Interruption

Title: Interruption
Author: Saydria Wolfe
Fandom: Star Wars
Genre: Fix-it
Relationships: Gen
Content Rating: PG
Warnings: Qui-Gon Jinn’s A+ Parenting
Author Notes: I have written so many variations of this fic lol but this is the first one I am publishing. I know as a reader when I find a concept I like I would read it approximately nine million times, each with the slightest variations so hopefully y’all can forgive me when the longer ones come out.
Word Count: 2,711
Summary: After returning from Tattooing and giving their mission report, Qui-Gon Jinn repudiates Obi-Wan Kenobi in favor of Anakin Skywalker in front of the High Council. There are consequences.

 

 

“The boy must be trained!” Qui-Gon Jinn repeated. Again. As if an increase in volume and conviction would give it more weight than the last ten times he had already said the same. Then, Master Jinn added, “He is the Ch—”

“Masters,” Obi-Wan Kenobi stepped forward abruptly. Mace would almost buy his mask of Jedi Serenity except his eyes were a touch too wide for it. “I hate to interrupt, but Anakin Skywalker is a boy. He is barely nine. Over the course of this week, he has left his home planet for the first time, leaving his family behind, and traveled through hyperspace for the first time with a crew of strangers. Now, he has stood under your scrutiny throughout our entire mission debrief, through your testing of him, and through the hour of mid-meal. Now, it is nearly time for late meal.

“He deserves a rest,” Kenobi concluded accurately. “Food, a shower, medical care to help him adjust from life on the Outer Rim to life in the Core. That he wasn’t given any of those before this meeting is thoughtless. At this point, his treatment is bordering on neglect.

“This is not what the Jedi Order is.”

“Padawan Kenobi is entirely correct,” Plo Koon agreed immediately. “I put forth the motion that the senior padawan and I be excused to see to the youngling’s needs and comfort.”

“I second the motion,” Mace responded as Master of the Order. “All those in favor?”

“Aye,” Adi Gallia, Kit Fisto, Depa, and Shaak Ti agreed aloud.

The rest either agreed silently through the Force or remained silent in all possible ways. No one was going to vote against taking care of a child, no matter that child’s status within the Order.

“The motion carries,” he concluded. “Master Koon?”

Plo Koon stood, bowed to the rest of the council and offered the youngling a clawed hand. Skywalker did not have to be told to slip out of Jinn’s grasp and take it. Kenobi didn’t, either. He turned so he would not naturally see his Master’s face, and joined the other two, taking the hand young Skywalker offered.

“What would you like first, youngling?” Plo Koon asked Skywalker as they exited the room. “A visit to the healer? A chance to get clean? Or some food?”

“Can the healer take out my slave chip?” the kid asked eagerly.

Mace had to breathe slowly as the door closed. He couldn’t tell if it was the spike of rage or the cracking of a shatterpoint that did it, but he suddenly had an extremely potent headache.

“Left out pertinent information, you did,” Master Yaddle chastised Jinn by far too gently in his opinion.

The Order had special rules for Freed joining their ranks. Every master was supposed to know them, though Jinn clearly didn’t. If he had, he would have turned the child over to the Freed Creche the moment they entered the Temple so the boy could be acclimated properly. He certainly wouldn’t have argued over the boy’s fate with the High Council when there was no need.

“The boy must be trained,” Jinn said. Again. “He is the Chosen One—” Mace understood then why Kenobi had so uncharacteristically interrupted his master. No child deserved the burden of a prophecy. “—and I am the best choice to train him.”

As if they would allow a Freed child to be trained by someone that had never been forced to live in chains. Maybe that was the real reason Jinn had not turned the boy over to the Freed Creche; an attempt to ensure he could train the boy. Mace shook his head. The man was called the Maverick but he could think of a dozen more fitting epithets for the man.

Unfortunately, more than half of them were vulgar.

“Have a padawan learner already, you do,” Yoda reminded Jinn.

“Kenobi is ready for his trials,” Jinn said dismissively.

“Not your choice, that is,” Yoda told him.

Which implied Kenobi was not ready for his trials, Mace frowned at the Grand Master of the Order. Nearly half of the Council had been trying to wrestle Kenobi free of Jinn for some time. His knightly trials had been their tactic of choice for more than two years. They had all agreed Kenobi was ready for them.

“Very well.” Jinn closed his eyes.

Mace felt Jinn call up the Force but could not feel what the other was doing. He had to be working with something behind his shields.

Like his bond with his padawan.

“Don’t do something you can’t take back, Master Jinn,” he warned.

“It is done.” Jinn opened his eyes. “I formally repudiate Senior Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi. He is no longer my student, nor is he welcome in my lineage.”

That was a shatterpoint. Mace had to sit back in his chair and breathe through it.

