A Little More than Kin
Sequel to "Wergeld"
by jedimom
anotherjedimom@lycos.com

Well, George Lucas owns just about everything except the Sith Academy, which Siubhan owns, and KeRaad, whom Padawan Zol-Tan owns. Thanks for letting me play, y'all.

Warning: this story contains a few Jedi Apprentice spoilers.

Author's Note: Once upon a time I wrote a non-canon SA story called "Hell" which was supposed to be a one-off. I give up. At this point I'm just along for the ride.

Many thanks to Rose and Siubhan for beta help and considerable patience. And all hail Apache, from whom I stole a little something. Her excellent "Fin&Jinn" series is at http://users.50megs.com/corellia/ and also at http://members.xoom.com/Campsilk/starwars/index.html [Ed note: go read them now!]. KeRaad's origin story, "Mission to Callodas" is quoted here with the author's permission.

KeRaad sat in the captain's chair, thinking of nothing in particular. It was night watch, and the bridge lights were down; the console readouts and the guide lights around the top and bottom edges of the walls gave a soft, pleasant illumination to the room. Of course, KeRaad could have found her way around the bridge with no lights at all. She had even learned to use the tactile readouts that had been installed for the Boss, just for fun. But she liked being here in this dimly lit space, taking a watch that wasn't really necessary. It was her favorite time to think, to be alone with herself.

She felt the Boss's presence behind her but didn't turn around. //Evening, boss. Couldn't sleep?//

//I wanted company.// His hands stroked lightly down her shoulders and arms, the tattooed patterns beautiful against her red leather jacket in the soft light. She should have found the gesture disturbing, but somehow it seemed right.

KeRaad closed her eyes as she felt his breath against her neck. His lips barely brushed the angle of her jaw. //Oh, Force, boss...//

//Do you trust me?// His fingers toyed with the thin braid of hair that hung to her right shoulder.

//Of course I trust you.//

//You shouldn't.// Without warning a strong hand clamped around her throat, cutting off her air, making her head swim as the blood supply to her brain was constricted. She tried to pry his fingers away, looking up into his blazing yellow eyes, and as her vision began to darken she heard his deep, resonant laugh, triumphant, mocking....

KeRaad sat up in bed, gasping for breath. Despite her best efforts to convince her body that the danger wasn't real, it was a long time before she stopped trembling. It was much, much longer before she could sleep.

***

"First kata, KeRaad. And keep your tempo even."

"Yes sir." KeRaad brought her wooden practice saber up in the ritual salute. As irreverent as she was at other times, in the dojo she was all business, laser focused, respectful, with a burning thirst for knowledge and a passion for absolute correctness.

Maul watched his student intently. The novelty of being able to see and hear again had not yet begun to wear off. He was so accustomed to perceiving KeRaad as a localized spirit or a voice in his head that the sight of her still jolted him slightly. She was bit shorter than he and much lighter; her ponytail made her look younger than she was. She looked like a teenaged babysitter, not an apprentice...whatever. And then there was the padawan braid that she wore as if it were a badge of honor. It bothered him a little.

"Don't speed up, KeRaad. Focus," he reminded her. She nodded and continued her routine. "Better," said Maul as she came to the final salute. "Ready for some sparring?"

"Yes, sir," she said seriously, though Maul could hear her thoughts echoing, //I was born ready, boss.// He picked up his own practice saber and advanced to face her. They saluted each other. KeRaad began circling slowly to her left, her clear grey eyes locked on his with fierce intensity. Maul waited. KeRaad attacked and he parried easily but did not riposte. "You're still telegraphing," he commented. She tried a high-low-high combination. He blocked and slashed at her ankles. She used her jump to close the distance between them, trying to get a bind on his saber. He evaded it and pivoted out of her way, forcing her to take a step sideways to regain her balance. Maul feinted at her head and when she jerked back from the blow that did not arrive, he bashed her under the chin with the heel of his hand. The combined momentum of her dodge and his blow threw her backwards several feet.

She landed badly, losing her saber. "Hold," she gasped and lay curled on the mat without moving.

Maul set his saber down. "You all right?"

"Yes, sir," she said, but her voice was a bit breathless. "Should have seen that coming. I--nngh!" She tried to rise and stopped abruptly, face suddenly white.

"Let me see." As he'd suspected, her collarbone was broken, the separated ends clearly visible under her skin. "Damn. Let's go get that taken care of. Need help?"

"I can manage, boss. Sorry," she said shortly. She stood without help but moved cautiously, holding the injured arm firmly in place against her side.

As Maul waited for the medical droid to finish setting the break, he was bothered by a thought that wouldn't go away. He had sensed something in his apprentice's mind besides pain and exasperation, something he wouldn't have expected. Fear.

***

KeRaad shifted her weight cautiously, trying to find a position that would allow her to get to sleep. The broken ends of her collarbone had been rejoined but it would be several days before they finished knitting. A heavy canvas brace kept the arm on the injured side immobilized. She forced herself to be still and breathe deeply, imagining floating in still water, not fighting the tension in her muscles but letting it ebb away by itself. Gradually her body and mind relaxed and she slipped beneath the surface of sleep instead of resting atop it.

He was there waiting for her.

//I have something amusing to show you,// he said, a sneer twisting his tattooed face. And she found herself hovering, disembodied, in an unfamiliar room, watching two familiar figures. One was Obi-Wan, in a t-shirt and jeans and with a padawan braid. The other, similarly clad, was her master as he must have looked before he was injured. They were laughing as they grappled. Maul tripped Obi-Wan and jumped after him--

And an explosion ripped the room, shredding Maul's face and Obi-Wan's back. Maul crawled forward, seared, bleeding, blinded, and pulled his lover into his arms, desperately trying to piece together Obi-Wan's shattered skull with the Force. KeRaad could feel Maul's injuries, could hear him in her mind: //No, oh gods, Obi-Wan, no, breathe, don't leave me...//

The physical and mental agony were more than she could bear. She woke, sobbing, shuddering, shielding as hard as she could lest the Boss pick up her distress. She did not dare go back to sleep.

