Greetings humans! (Apologizes to anyone who isn't human. You are still equally greeted and respected!)

I certainly hoped you enjoyed last chapter, and the same will go for this one, as well.

REVIEWER SHOUT OUTS: HuffleHecate, FullOfFaith, and Reyella, you guys are the dopest!

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: NOTIONS AND NEGATIONS

"M-master Yoda?" Anakin stuttered hoarsely, his eyes wide with shock as he stared at the leader of the Jedi Order. Well, the former leader, now that nearly all the Jedi were gone – and Anakin was to blame. "Master, I'm so sorry!" he cried. Acting on old his old Sith doctrine, he fell onto one knee and stared at the ground, not daring to meet the great Jedi's eyes, his body as stiff as metal. "I don't deserve be here. If this place is somehow sacred to the Jedi I should never have come. I—"

"Skywalker," said Yoda sternly. "Glad I am, you came here."

Anakin shook his head slightly in disbelief but remained kneeling. "B-but why? I betrayed everything I believed in and became a Sith Lord. I'm an awful person and a failure. What more could you want with me than to punish me?" Maybe that was all Yoda wanted. To punish him. It was what he deserved, but the tone of his voice told Anakin he had different intentions.

"A failure, you are not. Yes, mistakes, you made, but try to amend them, you can," Yoda told him.

Anakin barely heard him as he closed his eyes and was reminded once more of the atrocities he committed. Thousands of innocent people died at his hand. Thousands. Sometimes, he could still see their faces. They're inocent faces full of fear – fear of him. "It's impossible for me to ever make up for what I've done," he stated, feeling the bulk stolen lives heavily.

"So sure, are you?" the Jedi Master inquired. "Yet to be, the future is. What it will bring, yet to see, we still have." Anakin had almost forgotten about Yoda's… unique basic – as well as the weight his mixed-up sentences could bear. Still, he doubted he could ever set right his mistakes.

Suddenly he felt the Grand Master's eyes bearing onto his scarred form. With a stab of fear, he wondered what Yoda would do next. However, "Necessary, you gesture is not," was all he said.

Anakin obeyed and instantly stood up to see Yoda staring up at him, his wrinkly green head tilted slightly, seemingly studying him. "I-I'm sorry, M-master," he stammered. He felt strange to be calling Yoda "master" after all his torturous years as a Sith. "I'm just…" I'm just used to being terrified of being tortured by Force lightning if I don't show the proper respect, was what he wanted to say. However, he couldn't say the words out loud without being filled with that terrible, and yet very familiar sense of shame.

"Alright, Skywalker, it is," Yoda responded, a sympathetic look in his green eyes, sensing Anakin's guilt. Anakin looked down, still not being able to meet his eyes.

Out of nowhere, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see Luke standing next to him, a comforting look in his eyes. He had almost forgotten he and Lila were there. "Are you okay?" his wonderful son asked.

Anakin took a deep, refreshing breath. Savoring the feeling of his newly repaired lungs filling with air, before releasing it. "Yeah," he breathed, turning to Luke and giving him a loving look. "I'll be fine." Then he suddenly tensed as he remembered that they were in the presence of a Jedi Master. He looked over at Yoda, and his expression impossible to read.

"You sure?" Luke asked, seemingly noticing his father's strain and tightening his grip on his shoulder.

Anakin understood perfectly now why the Jedi had rules against attachment, but he also knew he could never stop loving his son. He turned back to face Luke again and brushed his bangs out of his face. "I think so. It just…" he turned back to Yoda, trying to get some idea as to what the Jedi Master was thinking. It was to no avail.

"'It's just' what?" Luke asked. Anakin sensed nothing but innocent confusion coming from him. He sighed and was about to explained when Yoda finally spoke up.

"For a Jedi, attachment, forbidden is," he told Luke.

"What?" This time it was Lila who spoke, her eyes wide as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard. "Why?" Anakin wasn't that surprised this annoyed her so much. She always seemed to grow incredibly close to the people she cared about. Not to mention, he had noticed something of a relationship forming between her and Leia.

He sighed. "Attachment is forbidden because—" he closed his eyes. This was a hard subject for him to talk about "—if someone is afraid to lose something—" or someone "—they care about, it can lead them down a dark path." His voice was very heavy, and, try as he might, he couldn't keep it from shaking.

Lila still looked confused. "So?" she asked. "Just teach that person how to not go down that dark path, as opposed to telling them not to love anyone."

"It doesn't always work like that," Anakin told her. Thinking of how he had gone to Yoda for guidance when he was afraid of losing Padmé. "Sometimes, they might not want to listen to what the people that are teaching them have to say."

