The next morning Xanatos was in his study, a room off the spacious
library he had accumulated. It was there that Obi-wan met him.
Even though he was engrossed in his work, Xanatos knew the minute his new project had approached the door. Show time. "Good morning! I hadn't expected to see you this early. Did you sleep well?"
"Yes. I did Xanatos, thank you." Obi-wan looked a little nervous.
"I'm glad. I was thinking we could get some breakfast and then I could show you the house. Would that be okay with you?" "Yes Xanatos." The boy was looking at the floor.
"Obi-wan look at me." Hesitantly, Obi-wan did. "In this house, you are not my slave. Whatever mannerisms or phrases they may have taught you, you can leave at the door. Do you understand?"
"Okay. What about outside?"
"We'll deal with that later. Are you hungry? Would you like some breakfast?"
"Okay."
"Let's go see what's in the kitchen." Xanatos was a little uneasy about taking charge; but if he didn't do something, they'd be standing here all day.
After breakfast, which was pretty quiet, Xanatos showed Obi-wan around his home. He showed him the kitchen and he main rooms reserved for company. Then he led his new charge to the more private sections of the house. When he saw the gym, a fairly large room off the inner courtyard, Xanatos felt Obi-wan's interest peak.
"You can use this if you like."
"Really?" Obi-wan looked around at the mat and the exercise equipment, clearly wanting to try it out.
"Of course. Mi casratta, tu casratta."
Obi-wan glanced at him, confused.
Xanatos smiled. "Do you speak anything other than basic?"
"Um, a little Malastare and some Huttese."
"Uh, horrible, guttural languages. I was speaking Lativan. It meant, my house, your house."
"It sounded very elegant."
"You can learn it if you want. A friend of mine knows a lot of languages."
"Okay."
"How much education did you get?"
"Um, basic math and science and um- civics and that sort of stuff. I know a lot, I just um, haven't used it much lately."
"I understand. Well, you've seen the house. I have to finish a bunch of work related junk, but then we can do whatever you like." "Xanatos?"
"Yeah, Obi-wan?"
"What am I supposed to do here?"
"Why don't you think about what you would like to do here, and we'll talk about it at dinner? In the meantime feel free to poke around or read, or whatever."
For the rest of the day, Xanatos kept a light Force touch on Obi-wan while doing his work, monitoring where he went. At first he spent time at a computer terminal, researching what had happened in the last four months, then he looked at the basic laws of Conip and other worlds in the area. Later, Xanatos was intrigued to find that he had returned to the gymnasium and was trying to practice the katas he had obviously learned at the Temple.
It was slow going for the boy. In the beginning, he seemed to think that he had merely been out of practice and insisted on repeating each and every movement until he got it right. After a lot of practice, the physical aspects of the katas were indeed flawless. The boy had good muscle tone and balance; both of which promised that he would become a formidable warrior. But the calming, meditative purposes of the katas never came.
Xanatos could feel the frustration seething deep in the boy's mind. Each attempt at the katas brought less and less of the intended reassurance. The Force would not answer him.
Xanatos had conveniently forgotten to remove the band that the slavers had around Obi-wan's neck. It kept the force adept who wore it from being able to access the Force. They could neither use it nor feel it.
But Obi-wan had gotten used to it over the past four months. It was only as he tried an activity specifically designed to center one's self within the Force did he notice the lack of its aid. And it was frustrating him.
His frustration was also due no doubt in part to the confusion that had surrounded his life lately. Xanatos could see this in the roil that was going on under the surface of Obi-wan's mind.
The Jedi didn't want him. And why should they? He was so weak he couldn't even protect the friends he'd made at Agricorps from getting beaten and sold. He couldn't even protect himself from getting beaten and sold. And where had they ended up? He could only guess. Look where he was- in the lap of luxury with a man who had been nothing but gracious and considerate. A man who was letting him decide what he wanted to do with his life!
A misstep caused him to come down on his knee a little harder than he probably should have. This only served to elevate the mental chewing out the boy was giving himself.
He was so stupid and Force-forsaken he couldn't even do this STUPID kata!
Xanatos could feel a strange change in the flow of the Force around him, but he was busy listening to Obi-wan and paid it no mind.
THUD!
The noise distracted Xanatos from listening to Obi-wan's consciousness. What was that?
The sound of breaking glass splintered through the air.
