Chapter 5
A pair of starfighters – a battle-scarred X-wing and a glossy red N-1 – glided serenely across the blackness of space. Light years away from the rest of the Rebel fleet, Luke and Vader traveled silently toward an obscure world, toward the next great journey of their lives. Neither one of them spoke. Several times Luke had tried to initiate conversation, but each time he'd found himself gagged with nervous anticipation.
At last Vader broke the silence for him. "Luke?"
"Mm-hm?"
"If Yoda refuses to train me… what then?"
Luke pondered that a moment. "Then," he replied, "I suppose you go back to the rendezvous and lead the Rogues."
"That's very comforting, Luke," Vader told him sarcastically.
"I'm sorry I don't have a better answer, Darth, but I can't think of anything else. And don't be such a pessimist. Obi-wan wouldn't have sent us to Yoda if Yoda didn't want to train us."
"True." A pause. "Forgive me. I'm just a bit anxious, I suppose."
"Yeah. So am I."
"I hope Han and Chewie made it out of Echo Base okay."
"Yeah. Me too. And Leia."
Vader chuckled. "Wouldn't it be something if they ended up on the same transport?"
"Ooooooh!" groaned Luke. "The poodoo would hit the fan!"
Artoo warbled from the X-wing's droid socket, and his reply scrolled across Luke's readout screen.
"I'm sure Threepio's perfectly all right," Luke assured him.
"Not in his mind, though," Vader replied with a laugh. "I still can't believe that droid ended up in the base."
Luke nodded. It had quite surprised him to know that Vader had been somehow connected with Threepio, but he was okay with it now. The droid had no control over who his maker was.
"That reminds me," Vader added. "I get Artoo on the ride back."
"Okay, deal," Luke chuckled. "I'll take the rust bucket."
"Hey, Artoo's the best astromech in the Rebellion," Vader retorted. "Rusty up here's about as useful as a barrel of reactor waste."
Vader's onboard R4 unit gave a low drone, either too lazy to fire off a retort or too addled to understand the insult.
At last the pale green light of Dagobah filled their fighter's cockpits. Luke couldn't help giving a triumphant whoop as they swooped toward the planet's atmosphere.
"No cities or technology readings," Vader told him.
"Massive life-form readings though," Luke replied. "There's something down there…"
A swirl of the Force brushed their minds at that moment. Each of them flinched involuntarily at the alien contact, then relaxed as it withdrew, obviously satisfied with what it found.
"What was that?" Luke wondered.
"My guess would be Yoda," Vader replied. "Remember, the Empire exterminated the Jedi and hunts them still. I'm sure he's learned to be cautious."
Their fighters were soon engulfed in a gray miasma of mist. Luke could see nothing through the fog. The excessive moisture in the air rendered his sensors useless. Trusting his instincts, he continued his descent.
Tree limbs rattled against his fighter's hull. The ship bucked, thudded over something particularly large, and squelched to a very messy and wet landing. Water tinted a sludgy green-brown with algae, sediment, and stars-knew-what-else sprayed over his canopy.
Artoo gave a very vocal, very explicit description of his opinion of this place.
"Can't argue with you," Luke replied, opening his X-wing's canopy.
What he saw didn't exactly cheer him. His X-wing lay jammed at a very awkward angle in the muck of a swamp that stretched almost as far as he could see – which, granted, wasn't very far due to the trees crowded around him like gawking spectators and the clumps of mist floating over the water. Patches of muddy soil rose slightly above the bog to make the only dry land visible. A persistent drone of insects and chattering animals overlaid any other sound, and the smell of rotting vegetation and fresh rain filled the damp air.
A riot of bird cries burst over his head, and he looked up to see the Desert Angel blunder through the treetops. It smashed partway through a gap between two giant moss-garlanded trees and stuck there. The racket of Vader's "landing" was enough to silence most animal noise for the time being.
"Vader!" Luke shouted.
"I'm fine," Vader replied, sliding open the Angel's canopy. "Somehow I get the feeling this isn't the first time I've parked in a tree.
Luke broke into a grin. "I found your TIE in a tree back at Yavin, actually."
"Hmm. Must be an omen." He dropped down from the fighter and promptly sank up to his knees in the scum-crusted mud. "Every time I get tree-bound, something monumental happens to me."
"Hopefully it's a good omen."
Vader chuckled. "We could use all the good omens we can get."
Artoo wrangled his way out of the X-wing and promptly fell into the water. Luke was about to leap in after the droid when a photoreceptor popped above the surface like a periscope.
