SquidgeWorld Archive

Title: Long Knight
Author: Elizabeth Wilde
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Forever Knight/Star Wars crossover.
Pairings: none
Disclaimer: I don't own anybody, sadly. I'm also not making any money off of
this.
Distribution: My site at http://www.biteyourtongue.net/wilde, anyone who asks
nicely, anyone who already archives my fic.
Completed:

Part 1~Qui-Gon

The Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn was lost. Not lost so much as completely unsure of
where he was. Or when. All around him, the street buzzed with activity. He
stood immobile against the nearest wall and watched everything. Above him the
nighttime sky was filled with stars wholly unfamiliar and a moon unlike any he
had before seen. The people, too, were different. Their clothes were odd and
their thoughts more closely guarded from inspection than those of any but
another Jedi. Qui-Gon knew he had to do something. Despite the fact that he
had no memory of arriving on the planet, nor of what the planet was, Qui-Gon was
convinced that the memory would return. Until then, he needed to know where he
was.

"Excuse me." He reached out toward a man passing by.

The man looked up. And up. And squinted beady, red-rimmed eyes. "What'd'you
want?" he slurred.

Qui-Gon fought the urge to wrinkle his nose. The man's breath reeked of
alcohol. "I'm very sorry to disturb you, but would you mind telling me where I
am?"

Weaving slightly on unsteady feet, the man burped, then replied, "Toronto, ya
dope."

Sensing the man's derision but still wanting any information he could provide,
Qui-Gon continued, "That is the name of the planet?"

This time, the man laughed out loud, almost doubling over. "Planet? And I
thought I was drunk!" He waved another man over, a man who looked equally
inebriated. "Hey, Dave, check this out! This monk dude just asked me what
planet he's on!" Both men laughed as though it were the funniest thing they had
ever encountered.

Taking a deep breath, Qui-Gon stayed the urge to strangle one or both of them.
"I fail to see the humor here. If you would please just tell me the name of the
planet we are on, I-" The Jedi sensed the man's intent before his hand curled
to a fist. Qui-Gon calmly caught the man's hand and held it, then repeated the
process. When the man's friend tried to follow suit, Qui-Gon merely pushed the
man in front of himself, so that he absorbed the blows instead of Qui-Gon. The
man let out a dull moan as his friend punched the small of his back, then turned
and swung at the other man.

Using their distraction, Qui-Gon hurried down the street. He saw no point in
becoming involved in a street brawl so soon after landing . . . wherever he was.
Qui-Gon saw that randomly asking passers-by was not an effective means of
discerning his location. Instead, he reached out with the Force, scanned gently
the minds of those around him, looking for a friendly disposition, someone
willing to help.

Soon he found a likely candidate. Walking hastily toward the woman's position,
Qui-Gon reminded himself to be a bit more careful as to how he phrased the
request. Though he could use the Force to pry the answer from her, there was no
need to arouse suspicion if at all possible. "Pardon me," he began, hoping
against hope that the rather attractive woman standing before him would be more
helpful than the drunken buffoons he had so recently encountered. "I seem to
find myself a bit lost. Could you perhaps direct me to a place where I might
take shelter for a time?"

Part 2~Natalie

Doctor Natalie Lambert stared at the man in front of her. Aside from the fact
that he was copletely, devastatingly handsome, he looked like a lunatic. Or an
escaped monk. Torn between swooning and laughing, Natalie simply stared. She
recovered enough to realize that someone who dealt with as many oddities as she
had should certainly be able to handle replying to a simple question. "I, uh,
sure. There's, uh, lots of hotels and stuff around here, uh..."

The man understood instantly, smiling benevolantly at her before taking her hand
and kissing it. "I appologize for not introducing myself sooner. My name is
Qui-Gon Jinn."

Flustered, the doctor introduced herself while trying to keep her thoughts under
control. "Natalie Lambert. Nice to meet you." Though stunned at his gallant
manners, Natalie knew it was best not to get to attached to strange men on
street corners. Especially not downtown in the middle of the night. And
something about this Qui-Gon was certainly out of the ordinary. She wondered if
he was a vampire. It would certainly fit the luck she usually had with men.
"You aren't from around here, are you?"

"No. No, I'm not." He offered no more information as to his origins, but
continued, "You seem a bit different than those I have run into so far tonight.
You live here?"

"Yes." Natalie suddenly wondered why she had answered. There was absolutely no
reason to tell this stranger anything. She knew if she told him anything, it
should be to find a phonebook and leave her alone. But she could not bring
herself to send him away. The thought of never seeing those ice blue eyes again
. . . "Are you hungry?"

The man smiled again, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "Yes, actually.
Starving. I . . . well, I don't remember when I last ate."

The greater part of her brain protesting loudly, Natalie smiled too. "Great.
What's say I take you out to eat, then."

