Author: Sethra
Rating: PG-13?
Feedback: Please! s_lavode@yahoo.com
Disclaimer:
Qui-Gon Jinn™, Obi-Wan Kenobi™, and Coruscant™ are all the trademarked property of George Lucas™ and LucasFilms™. The use of them in this story has not been condoned by said owners, but no money is being made off of this piece and no trademark infringement is intended. No money to speak of is being made by the author at all, so any and all lawsuits would be Completely Pointless™.
(Translation: They’re his, not mine, alas.)
The Prophet
She was beautiful. She didn’t move that way; her walk didn’t speak of beauty, it whispered of danger. But that was easy to miss when she entered the room and asked, “Are you Obi-Wan Kenobi?” There was something very different about her: something intriguing. When I finally figured out what it was I nearly fell out of my chair.
She was a Force-sink. She wasn’t strong in the Force, she invisible to it; she pulled it in, absorbed it, and never let it go. It wasn’t surprising to find she didn’t believe in the Force; any use of the Force around her was bound to fail. Her mystery was as intoxicating as her beauty. Even knowing what I know now, she never fails to mesmerize me.
“Well, your speeder’s ready,” she told me. “I don’t know how you managed to get that sash wedged into the transmission, but it was pure hell to get out. That’ll be 500 krell.”
Master Qui-Gon smiled at my embarrassment and waved a hand at her. “You will accept Republic credits.”
She looked from him to me, then countered, “That’ll be 800 krell for trying your mind whammy, but, seeing as you’re Jedi, I’ll float you a loan.”
The look on Qui-Gon’s face was worth any extra training sessions; I had to laugh. “She has you there, Master.”
“You should show more respect, young Padawan. Thank you, my lady. Obi-Wan will repay you when we return.” Which was fine with me; any excuse to see her again would be.
“I’m sorry; she’s not here,” the man at the shop said. “This was just her summer job-she’s an engineering student at the University of Coruscant.”
“Shall I repay the debt to you, then?” I asked, disappointed.
“Oh, no, Jedi. She paid for the parts, like she said; you don’t owe us anything. I can give you her address, though.”
“Thank you.”
My search took me into the labyrinthian warrens of the University dorms. Unlike the Temple’s wide, straight passages, the dorms were confusing tangles of additions, partitions, sudden turns, and odd angles. When I finally located the room (with the assistance of several denizens-I mean, residents), I was again denied.
“I’m sorry, she isn’t here right now. She has class until 3, and then I think she was heading over to her aunt’s,” her roommate explained. “Your best bet would be to catch her after class. Of course, she might stop by before she leaves, if you want to stay here and wait. I don’t mind.”
I didn’t like the looks this roommate was giving me; she reminded me of a documentary I once saw on the galactic access channel… I thanked her, got the location of the classroom, and made my exit. Unfortunately, I didn’t stay long enough to get precise directions to the building, much less the room. How hard to find could it be?
I found out soon enough. Suffice it to say the room was in an older building on the engineering campus, a building that had been reapportioned for labs and offices many, many times, after having been built by an apparently insane architect. But at three I was standing outside the classroom, waiting. That was about when it hit me-how odd this might seem to her, I mean. Just popping out of nowhere, handing her money, was some guy she’d met once…
Then she was there. Without warning, without a sound, she was standing before me, taking my breath away with her smile. “Obi-Wan Kenobi, isn’t it? What are you doing here?”
“Repaying a debt, my lady,” I told her, bowing. “Master Qui-Gon and I have returned and owe you a few hundred krell.”
She stared at me, then burst into laughter. “That’s right, the mind tricks. You tracked me to class just to pay me back?”
“It would have been rude to not thank you and deliver the debt personally. Your roommate told me you’d be leaving for the weekend, so-“
“Oh, dear; you met Jane?” She shook her head, grinning mischievously.
“Briefly.”
Her eyes sparkled. “That’s probably for the best. Unfortunately, I’d love to stay and talk, but I need to catch the bus…unless you’d like to give me a ride. You haven’t gotten any more clothing into your transmission, have you?”
“It would be my pleasure to give you a ride, as my vehicle is in perfect working order.” Oh, yes…
We talked as she directed me across the district to her aunt’s apartment and I discovered further depths to my fascination. Beautiful, brilliant, witty, and frighteningly competent, she could give any Jedi I’d ever met a run for their money. And yet she was not a Jedi, nor was she one of Master Qui-Gon’s lost waifs…I’d never met anyone like her, much less one near my own age. Add this to the strange and unsettling silence of the Force…needless to say I was not paying as much attention to where we were going as I normally would have. I was therefore quite surprised when she announced “This is it. Just pull in here.”
“Who is your aunt?” I asked, more warily than I intended.
“She’s the Senator from our planet. She went home for awhile and asked if I’d watch the place.”
“I see.” Dazed, I got out and opened her door for her. “May I carry something?”
“No, I think-actually, if you could get these books so I can unlock the door, that would be wonderful.”
I’m not quite certain what happened next. Judging by what followed, I must have carried her books up to the apartment and brought them in. I must have made small talk, undoubtedly commenting on the view of the Temple soaring over the rest of the district and the pieces of art that decorated the tables, all of which I would remember later. But all of that has been replaced in my mind by what happened next.
