Diverging Paths, Part IV

Diverging Paths, Part IV is the sixth chapter in the Re-Entry series. Published January 6th of 2005, it now contains 30,422 words with the anniversary edit that expanded scenes and added 11 pages of material. It takes place in 5199 and covers the time on Coruscant during The Phantom Menace.
== Summary ==
Perceptions can change in a day, lives can change in a night. All is well; creeping forth is the dark.
Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi are en-route to Coruscant in the Naboo royal starship after rescuing Queen Amidala and her retinue from the Trade Federation blockade. A detour to Tatooine for necessary repairs left Obi-Wan recovering from a spice overdose. Qui-Gon keeps Obi-Wan in a healing trance for most of the voyage, waking him only when they are waiting for their landing clearance at Coruscant, unaware that Obi-Wan had a task to complete before arrival.
Obi-Wan isolates himself in the observation lounge, entering a deep Force meditation. He methodically shields himself from outside influences, even temporarily blocking off his bonds with Qui-Gon, Anakin, Yoda, and Garen. In this state, he has a deeper perception of the Force, and clearer vision.  He finishes mediating and rejoins the others just in time for landing.  Qui-Gon immediately notices that Obi-Wan is furious about something, but the details are buried under a mass of chaotic thoughts. Obi-Wan asks him and Anakin to mimic that chaos in their own minds as a form of shielding, promising to explain when they are safely back at the Temple.
The entire party disembarks, finding Chancellor Finis Valorum and Senator Sheev Palpatine waiting for them.  Palpatine takes Amidala and her handmaidens to the Senate building, with Obi-Wan and Anakin providing extra security.  Qui-Gon is left with Valorum on the landing platform.  The two are old friends, and Valorum confides to Qui-Gon that he expects a vote of no-confidence to be called against him soon.  Qui-Gon is horrified, aware that the complaints are baseless and certain that Valorum is best-suited to deal with the Republic's current problems.  He advises Valorum to make a public statement about Naboo's plight and pledge the Chancelorship's full backing to resolving the crisis.
At the Senate building, Obi-Wan finds Amidala waiting alone for the Senate session to begin. She asks him for his opinions of Naboo's chances; he tells her candidly that the Trade Federation will likely tie the matter up in committee or in the courts for ages. Amidala tells him Palpatine has suggested she call for the election of a new Chancellor. Obi-Wan sees an opportunity to shift the course of events from his other life, and swiftly advises Amidala that a change in the Republic's leadership will have no effect on Naboo's situation.  He leaves her determined to consider other options.
Anakin meets him with the news that all the news feeds are covering the Naboo invasion non-stop. The two return to the Temple and join Qui-Gon at a debriefing.  The Jedi Council is reluctant to believe that the Sith could return without their knowledge, so Obi-Wan provides a demonstration, hiding himself in the Force so completely that no one can detect his presence. The Council is forced to reluctantly accept the truth of the Sith. Obi-Wan summarizes his other life's encounter with Darth Maul on Naboo, including his Knighting and Qui-Gon's death, but refuses to identify the Sith Master yet. He tells the Council that a construct is preventing anyone from learning that information; he has already told Qui-Gon, but the Master retained no memory of the conversation.
Qui-Gon finds himself wandering the Temple, unable to rest. He joins Luminara Unduli, Kit Fisto, and Jax Taun for a sparring session, defeating them all repeatedly. They tease him about his slow-developing romantic relationship with Obi-Wan and the Temple-wide betting pool that resulted, then leave him to clean up. While showering, the knowledge of his impending death crashes down on him, leaving him unable to think about anything else. Obi-Wan hears him through their pair-bond and comes to find him. They end up having sex in the training salle's communal showers, then retreat to Qui-Gon's quaters for an encore.
Obi-Wan dreams of a Dark figure -- not Maul -- killing Qui-Gon on Naboo, but the dream slips away on waking.
The next morning, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan wait for news on the Senate's decision with Micah Giett. Tahl is on Morous IV researching the Prophecy of the Chosen One, and Qui-Gon confesses to Obi-Wan that part of her interest was caused by Obi-Wan's midichlorian count suddenly jumping from twelve point five thousand to twenty-two thousand. Obi-Wan has no idea what caused the change, but given the knowledge Tahl had previously found on the Prophecy's origins, speculates that there may be a third person with high midichlorian counts.
At lunch, Obi-Wan finds out that Anakin remembers more of Naboo. Anakin goes off to spend time with his age-mates and the younger members of the Falcon clan, shortly joined by Qui-Gon. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan is ambushed by his own age-mates, eager for first-hand news on Naboo. They congratulate him on finally getting together with Qui-Gon, but their converstion is interrupted by Depa Billaba calling Obi-Wan's comm.
Master Billaba is concerned because her friend Lofla Jil-Hyra, former Creche Master, has not appeared for a scheduled appointment with the Mind Healers. She asks for Obi-Wan's help in searching for Jil-Hyra. Obi-Wan's friends offer to help as well, and they meet Depa at Jil-Hyra's quarters. Inside, the reek of the Dark Side is strong. Obi-Wan traces the Force and finds that Jil-Hyra has been coerced.
