Master Apprentice
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Title: Risorgimento--Journal of QGJ--entry 2
Author: obi_ki
Pairing: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan
Rating: PG-13
Category: Q/O AU
Time Period: About 20 years post ABY
Archive: MA, anyone else please ask.
Disclaimer: Everything Star Wars belongs to George Lucas and Lucasfilms. We're just playing in his world, borrowing the boyz and their accomplices and will return them all when I'm through. No money is being made from this, it is all done for entertainment only.
Author's notes: This is the ninth segment in the Risorgimento series and the second journal entry for Qui-Gon. Thanks to Merry Amelie for the thorough beta and thoughtful suggestions. The story would be much less without her valuable input. Sorry again that it's taken so long to get this part posted, RL has been crazy for both for me and for padawanewan.
Summary: Qui-Gon awakens in an unfamiliar environment, disoriented and thinking that the time is immediately following the Battle of Naboo. Obi-Wan awakens in the same environment, confused and thinking that it is immediately following the Battle on Mustafar. They separately meet with their host, Var-Son Meirr, and eventually find that they are in a remote medical facility, that Var-Son cloned them and that it's currently fifty-five years post Naboo. After spending some time getting acclimated and learning about the events of the last fifty-five years, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are finally brought together by their creator.
When the shock wears off, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan spend time with the healer and eventually alone together. They learn more about the events that have occurred and about each other. Especially in Obi-Wan's case, the events that occurred during the years after Naboo changed him and he is far from the inexperienced padawan that walked for so many years at his master's side. As they reconnect, they find something is off about them and they struggle to figure out how to deal with it. They speak to the healer about their concerns and Obi-Wan hears vague directions and odd comments from an internal voice. They decide that joint meditation may prove helpful and Var-Son directs them to the facility's garden.
During their joint meditation, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan reach out to one another and create the beginnings of a new bond between them. Although not as strong as their previous connection, they both feel it's a good beginning and will strengthen in time. Unbeknownst to them, they have company during their meditations - their ethereal counterparts are watching them and contemplating what if anything they can do to aid the clones along their path. When the meditation is over and both men return to their individual quarters, they spend some time in thought trying to get a handle on their situation.
Both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan contemplate the events of the past few days and of their joint meditation. They use the datapads they find in their quarters to put their thoughts down and try to come to terms with their unique situation.
Putting their thoughts into words give both men some clarity. Qui-Gon uses the ritual of dressing to add the final level of serenity while Obi-Wan resorts to a more physical activity to release the last of his pent up tension. Obi-Wan shocks Qui-Gon with a bit of overt flirting but is glad to find it is more than welcome.
They join Var-Son for first-meal and answers to more of their questions but get one that they don't expect. The healer is dying and will not be coming with them when they leave the medical facility. With that knowledge heavy on their hearts, they head to the mechanics lab to construct new lightsabers.
The construction of their lightsabers offers surprises as well, the Force leading them to select 2 different gems to power their dual phase sabers. Although time consuming, the process is completed without issues and they leave the lab feeling more complete, lightsabers now hanging from their belts.
Arriving at the dining area, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan find their creator missing and are told that his condition has deteriorated. They argue, not so much about what they should do but how they should do it.
They go to visit Var-Son and stay with him during his final hours, providing emotional support.
The following day they meet with FX-7 and are giving the information Var-Son left for them and prepared to depart for their new lives.
Feedback: Feedback is treasured in any way, shape or form, either in comments in this journal or through email to kiowkqgj@yahoo.com.
Knowing that Obi-Wan has little need of my assistance in the cockpit, I found a secure place to lodge the plants and decided it would be a good time to put down my thoughts on the events that have occurred in the two days since I last wrote in this journal.
Coming to terms with being reincarnated in this perfect body has been hard enough, but knowing that the man responsible for Obi-Wan and me being alive is now dead is another thing altogether. Var-Son Meirr may have used his knowledge in an unusual way, but he was a gifted scientist who sought to redeem the earlier destructive use of his research with more benevolent offerings. I must admit that I've never before thought of myself as an offering, but since it appears that the Force wills it, I'll have to change my self-perception. I spent years telling my padawans that the truths we hold are totally dependent on our points of view. Well, Var-Son Meirr has definitely changed my point of view about a lot of things. Only time will tell if I will live up to his expectations.
And then, there is Obi-Wan. This incarnation of my padawan, or should I say my former padawan, is someone I both know well and don't know at all. It isn't just that he is fourteen years older than the last time I saw him in my original life. He's no longer the inexperienced padawan looking to his master for direction and support. He's a master in his own right, with a master's experience, confidence, self-reliance and determination.
If age and experience were the only differences, I probably wouldn't be quite as hesitant. But the events of the intervening years between my 'death' and Obi-Wan's have done more than give him experience. Years of doing his duty to the Order and the Republic, being required to use his skills to serve a Republic descending deeper and deeper into darkness, have taken their toll. We may have had to fight our way out of many hostile situations during our years together, but just as many of our missions required more brains than brawn.
Over the course of the years between Naboo and Anakin's turning, the lives of the Jedi changed dramatically. I trained Obi-Wan to be a negotiator, an instrument of peace, using the power of words and intellect to bring opposing parties together. But instead, he had to draw more frequently on his warrior skills, until he was eventually relegated into the role of general in a war that couldn't be won. Those events changed him, the weight of them making him jaded, cynical and weary, in ways I never imagined.
He was hardened by the life he lived, wary of everyone and everything, expecting deception at every turn. The sarcasm that had in his padawan years been used in private comments and teasing moments surfaced more often and had a caustic edge. If his Knighthood had been earned in the heat of battle, his Master's rank had been forged in the iron of adversity. Could anyone have endured the traumas of Obi-Wan's life and not become at least a little jaded?
And if all these changes aren't enough, there's the underlying sexual tension between us. We may both have had dreams a lifetime ago, but fate had denied us the possibility back then. It's my hope that we won't be denied now, but before we can embark on the exploration of our attraction I must come to know this older Obi-Wan a whole lot better.
I guess I will just have to trust that the Force knows what it's doing. When Obi-Wan gets the ship into hyperspace and on autopilot, I will suggest another joint meditation. Something special happened during our session in Var-Son's garden. We connected on a deeper level, as if the Force itself was strengthening our connection. Maybe another round of meditation will bring whatever is hovering in the shadows into the light of day.