Chapter Text
The first thing Qui Gon Jinn did when he joined the Force was to look around himself and raise his lips in a smile when he didn't find Obi-Wan's unique presence around him.
It must be pointed out that he didn't notice the absence of his third Padawan, but rather the lack of presence.
Noticing the absence was akin to saying that he had thought that his Padawan would die right after him.
Lack of presence denoted the fact that he had complete faith in Obi-Wan and knew that his student wouldn't falter from his path and duty even under duress.
Still, he mentally patted his back for teaching such a brilliant child. He alsothanked the Force for not cutting short his student's life.
Afterall, he wasn't in a hurry to have a get together with Obi-Wan in death.
The next thing Qui Gon Jinn did was heave a sigh of relief.
It could hardly be held against him.
Even though he had joined the Force, he couldn't quit his human need to breathe or sigh dramatically as easily as he had shed his mortal shell.
Thinking back on it, fighting with a sophisticated dark sider wasn't a feat he had ever thought to repeat after Xan.
Or rather, a Sith wasn't something he had been prepared for.
The Sith had repeatedly kicked Obi-Wan out of the fight, as if his student was no more than a fly that was an annoyance at best and a pest at worst.
But Qui was confident that after his demise, his student would engage the other being, win the fight and end what had started days ago on Tatooine.
He had watched the play of emotions across his Padawan's face when the Sith had struck him down.
The burn of the lightsaber had been less excruciating than watching the mix of devastation, worry, anger, fear, determination and resolution on that youthful face.
In the next few minutes, he himself had felt as if he was on a roller coaster of emotions.
Qui had felt his heart drop when the Zabarak had kicked Obi off the catwalk into the melting pit below.
He had felt buoyed when Obi had shot up from the lower levels of catwalk and came flying down upon the Sith.
In that moment, he had realised that his student had once again been seduced by the Dark, but had held true to his words of never forsaking the Light.
Qui had watched with half lidded eyes as his student had pushed the Zabark hard and cut him down the middle.
For a moment, something tugged on him and he wanted to run forward and look at his Padawan's face.
Was Obi-Wan alright?
Was he injured during the duel?
How was he coping with losing his Master before his Knighting Ceremony?
How would the Council decide his future?
Would he be allowed the free reign of a newly knighted member of the Jedi Order or would he be shackled to the temple to teach Anakin?
However, before he could start worrying himself over the countless possibilities, he felt the Force soothe him with its warm and calm currents.
Qui let himself be soothed and tried to return his focus to his present condition.
He looked around himself and felt as if he was floating on a moon with very little to no gravity and no standard regulations for gravitational force
It was in Qui Gon Jinn's humble opinion, a distinctively lacking and mundane view.
He hadn't thought that the afterlife would be floating around like a ball of fluff in even fluffier clouds.
Actually, he had never thought about where the souls went after Death.
Afterall, all Jedi were taught they would never truly die because they would join the Force after their demise. Jedi firmly believed that the entity would embrace them like a mother's hug and welcome them home for a rest until they shrugged off their weariness and were ready to go on a new adventure.
Mmmm.
Maybe that was why many Jedi never bothered to get in contact with their biological families after they became Knights and weren't under the constant purview of the Jedi Council?
Who would care about a short meeting and then swift parting from a familial connection you knew nothing about and forsake the eternity of love from the Force?
Moreover, he had always cared and enjoyed his connection with the Living Force and had always lived in the here and now.
Hence, he hadn't thought it was prudent to waste his time on flights of fancy about the embrace of the Cosmic Force.
Still, he had expected something better.
Or, rather grander.
But, no.
The Force was adamant to deny his wishes even in Death.
How fickle.
Mmmm.
Still, he tried to walk, or, better yet, glide across the medium and achieved the grand success of total failure in fits and starts.
Frustrated with himself, Jinn huffed to himself and gracelessly sank down to his knees in his usual meditation pose.
If nothing else, Death would allow him to meditate for as long as he wished with no pesky comms from the Council about urgent summons, or Yoda's calls about a lineage dinner.
To quote his Padawan, he was starting to have a bad feeling about the start of his afterlife.
Sometimes it felt to Qui as if in the afterlife, he had transcended time, because he could never quite grasp the passage of time.
Time passed as it was wont to.
However, it passed in fits and starts.
He wouldn't recognize its passage for what felt like months and then sometimes it slowed down to a sluggish crawl.
