Prelude to Eternity - Chapter Six (part 2)

Rabnas got up and dusted his scalps off. "Now that we've got that established," he said in a very Senator-ish manner. "I have a suggestion to make regarding this boy." He jerked a thumb in Xicanti's direction.

Leia smiled a little. "Well, Rabnas," she said, "under normal circumstances, I'd like to hear your idea. You had some wonderfully inspired points when we were in the Senate together. However, you seem to have been down in the deepest levels of Coruscant without any human contact for the past twelve years, and we don't yet know that you're..." She paused, as if searching for the right word. "...mentally stable."

Rabnas looked hurt, but nodded. "I understand," he replied. "You can send me off to one of the shrinks in the morning. But now is when the boy is being sentenced, and after all that he's done for me, I think I should get to speak on his behalf."

Mara seemed to like the idea. "It's only fair," she stated. "Rabnas owes Xicanti a life-debt, to put it in Wookiee terms. It would be nice to hear him out." Suddenly, the Sidi realized what she had said and clamped a hand over her mouth, glaring at Luke as he grinned at her.

"You've said something nice, Mar! Your Jedi instincts are finally winning out over your innate cruelty!"

"It is not!" Mara snapped back. "It was just a slip of the tongue! That's all! I meant to say that we shouldn't hear him out, since Wookiees are hairy creatures, and hairy creatures don't deserve to have their ideas looked at!"

Although angered at hearing Lowie, Chewie, and rest of their species slandered, and a bit annoyed at the fact that his sister didn't ever know what species he was, Xicanti decided to keep quiet.

Rabnas pulled himself up. "Well, I suppose we know who hasn't changed in sixteen years!" he said with a huff. "Mar, you're exactly the same as you were the day I was sent Down!"

Mara managed a grin. "Why thank you, 'Rab'!" she said with mock happiness. "I'll be so sure to tell everyone I know how I haven't changed in so long!" She turned to head out the door. "In fact, I think I'll start right now!"

"Hold it right there!" Leia snapped at her. "He's your brother too, and since his parents are both dead, we'll have to decide what should happen to him." She turned to Xicanti. "Sit down. This could take awhile."

Xicanti obligingly sat down on the floor. Leia glared at him. "I meant on one of the chairs!" she snapped.

Xicanti didn't move. The floor's where dirt like me belongs, he thought bitterly to himself. Leia's snapping was upsetting him more than he would have liked to admit. I'm not good enough for chairs. Besides, they hurt my back.

:You are not dirt,: came the same mind voice Xicanti had heard earlier. :Stop thinking these sorts of things! If you do so for long enough, you'll make it so they'll come true. And I really don't think you'd enjoy being dirt. Everyone would walk all over you! Most painful, wouldn't you agree?:

:I guess so,: Xicanti replied tentatively, hoping the voice's owner would still be there. :But maybe I deserve that. After all, I did take Lowie and Jacen along into certain danger because I'm a thoughtless, cruel person.:

:If that were true, we wouldn't be speaking to you now,: the voice retorted. :We don't choose thoughtless, cruel people. It's not in our nature. And besides, if you hadn't brought at least Lowbacca along, you'd be either dead or stuck down with the man-eaters again. We wouldn't have been pleased at that. We still need you!:

:Who are you, exactly?: Xicanti asked the voice. :Why do you think you need me?: :You'll find out all in good time!: the voice laughed to him. :Until then, adieu!: And then the voice was gone.

"Xicanti?"

The boy looked up at his sister. "What?"

Leia looked at him strangely. "For the tenth time, are you going to sit on a chair or not?" she snapped. "You don't have to, of course. I wouldn't want to force you into something you had no desire to do. It's easier to look straight across at you than to look down at you like that, though, so I would prefer it."

Xicanti nodded dumbly and went to sit on one of the chairs. It'll serve me right to have it hurt my back, he grumbled to himself.

Leia nodded to him. "Good. That'll save my neck for now." She turned back to Rabnas. "Okay, what've you got to say?"

Rabnas cleared his throat. "Well, while we were Down, Xicanti told me all about the Rebellion and how it got won and all. He mentioned that even after Obi-Wan Kanobe died, he kept coming back in spiritual form to give Luke over there advice. Is this true?"

Luke nodded. "He used to return often, but he's been keeping away lately."

"Do any other Jedi ever come back?"

"Well, Yoda and Father returned after the Battle of Endor for a short visit-"

Rabnas interrupted the Jedi by leaping up with a yelp. "Hold it right there!" he cried. "Has Vader come back any more since then?" Luke shook his head. "Do you think you could maybe ask him to, just so he can decide what Xicanti's punishment should be? It's really not fair for the three of you to decide, being just his siblings and all, but I don't think anyone should have any objection to the boy's father doing so."

Leia looked thoughtful. "I suppose that would be fair," she said slowly. "As long as Mara promises not to do anything bad to him. As I remember it, the last time he came to check up on things, she made some... unpleasant things happen to him."

Mara grinned at this. "If you could use a term such as 'unpleasant' to describe unspeakable torture," she laughed. "It was more funny than anything else. He was standing behind Chewie, and I used the Force on him. Chewie, of course, thought I was trying to hurt him, and he laughed at me because it wasn't working. I had to get back at him later by making some of his fur fall out. Sure, bring the old coot back."

Luke didn't seem to fond of the idea. "We don't summon them," he told Rabnas. "They just come when they feel like it. And no one can really say when that might be."

"Unless, of course, that person happens to be one of them!" proclaimed a voice from behind Xicanti's chair.

Xicanti turned around, startled. He could tell that the others heard this voice as well, as they looked just as startled as he did. At least this one isn't my imagination, he said to himself. It can't be if everyone else sees it too.

