A thick fog covered the ground of Dagobah, forcing Yoda to use the Force as a guide as he walked through the swamps. His gimer stick cane sunk slightly in the soft ground as he walked, creating small holes in the ground. His destination wasn't that far off—the Wayfarer-class transport that had brought his new student and his family to this planet. He had meditated and communed with the Force spirits of Qui-Gon Jinn as well as the one who had kept a watch on him when he was a boy. With the help of the Force and the two deceased Jedi, he was finally able to know what to tell the Jedi. It was a story that more than likely wouldn't raise too many difficult questions, yet it would also answer the most important one: why?
Jorec had wanted to know why Anakin Skywalker had fallen to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader—why the one that was prophesized to destroy the Sith would actually end up all but destroying the Jedi. It was a question that would have to be answered truthfully, yet there were certain children that needed to be protected. Yes—Luke and Leia, Yoda thought as he neared the landed ship. The two children had to be ten years old at the moment, and Yoda wondered when Owen Lars would finally allow Obi-Wan to train the boy in the Jedi arts. Or maybe it would fall to himself? The Force wasn't letting on, that was for sure.
He was less than ten meters from the ship when the entrance ramp slowly slid out of the ship, carving a slight depression in the soft ground as it continued to descend. Out of the well-lit interior of the transport walked the red-plated protocol/pilot droid that had been given to the family. It stiffly walked out of the transport, seemingly afraid to step onto the ground out of fear of getting mud in his parts. "Greetings, Master Yoda," the droid said as he did a fairly decent approximation of a bow. In the back of his mind, Yoda had to wonder why Jorec and Lia had sent the droid to greet him instead of meeting him personally. The answer was soon revealed.
"TeeThree, I told you to just look out for him," Jorec scolded the droid as he walked down the ramp. "You didn't have to personally greet him." Jorec nodded to Master Yoda. "Good morning, Master Yoda. Come on in."
Yoda nodded his thanks and stepped up onto the ramp and made his way into ship, smelling non-humid air for the first time in years. The air inside of the ship was of an average temperature, a rare commodity on the swamp planet of Dagobah. It was a welcome change from the outside—not one that he would be content with on an everyday basis—but a good change nonetheless.
"I am terribly sorry, sir," the droid replied. "I will do my best to make sure that it doesn't happen again."
Jorec slowly walked from the now closing ramp, keeping pace with Yoda as the short Jedi Master walked along the hallway and into the main lounge of the vessel. Lia waved at Yoda as she sighted the Jedi. "Hello Master Yoda," she said. "Good morning."
"Good morning to you both," Yoda replied as he leapt up to take a seat on an empty couch, placing his cane next to the piece of furniture. Gavin looked at this new being from his resting-place, amazingly just like his father did to another member of Yoda's enigmatic species nearly 25 years previously. "A curious party we have?" Yoda asked, pointing to the infant.
"Looks like it," Lia said as she watched her son look at Yoda. "No offense, but I don't think he's seen anything like you before."
"Doubt that I don't," Yoda replied with what could have been a slight chuckle. "Asked before you did about how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. Ready to tell you now I am."
Jorec sat down next to his wife, more than ready to hear this story. Among the younglings in the Jedi Temple—himself included—Anakin Skywalker had been one of the most respected Knights that the Order had produced. Then, it turned out, for some reason Anakin had slaughtered the very Order that had revered him. Even the younglings didn't survive the slaughter…
"Started the day after the Battle of Coruscant ended," Yoda began, closing his eyes as if to picture it in his head. A briefing there was for the Outer Rim sieges, included Selvernos I think it did. I didn't attend, for counseling young Skywalker needed. Told me he did of a premonition he had. Visions he saw; visions of people he cared for dying." He paused, letting the information sink in for a few seconds. The telling of Anakin's fall wasn't supposed to just be a retelling of events of the past, it was instead intended to be a lesson as well.
"Hence the lecture a few days ago about being mindful about visions being just potential futures," Jorec stated, causing Yoda to give a short nod. "Is this how…"
"Telling it I am," Yoda reminded. "Visions of death he saw," Yoda continued. "Did my best I could to help him—in concordance with Jedi beliefs at the time. Told him I did that death was a natural part of life—that one should rejoice for those who have passed. Help him I obviously did not," Yoda regretfully said. "Chose his own path Anakin did, but stopped it could have been."
"Who was Anakin having these visions about?" Lia asked.
"A senator from Naboo. A Padmé Amidala. His wife she was."
Lia took a quick look at her husband. Hadn't he told her that attachment—especially romantic attachment—was forbidden for a Jedi?
"Though forbidden attachment was, spouses more than a few Jedi had," Yoda explained, hoping that he would spare the couple a potential argument. Solusar, Skywalker, Jinn, Halcyon: all of them had one time or another violated the Order's rules on non-attachment. And those were just the ones that Yoda knew about.
"Visions he had of her dying," Yoda repeated. "And disturbed by them he was. Sought council with me he did, and then council he sought with Chancellor Palpatine—Darth Sidious in disguise. Assume I do that Sidious lured Anakin into the Dark Side with promises of protection for Padmé," Yoda continued, deliberately making no mention of the unborn children that would become Luke and Leia. "Twisted by his lies and promises of power Anakin became, and when faced with a decision to either allow the Sith to be destroyed or to help him, choose poorly Anakin did. Entered the Chancellor's office four Jedi Masters did, leave only two Sith did. Know what truly happened in that room, I do not."
