4
Leaving Could City was more difficult than he could think. Luke had started the preparation for the journey four hours before and now he had still more than a half of the stuff still to place. Leia Han and Chewie had arrived at the docking bay where the Star Horse was docked and were helping him and Irene embarking their stuff: Luke was inside the hold with Han and a sad Chewie, who yelped at every new container. Leia and Irene and Yana, Leia's personal secretary, were helping the children finding a comfortable seat in the main space of the plate-shaped starship. A smile ran across Leia's lips when she saw the cure the apprentices had placing their dark cloak behind them. Irene instead seemed to be born with her outfit for the fluidity and the liberty of her movements even if she was wearing the heavy Jedi cloak. Lando was with the women, talking with the older children. He had seen Yavin4 during an explorative mission and he had hated the planet at first sight, too much plants and trees! The Red Angels weren't there but Luke's eyes were still taking a look from time to time at the street, he wanted to salute them...
"Ehi kid! What's inside this container! Rocks?" Han's shout took him back to the hold of the ship.
"Eh? Oh...only the necessary tools to construct a lightsaber..." answered the young man after a look at the color of the strips on the side of the container.
"You need so much things to those little cylinders?" asked surprised the man, the head barely visible behind the gray container.
"Yes and now, please...put it there, in that corner, and fasten it tight, I don't want to have to pick up its contents all around after we arrive..."
"At your service, Master!" answered sarcastically the Corellian.
"Luke!" called Irene from the upper part of the ship and the man exited the hold and climbed up the boarding ramp.
"Yes?" asked when he met the women in the corridor.
"We're done up here. Do you need any help down there?"
"No...we can hold it..." his eyes were of a strange tonality of blue, they were like a storming sky and Leia and Irene knew the reason of it. Before he came back to the hold, Luke took another not too hoping look at the street. Leia touched his arm and reassured him.
"Don't worry Luke, they'll arrive..." whispered softly and Luke sighed, not too convinced.
"I hope so." Whispered leaving his sister.
With his great surprise Han and Chewie had placed all the containers in the hold and he hadn't to do anything.
"We've finished..." announced Han but immediately something clouded the eyes of the smuggler. Chewie yelped his sadness. They had finished and now Luke could go. But they didn't want to let him go, not so soon!
Luke felt their emotions and sighed, then reached his friends. Han was avoiding his eyes, looking down not to make him look in them, but he couldn't hide something to a Jedi and Luke tried to comfort him. He grabbed his shoulder and talked slowly and softly, smiling.
"Don't do that, Han. I won't be so far..."
"I know this but..." there was a moment of painful silence then Han -he didn't want to leave Luke with a sad memory of him- spoke with his usual arrogance "Who will I call kid?! That hirsute brown mountain is not so kid-like!" Luke smiled at the try of his friend to paint in less dramatic colors the situation and patted on his shoulders. The time had come and he had to leave.
Irene had arrived with Leia and Yana and now they were waiting the men and Chewie, the last one who left the hold of the ship. When the shutter closed, came the difficult time of the good-byes.
"Be careful Luke...Yavin4 is a dangerous planet." Recommended the woman, ready to cry. Luke caressed her face and made her rise her eyes to look at him.
"You haven't to worry Leia, I'll be fine on Yavin4...okay? Now c'mon do me a smile, I don't want to leave you crying..." the woman smiled but immediately she hugged Luke for a long time, she didn't want to let him go, but she knew she had to and her arms opened, letting Luke salute Han and Chewie.
"Well kid...What can I say? Go and do your best..." said Han, patting on his shoulder with his usually captivating smile, and Luke nodded.
"I'll do..." the silence came between them They didn't want to cry -even Luke was hardly swallowing the tears- and the men hugged no to say something else. That hug would be enough. Chewie hugged the two men and Luke spat fur of brown hair, laughing.
"Chewie you're the only one who'll leave me a tangible memory!"
The Wookiee tried to beg the pardon of his friend but Luke patted on his shoulder.
"Don't worry! I was joking!"
Lando was behind the tall Wookiee, clearly uneasy. Luke looked at him and the man tried to smile. The Jedi reached him and touched his shoulder.
