Finding a Father in a Memory/Chapter 1

“What’s the matter, little one, don’t you remember your father?,” came the sneering question from the dark Jedi.

“You aren’t my father! That’s a lie!,” the fifteen year-old Padawan Learned screamed, his horror at the very idea of being this man’s son frightening him to his core.

Qui-Gin Jinn stepped between his apprentice and the dark Jedi. He’d always known that the day would arrive when this evil man would surface to reclaim his child.

“Search your thoughts, youngling. You know my words are the truth,” instructed the man. “Come my son, join me and I will complete your training. Join me and you will possess a wealth you’ve never imagined. Leave the Jedi behind my son, and I will show you true power,” the darksider implored.

“No! I’ll never join you!,” the Padawan insisted.

“You’re wasting your time. The boy is firm in his commitment to the Jedi Order,” Qui-Gon calmly told the other man.

Shifting his gaze from Padawan to Master, the darksider slowly began to approach the Jedi pair. “I don’t recall asking for your opinion, Qui-Gon Jinn. Once again, you’re meddling in my life,” he stated. “That ends now, old man. The boy is my son and he’ll be coming with me!,” he spat in Jinn’s face. He glanced back at his son. “Think back, young one, search your memories,” he instructed again.

Qui-Gon was horrified to see his young apprentice doing exactly that. The teen had closed his eyes and was using the Force to scan his deeply buried memories. It was a technique the Jedi used often on their missions, using the Force to remember details and facts, memories that had been obscured by time. But he could not remember one instance when his apprentice had done it on a mission, and he certainly had never used it to remember the haunting image of his biological father. Qui-Gon prayed to the Force and every god he knew that the young man’s voyage through his memories would reveal nothing.

The dark-haired man looked on with a satisfied, evil grin splitting his handsome features. He knew exactly what the boy’s journey would reveal. Everything.

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''The tiny boy barely made a sound as he was lifted from his hovercrib. His small body was dwarfed by the large hands that cradled him. His bright, intelligent eyes seemed to stare right through the man holding him.

“You’re so small right now, my son. But I promise you, someday you’ll grow tall and strong and powerful. By then, I’ll have complete control of this world and together we can rule it, and perhaps the entire galaxy as father and son,” the man whispered quietly to the small baby.

Wide blue-gray eye blinked furiously as the infant desperately tried to ward off sleep. The soothing voice of his father made him drowsy.

“There’s no need to remain awake, little one. We’ll be parted soon, but when the time comes, and we’re reunited, you’ll remember every word I’ve imparted to you here today,” the man spoke, his words light and gentle so as not to startle the boy. “You’re going to be a wealthy man one day, my little one. You’ll own and control all of Telos, just as I do now and as my father did before me. My father was the Governor of Telos. He was murdered by a Jedi Knight named Qui-Gon Jinn when I was just seventeen years old. He wasn’t a perfect man, I’ll admit that. He made many mistakes and did many things wrong, but he did not deserve to be slain in cold blood,” were his whispered words to the slumbering infant.

The man moved across the room and sat down in a rocker chair. Moving gently to and fro, he continued his talk with his baby boy.

“He would have enjoyed you, little one. You would have been his pride and joy, his first grandson. But it was not to be,” he whispered sadly. “I’ll tell you a little secret; it’s probably for the best that my father isn’t here. He’d seek to control you for his own purposes, just as he did with me. I suppose I should tell you about your mother,” he said as he looked down at the baby. “She was the most wonderful, caring, compassionate and thoughtful woman I’ve ever known. I learned the most important lessons in life from her. She taught me what my Jedi Master never could. She taught me to let go of my anger, my hate and my fears. She taught me to love. Then she gave me you, my very own child to cherish and adore,” he said, tears threatening to fall.

The infant seemed to sense his father’s distress and opened his eyes. Reaching out with his little fist, the child wiped away the tears before sleep claimed him again.

The man smiled through his grief. “I really must apologize for her absence. Childbirth was much too strenuous for her body. I’ll simply tell you this; your mother loved you beyond all others in her life, beyond her own life. You were her joy and her happiness in the few hours she had with you after you came into this world,” he told his son. “Now, I must prepare you for the day we will meet again, my son.”

The man closed his own eyes and placed the thumb and index finger of his right hand at each temple on the infant’s head. Channeling the Force, he used every ounce of his energy and power to imprint the memory of this one-sided conversation on his son’s brain. He also inserted a block over the memory that could only be removed by himself. All it would require was one sentence. He didn’t want his son, or the Jedi to learn the truth before he was ready.

“I want you to be good, my son. I promise we’ll see each other again,” he told the child before dropping a tender kiss on his forehead.''

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“Father?,” the young Jedi Padawan whispered as he opened his eyes and stared at the man. The memory had come to him immediately, almost as if it had been there forever. He clearly remembered the tender way in which his father had held him when he was a baby. It was as clear in his mind as the man himself that now stood in front of him.

The man stepped closer to the boy, his hands reaching out to cup the youthful face. “Yes, little one, it’s me. I’m your father,” came the emotionally charged words. He pulled the boy into his arms and held him close.

Qui-Gon couldn’t believe his eyes. He watched as his apprentice wrapped his own arms around his newfound father.

“F-fa-father. Y-you’re re-really here,” the young man struggled with the words. Tears were streaming down his face. This had been a dream of his since he was a small child, growing up in the crèche. He had always wondered about his parents. Now he was standing in his father’s tender embrace.

While softly rubbing his son’s back, the man turned his dark blue eyes towards Qui-Gon. “We need to resolve this, Jinn, for the sake of the boy,” he said, leaving no room for argument.

Qui-Gon saw his apprentice wiping away his tears and smiling up at his father. There was a happiness he’d never seen before on Obi-Wan Kenobi’s face. Nor had he ever seen Obi-Wan’s father so serene and gentle, not even when he’d been a Jedi Padawan.

“All right Xanatos, we’ll discuss this,” Qui-Gon relented. He would do it for Obi-wan, the boy he loved as a son. That was all he could do.