Author's Note: My thanks to: thewayfaringstrangers, Jedi Ani Unduli, Xan Fan and Barranca for kindly leaving feedback.
Xanatos was not intoxicated though he had indulged in his fair share of alcoholic libation. Commiserating over his former master had caused a fissure in the impenetrable barrier he had erected around his stainless steel mindset and now cracks were threatening to cause the swell of his emotions to rupture and flow.
"There are advantages to a mind wipe, you know."
"You're joking, right?"
"Actually, I'm totally serious."
Ben was taken aback. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"On the contrary," the noble was unwavering, "Memories are both a blessing and a curse, my friend. They inspire the best and worst emotions in all living beings. Be it euphoric happiness, agonizing despair, or in my particular case, scathing animosity." He elaborated, "I abhor wasting my time being consumed by rancorous hostility and dreams of vengeance against Qui-Gon Jinn and yet the antagonistic emotions continue to plague me like a spice addict's voracius obsession."
"Xan," allowing the man the chance to check his dolorous outpouring. "You don't have to talk about this if you don't want to."
Suddenly carefree with conversation, the older man continued unabated. "With an abundance of wealth at my disposal, anything I could ever want or need is mine for the asking and yet...I've never entertained the idea of utilizing the services of an analytical mind healer. Trust issues...you see."
Ben was empathetic as ever, "Personally, I know someone who'll lend an ear for no charge whatsoever.
"Everyone celebrated the fact that the megalomaniacal madman was dead. Dispatched by the good and decent Jedi master who expected me, the loyal apprentice, to fall in lock step with the rest of the rabble and cheer that evil had been justifiably vanquished." The Telosian's bitterness was acute. "Qui-Gon Jinn killed my father...A man labelled insane, drunk on omnipotentcy and bent on planetary domination...But still...he was my father."
Treading carefully, the knight asked, "Wasn't it self-defense?"
"The crusading Jedi master would have you believe that the confrontational issues were patently black and white. However, they were not." The man's resentment was razor sharp. "There was more at stake than just the liberation of Telos. Something else was up for grabs that they were fighting over."
"Which was?"
"Me."
"You?..."
"In my father's mind, giving me up to the Jedi had been a highly regrettable mistake. He believed I had been molded into nothing more than a common peace officer when rightfully, I was his one true heir. The scion to his vast empire. The legacy that would allow his name to live on."
"...and Qui-Gon?"
"Hah!.," Xanatos snorted. "To him, I could never be a blueblood aristocrat. My obligatory duty was to be the embodiment of what he envisioned the ideal Jedi to be."
"I don't know what to say."
"Words cannot express how harrowing it is to see someone who brought you into the world, being run through with an emerald lightsaber that had only been used to cut down villainous riff-raff in the past."
After a pause, Ben presumed, "The traumatiac ordeal caused you to renounce being a Jedi."
"Not merely that, I bolted entirely in the opposite direction." The noble further detailed, "I went rogue and learned about Darkness first hand. Basking and dotingly cultivating my dabblings in the Dark till the culmination where I felt that I was experiencing the exact same precipitous demented frenzy that my father had succumbed to."
"Had you fallen that far?" The concern in the young man's voice was evident.
Looking back today, I'm amazed at how recklessly moral and ethically backrupt I had become." Xan demonstratively opened his arms. "I wanted to rule over everyone and everything within my insatiable grubby little mitts."
"What was the turning point?"
"I feared my connection to the Force had changed...or maybe...warped would be a better description. The abilities were still there, only they felt different. Dull...not invigorating; restrained...not free flowing; bloated...not ephemeral. It was then, power, profit, property and the rapacious desire for only the finest trappings of life became anathema to me. Ultimately, I reached the shocking realization of how empty it all was." He deeply sighed. "I had to perform a radical about-face in order to regain the quintessential esprit that was lost and believe it or not, I somehow summoned up the wherewithal to turn back."
"I take it you're not completely out of the woods yet?"
"All that remains is the furor over what might have been." Xanatos was forlorn. "I could have saved him...Like I was able to save myself...If only I had been given the chance to save him - But, Qui-Gon Jinn killed my father."
Sulkan Vidor did not look forward to transmitting the communique, but feared he was putting his life at more considerable risk if he did not do so.
He had done underhanded work before being in the employ of a motley assortment of shifty kingpins, corrupt businessmen and even nefarious spicepushers, but none terrified him like the one who referred to himself as Sidious.
Rich compensation though, made working for someone who made his blood run cold easily tolerable. Once communication was established on the highly encrypted secure line, a shadowy image appeared.
"I warned you never to contact me on this channel under any circumstances." The voice dripped with disgruntled disfavor. "Your ineptitude knows no bounds."
"My most deepest apologies, but I wanted to report that the Jedi Kenobi has finally surfaced."
"At last..." The Sith Lord's momentary glee was replaced suddenly by annoying pique. "It was your bumbling incompetence which allowed him to slip out of our range of detection in the first place. You were supposed to keep meticulous tabs on who he was bought and sold to."
"I...I know it was my...my fault," The man sputtered. "I lost my bearings on him. There was no difficulty eyeballing the glacial basalt quarry supervisor, the teak plantation owner, or the cobalt mine overseer. In this particular case, the last buyer to purchase him did a masterful scrupulous job of covering his tracks. I'm sure it was deliberate."
"I have so missed receiving the timely reports and vivid holopics on the drudgery of his torturous slave existence." The Sith harkened back. "Ah! The amusing pleasure and enjoyment the updates of his routine suffering, subjugation and abasement aroused. I was most displeased when it was discovered that he was nowhere to be found."
"Lo and behold. He and a companion recently arrived on Naboo asking questions."
"Was it that tiresome obstinate Jedi master Jinn?"
"No...My sources inform me that Qui-Gon Jinn is still on Coruscant training his padawan, Anakin Skywalker. The new ally is a former student of Jinn's. Xanatos deCrion."
"Indeed! I've heard intriguing innuendos pertaining to this Telosian prodigal son. This certainly adds more fuel to the fire."
"It makes perfect sense. Being the premiere key executive to Offworld, with his acuity in mining interests, his agents somehow came across the mind-wiped Kenobi, at his last place of servitude, purely by coincidence."
"A most lamentable outcome. I must credit the Jedi Council for their discretion about his keeping his reappearance under wraps. Several casual inqueries on the knight have been met with courteous covert pretenses as to his whereabouts. It mustn't be forgotten that Master Yoda has the artful ability to be as furtive and crafty as I."
Hoping to add some positive news, the lackey noted, "From what I can gather, the mind-wipe is still intact."
"Of course it is, you fool," Sidious derided, "That ground breaking procedure should retain its effectiveness. However, I am never one to leave anything to chance. He may still be a threat to my burgeoning plans. Luckily, in his present state, he's worthless as a Jedi."
"Do you want me to have them eliminated?"
"This is why you are nothing but an insipid underling to me." The Sith said with disdain. "You cannot comprehend the beauty of the whole challenge. The passion for the hunt...Little do my enemies know, I hold all the cards in the deck and they are stacked in my favor."
Vidor was at a total loss as to how to proceed. "What are your orders?"
"I'm not done with Kenobi just yet. There's definitely more fun to be had. Do exactly as I command."
