Kaleidoscope
25, Ejima
Imperial City (Coruscant).
Nine Years Ago
Broad daylight. The centre of a busy plaza. Spy droids making their rounds up and down the walkways.
The man tipped his hat as he passed a cluster of young belles (they replied with a flutter of curtsies), dropped a coin into the service droid that stood at the edge of the turbolift and grinned at the school children he shared the booth with (they grinned back while each privately concluded that his hat was horrendous). He traveled a few more walkways, rescued a young man from a malfunctioning cleaning droid, and smiled at the service droid that scanned the patrons as they entered through the force-field barrier. Successfully passing through, he strolled into the highbrow caf, stood chatting for a while with the elderly patrons, and finally made his way to the table at the corner.
A man sat with his back to the rest of the room. His face was trained at the wall-long plasti glass before him and if not for his shut eyes, he might have been contemplating the rhythmic patterns of the speeder lanes.
He made no visible sign of awareness, not even a fluttering of his lashes, as the newcomer took the seat beside him.
"I wondered if you would come."
"Why not?" His companion wondered, leaning into his seat and shutting his eyes. "You serve the Force, as I do."
He smiled with eyes wide shut. "Which Force?"
"There is only one Force."
"A theory which has never been proven."
"Or disproved. For someone who once stretched the boundaries of faith – and shattered them – you have become rather close-minded, Grand Jedi Master."
"Is it wise to discuss so openly here?"
"Deaf and blind. The cameras have been taken care of as well. One of many protégés." Graying teeth flashed with a smile.
The Grandmaster's shut lids flew open to show a steady gaze that was filled with sad. "All tools of the Empire."
"Everyone's a tool. The difference between us, you and them is that we at least know who uses us."
Something flared in those ancient eyes. "Then tell me the reason for this summons, Tool of the Empire, but do not speak to me of things you know nothing about."
Low laughter. The kind that a mad man might make in his sleep. "No doubt you've followed the progress of Anakin Skywalker?"
"Yes." Surprise. Caution.
"And no doubt you've tried to snatch hold of him on many occasions and failed. The last time I believe, he killed one of your Jedi, didn't he?"
"Two as a matter of fact." The Grandmaster's voice hardened.
"Two? I must have lost count."
"Is this your purpose? To discover if we've given up the hope of winning one more soul for the Light Side?"
"The Light Side? Yes, an inspiring way of labeling your own agenda."
Silence.
"I brought up dogma again, didn't I? Pardon me. But the problem is, in the matter of Anakin Skywalker, it will be hard to exclude it. After all, you already knew when you found Shmi Skywalker that the child she carried was special, didn't you?"
Very briefly, the Tool's eyes closed. "Yes, we did. His mother was not hyper-chlorian before she conceived but after that… It was unnatural."
"You acted quickly enough. If not for a sheer chance, we might never have got to him on time."
"But you did."
A smile of wicked content spread over the Tool's face. "Yes, we did, didn't we? As you probably know, I have a unique relationship with the boy. I delivered him during childbirth, and brought him up ever since. No altruism on my part. The Emperor developed an interest in him. Who wouldn't have with Skywalker's history? But Palpatine doesn't have time to baby-sit so someone else was brought in.
"We – how did you call me? – Tools find little service to fulfill in the Court so having a young Hand to train has given me a reason to exist as long as I did." His voice became thoughtful. Something that might have been emotion almost – almost seemed to enter it. "I might have done it anyway, though. The boy's power was … hypnotic."
"Is that why Vapaad tried to have him killed at the age of five?"
Laughter. "Your informants were brilliant! It's too bad they died the way they did."
To that, the Grandmaster answered with silence.
"As I was saying, I trained Anakin Skywalker. And while I did, I studied some of the old books, the 'forbidden' literature of the Old Times. Before there was a schism. When there was no Dark or Light or Jedi or Sith, but just the Force, and its slave children. And do you know what I discovered?" He didn't wait for an answer. "That Anakin Skywalker is the Force's avatar. Whether the Light Side or the Dark Side is left for anyone else to decide.
"And that I was living in – how do the Alderaanis describe it? – interesting times."
A very long pause. Then unexpectedly, the Grandmaster sighed.
"So the Sith are aware of the Prophecy? That they have the One."
"All the signs are there. There have been false alarms in the past but this time… there is no doubt. Unless you choose to be blind."
"Then all is lost. He is of the Dark Side."
"What do you propose to do? Destroy him?"
Silence.
"Your focus indicates a rather uncompromising reality."
The Grandmaster glared right at the shut eyes of the other man. "Why, I wonder?" He asked in a dangerously, low whisper. "That is what you want, isn't it?"
Silence. Not so much motion from the other man, but a slight startle in his aura, like a waiting fox who was suddenly discovered.
"That is why you have told us this. The Emperor will not think of it. He's too besotted with power, with the idea that he might actually control the Force through Skywalker. And there's the Court politics to remember. He needs a shield to hold off Vapaad's ambition and that is Skywalker.
"But not you," the Jedi concluded sadly. "As long as the Rule of Two and the Sith Dynasty exists, you are satisfied. And Skywalker threatens that. You are afraid of him. Afraid of the prophecy. Of what might happen if his power were turned on you all. So you wanted to discover if we had given up turning him. And you wanted the Jedi to destroy him."
The eyes finally opened. A pair of soulless grays that echoed long ago madness. "Very clever," the Jinn whispered.
The Jedi swallowed the bile that had risen in his throat. "A little subtlety would have served you better. Lord Jinn, you disappoint me. The Emperor holds you in such high esteem."
"You will do it all the same." All traces of humor had leached out of Jinn's voice.
"We will not be your murderers for you."
"Kill or be killed. Have you forgotten, Teacher?"
A shadow passed over the Grandmaster's face, but his stern gaze did not waver. "That was a lifetime ago."
"For you, maybe. But some of us are still alive."
"You had a choice. You have a choice."
"And so do you. This boy will destroy all of us. As bad as the status quo is for you Jedi, at least you have your insignificant lives. Your covens. That hidden Temple of yours… Why the surprise? Spies work for both sides. They talked a lot before they died."
It raised swift as a beast in the Jedi's breast and the Jinn's eyes gleamed with malicious satisfaction.
"Tyrannus is still there somewhere, isn't he?"
A few years ago, the slip would have shamed the Jedi. Now he looked at his pre-carnation's student with a dignity that the other would never understand. "He is always there. And everyday, I fight him. Everyday, I make the choice: to fight."
Jinn's eyes just gleamed more brightly.
The Jedi rose to his feet. The Force slipped through his soul in desperately soothing waves and he gave his once-upon-a-time brethren/student/friend a look of immense pity.
"May the Force be with you, Qui-Gon."
The Jinn laughed. "Yes, but which Force, apostate?"
But the Jedi was already walking away. His long cloak swept the floor of the room. Jinn imagined he could see the flames leaping at the other's heels.
"Will you be having anything, sir?"
Jinn raised his head slowly to appraise the young waiter. He would do.
The expression of horror on the young man's face was only less delightful than the death-throes of the soul thrashing in the Force.
Far away, he could feel Tyrannus roar only to be beat back with steadier outrage.
The Jinn smiled.
"A present for you, my friend. A reminder that when the time is right, you'll know where to find me.
"And you will kill him for me."
Lord Jinn closed his eyes to the service droids that cleaned away the carcass as he returned to his blind contemplation of the rhythmic patterns of traffic and he listened to the symphonic acceleration of death.
End of Part One