#and who would be annoyed to be thrown to the council without his input

[husband-steve-cortez]

I do think it would be really fun if Ezra bonded with Kaidan over like.

He'd take such huge offense to Kaidan being shipped off to get abused by some Turian mercenary in an effort to make some sort of super soldier biotic, and while Kaidan is willing to write and rationalize it off and depersonalize the whole thing Ezra is not the type to let something like that go.

[msu82]

A Treasure of Light

Song: Light – Sleeping at Last Potential Trigger-Warnings: Brief mention of past-infant death. Mention of premature birth. (If there's anything I missed, let me know!) Other Info: Mylei is pronounced “May-Lee”, and Gens is pronounced “Jens” Also, I promise this ends happy! Just hang in through the angst that happens in the middle. I swear it ends happy! *salutes* The Teeny Padawan AU belongs to @markwatnae

He didn't know why the Force was calling him to a planet.

The Force rarely gives you things listen to without a reason, but it often did not give those reasons. Yet here he was! He was following the annoying prodding of the Force a few scant weeks after the most trying, traumatizing, stressing moment of his life on the otherwise beautiful planet of Naboo. No, not stupid prodding.,Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi ammended in his mind, as if to give a silent apology to what had created all things in the galaxy. It’s annoying, yes, but not stupid. I'm getting urged towards a planet for some reason, I'm just not sure what that is. The fact he was reason-less beyond having the Force urging him had created some contention among the Council, yet they'd allowed it. His padawan named Anakin Skywalker, on the other hand, had been a little less graceless in such a shaky cause.

Especially when the newly turned 10-year old had been told he couldn't come along.

It had made Obi-Wan feel guilty in ways he couldn't understand, for though the boy had all but thrown a tantrum it had been the desperation in it that had created the thick emotion in the adult. After a brief sit-down where the man explained it was for safety, for he knew not what the Force was leading him to, and he had also explained that it was rare for padawans younger than 12 to leave the Temple in a risky situation? Anakin had calmed enough by then to listen, but only after he had been physically held and had broken down from using his fists to just simply having his eyes tear in frustration. Apologizes made and comforts given, Obi-Wan had left the next day with a promise to maybe bring the boy back a small, secondary birthday present from the world he was heading too. That had perked up any lingering sadness in the boy. His worries were still clearly flickering through their fledgling bond, and he couldn’t blame him for that worry. The boy had been ripped away from the only life he'd know after all, and he had become the child’s rock. It made sense he'd go into a panic with the news he'd have to be separated from him for stars-know how long. Stop thinking of Anakin! You're supposed to be meditating. Ah, there was that little voice in his head. His conscious. He was almost tempted to just argue with it, but then the voice reminded him that talking to one's self like that was considered a sign of insanity. So, with that decided, he evened out his breathing properly and returned to the beginnings of meditating. ...Perhaps the Force is sending me into another war or battle? The last few happened within a year of one another, so it would make sense for it to throw another one at me even faster. Now that little voice was yelling at him for being a smartarse at his own self. Yes, insanity was coming on.

Definitely time to meditate.

He had used the Force to guide his hand when he went about setting the coordinates to his destination. Foolishly, he hadn't checked what planet he was being prodded towards after he had all but ghost-input directions for after the information had popped up. So, understandably, it was his own fault that his eyebrows shot up in surprise when it was time to take over from the autopilot less than a day later. A system not too far from the core at all, Wardlow sector, and the planet Danan of all places! It was almost like the secondary capital beside Coruscant. If it had been in the center of the galaxy there was little doubt it would have been the capital planet rather than the current. The reason? Force sensitives popped up plenty on the planet. In fact, it was so common that there was even a small school run by Jedi in the capital city. The Danan's rarely sent their children away to the actual Order with how treasured a life of connections was for their culture the Jedi Order accepted this, but it was dangerous to leave so many young one untrained. Thus, the school. Where children were raised with just enough of the Light Side's teachings in order to prevent injury to others or their own person. But even with a few actively on planet to teach, other Jedi frequently stopped by in general, and there was no visible distress as he went through the process of customs and landing on the planet. So why was he hear? It wasn't something with the school, for he was being prodded to one of the smaller cities. Upon landing, and with nothing but the Force to guid him, Knight Kenobi began to walk blindly about the night-life population. And that's what brought him to this moment. “NO!” Somehow, he had ended up in a hospital. The scream startled him, and he watched as a clearly pregnant woman was wheeled by on a bed by group of nurses and a doctor. The scream had held desperation and anger. For reasons he didn't know, an odd mixture of the Force's prodding and familiarity, he followed after the group. “Take me back to my rooms, take me back! I am NOT birthing my daughter yet! It's too soon!” The woman grabbed at the doctor's uniform, “You said you'd stop the contractions. You promised me! You promised me on the honor of your names!” The doctor looked pained, wrapping his hands around the woman's as the nurses continued to push the bed off. “I'm sorry, Mrs Metic, but for some reason the drugs simply aren't....” The rest of the words were lost on Obi-Wan's ears as something clicked into place. Metic. Metic. He'd hadn’t heard that name in such a long time.

