Chapter Nineteen
Poof set the nav-computer and sat back to meditate on the mission to come as he closed his eyes he saw a vision of a planet populated by thousands of Yodas. A planet covered by lace bridges and huge trees with houses carved into the knees of the roots and a beautiful lakes teaming with silver and gold fish, meadows blooming with fragrant white flowers and then the night scene of billions of lighten bugs twinkling in a planetary light show. Flutes and singing filled the air as if everyone planet wide was in harmony and the name Dagobah was announced.
/ I see why you are so protective of your home. Dagobah is beautiful. Thank you for this honor. / Master Poof sent back through the Force.
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Freene stepped out from the shadows as Yoda was turning to go back to his ship. "He knows this is going to be a one way mission, doesn't he?"
"Yes, why go alone, he has? Knows the loss of the head of the Jedi Council bring more results than deaths of thousands of workers, it will. Hopes to save millions later, his death will." Yoda sighed. "Great to Jedi Council his loss, will be."
"Are you staying long on Coruscant?" Freene asked.
"No, back to Pyotr for short time, we are going, then we have to come back for the memorial."
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Moth met the Cruiser bringing Yoda and Juri back to Pyotr, a little puzzled by Yoda's changed disposition. "Yoda, what is the problem, you look like you lost your best friend?"
"Soon true, that will be?" Yoda answered.
"Something going on here I should know about?" Moth asked concerned.
"No, On mission, Master Poof is going, dangerous mission, allow others to go along, he would not, so dangerous, it is. Back to Rampa to try to arrange safety regulations, he is going." Yoda sighed.
"That's a death sentence!" Moth declared.
"Yes, well he knows that." Yoda sighed. "Hopes changes, his death will bring." Yoda lamented.
"Are you sure it will turn out that way, that he will die?" Moth asked.
"No, emotions cloud the future, feels it to he does too." Yoda moaned. "Talk him out of it, I could not."
"You have a problem with death don't you?" Moth asked.
"Yes. A natural thing comes at end of long life or stupidity, death is to my people."
"Stupidity?" Moth asked.
"Yes. From treetop, Yaren fell." Yoda explained. "Off world, people do mean thing, hurt others, Yoda still can't understand why." Yoda continued.
"The Darkside is a source of great power but it is also the source of great pain. To achieve the power you must also inflict pain on others. For some it is worth it, to the Jedi it isn't. Loss of life is treated very causally by those influenced by the Darkside and many suffer as a result. Master Poof wants to bring balance back on Rampa and is risking his life to do so." Moth explained.
"But loss to friends will be great. Dread to see him go." Yoda moaned.
"Yoda, you are in a terrible position, few if any of your friends will live nine hundred years. You will see many friends return into the Force and since you seam to feel their deaths. You will feel the pain of loss for each one of them…us. You have to train yourself to give up all that you fear to lose or you will not last long outside of Da…ah… your home world." Moth informed his former Padawan.
Later that week he crumpled in pain and moaned at the loss of his friend. 'Gone, he is.'
The disaster was bad enough that anyone inside the disaster area was instantly killed and the bodies could not be retrievable because of the residual effects. The disaster cause an outcry that brought about changes, though not in time for Rampa. Even though it remained a productive planet industrial wise, it would no longer produce food and clean water for its people, so water had to be shipped in from off world.
The Memorial ceremony for Master Poof on Coruscant attracted Heads of many worlds including Pyotr. Delila acted as the Queen's stand-in while the Jedi and former Jedi attended the ceremony. Taryn chose to remain behind and care for the children to which there was now four. Nyla had produced another daughter, Quianna and Moth and Taryn had produced a son, Moth Kenobi.
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Taryn was busy with the infants lately and the older children had been allowed to play out in the garden outside the nursery. The groundskeeper's mother, Lydia had been watching them but it soon became evident she snoozed too often to be entrusted with such precious charges. On sunny days the Twins liked to spar in the garden so they had been enlisted to watch the Princess and Ben, who were almost as inseparable as the twins were. Ben and Sachi liked to watch the Jedi and they absorbed as much as they could of the training they would never be allowed to take. When the adults were occupied they liked to play Jedi training school and took turns being Master Yoda.
One night they both woke up because of a storm outside and decided to sneak down to the Jedi training room. Master Yoda had made them wooden lightsabers to play with so they had brought them to spar with. Ben and Sachi first practiced tumbling as they had seen the twins do, then they practiced their jumps and twirls. "Not sa good, Padawan Sachi, practice you must." Ben imitated Yoda's speech.
Sachi was not pleased with Ben's critiquing of her performance, she had the royal attitude down pat. "I think it's time to train with our lightsabers, don't you Mather Yoda?"
"Yes, with lightsabers, we will train now." Ben said in Yoda speech.
