Summary:

Whie Malreaux encounters Darth Vader as the Jedi face their end.

Notes: Being familiar with the Star Wars novel Yoda: Dark Rendezvous is unnecessary. However, it will do a lot to help you enjoy this fic as there are tons of little references. Whie is one of the three main characters of that novel, a powerful Jedi Padawan second only to Anakin himself.

This fic is mildly experimental, but it should still be enjoyable!

The Chosen and the Abomination

Anakin Skywalker ascends the steps to the Jedi Temple with an army behind him.

It was probably just rumors, Whie Malreaux thought for the umpteenth thousandth time. There were always rumors about who was going to become the next Padawan at the temple and just as many rumors about which Jedi would be taking that Padawan as a student. The rumors had escalated to daily gossip ever since the war began, the quiet whispers between children as commonplace as news of a fellow Jedi's death.

The later half was a thought that no apprentice spent too much time upon. It was almost as dark as the other thought that would have haunted their sleep if not for the presence of mind that all Jedi would one day master - as of yet, many of the students woke up in cold sweats, and sometimes worse, woke up to the sound of one of their dorm mates crying.

Jedi Padawans were often the first to die. Young and lacking the full training of a Jedi Knight, they were forced into a war that was swallowing the galaxy whole.

They weren't ready. A Jedi was never truly ready for war, but a young Jedi apprentice's life was nearly forfeit. This dark, secret fact that everyone knew without ever speaking of it was the reason that Jedi Knights and Masters were always looking for students. The reason there were always vacancies - in class, the dining halls, and the hearts of all of those who knew them.

As mortals, all Jedi apprentices knew that they would die one day. All life ends. Their lives were just given over to the Force so much sooner than they should be.

These were darks times. Dark times best assuaged by friendship, Whie thought as he headed for the Room of One Thousand Fountains.

He and Scout had agreed to meet for what may very well be their last time. They met weekly for chat and tea, relaxation and comfort, and just to enjoy their time together with love and friendship, just like Yoda showed them. Perhaps, if they let their guard down for a just a moment, they would look into each other's eyes and imagine what they could have if the galaxy were a different place and they were different people, before returning to reality and forgetting.

Whie patted his pocket and hoped that the ginger cookies he stole from the refectory weren't too forward. Truth be told, he had no idea if Scout would like them, but it was the thought that would count. When he saw them and imagined their taste, he couldn't help but think of her. Sweet yet sharp, and certain to leave a memory.

Memories may be all that they would have one day. It was one of many reasons why Whie intended to cherish every moment of their meeting tonight.

Rumor had it that Whie was that next apprentice to become a Padawan. For the second time, he thought bitterly, the pang in his chest flaring to awareness before disappearing - no, not disappearing, but rather settling down. The pang of loss from his former master's death never truly went away but settled just below the threshold that allowed him to force air into his lungs and fight for his next breath.

Death was a primal fear. He felt it now, tingly over his skin. If he went off to this war, under the great Anakin Skywalker himself, he would likely die. He would be at all the greatest battles and be expected to keep up. He had no doubt he could - in fact, he was probably the best-suited apprentice in all of the temple for that job. The fear was still there, beating along with his heart, just as inconspicuous. Thump thump, thump thump. He could hear it if he tried, he could feel the vibration through his body. It served him no purpose to try and, once again, it disappeared below the awareness of his consciousness. Fear of death followed much the same.

There was one relief if he became Jedi Skywalker's Padawan - he would never have to suffer the pain of his master dying again. He would never fail Anakin in the way he had failed Maks - a million and one others ways, yes, and he was expected to make some thousand of those, but never would he have to see his master die in front of his eyes again.

Where's Scout? He wondered. He pulled the cookies out of his pocket and ate one, letting the taste tantalize his tongue.

Where was she? It wasn't like her to be late. They met at least once a week, just to have a moment alone, a shared moment of weakness. Perhaps she was upset with him for getting a master so soon. No, that wasn't like her. She may fight and fight for every inch she gained, but she never held someone else's success and talents against them. Perhaps she was upset that he was leaving for more personal reasons. Perhaps she would miss him.

A soft smile spread on his lips before it was smothered by pain. The pain struck again and then again. It was the pain of death in the Force. The death was close.

His eyes widened in shock, icy fear and electric realization coursing through his veins. His mouth dropped open in a silent scream.

He hardened himself against the pain, something he would never have thought he would need to do in the temple. His home.

Not anymore, something told him.

The pain struck again and again. He blinked back tears as nightmare became reality. A small bit of sadness hit him as he reached for his lightsaber and realized that the cookies were now crumbs on the floor. He thumbed his lightsaber power to full and stepped out into the hall.

