Xanatos Snapshots

This is a joint thread, written by Kit' (Kithera Rinani) and myself. It will be a series of very short, one-post stories or 'snapshots', many of which originally appeared on Jemmiah's 'Jedi Snapshots' thread. Kit' and I decided that they were growing so much they deserved a thread of their own, and here it is. Neither of us could think of a catchy title, though, so I'm afraid you're stuck with this one.

The snapshots are all connected, set during Xanatos' padawan years- mostly when he is aged eighteen (Kit' will correct me if I'm a touch out on that, I'm sure )- and include a few original characters, notably Kit's Sara Tencourt and Juli and my own Barin Truthfinder.

Kit's got limited Internet access at the moment, so for now I will be posting her stories as well as my own. They will be in chronological order to begin with, but there are some still to be written that will appear out of sequence.

Edit- And I went and forgot to add Kit's name to the title. Bother! Sorry, Kit'!

 

Looking forward to it, HaiGan & Kit!

 

A MOMENT

WRITTEN BY KIT'

A girl stood poised on the edge of the building. The wind wrapped it self around her hair pulling and teasing the strands so that it flicked around her face. Below her moved silver air-cars crisscrossing though the buildings. It looked like an upside down sky with all the lights creating pinpricks of white, red and blue. The girl swayed her hand resting on the column. One of the true birds of that world flew by her and for a few seconds she wondered how easily it would be to let go. To fly away and not come back. All she had to do was to let go of the column and step into space then she would fly.

Fly to eternity.

She could leave all this behind her, the pain, and the emptiness. All she had to do was step out. In a moment she could leave everything behind the lies, her guilt everything that gave hurt her. How easily she could end the charade; she could simply fly away.

Only her fingertips brushed the column.

The wind lashed her tunic and her leggings outlining for a few seconds a slim figure. Her hair whipped into her face and she brushed it away. One step. One step and she would be flying forever.

Her hand left the support of the column.

It would just take a moment and then she could be gone. Gone forever, flying forever.
She leaned forward.

She wouldn't need to face up to the council in the morning. Hear their explanations as to why her Master left the temple. Wouldn't have to hear their excuses as to why it wasn't her fault when everyone knew it was. She wouldn't have to go home and look at her Master's room anymore, at the empty wardrobe and the few possessions left. She wouldn't even have to read that ridiculous note that her Master left her, saying that it wasn't her fault. It was her fault.

She wouldn't have to do anything anymore. Nothing. All she had to do was take one step.

One foot rose off the ground.

"Juli."

Juli shuddered and almost fell as the wind gripped her. She felt Xani's arms around her legs keeping her from falling. Juli glanced down at the streaming cars and shuddered again, how close had she come? The distance seemed to great and for a moment, dizziness gripped her.

"Juli." Xani said again as he lifted her down. His voice gave her comfort; it was something to cling to. She buried her face in his shoulder without a word and let him stroke her hair as she cried. "Shhh," Xani whispered in her ear, "Shhh, it is all over now." Juli nodded into his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around his waist as he rocked her softly. "What happened?" He asked her.

She glanced up at him through swollen eyes. "My master left the temple Xani. Not just for a mission, either. She left the order, and it is my fault." She only just managed to say it before tears overwhelmed her again.

"Shhh." Xani whispered to her and held her close again stroking her hair until the sobs had quieted. Her Master had left the temple all because Juli hadn't been a good enough padawan, because she hadn't done the dishes the other night and because of a million other reasons that sprang to mind. Each reason was small and trivial but it was all still her fault, everything was her fault. Juli sobbed again and Xani hushed her.

"I just want to fly away Xani." Juli said knowing that she sounded childish but clinging to his tunic with one hand as if to give her support. "I want to leave. It is too much...it's my fault." Juli sobbed eventually, "My fault..." For a long moment, she said nothing and then it overwhelmed her again and she turned her face into his shirt again.

*

As Juli began to sob, Xani stroked her hair quietly, listening to the drone of the air-cars and the occasional noise of the girl in his arms. Master Tellia had been going to leave for ages now; everyone knew it except apparently Juli. He shushed her again and stroked her hair softly. Juli hugged him closer and Xani hushed her, making it look like he took her closer embrace for comfort instead of desire. He knew her feelings towards him but he didn't return them.

Juli lifted her h

 

Jemmiah, that was fast! You managed to sneak in between my two posts!

