Archive: master_apprentice, and wherever, just ask me first.
Category: Hurt/Comfort, plot-related Angst.
Rating: G
Warnings: implied character death
Spoilers: TPM, ANH.
Summary: After being killed by Darth Vader, Obi-Wan is reunited
with Qui-Gon Jinn.
Feedback: Oh, yeah. That would be nice.
"Why must it be, that I am older than you?" Obi-Wan asked. He
stood before Qui-Gon, in the darkness between the stars, and
after so many years, he had forgotten how to begin.
"You can appear however you wish, here." Qui-Gon answered. He
didn't want to push Obi-Wan too far, too fast. The man was
still brittle from death. -A death he had chosen, at that.
Obi-Wan had left young Luke standing in the death star cargo
bay, with nothing left to lose. That was the irony of it. After
the disastrous training of Anakin, he had finally realized how
to train the Jedi they needed. Anakin's weakness was fear for
those he loved, and in the long years of wracking his brain
trying to figure out what went wrong, Obi-Wan had realized that
his own training held the key to Luke's: The death of Qui-Gon
had tempered him in a way nothing else could have, made him
almost without fear, for the worst had already come to pass...
and that was the key. He had known he would die in Luke's
training, and accepted it, as he had accepted the will of the
force many times before.
They were all between the stars now, Luke locked in a fragile
envelope of air called the Millennium Falcon, and two ghosts
staring silently at each other amidst the ruin that had been
called Alderann. Obi-Wan felt as if he was holding one of the
breaths he no longer needed.
"I missed you." he said, finally. A smile quirked the corner of
his mouth, that mischievous trademark smile that he'd never
lost, despite everything. And Qui-Gon knew then that his former
student would be all right.
"I waited for you." Qui-Gon told him. Obi-Wan looked away for a
moment, his shimmering features flowing like wax as his
feelings rose to bury him. Qui-Gon took Obi-Wan's hand, and
tugged him forward gently, an invitation that could be refused.
He'd second-guessed Obi-Wan perfectly, however, and Obi-Wan
finished the motion, hugging Qui-Gon tightly. It was as if it
was not him who was dead, but Qui-Gon who was alive, and
whichever the case, he was glad of it. Obi-Wan realized with a
start that his face had sunk about an inch into the blue corona
of Qui-Gon's shoulder, but no further. He drew back enough that
he could see Qui-Gon's expression, then asked, "Can I be..."
Obi-Wan's face flickered, became the age he'd been when he had
seen Qui-Gon last, a padawan, almost ready to become a knight.
He was no longer that young man, but for this moment, he wished
to be. He wanted to be Qui-Gon's student again, safe, guided,
adoring. He wanted to be able to finish the words he never got
to say, to finally lay to rest that part of his soul that had
never quite grown up.
"Of course." said Qui-Gon, understanding. "There will be plenty
of time for you to be old later."
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