Wasting no more time, Xanatos hurried to the gym. The collar lay in little pieces on the floor. Obi-wan was still going through his katas, physically flawless. Much of the gymnasium equipment not bolted down was flying through the air in a small whirlwind of weights, foils, and now, since the window had been broken, glassine rain.
Obi-wan Kenobi had gotten perturbed. And in his distraction, the Dark Side of the Force flowed throughout the room.
He really seemed oblivious to it all. A quick check of his thoughts revealed that he was being as self deprecating as ever.
A shard of glass sliced its way past Xanatos' eye, missing the orb and nicking the scalp. OK, fun's over. Time for a direct approach.
'Obi-wan, it's past time for you to stop beating yourself up like this. Do you think you can keep up your control once you've come to your senses?'
'What?' Obi-wan was surprised to feel another voice speaking in his head.
'Come to your senses!'
All of a sudden, Obi-wan stopped moving. The debris hit the mat as if it had never flown. The shocked look on Obi-wan's face as he saw the destruction increased as he saw the blood dripping down the side of his Master's face.
A wave of nothing less than pure terror assaulted Xanatos as the boy realized what he had done. The thoughts became even more disconcerting.
He had drawn the blood of a Master. The one thing those pirates had taught him that was at all useful in his new life was that he should never, ever cause harm to the sentient that held title to him. This lesson had come after he had tried to escape and had attacked one of his guards. This had been after they had put the collar on him. It was a lesson he'd sworn never to forget, and now he had hurt the only man who had treated him like-.
'Obi-wan, Stop it! Wake up and talk to me, not yourself. I'm not going to hurt you.' Xanatos needed to stop this destructive train of thought and get Obi-wan to talk to him. He was good with words and maybe he could use this opportunity to, adjust, the boy's thinking a bit.
"Master, I-." Obi-wan started to say.
"Stop. Obi-wan, you are not my slave. I will not beat you. You just got a little upset, it happens all the time. You're human."
"But I destroyed the-."
"Look. As upset as you were, and as untrained as you are, I'm surprised you exercised that much control. You are certainly not worthless or Force forsaken."
Obi-wan winced. "You heard that?"
Since the boy had been oblivious to his Force use and saw only the after effects, a small white lie wouldn't hurt. "You were projecting rather loudly."
Obi-wan's face fell.
"Come on, let's go sit in the other room."
"But I have to clean up this-."
"Obi-wan, we can both do that later. Come on."
Xanatos led Obi-wan into a small sitting room off the inner courtyard. "I think we should talk about you and what you're going to do here, but first I need you to tell me what's eating at you. What fool put the idea in your head that you were Force forsaken? It couldn't have been the pirates, they knew you weren't or else they wouldn't have put that collar on you."
Obi-wan took a minute to consider his answer. As he did, Xanatos focused on the boy's connection to the Force. The sheer power of the Dark Side had caused the collar to shatter. So for now he had to dampen the boy's access to the Force to keep it from giving him any insights to his own character. The rest could wait.
"I was sent to Agricorps on assignment after my thirteenth birthday."
"They still have that magic thirteen rule?"
"Yeah."
"Obi-wan, lots of former initiates are sent on assignment away from the Temple; that isn't a disgrace."
"Well, there was a Master who came to look at the padawans. He didn't want me."
"Did he accept any of the other padawans?" Obi-wan shook his head. "Then, Obi-wan, that's his problem; it had nothing to do with you."
"But on the way to Bandomeer, he was on the ship too, and we even fought together. We were a good team, I thought if I were good enough, he'd take me for his Padawan. On Bandomeer he had these meetings with you, and then he left me there."
"Master Qui-Gon Jinn." Xanatos could only dampen the emotion in his voice at those words.
"Yeah. Did you know him at the Temple?"
"Yeah. It's a long story. The prologue is that, Qui-Gon was my Master. One day I got a message from my father that he needed me. There was a fight, and Qui-Gon told me not to help him, that if I did I could be expelled from the Order. I didn't believe him."
"Why would he expel you for helping a man?"
"I never found out, I got there just in time to watch my father die. And when I returned the Council told me that Qui-Gon had cancelled my apprenticeship." Xanatos was pleased at the indignant, loyal emotions surging through Obi-wan's mind. They had common ground now. So what if the truth was skewed slightly.
"But, wouldn't Yoda ask another Master to complete your training?"