The deaths weren't stopping anytime soon.

The first Jedi that the newly sanctioned Darth Vader encountered was Jedi Master Illena Xan as she kept watch at the temple's gate. She was better known as Iron Hand by her students. Anakin recalled being in her classes, some of his favorites as combat was one of the few times that Jedi were expected to express something, anything, as a part of their training.

She gazed at him inquisitively as he approached and the troopers behind him. Whether feeling through the Force or the keen intellect she was known for, she could tell that something was off. Iron Hand hardly had time to question him before he cut her down - dead before she could make him feel anything but the certainty he felt that he had to do this to save Padmé.

As his blade impaled her, he recalled a time where she had mocked him in class. "You're the Chosen One, yet you are so far behind your peers Padawan Skywalker." He wanted to yell at her now with the same feelings he felt as a child. "It's not my fault!"

As his blade passed through her and the life left her body - as serene as any Jedi's death - he had another recollection of her complimenting his form as he took down Ferus Olin. He had been calm and collected in a way that he rarely was, truly at one with the Force, and knocked his rival's feet out from under him.

Pain coursed through his heart as her body hit the floor, so he took down the two Padawans that rushed to avenge her without a second thought. His sorrow turned into resolve, hardening him against further regret as he led his troopers down a hall and killing most Jedi that challenged them before they even had time to realize they were betrayed, much less the extent of that betrayal. Their hero, their Chosen One, was to bring about their own self-wrought end.

Still, somewhere, screaming in the back of his mind, he wanted to stop. He wanted to stop hurting those who looked up to him and trusted him - there! An apprentice who he had helped perfect his forms last week.

Dead now, a lightsaber through his heart and not living long enough to feel his body fall to the floor in two pieces.

Anakin wanted to stop. He didn't want to have children's blood on his hands again.

Again.

He was back in the Tusken camp, slaughtering any life that he could, the sheer, fiery, pervasive pain that tore at his every cell causing the Force around him agony. He knew he could never feel that pain again. He couldn't let Padmé die. He wouldn't survive.

He wouldn't survive as the same person he was for the atrocity he was committing here either.

But Padmé would.

Bodies flew at him and hit the floor by the dozens.

Soon enough the east side of the Jedi Temple was devoid of life. By now, it was all numbers to Anakin. He wanted to be able to face the deaths and remember every face and life that he took. He wasn't strong enough to do that, so instead, they were numbers that he stopped counting and a means to an end - an end that he would never waver from.

He sent the troopers to the finish the job. Any of the Knights and Masters left in the building would have rushed to the defense at the main gate or have attempted a misguided ambush as they cleared the east side of the temple. Anyone left… The troops could handle the Jedi children.

Anakin needed a moment alone.

He was in the Star Room now, a massive room that held a highly advanced computer that could turn the room into a massive hologram of any star chart on any scale. It was often his favorite room when he was younger, back before the war when the room was vacant often enough to be used for leisure. His dream as a child had been to travel the stars and he often spent his early years as a Jedi in this room exploring them with technology he couldn't have imagined as a child on Tatooine.

He was using the room now for an entirely different purpose. He set the holographic to show the entire galaxy scaled to the diameter of the room. It reminded him just how small life was as he could barely make out individual stars in the hologram. He set the system to show the time axis, a demonstration that would show the galaxy from birth until present and then guesswork at what the future would bring.

It was scaled to four minutes and he saw the birth and death of a galaxy. Billions of years compared to his 23. Everything that would happen in his life was a mere speck in the grand scheme of things.

It made him feel better that the atrocities that he was committing here today meant little to the Force.

He was rationalizing, he knew, but he had to. Everything was happening so fast in his life that he could almost understand the galaxy in this image that swirled around him like fireflies.

Nothing mattered. The lives he took were just specks of three-dimensional dust in universal time. All that mattered was the twisting feeling in his gut, his guilt, and the dragon that pressed down on it like gravity until it was too small within him to hurt him. The only thing that mattered was that Padmé lived. He loved her and couldn't live without her. Even if she hated him for what he did.

And she would hate him if she found out. She loved the Jedi and the Republic that they served. She wouldn't understand the actions that he and his new master would have to take in the coming days. Much like the light of the spinning stars around him, none of that mattered. She and their child had to live.

Had to live.

He could see the image in his head now, a blond boy terrified and looking up at him. His radiance in the Force was astounding, only rivaled by his fear. Would his child hate him for what he did today? So be it. He would make Padmé and their child understand. Nothing else mattered except for them and being together.

