XANATOS: DETACHED
by ardavenport
~ ~ ~ PART 5
Xanatos and Craglar volunteered to assist the lightsaber instructors with the senior Initiates again. Craglar had enjoyed the exercise and change of routine. Xanatos wanted another look at Bruck. And Kenobi.
Kenobi was only provisionally Qui-Gon Jinn's Padawan again. He kept his own room, trained and meditated with Jinn, but he lived in the gray area of probation. Jinn might have taken him back but the Council had not. He was grounded to the Jedi Temple, half of his time spent with the Initiates, who disdained him as some kind of traitor to the Order. Qui-Gon could still be sent out on missions, but his apprentice would stay behind until the Council approved his worthiness.
So, Bruck's usual hostility toward Kenobi did not stand out. All the other Initiates were doing it, standing apart from Kenobi who stoically accepted it. Xanatos thought that martyrdom suited him.
The instructor, Master Anoon Bondara, started out by having Xanatos spar with a line of younger students. But instead of using him as a silent actor to his instruction, he invited the young Knight to critique each Initiate. Bondara knew that he had offered Bruck apprenticeship (the only reason why he accepted Xanatos as a participant in the class) but had no comment about why Bruck had not accepted yet. Xanatos suspected that Bondara was testing him as much as his young students. Had the Council requested a report from the Twi-lek Master about his suitability as a teacher? Probably. If the Council was sensible. And they were mercilessly sensible.
The first Initiates were practically younglings, not even mature enough to be selected as Padawans. Xanatos let them start out with their practiced moves before he challenged them with a sudden slash or slice. How well they responded to the unexpected showed how well they let the Force guide their counter-moves. All of the them did well, though their smaller, growing bodies still made them clumsy.
Then Xanatos got Kenobi in the rotation. Kenobi marched forward, past the critical looks of all the older Initiates, as if he drew strength from getting the punishment he thought he deserved. But Xanatos was also glad to sense defiance remained in the boy; he had just transmuted it into a determination to succeed that no insult, no petty slight could penetrate. He had willfully detached himself from all that. It was pathetically over-dramatic, but it was honest.
Cringing, Xanatos wondered if he, himself, looked so willfully self-abusing.
They bowed and began sparring.
Kenobi was quick, strong and talented, much better than the younger ones, but he still had to concentrate too hard to use the Force. Like the others his age, he lacked the experience for it to be truly natural.
And Kenobi had no idea who Xanatos was. He was just another Jedi Knight assisting the instructors. Xanatos found that so refreshing that he enjoyed the match. He pointed out weaknesses in stance, openings in his defense. Kenobi earnestly accepted the advice and tried to improve. It was just a training session, simple, pure, uncomplicated.
They locked sabers, a foolish move for Kenobi since he was so much weaker.
Xanatos's hand shot out, catching Kenobi by the throat. Kenobi's blue lightsaber went out, falling to the mat. Xanatos held him for a moment, forcing him up on his toes before letting go.
"Don't get within striking distance of a stronger opponent," he instructed. "Your best tactic is to evade, attack and retreat quickly."
Kenobi nodded, still clutching his neck. Then he picked up his saber, bowed and went back to where the other students watched and did not move away quite so far from him as they had before.
The instructor singled out Bruck to go next. Xanatos grinned.
This fight would be complicated. But it was past time for it to happen.
Waves of fear and anger radiated from Chun so badly that Xanatos thought that Bondara might stop the fight even before it began.
They bowed and activated their sabers. Bruck attacked first. He struck hard and fast, blow after fierce blow, the sabers snapping and crackling with each impact. But Xanatos did not give up any ground. Frustrated, Bruck just hit harder.
When he drew his saber back far behind his shoulder for one tremendous blow, twisting his whole body, completely exposing his mid-section, Xanatos suddenly deactivated his saber and threw it down to the mat between them.
Chun froze.
"Control your anger, Initiate!" Xanatos shouted.
The spectators all jumped.
"I can teach you nothing if you cannot keep your focus!" Xanatos leaned close, scowling. Bruck's lightsaber was still activated, ready to strike.
The boy's anger vanished into surprise; his green blade went out. Xanatos felt the treacherous tingle of hope in himself. Bruck was no killer.
Xanatos called his lightsaber hilt to his hand, the blue blade activating instantly. He held it up before him in a salute. Bruck fumbled to return the gesture.
"Now. Defend!" he called out. Bruck blocked Xanatos's downward blow with a horizontal slash.
"Defend!" Bruck swung his saber to vertical to counter Xanatos again. With each move Xanatos advanced, Bruck backed up. When they ran out of room, Xanatos switched.
"Now. Attack!" Bruck swung at Xanatos's middle, he deflected the blade, pushing the swing above him.
"Attack!" This time Xanatos stepped to the side, with a single-handed grip, diverting Bruck's blade downward.
It was an elementary exercise. Embarrassingly simple for a senior Initiate, but Xanatos did not give the boy's pride time to catch up. He locked his blue eyes with Bruck's, feeling what he felt through the Force, synchronizing their motions, making sure that the boy felt the power of them working together.
When they almost ran out of space again Xanatos twisted his saber around, whipping Bruck's weapon out of his hand. It went out, flying away. One of the spectators caught it.
"Did you see what you were doing wrong?" Xanatos demanded, extinguishing his saber and sweeping past Bruck. Then he whirled around, not giving his target a chance to reply. "You were using your whole body to block me when you didn't have to. I'm bigger and stronger than you are. I can tire you out. You should deflect me whenever you can. The Force flows through a Jedi, but not if it's used badly."
Xanatos held out his hand. Someone in the crowd yelped when Bruck's lightsaber flew up in the air. Xanatos caught it without looking and then handed it back to Bruck.
