XANATOS: DETACHED
by ardavenport
~ ~ ~ PART 1
"Ready for another round?" Bruck asked.
Obi-Wan looked at the empty corridor. Yoda was gone. No one would see if he gave Bruck the beating he deserved. Bruck was often cruel, but usually not so brazen. He was deliberately provoking Obi-Wan, trying to get him to lose his temper.
But why? Obi-Wan wondered.
Of course! "You knew all along that Qui-Gon was coming to search for a Padawan, didn't you," Obi-Wan said slowly as the suspicion hardened into certainty. Since Obi-Wan was the oldest apprentice in the Temple, the Jedi Masters would encourage Qui-Gon to take him - the lost cause. Bruck would not want that to happen.
Bruck laughed. "I made sure you didn't find out. If I'd had my way, you wouldn't have found out until he'd left."
Two cloaked figures watched the confrontation between the two boys from a shadowed alcove of the training room. They both saw the play of expressions on Obi-Wan Kenobi's face, so readable, even without the Force. Surprise, hurt, determination, contempt for Bruck Chun and finally a false casualness that disguised none of the fear that both watchers sensed.
Obi-Wan smiled. "Bruck, three months from now, when you turn thirteen, I hope you'll make a great farmer."
Bruck leaped with a snarl, lightsaber held high. Obi-Wan spun to meet him with a cry on his lips. Flashing blades clashed in a burst of light and buzzing sound as the boys met in the room's center.
The shorter of the two watchers shook his head, concealed under the hood of dusty brown Jedi robe.
"That was. . . .really pathetic," he commented, his voice low, though it was doubtful that the two furiously fighting boys would hear either of them.
"Which one?" his taller companion asked.
"Both," he answered. "Kenobi is the most pretentious little wannabe Jedi I've ever seen. And Chun thinks that power comes from taking it from sad cases like Kenobi. I at least had a lot more style and forethought when I did it. Younger than he is, too."
The other person shrugged his shoulders. "Chun is mere a bully. But Kenobi has real strength underneath all that insecurity." The hooded face looked toward the brawling, angry boys in the training area. They pounded each other with sweaty grunts and inarticulate fury. The Force draining away from their unfocused rage, they were both tiring quickly.
"Oh, no," the smaller watcher said.
The taller figure tore his eyes away from the fight.
"You're going to take Kenobi, aren't you?"
"I haven't said anything," the tall one denied.
"You don't have to," the shorter one accused. "You've got that look on your face, like when you put your arm around a slobbering vagrant and give her my robe to keep warm."
"I only did that once. And that was years ago."
"It took years for me to get the smell out," the shorter one complained before turning back to the fight. The boys were stumbling with exhaustion, striking with single, poorly aimed blows, driven by anger and little else. "So, this is my successor? If he really means to go after Chun, then he could turn that saber up. Take off a few limbs maybe. But I don't think he's even though of that."
"No." The bearded face under the hood smiled. "There is no real darkness in his fear and anger. Just impetuousness."
"Aaaaaah, that is your speciality," the shorter figure agreed and then watched until the two boys exhausted each other, finally stumbling away to separate exits. "I suppose I am to salvage the other one."
"Only if you feel it is right."
There was a long sigh. "I suppose it is. I know what he is thinking."
"Really?"
"Yes." The shorter one answered definitively. "Chun knows that if he cut off Kenobi's arms everyone would know that he did it. That's the only thing stopping him."
"Hmmmm, the boy is that cruel?"
"No crueler than I was. Not nearly as smart as me, but smart enough. I suppose."
"Then you will have years to feel superior to him. If you will have him."
"Only if he will have me," the shorter one almost whispered.
The bearded, hooded face looked down at his companion with concern, but nothing more was said. The two watchers silently left their alcove.
- ooOo%oOOo%oOOOOo%oOOo%oOoo -
A lonely figure, with backpack and carrying bags, walked toward the boarding ramp of the old Corellian barge. Other people and droids came and went, but the boy in Jedi robe and tunics walked in a sad solitary line toward his fate.
Two adult figures in hooded Jedi robes strolled together, observing the boy as he climbed the ramp into the dingy old ship.
"He seems a bit lifeless today. Have you been wearing him out already?" the younger Jedi asked.
"I haven't even begun."
"Really?" The younger man looked up at the older one suspiciously. "Tell me, Master Qui-Gon, have you not chosen this young prospect for your new Padawan?"
"I have permission from the Council," Qui-Gon Jinn nodded. "Just as you, Knight Xanatos, have permission to choose young Bruck for your first pupil."
Xanatos looked toward the ship going to Bandomeer, his companion's destination. His next mission.
"And does young Obi-Wan Kenobi know that he has been chosen?"
"I might have failed to mention it to him," Xanatos's former Master replied innocently.
Xanatos stopped walking.
"Then where does he think he's going?" he demanded.
Pausing and turning, Qui-Gon calmly replied, "I believe he was given an assignment to Agri-Corps. Purely a mistake though. Which I will rectify. At the proper time."
'Agri-Corps' Xanatos mouthed.
"So that boy, right now, thinks he's a cast off, a failure of the Jedi Order."
"Agri-Corps is a perfectly noble calling - - -"
"Agri-Corps isn't a calling. It's the dumping ground of the Jedi Order for its castoffs. Only Master Yoda believes any of the party line about the nobility of planting and growing. If the Order meant what they said about Agri-Corps it would be training their younglings to be farmers. But they only train them to be Knights. And they only break the bad news to the ones who don't meet their standards when it's too late for them to be anything else," Xanatos snarled.
"And you let them give him an assignment to Agri-Corps?" he finished, glaring. "I don't ever remember you being so cruel."
"Perhaps I learned it from you," Qui-Gon replied humorlessly.
The expression drained from Xanatos's pale face, a slight breeze ruffling the bangs of his black hair, the rest of it tied back at the base of his neck.
"Perhaps you did," he acknowledged. "So, you plan to crush his spirit with an assignment to Agri-Corps and then at the appropriately dramatic moment rescue him from his doom and bring him back into the Jedi fold. Thus guaranteeing his fervent loyalty toward you, his savior."
"I am not toying with him," Qui-Gon said, still serious. "But his desire to be a Jedi is such a consuming ambition in him that I do not think he will truly know what it is unless he knows how to let it go."
"Oh, the old Jedi penance of no attachments." Xanatos moaned sarcastically. "Now, even wanting to be a Jedi is too much of an attachment. We must all be so detached." He sighed and resumed walking toward the ship with Qui-Gon.
"At least I now see why you are taking this sub-standard transport to this miserable world. I was beginning to fear for the Jedi Order's resources."
The two stopped again, Xanatos facing the taller man.
"I only hope that there will be something left of Kenobi when you are done with him," Xanatos said.
"May the Force be with you, Xanatos. And your young prospect." Qui-Gon Jinn nodded and left, going up the ramp without a backward glance.
"It will," Xanatos said to his former Master, disappearing into the dark interior of the old transport ship. "I can't seem to get rid of it."
~ ~ ~ END PART 1