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The Biggest Lie

by The Rose (rosarocaminis@yahoo.com)

Obi-Wan awoke to early morning light streaming through his bedroom window. He stretched, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. As he had done every morning since he was thirteen, he reached out along his training link for his Master's presence. A hollow silence was his only answer. With the impact of a boulder falling, memory returned.

"Master, no!" he screamed, sitting bolt upright in bed. His heart pounded in his ears, his breath catching. No! It couldn't be true! Not Qui-Gon!

The door opened and an unfamiliar wave of comfort washed over his mind. "Calm yourself you must, Obi-Wan," Yoda said as he shambled haltingly into the room.

Obi-Wan threw himself to his knees in front of the ancient Jedi Master. He bowed his head. "Please, Master Yoda!" he begged. "Tell me it was all a bad dream! It can't be true!" Tears blinded him, running freely down his cheeks. "My Master can't be dead!"

One three-fingered green hand came up to press briefly against Obi-Wan's temple. Had the young man not been so distraught, he would have felt Yoda sifting carefully through the top layer of his thoughts. "True it is," Yoda said softly, dropping his hand when Obi-Wan began to shake his head violently in denial.

"No! No! I saved him! I remember! He was still alive after I killed the Sith, and I anchored his life force to mine! I saved him, Master Yoda! I did!"

Yoda's ears sank back onto his head as he watched Obi-Wan, his eyes sad. "Save him you did not," he said. "Accept this as truth you must, and move on."

Obi-Wan sat down hard on the floor and buried his face in his hands. "I don't think I can," he said, his voice barely audible.

"Back in bed with you," Yoda said, helping the young man to rise and not releasing him until he was seated in the center of the bed. "Help you, I will." Yoda stayed near, placing one hand on Obi-Wan's knee. "Appointment I have made for you with the soul healer. Help you deal with your grief, he will. Until better you feel, alone you will not be. Stay with you, Master Windu or I will."

"I don't want any other Masters to stay with me!" Obi-Wan shouted. Seeing Yoda's ears twitch at his lack of respect, he tried to bring his voice and his emotions under control. A seemingly impossible task under the circumstances. "And, if you have let Anakin stay with me, if you'd let me train him as I promised my Master, I would not be alone!"

"Discuss young Skywalker we will not," Yoda said, pounding his gimer stick on the floor in emphasis. "Told Qui-Gon that trained the boy would not be. Not by him, not by you."

"But, Master Yoda, I promised!"

"Unfortunate that is, but change things it does not. Already sent away the boy has been. For the best, this is."

"Best for whom?" Obi-Wan asked, shocking himself with his boldness. "For the Council, or for Anakin?"

The gimer stick pounded against the floor, harder this time. "Best for all!" Yoda told him, his tone warning Obi-Wan not to pursue the subject. But Obi-Wan hadn't been Padawan to Qui-Gon Jinn for all those years without learning some measure of defiance.

"You never even told me where you sent him!" he said, not caring if he was earning himself a reprimand. "Is he home with his mother?"

"Concern you the boy does not," Yoda said, turning away. He hobbled back to the door, leaning heavily on his walking stick. "To the healer's you will go. Talk, you must, and heal. But first, sleep you need." He turned back for a moment and waved his hand, and this time Obi-Wan felt his mind touch as a wave of drowsiness that threatened to drag him down. "Later, when better rested you are, meditate on serenity the two of us will."

Obi-Wan was fighting a losing battle to keep his eyes open. "But, Master Yoda . . ." He broke off as his bedroom door closed, leaving him alone. He dropped back onto his pillow, and with his last moments of consciousness, he reached again for the link with his Master and found only pain and a tearing sense of loss. He lost the battle against sleep. And, he dreamed.

In his dream, Obi-Wan watched again as his Master fell, pierced through by the Sith's red blade. He saw himself drop to his knees, cradling Qui-Gon in his arms.

"It's too late . . . "

"No, Master!" he heard himself scream.

"Promise me . . . you'll train the boy."

