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Larina had never been in the Council chambers in the company of Qui-Gon previous to this occasion. She was not prepared for the hostile looks the emanated from a few of the members. She had heard the stories of the Jedi Master’s seeming necessity to defy the council, but was surprised by the amount of adverse emotion she felt from the gathered members. Her Master, Ha’run, walked next to her, occasionally casting looks to determine the state of her charge’s mind.
Qui-Gon walked with his back ramrod straight and his eyes trained ahead. It was the same way that he always greeted the council – with indifference and with inner strength. Larina eyed him from behind, watching as his mane swept back and forth on his shoulders with each step, and the way that his cloak brushed the ground mere inches from his feet. He appeared the calm and in control Jedi Master that she had always known. And yet, she could feel his apprehension.
Her own apprehension escalated as they trudged into the center of the room and bowed to Yoda. The circular room had always been filled with absence of emotion and echoed with the coldness of logic. Her own pain flowed from her memories and she could not remain completely objective in her observation of the room’s emotional tide.
“Master Qui-Gon,” Yoda’s strange voice filled the room, and Larina bowed her head slightly in a respect to the small Jedi Master’s station. “Returned you have. Problems, encountered, you have. Report to us you will.”
“The mission on Tir was successful my Master,” Qui-Gon commented, tucking his hands into his cloak sleeves. “But I sense that you wish to know of Ordilara.”
Several of the other gathered Masters nodded in agreement. Yoda frowned thoughtfully, and nodded, his walking stick banging impatiently against the floor.
“A situation arose, my Masters, that required the attention of Master Mace Windu and myself as well as our companions. We intercepted a distress call, and dispatched to answer it. We were required to do so as envoys of the Galactic Republic. Upon planetfall we traveled to the area specified by the receipt of the distress call. The persons sending the call were, at that time, being held in a prisoner camp. Due to the extraordinary circumstance of Ordilara being a Force dead planet, we were forced to endure the camp ourselves until other means could be sought for our escape. Those means presented themselves as Larina was taken along with the other female prisoners to a holding area. Once there she acted as best she could to down the mechanisms holding us in the camp. Upon escaping, Mace Windu and I attempted to remove the female prisoners from their holdings. This was accomplished with as little interference and little bloodshed as he and I could manage. When we left, the persons in the camp had been returned to the protection of their army. More in depth information is listed in the report that Mace Windu and I have both signed that is in your possession.”
Yoda nodded again, his eyes centering on Larina behind Qui-Gon. “The mission, not about, this is.”
Qui-Gon drew a deep breath and settled his head back on his shoulders. “The situation on Ordilara is the more important of the two situations, Master Yoda.”
“Remember your station, you will, Master Qui-Gon.” Yoda intoned lowly, his ears lowering. “Think you to tell us more important which is?”
Qui-Gon lowered his eyes and chin marginally, “No, my Master.”
Another frown was followed by the small Jedi Master’s low hum. “Serious this is. Bonded you are.”
Larina hung her head even lower in shame. She knew that the fault was hers. The silence that greeted the comment was enough to make the young healer cringe. Remembrances of mistakes long past tormented the young healer’s mind. She felt, with coldness in her heart, that the scene of her removal would repeat itself here. Larina knew she would have to answer for her lapse in the simplest of forms. She raised her eyes to meet the diminutive Jedi Master who was gazing at her thoughtfully. “Bond you formed, shield you did not.”
“Yes, Master.” Larina hung her head, feeling Qui-Gon turn to look at her.
“Bond you did.”
Larina sighed and moved to lift her face again to answer for her actions as her training had taught her to do - only to find Yoda’s ancient and thoughtful gaze centered on Qui-Gon. She turned her head to look at the Qui-Gon with a look of surprise. It was not possible, she thought.
Jinn sighed and turned his head to look at Larina, a look of endless affection in his eyes. “Yes, my Master, I did.”
Larina gasped in surprise, her onyx eyes widening at the admission. She had not thought that…Master Qui-Gon did not…it wasn’t possible.
“I bonded out of affection for her, my Master. Affection and attraction.” Qui-Gon’s low voice took on the accent that it gathered when the Jedi Master was upset. He lifted his eyes over Larina’s head to meet those of Mace standing in the shadow afforded by the setting sun. The other Jedi Master inclined his head in agreement.
“Ah, but strong emotions they are in themselves.” An elder healer answered from the gathered members of the Council. “Bonds do not form from simply love, Master Qui-Gon.”
“I had been informed of that, yes.” Qui-Gon nodded, shifting his hands in his sleeves.
“Anger, I sense, in you as well.” Yoda hummed, shutting his eyes and extending his claw to Qui-Gon. “Controlled it you did. Pushed it away you could not.”
Qui-Gon nodded, and sighed. “With all due respect, my Masters. The situation needs to be addressed. The causes of this bonding will not occur again. In order to I continue my duties and she continues her training, we must be severed.”