His mind flashed back over a decade prior. To a time when he had been nothing but a mere 7-years of age and his mentor, an older Initiate, hadn't been chosen as a padawan. Her choice, rather than joining any of the Jedi-run work forces, had been to return to her homeworld. They had kept in contact at first, but eventually the teachers had convinced him to wean off of the communications. They had seen it as an attachment. Despite this, he had always remembered her. The girl had been one of the first outside of his Creche Clan or overall age group that he had made friends with.

She had been like an older sister. The way that Master Tahl had once been like a mother for him.

  Hell, he had even helped her pick out her own last name when he'd practically still been a toddler!

“Mylei? Mylei Metic?” The Knight called, and the group stopped moments from the 'Restricted Access' doors of the natal department. The woman on the bed turned her head in her desperate despair, hazel eyes lighting up in reconiztion as, with unpracticed touch, she reached out in the Force to the familiar signature of such an old friend. “Obi?” Wonder turned to sweet relief, a sob of happiness leaving her through her otherwise distressed moment. “Obi-Wan!” The woman gasped, reaching out for him and he instantly moved over to take her hand. The group, seeing the woman calmed, continued through the doors. No one questioned the Jedi being there for the time being, especially since it was keeping the mother calm. “What exactly is happening?” The ginger-haired man asked, keeping a firm grip of comfort on the girl's hand. “She's going into early labor, Master Jedi. The medications we used to try and cancel the contractions just simply aren't working the way they should,” The group hurried thorugh another set of double-doors. “The child is already all but in the birth canal, and we can't truly know her chances of survival until the girl has been born.” Obi-Wan nodded, graved, and gave his friend's hand a squeeze as the woman let out a whimper of despair. Much sooner than anyone in the group wanted, they were in a birthing room in the Natal Intensive Care Facility of the hospital.