"I would be most grateful." Qui-Gon bowed slightly and took Natalie's arm while
still allowing her to lead the way.

"So, where did you say you're from again?"

Part 3~Obi-Wan

Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi stared in complete shock at the empty chair beside him.
His mind reeled as he searched for a concrete reason why his Master was not
sitting there. Surely there such a logical explanation existed. He quickly
reviewed the events of the day leading to Qui-Gon's disappearance.

Since their departure from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the instruments of the
small transport had been going haywire. All attempts to contact the Council of
Masters failed. Though Obi-Wan expressed unease at this, Qui-Gon had seemed
confident that they would need no assistance on such a simple mission. All that
was required was their presence on the small planet of Milrea so that two
squabbling delegates could sit together in a room without killing each other to
negotiate a peace treaty.

But then a blindingly brilliant light filled the cockpit, forcing Obi-Wan to
shield his eyes from the intense glare. When he opened his eyes again, Qui-Gon
had been missing. The Padawan remained in the same pose he had been upon
discovering the fact.
Checking readouts obviously presented no solution. The readings would be
incorrect, inaccurate, useless.

Utterly frustrated, Obi-Wan brought his fist down on the console, succeeding
only in bruising his fist. Five more minutes passed
in resolute silence. The Padawan rubbed
his eyes with the heel of his palms and sighed.

Part 4~Qui-Gon

Qui-Gon studied the woman before him careful, weighing whether or not he could
fully trust her. After
finishing the final bite of something Natalie blithely identified as pizza, he
began, "I feel I should tell you exactly what my situation is."

She groaned, letting the crust of her pizza fall to the plate with a clunk.
Large, dark eyes peered up at him expectantly. "Well? What is it? Married?
Gay? Axe murderer?"

Smiling at the obvious sarcasm in her voice, Qui-Gon plunged ahead. "No. You
see, I'm exactly from around here."

"I figured that much out. Running from the mob?"

"I . . . No, I don't believe so. You see, I was on a mission with my Padawan
when . . . I really don't know what happened. But I was here. I'm supposed to
be on Milrea at the moment assisting with the drafting of a peace treaty."
Silently, he hoped that Obi-Wan was alright and still on the ship where he
belonged. "Actually, I'm quite worried about my Padawan."

Natalie had reacted little if at all through the narrative. "Okay, I'll bite.
What's a Padawan?"

Torn between certainty that she believed him to be a lunatic and the comfort of
her trust, he replied, "My apprentice. I'm training him to be a Jedi."

"Jedi? Okay. I can handle that. At least you don't drink blood," she added
somewhat bitterly, taking a long swig of her root beer.

"Blood? Er, no. No, I don't drink blood. Natalie, are you quite alright?"

"Oh, yeah. Just fine. Why is it that all of the men I meet are in some way
completely wrong for me? Either they're vampires or killers or... Jedi Masters.
I would for once like to meet a guy, go out to dinner and have him just be a
nice guy. Of course, if I keep picking up guys on street corners and in
morgues, that probably won't happen." She sighed and held up her hands in a
gesture of surrender. "Well, I'm involved now. I'm always involved. You
haven't killed me yet. Prime Directive or something, right?"

"I'm not sure what that is, but I can assure you that I have no intention of
killing you. I would, however, be glad of any help you could give me. I don't
know this place. I have no idea where I might stay or whether they would accept
republic credits in payment." Qui-Gon saw no point in beating about the bush
when she seemed just as comfortable to speak openly.

"Credits? I doubt it. Don't worry about that, though." Natalie stood, hiking
her purse back onto her shoulder. "C'mon, back to the car. You can stay at my
place."

Part 5~Lacroix

Lucien Lacroix studied the boy closely. There had been no one there seconds
before. Now a strange young man with a ridiculous haircut and odd clothing
stared across the switchboard at the Nightcrawler. Long ago the vampire ceased
searching for reasonable explanations. They were unnecessary. Things happened.
The reasons behind events rarely supplied anything in the way of illumination.
"Who are you?" he finally asked.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Nodding, Lacroix turned to the mike as the last song he had put on the air
finally drifted into oblivion. "Well, gentle listeners, it seems that we have a
visitor. One... Obi-Wan Kenobi is with us tonight. Say hello."

Looking more confused than ever, the boy hesitantly complied. "H-hello?"

"The Nightcrawler is going to play some more music for you while he tries to
figure out what has brought this young man into our lair." He turned on a
second melody and returned his entire focus to Obi-Wan. "And so, why *are* you
here?" Lacroix gestured toward the chair facing his and the boy sat down
quietly.

"I-I don't know. Where exactly is here?"

