Degobah is a swamp, a sunken, humid wasteland that reeks of decaying flesh. Why would Yoda, one of the most powerful Jedi in millenia, come here, of all places?
Well, whatever his reasoning, his Force presence is unnervingly easy to find.
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I arrive at his dwelling place in about half an hour. It's a small place, made of clay bricks much like Tatooine. It looks deceptively simple, but I can feel the hum and whir of technology.
He comes to the doorway without my even calling him. "Felt your presence, I did," he says calmly, "Come inside, you will."
I do not think of arguing, but follow the tiny Jedi Master as he hobble into the house, leaning heavily on his cane. I have to bend over almost halfway.
"Now," he says when we reach what seems to be the living area, a small area sunken slightly lower than the rest, "sit, and tell me why you are here you will, hmm?"
Self-conciously, I lower myself into one of Yoda's tiny wooden chairs, limbs draped all over in a pointless and unsuccessful attempt to fit onto his furniture. Eventually, after much wasted effort, I sit on the floor, instead. Yoda chuckles, but the laughter does not move into his eyes. He sits down too, though the chair fits him a million times better.
"Now, young one. Why are you here?" He speaks softly, but somehow packs more intimidation into those words than I would have thought possible. I look at my feet.
"I'd like your help," I say lowly.
He looks at me, and smiles another lie. "The Chosen One, need help he does?"
"Yes," I tell him, a little more forcefully than necessary, perhaps, "Yoda, of course I need your help. You're one of the most gifted Jedi in millenia--will--will you help me?" I feel uncertainty creep into my voice, staining what I say with a new meaning, pleading.
He looks up at me, and smiles a real smile. "Truly changed, you have. Help you to walk in the light, I will, and forgiveness you will find."
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It doesn't take long to brief Yoda on what I'm going to be doing, and to make sure we can find each other's commlink signals to talk. All too soon, I find myself on Corascant, landing in the same place Obi-wan and I landed together just hours earlier.
It's getting dark out, so late, and I am suddenly overwhelmed with fatigue. I haven't stopped and sat down and rested since I woke up this morning. I lean back in the cockpit, stretching my legs out lazily. I suppose I should let Padme and Obi-wan know I'm alright before I go.
I flip the commlink out of my pocket and turn it on, fixing the screen at my face so they'll see me.
"Hello?" I ask.
I hear a shuffling noise, a muffled voice, then Obi-wan's head appears on my screen, looking as tired and exhausted as I feel. "Hey, Obi-wan," I say, smiling in greeting.
He smiles back, a genuine smile, not like what I was getting from Yoda. "I'm glad to see you're alright, Anakin," he tells me, and I can see he's telling the truth in the warm relief flooding him. "Do you have any particular reason for calling?"
"I was just checking in, mostly," I tell him, stifling a yawn.
He grins a little. "You need to get some sleep," he admonishes gently, "you've been up all day running back and forth across the galaxy--surely that can't be good for you."
"Not yet," I tell him in a serious tones, "Listen--how's--how's Leia? Is she..."
He meets my eyes solemnly. "Anakin, I have never lied to you, and I have no wish to start now. She is holding on. There is not much more they can do for her than what they are doing now. She is too small to survive surgery, and in too grave of a condition to be moved to a place that would better suit her. All we can do now is rely on the will of the Force to guide us."
I curl up the corners of my lips bitterly. "What if I don't agree with the will of the Force?" I ask him, nearly begging him, though my voice is no more than a whisper.
He begins to look frightened. "Anakin," he says in a low, quick voice, "please--don't do anything you'll regret. Padme and your children need you--"
"And look what a great job I've done with that!" I spit furiously, "one son hiding in exile, one wife I nearly choked to death, and one daughter maybe dying in a hospital because of me--no, I think I've done quite enough for them. I will not let anything happen--"
"Anakin, I need you too!" he says softly. "You have not purposely hurt anyone. Your son is safe. Padme is safe. Leia will be as she is needed to be. I am asking you, as a friend, please do not do anything you or any of us will regret. You still have a chance to make things right. Please."
I stare at him. He's right, as he always is. Maybe I can't save Leia. Maybe the Force needs her more than I do...
But I can make this a better place for people. Most especially for Obi-wan and Padme and my children. And the first thing necessary in that process is to kill Palpatine.
I shake my head a little to clear it. "Can I talk to Padme?" I ask, forgetting the flow of our conversation.
"She's er--not here," he admits, scratching the back of his neck. "She's at a Senate session. Left a couple hours after you did."
I stare at him incredulously. "What? She left? What about Leia?" What about me? But I bite back those words and say instead, "I can't believe she left Leia."
"She didn't want to," he admits glumly, "The Senator from Correlia, whatever his name is, was going to take her, and she was going to spend the night on Correlia so she could be sure she wasn't being tracked here...Bail and I practically had to drag her away from the medcenter--I didn't think it would be safe for her to miss the session--too suspicious."
"So Leia's all alone?"
"Yes," he confirms sadly, "I'm not allowed to leave this room, unless I'm going completely off planet. And obviously she can't come here--so yes. I am sorry."
I hear something--and I feel in the Force its Palpatine.
"Obi-wan--I have to go--I'll contact you when I can--"
Without saying goodbye, I hurry to erase the signal. I step out of the ship and shiver in the cold night air--Corascant has always seemed too cold to me.
"Ah, Anakin," leers Palpatine as I hurry to hide the link in the folds of my robes. "You are somehwat later than I was expecting you."
"Am I," I say, so it's not a question, but a fact.
"You are," he acknowledges. "Would you care to tell me where you were?"
