Opposites Attract [Complete]

It took several days of rough driving to make it out of the jungle. Both the Jedi were relieved to finally be in an open area. There were mountain ranges off in the distance capped with snow. The air was less humid and the sun shone brightly.
“What’s that?” Obi-Wan pointed off into the distance at what looked like a settlement. They were too far away to tell for sure.
Meleana turned the speeder towards it. If they went much farther they wouldn’t have enough fuel to get back. As they grew closer high steel walls came into view. It looked as though they had found something. Meleana pulled up to a large metal gate and waited. A few minutes later a human male appeared at the top of the wall.
“State your business.”
“We’re Jedi Knights, our ship was damaged and we crashed on this world. We’re looking for parts to fix our ship.” Meleana shouted.
“Jedi Knights?” The man asked in a confused tone.
“Wild space it is,” She muttered under her breath. She turned to Obi-Wan and asked. “How do you explain what we do to someone who’s never heard of us?”
“We’re peace keepers for the Republic.” Obi-Wan explained.
“We have no need for peace keepers.” The guard shouted back. “If you need something from our ruler you will need to offer him something in exchange.”
“Do you have ships? If you have the parts we need I’m sure we can reach some kind of agreement.” Obi-Wan replied.
The guard disappeared without a word.
Meleana and Obi-Wan turned to look at each other. “Do you think he’ll come back?” Meleana asked eyeing the heavy steel gate.
“It seems they might have the parts we need. We need to get in there.”
Meleana tiled her chair back and shut her eyes. “Are you going to use a mind trick?” she asked with a hint of disdain in her voice.
“You don’t approve of mind tricks?”
“I try not to use them. The one thing we all have is free will, and we have the power to take that away from people. That just seems wrong to me.”
“We’re not enslaving them, just convincing them.”
“There’s a very long list of powers we have that will inevitably lead us to the dark side, it amazes me that force lightening is on there and mind tricks aren’t.”
“I do agree that they should be avoided if possible, but they can be used to serve the greater good and to avoid an otherwise complicated or dangerous situation.”
“And to get free drinks, and prime parking spots.”
“Have you ever seen a Jedi use a mind trick for something so frivolous?”
“Not personally, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. I’m not saying you can’t do it, or even that I won’t, only that I disapprove of it.”
The gate slowly began to open, a large group of guards were standing in two rows on the other side. The guards were all male wearing brown blast armor.
“Leave your vehicle off to the side, it is not allowed in the city.” The head guard said.
Meleana pulled the speeder off to the side of the gate, got out next to the wall and walked with Obi-Wan to the gate. The guards looked at her and gasped.
“She can’t come in dressed like that.” The head guard said to Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan looked past the guards to the civilians inside. The women were all wearing long modest dresses. He looked back at Meleana in her low cut sleeveless top, tight brown pants and filthy knee high boots. “Do you have anything more modest to wear?”
“This is the only shirt I’ve got that isn’t caked in dirt.”
“She’ll have to wait outside.” The guard insisted.
Obi-Wan went back to the speeder and grabbed the bottom layer of one of his tunics. “Put this on.” Obi-Wan turned to the guard before he could protest. “This will be fine, you’ll allow her to enter.” He said with a wave of his hand.
“That will be fine, she may enter.” The guard repeated.
Meleana put on Obi-Wan’s oversized shirt and followed him into the city. Inside some modern technologies were evident, but no where near as prominent as they were used to seeing. Meleana stayed close to Obi-Wan trying to be less noticeable. Everyone they passed stopped to stare at her.
“Maybe I should have waited outside.” She said softly to Obi-Wan as they were lead down the streets towards the palace in the center of the city.
“You’re the one that knows exactly what parts we need for the ship. I’m sure it will be fine. They’ll recover from seeing a woman in pants.”
“I’d rather have to spend more time making the wrong parts work than not get any at all. What if my appearance gets us tossed out before we can even ask for the parts?”
Obi-Wan looked at the crowd of gawkers following them towards the palace. “Just stand behind me and let me do the talking.”
Meleana nodded. “Not a problem.”
They were escorted into the palace. Inside of the palace technology was much more prevalent. Droids were hard at work all over the palace, some of the machinery seemed needless. They were brought into a large under furnished room and told to wait.
Meleana and Obi-Wan bowed when the king and his entourage entered.
The king sat down in his thrown and looked at the new comers. “My guards say you are from the Republic. We don’t often have visitors to our world. What brings you here?”
“We were on a mission when our ship was damaged. We crash landed here by chance. Our ship is badly damaged and we are greatly in need of assistance. We need to get to Ithor as soon as possible.” Obi-Wan explained.
“I may have what you need,” He looked more carefully at Obi-Wan. “You have weapons?”
“I assure you we mean you no harm.”
The king laughed. “I believe that, anyone trying to assassinate me would know better than to bring a woman dressed like that,” He pointed towards Meleana. “Are you adept at fighting?”
Obi-Wan nodded. “Though we would rather not resort to violence in most situations.”
The king seemed amused by Meleana trying to hide herself behind Obi-Wan. “Come out girl, I’m not going to have you arrested for being foreign.” She stepped out and he smiled at her then looked back at Obi-Wan. “You’re a lucky man.”
“Oh no.” Obi-Wan said shaking his head. “She’s my mission partner.”
The king nodded and pondered that for a moment. “I will give you whatever parts you need if you can do something for me. We’ve been at war with the province to the north since my father’s father was king. They want the technology we have, but they cannot be allowed to have it. A month ago my daughter was kidnapped, I’ve sent my greatest warriors to find her, but none of my men have returned. The Queen of that land is a witch, and not just because of her cruelty. She refuses to give back my daughter, she took her only to hurt me. If you can return her to me I will give you what you need.”
Obi-Wan looked back at Meleana, an action the king found very unusual.
“We should help him,” Meleana said softly. “Everything happens for a reason. Maybe we crashed here so we could save this girl. We’re already over a week over due on Ithor. What’s a few more days?”
“Alright, what do we need to do?”