"You be more careful," Luke admonished him.
"He just wants to explore," Vader replied, sympathetic toward Artoo. "Wish I could say the same about Rusty. He shut down the minute I turned off the engine."
"I'm glad Rusty's not the adventurous type," Luke countered. "He wouldn't have survived falling out of your ship. And I have to have him on the trip back."
Vader bent down and set to digging his legs out of the mud. Artoo began to wheel about under the water, tootling merrily. Luke jumped down from the X-wing and landed on a slimy but solid-looking patch of earth.
A patch of earth that lurched under his feet and slithered away, throwing him into the water.
"Luke!" exclaimed Vader.
His head broke the surface, and he struggled to get to his feet, but froze when a scaly, sinuous body brushed past him. The beast's long plated back emerged, glistening dark green and crisscrossed with gray scars. A set of thin but powerful jaws opened with a wet hiss, revealing glistening needle-like teeth as long as his outstretched hand.
As the monster lunged at him, he kicked its belly. It gave a gurgling whine and veered away, only to return for another attempt.
The water near Luke's feet boiled and steamed as a blaster bolt plunged into its depths. Luke yelped and scrambled backward. Vader's second shot, thankfully, went true, striking the creature's back. It shrieked painfully and dove, vanishing into the murky water.
Luke managed to claw his way to the dry island where Vader stood, and his friend hauled him onto the ground. Neither of them had any desire to enter the water with a wounded, irritated, hungry whatever-it-was at large.
"Haven't been here ten minutes and we've already angered the natives," Luke noted.
"It's not the natives I'm particularly worried about," Vader replied. "It's finding Yoda. He could be hiding anywhere on this world."
"It shouldn't be too hard," said Luke, shaking water out of his blaster. "How many Jedi could be on this mudball?"
Vader looked over Luke's shoulder. "Uh-oh."
"What?"
"I think I just found Yoda."
Luke turned – and groaned.
On a rise of dry ground behind Luke's sunken X-wing stood a tiny mud-and-wood hut, smoke curling from a makeshift chimney and a welcoming orange light glowing in its windows and doorway. A large section of its roof had been ripped away – and that corresponding section lay in the slime near the X-wing's starboard S-foil.
"So that's what I hit," he moaned.
"Maybe we can fix it before he gets back," Vader replied.
"Stang, that house is so small!" Luke exclaimed. "Is Yoda a Jawa Jedi or something?"
"Size matters not," a gravelly voice warbled behind them.
They whirled.
The speaker looked up at them with a critical eye, leaning upon a gimer-stick cane and carrying a leather sack of herbs and roots over one shoulder. Like Obi-wan, he was garbed in worn tan robes that left only his head and hands exposed. Unlike Obi-wan, the crown of his head just barely came level with Vader's knees, and his skin was wrinkled and a pale green. His hands were clawed and four-fingered, and a wide oval face with rather squashed features was framed by a pair of enormous triangular ears. A faint halo of wispy white hair crowned his domed head, and deep green eyes gazed up at them, empty of any readable expression.
"I know you," Vader said quietly.
Amusement flickered in the being's eyes. "Ah, forgot me you have not, then."
"You're Yoda, I assume?" Luke asked.
"Dangerous it can be to assume, young Skywalker," the tiny alien remarked. "Like assuming a hungry dragonsnake dry land is."
Luke winced. He'd seen that?
"Or assuming what one is told his past is the truth is," he went on, gazing at Vader now.
"I don't understand," Vader replied softly, and Luke was sure he wasn't simply referring to Yoda's odd inverted way of expressing himself.
Yoda shook his head. "Come." He hobbled, not in the direction of his damaged hut, but deeper into the swamps. Puzzled, they followed.
Apparently Yoda had been anticipating their arrival for some time. A wide clearing, large enough to park the Falcon in with room to spare, had been made in the swamp by clearing away trees and undergrowth. Dry land that filled the clearing had been formed by packing earth and stones together into an artificial island. Stones, wooden poles, crates, and other paraphernalia had been stacked neatly at one end of the meadow, while a dozen training remotes and four simple lightsabers sat on a makeshift rack at the other. Lines had been drawn on the ground to mark different training and fencing arenas.
Vader gave a low whistle. "You're certainly well-prepared."
"Indeed." Yoda lifted a hand and pointed at them. "But prepared are you for the training?"
"Of course!" Luke replied. "We're ready!"
