Water

And then in his mind's eye Qui-Gon threw back his head, and the Force vortex consumed him, tightening around his feet, roaring up through his body and out through his hands, crackling out over the sinking top of the slowly dispersing tower and arcing across the sky, plunging into the water and lacing into the ravaged reef.

He could feel the poisons breaking down, dissipating into harmless organic molecules, the tiny corals suddenly bursting with life, reproducing at a fantastic rate, the water temperature fluctuating rapidly to encourage the burst of life. A dozen years' worth of it. Twenty. Fifty. A hundred. The reef bloomed and swelled with life. Elsewhere he could feel the seatrees growing also, the smaller vegetable plants, the fading poisons. He was green, leaves and air reaching for the light, he was pale white and deepest rose, his tiny mindless self striving to answer that irresistible call. He was Qui-Gon, with the sense of the billion lives he touched roaring through him on the tide of the Living Force. It was out of control but irresistible, inexorably eroding away mind and thought even as the power ebbed and fluttered to a trickle, the mass of it dispersed into the reef and rippling back out into the ecosystems from which he had drawn it.

Obi-Wan opened his eyes, shaken, and banked his craft about. In the crisis of the moment he'd overshot by a few hundred yards, following the Force toward the healing reefs, but he could see the sandbar now and the other hoverboat. He eased his craft in until it scraped the sand and then leaped out, racing through the ruffled waters to the crumpled heap that lay unconscious there, pale skin shining in the golden sunlight. The tide had receded and Qui-Gon lay on a narrow spit of wet, exposed sand, his long hair soaked and tumbling into the nearby water, lapped out like trailing seaweed by the waves. His skin was cool and almost clammy to the touch. Shock. Obi-Wan thumbed open an eyelid, found the older man's pupils shrunk to pinpoints, unresponsive.

Damn.

Obi-Wan struggled to lift the massive, awkward length of body. Sand clung to Qui-Gon's bare skin and his hair hung down to trail in the water, dripping as Obi-Wan wrestled him to the hoverboat and managed to bundle him in.

He draped Qui-Gon's own clothes over the wet, chilled form, disregarding the water in the bottom of the boat, and climbed in himself, reaching gently to the older man's mind. Shock, deep green shock. Almost no flicker of identity, of memory. The reef, and the Force. They had consumed him.

Obi-Wan reached deeper, but he did not have the anchor of a bonding with the Master, and had little knowledge of him to reach for or rely on. Desperate, he summoned the mental picture of the dead boy from the riots, of Qui-Gon's sorrow, of Obi-Wan's hand on his shoulder. He felt the faintest flicker of recognition, then weariness, and Qui-Gon sank fully beyond reach, night falling over his mind gently.

Hope surged in him; the shock might wear off, given careful treatment and complete rest.

Obi-Wan felt the sun paling and looked up to find that streamers of mist were sweeping in, probably generated by the abruptly-changing temperature of the waters over the reef. A wide fogbank was encroaching, with angry-looking clouds above it. He judged he had perhaps a quarter of an hour before the storm hit.

Obi-Wan frowned down at Qui-Gon. He needed warmth quickly; it was at least an hour's rough journey back to land. While the fog should not be troublesome to a Jedi, the storm was another thing entirely. Obi-Wan was not at his best in a marine environment; he'd had little experience with boats and navigating, and now he was not being led by Force currents. His eyes fluttered indecisively back to the Jedi Master, then to the storm. A stab of crimson lightning suddenly decided him, driving into the water perhaps a mile away. They had to get back to the land and find shelter.

He vaulted out of the boat, catching his own craft and tying it securely to the stern of Qui-Gon's. Jumping back in, he eased the boat back from the bar and opened the throttle, making full tilt for the bay.

The first fat raindrops fell ten minutes later, and Obi-Wan stopped briefly to tuck his own cloak around the still form of the unconscious Jedi Master for what little protection it might offer. The waves were rolling their craft hard by the time he finished and he set out obliquely. They wouldn't be able to put in at the city.

