#drabblesfromthevoid

aka the Anakin becomes Plo Koon's Padawan fic no one asked for

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“Hello, Anakin,” the Master in front of him says, and he is kind - warmth - peace - and Anakin is so cold that he can’t help but take a step closer. “My name is Plo Koon.”

Master Plo Koon is … a Kel Dor, he thinks, although he has never seen one in real life - only in the one holobook his mother had managed to scavenge from Watto’s scrapyard. “Hello, sir,” Anakin greets, then, because he can hear his mother’s unspoken gentle chiding, “I’m Anakin Skywalker.”

“Well met, Anakin Skywalker,” Master Plo Koon says warmly, then indicates that he should come even closer.

Anakin hesitates, because despite how kind this new jedi master is being, all he can feel is the pinpricks of half a dozen eyes on his back. But Anakin also knows what happens to slaves who disobeys, so he takes the steps required until he is only an armlength away from the Kel Dor and tries not to tense.

Master Plo Koon’s eyes are completely covered, but there is something heavy in the air around him - solemn, almost. And then - and then Master Plo Koon does something completely unexpected and sits up, shrugging himself out of his robes. Before Anakin can react, the jedi master then drapes it over Anakin’s shoulder.

“There,” Master Plo Koon says, “is that warmer, Anakin?”

Anakin can’t see Master Plo Koon’s face, but he has never needed to be able to see a face to read it, and there is something that tells him Master Plo Koon is smiling. Abruptly, with the weight of the robe over his shoulders, leftover warmth seeping into his skin, Anakin misses his mother. “Yes, sir,” he answers and hopes no one hears the crack in his voice or can see the wetness in his eyes.

(“Don’t cry, Ani. Don’t cry,” his mother pleads. “Mommy is here.”

The slaver cracks a whip along her back, and fear is what keeps Anakin silent.

Slaves are not allowed to cry. Crying is a waste of water and will only lead to water rations for that day taken away. Anakin learns quickly that tears are a waste.)

“Oh, Anakin,” Master Plo Koon says sadly. Then he holds open his arms. “May I give you a hug?”

Anakin’s breath catches in his throat, but he manages a nod. When the Kel Dor wraps his arms around him and pulls him closer, Anakin goes willingly. And, wrapped up in arms larger than he is, as if he was still three and small and his mother had seemed unstoppable, Anakin begins to feel safe.

aka the Anakin becomes Plo Koon's Padawan fic no one asked for

[summary] [1] [2]

Plo Koon has only been on the Council for a few years when Qui-Gon returns from his mission with a boy in tow - a former slave boy he had found on Tatooine of all places. Plo takes one look at the boy - Anakin - and already knows he is older than anyone they’ve ever accepted as a youngling. He thinks of all the other Force-sensitive children they had missed in the Outer Rim, and he sends the ache that the thought leaves him with into the Force.

“He is strong in the Force,” Qui-Gon says. “I believe he is the Chosen One.”

“We could test him,” Saesee suggests, and that is that.

.

The boy - Anakin - stands in the middle of the council room, facing Mace as he cycles through the different objects. Even before Mace nods at Yoda, Plo already knows Anakin has passed.

“How feel you?” Yoda asks.

“Cold, sir,” Anakin replies.

Some part of Plo remembers a young Togruta in the middle of a crowded room, scared and confused, and his heart aches.

“Afraid, are you?”

“No, sir.”

“See through you, we can.”

Even without seeing, Plo knows Mace is pursing his lips. “Be mindful of your feelings.”

“Your thoughts dwell on your mother,” Mundi reveals.

Anakin hesitates, then, “I miss her,” he says, almost petulantly.

They can all feel how anger is eating away at the fear.

“Hmm, afraid to lose her, I think, hmm?” Yoda suggests.

His words resonate in the Force as truth, but Anakin only tightens his fists, anger rising, “What does that got to do with anything?”

“Everything,” Yoda says. “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

His words are familiar to them all, but there is only incomprehension and anger to be found in Anakin’s eyes. The boy chances a look towards Mace, likely seeking comfort from another of his own species, but Mace is a hard man to read sometimes, even for those who have known him for years, much less a boy of Anakin’s age.