The Force was speaking to him, flowing through him like it never had before. It whispered for him to turn around, and he did, only to come face to face with the image of his son.

Blond hair and blue eyes to rival his own, his power burning in the Force. For a moment, it seemed to Anakin that the Force was speaking to him. Perhaps it was.

"Who are you?"

Whie crept through the halls quietly, fighting every urge he had to jump out and take out some of the troopers that were destroying his home. Logic told him not too, that he would die before he did anyone any good. That didn't matter. He would have struck out and died to prolong even just one life. He would have but for the Force.

It whispered to him like it never had before. It was inside his mind and very being. He had a destiny to face. He followed the Force like a flowing river, hiding when the flow quieted and moving when the flow pulled him forward.

He arrived at the Star Room, one of his favorite places in the Temple. Strange, he noted, as he looked in. The holograph was active and a star chart was spinning around the room. Births and death of stars were a matter of seconds, the entire galaxy spinning in a bubble.

He had spent many hours in this room contemplating life, fate, and the Force itself, a galactic stage where destiny was made. Whie realized now that every vision and every thought, feeling and emotion that he had experienced brought him to this moment. The Force was a like flowing river and a Jedi followed that flow wherever it brought him.

The Force hummed within him. At this time and place was a branch. It wasn't his choice what path the future took, but he was to play a part.

A realization hit him in the stomach like an invisible kick and he had to fight to keep on his feet. The moment was here, the moment that his visions lead up to. His visions had been a part of his life for as long as he could remember. They were never wrong. But the Force was branching and his visions were merely on one of those paths.

He walked into the room with a detached resolve that only someone who had given themselves over to the Force could feel. He would either leave this room alive in a new future his visions had never known, or he would die.

There was a man in the room, someone Whie recognized instantly. It wasn't only the face which had been all over the news for over a year, it was the sheer presence and power. The power that the Force had directed him to as a beacon.

"Who are you?" the man spoke.

Whie felt his whole body shake at the words and his voice nearly broke as he spoke. "M-master Skywalker." Realization was dawning on him. This was the man who had slaughtered his family. This man was his family. A hero. A hero that didn't recognize him. "I-I guess the rumors weren't true," was all Whie could muster.

"Rumors?" Anakin asked. His voice was rough and heavy with emotion, though if Whie listened, he thought could hear some kindness under the pain.

Nonetheless, Whie took a step back and placed his hand on his lightsaber as Anakin took a step forward. Whie knew that if Anakin wanted him dead, he stood no chance. How many other Jedi this last half-hour had experienced the same thing? Resigned to death by one they loved and admired.

"Th-they said you would take me as a Padawan." Whie shook his head. "I knew it was a long shot that you were ready after Ahsoka, and to tell the truth, I was more afraid of the rumors being true rather than not."

"They betrayed her," Anakin spat.

Whie forced himself to remain calm at Anakin's anger. He knew the man could skewer him in seven different ways before his body gave out. He had no chance to live if Anakin willed his death.

The Force was quiet. He was on his own in this bubble of fate.

"Who betrayed her?"

"The council. The Jedi as a whole. They don't serve the Republic, but their own stale ideals."

"We are Jedi before we are warriors," Whie replied. It was what he always believed. He served the Force and would do everything in his power to follow its flow.

Anakin was quiet for a moment.

It made Whie distinctly uncomfortable. In another time and place, it would have been natural for an older Jedi to size him up. But Anakin wasn't looking for a Padawan. He was trying to decide whether - or more likely how - he was going to die.

"I don't want to kill you, Small Fry," Anakin said.

Hope erupted in Whie's chest and he was hit with a sudden desire to just live. "Then don't. Don't kill me. Help…" Whie paused for a moment to consider and then added on what a Jedi must. "Help us."

Anakin ignited his lightsaber.

Whie knew that he had just thrown away a chance. He might have been able to latch on to a moment where he convinced Anakin not to kill him. But Whie was a Jedi. He couldn't value his life more than the rest. He had to convince Anakin to stop this madness.

"I don't want to die," Whie said weakly. It was the first time he had admitted that to himself. But he accepted it and lit his lightsaber, first in a weak grip but then with skill and certainty. He was going to die, but he was going to die as he lived.

As a Jedi.

Anakin struck.

He couldn't live, Anakin told himself as he struck at the boy.

Whie parried well, but to a much more experienced Jedi, he was sloppy. His sheer power in the Force kept him alive. He was calm and collected, afraid but in control of that fear. Again, Whie reminded Anakin of his son and what could have been.

Anakin had spent long nights the last three years wondering if he and Padmé would ever have a child, and imagined him growing up as a Jedi. A perfect Jedi.