I feel a tendril of dark energy trying to reach in and probe the deep corners of my mind. I harden my walls against it as quickly as I can. Ever since I became a full knight, and was freed from the unending line of people exploring my thoughts, it has been only Obi-wan I have ever fully allowed to explore my mind, when we were a team, and it was necessary for him to understand my thoughts and intentions and for me to understand his.
And I will certainly not make the fatal mistake of allowing Palpatine to see my intentions.
His grin widens, spreading from ear to ear. "Don't want to tell your master where you've been, Anakin Skywalker? That will never do..."
"You are /not/ my /Master!" I say loudly, my eyes darting to his hands. "I agreed to help you with...whatever it is you're doing, but I am /not/ your apprentice!"
His mouth droops slightly in the corners, and his voice takes on a threatening tone. "You say that now Anakin, but I do not think you are so selfish that you would sacrifice the lives of Obi-wan or your family just to hold true to some ancient religion--how is Leia, by the way?"
Unconciously, a growl slips past my lips, making me sound more animal than human being.
He smirks, apparently at my unhappiness. "Perhaps you are interested in knowing what you signed up for?"
"Yes. Very much so."
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We go again to Palpatine's private office.
"This way, Jedi," he says, gliding swiftly to a computer screen on a table pressed against the wall.
He sits down on a luxurious velvet chair in front of the screen leaving me to peer over his shoulder. He presses a few keys and a grey 3D image pops up, rotating slowly on the spot.
"Isn't it beautiful?" he asks, pressing his finger to the screen and tracing the round outline gently. "Yes...and so powerful..."
I look at him, unnerved. Whatever could get him this happy is almost surely not good news. "What is it?" I demand.
He doesn't look up from the screen. "A Space Station...The Space Station. The most powerful space station ever created..."
He continues caressing the screen, even so gently...
He looks up at me, smiling. "I call it the Death Star. Isn't that a marvelous name? And so fitting...this station, when fully operational, will have the power to destroy an entire star system."
I learn the unpleasant feeling of having all the blood rush out of your head. Faintly, I sway on the spot, clasping my hands together to balance.
"What do you /mean?" I ask dizzily, trying to understand.
"What I said," he informs me matter-of-factly. "This station will have the firepower to destroy an entire system. Imagine it, Anakin..."
"How do you expect me to help you?" I plead desperately, searching for a loophole, anything to free me--"I'm not an engineer--or--or--anything that might help you--"
"You are a commander," he tells me swiftly, "I expect you to control the proceedings and ensure that everything goes well and is completed in a reasonable amount of time for a project of such enormity--say, 18 years or so."
"I can't--you can't make me /do/ this--"
"I think I can," he hisses softly, "oh yes--in fact--I have something to show you that will positively make you beg to be here, Anakin Skywalker."
He stands up and stalks into the public office, indicating with a wave of his hand that I am to follow him. He talks as he kmoves, black cloak waving behind him. "Interesting things were brought up at our Senate Session earlier--your name was mentioned, in fact--" He walks over to a holoprojector in the middle of the room, and flicks a switch. "Here are the complete, unaltered records of the Senate proceedings earlier this evening. But let's skip to the interesting part, shall we?"
He presses the button to fastforward, and blue ghosts dance frantically across the platform, cheering and shouting in silent emotions.
"Ah," he says, leaning forward and pressing a button, "here we are..."
The ghost Palpatine speaks, arms thrust out. "Today, we recieved more evidence of the terrible, evil Jedi betrayal. The Organa baby, who was saved from horrible abuse and brainwashing at the hands of her own parents, was brutally tortured and kidnapped from Imperial Officials by none other than the traitor Anakin Skywalker. The child's whereabouts are currently unknown, but because of the damage inflicted upon her, it is doubtful she could survive. Anyone with any information in strongly urged to come forward immediately."
The camera sweeps to face the Senate. Many of them are in tears, not trying to hide the wet dripping silently from their faces. Some look angry. One, from Kashyyyk, seems to be yelling something in Wookiee, but I don't understand.
And then there is the ghost Padme. Padme first with her eyes wide shaking her head frantically. Then Padme standing off, slapping Jar Jar as he grabs her arms. Then I see Padme, and hear her too, as she is overcome with hysteria, shrieking things I can't undertand. A ghost clone walks out from the passage behind in the passage and drags her out forcefully. I watch the Correlian box in horror as that Senator sweeps silently after.
The real Palpatine bends down and turns off the recording.
"Well, Anakin?"
Silence.
"There is nowhere for you to go. As you can see, your wife is...quite evidently not happy with you. Obi-wan has always hated you for your power--he fears it."
"Obi-wan /loves/ me!" I say forecefully.
"You still believe that?" he says, shaking his head in a pitying way. "Obi-wan has always resented you. Before, you could see it. Do not blind yourself again. Do you think he would have hesitated to kill you if allowing you to live had not benefited his in some way? He /needs/ you. Because of your power. His ultimate goal to destroy my government and form a military rule will not succeed without you at his side, my young friend. And he knows it. Join me...I can help you become greater than you have ever dreamed. Be reasonable. You have nowhere else to go Anakin. Take one step outside this building and you will be arrested, or, more likely, killed on the spot. You won't be able to help you're family much from there...it is the only way..."
"NO!" I shout furiously. "YOU'RE LYING!"
"Am I?"
I take a deep breath and calm down. "I'll stick to our original plan. I'll help you with your space station, and, in exchange, you do not harm my children or Padme or Obi-wan. But I am not your apprentice, and if you don't keep your deal--you will regret it."
He looks at me and smirks again.
As I follow him out of the room, I realize how lucky it is that I can get help from Obi-wan and Yoda. Because this time, I don't think there's anyway can do this myself.
Back-up will be much appreciated.
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A/N:
Sorry about not updating in a while. But school and whatnot got in the way. I'll try and update every weekend. Anyway, if there's anyone out there still reading, please review!