Chapter 3: A Shocking Family Secret

Dagobah. 3 ABY.

"I never saw this coming," Han spoke once the Falcon left hyperspace. "who would have thought I'd become a Jedi?"

Chewbacca, siting nearby, roared something to his friend in Wookie language.

"Actually, Chewie, I'm worried." Han admitted, with wariness on his face. "What if I don't have what it takes? What if it's all a mistake?"

Just when the Corellian admitted his fears, C-3PO ran into the cockpit. "Captain Solo, please come quickly. There's something wrong with mistress Leia."

Concerned about the young princess, Han left the cockpit and found Leia sitting, with R2 nearby, and from the look on her face and her head resting on her arm, something wasn't right.

"I was overcome by terror, and then it disappeared… replaced by nothingness, like I was surrounded by a void…" Leia spoke.

"Probably just the past few days catching up with you." Han proposed as he sat beside Leia, putting a hand on her shoulder, covered by the white winter jacket she was still wearing from Hoth, just like Han still wearing his blue jacket.

"It's okay now." Han then added. "We're almost to Dagobah. Once we're there, you can rest."

Leia turned to him and smiled a bit. Despite their relationship, the two have become close following the recent events. Sometime the Millennium Falcon landed after a hour of searching for a clean surface for landing since the planet was filled with foggy swamps and the jungle.

"Easy, Chewie. Watch those branches." Han told the Wookie as they were landing when the Falcon broke a tree branch.

"Does anyone have an idea where we can find this Yoda?" Han asked, with the question being more rhetoric as he left the ship along with the two droids, while Leia and Chewbacca were descending down the plank.

"Artoo says there are too many life-signs to distinguish the specific individual." The golden protocol droid answered. "However, he does sense wood-smoke coming from four hundered meters ahead. It could be a settlement."

"Come on, Chewie. Let's check it out." Han Solo told his co-pilot as he took out his DL-44 heavy blaster pistol.

"Wait! I'm coming with you." Leia suddenly yelled as she caught up with them.

"Maybe you should stay back to the ship. My Force-sense tells me this place is dangerous." Han objected.

"No, it's not." Leia argued back. "I don't know why, but this place seems like… home."

Chewbacca interfered their conversation by roaring something, only for Han to answer that he doesn't think that Leia is part Wookie as he led the way.

"Look there." Han then said after he pushed some bushes aside. Leia came up and saw a simple hut constructed of mud with smoke coming out of the chimney. Right beside the small entrance, a small creature in green wrinkled green skin and large pointy ears sat on a rock with a small cane in its hand. The creature was wearing sandy brown robes with a reddish shirt underneath it.

"Welcome, friends. Expecting you I was." The creature, obviously an elder, spoke. Using what it had of its strength, the creature stood up from the rock and leaning on the cane, it approached the three intruders, barely walking.

"Yoda I am." The creature greeted itself. "Train you, as a Jedi, I will. Although this is unforeseen. Expecting a different Skywalker, I was."

Both Leia and Han gasped in shock once Yoda pointed his finger at the young princess.

"Me?" Leia asked before kneeling down to Yoda. "But I'm not a Skywalker."

"Mistaken, you are." Yoda replied. "I knew your mother, you have her eyes. She gave birth to twins. Luke was your brother. Strong is the Force with your family. With you and your father… Darth Vader."

Leia just sat there as if the whole universe froze, or shattered, and she was now in a void. Just like what she felt when the Death Star blew up her home planet Alderaan.

"No," Leia muttered to herself. "It's not true, that is impossible."

Yoda, however, did not respond to that as Han began objecting that he was the chosen one, as Luke said it, and he should be trained as Jedi not Leia. Han also demanded how is that possible that the infamous dark lord Darth Vader is her father.

"How?" Leia muttered that question too. Yoda still did not respond as Han knelt to Leia.

"You can't do this, Leia!" Han told the princess, holding her. "Your place is at the head of the rebellion. They need you! The pond-hopper here's feeding you lies!"

"No, Han." Leia answered softly. "Yoda's telling the truth. I can feel it. Luke's message was for me all along. It's going to be okay."

"But the rebellion needs you." Han continued to argue. "I need you and it's not safe here."

"Safer with Jedi Master Yoda she will be than with a death-marked scoundrel like you." Yoda finally interfered into their conversation much to Han's annoyance.

"Hey! How do you know about the bounty on my head?"

"Jedi, I am. Remember?" Yoda simply answered his question. "Now come, I have prepared food."

Finally realizing that they were hungry, Han, Leia and Chewie couldn't agree more than to have dinner as they followed Yoda through the small hole leading into the Jedi's hut just as raining began.

Hours later, the four once again stood outside the hut as Han and Chewie were preparing to depart, to Leia's sadness.

"He's right though." Han told Leia. "I need to get rid of this death mark both for my sake and yours."

"Will you come back?" Leia asked desperately.

"I promise I will be safe and return alive."

"Oh Han." Leia, to Han Solo's surprise, threw herself at the Corellian, embracing him. Han eagerly returned the hug.

"You take care of her." Han turned to Yoda as he held the young princess.

"Worry not. She will be safe." Yoda assured the smuggler. Leia then watched with sadness and despair as both Han and Chewbacca, the closest people she ever had after her parents, Bail and Breha Organa, and her brother Luke, left deep into the jungle, back to the Millennium Falcon. Her thoughts were disturbed by Yoda's voice.

"Much we must do. Train hard, you will. It will be difficult."

Leia still stood there, not noticing as the old Jedi master retreated into his hut, and return later.

"You will face darkness and trial. But strong you must be, for now all rests on your fate." Yoda continued. "Next time you see your friends… a Jedi you will be."

With that, Leia turned to Yoda and saw him holding what seemed to be a lightsaber, offering it to Leia. Hesitantly taking the weapon from Yoda, Leia ignited it and a blue-coloured blade illuminated the jungle of Dagobah.