K-7. Core 8. Core 6. Core 5. Narrow. Pressure trapped.
"No."
"Yes, Qui Gon. I can do it. I will do it."
He looked at Leila.
She was looking…not at him but... "You haven't enough power just in yours." She looked at Qui Gon. "You'll need mine too."
Qui Gon felt every single bit of color drain from his face. "No!"
Jedi Knight Qui Gon Jinn sat up with a start. He barely stopped the gasp that came flying from his mouth. He remembered his dream. No, it hadn't been a dream. It had been a nightmare. He knew what was happening in that dream was wrong. He had to stop whatever it was. But yet, he couldn't fight the power that was fighting against him. He had seen the broken circle. The circle that brought the past to the future, yet, it still didn't meet. He had to make the circle.
Qui Gon sighed. Even a nightmare had only served to sharpen his senses. The room was dark but he could make out the edges of the window in the darkness. Dawn was near. He could hear his daughter and Obi Wan Kenobi's quiet breathing around him. He rose quietly and went over to Leila's side. He placed a hand on her forehead. It was cool. He breathed a prayer of thanks. Then he touched her cheek lightly and went to the to window.
They were quartered in the guest chamber of the Bandomeer governor's official residence. He and Leila had come to the planet on a routine mission, that had spun out of the control the minute they had set foot on the transport. By the time they had landed on Bandomeer, things had seemed to get back on track but all that had been destroyed when Qui Gon had received a single line written on a piece of paper.
It was the message that had brought the nightmare. He had had the same one for three nights running. The only thing that was familiar to him was the image of the broken circle. It filled him with a dark dread. He thought it was in the past. All of it. Then suddenly he had received the note the moment he had stepped on Bandomeer. It welcomed him to the planet and it was sighed Xanatos.
He had been all over the galaxy, from the Galactic Core to the Outer Rim Territories. He had seen many things that pained him and many things he wished he could forget. Now his worst pain, his worst regret had caught up with him at last.
His head came around when he sensed Leila turning over. But she slept on. His face grew thoughtfully tender as he looked at his eleven year old daughter, Leila. She was perfect in his eyes. Even her faults he found perfect. She was as strong willed as he was and they where perfect together. She was small, smaller than most her age. That could be the fault of many things, he supposed. Perhaps she was just petite. Or perhaps it was because she had not been born. She had neither biological father nor mother. She had been created. A powerful Sith, perhaps the most powerful that would ever live, had influenced the midiclorians that created life. And he had created a life. Leila. But when he saw her, he knew she could not become a Sith. Because if she did, she would become the most power Sith that had ever been or will have ever been. She would destroy all others. So he had left her in Qui Gon's path. Around her neck he had placed a perfect diamond, one he had created.
Qui Gon had come along and she had been delivered to him. He had taken her back to the Temple and the Council of Masters had agreed that she would be his daughter and he would raised her. it was the first case of such a thing ever happening that Qui Gon could remember. Master Yoda had taken her as his Padawan when she but five. And now six years later, she had battled almost every master in the Temple and beat most of them more than once. Master Mace Windu had taught her his own lightsaber techquie called Vaapad. It was extremely dangerous because it brushed so close to the dark side but Leila had perfected it as her way of fighting. The Sith in her pushed anger on her, but she took the anger, controlled it and turned it back. Her temper was legendary around the Temple and barely a month would go by before she was called before the masters for something or other.
Her best friend was Obi Wan Kenobi, a thirteen year old who had left the Temple to come to Bandomeer to become a farmer, much to his disappointment. He wanted nothing more to become a Jedi and Leila had begged and pleaded with her Father to take him as a Padawan. Qui Gon had said no and thought he had seen the last of the boy, but fates had had another plan. Qui Gon and Leila had left the same day that Obi Wan had, bound for Bandomeer as well. They had been on the same ship and had had a terrible adventure. Which including pirates attacking the ship. Both Qui Gon and Leila had been wounded. Leila's had been serious. She had had internal bleeding and had only been saved at the last moment. Qui Gon was stilled worried for her, she was so pale. But now, she was sleeping.
As he looked at her, his mind went back to Xanatos. Qui Gon had been the one who discovered Xanatos, the one who took the midid-chlorian count and brought the child back to the Temple. He remembered the look on Crion's face as his only son was taken from his home plant of Telos. Crion was the wealthiest man on Telos, but he knew, despite all his riches, he could not offer Xanatos what Qui Gon could. He could not deny his son. Qui Gon had seen the heartbreak on the man's face and hesitated. He had even asked one last time if Crion was sure. Slowly, Croin had nodded. The decision had become final. Qui Gon would take Xanatos to be trained as a Jedi. If only he had listened more closely to his own hesitation. The decision to take the child would have been different. All of their lives would be so different…