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Rating/Warnings: R; Violence; slash (Obi/Qui; Qui/Xan); possible death of a character
Summary: After an explosive fight, Obi-Wan storms off broken hearted and leaves Qui-Gon's world in shambles. Both struggle to come to terms with what's happened and the "deeper meanings" behind Qui-Gon's dream of Xanatos. Qui-Gon's meditations on this have left him with the sinking suspicion that Xanatos is behind everything.
Please direct feed back to: marjorievonnordeck@yahoo.com It's all so very welcomed... Remember it's the only way I'll get better. (So bring it on, all of it! Comments, concerns, suggestions - good, bad, or otherwise; they’re always welcome)
Special Thanks to Sue, who has been my ever so helpful beta reader as this story has panned out.

Obi-Wan's POV:

I walked down the cold and windy streets without a destination. I wanted to do something, anything to get away from Qui-Gon and everything that reminded me of him. I couldn't.

EVERYTHING reminds me of Qui-Gon. The kid on the corner, the homeless man I stopped in front of. 'Force!' I thought, 'I'll never be rid of him.'

"Here, friend," I said in the calmest voice I could muster and dropped some dataries in his hands, and with a slight wave of my free hand I said, "Find a warm place to sleep tonight, and get something to eat."

"Thank you Master Jedi," he said gratefully, "I will find a warm bed and dinner."

I only nodded in response as I kept on walking. 'If Qui-Gon were here,' I thought, 'we'd have another pathetic pet sleeping on the couch.' I shook my head and banished the thought. 'No you're out here to NOT think about Qui-Gon,' I scolded myself.

I felt something through the force as I continued walking.

"What is that?" I asked myself, the words barely getting passed my lips. 'Is it the force calling me?' I paused, listened as intently with my ears as I did with my force sense. 'More elusive than the force usually is... Fuck it,' I decided to follow it anyway. This feeling was drawing me toward it, sweet and soothing, intoxicating. It was a little unnerving I would have suspected it was Qui-Gon, except my shields were too strong for him to get through to me.

This feeling I was following, it was so familiar and warm. I couldn't fathom what or who - 'who, it’s definitely a who,' I thought, 'what the Sith!? Who would be calling me like this?' I was certain it was not a Jedi. I lowered my shields the slightest bit and I reached out with the force, letting a tendril of awareness flow along the force seeking out this being that called me. I felt a faint force signature, familiar, but at the same time strangely elusive and barely detectable. "Who could it be?" I wondered aloud. It was not a force signature I could name, and yet... I was sure I'd felt it before.

"Sith in hell!" I decided just to follow it and let it and the force guide me. 'There was something unsettling about this whole affair. In the entire eight years I've known Qui-Gon, he rarely spoke of Xanatos, and then only with MY urging, but now Qui-Gon had had a dream about him and mistaken me for him?! How could that be?'

My musings left me with only more questions and no answers. I was beginning to settle down though and my thoughts were falling back into place along with my nerves. I sighed, 'He'd never hurt you, Obi-Wan, not on purpose, not like this,' I knew it was true. 'He loves you, you know he does. He may love Xanatos still, somewhere deep inside, but he loves you more. Obi-Wan you fool! You just left, didn't even let him try to explain. There's got to be more at work here than a misleading dream... Too late now. You're following someone else's trail.'

I kept walking, there was nothing for it, I couldn't think of anything else to do. I just kept walking and following the feeling of this person I couldn't name. They were calling me, 'No, he... Its a he,' I thought reaching out to his call again.

//Where are you?// I reached out in the direction of that call and was quickly answered.

//This way.// His answer came as a smooth and rapturous voice that echoed in my head. It was more of a feeling than a real answer, but I swear he was calling louder and stronger, more urgently, in an almost pleading manner. Something about it was so unsettling.

I was getting closer now, after wandering around Coruscant for several hours, I could feel it. //Come, come...// I heard that dark velvet voice again. Then I felt a chill. Cold sweat broke out on my palms and I knew something was wrong.

I reached for my lightsaber just in time to feel it pulled off of my belt. I looked up into the dark, deep blue eyes of a hypnotically beautiful man. I was stunned looking at him, stupefied for a moment.

I became aware of a pin prick and I looked to my left arm only to see a hypo spray moving from my arm in the man's hand. I tried to move, to take a defensive stance, but found myself unable to do so quickly enough. Someone walked up quickly behind me, I spun around to meet them, but a hood went over my eyes and something hard hit me firmly at the base of my skull.

Blackness. Stillness. Silence. And I was gone.

Continue on to part 5.