Master Apprentice Archive Ingratitude Quick search:

Rating: PG

Feedback: Ooh yeah.

Archive: Yes to M/A and my page, Till Human Voices Wake Us; others please ask.

Disclaimer: George Lucas owns everybody, not that I care.

Summary: Not everybody undervalues Obi-Wan.

Notes: I just finished reading Padawan Ben's wonderful "Soliloquy" when I wrote this, so I'm very much in a Qui-Gon-You-Bastard frame of mind. Surely the young man of that story has *someone* who appreciates him! That'll probably explain it.

I can't believe he's doing this."

Yoda raised one ear and ambled over to where Mace Windu stood in the Council room, peering out one of the ceiling-high windows. The Council were in a brief recess and only the two senior members remained in the room at the moment.

Hopping up on a chair, the little Jedi Master peered in the same direction as Windu-and made out the form of a sleek Nubian cruiser sitting on a landing platform, with two Jedi standing beside the ramp and obviously involved in a heated discussion.

As they watched, the taller Jedi turned abruptly on the younger one and apparently said something sharp, as the smaller man then turned and stalked on board the ship.

"Qui-Gon and young Obi-Wan," Yoda said sadly. "Confused, is this situation. Worse, does the presence of the young boy make it." Now Qui-Gon knelt in front of the lad whom Windu knew only as a potential danger. He shook his head in disgust.

"Not just the boy. It's been like this for as long as I can remember. Look at him-smiling at that child. How often does he smile at Obi-Wan? Answer me that."

Yoda blinked slowly. "Qui-Gon, a reserved man is..." he began.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi is the best thing that ever happened to Qui-Gon Jinn," Mace said flatly. "You and I both know it. And now that idiot just tosses him aside like he was nothing-with nary a word of warning, I'll bet, from the look on Obi-Wan's face. Did you *see* the look on his face?" he added angrily.

Yoda nodded. "Saw it, I did. Hurt terribly, he was."

"And I'll bet you a thousand dactares that Jinn didn't even notice." Mace huffed out his breath in an disgusted sigh, his gaze turning from Qui-Gon and Anakin back to the Nubian ship. Then he looked sadly down at Yoda. "We made a terrible mistake, thirteen years ago."

"Say you this? Will of the Force, it was."

"The Will of the Force is bloody cruel, then. No. We should never have set up Obi-Wan for Jinn's tutelage. Just look at what's happened. We have a brilliant student who's convinced he's worthless."

Yoda looked terribly sorrowful for a moment. "Been good for Qui-Gon, he has. Anticipated that Qui-Gon would not be good for him, I did not. We did not," he added, with a sharp glance at Mace.

Mace sighed again. "I accept my share of the responsibility too, my friend. I'm just...regretting it, that's all. And I'm angry."

There was a brief silence. Then Yoda said softly, "Love Obi-Wan, you do."

Another silence, but far more tense. Then Mace managed a slight laugh. "Of course I do. Who doesn't? How could you help it? The boy is a light all by himself."

Yoda continued looking at him for a minute or so, with something like sympathy on his face. "True, that is," he said eventually and returned to looking out the window, where Queen Amidala and her retinue were arriving to board. Qui-Gon turned his attention away from Anakin to speak to her.

"Obi-Wan will be a greater knight than Jinn," Mace said, his voice a low, forceful whisper. "I know he will. I can see it."

"Think you Qui-Gon cannot?"

"Yes. I don't think he realizes what Kenobi is, or appreciates it, at any rate. That young man is a miracle, but it's as if Qui-Gon thinks he's nothing special-like he deserves such brilliance, like it's his *due* or something after Xanatos. Compensation, perhaps."

"Perhaps think so he does," Yoda mused. "But correct you are. An excellent Jedi, Obi-Wan is, and will yet be. And," he added, with another glance at Windu, "in love with Qui-Gon Jinn he is."

The tall frame of the dark man tensed for an instant, barely perceptibly. "The folly of youth," he muttered. "And Qui-Gon? Does he know this?"

Yoda's eyes hooded. "Unsure, am I," he admitted. "But to love his student himself...? Yes. I think he does. Even if admit it, he cannot."

"Then he is a thrice-damned fool," Mace said, and his voice was a little hoarse. "A damnable idiot of a Jedi Master."

"Anger, Master Windu. Remember your anger."

All were aboard the cruiser now, and it was lifting from the landing pad. "Still," Yoda murmured, "Qui-Gon...a bad feeling, have I. Many shadows ahead."

Mace glanced quickly at him. "You believe him to be right about the Sith?"

There was another loaded pause. "Again, unsure am I. But heading into danger, they are. Terrible danger." He looked askance at Windu. "Felt nothing certain have I. Yet emerge alive from it...I do not think both will. Still, clouded it is..." but he did not sound reassured.

Mace seemed to go a little paler, and watched the ship take off and fly into the darkness ahead, his eyes following it until it was a tiny pinprick of light, which soon disappeared entirely. He felt, rather than heard, Yoda leaving him to reconvene the Council. Alone again, he murmured something almost like a prayer.

"I know which one I want to live."

Fin.