“I sense much fear in you,” Yoda says sadly, and it hits the boy like a judgment.

The Force is wrapped around the child, as clear of a sign as any of his strength in it, but there is just so much fear and anger. Darkness has been steadily creeping across Coruscant, and Plo fears what it will do to the child, but – still – there is some sense of potential around Anakin - some shape the Force tries to bend into that Plo doesn’t recognize, only - only - he does, because he has listened to all of Mace’s ramblings, and he may not have ever seen one, but that is a shatterpoint.

Plo Koon makes a decision. “Anakin, was it?” he asks. “Would you mind coming here for a moment?”

You know what would be interesting to play with? A star wars AU where people have soul marks. Sort of a soulmates AU, in a sense, except that soul marks are for like, everyone - the people most important to you, whether it is as an enemy, as a lover, as family, or as friends.

The soul marks take the shape of symbols specific to the person itself. One day I'll sit down and figure out what everyone's soul mark is, but today is not that day. Anyways, on first glance at the person, you don't know what they're significance is, but you will recognize your symbol on them. Usually, the connection is two-way, and their symbol will also be on you, but it's not always the case.

Obi-wan meets a little boy on a desert planet. His master claims the boy is the Chosen One, but all Obi-wan can feel is the threads of darkness surrounding the child. Except-except they're on the ship, heading back to Coruscant, and Anakin has shed his light desert clothes for some ill-fitting but thicker clothing, and Obi-wan freezes, because that-that's his mark.

Right there on his forearm, right and clear and present.

"Oh," Obi-wan breathes out, kneeling down.

Anakin looks up, bewildered and confused and just a little bit scared, and Obi-wan automatically reaches out in the Force to send him waves of reassurance - calm - safety.

"Sir?"

"Anakin," Obi-Wan says softly, then slowly reaches out to place a finger on his mark, "that's me."

Anakin looks down at the mark with wide eyes, then meets Obi-wan's eyes, and back at the mark again, brows furrowed before they loosen in something like wonder. "Oh," he says, and the Force around him is suddenly the lightest it has been in wonder - hope - joy. "It's you. Hello."

And Obi-wan laughs. "Hello, there."

Anakin's mark is found on Obi-wan right at the top of his left arm, right below the shoulders.

Qui-don and Anakin do not share a mark, and the reason isn't apparent, until Obi-wan is left standing - a Padawan without a Master.

Anyways, the presence of soul marks would make the initial beginning of Anakin's and Obi-wan's relationship smoother, I think. But I mostly wanted soul marks because in the year that Chancellor Palpatine is voted into office, the Jedi inexplicably receive a sudden burst of new soul marks.

Nearly all of them have at least one new soul mark, but most have more new ones - a scattering of symbols on their skin - bright and colorful and vibrant, and it's not usually a cause for concern if not for the fact that it happens nearly at once, to everyone.

looking through my notes and like I had this one idea of yeeting Kakashi into FMA once. Like there were two separate ideas.

So the first idea was that when Ed is in Truth's domain, pleading for Truth to give Al back, Kakashi just...stumbles into the scene. Like idk maybe Kakashi dies during Pein's attack on Konoha. But instead of being with his loved ones, Kakashi wakes up in a place where everything is white and then he just...starts walking.

And he comes across a child and a god, and the child is pleading to an uncaring figure, and he thinks of naruto and sakura and sasuke and himself, and he just...steps in.

And he gives something up. Takes the price instead of Ed and maybe like a life for a life, Kakashi ends up giving up his old life, unable to return, unintentionally, and Al gets his soul in the armor.

And then they're back at the Elric's house and there's a boy in an empty armor and a child bleeding out, and Kakashi looks around, completely confused and concerned and afraid that he's agreed to a deal he hadn't read the fine print of.

And....that's all I have for that one.

.