***

She was at the table working on her lightsaber when Maul came into the galley the next morning.

"What's the rush, KeRaad? You know it'll be a while before you're ready to train with the real thing."

"Well, I woke up early, and I wanted something to do that wouldn't strain my collarbone." She stifled a yawn.

"A message came in overnight. Obi-Wan wants us to pick him up from Kessel tomorrow."

"Okay, boss. I'll set course as soon as I finish this connection."

Maul watched her quietly for a few minutes. Though she worked steadily and competently, her hands trembled slightly and her eyes were red.

"Is something bothering you, KeRaad?" he asked at last.

"No, boss. I'm just impatient for this damned bone to heal so I can get back to my training." Her voice was light and steady. But she said it without looking at him, and her shields were shut tight.

***

//I've been waiting for you, KeRaad.//

//No. Go away. I won't listen to you any more.//

//You think you have a choice?// The voice was an amused purr.

//There's always a choice.//

//Is that what your Jedi friend told you? Let me show you something.// Again she was a helpless, unwilling observer as a scene unfolded before her. Obi-Wan lay strapped to a gurney as medical droids and technicians attached electrodes to his scalp. His eyes were unfocused; he had been drugged, but KeRaad felt his confusion and fear through the fog of the medication, lending a nightmare quality to all her perceptions. The droids and techs scrambled back to stand clear as one of them threw a switch. Obi-Wan's body convulsed violently and he screamed. She heard his mind-voice as well, incoherent, desperate: Help me Maul where are you help me make it stop! Then another jolt, another scream.

They did it again. And again.

And again, until KeRaad herself screamed and woke to hear the Boss pounding on her door, his voice and mind-voice both alarmed as he called her name.

It took her a while to respond as she tried simultaneously to shake off her terror, regain control of her mind and body, and keep the Boss from seeing her nightmare vision.

//KeRaad! Answer me!//

"I'm okay, boss. It's okay. It was just a dream. Go back to sleep," she called. Somehow she managed to get him away from her room before she broke down completely.

***

Obi-Wan sat in his room in a cheap hotel on Kessel, brooding. As he'd expected, the illicit medical facility he'd found in the MacroStiff corporate espionage files had been stripped to the bare walls. There was the merest breath of the Force to tell him that at some point, not recently, his father had been there. He hoped Maul's and KeRaad's rendezvous with their "supplier" (for which read, 'fence') had gone well, and that they had found out more on Ninigi than he had here.

The thought of the two of them made him smile and shake his head. His lover--his feral, callous, vile-tempered, ex-Sith lover--was employer and Master to a twenty-year-old, wise-ass, folkie pilot. //Mysterious are the ways of the Force,// thought Obi-Wan.

As if in answer to that thought, there was a knock at his door, accompanied by a very familiar disturbance in the Force. Obi-Wan nearly tore the door off its hinges. "Qui-Gon!"

His former Master smiled crookedly, looking odd in his nondescript civilian clothes. "Hello, Obi-Wan. May I come in?"

***

"I heard you'd been exiled, but nobody would talk to me about it. What's been going on?"

"Not all of us think the Dark Side is the part of the duct tape that isn't sticky. We've known for a while that something bad was coming, and recently a lot of us have had the feeling it was coming soon. We're fairly certain that there's a traitor on the Council; maybe more than one. So we chose this as a way of getting some of the more, um, independent spirits out of the public eye. Just in case anything were to happen that might make an underground resistance network a handy thing to have."

"Who's 'we'?"

"Mace and I, as you'd probably guess. I'm afraid I can't tell you who any of the others are."

Suddenly in Obi-Wan's mind a penny dropped. "The lightsaber crystals. It was you."

Qui-Gon nodded. "Yes. And thanks a lot, by the way, for intercepting our last shipment. It was a major pain in the butt to get them back off Coruscant. And why, pray tell, were three of them missing? Two I would have expected--for Maul."

"The other one was for his padawan."

"His what?"

The conversation continued until just before dawn.

***

After bidding Qui-Gon goodbye, Obi-Wan paid his bill and headed for the docking bay, yawning and shivering in the chill grey light of a rainy morning. The Mindful was waiting for him. "Welcome aboard, Obi-Wan," said KeRaad. "Learn anything interesting?"

"Bugger-all, at least as far as the cloning facility goes," said Obi-Wan. "I'll tell you what else I found after you get us into hyperspace."

"I can take a hint," she said, and headed for the bridge.

//Gods, Khameir,// Obi-Wan said privately. //What happened to KeRaad? She looks like death warmed over.//

//I wish to hell I knew.// Maul said. //She's been having nightmares. She's not sleeping much, she's barely eating, and she won't tell me anything.//

***

She was fighting sleep now with everything she had, but she knew she couldn't win. If she slept she would dream; if she didn't sleep, she would soon start to hallucinate. Next would come delusions, then mania, and finally, if she managed to ward off sleep long enough, she would die. The thought failed either to frighten or to comfort her.

Gods, she was tired. So tired...

//KeRaad. Welcome back.//

//No.//

//Let's play a game.// This time she was no disembodied observer, but fully aware of her body. She stood in the dojo, in the shorts and tank top she wore to work out, and he stood before her, robed in black. She turned her back on him, refusing to cooperate in her own torment.

//Turn around.// The Force seized her, spun her around to face him. She closed her eyes and tried to shield her mind, but she was too exhausted to shut him out. Though she couldn't see him she could sense him clearly as he approached. Gripped by the Force he exerted, she couldn't even flinch. He took her hand in his, ran his gloved fingers up her forearm to the elbow.

