Chapter 36

/

"Tristan, wake up," Anakin demanded as he walked into the younger man's room.

Tristan, always a light sleeper, opened his eyes and blinked the sleep from them. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair before answering Anakin.

"What is it, Master?" he asked groggily.

Anakin sighed as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "I just got a call from Master Windu. He had some…bad news."

"Is Padme okay? Luke, Leia, Arik?"

Anakin nodded. "Yeah, they're all fine. It has nothing to do with them. It's about your…about Benjamen."

"What about him?" Tristan questioned.

Anakin didn't miss his student's anger at the mention of his uncle.

Deciding that Tristan was grown up enough to handle the news, he took a deep breath and spoke. "Master Windu told me that Benjamen has been murdered."

Tristan's eyes widened. "Murdered? Wow."

"I'm sorry for…"

"For what?" the young man interrupted. "Sorry that he's dead? Why? He was a despicable human being, Master. He hated my father."

Anakin sighed. "I know. But he was your uncle, your only family."

Tristan jumped up from his bed and whirled around to face Anakin. "No, he wasn't. He wasn't my family at all, Master. You're my family. You, Padme, Luke, Leia and Arik are my family; Master Garen too, but not Benjamen Kenobi. You told me once when I was a child that biology has very little to do with the things that make people family. You said that love is what makes people a family. Well, I didn't love that man and I seriously doubt that he cared one little bit about me."

Anakin understood Tristan's feelings. He didn't like Obi-Wan's brother at all either, and he too considered Tristan his family.

"There's more," Anakin revealed. "Coruscant Security will be here within the hour to begin their murder investigation."

Tristan's eyes showed shock and his shields slipped slightly revealing just a hint of…something Anakin couldn't place. Quickly it was gone.

"Why are they coming here?" he questioned as he sat down at his desk.

Anakin stood. "I have no idea; perhaps because you and I both knew him, however briefly. I'm sure they just want to ask a few questions and will then be on their way. Get dressed; we have to appear before the Council before they get here."

"Yes, Master."

Anakin left his apprentice to dress while he went back to his room and contacted Padme and told her what was going on.

/

After telling the Council of the confrontation with Benjamen Kenobi and their separate late evening activities, Anakin and Tristan were now both repeating the information for the Coruscant Security officer.

"Where did you go when you left the Temple, Padawan Kenobi?"

Tristan cleared his throat. "I went for a walk. I needed to clear my mind."

"Where did you go?"

"I went to Dex's Diner in CoCo Town," he answered.

"Can anyone confirm that you were there last evening between 1900 and 2130 hours?" the officer asked in a suspicious tone of voice.

Tristan nodded. "Sure. Dex worked late last evening and saw me enter around 1920. You can ask him. He took my order and brought my food. I didn't leave there until at least 2245 hours."

Anakin smiled at his padawan.

"Did you see Benjamen Kenobi on your walk last night from here to the diner?"

"No," Tristan answered easily.

"Master Skywalker, you also left the Temple after your confrontation with the victim. Where did you go?"

"The Sudime Junkyard," he answered easily.

The officer wrinkled his nose. "A junkyard? Did you go there for a specific reason, Master Skywalker?"

Anakin smiled roguishly. "My sons and I have been building a speeder for quite some time and we needed a few parts. My youngest, Arik, went last time and he nearly got himself killed. So, this time I went."

"Get what you needed?"

"Unfortunately not," Anakin answered quickly.

"Is there anyone who can attest to your presence in the junkyard last night, Master Skywalker?"

Anakin nodded. "The night manager of the Sudime will tell you I was there. He was there the entire time I was searching for the part I needed. I was there for three or four hours, from about 1845 until 2230 when I finally gave up."

The officer entered a few things into his datapad then looked up again.

"Padawan Kenobi, what was your relationship with your uncle?"

Tristan didn't fidget, just answered calmly. "We didn't have a relationship, Sir. He may have been my uncle biologically, but I knew little more about him than his name."

"How well did you know him, Master Skywalker?"

"Not well at all," Anakin revealed. "I first met him years ago when my wife and I went to his homeworld of Wukkar to inform him of his brother's death. He was…uninterested at best. My next encounter with him was one week ago when he showed up here on Coruscant. Like my apprentice, I know little more about him than his name and his feelings of indifference where his brother was concerned."

"Are you sorry he's dead, Master Skywalker?"

Anger flashed in Anakin's blue depths, but he managed to reign in his feelings enough to answer the question.

"Yes, I am," he said softly, compassionately. "As a Jedi I have been taught to preserve life at all costs, and I make it my mission to do so. I feel sorrow and a sense of unrealized promise when a life is lost."