He hadn't expected the Force to seemingly lead him to a planet to reconnect with a long-lost friend. He hadn't expected the Force to have that friend beg him to be in there as the baby was delivered, because her husband was on the literal other side of the planet with their soon to be second-youngest child and she hadn't been able to get hold of him, and the rest of her children were being kept at their grandmother's home. Over all else, he definitely hadn't expected the Force to lead him to the birth of a baby who, once born, the doctors had examined and then softly declared that she would be impossible to save. The girl was tiny, having been inside of her mother for barely 21 weeks, and everything about her was impossibly small. From toes and a nose to the stuttering heart and barely-filling lungs from little, almost nonexistent wheezes of air puffing past the baby's lips. She hadn't cried when she'd been born. Her eyes hadn't opened at all in response to the light of the room.Her body was seemingly too weak to respond to anything, and far to tiny for any of the equipment in the hospital to do any  good in trying to help her survive. It would just do more damage than good. Just make the poor thing suffer. Mylei was in the hospital bed, curled up and the baby was in the bassinet with a breathing mask. The doctors said they didn't expect her to last more than an hour. They'd done the birth certifercate, but a name had yet to be put on. The ink still stained the baby's tiny feet. By the Force, he just couldn't get over how tiny she was. And yet.... Her little life was so bright. Small and flickering, sure, but so, so, so bright. Anakin was a supernova to him, and this girl was like the end of one. The dying of a star. “Obi?” He looked up from where he stood next to the bassinet, watching the newborn's chest barely rise and fall. “Yes, Mylei?” “Can... c-can you stay with her? I need to try calling Gens again. And I...” The 31-year old glanced at her dying child, eyes bloodshot and her aura in the Force filled with so much heartache. “I... I-I just can't watch another die. I-I've lost one before, then had another several years later. That little girl is almost three-years older than this sweetheart.” The woman's breath hitched as she hit the call-button for a nurse. “I... I never thought I'd have to with another.... That I'd have to bury-....” Her eyes squeeze shut, unable to finish the words. Obi-Wan's heart ached for her. It ached like it was being ripped out. It was a sensation he had only felt one other time. “Of course I'll stay with her, Mylei. Do what you need, and I'll do whatever I can for you.” Her moved over to the woman, giving her hand a squeeze and wiped some of her tears from her cheeks. Two nurses came in moments later. One helped the former resident of the Jedi Temple into a hoverchair and pushed her out of the room. The second nurse moved over to the child's basinet, reading the layouts  for the biomonitor. Whatever was being read obviously wasn't a good sign. The mask was being removed. The doctor had inform he and his almost-like-a-sister not to long ago that they'd only remove the breathing-help for the girl once her oxygen intake deteriorated to a certain point. The star flared weekly, still bright but fading as the child's life faded further and further from the ability to actively live. Obi-Wan watched, silent as his heart managed to feel even more torn from each barely existent movement of that tiny chest he was watching, as if hypnotized. It was as if his instincts was telling him not to dare miss a moment of this child's short life. “Am I allowed to hold her?” The nurse was startled by the suddenness of his voice. To be honest, Obi-Wan was startled by it as well. He knew not the reason for it. Just another thing for 'no known reason' to add to the ever-growing list over the past week or so of his life. The two professionals of their own duties in life stared at one another, but finally the nurse recovered and offered a small, sorrowed smile. “You can if you want. The poor dear doesn't have much time left, so it wouldn't do any damage. Might make the last moments a little happy for her.” The matron moved a weathered hand to gently stroke at the pink-hatted head of the baby. She helped him situate the little girl in his arms, and then left him once he asked. He didn't know why he had asked. Now it was just him and this poor little life that seemed destined to leave the galaxy far before her time. He had her cradled in the crook of his arm, and every little soft, almost inaudible wheeze proceeded to crack his heart more and more. Slowly, he shifted the position to tuck the newborn's head beneath his chin. One hand cradled the back of her neck, and the other supported the rest. “You poor, sweet little-light.” Obi-Wan whispered, not wanting to move his jaw too much or risk hurting the tiny one’s head. So, once more, he shifted the babe down to rest more against the pulse-point of his neck rather than directly beneath his jawline now. The finger's on the baby's back—a back barely the height of his entire hand—idly rubbed, he breathing in an even rhythm that starkly contrasted the tiny quivers of air. The Force seemed to be whisping around them, tickling at his ears and all but trying to blanket the babe he held. In the sensation he held the girl more securly, fingers still rubbing. Until this point he had resisted the surprising-and-odd urge until then that had been growing, but with holding this tiny, fragile, fading life in his arms he could no longer hold off. He lowered his shields to slowly wrap his aura around the baby. He needed to give her comfort. If everything else hadn't completely shattered his now own fragile heart, then this certainly had. It was a faint flicker now, just like the girl's spark of life, but she was a little Force Sensitive. “Oh, little one.” He whispered, throat thick as he squeeze his eyes shut tightly in pains that were now phantom-ing from Naboo. After a few minutes, with the girl still barely clinging to that fragile life she had, Obi-Wan's eyes would open to stare out at the night skies of Danan. It was law that all public lights be on the lowest power. The brightness of the stars, so many more visible here than on Coruscant, were far too pretty for such a moment in time. “May these words be the first to find your ears,” The first words had left his lips before he realized what was happening. “The world is brighter than the sun now that you’re here.” He began to pace around the room, his voice and breaths remaining steady even as his throat thickened with emotion. “Though your eyes will need some time to adjust to the overwhelming light surrounding us...” He wrapped his Force-signature more securely around her tiny one, and following the urging of the Force in his ears (even if he knew it would hurt, to feel a life snap while wrapped around it) he began to feed some of his meager healing abilities into her. He had never been very good on minor injuries, let alone major ones. and this poor babe wasn't even injured. She just wasn't strong enough to live. He continued on, singing a lullaby to the life this little girl might could have had. As a civilian, as a Jedi, or at least as a trained Force-sensitive at her planet's school. Even as the biomonitor connected to the bracelet on an impossibly fragile ankle had the heartbeats start to pace further apart. Dangerously, agonizingly far apart for a  newborn. Beep-beep, beep-beep.... beep-beep, beep-beep....