//I have a message for your master,// he purred. He grasped her arm just above and just below the elbow and bent it back slowly and effortlessly, dislocating the joint. She screamed but still couldn't move. His hands trailed up her arm to her shoulder. //Tell Maul--// He dislocated her shoulder with the same casual ease. //--that if he doesn't give back what is mine--// His fingers lightly traced her collarbone to the knot where the incompletely healed break was, and he broke the bone again with a quick chop. //--I will take you apart piece by piece until you die, or surrender your soul to me, or go mad.// He dislocated the other shoulder. KeRaad was in too much pain to scream now, gasping and whimpering. Suddenly the Force holding her up let go and she fell onto her face, unable to catch herself with her injured arms. The agony of the impact woke her up just as her door burst open and Obi-Wan and Maul rushed in. Obi-Wan gathered KeRaad in his arms. Maul stood stock-still in the middle of the room. Dark Side energy filled the air like thick smoke.

"I'm a fool," Maul said. "They weren't nightmares."

"No," said Obi-Wan grimly. "It's a Force-ghost." In his arms, KeRaad panted and shuddered and tried to believe that she wasn't hurt.

"What the fuck can we do about it?" said Maul. "We can't kill it; it's already dead."

"And we can't shield her constantly. Even with both of us taking turns. Besides, I doubt we could completely block its access to her mind even then."

"Why isn't it coming after me? I've got its body."

"You're stronger and much better trained. And maybe it thinks torture is more fun than combat." KeRaad flinched at that; Obi-Wan turned his attention back to her. "KeRaad. Listen. I'm going to link with you and shield you so you can sleep. Don't fight me."

"I'm afraid, Obi-Wan," KeRaad whispered, still shivering.

"I'll be with you. You're safe now." Obi-Wan's quiet voice was almost chanting. Maul felt him emphasizing the words with a wisp of the Force. "Relax, KeRaad. Let go. Sleep." Her head dropped onto his shoulder.

"I can probably keep this up for a few hours," Obi-Wan said to Maul. "Three or four, maybe. Will you come and take over then?"

"Sure. If she trusts me to do it."

"I hope she will. Get some rest, Khameir. We're all going to need it." Obi-Wan gently eased KeRaad back down onto the bed and knelt on the floor beside her, sitting back on his heels. His eyes closed and his breathing gradually slowed until it was synchronized with hers.

***

Four hours later, after Obi-Wan had stumbled, exhausted, back to his quarters to sleep, Maul sat with KeRaad. His pilot-apprentice was still pale with fatigue.

"Let me link with you, KeRaad. You need more sleep," said Maul patiently.

"I can't do it, boss," said KeRaad shamefacedly. "I trust you, and I know you're not going to hurt me, but you look and sound so much like him. I can't get my shields to drop."

//Don't use your eyes and ears then. You know this is me.//

"I know, boss. But I still can't do it. I can't believe I'm afraid of you--"

"It's all right. We'll manage somehow. It would be better if you could sleep, but if not, Obi-Wan will be ready to try again in a few hours."

KeRaad shuddered. "I can't stay awake that long," she said, her voice tinged with panic. She stood up and began pacing. "I start drifting off as soon as I sit still. But I'm so tired. I can't--"

"Shh. Be calm, KeRaad." Maul caught her by the shoulders, stopped her. He captured her gaze with his own. "You are my apprentice," he said softly, persuasively. "You are under my protection. I won't let him have you," he promised. "Trust me." Subtly he emphasized his words with the Force. "Let go, KeRaad. Let me protect you."

He saw the indecision in her eyes as she struggled to believe him, to reject her fear. But fear was stronger. She gave a half laugh, half sob. "Fear is the path to insomnia," she said. "I'm sorry, boss." She put her head on his shoulder. He held her, a bit awkwardly, wondering how to overcome this impasse without injuring her or doing more damage to her trust in him. Drugs? Hypnosis?

"Boss." Maul felt KeRaad shiver in his arms. "He's back." Maul could see nothing, but the Dark Side was palpable in the air around him. KeRaad could obviously see something, though. She turned in his arms to stare fixedly at a point somewhere near the door. Maul could hear only one side of their conversation.

//No,// said KeRaad. She closed her eyes and turned her head back towards Maul. And a little later, //I don't give a damn what either of them wants. It's not up to them.//

She flinched and bit off a sharp cry. Tears began to squeeze between her tightly-shut eyelids. Maul could feel her heart racing. "KeRaad!" he called, but she didn't seem to hear him.

//You fucking coward,// he mindcalled. //Afraid to deal with me?//

//Come out here and meet me on equal terms,// a malicious whisper said in his mind.

"NO!" shouted KeRaad, her eyes flying open. "No, Boss! Don't do it! He's trying to get your body!" She gasped and shuddered; then she went limp and her eyes rolled upward as her unseen opponent dragged her into unconsciousness. Maul caught her falling body, snatched at her mind and managed to link with her at last, though only tenuously.

//Shall we continue our lesson?// the Force-ghost was saying. //I see you've brought your master along for the ride.// Maul and KeRaad both saw a darkened room. Maul recognized it as his apartment on Coruscant. Two bodies lay on the bed, naked; one pale and flawless, one vividly tattooed and terribly scarred. The fair one mind-spoke, troubled: //Something's bothering you. What are you hiding?// The dark one did not answer as he kissed and caressed the other with great concentration, warding off his attempts to touch in return. //Please, Khameir,// begged the fair one, //Link with me. I don't want to leave you alone.// //No,// replied the dark one. //Let me do this my way. Don't talk. Don't move.// Rage poured over Maul as he realized what scene his double was about to replay.

//You sadistic prick,// he thought. //I'll take you apart.//

//Boss, NO!// said KeRaad. She wrenched at the link between them and somehow managed to break it. Then she vanished completely from his awareness.

Maul hurled himself out of the dream-state to find KeRaad lying limp in his arms. Her face was pale and blank, her half-open eyes glassy, pupils dilated. He called her with voice and mind, but she did not respond.

***

By the time Maul had managed to awaken Obi-Wan, KeRaad had progressed from shock to catatonia. She lay unmoving on a bed in the Mindful's sick bay, her pulse steady but frighteningly slow. She showed no response to any stimulus at all.