"So, you liked the victim and you're sorry he's dead?"

"Yes, I am sorry he's dead," Anakin said through clenched teeth. "No one deserves to be murdered, but don't misunderstand me; I didn't like Benjamen Kenobi at all. He was a despicable human being who cared nothing for my mentor, his own brother. He dismissed Obi-Wan Kenobi's passing as something trivial and then he had the audacity to come here and try to be a part of my apprentice's life. He overstepped his bounds when he made that decision."

The officer recorded a few other things and then presented the same question to Tristan.

"Yes, I'm sorry he's dead," he answered. "Like Master Anakin said, no one deserves to be murdered in cold blood. But I'm not sorry he's gone from my life. I didn't like him, either. I didn't like the way Master Anakin told me he spoke of my father and I didn't like his attitude. Biology made him my uncle, but I felt no connection to him and I won't miss him."

"Well, I think that's all I need from the two of you," the officer said in his flat, disinterested voice. "I'll just be speaking now with the night manager of the Sudime Junkyard and Dex of Dex's Diner."

"Officer Rholar, let me show you out," Master Windu offered. "Follow me."

Anakin and Tristan, along with Yoda watched as the two other men left the room.

"Very proud of both of you, I am," Yoda said. "Handled that well, you both did."

Anakin shrugged. "We told the truth, Master. I am sorry he's dead, but only because murder is a terrible way to lose your life. Not even Benjamen Kenobi deserved an end like that."

Yoda raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment. "Dismissed, you both are. May the Force be with you."

Anakin and Tristan both bowed and exited the chamber together.

/

Several Hours Later

Coruscant Security Headquarters

/

"What's wrong, Rholar?" another officer questioned the veteran investigator.

The gray-haired man shrugged as he tossed his datapad down. "I don't know. There's something…odd about this murder I'm investigating. Everyone I spoke with today corroborates the stories the two Jedi gave me."

"That's a good thing, right?" the other man questioned. "Jedi don't lie anyway. What did you expect? That you'd find out they had both lied and had murdered the guy?"

Rholar shook his head. "No, I suppose not. I mean, there weren't any signs of lightsaber wounds on the victim, and there were mild signs of a struggle. I can't imagine that a Jedi would have to struggle to kill someone, not with their powers. But there's just…something I can't put my finger on. Something is out of place, I know it. I've been doing this long enough to know when something isn't right; my gut tells me."

"Something like what?"

"I wish I knew," he sighed. "I also wish I knew how far the Jedi Council would go to protect one of their own."

"You mean; would they lie to protect a murderer if the victim was someone they didn't think worthy of living, particularly if the murderer was a Jedi?"

Rholar nodded. "Yes, exactly like that. The Jedi, the famous one, Anakin Skywalker, he's the one teaching the nephew of our victim, and he's the former student of the victim's deceased brother. He'd want to protect the kid if he did it, and the Jedi Order as a whole would probably fight to the death to protect Skywalker if he did it. So I'm just wondering if I'll ever find out the truth behind all the power and mystique of the Jedi Order."

"You don't really believe that either of them had anything to do with this, do you, Jarek?"

Jarek Rholar took a deep breath. "I don't want to believe it. I like the Jedi, I do. I liked Skywalker and his apprentice. They answered my questions honestly and openly and I respect that, but I have to wonder if I would even have known had they not been honest and open."

"I guess you'll just have to take them at their word."

"Guess I will," Rholar agreed. "I'm going to head home. I'll look at this case with fresh eyes tomorrow."

The two men parted and Rholar continued to think the case over as he drove his speeder home.

/

Jedi Temple

/

Tristan and Anakin had spent the rest of their day in the training room sparring. They'd practices advanced katas for hours and now, after a nice hot shower, Tristan was lying in bed. He was exhausted, but also exhilarated. His mind was still twirling a thousand parsecs a minute.

When he finally drifted off into sleep, his dreams came.

/

1920 Hours

Dex's Diner

/

"Hey, Dex!" Tristan called as he entered the diner.

The tall Besalisk smiled widely and came out to hug Tristan. "Hey, kid. Good to see you. What can I get you tonight?"

Tristan smiled. He loved Dex's friendly nature. "I'll have the nerf steak, stewed Corellian potatoes and some blue milk."

"You got it," Dex said as he went back into the kitchen.

Tristan spread a collection datapads out before him as he waited for his meal to arrive. He was brushing up on some of his Galactic History when he noticed Benjamen Kenobi walking past the diner.