"Ehi, I count on you buddy...make Leia do exactly as the doctor will order her, okay? Han loves her too much to hold it rightly, help him."
The Baron nodded and Luke smiled.
"I'll miss you Luke!" said then Lando embracing him. Irene met Luke's eyes and nodded lightly. The man moved backward.
The old friends probably wanted to go on talking but Luke and Irene had to leave and they saluted for the last time their friends. Irene went on waving her hand in the air even while the hatch of the ship was closing.
Irene then reached Luke, who had already started the taking off procedures, the engines were starting to scream, taking her seat in the co-pilot seat.
"Here Star Horse, can you here me Cloud City?" asked Luke.
"Here Could City, yes we're hearing you." Answered an officer. Luke listened to him looking outside.
"We're leaving, Could City." Announced distractedly.
"Yes you're clear to take off. Good-bye Star Horse. Cloud City out." Luke looked at Irene who was finishing to prepare the repulsion engine; the woman nodded and Luke hit the last switch. The ship trembled for a moment then took off.
Irene took a look down where Leia was still saluting her and smiled.
"I'll miss them..." said then the woman, eyeing the control panel of the engines.
"I'll miss them too..." added Luke, sighing. *And I'll miss the Red Angels...*
Bespin was becoming a glowing ball in the darkness when someone called him on a military channel.
"Red four standing by, Boss. We're on your wings until you reach your destination."
"Here Luke...thank you Rorje but..."
"Boss keep quiet for one time!" Furana's accent was unmistakable!
"Red Seven standing by, we'll come with you Luke and you'll have to shoot us down if you want us to stop." Helen's voice had never been more convinced.
"Red two standing by. And it won't be so easy Luk'e!" added Phil'ke with his characteristic way in pronouncing the Master's name.
"Okay, you won. Prepare for the jump at light-speed...Red Angels!" Irene saw her Master happy again in that painful day and smiled with him. The woman dialed the co-ordinates for Yavin4 and nodded.
"We can go Luke."
"Count down to light-speed...five...four...three...two...one...ignition!" the ships disappeared silently one by one.
The cockpit was becoming too little for him. Irene's movements were fluid and her hands touched him too frequently. He still didn't know what's happening between them, he only knew he couldn't stay with her anymore. The journey to Yavin4 was long and Luke felt the need to see and check his apprentices.
"I'm seeing how the apprentices are, okay?" said rising from the pilot seat.
Irene nodded, she was absorbed by the result of a check on the hyperdrive system.
Luke reached the corridor near the room where the apprentices were but something wasn't right, all was too silence. Preoccupied for the condition of the little guys, he accelerated and rushed into the room, holding his breath. The children were under his responsibility and he wouldn't have had the courage to look at his own face if something had happened to them. Eleven pairs of surprised eyes looked at him.
"Something wrong Master?" asked Lukas. Luke shook his head, a smile ran across his lips. They were all safe, they were only...silent.
"No, nothing. How are you?"
"Fine thanks. Your sister saved my life..." Luke nodded. He took a look around to check the others. Lukas rose from his seat and reached the Master.
"Don't worry Master. We are all fine here." Reassured the young blond fellow with a bold smile.
"I was forgetting you're a skilled mind reader...I was really preoccupied. I thought children shout and yell and run around..."
"Most of them had passed that phase. The others...well...you've apprentices of ten years old, they are silent and shy, and they're not babies...don't expect little savages! They are dangerous only when they have a leader and, for what I've heard, the leaders have been deposed after a...problem with that beautiful being that is in the cockpit... " something in the last phrase made Luke felt somehow strange, a piercing impression of uneasiness passed trough him, and a shadow passed on his face but he didn't want to have to give an explanation of it -even because he didn't have one- and avoided a probably question talking.
"You know well the argument..."
"I'm the oldest of twelve sons...I have done some experience..."
"I'll count on you then!" said patting on his shoulder, forcing himself to smile.
"I promise sir never to disappoint." Lukas did a military salute and Luke answered promptly. He didn't want to come back to the cockpit and sat down near Toman, Lukas followed him.
