AN: So... I'm just gonna reboot this entire thing. Sorry. It was slightly painful for me to read through. So here's the prologue! (Again).
~The Wheels of Destiny are in Motion~
Prologue: A Shift In Events
Time Is Meaningless, but for the sake of those on the physical plane – 4 ABY (After Battle of Yavin): The Planes of the Light.
It was all wrong.
But not truly. Not totally.
After all, the basic objective they had when they started this scheme had been achieved – the Sith were no more.
And yet…
The Darkness was still the Dark. The Wielders of the Wisdom and the Waters were dead. And the child of the Sun, the man related to what was once the eight beings known as the Force was dead.
The Heart of the Force stood up from the viewing pool and looked about at her children. Their eyes were downcast in mourning too – and addressed them.
"This did not go the way we planned."
"Nothing ever does." The Winds replied.
"What did we do wrong? Where did we go wrong?" Said the Sun plaintively, blue eyes filled with tears eerily mirroring that of a young man who was now the last Jedi.
"We acted too late." The Wisdom said firmly to his elder brother. "And in doing so we set constants in the timeline."
The Earth, the Winds and the Fire looked at each other; it really had only turned out well for their Wielders (in that they were alive, they wouldn't mention anything about the state of their psyches).
"Then we must work around the constants." The Heart said firmly.
"How shall we do that?" The Waters asked.
"I'll do what I must."
"No… No! We were eight, now we are seven. Do not make us six when we were –"
"Enough!" Cried the Heart as she interrupted the Fire. "I was the first, I was the first and it seems only fitting that the first and last of us will be missing till the last of us is returned."
She looked at those she called her children.
"When the Darkness is returned to the Living Force, when then the Dark is vanquished, I'll awake. But this is our last chance. We've wasted too many."
The Sun, her eldest, brightest of them all (so much so that really the only presence in the Force that sentients could sense when making first contact was him) nodded.
"One last chance. We wasted our first to prevent any of this from happening. We messed up the second."
"One last chance."
The others echoed as they surrounded the Heart of the Force. A bright, bright pulse blasted out of the Force as the celebrations on the forest moon of Endor faded away – and things shifted.
-Star Wars: The Shift-
957 ARR (After Ruusan Reformation): Mos Eisley, Tatooine.
Nine Standard Galactic months ago, Gardulla turned off her tracker and sent her out into the desert. But Shmi Skywalker was on a time limit.
If she did not return to the designated approved area in a month and a half, she would become a Shmi-plosion.
But it was not like Gardulla truly expected her back, the Hutt wanted her property back, just in case Shmi was successful where so many others had failed.
The desert of Tatooine stretched out before her. Her mission, to open safe diplomatic contact with the Sand People so that trade between the major ports of the planet could flow more easily. (That was the danger of learning the Tusken language.) Eleven had gone before her. None had returned alive and of these one had remained in their designated area the entire time.
That one had been executed for disobeying orders – Gardulla's eyes were everywhere – the rest had been found mutilated on the edge of the desert well before the month and a half finished.
She stepped beyond the boundaries of Mos Eisley and took a sharp breath – she didn't die.
Then another step and another, and then stop. Because she was of the desert, and the desert was in her bones – she could feel the sandstorm.
She could not go back, and there were no caves in sight to brave the storm in. There was only one option for her. Death would free her where she couldn't free herself in life.
951 ARR: The Crèche of the Central Jedi Temple, Coruscant.
The Wisdom smiled over the Wielder.
Young Obi-Wan Kenobi was everything the Wisdom hoped the Wielder would be. Smart, with a rashness that would quickly be tempered and honed into experience. A willingness to learn and grow without the need to see immediate results – it was all there.
Too bad the rest of the Jedi had not seen it quite yet.
The Wisdom bowed over the ten years and six months old boy and breathed, a glowing cloud settling around the boy before the Wisdom faded back into the Planes. The task was finished.
Time Is Meaningless, but for the sake of those on the physical plane – 951 ARR: The Planes of the Light
"Finished brother?"
The Wisdom turned around to see the Sun.
"Yes, my one action is done."
"The Waters and the Fire are gearing up to do the time shift. The Winds said he had already completed his one change, the Earth went to pick out the decoys so she has finished her one task."
The Sun looked contemplative, the Wisdom sighed.
"You never got to make your one change."
"You know I can't – my one direct change is a constant. I can however give my blessing to her."
"Fitting."
The Sun quirked what might have been an eyebrow at his brother.
"Tell me… You, the Waters and the Earth are known by the Jedi as the Unifying Force –"
"Not that they actually know we are all just the Force… Sorry."
"Don't worry about that. You have seen what happens? To her in the changes we are making?"
"It's fitting, because she will one day be known as the First Sun of Tatooine."
"A son of Suns still."
"Exactly."
951 ARR (that same night): The Crèche of the Central Jedi Temple, Coruscant.
Obi-Wan awoke.
But not really.
He slept walked past the security of the Crèche into the metalshop of the Temple, a pulse of a glow sweeping any obstacle out of his way. Once there the pulse repeated again and again as he set himself to a task that he would normally never be able to do. He built nanos.
Force suppressive and Force enhancing nanos. Nano-bots that would never ever again be seen or discovered.
This would be his nightly project for the next six months.
957 ARR (After Ruusan Reformation): The Desert, Tatooine.
The sandstorm hit.
