DISCLAIMER: Star Wars and all publicly recognisable characters, names and references, etc are the sole property of George Lucas, Lucasfilm Ltd, Lucasarts Inc and 20th Century Fox. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters (Shal-Nyx Cael), the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author. The original character of K'yllyn Myrrdin is the intellectual property of Caeryn Myer, and is used with permission.
Walking through the door, a smile finally working its way into his face after the incredibly rotten day he had, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight, leaned down, kissing the benefactor of his affection on the forehead. "What do you have there?"
K'yllyn Myrddin glanced up warmly, yet briefly, immediately going back to read the data pad she held in her hand. "Something of interest, assuredly."
"Regarding?"
"Our former masters."
Obi-Wan paused, the silence in his sudden discomfort palpable. They didn't talk about them much anymore; it was a painful point, particularly after Shal-Nyx Cael's funeral a few years back. Despite the importance that both she and Qui-Gon Jinn had played on both of the Knights' lives, they just didn't want to dredge up old ghosts like that. "What about them?"
"I found an old report that was hidden away almost as soon as it was written. The subject itself caught my attention when I was searching the archives for information, and when I kept reading, I found the references to them. A great many, in fact."
This was curious. Why would the Council deliberately lose information regarding Jedi? Highly regarded Jedi, at that? "I don't understand."
K'yllyn set the pad in her lap and sighed, crossing her arms. She didn't understand either, truth be told, but she also hadn't hardly touched the main part of the report. In the back of her mind, she wondered what could have happened to have created this secrecy, unable to resolve that kind of action or accusation with the image she held of her late master.
Or her image of the Jedi Council.
Obi-Wan extended a hand, touching her arm gently. "Are you okay?"
She nodded, still lost in her thoughts. "I think we should follow this thing through."
"And see what happened?"
"I don't think they'll mind."
"No." His face cracked a wistful smile, "Not at all. So, who reads first?"
Handing the datapad immediately to her friend, lover and confidant, she quipped, "You. Yours was always the voice that could calm a wookie."
"I'm not sure how to take that," he said, a glint in his eye. "Anyways, 'This is the official record of the Jedi Council on this day the events relating to-- '"
"Skip the technical stuff and get to the story."
Had he been younger and in a more playful mood, he would have stuck his tongue out at her.
Thirty odd years ago...
"Oh, no you don't! Get back over here and face me!"
He grinned, brandishing the practice blade, "And get whacked on the hand by you again?"
"I didn't burn it!"
"True enough, but still," stepping forward and lunging, he swung the low powered lightsabre across, slamming it towards her right knee, causing her to jump back and misinterpret the balance of the prosthetic.
"Aack!" Landing on the floor with a resounding thud, Shal-Nyx Cael cast an annoyed glance at the ceiling before jumping to her feet and pursuing her combatant. Coming after him, she spun the blade in her hand, rotating her wrist with ease, faking out the male Knight with a side-step and glancing blow.
Qui-Gon Jinn staggered back, the tip of her blade nearly catching him in the chest. Jumping to the side, he blocked her parry, her body nearly thrown on top of his. "Problem?"
She grinned, a sheen of sweat on her forehead. "Never."
He backed away quickly, knowing her dexterity and stealth. "And your knee?"
Arcing the sword back, sliding her other hand onto the handle, she spun around, backing into him, catching his blade at an immobile angle. "Recovered finally. Were it not prosthetic now, we'd not be fighting."
Were she an actual adversary, she could have easily raised a hand up to attack his neck or head with a glancing blow. "Hit," he conceded.
She chuckled, dropping the practice sword, freeing his wrists from the vicious wrenching they had been put in with her move. Sliding a lithe hand up to his face, brushing away strands of hair, she took a moment to enjoy his look of willing defeat. "Aye, pet, that it is."
Accidentally anticipating her next words and giving it away that he had, he asked quietly, "Are you feeling alright?"
Shal-Nyx searched inside herself, catching the rippling disturbance also. "I don't think so, but I've never felt like this before... it's strange... "
"I'll take you to the medical bay, then."
She shook her head adamantly. "No. My instincts tell me this is something to deal with outside the Temple."
Qui-Gon hesitated, not liking the direction this was turning. But, in the back of his own mind, the same warning was sounding: take it outside the Temple. He took their weapons, shutting them off and down on the floor, wrapping a hand around her arm, guiding her to the door. "We'll go now and be back by nightfall."
She nodded, letting him lead the way, putting on an air of decorum as they entered the hall.
If only, even in their Jedi ability, they had realised precisely what was going on.
"Obi-Wan, what are you doing?"
"Taking a breath, do you mind?"
"Yes. Don't stop."
"Why is it you only say that to me when reading or-- "
"Don't even finish that sentence."
Her head in her hands, bent over in mental conflict, Shal-Nyx was finding it hard to do anything but sit.
On the other hand, Qui-Gon was finding impossible to do anything but pace.
"I can't believe this. I-- I don't know what to do... "
Virtually wearing a hole in her floor, he forced himself to pause, stepping over and kneeling before her. "It's not just your fault."
"I knew this might happen, but it just didn't seem... the Force never showed me this... "
"Ssshh. Calm yourself enough to think clearly."
"That's easy for you to say, it's not your body that has to change."
Refusing to back away from her retort, he brought his hands to her face, lifting her head up. "However this plays out I'm here for you, have no doubt of that. Whatever you need of me."
"I know, luv, but that devotion is what got us into this in the first place. I just need to think." Her voice was quiet, resigned.