They were given a map with directions and fuel for their speeder. There were no roads through the mountains so they were given climbing gear. The king was fairly sure his daughter was being held in a fortress on the top of one of the larger mountains in the area. Getting to the mountains was easy, it was only a few hour drive in the speeder.
Meleana sat down on the ground and tried to attach the spikes she’d been given to her boots. They were too big. She tossed them back into the trunk of the speeder and looked through her pack for any other climbing gear, there was a pair of gloves made from tough material, which were also to big for her. She had a grappling hook with a long rope, but the belt that attached to it was too large and the material was too tough to put another hole through.
“This stuff is all too big for me!”
Obi-Wan gave her a sympathetic look. He was sure they hadn’t meant to leave her with no gear, it was likely they’d given her the smallest sizes they had, but small men’s sizes were still large on an average sized woman. He finished putting on his gear. “You go first, I can catch you if you slip.”
Meleana looked at the daunting mountain in front of her. “I hope so.” Meleana started climbing. Obi-wan let her get a head start before following.

It was several hours before they reached a ledge large enough to rest on. Meleana got there first and pulled out her canteen. She took off her pack and leaned against it. Obi-Wan joined her a few seconds later.
“I get the feeling this isn’t going to get easier,” Meleana said. "It’s not even cold yet.”
“What do you prefer, mountains or jungles?”
“Jungles,” Meleana said without pause. “Mountains are harsh and rough and cold. I hate the cold. Humidity is bearable,” she had a devilish twinkle in her eyes. “And there is something… sexy, about jungles.”
“Sexy?”
“Jungles are hot, sticky and primal. Think about being in some nice resort in the heart of the jungle with some attractive blonde in a tiny swim suit lounging near a lagoon.”
Obi-Wan nearly choked on his water at the mention of a blonde. “Why a blonde?” He asked in a more paranoid tone than he’d meant to.
Meleana smiled, intrigued by his reaction. “I figured if I said brunette you’d think I was implying something. Is there a blonde in particular you thought I was referring to?” She smiled widely and nudged him playfully with her elbow.
“No.” He said avoiding her gaze.
“Lair. Come on, I’m not going to go tattle on you.” Meleana laughed again at his discomfort. “I’m going to get this out of you! Is it going to be the easy way or the hard way?”
“There is nothing to get.”
Meleana shook her head. “You can’t lie to me Kenobi,” she pulled out a ration pack for each of them and handed him one. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. Or tell as it were.”
He opened his ration pack. “I make no promises.”
Meleana always liked a challenge. “Ok let me think of a good one. I can’t tell you all of them.”
“All of them! I’m sorry, how old are you?”
“Twenty-one; which has nothing to do with the story. Do you want a funny one or a sad one?”
“Funny.” He answered hesitantly, not sure he wanted to continue this line of conversation.
Meleana bit her lip her eyes still had a mad sparkle to them. “Alright, when I was… seventeen I used to sneak out of the temple at night. It wasn’t malicious, I just wanted to see what people did at night. I became pretty fond of this club, it’s not to far from the temple. They had a restaurant in the front and drinking and dancing in the back. One of the waiters used to walk me home at night, well to where I told him I lived. He was a few years older than me, very cute. One night after the club had closed he kissed me. We got a little carried away on top of the bar. I guess my Master had been waiting outside to yell at me. He came in about ten minutes into it and pinned him to the wall with the force. I have never seen a man look so terrified. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Needless to say I never saw him again, and my Master would check on me randomly throughout the night for the next several months.”
