Dissolution Theory

by Boots ( obi_wan_Kenobi@hotmail.com )

Archiving: MA please (thank you archivist!), also at http://www.ravenswing.com/~boots/warn.html (whenever I bother to actually link things)

Pairing: Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan/Dooku

Category: Angst, bad silly angst

Rating: R

Warning: Garbled, unbetaed mess, also see 'Category'. Perhaps fic is better without reading epilogue.

Disclaimer: Not mine, George's.

Summary: Ten years after his death, Obi-Wan is convinced Qui-Gon is still alive.

Feedback: Only remembered this WIP after someone sent me ridiculously generous flattery, so am clearly FB whore ... moaning for more ... aurgh, am disgusting.

When the Council assigned him the mission of tracking down Count Dooku, Obi-Wan could not believe his luck. It was an openly acknowledged secret amongst the Jedi that Master Obi-Wan had been obsessed with the man for years.

It began with the death of Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi Master who trained Kenobi. It was obvious that the two were very close during the apprenticeship. But that could not explain why Obi-Wan reacted so strongly to his Master's death. Rumour goes that Jinn, although immortalised by his last duel with a Sith, did not in death 'become one with the Force'. Given Qui-Gon's mastery of the Force, this was indeed a mystery, which haunted Obi-Wan constantly.

No one however expected or knew of the outlandish theories Obi-Wan had come up with to justify the situation. He confided only to his Padawan learner Anakin Skywalker, who being a young man hardly appreciate the intricacy of Obi-Wan's feelings, Anakin could only say, sympathetically: "Clones Master? You said the body might have been a Force-induced mass-hallucination suffered by Yoda, the entire Jedi Council and the royal court of Naboo, just last week. And I told you that I don't know about Yoda or Mace, but I didn't sense anything a mind trick and I am a Convergence of the Force. Then you made me stand the Humility Pose for hours."

Isolated by this lack of understanding, Obi-Wan brooded inwardly, seeking confirmation to his wild speculations by prowling the Temple library for all manners of information in titles such as 'philosophising death and dissolution theory', and other such academia - An obscure category of learning that just happens to be placed next to a certain row of busts.

The first time Obi-Wan saw the likeness of Count Dooku, he mistook it for a monument of Qui-Gon and stood so long transfixed before it that his Padawan find him amongst the tall shelves by searching for his Force-signature. Anakin noted with shock the wetness on Obi-Wan's cheeks (and had to wonder to himself, that if he ever lost his Master, would he ever mourn so deeply and desperately like Obi-Wan did?). It was even more difficult for Anakin to endure the profound disappointment Obi-Wan tried to hide from him, upon learning that the bust was not of Qui-Gon, but of a renegade Jedi, infamous and lost to the Order.

Nonetheless Obi-Wan returned to the sculpture again and again, until amongst the ranks of Initiates and Padawans it was joked that he was bewitched by it. Slightly embarrassed by the gossip, Anakin attempted to have a word with his Master about his strange behaviour. Only to back down instantly, when Obi-Wan began to talk about Count Dooku and who he might be, with a glimmer in his eyes, exited colour in his complexion and a new animation that Anakin found greatly heartening. So what if his Master was crazy as a Jawa in front of a Nubian ship that's crush landed, Obi-Wan was on a quest.

Coincidences began to occur in their work schedule. For instance, on a procedural visit to a Middle Sector planet, their ship looped to a refuelling star on the Outer Rim. Another diplomatic trip took them to a system that also happened to be the last known residence for Count Dooku. Undercover on one of the stars of Neonia, Obi-Wan swooped down on a used cup and without thought stained his mouth violet with wine. "He was here only an hour ago, I can taste his saliva on the crystal," licking his lips, he told his stunned apprentice.

Obi-Wan was haunted by quick flashes of a blue velvet cape around street corners, by elegant baritones at high society gatherings, by tall, broad shouldered men with deep set eyes. Anakin observed these little details that electrified his Master and came to his own uneasy conclusion, which he regrettably kept to himself.

When it came time to decide who was to guard Senator Amidala and who to track down Count Dooku, rash choices were made. Obi-Wan suspected Anakin was infatuated with Padme and vice versa, but instead of switching places with Anakin to avoid that danger, he chose instead to close in on Dooku. Obi-Wan went to Genosis without his Padawan, with no backup, and no plans except for a burning, feverish desire to prove once and for all that Dooku was Qui-Gon.