Rain stung him as they set out again on a different tack, catching the waves headlong instead of sideways. Obi-Wan winced at each rough jolt, but held their speed. He didn't want to weather the lightning exposed on the bay, and he didn't have skill enough with the Living Force to influence such a strong, unnaturally-caused storm.

He confused the crash of breakers with the rolling of thunder and nearly turned the boat over in the surf, coming in too quickly. Though one of the hoverboats rolled, the weighted one ground to a halt upright, rain half-blinding Obi-Wan as he groped to pick up the Jedi Master and stumbled out onto the beach, abandoning the small craft. He had to find shelter for the man as fast as possible, but there was little to be had amongst the dune grasses and shrubby bushes.

He laid Qui-Gon down under one of the larger bushes and trotted back to the boat, retrieving the rest of the man's clothing and rolling it into a wad that he could stuff down the front of his tunic. He thrust the heavy boots into the side of his belt and returned to the pitiful shelter of the dripping, lashing bush, wincing as thunder exploded in his ears. He lifted Qui-Gon again, heading for an outcrop of cliffs he'd spotted through a lull in the rain.

There were no overhangs or caves, but Obi-Wan chose a stone that provided a lee from the wind and hurried back to the beach. The waves were battering the boats together, but he managed to muster Force enough to drag one onto the sand and set all his muscle power into dragging it up the beach. The wet sand clung, making it heavier, trenching beneath the boat's weight, and Obi-Wan finally had to use Force to half-levitate it, stumbling back to the cliffside where he'd laid the unconscious Jedi Master.

"You won't appreciate this a bit, will you," he gasped in Qui-Gon's direction, sweat pouring off him with the rain, the faint salt of it stinging his eyes. "I should have found us a mansion and a seven course meal, with deep feather mattresses..." He heaved, tipping the boat up against the top of the stone, "... and a fireplace!" He shoved at the heavy craft, trying to push its far side up against the cliff to brace it where it would stay. "... and warmed slippers for your feet. So you could say they weren't the right size, and refuse to wear them." He finally succeeded, and leaned against the hull for a moment, gasping, sweeping water out of his eyes.

He dropped to his knees and crept under the boat, dripping. "And then you'd look at me like you couldn't decide whether you hate me or want to devour me." He suddenly felt tears stinging in his eyes. "And you'd turn your back on me and wouldn't talk for the rest of the evening, no matter what I said." He shouldered out of his cold, wet clothing. Qui-Gon was still bare inside the water-resistant cloaks, which were damp but far drier than anything else the two men possessed.

"If you've destroyed your mind, will that be my fault too? Because you were in disharmony after our last words?" Obi-Wan bit his lip, opening the cloaks and slipping in next to Qui-Gon to warm him, twining arms and legs around the big, still body. "Was I responsible for your weariness, your pride?" He cradled the larger man sadly. "I could have strengthened you, you know. Anchored you, fed you energy to control the Force, but you went alone, you wouldn't ask, wouldn't accept my apology or my friendship." He was babbling, trying to distract himself from the solid body in his arms, pressed against him all the way down.

"What does someone have to do to be good enough for you, Qui-Gon Jinn?" Obi-Wan looked into the pale, still face, all the rejection of his childhood rising to choke his heart. There was no answer; the lids and their long lashes never even fluttered, the pulse beneath the waxy, clammy skin remained slow and thready.

Obi-Wan laid his cheek against the wet beard, feeling sand grate uncomfortably between their faces and bodies. He summoned Force, warming himself and feeding the gentle warmth into the larger man's body. Their cloaks steamed faintly, lightning burst in actinic flares around them and the thunder jarred the boat and the cliff face against which they lay. Obi-wan ignored it, quietly repaying a favor in kind, despairing of ever coming to know the man whose body he held pressed to his own.

--To be continued in Elements II: "Earth"--

Questions, comments to Lilith Sedai (lilith_sedai@hotmail.com)