XANATOS: DETACHED
by ardavenport
~ ~ ~ PART 7
Bruck looked about warily. Then he bowed.
"Thank-you," he said, possibly an attempt to get rid his fatalistic new Master. Xanatos smirked.
"We're not done yet. Have a seat."
Xanatos went into the fresher and found combs, cutters, trimmers and elastic ties. When he came out Bruck was sitting on a floor cushion.
"Turn around," he ordered. When Bruck complied, Xanatos dumped the tools on the table and sat down next to them. "Now let's see what we've got," he said speculatively. He grabbed a handful on the back of Bruck's head. The boy braced himself, but said nothing, finally having figured out what his Master was up to.
Bruck had let his hair grow long, clearly anticipating becoming an apprentice. A lot of Initiates did. Xanatos had. But Bruck's white hair was fine and thin and he had to gather a lot of it for even a small tail lock. And for the braid. He tied those off and then appraised the rest.
Trimmer poised, Xanatos was quite tempted to shave it all off. Just to see what it looked like. But he did not want to risk having a Padawan with an ugly bald head following him around until the hair could grow out again. Cutting the rest of it short would do. The trimmer hummed. Long strands of white hair fell away over Bruck's shoulders, down his back.
"You've said very little since I rescued you from the Agri-Corps. My young Padawan," Xanatos commented.
"I - - - I'm grateful that you chose me. My Master."
Xanatos chuckled. "You accepted me only because no one else would have you. I'm honored by your service." He brushed the fine white hairs away. "Will you tell your family who your new Master is?"
Bruck tensed. Xanatos pulled the trimmer away. "What do you know about them?" he challenged, some of his old pride finally reviving.
"I know who they are. I know they send you private coms every year. I don't know what's in them. But I did stalk you for weeks, Bruck. I made inquiries." Bruck scowled back. "Turn your head, Padawan. I haven't finished yet." Bruck did so and Xanatos cut off the last of the excess hair. He then trimmed the tail lock and tried to comb it into a passable curl but it refused, laying flat on his head. Bruck's hair was even thinner and more lifeless than his own.
"Turn your head," he said. After Bruck did so, Xanatos began tying the braid. He used orange and blue bands. He supposed the colors meant something, but he would just make something up about what that was later. Blue and orange were what he had found first in the fresher.
After tying the last band, he sat back to admire his work. But Bruck's expression was as grim and serious as if he was being prodded by a medical droid.
"So, what did your father say to you? I know you received a com from his recently."
Bruck's eyes glared a silent challenge.
"Padawans and Masters do not keep personal secrets from each other," Xanatos instructed.
"What about your family? Your father?" Bruck countered.
Xanatos sat back, a long sigh escaping him.
"You are wise to ask me first. Since my story is so much more colored than yours." He closed his eyes briefly before beginning.
"I was Crion's only son. Only child. My talent was only discovered when I was three, relatively late, but not unheard of. And of course, it was a great honor to give me up to the Jedi. I suppose my father expected to have more children, but my mother was killed in an accident soon after I was taken. And Crion never seemed to be able to attract another suitable woman. Some people insist that the loss drove him to become cruel and ambitious, but I really doubt that. Nobody could be as vicious as he was without a natural talent for it.
"I got yearly coms from him, but I never answered. I was only ambitions to become a Jedi Knight and Qui-Gon Jinn selected me when I was only ten to be his apprentice. I had a lot of talent. And I knew how to use it.
"But I failed in my ambition to become the youngest Jedi Knight in the Order, but Qui-Gon thought I was ready to take the trials by the time I was twenty. I thought it was past time. But Master Yoda set up one final test. For both of us.
"It was that mission to Telos, to negotiate a settlement between the different factions in the government. But I failed before we even got there. I didn't like the captain of transport we took. So, I sabotaged his ship and got him captured by pirates, but only after I'd arranged for a neat escape for us."
Bruck watched expressionlessly.
"This is the place where you're supposed to express you first outrage at my behavior," Xanatos prompted, annoyed.
"What did the captain do to you?" Bruck asked.
Xanatos looked down at the boy on the floor cushion, sitting at his feet, where his Master's first lesson about revenge and cruelty had gone completely over his head. Well, it was too much to expect for him to give up his inclinations as a bully on the first night, but Xanatos had hoped that his near brush with Agri-Corps would have softened him up a bit more.
"When we got to Telos," Xanatos went on, not bothering with the question, "my father greeted me like a lost child, which I suppose I was. He was charming and flattering and he was good at it. He knew me, because I was very much like him. My upbringing never changed that. Suddenly all those old messages he had sent about our great lineage, the family holdings, our hereditary greatness, it all came alive for me with his words. I had a revelation. I found my true calling.
"Helping my father take over the government."
Bruck Chun squirmed, reassuring Xanatos that he had the boy's attention.
"It seemed like such a good idea at the time. My father made it sound so simple and sensible. It was for the greater good, because those other idiots shouldn't be in charge. They would just ruin the whole planet," he explained, but he feared that the sarcasm in his tone was too subtle for Bruck's fairly literal mind to comprehend. He would train that deficiency out of him as soon as possible.
Bruck's expression changed. Xanatos could see the thought wheels slowly churning.
"You helped Crion take over the government? You were part of the coup?" the boy finally attached words to what his Master had just told him. Xanatos clinched his mouth shut and reminded himself that the boy wasn't really slow, he just had bad thinking habits. He knew immediately that he would be doing that quite a lot for the next few years.