"This still doesn't make any sense," Lila muttered. "It just seems like a stupid rule to me. I mean, this person would've been a Jedi most of their life, right? Wouldn't they know how to control their fears? So long as they can do that, they shouldn't have to worry about being attached—"

"You just don't understand, Lila," Anakin whispered. "The fear of losing someone…" he shook his head. Facing her and fighting back tears, he finished, "That's why I became Vader!"

Suddenly Lila was silent, finally understanding. "I-I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I had no idea… I'm sorry." Sympathy filled her lavender eyes as she ran over to Anakin and wrapped her arms around him.

Anakin jumped in surprise at her gesture, but he soon found himself hugging her back. "It's okay," he murmured comfortingly. "You didn't know."

Then Luke, who had been quiet throughout all of this, spoke up. "Couldn't this work in reverse?" he asked.

Anakin and Lila separated as Lila asked, "What do you mean?"

"About this whole attachment thing. If someone could go to the dark side because of attachment, then couldn't it be the other way around," Luke inquired. "I mean, isn't that what happened with you?" he said to Anakin. "You told me that you came back to the light because of your love for me."

"Greatest weaknesses, or our greatest strengths, our attachments can be," Yoda explained, his words surprising Anakin. Yoda seemed to pick up on this. "Great flaws, the Jedi of the Republic had. Realized this, have I. Perhaps the rules against attachment, part of these flaws, they were. Perhaps not. Worry about this, we will not. Greater, more important things to address, have we."

"Like what?" Lila asked, regaining a little bit of her spunky attitude.

"Training," was Yoda's response.

Luke looked over at his father. Anakin could easily feel the excitement flowing through him. Grinning, he reached down and placed a hand on Luke's back.

Then he looked over at Lila, whose lavender eyes were wide. She was practically shaking. "Training!? Really!?" she cried.

Yoda nodded.

Lila just about melted into the ground with joy. Getting up, she looked over at Anakin and grinned. "Are you gonna train us?" she asked.

Suddenly Anakin tensed. His hand fell from Luke's back as he looked over at Lila, his smile gone. "No!" he said, backing away from Lila, fear gripping him, as if he might hurt her as he did his last Padawan. I'll never deserve to have a Padawan again after what I did to her, he thought to himself. Shaking his head, he tried and failed, to muster a smile. "I-I don't think so, Lila. Like I've said, after what I've done, I'm not a Je-di…" He stopped himself. Those words were unbearably close to what Ahsoka had said to him two years prior before he'd killed her. He closed his eyes. "You don't want me as a teacher," he told Lila honestly.

The excitement left Lila's eyes. "Anakin, what's wrong?" She almost looked like she wanted to say more but didn't. She was probably just trying to avoid upsetting him more.

"I'm fine," Anakin insisted, subconsciously covering one of his eyes with his cold hand. It was the same eye Ahsoka had seen in their fight on Malachor when she had managed to slice off a bit of Vader's mask with her lightsaber. She had recognized him then. Said his name – "Anakin."

Suddenly there was a warm hand touching his forearm. "Father?" Anakin heard Luke murmur, bringing him back to the present. "Are you okay?"

Anakin finally relaxed a bit and looked down at his son who was staring up at him, worry filling his soothing sky-blue eyes. "I think so," he answered, mostly honestly. Being around his son and feeling his love always helped to calm him down a bit. He cleared his throat and tried to redirect his mind to Luke and Lila's training. Not the best thing to focus on now but certainly not the worst. "So, wasn't Yoda going to start training you two?"

Suddenly the sound of footfalls on metal came from behind them. Anakin turned around to see Leia, his beautiful daughter, standing at the bottom of the Falcon's ramp. "What in the name of the universe is going on here?" she said defensively. "And what is that green thing?"

MUHAHAHAHA! Another cliffhanger for you!

I have another story today. So, earlier today, I was with my friends, and two of them were chit-chatting while I was doing some work. Then, I just heard one of them say "Star Wars," and I was just like, "I heard someone say 'Star Wars'!"

Someone could say Star Wars a mile away and I would hear it. I literally have Star Wars radar. It's awesome.

I've also started Lost Stars. I'm not even on chapter two and it's already fantastic. Did I mention I love Claudia Gray? There's another book coming out by her about Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, and I'm SUPER hyped for it. Not to mention Queen's Shadow!

Anyway, I want you guys to tell me what you thought of this chapter. What did you like about? What could I do better? Don't be afraid to give me some constructive criticism!

NEXT CHAPTER: Lila and Leia talk.

And until next Tuesday, may the Force be with you!

-CWN