"Ehi, Toman, how are you?" asked moving forward to get nearer him. Toman looked at him before he answered and for a moment his reddish-brown eyes became of an ardent red. As rapid as they had turned blue, Toman's eyes turned again, regaining their color. His mouth moved but Luke was focused on his eyes, perplexed. He could read his mind, it was simple but what he found surprised him. *It's impossible! He can't be able to build up a wall between his mind and another Jedi!* Toman had followed his thought because his eyes narrowed and he smiled, conceited for his surprise.
Lukas wasn't following them, he was speaking to Valene, trying to impress the gentle girl with an absurd story of monsters. Valene was sixteen years old but Lukas was convinced he could fascinate her like a baby.
"This monster comes close to me, ready to eat me for lunch..."
The girl silenced him with a sharp comment. "It's a pity it hadn't done it!" and got up reaching Derek, her twin brother, on the other side of the room.
Dakana was having a wonderful speech with Grrakkj. They talked using the Force. But something suddenly kidnapped the blue skinned girl. Grrakkj tried to call her but an adult voice calmed him.
*Don't worry Grrakkj, keep quiet and help me...*
**Who are you?**
*My name is...*the voice stopped suddenly. Grrakkj saw Dakana get up and reach Toman. Luke was near him, still confused, but something inside him cleared his mind with the power of a thunder. The man looked up at Dakana, in her eyes Luke saw a strange light. The boy near Luke rose and faced Dakana. Silently they looked into each other's eyes. The atmosphere was full of electricity.
Dakana rose her right hand and pointed at Toman who drew a step back, smiling evilly. Luke focused on Toman's mind but the barrier pushed him back. Starting a little, the Master tried again and again till he made a hole in the wall and entered. A storm was raging and Luke felt a cold wind try to reject his presence.
*I won't go away! Who are you??* The wind's voice answered him.
*You can't hide yourself forever!* This time something in the rain moved toward him. Luke clenched his hands and looked at the figure that was advancing.
Suddenly a third presence occupied Toman's mind. For a moment Luke saw Dakana fall unconscious on the metallic floor and Grrakkj call Irene, while the other apprentices were murmuring. Hujan was shaking his head, the pony tail was quivering with fear.
The third presence was a thin woman with a kind of elaborated crown on the head and a strange red dress Luke had never seen before. The woman looked at him with a smile. She resembled Leia, they had the same way of half closing the eyes when they smiled.
*This mind is becoming too little for all of us...*commented the dark figure before Luke and the woman.
*Why don't you go away then?!*
*I've come first...queen...*
...the woman was a queen...
Luke tried to find something, anything, that could link him to the woman, because he felt she had to have a place in his mind...in his past.
*But you haven't the right for being here...leave the boy! Leave this time!*
*Are you trying again to push me away? Have I to remind you what happened the last time we met? This boy and the girl you have used barely survived...*
*This time it won't happen...I...*the woman silenced and looked at Luke. The man would have drawn a step back but he drew a step forward. Now he was near the woman. *We'll destroy you...*
*You can't destroy a being that is one with the Force...*
*You're one with the Dark Side...* specified the woman and the dark figure smiled, Luke had seen that smile two minutes before on Toman's face...it was terrifying.
*It's however the Force...There no place where you can destroy me...no one place!* the dark figure laughed and his voice echoed as if they were in a valley surrounded by high mountains.
*We'll do it here then...*
*Your Master hadn't taught you well...I don't want to repeat myself queen...*
*We'll see it...* a moment before her hand was empty and was clenching the air, the moment after the woman was menacing the dark hooded figure grabbing a long pole with a sharp blade on each end.
The dark figure drew a step back and talked.
*I'm tired...We'll meet again queen...don't worry...* The presence disappeared, taking with him the rain. The woman made the pole disappear and she was closing her eyes, Luke stopped her before she disappeared.
*I'll go now but I'll come back, don't worry...Luke...* The thin woman pronounced his name so tenderly that Luke tried to make her stay but she was becoming as inconsistent as the fog and disappeared.
