Rebuilding (COMPLETE)

Episode 21 (2)

The Eighth Brother would have been outraged at the mention of his old name if anyone else had said it, but seeing as only so many people knew him by his original identity, he figured out who Jarrus was too. "Caleb."

"You're alive," he went on, too stunned to move or react further. "I didn't think you had made it. I thought you had died in the temple."

"I could have said the same," the Brother responded. "No one told me you had changed your name."

Anakin didn't move or speak, but his head had started pounding the instant Kanan recognized this Inquisitor. He, too, had known the ex-Padawan, but if he was here as an Imperial agent, this conversation wasn't going to end well. He couldn't trust the Brother no matter who he had been in the past. Unlike Kanan, he knew better than to call him anything but his Inquisitorial title.

He was encouraged when the Brother deactivated his face mask, though. A little bit of vulnerability was a good sign. Still, seeing the toll the Dark Side had taken on the man was horrific. His sick yellow eyes were bloodshot and afraid, as one might be when at the mercy of two Jedi.

Kanan looked to Master Skywalker, wondering what he was supposed to do. Taking the initiative, Anakin lifted the Brother's lightsaber to his hand and hooked it onto his belt. They couldn't take a chance like that. With a pair of handcuffs the Brother had brought, Anakin inhibited his arms and stood back, deactivating his lightsaber but not putting it away. If Kanan was going to get through to him at all, he needed to be the good cop, and Anakin needed to be the bad cop.

Kanan kneeled beside him and put his weapon on his belt. Inhaling, he asked, "How did you get...here?"

The Brother seemed amused as he remembered the story. "Well, wouldn't you know it, I was talking with Windu when Order 66 was activated. We didn't know about the order, of course, but Windu saw clone troopers marching out the window of the room. He took a closer look, and he saw Lady Jadis sitting on a skyscraper in the middle of the city and thought she had something to do with it."

At the mention of Master Windu, Kanan's mind flashed back to the sarcophagus that held his remains, the one that had drawn him into his first fight with the Grand Inquisitor. He had a sinking feeling this story might tie in to Master Windu's resting place.

"He told me to get the Younglings down to the basement and hide, but I refused to listen. I told him that if he was going to fight her that he shouldn't do it alone, and I wasn't about to hide because I was afraid."

"Because of Master Gallia?" Kanan asked, making eye contact with him. "Because you couldn't take it if you lost another master?"

The accusation seemed to anger the Brother, but he didn't deny it. In fact, he acknowledged it. "He seemed to understand. He knew I was suffering after she died and he was one of two Jedi who didn't tell me to ignore it."

Thinking back to the last months before the Jedi Purge, Kanan remembered how Jinx had spent more time with Master Windu than any other Jedi. Maybe if they had more time, they would have become master and apprentice. He would have said it out loud if another thought hadn't occurred to him. "Who was the second?"

The Brother didn't respond verbally but looked over to where Master Skywalker was standing. Kanan turned and looked at him too, finding that he wasn't even remotely surprised. After a moment, the Brother told him, "You were always different than the other Jedi in the temple. I'm glad you are one of the survivors."

Anakin nodded, acknowledging the statement. Maybe they were fighting against each other now, but there was still an element of respect between them. Now that more of the story was coming to light, he understood why Jinx had fallen. He had been unstable after Adi Gallia, his master, had died in an ambush set up by the Separatists. The Jedi Purge and whatever had happened during it must have given him a push toward the Dark Side, and the rest was history.