This story is inspired by Weird Al's "The Saga Begins", which I have been obsessing over lately. I'm so not sorry about this. Or about writing a story about it. There is a bank holiday tomorrow and it has now been assigned to writing.

I do not claim to own "Star Wars". I am pretty sure Disney owns it by now, as they seem to have purchased everything else.

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One moment. It was just a moment, in the end, which decided it all. One single flick of a brown cloak made all the difference, for an entire galaxy, changed millions and billions of lives. Saved millions of lives: and set the dark course aside for an entire planet.

One moment changed that Qui-Gon Jinn was never locked in alone with Darth-Mal, and one single flicker of Obi-Wan's lightsaber at the most important of times - having caught up with his master quite in the nick of time - changed the way the story was to be told for everyone. One blocked stroke by a pupil who was about to become a master, and everything shifted.

Everything.

When they returned, Yoda could sense a slight lightening in the young boy Anakin's fear - clearly having gained some confidence from his actions in the war - and while the ultimate Jedi master still dug his heals in, he knew a force which could not be shifted when he saw such.

Ultimately, Yoda let Qui-Gon have his way and see the boy he had clearly adopted trained. Perhaps wisely, he did set one term: Qui-Gon was clearly the father Anakin had never had, and so he should not also be his master. This task, they left to a slightly concerned Obi-Wan, made Master by mere days. He did fine.

When Anakin was homesick, Qui-Gon was there to help, same as he had been on the ship, and when the manipulative senator Palpatine tried to approach the vulnerable boy, the Jedi master was firmly in the way. He had never liked the senator, sensing the lies hidden within, and guarded his adopted youngest from any whiff of his influence. Hence, Anakin did not properly meet him until he was almost a grown man. And he certainly never grew close to him.

When Anakin and Obi-Wan had their arguments, and they did, Qui-Gon led them to a compromise like the father of them both that he truly was, and by the time Anakin turned eleven, his master's former master got another Padawan of his own. The speculation, of course, being that Yoda felt that the older Jedi was too involved in the schooling of his old student's apprentice. In truth, Yoda just felt that the placement would be best.

This development granted Anakin not only a new father and a master (who was in many ways also a brother) but a mischievous older sister as well. Master Windu could often be heard questioning that Yoda must have been mad, placing such a headstong girl under the tutelage of such a headstrong Jedi master, but perhaps that was why they suited one another so very well. And they did.

Having two pairs of master and student where there had before been only the one, they had more moments to breathe, and as a result, there was a time when Anakin, age fourteen, came back to his former home, only to find his mother flown. Tracking her down with the help of his sister and the two master Jedi, he found that she, too, had a new family and a new life. He didn't begrudge her a fresh start: he had gotten one, after all.

With this connection rekindled, when Shmi was kidnapped years later, the Jedi were the first Lars reached out to for help. Anakin was busy elsewhere and so did not recieve the message in time, as were the two masters, but Carriel went in her brother's place, naturally never requesting permission to do so.

As such, when a furious Anakin made his way after, finally hearing of his mother's predicament, he found Lars walking across his fields, working contently, and his mother safely back home since days. Carriel cheekily said "you're welcome" to her little brother, but she never knew what danger she might have saved him from. Perhaps Yoda sensed as much, because she was never ordered any punishment. No need to either, as with an earlier warning they got the message well ahead of events which required all of their attention.

Surrounded by a loving family, when Anakin fell for the queen Amidala, and she for him, there were many slow plans set into motion, seeking and hoping to help, and while their relationship was still kept a secret, it was not so from everybody.

And when, in the fullness of time, Anakin dreamt of her death, it was a vague fear, never kindled by senate Palpatine's evil. Having placed his trust in a better man, he confided in Qui-Gon instead about his fears, and the older Jedi convinced him that fear, while not necessarily a path to the dark side, really did lead to anger and isolation. He persuaded him to talk about it, resulting in himself, Obi-Wan and Yoda all searching their senses of the future, none finding that any such darkness touched them.

Thus concluding - though he was criticised for jumping to conclusions by his master - that he was the cause of his expectant wife's still preventable death - and that the masters instead would be a guard against it - Anakin requested a task far from home and left for a time. He discussed it with his sister, who while finding him foolish supported him, and explained it also to his wife, who understood even though she didn't strictly like it. As Amidala's date of delivery drew closer, the three Jedi masters watched over her from not so far afar, hoping to ease whatever glimmer of darkness Anakin had sensed.

Carriel did not leave her sister-in-law's side, and thus saw her niece and nephew safely born into this world, their mother still with them. Anakin returned willingly, not to say eagerly, soon after.

And finally, when the Sith's attack on the Jedi academy came, Anakin Skywalker and Carriel Sheer were there together. When the masters arrived at the doorstep, everybody having rushed there as soon as the danger was sensed - the two apprentices being much closer to the threat than their masters - they found a battle still raging, and themselves still in time to secure the victory.

As they reviewed the tapes of what had happened later, Anakin was praised for the level of power he held and his prowess in battle, but Yoda was seemingly more impressed by Carriel. It seemed that yes, indeed, Anakin Skywalker could bring balance to the force: but his adopted sister brought balance to him, and not even the Jedi Council could possibly know just how much that had changed the course of events. Perhaps by much, but undoubtedly not as much as the survival of Qui-Gon had. Everything was different, because of one step Obi-Wan took differently - to what could have been.

Carriel Sheer is named in rememberance of Carrie Fisher, who played Leia. This story, despite its length, is actually a prologue, hence the "story-told", kind of format.

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