He could always feel the joining of other Jedi as they were embraced by the Force.
Even those he had never known or met in his lifetime.
However, he never could pinpoint them or their Force signature.
The first person he could meet, as much as a meeting meant when both of them were dead, was Coleman Trebor.
Coleman was a Vurk male and had been the first person of his species that had joined the Jedi Order when Jinn had been alive.
Qui wondered if others of his species had showed a high enough midi-chlorian count to join the Order.
However, before either of them could do more than look at each other in astonishment and blink their eyes, another group of Jedi left the mortal coil. Qui, once again, felt the familiar knot of worry for his fellow Jedi in his heart.
What was happening?
The both of them were soon joined by a long line of their brothers and sisters.
Nicanas Tassu and Sephjet Josall joined them in a heap of robes and a tangle of limbs.
Both of them were human males who had joined the Coruscant Temple as younglings and then had a successful Padawanship before being given the titles of Jedi Knights and Jedi Masters as they passed each trial.
Sar Labooda was another one who simply gave all of them a gimlet eye as soon as she saw them and then huffed with a roll of her eyes.
Qui wondered if being dead would mean her eyes wouldn't hurt as she had alway had the habit of rolling them at anyone who so much as breathed wrong in her direction.
The only exceptions had been her Master and her sister, Deepa Billaba.
The worry intensified and reached a crescendo when another Jedi joined them.
The new addition had a Padawan Braid.
He was a learner, a Padawan. A senior Padawan, but still, in eseence, someone who would be protected by his Master from heavy skirmishes. He wasn't even a full fledged Jedi Knight.
The tense silence that had enveloped them was broken when Tassu looked at the new arrival and with a pained sigh held him close.
"Padawan Lumas."
The Padawan looked at all of them with wide eyes and shakily nodded his head.
Jinn wouldn't lie to save his face, so he could clearly tell when his nerves had frayed.
He looked at all of them and demanded.
"What are all of you doing here? How did you die within minutes of each other? What is happening?"
"Yes, Yes, Jinn. Hello to you too. How lovely to join you in the afterlife. How have you been? Hasn't death taught you to be more serene?"
Sar Labooda fired back.
Then without another pause, she continued.
"We are here thanks to your lineage. Your Master kidnapped your Padawan. Then your Padawan's Padawan went to rescue him. His rescue attempt also included bringing along a Galactic Senator he was supposed to protect from Assassins."
"In his infinite wisdom, he led the Senator to the very assassin he was to protect her from and someone who had a grudge as large as the galaxy against our Order."
"To compound it all, your Master must have been feeling sentimental about the rest of his lineage, because he not only didn't release your Padawan, he also kidnapped your grandpadawan."
"We all being the compassionate Jedi that we are, rushed to their rescue and since we aren't seasoned warriors, but rather peacekeepers with glowing sticks, your Master sicked droids upon us, and here we are after such an exciting adventure."
Before she could continue with her tirade, Padawan Lumas disrupted her.
"I hope Master Kenobi was rescued. The other Knights said that Count Dooku wasn't someone who was prone to mercy even before he had left the Order."
Josall snorted at those words.
"Hoping is all well and good. However, a Sith wouldn't show mercy to a Jedi, especially one who would refuse to join him on the other side of the Force."
Jinn felt dizzy with all that he had heard in the last few minutes and his already frayed nerves snapped.
"Sith?"
"WHAT SITH? WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY MASTER KIDNAPPED OBI-WAN? WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?"
Coleman gave a bittersweet smile at his words.
"I never did like your Master's pompous and holier than thou attitude. Still, it pains me to see a brethren fall so low as to go to war against the Republic and the Jedi."
"War? What War?"
Qui felt like those birds who could only repeat a few words every time they heard something new.
That is all he had been doing since meeting this group.
He still couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that his Master had left the Order and not only that, but joined the ranks of the enemy.
Sar Labooda wasn't to be deterred from finishing her piece because in the ensuing silence she continued.
"You know how your Master was, better than any of us. He alway had these ideas that took his fancy and saying or doing anything against them wouldn't stop him. He had always opposed the Council and the Senate. However, it seems he isn't satisfied with verbal victories over his supposed opponents any longer. No, he wants to cull the Republic and isn't worried about massacring other sentient beings to see his vision of the future and truth to be fulfilled and come to fruition."