“I’ll give you everything I have. I’ll teach you everything I know. I promise I’ll do better.”

He sang for the Master she maybe could have had if she had been one of the rare force-senstive children from Danan who were actually sent off to the Temple, and also singing for the father that now wouldn't get to meet her while she still lived.

Beep-beep, beep-beep.... Beep-beep, beep-beep.... “I will always hold you close, but I will learn to let you go. I promise I’ll do better.”

He sang for his sister in all but blood, who had needed to leave the room where her youngest child was dying in. After her own body had sabotaged her own baby's life. She'd have to go on, though, for the other children she already had to raise and live for.

“I will soften every edge, I’ll hold the world to its best, and I’ll do better.” Beep-beep, beep-beep.... Beep...beep, beep-beep....

“With every heartbeat I have left I will defend your every breath,”

He now sang of himself, in a promise he meant. One he meant so deeply it almost scared him. Beep...beep, be...ep-beep.... Beep...beep, be...ep-beep.... Beep...beep...beep-be...ep.... He swirled more healing energy against that little spark of her, eyes squeezing shut again as the Force swirled in his entire being. “And I’ll do better.” Something prodded back at his Force signature. Unaware and instinctive, yet something tiny prodded back.

...Beep...beep, beep-beep. ...Beep...beep, beep-be...ep.

His eyes snapped open. The Force started to sing with him as he swirled his energy more around that fragile little life of her's. “'Сause you are loved, you are loved more than you know. I hereby pledge all of my days to prove it so.” His fingers started rubbing a little more deliberately at the little back, the formerly limp infant twitching in his arms. Beep...beep, beep-beep. ...Beep...beep, beep-beep. “Though your heart is far too young to realize—”

Beep...beep, beep-beep. Beep...beep, beep-beep.

“—the unimaginable light you hold inside.” The tiny chest against his own had begun to expand more. The baby girl twitched again, and as something as a more audible noise escaped the girl, even if it was just a louder wheeze, he felt his eyes tear in a burning, yet hopeful, bought of disbelief. The Force filled him more, and he focused more of a healing aura on the little one he held almost more protectively than a Creche Master did the young of the Order. He continued to sing and it was as if the Force was now singing with him. “I’ll give you everything I have. I’ll teach you everything I know. I promise I’ll do better.” Beep-beep, beep-beep.... Beep-beep, beep-beep. “I will always hold you close, but I will learn to let you go. I promise I’ll do better.” The smallest of whimpers left in a muffle against his chest. “I will rearrange the stars, pull ‘em down to where you are. I promise, I’ll do better.” The tiny chest was expanding even more, and the twitching of the little body had started to turn into proper squirming as the biomonitor continued to beep more and more from a steadily increasing heartrate. A rapid, steadying increase that would be worrying in any other circumstance, but not in this one. It would never worrying in a moment like this. Beep-beep, beep-beep. Beep-beep, beep-bah-beep. Beep-beep, beep-bah-beep. “With every heartbeat I have left, I'll defend your every breath.” The tiny thing in his arms inhaled a wheezing, squeeking chain of breaths. The little light in the Force flared in the coocon he had made with his own aura. “I promise I’ll do better–” A wail escaped the now squirming little thing tucked in the security of his body, and a wet sob of a laugh escaped him. He managed to glance down slightly, catching sight of the pair of wide, tear-filled brown eyes that flickered in every direction. They finally took in the world around the owner who had been in the world nearly an hour after being able to take anything in at all. Then the fragileness of this situation came crashing down and promptly kicked his logical half back into full-geer. He moved in a quick carefulness towards the door of the hospital room and nudged it open with his shoulder. The insistent wails that the newborn shouldn't have even been able to cry now ringing down the medical hallway. “Nurse!”

