Title: Ghost of the Past
Author: Spirit White
Summary: Luke Skywalker died at thirteen years of age. Abruptly, the threads of the future were torn to pieces and remade, and Leia Organa and Lord Darth Vader must deal with the consequences.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by George Lucas, Lucasfilms Ltd. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: Revised Friday, December 7th, 2007
Chapter Seven: Yoda
"Yes!"
Luke looked up at the triumphant hiss to see his eighteen-year-old sister staring at an official looking datapad, with the logo of the Imperial Senate. Her brown eyes were bright.
"You got voted, did you?" Luke asked, bored. Leia flicked a glance at him, a smug smile stretching her shiny lips. "Well, at least now you'll have a real reason to wear those silly ceremonial buns you insist on wearing…" Luke trailed off with a laugh as his sister threw a pillow at him and it soared right through him. "What are you going to do, now?" He asked, grinning at her.
"I don't know," Leia said, her smile fading to be replaced with a concentrated look. "I need to prove myself to the Senate before I can risk joining the Alliance, but that shouldn't take long. I just have to keep a low profile."
"You, keep a low profile?" Luke snorted a laugh. Leia glared at him. "Leia, keeping a low profile would mean being a passive Senator…can you see yourself sitting back and watching others make the decisions?"
"Well, no, I guess not," Leia said pensively, her glare gone completely. Luke nodded his head.
"You're a leader, of course," Luke smiled. "You can't stand to have others make the decisions. When you want something done, you get it done…yourself, if no one else will do it your way."
"Yes, and that's because the people of today's galaxy are becoming indolent and lazy!" Leia said hotly.
"Exactly," Luke said smugly. Leia looked surprised, and Luke laughed. "Hey, I never said it was a bad thing!" He winked. "By the way, are you going to tell your father about that, or what?"
"Oh, right!" Leia said, standing up hurriedly. Luke followed her out, but once in the hall he jogged to walk beside her. Her stride was longer than his, but he didn't have much trouble keeping up with her. Unlike a certain someone who always dressed in black and had the longest legs Luke had ever known.
Leia knocked gently on Bail Organa's office door, peeking her head around at his quiet word and grinning broadly at the dark-haired man within.
"I made it," she said happily. "By thirty-one votes."
"Wonderful," Bail said warmly, rising from his seat to wrap his arms around Leia. "I am proud of you."
"Thank you, daddy," she said, calling him the childish name she had called him as a younger girl. She only said it when they were alone now…Luke didn't count. "I can't wait to get started. Next meeting is in two sevendays, right?"
"Right," Bail said, smiling. "And this time, it will be you on the transport, not I, and I can't think of a better successor for a man to have."
"You've been the best instructor," Leia replied, her cheek resting on Bail's chest. Luke felt a sharp, uncharacteristic stab of jealousy. He hadn't touched anyone since Qui-Gon had left – a year now – and he'd never once been able to touch the person he so wanted to be able to, to embrace as Leia was doing now. Luke shut his eyes and shoved the thoughts away, and with one last glance at Leia, who had pulled away and was chatting happily to her father, he let his surroundings fade to the familiar ones of the Devastator's bridge, where his own father was already standing beside the viewport.
His heart still feeling uncharacteristically heavy, Luke didn't materialize immediately, but instead stepped close, feeling his father's dark, heavy presence with the strong currents of fierce possessiveness and beneath it all a tiny flicker of light. It was oddly comforting, despite the negative feelings that close proximity to a Dark Lord of the Sith was supposed to generate.
Luke harbored no delusions. He knew that it was only himself who could get so close to the Sith and not feel either revolted or terrified, because that tiny, flickering light existed only for him.
He was about to step forward to show himself when he felt a faint pulse in the living Force, so faint he stilled abruptly and strained to feel it again. There – a tiny flicker of presence that seemed to call to him. Stretching out, Luke waited for it to pulse again, and touched it when it did, and like he had so many years ago when he was just learning to change his place, he found himself abruptly – sitting – in a little hut made of clay.
There was a little green thing there.
The little green thing was sitting by an equally little pot, stirring with a wooden spoon. It was dressed in homespun brown robes and had the oddest, largest ears Luke had ever seen on something so small.
He stopped examining the little green thing when said thing looked up and around.
"A young Force-sensitive is here, I sense," the little thing said in a funny voice. "See him, I do not. Come out, will he?" Luke jumped. It could sense him! He doubtfully shrank back, staring dubiously at the creature. It didn't look dangerous…but then, neither did the Emperor. "Hurt you, I will not," The thing said. Frowning, Luke pulled his knees to his chest in a posture he only used when uncertain, and concentrated on shimmering into view. The little green thing merely looked at him.