Yoda gave him that critical look again. "So certain are you? When exposed to the dark side you both have been? Remember the wampa on Hoth, Vader? And Luke, remember Yavin, when nearly killed Vader in your anger you did?"
Luke and Vader exchanged bewildered looks.
Yoda stared into the sky, where the clouds had cleared just enough to reveal a scattering of bright stars. His countenance was suddenly so sad, so wistful, that Luke could finally appreciate that this… man was a Jedi, a member of a now-despised order. And he'd had friends in that order, comrades, teachers and students, a home and a cause to fight for.
"Eight hundred years have I trained Jedi," Yoda went on quietly, making Luke's eyes widen in awe. "Traveled and seen much I have. Watched my Padawan turn to the dark side I did. Witnessed the bloody beginning of the Clone Wars I did. Watched I did as decay and fall the Republic did. Watched I did as fall and betray the Order a young, reckless Jedi Knight did." Vader cringed, but thankfully Yoda said no more on that subject. "Gone are my apprentices and their apprentices. Gone is the Jedi Temple that for hundreds of years stood on Corusant. Gone is our Order, our fire in the universe." His head lowered as he silently grieved. "The last of the Jedi I am."
Luke stepped forward. "That's why we're here, Yoda. We're here to give the Order a second chance at life. We want to be Jedi."
Yoda turned back to Luke.
"A Jedi of the most serious mind must be. To put aside his personal desires he must learn. Focused he must be, dedicated, calm." He suddenly lifted his cane and whacked Luke's shin with it, making him leap back. "Long time have I watched you two. Always are your minds on the horizon and not on where you are, on what you are doing!"
Luke winced at the pain in his legs. The last thing he had expected in coming to Dagobah was a dressing down by a Jedi Master he could have picked up one-handed.
"We aren't perfect, Master Yoda," Vader replied. "But we are willing to learn and change."
Yoda made a high snort of sound somewhere between a sigh and a laugh. "Much more than the will is needed," he replied, "but a start it is. Trained you both will be." He gave Luke an unexpected smile. "Like your mother you are, Skywalker."
Luke's jaw dropped. "You knew my mother?"
"Nine hundred years old I am," he replied. "Knew many of your forefathers I did." He nodded back in the direction of his hut. "Much to learn the two of you have. Get started we had better."
"Thank you, Master Yoda," Vader told him gratefully.
"First things first," Yoda replied. "Fix the hole in my roof you will. Then eat we shall. Good food. Come now, Padawans."
--------
Kain and the Emperor watched impassively as two stormtroopers dragged away the corpse of the detention block officer. The idiot had allowed Forenze to escape. Though she'd been recaptured and detained in a more secure location, they couldn't allow a similar mistake to be made again.
"The Rebel put two men in the bacta tanks before they subdued her," Kain snarled.
"That's why you never want to cross a medic, my apprentice," Palpatine replied with an amused smile. "She knows exactly where to hit you to do the most damage."
Kain nodded. Forenze was certainly proof of that.
"Quite providential of you to come across her," he went on. "She knows Vader, you say?"
"She is quite close to him," Kain replied. "And he to her."
"The Skywalkers' weaknesses are in their friends. They would go so far as to die to protect them." He shook his head as if he couldn't comprehend this fact. "And they are becoming more attuned to the Force. It will not be long before they are able to sense their friends' emotions even across the depths of space."
Kain smiled. "I think I understand the plan, master. Shall I begin on the doctor?"
"No. Acquire the Falcon first. We'll need the princess and the smugglers." He grinned in sadistic anticipation. "Once the bait is ready, we'll begin."
-------
Days passed.
As the Rebel fleet regrouped and resupplied itself near Chandrila, as the Millennium Falcon engaged in a madcap flight with the Executor in fevered pursuit, as wars and uprisings raged throughout the known galaxy, on a distant swamp world a quieter but far more pivotal battle against evil was being waged as two Padawans took their first steps into a larger world.
Vader found much of the training oddly familiar, as if he'd received these lessons before and only needed a reminder to recall them fully. It made sense, though. He'd been a Jedi once; he'd known all this at one time.
He somersaulted over a fallen tree, landing on a scrabble of boulders. He jogged forward and grabbed a thick branch, pulling himself into a tree. His chest heaved as his mask worked overtime to compensate for the exertion. Yoda was a strict teacher, but he was by no means cruel, and he'd carefully planned these exercises with Vader's handicap in mind.