"She took the only way out she could find," Obi-Wan said bitterly. "She's gone as far inside herself as she can get. Even if we put her on life-support, in a few days she'll be in a coma, and then the Force-ghost will be able to cast her out and take her body."

Maul stood rigid, fists clenched. Then he slowly turned to look at Obi-Wan. "Take the ship and get out of here," he said. "Leave me in an escape pod. I don't think the Force-ghost will go far from its body. If I manage to beat it I'll mindcall you. If not, its body will die when the air runs out, and eventually the Force-ghost should weaken and dissipate."

"I don't like that plan."

"Got a better one?"

"Maybe. How fast can you get us back to Kessel?"

***

They were in orbit around Kessel within eight hours. Not knowing how to contact Qui-Gon, not even sure he was still on the planet, Obi-Wan drew on the Force and the remnants of his bond with his former Master, hoping to get Qui-Gon's attention.

"Any luck?" said Maul, coming into the dojo where Obi-Wan was meditating.

"Not yet. How's KeRaad?"

"No change. Assuming you manage to contact Qui-Gon, what's your plan?"

"Ancient legends are a hobby of his. I'm hoping he knows something useful about Force-ghosts."

"Worth a try. Can I help?"

"Please." Maul knelt beside Obi-Wan and set a hand on his shoulder. The two of them entered trance together, breathing in synch, reaching out to each other and to the Force. Maul lent his strength to Obi-Wan's mindcall.

//Qui-Gon. Hear us.//

There was a stirring in the Force, distant but rapidly growing nearer as the Mindful's orbit swept her across the face of the planet. //Obi-Wan?//

//We're in orbit. Call us.//

//Coming.// Qui-Gon's Force-signature strengthened, then faded again as the ship swept past his location. Minutes later, they were hailed from the planet.

"Mindful, this is Qui-Gon Jinn. Request permission to rendezvous with you in orbit."

"Granted," said Maul. "But how are you planning to get here?"

"I have a ship," came the reply. "Can you establish geostationary orbit over these coordinates?"

"Will do. What's your ETA?"

"Forty-five minutes. Jinn out."

At the appointed time, a small, battered freighter docked with the Mindful and disgorged two passengers--Qui-Gon, still in civilian clothing, and Mace Windu, in Jedi uniform. Obi-Wan met them at the airlock.

"Thanks for coming, Qui-Gon. But what's up with the ship? That's more property than a Jedi's allowed to own," said Obi-Wan.

"According to the Council I'm not a Jedi," said Qui-Gon with a hint of amusement. "And so I'm free to own property. And to--well, never mind."

"And before you ask how he got it--don't," added Mace. "All I have to say is that I was there and if he was using the mind trick I didn't spot it. Beyond that, the less said the better. But if you had to st--I mean, acquire, a ship, couldn't you have gotten a decent one?" he said to Qui-Gon.

"Later, Mace. So what's the trouble, Obi-Wan? And where's that padawan you told me about?"

"She's the trouble. What do you know about Force-ghosts?"

Qui-Gon's eyebrows shot up. "How many weeks have you got?" he asked in exasperation.

"I should specify evil Force-ghosts."

"Oh. That does narrow it down. Um, beyond the fact that no one's seen one for over a thousand years, since the Sith were the only evil Force-users powerful enough to outlive their bodies?"

"Yeah, well, I've been meaning to talk to you about that," said Obi-Wan. "Briefly, the Sith still exist, we killed one recently, and its Force-ghost is trying to destroy Maul's apprentice."

Qui-Gon and Mace looked at each other. "You're shitting us," said Mace.

"Nope," said Obi-Wan.

"That's another one for me," said Qui-Gon. "Remember that the next time you diss Yoda." Then, to Obi-Wan, "So where are they? Who are they? I have to admit, my first guess would have been Maul."

"You would have been right," said Maul. He stood leaning on the wall of the corridor, arms folded, with a slight, sardonic smile as Mace and Qui-Gon took in his restored appearance. "Until recently, that is."

"So that's what he meant," said Qui-Gon to himself.

"Who?" asked Obi-Wan.

"Yoda. When the Council exiled me, Yoda told me I'd be seeing the two of you and that you'd made good use of that technique--he was the one who advised me to teach it to you, Obi-Wan, even though you hadn't taken the Trials yet."

"So if you were one of the Sith, who's the other one?" said Mace.

"Senator Palpatine," said Maul. "Also known as Darth Sidious."

"Fuck," said Windu quietly.

"Yeah. At any rate, after I...left his employ, and after his second choice was out of the running--you may remember Cyn?--he activated a clone of me and sent it to protect a germ warfare facility we were about to destroy. I decided this body was too good to waste on a Sith. Unfortunately I neglected to destroy him when I cast him out, and he's been attacking my apprentice, trying to get his body back. At the moment, she's catatonic; the medical droid says she'll progress to coma sometime soon, and we're out of ideas. So we're hoping you know something helpful."

"I hope so too. Let us have a look at her," said Qui-Gon.

***

They continued their conversation in sick bay, after Qui-Gon and Mace had checked KeRaad over and agreed with the medical droid's findings.

"According to legend," said Qui-Gon, "a Sith Force-ghost has a lot in common with a Jedi Force-ghost. It's immune to physical attack. It can make itself visible if it chooses, at least to a Force-sensitive who knew it when it was alive. It can communicate through dreams, even with people who aren't Force-sensitive. It can't get far from its body until the body is destroyed--that's why we cremate our dead--and it will tend to weaken over time until it returns to the Force. But it can hang around for years if it has unfinished business. During the Sith Wars, the Force-ghosts of the dead Sith sometimes possessed people, usually their own relatives. The fact that this one started out as a clone of Maul makes him especially vulnerable."

"So how do we get rid of it?" asked Obi-Wan.

"The only way to fight a spirit is with another spirit. During the Sith Wars the Jedi used a form of ritual duel. A Jedi would leave his body to combat the Force-ghost on its own turf. If the Jedi won, the Force-ghost would be destroyed. If the Force-ghost won, the Jedi's spirit would be destroyed. The Jedi's companions would destroy his body to keep the Force-ghost from possessing it, and someone else would try."