The ancient vampire chuckled, the sound more disquieting than merry. "I have
been lost at many points in my existence but rarely to the point where I was
completely unaware of my location. You are in Toronto. That is in Canada,
should you also be ignorant of its location."

The boy's brow furrowed. "Thank you. I... Who are you?"

Extending a hand, he replied, "Lucien Lacroix, known to my listeners as The
Nightcrawler." A long, measured gaze covered Obi-Wan's body from head to toe.
"What are you? You belong in this place and this time no more than I do."

Hesitating again, the Padawan finally offered, "A traveler."

"More."

A command, not a request. "I am a Jedi. A Padawan. I am training."

"Better. You are searching for something?"

"My Master. He... he disappeared from our ship."

"Ah. I see." Obviously Lacroix believed the boy to be completely insane.
"Then perhaps I can help you find him." Another languid, unsettling smile
spread across the pale face.

Part 6~Nick

Detective Nick Knight shot out of his chair as soon as he could, fairly
sprinting from the building. Schanke yelled after him to watch where he was
going, but Nick only grunted non-comittally. Something was wrong with Natalie.
He could feel it.

"Nick! Hey!" Schanke jogged up behind his partner and Nick stepped out into
the brisk night air. "What's up, partner? Got a hot date waiting?" he asked
with a suggestive raising of his eyebrows.

"Not exactly, Schanke. Look, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Without waiting for
an answer, Nick took off for the parking garage.

"Nice talkin' to ya, Nick. Painful as always," Schanke murmured, shaking his
head.

Nick hopped into his Caddy and peeled out of the garage. On the radio, Lacroix
droned on about something or another. With a disgusted sigh, Nick turned the
volume down to a steady hum. "Our visitor seems to want something, my children
. . ." Still annoyed, Nick turned the radio off, focusing all his attention on
getting to Natalie. His hunches were rarely wrong, and if Natalie was in
trouble, he had no intention of letting her down.

Parking haphazardly in front of Natalie's apartment building, Nick bolted up the
stairs, pausing to knock on Natalie's front door. Her face appeared almost
immediately. "Nick!" She seemed genuinely surprised to see him and a bit...
nervous? "Uh, what are you doing here?"

"I just had this feeling that you needed me. Is anything wrong, Nat?"

"Well... no. No, nothing's wrong."

Nick knew Natalie well enough to know she was omitting something. Something
important. "What's going on?"

"I think you need to see this for yourself. C'mon in." She stepped aside,
allowing Nick to enter the apartment. He was more than a little dismayed upon
seeing a strange man sitting on Natalie's couch. "This is Qui-Gon Jinn."

The man rose and held out his hand to Nick. "Natalie has told me a bit about
you, Detective Knight. I was hoping to get a chance to meet you."

"Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you too, Mister... Jinn, is it?"

"Qui-Gon, please." The man's face was oddly expressionless, as though he were
holding back any emotions that might broil beneath the surface. He easily
towered over Nick, and the lack of outward emotion made him no less
intimidating. "I am afraid I have been imposing upon your friend Natalie to
help me."

The doctor shifted uncomfortably under the force of Nick's gaze. "Uh, yeah.
You see, Qui-Gon here is, uh-"

"From another galaxy," the man finished for her. "And I need to find a way
back."

Part 7~Obi-Wan

"I would appreciate any help you can offer," Obi-Wan said solemnly, though
judging from the man's smile, he intended no such service. "How do you propose
to-"

The man's upheld hand ended the question before it began. He leaned over and
spoke into the microphone again. "It seems our young companion is lost. I feel
compelled to assist him. The question is: What should we do?" Obi-Wan wished
fervently that he could access the man's thoughts, but he had tried repeatedly
with no results. Something in his eyes and manner made the Padawan decidedly
uncomfortable. "Tell me, fellow traveler, do you know where you are yet?"

"T-toronto. Canada," he added with confidence. Knowing the name of his
location did not, however, tell Obi-Wan its place in the galaxy.

"Very good. He listens well. What is the name of the one you seek, Obi-Wan
Kenobi?"

"Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn." Whatever the man was broadcasting, Obi-Wan
reasoned, there was a chance Qui-Gon might hear it.

"And you believe he is here as well?"

Obi-Wan hesitated, unsure as to what he believed. "I hope that he is, yes."

"A truly unclear answer, my young friend." Lacroix smiled. "My time with you
has expired for tonight, gentle listeners. I leave you with a plea for
assistance for our newest friend. Remember, the Nightcrawler is always
listening." A few deft motions later, the broadcast was ended, and Lacroix's
attention once again focused fully on Obi-Wan. "Do you think he'll find you?"

"Yes. Or I shall find him."

"You sound awfully confident for someone who didn't even know where he was
moments ago."

"Whatever... however I ended up here, I am confident that Master Jinn and I will
find each other."