Obi Wan first sees her while camped out on a ridge, watching Luke and his friends. He truly is Anakin's son he thinks lowering the macrobinoculars. That's when he sees something out of the corner of his eye. A hint of blue on the rocks below. Smiling, he turns, ready to greet his old Master. It's been a long while since Qui Gon had appeared. But when he turns it isn't his Master.

Padme Amidala's surprised face looks back at him.

"Obi Wan" she calls out, but it sounds as if she is yelling out over a great distance. He drops his both his binoculars and his canteen, ignores the precious water slowly seeping out and almost begins to slide down the ridge in his haste to climb over rocks and get closer to her.

She is reaching out a hand to him and calling out to him again, and he's no more than a dozen paces away from her, already reaching his hand out to meet hers when she flickers out of existence.

He's left alone again on the mountain, breath heavy in the heat, staring out at the midday haze in confusion.

*

He mediates that night. Reaching out his senses he searches for the hint of a presence that signifies Qui Gon Jinn. He has so many questions. He'd always believed Padme to be Force Null. How could she be appearing now before him? It made no sense. He could be going mad or course, alone too long in his small hut with the heat and only the occasional desert vermin for company, but he didn't think he'd lost his wits. Not yet anyway.

He thought through other possibilities. Could Padme's time with Anakin activated some latent ability, however small? Or perhaps the children…the swirl of the Force surrounding her had been strong in those last moments between the birth of her children and the chaos of his own emotions and the ending of the Republic. He'd never heard of such a thing but Padme, Force or no, had always been a strong presence in life. Perhaps the strength of the Force in her children had had an effect on her.

If only Qui Gon would materialize. Even cryptic musings would be better than nothing. It's been weeks and weeks since his Master appeared to him. Weeks he's been alone, only going to town for more supplies to fix his vaporator or heading up mountains to keep an eye on Luke. Weeks where the individual days blend into each other, a blur of sand and sun and meditation and glimpses of sun bleached hair seen from afar.

That thought drags him out of his meditation. Luke. Could the boy be drawing the ghost of his mother forward somehow? He isn't sure what all Owen and Beru have told the boy, but perhaps a young boy's longing is enough to bring her forth. Why she would appear near himself instead of the boy is a mystery however. Maybe her presence gravitated to who it had know longest in life? Either way, the real question now is, how to reach her again.