"They upheld his decision. Listen, Obi-wan. Qui-Gon was not the best of Masters. He had power, sure, but that didn't mean he was a good teacher. Believe me, you're better off."
Obi-wan looked at him through dead eyes. Better off!? "But he left me there, I wasn't good enough. And then the raid-." He stopped speaking.
"Just because he left you in a situation where you were vulnerable, it does not mean that you are Force forsaken. The Force does not sell its followers to slavery to get them out of the way, if anything, it helps them. If you need proof, look at the gym. Only an adept with a strong connection to the Force could do that while under the influence of an inhibitor."
"But I lost control!"
"Obi-wan, your experiences in the galaxy should have taught you by now that what they didn't teach you in the temple can kill you. In this case, you needed that lack of control to break through to the Force and now that you can touch it and feel it and use it, you're free in all but name."
"I don't want to risk that again. I don't want to hurt anyone accidentally or otherwise."
"But don't you see? In most places in order to survive, you have to."
Obi-wan looked startled. It was enough to get him to stop worrying about his abusive past and the Dark Side for a moment.
Xanatos smiled to himself. Well get used to shocks kid, it's a galaxy of kill or be killed, surprises don't announce themselves.
"For example, the Jedi are oftentimes reduced to violence to protect others. That's one of the reasons you know all those katas you were practicing so avidly earlier. They knew you would need it someday and saw fit to teach you. One of your talents is your connection with the Force. It is an edge that can save not only your life but the lives of those around you."
"I'm not good enough." Obi-wan reverted ever so slightly to his slave demeanor.
"I can teach you if you like. Then we'll see if you're good enough."
Obi-wan's Force sense perked up a bit. But still, a wave of reserve ran as undercurrent to his interest. The boy didn't believe him. He still doubted himself. Well, that was alright for Xanatos' purposes.
"I warn you, it will mean hard work. You'll have to learn more than how to wield a lightsaber or disarm opponents. I'll teach you other things too that you'll need to know in this universe and it'll probably seem strange. Is that all right?"
Obi-wan stopped to think for a minute. Xanatos could tell that the hits had come hard and fast for him today. But what it basically boiled down to was; what choice did the boy have?
"I'd like that, thank you."
"Well then, let's get to it."
Even though he was engrossed in his work, Xanatos knew the minute his new project had approached the door. Show time. "Good morning! I hadn't expected to see you this early. Did you sleep well?"
"Yes. I did Xanatos, thank you." Obi-wan looked a little nervous.
"I'm glad. I was thinking we could get some breakfast and then I could show you the house. Would that be okay with you?" "Yes Xanatos." The boy was looking at the floor.
"Obi-wan look at me." Hesitantly, Obi-wan did. "In this house, you are not my slave. Whatever mannerisms or phrases they may have taught you, you can leave at the door. Do you understand?"
"Okay. What about outside?"
"We'll deal with that later. Are you hungry? Would you like some breakfast?"
"Okay."
"Let's go see what's in the kitchen." Xanatos was a little uneasy about taking charge; but if he didn't do something, they'd be standing here all day.
After breakfast, which was pretty quiet, Xanatos showed Obi-wan around his home. He showed him the kitchen and he main rooms reserved for company. Then he led his new charge to the more private sections of the house. When he saw the gym, a fairly large room off the inner courtyard, Xanatos felt Obi-wan's interest peak.
"You can use this if you like."
"Really?" Obi-wan looked around at the mat and the exercise equipment, clearly wanting to try it out.
"Of course. Mi casratta, tu casratta."
Obi-wan glanced at him, confused.
Xanatos smiled. "Do you speak anything other than basic?"
"Um, a little Malastare and some Huttese."
"Uh, horrible, guttural languages. I was speaking Lativan. It meant, my house, your house."
"It sounded very elegant."
"You can learn it if you want. A friend of mine knows a lot of languages."
"Okay."
"How much education did you get?"
"Um, basic math and science and um- civics and that sort of stuff. I know a lot, I just um, haven't used it much lately."
"I understand. Well, you've seen the house. I have to finish a bunch of work related junk, but then we can do whatever you like." "Xanatos?"
"Yeah, Obi-wan?"
"What am I supposed to do here?"
"Why don't you think about what you would like to do here, and we'll talk about it at dinner? In the meantime feel free to poke around or read, or whatever."