Shmi buried herself as deep as she could in the sand. Rather die from suffocation than from a thousand cuts polishing her to her bone.
The wind howled above her and then all was silent.
"Are you alright?"
The voice was warm and golden. Like a memory of something long ago, before she became a slave, before she was captured as a child. Shmi looked up and her heart nearly stopped.
He was beautiful, golden as his voice was and eyes as blue as the Tatooine sky, and for some reason glowing.
"This is a mirage, isn't it."
"Make of it what you will, you will survive Shmi Skywalker. You have a destiny."
"Beyond that of a slave Mr. Mirage? No I think not. Besides my destiny shall be ending very soon. We are in a storm."
"We are in its eye. And this eye shall remain over us until the end of the storm."
Shmi bowed low
"Raku'ath. I'm at your service." She named him. Calling him The Desert – beautiful and terrible in the native language of the planet.
"No Shmi, I am at yours. I will not do this if you do not wish it."
"Despite everything I have somehow remained whole – I give myself to your service."
"Truly you shall be blessed. You shall be the Unifier of the Desert. The Woman of Peace. K'Ru'Rah."
And with a kiss on her brow Shmi surrendered herself to the desert willingly. Then in a blink of an eye, the man-mirage, the storm and Shmi were gone. Only a tiny metallic object no bigger than ten grains of sand lined up straight left in the sands of the desert.
952 ARR: The Jedi Agricorps Headquarters, Bandomeer.
Somehow time had moved forward even though it had moved backwards. Shmi had quite inexplicably teleported to a planet that she had never heard of after her encounter with Raku'ath.
And given birth.
She should have expected that.
And now her month old son, whom she named Anakin was hungry and she had a Jedi Master and a Initiate (call me Obi-Wan he said) hiding in her basement and there were strange men banging on the door of the little hut she now called home.
And then it was over and she was pressing Anakin into Obi-Wan's (he looked so bewildered it was adorable) arms as she sent the recently turned twelve year old off with her child.
And as they left she was caught up in a whirlwind that felt like the storm and then…
957 ARR (After Ruusan Reformation): The Desert, Tatooine.
She was back to her proper age and it was like she never left.
She would have believed that the entire thing had been an extremely vivid hallucination, but as she bent down and picked up in awe the tracker that they couldn't find in Bandomeer, she knew.
It was real.
It all happened.
952 ARR: Interstellar Space.
Obi-Wan looked down at little Anakin. He never noticed the silvery portion of a ring that he wore dissolving and mixing into Anakin's system. It clamped down on his midi-chlorians dampening the Force presence of the child and making him appear to be another average Force-user.
Obi-Wan couldn't help it. The baby was cute. So when the baby sent out his infantile Force-tendrils seeking comfort from a mother left behind on Bandomeer, instead of buffering that little seeking thread away he met it.
And smiled.
"Hey there new little brother. You're joining the most awesome Order in the Galaxy – and maybe I'll be there to watch you become a strong awesome Knight too…"
952 ARR: The Crèche of the Central Jedi Temple, Coruscant
"Another one for the Crèche Qui-Gon?"
Said the Crèche-Master to Master Jinn as his new Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi trailed in after him, a bundle in his arms.
"Another one?"
"We received two more infants earlier today. A boy and a girl – two different families. But both mothers had green eyes. The boy was born on Tatooine."
"Are these them?" Asked Obi-Wan as he placed Anakin gently into the crib meant for human next to a boy with a golden lock of hair and a girl with dark auburn hair.
"His hair looks funny." He continued as he tugged on that discoloured forelock. It was then the remainder of the ring around his pinkie dissolved, boosting the midi-chlorian count and Force presence of the babe.
"You're actually just in time for their final midi-chlorian count test. Do you think you can keep…" The Crèche-Master trailed off.
"Anakin." Qui-Gon said.
"Anakin calm as I draw blood?"
"There is no problem of course –"
"I'll do it." Obi-Wan interrupted. He turned to his new mentor saying "Anakin knows and trusts me - I'll do it."
"Padawan…"
"I know the code! But please, I looked after him."
Qui-Gon groaned "Put those eyes away my very young Padawan. Very well, you may comfort the child."
-Star Wars: The Shift-
A short while later the results of the test came back.
"Alright let's see what we have here… Hmmm, your Anakin Skywalker has a pretty high count, just a little lower than yours and your Master's own Obi-Wan. Twelve thousand and five hundred and fifty. The little girl, Darra Thel-Tanis, her count is a little lower than that at eleven thousand and Ferus Olin's…"
He paused.
"Is something wrong?" Asked Qui-Gon.
"That can't be right. His midi-chlorian count is as high as Master Yoda's, maybe more since we haven't actually got a system that can detect a count above twenty thousand accurately."
"The Chosen One, come to us at last." Breathed the Jedi Master before a spike of worry caused him to turn to the Padawan he had just taken on. "Don't worry Padawan I'll see you to Knighthood first before taking him on." He smiled at the Crèche-Master, "The Living Force has Long showed me that teaching the Chosen One is what I'm meant to do. But I will not break my promise to you young Kenobi."
952 ARR: Residence of the Senator from Naboo - 500 Republica, Coruscant
Senator Palpatine, Darth Sidious in truth, looked over at the Jedi Temple and smiled.
He had plans to make.
AN: So thoughts on the reboot? What do you think?