“Very well,” Master Yoda hopped out of his chair. He grunted his way over to face the Council at Jinn’s side. “Two counts of Repudiation, my line holds. Two counts of felony child abuse that is by the laws of the Jedi Order. No longer Grand Master of the Order, am I. Recalled and remanded to the Healing Halls, all members of my line must be, for examination by mind and soul healers.”

Jinn was visibly taken aback. “Grandmaster?”

“Surprised, you are?” Yaddle asked. “Doing your continual training, you must not be.”

Wordlessly, Mace hit the button to summon two squads of Temple Guards. “By my authority as Master of the Order, all lineage members within three degrees of Qui-Gon Jinn are hereby remanded into Temple custody until each individual member is cleared of all malice and rehabilitated or appropriately punished for the two counts of extreme felony child abuse on their line.

“Your lightsabers, please.”

Before Jinn could react, Yoda lept. When the green goblin settled back on the ground, he had both of their lightsabers in hand and Mace called them into his grasp.

The most unfortunate thing about the entire situation was that Master Dooku Aserenno was on a long-term undercover mission investigating the corruption of the Senate. He would have to be recalled—the laws regarding child abuse specifically stated that no exceptions could be made on any line with more than one count of repudiation.

All the time and energy the Shadow Network had spent getting Master Dooku into place would be lost.

Then Mace considered Kenobi’s likely reaction to this matter and re-evaluated.

The lost undercover time was the second most unfortunate thing.

-*-

“You do not use water to get clean!” the boy, Skywalker, challenged young Kenobi.

It did Plo’s heart good to see such fire in the lad. Though it also worried him. Fire—rebellion—was not a safe trait for a slave to have. How much had young Skywalker suffered in his short life because of his innate personality?

“We do!” Kenobi assured their mutual charge.

“Show me!” Skywalker demanded.

“Alright.” Kenobi gestured Skywalker to follow him and led the boy into the large fresher attached to the Healing Halls. “We have to take off our clothes first.”

“Take off our clothes?” Skywalker repeated, outraged. “What if they get stolen? How are they going to get clean if they don’t go in with us?”

Plo checked his pad as Kenobi explained the concept of a laundry service to young Skywalker and got the updates he had expected from the Council.

He had felt Kenobi’s spike of distress and discomfort in the lift before Kenobi had taken near-ruthless control of his own shields. Both he and Skywalker had felt Kenobi’s negative reaction but Kenobi could not be gently brought to speak of it, which had to be the reason Skywalker was involving the older lad so thoroughly in their current activities. Investment and distraction were the best tactics a nine-year-old could devise to offer comfort and it spoke well of Skywalker that he did not hesitate to commit to them fully.

Formal repudiation was a step farther than the majority of masters ever considered going. Most issues were dealt with in counseling with a grandmaster or a mind healer before they got that far along, but Qui-Gon Jinn had always been stubborn. He was like his grand master in that way. His master, however—

Plo checked the comm logs. There was no record that Master Dooku had reached out for either of his bi-quarterly mind healing sessions. Plo relayed that information through the Council’s work chat to Master Yaddle to see if he had made his check-ins. It was possible Dooku had gotten in over his head.

A lack of check-ins plus the issues with his line were justification to send all available Shadow teams to retrieve the man.

Master Dooku kept last check-in, Master Yaddle wrote, but it was before his missed MH sessions. Voice recording only. No data drops since check-in.

Plo frowned. That was…odd.

Activating retrieval protocol. Need second to ban padawans from retrieval.

Seconded, Plo provided immediately.

His second was quickly repeated by Masters Windu, Poof, and Piell.

If something had happened to Dooku, one of the foremost duelists in the Order, the mission to retrieve him could be very dangerous indeed. Children were too precious to risk on such an endeavor.

“And you’re sure we’re going to get our clothes back?” Skywalker was asking as he and Kenobi came back to where Plo was waiting.

“I am,” Kenobi agreed. “They’ll be clean and mended. You might not recognize your old clothes,” Kenobi teased with a grin.

Skywalker scoffed. “I always know my stuff.”

As strong in the Force as Skywalker had proven to be, he was likely right.

“If there is something dangerous within your belongings, they will not be returned,” Plo felt the need to correct. “For example, an explosive or a tracking device. If that is the case, the items will be replaced.”

Skywalker made a face but did not object.

“Shall we?” he gestured to the room the healers dedicated to the Freed creche used to see their patients. Both young men entered it at ease.

A young male twi’lek entered to room shortly thereafter. “I am called Qwastren Kez,” he said. He then signed a greeting in the silent language of the slaves that Plo pretended he didn’t see.

Skywalker signed back.

Interestingly, so did Kenobi.

“You are joining the creche?” Healer Kez asked Skywalker.

Skywalker was confused and immediately turned to Kenobi for help.

“He is,” Kenobi answered immediately. “M— Teacher Jinn retrieved him from Tatooine. I’m afraid I have few other details.”

