The room was simple. There was a kitchenette off to one side, with a small, two-person table against the near wall by the door. Across from the door was a short hallway, and at the end on either side, Obi-Wan could see two doors. "Your's is on the left," Garen said, pointing down the hallway. "Your apartment is set up just like my Master's is."
"Thanks," Obi-Wan said faintly.
Across from the kitchenette sat a couch, looking well worn. A blanket lay neatly across the back. There were a couple of comfortable chairs facing either other in front of the couch.
"This is nice," Bant opined before the door slid open again.
Qui-Gon stepped into the room. Obi-Wan turned, suddenly unsure even how to act, and froze. "Bant, Garen," Qui-Gon said with a slight smile. "It is good to see you. Obi-Wan will meet you for breakfast in the morning," he said. With grins, Obi-Wan's two friends said good-bye to him and bowed to Qui-Gon on their way out. Then the door was closed and they were alone. "Let's get you settled in," Qui-Gon said. "Then I believe you have some questions."
"Yes, Master," Obi-Wan said. The words slipped effortlessly off his tongue, and he was amazed at how easily it flowed in his thoughts, too. He had always said the words with the others, but his thoughts had seemed to hesitate.
It only took a short time before all of his belongings were unpacked from his travel bag, the bag stored away, and everything out of sight. The room almost looked as bare as before, but it felt like his. He smiled, comfortable.
They returned to the common room, and Qui-Gon stepped to the kitchenette to start some water boiling. "Do you like tea?" he asked Obi-Wan, who lifted his shoulders slightly and perched on the edge of one of the chairs at the table. He'd never tried it. "I like tea," Qui-Gon continued. "I will probably drink a lot of it. Especially after a mission."
Obi-Wan nodded vaguely, overwhelmed.
"You are probably wondering what happened," Qui-Gon went on as he sat down across the table from Obi-Wan. "Di'ona is a Foilani. This is important for a couple of reasons. The Foilani are a clairvoyant race, and when one is Force sensitive, that power is increased exponentially. She had a vision that she believed foretold the end of the Jedi. In studying the vision, she came to the conclusion that you were the catalyst that caused the destruction of the whole order." The Master paused, looking at him.
Obi-Wan stared at him, his mind spinning. He didn't even know what he could do to destroy the Jedi, and it was certainly nothing he'd want to happen. His hands clenched on the edge of the table, and he closed his eyes to try and get some semblance of control. His breathing had quickened again, and he struggled to slow it, to calm down. Finally, he took a deep breath and released as much of the fear as he could into the Force. Then he opened his eyes. Qui-Gon was watching him, and there was approval in his eyes.
"Did she say how I did that?" Obi-Wan asked.
"No. Only that she felt she would need help to stop you." Qui-Gon sighed. "Being Foilani also meant she lived longer than you or I ever will. She had this... vision some time ago, probably about the time you were born, and she watched and waited for you to appear. When you did, she recruited Sorin, Denk and Toman, asked them for help. It was very easy for her to convince them," he added in a musing tone, "because they had all been Padawan to her. They knew and trusted her visions." He paused, and his face darkened in anger. "Her plan was to have each of your Masters erode everything that you were, creating in you a lack of confidence and distrust of anyone who might help you. Then, with you injured after Toman's repudiation, she would take you as her Padawan. Remember what I told you when we first met? If you had been bonded with another Knight so soon, Theela thought it would have destroyed you. That would have been the end of her vision." He leaned back in his chair.
Obi-Wan thought his mind was spinning before. Now everything made sense, everything he'd been through, and all because she thought he'd do something? He remembered hearing something about visions coming true in one of his classes, but he couldn't grasp it all right now. They did come true, though, and he wondered almost wildly how he was going to destroy everything he believed in, and maybe she'd been right. She'd felt strongly enough to try to kill him in the Temple, and to draw on another Knight. He gasped, and anger swirled around him, everything darkening.
A hand gripped his arm. "Breath, Padawan," he heard from a distance, and drew in a breath. "Again." He let it out and breathed in again, and the swirling eased.
"But..."
"Gently, Obi-Wan." The voice was closer, and slowly his vision cleared to see Qui-Gon leaning across the table, gripping Obi-Wan's wrist in his large hand. "It's okay. She can do nothing to you, now. I destroyed her plans."
Obi-Wan breathed again, and the tension in his shoulders eased. "You destroyed her plans?" he asked faintly. Qui-Gon let him go and leaned back with a relieved sigh.