"Yes. I was."
Bruck twisted his mouth in distaste, not liking the contradiction to the facts that he already knew were true. Yet another bad habit that would have to be trained out of him. Xanatos realized that he would have to start a list.
"So, was your father."
Bruck's head snapped up, his mouth open.
"Do you think he'd tell you that in his messages? That he was arrested along with all of Crion's other administrators after the coup failed?"
Bruck opened his mouth, but Xanatos cut him off.
"I was there.
"Vox Chun was very forward about introducing himself. And pointing out that there were two sons of Telos at the Jedi Temple," Xanatos said sternly, then in a softer voice, "He's very proud of you. And so is your mother. They showed up at a social event that my father held as a cover for a meeting to plan the coup. Your father was one of his treasurers. He helped garnish the public funds to pay to overthrow the government. He didn't have anything to do with the fighting. Or killing. Just the financing.
"When was the last time you met him, Bruck? In person? Not just through a holo-recording?" Xanatos demanded when he still saw defiance in Bruck's eyes.
His new apprentice lowered his gaze.
"I was brought to the Temple when I was a baby," he admitted.
"So, you've effectively never met him. In your living memory."
"He wouldn't lie to me!" Bruck suddenly shouted.
"Father's lie!" Xanatos snarled back just as loudly, leaning close, forcing Bruck to pull back. "I know."
"What about Master's?" Bruck challenged.
Xanatos sat back and slowly grinned.
"Now you're thinking.
"Masters do lie. But you should be especially wary of Masters who lie to themselves first. They're the most dangerous.
"I'm telling you what I know about what happened on Telos. But you shouldn't take my word for it. . . . in fact. . . ." He rubbed his chin. "This will be my first assignment for you. I want you to go to the Archive when we're finished with all the other busy work we have to do tomorrow and look up everything they have about what happened on Telos. I want you to pay particular attention to first person accounts. You'll find that everyone has a different point of view. And they almost always conflict.
"A Jedi Knight has to find his path through all that."
After a long suspicious pause, Bruck nodded.
"I see another question in there," Xanatos said.
Bruck pressed his lips together.
"If you helped Crion to take over the government . . . then how did you kill him? Why?"
Xanatos slowly leaned back, taking in air that suddenly sounded very loud in his ears. His heart pounded.
"Crion wanted to kill Qui-Gon. Blame him for plotting against the government and use him as an excuse to take over." Xanatos stared blankly forward, over Bruck's pale head. He could feel the memory flowing into him, taking over.
"That idiot Qui-Gon tried to stop the coup and got himself captured instead," he spat out angrily. "Always acting without thinking. Without any plan at all. He was always a disaster that way. I don't know how I put up with it.
"But I couldn't let him kill my Master. And blame the Jedi for conspiring to take over. I was supposed to be the heroic Jedi warrior who saved Telos! But Crion wanted to change the plan!" He jumped to his feet.
"He wouldn't listen! I'd be expelled from the Order! Stuck on his small little world! He thought the whole galaxy revolved around Telos.
"But I was never afraid of him. He couldn't just slap me down like the rest of his toadies. So he drew his blaster instead."
Xanatos's lightsaber flew into his hand, cold blue fire activating, a long beam of deadly power that ignited his entire body.
"Fool! When has a blaster ever been faster than a lightsaber!" His body turned and darted to the side like a dancer, his saber deflecting his father's blaster bolts. The old man might as well have tried to fire into the sun. His arm shot up, the blade slashing down.
Xanatos froze. He felt as if the floor had fallen away.
A puff of smoke, a whiff of burned flesh from a perfect, perfect black circle in the middle of Crion's forehead.
The face frozen in shock, the body fell backward.
The life presence of Crion just dissipated, like the smoke, and vanished into the Force.
Xanatos numbly fell to his knees, his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.
His back pressed against the wall, one terrified white-haired boy with a new Padawan's braid stared back with wide pale blue eyes.
For a moment, Xanatos wondered where he had come from. Air rushed in and out of his lungs, as if he had been running for a long time and had finally stopped. He looked down and then to his right until he found the glowing lightsaber clutched tightly in his hand.
He clicked it off.
The blade vanished. All the power dissipated. Like smoke.
Wondrous, Xanatos threw his arms out and laughed. He felt so alive. He had never imagined that it could feel so good.
Bruck Chun's eyes darted to either side of him, looking for an escape from his crazed Master.
His fit subsiding, Xanatos extended a hand to the boy. Even letting go of the happiness felt good.
"That's the first time I've ever told that story without being sick!" But somehow Bruck seemed incapable of sharing his joy. He stayed with his back pressed to the wall. The dark-haired Knight shook his head and let his hand drop. There would be plenty of time to explain it to him.
He climbed to his feet and reattached the still warm lightsaber hilt to his belt. He brushed his black bangs aside. It was late. He was tired. Real happiness was exhausting.
"I'll be here tomorrow morning. We'll go to first meal together. Be ready." He started to turn, but his eye caught the mess of filmy white hairs on the table, the cushion and on the floor. He gestured vaguely toward it. "You can clean that up."
He started out and then turned back again.
"But don't put it in the waste disposal in the fresher. It will only clog the drain."
~ ~ ~ END PART 7