Luke's footsteps squelched through a damp area nearby. As if to make up for not having a physical weakness, Luke usually did his morning routines with Yoda strapped to his back. In Vader's mind, that made the two of them fairly equal.
He ran along the length of the branch, sprang from its edge, flipped through the air… and landed in a not-so-graceful heap in the mud.
"Smooth landing."
Vader lifted his head from the soft ground and glared at Luke. "Beautiful timing."
Yoda laughed. "Out of the mud, Vader. No more exercises today."
Luke lowered Yoda to the ground and bent to help Vader to his feet. "You okay?"
"Bruised pride, but nothing else," he replied.
They made their way back to the training ground, where the usual array of items had been laid out for the levitation exercises. Luke and Vader spent the better part of two hours following Yoda's instructions, learning to direct the flow of the Force and manipulate the objects in the requested manner. This was actually one of the simpler lessons, though the one with the most surprises as well.
Once they were sure Luke would receive no lasting damage from the rock to his head, they moved on to fencing. Luke used his father's saber, while Vader was stuck with a white-bladed training saber that had obviously seen better days. Yoda stood by, coaching the two of them and occasionally halting the mock fight to correct a defensive stance or demonstrate a new drill with his own weapon.
The sheer volume of information Yoda expected them to absorb was staggering. Levitation, battle skills, martial arts, suggestion, memory alteration, telepathy, meditation in the living and unifying Forces… and those were merely the Force aspects of their training. A competent Jedi also knew several languages, basic first aid, galactic politics, the history and philosophy of the Jedi, military leadership, negotiation, arbitration, and much more. Vader wasn't about to complain, but the task of becoming a Knight seemed so daunting at times!
It was full dark by the time Yoda declared the day done. He retreated to his hut while Luke took the opportunity to clean off the day's grime in a deep pool that Yoda had cleared as free of animal life. Vader, meanwhile, set to work cleaning the X-wing, which Yoda had extracted from the swamp in an impressive display of Force-wielding during one of their levitation lessons.
"You're right, Luke," Vader teased, extracting a snake from the engine. "You really used to be a moisture farmer."
"Why do you say that?" asked Luke, standing waist-deep in the water.
"You have the worst farmer's tan I've ever seen."
Luke glared back. "You try living on a double-sunned world and seeing if you don't come back baked."
"Baked or half-baked?" Vader retorted jokingly.
Luke scooped a fistful of sludge from the bottom of the pool and flung it at him.
"Hey!" he shouted, retorting by flinging the snake into the pool near Luke.
Luke responded by falling backward into the water as he slipped trying to retreat from the reptile.
"Enjoying yourselves?" asked Yoda, leaving his house at that moment and wearing an amused smile.
"Just a diplomatic discussion, Master Yoda," Luke replied, surfacing with a grin.
Yoda rolled his eyes in an exaggerated show of exasperation. "Promises me two mature men Obi-wan does and crashes on my planet what does? Two of the biggest younglings I've ever seen."
Everyone laughed a moment.
"Have something for Vader I do," Yoda went on. "Replace that old training saber it will."
Vader pulled the weapon from his belt and handed it to Yoda. "Thank you, Master. I'm not sure this one will stand up to another fight."
"Too bad you don't have your old saber," Luke replied. "I think the Rebellion still has it locked up somewhere."
"And good riddance," Vader replied vehemently. "I won't touch that Sith weapon ever again."
An expression Vader couldn't read crossed Yoda's face. But it passed quickly as he extended the new weapon toward him. He accepted it and ignited it, admiring the brilliant green blade.
"It's beautiful," he breathed.
"Once belonged to a Jedi Knight named Qui-gon Jinn it did," Yoda explained. "A cunning warrior he was. Compassionate he was, always seeking the good in everyone he met, the pure core." He smiled fondly. "A bit of a renegade he was, but never without due cause. Had great faith in you he did."
Vader stared at the saber, suddenly flooded with guilt. This man had placed his trust in him… and he had broken it. How had Qui-gon reacted when he'd learned of Vader's fall to darkness?
"I can't take this," he protested.
"Keep it," Yoda ordered. "Wanted you to have it he did."
Vader extinguished the weapon. "I wish I could remember him."
"Someday you will," Yoda said kindly. "But for now, honor the man who once wielded that weapon by using it well." He nodded at Luke. "Sleep you both should. Need your strength for the morning you will."
"Good night, Master," Luke bid him.
"May the Force be with you," Vader added.
