Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Anakin took a deep breath to clear his thoughts.
He was currently leaning on the balcony wall, overlooking a few of Mos Espa's streets.
Nothing would be the same after tomorrow, whether he won or lost the race. How could it? He knew too much to waste another moment bound to this damn planet by a Master undeserving of the title. If he stayed a slave in this place any longer, he feared he really would go mad.
On nights like this, he liked to watch the night sky, devoid of any clouds, allowing the endless stars to be seen in all their glory. Anakin liked to imagine that one day he would be traversing amongst those stars, in a custom ship built by himself, and Threepio to keep him company, going from one journey to the next. It helped him escape the cruel reality he lived in, if only for a moment.
Anakin couldn't help but think back to the day he finally completed his scanner and located the small bomb deep in his neck. That was probably the worst day of his life; it was the day he lost hope of getting it out on his own.
It would literally be impossible to stay conscious enough to remove it on his own, not to mention the fact he knew absolutely nothing about how to navigate a bomb the size of a small pill through muscle, arteries, and his spine, so there was no way he could program a droid to do it. It was also impossible to create a droid with the accuracy needed to fulfill such a task with only the scraps and junk he access to.
"I hope I'm not disturbing you," Qui-Gon said, coming up beside Anakin and also leaned on the balcony.
"It's fine." Anakin shrugged, rubbing his hands together to warm them up. "I was just thinking, that's all."
The man sighed. "Give me your hand."
Anakin gave the man an imploring look, but Qui-Gon only held out his hand, his face giving nothing away. Reluctantly Anakin put his left hand into the Jedi's.
"You forget your self, Anakin." Qui-Gon gently traced the scabs on Anakin's hand that he got from clenching his fists too hard earlier toady. "Your emotions are as clear to me as the stars above us. Do you know what I sensed from you just now?"
Anakin wanted to feel angry at him, but he would be a hypocrite if he did, and he couldn't really fault him because not sensing someone's emotions was something you had to consciously not do.
"What?" The boy asked exasperatedly, his curiousness winning over.
Qui-Gon smiled, like he knew Anakin would ask. "I felt your pride, determination and hope all at once, like a beacon in the Force... "Before Anakin could comment, Qui-Gon continued speaking after a pause. "but following that, I felt overwhelming hatred, anger and fear that disappeared as fast as it came, just like what happened earlier today when we were talking about slaves."
An uncomfortable feeling started to settle in Anakin's stomach. Not wanting to listen to the coming lecture, Anakin tried to leave, only for Qui-Gon's hand to suddenly clamp around his, softly yet unbreakably firm.
"I know you don't want to hear this, but I will address this with you and you have no say in the matter," Qui-Gon said, but not in the voice of a wise man, but in the firm unyielding voice of a Jedi warrior.
"I'm not you slave, I don't have to listen to you," Anakin hissed sardonically, hoping to surprise the man into loosening his grip and getting some petty revenge. Again he tried to pull his arm free and again he failed.
If his words had an affect on the it didn't show on Qui-Gon's unusually serious face.
"No you're not, but you will listen to me the all the same," Qui-Gon said, more demanding than asking.
With a sigh, Anakin gave up on trying to get our of the Jedi's grasp, and instead decided to do his best to ignore his oncoming words.
"It is not exactly uncommon in the Jedi Order, and I have personally witnessed a few Jedi do the same thing as you— bottle up and contain all their negative emotions." His voiced turned sad as he remembered said Jedi. "I do not think I need to tell you the result, but I will nevertheless: it almost always ended in a sudden irrational explosion of rage and hate, leading to the harm and deaths of others.
"This way of dealing with emotions is extremely volatile and dangerous, especially for Force users. Which is why you must break this habit before someone gets hurt or worse, and for your own peace of mind. Trust me, you will be better off for it." Qui-Gon finally finished his lecture, sounding like he was speaking from experience.
"Don't you think I know that?" Anakin asked angrily. "I've tried to stop before and it didn't work."
"I never once said it would be easy. You've been running from your emotions all your life, using it as a physical and mental defense mechanism." Qui-Gon said knowingly, sadness etched into his face. "If you don't stop now, you may succumb to the Dark Side."
Surprise washed over the boy; over the years, he had gotten into some less then favorable positions, but in moments of extreme danger, like when he was about to die, his rage and hate would be unleashed, usually saving himself in the process through the Force, but he didn't know how Qui-Gon knew of that.
Also, what was the Dark Side? He thought.
"Maybe I just need to run a little faster," Anakin muttered sarcastically to himself, ignoring the lingering question in his mind for now.
"You can't win a race with yourself, eventually it will catch up with you if you continue down this path, and that will be a day you'll surely regret," Qui-Gon said, taking his half-joke seriously.
"I know, I know," Anakin relented. "Can we please talk about literally anything else though?"
"I suppose this is a good place to stop, but we will be talking about this more in the future," Qui-Gon said, looking at Anakin for confirmation.
