was very quiet in the village. Too quiet. Only a few places had lights on. The loud silence as the two men heard the sound of barking, and out came a brown and white dog, who was called inside by his owner whistling.
Qui-Gon saw someone letting the dog in through the door and decided to speak to them.
"Excuse me. Sorry to trouble y-"
Except, the woman shut the door and turned out the lights.
Odd, and rather rude. Qui-Gon thought.
Qui-Gon and Dooku looked at some other windows with shadows of people inside. They all shut the lights off too the moment they saw them The only other being thing that at least appeared living was a single beeping droid outside one building that was revealed to be a bar of some sort when the two Jedi walked in.
"Where is the child?" Dooku asked. No one answered. So, Dooku asked more firmly this time. "Where are they holding the senator's son?"
"Why should we tell you?" said a gray-haired woman.
Dooku and Qui-Gon looked at each other then approached the strange woman and her two friends, who immediately looked defensive. Neither Jedi flinched. The older man took a seat and began the conversation.
"Allow me to make my intentions clear." He placed his lightsaber on the table
"Jedi." the woman said, knowing immediately where these men were from.
"We are here to help resolve the situation."
"For the Senator."
"For everyone." Qui-Gon corrected.
The woman thought clearly these men didn't truly know the senator.
"What do you know of Senator Dagonet?" she asked.
"He is one of the longest-standing Senators in the Republic." Qui-Gon said.
"Yes, and when you entered this villlage, you could see the effects of his long-standing policies."
"With due respect, if you don't like him, why not elect a new Senator?"
The woman sighed and looked down saying, "I wish it were that simple." She took a sip of her drink and turned away to stand up. "Perhaps, in the beginning, Senator Dagonet was a good person and had the interests of the people in mind. But now-Come, I will show you where the Senator's son is."
"You are one of the kidnappers?" said Qui-Gon.
Suddenly, everyone was rising from their seats, and Dooku came to a conclusion.
"They all are."
The woman and two of her friends led the two Jedi to what looked like a barn of some kind. She knocked the door twice, and a large droid answered. The droid shined its light on the two Jedi, the latter trying to block the brightness from their eyes as they walked in with the others. Sure enough, there was a young man, probably close to Qui-Gon's age at the time, and he had his arms restrained behind his back.
"Have you been treated well?" Dooku asked.
"For a prisoner, yes." said Young Dagonet. "Besides, I have two-ton here to keep me company."
The droid chattered in response to that.
"Your ordeal will soon be over," Qui-Gon promised.
"It's not much of an ordeal." the boy said, looking down. "Not compared to how these people are living."
"And you were not aware of these conditions?" Dooku asked.
"I rarely leave the capital. When I do, I spend time off-world on Coruscant, not here."
Dooku and Qui-Gon looked at each other; the boy seemed genuinely concerned as well as shocked at his own father's doings.
"How could my father allow this to happen to his people?"
"You don't blame them for abducting you?" said Qui-Gon, sounding a bit surprised.
"What choice did they have?"
Suddenly, another man rushed into the barn and closed the door again, looking scared.
"The Senator, he's here! And he's brought soldiers."
The others started to grab weapons.
"You have deceived us, Master Jedi." the woman said.
"No," said Dooku. "Our coming here was not known to the Senator."
The two Jedi walked outside with the others, and just like that man said, the Senator had indeed brought an army, small but strong. And with them was another village woman who looked sad and scared to have betrayed the others.
"She is hungry." said the first woman. "Many would do the same."
The Senator then spoke.
"Jedi, arrest these criminals and have them release my son at once." He ordered.
"I'm afraid our investigation is not yet complete, Senator." said Dooku calmly.
"Investigation?" said the senator, sounding appalled and confused. "They abducted my son. I demand his release!"
"Let me assure you your son is in no immediate danger."
"I'll be the judge of that! Guards!"
The villagers drew their weapons up as the senator's guards marched forward.
Qui-Gon didn't like the sight of this. People fighting, a war potentially brewing because of a senator's greed and disregard for the people he was sworn to protect and serve.
"Step aside, Jedi." Senator Dagonet ordered.
"We cannot." Dooku said.
"You serve the Senate."
"No. We serve the people of this Republic."
"So be it. Ready! Aim!"
The guards raised their weapons, and the Jedi ignited their lightsabers.
"Stand down." Dooku ordered.
"I will not." said Dagonet, raising a gun.
For what seemed like forever, everyone was silent. No one made a move or lowered their weapons at all. And then the senator declared: "Fire!"
And both sides began firing, the Jedi blocking every shot they could with their lightsabers, but bit by bit, the villagers got shot down until the senator ordered "Halt!"
By then, a lot of villagers had been shot to death or severe injury.
