Chapter 40. Hero on a Pedestal
Seemingly out of nowhere, whispers and innuendo were slowly creeping from the privacy of thought to public utterance.
He touched the dark!
Touched, not fell!
Though known to be the Jedi who had slain a Sith and a man who had nearly exhausted his own life force to save a dying man, he was not publicly acknowledged as either the man who had slain a dark warrior or saved a dying Jedi master.
He was, for all intents and purposes, a ward of the Head of the Council. Perhaps because he was not yet cleared of the accusation of – taint – by his own master.
That last was not rumor, some claimed.
Right, others scoffed. A dying man could know little but pain and the inevitability of death.
On one thing all agreed: Obi-Wan Kenobi was an enigma, a man not yet whole even if no one was exactly sure from what he suffered other than the ignominy of being cast aside.
And so the debate went on: had Kenobi been set aside for cause or not?
Many thought that the Force had sent the Chosen One to succeed Kenobi rather than replace him and that it was the Council who had stood adamant, unwilling to advance the one to accept the other; that it was they who forced Master Jinn's hand and forced the padawan's uncertain status.
Others wondered: perhaps he had not only touched the dark side as claimed but immersed himself within it and was now serving penance, punished by the Force itself. Of those, most believed that only the unrepentant were forever doomed to trod the path of darkness.
As for the gulf between former master and former padawan, almost all wondered: was it an irreparable gulf of guilt, unbridgeable even should forgiveness be asked and granted in return?
So far the burgeoning suspicion had not seeped down to the younger Jedi, the crèchlings and initiates. To them, Obi-Wan Kenobi was no more and no less than someone they'd had always known and someone who occasionally assisted in their classes, like other senior padawans and new knights. Now that he was resident in the Temple he was far more present in their daily lives and as an actual instructor.
He had become a hero to the impressionable, or so Anakin Skywalker thought; the mystique of the "Sith killer" contaminating the younger Jedi with admiration and a totally underserved respect that was nearly adulation. And it frustrated and angered him, for he knew the truth was being kept from them.
Kenobi was a failure as a Jedi.
He would have known that just for the simple fact that he had been pushed aside for Anakin – one with years of training under his belt for one already his equal with none – but also for the fact that others had remarked much the same.
Like Master Lilebeth de Nichoise and Master Beebe.
He liked Master Ni'sha; Anakin could tell she liked him as well. She had been dutifully impressed by his heroics above Naboo - she had even told his master he "was a keeper."
Then there was Knight Beebe.
Even now Anakin would not admit he had gotten lost in the vast Jedi Temple while exploring, admit that his frustrated whispered pleas and vicious kick at the walls had miraculously summoned a young knight to discover the source of the disturbance within the Force.
"Well, what have we here?"
The voice was as sudden as the flash of a brown cloak in the periphery of his vision. "Lost, young one?"
His chin tilted defiantly upwards, Anakin blurted, "I'm Anakin Skywalker, padawan to Master Jinn and not a young one."
"The 'Chosen One' in person?" Knight Beebe dropped to one knee and stuck out a hand. "I'm pleased to meet you, Padawan Skywalker. Beebe is what I'm called. So you're the one who was responsible for old Kenobi getting the boot and about time, too. Jinn's finally got his head screwed on straight."
"Huh?"
The story came out as Beebe escorted him from the depths of the Temple to the more used corridors. Beebe had been bullied and harassed by Kenobi for years when the two had been clan mates, but Kenobi had been clever enough to appear innocent of any wrong-doing and point the finger at Beebe, who was then punished.
"Now what I've been telling you is a secret between just the two of us, okay?" Beebe paused, clasping Anakin's shoulder. "There's those who would defend Kenobi to this day and there's no need to bring further strife to the Temple. In fact, you must not even tell your master we've met, because he blames himself for my mistreatment long ago and you wouldn't want to upset Qui-Gon Jinn, would you?"
No. Anakin shook his head, but his mind was awhirl with all this new information. Had could the Council allow him to get away with this horrible behavior to another Jedi? He'd done it to Beebe and he'd done it to Anakin. He'd upset Master Qui-Gon as well.
"Are you trying to get him expelled?" His voice was hopeful.
The cloaked head dipped. Anakin understood the pain of past abuse well and his heart went out to the young knight as he choked, "Kenobi will be – dealt with soon enough; the Force has sent you, I believe, to rectify the pain of the past. You will have the undying gratitude of many by serving as the Hand of the Force. Now go on, you should know where you are now and remember – don't upset your master by telling him about our little talk."