"About our choices... ?"
"Our? There are still options to consider, most of them affecting me the greatest."
"Let me help you."
She closed her eyes, words becoming useless.
"May I stay with you?"
She nodded. "It's not like I have to worry at this point; I'm already pregnant."
"I hear hesitation in your voice."
Good call, she thought to herself. "That's not the point, my masters. I will do as you wish of me."
Council members Yoda and Aeon Clira exchanged glances, sitting in their respective seats in the Council Chamber of the Jedi Temple. "Then go you will and return soon with success."
A bolt of panic ripped through her being; "soon" would betray what she was trying so desperately to hide at that very moment. "May I make a request?"
"Make your request you may, but deny it we can."
"I would be prefer to be accompanied, my masters."
Aeon Clira sighed, beating her former Padawan to the rest of her sentence. "You wish Qui-Gon Jinn to join you."
Caught. The next trick was to avoid destroying careers with pending parenthood. "Yes, Master Clira."
Stopping the female Council member with a raised green hand, Yoda squinted at the Knight before him, trying to detect her inner conflict. "Against my better judgement it is, but appears it does that you two must both go."
Shal-Nyx visibly relaxed.
"But remind you we do of your duty as a Jedi. Wander not from the Code."
Clira coughed, her former student taking the moment to stare at the floor. Yoda had a point; as a Knight she was an excellent Jedi but her maverick ways were a source of constant consternation.
"Go you will in a few days, have you time to prepare. May the Force be with you."
"And with you, my Masters." Bowing and turning to leave, Shal-Nyx left the chamber with a composed stride. When reaching outside the doors, she backed into the wall, crossing her arms across her chest and sliding down to the floor, her eyes closed, a wave of nausea washing over her.
This was promising to be a greater challenge than anything that she had done before.
A few days later...
"This... is soo much fun... "
Stumbling into the main room, pale and haggard, she made her way to the bed, sitting down before she fell down.
Not that he was helping. Standing by, not knowing what else to do, Qui-Gon waited patiently for some indication of what was needed to be done.
As if she was supposed to know.
Crawling onto her side, curling her legs up, she sighed, trying to will away how she felt. Her body was revolting on her, apparently deciding that pregnancy was neither a kind nor forgiving condition on her Jedi body.
"Shala?"
She moaned, curling further into a ball.
"Can I get you something to eat or drink?"
An adamant shake of the head.
"You're sick?"
"That would be the beginning of an understatement."
"Is it permanent?"
She opened her eyes, squinting at him. "Depends. It could end tomorrow or I could be throwing up for seven months."
Reaching a hand out and touching her leg, he smiled gently as she grabbed and held it to her body as if it were her only link to the real world. "Is that why we're leaving?"
"Actually the Council has no clue, or at least I think they don't. I have a task to complete, and with the forgiving aspect of the Force we'll hopefully remain until-- "
"Until there is a child to explain?"
She sighed. "Yeah, something like that. Yoda used 'soon,' though. Not a good sign, for once."
Brushing strands of hair from her forehead with his free hand, Qui-Gon noted the slight sheen of sweat on her brow. A small pang of worry streaked across his mind as he realised that whatever lay ahead for them, for her, was far greater a burden than he had ever imagined. That worry betrayed him as he spoke, "Then maybe we should come clean, tell the Council and stay here. I know they could help... Ki-Adi-Mundi has-- "
"His culture practices polygamy, yes I know. Master Clira's still gonna kill us, and that's not to forget... ugh... everyone else.. oh, hell... "
His eyes widened. "What?!"
Her face blanched as she sat up quickly, cast him a miserable look and ran for the bathroom. When she came out a few minutes later, her only action was to lean heavily against the door jamb and snarl as she crossed her arms over herself.
"Can I help?"
"I am never eating Tund food again... "
Walking sympathetically to her side, loosening her self hug with his hands, he eased her weight against his frame and guided her back towards the bed. "Would sleep help?"
Shal-Nyx nodded numbly.
His hand slipped around her waist as he eased her head against his shoulder. "I'll get you to sleep, don't worry, luv... " Practically picking her up and setting her on the bed, his chin length hair blocking his sight for a second, Qui-Gon slipped a hand under her jaw, tendrils of calming energy seeping into her from his hand.
With a deepening sigh her eyes closed. Lingering where he was until he felt her heart relax into a gentle rhythm, her thoughts losing the edge of uncertainty and doubt, he stepped back and settled into the chair, watching his lover fall into Force induced rest.
He shook his head, absorbing with a sense of a timeline all the events that had made this moment. Never had the Temple quite prepared him for a moment when everything stood still; never could they have guessed that he'd be sitting in a chair watching a fellow Jedi Knight in uneasy sleep; a sleep he induced because she was suffering the side effects of carrying his child.
Which was not to say that in the history of the Jedi this had never happened before; it was simply a matter of their teachers neglecting to include certain aspects of sentient being interrelationships.
Or maybe he had missed that lecture.
Thinking of the upcoming mission, the full details not as yet revealed to him, and casting hope to the future, Qui-Gon Jinn settled his own mind into peaceful introspect. As much as he would have liked to join her on the bed, laying next to her warm body, soothing her as she slept, he resisted and slouched slightly in the chair, trying to find the most comfortable way to relax.
Shal-Nyx needed to become comfortable with herself again before she would let him back in; he understood and respected that.
His only fear was that the future laid out before them was oftentimes neither understanding nor respectful.