"No! You'll train him! I won't let you die!" He didn't know how he had done it, only that he had reached out with his life force and entwined it with Qui-Gon's, wrapping the two so tightly together that if one succumbed, both would. "I won't let you leave me! I love you, Qui-Gon! And I won't let you die!" He saw the blue eyes flash at him as the older Jedi sought to push him away. But he held on tight, tighter still with his mind, and sent his life energy pouring into the mortally injured man.

For a long time, they knelt there, bound together, the strong one weakening, the weak one growing infinitesimally stronger. Finally, the Queen's guards came, the palace healers right after them. Even then, Obi-Wan would not separate from Qui-Gon. As they carried the Jedi Master on an antigrav stretcher to the medical unit, Obi-Wan stumbled alongside almost blindly, refusing to release the hand he clutched tightly between his own.

They tried to pull him away while they tended Qui-Gon, tried to push him into a bed, fearing he would collapse. His snarling refusal forced them finally to leave him be. They worked around him, hooking Qui-Gon up to life sustaining machines and replacing the lost blood. They reached past him to seal the injury, both inside and out, and even hooked up an intravenous line to Obi-Wan's own arm, feeding him stimulants to replace his own waning energy.

But leave his Master he would not. For long hours he sat there in the chair they had finally pressured him into, leaning his forehead against Qui-Gon's bare flank. One hand covered Qui-Gon's forehead, the other still clutched tightly to his limp hand. He saw, in his dream, the exact moment when the indigo blue eyes had opened.

"Master?" he heard his dream self whisper.

A weak smile answered him, but it was enough. Qui-Gon lived!

The rest of his dream passed in a blur of vague memories, growing substantial again only as Yoda and Master Windu arrived. They checked on Qui-Gon's condition for themselves, then conferred quietly together. Obi-Wan didn't try to hear their whispered words. He had eyes and ears only for his Master. Then, Mace Windu was lifting him from his chair, untangling his hold on his Master with the Force.

"Come, Obi-Wan, you must rest," he said.

"No!" The Padawan struggled against his grip, wanting, NEEDING, to be with Qui-Gon. But Windu was strong, his command of the Force stronger still, and Obi-Wan was carried away. In his dream, he saw the Councilman ease him into a bed, then felt a tendril of the older Jedi's thoughts wrap around his own, tugging at his memory, pulling it out by the roots. "No!" Obi-Wan screamed, writhing useless against invisible bonds that suddenly and inexplicably bound him to the bed. "No! Don't take him from me!"

"Your Master is dead, Padawan," Windu said, both aloud and into his mind, pressing the new memory in to replace the one he had removed. "I'm so sorry."

"NOOOOO!"

Obi-Wan sat up in bed, the sheet tangled around his torso, sweat pouring off his face. The door opened, flooding his room with light, and the tall figure of Mace Windu entered.

"Calm yourself, Knight Kenobi," the Councilman said as he crossed to the bed.

"He's alive!" Obi-Wan nearly screamed the words out, ignoring the strange new title. "You lied to me! Qui-Gon's alive and you've hidden him away from me!"

"Silence!" Windu snapped, and Obi-Wan felt the older Jedi weave a Force shield around the room, trapping their voices and emotions inside. "You'll wake the whole Temple."

Obi-Wan was on his feet in seconds, face to face with the dark-skinned man as their gazes locked. Windu's face was impassive and unreadable, Obi-Wan's flushed red with rage. "Why did you lie to me!" he demanded, hurling the words up at this man who so calmly gazed down at him. "He's alive and you're keeping me from him!"

Strong hands caught his shoulders, and Obi-Wan felt a shaft of pure Force slice its way into his mind. "No," Windu said, both aloud and into Obi-Wan's head. "Qui-Gon is dead."

"If he is, then you and Yoda killed him!" Obi-Wan screamed, struggling against the invasion. "Because he was alive when you dragged me out of there!"