After she had disappeared, a blinding bolt shook violently the air and the land around and below him and all became dull and foggy. Luke felt his body like a jelly, something was rocking him, as if he had been in a deep pool of cold water...as if he had been made of water...
"Master...Oh Thank the Maker you're alive!" Irene's voice pierced through his ears and Luke silenced her with an uncontrolled move of distress of his pale and cold hand. His eyes were two narrow lines in the middle of a white surface. The blond hair was an unformed amount of deep yellow wires. He tried to open his eyes but the light hit them as if it had been a blade and Luke closed them immediately.
"Where's Toman? Where's Dakana? We're we?" asked painfully moving blindly in what seemed to be a kind of bed. Something warm and relaxing was covering his shuddering body. Irene moved toward him -Luke didn't know if the person near him was still Irene but an unmistakable perfume flew over him- and he became red till the root of the hair. Irene notified the sudden change of color of his distressed face and checked the conditions of the semiconscious Master, her hands were dancing frantically upon Luke. When he finally decided that he must open his eyes the piercing light was attenuated by a gentle shadow. Before him there was Irene, smiling and relieved. Luke tried to smile and Irene touched his right hand, abandoned on the side of the covered bed, out of the warm wool cover.
"You've made us really preoccupied..." her voice was a warm caress for his ears now.
"Where are Dakana and Toman?" asked with a preoccupied voice Luke, trying to see behind Irene.
"Don't worry, Luke, they are here too. " after a pause Irene talked again looking out of the narrow window before her, "This Temple is enormous but I found out that we can use, by now it's obvious, only four room...but now you have to sleep, don't think about your apprentices, they are sleeping now. Lukas and I can hold it easily..." smiling, Irene picked up his cold hand and recovered it under the cover. Luke nodded lightly and Irene caressed his forehead for a moment.
His eyes were closing, slowly but inexorably closing and Luke sighed deeply before he fell asleep. He couldn't remember what had happened after the bolt and the strange sensation of water nor what had iced him so much to make him shudder, though there had to be something...Luke couldn't sleep. His mind was working frenetically trying to find the answer. He had to remember something. The woman with the strange but beautiful dress and the smile similar to Leia's, the hooded man. They had to be somewhere in the Force and he was going to find them, or at least one of them...Breathing calmly, to make clear his mind, the Master visualize a warm and known place. Slowly a forest grew up around him. Dagobah. It was the most comfortable place he could think about for a meditation.
The Force was flowing in him, through him giving him expanded perceptions and clearer vision of the present and sometimes the future. This time however Luke wasn't interested in future or present, he wanted to see the past. A past he had lost or hidden in a corner of his brain and he wanted it to link with the event he had been involved no more than a some hours before, for what he could remember. The woman was the easier way to follow, he hadn't seen nothing of the other presence but a tall figure dressed in the Sith Lord outfit -he thought so because of the hood and the length of the clothes and especially for the extraordinary resemblance with Palpatine's cloak- his voice didn't sound known to him while the woman's voice had a familiar timbre. The dress. He had seen it somewhere...didn't he? Before him emerged a little greenish figure. Luke smiled hopefully seeing his old Jedi Master.
"Following the right path you are..." commented the little being looking up at the Jedi.
"I hope so Master Yoda...but why I know the woman I saw?" he needed a hint, he desperately needed one!
"Is not this a question I can satisfy..." was the laconic answer he received.
"You can't or you don't want?!" asked a little upset Luke looking down at the Master standing on the tiptoes.
"Young you are but find you can the way..." again the calm voice came to drive him crazy!
"Give me a trace!" begged Luke kneeling before Yoda but the Master was unmovable.
"Found you the trace...the woman the trace is...what follows you have to want to discover..."
"I had known before the woman with the red dress but...I don't know, I remembered her taller and bigger...Is it possible?"
"Yes it is possible...go on..." it was like the memories were playing with him a distressing hide-and-seek. Luke felt all the weight of the effort he had done to discover what looked like only the door of a hidden palace. Yoda looked at him and bent the head on the left side.
"Must repose you, Luke, go on later you can." Slowly Dagobah disappeared and Luke fell really asleep this time, too confused to resist the weariness.