******

*** are memories
// are personal thoughts.

******

LOST BUT SEARCHING

WRITTEN BY KIT'


"She?s just in here"

The figure on the infirmary bed sits stock still her bandaged eyes turned to
the wall, her plastered hands resting in her lap. She makes no move to even
glance in the direction of the open door where the pervading smell of detol and
disinfectant is stronger, nor does she seem to hear the shriek of a toddler from
the waiting room. She sits still and silent, not acknowledging the people there.


*** Smell of smoke and blood. ?Master? Where are you? I can?t find you anywhere.
The ship's on fire Master why won?t you come?? ***


"Sara?" That is An-Paj inquiring nicely, his hand on her shoulder as a
presence that she can feel. The only movement is her quiet breathing and the way
her body stiffens automatically to any touch.


*** Master? The smoke is getting thicker Master and I can?t breathe! Master?
Master? Where are you? ***


There is a cough from behind him as the older Jedi walks up accompanied by a
much younger man. Sara can feel herself being examined but she doesn?t care
anymore. Her master is dead so why worry.

*** ?Master I can?t find you!?

?I?m here padawan.?
Coming through the smoke looking like she is dragging something with her, oh
the captain. Running and stumbling through the corridors to reach the air-vents
and then onto the corridors. ***

"Where are the escape pods?"

"I beg your pardon Sara?"

Silence from her and the unseeing face turns away to the wall. Through the
glimmers of the force Sara ?sees? An-Paj shake his head at the visitor. There
is a scrape at the doorway and a familiar scent - Qui-Gon Jinn. Her head stays
the same way. Short brown hair flops over where the healers have let it grow
long. She knows that if she ran her hand over her head some of it would be
stubble where they shaved it, the rest would be long and fine. She doesn?t have
the energy.

*** Master? Master? ***

"Qui-Gon!"

"I apologise if I am disturbing you An-Paj, I had come to see Sara. Master
Adu, it has been a long time since I have seen you."

//So that is who it is.//

"Too long Qui-Gon. How is your apprentice?"

"Xanatos is fine."

*** "There Master there... see it?"

"I see it padawan."

The captain groans and her Master shifts the burden with her hand. Sara smiles
grimly at Ash-ka, her Master, and continues their stumbling walk through the
smoke. ***


"Hello Sara." That is Qui-Gon trying to make polite conversation in front of
An-Paj. Sara doesn?t move, she just sits impassively on the bed. Rembering
everything while people talk around her. The other Master must have sat down
because the chair squeaks like it always does and then comes that feeling of
papery skin on hers as the old woman takes her hand.

//Not my master//

Sara snatches her hand away and folds them neatly on top of the blankets.


*** "Here Master we?ve made it." Almost crying in relief as she punches the
code in to open the door, Sara takes the weight of the captain and slides him
inside. Giving her Master a cocky grin Sara slips in besides him.

"We are not out of the woods yet padawan" Ash-ka smiles.

"What could go wrong now?" she asks innocently. There is a beep from beside
the door. Then it slides shut... too fast for Ashka to get in, too fast for Sara to
get out.

"MASTER!" Sara almost screams as the door closes but Ashka looks unruffled.

"I?ll get the next one, padawan." She assures her. Smoke fills billows out of
the hall but Ashka only smiles. Sara is thrown back into the seat as the capsel
breaks free.***

"So she will regain her sight," the papery-skinned one is saying.

"Oh yes." An-Paj again.

Sara trembles but nobody notices.

*** Up by the window now, waiting to see her Master come out in the pod but
there is nothing... nothing until suddenly a blasting flash of light t

 

hI HaiGan

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And just because I have to

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL!

That's okay about missing me outof the title I'm sure I'll live *sniff, sniff*

*sob*

*sigh*

Anyway, I promise this shall be really good, mainly because HaiGan is an exceptional writer!

Kit

 

I think you're both doing a great job! I like Sara a lot and can't wait to read more. Hint, hint!

 

I'd have to agree with Jane! I look forward to reading more...

And "COOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL" is my line!!! *grin*

 

Is not!

 

Mine

 

It's mine! I thought mouse always attributed it to me *pokes out tongue and looks generally childish*

Kit

 

Mine *grin*

 

Kit', you flatter me You're a dab hand at writing yourself, you know, especially the way you portray Xani.