"Yes, Padawan, I found you first, when you'd disappeared after meeting with the Council with Toman." He paused again, watching Obi-Wan. "Because I found you first, Yoda asked me to continue the investigation. When I did not see you at dinner that evening, I asked for your friends and found Bant. She told me you'd collapsed."
Obi-Wan flushed. "Oh."
"When I arrived at the Healer's Wing, Theela told me what was wrong with you. And Yoda told me I was to take you from the Temple. I gathered that the investigation was put on hold; getting you back to health was much more important. So, I took you to one of my favorite hide-outs."
Obi-Wan nodded. "It is one of mine, too," he said shyly. Qui-Gon grinned.
"Good. I will introduce you to the owner." He grew serious again. "The time we spent getting you back in one piece, so to speak, was also a time for me to gather proof."
"Proof?"
"Proof that something had been done to you. Your old lightsaber was part of it. Mace nearly threw it across the room when I gave it to him." He shook his head. "It was not just that it was uncomfortable; the first time you were in a real battle, it would have made it impossible for you to defend yourself adequately. That, too, would have ended her vision very decisively."
Obi-Wan shivered, knowing exactly what his Master meant. That lightsaber he had so hated would have killed him.
"By taking you from the Temple, I frustrated her plan for a while. But then we returned. She waited for an opportunity to stop her vision. I believe she was following you, at least at first. Your schedule was predictable. She had to find a time when she could strike without being obvious." Qui-Gon settled back. "She would do nothing to you in the creche or the Healer's Wing, because she could hurt someone else, and she was trying to protect the Jedi. The only opportunities came when you were training with me, or with the Council members. She didn't want to face them, but she knew of my movements as well, and I believe she caused me to be late the second time. When you went into the training room that day, she set off the training probes. She did not know how much you had improved. She did not expect you to last so long against the probes. I have been keeping Master Yoda up to date on everything that has occurred, and when he saw the injuries that you'd suffered through, he decided he'd had enough. He called your former Masters in, and they told him what they knew about Di'ona. He sent Mace to find her, and to warn me."
Obi-Wan stared for a moment, then collected his thoughts. "What will happen to them?"
Qui-Gon sighed. "I'm not sure," he said. "I did not wait to find out. I wanted to get the last of these bombs out of your head."
Obi-Wan straightened. "I'd like that very much, Master."
"That means, according to Denk, that we must form the training bond again, this time for real."
It took Obi-Wan off guard, but then he nodded. He was not at all certain this was going to be a good experience, but he realized then that the though had no weight behind it. Right now, he trusted Qui-Gon Jinn. Would he be able to once the bond had been established?
There was a half familiar soft click in his mind as the training bond was established, and he was suddenly aware of his Master, more fully aware than he had been of any of the others. "I could find you in pitch dark!" he blurted, and immediately blushed.
Qui-Gon gave half a chuckle. "Knowing my propensity to get into trouble, you may just have to," he said. "But that will wait. First, let's get rid of this last trap."
To Obi-Wan's surprise, it took no time at all. He was unable to see what Qui-Gon did, but he wasn't alarmed. It came as a complete surprise, once he heard the quiet snap that had become so familiar, that he actually trusted Qui-Gon. And more of a surprise when he realized that it was his Master he trusted.
The tea pot whistled, and Qui-Gon got up to attend to his tea. "I have been given two weeks respite," he said, his back still to Obi-Wan. "In that two weeks, we will have some work to do."
"What kind of work?" Obi-Wan asked.
"That depends." He turned around, sat back down, set his mug on the table, and reached forward. Before Obi-Wan could react, he tugged gently on the braid that lay over the Padawan's shoulder.
Obi-Wan stared at him, wide-eyed, his mind racing. Was he back in a nightmare? He jerked backwards, freeing the braid, and then froze again. Qui-Gon nodded. "That, for one. But you have come a long way, haven't you."
Slowly, Obi-Wan blinked, then nodded jerkily. "Could you... Could you not do that again?" he asked in a very soft voice, keeping his eyes on the table.
Qui-Gon smiled gently. "I can't promise that," he said. "But I will try to refrain from doing so. It's a bad habit I picked up with my last Padawan." He sighed, and it sounded sad. "But there will be more to work on, I'm sure, and we'll find out what it is." He reached over and raised Obi-Wan's chin, catching his gaze. Obi-Wan read the determination there, and a small smile started on his face. "We will find out what it is, and we will defeat it together."
Obi-Wan's smile got bigger. "Yes, Master," he said.
Go on to Problem Child
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