"A Force-spirit, you are," it said in its strange voice. "Seen one of you before, I have. Long ago."
"Really?" Luke asked, before he could stop himself. He clamped his mouth shut tightly and ducked his head. He looked up, though, when the little thing hee-hee'd at him. It was waving a crooked gimer stick around. Luke blinked.
"Questions, the young Force-spirit has! Wary, he is. Good!" Luke got a strange feeling that had he been solid, the thing would have poked him with the stick.
"Ah, ah…" Luke said helplessly. It was a little green thing – talking about Force-spirits and questions and knowing far too much!
"Name, do you have, young Force-spirit?"
"Ah – Luke," Luke said, feeling far too out of his depth.
"Luke," the thing said. "Luke Skywalker, perhaps?"
"Gah!" Luke said, eyes bugging. He moved to stand up but froze when the thing waved an imperious hand at him, and slowly shifted back to his previous position.
"Yoda, I am," the thing…Yoda, said. "On the Jedi Council I was, when the Jedi still lived."
Oh. Oh!
"The Council!" Luke said in surprise. "You were?" Thinking about the Council, Luke felt a sudden, sharp stab of longing. He frowned and shook it away, confused.
"You doubt my word, young spirit?" Yoda asked. Luke blinked and backpedaled.
"Ah – no – you see – ah –" Luke felt a strange urge to take that gimer stick and whack the little thing laughing at him, but unfortunately the same thing that kept him from being hit also kept him from doing the hitting. He also felt a strange urge to laugh as well, at the little creature's own hee-hees of mirth. Then something caught his eye.
It was small and furry and had four legs and a long, furred tail, a rather pointed face and two pointed ears that flicked back and forth. Wings protruded from its shoulder blades, waving every once in a while as it sat on its haunches and blinked with bright gold eyes. It was staring at him.
"Is that thing able to see me?" Luke asked abruptly, feeling as if he would pass out in a moment. The feeling passed when the urge to hit came again.
"Hee-hee, hee-hee," Yoda said. "Dagobah Wildcat, that is. Have the ability to see the Force, they do."
"Oh," Luke said, bemused. "That's nice." He looked at the little creature for a moment more. "Why does it have wings?" He asked curiously. He thought cats were land creatures, despite having never seen one before.
"A reason, is there, that they should not?" Yoda asked. Luke shrugged.
"No, I guess not," he replied, and lapsed into silence. Yoda followed suit for a very long while, simply stirring whatever it was that was in the pot. It looked like green leaves mashed together.
"A reason you are here, is there?" Yoda asked finally. Luke glanced up with a shrug.
"I felt your presence in the Force," Luke said. "I followed it."
"Hmph," Yoda said. "Here, you are, for a reason."
"Huh?" Luke asked.
"Your sister, it is," Yoda said wisely. Luke furrowed his brow in bewilderment.
"What do you mean?" He asked warily.
"Think, you do, that I called to you?" Yoda asked. "Wrong, you are. Searched for me, you did."
"What are you talking about?" Luke asked, feeling a little frustrated.
"Want to know, you do, when you're sister's training will commence."
"Ah," Luke said, feeling confused. "Yeah, all right. When will it start?"
"Ready to be a Jedi, she is not," Yoda said, bending down over his pot of wet leaves. "Become a Freedom Fighter first, she must."
"A Freedom Fighter?" Luke asked. "You mean the Alliance? She's joining as soon as suspicion falls from her father."
"Good!" Yoda said. "Smart, she is. Your Mother's influence, that would be."
"You knew my mother?" Luke asked eagerly, sitting forward. "What about my father?"
"Your father." Yoda sighed. "Anakin Skywalker, his name was."
"Yes, yes," Luke said, waving a hand. "I know that. I want to know about him before he turned into Darth Vader."
If Jedi Masters were inclined to emotion, Luke got the feeling he would have seen Yoda' jaw drop. As it was, already big green eyes got bigger.
"Oops," Luke whispered.
"Qui-Gon, it was, who told you!" Yoda said, and waved his gimer stick around rather violently. "A rebellious Jedi, he has always been!"
"Hey, it's not like I told Leia!" Luke said defensively. Yoda stilled mid-swing.
"Tell her, you will not?" He asked suspiciously.
Well, no, I won't.
"No," Luke said truthfully.
Not yet.
Yoda straightened, looking at Luke closely.
"Good," he said finally. "Hmph. Later. Teach her, I will. Contact you, I will. Tell her, you must."
"All right," Luke replied.
"Hmph." Yoda said again. "Time for Yoda to eat. Go now, you will."
"All right, sir," Luke said, shifting. "I'll tell Leia."
With that, Luke reached within himself and once more let his surroundings fade.