For the rest of the day, Xanatos kept a light Force touch on Obi-wan while doing his work, monitoring where he went. At first he spent time at a computer terminal, researching what had happened in the last four months, then he looked at the basic laws of Conip and other worlds in the area. Later, Xanatos was intrigued to find that he had returned to the gymnasium and was trying to practice the katas he had obviously learned at the Temple.
It was slow going for the boy. In the beginning, he seemed to think that he had merely been out of practice and insisted on repeating each and every movement until he got it right. After a lot of practice, the physical aspects of the katas were indeed flawless. The boy had good muscle tone and balance; both of which promised that he would become a formidable warrior. But the calming, meditative purposes of the katas never came.
Xanatos could feel the frustration seething deep in the boy's mind. Each attempt at the katas brought less and less of the intended reassurance. The Force would not answer him.
Xanatos had conveniently forgotten to remove the band that the slavers had around Obi-wan's neck. It kept the force adept who wore it from being able to access the Force. They could neither use it nor feel it.
But Obi-wan had gotten used to it over the past four months. It was only as he tried an activity specifically designed to center one's self within the Force did he notice the lack of its aid. And it was frustrating him.
His frustration was also due no doubt in part to the confusion that had surrounded his life lately. Xanatos could see this in the roil that was going on under the surface of Obi-wan's mind.
The Jedi didn't want him. And why should they? He was so weak he couldn't even protect the friends he'd made at Agricorps from getting beaten and sold. He couldn't even protect himself from getting beaten and sold. And where had they ended up? He could only guess. Look where he was- in the lap of luxury with a man who had been nothing but gracious and considerate. A man who was letting him decide what he wanted to do with his life!
A misstep caused him to come down on his knee a little harder than he probably should have. This only served to elevate the mental chewing out the boy was giving himself.
He was so stupid and Force-forsaken he couldn't even do this STUPID kata!
Xanatos could feel a strange change in the flow of the Force around him, but he was busy listening to Obi-wan and paid it no mind.
THUD!
The noise distracted Xanatos from listening to Obi-wan's consciousness. What was that?
The sound of breaking glass splintered through the air.
Wasting no more time, Xanatos hurried to the gym. The collar lay in little pieces on the floor. Obi-wan was still going through his katas, physically flawless. Much of the gymnasium equipment not bolted down was flying through the air in a small whirlwind of weights, foils, and now, since the window had been broken, glassine rain.
Obi-wan Kenobi had gotten perturbed. And in his distraction, the Dark Side of the Force flowed throughout the room.
He really seemed oblivious to it all. A quick check of his thoughts revealed that he was being as self deprecating as ever.
A shard of glass sliced its way past Xanatos' eye, missing the orb and nicking the scalp. OK, fun's over. Time for a direct approach.
'Obi-wan, it's past time for you to stop beating yourself up like this. Do you think you can keep up your control once you've come to your senses?'
'What?' Obi-wan was surprised to feel another voice speaking in his head.
'Come to your senses!'
All of a sudden, Obi-wan stopped moving. The debris hit the mat as if it had never flown. The shocked look on Obi-wan's face as he saw the destruction increased as he saw the blood dripping down the side of his Master's face.
A wave of nothing less than pure terror assaulted Xanatos as the boy realized what he had done. The thoughts became even more disconcerting.
He had drawn the blood of a Master. The one thing those pirates had taught him that was at all useful in his new life was that he should never, ever cause harm to the sentient that held title to him. This lesson had come after he had tried to escape and had attacked one of his guards. This had been after they had put the collar on him. It was a lesson he'd sworn never to forget, and now he had hurt the only man who had treated him like-.
'Obi-wan, Stop it! Wake up and talk to me, not yourself. I'm not going to hurt you.' Xanatos needed to stop this destructive train of thought and get Obi-wan to talk to him. He was good with words and maybe he could use this opportunity to, adjust, the boy's thinking a bit.
"Master, I-." Obi-wan started to say.
"Stop. Obi-wan, you are not my slave. I will not beat you. You just got a little upset, it happens all the time. You're human."
"But I destroyed the-."
"Look. As upset as you were, and as untrained as you are, I'm surprised you exercised that much control. You are certainly not worthless or Force forsaken."
Obi-wan winced. "You heard that?"
Since the boy had been oblivious to his Force use and saw only the after effects, a small white lie wouldn't hurt. "You were projecting rather loudly."