Dagonet raised his gun at Dooku again.
"I will destroy this town and make an example of it, and many others. None shall defy me. Not even you, Master Jed-"
The Senator was cut mid-speech as Dooku began Force choking the man. Qui-Gon saw and tried to stop him, but was Force pushed into the barn door as Dooku marched forward. At first, Qui-Gon thought maybe he should use magic or stomp his foot and the ground shake to throw his master off balance to save the senator. But he thought again and realized if he did that it could collapse what remained of the village and destroy everyone inside them. So, he had another idea. Qui-Gon rushed into the barn and used his lightsaber to destroy the binders holding the senator's son.
"Go! Save your father," said Qui-Gon.
"What?"
"Go now."
The two teens ran out of the barn, and not a moment too soon. The senator was still alive, but it didn't look like he would much longer as Dooku continued to choke him and raise his lightsaber.
"Corruption like yours must be eradicated," said Dooku. But just before he could strike with his weapon, the senator's son rushed in and begged him to stop.
Qui-Gon put a gentle hand on Dooku's shoulder and calmly said, "Master, it's over."
And then, suddenly seeing what he was doing, Dooku immediately stopped choking the senator and retracted his lightsaber. Senator Dagonet coughed and caught his breath as he saw his son was alright. But, the villagers looked far from happy, and so did his son.
"Father, how could you do this?" said the boy. "These are your people, our people!"
Dooku then turned to leave, and Qui-Gon followed him.
Sometime later, the villagers came together to start cleaning up and fixing what they could. The senator's son promised the villagers he would not allow their suffering to continue, and they were just going to have to trust him as he left to go home with his dad. The villagers were very thankful to the Jedi for their help to resolve the problems. It was clear the villagers cared for one another, like a family.
"I wonder if any meaningful change will come from this." Dooku wondered out loud.
"Is that why you took action into your own hands?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Your actions saved many lives today."
"Just thinking in the moment, Master."
"Well, then. You're a much wiser man than I, Qui-Gon Jinn."
"Thanks to your teachings."
The two Jedi began taking their leave to return to their ship. Except as Dooku was first to enter, Qui-Gon started to feel something odd as he noticed a bit of his robes were sparkling near his heart, gold sparkles. That was weird, Qui-Gon thought. He didn't remember bumping into anything sparkly on the way here, and they only started to sparkle more as Qui-Gon tried to dust them off. Then all of a sudden, Qui-Gon was lifted up in the air and started spinning as more sparkles began to surround him until a bright flash came about and Qui-Gon was left on the ground again.
It wasn't until Qui-Gon stood up that he felt something on his back. And when he looked, he was flabbergasted as he saw he'd just sprouted wings!
"What the-?!"
Qui-Gon rubbed his eyes and looked again, and he saw that he definitely had wings that were mostly orange with specks of blue from what he could see. And then he heard his master calling him. Luckily, Qui-Gon had his Jedi cloak on the ship, and he quickly put it on to hide his wings before his master had a chance to look at him. Of course, Dooku questioned why he was suddenly wearing that.
"I'm... just... a little cold." Qui-Gon lied.
Dooku was perplexed at first by how nervous his Padawan seemed, and the latter said nothing the rest of the way back to Coruscant.
Young Qui-Gon went to his apartment and went into the bathroom to look in the mirror, but he removed the cloak, the wings were gone.
"Huh? That was... odd." Qui-Gon said. "I must be imagining things."
Qui-Gon started to think maybe he just didn't get enough sleep. So, he went to his bed and lay down to take a nap. But shortly after he fell asleep, he began to dream a rather interesting dream. Only it wasn't a dream. It was a vision.
In his dream, Qui-Gon could see what looked like a once beautiful house, the whole place was up in flames, the fire department desperately trying to clear the area and put out the blaze, but a young couple was trapped inside. The husband was desperately trying to get him and his wife out of there, but the whole place was collapsing fast! The woman was very pregnant, which made it harder for her to move.
"Hang in there, Miranda!" said the man grabbing something to break the door down. He picked up his wife bridal style and ran to get her out of the way of the burning rubble, only to hear more threatening to fall right on top of him and his wife! Quickly, the man tossed his wife out of the way, to the woman's dismay.
"Caishen!" Miranda cried, only to feel a sharp pain in her stomach.
Luckily, some firefighters and paramedics came and got the woman out, and the medics quickly found the woman's water had broken.
"She's got a baby coming!"
The wife was panicking though as she was placed into an ambulance, unaware of what had become of her husband, but even more panicked as she found she was about to have her baby. The medics did everything they could to keep her calm as they got her to the hospital. It didn't look good at first. A stressed mother made it a lot harder to get the baby out. But Coruscant had great doctors who were prepared for pretty much anything, and the thing that helped Miranda settle down was reminding her that her husband and the baby needed her to be stronger than ever before. And right in the nick of time too because it was time for her to push.