A pair of starfighters – a battle-scarred X-wing and a glossy red N-1 – glided serenely across the blackness of space. Light years away from the rest of the Rebel fleet, Luke and Vader traveled silently toward an obscure world, toward the next great journey of their lives. Neither one of them spoke. Several times Luke had tried to initiate conversation, but each time he'd found himself gagged with nervous anticipation.
At last Vader broke the silence for him. "Luke?"
"Mm-hm?"
"If Yoda refuses to train me… what then?"
Luke pondered that a moment. "Then," he replied, "I suppose you go back to the rendezvous and lead the Rogues."
"That's very comforting, Luke," Vader told him sarcastically.
"I'm sorry I don't have a better answer, Darth, but I can't think of anything else. And don't be such a pessimist. Obi-wan wouldn't have sent us to Yoda if Yoda didn't want to train us."
"True." A pause. "Forgive me. I'm just a bit anxious, I suppose."
"Yeah. So am I."
"I hope Han and Chewie made it out of Echo Base okay."
"Yeah. Me too. And Leia."
Vader chuckled. "Wouldn't it be something if they ended up on the same transport?"
"Ooooooh!" groaned Luke. "The poodoo would hit the fan!"
Artoo warbled from the X-wing's droid socket, and his reply scrolled across Luke's readout screen.
"I'm sure Threepio's perfectly all right," Luke assured him.
"Not in his mind, though," Vader replied with a laugh. "I still can't believe that droid ended up in the base."
Luke nodded. It had quite surprised him to know that Vader had been somehow connected with Threepio, but he was okay with it now. The droid had no control over who his maker was.
"That reminds me," Vader added. "I get Artoo on the ride back."
"Okay, deal," Luke chuckled. "I'll take the rust bucket."
"Hey, Artoo's the best astromech in the Rebellion," Vader retorted. "Rusty up here's about as useful as a barrel of reactor waste."
Vader's onboard R4 unit gave a low drone, either too lazy to fire off a retort or too addled to understand the insult.
At last the pale green light of Dagobah filled their fighter's cockpits. Luke couldn't help giving a triumphant whoop as they swooped toward the planet's atmosphere.
"No cities or technology readings," Vader told him.
"Massive life-form readings though," Luke replied. "There's something down there…"
A swirl of the Force brushed their minds at that moment. Each of them flinched involuntarily at the alien contact, then relaxed as it withdrew, obviously satisfied with what it found.
"What was that?" Luke wondered.
"My guess would be Yoda," Vader replied. "Remember, the Empire exterminated the Jedi and hunts them still. I'm sure he's learned to be cautious."
Their fighters were soon engulfed in a gray miasma of mist. Luke could see nothing through the fog. The excessive moisture in the air rendered his sensors useless. Trusting his instincts, he continued his descent.
Tree limbs rattled against his fighter's hull. The ship bucked, thudded over something particularly large, and squelched to a very messy and wet landing. Water tinted a sludgy green-brown with algae, sediment, and stars-knew-what-else sprayed over his canopy.
Artoo gave a very vocal, very explicit description of his opinion of this place.
"Can't argue with you," Luke replied, opening his X-wing's canopy.
What he saw didn't exactly cheer him. His X-wing lay jammed at a very awkward angle in the muck of a swamp that stretched almost as far as he could see – which, granted, wasn't very far due to the trees crowded around him like gawking spectators and the clumps of mist floating over the water. Patches of muddy soil rose slightly above the bog to make the only dry land visible. A persistent drone of insects and chattering animals overlaid any other sound, and the smell of rotting vegetation and fresh rain filled the damp air.
A riot of bird cries burst over his head, and he looked up to see the Desert Angel blunder through the treetops. It smashed partway through a gap between two giant moss-garlanded trees and stuck there. The racket of Vader's "landing" was enough to silence most animal noise for the time being.
"Vader!" Luke shouted.
"I'm fine," Vader replied, sliding open the Angel's canopy. "Somehow I get the feeling this isn't the first time I've parked in a tree.
Luke broke into a grin. "I found your TIE in a tree back at Yavin, actually."
"Hmm. Must be an omen." He dropped down from the fighter and promptly sank up to his knees in the scum-crusted mud. "Every time I get tree-bound, something monumental happens to me."
"Hopefully it's a good omen."
Vader chuckled. "We could use all the good omens we can get."
Artoo wrangled his way out of the X-wing and promptly fell into the water. Luke was about to leap in after the droid when a photoreceptor popped above the surface like a periscope.