“That really doesn’t compare to the blonde.”
Meleana heard the tenderness in his voice and her smile broadened. “Are you the romantic type? I would never have expected that from you. Hmm, I don’t have a lot of love stories. If I tell you this one do you promise to tell me yours?”
“I don’t see why you care.”
“Come on, something has to distract us from our current plight. You jumped at the mention of a blonde and I am a curios person.”
“Fine, if your story is good enough I’ll tell you mine.”
“Last year I was on a mission, a fairly long mission, on my own. I was protecting a senator’s son. He was one of those people that just loved everything about life. He found joy in everything. At first I thought he was an idiot, which made him set on changing my mind. He didn’t care what I thought about him, he just wanted me to see the world the way he did. I’ve never met a person before that I bonded with so deeply. I’ll never be as optimistic as he was, but just coming around to the idea that that sort of optimism can work was a beautiful thing. I really loved him.”
“So what happened?”
Meleana shrugged. “Nothing. Never mind the fact that he was a senator’s son, I cared about him too much to ever do anything with him.”
“You’ve never done anything with someone you care about?”
Meleana shook her head. “There are rules about that, there aren’t any rules about the other stuff.”
“Don’t you think emotional attachment is inevitable when you’re… you know.”
“No. I haven’t had a lot of repeat performances though.”
“Well I admire your emotional detachment. The blonde was a childhood rival of mine. We decided we were too emotionally involved to be together,” He looked at the disappointment on Meleana’s face. “I’m sorry my stories aren’t as detailed as yours.”
“Oh… so just the blonde then?”
“No, there were a few others. It’s not something I’m accustomed to talking about.”
“We should get moving anyway.”

It was a long time before they reached another ledge. They climbed well into the night before finally coming to a small ledge. It was barely large enough for both of them to lie down. The temperature had dropped significantly after the sun had gone down. Meleana lay both of their bedrolls while Obi-Wan removed his climbing gear. Meleana looked down and moved the bedrolls closer together.
She kicked off her booth and placed them along with her utility belt at the foot of her bed. “I’m exhausted,” Meleana said crawling into bed.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
“Ugh, you and your obsession with food. I’ll eat something in the morning. Right now I’d rather have an extra five minutes of sleep.”

Day two was even more difficult as the rocks became icy and jagged. Meleana had put on the over sized gloves, which made getting a grip on the rocks harder. She was relying heavily on keeping her footing. When a resting spot came into view she started climbing faster. A rock came lose from beneath her feet. She held on with one hand and tried to find her footing. The glove on the hand clinging to the mountain side began to slip. She lost her grip and dropped into Obi-Wan’s waiting arms. He had seen her struggling and secured his grappling hook to the mountain.
“You’ve got to stop falling.” He secured one arm around her and continued climbing towards the ledge up ahead. Getting her over the ledge with him was a little clumsy. He wound up lying on his back still holding onto Meleana tightly.
Meleana looked down at him with a raised brow. “I promise I won’t fall if you let me go now.”
“I was just enjoying the warmth.”
Meleana smiled wondering if now would be an inappropriate time to flirt with him. She kissed his lips tenderly and was somewhat surprised to feel him kiss back.
“What was that for?” He asked when she had pulled away.
“I thought I’d thank you by heating things up.”
Obi-Wan released his grip on her. “We should keep going.”