Kit, Gryph, I'm sure you can both share. Any excuse to bump up the post numbers, hmm?

I'll get some more posts up this evening.

 

Bump up the post number, me? *looks as innocent as she can which isn't really a lot*. I'd never do anything like that.....HaiGan, never!

MINE~!!!!!!!!!!!!! *pout*

Kithera

Starts chanting under her breathe "mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine...."

 

"Bump up the post number."

Moi????

Why would I do such a thing??

Other than sheer stubborn-ness, that is?


**In a singsong voice...all together now...**

Mine...mine...la,la,la...mine...mine...la,la,la...

 

Both of you cut it out because it's MINE! See!


COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(And I really mean it too!)

 

Neat! I loved all those snapshots in the Jedi Snapshots thread, Kit' & HaiGan. They certainly deserve their own title.

 

Okeedokee, there's more! This is another one of Kit's, and is set three weeks after 'Lost but Searching'

******

PEEK-A-BOO (I SEE YOU)

WRITTEN BY KIT

"Okay Sara," An-Paj said reassuringly as he snipped the bandage at the back of her head, "We?re going to try again."

She sighed thinking that it was useless. This was the third time that the healer?s had removed the bandages in order to test her sight. She had been in the infernal wards for just over a month and the healers had tried all different types of ointments in an effort to at least regain part of Sara?s vision after she had been blinded by the flash of light as the ship she and her Master were travelling on had burst into soundless flames. Her hands were still bandaged as they rested in her lap. They still hurt if she bent her fingers, the slowly healing skin of her palms scraped against the bandages. There was a knock at the door and then the voice of Qui-gon Jinn.

"I?m not too late am I An-Paj?" He asked politely. Sara wondered briefly what his interest was in her, she had never even met him before he had rescued her and the captain from their pod. Her Master, though, had never made it. She repressed a shudder at the thoughts and memories that tried to overwhelm her. Forcing the last images of her Master from her mind, she made herself smile at Qui-gon as she felt him sit down beside her.

"Do you think it will work?" He asked and she shrugged in reply before saying.

"I don?t think so." She said softly her shoulders sagging and then she brightened again, "But you?ve got to try, you can?t give up. You?ve got to be cheery," She pointed in the vague direction of the Healers, and continued in a bright, false voice "Otherwise you get them down and after that An-Paj goes all grumpy and starts feeding you Master Yoda?s gruel."

She felt his smile and smiled back wondering what he was really like and whether he was noticing her nervousness. To regain her sight would not only mean that she could see again, but it would hopefully free her from the images of her Master that haunted the darkness in which she lived.

"Are you ready Sara?" Healer Leona asked softly. Sara felt the pressure of the healer?s fingers on the back of her head and braced herself against the chair. Then the pressure intensified and the next second all thoughts were driven from her head as white-hot pain flashed across the side of her head. Sara yelped in pain and then it was gone. She could feel the breathless excitement of those around her and yet nothing had changed, she was still locked in the cage of darkness.

"Did you have to do it so hard?" She asked breathlessly.

"Well?" An-Paj asked quickly, "Can you see anything?"

"Only if you?ve taken my bandages off in the dark." Sara snapped back her irritation and anger flaring at the loss of hope. She was still trapped, encircled by darkness. There was an audible sigh from those around her and then she felt a broad palm on her shoulder.

"It?s okay Sara." Qui-gon?s voice said and then as the first tears made their way down her cheeks she realised she was crying. He pulled her closer then and put his arms around her so she buried her face in his shirt her hands huddled protectively against her chest.

*

It felt like hours later when she realised that the healers had left and she was still sitting in Qui-gon?s lap as he rocked her and stroked her hair.

"Your padawan will be wondering where you are." Sara said her voice croaking. She quite liked Xantos too, he was quiet and reserved and had often come down to talk to her when Qui-gon hadn?t been there. Qui-gon propped her up and she realised that he was studying her.

"You?re small for fourteen." He said ignoring her statement.

"Master Ash-ka told me that I would grow eventually." She said and then the mention of her Master made fresh tears spring into her eyes. Qui-gon touched her shoulder again and she felt a wave of the force so loving that it almost made her cry in itself. Without warning she gasped, small specks of light were dancing in f

 

And /another/ one of Kit's!