Mylei had wanted to be a Jedi Healer, once upon a time. When she had told a little boy this so long ago, the little ball of fiery hair had suggested the last-name 'Metic' sing it sounding like part of the word 'medical.' She had unfortunately never been good at using the Healing Force, no matter how much she exercised the ability. In the end, her stubbornness for wanting to enter that career path and lack of skill in it had been one of th reasons she hadn't been chosen as a padawan. She had accepted it. It had given her a husband, a family that wouldn't have otherwise existed without her. The Force had given her the gift of six beautiful children. It had taken one from her before, a mere month after his birth. This one though.... It hadn't taken her youngest. “Now, what names are there to give you?” The woman murmured, her hand softly curling at the baby's in the incubator. The girl was miracle; clearly blessed by the Force in numerous definitions. Since her baby’s father had arrived two weeks prior the man hadn't stopped babbling at the girl whenever he was around her. The only time her husband, Gens, stopped was when he was away from the baby. And even then he still gushed about her! The only reason he wasn't fawning over their little miracle child was because he had offered to drive Obi-Wan back to the spaceport so he could return to Coruscant. She smiled fondly and with gratitude welling her heart. The Force had meant for her almost-brother to be here, it was clear. The brunette had felt, even years ago, that fate had brought she and that little boy she had mentored together for reasons beyond their sharing of the Unifying Force. “How about.... Sadie? You're definitely your father's little princess, after all.” The baby seemed tohave perfect timing, for the girl frowned in her sleep. “Ah, you're right. That is far, far too formal. Especially with the bloodline you got pumping in your veins—if your siblings are anything to go by, you definitely won't ever be very princess-like.” The baby's face relaxed in the special bed, and with a smile Mylei would reach out with her Force signature to gently pet at her daughter's own tiny one. She felt a little ashamed she hadn't noticed her unborn child's sensitivity. “Okay, next option; should I name you Evangeline? You could be called 'Evie' for short, little one. You were definitely brought back to me on a message of good news.” The baby frowned in her sleep again, though this time it was more pronounced and the child's body tensed up. “How about Naomi? That would fortell you to be beautiful and gentle in life.” The tiny, wet and bubbling sound that signaled a fowl diaper hit her ears. The baby relaxed in her slumber once more, and the mother laughed before calling for a nurse to change the fragile little girl. A few hours later, a thankful man returned to his wife at the hospital in the capital city of Danan. When he got to the NICF, he was greated with the sight of the woman he loved holding the youngest of their children skin-to-skin. He walked over, placed a kiss to his wife's head, and looked lovingly down at their child. “I want to send her to the Temple in perhaps a year. When she's older and healthy enough to go.” Mylei said softly, and her husband hummed beside her head. “I figured, and though I'm loath to let her go... That Force-stuff you always talk about obviously has some sort of plans for her, yeah? She can't fill those plans on Danan even if it’s around us every day” The woman smiled in a bitter-sweet way at the man, both of their eyes soon returning to the sleeping babe. Silence fell over them momentarily until the man spoke again, “Obi-Wan sent a final set of warm goodbyes for us and the family. He promised he'd mail in a few weeks, and told us to look after our little treasure.” Little treasure. Before her almots-brother had left the hospital she had heard him whisper a soft, 'Goodbye, little-light' to her daughter before some nurses had placed the baby back into the incubator. Her eyes went wide as she saw something that was not yet existent.

“Gens. Gens, I know what to name her for her first and middle. Go get the nurse in charge of her birth certifercate.” That startled the man from mooning over the babe. “You do?” To declare even a first name less than a month after any child's birth was rare, let alone knowing both the first and middle one! When the one he loved did nothing but nod firmly, he nodded in return. He pressed a signle kiss to the head of each of his girls before leaving to do what was asked of him. Mylei smiled after him, her gaze once more shifting to the baby she held. On the back of her eyelids, a picture danced of a short, plump, healthy girl with dimpled cheeks, long brown hair, and the most beautiful set of chocolate eyes. A girl who stood next to a man with red hair covering his head and lower face. There were smiles that decorated them both. It had been many years since Mylei had received an actual vision. It seemed fitting that one came in this moment. “Hello, little Elora Edie.” The former Jedi Initiate whispered to the newborn, receiving a small, instinctive little coo in response to the noise from the sleeping baby. “He will soften every edge, hold the world to its best. I promise he’ll do better.” He had already done better than her. He had saved her daughter's life.

“With every heartbeat he has left, he’ll defend your every breath.”

The Force sang in gentle in her ears with rightness as she closed her eyes, returning to the lingering vision of Obi-Wan Kenobi, years down the line, and what could only be the older version of the child she currently held. A child who was the sweetest little treasure-piece of light in the world.

Smiling, the woman pressed a kiss to the brow of a child that, somehow, must have never been intended to truly be her’s and her husband's in the first place.

“He'll do better....”