"You need improvement. But you'll get better. With the right instruction."
'Padawan,' Xanatos mouthed clearly without speaking aloud so only Bruck could see it. Bruck gulped, clutching his lightsaber hilt.
Grinning Xanatos whirled and stepped aside, allowing Craglar to take his turn with the next student.
The confused stares of the Initiates followed Xanatos from the room, among them Obi-Wan Kenobi.
But as Xanatos reached the door, he glimpsed Qui-Gon Jinn lurking behind a pillar and smirking. He only half-scowled back.
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"What are you looking at? Oafy-Wan?" Bruck snapped when he caught Kenobi watching him as the crowd dispersed from the training area at the end of the lesson. It was bad enough that Xanatos had singled him out in front of everyone, but he would not stand to have Kenobi gawking at him, too.
Kenobi looked away, but not before Bruck saw the gleam of anger in his eyes. Grinning with satisfaction, Bruck followed as Kenobi tried to walk away.
"Still training with the Initiates? The Council's not sure if they want to take you back? They know they can't trust you," he persisted.
Kenobi kept walking, but Bruck could see the tension in his shoulders. If Kenobi got into one fight then he would be out of the Jedi Order for good. And Qui-Gon Jinn would need a new Padawan. While he had not figured out how to get away from Xanatos so he could be chosen by a real Master, Bruck could still trip up this clumsy reject.
"You looked pretty funny gasping for breath with Xanatos's hand around your throat." Bruck made choking sounds.
Kenobi whirled. "At least I kept my lightsaber. Maybe you should tie yours to your wrist next time so you don't lose it."
"Maybe you can show me," Bruck sneered, taking out his own lightsaber and activating it. But Kenobi did not react the way he should have. He opened his mouth without speaking. And he did not touch his lightsaber.
He looked afraid.
He turned and fast-walked away.
"Running away!? Like you ran away from your Master? You're not going to make it, Oafy-Wan, if you're too cowardly to fight!" he shouted, frustrated, going after him. "They won't even take you in Agri-Corps! They'll just pack you off to a rim world and let you fend for yourself!" But his target didn't even look back.
Kenobi turned a corner and disappeared.
Bruck stopped, his chance of ridding the Temple of Oafy-Wan fleeing out of reach. If anyone saw him running after Kenobi in the corridors with a lightsaber then he would wipe out his own chances of being chosen. Even the other Initiates who hated Kenobi would take his side.
Bruck deactivated his saber. It wasn't fair. This wasn't supposed to happen, but he knew that nothing he said to Kenobi would ever affect him again; that weakling was getting away and he couldn't stop it. Perhaps if he had his friends to join in the taunting. . . . .but they were all gone to their own Masters and he was alone.
His panic returned, stronger than before. An icy fear in his stomach that he could not run away from.
What would he do. . . . . if Obi-Wan Kenobi remained Qui-Gon Jinn's Padawan. Chosen. . . . . and he, Bruck Chun, was not?
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Xanatos's days were pleasantly dull for a time. His evenings restful. He saw Bruck at lightsaber training. The boy still resisted, staying as far away as he could, but the calender of his age was steadily working toward when he would have to choose. Chun looked increasingly frustrated and he could not even lash out at Kenobi, an old target for his bullying. Kenobi had not been practicing with the senior Initiates lately and Xanatos suspected that Qui-Gon Jinn had something to do with keeping him out of Bruck's reach.
Xanatos contentedly left Chun to make his choice, though there seemed to be little doubt about what it would be.
Best of all, Xanatos's past stayed blissfully murky, distant and unintrusive. He knew it would not last, so he enjoyed the moment. Something that he had finally learned from Qui-Gon Jinn how to do.
The first change in his routine came when Qui-Gon waved to him in the eating hall, calling him to the table he shared with Kenobi. Weaving among the other tables of Jedi eating and conversing, he took his tray to them and set it down.
"Xanatos, I would like you to meet my new Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi," Qui-Gon introduced as Xanatos took a seat. "Obi-Wan, this is Xanatos Son-of-Crion, my previous Padawan," he finished, using the surname that Xanatos had given himself after taking his father's life.
Kenobi perked up immediately, hastily chewing and swallowing his last bites of stew and bread. Xanatos graciously nodded and Kenobi bowed his head in return, his blue-gray eyes alive with curiosity. Clearly he remembered Xanatos from lightsaber training. And Xanatos noticed that the boy's short braid was just beginning to grow out from behind his left ear, his Padawan's lock a fluffy shock of hair on the back of his head.
"I have heard that you have been a difficult challenge to my former teacher," Xanatos began bluntly, starting on his own meal. Obi-Wan blushed.
"He had been progressing admirably," Qui-Gon defended.
"Off probation then?" Xanatos inquired innocently.
"Soon. We hope."
Kenobi continued to blush and tried to hide it by shoveling more food into his mouth.
"How is the Temple Waste Recycling doing?" Qui-Gon countered.
"Oh magnificently," Xanatos declared. "Just the other day, someone tried to stuff an entire cushion from a sleep couch into a disposal chute. You'd be amazed by what the Jedi Order gets up to. But it all gets flushed down to the lower levels of the Temple. Eventually. Quite enlightening, really."
They made small talk over their meal about a short diplomatic mission Qui-Gon had been on. Obi-Wan said nothing but watched respectfully as Xanatos described the various unique problems that came to the Temple Custodians. The questions were there, behind his inquisitive looks, wondering what past lay between the old Padawan and his new Master, but for now, he remained too cautious to ask.
"You have chosen your new Padawan?" Qui-Gon asked as they finished their meal, again getting Obi-Wan's attention.
Xanatos smiled.
"Soon," he replied.
~ ~ ~ END PART 5