Star Wars Fic and Meta - From All The Spaces Between Times - Chapter 23

[elrhiarhodan]

Title: From All The Spaces Between Times
Chapter: Chapter 23 - Memories of Another Life, Effaced
Author: elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan
Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars - Obi Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars - Jedi Apprentice Books
Characters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Quinlan Vos, Professor Huyang, The Force, Plo Koon, Vokara Che, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Bant Eerin, Bruck Chun, Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added
Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, eventual Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (but not for a long while)
Word Count: ~ 5100 this chapter
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: Author Chooses Not To Use Warnings/Ratings

Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has never known it, but he has always been the Force’s Champion, destined to suffer infinite sadness in defense of the Light. On his last turn on the wheel, responsibility for The Chosen One, the false child of prophecy, had been thrust upon him with no warning, and Darkness held the upper hand.

But this time, the Force has marshaled its power and will protect its Champion until the time is right, no matter how long Obi-Wan has to wait and how much he has to suffer.

Or,

Obi-Wan is reborn as a twelve-year old.

He wakes up on a slavers’ ship, with all of his prior life’s memories intact, and he’s bound for Tatooine with a Force-inhibitor collar around his neck, a bomb implanted in his spine, and no way of knowing what state of the Galaxy is in.

Just another day in the life of the Force’s Champion.

Chapter Summary: There are three things that Bruck Chun knows about himself, he’s going to be a damn good Jedi Healer, he barely knows which end of a lightsaber to hold, and he’s the sweetest, kindest, easiest boy-whore currently wearing a gold senior padawan bead.

He’s not going to do anything to jeopardize his position in the Order, but there’s something about Obi-Wan Kenobi - a/k/a Padawan Mysterious, Padawan Delicious, Padawan Perfection - that just makes his head spin.

Not that he’s going to throw his good judgment out the window, it’s just, well, all that lovely red hair and those freckles. And those muscles. And that ass.

Mmmm.

---

From All The Spaces Between Times - Chapter 23 - Memories of Another Life, Effaced (On AO3)

---

Meta - Chapter 23 - Memories of Another Life, Effaced

As always, I am deeply grateful for all the love you’ve given this story, the outpouring of comments on the last chapter - the guessing on where the story is heading - makes me so very happy.


Progress has improved this week - about five thousand words. I worked through some issues on pacing and got my thoughts in order for the end of the monster that is Book III. I am still thinking about taking a few weeks off from posting after Chapter 27, which is the end of Book II. I will keep everyone posted. I see a new doctor tomorrow - I’m not sure if she’ll be able to do anything for me, but I’m hoping, maybe?

218,336 words, 42 chapters

---

Couple of things in this chapter. We get our first real look at one of the premier villains in the Star Wars Legends universe, Xanatos du Crion, Qui-Gon Jinn’s second padawan. He had Fallen, become a Dark Jedi, ruined Qui-Gon, made Obi-Wan’s early padawan years miserable, was responsible for the death of Bruck Chun, and left a lingering stain on the Order.

Just as I resurrected and reformed Bruck, I’ve done the same with Xanatos.

I’ve kind of fallen in love with my ace Master Healer Xan. I hope you do, too.

There’s a lot more of him coming up in the next few chapters.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

When you’re writing a long and complex story, often there are scenes that just don’t work out. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, it’s just a few paragraphs. Other times, those scenes are long and involved and it could take days before you realize you’ve gone in the wrong direction.

Chapter 23 featured one of those scenes. Originally, Bruck and Obi-Wan were going to have lunch, and Bruck was going to lay it on thick.

It didn’t work. So I cut it out and saved it for just this purpose, to share in a meta. I hope you like this look inside my garbage can.

Obi-Wan is amused. It’s a welcome feeling amongst his worry about Qui-Gon.

Obi-Wan dresses, sends a message to Master Nu about a tour of the Archives this evening, sometime after six, and heads down to the Halls of Healing. He doesn’t have particularly fond memories of this part of the Temple. As a padawan, he’d spent too much time there, recovering from one injury or another. And then all of the times with Anakin, either as a young padawan, or after the Clone Wars had begun. Not to mention all of the friends he’d visited there, all of his comrades he’d bid farewell to as their lights faded.

And the massacre. No, Obi-Wan does not want to think about that.

Obi-Wan clears his throat.

"Oh, my apologies. I didn’t see you come in. How can I assist."

"I’m meeting Padawan Bruck Chun for mid-meal. Can you please let him know that Obi-Wan Kenobi is here."

The padawan smiles, flashing his fangs. "You’re already on the list, but I’ll let him know you’re here."

"Thank you."

