Disclaimer
How many ways can I find
to say that it isn't mine?
Not pit, nor pulp, nor rind,
originally came from my mind.
Note
This... Was a bit of an idea that hit me.
There was no further inspiration. I typed it up. I edited it. But... it had no further inspiration.
Just Two Choices?
It was crazy. Hopeless. He had no idea if it would work. Honestly, it shouldn't.
Still, if any ritual the Sith ever did had ever managed to work, he would beg the Force that this would be the one.
He couldn't stand it. He saw their deaths every night in his dreams. He choked on his regrets, even when his respirator read 99% efficiency. It was all his fault. The destruction of the Temple, the death of the Council, the Fall of the Republic...
He had repeatedly been told that there was no good in the Darkness. He was starting to believe that more with each passing day. But, as he reached out to the Force, he hoped that he was wrong and that it would let him do one good thing with his life.
Just one.
Qui-Gon Jinn stared down at the boy. When they'd first met, he'd expressed his desire to be a Jedi. Now, right before their departure for the ship, he had just felt a brief swirl of Darkness around the child. It was... disconcerting. "Anakin?"
The boy looked up and him and gave a sad, almost wistful smile. "Yes, Master Qui-Gon?"
"Are you all right?" He knew that his concern had leaked into his voice and eyes, in spite of his desire to not panic the child.
"Yes, Master Qui-Gon." Anakin glanced away and then the boy's pain and fear-laced gaze met his again. "I... I don't think I will be a Jedi."
Qui-Gon frowned. "Why do you say that?"
"I've... been dreaming. I do that, sometimes. Dream of what's going to happen."
He knelt, putting himself at eye-level in hopes of easing the child's discomfort. "What did you dream?"
He wasn't prepared for Anakin to say what he did. He wasn't expecting the child to even know the word. But, his voice was serious and his eyes heavy with the weight of a thousand lifetimes. "If I do become a Jedi, I eventually Fall. I become Sith."
"Anakin..." He started to reassure him, only for a single hand to come up and pressure from the Force gently hold his lips shut. He stared at the younger Skywalker in shock.
"No, Master Qui-Gon. You don't understand." He shook his head. "I cannot let it happen. Balance isn't about destroying the Darkness. It's about the balance of opposites. There are only two Sith and thousands of Jedi."
Qui-Gon could only gape as the child continued. "What horrors do you think I would have to commit in order to fulfill my destiny as the Chosen One? I will not watch myself slaughter Obi-Wan and Padme Amidala. I will not massacre the Younglings in the creche at the command of Lord Sidious. I will not stand by and watch Alderaan be destroyed in order to torture my own daughter. I will not permit it to happen!"
Tears in his eyes, he knelt in the sand in front of his Master's Master. "I am begging you. Please. Kill me."
"No, Anakin." Qui-Gon shook his head. "You must be misinterpreting it. Perhaps it's simply your fears..."
Anakin's eyes, ancient eyes in a nine-year-old, met his. "I will be a plague upon the Jedi that makes Xanatos seem to be a simple cold."
Qui-Gon started to speak again, but his blood froze in his veins. There was no blue left in the boy's gaze. His eyes were yellow. Around them swirled the Dark Side. It was not accidental. The pattern was too intricate for that. Still... "I'm sorry. I cannot kill you for what could be."
Slowly, he forced himself to his feet. "We will take you to the Council. You may tell them what you've told me. Perhaps... Perhaps we can avert the future you see. We are forewarned, after all. Perhaps there is another way... In the meantime, what else have you seen?"
Anakin paused to consider him, eyes zoning out briefly. Whatever he saw, it seemed that Qui-Gon's decision was acceptable. He nodded. "On the way back to the ship, we will be attacked by a Zabrak. His face will have tattoos of red and black. He is a Sith Lord, named Maul. You flee the fight and we meet him a second time on Naboo. He kills you there, in the reactor beneath the palace."
"And, if I face him here? If I don't flee?"
"I don't know." The former slave shook his head. He hadn't even stopped to consider that there might be a third possible path. "I haven't seen that."
"Well, then. Let's go find out."
Anakin nodded. Knowing what he knew... He would never be a Jedi, no matter what the Council said for or against. But, that didn't mean that he had to be a Sith, either.
So, if you like this and/or are inspired by it... I challenge you to write what happens next! I may or may not do so... I really have WAY too many projects as it is. Especially with my limited time.