Between Abella's nose and Obi-Wan's Force-sense, they track Jil-Hyra to the oldest layers of the Temple, near Coruscant's forgotten surface. When they find her, she is distraught and rambling, holding something in her hands. She says "He gave it to me," and activates the detonator. Depa strikes her down with a lightsaber, but too late. Bombs planted on each of the support pillars go off. Obi-Wan grabs the pillars with the Force before they can collapse. He sends the others to evacuate the damaged section of the Temple, promising to hold it until everyone is out.
In the creche, Anakin and Qui-Gon are struck by a wave of premonition just before something explodes and the floor drops several centimeters. Anakin leads the Falcon clan out of the building while Qui-Gon joins Terrilanar in searching for younglings elsewhere in the creche. Jedi from all over the Temple converge on the creche tower to help rescue efforts. Mace Windu rescues the Zabrak boy Tuuvino, realizing only after they reach safety that the boy is meant to be his Padawan.
Qui-Gon and Quinlan Vos bring out the last three children, including Obi-Wan's A.L.T. student Sia'me, just in time for the entire tower to collapse in on itself. While the Healers treat them for smoke inhalation, Qui-Gon checks on Anakin and Obi-Wan through their bonds. Anakin is well and helping with the younger children, but Obi-Wan does not respond, so Qui-Gon goes looking for him.
He finds Obi-Wan beneath the destroyed creche, unconscious and lying beside the body of Jil-Hyra. The ceiling is cracked under the weight of debris, but holding. Qui-Gon carries Obi-Wan to safety and puts an oxygen mask on him, then retrieves Jil-Hyra's corpse. By the time he returns, Obi-Wan is coming around.
Obi-Wan is relieved to hear no one else died, but blames himself for not preventing the bombing. Qui-Gon tells him Jil-Hyra made her own decisions, but Obi-Wan rejects that. He touches Qui-Gon's mind and tears away a Darkness that had been blocking his senses, revealing a blood-red veil in the Force covering the entire planet. It has been present for years, cloaking the Jedi's ability to read the Force and making everyone forget or disregard certain things the Sith wished to keep hidden. Obi-Wan reveals that the Sith lord is on Coruscant and well-known to the Jedi Council, yet has managed to remain completely hidden.
Depa, Mace, Micah, and Quinlan find them. They discuss the disposition of Jil-Hyra's body and where to house the homeless Initiates. Eventually they agree to double-up in available quarters; Quinlan and his padawan Aayla will bunk with a friend (implied to be a lover, probably Jude Rozess), Obi-Wan and Anakin will stay with Qui-Gon, and so forth. The vacated rooms can be turned over to the children and their caretakers.
The Temple bombing replaces the Naboo blockade as the main subject of the newsfeeds.
On Morous IV, Tahl is shown a document purported to be the original Prophecy of the Chosen One, in Master Abhin Sal-Tur's own hand. But Tahl finds the writing to be crude and the parchment too thick compared to other known works of Sal-Tur. She enquires about the provenance; the librarians Kerin and Beryl tell her it was given to the library personally by one of Master Sal-Tur's descendants, a thousand years ago. Tahl knows that Sal-Tur, though generally identifying as male, was in fact a sterile neuter third gender, and thus had no descendants. She asks for the document to be chemically dated, and for any records of its arrival. Viewing the recording through Bant's eyes, Tahl recognizes the figure in Jedi robes delivering the document, and knows the Prophecy is a lie.
==Series Arcs==
===Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan===
Qui-Gon admits to three other Jedi that he has been trying to start a relationship with Obi-Wan, but keeps getting interrupted.  Shortly afterwards, Obi-Wan finds him in a communal shower and they have sex for the first time.  Obi-Wan admits he's loved Qui-Gon since waking up after Taro Tre the first time around, and Qui-Gon responds that he's known since Obi-Wan found Jawa the snake after Kelin VI.  Qui-Gon asks Obi-Wan to move in.
===Obi-Wan & Anakin===
Obi-Wan learns that Anakin's memories of Naboo are coming clearer. He regrets Anakin having such a burden, but Anakin tries to reassure him.
===Prophecy of the Chosen One===
Qui-Gon and Micah confess to Obi-Wan that Tahl has been researching the Prophecy for years, and bring him up to date on her findings.  On Morous IV, Tahl discovers that the Prophecy was a forgery.
===Conflict with Sidious===
Obi-Wan is able to talk Amidala out of calling for Valorum's resignation, thus preventing Palpatine from becoming Chancellor.  Likewise, the Jedi Council is more swiftly persuaded of the Sith's return by Obi-Wan's intervention.
Sidious manipulates Jil-Hyra into blowing up the Jedi Creche.
===Obi-Wan's Nightmares / Memory Block===
Obi-Wan dreams of someone other than Maul killing Qui-Gon on Naboo, but cannot remember the dream on waking.
===Ways of the Old Jedi===
Obi-Wan demonstrates a technique for completely hiding oneself in the Force.
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