Yoda's Meditation Chamber
Jedi Temple
Coruscant
Three years into the Clone Wars
Yoda, Grandmaster of the Jedi, sat up a little straighter on his padded cushion and gazed into the eyes of the young man seated across from him. "Premonitions, premonitions. These visions you have ..."
"They are of pain, suffering. Death," the young man replied, his blue eyes dark with worry, his face lined with exhaustion.
Yoda tilted his wrinkled green head, "Yourself you speak of, or someone you know?"
"Someone," Anakin Skywalker said softly.
"Close to you?" the green one inquired, his ears twitching slightly.
Skywalker bowed his head, "Yes."
"Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin," Yoda warned portentously. "The fear of loss is a path to the dark side.
The young man stared at the grandmaster intensely, "I won't let these visions come true, Master Yoda."
Yoda frowned, "Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is."
"Wow, that is appallingly stupid advice, Master Yoda."
Anakin Skywalker and Yoda both leaped in their seats as if stung by a Nabooian bee. A moment later, both Jedi had their lightsabers lit and at the throat of the young man who now stood, clad in black, near one of the latticed windows which opened out onto a Coruscanti afternoon.
The man froze except for his mouth, "Hey, take it easy with the lightsabers; it is hardly the Jedi way to just chop off a random person's head."
Master Yoda was so flummoxed by the appearance of a total unknown in a his private chamber in the Jedi Temple that, for the first time in seven years, he managed a sentence in grammatically correct Basic, "How did you get in here, young man?"
"Time travel," Luke Skywalker explained succinctly, even as he allowed his full Force presence to bloom into full strength. "I'm from thirty odd years in the future and as you can see, I am a Light Sider, a Jedi."
Yoda and Anakin both gazed at the young man in astonishment. Here was a man of incredible power and control in the Force, and he was indeed entirely unknown. Could it truly be that this man was from the future?
"Time travel?" Anakin demanded in awe as both Jedi moved their sabers away from Luke's neck. "I have never heard of such a thing!"
Luke waved a casual prosthetic hand, "Yeah, I know. Every time we travel back in time people say that. It is pretty weird, but at this point, it is old helmet for me. The only really strange thing is that I seem to have traveled alone this time, which has never happened before. But let's get back to you, Master Yoda. I love you, but your advice to Anakin is like, the most putrid, dangerous, immoral rubbish ever! Here is this poor man terrified that his wife is going to die in childbirth, and you are blathering about how he should be happy if she dies!"
"Wife!?" Yoda yipped, his large green eyes shifting to Anakin's now guilty face.
"Yes, wife," Luke continued relentlessly. "Anakin Skywalker married Padme Naberrie Amidala at the beginning of the Clone Wars, and she is now pregnant with his twins."
"Senator Amidala?" Yoda squeaked.
"Twins?!" Anakin yelped.
"Yes and yes. I am Luke Skywalker, Anakin's son, and my sister Leia usually comes along with me, but she had a big meeting late into the night, and I guess the Force had mercy on her. And my poor wife is dealing with our sick twins, who were taking turns vomiting on her this evening just before I left, so I guess she received a 'get out of time traveling' pass as well."
"Attachment dangerous it is!" Yoda howled, managing to shift back into fractured Basic.
"Rubbish," Luke replied firmly. "Absolute, complete, idiotic rubbish. Love is part of life, and so is attachment. Grieving for those you lose is not a weakness. Honestly, you are just so weird sometimes, Master Yoda."
"If this is true," Anakin suddenly said, reaching forward to clutch Luke's sleeve anxiously, "what about Padme? Was she ... did she ...?"
Luke reached out his own hand and grasped his Alter sire's right wrist, "Don't freak out, Anakin. In my timeline, my timeline, my timeline, I am afraid that your dreams did come true, and Padme died after giving birth to me and my sister."
The young man collapsed dramatically on his cushion and grabbed his artistically disheveled locks with writhing fingers, "My dreams! My dreams, they came true. They are coming true ..."
"Yes, because in my timeline, you made them come true," Luke interrupted, giving the Jedi a light slap on the cheek to break him out of his fit of hysterics. "You tried to stop her death, and with your actions, you actually caused her to die. You need to calm down. My sister and wife and I have saved Padme many times, and we've killed Palpatine even more times ..."
"Chancellor Palpatine?" Yoda demanded incredulously. "Why speak you of him?"
"He is a Sith Lord," Luke declared simply. "Very strong in the Dark Side of the Force. In my timeline, he convinced my father Anakin that he could prevent my mother's death using the Dark Side. So Anakin turned to the Dark Side, became Darth Vader, did a bunch of stupid and/or evil things that eventually resulted in our mother dying right after she delivered us, with Palpatine directly responsible for her death. Then since naturally my father was a depressed, homicidal, raging mess, he wreaked havoc for the next two plus decades. It was pretty awful. Palpatine is the Sith Lord you've been looking for."
Anakin's eyes were saucers, "Chancellor Palpatine ... it cannot be ... he ..."
"I know," Luke said in a galaxy weary tone. "He listens to you, he cares about you, he makes time for you. Of course he does! You have the highest midichlorian count in the galaxy! He's grooming you to be his next apprentice!"
Anakin blinked at his Alter son, then turned his attention on Yoda, "Can ... can this be true, Master?"
Yoda's fuzzy eyebrows lowered thoughtfully. "Garnered great power, the Chancellor has, during these wars. Great power indeed."
"Palpatine is actually the leader of the Separatists," Luke explained helpfully. "He arranged the whole war to put himself into a position of power. Is Padme far along in her pregnancy?"
Anakin nodded fearfully, "Yes."