Meleana woke up first the next morning pressed against Obi-Wan. It was freezing and it seemed they’d both moved closer to each other throughout the night. She gently removed the arm he had wrapped around her. She grabbed a couple of ration packs and their canteens and nudged Obi-Wan awake.
“Ready for another fun filled day of mountain climbing,” She asked tossing him a ration pack.
“We’ve got to be near the top.” He looked up. “I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.”
“I wonder how many of those warriors the king sent even made it to the top.”

They moved at a quick pace that day in hopes they’d reach the peek before nightfall. Their hard work was rewarded when they reached it just before nightfall. Meleana reached the top first and lay down on the plateau she stretched out and made a gleeful sound. She jumped to her feet and looked down at Obi-Wan.
“We found the top!” She said clapping excitedly.
He smiled as he pulled himself up. “Thank the force.”
Meleana dropped her pack and crouched down to find the map inside of it. She sat down and looked at the map then looked around. There were a few meters of clear snow covered ground leading up to a forest.
“Do you know where we are?” She asked Obi-Wan.
He sat down next to her and looked over her shoulder at the map. They had marked the area where the speeder had been left.
“We started climbing here and moved slightly to the east. We should be about here,” He pointed to a spot on the peek of the mountain.
“And we’re going there,” Meleana ran her finger from his to the castle on the other side of the peek.
Obi-Wan pulled out a ration pack. “We should stay here for the night.”
Meleana nodded and continued to look for landmarks on the map. “There’s a hot spring!” She said with great excitement.
“How far is it?” He asked intrigued by the idea of a hot bath.
“It doesn’t look too far, maybe two kilometers northwest. We could probably get there before the sun goes down.” She caught the hesitation in Obi-Wan’s eyes and tried to further convince him. “I would kill for a hot bath right now, besides who wants to negotiate with people that smell as terrible as us?”
“We’d better get moving then.”

“Look at all the steam!” Meleana said jumping for joy as they approached the springs. There was no snow in the area around them. Meleana tossed off her pack and jacket then stopped and looked back at Obi-Wan. “Do you want to go first?”
“I wouldn’t try to stop you even if I did.”
She kicked off her boots. “Thank you!” She said joyfully trotting off towards the spring. She took her clothing off a few feet from the stream before submerging herself in the hot water. Meleana paused to put her long auburn hair into a bun. She took a few steps farther and the water got drastically deeper.
Obi-Wan’s meditation was disturbed a loud crack from the trees behind the springs. He looked towards the sound. Rather than look at the trees his eyes fixed on the naked woman in the spring. Her head was turned towards the sound. He looked away before she could catch him staring. He shut his eyes and tried to meditate. His mind wandered to the memory of Meleana’s lips pressed against his. He opened his eyes as he exhaled and once again his eyes fixed on Meleana bathing in the spring. He looked down at the floor quickly and tried again to meditate. Again all he could think of was Meleana on top of him, with less clothing than she had originally had.
“Your turn,” Meleana’s chipper voice interrupted his thoughts.
He quickly moved his hands onto his lap. “Right. How was it?”
“I’m not sure anything has ever felt that good,” her tone of voice wasn’t helping his current state of mind. “I’ll get the camp set up.” She grabbed the bedrolls off the pack and looked at Obi-Wan with a smile. “What’s wrong? I promise I won’t peek.”
“Nothings wrong. I’ve got all night, I’m enjoying the… look of the springs.”
Meleana looked up at the trees. “Wow that thing is huge!”
Obi-Wan nearly jumped.
“Look at that bird!” She looked away from the large bird in the tree above them and laid out the bedrolls. She lay down flat on hers, it was much warmer near the springs and sighed happily. “What’s wrong with you?” She asked in a relaxed tone.
“It must be the thin air.” He looked over at her. Her eyes were closed. He took his chance, and made his way towards the water.