Bonds of Redemption

by Susan Anthony

Title: Bonds of Redemption
Series: Forged Bonds (Bonds of Light, Bonds of Change, Bonds of Acceptance and Bonds of Love)
Author: Susan Anthony (LdyGossamer@aol.com)
Pairing: Xanatos/OMC
Archive: Master_Apprentice, The Equally Worthwhile Adventures of Bruck Chun if they want it, my site at http://www.geocities.com/area51/keep/8613/artists.html, anyone else, just ask
Category: AU, Angst, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, First Time
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: none
Summary: The Bond of Light saved more than Padawan Chun
Feedback: Very welcome.
Warnings: M/M relationship

Notes: Thanks to Maig for her patient and belligerent beta. This is an epilog of sorts to the Forged Bonds series. I, of course, couldn't leave well enough along. I had to take care of my Xan, didn't I?

More Notes: This takes place a little over a year after Bonds of Love

Disclaimer: The Boyz aren't mine. More's the pity. This story is for the pleasure of the readers only. I don't make a thing.

Morning on Axtes, a fertile and mineral rich world in the Middle Rim

Director Thiari Aolin patted down his official beige jacket and pants one last time as his hovercraft came to a halt before the shiny, new Offworld Corporation building. His fingers gently ran through his short, brown hair, making sure it wasn't sticking up again.

Then he sighed and forced his hands back to his lap. He'd been fidgeting since he'd awakened this morning and not even his sunrise meditation had helped. His Force sense had never tended towards prescience but he had a very...odd feeling about the upcoming meeting with the OffWorld representative.

"Shall I wait, Director?" the driver asked respectfully as he opened the door for his nervous superior. He had seldom seen the Director nervous about anything but since picking him up this morning the man had been antsy.

"No, Kloth, you can grab some breakfast. I'll call you when I'm ready for a pick up," Thiari said with a smile that didn't quite reach his deep, purple eyes. "The meeting may run long depending on what the OffWorld representative is requesting of AgriCorps."

The driver nodded as he closed the door. "I won't be far, sir. There's a place right down the street."

Thiari gave him a real smile then, even if it wasn't quite up to his standard, blinding grin. "Thank you, Kloth."

Then he nodded and tightened his fingers around the handle of his briefcase before he turned to walk up to the doorway. It opened automatically as he approached and he went immediately to the reception desk and gave his name.

"Director Thiari Aolin to see Master Osrith Ling," he said with a genial smile to the woman while he tried frantically to calm his jangling nerves.

The woman gave him a bland smile and checked her screen for his name. Her rather blank eyes abruptly widened as she darted a glance up at the new arrival.

"I see here that you are expected, Director Aolin. Welcome to OffWorld Corporation," she said as she looked across the hall and waved at someone. Immediately, a slender man approached and gave Thiari a bow. "Master Ling is not available this morning but another of our Directors will be meeting with you. Berin will show you to the Red Conference Room."

Thiari glanced at the young man and then back to the now beaming receptionist. "Um...thank you," he replied with a half bow. "Have a nice day."

"And you, sir," she chirped back at him before she quickly started to type something on her keyboard.

Thiari watched her for a moment, absently rubbing the back of his neck before he turned to Berin, who waited patiently beside him. Something was about to happen; he just knew it. Whether it was good or bad though, it felt as though there was no stopping whatever was coming.

So, with a sigh and a brief muttered prayer to whatever deity might be listening, Thiari motioned for the young man to lead him. Berin smiled and nodded, trotting off across the immense front hall and into what seemed to be a maze of hallways and offices. Somewhere along the journey, they took an elevator, which must have gone to the top of the building before it stopped. Berin stepped out confidently but Thiari followed a bit more warily. He didn't expect to meet with any top executives while he was here and certainly wasn't prepared to do so.

Berin, however, didn't slow down to be questioned concerning who Thiari was meeting until he reached a wide double doorway. He casually laid his palm on the doorplate and they opened silently.

The young man gestured Thiari into the room with a nod. "Please help yourself to anything to eat or drink at the bar. You will be joined shortly."

"By whom?" Thiari asked but the doors were already closing, leaving him in a luxuriously appointed meeting room. The walls were a deep, dark red and the furniture was all built from a dark wood Thiari recognized as one highly prized on the planet. There was a large conference table dominating the room and a bar along one wall. Against the far wall, however, was a large ceiling to floor window and after putting his briefcase on the table, he walked silently on the plush carpeting to stand in the warmth and light coming through the glass.

He was on the top floor, he decided as he stared out over Sebartez, the capital city of Axtes. It was a bustling, busy city with a surprisingly refined and complex culture but one that was still deeply rooted in its agricultural past. This was not a sophisticated center-rim planet but one that held tight to its beliefs and values.

Fortunately, there wasn't anything of great value on the planet except for its artists and its farmers, and both professions were considered to be of high rank. Axtes needed and imported very little from the Republic but it exported enough grains and nutrient-rich food to keep two solar systems fed. Its military was trained to make sure Axtes' exports got to where they were going with very little hassle from pirates or the Trade Federation.

