When Sith Beat Jedi To The Prize (Of The Chosen One)

[neverwantedtobesith]

Garth'zel had intended never to go to Tatooine again. The entire experience the first time he was there was hot and miserable. The only good point, so far as he was concerned, was meeting Andronikos. But as luck would have it, his ship ended up deciding to need minor repairs. Nothing too bad, but it did require him to land somewhere to get the parts he needed, because of course, the bit that went was something he didn't have spare parts for. The only planet within reasonable range? Tatooine.

It didn't take long for a Force-sensitive boy to catch his attention. One strong enough that he was surprised the Jedi didn't already find him. Well, their loss was his gain. ...Once he pried him loose from Watto, anyway. He suspects he actually had an easier time of it than a Jedi would, although he's not going to hang around and give one the chance to give it a shot. At least, unlike them, he's willing to come to Tatooine from time to time so Anakin could see his mother. Probably not more than a couple times a year or so, due to it being best to go there when they're at least vaguely in that part of the galaxy anyway, but it's far better than 'sorry kid, we're never bringing you back'.

Of course, there is one tiny problem with this whole thing. He's never had to raise children before and doesn't know what he's doing. With the ship safely in hyperspace and not due to come out of it for a good long while, enabling him to do things that didn't involve sitting in the pilot's seat of the ship, he's in the lounge area. Time to figure out what he's doing. "Have you managed to get any kind of schooling? Like from someone you know, sitting down with you for an hour here and there as time permitted to teach you things like how to write?"

May as well figure out what he needs to teach besides how to use the Force consciously instead of unconsciously drawing on it.

Comments

[neverwantedtobesith]

"Well, eventually. I've got thirty-six hundred years of history to catch up on. Both in terms of major galactic events and things I'm personally interested in. Such as wanting to know when the Sith species went extinct, because them not being around anymore was just a little hard for me to avoid noticing." Considering how many of them there were back in his time.

[imaperson]

Anakin can put thirty-six hundred into terms of people at a podrace, and he blinks slowly at Garth'zel for a moment.

"What's the Sith species?" Sith he'd taken to the flip of Jedi, like night was to day. But a species made him think he'd gotten it really wrong.

[neverwantedtobesith]

Garth'zel has to try really hard not to snicker at the slow blinking.

"The people the other kind of Sith had taken their names from. They're native to the planet Korriban, which is where I got my training as a Sith from. Besides what I'd already been taught before being sent there to one, make sure it was worth the time to send me there, and two, make sure I had at least some sort of combat training first, given it was dangerous there. And not just because of the wildlife."

[imaperson]

"Why did they live there if it was so dangerous? Or was it like, better for them because they were from there?" He has a thought of the Tusken Raiders and dodging blaster rifle fire. "Did you find out what happened to them?"

[neverwantedtobesith]

"Well, they evolved there. That's where every member of their species ultimately originated from, even if, after they gained space travel and were able to go to other planets as a result, plenty of individual members spent their entire lives on other planets and never even visited," Garth'zel points out.

"Korriban's a planet with a... very heavy Dark Side presence. You're likely to find it uncomfortable. I'm used to it and can filter it out." Not. That he's planning on taking Anakin there anytime soon. "Anyway, the Sith I'm familiar with species-wise isn't actually the original version. Some Jedi who got kicked out of the Order settled there and basically took control of the planet. They and members of the original inhabitants used Sith alchemy to interbreed since humans and the Sith weren't genetically compatible enough to produce offspring without outside help.

"So I'm used to their descendants, who had traits from both. It'll probably be easier to show you holos so you can see what they looked like. Anyway, basically, they pretty much bred themselves out of existence. Someone with visible traits from the Sith part of their parentage having children with a human, those children having children with another human, further watering down their genetics, and so on. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if humans from planets that were within the Empire still had traces of Sith ancestry, but after this amount of time, you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at them."

[imaperson]

"What's alchemy?" Anakin pronounces it for what it is, a completely new word, parroting Garth'zel accent as he says it because the shape of it is so strange to his mouth.

The rest is also a Lot Of Words again and ones Anakin hears and commits to memory to puzzle over later.

[neverwantedtobesith]

"Something that I'm almost certainly not teaching you. I'm... familiar with it, but it's not where I specialize. I suppose Sith alchemy can be compared to genetic engineering. Not entirely accurate, but helps give an idea of what sorts of things were typically done with it." He's fairly certain Anakin could probably understand about half of those words at best.

[imaperson]

At best. Engineering he does, 'genetic' is added to a list of words he's never heard before, and he doesn't feel he understands it anymore than before Garth'zel had explained. "Engineering is a science of making things? Alchemy is a science of making people?"