Looking into the kitchen, he saw that Dex was the only employee still there other than one of the droid waitresses and that he was the only customer left. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and tentatively reached out with his mind. He lightly brushed Dex's mind with his own and concentrated on planting a vision in the mind of the friendly cook. He'd never tried the technique before and had only read about it in a mission report written by a Corellian Jedi named Valin Halcyon. But his power had grown so much under Anakin's tutelage that he was confident he could make it work.

Tristan needed for Dex to believe that he was in the same booth for as long as what he had planned took him to complete. With all the power he had in the Force, he pushed the vision of himself eating and drinking and laughing with Dex into the Besalisk's mind.

When he opened his eyes, Dex was standing in front of him, plate of food in hand.

"Here you go, little Jedi," Dex said.

Tristan laughed at the nickname. "Thanks, Dex."

He didn't know if it had worked, but he'd have to take the chance anyway. He took a few bites and then stood. As he walked past the droid waitress, he lightly touched the back, using the Force to short out her power supply. She was fried instantly and unable to ask him where he was going.

/

"I would have thought that after Master Anakin's warning you would have left the planet," Tristan called out when he caught up to Benjamen.

The older man turned around and smiled. "I guess I was hoping for one more chance with you."

Tristan sneered. "A chance with me for what? Being my friend? My uncle? You should have started with showing some respect for your dead brother, my father!"

"Listen, kid, I never…"

He stopped suddenly when he heard a snap-hiss and then saw a glowing blade before him.

"No, you listen," Tristan said in a dangerously low tone. "You don't get any more chances. It ends here, now."

Benjamen laughed. "What, are you going to kill me? You, the good little Jedi-in-training are going to kill me in cold blood? You don't have it in you, kid. You aren't much like your father near as I can tell. I may not have known Luke, but I saw enough on the HoloNet to know that he was a hero many times over. But you're so much less than that, aren't you? You're…"

"Shut up!" Tristan yelled, his anger clearly coming through his shields now. His breathing had increased and his eyes were clouded.

"His name was Obi-Wan! My father's name was Obi-Wan!" he continued to yell. "He was a great man, but you aren't! You don't deserve to even speak his name!"

"Oh, is the young Jedi losing his calm center?" Benjamen goaded. "How disappointed your father wou…"

His sentence was cut off as the vibro-blade pierced his chest. His shocked eyes met Tristan's glowing yellow ones as his hands grasped at his wound.

"You…"

Tristan smiled evilly. "Yes, Uncle. I killed you. You don't deserve to live. You're a despicable human being who only brings misery to those around you. I've cleansed this galaxy of your presence forever. You can die knowing that I hate you with everything inside me, with everything that I am."

His breaths coming further apart as he collapsed, Benjamen looked up at the young man that was his nephew and saw pure evil staring back. His eyes closed slowly, but he saw Tristan walking towards him and felt it when he pulled the vibro-blade from his chest.

"You…wo…won't get…away…with…th…this," Benjamen choked out, blood dripping from his mouth now.

Tristan wiped the blade on Benjamen's shirt and smiled. "I'm a Jedi. Of course I'll get away with it, Uncle. You're just another dead man, but I'm going to be a hero like my father. Goodbye."

Tristan sprinted from the scene of the crime undetected while Benjamen lay there bleeding to death. As his life-force ebbed away and finally faded, Tristan carefully entered the diner once more and sat down. He finished his meal just as Dex came over.

"Sure been good talking with you, Tris," he said. "You should come down here more often and chat for a few hours."

Tristan grinned. "Sure thing, Dex. I had a great time tonight."

/

Tristan woke up covered in sweat.

"It actually worked," he whispered into the empty room. "I got away with murder."

He lay back down and closed his eyes, once again drifting into sleep with his victory held tightly in his heart.

/

"Are you sure this is a wise course of action, Father?" Mara asked her father, Darex.

The man smiled at his daughter. "Of course I'm sure. You're grandfather's fatal mistake was in trying to ruin the Jedi Order, to destroy them completely. I don't want to destroy them, I want to change them. I want them to become my dark warriors."

"Is that even possible? As you said, Grandfather made mistakes. What if you make them too?"

Darex smiled at his seventeen-year-old daughter. "I won't. Palpatine chose to reveal himself to Anakin Skywalker too soon. We won't reveal ourselves until Tristan Kenobi is firmly within our grasp. I won't make my father's mistakes."

Mara smiled, though she was becoming increasingly unsure of her father's plans. For now, she'd watch him carefully and decide what to do if he became as unstable as her grandfather had so many years before.