So when OffWorld Corp moved their headquarters to this rather quiet and out-of-the-way planet last year, there was much speculation as to why. There was nothing on the planet worth extracting in the large quantities that OffWorld mined.

The company stated they wanted a neutral planet in this sector where they could headquarter their people and Axtes was it. Thiari just had to wonder what else was going on behind these cold doors but so far, the company had been quiet. The only obvious change was that spaceport traffic had risen significantly with OffWorld's coming and goings and that the company had donated quite a bit of credit to have the local port enlarged.

But now OffWorld was asking a meeting with the Director of Axtes' AgriCorps.

Since agriculture was such a large part of the planet's economy, AgriCorps was a powerful entity here and one that Thiari had been the head of for the last five years. He'd been young for the Axtes post - a mere 30 years of age -but he had a sense of the living Force respected even by some of the Jedi knights he'd inevitably encountered and he could be a sharp and canny negotiator when needed.

As he gazed unseeing out into the bright morning, however, he didn't feel very sharp or canny. He only felt nervous and tingly. He felt like a rowboat might feel when it was in the path of an oncoming tsunami.

He turned even before the doors started to open; his Force sense tingling and his heart beating so fast he was certain whomever was coming into the room could hear it.

And then all was silent: his Force sense, his mind, his heart.

Until he breathed out a single syllable.

"Xan...?"

The man standing in front of him just stared, his dark, blue eyes almost as wide as he guessed his own must be. He was impeccably dressed in an expensive blue suit and his dark hair was pulled back neatly in a braid which fell over his shoulder almost to his waist.

"Xanatos?" The name slipped out again as Thiari couldn't help but take a step in his direction. This man looked very different from the youth he'd been forced to leave behind twenty years ago when he'd been sent away from the Temple. But...this had to be his dearest friend, thought long lost and yet never forgotten.

Xanatos suddenly smiled.

"Hello, Thiari," he said, his voice rather unsteady but rich with welcome.

And the Force...quivered

"Ohmigodlings, Xan*!" Thiari was across the room and wrapping his arms around his friend without even thinking, knowing that despite more than two decades of separation that Xanatos would immediately enfold him in an embrace he'd never want to leave.

"Thiari," Xanatos breathed into his friend's hair, his arms tight around the younger man's slender form. "I missed you so much. I didn't realize how much until I saw you again."

The Force strengthened and flowed between them

Thiari leaned back and looked up into dearly remembered eyes. "You grew out your hair," he said as he reached out and ran his fingers along the thick, black braid.

"And you cut yours off," Xanatos said wistfully as he carded his fingertips through the short, thick waves.

Then, wrapping around them and cresting with an almost visible brightness in the air, the Force settled into a low, inaudible thrum between them, twining around them like the lovers they soon would be to each other.

And then they were kissing, Xanatos holding his lover-to-be as close as he possibly could, feeling a sense of peace stealing over him even as his frozen emotions slowly thawed. He pulled back as light fingers ghosted over his cheek, over his half-circle scar and worried lavender eyes looked up at him.

"What happened, Xan?" Thiari asked softly, his expression concerned. "It looks old and painful. Why hasn't it healed?"

Xanatos' hand covered Thiari's and he kissed the fingertips lightly.

"It was painful," he replied. "There were...circumstances."

Thiari heard more in Xanatos' words than he could possibly understand but he nodded as the insight he'd never questioned provided some odd answers.

"You left the Jedi?" he asked hesitantly and he felt Xanatos' fingers tighten around his as the man gave a terse nod. "You work for OffWorld now?"

Xanatos grinned suddenly and Thiari ached when he saw the mischievous expression, remembering it vividly from so long ago.

"I own OffWorld Corporation," he said, his tone boastful. Thiari almost laughed as he heard an echo from many years in the past.

"It's my own lightsaber, Thiari!" came the childish, boastful voice, "I'll share it with you but just you."

"Godlings, I missed you," Thiari whispered as his worried eyes sought out the scar again. He reached out and gently outlined the wound on Xanatos' cheek. "These...circumstances," he began hesitantly, "Are they anything I can help with?" His eyes looked up into his friend's deep gaze. "I hate to think of you being in any kind of pain, Xanatos."

The taller man closed his eyes briefly and sighed before he leaned into Thiari's gentle touch. He opened his eyes and reached out to run his fingers again through his soon-to-be lover's hair.

"I think it might heal now," Xanatos said and leaned forward to brush another kiss against Thiari's lips.

Thiari smiled as he rested his face against the larger man's chest; basking in the soothing presence of someone he'd missed his entire adult life.

"I know it will," he murmured.

EPILOG

Xanatos Chiyari quietly watched his lover enjoy the sleep of the thoroughly exhausted innocent. At one time, he might have said there were no innocents left in the galaxy above the age of five but his Thiari had always carried a sweet innocent naivet? inside him. In the two decades since he'd last seen his bondmate, the naivet? had almost completely vanished but when Xanatos looked into those beautiful, violet eyes, he still saw the innocent light that had haunted and held him even in his darkest of times.

Even now, he couldn't quite believe that he had his Thiari back. He'd searched for the man after he'd clawed his way back from the deepest parts of the Dark. He'd searched because he knew Thiari was still alive, still somewhere waiting for him. But his attempts had been fruitless and his searches tapered off as his business Empire grew and demanded all his time. His beloved friend became more a dream, a fantasy, perhaps the last spark of hope left in his Darkened heart.

Then came the communication last year from Sath'ki, the only friend he ever regretted leaving behind with the Jedi. Somehow, his old lover had found a way to contact Xanatos and once the ex-Jedi had investigated and assured himself that Sath'ki was only interested in communicating with him and not dragging him back to the Temple, Xanatos had been almost glad to hear from him. Even more astonishing was what Sath'ki had to say about Jinn's little Kenobi brat, a padawan named Chun, Lightbonds, Xanatos...and Thiari.

His Lightmate. And Axtes was where to find him and what his life had been for the past two decades.

Xanatos had read the communiqu? several times before he understood everything Sath'ki had said. The Soul Healer had asked his lover, apparently a powerful Seer, to help him track down Thiari and from there, Sath'ki had found the information and then sent it on to Xanatos.

It hadn't taken the ex-Jedi long to decide on his course of action. From what Sath'ki had said, Thiari was quite respected and content in his AgriCorp role on Axtes and so Xanatos would follow him there. If any of his people had problems moving to the odd location, then they were free to find work with another company. Thiari and his happiness were what were important now and Xanatos moved the mountain of his Offworld Empire to make sure that Thiari would remain happy.

The dark-haired man sighed as he reached out a shaking hand to touch his lover's hair. Xanatos remembered when Thiari had been twelve and he had had a thick, brown braid hanging below his waist. He had been fascinated by the younger boy's long hair and had spent many a quiet evening brushing and braiding the silky mass, talking about what great Jedi Knights they were going to be. They had already planned out how they would be padawans and then knights together. Thiari had leaned trustingly back against Xanatos and sighed happily. "Maybe we'll get to take paired missions, Xan," he'd said with a grin. "We'd kick their sorry, sithly asses."

That was the last time he'd seen his friend. Master Jinn had chosen Xanatos almost six months earlier and they were assigned a mission that lasted much longer than anticipated. It had nearly crushed Xanatos when he and his master had returned from the assignment to find that Thiari had been shipped off to AgriCorps. Worse, the cr?che master wouldn't provide an address for Xanatos to contact his beloved friend.

"Better to make a clean break, Padawan," the man had said in a soothing tone. "Thiari has taken a different path."

"But you don't understand*! I have to know where he went!" Xanatos had shouted - actually shouted - at the Master Jedi in front of him.

Master Jinn, who was just arriving in the hall looking for his padawan, had stepped up to grip his apprentice's shoulder.

"Padawan," he said calmly but Xanatos just whirled on his master.

"Master Jinn, it's Thiari! They sent him away and Master Grifit won't tell me how to contact him!" His tone was hinging on hysterical and his eyes must have been wild. Xanatos remembered the feeling of urgency, of needing to find Thiari NOW!

But his master just shook his head gently. "Once they are gone, Xanatos, we let them go," he said in a calm, reassuring tone. "Contact between new padawans and those sent on to the Corps is not allowed."

"But Master, it's Thiari*!" Xanatos had practically wailed, grabbing his master's robes. How they hadn't realized that his emotional state was due to more than just missing a friend was beyond Xanatos. He must have been broadcasting some serious grief.

Master Jinn had just looked at his padawan and said, "No, Xanatos."

Looking back now, Xanatos realized that it was at that precise moment - the moment his master had denied him even a small contact with Thiari - that he had first felt the stirring of hatred.

"Xanatos?"

Hard blue eyes shifted to meet a sleepy purple gaze and immediately softened. Thiari reached out to take his lover's hand and draw him down beside him.

"Don't think on the past," Thiari said softly as he caressed Xanatos' scarred cheek. He smiled as Xanatos covered his hand with his own and tangled their fingers together.

"I can't help it," Xanatos replied with a stark honesty he rarely used, his expression dark and painful. "I just want to hurt them for taking you from me. How many years have been wasted!"

Thiari didn't reply at first. He only pulled his lover close and kissed him gently. "I love you Xan," he said softly. "I probably loved you from the first moment I saw you even if I didn't understand it then." His fingers slowly threaded into Xanatos dark hair. "But...it wasn't our time then," he said as he held Xanatos' blue eyes. "There's nothing we can do to change that. It makes me angry too believe me. But this is our time - now and onward. Don't waste more time with regrets or hate. The Jedi may have separated us but they are also the ones who brought us together. We would never have met but for the cr?che."

And I never would have found you again but for Knight Sath'ki, Xanatos thought and Thiari blinked.

Who's Sath'ki?

Then Xanatos blinked and smiled at the wonder of hearing his bondmate in his mind for the first time.

"A friend, beloved," he replied as he pulled Thiari close. "A very good friend."

The end