Leaving Could City was more difficult than he could think. Luke had started the preparation for the journey four hours before and now he had still more than a half of the stuff still to place. Leia Han and Chewie had arrived at the docking bay where the Star Horse was docked and were helping him and Irene embarking their stuff: Luke was inside the hold with Han and a sad Chewie, who yelped at every new container. Leia and Irene and Yana, Leia's personal secretary, were helping the children finding a comfortable seat in the main space of the plate-shaped starship. A smile ran across Leia's lips when she saw the cure the apprentices had placing their dark cloak behind them. Irene instead seemed to be born with her outfit for the fluidity and the liberty of her movements even if she was wearing the heavy Jedi cloak. Lando was with the women, talking with the older children. He had seen Yavin4 during an explorative mission and he had hated the planet at first sight, too much plants and trees! The Red Angels weren't there but Luke's eyes were still taking a look from time to time at the street, he wanted to salute them...
"Ehi kid! What's inside this container! Rocks?" Han's shout took him back to the hold of the ship.
"Eh? Oh...only the necessary tools to construct a lightsaber..." answered the young man after a look at the color of the strips on the side of the container.
"You need so much things to those little cylinders?" asked surprised the man, the head barely visible behind the gray container.
"Yes and now, please...put it there, in that corner, and fasten it tight, I don't want to have to pick up its contents all around after we arrive..."
"At your service, Master!" answered sarcastically the Corellian.
"Luke!" called Irene from the upper part of the ship and the man exited the hold and climbed up the boarding ramp.
"Yes?" asked when he met the women in the corridor.
"We're done up here. Do you need any help down there?"
"No...we can hold it..." his eyes were of a strange tonality of blue, they were like a storming sky and Leia and Irene knew the reason of it. Before he came back to the hold, Luke took another not too hoping look at the street. Leia touched his arm and reassured him.
"Don't worry Luke, they'll arrive..." whispered softly and Luke sighed, not too convinced.
"I hope so." Whispered leaving his sister.
With his great surprise Han and Chewie had placed all the containers in the hold and he hadn't to do anything.
"We've finished..." announced Han but immediately something clouded the eyes of the smuggler. Chewie yelped his sadness. They had finished and now Luke could go. But they didn't want to let him go, not so soon!
Luke felt their emotions and sighed, then reached his friends. Han was avoiding his eyes, looking down not to make him look in them, but he couldn't hide something to a Jedi and Luke tried to comfort him. He grabbed his shoulder and talked slowly and softly, smiling.
"Don't do that, Han. I won't be so far..."
"I know this but..." there was a moment of painful silence then Han -he didn't want to leave Luke with a sad memory of him- spoke with his usual arrogance "Who will I call kid?! That hirsute brown mountain is not so kid-like!" Luke smiled at the try of his friend to paint in less dramatic colors the situation and patted on his shoulders. The time had come and he had to leave.
Irene had arrived with Leia and Yana and now they were waiting the men and Chewie, the last one who left the hold of the ship. When the shutter closed, came the difficult time of the good-byes.
"Be careful Luke...Yavin4 is a dangerous planet." Recommended the woman, ready to cry. Luke caressed her face and made her rise her eyes to look at him.
"You haven't to worry Leia, I'll be fine on Yavin4...okay? Now c'mon do me a smile, I don't want to leave you crying..." the woman smiled but immediately she hugged Luke for a long time, she didn't want to let him go, but she knew she had to and her arms opened, letting Luke salute Han and Chewie.
"Well kid...What can I say? Go and do your best..." said Han, patting on his shoulder with his usually captivating smile, and Luke nodded.
"I'll do..." the silence came between them They didn't want to cry -even Luke was hardly swallowing the tears- and the men hugged no to say something else. That hug would be enough. Chewie hugged the two men and Luke spat fur of brown hair, laughing.
"Chewie you're the only one who'll leave me a tangible memory!"
The Wookiee tried to beg the pardon of his friend but Luke patted on his shoulder.
"Don't worry! I was joking!"
Lando was behind the tall Wookiee, clearly uneasy. Luke looked at him and the man tried to smile. The Jedi reached him and touched his shoulder.
