Luke stilled in his stoking of the fire. "But he said..."
"Tell you the truth he did not. Too close to his heart, Qui-Gon
is."
"Qui-Gon?"
Yoda hesitated. What harm could it do? Both were now one with
the force, and now as before they were side by side. "Saved
Obi-Wan's young life did Qui-Gon. Take him as a Padawan he did.
Fell in love, they did." Luke's eyes widened. Like blue oceans,
Yoda thought, they so reminded him of Obi-Wan. He remembered
looking into stormy eyes as Kenobi had knelt before him in the
hall, after Qui-Gon's death. "Warned them, we did, that the
path they took, wrong it was. Wrong we were, they said.
Right they were. Strong, they made one another. Completed one
another they did."
"What happened to Qui-Gon?"
"Killed. By first apprentice of the Emperor. Slain was this
Sith, by Obi-Wan."
Confusion touched Luke's soft features. "In anger?"
"No. In love. Touch Obi-Wan, the Dark Side could not. Why, we
know not. Never tempted he was."
Luke sat back. "Why would he lie to me?"
"Missed him deeply, Obi-Wan did." The sadness of memory in his
voice turned to a smile. "Together now, they are. Eternal now
they are. As always they were."
A young gentle laugh touched the horizon. To Yoda's right side,
a pale blue glow illuminated two men standing close, one behind
the other. Although it wasn't the Ben Kenobi Luke recognized,
he knew deep in his heart that it was his teacher. And that the
man behind Ben, his arms wrapped around the young Jedi's waist
in a loving embrace, was Qui-Gon, the true Jedi Master. "Do not
fear death," the young Ben told his student. "For it merely
binds us."
The visual illusion vanished, leaving a warmth. "Always
together they were," Yoda told him happily. "Always together
will they be."
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