Whie Malreaux was the perfect Jedi apprentice. It was talk of the Temple, though rarely more than whispers. There wasn't supposed to be a perfect Jedi as everyone followed their own path in the Force. But if there was a perfect Jedi, it was the kid in front of him.

The kid that he had to kill.

The kid was powerful, Anakin would proudly give him that. He knew how to use his lightsaber both in form and as an extension of himself and the Force. He was a natural in every regard.

For a moment, Anakin imagined a future of himself as the boy's master as they traveled the galaxy together. The boy could be his almost-son as Obi-wan was his almost-father. Many Jedi thought of the Master-Padawan relationship that way. If only they would accept… everything that they denied.

Whie was good, but Anakin knew he could end the kid at any moment. For a few moments more, he would imagine a future where the kid was his Padawan. And then he would end it and await the day when he child was ready.

They fight for what was both eternity and mere moments on the galactic stage. They are the same yet opposite.

Anakin Skywalker is the Chosen One, created by the Force to bring balance to the galaxy. His power is the Force made mortal for a short time.

Whie Malreaux is an abomination of the Force. His power is that created by mortal manipulation to access powers beyond them.

The boy is an old soul, content with his place in the galaxy and the flow of the Force. The man was a fresh star, born of the Force itself to shape and alter it as he saw fit.

As Anakin fought - playing with his prey that he couldn't quite convince himself deserves death - he began to realize just how similar they were. In a way, they were mirrors. He could feel Whie's grief and anger and resolve. He could feel it as if it were his own.

It was.

In the Force, all life and feeling and emotion are one. Anakin realizes that now better than he ever had before.

He is amazed that he ever looked at Whie and thought of his son, for it was himself he saw in Whie.

Whie couldn't understand how or why he was still alive. He knew before the first blow that Anakin could kill him easily. He hadn't entered the room, hadn't drawn his lightsaber, with any intention of living despite the roaring beat in his heart yearning to live.

The Force was with him, truly and in a way he never imagined possible, otherwise he would be dead. Whie let himself fall into the Flow, content with whatever path it may take. It was as if the Force was taking over his body, and now that he had the thought, he knew that it was and the surreal out-of-body feeling hit him like a wave.

It was like his visions throughout his life, riding in the head of an older version of himself. Was this a vision now?

No, but also yes. He was fighting Anakin - Anakin had betrayed them all. That was real.

But he was also having a vision. His powers were different now as the Force diverged.

He knew now that he wouldn't be dying today. It was so sudden and unexpected - the certainty even more so - that he didn't know how to feel. How would he live, and why?

More importantly, how did he break his vision? He knew walking into the room - knew for a fact - that the stage of his vision had arrived.

His powers were changing and that frightened him. He felt more powerful than he ever had before. Last year, this power would have frightened him, but he knew - he knew - that he would always do the right thing.

Someone once told him that.

He saw himself now walking out of the Temple with Anakin, both of them unharmed. The Temple was still burning and he felt his family dying, but somehow, he knew that everything would be alright.

The return to his body was sudden, and now it was him blocking each blow of Anakin's lightsaber and not the Force, though it still assisted him like it always had.

It was an intense fight to stay alive, both from Anakin's blade and his own beating heart that threatened to burst with fear and adrenaline.

And hope.

It was strange, and their fighting trickled down to weak blows altogether.

The bubble around them broke and the flow of the Force continued on down a new branch.

"You want to live?" Anakin spoke.

Whie nodded. He did want to live, that deep intrinsic desire that made one human. It didn't beat out his Jedi training, but living and being a Jedi weren't exclusive. He didn't think about all of the bodies he saw on the way here and how their paths made those two choices contrary.

Anakin looked him over. "You are powerful. Very. I would like to take you as my apprentice, wherever the Force takes us."

Whie nodded. He knew the thought should make him feel sick, but it didn't. Wherever the Force took them, alright, but it wouldn't be as Master and Padawan, but Master and Apprentice of another sort.

"The Force wants this," Whie agreed. "I would have died for the Force, but I am happy it allows me to live."

"It won't be easy… for either of us," Anakin added.

Whie turned off his lightsaber and put it back into his robe. He looked around the room almost willing his eyes to look through the walls and at the dead bodies throughout the temple. He could still feel the death of his friends and family, each death hitting him in the face like an insect against a hover car window.

"There is no easy path out of all of this. If I wanted easy, I would have let you kill me." Whie took a breath. "I serve the Force, first and foremost."

"I serve whatever keeps my wife alive," Anakin said.

Whie blinked. "I…" Then he shook his head. "I don't know what the future holds, but I submit myself to you. What's the plan… Master."

