Anakin's comm began to beep. He grunted, wondering who would be disturbing him that early in the morning. His annoyance quickly turned to excitement as he saw that the message was from Palpatine. The Chancellor kept taking interest in Anakin and seemed to be the only one to appreciate his talents and potential, unlike the Masters and teachers at the Jedi temple. Palpatine invited him to come see him at his office, and to introduce his new Master to him. Obviously, Palpatine wanted to meet the person who would supervise his training from now on. After a shor search, Anakin found the Nantoan in a dark corner of the archives, surrounded by a pile of notes and his eyes sternly fixed on the screen in front of him, the opened, dimly glowing holocron its side.
"Master? Chancellor Palpatine has summoned me, and he wants you to come as well."
"The Chancellor? Why the Chancellor? Right now?" Kenshin raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Yes, Master"
"What would the chancellor want from us?"
"Well, he wants to see us."
"Why?"
"Chancellor Palpatine has always been sort of a mentor to me, ever since the battle of Naboo. Sometimes I can come see him, and he'll talk to me about politics and such things, and once in a while I accompany him to smaller events or senate meetings. Not very often though, I mean, he's the Chancellor, he's super busy."
"Curious" was all Kenshin gave as an answer, and frowned.
"It is considered a great honour to get to meet with the Chancellor" Anakin explained.
"I don't appreciate being summoned like a servant" he replied sharply.
"Isn't the senate superposed even over the council and that way, the Chancellor over you?"
"The Jedi Order is under jurisdiction of the Senate, yes. That doesn't mean that I like or accept it" he said disapprovingly. Is there anything this guy is not irritated about, Anakin wondered.
It was a short speeder ride to the Senate building where the Chancellor had his office.
"The chancellor awaits you, Master Jedi!" a protocol droid greeted them and opened the door.
"Anakin, come in" a jovial voice invited them into the large room. It had been a while since Anakin had last been here, the office seemed to be more delicately decorated than before. Not that he understood anything about art, but the Chancellor had an exquisite taste for rare and beautiful pieces, delicate statues and vases adorned the walls.
"So good to see you again, Anakin. And you must be our revered Master Kano" Palpatine said, offering his visitors a wide smile.
Kenshin just nodded in response, his face expressionless. Anakin found this reaction on the verge of rude, but Palpatine didn't seem to notice and continued.
"The famous hero of Gentora. I was devastated when I heard the news about Master Atal's tragic death. But I am pleased to see the Jedi Order has yet again chosen one of their finest Masters to supervise Anakin's training. I heard a great deal about your talents and your braveries in battle. You are a legend here on Coruscant! "
A wave of amazement went through Anakin. His master was the hero of Gentora? Four years ago, a large mining federation allied with a separatist movement had invaded Gentora to seize the planet's settlements for new slaves to work in their mines. Upon the regent's call for help, the galactic senate had sent a small military contingent, along with a Jedi team, to stabilize the escalated conflict until the senate would have found a solution. On planet, the republic forces had found themselves vastly outnumbered and outmatched, but with Gentora being far from the galactic core, reinforcements took too long to arrive. Wicked tongues claimed that the slow response was rather due to the minor political significance of the planet. Either way the situation looked dire, with the Jedi and the republic military hopelessly encircled, and all attempts at negotiation failed. One single Jedi had then broken through the enemy rows, purely relying on speed, single-handedly blown up the droid control station, destroyed the shield generators and fought his way into the command center, where he took the leader of the enemy operation hostage. The general tried to bide his time and would not comply with ceasefire, so the killing continued. Finally, the Jedi knight ended the conflict by assassinating him.
The act was frown upon by many traditionally thinking Jedi, and it had been a foolhardy, reckless operation - but it had saved them the battle and many lifes. Strangely, however, no report revealed the name of that Jedi, so he was merely known as the "hero of Gentora" and had become a mysterious warrior legend. Reckless but brave, an example many younger knights and Padawan looked up to. So his master was this legendary Jedi warrior? It didn't surprise Anakin that Palpatine knew – he knew many things. Why hadn't Kenshin told him about it?
****** Gentora, four years earlier******
The place erupted in blaster fire. So this was the end, already? Makiri had just passed his trials to knighthood a few weeks before. So many years of Jedi training, and he still panicked, he felt so helpless. His friends, comrades, Jedi brothers and sisters were perishing. He had sneaked behind enemy lines to a communication tower, but he got discovered too soon. He could merely set up one distress call before he had to dive for cover. Only a few days before, the Jedi Council had promised to send reinforcements, but the enemy troops, mainly consisting of modern battle droids, were overwhelming and closing in too fast. What remained of the republic forces and Jedi would be ravaged if they didn't get help soon. Before the call was received by its actual recipient, a small ship picked up on the signal and changed it's course to Gentora's capital. By the time it had landed on the planet's surface and it's pilot got to the source of the signal, Makiri was dead. Kenshin counted 8 blaster shots through his chest. There was nothing more he could do.
...
"You flatter me, more than I deserve, Chancellor" Kenshin said, his voice void of any emotion.
