When Paths Diverge

Chapter 3: Dead Yet Alive Again

"Padawan..."
"Can you hear me..."
"Are... alright..."
"Padawan..."

Obi-Wan groaned as he blinked his eyes, trying to adjust to the blinding light. He stopped. Who was that calling for his Padawan? As far as he knew the Sith had all but wiped out the Jedi during the Purge.

Even Luke didn't know what the word Padawan meant. Obi-Wan had never told him.

As far as the world was concerned, that word had been wiped out with the Jedi.

Was he in some sort of afterlife? Most likely, he decided, since he very vividly remembered being sliced in half.

There is no death, there is only the force.

He closed his eyes again. He felt the familiar pull of unconsciousness and he gave in to it, feeling himself drift off into blissful darkness.

———————————————————————————————————————————————-

Qui-Gon couldn't understand what was happening. One minute Obi-Wan had been standing and the next, he had suddenly collapsed for no apparent reason. Qui-Gon had tried to reach him but had found that Obi-Wan had suddenly erected unbelievably strong shields around his mind. Several times he had tried to enter his Padawan's mind, only to be thrown out violently. He had attempted to wake Obi-Wan but was unsuccessful. Finally, he had just picked up his Padawan and gently laid him onto the sofa couch in the lounge.

Right now, he was sitting with Anakin in the ship's tiny kitchen, making some food for the hungry boy. He had managed to scrape together some kind of badly burned tubers and an overcooked nerf patty for Anakin. Anakin had taken one bite of it, chewed it thoughtfully before cheerfully announcing that eating sand-covered insects would be better than eating the food that Qui-Gon had prepared for him.

"Brat," Qui-Gon said, grinning affectionately.

He was about to say something when a sudden explosion of agony erupted inside his head.  He hissed and grabbed his head. He stopped, dread suddenly filling him. It definitely wasn't his pain, so why....

Frantically, he checked the bond. The bond was.... gone? He followed the thin threads of the bond from his side, stopping where the threads suddenly ended. Not gone, he realised, it had snapped... And there was no reason for that to happen, unless.....

Obi-Wan, he thought, dread settling in his stomach.

Without another word, Qui-Gon turns and runs to the ship's lounge.

"Wait! Mister Qui-Gon, what's wrong?" Anakin calls out.

———————————————————————————————————————————————

Qui-Gon stopped in front of the sofa couch, his heart pounding. He dropped to his knees and grabbed Obi-Wan's hand.

It was still warm.

He let out a shaky breath .  Obi-Wan was still alive.

So, why had the bond snapped for no apparent reason?

He took a deep breath. He had to comm Mace immediately.

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

Obi-Wan awoke with a start when he felt someone shaking him. His body felt so heavy, like his bones had been replaced with boulders. Frustrated, Obi-Wan tried to open his eyes, but it felt like they had been sealed shut, like his lashes had turned to durasteel, weighing them down.

Probably nothing, he thought suddenly feeling so drowsy. He still couldn't see anything in front of him, save for a few blurry shapes moving around him.

He stopped, feeling suddenly very confused.  But he was dead, wasn't he? Surely that wasn't the case. He had felt Vader's lightsaber slice through him.  He had actually felt the brief white, hot agonising pain that had shot through his body before he was pulled into unconsciousness.

So why did it feel like he was moving on some sort of ship?

Vader, he suddenly realised, panic shooting through his body.

His mind raced. Somehow, Vader had found a way to keep him alive. Vader had... had probably used some sort of ancient Sith technique or something to pull this off.

His eyes flew open and his vision sharpened and all of a sudden, he could see clearly.

He pushed himself up to his elbows.

And was rendered completely speechless when he saw Qui-Gon's worried face looking down at him.

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

"Sith kriffing hells!" Obi-Wan tried to sit up, only to get tangled up in a blanket and fall over face-first straight onto the floor. He spat out a number of Huttese curses.

"Language, Padawan!" He heard a very familiar baritone voice say. He stopped and focused in on the person in front of him.

"Master?" He breathed . "Welcome back, padawan," Qui-Gon Jinn said with a smile, and Obi-Wan nearly collapsed at the shock. Perhaps he really was in the afterlife.
"I...what..."Obi-Wan stuttered, quite unable to get his words out, completely floored by the image of his master standing before him. The same dark blue eyes, the same dark brown hair and the same voice.

Kriff.

"Easy, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said, his voice soothing. "What do you remember?"

Too much. Everything that he wanted to forget. Everything he had thought would disappear once he rejoined the Force in peace. He was alive and breaking and twenty-one. He was alive and burning and thirty-four. He is broken and surviving and thirty,forty,and fifty. He is dying yet hopeful and fifty five. He is dead and at peace and sixty.

He is alive and breathing and twenty again.

He doesn't know what to call himself. He doesn't know whether to call himself Obi-Wan or Padawan or General or Negotiator or Hardeen or Ben or Failure...

He can tell that Qui-Gon wants to ask him what happened. Obi-Wan has no answer. All he knows is that he should be sixty and dead and yet he is twenty and alive.

"I...I need sometime to meditate," he blurts out. He need to think. He needs to know. Has the Force granted him a chance for him to save everyone? To save his Padawan, his brother, his friend?

Or is he destined to fail again? To watch Anakin tear the galaxy apart again? To watch Sidious destroy all that he cared for and loved?

He desperately needed to think.