With a heavy head, he nodded slowly. He didn't like the situation, but it would be nice to have some help just this once, plus he would only have to last until tomorrow for Qui-Gon to leave, right?
Anakin was nocked out of his reverie by Qui-Gon's next words.
"Anakin, would you mind if I tested your blood?" Qui-Gon asked, wearing an unpleasant look on his face.
"What for?" Qui-Gon's question caught him off guard.
"To test your midi-chlorian count," Qui-Gon said, as if Anakin knew what that was.
"And what's that?" Exasperation lanced through Anakin.
"Oh, sorry about that, I forgot you wouldn't know.
"Midi-chlorians are microscopic life forms in the cells of all living beings, connecting us to the Living Force, or otherwise known as the Force. The amount of midi-chlorians someone possesses per cell is permanent; they determine the amount of Force within you, your sensitivity to the Force and your talent or inclination to the Force," Qui-Gon finally finished with the tone a wise teacher.
"Hmm, I suppose it would be good to know." Anakin didn't want to give his blood to Qui-Gon or anyone else; it was just plain weird, but his curiousness won over. "I guess it's okay, but you better not try anything else."
Qui-Gon inclined his head in agreement, seemingly unintimidated by Anakin's threat.
Smoothly, the old Jedi took out what looked like a small scanner and that was no bigger than his hand and pressed it to the palm of Anakin's left hand, which was bleeding slightly from his now opened scabs.
Wincing slightly, Anakin endured the slight sting patiently.
"Obi-Wan, I need yo to do a midi-chlorian test on this blood sample," Qui-Gon said into a radio like device. "I'm sending the sample over now." Qui-Gon then pressed a button on the scanner.
As time passed, he wished desperately that he could hear what Obi-Wan was saying. Anticipation was slowly building in him, and the urge to sate his curiosity was getting harder and harder to resist.
After a minute passed the results finally came through"... Over twenty thousand, are you sure?" Qui-Gon asked in surprise, giving Anakin an appraising side eye as he focused on the radio. "... Yes, if what your saying is true, then he has the most midi-chlorians I've ever heard of, even more than Grandmaster Yoda."
Wow, he didn't think it was possible to be any more awesome, but he just proved himself wrong, he thought, a triumphant grin on his face.
Qui-Gon noticed both Anakin's facial expression and train of though and with held the urge to groan.
"Anakin, just because you have a high midi-chlorian doesn't mean you all powerful, not yet at least. " Qu-Gon clarified. "As you are now, it just means that your potential is the highest the Order has ever seen."
"What do you mean? You just said, "the amount of midi-chlorians someone possesses per cell is permanent; they determine the amount of Force within you," doesn't that mean I'm the strongest with the Force?" Confusion laced Anakin's voice.
Qui-Gon smiled, amused at Anakin's misinterpretation. "Technically yes, but your control and connection to the Force is equally important, which is gained slowly over time through meditation and knowledge of the Force, it can also be done through emotions but that is strictly forbidden.
If you attacked me right now with all the Force within you, I would only need to use ten percent of the Force within me, even though I have less than you."
"Doesn't that make someone's midi-chlorian count less important that the amount of time someone's been training with the Force?" Anakin asked, hoping the answer to his question was no.
"Not as much as you might think: the stronger your connection to the Force grows, the harder it will be to improve it. For example, if I meditated through the Force for two decades my connection to it might strengthen by five percent, while yours would strengthen by lets say, five hundred percent.
Plus, those with a higher mid-chlorian count than others will have a higher aptitude for the Force, and thus have a much faster and easier time strengthening their connection to the Force. When you are my age, you will have far surpassed my current connection to the Force." Qui-Gon explained, looking his age for once as he leaned heavily on the balcony and looked into the night sky, lost in thought.
"Anakin! What are you still doing up?" Shmi yelled, startling both the Jedi and the boy. "Go to bed, unless you don't want to race tomorrow.
"Yes, Mom." Anakin complied without complaint.
As he walked towards is room, he could faintly make out his mother and Qui-Gon talking but he chose to ignore it.
He was pretty tired from all the day's excitement, and he had a lot to think about, especially about what Master Qui-Gon said.
Anakin's relationship with the mysterious Jedi felt complicated to him. He recognized that for all his intelligence, Qui-Gon had him beat in wisdom, but he found himself not minding that. It felt like he could tell the man anything because he already knew everything about himself. Admittedly, he felt like he could trust and even let himself rely on the old Jedi; something he rarely ever did.
It was complicated, but Anakin was starting to look up to the man, he had a calm, reserved way about him, yet an undeniably power he rarely showed.
As he quietly made his way to his room, he couldn't help but quietly wish that he would leave with Qui-Gon and the others. Immediately after the thought, he felt bad for thinking of abandoning his mother.
Anakin shook his head to rid himself of his thoughts, and proceeded to brush his teeth and then clumsily make his way to his bed, tripping over several machine parts in the dark.
As soon as his head hit the pillow he was asleep.
For once in his life he hoped he wouldn't get into too much trouble tomorrow.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone