Author's Note: I couldn't help it, when this plot popped up in my mind I just had to write it, even though I didn't want to start any new stories with "Guardian of the Spirit" going on. Don't expect any regular updates, for I still have to see who exactly this story will work (but I already have an end in mind so I doubt it will be an epic like Guardian.)
Warnings: AU, timetravel
Pairings: maybe some A/P
Summary: We cannot change the past. The future is always in motion. The Jedi of all times always believed time to be unchangeable. But when Anakin Solo suddenly awakes in the long past Clone Wars, he has to meet his decision: Will he let destiny happen or does he take the chance to change it all…
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars.
"…" – Speaking
'…' – Thinking
------ – Scene-change
--- Set in Stone ---
Prologue
He was surrounded by light.
The Force was him. And he was the Force.
There was no pain, not of the countless amphistaff wounds he had taken nor from the big hole in his abdomen.
He let himself flow, to where ever the Force was carrying him. The pictures of his parents, of his siblings, of his aunt and uncle and his baby-cousin, of… her where right before his eyes and somewhere in the chaos of his mind he felt regret, regret that he never would have a chance to say good bye or to fulfil the promises he had given or… there were so many things he regretted.
He felt the force taking of his consciousness and so he allowed himself to formulate a last wish. He wished to live, not to die. To live so that everything could become all right again. So that he could be again with those he loved. So that balance could be found…
Anakin Solo should have been more careful with what he wished for…
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Dust and smoke rose from the hardly vegetated grounds of Boz Pity. Mud and droidparts lay around and if one was to look closer, they still could see the dried blood of those who were wounded, or worse, had died there. Blood of clone troopers. Blood of Jedi.
'Now Boz Pity is truly a Graveyard planet.', Anakin Skywalker, Chosen One, Jedi Knight and Commander of the Republic Army, thought wryly. Two days had past since the Battle of Boz Pity and the death of Asajj Ventress, but for Anakin it seemed so much longer, like a lifetime.
The med runners already had taken all their dead away, for a burial at Coruscant, and the last of their wounded were taken on the Star Destroyer Intervention. Excluding him and his former Master Obi Wan, all other Jedi on Boz Pity had left for their next deployment and soon they would be gone too.
But Anakins thoughts were far from their next assignment. In fact he still thought about Asajj Ventress, her death and one comment, Obi-Wan had made prior it. Anakin didn't dread the though of the dark side.
Fear, anger, passion, they all helped him focus through this war, helped him to get his priorities straight and to safe lives. Yet he was uncertain, because he remembered the grief he had felt the last time, he had truly touched it, in the Tusken camp on Tatooine.
…the children were screaming, but he didn't care. For him they all were monster, abominations that needed to be destroyed…
Anakin shook his head, and for a moment he wondered if it was really him controlling his feelings and not the other way around, and then he shook his head even more fierce, to get rid of these thought, or at least to send it into the far edged corner of his mind.
Right now, in war, he couldn't allow himself to start to second-guess his path, there was too much on stake. After the war he would be able to sort that out, with the help of Obi-Wan perhaps, but not right now. No, right now he needed his emotions, his passions, in order to do what had to be done.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned his head to see Obi-Wan, his former mentor, father figure and now brother, smiling at him and asking if anything was wrong.
Anakin already wanted to answer, to assure his brother, but suddenly he was near yet far away, everywhere and nowhere at all. He felt the force twisting and shifting and then an equivalent of an explosion and, like a star, a new presence was born within the force.
And then he was back on Boz Pity, Obi-Wan shaking his shoulders while looking rather concerned.
"Did… did you feel that?" Anakin asked, his voice less steady than he would have liked it to be.
"Feel… what?" the Jedimaster asked confused, but Anakin didn't answer, for now he felt the new presence near them… and it seemed to be dieing. He shrugged off Obi-Wan and started searching, though the force, through his eyes, feeling the forces plead not to stop – and then he found it. Or rather him.
Behind one of the many droid piles that had formed, he found a boy, a senior Padawan (hardly older then seventeen standard-years), though the only thing that showed him as a Jedi was the lightsaber, that lay loose in his hand.
But the shock of finding the boy (how could they have missed him before) was quickly replaced by the horror of seeing his numerous wounds and from the looks of it, was not one of them a blaster wound.
Anakin didn't think, he just rushed to him and laid one hand on his forehead, starting to influence him with the force. He was surprised when he felt the boy respond and didn't even notice Obi-Wans call for a stretcher.
The boy sent his confusion through the force but then linked himself to Anakins own presence, like to a lifeline and Anakin, though wondering where the boy could have learned such a skill, sent back reassurance and aided the boy where he could.
Even when Obi-Wan came back to get them the fastest way to the medical bay of the Intervention, he didn't stop. The force had told him that the boy was far too important, far too precious to die yet. He was a Jedi, so he followed the will of the force.
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All he saw was darkness.
But instead of consuming him, the shadows aided him, helped him, guided him through the endless sea.
Then the dream ended. Instead there was pain, endless and consuming.
And then he saw the light. For a moment he felt blinded but then he reached out and what he felt startled him, for in front of him was Uncle Luke (but wasn't Luke on Coruscant?). But then he realized, it wasn't his uncle but someone else, with a similar Force signature (his grandfather?). It seemed that he was becoming one with the force.
He reached out again this time with more strength and linked himself to the other one. Though he felt surprise at first, the other one reached out for him as well, completing the link. And then he heard a voice.
Don't worry. It will be alright now.
He felt better at this. Everything was going to be fine. And so Anakin Solo fell back into the darkness of his unconsciousness.
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