I bent to kiss her goodbye-that was all, just a simple kiss on the cheek as a thank you, but she turned the opposite way and our lips met. Her feel, her scent, her touch all made me reluctant to move away. I looked down at her in surprise to see my emotions echoed in her eyes. “Obi-Wan,” she murmured.
I took a deep breath, wondering if I was strong enough for this. “Yes?”
“Do you have to leave?”
My hand crept up to caress her cheek even as I answered, “I should.”
Her lashes drooped at my touch. “Will you stay, Jedi?”
“I will stay.”
Her eyes met mine again and I kissed her in earnest this time, drowning in changeable twin seas. Her arms crept around me as I began taking pins out of her hair, releasing it to fall down her back and answering my questions as to how long it actually was. It was softer than anything I’d imagined, slipping like wet silk or crushed velvet through my fingers. Her hands moved along my belt until they came to the front; she seemed to be attempting to remove it without backing away. Before I could move she managed it and I winced as I heard my lightsaber hit the floor with a thump. I didn’t think about it for long; any thoughts but those of her melted away as her long hands found their way under my tunics.
Her lips and tongue backed away to flirt with mine in a passionate counterpoint to the slow, firm motions her hands made over my skin. It occurred to me that clothes were a hindrance at that moment and set about to remedy the situation. Her shirt fell open one fastener at a time; my lips tracked its progress down the newly bared flesh. The further down I went the more unpredictable her breathing became; by the time I reached her navel, kneeling before her with her hands buried in my hair, I wondered how she was getting enough air…until I realized my own breathing was just as ragged.
“Not here,” she whispered, glancing at the open window. She backed away; helpless to do otherwise, I followed her into the next room.
Clothes magically disappeared. We caressed each other with our eyes; then hands followed where sight had led; lips picked up the song, exploring flesh made new again…Time played her games, stretching this kiss out forever like taffy while contracting those touches into too brief moments. For one crystalline instant I was poised above her, marveling before we joined at her beauty as she lay on the bed, a copper-blond aureole about her head that framed flushed cheeks, moist lips turned up in an almost-smile, and ice blue eyes edged in dark lashes. I shifted my hips, breaking the perfection to deepen it, and the world went dark.
As my senses faded back into being I discovered I was being kissed, very slowly and very thoroughly. I responded immediately, but something was different. The rhythm, the taste, the desire were all subtly transmuted into something richer and deeper for their difference. My back was on the bed. I opened my eyes to see a familiar face; the face I saw every day in the mirror. A mischievous grin quirked his mouth-my mouth!-and the movement I had begun was completed, driving all other thoughts away. Our tempo spiraled ever higher, soaring into a crescendo that rocked the universe for one brief, everlasting moment…until silence spread her blanket once more.
I propped myself on my elbow and gazed down at her, puzzled as to what had just occurred and wondering if I should mention it at all. Was it just me, or had it actually happened? Lost in thought, I absentmindedly brushed a lock of hair from her face; she opened her eyes and smiled at me.
“Thank you, Obi-Wan Kenobi,” she said, kissing me gently.
“I was about to thank you.”
“I know,” she laughed, “but I beat you to it.” She rolled off the bed and began to collect clothing. As I sat up she stopped suddenly, several of my tunics in her hands. “Are all Jedi like you?” she asked.
The odd question and her peculiar emphasis on ‘Jedi’ stung my pride. “How do you mean? I am a Jedi.”
“Oh, I see. That wasn’t a slight, Obi-Wan.” She came back to the bed and caressed my cheek. “I just wondered why hoards of women hadn’t yet stormed the Temple in spite of the slim-to-none hopes of a relationship.”
“I-I…” I had never thought of it that way before. But she held a finger to my lips and smiled.
“Now, you are going back to the Temple and I am going back to school and we both have a memory to take with us. Did you think I had forgotten what being a Jedi means?”
“You are amazing.”
She laughed, a liquid sound that went straight to the base of my spine. “Keep telling me that, Kenobi, and pretty soon I’ll start to believe it. Now get some clothes on or you won’t be leaving until sometime next week.”
I reached up and buried my hands in her hair, bringing her lips closer to mine. “I have time; how about you?”
Epilogue
Obi-Wan Kenobi. Though he doesn’t know it, in a way my life will revolve around him. I see it so clearly, the pain and misery that will hound him for the rest of his life; why doesn’t he? Or does his see it and, in some inscrutable Jedi fashion, follow that path anyhow?
When born, everyone is given the knowledge of what has been and what is to come for them. Everyone has her own way of dealing with it; most people simply block it so well that, except for brief moments of déjà vu, it’s as though it never happened. But it did. It’s there, buried deep down. If you could view your mind without having lived that life you would see it, stretched out and folded up into an infinite, compact little bundle. That’s what happens when you get into someone else’s mind and become them…at least, that’s what happens to me, when the interlock of body and mind is broken. And if you see enough of those bundles you can see the future of an entire civilization…or lack thereof.
Still, it surprises me how blind Obi-Wan Kenobi is to what is coming. The agony, the doubt, the fear are all so clear; why can’t this man who is so in tune to the future and the Force see it? I will keep my knowledge to myself; I know what happens to prophets and nothing yet has convinced me their words change anything for the good. And yet…Obi-Wan Kenobi. I will do what I can. I’ll finish my schooling and start down a long road and years from now my job will be done so well that people will only ever wonder how a hermit in the middle of an eternal desert could ever hope to survive. “That old wizard?” they’ll shrug. “He’s just a crazy old man.”
I will not abandon him.