"You be more careful," Luke admonished him.
"He just wants to explore," Vader replied, sympathetic toward Artoo. "Wish I could say the same about Rusty. He shut down the minute I turned off the engine."
"I'm glad Rusty's not the adventurous type," Luke countered. "He wouldn't have survived falling out of your ship. And I have to have him on the trip back."
Vader bent down and set to digging his legs out of the mud. Artoo began to wheel about under the water, tootling merrily. Luke jumped down from the X-wing and landed on a slimy but solid-looking patch of earth.
A patch of earth that lurched under his feet and slithered away, throwing him into the water.
"Luke!" exclaimed Vader.
His head broke the surface, and he struggled to get to his feet, but froze when a scaly, sinuous body brushed past him. The beast's long plated back emerged, glistening dark green and crisscrossed with gray scars. A set of thin but powerful jaws opened with a wet hiss, revealing glistening needle-like teeth as long as his outstretched hand.
As the monster lunged at him, he kicked its belly. It gave a gurgling whine and veered away, only to return for another attempt.
The water near Luke's feet boiled and steamed as a blaster bolt plunged into its depths. Luke yelped and scrambled backward. Vader's second shot, thankfully, went true, striking the creature's back. It shrieked painfully and dove, vanishing into the murky water.
Luke managed to claw his way to the dry island where Vader stood, and his friend hauled him onto the ground. Neither of them had any desire to enter the water with a wounded, irritated, hungry whatever-it-was at large.
"Haven't been here ten minutes and we've already angered the natives," Luke noted.
"It's not the natives I'm particularly worried about," Vader replied. "It's finding Yoda. He could be hiding anywhere on this world."
"It shouldn't be too hard," said Luke, shaking water out of his blaster. "How many Jedi could be on this mudball?"
Vader looked over Luke's shoulder. "Uh-oh."
"What?"
"I think I just found Yoda."
Luke turned – and groaned.
On a rise of dry ground behind Luke's sunken X-wing stood a tiny mud-and-wood hut, smoke curling from a makeshift chimney and a welcoming orange light glowing in its windows and doorway. A large section of its roof had been ripped away – and that corresponding section lay in the slime near the X-wing's starboard S-foil.
"So that's what I hit," he moaned.
"Maybe we can fix it before he gets back," Vader replied.
"Stang, that house is so small!" Luke exclaimed. "Is Yoda a Jawa Jedi or something?"
"Size matters not," a gravelly voice warbled behind them.
They whirled.
The speaker looked up at them with a critical eye, leaning upon a gimer-stick cane and carrying a leather sack of herbs and roots over one shoulder. Like Obi-wan, he was garbed in worn tan robes that left only his head and hands exposed. Unlike Obi-wan, the crown of his head just barely came level with Vader's knees, and his skin was wrinkled and a pale green. His hands were clawed and four-fingered, and a wide oval face with rather squashed features was framed by a pair of enormous triangular ears. A faint halo of wispy white hair crowned his domed head, and deep green eyes gazed up at them, empty of any readable expression.
"I know you," Vader said quietly.
Amusement flickered in the being's eyes. "Ah, forgot me you have not, then."
"You're Yoda, I assume?" Luke asked.
"Dangerous it can be to assume, young Skywalker," the tiny alien remarked. "Like assuming a hungry dragonsnake dry land is."
Luke winced. He'd seen that?
"Or assuming what one is told his past is the truth is," he went on, gazing at Vader now.
"I don't understand," Vader replied softly, and Luke was sure he wasn't simply referring to Yoda's odd inverted way of expressing himself.
Yoda shook his head. "Come." He hobbled, not in the direction of his damaged hut, but deeper into the swamps. Puzzled, they followed.
Apparently Yoda had been anticipating their arrival for some time. A wide clearing, large enough to park the Falcon in with room to spare, had been made in the swamp by clearing away trees and undergrowth. Dry land that filled the clearing had been formed by packing earth and stones together into an artificial island. Stones, wooden poles, crates, and other paraphernalia had been stacked neatly at one end of the meadow, while a dozen training remotes and four simple lightsabers sat on a makeshift rack at the other. Lines had been drawn on the ground to mark different training and fencing arenas.
Vader gave a low whistle. "You're certainly well-prepared."
"Indeed." Yoda lifted a hand and pointed at them. "But prepared are you for the training?"
"Of course!" Luke replied. "We're ready!"