********

Cookie Monster

~~~~~~~~

Who stole the cookie from the cookie Jar?
You stole the cookie from the cookie jar
Who me?
Yes you!
Couldn?t be!
Then who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

~~~~~~~~


***

Bored

Uninterested

Fed up

Tired of things

Bored to death

Bored stiff

Bored to tears

Sara racked her mind for other words to describe the way that she felt as she lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Funnily enough, she kept coming back to the same word, a word that described everything so beautifully. She was - in no uncertain terms ? bored.

Rolling onto her stomach she glanced at the pile of books Master Jinn had bought her to read from the temple Library but she had read nearly all of them.

?Hungry Sara?? Healer Leona asked from the door. Sara shook her head and ignored the pained rumblings of her stomach. She was starving but her pride wouldn?t allow her to be fed like a baby because her bandaged hands were too clumsy to co-ordinate a spoon. She wasn?t going to feed herself either, last time she had done that she had ended up with half a bowl of mashed fruit down her front and Healer Leona had had to change her, leaving Sara feeling even more dependant and childish.

When the healer rolled a tray of food through the door a couple of minutes later, Sara sighed and slipped out from the bed and went to watch the passing traffic from the window.

As she watched the steady stream of bug-like cars that careened overhead, she sighed again wishing that Qui-gon or Xantos were here to cheer her up. Neither of them had pity in their eyes when they regarded her scorched hands that hadn?t healed even after a month and a half of bacta, ointment and bandages. The Healers had put it down to Sara being a slow healer and had told her that they would heal eventually. She scowled at the late afternoon sun and then down at her hands, An-Paj hadn?t exactly been co-operative about Sara leaving the wards either saying that she needed to stay in for observation. Observation of what - patience thresholds?

Picking up a book from the table, she picked up the chair that normally sat by her bed and using her forearms rather then her hands carried it gingerly across the room. Curling up by the window, Sara opened the book and let her eyes skim over the top of the page, not really reading it.

Instead she thought about Xantos; the boy would have to have been four years older then her. Grave and rather pale faced with mop of black hair he had only needed a cloak and a menacing evil stare ? she had once told him ? and he would have made the perfect bad guy from some trashy novel. Sara smiled to herself and flicked the page over, Xantos had often come down to talk to her when his master was doing something else and had enthralled her about stories of his father and the wealth that he owned. Sometimes Sara got the feeling that Xantos craved that wealth and power for himself and felt cheated that he had become a Jedi instead. Once she had asked him too and he had smiled at her, ruffled her hair and told her of course not, then his face had turned grave as if he was considering it seriously.

He never talked about his father when Qui-gon came down to visit and instead talked about lighter things like jibing at his master after he had bested him in training. Sara smiled again as she watched the sun sink slowly behind the forest of skyscrapers, she was beginning to suspect that she liked Xantos a little bit more then the friendship they already shared.

The forgotten book dropped back to the floor as Sara rose and walked back to her bed. Her hands and arms itched insufferably but especially the bit where the drip connected into her arm. She picked at the tap with the force, wishing that she had the use of her fingernails to do it for her and then sighed in relief when the tape and then after a moments hesitation the needle came away, sliding free of her arm and dropping to the floor where they began to drip water over the tiles.

 

I am so sorry, I am so critical, but their is one teensy problem. The spelling is actually Xanatoes. Just thought I would mention it

 

I have to confess, SiriGallia, that as I've (*gasp!*) never actually read any of the EU books, only associated fanfic, I wouldn't know. I'm just going with the only spelling I've ever seen until you mentioned it. Not that any of my own stuff has actually appeared on this thread yet! Isn't there a Gargoyles character with a similar name, btw?

 

Actually HaiGan, Siri's spelling isn't correct either!

The title IS correct; it should be Xanatos.

Anyway, I thought I'd let you and Kit' know how much I'm enjoying re-reading the snapshots. I'm already looking forward to more!

 

Oh, this is great seeing all these together in their own thread.

Thank you Kit' and HaiGan!

 

Healer Leona: You haven't seen that first snapshot before because it has honestly never been posted before! That is a newbie so any feedback would be most appreciated.

Siri: I checked the JA books where Xanatos is mentioned and the author spells it the way we do (trust me I have checked two or three times because I used to spell it without the second 'a'). Anyway it doesn't matter.

Kit

 

The first one - like the others - was beautifully written. You could really feel the complex emotions spinning around in Juli's head.

Instead of catching her, Xani should've given Juli a push.