Qui-Gon died ten years ago, Obi-Wan reasoned, and no one had even heard the name of Dooku before then. He has been told that a Jedi Master was involved with the start of cloning, and he calculated it would take roughly a decade for the army to grow and mature to its present state.

Obi-Wan conceived that all this was an elaborate set up: ten years ago there was unrest and rearmament in the failing Republic and the Jedi had decided at the first signs of strife on Naboo that if clones were to be created, they had better have someone on the inside and taking part in the deals. Qui-Gon was one of the few who was skilled and experienced enough to be a candidate . . . Qui-Gon had also conveniently been relieved of the burden of his Padawan Obi-Wan in a momentous late night Council meeting.

With his arms and legs strapped in energy binders, hanging suspended, Obi-Wan closed his eyes with a bitter smile. Imaging through his mind's eyes Qui-Gon staying behind in the meeting after Obi-Wan and young Anakin were dismissed and bravely accepting the undercover work of a highly sensitive nature; returned to Naboo, faked his death and took up the new identity of Count Dooku. Qui-Gon then proceeded to use that alias to lure out Jedi whose loyalties were questionable, formed a separatist fraction to bring phantom menaces into day light and create such a debauched reputation for Count Dooku, that no one would ever discover him to be a Jedi Master under the deepest of cover.

A part of that reputation was that Dooku had a special interest in Jedi prisoners, and often restrained them in the manner that Obi-Wan was here, and then . . . pressed them for information in an intimate, irrevocable manner. Yet Obi-Wan was so sure that this was his long estranged Master that the opening of the door brought him no fear. Only a flush of anticipatory heat and . . . Yoda-be-a-Sith, he was hard inside his leggings.

He could sense the Force-signature in the room, a pulsing glow approximating Dooku's stature. The display with the energy binder began to slowly revolve and Obi-Wan heard the first words Dooku spoke. He hardly comprehended their meaning, but registered that Dooku was speaking of Qui-Gon as an old acquaintance of close association. When he said that Qui-Gon would desire power and truth as he, Dooku, did; Obi-Wan wanted to shout: "But of course, he IS you." Much to Obi-Wan's perturbation he also wanted to come. Which, given that he had been celibate for most of his life and never previously had any indication from himself that this was the nature of his connection to Qui-Gon, make him tremble imperceptibly against the cuffs. His replied a little hysterically to Dooku's invitation that never would Qui-Gon turn to the Dark Side.

There was a pause of silence, Obi-Wan breathed heavily through his nose, by-the-Force he could almost see the tip of a shoulder now and the sight of it shook him, he shivered when Dooku moved.

The restraints jerked as Dooku landed on his back, stepping booted feet one each of Obi-Wan's ankle binders, one hand gripping his throat, an arm latched around his waist. Obi-Wan felt the brush of beard against his cheek and a hard bulge pushing into the crevice between his buttocks. "Master," Obi-Wan turned his head and pressed his mouth for a sustained, bottomless kiss. Whizzing thinly as it ended and his leggings sagging with ejaculate, at the front and back. Obi-Wan opened his eyes, stilling himself for the sight of Qui- Gon's face, altered with cosmetic-surgery, but he expected still the haughty nose and darkly vivid eyes, what he saw made his heart stop.

Count Dooku smiled. "I am not your Master, my poor, mad, orphaned apprentice, Qui-Gon Jinn is dead."

And the stars whirled out of orbit and the world darkened at last.

Epilogue

Had Obi-Wan survived Dooku, Mace Windu thought as he stood with Senator Amidala, Anakin and Yoda inside the Arena, they might have held the droids off long enough for the cloned reinforcements to arrive.

Had I told Obi-Wan, Anakin thought as he stood with Councillor Windu, Master Yoda and Padme, Obi-Wan might have realised he was not well.

Had I shown myself at anytime throughout all this, Qui-Gon thought from his hiding place, Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan . . . (but a Jedi was not supposed to love, was not Obi-Wan's fate proof that that was a lesson he should not have neglected to impress upon his devoted apprentice?)

The End.