"Now I'll show you who's ta better Yoda!" Sachi said, she was quicker on her feet than Ben, whose arms and legs wouldn't stop growing and let him adjust.
The next morning when Ben came out for breakfast Taryn asked. "Ben, what happened to your arm, there is a bruise on it."
"Oh! That, it's nothin' Sachi and I were playin' Jedi Knights and I lost." Ben said between mouthfuls.
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As baby Moth grew it became evident he was Force sensitive and Moth and Taryn wrestled with the decision that he needed to be trained. The thought of not seeing her precious son again was unbearable. She had seen Ben struggle with not being allowed to be trained to use his abilities so she asked him what he thought about Baby Moth being able to use the Force. "Ben have you noticed how baby Moth is learning to use the Force?"
"Yes, he pulled his toy bear to him when it fell out of the playpen the other day and I saw him unlock the door so he could go out in the garden this morning." Ben said, not knowing the fear those words would have on his Mother because the memory of his and Sachi's afternoon outside the palace was all too fresh to her.
"Some people…" Taryn started.
"Daddy and Mather Yoda…" Ben added as if he knew where his Mother was going.
"Yes, and Queen Nya, Tra Gon, Juri and the Twins allthink we need to send him to the Temple for training. I want my children with me not raised by strangers. I wouldn't let them send you for that reason. I guess what I'm asking is, do you wish we had sent you to be trained?" Taryn asked her young son.
"I know I can't go 'cause I'm ta old, seven is way past the age ta go. I wouldn't want to go anyway without Sachi and she can't go cause she is goin' to be Queen after her Mother, you know…dies. I feel kind-a-like I have a special present and I can't use it. I'm not mad cause I didn't get to go but Baby Moth won't have a Sachi to stay for so he might." Ben said much to old for his years.
"Thank you, that is what I needed to know. Now go see what Sachi is doing." Taryn said trying to hide the tears form her son. She realized how much it bothered him not to have gone and didn't want her youngest son to have the same problems so she acquiesced and told Kotn. "I realize we have to train Baby Moth, all I ask is for you to be the one to take him to the Temple. At least I will still have Ben and our baby girl, Wynne. I hated to let him go but I know Yoda, Juri and the twins will be checking in on him from time to time." Taryn said heartbroken.
"It is the right thing for him, I promise." Kotn assured her.
So at two and a half Moth took their son to the Temple. The night before he left she sat and held him while he slept and sang to him hoping to impress her memory on her small son. She tried to memorize every feature of his little face, his big brown eyes and his crocked grin. She locked the smell of his freshly washed blond hair in her heart. She requested that he be trained as a healer if his abilities and preferences made it possible. Kotn assured her that he would know that his parents sent him out of love and not the lack of it.
All to soon the time came and she had just one last moment to hold him then Kotn took his little hand and led him up the ramp of his ship and into the sky they went. Nya came to be with her at the spaceport and walked her back to her quarters. "Will he remember me?" Taryn asked.
"Yes, I had to be taken away from my Mother when I was born so I have no memory of my Mother. Tra Gon and many others I have talked to say they have a warm place in their hearts that they can always go to and the image of their Mother is always there." Nya assured her.
"I think I will go to my room if you don't mind, Your Majesty. I need to be alone with my daughter and Ben." Taryn said softly as they arrived at her rooms. Nya hugged her as they parted and told her. "It is the right thing for little Moth."
"I know but not the right thing for me." Taryn turned before Nya could see her tears and went in to her rooms and rocked her little girl.
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Yoda and Juri were spent much time off Pyotr now. Master Loren was now the new head of Council and he liked the Twins and the possibilities their bond presented. There was a disturbance in the Force in the fringe worlds and Yoda was the logical candidate to send since he had been a spice trader in a former occupation. TJ went with him to the Hutt territories to procure an artifact that had been found on a secluded world and the Hutts had stolen to it before the Council could buy it. It was reported to be an ancient Jedi Holocron, one with many secrets about the creation of the Order and the usage of the Force, the Hutts wanted to try to access it for their own financial gain. Only a Jedi could access it but they might find a Force sensitive somewhere that could access it.
Yoda and TJ posed as spice traders from another region trying to arrange trading deal for their stolen goods. They asked for and received permission to meet with the Head of the Hutts on the planet, a rouge named Jodan. He had only recently set up shop on this planet and liked it because of the humid climate not like his cousins on a desert planet called Tatooine. There was a party going on when Yoda arrived and it was still going on two days later when Juri and JT arrived. JT had shaved his beard and cut his hair short and wore a helmet to keep the Twins from looking as much alike as they normally did. It looked very strange but not half as strange as Juri in her off the shoulder almost harem girl look. Juri had arrived at the right time to distract the latest Hutt rouge leader while Yoda and TJ bargain for various things. Only once they were well into the negotiations did they mention the Green Stone in question. Yoda was known for his abilities to use Jedi Mind tricks on many species even on ones that others were not able to deceive. He had managed to 'arranged' for Tarbocca to be paid by another crooked Hutt in the past and the Council hoped he could do the same with the Holocron.