"Ehi, I count on you buddy...make Leia do exactly as the doctor will order her, okay? Han loves her too much to hold it rightly, help him."
The Baron nodded and Luke smiled.
"I'll miss you Luke!" said then Lando embracing him. Irene met Luke's eyes and nodded lightly. The man moved backward.
The old friends probably wanted to go on talking but Luke and Irene had to leave and they saluted for the last time their friends. Irene went on waving her hand in the air even while the hatch of the ship was closing.
Irene then reached Luke, who had already started the taking off procedures, the engines were starting to scream, taking her seat in the co-pilot seat.
"Here Star Horse, can you here me Cloud City?" asked Luke.
"Here Could City, yes we're hearing you." Answered an officer. Luke listened to him looking outside.
"We're leaving, Could City." Announced distractedly.
"Yes you're clear to take off. Good-bye Star Horse. Cloud City out." Luke looked at Irene who was finishing to prepare the repulsion engine; the woman nodded and Luke hit the last switch. The ship trembled for a moment then took off.
Irene took a look down where Leia was still saluting her and smiled.
"I'll miss them..." said then the woman, eyeing the control panel of the engines.
"I'll miss them too..." added Luke, sighing. *And I'll miss the Red Angels...*
Bespin was becoming a glowing ball in the darkness when someone called him on a military channel.
"Red four standing by, Boss. We're on your wings until you reach your destination."
"Here Luke...thank you Rorje but..."
"Boss keep quiet for one time!" Furana's accent was unmistakable!
"Red Seven standing by, we'll come with you Luke and you'll have to shoot us down if you want us to stop." Helen's voice had never been more convinced.
"Red two standing by. And it won't be so easy Luk'e!" added Phil'ke with his characteristic way in pronouncing the Master's name.
"Okay, you won. Prepare for the jump at light-speed...Red Angels!" Irene saw her Master happy again in that painful day and smiled with him. The woman dialed the co-ordinates for Yavin4 and nodded.
"We can go Luke."
"Count down to light-speed...five...four...three...two...one...ignition!" the ships disappeared silently one by one.
The cockpit was becoming too little for him. Irene's movements were fluid and her hands touched him too frequently. He still didn't know what's happening between them, he only knew he couldn't stay with her anymore. The journey to Yavin4 was long and Luke felt the need to see and check his apprentices.
"I'm seeing how the apprentices are, okay?" said rising from the pilot seat.
Irene nodded, she was absorbed by the result of a check on the hyperdrive system.
Luke reached the corridor near the room where the apprentices were but something wasn't right, all was too silence. Preoccupied for the condition of the little guys, he accelerated and rushed into the room, holding his breath. The children were under his responsibility and he wouldn't have had the courage to look at his own face if something had happened to them. Eleven pairs of surprised eyes looked at him.
"Something wrong Master?" asked Lukas. Luke shook his head, a smile ran across his lips. They were all safe, they were only...silent.
"No, nothing. How are you?"
"Fine thanks. Your sister saved my life..." Luke nodded. He took a look around to check the others. Lukas rose from his seat and reached the Master.
"Don't worry Master. We are all fine here." Reassured the young blond fellow with a bold smile.
"I was forgetting you're a skilled mind reader...I was really preoccupied. I thought children shout and yell and run around..."
"Most of them had passed that phase. The others...well...you've apprentices of ten years old, they are silent and shy, and they're not babies...don't expect little savages! They are dangerous only when they have a leader and, for what I've heard, the leaders have been deposed after a...problem with that beautiful being that is in the cockpit... " something in the last phrase made Luke felt somehow strange, a piercing impression of uneasiness passed trough him, and a shadow passed on his face but he didn't want to have to give an explanation of it -even because he didn't have one- and avoided a probably question talking.
"You know well the argument..."
"I'm the oldest of twelve sons...I have done some experience..."
"I'll count on you then!" said patting on his shoulder, forcing himself to smile.
"I promise sir never to disappoint." Lukas did a military salute and Luke answered promptly. He didn't want to come back to the cockpit and sat down near Toman, Lukas followed him.