Yoda gave him that critical look again. "So certain are you? When exposed to the dark side you both have been? Remember the wampa on Hoth, Vader? And Luke, remember Yavin, when nearly killed Vader in your anger you did?"
Luke and Vader exchanged bewildered looks.
Yoda stared into the sky, where the clouds had cleared just enough to reveal a scattering of bright stars. His countenance was suddenly so sad, so wistful, that Luke could finally appreciate that this… man was a Jedi, a member of a now-despised order. And he'd had friends in that order, comrades, teachers and students, a home and a cause to fight for.
"Eight hundred years have I trained Jedi," Yoda went on quietly, making Luke's eyes widen in awe. "Traveled and seen much I have. Watched my Padawan turn to the dark side I did. Witnessed the bloody beginning of the Clone Wars I did. Watched I did as decay and fall the Republic did. Watched I did as fall and betray the Order a young, reckless Jedi Knight did." Vader cringed, but thankfully Yoda said no more on that subject. "Gone are my apprentices and their apprentices. Gone is the Jedi Temple that for hundreds of years stood on Corusant. Gone is our Order, our fire in the universe." His head lowered as he silently grieved. "The last of the Jedi I am."
Luke stepped forward. "That's why we're here, Yoda. We're here to give the Order a second chance at life. We want to be Jedi."
Yoda turned back to Luke.
"A Jedi of the most serious mind must be. To put aside his personal desires he must learn. Focused he must be, dedicated, calm." He suddenly lifted his cane and whacked Luke's shin with it, making him leap back. "Long time have I watched you two. Always are your minds on the horizon and not on where you are, on what you are doing!"
Luke winced at the pain in his legs. The last thing he had expected in coming to Dagobah was a dressing down by a Jedi Master he could have picked up one-handed.
"We aren't perfect, Master Yoda," Vader replied. "But we are willing to learn and change."
Yoda made a high snort of sound somewhere between a sigh and a laugh. "Much more than the will is needed," he replied, "but a start it is. Trained you both will be." He gave Luke an unexpected smile. "Like your mother you are, Skywalker."
Luke's jaw dropped. "You knew my mother?"
"Nine hundred years old I am," he replied. "Knew many of your forefathers I did." He nodded back in the direction of his hut. "Much to learn the two of you have. Get started we had better."
"Thank you, Master Yoda," Vader told him gratefully.
"First things first," Yoda replied. "Fix the hole in my roof you will. Then eat we shall. Good food. Come now, Padawans."
--------
Kain and the Emperor watched impassively as two stormtroopers dragged away the corpse of the detention block officer. The idiot had allowed Forenze to escape. Though she'd been recaptured and detained in a more secure location, they couldn't allow a similar mistake to be made again.
"The Rebel put two men in the bacta tanks before they subdued her," Kain snarled.
"That's why you never want to cross a medic, my apprentice," Palpatine replied with an amused smile. "She knows exactly where to hit you to do the most damage."
Kain nodded. Forenze was certainly proof of that.
"Quite providential of you to come across her," he went on. "She knows Vader, you say?"
"She is quite close to him," Kain replied. "And he to her."
"The Skywalkers' weaknesses are in their friends. They would go so far as to die to protect them." He shook his head as if he couldn't comprehend this fact. "And they are becoming more attuned to the Force. It will not be long before they are able to sense their friends' emotions even across the depths of space."
Kain smiled. "I think I understand the plan, master. Shall I begin on the doctor?"
"No. Acquire the Falcon first. We'll need the princess and the smugglers." He grinned in sadistic anticipation. "Once the bait is ready, we'll begin."
-------
Days passed.
As the Rebel fleet regrouped and resupplied itself near Chandrila, as the Millennium Falcon engaged in a madcap flight with the Executor in fevered pursuit, as wars and uprisings raged throughout the known galaxy, on a distant swamp world a quieter but far more pivotal battle against evil was being waged as two Padawans took their first steps into a larger world.
Vader found much of the training oddly familiar, as if he'd received these lessons before and only needed a reminder to recall them fully. It made sense, though. He'd been a Jedi once; he'd known all this at one time.
He somersaulted over a fallen tree, landing on a scrabble of boulders. He jogged forward and grabbed a thick branch, pulling himself into a tree. His chest heaved as his mask worked overtime to compensate for the exertion. Yoda was a strict teacher, but he was by no means cruel, and he'd carefully planned these exercises with Vader's handicap in mind.