Juri was the right distraction to keep him busy while Yoda acquired the stone and replaced it with an appropriate payment. The plan had almost worked when the wife came in and put an end to the party. Jodan saw that the stone was not in its place and sounded the alarm.
The Jedi party started when the blaster and stun guns came out and the Jedi had a running battle to the door and to their ships. Yoda bounced and twirled between guards trying to do as little damage as possible but get his people out safely. Juri was forced to leave her ship and go with Yoda in the process but they considered it worth it to get the Holocron out of the Hutts hands. Juri spent a week in the fresher after being manhandled by the disgusting rogue slug.
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Much to Taryn's displeasure Wynne to started to learn the simple thing of the Force. She had bearly gotten over the loss of her baby boy when it became evident that Wynne would be going to. She loved anything Jedi and was crazy for M'dr Oda as she called him and would cry for him when he left her. She could call out through the Force well before she could talk.
"Not another one, I can't stand loosing another child to this Force of yours."
"I know this is painful and some day maybe things will change and children can stay with their parents but it has proven to be the best way for now." Moth tried to explain to his heartbroken wife.
"I know it's best for her and she will have Little Moth to look out for her at least they will have each other if not us." Taryn said. "I think this is the Force punishing me for marrying a Jedi."
"Would you like to go with me to the Temple to a … then we could go to Verrell for a visit?" Kotn asked.
"Yes, I would but what about Ben?" Taryn asked.
"He has already said he wants to stay with Sachi." Kotn said knowing she would not be pleased.
"If I go, I want to stay, Pyotr has become to painful and on Verrell I can bury myself in my work." Taryn lamented.
"Do you want some company?" Kotn asked.
"No more babies! I can't stand to loose more children." Taryn declared.
"I think I am getting too old for more babies anyway." Kotn said. "I look forward to puttering around the hills looking for flowers with you."
"They will make you give up being a Jedi, won't they?" Taryn asked.
"I was ready to give it up for you a long time ago and I still feel … love you the same as I did then, more come to think of it." Moth said pulling her close.
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Moth asked to speak to Nya in private and said. " I am going to take Taryn home to Verrell after we drop Wynne off at the Temple and we are going to stay. Ben wants to stay on Pyotr and be with Sachi if that is permissible to you?" Moth informed his former Padawan and friend.
"I knew she was taking Wynne's Force sensitivity hard, she hasn't gotten over Moth's leaving yet and with Ben not wanting to leave. She has lost all three of her children." Nya said sympathetically.
"I am going to retire and stay with her. It's the least I can do for her with all the pain I … my being a Jedi has caused her. Besides I'm too old to be much of a guard now." Moth said suddenly feeling his years.
"I forget you trained two Padawans before me, you always seamed so strong and… I will miss not seeing you but I will be glad to have Ben stay. I will take good care of him. If he wants to come for a visit I will be happy to make the arrangements." Nya said feeling she was loosing a big part of her life. 'I see a little of what Taryn is feeling.'
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Taryn said a long goodbye to Ben unable to believe she was loosing him too. "I will come and see you, I promise." He said wiping a tear from her eye and she had to leave before she broke down. They left Pyotr then came the third heartbreak of taking her baby girl to the Temple. Little Moth came to the waiting room to see his parents when they arrived. He had grown so and was happy to see them. "I am learnin' so much." He told Taryn. "And I am goin' to be a great Jedi Knight, just like Mather Yoda and I will wa'ch out for Wynne. I know how much you wan'ed me and Wynne to stay wif you but I am glad you let us cume and she will be too." Little Moth said.
Before she was ready they were being escorted back to class and orientation, her babies were all gone. The rest of the trip to Verrell was very quiet Kotn tried to get her to talk but it was useless. The sight of Verrell coming out of the blackness of space and her home, which Lona had cleaned and stocked with all her favorite things helped. Lona also had a medical puzzle for her to start work on and that was the most help. Taryn and Moth both suddenly felt their years and more they had been older than most parents and now they felt it.
Moth had quietly handed his lightsaber over to the Council while Taryn was saying her good-byes to her babies. He had requested that it be given to his children. He had ask about it going to Ben as a keepsake but the Council had suggested little Moth instead. ( They were concerned about how much Ben knew about the Force as it was and didn't want a Jedi want-a-be running around. )
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AN: I loaded the post up without my computer tech, so please forgive any technical glitches I'll have her edit it when she gets back.