"Shit. I liked my plan better," said Maul.

"I didn't," said Obi-Wan. "KeRaad is so far gone now that I'm not sure anyone but you has a chance of calling her back. Besides, if you'd fought him and lost, the Force-ghost still might have been able to lure another ship close enough to attack."

"Your chances of winning would be slim to none," said Qui-Gon. "Since this was originally his body, he has a stronger connection to it than you do. If you left it, he'd be able to take it back no matter what kind of protection we put up. It'll have to be one of us, and the rest of us will have to protect your apprentice's body, plus the body of whoever's fighting, to keep the Force-ghost from seizing them."

"I'll do it," said Obi-Wan.

"Like hell you will," said Maul.

"Knock it off, Khameir. I'm stronger than you are and a hell of a lot less vulnerable. Besides, I want a piece of this bastard for what he's doing to you and KeRaad."

Maul scowled. "All right. But I'm guarding your body."

"Mace and I can protect Obi-Wan," said Qui-Gon. "You'll need to take care of your apprentice. If he tries to attack her, you'll sense it through the training bond. None of the rest of us can do that."

"Tough. I'm not leaving him."

"I can manage without you," said Obi-Wan. "KeRaad can't. You'll have to stay with her."

"No!" Maul turned his back on KeRaad, took a step towards Obi-Wan, and stopped as if he'd run into a wall. His eyes widened and he glanced back at Qui-Gon. The Jedi Master nodded slightly.

//It's a bitch, isn't it?// he thought. //Just be glad you're not in love with her. That's even worse.//

Maul turned to Obi-Wan. "Obi-Wan, I..."

"I know. It's all right. Qui-Gon and Mace can do it." Obi-Wan turned to his former master. "So tell me about this ritual combat..."

***

An hour later they were as ready as they'd ever be. The ship hung motionless in the outer reaches of the Kessel system. KeRaad lay on her bed in the sickbay, medical readouts monitoring her slow slide towards coma. Another bed was set up beside hers, and Maul, Mace, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon stood around it. Obi-Wan turned to Mace Windu and bowed formally. "Master Mace, before I ask for your help in this combat it is your right to demand restitution for any injury I have done you. I acknowledge that there have been many."

"I release you from all obligation," Mace said. Obi-Wan bowed his thanks. //But if I didn't love your former Master so much, it'd be a different story,// Mace thought with a mock frown.

//If we hadn't both loved my former Master the problem wouldn't have arisen,// Obi-Wan thought wryly. Aloud he said only, "Master Mace, will you grant me your aid in this combat?"

Windu gripped Obi-Wan's hand firmly. "I will," he said. "Obi-Wan, you've got more guts than I have. Do the job and get the hell back in here. May the Force be with you." He released Obi-Wan's hand.

Obi-Wan turned to Qui-Gon. "My master, before I ask for your help in this combat it is your right to demand restitution for any injury I have done you. I acknowledge that there have been many."

"I release you from all obligation," Qui-Gon replied. "I'm proud to have been your Master, Obi-Wan, and proud to be your friend."

"Will you grant me your aid in this combat, my master?" asked Obi-Wan.

"I will." Qui-Gon put his hands on Obi-Wan's shoulders. "Be mindful, Obi-Wan. Remember your training. You have the strength and the wisdom to win this battle. May the Force be with you." He kissed Obi-Wan's forehead, released him, and stepped back.

Obi-Wan turned to Maul. "Khameir, I cannot ask for your aid in combat," he said, "because the task you have before you forbids it. But I ask you to forgive me for all the wrongs I have ever done you, and there have been many."

Maul took Obi-Wan's face in his hands, glaring straight into his eyes. //You're forgiven,// he thought. //Kill the bastard and come back to me. Come back to me. May the Force be with you.// He pulled Obi-Wan into a long, fierce kiss, then reluctantly let him go and turned back to KeRaad.

Obi-Wan lay down on the bed beside KeRaad's and began the meditations that would center him. He had a sudden image of himself on a Jedi pyre, and then just as suddenly the firm conviction that it would never happen, that whatever fate awaited him would allow no funeral rites afterwards. He tried not to worry about whether this was a good or a bad sign.

Qui-Gon and Mace knelt on either side of Obi-Wan's bed and clasped right hands across his chest, each resting his left hand on one of Obi-Wan's shoulders. Maul knelt at the head of KeRaad's bed and laid his hands lightly on her shoulders.

"Are you ready?" asked Obi-Wan, his voice calm and remote.

"Ready," they all answered.

"May the Force be with all of us," said Obi-Wan, and was suddenly gone from his body.

***

Obi-Wan found himself drifting in space that was not space. It was not unlike zero G, except for the near-total sensory deprivation. Only his Force-sense was operating. He felt a faint tug in one direction, like a mild gravitational field, and concluded that it was his link with his body.

Gradually he became aware of another presence. Hostile, angry. The sensation of its approach was like heat waves pouring off a lightsaber.

//Jedi,// the creature's mind-voice spat contemptuously. //Couldn't loverboy do his own fighting?//

Obi-Wan ignored the voice, concentrated on getting a clearer perception of his foe. Like himself, the Force-ghost manifested as an energy field, but where Obi-Wan was anchored by his link to his body, this being seemed oriented in two different directions. One, presumably, was the body Maul had stolen from it. The other...?

Pain swept over him suddenly as the Force-ghost attacked. For a time he didn't understand what was happening; having no body, no nerves, how could he feel pain? Belatedly he realized the Force-ghost was surrounding his energy with its own, trying to cut him off from the Force.

He fought back instinctively, concentrating all his energy in one direction, smashing through the smothering cloud that surrounded him. The Force-ghost cried out in pain, its mind-voice eerily like Maul's. Obi-Wan hesitated for an instant.