"Ehi, Toman, how are you?" asked moving forward to get nearer him. Toman looked at him before he answered and for a moment his reddish-brown eyes became of an ardent red. As rapid as they had turned blue, Toman's eyes turned again, regaining their color. His mouth moved but Luke was focused on his eyes, perplexed. He could read his mind, it was simple but what he found surprised him. *It's impossible! He can't be able to build up a wall between his mind and another Jedi!* Toman had followed his thought because his eyes narrowed and he smiled, conceited for his surprise.
Lukas wasn't following them, he was speaking to Valene, trying to impress the gentle girl with an absurd story of monsters. Valene was sixteen years old but Lukas was convinced he could fascinate her like a baby.
"This monster comes close to me, ready to eat me for lunch..."
The girl silenced him with a sharp comment. "It's a pity it hadn't done it!" and got up reaching Derek, her twin brother, on the other side of the room.
Dakana was having a wonderful speech with Grrakkj. They talked using the Force. But something suddenly kidnapped the blue skinned girl. Grrakkj tried to call her but an adult voice calmed him.
*Don't worry Grrakkj, keep quiet and help me...*
**Who are you?**
*My name is...*the voice stopped suddenly. Grrakkj saw Dakana get up and reach Toman. Luke was near him, still confused, but something inside him cleared his mind with the power of a thunder. The man looked up at Dakana, in her eyes Luke saw a strange light. The boy near Luke rose and faced Dakana. Silently they looked into each other's eyes. The atmosphere was full of electricity.
Dakana rose her right hand and pointed at Toman who drew a step back, smiling evilly. Luke focused on Toman's mind but the barrier pushed him back. Starting a little, the Master tried again and again till he made a hole in the wall and entered. A storm was raging and Luke felt a cold wind try to reject his presence.
*I won't go away! Who are you??* The wind's voice answered him.
*You can't hide yourself forever!* This time something in the rain moved toward him. Luke clenched his hands and looked at the figure that was advancing.
Suddenly a third presence occupied Toman's mind. For a moment Luke saw Dakana fall unconscious on the metallic floor and Grrakkj call Irene, while the other apprentices were murmuring. Hujan was shaking his head, the pony tail was quivering with fear.
The third presence was a thin woman with a kind of elaborated crown on the head and a strange red dress Luke had never seen before. The woman looked at him with a smile. She resembled Leia, they had the same way of half closing the eyes when they smiled.
*This mind is becoming too little for all of us...*commented the dark figure before Luke and the woman.
*Why don't you go away then?!*
*I've come first...queen...*
...the woman was a queen...
Luke tried to find something, anything, that could link him to the woman, because he felt she had to have a place in his mind...in his past.
*But you haven't the right for being here...leave the boy! Leave this time!*
*Are you trying again to push me away? Have I to remind you what happened the last time we met? This boy and the girl you have used barely survived...*
*This time it won't happen...I...*the woman silenced and looked at Luke. The man would have drawn a step back but he drew a step forward. Now he was near the woman. *We'll destroy you...*
*You can't destroy a being that is one with the Force...*
*You're one with the Dark Side...* specified the woman and the dark figure smiled, Luke had seen that smile two minutes before on Toman's face...it was terrifying.
*It's however the Force...There no place where you can destroy me...no one place!* the dark figure laughed and his voice echoed as if they were in a valley surrounded by high mountains.
*We'll do it here then...*
*Your Master hadn't taught you well...I don't want to repeat myself queen...*
*We'll see it...* a moment before her hand was empty and was clenching the air, the moment after the woman was menacing the dark hooded figure grabbing a long pole with a sharp blade on each end.
The dark figure drew a step back and talked.
*I'm tired...We'll meet again queen...don't worry...* The presence disappeared, taking with him the rain. The woman made the pole disappear and she was closing her eyes, Luke stopped her before she disappeared.
*I'll go now but I'll come back, don't worry...Luke...* The thin woman pronounced his name so tenderly that Luke tried to make her stay but she was becoming as inconsistent as the fog and disappeared.