How the woman wished her husband were there to hold her hand, but it was soon all over when she heard the sound of her baby crying its first cry.
"It's a boy!" the nurse said. And she passed the swaddled up baby boy into Miranda's arms.
"Hello." Miranda smiled. "I'm so happy to finally meet you."
"Do we have a name for this little boy of yours?"
Miranda looked at her baby and smiled, already knowing exactly what she would call him.
"Qui-Gon Starling-Jinn."
Shortly after that, Miranda looked sad as someone came to her door one day, and no ordinary someone. This someone was a Jedi, and he explained to Miranda that her son was a Jedi too. But she was hesitant to give up her baby. She asked for a few moments with her baby. She rocked him in her arms and sang him a lullaby about a river of memory to put him to sleep before placing him into the Jedi's arms.
"Please take very good care of him." Miranda pleaded tearfully.
"I assure you, Mrs. Jinn. Your son will be in very capable hands."
Miranda gave her baby one last kiss goodbye to the last thing she had of her husband.
"Goodbye, my little prince."
That was when Qui-Gon woke up with a gasp. Why did that woman look so familiar to him? He felt like he should've known her, like he'd seen her face before. But then he thought again. Miranda and Caishen Jinn? A hospital, and that baby? Qui-Gon decided to do some digging into his past. Maybe that would give him some answers as to why he suddenly sprouted wings earlier.
Qui-Gon went to the archives and looked around where he knew the Jedi kept medical history and birth records, and he eventually found his birth certificate, where he found the very names of his parents and which hospital he was born in. Not only that, but he also found a photograph of the very same woman he'd seen in his dream, and she was holding her newborn son in her arms. Then, he noticed writing on the back of it. He had no idea how none of the Jedi noticed that before, but he saw a message.
My dearest Qui-Gon,
if you are reading this it means you have grown up and are curious about your past.
Giving birth to you was the greatest thing I have ever done, and saying goodbye to you the hardest.
When you were an infant, I gave you to the Jedi because I believed they would able to keep you safe from
those who may wish our family harm. If ever you wish to meet again, I would like that very much.
I don't know where I will be when you are reading this, but only your eyes can see it because there is something very special about you
that you may have discovered sometime around your fifth birthday.
A good place to start your journey, start in the lower levels of Coruscant, and find this address:
423 Scanti Drive, unit 9-H.
Sincerely, Mommy
Qui-Gon wasn't sure what to expect, but he had a hunch that she knew something about his powers than he ever could've hoped.
So, while his master was sleeping in, Qui-Gon snuck out and went to the address on the letter. He found himself in a lower class complex, where he walked until he spotted one with little daisies growing in the window box, which he found surprising when they turned out to be real flowers. And the welcome mat looked hand-embroidered. There must have been something magical about this woman. But why she was living down here, assuming she was still there, he had no clue.
Qui-Gon hesitated at first. But, he took a deep breath, and knocked on the door. He was nervous as he waited to see if anyone would answer, and started to think maybe this was a mistake. But before he could step away, the door opened, and out came a woman with light brown hair and blue eyes like his. She definitely looked just like the woman in the picture.
"Hello? Can I help you?"
"Greetings, Madame." said Qui-Gon. "I was wondering if a Miranda Jinn lives here?"
"Yes, I am she."
Qui-Gon was nervous again.
"Did you ever have a son named Qui-Gon?"
Suddenly, Miranda looked at the boy again. This time, she walked closer to him and placed a gentle hand on his cheek, looking him in the eyes. She didn't say anything, but she smiled with happy tears in her eyes, and pulled Qui-Gon into a big hug, which he returned.
Miranda invited him inside to join her for breakfast. They sat at the table together to talk. Miranda couldn't believe how big her son had grown. He'd grown to be a handsome young man too.
"It's true, dear. I didn't want to give you up, but I had to in order to ensure you were cared for. You've seen the place. It's not exactly high class around here."
"Living in the Jedi Temple isn't too fancy either. Even with a lot of space and many people living there, it can be lonely. And as blessed as I am to meet you, I actually came for answers."
Qui-Gon explained to Miranda that when he was six, he'd suddenly discovered he was exceptionally strong. And then after that, his hands glowed at random ties and strange things happened beyond what ordinary Jedi could do. And then recently...
Suddenly, Qui-Gon's wings popped up randomly.
"That's when these came."
"You have your wings already?"
"What exactly are we?" Qui-Gon asked.
And then, Miranda had another story for her son that was beyond what he would've imagined.