“True this is. Deal with this, we must. Answer for it you will, young healer.” Yoda stared at the younger Jedi standing in front of him, and then leaned back and shut his eyes. “Double bond, sever we cannot.” Yoda opened his eyes to pin the Qui-Gon with his gaze.
“No?” Qui-Gon moved his hands to his hips, his blue eyes flashing in the room. “There must be a way.”
“Double bonds can only be severed by the participants themselves, Master Qui-Gon.” Maki Lindgo sighed. As senior healer on the Council, it had been his duty to oversee and investigate the situation between these two Jedi.
“Then how do we accomplish this?” Larina asked, her voice small and quiet in the large room.
Master Lindgo met gazes with Ha’run and sighed. It would be very tough indeed for the little healer. The elder healer began his litany quietly, spreading his hands wide. “You will both have to undergo a deep trance. You will each have to disengage the bond inside of your respective souls and return that portion of the bonded other soul to its owner. The soul will automatically leave the bonded body and return to its rightful home. It is a complicated process, but the healers here at the Temple would lead you through it.”
Master Ha’run grumbled in her corner. “The pain would be…incredible.”
“Yes,” Maki lowered his head in a nod; “the pain would indeed be powerful. The pain would be the equivalent of the releasing of the emotion that was used to create the bond in its raw, kinetic form. Very powerful, very painful. But it would be the necessary means to the desired end – separation.”
Qui-Gon expelled a heavy breath and cast a look at Larina. The woman standing next to him kept her eyes trained on the ground, and was breathing shallowly. He could sense discomfort in the air around her, and yet also acceptance. It was almost as if she was accepting of the pain as her due, and yet did not wish for it at the same time. In the depth of his stomach, he knew that she was as accepting as she was because of the blows that she had taken to her self-confidence in the years past and presently with this situation. He cleared his throat. He had other options that needed to be weighed. “And if we remained bonded – what would happen then? The healer’s bond that we have formed is only useful as long as we remain relatively close physically…say the same ship or the same building. With this standing limitation, how could we conceivably carry out our respective duties?”
“Bonds are strange things, Master Jinn. Often if they are physically completed, a physical distance of infinite measure can be maintained between the parties. However, the soul would be joined. It would be as if you and she were one person, existing in two places at once. There would be what would correspond to a physical ache, not pain, that would be low level and ubiquitous. But physical distance can be maintained, if the mental and soul bonds are strengthened.” Maki sighed, watching the Jedi Master shift his weight and the younger woman grimace.
“The bonding would require ‘replenishing’ at times. A time spent in close physical proximity. At those times, you would have to answer the call of the other half of your soul to avoid the pain that would occur at the absence of the physical nearness of its other half. The time can be anywhere from a week to a month to a year, before that would become necessary, it fluctuates with the couple.”
The elder eyed the couple in front of him. Larina’s face was pink and Qui-Gon kept a tight frown on his face. Miko knew that either one of the participants had not planned this, but sometimes the Force had roundabout ways of seeing that the proper course for life was laid out. With a smile, he said, “ The Council would not condemn this bond – that has already been discussed.”
“But if we…” Qui-Gon’s voice was rough, his childhood accent filling the room.
“If you wish separation, we would assist as best we can.” The answer came from another healer located behind Miko.
Qui-Gon nodded his brow heavy in thought. He felt his old training bond spark to life, and he looked to Yoda, his old Master. The small Jedi Master nodded knowingly and moved the end of his stick around on the floor as if drawing pictures.
Larina set her lips together firmly, keeping her head lowered. She nodded once and cast a glance at Qui-Gon. She gazed at his profile: strong nose, proud chin, and beard. The corner of his mouth quirked from its frown, and she quirked her mouth in response. Surely, she thought, he could not want to remain bonded. Through her training bond, she could feel Ha’run sending her love and support for whatever decision Larina made. The feelings almost made her smile. Raising her head to look at Yoda, she blurted out her answer.
“We wish to be sep –“
“We will think on the options,” Qui-Gon’s voice rumbled over hers in the same room, cutting her answer off. She turned, surprised, to Qui-Gon only meet his blue eyes. The eyes looked infinitely soulful. He repeated the words, his eyes never leaving her face. “We will think on this and return with the answer.”
Yoda pursed his lips together and nodded slowly, “Wait on your answer, we will, Master Qui-Gon.”
Qui-Gon nodded and bowed, ending the interview. He turned and moved to leave, passing in front of Larina. As he moved so, he reached for her arm. The warmth of the hand surprised Larina as it traveled down her arm to enclose her hand. The Jedi Master pulled on her hand and the woman fell into step behind him.
As the door slid shut behind them and the council chamber had been left, Qui-Gon turned to Larina. His eyes narrowed as he realized that she was in a light stage of shock. Her black eyes searched his for a moment, and he answered her unspoken question in this next breath.
“Walk with me in the gardens, Larina – we need to talk.”