After she had disappeared, a blinding bolt shook violently the air and the land around and below him and all became dull and foggy. Luke felt his body like a jelly, something was rocking him, as if he had been in a deep pool of cold water...as if he had been made of water...
"Master...Oh Thank the Maker you're alive!" Irene's voice pierced through his ears and Luke silenced her with an uncontrolled move of distress of his pale and cold hand. His eyes were two narrow lines in the middle of a white surface. The blond hair was an unformed amount of deep yellow wires. He tried to open his eyes but the light hit them as if it had been a blade and Luke closed them immediately.
"Where's Toman? Where's Dakana? We're we?" asked painfully moving blindly in what seemed to be a kind of bed. Something warm and relaxing was covering his shuddering body. Irene moved toward him -Luke didn't know if the person near him was still Irene but an unmistakable perfume flew over him- and he became red till the root of the hair. Irene notified the sudden change of color of his distressed face and checked the conditions of the semiconscious Master, her hands were dancing frantically upon Luke. When he finally decided that he must open his eyes the piercing light was attenuated by a gentle shadow. Before him there was Irene, smiling and relieved. Luke tried to smile and Irene touched his right hand, abandoned on the side of the covered bed, out of the warm wool cover.
"You've made us really preoccupied..." her voice was a warm caress for his ears now.
"Where are Dakana and Toman?" asked with a preoccupied voice Luke, trying to see behind Irene.
"Don't worry, Luke, they are here too. " after a pause Irene talked again looking out of the narrow window before her, "This Temple is enormous but I found out that we can use, by now it's obvious, only four room...but now you have to sleep, don't think about your apprentices, they are sleeping now. Lukas and I can hold it easily..." smiling, Irene picked up his cold hand and recovered it under the cover. Luke nodded lightly and Irene caressed his forehead for a moment.
His eyes were closing, slowly but inexorably closing and Luke sighed deeply before he fell asleep. He couldn't remember what had happened after the bolt and the strange sensation of water nor what had iced him so much to make him shudder, though there had to be something...Luke couldn't sleep. His mind was working frenetically trying to find the answer. He had to remember something. The woman with the strange but beautiful dress and the smile similar to Leia's, the hooded man. They had to be somewhere in the Force and he was going to find them, or at least one of them...Breathing calmly, to make clear his mind, the Master visualize a warm and known place. Slowly a forest grew up around him. Dagobah. It was the most comfortable place he could think about for a meditation.
The Force was flowing in him, through him giving him expanded perceptions and clearer vision of the present and sometimes the future. This time however Luke wasn't interested in future or present, he wanted to see the past. A past he had lost or hidden in a corner of his brain and he wanted it to link with the event he had been involved no more than a some hours before, for what he could remember. The woman was the easier way to follow, he hadn't seen nothing of the other presence but a tall figure dressed in the Sith Lord outfit -he thought so because of the hood and the length of the clothes and especially for the extraordinary resemblance with Palpatine's cloak- his voice didn't sound known to him while the woman's voice had a familiar timbre. The dress. He had seen it somewhere...didn't he? Before him emerged a little greenish figure. Luke smiled hopefully seeing his old Jedi Master.
"Following the right path you are..." commented the little being looking up at the Jedi.
"I hope so Master Yoda...but why I know the woman I saw?" he needed a hint, he desperately needed one!
"Is not this a question I can satisfy..." was the laconic answer he received.
"You can't or you don't want?!" asked a little upset Luke looking down at the Master standing on the tiptoes.
"Young you are but find you can the way..." again the calm voice came to drive him crazy!
"Give me a trace!" begged Luke kneeling before Yoda but the Master was unmovable.
"Found you the trace...the woman the trace is...what follows you have to want to discover..."
"I had known before the woman with the red dress but...I don't know, I remembered her taller and bigger...Is it possible?"
"Yes it is possible...go on..." it was like the memories were playing with him a distressing hide-and-seek. Luke felt all the weight of the effort he had done to discover what looked like only the door of a hidden palace. Yoda looked at him and bent the head on the left side.
"Must repose you, Luke, go on later you can." Slowly Dagobah disappeared and Luke fell really asleep this time, too confused to resist the weariness.