Luke and Leia, although at first startled, didn't seem to mind the person being in the room. Luke even went so far as to laugh at the look on Xicanti's face. "This is Father!" he told his younger brother. "The other one's Ben, and the little green one's Yoda."

They came? Xicanti thought absently. Someone actually cared enough about me to come? He listened almost eagerly to find out what his true father would have to say.

"Be we here now?" Yoda proclaimed in a questioning manner. "Ah, here we be now!" He peered up at Xicanti. "Big one I see. Jedi could he be, if not too old. Be you too old, big one?"

"I d-don't know!" Xicanti stammered. "I'm fifteen."

Yoda nodded wisely. "Old enough you are," he said. "You be not too old by the standards of new." He turned to Luke. "Teach him, you will. The Force runs strong. Make him Jedi, or Sidi as the young Lowbacca says, yet look away from Sith." He screwed up his small, green face. "Too powerful to waste as Sith."

"Yes, he must be taught," Ben said with a nod. "With proper training, he will someday be very powerful. He shows much promise, if not corrupted. Look after him carefully, that the remaining Imperials do not get him and use him for their own evil ends."

Although Xicanti supposed the things the old Jedi masters were saying about him were amazing, the boy found himself not paying too much attention to them. Instead, he looked at his father. I never would have thought he'd look like that, Xicanti thought to himself. The reports all say he was greenish, and couldn't do anything without his armor. Apparently, neither of these facts was true, as Anakin Skywalker was the same color as any other member of his large family. He wore no armor at all now; just a brown robe similar to the one Ben always wore.

As Xicanti examined his father, he noticed that there was, however, something odd in the former Dark Lord of the Sith's appearance. His face seemed to be screwed up into a mask of pain, and he clutched at his belly in a peculiar way. All of a sudden, Xicanti realized that someone must be using the Force to hurt his father. "Mara!" he shouted, knowing that no one else in the room who could use the Force would even have considered doing such a thing.

"What?" Mara snapped back. "It's not like I'm doing anything!"

"Of course you aren't!" Leia snapped back. "Just torturing my father, that's all!"

"It's not like he doesn't deserve it!" Mara retorted. "He was a pain in the ass the whole time I worked with him! What reason do I have not to cause him pain? You knew him almost as well as I did while he was still Darth Vader, and he was terrible then!"

"And you're terrible now!" Leia hissed. "Now you stop torturing him this minute, or I'll find some way to make you sorry!"

Mara likely had little to fear from Leia physically, yet she wisely quit with her torturous ways. Anakin's face returned to normal.

"Much better!" he rumbled. "It seems that you still haven't changed, Mara. It doesn't really matter, though. I've changed."

"Yes, of course," Mara said mockingly. "You're a Jedi now, aren't you? Left the Sith behind. Lucky you!"

Anakin ignored her. "We heard you talking about us," he said in an almost conversational manner, "and decided to come make sure you weren't saying anything bad behind our backs. As we came in, we happened to overhear a discussion about a certain young man who seems to be one of my offspring." He looked down at Xicanti. "I'd suppose that would be you. If we wiped the dirt off, you'd likely look mostly like your mother. Nothing like me, I'm certain. No, you've got her hair and eyes and nose and everything else." He chuckled to himself. "It's certain that you're mine, though. Jaserena wouldn't have gone off with anyone else, after what Palpatine did to her mind." This brought a sad expression to the old Jedi's face. "He made her a loyal love slave. Must have been terrible for the poor woman. I'll admit that I was thrilled with her at the time, though. It's just recently that I've been feeling sorry for that.

"But that's beside the point. From what I've gathered from the conversation, you've done something that Leia considers very wrong, while Mara's almost applauding you and Luke could care less. Am I right?"

Luke nodded. "Yes. You must have been reading our minds to be able to tell, though. I'm sure that neither of us said that out loud."

Mara wasn't too pleased with this news. "See, Leia!" she demanded of the brown-haired woman. "He does deserve to be tortured. Jedi indeed! I'll bet he still considers himself Dark Lord of the Sith!"

Once again, Anakin ignored her. "And I've also gathered," he went on, "that they think I should be the one to decide what happens to you, being your father and all." He drew himself up. "Well, I've reached my decision."

Xicanti found that his knees were very close to shaking. With a measure of difficulty, he steadied them, then looked to his father to discover his fate.

Anakin scratched his head. "Let me think for a second," he mumbled. "Let's see here, I know it had something to do with the Force. Now, what was it?" He began to pace around the room, walking straight through several objects. Finally, he snapped his fingers. "I've got it!" he proclaimed proudly. "I think that, since you seem to show a lot of promise as a Jedi or Sidi, you should have to train strenuously in the Force for the next five or six years of you life!"

Xicanti was bewildered. "But what's so bad about that?" he queried. "I probably would have been trained anyways!"

Anakin shook his head. "You aren't getting it!" he grumbled. 'I didn't say you would be trained, I said you would be strenuously trained in the Force. There's a difference. Strenuously means that you'll have to work at it for several hours each day, every day, with no exceptions, for the rest of five years." He grinned. "Or six, if you're slow. I don't think you will be, though. After all, you are my son, and I'm not slow." With that, the old Jedi faded out, Ben and Yoda going with him.

Xicanti looked up at his siblings. "What's going to happen to me?" he asked quietly.

Luke shrugged. "Just what he said would happen to you. You'll get strenuous training in the Force from Mara, Luke and Lowie, starting tomorrow. For now, I suppose you'll get to go to sleep."

Xicanti nodded dumbly, hardly believing how easily he seemed to have gotten off.