Obi-wan's face fell.
"Come on, let's go sit in the other room."
"But I have to clean up this-."
"Obi-wan, we can both do that later. Come on."
Xanatos led Obi-wan into a small sitting room off the inner courtyard. "I think we should talk about you and what you're going to do here, but first I need you to tell me what's eating at you. What fool put the idea in your head that you were Force forsaken? It couldn't have been the pirates, they knew you weren't or else they wouldn't have put that collar on you."
Obi-wan took a minute to consider his answer. As he did, Xanatos focused on the boy's connection to the Force. The sheer power of the Dark Side had caused the collar to shatter. So for now he had to dampen the boy's access to the Force to keep it from giving him any insights to his own character. The rest could wait.
"I was sent to Agricorps on assignment after my thirteenth birthday."
"They still have that magic thirteen rule?"
"Yeah."
"Obi-wan, lots of former initiates are sent on assignment away from the Temple; that isn't a disgrace."
"Well, there was a Master who came to look at the padawans. He didn't want me."
"Did he accept any of the other padawans?" Obi-wan shook his head. "Then, Obi-wan, that's his problem; it had nothing to do with you."
"But on the way to Bandomeer, he was on the ship too, and we even fought together. We were a good team, I thought if I were good enough, he'd take me for his Padawan. On Bandomeer he had these meetings with you, and then he left me there."
"Master Qui-Gon Jinn." Xanatos could only dampen the emotion in his voice at those words.
"Yeah. Did you know him at the Temple?"
"Yeah. It's a long story. The prologue is that, Qui-Gon was my Master. One day I got a message from my father that he needed me. There was a fight, and Qui-Gon told me not to help him, that if I did I could be expelled from the Order. I didn't believe him."
"Why would he expel you for helping a man?"
"I never found out, I got there just in time to watch my father die. And when I returned the Council told me that Qui-Gon had cancelled my apprenticeship." Xanatos was pleased at the indignant, loyal emotions surging through Obi-wan's mind. They had common ground now. So what if the truth was skewed slightly.
"But, wouldn't Yoda ask another Master to complete your training?"
"They upheld his decision. Listen, Obi-wan. Qui-Gon was not the best of Masters. He had power, sure, but that didn't mean he was a good teacher. Believe me, you're better off."
Obi-wan looked at him through dead eyes. Better off!? "But he left me there, I wasn't good enough. And then the raid-." He stopped speaking.
"Just because he left you in a situation where you were vulnerable, it does not mean that you are Force forsaken. The Force does not sell its followers to slavery to get them out of the way, if anything, it helps them. If you need proof, look at the gym. Only an adept with a strong connection to the Force could do that while under the influence of an inhibitor."
"But I lost control!"
"Obi-wan, your experiences in the galaxy should have taught you by now that what they didn't teach you in the temple can kill you. In this case, you needed that lack of control to break through to the Force and now that you can touch it and feel it and use it, you're free in all but name."
"I don't want to risk that again. I don't want to hurt anyone accidentally or otherwise."
"But don't you see? In most places in order to survive, you have to."
Obi-wan looked startled. It was enough to get him to stop worrying about his abusive past and the Dark Side for a moment.
Xanatos smiled to himself. Well get used to shocks kid, it's a galaxy of kill or be killed, surprises don't announce themselves.
"For example, the Jedi are oftentimes reduced to violence to protect others. That's one of the reasons you know all those katas you were practicing so avidly earlier. They knew you would need it someday and saw fit to teach you. One of your talents is your connection with the Force. It is an edge that can save not only your life but the lives of those around you."
"I'm not good enough." Obi-wan reverted ever so slightly to his slave demeanor.
"I can teach you if you like. Then we'll see if you're good enough."
Obi-wan's Force sense perked up a bit. But still, a wave of reserve ran as undercurrent to his interest. The boy didn't believe him. He still doubted himself. Well, that was alright for Xanatos' purposes.
"I warn you, it will mean hard work. You'll have to learn more than how to wield a lightsaber or disarm opponents. I'll teach you other things too that you'll need to know in this universe and it'll probably seem strange. Is that all right?"
Obi-wan stopped to think for a minute. Xanatos could tell that the hits had come hard and fast for him today. But what it basically boiled down to was; what choice did the boy have?
"I'd like that, thank you."
"Well then, let's get to it."