As Anakin walked away, his head swimming with the magnitude of the task entrusted him by the Force - he almost could have sworn he heard a giggle.
"You did what!"
Oh, the boss was good and mad, BB thought. The snarl came through real well and while the man could be hardly be characterized as "all bluster and no bite," BB didn't exactly cower from him. The boss had done some despicable things in his life and no one double crossed him more than once. His punishment was inventive and a true deterrent to the merely foolish and greedy. The stupid and greedy – well – he'd taken care of them at the boss's behest more than once.
Not that the boss appreciated it. He just told BB to take care of the problem. Since the boss never inquired how, he did what he did quietly and efficiently and didn't bother the boss with details.
As cruel as the man could be, he had a soft streak deep inside him that battled his well-developed sense of self-preservation. He could be generous to the less fortunate and had spent a small fortune to benefit orphanages and such like – yet had no compunction about creating those orphans if the parents crossed him.
And not a few women who displeased him were banished without a word, buried within the well-disciplined walls of pleasure palaces on distant worlds where the only escape was through working long hours and saving one's tips.
At least life on their backs was easier than life on the streets – if one wanted to count life expectancy.
Though he knew he couldn't be seen, BB schooled his face into impassivity. "I befriended the boy. Spun him a tale even about Kenobi, pulled right from the files and twisted to fit what the boy would like to believe." He smirked. "Dig into enough files, one can find all kinds of dirt to smear, even on Jedi. Like Kenobi and his nemesis Bruck. Or Alto. Should the kid even think to ask about Kenobi's early days, he'll find out that the bad blood between them two really did exist. The kid's young enough to believe that when you can find one example, there's more to be found just better hidden."
"Why? Why, for gods sake did you risk – what if the kid asks about 'Knight Beebe' or repeats that story? Even Jinn will know something's off – you took a part of Kenobi's story and twisted it around. He'll think the long dead Bruck has resurfaced and go right to the Council. I all but guarantee the Council will begin a search high and low for an intruder and once they do, you can kiss your 'invisibility' good bye."
"The kid won't go to Jinn; I promise." The silence at the other end was ominous and BB began to sweat.
"It's your neck you're risking, BB; not just the kid's, and not just from the Jedi, but me. If you screw up your part..." There was a sudden snap.
He owed the boss everything – his life, his pleasures, his indulgences. He had been rescued from shame, elevated to right hand man, given access to gambling and pleasure palaces with just the merest of oversight – but he had never been given the boss's absolute trust or deepest affection. A tool, the occasional toy, the courier – the bouncer and the thug – but the boss would never risk his neck for him, he now understood as never before. Only two claimed that privilege.
He'd hacked into enough files to know why – and still did not. The details resided in the boss's brain, only, hackable only by drugging or brainwashing.
And he wanted to know why.
In the meantime, he needed to divert the boss's attention away from him – and he had some other information to pass on. The reaction was far more than he had ever expected.
"Boss, you said you want to know just about everything…." And BB had told him; it was a shock and a disturbing one. Everything was on the line now – his plans not just shot, but scattered to atoms in an unfriendly galaxy.
"No, no and no! Sabotage the tests, alter the records if you can, because if the Jedi find –BB, see to it that this line of investigation comes to a dead-end."
He absently traced circles on his desk with a forefinger. Around, lift and tap. Around, lift and tap.
Were his plans all to come to naught – no way in Sith's hells, not now, not when everything was reputedly going so well. Qui-Gon Jinn had earned - one couldn't say enmity, not of the Jedi – but a skeptical eye from his colleagues. He was earning his isolation from the Order with every word out of his mouth – or that's to say, every reality so twisted within his mind that the words were in essence not Jinn's own thoughts, but implanted ones.
Oh, the mighty Jedi master…watch how he destroys himself and one he loves as well. Two Jedi going down for the count. But the Jedi weren't stupid, and they could put one and one together to come up with two. Two would lead to inconvenient problems – and the path to truth. With the right intuitive jump, the answer could be staring them in the face nearly at the same time as the inconvenient discovery was made.
BB would have to see to it that the discovery was not made.
Just see to it that the boy doesn't become a victim.
His final instructions for BB – protect the boy. Against his own unwilling heart, he had started to become attached to the boy, one more of the Force's cosmic jokes. His plans for Anakin had evolved as well; the tool, the pawn, and the student was now destined for far more – to be his successor and his greatest legacy. The "Chosen One;" obedient to his whims and wishes.
If BB took care of the developing problem.