[neverwantedtobesith]

Garth'zel tilts his head slightly as he tries to think how to explain. "Sith alchemy. The former word is part of the name. It's more about using the Dark Side to twist and warp living beings--mostly animals--into what the individual practitioner wants to create. Sometimes it's people being changed in such a way, sometimes animals. Like the tuk'ata. Their original species were herbivores which were apparently peaceful. They were changed into carnivores who are... bad-tempered. At best. Their main use were as guard animals. Often enough guarding the tombs of dead Sith on Korriban. I had to defend myself from a number of wild ones while there."

"Personally, I'd rather have a nexu instead of a tuk'ata and they aren't exactly sweet-tempered either. At least they don't have the Dark Side to make their temperament worse." Not that he wants a nexu either. But at least one's likely to be better behaved with training.

[imaperson]

While a good deal of this is going over Anakin's head, rushing over him like Tatooine's wind, he is tucking the words away in his memory. And he was still trying to make sure he was sensing what they were passing. But this Sith alchemy really was being the most vivid images in his head, like someone chopping bots and droids are put them together in a nest of wires and chips. Only with living parts.

"I can see why people would think the Sith are bad."

[neverwantedtobesith]

"Among many many reasons," Garth'zel says with a nod. "Anyway, you can see why I'm not interested in messing with that sort of thing. I'll leave that to other Sith. If there are any others left. I assume a few managed to stay hidden over the past thousand years, but I'm the only one I know of for certain."

[imaperson]

"Yeah, but. That's good for you, right? Like what you said about me doing something people wouldn't expect being helpful to you?" Much of Tatooine was about survival, he does understand that.

[neverwantedtobesith]

"Right," Garth'zel says with a nod. "The Jedi don't know to keep watch for Sith, so I should be able to fly under their radar. Particularly since my plan is to stick to planets in the Outer- and Mid-Rim for the most part. There's a few planets in the Core I want to visit, but not many and I'm steering clear of the ones that tend to have a Jedi presence so as to avoid tempting the galaxy to have a laugh at me."

[imaperson]

"Which ones in the Core?" He'd heard of various planets and he was curious about them. And then a question about what Garth'zel had actually been having him do, "The stars that fell dim, are they farther away? Or smaller?"

[neverwantedtobesith]

"Alderaan, mostly. When I visited, there was a war going on. I'd like to see it without that mess happening. It really is a pretty planet." Then, without skipping a beat. "Probably both. Some stars being further away, some being smaller."

[imaperson]

"What makes it pretty?" He's heard pilots talking about various planets, what they liked and didn't, he wants to know what it is able Alderaan that makes Garth'zel like it.

"How can you tell?"

[neverwantedtobesith]

"It's probably hard to explain to a child who's seen nothing but a sand-filled wasteland all his life. But there's mountain ranges, various kinds of grass, wildlife you won't have seen before. It's a combination of those things that make it a nice planet."

The next question gives him some pause as he tries to work out exactly what's being asked. "Do you mean how to tell between the stars being small or far away, or how to tell you're even picking up on those options?"

[imaperson]

"Not all my life. I wasn't born on Tatooine, we got sold there when I was very little. But I don't really remember much of where we were before. Just the family that owned us, and the house. I think that's what I'm remembering, when I sit and think like you taught me. The sky was different than Tatooine. And the air smells different. Grass comes in different kinds?" He wanted to ask his mom about it, but she really didn't like to talk about were he'd been born.

Anakin chews on his lip a little. "Yes. Both of them."

[neverwantedtobesith]

"I meant plants in general, not grass. Although yes, there's more than one kind of grass." Clearly, his mind got stuck on a specific kind of plant for some reason.

"Mmm, I've never really had reason to figure out the stars thing. The answer, at least in part, is that since you've been sensing stars, some of them being smaller, further away, or both is fairly obvious."

[imaperson]

"On one planet, they grow multiple kinds of grass?" That was what he'd meant, asking with something akin to wonder in his voice.

"But I can't tell which is which, so it's not obvious to me." Hence him asking.

[neverwantedtobesith]

"I think working out which of those stars are small and which are further away is something that will come with practice as you learn what the things you're picking up on actually means." Sorry, kid he can't really help you here; this is something else that falls within the lines of 'who even does that?'.

[imaperson]

Anakin sighs, accepting the answer but not really liking it. "What else did you want to do?" With his lessons today. Not that he'd getting bored, he just doesn't know what else to do.

[neverwantedtobesith]

"There's seeing if you can manipulate objects using the Force. Providing I'm not trying to move too fast there," Garth'zel says with a shrug before rising from his seat. "Give me a few minutes to bring back a few things to use for this."

[imaperson]

Anakin nods and moves out of his way, only returning to his seat when Garth'zel's out of room, mostly feeling odd just standing there alone. But he's sitting still and alert when Garth'zel returns.

[neverwantedtobesith]

Garth'zel sets down the assortment of things from the galley he'd gotten that shouldn't break if they got dropped.

"Try with the fork, first," he says, nodding towards it. "Picture it rising into the air and want it to do so."