Master. It brought back so many memories of his time with Ahsoka. Now Anakin knew he could let no harm come to this child.

"You are under my protection, for now," Anakin said. "I will hide you away until I can explain you to my… superior."

"The Sith Lord?" Whie inquired, his voice shaky.

"He was right under our noses the whole time. The Jedi were meant to be destroyed this day, if only through their own failures."

Anakin felt as much pity as he did anger for the Jedi, and he watched as Whie fought to hold a look of disgust off his face. Instead, the boy nodded. Anakin had no doubt that the boy was a truer Jedi than most, but perhaps that was a good thing.

"The corruption of the Jedi Order was wiped out this day. Perhaps, one day, it will rise again," Anakin said. The words felt weird on his tongue as if they weren't his own, but as he spoke them, he believed them. The Force was impressive today. "But for now, we will bring order to the galaxy, even if we have to be Sith to do it."

"Master," Whie acknowledged. He wasn't happy, but he would obey.

The march out of the temple was one of the most painful moments of Whie's life. He looked back at the burning towers of his home and knew that it would never be the same again.

A small, selfish part of him feared that someone was left alive in the temple and watching him, viewing him as a traitor. He would never betray his family… but he sure threw his lot in with the one who did.

There is no death, there is the Force.

He would have to remind himself of that for the rest of his life. He would live by the Code for the rest of his days, but as he looked back, things were different than they had been in the Star Room. He was uncertain and afraid. It was only natural.

For the first time, he understood what Yoda meant by the Darkside clouding the Force. Nothing was clear anymore.

He wasn't a Jedi anymore.

"Goodbye, Scout."

It was time to leave every part of that life behind.

The future was clouded, but he knew one thing for sure. He would play a role in shaping the future. He could see a million different branches up ahead. His powers had changed as he fought Anakin, changed to something amazing yet horrifying. Before, his powers only showed him the flow of the Force, a version that was not always changing as Yoda liked to claim. But now - there were an infinite number of paths, and the Force whispered to him that he could choose.

Not for the first time since returning to Vjun did he wonder what type of monster that his father had created. He was flesh and blood, a healthy good looking human, with powers that no person should have.

"Master," Whie spoke as the neared the bottom of the temple steps. "Are you ever afraid of your powers?"

Anakin looked down at him and then back at the temple.

"No, not anymore."

Well, this is meant as a oneshot, but could also serve as a chapter 1 for a full-length fic, couldn't it? I will consider that possibility, but it will not be now. I am trying to focus on original fiction, but I had this idea. If there is one thing I have learned this last year it is that if you have an idea, you MUST write it out or it will eat you up and distract you, paralyzing your other work. So that is why this story exists.

Some ideas I wanted to play around with was the similarities and differences between Anakin and Whie. Whie is a solid, complete Jedi - he follows the Force entirely, wherever that takes him. His visions were always accurate compared to others because he saw the Force's flow. The Force flows like a river; however, rivers branch. The vision of his death in Yoda: Dark Rendezvous was the end of him, or rather, the end of that branch as far as his life could see. In this fic, his interactions and similarities to Anakin influenced Anakin to chose a different path in the Force, as he is the Chosen One and the one who must choose the path the galaxy took - even if, in the grand scheme of things, what they do is relatively minor.

Another fun idea to play with is that Anakin is the natural Chosen One, created by the Force to do its will. Whie was created through genetic manipulation, an abomination form of the Chosen One. In canon, Whie dies. In this story, he played a part in changing the Flow, and now things will be different as his powers evolve - just what sort of monster did his father's science create?

If this continues one day, some ideas I will use are below:

Padmé will escape with her children and Obi-wan.

Palpatine will know that Anakin plus his children will be too powerful, so he lets Vader keep Whie as his pet/apprentice to distracted him; better to have a Sith Apprentice and his Force pet than Vader running around the galaxy looking for Padmé . Vader trains Whie hard, but also views him as a fill in for the son he lost.

Whie may be training with Vader, but they both know that Whie is loyal to the Force first. Vader may be too, but he is unsure. Regardless, he keeps this true loyalty hidden from Palpy. Palpatine HIGHLY underestimates Whie because he is focusing so hard on the Skywalker line. He doesn't realize that Whie is nearly a pseudo-Chosen One himself.

Whie will deal with a lot of fear of himself, what he can become under Vader and what he was born as, as well.

The big concept of a sequel would be a concept of The Flowing Force. While a Sith would see the future and make their own, a Jedi would follow the flow of the Force. However, Whie discovers that he can actively choose from possible futures in a way he feels no mortal should.

So, yeah, I hope you enjoyed.