"You're overwrought, Knight," the Councilman said in his infuriatingly serene manner. "I'm going to take you to the soul healer. He can help you get your thoughts back in order."

"You mean brainwash me again, don't you?" Obi-Wan jerked out of Windu's hold and lunged toward the door. "I'll find him! I'll find Qui-Gon no matter where you've hidden him!" Arms locked around him from behind, muscles like steel bands that stopped him in his tracks. A wave of Force energy flashed through his brain, lighting up his nerve endings in an agony of white-hot pain. "No!" he screamed, but it was already too late. His consciousness winked out and he slumped, bonelessly, into the Councilman's arms.

When next he awoke, it was to the smells and sense of the Healer's Wing. He tried to rise, only to find himself strapped tightly to the narrow bed on which he had been placed. He reached out with the Force to release the restraints, only then realizing that he couldn't touch it. A slender collar around his neck told him why. A Force-inhibitor.

He started to scream, to demand release, but the sound of faint voices reached him from the next room. Straining his ears, he listened.

"No!" an unfamiliar voice was saying. "I'm a healer! I will not do this!"

"Do it you must!" No question of who that voice belonged to. "A danger Knight Kenobi is! Erased permanently, his memory must be!"

"No, I said! It's unethical, and inhumane! You can't force me to do it!"

"If you don't, we'll find a healer who will," Mace Windu's implacable voice said.

"No Jedi healer will help you!"

"Then, we'll bring someone in from outside the Temple. Although, they might not be as concerned with Knight Kenobi's future as you. Think about that."

Obi-Wan held his breath through the silence that followed. Finally, "All right," he heard the healer say, his voice barely audible through the door that separated them.

"NO!" Obi-Wan screamed as the three stepped into his room. He struggled against the straps, tears running in streams down his face. "No! Master Yoda, please don't do this to me! Please! Qui-Gon is alive! You must let me see him!"

Yoda shook his head sadly. "See him, you cannot. Best forgotten, he is."

The healer, a balding, elderly man, was stepping up to the side of the bed, watching Obi-Wan with a mixture of dread and apology. There wasn't much time. "This is about Anakin, isn't it?" Obi-Wan pressed. "Please, Master Yoda! I must know!" The healer reached for him, and Obi-Wan strained away from him frantically. "Please!"

"Wait you will," Yoda said softly, and the healer backed away.

"Yoda," Mace Windu said in a warning tone. "You don't have to tell him anything."

But the small green Jedi was shaking his head. "In a few minutes, remember this conversation he will not. Owe him, we do, an explanation." He pulled himself up on a chair by the bed until he was on eye level with Obi-Wan. He sighed, his shoulders sagging as if under a vast weight. "Dangerous, young Skywalker is. Told Qui-Gon this, I did. But stubborn he is. Willful. Train the boy he would have, without our approval. Necessary this was, to protect ourselves."

"Where is he, Master Yoda?" Obi-Wan could see Windu's protests rising, could see Yoda about to refuse his question, so he pressed harder. "Please. I need to know, even if only for a few minutes. I need to know where he is, and if he's all right."

Yoda hesitated for so long that Obi-Wan's hopes of getting an answer faded. But, finally, Yoda nodded. "On Teringal, he is, in a long-term care facility. Gravely injured he was, but recovering. No memory has he of his life here at the Temple, or of you. Blocked it, we have."

More tears flooded the young Jedi's eyes. At least, he's alive, he told himself. Even if he doesn't remember me, he's alive. That's the most important thing. Alive and on Teringal. He saw Yoda nod to the healer, saw the elderly man step towards him again, hands outstretched. Fingers closed on his temples and a foreign mind probed into his brain, tugging at his memories. Obi-Wan shut his eyes against the horror of it, against the terrible, ripping pain. Remember Teringal, he repeated silently. Qui-Gon, alive. Teringal. Remember. Remember . . .

My challenge to you - write the rest of the story! See my web site http://www.sockiipress.org/~rose for more details. This story challenge and others are on my Challenge Page! All story conclusions will be posted there!

The Rose