"Come in young Skywalker."
Before Anakin had even raised his hand to ring the doorchime, Master Yoda's door had slid open and the gravily voice had issued the request.
Anakin drew a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. He had only been in Yoda's apartment at the Temple twice. Once when after he accidentally set fire to the Temple hangar, and then right after they had returned from Naboo when he was nine. But that was years ago.
As he nervously walked into the chambers, he quickly noticed that even though many years had passed since he had been here, everything was basically the same. The same muggy atmosphere reminiscent of the Jedi Master's home planet of Dagobah, the same strange furniture made of roughly hewn logs and much too low for any being of average height to be comfortable in, and the vast amount of greenery in the space.
Yoda motioned for him to take a seat on what appeared to be a small stump. Anakin swept off his cloak and laid it in his lap as he lowered onto the stool. The Jedi Mastersat across from him in a moss-covered wooden chair. His large green eyes bore into the younger Jedi and the silence stretched between then until Anakin cleared his throat uncomfortably.
He didn't know Yoda all that well. He knew that his own Master trusted the being implicitly, but after Yoda's initial refusal to allow Anakin to be trained as a Jedi, there was something about the little green troll that he didn't quite like.
But he had no choice. Yoda was the wisest, oldest, and most powerful Jedi in the Order. If anyone could help him, Yoda could.
Anakin was about to speak, but Yoda's gimerstick came up quickly and prodded him in the chest.
"Know I do, why you are here."
"You do?" Anakin hoped he didn't appear as surprised a she sounded.
"Problem with your bondmatch, have you?"
"Kind of." He explained as his hands played with the texture of his robe. "I'm actually here to ask for help with Master Obi-Wan."
"Something wrong with your Master?" The gimerstick had taken its usual position back to the floor and Yoda leaned upon its handle.
"Yes. Ever since the Shidoki Preliminary Ceremony, he's been suffering from stomach pains and headaches. When we were on Naboo, I think he had a vision."
"Why think this, do you?" Yoda queried, his eyes squinting toward the young man.
"Because when I woke up and went to his room, he was meditating, and he had been for several hours. It looked like he hadn't slept very much. And he didn't speak to either myself or Padmé all the way back to Coruscant. He only acts that way when he has had a vision."
"Hmmm." Yoda replied while one ear twitched.
"He's already been to see the Jedi healers twice. They gave him some medication, but I don't think it's helping. Maybe he needs something different." Anakin's eyes then swept up from his cloak to meet the smaller Jedi's. "I'm worried about him, Master Yoda."
"Healers….medications…bah!" Yoda's face wrinkled in disgust. "These things, he does not need. His physical body, nothing wrong with it there is."
Anakin contemplated Yoda's words for a moment before continuing. "So, what you are saying is that there is something wrong with his spiritual self?"
Yoda sat back in his mossy chair. "The Force affects many things, it does. When misused, misinterpreted, play havoc with the physical body, it can."
Anakin's eyes swept across the stony floor before realization flooded him and he met Yoda's gaze once more, the words spilling out. "The Shidoki bondmatch."
"Enlightened you, the Force has."
"I knew it!" Anakin yelled, jumping straight up from the small stool, as he began to stalk about the room, swatting away leaves of palms that hung across his path. "I knew that Padmé wasn't meant for me. I mean…I was hoping she wasn't. I don't feel anything, you know? There's no bond there." The young man's hand fisted against his chest. "I like her and all, but we're just friends. I don't know why I went along with this."
"Respect your Master's wishes, you do. Commendable, that is." Master Yoda broke in before the youth began walking and rambling once again.
"I suppose you're right. I was just trying to make him happy, but he seemed so confident in his Force reading."
Anakin stopped pacing and stood still while his memory worked. He spun toward the smaller Jedi, his finger pointing in that general direction.
"It wasn't me the Force was matching, was it?" His eyebrows rose expectantly.
"No." Yoda replied simply, motioning for the young man to once again take a seat. Anakin moved dutifully back toward the stool.
"A bondmatch, the Force has made, but not with you. Master Obi-Wan, wise in the Force he is. Listens intently to it, but sometimes distracted by his own insecurities he is."
His Master insecure? Was Yoda crazy?
"But if Padmé wasn't meant for me, then who was she meant for?" The padawan cocked his head as the answer began to come to him through a trickling of power that was as natural to him as breathing.
"Master Obi-Wan."
Yoda nodded in agreement.
"But, he told me that he already had been bonded toSiri…something."
"Bonded, he was. But when Jedi Tachi died, free he became."
"So he can be bonded to someone else? It's not too late?"
"As long as the Force provides, never too late it is." Yoda replied happily, relaxation stealing over him now that he had finally been able to reveal what he had known all along.
"What do I do now? I've already taken my vows. Can we just change our minds? And what about Padmé? Master Obi-Wan will be so upset." Anakin's words rambled as much as his thoughts and Yoda waited patiently on the youth.
"Go through with the courtship, you must." At Anakin's look of surprise, he hurried on quickly. "Trust me you shall. A plan I have."
It was Anakin's turn to squint at the diminutive Master. "Okay. What do I need to do?"
"Visit Senator Amidala, you shall. Tell her what you know."
"Is she…going to be alright with this? I really don't want to hurt her feelings."
The green head nodded and a small smile appeared on Yoda's face. "Hurt her, you shall not. Feels the same as you, she does. Now go."
"Thank you, Master Yoda."
Anakin ducked his way through the greenery of the Jedi Master's quarters with a much lighter step than the one he had entered with.