"I've heard a recording about what could have happened in there," Jorec said. "It's almost certainly doctored, but it's worth bringing up in my opinion. Mace Windu and the others attempted to arrest Palpatine for being a Sith Lord, Palpatine brought up that being a Sith Lord was protected under the Republic's religious freedoms and—according to the recording, the Jedi attacked first. I doubt that is what actually happened, however."
"Lies and treachery are the ways of the Sith," Yoda stated. "Easily convincing to already enthralled Senate, it more than likely was. Afterwards, ordered Vader and a legion of clones to the Jedi Temple Sidious did." Yoda's voice lowered and the wise Jedi Master lowered his head, having difficulty remembering what had happened next. "On Kashyyyk I was when the betrayal happened, and went to Coruscant soon afterward I did. Slaughter there was at the Jedi Temple. No one was spared, no one." Even though Jorec and Lia had heard of the slaughter of the younglings in the Temple, the implications and what seemed to be pain in Yoda's voice sent chills down their spines.
"Took it on myself to fight the Emperor I did," Yoda said. "And failed I did."
The mental image of Yoda fighting Darth Sidious—and losing, was of an epic battle somewhere. A meeting between what must have been one of the most powerful Force-users since the Reformation. Maybe of all time. It was an almost frightening thing to even conceive. "You failed against the Emperor?" Jorec asked, disbelief in his voice.
"Fought hard I did, but to kill the Emperor my destiny is not," Yoda replied.
"What happened to Anakin that forced him to wear that black suit?" Jorec asked. "Or is it just for intimidation purposes?"
"A battle was fought between Master and Apprentice on the banks of a lava river," Yoda explained, having seen the suited figure of Darth Vader in meditations. "Beat him Obi-Wan did, and grievously injured Vader was."
"Obi-Wan's alive as well?!" Jorec exclaimed. "How many others? Where is he?" a flurry of questions escaped Jorec's mouth.
"Alive Obi-Wan is, know of his location I do not," Yoda lied, determined to keep the identity and location of Luke a secret. "As for others, know not I do. Out there they are, where I know not."
"There's one thing I've been wondering," Lia said a few hours later—not long after Yoda had left. Gavin was bouncing on her knee, "chewing" on something rather soft, a small amount of drool running down his chin. "How powerful is this Yoda, and thus how powerful is this Emperor?" she asked. "You say that he's very powerful in the Force and very wise. I can see the wise part, but he's such a little guy. Are you sure that he's that powerful?"
"Do you remember those big droid landers that were on Selvernos?" Jorec asked, hoping that she had either seen the attack on her homeworld first-hand or had seen the droids landing on a Holonews program.
"I watched them through a telescope when they arrived," Lia replied. "What does that have to do with Master Yoda?"
"I heard from other Jedi—who heard it clone troopers—that he caused two of them to crash into each other on Coruscant."
Lia's mouth hung open. "Surely that has to be an exaggeration. Those things must have weighed tons!"
"He never denied it. Not to mention that there were two crashed landers relatively near the Jedi Temple with no signs of external damage on them—save from the crash."
"You're joking, aren't you?" Lia asked, not believing that anybody could do such a thing, not even a Jedi.
"I'm not," Jorec honestly replied. "I'm being completely honest! Even I used to believe that Yoda couldn't be as powerful as everyone said that he was. I was proven wrong."
"Yeah, but two landing craft?"
"Technically, he could have only moved one," Jorec admitted. "Crashed it into the other one." He demonstrated with his hands, the left hand's fingers colliding with the middle of his stationary right hand. "I wasn't there to see it, I was safe in some underground bunker guarding a group of younglings."
"I've changed my mind; after seeing all I've seen when it comes to Jedi and what they're able to do with the Force, I'm really not surprised that that could happen," Lia admitted.
Jorec grabbed his son, who had unknowingly fallen asleep while his parents debated on how powerful of a Jedi the strange looking visitor was. He fussed slightly after a peaceful nap had been disturbed, but soon settled down after a few soothing words from his father. With a small yawn, Gavin was soon resting again.
"I think he's still tired," Jorec said as he moved to place his son into a small crib. "I really don't blame him. Yoda's story takes a lot out of you."
"Even though I've heard it before," Lia began, her eyes betraying the image of a few tears ready to fall, "all those children…"
"It's harder when you actually knew some of the older children," Jorec spoke, his voice almost a whisper.
"I can imagine," Lia replied as her husband sat down next to her. He offered her his shoulder, which she gladly took. Jorec wrapped his arm around his wife and began to think. There was a lot of new information in which he had to process, along with the lesson that Yoda had decided to include in his telling of Anakin's fall. It was a lesson to be mindful of the Dark Side—to avoid its influences—to know that all visions weren't necessarily what they seemed to be, and that even someone who was attempting to prevent a vision from coming true could actually cause it to happen. Paved with good intentions the path to the Dark Side is, Yoda had said. Jorec would have to meditate on this later, but the now wasn't the time. And even though Lia had seemingly shut down her reaction to Yoda's vague reference to the youngling slaughter, Jorec could sense the fear and anxiety that she still felt.
He looked around the ship's lounge, and noted every intelligent thing that was currently in it: Gavin was sleeping soundly in his crib, Lia appeared to be either asleep or on the verge of it. Even TeeThree was powered down and standing in his recharging station. Why the hell not? Jorec thought as he leaned his head back against the couch. I could use the sleep anyway.