Kez and Kenobi both turned to Skywalker.

“Master Jinn gave me my detonator.” Skywalker held up the small black control he had somehow hidden in his hand. “The med droid on the ship couldn’t take my chip.”

“It’s stock of supplies was surprisingly small for a royal ship,” Kenobi explained smoothly.

“Did you leave any family behind?” Plo had to ask.

“My mom,” Skywalker admitted sadly. “I hope she’s okay. She should be. Unless Watto sold her.”

Plo pulled out his pad to send Master Yaddle a second, more private message. “Let’s check on her.”

“Thank you—” Skywalker hesitated over what to call him.

“Teacher Plo, please.”

“Thank you, Teacher Plo.”

“I will need to do a full health scan to locate your chip and to ensure your health,” Healer Kez informed Skywalker.

The lad hesitated.

“He can scan me first,” Kenobi offered just before Plo himself could. “So, you can watch. It doesn’t hurt, I promise.”

The boy nodded, setting off a nod from the healer. “Allow me to call my assistant.” The healer opened the door to the healing room and a droid shuffled in.

Plo was not the only one to notice how Skywalker’s whole body lit up at the sight of the medical droid. It was common for Force-sensitive children to have an affinity for how the universe was put together that most commonly manifested in electronics and droid sciences. That affinity translating into comfort with droids was a common thread among Freed.

“If you would lay out on the second bed, Padawan Kenobi?” Healer Kez instructed.

The droid completed the scan quickly and the results left Plo breathless. The complete lack of care it showed being given to the young padawan left him furious beyond words.

Healer Kez shot him a knowing look and sent a copy of the scan to his pad without a word. The evidence of the neglect Kenobi was suffering from was certainly a concern for the High Council. Jinn would never be allowed another student or Plo would call for a schism himself.

“It seems, Padawan Kenobi, that you have a slave chip in you.”

Kenobi nodded, not surprised by the healer’s words. “Can you get it out? I couldn’t reach it or I—”

“Considering its placement relative to your spine, I would hope you wouldn’t try!” Healer Kez objected heatedly before physically taking a step back and taking a deep breath.

“How did you receive a slave chip without it being reported?” Plo had to know.

Kenobi lit up in his senses with an emotional response Plo could not identify. “It was in my mission report. The healing halls turned me away when I reported to have it taken out after mine and Master Jinn’s reports were accepted by the council. I,” Kenobi hesitated, “I thought that meant the High Council approved of Master Jinn selling me to,” Kenobi hesitated again, “to break up slaving rings.”

“We most certainly do not!” Plo said.

“Master Jinn sold an unbonded Stewjoni into slavery?” Healer Kez asked. “More than once?”

“Twice,” Kenobi confirmed, not looking at any of them. “The other times I was enslaved were kind of my fault.”

Padawan reports were submitted as a teaching tool so that the student had the time to learn how to submit a proper report and to get them in the habit of doing so. They were rarely ever read. Plo resolved to read Padawan Kenobi’s reports at the first opportunity to better understand what in the stars the young man had been put through under his watch.

“Master Jinn sold you?” Skywalker sounded devastated. “A Stewjoni? That sleemo!”

“Anakin,” Kenobi chided gently.

“No! You tell that—” Anakin made a hand gesture—Slave Master was the greatest insult that could be given in the language of the Freed “—that he can’t come near us! We don’t want him.”

“He won’t,” Plo promised. “Master Jinn is currently confined while his crimes are being investigated by the Council.” Which was true enough. Once his brothers and sisters of the Council had read Padawan Kenobi’s reports, there surely would be a full investigation into the Jinn-Kenobi pairing, starting from their first mission as a bonded pair to Bandomeer.

“The placement of your chip will require a surgery I am neither trained nor authorized to perform,” Healer Kez said, getting them back on track. “I can escalate it to one of our sibling healers to have it removed as soon as possible.”

Plo knew the twi’lek had used sibling to mean another Freed. He nodded encouragingly at Kenobi when the young man hesitated. “I would like that,” Kenobi admitted.

Healer Kez made a few simple gestures on the screen of his pad. “When was the last time you ate?”

“Breakfast?” Kenobi frowned. “Nine hours ago.”

“We can schedule you for three hours from now, then. Drink plenty of water but no solid food. You will be going under full anesthesia due to the location and depth of the implant. And you will be in bacta for at least an hour afterwards. Would you like there to be a scar on the site?”

“Yes, please,” young Obi-Wan looked both sick and relieved. Perhaps he was actually sick with relief.

Plo could not imagine walking around knowing there was an explosive in his body. Worse, thinking no one was willing to help him remove the explosive before it took his life.

Healer Kez turned to Skywalker. “Are you prepared to be scanned now?”

The boy nodded firmly and hopped up on the bed opposite Kenobi. “I want a scar when mine is removed, too.”

“You will have one,” Healer Kez promised.

 

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