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

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.

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He's hearing, but he couldn't repeat word for word and only has a basic idea of what Garth'zel is saying, more entranced with the almost delicate designs in the hilt, the difference between the tooled areas and the raised, polished design. It's beautiful, certainly. "Will you turn it?" He's trying to look over the entire pattern. "And what are these?" He points outs knobs for adjusting. "If you break someone's, you can't steal it later?" Why wouldn't you want to do that if you were fighting someone.

Garth'zel turns it as needed. "Remember what I said about adjusting the settings? That's what the knobs are for. Personally, if I'm going to be targeting something, I'm not going to be targeting my opponent's lightsaber. Their arm, on the other hand..."

Much bigger target.

Anakin nods, although it's not clear if he means it about the answered question or Garth'zel's comment. After studying the pattern, "I hope no one bleeds on it..." He's pretty sure a lightsaber doesn't leave a bleeding wound but fights are fights.

Garth'zel shakes his head. "The heat from the blade cauterizes wounds. There'll still be some bleeding, but not as much as one would otherwise expect."

"That's good." Wait, give him a minute. "Doesn't that make a wound less lethal?"

"If you get stabbed in the chest with a lightsaber, you're generally still going to die unless you get medical attention, very very fast. Also, if someone's head is removed, it doesn't matter how much bleeding there is, they're dead regardless," Garth'zel points out dryly. All right, that's enough of show and tell with the lightsaber. He hooks it back onto his belt where it belongs.

As Garth'zel pulls it away, Anakin backs up to a polite distance. "Yes, but you said arm. A limb or the belly?" Given this is the same kid who explained that slave chips are used to make runaway slaves blow up, complete with giggling explosion noises, odds are, he's just being a little morbid.

Garth'zel just gives Anakin a look. "Lightsabers are used to kill or maim. They're also to be used as a last resort when an attempt to resolve a situation more peacefully fails."

In Anakin's limited experience, maiming was just a very slow way of killing - maimed people couldn't work, people who couldn't work starved to death or died from dehydration first. Not because no one cared, but because no one had enough to share, except people who wouldn't do so anyway. Still, he wilts a little, violence is just part of what he's known. "Doesn't that need people to know what they are to work?"

"The only people who even have these, for the most part, are Sith and Jedi. And. Well. It's been a very long time since Sith have really been seen, so most people have forgotten about us. If someone sees me with mine, they'll assume I'm a Jedi." He shrugs. "There's enough stories about the Jedi out there that causing trouble in my presence will generally give most people pause. If they remembered the stories about Sith on the other hand, they're more likely to take pains to stay on my good side."

Lest they, you know. End up dead.

Well, they have circled back to something which made Anakin worry earlier, so he might as well bring it out. "What happens if a Jedi meets you?" Given...they didn't seem to like Sith. "Or me?"

"Well, I guess we'll find out if they're one of the ones willing to stop and talk or if they'll have a knee-jerk reaction to me being Sith," he says dryly. "If the former, it'll probably go more or less alright. If the latter, I'll give them one chance to back off. If they don't take it, the only one they'll have to blame is his or herself.

"I really doubt they'd do anything to you. Try to take you from me, yes. Do anything to you since you're a child and haven't been with me long enough to be taught too much they'd think they'd need to unteach, no. Just try to convince you that everything I've taught you is bad and wrong, probably. ...Possibly not if you repeat back some of the things I've said, since they'd be expecting your typical Sith, not one who's actually more or less absorbed at least some parts of the Jedi teachings." He shrugs. "Anyway. There's a reason we're going to be avoiding planets with a heavy Jedi presence. Just as well you aren't making a lightsaber until you're probably at least thirteen. Gives me time to try to figure out where you're to get a crystal for it that the Jedi isn't keeping an eye on. I'd take you to Ilum to find one, but it's where they get theirs."

Meaning Jedi everywhere.

Anakin listens, even if what he's listening to isn't overly reassuring. Garth'zel is strange to Anakin, but he's at least helping Shmi and has thus far treated him well and the former is much more important than the latter in Anakin's mind.

"Would they try to kill you, do you think?" Yes, he'd said some might be the type to listen, but that wasn't really an answer, and what he's really asking is how Garth'zel thinks that fight would go anyway.

"The knee-jerkers, yes. Or imprison me. But after the amount of time I've spent in carbonite, I have had quite enough of that and they'd find me fighting as hard as if they were trying to kill me. As for how the fight would go..." He gives Anakin an almost savage smile.

"The last time a Sith was seen to their knowledge was about a thousand years ago at a battle between Sith and Jedi forces. The Sith involved did something intended to take out as many Jedi with them as possible, according to my reading. And none of them were Lords of the Dark Council. Which I was. Any Jedi taking me on is in for a nasty surprise indeed. Before you ask, the Dark Council ruled the Sith Empire and we were just below the Emperor in authority. You don't get on the Council by being either stupid or easy to kill." Or for that matter, nice.

At least knowing that Garth'zel's been in carbonite for over a thousand years should help explain why everyone Garth'zel knew is dead.

Edited Date: 2019-02-28 10:41 am (UTC)

There is some level of Anakin's brain going "You say words" simply because that was a lot of words. And that lot of words combined with Garth'zel's rather savage grin leaves Anakin being very quiet, pulling those words apart into smaller bites and untangle them.

He keeps circling around the 'thousand years' part because Anakin has heard of peoples who can live a very long time but he keeps looking back at Garth'zel and looking away, turning it over in his head. "That's. Good for you, in terms of the Jedi." Everything else is pretty terrible.

"Yes," Garth'zel agrees. "So I'm not particularly concerned about them. I'll play nice if they do. But if they don't, I'm the one walking away from whatever fight gets picked by whoever's stupid enough to not take the chance to change their mind about doing so."

And that's probably enough of that. "Come on. Let's get you some more practice in sensing the Force, hmm? Eventually, you'll wonder how you ever missed knowing it was there."

Anakin's worries are at least relieved for the moment, which means he's good with dropping the topic and tagging along, even if he stays close. "Ok. Where are we going?"

"We may as well go back to the lounge," Garth'zel says with a shrug. "Gives us a place to sit down and focus. Although now that I think about it, I should probably take a shower first."

Get cleaned up from his training session.

"I put towels in the laundry." He hadn't used all of them, but he did use a lot of them, so he'd laundered them, if Garth'zel wants fresh ones. "I'll wait in the lounge." Only because he didn't have anything else to do in the meantime.

"While I'm thinking about it, you may as well practice the first thing I taught you yesterday," Garth'zel says, veering off to collect the towels on the way to the 'fresher.

Should finish getting the kid settled down at the very least.

"Yes Sir."

Settling down will probably be a good thing given he pretty much bounces his way down the corridor.

But at least once Garth'zel is cleaned up, Anakin is sitting still, eyes closed, on one of the seats, breathing slow and steadily, although he is humming something softly.

When Garth'zel puts in his appearance, it's with a different set of clothes and hair that was drier than Anakin's was when he showed up for food, although still damp.

"I'm about ninety percent certain you're still awake," he says in an amused tone as he takes his seat.

As Garth'zel speaks Anakin immediately opens his eyes. "Only ninety?" he replies with a smile. His hair is in fact still slightly damp, because he hadn't bothered drying it more, despite being chilled with it being wet.

"People do sometimes do things like talk in their sleep," Garth'zel points out straight-faced. "If you decided to talk with your eyes closed, I would have had to revise that percentage downwards."

"Mom says I do, but it's way too early to sleep." Of course, he's now given Anakin a good idea to play a trick on him or Shmi or someone. "Haven't heard of people humming in their sleep though." It was news to him.