//You don't like that, do you?// said the Force-ghost. //How about this?// A black cloud seemed to envelop Obi-Wan. He could no longer perceive anything outside himself. Waves of agony washed over him, the memory of pain--Maul's pain--murderous rage, grief, guilt, hatred--

//NO!// With a tremendous effort of will, Obi-Wan broke free of the forced memory. His opponent's mind-voice rang in his awareness, laughing.

//Jedi compassion,// it jeered. //Jedi self-control. "There is no passion, there is peace."//

//How the hell did he do that?/ thought Obi-Wan. //I'm shielded. How can he be triggering my memories?//

His train of thought was interrupted by another wave of darkness. Again, remembered sensations washed over him--cold. Hunger. Panic. He was a teenager, alone, captured by enemies, and his Master was injured, dying--he broke free again, but it was harder this time. He was weaker, his connection with the Force less sure.

//Concentrate, Kenobi,// he told himself. //Find a weakness.//

Obi-Wan exploded into a ferocious attack, concentrating on the connection between the Force-ghost and its body, pouring all the energy he could draw from the Force into his attempt to wrench the two apart. He had a mental image of blue fire, spinning in an ever-tighter vortex, strangling the tenuous link between body and spirit. The Force-ghost struck back, lashing him with remembered pain and fear, feelings of betrayal, abandonment--Obi-Wan flinched. The Force-ghost pressed the attack, surrounding him with tortured images that wore Maul's face, Maul's voice, Maul's maimed body.

//Nightmares. It's not memories he's replaying. It's dreams.//

Faces surrounded him--Ben-Wa, taunting him; Qui-Gon, sternly reproving some breach of conduct; his adoptive parents, stone-faced as they bailed him out of jail yet again--

//My adoptive parents?//

//He doesn't know whose son I am,// thought the Jedi in grim satisfaction. //He has no idea who he's dealing with.// Suddenly Obi-Wan attacked with new intensity, the swirling blue fire becoming blue-white skeins of lightning, and his opponent's cries changed from imitations of Maul's screams to howls of genuine agony. The link between the Force-ghost and its body thinned, wavered, broke. The spirit contracted on itself with a wail of despair, and Obi-Wan broke off the attack, but the screams continued.

The other link. He could sense a flood of Dark Side energy coursing through it, striking the Force-ghost, searing it with waves of malice and hatred that made him recoil in sympathy.

Sidious. The Master was destroying his defeated apprentice.

Without stopping to think, Obi-Wan attacked the link with all his might. Dark Side energy flared back at him, corrosive, poisonous, loathsome. He placed himself between the Force-ghost and his father, taking the full brunt of the attack as he struggled to break the bond between Master and Apprentice.

//What are you...Jedi? What...?// the spirit's mind-voice was weak, incoherent.

//Fight him,// commanded Obi-Wan. //Reject him.// He tore at the link with all his strength. The Force-ghost struggled feebly.

Obi-Wan's perceptions dimmed, narrowed. The corrosive energy was eating away at his shields, burning him. In the mist of pain that enveloped him he saw only the link between Sidious and his apprentice, fraying as he struck at it again and again, as the Force-ghost tried to wrench itself away from its master. Through the pain he sent a thought with all the authority he could muster: //Go. Free.//

The link ravelled, thinned, broke. The Force-ghost flickered, dissolved, vanished like a spray of sparks.

Obi-Wan felt an explosion of fury like a physical blow.

He fell back into his body as the mindspace rang with the frustrated malice of the Sith Lord.

***

Qui-Gon spoke suddenly. "He did it. It's gone."

"He's coming back," added Mace.

Maul turned in time to see Obi-Wan's eyes flutter open. The Jedi sat up, assisted by Qui-Gon and Mace. "Call KeRaad," he said.

Maul turned back to his apprentice's inert form. "KeRaad," he said. No response. //KeRaad.// His mindcall seemed to dissipate into an infinite distance. No reply, no echo to indicate another living presence. Maul focused, settled into trance, called again. //KeRaad!//

Nothing. He brought himself back to the room where the others waited. "I can't find her. I'll have to go in after her."

"Hurry," said Obi-Wan, rising to check the medical readouts. Maul took Obi-Wan's place on the bed, reaching across to take KeRaad's hand. He winced a little at the fragility of the slender bones. With a twist of the Force, he was out of his body and into hers, the transition almost effortless, not like the bitter struggle to seize his clone's body. The Sith, barely conscious, having no idea what was happening to him, had still fought desperately against Maul's brute-force assault on his shields. //But he lost,// thought Maul with satisfaction.

Maul drew on the training bond to lead him to KeRaad, a faint spark in the Force, growing fainter even as he followed the link to make contact with her...there. He had her, held her life in the palm of his hand. Her connection to her body had become so frail; the least effort of will would cast her into the void, or extinguish her completely...

...and he would be free. Free as he had never been before, who had first been enthralled to his Master, then imprisoned in a maimed body, then shackled unwillingly to this child, so much weaker than he, too weak to be a worthy successor...

...but strong enough for him to use, to seize, to assimilate, adding her small strength to his own, strength he would need in the inevitable confrontation with his Master...

Obi-Wan need never know. The child was nearly gone already. They had known he might not be able to retrieve her. It would be easy to take what was before him, return and tell the Jedi it had been too late. Return and reclaim his life, strengthened, freed, for the first time truly free.

A memory surfaced momentarily. //I trust you.// Obi-Wan, offering him his body.

//You shouldn't,// he had replied. //Don't make me that offer again.//

Now here was a better offer. Everything he had lost was now restored. And there was more for the taking.

//Padawan,// he called.

//Master?// came the faint response.

//Come.//

He sensed her approach along the training bond that chained them together. Tentative, cautious. //Is he gone?//

//He's gone,// Maul answered, poised for the sudden strike that would free him, nourish him as her essence dissolved into his. //Come back to me,// he called. He felt her shields fading, her spirit unfolding to reoccupy her body. Defenseless. Trusting. //My young apprentice--// he said, almost fondly, reaching for her.

With a wrench Maul slammed himself back into his own body and drew a harsh, horrified breath. So close. He was that close to becoming everything he had hated, raged against, for so many years. He sat up and looked at the medical readouts; they were turning a reassuring green. KeRaad's pulse, respiration and brain activity were all returning to normal.

//Khameir?// Obi-Wan's mind-voice mirrored the concern on his face.

//Look after her,// Maul said. //I--// Unable to continue, he fled to the solitude of his room.

A few minutes later he felt Obi-Wan's presence outside his door. //Khameir? May I come in?//

//Are you alone?//

//Yes.//

//All right.//

Maul sat with his back to the door, head in hands. He did not look around as Obi-Wan entered.

"What happened, Khameir?"

Maul pondered the question, or his answer, for a long time. "I nearly killed her."

"Why?"

"See for yourself." Maul lowered his shields. Obi-Wan was silent for a time. Finally he crossed the distance between them and put a hand on Maul's shoulder. Maul could feel the effort it took him, the instinctive revulsion he had to overcome.

"It's never over, is it, Obi-Wan?" he said wearily. "It's never the last time."

"No," said the Jedi. "The potential for evil is always there. The potential for evil is the potential for good. There can't be a final victory."

"I was afraid you'd say that." Maul rubbed a hand across his forehead. "Is she all right?"

"Hurt, exhausted, and confused, but yeah, she'll be all right."

"If the Force will just protect her from her master."

Obi-Wan hugged him. "Come on. She needs to see you. She's in the galley getting something to eat and getting reacquainted with Qui-Gon and Mace." Maul got up slowly and followed Obi-Wan out the door.

Before they reached the galley, something hit Maul like a ton of masonry. His first thought was that there had been a hull breach. Then he realized that whatever it was wasn't physical at all, it was in the Force. He heard KeRaad scream. Ahead of him Obi-Wan cried out, stumbled and grabbed the wall for support. The two of them staggered into the galley.

Maul caught KeRaad in his arms as she hurled herself at him, tears streaming down her face. Qui-Gon was clutching at the table to keep from falling, Mace hanging on to him.

"Master?" said Obi-Wan. He sounded very young and very, very frightened.

"Coruscant," Qui-Gon groaned. His eyes were huge and dark, his face ashen. "The Jedi. They're gone. All of them."

***

"The Temple and the Academy were completely wiped out," Qui-Gon said. He had spent the past several hours trying to contact informants in various places. "We'd been quietly getting as many of the students off Coruscant as we could, but I think we still lost over three-quarters of them. And most of the instructors. As far as organization is concerned, there is no Jedi Order."

"What about the Council?" asked Mace. He was having trouble keeping his voice steady.

"The only one I know about for sure is Adi Gallia. She got out. I suspect Yoda did too. Even after all the years I spent as his padawan, I still can't tell whether he's a total lunatic or just incredibly cagey. All that crying "Sith" may have been camouflage for his plans to save as many of us as he could." He sighed. "There was an attack on the Senate too, but most of the delegates escaped. Palpatine implicated Valorum in the attacks and called for his impeachment. What's left of the Senate is debating it now. It's only a matter of time before he gets control and declares martial law."

Obi-Wan wasn't participating in the discussion. He sat quietly, looking down at his clasped hands on the table. Maul put a hand on his shoulder.

//You okay?//

//No.//

//Can I get you anything?//

//Glenfiddich. Lots of it.//

//You got it.// Maul looked up at KeRaad. "You are hereby named designated driver," he said. "Qui-Gon, come help me carry the bottles."

"Where should I take us, boss?" KeRaad asked.

"Take us to the Callodas system," said Obi-Wan.

***

Maul found KeRaad on the bridge several hours later. She sat in the captain's chair, contemplating the hyperspace patterns on the viewscreen. "How are you?" he asked quietly.

"I'm okay," she answered. "How's Obi-Wan?"

"He's asleep. Mace and Qui-Gon have gone to bed." He stood beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. She leaned her head on his chest with a sigh. He smelled of whiskey, but if he was drunk she couldn't tell.

"I'm sorry I left you," Maul offered.

"It's all right," KeRaad said. "He needed you more than I did."

There was a small silence.

"KeRaad..." Maul said after a while, "I wanted to guard Obi-Wan's body for him while he was fighting the Force-ghost. I couldn't do it. The training bond forced me to take care of you instead."

KeRaad turned to look up at him. "I'm sorry, boss. I know you didn't choose this."

"I'm sorry too. I'm not exactly the ideal master. All my training was aimed at two goals: destroying the Jedi and killing my own master so I could take his place. I don't have much to offer you."

"I don't regret being your apprentice, boss. But I would free you if I could."

"I don't want you to, KeRaad. Not till I cut off that braid because you can kick my ass."

She laughed shakily. "Yoda should live so long. Wherever he is."

***

The following evening, with the Mindful in a cometary orbit around the Callodas system, the three Jedi, Maul and KeRaad sat down to a late dinner in the galley.

"I like the name of your ship," said Qui-Gon. "Very Jedi."

"Mindfulness is also a Sith teaching," Maul commented.

"So what are you going to name yours?" asked KeRaad.

"How about the Patient?" said Mace.

"Not bad. Also very Jedi, and a virtue that comes with age," said Qui-Gon with a slight smile.

"No, man, I mean like she needs a doctor," said Mace. Qui-Gon glared at him.

The Mindful's proximity alarm sounded. "Oh, FUCK!" said KeRaad. "Why does this always happen at mealtimes?" She dashed for the bridge, followed closely by Maul and the others.

The viewscreen showed a sleek, predatory black craft streaking towards them. "One vessel, boss, shielded and coming in fast. Shields up," KeRaad commented, hands busy with the controls. "Guns targeted. Hail 'em."

"Approaching vessel, this is the Mindful," said Maul from the copilot's station, with the Growl and the Glare both at full force. "Change course to avoid intercept and identify yourself or get a new viewport."

"It's nice to see you too, Maul," said an amused voice, as Darth Mary Sue appeared on the Mindful's viewscreen. "I see you've made some progress since we last met."

"They're veering off and slowing down, boss," KeRaad reported.

"Mary Sue! You made it!" Obi-Wan was grinning triumphantly.

"Good to see you, bro," Mary Sue responded. "Just for the record, this is the Bitch Queen, I'll skip the registration 'cause it's not legal anyway, I have a crew of one and one passenger, and I'd like permission to dock with you, Mindful."

"Granted," said Maul. "Aft airlock is at your service."

Mary Sue strode aboard the Mindful as if she owned it (which at one time she had), wearing a characteristic black leather outfit accented by a very uncharacteristic blaster holstered on her right leg. She hugged Obi-Wan, nodded to the others, and turned back towards the airlock as a tall figure entered.

"Some of you already know my passenger and new business partner. Former Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum, meet KeRaad, Maul, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master Mace Windu, and Master Qui-Gon Jinn," said Mary Sue.

"Finis. It's good to see you," said Qui-Gon, smiling broadly.

"Likewise, Jinn. Exile seems to suit you."

"Actually, it has its good points."

"We were just sitting down to dinner," said KeRaad, mindful of her duty as captain. "Would you like to join us?" As if that had been her cue, a small striped cat sauntered through the airlock door and wound herself around Mary Sue's ankles.

"Break out a can of tuna, KeRaad," said Maul. //My Apprentice, this is your successor. No hard feelings, I hope.//

The grey-and-white cat washed her butt at him. //There's no accounting for taste,// she sniffed disdainfully. //Besides, Mary Sue treats me better than you ever did. And she gives much better skritch than that Master of yours.//

***

The Patient, the Mindful, and the Bitch Queen rested side-by-side in the short, dry grass, somewhere on the Western Steppes of Callodas Three.

Obi-Wan and KeRaad were sitting on a large granite outcrop. My Apprentice sunned her belly nearby.

"This is not going to be easy for you, KeRaad," said Obi-Wan.

"No," agreed KeRaad. "It's funny. The way he looks and sounds now bothers me a hell of a lot more than finding out he used to be a Sith. Don't get me wrong--I'm not in love with him. Just plain old hormone-crazed lust. My concentration's shot all to hell, and I can't relax around him. And it'll be a hell of a long time before this braid gets cut off. If ever. I started too late."

"Believe me, I understand the attraction--and the difficulty. But KeRaad, even so, I think it's right that the two of you ended up together. It's not easy, but it's right."

"I know what you mean. 'There are no coincidences.' I'm not much of a padawan, and he's no Jedi, but the Force says he's my master and that's it." She sighed. "I'm glad you're with us, too, Obi-Wan. I wanted to be your padawan, you know. When I first met you I thought you were the finest thing I'd ever seen. I still think you're the second finest."

Obi-Wan snorted. "Oh, yeah, I remember how awed you were. 'That's stupid, I already knew that.' 'Can I see your laser sword?' 'If you've got a master, doesn't that make you a slave?'"

KeRaad laughed. "Was I really that bad?"

"Worse," said Obi-Wan firmly. "Khameir richly deserves you. It's probably a form of penance for all his evil deeds when he was a Sith."

***

Qui-Gon and Maul were setting up a sensor perimeter around their landing spot.

"Did Obi-Wan ever tell you how he ended up as my padawan?"

"No. I assumed you chose him the usual way."

"Oh no. My previous padawan turned to the Dark Side, tried to kill me, and started a civil war. After that I decided I'd never take another one."

"No shit? I thought the Sith had the patent on that. So how did you end up with Obi-Wan?"

"Well, you know he entered the Academy on probation, and nobody would take him as a padawan. Not surprising--he was right out of rehab, he looked like a psychotic, underfed little punk and he had a rap sheet as long as your arm. So Yoda decides that he and I both need to go to Bandomeer--Obi-Wan to enter the Agri-Corps and me to sort out a little turf war among mining interests. And of course by a total coincidence we end up on the same ship."

"Yeah, right. Let me guess. The two of you had to spend a lot of time together."

"Right. I knew what Yoda was up to, of course, and I tried like hell to stay away from the boy, but...well, eventually I realized I couldn't let him go. So I know what you're going through. Except in my case, after a few years I fell in love with him, which was stupid, embarrassing, and damned painful for both of us."

"Yeah. I'm hoping KeRaad just needs time to adjust to the new body, but I'm afraid it's not going to be that easy."

"Not to be discouraging, but if you think it's complicated now, wait till she's ready to take the Trials and you start to lose the training bond. You'll feel like your guts are being torn out, and at the same time you'll have this stupid grin on your face for days."

"Going to be difficult for her to take the Trials when she's not a Jedi."

"With no Jedi Council it would be difficult even if she were. The Force will manage somehow. It always does."

***

Mace, Mary Sue, and Valorum were adjusting the Bitch Queen's landing gear.

"I haven't seen Jinn look this happy since he was Knighted," said Valorum. "Closest he's come is when he took Obi-Wan as his apprentice. I would have thought he'd be devastated by all the deaths."

"He was," said Mace. "But you have to understand, this is what he's been waiting for ever since he was a Padawan. Him against the Dark Side, fifteen rounds, no clock, winner take all. The whole fucking galaxy's going to hell and he's right at home. No weed, no pills, he hardly even drinks anymore. He doesn't need it. And his energy--" Mace grinned ruefully. "If I'd known it would affect him like this I'd have contributed more to Palpatine's reelection fund."

"I'm glad somebody's happy," said Mary Sue darkly. "The only thing I'm getting out of this is seeing Obi quit pining for Maul. Finally."

"And the pleasure of going into business with me," Valorum added. "A business which, I might add, will be a lot more fun to build from the ground up under hostile conditions than to inherit from your late unlamented husband. Besides, unlike MacroStiff, this one will use your talents to the fullest. You deserve no less."

"Finis, you were wasted on the Republic," said Mary Sue.

Valorum gave her his best head-of-state bow. "Weren't we all," he said.

END

(11/30/99)

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