"Then Palpatine will make himself Emperor soon. He will destroy the Jedi using the clones ..."
"Clones?" Anakin interrupted in bewilderment.
"The clones have a chip in their brains which forces them to turn on the Jedi when Palpatine gives them Order 66. The order says the Jedi are all traitors to the Republic and need to be summarily executed. They were, by the hundreds and thousands, on the day that Palpatine rose to power."
Anakin actually wobbled as his vision swam. "This cannot be!"
"Most remarkable this claim is," Yoda added disapprovingly. "Proof do you have?"
"Well, not really, but I can get you some proof. I assume Palpatine is around?"
"He should be in his office in the Senatorial Building."
"Well, let's go, shall we?" Luke suggested cheerfully.
/
Chancellor Palpatine's Office
Senatorial Building
Coruscant
"Anakin! Master Yoda!" Sheev Palpatine cried out in apparent pleasure. "What can I do for you today?"
He focused most of his attention and smile on Anakin Skywalker, who was close to turning to the Dark Side. The young man's fears for his lover, Padme Amidala, were quite exciting for a Sith Lord. Just a little push and Skywalker would be a Sith acolyte, perhaps the greatest the galaxy had ever seen.
"Chancellor," Master Yoda croaked, hobbling forward a few steps. "A guest we have. Most serious accusations he has made against you."
Palpatine turned an innocent gaze on the third member of the party, a man of some thirty odd years, short, dark blond, and vaguely familiar though he could not place, in this instant, why he was familiar. But underneath his casual demeanor, he felt a slight tinge of alarm. An accusation? He had certainly done plenty of things that would unnerve the Jedi, and if something had come to light ...
Well, he would deal with it.
"Indeed," he inquired gently. "Well, I do hope you will be willing to sit down and discuss the matter. But perhaps you might start out by introducing our guest?"
The young man took a step forward, his vivid blue eyes fixed on Palpatine's own.
"Hello," he declared, pulling out his lightsaber and depressing the activation button, causing a green laser to extend to full length. "My name is Luke Skywalker. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
Palpatine gaped in bewilderment for all of half a second, and then raised protective hands as the young man leaped toward him with murder in his eyes. Lightning leaped from the old man's hands and Luke caught it easily with his green blade.
"What did I tell you?" he chortled happily, advancing closer to the Sith Lord. "Force Lightning!"
Yoda sent out a silent call to nearby Jedi and lit his own blade, while Anakin gaped incredulously.
"True it is," Yoda declared aloud, moving to Luke's right. "Sith Lord you are, Chancellor Palpatine. Under arrest, I place you."
"Anakin, don't let them kill me!" Palpatine cried out pathetically, retreating before Luke and Yoda's twin green blades of terror, though his eyes were yellow pools of rage.
"Nonsense," Luke said briskly, slashing near the Sith's feet, causing the old man to stumble backwards. "If you live, Padme may well die, and Anakin adores Padme."
"Only through me can you save her!" Palpatine claimed, swiping frantically at Yoda to keep the old troll away.
"Sorry, your Highness, but I'm from the future," Luke declared. "You killed my mother to save father's life. You want to kill her to solidify your hold on Anakin, whom you remade into Darth Vader."
Palpatine had been feeling more or less out of control, but this made him actually turn white as a ghost with fear. Time travel? A future Skywalker who knew of his plans? He was in trouble! Serious trouble! Maybe doomed ...
Yoda, who had successfully snuck up behind Palpatine as the Sith Lord held off Luke, swung his sword and chopped off Palpatine right leg.
He fell with a scream which ended in a sigh, as Luke took this fine opportunity to cut off the Chancellor's head.
Palpatine was dead.
Again.
Luke and Yoda turned off their lightsabers simultaneously and the young man lifted his hand to touch a spot where Force Lightning had scorched him on the neck.
"Well, that went well," he announced. "Good job, everyone. Master Yoda, thanks for your assistance. Anakin, thanks for not being an idiot and listening to the old rancor."
Yoda shook his head gloomily, "Good that he is dead, it is, but difficult to explain it will be. Assassinated the Chancellor of the Republic we did."
"Eh, it'll be Ok," Luke said cheerfully, "especially if both of you resign your positions as Jedi."
Anakin blinked incredulously, "Resign?"
"Jedi as?" Yoda added, obviously bent on speaking fractured Basic until the grim end.
"Yes, you both should resign. Anakin, you are a mess. Retreat to Naboo with Padme so she can have your babies in peace. Work on your own mental health. I suggest plushies and counselor droids. Trust me, I know you have major anger management issues and you've been pushing yourself insanely hard for years and years and you are close to breaking."
Anakin bit his lip, "The war..."
"The war will end with Palpatine dead," his Alter Son assured him, and then turned sternly toward the Jedi Master. "As for you, Master Yoda, do the whole galaxy a favor and retire on some warm, balmy, beach planet, please. Do not mourn when someone you loves dies? Really? With crazy, dangerous advice like that, it blows my mind that the Jedi existed for thousands of generations! It's no wonder my own father when entirely nuts!"
"Not like beaches, do I," Yoda said sullenly. "Swamps, I like."
"Seriously?" Luke asked in amazement. "Ok, I guess that's why ... well, anyway, my toes are tingling so it means I am about to go. Try Dagobah, Master Yoda. And don't forget to remove the chips from the Clones ..."
Luke Skywalker disappeared.
Author Note: I watched the scene where Yoda is talking to Anakin about his dreams about a loved one dying and I'm like, wow, Yoda, kudos for breaking the entire galaxy in one short conversation! Doltish advice, dude. Very very bad advice.