A/N: At long last, I have updated! I skipped over a lot of the canon conversations here because, well, it's canon. I've finished the epilogue too, and I'll be posting it tomorrow.
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Yoda was not happy to see them.
"Not welcome, you are," he grumbled. "Busy, I am."
Padmé crossed her arms over her chest. "You're picking mushrooms."
Qui-Gon peered into Yoda's basket. "Are those hallucinogenic mushrooms?"
"Judge me, you cannot," Yoda said, snapping the lid of his basket shut and glaring at them. "Nothing to do here but wait to die, so found something interesting to do, I did."
Obi-Wan didn't know why Qui-Gon and Padmé seemed so surprised. After all, they had been imbibing all sorts of alcohol like it was going out of style ever since they'd died. If Yoda was truly using hallucinogenic mushrooms, then that was his choice.
"Don't even think of adding those to your stew while Luke is here," Padmé said.
"Returning, is he? About time, it is," Yoda said.
"Luke should be here any day now for more training," Obi-Wan said.
Yoda narrowed his eyes at Obi-Wan before turning and shuffling back into his hut. Qui-Gon rolled his eyes and muttered something about dramatic Jedi Masters as he pulled a bottle of some kind of glittery blue concoction from his robes. Both Obi-Wan and Padmé declined; they could all feel that Yoda was going to be joining them soon. They could break out the alcohol then.
The whine of an X-wing descending from atmosphere broke the heavy silence, the wind forcing them to dodge in order to keep the flying vines and swamp muck from passing through their bodies.
Padmé frowned. "How did Luke get here so fast if we only just left Tatooine?"
"The Force works in mysterious ways," Qui-Gon said, wiping his mouth and smearing glitter in his beard
Padmé rolled her eyes, and Obi-Wan lifted a hand to stifle a laugh in the sleeve of his robe.
Qui-Gon glared at them but said nothing while they watched Luke enter Yoda's hut.
"Should we follow him?" Padmé asked.
As if in answer, the door to Yoda's hut slammed shut, a distinct feeling of 'Keep Out' radiating in the Force.
"I suppose that answers that question," Obi-Wan said, his voice as dry as the desert they had just visited. "Yoda probably won't die while he's speaking with Luke, so we can wait until they're done."
Padmé smacked the back of his head. "What were you thinking, saying something like that?"
"Now you've done it," Qui-Gon groaned. "Yoda will kick the bucket in the middle of his conversation with Luke, and we'll be forced to explain everything to him."
With great effort, Obi-Wan resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his friends' dramatics. "Yoda is going to die soon, but that hardly means it's going to happen right this second."
That was, of course, the moment Yoda's ghost appeared, a basket full of mushrooms clutched in his claws and a devious grin on his face.
"Your problem, young Skywalker is now. Enjoying my afterlife for the next century at least, I will be," Yoda cackled before vanishing with a poof.
Luke meandered back to where his ship was sitting, grief at Yoda's death broadcasting into the Force. Artoo spoke up for the first time since they'd landed, beeping something that sounded vaguely like a greeting. Luke ignored him and instead began to prepare his ship. Obi-Wan was surprised that Luke wasn't trying to contact him for answers. Maybe Yoda hadn't told him anything meaningful after all.
"You know," Qui-Gon said. "I think I need to go… and help Yoda catch up on what's been happening in the galaxy and not be here."
Before either Obi-Wan or Padmé could protest, he was gone.
Obi-Wan was considering following Qui-Gon so that he could avoid a no doubt awkward conversation when Padmé shot him a glare and said "Don't you dare."
"But, Padmé," he began.
"You're the only one who can talk to him, Obi-Wan, so you don't get to leave now. If you'd helped us on Tatooine, maybe it would have gone better."
"I thought it turned out alright," he said.
Padmé simply pointed at Luke, who sighed and said "I can't do it, Artoo. I can't go on alone."
Kriff. Padmé was right, he was going to need to fix this, even if he had no idea how. The Jedi had never taught anything about grief counseling because everyone knew they would simply rejoin the Force one day. Maybe if he could just explain that to Luke then he'd feel better.
"Yoda will always be with you," Obi-Wan said, making his body visible so Luke didn't mistake their conversation for a hallucination like he'd almost done on Hoth.
Luke's head whipped around to look at him.
"Obi-Wan! Why didn't you tell me?" Luke yelled.
Obi-Wan hoped Luke would be more specific about what it was he'd kept a secret from the boy. After all, there were a lot of them.
"You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father," Luke continued.
Ah, that.
"You father was seduced by the dark side of the Force," Obi-Wan explained. "He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your
father was destroyed. So what I have told you was true... from a certain point of view."
Luke snorted and looked away. "A certain point of view!"
"Complete nonsense," Padmé agreed, rolling her eyes.
With great restraint, Obi-Wan didn't react to what Padmé had said and continued to explain some of the Jedi philosophy to Luke. "Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
Luke didn't say anything, which Obi-Wan took to be a good sign. Members of the Skywalker family hardly ever hesitated to make their ire known. Therefore, Obi-Wan went on to explain how Anakin came to be a Jedi and emphasized how Anakin had been destroyed by Vader. It was unfortunate that Luke seemed to believe differently, even if the occasional comment from Padmé was in support of her son's views.
It was even more unfortunate that Luke wouldn't kill Vader in order to save the galaxy from the Empire.
"I can't kill my own father," Luke said.
Obi-Wan sighed, wishing for a drink, "Then the Emperor has already won. You were our only hope."
"Yoda spoke of another."
So Yoda had told him. That conniving troll, leaving all of the awkward explanations to him.
"The other he spoke of is your twin sister," Obi-Wan explained.
Luke frowned. "But I have no sister."
It took only a little explanation on Obi-Wan's part before Luke jumped to the obvious conclusion. However, even after Luke learned about his relationship to Leia, it was impossible to convince him to kill Vader, and when Luke left Dagobah, Obi-Wan didn't know what to do.
"Don't worry so much, Obi-Wan," Padmé said. "I have faith in my children, and you should too."
"I wish that I could," Obi-Wan said. Then, a thought occurred to him and he brightened. "So does this mean I won the bet?"