Obi-Wan rocks back on his boot heels, letting the serenity of the waiting room sink in. He doesn’t remember this place ever feeling so calm.

"Obi-Wan, you are right on time!" Bruck comes out, looking very … shiny. His white hair is combed to perfection, his blue tunics look like they’ve been steam-pressed, and if Obi-Wan isn’t mistaken, Bruck has something glossy coating his lips.

"It would be discourteous to be late, especially for such a kind invitation."

Bruck’s cheeks turn pink.

"Come on, let’s head back."

Bruck leads him through a bit of a maze, past administrative offices and laboratories, and down at the end of a long hallway is the Healers’ Commissary, facing out onto Processional Way. There’s a peaceful, almost hushed quality about the place.

"How lovely. I can understand why you’d prefer to take your meals here, rather than the General Zoo." Obi-Wan grins.

"Zoo is the right word for that place, especially during mid-meal. But the girls don’t want to waste have their free time getting down here and then getting back to their classes. I can understand that. I’m just glad you agreed to come down today."

"I won’t be starting any classes until the new semester - that’s not for another six weeks. So I have the time."

They line up for food and Obi-Wan has to admit that the options look a lot more appetizing than what’s usually on offer at the General Commissary. Not that he’d ever complain - he’d spent almost two decades living off of the minimal and disgusting foodstuffs that the Jundland Wastes of Tatooine had to offer. And the four years with Shmi weren’t much better, but at least he’d had company. And in the months after Anakin had taken Shmi to Naboo, Cyral had done her best to keep him fed.

Bruck leads him over to a table against the windows, and Obi-Wan lifts his face up to the warm sunlight.

"Don’t tell me you miss Tatooine?"

"Oh, certainly not. This is nothing like that hellscape - two suns, no clouds, no greenery. I just haven’t seen much of the sun lately. For all that I haven’t a class schedule yet, I still seem very busy."

"How is life as a Council Padawan?"

Obi-Wan shrugs. "It’s only been a day, and honestly, it’s not a bad job."

"I guess you can’t tell me anything about what goes on there."

"You guess correctly."

Bruck batts his eyelashes. "Nothing juicy about any of the Councillors?"

"Nope." Obi-Wan smiles at Bruck, to take the sting out of the terse reply.

"Okay, okay. I get it. It’s like the Healer’s Oath, confidentiality and all the jizz."

"Exactly." Obi-Wan figures it’s time to employ one of his best Negotiator tricks when needing to switch the subject. "But enough about me, tell me how you ended up in Healer Blue. Did you always have an affinity?"

But Bruck is about as interested in talking about himself as Obi-Wan is. "My story is boring, I’d really like to hear about you. You’re pretty amazing."

Obi-Wan winces, visibly. "I’m not amazing."

"Yeah, you are. You survived what shouldn’t have been possible."

"But aren’t Jedi supposed to do that? Survive?" Obi-Wan is so uncomfortable with the conversation, but there’s really no way around it. "It was hard, but I was lucky. The being that bought me was an old Toydarian. He had another slave, a middle-aged Human woman who was very kind to me. She taught me a lot about hope, and how to endure. And she also proved the adage about the Force moving in mysterious ways."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It turned out that she’s the birth mother to Anakin Skywalker - my master’s former padawan. She gave her son to a Jedi a few months after he was born. She always held onto the hope that her son thrived in his freedom and became a Jedi."

Bruck’s jaw drops and it takes a full minute for him to respond. "Talk about coincidences. That one is - " He shakes his head. "Epic. And I guess you’re right. The Force does move in mysterious ways."

---

And in the "blink and you might miss it" there’s a the brief return of the Saja Cat. Or maybe the Force talking like the Saja Cat.

ETA: I completely forgot that I meant to say something about The Book. It's wholly based on the book in the Ach-To Temple in The Last Jedi, and I "found" it when I fell down a rabbit hole while reading up on Dai Bendu, one of the Star Wars conlangs, and perhaps the most important conlang for Star Wars canon.

The rabbit hole took me to this article: The Sacred Texts: Manuscripts In Star Wars and Star Wars Fanfiction.

From there, I followed a link to the StarWars.com site, Inside the LucasFilm Archives - The Jedi Texts, which showed the book that was created for TLJ film.

I recreated that for this last scene in Chapter 23.



On the Dai Bendu pages on AO3, there is some discussion about the alphabet for the Dai Bendu language, and there has been no consensus about what to use. I have suggested using the script that appears on the Seeing Stone on Tython, but have gotten no response to my input.

This book will be important later on.


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


I hope you’re enjoying the story and I look forward to your comments, both here if you’re Dreamwidth members and on AO3.