Luke's footsteps squelched through a damp area nearby. As if to make up for not having a physical weakness, Luke usually did his morning routines with Yoda strapped to his back. In Vader's mind, that made the two of them fairly equal.
He ran along the length of the branch, sprang from its edge, flipped through the air… and landed in a not-so-graceful heap in the mud.
"Smooth landing."
Vader lifted his head from the soft ground and glared at Luke. "Beautiful timing."
Yoda laughed. "Out of the mud, Vader. No more exercises today."
Luke lowered Yoda to the ground and bent to help Vader to his feet. "You okay?"
"Bruised pride, but nothing else," he replied.
They made their way back to the training ground, where the usual array of items had been laid out for the levitation exercises. Luke and Vader spent the better part of two hours following Yoda's instructions, learning to direct the flow of the Force and manipulate the objects in the requested manner. This was actually one of the simpler lessons, though the one with the most surprises as well.
Once they were sure Luke would receive no lasting damage from the rock to his head, they moved on to fencing. Luke used his father's saber, while Vader was stuck with a white-bladed training saber that had obviously seen better days. Yoda stood by, coaching the two of them and occasionally halting the mock fight to correct a defensive stance or demonstrate a new drill with his own weapon.
The sheer volume of information Yoda expected them to absorb was staggering. Levitation, battle skills, martial arts, suggestion, memory alteration, telepathy, meditation in the living and unifying Forces… and those were merely the Force aspects of their training. A competent Jedi also knew several languages, basic first aid, galactic politics, the history and philosophy of the Jedi, military leadership, negotiation, arbitration, and much more. Vader wasn't about to complain, but the task of becoming a Knight seemed so daunting at times!
It was full dark by the time Yoda declared the day done. He retreated to his hut while Luke took the opportunity to clean off the day's grime in a deep pool that Yoda had cleared as free of animal life. Vader, meanwhile, set to work cleaning the X-wing, which Yoda had extracted from the swamp in an impressive display of Force-wielding during one of their levitation lessons.
"You're right, Luke," Vader teased, extracting a snake from the engine. "You really used to be a moisture farmer."
"Why do you say that?" asked Luke, standing waist-deep in the water.
"You have the worst farmer's tan I've ever seen."
Luke glared back. "You try living on a double-sunned world and seeing if you don't come back baked."
"Baked or half-baked?" Vader retorted jokingly.
Luke scooped a fistful of sludge from the bottom of the pool and flung it at him.
"Hey!" he shouted, retorting by flinging the snake into the pool near Luke.
Luke responded by falling backward into the water as he slipped trying to retreat from the reptile.
"Enjoying yourselves?" asked Yoda, leaving his house at that moment and wearing an amused smile.
"Just a diplomatic discussion, Master Yoda," Luke replied, surfacing with a grin.
Yoda rolled his eyes in an exaggerated show of exasperation. "Promises me two mature men Obi-wan does and crashes on my planet what does? Two of the biggest younglings I've ever seen."
Everyone laughed a moment.
"Have something for Vader I do," Yoda went on. "Replace that old training saber it will."
Vader pulled the weapon from his belt and handed it to Yoda. "Thank you, Master. I'm not sure this one will stand up to another fight."
"Too bad you don't have your old saber," Luke replied. "I think the Rebellion still has it locked up somewhere."
"And good riddance," Vader replied vehemently. "I won't touch that Sith weapon ever again."
An expression Vader couldn't read crossed Yoda's face. But it passed quickly as he extended the new weapon toward him. He accepted it and ignited it, admiring the brilliant green blade.
"It's beautiful," he breathed.
"Once belonged to a Jedi Knight named Qui-gon Jinn it did," Yoda explained. "A cunning warrior he was. Compassionate he was, always seeking the good in everyone he met, the pure core." He smiled fondly. "A bit of a renegade he was, but never without due cause. Had great faith in you he did."
Vader stared at the saber, suddenly flooded with guilt. This man had placed his trust in him… and he had broken it. How had Qui-gon reacted when he'd learned of Vader's fall to darkness?
"I can't take this," he protested.
"Keep it," Yoda ordered. "Wanted you to have it he did."
Vader extinguished the weapon. "I wish I could remember him."
"Someday you will," Yoda said kindly. "But for now, honor the man who once wielded that weapon by using it well." He nodded at Luke. "Sleep you both should. Need your strength for the morning you will."
"Good night, Master," Luke bid him.
"May the Force be with you," Vader added.