Sooooooo this one kinda got away from me, and many thanks to @norcumi for help and advice.
Obi-Wan is expelled from the Jedi Order at an even younger
age – he’s only ten when he gets in trouble for fighting. He’s shipped back to
Tatooine to live with his father and step-mother (and half-brother Owen?) Less than a year later, either the Tuskens or
the Hutts raid the Lars farm and Obi-Wan is the only survivor. He either escapes notice or gets away from
his captors while they’re returning to their home.
Obi-Wan tries to walk to help, since has no way of
communicating with anyone and no family to call. Half-dead from heat and dehydration, he ends
up in a cave, where he luckily finds a small pool of water. He also find an old human skeleton, picked
clean by time and scavengers. Clutched
in the skeleton’s fingers, still, is a small, red, crystalline pyramid. It
feels warm to the touch, and Obi-Wan, now shivering as the cold of a desert
night leeches the heat out of the air, takes it to cuddle up with in the little
indent he dug in the sand.
That night, Qui-Gon’s ghost wakes up for the first time in
centuries.
Quinlan has not felt this ill at what he knows in a long time. Not since Tholme brought him to the Temple. And even then, at least the worst of the cruelty had been death. Not. Not the things that lurked in the shadows of the complex where Jinn was being held, or even in the little shuttle they’d stolen from one of the smugglers who ran supplies to the moon the complex was on.
He shivers as he lands the shuttle at the Temple, glad it’s his job to come back and report to Windu, and not to stay on the moon with one of the others. Even if he’d had to stay in this shuttle so not to lose any time getting back, rather than abandoning it and taking commercial transports back to Coruscant the way they’d traveled to Mandalore.
As soon as the engines have cycled off, Quinlan bolts for the main hatch, barely giving the ramp time to begin to lower before he all but throws himself out of the shuttle. Ignoring the techs approaching him, even ignoring the waiting figure that he thinks is Windu, in favor of stumbling far enough away that he feels safe collapsing to his knees.
His stomach is heaving, though nothing comes up – Quinlan isn’t sure when he last ate, but it was before they’d stolen the shuttle. Several days, at least. It’s been hard enough to get himself just to drink water, much less to eat anything in the atmosphere of the shuttle.
Quinlan twitches when a hand is placed on his shoulder, reaching for his light saber before he aborts the motion. Holding very still until he’s sure he can look up without following the movement with a snatch at his weapon. Meeting Windu’s gaze with a small, apologetic smile.
“Will you be all right, Padawan Vos?” Windu’s voice is steady and calm, though Quinlan is almost certain there’s a thread of worry in his Force-presence.
“So long as I don’t have to get back in that shuttle or go back to the moon where Master Tholme and Master Rish found Master Jinn.” Quinlan would like to help with the rescue, but he doesn’t think he can go back there right now. Not without at least a week of being here, and there isn’t that much time. “I have coordinates. There’s something very wrong there, Master Windu.”
Something corrupted and cruel that makes him want to scrub the inside of his skull. Even the places he usually goes with Tholme, dark as they are, don’t feel like this.
Windu offers him a hand to help him to his feet, holding his steady when he sways, before frowning at him. “When is the last time you ate, Padawan?”
“A week ago?” Quinlan isn’t certain. “I’m supposed to give you a report, Master Windu.”
Windu shakes his head, and escorts Quinlan first to the commissary, making sure he eats a meal, before he’s willing to hear Quinlan’s report. In his office, so a little closer to a formal mission, now that they have a place to go looking. To go rescue Jinn from.
“I need you to go to Mandalore, and find where Master Jinn went missing from.” Mace looks at each of the three he’s called to his quarters to ask this for a long moment. “This is not a mission on the record.”
They’d have to inform the Senate, sooner or later, about the mission if it were to be an official one. Mace has a strong feeling that this would not be ideal, and for now, he can keep the mission off the books. Especially with those he’s chosen to ask.
“Do you want regular reports, or are we running silent until we have something to show for our trouble?” Vinris is watching her companions for this mission out of the corner of her eye, and Mace can feel her concern for taking a Padawan on this sort of mission. Even a Padawan who’s been following his Master into similar sorts of danger since he was cleared for field missions.
“Silent, I think.” Tholme lets a wry smile curl up the corner of his mouth a moment. “I don’t think it’s going to be safe to be known as Jedi going in, or to be talking to Jedi.”
Letting out a small chuff of laughter, Vinris tilts her head in acknowledgement.
Mace nods in agreement. “I want you to find out if there’s anything left there to tell you who or what took Master Jinn, and where he is. If you find him, report back before trying to rescue him.”
“We’ll send Quinlan back with what we find when we deem it better not to have a Padawan in the line of fire.” Tholme meets Mace’s gaze readily when Mace gives him an irritated glare. “You’re not going to stop us from rescuing Qui-Gon if we find him.”
“I don’t need to have three Jedi Masters missing.” Mace holds Tholme’s gaze, crossing his arms. “If you find him, don’t go charging in before you have backup.”
“That’s no fun.” Vinris grins when Mace turns his glare on her. “You asked us for a reason, Mace, and I doubt it’s for our investigative abilities.”
“Perhaps not, but I don’t have the resources to keep sending teams to rescue those who went before them.” Mace folds his hands into the sleeves of his robe. “Once you have located Master Jinn, I need to know how much backup to send to get him out.”
“What aren’t you telling us, Mace?” Tholme frowns a little when Mace shakes his head. “How bad is it?”
“I don’t know. All Kenobi and Kryze were able to say is it was cold, and they noticed nothing.” Mace would go himself, to see if there’s anything left of a shatter-point on Mandalore, but he can’t afford to leave right now. That much he’s certain of. But he can spare a Shadow, a Padawan with psychometry, and one of the more bloody-minded Jedi Masters he knows.
The frowns he gets from Vinris and Tholme about what little information there is about Qui-Gon disappearing echo his own feelings on the matter.
“You’ll leave tonight.” Mace stands, bowing slightly to them as they do the same. “May the Force be with you.”
There's a Mirror on the Wall 