Inheritance

Intestate

Some limited spoilers from Jedi Apprentice.
No betas, therefore the mistakes are all mine.
See chapter one for disclaimers.

Obi-Wan is nowhere. He is surrounded by a vast and profound nothingness. It is not a void or an emptiness. There is a somethingness to the nothingness. This place is both the absence of substance and the substance of absence. Here there is light without shadow, but the light is dull, muted, suffused with the abundancy of nothing. All is a hazy shade of gray; a true colorlessness abides reaching from the edge of his skin out to a nearly visible infinity.

Obi-Wan closes his eyes. He breathes deeply and reaches out to the Force. What he finds is... puzzling. The Force is both here and strangely not here. Its presence is ghostly, ephemeral, almost notional, but not absent. The master can still feel it, touch it, pull it around him, protecting like a suit of armor, comforting like a thermal blanket, but its caress is wisp-like, bordering insubstantial.

He open his eyes as a familiar something penetrates the omnipresent nothing. There is a shadow ahead in the distance. At first it is too far to be distinct, the clouded form too nebulous for recognition, but as it draws closer... a figure, humanoid. Closer... tall, broad shouldered. Closer still... beard, long hair, crooked nose...

"Master," comes a whispered gasp that is greeted with a lopsided grin.

"Hello, Padawan," answers the figure in that oh-so-familiar baritone. Only Obi-Wan's disbelief keeps him from dissolving into tears on the spot. Oh, how he has missed that voice!

"Master Qui-Gon, how are you here?"

"I am here because you are here."

"No, I don't understand. Am I... dead?"

"Yes, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon answers. A line appears between the younger master's brow as he looks out upon the vast grayness. The older master places a knowing hand upon his shoulders.

"You are dead, Padawan, but not yet one with the Force," he says. Qui-Gon places his hand under Obi-Wan's chin, forcing the younger man to meet his gaze. "I have missed you, my Padawan, but you are not supposed to be here."

"But I am," Obi-Wan stammers feeling very much like the awkward apprentice of his youth. "The force virus... the Vessel said... she told me I had to die, that I needed to,"

Qui-Gon places his large hands on both of Obi-Wan's shoulders, griping them tightly to ensure the man's full attention.

"The Vessel told you what you needed to hear. Think, my Obi-Wan, what exactly did she tell you? What has the Force been telling you?"

"That... That I had to let myself die."

"Yes, but there is no death. There is only the Force," Qui-Gon answers releasing his grip on the master's shoulders. Obi-Wan's hands immediately rise to his chest, one placed thoughtfully under his chin in concentration.

"I was never meant to join the Force... only to die."

Qui-Gon nods displaying a proud smile on his leonine features.

"Exactly," he says, but the younger master is still confused.

"But why?"

Here the pleased expression Qui-Gon had worn since laying eyes on his former apprentice falls away and in its place Obi-Wan finds a frown heavy with regret and sorrow. The older man takes a deep breath.