Now, the second idea was Kakashi reborn into the Elric family. Maybe as an older brother? Maybe as Ed. Leaning towards older brother to the Elrics, because I can't see Al going ahead with the human transmutation without Ed spurring him on, honestly. And I can't see Kakashi, who's seen the Edo Tensei in motion, who knows that you cannot cheat death, that Kakashi - I can't see him trying to bring someone back to life.

So we have Kakashi and he's been reborn to a loving mother and father, and life is good. He grows and grows and then he gains two younger brothers in his little pack. He digs his hands into alchemy, and Kakashi has always been smart, and alchemy is not quite the same as chakra, but Kakashi performs his first transmutation at an astoundingly young age, and the charge of potential energy in the air draws sparks off his skin like electricity in his veins once upon a time, and Kakashi thinks, 'Oh.'

His father leaves for parts unknown, and Kakashi wants to protest, but there is a look in Hohenheim's eyes that Kakashi recognizes in shinobi, and Kakashi doesn't say anything when the door closes behind their father for the last time.

Ed and Al do not understand why their father is gone, but they have their mother and they have their older brother, and life may not be the best, but they are content.

And then their mother dies.

Kakashi is only a handful of years older than the Elric brothers. Despite his memories of a past life, at the end of the day, he is in the body of a child, and the memory of arriving home to see his mother lying still on the floor sparks nightmares of a child and a stormy night and bloodstains on wooden floors that will not wash away.

His brothers are mourning and confused, and they look to him for support and stability and structure, but Kakashi is drowning. He had once been a child against the universe before - had been a legal adult by the age of five - but there are children leaning on him and trusting in him, and Kakashi has never been the greatest with trust.

But he tries. Of course, he tries. Kakashi has always tried.

He has always failed.

Ed is the one who opens up Hohenheim's books and finds himself on the section about human transmutation. He runs to his brothers with a face full of hope, and Al looks at the pages with curiosity and interest, and Kakashi stares at their bright faces with dread. He lays a hand over Ed's and slowly closes the book and tells him that human transmutation is not and should never be attempted.

But Kakashi also recognizes that stubborn look in his brother's eyes, and deep in his heart, he fails he is not enough.

Al and Ed have always been close, and Kakashi's youngest brother follows Ed around every time. An alchemy master arrives in town, and Ed and Al go to convince her to take them on as apprentices, and Kakashi is right on their heels, because if nothing else, if he's close enough, he might be able to protect them from the trouble they are determined to stumble headfirst in.

At the end of it all, she cautions them against human transmutation, and that spark of stubbornness in Ed's eyes grows.

His brothers become more secretive, and Kakashi feels like he's watching a horror scene taking place in front of him - helpless to do anything but watch.

And then one night, Kakashi wakes up to the sound of screaming.

He rushes down the stairs - slams himself into the door until it breaks off its hinges. And there - there is Edward, missing a leg, screaming and crying, and there is no Alphonse.

And before Ed can finish his array - before he can do anything - Kakashi is there, praying he's not too late - slamming a hand down and meeting face to face with Truth.

"Oh, hello," the god says, "another Elric brother come to make a deal?"

It laughs, the callous sound of an indifferent god.

"Somebody help us," the child pleads - begging for himself - begging for his family - begging for a miracle.

The uncaring god sits in front of them and grins.

"Please," the child whispers, and Kakashi recognizes the look in his eyes from the mirror - wild - guilty - desperate.

He thinks of Naruto kneeling by the window and praying for a family. He thinks of Sakura after Suna's invasion, coming home to a broken home. He thinks of Sasuke and of sad eyes and empty houses. And he thinks of himself, aged twelve - a burning gift in his eye and a heart full of guilt.

Kakashi knows only too well how the dead should be left to their rest, but he also knows too well just what it is like being young and wishing for something impossible and being proud enough to reach for it.

He thinks of mistakes and responsibilities and wrong choices, and he thinks of warm smiles and an open home and a hand reaching out to pull him up, and he closes his eyes and sighs. 'I'm sorry,' he thinks to his ghosts. 'I'm going to be a bit longer, I'm afraid.'

Hatake Kakashi steps forward.