"And yet so humble. Certainly a virtue you will pass on to your apprentice. As you surely know, he's not an average Padawan learner, and I am delighted that a man of your talents will now help him unfold his potential. I would like to ask of you - if you allow me - to have Anakin accompany me for the day. I have a few errands to run - nothing dangerous - and I would enjoy his company. I promise to return him safe and sound to the temple in time. "
"As you wish, Chancellor."
Kenshins face was marble. Anakin could not figure out what his Master was thinking, but at least he had permission to spend time with the chancellor. Master Atal had always been too restrictive in that regard. All his life since entering the Jedi Order, Palpatine had been the only one to acknowledge his talent and the only one to see how advanced he already was. He saw more in him than the Council did, and would surely have supported him to be promoted to knighthood by long now. Unfortunately, this was one of the few things the Chancellor had no authority over.
...
As he came back to the temple, he went looking for his Master right away. The day with Palpatine had been enjoyable, but the entire time he couldn't stop wondering why Kenshin had not told him he was a famous battle hero. This time he ended up finding him at one of the dojos, practising a complicated, elaborate series of katas. He didn't seem to notice that Anakin was there – or he chose to ignore him, Anakin wasn't sure. The way the blade moved was mesmerizing to look at, the teenager contemplated whether to wait and watch. But his curiosity won, he had to know more about Gentora.
„Master! I'm back"
"I can see that. How was your day?" he asked absently, slowing down but not interrupting his practice.
"Why you didn't tell me you were the hero of Gentora?" Apruptly, Kenshin stopped, a scowl darkening his face. Anakin didn't understand. Had he said or done something wrong?
"Why would I tell you? To show off? I don't have time for such bantha shit!"
His master tried to conceal it, but Anakin could see something was now fuming inside him - for what reason, he couldn't tell. Had he done anything wrong? Was it because of Palpatine? Was Kenshin, too, jealous of his friendship with the Chancellor?
"The lust for sensation, used by politicians for their own agenda, disgusts me! " Kenshin continued.
"Palpatine is a good man! He was happy to meet you, with you being my Master now, and he has a high opinion of you."
"What, Padawan, makes you think I care about the Chancellor's opinion of me!" the young Master said sharply with a now unconcealed furious glare in his eyes, pointing his blade at the teenager. This is not going well, Anakin thought.
"Why are you getting mad? You're a famous battle hero! I've read the reports about it, what you did there was incredible! And you don't want people to talk about it? I don't understand!"
"I believe there is a lot you don't understand. There were so many who died that day – friends, Jedi, natives – so many I could not, did not save. So much was lost, and people talk about glory." He shut off his lightsaber. "I'm not a hero. I failed! "
Meeting the grim stare in his master's eyes, Anakin deemed it better to abandon the subject.
"One more thing: When I said you're not to tell anyone anything about me – that includes the chancellor."
Irritation spiked up in Anakin. "Why? Don't you trust the Chancellor?"
"The list of people I trust is short. Very short"
"That's pretty sad, Master"
"I'd be long dead by now, would I hand out my trust all too freely. Leave me alone!" he demanded, his tone making clear he wouldn't accept any more questions.
Anakin went to the hangar. The mechanics were always glad when he came to lend them a hand, especially with the Star fighters, and he got to work. It was a machine, it didn't talk back, it didn't get mad at him, and it was easy to understand once one had it figured out. Not like his Master who was, for the most part, the very opposite – sealed up and irritating. Several hours later, he had nearly completed the job, it had even gotten a bit late so he headed back to his room. Entering their shared quarters, he found Kyle, pensively staring at the wall. "Kyle"..."Kyle, hey!"
"Oh, hey Anakin. I didn't hear you come in."
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost"
"I'm in trouble. My Master and me were in the holocron vault today. And, I managed to forget my lightsaber in there. I took it off my belt so I could crawl underneath a shelve where I had dropped my pen. And then I just forgot. This is so stupid! My master's gonna kill me"
"Why don't you just ask her to go back with you tomorrow under a pretext?"
"We're leaving for a mission, really early in the morning"
"Would it really be that bad if you just told her?"
"It would be bad, yes. It's not the first time I lost or forgot it and she's made it really clear I'll get a big reprimand if that happens again. Dank ferrek, why am I such an idiot!"
"We'll go get it then. I can slice our way into the vault."
"What? No, we can't do that! Seriously, Anakin, if we get caught, we'll be expelled from the Jedi Order! Now that I think about it, it's probably really better if I just tell my Master"
"Come on, we won't get caught! Trust me!"
Hacking the vault's access code was even easier than Anakin had thought. Or had he just gotten that much better? He wondered if one of these days he should try to get into the restricted vault section, the one only Jedi Masters had access to, where they stored Sith artefacts. Kyle and him slipped in and started looking for the lightsaber. Kyle soon found it underneath the cubicle where he and his master had studied a few hours earlier. Kyle grinned at Anakin and froze.
"What is the meaning of this? This is the holocron vault, you're not allowed in this sector of the archives by yourselves! Especially not at this time of the day!"
Jocasta Nu. What was she doing here?! Did she never sleep? The friends exchanged a terrified look. Madame Nu was hard to fool and fixed a very stern look on the boys. Anakin frantically thought of a way to talk their way out of this situation. Now they were in real trouble!